Happy Birthday To My Aunt Joyce

Summer is most definitely here!  My face is melting off!  I plan on staying inside all weekend with the air on and laying under my ceiling fan.

My aunt Joyce celebrated her birthday yesterday.  She is my dad's slightly older sister.  I say slightly because every year for one week only they are the same age.  Yes, my grandma and grandpa wasted no time after giving birth to Joyce!  

I wanted to make a card that was summery and that had a pop of color.  My friend Courtney gave me the table rubber stamp last year.  She got a huge box full of scrapbooking stuff at a garage sale and this happened to be in there.  The stamp is from Rubber Stampede and it's called "Dream Garden Table". I noticed there was one on Ebay if you really like it.  I used Copic markers to color it in.  The yellow green daisy paper came in a flower paper pack that I bought a long time ago.  And the daisy sticker is from  K&Company (Wild Saffron Daisies Paper Flowers).  

Thanks for looking!  I hope you liked my simple little card.  

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Aunt Joyce!

Your favorite niece (other than Candy & Kelly), 

Julie   

Ice Cream Birthday

My dad celebrated his birthday over the weekend.  I decided to make him a yummy birthday card.

The "Celebrate" paper is from Creative Imaginations.  I think it's out of print thought because I couldn't find it anywhere online.  The cool ice cream cone digi stamp is from Melonheadz.  And the Happy Birthday sentiment came from Tidbits Trinkets.  I used Distress Stickles on the ice cream.  

I had mentioned in a previous blog how Michael's has some really cute block stamps in their $1 bin and this "You're the Sweetest" is a prime example of that.  

Happy Birthday, Dad!  I hope you enjoyed your birthday weekend!  

Too tired to think of a smarty pants closing sentiment,

Jules

Prince Charming Wedding Card

This card goes out to my former co-worker, Karen.  I had worked with Karen for almost 13 years and the common theme in her life was she seemed to be looking for love in all the wrong places.  And then along came "Sweetly".  As soon as Karen started seeing "Sweetly", she was so happy.  She seemed like a different person in a lot of ways.  And everyone at work was happy for her. 

She and Sweetly tied the knot yesterday and I was happy to make her a wedding card.  

I wanted to make this card kind of Valentine-ish.  Lots of hearts, lots of love, lots of cuteness.  I bought a Valentine's Day scrapbook packet from the Target $1 bin a long time ago.  That's where the heart paper and the cute little heart embellishments came from.  I got the frog digi stamp from Dustin Pike.   

Once again, congratulations to Karen and Dave!  I'm glad you found one another and wish you nothing but the best!  

Patiently waiting for my prince to arrive,

Jules

A Simple Father's Day Card

Happy Father's Day to all you dads, step-dads, dads to be and single moms who play the role of dad too.  I hope you're all having a wonderful day!

I grilled out with my dad and his wife today.  What was on the menu, you ask?

• grilled pork chops
• green beans
• party potatoes (cheesy hash brown casserole)
• baked beans
• chocolate pie 

It was delicious!  Love me some party potatoes!  Mmmmm, drool...

I decided to keep my Father's Day card simple.  Mostly because it's a man's card so decorating with a lot of embellishments seems silly and my dad is really a simple kind of guy.  He's not really in to fancy things so no need to fancy up a card.  

I got the computer digi stamp from Hambo Stamps.  I colored with Copics.  I added the "DAD" part to the computer screen.  

I got the Father's Day sentiment from KaDoodle Bug Designs.  I hadn't noticed how sloppy my coloring was on the words but it ended up looking kind of Earth Day-ish (like a globe) so I'm going to pretend like that was intentional.

My dad is a player... 

Thank you for all that you do, Dad!  I really appreciate it!  I hope you liked your card.  I've already started on your birthday card for the end of the week.  

A bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck, 

Julie  

A Berry Sweet Birthday Card

Hello everybody!  I hope you're having a glorious weekend.  I know I am!  Before I get into this birthday card, I wanted to give a little personal update on myself.  I just finished the first week of training at my new job at Transamerica as an annuity claims representative.  I was completely unfamiliar with annuities or anything financial other than a checking account so this is something new to me.  I've learned a lot and I feel like my brain is going to explode, hence me enjoying this weekend so much.  I took the weekends for granted during my 5 months of unemployment.  It's still too early to tell if I'll actually like my job but I love the company so far.  So that's where I'm at!

This birthday card is for my friend Jackie.  Jackie is a newer friend so I don't know a lot about her, making it harder to personalize the card.  What I do know about Jackie is 1) she's from Texas  2) she has a 1 1/2 year old little girl  3) she loves and used to work at P.F. Changs, thus introducing me to it  4) she's a crazy driver! and 5) she is in a relationship with one of my friends that I've known since the 3rd grade.  Okay, I do know more about Jackie (I always want to call her Action Jackson but don't know if she'd like that) but those are the main points!

The paper is another double sided 12x12 by the company Imaginisce-Berry Collection in Berry Patch.  The other side is the strawberry skin with all the seeds showing.  I think I'll use the leftover paper when I finally scrapbook a cookbook of my favorite recipes.  One day...

This adorable digi stamp is from The Adventures of Crafting Princess Bella Lockwood.  I've been dying to color this for a long time now.  I used Copics.  And I actually kept track of what I used.  

Stem:  YG03, G17

Strawberry: R27, E09, RV11

Plate: B14, B34, B39

And I used the Colorless Blender pen (0) here and there.

And it's pretty much a requirement to use "berry" instead of "very" in a strawberry themed card.  

That's my card!  Jackie, I hope you liked it.  And I hope you loved the cake Courtney made for you.  It looked AMAZING!  And most importantly, I hope you had a wonderful 29th birthday.  Just one more year and you'll be dirty 30 and old like the rest of us!  

May you always keep your berries safe from the Peculiar Purple Pieman,

Jules  

Miss Miranda's Monster MIx

Happy Sunday, all!  I went to a monster party for one Miss Miranda over the weekend.  She was celebrating her 6th birthday with her family and friends.  There was all kinds of craftiness going on at this event including face painting and making monster t-shirts.  Since I've known for months the theme of this soiree, I had planned my card way in advance  I know typically when you refer to something as a monstrosity, it's an insult however this just happens to be one monstrosity of a card...but in a good way!  

I used black card stock for the card itself.  I found the eyeball paper months ago at All About Pictures in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  It's Reminisce from the "Monsters Collection" called "What Are You Looking At?"  This is another 2 sided 12x12 paper.  I think I'll be able to use the scraps for Halloween scrapping.  


I'm going to try to link to all the digi stamps for all the monsters that I colored with Copics.  All but one of them were free.  


Orange monster:  Blobby takes the cake from Pink Cat Studio Digi Stamps.  He was the one I paid for.  I love Blobby!  He's so adorable and he has many digi stamps available.  


Blue monster: Free at Cre8tive Hands


Purple monster:  Free at Cre8tive Hands


Green monster:  Torico Digital gallery


And here's the inside of the card!  

I got this monsterrific digi stamp from Scrap Happy Paper Crafter.  

And there's the little monster with her card!

I hope you all enjoyed the card.  Some of the best cards are months in the making!  

It was a graveyard smash, 

Juju  

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: