Sunday, August 30, 2009

Back to School



Hello everyone! Today started out just great. It's my Birthday and I don't have to go to work! Then, I was strugling with this card last night and woke up to an epihany on what to do to spiff it up. There's some history that I should share first.

Last month, my sister sent my birthday gift to NY with my daughter. It was a combined gift from the two of them and my Mom. They wanted to take advantage of no shipping and make sure I would have it for my birthday. Daughter wanted me to open it in front of her so she could see my face. Now I wasn't too excited about opening my birthday gift a month early because what would I have to look forward to for the big day? Anyway, I saw the box and knew it was a Slice. I had been trying to win one for months on Danielle's site "Life One Layout at a Time" but was only successful in winning Lin the Bind it All and me some Shimmerz and Spritz. I was very happy with my prize and knew that Linda would love hers. But the Slice always eluded me. Then there it was in front of me and I was psyched! I had never used one before but liked the idea of it.

Then, my Michigan friends Debbie and Denice took me out for a birthday dinner on Thursday and gave me a great new purse. If you know me, you know I am purse picky and this one fit me to a T. Love it! Husband organized these guys to attend a birthday dinner for me at the club on Friday night with spouses and we had another great evening. I got more gifts too; some Moscato di Asti wine and a gift card to Hobby Lobby. Oh my, these guys spoiled me. I couldn't wait to go shopping. They said they wanted to get me Slice stuff but they didn't know what to get. Since it's so new to me I didn't know either. I headed off yesterday morning with gift card in hand and searched the aisles. First, I headed for Spellbinders. I had heard that Hobby Lobby was finally expanding their selection and I wanted to see what was in stock. Of course the new pendants were all sold out so I meandered on. That brought me to the clearance section. I found two Slice cartridges. One was Fall Back to School and the other was Fa La La. Perfect, that should cover the next two seasons.

I wanted to make a card for all my Back to School nieces, nephews and school aged friends. I struggled though. What papers, layout, die cuts should I use? This ended up so much better than where it was headed last night. The apple and "a,b,c" came from the slice. The tag is from the Spellbinders tags 5 and the border punch is the Martha Stewart Cornice edge. The red and white paper is by DCWV and the brown was a scrap from my pile. I didn't have a "back to school" stamp so I had to hand write my sentiment. I used my dauber to add some Memento ink to distress it a bit. I finished it off with some sheer black ribbon from Offray - more from my Mary Maxim super clearance stash.

I hope those of you heading back to school have some great adventures this year. Knowledge is power so study hard!

Love you all. Thanks for stopping by and have a great week!

Cath

2 comments:

ScrappyLin said...

Cath, it is too cute. They will love it when they see it. I like the checked paper with the black accents. It definitely makes you think of school.

Grammy Grams said...

Happy Birthday Cath! The card came out darling. While everyone may not like the idea of heading back to school, they will definitely enjoy this card! How perfect that you were able to find the new Slice cartridges.