Sooo Disappointed

Unfortunately I won't be posting any more pictures of our robin family. We were gone to my daughter's track meet yesterday, and just as we arrived home my oldest son was watching the female carry away the last of the eggs. I'm not sure what she did with them, but one of them dropped and broke in the driveway. The man delivering my youngest son's papers had dropped the bundle right under her nest so I'm thinking the thud and commotion may have terrified the poor thing.

I am so disappointed as I was really looking forward to watching the eggs hatch one by one. Nature can be very entertaining and interesting, but it can be sad too.

Mating Season!

IT'S MATING SEASON!
Days 1-3: A robin spent 3 days building a nest in the planter next to
my front door (on the left side). Notice how close it is to the door?

The completed nest. I just have to stand in my doorway
and reach my hand out with my camera to take a picture!

Day 4 - Just before noon we watched through the window as the robin laid her first egg.

Day 5 - 2 eggs! Same again...she laid it right around noon time.

Day 6 - 3 eggs, same time of day!

Day 7 - 4 eggs! Again, same time of day!

Here is momma robin sitting on her eggs.
I'm only about 4 feet away from her!
I guess it's going to be awhile before I can replace my planter!

So, now the waiting begins! It takes about 12 days or so before the chicks hatch. Then it will take another 13-16 days for them to leave the nest. I will be posting more pics as I can, so keep checking in. In the meantime, we continue to use our side entrance as much as possible to keep from disturbing her. She sits on the nest for close to an hour, then takes off for a short time, and then returns again. After all the work she's done so far, she now has lots of sitting time! Although, I've read that as the chicks hatch, she will start building a new nest for another clutch. She will do this again probably one more time after that until August. So I guess it's good for her to sit as long as she can, when she can! The male robin helped a little bit with the nest building, and will eventually help with some of the feeding, but so far he has been best at keeping guard! He likes to stay close and keep an eye on things.

Congratulations!

A friend of mine has been working very hard for about 2 years toward passing an important test for her job. She works in a bank and passing this test meant a promotion and a raise. I'm very proud of her for hanging in there and working so hard as she has had a lot of difficult things going on in her personal life during this time as well. I made this card to congratulate her.

Labels: MS (punch), Kaiser Craft (pearls), Bazill (yellow & blue CS), Spellbinders Labels 1; stamps - Artemio and unknown; Fiskars flower punches; pp was a rak won at Cuppas & Cards.

5 Easter Cards - Better Late Than Never

I made these 5 cards for my family for Easter this year, but unfortunately haven't been able to post them until now. I guess it's better to post them now, than not all though. They're all self-explanatory except the bottom one. For it, I used white CS and my swirls CB folder, then inked it with the different Easter colours. On the 3rd card I added a Maya Road bird, but unfortunately the glue at the bottom of the bottle had turned brown and showed through. I didn't know it could do that, did you?

Product Labels: Fiskars, MS, Cuddlebug, Recollections, Spellbinders, Maya Road, and the rest are dollar store or rak items.

Nintendo DS Card

This post is for Anonymous. You have left me several comments with requests for clues about how to make the Nintendo DS card, but I have not been able to reply to you because I don't have any contact information for you. I have contact information in my profile if you would like to reach me directly so I can send you the information you have been asking about.

Thanks for your interest in my card.

Sad Day For Me

I'm really missing my shadow and my faithful friend. Today we had to put down our Shihtzu, Pepper. She was only 8 1/2 years old, but had cancer and woke up today not doing so well. She was the smartest and sweetest dog I have ever had, and was a real family dog. Some dogs tend to stick closest to one person, but she loved all 4 of my kids. I think my oldest son is going to find it hardest tonight when he heads to bed and she isn't with him as she has slept on his bed for most of her life.

Cuddlebug Flowers

I've been playing around with making my own paper flowers still. These were made using the CB flower die cuts. I've curled up the edges of each of the petals to give it more of a 3D look. I'm amazed at how much it changes the look of the flower just by curling or bending the petals a little bit. I'm not sure if it shows up well enough in the photo, but I really like it better than just leaving them flat.

Card Details:
Top - CB flowers die cut; CS & Pearls - Recollections; Memories ink; Fiskars threading water border punch; Stamp - unknown.
Bottom - CB flowers die cut; CS & bling - Recollections; MS lace border punch; Pamass ink; Stamp - unknown.

2Sketches4Y - Bonus Sketch

This card was made using the bonus sketch at 2Sketches4Y. I turned the sketch on it's side because I wanted to fit the flower I made as well as a larger oval. I received the pp in a prize I won through an anniversary challenge over at Cuppas and Cards. TFL!

Card Details: Marvy flower punches, centre punch unknown; Oval Curvy Cutter by EK Success; CS - Recollections, Cricut Rainbow, pp unknown (RAK); Scrappy Cat stamp; Memories ink; Kaiser pearls.

Birthday Cards

My sister asked me to make a card for her to give to a friend, so I made a couple to give her a choice. I had also been wanting to try making a card using some flowers I made. I've been experimenting with flower making so you will be seeing lots of flowers on my upcoming cards!

Card Details:
Top - Inkadinkado Stamps; Fiskars Border Punch; Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle Nesties; Colourbox, Versamark and MS Inks; Ranger Seafoam White EB Powder; Diamond Stickles; Recollections CS.
Bottom - Inkadinkado Stamps; Fiskars Border Punch; Marvy flower punches; MS leaf punch; Spellbinders circle and scalloped circle Nesties; Memories and Colourbox ink; Recollections CS and bling; White Opal Liquid Pearls.

Bridal Shower Invitation Samples

As you can tell these are just rough samples of some invitations I made. In fact, they aren't even taped down and the crafty tack that I used to hold the paper in place even shows through. I used paper for the printed part, rather than cardstock since it is just a sample. The actual invitation the bride chose to go with is posted below. TFL

Tying the Knot!

Bridal shower invitation which is actually a pocket card.

The pocket card with the envelope.

The invitation out of the pocket.

The whole ensemble.

Someone is tying the knot! Actually my friend's son is, and I was asked to make the bridal shower invitations so I was thrilled! I love big projects like that. The bridesmaids will be in black, carrying red flowers (fall wedding) so I used the colours the bride asked for...black and white with a hint of red. The wedding invitations have flourishes on them so I tried to keep with that theme. The mother of the groom who is co-hosting the event asked for "swirly hearts". I think I did okay meeting all the requirements! Actually, I showed the bride and the groom's mother several sample ideas and this is the one they liked the most. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. I had to make 40 in total so it has kept me busy lately.

I've been asked to make the wedding placecards next so I've already started working on some samples for that. I will be sure and post them when they're done, but that won't be for awhile.

Card Details: CS - Bazill (shiny grey), Recollections (black and white); Colourbox silver ink; Fiskars border punch; Stamp - Artemio; Emagination heart punch; Swirls CB EB folder. Invite was computer generated.

Cuppas Anniversary Challenge "One"

For one of the anniversary challenges at Cuppas and Cards, we had to use the word "one" on our card. This is my take on this challenge. The black strip has an embossed line on each of the longer edges that doesn't show up well in the picture.

Card Details: CS - Recollections; Fiskars Border Punch; Spellbinders Labels 1; Stickers - Miss Elizabeths; Gelly Roll Pen - Diamond Dust.

CuppasandCards - Anniversary Challenges 2 & 5

I've been feeling very uncreative and lacking some motivation to make cards since the More Than Scrapbooking forum shut down. I just really enjoy the challenges of a small forum and without it I've had a hard time getting my creative juices flowing. Thankfully I have finally found a new forum to be a part of! I had a friend from Australia (don't you just love the internet) tell me about Cuppas and Cards and I have now registered and started making cards for challenges!

Both of these cards were for challenges for the first anniversary at Cuppas. Challenge 5 (top) was to make an encouragement card using brown and green. Challenge 2 (bottom) was to use a sketch that was provided. I embossed the sentiment in white, and made the image using the faux metal technique.

Card Details:
Top - CS - Bazill, Recollections; Ink - StazOn Timber Brown; Spellbinders Labels 1 and Fancy Tags; Stamp - See D's; Ruban Ribbon; Flowers - Wal-Mart; Brads - Michaels; Platinum Stickles.
Bottom - CS - Bazill, Recollections; Ink - Versamark; Ranger white and silver embossing powders; Stamps - Bitsy (hello), Inkadinkado (flowers); Spellbinders Nesties - circle and scalloped circle.

It's A Girl!

Many of you will remember me making cards, invitations, favours etc. for my niece's baby shower back in November. Well I am pleased to say that I am a great aunt again! My niece had her baby 1 week ago today. After waiting in the waiting room for a couple of hours with my sister, the baby's Grandma, I was fortunate to be one of the first to meet Emma Grace! She was 6 lbs. 10 oz, and both mom and baby are doing well. Praise the Lord!

I have put together a gift for the new baby and needed to make a card to go with it. The baby's room has a princess theme that almost perfectly matches the Fairest of Them All Collection by Imaginisce so of course, I had to make a princess card to go with the gift. It didn't turn out quite how I was expecting, but I'm happy enough with the results.

Card Details: Stamps and CS - Fairest of Them All Collection (Imaginisce), Congrats Stamp - Heidi Grace; Solid CS - Recollections; Brads and Flowers - unknown; Bling - Dollar Store; MS Lace Border Punch; Spellbinders Nesties - circle and scalloped circle; Ink - Memories Black Dye, Versamagic - Pink Petunia.
Envelope - Cuddlebug Die Cut and EB Folder (came with CB), Versamark clear ink; Ranger silver EB powder.

2S4Y - Laura's Sketch 44

I needed to make a retirement card for a friend at church, so I decided that Laura's Sketch 44 over at 2Sketches4You would be the perfect design for what I was thinking of doing. Unfortunately I haven't acquired any stamps that would be suitable for a retirement card yet, so the image and sentiment are both computer generated. I was able to use 2 new items I received for Christmas (fancy tags, circle nesties) so I was happy about that.

Card Details: Spellbinders - Circle, Scalloped Circle, Fancy Tags; CB Folder - Swiss Dots; CS - Recollections (blue, brown, white), Coredinations (textured blue bases); Sentiment and image are computer generated.

Playing With Pergamano

I've been in the mood lately to try some new things so I got out the Pergamano and the Diamond Glaze and made a card (Birthday Wishes). The flowers were coloured using a paint brush and ink refills. I then added the glaze to the front to give it a shiny look. I stamped the leaves on the background and then added some MS punched leaves for dimension. However, I wasn't completely happy with how this card turned out, so I moved on from there to work on different ways to add colour to a Pergamano card. The card with the lady in the garden was coloured using different amounts of pressure with the embossing tool, as well as the Gelly Roll pens. The card with the roses was coloured with water colour paints. I think it's my favourite because the colour shows up well, and was easy to work with and add dimension with lights and darks.

Handy Tip: I made the silver edge on the Labels 1 layers by using a Pilot silver metallic broad tip marker. I put a slit in the centre of the tip, put the edge of the paper in the slit, and then run it evenly around the entire edge. An easy way to add a layer without adding more bulk to your card!

Card Details
Birthday Wishes: Nesties - Labels 1, Fancy Tags; MS Leaf Punch; Stamps - Artemio (leaves), Inkadinkado (sentiment); Ink - Tinta white, MS green, Colourbox - Violet, Dusty Plum, Versamark; Ranger silver embossing powder; Pilot metallic silver marker; Pergamano tools; Judikins Diamond Glaze; Ribbon - Ruban; CS - Recollections, Bazil (silver); Green vellum and parchment paper.

Lady in the Garden: Pergamano tools; Tinta white ink; Gelly Roll pens; Parhment paper.

Roses: Pergamano tools; Tinta white ink; Water colour paints; Parchment paper.

Sympathy Cards

A friend of mine recently lost her mother so I wanted to make a card for her. I ended up making 2 cards and now I can't decide which one she would like the most. What do you think, which one would you send?

The top card has vellum flowers and leaves. The inside has a stamped verse, and on the green strip at the bottom I used the same border punch that I used on the front.

Card Details:
Top: Punches - Fiskars, Marvy, Martha Stewart; Stamp - Rubber Stampede; Ink - Colourbox; Pearls - Recollections; CS - Recollections; Vellum - Memories Forever.
Bottom: Stamp - Rubber Stampede; CS - Bazill (pink), Recollections (purple, white); Flower - Prima; EB Folder - CB Textile; Ink and Brad - Dollar Store.

Nintendo DS Birthday Invitation!

My son is having his 11th birthday next week and has asked for a sleepover with 4 of his closest friends so they can play XBox and Nintendo DS games. He just bought his first DS with his own hard-earned money (and a little help from his older brother), so he is really passionate about Nintendo right now. This morning he asked me if I could make his invitations look like the Nintendo DS, and he went on to describe what he wanted. So the design is my son's idea, I can't take credit for that, but here is what I came up with. It is all computer generated.

The front of the invitation:The inside, with his Nintendo in the background:
A closer view of the inside:

Christmas Tags

I realized once it was too late that I hadn't taken pictures of the Christmas tags I made this year. However, I lucked out when the other day as I was cleaning up, I came across one of each of them that didn't get destroyed during the gift opening process! So, although they are used, they were still okay to get photos so I could post them. I guess it's better late than never! I actually made 4 of each style of card, two with silver mats and two with gold mats. I finished each one off with a little bit of Stickles. TFL

Merry CHRISTmas

But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord." ~ Luke 2:10-11

Merry Christmas everyone! May you experience the blessing and joy that comes from knowing the true meaning of the season.

God Bless,
Dorie Ellen