My parents celebrated their 40th (ruby) anniversary last month. We three kids got together and bought an engraved vase and filled it with flowers. My sister ordered the vase and some personalized M&Ms and later we two girls met up at a Hobby Lobby approximately halfway between our homes to pick out a variety of red silk flowers for the vase. By the time we were done shopping, my two kids and her son (6, almost 4 and almost 2, respectively) had worked themselves into a frenzy and were screaming in fun. I mentioned to the checkout lady that she was probably glad to see us go. She said that she didn't mind happy screaming and that yesterday all the kids were unhappily crying, so it was a welcome change.
Back to the presents: my brother made a red velvet cake (using two bottles of red food coloring... ouch!) and I made this card for us all to sign.
It's a 5x7 and it uses a lot of scraps from my collection (I'm always happy when I use up a bit of scraps). The "love" paper is from a DCWV Mat Stack of various holidays/special occasions. The buttons are from my stash (I think they mismatched a red dress I bought once and so Ms. Perfectionist had to go buy better buttons for it). "Happy Anniversary" is a stamp from Hobby Lobby. I stamped it with VersaMark and then used clear embossing powder on it. Inspired by my friend, Jeanne, I then used a brayer and put CTMH Cranberry ink over it. So I can say that I've finally used that brayer I've had hanging around too!
I haven't put up any scrapbook pages recently because I haven't been working on it. In the spring I found a cross-stitch project I had started while pregnant with Julia. At the time I thought I'd have it finished before she was born, and I did get a good start on it and I even remember bringing it with me so I'd have something to do to pass the time in the hospital. After she was born, I put it away so I wouldn't have to worry about my then two-year-old Aaron getting into it. Fast forward to last spring: I found it again so I spent a lot of my summer working on it (in between scoring baseball games from the satellite feed). Now that I've piqued your curiosity, you're probably wondering what it is. I'm proud to say that it's currently in use and here are some pictures:
It's an advent calendar! It's stitched on 28 count evenweave over two threads. The shiny circles over the numbers are clear plastic snaps (which hold on 25 little pieces, shown in the second photo). The "brass" is stitched with two strands of yellow floss and two strands of Kreinik gold floss (the gold floss kinks in the eye of the needle, so I would double up one long strand of each and use it with no tail left). The little pieces are stitched on plastic canvas (I found some with round holes instead of the traditional square ones, and I like it much better). The idea of the snaps was my own; the official instructions said something like "attach the pieces as desired." I wanted it to be as invisible as possible (it's very invisible in person; the flash reflected off the plastic) and so I was just looking through the sewing notions when I spotted these.I finished it up in September and my mother, the quilter, helped me cut it out and put a backing on it. Each end is folded over to make a pocket for a wooden dowel and round caps finish it off. The kids love it and they are taking turns picking out a piece to add each morning.I did another project, too, but it's a gift so I won't post it until later.
