Happy Birthday to a real classic!

Mom invited my husband and I over to celebrate my dad's birthday tomorrow, so I couldn't put off making his card any longer!

The car and circles came from Holiday Cakes, a cartridge I'd picked up a while ago because it was a good price and I figured a variety of holiday images can always come in handy.  I hadn't used it until today though.  The black circle was run through the Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder and the green strip was run through the Spots and Dots folder.  With the patterned paper, I figured I'd better put the sentiment on one of the red circles, but I didn't have a stamp that small and didn't want to mess around with my computer printer, so I went with handwritten sentiments this time.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Skipping Stones Design #113--sketch challenge

Whimsical Designs--Bringing out the old (Holiday Cakes cartridge)

Die Cuttin Divas #50--Anything goes

Craft Spot by Kimberly--Anything goes

Birthday Sundaes--Challenge #41, Easel card

Summer Sunshine

One of my coworkers lost her brother unexpectedly a few weeks ago.  We passed around a calendar signing up to bring a meal to her family.  Tomorrow is my turn.  I knew that in addition to a meal, I wanted to bring some cookies.  So, the blog hop and challenge at Baking up Crafts was perfect timing.  Actually, I had been planning on making chocolate chip cookies, but on the blog hop, I came across a recipe for easy lemon cookies on The Joyful Stamper's blog and decided to try those instead.  Of course, I had to taste test one first to make sure they were good enough to give away :)

Then, I wanted to make a card to cheer her up.  A smiling summer sun came to mind.  I used My Cut Search to search through the carts to find a good one.  (This site seems faster than using the Gypsy search, and I like that you can see the whole handbook page rather than just the keypad overlay.)  I used the sun from Smiley Cards.  His sunglasses are from EDPD.  The tags on the top of the card and the base of the pedestal are form Tags, Bags, Boxes and More.  The turquoise background was run through the D'Vine Swirls Cuttlebug folder and the white square was run through Spots and Dots.     I also used an Action Wobble for the first time.  I had signed up months ago for a free sample on Momo's blog and was saving them for the perfect occasion.  I thought it would add some extra cheer to this card.

This card will be entered in the following challenges:

Whimsical Wednesdays--Fun with color challenge #11--I used the required red and yellow and also pulled the colors turquoise and white from the provided photo.

Baking up Crafts--project involving baking and crafts

Fantabulous Cricut Challenge #65--summer sun

Cute Card Thursday #170--sketch challenge

More Thank Favors Wacky Wednesday #32--tags

More Than Favors CCCC #22--Tags, Bags, Boxes and More

Celebrate the Occasion #19--Celebrating Summer (must have a sun)

After posting this, I got an e-mail from the Joyful Stamper suggesting I link up my project to her Inspire Me Friday, so that perhaps I can inspire others to do something similar for someone in need.

Speedy Recovery

I wanted to make another card for my dad during his recovery from heart surgery (which was today and went well).  I had seen a card by All Scrapped Out during a challenge that was my inspiration.  Her card was very pretty and feminine.  I needed to make mine more manly since it was for my dad.  My intention was to use some of my scraps, but I just wasn't finding any color combos I liked in my scraps today.  This project just took way longer than it should have.  Here's what I ended up with:

The turtle is from Create a Critter.  His shoes are from Everyday Paper Dolls.  I used my Gypsy to make them the right size for the turtle.  The circles for the sentiment are from Graphically Speaking.

In addition to my inspiration from All Scrapped Out, I should thank Split Coast Stampers for giving the dimensions for a horizontal pedestal card.  The one measurement they didn't give is for the little card that gives the design something to rest against so the card doesn't close.  I made mine 2.5 x 5.25 inches.  I would also like to thank Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog for their clever idea on how to print on die cuts rather than using the Center Point feature on the Cricut.  (I've had my Cricut for a year and still haven't used that feature yet!)

This card will be entered in:
Flaunt it Friday challenge #4--using the turtle from Create a Critter
Paper Issues "New" challenge--Create a Critter is a new cart for me, and dad's got a new heart valve

Faulty valve? Well wishes for heart surgery

My dad will be having heart surgery on Dec. 27th.  He has never had any health problems, so he seems a bit nervous about such a big procedure.  One of his Christmas gifts is going to be a pair of comfy pants to wear during his recovery.  I decided to make him this card to give him a smile before surgery and let him know that everything will be alright.  I made it a pedestal card so he can display it in his hospital room if he wants.

Here's the basic info:  The background paper with the cars is from DCWV stack 6.  The circles and bolts are from Graphically Speaking (I have really used that cart a lot more than I ever anticipated when I bought it).  The mechanic and his hair and clothes are all from the race car driver from Everyday Paper Dolls.  His face is from Peachy Keen Stamps PK-570.  The wrench is from Indie Art (Thanks to the free Gypsy download!).  The green, blue, and brown squares were run through the Diamonds in the Rough Cuttlebug folder.

This card will be entered in Cute Card Thursday's sketch challenge #144.  It will also be shared at the Fantabulous Cricut Challenge Blog.  Although there is no challenge there this week due to the holidays, they are inviting people to share what they are making.

Thanksgiving birthday card

My uncle's birthday falls on Thanksgiving this year, so I wanted to make a combined birthday card.  I used the Gypsy Font and the cornucopia from Paper Dolls Dress Up.  This card will be entered in the Cricut Cardz Challenge #46 (anything goes), Paper Cutz Challenge #63 (anything goes), and the Paper Playtime challenge #20 (orange as main color).

Update 10/30/10

Uncle Pete passed away last night.  He will be greatly missed by many.  As his youngest daughter posted on Facebook, "I just take comfort that he can once again hear and has no physical problems now that he is in heaven."