Happy Anniversary!

A summer wedding—what a romantic notion! That is until you realize a few years later that it will ALWAYS be hot as blazes on your anniversary. For my love and me, a July wedding made perfect sense at the time. I was a teacher and had about ten weeks off from mid-June to early August. A July wedding gave me a few weeks to devote to last-minute preparations once school was out and gave us plenty of time to get our two households worth of stuff settled into my husband’s bachelor home after the wedding. That all worked out well enough until we found ourselves sweltering through the streets of Williamsburg and D.C. on our honeymoon. In recent years, we’ve taken to celebrating our anniversary with a short overnight trip here or there in April or May, but we just cannot let that special day pass us by. On July 8^th, we celebrated sixteen years of happy marriage. What a blessing from our Lord! Here is the anniversary card I tucked into my husband’s suitcase. (We actually braved a “stay-cation” on our anniversary this year, and yeah, we were melting on the streets of Marietta.)

We are not the first in the family to marry in July. Randy’s parents preceded us in marriage by almost fifty years. They celebrated sixty-six years together last Tuesday. It is so sweet the way they still hold hands when they are out together. Here’s the card I made for them:

And, last but not least, today marks forty-five years of marriage for Randy’s sister and her husband. Guess how they celebrated? Zip-lining. A facebook friend commented that many people celebrate a 45^th anniversary with cake and punch. I’m afraid I’ll take the cake and punch. After all, if the Lord allows us forty-five years, I will be 73! They were able to join us, along with Randy’s parents, for lunch today. It is always such a blessing to have family in our home. Here’s the card I made for them, which just happens to be based on Mojo Monday Sketch 201.

I love this sketch! I’m thinking about adapting it for my Christmas cards. Yes, to escape the heat, at least mentally, our minds have already turned to Christmas. And oh, I think that  stamp is a Christmas sentiment, but I thought it applied in this case, too. Inside, the card completes "wishing you PEACE, JOY, LOVE" with "and all the gifts of a happy marriage . . . Happy Anniversary!"

Another Birthday . . .

for my nephew and a milestone for Mojo Monday. What fun to combine the two!

It looks like I took the sketch very literally this time, but it just so happens that the new sketch look contains two of my nephew's favorite colors—black and green. I used some of my recent bargains on this one—Martha Stewart border punch and new ink—and one of my favorite punches, the MS party hat. And yes, if you look closely, that is a Halloween brad holding my ribbon together. If you knew my nephew you'd understand. Thank you, Mojo Monday, for providing some great inspiration and for the chance to win stamps this week. And Happy Birthday to you, Chris!

Special Birthdays in July!

Two special girlfriends have birthdays this week and I’ve managed to make a card for each. I think I’m even going to get them in the mail on time!

One card is based on this week’s Mojo Monday sketch. The recipient of this one is classy, classic, and beautiful inside and out, so I went with a vintage rose print juxtaposed with rose embossing.  Finished it up with some classic colors, some pretty cotton lace, and a fussy-cut rose. I hope she will enjoy it as much as I enjoy her friendship. Thanks to the gals at Mojo Monday for an inspiring sketch.

The other card was featured here since I entered it into the Pals Paper Arts challenge last week. This card is going to a friend I don’t see often in person anymore because she lives about an hour away, but she is forever in my heart. We shared a townhome in our single days and did we ever have some fun! I hope she’ll appreciate the whimsy of these little birds who’ve gathered on a city-block to wish her “Happy Bird-day!” (And I'm hoping her sweet little girl will like it, too).

Thanks for visiting.

My Kind of Challenge

My kind of challenge this week on Pals Paper Arts! The chance to win lots of blog candy and you don’t even have to be the best. You just have to enter. A random winner will be chosen. Thanks to Mary Fish at Stampin' Pretty for the heads up. Here’s my entry:

To celebrate the 100th PPA Challenge, the call is to enter a card that features a technique you love or one you’re learning. There are so many! But I was short on time, so I've used a couple of quick tricks for this "bird-day" card. I like making little windows with my Big Shot and Spellbinders dies, so I’ve done that on this card. I’ve also put some very cute Heidi Grace Designs paper to work and fussy cut the little birds to sit outside my window. Can you tell I had to draw on their tails and legs? 

Why Good Paper?

Overall, I am a lover of paper. Always have been. But it has to be good paper! I mean it has to feel nice to the touch. Don’t give me a newspaper, too light and too grimy, or that thin wrapping paper that rips when you try to make a tight seam. I want thick, strong, smooth paper. My printer paper must be at least 24 lb. and bright. We keep cardstock—in several colors. I like my notebook paper wide-ruled with light blue lines and a medium red left margin. I’ll use a spiral notebook IF, and this is a big “if,” the pages are perforated. If ever I am forced to use non-perforated spiral-bound paper, I will instantly cut off the messy edge. With scissors. No uneven edges for me. And, yes, back in the days of the dot matrix printer, I ALWAYS neatly removed the hole-y edges BEFORE reading the document. Oh, and old-fashioned fax paper made my skin crawl. Yeah. I’m a little picky about my paper.

Mostly, my relationship with paper is positive. Receipts, post-it notes, and to-do lists are a topic for another post. I like to write, and I love to read. I try to draw. I don’t have much natural talent for it, but I’ve found that when I draw daily, I improve. I’ve tried my hand at watercolors a time or two—I love the rough texture and thickness of the paper alongside pleasing colors on the palette, even if I’ve yet to produce a painting I like.

Given my natural bent toward good paper and vibrant colors, it surprises me that I’ve taken this long to discover card making. While the paper crafts industry is vast, beautiful paper is at its foundation. Solid, print, embossed, glittery, flocked, smooth, textured, shiny, matte—it’s a paper lover’s paradise. Here on this blog, I plan to share my journey as I indulge my artsy-craftsy side. This web-log is mainly an online history for my own benefit—a place to document ideas & techniques and to post challenge entries, a scrapbook of sorts. However, I invite you to read along and perhaps you’ll see an idea that inspires you. I hope so. If you do, leave me a comment and let me know. Thanks for reading.