birthday cards a plenty

During the year I had discovered that I did not have a deep enough stash of birthday cards to get me through the year. Or even a last minute party! What is up with that? So this summer I plopped some DVD's of my favorite shows that I had gotten behind on into the computer and went a crafting. I worked on coloring with pencils and all kinds of different stamp companies. Found some fun techniques to try and just had a really good creative time. Oh yeah... and caught up on some of my shows!

The first three cards are stamped using The Alley Way Stamps set Cake Day. They have some really cute stamps. Papers are all from my stash. Most of them from DCWV paper stacks and are at least two years old (and some older than that!) Added some Stickles and used the Lawn Fawn Stitched hillside borders dies as well as Simon Says Stamps Stitched Rectangles dies.

A little bit of fussy cutting, heat embossing and 3D tape and this one is done.

Lots more fussy cutting but so worth it in the end. Gold thread to tie the balloons together.

The little bear is from Simon Says Stamp Circle Friends set. The frame he is sitting in is from Lawn Fawn Flirty Frames. The sentiment and the tags are from Paper Smooches.

This next one is made from the same set of stamps as the bear above and includes the bee hive stamp. I have been having fun making shaker cards lately. Glad to see this trend return and with such creative ways of making them!

Of course creating shaker cards sometimes results in the shaker ingredients not staying where they are placed. This is especially true if you somehow manage to spill the contents while trying to remove the backing tape from the foam tape. augh!! Such a mess and nightmare. I will also mention that in this pile of stuff all over my desk included some glitter and we all know what happens once glitter is on the loose-- there is no stopping it. I am still finding it on current projects!!

Made this cute little penny glide/ roller card. The images are from Paper Smooches Party Posse stamp set. Love this little hamster dude. He looked pretty cute in his ball and even cuter once he was spinning around across the card!!

Don't fear, there are more cards coming. I am currently spending a few days actually cleaning and organizing and getting ready for back to school. Even though the kids are in denial that it is going to happen next Monday, I am ready. I miss hanging with the kids and watching them learn. Gonna be a good year. Hoping to keep a better work/ life balance this school year. Which means more time for crafting and blogging.... and oh yeah... the whole family time thing.

party for a thirteen year old

Yup. Somehow I have managed to raise myself a female human being to the ripe old age of thirteen!! Amazing!

We are having a sleepover this Friday to celebrate this achievement. I dug out some new stamps and went to work.

The top and bottom purple swirl is from a Studio G $1 stamp set in my stash, and the party information is a stamp I picked up at Michaels by Delta/ Rubber Stampede. Perfection!

I used my new Paper Smooches Spectrum stamps and dies for the unicorn and cloud as well as the small hearts I stamped. The shadow under the unicorn is from the Paper Smooches Shadows stamp set. I didn't have any gray ink so I stamped off the image once and then stamped it on the front of the card. The party! sentiment is from a Studio G $1 stamp set from my stash.

Kira colored in each unicorn in different colors using her colored pencils. Sorry for the blurry images I have no idea what happened! They all looked so crisp when I was taking the pictures!!

I added two different clear glitters from my Stickles collection. I have thought about getting a Wink of Stella glitter pen but with my LARGE Stickles collection I have a hard time justifying that purchase at this time. I placed some Stickles on one of my acrylic blocks and used a paint brush to apply the Stickles. Tried to keep the glitter from being too thick and lumpy that way.

The cute smile face comes in the Spectrum stamp set and I love how it looks on the cloud!! I popped the cloud up with some foam tape. I used some purple spray ink from Recollections- purple shimmer on the background which came out so cool!!

All of these invitations were handed out and we are going to a FULL house of teenagers this Friday. Hoping Kira's room can handle that much estrogen for the night. Gonna be a great night.

happy 8th birthday peanut

Here is Alex's cake. I was overly impressed that they actually had Pokemon at Walmart this year. He was so excited to see the cake when he came home.

Eight balloons for his eighth birthday! Also a plastic decoration in the kitchen.

Some presents for his day!

I added some crepe paper to his doorway while he was sleeping.

Daddy and I delivered balloons to his floor the night before his birthday as a surprise.

Inside his room looking out.

Plastic decoration in his room. I am pretty sure this will move behind his door so he can have it.

 Hallway decorations.

There is my birthday boy!! He is getting so big.

Present time!!

Oh look.... Lego's. Lots and lots of Lego's! Yes all those boxes above were Lego kits. All but one box was the Super Hero sets, the last one is a city set so that they Super Heroes can destroy the city while capturing the bad guys.

Little bit happy.

Big breath. It took him a few tries.

Cupcakes that I made for his class to enjoy. They also received a Pokemon pencil. Pencils are always a good choice for kids.

Happy 8th Birthday Alex!!

february 5

Daddy's birthday. Poor guy had to go out and snow blow the driveway. At least it wasn't a foot but it was still enough! One of those chores I am so happy he does for me.

We got his presents all ready to go while he was working outside.

Cute cake!! Don't mind the leftovers of frosting which equaled part white and part orange frosting. Both of which were homemade just not enough of either to cover the entire cake. It worked and was delish!!

Here's the dining room table... are you sensing a theme yet??

Streamers photographed by Alex. Great angle.

I put up the signs and streamers the day before since he was going to be home on his actual birthday and we couldn't surprise him. He was quite surprised!!

hee hee... more Avenger fun.

On his desk!!

We decorated his chair!! BTW... check out the great Vikings quilt my mom gave to him Christmas 2012! It is so cute. I need to take better pictures of it.

Here are the big decorations! They were way bigger than I had planned on at the store and had to put them downstairs instead of upstairs. It worked though.

I put this on our bedroom door!!

Daddy and his girl.

Daddy and his boy.

Daddy can't believe that mommy is making him smile and blow the candles out!! But he did it.

And as a public service announcement....

GET THE FACTS AND VOTE YES FOR A NEW SCHOOL ON MARCH 11TH!

happy birthday to me!

Usually I am not in for the whole celebrating of my birthday. It is just a number (one which I frequently forget) and I really hate to be the center of attention.

This year it is not so bad. Especially when even Google has wished me a happy birthday!! I mean seriously how cute is this?? 

Yes I use Google Chrome and am a registered user so that is how they got my birth date. Am I freaked out that Google has this information- nope. I think it is adorable and gave me a smile. And couldn't we all use more smiles in our days?

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!

my first order complete!

I did it! I got the order completed! Not too bad considering it was the first few days of school. But I will admit that the laundry has been piling up. eeeek.

I am so happy with how these invitations came out! I added the pattern paper behind the egg since the white was not working for me at all! I love how the colors work together! I used my Silhouette Sybill to cut the egg, the white part of the eyes, the title and the triceratops. She was a busy little cutter!! I am in love again with my Sybill. mwah...

I did the information side of the invite using the Jurassic Park font. Love how that turned out.

Here they are all ready to go to their owner.

I also purchased the cutting file for these great triceratops birthday treat boxes. Twenty four pieces of cardstock later... we have treat boxes!! Let me tell you, Sybill got a work out that day!!

Seriously, how can you not love these???

I am very excited to deliver them to my fabulous first customer!! I think I can do this business thing.

May your day be full of happiness today (and every day)!