Happy New Year-ISH

Okay, so I know I'm a little late with these cards, but that's been the norm since our little one was born.  My new favorite/most frequently used word these days is "ish" (particularly when referring to time).  For example, yesterday I told my neighbor I would bring them dinner at 5:30ish.  Or I might describe my house right now as clean-ish.  Or I might say that I am happy-ish with these cards.  There are parts that are far less pristine than I would normally ever share, but I'm learning to let things go....at least some things...some of the time.  (In my defense with the cards, though, the stamping really does look worse in the photos, and one of them I purposely stamped the image a second time a little off in an attempt to create a shadowed effect.  Hey, I can use the word again...it created a shadow-ish.)

I've mentioned my thoughts on the up/down photos before, but I went against the norm today because the "up" photos showed the shine on the card a little better...at least on the silver foil. The glittered gold cardstock didn't photograph well no matter what I did. Do you want to know a secret about the silver foil? Hee...I'm chuckling already.  I have to preface this a bit.  Before my kiddos came along, I worked in the public school system.  School budgets are super tight, so you learn to be creative AND to save everything!  Really!  I'm beginning to let that go because I also like a clean, organized home, but there are so many times that I go to throw something away and I still think..."but what if I could use this for____" or "this would make the best___." Anyway, I had one of those moments a couple months back.  Occasionally I bring meals in to neighbors, and I've learned a thing or two along the way.  One of the things I've learned is to make everything you package the meal in disposable.  It makes it easier for everyone.  The dollar store has become my best friend in this regard.  I love getting their foil containers, and I usually buy the ones with lids.  Here is a picture of what I'm talking about.

I can't take credit for the delicious food picture....Cafe Rio can...and that's a whole other tangent.  But do you see where I'm going?  I didn't need a lid on one of the containers a few months back and just as I was about to toss it in the garbage, I thought..."Hmm...that looks a lot like the pretty foil paper I've been seeing on cards lately.  I wonder if..." So yep, I kept it...and now I've used it.  And it really is pretty and shiny and wonderful.  One more confession: Last night I took dinner in to a neighbor who just had a baby, and I purposely filled the fruit to overflowing in one of the containers, so I would have to cover it in foil and thus could keep the lid. :) My husband just shook his head.
Okay, on to my second card, which uses the negatives from the first card.

Actually, I guess the first card technically used the negatives because the little stars are the leftover centers of Papertrey's Super Stars Border Die.  (I just used Simon Says Stamp's Falling Hearts Stencil as a rough guide to adhere them.)  Then I used the leftovers strips on my second card. Oh, and the sentiment was built with several PTI stamp sets as well as the Simon Says "Happy" stamp set.  Phew....apparently I was in a long winded mood tonight.  (Another random side note: My 11th grade English teacher wrote "too verbose" or "needs to be more succinct" on nearly every paper I wrote that year.  Almost always I edit and cut out big chunks of my posts, but obviously not tonight.) I do apologize for such a long post, but I really do hope that you have the most wonderful, blessed new(ish) year! :)
PS I'm linking this up to the SSS Flickr Challenge #9, which is to create a card for anything "new".  And speaking of new things, I used two "new"ish PTI stamp sets (Phrase Play #5 and Inside & Out: Love) on this card.  I've had them a while, but never used them before, so I'm also linking this up to Darnell's 3rd NBUS Challenge.

Card Supplies
Stamps: PTI (Headline Alphabet, Inside & Out: Love, Movers & Shakers Sentiments, Phrase Play #5); SSS (Happy)
Other: PTI (Super Stars Border Die), SSS (Falling Hearts Stencil)