My Blogoversary & Some Cards I've Made...

Well, yeah.......I missed it a couple days ago...the 18th!....It was kind of a crazy day here.....there was a lockdown on the campus of my college for a gunman.....so yeah, the police never found him and well, all is well now.  But it WAS a crazy day.

I can't believe it's been a year since I started my blog and wow, how I have created so much with that lovely Cricut Expression my hubby got me for Christmas last year....or, eh...should I say two Christmases ago now! :)  It has been so much fun!

And soooo much has changed in the last year.......man, has so much changed and God has his reasons....and I have to trust in Him that they are for the good and that He will bring me through it......me and my family.  I haven't crafted much in say.....the last month or so, but I have created some things here and there.......so I wanted to show you some cards I've made.....just maybe didn't feel so much about blogging or when I actually did attempt to, Blogger was having a crazy issue and I couldn't.....imagine that......ha!  But it's no biggie!  Not gonna stress about it....I've learned, that doesn't really help anyway!  :)  Just create something instead!

So onto the cards......(and in no chronological order either!)  :)

This card I made for my cousin (sister in law), Allison for her birthday. (Yes, she's the one that got married in October 2011 and I've yet to post the pics of the decor I made for her wedding shower and her wedding.....but I'll get around to it!)  :) Anyway, I used the Paper Shapers 3" Scalloped Circle Punch on the front of this card, then actually just hand cut a circle, inked it, and stamped it with a $1 birthday stamp.  I added some bling of course and some turquoise ribbon as well.

On the envelope, (seen above) I cut a flower shape from the Paisely cartridge and added an "A" monogram sticker for "Allison".  On the inside of the card, I added some small rhinestone-flower stickers (sorry, I forget the brand) for a final detail. Actually from that same set of stickers, I added an orange flower to the front of the card as well (in the top left corner of the card).

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This card, I made for my friend, Teresa's birthday! She is married to the pastor at the church we used to attend.  She is a dear friend and says she feels like she could be my mom because her son graduated with me! :) Her birthday is the day after Carley's and with them being so close to Christmas, we of course, can NEVER get together close to that date so it's just 'whenever' we can before Christmas and exchange Christmas gifts and her & Carley's birthday gifts....and sometimes mine too if we couldn't get together in Septenber!  Ha!  But for this card, I again used the Paper Shapers 3" Scalloped Circle Punch to cut two circles and then I inked and stamped the beige one with a $1 birthday stamp and my "God Bless You" stamp.  I added a piece of beige satin ribbon under the circles then on top of the circles, added a piece of green paper to the bottom of the card as well as a shorter piece to the center.  On the strip in the center, I punched the ends with my Fiskars heart circle punch and then I added some bling to finish it off.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the inside of the card....oops.  But all the while, she loved it! :)

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This card I made for my friend & pastor's wife, Angie for her birthday.  The flowers are from Bo Bunny and the brad, lace, and ribbon are just all from my stash.  I used the Creative Memories Stork's Delivery cartridge to make the sentiment tag on the front of the card.  I also used one of my $1 birthday stamps and blue ink on the edges.

A close-up!

On the inside, I used my Martha Stewart doily punch and a birthday sentiment stamp from My Pink Stamper.

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No you're not seeing double.....I just made two identical cards!  Well almost.... :)

These are both anniversary cards that I made for my paster and his wife, and my for my grandparents....both celebrating wedding anniversaries in December!  Not to mention our anniversary is in December as well. :)  Popular month to get married, huh?

Anyway with these cards, I used the Paper Shapers 3" Scalloped Circle Punch to cut several circles. Obviously, the circles get smaller as you can see, but I just manually moved an already punch 3" circle around and made it smaller by using the same punch.  They are not symmetrical, but that was the whole point.....to make sorta smaller "flowers".  After inking the beige "flowers" and turning up their "petals" a bit, I added a flower sticker from Jolee's to the very center of these.  Then I hand-created a layered sentiment tag and stamped them with "God Bless You".

On the insides of the cards, I stamped in the same ink "Happy Anniversary" from my $1 bin of stamps!  (Love that bin!)  Then on the opposite page, I punched from a shimmery, orange cardstock & adhered two butterflies to each card. Then in the center of these butterflies, I added a monogrammed sticker to represent their last names.

They loved their cards! :)

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This card I made for our church......they give our family a love offering which was a huge blessing. Just when we sometimes start worrying or stressing about something, we have to remember to pray that God will take care of our situations....whatever they may be, and just then He answers your prayers and you get a blessing! It's wonderful how He just works those things out! For the tag on this card, I used the Creative Memories Tag punch and just punched it on both ends to create this neat shape. Then I added a "Thank You" sticker from Jolee's. I then added a couple red rhinestones and some glittered red ribbon to finish off the front.

On the inside, I simply used my "God Bless You" stamp in between the ribbons.

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And finally, this card I made for a friend's daughter, Indigo, who turned 3!  She is almost exactly a year older than Carley.....and they go to school (daycare) together!  She had a 'groovy', 'hippie chic' themed birthday party which was 'FAR OUT'!!  :)  We painted pottery and Carley had a blast!  I made this card using the Groovy Times cartidge of course! Added some bling, buttons and twine to finish it off! :)

On the inside of the card, I used my Creative Memories punch (sorry I don't know the name of it because I believe it's retired) to create the little flowers and one of my $1 birthday stamps.

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Wow, that felt good to get caught up on some of my blogging for the cards I had made in the last few months.  It's so easy to get behind when "life" takes over....but it's ok.  I'm not gonna stress about it!  :) 

Well, until next time when I share more goodies.....there are some banners, more cards, Carley's birthday, and some Christmas presents that I know I've promised to share as well as the wedding stuff I did for my cousin now sister-in-law!  :)