Monogrammed card

Recently I needed a few simple, quick cards to send. I looked around in my scrapping supplies and found a nice double sided paper-a solid green on one side and a striped print on the other- that I thought could work. Here's the result.
I used my Just Rite monogram stamper (love that they are interchangeable and SO diverse) with one of the Damask borders. The circle was cut with Plantin Schoolbook and the scallop with Storybook. I embossed the green band with Cuttlebug's Swiss Dots folder and ran some white ink over the raised dots for a little more dimension. I bordered that with some grosgrain ribbon from Big Lots. The bottom border is Martha Stewart's Scallop Dot punch.
Here's a closeup of some detail:
Thanks for looking!

8

My dear hubby and I recently celebrated our 8th anniversary. I'm a blessed woman; he's so good to me, he's a wonderful father to our 3 boys, he's a willing helper around the house, he's a hard worker, and he's cute, to boot! :) I wanted to make a card for him that simply said "I love you" and this tri-shutter card is what I came up with. Here it is closed:
For you visual learners, check out this video tutorial.
The '8' is cut from Mickey Font. The oval and the scalloped oval are both from Storybook (I made the holes on the scalloped oval with an eyelet setter). I used the Cuttlebug "I Love You" folders on the 8 and for the sentiment and inked the raised images for a little more contrast. For a little more detail, I paper pieced the edges of the patterned paper, like Beate does in the video tutorial. Here's the card again:
So I usually stick just to the craft, but I had to throw in a couple pictures of our anniversary celebration. I surprised my hubby by dropping the kiddos off with a friend and picking him up from work--I told him we had 'reservations to the nicest restaurant Paris has to offer' (our town is called Paris and no it isn't THE Paris! ;) He was totally shocked because we weren't really planning anything special this year. I brought him back to our home, which had a little Louis Armstrong/Ella Fitzgerald music playing, the table set with our china and linen napkins (and this card at his place setting and the flowers he had brought me from earlier in the day), and a nice dinner for 2 being kept warm in the oven. What an enjoyable time just to sit and talk over dinner without the threat of interruption. Ahhh! :) Here's my sweetie, before dinner. Told you he's cute!!
Then, after dessert, we went out to the backyard and took a few pictures. Here's one of my favorites. :) I love him so so so so so so so much!
Thanks for looking!

Art inspired by Lois Ehlert

Greetings from our new nest in Tennessee! We are slowly but surely getting settled in and adjusting to our new and thus far very humid surroundings! It is beautiful here and all sorts of green.
With all the newness and adjustments and busyness of life, I don't anticipate being able to craft more than about once a week, if I'm lucky! That will be my goal and we'll see how that goes. However, I will be doing more crafts with my pre-schoolers, and I will be adding a new category of posts for this blog...Crafts for Kids. I hope you enjoy it!
Our first craft was inspired by art from Lois Ehlert's 'Boo to You' and is made entirely from things found in the nature of our own backyard! Jonah and I had a blast going on a nature walk and looking high and low for things to put in the bucket for our collection which we then spread out on the table and let our "imashinations" run wild!! Very easy, very fun, very quick, and great for my 4 year old.
Things you will need to complete this craft:
* various leaves, nuts, seed pods, grass, weeds, flowers, acorns, sticks...whatever you find!
* construction paper
* glue - we used Elmer's but you might need something sturdier for big sticks or other bulky items
* an imagination