Peek A Whooo? and I'll Have a Blue Christmas!

Happy Thursday everyone!!

Tonight we are going to our neighbors son's surprise birthday party. I don't think he has any clue that it is going to happen. I told him that Jason and I are going out for a late anniversary dinner and that we will see him on Sat. for his birthday. I am so excited. Beth, my neighbor, said that his favorite birthday was when everybody was there. He is such a sweet kid.

Well, Izzy and I had to make an emergency run to the grocery store this morning. Want to know why??? Okay, it all started yesterday afternoon. Beth came over to bake Ryan's cake because she doesn't want him to know about it. So I turn on the oven, got the behemoth mixer down and had just greased up the pan, when we heard, "Mom!". Alright so Izzy barely says "mommy" so I knew it wasn't her. (Secretly, I was crossing my fingers that it was Caleb because he is in on the surprise.) No, it was Ryan!!! Can you believe it. So Beth runs into the living room, I am quickly dusting flour off of my hands and ran to meet them in the living room. Well we sit down to talk and I am trying to talk about the most boring adult things I can think of, and Beth is trying to come up with all sorts of excuses for him to leave but no, he stays. His friend even stops by to ask him to come play, but that doesn't persuade him! (Okay, I am a little flattered that he would want to hang out over here for so long, but I mean come on!! He really needed to leave.) We finally give up and they go home. I called Beth later and told her that I would just bake the cake and not to worry about it.

I mixed the cake up and stuck it in the oven. Well, Jason being a sweetheart takes the cake out of the oven for me. The only problem is he took it out too early and it wasn't done in the middle. It sunk like three inches right in the center. Now if it was my cake I wouldn't have cared, but I couldn't give a misshapen cake to Ryan! (Also, I didn't think I had enough frosting to fill it all in). So, Izzy and I had to run to the store this morning and buy another cake mix. I have already baked it and it has not sunk yet. So, as long as the frosting goes okay, Ryan will have a birthday cake tonight! Boy am I tired!

Alrighty, on to the cards. As you might have guessed my first card has to do with owls. The title actually comes from my daughter's favorite book. It is by Nina Laden and has a little mirror at the end. She just loves it! Okay, well last night, this week's MFT sketch challenge was posted on SCS. I went ahead and pulled it up so that I would remember to think about what I wanted to do in the morning. Of course that is not what happened. About 11:30, while I was still awake laying in bed, I started to think about what MFT set I had not used recently. That is when the little owls popped into my head. I then thought, I wonder how I can make them into a circle and that is when the moon idea hit me!! I'd like to say I immediately fell asleep after this, but instead I was awake for another half hour thinking about how I wanted to put the card together, and here it is!

It really turned out well! I also incorporated this week's Cute Card Thursday Challenge to include snow or snowflakes into your design. I started off by stamping Christmas Owls by MFT on a piece of white card stock and coloring it in. I then hand drew a tree out of brown card stock and drew on some highlights with a brown marker. Next I cut out a large circle with my nesties and sponged on barely banana, more mustard and apricot appeal to create the moon. I assembled the card with red card stock and two different Christmas DPs following the sketch. I added a red ribbon around the middle and attached my moon and trees. Next I cut out the hanging ornaments and adhered them to the scene, drawing on cords with my silver gel pen. I then popped off my two owls that I cut off. To create the snow and ice, I used my liquid applique and some crystal effects with a little glitter on top. To finish the card off, I added three diamond brads down the side and cut out red and green snowflakes that I punched out with my Martha Stewart punch and put the sentiment in the middle. The sentiment was stamped from Holiday Greetings II by A Muse Artstamps. The inside will say "Place like home".

Don't you just love Elvis! His Christmas and gospel songs are the best in my opinion. Anyway, my card really doesn't have much to do with Elvis other than it is blue and it is a Christmas card. That song just popped in my head when I started typing. Lol! Okay, so my final card is a card that I created for the first Stampavie Challenge over at the Stampavie Group on Paper Craft Planet. Don't you just love that site? It is so easy to navigate through! I digress. Michelle issued a sketch challenge to all Stampavie lovers this week and there is even a prize. Well since I love my Rachelle Anne Miller stamps, I knew I had to play. Here it is!

I also incorporated today's Ways to Use it Challenge over at SCS which was to incorporate pearls into your project. I started the card off by stamping Lily - From the Heart by Rachelle Anne Miller for Stampavie on a piece of white card stock and colored her in with my markers and copics. I added touches of silver gel pen and a couple of pearl buttons as accents. I then mounted her on blue and white card stock that I cut out using my nesties. Following the sketch, I embossed a piece of white card stock with my snowflakes cuttle bug folder and adhering it to a piece of blue and another piece of white card stock. I then rounded the corners of all three. I place three silver brads in the corners. I then popped it off a piece of blue card stock that I stamped circles from In The Background by Lizzie Anne Designs with whisper white. I rounded the corners and added some white grossgrain ribbon. To finish the card off, I stamped the sentiment from Sugar Nellies on a piece of white card stock and adhered it to a piece of blue. I drew on the swirls with my silver gel pen and added the two pearls. I just think it is so sweet!! I love the two color effect.

Well I am outta here!! I need to go ice that stupid cake! It better be good! Have a wonderful night and thanks for stopping by!!