Cards for Oldsters

I thought I'd show you a couple of "special" birthday cards I came up with for a recent order. This top one is for a 101-year-old who, I'm told, has a fun sense of humor. The size is 3-1/2 by 8, and I kept it flat, because I know it's going to be mailed. On the inside, I stamped "You!"with the same Giggle alphabet and then "Happy Birthday." Not much to say with the exception that I cut the leaves freehand after running a folded strip of retired Topiary B&T paper through the paper corrugator at an angle. The branch was stamped directly on the background paper and colored with a marker. The owl was stamped on Colonial White cardstock and colored with Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits.

Materials & Tools: Colonial White, Bamboo, and Chocolate cardstock; Retired Summer Celebration B&T paper; Black and Chocolate ink pads; Brown Bag marker; Cornish Heritage Farms You're a Hoot and Close to My Heart Giggles Lowercase Alphabet stamp sets; Prismacolor colored pencils; Gamsol odorless mineral spirits; Blending stumps; Piercing tool; Stampin' Up Piercing Guide and Mat.

I made this second card to look like one I thought the friend who placed the order would pick out. It's another 3-1/2 by 8-inch card, not my favorite size by any means, but it worked with this stamp set. Besides, when CTMH came out with this size with its original Originals Card Confidence Program, the envelopes were hard to find. I had to order 1,000. While I've sold some of them, I still have more than a lifetime supply, so it's nice to get rid of one or two once in a while. LOL. For this one, I used my computer to generate the sentiments for both the outside and inside of the card, the inside reading, "We hope your day and all the days to come are as special as you are to us." The font is "Fountain Pen" from the first CTMH Expressives font sets.

Materials & Tools: Sweet Leaf, White Daisy, and Black cardstock; Doodlebug Design Black Eyelet patterned paper; Inkadinkado Delicate Branches stamp set; Ribbon from Wal-Mart.

Well, this day certainly has flown right by. I slept in this morning, which felt good and have been putsing around the apartment since. Nothing exciting. I had my excitement yesterday and was in too much of a hurry to tell you about it in last night's post.

Here's the scenario: Marv is out of town on a business appointment and has my car, so Cameron gives me a ride home from work. My cell phone rings. It's Marv, calling to tell me he's on his way home. All of a sudden, he says, "Oh no! Honey, I'm going to hit a b___!" and the line goes dead. He said it very rapidly, and there was a sense of urgency in his voice. I don't know if he got the entire b-word out or not, but all I could think was that he said that he was going to hit a bus. Repeatedly, Cameron and I tried to call him back. Over and over again, we got his voice mail. I didn't know what to do ... who to call. I didn't even know where he was with the exception that he was in a rural area in another county. Cameron dropped me off at home, because he had to pick the boys up at daycare. He called Dustin to come over and stay with me until I knew what was what with their dad. Before Dusty got here, however, he was able to get through to his dad, who had taken what he thought was going to be a shortcut on a township road, which it turned out had been washed out by some overland flooding. He must have told me he was going to hit a bump. He was fine, albeit stuck in the middle of nowhere with intermittent cellphone service. Hearing that he was OK, I completely fell apart. When he finally reached me by phone again, he thought my story was pretty funny. With a half hour of mortification having probably shortened my lifespan, I didn't think it was humorous and was a little annoyed with him by the time he finally got home with my very muddy little white car. It was kind of like, "Why in the heck were you driving on back roads in the boondocks in the spring when you should know the roads aren't in the best condition?"

That was a long story and one I will never find amusing. It's just kind of an example of the gamut of emotions one can feel in a very short period of time. The bottom line is that I am glad the silly out coot is OK, because, as I've said so many times, I seriously don't know what I'd do without him. I am also grateful for every day that can be described as ordinary. With that, I'll sign off by saying I hope you're have a wonderful and ordinary day. Later ...