Memories Are Made Of This.

(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)

Every summer I vow to slow down and enjoy. Every summer I do anything but. This summer was no exception. I'll not bother to mention my gardening work. There's plenty of that in other posts. I'll just get to the rest of it.

I had heard that one of my cousins in Arizona had sustained a very bad leg break that would keep her in a cast for three to six months. I sent her this black and white get well card. Materials used were Spellbinders Nestabilities Scalloped Circles and Standard Circles, Spellbinders Borderabilities A2 Curved Borders 1, Memory Box Vivienne (cutout) and Darla (solid) butterfly dies, Spellbinders Shapeabilities Sprigs (leaves) and Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder. Solid butterfly was cut from vellum and embossed. I punched tiny flowers, sponged the edges with a coordinating ink and embellished them with tiny self adhesive rhinestones. Stamped verse from Inkadinkado Round Frames set.

My parents share the same birthday. My father, who is a year older, turned 80 this year and we marked the occasion with a semi-surprise luncheon at my house. The birthday card I made for them also served as an invitation to dine at my home. I call it a semi-surprise because although they knew my sister's family and mine would be there, they were not aware of the other family members that had been invited. My father, in particular, was surprised at the attendance of his brother and nephews who live nearly three hours away and whom he doesn't get to see very often. Card materials feature a variety of die punch and electronic cut flowers and leaves, Spellbinders Floral Ovals and text from Cloud 9 Design's Simple Thoughts - Happy Birthday clear stamps.

In a large heart shaped basket I placed some paper, envelopes and pens along with this oversized tag (left)  featuring a photo of my folks taken during their youth. It was the same photo I used for their anniversary favors. The guests were encouraged to write a message to the birthday couple or to insert a card of their own into the basket. As decorations I created more oversized tags, this time featuring a photo of my handsome father taken at my parents' 60th anniversary celebration in April on one side and the event on the other. I hung these around my house and in the backyard, then distributed them to the guests as favors afterwards. The tags, the heart, the corner stars and the black text were cut using Craftwell's eCraft electronic cutter. I created the cutting files in Serif DrawPlus 6. The black text is self-stick vinyl.

Here is a picture of my father posing with his photo cake. Yes, people, he really does look like that. No Photoshop. No trick photography. My dad is a handsome man who looks much younger than his 80 years. Eat your hearts out, ladies.

This is a photo of some more handsome men, my son, Alex, holding my cousin's grandson, William, both of them wearing a good coating of cake frosting on their faces. The expressions on those faces are priceless. My nephew Michael in the background is also enjoying the moment. The fact that a sudden deluge washed out the backyard and we all had to run indoors didn't dampen the fun.

Family, food and good times. This is what memories are made of.


Ballo ergo sum

- Gitana, the Creative Diva

Creating Memories

(Click on any photo to view a larger image.)

My parents flanked by my brothers

This past weekend I had the great privilege and honor of seeing my parents renew their wedding vows in celebration of their 60th wedding anniversary. Given the divorce-riddled society we live in nowadays, such a milestone is rarely achieved. Such an occasion deserved nothing less than a tremendous effort on my part and I'm happy to say I delivered.

I chose a theme of butterflies and flowers in spring colors of

Matchbook favors in spring colors.

peach, blue and green and carried this theme throughout all the items. The favors, in spite of being the smallest of these items, turned out to be the most intricate and labor-intensive. Each matchbook was comprised of 15 individual pieces, all of which had to be cut one at a time. The butterfly alone is made up of four separate pieces. Although there were only 22 matchbooks, it took over a week of creating a prototype, tweaking it, then going into production. Once they were complete, I needed a means to carry them so they wouldn't be crushed or soiled. For this I used a bakery box and

A peek inside the favors

decorated the top to match the predetermined theme.

A decorated bakery box to hold the
favors.

There was one other thing I had to do last minute and that was to arrange and decorate my mother's bouquet. She didn't want to go through the expense of buying an expensive floral arrangement from a florist so she chose to purchase a dozen roses and some baby's breath from a local supermarket flower shop and handed them to me. She also gave me some silvery ribbon from which to fashion a bow. Inasmuch as I'm not a floral arranger, this prospect had me a little nervous but I'm happy to say that turned out beautifully as well. Unfortunately I neglected to photograph the finished bouquet, with its full, silvery bow, long sheer streamers and tissue paper wrapping hand stamped with watermarked images of hearts and butterflies.

The card I made to present
to my folks.

I then had to make a card for the occasion because, let's face it, Hallmark just wasn't going to cut it. Since I couldn't do any work on this project during the day, everything had to be done at night. I lost many hours of sleep but managed to finished everything in time AND managed to get some shut-eye before the big event.

Here are some of the materials I used to create the projects you see here. If you have any questions about how any of these was made, feel free to send me an email at gypsiwoman55@yahoo.com. 

• Bazzill Basics cardstock - Glass Slipper
• Colorbok Glitter Paper Pack - White
• Michael Miller Memories Fabric Paper (discontinued)
• Cutting Dies: 
• Paper Artist - Viney Swirl; 
• Spellbinders Nestabilities - Floral Ovals; 
• Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 Scalloped Borders One
• Spellbinders Borderabilities - A2 Curved Borders One
• Spellbinder Shapeabilities - Butterflies Two
• Memory Box - Vivienne Butterfly (for butterfly body)
• Embossing folders:
• ProvoCraft Cuttlebug - Swiss Dots
• Sizzix Textured Impressions - Elegant Lines
• Distress Stickles (Ranger Industries) - Stormy Sky, Wild Honey
• Inkssentials (Ranger Industries) - Glossy Accents
• Aleene's Fast Grab Tacky Glue
• Miracle Tape (double-sided super sticky tape) - various widths
• Martha Stewart scoring board
• Fiskars 12" SureCut Deluxe Craft Paper Trimmer
• Assorted scissors and craft knives
• Assorted bling and fabric flowers from my stash

This is by no means a comprehensive list but it does represent most of the materials I used for these projects. The length of the materials list alone should be an indication of how much work went into these items. Nevertheless I would do it all again in a heartbeat. For my mom and dad, anything.

Ballo ergo sum
 - Gitana, the Creative Diva