My only grad card of the season.

It feels like we have celebrated every happy occasion in the last few months - Baptism, First Communions, showers, weddings... but this is our first and only graduation this year. I made this card for the party tomorrow. My husband's cousin's son (whew - what a mouthful!) just graduated the 8th grade. So I didn't want to make the card to boyish - aiming for a "cool" feel - LOL. How did I do? I hope that he likes it.

I pulled out a bunch of oldies, but very much goodies for this card. THIS is why I haven't been able to bear to part with any sets I have bought thus far :) I think that 2 of the sets used have been in a theoretical donate pile, but obviously am glad that I didn't get rid of them. I finished it up with Lemon Tart twill - I have gotten this ribbon in everyone of the PTI colors (it's by far my favorite. I find myself reaching for it a lot. Plus, it's great to use on guy cards... the twill ribbon lends itself well - not so ribbony, so it's great for boys too, IMO. I used Taylor's CC sketch for the week as my starting point, and turned it sideways to accommodate the sentiment, but otherwise followed it to a T.

Supplies:

CS - BG - the sheet is called Urban Dot ( I think it it from the Aged and Confused collection? - it's an OLD one, I think). PTI Kraft - love this!, SU - Artfully Artichoke and Buckaroo Blue; Stamps: SU Riveting, Little Layers Plus, All Year Cheer 3 (told you these were OLDIES!), and PTI Text Box; Other: SU Dimensionals, PTI Lemon Tart Twill.

No Place Like Home

I just got my latest PTI order this week - sooo excited. I got Boards and Beams from last month's release, CS, ink and the twill ribbon for Lemon Tart and Summer Sunrise (I fell behind a month in accumulating my colors as well as some kraft CS and the new vanilla CS. Can't wait to dig in and try everything out! :)

So I made this card with our new neighbors in mind. We didn't even realize that neighbors around the block were moving until we saw the moving truck just the other day. That was when I realized that we probably never exchanged from than 5 words with the people that were moving. :( So sad how that can happen. We are friends with our immediate neighbors in our cul-de-sac, but really don't know neighbors beyond that. We have kinda a spread out neighborhood, but that's really no excuse when it comes down to it. So my plan is to walk over this weekend and introduce us to the new neighbors moving in. Who knows, maybe they have kids who are the same age as my boys and will become friends!

About the card... I used PTI Summer Sunrise CS and and BG Cupcake PP. I am loving this collection - the color scheme is so me, and I am finding it really easy to mix and match the different patters together. I stamped the house on PTI white CS and colored with my copics. Let me tell you, it has become much easier to blend and get the effect I want once I figured out that I really needed the Colorless Blender - LOL (duh - see, this is really why I need to find a copic class for dummies - I think that my cards would come out soooo much better if I did!). I used brads on the corners and paper pierced under the sentiment and that's pretty much it.

Hope that you are having a great 4th! We are laying low and just relaxing today. Sometimes you just need days like that to re-group and recharge... and there's no place like home to do it! ;)

Birthday Time

Happy Birthday to my littlest kiddo! :) He's 3 today - my, how time flies. I'm waiting for him to wake up, before heading off to work a "little bit" later than usual. I always take a picture of the kids waking up on their birthdays. I love catching their smile as they wake up realizing today is their day. One of my weird little traditions, I guess.

Matthew is such an active little boy, sooo affectionate and has a smile that is infectious. As a 3 year old, he loves all of the usual boy stuff. Ball, cars, trucks, water shooters, running around like mad when he gets the chance (which is often)... Lately, he is never without a matchbox car in at least one hand... as recently as the end of the school year, he was on a kick where he was always carrying 2. We would marvel at his talent of always being able to hold on them both while still fully functioning! (eating, going to the bathroom, playing with other toys, even tumbling and not hurting himself, as 3 year olds often do! - LOL).

So I search high and low for a car image for his birthday card. Strangely enough, I had a hard time finding one in all of my images... I am going to have to take care of that! But I found one in the retired SU set, Travel Time (masking the luggage rack) and colored it his favorite color - RED. I stamped it twice and raised the car on dimensionals to give it a little depth. I also used this week's sketch challenge. I don't have a 1 1/4 square punch (another thing I have to take care of!), which made the challenge take a little longer, but otherwise, I liked the sketch and how my card turned out. All of the paper from is BG - Cupcake, even the base card. I also used a sticker from the BG pack from the "road." Sentiment is from PTI (love the birthday set - so versatile.). Oh yeah I also used the Memento Tuxedo Black ink, which just came in my latest eP purchase. I think I really like it so far. Didn't get the bleeding that I have been getting with the Palette Hybrid Noir inkpad.

Have a great day!