A very special Friday!

Hello, and happy Friday! Today is my husband's 55th birthday.  We met when he was 24 and suffering from a brain tumor.  We started out our life together thinking life was precious and not knowing how many years we'd have together.  We'll celebrate our 30th anniversary this December.  We now know without a doubt life is a gift.  So is love, and every day we have together!

We're celebrating his birthday by getting out of Dodge.  The dogs are being kenneled (something we never, ever do -- bad things happen when we kennel our dogs, but that's a story for another day), and we're heading North to Lake Superior. We're hoping for some nice weather to enjoy our favorite lake together (but the forecast is for 2 days of rain mixed with snow. Oh well!). We're taking today off of work to get an early start, making a 3-day weekend of it.  Off we go on a little adventure, celebrating life and love!

I've made my husband several different birthday cards that I'll give him throughout the weekend.  You'll be seeing them in the next few weeks.  Today, I'm showing you a kinda goofy one I whipped up, saving the fancier ones for later...

 

I cut this out on my Silhouette, using some old DCWV birthday papers I've had FOREVER.  The candles are sorta 3D, sticking out from the cake.  Inside, I stamped a Unity sentiment:

 

 

I framed the sentiment with a couple more birthday candles.  One of them covered up an ink smudge ;)

 

I have a couple more cards to share with you also.  This week, my 26 year old nephew was diagnosed with Leukemia.  He is facing a month of hospitalization and chemo.  I made what I'm guessing is the first of several cards heading his way:

 

 

I used the Unity/Susan K. Weckesser Autumn Grunge stamps on this card, stamping the leaves randomly, and in different Fall colors.  The sentiment is from Close To My Heart.

I made another one almost identical to it.  Those of you who know me, know I often make 2 cards the same.  This one went to a co-worker recovering from carpal tunnel surgery.

 

 

I added a little bling to this card, since it went to a "female" recipient. I was also liking the way the fern-like leaf stamped, so stuck primarily to that one on this card.

I promised my husband this weekend is all about him.  I don't know that I'll have a chance to visit all your blogs like I usually do, so forgive me if I skip a week.  I also don't know if we'll have internet access where we're going.

Have a great weekend!

 



It's Friday, It's Fall, and it's Friends with Flair!

I keep thinking, one of these weeks I'll miss linking up to FWF, but here it is, the end of September, and I'm still keeping my New Year's resolution of linking up every Friday.  We'll see if I can make it all year.  It's getting tougher and tougher! Anyone else got a long FWF streak going?

I had a little spare time Wednesday evening, so I wanted to make a card for this week's FWF.  I decided to try some things I don't normally do.  Namely -- CAS, embossing, working with textured cardstock, and using my distress inks.  So, I set about getting inky and having fun.  Here's what I came up with:

 

 

I used two different Unity sets on this card:  Susan Weckesser's "Autumn Grunge" (LOVE these leaves!) and "Grateful Hearts".

I used a piece of Bazzill textured cream colored cardstock for the base.  I embossed the leaves using Ranger gold embossing powder. Then, I used various distress inks throughout the card.  The sentiment was stamped with Close To My Heart desert sand ink.  The bling is from my stash.

I mailed out the card to my BFF, thanking her for having me for dinner last week when I was at conference, and letting me play with her Golden Retriever puppy! So fun!

Hope you have a chance this weekend to create some of your own "Fun Fall memories."

 

I'm entering this card in the My Sweet Earth Create to Live September Challenge





Dog Claws Throw Curve Balls for FWF!

Woot! It's Friday again and Unity is celebrating 14,000 FB fans! Check out their awesome promotion and some stamps designed just for the event.  Really fun stuff that I expect we'll be seeing soon on FWF!

I had plans to make several cards for FWF when I scrapped with a couple friends after work on Wednesday.  The rolling tote got packed Tuesday evening and was ready to go.  Wednesday morning, while feeding the dogs, Sammy accidentally clawed me.  It went deep enough to knick a vein and require 10 stitches.  I worked 1/2 a day Wed and 6 hours Thursday.  When not working, I've been sitting with my leg elevated.  It is a position I can type in, but not make cards in. The evening of scrappin' with my friends had to be postponed.  I did sneak a quick card in Wed (I'm type A -- I got bored), and I ran outside and got a few quick pics of some flowers on Thursday.  Other than that, I'm behaving -- really!

Remember the snowstorm pictures from May 2?  Well, I wanted you to know that spring really has come to NW Wisconsin, so I have some flower pics from my yard.

 

Tulips and Trillium.  Yes, it is spring.  However, we have a frost warning for tonight, so I hope my flowers don't get damaged.

And now, for the only card I have to show you.  It's a very simple one.  Truly, it took me about 10 minutes to make.

It's graduation weekend here in Chetek. I needed a graduation card and this is it.  I wanted something bright and fun.  I used the Unity/Susan Weckesser set, "A Little bit Washi".  I stamped on white cardstock using Hero Arts Neon inks, then mounted it on a Close to My Heart Kraft card base.  The chipboard stars are from my friend DeeDee's company, Umwow Studio. There's lots of fun shapes to check out.  The twine is Grape Fizz from Trendy Twine. The Super Star sentiment is from a grab bag and was stamped with Gypsy Close to my Heart ink.

I've made the Joy's Life design team.  We're having our first blog hop with the old DT and new DT tomorrow.  Come join in the fun if you can!

I hope you have an enjoyable Memorial Day weekend!

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Trendy Twine May Challenge -- Kraft and twine
D.L. Art Linky Party -- anything goes
Sister Act Card Challenge -- anything goes
Ribbon Carousel -- Celebrations (Graduation)