Heather in Florida

My nephew, Austin, just graduated from high school. I'm working on something else for him, but needed to at least get a card (and some money) in the mail since he graduated a few weeks ago. :-) We are all so proud of him. He was accepted to the Boston Conservatory of Music, so that's where he'll attend college. He has done extremely well in his school chorus and theater program, as well as the various theater companies in his local area, so he's planning to continue pursuing a dream in that general area. The Boston Conservatory is a great place to do it. His parents aren't looking forward to paying for it, lol, but it is a great institution, and they're proud he was accepted.

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted): cardstock: Smokey Shadow, Kraft, and Stamper's Select White; For the Graduate stamp set; Versafine black ink; Lemon Tart ink; Scor-Pal

A couple of posts ago, I shared a thank you note for my dad for flying me to see my grandmother as my birthday present. While we were there, my grandmother was the perfect hostess, so I wanted to thank her for her hospitality.

She lives in a very nice senior community, and they have a beautiful clubhouse where they are served their meals, like it's a restaurant. We ate there a couple of nights, and she took us to the cafe at Southern Season, which was a real treat. And she showed us the sights in her town.

So this thank you is for her. It was somewhat inspired by a bunch of posts over at Dawn McVey's blog. She found some Martha Stewart die cut tags that were really cute. Had I not seen them on her blog, I'd have never known they existed, and I went last weekend and got some at Michaels. I just think they're so cool! I could probably make something like them with my Cricut (my poor, unused Cricut), but they were $3 (on sale) for a pack of 12, and $3 is cheap enough for me to not want to spend the time, lol.

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted): Round and Round exclusive stamp set; cardstock: Stamper's Select White, Hibiscus Burst, Smokey Shadow; Martha Stewart tag; Smokey Shadow and Hibiscus Burst ink; Versamark; silver embossing powder; Mat Stack 2 steel die; grey tulle from COD Warehouse; Scor-Pal

Back in April, my oldest son turned 8. We hosted a great laser tag party for him and his friends. Of course he received gifts, and gifts always mean thank you notes. But I have such a hard time with male cards, much more so with male child cards. They're past the cutesy, but not to the adult male stuff either. Waltzingmouse to the rescue! The owner, Claire, created a couple of GREAT sets for boys: Free Spirit Boy and Free Spirit Sentiments. I had just received my Papertrey Ink order as well, and thought A Little Argyle in boy colors would be a nice background element. So this is what I came up with. I also used Waltzingmouse's Off Beat Backgrounds for the "hills" for the skater dude and PTI For the Graduate to frame him.

Supplies: stamps: Waltzingmouse Free Spirit Boy, Free Spirit Sentiments, Off Beat Backgrounds and Papertrey Ink A Little Argyle and For The Graduate; cardstock: PTI Stamper's Select White and Kraft; ink: PTI Pure Poppy, Enchanted Evening, Vintage Cream and Colorbox Chalk Wheat; PTI Mat Stack 1 steel die

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted. Things got super busy again. I wasn't crafting as much. When I did craft, I didn't get pictures... I'm hoping with school out, maybe life won't be so hectic, but who knows.

Anyway, I took pictures of a few cards I made last weekend -- love three-day weekends -- so I'll spread them out over the next several days. I need to make a couple of cards this weekend, and I still have the photo tent set up, so hopefully I'll get pics before I have to send them off.


I made two of today's card. One was for my brother-in-law, who gave me a generous birthday gift that I'm still spending (can't wait to get the exclusive Nesties dies from Scrapyland!). The other is for my dad, who also gave me a generous birthday gift. He flew me to visit my grandmother. He came in as well, and when my sister found out about it, she decided to fly in, too! So it was a nice little mini-family reunion, and it was so much fun.

Supplies (all Papertrey Ink, unless otherwise noted): Vintage Cream, Dark Chocolate, Terracotta cardstock; Masculine Motifs stamp set; Rustic Cream twine; Dark Chocolate buttons; wood grain impression plate; EK Success corner rounder; Dark Chocolate, Ripe Avocado, Vintage Tea Dye Duo ink; Versamark

Here's the last (for a while) of the thank yous using the Hero Arts background stamp. I've been seeing a lot of window cards lately, so I wanted to try one. It was fun, so I'll have to do that again! I also have been enjoying clear embossing for a tone-on-tone look, so that's here as well.

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Kraft, Stamper's Select White, Black, and Plum Pudding Papertrey Ink cardstock; Versamark; Lavender Moon ink from Papertrey Ink; Birds & Branches stamp from Hero Arts/Archivers; Floral Fusion (sentiment) from Papertrey Ink; K & Co rhinestones; Nestabilities

I said it was a variation on a theme. ;-) Still with the Hero Arts/Archivers background stamp. I've said before that it's near impossible for me to make two cards exactly the same. Sometimes I'll do it for thank you notes, because usually they are being written in response to an event and there are many to write. In this case, I was playing and there weren't so many to make, so they're all different.

This one isn't so different from the previous one, but I thought the flower/button addition was cute.

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies: unknown green burlap; Kraft and Vintage Cream Papertrey Ink cardstock; Birds & Branches and Butterflies & Lace Hero Arts/Archivers stamps; Wheat and Pumpkin Spice Versamagic chalk ink; White Papertrey Ink pigment ink; Prima flowers; Papertrey Ink button; generic twine; Recollections pearls; Nestabilities

Here's another thank you card done with the Hero Arts/Archivers background stamp. I've had this green burlap in my stash for quite a while. It was a 12x12 sheet, and looking around for ideas, I came across it and decided to stamp on it. So I did. :-)

Thanks for looking!

Supplies: unknown green burlap; Vintage Cream and Kraft Papertrey Ink cardstock; Birds & Branches and Butterflies & Lace stamps from Hero Arts; Beyond Basic Borders (sentiment) from Papertrey Ink; Want2Scrap.com pearls; Wheat Versamagic chalk ink; Lettuce dye ink from Adirondack; Chamomile Tea Dye Duo and White pigment ink from Papertrey Ink; Nestabilities circle die; pinking shears

This is the first of a series of cards that use the same stamp. When I was in Kansas City, I got to go to Archivers -- my first time stepping foot in the store. I've heard so much about it, but they don't have them where I live. That's probably a good thing for my wallet, lol! So anyway, I am a sucker for stamps (big surprise), and they have a line of Hero Arts stamps that are exclusive to Archivers. So I couldn't pass them up. :-) And since I was there for a birthday celebration (just prior to my real birthday), I had several thank you notes to make and write.

I also wanted to try my hand at the embossing resist technique I've seen so much lately. I'm not 100% pleased with the results, but it was fun to try, and I love this stamp.

Thanks, as always, for stopping by! I'll reveal the other variations over the next few days.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Kraft, True Black, and Pure Poppy cardstock; Papertrey Ink Beyond Basic Borders (sentiment) and Text Style (you can't see it in the photo, but it's on the white); Hero Arts Birds & Branches; Papertrey Ink white and Pure Poppy inks; Versamark; clear embossing powder; Opalite ink; K&Company rhinestones; Fiskars border punch; Michaels black ribbon

I have a weakness in that all of my cards have to be different. I view it as a weakness because sometimes I just don't have that many (or any!) ideas or sometimes I'm under a time crunch. These two cards were the result of such a time crunch. I wanted to make cards for a couple of my online friends, but as I said before, February got totally crazy for me, so they both ended up being late. Gah! And when I sat down to do them, I had enough pieces/parts to make two, but as I said... all cards must be different!

Sooo, I have two very similar cards to show you. I just changed up the orientation and the flower layers. The first is for Denise C, the second Kim B... both from my Cricutlovers Yahoo group. And how bad am I... Denise's birthday is before mine and I got her card out after my birthday! February was a rough month for free time. :-(

Anyhoo... I hope the recipients liked them (I've heard from one already, and she did). And thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Paper Company green and pink cardstock; Stamper's Select white from Papertrey Ink; Striped, polka dot, and pink flowers DP from Making Memories; Papertrey Ink Around and About Sentiments; Papertrey Ink white ink; EK Success flower and corner rounder punches; Colorbok brads; Recollections pearls; Fiskars border punch; Martha Stewart butterflies punch

Someone gave me a blog award! Melinda from Melinda's Cut-N-Up Creations received it from someone else and has passed it on to me. I'll play along with the first part, but I'm not going to pass it on, only because it's impossible to choose who to send it to... there are so many worthy blogs.

Anyhoo... I'm supposed to tell you seven things about myself, so here goes:

1. I am a Florida transplant, but I've been here for just about half my life.
2. I have two wonderful, little, Mario-obsessed boys
3. I get creative block quite frequently, lol
4. I'm a paper hoarder... aw, heck, I hoard all papercrafting supplies!
5. I spend more time looking at blogs than making stuff... there aren't enough hours in the day, lol
6. I just turned 40... how the heck did that happen?? Shoot... I guess that means I need to update my profile.
7. I want to move back to KC where most of my family is, but DH doesn't want to live anywhere that it's cold. He's been hating this Florida winter this year!

Thanks, Melinda! Hope everyone's having a nice weekend!

A friend of mine recently had a baby. She was due February 17, but had the baby February 2, so I was completely unprepared (card-wise) for the arrival, lol. And then, the insane new mom came back to work after three weeks. YES... THREE WEEKS! And I was still completely unprepared. Sigh. I thought I had three more weeks, lol! (Not really, I knew I needed to get it done, but sheesh... who comes back to work after three weeks?) Anyhoo... I finally got down to business and made a nice card for the baby's arrival.

Good thing is, my friend loved it. She particularly loved the bling, and I apparently chose a good color scheme. Brown and pink are the colors of the baby's room. How's that for coordinated? She even mentioned maybe putting it in a shadow box to hang in the baby's room. Awwww!

Thanks for visiting!

Supplies: Papertrey Stamper's Select white cardstock; unknown pink houndstooth DP; Background Basics: Hearts and Bitty Baby Blessings stamps from Papertrey Ink; Waltzingmouse Very Vintage Labels No 4; Floradoodles glittery flowers; Papertrey Ink button; Dark Chocolate, Sweet Blush, Vintage Cream and Tea Dye duo Papertrey Ink ink; Want2Scrap bling; unknown Its a Girl tag and butterfly; Michaels cream ribbon; Stampin Up! scallop trim border punch

OK, so I'm not doing so well keeping this thing updated. :-) I am crafting... sometimes I take pictures... sometimes I'm late getting them done and it's all I can do to get them out the door on time! And then there's the whole "life" thing that gets in the way. Somehow, February turned into a very busy month for me, and it just seemed like I didn't have time for much. I have Papertrey stamps that I received several days ago that are still in the boxes! I normally have them out of the box, labels attached, and played with them by now -- usually the first night! I even got some stuff at Joann last weekend and it's still in the bag!! So really, I just haven't had much time for anything lately.

But I have been making more of an effort to at least get the picture before it leaves the house. So I'll be posting over the next week or two with stuff I've done over the past month. And hopefully by the time I'm catching up, I'll have more to show!

Today, I'm showing the card I made for my husband's birthday. It's mostly Papertrey. I think it's a nice, masculine card, and I think he liked it.

Thanks for looking!

Supplies (all PTI unless otherwise specified): Turning a New Leaf, Background Basics: Diamonds, and Through the Trees (sentiment) stamp sets; Kraft, Enchanted Evening, Vintage Cream cardstock; Dark Chocolate buttons; Vintage Cream and Enhanted Evening ink; Versamark; Filigree white embossing powder; Martha Stewart border punch; EK Success corner rounder; generic twine.

This card is for my brother-in-law's birthday. We both turn 40 this year. FORTY! How the heck did that happen? I probably should have made this card "special" for the 40th birthday, but I didn't. It's still special because I made it, right?

Anyhoo...I made use of a bunch of Papertrey products on this one. All but the beige ink on the medallion is Papertrey. LOVE me some Papertrey! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Rustic Cream, Vintage Cream, Kraft, and Enchanted Evening cardstock; Papertrey Ink Faux Ribbon and 2009 Autumn Tags stamp sets; Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening, Ripe Avocado, and Vintage Cream ink; Versamark Chalk Wheat ink; Papertrey Ink Enchanted Evening button; Rustic Cream twine; Nestabilities circle and pinked circle dies; EK Success corner rounder

This is the birthday card for my grandmother. I had more fun with my Punch Bunch punches in creating the flower. I also received my very first ever Stampin Up! stamps this week. And punches. A girl on one of my Yahoo groups had a virtual party and I had a weak moment, lol. That, combined with the fact that they're selling clear-mount stamps now was a dangerous combination!

So, on this card, I used the Well Scripted set for the sentiment, the Scallop Trim border punch, and the Bird on a Branch punch for the leaves. But I'm most proud of the flower, which I made with the Large Dahlia Petals Punch Bunch punch from Core'dinations cardstock. I have the two flower art books, and I thought the Dahlia punch would be used to make a dahlia flower, but the instructions say something else. So this design is sort of made up based on the basic mechanics of making flowers with their punches.

I'm mailing it in a CD mailer so it doesn't get smooshed. Doing that also allowed me to make it square. I don't make square cards often because I'm usually already paying a bit more for postage due to the bulk/weight, but the CD mailer will cost more anyway. I hope she appreciates the card!

Thanks for stopping by!

Supplies: Bazzill blue and Core'dinations orange cardstock; green from Stemma Citrus Bleu paper stack; unknown white/blue and orange DP; Well Scripted Stampin Up! stamp; Papertrey Ink Snow White pigment ink; A La Mode clear embossing powder; Large Dahlia Petals Punch Bunch punch; Scallop Trim Stampin Up! border punch; Bird on a Branch Stampin Up! punch;

A "friend" on one of my Yahoo groups just lost her grandmother, so I wanted to send a note of sympathy. It's pretty simple, but I just wanted her to know I was thinking about her. I lost one of my grandmothers in 2005 and it still saddens me that she's no longer here for me to talk to, so I can imagine how my Yahoo friend feels.

Thanks for visiting.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow and Stamper's Select White cardstock; Papertrey Ink Smokey Shadow and Color Box black pigment ink; A La Mode clear embossing powder; Papertrey Ink Life and Damask Designs stamp sets; Martha Stewart butterflies punch; Celebrate It (Michaels) Black sheer ribbon; Recollections pearls

I was very productive this weekend -- FINALLY. I had about five cards I needed to get done, and I got them all done! Yay me! :-) I'll reveal them over the next few days rather than all at once.

This card is for my nephew who turns ten this year. It's so hard for me to do masculine cards, especially for boys who aren't kids really anymore. :-) Can't make it too babyish, can't make it too serious, don't want it to be too dorky. I'm not sure why it matters...I'm pretty sure they don't appreciate a hand-made card, but I do it all the same. But I thought Cosmo Cricket's Boyfriend line would be manly enough but playful.

I also finally added a counter to my blog. I've only had my blog a year. It's about time, huh? Maybe in the future I can use it to do giveaways and such. Of course, I suppose that means I need to be more consistent with updating my blog so there are new things for people to see, right? And maybe letting people know it's updated? Perhaps? ;-) My template is growing old, too. I think I want a change, so you might notice things changing soon, hopefully for the better.

Anyhoo...thanks for taking a peek today.

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream cardstock and Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend DP; Cornish Heritage Farms sentiment from Mona Lisa Moments Birthday Centers; Colorbox Chalk orange and Papertrey Enchanted Evening inks; white Basic Basic ribbon colored with a Copic; EK Success border punch; EK Success corner rounder punch

This is my thank you card this year. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do, and I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but I thought it came out cute. I got to use my new Storybook cartridge. :-) And a Close to My Heart stamp set I purchased at the beginning of December.

Anyhoo...thanks for looking!

Supplies: Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream and Dark Chocolate cardstocks; Making Memories Cosmopolitan Workweek Stripe Pink patterned paper; Hero Arts Art Flowers; Want2Scrap.com pearl; brown rickrack from Michaels; Papertrey Ink Vintage Cream hybrid ink and White Pearls Stamp N Stuff embossing powder; Scor-Pal and Scor-Bug.