Crazy Birds Birthday

I love using my "Crazy Birds" stamps and dies from Tim Holtz.  I know he has cats and dogs out but something about the birds are so funny!!  Another birthday in the family and this time it is my brother-in-law, Tom.  His birthday is tomorrow and I am glad I didn't wait until the last minute.  I have made this type of card before which, I guess, is called a step block card(?).  The paper collection is from Simple Stories and it is called "Say Cheese II".  I have used this paper collection on mini albums when we have gone to DisneyWorld!  Perfect for Mickey and friends.

This is the back of the card with a banner that says "celebrate" and a little sentiment for Tom.  The picture to the right is a side view.  Happy Birthday Tom!

Golfing in Retirement!

Tulips in Bloom

Spring has arrived in Maine!  My daffodils bloomed last month and were coated in snow and I am happy to show this picture of Tulips with no snow!!   Spring is also a great time to retire.  This is a quick post to show the retirement card for my brother-in-law who retired a couple of weeks ago.  He is an avid golfer and what a better way to show that we know what he is going to be doing.

These shadow cards are so darn cute and easy to make.  Sometimes they are called diorama cards. Creating a hole-in-one, what golfer doesn't wish for that!!  Congratulations Tom!  Enjoy!

The sentiment on the back

View from the top

Nurse Phillis

Nurse Phillis

My sister's birthday is this weekend and she is a nurse.  I don't think I have ever given her a nurse card before so I decided to make this punch art nurse.  I made the same one last fall when my neighbor was ill and made it a get well card.  This punch art nurse is from Ellen Kemper. She does a great job and this punch art.   Click here for her blog and punches used for this cute nurse.  All the punches she  used is from Stampin up, except I did have a hand punch from punch bunch.

The card is a trifold style and it was fun to decorate with all the blocks that it has.  I loved that I was able to use a stethoscope and nursing hat brad that I had in my stash.  Such a fun card to make and hope my sister, Phillis has a very happy birthday!!  Thanks for stopping by!

How cute is the nurse hat brad!

Nursing is a noble profession!

50 Candles on your Cake!

Another 50th birthday and another card in the box card!  You have to read the sentiment on the back of the card which is in the picture below because it all ties in together with the fireman and too many candles on your cake!!  My sister's boyfriend is turning 50 next month, so to throw him off guard, we are giving him a surprise birthday party this weekend. I am so proud of myself that I made his card early because usually I am doing this at the last minute. But when you have an idea you run with it.  We, actually, forgot his birthday last year but we will make up for this year with this surprise.  By the time, we finish he will have wished that we all had forgotten it this year!! 

The fireman is punch art from Ellen Kemper's blog. She does a great job telling you what to use for punches to make Mr.Fireman and I had tons of fun putting him together.  I made candles from the SU bird punch in the middle and then sizzix's birthday cake and candles for the front.  Check out more pictures below for the sentiment and closer looks of the side of the card.  Happy 50th Birthday Lenny and many more!!

Too cute!

Overall view

All SU punches

Happy 2014!

It has been 7 days since the beginning of the new year and I realized that I hadn't put on my blog my Christmas cards for 2013. I saw these two cards on pinterest and thought they were adorable and I needed a quick card so I thought I would do this one. Although, sometimes punch art is not quick but I do love putting these cute snowmen together!  I used circle and oval punches for the snowmen bodies.  The hats were also oval with tab punch for one hat and word window and square punch for the other hat.  The scarves were both word window punch.  The snowflake is from SU.  The paper I used is from Authentique Christmas paper.  Pearls were used on both cards for a little bit of embellishing. 

Now that the New Year is here here are some pictures from our New Year's Eve party.  We celebrate every year with friends and this year was no exception.  It was a lot of fun!  Happy New Year!!!

Setting up the tripod!

Getting their cute "hats" on!

The Group

More Christmas Cards in a box!

I made the singing mice and now I thought I would try making the singing reindeer.  This card is for my son and his girlfriend. There are 3 of them with the sizzix Christmas tree in the background all decorated! 

Also made the card in the box with angels.  I made a couple of these cards for some girlfriends. The angels are on pinterest and I think they are on splitcoast too.  I used SU build a blossom punch, bow die from Dee's distinctively, a couple of circle punches and then for the wings I used velum and used memory box's butterfly die. 

Lastly, this is a birthday card for my boss.  His birthday was on the 18th.  I have made these cards a long time ago for other employers but I hadn't made on for Dr. Donnelly.  The stethoscope is actually a brad, so cute, from eyelet outlet.

I am still hard at work with my Christmas cards but should be done soon.  I better since Christmas is only 4 days away.  Thanks for stopping by!

Housewarming Card

My nephew and his girlfriend, Kristin just bought a house together and just last weekend got engaged!! We are all so very happy for them both!  Tomorrow was suppose to be their housewarming party but because of this blizzard in the Northeast they had to postpone the party until March.  I have been working on their card all week and finally finished it today during the storm.  Perfect day to spend time in my craftroom and watch the snow fall.  I was looking at my flower pot cards that I made a long time ago and got this house idea from them.  I cut a piece of cardstock measuring 4 1/2 by 9 inches.  The 9 inch side I scored in cut at 4 1/2.  Then I embossed one side of the 4 1/2 side which is the front of the house.  I sponged the front of the house with Close to Cocoa to make the siding stand out more.  Added the windows, door and fence with some grass.  The flowers are prima with a little bling in the middle.

Just pop off the roof and the sentiment reads, "It takes hands to build a house but only hearts can build a home" Author Unknown   I added the roof and the chimney which is embossed with Tim Holtz brick EF.  The chimney is sponged with red distressed ink from Ranger. 

So now this will have to wait until March to give them this card. Let's hope all the snow will be melted by then.  We are expecting to get between 1-2 feet of snow, maybe more!   Hope everyone in the Northeast stays safe and warm tonight!! Thanks for stopping by!

Adoption Day Cards

Again this year, I was asked by a teacher at my husband's school to do a couple of Adoption Day cards for her 2 nephrews.  One of the boys is going to be 7 and his name is Alan who happens to be blind and loves music.  This card is for him!  I found this template guitar from http://sarahsinkspot.com/blog/2009/06/u-rock-guitar-card-2.html  I used a glitter paper for the guitar so that Alan could feel it. The strings are the gold metallic string from SU which I wrapped around brads at the top and base of the guitar. The card size is 8 x 7 inches. When you open up the card I made the piano from Lynn Pratt (you can go to her blog from my blog, her button is to the left of my blog). She is so talented! I made my own dimensions from her picture to fit my card.  The white keys are 4 x 5 1/2 and I drew black lines every 1/2 inch.  I scored twice on each side at the 1/2 inch mark. The black keys are measured 5/16 of an inch by 2 1/2 inch and scored the same way only at 1/4 of an inch mark.  Then place the black keys in the middle of the black line on the white keys.  The sentiment "You rock!" is done in gold embossing powder so that Alan could feel it. There is a lot of texture in this card so I hope Alan enjoys it.

From a different angle

The second card I made was for Alan's brother, Aaron and he is 3 and loves baseball. I wasn't sure what team he liked so I did a generic Red Sox jersey.  I used a few punches for this one. The large and small tag punches for the pocket. The frame corner punch for the V neck and I cut free hand the red triangles for the shoulders.  The baseball is from nestabilities with red stitching and inked it up with Tim Holtz's Wild Honey. Check out the inside below.  Check back with me and I'll let you know how they liked their cards.  Thanks for stopping by!

Not sure why this is sideways?!

Variation in Lindsey's Card

Just a quick post because I had so fun making my daughter's birthday card that I decided to make another one!  You can compare the two of them.  The one on the left has the heart nestabilities with the scallop heart as the background.  I used a shiny, shiny emerald green paper.  The sentiment is the same except I used SU "wish big" underneath Tilda.   Tilda is just so versatile!!!  Thanks for looking!

Celebrate in Style

Happy Birthday is always in fashion!

Making this card was like playing "paperdolls"! Does anyone remember playing paperdolls when you were little.  I used to love to change the dresses, using the paper tabs to keep them on.  Yesterday when I was making this card that is all I could think of, just being a little nostalgic. For the card, I used a dress form template that my sister (figaro) gave me months ago and was playing with punches and came up with this hat.  The buckle is another punch.  It is kind of hard but can you see the gold shoe and pearls?

The Stork Will Be Arriving Shortly

My neighbors are having a baby very soon and I wanted a quick card for her so I will be ready when the little ones decides to makes its' entrance.  It will be their first and  I am very happy for them.  I think she told me that they were having a girl but I am ready in case  it's a boy.  I actually saw this punch art stork on Jackie Topa's blog.  She does great punch art and her link is under my blog list if you would like to take a look at her blog. 

I used 1 1/4 inch round punch for the head, the body is SU's oval wide punch in the pink card and medium oval in the blue card.  I think I like the wide oval better.  The wings are embossed with SU EF which I used the Build a Blossom punch.  The leaf from Build a Blossom punch is used for the "bundle". The hat is from a sizzlet snowman head.  The beak was tricky and pretty much free hand.  I made an elongated triangle and cut it in the middle and then overlapped them to make the beak. The "little bundle" is tied together with ribbon.  The ribbon was heated with the embossing gun to give it that "wrinkled look".  Lastly, I sponged the stork with SU yoyo yellow to make it stand out a little more.  I wanted to add a baby head but just couldn't get it to look right so I decided that the baby just would have to be inside nice and warm in the little bundle.  Afterall it is a "little bundle of joy!"  Thanks for looking!