Esquilo Suave

Good day, everybody!   Beer bread is baking in the oven, I'm in some comfy jammies and I have a huge bottle of cold Mt Dew by my side.  Yep, I love Sundays!

I have another fun birthday card to show you today.  This one goes out to my friend, Wendy aka Wendall aka Fraulein Beaverhausen or as my dad calls her, "The Beave".  How do I know Wendy?  I met her in high school through a group of friends.  I ended my friendship with those friends and sadly, my friendship with Wendy ended too.  Don't you just love high school politics?  Back in 2006, during the upswing of social media, I contacted Wendy via MySpace.   I remember being nervous that 1) she wouldn't remember me and 2) she was brainwashed by others to think I was bad news.  She responded to my message right away and we've been friends again ever since.  Wendy shares in my quirky sense of humor which is why we get along so well.

FACT: Wendall is certified in Portuguese.  She is mildly obsessed with squirrels and loves calling them by their Portuguese name which is "esquilo".

The squirrel paper is Reminisce: Autumn Forest: Sharing Squirrels.  It is a doubled sided 12x12 sheet that I cut down for the card.  I cut a rectangle from the other side of the sheet which is the brown piece you see on top of the squirrel paper.  And since I love brown and pink together (sounds dirty!), I chose some pink scraps from my scrap bin to go underneath the squirrel digi stamp.  And speaking of that digi stamp, I purchased it here at Pink Cat Studios, one of my favorite digi stamp stores.  They offered the branch for free.  I used my Copic markers to color in.  And I used some distress Stickles on the leaves to make them appear wet.  

On the the inside of the card...

I got this tea sample in the mail in response to my previous donation to The Catherine McAuley Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  I am not a tea drinker but I knew Wendy was, especially the green tea.  So I thought I would include it in her card.  

Continuing with the squirrel theme, I found this digi stamp at Paper Smooches.  I sloppily wrote out the sentiment.  Banksy, I am not.  

Wendy, with the Gloria Estefan CD I got her for her birthday.  Sadly, "Bad Boys" is not on there.  

Happy Birthday, Wendall P Faye Hoss!  

There's no easy way out, 

Jules 

The soundtrack to making this card: 

Happy Mother's Day

Hello, everybody!  

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's day!  I know I did.  I treated my mother to brunch.  My Uncle Tommy and his wife Linda joined us.  Tommy was married to my Aunt Carol, who passed away last year, and I never had the chance to meet his new wife.  She was very nice and I think Carol would agree that she is very good for Tommy.  

After brunch, we stopped at the cemetery to place flowers on Carol's grave.  I was amazed by all the flowers that were out today.  We took the time to look at some of the arrangements.  

I also had the opportunity to go through a lot of Carol's old pictures.  There were quite a few pictures of my family that I had never seen before.  The scrapbooker in me was getting excited!  

 As my friends know, I have a delayed emotional reaction so today was one of those "healing" days for me.  I've really started feeling the loss of Carol in these last few months.  But I deal with it in my own way, positively, which is the only way I know how.  I take pleasure in seeing the blooming peace lily that my friends gave me at Carol's visitation.  

Believe it or not, I do have a card to show you!  

I got the digi stamp from Pink Cat Studio.  I loved it instantly because it had the shopping bags and the cute hat.  Shopping is a past time that my mom and I love.  And my mom is a part of the Red Hat Society so I knew I could red hat this bad boy up.  

The inside digi stamp came from Rainbow Stamp Club.  The center of the flower is a polka dotted brad that I accidentally shoplifted from the Reminisce store in Coralville several years ago.  

Thank you, Mom, for giving me life and being supportive.  I appreciate all that you do for me, including doing my laundry...still,  washing my dishes and providing me with endless laughs.  

XOXO, 

Julie Bulie Butts 

May Unicorns Fart Rainbows On Your Special Day

Good evening!  Do I have one hell of an acid flashback birthday card for you!

One of my bestest friends, Jennifer,  just celebrated her birthday on May 4th (Star Wars day!).  I bought a 12x12 of rainbow paper (Recollections in "Rainbows") which I happened to show Jen on one of our scrapbooking days.  She said how much she liked it and that she wanted her birthday card to be made with it.

I had to think about what goes well with rainbows.  And what says "Jen"?  And then it came to me.  A UNICORN!  And unicorns just happen to be Jen's favorite animal (lol...total inside joke) so I started searching for a unicorn digi stamp.

I ended up finding the lovely digi stamp from The Greeting Farm.  Melonheadz had the free mushroom digi stamp.  

Copic markers used for the unicorn:

RV11

B14

V15

C5

Flowers: 

R08

YR04

V15

Butterflies: 

Y13

YR04

Grass: 

YG03

Mushrooms:

G17

YG03

E09

R27

YR04

Y13

Stems: 

E09

E15

I used the 3D pads under the unicorn and "Happy Birthday" sign.  

And the inside included one of my favorite birthday sentiments.  

Well, you know how they say "great minds think alike"?  Check out the Hallmark card Tracy got for Jen.  

Maybe I should start making cards for Hallmark?  Or maybe Jennifer should get some normal friends?  ha ha   :)

I may have mentioned this before but sometimes I find my closest friends to be the hardest to make cards for.  I haven't figured out why that is.  

The birthday girl with her card

We ended up celebrating at a Japanese grill called Osaka (so, so, so delicious!) and I got to make a chocolate trifle, which was rich and yummy!  Jennifer got a free dinner and I got a gift card for being honest about incorrect change in my favor.  Score!  

Happy birthday, Jennifer!  And I mean it, I really do hope unicorns farted rainbows on your special day!

Legends can be now and forever, 

Jules