Happy Easter & Birthday Cards

Happy Easter! Did you have an enjoyable day? Hopefully you were able to spend the day with family, friends and loved ones. Are you in a sugar coma now?! LOL We spent the weekend enjoying some unseasonably warm weather here in the North East. It has been wonderful!

Yesterday was the birthday for a friends twins. They turned 5 and I am still in shock that they are that old already!! On our last trip to the LSS I came across a card kit by Basic Grey. It contained everything needed to put together 8 cards. I figured it might be fun to have some kids cards so easily available and besides, they're kids, they don't really care if I hand make them a card, right? :)

Here is Joshua's card. It has a bit of a glare on it but it was the best picture my hubby could get on short notice.


And here is Abbey's card. Aren't they cute? I hope they like them.


Yesterday my hubby and I went for a walk on a local hiking and biking trail through some conversation land near our house. It was a nice chance to get to use our camera. Now I just need to figure out how to use Paint Shop Pro a little better and then I should be able to print off some of the better pictures. Maybe I'll even share one or two with you here.

Until later ... have an enjoyable week.

-Janice

50th Birthday Card

Happy Sunday Evening! What a beautiful weekend we had. The weather was amazing yesterday, sunny and in the 70's. Today was supposed to be cloudy and rainy but it turned out to be nice, only partly cloudy and no rain! Yeah! It was much cooler today though, it only reached 50 degrees today. However the 70 degree weather is a nice reminder of what's to come.

During our beautiful weather yesterday my hubby and I attended a small party for a friends 50th Surprise Birthday. Here is the card I made her:

All of the papers are from PaperTrey Ink as well as the 'Happy Birthday' stamp I used to make the background paper. It's hard to see from the picture but the ink on the background paper has a nice silvery shine to it. I was going for a more sophisticated look as opposed to something cute or funny. Everyone goes for cute and funny on a milestone birthday so I wanted to be a bit different. Anyway she seemed to like it and several people took an interest in it once they heard it was hand made.

I'm still working on the chipboard album from BoBunny. Hopefully I'll be able to share some photos next time.

Until then, have a wonderful week!

-Janice

Easter or Mother's Day?

Good Evening from the rainy state! LOL I can't believe it's raining and horribly windy yet again. I've just been very thankful we haven't lost power yet this weekend. Although I did hear that the southern part of our little town lost power earlier today. Thankfully after this storm passes we should have a nice long stretch of 50 degree weather! This is at least 10 degrees warmer than normal. Yippee!!

So since it was raining all weekend I was able to spend some quality time in the craft room. :) That always makes me happy. Yesterday I made a couple of cards. Now I just need to decide if I will use them for Easter or Mother's Day. The original intent was to make Easter cards but when I was finished I thought they were a bit too elegant for Easter and I started thinking Mother's Day. Anyway, here they are ...




The inspiration for these cards came from sketches by Mish Wooderson. I've really been enjoying her sketches. The purple and green cardstock are from my Bazzil stock and the pansy paper is from a booklet of Sarapapers which I picked up a while ago at Michael's. The pearls are by Studio G also from Michael's and the various green buttons are from my stash.

My time in the craft room today was spent working on the BoBunny Kit that I picked up last weekend at my LSS. Unfortunately I ran out of Tacky Strip so I didn't take any photos yet. But I promise to share as soon as I can!

Have a wonderful and sunny week!

-Janice

March Calendar Photo

Well it seems that Spring has decided to make an early appearance here in New England! Now I know it won't really stick around, this is just a taste of what is to come in another 6 weeks or so, but it sure is nice to be reminded that Winter won't last forever. LOL

After having our plans thwarted repeatedly for the last several weekends we finally had a very productive weekend. We spent some time at the NH Camping and RV Show yesterday and found a couple of new campgrounds we will try out this year. I'm happy to say that we didn't find any new campers that we couldn't live without! :) We finally found a place that sells the new refridgerator we've been looking for and it was on sale! WooHoo! So it was a good weekend overall.

Now you may have seen a February post where I showed pictures of four of our animals. My original intent had been to display a photo of all five animals but the calendar page simply wasn't large enough. So I decided to keep my favorite photo of our cat Luke for the March page. He gets a page all to himself! Isn't he just the cutest?

All of our cats are rescues but I think his story is the saddest. When he was less than a year old his family moved away and left him outside to fend for himself. Can you even imagine? I swear I just don't understand some people. Anyway he got into a bit of trouble, either with an animal trap or another animal, no one knows for sure but he had to have a couple of surgeries after he was rescued and he almost lost his back leg. He had to stay in foster care for 5 months before he could be put up for adoption. But he now has a happy home with a family who loves him whole-heartedly!

The stamp isn't positioned correctly (that's what I get for rushing and not paying attention) but it is an image from JustRite Stamps which states "May the luck of the Irish be with you". I colored the shamrocks with a Copic marker and the horseshoe is colored with a combination of a Prismacolor Pencil (Gray) and a black gel pen. The green striped paper is from a huge paper pack called Wild Asperagus which I picked up last year at A. C. Moore for $9.99.

Yesterday we stopped by the Scrapbook store on our way to the Camping Show and I picked up a kit by Bo Bunny which I'm hoping to get started on tonight. Wish me luck!

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderful week with Spring-like weather! :)

-Janice

Birthday Card

Hello World! It's so nice to be connected to the outside world again. We had a terrible wind storm Thursday night and we lost power for about 48 hours! Our generator decided not to cooperate so we spent Friday making as many phone calls as we could think of. We tried to buy another one, rent one and find someone who could fix the one we have. We finally found someone to fix it but they couldn't do that until Saturday. So we had a couple of rough nights but this wonderful little repair shop came through and fixed our generator for us. We were back in business by mid-afternoon Saturday and then the power came back on Saturday night. Oh well, at least it's fixed for the next time and trust me, living in New England there will definitely be a next time! LOL

I didn't get much crafing done this weekend ... it was just too cold! The house got down to 50 degrees! However I did come up with this sweet little card. I made this totally from scraps, can you believe it?!?
The stamp is from JustRite Stampers and I colored it with the few Copic markers I have. I tried to match the spots on the package to the spots on the decorative paper. It came out pretty close but I'm not sure you can really tell from the picture. I cut the stamped image and the scalloped blue circle with the new Spell Binders Nestabilities that my hubby got me for Christmas. Isn't he sweet? The blue scallop under the decorative paper was made with a Fiskers Apron Lace punch. The layout was a sketch by Michelle Wooderson. I will definitely be using this sketch again for inspiration.

Next week I'll show you my picture of Luke (our cat) which I used on the March page of my calendar.

Until then ... I hope you have an enjoyable, stress-free week.

-Janice

Last Valentine's Day Card

Good Evening! I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to post this card last weekend, especially since it was Valentine's Day. I ended up with a terrible head cold that completely knocked me out last weekend. I was so looking forward to the long weekend but ended up in bed all weekend instead of getting to enjoy myself! I felt especially bad since my husband had taken a vacation day to spend the holiday with me.

Thankfully I am feeling much better this weekend. We went to visit my mother and I was able to deliver the Valentine's cards I'd made for her, my sister and my husband. Since my husband occassionally checks in on my blog I decided not to post a photo until after I gave it to him. So here it is ...

The plaid and polka dot paper are part of the Daisy Bucket Designs sheets I picked up from my LSS. The stamp is Signature Greetings from PaperTrey Ink. I just love the hand-written feel to these sentiments and Dawn McVey's handwriting is so beautiful. The frame which holds the sentiment is part of a stamp set that I picked up on clearance at Michael's a while back. There are also some miniture red rhinestones that I picked up in the dollar bin at Michael's a while ago.

I was able to spend some time in the craft room this weekend and came up with a gender neutral birthday card. Those can be some of the hardest for me! I'll be sure to share that creation with you all next week.

Until then, may you have a stress reducing week! LOL

-Janice

February Calendar Photo

Happy Super Bowl Evening! Is everyone ready for the Big Game tonight? I am about to make chili for dinner. I thought that was an appropriate Football food. Besides that it's 27 degrees with a wind chill of 14 degrees here. Needless to say it is C O L D!

I never made it into the craft room last weekend. We spent our weekend visiting relatives who are not too healthy. It felt good to see everyone again even though the circumstances weren't the best. So I never completed the February calendar page until earlier today! I did get a jump start on March though. I have the picture chosen but I need to figure out how I want to mount it. I also need to make some Birthday and Thank You cards. But I kind of ran out of steam today.

Here is the February calendar page:


These are three of our animals. Clockwise from the top left is our dog Skeemo she is a 14 year old American Eskimo. Next is our female cat Lady she is a Tuxedo cat and is roughly 10 years old. Since she was a rescue we're not sure exactly how old she is. The completely black cat in the lower right-hand corner is Sultan he is two and a half. The last cat is Houdini, he is Sultan's brother, so he is also two and a half.

Our March calendar page will feature Luke since I have a close up picture of his beautiful face. I'll tell you more about Luke in March!

Well that's all I have for today. Enjoy the Game tonight if you are interested in it. Otherwise just enjoy the commercials! LOL

-Janice