Where Does the Time Go? Paper Craft Crew Challenge #70!

Wednesday already and I haven't posted yet and Wednesday is going fast!  Where is the time going??  My December is going by and according to my date book, will be going by in a flash!  I think I only have about 4 days free until we go to San Antonio Dec. 18.  I had to make an unexpected dentist visit and was lucky to be able to schedule it in the late afternoon after my bridge party next week.

Today was our Newcomer's Christmas party and, WOW, was there a lot of food.  But not as much as in the past.  Usually everyone brings a dish and it is overwhelming with about 100+ people all bringing food!!  This year the alphabet was split in half.  The first half brought a dish to share and the second half brought a bag of canned goods for the Soup Kitchen.  I was in the second half but I took pity on one of my friends who doesn't cook and volunteered to make a dish for her.  Another gal was supposed to do it but she wasn't able to come today.   We loaded three cars up with food to take to the Soup Kitchen pantry!!  Along with the food we took, we also made baskets for the seniors in the community who are not as well off as some and we brought toys and/or clothing for the children who are in need.  These items were loaded on a Christian Missions truck for distribution at Christmas.

Toys for the children

Children toys

Some of the clothing for the children

Senior baskets

More Senior Baskets - think we counted 68!!

Starting to load the items onto the truck - a really foggy day!

Plenty of food for everyone and more being brought in!

OK - on to my Paper Craft Crew creation for this week.  I turned to MDS and Season of Style Pocket Card kit to create this festive card:

Christmas Projects

Monday night Marianne and I went to Allison's house in Concord for her demo meeting.  What fun!  Allison had prepared three projects for us to make; we had a show and tell; and we did a holiday card swap.  Here are the projects we made last night:

Cute notebook with bow made with Bow Maker

Wiper Card - the message (in white -merry Christmas) pops up when card is opened

Santa using Purse Die

I know I talk about my daughter a lot on my blog.  But I also have a son who lives in Arizona with his wife and family.   I just don't get to see them very much.  They recently had an anniversary and a vacation.  While on vacation in Disney, they dressed up and "did the town."  Darcie posted this picture on her blog of the two of them.   Handsome man and beautiful gal!

New Single Stamps

A new, holiday-themed collection of single stamps from Stampin' Up is now available! The holidays will be here before you know it, and these holiday-themed single stamps may be just you need. There are eight different stamps to choose from, six of which coordinate with Framelits dies or punches.

Check them out here:

 Details:

• See the flyer here
• Available until January 31, 2014
• You can find the stamp item numbers on the flyer above.
• Single stamps will be packaged in cello bags. If you'd like a case for your stamp, you can buy Clear-Mount Stamp cases that come in packs of four (item 119105).
• These single stamps are available in clear-mount only.
• The stamps won't come with a Clear-Mount Block, and you'll need to buy a block separately if you don't already have one. The recommended block sizes can be found on the flyer.
• There's no limit on how many pieces you can buy.

I'm headed to CKC (Creating Keepsakes Convention) in Charlotte this weekend.  Marianne are taking a few classes and doing a little shopping.  We're headed down this morning and will be back Saturday afternoon.  We are both looking forward to lunch .... we are going to Mert's Heart and Soul - a great little soul food restaurant downtown!!

Home again!

We are home!!  We got home Friday afternoon.  Sammie thought it was about time!!  She was really meowing loud the last few hours of the trip and had had enough of the car.  We didn't blame her - we had too!!   Sonny and I did most of our unpacking Friday and spent Saturday just vegging out.  I really needed to go the grocery store but just couldn't make myself get back in the car again! 

Today we had our family Christmas at Marianne's house.  My brother even came up from Charlotte.  It was so good to see him.  Unfortunately with his job and family, we don't get to see him as often as we would like to.  We had a great dinner and then exchanged gifts with each other.  I got a great tee shirt from Marianne!!

It is a family joke that I - who is the oldest by 11 years - is the favorite of Mom's.  When I first moved back to NC, 6 years ago, I started having Thanksgiving dinner at my house.  After dinner, while we were all still sitting around the table, we played this "table talk" game that had been gifted to me.  Each person gets 2-3 cards from the box and has to answer the question on his/her card.  The questions are very thought provoking.  Well, mom's question that year was something like what is the greatest thing that has happened to you in your life.  Her answer was the birth of me!  Of course, after she said it, she wished she could have taken the words back.  But what she meant was having her first child (which happened to be me!!)  Anyway, my sisters have not let her forget about it since then.  Marianne also included a Christmas ornament she found this year that says "FIRST BORN - Mom's favorite"  

I got my Spring Mini goodies today so hope to be making a few cards and project with me in the next couple of days to share.  I am playing bridge tomorrow and going to the grocery store (our cupboards are bare!) but have no plans for Tuesday except Soup Kitchen in the a.m.

Pictures from our trip

made with MDS2

Hope you are having a wonderful 2013 so far ..... 364 more days to go so make the best of each and every one of them. Sonny and I enjoyed a good movie last night (Jack Reacher) and are just "vegging" today while we watch my favorite parade, the Rose Parade. Some day I will be there watching it in person.

Thought I would share a few of the pictures I've taken while on our trip. I haven't done any card making so don't have any creative items to share. My new catalog items are waiting for me at home so I hope to be sharing some new things with you next week. We will start the drive back home tomorrow and have Christmas with my NC family on Sunday.

A Spanish Terrible Towel - these people were from Mexico cheering on the Steelers!  I tell you, Steeler fans are everywhere!

I got to meet Reed Coskey!  Such a cutie!

Sammie's favorite spot at Ashley's house!

Sonny & I with Heidi and Reed

Christmas Day - my pillow and scarf from Ashley

Another cutie - we met one of our son's best high school friends (Landon & wife Rachel) for breakfast in Grapevine and I got to play with Liam Montgomery

Gone but not Forgotten

Can you believe Christmas has already come and gone?!  I hope it was one to tuck away in your memory box.  I hope yours was a wonderful one!  Ours was definitely a very peaceful one here in Texas.  We stayed in our comfy "lounging" clothes all day!  We had our traditional sausage casserole for breakfast and then spent time hoping our gifts.  Everyone was quite pleased with all that they got I think .... I know I was!!  Since we had our big meal last night, we just picked during the day on ham, pickles, mushrooms, sausage balls, cookies, chocolate, cheese, crackers ..... the list goes on and on!!  Guess I'll be going on a diet when I return home!   During the afternoon, we watched back to back Christmas movies on Hallmark.  What a fun and relaxing day!

It is time for another sketch for the Paper Craft Crew.  This week we are also doing a color challenge along with the sketch - using Crumb Cake, More Mustard and Bravo Burgundy - a very different color combo!  But here is my take on the sketch and colors:

I think these colors worked out great - not what I would have chosen but I like it!!  What do you think?

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from me to you!

This is the card I mailed to my son and his family who are Disney addicts!!

A warm Christmas here in San Antonio - supposed to be almost 70 degrees today with a cold front moving in later - tomorrow's high is supposed to be only 50! 

We had our Christmas dinner last night and invited some of Ashley's friends over to celebrate with us.  Looking forward to a family day today just enjoying each other's company and watching a few Christmas shows on tv along with opening our gifts.  No shopping!!!

I hope your Christmas is wonderful!

This Snowman is for you!

Enjoy - Click HERE

It's that busy time of year!

It's that time of year .... soooo busy!  I have been working on projects for my Stamp Clubs to make this month.  I had several requests - tags, gifts, table gifts.  I tried to have several things on display for them to choose from which resulted in me having to bring most of the supplies from my craft room downstairs - most of the punches, Christmas stamps, paper, etc!  My Tuesday group was here today and they made a lot of different things even though they all grinched and groaned about how they were all sooo hard but they did fine.  I'll be sharing them with you soon.

I have been trying to also do some projects to send to my grandson for Christmas using My Digital Studio.  Here are a few games I made.  I just need to print them out with the game pieces that I made.  They can be played as is OR I could put some magnets on the back and they could be travel games played on a cookie tin!

Here is my card for the Paper Challenge this week.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving and as usual, ate too much!  But it was all soooo good!  After everyone left, Ashley, Sonny and I decided to watch a little tv.  Well, I think we took turns keeping our eyes open!  Every time I'd look at them, one of them was snoozing and I know I was!  We were sad to see Ashley leave this morning - those two weeks sure flew by.  But, we will be seeing her in a few weeks when we drive to Texas for Christmas.  Sonny is still not feeling great and he would have gone to the doctor today, but they were closed.  I tried to get him to go to a Minute Clinic but he wouldn't.  Guess he'll be going on Monday.  Marianne and I joined the Newcomer ladies and played a game of Hand and Foot (and we won!!)  Now, I'm just catching up on things and chilling out.  Sammie is looking for all the people that have been here.  With Ashley here for a couple of weeks and Marianne spending a couple of nights with us, she stayed busy keeping her eye on one of us at all times!

I love Stampin' Up's Kraft Boxes for decorating and putting small gifts in.  Last year I used them for cookies and decorated them for friends.  They are on sale right now ($2.07 for a set of 4) along with the Be of Good Cheer Designer Paper ($8.76).  That paper will make some great bows if you follow this tutorial -

PAPER BOWS

Look What I've Made!

If you haven't downloaded the 3 FREE MDS downloads yet, what are you waiting for?  They are great! 

I had fun with them today.  

This first project is for an Advent Calendar I am going to make.  Sonny and I went to the Y and to lunch today and afterwards, he needed to go to Lowe's.  Well .... a new Hobby Lobby just opened right next door to Lowe's so he dropped me off there.  All their Christmas craft items were on sale for 50% off.  I found this cute Advent Calendar that I bought for about $5.  And that was before I saw the free download!  So I made little 2" squares with the "Day In December download and decorated each square.  The squares and the numbers are all from the free download.  Some of the elements used to decorate the squares are from it also; others are from various Christmas downloads that I have.  All I will have to do is just print these out onto card stock and cut out each square and adhere to the front of the little box!!  I'll share the finished product when I am done.

1-12 from A Day In December free download.

13-24 from A Day in December download

This next picture is a page I created using the free Enjoying Everything download featuring sweet little Jack IV, my great nephew.  I did a little recoloring, added the polka dot overlay and voila, a darling scrapbook page!

Enjoying Everything free download

 Next we have 2 pages I created with the final free download, A Split Second.  I used the pictures I took on our recent trip to the mountains for this two page spread.

Page 1 using A Split Second free download



Page 2 of A Split Second free download - pictures from Lake Lure

But that's not all .... More great deals!!
What: FREE downloads. 50% off ALL digital kits. Mega blogging on MyDigitalStudio.net all week!

When: October 29-November 5, 2012
Where:

Get your FREE downloads here (US/CAN).
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See project ideas and tips all week on MyDigitalStudio.net.  Share the digital love, and get even more in return! Tell your friends (and even your enemies) because if we get all the free items downloaded 18,000 times, we'll give a fourth one to everybody for FREE.

Post this button on your blogs and online pages to spread the word!

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Stylin' Snowfolk

I thought if I stamped this snowman snow woman, it would make it feel like winter.  No such luck although the temperature is a little better this week than it was last week in terms of the humidity.  Sonny still came back this evening from putting the cover on the boat drenched.  You would have thought he'd jumped in the lake!  

So how do you like my snowfolk?  Ain't she stylin?  This is the first card I've made with this new set but I see lots of possibilities!  I also found a video tutorial (but can't remember where it was) of how to make the scalloped rectangle using a border punch.  I made several different sizes while I was making this one - hopefully, I will remember how to do it the next time I want to make one!  (The mind is a terrible thing to lose.)

I was a good girl today and went to the Y.  It was the first time I had been in several weeks although I have gone over to our neighborhood pool and done a few work outs in the pool.

I have been glued to the Olympic coverage day and night!  Tonight I watched the men's gymnastic.  Unfortunately, Team USA didn't fare well but I was pulling for Great Britain.  China was listed as the winner, at first, with Britain second and Ukraine third. But those results did not last. As the crowd — Princes Harry and William included — whooped and hollered because the British team had just won its first men’s team Olympic medal in 100 years, the judges huddled for about 10 minutes to discuss the outcome. In the end, China remained the champion to win its second consecutive Olympic gold medal and continue its domination.  Japan won the silver medal, moving up from fourth after the judges rejiggered the scores.  That knocked Britain to third and Ukraine to fourth, causing boos in the audience.  One thing that did not change was that the United States team — a favorite to win a medal, and maybe even the gold — was leaving empty-handed. It finished fifth.  That was almost as bad as last night's girls's gymnastics.  I felt so sorry for Jordan Wieber (the reigning world champion in the all-around and a favorite to win the Olympic gold medal) when she was eliminated.  Bela Karolyi,  the coach of the last United States team to win an Olympic gold medal, said Wieber was cheated out of a spot in the all-around. 

We're saying a few prayers tonight.  My brother in law is in the hospital in Texas.  Sonny spoke to our nephew earlier and Jack is having trouble with his pacemaker.  The doctors are keeping him overnight to see if they can figure out what is wrong.

Merry Christmas!

Hope you are enjoying a great Christmas and that Santa was good to you!!

Mini Swaps

I actually have a few cards to share with you today!  I participated in a Mini Catalog Swap and had the cards mailed to me here in San Antonio.  They arrived Saturday and I have taken pictures so I could share!  I haven't ordered any goodies from the mini catalog yet and after seeing all these great ideas, I am ready to order, order, order!

This one uses Christmas Lodge stamp set (pg 29) in Pear Pizazz.  There is also a bit of  the new Dazzling Details on the roof of the lodge.  The bottom portion uses the new Snow Burst embossing folder.

I can't wait to order these stockings!  This stamp is the Stitched Stocking punched out with the new Builder Punch (pg 34).  The colors are Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler and Silver.  There is a cute little jingle bell hanging off the stocking.  You can purchase then from the mini too (pg 30).

This fall card uses the Gently Falling set (pg 16-17) with Concord Crush, Cajun Craze, and Garden Green.  Love the ribbon!!

Another card using Gently Falling - this is a very popular stamp set!  The colors used on this one are Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, More Mustard and Early Espresso.  She also used the Houdstooth embossing folder (inking it).

This card uses Festive & Fun, a very versatile holiday set as well as Every Little Bit stamp set.  The colors on this one are Tangerine Tango, So Saffron, Concorde Crush and the In Patterns DSP.  Such an easy card to make but a great one!

Now I have to make my list!

Happy Father's Day!

Hope all the Dads out there had a wonderful and restful day.  My hubby did.  He started out talking to Ashley this morning as she wished him a Happy Father's Day.  Of course, no word from our son.  We had an off and on rainy day today so he wasn't able to go out on the boat.  So, he sat downstairs in his chair and watched TV, played games on the computer and read.  Not much more exciting than that, huh?  We are going to go out tonight but don't know if he's decided on that yet or not.  Our options are to go to a Beatles tribute concert at Davidson College or go out to eat with Marianne and her family.  I'm afraid the weather is going to prevent us from going to the concert though.  Here is the card I made for him:

 RECIPE:
Stamp:  Sail Away (Summer Mini)
Paper:  Night of Navy,Red Riding Hood Red, Whisper White, Nautical DSP from Summer Mini
Ink:  Night of Navy
Access:  Large & Small Star Punch, Circle Nestibilities, 1 1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon

inside of the card using the retiring All Holidays stamp.

I also made a card today using a retired stamp - not retiring - but retired as in last year!  I pulled it out by mistake.  But I also wanted to showcase the Triple Layer Snowflake Punch!

A Tree for All Seasons