Happy Birthday Robbie!

Hi Everyone!

I just studied my picture files and found quite a few pictures that I haven't shared with you yet.  Robbie and I had a hard time coming up with a theme for his birthday this year. We ended up going with red, white, and blue because we celebrated it on 4th of July weekend. 

I wanted his card to be more reflective of his interests. So I chose the animals that I have used on some of his other cards and put them together on one card.

 

The turkey was created with a Whipper Snapper Design's wooden stamp called "Let's Talk Turkey."  The owl, squirrel, and rabbit were created with Lawn Fawn stamps.  I used a Sizzix die to create the tree.

 

I glued the squirrel and turkey directly onto the layering paper.  I used foam tape to adhere the owl and the rabbit.  I wanted to give the turkey a little more personality so I gave him a pair of wiggly eyes and loved the way he looked.  Then I added larger wiggly eyes to the owl.  Looks good to me.

 

Robbie loved his card and added it to his collection.  He saves ALL of his cards. 

 

Have a nice day!

Carol



Red, White and Blue Thank You Cards

Hi Everyone!

My friend's daughter celebrated her 2nd birthday recently.  The theme for her party was red, white and blue.  Fran likes to send out handmade cards so I made her some red, white and blue thank you cards to go with the theme of the party. 

Here's the card I made for her daughter's birthday.

 

I used some mini glue dots to get the ribbon to stay inside of the straws. 

 

 

 

A while ago my friend Sandy gave me a cigar box that was filled with little bags of buttons.  There was/is a lifetime supply of red, white and blue star ones.  Thanks Sandy!

 

 

I used some of my standard circle Nestability dies to cut these circles.  I've got to use them more often.  I really like the results.  

 

 

The last card is my favorite.  I used some Maya Mist to tint the flower red.  I was trying to create a flower that was similar to the ones on the patterned paper and it worked. 

 

You can look at the sketch of each card, change the colors and sentiments and create cards for any occasion. 

 

Have a wonderful day!

Carol



 

 



Sympathy Card

Hi Everyone!

I like to have a stash of cards, tags, mini cards and gift bags on hand so that I can quickly put a last minute gift together.  Over the past 6 months I have been so busy creating stacks of cards for shower and birthday gifts that I haven't had time to build up my own stash.  There's a lull right now so I am going to take advantage of it and create some cards for my card drawer.

My friend Toni recently purged her paper crafting supplies and gave them to me.  I decided to play around with some of her papers.  I created this sympathy card last night.

I used one of my favorite sketches for this A2 card.  The layering paper measures 4" x 5.25".  The smaller piece of gold patterned paper measures 2" x 5.25".  It's mounted on some white tag that is 2.25" x 5.25".  The stamped piece that I add to that sketch varies depending upon what I stamp. 

I used a sentiment and an image from PaperTrey Ink's "Blooming Button Bits" clear stamp set on this card.  The buttons are from Favorite Findings.  I stock up on Favorite Findings buttons whenever JoAnn's is having a good sale on them. 

Some might say that the card is "too happy" to be a sympathy card.  I feel that it might help make someone who "needs a hug" feel good.  I always choose to make and send sympathy cards that are a little "happier".

Have a nice day!
Carol

Elephant Baby Card

Hi Everyone!

Robbie's friends, Sean and Jen, had their first child last week.  Robbie asked me to make a card for them.  He looked at pictures of my cards and said he wanted one with 4 windows.  Several years ago I had a package of blank cards with 4 windows, but I don't have any now so I thought I would try to create my own.

I started out by trying to make one using a Sizzix die, but the windows were too small.  Then I tried using some of my square Nestability dies, but I had a difficult time keeping them uniform.  I decided to use my blue Marvy Uchida square paper punch and that worked for me.  That paper punch creates a square that is just shy of 1.5".

I cut my layering paper so that it measured 4.25" x 5.25".  I worked on the back of the paper, measured down 1/2" from the top along the short side and drew a line across.  I lined the edge of my paper punch up with the line I had drawn, slid the punch in as far as it would go and punched a square.  I did the same thing along the opposite edge of the paper.  Now I had 2 squares that were side by side.

I measured down 1/4" from the squares I had punched and drew a line across.  Then I again punched 2 squares.  Now I had my 4 windows. 

Now I trimmed 1/8" off of each side of the paper.  I didn't do that originally because I wanted to have a 1/4" strip of paper between my squares and I was able to do that when I slid the paper punch into the original paper.

I had planned for the squares to be at the top of the card, but I decided to use my "It's a Girl!" wooden stamp from My Sentiments Exactly and decided that stamp would look better at the top of the card so I just rotated my paper 180 degrees.  That worked because the polka dot patterned paper I used looks the same in every direction. 

I adhered the paper to a blank A2 card.  I used foam tape when I placed an elephant in each window.

Here's the card.

 

I used a Martha Stewart Elephant paper punch to create the elephants.  I added tiny black rhinestones for their eyes.  The punch creates a 3-dimensional ear on each elephant. 

 

Have a great day!

Carol

 

 



Elephant Themed Cards

Hi Everyone!

On Friday night a friend contacted me and asked if I would create a set of cards with an elephant theme.  I looked through my supplies and found elephant ribbon, elephant clear stamps, an elephant paper punch, elephant buttons, and some elephant dies. 

I used a Martha Stewart elephant paper punch to create the elephants on this first card.

This Martha Stewart felt elephant sticker was in my stash.

These wooden elephant buttons are from Favorite Findings.  I die cut the "hello" sentiment 6 times and layered them on top of each other. 

 

I fussy cut the elephant and the balloons before I used foam tape to adhere them to the layering paper.

 

 

The elephant on this card was created with a stamp from The Alley Way Stamps.  The party hat and balloon are stickers.

 

 

 

Here's the bag I created to hold the cards.  I used an Accucut die to create the elephant.

 

Have a great day!

Carol







Potato Salad

Hi Everyone!

I usually use this blog to post photographs of my papercrafts, but as you know I also post food creations every now and then.  After Saturday's party I received 5 e-mails requesting my recipe for potato salad so I figured I would post it here.  The picture is an old one, but it works for this post.

Many years ago I found a recipe for Confetti Potato Salad in the Boston Globe.  I adapted it somewhat and used it over and over again until I lost a copy of that recipe.  But I had made it so much by then that it didn't matter.  Some of you won't like that I don't have exact measurements for the ingredients, but trust me.  Robbie, Marie and I each make it on our own and it always turns out good. 

We start out by scrubbing red skin potatoes.  We do not peel them.  The skin adds color and texture to the salad and fiber and vitamins to our diet.  We cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces and place them in a large pot.  We cover them with cold water and bring them to a gentle simmer, not a boil which might make the potatoes burst.  We simmer them for about 10 to 15 minutes.  We know the potatoes are done when they are easily pierced with a paring knife. 

While the potatoes are cooking we dice about one cup each (more or less depending on how many potatoes we have cooked) celery, carrots, and red peppers and maybe one half cup of red onions (sometimes we leave the onions out).

When the potatoes are cooked we quickly drain them, but do not rinse them.  We work quickly and add the diced vegetables.  We use our eyes to judge how much of each vegetable to add.  We want the salad to be colorful like confetti. 

We add a hefty serving spoon size of Cains Mayonnaise (our favorite brand) to the bowl and stir until all of the vegetables have a slight coating of mayonnaise on them.  Then we shake red wine vinegar onto the salad and stir again.  We sample the salad at that point and see if we can taste a little vinegar and mayonnaise.  If not, we add a little more.  I have taught Robbie and Marie to add a little mayo and a little red wine vinegar at a time.  If you don't have enough, you can always add more.  If you add too much...yuck.

We sprinkled chopped fresh parsley over the salad and if we don't have any fresh parsley we use some from a jar. 

This potato salad is always a hit.  Many people don't add vegetables to their potato salad so they are pleasantly surprised to see how much prettier and tastier it is with vegetables in it.

Hope you'll let me know if you make the potato salad.  Back to work today.
 
Have a great day!
Carol

Thank You Cards for Marie

Hi Everyone!

I've been talking with some of my peers and older friends about thank you notes.  Many of us feel upset that some people no longer take the time to write thank you notes.  Marie knows how I feel and plans to write her thank you notes for her graduation party gifts right away.  To help her out I spent the day creating 24 thank you cards for her. 

I started out by asking Marie what she'd like on the cards.  She said she wanted flowers and/or butterflies.  I went through my embellishments drawer and pulled out the silicone cups that hold flowers and butterflies. 

I wanted to make the cards as quickly as possible so I decided to use the same sketch and same sentiment stamp on all of the cards.  I quickly stamped and embossed "thanks a bunch" on 2 dozen 2.25" x 2.5" rectangles.  I used a clear stamp from PTI's "Blooming Button Bits" and stamped a stem and leaves on some of the rectangles.  I added brad flowers to those images. 

I adhered a small and a medium cloud to the remaining rectangles.  Then I added a butterfly button to those rectangles.

 

 

 

I pulled out some of my small paper pads and quickly selected 24 sheets of patterned paper.  I didn't stop to be picky the way I sometimes can be and trimmed each of those papers so that they measured 4" x 5.25".  I mounted the rectangles onto solid colors of tag that were trimmed to 2.5" by 2.75".  I mounted the rectangles onto the patterned paper and the patterned paper onto blank cards. 

 

I didn't stop to photograph each card since they are all so much alike.  I took a few photographs just so you can get the idea of how they look. 

 



That's it for today. Have a great night!
Carol

Water bottles

Hi!

Before I head outside for leftovers here are the water bottles.  Not very exciting, but they are Worcester University's school colors.

 

 

 

That's it for now!

Carol



Graduation Party

Hi Everyone!

I've been taking lots of pictures and will hopefully have time to post them.  Yesterday was Marie's graduation party.  I thought I'd share a few pictures from it and another time I will post more card pictures. 

There were 40+ adults at the party.  Marie baked and frosted 4 dozen cupcakes on Friday night.  I made these decorations for them yesterday morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Time for leftovers!  Will post more pictures later. 

Carol

 



Happy 5th of July!

Hi Everyone!

I am sorry that my posts have been so few and far between.  I am still constantly creating, but I don't stop to photograph my creations.  As seems to happen for the next week or so I hope to post lots of pictures. 

Yesterday was the 4th of July.  Robbie had to work so we planned to celebrate today which worked out well because yesterday was such a rainy humid day.  Our basement is flooded-not as bad as it sometimes gets-but it will be something we will have to address tomorrow. 

Today we are celebrating the 4th of July, Robbie's 29th birthday, and Jeanne's 58th birthday all at the same time.  I will have pictures of their cards to share with you, but for this post I will share a picture of the cheese log Marie created for the party,

She used a recipe from one of our favorite cookbooks, Great Balls of Cheese by Michelle Buffardi.   Since pizza is one of Robbie's favorite foods this cheese log is perfect for him.

It looks like a real pizza, but it's not pizza.  It's made of cream cheese, shredded mozzarella cheese,  and grated parmesan cheese.  You cannot see the edges, but they are rolled in breadcrumbs which adds to the pizza look and feel of it.  Rob's a vegetarian so Marie didn't use real pepperoni.  Those slices are vegetarian pepperoni. There are finely chopped red and green peppers in and on the pizza.  The recipe also includes crushed tomatoes, chopped onion, minced garlic, and Italian seasonings.  Those ingredients are mixed with the cheeses. 

Our party isn't until 2 PM, but I am pretending it starts at noon.  The food is ready, but I still have lots of cleaning to do.  Story of my life.

Will be back later today with more pictures to share.

Happy 5th of July!
Carol