Cherry on Top

What does that mean? Cherry on top? Well... It's the additional flavor... it's the extra money you get... it's that little push you see in someone's work... It's the extra mile someone gives at something... It's the smile!!! It's the extra help you receive when you don't expect it... It's the surprising little thing you enjoy... It's an award!!!!

I just received a blog award from my friend Zulma. She's such a wonderful lady from a Scrapbooking group I belong in Puerto Rico. You can see her tremendous work here.

And this award gives you the opportunity to express your grattitute and admiration for others. What a cool thing to do!!!

And there are rules... And these are fun rules to follow (or break)... and with them we get the opportunity to know and present other blogs.

The rules are:

1. Thank the person who gave you the award

2. Copy and paste (post) the award to your blog

3. Share three things about yourself that you enjoy...

4. Pass the award to five others

So, here are my answers to the rules:

1. Thank you Zulma... I admire your work very much... and I'm so honored to receive the award from you... Thank you, thank you, thank you.

2. ok

3. I want to share four instead of three... why not? Remember, this is a blog to be imperfect, hahahaha...

• First of all, scrapbooking (hello???? This must be in the list!!!)


• Drink wine (especially with my husband, good company, and paired with great food)


• Enjoy my dog-son (I love my dog Malbec)


• And... since we were just in the Halloween mode last week... the fourth thing is to wear customes...

4. My five splendid, marvelouus, golden, chosen award recipients are:

• Zulma, from My Little Scrappy Owl - The rules do not say you can't award the same person who gave you the award, right?
• Marilyn, from Treasuring Memories - What a talented lady... visit her blog and see for yourself!
• Joan, from Mi Rincón de Papel - I call her "Master Joan". Visit her blog and understand me.
• Mari, from Amigas del Scrapbooking - She's from Argentina and she offers her friendship and talent to other ladies around the whole world...
• Daly, from Del Scrapbook y otros Amores - This is one of the leaders of the group I belong to (SB Friends) and she's such a natural teacher, mom, giver... Thanks for always provide the Cherry on Top, Daly.

And there are so many other friends I would like to recognize, even though some do not have blogs, but just want to take advantage of this opportunity to point out the friendship from the SB Friends, and also mention some girls... Jessica (I call her ET. Her talent is out of this world!!!), Marirose from My Pictures on Paper, Gladys (my favorite Colombian girl), Yani... (such a talent with legs)...and my friend Vivian, with whom I share this hobby a lot (even though not as much or frequently as I wished). There are so many others, but I have to let some to be mentioned by other friends...hehehehehe

Hope you liked this award and this recognition moment. It reminded me of one of the first cards I made as I went through the Scrapbooking world... Let me continue the "cherry" conversation and share it with you... What is peculiar about it is that the cherry was on the inside of the card... very nicely stamped and cut, but I don't have a picture of the inside... so here's the cover.

(patterned paper: TAC, stamps: Unity; miscellaneous: cardstock, ink, eyelets)

Have a cherry weekend!!!!

More Halloween Cards

Happy Halloween!

It's finally here... Enjoy the day (and creepy night, hahahaha)...

Thought might be cool to share some simple Halloween cards from prior years... Just for fun... that's how it is... simply for sharing... Hope you like them.

Even Closer... A Birthloween Card!

We're just one day away!!! Halloween is fun! Hope you enjoy it and take time to trick or treat.

Look at this card I made for a person who's bday is in Halloween... Outside, the card looks like an ordinary Halloween card and it says "Best Witch". I used Glossy Accents to stand out the little bats and spider, as well as the witch.

However, in the inside, I used different colors to drastically change to the birthday message, saying "sorry, I meant 'best wishes' "... Hahahaha!

I hope you like it!!!
Remember to take some time to be imperfect in Halloween and have fun!!!

(patterned paper and card base: Gartner; cardstock: DCWV; stamps: Inkadinkado, Glitz Design, TAC; Glossy Accents; adhesives: Scotch, Glue Dots; Cricut Cartridge Accent Essentials; inks: StazOn, Color Box; punches: Memory Makers, Martha Stweart; brads: Fun Expressions; cardstock phrase: Vocal Greetings; glitter: K&Co; miscellaneous: button, ribbon, thread, gel pens)

Almost there!!! Boo!

It's almost Halloween.... Candy, costumes, witches, more costumes, and a lot of fun. I will dress up tomorrow for work. We usually do it as a team in the department I work, and we share with others during the afternoon. Very cool. Then during the weekend, we'll attend several parties including one at my neighborhood. I'll be a nerd this year... LOL!!!

Anyways... to be on the mood of Halloween, let me share with you this layout with last year's photos.

Since the flag banners started to be “in” for scrapbooking, I wanted to make my own. I also wanted to show multiple pictures in one page since I have several pictures from this day with my neighbors but didn’t want to make too many pages or even an album. I also had some 8x8 Halloween papers I’d never used for layouts since most of my layouts are 12x12. So, I trimmed one of the 8x8 papers which had sort of a black frame as part of the pattern and I decided it was for the photo I wanted to emphasize.

I made the banner for the title, cutting triangles by eye and hand, since I wanted it to be imperfect. I used a 2” strip and cut about each 1.5” for the triangles. I embellished each triangle with different papers, stamps and letters and joined them with a ribbon. I also hand cut a ghost in white cardstock, inked the edges and glued plastic moving eyes.

I arranged all the photos in a way they look organized and break the pattern with this one photo I wanted to be the focus of attention and stand out with 3-d squares. I filled the spaces with patterned paper. I also stamped a background on the sections of cardstock not filled with photos or patterned paper. I framed the photos with strips of paper with shapes, placed banner as title and completed with chipboard letters. I also used stamps of smaller letters in the title I wanted to give less importance (“not so”).

Since this page has so many elements, I placed groups of 3 dots in 3 different places forming a visual triangle for balance.

I hope you enjoyed it. And tell me... are you going to dress up tomorrow? What are you going to be?

(Cadstock: American Crafts; Cardstock strips: Bazzill; Letters: American Crafts, Scenic Route, Color Bok; Ink: Color Box; Patterned paper: TAC; Stamps: Inkadinkado, Glitz Design; Adhesives: Scotch, Generations, Scrapbook Adhesives; Pen: Sakura; Miscellaneous: scissors, paper trimmer, ribbon, plastic moving eyes)

It's Organic!

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we have celebrated with several activities. One of the things we did to celebrate was visiting a local Argentinean restaurant called Caminito. Great meat and wine!!! The first time I tried the Domaine Jean Bousquet wine was at this restaurant several months ago. First I tried Malbec on our wedding anniversary early this year, then a Cabernet Sauvignon several months later. We repeated Cabernet last week with New York Strip steak! Mmmmmm...

What's different about this wine? It's organic!!! Yes.... Jean Bousquet's wines from Valle de Uco in Mendoza, Argentina are from organically grown vines. Organic grapes, as explained in DJB site, allow unique flavors to shine... I don't know about that, but the wine is exceptional.

Malbec is always a favorite for me, but Cabernet Sauvignon was also great with meat. Most of their wines have been recognized and gained high points from experts. For more information you can visit their website here.

Salud!

Enjoy the Ride

Hey... How many times we say to each other... Enjoy life... enjoy the little things... the simple things in life are the most important... life's a journey, an adventure, a trip...???
And we say so many other things to inspire us to live the moment and enjoy every second of it... Life's too short to taking it too seriously ... well, you know what I mean! It is serious, but come on... enjoy it. If you are going to argue for something, make sure it is worth it...

Anyway, that was just a thought... I want to share this personalized birthday card I made. You know sometimes I am given challenges to create personalized cards according to the person's likes and preferences... and it's been really fun... you should try it.

This person is a man to become 40 soon... He likes cars (his dream car is the Grand Turismo de Mazerati), he loves wine, art (especially Van Gogh), and he's just a simple free spirit guy.

So this is the card I made. The title and the car icon are from the "Graphically Speaking" Cricut cartridge. I printed out the Mazerati logo and added to the car as well as recipient's name handwritten on the front. Van Gogh's art is a print out. The bottle of wine was stamped in a patterned paper and then cut out.

In the inside of the card I also used a phrase from the said Cricut cartridge, and some rub-ons, as well as stamps.

I hope you like my card... and it inspires you to make your own, and hopefully to continue enjoying a great life...


(Stamps: Crafty Secrets, Inkadinkado, and unknown; inks: Color Box; Rub-Ons: American Crafts; Eyelets: We R Memory Keepers; Adhesives: Scotch, Fiskars; Stickers: EK Success; miscellaneous: cardstock, patterned paper, scissors, paper trimmer, etc.)

WE MEET AGAIN...

Hello... We meet again...

It's been a while... I'm so sorry to have not been able to post for the last couple of weeks. Hope you have been enjoying a scrappy life... with a little bit of wine... and imperfection. Here are some cards I've made recently and I just want to share with you to see if I can make up for the missing posts these weeks.

Fab Sister

This card was a very simple one I made for a friend's sister who's young at heart, happy and fabulous. The photo does not make much justice to the card since the texture of the letters and papers with the gitter makes it very vibrant and attractive. Hope you like it anyway and can inspire you with a simple idea of organizing strips of papers to frame the sentiment or title. In the inside the card had feathers and says: ... Fabulous Birthday; so it reads from outside to inside: Fab Sister... Fabulous Birthday!

(patterned paper: DCWV; letters: ColorBok; miscellaneous: cardstock, pen, glitter pen, glue, scissors, paper trimmer)

Anniversary Cards

There's these two cards I made on the anniversary inspiration. The first one is "Celebrate". It communicates the message with the bottle of champagne and a little heart with the word "anniversary" in front of the ice bucket. I wanted it to be a card that reflected happiness and celebration and you could either give it to a man or a woman.

(patterned paper: Memory Stor, Creative Memories; brads: Portafolia; bottle cut out: Meri Meri Accents; stamp: Inkadinkado (word "Celebrate"); ink: ColorBox; miscellaneous and unknown: stamp (little heart with word "anniversary"), glue, scissors, paper trimmer, etc.)

The other one is more for a male recipient. It has inchies in the cover. Inchies are pieces of 1" x 1" with messages and designs. Some scrappers use them for layouts and cards, while others collect them... just like the ATC's. So this one has three inchies that communicate the message of love. One is a heart, the other one is the phrase "Te Amo" which means "I Love You", and the third one has the lips communicating "kiss". In the inside it says: Happy Anniversary.

(cardstock: DCWV; patterned paper: Memory Stor; stamps: Inkadinkado, American Crafts; inks: StazOn, Color Box, Portafolia; miscellaneous and unknown: little buttons, glue, etc.

I hope you like these 3 cards and somehow you enjoyed and got inspired.

On the other hand...

At this point I would like to tell you sad news... Remember my friend for who I made the Special Mini Album posted a couple of months ago? Well, she died yesterday. She battled cancer for a while and she seemed so strong and in recovery. However, last week she started to feel more sick and there was no way back.

I remember the "special mini album" was delivered to her thru a friend... but she liked it so much and she felt so great that she decided to visit me at the office just to thank me for this album full of messages and wishes, that she loved so much and was a support for her.

She survived two children, a husband, a great lovely family, and a lot of co-workers and friends who loved her and admired a bunch. Please, have her and her family in your prays.

Life continues... Enjoy every moment, everyday, the simple things... I'll see you around.