It's my Baby's Birthday! Oh yeah and Halloween too

He, He, He...I have to put him before Halloween don't I? My baby turns 17 today. Geesh I feel old. I'll only have a child for one more year...

That's how I feel today, going from laughing to crying. What in the world happened to all the time? They were so sweet when they were little. I miss my babies.

OK enough feeling sorry for myself. Pull up the boot straps and onward! So I thought I would share my favorite picture of him when he was little.

 

He was so darn cute don't ya think?

 

And here he is a year and a half ago...he hasn't let us take a pic since :(  He's a stubborn kid.

 

 

 My son is totally into WOW, Anime' and such so I thought I'd make him a Japanese style card. Sureya has such beautiful images so I used one of hers as my main guide. Nothing to fussy since he's not a fussy kid.

The image is titled Prince Hyde. What better Anime' image to use for a birthday than a boy with a crown. The sword is an MS clip art image that I modified a little and fussy cut then stuck up on pop dots. It was hard to get the dots small enough so they wouldn't show so you can see them just a hair. The script spells out happy birthday in Japanese.

The background paper here is a map of Japan I found online then singed the edges. I used the same MS clip art at the bottom of the sentiment. I added the Happy Birthday to the top of the original sentiment that was made by Pink Cat Studio. Looking at it now I think I'll take my gold gel pen and color in the crown.

On the very inside, behind the joy fold is another map but this time one of just Tokyo. So what do you think? Will it work for a 17 year old?

David collects Japanese swords and knives to hang on the wall and I've bought him some before. They are a little pricey and with me not working now I was having a hard time justifying such an expensive gift. They usually run between $100-$200. Boy did I get lucky! I found one through a friend of my daughters for $30 and it looks brand new! When he opens it (sort of) I'll post a pic. We've decided to send him on a scavenger hunt for it since it's a bit awkward to wrap. He'll hate that but we'll love it! A parents got to have some fun too lol.

OK it is Halloween so here's my acknowledgement of it. A freebie for you. It's a PD image I thought was appropriate for the day considering the holiday and I'm feeling my age he he he. Enjoy and please leave comments! I love to hear from my readers!

Happy Haunting!

Love ya,
~Deb~

More Anniversary? and another freebie

OK, so I finished these today too. I was going to wait and publish them tomorrow but I figured I may as well go ahead and get them out there. You're all probably getting bored stiff with seeing the same theme on cards. Am I right? Want to see something different tomorrow? Comment and let me know.

So here's the other set I did. No specific years, these are to give to the one you love. Click to enlarge.

 

Have you figured out yet that I like clean lines and nothing too fussy? That's just my taste. I've always leaned a little more modern. I really love looking at vintage, flowery, gossamer stuff but I have a tough time creating that way. Going to definitely work on that.

Supplies:

Bride & Groom - Beccy's Place
Recollections CS & backing paper
Frames around sentiments - Graphics Fairy

I made the flowers and wrote the sentiment. Going to try something different here, if you e-mail I'll send the sentiments to you. Look forward to hearing from you!   hrspecdeb (at) yahoo (dot) com   replace the at and dot as usual.

Love ya,
~Deb~

Anniversary Love & A Freebie

Looking forward to hearing if anyone tried the recipe in the last post, trust me when I tell you mmmmm go for it!

Still working on 50, 55, and 60 year anniversary cards for my mom. Here's a couple more I made that are fun and different, simple yet elegant.

 

So to make these, I printed a bottle pattern on thin chipboard and then traced it on to my CS. I cut them out, attached the wide black ribbon as my "label" wrap and then placed the sentiments on top. I cut the top from a second bottle I printed so I could make a cork area. The sentiments were made from images I found at the Graphics Fairy site. She always has wonderful useful things! The sentiment in the center of the inside is something I put together to go with the anniversary theme.

 

Supplies:

 

Hunter Green Recollections CS

Cork paper - Recollections

Ribbon - Dollar Tree

Wine and Wreath Graphics both from Graphics Fairy

Diamond Neck band - Michael's

 

 

 

So here's your freebies in different years and colors. Click to enlarge and then right click and save as on your computer. Don't forget to comment if you grab it, I need encouragment to keep giving stuff away. Enjoy!

 

 

Yummy, Yummy, Yummy I got love in my tummy!

MMMMMM...for those of you who don't know me well I am always looking for high protein recipes. I am restricted on what carbs I can eat but any protein is OK. That gets very boring so I am always trying to find new sauces or spices to make it interesting. I found this recipe yesterday and had already taken chicken out for dinner so I figured I'd give it a try. WOWWIE was it fantastic! Everyone in the fam loved it so it is going to be on my make again list. For the rest of my family who can eat what they want, I made angel hair pasta and through the extra sauce over it and some veges on the side. Delish!!!I thought I'd share it and encourage you to try it. Super simple ingredients and prep and it's a slow cooker recipe besides!

Here's a pic of how mine turned out

Jennie's Heavenly Slow Cooker Chicken

Rated: Submitted By: Jennie Photo By: soupy Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 4 Hours Ready In: 4 Hours 5 Minutes Servings: 4

"Chicken breasts cook gently in a creamy sauce of cream cheese, golden mushroom soup, Italian dressing mix, and white wine in this easy slow cooker recipe."

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter 1 (.7 ounce) package dry Italian-style salad dressing mix 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed golden mushroom soup

1 (8 ounce) container chive and onion cream cheese 1/2 cup dry white wine 4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves

Directions:

1.

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat, and stir in the salad dressing mix, mushroom soup, cream cheese, and wine until the sauce mixture is hot, smooth and well combined. Place the chicken breasts into the bottom of a slow cooker, and pour the sauce mixture over the chicken. Cover and cook on Low setting until chicken is tender, about 4 hours. Make it and then come back and tell me what you thought. I can't wait to hear. Love ya, ~Deb~

More Weddings & Rock Star

Well it's Monday and for many of you that means the start o a busy work week. In respect of that I'll keep this short and sweet because I know you have lots of reading to catch up on.

First let me say welcome to my new followers and all the new visitors! I'm so glad you're here and look forward to reading all your comments! I LOVE all the sweet comments and hearing your opinion plus, when you leave one I can hop over to your blog and see what you've been up to. Building a community!

Preface: looking at these pictures I think I had to much caffeine...BAD ROCK STAR, BAD!

 (if I knew how to animate this it would be bouncing off the wall LOL)

OK so let's get started. I usually try to make two (2) of each kind of card but on the first one, I messed it up so I only ended up with one.

Supplies:

Pink Recollections CS
K & Co. Background paper
ZVA Creative Pearl Flourishes
Pink ribbon I won from the wonderful Ms. Nikki over at Limited Runs Digital Stamps
Tiffany Stamp form Milkcoffee Digi Stamps
Heart surrounded sentiment by Cre8tive Hands

This next set has a bride designed by the same artist.

Supplies:

Black, Gray, Red, Hot Pink, and White CS by Recollections
ZVA Creative Heart Pearl flourishes
Tiffany Bride by Milkcoffee Digi Stamps
Sentiment by Poppies at Play

And last but not least... cute and simple 3 x 3's. I've never used orange on a wedding card before but I think it works for a fall wedding. What do you think? Please comment and tell me your thoughts are on the orange.

Supplies:

Red, pink and White CS
The Paper Studio and and Recollections
Pink ribbon form Dollar Tree and orange ribbon from Michael's
Roses from Recollections
Dress  rubber stamp from Your Next Stamp
Sentiment from the talented  Carmen at Beyond the Fringe Crafts

So tomorrow I'll have some anniversary cards and a freebie. See you then!

Love ya,
~Deb~

It's Almost Halloween!

I figured I should probably post a Halloween card since it IS almost that time. It also happens to be my son's birthday and I don't have the foggiest idea what to get him this year. Suggestions for a 17 year old boy who doesn't drive? Help please! Otherwise it's going to be cash.

So here's the card I created for my daughter to send to her niece. They moved to Washington state so Jen is trying her best to stay in contact. What better way then a cute card for a cute almost 4 year old.

Click on the images to enlarge them.

 

The graphic is from Cuddlebug Cuties and I think it's adorable! I added some glitter on the hat and brew and used a gold gel pen to highlight her dress and the cauldron handle.

The sentiment with the monkey is from Dustin Pike.

Supplies:

Witch Digi - Cuddlebug Cuties
Monkey Digi - Dustin Pike
Recollections CS black, white, olive green
Cuddlebug Embossing folder - Dots
Ribbon - Dollar Tree
Tim Holtz distress ink - Peeled Paint
Jewel embellishments were some earrings I picked up to take apart for this purpose.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Love ya,
~Deb~

$25 Etsy Gift Card Giveaway

Hi Everyone,

I learned about a giveaway today that you all might be interested in so I thought I'd share it.  She has a really good blog that I started following. Give away ends tomorrow so hop on over. Here's where to go to get more info.

http://kevinandloryrobinson.blogspot.com/2012/10/hip-hooray-etsy-gift-card-giveaway.html

Then Comes the Couple with a Baby Carriage

Happy Friday!!! I know everyone loves Fridays and is thinking bring on the weekend.

Did you guess right? I almost decided to trick you and do more wedding cards but then I thought, nah, that wouldn't be fair or make the saying work LOL!

So let's not keep you in suspense. I made 2 different types of baby cards. The first is an iris fold, I really love doing these! And I also did a castle fold card.

 The papers I used were by Recollections and The Paper Studio. The little dies to make the sentiment tags are by mft stamps and the pink buggy stamp here and the blue one a couple pics down is a cuttlebug die and embossing folder. The ribbons I got at the Dollar Tree, there's lots of great ribbon to be had there if you haven't checked it out lately.

Here's a close-up of the boy card. I used tin foil on the wheels and put a gold gem in the center for the hub. I thought about putting silver but I didn't think it would add enough to be worth it so I went with gold. I think it added some variety and there's yellow in the ribbon so it still matched.

I can't take credit for the saying. I read it somewhere so I typed it up and stuck in some elements I got from Far Far Hill.

These are my castle fold cards. The boy one is a traditional castle fold and the girl card is modified a bit. Both papers are The Paper Studio designs. The image of the baby comes from Digital Two for Tuesday. And both of the front sentiments you can find at Doddle Pantry. The border was cut using a punch by Recollections and the flowers are from Michael's and Jolee. I used some MS flocking on the blanket to give them a little more dimension and softness. My usual Prisma Watercolor pencils colored up the images.

 
I'm not sure where this sentiment came from but it looks like something Grands9creations might make. Let me know if it's yours please so I can credit you.

 

The sentiment in this card came from Cleah Valero.

So that's it for today! What comes after the baby?

Love ya,
~Deb~

Then Comes Marriage...

Going to the chapel and we're gonna get marraaarried...OK that's all I remember from that song lol! So did you see this coming from the title of yesterday's post? Bet you did!

I wanted to make a couple of cutesy wedding cards so I used two different images to make 4 joy fold cards.

The two on the left are images from Trina Clark Designs and the two on the right are images from The Greeting Farm. I thought they were both adorable.

The inside flap of each has wedding paper by Paper Studio. I just loved the black and white design of it with all the cute wedding necessities,

 On the inside of this one I used paper from Far Far Hill and then I made the heart frame from a font I picked up called Heart Things 2 by fonts-n-things. Can't remember where I got the ribbon but it was probably Wal-mart.

For the sentiment on this one I didn't keep track of where I got it but it looks like one of Ginger's House creations. Let me know if you think it's from some where else! I loved it because it went so great with the kissing bride and groom.

Can you guess what tomorrows post will be about? See you then!

Love ya,
~Deb~

First Comes Love...

Hi Everyone,

Insomnia has hit again so I thought I would post what I created today. There's a freebie at the bottom too!

So did the title catch you? That's what poured out of me today, love. I made an "I Love You" card. It could be used as an anniversary card as well but I really just wanted to say I love you, nothing more nothing less.

 

 I made the subway art piece and then layered it over some plain pink topped with rose patterned tissue paper, 2 sheets in other words. Then I attached the bow out of ribbon from my stash and made a flower using a Sizzix die, but I altered it a bit. After everything was attached, I used spray glitter over it to give it some shine. Kind of hard to see the shine on here but trust me it added the right touch.

On the inside I used a frame I found at MyGrafico. I layered a sentiment on it but I'm not sure where it came from. I think it may have been Ginger's House and I'm waiting for her response to see if I'm right. I'll have to get back to you on that.

All in all a pretty simple card but it says a lot. Love is such a powerful emotion and sometimes you just need to express it.

Now for the freebie. Please do not use this to reproduce for profit. This is ONLY FOR PERSONAL USE. Go ahead and tell someone that you love them. Feel free to email me if you want to use it for another purpose and I will consider it depending on the use. As usual, click to enlarge then right click to save.

Hope the person you love and give this to enjoys it and loves you back!

Love ya,
~Deb~

Vintage Anniversary

Hi Everyone,

Well My mom requested that I make some more anniversary cards, this time 50th and 55th. So here's what I came up with:

 Partially open.

Fully extended.

These are joy fold cards. On the front flap is a vintage wedding photo I found at Imagene's Vintage . I cropped the picture since it was originally an ad for silverware. Then I used chalks to color it. I think it came out soft and perfect for the time period.

Supplies:

Paper - Recollections charcoal gray and light pink CS, K & Co. (pink background)
Images - Imagene's Vintage, MS clip art (hearts)
Sentiments - Desert Diva (congrats) and me (50th & 55th)
Chalks - Stampin' Pastels from Stampin' Up
Punch - Recollections Circle

Want a freebie? Here's the years circles. Enjoy and don't forget to leave me a comment to let me know that you took them. Please post a picture here of what you create using them, I'd love to see!

Click on the image to enlarge then right click and save to computer.

Hope your Tuesday is shaping up to be just what you want!

Love ya,
~Deb~