Birthday cards...... times four!

I am normally not one to make the same card more than once - but I had some really fun papers that I wnated to try and a birthday word file  that inspired me to cut the same design and see what I could do, Honestly, there is nothing very unique about any of these cards, but I had fun choosing the colors and just playing!

The iridescent and textured papers that make up the colors of the butterfly are origami papers, 

HSN carried them for a while, and I have seen them elsewhere, but have to remember where!  

I wasn't sure if these would cut well because of the embossing on some  the papers, 

but they cut perfectly each time with the Silver Bullet Professional Cutter.

The solid color card bases are from the Mica (Stardream)  line from Paper Temptress and the designs are also the Mica line - but text weight.   the white card base is the Luster line.  The butterfly flourish is an old file form Mamaw's Legacy (I wish she was still making files as they are terrific) - so glad I grabbed then when I could.  And the birthday words are from Miss Kate's Cuttables and they cut with ease.

I still have more August cards to make and September, so stay tuned for more!  Hope you enjoyed these... Pin It Now!

Summer Cards - simple and not so!

I don't know if anyone else has a lot of friends with birthdays in the summer, but I have been flooded with them - happily so.  I love celebrating someone else's birthday . But the down side of needed more than one or two cards is that the creativity does not always line up with the need.  Tell me you can relate to that...
I will share a way I pushed myself through in a later post,but first I want to share these four cards that could not be more different, and cover a wide variety of occasions!


This first one is a simple thinking of you card. The background design is from Totally Jamie.

Design by Totally Jamie

 The papers are from Paper Temptress and the flower layers were run through an embossing dot pattern (Embossalicious petite dot) and layered with pop dots.  My goal was to make it cheery.  The basic design of the center flower is from Birds Cards. I just copied it a few times, making each one smaller so I could get a layered look.   Then the flowers were embossed with a dot folder and assembled using pop dots. Simple, easy, and it makes me happy to look at it.  Hopefully the recipient will feel the same way :)

Papers from Paper Temptress - Pop Tone, Sparkle and Mica

The second card is also simple.  The design is from Birds Cards. Birds files cut beautifully every time, especially with the Silver Bullet Professional Cutter. And the card stock is of course from Paper Temptress.  This birthday card was for a male, so kept all of the frilly stuff off it which is SO hard for me!  I need to work at embellishing male cards in different ways!

More Paper Temptress Pop Tones

Side view with pop dots

The third card is a combination of all things easy and together they make a striking card.   I used a siimple pinked edge circle pattern for the spirelli circles.  I love doing spirelli - it's relaxing.  I just used a variegated metallic thread and wrapped it around the edges for that pop of color. The center is a Prima embellishment that I have had for ages.  (Yes I am trying to use up the stash!!)

Closeup of the spirella wrap with metallic thread . The pinked edges are inked

with a marker to give them a little more depth.

The greeting was simply printed, but could be stamped as well.  Then all were layered on top and - DONE!! This congratulations message was for my daughter up in Fresno who just secured a full time teaching job - and although I think she might have preferred the lower grades, she was "blessed" with sixth graders!  Actually I think they were blessed to get her - but the challenge is that she was hired on Monday morning, back to school night was that evening, and school started on Wednesday!  Yikes.....
I know she will be up to the challenge and am excited for her - so it was the best way I had to let her know!

The fourth card was inspired from a store bought card I have had for ages.  It has foiled swirls coming out from the center - all in different colors with some glitter and it's just really pretty.  I wanted to duplicate the variety of colors and make it look magical.

The store bought inspiration!

 I was going through a stack of papers that I haven't used in a while and found this holographic vinyl.  It is made by Duck Brand and I thought it would be perfect.  I have been collecting files from Miss Kate's Cuttables, and she has a variety of flourishes, so I used one of her sets, took one design and mirrored it and welded it to give me the center piece and added anotherwirl on top.  It sparkles in vibrant colors depending on how the light reflects..  I just love how it looks.  I printed the "happy birthday" first and then applied the vinyl. Then just added little rhinestones to accent the swirls.  I will definitely play with this Duck Fireworks pattern again   - it was too much fun.  This card went to a very special friend celebrating her 70th birthday - and I am not naming names! :)

Gradient printing done on Paper Temptress Luster Silk

Hard to photograph at that angle, but you can see the cuts in the shiny vinyl. 

Cuts like butter!!

The beautiful colors in this vinyl really show in the light here and below -

different angles produce a different array of colors.

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Birthday Brunch Bake! - Part Two (the food)...

Well it was a great weekend here...... all of the kids were together to celebrate Rob's birthday (my youngest)

Rather than do our usual birthday dinners, we had a special brunch that was actually really fun and a much easier way to entertain!  Why did it take me so many years to figure that out??  Good grief....

In the midst of getting breakfast/brunch on the table, I totally missed the photo of this awesome breakfast treat.  It's one of those that you have to take the photo quickly because it deflates pretty quickly. By the time we sat down to eat it looked more like topography map of a valley surrounded by mountains! (that is the extent of my geographic terms!)  But........ once we all overcame the visual, the actual taste was FABULOUS!  Oh my gosh........ it was like eating dessert for breakfast - but the eggs and bread made it "legal"  - right??  The best description I can come up with is..... it tasted like a cremé brulee topped bread pudding.  Is that decadent enough?  If not...... well, will have to work on that one!  Just trust me - it was delicious!

Bacon and a fresh fruit salad rounded out the meal and it was just fun to have the three kids and two and 1/3 grandkids with everyone laughing and talking at the same time.  I don't know what is more fun than an animated family gathering! :)  I loved every minute as the times we are all together are few and far between and I cherish every one of them!

French Toast Bake

adapted from Butter with a Side of Bread

Base:
1 loaf of Hawaiian bread, cut in 3/4" strips
8 eggs
2 cups milk
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp. vanilla bean crush (KAF)*
1 tsp. butter vanilla bakery emulsion (LorAnn)*
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
===============
Topping:
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter
1 1/3 c. brown sugar
1 c. flour

Place the strips of bread in the bottom of a buttered 13x9" baking dish.  In a large bowl, mix the eggs, milk, cream, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.Pour over bread slices.  Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat the oven to 350.  Then combine the butter, brown sugar and flour in a medium sized microwave safe bowl.and heat in the microwave for intervals of  30-45 seconds  for several minutes, or until the mixture is completely melted.  Pour over (it can be thick so you may need to spread it quickly) the bread and place it in the oven for 45-60 minutes.  It will come out beautifully tall and deflate as it cools.

The directions say to cool for 5 minutes...... I would say at least 15 or warn your guests as the brown sugar mixture is HOT!!!  But........it is oh.....so.......good!!

* Or use 2 tsp. vanilla extract in place of the extract and emulsion

Early prep....

Hot buttery brown sugar mixture as it goes into the oven...

Fresh out of the oven...one hour later....

The sunken wonder!! LOL  You can't tell, but the candle was sitting in a glass star holder and it sunk into the middle of the bread!! Rob had to blow that flame out FAST!!

So..... just to be sure you are paying attention - did you catch my reference to the "odd number" used in reference to my grandchildren??  Yes there is news.........

Scott and Megan are expecting their first child the middle of February. 

We are all quite excited - thrilled - elated - and more!! Pin It Now!

Birthday Brunch Bake! - Part One - (the card)

The brunch description and recipe will be part two of this post, but  first, the birthday prep began with the making of a card - of course!  It's so hard to realize and accept  that "my baby"  has reached his mid- twenties.  I am not "that old"...... how could he be???  It still seems like yesterday when I brought Rob home for that first time...... my  how fast it all flies by!

So what does one do for a birthday that marks a quarter of a century??  Yes I should have done something with a "quarter" theme, but of course that didn't come to me.  I was focused on the "25" - so that was it -- a very simple card,  but sometimes simple is the best.  The sun ray shape (not sure what to properly call it)  was a free clip art image and I just cut the numbers from a font and added a shadow layer - easy peasy!  The gold background was run through a 6x6" embossing folder from  Embossalicious called, not surprisingly, "Happy Birthday".  I know..............  The papers are all from the Paper Temptress mica line.

It was hard to figure out what to do for him as I have pretty much hit all of his interests over the past few years, but hopefully the effort was appreciated.  Will have to start working ahead of time to get more creative next year!  If I can ever master my coloring skills, then that would broaden my options and I could take on an Animé character!!  That would be fun and he would love that.  Better start practicing!

The sun ray was placed in an Embossalicious folder - Chevrons.  

So if the thin rays look uneven, it is because of the embossing as it distorted their shape a little!

Pop dots behind the numbers to give them a little dimension

The final product!

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