Girl's Birthday Card

Good Evening, I'm sorry I didn't post this yesterday. I had intended to but got carried away with preparing to go back to work today. The commute wasn't too bad and overall I had a nice day. I'm just super tired tonight! LOL I guess that's to be expected after being home for the past 11 weeks.

The daughter of a very dear friend of mine turned 7 years old today. I can't believe that she's 7 already!! Where does the time go? She's a very sweet girl who loves to dress up and act like a little girl so I thought the pink and bling on this paper was quite appropriate.

The striped paper and the flower paper are from Nana's Kids by Die Cuts With A View. There are some Prima flowers in the upper left corner with a rhinestone in the center.

I just received my order from PaperTrey Ink today so now I have some Birthday Sentiments to use on the interior of my birthday cards. I'm very excited! Now I won't have to argue with the printer to print my sentiments. Inevitably I always had to ask my husband to help me out. LOL Fortunately he doesn't seem to mind too much.

Well, I'm off to bed. I have another early day again tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!
-Janice

Good News And A Card Share

Hello! Sorry for not posting on Sunday but I didn't have pictures of my completed cards to share with you. We finally saw the sun again today after a few days of rain/overcast skies so I quickly snapped some shots. Also we went to a couple of graduation parties this past Saturday and I forgot to get pictures of the cards I made (I'm smacking myself in the head).

Before I share a card with you I have some GREAT news! I GOT A JOB!!! Yes, it's official, as of next Monday, July 27th I will be employed again. It's a huge relief, I must say but I will certainly miss being home with my animals. I have a sneaking suspicion that they might miss me a little bit too. ;)

Okay, onto the card. I made this card as part of Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge. It's the first time I've played along with a color challenge and I really had fun. Unfortunately I didn't finish the card in time to post it to her blog but I was still pretty proud of myself LOL

The challenge was to use black, soft grey, hot pink, grass green, and bright red. It seems like a lot of colors and it took me a little while to pull everything together but I did it. I used black for the base and then layered on the grass green. I stamped the A Muse Spiral Daisy image onto a soft grey with ColorBox Scarlet ink and then added the Prima flowers; red and pink with a black button from my stash to tie everything together. Hopefully it works! I left off a sentiment for now since I'm not sure exactly what I will use it for. Fortunately I think it could be used for any occasion.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week.

-Janice

Another Graduation Card

Well it looks like summer has finally arrived in New England!! YEAH! I spent so much time outside this weekend and it truly felt wonderful. The weather has been in the mid- to high- 70's, sunny and breezy. Just perfect! I even broke out the "kiddie" pool for the dog today and spent some quality time soaking my feet while I read a book and soaked up some of the suns beautiful rays! :) Can you tell how happy I am? LOL

Last Monday I had my first in-person inteview since being laid-off back in April. While it was very long; I met with four people and had to take a test to prove my skills, it must have gone fairly well since they asked me to come back in tomorrow for yet another interview. This is the fourth time I am speaking with the hiring manager! I think they should be able to make a decision by now, but I have no idea exactly how many people they have to choose from. Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well as last week and I'll be offered the job by the end of the week. Fingers crossed!

Anyway, on to my card post for this week. In addition to the graduation cap card that I showed last week, I also made the following graduation card.

The background paper is called "Stardust" and is part of the Hello Spaceboy collection by Valerie Foster for Prima Marketing, Inc. The stamps I found as a set at Michael's and are from Hampton Arts. I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black ink. The ribbon is from my stash and started out as a white satin ribbon. Since the card was given to a young man who just graduated from high school I didn't think white satin was very appropriate, so I colored the ribbon with my black Copic. Cool huh?

Can you believe I'm still making graduation cards? We have two more parties to attend this coming weekend. I'll post pictures as soon as they are done. Also I got some new Cuttlebug Border Embossing folders so I'm hoping to be able to play with those more soon!

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all have a wonderful week.

-Janice

Happy Graduation & 4th of July

Happy 4th of July to all my American friends!! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend. My husband and I spent the day at my family's camp on Sebago Lake in Gray Maine yesterday. It was so relaxing and peaceful up there. True bliss!

Due to the time of year I have been making Graduation cards. There was a template and tutorial posted by Alicia Coulombe on SplitCoastStampers recently that I really liked.

Here is my first try with it. I made this one in neutral colors since I couldn't figure out what the school colors were for the recipient. I've made another one in Shamrock Green and Golden Yellow because that is the school colors which were appropriate for the recipient. I still have a couple left to create for a party in two weeks. When you open the cap there is a message and gift card that are tucked into the bottom of the cap. It's really cute!

We've finally seen the sun for the first time in almost three weeks! YEAH!! I spent quite a bit of time outdoors this weekend and I have to say it's felt WONDERFUL! We even got to grill our dinner tonight. Yummm :)

Tomorrow I'm going on my third interview for a job. I'm hoping for the best. The commute will be a killer for us but at least I'll have a job again. Please think good thoughts for me if you should feel so inclined.

Thanks! I'll post some more graduation cards next weekend.

-Janice

A Boy's Birthday Card

Here in New England we have been stuck in a bad weather pattern. It has been raining for about two weeks now! I feel like I live in Ireland or something. I'd like to see some sunshine for more than a few hours at a time. I know from reading other blogs that some people are having tremendous heat. It seems like the weather is crazy everywhere this year! I know I really shouldn't complain about the weather, it's cool here, only reaches 70 degrees on average each day so we haven't had to use the air conditioner yet. This is saving us a bunch of money which is a good thing since I haven't found another job yet. So I guess I just have to keep reminding myself of the silver lining. :)

The company my husband works for had their 'Summer Outing' this past weekend. We spent the day yesterday at a local amusement park. It was really fun! We went on some rides and ate all the great food that you get at those places. I especially like the Fried Dough ... yummmm. We were all thankful that the rain held off for most of the day. See, another silver lining!!

Here is the card I have to share with you this week. I made this for my husband's nephew. I seem to struggle a bit with cards for the 'male' gender. I find that this is common for a bunch of other people too.

I thought the paper was fun and certainly appropriate for either a boy or girl. It does have some glitter on it here and there but I don't think it comes across as being real girly. I stamped the slice of cake in Memento Rich Cocoa and layered it using the Large Oval Nestability. I only own two shapes of Nestabilities; the plain oval and the scalloped oval. I didn't want to use the scalloped as I was afraid it might appear too feminine. The stamp and paper are from Imaginisce. The ribbon is called Colorstiks by Strano Designs and the brads are by Making Memories.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you are enjoying whatever weather is in your area!

-Janice

Fun Birthday Card

If you're still taking the time to check back with me, please know how much I appreciate it! I really need to get back on track with posting messages. I promis to try and get better at it. :)

A few weeks ago I had to mail out a couple of birthday cards. Due to my recent unemployment issues I had fallen behind on making cards. I have saved quite a few templates from 2Sketches4You and decided to use this one to create one card.

The polka dot paper is from American Crafts and the solid colored circles are bazzil scraps. The ribbon was from my stash and is actually a satin ribbon but I turned it over and used the matte side, cool huh? The stamp is from Papertrey's Mega Mixed Messages set.

Hopefully the recipient liked her card!

I have a few other cards to share with you but I'm going to wait a few days and then post again. Thank you for hanging in there with me! :)

Janice

A Few New Cards

Goodness, I can't believe how long it's been since I've last posted. Time certainly has a way of moving on, doesn't it? I've been spending a great deal of time revamping my resume and looking for another job but I have also created a few goodies to share with you. So without further ado ...

I created this card when I found out a friend is pregnant. I'm so excited for her! It was kind of a funny story because her husband had to go away on business and she was very concerned about leaving their two dogs home alone day since her husband generally works from home. So I offered to go over once or twice during the day and visit with the dogs, let them, etc. She was so happy that I volunteered! She had hinted that she had some exciting news to share with us but didn't want to go into everything in an email. Well, I kind of figured what she was going to say and then I happen to see her ultrasound pictures on her refrigerator! LOL So I came home and immediately made up this card. I left it next to the dog biscuts to surprise her but apparently I forgot to sign it! What a dope I can be sometimes.

The floral stamp is from a wedding stamp set by Rusty Pickle and the circular sentiment and heart are from PaperTreyInk's Around and About stamp set.


The next card was actually for the same couple. They were kind enough to watch our cats while we went camping over Memorial Day Weekend. Unfortunately I fell into procrastination mode in delivering it but I made it right away! Does that ever count? LOL

The flourishes are from the same Rusty Pickle stamp set as the flower used in the previous card and the sentiment is from PaperTreyInk's Mega Mixed Messages stamp set. I used an A Muse stamp and Memento Desert Sand ink to create the background paper. I noticed when I took the picture that the tan paper wasn't straight when I adhered it to the card base. I guess I'll have to make another one just to prove I can get it right! I hate it when these things happen!

The last card I have to share with you today is a birthday card I made for my mom. She is a big cat lover so I felt sure she would appreciate it.

I just love this layout. It was a sketch from Taylored Expressions. The cat is named Fluffles and the stamp is by Stampendous. It says "I coughed up this gift for you..." having four cats myself I knew I just had to own this little gem!! It's definitely not a stamp you could use for just anyone!! LOL I really like that this card is bright and colorful, not my usual style.

Well that's it for today. I made a couple of birthday cards this weekend but still need to get pictures. I also have a gradution card that I'll share soon. Hopefully it won't be so long between posts!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Janice