My son-in-law celebrates a birthday!

Don has decided to celebrate his birthday today by going camping one last time in Washington before their move to West Virginia!  I don't think the West Virginia humidity will make camping as much fun there, but in Washington, July and August are the very best months to camp...no humidity, of course.  The weather is generally in the low to mid 80s...can't ask for anything better that's for sure!  To celebrate his birthday, I thought a card about camping out be perfect, and here it is:

Happy Birthday Don...enjoy you camping trip!

Sister-in Laws with July Birthdays...

I have two sister-in-laws with birthdays in July--what can I say, my husband is the oldest of eight, plus my own family--makes for a lot of sister-in-laws!!

Dianne's birthday is TODAY, and the wise owl sends birthday thoughts her way!  I just love using owls in my cardmaking!  (Again, this card was taught by my sister, Heidi Gonzales (My Lil' Scrap Corner)...it was fun to put together and use all of the Stampin' Up tools and the Smooch paper line.)

Happy Birthday, Dianne!

All the way in Colorado, another sister-in-law celebrates her birthday later in July.  Again, the card I chose for Jeanie was made as part of a class taught by my sister, Heidi, using the Stampin' Up Smooch papers.  I changed the front sentiment using the computer with Razzleberry-colored ink and the Fling LET font.  The card I chose for Jeanie follows:

Happy Birthday, Jeanie!

Recipe: SU cardstocks, Smooch paper, SU button, SU stamp: Aviary, SU ribbon, Daffodil seam binding ribbon.

A Daughter's Birthday!

Happy Days!  This card was chosen as a

SPLITCOASTSTAMPERS FAVORITE OF

WEEK ENDING - JULY 15, 2012

 

Daughter, Michele, celebrates her birthday today!  I had to get my creative juices flowing to make her a special birthday card that said, "Yes, this card was made especially for Michele!"  For the past year, I've been thinking about making a card for her using a vintage seed packet, depicting gardening, because she so likes to work in her yard.  She has been wanting to plant some roses...especially Mr. Lincoln (a blood red with a delicious smell) to commemorate her late Grandfather Bill, his favorite.  But with their move to West Virginia in the near future, that will have to wait three years until their return as roses need careful tending here with all our rain and cool weather!  But meanwhile, her new rhododendron garden is looking beautiful...so fitting here in the northwest where they grow wild!  Here is her card that evolved from perking slowly for almost a year...LOL! 

Happy Birthday, Michele...enjoy!

Ingredients:  Papers: Backround/ Aqua: Mind's Eye (Laundry Line/ Breaking Free); Paisley/ Red dot (behind seed packet): K&Company-Classic K Balley pad; Tools/gloves: K&Company dimensional stickers; Butterfly: Martha Stewart (sponge daubbed); Fence: Die-namics (My Favorite Things).  (SplitcoastStampers Thread: July 15, 12/ #9).

HUGE Congratulations in Order...

This post is bittersweet for sure!  My son-in-law has been promoted to Warrant Officer in the Coast Guard...that is absolute GREAT news!  Now the bittersweet part, they are being transferred from Washington state to West Virginia!!  That is just a bit of a distance...approximately 2,700 miles or 42 hours of driving!  Hmm...right now I drive to Michele's house in 10 minutes...that will be a HUGE change for three years, and who knows after that!

To celebrate and congratulate Don on this GREAT promotion and wonderful milestone in his career, here is my card: 

Ingredients:  Night of Navy/ Cherry Cobbler/ Baja Breeze cardstocks (Minds Eye stripe/ stars unknown).  Embossing Folder:  Square Lattice.  Stamp set:  The Open Seas - gold embossing lightly applied/ heavy to anchor.  Denim/ Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.  Applied faux patina process to Baja Breeze embossed with Square Lattice, using stamp pads:  Crumb Cake, Cherry Cobbler and Not Quite Navy: sponge daubbing followed by Versamark/ heat-set Gold Embossing powder.  Sentiment: computer-generated; Stampin' Up Modern Labels punch.

Father's Day 2012 is almost HERE!

Several weeks ago I returned from a loooong visit to California, and I've been trying to get my car full of scrapping tools and materials back into the house and put away.  Of course, not only did the old stuff come home, but lots of new goodies as well!  It is taking a lot of creativity to get it all stored away, but not the kind of creative juices I really wanted to employ!

 In the back of my mind, I've been fermenting an idea for a card for my husband for Father's Day.  Over the last several months, I've seen several cards using maps, and with that idea in mind, I just had to see what I could come up with.  The other day an overwhelming urge drove me to get started (even though my room's still a mess...LOL).  After much "that's good" and "no, not good" attempts, here it is.

Father's Day card...June 17, 2012

I had blues and browns in mind and some sort of vintage car, depicting traveling and a journey.  Internet surfing brought me this little 1930 Austin in just the right color, and I was on my way.  I only had two papers with maps and neither would work...so again to my computer.  I found several maps and passport stamps and downloaded them; tweaking their colors to get just what I wanted, even sponge daubed Canada...it was too white!  (I really liked the shades of blues on an Antarctica map, but didn't see John traveling there, so had to discard that thought...but, I really like the colors...oh well...another day!) LOL

And here is the finished inside...

Another Graduation Owl...

I soooo love this little owl punch!  I needed to make another graduation card for John's great-nephew, Tim...I just had to do another card using this lovable little guy.  I really got myself involved in this one.  School colors were forest green and silver and it had to be a guy card, too!  I just wasn't finding  paper I liked or in the right shade of green, so I decided to make my own.  Out came the green cardstock--I composed a Word document with definitions of all things graduation to make my star paper, and then I was on a roll.  Didn't have gray thread for the tassel, so out came the Copics...love how you can use them to color embellishment, even ribbon, the right shade!  Here is my new little star owl:

Congratulations, Tim!

And then, I finished the inside:

Graduation Owl Contratulations!

Very late last night, my son contacted me with a brilliant idea (he knows I'm a night owl, LOL).   But, the catch was he needed help with his idea!  Hmm...the question is, should I say yes or no, which is the right answer!  Dumb me, I just don't know how to say no!  Lo and behold...it was a graduation card needed for the daughter of an old friend.  The catch was he needed it by 8:00 a.m. the next morning because that was when they were leaving for Idaho for the graduation.  Guess who was up all night getting this wonderful card done...but, I am really happy with how my little graduation owl turned out:

Your welcome, son!

And, here is the card's decorated inside with verse:

Working on June Birthdays!

I have several birthdays in June, so I am diving into my stash of cards I made during the last month and tweaking them here and there to suit these special birthdays.  One of my signature traits is to always decorate the inside and compose a verse or poem to suit the person who will be receiving the card.  So far, here is what I've come up with. . .

This card will be for John's mother's birthday TODAY!

She IS 97 ...WOW!

This card was taught by Amy Muhly at a Stampin' Up workshop.  

I loved learning this embossed brayer technique...very elegant!

I tweaked my layout a bit and my sentiment ribbon is a birthday, 

but the flavor of Amy's design is retained.  Stampin' Up Beautiful Wings Embosslit (Sizzilit die) die-cuts the butterflies.

And now the inside decorations and a verse for a wonderful lady...

Happy Birthday Alice!

This little girl will be a birthday card for John's aunt...her 91st!
The card's techniques were taught by my sister, Heidi Gonzales (My Lil' Scrap Corner):  tri-fold card design, coloring with woodless-colored pencils and paper-piecing (skirt).  I enlarged the card from its original design.

And now its verse...Happy Birthday, Aunt Joanie!

I think this is the perfect card for my sister-in-law, 

who lives in warm and sunny California.  I'm sure they must be at least 20 degrees warmer than our northwest Washington location!

(Card class by Heidi Gonzales to introduce Stampin' Up Smooch papers.)

And now a verse for my newest sister-in-law...Happy Birthday Thelma!

Get Well Card for Niece./ Cheer Up to Niece!

My three-year-old great niece just had her tonsils and adenoids removed yesterday...a bit of surgery!  My family wanted to send her some get well wishes along with a DQ gift card for ice cream...what better way to get well!

Taylor's get well card

(sample card seen in a current card magazine)

And then a little verse inside to help with recovery!

I made a little card to let my niece know we are thinking about her during this bit of a stressful time. . .

Shauna, we have you and your family in our thoughts and prayers...
keep your chin up!
(Card made during Amy Muhly Stampin' Up card club.  I tweaked the "Thinking of You' sentiment from original design.)

My inside card design and sentiment (Stampin' Up products used: Top Note Die, Butterfly embosslits, Itty Bitty punch.)

And Mother's Day came in 2012...

While in California this spring, my sister, Heidi Gonzales (My Lil' Scrap Corner), gave several card and embellishment classes, and I thoroughly enjoyed them.  I always learn so much from my sis!  Mom, sis, and I traveled to several crops and a three-day scrapping retreat in Chico, Red Bluff, and Shingletown.  We had an absolutely GREAT time...I caught up on my lots of my "To Do" stash and kits; some I bought and they sat waiting for several years!  One night I scrapped until 2:00 a.m., but another scrapper took the grand prize, and stayed up until 5:00 a.m.!!  The retreat crop room was open 24-hours a day...what a great place to get away!

One of the classes my sis taught was a flower-making.  We made four different styles flowers:  a Gerber Daisy,  a Carnation (with iridescent glittered netting), a small Rose, and a Peony.  I decided to use my new flower skills to make a Mother's Day card for Mom, which was a challenge with her sitting right by me cropping away!  No, Mom,  the card really wasn't for Michele's birthday, as you found out!

Mom's 2012 card...love you!

2012 Birthday for My Brother!

Mike celebrates his birthday in early May.  I had a card kit that I like the papers and had not put together.  After working with it a bit, I decided it needed to be larger, as I seem to like them better.  So, I started tinker with the design.  First, I decided to emboss the background mat.  Then I split it vertically so I could spread it out to make the card wider, turning it into a square card.  I add another border layer to give it more color and added two circle layers under the sentiment.  Now, I was more pleased with the results and it was ready to send to Mike.  (The original card inspiration was from Misty Bradley, and I thank her for getting my creative juices flowing.)

Thank You for the Visit!

It is not often that both my husband and I are in California at the same time, but we did manager to do that this spring.  We were also able to make the jaunt to visit John's brother and his wife who live away from the Sacramento area, heading toward San Francisco.  We had a wonderful catch up visit and were able to stay to have lunch out at their favorite Mexican restaurant.  It was so nice for me to be able to spend time with them and get to know my newest sister-in-law better.  She is a very friendly, gracious, and outgoing lady, and I find her delightful company.  I decided to send them a little card after returning home to let them know just how much we enjoyed our visit.

Recipe:  MME papers, SU Chocolate Chip cardstock.  Papertrey stamps.  Decorative Brad (stash).  5/8" White Satin Ribbon (stash).  Papertrey Tag punch.  (Original design by Heidi Gonzales - My Lil' Scrap Corner.  My card is enlarged, layout rearranged, striped paper added.)

2012 Birthday for Danielle. . .

While visiting in California this April, my niece (in-law) celebrated her birthday.  It gave me the excuse to make another card.  I've been toying around with the vintage look, so I decided to try it out on a birthday card.  I found a colored digital image of chocolate ad depicting a lovely little girl in a big brimmed hat.  She was so cute, I was sold, and went to work.  I didn't have the right colored button, so I colored some pearl white ones with Copics.  I was surprised how well that worked, and I could get the color just right to match the papers.  Here is my finished vintage feminine birthday card.

2012 Birthday for Nephew, Parker!

I bought a cute little turtle riding a bicycle from CC Designs several months ago to use for Parker's birthday.  With his little bike helmet, he reminded me of a Ninja turtle, so I colored him with Copics so that really did enhance the idea in your brain.  I'm always a little uneasy when coloring with Copics because I have not done a lot of it, and I'm always worried that it just isn't going to go well.  But, this little guy went very well, so I was stoked.  Then, the search was on for papers that would work with my coloring job.  I don't usually color first and then find paper.  I find it is usually easier to find the paper you want to use with the type of image and then color the image to coordinate with the paper, or at least that works best for me.  But, in this case, I knew I wanted him to be greens and almost on army camouflage idea for his shell.  I did wait to color his bicycle, basket, and pavement until after I had the papers chosen.  I think Parker will be really please with his little turtle.

A 2012 Birthday following Easter!

Our daughter, Jackie, was born on Easter Sunday, a number of years ago!  Her birthday sometimes falls within a few days of Easter, as this year--the day after, and sometimes it's several week before or after.   Research tells us that from the time of her birth until 2023, she will not celebrate another Easter Sunday birthday!  Wow that's amazing...over 40 years from her birth!

For daughter Jackie's birthday...the girl with the green thumb.  (Sprout:  Mo Manning digi...perfect for Jackie.  Original card design by Heidi Gonzales).