Just A Few More Easter Cards...

I have only two more Easter cards to share with you all. We had such a fun time at the Easter Egg Hunts, but for the life of me I can't find the camera we used. We have two cameras (the bulkier really good Kodak, and the smaller pocket one that is so cute and orange :-). We use the smaller one to take quick shots when running around with the kids. Think it's in hubby's car....

Anyway, so here are the two cards I have to share today. The fist one was made for my parents. I wanted to get a few of these done, but after getting all those brads on there I just decided that everyone else knew we wished them a Happy Easter! he-he! I saw this layout on someone's blog - but for the life of me, can't remember who. I drew it out and then forgot who did it, so if it is you please let me know :-) I didn't come up with this on my own! Wish I had...

So the base is PTI white, layered with some champagne textured paper I found on clearance at Target a while back, and the main color is PTI Aqua Mist, love it! I used the Birds & Swirls embossing folder in my Cuttlebug to get the main image.

The sentiment is actually a Studio G stamp I found at A.C. Moore. It looks choppy in the photo, but it actually stamped well. I liked this card, simple yet elegant.

The next one I had in my head for a while, but it was the last card I actually finished. Don't know why??? I think I was having a hard time with the scallop bottom and thought it should have something on it, perhaps a sentiment??? Oh well, done and mailed.

So, the base is SU! Cool Caribbean, layered with some yellow I picked up at Joanns (they were premade cards I just cut up), and the top layer is PTI white stamped with PTI's Polka Dot Basics. I tried using Cool Caribbean, but the dots were blotchy, so I switched to Colorbox Robin's Egg (almost a perfect match to SU! CC), much better coverage.

I made the egg template from a plastic egg my son got for Easter (my in-laws sent their Easter gifts early - thank GOD!). The main one is Cool Caribbean again, paper pierced, with some American Crafts ribbon glued on, and edged with white ink. The striped one is from the new Nana's Nursery Baby Boy collection from DCWV - check it out, very cute patterns (Got the girl one too!). It's got the glitter already on it, who could ask for more??? LOL! For that one I just cut a slightly smaller egg using the same template and cutting inside the lines.

The scallop was made with my large corner rounder and then I punched holes in it. I sponged a little white around that as well, but the photo doesn't show that well.

It needed a little something, so I added a mini butterfly from PTI Butterfly Kisses and popped it up on dimensionals. The I heard the mailman on the next street over and had to run and get a pic! Boy was my heart pumping! That was the last day I could get it in the mail before it would be late! So there you have it... I am officially a procrastinator, never have been, but I am now!

Hope you enjoyed my little Easter cards! I am so enjoying the stuff over at SCS, I just started surfing over there again, hadn't been in a while. Wonderful artists over there! Gotta run - cleaning to do before the kids wake up!

Have a wonderful day/night! As always, thanks for stopping by!

What I used...

Card #1

Paper: PTI Stamper's Select, Textured Champagne Paper Bouquet (Target), PTI Aqua Mist

Stamps: Studio G

Ink: Versamagic Dew Drop Pearlescent Chocolate

Accessories: Cuttlebug, Birds & Swirls Embossing Folder, Mini Brads MM, Dimensionals

Card#2
Paper: PTI Stamper's Select, SU! Cool Caribbean, Yellow (Joanns' pre-made cards), Nana's Nursery Boy Collection DCWV patterned paper
Stamps: PTI Butterfly Kisses and Polka Dot Basics
Ink: Versamagic Dew Drops Could White and Thatched Straw
Accessories: Plastic Egg for template, Large Corner Rounder for scallops, hole punch, paper piercer, ribbon American Crafts and organza ribbon from Offray, dimensionals

A Little Easter...

Well, I actually got some cards done on time (keeping my fingers crossed the USPS gets them there on time!). I had fun making Easter cards! I like the cute little Easter critters: bunnies, ducks, chicks... They were so fun to color!

These cards were for my twin nephew and niece in PA. On the first one, I finally used those square embossing folders in my Cuttlebug. I think these were some of the first I purchased and never got around to using. Then I scored it on my paper trimmer/scorer and stamped the characters in black Staz-On so I could color them and they wouldn't bleed. I actually used Martha Stewart craft markers. I would love Copics, who wouldn't? However, I can not justify the cost, so Martha's do just fine for as much coloring as I do with markers.

Have any of you seen the "Basic Basic" Ribbon that Michael's sells? That's what this yellow ribbon is. I gotta say, that it is some of the easiest ribbon to tie and it will just stay where you put it. I LOVE it! This is like 2.99 a roll for 10 yds, you can't beat that and if you have a 40% off coupon, LOOK OUT! you can practically steal it!

I bought this paper just to make Easter cards and then realized I only have two little girls to make cards for. Oh well, into my stash it goes.

Here is another thing I used for the first time - my Nestabilities! I know, you are laughing at me and saying "how could she?", but something about them intimidated me and I kept putting it off. I think I have had them for 4 months now???!!!

Well, I have the rectangles and used them to make squares - pretty easy. Except they got stuck in my B plates and I had to pry them out with a butter knife - is that normal? Anyway, I used them to cut the PTI white square in the center and also to cut the acetate square as well.

I stamped the bunny with black Staz-On and colored her with a So Saffron marker from SU!and Prismacolor pencils with OMS.

I glued them together and added a thin pink ribbon and bow to dress it up and some little white dots in each scallop with a gel pen. Glued it in the center with some mono, added a Prima flower with a rhinestone brad and there you have it!

I hope you have a fabulous Easter weekend! We are off to two Easter Egg Hunts tomorrow, one at church and one at the Botanical Gardens. Then Sunday, we have our own here for the kids, that's our little Easter tradition. Last year we did it in the snow, we never get snow, and last year - there it was on Easter, so much for little Easter shoes!

What I used:

First Card

Paper: PTI White

Stamps: Studio G $1 stamps

Ink: Staz-On Black, Martha Stewart Craft Markers

Accessories: Yellow Ribbon Basic Basic Collection from Michaels, Cuttlebug and Square Embossing Folder, Scorer

Second Card

Paper: PTI White for Base and center square, Acetate, K & Co. Sparkly Sweet Scalloped Stripes Patterned Paper

Stamps: Studio G

Ink: Black Staz-On

Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils and OMS, So Saffron marker SU!, Prima flower, rhinestone brad MM, ribbon Offray, white gel pen, Nestabilities and Cuttlebug

Getting through some old pics...

I am posting some older stuff to get to the new stuff I just finished this week. This was a Valentine I sent to my Mother-In-Law and her husband, which she loved BTW! She is one of my best supporters, and always calls me gushing over whatever I make her. I love that about her, I can always count on her when I need to hear something nice.

Pretty simple card actually. I am finding that I am more inclined to design simple styles. My husband looks at some of the things I point out on SCS or someone's blog, and he says that cards with a lot of "stuff" make his head spin. WHATEVER! I like those cards, I just can't spend that much time and energy to get that result. So I'll stick with simple!

So, here are the basics. I started with a Kraft base AGAIN, and inked the edges with Versamagic Cloud White. I cut a piece of PTI white, I think it was about 1 3/4" x 4 1/2" and distressed that, then added a slightly smaller strip of a deep red from my scraps and distressed that as well. Before gluing together I paper pierced the border, but this didn't show up in the photo all that well. I think I need to make my piercings a little bigger in the future.

I stamped the heart from PTI Sweet Love with the Cloud White again on some dark brown Bazill; don't know the exact shade, I have so much of it just kinda thrown together. I cute those out and went over them with a Martha Stewart fine glue pen and sprinkled some of Martha's crystal fine glitter over top.

I moved the hearts around a few times before I was comfortable with where they were placed. I tend to do that a lot. The I popped them up on some dimensionals.

The last touch was the photo corners made out of scallop hearts. I don't have the scallop heart punches or the nestabilities, seems like EVERYONE is out of those these days. So I simply made a heart, free hand and scalloped the edges with mini scallop scissors - sounds easier than it actually was! Placed them over the corners and bent one over the other and glued in place. The added mini brads for some extra security. I think I saw that technique on Nichole Heady's blog - that woman is a genius!

Wallah, another Valentine. Sad to say that the one I spent the least amount of time on was my husband's card. It is so hard to make cards for guys.

But here is a funny little story. My husband asked me what I wanted for Valentine's Day. I said "nothing but a homemade card from you." Well, don't you know that Valentine's Day, on his lunch hour, he went to my LSS and the lady helped him make a Valentine for ME! He picked out all of the stuff and she helped him with what I think may have been a Cricut to make an envelope. He did the rest. Here is a pic... He was so proud of himself and so was I; not so much about the card, but that he actually went into a Scrap store without me to make me a card - that's LOVE!

Have a fabulous day/night! Thanks for visiting!

Life - Take It One Day At A Time...

Life - ahhhh, gotta take it one day at a time. I know a lot of people can blog through the rough times - unfortunately, I'm not one of them. I have to prioritize things, and blogging wasn't really a priority the last few weeks.

Reasons for my absence... well, I will try to keep it all short. At the end of February my husband found out that in one week he would be getting laid off from a job he devoted his life to. He was such a loyal employee, we seldom saw him during the week, and often not on the weekends either. But, such is the nature of Information Technology. Thank God! - literally - that we have a wonderful friend who gave us a heads up so we could prepare. And prepare we did! That was a very crazy week, but after wallowing for a "day" (we are fighters around here :-) we made phone calls, sent emails, worked on his resume, bought a new suit (something he hasn't had to wear in years - heck, no weddings or funerals to attend!) and we got the ball rolling. By the grace of God, he was technically only out of a job for three days; we were VERY lucky! My husband has a lot of contacts and he is very well respected for his work ethic and his expertise. It paid off this time!

But while all this was going on, we were actually supposed to be celebrating because we finally had the plans to our new "to be built" house and we were on our way to making a dream we have worked on for over two years come true. Well, we called our builder right away and told him what was going on, and he was great. Needless to say, all those plans have been put on hold, a bit of a permanent hold I think. Our dream house will have to wait a little longer. I was crushed by that, but I am extremely happy that we have a roof over our heads and can still afford to feed our kids.

After the storm passed, I took a trip to Maryland to visit my Aunt & Uncle and cousins. We played the Wii for the first time, and I boxed against my husband and won. He was even beat by my 11 year-old cousin, another girl. Boy did the former Marine catch some flack! :-)

Then we were off to Philadelphia to visit with family for 10 days, a much needed little vacation. It was great to be there and I miss my family there. I loved hanging out with my sister shopping and just talking in person. I went craft shopping with my mom at a Super Joanns, A.C. Moore (neither of which I have here), and she took my son to get a new Light Sabre (which made her the greatest "Mana" in the world!). I don't have anyone here to craft shop with, so that was absolutely AWESOME! We took the kids to a place called Giggleberry Fair and they had a blast.

Here are some pics of them...

...laughing it up. My sister and I had some serious fun too shooting at our kids with these soft balls from these giant guns! I hated to come back to Virginia, but alas we had to.

I have still been working on things around here, painting walls, hanging pics, getting things ready for our huge cul-de-sac yard sale on the 12th of April. I can not wait to clean out our garage! My husband won't even go in there it's that bad.

Most of last week was spent at the mechanic, trying to figure out what the heck was wrong with my car. After $800 of parts and labor that likely didn't need to be replaced or done, they finally figured out that it just needed to be drained and filled with some new fluid and no more crunching. We are chalking it up to a learning experience, and will not be taking our cars back there again.

I haven't had much in the way of creative juices flowing through my veins. Too many other things have been cluttering my mind. But I am reaching a level of peace that I didn't think possible a few weeks ago. Plus my craft area has been quite a mess with all the new stuff having no where to call home :-). We are getting some new cabinets to take care of that this week. I do have some things to share though and will do that tomorrow. This week I am starting to feel like my old self again, not sure if that it good or bad??? :-)

Thanks for hanging in there. I promise I won't have too many emotional posts, we try to stay positive around here! Hope you enjoyed the pics of the kids!

Have a safe and fabulous day!