Going to my homeland, Romania!

Hello everybody!

As of tomorrow, we'll be on our way over the ocean, to the far away Romania! 

My family is going to finally meet my husband, James. Ha ha, I know, this should have happened much earlier, if only I didn't have to wait six months for my green card. I could have left the country without it, but I couldn't have been able to come back. But all is good now and we are ALMOST there :-) 

At first, we wanted  to have a dinner with family and friends, to celebrate our marriage. But from one thing to another, things "escalated" and now we're in for the whole deal: church ceremony in white dress and party afterwards! :-) 

We got married here at the Justice of the Peace, with no fuss, in the quiet way that we both wanted :-) I resisted my family a little bit when they started asking us if we would like to do a "bigger" ceremony over there. The secret desire, since I was a little girl reading stories with princesses, to wear a white dress took over me and I agreed! :-) 

We are going to have the ceremony in my "old" baptist church and my former pastor (he's retired now) agreed to come and do the ceremony. My old friends are going to be there...that place is bringing back dear memories. 

We'll spend our "second" honeymoon traveling a little bit. We plan to go to the Transylvanian mountainside and we won't miss Dracula's Castle! :-) I would really like for James to see something about the real historical figure behind the dark legend. 

I am not sure when I will have the chance and time to get on a computer. In any case,  we will take lots of pictures and, if you want, I could share some over here. 

I'll miss you and I'm afraid I'll have a bad withdrawal from not making cards for so long! 

1 for the price of 2!

I got an award! Actually two....actually one from two awesome cardmakers! It is the Lemonade Stand Award and it is for being a blogger who shows great attitude and gratitude (you mean that's me?? :-) )

I thought I would react to it with more composure and refrain of a mature card maker. The truth is I was like a kid on Christmas morning. Oh my goodness, I have no speech prepared yet! :-) 

The two lovely ladies that considered me for this award are Winter at Winter Wonderland and Meredith at Mere's Lair. I check their blogs daily not only for the beautiful cards they make, but also for the grace and honesty that they show in sharing bits of their lives. 

Winter's posts encourage me in my faith through little and big things of life. It feels good to connect on more than one level (that is card making). 

And Mere's posts...what can I say? SHE CRACKS ME UP! She writes so well that I have a suspicion she's a bestseller author disguised as a craft making blogger to fool naive girls like me :-)) 

~Thank you!~   

I would like to pass this award on to a few very talented and encouraging crafters (in no particular order): 

~ Kristina at {Itty Bitty Pieces of Me}

~ Kelly at {Kelly's Korner} 

~ Courtney at {One Day at a Time}

~ Kiara at {Stamping Cafe}

Now I realize that my list is not as long as it is supposed to be...This means one thing: I am going to be purposeful about looking for more quality blogs out there! 

The rules (to pick up the Lemonade Stand Award):

- Comment on this blog;

- Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog;

- Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude;

- Link to your nominees within your blog post;

- Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award;

- Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation.

[Thanks for stopping by]

 

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #5

"Life" Card   5 x 5 in

I have to give credit for this card to my sweet, patient husband. Without him, this card and I together would lie in a pile of mess...

I was frustrated with my Silhouette last night. It would not do what it was supposed to do: cut! I secretly wish I didn't have to adjust anything: just have the paper in and the perfect shape out. But I KNOW it's not working like that. 

So, my husband overheard me imploring the gods of all cutting machines and came to my rescue. He did something amazing, that would have NEVER crossed my mind: he read the user's manual ha ha :-) He walked me through all this awesome settings that makes digital cutting less empiric and so much more fun! 

James, you're my hero! :-) 

Materials:

~ Cardstock: Core'dinations - Nostalgia Collection (Dark Grey and Dark Pink);

~ Paper: Stampin' Up! Delicate Dots Collection;

~ Stamps: PTI's {Life};

~ Ink: Stampabilities' Black and Making Memories's Pewter (I mixed them, so I would get a dark grey);

~ Chandelier and Butterflies cut with Silhouette Quickutz.

~ Scalloped circle (1 7/8 in), simple circle (1 1/2 in).

**Thanks so much for stopping by!**

P.S. I almost forgot: I made this card for Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #5. 

P.P S. It's funny how Blogger washes the colors so bad! 

The last call for "Mother's Day" cards (KWerner Color inspiration Challenge #51)

 

With these colors, I made a card that we plan to give to my mother-in-law. Hope she likes mustard on chocolate :-) 

I just came back from a CTMH scrapbooking and card making workshop here in my hometown led by Meredith (Thank you!). Three hours later I walked away with two very cute summery pages, an even cuter card and a couple of new friends! :-)

My husband picked me up and then we took Chick-fil-A by storm. We were on the verge of passing out, so hungry we were! I had grand plans for dinner, but they all succumbed to anything that resembled food coming our way. We're much better now! :-) 

"Happy Mother's Day" Card  4 x 5 1/2 in

Materials:

~ Cardstock: Core'dinations - Nostalgia Collection;

~ Paper: Stampin' Up! Delicate Dots Collection;

~ Ribbon: Making Memories;

~ Stamp: PTI's {Life};

~ Ink: PTI' New Canvas;

~ Ribbon: Making Memories;

~ Dew Drops: Robin's Nest;

~ Flower Silhouette and tag cut with my Silhouette Quickutz (free GSD file from                    mamawslegacy.com);

~ Computer generated sentiment. 

Check the other awesome and original entries on Kristina's blog, HERE! 

# Thanks so much for stopping by # 

Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch #16

Happy Cinco de Mayo! :-)

I haven't had too much to do with this celebration before I came to southern Texas, but tonight we'll be able to hear the downtown celebration from our porch. Maybe we'll have some Margaritas. ¿Quién sabe? :-)

I made another card for Karen Giron's Sweet Sunday Sketch Challenge ( this is # 16) and I am really proud of myself that I didn't let that just go by me again! :-)

I'm not really into red. But I love using scraps as much as possible and not waste paper, so I decided to use the paper let after I cut a tag as a "border". Do you think it was a good idea? :-)

"Friends for Life" Card 5 x 5 in

Materials:

~ Paper: Stampin' Up! Delicate Dots Collection;

~ Stamps: PTI's {Life};

~ Ink: PTI's Moulin Rouge, Ripe Avocado.

//Thanks for stopping by//

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #4

I think Dawn McVey has a few little cardmaking elfs that keep her studio going while she's on vacation in Hawaii!! 

Because she is sitting on a ship deck, enjoying the sunset, while her posts with awesome cards keep popping up! :-) 

I couldn't miss her 4th color challenge, so I made a card using my first and only Papertrey Ink stamp set, {Life}. 

Lesson learned today: never stamp after adhering the DP to the cardstock. On my card, the sentiment is a bit uneven, not much, but I was lucky. It could be worse. 

I got some cute ribbon at Tuesday Morning (it's "Making Memories") and couldn't wait to try it out. 

"Life" Card   5 x 5 in

Materials: 

~ Paper: Stampin' Up! Delicate Dots;

~ Stamps: Papertrey Ink's {Life};

~ Ink: Stampabilities {Brown};

~ Ribbon: Making Memories;

~ Dew Drops: Robin's Nest.

I cut the butterfly with my Silhouette, using a free file on the "Crafty, The Craft Robo" web site. It was quite hard to find a simple shape of a butterfly, without intricate cuts! Why is that? :-) 

I found some really cute ribbon in the craft section of Tuesday Morning! 

Has anyone noticed that the pictures upload much lighter than edited, in Blogger? I have the edit them unnaturally dark, so they don't "wash out" after upload! Any suggestions on how you do it? 

Today it was my last dat working at the coffee shop. I decided to "stay home" from now on, so I can get to writing more and of course, making more cards. It was a bit sad but, hey, the coffee shop is only three blocks from our house! :-) 

** Hope you enjoyed my card **