You (my dear sweet husband) Are the Best!

I saved this card for today because the sentiment is perfect.  Today is my 10th wedding anniversary to the most fabulous man on the planet (not counting my dad).

I can't believe it's been ten years since I said I do to Matt on the ice in between periods of the hockey game.  Tonight, we'll celebrate back (sort of) at the scene of the crime.  In the same jerseys we wore in all our wedding pictures.  Those jerseys have gotten a lot of wear and still mean the world to me.

It's hard to believe it's been ten years already.  It seems like just yesterday, but it also feels like we've been married for so much longer than 10 years.  He tells me the same thing.  I guess it was really meant to be.  I'm not saying it's been easy.  We've been through a lot of really difficult times in the past ten years, but I wouldn't trade a minute of it.  I really feel blessed to be his wife

So this card was perfect for today because he really is the best.  It also came together so easily with those Simon Says Stamp Stamptember Tim Holtz Blueprints stamps.  I used the large Postage Stamp die from Simon Says Stamp to cut out the image.  I found several sheets of paper in the Echo Park Paper 6x6 Note to Self pad that I liked.  I cut the blue polka dot to 4 by 5.25 to leave a frame of white.  I added a strip of the striped paper and smaller strip of the blue ledger for a little interest.  I then adhered my die cut piece to finish it off.

So that's it for today.  I'm off to celebrate ten years with the best.

 

Time to Celebrate with Mojo Monday

So, as I mentioned before, I stamped out all of the Tim Holtz Simon Says Stamp Stamptember exclusive blueprints stamps and watercolored them all with Distress Ink.  So then I just had to finish putting the cards together.  Easy peasy, right?  Well, no.  I needed some inspiration for the layout.  Thankfully, there are couple of fabulous weekly sketch blogs.  Today, Mojo Monday, sketch #364 came to my rescue.  Go check it out here. 

This card came together quickly after I saw the sketch.  I used the polka dot paper from the Echo Park 6x6 paper pad Note to Self cut to the same size as the card base.  I found a coordinating pattern that I liked.  I used the postage stamp dies from Simon Says Stamp to cut out both my stamped image and a square from the paper.  For my stamped image, though, I didn't have the right size frame in the die pack.  No problem.  I made my first cut lining up where I wanted the bottom to be with the bottom of the stamp.  I then moved my piece to line up were I wanted the top to be and cut again, getting a smaller rectangle by making two cuts than the die would normally produce.

I fished a button out of my stash and finished it off with some crochet thread.  It seems a little busy to me.  I'm not really sure I like it, but it's good enough as a reminder that today is a big day to celebrate.  My parents are celebrating their 51st wedding anniversary today.  Love you Mom and Dad!

Now and Then...

What a fabulous weekend!  The girls came over to craft on Saturday.  Well, honestly, not a lot of crafting happened.  Instead we spent a lot of time talking and catching up.  Elaine was probably the most productive us all; she actually finished an adorable layout.  I spent most of my time showing her how she can use the Cameo in her crafting.  After all the time I've spent lately looking at hexagons and thinking I should use them in a layout or card, the first time I actually worked with them was helping Elaine cut some for her layout and now I'm even more convinced I'm going to have to use the hot trend on something. 

I did a little on my applique.  It's coming along pretty well for my first attempt, but I can see the mistakes.  But today I had to take a break.  All those little stitches are getting to me.

So today I used my time to make my first layout since reorganizing my craft room.  A couple of weeks ago, my dear friend Becky sent me her son's graduation announcement and a senior photo.  It's hard to believe that Nick is old enough to have finished high school; it still remember the little boy who ran up and down the hall at night trying to avoid going to bed.  I've been wanting to do a then and now type page ever since I got it, but every time I started, I realized I needed my computer.  Now that it's back and my room is ready to go again, I was so excited to get to it and, when I saw today's sketch for Sketch Inspiration, I knew it was perfect for this layout and I just knew I wanted to use the Note to Self collection kit from Echo Park.  I just love this kit, even more so since there are great coordinating elements for in it the Silhouette Design Studio. Even though this was the very first time I broke out the collection to use, I know I'm going to use every last scrap of it.  I loved the little tab; it was perfect to hide my hand written (gasp!) journaling.

It's also the first time I've ever sprayed Glimmer Mist on a project after I had it "done."  I've watched Shimelle (oh and thanks Shimelle for the preview of the upcoming Echo Park collections, I see more of them in my future) several times and I've always found it a little intimidating.  Yep, it's still intimidating even after trying it myself now.