B is for Birthday

Hi,

Welcome to my blog.  I'm trying to work my way through the cards that I've made but haven't had a chance to post.  I haven't managed to find time to steal away to my craft area lately.  We've been busy with spring soccer, the beginning of the various spring music concerts (I have one child in elementary school, one in middle school and one in high school!) and are hosting a British soccer coach until June and the space that we have to house the soccer coach is where my craft area is!

So, I'm posting some of my backlog! :)

I needed cards for a combined birthday part where the guests of honor were a boy and a girl who were both turning 2.  As usual, I was short of time and needed something that was going to be quick to put together!  And hey, since they weren't related to each other I figured I could certainly get away with making the same card - just one in pink and one in blue!

The stamp set is Party Hearty from StampinUp!  This card uses a Neenah Solar White card base, a Marina Mist layer embossed with a numbers embossing folder, a bashful blue layer and then the image stamped in Marina Mist onto a Neenah Solar White layering weight layer.  The ribbon is Marina Mist dotted grosgrain ribbon.

The pink card uses a Neenah Solar White card base, two shades of pink card stock and Melon Mambo ribbon and ink.

That's all I have time for right now.  I hope you can stop by again soon!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Me!  Happy Birthday to Crafting Stolen Moments!  Today is my birthday and one year since I started my blog.

I haven't been very good about posting as often as I would like this year, but I'm still trying to craft those stolen moments!  I'm still working to find the balance - work, family life, kids schedules, couple time, crafting time, computer time, etc.  But, I also need to continue working on remembering to stop, slow down and Breathe!

It's been a hectic week with guests, work, kids and getting ready for April Vacation next week.  So, I haven't been able to get any time in my craft area.  But, my husband's birthday was just three weeks ago and I haven't posted the cards that I made for him - from myself and each of the kids - so that's what I'll post today.

I still have quite a bit of prep work to do tonight so I'll try to be brief.

This first card was made using Stampin Up! Mosaic Motif stamps.  I believe the inks were Night of Navy (?), Old Olive and Pumpkin Pie.  The sentiment is from Gina K Designs.  This was a quick, CAS card with no additional layers on a card base of Neenah Solar White heavy card stock.

This next card was made using the Lots of Lines stamp set from Gina K Designs.  The ink colors were blue and beige for the lined circles and black for the sentiment.  Again, a quick CAS card with no layers on my favorite card base - Neenah Solar White 110lb card stock.

This card was a fun one that my daughter helped me to design.  The only actual stamping on the card is the sentiment which is also from the Lots of Lines stamp set.  The colored stripes are scraps of card stock that were in my scrap basket.  Super simple, but bright and cheery!

This last card uses the Pretty Patterns 2 stamp set from Gina K Designs.   The ink colors are Tempting Turquoise, Lucky Limeade and Rich Razzleberry.  The sentiment was stamped in Black.  Another CAS no-layer card.  Sensing a theme here?  I think I was out of time, it was his actual birthday, and I needed cards!

So there you have them, the quick and easy birthday cards that I made for my husband - presented on my birthday! :)

Sorry for being skimpy on the details, but I wanted to get a post done today to celebrate the first birthday of my blog.  I didn't want to let that slip by.  But, I must go and finish getting the 5 of us packed so that we can leave on our road trip tomorrow afternoon.  I still have to work half a day tomorrow so we really need to be mostly ready tonight!

Thanks for stopping by.  My goal for this year is to post more regularly.

Hope you can come visit again soon.

Birthday By the Numbers

Hello,

It's been another very busy few weeks.  Seems to be the story of my life.  Sigh...

I've been wanting to get into my craft area - but haven't been able to steal any moments to get there.  I really need to start finding the time or being better about stealing the time since I have signed up to have a table at a craft fair at the beginning of April.

I know there are some categories of cards that I'm either very low on or out of so I need to get my butt in gear!  Then, I always feel like I need to have some of those "gift items" available too.  You know, card sets, teacher gifts, note pads, etc.

I only have 4 weekends to get ready and these first two are looking quite booked!  We have a gymnastics meet this saturday afternoon and then a performance at the Providence Bruins intermissions on Sunday which will eat up the whole afternoon too!  Next weekend we are supposed to go away for a ski trip.  I think I need to book myself some crafting appointments and then stick to them!

We've had a bunch of birthdays in the past month.  My son, my nephew, my daughter, a couple of friends...  So I thought posting a birthday card today would be a good idea.

 
This first card uses some of the StampinUp In colors: Pistashio Pudding, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantalope and Strawberry Slush.  The black is Gina K Designs Onyx.

I thought that this would be a more feminine version of the card.

This second, more masculine version of the card also used StampinUp! inks in the following colors: Soft Sky, Tempting Turquoise,  Marina Mist and Pacific Point.  Again the black is Gina K Designs Onyx.

Both cards used the Simple Numbers stamp set designed by Tami Mayberry from Gina K Designs.   This set is so versatile - I have a bunch more birthday cards that I need to make using this!

I'm just about out of time - off to do a kid pickup and then to my yoga/pilates class!

Thanks for dropping by.  Hope you can come visit again soon.

Robot World

Hi There,

Just a quick post tonight of a card that I made a while ago.  We are hosting British Soccer coaches again this week.  Since they stay in our finished basement which is also where my stamp room is, I have not been able to get down there to create anything new.

No worries, though.  I have tons of photos of cards that I have made that have never been posted anywhere.  That is another part of the reason that I started this blog.

The robot stamp and sentiment are from an old My Favorite Things set.  The background was created with the Gina K Designs set Pretty Patterns designed by Melanie Muenchinger.  I think I have almost all of Melanie's sets.  I just love her designs.

I had a bunch of boy birthday cards that I needed which is what triggered this card.  I made a few using different colors for the mats for the image and sentiment.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you can come back soon!

Happy 101st Birthday Naneen!

Hi There,

No, the title is not a typo.  Today is my grandmother's 101st birthday!  Here's a photo of the lovely birthday girl taken earlier today.

The kids and I couldn't let this day go by without sending cards.  I made two.  One from my three kids (3 of her 10 great-grandkids) and one from my husband and I.

I made this card with lots of texture since she really can't see well.  I figured that with all the texture, layers and bling she'd have lots to touch.

The card base is Neenah Solar white, embossed with an embossing folder.  The tag layers are cut from SU Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink using MFT's Well Worn Greetings Dienamics.  The numbers were cut from Rich Razzleberry using MFT's By the Numbers Dienamics.  I added some bling to the numbers for some extra dimension as well as some special sparkle for such an auspicious birthday!  The sentiment is from the By the Numbers stamp set by MFT.

This is the second card for my grandmother - from my husband and I.  I used Gina K Designs' StampTV set: Hello Sunshine.  The sentiment was from the Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments: Birthday stamp set.  The card base is Neenah Solar White card stock.  The inks are SU Marina Mist, Midnight Muse and Gumball Green.  I stamped the sentiment with GinaK Onyx ink.

So there you have them, my cards for my grandmother.  She is a special lady and I have many happy stories to share with my kids.  We all love you, Naneen!  Happy Birthday!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to visit with you again soon.

His & Hers - Birthday

I actually spent quite a bit of time in my craft room today.  That was only possible because we got most of the house based chores done yesterday, there was no soccer game for my oldest son and my husband  ran in a half marathon this morning.

My time started with some clean-up since I haven't been very good about cleaning up when I've finished crafting.  Mostly that's due to running out of time!

While my intention today was to try and complete days 2 through 5 of the His & Hers On Line Card Class, that didn't quite happen.  I had a hard time finding my mojo as far as day 2's techniques were concerned.

Day 2's theme was birthday cards.  I managed to complete His & Hers cards for two of the three techniques presented.  I did Jennifer McGuire's kaleidoscope technique and Cristina Kowalczyk's colored velum technique.

Here is the HER card for the first technique:

The card base and the focal layer are both Neenah Solar White card stock.  The colored layer is Stampin Up Pool Party.  The colored inks used are: Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Pool Party, Marina Mist, and Wisteria Wonder.  The stamps are all from the Papertrey Ink.  The flower petals are made using Sending You and the sentiment is from Stylish Sentiments: Birthday and was embossed with black embossing powder on a strip of velum.  The technique sample that was presented had the colors progress in a counter-clockwise manner.  Being an engineer, and probably some what OCD, I had to switch this so that it goes clockwise! :)

For the HIS card I stamped on Crumb Cake card stock and the colored layer is Gumball Green.  The stamps for the kaleidoscope element were Papertrey Ink's Happy Harlequin Mini Stamp Set.  The sentiment is the same as that used on the HER card!  The Happy Birthday was stamped in black ink on 3/8" wide twill ribbon.  The inks used are Frost White craft ink, Memento's Bamboo Leaves, and Cloud Grey, Night of Navy and Not Quite Navy.

 Here's the His & Hers cards side-by-side!

The second technique involved coloring velum with copic markers.  Coloring on the velum makes the colors semi-transparent and so soft.  I really liked the effect.

 For the second technique HER card the yellow layer is Daffodil Delight.  The copics used are RV13, Y08, YG03 and V04.  The sentiment is from the same Papertrey Ink Stylish Sentiments set.  The butterfly was punched using a Martha Stewart punch and was colored with the pink copic marker.  The butterfly's body were accented with rhinestones.

For the corresponding HIS card the colored layer is Night of Navy and the copic colors are BG49, B18, and Y04.  I didn't have any white embossing powder, so I stamped the sentiment in white craft ink and then embossed it with clear embossing powder.

 Here's the side-by-side view of the velum technique His & Her Birthday cards.

All in all, I think I like all 4 of the cards.  Both techniques created unique effects.  The kaleidoscope technique takes longer due to the multiple inks required, but the end result can be amazing.  The colored velum cards are quicker to make but by no means any less impressive.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my cards.  See you next time! 

Birthday Hoots

Hi there,

It's been a very busy weekend - three soccer games and a gymnastics meet!  Sometimes there just isn't enough time in the day.  I managed a grand total of 20 minutes in my craft room this weekend.  That was just enough time to throw together a last minute birthday card and gift card holder for my son to take to a sleep-over birthday party.  I'll post photos of that soon - I haven't had a chance to put them on my computer yet!

So, what I have for you today are photos of another pair of birthday cards that I created.  For these cards I used Gina K Designs Birthday Hoot stamp duo.  I also used the patterned paper from the Birthday Hoot Patterned Paper Pack.

The owl was stamped on Neenah Color White 80lb paper, and cut using my Silhouette.  The image was colored with copic markers (E23, E31, YR07, Y21, YG03, YG45, V04, V15, RV13 and RV14.

Here's a second card using different colored card stock base and patterned papers.

The image was colored using the same copics (minus the yellow) as the previous card.  The patterned papers are from the same Birthday Hoot Patterned Paper pack by GinaK Designs.

I'm hoping to steal a few moments this week to get into my craft room.

Thanks for visiting.  Come back again soon!