Happy Hour and Embellished Events

Happy Tuesday!

Sorry I'm a day behind in posting.  Life got in the way this weekend.  Saturday Alicia woke up with a sore throat and it progressed into strep by Sunday.  At 4:00 pm Sunday afternoon we headed to the Medicentre for a 2 1/2 hour wait so we could see the doctor for approximately 1.40 minutes to get a perscription.  Luckily my $60 slab of roast beef wasn't overcooked by the time we got home (although Craig and Rebecca were pretty hungry by 6:30 ... in fact Rebecca was, and I quote, "stinkin' STARVING!"  *lol*).  Alicia stayed home Monday and Tuesday still very miserable and lethargic.  Her throat seems to be getting better but she is still quite sick and goopy with a cold so needless to say I haven't been able to accomplish things at the usual rate of speed! 

On the bright side I DID manage to mail my 84 (yes 84!!) Christmas cards ... delivered all but one customer order, finish off my Christmas shopping, wrapped a few presents, packaged up the teachers' gifts and delivered my 27 staff gifts for all the school staff.  Today I was hoping to mail my friend's birthday gift (her birthday is December 25th!) but that will have to happen tomorrow.  So I DID manage to get things done but I'm only now where I wanted to be Sunday.  Thank goodness Craig has been off work since last Wednesday.  He's been a great help.  He has walked Koda every morning which saves me about an hour each day! 

Sooooo .... I wanted to post this first card last week, when I made them!  They are the Christmas cards I put in with my Club Girls' orders ... along with one of my post-it-note-picture-frame gifts and pen ... first up the frame (which I've posted before but I love them so much you get to see them again *lol*)

Of course the ones I gave out said Merry Christmas but the rest was the same.  They are SO quick to make!  I made 25 of them in about an hour!  Seriously!  LOVE quick crafts like this!!

Here is the card I gave them:

Isn't it cute??  I've decided I LOVE this set!  I have been eyeing it up since June but only just bought it when it was on sale last month.  Good call!  I will likely use it a few more times with this layout but with the different glasses of cheer :)

It's not your standard card size - it is (I think) 9 1/2 x 4 ... scored at 5" ... so the front flap still lets the holly along the side peek out.  I layered a piece of whisper white cut 3 1/2 x 3 1/2" which I ran through my Designer Frames Folder.  I embossed the class in Silver powder and stamped the holly in Old Olive.  You can't really see it but the berry is actually a rhinestone colored with a red Sharpie.  I added a strip of Glimmer paper 3 1/4" x 1/4" along the side and stamped the sentiment in Old Olive.  Wa-low!  Quick easy and "Wow"!  I cracked off 25 of these in about 1 1/2 hours or so.

I liked the card so much that I decided to use the same layout for my friend's 50th birthday card.  I spent a lot of time "tweaking" it a bit for a little more glam and really like how it turned out:

Oooooo ... love it!  My friend, Kris is a classy lady and I just HAD to incorporate a glass of champagne for her card.  There IS a glass of wine in the Happy Hour set but this glass from Embellished Events was much more fitting.  I struggled with the layout because the glass is too big for the Designer Frame Oval I used above.  I struggled and fiddled and fiddle and stuggled ... and then I peaked in my box of new "toys" from the upcoming Spring Mini and Sale-a-brations catty (yes, us demonstrators get to pre-order to give us time to prep for our upcoming classes!)  Then I saw it ... the OVAL FRAMELITS!  PERFECT!  FINALLY I have a set of oval cutters so I can layer ovals in any size I want!!!  I ALWAYS seem to be struggling with that ... if/when I have a sentiment that I punch out with the large oval punch I always want one oval slightly larger to layer it with ... now I have it - WOO HOO!  SOmeone at Stampin' Up! was listening to my silent pleas *lol*.  I embossed the glass in silver and added 6 rhinestones for the bubbles.  I then used one of the oval framelits to punch it out.  See the pretty glimmer paper??  That is just our silver glimmer paper coloured!!!  Yes, you can color the paper any color you want!  It turned out the PERFECT shade of blue for a soft, classy look.  I used Pacifi Point ink with a finger dauber.  The color is much much softer than Pacific Point.  Whenever you color the paper you need to use a bold color as it is quite muted when you're done.  The only down side to coloring your own paper is that it gets all over your fingers ... and then all over your card.  I had to have the baby wipes handy at all times ... and I used my heat tool on my final version so I didn't smudge on the white.  I popped the champagne up with dimensionals.  I silver embossed the "Cheers" (from Happy Hour) and popped it up on dimensionals as well.  There is also a larger rhinestone on the exclamation mark and a string of 7 along the inside.  As with the card above the front flap is shorter than the base.  This card measured slightly bigger than the previous one (I'd give you dimensions but the card is in the basement and I'm too lazy to go get it and measure it *lol).  It turned out perfectly and really matches Kris' personality.  I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Right - that's it for today.  I hope to get a few more projects done before Christmas but we'll see how it plays out.  Alicia may be home again tomorrow ... and tomorrow night is their Christmas Concert ... Thursday I'm getting my hair dyed (stupid grey hair!) and Friday is a half day .... but I DO want to make some more crafts with the kids so hopefully I'll have time to post pics.  Until then ... have a stampy night!


Tam