Happy Easter

What were you doing a month ago?  Whatever it was, doesn't it seem in some ways like a million years ago!  Because now here we are, one month into this COVID-19 quarantine.  It's been four weeks of social distancing and self-isolation.  Four weeks of disturbing and scary news.  Four weeks of trying to navigate a whole new world of working from home and remote learning for our kids AND a shortage of toilet paper at the grocery store.  Four weeks of fear and uncertainty.  Four weeks of a crisis unlike anything we've ever experienced in our lifetimes.

But that's exactly why it's so important for the sake of your sanity and mental well-being to take a step back every once in a while and just do a little self check-in.  How are you holding up?  Are you about to lose your mind or starting to find your groove?  Are you being productive or struggling?  The reality is that because this is something none of us have ever experienced, there's also no way to know exactly how to respond.  There's no rule book and no way to predict how it's all going to play out.

But, you have a choice!  You can sit there in fear, anxiety, stress and worry.  You can obsessively check the news.  And then, when it all becomes too much to think about, you can tune-out, where you stay in your pj's all day and start binge watching TV.  OR you can  take a different path and choose to focus on the things that you can actually control.  You can choose to make the most of this crazy time.

I'd love to hear some specific things you're doing to keep yourself busy and productive during this time.  What are you working on?  What's keeping you sane?  Hit "comment" below and let me know!  As you know, what's keeping me sane and busy is being creative.  I've made quite a few cards and actually mailed a lot of them.  Sonny says all the stamps I'm using are costing him money!  (I don't say anything about how much he's spending on the golf course every day!)

Enjoy your Easter!

Here are a few Easter cards I have made (and mailed!)

I used the 6x6 Gingham DSP (retired) and one of last year's Sale-a-bration stamp sets, Lovely Lattice.  I used the Highland Heather Blends to color the flowers. 

Everything about this card is retired!   I went to my stash of non-SU designer paper and found this piece that I thought went well with the card.  The flowers and sentiment are from  Easter Message.  The die cut flowers on the side are from the Botanical Builder dies and the cardstock is an In-Color from last year, Berry Burst.

Another beautiful (but retired) card!  The stamp set is Oh So Eclectic and matching dies, Eclectic.

Aren't these bunnies cute?  I made several cards with this stamp.  It is really old (thus, retired) and was s single stamp that we could purchase way back in 2013  for $6.95!  Back then, we didn't have dies so I fussy cut the bunnies.  (Plus, it is a wooden stamp which tells you how old it is!)

Another beautiful card using Easter Message.  I stamped the cross in Versamark and heat embossed it with Gold powder.  I used a white pen to color in the cloak.  It is layered onto gold paper and then onto non-SU designer paper.  This is one of my favorite cards and I made several of them

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).

Mother's Day Cards 2017

I can't believe I have not written on this blog all month!!  May has just been crazy for me with Mother's Day, graduations, traveling, company, stamp club and just regular life happenings!  Our friends from Texas came to visit for a week in early May.  Margaret and I were able to do some stamping and also had time to fit in a few shopping excursions while the guys went to South Carolina with a group for target shooting for a few days.  They returned on a Thursday and on Friday we attended my nephew's graduation party.  Wouldn't you know it - it was nice and warm all week but on Friday it was downright cold and the party was outside!  We all had our jackets and sweaters on plus they had a fire going in the back yard so that made it fun for everyone.  Margaret and Graham were able to have their first smore!!  On Saturday, Sonny dropped me and our friends off at the Charlotte airport.  They were catching a plane back to Dallas and I was on my way to New Orleans to meet Ashley.  She had a conference there the week before and took a few days of leave for some "girl time."  We had a great time exploring parts of the city we had never been before.  Plus we took a cooking class at New Orleans School of Cooking that was wonderful!  We learned to make gumbo, shrimp and grits, pralines and bananas foster with crepes!  It was a short trip - we both headed back home on Tuesday.  The day after I returned home, Sonny went back to Myrtle Beach with a group of guys for 5 days of golfing.  While he was gone, I drove to Haw River State Park with my downline for the NC Quarterly.  We ran into some terrible weather driving down there Friday - heavy rain and hail - and on our return trip Saturday - it was road construction that had us at a dead stop for about 45 minutes!  I could hardly get out of bed on Sunday because my back was killing me.  I'm sure it was from being tensed up from the drive and sitting all day on Saturday.  In the midst of all this, I am worried about my mom and a health issue of mine.  Mom is having difficulty getting her breath and the dr. thinks it is congestive heart failure.  She is going to see a cardiologist hopefully tomorrow or Friday.  I had some blood work done last week and my liver count was elevated.  So I was a little worried.  Yesterday I saw my doctor and had more blood work done and everything is back to normal now so I didn't really need to worry!

These are the cards I made for Mothers Day.

This one was made for my mom.  This set is retiring and I have not used it enough!!!

For this card, I used the a mask to sponge Pool Party on the white cardstock.  I also used Gorgeous Grunge (a favorite that is also retiring - boo hoo) to lightly stamp the background.  The flower stamp set is a new one in the 2017-18 catalog, Daisy Delight.  I think you will be seeing a lot of this set!

For this card, I paired the old with the new.  The old is Swirly Scribbles and Thoughtful Banners with it's matching punch (both are carrying over to the new catalog).  The new is the Oh So Eclectic stamp set and the new in-color ink colors - Powder Pink and my favorite, Lemon Lime Twist.  I sponged the half doily.

This card uses the Daisy Delight stamp set and I sprinkled a few sequins around.  The ribbon is retired.

Another card using new products!  The sentiment is from Lovely Friends and the flowers are again from Oh So Eclectic.  The DSP is a great one called Color Theory.  I can't wait for you to be able to order this pack of paper.  It features six designs in four colors - Berry Burst (new In Color & the one I used above), Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Dapper Denim.  The designs include pages that look like a paint chip, some pages of color gradients, and some with a crackle appearance (which I used.)  They come in a 6"x6" pad - 4 each of the 12 double sided designs.  The card above also uses another new in color, Tranquil Tide.