Happy Birthday x 2

Okay, so the deal with these cards is that I wanted to make a card I had seen on Kristina Werner's blog. It's a fairly basic card, but while the look is fairly gender neutral, it's not too cute for an older boy which is where I tend to run into trouble now that my son is in "Tweendom." And for those of you who haven't had the pleasure of visiting this mythical land, it's ruled by an evil King called, Puberty and his moody minions! LOL!! So anyway, the paper is all from the Life of the Party line by Basic Grey. I bought the 6 x 6 paper pack because I knew I really only wanted the paper to make cards. The "happy birthday" stamp is from the $1 bin at Michaels and I used Versamark and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. The candles are just thin strips of paper cut from the sheet that i then added dimensionals to pop them up. The flames are just cut free hand on some scrap paper. Now onto card #2. As you can see the card uses all of the same papers and elements but with a few tweeks to make it just a little bit different. I used a different "Happy Birthday" sentiment. This one is from My Pink Stamper's Friends and Family set. I just stamped it several times down the one side. Then I used chipboard stickers for the "2" and the "U". The white "2" is a Thicker from American Crafts and the "U" is from the Lemonade set at Basic Grey. Then I just used my white gel pen to hand draw a frame around the card. That's my take on some more masculine birthday cards. Do you have trouble making cards that aren't too cute?

Hello...Is this thing on?

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I posted something here. Sorry about that! I missplaced, ie...lost my cord that connects my camera to my laptop so I haven't been uploading anything. Yesterday I brought home my camera from work and am borrowing the cable from that for the weekend. :)

So what I have been making? Well...I've actually been trying out some new techniques and have even been making my first mini album! My BFF and I took a recent weekend trip to NYC and I thought it would be the perfect way to document the trip.

Here's a sneak peek of the cover. I'm using Cosmo Cricket's Circa 1934 for the majority of the album....see my lolipop flower?

I also have been making some Easter cards and projects which I will probably post first since Easter is next week. Nothing too complicated, just some cards and gift boxes for my son and nephew.

This is my "Sweet Chick" card. Obviously, this isn't for my son or nephew! LOL. But, I wanted to make a simple card and I saw this on Edna's blog, Create with Expression and just loved what she did and wanted to make something just like it for a good friend of mine. I love her cards and ideas...check her out if you haven't!

The chick is from Simply Charmed. I used my Wide-Eyed Kids Stamps from Peacky Keen for the Eyes and just like Edna (see, I told you she has great ideas) I used Glossy Accents on the bill and feet. And of course the "Sweek Chick" stamp is from my Punnylicious set from Robyn at My Pink Stamper.

Its suppossed to rain here tomorrow so I'm going to try and post some Happy Birthday cards using Life of the Party by Basic Grey.

Happy Friday!

Summertime in OCNJ

I've been working on some more layouts. This one uses not only my Expression, but also a bunch of newly purchased products, including Sure Cuts A Lot 2. While I'm still going to buy Cricut cartridges, I thought it was a good investment for when I'm only looking for a certain type of image or a title for a layout. I found mine on Pumpkin Crart Crafts and got it for $54, plus I got a $10 gift card to use on svgcuts.com blog. That's where I found the "Summer time" title. It was one of their free downloads.

The paper I used is from the My Mind's Eye Good Day Sunshine Boy kit. I thought the paper would be great for summer pictures at the beach. These pictures are from my son's first time in Ocean City, New Jersey. He was just over a year old and had such light blond hair, you can hardly see it! I love how you can see the ferris wheel in the background in the picture where he's sitting on my shoulders.

I used my Simply Charmed cart to cut the bucket and shovel and the beach ball.

The stamp underneath the beach ball is from Fiskars' Good Times Quotes set which I won on a blog hop. I used my Versamark ink and white embossing powder to make it pop off the brown paper.

I still need to add my journaling onto the tab at the bottom, but other than that, this layout is done.

Enjoy!

Two Blog Awards

Two of my newest followers, Gina and Martha, were kind enough to give me blog awards recently.

Gina over at Ginascraftingspot gave me a Stylish Blogger Award. She's alomost at 100 followers, so I'm sure she'd love it if you stop by.

As part of the award, you share 8 things about yourself and let others know about 8 new blogs you've found recently. (I combined my awards to come up with 8 total)

Here are som fun facts about me.

1. We have an 11 year old border collie named Skeets.
2. I just finished reading the Hunger Game series and thought it reminded me of a teen version of the 80's movie, "The Running Man."
3. My brother has red hair.
4. Had my first "Rita's" of the season last night...Mint Chocolate Chip cream ice.
5. Just reached 100,000 miles on my car.
6. Is in the midst of planning my 20th High School reunion...when did I get so old!
7. Am looking forward to an upcoming "girls weekend" in NYC with my BFF.
8. I am buying a Martha Stewart Score Board today using my 50% off coupon from Michaels! LOL

New Blogs i've found. Not all of these awards are for card making or scrapbooking, but they are all really crafty ladies and have fantastic ideas to share.

1. Fingerprints on the Fridge
2. Eighteen 25
3. Moxie Fab World
4. Meesh's Pieces
5. Love is in the Details

I also got a Leibster Award from Martha at The Card Boutique.

Martha has some crazy good designs and she's a party planning girl like me. Check out her blog to see the amazing safari party she recently did for her boys. A Liebster Blog Award is a way to let others know about new blogs. It's a great way to check out new blogs that you might not have known about before.

Here are the other three blogs I've found recently that I am loving!

1. Dreaming in Scraps

2. Happy Life, Crafty Wife

3. The Polka Dot Spot

Thanks Gina and Martha!

Down on the Farm Cupcake Toppers

As it says in my profile, I "dabble" in party planning. Mainly it's for family and friends for the usual birthday/baby shower/graduation parties.

I recently did a birthday party for a friend's daughter that had a barn/farm theme. One of the things I made for them were cupcake toppers using the Create-a-Critter cartridge.

I try to keep the toppers pretty simple. These toppers are cut at 2 1/2 inches. I then put a flat toothpick ( I got mine at AC Moore in the wood craft section) in between the bottom and second layers. These toothpicks actually have a round and a pointed end and I "try" to remember to have the rounded end at the bottom, but as you can see, I sometimes forget. :) Thankfully, I'm happy to report, no one poked an eye out. LOL.

Enjoy!

So Cool Popsicles

Put together this simple card using Simply Charmed. I actually gave it to my son as a Valentine's Day card. On the inside, it said, "To the coolest kid I know!"

Now that he's 11...it's hard to come up with cards that aren't too cute. But I thought this one was cute enough for me and not too embarassing for him. LOL.

I love the popsicles on this cartridge...makes me think of summer! Yeah!

I also used my new Peachy Keen Wide Eyed Kids stamps. I'm loving these and know I'm going to get a lot of use out of them. The little sun/bottlecap is cut out of a piece of patterned paper and then I stamped it with the "So Cool" from the Punnylicious stamp set from My Pink Stamper.

Enjoy!

Babies, Babies, Babies

It seems February is the month for babies. In the next month, three of my former co-workers will have either had or are having babies. (I always thought there was something in the water there! LOL) Two are having girls and one is having a boy. I thought I would use the cute baby carriage from Simply Charmed to make the "girl" cards. It also gave me the chance to use my new Wide Eyed Kids stamps from Peachy Keen.

Enjoy!