My Anniversary Card for Tom

October 29 is our wedding anniversary, so I wanted to make sure I made a special card for my husband, Tom.  Of course, I was making the card at the last minute, due to my busy schedule the days leading up to the big day, but I managed to pull one together that I was quite pleased with.  So me and the doggies cuddled up in my craft room and went to work and here is what we came up with:

So there it is.  It's simple, but pretty in person.  I used the brushed gold paper and the heart and love you are embossed in gold on top of the brushed gold paper.  Tom liked the card, so that made it all worth it.

Coloring Down the Lines - Garden Green Flower Shop

This week, the color combination is Garden Green with Calypso Coral, and Soft Sky, or, Garden Green, So Saffron, and Melon Mambo.  I chose the first color combination this week, and I tried so many designs using the colors, and then decided on something rather simple.

Did you just hop over from Carol's blog?  Amanda always has something crafty and creative to share, so I'm sure you've enjoyed her submission.  Here's what I've designed for the colors I've selected...

Recipe

Paper:  whisper white, garden green, calypso coral

Ink:  garden green, calypso coral, soft sky

Stamp Sets:  flower shop, secret garden, petite pairs

Accessories:  Subtles candy dots, retired EF

Now let's pop over to Joni's blog and see what she's whipped up for us and what colors she's selected.  She always has something inspiring to share.

Hope you've stopped to see everyone's creation.  If not, please make sure you do.  You won't be disappointed.

Happy Birthday, Ed

Our friend, Ed, is turning 60, and his family is having a surprise birthday party for him.  Of course I wanted to make his card, so I pinned a card from a while back from Jacqui McLeay of Splotch Design that is so cute, and I just CASEd it, only changing the paper.  Here's my version of the card.

The card is very simple, but what I did to change it up a bit was to add "60" to the banner, but everything else pretty much is the same, with the exception of the colors.  I hope Ed likes it ... I am pleased with the way it turned out.

Well, until tomorrow, happy stamping!

A Simple Thank You

Here's a simple thank you card, no layers other than a little bling.  Sometimes you just need a quick "thank you" card and don't have much time to spend making it, and this is quick and easy.

Recipe
Paper:  very vanilla

Ink:  bermuda bay, tangerine tango, crushed curry, smoky slate

Stamp Set:  hello lovely, lots of thanks

Accessories:  basic rhinestones

That's it.  Have fun with simple .... try it!

National Business Women's Week Banner

I've been so busy this past week, and one of the things I was working on was making a banner for our Women's Club who was hosting National Business Women's Week for Business & Professional Women of Pennsylvania.  Here is the banner I created .... it really turned out nice.

The Proclamations are sitting on the table for all of the local groups, and the banner just made the display table look great.  The banner will be able to be used from year to year, so I'm really glad I made it.

I also made the table tent cards for each attendee.  Here's mine so you can see what they looked like:

The number on the card represented each person's dinner selection.  I wish I would have taken a picture of all the tent cards before they were distributed.  They looked great sitting on the registration table.  But you get the idea.

Until tomorrow, have a wonderful evening!

Happy Birthday Bow Card

Our daughter, Aileen's birthday is October 25th, and every year, I try and make her a card that is special and better than the year before.  We have this great, new bow die, and I thought, why not try and make something using it?  Well, that I did.  It turned out really cute.  I sure hope she likes it.  I had much fun making it,. and I think I'll just have to make another one just to keep.  Take a peek:

So what do you think?  The flowers on the card are not from Stampin' Up, and although I use nothing but SU products, I wanted a little something special to put on the card and these flowers just fit the bill.  And how about the paper I used?  Can you believe it's actually "witches brew" designer paper?  It didn't look too much like Halloween, and since I really like the pattern, I thought it worked well.  Whola, there you have it.

Happy Birthday to my baby girl.  She's all grown up and married, but will always be my baby girl.  Love and Hugs to you, my birthday girl.

Million & One Thank You By the Seashore

Last week, I was in Baltimore for work, and my co-worker and I were taken to lunch by a Consultant working for one of our customers.  He took us to a pub called Koco's which is known for their awesome crab cakes, and guess what, they did not disappoint.  The crab cake was so big, I couldn't finish mine.  It was absolutely delicious, and chock full of large chunks of crab meat.  I brought one home for both my husband and son and they devoured them before I could even sit down to eat my lunch.  LOL.

Well, I wanted to make a nice thank you card to send to him since he lives in Florida, and I took out my stamp sets and made this one.  It turned out really nice, and I'm totally pleased with it:

Recipe

Paper:  sahara sand, crisp cantaloupe, very vanilla

Ink:  sahara sand, stazon black, tempting turquoise, crisp cantaloupe

Stamp Sets:  million & one, by the seashore, off the grid

I mailed it off today, so I hope Jeff likes it when he gets it.  I popped the crab up off the card with a dimensional for a little interest.  Cute, cute, cute.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to see you back soon.

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack, Merry Little Christmas

I keep sing the song in my head "Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas" every time I see this stamp set.  It's such a happy song and really puts you in the mood for the season.  In fact, I keep singing it all day long, even to my little doggies who think I'm singing to them.  I guess you can say I am singing to them, hehehehe.

Anyway, here's the last of the Christmas Stamp-a-Stacks I made last weekend.  I'll be making more, but for now, I'm making things for some other events I have coming up.  I can't want to share them with you, so I do hope you'll keep coming back to check them out.  

Well that's it for this week.  I hope you will leave your comments.  They do mean a lot to me.  Thanks for stopping by.

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack, Christmas Collectibles

This years Christmas Ornament stamp set is as nice as last years.  So I've made a card using the Christmas Collectibles stamp set, along with the winter frost designer series paper.  I just love the colors, don't you?

A touch of bling always makes the holiday cards look so festive.  I love bling!!!!  More to come ...

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack, Love & Joy

Today I'm posting another Stamp-a-Stack card I made over the weekend.  Sometimes simple is just what looks best, and this card is just that.  There's not much to say about this card, so with that, I'll just share the card with you.

See, plain and simple, with a touch of champagne glimmer behind the love and joy.  And there you have it!  Until tomorrow ...

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack, Calm Christmas

This is another card I made from the Christmas Stamp-a-Stack last weekend.  It's made with the Calm Christmas stamp set.  It's a peaceful sort of a stamp set and as you can see, the name speaks for itself.

I think I might try this card using some glimmer paper next time.  The card is very pretty, and I may try it using some other colors too.  Stay tuned for more Christmas cards I'll be posting this week.  Thanks for stopping by.

Coloring Down the Lines - Crushed Curry

This week's challenge was a doozie ... the color combinations were quite the challenge.  I wasn't a fan of either combination ... as they were:  crushed curry, pumpkin pie, and melon mambo, or crushed curry, real red, and island indigo.  I was going to choose the second color combination, but decided to really try the first one.  If you've come from Carol's Cards, you'd never know she had any trouble coming up with something for either color combination.  So let's take a look at mine for this week - as I mentioned, I'm not fond of it, but the colors worked.

Recipe

Paper:  melon mambo, whisper white, crushed curry

Ink:  melon mambo, pumpkin pie, crushed curry

Stamp Set:  regarding dahlias

Accessories:  perfect polka dots EF, white embossing powder

Now, let's pop on over to Joni's blog to see what color combination she played with this week.  I'm sure there will be a lot if inspiration there.  Until tomorrow... happy stamping!

Christmas Stamp-a-Stack, Special Season

I made some Christmas Cards at a Friday stamping event this past weekend, and the cards are cute.  This card is made using the Special Season stamp set.  I love this set, and it can be used in many ways.  This one is simply elegant.  Take a peek:

I used the deco label framelits to cut out the center of the card and stamped the Christmas tree inside.  the sentiment is then stamped on a separate piece of paper, mounted on silver glimmer paper and midnight muse and adhered with dimensionals on the outside of the card.  It looks a lot better in person, especially with the glimmer paper.  Hope you like it.

There will be more posted later in the week.  Stop back to check them out.  

Community Day at Elmwood Park Zoo

Each year, our company allows us to do one day of community service and they pay us for it.  This year, we could do two 1/2 days, and one of my 1/2 days was helping out at the local Elmwood Park Zoo on October 4.  There was a team of 8 of us, and we had a great day.  It was super hot out ... for October, who could believe it?

First, we put away over 60 tables and a boat-load of chairs from an event the zoo held the evening before.  There must have been children there because you could tell by the remnants left over.  LOL.  We also had some trash to collect afterward, which didn't take long at all.  So after we completed that task, we put together corn shocks for the children's maze.  That sure was a lot of work.  We had to put all the stalks together, tie them up, and stack them up against the fence.  Whew, that was a lot of hard work.  We were rewarded with some awesome water ice (smooth like gelato).  That was such a welcomed treat.  Then it was off to lunch - pizza in an air conditioned building.  Ahhhh, what a way to relax.  Then for the finale, those of us who wanted to go to feed the giraffe.  That was my favorite part.  There were two of them, one that was about 3 or 4 years old, and another that was just about a year old.  They were so cute and took the food from our hands so gently.  For such large animals, they truly are gentle.  Although I don't have any pictures with me in them, you'll get the idea from the pictures we took.

 This beauty is actually the official Philadelphia Eagles Mascot

 Below is the official Temple Owl's Mascot

 Check out Risa, Tracy and Chris trying to collect the stalks to tie up!  That was a big job!!!

 These two cute donkeys are a couple.  The female was out walking about first and her significant other was making such a fuss, kicking up a storm because he wasn't with her.  So ... here they are together and happy as clams.  The white one is the male, and the brown one is the female.  So cute!!!

 The giraffe is waiting for us to come and feed him.

Hey, are you coming or not?  We're hungry.  Yes, hold on there cutie ... we're coming on over to feed you.

What a day we had.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures.  The picture of all of us together didn't turn out too well because the sun was in the way and blurred out the picture.  Oh darn!  Well, better luck next time.

Bordering on Romance Wedding

This is the last of the wedding cards I made last weekend.  I thought the bordering on romance stamp set would be perfect for it.  I actually CASed this one from Elizabeth Miller of "stampinwithliz".  She used a different stamp set, and I wanted to change it up a bit.  Here's my version.

Recipe

Paper:  whisper white

Ink:  elegant eggplant, wild wasabi, tangering tango, stazon black

Stamp Sets:  bordering on romance (retired), wedding sweet (retired), occasional quotes (retired)

Accessories:  lattice die, lacy brocade EF (retired), basic pearls, bitty banners framelit

So there you have it - all the wedding cards I made last weekend.  Stay tuned for some real goodies I'm making for the "Great Escape" weekend on October 18-20.  I can't wait for the event!!!!!  Keep watching my blog.  

Thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful week!

A Fabulous Floretes Wedding

I wasn't sure if I liked this card as a wedding card or not, but decided to just make it anyway.  It kind of reminds me of a sympathy card, but hopefully, it's just more of a simple wedding card.  Take a peek and see what you think.

Recipe

Paper:  whisper white, smoky slate, velum

Ink:  smoky slate

Stamp Sets:  fabulous florets, wedding sweet (retired), occasional quotes (inside)

Accessories:  basic pearls, perfect polkadots EF, bitty banners framelit

I cut out the velum flowers for the front and inside of the card.  It really makes the flower pop.  I hope you like it.  Let me know what you think.

An Everything Eleanor Wedding

This is day two of the wedding cards I made over the weekend.  I had a lot of fun making them,, and this one I somewhat CASed from Chiaki over at StampinPro.  She is such a talented lady, and if you haven't seen some of her work, do stop over and check her out.

Anyway, here's my version of her card, which I made into a wedding card.

Recipe:

Paper:  whisper white, wild wasabi

Ink:  wild wasabi, pear pizzazz, tangerine tango

Stamp Sets:  everything eleanor, occasional quotes (inside - retired), wedding sweet (retired)

Accessories:  apothecary accents framelit, bitty banners framelit, deco labels framelit (inside), square lattice EF, framed tulips EF, basic pearls

You're not going to believe what I did while making this card?  I was ready to stamp the sentiment on the inside and when I did, I stamped it upside down.  Oh can you believe that???  So what did I do to save the day, you ask?  I cut the card in half and glued the front of the card to a new card front, and then I took the deco label framelit and cut out the sentiment - turned it right-side up and glued it on the inside of the new card base.  Whew!  I did not want to make this card all over again.  LOL.  So there you have it.  Not all your mistakes are a waste.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's wedding card.  I have two more to share with you.  Thanks for stopping by!

Label Love Wedding

I've been on a role this weekend making wedding cards.  I've had a lot of requests for them, so I thought I would make a few to keep on hand.  I made (4) so I thought I would share them with you over the next few days ...

Here is the one I made with the Label Love stamp set:.  I CASed it from Diane Dimich of "ddstamps".

Recipe
Paper:  smoky slate, whisper white

Ink:  smoky slate

Stamp Sets:  chalk talk, label love, best of brides & babies (inside), occasional quotes (inside - retired)

Accessories:  1/8" silver ribbon, basic pearls, beautifully baroque EF, chalk talk framelit, artisan label punch

I really like the way this card turned out.  I wasn't sure if I would like the smoky slate, but it's close to silver and I didn't want to use the foil, or the brushed silver on the card, and to my surprise, this looks great.  Hope you like it ... let me know by leaving a comment on my blog.  Thanks a bunch!

Coloring Down the Lines - Cherry Cobbler - Autumn Harvest Basket

I had a great time with this week's challenge.  I saw a cute card that Sandy Mathis made over at stampin with sandy, and I modified it a bit and just love it.  We all had a great time this week, and if you just arrived from Carol's Cards, you know what I mean.  Here is the Autumn Harvest Basket I made for you this week.

Recipe

Paper:  early espresso, cherry cobbler, whisper white, daffodil delight patterned DSP

Ink:  cherry cobbler, daffodil delight, early espresso

Stamp Set:  best of autumn

Accessories:  cherry cobbler bakers twine, perfect polka-dots EF, scallop punch, blender pen

How do you like the way I colored the apples?  I blended them with daffodil delight and cherry cobbler for that two-tone look.  The leaves on the apples are also a blend of daffodil delight and early espresso.  

Now, let's hop over to Joni's blog and see what colors inspired her this week.  Thanks for continuing to stop by and please leave your comments when possible.  I love hearing from you.

Sympathy for Chris for the Loss of Her Husband

I belong to a women's group, Business & Professional Women of PA, and one of our dear sisters lost her husband on Saturday, September 28.  He had not been ill for very long, and we are all just heartbroken that he passed away.  I made a special card for her from our women's club and we hope she is blessed knowing that we love and support her in her time of need.

Recipe

Paper:  very vanilla, old olive

Ink:  black stazon, perfect plum, old olive

Stamp Sets:  simply sketched, thoughts and prayers (inside)

Accessories:  vintage wallpaper EF (retired), basic pearls

I used the blender pen when coloring in the flower and stems.  I love using them - they enable you to provide just the right shading and offer a softer color.  

I do hope I don't have to make any more sympathy cards ... it seems like I've made quite a few in the last few weeks.  Always sad, but I'm glad I could make a beautiful card in memory of the loved one that was lost.

Until tomorrow ... 

Oh Beware, it's Halloween - Team Swap Card

Yes, here's another team swap card.  Let's beware --- it's Halloween!  I love this time of year.  I love decorating and making cards.  I guess it's the colors that I love most .... after a nice, beautiful Summer, it's always nice looking forward to Fall.

Here's another card from our team swap..

Halloween Happiness - Team Swap

This month's team swap theme is Halloween.  Everyone who participates is to make 10 cards and at the day of the team meeting, we swap.  It's a lot of fun, and you go home with a bunch of ideas for new cards you may want to make.  Here's one that used "Halloween Happiness", which I just love.

Aren't those little pumpkins so cute?  I love them.  The colors in the card are perfect, and totally make the card.  Hope you like it.

Joyful Christmas

This is the last of the 3 cards we made at our team meeting this past Saturday.  I love the pointsettia, and now that I've had time to play with it, I'm going to have to purchase this one as well.

There's a lot you can do with the pointsettia stamp.  I've seen some really nice ones, and I can't wait to make some cards with it.  Hope you like it.

Color Me Christmas, Deer Spinner Card

Well, as promised, here's another card we made at our team meeting on Saturday, and this one is a spinner card.  I'm starting to get used to making spinner cards now ... but it was a bit tricky at first.  They are really cute and you can do so much with them.  Here's the card we made:

We used blender pens when coloring in the deer.  It looks so much better than if we had just used marker.  It would have been too dark, so this just made it right.

Hope you like it.  Stay tuned for one more tomorrow.  Until then, happy stamping!

Color Me Christmas, Santa!

I thought I would share one of the cards we made at our team meeting this past Saturday - we made 3 cards, and this is the first of the three.  I wasn't sure if I would like the "Color Me Christmas" stamp set, but it's so cute, and now I have to purchase it.  Here's the first of the three I wanted to share with you:

Santa is just too cute.  You can't see it well in the photograph, but his brim and ball on his hat are glittery.  There's a lot you can do with this stamp set, and I hope to make quite a few neat things using it.  Stay tuned for them.

Coloring Down the Lines - Cajun Craze

The past couple weeks have color combinations that remind me of Fall.  So in keeping with that thought, today's entry is also of a Fall nature.  The color combinations are:  Cajun Craze, Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry, or Cajun Craze, Perfect Plum and Always Artichoke.  I love the brighter colors, so I selected the first color combination.

I always love to see what everyone else comes up with using the color combinations, and so I hope you liked what Carol had for us this week.  I sure did.  My card is simple, but I like the way it turned out.

Recipe

Paper:   whisper white, cajun craze

Ink:  cajun craze, crushed curry, bermuda bay

Stamp Sets:  french foliage, lots of thanks, gorgeous grunge

I love the colors together, and the bermuda bay just adds a bright touch to the card.  I hope you enjoy it.

Now, let's check out Sandy's entry for the week.  I haven't preceded Sandy, so this ought to be fun.  It's always fun hopping from one blog to the next, eagerly awaiting another great creation.

Thanks for stopping by, and may your week be happy, bright and sunny!

A Flower Shop Birthday for Auntie

My aunt is celebrating her birthday on October 1, and to celebrate with her, I made a special card for her using the flower shop stamp set.  I love that stamp set, and there's so much you can do with it.  So knowing that she likes pinks / purples, I thought that raspberry ripple would make a pretty card, and so it is.  Here's the card I made for her.

Recipe

Paper:  raspberry ripple, whisperwhite, in color DSP

Ink:  raspberry ripple, old olive, perfect plum

Stamp Sets:  flower shop, perfectly penned

Accessories:  pansy punch, basic rhinestones

Happy Birthday, Auntie.  I hope it's a wonderful one and you have many, many more.