Hooray for Dad!

Despite my lack of blogging lately I actually have been pretty busy making cards (and 1 layout)... it's just that the cards keep creeping to the mailbox before I get a chance to take pictures! Before this whole card making thing started for me... I really don't remember buying that many cards. I would think I'd remember too- I never just stopped by the store to grab a card real quick. No, I practically pulled up a chair in the card aisle and camped out the whole day as I read through each and every card to make sure that the on I picked was the perfect card made just for that person for that occassion. Maybe that's what it was... I was avoiding giving people cards before and now I'm just using every possible excuse to make a card. Now every little event has become card worthy. But it is at the expense of my other two hobbies- scrapbooking and beading, which have fallen to the wayside since I am always needing to make a card for someone. Not that I mind too much. I am enjoying making cards and getting better at it too. And maybe it's kind of nice to be thinking about others more often (I don't know... this could be a stretch). But, I am getting a lot faster at it & finding those small morsels of time that I can work on them. So hopefully I will find more and more time for scrapbooking and beading to creep back in- I hope so!

I've always wanted to try a crop or scrapping with a friend. Living in Tally does not make this a likely prospect. But, finally I got a chance to do this with my friend Laura. She loves scrapbooking but had never heard of a Cricut (gasp! I know- I'll give you a minute to recover

.

.

.

she cut everything with an exacto knife
.

.

.

sorry, that didn't help, more time?okay
.
.

.

alright, resuming), so I did the only thing a responsible Cricuter could do and I took mine over to share. It was great! My husband got to borrow their garage to start on his first woodworking project (I can't wait for my Adirondack chair!), our dogs got to play *read: "My dog terrorized her dog"*, and so did Laura and I (I tried not to terrorize Laura)! I used the time to make my Father’s Day cards. Now normally this is a project that would have taken 2 weeks for me to accomplish- but I actually finished them (YAY!)… well sorta. I kind of glued my FIL’s on backwards- it looked great except that he would have had to open the card from the wrong side! Soooo… I did have to go back and fix that (as I did not want to admit what I at the time!) :oP

Anyway, here they are… the finished product of that day.

This one is for my Dad- I used LL and paper from DCWV Stack 6:

This one is for my FIL (he's from SoCal and this car paper is sooo him). I used LL for "DAD" and DC for the palm tree:

I had an extra palm tree that I was going to add to the inside, but it didn't quite look right... so I added it to the back.
Okay... well that's enough for today! Thanks for looking I hope you enjoy!

Signed, Sealed and Delivered... It's Diploma Time!

This past weekend my friend Stef graduated with her teaching degree and my sister finished her master's in teaching. Both graduated from USF and I'm very excited for both! It has been a long road for Stef- just in the last couple years she got married in the middle of one semester (teachers were not so kind about it) and this last year she moved up here to Tally- yay!- and back down to Tampa- sad - in a matter of months. It's hard enough moving back and forth but trying to transfer between three equally uncooperative schools was quite the challange! But Stef took it all in stride and we are so happy for her that she's done!

My sister, Errin (yes, 2 r's), has been working on her Master's while teaching for the past few years. She is an amazing teacher and has a special gift for dealing with her students- which are usually those that other teachers can't handle. Not only do they respect her but so do their parents and the other teachers at her school. As cheesy as it sounds- I am so proud of my big sis! I know she enjoyed taking classes but I'm happy for her that she won't have so much stuff on her plate!

I made these cards for Stef and Errin to celebrate their graduations. We didn't get to go down there and celebrate with them and are really bummed about that. They both have more goodies coming to them... but I'm not finished, grrr!

The flowers and green & black paper are from the Michael's dollar aisle. I've had the black grad paper since my HS graduation... so that'd be 6 years! The grad cap is from Locker Talk and the Hooray cut is from Lyrical Letters. I put non-stickles stickles & a gem on the firework thing.

Wedding Time

It's getting to be that time again! In May we have 2 weddings to go to, one is in Kentucky and the other in Jacksonville. I'm really excited about the KY wedding- this will be the first time hubby gets to see where I was born and the rest of the family! He and my brother-in-law have heard lots of stories about Harlan, Ky- I think it will be a culture shock, but a lot of fun! Anyway, this card is for that wedding. I got the inspriation for it after looking at Bunnylover's star card on the Cricut mb- thanks!

I used the Wedding Solutions cart for the bride and groom & banner (I think) and Lyrical Letters for the background which is blue vellum. I had to trim the border off of the background because after 2 cuts I couldn't get the size just right... ! I was frustrated at the time but I think it turned out fine. Besides, hubby really likes it and thats all that matters :o) I'll post one for the next wedding as soon as I do it!