A Boy's Birthday Card

TGIF, everybody!! If this year keeps cruising along at the speed it is now, it won't be long before we're thinking winter holidays again! Personally, I would rush it just a little more as I have a hard time tolerating the summer heat here in Texas, even though I have lived here my whole life.  I also hate shelling out $300-400 each month for electricity, trying to stay cool!  If I could afford to, I would retire to a little cabin in the mountains, I think.

Anyway, there's a brand new challenge at Saturated Canary and the theme this time is red, white and blue.  I have used Krista's cute Basketball Boy to create this birthday card.  It's always easier for me, as I think it is for many people, to make stuff for females so I like to challenge myself whenever I get a chance to make something for the guys in my life.  My grandson turned 11 in May which was before I made this card but I made him a cute one with a football player on it.  Since he plays football it was really more fitting for him anyway, though I just adore this cute little guy!

I {heart} all of the Saturated Canary images but I think this is my favorite boy.  I'm not sure I succeeded but I tried to saturate the color on his uniform to make it resemble the shiny satin-like material often used in making such garments.  I love the expression of concentration on his face as he shoots the hoop. I just KNOW he makes that basket! LOL

I used white paper and red ribbon to make the stripes on the card. I believe the paper is from DCWV's Summer Dreams stack. All of the lettering was done with stickers, except for the #1 on the inside, which was done with stamps.

I'm entering this card in the following challenges:

Saturated Canary #20 - Red, White & Blue
Card Makin Mamas #48 - Color (Red, White & Blue)
Delicious Doodles #22 - 1,2,3 Recipe - 1 image, 2 kinds of bling (stars & circles), 3 ribbons (the red and white stripes) or 3 colors (red, white & blue)
Fussy and Fancy Friday Challenge #65 - Boy Attitude
The Poodles Parlor 6/15/12 - Red. White & Blue
Delightful Challenges 6/20/12 - Anything Goes
DYSU #77 - Inspired by a Movie (Like Mike- 2002)

Well, that's all I have for now. I hope you all enjoy your weekend and that you manage to sneak in some time to be creative. Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

Thursday and a new Scrapbook layout

Good evening, everyone! It's Thursday and I have for you today a new scrapbook layout that I made for Quick Quotes' Friday Challenge #7. Lately, I have really started enjoying creating pretty layouts and I have Quick Quotes to thank for that. Before I discovered their challenges, I made a page once in every great while but now I am wanting to make them all the time. I have so many ideas and not enough time to make them all.

As many of you know, I have been laid off for almost 15 months now but that has ended, at least temporarily, as of today.  I started working contract and today was my first day.  Working as a contractor, the position pays less than half what I was making prior to being laid off... that and having less time to craft are the down side!  The upside is that I have my foot in the door and the company I am working for is eventually going to hire two people to do what another contract employee and I are doing now so if I perform up to their expectations and keep my nose clean, I have a chance of getting hired into this position permanently and that would mean about another $5.00 an hour.  Still not close to what I was making but it's far better than unemployment and there are benefits!  Yay! And to make it even more attractive, it's not that far from where I live and the dress code is "comfortable"!!  How awesome is THAT??? LOL  And get this!  The other person working with me has a masters degree and she has been unable to find a decent job too!  So it's not just me as I was beginning to think.

Okay, now on to today's project.  This little scrapbook page is a rather loose interpretation of the sketch provided by Quick Quotes Blog for their challenge.  As I said, I had lots of pretty cool ideas for this sketch but I decided to make a layout featuring two of my nephews; brothers who are the sons of my younger sister who passed away in May of 2010 from breast cancer.  I have had these adorable pictures since they were little boys.  The older boy is now an electrical engineer and was married last May and the younger one is about 3 years out of high school, is engaged and is working full time.  It just astounds me that all my siblings' children are grown now.  It sure makes me feel old!  Anyway, I'll show you the sketch first and then my layout.

Here's the sketch.  Pretty cool, right?

Okay, now here's my layout.  Like I said, it's a loose interpretation but I hope it works well enough.

Actually, other than the location of the journaling, it's pretty accurate.

Weren't they adorable little guys?  They're still pretty cute and they're definitely sweet but nothing close to what they were then.  Anyway, that's it.  I hope you enjoyed seeing it as much as I enjoyed making it.  I'll be posting several new cards starting tomorrow night.  One will be for my guest design team feature on Color Me Creative Classroom Challenge and 4 plus a gift bag for CDAC's Progressive Freebie Challenge.

I am entering this layout in the following challenges:

Quick Quotes Friday Challenge #7 - sketch

Before I go, I'd like to mention that Joy's Life's new design team posted their first projects on Wednesday so stop by the brand new Joy's Life Design Team Blog to see their beautiful creations and enter to win some awesome prizes.  As I mentioned before, we are divided into 2 groups and next week will be my team's turn to post.  I got a quick look at their projects today and let me tell you that Team 1 did an awesome job!  Check 'em out and visit their personal blogs if you have a few minutes.

Thanks for stopping by and wish me luck on this job thing.  I sure could use a break!  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee

I'm baaaack! and a Patriotic theme Paper a la Mode challenge at The Outlawz this week

Hello, my crafty friends!

Things are starting to settle down a bit so I'm back with a new card for you. I have been making some new ones today because I have almost run out of the ones I made in the last large batch 3 weeks ago. I made a card to celebrate Independence Day for a card swap. I paper pieced the American flag and let me tell you, it was quite a challemge! I really liked the way it turned out and I have no idea who ended up receiving it but I hope that whoever did enjoyed it. It took several attempts to get the pattern the way I wanted it and by the time I got all of the pieces cut (and there were a BUNCH of them, it was pulling my hair out!! As I told some of my Outlawz teamies, I try very hard not to curse but I slipped up several times while I was making this card. It is my sample card in the Paper a la Mode challenge this week, where the theme is Patriotic, in keeping with our 4th of July celebrations, but anybody can play along as long as they celebrate patriotism for whatever country they reside in. It doesn't have to be American patriotism and our neighbors to the north celebrated Canada Day on Friday so we're hoping to see a variety of projects from around the globe.

Here is my first sample card for my new design team! I was so excited to be able to contribute something I was really proud of, even if it did cause me some major grief in its making. All the little stars were made using a corner punch that has a star on it and the stripes were just sketched to look like the flag is flying in the wind.

Even though thetow sections which comprise the flag are relatively flat, I was able to use foam pop dots to make them appear more 3-dimensional. The stars behind the flag were dry embossed using a Cuttlebug border folder. All of the solid color cardstock is from Recollections and the patterned paper on the inside is from DCWV's All About Boys stack. I thought it worked perfectly for this card.  The frame is gold glitter cardstock, from DCWV's Mariposa Cardstock stack. The red glitter letters/numbers as well as the blue letters are cardstock stickers that I bought at Hobby Lobby. Even though I wish I had made 2 of these while I was at it (so I could keep one), I don't think I will ever attempt this pattern again unless I have a lot more time to mess with it.

So there you have it. If you enjoy great challenges with awesome prizes, come join us at The Outlawz. There is a different challenge each day of the week so there should be something that appeals to you no matter what part of paper crafting you enjoy most. Happy July 4th if you live in the U.S.; otherwise, have a wonderful week!  Until next time...

Happy crafting!
Anniebee