Sunday, June 26, 2011

Birthday Girl

It's been several weeks since I have lifted a marker or made anything in my craft room, but sweet Aunt Cathy's birthday was the perfect excuse for some Sunday morning crafting. I reached for a perfect MFT stamp that a friend gifted me with awhile back- I love this image and it is simply perfect for her birthday card. I stamped the image in Memento Tuxedo Black and colored with Copics- if you look closely you can see how out of practice I am-lol!


I defied my cardinal rule, which is to pick paper before coloring, so I had to seriously dig through my stash to make something work- I ended up with a combination of papers from Sassafras Lass and MME. I stitched around the edges with the very last of my heavy duty thread- this may be the last thing I will be stitching on before we move next month! I kept the rest pretty simple with a punched greeting and some rhinestones for glitz.


The inside was finished with matching DP and a heart-felt "Happy Birthday"- we won't disclose any dates or ages, but simply wish Aunt Cathy a wonderful day!

Hope you're having a relaxing weekend- we're off to a goodbye party at a friend's house and hope that that we get a buyer at the open house today:)))

 





Supplies:
Stamps: MFT- a la modes: Birthday Girl
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Melon Mambo, Whisper White, MME-"Fine & Dandy-Tickled Pink", Sassafras Lass "Sunshine Lollipops"
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: SU: Circle punch, Designer Label Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Rhinestones, dimensionals; Janome sewing machine, Coats Heavy duty thread

Monday, June 6, 2011

Time flies!

Whew! I just looked at my last post and can't believe it's been two months since I posted a card or at least some silly musings!

Things have been crazy in the Karpen house since April 5th. My husband and I have accepted jobs in Atlanta at Emory University in Pediatrics and the Karpen family will soon be saying goodbye to Houston. More to come on that...

The first of our goodbyes happened last week when our son and daughter had the last days at their schools. We have been at River Oaks Elementary School for the past 7 years with one or both of our kids and will miss it dearly- what a special place!


 My daughter left her middle school party early to go back to her elementary school to say goodbye to all her former teachers and be at her brother's party (sweet girl!). Matthew loved his teacher this year (she is so fab!) and we will miss her so much!


Such a special teacher deserves a very special card (and then some-lol!) so I went to work making her a card for her keepsake box!

When in doubt for the cutest teacher cards, look no further than Heather Ellis' "Pure Innocence" and "Boy and the Dog" images. I purchased these digital images from her last year and use them every time I need a cute teacher card.

 Since I was starting these at 10pm and I needed to be up at 5am the next morning (ugh!), they had to be quick and clean. I used Photoshop to print the letters on the black/white boards and resized the images to be about 3"x3". I printed the images on my Epson 3800 which prints in pigment ink, heat set them then colored with Copics. I used some simple layers of DP from the "Playdate" paper pack from Stampin' Up- so perfect for school related cards and scrapbook pages! A die cut layer for the image, a few buttons, some red striped twine and it was done- super fast!

 The inside was finished simply with some of the number strip paper to leave lots of room for Matthew's note to his teacher (he has a lot to say, sweet boy!).


Emily's card was for her science teacher, Ms. Moore, who was the favorite this year. This card was very similar but I added flower shaped buttons to make it a bit more girly:))

That's it for today- tomorrow I will have pictures of my VERY clean and neat craft room to show you- its' hard to get motivated to create anything because I know it all has to be spiffed up each day since we are trying to sell our house! Here's keeping fingers (and toes!) crossed!






Supplies:
Stamps: Heather Ellis- Pure Innocence
Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Real Red, Playdate DP
Ink: Epson 3800 Printer, Copic markers
Accessories: SU: Buttons, red twine, dimensionals, Sizzix Big Shot; Nestability die