Floral Wreath for Mom

Hello! 

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and I've got a clean and simple card to share today.

I embossed the card base with the Starry Night embossing folder by Sizzix, and topped it with a little 'wreath'. With a Hydrangea punch (Martha Stewart), I gathered an assortment of blossoms (some colored with Copic markers) around a stamped doily frame (Papertrey Ink's Tag-Its #5).

The sentiment is also from PTI, Tiny Tags. I get so much mileage out of that set!

Stamps: frame - Tag-Its #5, sentiment - Tiny Tags - Papertrey Ink Paper: white - Papertrey Ink; Pink Pirhouette - Stampin' Up! Ink: Basic Gray - Stampin' Up!; Memento Tuxedo Black - Tsukineko Accessories & Tools: Hydrangea punch - Martha Stewart; Copic markers; circle die - Spellbinders; Starry Night embossing folder - Sizzix; White Opal Liquid Pearls - Ranger

December 25th

Yes, I've got a Christmas card to share today.  :-)

Forgive me:  most of my blog post drafts are Christmas-related. I need time to photo-edit more of the cards I've made over the last 6 months! Seems I'm only sitting at my home computer on the weekend, and then only for a short bit of time before I'm off and running with other things (yawn....some of them are boring things...laundry, cleaning the house, restocking groceries, etc. - but they are necessary!).  

You get it, right?  The "25" on this card?

It's all about December 25th, Christmas Day! 

This little stamped circle was in one of those ah-mazing $1 or $2 scrap bags I get from my Stampin' Up! demonstrator. That was the nugget that inspired the rest of this card.

I layered a gold-embossed Filigree Star (DRS Designs) behind it, added sequins, a mod looking Christmas tree (Hero Arts), and assorted other little touches.

Last weekend, I planted a blueberry bush in our yard. I'm excited for an eventual harvest of delicious berries! I've got to watch out for birds...I think they like 'em too. Never planted berries before, and am hoping it is well worth it. I've been a flower gardener all my life, but I'm beginning to put food in the yard, too. Natural disasters in parts of the world that supply food to us all have me thinking hard about the matter.

Hey, thanks to EACH and every one of you who visit here, read through my posts, or take time to leave a comment. You warm my heart, and I am grateful!

Stamps: Filigree Star - DRS Designs; Merry Christmas Trees - Hero Arts; O Christmas Tree - JustRite Papercrafts; French Script background, "25" - unknown set - Stampin' Up! Accessories & Tools: gold embossing powder - Stampin' UP!; gold sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; scalloped-top tag - Stampin' Up! 

Minty Birthday Wishes

Hello!  I hope you're in the midst of enjoying your weekend.  Here in NJ, we're actually having some beautiful Spring days.  Monday it's supposed to reach 80 degrees, which is a mite bit too warm, too fast for me.  I'm not a fan of sweating too early in the season!  

Last weekend, my family and I helped pack over 46,000 meals at a Feed My Starving Children Mobile Pack event near us.  It's my second year doing this, along with my eldest daughter.  This year, we brought along hubby and our other daughter, as well.  It's a lot of fun!  In two hours' time, we packed enough meals to feed 78 under-nourished children for a year.  That's pretty terrific!

I wish I'd done things like this earlier in my kids' lives, to get them accustomed to serving others. Now, as teens, their brains are more interested in scrolling through social media sites.  -_- 

My card today uses a little bit of this, a little bit of that, alongside some cute papers from American Crafts and a sentiment from Papertrey Ink's Daily Designs Sentiments.  I hope you like it!

I'm still making cards every weekend (focus right now: Mother's Day), but am spending far less time on the computer at home.  My job requires that I am on a computer for 8 full hours a day, and by the time I get home, I don't want to see another one. :-D

And, I'm about to make a quilt for our niece/nephew who will be born in the next couple of months. A new baby!  Squeal!  Haven't seen one in a loooong time.  We are excited for the new-parents-to-be.  They don't live close to us, but we look forward to seeing pictures and FaceTiming (is that a verb?) to meet that precious little bundle when he/she arrives.

Textural Grays

Hello there!  I've missed you!  I'd like to share a story about a project I recently worked on, and at the same time show you a card. Hang in 'til the end of this post for info on the card, plus a recipe for Jewish Apple Cake. 

Life has been very busy, to say the least. :-D 

What little time I've had for crafting has been spent not on cards, but on a birthday gift for my husband.  For the last two weeks, I've been sneakily putting together a scrapbook for him, but there aren't too many photos in it.  

Instead, I took a cue from my clever sister-in-law and did the following: 

I asked friends and family -- including old neighbors -- to share memories/anecdotes of my husband, or to give advice on turning a "big number", or to just say what comes to mind when they hear my hubby's name.  I received the loveliest assortment of endearing and sometimes funny words from many folks.  

Then I copied-and-pasted these memories into a Word document, changed up the font for each submission, printed on heavier-weight cardstock, trimmed and placed on sheets of 8x8 patterned paper.

A few folks did send me photos, so I included those, as well.  My husband was very touched by this special scrapbook. :-D

A few words about today's card:  I love gray.  I managed to squeeze in quite a few shades of it on this project. The patterned damask paper has two tones of gray, and the focal point cluster offers a few more. The velvet rectangle, complete with stitching, is from a sweater of mine. Looks great on a card, doesn't feel so good against the bare skin of my neck. It itched me. I like it better here. :-) 

The fabric rose is another bit from a sweater, but this one is from my daughter's.  The edge of her {brand new} sweater sleeve ripped off one day (sigh), so I cut the other sleeve to match, called it a "new look", and decided to make a rose from the cast-off piece. It's pretty uncomplicated; I just rolled it and rolled it until it looked like something. ;-)  And -- one more touch of gray -- under the "for you" sentiment circle, there's a small rectangle piece of mirrored cardstock.  Hard to capture it in a photo!

Paulette asked for the Jewish Apple Cake recipe my husband made for my birthday.  Happy to share!

Jewish Apple Cake

• 3 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp baking powder 
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 cups sugar
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup vegetable oil
• 1/4 cup orange juice
• 2 tsp vanilla
• 4 large apples, preferably Granny Smith, pared and diced (add sugar and cinnamon to taste)

Put eggs, oil, orange juice and vanilla in large bowl and beat.  Add flour, baking powder, salt and sugar -- beat slowly.

Grease tube pan - put half batter in pan, then lay most of apples on batter.  Add remaining batter and top with remaining apple mixture. 

Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 1/2 hours - 1 hour 45 minutes. Use cake tester in center of cake to make sure it comes out clean.

Note:  my husband used one of the four apples to decorate the top of the cake.  Instead of dicing that fourth apple, he sliced it, and arranged the slices on the top of the cake.

 

As I said before, this is my FAVORITE birthday cake!

Thanks for coming by! 

Stamps: Tiny Tags - Papertrey Ink Paper: Basic Gray, Very Vanilla - Stampin' Up!; gray damask - Recollections; silver mirror cardstock - WorldWin Fibers: green felt - JoAnn; velvet tag from a sweater; light gray sweater material (rose) Accessories & Tools: Sparkling Clear sequins - Pretty Pink Posh; circle punch - Stampin' Up!; velvet tag from sweater; Modern Leaves die - Avery Elle