Fun time with family!

 So sad ... I am coming home tomorrow!   Ashley and I have had such a good time during the 2 weeks I have been in Maryland.  We toured the DC Mormon Temple, attended a funeral (of one of Ashley's friends father) at Arlington National Cemetery, watched an the US Air Force Honor Guard Drill Team perform their "Drill at Dusk" performance at the National Harbor, attended the Evening Parade at the Marine Barracks in DC, shopped A LOT at the Tanger Outlets and had lots of "play time" and good restaurants to eat at.  Smack down in the middle of my visit was Ashley's commencement ceremony!!  She earned her Masters of Health Professional Education degree from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences.  We are so proud of her!

Now I need to go home and take care of my hubby.  We both tested Positive for Covid a couple of weeks before I left for my trip to Ashley's.  Luckily my quarantine ended the day before my trip!  Sonny had been having a lot of congestion a couple of weeks before taking the covid test so we thought it was all related.  He ended up going to an UltraCare the first weekend I was gone.  He was diagnosed with Walking Pneumonia!  He was supposed to be playing in a golf tournament in South Carolina that next week!  He got started on the Z Pack & other meds they gave him so he ended up just missing the first two days of the tournament.  But he is still not feeling great.  Hoping he can get in to see his doctor this week.

More swapping plus a cute baby!

 Before we look at cards, I want to share with you this adorable baby!  Meet Abigail Webb, my great niece.  I haven't seen her in a couple of months and wow, how she has changed in those few months!  She is 4 months old and such a good baby.  I had the family over for dinner Saturday night and we all took turns holding her.  It's been a long time since I held a little one!

OK - now to more of my swaps that I will be mailing off this week.

This is my swap for Artistic Expression (pg. 108-132 in catalog)  The stamp set is on page 120, Birds & Branches.  I love the die (Birds and More) with the circular opening and the leaves and flowers.  I mixed together Frost White Shimmer Paint (pg 147) and a little Pear Pizzazz ink and painted the leaves.  I used the same technique on the bird and the little flowers.  The card is Soft Sea Foam. 

Obviously, this is my birthday swap card.  I used the Playing With Patterns designer paper (6"x6").  I love the colors in this paper - Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Night of Navy and Purple Posy.

There was not enough of one pattern to make all 15 cards so I varied the designer paper on each card.  The layout is the same on each.  I used the Happy Dies and stamped "birthday" with Well Said stamp set.

4th of July Lake Living

These are pictures I took when my daughter was visiting us.  Luckily, our boat was out of the shop by the time she got here.  It had been in the shop for about 3 weeks.  They had to order some parts and install them plus we were waiting for a new bimini top to arrive.  We were lucky and they all arrived the day before Ashley did!

Sunset on July 4th - waiting for fireworks to start.

Ashley enjoying her time off!

Our captain!

July 4th group selfie!

Friday night - we stopped by King Canary Brewery to have a beer after dinner at Flock.

My patriotic card I made for the 4th!  I used my SU Blends to color this DSP (Flowering Foil from Sale-a-Bration)

3 D POP UP CUBE CARD

What a great weekend I had!  Ashley was able to come for a visit!!  It was touch and go for a while, but she was finally allowed to travel.  She didn't find out for sure if she could come until late last Thursday so it was after midnight when she and Bogart arrived!  On Friday she and I played around in my stamp room after going to water exercise in the community pool.  Saturday we went out on the boat for a while and were able to watch fireworks on the lake.  Sunday we drove to Fort Mill, SC to get some peaches (Ashley's favorite fruit.)  On Monday, we did the water exercise again and played around with stamping some more.  Tuesday, again ... water exercise and back out on the boat for a couple of hours until it started raining.  The best thing that happened for Ashley on Tuesday was that she went to my hairdresser and got her hair cut and colored.  

Here are a couple of 3D cards that we made.  We watched a video by Debbie Henderson (on Facebook) to make this card.  It folds flat for mailing.

This one is Ashley's.  She used Seaside Shore (retired) and High Tide for her card.

Isn't it cute?

This one is mine.

I needed to put my birds up a little higher so they would show better.  I used Bird Banter for my card (retired)

So this morning when it was time for Ashley to drive back to Maryland, Bogart (her cat) was in his carrier .... until he saw Ashley with her suitcase heading toward him.  He quickly got out of the carrier and went into hiding.  We found him upstairs in one of the bedrooms hiding among the stuffed animal corner!  Can you spot him below?  It reminded us of ET when he hid in the closet among all the stuffed animals!

After Ashley got her hair done, we met Mom and Angela at an outdoor restaurant for dinner.

Loving Sunflowers!

I've been playing around again with the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp bundle.  I love these sunflowers and they are so easy to color with the SU Blends.

I really like this sunflower on the Cinnamon Cider cardstock!  The pattern in the strip at the bottom is from Tasteful Touches which also can be purchased as a bundle.  The dies that come with this bundle are labels - Tasteful Labels Dies which I can see myself using them a bunch!

Another sunflower card - this time using Bermuda Bay and black cardstock.  

I trimmed some of the flowers off the front of the card and used them on the inside.  Makes a pretty inside.

I got to meet the newest member of our family last Sunday.  We had a family get-together at my sister, Marianne's house.  Derek (my nephew) and his wife brought sweet little Abigail who is 2 months old now.  I didn't get to hold the baby but mom did which was great.

Retiring Stamps

What have I been doing for a week (since I last posted on my blog)????  Well, probaby like everyone else .... I have been at home!  I've been taking long walks, making more cards, eating too much .... you know how it is!  Mother's Day was last Sunday and what a different Mother's Day it was.  I had a bit of a pity party for myself Sunday morning.  I was missing my kids and knew I'd only hear from one of them and I was missing my mom although we saw her on Saturday and I did see Ashley via Zoom on Saturday too.  It was funny on Saturday.  We all met up at this restaurant that was closed and had our own tailgate.  Marianne and Greg came with their Chick Filet, Mom and Angela showed up with McDonald's, I had Jets pizza and salad and Sonny enjoyed a burger from 5 Guys!  I guess that's one good thing about the food situation - you can go to whichever restaurant you want and then just find a good spot in a parking lot to enjoy.  We were socially distant in the parking lot (brought our own chairs too!)  Mom has a mask but as long as we were masked, we didn't make her put hers on.

Before I show you some of the cards I've made, I want to show you our newest member of the family - Abigail!  She is one week and 2 days old!

The new catalog will be available June 3.  If you are a customer of mine, you will be receiving one in the mail.  If not, contact me and I can send you one.  Here are a few cards I have made with some of the retiring stamps.  If you see something you like, I would suggest you purchase it now before they are gone for good.

This Little Piggy is a really cute set.  I paired it with Under the Umbrella (which is NOT retiring)  The music notes are from Music from the Heart.

This card and the next two are made using Music from the Heart.  I am really surprised that this stamp is retiring.  It deputed in the last Mini Catalog and was inspired by Million Sales Achiever Dawn Olchefske.  

I will be keeping this stamp set to make cards for my music loving friends and family.  

Here is another jewel!  I love these dancing women.  Another great birthday card for your friends. 

Alternative My Wonderful Family

How do you like the colors in the strips of paper in my blog heading?  They are (as close as I could match them) the new IN COLORS!  I don't know what my favorite is yet but I'm leaning toward the Magenta Madness and Just Jade!  As a demonstrator, we will be able to put a pre-order in next week.  For sure I'll be getting the In Color cardstock and inks!

On the subject of being a demonstrator, I got this in today's mail!

Hard to believe I've been a demonstrator for 15 years!  It's funny because I never worked anywhere for 15 years!  The most I worked was for Coppell High School for 10 years.

I made several alternatives for the April My Wonderful Family Paper Pumpkin Kit.

This was a fun one to make.  I cut strips from Pear Pizzazz, Shaded Spruce, Soft Sea Foam and some green glitter paper from my stash and glued them down onto a piece of Whisper White cardstock.  The important thing to do with this technique is make sure the first piece you glue down is straight on the page.  All the rest then will line up leaving a small gap in between.  After getting all the pieces glued down, cut the piece to 4" x 5 1/4" and adhere to the Mint Macaron card base. 

This one is really simple.  I inked the little leaves with Pear Pizzazz and using my dauber, put a little bit of Shaded Spruce on them.

I used one of the squares from Layering Squares Dies.  The tree is stamped on the base card with the frame adhered on top with dimensionals.  I inked the tree image with Pear Pizzazz and like the card above daubed a little Shaded Spruce on the stamp.  I sponged a little Balmy Blue on the tree.

I used the negative of the leaf punch out and sponged Pear Pizzazz and Shaded Spruce on the card.  I learned a new trick on this card.  I used the Tombow liquid glue and using my finger, spread the glue onto the negative leaf.  Let it dry -10-20 minutes and it will be a sticky template you can use.   

April Paper Pumpkin - My Wonderful Family

Wednesday night Sonny and I had a night out!  We packed the cooler and went upstairs to my craft room to play virtual Music Bingo via Zoom! (My desktop computer has a bigger screen.) That has become our weekly outing!  We play music bingo on Saturday and Wednesday nights at 7 pm.  Ashley also dials in so we get to see her twice a week!  So funny!  Next week they are going to try and set the Zoom app up to play trivia.  If anyone is interested in joining, let me know and I'll send you the details.

This month's Paper Pumpkin Kit is My Wonderful Family.  There are stamps for daughter, son, mom, dad, sister, brother ....  It is a good one for Father's Day and Mother's Day.  Here are a few cards I have made from this kit.

This is the card that is in the instructions.  It opens with a "Z" fold.

This is the second card that is in the instructions.  The green flap opens down and the white piece with the tree opens up.

This is one of the alternative cards I made.  I stamped the top and bottom background with the large leaf part of the tree.  I used the negative from the leaf punch out and sponged leaves with Mellow Moss ink and my dauber.  I didn't want to cover up the verse.  I punched the green leaf sprig out of Mint Macaron and the flowers from Rococo Rose.  The butterfly is a punch out from the PP kit.

I stamped the large leaf part of the tree on Whisper White cardstock in Granny Apple Green, Bermuda Bay, Gorgeous Grape, Mango and Melon Mambo.  Then I used the Circles Dies to cut out 9 circles.  Once I adhered them to my white cardstock, I ran it through the Quilt embossing folder.  I die cut "friend" from Lovely Words thinlits and stamped Happy Birthday from Well Said - all in Emerald Envy

I love this one!  Hopefully you are quarantined with someone you can stand to be with 24/7!!   No matter how much you love someone, being with them 24/7 can be tricky!  We have it worked out  here - Sonny goes to the golf course with his buddies 3-4 days a week; I take walks and hang out in my craft room most of the day before we meet up to fix dinner and watch tv at night.

My crazy life!

Well, it's been a while!  My life has been a whirlwind it seems like since I last posted on Inkie Fingers.  You have probably all given up on me!  Hope not!!

The last time I posted (October!) I mentioned that I was down in the dumps about some personal things going on.  Well that feeling stayed with me for a month or more.  My daughter (Ashley) had joined Stampin' Up in July so that she could go to Stampin' Up's 30th year convention in Florida with me.  We had big plans!  She was going to be in Orlando the week before convention and I made my reservations with that in mind, going a few days early to hang out with her.  Well, in October she got orders to deploy to VietNam for 8 weeks, leaving a week before convention.  I couldn't change my reservations so I just went and chilled for the extra days by myself!  My sister joined me a couple of days later and we enjoyed ourselves at convention.  We were able to talk to Ashley via an app of my phone so that made things a little better.  Convention was fun and we got to see some of the new items from the Occasions Catalog and Sale-a-Bration.  I came home with several new stamp sets but would you believe, I still haven't used them!  I used one new set yesterday but that's it!  

In November, I had the family for Thanksgiving as I have done for 12 years now.  It was nice but we all were missing Ashley.  We were able to all talk to her via the app.  She and another soldier prepared the Thanksgiving meal for the group - about 35 people.  It was a challenge since there was no oven, just a large toaster oven and several burners to cook green beans, deviled eggs, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, mushrooms .....  They deep fried the turkey.  Her mission was to recover a soldier who had been killed during the VietNam war.  Unfortunately, they never recovered any remains before returning home in December.  But that was a story in itself!  When they left VietNam, they had problems with the airplane and had to land on Wake Island in the Pacific.  There is very little civilization on Wake except for a small military base where they stayed for 3-4 days before they could get another plane to pick them up and return to Hawaii.  She was more than ready to come home!  Luckily she got home before we arrived for Christmas (by about 5 days!)

 After Convention and Thanksgiving was over, I gave a wedding shower for my nephew's (Derek) fiance.  Ashley again was supposed to help with the shower as well as be there for it, but .... things don't always work our, do they?!  But, the show must go on.  We had a nice time and I think Morgan enjoyed it as well.  Sonny made a giant Jenga game for them and we played it at the shower.

In December, we flew to Hawaii and spent a month enjoying ourselves.  We just returned home this past Tuesday and I brought a cold home with me.  I feel better today but I was sounding pretty bad Wednesday and Thursday!  I will share Hawaii pictures in my next post.