Quickie Birthday!

Whew! It's been a long time since I have made or posted anything! All my creative juices have been consumed in the past 7 months building a new nest for the Karpen family here in Atlanta. Although the process was painful at various points,we have finally moved into our new home and are getting settled in. I relied heavily on a wonderful architectural/decorating site called Houzz for inspiration- if you haven't checked it out, it's a must! Be warned though, it will give you major house envy and make you want to start all kinds of renovation projects!

The porch is definitely one of my favorite places in our new house and the cooler weather is making me ready to break in the fireplace!

I'd like to say that my craft room was unpacked first, but sadly mommy always takes last priority-lol! It's still way too disorganized for pictures- that will have to wait for another day.

OK, onto the card I have to share for today. Darling daughter needed a card for a friend's birthday sleepover and asked, of course, 20 minutes before we needed to leave if I could make her a card. All I could think was "Are you kidding? I'm not sure I can find my stamps, much less my Mojo!" I grabbed some paper from a new collection by Stampin' Up called Patio Party and the Unity July Kit of the Month {KOM}which had all kinds of great birthday stamps!

I love the lanterns and pennants and the greeting was perfect! The stamp was larger than I expected, so minimal opportunity for layers and embellishments- which was good because the teen was breathing down my neck to leave (are you done yet???)

I used some of the border strip paper from this collection for the inside and another greeting from the set. The card is CAS and shows that you really can get a card done in 15 minutes or less:))

Hope you're someplace safe and warm if you're in the northeast and enjoying the beautiful weather if you're down south!

 




Supplies:
Stamps: Unity July 2012 KOM
Paper: Patio Party Designer Series Paper, Whisper White, Midnight Muse, Summer Starfruit
Ink: Midnight Muse
Accessories: Nestability Tags 5, Sizzix Big Shot,  Designer Buttons, Summer Starfruit 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon, hemp twine, glue dots

Aged to Perfection...

Good morning! After the violent storms that whizzed through on Friday night, we woke to an absolutely gorgeous morning today- deep blue skies, lots of birds singing- a real bonus day! The photos of the devastation just to the north in Indiana and Kentucky break my heart- makes you realize how fortunate you are every day.

Speaking for fortunate, I have had the pleasure of making a few great new girl friends since my move to Atlanta and one of these wonderful women was having a celebration of her 45th birthday last night. Of course this called for a hand-made card, but I didn't want it to be too serious or mushy, so I cruised over to Bugaboo Stamps and found some great digi images from the "Stella" collection. She's so old and crotchety- prefect for what I was aiming for!

I didn't have a lot of time, so I had to keep embellishments and layers to a minimum. I pulled out some paper from Cosmo Cricket "UPcycle" pack- kind of vintage girl patterns- so a great fit for Stella. I wanted to paper-piece her skirt but my husband was already tapping his watch as I was finishing it...next time!

The inside was finished with some coordinating paper and a computer-generated greeting. The theme of "aged to perfection" went along well with the awesome bottle of wine my husband pulled from his cellar that we gave her for her birthday- definitely one to save for a hot date!

Hopefully she gets as much of a chuckle out of Stella as I do:))

Have a great day!

 





Supplies:
Stamps: Stella- Aged to Perfection (Bugaboo Stamps)
Paper: Crumb Cake, Wild Wasabi, Very Vanilla, Cosmo Cricket- "UPcycle"
Accessories: Sizzix Big Shot, Nestabilities, small oval punch, Designer Buttons, Crinkled seam binding ribbon, hemp twine, sewing machine

Happy Valentine's Day, Human!

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone-I'm just getting this post in under the wire! Last week, the teachers at my son's school decided that Valentine's should be exchanged on Friday, Feb 10th, instead of the usually accepted Feb 14th. This put me in a spin because I had planned on having the weekend to come up with some cute treats for my son to give for Valentines-oops! In addition, they wanted a decorated box or bag to collect the treats in, so mommy had to go into over-drive the night before.

For a 9-year old boy, gushy Valentine's were not definitely going to work, so out came this adorable robot from Birdie Brown by Torico. I grabbed some boy colors for Valentines (reds, blues and a splash of orange- definitely no pink, please!) and a left-over Starbucks bag:)) I re-sized and printed the robot in Photoshop and colored him with Copics. I added some sprockets from Cosmo Cricket's "Cogsmo" set and a computer generated greeting in " Homemade Robot" font.

My son asked to give Dove chocolate hearts, so I made some little pillow boxes to contain his special treats. It's hard to see here, but the boxes were stamped with a small red heart, tied with turquoise blue ribbon and a robot tag. My son loves to craft, so he got to color all 25 robot tags while I finished his box- gotta love child labor!

I was up until 3am finishing up his bag and treat boxes, but the smile on his face and the big thank you kiss I got for not getting store bought Valentine's was all worth it:))

Hope you've had a great day with your Valentine!

You Turn Me Around...

Whew, it's been a long time since I've been posted anything (or even picked up a marker-lol!). I've been consumed with work and another super creative project that is draining all my energy and time. A hobby other than stamping {gasp}?! Not this girl:)- "this creative project" is a new house! We started building our dream home last week and, although we only have a huge hole and piles of dirt, there is a LOT of planning, drawing and picking to do! Yesterday was tile and stone day- lots of pretty things to choose from, and of course a new craft room:>>>

Until that time, I need to make myself content to create in my little stamping space in our rental house. To combat the short, rainy days of late, I decided I needed to make something cheery and bright. This cute set called "Perfect Pinwheel" that I bought from MFT last year fit the bill perfectly! I used paper from last year's Sale-a-bration set and some of the new Scallop Dots Ribbon. I wanted to use a Pixie stick (card and a treat:) but all the Halloween goodies are long since gone so a wooden skewer and some ribbon it was!

I finished the inside with coordinating papers and stamped the pinwheel from the "PI and the Pinwheel" set- I {love} Heather Ellis' images! I gave this card to my assistant Vicki {hi Vicki} as a little pick-me-up and thanks for all she does for me each and every day. Everybody needs a little cheer once in awhile!

That's it for today- we are expecting basement walls this week so praying for good weather!