You're Fan-tastic

I needed a "chin-up" sort of a card for a friend who's going through a rough patch. Since the friend is a guy I wanted to try to make it sorta manly ... OK, I did say, "sorta" ... apparently in my world manly means tighty-whiteys!

But who can resist this guy from the Angel Company? Too cute. It reminds me of my guys since they love all things superhero related.

I'm in a polka-dot phase, can you tell?!!

Supplies:
Stamps: The Angel Company (main) , Stampin Up (phrase)
Accessories: Ribbon, Brads, copics

Happy Birthday Kelsey Bell

When I started designing this card, I had a different stamp in mind ... my new Mo Manning stamp that my super dooper Secret Sister mailed me ... she's cool like that! But, once I got the layout finished I was horrified to see that it was actually too big to use. Rats. Go to Plan B.

So literally, I turned to the rats (or more specifically the mice). This is a House Mouse, one of my older stamps.

And speaking of mice. This is my youngest performing "3 Blind Mice" Though on the day of the performance, one mouse was sick, and the other forgot his sunglasses, so it was an ... interesting ... interpretation. My mouse is the one with a bow tie.

Supplies:
Stamps: Stampabilities
Accesories: Copics, ribbon, fuzzy brads

Dude ... where's the ribbon?

OK, I'm going with these photos ... they are like the twelfth that I've taken ... and well, I'm done. I have soooo got to make some sort of camera hood. They are waaaaay too yellow. Anyway, I'm hosting this month's Secret Sister Monthly Image Swap. I picked this one partly because I was pretty sure that everyone would like it and also because Stampavie's images stamp so easily (and that's kinda important when you are stamping 45 images at a time!).

My card was a no-brainer. I wanted a darkish card with my two current favorite SU colors: Cherry Cobbler and the new Expresso. I doodled on the Cherry Cobbler with my white pen and used pop dots to raise the teddy bear again and then his face ... AGAIN! I liked it, stepped away and suddenly remembered the white organza ribbon that I challenged everyone to use. Whoops. I'm blaming the pain meds ... it is NOT senility. Yep, that's my story!

Sooo, back to the drawing board. I made THIS gate-fold card to satisfy the challenge (note to my sistahs: I ran out of the silver ribbon sending it to y'all)





Supplies:
Stamps: Stampavie, SU
Punches: Martha, SU corner punches, Oval Nesties
Embellishments: flowers, copics, brads, pop dots, white gel pen

March Birthdays

Two of my favorite men were born in March: my oldest son and my darling husband. But making masculine cards are not my favorite thing. I have a friend whose advice for making manly cards is to not put ribbon on them ... and I've tried but .... I can't. I love ribbon. So as a result, my man cards aren't very manly!

This is my husband's card. The stamp is from I Brake for Stamps. It just made me giggle as soon as I saw it!

This year, for my son, I didn't even send out invitations (insert a sharp intake of breath here). Yes, I sent e-vites so I have NOTHING to show you for that! But I will share a bit from his party. This is his cake ... I didn't make it. My friend Mary makes AMAZING cakes (in fact I have MANY talented cake artist friends which is fortunate because cake baking is not one of MY talents!)

The details on the cake were cool. Caleb is REALLY into rocks and minerals and she made the cake with mining pans, rock candy and of course, a gigantic volcano on top. As soon as the youngest saw the cake, he said, "I want a volcano cake for my birthday ... do you think she can make mine erupt too?" If anyone can do it ... Mary can.

I've included a picture of some of the cake pops I put in their goody bags. I did make those. I used a new recipe which is crushed Oreo's instead of a cake mix. They were yummy!

Here are some of the details of the cake, up close and personal! She used edible candy rocks. Caleb loved how the cake turned out

The last picture explains the fascination Caleb has for rocks and panning. This is a picture of the two boys panning for garnets. We went to Sabino Canyon in Tucson, Arizona which is not far from my sister's house. At one of the tram stops, kids can pan for garnets and magnetite.

We were lucky enough to get a bit of both.

Secret Sister Monthly Image - March

So this is my March submission for the SS Monthly Image Challenge. Our hostess this month was Imke and she gave us Birgitta from CC Designs. She's part of their "Swiss Pixies" group (Birgitta ... not Imke!). Imke also challenged us to use the sun charm on our card as well.

Since Imke sent me 3 images, I decided to use the Paper Tole technique. The "HOW TO" of paper tole is pretty simple: A duplicate of an image is stamped on a different paper, colored and carefully cut out. This duplicate is then mounted on top of the original with foam mounts, causing it to be raised (3D) and enhancing the natural shape. I popped her hair, boots, flower and leaf. I was going for something different. My husband HATED her hair ... "it looks too boufy" Whatever.

But then ... I wasn't sure. I wasn't crazy about how I colored her dress soooo, I used the third image to create a different card. Though ... looking at it now, the layout is pretty much the same!


Supplies
Card 1: Stamps: Birgitta, CC Designs; Miss You, SU
copics, MS punch, Nestibilities, ribbon, crystal effects, pop dots, stickles, SU embossing folder

Card 2: Stamps: Birgitta, CC Designs; Just Because, unknown
SU flower punches, Sizzix sizzlet swirl punch, Nestibilities, Sizzix embossing folder, brads, ribbon, bling, copics

Secret Sister Monthly Image Swap

OK, so a group of us on SCS are swapping images and then making cards from the this same image each month. This month's hostess with the mostess is Linda. She sent us "Waiting Tilda" to use ... a very cute image. I also used paper and other goodies sent to me from my Secret Sister (thanks, sis ... I loved the little berries and sentiment!) We have some seriously talented crafters in the group; check out the gallery of the cards on SCS!

For the most part, I like my card. In hindsight I wish I had embossed the pink rectangles BUT since I sewed them together ... I will live with it (seriously, it was bugging me so much that I almost took it apart to redo but then I forced myself to just get a grip!) The indentation on the rectangle is complements of my youngest who was coloring on top of it (eek!) Apparently he has a REALLY strong coloring style since it made a crease!

Supplies: stamps: Magnolia (I suspect that the sentiment and berries are as well, but I'm not entirely certain since they were part of a swap.)
Paper: Color: Stampin Up Melon Mambo, White: Neenah
Accessories: MS punch, copics, Crystal Effects (on Strawberries), Nesties, Sewing Machine.

Belated Valentines Day

It's past Valentines Day but ... I'm still posting my cards. Sorry. I'm a little behind the curve ... which is kinda the story of my life!

Here's the story on this card: I was browsing Facebook (the place where I seem to spend much of my free time sad to say) and I saw that Whipper Snapper had this cute football stamp in honor of the Super Bowl. The catch was that you had to spend $25 to get him. Sadly, it is not difficult to spend $25 in their store. I bought the policeman as a "what the heck" sort of purchase and LOVE HIM. I haven't even inked the football stamp but I've made three cards with Mr. Copper. Moral of the story ... spur of the moment purchases CAN be good.

Supplies:
Card One: Whipper Snapper Designs "Copper" stamp, SU stop sign

Card Two: Penny Black dog, SU phrase