a card for a special couple

There is an amazing couple whom I know and love (and flat out treasure) who were celebrating their anniversary. These two are my connection to the alien world around us. So they needed a very special card to celebrate their very special day and yes it needed to have an alien theme.

I started with stamping this really cute guy on his way with my anniversary wishes. It has to be a green based card and was lucky to have some amazing alien green papers!! I have had the together metal plate for the longest time ever. I do believe I was waiting for this card to use it on.

Here is a close up of this adorable alien. He has a google eye and his cockpit was pop dotted as well as his antennae on the ship. I added some green stickles and some glossy accents to give the cockpit a glass like feel.

This is the inside of the card.The astronaut was cut out and colored and pop dotted. I added the small red heart brad since he is on a mission of love. I used some white ink to stamp the sentiment and all those adorable stars. Both the alphabet and the star is a set of stamps that I bought years ago at a dollar store and they work just as well as any other I have purchased. And since I love purple, this little guy had to be purple and connected to his ship with a bit of purple twine.

Close up of the astronaut. I did add glossy accents to his helmet face.

I will admit that I totally forgot to take pictures of this card and had to beg the recipient to take them for me as I wanted to share this card with everyone. Thanks to my sweet Alien for doing that for me and for being in my life. Here's to many many more years of happiness for you and yours!!

happy world card making birthday!

So if things are going well, you've just come from my amazingly talented and very good friend Anessa's blog in celebration of her Smokin'HotHubby having calculated, chronologically speaking of course, the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. 

Doesn't that just give ya the shivers??


Happy Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything Day, Bill aka SHH! 

When your wife hit me up with this idea, I thought "What better way to celebrate both SHH's 'Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything" Day and World Card Making Day?!'" The only logical way would be to have a blog hop with some pretty special cards made just for SHH!

SO................

Bill darling....

SHH....

We have both physical and virtual cards for YOU, and today is a celebrated sharing of your virtual ones. Ohhh, and, uh, by the way, I secretly wonder what it's like to be married to an alien {and not just any alien, mind you}. Maybe someday you could write a book or something? Maybe have a world-reknowned blog about it? ...just a few ideas. There truly are several inquiring minds who want to know! (me, me, me!! Now there are some serious questions that need to be answered!!)

Here are some shots of my contribution to your birthday celebration!!

As I remember, the guide is an amazing book because it has those two words on the front so ease your mind while hitchhiking. I thought they would be appropriate for your card as well. Of course I had to use some space themed papers and looky there... a cute little fella is coming to help you celebrate as well!!

This is the inside with the one flap opened. Lots of birthday love happening here. I mean 42 is an amazing accomplishment!! Congrats!

This is the total inside of the card. Many many birthday wishes are yours!

And we finish up with the backside of your card. I bet you can be found hiding in a storage area on that ship!! May your journey be safe! So long and thank you for all the fish!

Up next on this blog hop, we have the wonderful Amy Tsuruta's blog, and you simply aren't going to believe her creation. You aren't. I'll prove it. Go to her blog and see! :)

Here's the order of the hop:

Alien~neilA Planet
"You are here" Planet
Amy Tsuruta's Most Awesome Planet
Tina Hale-to-the-Mail Planet

SHH, we all hope that your day is extra Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything special, particularly since we know that it's very important to our planet's one and only Alien wife! (Now where is that book/ blog/ infomercial on Alien??)

Thanks for hopping with us on this extra special day!

had to share and a vent

Okay first off what an incredibly LONG and tiring week it has been keeping the electronics off in our house. Alex was pretty easy going with it, Kira however was quite the grump about it by the end of the week. Of course her beloved reading is not the same as playing her DS. Looks like she will be unplugged some more.

Anywho... at the Family Dance Party, I hung this amazing banner that we got from Staples for $19.99! Seriously. Hubby had a coupon for a 6' x 2.5' banner. Love it. The graphic I will let you know came from my favorite of favorite Aliens. She did such a great job on it. LOVE IT!! It was the logo for the week of fun we had (we being the PTA).

I was the photographer at the Dance Party taking pictures of the families and groups of kids which I then emailed to the parents so they would have these great memories. I had to test my lighting and such and I had two adorable subjects on hand....

This is before they danced like fools all night and were hot and sweaty. But they are kinda cute! It was a fun night. I need to get the pictures hubby has of Alex 'break dancing' on the dance floor from his phone. So cute.

Now for the vent... today went to the Childrens Place outlet up in Kittery, Maine. We usually go there since the closest mall with a Childrens Place is about 45 minutes away and they have a better selection as it is a bigger store than most of the mall ones. I loaded up my mesh bag full of jeans for Alex (he is destroying the knees on all of his jeans), short sleeved polos for Alex, capris for Kira and a couple of tank tops. Pretty full bag when we got done.

I get in line with my coupon for 25% off and my Place Card which gives me an additional 5% off my sale. I'm thinking I am doing well. The girl rings me up and we do the small chat stuff. She sees the coupon I have and continues to ring me up. At the end she gives me the total before my discounts and I hand her my coupon and card. She looks at the coupon, converses with the girl next to her and tells me my coupon does not work in the outlets. ummm... since when?? I have been doing this for some time now (like since Kira was born) She tells me they have separated the two companies. Now there is the Childrens Place in the malls and Childrens Place Outlets. hmmm... I must have missed that email that they sent to all their customers on this big change. Especially since I am a Place Card holder AND I get their emails practically every day with coupons.

I was like okay ring it up whatever. Then I get thinking about it after we leave and I am not happy in the least. Now as it is about 4 1/2 hours later, I am really really not happy about it. So I go and look in my inbox and there is an email from Childrens Place Outlets. It's the only one so this is something very very new. I open it and there is a coupon there for 25% off!! ummm... I had one of those. They couldn't have used the correct code (as I am sure it was somewhere in their computer system having worked retail before I know these things) since obviously I have received emails from Childrens Place. Tomorrow we are going back up there after a birthday party and I am getting my discount or they can return my entire purchase and forget about me shopping there again.

Don't mess with someone who has worked retail before. I know how things work and they could have done something for me especially since the amount was over $200. grrrr. Not like I went in for one shirt on sale for $2.99 and wanted it cheaper, I was buying a full bag of stuff.

If you have made it to the end, thanks. If not... no biggie. I feel better getting it off my chest. Now I can have a nice evening with hubby. TTFN

extra challenge card

From my Facebook Card Challenge group, it seemed that many had gotten done with the sketch in a pretty timely manner and were waiting for the next one. Diana did not disappoint!! She posted the following sketch with the theme, "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Great sketch isn't it??

Here is my take on the sketch. I used my Swiss Dots embossing folder (thanks to my Alien buddy), I cut two sets of mittens and used foam tape between the layers to pop them up. Added a bit of bakers twine since mittens always seem to get lost, these two are together forever!! Thanks again to my Alien for the twine. Snowflake brads from my stash and the 'brrr' are rub ons from DCWV a few years ago. I used some puff paint for the mitten cuffs.

Yesterday I spent some quality time finding my desk. That wasn't the game plan going into yesterday, but it had to be done as I had misplaced a Lowe's gift card that we are in need of. So much gets dumped in this space that sometimes I plop things in places they should not be plopped into! It wasn't so bad until I asked hubby if he had in fact given me the gift card. I knew the answer and he looked a little concerned. He also gave me that, "your room is a pit and you need to clean it so you can find things" look.

So I started putting all my scraps away. Then the projects were removed from the desk and put in a storage folder so I can grab them when I want to work on them and everything is together! The good news is that I have a desk top AND I found the gift card. whew... we are heading to Lowe's this morning to pick up a new toilet for our upstairs bathroom. Poor hubby has tried to fix the one that is there for over a month now with no luck at all. The latest fix has the flapper staying up (or open) so we have to be careful to make sure to follow behind the kiddos when they go!!

Saturday will be replace the toilet day here. I think I will spare you the pictures of that adventure. Maybe the final completed project only. I hate installing toilets. Wondering how the old toilet will look in the yard with some lovely plastic flowers in it??

christmas card #1

I have joined a lovely group of ladies to help us all create Christmas cards throughout the year so there isn't that "end of the year crazy holiday time and ooops, I need to make some cards" panic this year. Seems like such a good idea.

Another good idea that I had is that I will be making five of each sketch each  month so hopefully if all goes well, I shall have 60 cards by December!! If I really get inspired by a sketch for a month, I may even make a few more. But the goal is five.

Here is January's sketch. Simple and fun.

Here is my take on it. Totally LOVE making these medallion flowers. They are simple to make and add that bit of dimension to the cards/ layouts whatever. The paper is from a holiday stack I picked up at Michaels. Hoping to use up most of it with these monthly challenges. That will give me reason to go shopping!! bwahahahaha...

Oh yeah... The snowman is a stamp I found a few Christmases ago on clearance. He is so cute. Generic silver brads and some lovely bakers twine that my favorite Alien sent to me. (Love that lady!!) 

I inked the edges of the white because I ran out of the dark green cardstock for all five cards and the last one is a plain white background and I didn't want to lose the matting on the card. Then I held the inked piece up to the green card, and really liked the look!! So a-inkin' I went.

Good day with the kiddos. No fights and everyone is playing nicely. Love that. Hoping it continues all week. I have a bunch of stuff I would like to do and if they are good... it shall happen!!