Changing a template

Hi there, here is a card I made using a new Lasting Impressions template. The first picture shows how the template looks normally. I didn't like how the 'a' in the word Thanks was out of place above the rest of the words. That bothered me, so I changed the look of my card, simply by moving the template under my paper as I embossed. I'm happy with how it turned out. I'm really enjoying using this brightly colored paper, I stocked up on it when Lasting Impressions had a big sale so I'm trying to make sure I use it rather than just hoard it! Have a great weekend!

Template Challenge

I belong to a yahoo embossing group and each month we have a challenge to create a card using the same template. August was my month to host the challenge and I used this happy birthday template by Lasting Impressions. The first card is the card that I created. I'm not crazy about it, I think it's plain and boring! That's why I like these challenges, I get lots of new ideas for using my templates! I wanted to share a couple of the cards that other participants made. The second card is made by Donna, and the third card is made by Cin. I love their cards, thanks for sharing them with me ladies! Hope you have a great week!

Lemon Ice Cream

Here is the latest card I made for the monthly Iron Chef recipe card swap that I participate in. My category was cold dessert, and the secret ingredient was lemons! Our hostess, Jessica, sent everyone some patterned paper and challenged us to use the paper on our cards. The paper is blue, brown & white! Doesn't exactly go with yellow or a lemon theme, so it was definitely a challenge for me. I am pretty happy with how my card turned out though. I dry embossed the "Lemon Ice Cream" title, the lemon and lemon slices using a Lasting Impressions brass template. I put the recipe itself into a pocket I created with brown cardstock. Hope you're having a great holiday weekend!

OT: Mike Green

Hi, I wanted to share something a little off topic. This past Saturday, I volunteered at an elementary school in DC with Mike Green, defenseman for the Washington Capitals, and about 100 other Caps fans. The Caps donated paint, supplies for kids and teachers, plants & flowers, etc and we spent the morning sprucing up the school. This school definitely needed our help, it was in bad shape. I was on the goody bag committee. I never got a goody bag for going back to school, so I was a tad jealous. Especially because the goody bags were filled with school supplies and Caps trinkets! We also filled goody bags for the teachers, which consisted of construction paper, Lysol wipes, hand sanitizer and an electric pencil sharpener. We delivered the goody bags to the classrooms and I was amazed at the teacher's reactions. Every one of them was SO thankful for all the supplies, but especially for that pencil sharpener. One teacher said she had been asking for a pencil sharpener for 3 years and the school couldn't afford it. How sad is it that an electric pencil sharpener is so high on their list!!? I was sad and amazed at the same time. Mike Green was very nice and took the time to speak with each volunteer and sign autographs. I love this picture of me with him. When I first met him several years ago, I was so excited, I had a huge goofy smile on my face and I was blushing so badly (can you blame me, he's sort of cute) so the picture turned out horrible. At least I was able to take a better picture with him this time! Hope to be back later this week with some crafty posts!

Cards for Kids

Above is a card I made for the little Ring Bearer that was in my brother's wedding. He is my brother's wife's nephew. He did such a good job as a ring bearer and as the oldest grandchild in their family, he is so helpful with the other kids. He just loves my brother's iPod Touch and always wants to play games on it. He told my brother that he decided he's saving his money to buy an iPhone. The cutest thing was that my brother asked him who he was going to call (he's in 2nd grade this year) and he said he would call his Mom. He was open about being for hire to do chores to earn money so he could buy the phone. I made this card and sent it to him with $5 and told him I hope it got him closer to his goal of buying the iPhone. I used Stampin' Up punches to make the card, and printed a picture of him & his brother and sister and put it on the front, to resemble how photos look on the iPhone. I hope he likes the card!

Above is a frog card I made with Stampin' Up punches. This is for the youngest nephew. They all looked so cute at the wedding and were so well behaved. I made these cards and put some money in each one to send to them. I made the bee/flower card out of punches too, for one of the flower girls.

And, the last group of cards for the kids. I made these from punches too. I made the watermelon card for the youngest flower girl, she loves fruit and vegetables! I made the bite mark in the watermelon with a scallop circle punch. I just used the very edge of it to make it look like someone had bit into the watermelon. The other card is supposed to look like Legos! I hope I accomplished the look!

Purses

I got the pattern to make these cute little purses from this blog. Aren't they so cute? I made them to send to my brother's wife's sisters. I met them for the first time at the wedding, and they were so nice & welcoming to our family. I filled them with some mints and closed them with some velcro tape. They are pretty small, I was thinking they might be good to hold a gift card. Thanks for stopping by my blog!

Embossed Card

This is a card I made for a 1-on-1 embossing card swap. You could choose any theme, so I chose to use some of my new Lasting Impressions templates for this card. I love how it turned out. I just love that new tree template. Hope you're having a good weekend. It's a rainy day here, so I'm spending the day in my craft room, still trying to un-bury my table from wedding related projects. Hope to work on something new this afternoon.