Get Well Cards and a Diaper Cake

Hi everyone! Just love weekends although this one is a short one for me.  Getting back into the groove of things here in Houston after my quick trip down home.

My husband, Terry, took the Texas state bar exam this week and he is finally done!! He will not get his results until November but he feels good about his big test.
It will be good to have my husband again - no more school or studying!

I actually have 2 cards for you all today. I was finally able to sit down for a few hours in my craft room yesterday afternoon after work.

There are 2 people right now that are on my mind and in my prayers.

The first one is my sister, Polly who was recently diagnosed with Melanoma. After her bigger biopsy for wide margins it looks like the margins are clear and it was caught very early!
She took the news very hard initially as she just dealt with thyroid cancer 3 years ago. She is doing much better now and grateful that her prognosis is very good!

The other person is actually the son of a good friend.  Tyler is only 6 years old and just had his 2nd surgery due to gastrointestinal issues. Poor little guy is still in the hospital recuperating and having a tough time. His mom tells me that his surgery went well and there were no complications.
My prayers go out to his parents and family as well - I know it must be hard to see your child sick or going through a major procedure.

So I made a card for each of them to share a little happiness and encouragement :)


This is the card I made for Polly Wolly:

I used Heidi Swapp's "Sugar chic" collection for my patterned papers - which of course I LOVE! If you know my sister then you know that she herself is very CHIC and these papers work perfect :)

The card measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 (standard A2 size) and my card base is made from Papertrey Ink cardstock in smokey shadow.

I found this sentiment in my stash and thought that it works perfectly for her card especially after a cancer scare.

I also added matching aqua colored rhinestones just to add that extra bling to her card. The banner is also from the Heidi Swapp collection.



This is Tyler's card:

For his card, I used Echo Park's "A Boy's Life" collection for the patterned papers. I used my Cricut to die cut the airplane using the Mickey and Friends cartridge.

The card measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 (standard A2 size) and made using Papertrey Ink cardstock in orange zest.

I used October Afternoon's Mini Market alpha stickers in grey and cream to spell out Tyler's name on the card.

The sentiment is from the same clear stamp collection that I used for my sister's card by My Pink Stamper.

I tried to keep the card as simple as possible as it is for a 6 year old boy.


As an extra for this week's blog post, I also have pictures of a diaper cake I made 2 weeks ago. The theme was supposed to be country with cow print (at least that is what I was initially told).

I later found the baby shower invitation at my mom's house last weekend - turns out that the theme is more of a country/cowboy theme.

If I would of known then I probably would of added a horse and a cowboy instead of a cow :)

I pretty much learned how to make diaper cakes from seeing pictures online of other diaper cakes.  My only client so far has been my sister and all her pregnant friends :)

Maybe in the future, I will actually start taking orders - we'll see. Etsy?


Thank you all for stopping by and hope you all have a great week!



Ana




Supplies used:

Polly's card:

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper - Heidi Swapp
Clear stamp - My Pink Stamper (sentiment)
Embellishments - Heidi Swapp (banner), Martha Stewart (ribbon)


Tyler's card:

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper - Echo Park
Die cut - Provo craft/Cricut
Clear stamp - My Pink Stamper (sentiment)
Embellishments - October Afternoon (alpha stickers), American Crafts (brad)

Mambi's Birthday Card - Crate Paper

Hi everyone! Sorry I was not able to post this past weekend on my fabulous little blog but I had to make an unexpected trip down to my hometown last Thursday.

My sister, Polly, was recently diagnosed with Melanoma last week after getting mole removed from the front of her leg.
For those of you that know my sister, she is a cancer survivor - she was diagnosed with thyroid cancer back in 2008. She has beaten that and I know that she will get through this as well.
Her dermatologist thinks that it was caught early for which we are very grateful!
Love you sis! and I know that you are going to be just fine!

I want to post a recent card I made for my mother's birthday which is coming up on July 26th. I had just received Crate Paper's "Random" 6x6 paper pad last week and just fell in love with the patterns! I know it is an older paper collection but I had never really looked at it before.
I noted how nice the papers were in someone else's blog and just had to buy it.
I knew that the patterned papers would be lovely to make a card for my Mambi.
Mambi is the pet name that my sister has given my mom - it is a combination of Mami (spanish) and Bambi. Since then it has stuck and we all now call her Mambi.


Here is a picture of the card I made for my Mambi:

Card base measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 (standard A2 size) and made out of Melon berry cardstock from Papertrey Ink (PTI).

I loved the floral pattern on the patterned paper and knew that I had to make that my focal point.

I used my Martha Stewart border punch which I have not used in some time, so it was fun to make the bottom layers using the punch.

The sentiment is from PTI "Everyday Button Bits" collection. I used my double ended banner die from PTI to make my little sentiment banner.

I used Tim Holtz's distress ink in Vintage Photo to distress banner and add a neutral tone without being plain white.

I took the opportunity to give my mom her card while at home yesterday. She loved her birthday card and will place in an album she is making with all the cards I have made for her.
She is my biggest fan!

Mami, te quiero muchisimo! y gracias por todo tu amor y cariño de mama! Feliz Cumpleanos! Que te la pases bien :)
I LOVE YOU!


Thanks for stopping by and I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your week!

Thank you to all my friends for the thoughts and prayers for my sister!


Ana




Supplies used:

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper - Crate Paper
Die cut - Crate Paper (rose), Papertrey Ink (banner)
Clear stamp - Papertrey Ink
Ink - Jenni Bowlin (sentiment), Tim Holtz distress ink (banner)
Border Punch - Martha Stewart
Ribbon - American Crafts
Pearls - Recollections

Happy Summer Card

Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a great weekend so far!

This weekend's project is a card I have been wanting to do since getting Basic Grey's PB&J collection last month. The collection also includes a stamp set by Hero Arts which has the cutest images including a kite, bees, summer jar, and a glass of lemonade.

I have been wanting to do a summer card for a few weeks now and received inspiration from one of the blogs I follow. Christina with Creations by Christina made the cutest card using Lawn Fawn's "happy summer" set. Here is the link to her blog post using this stamp set:
http://www.creationswithchristina.com/2012_06_01_archive.html

Even though I had great inspiration and knew what paper collection and stamp set to use, it took me FOREVER to come up with the finished project. I started out with the idea of using clouds and a kite using the PB&J stamp set. Then I did not like the colors I was using to color the kite. I also decided to step away from the kite and clouds when I remembered I already did a card with similar die cuts. That is when I remembered that cute summer card that Christina made. This lady is very talented! I have been following her blog for 1 year now and I LOVE her videos.


Here is my finished card (4 1/4 x 5 1/2):

I love the little ant border I made using my Lawn Fawn stamp set which also included the sentiment and watermelon. The patterned papers are supposed to represent a picnic blanket.

I used my Martha Stewart markers to color in the watermelons - of course they are no Copic markers but they worked well. I really do not want to get into Copics. I just want to stick to die cuts and stamping when it comes to my card making and scrapbooking.

I only wished that my blue ink pad was a little darker to match the dark navy blue on the chevron patterned paper. The color is Paris Dusk by Memento but the ink stamps lighter than I thought.


Thank you for stopping by and I hope you all enjoyed my card!

Have a great Sunday everyone!



Ana



Supplies used:


Cardstock: Papertrey Ink (Kraft)
Patterned paper: Basic Grey "PB&J" collection
Clear stamps: Lawn Fawn (sentiment, watermelon, ants), Papertrey Ink (frame border)
Die: Papertrey Ink
Twine: Papertrey Ink
Markers: Martha Stewart

Project Life - June 2012

Hi everyone! Hope you are all having a great weekend so far! It has been raining here in our part of Texas which has been great - lazy indoor weekend!

I was pretty busy at home yesterday morning. I rearranged my living room and LOVE the end product. Now I have space for the Christmas tree in the living room instead of placing in the foyer. Our foyer is pretty big and 2 story so the tree looked great but I think it will look better in the living room.
I also swiffered and cleaned our hard wood floors - we have 2 shedding dogs and 1 shedding cat. Even though our housekeeper comes every 2 weeks, it seems that I have to clean those floors every 2-3 days. It does not help that they are DARK hardwood floors. We did not have the dogs when we moved into our home so the decision to go with dark floors seemed like a good one at the time :)

During breakfast yesterday morning, I found out that I had won the Saturday card sketch challenge from the past week at Two Peas in a Bucket! So exciting! There were a total of about 7 submissions for the challenge and there were some really good ones so very excited that I was chosen! The winner receives a $5 gift certificate to Two Peas store which is my favorite online scrapbooking supply store.

For this week, I have a Project Life update. I started working on the month of June yesterday and was able to get 2 pages done.
I don't have that many pictures and some of pics are not that great as caught photographing some moments with my terrible camera phone.
I bought Canon dSLR camera almost 2 months ago which I am in love with. I want to take a photography class to learn how to use my camera properly. I am sure I can find one on You Tube :)

The first page highlights early June including a dinner at Mi Rancho and Terry trying a Pacha drink. A Pacha is apparently a combination of a beer and a margarita :)
We were planning on going grocery shopping at Kroger's after dinner but surprised by a thunderstorm and heavy rain during dinner.
I felt sorry for the restaurant patrons on the patio - the rain came in on an angle, so they were drenched!
Terry went out to get the car to pick me up at the entrance due to rain - little did I know but an older gentlemen was waiting for him to bring the car around so that he can walk me under his umbrella to the car door! I could not thank him enough - he told me "I am just an old boy scout at heart". It is good to know that there are still kind people out there!

The bottom of the page is documenting the start of Barbri for Terry which is the prep course for the upcoming bar exam.
For the state of Texas, it is a 3 day test! which he will be taking at the end of July.
So for the most part, he will be going to lectures during the day and then coming home to study some more.

The back of the 1st page is dedicated to a recent paper and stamp order from Simon says Stamp which is another great online store. I had purchased several 6x6 pads which I have been using more and more for my card making since the patterns are sized down and more appropriate for cards.
I also bought some Lawn Fawn stamps that I have been wanting for a while including some new sets.

I also did some journaling pertaining to my new love for paper crafting and made a small note of finally starting my blog.

The alphabet cardstock stickers and label stickers will work great on Project Life as you probably have seen on my pages.


The 2nd page highlights my dogs during the month of June. One of our medical assistants at work, Addy, gave me 2 antler chews which my dogs LOVE! She had given me some after hunting season and they chewed them down to a stub.
When I brought them home - they went crazy!
I also wanted to show some pics I took while crafting. They love to hang out with me. I usually have to keep Peaches out of my trash cans and I just end up placing them in a high place such as my desk. She is a trouble maker! Always sniffing for trouble but LOVE her!
They mostly like to take naps while I craft. Peaches loves to lay at my feet which means she right under my work chair so I have to be careful not to run her over.

The back of my 2nd page layout documents a few events. The first being my yearly get-together with the Ladies! Amy, Melissa and Delma are my friends from high school. We try to get together at least once a year. We usually get together right before the Christmas holiday but this last year was a little difficult. I love these ladies and love when I get to hang out with them. We just try to catch up with what is going on in our lives. We mostly complain about our hubbys :) Don't get me wrong we talk about other things too.

We met at Crust which is a pizza/pasta restaurant in the Woodlands. It was very yummy and can't wait to take Terry there for some great pizza. I had the buffalo chicken pizza which was very tasty!
Of course, I forgot my new camera and ended up taking pictures with my crappy camera phone. The pictures came out super dark. I do apologize for the poor quality of pics on my layout. I tried to fix as much as I could with iPhoto but they still look terrible. I still used them as they are the only pics.

Our high school 20 year reunion is next year! Yikes - where does the time go! I still feel like a kid sometimes :)
We did some planning and decided to all rent a beach house next summer with our families at South Padre for the reunion.

Amy lives about 5 miles from my house so I get to see her more often but not as often as I would like. I LOVE her! She is just a great friend all around. She is also a great mom!

The other side of this page highlights my 4th of July banner that I made for my clinic. I think it came out pretty good and everyone at the clinic has enjoyed it.

I also document about my husband's new goal to watch all the AFI top 100 movies of all time that he has not seen. The first movie on his list is Singin' in the Rain which we watched together. I took a picture of the screen which came out pretty cool.

Well thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my little blog!

I will be working on a diaper cake this week for one of my sister's friend. The theme is western/cowboy for a little boy.

Will take pictures and upload on my blog next weekend.

My mother's birthday is later this month so will be working soon on a  card for her.  I also want to make a summer card using some of my new papers and stamps. I just wish I could spend more time crafting! Oh well, maybe when I retire :)

I hope you all have a great Sunday and have a great week!



Ana

Extra Post - Two Peas Card Sketch Challenge #1

Hi everyone! I had actually completed this week's project last week which was my husband's birthday card.
This morning while surfing my favorite online store, Two Peas in a Bucket, I came across their blog! I never knew they had a separate blog - LOVE it!

Anyway, every week they have a scrapbook layout, photo, and card sketch challenge. I decided to try out participating. This week (6/30 - 7/06/12) the challenge is to use hexagons which are really popular right now.
You are given a card sketch for inspiration - in this case one with hexagons. The card sketch was great and included 3 hexagon shapes as part of the card but you can actually use other repetitive shapes such as hearts, circles, buttons, flowers, etc.

Here is the sketch - this challenge sketch is by Kimber McGray who is a Garden Girl over at Two Peas:

Now here is my card creation using her sketch:

This was a card was pretty simple and easy to do. The only trouble I had was that I did not have any hexagon shaped dies to cut out the shape. I even looked through all my Cricut cartridges and NOTHING!
I cut out my own hexagon shapes using a template I found online.
I finally used some of the twine I bought at Papertrey Ink on a card. The hexagon patterned papers made me think of a quilt so the overall theme of the card was "country homemade".
I really do love the colors in the patterned paper. The wood grain patterned paper helped break up the bold colors and really made the hexagon shapes stand out.

Well I uploaded my card and will see next weekend if I won. I hope to continue to make a card weekly both for the Two Peas challenge and for my blog.

I hope you enjoyed my card! Now off to work on finishing my clinic notes :)

Have a great week everyone!



Ana




Supplies used:

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink, Kraft
Patterned paper - Echo Park "So Happy Together"
Punch - Martha Stewart
Sentiment tag - Jillibean Soup
Twine - Papertrey Ink
Button - Papertrey Ink

Happy Birthday Card - October Afternoon

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great week! I had a really busy week and so happy for the weekend.
Between working full time, studying and keeping up with my blog/crafting, it can be exhausting :) I love it though - keeps me on my toes.

Yesterday my husband and I attended a country music concert which benefits the Coastal Conservation Association of Texas. We do not really fish but we are all about the environment, adopting rescued dogs, and conservation. The big headliner was Pat Green but the concert also included Kevin Charles Band, Gene Watson, Sammy Kershaw, and Jerry Jeff Walker. To tell you the truth, I only knew one song out of the whole concert - it was Sammy Kershaw's "She Don't Know She's Beautiful" from 1993. I only listened to country music in the 1990's while I was in high school and college. I mostly like to listen to top 40, latino pop/rock, and salsa/merengue/bachata music since then. I moved to Philadelphia in 2000 for medical school, so definitely did not listen to country music during those 4 years :)
I have been back in Texas since 2004 but just never got back into country music.
Terry (my hubby) had a great time and really likes Pat Green. What I did not know was that it was going to be a 7 hour concert and we were out in typical summer Texas weather the whole time! It rained part of the time and then full sun the other part. So between getting wet and then sunburned, by the end of the night I was TIRED!

Anyway, on to one of this week's projects. My husband's 34th birthday was on June 26th, so I made a card especially for him last weekend. I had to wait until after his birthday to post as he is one of my biggest blog fans and I did not want him to see his special card.

I bought the October Afternoon "Sasparilla" collection earlier this year. I LOVE the cowboy theme and being from Texas, I just had to get it!
My husband is a country boy at heart - he was born in upstate New York but for the most part grew up in East Texas. Refuses to drive anything else other than his pick up truck. Let's just say he feels uncomfortable in my BMW :)

The patterned papers in this collection I thought would work great on his birthday card. I also bought the packaged miscellany pack and little flyers/flags for embellishments.

I really like the patterned paper that is basically a comic strip - how cute is that! It is about the adventures of Dash Dalton. One of the patterned papers was also a denim jean print which works perfect - my husband is definitely a jeans kind of guy.
I also found a cute Dash Dalton Cowboy club card in the miscellany pack and a chipboard sheriff star badge.
One of the little flyers said "Make a Wish" which was perfect for a birthday card.

Here is my finished card:

LOVE how it turned out and I knew my husband would get a kick out of it!

I made my card base using Papertrey Ink cardstock in Enchanted Evening color.
Card base measures 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 which is a standard A2 card size.

I used the denim jean patterned paper as my first layer over my card base. I cut only the top strip of the comic strip patterned paper as I could only fit a small part of comic strip due to the size of my card. I used the comic as my 2nd layer on top of the denim patterned paper.
The ribbon, club card, star, and button are all from the miscellany pack.

Terry really got a kick from his card! I also bought him a new wallet for his birthday which he really needed and we went out to dinner at Fleming's Steakhouse.

After I made this card, I found that twopeasinabucket.com was actually having a project challenge sponsored by October Afternoon. The challenge is to use recent/new October Afternoon products in a project. For those of you that know me, twopeasinabucket is my favorite online scrapbooking supply store! I have not uploaded any projects before onto their gallery.
So I updated my profile on their website and uploaded my birthday card project. If I win, I get a $50 gift certificate!


Thank you for stopping by and I hope you all enjoyed my card! I hope you all have a great week!



Ana



Supplies used:

Cardstock - Papertrey Ink
Patterned paper - October Afternoon
Ribbon - October Afternoon
Embellishments - October Afternoon
Button - October Afternoon
Twine - Papertrey Ink