A thank you card for beautiful paper

My friend, Maria, got me a surprise gift of a beautiful piece of paper from Papyrus. The texture/stitching is absolutely fabulous and I am planning to use it for the cover of a journal. (I've been making books off and on, certainly this stunning paper is perfect for a book!)

Here's a simple thank you for my friend using Club Scrap paper and felt for Sizzix die cuts. I wanted to mimic the beautiful colors and patterns of the gift paper -- this is the closest I can get because the paper is so wonderful that it can't be copied!! I used Stickles on the flowers & leaves, the "thanks" uses Heidi Swapp rub-ons (so nice -- they don't stick to the wrong places).

Maria does a terrific job with needlepoint but I can't convince her to scrapbook yet. She has two new babies (puppies) and I'm trying to demonstrate that they are perfect subjects to scrapbook! (Of course, her poor cat is getting neglected during puppy potty training -- we still love you, BoBo.)

This is about all I've done this weekend as we are still working in the attic on the radiant barrier. We discovered some leaks in the upstairs A/C unit so spent a good bit of time with mastic (sticky, gooey, yucky, messy, smelly stuff!) patching holes and leaks. It took me 10 minutes just to wash my hands!

After all this work, I've banned the cats from the magic water fountain (aka the bathtub faucet LOL!) so that I can have a bubble bath tonight (bubbles only, no fur, please)! I am ready to try spelunking after squirming around in the attic all weekend! But I have to brag that my wonderful husband, Andy, has done a superb job on the floor in the attic and putting up the radiant barrier. Goodbye to $600 electric bills in the summer!!!! (I hope...)

Thanks for taking a look at my little blog!

A Couple of Cards

Here are a couple of cards I made this week, in addition to the 2 Sketches 4 You challenge. I am much more pleased with these two cards than I was with my submission for the Kazan's Sketch 18! Funny how some days ideas just pop out of my head faster than I can keep up with them!

The first card is for my sister who has a new job. I had the Sizzix clipboard die cut for a long time and had never used it. I used DCWV glitter mat stack for the clip and the metal thingie (that's a technical term LOL) on the pencil to make it look more realistic. Also used Club Scrap paper and George Cricut cartridge. The "words" on the spiral page are a Club Scrap stamp and the spiral punch is from Stampin' Up.

I mailed this card Monday, so I hope I'm not spoiling the surprise by posting it here.....?

The second card is for my friends Liz and Kevin (who is also a UW ChE grad). I got the little bird Quick Kutz (a Hobby Lobby exclusive) this week and was really wanting to use it! Did you notice the little bling for the bird's eye? My little furry buddies make it almost impossible to keep dots to "i" or the bird's eye when they waltz across my scrapbook desk.......

The background paper is more green than it looks in this scanned image and the middle circle is a little more beige than it looks here, too. I was really happy with how this card turned out and I really LOVE the QK bird -- it's fun to have another tool! The font is Sizzix Playground and all except the pink paper is from Club Scrap -- love the texture of their papers -- so posh!

TFL! Teresa

My First Layout using CDS

I got myself a New Year's present to go with the Jukebox my wonderful hubby got me for Christmas -- yeah! Cricut Design Software.

Here's my first layout using CDS. I used Base Camp, Going Places, Fabulous Finds, and Cuttin' Up. Many, many thanks to the Cricut Lovers Guide to Design Studio -- I don't think I would have figured out welding without the terrific directions on this blog.

Still the old scanner thing. I don't have a digital camera and my scanner bed is not 12x12 -- but I think the idea is there. I had some wonderful Scrapworks paper in red, green, and burnt yellow tones -- so earthy and I love those colors.

And just for the history buffs -- Cornwallis was trying to find a way into Ireland and declared "by Hook or by Crook" -- I'm in the picture with Hook Head lighthouse ("hook") and the view behind Andy is the island & waterway ("crook").

We really loved our Ireland vacation and I'm having so much fun with my memories as I scrap the trip! My original goal was to finish the scrapbook within a year after the trip, but packing up my scrap stuff to put in storage so we could move has interrupted that plan...by about one year! ha! ha!