Good Friend - Curtain Call #36

Welcome to this week's Curtain Call Challenge!  Are you going to join us this week?  I sure hope so.  This week's colors could go masculine, patriotic...what will you do with them?

I decided on patriotic, not a real stretch with these colors, but I need to go with the easy things in life these days!

I am mostly pleased with this card.  I do like my "sparklers" from the the set Good Friend.  I'm also pleased with the Crumb Cake (formerly Kraft) ink stamped on the Crumb Cake cardstock.  I'm not so pleased with the bottom and my tinsel and rick rack border.  Originally I was playing with a striped ribbon treatment.  It was OK, but very bulky so I took it off!  I'm not convinced this is any better, but I went with it!

Make sure to check out the rest of the Curtain Call Crew this week!

Amy White @ Devlinwhite Designs
Andrea Roose @ Andrea Scrap - und Stampel-Blog
Iwona Palamountain (Chupa) @ Random Acts of Creativity
Julie Smith @ Paper and Such
Lea Lawson @ Lea's Cupcakes & Sunshine
Marisa Ritzen @ Rosemary Reflections
Melissa Hubert@ My Paper Obsession
Sue Kohler@ My Inner Reflection

Our June guest designer, Christina MacLaren @ Seaglass and Sentiments

And our leader....Stacey @ Stacey's Stamping Stage

Remember, if want to join us, link to your creation on Stacey's post.  At the end of the challenge period she will choose 5 great projects that will earn the Curtain Call Show Stopper badge.  One talented person will get the Lead in this week's Curtain Call!

Good Friend - For a Good Friend

My friend Cathy is celebrating a birthday this week. We decided to have lunch together and then hit one of the local garden nursery centers. I didn't really NEED anything. I have close to 8 flats of plants under my grow lights at the moment! But it's always fun to look. I restrained myself and came home with only three plants. I'm hoping to get outside AGAIN today and plant them! I still haven't finished my outside work! The weathered here has not cooperated. We've had such terrible winds and it is no fun working outside in that.

So, back to Cathy's birthday. I made a little tote, it's called genie bag, for the little goody I got her. This was such a fun project. Simply facing a paper bag and using the Large Oval Punch to make the handle. I used the retired Cutie Pie paper because it best matched the card I had already made. I have been stamping so little, this is the first time my birdie from Good Friend has seen any ink! I really had no idea where I was going with this. I just kept adding things 'til it looked done! The last touch was the gathered ribbon at the top. It turned out be one of my favorite things about the project! I adhered the ribbon to the back, brought it around to the front and gathered it as I sewed it down. I used the needle down position on my machine to keep the ribbon in place with all the stopping and starting of each gather. I used my seam ripper to help hold down the gather as I was sewing over it.

The card I made is from an old set You Make Me Happy. It's one of my favorite floral sets. I must be one of the only ones because it never made it out of the mini catalog! Love the goodies on this card, beads and puffy paint! The inside stem is also from You Make Me Happy but the "Happy*Happy*Birthday I did on the computer.

I hope you are having a great week. It's flying by for me! Bite my tongue, I'm not ready for Friday!