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.

Chanukah was early, I am late!

Wow, three days in a row?  Don't get too used to it.  I know that there is no way that I'll be able to post every day.

Right now I'm just trying to post some of the seasonal cards that I've made before they get too far out of season.

My friend Lily asked me to make some Chanukah cards for her both in 2013 and again in 2013.

Here is what I came up with for the 2012 cards...

If I remember correctly, the card base is Neenah Solar White, the blue is SU Bashful Blue and then some silver card stock that I had in my stash!  I used an embossing folder on the silver layer.  The menorah was colored using spica glitter pens.  The stamps were from Gina K Designs' Light of the Season set.

She asked me for more Chanukah cards back in October because Chanukah was so early in 2013 - it coincided with Thanksgiving!  I had purchased the Mazel Tov stamp set from Papertrey Ink earlier in the year since the Gina K set that I used for 2012 was the only applicable stamps that I had.

I'm really glad that I purchased that set.  I also used it for Lily's Rosh Hashanah cards and for a Bar Mitzvah that my son attended.  The set contains so many images and words that I should be able to cover any of Lily's requests!

Here 2013's Chanukah card:

Outside

 Inside

The supplies used for this card were SU's Marina Mist for the card base, and SU's Bashful Blue for the focal point accent layer.  The menorah was stamped on Neenah Solar White (80 lb layering weight) card stock.  I used silver ink on the edges of the Bashful Blue layer to bring in the silver as well as add some shine.  The candles on the menorah were colored with SU markers in Marina Mist and Bashful Blue.  The flames were blinded with a gold spica pen.  The inks used were Gina K Designs Onyx and Marina Mist.

This was a Clean and Simple card - that style really seems to appeal to me.  Maybe it has something to do with my usually limited crafting time! :)  All straight cuts - nothing fancy.  I made this a top fold vertical tent card.  So the card base is actually 4.25 x 11, scored and folded at 5.5 inches so the final card is still 4.25 x 5.5, it just has the fold at the top instead of on the left.  I find that I make quite a few cards this way.  They are just a little different - it adds some uniqueness to my stuff.  I even special ordered card sleeves from Clear Bags for this type of card.  They only sell sleeves to fit cards cut 8.5 x 5.5 and folded to 4.25 x 5.5!  I like to use the sleeves on the cards that I sell at the craft fairs to protect them.

I did mock up a sample and take it to Lily to be sure that she not only liked the cards but that I wasn't going to inadvertently do something that wouldn't be proper on a Jewish card.  She was thrilled with them and wouldn't let me change a thing!  That's always a good feeling.  She did joke that I should have cut the cards 8.5 x 5.5 and folded to 4.25 x 5.5 with the fold on the right hand side (so that it opened the opposite way of a normal card or book).  She said that's the direction that hebrew is used in and thought it would be funny.  Maybe next year!

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you can come visit again soon!

Happy Graduation!

Hi There,

It's been a super busy week.  I've been away all week on a business trip.  Tonight is my last night - I get to go home tomorrow.  I tried to re-arrange as much as I could, but I still had to miss some of my kid's activities.  I missed the Middle School concert, and the first round of the soccer playoffs.  Fortunately, they won their soccer game and advance to the semi-finals on Saturday which I'll be able to see!

I have a few spare moments tonight, and since I can't make anything because I'm no where near my craft room, I thought I'd take a moment to post photos of the Graduation cards that I made this year.  A friend of mine asked for graduation cards as well.  Since at least one of the cards that each of us were giving was going to the same person, I had to make a couple of styles!

Our school colors are green and gold.  I used a StampinUp set for all three of the cards that I made.  The papers were retired StampinUp colors - but they are the closest matches for the school colors so I tend to hoard those colors and only use them for school cards!

 I kind of liked this one - it reminded me of several students tossing their caps in the air.  My 16 year old told me he didn't like it because it made him think that it took the person three tries to actually graduate! Oh well.  I think he liked my third style the best.

Very clean and simple - which really appeals to me.

That's about all the information that I have on these cards.  I think my brain is fried from conducting three days of training.

I have photos of Father's Day Cards as well as some other cards - but they are still on my phone.  I'll try to get them processed and posted this weekend.

Thanks for stopping to visit.  Please come back and see me again soon.