Birthday Cards

Many of you might notice that I am posting this around, oh,  4:30 in the morning! That's because Jamie's new job at Lowes requires him to get there by 4. Also, many who may read this know that I am an avid sleeper. There are two things that I love more than sleep, and that would be my family (especially Jamie) and food. But since Jamie gets up at 3:15 every Mon, Wed, and Fri I have reluctantly followed suit. Needless to say, I woke up before his alarm around 3 this morning and haven't been able to quite go to sleep.  : ]  

So here comes the real part of my blog. Now since it's only the 15th my little sister CANNOT READ ANY MORE OF THIS BLOG! Atleast she can't read any more until she gets her birthday card in the mail. That is also applicable to my Mom. So if you're reading you must stop, Mom!

Now that I have that discloser out of the way, every one else can google at my new cards that I made last night! I think that they are so cute! Before I show you them I need to inform those of you who don't know that my little sister turns 7 on the 18th of this month and my Mom turned ...... well she had her birthday on the 5th of this month! So, obviously I'm late on my mom's but I figured since I can't be late on my sister's I would send them both a card at once. hehehe.
" O the cleverness of me!" --Peter Pan

 So with out further ado, here is my Mom's birthday card. I tried to pick some papers that woudn't be too busy but yet would be something feminine that my mom would like.

I'd also just like to point out that her card is simple, but nice. Which is really how I think of my mom. It doesn't take a lot to make her happy and she is one of the nicest people that I know. I just wanted to give her something that she would like for a while.

And of course it's not Hallmark or anything close, so I had to put a little something on the back. Not that anyone really big is ever going to see it, but making cards is my thing and I like people to know it. :]

 One of the things that I'd like to point out while I've got it here is the detailing of the paper edge when they change papers. You can see it really good on the first picture up there right above "Mom" I even highlighted it. Not that it's anything super cute but I got a new rotery cutter from the discount aisle in Wal-mart. I also got my new mat there too! I love them and I thought this was the perfect project to try them out on!

Now on to Ximinie's Birthday Card!

(for those of you who don't know how to say that it's pronounced Zim-AN-EE)

Now my sister is actually turning 7 and so she is still very much in the mode of pinks and princesses. So for her card I decided to jazz it up a bit. Nothing really fancy because a) it will probably be hanging on her door and b) I just don't have a lot.

I wanted her to very much feel like this was her very special day as a princess, because it is! But I definitely wanted her to feel that way. Just because she's 7 doesn't mean that she isn't as vulnerable as the next 14-year-old. So on her card I decided to dress it up with lots of pink and still make her feel like a big girl and put something a little more formal too.

 And if you'll look at the side of the card (I blew it up so that you could see it better) I put lots of extra little notes because she adores me ; ] Not that I'm hepped up on myself or anything but I know that she really does like me. I'm the closest one to her age out of the 5 of us and so she got to spend much more time with me than pretty much any of the others. Now that I'm married I know that she misses me just as much as my parents do, if not more ; ]  In any case, I jazzed it up with some doodles of my own! lol. You'd think that an Art Major might actually be better at doodle-ing. And then to top it all off I closed with the lovely script on the back that says I made it especially for her. And honestly I did. I hope that everyone that has a birthday coming up has a wonderful time on their special day! And for those who just had a birthday, I hope that you paraded around feeling like you were the best thing to grace this planet. In fact, we truely are, in our own individual ways, some of the best people to grace this planet! Have a awesome day!

Halloween Crafts!

About a week ago Jamie and I bought these beautiful pumpkins for tons of fall decor! I was so excited and just couldn't wait to get started. I had so many different ideas banging around in my head that it was hard to pick what I wanted to do. You'll have to forgive some of my somewhat "crude" crafting. I'm not a professional yet, but I do have some decent ideas. It seems that time really is a factor for the perfection of crafting, and I give my Kudos to those who make it look so easy and quick. Also, I haven't gotten used to taking all kinds of pictures of my stages and I appologize for no pictures with the steps. I'll have to work on that.

Now my first decoration is a Trick or treat pumpkin! I loved it so much that I am trying my hand at a Trick or Treat sing and I'll post pictures of that later when it's all finished. However, I did pick up this font and get up already turned backwards from this site : ]  I also end up using the witch mentioned here on the sign as well. It's just all so super cute!

1. I ended up tracing the writting out becausse I don't have a printer and putting it onto some cardstock.

2.Once on the cardstock I cut it out with an exacto knife making a template.

3. I placed them onto the pumpkin where I wanted the words and painted. *note that due to the roundness of the pumpkin, it was difficult to make it even and it came out splotchy. I think that adds something though.

4. I took the bottom and painted it all black just for extra kicks. Ultimately I like the way it turned out. Not quite as crisp, but I feel it adds to the Halloween mood.

 

The next project that was on my list is an apple. We'd had some extra apples that were laying around and it got me to thinking that I should do something like the poison apple off of Snow White. Now my apple is not nearly as fancy as theirs because, frankly, I'm only working on a dime. I'd used some old art supplies for the paint ( just standard acrylic paint) and an apple out of the bunch that we had. So, it didn't cost me anything. I'm sure that there are many other ways to do both of these projects, but for those of you who don't have the expensive craft equipment that could the job hop on board ; ]

At any rate, here is the finished product! I'm pleased with it although my cross could have been way better. Nonetheless, it remides me of a pirate ship flag or something, which works for me!  : ]

All I did for this one is paint it black (leaving a space big enough for the skull and cross). Then filling in the space until I had the basic shapes I needed. Once I was there I switched to a smaller detail brush (rounded instead of squared) to perfect the skull try to fix the cross.

If you're like me then you've been cruising the craft blogs looking for great ideas. Sadly, my house isn't very fall or halloween like what I keep seeing. Needless to say, I put together a little centerpiece out of some spare fabric, some plants I cut from out side, and my two nifty projects : ] This now sits on my kitchen table! I love it! And if you'll notice in the background, my husband loves this caricature that he got of him down in New Orleans. Yes, that is my strong wonderful husband that I adore : )

And that is all that I have for now, hope you guys liked it.

Banks

Jamie and I had been talking and we've decided that it's time that we picked a bank for here so that we could deposit money into it for our own safe keeping. In the hopes of finding a great new bank that we can use with both our names on it, we went out today "on the prowl", so to speak. We've been to a few of them in the area and I think that we've found one that fits us. 
I'm pretty sure that we're going to be going with Kentucky Bank. They've got some really neat stuff, like if we get charged a Foreign ATM Fee, we just have to bring the recipt back to them within 30 days and they will give us a refund. I also like that I can set it up so that if I accidentally overdraft for any reason, we can have them pull the money out of a savings account if available. I also like that we'll get new cards every year!It makes me super excited. I think that the only question that I forgot to ask him was what the cards look like and if I get any options as to what I want them to look like :)

All in all, I'm just glad that I can finally have a bank up here close by that allows me to deposit any money that I want out of my pockets! Plus, I feel somewhat productive!