Two More Quick Cards

Somehow, even with everything else I needed to get done, I managed to finish the two cards; one for my honey's birthday and the other for Valentine's Day. This is in addition to the ones I finished on Friday during Friday Night Challenge.

For his birthday card, I used a sketch from one of Allison Davis' Sketches for Cardmaking book. I love her sketches! They make papercrafting so easy. I also used, for the very first time, my CTMH Artiste Cricut Cartridge for the cupcake. The candles are from A Child's Year.

His Valentine's Day card was scraplifted from a card shown on the Obsessed With Scrapbooking blog right here. I used the Cricut Sentimentals cartridge for the phrase and the key. It went together quickly which is great since my time is so limited. I can't wait to give it to him tomorrow.

Quick lesson today and one that I can't repeat often enough. Sketches are your friend, and in the papercrafting world, scraplifting is okay as long as you aren't trying to sell someone elses work and/or ideas as your own.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Let 'Em Take Your Picture

I was directed to this blog via my Move More, Eat Well class at Big Picture Classes. As one who NEVER wants to be photographed, or at least photographed only from the neck up, this post is a very STRONG reminder of how important it is to allow ourselves to move from behind the camera, and appear in front of it, not just from time to time, but regularly! It is the first time I've visited this blog but I was so moved by her post, that I wanted to share it here. The name of the blog is My Friend Teresa Photography and the title of the post is "So You're Feeling Too Fat to Be Photographed."

So the short and sweet lesson for today is this: When someone wants to take your picture, let 'em!

And so to this post, I am going to add a picture of my heretofore unseen WHOLE self, taken by me (for the above-mentioned class), that includes ALL of me, including my flat feet and lumpy bumpy parts! And when my honey, or anybody else for that matter, wants to take my picture, I'm going to quit complaining or demanding to be photographed only from the neck up.

Thanks for looking and have a wonderful week!

Cards in 30 Minutes or Less...

On Friday I joined Mary J and my other sisters over at Scraps of Color for one of our fairly regular Friday Night Challenges. MJ put us through our paces as we had to make each of our cards in 30 minutes or less. And for the first time in a long time, I actually finished all three and met all of the requirements for each challenge.

For this first one, the base had to be a circle, there had to be some distressing, some bling and the word "love" had to be on the front. I had the perfect Cricut diecut, given to me by Helen a couple of years ago, for the front of the card. And... I pulled out a Cuttlebug die cut plate that I've had for at least three years and NEVER used before. The inside reads "you little stinker."

The second challenge was to make a card using at least one solid and one patterned paper. It had to have a circle, a border punch and a sentiment. It could not be for a husband or boyfriend. So this one will be going to my parents. I managed to choose a sketch from one of my many sketch books, select paper from a stack, and get this card completed right under the 30-minute time limit.

The last challenge was to make a Valentine card with the sentiment "To My SOC Friend." Add lots of bling. Send this card to someone who participated in tonight's FNC. So this one is already in the mail to Felisa. Managed to use a sketch for this one as well and paper from the same paper stack.

Not sure if I have a specific lesson in this post, but you know me... sketches are your friend, sketches are your friend, sketches are your friend! And using paper that comes from the same stack doesn't hurt either. It's easy to match patterns and colors, and cuts down on the time it takes to make sure all of your paper works well together. Simplifying the decision-making process makes it actually possible to get a card done in 30 minutes or less! So there you have it my friends and loyal followers. 

Thanks so much for looking!