Happy 21st Birthday!

Hope you had a safe but fun Labor Day!  I did.  On Saturday, we went to the movies and saw No Escape.  It was not the best movie I've seen and was quite bloody but it was entertainment for the afternoon!  On Sunday, we braved the heat and took our boat out.  It was not as hot as it has been but it was not cool either!!  Monday, we drove up to the mountains thinking the temps would be a lot cooler - not so.  We went to the Apple Festival in Hendersonville - a couple of hours from us.  Hendersonville is a really nice little town and one we will return to visit in the future.  Most of the tents selling things were gone but we were still able to get some delicious NC apples - honeycrisp - my favorite!  We watched most of the parade but after a little over an hour, we decided to cool off in one of the two Irish bars that were downtown.  Later we found a German restaurant a few blocks away and had dinner.  Oh my!!  It was delish!!  Sonny has already put it in his GPS as a favorite with intentions of returning.

I was able to get a little stamping done too over the weekend.  I mailed this card to my daughter-in-law's oldest daughter for her 21st birthday which was Sunday.  I am quite pleased with how the card turned out.

I used a stamp set from the Holiday Catalog - Your Presents - which I received from convention.  It is great that this set is not just for Christmas.  The stars are from the Star Framelits and I stamped on them using a really, really old and retired stamp set - Itty Bitty Backgrounds.  The "21" comes from the Numbers Framelits.

The best news of my weekend was that ..... Ashley made it back home safe and sound!!  She left Guam Friday around noon (which was Saturday, noon, for her) and arrived in San Antonio on Saturday around 6:30.  So, she had two Saturdays!  Her friends made a "welcome home" sign and greeted her at the airport and another one of her friends had a welcome home sign on her front door when she got home.  Not sure when we'll see her but it sure was great to just pick up the phone today and call her.

Our trip to the beach!

We had a great time last week at Ocean Isle Beach.  Even though Sonny is not a beach lover like I am, he was a good sport and even sat out on the beach with me for a couple of hours one day.  He took his golf clubs and went to a driving range a couple of days.  He has not golfed for about 25 years and now that his hip is better, he is going to give it a try again.  We made the rounds of several beaches while we were there.  On Friday, we drive over to Calabash for some delicious seafood; Saturday, we went to Ocean Drive Beach (North Myrtle as it is called now); Sunday, we went to Carolina Beach and Wrightsville Beach.  I think on our next beach outing, we will go to Carolina Beach.  Sonny thought there was more to do there.  Admittedly, Ocean Isle is a very quiet beach with not much night life.  But we will be returning there to the Winds Resort because the day after we got home, I got an email that I had won a 4 day, 3 night stay at the Winds (where we had stayed) in an ocean front room for 4 to be used between late October and early March!  So, I will be planning a little get away again!  This has been my lucky summer - first I won the shopping spree with Stampin' Up and now a beach trip!

It rained on our last day.  I had hoped to make one more trip to lay on the beach, but Mother Nature had a different idea!

Holiday Catalog is LIVE!

The day has finally arrived that you can order from the fabulous new Holiday Catalog!!

Click on the link above and check it out.  Contact me if you want one of your own.

So, what are your new favorite items?

Project Kits?  There’s a Season to Season Wreath, the Witching Décor, Oh What Fun Tags, and To You and Yours Shaker Cards.

Bundles?  Oh my, this catalog is packed with bundles.  How many can you find? (17)

Designer Series Papers, 12″ x 12″ as well as 6″ x 6″.

Embellishments:  Pompom Trim, Enamel Dots, ribbons and buttons

Framelits and Thinlits:  most of them are available in 15% off bundles.  Check them out!!!

Embossing Folders

That new Fine Tip Glue Pen - take it from me, it is the BOMB!

Real Red Foil Sheets as well as Envelope Paper.

Reindeer Paper Clips (so cute)

New Precision Plate that’s fabulous for cutting intricate Thinlits.

Punches

Stamp Sets!  Such a variety, covering Halloween, Autumn and Christmas

This is one of my favorite embossing folders ever!

There are also a lot of You Tube videos from Stampin' Up that show you different ways to use all the new products.  Check them out HERE.

Christmas Ideas with Paper Pumpkin Kits

I have been trying to clean up some of the "half done" kits I have in my stamp room before I start any new ones.  I found several Paper Pumpkin kits that I had not finished so I decided to put them together and film a video for you.

One thing I forgot to mention that as a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, you can purchase older kits as they are available.  Both of the kits I demo-ed today are still available!!

To see other ideas using these kits, check out HERE.

Paper Pumpkin - August 2015

I decided it was time for another video!  I received my Paper Pumpkin kit last week.  So, I decided to share with you what I did with it.  I followed the instructions for a couple of cards but then decided to switch things up and create a few of my own.  A few of the cards I CASE'd parts of them from other blogs but changing them and making them my own.  I ended up making 6 note cards and 6 full size cards.  The kit only contained the note cards but I was able to stretch the supplies and make a lot more.

You'll have to forgive me in the first part of the video when I was just a tad off camera!  I need to remember to do everything in the center!  Practice makes perfect!

Here are all the cards I made using this kit.  I also made 2 boxes as shown in the video.

These are the full cards

These are the smaller note cards

I highly suggest that you take advantage of the Paper Pumpkin sale that is going on now.  You have to sign up by September 10!  You get the first two months HALF PRICE - $9.95 (plus tax, but shipping is included in the price.)  If you go to the top of my blog, you will see a link to take you to sign up for Paper Pumpkin.  I saw a few of the upcoming kits at convention and they are going to be great!

• Each month we send you a unique, surprise kit with a project-cards, journals, décor, and more!
  • We’ve even color-coordinated, measured, and cut everything for you!
• Each kit includes stamps, ink, paper, and accessories
• Each kit gives you a 30-minute creativity escape.
• We will ship your Paper Pumpkin on or around the 15th of the month.
• You need to sign up for a kit by the 10th of the month to get that month’s kit. If you sign up on the 11th of the month, your first kit will come the next month.
  • Let’s say you sign up on May 10th, we’ll send your kit around May 15th. If you sign up on May 11th, we’ll send your first kit around June 15th.
• A Paper Pumpkin membership is $19.95 per month (but with the special, it is $9.95 for the first two months) and shipping is included!
• There’s no commitment, you can cancel your monthly Paper Pumpkin at anytime. You can also skip a month if you want.

August Stamp Club

Busy week for me (as you can guess from the lack of posts!).  I played bridge on Monday.  Then Tuesday, learned of the death of a husband of one of the gals in our bridge group.  Pete had been in and out of hospitals and rehab for 5 years with kidney disease but still, it was a shock.  Last night we went to a party at a friend's new house in our neighborhood.  Wouldn't you know it, an hour before the party was to start, it started raining.  We need the rain but it sure ruined the plans of those who had planned to boat over to Anna's house!  Luckily, her house is huge so there was plenty of room inside for everyone and even outside in the covered areas.  It was a lot of fun.  This has also been Stamp Club week although my numbers have dwindled drastically this week.  I ended up having a total of 4 people this week.  But we had fun anyway!  Here are the cards we made this week.

This card was one I received last spring in a swap made by Melissa Kernan.  It was a different use of the stamp set, Sheltering Tree.  The only change I made was to emboss the Mossy Meadow piece with the new Woodlands embossing folder from the Holiday Catalog,

 This set uses the Paper Pumpkin set I bought at convention.  Love the gift bag, card and matching envelope!

 Another CASE from Pinterest.  I thought the upside ice cream cones fit the sentiment great!!

This is a new set that I just purchased.  It is in the annual catalog - You're Sublime.  I just love the cute images in this set!  I haven't decided which is my favorite.  I think this set will make really cute little note card sets.  I used DSP from the Subtles Stack and let each person choose which image they wanted to make.

My $200 Shopping Spree order arrived yesterday while I was gone along with a $100 order that I had placed - all from the Holiday Catalog!!  I can't wait to start playing with all the new goodies!

Sneak Peek from Holiday Catalog

We got a call tonight from Ashley.  Of course it was Monday morning for her and she just wanted to say "Good Morning (from) Viet Nam!!  They had just arrived and she was getting ready to move off her ship (Millinocket) and move onto her new home for the rest of the journey, the Mercy.  She does not think her schedule will be too rigorous in Viet Nam and she will have time to do some sight seeing.  Hope so!

I thought I'd share a few more convention photos and give you a sneak peek of the Holiday Catalog.  I think it is a really good catalog this year and I have purchased a lot of stuff so far!

This set is called A Little Something and it coordinates with the new Square Pillow Box Thinlets that are also in the Holiday Catalog.  You can bundle the Square Pillow Box with the stamp set!  I love a good bundle deal!

This card uses All Ye Faithful stamp set.  And don't you just love that wood star??  

Next we have the Christmas Greetings Thinlets Dies - jolly, merry and peace.  Don't they look great cut from the glitter paper!  These thinlets also come in a bundle with the stamp set Holly Jolly Greetings (which I won in the prize patrol - but unfortunately, it didn't include the thinlets.)  They are on my list for sure.

 I think these Christmas Cuties are adorable!  I can't wait to get them in my order this week and do some watercoloring with my aqua pen.

It won't be too long until Halloween.  And these boxes will be easy to make with the Gift Box Punch Board and then do a little decorating using the Spider Web Doilies and Sweet Hauntings stamp set that also coordinates with the Note Tag Punch.

Kiss A Frog!

I had fun today going through the Holiday Catalog (about a million times!) and picking out my $200 winnings!  I decided to get mostly holiday stamps since I just sold almost all my Christmas stamps.  Out with the old, in with the new!  I finally made up my mind and sent it away before I changed my mind (again!).  It's not easy trying to get the order to exactly $200 but I did it.  Then this afternoon, I put together another large order from my earnings of selling my old stamps.  I should be set for a while.  Now to be patient and wait for everything to arrive.

In the meantime, I played with a really cute stamp set from the annual catalog called "You're Sublime."  I love the cute little frog in this set as well as the other images which I will be sharing with you in the future.  But first, the froggies!

This first one is a CASE from a swap card I received at convention.  I sponged the sky with Marina Mist ink and sponged the grass with Cucumber Crush (my favorite green!)  I stamped the frog on a piece of scrap paper, cut him out and mounted him with dimensionals.  The line is hand drawn with a Black Marker.  I used the Brick Wall embossing folder for the background on the Whisper White piece.

For the next frog, I decided to make it a "her" and drew on the lips and added a little blue eyeshadow on her eyes!  What do you think?  Would you kiss her?

Ashley is finishing up her time in the Phillipines and will be headed to Viet Nam this weekend.  The end is in sight for her.  She has really loved this deployment but she will be happy to get back to the states and go to her favorite store, Target!

Big Winner!

Wow!  Didn't realize I had not posted on my blog in almost a week!  Guess that video that I posted last week did me in!  No - just life getting in the way.  Nothing big, just routine things.  Ashley has been able to get on Facebook every evening (for us - morning for her) since last Thursday so we end up "chatting" with her for about 30-40 minutes.

This past weekend, I discovered a site on Facebook where I could sell some of my used stamps.  So I was busy all weekend taking pictures, pricing and posting.  I ended up making almost $300 so not bad.  I have a lot of retired dies and punches that I want to sell now.  They will be a little trickier to try and figure out packaging and mailing though.

This morning I was being pretty lazy - laying in bed and reading.  Decided to check my email before I got out of bed and what I discovered caused me to jump right up!  I went to the Stampin' Up website to read their weekly update to demonstrators and saw this announcement:

We have selected 20 lucky winners of our Inspire. Create. Share. 2015 design contest! Winners will be contacted with instructions on how to redeem their $200 shopping spree. We loved seeing everyone's amazing samples on our display boards and thank all of our contest participants! 

Would you believe it??!!  I was one of those lucky winners!!  I still can't believe it!  I never win anything.  My friend told me it was probably because I was complaining about convention this year! But here is my name in black and white among the other winners:

Ann Monrovia Annie Johnson April Silvester Becky Liggin Cindy Brumbaugh Dawn Heffernan Delores Hertel Doretta Petlowany Jeanna Bohannon Jen Pitta Joy Borwege Karen Struve Kathy McDowell Kristin Williams Leslie Teague Lynn Kolcun Natalie Travis Sharon Maranich Shawn de Oliveira Terry Bolender

Now the fun begins!!  I'll be taking another long look at the Holiday Catalog since I just sold all my retired Christmas sets!  I can justify it to myself (and to Sonny) now.

I am not sure which of my cards Stampin' Up chose as the winner since I put two cards on the Display Boards.  Here is one of them:

It is the card in the lower corner using Flower Shop.

I am not sure which other card I put on the board.  I think it was THIS ONE from Wetlands.  Oh well!  Doesn't matter now!

Watercolor Wishes Kit & 1st Video!

OK - be kind!  I filmed my first video for my blog!  When I was at convention, one of the break-out classes had to do with video taping.  Katie Adams was one of the presenters and she showed us the video mount that she had made using PVC pipe.  Well, my engineer husband took one look at it and was off to Lowe's to buy some PVC!  Sometimes he is like a dog with a bone.  So since he had made it, I had to use it!  This video is a bit longer than I wanted it to be but I filmed 3 of them and this was the shortest!  The beginning is a bit slow but I get the hang of it after that!

I love the Watercolor Wishes Kit and so that is what I decided to feature on my first video.  Let me know what you think.

Here are the samples again:

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