I'm Back!!!

So I realize that I haven't posted in over a year. Not sure how that happened. I recently cleaned up my craft area and it seems to have inspired some creativity. Pictures according to photo order: 1) birthday card for my daughter's big buddy at school (her favorite color is black); 2) card for a soon-to-be divorced friend- the outside says "life's simple pleasures" and the inside says "she realized that without him she could enjoy life's simple pleasures--shopping for new clothes, new shoes and new purses; 3) cute little notebooks I made for a friends kids; and 4)calendars, clipboards and big clips for Christmas teacher gifts.

I am hoping that now with a clean space, and a clear mind, I can continue creating and maybe even blogging a little more.

It's been a long time!

It has been a long time since I last posted anything. I have been creating cards, but usually it is one of those last minute "need a card" situations, so my blog has gone bare. I do have something to share today though that I actually remembered to take a picture of-whew. One of my good friends from H.S. is getting married (renewing vows really) so I offered to make her wedding invitations. We played around with some different ideas and styles and this was the final invitation. Because my samples were not in her wedding colors I wasn't sure what the final product would look like, but I love the way they came out. The invitation does go in an actual envelope too. It's a 6 x 6 square card, the template was actually for making an envelope, but I liked that it worked for this too. I blocked out all the personal and identifying info. What do you think?

April Calendar

Here's the calendar page for April. This duck holding the flower is one of my favorite Amuse stamps. Has spring sprung in your area?

Color Challenge

I have never done a color challenge, but I've been in a craft slump, so I thought I would give this a try. It was posted by Dawn McVey who is part of the Papertrey Ink design team and does some really cute and adorable things. Her challenge was to make a card using brown (chocolate), celery/moss, white and teal. This is a pretty simple card, but I really like the color combo and think it suits the card well. My picture taking definitely needs improvement, maybe it's my lighting? What do you think of the card?

Calendars

Wow I am behind in posting stuff! I was supposed to make Amuse calendars for Christmas gifts-key words being "supposed to"-and didn't get them done in time. I just recently finished them. Here is pictures of the outside of them and also a picture of what my March page inside looks like. While I had my Zutter out I made a little notebook to carry in my purse where I can write down the names of books I read about or someone recommends so that when I'm at the library or bookstore I will actually remember the names of them. I used the books stamps from Amuse for this one. The other notebook I made at the request of a friend. She was getting ready to buy her daughter a charm bracelet and her first charm. She wants to take a picture of the charms as she buys them, put the picture in the book and then write a note to her daughter to tell her why she bought her that specific charm. Isn't that such a clever idea? I might have to "borrow" that from her once Annika gets older.

Hero Mail

Geeta had a challenge on her blog to make some cards for Operation Hero Mail which sends cards to our troops serving overseas. I made her about 25 cards, all the same so it was easy to mass produce. Of course a card seems like such a small token when you think of our brave men and women who put their life on the line for our freedom. To our servicemen and women--You are my Hero!

Love is in the Air

I have a couple of pictures to post from last week. Last week DH and I celebrated an anniversary and there was Valentine's day. I made this card for the hubster. It is very similar to one Rhonda made and featured on the Amuse Blog, but I thought it was so cute that I thought it would be perfect for the anniversary.

I decided to not make Valentine's cards for Annika's class this year and instead made Valentine's tube treats. Wish I could say this idea was mine, but no, I got this from the very talented Geeta who made them for Halloween and the Amuse Instructor workshop. The inside has Valentine M&M's. I made a quick tag with the milkshake stamp and on the back stamped "You're the cherry on top!" and "Happy (heart)'s day!" and then signed her name. I think they turned out really cute and the kids loved them.