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A Cut Above

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Traveling for four days put me a bit behind with all the classes I'm taking. But today I almost got caught up with the lessons for A Cut Above, a card-making class using die cuts. This afternoon I got a card finished for the first lesson on layered die cuts.

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I used a Lifestyle Crafts layered bloom die for the flower, and the Sending You die from Papertrey Ink for the leaves. I gave both some dimension by using some distress inks around the edges and bending them slightly. The flower is popped up with dimensional dots and the leaves slid in underneath. The patterned papers are from the new Classic Calico (Studio Calico) paper pad and an old MME pad, "Rosy" Lost & Found. The border punch is a new one from American Crafts. The button is from Papertrey Ink, and the twine from Michaels.

We had a fabulous weekend away. It started a bit ominously, but ended up being great. More on all of it later. I took a lot of photos, and have them all uploaded into Lightroom with key words :-), and have started editing them. I hope to have enough for a first blog post by the weekend, but Matt arrives tomorrow so I'm not sure how much time I'll have. I'm signed up for a class on black and white photography with Cole Thompson on Saturday afternoon. One of the photography galleries has brought him in for an exhibit and this class. On Sunday I'm having the family for brunch so everyone can see Matt, and we can celebrate two birthdays (one for 91 years and one for 29). I'm planning to serve Deb's egg boats, French toast, and fruit salad—and a birthday cake of course.

April Take Twelve

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It was a busy day, and I just barely managed to get this layout done before I crashed! (All digital although I'll probably print it out and put it on a piece of cardstock for my album. I used a template from Kitty Designs that I adapted.) We leave tomorrow for Washington, D.C. so I'll be "off the grid" for a few days, although I'm hoping to have some blog reading time with my iPad.

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Journaling is just a list of the photos: 

1.Started the day with a long list. 2.Finished the Faces project. 3.The current book. 4.To the gym. 5&6.Planted pansies. 7&8.Signs of spring. 9.Birthday lunch at The Cheesecake Factory with Debbie and Karen.10. Packages and letters to England, Arizona, and Rochester.11. Card made.12. Daily journal.

I finished the layout for the March 365 photos on Tuesday.

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All the supplies came from the April Studio Calico kit and the title and tag were cut with the Silhouette. Quick and simple. The tag holds the journaling about March:

Typically, March is my least favorite month. It’s been a long winter, and I am so ready for Spring. This year, however, spring came early. We had a week with temperatures in the high 60’s. We rode our bikes 45 miles in March, the magnolias bloomed in Highland Park, and the lilacs are budded. 

 We met with Cheryl Bailey and planned an August vacation with Sarah, Adam, and Caleb, spent Tracy’s birthday in Niagara-on-the-Lake with Karen and Mike, and started weekly dinner dates with Betsy and Skylar.

 Lots of photo ops:  the canal path, the orchid show at Sonneburg Gardens, a trip to Lamberton Conservatory, walks through the park, a dinner date with Mary along the Genesee River, and Tom’s birthday party.  Food photos were more prevalent since I perfected the art of using the Paprika app,and we’re trying lots of new recipes.

 Mary and I attended one of the best Arts & Lectures events of the past several years, a talk with Abraham Verghese, author of Cutting for Stone. I spent a day at Presbytery with youth from Geneseo, and spoke at a Resource Saturday for the TCC. 

 All in all, March was quite a fine month, and I didn’t feel the need to leave town at all!

Have a great weekend!

 

Project 64: The Final Six

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The last six colors from the crayon box went up all at once a week or so ago at Project 64. It's taken me some time to find what I needed, but I haven't missed a week, so I wanted to be sure to finish. I'm thinking of collecting an image for each color and having a small photo book printed. So here they are:

VIOLET:

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One of the pansies I bought for our front porch (which I still haven't planted).

TAN:

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This funny chicken sits on a shelf in our kitchen on a tan egg.

GRANNY SMITH APPLE:

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Of course I had to do the apples, but I'll be linking this one with the Granny Smith Apple green stripe:

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One of my favorite pitchers.

MAUVELOUS:

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I found the perfect ribbon in my stash, but I think red onions are a pretty good match, too.

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CORNFLOWER:

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It's way too early for cornflowers here, but these tiny blue flowers are in almost everyone's yard.

PEACH:

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This one was the hardest, but I finally found this beautiful bouquet in the grocery store on Monday. Thank goodness for the handy iPhone!

Well, that's it. I've enjoyed the hunt, and have ended up with an interesting assortment of photographs, and a bit of practice, which was the whole point to begin with.

10 Things I’m Loving Right Now

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I was totally unprepared for 10 Things this month. How did we get to the 10th of April so quickly? But then I realized how many things I'm enjoying right now so I thought I'd share them.

1. Planning for a weekend away in Washington, D. C. on Friday. We're looking forward to meeting long-time friends we haven't seen in years, doing some serious sightseeing, a bit of shopping, and going to see the Annie Leibowitz exhibit, "Pilgrimages" at the Smithsonian. I'm just about finished reading this book in hopes I'll get some good photos. The last time we were there (22 years ago!), I took what I hoped would be some great photos, only to discover there was no film in my camera!

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2. Our weekly Face Time with Caleb. This week he was so much more focused on what he was seeing. I'm loving that we aren't missing everything as he changes so quickly. Just one month from now, we'll be in Oregon to spend some time with Sarah and Caleb while Adam is at a conference. Before Adam leaves, Caleb will be baptized. Then when he returns, Matt is flying out from Denver to meet Caleb and spend my birthday weekend with us. Can't wait to get my hands on this cute baby, and have some serious family time!

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3. Betsy and Skylar have been coming to dinner every week recently. We just love having them here. Skylar's old enough now to use a high chair, and can pick up the Gerber puffs and get them into her mouth. 

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4. Shortly after I purchased my Silhouette last year, I took an online course. It was very helpful, and I've been using it regularly. I subscribe to Kerri Bradford's blog, and have purchased several of her Silhouette files, so when I saw that she was giving an introductory course for Jessica Sprague on the Silhouette, I signed right up. I've only been through the first two of five lessons, and have learned more in those than I learned in entire first course! Today I signed up for the Intermediate class which begins next week. Both classes are self-paced and you have forever access. I finished my March 365 layout today, and used a bit of what I've learned. Just learning the key commands has really speeded up my process.

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5. I've also just started a photography class called "A Sense of Place" with Kat Sloma. I've know Kat for awhile through the internet, and since we're planning a bit of travel this spring and summer I thought the timing was perfect. The first week's lesson was about preparing to take photos, particularly when traveling. She made me rethink my camera bag and equipment. I'll be testing out a new messenger-type bag this weekend which will hold my camera gear plus all the essentials I usually have in a purse. It's a bit bigger, but carrying only one bag should be an improvement. It will hold everything I need for airline travel as well.

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6. Before I signed on to the Silhouette class, I'd already signed up for a new online card class that begins next week with a wonderful line-up of teachers called "A Cut Above." I use die cuts all the time, and know I'll learn a few tricks here as well.

7. I belong to a local camera club, Camera Rochester, and attend a photo critique monthly at a photo gallery, Image City. Recently, a friend I met through these groups invited me to come to a Rochester Photo Editing Group. I've been learning a lot in the couple of months I've belonged. The organizer of the group sends regular, informative emails, and on Saturday I went to my first photo shoot with the group. The purpose is to shoot to edit, so I downloaded Photomatix, and created my first HDR image today with three images I took at Artisan Works. Because it's a trial version, it has the Photomatix watermard on the image. Once I see what it can do, I may purchase the program. This photo was taken in the Frank Lloyd Wright room.

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8. Spring. Well, it was here for a while, but there wasn't much sign of it today. Nonetheless, this is the earliest spring we've seen in a long time. The magnolias have already peaked. Fortunately, we got to Highland Park before they started to deteriorate.

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9. Finding Photo Flow and Lightroom. I finally finished the lessons in Finding Photo Flow. It was the best money I've spent on a class in a while, although for a time, I was pretty frustrated. I have now created a work flow that will meet my needs, and today I did some basic editing in Lightroom and was quite pleased with the results. The other realization is that despite good intentions, my photographs are NOT well organized. It's going to take months to get everything in place, but once it's there I think we'll be good to go for many years.

10. OLW. My One Little Word for 2012 is Balance, and I've been struggling with trying to make time for all the things I love to do along with all of my commitments. The last couple of weeks have been much better. I've found time to create, have been doing lots of reading and learning (books and internet), spending time with friends, and keeping up with most of the blogs I want to read. I've been to the gym nearly every day, and have been enjoying lots of cooking and entertaining in the new kitchen. Life is good.

I'll be linking to Shimelle's Ten Things.

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March-A Month of Photos

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I had my templates for Capture Your 365 and A Month in Photos done the first of April. I've been waiting to post them until I got the layouts done, but it's just not happening. So here is my March Month of Photos template. I will be back with the layout of the photo-of-the-day which I've managed to stay on track with for three months now.

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Some of my favorites from March: Skylar (I just love those chubby arms and bright eyes), my brother-in-law's birthday party, Tracy's birthday celebration at the Irish Harp in Niagara-on-the-Lake, high school rowers practicing on the Genesee River, a favorite photo from the orchid show, my self-portrait for the month (reflection in the doors at LLBean), and the beautiful magnolias in Highland Park (typically taken in late April or May!)

Cards for Friends and Family

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I took time out from a major purge and clean project here to make two cards. The first is for a good friend who fell off a ladder several months ago. Although it might well have been a fatal fall, he has undergone multiple surgeries, the latest of which was Tuesday. He'll be in a cast/brace for 6-8 weeks, and can't drive or lift for 6 months! Although we keep tabs through phone calls and emails, I thought this latest episode required a card as well.

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I've purged about half of my wooden rubber stamps. My plan at the moment is to store them in the basement until the next garage sale at Buffalo Stamps and Stuff. If I don't want any of them between now and then I'll see what I can sell there. After that there may be a giant give-away here on the blog. This cute pill bottle was one stamp I hadn't used in several years. I can't read the name of the company on the side of the stamp any more. The card turned up in another purge/clean episode a couple of days ago. I bought several sets of these years ago, and am no longer sure who makes it.

The next card is for a much happier occasion. My niece is getting married this summer. Her wedding shower is in two weeks. Normally I would drive down to my brother's for it, but Matt is coming home that weekend, and I haven't seen him since January. My brother sweetly agreed to buy and wrap the gift for me. I mailed this card to him today, and my other niece will take it to the shower for me.

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Another similar card from the set. I used a Memory Box die for the wreath, and some very old Prima flowers. The sentiment is from Papertrey's Mat Stack 2 Collection.

Easter Cards

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Well, I know I'm not too late for this challenge, but I wasn't planning on posting these until Sunday. But since The Scrapbook Trends CREATE blog is looking for Easter cards, I thought I'd get them up today.

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I actualy made the pink card a year ago for a Scrap-Mart post but I recently found it and realized that unlike last year, I have two cute grandchildren to whom I can send cute bunny cards. Both cards use Jillibean patterned paper, Papertrey Select White cardstock, doilies cut with the Lacy Circle Nestabilities (Spellbinder) and a bunny cut with my Silhouette and scraps from the scrap folder. Skylar's tag was cut with a Papertrey Tag Sale die, and Caleb's is a tag I bought years ago from Impress. Both sentiments are from Papertrey, and both bunnies are embellished with some Fun Flock. (I knew I kept that around for a reason!)

ColorQ Challenge

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ColorQ has another bright and cheerful palette. As soon as I saw it in my Reader I knew I'd be playing along. 

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Here's my card. I ended up with two cards (nearly identical) since I cut each star border out of the four different papers.

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Nothing but cardstock (all Papertrey except for the green which came from my scrap folder). The star borders are also Papertrey Ink as is the sentiment from the "Fillable Frames Additions 2" set. Now I have a start on the many May birthdays on my calendar.

Well, it turns out I was a day late to post this for the challenge. Too bad as I had it done in plenty of time!

Card Patterns Challenge

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In my effort to finish the April birthday cards, I decided to play along with the Card Patterns challenge. Here's the sketch:

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I don't often follow along with sketch challenges, and I think I know why. I enjoy creating a card for them, but often the final product is not really me. This one falls into that category. Although I'm pleased with it, it's not a card I would create on my own. 

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I chose the papers first, both from a 6X6 paper pad, Random by Crate Paper. Papertrey's Raspberry Fizz and Vintage Cream cardstock were good matches, and I thought the Pretty Peony stamps worked well. The sentiment is from Delightful Dahlias, and the tiny butterfly from Butterfly Dreams. I used both Spellbinder's Lacy Circles and the Double Ended Banner dies from PTI, and finished it off with a Simply Chartreuse ribbon. The pearls are from Michaels.

Lots going on this weekend. On Friday I'm going to a lecture by the All Rochester Reads author, Debra Dean, who wrote The Madonnas of Leningrad which our book group read several years ago.  Everyone in the book group liked it, which is a good recommendation since we're a couples book group, and pretty diverse. Then we're having company for dinner later that night.

Saturday, I'm off with friends to a baby shower in Buffalo. Since we're all crafters, we're leaving early so we can spend some time at Buffalo Stamps & Stuff beforehand. It will be an all day event. When we get home, Tracy and I are going to friend's for dinner. I'm providing dessert, and will get it made so I can serve it on Friday as well. If it turns out well, I'll take photos and post it here. My friend made it for us last month, and it was fabulous! Hope you have some fun planned for the weekend as well.

CAS-ual Friday Challenge

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This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays was to create a card using pastels and blacks. This finishes my stash of birthday cards for April. You'll see the rest of them in the next day or so.

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This gave me a chance to play with a couple more new purchases from Papertrey Ink:  the 2012 Birthday Tags (which I'm sure will get lots of use) and the new Tag Sale #6 die which I love. I stamped the image on Aqua Mist cardstock and cut the tag from Bitty Box, using the Aqua Mist pattern. I love the way so many of the Papertrey products are color coordinated. The card itself was created from paper I purchased at the very first stamp store in Rochester so it must be at least 15 years old. The store closed years ago. Since then we've had two other lovely stores, but they are no longer in business either. The other die is the Vine Border, and the ribbon and pearls are from Michaels. 

March Papertrey Blog Hop

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Today's the day for the monthly blog hop at Papertrey Ink, and I always enjoy playing along. I've been drawn to bright and cheerful colors recently so this inspiration piece was right up my alley.

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I'm still working on the stash of birthday cards I need for April, so that was the direction I took. I also wanted to use the new star border dies which arrived a couple of days ago. I think you'll be seeing a lot of them.

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Aside from the colors, I was drawn to the polka dots on one of the gift bags in the inspiration piece so I backed my larger star with a piece of Distressed Dots patterned paper. The smaller star was die cut with a piece of paper from the Hodge Podge collection which I've had for years. I used the Seeing Stars dies for both. The cardstock is Hawaiian Shores, Summer Sunrise, and Harvest Gold, and the sentiment is from Simple Sentiments. All the products are PTI. Here's a closer look at the layers on the card.

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Yesterday was such a busy day. I was gone most of the day, and we celebrated Tracy's birthday and my brother-in-law's birthdays at Tavern 58 last night. In between I visited all the wonderful stops on Deb's fabulous Potluck Blog Hop. If you haven't had a chance to check these out, there are a lot of wonderful recipes to be had. 

Welcome to the International Virtual Pot Luck Blog Hop

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Welcome to the Virtual Pot Luck dinner and specifically to my home in western New York! Should you be unaware of this fabulous event organized by Deb, go immediately to Paper Turtle so you can get started with some drinks and appetizers.

If you've been journeying along you've come from Karen's kitchen in the UK. By now you must be rather full if you've journey through all the previous stops. Hopefully you've saved room for some Chicken and Wild Rice. Many years ago, a friend served this for dinner and graciously shared her recipe. It's now my stand-by recipe for pot-lucks (which have become infrequent in real life) and when I need a dish that travels well to someone in need of a meal (quite frequently.) Hope you enjoy!

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Here are the ingredients:

4 boneless chicken breasts or chicken tenders (I used about two packages of chicken tenders this time)

1 package Uncle Ben's Wild Rice (any wild rice mixture would do)

2 cans cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup

1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. sherry or white wine

1/2 c. Parmesan cheese

1/2 c. slivered, toasted almonds (optional)

I chose not to use the toasted almonds this time since I was taking this to my friend who just had a new baby, and I wasn't sure the older kids would like almonds.

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Sprinkle half the rice mixture into the bottom of a 9X13 pan.

Whisk

Whisk together the soup, wine, and milk and pour half of it over the rice.

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Arrange the chicken over the rice and soup mixture. 

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Then repeat with the remaining rice and soup.

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Cover tightly and bake at 350° for one hour.

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Remove cover and sprinkle with cheese (and almonds if using). Put it back in the oven for 30-45 minutes.

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Enjoy!!! This dish freezes very well, and I've made it for the freezer at our church where they keep a ready supply of meals for congregation members who suddenly need some meals. Left-overs are great, too.

Now you're off across the ocean to Ruth's kitchen for one last main dish before dessert. I know it will be delicious!

CR84FN Challenge

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I've been really attracted to the bright colors of spring recently. I have my orange, yellow, and pink sweaters out of winter storage, so I was anxious to play along with CR84FN challenge this week.

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This CAS card was inspired by one created by Cristina Kowalczyk published in a Paper Crafts magazine.

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I started with some Bazzil textured cardstock in bright pink and added the Echo Park striped paper from their Dots and Stripes line. I stamped the sentiment from Papertrey's Birthday Basics right onto the patterned paper and added a couple of flowers and a brad from my stash. I just purged a lot of my flowers since I rarely use them anymore, but I was smart enough to keep a few around.  While I was at it, I made a second card with a slightly different color combination. 

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Same ingredients except I used Hibiscus Burst cardstock (Papertrey) and a Basic Grey brad that arrived in one of my Studio Calico kits.

The weather here is just amazing. They are predicting a high of 80° today. Tracy is out golfing and later we'll go for our fourth bike ride in four days. I don't believe we've ever had our bikes out in March. I know it can't last, but I'm enjoying every day we have of these summer-like temperatures.

CAS-ual Friday Challenge

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This week's challenge at CAS-ual Fridays was to create a CAS card with the following element:

1. A Pattern
2.  An Image
3.  A Sentiment

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I needed a couple more cards for guys and made two of the same card. I chose the chevron pattern from a new Echo Park paper from the Style Essentials line. The image is a cute camera from Studio Calico and I created the sentiment on the computer with the American Typewriter font. I added the heart to add a touch of color to the card. Since they are both going to relatives, the heart was perfectly appropriate.

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I love this chevron pattern and wish I'd purchased several sheets of it!

Babies!

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This week a good friend and his wife had a tiny baby—just 3 pounds, 7 ounces. She's doing great, though, and I couldn't wait to go buy some little baby clothes. While I was there, of course, I had some other babies in mind as well. I still want to buy little Chloe a few more things, but I was only allowed to use one coupon at a time, so I'll go back in a day or two to use my $10 off coupon. Look at the difference between the premies on the right, and the three month size in the middle! The dress for Skylar is 9 months because I know she has plenty of clothes for the next few months.

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Here's the card for Chloe.

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I think the tag came from Paper Source many years ago. The papers are old Jillibean from my scrap drawer as is the ribbon. The flower is a new one from Pebbles, the stamp from Fillable Frames Additions 2 (PTI), and the die cut alpha is also Papertrey Ink. The wide pink ribbon is May Arts (I think) that I ordered from Emma's Paperie. The border punch is American Crafts.

At the end of the month, I'm going to Buffalo to a baby shower for one of my best friend's daughter-in-law. They're expecting a boy and doing a baseball theme in the nursery. I based this on a card Debbie Olsen did a long time ago, and was really pleased with how it came out. 

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I used Papertrey's Banner Builders to create the pennants with scraps in my "baby drawer" and Pure Poppy cardstock. "BABY" was stamped with the PTI "Fresh" alphabet, and the baseballs were cut from a piece of patterned paper from Michael's. Also from Papertrey is the twine, the patterned paper (Bitty Stars), cardstock (Pure Poppy, Blueberry Sky and Select White), and the sentiment (Bitty Baby Blessings).