There were three anniversaries to celebrate in May. The last one is today—Sarah and Adam are celebrating their ninth anniversary! Nine years—that hardly seems possible. Here’s the card that went in the mail to them. Hopefully, it arrived today before they see the blog.

If you remember a post for Pairs in April, I created a whole set of cards using the “happy” die from Wet Paint II from Papertrey Ink. The strip of patterned paper is from Amy Tangerine’s “Plus One” paper pad.

I stacked three die cuts on top of one another for dimension, and added a gold heart from my stash of die cut hearts and stars.

This card was made for a couple who were married on my birthday the year Matt was born. Everything except the stamp (“Banner Sentiments”) came from the Simon Says May Card Kit.

Lastly, a card for Tracy’s brother and his wife. I bought the Art Deco Background stamp from Papertrey quite some time ago, and this is the first time I’ve gotten it to work the way I wanted. The die cut above is also from Papertrey Ink—“Block Talk.” It was another die cut in my little box of previously cut dies.

Now I’m off to make one more anniversary card—another one like Sarah and Adam’s perhaps, for friends who celebrate their anniversary next week.

There is a baby shower today in Hyde Park for my niece who is expecting her first baby, a little boy. She’s due the day after my birthday, so I’m hoping for a delivery a day early! I wish I could be there, but we leave (again) this afternoon for Chicago. Sarah and the youth group from her church fly to the Dominican Republic this morning for a mission trip. She’s returning Tuesday night (before the youth group returns) to be back in town for Holy Week services. With both Sarah and Adam in church a lot this week, Grandma and Grandpa will be spending lots of time with Caleb. A good deal all around!

I sent the gift and card for the shower to my brother ahead of time. 

A CAS card, my preferred style. All the products except the enamel dots (MME) are from Papertrey Ink: Bitty Dot Basics, Select White cardstock, Wonderful Words: Baby die, Sheer Basics vellum, and the new Keep It Simple frames. I love that striped vellum which worked perfectly with the frame.

My Dining Room Ministry prepares lunch today at church, so I’m off to cook lunch before we get on the road. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have to post or comment while we’re away, but I’ll be catching up with you when we return. We got another inch or so of snow last night, and the wind is whipping outside my window. I hope Spring finally decides to make an appearance by the time we return!

Today is Tracy’s birthday, and what fun to be able to celebrate it in sunny Florida! When Papertrey Ink released “Zappy Birthday” I just fell in love with it. I decided I didn’t need the stamps, just the die cuts and so far, I’m happy with that decision.

The patterned papers are from a pad called “Comic Strip,” released at the same time. The sentiment is from a W Plus 9 set, “Super Star.”

Here’s the inside:

I have to admit this card took me quite awhile to put together. My desk was cluttered with all kinds of die cuts in different colors and patterned papers. I tried vertical cards, horizontal cards, and all kinds of arrangements when I finally came up with this, and I do like it a lot.

I made a second card for my niece’s husband, Kevin, while I had all the die cuts out. This one looks more complicated, but in reality, came together quite quickly, thanks to the patterned paper.

It’s really a fun card, and Kevin is a fun guy so I hope he likes it! The sentiment is from “Sentiment Sampler” by Paper Smooches, as is the inside sentiment:

The font of this set seemed to fit the playful nature of the card.

Off to celebrate!

Today is Matt’s 32nd birthday. He’s celebrating with his three favorite girls, Betsy, Skylar, and Ella in Niagara Falls. They’re staying at a hotel overlooking the falls with a swimming pool, and have plans to visit the aquarium and perhaps, the butterfly garden nearby. It’s a weekend retreat from the winter weather here. They’ll get to see Niagara Falls frozen over, which is a rare event! 

I took this photo yesterday when I delivered our gift and card to him before they left. For the first time in either of our memories, I bought him a birthday card rather than make one. He’s been into brewing his own beer in their basement, and I found the perfect “Hoppy Brewday!” birthday card at Trader Joe’s a few weeks ago. Here’s another shot of Matt with Skylar on their way out to play in the snow. He’s a great husband, dad, and son, and we are so proud of him!

Even though I didn’t make Matt a card, I do have a couple birthday cards for guys that I haven’t shared. The first one was for a friend in Denver.

A piece of woodgrain patterned paper from MME, a die and stamp from Papertrey Ink, and three wooden embellishments, also from MME, and it was done.

Lots of gold embossing on this one. The triangle background stamp is from Hero Arts, and the sentiment is one of my favorites from Winnie and Walter’s “The Big, The Bold, and The Happy.”

We’re off in a few hours to celebrate Tracy’s and Tom’s birthdays (both occur in March). For the last several years, we’ve gone out to dinner with Jill (Tracy’s sister) and Tom to celebrate. Usually we go between their two birthdays, but we won’t be in town on Tracy’s birthday, and Jill won’t be here on Tom’s so tonight’s the night. (Both their cards are finished in and in my tote bag to be given–or mailed–on the appropriate dates!)

Actually the weather wasn’t very cooperative for Halloween Trick or Treating tonight. We’ve had a steady drizzle all day and evening, and it’s chilly. In Chicago, it was worse. They had hail and rain. After three houses, Caleb announced he was “Done!” Fortunately, they didn’t spend any money getting him ready this year as he was able to wear the dinosaur costume I made for Matt over 20 years ago! Here he is a couple weeks ago trying it out.

And practicing his roar.

I don’t know how Skylar enjoyed Halloween. We went down while she was getting into her costume. She wanted to be Elsa from Frozen (no surprise!), and she seemed pretty happy about getting out to go trick or treating.

She was off to visit her other grandpa before heading out, and we came home to welcome the few trick or treaters that braved the rain. We had some really cute ones, but not very many.

I made a couple Halloween cards a while back and sent one to Caleb and one to Skylar.

The first one uses some stamps and dies from Papertrey’s Friendship Jar:  Fall Fillers as well as some border stickers I’ve had in my stash for a long time. Not sure who made them. The same is true for the stickers (same set) on the next card.

Since I have a very limited selection of Halloween stamps, both cards were the same inside with images from the Friendship Jar: Fall Fillers set.

I must admit Halloween has never been a favorite holiday, but I do enjoy seeing my grandchildren in their costumes!