no matter what... & ABC's

a while ago i made this Fathers Day card for my dad. we were having a family picnic on Father's Day, and i wasn't able to take a picture of it, so here i am posting this WAAAY later than planned. i really like the color scheme for this "masculine" card, even though some parts of it could be considered girly. American Crafts, DoodleFactory, and Bazzill were my main products used.

**i know i haven't been posting regularly lately, but i've been super busy with the 1st week of school and teaching and coaching, etc... i'm definitely not used to this pace yet, and am still settling in. thanks for bearing with me!**

here you see i made a belly band for this card... i used my Cricut to cut out the "Happy Father's Day" that fits perfectly behind my band. i did a lot of distressing and sanding around edges of everything, to give it a more guy feel.

here's how the card opens at first: "no matter..." i wrote a bunch of funny little things my Dad does, like shrinking clothes in the laundry, and not delivering phone messages. i love him all the same, though :D

and here's the full card opened completely. overall, there are quite a few layers on this card, and it was a good thing i had thought of a way to close it up, otherwise it would be spilling out, hehe!

also, i picked these barn and castle stamps for the inside of the card because my Dad has been dreaming up the house/ barn he's going to build at our property for years... he's actually tossed around the idea of building a castle type house, but my Mom wasn't really going for it. anyway, whatever they both finally decide, i'll be happy for them, because i know they'll love it. i got these stamps from DoodleFactory, and they were sooo perfect for layering and this card for my Dad :D

do you see how the windows are popped out, and i even had these barn doors open on the top layer! hehe, i felt so clever when i made this card... everything is just so cute :D (oooh, and did you see that windmill detail with the brad in the center? neat, huh?)

and here you can see the mega-layering on the castle. i stamped it 3 times--the first on the panel, then twice on gray card stock. i popped out some turrets and shaded everything in to give it even more depth. ahh, don't you just love this? it makes me think of knights, and princesses, etc :D too fun!

i got to use some fun velvet letters from Making Memories as well as some alphas from Basic Grey (on the belly band and on the inside). it added another kind of texture to the card which was really nice.

here you can see how i cut out the tags with my Cricut again and made a pocket to hold all the special little notes on why i loved my Dad so much. i used a circle punch out of the front of the half envelope and stuck these tags in with AC ribbon too.

he really liked this card, and actually showed it off at the picnic we were at... so glad he liked it. now he's got in in his office along with some other cards i've made for him over the years. so funny to see what you made before and compare it to your style/ sense now.

Anyway, in other news, I’ve been tagged by Celia @ The Adventures of Cecelia Bedelia to participate in a fun meme, and since she’s my sister, and it looks like fun, I think I’ll play along. Plus, don’t you want to know more about me? :D

RULES

1. Link to the person who tagged you
2. Share your ABC’s
3. Tag three people at the end by linking to their blogs
4. Let the three tagged people know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their website
5. Do not tag the same person repeatedly but try to tag different people, so there is a big network of bloggers doing this tag

Available or married? Available! But totally willing to change that ;D

Best Friend? Cecelia, my sister. *grin*

Cake or Pie? Cake. For sure, ah, I love chocolate, and spice, and carrot… and doesn’t cheesecake technically count as cake?

Drink of choice? Water, or Diet Coke with a lemon OR lime. Either works.

Essential item for every day use? Gum, or my car. I practically live in my car… I drive about 45 minutes to school, and 45 minutes back every day. I spend so much time in my car, and everything in it is essential (like the chap stick, the comfy seats, the CDs, the speed at which it goes…)

Favorite color? Red, black, pink, and blue. My second favorite color is orange, green, and yellow. I also look really good in purple.

Google? Yes. Frequently. The maps are better than MapQuest, and well, it’s Google.

Hometown? Seattle, Washington.

Indulgences? Pretty patterns… especially on paper. Although I’ve been known to covet some items from Ikea catalogs every now and then. I also love movies, FOOD, and traveling.

January or February? February. Valentine’s Day, and it’s not right after the holidays when you don’t want to go back to school…

Kids and their names? I want them someday, and have ideas regarding names, but currently, no children… unless you count my “kids” at school… which I don’t really want to do.

Life would not be complete without? God, family, friends.

Marriage date? Not married, yet ;)

Number of siblings? I’m the second born of 5. One older sister, three younger brothers. My sister Cecelia is only 16 months older than me at 25, and my brother Peter is 16 months younger than me. Then there's Lincoln and Joey. My mom was brave, and had 5 kids within 6 years… I L-O-V-E my siblings.

Oranges or apples? Apples for sure! Fuji are my favorite!

Phobias and fears? I hate heights, but more than that, I hate the edges that usually accompany them.

Quote for the day? “Just keep swimming, just keep swimming.” --Dory, from Finding Nemo

Reason to smile? Hmm, FAMILY, pretty paper, good music, yummy food, FRIENDS, and finding money in pockets when you didn’t expect it.

Season? I think Winter’s great… I LOVE Christmas--definitely my favorite part of the year. But I absolutely cannot knock having the summer vacation (even though this summer wasn’t much “vacation”) as a teacher.

Tag 3 people?
Heidi at Van Laar Designs
Dad at The Garden Handyman
Amy at Tsuruta Designs
…not sure if they’ll actually do this, but who knows? I always like to hear about real people and their lives.

Unknown fact about me? I went to the National Championships in college for water polo (3 out of 4 years!).

Vegetable you hate? Lima beans, cooked spinach, beets, and sometimes I really hate eggplant. It’s the texture.

Worst habit? Staying up way too late. Especially on school nights.

X-rays you’ve had? Dental, fingers, toes, ankle, etc…

Your fave food? I like pizza, but if I had to live off of one food (made in a variety of ways) for the rest of my life, it would be POTATOES! Mashed potatoes, hash browns, French fries, potato salad, baked potatoes, home fries, tater tots, jojos, steak fries… I love it all.

Zodiac sign? Dunno, my birthday is May 1st.

thanks for stopping by, and have a wonderful weekend :D