Who needs Hallmark anyways?....

......evidently NOT the Hallmark lady that merchandises my Safeway store! She had asked me to make a card for her for her grand-daughter. Ha ha! How's that for irony?!

I had always seen Lola coming in my store, and I had asked her what she does with all the cards that she takes off the shelf. She replied that she has to throw them away! What?! That's silly! So I asked her if Hallmark is willing to donate them. Since I work with multiple non-profit groups, I thought this would be a great use for the cards. She's still looking into it, but she did give me all the extra envelopes she had! Whoo-hoo! As us card makers know, envelopes can get pricey, so that helped out a lot. She gave me more then next time I saw her that I gave to one of my groups.

As a thank you, I brought in a set of my handmade cards. I guess she liked them well enough that she wanted to hire me for her grand-daughter's card! Her grand-daughter, ASHLEY--not "Angela" as I put on the card! Good thing I fixed it before I gave it to her! I don't know why I had "Angela" stuck in my head--has leukemia and has been in the hospital for the last few weeks for more treatment. She's going to miss her senior year of high school. :(

To make things happy and cheerful, Lola wanted me to make a card that fits Hallmarks biggest envelope (11.5x11.5) and use monkeys, which are Ashley's favorite. I was also informed she's NOT a pink girl. OK, done. I didn't really have a good money stamp, but I did have some of the Animal Cookies dp with a money on it. So I scanned it to my computer and enlarged the image and printed it on cs. Ta-da! Instant monkey cut-out! I though it would be fun to make this a swinger card, so when you shake it, the monkey swings back and forth! I hope she loves it and that it's not to childish for her.

Materials: All CTMH. Colonial white, goldrush, ocean and chocolate cs, Animal Cookies dp, Treasure Life ss, Friendship Alpha ss, Boutique Alpha ss, Intrinsic Backgrounds ss, Serendipity ss, chocolate brads, goldrush, chocolate, sweet leaf, and ocean inks, pop-dots, sanding kit.

Other: Cuttlebug swiss dot folder, SEI ribbon, chipboard. The dot paper is actually the back side of an invitation to a barbeque I saved because I loved the paper. Going green!