A Good Race

Well, we went to Austin this weekend to run the Austin Half Marathon.  My running buddy was supposed to run with my husband and I but she had to cancel at the last minute because her little one was ill.  That meant that I could take it easy!  Had she been with me we would have tried to race it instead of enjoy it!  So, hubby and I just enjoyed all of the 13.1 miles!  And, the bonus, we did an awesome time for a hilly course, he bettered his previous half marathon by 11 minutes! Here are just a few pics:

Us goofing around at the start!  The crowds outside the Capitol Building waiting for the race to start (about 22,000)!  We went to Lance Armstrong's bike shop, he is my hero! And the day before, we decided to break my rules, (I never, ever drink the day before a race, alcohol that is), and we had a Mimosa and Michael had a Mojito, yummy!

Onto something more crafty....the night before we left for Austin I was busy making my MIL a set of cards, she likes to have Sympathy and Thank You cards on hand and I am so thrilled that she likes to use my cards!  So I made her a little gift box (the tutorial is provided by Betsy Veldman) and I put in a few cards (I won't show all of them now).

This is the box, I managed to fit 8 cards in there, but you could put more.  I did not have small enough envelopes so they went seperately.  I will probably alter the size of the template for myself so that in future I can include my envelopes.

The stamps are PTI.

And here is one of the cards I made:

Paper: cardstock (PTI); designer paper (Pink Paisley); Neenah
Ink: Versafine Onyx Black; Hero Arts shadow ink
Stamps: Pink Paisley; PTI
Other: Mat Stack die & Leaf die (PTI)

I hope you all had a great weekend!  And hopefully you have an awesome week coming up!

Card Set

Oh boy, I am so happy with myself today!  I read over the Online Clean & Simple Card Class Day 10 yesterday and I was totally taken in by the most gorgeous card set with a box to match, that Julie Ebersole made!  Firstly, I just loved the design she used, love just using a few strips of patterned paper.  And then when I saw the little gift box she made to add the cards to I just knew I had to give it a go!

So Julie, I am casing 100% here today, I could not help myself, why mess with perfection right!  I did change up the patterned papers, sentiments, die and I also decorated the box using another tip from a previous class to make your own embellishments.

There are quite a few photos, so bear with me. First up is the finished product.

Papers: cardstock (PTI); designer paper (Memory Box: Minuet)
Ink: CTMH dye ink (Juniper); Tombow marker
Stamps: Hero Arts (CL342)
Other: PTI Flower die; EK Success border punch & tag punch; Twine (PTI); brad (unknown)

I love those Minuet paper, they make me think of my blog friends Jacqueline & Susanne, I could really see them loving these.  My most used CTMH dye ink ever is this Juniper shade, it's exquisite!  And an all time favourite sentiment set from Hero Arts is the one I used above (I only know the code which is mentioned above).

Doesn't this make a cute gift set.  Here is a picture of the box without the cards inside:

We got the template in the class, so easy to make, I did not even print the template onto the cardstock, I simply used the measurements and made it, very, very easy! 

I decided to add some of the same patterned paper on the top lid and I added a strip of the same grey designer paper used on the card, over the middle of the top and then wrapped some rustic twine around the box several times.  Then I thought this needed a small embellishment, so, all those die cut flowers from the cards themselves, I glued them all on top of each other and added the final one made wih the same patterned paper, finished it off with a brad.  I also added a little Thank You tag on the lid. (The lid does not come off, you simply remove the cards from the bottom of the box, hence the half moon cut out which allows you easy access).

Here is a collage attempt of all the cards, they are all the same, very easy to assemble, I just changed up the sentiments:

And  here is a close up:

I hope you give this a try, it was really satisfying to see it completed, it really did not take me long.

Well, it's kind of grey and gloomy here today.  I had a slow 10 mile run with my friend this morning, we were soaking wet by the time we finished.  Later on we are going to our neighbours for an Open House Madis Gras party and then later this evening we are getting together with Lisa for dinner, she is making the dinner and I am bringing the dessert!

Have a wonderful day!