25th Anniversary Card

Hi friends and fellow crafters! I can't believe I am entering into the stage of my life where my best friends and I are hitting milestones like a 25th Anniversary. I made this card for my BF. She and her husband have been married for 25 years and have 2 beautiful grown children.

I cut an extra layer for the flutes using PaperTrey Ink's Clear Cardstock. I used Diamond Stickles sandwiched between the clear cut and a layer cut from DCWV's Shimmer Stack to create the appearance of champagne in the glasses. 

I used pink cardstock from DCWV ShimmerStack for the mat. I used an Anna Griffin Embossing Folder and ran it through the Cuttlebug. It embossed beautifully. I cut Happy Anniversary using my Cricut Expression 2 and Martha Stewart's All Occasions Cake Art. I used Anna Griffin Silver Metallic cardstock on all the cuts. The 25th is from Tis The Season, and the flutes are from Solution Wedding Cartridge.

Thank you for stopping by my blog today!

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Going Old School

I needed to make a Thinking Of You card for my dear friend's Mother-In-Law. She is in her late 80's and is in the hospital with pneumonia. I wanted to keep it simple, so I went back to basics. No machines, no cartridges, just me, a paper cutter, a punch, a Belles N' Whistles stamp and my copics. October Afternoon's Woodland Park Papers were perfect for the card. I inked around the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink, Bundled Sage. I added a couple of Pearl Embellishments and a bow. Simple, but heartfelt.

 I computer generated a sentiment, and will write her a special note on the other side of the card.

I made sure not to forget the back. 

It's been so long since I just made a card, and I really enjoyed this. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! 

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

It's All About The Mini

Hi Friends and Fellow Crafters! For the past 2 weeks I have been hard at work on this mini. I took the Masquerade Mini Class at Noel Mignon and I just loved it! Cassie over at Glue Meets Paper taught the class and she was great! She taught us wonderful techniques! I am very proud of this album and I hope that as the years go by, my great niece, Kaylee, enjoys seeing the photos from her very first Halloween! Warning, this post has LOTS of pictures! I am entering my book at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge

Cassie showed us how to use polyurethane to strengthen our covers. She also introduced me to YES paste. It is a great adhesive. The front and back covers are super sturdy.

 Of course I had to break out my Cricut for some embellishments. How cute are the Cricut Bats?  They are from Simply Charmed.

Cricut's Rock Princess had the perfect Skulls for my book!

This page is from a ripped box. I used polyurethane on it to stiffen it, I inked the edges with TH Distress Ink, Black Soot and used Ranger Crackle Paint on it. Then for days, I tried picture after picture on it, and just couldn't bring myself to cover the whole page. I finally decided to not use a picture and I am so happy with the results. The glittered Raven is a wood embellishment that I used Glossy Accents and Martha Stewart Glitter on. So sparkly!

The pumpkin border and spider web corners seen on the other pages are from the Circle Cartridge, Paper Trimmings.

I love the pull out page. The material that was included in the Masquerade Mini Kit was fun and very cool. Cassie's idea for the page is super. It was fun trying new techniques and sewing on some pages. I was finally brave enough to break out the Janome Sewing Machine that I bought a few years ago to use on this book. Thank goodness it worked, as I think the warranty may have expired a couple of years ago! LOL! 

Such a cutie pie!

Autumn Celebrations Halloween Trick or Treaters added a fun touch to the page! 

I loved using the burlap to create a page. Cassie walked us through creating the page and using a Adirondak  Silver Paint Dabber.  I also made a Mini Flip Page for this album. I have never tried that technique either! Look at the tiny little witch! She is from the Circle Cartridge, Paper Trimmings.

I even used some of my Graphic 45! 

Kaylee and her big cousins looked adorable! 

Cassie also showed us how to use a border punch to make fun pages. I used a MS Spider punch on my page. I also used some Thickers Scrabble Tiles that I had in my stash. 

I LOVE this picture! I added an Anna Griffin Sentiment and a Pink Paislee flower that I spritzed with Heidi Swapp Color Shine in Amethyst and brushed some Ice Stickles on. Then some lace ribbon finished it. It's hard to see, but the flower is grungy and sparkly!

My niece texted me this cute picture on Halloween night, it was the perfect way to finish my book.

Back cover

Cassie taught a phenomenal class and Noel Mignon's kit was jam packed with goodies. Well worth the money I spent on it. Not only did I use the kit supplies, but I got to use much of my other Halloween stash. This book is filled with October Afternoon Witch Hazel goodies, Theresa  Collins papers, some that came with the kit and some I had on hand, Anna Griffin Embellishments, Graphic 45 and Cricut cuts. It took me some time to finish it, but it was well worth it! Now I am ready to take on Christmas! 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! 

Happy Crafting!

Colleen

Hello, It's Me...

It's been a very long time since I have done any posting. So much has happened in my life, that I just haven't had the time to blog.

On September 11, 2013, my Mom passed away at the age of 81. She died very peacefully here at home surrounded by my husband, son, her cat, and myself. My Mom was a wonderful person. She was strong, dedicated to her family and friends, funny, loving and could massacre the English language like no other person I have ever known. LOL! She was an animal lover and loved to shop. My Mom was born in Brooklyn in 1931, and no matter how far she lived from Brooklyn, you knew that was where she came from. Most of all, she was devoted to my son. I swear he was her reason for living.

She beat several heart attacks, a triple by-pass, kidney failure, emphysema and she almost beat Alzheimer's. She was also dealing with a broken hip since last February. We had pins put in, but I know the hip still gave her trouble.

She came to live with us 11 years ago. She had a heart attack and the doctor who treated her in North Jersey said she needed a by-pass, but they wouldn't do it because they discovered she had emphysema. Instead, they used stents to unblock her arteries. Since she lived by herself, I said she needed to come to stay with us to recuperate. I picked her up from the hospital September 11, 2002. She was supposed to stay for 4-6 weeks. she stayed until September 11, 2013. Life has a habit of coming full circle, doesn't it? We were lucky to have had her with us.

So since September 11, I have been wandering through a hazy life. Not sure of who I am anymore. I have always been my son's caretaker, but even with the Autism, he has been growing more independent each day. I am so proud of him. I gave up my job when my Mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's Disease about 5 years ago. I became her caretaker. It was a full time job. There were doctor's visits, taking her to her senior groups, taking her shopping, watching old movies with her and just spending time with her, It was a wonderful and sometimes difficult 11 years. We had dinner together every night until she became bedridden in May. My husband would tell her a joke every night and the four of us would laugh. I cherished our family meals. Towards the end, I would eat dinner with my Mom and my husband would come in to tell her the joke of the day. She may not have understood them, but she still laughed. She adored my husband.

We have been trying to move on. My son is non-verbal, so we have been trying mostly to help him cope. We have been seeing an increase in his self-injurious behaviors and he loses his patience quicker than usual. I know this is because he misses my Mom so much. He would tuck her in at night and blow her kisses. He did this almost every night. It was beautiful.

I miss her. I have been crafting and will share some of my projects that I have made over the next few weeks. I am considering using her old room as my craft room. Right now, it is still Nana's room. We are trying to maintain as typical a life as we can for our son. We put up the decorations for Halloween, although not as much on the inside of the house as we usually do, and we continued in our tradition of watching the classic horror movies in the week leading up to Halloween. My mom loved Halloween, she would get such a kick out of seeing the little children all dressed up in their costumes and coming up the leaf covered walkway to our door for candy. She was still young at heart, even dressing up for parties at her senior groups.

I love this picture of my Mom and one of her dearest friends, Betty. I used my October Afternoon Witch Hazel stash. It was odd for me not to use any Cricut cuts on a project. It is bittersweet to finish a layout or project and not bring it to my Mom to look at. She started me down this road of paper crafting and supported me right until she died. I have to believe that she is still cheering my artistic endeavours on from above and that one day, we will all be together telling corny jokes.

Nice to be back again.

Happy Crafting!

Colleen