Monday, March 7, 2011

RIP Cookie Girl

Last week, one of my kitties passed away suddenly.  Cookie came to us about 11 years ago.  My daughters and I attended a swim party to celebrate the end of softball season.  The family who hosted the swim party had a young litter of kittens...and boy were they cute, but they were all black kittens.  We didn't have a very good history of owning black cats (we had 3 black kitties, at different times, and each one never made it much past 2 years of age) so I said NO MORE BLACK KITTIES!  Well, then someone brought out this cute little gray kitty and darn it...lol...home she went with us.  Cookie was a little on the timid side and was not very sociable with guests in our house.  But when it was just the family, she was very much a lap kitty.  As soon as you sat down, she would come plop on your lap, purr up a storm and keep you nice and toasty warm.  We will all miss Cookie very much, especially our other cat, Milo.  Here's a picture of both Milo and Cookie.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

So Many Birthdays!

March is a busy birthday month for me!  Luckily for me, I can do doubles of some cards because a lot of my birthday buddies don't know each other, i.e, co-workers, friends, stamping buddies, etc.  I've seen a lot of stampers use the scallop punch to make flowers.  I decided to try the Extra Large Fancy Flower punch from Stampin' Up instead of the scallop punch.  I punched 6 flowers, used one for the base and I softened the other 5 with my bone folder until the cardstock separated so I could peel the layers apart leaving me with 10 thin flowers.  But before I peeled the flowers apart, I crumpled each flower into a ball and opened them back up again.  The crumpled look makes the flower look more realistic.  After peeling the flowers apart, I put those 10 pieces of paper together (I flipped some of them over, too) turning the petals so they weren't all exactly in the same place, added the base flower and punched a hole in the middle and added a brad.  You can now put adhesive on the base and stick the flower to the card.  You can add leaves if you want.  I chose not to on this card.


Cardstock colors are Basic Grey (base), Early Expresso, Rose Red and Whisper White, all from Stampin' Up.  The designer paper is from an Asian pack of paper I have and I can't remember where the gray cordoroy brad is from.  "CELEBRATE YOU" is from Stampin' Up's "A Little Birthday Cheer" set.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Sean's a Teenager!

I'm posting 2 cards that were made for my girlfriend's son.  I can't believe he's 13 already!  I remember the day she told me she was pregnant because I really didn't think she would ever have any children.  When I was pregnant and carting my kids around everywhere, she pretty much stayed away...lol.  Her exact quote?  "Babies make me nauseous!  LOL   Well, turns out she's a wonderful mom and she is raising a wonderful son.


This  5 1/2' square card was inspired by a card I saw on Blue Mountain Cards.  With a little help from some of my coworkers, we came up with a half dozen "teen rules" customized to the birthday boy with the exception of one idea from Blue Mountain...it was a saying too good to pass up!  Cardstock colors are Marina Mist, Early Expresso, Soft Suede and Whisper White.  The lined paper is from Basic Gray with several miscellaneous dollar stamps on it stamped in Marina Mist.  "If teenagers ruled the world" was printed on the computer, the "13" is part of a Tim Holtz stamp, "happy birthday" is from Stampin' Up's set, "Plane & Simple" and the world is a stamp from Comotion.  I got a chance to use my newest Sizzix die from Stampin' Up and EK's spiral border punch.




This 3 x 6 card is for the same boy, but from my son.   My son is taking him to a Phillies game so I used Stampin' Up's "Home Run" set.  I used a background stamp (Sanded) from Stampin' Up using Sahara Sand ink on Sahara Sand cardstock.  The baseballs are also stamped in Sahara Sand.  "Birthday wishes" is stamped in Real Red and is from Stampin' Up's "So Happy for You" (hostess) set.  I added three red brads for balance and left the inside blank for a personal note.