Thank you Caardvarks!

I’d just like to say a big BIG “Thank You!” to Caardvarks for the wonderful opportunity to be a
guest designer, to have fun being creative and for letting me play!

I’ve said it before on this blog and I’ll say it again…Caardvarks…I love you!!

Planes, Trucks and Automobiles…and a Caardvarks Guest Designer!

Planes, trucks and automobiles have been on my mind lately.

We need to take a plane to Laramie, Wyoming to check out houses.

A large truck will soon be hauling all our belongings cross country.

On August 1, the three of us will get in our car and drive approximately 1,600 miles to our new home.

So when I got the assignment to create a “window” card as a guest designer for the new Caardvarks Challenge, I immediately thought of planes and automobiles. I was a little nervous...not just because this is my first guest designer gig, ever...but also because I haven’t made many window cards. In fact, I wasn’t even really sure what constituted a window card…like…does it have to have an actual opening?

One night when I couldn’t sleep, my thoughts went to…naturally, what else…card crafting. I was actually thinking about ‘change of address’ cards and…we’ll, it all sort of evolved from there.

I know I’m not the first (nor will I be the last) to work the car concept, but I envisioned a car, specifically the back of a car…as it drives down our street and away from our home and friends…taking us to our new adventure.

I decided to base my card on my husband’s Mini Clubman. First, I took this photo of the back of his car.

After downloading the photo into my computer, I printed it and then enlarged it to the size I wanted. I cut out the image and used it as my template. My husband saw me working on the card and advised me… the clubman’s back doors swing open vs. opening upwards. So I changed my layout and I must say, I like it a lot better this way.

I cut and pieced contrasting accent pieces (just like on his car) and the bumper, etc. I wrapped foil around brads to “create” the side view mirrors and more brads and buttons for the tail and break lights. I embossed a piece of cardstock using the Cuttlebug faux leather template to create car seats.

I decided to add some silly characters wearing silly eye patches…to protect the innocent…looking back as the car heads off towards points West...notice the license plate?

Since we don’t yet have an address in Wyoming, I decided to adapt a verse or two from Pure Prairie League’s “Two Lane Highway” since it pretty much describes how torn I’m feeling these days.

I hadn’t intended to decorate the back of the card, which is actually the front of the car, but I guess I got carried away. Note those crazy characters again, this time looking forward to their new adventure!

This is too time consuming to use as an actual change of address card but I do plan to keep the template for use in the future...I had so much fun creating this card!

I wasn't sure this card actually qualifies as a window card, but I decided to include it anyway.


I came up with this airplane idea during the Caardvarks’ shape challenge and I so wanted to submit this card to that challenge! I held off though…just in case my car concept idea didn’t work. Again, I’m still not sure if this constitutes a “window’ card…but it was fun to make!

I created a template based on an airplane image I found on line by first copying it into a word document and playing around with it by enlarging it to a size I wanted. I enlarged it a second time when printing. I wanted to punch “windows” all along the front, but my punches aren’t long enough and I was only able to punch one window. I’m not good with a craft knife, so decided to create the other “windows” by gluing punched circles to the front of the card. I covered the “windows” with cellophane to create the “glass” part of the window. I’d appreciate any suggestions on how to attach cellophane without it getting all gooey looking from the adhesive.

I used a T-pin to outline the wings and tail and added some little sticky dots, chip board letters and a metal sentiment tag, all from Joann’s.

Thanks for stopping by…

For My Dad...Simple Simple

I just managed to squeak out another simple Father’s Day card…for my dad this time.

Usually I find really funny (read sarcastic) cards for my dad, who always gets a big chuckle out of what I send his way. Then I turn around and send him one of my creations. This time I had to forego the funny/sarcastic Hallmark card and just send mine, which will be lucky if it gets there in time.

Anyway…very simple simple.

Thanks for peeking…

A bird, a plane…no, it’s Birthday Man!

Needed to send a birthday card to my younger brother…like today! His birthday is Saturday and he lives 4 states away. Last night I got down to work and just couldn’t focus. Guess I’m feeling too discombobulated these days.

Anyway…this card is the end result of what happened while I was filing some scraps I had left over from my recent card submission as a Caardvarks guest designer (to be published at Midnight on Friday…very nervous!).


The card just sort of evolved after I noticed the sharp angles and empty spaces where I had used a craft punch. I thought, hmm...I wonder?

My brother lives in an apartment building in a large metropolis…and I love skyscrapers, especially at night and even more especially after a freshly fallen snow. So…I went with the flow and this is what happened! There’s absolutely no stamping on this card.

I know it won’t make sense to you all but this is what I typed inside…

"Faster than a lake-front surfer
More powerful than a Maitre d
Able to maneuver around tall buildings in a single taxi…

It’s…Birthday-Man!

Happy Birthday to the man (who lives around) steel!"

Here's a close up of Birthday Man…

Thanks for stopping by…

Edited to Add:

I have this bad habit of making a card, only to realize too late that I don't have an envelope to fit the dimensions of my newest creation. Usually when this happens, I'm in such a hurry to send/give the card to the recipient that I don't have time to make a nice envelope. Today was really no different...except that I had a light bulb moment and wrapped the card in aluminum foil! Get it? Man of steel...aluminum steel (foil)?! So I wrapped black and red card stock around the foil like ribbon and added some cool black buttons for dimension. Looked pretty neat and I know he's gonna love it!

Remember…simple?

Like a lot of you, I sometimes can tell who made a card by style and color...and I find that I gravitate to certain people’s cards because of a particular style.

Me…I’m still floundering. I feel like I’m all over the map sometimes, and other times feel like I’m stretching myself…to limits that I’m not totally comfortable with. This usually leaves me feeling either dissatisfied with the look of my work or that it looks unpolished and amateurish.

I sometimes find that I long for the days of…simple. Yeah. Remember when cards looked like this…

without all the embellies?

Don’t get me wrong…I love all the embellies and the inks and the tools and the distress kits, etc., etc.

I just wonder sometimes…if maybe…simple is really who I am and that I should stick with simple. I do know that simple can be so much more than this card…and yet, still be simple.

I know that simple doesn’t have to be a plain Jane, but instead, can be elegant and dramatic.

Maybe…I’ve been away from crafting too long and I’m finding it hard to find my mojo.

Then again, maybe it’s really just way too late for me to be awake and things will be clearer in the morning.

Then again…

Quick and simple Father’s Day card…with “feeling”

My husband asked me to make a card for his dad for Father’s Day. My father-in-law is legally blind (macular degeneration), but fortunately he has special tools on his computer and high-powdered magnifying glasses that he can use to enlarge letters and that allow him to read and write. He can’t see most colors, nor does he have any depth perception. To this day though, he uses his computer to make computer generated cards for his friends and family!

When my husband asked me to make a card, I knew I wanted it to have texture…so dad can “feel” it. So I started out with a piece of Dupioni silk and some iron-on fusible webbing. After attaching the fusible webbing to the fabric, I then stamped the fabric using the Flourishes shirt stamp. I also used the tie stamp from the same set and stamped it onto a piece of ribbon. I attached it all to a piece of card stock I had left over from another project that I had run through the Cuttlebug using the faux leather template. Now dad can “feel” the card...even if he can’t see it very well.

Thanks for stopping by…

How embarrassing…nothing to show

I’m going to be one of the guest designers next week over at the Caardvarks blog…happy me! Hopefully (if people like what they see of my creations) they might want to stop by for a visit, which is all fine and good…except that I have nothing new to show these past many weeks!!! How embarrassing is that! Who knew that life would be so consumed with all things related to “moving!” Well duh…”I” should have known. At any rate, I should get moving on creating some new things…just in case some visitors pop in. Don’t know if much is going to happen though. We’ll see…

Oh yeah...

I REALLY miss crafting!!!! Don't know what I'm going to do this summer while packing...unless we have the movers pack us, which is still up in the air. The savings would be great, but if we pack ourselves and something happens to the truck...then we lose out.

And I just KNOW my husband is going to want me to pack up the craft supplies first...if not leave it all behind!...that way I won't be tempted to craft instead of pack!! I just need to keep explaining to him that it is my way of de-stressing, which I'm going to need a lot of during the next two months.

At least I have all the wonderful creations of my blogging friends to admire...

Anxious and disappointed...but how funny is this!

My time these past two weeks has pretty much exclusively been devoted to finding a rental home in Laramie, Wyoming. It is not going well…at all. We’ve discovered, too late, that the majority of rentals are geared for University and graduate students…not families wanting a single family home.

We’ve already rented our home here in Northern, Virginia and have to be out by August 1. We also have to be in Laramie by early August, so there’s not much room for flexibility on dates. With no place to land in our new home town, we’re starting to panic!

We just missed out on what could have been…the temporary “home”…for us, by a mere few hours. Ironically, the colors in this home are the same color palette that we have in our own home! How funny is that? Although much smaller than our home, we think it would have more than adequately met our needs.

Oh well…sigh…and all that. Back to Craig’s list and the Laramie Boomerang!!!

Take a look at the colors of our two homes…funny, no?!

Looking into our kitchen from the family room...


Looking into their kitchen from the dinning area...

Weird. At least it gave me a good chuckle. Now...back to house hunting.

Thanks for stopping in...