So we're off to Washington, PA!  We made a stop in Little Rock, AR to see the team that Topher would have played for this year with the Angels, their AA affiliate, the Arkansas Travs.  All of his friends and former teammates were there (including one of his best friends and essentially our roomie all of last season, Romine).  It was a little bittersweet, I know Topher didn't want to leave all his friends behind, especially Andrew, but it was great to spend one night there to catch a game and visit.

Topher wanted to make a thank you card for Romine to say thanks for letting us stay, and so he chose the design of the card (yea, go figure).  So he picked up the Create a Critter cartridge and chose the Horse and Peanut cuts and said he wanted the circus peanut to ride the horse.  His wish was my command.  I stickled the top hat to make it more jaunty and I used my terrible dollar bin stamp to stamp the sentiment (lesson of the day, paying a premium on stamps is alright, the quality is worth it!).

Once again the baseball ribbon and brads made an appearance.  Topher loved the card, so I'm assuming that it was a good choice hahah!

Here's a pic of the two roomies at Disneyland.  It probably will help to explain why this card is perfect for the two.

We're on the move again!!  Topher was unfortunately released from the Angels so he's now looking for another baseball team to pick him up before the season starts!  He's looking at other organizations as well as independent ball teams, and has finally settled with the Wildthings in Washington, PA.  He needs to report in about a week.  For the time being...we are no longer in Phoenix, AZ, but now in Dallas, TX!  We're out here working with his hitting instructor.  What do I do?  Sit there and craft and blog to pass the time while he's working with Jaime.  We've been here for about a week or so and pretty soon we will be headed towards PA.  As a thank you for all his help, we made Jaime a little thank you card. For the penguin,  I used my brand new cartridge, the CREATE A CRITTER cartridge.  Now I KNOW I will be using this cartridge obsessively.  Soooo many cute little cuts. The little circle was cut out from Mini-monograms Cartridge.   As you can also see, I've also invested in a cuttlebug (yes, my paper crafting tools are becoming extensive) and cuttlebugged the grey background with script.  The border was punched with a Fiskars punch and the ribbon was from the dollar bin!  Love this card!!

Did I mention how much I love this cartridge?  Another cute cut from the Create a Critter cartridge.  A little birthday card I made for Daisuke's translator.  His birthday is comign up so I was able to send this his way.  Since they are with the Boston Redsox, I decided to go with that color theme as well as with the baseball ribbon (now THAT wasn't a dollar bin buy, I figured I'd find some use for it with my baseball background!).  The little gift cut is from Stretch your Imgination cartridge.  I added little silver brads for some interest and the sentiment is stamped with a stamp that I believe I got from Papertrey Ink.  I embossed the sentiment to give it some texture.  The squirrel is so cute and I love this card!

Not so quick thank you card I made for several of the staff members at Athletes' Performance.  I have ample time these days with the changes that have been occuring in mine and Topher's life.  The Thanks sentiment was cut from Beyond Birthdays cartridge I believe.  The cricket from the Stretch your imagination cartridge.  Assorted ribbon and paper.  The main green paper was stamped with a papertrey ink stamp using a Versamark inkpad to make it look like a watermark.  added little white details to the crickets legs with a white souffle pen, as well as faux stitching with a black souffle pen.

I made about 5 of these and they were quite time consuming!  Either way, I loved them for how "creative" I felt I was making them.  Not bad for crafting for 2 months!

So after my best friend's girlfriend saw the cards I posted on facebook, she asked me to make her a card.  Ironic how in my previous post I stated how I wanted to make a card just because I wanted to without worrying about what other people think...she gave me a long lists of her likes and dislikes. 

Here are some of the stipulations she had

All kinds of pink, especially hot pink or fuschia
Paisley
Girly flourishes (think anthropologie)
Birds
Alice in Wonderland
Toadstools

Now as previously mentions in a previous post, I'm not very girly when it comes to my color choices, especially when it comes to pink.  So this was quite the stretch for me!  Nonetheless I plodded on. 

The bird and the flourishes came from the Heritage cartridge and the paisleys came from (what else?) the Paisley cartridge!  I bling blinged it up a bit with the stickles.  I also added little toadstool magnets as a little birthday gift.  Hopefully she likes it!

Toadstools come from the Paisley Cartridge!  (What would I do without it?!)

So I was getting kind of stressed of making cards on the fly for occasions so I decided maybe I should make some blank cards that I can just add sentiments to when I need them!  It was kind of nice not making a card without worrying whether someone would like it or not.  To be honest, it's probably my favorite one yet!

The little turtle is from the Stretch your Imagination cartridge.  and the pattern paper is from DCWV baby boy stack.  The ribbon is from the dollar bin (yes, I did go a little ribbon buying crazy recently!).  I stickled the turtles shell to give it some interest and pop dotted him up!  Love the card!  Hopefully I'll be able to part with it when the time comes!