May Stamp Club

I held Stamp Club this past Thursday and ended up with 7 ladies - 2 new ladies and 5 club members.  It was a little chaotic but I think everyone had a good time.  I tried to concentrate the cards on retiring products this month.

The DSP varied in colors and they had the option to use this side with the script or the other polka dotted side.  The retiring stamp set is Garden In Bloom.  I used the Scalloped Tag Punch on this card.  I will miss this stamp.

  

For this card, I used Oh So Eclectic (yay!  it's NOT retiring.)  I cut the flowers out with the matching dies to this set in Soft Sky and Peekaboo Peach (both retiring as is the seam binding I used.)

This was a fun card!  The retiring items on it are the raindrops and the sentiment - both from Sprinkles of Life.  The umbrella and girl are from Beautiful You - definitely NOT retiring!  Another choice for rain is a diagonal line stamp from the retired Gorgeous Grunge.

Instructions:

Ø  Position the long white panel onto the white layer and temporarily hold it in place with washi tape.

Ø  Stamp the image of the lady across the narrow panel with black ink so the top of the umbrella and her ankles are stamped on the larger white panel and the rest of her is on the narrow white piece.

Ø  Lightly stamp rain.

Ø  Stamp umbrella onto DSP.

Ø  Stamp sentiment at bottom right.

Ø  Color the girl with Blendabilities or Watercolor pencils.

Ø  Adhere bottom of umbrella onto narrow panel and the top of the umbrella on to the card.

Ø  Mat the narrow piece onto black cardstock carefully positioning it so umbrella & legs line up.

Ø  Adhere to white cardstock with dimensionals.

The retiring item on this card is the Color Theory DSP.  I have used this paper a lot!  The stamp set is one that was in the retiring Occasions Catalog but will be in the new Annual Catalog called A Good Day.  The Layering Circles framelits makes it a super easy card.  I used Blendabilities to color the images.

I probably won't be blogging much in the next couple of weeks.  I am taking my Mom to Hawaii to visit Ashley.  Ashley surprised Mom with a ticket to Hawaii for Christmas and Mom has been counting down the days.  She is so excited.  Wish me luck on this venture with my almost 90 year old legally blind mother!!  I borrowed a wheel chair from a friend so that should make it a little better.  Luckily, Ashley is very patient with her and will be a great help.

I have my two latest Paper Pumpkin kits that I have not opened yet.  I am planning on taking them on the plane to work on them during the long flight.  We fly from Charlotte to Phoenix (4 1/2) hours and from Phoenix to Honolulu (6 hours).

Beautiful You - again!

Well, today is my last day in paradise!  Our flight leaves tonight at 11 pm.  Guess we will face reality when we land in Charlotte.  They had 8" of snow at our house last week end.  I am hoping most of it is gone by the time we arrive on Wednesday.  I'm also hoping we might get bumped on our flight tonight!  What difference does it make if we leave tonight at 11 or in the morning???!  The flight is a full one flying from here to Seattle and I don't have a seat assignment plus Sonny is in a middle seat. When I checked this morning, all the seats that were available were premium seats.  Ashley says they will have to give us one of those.  She also thinks I should act like I have a twitch or something so they will seat Sonny and I together!

Saturday we hiked up to Diamond Head.  Wow!  What a gorgeous view.  It almost made me forget about the steep hike and the 70+ stairs to the top.  I was proud of myself though.  I had told Ashley early in the hike that I didn't think I would make it to the top.  Sonny and I both realized we were out of shape.

Sunday we went to an Irish pub in Kaluia and watched the Steelers beat Miami in the first play off game.  Now we need to beat Kansas City this weekend!!  After the game, we went to the Swap Meet in Honolulu.  Sonny was a sport since we were there almost 3 hours and it was pretty warm - in the 80s.  Monday Ashley went to work, dropping Sonny off to play golf and I called an Uber driver and went to the beach!

Here's another card I made with Beautiful You stamp set.  I stamped her dress on a piece of retired DSP (from last year's Sale-A-Bration) and fussy cut it out.  I really love this set and can't wait to go home and play around with it some more.

A the top of Diamond Head

 Almost there!  Ashley standing out on the look out.

I did it!!

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

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.)