Thank you in greens ...

This little card is for several ladies at work that bought me a lovely bouquet of flowers a pretty card to acknowledge my 40th Anniversary with the company.  I thought their nice gesture deserved a hand-made thank you card and I hope this one fills that spot.

 

 

In order to complete the card I decided I would play along with this weeks Featured Stamper challenge over at Splitcoast stampers.  This weeks Star is Andrea Hayes, and this is the card I cased:  Birthday Texture by Andrea Hayes

Since I added some paper piercing (I always seem to forget about this nice technique and it can really add such a nice touch) I decided to include it in the Less Is More challenge as well. 

Thank you all for stopping by.
Carole

LIM107 - Up In The Air ...

This weeks Less is More theme is Up In The Air which is to incorporate things that fly.  The Diva's wish to see aircraft, rockets, balloons, etc. 

**  It might actually help if I "published" the posts I make!!!**

The felt air balloon has been in my embellishments box for some time so it's really nice to be able to use it ...... at last.

I'm not so sure this card will pass the test since my background is blue tissue paper.  The number one rule of LIM is there must be a lot of white space.  I'll have to wait and see how they rule on this one. 


***So this was supposed to be for LIM107, however after working up the post, I saved it and failed to publish it so I guess I'll never know if my lack of white space would have been called out. LOL!!***

Thank you for stopping in.
Carole

Retirement and my baby

I'm almost ashamed to post this card it's so unremarkable, however it was for one of the nicest executives I've had the pleasure of working with in my 40 years with this company, so I just had to put it up. 

Nicholas is one of those rare executives in Corporate America that is not driven by a co-workers title.  He is always pleasant to everyone, from the top dog right on down to the file and mailroom clerks. 

He retired last Friday and I already miss his "good morning" hellos' which he greeted me with each day as he walked by my desk. 

He and his lovely wife are planning on spending time with their grand kids and doing a bit of travel.  In true fun form, Nicholas is sure his wife will eventually get tired of him being under foot all the time and will more than likely send him back in to the job market, if only to get something part-time.  He suspects we'll all see him greeting people at the Walmart doors.  LOL

I hardly think so, anyone would be lucky to add Nicholas to their work force, even on a part-time basis or better yet as a mentor for some of the arrogant college grads who know nothing about anything but think they should be the CEO after paying their dues for a whole 6 months.  UGH!


Now on to some more fun stuff .......
My son and his lovely partner had some professional pictures taken of them with the baby.  He sent them to the family in a .pdf file so we could look them over and decide which one we wish to have, so the quality is horrible.  I converted two of them in Photoshop, but even my mega program couldn't clean up the issues, but that's ok because I only needed to be able to see them well enough to make my order.  It was a tough decision, but I went with all of them.   Use to do that same thing when I had pictures made of the boys when they were little.  It just seemed wrong to leave any of them behind. :)

So here are my sad temporary pictures of Austin, Mommy and Daddy until I get the real deal. 

I love having all three of them in a picture. I think I'll get this one in 8x10 for my desk.  This is a lovely picture of Vicky, she is so very beautiful, she looks like she's about 16 in this picture but she is 28.  Jeff is 33.  There is another one of her and Austin that is go beautiful it makes me want to weep. 

This is my absolute favorite.  I want this one in 11x14 and its going in my living room.  Not sure where, but I'll make a spot.  It's wonderful that the background is green because it will go nicely with the colors in my home. 

There are also some gorgeous pictures of Vicky and Jeff holding Austin individually (the one that makes me watn to weep is in that group) but I'll have to share those once I get the actual pictures, could be a few months since they will be coming from Australia. 

Thank you for stopping in and hope everyone is well.

Carole

A touch of music ...

It's so rare that I get to post one of my cards that has turned out just as I envisioned it.

I believe this card goes back to a Less Is More challenge in August which called for neutrals or maybe browns.  I found this one stuffed under my grid pad and there were brown die leaves and several different punched flowers in Soft Suede.  I'm thinking it was the flower that stalled this card originally but since I don't have that barrier, I quickly saw this card another way. 

I really need to take a photography class because I can't seem to capture cards very well.  Plus my lighting still isn't right, no matter how many blogs I read that share how they set up their light boxes.  LOL  What doesn't show up in the photo is that the music sheet is flowing out of a tear in that top layer as are the die and leaves.  In the photo it looks like its all just plopped on top of the card.

I tried to use Certainly Celery card stock for the leaves but it was very over-powering so I dug through my scrap drawer and found some DP with various shades of green; it works perfectly. The little flower was made using SU's new small scallop punch (I believe its 1.25 inches) which is really a great size for making this type of a flower.  The card stock, leaf and banner dies, sentiment and EF are all SU as well.  The music stamp is from Stampendous and I hope it's not upside down.  For that matter I have no clue what that song is and I hope Gretchen doesn't know how to read music or else I might be a bit red in the face when she gets this card.  The bitty bits of pink bling are from a flower pack that SU had on special this last spring; I gave the flowers to a friends daughter and kept the bling. The lengths I go through for my bling addiction ...... so sad. 

So yet another card that was started and set aside is complete. 

Thank you for stopping by ... I hope to get home at a decent hour tonight and begin visiting all the people I follow. 

Carole

Dragonfly..

This card was originally a one-layer-card for one of the Less Is More challenges in September or October.  The theme was wings; or at least I think it was. 

 

Since I obviously didn't get the card posted by the deadline, I decided to cut it up and made a layered card.  I have to admit, I do this to all my OLC challenge cards.

I used Pool Party, Soft Sky, Lucky Limeade and Certainly Celery for the colors.  I think there might even be a bit of Cool Caribbean in there.  The dragonfly was stamped in Versafine Black first; then the Penny Black script background stamp was added using VersaMark ink and clear embossing powder.  I dabbed the background stamp with the VersaMark instead of inking up the whole thing so only a partial image would take. Once the BG was dry I added the various colors and some ultrafine black glitter to the dragonfly (which makes it pop very nicely IRL) and that was pretty much the original OLC.

This version is mounted on Pool Party card stock.  The sentiment was cut from Stampin Up's Bitty Banners die and then gently inked with a hint of color. 

Thank you for stopping by.  I have several more cards that still need a bit of work; in all cases I can't remember what my original idea was so I'm muddling through to get them finished.  LOL

Carole

Card Candy Creations

My friend Linda and Stampin Up! demo over at Olive Stamps had a class last month called Card Candy.  This was a really fun class where we made embellishments to be used to make our own creations at a later date.  The class is more to make these card candy sets to give away to friends so they can make their own designs with the candy. 

However if I did that to any of my friends (except Linda) they'd just hand it back and ask me to do it for them.  LOL  So I saved us all a step and below are the cards I made from the Card Candy stash.

I admit that I blew past this set when the catalog first came out, but I love it now.  It really makes for soem very CAS cards.

All supplies are Stampin Up with the exception of the big pearl on the second card.  Bling and pearl were colored with Sharpie markers. 

The worst of the budget season is behind us now and I have actually been in my craft room for two days sorting through all the cards I've started over the last two months, but didnt' get around to finishing, or posting.  So there will be a burst for posts for the next week or so as I finish up those cards and try and figure out which challenges inspired them. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope everyone is well. 

Carole

Meet my first grandbaby

UPDATE:

Introducing Austin James

The kids haven't decided on a name yet but they are down to two choices: Spencer and Austin.  I vote for Spencer but my son told me it doesn't count because I'm not in Australia.  I guess only those in close proximity actually get a vote.  LOL

Spencer/Austin was born September 9th
He weighs in at a whopping 8 pounds 9 ounces and is 22.5 inches long.

Mom and baby are both doing well and that is saying something becauseVicky is a petite woman. 

I am thrilled beyond measure and am hoping to have more, and better, pictures soon. 

"Just give me a second, I'll wake up.  I promise."

Love this face:  "Who are you and why are you making those ridiculous noises?"