Time Out Reminder: Who's Turning Fifty?

I mentioned earlier this week that we'll be celebrating my brother Neal's 50th birthday on Saturday.  Hard to believe he's 50...he certainly doesn't look 50!  This card is a reminder for the current Time Out Challenge to make a birthday card with an optional twist of making a masculine birthday card. The perfect challenge for me to make Neal's card!  The current Retro Sketches challenge is an awesome challenge to use up some of your patterned paper.   I love the sketch and always struggle with where to play my enamel elements so the sketch already having them placed definitely helped me out!

And here's a good little lesson for us all!

Little Baby: Big Love {and hitting the pavement}

Admittedly, I am a bit behind on the vellum trend and why oh why I'm asking myself haven't I jumped on earlier.  Laurie is consistently showing gorgeous cards with vellum.  Her Retro Sketch card from this week was jaw dropping.  I decided to have a go around simplifying the sketch just a bit.  I love the soft patterned paper in the background.  I'll be back on Friday with another card using vellum!  Thanks for a great sketch at Retro Sketch.

I also wanted to share that I'm back at it running again. I'm so thankful for the warmer weather. I've signed up to run the Flying Pig Marathon with two co-workers and Ryan. I'll be the oldest runner in our relay by 20 years.  Think I need to get a move on with my training so that I'm not immensely slower than all of them!  It feels so good to be running regularly again.  I've lost 15 lbs over the last 6 months so this is great momentum to keep me going!

Thanks a Latte

Hello friends...I'm back from an awesome weekend away with my sister-in-laws and girlfriends. I was able to get the boys scrapbooks caught up and snuck in a few cards on Sunday morning.    I was in need of a relaxing weekend away so the time was just perfect:  catching up, laughing a ton, enjoying a few glasses of wine and all kinds of creative goodness happening.  Perfection. My card above was made yesterday. Playing along with my new Verve and the Retro Sketch!

Here we are all are before we took off for home!  Happy Monday my friends.

 

Feel Better Real Soon

Happy, happy Monday!  Oh did I have fun getting inky yesterday.  In between peaking out to see how the Cincinnati Reds and Bengals were doing during their games.  Thankful that they both won!  When I saw the Curtain Call Challenge, I didn't think I had my PTI Sunflower set anymore so I wasn't going to play along.  But...I was looking through my sets yesterday and found it. I love cards that are almost all inks and stamps with just a few embellishments.  The layout is inspired by Laurie's card over at Retro Sketches this week. 

Random Blogger question for all of you too:  Any ideas how to change your default font?  I keep changing mine with each post and think there must be a way to change it for all future posts.  Help is appreciated :)!

Stamps:  PTI and PaperSmooches Sentiment Sampler

 

Thanks!

We've had an unusually cool summer and with the boys heading back to school on Monday, fall has been on my mind.  These Verve pumpkins are one of my all time favorite pumpkin stamps.  I love the flourishes on them.  This is my fourth card set this week using the smaller SU note cards.  I'm going to have to try this card size more often as I love the small palette.  I added just a touch of patterned paper across the top with some twine to follow along with this week's Retro Sketch.  What about you?  Ready for fall to come?

 

 

Mr. & Mrs.

Hello there.  Today's blog entry:  create a card using lots of patterned paper (Simple Stories Vintage Bliss).  I had fun creating this CAS card for a co-worker who got engaged last week.  Always happy to see someone fall in love and decide to get married!  Kept it simple and added Hero Arts sentiment for the couple to be.

 

Happy Birthday

It's Friday!  Are you doing the Friday dance?  I am!  Before I get to the weekend though, I have two cards to share with you.  First up, Jackie is hosting a very fun challenge and an amazing giveaway. Jackie creates blog designs and is crazy talented.  She's having a challenge over on her blog to use the Pantone colors in her blog header and to create a card.  Go ahead and play along for a chance to win a new blog header design!

Next up I let the patterned paper do the talking on this birthday card below.  I pulled out my Crate Paper to make this card following the current Retro Sketch.  Not my normal style card but I'm pretty happy with the end result.

Hope your weekend is super relaxing!

 

{Card Set Inspiration - Day 4}

Happy Friday Eve my friends.  I'm here with day 4 of my card set inspiration. Today I'm using the Retro Sketch for my card set basis.  I had fun finishing off one of my 6x6 paper packs for this card set.  We always need just because card sets so I thought this Verve sentiment would be perfect for a fun card set. This one is also a bit more masculine if you're looking for an idea for a card set for a guy!

 

 

 

Merry Christmas

Well hello Friday!  How's this Friday treating you?  Off to work and then it will be a cousin weekend with Pat's brother/sister-in-law and kids coming in for the weekend!  We're looking forward to lots of cousin play time in between baseball and lacrosse games for our nephew.  The whole gang is coming over Saturday night for a family/father's day cookout.  It will be busy, but fun for sure!

Before I go, I have a card to share for the current Retro Sketch. When I saw this card of Cristina's, I immediately thought of berries for a Christmas card. The sketch was the perfect chance to try it out.  I think I'll be making more of these!  And...this is also going to be entered for the Cloud9 Anything Goes challenge.

Thanks Ever So Much Erin!

Hello there..happy, happy Monday!  We ended up with an absolutely beautiful weekend.  They called for lots of rain, but thankfully we only had a small shower on Friday and Saturday night.  It was so nice to have sun and mid 70s for the weekend.  I also had a fairly quiet weekend with Ryan and Jonathon since Pat was camping with Collin and Marcel.  

I have been looking forward to playing along with Erin's 1000th blog post challenge.  She always rocks the May Arts ribbon so her challenge for us was perfect...make a card with May Arts goodies.  To say the May Arts ribbon is fabulous is an understatement.  It ties bows perfectly!  I decided to play along used the current Retro Sketch....and also to used up some of my patterned paper.  I'm currently loving the Simple Stories Vintage Bliss paper pack.

And...if you haven't stopped by Erin's blog...she is a gem of a friend...we love comparing work and boy stories.  Even though we haven't met in person, I'm sure we'd have no problem chatting live too!

Before I go, here's a picture of the campers from the YMCA Indian Guides camps.  The boys decided on a cabin this weekend instead of tents.  Love all their happy faces!

 

Congratulations!

One of my co-workers is getting married in a few weeks.  I loved making this card for her.  It came together really quickly.  The panel pieces (with the exception of the ribbon) are from her actual invitation.  The font on the invitation is also eggplant.  I love when cards come together easily!  We'll be celebrating with her on Monday by throwing her an impromptu wedding shower!

I based the card on the current RetroSketch!

And here's my update on running this week. This week qualifies as a long week for a variety of reasons, but I stuck with my commitment of running.  Here's the recap

Sunday:  2.32 miles 12.02 min/mile
Monday 2.31 miles 11.27 min/mile
Tuesday 2.32 miles 10.25 min/mile
Thursday 2.31 miles 10.07 min/mile

I'm using the Map My Run app on my phone to track my mileage...have to say it is a great motivator.  Except Sunday I ran in the early evening after work/baseball.  I have been tired due to several long work days, but I certainly feel a ton better when I exercise.  I'm give another update next Friday!

Happy Friday my friends!

 

Hats Off!

Hello there...I had a few minutes after baseball games today to sneak in a card.  I had this little Doodle Bugs graduation cap sticker waiting to be used in my craft room!  The colors on my card are the Ohio State colors so this card will be going to my niece, Elizabeth, in a few weeks as she'll be heading to OSU in the fall.  Erin shared the fabulous pleated May Arts ribbon with me and I had to put it to immediate use.  A very quick CAS card but I think the end result is perfect!   The current Retro Sketch is fabulous.

Hope you are having a fabulous weekend!

 

Elizabeth's Senior Prom

Hello there, I'm popping in quickly to share a card for this week's Retro Sketch.  I'll be giving this to my co-worker who is celebrating his 5th anniversary in a couple of weeks.  I love this sketch...and had a lot of ideas for it so I'm sure I'll be back using it again soon.

Before I go though, I wanted to pop in and share pictures of my amazing nice, Elizabeth.  Saturday was her senior prom and if I do say so myself, I think she looked absolutely stunning!  Her friend, Taylor, did her hair and make up and it was perfect.  I took a few close ups of her hair so that you can see it. In the top right...I love the eyes she is making.  She's had that particular look since she was a very little girl.

 Here are a few more shots of her dress and she and her boyfriend, Allen. He looked very handsome!

I love this picture of my mum and Elizabeth...they were cracking up about how much taller Elizabeth was than her since she was wearing heals. Their smiles make my heart happy!  I feel so blessed to have so many of our family members close by so that we can share these occasions!

God Bless You on Your Confirmation

We aren't going to win aunt and uncle of the year!  My nephew's confirmation was a couple of weeks ago and I completely forgot to send him a card.  It was on a Tuesday night right after Easter and in Pittsburgh, so we didn't get to attend to celebrate with him.

But...as the saying goes, better late than never.  We're very proud of Connor and the young man he is.  So...this got popped in the mail to him on Monday!  Thankfully, his birthday was yesterday and that card was sent home over Easter with his mom (at least one major life event was on time!).

Love the Retro Sketch...so many fun possibilities for this sketch!

Ingredients:  The Craft's Meow God's Blessings

 

Happy Retirement

Happy happy Friday!  I'm doing the Friday happy dance for sure!  I'm typing this post after just returning from the Cincinnati Reds game.  It was a gorgeous night out and we had amazing tickets in the front row right next to third base.  Best seats I've ever had.  The Reds bats were out with an 11 to 1 win.  Of course, the highlight of our night was getting on the jumbo tron.  Nothing like my friend, Katie, making me laugh and singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" to get us on the jumbo tron for a few seconds.  We think we were the pity vote for getting up there (the over 40 crowd!!)

Sorry for the tangent!  I love this CAS sketch by Laurie at Retro Sketches.  Perfect quick and easy card for a long-time client contact at work that is retiring. I'll be using this sketch again soon!

 

I Treasure Your Friendship

Good morning!  I'm popping in with more pictures from our weekend and a card for the current Retro Sketches challenge.  This is an all Verve card today....using two different stamps sets and the sweet little scallop frame die.  I'm in need of the cheery colors as it has been freezing here!  I thought this card was perfect for my post today!  I could most certainly send it to Sara who is featured in the pictures below.

 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, Sara, Andrew and their girls, Michal and Erin came to stay with us this past weekend.  Sara and I first met when we went to PaperTrey Ink's Stamp-a-Faire.  We instantly hit it off over dinner and when we had some free time before heading back to the evening events.   Since then, Sara, Andrew, Pat and I have gotten together twice.  Once for a show choir competition where both Ryan and Michal were competing and the second time last summer when Sara and Andrew came for a visit.  So...this year when Sara and I were comparing show choir schedules we saw that both kids were competing this weekend.  We were thrilled to have them all come stay with us and for all of our kids to meet each other.

The kids took no time at all getting to know each other.  Marcel (the child that doesn't have a shy bone in his body) quickly (within 5 minutes) asked the girls if they wanted to play Wii.  So down to the basement they went to get busy playing!  And about an hour later, Ryan suggested a game of Apples to Apples.   Needless to say, we had fun all weekend long.   Marcel fell in love with Andrew and Sara and wasn't interested in going to Collin's basketball game instead he stayed at the show choir competition with them.  Up top he's showing off his gangnam style dance moves!

My brother, Neal, sister-in-law, Cindy and niece, Elizabeth, came to the competition to cheer us along too.  All and all a great weekend!  We're looking forward to getting together again soon!

And how could I resist not including this picture of Ryan...if you haven't been over to Virginia's blog...you have to stop by and see her!  Her Ryan badges crack me up and I'm so pleased that he approves of my Project Life pages :)!