Some Quickie B-day Cards and a New Challenge!

Here are a couple of birthday cards I made up the other day, one for my brother-in-law, and one for my mother-in-law (they're both up for a visit for Thanksgiving, yay!):

I completely cased the stamped circle idea from a pin I had pinned to my "Cards" board, so I need to give credit to Katie Gehring - you can find her original card here.  I absolutely LOVE it, so clean and graphic!  But even though I intended these cards to be quick and simple, they ended up taking quite a while because, well, because I'm me and that's how I roll, I guess.  I'm still not completely happy with them, but ... they are what they are.  Here's a close-up of Shirley's:

I used stamps from Close to My Heart, Tim Holtz, Hero Arts, and Hampton Art, and the ink is all Distress Ink.  

Here's Mike's card, and I tried to make it a bit more masculine by sticking to the blues and greens:

Four of the circles are stamped, but three are paper from Studio Calico and Little Yellow Bicycle.  You wouldn't believe how long it took me to figure out where to put these circles, ack!  And here's a side view to show the dimension:

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend - we sure did, even though Hunter developed an abscess on his head, poor dog:

I should have taken a picture before I brought him to the vet to get it drained, it was massive!  He looked like the Elephant Man!!!  But he is now on the road to recovery!

Here is the new challenge at Seriously Creative Challenges for October:

What a gorgeous photo, eh?  Love the ombre look of it!  I sure hope you'll join us this month!  

And one more little tidbit before Nolan drives me absolutely bonkers trying to kick me off my own computer:  I just got an email from Sirius XM letting me know that I have won TWO TICKETS TO SEE METRIC IN VANCOUVER ON NOVEMBER 10TH!!!!!!!!  HOLY CRAP, CAN YOU TELL THAT I'M FREAKING OUT???????  I AM SOOOOOOOO EXCITED I DON'T THINK THESE CAPITOL LETTERS REALLY SHOW JUST HOW OUT OF MY MIND I AM RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!!  

Okay, gotta go, take care, and I'll be back soon, promise!