15 Years!

Hello my friends.  Hope you are having an amazing Good Friday.  You could be at Church, at home, working, or at the beach... but still always remember Life is Beautiful and God gave it to us to enjoy, be grateful and leave a mark...  

On a separate topic...  I just stopped by to talk about the 15th. birthday.  In Latin culture is more common to celebrate the 15th birthday with a great ceremony and party... whenever possible.  It is like the equivalent to the Sweet 16 in the American culture, but in our case there are a lot of symbols and protocol that can go on in the party.  Parents feel very proud and basically present the girl as the new young woman.  In Puerto Rico we even have some differences among geographical areas.  In the Metro Area this event is more used for the opportunity to present the girl to society, specially amongst higher socio economic level families.  But in the rest of the Island specially in the center of our beautiful Puerto Rico, the event is more a party to gather with family and friends... but still with lots of symbols.  We have direct influence from US for being part of this nation, so there's an interesting mix of cultures that you could see in our "Fiestas de Quinceañeras".

Anyway, tomorrow's the celebration of my BFF's daughter's 15th bday.  I will be the Master of Ceremony at the party and I also made the invitations...  I will show you the invitations in a near future post but today I want to share the card I made for the girl.

Since the theme of the bday party is about Paris and the invitations have the Eiffel Tower, I kept the same colors used for the invitations and kind of the same romantic look, but using this beautiful stamp I have from Unity Stamp Co.

I also used embossing, ribbons, rhinestones, inks all over, and for the sentiment I used a Latina Crafter stamp I've got from a recent convention locally.  It is part of my first kit of these Spanish stamps.

So, I'm hoping the girl loves the card tomorrow...

Don't forget to leave a comment during the weekend for a chance to win with Unity's Friends with Flair, 'cause I'll link this post there.

But now I have to hurry up and leave... I have to go rehearse the presentation at the party's location...  Tks for you stopping by, and for your comments and your love. :)

End of ASL

Oh yes, I know... I've been so out of track these days...  Between work, and the ASL (American Sign Language) class, I've had to park for a while my favorite hobby... because I am only human.  

And speaking about the ASL class... I was supposed to end the basic course today... We received a call yesterday because the University employees were going to work on some air conditioning fixing in the classrooms so the last class was postponed for April 6.  We cannot make it for April 6, so we called the professor to see if he was ok to meet in other place...or any other date.  We are just 9 students and we thought everybody was happy to end this soon...  My husband and I have worked so hard these six weeks... not because this is something we need or  will live from, but because we take it seriously.  And last week we studied everyday and practiced for the final work (3 to 5 minutes signing about a topic)...  

But I guess I still don't get it... I have to understand that not everybody is in the same page.  Most students we called were just so happy because the class was canceled!  LOL... and the  professor just... was... there...  So, I got frustrated a little bit but then thought it was ok...   But one important thing... The professor said we (hubby and me) don't necessarily have to go to that class if we can't because we definitely passed!  :)  

I prepared some party favors for the students.  Since my final work was about scrapbooking hobby, I planned to finalize my signing by inviting them to identify their names on these...

Each party favor has a name in ASL.  That was going to be fun... I know.

We plan to give the professor a video with our final work and also these gifts so he can distribute to the students.  

I embossed several goodie bags and embellished with similar elements, but ensuring each one is different and personalized.  The name is in ASL alphabet.

Here they are...

Ana

Keren

Tania

Wined

Yoliannie

Mildred

José

Carmen

But this is not all...

I had a surprise for my husband with a special little bag for him... LOL...  Now, I will have to give it to him... but I will validate if he's reading my posts and will wait until he asks me for this party favor...

John

Tks for stopping by and please keep enjoying this imperfect life...  it's wonderful, isn't it?

Happy Birthday Cards

Hello my friends... Another week has come to an end...  another weekend starting...

Hope you are doing wonderful and that you are finding purpose and motivation in everything you do.

Just wanted to stop by and share some cards I recently made for my neighbor friends.  They are a nice couple and they usually celebrate her birthday with a great party.  His birthday is mostly celebrated in a lower key level but still... birthdays are something important for them, as they are for us.

I made his card first and we could not give it to him until her bday (about 2 weeks away from each other's date), but it was cool anyway because he didn't expected it...

I wanted the card to definitely has his name on it... because last year I gave a personalized card to his wife and he complained (teasing me, but still...complained, LOL).

So I stamped his name really big to make it an obvious personalization.

For the Happy Birthday sentiment, I used washi tape, and then I added some dimension with a 3D owl...  My friend is a very wise guy (he's a modern nerd, don't tell him), and I think the owl makes an statement... and it looks cute too!

There's also some stamping going on inside (it says PARTY, make all your wishes come true; it's a Unity stamp).

Then, for her card I also wanted to add her name...

So I communicated the Happy Birthday message with some big chipboard letters... also playing with them, because those are also the initials for both their names.

I embossed the banner with a recently acquired embossing folder from Darice... Love it!  

I stamped a background to make the red base with the elements pop out.  

I complemented the banner silhouette with washi tape, bakers twine, flowers and bling bling.  I love the combination of this turquoise blue on red... and I feel I made a great choice because she was dressed with hot dress at the party and the bling bling goes with her fabulousness... LOL.

So...  this was all... Hope you have a great weekend.  Don't forget to stop by frequently.  Loooove your comments and your visits.

Cute as a Bug!

Hello there...

Stopping by randomly to share a CAS card made for a coworker who's going to have a baby girl soon.

As I've mentioned before, this year I am trying to use materials I've had for a while.  Getting conscious about it is working. I have discovered that I have a lot of things in my scrapbooking room... and I have to use them.

So I found these sheets of vellum with different messages and sentiments and immediately have started to use them... as this one that says "cute as a bug".

It made it easy to come up with a fast design, adding buttons and stamped and cut butterflies.

Are you using all your supplies?  Is there something specific you have found lately and you didn't even remember you had it?  Share with me... Tell me about it.

Have a great week!!!

Today...

Today is the perfect day!

Yes...  I've declared that today I will be happy, I will be very productive, will learn something new, will laugh, and will feel reasons why life is great!

No matter the circumstances, attitude will lead me to feel today is the perfect day.

These thoughts are almost always with me... and I say "almost" because I'm only human.  I have learned through life, that you've got to be optimistic to be able to live in a better way... see the little things that really are important... and notice the richness God has given to each one of us... in different ways...

That's why I like this card.

It reminds me that we, and only ourselves, are capable of changing what we feel... We can decide how to feel, and how to handle... Life!

I hope this is a great Friday for you!  I'm sure it will be perfect!

By the way, congratulations to all beautiful, optimistic and wonderful women who visit my blog.  Today's also International Day of Women.

What's up?

What's up?  How are you?  How've you been?

For me, this has been another week of craziness, but I could not let go one week without at least saying  hi.  So...  Hi!

Let me tell you about my life lately.

Besides my busy life at work, I decided to take sign language classes on Saturdays!  It's been so cool... but more difficult than I thought.  Not only because learning this language is not easy, but also because it requires a lot of practice...  Unfortunately, I've felt very stressed these last couple of weeks because I don't find much time to study/practice... So that's why scrapbooking has been sacrificed a bit lately :(.  My husband says I am taking it too seriously and I have to relax because this is supposed to be for recreation... The sign language interest is kind of a bucket list thing.  It's something I've always been attracted to, so has my husband, and we found the right moment now... so we are doing it just for fun... and hopefully is something we could use to help others in the future.  The basic course is for 6 weeks so I will be pushing myself to balance some time for everything... because I need to, or I will lose my mind... LOL 

Another thing I wanted to share is that we had our first Scrapbooking Convention in Puerto Rico last Sunday.  We have had another huge yearly activity that one store sponsors and Scrapbooking celebrities provide classes and so, but this one was sponsored by a local magazine and grouped all the local Scrapbooking stores in one and only event.  I have to say I really had fun.  It was a great activity and very good for the hobby industry since we got to know stores we don't usually visit.  Exposure was good. Kuddos to "Papeles y Más" magazine.

Finally, a card to share.  I combined patterned paper, stamps, borders, ink and love... LOL

For the flowers stamp (Unity) I used ink but also some paper piecing in the wood fence.  Hope you can appreciate it in the photo and hope you like it.

Tell me about your week... or about something new you've been involved with or doing lately.

Tks for stopping by.

Wherever you go...

Where to go? Oh God! This week has been so crazy.  A lot of things going on at work... but also lots of fun and new things.  I was thinking how crazy of me of being involved in so many things, but also how lucky!  And it doesn't matter where I go or what I do... I'll do my best, and will put my heart on it. It's so easy to lose faith or to feel weak sometimes... but attitude is everything!  Friday helps!

So, in the middle of so many things this week I managed to make a card yesterday morning.

I stamped directly on the base of the card and made a background with the same stamp and different ink colors.  Then stamped the larger image but cut and placed in the base so it has some dimension.  I combined it with the sentiment. 

The balloons images were placed with 3D foam to make them pop.

Also added some tiny buttons to complete the look.

So... thanks for your visit... I hope you came with all your heart.