So one of my bosses at Athletes' Performance loved his card so much that he asked me to make a dozen thank you cards for him.  With nothing else to do here in Washington, PA, and no income coming in (due to us moving everywhere) I figured why not. 

Now my boss is a guy, but he told me he trusted my decision and, I tried to keep them from being too frou frou.  I stuck with a simple blue and chocolate color scheme and decided to make half a dozen owl ones and half a dozen hedgehog ones.  Of course the cartridge I grabbed was the Create a Critter cartridge!  I actually used the program Sure Cuts A Lot to make the Thank you Sentiment, and used the label from the Create a Critter cartridge.  I cuttlebugged the background using the Swiss Dots folder and plaid ribbon from the dollar bin.  I added a lighter brown inside with flourished stamped on using a versamark inkpad to give it a watermark affect. 

I think these are the first cards that I really like and can't stop staring at!  Like a proud mama!

Happy Birthday to my Love!  Topher's birthday was actually in April, but for some reason I forgot to post this card. 

I made this card  utilizing the stretch your imagination cartridge, and stamped sentiment by Papertrey ink.  I cuttlebugged the green side with the Argyle folder and borderpunched the blue side with the fiskars border punch.  I love the gentle sheen the metallic paper gave it.  Added interest.  I tried to emboss the stamp with a white embossing powder, but it came out a more translucent pearl quality.  Oh well, guess I need to invest in a better white soon! 

Quick card since I barely had time to make this card before Topher came home!  He loved it anyway. 

Happy Mother's Day!!! 

I made a card for both my mom and Topher's mom!  The first card is for Topher's mom.  His momma loves to call her three little kiddos her ducks in her pond, so I decided to use this cute little stamp I purchased in a crafts store in Phoenix (not sure what it's called).  It's originally just the Big duck and the 3 little ducklings, but I cut it in 2 pieces in order to stamp the big duck again so it mimics Topher's family. 

The green paper is cuttlebugged with the Birds and Swirls folder, and punched with a Martha Stewart border punch.  I broke down and purchased Copic markers before we left for Dallas (much to the pricey chagrin of Topher) and have been in love with coloring in my stamps.  I added some grass using my Copics as well.  The ribbon was another dollar store find. 

This card was for my own Momma.  I chose the cut off of the Sweethearts cartridge.  I colored in the heart with Copics and wrote in mom on the heart.  I then embossed it several times to give it a glossy feel.  The flower in the girls hair is actually nail art that I bought in a beauty supply store.  I cuttlbugged the green background with spots and dots, and the ribbon is another dollar bin find.  Celebrate today is part of the mini sentiments stamp set from Papertrey ink! 

Sharing my Easter card that I forgot to do so last month.  I was pretty pleased with the results, The stamped sentiment as well as the bunny is from papertrey ink (stamps so pretty!) and the yellow paper is cuttlebugged with the argyle print (what a great buy).  The ribbon was a dollar bin purchase, and the white circle and scalloped circle were cut using Minimonograms cartridge.  I used a martha stewart border punch and pastel brads to finish it off. 

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!