A Birthday Card For My Nephew

My nephew, the eldest of my brother Todd's kids, turns 19 years old today!  It seems like just yesterday that I was a freshman in high school anxiously awaiting his arrival into this world.

I was excited because I got to play with my new Copic markers!  I have a limited amount of colors at this time but it worked out wonderfully.

The star paper is put out by Lily Bee Designs from their Picket Fence collection.  It's called "Seize the Day".  And I just tore some white and red card stock.  You know how I like that "scrappy" look.  ;p   I used crazy scissors to cut the yellow square in the middle.  I also used a different pair of crazy scissors to cut the lime green "Happy Birthday" sentiment.  

I have one of those "Happy Birthday" clear rubber stamp packets that I bought at Michaels which included the candles stamp.  

BLUE AND GREEN CANDLE:  B29 (Ultramarine),  B14 (Light Blue), G17 (Forest Green), YG03 (Yellow Green), Distress Stickles in "Folded Jeans"

YELLOW CANDLE (the Big Bird Candle!):  YR04 (Chrome Orange), Y13 (Lemon Yellow),  E09 (Burnt Sienna),   RV11 (Pink), Distress Stickles in "Milled Lavender"

GREEN CANDLE:  G17 (Forest Green), YG03 (Yellow Green), Distress Stickles in "Peeled Paint" 

FLAMES: R08 (Vermilion), YR04 (Chrome Orange), Y13 (Lemon Yellow), Stickles in "Icicle"

I put the Distress Stickles on the candles in the attempt to make it look like melting wax.  

Not bad for my second time working with Copic markers.  I look forward to improving!  Copics are kind of pricey so I'm slowly adding to my collection.  I ended up getting the primary colors and the skin tones.  

Coloring is fun!  

Be excellent to each other...and party on, dudes

~Jules

A Charlie Sheen Inspired Birthday Card

My brother, Joe (also known as Joseph or Bubba), celebrated his 38th birthday on March 26th.  My brother is a Two and a Half Men fan.  He was very disappointed when Charlie Sheen was fired.  I think he also got a kick out of it a little, like most people did, and was excited when he found a bowling shirt at Target.

I had leftover bowling stickers from my Bowling layout (see link Octopus's Garden) so when one of those stickers was a bowling shirt, first I thought of Charlie Sheen, then I thought of my brother.  And seeing that I have difficulty making masculine cards, I thought it was only fitting to use the sticker.

Ideally, this card would have been better for last year's birthday, I know.

This card is about as simple as you can get, which I think might be the key to a masculine card.  Too many frills tend to make cards girly.  Here's what I used.  

Red card stock

Red and white checked paper that came out of the "Me and My Big Ideas" value pack of paper 

Black card stock

Tan card stock

Bowling Shirt from Karen Foster's Design "High Score"

And finally I stamped the ever so cliche "Winning!" with black ink at the top.  I think it's cute and hopefully Joe liked it, or at the very least got a kick out of it.  

Thanks for taking a second to look at my stuff.  Next week is going to be crazy with the cards.  I have 4 cards back to back!  I went to the Mall of America and I'm kicking around the idea of doing a blog haul for the small amount of merchandise I bought.  

Stay classy, 

Jules 

Almay Oil-free Eye Makeup Remover Pads

I'm a big fan of sampling a product before you fully commit to it.  The great thing about Ulta and Sephora is that you often get the chance to do just that, either for free or investing very little money.  I'm always open to trying new things.  Makeup is the one thing in my life that I'm not that loyal to.  Yes, I have brands that I gravitate towards but I will cheat on it every chance I get.  I'm a total makeup slut.

I am always in search of a perfect eye makeup remover.  I don't like to spend a lot of money on such things because I go through it quickly but I will not waste my time or money on a product that does a half ass job.  While waiting in line at Ulta, I noticed a travel sized Almay Oil-free Eye Makeup Remover Pads.  And it was $1.29.  It was a perfect opportunity to try something new.  And it was pads which appealed to my lazy side.

The travel sized container comes with 15 pads in it.  The full sized one comes with 80 pads and sells for $5.79.

 Almay claims to be the #1 brand in America.  Did it live up to its hype?

Um...NO!  The pad did great with removing all of my eye shadow but it didn't remove all of my mascara and eye liner.  I had mascara residue under my eyes and I still had makeup in the corners.  And this was with one coat of mascara, people.  Imagine if I were really whoring it up with 2-3 coats!

The pads claim "nourishes the skin as it gently removes eye makeup, even waterproof mascara, without irritation."  Gently, my ass!  It burned my eyes so bad!   There was much irritation. And I didn't even have my contacts in.  I tried using this several times thinking maybe I would get used to it or maybe I needed to close my eyes more while I wiped.  Nope, still burns like a mofo.  Not a fan.  I'm so glad I only paid $1.29 for this.

I wonder if there is something that brands put in the pads that they do not put in their bottles that irritates my eyes.  I seem to remember using face cloths from various brands before that irritated my eyes, albeit not as bad as the Almay pad.

My favorite eye makeup removers thus far are:

1.  Clinique Take the Day Off  $18 (Yes, pricey but not a stitch of makeup left)

2.  Neutrogena Oil Free Makeup Remover $5.99

3.  Almost any knock off of the Neutrogena.  Target brand is great and even less expensive.  

Have any of you had experience with the Almay Eye Makeup Remover pads?  What did you think?  Also, let me know what your favorite brand is.  

Thanks, 

Jules

Birthday Owls

Good day, all!  It's been awhile since I've posted on here but that will be changing soon.  I have lots of birthdays in the Spring months so I'll be posting many a card.  Also, as you may know, I'm really into makeup.  And I want to get more into it with reviews and picture tutorials and such.  I understand if some of the 6 of you (lol!) are not makeup fans and will not be offended if you do not read.  I plan to keep all posts separate so you may see more than one post from me in one day.  I just wanted to give you a heads up.  


Also, still no job.  It's starting to get to me because I want to move on with my life but I'm still remaining positive. I have to admit that having all of this time to myself is getting me down a bit.  I find myself wishing I had a "daytime" friend who likes going for walks/hiking and drinking coffee but all of you are at work or are just not into that sort of thing.  Oh, well.  I'm finding other ways to keep myself busy!  And all the things around my house that I thought would be done in my first month off are slowly being started and/or finished which is making me very happy.  But if any of you want to go for a walk/hike, day or night, let me know.  I can use all the exercise I can get!


Okay, enough about me.  Let's get to this birthday card.  


This card was for my sister in law, Jill, who celebrated her birthday on March 20th.  Once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Jill!  She is married to my oldest brother, Todd and is the mother to my nephew, Zach.  

The glittered polka dot paper is from the brand My Mind's Eye in their Lost and Found 2 line.  This paper was called "Sunshine Forever Dotted Paper".  I bought it from Archiver's and I believe it was $0.99.  I loved the colors and the glitter.  I just used your standard brown and tan card stock for the center.  


The owl stamps were Michael's Recollections brand.  The sticker pack came with 4 owls and the branch but I'm saving the other owl for another card.  


As you may or may not know, paper that has glitter on it is very hard to glue things to.  Because of this, I had to use the 3 brads in the corner.  Those are also from the Recollections line.  If you have any tips on adhering to this type of paper, comment below.  I would love your input because I've run into this problem more than a couple of times.  


I love owls but it's hard to come up with cutesie sentiments in regard to them.  You can ask my friends Jennifer and Nicki who helped me in my attempt to come up with something clever.  This is what I came up with...

Lame, I know.  But I think we all agree it was the best out of the ideas kicked around that day.  


That's my card!  I hope you liked it.  Also, feel free to comment below on what sentiment you would have used for the owls.  


Thanks, 
Jules