My Favorite Things 10th Birthday Celebration

I am posting to join in the My Favorite Things 10th Birthday party.  I love my MFT products, especially my Die-namics – so creative and unique!

Today was my last day for free creativity before we get back into our daily routines after a busy month of June.  The party challenge is to use the number 10 in some way.

I used a few MFT stamp sets for this card, stamping 2 of them 10 times each – 1) the little aqua star, and 2) the “enjoy your special day” sentiment in the background.

Thanks for stopping in today.  I hope you all have a great weekend!
-Ally

Supplies:
Stamps:  Birthday Greetings, On The Line, Party Balloons, Pretty Poppies (MFT); Balloon Celebration (SU)
Ink:  Grout Gray (MFT); Regal Rose (SU); Aqua Mist (PTI); Tuxedo Black (Memento)
Paper/Cardstock:  Aqua Mist DP, Smokey Shadow Cardstock, Rustic White Cardstock (PTI); White (Xpedx)
Embellishments:  Rhinestones (Kaisercraft, Recollections)
Tools:  Party Balloons, Pierced Fishtail Flag STAX (MFT)

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Butterfly Die Winner

Hi there.

I’m a little late, after a busy day today.  But I’m here to follow up on the Penny Black butterfly die from my previous post.

There were 5 comments indicating interest in the die.  Of those 5, Random.org gave me number 3 as the winner:

Comment #3 came from Debby:

Debby, if you will please email your mailing address to me, I will send this die off to you in the mail sometime in the following week.  I hope that you’ll be able to use and enjoy this die despite it’s little deficiency! 😉

Thank you.
-Ally

A Little Die That Needs A New Home

Hi, again.

I’ve been meaning to post this for a long time, but life always gets busy, doesn’t it?

Last year, I purchased this lovely Penny Black Swirling Wings butterfly die from somewhere on the internet:

So you can see what it looks like in practice, I used it on this previous card:

As is completely typical with me, it was months before I even took it out of the package to use it.  I used it several times, in spite of a very small defect in its cutting abilities – There is a little patch of the upper left wing that doesn’t quite cut clean through, no matter how many shims I utilize!  After using my utility knife to intricately cut out that portion each time I used it, I decided that I didn’t have the patience to continue doing that.  So, I purchased a new one straight from Penny Black, and this defective one has sat on a shelf ever since then.

If there is someone out there in the United States who has more patience for hand cutting intricate little pieces than I do and who wants a free butterfly die, I will send this die to you.  Most of it cuts just fine!  It’s just that one small section that needs a little personal attention.  If you have the patience for that, please leave me a comment here.  If only one person wants it, I will send it off to that person.  If more than one person want it, I will draw a name from the comments and send it to that person.

So:
1. I will only ship this die to someone who lives in the United States (my apologies, internationals!)
2. If only one person comments, I will send it to that person.
3. If more than one person comments, I will draw a name on Saturday, July 2.
4. If no one wants it, I will throw it in the garbage on Saturday, July 2.

Thanks, and Happy Monday. 😉
-Ally

A Little Bit of Creativity

Hello.

I know – I appear here at the most random times, right?

We have had the month of June off from lessons, with other events crowding out the time for now.  I spent the first few days of the spare time organizing and cleaning my little heart out.  PincessA is now finished with elementary lessons, so I’ve also spent a lot of time researching junior high lesson options.

Today, though, nothing would suffice but to (finally) turn on my favorite playlist of beautiful classical music and create a card.  It was nice to do something creative.

I used the Paper Players challenge #301 for a little inspiration boost.

 

These little cakes from Reverse Confetti are so adorable and fun to work with, and I also love the Taylored Expressions Skinny Mini dies.  I made a set of 4 cards in coordinating colors, while I was at it.

I hope you are all doing well.
-Ally

Stamps:  Candles ‘n Confetti (Reverse Confetti); Garden Starter (Newton’s Nook)

Ink:  Tuxedo Black (Memento); Hibiscus Burst, Hawaiian Shores, Berry Sorbet, Limeade Ice, Amethyst Allure (Papertrey Ink); Smoky Slate (Stampin’ Up); Copic Markers; Wink of Stella Glitter Pen

Paper:  Hibiscus Burst, Smokey Shadow (Papertrey Ink); Striped Digital Paper (Baer Designs on Etsy); Misc Glittered Cardstock

Dies:  Skinny Mini Party Borders (Taylored Expressions); Candles ‘n Confetti (Reverse Confetti); Wonky Stitches (Avery Elle)

Tools:  Tulip Border Embossing Folder (Stampin’ Up)

Life

We have had an emotional week.

Our neighbor across the street, whom we love so very deeply, lost his beloved wife through tragic circumstances last week.  She was only 39 years old, leaving behind 5 children, the youngest of which is not quite 1 year old.

This sweet woman was the epitome of everything that is good and wonderful and beautiful about life, so loved and cherished by all who knew her.  We have been friends with this extraordinary family for a decade.  The husband is the leader of our local church group.  Their children play with our children.  One of their sons is in our Cub Scout den with Little Man.  We and all our friends and neighbors have shared life’s events with them.

Our little neighborhood has been grieving for the loss of a dear loved one, but we have also come together to love and support each other.  And there is much comfort in our knowledge of the Savior and that we will see her again.

I tried to make a sympathy card for our friends, but I just could not do it.  The situation is too close, too real, and it is just too hard right now.  Hopefully I’ll be able to find the courage soon.

For now, my creativity led me to making a card for another next-door neighbor who was affected more than the rest of us, something to let her know that she is loved too as she processes her grief.

This sentiment would definitely describe the friend we’ve lost.  The world was much, much brighter because of her!  Hopefully this card will cheer the friend to whom I’ve given it.  I also made 4 more of them for her to use in the future to brighten someone else’s day.

I have felt heartbroken, prone to bursting into tears at every small detail around me, trying to process what has happened, trying to remember the important things in life, trying to find ways to help our friends,….

It is just one of those sad life events that doesn’t make sense but must somehow be accepted.

Thanks for stopping in today and lending a listening ear.
-Ally

Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary – Day 10

I had to skip the challenge yesterday, since the day just didn’t go how I had planned.  But today’s challenge for the Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary party is to use the Alphabet Printable to determine which elements from the list we would be using, based on the letters of our names.  I used the following letters from both my first and last names, which resulted in the following elements to use on my card:

A – Add a border.
L – Lean your sentiment at an angle.
Y – Incorporate a shade of yellow.
O – Incorporate some kind of an ombre look or effect.
N – Try a new project that you purchased but haven’t used yet.
R – Round some or all of your corners.
* I cherry-picked and did not use all the letters in my name, nor are they in order, which is why they might spell an odd name if you read it as is….

Sadly, there are so many products that I haven’t used yet.  There just isn’t enough time in my days to get to everything.  But I decided to use the Flower Favorites stamp set as my never-before-used item.

For the ombre effect, I used a digital paper from a little Etsy shop called La Boutique Dei Colori.  I used the filigree border stamp from the Love and Marriage stamp set at the bottom of the Instant Photo #1 frame, the frame also providing the rounded corners.  I used the Quatrefoil Cover Plate for the white background, over a Rustic White card base.  The flowers are stamped in Harvest Gold, Berry Sorbet, and Simply Chartreuse.  The sentiments are from the Flower Favorites set, as well.  I added a little strand of Ecru embroidery floss and a few rhinestones for the final touches.

I’m a little sad to see the week of creativity coming to an end – this has been fun for me.  But I’m also hoping to find time in the days ahead for a bit of blogging fun.  Fingers crossed…

Thank you so much, everyone, for stopping by this week.  I very much appreciate all your kind words about my cards!

Thank you. 😉
-Ally

Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary – Day 8

The challenge for Day 8 of the Papertrey Ink 9th Anniversary fun is to allow the Color Pop Fortune Teller to select the colors we will work with for our project.

I began with number 3 (in honor of the kidlins), which landed me on Hibiscus Burst.  My birthday month is January (1), which led me to Orange Zest and Pure Poppy as my 2 additional colors.

I went in search of my Bitty Bouquets stamp set and eventually ended up with this card:

I took the liberty of adding in some Simply Chartreuse for the stems.  (I hope that’s not too much of a derailment from the challenge guidelines!)  I also used the frame image from Fillable Frames #8 and a sentiment from Fillable Frames #4.

Since I was having such fun with this project, I kept working and turned it into a trio:

Thanks for stopping in today to see my creations.  I appreciate it!
-Ally