I'm Supposed to be Making Dinner

I have no idea what I'm supposed to be making for dinner, but I know that you, my blog readers (hello? anybody still out there?) have not had a post in 3 weeks, so instead of trying to figure out dinner, I'm going to show you a card I've made. Because it's not that I haven't been making cards; I just haven't had time to write about it!

This is a card I made after I saw one like it on Dawn O's blog. I created this for the girls at Jesse's House to make during our monthly get-together on Sunday afternoons. They loved the little froggie image from A Flower for All Seasons, and each one put her own twist on my original design. It was so fun to see them expressing and nurturing their creativity. I used Pear Pizazz DSP from the InColor pack of 6"x6" sheets that is an freebie option for hostesses, and used my Daffodil Delight marker to add some accents on the center panel. The froggie image was colored using Crumb Cake, Pear Pizazz, and Daffodil Delight.

This is the other card the girls made that afternoon. It was so fun to teach them how to make clouds using a template made from scallop circle punches that I cut in half and attached in a row. A little piece of sponge and some Baja Breeze classic ink, and we had a great sky for the butterfly from Flight of the Butterfly to flit along on. I love the color combination of Wild Wasabi, Baja Breeze, Daffodil Delight, and Whisper White. It screams SPRING!

There's more, I promise! Thanks for your patience.

A Flowery Card for my Gardener Friend

My dear friend Mary and I lived next door to each other for 15 years. She has quite the green thumb. I.DON'T. The fern in the picture? Her housewarming gift to us when she helped us move here from IL 4 years ago. (I killed it; don't tell her or I'll blame it on the drought we had that year.)

When we were "side by side friends", I helped her weed, and we would chat while we pulled and check the progress of all her different specimens. She tried to get me to love gardening like she did, but I like foliage (variegated leaves and coleus) better than flowers. Thank goodness she didn't let it come between us!

Her birthday was yesterday. She's gone until early next week, so the card may still make it to her house before she gets home. This means it's not a belated birthday card, right?

In homage to Mary's gardening skills, I used A Flower for All Seasons and copied the layout from the new Stampin' Up! 2010-2011 Big Idea Book & Catalog. I stamped 2 of the images on scraps of Whisper White card stock, colored them, and then cut them out. It was time-consuming, but worth it. I popped them up on Stampin' Dimensionals to give the appearance on the card that this was a 3D grouping of flowers.

Mary's husband Dan has this saying about flowers: "A CUT flower is a DEAD flower." Well, at least Mary will have these flowers to enjoy without being concerned about them drooping or dying!

I wish I could be there to meander through the grove with my dear friend and sit on her screened porch and chat over a glass of iced tea. As they say, "Next year."