Long weekends and Brother's birthday

Wow! What a long weekend it was. I'm actually relieved it's over. I took Friday off so I would have a four day weekend. We found out a few days before that my hubby was headed to work in Alaska for six months on Tuesday (today), so I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could. It was a crazy, busy weekend! We had so much to buy to get him ready to leave. Add in everyone that wanted to see him before he left and we were exhausted by the time Tuesday rolled around. We had fun together, though. We even saw a local landmark that neither of us have seen before. That's right...I've lived here 42 years and have never visited the Fremont Troll!

Isn't that troll cute in an ugly kind of way? No, I didn't think so, either lol. But it was fun getting to see it in person after all the news blips I've seen over the years. He's just hidden under the bridge, patiently waiting for who knows what!

This weekend was also my brother's birthday. I love teasing him about getting old since he's older than me. Unfortunately, I'm starting to get as much grey hair as he is. Yikes! He has always been a fan of soccer and both of us played it for years, so his birthday card needed to be soccer-themed.

The image is from The Greeting Farm, Soccer Ian. I colored him with Copics and layered him on some brown papers. I finally have some brown paper after hitting the closing sale at Paper Zone in Tacoma. I snatched up some other cool stuff, too, that I'm sure will make an appearance later. The small square studs at the bottom are from Michael's and added some fun googlie eyes. On the inside, I stamped Happy Birthday with a DeNami stamp. The ball is covered in glossy accents. It was fun to make my big brother his birthday card.

Thanks for looking!

Cherie

Summer Fun and OWH

G'morning! It's not even 5:30 here, but I couldn't sleep. So I decided I would log on and post a card I made on Saturday at my stamp group. This is for the Summer Fun challenge at Operation Write Home.

Isn't he cute? The stamp is from Rubbernecker and is a recent purchase from the Heirloom show at the Puyallup fairgrounds. The papers I've had forever. He was colored with Copics and the sentiment one I've had for awhile.

Enjoy your Wednesday, everyone!
Cherie

Playing some catch up

Yet again, I've fallen behind in posting. One of these days I'll get into the habit of posting when I take a picture of a card, instead of just leaving them in the camera. So...let's get on with it!

Here's a "ruffle" card I did for my favorite 5 year old's birthday. Her party theme was princesses. I was pleasantly surprised when we arrived and she was dressed in a pink Disney princess dress.

This is the first time in a long time that I've used a sticker. Thank goodness for the sticker blog hop awhile back from Operation Write Home. It gave me some great ideas. The main one was to treat your sticker like it's a stamp or your main embellishment. This was fun to make but it took awhile. I'm not sure I'll make many "ruffle" cards.

That being said, lol, here's another one I made a few of for OWH. Yes, it's another "ruffle" card. Although, I was told it can't be ruffles if it's a masculine card. Sometimes men can be SO picky.

It was fun to work with some more masculine papers. I certainly have a lot of it, but always seem to end up with girly cards.

Have you heard?! OWH hit the MILLION card mark! That's right, we have sent one million cards to our deployed troops to send back home to loved ones. It's amazing! I'm so proud to be a part of this wonderful organization that allows me to be creative and give back something to our troops. Here's a card to celebrate.

Of course it had to be red, white and blue! The penguin is from DeNami colored with Copics and the sentiment is from Gina K. You can't really tell, but the balloon has some Stickles on it to make it shiny and glittery. Congratulations, Operation Write Home!

Last, but not least, here's a card using some of the stamps I picked up at the Heirloom show on Saturday. I love going to the show, but I always go way over my budget!

I've had the water paper forever and thought it would be perfect for these fish and bubbles from Rubbernecker Stamp Company that I colored with Copics. It turned out to be a little too busy to showcase the fish, so I added a square of blue vellum to tone it down. I also added googlie eyes to one fish and Glossy Accents to all the bubbles. The sentiment is another new stamp I got on Saturday from Magenta.

Whew! I think that catches me up.

Thanks for stopping by!
Cherie

Father's Day Card for Operation Write Home

It's time for Father's Day! Well, not quite, but it is in the world of OWH. They're headed to the millionth card marker and really need Father's Day cards. All three of their shippers are short for their boxes. With that said, the Stars and Stamps blog posted a great tutorial on how to make a great masculine card.

Here's my version. I had some input from my hubby on colors. The sentiment is popped for a little dimension. I think it's still missing something, though. What do you think?

Thanks for peeking in!
Cherie

Happy late Easter!

It's been awhile since I've posted. Time just seems to get away from me. Here are some Easter cards I made. This one was a free digi and the card was for my hubby:

I felt a little like I cheated since I used a digi that was already colored lol. There isn't much bling to it since it was for a guy. The pot the bunny is sitting on says "Black Jelly Beans."

I did several variations on the next cards. I colored the cupcake papers with Copics and had to add some ribbon as well. There's a little white pompom for the tails and some little pearls for the noses and accenting the ribbons.

I originally only planned to make 4 of these cards, but I was at my STDiva stamp group and forgot my acrylic block, so I borrowed one. I got distracted and ended up stamping 22! So I went ahead and made all of them. We even managed to use them all lol.I enjoyed making these, but my hand was so sore after rounding all those corners! 

Last, but not least, a birthday card for one of my favorite little girls who is turning 5 this week! It was colored with Copics. I used Stickles on the hat, flower and heart since she loves glitter. The ribbon ruffle was a first for me. Next time I'll use a stronger adhesive and hopefully I'll get that ruffle a little straighter.

Happy birthday, Allison! We love you bunches!

Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week!

Cherie

Covers and VCMP

Happy Sunday! It's been mostly a lazy day here today. Brunch with Dad and his wife. A stop at Joanns to use some coupons. Yay! Two more Nesties to add to my collection. Then home to relax and finish a few things.

We celebrated the parents' birthdays today. A couple of movies for Dad (Red and Despicable Me). A couple of crossword books for Chris. I'm never sure what to get her, but I know she loves crossword puzzles. So, I decided to decorate them to give them some extra flair. Here they are:

At first she thought they were just writing journals. When she realized I'd decorated them, she was thrilled. It was the first time I'd done the pressed flowers in the Cuttlebug. I love how they turned out. What do you think?

OWH had a VCMP yesterday. That's Virtual CardMaking Party, in case you were wondering. It was my original plan to play in all eight challenges, but I ended up only doing Challenge 5 - Embossing. Things just happened and my day got busy. Here's my card:

The embossing turned out really pretty. Hubby said it was the best card I've done in a long time. I know he meant that as a compliment, but had me wondering what my other cards have been looking like!

On a side note, I highly recommend the movie "Paul." It was so funny!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend,
Cherie

Saturday is filling up!

So my hubby asks me last night, "Is it ok if I take you to see the first showing of "Paul" on Saturday and then take you for a pedicure?" Silly man! Who am I to say no to a movie and pedicure?! We've been waiting and waiting for "Paul" to come out. Are you going to see it?

Then, of course, there's the OWH Virtual Cardmaking Party. I've never participated in one of those. It should be fun! If you haven't heard about it, check it out here: http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/2011/03/virtual-cardmaking-party.html. Their FB page will be covered with ideas and inspiration. I can't wait!

I hope the week is treating you well. Sunday is the first day of Spring. I'm so ready for it, aren't you?

Happy Thursday!
Cherie

OWH MWT

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I hope everyone is having a good week. So far, so good here. We're getting lots of rain and wind. I'm choosing to think of it as Spring, not winter. It makes it seem a little brighter. After all, I'm not driving to work in the dark anymore!

This week's Midweek Throwdown at Operation Write Home http://www.operationwritehome.org/index.html is "Get Creative with Ribbon." Here's my card:



I've been practicing with my Bow-Easy the last couple of days. The directions that came with it weren't all that helpful, so I looked up a tutorial on youtube. I love youtube! You can find so many helpful videos on so many crafty things. The stamp is from DeNami and I colored with with Copics. I adore their little chickies. The flower and leave have Crystal Effects on them that don't show up in the picture. I'm thinking it still needs a little more. I'm going to try adding my "hey chickie" sentiment below the bow. Hubby said it should go in the upper right corner. I explained to him about focal points and how that distracts from the real focal point of the card. He just kind of rolled his eyes lol.

This also goes with last week's Throwdown, which I thought was really this week's about using dots, or was it polka dots. Don't you hate it when you get behind?

Here's another card I did this past weekend while hanging out with my STD's:

All of the stamps are DeNami. I colored it with Copics used some Crystal Effects on the plane to make it pop. It needed something to make it shine a little more. There are 16 of these headed over to Sandy in a couple of weeks for OWH.

That's it for now. Thanks for stopping by!

Cherie

OWH Bunny Hop

Wow! What an amazing blog hop this weekend for Operation Write Home. I found a lot of inspiration among the 137 blogs. I'm hoping I can get some cards done soon.

Here's a card I did for a friend who recently lost her beloved cat:

The sentiment says "friends to the end, you and me." I've had that patterned paper for awhile and decided a bit ago that's it time to stop hoarding it. The cat is a digi from Bugaboo colored with Copics. I'm slowly learning how to use them. The card will, as most of mine do, get donated to Operation Write Home.

This coming weekend is our STDivas get together. I'm crossing my fingers that the mojo will be flowing!

Enjoy the rest of your week,

Cherie

Cute little things

Here a couple of cute cards I made yesterday. I'm discovering that I really enjoy coloring with my Copics. It's like giving yourself permission to revert back to your coloring book days!

The blocks look like Legos to me and were embossed with a Cuttlebug folder. The baby dinosaurs are a free digi I found on the Free Digital Stamps blog (http://freedigitalstamps.blogspot.com/).



New craft area

I've been crafting quite a bit lately since I have a new little crafting area at home. I'm already spilling out of my designated space. I guess that means I'll just have to get busy and use some more of my supplies!

Here are some of the St. Patrick's Day cards I finished today. I started working on them last night at Impress Craft night last night, but didn't have all of my supplies with me.

Every month a group of us women get together and spend the day creating. We call ourselves the STDivas. It's a funny story, the name stuck and it creates smiles, so we use it. This month I made over 20 cards at our meeting. Here are a few of them.

I just love those aliens. They're actually magnets I found in the Joanns dollar bin. Most of these cards will go to Operation Write Home. A few will be given as gifts and I might even mail a couple.

I'm really enjoying my new Cuttlebug that I got for Christmas. I'm slowly collecting embossing folders and Nestabilities. Do you have a favorite tool to use?

My favorite color combo

Purple is, by far, my favorite color. I even had a purple car for years, but it got old and unreliable. Here's a card using my favorite color with a SU die and stamp.

In the beginning...

As most people say in their first posts, I'm new to this! I certainly never thought I'd have a blog, but I figured it would be an easier way to post some things, like cards I've made and challenges or sketches I've completed. Or pictures I've taken or events that happen.

I was married in October 2010 to a wonderful man I've known for over four years. He treats me like a princess and I enjoy every minute of it! We were married in Las Vegas and had several friends and relatives make the trip to join us. The minister even commented that he rarely sees so many guests. It was a wonderful time.

Then we were off to Disneyland for our honeymoon. I LOVE Disneyland and it was only his second time being there. The weather was warm and sunny. We couldn't have asked for better. We went in search of Hidden Mickeys all over both parks. And watched an amazing water/light show. I've decided that we don't need to spend four days anymore, though. We only do a few of the rides and a lot of people watching. We're both completely addicted to pin trading. We even have a bulletin board at home with all of our pins on it. That's Ken wearing both of our lanyards. Mine was getting so heavy it was giving me a headache! This was taken in Mickey's house. I'm holding a ghost Mickey filled with popcorn. Ridiculously expensive, but too cute to pass up.

I've recently discovered a great group called Operation Write Home. Check them out here: http://www.operationwritehome.org/. I love making cards and was starting to outgrow the shoeboxes I keep them in. I was reading Paper Crafts Magazine one day and there was a blurb about OWH in the editor's notes. I decided to check it out and the rest has been a blast. I've met some amazing women and learned so much. I love being able to let my creativity flow and knowing the cards I make are going to such a wonderful cause. I firmly believe we can all support our military in some way; we just have to find the way that suits us the best. Here are a few of the cards I made for Halloween.

Whew! I think that's it for now. Thanks for stopping by!