Deepest Sympathy

Hello,

So sorry that it's been so long since I've posted.  June was a little out of control with the end of School activities, soccer playoffs, etc.  Work has been very hectic as well.  That hasn't left much time for crafting let alone posting!

I have made some cards, but the photos are still in my phone, so I'll post photos of cards that I made but haven't actually posted yet.

I'm sitting here with the two British Soccer Coaches that we are hosting this week watching the end of the Germany vs. Brazil world cup game.  Since Brazil just lost for the first time on home soil in more than 12 years (I think that's what the announcers said!) I thought Sympathy cards would be appropriate for today's post.

This first card is not one of my favorites, I'm not sure why.  Something about it just doesn't do it for me.  A friend requested some sympathy cards so I made several for her to choose from.  I think she took one of each design.  So I guess this card isn't totally bad, just not my favorite!

The card base is Neenah Solar White with a layer of StampinUp's Daffodil Delight.  The foliage and dragonfly stamps are from the Vertical Greetings set by Gina K Designs.  The sentiment is also from Gina K Designs - the With Sympathy Duo.

This next card is one of my favorites.  I think the color scheme and the lacy layer cut with a Spellbinders Borderability die really make the card special.  I used this same card with a "Thank You" sentiment for an order of Thank You cards that an accountant friend of mine requested.

The card base is Neenah Solar White 110lb card stock.  The blue layer is Stampin Up Bordering Blue which I believe is a retired color - I was using up some of my stash!  The white layer is Neenah Solar White 80lb layering weight card stock.  The sentiment is from the Vertical Greetings set by Gina K Designs.  The flowers are from the Dreams Take Flight Mini Stamp Set by Gina K Designs.

This last card was made using scraps!  I felt I needed to have another Sympathy Card style for my friend to close from so I just used what I could get my hands on easily!  Sometimes great cards come from scraps, remnants and leftovers.

The card base of this card is StampinUp's Crumb Cake.  The darker blue layer is StampinUp's Marina Mist.  The lighter blue peeking out from behind the paper lace strip is StampinUp's Bashful Blue.  The white was Neenah Solar White 80lb card stock.  It was punched with the StampinUp lace punch. The sentiment on this card is again from the Vertical Greetings set by Gina K Designs.

Well, that wraps this up.  I've got to find some time to process my card photos so that I have a stockpile of photos ready to post.  I'm really hoping to be better about that! :)

I hope you'll come back to visit again soon!  Until then, I'll continue to Craft Stolen Moments.

Happy Mother's Day

Hello,

And Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.  I'm taking advantage of a few free moments before we head out to two (overlapping) soccer games to write this post.

It's been a busy few weeks.  Work has been crazy busy, spring gets hectic with three kids on separate travel soccer teams and then the beginning of all of the extra end of the school year activities.  So, there hasn't been much opportunity to steal moments to get into my craft area.

I did manage to grab some time to make some Mother's Day Cards.  That was a necessity - since I had to have them to send to my mother and step-mother! :)  Since I also needed cards for the swap at my monthly card club I used my limited crafting time to do double duty.  The ladies at card club received these Mother's Day Cards in the swap!

The card base is made from Neenah Solar White 110 lb card stock.  The colored layer is Melon Mambo card stock from StampinUp! The ribbon and ink is also StampinUp! Melon Mambo.  The flower stamps are from the StampinUp! Punch Potpourri (Hostess) set.  The sentiment is from the Gina K Designs retired set Kindred Greetings for Her.  The three flowers were popped up with and the black centers were created with black Enamel Accents.

I've had a very lovely day so far.  The weather is sunny, pleasantly warm and its a beautiful day!  I got up and went to my Yoga class this morning - my treat to me was not skipping a class that helps me to feel so energized and calm.  When I got home my husband and daughter were just getting back from the store - my daughter wanted to buy me flowers!  When I stepped in the house, I could smell brownies - not an uncommon occurrence since my second son loves to bake.  But, the pleasant surprise was that they were special gluten-free brownies for me!  It's been so long since I had brownies.  What a great surprise.

Then the three kids (under the supervision of my husband) made me breakfast.  It was a multi-course breakfast.  It started with fruit salad, continued with scrambled eggs and bacon and concluded with a special dessert of a warm brownie with a dollop of whipped cream, some chocolate sauce and garnished with some mini chocolate chips.  So yummy and such a treat!

We'll be stopping for dinner on the way home from this afternoon's soccer double header.

I hope all the rest of you mothers have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you can come back 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.

Hanging Heart Valentine

Hi there, Happy Valentine's Day!

Sorry I've been absent.  Let's just say that January was jam packed, crazy busy with everything from tons of snow, snow days, gymnastics meets, a funeral, work, and family time.  So, I already blew my intention of posting frequently this year.  Oh well, I can keep trying!

Since today is Valentine's Day, I thought it would be a good idea to post the card I made - you know, before it's too late!

I made these for my monthly card club card swap - but made extras for my stash!  I added a little more personalization to the inside when I was filling it out to give to my husband.  This card was super quick to make.

Here's how the card came about.  Card club was Tuesday night and I needed to have swap cards.  It was almost 7 PM Monday night and I hadn't started them yet - or even really figured out what I was going to do.  I go to a power pilates then Zumba class on Monday nights so that was going to cut into my card creation time as well.

I zipped down to my craft area and started looking around to see what I could come up with.  I saw the flourishes set on my desk (sadly still waiting for me to ink it up for the first time!).  It was upside down and the large flourish looked like a branch - it reminded me of a card that I had seen on Pinterest.  So, my brain immediately jumped to hanging hearts from the branch - because, you know, hearts always hang from branches! :)

So without further ado, here's my Hanging Heart Valentine.

And, the inside...

The card base is made from Neenah Solar White 110lb card stock.  The hearts were all punched from StampinUp! red glimmer paper.  The ink I used was Gina K Designs Black Onyx ink and StampinUp! Real Red ink.  The flourish is Elegant Flourishes designed by Carolyn King from Gina K Designs.  The sentiments are from Boutique Borders: Love Mini Stamp Set and Boutique Borders: Valentine Mini Stamp Set both by Papertrey Ink.  I used a black gel marker and a ruler to draw in the hanging strings for each of the hearts.

I actually really like how the cards turned out.  The sparkly hearts really shimmer in the light and are popped up on dimensionals.

Thanks for stopping by.  I just finished uploading a bunch of my card photos to my computer so hopefully there will be more posts coming in short order.

I hope you can steal some time to stop back and 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 New Year!

Hello!  I wish all of you a very happy and healthy New Year!

I can't believe how much time has gone by since my last post.  Things have been incredibly busy both at home and at work.  We hosted a british soccer coach for 8 weeks this fall - that really impacted our schedules as well as time not only for crafting but also even sitting down at the computer to write any posts.  I still managed to make some cards this fall, mainly for specific events and requests.  I'll try to get caught up on posting those photos.

Today I just want to write a post an get back into the swing of things!

It's quite a cold day here.  It made the 5k race I did this morning quite brisk!  Now I'm just tired - it feels much later than it actually is.  Snuggling down on the couch under a nice thick blanket with a good book or maybe even a chick flick sounds wonderful.  Although, the book would probably be the better option - I might fall asleep during the movie.

Unfortunately, that's not to be.  I made a lasagne for my family for dinner tonight and it's almost ready.  Lasagne sounds easy, right?  Not so in my family.  One child doesn't like red sauce and prefers to have his lasagne made with meat and alfredo sauce.  The other two kids want red sauce with no meat.  My husband would choose red sauce with meat.  So, it becomes one lasagne made in three sections.  One end is alfredo and meat, the other end is red sauce with no meat.  My husband gets the center section which contains a little bit of both.  Then, I need to be gluten-free so I can't eat any of it!!! :)

So, here's some warm wishes for all of you for a happy and healthy 2014.

The card base is made using StampinUp!'s Night of Navy card stock.  The focal image was stamped in Night of Navy ink.  The stamps are Winter Blocks, designed by Tami Mayberry for Gina K Designs.

This was my original design for my company's Holiday Party invitations, but those ended up slightly different.  I'll post that invitation as well as the previous year's invitation soon.

Thanks for stopping by.  I promise to be more regular with my posting.  Hope you can come visit with me again soon.

L'Shana Tovah! - Happy Rosh Hashanah

Hello again! I wish all of you - Jewish or not, a Sweet Year!

Well, today was the first day of school.  Woo Hoo!  11th Grade, 7th Grade and 5th Grade.  Last year of elementary school - ever.  It is kind of weird, though.  Last year of elementary school, but we'll also be spending time looking at colleges!

A couple of weeks ago my friend Lily asked me to make her some cards to send out for Rosh Hashanah.  Since I am not Jewish, I had to do some "research" regarding the holiday and what kinds of cards would be appropriate.  Lily has asked me to make her cards for several different occasions - many of which I've posted here on my blog.  Since I really didn't have any Jewish stamps, I did some looking.

I ended up purchasing the Mazel Tov and Mazel Tov Additions sets from Papertrey Ink.  They are very versatile sets for making cards for Jewish holidays and include lots of the appropriate sentiments.

Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year.  Some of the images that are commonly used are apples and honey.  The typical sentiment is L'Shana Tovah.

Here is what I came up with - I was so happy that Lily loved them.

and the sentiment on the inside...

Here are the details of the cards.  The card base is made from Sahara Sand card stock.  The honey comb was created using the Hexagon Cover Plate die from Papertrey Ink.  I used part of the positive image from the die cut as well as some of the "extras" - the hexagons.  The apples and the bee were stamped on Neenah Solar White 80 lb layering weight card stock and then cut by hand. [Unfortunately, I don't have a silhouette cut file for either of those images :( ]  

The inks I used were Riding Hood Red and GinaK Onyx.  The inside and outside sentiments were from the Mazel Tov set.  The little flourish above and below the inside sentiment is from Mazel Tove Additions.  The apple is from the Garden Fresh stamp set by GinaK Designs, and the bee is from the A Beautiful Life set illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger for GinaK Designs.

That's all from me for now.  It's getting late, but since Rosh Hashanah started at sundown, I wanted to get this post out.

Thanks for stealing a few moments to visit with me!

Saltwater Cure

Oh boy, I can't believe it's been so long since I posted.  So sorry to be MIA for so long.  Needless to say, things have been a bit busy.  I have been making cards - stealing moments here and there as needed but haven't managed to even grab a single moment to post anything.

This card is what I made for my card swap back in July.  The group had put out a challenge to use sea stamps.  I pulled out one of my favorite Gina K Designs stamp sets illustrated by Melanie Muenchinger. The Gifts From the Sea set is just so much fun to work with.  I love all of the sentiments in the set.  I made some cards using this sentiment and then made one with the "If you want to know how much I love you, count the waves" for my husband.

 The card base is StampinUp! Sahara Sand, the image panel is Very Vanilla and the waves were cut from shimmery blue and aqua 12 x 12 paper that I found in my stash.  I cut them with the Catch a Wave Die-namics Die from MFT Stamps.

The inks that I used were StampinUp Sahara Sand for the sand texture and the starfish, Pool Party for the edges of the Sahara Sand focal layer and GinaK Onyx ink for the shell and sentiment.

I colored the shell with my copics: E30, R20, E04 and outlined it with W1.

Well, that's all the time I have for now.  Tomorrow is the first day of school for my three kids, so there's a bunch of organizing and morning prep work that I still need to do tonight.

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope to see you again soon!

Quick & Easy Gift Set

Hi There,

Just a quick post since it's been a while.  Things were crazy busy both at work and at home.  My company moved on July 26th - the same day my family was heading out on vacation.  Double packing and organizing duty kept me pretty busy.

We've been having a great time on vacation.  We've seen three rainbows in the last 6 days.  Everyone is exhausted and we're having a quiet night in so I thought I'd pop up a post.

This set of cards was a quick easy gift that I put together as a hostess gift.  I also made a couple of extra birthday cards at the same time.

This is the complete set.  The floral stamps are from GinaK Designs - the Hello Sunshine Stamp TV Set, as are a bunch of the sentiments.  At least one of the sentiments is from the Signature Greetings II Stamp set by Papertrey Ink.

Here is a close up of one of the extra Birthday Cards that I made:

I'll do my best to remember the supplies:  Paper - Neenah Solar White 110 lb base weight card stock.  Ink - StampinUp! Rich Razzleberry, Midnight Muse, More Mustard and Gumball Green.  The sentiment was stamped in GinaK Black Onyx.

That's it for now.  Maybe I'll get another post in if we have another early night.

Take care, thanks for stopping by!

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.

Lily's Cards - Anniversaries

Hi There,

Thanks for stopping by.  I thought I'd get caught up on a couple of cards that I haven't had a chance to post yet.

Both of these cards were commissioned by my co-worker Lily.  I'll talk about the most recent one first.

This one was for her to give to her husband Thursday to celebrate their 9th wedding anniversary.  The input that she gave me was that it had to have the number 9 on it since it was for their 9th anniversary.  I then asked what color she had used at her wedding.  Blue - a baby blue,  was her answer.

Here is what I came up with...

The card base was made from Neenah Solar White 110 lb card stock.  The white layers are Neenah Solar White 85 lb card stock.  The blue layers are DCWV Christmas & Winter Glitter Card Stock.  I cut the blue and white layers with Spellbinders dies.  The stamps are the Always & Forever stamp set duo by Gina K Designs.  I used the Always & Forever sentiment on the inside of the card.

I made another anniversary card of sorts for Lily in March.  This card was a celebration card/invitation to a party she was hosting to honor the 30th anniversary of her immigration to the United States from Romania.  For this one my direction was simply that it needed to incorporate red, white and blue but some yellow as well.  The Romanian flag is red, blue and yellow which is where the request for some yellow came from.  She wanted to reflect both her old life in Romania and her new life in the United States.  She wanted me to make a few so that she would have them to give to her invited guests to commemorate the event.  

I made one sample for her to look at, provide comments on and further direction.  Well, she loved it and wanted no changes.  So, here's the other card for Lily:

The card base was Neenah Solar White.  The other card stock was StampinUp! Not Quite Navy and Real Red.  I used craft whit ink for the white stars and real red ink for the inside sentiment.  The stars were all punched with the StampinUp! large star punch.  The navy star was embossed with an embossing folder.  The touch of yellow is 1/8" yellow grosgrain ribbon.

So there you have it Lily, both of your cards!  I'm glad to have had the opportunity to get to know you.

Hope you can stop by again soon!

Father's Day Cards - For real this time!

Hi there,

I updated the title of my previous post.  I had intended to post the Father's Day cards, but didn't have photos of them available and decided to go with the graduation cards.  But, I spaced and forgot to fix the title.

So, without further ado, here are the Father's Day Cards...

I needed one for my father, my step-father, my husband.  Then one for my husband from the kids.  I also made Father's Day cards for the kids to give to their grandfathers!  Hey, once I get into my craft room I go for broke!  I usually make multiples of whatever I am making so that I have extras to put into my craft fair stash.

Here is the card that the kids gave to my husband and also to their grandfathers.  The insides are the same.

 

All the sentiments, both outside and inside were printed on my printer.  The large stars on the front of the card are only partially cut using dies in my Big Shot.  Patterned paper was placed behind each of the openings.  The small patterned paper stars were cut with dies as well and then attached to the card.

I wanted to give my husband a Father's Day card from me, so this is what I came up with.  The paint stamps that I used are called Watercolor Wonder from Papertrey Ink and the Pocket Watch and coordinating sentiment are the Time stamp set duo from Gina K Designs.

I really liked the way this card turned out.  I can see a lot more backgrounds made with the Watercolor Wonder stamps for the background!

I hope all the fathers in your lives had great father's days!

Thanks for stopping by and come back soon.

Thanks, Coach!

Oh Boy, its been a while since I have posted.  Things have been super busy with work as well as the end of the school year approaching.  The weekends have been filled with soccer games.  Each weekend there are three games (since each of my kids plays).

Fortunately, only my middle child's team entered the Memorial Day Tournament this year.  In previous years when my oldest's team was entered, they mostly played the three scheduled games (2 on Saturday and 1 on Sunday) and one year they made it to the semi-finals which were late on Sunday afternoon.

This year was quite interesting.  The weather was horrible on Saturday.  Our first game was at 9 AM.  It was windy, raining and freezing cold!  Everyone was in layers and winter coats.  It was a great game and we won!  The afternoon game was at 3 PM and it was raining even harder.  It was cold and miserable, made worse by the fact that we lost 1-0.  Sunday morning's game was at 11:50.  Bright and sunny but still quite cold - sweatshirts and coats were definitely needed!  It was another tight game but we won.

Then for the rest of the day the only thing I heard was, "Have we gotten an e-mail yet, Mom?"  It wasn't until early evening that we received an e-mail informing us that we were moving on to the playoffs on Monday.  Sunday was a l-o-n-g day!

Monday was sunny and warm - quite pleasant.  We won the semi-final game in the morning and then had to go back in the afternoon for the finals.  It was a tough game, very thrilling to watch, a real nail biter at times.  But the boys were victorious and won the championship!  It was a great way to end the tournament.

Well, that was a really long prelude to today's card!  It's been an amazing soccer season for all three of my kids.  We typically take a collection for gifts for the coaches.  I made the cards for the coaches.  Between the three kids there are 9 coaches, so I made a bunch.

One of the moms loved the cards so much that she asked for two so that she could give them to her daughter's coach!  That was nice!

The white card stock is Neenah Solar White (base weight and layering weight for the ball).  The green layer is a retired StampinUp! green.  The stamps are designed by Melanie Muenchinger and are from Gina K Designs.  They are: Inspiration Mosaic, Just So Sporty and Sporty Accessories.

Thanks for stopping to visit.  See you again soon!

Mother's Day Cards - & A Happy Recipient

Hi There,

It's been super crazy lately and I never got a chance to post the Mother's Day cards that I made.

I had several that I needed - my mom, my grandmother, my sister, my step-mother,  our day care provider who has taken care of all of my three kids for the last 16 years!  I also had a co-worker ask to buy some Mother's Day cards.  So, I made two basic styles of cards.

For this card I used Melanie Muenchinger's A Year of Flowers 2 stamp set from Gina K Designs.  The sentiment is from Gina K Designs, Kindred Greetings for Her.

The card stock is SU Gumball Green and Wisteria Wonder for the bases, black for the layer and Neenah White 80lb layering cardstock for the image layer.  The inks are SU Gumball Green, Rose Red, Daffodil Delight and Gina K's new Black Onyx Color Companions Ink.  The ribbon was some scraps that I had laying around.

These were quick, easy cards.  I really like the sketchy style of Melanie's set.  It coordinates with so many of her other sets.  I am a real fan of Melanie's stamp sets - I think I have almost all of them!

I didn't want to send the exact same card to everyone that I needed to give a card to, so there had to be another style.  This time I chose Rebecca Oehlers' Bold Blooms set, which is also by Gina K Designs.  

I made eight of these cards - two of each color!  The colors I used are Pretty in Pink, Wisteria Wonder, Tangerine Tango and So Saffron.  The card bases are Neenah Solar White 110lb base weight card stock.  The ribbon was in my "stash" so I'm not quite sure where it was from! 

The blossom, leaves and sentiment were all stamped in Versamark ink and then embossed with white embossing powder.  Since the flowers were already colored due to the colored card stock I could have stopped there.  But, I wanted to make the flowers pop a bit more.  So, I took the matching Stampin Up Marker and just traced the outline of the white embossing on each of the flower petals.  Yes, it was a little time consuming, but it didn't have to be too exact!*  I just think it made the flowers have more dimension.

*As an engineer, sometimes its actually hard to let things be "not too exact"!   :)

I wrote out and mailed the cards that I needed to send and then brought the rest in to work for Lily to choose from.  I wanted her to be able to have some choices!

She chose one of each style.  One was for her grand-daughters to give to their mother.  The other one made her cry - she said it reminded her of her own mother.  

This is a picture of Lily's daughter-in-law with the card she received from her daughters.  It's not often that I get to see the recipients of my cards, so this was nice!  I'm glad she liked it!

So, one of the benefits of it being such a crazy week last week is that I got to post the Happy Recipient photo that Lily sent to me!

And although it's late, I hope you all had a Happy Mother's Day.  See you soon!

Thinking of His & Hers

Hi there,

It's been an absolutely crazy couple of weeks.  I haven't been able to craft any stolen moments!  We've been up to our eyeballs in concerts, soccer games, school open houses.

So, I'm behind on my homework for the His & Hers class by On Line Card Classes.  The class started on Monday, but I haven't been able to get into my craft room all week (well, for even longer than that!).   All three kids had a half day of school today so I came home early to be with them and managed to steal a few minutes in my craft room between organizing this evening's trip to LazerCraze for all you can play laser tag for my two son's and some of their friends.

Monday's topic was Thinking of You cards.  Three techniques were presented and our homework was to use one of the techniques and make both a masculine and a feminine card.

The first technique was utilizing the same sketch for both cards and was presented by Kristina Werner.

I decided to use Poster Board Sentiments by GinaK Designs.  I used the coordinating Silhouette cut files to cut out both the black mats and the focal pieces.  I felt that the card was a little plain so I made another one and embossed the card base.

This one is a little more interesting.  The card base is Pretty in Pink.  The inks used are Elegant Eggplant, Old Olive and Melon Mambo.

For the masculine card I used the same stamp set, same cut files but switched up the colors.

The card base is Crumb Cake and the inks are Not Quite Navy and Riding Hood Red.

Jennifer McGuire demonstrated Thinking of You cards using a Masked Border technique.  Here are my  feminine and masculine cards using the Masked Border technique:

The card stock that I used was Gumball Green for the card base and Neenah Solar White for the layer.  The two stamp sets are both from Gina K Designs, Lots of Dots and Assorted Greetings.  The ink colors are Gumball Green, Melon Mambo and Black.

The card base is Marina Mist and the same Neenah Solar White panel.  The inks are Marina Mist and Not Quite Navy.  The white layer was popped up on dimensionals.

I'm hoping that since this weekend is fairly light schedule wise - only two soccer games tomorrow - that I can get back into my craft room and work on days 2 through 5!

I'd love to hear what attributes you look for of when you choose feminine and masculine cards.

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!