Hinge Card

I made a hinge card this weekend for a friend's birthday. You can find the tutorial here on Paper Craft Planet.

The following picture shows how it looks when the hinge is open.

We got together with friends for the Super Bowl game last night. Those of us who don't follow football had fun playing Mexican Train and, of course, eating all the goodies that were there. Larry made seafood gumbo that was enjoyed heartily by everyone but we also had homemade submarine sandwiches, cole slaw, potato salad, different types of salmon appetizers, chips and salsa, banana bread, and pound cake.

Some of our friends entered the Margarita Contest at Lake Chapala's annual Chili Cook-Off last year and took home the honor of Lakeside's #1 Margarita. They will be entering again this year (later this month) and we previewed the new margarita "formula" -- I think it may be better than last year's! We'll have to wait and see if the rest of Lakeside agrees with me.

Hope you're having a great day; it's sunny and warm here today!

Betty

A Case of Cheri's Card

Hi everyone! My card today is a CASE of Cheri's card that was posted yesterday on her blog Stamp'n Boomer. I thought her white on white card was so elegant and classy looking and I was totally inspired to do one of my own. I did want to add a little color, though, so that's were the dark blue mat comes in! At first I intended to stamp the sentiment in dark blue, but it takes so long to dry on the glossy paper (I always end up smearing the ink!) that I decided to emboss it in silver and add a few silver pearls.

Here's Cheri's beautiful card.....

Don't you just love those pearls that she added above the sentiment and to the scallops? Thanks for the inspiration, Cheri!

Betty

Roses Fancy Fold

This month was my time to choose the challenge for The Roses. I chose to make a "fancy fold" card -- anything other than a standard fold.

I chose a Center Step card. You can find the tutorial here at Splitcoast Stampers. I used older papers from Stampin' Up, which I love, but I only have small pieces of it left -- (insert a sad face here).

Patti has come up with a very interesting challenge for next month but I'm keeping it a secret -- you'll have to wait another month to find out what is is!!!

Betty

Floral Birthdays

I have two cards to share with you today. Both use my newest stamp set from Flourishes, Bloomin Aussie Florals. I used watercolor crayons and a blender pen to color each of the images.

I have heard that my Aussie friends are experiencing very hot weather, while those in the US and Canada are experiencing just the opposite -- extremely cold. Whatever your weather, hope your day is truly wonderful!

Betty

A Valentine Birthday

Here's another birthday card I made for my friend. Her son was born on Valentine's Day and she's always told him that he is her best valentine! I'm hoping that I kept the heart masculine enough that he'll like it. Both tags are popped up to give the card a more dimensional feel.

The sun is shining today so we'll probably have temperatures in the mid 70's. We broke down and bought a portable propane heater for the cooler weather. It can be moved from room to room and it takes the chill off the bathroom when I hop in my new tub!!!

Hope your day is filled with all things nice!
Betty

Birthday Sunshine

I'm making cards for my friend at church again!  I CASE'D this design from the PaperCrafts blog. I jotted down the name of the designer but can I find it now?????? Of course not!

Bonnie is a nurse and at the bottom of the inside of the card it says: Nurses bring rays of sunshine into the lives of their patients.

Betty

Sebastian's Motto

This card was made to honor a young boy named Sebastian who lives in North Miami Beach, Florida. I was first introduced to Sebastian about a year ago on his teacher's blog, Ginger's House. Ginger posts free word art on her blog most every day so some of you may have run across her blog. If you happened to miss Sebastian's story, please click here to read about him; you won't be sorry you did!

Sebastian thinks that everyone should "Just be nice" and I think that's a pretty good philosophy to have; if we could all "just be nice" to everyone around us, how much more beautiful would this world be!!! Sebastian has been through a lot of trials in his young life, and I suppose this is what gives him a wisdom beyond his years.

Sebastian had another surgery in December. You can read about it here. His doctors are hopeful that this surgery will help him to be able to bend his arm. He is back in school now. Although he's in the first grade now and no longer in Ms. Brown's class, she still keeps up updated on his progress. The following is her post on January 11......

Look who was back in school today!



I asked how he was doing and he answered, "I'm good.  I'm really good."

He's holding some of the cards that were waiting for him at school and he said to tell everyone thank you and that he is still reading them with his mom.

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This young boy is very special to a lot of us here in "blogland" and I hope you will be inspired by his story!

Betty