I'm on a roll!

This week was absolutely crazy!  Shane and I were on diametrically opposite schedules; every single day, one of us left in the morning while the other was still asleep and one of us came home when the other had already gone to bed.  We needed to have some time just for us, and had a great time hanging out in Denton today.

We came home and I turned on my "workout" music to keep the energy up.  Shane decided to try out his new electric smoker and I sat down to make some cards.  I think our results were both awesome: his ribs were smoky and fall-off-the-bone tender, and my two cards turned out well!

First, I needed to make a card for the baby shower I skipped for our "together time."  (oops.)  You'll recognize that this is the same Close To My Heart Everyday Celebrations pattern as the card I made for Ana's birthday; I just swapped out the birthday image on the front with the baby carriage and "sweet baby" stamp from the D1130 stamp set.  Or, as Shane said, the "War of the Worlds" baby carriage.  :)  Inside, I used a bracket from the Random Thoughts C1399 On the Edge set and a chocolate Bigger Brad, which apparently is my new thing inside cards!

 

February is "birthday week" in my family: my brother, sister, and dad all have birthdays within seven days!  This year is a big one; my brother turns 21.  BUT, My sister's comes first, so I needed to do her card tonight so I could send it on its way.  Again, I used the Everyday Celebrations kit for the card pattern and paper.  

I pulled out the D1269 February Word Puzzle stamp set because I intended to use the word 'February,' but I had a whole new inspiration once I saw the tag!  I used the '2' and '7' from D1137 Giggle Lowercase and a 't' and 'h' from the D1301 Hodgepodge Alphabet to stamp the milestone in the main area.  Then I stamped the tag in Dutch Blue, cut it out, inked the edges, and stamped Kerri's name with Hodgepodge Alphabet letters.  I tried affixing it to the card with ribbon, but didn't like the way it looked, so put a bitty brad at the end and raised it above the card with sticky squares.

Inside and on the back of the envelope, I mixed the February Word Puzzle and Celebration stamps and added a piece of matching scrap paper to make the money 'sleeve' inside.  Shane said this one was my best yet.  Hope she likes it as much as we do!

   

Finally: Two Cards

Since I haven't done a good job of posting things as I make them, I figured that I can at least post them when they go out the door!

I made this first card a few months ago at a crop at my friend Pam's house near Tyler.  Pam is an unbelievable inspiration -- she has taught me so much and introduced me to all the incredible CTMH products that I use all the time!  Another great lesson: save every little scrap!  She'd saved a ton of scraps and said they were ours for the taking, so I spent nearly half the day making cards instead of layouts!  It is amazing what you can cobble together with the tiniest pieces :)

 

I made this next card last night for one of my team members, Ana, whose birthday is today.  (HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANA!)  The cardstock, pattern, stamped shapes, and polka dot paper are from the Close To My Heart Everyday Celebrations pack, the lettering on the envelope and inside the card is CTMH Giggle Lowercase, and the brown patterned paper is from the CTMH Serendipity paper pack.  I think you'll start to see that I have quite the penchant for browns and use them all the time! 

The envelope and the inside (before I finished it out):

After writing my message, I decided it was a little "left-heavy"
and added the brads for balance.  The first thing she said when
she opened up the card was that she loved "the buttons" :)

And finally, the front.  I took an angled shot so you can get an idea 

of the dimension.  The blue cardstock is raised above the brown paper 

with sticky squares.  I distressed the edges quite a bit before and after 

inking them and loved the way it helped toughen up the "sweet" images!

And that's all for tonight.  I'm hoping to be better about posting things before I give them away.  It is such a shame to give people beautiful things and not be able to look back and enjoy them for myself!!