Allison's Birthday

So my baby had her birthday last week and I had her card planned out for months (ever since Graphic45 came out with their Halloween in Wonderland paper.  Since she was a little girl, Allison has loved  Lewis Carroll's books (Disney version, not so much) and every year I try to get her a little something Alice-related.  This year I knew I was going to use that Graphic45 paper...so perfect!  I knew it had to be a special card so I created my first, but not last, "pop up stage card" following Kim Score's very helpful tutorial found here.  Lots of fussy cutting and score-taping, but it was so worth the look on her face when she opened it up.

April made the cake and I helped decorate it with the checkerboard theme to go along with the card and here is the birthday girl with niece Lily and nephew Rowan ready for caaaake! 

City Crafter Challenge

The challenge this week over at City Crafter Challenge Bog is a card or project featuring "Little Children" and the sponsor is my very talented daughter Allison's CircusBoard Graphics.  Be sure to go check out the gorgeous work the DT and GD created with her Child's Garden kit.  I really love the soft subtle colors and charming vintage images of this set and figured I deserved to have some fun too! 

This sweet little gardener is fussy cut and popped on a mat embossed with Cuttlebug's Gracie's Frame and softly inked to bring out the beautiful detail.  I used some BG Nook and Pantry pp, some Webster Page's trim which was included in the Pixe Dust Paperie October kit (gorgeous!) and finished it up with a line of marching pearls and a simple stamped sentiment.   One of the really cool things about this kit is the unusual color palette--isn't it different and oh so pretty!



On a personal note, dear hubby had to have hip surgery two weeks ago and instead of finding a severely arthritic hip which they were going to replace, the surgeon found a massive infection in his hip joint capsule sooooo...as a result...and with some training...we're giving him three 2-hour IV infusions a day at home of a very serious antibiotic (two weeks down and four to go) and he gets to keep his original hip as a door prize.  Luckily he works from home and is comfortable sitting, so we're trying to get back to normal.   We have some terrific home care nurses who check in from time to time to make sure we're not making too many mistakes and then combined with 85 year old Grandma living here with hospice staff in and out, we feel a bit like we're living in a a bizarre medical reality TV show.  Never a dull moment.

Anyway, here's to a terrific Wednesday and happy creating!

Hugs,



Fabulous Fifteen

I have such a hard time coming up with ideas for teenagers.  Maybe it's just been too long since I was one.  Anyway, I found this disco cutie image on the web awhile ago and loved the colors and the energy and thought it might work for this card.  The fabulous sentiment was a Michael's $1 bin find and I inked and clear embossed the chipboard 15.  I thought all the circles in the pp definitely called for a disco ball treatment so a little bling and done.  Thanks for looking!

Great Grandma and Grandpa Kunz

This precious photo of my great grandma and grandpa was taken on their 50th Wedding Anniversary.   Annie and her little sister Mary immigrated to the United States from their beloved Switzerland when they were both young girls, working menial jobs at very low wages until they earned enough money to send for the rest of their family.   She married William Kunz who had also immigrated from Switzerland with his family and between them had ten children, their oldest being my grandfather.  They were beloved parents and grandparents.  Annie was known for her natural long dark hair which she would allow her grandchildren to braid for her and her wonderful cooking.  She died before I was born, but I have a photo of a 3 year old me sitting on Grandpa William J's lap when he was very old.  I'm very proud of my Swiss heritage and the sacrifices my ancestors made to make a new home in a new country.

The beautiful digital paper and embellishments come from the Art Nouveau collection found here at  Circus Board.  I absolutely love it.  I'm entering this layout in the following challenges:

City Crafter Vintage Challenge - vintage inspired

Simon Says 3 types of embellishments (ribbon, butterfly, pearl blossom) , 2 patterned paper

Thanks for visiting!

This 'n That

Those acrylic sheets were still sitting on my scrap table  from my last card project and I thought I'd make some of these cute little treat boxes using one of my daughter's new Halloween penant sets.  The purple Graphic 45 Halloween in Wonderland pattern paper was such a perfect match and in about 15 minutes look what was born.  Don't you love that little ghoulie guy with the bat wings (click for larger image)?   Susie McCormick offers a great tutorial for these little acrylic treat boxes at Splitcoast Stampers here.  There's an entire gallery there in many themes (Valentines, Christmas, etc.)  One even holds two golf balls with a "Fore You" tag.  Anyway, check it out and also check out Allison's Etsy offerings at Circus Board.

I've entered this in a couple of challenges:

2 Sisters Halloween Challenge.  There are some awesome goodies there so check it out!

Fairy Fun Fridays.  Tickets and Tags Challenge

Stamp Something Halloween Somethings Challenge.

After putting together some vintage graphic image sets for her Etsy shop, Allison then decided to try her hand at designing paper and her very first set is pretty amazing (I'm trying to be objective here, friends, but it really is).  I did a simple quick little layout using her "Child's Garden Set" which features lovely subtle turquoise and peachy tans and the result is a very soft sweet little page featuring my dear granddaughter Lily in her new gardening hat and gloves.   She's even included an embellishment set all inspired by this very old children's book illustration (click on image to really see the details but pardon my funky stitching).  The files print crisply and color true and just to share, she's sequestered away in her room working on a few more sets as I post this.  Goooo Allison!!!

If you have time to take a look at some of her creations, we would so appreciate any feedback and to hear what you think or if you have any suggestions.   Have a wonderful weekend, my friends and thanks for visiting.

P.S.  She also designed my blog header and has promised to redo my blog wallpaper.  Yayyy!

A Very Jello Birthday

Fun little acrylic card for a special October birthday girl. I won a bunch of Sheetload Shortcuts acrylic products awhile ago (they've since gone out of business) and I always forget to use them, which is what happens when you have so much stuff you forget what you've got. Don't laugh, I'll bet you know EXACTLY what I mean. Anyway, I absolutely LOVE this cute vintage Jello ad image and built my card around it.

Paper is Bazil CS and MME Alphabet Soup Girl. A little cuttlebug embossing on the background paper, some birthday ribbon, MS edge punching, some turquoise Thickers and Kaisercraft pearls with an SRM sentiment sticker inside and it all went together easily. Sorry about the glare--it's hard to get a good photo of acrylic cards. Thanks for looking!

Be Still My Heart

Stepping outside my comfort level here but this image inspired me to try to create a collage-y altered-y tag using one of Allison's Fairy Tale Graphic images. I just dug out my old walnut ink spritzer, threw some odds and ends from my stash together and stitched a little of this pretty new American Craft rose ribbon onto a piece of lace. I kind of like it.