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