Happy Monday to all! =)

Hello everyone!  Well, this is my last week of freedom before I go back to school!  I've got lots of crafty plans for this weekend, and also plan to work on cleaning up the house and whatnot.  It's been a super busy but AWESOME summer! 

This past weekend was a TON of fun!  It was my hubby's birthday, so we went out to BRGR (the best burger place ever) for dinner and had a great meal!  Then we went to the State College Microbrew Expo on Saturday with some friends.  It was AWESOME!  So many amazing microbrews!  It was really neat to get to try so many delicious beers and talk to the breweries about how they got started, how they decided to make certain types of beer, etc...  Finally, Sunday the hubs went golfing and I got to see my Dad perform in the local Senior Follies music and talent show!  It's a huge fundraiser for his Aging Agency, and it's always a great time!  We all met up for dinner after too, for a perfect ending to the weekend!  =) 

Ok, so onto the card!  I made this last Friday, but didn't get to post it until today!  This card uses several stamps and stamp companies, and I LOVE how it turned out: 

Can you spy all of the stamp companies on this card?  There's FOUR: Hot off the Press (scroll and border), Studio G (butterfly), Papertrey Ink (Circle), AND Lawn Fawn (sentiment).  I also love that I once again got to use several of my favorite techniques -- distressing and embossing!  The middle strip is embossed with clear powder and then covered with Mustard Seed Distress Ink -- I LOVE this particular stamp/color combination here!  So vivid and pretty!  I also heat embossed the sentiment and used watermark ink for the borders.   I also added some teeny tiny pearls and embroidery floss to finish off the card.  =) 

So, this card was also inspired by a couple of my favorite challenge blogs: 
CR84FN #36 - Yellow, Kraft and Neutral Colors

CAS-ual Fridays #16 - Embossing

Also, don't forget to check out my BLOGOVERSARY GIVEAWAY!  There's only four more days to comment for a fabulous $25 giftcard to your favorite store!  =) 

The Happiest of Anniversaries -- with many more to come! =D

Hello everyone!  So, today is a VERY special day for me... it's our 3rd Anniversary!  3 years ago today, I married my absolute best friend and we had the most amazing wedding!  It was a very special day with lots and LOTS of fun for everyone!  Our wedding was REALLY big (about 400 people, we invited 500!) because Zach has a gigantic family and my family knows EVERYONE.  =)  It was a really perfect day, and we took LOTS of pictures!  =)

For our 3rd Anniversary, my husband and I had a fabulous dinner last Sunday out at a restaurant that is right on the Allegheny River... we had a fabulous view and the food was excellent!  Today we did things a little more low key, having a dinner at a local restaurant (one we'd never tried before because we always love trying new things!), then we went out for dessert, and shared a little champagne this evening!

One special thing that we always do for our anniversary is to share some blueberries.  I know this might sound strange, but during our wedding sermon (which was quite possibly the STRANGEST wedding sermon ever given!) the priest started talking about the price of blueberries in Washington state (we live in Pennsylvania).  He then tried to tie it back to the Beatitudes -- I wish I was joking but this really happened. I couldn't hide my complete shock over the chosen topic and many of our friends and family were too.  It's ended up being this funny blessing though, because we always remember the sermon about blueberries from our wedding and laugh!  We decided on our first anniversary that we'd always have something with blueberries for our anniversary!  Here's us tonight with some blueberry yogurt (with fresh blueberries of course!) at a Simply Yogurt:

OK so onto the project!  I'm not much for scrapbooking, but I did make a really nice scrapbook of our wedding!  It has lots of fab photos, journaling tags, stamping and all sorts of other techniques!  The full album can be viewed HERE, but I didn't want to put up the entire thing on my blog.  Here are a few of my favorite pages:

The Front Cover -- the embellishments are handmade clay flowers!

This is my favorite picture that we took at the wedding!  It really shows just how happy we were that day!

 Just married!  I made several pull out tags for this scrapbook -- the blue one in this picture reads: "After the ceremony, we took pictures and went for a limo ride!  The pics started in the church and ended in a beautiful courtyard!  This was the slowest part of the day, and we had SO much fun!  =)"

I also love this picture and quote!  This picture really highlights my dress which I LOVED!  =)

We took a lot of pictures with our parents, but this one from the rehearsal ended up being my favorite.  I like it because in order, it goes: Zach's Dad, my Mom, Zach, Me, my Dad, and Zach's Mom.  It reminds me of how easily our lives blended together!  =)

Our relationship started because Zach taught me how to swing dance!  Of course at our wedding we had to show off!

I wanted to include as many pictures as possible, so on a few pages I made photo collages like this to showcase more pictures!  This one is my favorite!

Another favorite picture of mine, and we are planning on living a long happy ever after!  =D

WOW ok I know long post!  Again if you want to view the whole scrapbook in picture format, go HERE!  Thanks for visiting and reading about our anniversary and wedding story!  I hope you enjoyed it!  =) 

Happy Birthday Plane

Hello everyone, and happy Monday!  I have a fun little card for you today using two of my favorite stamp companies, Papertrey Ink and Lawn Fawn!  I have a bunch of male birthdays coming up in the next few weeks, and so I made this for one of my brother in law's! 

I just love love LOVE the Fly Away stamp set!  I stamped one of the planes and added the Happy Birthday banner!  Then I colored the whole thing in, and added glossy accents over the whole plane (I just love the way that plane looks with glossy accents on it!)  Then, I added the clouds from Lawn Fawn's Partly Cloudy stamp set to make a fun sky scene!  Finally, I added some baker's twine and pearls for a final touch! 

This card was inspired by lots and LOTS of fantastic challenges:
1. Wee Memories #60 - Party Time

2. Tuesday Throwdown #54 - Create a Masculine Card
3. Off the Wall Craftiness #56 - Red, White and any Blue color

=)  It's been so SO great to get some seriously crafty time in lately!  How is everyone else enjoying summer, and can you believe it's almost July already?!?!?!?!  Madness!  Anyhow, have a lovely Monday!

PTI June Blog Hop!!!

Hello everyone!  I'm back with another blog hop today... the PTI June Blog Hop!  It's the 25th of the month and so that means another fabulous PTI Blog Hop!  To play along, just check out their post HERE.  This month we had an inspiration photo as opposed to a specific technique!  Here's the amazing photo:

 

When I saw this photo... four colors specifically caught my eye: yellow, orange, pink, and blue!  I wanted to play with some of my newer PTI goodies - Mehndi Medallions and Think Big Favorites #3!  Here's what I came up with:

I'm really happy with how this card turned out!  On the Summer Sunrise and Lemon Tart cardstock, I stamped the large Mehndi Medallion in Versamark Dazzle Frost ink.  If you look closely, you can see how they sparkle!  Then, I stamped one of the smaller medallions in Berry Sorbet ink on the Summer Sunrise cardstock.  Then, I used another of the medallions to make a pattern on the Spring Rain card base.  I used Ranger's Tumbled Glass distress ink on the card base.  On the Lemon Tart cardstock, I stamped the sentiment and the smallest medallion in Berry Sorbet ink over the Versamark Dazzle Frost ink for a super cool effect.  Here's a close up:

Finally, I adhered everything together and added pearls and a yellow crocheted ribbon as a finishing touch!!!!  Recently, we went to Philadelphia for the weekend and stayed with some friends.  They were fabulous hosts, and so I wanted to send them a thank you card so I think that I will send this to them!  =D 

I hope everyone else is having a fabulous weekend!  I'm off to a friend's house for some fun tonight, and then a lazy Sunday with my husband!  =)  I'll probably be back with another post tomorrow!  Until then blogland!  =D

Quick OTWC Post!!!

Hi friends in blogland! Tonight I just have a super quick post using some new products that I recently acquired from PTI!!!  Here's my card:

Aren't these Mehndi Medallions just GORGEOUS?!?!?!  I think this might be one of my favorite PTI sets ever!  I also used the frame from Tag-Its #5 and a sentiment from Tag-It's #1.... and added some pearls to the centers of the medallions for a little more white on the card!  I finished it off with Antique Linen distress inks! 

I'm submitting this card for the current OTWC Challenge!  The colors this week are tan, white, and black!  Here's the inspiration photo:

Sorry for the super quick blog post, but I've gotta run!  I'll be back with more fun stuff this weekend!  I hope you all have a fabulous upcoming weekend!

"Dad," you rock!!!

My Dad does rock!  Actually, both of my parents do!  I'm certainly lucky and blessed to have an amazing family!  Here's the card that I made for my dad for Father's Day using some PTI stamps and a little bit of trickery:

I used the Dot Spot PTI stamp set to try this week's Make it Monday #19 - the Rock and Roll technique.  I used distress ink for the blue dots and pigment ink for the orange dots to create some grunge and different textures.

Now I know what you're thinking... this sentiment stamp CLEARLY says "Dude, you rock!" normally.  After I inked up the stamp, I carefully erased the "E" and the top of the u and turned the u into an a with a black pen!  I actually love how it turned out!  =)  I added some orange stickles, two glittery orange stars, a blue rhinestone and some twine!!!  Here's a closeup of the adjusted sentiment and the embellishments:

Again, I used the "Make it Monday #19 - Rock and Roll Technique" over at the Papertrey Ink blog for this week's challenge!  =) 

OK I hate to run but I've gotta go!  Lots to do before I head off to Philly for the weekend!  =)  Have a fabulous weekend everyone! 

Casual Fridays #2

Well hi there blogland!  WOW it's been a really long time since my last post!  This month of May has so SO much going on that I really haven't had much time for crafting!  Luckily, I've finally found a little time and I'm SO excited to play along with my first challenge over at CAS-ual Fridays!  This week's challenge was Buttons and Twine:

Both buttons and twine are two things that I really enjoy putting on my cards, so here's what I came up with:

How cute is that background stamp?  It's a Studio G cling stamp and I couldn't wait to ink it up!  Then I colored the flowers with copics, and created the center focal point!  I thought it would be fun to make little "balloon buttons" using some Divine Twine and buttons from my stash!  I then made the button and twine border to finish off the card!

=)  In other news, my Father-in-Law got remarried over the weekend!  Basically, they've been together since I've known my hubby, and we've all always considered ourselves one big happy family!  It was nice to just finally make it official!  They got married at a lighthouse in Annapolis (it was an amazing ceremony filled with both families' cultures - Irish and Persian) and we all got to have a part.  It was super special and the entire weekend was filled with a lot of love and blessings. 

As part of their wedding gift, I made their wedding announcements!  Here's what they looked like:

 

I really had a great time doing this for them, and they absolutely loved them!  They displayed them at the reception and used a picture of it for their u-stream of the wedding!  Needless to say, making 70 of these has consumed my every crafty minute for a good while, but it was ABSOLUTELY worth it!  =)

Ok, that's it from here!  Have a splendiforous day! 

Get Well Soon - PDCC #79

Hi there blogland!  I hope everyone is enjoying May!!!  So far, our May in Pittsburgh has been very rainy (but when you live in Pittsburgh you expect these things... haha), but productive!  We did a ton of work on our house this weekend and while I've been REALLY busy crafting up a storm, much of it is for a project that I'm not quite ready to share yet!  =) 

Anyhow, before I get to my card, I have some more (yes MORE) crafty good news!  I was featured again over at Practical Scrappers!!!! 

 

Yay!!!!  Have you been over to their site yet?  There's so much crafty goodness there for both cardmaking and scrapbooking!  You simply must check it out!

Ok, so next onto the card I made for this week's Play Date Cafe Challenge.  Here's the inspiration photo:

I don't know why, but when I saw these colors I instantly felt the need to do a card with a vintage feel.  Or maybe it's just because I saw the lime and thought "Shabby Shutters Distress Ink" since I've been obsessed with distress ink lately.  Who knows!  At any rate, I went sort of retro-vintage on this card, and I'm pleased with how it turned out:

I started off with a PTI Smokey Shadow Cardstock base, and then added some fabulous patterned paper from Basic Grey's Jovial line.  The PP was more of a cream base when I started, and that's where I added the Shabby Shutters Distress Ink from Ranger.  The tag and the sentiment were Vintage Cream cardstock inked with Shabby Shutters and distressed with Vintage Photo.  The sentiment and the hearts are inked with Memento's Ladybug ink, and then I added some pearl and ribbon accents!  =)  

Well, I am hoping to get a few more projects and cards posted this week, but we'll have to see!  The next few weeks are going to be SUPER busy for me, but after that in June, school is OUT and I'll have MUCH more free time to get inky!  =)  Have a wonderful day blog friends!  

I Appreciate You!!!

And that goes out to each and every one of you that follows little ole me!!!!  Thanks for stopping by my blog and checking out my creations!  =)  

Today, for whatever reason, has felt like a long looooong day!  Luckily, I had some time to get a little bit of crafting done!!!  =D  Here's today's card:

I really wanted to play along with this week's Card Patterns Sketch!  I've also been itching to use this particular American Crafts patterned paper, so this was the perfect opportunity!  I paired it with some PTI goodness, some brads as accents, and some crocheted trim, and voila!  This card was inspired by:
1. Card Patterns #112

2. Tuesday Throwdown #46 - Brads or Eyelets

As always, thanks for stopping by!  I hope you liked today's creation!  =)

Bugs and Critters!!! =D

Hello everyone!  Yes, that's right, I'm posting twice in two days!  Haha!  I'm so ready for the school year to be over so that I can post alllll the time again!  =D 

Ok I have two cards for you today!  One of them is a card with some little sea critters on it, and one of them is a buggy beauty!  Here's the first one:

Since I got Hats off to You, I've had dreams of putting this little graduation cap on the whale from Critters of the Sea and creating the illusion that it was being raised off with spouted water!!!  I just thought it would be so perfect for that sentiment, and as a graduation card!  Now with graduation season upon us, I knew I had to do it!  And what better time than for the current Lawnscapings challenge - Calling all Critters!!! 

I love that little sun too from Partly Cloudy.  Adding the stickles just made it shine perfectly to show a bright, sunny day on the sea!  =) 

Next, I just love PTI's Little Lady stamp set!  I haven't inked it up in awhile, so I thought today was the perfect day!  Here's the card I came up with:

Aren't these colors just a great combo? Also, I wanted the ladybug's wings to stand up and out, so I stamped an extra ladybug and cut out the wings so that I could fold them up to make them look like they were helping the little lady fly!  Here's a close up of the wings:

I was super inspired when I made this card, with inspirations from:
1. CR84FN25 - Aqua Blue and White
2. Make it Monday #12 - Line Frame 101
3. Simon Says Stamp Challenge - Anything Goes

    

It's finally starting to get warmer here!  I'm getting ready to think about planting our garden and herb garden!  For those of you that garden, what are your favorite things to plant?  Our new thing this year is going to be butternut squash and cucumbers!  =) 

Well as always, thanks for checking out my blog!  I can't believe that I'm up over 30 followers and have so many great people checking out my blog on a regular basis!  You guys all ROCK and I am so glad to have gotten to know so many wonderful people in this past 9 months!  =D 

Fun cards and news!

Hello everyone!  Well it has been some time since I blogged!  I've been working on lots of crafty goodness, but much of it is not ready to share with you yet!  I've been *gasp* actually scrapbooking instead of making cards a lot this week!  =)  Pics will come soon when the scrapbook is ready!  =D

Next, I was so so SO excited to get chosen for the Froggin Fantastic Four over at Lily Pad Cards!  Have you checked out their website yet?  They have lots of fun challenges and tips and tricks for card makers everywhere!  It's such a fun, new site and I'm honored that they chose me!

Ok, and now onto today's cards:

I'm really happy with the way this card turned out!  I started with this incredible paper from Paper Source and then used PTI's Tag-it's #1 and #2 to make the great Mother's Day tag!  The pearly rose was handmade with my new molds from mold muse on Etsy!  If you haven't checked them out yet either, definitely do that too!  =)  Here's a close-up of the card:

Also, I'd like to give credit to Britta Swiderski for the great twine-wrapping idea!  She used it a few weeks ago for her card on her Video Tutorial Monday, and I felt that this card needed a little something more!  Then I remembered her twine idea, and voila!  =)  This card was inspired by:
1. CR84FN #24: 

 

2. Etsy Inspired #135 - The Creating is Fun Shop.  I was inspired by this picture with the beautiful pearly buttons:

UPDATE: I'm also entering this card for consideration over at the Practical Scrappers blog for their Challenge me Tuesday challenges!  This week's challenge is twine so it was perfect!  I'd never been to their blog before, but it's fabulous!  Check it out here! 

And now, onto the next card:

 

Wee Memories is having an "All Things Adorable" challenge this week!  In my world, there is little that is more adorable than my little dog, Lucky!  I recently saw this stamp set on clearance at my local Michael's and I couldn't resist all of the cute cute pupples!  I especially liked this one because he reminds me of our little guy when he's on alert:

Hehe!  I also love this Max and Whiskers paper pack from Basic Grey and thought that this all went just perfect together!  =)  Again, this card was inspired by the current Wee Memories Challenge:

Ok everyone!  Well, I hope that you are all having a wonderful week, and that those of you celebrating Easter have a lovely Easter weekend!  =)  Enjoy!