Hippo Hurray Birthday Card

Good Morning! Just a quick post this morning or I will be late for work! We have several birthdays in the months of October and November so I am always in need of birthday cards at this time of year. My Grandmother will be celebrating her 85th birthday on Saturday and this is the card that I will be sending to her. Image is from Pholkart Blessings and was colored with Copics, paper is DCWV.

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I have been posting a lot about my canning projects so I thought I would share what I made last night. I finished my apple butter, made cranberry sauce, and started some sauerkraut. I have never done kraut before so this should be interesting!

Have a great day!

Birthday Flower Cupcake

When I posted this card, I told you that this was an image I could see myself using over and over! I have already colored it with several different colors. Since yellow is my favorite color, this is one of my favorites that I have made with it so far. The image is from Michelle Perkett and is called Happy Birthday Flower Cupcake. The sentiment comes with it and for this card I used it as is and on the pink version, I cut out the cupcake and used the sentiment a little differently. I think is makes for a happy cheery card. The image was colored with Copics and the papers are Making Memories. 

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I am still playing around in my kitchen, canning everything that I can get my hands on! This past week has been filled with pickles. I think I will be serving pickles with every meal throughout the fall and winter. I have canned 54 pints of pickles (dill slices, kosher dill spears and whole pickles), dilly beans, pickled asparagus, 14 half-pints of corn salsa and got 10 pints of cream corn in the freezer. I was going to can the corn, but my pressure cooker will not work. It was used and I have had it for a long time and the lid seems to be a little warped so it isn't sealing tight enough so that the pressure can build up. The corn had to go in the freezer. I LOVE pickled asparagus but almost never buy it because it is so expensive. Kroger had asparagus on sale and I had a recipe and decided to give it a try. I can't wait to taste it. 

My spare bedroom now has canned goods on almost every surface! My parents are about the only people that use that room, and my dad is a gardener and canner too so he won't think it's too weird that he has to set his duffle bag on the floor instead of on the dresser. I think he will find the room pretty relaxing. Although, I will probably have to remove the cherry stuff and the peach stuff or check his bag as he leaves. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

Jenna's Birthday Card

Yesterday was Jenna's birthday--she is thirteen and a teenager now. I first met Jenna and her mom right before she turned four. She was this cute little shy girl and now she is growing into a beautiful, confident young lady. Time really does fly by quickly. One thing about Jenna that has not changed though, is that she is a girly girl and loves pink, glitter and sparkles. I knew this Michelle Perkett image wold be perfect for her birthday card. The image is called "Put on Your Party Dress". I colored the dress with Copics and then went over the flowers with a Sakura gel pen. I had to use the glitter pen, because every time Jenna comes over here to make cards, she uses the glitter pen. Her motto? "You can never have too much sparkle". So, while the dress looked great with just the glitter, I decided to add some tiny rhinestones to the center of the flowers. I used papers from Making Memories, rhinestones from Hobby Lobby and some ribbon from my stash.

Jenna liked her card and even commented that she wouldn't mind having a real dress like that. I think that is pretty high praise indeed. 

Thanks for dropping by today!

Birthday Cupcake

Good Morning! Over the weekend, I went to South Carolina for a family reunion and got back home late on Monday night. I had a great time! I have lots of needs for birthday cards in July and August so I am trying to get a little ahead so I don't have to buy any cards. I love this image from Michelle Perkett, it is just one of those images that I know I will use over and over again. It's colored with Copics and I used DCWV papers and some brads from my stash.

I drove to my parent's on Friday and got to celebrate the birthday of my niece, Zoie. I can't believe that girl is 14 already and starting high school this fall. From there I rode with my parents to the reunion in South Carolina. The reunion is my paternal Grandfather's family. We also have other family in the area so and we were able to visit them too. Unfortunately, both of my Grandfather's brothers are in the hospital and were unable to make it to the reunion. Missing the reunion was very upsetting to them both, but we went to visit them too.

This is a picture of my granddad "Papa Bill" and my Aunt Ella. She was celebrating her 90th birthday on Sunday while we were there. I love this picture, Bill is a HUGE cut up (it runs in the family) but in photos, he often looks like he is posing for American Gothic. I love that I got a great picture looking the way that we normally see him! My Aunt Ella was married to my great uncle Martin. I love that woman. She has a beautiful soul, and is one of the most amazing people I have ever met in my life. Being around her, just makes me want to be a better person. She has always provided an example of a true southern lady; always welcoming, always has something to offer you to eat, helping others any way she was able and an inner strength, strong as steel. She always makes me want to be a better person, not by shining a light on my imperfections, but by helping me see the good in myself. And she has that effect on everyone she meets. As I said, I just love that woman and one day hope I can be like her. 

Spring with Polka Dots

Happy Monday!! I had a great weekend. I spent some time outside working in my flower beds, finishing my compost bin, I fixed some holes in the driveway and tried to get some pots ready to plant something in soon. I know it is a little early to actually get anything out, but I am going to be ready! We also managed to catch a movie and I remembered to pick up Kip from the airport on time. I am loving our warmer weather we have been having recently. The challenge on the Riley and Company blog is Spring with Polka Dots. For us, spring has tons of family birthdays, it seems like every week or so we are getting together and celebrating with someone. I decided to use this challenge to get ahead of making all those birthday cards and you know me, I love polka dots!

Image is Cake Riley and was colored with Copics, DCWV papers, a Fiskars border stamp and some brads from American Crafts.

Have a great day!

Happy 9th Birthday

Good Morning! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I did. It was crazy busy but I had a lot of fun. I participated in my first 5K, taught a Copic class at my LSS, and had my parents visiting here for the weekend. Mom and I did quite a bit of shopping and Dad and Kip hang out and watched a movie. On Thursday evening we helped my little crafting buddy Samantha celebrate her 9th birthday. This is her birthday card. The image is from Shirley's 2 Girls and was colored with Copics. I added some glitter and brads and around the 9 on the number paper I added a circle of rhinestones. All the 9s on the paper were colored with a glitter pen that doesn't show up very well in the picture.

So I had three goals for the 5K. I wanted to actually do it, do it in less than an hour and not be the last person. I accomplished all three. I'm pretty happy with myself for accomplishing that. I will start working today training again so that I can beat my time on the next one!

Have a great day!!

Happy Birthday Abby

Hello! We are going to be celebrating my niece Abby's 10th birthday tonight and this is the card that I made for her. To celebrate this birthday her mom has planned a fun night, with all the girls in the family. So my SIL, MIL, Abby and her other aunt are all going out to dinner, then Abby is going to get her ears pierced and we might manage to sneak in a little shopping too. Should be a lot of fun! We got her some pretty earrings that she can wear after the studs can come out. When I saw those rhinestone butterflies, the reminded me of the earrings so I wanted to include them on the card. 

I have mentioned that I have been in the process of moving my craft supplies and sorting through all my "stash". It is taken forever it seems like and I still have stuff to go through. It is amazing how much stuff one can buy and then forget you have it. Especially things that I bought for a specific project. I will use the items for whatever project that it was purchased for and then the leftovers seem to just get shoved into the back of a drawer. I also have a very large stack of images that are already colored that have just been sitting there waiting to make it onto a card. For the next several months (or years!) I am challenging myself to use those images and all those opened packages of embellishments on at least one card a week. 

Not only have I been working on organizing the crafting area, I have been trying to re-do and decorate the kitchen. I have shown you part of the items that will be used in that room and will post pictures as soon as I get it finished. I have gone through drawers, cabinets, rearranged and moved things trying to make the kitchen a little more functional. This kitchen was definitely not designed for someone that loves to cook in mind. I am trying it make a little more cook friendly. My Mom was here last weekend and we went to Hobby Lobby to pick out material for curtains, she has them made and is going to mail them back to me. After that, I will post some pictures. She is teasing me though, she texted me after they were done and said she liked them so much that she thought she might keep them and re-do her kitchen around them! Thanks for stopping by today!

Kip's Zombie Birthday

Here is the card I made for Kip for his birthday yesterday. He loves Zombie stuff and I was so happy to find Zombie images from Simply Betty Stamps. I tend to do themes for my gift giving opportunities so this birthday was definitely for the living dead! I pulled my Halloween stuff back out to find the fence and the tombstone, both are for Martha Stewart. My image is from Simply Betty Stamps and was colored with Copic markers. The sentiment was computer generated and I used DCWV papers and some brads from Jo-Ann's.

I always try and find Kip a puzzle along the lines of a Rubik's cube and one of the first places I look is ThinkGeek. While I was there I found this great zombie wrapping paper and a cool zombie mug to go with it. I also found this puzzle. I think that will keep him busy for a few days anyway! I already knew there was a new zombie game being released the week of his birthday that he would be getting so it was a total zombie birthday.

I even thought about making him a zombie themed cake, but I found a recipe for a Peanut Butter Chocolate cake and since he loves all things peanut butter and chocolate, I went with that.  The cake itself is peanut butter, then there is a peanut butter filling between the layers and then it was iced with a chocolate fudge icing. I make some extra of the filling and used that to decorate the cake. Wow, that cake was delicious, even if I do say so myself!

We went for dinner with family and friends at a local Thai restaurant and then went to the midnight release of Harry Potter. And that was Kip's birthday!

Twisted Thursday--All about Birthdays

Hello and welcome to another Shirley's 2 girls Twisted Thursday! This week the twist is all about birthdays. Isn't that a great sentiment when you want to rub it in that someone (especially someone older than you) is getting on up there in years. I love that dog holding the "woof woff" sign too. My image was colored with Copic markers and I used paper from DCWV, ribbon and star brads from Hobby Lobby. 

Want to play along with us? Simply create your birthday project and then link it HERE for a chance to win your choice of S2G images. 

Want to put a face on an invisible illness. Click HERE to read my story.

One Image, Three Cards

Hello! Yesterday was Shirley's 2 Girls Digi Day on SNR Card Universe. We were all given this free digi to work with and then met on the forum to chat and show everyone what we had created. If you haven't every participated in these Digi Days, you should check them out sometime, they are tons of fun. The next scheduled S2G one is on March 14th, I'll post a  reminder a little closer to the date. As soon as I saw this, I thought of first birthdays, but the more I thought about it, I thought that if you changed the colors, it could commemorate the first of anything: first date, first anniversary, first place. If you wanted to recognize a first place sports win, you could make the card with sports team colors. It could also be a general card to anyone that is #1 in your life. Since my first thought was birthdays and I have friends with little boys nearing their first birthdays I made cards for them. I made both cards with the same color combo, but each was colored different and uses a different layout. 
I love seeing people make cards with the same image and getting different looks. It helps me be able to look at my own stamps in different ways so that I get the most use out of them. After quitting my other job a few months ago, my stamp budget took a hit so I have been enjoying this exercise in creativity! I decided to make another one using my favorite colors this time. I love this summer mat stack that I got from DCWV, it was full of yellows, oranges and reds. 

Top 2 cards: Image from Shirley's 2 girls, paper is Making Memories, card stock is DCWV, punch from EK Success, and orange stickles.

Card 3- Image from Shirley's 2 Girls, paper and card stock from DCWV, colored with Copics and flower and brad from my stash.

S2G Birthday Bash Blog Hop

WANT TO PARTY? 

Guess who's turning '1' this month? 

You got it S2G is turning "1"...and all they want to do is get Silly, Blow horns, Eat cake,

Throw some confetti, Give away stuff, and sing!  Wanna come along?   It starts Feb.11th! 

(Pssst!   You know what else...they’ve updated their website just in time for the BIRTHDAY 

BASH so once you’re done hopping,  head on over to the site and check it out!)   Shirley's 2 Girls 

LET'S CELEBRATE!   Join the S2G Design Team for a 'SCRUMPTIOUS' Birthday Bash Blog Hop. 

We'll show you lots of “SWEET” new digital stamps...all with a birthday theme.  

LET'S TALK PRESENTS!    The 'GIRLS" are gonna be giving away a BUNCH of GOODIES...(stamps, some of the Birthday DIGIS,  ribbbons, embellishments, & birthday stuff)!

WHY?  Because it's their BIRTHDAY!   

We thought we'd STIR things up a bit!  ALL of the DT members have "a word hiding in their Blog Hop POSTS...the words will describe 'things' or 'ingredients' that you need to make a  SUPER DELICIOUS Birthday Cake!    

Be the first to COLLECT ALL "14" words & YOU will be showered by S2G...with GOBS of GOODIES!  

This is your first stop on the hop. We don’t want you to miss anything so below is the list of blogs in case you get lost and need to come back here to start again. 

**Don’t forget to play along with us this week for our Twisted Thursday Challenge. There is not a sketch but the TWIST is to Tell us your favorite thing about birthdays and post your card to Mr Linky! 

We’ll select 2 winners via random.org and you will get your choice of a digital stamp from our website.

For my projects today, I decided to make things using the Birthday Party Favor Digis. I think this is one of the best examples of why digis are so great; they can be sized to whatever your project is and you can create an entire matching party set from invitations to treats to decorations all using the same images and coordinate all your party goods. One of my favorite things about a birthday party are the treats and activities. I remember going to parties as a child and getting that little goodie bag of treasures to take home with me. Now as an adult, I have a non-crafting friend that lets me make all the treats and treasures for her daughters' treat bags. I started with these fun mazes.

Remember these? I simply took small plastic mazes from the kid's party section, popped off the back and inserted the digi image of my choice that was sized and decorated and then reassembled them. You just have to be careful taking the back off or you will lose the little ball. These are a lot of fun and can be made with any image and make great little items to keep in your purse to keep little ones entertained when you are waiting somewhere. Here are mazes made with each of the images:

Still sticking with the Party Favor digis that I chose, I decided to make little treat holders too. I made the digis a little smaller this time. I wanted them a little smaller than the opening in my treat holder so that you can see the Sour Gummi Bears that are in each one. The bears also match my color theme I have going on here. I just attached my digi, filled the container, added a bow and there were my treats!

I thought I would show you one more project with my Party Favor digi. This time I blew up the circle a little larger and picked one to color and made a card with it.  I think these would make great invitations or thank you cards after the party.

Hopefully you came here from Jane's blog, if not you might want to start at the beginning. You don't want to miss a stop so you can collect all the words for your chance to win! So grab yourself a BOWL of Sour Gummi Bears to decorate your cake with and head on over to Ann's blog to see her fabulous project.

Happy Birthday Kip!

Yesterday was my husband's birthday. We went out and ate with his family and some friends on Sunday and I have him his gifts then but I waited to give him his card until his actual birthday. Well, his actual birthday according to his Mom and the hospital where he was born. When he requested a copy of his birth certificate a year or so ago from the state of Texas they have him being born one week later, on the 25th rather than the 18th. I am going to go with his Mom's date, I think she would be the one to remember! Actually he said we could get him gifts for both dates or we could make it a week long celebration. So here is the card I made for him. I started with this image that I think is from an older Inkadinkado set. After stamping it, I colored everything with Copic markers and then covered the puddles with Glossy Accents. I love this paper from DCWV, I think the colors are just great. For the strip in the middle, I simply trimmed a piece of one of the green stripes. The buckle is a stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps, from a set called Embellish It. I embossed it with Expresso embossing powder and then cut it out and slid it onto the green strip. 

Wow, it's almost time for me to get up and get ready for work. I woke up around 2:30 and couldn't go back to sleep so I got up and started working on some craft stuff. I have cleaned my desk some, colored some imaged for some invitations that I am making, cut out some stuff and blogged about this card, all before it is time for me to actually get up. Work is going to be hard, because i will probably be ready to crash around 9:30! Thanks for visiting!

Happy Birthday Angela!!

My very, very good friend Angela had a birthday this past weekend. Since I was out of town on her birthday, I will be giving her gift to her tomorrow. Isn't that saying just the funniest? Especially knowing that I am giving her new stamps as a gift!! Not only is this new rubbah, but it is a line of stamps that neither one of us have bought yet. I can't wait to give her gift to her. Angela is my friend that I craft with the most, the one that I share ideas and supplies with the most too. The stamp of the woman is from Inky Antics and was stamped with Memento ink and colored with Copic markers. The sentiment is from a company called Stamp Verses. I used paper from 7 Gypsies, ribbon from Target's bridal section and brads from the Paper Studio. I asked Angela to make sure and not look at my blog before I get to work in the morning so she can see everything in person. I'd love to know what you think!

Balloon Card and a couple of layouts

Just a quick post today! This card was made using the sketch provided in the Clean and Simple challenge on Splitcoast this week. At first I really struggle with the CAS concept, but I have found that I really enjoy it. Since I tend to like bright colors and I like those bright colors paired with white, CAS works for me quite well. I used a stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps, I believe it was the stamp of the month from last June, to stamp my balloons and sentiment. The balloons were colored with Copics and a white gel pen was used for hi-lights. Ribbon and paper are from my stash.

Yesterday I mentioned that I was going to be helping some little girls with Pet Scrapbooks (not for the pets though!). I thought I would include a couple of layouts that we did. Actually they just needed a little help from me and then they did their own thing.

Jenna's page:
Kristina have never scrap-booked before and here is her page: 
We had a great time playing around with all the animal pictures. Thanks for dropping in!

Zoie's Birthday and 10,000 hits!

Wow! I have now had 10,000 hits on my blog! Thank you to everyone that visits me here in my little world and an extra huge thanks for all the encouraging comments that you leave. They really do make my day!

This is a card I made for my niece Zoie, her birthday is Monday so I need to get her card in the mail today or tomorrow. She will be eleven. I can't believe it. My brother wanted me there when she was born and I told him to make sure they called me when they were heading to the hospital so that I could make sure that I got there on time. I had a bag packed and ready to go. He called and I told my boss I was heading out as soon as I got that call. It is a three hour drive from here to there and I got to the hospital 27 minutes before she made her arrival. She gave us all a scare and spend a week or so in the NICU, but she has been a healthy little girl since then. Zoie is definitely tween and likes everything sparkly and all those other girly things. I thought this Anya would be the perfect image for her. Her favorite colors are blue and green so I picked out this paper and then colored everything to match with Copic and Prisma markers and added some sparkle to the hairband and purse with a green Spica pen. Want to know a trick I just learned? See those photo corners? I didn't have the right shade of blue paper to go with everything else so I colored a piece of paper with the same marker that colored my image with and then punched out the photo corners! Voila! Perfectly matched accents! The sentiment is from an Inkadinkado mini set and was stamped with CTMH Crystal blue ink and then I went over that with a Sakura glitter pen. Thanks for stopping by!

Far Out...It's Your Birthday

Wow, it has been really hot here today! We took Kip's dad out for dinner tonight and made a quick run to Target, and that was it for us being out today. This set I have made here is a birthday gift for someone like me who was born in the 70s. I started the Hippy Hanna and then stamped and colored her with Copic and Prisma markers. My dad's sister is actually closer to my age than to his and she was teen-ager in the 70s and I was the pesky little kid that followed her everywhere. I remember watching her get ready to go on dates and out with her friends. She had some of these multi colored jeans! I also remember her having jacked and jeans with those fuzzy iron on patches. To create that look here, I used Liquid Applique on her jeans. That is the only tie-dyed paper I have been able to find anywhere and I love it! You can see the outside of the card says "Far Out", and the inside that you can't see says "It's Your Birthday".

I decided to make this little treasure box full of '70s memories. The box is an A2 card size box that I stamped with Versamagic inks and then added some foam stickers that I got from the girls' collage box.
Inside the box are things that I remember enjoying from my childhood in the 70s; Chicklets chewing gum, Pop-Rocks, Dr. Pepper flavored Lip Smackers, a ring pop, candy necklaces, a Mad-Libs game, some smiley face stickers, and this cool keychain that I made using the accessories from the Hippy Hanna set stamped onto Shrinky Dink film. Thanks for visiting. This is my last entry for the Hanna Stamps Guest DTS call. I don't envy whoever is judging that, there are some fantastic entries. Have a great night!!
Stamps from Hanna Stamps, paper is Paper Pizzaz, brads are Making Memories (I believe) and images were colored with Copic, Prismas, and Spica Markers, card stock is DCWV. Other items used: Shrinky dink film, pony beads, jump rings and a key chain.