A busy weekend with Lots of "Milestones"...

Hope that you are having a great weekend. We are in the middle of a great weekend - time at the town pool, great dinner last night (I went a little crazy and made a seafood dinner - blackened tilapia, clams oreganata and shrimp cocktail for the kids... all with a size of spaghetti!).

And a family highlight...we passed a (IMO) fairly big milestone this weekend - my whole family went to the movies together for the first time!! Up to this point, one of us have always had to stay home with the younger/youngest because there was nooooo way they would be able to sit through a movie. But on Friday, I got home early enough that after dinner, and we headed out to the theatre to finally see Kung Fu Panda - which by the way, was an adorable movie (Pixar never disappoints our family). We had been saying that Matthew was probably ready for the movies given that he loves watching them in the car. The second you get in and before you even have time to put the key in the ignition, you are sure to hear, "TV! TV!" from him in the back seat!! He did a great job, although he did fall asleep before the end. He was hiding his eyes on my husband's lap from the "scary part" and he ended up putting himself to sleep right there and then. He has such a blast at camp during the day, that he obviously wore himself out from a long week. But now we know that we can all go! Our next movie is going to be Wall-E, I think.

Anyway, so onto to the cards for this post. My wonderful dad turned 60 this past week and we are celebrating this milestone with a family dinner which also includes his close friends. I used all PTI stuff, except for the "60", which is SU- Big Deal Numbers (love that set!). Went for a more guy look, so I skipped any embellies. The Brilliance ink (the blue dots), always comes out so shimmery and neat, so I left it at that. I think that my dad will like it.

We are also going to finally give them their 35th anniversary gift. Their anniversary falls between mine 6/6 and my brother's (who just got married) - 6/14. We didn't get a chance to really celebrate this big milestone given the wedding, so we are going to do it a little belatedly tomorrow night as well. Wow, they have accomplished so many wonderful things in 35 years and they are so happy and content with their lives. It is a great thing. I used my first PTI sketch challenge as the starting point for the card. I used Shapes by Design. I LOVE this particular stamp of this set. It's really the reason I bought it at first, although I have used the other ones since I got the set. But, to be honest, this image is the one that is especially blackened with so much use - LOL. I also used the "celebrate" from the set and the "LOVE" from Paper Trey. I love that you can mix and match words from the different sets - so versatile, don't you think? And I used an SU felt flower and a pewter brad to finish it off.

Almost...done!

My littlest guy is turning 3 (sniff sniff) in 2 weeks. I can't believe that my baby is really officially a toddler... he's potty trained (has been for 6 months now - wahoo) and ready to take on the world, starting with preschool this fall. Maybe it is because he is the 3rd of 3 boys, but he seems so independent and maybe more like a little boy than a toddler most times. And even though he has been in full-day care, it seems different that he will officially be in preschool... complete with his lunchbox, school bag and rest time mat. On top of that, he starts camp with his brothers on Wednesday. This year I have 3 bags to prepare - you know... the water shoes, towels, swimsuits, extra change of clothes etc.

I don't know why this has hit me more so tonight... this seems more like a post I should be writing in September. I guess it is because I have been making his birthday invites - which btw are, of course, going out later than it should (so par for the course!). But then again, most of the guests are family, so one would argue why I'm going through all this effort vs. an e-mail or a phone call, since I talk/im with everyone all the time. I'm almost done. But I really like making them for my kids... and of course for myself. Oh wait, I should also clarify that the party will not be in 2 weeks, {I mean, who would be crazy enough to cut it that close??LOL}... well truth be told, I am shooting to have the party on the 7/12... so I guess that's only 3 weeks-ish away... yikes - better get these out. And then we'll finally be able to settle down and relax after THIS party! :) Didn't I already say that in a previous post :P ?

So about the invite... couple of interesting points... 1. I am always so trying to make my cards look handmade and chic, like the cards you see in the stores. Most times the cards look so homemade, but this one is ok, I think; 2. I used lot of different products to make it. I finally cut into my BG Cupcake paper - love it and used a few different stamp sets from a couple of different places; 3. I definitely give myself a gold star (well, I guess in this case it should be a red one) for incorporating one of my first paper crafting purchases... the star eyelet. I think it was a nice touch to give it a little dimension (besides putting the main image on dimensionals); 4. I am going to resist the urge to always mat my main image, b/c I am realizing that I like the way it looks un-matted (change is good, right?) and; 5. I really prefer the Versamagic and Brillance inks... love the coverage and the colors look so vibrant. I don't think it gets picked up in the pic, but IRL, the "3" is stamped in the Brilliance ink in Pearlescent Sky Blue and it is so shimmery and looks very cool. Although I think that I have said #5 before (I had a bit of deja vu as I typed it LOL!)

Supplies:

Stamps: PTI - Paper Trey, SU - Big Deal Numbers, Birthday Whimsy; Paper: SU Brocade Blue, Whisper White, BG Cupcake; Inks: Versamagic Dew Drop - Aloe Vera & Thatched Straw, Brilliance Dew Drop - Pearlescent Sky Blue, SU - Real Red; Other: SU Star eyelets, Dimensionals

Back on the Sketch Wagon too...

Instead of hurrying to make the cards I needed this weekend, I took advantage of a free Friday night to relax and make them while we all watched the Yankees game. They lost, breaking a 6 game winning streak. :( We are diehard Yankee fans in this house... even our littlest guy at 3 knows who they are and when we are watching a baseball game. My hubby and our oldest got invited by friends to watch a game a few weekends back and had amazing seats. They made it on TV!! We also got a chance to watch a game down in Baltimore vs. the Orioles when we were down there for Memorial Day weekend. It was a breeze and so much cheaper to get tix there... and those seats were awesome too... right down at field level. We might have to make it an annual things going froward.

Wow, so that was a huge tangent I followed... back to the cards.

We are celebrating my niece's birthday belatedly (but only by a few days). Having 3 boys usually means that when I am making kid cards, it is usually boy cards. But I have 2 nieces and I love it when I make cards for them. Lets me dig into my pink hued CS finally! So I used one of Beate's sketches to make this card. I was able to incorporate a few different tools and elements in this card. Pulled out my CB for the first time in a while, used my scallop punch as well as this stamp set for the first time.

I really liked the polka dots on this card... makes it feel soooo girly. I am going to have to remember to reach for my PTI polka dots more frequently.

The other one I made tonight was for a birthday party that my middle guy has this weekend.

I dusted off this stamp (I still so love this guy - he is tooooo sweet) and used Amy's sketch to make my card. I used some BG scraps for the card and let that guide the copics, ribbon, and brads I used. I am trying to use up my scraps, unless I know that I am going to use a whole 12x12 sheet. I promised myself that I would make a dent in the scraps pile as well as in the big (at least in my opinion!) PP collection that I have amassed before buying more stuff. Of course that just means that I will be buying more copics in the meantime! LOL. I also have to find a black ink that hopefully does not smear so much with the copics. I have been noticing the that Palette Hybrid Noir is running a bit. Maybe it has to be heat set? Who knows... I probably should just do a search on SCS... I'm sure there are threads about it {puts it on list of things to do}.

Back on the {Stamping} Wagon...

Whew - almost 2 months since my last post. Where does the time fly? I guess that's a silly question, since I basically know the answer... it flies by with all the stuff that happens on a day to day basis. But it is amazing how a couple of days quickly turns into a week and then a month... well, you get the picture.

So the last couple of months have been very busy for us... I kid you not, we have probably had something family related basically every weekend since mid-May. We've had a wedding (my youngest brother) and all of the fun festivities that go along with it... bridal shower, respective bachelor and bachelorette weekends away (the girls spent the weekend in South Beach - and it is an understatement to say that it was blast! :) ), rehearsal dinner and of course the big day. We celebrated my oldest son's First Communion, as well as his birthday another weekend... 8 8 year-old boys plus my other 2 boys at a minor league baseball game - I get exhausted just thinking back on it again! Let's see what else... oh yeah, we celebrated my nephew's Baptism - and I was the godmother. So LOTS of fun family stuff, but admittedly we're glad that it is winding down ;) The last is my niece's birthday party this weekend. Then I think that we are just going to focus on just relaxing and enjoying the summer.

The kids' last day of school is tomorrow and I just finished up the teacher gifts, which I wanted to share today to celebrate my first night back to my craft table. Well, I guess that is a little bit of an exaggeration, as I have been making cards, but honestly it has been rushed in the 15 minutes that I need to make it. So I was really happy to get a chance to just relax and make these TYs - they are gift card holders. I got the inspiration from a wonderful card my stamping buddy, Jennifer, sent me last month. Jennifer is probably either ready to kill me or is just wondering if I fell of the face of the earth again. I used Dawn's toot, which btw is awesome... loved the fun music in the background too. It was so easy to follow along.

And J- if you are reading this... I am SOOOOOO sorry. You have probably e-mailed me, but I honestly have still not logged into my personal e-mail in a couple of months. I so totally still have to send you the May challenge. That is next on my list, I swear!!! I am such a horrible stamping bud {totally hanging my head in shame!} I promise I will try and be better and come up with something amazing for a June/July challenge.

So here are the gift card holders I made---2 sets, I started with the apple cards and then when I used up one sheet of the apple PP, I switched it up to change things up and use up a partial sheet of this Cosmo Cricket (I think) that I love.

And the last card I did tonight was a TY for the bus driver. Can't forget someone who take such great care to make sure that my oldest kiddo gets to and from school safely day in and day out!

But seriously...I can't believe that I just finished making END OF THE YEAR teacher gift again already!! Where did this school year go? Time is flying by faster and faster each year it seems. Is it just me??