Happy Birthday, Cassidy!

Happy Saturday, peeps! Today is Cassidy's 14th birthday! Time flies!  I made her a card using some basketball papers from Echo Park:

It's a wee bit larger than a standard card, it's 4 1/2" x 6 1/2".  I wanted to get lots of the basketball images on it!!  Everything is from the Echo Park pad except for the basketball and the "HB".  The basketball is an older SU stamp, stamped in Pecan Pie and I added (poorly) the black lines with a fine-tip marker.  The diecut letters are from Lawnfawn. 

 Here's the inside, I used another image from Have a Ball and the sentiment is from Biggest Wish:

She asked for mostly sport-related clothing for her birthday and one sweatshirt she wanted was not going to arrive on time. So I did a little creative tracing and cutting; this will go in her card with a "coming later" note!

Thanks for poping in today! We're celebrating tomorrow, so cleaning is on my agenda for today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Biggest Wish (ret), Have a Ball (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Crumb Cake, Basic White, Basic Black, Basketball (Echo Park)
Ink	Pecan Pie, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Basic Black
Accessories	Black Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Banner Dies (Nellie Snellen), Oliver's Stitched Alphabet Dies (Lawn Fawn), 1 1/4" Circle Punch (ret)

TGIF477 Happy Father's Day

Happy Tuesday, peeps! This will be quick...Cassidy has a Nike basketball camp she's attending at a local college and my job is to get her there on time and pick her up!  No problem!  I wanted to share the Father's Day card I made for Wayne this year; it used the sketch from TGIF:

Wayne loves watching any Philly sports, so I made him a baseball-themed card with a retired set called Have a Ball:

I stamped the mitt, bat and ball and fussy-cut them out and mounted them on two stitched star diecuts.  The sentiment is from the retired Best Year, embellished with a Basic Border diecut:

And on the inside, some stars from the Have a Ball set and a sentiment from Unbounded Love:

I think he liked it!  Thanks for popping in today!  Enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Unbounded Love, Have a Ball (ret), Best Year (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Night of Navy, Basketball (Echo Park)
Ink	Night of Navy, Real Red, Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Basic Border Dies (ret), Stitched Star Dies (Paper Rose)

PP658 CAS Sports x Two

Happy Sunday, everyone!  I hope your weekend is going well!  It's the fabulous Claire's turn to host our Paper Players challenge today and she has a great one!  So here we go:

I actually made two for this challenge; the first one I thought was not quite CAS enough!  So I just made another! I can always use them!  So, here we go with the first one:

In my search for some graphic-style paper, I found some in my stash that matched Starry Sky pretty well, and since that's a color I rarely use, I thought I would challenge myself! I pulled out a retired stamp, Exteme Skater, a Paper Pumpkin sentiment and some Gorgeous Grunge and did some simple stamping; I hope skateboarding is considered a sport, LOL:

Everything went on an Orchid Oasis card base and I added a strip of the same paper on the inside:

And here's my first card, I used retired sets called Have a Ball and Your Biggest Fan along with the FMS sketch for this week:

Here's the sketch:

And the inside:

I think this is a great opportunity to create some clean-and-simple masculine cards!  What sports fan do you know who would love a card featuring his (or her) favorite team or sport?  Put on your creative thinking caps and share your creation with us at the Paper Players! 

Here's something I made while pursuing one of my favorite "sports"--knitting!  I made up this pattern off the top of my head; in the future I'll make it less bulky at top and bottom!  The retired Stitched Leaves dies came in handy to create the felt leaves!

 Thanks for visiting today!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

First Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Gorgeous Grunge (ret), Extreme Skater (ret), Paper Pumpkin (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Orchid Oasis, Little by Little DSP (American Crafts)
Ink	Starry Sky, Orchid Oasis
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Rectangle Stitched Dies

Second Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Have a Ball (ret), Your Biggest Fan (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Black, Real Red, Cajun Craze, Real Red DSP
Ink	Real Red, Memento Black, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Layering Circle Dies, 1" Circle Punch, 1 1/4"Circle Punch

AHSC512 Football Thanks

Happy Tuesday, peeps!  Happy Valentine's Day too! I took a little break from stamping this weekend (more about that later) and finally got back into my stamp room yesterday!  We were invited to a Super Bowl party on Sunday and I wanted to send our hosts a thank you card, so I used the Atlantic Hearts Sketch for this week:

This card is a little unusual...no flowers, but lots of footballs and Philadelphia Eagles colors:

I embossed a panel of Tranquil Tide with a polka dot embossing folder and tore the edge, then adhered it to a Basic White card base on which I embossed some stars!  I stamped and fussy-cut some footballs and arranged them behind a Cinnamon Cider panel and added a green glimmer paper star!

I added a sentiment from Country Bouquet, and a big thanks from Biggest Wish on the inside, along with some other embellishments!

Even though the Eagles lost, it was still a fun party!

SO.....Dana has a big birthday coming up on Thursday, and a few weeks ago, Wayne told me he wanted to surprise her with a big party!  He took care of the getting the venue, the food and a list of all the guests; I sent out invites, got the cake and made cupcakes.  He arranged for her friend to get her to the venue, and IT WORKED!  She was totally surprised and Wayne, Cassidy and I breathed a big sigh of relief!  I talk to her every day on her way home from work, and it was so hard to not spill the beans, especially since my sister and BIL flew in from South Carolina to surprise her as well!  I didn't take any pictures myself because I wanted to enjoy all the moments, so I didn't get a photo of her coming through the door, but it was priceless!  She took a moment after all the excitement to get a picture with her momma, wearing the tiara and sash that Wayne got for her:

Here she is with her girlie cousins (one guest saw Paige and Kelly, the girls on the left, as they were getting out of their car and said to her husband, "This has to be the right place...those blonds are either sisters or cousins!"); sadly, we were missing one from Chicago who couldn't make it (by the way,  Allyson, on the right, is Sawyer and Jamison's mommy!):

The venue was spectacular: Britain Hill Vineyard, out in the rolling hills of southern Lancaster county features a large barn set on top of a hill with spectacular views!  And it's only a few minutes away from their home!  This is the calm before the storm:

I know Dana likes rose gold, so her friend provided these gorgeous balloons!

I'll share more later!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Country Bouquet, Biggest Wish, Have a Ball (ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Cinnamon Cider (ret), Tranquil Tide (ret), Green Glimmer Paper (ret)
Ink	Cinnamon Cider (ret), Tranquil Tide (ret)
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Cut & Emboss Machine, Stylish Shapes Dies, Polka Dot Embossing Folder (ret), Stars Embossing Folder (ret), Star Die (Paper Rose), Star Die (SU, ret), Stitching Lines Dies (Ellen Hutson)

TSOT572 Granny Apple Green Again

Hi there peeps!  I still had a piece of Granny Apple Green cardstock sitting on my desk from the card I posted yesterday, and I needed a boy's birthday card, so I decided to make use of it!  He happens to like soccer so I pulled out an oldie stamp set called Have a Ball and went to work!  So here we go:

I used the sketch from Try Stampin' on Tuesday:

The soccer ball was stamped in Stazon and punched out with a circle punch.  I didn't have a hexagon die large enough to fit the sketch, so I used a Stitched Nested Label die and "trimmed" a full-sized diecut down by running it through the Big Shot partially on one end.  I used a smaller die to cut out the Celebrate, and the star die from Sports Events to cut out some wee stars:

I embossed the card front with the Coastal Weave EF and used a piece of Plaid Tidings from a few years ago for the horizontal panel.  Finally, the inside sentiment was stamped with Memento and colored in with a Granny Apple Green blend:

Now it's off in the mail!  I promise my next card will not feature ANY shade of Granny Apple Green!  Thanks for visiting today--enjoy it and be blessed!

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Have a Ball, Many Mates (both retired)
Card stock & Papers	Basic Black, Basic White, Granny Apple Green, Plaid Tidings DSP (ret)
Ink	Stazon Black, Memento Black, Granny Apple Green
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Sports Event Dies, Stitched Nested Label Dies, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Coastal Weave EF (All retired), Blends

ICC095 Sympathy

Happy Monday, peeps! Hope you had a good weekend!  Thankfully it cooled down a bit...we didn't even turn on the A/C yesterday!  Sadly, I needed a sympathy card this week.  My cousin Nancy, who lives in Venice, FL, lost her husband on Friday.  He was a pretty special guy; they started Challenger Baseball in Venice so that physically-challenged children could play ball.  I only met him a couple of times and never really had a chance to talk to him about it, but he was well-loved by many members of the community.  You can see a little news clip here, and if you're on Facebook, can look up Richard E Carroll to see lots of pictures (that will cause you to tear up, guaranteed), including the amazing Christmas village they set up each year that thousands of people would drive through to see!  So, all that to say, I created a baseball-themed sympathy card for his family:

The baseball gear is all from a retired SU set called Have a Ball, and the sentiment is from a Hero Arts sentiment assortment; papers are from my stash.

I used the great sketch from Inspire.Create as well:

Thanks for visiting today!

A little beachy fun:

LOL, Wayne looks like a real sailor!  Enjoy your day and be blessed!

"Who is wise?  He will realize these things.  Who is discerning?  He will understand them.  The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them."  Hosea 14:9

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Have a Ball (ret), Sentiments (Hero Arts CL342)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Frontier DSP (Authentique), Stars & Stripes (unknown)
Ink	Real Red, Crumb Cake, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stitched Shapes Dies (ret)

Tower Father's Day Card

Happy Monday, everyone! Hope you had a good weekend!  I promised I would try to share some directions for this card, and while the photos aren't very good, I do have a bit of a tutorial for you!  Since I already had the cardstock cut, scored and assembled to make the sample, I went ahead and decorated it for Wayne's Father's Day card:

I used lots of retired SU products, did some embossing and fussy-cutting:

Some stamping and diecutting (even though he's technically not my son, he IS my #1 son-in-law!):

And had a fun time doing it!  He loves football (Eagles) and baseball (Phillies) and he is the manager of our church softball team (we are currently in first place!) so I made sure I got some of those elements in there as well!

Now for the tutorial; as I said, the photos are not very good, but hopefully you'll be able to still get the gist of it!  This creates a standard sized card, so the panels to be decorated are not real big, but I think it still makes for an impressive card!  So here we go:

1.  Cut 4 pieces of cardstock 2 5/8" x 5 1/2".  Score each one at 1/2" on the short side and fold and burnish.  You should have a 1/2" "tab" along each left side:

2.  Lay one piece on your work surface with the left tab facing up.  Apply strong adhesive or tape to the back of the tab on the second piece of cardstock.  Adhere the edge of that tab right next to the fold of the piece that is on your work surface:

3.  Do the same thing for the third piece:  apply strong adhesive to the back of the tab and adhere that right along the fold on the second piece of cardstock.  

4.  If you stand it up, it should look like this:

5.  Do the same thing with the last piece of cardstock. 

 6.  It should look like this:

7.  Flip over the entire piece and apply strong adhesive to the remaining tab, which is the tab on the very first piece you laid on your work surface.  Carefully adhere that to the remaining piece of cardstock, again, right next to the fold.  This is where it will turn into a 3D card.  It is helpful to pick it up to maneuver that last tab into place.

8.  Your final piece should look this this:

Be sure to burnish your tabs to make sure your adhesive stays tight....Tear N Tape or Sticky Strip works great!  When you flatten your card, it should measure 4 1/4" x 5 1/2".  At this point, you can pop it back out and decorate in whatever way you wish.  It is helpful to create a test one first using some scrap cardstock or paper.  Once you get the basic idea down, they come together quickly!  Have fun, hope it was helpful!  And enjoy your day and be blessed!

After a long day:

Project Details—All Products SU! Unless Otherwise Specified
Stamps	Camouflage, Epic Alphabet, Have a Ball, Misc Paper Pumpkin (all ret)
Card stock & Papers	Basic White, Basic Gray, Basic Black, Smoky Slate, Call me Clover (ret)
Ink	Cajun Craze, Garden Green, Smoky Slate, Real Red, Cinnamon Cider, Crumb Cake
Accessories	Dimensionals
Tools	Big Shot, Stars EF, Decorative Dots EF (all ret), Diamond Plate EF (Cuttlebug), Typewriter EF (Tim Holtz), Timeless Type Alphabet Jr Sizzlits Dies (ret)