Happy 60th Birthday, Gayle!

Hi Everyone!

Gayle and I have been friends for 27 years.  We met at the family daycare/nursery school I ran in my home called Fuzzy Duckling.  Gayle's sons, Ricky and Brian, and her nephew, Stephen, all attended Fuzzy Duckling. 

We used recycled materials such as paper towel tubes, egg cartons, and tissue boxes for many of the projects we did in school.  Gayle saved all of those materials for us and delivered them to us regularly.  Gayle's parents live in Cleveland.  Her mother used to ship boxes of recycled materials to us via UPS. 

The children were so excited when a package arrived that you may have thought it was filled with candy and toys instead of bottle caps and cardboard tubes.  One time she sent us the "jewels" from her old chandelier.  The children were convinced that she had sent us Ariel's necklace-from The Little Mermaid. 

Although our children have graduated from college, Gayle and now her children continue to save recycled materials so that I can use them in my teacher trainings and with the children I teach. 

Gayle will be celebrating her 60th birthday tomorrow.  I wanted to make her 60 of something and decided that gift cards were something I could accomplish.  I kept them simple by just stamping a sentiment on each one and adding a felt or dimensional sticker.  I rounded the corners of each card so at one point my dining room floor was littered with tiny scraps.  I used the vacuum cleaner that Gayle loaned me many years ago to clean them up.

I made a variety of baby boy, baby girl, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Valentine's Day, birthday, and all occasion mini cards for a total of 60 cards.

I also created a box for them.

And a card for Gayle.

Happy 60th birthday Gayle!

Have a nice night.
Carol

Halloween Cards and a Birthday Card too

Hi Everyone!

Now that I have finished up some of the non-papercrafting projects I have been working on, I am hoping to be able to make/find the time to work on my cards again. 

I was thrilled to fall into a wonderful collection of Martha Stewart Halloween papers, test tubes, stickers, ribbons, paper punches, etc. recently at Marshalls.  My new supplies put me totally in a Halloween mood and I am even thinking of decorating for Halloween.  Since I'd have to start by cleaning up the living room, that may not happen right away!

Meanwhile I have a couple of cards to share with you today.

The felt stickers and the spider web paper are from Martha Stewart.  The buttons are from Favorite Findings.  The sentiment was created with a North Woods wooden stamp. 

I love that I was able to get 6 cards from one sheet of 12" x 12" spider web paper.  Can you tell that I felt like punching a hole in each of my cards and putting an embellishment in each of those holes!  I used an EK Success punch to punch out that huge glittery spider.  The glittery paper was part of the 12" Martha Stewart Halloween pad that I found.  

I found one other Martha Stewart pad too that was filled with fun papers.  Yes, I punched a hole in this card too.  I used a Hero Arts cling stamp to create the cupcake.  I used an Impression Obsession wooden stamp to create the sentiment.

Hope you have a wonderful day!
Carol

A Shower for Amy

Hi Everyone!

I am taking a short break from all things preschool to write this post.  In July our dear friends Amy and Mike had their first child, Emma Grace.  On Thursday Angela, Kathy, Martha, Peggy and I gave Amy a little baby shower at her home. 

This was the centerpiece.  We used a baby wash cloth, a bib, and a onesie to make each of the "cupcakes".  

The boo boo bunnies are made from baby wash cloths.

We had real cupcakes for dessert with polka dotted purple cupcake wrappers, purple sprinkles inside and on the cupcakes, and tiny purple decorations.

The party favors were little diapers that were filled with candy hearts that had baby messages on them. 

I've made these diapers from flannel, but since I thought of making them at the last minute I used purple patterned papers.   Cut a 6" square of paper.  Fold it diagonally so you see a triangle. Pretend you are folding a real diaper.  I used tiny staples to hold the diaper together. 

Congratulations Amy and Mike!

Carol

Blog Break

Good Morning Everyone!

As you may have guessed by my recent absence from the blogging world life has been beyond busy lately.  We've experienced some bumps and some nice surprises too.  Starting today I am working on a project that will consume most of my time so I am not sure when I'll be stopping to create cards.  Please check in from time to time because I will be back-just not sure when.

Meanwhile, have a nice week!
Carol

Happy National Watermelon Day

Good Morning Everyone!

Just wanted to stop by to wish you a Happy National Watermelon Day!  Apples don't fall far from the tree, and watermelons don't roll far from the vine.  Marie went to work this morning with a large watermelon in her arms for the residents at the nursing home where she works.  She was the one who reminded me that today is National Watermelon Day. 

Last year I shared my collection of watermelon "stuff" with you on my blog along with some of my watermelon cards.  You can revisit that post at this link.
http://carolhartery.blogspot.com/2011/08/happy-watermelon-day.html

This summer I have shared some other watermelon cards with you and today I have another card that has a slice of watermelon and other fruits.

You can see that I was working with kraft paper when I created this card. 

I have a crazy day ahead of me so that's all I have time for right now.

Talk to you again soon.

Carol

Peas Love Happiness

Hi Everyone!

I discovered the Retro Sketches Blog today and decided to make a card for today's challenge.  The challenge is to use this sketch

to create a card.

Here's my card.

The pea pod and sentiment are from the Vegtastic clear stamp set from Paper Smooches.  I ran my layering paper through a Cuttlebug embossing folder that reminds me of tendrils.  I threaded some thin green wire through the buttons and curled it to create tendrils. 

Have a great night.

Carol