Happy Birthday to a Childhood Friend

Today is the birthday of a childhood friend who was then known as Kathy ... but as we've gotten older, she has the much-cooler name of "Kat".  Here is the card I made for her:

This is a tight close-up of the front of the card, so you can see the tiniest details.  I used Studio Calico's "Anthology" paper for the background, a chipboard star, and October Afternoon's Thrift Shop word stickers to decorate.  The typewriter letters are from a punch-out sheet by Graphic 45, the alphabet page from a collection called "Domestic Goddess" (which really speaks to me!!).

"Anthology" is perfect to use for Kat -- she is my longest-term friend, spanning back to the days when she and I met in Mr. McAteer's 4th grade class at Forest Park Elementary on Long Island, NY.  That's 47 years ago! 

(I had SUCH a crush on Mr. McAteer ... he was my first lay teacher [non-NUN] and OH MY he's a BOY!!  The crush lasted until I found out he {ewwwwwww} grew up with my father and therefore, he was older than dirt!!)

This isn't us, but it could have been!

Kat and I shared a love of writing, and she had mad-drawing skills that I so admired.

We danced together to our favorite "Purple People Eater" song, and shared a love of dogs -- particularly collies, since she and I both had beautiful ones, her's was Lad, mine Tikai. Kat, if you're reading this, you'll just love this video:

We kept in touch throughout the years, except for an interval of about 10-20 years post-college. As I made my way through a first marriage and new baby, I didn't realize that Kat went on to write a book (wow!) and we both settled in Pennsylvania -- amazingly, only about 15 miles apart. When her book was featured in an article in The Philadelphia Inquirer, I tracked her down and we reunited. 

Happy Birthday, Kat!

Hawaiian Themed Blog Hop, Day 2

Aloha, Aloha -- It's Day #2 of the  Hawaii-Themed Blog Hop, sponsored by the fantabulous Nicolette of Beyond Scrappin'.  If you've come from Shannon's adorable Purple Lion Paper blog, you're on the right track.  If you've happened upon here and want to start at the beginning, please do go to Nicolette's blog, and hang loose!

Here is the fun layout I created for today's post:

This cute little boogie-boarder is none other than my granddaughter, Charlotte, enjoying her first summer! The way this little duck has taken to water, you'd think she was born in the summer, but noooooo.... she's December-born. 

For this layout, I used Rusted Sun papers from Fancy Pants Designs, along with their matching Glitter Cuts. A few buttons on stickers marked "Sunglasses" and "Flip Flops", three floral brads, and this layout was done... Easy-peasy!

So who doesn't like a little BLOG CANDY!?

What I have for you is this, the current issue of

Scrapbooks, etc.!!

All you have to do to have a chance to win

my blog candy is:

1. Be a follower of my blog and

2. Leave a comment on one of my two posts for

this Hawaiian Themed Blog Hop (today and/or yesterday's).  If you want to leave 2 comments -- one on each of the projects I made for this hop -- you'll have two chances to win this magazine chock-full of great ideas!!

And you never know, I may throw in a super-surprise too!

Now head on over to your next stop on the

Hawaiian-Themed Blog Hop:

It's AMY! (<--- Click her name!)

Thanks for visiting!!

ALOHA! Hawaiian Themed Blog Hop 8/20 - 8/21.

Aloha, Crafters!

Welcome to the Hawaii-Themed Blog Hop, sponsored by the fantabulous Nicolette of Beyond Scrappin'.   If you've come from Shannon's adorable Purple Lion Paper blog, you're on the right track.  If you've happened upon here and want to start at the beginning, please do go to Nicolette's blog, and hang loose!

For this hop, I created a card that made be feel like it was Hawaii all over again. My DH and I honeymooned there (all of the Hawaiian islands) and the South Pacific for our dream honeymoon, 12.5 years ago. Yes, it's the trip of a lifetime!!!  It's the most relaxed, most tropical, most wonderful we've ever felt!

So in trying to evoke that feeling, I came up with this card:

To make this card, I used as a base a print-out of one of the many beautiful sunset pictures I took on that trip.  I then (separately) printed out a digi-image of beach chairs that had with it the table with drinks for two, as well as the palm tree.  I colored the palm tree and also paper-pieced additional palm fronds. Next, again using Copic markers, I colored the table, drinks and shadowed the white chairs. When done, I adhered it to the base of the water at the horizon. 

For the sand, I was going to raid the bottles of actual sand I saved from the beaches there, but frankly, forgot I had them!  So I dug around my house to see what I could use -- and came up with a blend of "shake cheese" (dried Parmesan cheese) and ground ginger!  I mixed this and then adhered it to the "beach" below the chairs.  Where the sand met the water's edge, I made globs of Glossy Accents combined with some mica dust, to make it look like water washing onto the shore.

Now, knowing that this trip was once-in-a-lifetime for us working stiffs, I decided to make this into a retirement sort of card.  Here is the very pretty quote I used inside:

I hope you like this card!

So who doesn't like a little BLOG CANDY!?

What I have for you is this, the current issue of

Scrapbooker, Etc.!!

All you have to do to win my blog candy is:

1. Be a follower of my blog and

2. Leave a comment on this post.

Easy-peasy!

And you never know, I may throw in a super-surprise!

Now head on over to your next stop on the

Hawaiian-Themed Blog Hop:

It's AMY! (<--- Click her name to Hop!)

Thanks for visiting!!

Bee Happy to Recycle, Repurpose, Reuse

My sister-in-law Nancy (brother Ed's wife) celebrates her ??th birthday this week.  Nancy, this card is for you! 

And NO, this is not a CardMonkey original. Read on:

This card was stolen almost in its entirety inspired by a very cute note card I received last spring from Cristi Burton, who dedicates her adorable blog to her FIVE little monkeys "cupcakes", Alyssa, Alyvia, Aubrey, Aleczander, and Autumn. 

...in other words, I've "regifted" the card.

Actually, what I did was lifted off the cover and greetings right off the card Cristi made and sent to me. You can read about her original card on Cristi's blog by jumping to http://scrappin5littlecupcakes.blogspot.com/2011/03/my-pink-stamper-pink-alicious-blog-hop.html. 

I changed up the ribbon, added a bow, mounted it on a blue easel card, and added this "BEE happy" insert inside:

Cristi included the card with the niftiest bunch of paper I won from her during a Blog Hop.  The hop, card and blog-candy paper introduced me to Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker paper that I just ♥ love. 

Thanks, Cristi ... I think. I mean, I just neeeeeeeeded another half-ton of paper in my Paper Jungle. You're SUCH an enabler! :-)

Sitting Tilda, Redux

Papercrafting last Sunday ... I was very productive upstairs while God blessed us with some cooling rain storms.  It's been really sizzling here lately, though I dare say that I think June and July were hotter months for us, than August so far. 

Here's another card made from the sitting Tilda (Magnolia Stamps), with the same theme (swing) as Sunday's card. 

I used the same hand-drawn tree and leaves technique as found in Sunday's post. However, this time, I used Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker paper, "Willow Bee" I think it's called.  It picks up on the fact that the little girl is holding a bee.  I used some scrap ribbon that I thought complimented the paper well.

Also, for this card, I added some machine stitching to the card.  I used a combination of straight stitching and also a curving "bee path" stitch around the perimeter. 

I hope you're having a blessed day today!

Still Coloring and Paper Piecing!

I broke out a Peachy Keen Stamps (PKS) image, and another Action Wobble, for this fun card:

"I'm doing the happy dance for ya!" 

This card can be used to celebrate almost any good news. It's fun to think of how many feet would be dancing when a centipede got happy! 

I fussy cut the sun in the upper right hand corner and stamped it with a PKS smile.  The blue sky-with-clouds paper in the background is a Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker (NKS) paper.  I used my Martha Stewart Fringing Scissors to cut the grass, and mounted the centipede on an Action Wobble for motion.

Do the happy dance for someone you love, today!

My Other Magnolia Stamp

... and still using Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker paper for inspiration, I made this cute friendship card.

Nikki's "Blueberry Hill" line features some cute cut-outs and double-sided paper that I used for this card.

For the little girl's image, I used the second of my two new Magnolia Stamps. (For the first one, see yesterday's post.)  This sweetie was really holding a bucket of apples but I figured with a few scribbles of a black marker, some blueberry Copic color marked with a little white gel marker, the girl has gone blueberry picking instead. I popped up her right foot in those cute red boots, to add dimension.

Here's the inside of the card:

As you can see, I repeated the striped blueberry Nikki paper on the left panel, but on the right panel, I used my scrap bright yellow paper stock and my computer-printer to make the sentiment.  I used my favorite recipe search site (www.allrecipes.com) to find this recipe for blueberry cobbler, and laid it out to fit in the middle of the card.  A Nikki flower sticker, and this one's done!

Do you like blueberries as much as I do?  They have great anti-oxidants and are fiber-rich.  I could eat them right off of the bush, by the bushel-full! 

I guess I'm just a berry lovin' crafter!