Moonlight Pouch

I have been working hard on my convention swaps and I think I have enough.  Last count was about 100.  I don't know what I will do with them all but it is just so much fun to walk around the convention center and swap with everyone.  It's like a contagious disease!  Here is one of the cards I made this weekend.

I used the new in-colors for the card base and embossed them with various folders. I created a little pouch for a tag and adhered it to the card.  I started with one sheet of Moonlight Paper Pack DSP (measures 4-1/2" x 6-1/2").  Score it at  1", 2", 2-1/2", 4", 4-1/2" and 5" with the long side at the top of the Simply Scored Tool.  Then turn it so the short side is at the top and score at 1/2".  Trim away the two sides (at the 1/2") leaving the middle section.  Fold the pouch to create mountains and valleys and adhere the pouch closed with adhesive of your choice.

The flowers are punched with the Flower Fair thinlets.

I was playing with my Kindle Fire tonight and took a "selfie".

How to Use Blendabilities

Blendabilities You Tube Video

Blendabilities are coming!!

If you're tired of waiting to order Blendabilities, you'll be happy to know that Stampin' Up! has finally published a release date of JULY 1st!!  That's next Tuesday!

If you don't know what Blendabilities are and what all the excitements is about, read on.

First off, Blendabilities are very different from our Stampin' Write Markers.  They are alcohol markers instead of water-based ink markers.  That means you can actually BLEND the colors which you can't do very well with the water-based markers.  Each color assortment includes light, medium and dark shades of one color.  I've been playing with mine and I think they are awesome!  Alcohol markers work very differently than the water-based markers.  The ink actually soaks into the card stock, as opposed to sitting on top.  You can go over and over the area with different shades without degrading the card stock.

One of the Blendabilities pens is called a COLOR LIFTER.  It doesn't act as an eraser exactly; it's more like it moves the ink you've applied around a bit.  It's also alcohol based and when applied to an area, it can push the colors into the card stock more.  That's how you can get light areas into whatever you are coloring.  The Color Lifter is great for blending layers of colors.

The are also super great for coloring your rhinestone, pearls and even buttons!

They work best with Stampin' Up's Whisper White card stock.  And another must have item is the Black Memento Ink.  It is the best black ink I have ever used and you really need this ink for the Blendabilities.  You can find it on page 212 along with the Blendabilities markers.

To see one of the cards I have made using the Blendabilities Markers, go to Blended Bloom and check it out.  Also, here are a couple of other cards I made:

Can you tell I also really love the Blended Bloom single stamp???  It is a bargain too - pg. 167 - $11.95.

If you are ready to order your very own Blendabilities, click above ORDER ONLINE and then SHOP. Please use the July Hostess Code when inputting your order:   7TJFYD2M 

This & That Paper Craft Crew Challenge

I forgot to share my MDS card I made this week for Paper Craft Crew's sketch challenge.  Probably because I was on the ball last week and did a couple of sketches at one time and then forgot I had done them!  Anyway, this is for challenge #99!!

The elements for this card are from the This and That Epic Day download.  I love to use just one download - paper, elements, stamps, etc. to make a project.  That way I am assured that it will all coordinate nicely.

I am playing Hand and Foot Friday at the Mooresville Bowling Alley.  We have started meeting there and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice the place is.  We order our lunch there and there is a large and varied menu to choose from.  Tomorrow night is our Newcomers annual Bingo night.  This is the only fundraiser we do all year and it is a lot of fun.  Sonny doesn't agree with me and I am having to drag him along!  He's a good sport and won't complain too much!  My mom and Angela are coming also.

Kick Up Your Heels

We are definitely in the hot, muggy days of summer where just a little bit of rain makes the air so heavy.  But this is what we were wishing for back in January and February.

I have been plugging away at making swap cards for convention.  I'll be sharing those later.  But I took a break and created this fun card.  I had been neglecting this Bootiful Occasions set so I dusted it off and inked it up.

 

I used some retired paper with the Woodgrain embossing folder and the new stars frameless.  My favorite is the "rope" I made with the Baked Brown Sugar thick Bakers Twine.

June Paper Pumpkin and Weekly Deals

This week's deals include some great prices on FRAMELITS!!  I'm ordering the Envelope Liners this time since I have put it off in the past.  What about you?  I have seen some great projects on Pinterest using them for things other than just lining your envelope.  Check out this link - HERE





I received my June Paper Pumpkin last week.  This month it is all about patriotic pinwheels and it was a box chocked full of them!  The kit contained 3 stamps, an ink spot, 24 pre-cut pinwheels, 24 red and white paper straws, 20 banners, 24 cello bags, Basic Gray Baker's Twine, 24 silver brads, 24 silver clips and 96 glue dots .... that's a lot packed into a little box!  I put together several of the pinwheels this morning (in about 15 minutes) and put them in a Mason jar.  At STamp Club Tuesday, each person took one home with them.  They were really cute.

I took one of the pinwheels and cut it down (before making the pinwheel) about 2 inches and made a spinner card with it.

Stamp Club Cards

I have Stamp Club tomorrow and we are going to do things a bit different this month.  We are all going to make two cards together to learn a couple of techniques.  The first one is a spinner card using the "two pennies" to make the slider.  It has been years since I made one of these cards but in the past month, I have made several.  I thought I would demonstrate it for the girls.

This card also uses a new stamp set from the 2014-15 catalog - Cupcake Party as well as a new embossing folder, Large Polka Dot.  These are such fun cards to make!

We are also making a type of shaker card using Sea Street stamp set.

 
I used a cello bag to make the pocket for the shaker stuff.  The background is a piece of the Maritime DSP.  Another fun card!

After doing these cards, I am going to let them do a couple of card creations using Work of Art.  I got carried away and made about nine different cards using the set.  I couldn't pick just one or two for them to make so I decided to let them choose their own.  I shared a few of the choices in THIS POST.  Here are a few others:

Using the swirl from Just Eleanor in different colors.

Polka Dots with labels from Chalk Talk framelits

A sympathy card using the tree and sentiment from Thoughts and Prayers

So .... what would your choice be???

The Versatility of Work of Art!

I was really on a roll yesterday and made a lot of cards - some for convention swaps and some for my stamp club next week.  I pretty much used one stamp set for all the cards!!  I just love the versatility of Work of Art which is the stamp set we received at the catalog reveal party.  I wasn't so sure when I first got it but I have been definitely won over!!  Most of the cards I made are soooo easy and take just a few minutes to make.  That's my kind of creating these days!!  Here are a few ideas for you.

Make a sailboat!  I embossed the Coastal Cabana card with the chevron folder to carry on the waves theme.  And how about the little crab from Sea Street?  Colors on this one are Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar and Calypso Coral.

Yummy popsicles to celebrate the first day of summer tomorrow.  Colors used are:  Real Red; Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay and Perfect Plum.  The sentiment is from Really Good Greetings.

Stamp the birds from Wetlands on the beach.  Colors used are all the new in colors - Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Lost Lagoon and I added Baked Brown Sugar for the sand.  

How about a rainbow for these summer storms that keep cropping up?  Add the saying from Feels Good.  Rainbow colors are:  Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Lost Lagoon, Rich Razzleberry and Wisteria Wonder. 

This one is just a soft "love you" but a sentiment could also be added to the bottom.  I used the Envelope Punch Board to make the little cut-outs on the side.  Colors on this one are:  Hello Honey, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana.

I had a request for an anniversary card - how simple!  Colors used are:  Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette, Crisp Cantaloupe, and Pistachio Pudding.  The sentiment is retired.

I think Sonny and I are going to go see Jersey Boys today.  The Four Seasons are one of my all time favorite groups and I can't wait to see the movie.  I have seen the play in Las Vegas and we both loved it.  When I was in college (at ECU), I dated a boy who was in a fraternity.  A few of the guys rented a house out in the country and we would go there on the weekends to party.  It never failed that they would put on a Four Seasons album (yes, no CD's or smart phones back then!) and we would all gather 'round and sing every song on that record belting them out one after the other!  Those were some fun days!  Needless to say, we were thrilled when the Four Seasons played at ECU one year for Homecoming - none of us missed them!!

Paper Craft Crew Challenge #98

Well, summertime is here!  It has really been hot with not much relief in sight.  Of course, I could be in Texas where it is really HOT!!  Enjoy that heat, Ashley!  I think instead of going to the Y tomorrow, I will just exercise in the neighborhood pool instead.

I am hoping to get a few swaps done tomorrow and Friday as well as finalize my cards for club next week.  I haven't had much time this week to get anything done with bridge on Monday and mahjongg today.  Plus I got a new Kindle Fire HDX this week and Sonny got a Kindle reader (for Father's Day) so I have been learning how to use both of them and download books for us.  Ashley and I weren't too sure if Sonny would like the Kindle but he has finished reading one of the books that I downloaded for him on Sunday.  So I guess he is handling the digital age ok!

Here is the card I made for Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch #98.

Make sure you check out the other designer's cards HERE.

Here is the sketch if you would like to make your own card using it:

MDS Monday Challenge

Last week I discovered MDS Monday blog where a sketch and/or other challenges are given for you to follow by incorporating it into a scrapbook page using My Digital Studio.   Well, last week, I submitted this page and found out today when I checked for the newest challenge, that my page had been chosen as one of the featured picks (here) for the week.

Tonight I decided to do another page for this week's challenge.  The sketch this week was to use circles (or other shapes) and layering them.  I thought this was a great challenge for the zorbing pictures of Ashley and Courtney!!  At least this is getting me started on my New Zealand scrapbook!!

MDS Monday Challenge Take 2

I realized after I posted my last picture that I didn't follow all the rules for the challenge!  I was supposed to follow the sketch, add sequins, a frame, ink splats and overlays.  I think I only did the overlays - that's what I get for not reading thoroughly!!  Anyway .... here is my page following all the rules!!

This is another picture from New Zealand.  This one is from Lake Tekapo.  I had gotten up early in the morning to go to the bathroom and caught this picture real quick of the sun coming up over the lake.

MDS Challenge

I've been neglecting My Digital Studio lately!  I really need to get busy with my New Zealand scrapbook before I forget all the details!!  I have sooooo many pictures that I think it is intimidating me.  That is one of my biggest problems with scrapbooking - I want to include ALL the pictures and if I did, the book would be too heavy to sit on my table!!

In the meantime, I decided to do a MDS Monday challenge page using one of the pictures from New Zealand.  This picture was taken at Bruce Bay, which is on the west coast.  We were driving from Fox Glacier to Queenstown and it was a beautiful sunny day.  The drive was just gorgeous and we made many stops along the way.  My favorite was this stop where we walked along the beach a little bit collecting unique rocks and shells.  I couldn't resist getting my feet wet in the surf but, boy was it cold!!  The worst part of the beach was the sand knats!!  I didn't get bit but poor Taffy was sweet nectar to those knats!

Edited to add note:  Just realized that it was also a sketch challenge.  Oops!  Guess I'll have to do another one!!

 I used a couple of kits to create this page - mainly Be Awesome and Beautiful Today.

Ashley with a handful of the rocks we collected.

Rocks on the beach.

Super Hero and Card Swaps

If you are into Super Heroes, do I have the stamp set for you!  This would make a lot of cute cards for your kids and grandkids!  This photopolymer set was just released yesterday.  If you have not tried Stampin' Up's photopolymer stamps, they are great and stick to your blocks so good!

A lot of possibilities!

Here are a few more of the card swaps to share with you:

Top one is by Kathy Hunt, Way to Go by Lisa Pressley and Work of Art by Sharon Measmer

Top is mine, Baby is by Frances Wagner and Sea Street by JoAnne Hewins

My Swap Cards

I recently participated in a New Catalog Card Swap and received some beautiful cards!  Here is the one that I made using the popular, Work of Art.

 I was so happy to see that the 7/8" Cotton Ribbon made back into the new catalog.  It is so easy to stamp on this ribbon.  The stamp sets I used were:  Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art.  The frame comes from the On Film framelits.

To give you a few more ideas, here are a few of the swap cards.

The top card is Marianne's and the bottom belongs to Sandy Herman.

Three more swap cards - The top card is from Nancy; Wetlands is Patty's and the purple one is Allison's.

Watercolor Background Technique

Hope your weekend was a fun one!  We took my Mom out on the lake yesterday in our boat.  She really enjoyed it although she had her nose in her book the whole time.  She was towards the end of her book (For One More Day by Mitch Album) and couldn't put it down.  I am so happy that she is still able to read - large print books only but that is ok.  When we came off the lake, she wanted to take a bath in my garden tub.  She just loves that tub!  It's funny because I hardly ever take a bath and she would take one every day if she lived here.  The hardest thing is trying to get her in and out of it since it is so deep!  Then we met Angela, Marianne and Greg for dinner and had some yummy fish and shrimp!!  

I have been working all day today on my 80 swap cards for convention.  Let me just say, I'm sick of this card!  I thought I'd chosen a pretty easy card, but I realize it has too many layers - 3 circles and a Word Bubble that need to be cut out with Big Shot; a tiny heart that is punched out with the Owl Punch; plus tying 80 tiny bows with Bakers Twine!!  I have got everything punched, cut and glued together.  Now I just have to put the whole thing onto my card front!!

I took a break and made another card for fun today.  I had seen this card on another website and loved it.  So I made a few changes and ..... I love it!!

For the background, I sponged inks -  Perfect Plum, Wild Wasabi, Coastal Cabana - onto the Hexagon Embossing Folder and then spritzed it lightly.  I put a piece of watercolor paper inside and ran it through the Big Shot.  I stamped the Blended Bloom and used the Blendabilities to color it.  The sentiment is from the photopolymer stamp set, Endless Birthday Wishes.  It has been such a popular stamp set that is has sold out but Stampin' Up is going to restock and it will be available for sale again soon.

Craft Project Central Challenge

I made this card earlier today for the sketch challenge (#36) at Craft Project Central.  It's a fun sketch.

I used the MDS download from Project Life.  You don't have to just use Project Life for scrapbooking .... see this great card I made with it!

For every ten cards submitted for the sketch challenge, Craft Project Central will choose one winner who will receive a FREE one-month subscription to the site.  That would be a great prize and would give you access to the month's project tutorials.

Perfect Blend 50th Birthday

Our doctor recently turned the big 5-0.  So I made a card for him.  I used the coffee cup from Perfect Blend since he is a big coffee drinker.  I don't have the Perfect Blend stamp set BUT I do have the digital stamp.  So, I printed out the coffee cups onto Naturals card stock and the wrappers onto green dotted DSP and cut them out.  I used the Chevron embossing folder for the green card.  Just Sayin' stamp set has gotten to be one of my favorites!!  I used it for the "you're how old" along with the matching Word Window framelits.  I die cut the "5" and the "0" using the retired Bigz Die.

Serene Silhouettes

I created this card last week and I believe it is my favorite of all the cards I have made!

I cut the strip of Whisper White about 2" x 5" and using Post-It Notes for masking, sponged Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight and Old Olive.  I started at the top and just moved my Post-It Note down but trying to blend the colors together as I sponged.    Using my Stamp-a-ma-jig, I stamped the wild flowers from Serene Silhouettes in black ink.  Then I adhered the sponged piece and stamped the wild flowers again.  Next I stamped the sentiment from God Is Love and tied the Denim Ribbon (just retired) around the card before adhering it to the Night of Navy card.  I am sending this card to a friend in my Stamp Club whose son only has a few weeks to live.  He lost his eye last year to cancer and it has now spread to his liver and the outcome is grim.  I can't imagine losing either of my children, even if most of the time I feel like I have lost my son.  But I have to remember that I know where he is and that he is happy so that is a blessing.

On happy news .... my friend, Margaret, (that I have mentioned in my blog many times) - her daughter who lives in Charlotte had a little boy last night.  He was delivered via C Section at 8:30 and weighed 8 lb. 6 oz. Both Mom, Dad and baby, Logan Darcy, are doing well!  I can't wait to see him.

What's on your list?

The wait is over!  The new catalog is available.  You can click on the catalog picture in the column to the left to view the catalog on-line.  If you find a card or project in the catalog that you can't figure out, click on the "What Did They Use?" box just below the catalog and it will take you to a listing of all products used to make the samples in the catalog.  It won't tell you how to make them but it will give you a list of supplies and you can usually figure it out from there.  You can also find samples from Stampin' Up on their Pinterest site HERE.  While you are over in Pinterest, you can also check out my "pins" HERE and follow me.  Some days I spend entirely too much time "pinning" items!

So I didn't get a chance to put my order in until midnight last night!  Yesterday was a busy day.  I left early in the a.m. to play bridge; then to the post office to mail a couple of packages; and then to get a mani-pedi while waiting for Marianne to get off work.  When she met me, we went to Ikea; then out to dinner; and finally to Allison's house for a meeting.  It was after 10 p.m. when I finally got back home!  I was tired .... but not too tired to go through the catalog one last time before inputting my order!

Can you say "ka-ching"??  That's the cash register going off in my house!  Have you had time to pore over the catalog and you have sticky notes sticking out all over it?  Have you made your wish list?  Well, I have a dog eared piece of paper that I had listed all my top "need to get" stamp sets   Surprisingly, my first list was 16 "must haves."  Of course, that always grows as I see what others do with the new sets.  And, believe it or not, I only ordered one set last night and it was a hostess stamp set, Bloom With Hope.  I needed too many accessories this time so I am going to try and use some of my neglected stamps that are lonely on the shelf.  I ordered all the In Color ribbon, card stock and DSP stack.  Also the Stars framelits, So Taffy DSP, Large Dots embossing folder, and a few other items that I need for my convention swaps.  So, what do you have on your list?  Here are a few items that are on my list:

SOMETHING TO SAY

I seem to always be looking for sentiments and this one seems to have quite a few good ones.

SOMETHING TO SAY

AGE AWARENESS

I love these cute birthday sentiments and the fonts in happy birthday!

FLOWER PATCH BUNDLE

This is a photopolymer stamp so it will be super sticky for your clear blocks.  With the matching framelits (Bundle it), this will be a great replacement for the Secret Garden set that retired.  Plus I seem to be looking for simple leaves to stamp a lot of  times and this set has them.

If you are ready to order your items, I have the Hostess Code set up already.  If you would use the Hostess Code below when placing your on-line order, I would really appreciate it!

H69TSUFH 

Flower Garden Window Box

Make a lovely flower garden window box to brighten up yur space with fun patterned flowers that will last!  No watering needed - the best kind!!  These bright and fun blossoms will never wilt.  You could also gift this bunch of flowers to someone special with the matching card.  Don't need a window box?  The flowers would still make a lovely bouquet in a vase for the perfect gift!

This is the final project for May's Craft Project Central and it was designed by Amanda.  To get the instructions, just subscribe to May and meet one of the bonus project requirements of subscribing to two or more months in a row, putting the Craft Project Central badge on your blog, or referring a friend and when they subscribe, letting us know.  And if you have a minute, please leave Amanda a comment on her project.