GRADUATION CARDS.......

Ahhhh, high school graduation. A new chapter in life. The theshold of adulthood. They do not know how much they are going to miss being kids.......

The first card I did was for my husband's cousin's daughter. She actually had a dual graduation --- from high school and from the local community college. You go girl!!!! That had to be alot of hard work. I CASEd a gift card holder from our Stampin' Success magazine, which is a monthly demo magazine from Stampin' Up. Her school colors are maroon and gold (I hope). This is the card closed:

And here it is opened with a little treat stuck inside:

I loved the cap so much, I used the design for the front of my nephew's card. The colors for his school are red and black. The template used for the gift card had to be downsized to fit on the card front.

The inside sentiment:

My nephew's girlfriend also graduated and I CASEd a card from Stampin' Pretty with Mary Fish for her. Isn't this the cuteset little owl, armed with his degree? She attends the same high school as my nephew, so it was red and black again.

The inside:

Good luck to all of this years graduates!!!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY.............

To all of you mom's out there ---- HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!! I hope you are all being pampered and showered with love today.
I have the cards that I made for my mom and mom-in-law to show you today. They were both CASEd and not much was changed from the originals. This first one is for my Mom-in-law and was on an email where Jill Hilliard was offering classes. I do not have a link to the card, but you can find Jill's blog here. Using the summer smooches DSP (love, love love it!!!) and Bright Blossoms stamp set, it was all layered on a whisper white base. I used a strip of crushed curry ribbon (retired) and accented the flowers with some rhinestones. The sentiment is from the Curvy Verses stamp set.

The inside, using the retired Something to Celebrate stamp set for the sentiment:

The one for my mom was CASEd from a Stampin' Addicts post by Deb Currier that was sent to my group from my upline, Debbie (her blog is here). You can find the orginal post on Deb's blog here. It is so simple, yet packs quite a punch. It, too, was layered on a whisper white base. The first layer is the white ran through the Big Shot with the Stripes embossing folder. Then, I just cut a circle of white and covered the bottom half with a piece of DSP from the Cheerful Treat pack (retiring this month). The sentiment is from Well Scripted (retired) and the butterfly was made with the Beautiful Wings embosslit die.

The inside of it, using the same sentiment as above:

Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day!!!!

RUFFLES HAVE RIDGES........

Is that still the saying for the Ruffles brand potato chips? Or am I dating myself again? Anyway, I think this scalloped card looks like ruffles ---- what do you think? The paper is from the retired Sweet Always DSP pack and the only stamping is the sentiment from Well Scripted. It is finished off with some chocolate chip satin ribbon. This was CASED from Andrea Walford here. She is a very talented stamper, so check it out. I really like her big scallops (made with the Tasteful Trim Bigz SL die, which I do not have right now but may have very soon), but I used my Scallop Border Punch. If I could redo it, I think I would arrange the strips differently. This was a quick and easy card, so I will probably CASE it again (& again...).

It was made for my friend Beverly's birthday. She is another very talented stamper --- check her blog out here. I hope she had a great birthday and was pampered all day long!!!!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!!

THE METHOD TO THE MADNESS......

You know, you just can't beat a good card sketch. You can start with the basic sketch, but it can take you in so many directions. The card I have for you today started with a sketch found here at Clean & Simple Stamping. Their sketches are wonderful and I check them out (and use them) quite often. Whether you CASE (Copy And Share Everything) the sketch exactly as it is or just use it as a stepping stone to tweak to your own style, it is an invaluable tool.

Next (or vice versa, whichever works at the time), comes the picking of the colors. I am the first to admit, I am a bit color challenged. It is not from lack of trying, but cool color combos do not come easy for me. If it were just me coming up with them, there would only be around 5 combos to choose from. And not all of them may work so well together. Boring!!!! So, the new Color Coach that Stampin' Up came up with is just what I need. The old coach was okay, but this one is so much better. It is set up like a paint swatch collection --- you have each color in a 2-3/4" x 4-1/4" rectangle, not the little spot of color like on the old circular one. Then, on the back of each color card are two combo suggestions. Of course, if those don't suit you, you can twist the cards around and come up with your very own. You can also unfasten the screw that holds it all together and lay them out, if you choose. How stinkin' cool is that??? They also have cards with tips on color, ones showing the four color collections and blank ones for you to fill in your favorites. Even the new In-Colors have cards of their very own. Below is a picture of the one I used. I wanted to use Pacific Point, so I pulled up the card and after checking out both combos and my sketch, I decided the "sweet set" would work just fine --- Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry. And sweet it is.

Here is the card that all of that created. The base is the Daffodil Delight, then you have the Pacific Point and Rich Razzleberry (ran through the Big Shot with the Perfect Polka Dot embossing folder) layered on top. I punched out the bird from the Two-Step Bird Punch in Daffodil and it's wing in Razzleberry (I stamped on the wing in VersaMark to put a little design on it). It is raised up on dimensionals. The limbs are from the same punch and done with Pear Pizzazz. The finishing touches are the Daffodil ribbon tied around the layers and the little pearl added for the birds eye. The sentiment is from the retired Well-Scripted set and is stamped in Pacific Point. This card is for one of my Little Debbie friend's birthday. I hope she likes it --- it can be a little intimidating making cards for people who make cards (and this is such a talented group, so that doesn't help). Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DARLENE!!!!!!

Sorry this is such a long post, hard to shut me up once I get started. But I'm done now so......

Except, I would like to remind everyone to never forget the losses and sacrifices of those involved in the 9/11 attacks 9 years ago. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the family and friends left behind. I also pray that God continues to guide and protect our country.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!!!!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY............

AAAAhhhh!!!! Breakfast in bed, the kids finishing the laundry, getting to watch the movies I want to watch all day, dinner out (no dishes to wash) ---- this is what I didn't get for Mother's Day. But what I did get was both sides of the family at my house for lunch of burgers & dogs & all the fixings. You can't beat family togetherness. This is what I gave my mom and my mom-in-law......

Aren't they gorgeous? Did you know to water Orchids you just give them 3 ice cubes each week? That is just the coolest thing. But considering my brown thumb, I don't think I will test it myself. I did them the same card, but used different color combos. (Note: I really need to work on the lighting of my photos)          

These are using the Happy Together stamp set. I used the Stamp-a-ma-Jig to line the mommy & babies up. The sketch challenge I used is here. The first card uses this color challenge and the second one uses this post on my sideline Cindy's blog. She is the awesome picker-outer of our challenges each week. The sentiment is from Well Scripted out of the Occasions mini. The corners were made using the Scallop Trim Corner Punch, also out of the mini.

My kids both made me cards. Logan also made me an ink pen with a flower taped to the end. He did his projects at school. I guess Lindsey must be too "old" to do projects like that at school (or so the school seems to think), so she did hers on her own at home.

Logan's Card & Gift

Lindsey's Cards

They both did a fantastic job on their cards --- they get that talent from me. Lindsey loves me so much, it took two cards to hold it all. I love my kids and I love being their mom.

I hope every mom out there, no matter what kind of babies you have (2-legged or 4-legged), had a great Mother's Day. Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a great week!!!!