Fantastic....five?!?

No, this isn't about the movie "The Fantastic Four", which I have never seen. The title just came to me because I managed to complete five cards today, and to me, well, that is fantastic. I went to my first ever crop to benefit Soldier's Angels. I met several wonderful women there, and had a blast crafting with them. It was really fun to sit with Karen, Darlene, and Tara. I met them for the first time today. We were all working on different things and it was so interesting to talk to them about their projects and lives. What a great group of women. Karen was making dolls and she made me one with a cute little strawberry dress. I love her! Pictures to come later for that.

As usual, I spent so much time socializing, shopping, and organizing that I didn't do much else. Well, except make five cards. At first, I was really irritated with my lack of productivity. After all, I used images I had colored ages ago, so it's not like I had to take time to color (which takes me forever). My fellow crafters made me see that I got a lot done. I made new friends, organized some stuff that had been sitting as a mess for ages, and made cards for five soldiers to use when sending notes home. I decided that I'll take that and be happy about it.

Here are the cards I made (sorry if the pics are blurry or a bit dull. I didn't really focus on getting good shots before turning them in):

I deliberately didn't take much with me in the way of embellishments: just some ribbon, lace, twine, pearls and a tiny bit of bling. No flowers or anything that would add too much dimension. I tried to keep in mind that these cards will be shipped multiple times: once to the Soldier's Angels headquarters to be added to care packages, then to the soldier, then from the soldier to his/her family. I figured flat cards would be better for packing as well as durability. It's usually really hard for me to keep my cards so embellishment-free and flat, but today, it seemed to flow. I think being around all of those other crafters who were also there to support the soldiers and enjoy a day together might have turned on my mojo! What do you think? What makes your mojo flow?

You don't really want to hear me sing

So, the challenge at Guylou's Inimitability is to include something related to music or dance. My DT buddy Carla came up with the idea. She's always so chipper and happy, it's no wonder she came up with such a joyful theme. Me, I can be a bit of a cranker. Plus, I can't dance. I have no rhythym whatsoever. Furthermore, I can't sing to save my life. I mean, it's bad. People covering their ears and running bad. If I sent one of my friends or family a card that made them in any way think of me singing, they'd probably cringe instead of enjoy it. So needless to say, I didn't want to go with any images of someone with a microphone, although G has quite a few wonderful ones in her store (go check it out!). Instead, I decided to use music note paper and a bird, because everyone knows that birds sing all pretty-like. Except when they are sqwuaking (or however you spell that word. You get the gist). Then they sound like me.

I'm going to apologize now if there's spacing issues or anything once I inserted the pic. My computer at work (where I am posting from...shh...) seems to hate Blogger. I can only see half of the screen, so I'm working kind of blind here. Because of that, I'm going to stop this post now. You have until July 26th to enter the challenge. Head on over to Guylou's Inimitability for more details about the challenge, and you can also check out my sidebar for links to the blogs of my fab DT mates!

Birthdays, birthdays, and more birthdays!

Seems like I'm making more birthday cards this summer. I'm not quite sure why that is, given that I've known all of these people for ages and it's not like their birthday dates have changed! I think it just seems that way because I haven't had as much time to create (or energy/mojo, for that matter). So, then it hits the last minute and I'm like, "crap! I forgot! I have to make a card for.." Tomorrow is both my Aunt Connie and my brother-in-law's birthdays. This time, I made their cards and forgot to mail them. I can't win.

The first card is for my brother-in-law, who likes funny cards. He makes it a point every year to get me a card that makes me laugh and loves when I make him a funny card. He's one of those people that gets upset if I don't make his card and brags about my cards to people. With someone who likes and appreciates your creations so much, how could you not make him a card each birthday, right? Anyway, the inside sentiment says, "You're only young once, but you can be immature for a lifetime." This card is for the following challenges: Mo's Digi Pencil Too (DP2): anything goes with a Mo image and Papertake Weekly: Anything goes

And this one is for my Aunt Connie. She had an encounter with a moose on a trip once, so moose images are always a hit with her. I used liquid applique on the cupcake icing and colored the image with copics. Papers are Echo Park. The ribbon for the bow came from a lanyard I got at an event. This card is for the following challenges: Oozak: Bright colors and Paperplay challenges: birthday!

As always, thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you are having a wonderful summer!