Happy One Year Birthday, Nephew!

My baby nephew is turning into a big boy so quickly! My sis-in-law is amazing about posting and sending tons of photos of him so even though we live a couple thousand miles apart, I can see what he is up to on a daily basis.

Here's a quick card I made for him. I embossed the cover with the Happy Birthday Cuttlebug folder and popped a glitter embellishment from my Pebbles Chips haul. I also found this cute birthday boy sticker for the envelope.

On the inside, I used my San Serif font and my Gypsy to weld together the words "baby cake." The cupcake is from K & Company.

Hmm, maybe I had better find my own cake to help celebrate Ben from afar...

Happy Birthday, B.!

Cheers!
-marcia

An April Baby

I have been SO excited to use these adorable stamps, hand-drawn and made for me by StampOutOnline. Could this girl BE any more adorable? I am going to abuse the privilege of this stamp already, I know it.

I set out to work using the New Arrival cartridge, and used the "Card 1" feature to print out this cute preggo girl (page 25). I then stamped the card and the envelope carefully, with my paper on a magazine for extra cush and maximum stampage. Don't these girls look like they were meant to be together?

I then added a liner from Tags, Bags, Boxes and More to the inside of the card, so preggo mama could have a polka-dot dress on. I used my Gypsy so that the "circle punch" wouldn't cut out, making for a nice rounded-corners. Of course, mama also needed a hat and purse, and her accessories are easily cut out from the New Arrival cartridge as well. I glue dotted those for some 3D action.

Babies need lots of new goodies, so I go the mama-to-be a Babies-R-Us gift card. I then cut out this gift card holder from the Wild Cards cartridge.  I used my Fiskars cutter with a scoring blade to make a perfect score.

The gift card fits perfectly, and I just added some bling to make it look like a little clutch. The paper also matches preggo mama's dress.

I then decided to add April's name to the envelope, since baby's name hadn't been announced yet. I used the Sans Serif font cartridge. My super-pointy Fiskars scissors came in handy here in smashing the edges down nicely.

One day after I gave April her card, she gave birth to a beautiful, healthy baby girl. So already this card is a smash hit I think!

Congrats, April, and blessings on your new baby girl!
Cheers,

-marcia

Shopping Til I Drop (off to Sleep, preferably ...)

I am currently battling a sinus infection that came out of allergies. UGH. This means being on prednisone and antibiotics. Unfortunately, the antibiotics make me feel sick and the prednisone makes me act sick. The side-effects of prednisone are numerous and unexpected, but I'm starting to notice some patterns.

Besides being moody (Sorry Mr. Awesome), prednisone seems to put some random, annoying song in my head. When I was sick in December, Taylor Swift would play in my head over and over, all night long, when I was trying to sleep but the meds were keeping me up. Let's just say Romeo and I weren't on speaking terms by the end of those three weeks. This time it seems to be Bruno Mars, who would apparently catch a grenade for me but won't get out of my brain. KaboooM!



It also makes me obsessed with having to do something immediately, and to the extreme. In December, I had just gotten my Gypsy and I would lie awake, listening to Taylor Swift in my head and thinking about how I needed to make cards for everyone I knew that very moment! Let's just say that if the Cricut was quieter and not adjacent to our bedroom, I would have been producing instead of obsessing.

This time, my mom is coming to town this weekend (YIPPEE!), so that means I'm obsessed with getting all my ducks in a row for The Wedding Album. At least it's well-timed obsessive energy.

What these obsessions lead to is ... shopping. Mostly for craft items. Seriously, I should hand my credit cards to Mr. Awesome when I go on prednisone. In addition to yesterday's chandelier-themed purchases, and a fluke win of the Home Decor cartridge on eBay ... I ordered a whole slew of stuff from ScrapbookPal.com after I decided at 2 a.m. that I absolutely could not do my wedding album without the Elegant Edges cartridge and the Damask Decor cartridge. In my 2 a.m. delusion, I decided I needed to get them for $50 each (not the $90 MSRP), that they needed to ship to me by this weekend, and that the shipping needed to be free. Wouldn't you know that ScrapbookPal came through on all counts and I should have my stuff tomorrow ... along with some Glimmer Mist, Stickles, ink etc.... Yippee!



In the meantime, I've been playing with the new cartridges on my Gypsy.  I guess I should eat my words that it is dumb that they preload all the cartridges on there, even if you don't have them. I am SO excited to get these carts and know they will be super useful for The Wedding Album and beyond. YAH!

Lets just say the shopping didn't end there, and there are sparkles, stamps and chipboard waiting for my Week O Scrapping with my Mom. If I run out of adhesive or some such nonsense, I'll definitely have to send her to JoAnn's ALONE!



All this to say ... I SHOULD be producing some quality craftiness in the coming weeks, so stay tuned!

Nighty night! (I'll be dreaming of Pink by Design stamp sets and my very own Imagine ... )
-marcia

I am visiting my parents in the big ND due to two family deaths. A nice lady from my parents' church brought over dinner one night without even anyone asking. Thanks Avonne!

Today I was able to "scrap" together what I would call a "cheater" card ... but I think it still turned out cute.

I used the Gypsy Wanderings cartridge and it has a leaf, shadow and a phrase that says "Grateful." My mom had a pack of the DCWV A2 card packs in Winter, so probably a little blue than I would have normally done for a leaf card but hey ... it's a "cheater" card, you do what you can do.

She also had a super cute Stack from DCWV called nursery rhymes or something to that effect. Loves it! I found a paper that had glitter -- pre-installed bling! More cheating! I think add the leaf (and its shadow) to the inside of the card, and then wrote a note telling her how much we love to eat delivered dinner. yah!

I was also able to update my mom's Gypsy and her Cricut so ... overall the trip was totally worth it. Headed back to CA tomorrow, Lord willing ...