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A Reason to Celebrate

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Recently a friend celebrated her 65th birthday AND her retirement. We had a great time at her open house, and took this card and a bottle of wine.

Card&Wine

The card turned out to be a snap to make. I picked up Teresa Collins' Studio Gold "Create a Beautiful Life" paper pad at Joanne Fabrics a few months ago. I gold embossed the sentiment from "The Big, The Bold, and The Party" by Winnie and Walter, and added that panel to another patterned paper from the same pad.

Celebrate

 

The gold embossing powder turned out to be an almost perfect match.

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The wine tag was created with the "Uncorked" dies by Papertrey Ink, some gold and silver papers from The Paper Source, and a strip of same paper used for the card. And, of course, some sequins.

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All I can wish for someone who retires is that they enjoy themselves as much as I have since I retired! A former colleague told friend of mine who was considering retirement not to be in any hurry, since retirement was "lonely and boring." I felt so bad for her. I'm never bored, never lonely, and fortunately, neither is my friend who retired in October and is having a fine time of it.

We're off tonight to celebrate a wonderful vacation at The Dry Dock. Our friends, Bonnie and Ed, who just happened to be here on Longboat Key with us for several days took us there the first week we were here. We loved it, and already know what we're going to order this time around. Can't say I'm very excited about heading back to the cold. Matt tells us a lot of the snow has melted, but as I expected, there's still snow on the ground. Hard to imagine, sitting here looking out on the Gulf of Mexico in the bright sunshine.

Happy, Zappy Birthday, Tracy!

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Today is Tracy's birthday, and what fun to be able to celebrate it in sunny Florida! When Papertrey Ink released "Zappy Birthday" I just fell in love with it. I decided I didn't need the stamps, just the die cuts and so far, I'm happy with that decision.

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The patterned papers are from a pad called "Comic Strip," released at the same time. The sentiment is from a W Plus 9 set, "Super Star."

Here's the inside:

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I have to admit this card took me quite awhile to put together. My desk was cluttered with all kinds of die cuts in different colors and patterned papers. I tried vertical cards, horizontal cards, and all kinds of arrangements when I finally came up with this, and I do like it a lot.

I made a second card for my niece's husband, Kevin, while I had all the die cuts out. This one looks more complicated, but in reality, came together quite quickly, thanks to the patterned paper.

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It's really a fun card, and Kevin is a fun guy so I hope he likes it! The sentiment is from "Sentiment Sampler" by Paper Smooches, as is the inside sentiment:

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The font of this set seemed to fit the playful nature of the card.

Off to celebrate!

Swoosh! It’s a Birthday!

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As soon as I saw the dies and stamps designed for Papertrey Ink's anniversary by Maile Belles, I knew I'd be adding them to my collection. I also purchased her new paper pad, "Watercolor Wonder," and some of the gold adhesive paper they released. With these three products and a few sequins I got several March birthday cards created.

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All the colors in the Watercolor Wonder pad coordinate with Papertrey's cardstock, so matching it to a card is so easy.

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This gives you a better look at the gold adhesive paper which makes using these die cuts a breeze.

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I needed a couple cards for guys as well, so I made two of these. I thought the colors were more masculine, and there are no sequins to be found.

SwooshBD3

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This paper pad is going to get a workout! All the designs are printed on beautiful linen cardstock that's a great weight for "bumping out." I used to use dimensional tape to do that, but after watching Jennifer McGuire use "fun foam" from Michaels, I've started using it. It's a much better for mailing, pretty economical, and easier!

 

Many Thanks!

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There were so many people who contributed to Sarah's wonderful Ordination service that I needed to crank out some new cards. I have several "Thanks" die cuts, so pulled them out, and die cut them all in black. With that and some patterned papers, I was able to get quite a few done in an afternoon. I made duplicates of a couple of these when I had enough of the patterned paper.

HeartfeltThanks

This one uses a die cut and stamp from Simon Says, "Bitty Box" paper from Papertrey Ink, and a heart from my stash of left-over die cuts.

SendingThanks

Another die and stamp set from Simon Says, "Sending," and patterned paper from the "Plus One" by Amy Tangerine pad by American Craft.

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I just received my order from the Papertrey Ink Anniversary celebration, and you're going to see a lot of these "Swoosh" dies and stamps. The patterned paper is also from Papertrey Ink from their Comic Strip collection. The orange enamel dots are MME.

ThankYouVeryMuch

This is another patterned paper from the "Plus One" by Amy Tangerine paper pad and a die and stamps from W Plus 9's "Hand lettered Thanks."

And last, one of my favorites. I would have loved to make several of these, but here was only one sheet of this paper in the "Plus One" pad.

WetPaintThanks

This is one of the easiest cards ever: adhere the patterned paper to the card, die cut "Thanks" from the Wet Paint series by Papertrey Ink, and adhere it to the card. I'm sure you could replicate the patterned paper with some watercolor paints, but it would be a lot harder!

I wrote this post before we left town. Yesterday I had the great pleasure of meeting up with Cheri of Scrap Dreams and visiting the Philadelphia Flower Show. Photos from that visit are forthcoming, but probably not until we actually get to our final destination this weekend.

We made it as far south as Raleigh, NC tonight, but it was NOT a fun drive. Another winter storm ripped through the east coast from southern New York/New Jersey through Virginia. I wasn't sure we ought to even leave our hotel this morning, but Tracy is an awesome driver and because so many schools and businesses were closed there was a bit less traffic. We saw quite a few cars and trucks off the road, but we made it here without any problem. Tomorrow night we'll be in Florida, and the winter weather should be behind us at least until we head back north in a couple of weeks.

Sending Thanks

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Tracy looked out our kitchen window one morning this week, and saw a large package sitting on the front step. It was a fabulous box of oranges sent directly from Florida from friends of ours who are there visiting now. Some of the oranges had frozen, and we were afraid they'd be ruined. But fear not, they are delicious! 

Many months ago, I signed up for Kim Klassen's Be Still 52 class. Like some other classes, I never got going with it. Seeing Rinda's photos from the new edition of the class prompted me to get going, and I'm working backwards on it. Today I came across a prompt – "Citrus" – use some citrus fruit to tell a story. So here's my still life of the fabulous salad I made for dinner tonight.

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I had time today to get a thank you card made to send to our friends. They'll be coming home while we're in Florida ourselves, and I wanted our thanks to be waiting for them.

SendingThanks

The Phrase Play #6 die from Papertrey Ink seemed perfect for a sunny thank you card. After die cutting it, I backed portions of the die with strips of Pure Poppy, Harvest Gold, and Orange Zest cardstock. "You" and the stamped portion of the sentiment are both from Simon Says. When I laid the finished piece on the orange card, it seemed to need something more, so I scored three lines and then adhered the die cut piece.

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The last two days before we head off on the road trip to Florida are filled with appointments and errands. Fortunately, it was a pretty quiet weekend, so I'm well-organized and almost packed for the trip. It snowed again all day, lightly—only a few more inches, but the thought of green trees and warm breezes gets more and more attractive as the winter drags on.

 

Good News

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You've seen many cards over the last six months that were created for a friend who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. The prognosis was rather iffy, but this week she got great news. The chemo has halted the progress of the cancer, and she doesn't have to go back for another CAT scan for three months. So this time it was a "Happy Hello!"

HappyHello

You'll be seeing lots of this patterned paper by Papertrey Ink called "Watercolor Wonder." I just love the spring colors, and it's definitely a bright and cheery card for such good news. The die cuts are from Papertrey, too, "Wet Paint" and "Life is Beautiful." It's my favorite butterfly die. Behind the butterfly, is a "Circle Scribbles" die cut from vellum.

Here's another cheery "hello" card that I sent off to a friend awhile ago, and never posted.

Hello

I laid down a couple of strips of Washi tape, and die cut Mama Elephant's "Hello" from an OLD Cosmos Cricket pad, "Jolly By Golly." The stamp is from W Plus 9's "Hand Lettered Hello," and the enamel dots from MME.

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It's so nice to be able to send cards to celebrate good news!

Happy Birthday, Matt!

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Today is Matt's 32nd birthday. He's celebrating with his three favorite girls, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella in Niagara Falls. They're staying at a hotel overlooking the falls with a swimming pool, and have plans to visit the aquarium and perhaps, the butterfly garden nearby. It's a weekend retreat from the winter weather here. They'll get to see Niagara Falls frozen over, which is a rare event! 

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I took this photo yesterday when I delivered our gift and card to him before they left. For the first time in either of our memories, I bought him a birthday card rather than make one. He's been into brewing his own beer in their basement, and I found the perfect "Hoppy Brewday!" birthday card at Trader Joe's a few weeks ago. Here's another shot of Matt with Skylar on their way out to play in the snow. He's a great husband, dad, and son, and we are so proud of him!

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Even though I didn't make Matt a card, I do have a couple birthday cards for guys that I haven't shared. The first one was for a friend in Denver.

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A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME, a die and stamp from Papertrey Ink, and three wooden embellishments, also from MME, and it was done.

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Lots of gold embossing on this one. The triangle background stamp is from Hero Arts, and the sentiment is one of my favorites from Winnie and Walter's "The Big, The Bold, and The Happy."

We're off in a few hours to celebrate Tracy's and Tom's birthdays (both occur in March). For the last several years, we've gone out to dinner with Jill (Tracy's sister) and Tom to celebrate. Usually we go between their two birthdays, but we won't be in town on Tracy's birthday, and Jill won't be here on Tom's so tonight's the night. (Both their cards are finished in and in my tote bag to be given–or mailed–on the appropriate dates!)

 

 

Family Cards

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In my continual rant against the weather, it is -4° this morning, with a wind chill of -22°. Really? Worse yet, we discovered ice damming in several places yesterday, which can cause all kinds of damage. The last time it happened, we had to have three rooms repaired and repainted. Since then we've had the roof replaced. We also have cables on the roof which usually take care of the problem. This year it's just been too cold for too long. The icicles on everyone's homes are amazing. Beautiful, but a potential sign of problems to come. Tracy has a call into the man who came many years ago, but all the folks who deal with these problems are overbooked. Two weeks from today, we'll be in Florida,, although it's even chilly in Florida (they were predicting lows in the 30's this week), but it's surely better than here. I'm actually glad to be here right now, so we can keep an eye on the ice damming.

Well, on to more pleasant topics. I don't usually leave making a card to the last minute, but for Sarah's ordination, I did exactly that. I made it the evening before, just before we gave her a stole. (I never got a photo of that either, but I will on Easter Sunday when we'll be celebrating at her church.) But she immediately said, "Nice card!" I think she's partial to CAS as well.

Congrats

It couldn't have been simpler. White cardstock, a piece of patterned paper from the Studio Calico "Print Shop" pad, and a die cut from Penny Black in gold.

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And somehow, when I posted about Caleb's birthday from Chicago in December, I never shared his birthday card.

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Caleb LOVES cars, and this little car die from Savvy is one of my favorites. I cut it three times in Limeaid Ice, Pure Poppy, and Hawaiian Shores and mounted them on a piece of Summer Sunrise (all Papertrey Ink). It's been ages since I used any of my 12X12 scrapbook papers, but I found a piece of map paper and cut two banners. I can't remember (and didn't record) where the "happy, happy, happy" sentiment comes from. 

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On one final note about the weather, it's sunny today! Makes going out a little less onerous. I'm going to lunch with two friends from college, but otherwise I'm staying inside!

Let’s Hear It for Animal Valentines

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I have the rest of the family valentines to share today. All of them feature animals. And all of them qualify for the Simon Says Wednesday Challenge: "All Creatures Great and Small" and the CAS-ology "Love" challenges.

The first card doesn't feature any stamps. I drew the hedgehog from an image I found online. Despite a search on Pinterest and Google, I haven't been able to retrace where I found it. If anyone can direct me to the original, I'd love to credit it. Sarah's a huge fan of hedgehogs so it seemed to be the perfect image for her valentine.

HedgehogValentine

After drawing the hedgehog with a fountain pen, I use a combination of Copic markers and watercolors to color the image. The red and pink hearts make this card qualify for the Simon Says Monday "Red and Pink" challenge, as well. I made the frame by layering two Papertrey Ink "Stitched Rectangles" on Pure Poppy cardstock. It's all adhered to a Fog (Simon Says) card base.

The next card is for Adam. I purchased the W Plus 9 "Knock, Knock Valentine" set for future use with grandchildren, but I decided it would work for Adam when I discovered the iguana (TPC Studios) in my stash.

Iguaga

I stamped the sentiments, and layered it behind a Pure Poppy frame created with a Nestability Small Classic Rectangle frame, stamped and cut out the iguana and added it with some dimensional tape.

The last card was inspired by this card by Kathy Racoosin. I already had the "Quite the Pair" set from Simon Says and loved how she sat the frog on the paper airplane.

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The heart was cut from some "Kiss, Kiss" patterned paper from Crate Paper that came in the February Simon Says card kit. The cardstock for the card base was also in the kit. The frog and the paper airplanes were stamped and cut out, and the clouds are die cuts from Papertrey Ink. I colored Mr. Froggy with Copic markers and added some googly eyes for fun.

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I hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day. I'm delighted to be spending it with family!

 

 

Happy Heart

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Another valentine, this time for the Addicted to CAS "Hugs and Kisses" challenge as well as the 
CAS-ology Challenge: Love. 

HappyHeart

Nothing but die cuts on this card, all from Simon Says. I love the new Heart Banner die. It makes an inlaid die cut so easy. I also like the soft gray, red, white, and Smoky Shadow color combination. I happened to find the perfect match sequins in my stash. I left the "valentine's day" sentiment for the inside.

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We have happy hearts here today. Sarah, Adam, and Caleb are here for the weekend, as are Adam's parents who flew in from Seattle last night. We all went to The Strong Museum this morning with Betsy, Matt, Skylar, and Ella. There's nothing finer than having all your family in one place for a few days!

Shake It Valentine

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Once I saw the Virginia's View Challenge for shaker cards, I knew I wanted to make a shaker valentine for Skylar this year, but didn't have anything specific in mind when I started. For once, that turned out quite well.

#12 Shaker Cards

I started by tinting some transluscent embossing paste with a drop of Raspberry Fizz (PTI) reinker and using the "Falling Hearts" stencil by Simon Says. It makes an almost sparkling background.

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As I was looking through my dies for a heart I spotted this new one, "Surely Stitched Heart" which I received in my last order from Simon Says. I wasn't sure I could make a shaker heart with such a thin die, but by die cutting the heart twice, and then a third time from fun foam, it went together surprisingly well, and I love how it looks. I filled it with a bunch of sparkly hearts and sequins, perfect for a little girl who loves pink and fancy things. I decided to leave the sentiment for the inside. The heart and mat are Hibiscus Burst by Papertrey Ink.

Here's a closer look at the stenciled background.

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I'm linking up to two Simon Says Challenges as well:  Monday's "Red and Pink,"

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and Work It Wednesday "Something New." I've never used this die before.

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Some Valentine Challenges

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I'm jumping around with the Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenges. Today I finally finished all the valentines I need, so you'll be seeing quite a few cards in the next few days. The first one I made today fits today's (#5) challenge at Papertrey Ink:  create a card with a new stamp set. "Circle Scribbles" arrived in my mailbox late last week. It had been out of stock for awhile, and when it came back in again, I decided not to wait. I actually used it for the card I made yesterday for the first anniversary challenge as well, but I think it still counts! I created a stamped background similar to one I saw in a Stampington magazine at Barnes and Noble when I was browsing through some periodicals last week.

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Here's a better look at the card:

CircleHearts

I started with a Classic Kraft card, and randomly stamped two of the circles in white. I then added some red hearts from two Simon Says stamp sets. The die cut sentiment is from "Wet Paint" (PTI), and the rest of the sentiment is from the Winnie & Walter set "The Big, the Bold, and The Happy."

This card also qualifies for the Addicted to CAS challenge:  Hugs and Kisses.

ATCAS - code word hugs and kisses
And Fusion's challenge "Heartful:"

Heartful copy

 

Papertrey Ink Anniversary Challenge #1

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The first of the Papertrey anniversary challenges required that you choose a color combination and a sketch from a wonderful selection you could download. Here are the ones I chose:

PTIChallenge

I knew pretty much what I wanted to do with this, but it did prove to be a challenge. The first attempt when in the trash, and once I got the main image watercolored, stamped, and splattered, finding a die cut word for the card proved to be pretty difficult. I have six die cut rejects in my little drawer to use for another project. 

Smile2 

I first tried stamping and then watercoloring the "Scribble Circles" by Papertrey Ink. That was a failure, so the second time I watercolored the circles first ( by smooshing some color from the ink pads on my craft mat and picking up the color with a water brush) and then stamping on top. None of my Papertrey Ink dies seemed to work for the sentiment, so I used one from Penny Black's "Hooray" collection, and once again, doubled it up so it popped up a bit. It's already getting dark here so the photo is not the best. The card itself is really aqua (more like you see at left of the card).

This project took far too long so it's all that's getting done today. Soon we're off to dinner at friends' despite another winter storm warning. I'm guessing we've gotten another two inches already, and it's suppose to snow through tomorrow. Really? I've had enough.

 

 

LOVE

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It's Papertrey Ink's 8th Anniversary, and every day a new challenge is posted. I thought I'd see if I could combine one of their challenges with another Valentine. This is the second challenge—to CASE a card by Maile Belle's. That's pretty easy, as her clean and simple style is a favorite of mine. This is the card I chose to CASE.

Maille

I don't own that stamp set, but I do own the Papertrey Ink "Wonderful Words: Love" die and mini-stamp set which worked out perfectly.

LovePTI

I layered the three dies in the same configuration as Maille's stamped sentiment, but doubled the die I layered on top to make it stand out a bit more. The three colors are Raspberry Fizz, Hibiscus Pink, and Harvest Gold. The enamel dots are MME, and I added one of the hearts from the die.

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While my desk is cluttered with Valentine supplies, I'm off to try to get another one done before I have to truck off to the gym.

Valentines

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Valentine's Day was my father's favorite holiday. Thinking about it now, it seems just a bit odd, since he was a very undemonstrative father. I could easily count the number of times he told me he loved me, but I was knew I was loved. He gave gifts on Valentine's Day. When I was living at home, and even in college, he usually bought me a new outfit. He was a shopper, and he had excellent taste. I can only think of one time when he purchased an outfit that was totally inappropriate for me. I called to tell him, and he laughed, and said he thought it might be. All this to say, I still love Valentine's Day. This year I'm making more cards than usual since I have several friends who could use some Valentine's Day cheer as well as all the family. 

I've been working on them for a couple days now. The family ones won't show up here until later since some of them actually do read my blog. But here's one for a friend.

Sending

I cut the heart with a My Favorite Things die after watercoloring a piece of Tim Holtz watercolor paper. The Sending die from Simon Says is one of my favorites, and I love it cut from gold paper against the ombre watercolored heart. The sentiment stamped on the vellum banner (Simon Says die) is from the accompanying "Sending and Wishing" stamp set. It's going to get a lot of use! Both the heart and the banner were layered on a Stitched Rectangle from Papertrey Ink.

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I'm quite happy with this card and am linking up to three heart related challenges:

Addicted to CAS:  Hugs and Kisses

ATCAS - code word hugs and kisses

Fusion-"Heartful" – see the photo below:

  Heartful copy

And Simon Says Monday Challenge: the Letter H (in this case, Heart)

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There will be more valentines coming . . .