Anniversary

 My niece celebrated her first wedding anniversary earlier this week. This is the card I made for her. I actually took the color combination from Betsy Veldman's card that she made  for this week's Make-it-Monday.

 If the layout looks familiar it is a previous challenge from Retrosketches a couple of weeks ago. Here is an up close shot of the butterfly and flower image. The scallop border is actually created from the heart border die.

   Of course, I had to add some butterflies to the inside.

     
     Thanks for stopping by.

Retrosketches # 11

 I've been eyeing the sketch this week at the Retrosketches' blog.

                                                                       Just love it!
                                                    The best part is I got to play along. At last!

   Seems like I am on a purple kick lately. The flowers from Life are stamped in Winter Wisteria and Heliotrope (Versa Color) You can't see it in the photos , but I used Patina Glimmer Mist in the background of the Mat Stack. It really turned out lovely. This was the firs time I used the technique of having the droplets fall onto the CS instead of spraying directly onto the card stock.  Somehow I even managed to get an even distribution.

    Thanks for taking the time to peek at my card.

Paper Bag Mini Album

  I wanted to do something special for my Husband's 60th birthday. It began with the idea of making a list of 60 things I love about him. The challenge was how would I showcase this? About a month ago, my neighbor, Elise (Bunni on the PTI forum) & fellow PTI enthusiast showed me a mini album she created using  these.

     The bags are 4 5/8 by 8 5/8 and can be purchased at Michaels. 

The first thing one does is tape down the flap end. Then the flap gets folded up toward the bag's opening.

(Sorry for the glare in the picture)

     
Each side of the bag & flap gets decorated. I decided to use a picture from each decade of my husband's life with the date on the large part of the bag. On the flap I  did a sentiment.

Bag #1 As a toddler  (  On the flip side of the large section is the cover. which I'll show you later.)

     Bag # 2 Teenage years

 

This picture shows how the 2 bottom flaps are placed against each other as a buffer between the two layouts.

Bags 3 & 4 20's & 30's

Page 5 

 Page 6-- 40's

Once again the flaps of the bags as a buffer.

Page 7 & 8 --50's Our daughter's wedding; My dh with his mother

Page 9-- Our first grandchild

Page 10--Summer of 2011. I had really wanted to paste an image of my husband 20 years from now, but  was not successful in accomplishing this. I tried for an hr. before I gave up. So I decided to use a current picture of my dh with our 2nd grandchild.

   The buffer flaps.

   I used my Cinch to bind it.  Here's the cover. The stamp set Life was used.

    I typed ten reasons what I love about my husband  & printed the list on cardstock.  I trimmed the card down to fit inside each bag. I adhered a tab so that the card could be pulled from the bag.  In all I made 5 cards for a total of 60 reasons what I love about my husband.

  Most of the background papers used were from My Mind's Eye True Blue Collection. I used many BB sets on Ocean Tide CS to make my own pattern paper.

I am glad that this project is done. It was fun to make and a bit simpler than a large album. Thanks for stopping by.  Tomorrow I am going to share some of the decorations I made to celebrate.

MIM # 22 Multi-color stamping with Ink Refills

Nothing like waiting until the last minute to submit a card for MIM. It's not that I was really procrastinating, it's just my limited supply of reinkers was preventing me from attempting this challenge.  Most of my reinkers are browns, blacks, and goldtone.  I only had two colors that coordinated.  I also had no foam in my crafting supplies.  However, many moons ago I purchased a product to make one's own stamp pads.  After hunting it down I was able to make this card using Botanical Silhouettes, Happy Trails and the sentiment from Flower Fusion #3.  Believe me, the picture does not do this card justice.

After I finished this card, I remembered that I had some Adirondack alcohol inks. I chose the colors wild plum, cranberry, butterscotch and lettuce. These inks stained my stamp  really, really bad. The product I used as my stamp pad soaked up  the butterscotch and lettuce inks which resulted in an image containing only 2 colors.

 However,  I really liked how this image turned out.  It has more of a  "water color" look to it than the first card I attempted.  To finish the layout, I used a previous Make It Monday Challenge: Line Frame.  Three tiny butterflies, each containing a 2mm crystal completed the image.

Supplies: CS Hibiscus Burst, Plum Pudding, White
Stamps:  Botanical Silhouettes, Happy Trails, Flower Fusion #3, Life
Ink: Adirondack alcohol inks: wild plum, cranberry, Ranger distressed ink Peeled Paint, Hibiscus Burst
Misc: Martha Stewart butterfly punch, crystals, Nestabilitie Label, ribbon