and the birthdays keep on comin'.......

There are just certain times of the year that there are alot of birthdays among my family and friends and this is one of them.  Therefore I am sharing another birthday card that I made with you.  This one is for a dear online scrappy friend who has one of the biggest hearts and most generous spirits that I know so I really wanted to make her a special card.  I was inspired by this week's challenge again over at Birthday Sundaes.  I used my Echo Park Little Girl collection and the card stock is my favorite color by Stampin' Up -- Baja Breeze. The sentiment is from SRM stickers.

Cricut Card Challenge #89

The challenge this week over at Cricut Cardz is to make a birthday card for a child with a jungle animal on it.  My friend Suzy (who is on Cricut Cardz design team) made me this adorable hippo and it is perfect for this punny birthday card.  I made it for my husband's nephew Gabriel who turns 2 in October.  Doesn't he just make you smile?

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

I get so much inspiration from looking at the projects of the extremely talented ladies on so many different design teams.  Recently I was looking at the current challenge #CFC17 at Cas-ual Fridays which is the "Stuck on You" challenge -- use a sticker on your card.  I am a big fan of SRM stickers and have a large collection of them.  One of the design team,  Laurie Willison  created a card just like this card and I was really inspired to re-create it and enter it in the challenge. Laurie tied hers with a beautiful bow and I had to settle for a knot but I am still happy with it.  What/who is inspiring you today?

My Grandsons ROCK!!!

We are headin' up to the Chicago area in a few days and will be celebrating my grandsons' birthdays while we are there.  We bought both of the boys electric guitars for their birthdays so we are doing kind of a guitar theme birthday.  I made these cards tonight for them and I am very pleased with the way they turned out.  I am entering them over at the birthday challenge at Fantabulous Cricut this week. I want to thank my good friend Suzanne for all the help she gave me in the construction of theses cards.  Suzanne...you ROCK!!

The Paper Variety Travel Themed Challenge

I love to travel and have been lucky to have seen most of this country starting when I was just a child.  I have a real love for road trips and am looking forward to our next trip coming up in just a couple of weeks to the midwest to see my family and meet my brand new grandbaby.  My husband is a commercial driver and is awesome behind the wheel.  I can actually fall asleep while he is driving and know I am in good, safe hands.  Knowing that I made this card for him.  The suitcase opens and after the trip I will put a couple of mementoes/pictures in it for him.

Create a travel-themed project this week and link it up to The Paper Variety and you can win this awesome prize from The Paper Trail:

Any travel themed project will do.....let's see some cute luggage tags or layouts of your summer vacation or even a layout of where you want to go on that romantic second honeymoon!  I can't wait to check out everyone's creations! And when you are done you can link your project up over at Paper Issues Let's Ride theme.....HERE through August 27th.

Welcome Baby and Happy Birthday

I came home from a rough day at work today and escaped for awhile to my craft room.  The mojo was flowing (surprisingly) and I created these 2 cards for some upcoming challenges.  This first card is of course to commemorate the birth of my new little grandbaby Isabelle.  I used Echo Park's Little Girl collection.  The felties are from a package I picked up in the clearance bin at Michael's...adorable, no?  I used this great sketch from Sassy Lil Sketches:

This next card I made for my husband's aunt who has a birthday coming up:

I was inspired by this week's challenge over at Birthday Sundaes to use pink/green/white on a card.  I also used the 8.17 sketch from Let's Scrap.

Being creative helped me to relax tonight and put the day behind me.  And now my work week is 2 days down and 3.5 to go.....yay!

Isabelle Grace

I have my 4th grandchild -- as I announced a couple of days ago Isabelle was born this week so of course I had to create a page today to commemorate her birth.  She is beautiful and healthy and already home bonding with her big sister.  I get to meet her in two weeks when we go up to the midwest to celebrate her birth, and the birthdays of my youngest son, Adam and his 2 sons Jacob and Cole.  I can barely wait!  The sketch over at Artful Delight was perfect for this layout and I used Echo Park's Little Girl collection.  I made the simple little flower out of a sewing pattern.

My First Attempt at Embossing

I bought a heat gun, embossing powder and a Versamark pad this week and I played with it today.  This is my very first attempt to heat emboss. I did it on scrap paper because I expected I wouldn't be pleased with my first attempt but it turned out better than I though it would.  It really is a striking addition to a card or layout and is much easier to do than it looks.  I am entering this card over at The Paper Variety twine challenge and at CAS-ual Fridays emboss it challenge.

Birthday Sundaes Brad challenge

Remember when I said I had a number of upcoming birthdays?  Well I am still making birthday cards and have several more to go.  For this card I was inspired by this week's brad challenge over at Birthday Sundaes.  They have the best challenges and awesome inspiration from their design team.  I check them out every week....even if I don't have a birthday card to make.

A Couple of Card Challenges

I got a new set of stamps recently that I am crazy about.  They are a set of sentiments from Paper Smooches.  I used one here on this card for their August Sparks Challenge. 

I was inspired by the wood pattern and rustic looking blue paint in the sparks picture and used an awesome teal colored wood grained patterned paper for the background of my card. I also found inspiration in the current challege over at Lily Pad cards to use fabric or felt.  I tried a new-to-me technique of stamping my sentiment on linen and fraying each of the four edges.  I then glued it to a scrap of burlap that I frayed the edges of and attached it to some patterned paper and then added an edge punch and attached it my my card. I felt it still needed something and a Jillibean Soup stick pin was just the thing.  I am sending this card to cheer up a friend who has been struggling with some health issues recently.

The next card I made is this one:

I used this card sketch from Sassy Lil' Sketches

I entered it in their challenge you can see HERE.  I am sending this to one of my online friends along with a little gift I saw recently and thought she would like.  Don't you just love those purple flowers?

Speaking of pretty flowers....look what I bought myself today....

Aren't they purty?  They make me smile....I hope you have something to smile about tonight.

Make a Wish

This is, believe it or not the very first page I have ever created featuring my beautiful mother-in-law.  I love my MIL....I am very lucky to have her.  I just never had ANY pictures of her....isn't that a shame?  So when my in-laws were over recently to celebrate her and my birthday, I made sure that I took a couple of pictures of her.  I used Bo Bunny's Sweet Tooth papers on this layout.  I won them recently and it is soooo fun to play with FREE goodies.  My hubby loves when I win too....LOL.  I fussy cut the flowers out of some of the paper from the collection and I used the very versatile sketch from My Scraps and More.  I am also entering this layout in The {Paper} Trail Makers 2nd August challenge to create a birthday layout using non-birthday themed papers.

Backyard Camping

Over the Fourth of July weekend my granddaughter Abby got to spend a couple of days with her cousins (my grandsons) Jacob and Cole and go backyard camping.  She had a great time and luckily her dad remembered to snap a couple of pictures for me of her and Jacob....aren't these photos precious? 

Entered at : Paper Issues Pitch Perfect Theme

Our New Arrival

Today is a wonderful day....why?  Because we have a new little member of the family.  She is beautiful and soft and tiny and her name is Isabelle Grace.  She arrived at 12:45 am, weighing 7 pounds 14 ounces and being 20.5 inches long.  Her big sister Abby has been waiting for her "to come out to play" for awhile now.  Mommy and Daddy (my dear daughter-in-law and son) are also thrilled and me?  I have been beaming all day even though I didn't get much sleep last night.  They live in the midwest and I live in Florida so I am counting the days until we go to see them (18 days).  In the meantime, I think I'll scrap some pages....I just got a brand new subject!

Bo Bunny Card Challenge

I love making birthday cards which is a good thing since there are so many birthdays this time of year among my family and friends.  I got up early this morning and made this special card for my DIL who is expecting her second daughter and my fourth grandchild any day now.  We are officially on baby watch!!  Amy's birthday is August 21st and she is hoping to have Isabelle this weekend so next weekend she can relax with a margarita....it has been a long uncomfortable, hot summer for her and I would say she deserves it. 

I used Bo Bunny's Sweet Treats Collection on this card along with the border punch from my friend Kim.  I love using a collection for a birthday card that is not specifically designed as a "birthday" collection.   I also followed Bo Bunny's card sketch:

I absolutely love this collection and plan on using it for a layout this weekend with pictures from my MIL's birthday celebration a couple of weekends ago.  I am entering the Bo Bunny card challenge and also entering this card over at Birthday Sundaes and at The {Paper} Trail Makers Challenge Blog.

Bee Happy

There are so many of my favorite things that I used on this card that I can't help but love the final product.  I think I might just keep this card around for awhile because it makes me smile.  Some of my favorite things on this card is first of all that happy honeybee from Create-A-Critter which was a gift from my friend, the very sweet and talented Suzanne....you can check out her lovely blog HERE.  Then there is the paper -- I used one of my favorite collections from my very favorite paper company -- Echo Park Country Drive.  Then last but not least is my brand new Decorative Label punch from Stampin' Up.  This punch just arrived on my door step last night and this was the very first punch I used it for.  I love SU products and am lucky enough to have a demonstrator in my neighborhood. (Not sure my husband thinks that is such a lucky thing....LOL)

I am entering this card in the challenge over at Fantabulous Cricut and also at

My Pink Stamper's Blog Hop Favorite Things Challenge

Both of these challenges run through the weekend so you still have time to enter them.  If you enter them come back here and leave me a comment telling me you did so....I would love to check out your creations.

Lily Pad Card Chain Challenge

The last couple of evenings I have been making cards.  This card is this evening's creative endeavor.  I am joining the Card Chain Challege over at Lily Pad Cards.  You can see the details HERE.  I will be sending this card off to someone somewhere in the world who is participating in this challenge and I will in return will receive a card from someone.  I promise to share the card I receive in a few weeks when I receive it.  It sounded like fun.  I used their sketch and the theme I chose was friendship.  I just love the little crocheted flower in the corner and I hope that this card makes the recipient smile.

The Paper Variety Color Challenge

We have the most awesome challenges at The Paper Variety and this week is no exception .  The challenge this week is to use the following color palette in your paper project:

What fun, happy colors!  I used Echo Park's Playground collection.....the perfect choice to scrap this picture of my granddaughter Abby at her cousin Cole's (my youngest grandson) birthday last October.  I also used the awesome sketch #167 from Creative Scrappers.  I just love their sketches! I was also inspired by a challenge over at Scrapfit to use a banner on my layout.

Up for grabs this week from The Paper Variety is a $20 gift certificate from Citrus Studios --how awesome is that? To be in the running just use green, orange and yellow on your paper project and upload to The Paper Variety by noon on Tuesday 8/16/11.  If you want to be considered for the Sunday Spotlight just upload your project by Sunday evening.  I can't wait to see all the awesome entries this week.

The Tooth is Out

My grandson Cole is going to be 6 in October.  In June he lost his first tooth....in the movie theater while watching "The Green Lantern".  Doesn't he look cute showing off the space where his tooth once was?  I used Echo Park "Little Boy" and the 8.4 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays which you can check out here.

Hugs and Fishes

I have alot of birthdays coming up in the next several weeks so I have been busy making cards.  I just love the way this card turned out.  I believe it will be for my godchild Shannon who lives in Michigan and is turning an adorable 5 years old and going to kindergarten soon.

Challenges entered:

Wee Memories Dare to Color Challenge #63

My Craft Spot It's Hot Out There Challenge #20

Jammin' with Joel

My husband was in a band in his late teen and early 20's.  Occasionally a friend from high school -- Joel Hoekstra -- would stop in and jam with the guys.  Joel eventually left for music school in California and for the last few years has been in the band Night Ranger.  He also toured with Trans Siberian Orchestra last Christmas and is in the Broadway production of Rock of Ages in New York City.  Last December when TSO played in Orlando we took Dave's parents to the show. I had given Dave his new DSLR camera early and he shot some awesome pictures.  Afterward we had a chance to meet and greet the band and surprise Joel.  It was great for Dave to see him and for me to meet him.  Joel later emailed Dave and promised to get together and spend more time hanging out with us the next chance that he is in the area.   He also has some of Dave's photographs on his website.  I used Frosted Designs awesome sketch #20 for this layout....you should check them out HERE....they have some awesome challenges, sketches and inspiration.

A New Puppy

I am not much of a dog person....never really have been.  I had a couple of cats and definitely prefer them as pets but my husband doesn't really like them so we instead have 3 noisy birds.  My mother-in-law recently lost Coco, her beloved dog at the age of 13.  So recently Diane and Rich (my in-laws) got a new puppy....Gigi.  She is a red toy poodle with an attitude and I must say after meeting her last weekend, I really kind of like her.  And she will be a wonderful companion for my mother-in-law.  In fact she is taking her to doggie boot camp at Pet Smart at the end of this month.  So to celebrate I made Diane this card.  I was looking through my stamps and found this adorable doggie stamp....how it ended up in my stash I don't know.  I think it was included in a prize package I won.  So I inked it up and used it on this card and I think it is adorable.  I am entering this card over at My Craft Spot You Make Me Smile Challenge.