Special friend blend

Hello there!
Just popping in quickly to post a couple of cards I have been working on.

My first time ordering from Paper Sweeties - I just love this tea pot die along with the stamp set. Pattern papers are from Melissa Frances and Graphic 45; ribbons, flowers, and doily from my stash.

Another card using same die and stamp set:

Pattern papers from Graphic 45 which I used to make coordinating flowers too. Flowers were die cut using PTI dies and Stampin Up punches. Doily, pearls and brads are from my stash.

 

That does it for me today. I have been doing a lot of yard work today. It's time to soak these old bones and muscles in the tub!

 Have a great week ! N~

Sunday, funday

Happy Sunday morning! And what a gorgeous morning it is - sunny and warm; sipping coffee while looking through the morning's paper outside at the patio table. My week off is over as of tomorrow morning and I'm not looking forward to going back to work. It was such a relaxed and slow week which I love. No plans, spur of the moment shopping sprees, lazy days, the perfect week. And the weather was absolutely gorgeous. I'm spending my last day of vacation by driving to my sister's house to spend the afternoon lying on a float in her pool!
I also spent time in the craft room this week . Here are a few cards I made:

Using my new Sizzix Framelit die and the Good Ole Sport paper line by Graphic 45, I made this simple and quick card. As you can see, it's plain but perfect for giving it to a sweet little guy (both my nephews have birthdays coming up)! And it didn't take but 10 minutes tops putting it all together. The hardest part was deciding which papers to use!

 

This card was made with the same Sizzix Framelit die using the Botanical Tea papers by Graphic 45. I dressed it up a bit by adding a flower & ribbon  from my stash and a chipboard tag from the same paper line.

 

 Another card I put together fairly quickly. Using kraft paper as my base card, I rounded the corners and adhered pattern paper from Graphic 45 again - Good Ole Sport line. I made a 3-layer tag out of some scraps. I stamped the graduate with Versamark watermark stamp pad and embossed it with gold embossing powder. On the middle layer, I also stamped "congratulations". I tied the 3 layered tag with twine and adhered it to the top of the card.

 

I have much more to share with you but I will save it for my next post. Until then, enjoy this beautiful Sunday. See you next week!

N~

 

 

 

Friend

Happy Saturday! Today is my first official day of vacation - again! I am off all week and am looking forward to doing NOTHING! Of course I have a few projects planned and I'm going to finish all of them! One of my planned projects is cleaning out my craft room and organizing - again.
I also want to start a mini album I've been picturing in my mind. Now I just need to buckle down and make it happen!
Here is a birthday card I made for dear friend of mine. We were high school BF's and we still are good buds. We met for dinner as we do every year and had a wonderful time!

Pattern papers and the die cut are from the Graphic 45 line "Botanical Tea". The ribbon, pearl and button are from my stash.
My next card is for another birthday coming up. I made a similar card not too long ago for a coworker's birthday and she loved it so I used the same papers and added a few different embellishments.

I believe the pattern papers are Prima but I'm not sure which line. I used it all up! The stick pin is Prima too. Olive green cardstock is Stampin Up. The coral ribbon, button and twine are from my stash and the cream colored pleated ribbon is Melissa Frances.

I just recently purchased one of the new framelits dies from Sizzix and have been playing around with it. I'll be posting some more cards here later this week. I love this die!
That is all I have for now. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Remember our troops!
N~

Beach wedding

Happy Saturday! I have a couple of cards to share and a little crafty Easter/Spring project I was working on.

My first card is a wedding card for my nephew. He is getting married on a beach near Clearwater, Florida. This will be the first beach wedding I've attended. And it's a plus to be in a warmer climate!!

 I took a piece of mustard color card stock and ran it through my Big Shot using a heart background embossing folder.

 

Below is a closer look at the embossing. I then adhered it to white card stock, added a strip of lace and ribbon. Tied a double bow, glued on my pearl and rhinestone embellishment.

 

 

My next card is a birthday card I had made for a friend.

 

 

 

The silver and purple cardstock are scraps that I had left over from last year's bridal shower invitations I had made for my future daughter in law's shower. I used a lace punch on the right edge of the purple card stock. A Spellbinder's frame holds a sentiment that I stamped using a Stamping Up stamp set. The purple button and pearls along with the ribbon was also in my stash! It feels good to use up some of the scraps I have - and there is a lot of it!

 

I found a tutorial on how to make pinwheels so I tried it out on these next spring/Easter pots.

 

 

 

 

These are the Easter pots. I purchased the clay pots from Michaels, painted them and sealed them with a semi gloss finish. I filled each pot with a Styrofoam ball and covered it in Spanish moss. I stuck the pinwheel into the Styrofoam ball, glued the egg to the moss with my hot glue gun. I also had made spring ones in which I replaced the eggs with a clip on lady bug. Unfortunately I didn't take pictures of those. I made a dozen of these and gave them out to some of my coworkers.

 

That's about it for me for this post. I am in the process of having all my window screens re-screened and new clips put on. But I refuse to put in the screens when the windows are so dirty from the long winter we had. So off I go to start window washing.

And finally, I want to wish my beautiful boy in heaven a happy birthday today. He would be 34 years old today - at 8:15 this morning. I miss him so very much.

Have a wonderful week ahead. And if you are a hockey fan and from the Chicago area as I am -
GO BLACKHAWKS!!!

~Nancy

 

Weddings and baseball!

What a beautiful, sunny, Sunday morning this has turned out to be. You can't help but smile when you see and feel the warmth of the sun after the long, snowy, frigid winter we have had! I can actually start to see patches of the ground with all the snow that is starting to melt. Kind of ugly actually, but it sure beats seeing mounds and mounds of all white!

Today I have a wedding card to share with you. My boss who is located in California was in my office this past week giving all of us our 2013 year end reviews. She is getting married early April and so I thought I would send her home with a wedding gift.

Everything I used for this card was out of my 'scrap' box! I embossed a piece of white card stock and adhered it to a piece of gold, mounted to a white card. I used Spellbinders Label eleven die to make the frame for the sentiment which is a Kaisercraft rub on. The ribbon and rose buds are from Michael's Craft store.

Remember in my past post I had mentioned getting some new Graphic 45 papers? I did get a chance to play....

I had my nephew in mind when I made this card using the new Good Ol' Sport line. I love this collection and can't wait to make more cards and mini albums from it. Everything is from the collection other than the blue pleated circle (what do you call this?) and the silver glittered star chip board which I made myself.

Enjoy this beautiful Sunday. I know I am!
~Nancy

Valentine Birthday

How is everyone surviving this cold and snowy winter so far? Here in Chicago land we are getting ready for some more -20 below temps along with another back to back to back snow storm! So while we will be snowed in, it will give me a chance to pack up all the Valentine papers and embellishments laying all over my work space.
I had ordered some new Graphic 45 papers and they just recently came in the post so I'm hoping to be able to play this weekend!
But as promised in my last post, here is one more card I had made from the Bo Bunny line, Little Miss. This was given to my daughter on her birthday.

Below are a couple valentine cards I had made - two of many but only took a picture of these two...not sure why I didn't photograph all of them...weird.

That's all for me. Time to start dinner and settle in to watch some favorite programs of mine on TV.
Good night
N~

celebrating 50

Happy Sunday to you all! It's been one snowy 2014 so far! I've never had so many "work from home" days in the 25 years I've been with the company I work for. They're big on 'safety first' so thanks to that motto, I can stay at home and fire up the laptop and not have to deal with the road conditions.
My snow blower has been used more this winter than  the whole 3 years I've had it!

My family and I celebrated a milestone birthday last night. One of my younger sister's turned the big 50 today. Below is the card I made for her.

 

Pattern paper and journaling card is from Echo Park's "Sister" line. I jazzed it up by adding colored gems to the center of the flowers on the journaling card, along with some rose trim found in my stash. I adhered the journaling card and rose trim to some Stampin Up cardstock.

 

The month of January I was pretty much snowed in. Don't get me wrong, I love snow...as long as I don't have to drive in it! So to past the time away, I spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing the craft room once again. My sister had done the same thing to her craft space and was going to get rid of a lot of 'stuff' she wouldn't be using so of course, I took it all. One of the paper line's was by Bo Bunny - "Little Miss". Here are a few cards I made from that line.

 

 

Pattern paper and sticker is Bo Bunny. Doily is from Wilton, die cut flowers and felt are from Papertrey Ink. I punched the leaves from a Stampin Up punch and added pink pearl gems to the centers of the flowers.

 

 

 

Same Bo Bunny paper and journaling card, Wilton doily, ribbon from Stampin Up.  There is a couple more cards I made but I'll wait to post them next time. One of them I made for my daughter who is celebrating a birthday next Sunday! Until then....

 

Have a great week ahead.

Nancy