Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl plus Hawaii pics

Hope your Christmas was a good one and you were able to spend some quality time with your friends and family!  Ours was nice and quiet this year.  It was a little different to have Christmas in my shorts and flip flops (or slippers as they call them here!)

We arrived in Hawaii Monday night around 10:30 pm (or 3:30 am EST).  Ashley met us at the airport with leis.  Believe me, the bed felt good to me when we finally got to Ashley's around midnight!

Thursday was Ashley's birthday.  This is the card I made for her using the new Beautiful You stamp set from the Occasions Catalog.

Our first stop on her birthday was to have breakfast.  We went to a restaurant for macadamia nut pancakes!  Soooo good!  Then we drove over to the Polynesian Cultural Center where we were able to learn about six Pacific cultures and visit the villages (Hawaii, Maori, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti & Tonga). There was a canoe parade with the different cultures aboard the canoes and different Polynesian activities going on.  The Cultural Center did not open until noon and there was really too much to see and do in the few hours we had.  We had reservations at 5:00 for their luau and at 7:30 for the evening show.  We really needed more time to explore.

Our pig for the luau - it was delicious!

Ashley and I with our luau leis

Finally - a picture of all 3 of us.  Those leaves were huge!!

Sonny & Ashley - waiting for our table to be called to get our food!

Our Maori tattoos!  They used a rubber stamp and black ink!

Canoe Parade

Hawaii float from the parade

Bundle Up!

I love this fellow! 

This is not a Stampin' Up stamp but it's one I've had for several years and just love to color him.  This time I used my Copics to color him matching him pretty well to the Coastal Cabana card stock. 

I think I'm packed and ready to go.  My friend is coming to pick us up in the morning to take us to the airport.   I took Sammie to my mom's late this afternoon.  She was not a happy camper and threw up on the trip to Mooresville.   She'll be fine once she gets settled out on Mom's sun room.  She loves to sit out there and watch the birds and squirrels. 

Beautiful You meets Serene Scenery

Well, December has been a really busy month as you can see by the lack of posts!  Actually, until yesterday, I have not done any stamping for about a month - except for the inside of my Christmas cards!!  But .... I got my order from the Occasions Catalog on Monday (as a demonstrator, that is one of the perks).  To tell the truth, when I first looked at the catalog, I was not blown away.  But as I'm seeing what other demonstrators have done with some of the sets, my mind is changing!  Especially for the stamp I am sharing with you today - Beautiful You.  I've actually made several cards using the same image.  I will share one of them with you today.

Isn't this lovely?   There are 13 stamps in this set - 3 images of the girl; 8 sentiments; and 2 water washes that you can use to stamp her dress.  For this card, I stamped the girl on a piece of shimmery white card stock because I wanted to watercolor her with our NEW watercolor pencils!!  I layed the color down on her dress and hat and then used the Aqua Brush to smooth the color out.  For this card, I "fussy-cut" the girl out and glued her onto a piece of the Serene Scenery DSP paper stack (pg 174 in the annual catalog).  I stamped the sentiment directly on the DSP.  The DSP is layered onto a piece of textured card stock that I found in my stash but don't know the color but it matched the DSP so well, I had to use it.  The card itself is Pool Party.

I am still going to Weight Watchers and have lost 30 pounds.  The struggle now is to keep it off during the holidays!  I bounce back and forth with 2 pounds lost; 2 pounds gained!!  Last week, I went to 4 party events and this week, it is three plus my family is going to meet at an Asian restaurant Saturday for a little before Christmas get-together.  I will be going to Hawaii for the holidays (I know you feel sorry for me!!)  We leave on Monday for 3 weeks so not sure how often I will be updating the blog.  It's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that I won't need a sweater or a coat!  Ashley took my summer clothes back with her when she was here for Thanksgiving.  Now I'll have room in the suitcase for a couple of cases of Cheerwine for her.  (For those who don't live in NC, Cheerwine is a local soda that is a little like a cherry Dr. Pepper.)

Stampin' Up SALE!

This is such a busy time of year and I have been neglectful about posting here on my blog.  So sorry but life just gets in the way sometimes!  Stampin' Up has been doing a little year-end cleaning and have some great deals to offer.  Their Year-End Closeouts include holiday retiring products, clearance rach items and current high-inventory catalog products.  The sale started today and will continue until Jan. 3.  Here are the details:

• Clearance Rack items are only available while supplies last.
• Following the Year-End Closeouts promotion, some products may remain on the Clearance Rack; other items may be removed from the Clearance Rack to be added at another undetermined time.
• High-inventory items will only be discounted through January 3; beginning
January 4, they will still be available, but at regular price.
• Retiring item availability will follow standard retiring item rules:
        • Retiring stamp sets are guaranteed available until December 21,
          after which they will be only available while supplies last.
        • Retiring accessories will only be available while supplies last.
        • Retiring items will only be available while supplies last. All retiring items
          will be discontinued after January 3.

You can call or email me with your order OR you can put your order in on-line by clicking on the box above that says "Order Online."  I would really appreciate it if you would include my current Workshop Code when ordering - GW4FKPWP

You can follow THIS LINK to go to the SU Store and see all the items on sale.  There are 2 catagories to check out - Closeout Stamps, Papers, Bundles and Everything Else so check them all out.  Remember - ALL of the Bundles will be on the list because Bundles are only sold together at a discount the FIRST time that they appear in a catalog.