JAMSquared

My friend Lori’s birthday is this coming Tuesday. Another friend hosted a pizza and pie party for her. It was a lot of fun. Come back tomorrow for pictures from the party.

This is the card I made for her. Since my gift to Lori consisted mostly of a few TGF stamps, I decided this TGF little girl stamp I have would be the perfect image. I used the color scheme from the ATS Weekly Wednesday Challenge #34 which was to use caribbean, pink and celery. Initially, I thought I would use the Mojo Monday Sketch  #144, but my image turned out too big for that sketch. I decided the Our Creative Corner Sketch #21 would be perfect, although I decided to nix the bow.

Stamps: The Greeting Farm OA-Happy Day; Hero Arts CL038 Number Four (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Pretty in Pink
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Tea Party, Paper Prints Certainly Celery
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Certainly Celery
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Tempting Turquoise 3/8″ grosgrain ribbon
Markers: Stampin’ Up Tempting Turquoise, Summer Sun, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Blush Blossom, Creamy Caramel, Close to Cocoa

As soon as I saw this darling image by Sarah Jane at Sj’s Little Musings, I knew this was the image for the mother’s day card for my Mom. Obviously, I am well past the age of actually sitting in my mommy’s lap cuddling, but hopefully this card gives her warm fuzzy feelings inside. This card and the next are both 5.5-inch square easel cards. I really like how the style of the card allows for displaying the card.

Stamps: Sj’s Little Musings Cuddle with Mum; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Certainly Celery
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Pattern Papers Bashful Blue
Ink: Dell printer
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Ballet Blue eyelets, Certainly Celery twill ribbon; Stickles Baby Blue (ends of ribbon); dimensionals
Markers: Stampin’ Up Ballet Blue (to ink sentiment)
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up 1 3/8″ circle punch, scallop circle punch

You might recognize this next card as I posted it not that long ago without a sentiment for part of my design team call entry. At the time, I said I didn’t know what sentiment I wanted to use, but that was a little white lie. I had this card in mind for mother-in-law for mother’s day the entire time I was making the card.

Stamps: Prairie Fairy DT Fairy; Stampin’ Up All-Year Cheer II (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Pretty in Pink
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Tea Party
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Elegant Eggplant (sentiment)
Accessories: Stickles Frosted Lace, Lavender; purple glitter brads; white sparkly ribbon; silver heart brad
Tools: colored pencils, Stampin’ Up Blush Blossom marker

This year I decided that in addition to my mother and mother-in-law, I would make mother’s day cards for my sister and sisters-in-law.

This first card is for my sister whose favorite color is blue. Sarah is the mother of our two sweet little nephews Cameron and Trevor, so I figured she needed a girly girl card. I used Jen del Muro’s Sketch for You to Try and a sweet flower girl digi stamp I picked up for free by being a member of Karen’s Doodles group at Paper Craft Planet.

Stamps: Karen’s Doodles Flower Girl
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Pacific Point, Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Good Morning Sunshine
Ink: Dell printer
Accessories: Doodlebug sparkly blue brads; The Beadery 9mm Crystal Acrylic Stones; dimensionals
Markers: Stampin’ Up Regal Rose (handwritten sentiment)
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Marvy Uchida flower punch (used twice)

The second card is for my brother’s wife whose favorite color is green. Julia will be celebrating her first mother’s day (if you don’t count last year when she was pregnant) as the mother of our sweet little niece Aspen. I will be hand-delivering this one at our playdate today. This 5.5-inch square card uses my favorite Phindy image and thus meets the Phindy’s Place Friday Challenge #3. I picked up my two Phindy digi-stamps from being a member of Phindy’s Place group on Paper Craft Planet. I used The Sweet Stop Sketch Challenge #54 to put it all together. I really really like how it turned out.

Stamps: Phindy’s Place Beary Beautiful; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White; Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Prints Certainly Celery, Pink Flamingo
Ink: Dell printer; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Paper Studio yellow paper flowers; The Beadery 9mm Crystal Acrylic Stones; Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip 15/16″ satin ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Key Tag Punch

The third card is for my husband’s sister. Tami will be celebrating with our nine-year-old nephew Dawson. I don’t know what Tami’s favorite color is so hopefully she likes the pink and brown scheme I chose for the All That Scraps Challenge #27. It also meets the requirements of this week’s Our Creative Corner challenge to make a mother’s day card with no flowers and A Spoon Full of Sugar Challenge #102 to use a furry friend on your card.

Stamps: House Mouse Love Bunny; Hero Arts CL052 Clear Design May (sentiment)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Loves Me
Ink: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip 15/16″ satin ribbon, Pretty in Pink 3/8″ taffeta ribbon
Tools: Prismacolor colored pencils; Stampin’ Up Key Tag Punch

My good friend Jillan’s daughter Lillie recently turned three years old. She and her cousin Jacey (who is two months younger than her) celebrated by having a carnival-themed birthday party this past Sunday. I wanted to do something special for Lillie. Lillie is enamored with baby kangaroos. I recently bought this stamp set, because I knew it would be perfect.

Lillie’s birthday card was the other thing I worked on the last time I got together with Lori. It worked out well, because I was talking about grass and how I wish I had the Martha Stewart grass punch. Lori brought up that she had this grass-like wheel and it was perfect for the vision in my head, especially once I added the rhinestone flowers to the flowers in the grass.

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Build-a-Roo, Daisy Field (wheel); Hero Arts CL037 Clear Design Number THREE; Stampabilites Fun Alpha Upper, Fun Alpha Lower
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Real Red, Wild Wasabi, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black
Accessories: Kaiser Scrapbook flower rhinestones; Stickles Yellow, Xmas Red
Tools: Xyron 5″ Creative Station

I also made Lillie a personalized picture frame with a mama kangaroo and her joey. I am very happy with how it turned out. I would have liked to put something in the lower right corner, but couldn’t think of what to put.

Stamps: Stampin’ Up Build-a-Roo, A*Muse Polka Dot Letters
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel
Ink: Stazon Jet Black; Stampin’ Up Close to Cocoa
Paint: Folk Art Christmas Red
Tools: Mod Podge Matte

I had plans for one more crafty thing, but I didn’t quite get to it. I rounded out Lillie’s gift with a stuffed kangaroo with baby joey and a book about kangaroos.

Unfortunately, Jessica didn’t care for the loudness of a toddler birthday party and we didn’t stay very long. Fortunately, Jillan pulled Lillie off to the side to open the gift from us (didn’t want to upset Jacey because he wasn’t opening gifts) and I got to see Lillie’s reaction to her present.

As you can see, Lillie very intently looked at her card and frame. Isn’t the little clown dress Jillan made for her perfect for the carnival theme of the party?

My parents have a great marriage. They show affection for one another. They talk with each other, not to each other (big difference). They even work together in their own accounting practice. I’d like to think that James and I have the kind of marriage they do. Happy 30th Anniversary Mom & Dad! Here’s to another 30 years.

My sister, brother and I surprised them by going to Midland last weekend. We really got them good. Jason called them up and said he was planning to stop by on his way to Santa Fe for a work function, a total fib. He was the decoy to make sure they would be home. Sarah took care of finding a collage picture frame that she put photos of the grandkids in and I ordered a cake and some food for dinner Saturday night. Friday, Sarah and I coordinated arriving in Midland at about the same time. Jason arrived earlier and then went to visit a friend. We all met at a nearby parking lot so we could then arrive at the house at the same time. Jason knocked on the door. My Mom came to answer it and tell Jason she  had left it unlocked for him. When she opened the door, she kinda got this dumbfounded expression on her face. My Dad then walked up and he had the same expression. The surprise was a total success. Saturday night after the grandkids went to bed, we brought out the cake, which I had picked up earlier (I was impressed with how it turned out considering I ordered it over the phone), and the gift. I think we succeeded in making my parents feel pretty special.

Here’s the card I made for them. I used the previous Saturday’s Sketch for You to Try. It also meets the Hero Arts flower challenge.

Stamps: Hero Arts Clear Design May (images in 3 circles), Clear Design Number Seven (30 in exterior sentiment); Stampin’ Up Congrats, In My Thoughts (inside message), All-Year Cheer III (inside message)
Cardstock: Stampin’ Up Whisper White, Garden Green, So Saffron
Designer Paper: Stampin’ Up Prints Certainly Celery
Ink: Stampin’ Up Garden Green, Certainly Celery
Markers: Stampin’ Up Chocolate Chip, Garden Green, Rose Red, Ballet Blue, So Saffron; atYou Spice Clear
Accessories: Stampin’ Up So Saffron grosgrain ribbon; dimensionals (center circle)
Tools: colored pencils; Stampin’ Up scallop border punch; Nestabilites Standard Circles Large, Classic Scalloped Circles Large