An assortment of cards I made today

I got to play with my new embossing folders today, so I have quite a few cards to share with you!

I have a specific sentiment in mind for the inside of this first one: "A little birdie told me it's your birthday!" :)
Supplies: Making Memories (paper), Studio G (stamp), Michaels $1 ribbon (ribbon), Birds and Swirls (embossing folder), Sharpies (pens), recycled soda can (metal).

Supplies: Kodak, K & Co, other (paper); Michaels $1 ribbon (ribbon); Birds and Swirls (embossing folder); EK Success (chalk).

Supplies: The Paper Company (paper); Inkadinkadoo (stamp); Allegro (embossing folder); Sharpies (pens); Creative Memories (vellum sentiment, corner rounder); Martha Stewart (lace punch); recycled soda can, paper doily, brads (miscellaneous).

Supplies: The Paper Company (paper); Inkadinkadoo (stamps); Allegro (embossing folder); Michaels $1 ribbon (ribbon); EK Success (chalks); Creative Memories (vellum sentiment); recycled cardboard (miscellaneous).

NOTE: These flowers were cut from the leftovers of the card above. The stamp actually has a main rose and two off-shoots, but I used them on separate cards. Also, the embossed section and the watch are both recycled cardboard, just two different shades. I really like the caramel look of the one the watch is stamped onto!

Birthday cakes!

Here are pictures of the cakes I made for the birthdays this week:
The first one was for my sister-in-law. The green was supposed to be "turquoise," but it dried a definite green. Oh well! They still liked it.

This was my husband's cake. He loves eagles and has his entire study decorated in them. (I could probably count 100 eagles if I wanted to right now!) His favorite cake is chocolate with peanut butter icing, and those colors just happen to be pretty hard to decorate with. However, I got the idea to put an eagle on it since it only requires a little white icing for the head. The black icing is chocolate icing that I added some black coloring to. The eagle itself is clip art I downloaded from Microsoft. The technique I used to create the eagle is called "frozen buttercream transfer," and it's really easy. My husband LOVED his cake!

Sorry I've been AWOL!

I didn't get a chance to post before we left on a whirlwind trip to visit my husband's family for his (and his twin sister's) birthday.

It was certainly an eventful trip!

My husband went with his sister and her boy to pick up his car at his dad's house, but her girls decided they wanted to stay home. So our niece called me around 10:00 Monday night and said someone was banging on the front door and then started throwing snowballs at the upstairs windows where she was hiding with her younger sister. She was scared! Fortunately, it turned out to be her uncle who was delivering a late-night birthday gift to her mom. He had us going for at least 15 minutes! (I don't think he knows that we almost had the police down there!)

Then the next day our 4-year-old nephew (to another of my husband's sisters) ended up in the hospital with a blood sugar level of 650. They didn't know he was diabetic, since the symptoms come on so fast when they're young. So we spent the afternoon in the hospital with his sister and her son, waiting on Life Flight to transfer him three hours away to a children's hospital.

Somehow, we managed to squeeze in a birthday party between all the "excitement".

I am more thankful than ever for my children's good health!

I'll try to get back to my regular posting tomorrow. While we were there, I found the three remaining Cuttlebug embossing folders that I wanted, so I'll be playing with them at the earliest opportunity! :)

Card from a mini calendar

This is a card I've had sitting around for awhile but never got around to sharing:

I made it with an old calendar picture - one of the small calendars. You probably can't read it, but the brads spell out the word "relax".

It's nothing fancy, but I did like it! :)

In the theme of love ...

I made another heart card. This one was inspired by this card.



I loved how her squares were scalloped, but I don't have a scallop punch. However, I got fairly close by using my cheapo scallop scissors. The heart is a doily I embellished with more adhesive rhinestones from the dollar store. The "Love" metal piece is a piece of soda can embossed with a Cuttlebug folder (that came with my machine). I just cut around the heart part of it.

Folders for Ministerial are finished!

If you remember from last year, I made some folders with mini legal pads to hand out at Ministerial. We didn't get to go last year, so I had the chance to make more of them to hand out, since we usually have a big crowd. (I made them because I've noticed several ladies forget pens and paper to take notes.)



This first one was inspired by the layout of this card. The papers and such aren't really my style, but I know several ladies like this style.



This one was very loosely inspired by this card. The butterfly is a dollar store stamp. I stamped him onto the back of glittered vellum and then cut him out. He's my favorite part of this whole design! :)



And this last one was my own creation. I used rectangular paper doilies from the dollar store. They were just a bit too big, so I cut them in the middle, lined them up properly, and glued them back together to the correct size. Then I chalked the outside lacy edges. The flowers were made with my Marvy punches with cast-off buttons as centers. The sentiment is from the "Girlfriends" collection by Susan Branch.

Believe it or not, I think the last one is my favorite. It also happens to be the first one I made this round. :)

My favorite card for today

I've done quite a bit in my craft room today, thanks to the snow. This is my absolute favorite from the day's work:
I don't know how I'm going to give this one away! :) I love roses, so this is me all over.

I got the inspiration by seeing how this lady stamped the very same rose and made it into a cluster. Other than that, our cards don't look much alike. But that was my inspiration!

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the tiny circles are adhesive "rhinestones" from the dollar store. The butterfly is also a dollar store stamp, and I stamped him onto the back of glittered vellum. I love that vellum, and I still can't believe I got it for $0.14 a sheet!

ETA: The sentiment is from the "Girlfriends" set by Susan Branch.