Happy 2nd Birthday CAS-ual Fridays!!!

That's right! We are celebrating CAS-ual Fridays 2nd birthday. This awesome blog has been around for two wonderful years.

 

 There are so many things that I have to be thankful for this blog. I remember posting my first card to this challenge blog. I had an unused stamped die cut sitting on my table and I needed a thank you card that was mailable. My card came together so easy and then the light bulb went off...I love to create clean and simple cards!!!

 

The second reason I am thankful for this blog is that Michele offered me my first design team opportunity a year ago. Gosh, have I really been on this awesome team for a whole year? The time has simply flown by, I can hardly believe it.

 

So this week's challenge celebrates the top 10 challenges of CAS-ual Fridays. The challenge is a Tic-Tac-Toe challenge, which was also one of the top 10 challenges. You can create a clean a simple project by simply using a row for your inspiration.

        

 

We have some super exciting prizes for the winners of this 2 week challenge. Ellen Hutson is giving away a $25 gift certificate to this week's winner as well as $15 gift certificates to the 4 VIPs.

 

And not only that, but CAS-ual Fridays Stamps is giving each of the top 5 contenders a gift stamp set as well. If  you don't participate in this 2 week challenge, you've got to be crazy!

For my card, I chose the diagonal line of Birthday, Bling, & Punches/dies. You can never have enough birthday cards on hand, right? I used the birthday sentiment from Casual Elegance. Then I used my Silhouette to die cut the speech bubbles from the Silhouette store (Design #29232). I used the offset feature and flipped them. I finished it off with some rhinestones and popped up the sentiment bubble with foam adhesive.

So, I hope that you find some time to create more than one project from our Tic-Tac-Toe board. You have until midnight on Wednesday, May 15th to link up and play along. Thanks for stopping by!

DeNami Design, Pin-spired May

Happy hump day!!! Today some of the DeNami girls and I are sharing our projects that we created with the gorgeous Pin-spired photo. Sometimes when you see a picture, you know exactly what you want to create. You can head on over to the DeNami Design blog to see what the rest of the design team created.

 

For my card, I knew immediately that I wanted to use Tweety Bird border and Stitched border. I colored them in with my copics using the colors of the birds from the bottom row. I stamped Sending you Sunshine underneath my stamped image.

 

 

That's all for me today. Thanks for stopping by!

 

DeNami Notebook photo tutorial

Today I have a project that is being showcased over at the DeNami Design blog.  I created these little notebooks. So head on over to check it out!

 

 

What a surprise!

Hi friends! Well, today you would normally see my post for CAS-ual Fridays, but our current challenge is running for two weeks. So I thought I would pop in and share a few photos from last Saturday.

 

The hubby, kiddos and I headed over to the Magic Kingdom for the day. My in-laws also joined us for the first time. Since we have Florida resident passes (not annual), we manage to go about 4 times a year. We arrived just as the park opened and headed over to Tomorrow land. While sitting on the People Mover, I received a text message from my sister that a dear friend of mine from childhood happened to be visiting the theme parks this same weekend.

 

Alex and I attended the same summer camp in our early teens. In the evenings, we used to sit around the piano and listen to him play and sing. He was amazing talented back then and he was given the nickname of Piano Man, since he would play Billy Joel til the lights went out. He has had many accomplishments on Broadway and he has earned a Grammy and Tony for his work on In the Heights. He has even played for President Obama! When my sister travelled to New York back in December and got to meet up with him, I was jealous (in a good way, of course.) We haven't seen each other for over 20 years!!!

 

 

Me with Alex .

 

I thought I would link the video of him playing for the President. He accompanies Lin-Manuel Miranda on the piano. This is really good, enjoy! 

 

 

 

I wanted to share a few more pictures from our day.

 

Waiting to enter the park.

 

 

 

Joshua happy to be in the stroller.

 

 

Leah with Repunzel's new Tower behind her.

 

 

 

Joshua, looking for trouble.

 

 

The hubby being silly

 

 

The Carousel.

 

 

 

The Princesses

 

 

My father-in-law with my friend, Alex

 

 

And finally the family and Alex

 



 

 

DeNami Design Product Spotlight, Onesie

Today is product spotlight over at DeNami Design. The design team is showcasing Onesie by having a DeNami blog hop. You should've arrived to my blog from Lisa Petrella's blog. If you visit each design team members blog and leave a comment along the way, you will be eligible to win this stamp! You can also add this fabulous stamp to your shopping cart and save 10%, one week only. 

For my card, I used some white cardstock and inked up Three Line border in green ink. I stamped it on an angle using my stamp-a-ma-jig.  I trimmed it up and added some Leaf green cardstock behind it. I layered the panel onto the cardfront. Then I stamped Small Congratulations with Tuxedo black ink onto the cardfront. Finally I stamped Onesie onto cardstock, colored it with my copics and then fussy cut it out. I popped it up with some foam adhesive.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to leave a comment on each blog to be eligible to win!

Wendy is your next stop!

DeNami blog
Lisa Petrella
Deb <------that's me
Wendy Elliot
Emily Keaton
Lisa Elton
Kanani Kawamura
Dana Seymour
Tammy Hobbs

 

Happy Birthday, Michele!!!

Happy Birthday Michele!!!

Today we are celebrating Michele Gross by honoring her with a birthday blog hop. Michele is the creator of CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. She is such an amazing person to work with. I mean, really amazing. Working as a Girl Friday has been my first design team work, and it has been such a wonderful experience. You deserve the absolute best today, Michele!!!

 You should've arrived here from Sylvia's blog. For my card, I used some of my CAS-ual Fridays stamps, Exclamations and Rad.  I used the current Play Date Cafe challenge as inspiration for my card. Your next stop along the hop is Jocelyn.

  

And here is a list of all of the participants.

Leigh Ann

Sanketi

Alice

Kelly

Jingle

Lorena

Lindsay

Sylvia

Deb ---- that's me

Jocelyn

AJ

Pamela

Angie

The Ink Squad is also celebrating Michele's birthday with a little blog hop of their own. Stop by and check out their creations. 

 Dana, Karen, Kelly, Laurie, Lynn, Michelle, Piali, and Virginia! 

Enjoy the hops!

CAS-ual Fridays, Birthday Bash

Woo-hoo!!! It's Friday! Today I have a card to share for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge. The  challenge is to create a clean and simple birthday project and it will run for 2 weeks! So there is no excuse for not joining in on the fun *wink*.

 

 

Our fabulous sponsor for this challenge is none other than CAS-ual Fridays Stamps. The winner of this challenge will win a $45 gift certificate to the store. Wowzers!!!

 

 

For my card, I inked up Amazeballs. It is a super fun set, I tell ya. I impressed my Soft Stone card base with my PTI canvas impression plate and finished it off by adding some Lawn Fawn twine in a bow.

 

 

 

The challenge ends on Wednesday, May 1st. I can't wait to see what you create!



A couple of thank you cards

Happy Monday friends! I hope you had a fantastic weekend. I am popping in with 2 quick cards today for CAS(E) this Sketch.

 

 

Last Thursday my hubby and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. To help is celebrate, my wonderful in-laws watched the kiddos for a couple of days. So I wanted to show my appreciation with a card.

 

I used some DeNami washi tape for the strips and added You are Sweet (cling) for my sentiment. I finished it off with a few sequins.

 

 

When I am in my craftroom, my daughter Leah usually wants to be in there with me. She often wants to make a card so I told her "Why not try making a card for a challenge or two." So she combined this week's CAS(E) this Sketch with CAS-ual Fridays. The last card she submitted to CAS-ual Fridays, she used glitter strips, so I thought she would do well with it. Since CTS required strips at an angle, I thought I would help her lay them down this time. She picked her sentiment to fit nicely along the glitter and added her flower sticker to some leftover patterned paper. Not too bad for a 5 year old.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!



DeNami Design Party Favors blog hop

Welcome to the DeNami Design Party Favors blog hop. You should've arrive here from the utterly talented Tenia's blog. Just in case you get lost along the way, you can always head back to the beginning. 

For my party favor, I used a glassine bag. I filled it with some jelly fish I picked up at CVS. The first memory that my daughter has of this store is picking up some Easter candy, so she used to call it the Easter store. You can always find good candy deals there, perfect for any party occasion. So I created a little treat bag for my kiddos to enjoy for their candy party. 

 

 

I have been playing around with my Silhouette creating different cut files for my DeNami stamps. Even though I have fussy cut my stamped small solid hibiscus images with ease is the past, using my Silhouette allowed me to cut and stamp several in such a short amount of time. Love, love, love that!!! Once the image is cut, I leave it on my cutting mat and use my Stamp-a-ma-jig for quick and easy stamping. I filled my bag with my jelly fish candy and closed is using some Green graph washi tape. My hibiscus were adhered to the glassine bag using foam adhesive.

 

So I couldn't just create a fun little favor without a card to encourage the kiddos. I kept the design the same, but instead of using washi I used some cardstock that was inked up using Three Line border. I added the sentiment from my Petite Fours Heartfelt Greetings.

 

 

Quick, clean and simple. Now the next stop along the hop is Linda Monroe. No doubt you will not be disappointed. I can't wait to see what she has created. 

 

Don't forget about the THREE gift certificates that will be given away! One gift certificate will go to a random participant and TWO gift certificates to TWO people who comment along the hop! You have until April 15, 2013 11:59pm PST to comment and be eligible.

 

 

CAS-ual Fridays, All that Glitters

 TGIF! Today I have a card to share for this week's CAS-ual Fridays challenge. This week the challenge is to create a clean and simple project using glitter. Um, I love me some glitter!!! So I couldn't wait to create my card.

Our sponsor this week is Simon Says Stamp. The winner of this week's challenge will win a $25 gift certificate.

For my card, I used some Papertrey Ink Kraft cardstock and some K and Company patterned paper from my Portabello Road pad. I used my Silhouette to cut out the Hexagon card (Design #31280). The"blush" colored patterned paper already had some glitter in it, so I decided to run the green hexagons through my mini xyron and sprinkle them with my all time favorite Martha Stewart coarse glitter. I inked up the sentiment from CAS-ual Fridays stamp set CAS-ual Elegance in some Dark Chocolate ink. And just FYI, those 3 kraft hexagons are actually cut out, so you can see inside the card.

Thanks for stopping by! You have until noon on Thursday to link up and play.