I'm alive! Who knew!

Holy cow, I know some of you probably thought I had dropped off the face of the earth.

Not so. The past 6 months at work have been insane. I've done barely any crafting. :(

This past weekend, I dusted off my adhesive & started playing. It was so theraputic! I want to go out & get some new paper & markers right now, but have vowed to use some of my current stash before adding to it. I'm sure you ladies can understand this. :) And if any of you ladies want to send me some of your images to boost my creativity, I'd be happy to swap some with you.

This first card is for my good friend in MA. Her birthday is in a few days. I love this sentiment (from Stamping Bella). I had actually colored her a month or so ago & created the card & matched the papers around the colors I had already used.

This card I was dying to make. Both of my parents are retiring this week (in fact we're heading to their retirement party in a few) & I was trying to come up with a good idea. I had purchased the 2" x 2" polaroid quickutz die and the camper/trailer die (sorry, the true names escape me, so I've made up my own). I like how it came out. I cut the pictures from magazines. This might be my new favorie die of the moment.

the outside of the card

the inside - I haven't figured out what I'm going to write yet. I better figure it out, huh? :) Something about placing bets on when they'll purchase an RV or something.

Well, off to the party. Hopefully I'll post more soon!!!

trying to get out of my creative slump

My work schedule has been so hectic this spring that I haven't had much of a chance to do anything crafty in ages. Last weekend i tried to get my creative juices flowing again. Heck I was even embellishing ready made 'thank you' cards just to spark some creativity.

This is a card that our "kids" made for my husband who was working out of town this week. We hid this in his suitcase, so he could open it up while he was away. :) I wanted to have them stanp their pawprints, but was afraid of the ink being toxic to them. Does anyone know of any ink that's ok to use for this purpose? If so, please leave a comment. I would greatly appreciate it.

This next card came from paper I wanted to use, but I wasn't sure if I wanted to give it as a birthday card or another card, so I left it generic & will personalize when I am ready to send it. (not sure why my scanner is cutting off the right edge of the card.....sorry about that)

This next one came about, because I had no idea what I was going to do with this set of stickers. So I made a birthday card. (again, scanner cut off the right edge of the card)

My first altered frap bottle

ok, so I've been seeing all these great frappuchino bottles & felt inspired to try it out. My husband was my guina pig. Not too bad for my first try although I did figure out some things NOT to do for next time. Try, try again....I say! :)

I used a bunch of quickutz hearts on the bottle

Here was his Vanentine's Day card & some more fun candy that I knew he'd like. I used my quickutz shapes for the candy bag....I really need to get a scalloped punch bad, but not until the economy turns things around for us & my husband can get his job back. Darn construction industry. Perhaps when President Obama comes to Phoenix on Wednesday something good will happen. :)

30th Birthday card

This card isn't very exciting, but I wanted to share a great little find that I wasn't expecting. A couple of years ago I purchased a ton of my favorite candle from Victoria's Secret (of course they were discontinuing my favorite scent). They are the mood candles (very yummy, I highly recommend any of the ones that are still available). They come in a cute black box with a faux croc design. Anyway, inside each of these boxes is a small sheet of that same faux crocodile acetate. I used it to die cut some fun letters for the card & voila!

New Birthday card for my friend

So, during my wedding there was an inside joke about my bestfriend always needing to go to Starbucks to have her green tea fix everyday. My friend, Krista, got stuck indulging her, because they were rooming together. You had to be there, but Krista loved this card when I gave it to her yesterday!

First post is the hardest.

After several weeks of having my blog, finally, my first post! Nothing great to post yet, but let me see if I can find a couple pics of past cards to post to get this party started right.

This is a simple baby card I made a few months back using my quickutz dies. I love my quickutz. I think they have the cutest dies. I couldn't tell you the paper....I'll never pay that much attention to what I'm doing. :)