thank you's and birthdays

On account of the snow...I have been in this apartment for 48 hours and I need to get out! We are off to the movies shortly. The snow did force me to do some cardmaking however. I decided to follow a challenge on two peas Cardmakers/Card-A-Day 2010 Challenge. I roughly followed a few prompts from a few of the challenges for Week #1 to make two cards.

A Happy Birthday for my sister who turns 24 in a few weeks....

On the Birthday card I used: round blue card from Paper Source (with a chocolate brown square envelope). Hero Arts dog stamp and sentiment "If you obey all the rules you miss all the fun" (Life is Not Perfect clear stamp set) and "Happy Birthday" from Hero Arts set (All occasions sentiments clear stamp set). Stamped and embossed with white powder the background of the blue card using a distressed polka dot clear stamp (unsure of source). Added sheer blue polka dot ribbon. Cut out "2" and "4" from a sheet of Creative Cafe Lucky Chocolate Numbers Die-cut paper. Stamped the dog on white cardstock and cut out a circle. Adhered with a pop dot. Colored in the collar with orange sharpie. At the very end I went over the sentiment with brown pen to make it stand out a little more. The ink came out a little faded...

*****

And a Thank You for my Uncle and Aunt for an incredibly wonderful Christmas gift they gave me....

On the Thank You I used: Hero Arts stamp (Row of Houses), balloon cut out of patterned paper (Websters’ Pages Postcards from Paris Tres Magique), grid patterned paper in background (unsure of source), Hero Arts "Thank you very much" (all occassion messages clear stamp set), used a variety of chalk inks. Card and envelope from paper source. I stamped the houses with different inks several times. Cut some of them out and layered them on top of a solid brown row of the stamped houses using dimensional adhesive squares. Also added dimensional adhesive to the back of the balloon. Heat embossed the "Thank you very much" sentiment.

It is a long, confusing story but we do not have any family heirlooms from my mom's family. This uncle is my mom's brother. So for Christmas he found (on EBay I'm assuming) one heart shaped piece of china of the same pattern my Nana had.. As soon as I opened it I teared up. I knew what it was. A family heirloom. It means so much to me. I have it sitting on my art desk. If I think of it I'll take a photo and post it tomorrow. My mom also recieved a piece of china with the pattern. As a young adult she always hoped she would inherit that china set. She didn't. But now we have some pieces that mean an awful lot to us.

Well..I'm off to the movies! Then later I hope to do some more work on a mini album I'm doing with my intentions for 2010. I got all inspired to distress the pages and just let go and create after watching this Heidi Swapp video last night. I don't have glimmer mists, but I used my Tim Holtz distress inks instead. Had so much fun. Need to pick up a few supplies at Michael's after the movie so I can finish it up.

Happy Sunday!