Loads of Thanks

I wasn't sure I would make it into my craft room tonight.  I'm fighting a bit of a sinus headache and I really just thought about crawling in bed, but it's Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs!  How could I sleep through that?  In fact, I have to thank those guys because in between periods (and overtime!) I played around in my craft room because I needed a thank you card.  I pulled out a Newton's Nook stamp set called Wagon of Wishes that I think is just adorable and stamped out the wagon with the apples.  I played with my copics trying to color the apples to match the apples that grow on the tree in our backyard.  It was kind of hard to get that green, yellow with a little red combo, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  I was a little stumped for a layout for the card, but then I remembered that I loved the Mojo Monday layout and I haven't participated in that for a while so it seemed like the perfect time to try my hand at it.  I've also been playing around with trying the current Inky Paws challenge which was to use wood, metal or cork on a card.  So I started by breaking out the Hardwood stamp I bought during the Stampin' Up free shipping promotion a while back.  I used Vintage Photo Distress Ink on some watercolor paper then used a damp brush to spread the color a little.  To be honest, I wasn't sure I liked it and I really wasn't sure I liked it with the image I had colored, but I kept plugging along.  I broke out my Lawn Fawn Circle Stackables and Scalloped Circle Stackables to set off the cute sentiment from the Newton's Nook set and then remembered how much I liked the tag stamp and die from the Lawn Fawn Winter Gifts that I used on a card a week or so ago.  So the last piece I wasn't sure about was the strip on the right.  I knew that a red strip would help tie it all together, but plain red wasn't working for me.  I pulled out a couple of embossing folders.  Wood grain didn't look quite right and I ended up debating between a dotted texture and this Quick Kutz Zig Zag folder.  Fortunately, I have a great resource when I can't decide:  my husband!  So then it was just some glue, a couple of chomps of the corners of some pieces and a few wood veneer hearts to balance what seemed to be a bit of a plain spot in the corner and it was done.  I actually walked back out to the family room and commented to my husband that I wasn't really sure about the pieces going together but I loved how it turned out in the end.   I'll be linking this up to both challenges, but come play with me because it's always more fun if everyone plays.  You have until Friday, June 6th for the Inky Paws challenge and until Sunday, June 8th for the Mojo Monday challenge.

Birthday Wishes...

Wow there are a lot of birthdays this week.  For instance, my boss celebrates a milestone tomorrow.  So tonight I looked for a great card for him and loved the inspiration I found in this card pinned from somewhere on the Paper Crafts Connection blog.  It was a fun way to use some washi tape from my growing collection, a favorite Diamonds and Dots embossing folder from Quick Kutz, my new StazOn ink in Timber Brown and whole host of random stamps including the "today" stamp from Heidi Swapp's Memory File, the "celebrate" stamp from TPC Studio's Graduation set, a "is" and "about" built from the Ginger alphabet set from American Crafts and the "you" from the "Hugs to you" stamp in the Sympathy4U set from The Stamps of Life.  Lots of different products came together into one colorful birthday card.

All safe and accounted for...

It's funny how life goes...  Tonight, instead of doing one of a million things I should be doing,  I dashed off to my craft room for a few minutes to work on the next onesie, but instead got caught up in my e-mail and reading today's lesson in Learn Something New Everyday.  I found today's prompt really interesting.  I pulled out my journal and was just about to start writing in earnest, when I looked out the window in front of my computer.  It's not the best view (the old boat that will someday be off to a new home and our RV) but I do love the beauty of the raspberry vines (especially now that I don't have to go out and pick them all them time) and the bay leaf "tree" that started as a little whip that we planted long ago.  I was thinking I should go fill the bird feeder when I noticed something a little different. 

A small curled up kitty sleeping on the RV pad between the RV and the raspberries.  I thought one of the neighborhood cats must have chosen it as a napping spot, but then thought, "it looks a little like Tigger.  Wait a minute, it looks a lot like Tigger."  I called hubby in and then tapped on the window.  It was Tigger!  How the heck did he get out? 

For those of you who don't know, hubby built a kitty prison compound in the back yard.  They can go outside all they want, but they are confined to a safe space that gives them plenty of room to run around, hunt whatever birds or frogs are silly enough to venture into a yard patrolled occupied by five cats and just generally enjoy the outdoors safe from cars and predators.  Now every once in a while, a kitty escapes because someone doesn't latch the gate properly when going to the garden or the door from the house into the garage gets left open a moment too long.  But the gate was closed and the greys were both still inside (the usual escapees).  So I got out the treat bag and kept Smoke and Chewie occupied while hubby opened the gate for Tigger, who happily came back into his backyard.  Hubby walked the perimeter but didn't see any breaks that would account for Tigger's escape.  We eventually surmised that Tigger must have gone out the garage when hubby was taking the recently canned corn out to the storage. 

So that got me to thinking about what an amazing thing "coincidence" is.  I wonder how long Tigger would have been locked out if I hadn't decided to work on my class project, if I hadn't been drawn to look out while I contemplated what to write, if he had chosen anywhere else to lay considering I can't see but a small area from my window with my big old computer screen blocking the view...  So whether you think it was just a coincidence or part of a master plan, tonight I thank God that our little guy chose that exact spot to lay down and that I chose to goof off and go do tonight's lesson now before it got too dark, because that little guy has made a huge improvement in our lives since he bounced down the freeway in front of us three years ago that I don't even want to think about not having him with us for many more years to come.

So now back to the crafting at hand.  I'm a bit stumped about what I want to do for the next onesie, so tonight I have a card that I want to share.  I found the inspiration on Pinterest a bit back but knew I would have to make my own version.  No surprise, it's from Karen Thomas at Luv to Stamp again.  I was so completely taken by how cute the first couple of her cards were that I had to follow her blog and pin a whole lot of them! 

This one was super fun to make.  I used the chrysanthemum from the Silhouette Design Studio because it makes me think of fall. I used a cute argyle embossing folder from QuickKutz.  I switched out the ribbon for some baker's twine and I just loved this little ticket stamp from Inkadinkado combined with a little stamp from Studio G.  So perfect!  So thank you Karen for your constant inspiration...