Miscellaneous Cards

My birthday was in July so I made some Thank You cards with the chef Quickutz paper doll since I had received a Crock Pot from my sister.  I had a couple of birthdays in early August so I switched the "Thanks" to "Happy Birthday" and voila!

Also, my husband needed sympathy cards, so I used the Songbirds cartridge and a Sizzix cross.  I made another one with a different bird cage from Songbirds but same color scheme, muted cream and brown.

Father's Day and Birthday Cards

I used a simple template for Father's Day and a couple of June/July birthdays. Stamps from Stampin' Up and paper from my stash.  The tag was die cut from an original Sizzix.

Birthday Card

Here is a birthday card that I made for my friend Kathy.  My camera card is still full from Disney (since I can't back it up due to my computer with the DVD R/W still at the shop to evaluate the motherboard...after one month!), so I took the photo with my phone.  It is so unbelievable that phones come with 3.2 Megapixel cameras and now some with 5.6!  Wow!

I was inspired by the butterfly and rick-rack that Tami used in her Spring Door Hangers.  You can see her really cool work here.

Thanks for taking a look.

15th Anniversary "Card"

This is the "card" I made for my husband for our 15th anniversary.  My printer was going wacky with photo paper so I used a highly textured cardstock to print the photos and it turned out okay, I guess. 

Folded up....

Front Side.....

Back Side...  Boy did we look young, even printed on cardstock - LOL!

For his gift, I got him a t-shirt from University of Idaho Humanitarian Bowl win (Go Vandals!) and tickets to the Astros later this year.  The tickets are Will Call, so I didn't have anything to give him but a receipt -- not very romanitc! 
And, I couldn't justify buying the Sports Mania Cricut Cartridge for one card, so I made a "ticket" using the Disney cart and used some Jolee's stickers.  The star almost looks like the A so it seemed a good fit.  Should be fun!

Thanks for looking!

March Birthday Cards

I have a (scrapbooking) friend who has her "bullet proof" birthday next week.  So, I had spent the week working on the Gypsy to design a nice card for her.

Then, my husband remembered his brother-in-law's birthday is soon, also.  He confiscated my card for my friend Donna and I made her a new one.

I was inspired by my sister Tami's Valentine's cards.  Her blog is here.

Kissin' the Blarney Stone and Murphy's Law

Supposedly, if you kiss the Blarney Stone, you are given the gift of eloquence.  I might have eloquence, but I certainly don't have any sense of organization!!!

I started working on the Ireland scrapbook immediately after returning from our 2-week trip in May of 2007.  I had a lofty goal -- to finish this scrapbook in one year.  To make it easier, I limited myself to only one page for each place that we had visited regardless of the number of photos or miscellaneous cool stuff (like tickets, receipts or other souvenirs).

Blarney Castle was high on my list to visit.  I read lots about the history of kissing the Blarney Stone, and the gift of gab.  You've got to do this!  And, though it wasn't the nicest castle in Ireland and though there were huge, long lines stringing through the rooms to get to the top level to kiss the stone, we diligently waited and finally....kissing the Blarney Stone! 

For anyone who has not been there, you actually have to lay on your back and lean down over an opening to kiss the stone.  Of course, they take your picture and for 15 euro, it's yours to keep.  Awesome souvenir for a scrapbooker.

Time passes, we pack up all of our belongings, put them in storage, and move to another house.  Suddenly, it's 2009 and I CANNOT find the Blarney Stone photos.  Oh, well, surely they will show up before I get to that page.  Nope, they are nowhere to be seen.

Finally, last night, I scrapped the Blarney Castle (which had a really terrific garden, by the way) without my precious photos of Kissing the Blarney Stone.  I joked with my husband that as soon as I finished the page, Murphy's Law would kick in and I'd find the photos in a week or so.

To my surprise, I finished gluing the page and started sorting through my stuff for the next page in Ireland and voila!  the blarney stone photos!  Not even 5 minutes had passed!!  I don't think I like Murphy!

Here's the scrapbook page of Blarney Castle sans kissing the stone......

A little book & one page from Ireland...

Also, here is a prototype of the word book I was going to make for the scrapbook class next Saturday. I've changed my mind to use a different word for the class because I guess I don't know what to do with 2 books of the same word. I'm not 100% happy with how the book turned out. I used the Gypsy font heart instead of the letter "o". I can't think of anything remarkable to say about this book, except that I learned the "chipboard" (e.g. cereal boxes) doesn't slip around as much on old mats in the Cricut if the printed side is down (facing the mat). I might have a dull blade or something, but I find that sometimes the knife edge will grab on the lower left corner regardless of the direction of the mat. I've put in a new blade recently too.

So, the word for the class is _______________________. Fill in the blank for your suggestions or I will choose one of two candidate words that start with the letter M. (You have to guess this, too.)

And a page from Ireland. Will I ever finish this book that I planned to finish in just one year (now going on three years)??? Andy lost one of his favorite rugby shirts in this town and I opened the back of the camera, damaging my film because I thought it said "E" for empty but it said "3" for third picture. This was the last stop for the Titanic before it sank and the museum was really interesting. We met some nice Irish folks in the pub over dinner. As I recall it rained while we were there. The city has had three names: Cove, Queenstown, and now is Cobh (pronounced Cove) under the various English & Irish ruling periods. I really loved Ireland and would go back in a heartbeat!

New Year's Cards

Since I'm really loving my new Old West Cricut cart, I made these New Year's card for family members. The inside used Quickutz dies. All the paper was from my stash, the shiny papers inside were from DCWV Metallic Stack. I pulled the embellishments from an assortment of places and it's impossible to give the references since they have been sitting around for years & years. Fun, though!

Happy New Year everyone!

Yee-Haw Thank You Cards

Yee-Haw!!!! For Christmas, my parents (with a LOT of help from my scrappin' sister) got me the Old West cartridge. Wow! What a fun cart!

I made our thank you cards for our Christmas loot using this AWESOME cart! The "Yee-Haw" is from the Cricut cart, the cactus is from an old Sizzix die cut, the cowboy hat is also from Sizzix and cut from foam. The cactus stamps are from a wonderful store in old town Santa Fe, NM (sorry, but I can't remember the name of the store but it is right on the main plaza and is always a lot of fun to visit). The ribbon was from my stash and the brads are Making Memories which have been in my stash forever, I think!

This was a lot of fun to make and I am totally LOVING Old West!!!

I've also included a photo of Big Bend National Park (bleow) which was my inspiration -- such a wonderful, beautiful, peaceful park. One of my favorites. The photo is taken from the Chisos Mountain Lodge area toward "the windows" -- this was the first time we did the hike but the sunset view is quite famous and during busy seasons, you have to stake out your viewing spot up to an hour before sunset. Luckily, the park was not so busy when we visited this trip so we had some awesome views to ourselves!!!

P.S. I found a free program called Picasa that will allow you to downgrade your high res photos so they can be posted on the internet. How cool!

Christmas Cards

Here are TERRIBLE photos of our Christmas cards. I took the photo with my cell phone while we were writing the cards. There are several "types" using the Joann's paper pack Peppermint Forest. I had cut the "Peace" using Cricut Winnie-the-Pooh font and just 4 fit on a 6x12 sheet. So, there ended up being 7 sets of 4 -- each a different color combo or "type". The tree is from Cricut Christmas Cheer cart, the star bling is Martha Stewart from Michael's, the bling on the "peace" is from Heidi Swapp, ink from Quick Quotes Powder Puff, and ribbon is from my extensive ribbon stash. The brad, metal loop, and flower & pearl are from Stampin' Up.

I enjoyed the fun pink & blue of this festive paper pack.

I cut all the pieces in the evening during the week of December 7, then assembled in the evenings of the week of 14 December while we were on vacation. This was no easy task since we were staying in the Big Bend National Park lodge and spent the days mountain biking. I had body parts aching that I didn't even know I had body parts -- obviously, I am not getting younger!! One night, my husband and I fell asleep playing Yahtzee and didn't wake up for 2.5 hours. The Yahtzee and Battleship games were also interfering with the card making, but what else can you do in the middle of West Texas with no television (not a big deal for me but it is for most people), no wifi access, and no cell phone signal? Besides, games are a great Christmas or camping tradition!!

Crappy pictures but I hope whoever gets a Christmas card from us this year will think they look better in real life....otherwise it's time to hang up my scrapbooking hat -- ha ha!! P.S. The card front in the upper right was the prototype -- it had velvet ribbon on it and I used Sizzix letters. I think the improvements were good ones from the prototype!

And, just for fun, I've included a photo of hubby with the well-dressed Fort Stockton, TX, roadrunner!!!

Merry Christmas and a blessed 2010!

Little Gift Scrapbook

For my husband's parents, I also made a little book with the Cricut & Gypsy. This was almost entirely supplied from one of the awesome Club Scrap kits!


We didn't go trekking around looking for barns & wooden railroad trestles on the Olympic peninsula, so I only had a few photos to work with. Sequim had too many letters, and Washington most definitely has too many letters!!! So, Andy suggested I try "2009" -- I really like how the book turned out. Pity that they aren't UCLA fans since we've got the blue & yellow going!


Thanks for looking!

P.S. Andy really does own more than one shirt -- but we only packed one "cold weather" shirt with us!

Rest of Idaho Book

The rest of the Idaho book. I put in a back cover since it made the book look more finished and then decorated the back cover too.

Thanks for taking a look!

Idaho Book

I made this little book using my Cricut & Gypsy for my parents as a Christmas present. We went out to see them in Idaho in October and I took a bunch of pictures. I made them go searching for barns and old wooden railroad trestles to photograph. My mom sent me a card after we got home that said she forgot how much fun we were -- I guess she enjoyed searching for great old red barns to photograph!

My dad really likes the local history so I found info and put a paragraph onto the left-hand pages to go with the pictures on the right hand pages. My husband spent more time looking at this little scrapbook than most of my others because he was reading the stories, too. I hope they like it.

I only had 1/2" zutter bind-it-all spirals and the book was a bit thick for that -- I'm calling it a "coffee table" book since it won't shut flat and stands up really nicely!! LOL!!

Here's a few of the first pages.

Debbie's Birthday Card

My very kind friend Debbie's birthday is in December -- I have always felt sorry for people with birthdays in December and January since I think they get missed in all of the Christmas celebrations. So I've made sure not to use any red or green in the card based on the 2S4Y challenge this week!

Supplies used include: DCWV patterned paper (Nana's Kitchen since my friend Debbie loves to cook), solid paper from Club Scrap, Quickutz heart die cut with circle, Michael's ribbon (shopping girl, gotta love the name), Making Memories tag, flower, and marble, Heidi Swapp ghost flower & bling, Queen & Co felt flower ribbon, Tim Holtz alcohol ink (on the metal tag), and Quick Quotes Power Puff chalk ink (Blue Hawaiian, awesome!). I put the marble over the tag that says "Happy Birthday" to magnify it a little but I'm not sure it shows up too well in the photo. (I'm mostly an outdoor landscape photographer so I'm still learning how to take photos of these "still lifes" -- it doesn't seem to be my thing even with my really cool D700.)

I was supposed to go to lunch with Debbie today but we had SNOW in Houston so it was best not to travel. Pretty amazing but this is the second year in a row that we had SNOW in Houston. It is supposed to get really cold (25 F) tonight so I've got Christmas lights wrapped on my sugar date palms -- hopefully I don't lose anything more than above ground foliage. Tropical plants just don't go so well with snow & cold!!

Thanks for taking a look at my card and I hope everyone has a truly blessed holiday season!

Last Page of Quick Quotes Cruise Book

Oops! It looks like I posted the "last page" when it was really the next to last page of the Quick Quotes cruise book. Here's the "for real" last page -- it is of El Morro, the National Park site in San Juan, Puerto Rico which is older than most of the continental US. We went to this fort on Christmas Day and saw some really huge iguanas, on the order of 3 ft long. Since it was Christmas Day, we were able to capture photos without lots of people in them. The photos of the iguanas didn't turn out so great, thus I was FORCED to buy the exclusive Quickutz iguana die!! But he's awfully cute!

And isn't it cool that the guard towers are exactly the same as on the commemorative quarter issued this year? I also found a die cut of the tower in one of my National Park scrap packs!

Thanks for looking at my book.

Last Page of Quick Quotes Cruise Book

Here's the next to last page of the Quick Quotes cruise book. We stayed at this totally awesome resort high in the mountains of Puerto Rico. It was very, very remote. At night you could hear the little frogs (they say "cook-y, cook-y") but they are so small they are difficult to see (like the cross-section of a pencil eraser). We had gourmet meals, a guided hike into the rainforest, and relaxation. A cat adopted us and sat on our laps while we lounged in the hammock outside our lodge room. I don't think anyone could ask for a more relaxing place on earth!

We also drove to an ancient "ball park" which was framed, if you will, by stones with carvings. It was really muddy and when we left we had "high heels" as we used to say as kids! Puerto Rico is green and exotic -- we are lucky to have this territory so close to visit.

This is the first scrapbook page that Iused my Gypsy -- the M in Mountain Retreat is from Gypsy font and I sketched everything out to minimize paper consumption. What a fun tool!

(P.S. I'm a landscape photographer so I should learn how to photograph scrapbook pages soon.)

Quick Quotes Cruise Book - next installment

Okey-Doke! Here's the next installment of the QQ book from our Caribbean cruise last Christmas. This is St. Thomas, which is one of the beautiful US Virgin Islands. It had been a pirate hang-out and we saw a steel drum demonstration.

A very pretty island because you climbed straight up from the ocean and had spectacular panoramic views of the harbor with it's fantastically blue, blue water. We walked from one end of the island to the other where there was a private harbor. We took a gondola to the top of one of the "mountains" and took an organized tour of plantation-style homes, too.

Quick Quotes Cruise Book

Here's the next stop -- Saint Martin or Sint Maarten, depending on whether you were on the French or Dutch half of the island. We went on a zip line adventure tour here -- we had to walk on ropes and little bridges suspended from trees. It was really fun!

There was a family ahead of us on the zip line tour that had a college age kid who was a gymnast. The mom was afraid of heights and the dad was a little overweight and out of shape. We saw them later that night in the dining room of the cruise ship and shared a laugh with them because the dad was really worn out but the kids were totally fine!!

When I showed this book at Show and Tell, my scrapbook friends said they used to love magic mesh and forget to use it. I love it, too -- it adds dimension and is just fun!

All the paper is from Quick Quotes -- I bought an extra kit just to have enough paper for the whole book. Awesome beach colors with the blues & oranges, I think.

Another page from QQ Cruise Book

Okay, tonight I'm trying to remember to crop the photo. I really need to get Photoshop but it is so darn expensive!!

Here's the next page in the Quick Quotes book I made of our Caribbean cruise at Christmas last year. Last page was Aruba, this is of Curacao -- I even bought a special alphabet from Quickutz just so I'd have a squiggly "c" for this page!!

Quick Quotes Cruise Book

Here is the first set of pages from the Quick Quotes book -- gosh it was a fun book to make! I made most of the book while we were in Dallas earlier this year to see the King Tut exhibit.