Quarterly Rejects

I am going to a Quarterly NC Stampin' Up demonstrator meeting this weekend in Fayetteville.  These are always so much fun.  We have a Shoebox Swap on Friday night where each participant puts the ingredients for a card together in a shoebox.  Then each participant makes a card from each shoebox.  On Saturday we have several people who demonstrate various projects and techniques.  I love teaching others about card making so this is a fun part for me.  I will be doing one of the demonstrations.  We will be making the little Hand Sanitizer holders that I made at Christmas.  (I'll share it with you later this week.)  It is such a fun weekend visiting with friends from all over the state.  The past couple of years, Marianne has gone with me as my guest.  Unfortunately, she has a soccer tournament to attend this weekend so guess I'll be going solo.  I'm still trying to talk Sonny into driving down with me but not having too much luck!!  After being gone for 3 weeks, he is not eager to leave home again so soon.  Plus, he and his brother-in-law are planning a fishing trip the week after Easter.  

We do a lot of different kinds of swaps at Quarterly.  I signed up for a punch art swap, the shoebox swap and a spring/summer card swap - plus I have to get the project that I will be demo-ing cut out and prepared.  Monday I was getting a little worried.   I just could not come up with any good ideas for the card swaps and that clock kept ticking!  Here is one of my rejected ideas:

Card Recipe:

Cardstock:  Sahara Sand; Very Vanilla; Marina Mist; First Edition DSP (winter mini)

Accessories:  Marina Mist Ribbon; Big Shot; Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder; Circle Punches; Sponge Dauber; Distressing Tool

Stamp:  Friends Never Fade (pg 99 catalog)

Ink:  Marina Mist; Crumb Cake

Today though, I got my mojo back after I finally got out of bed!  I took a decongestant last night and just could not wake up this morning.  Once I got up, took my shower and ate some breakfast though, I was ready to go!  Here is the card I finally settled on for my Shoebox Swap.  It needs to be an easy card to make since we just have a few hours to do 19 cards plus visit and eat!!  

Card Recipe:

Cardstock:  Pink Pirouette; Whisper White; Melon Mambo

Access:  Big Shot; Finial Press Embossing Folder; Label Punch; Pearl

Stamps:  Awash With Flowers (pg 99, catalog); Four Frames (a sneak preview from Summer Mini); Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink:  Melon Mambo; Pink Pirouette; Peach Pizazz

So, what do you think?  Would you like to make this card????

A Few Cards I Found

Here are a few cards that I have received at swaps. They are ones I keep thinking I will CASE one day. Most of the stamp sets used are retired but other ones can be substituted.

Remember when this song was popular?  The Loads of Love truck set is still available!

This is a square card.  The stamp set is retired but it would be easy to recreate this card with another flower set.

Quarterly Recipe Swap

I got to talk to Ashley this morning via Skype which allowed me to see her as well as hear her.  She was able to see Sonny & I but couldn't hear us since I didn't have a microphone.  So I was typing all the conversations on this end.  I'm still just learning about all this!  I sent Sonny to Best Buy today to get us a mic so tomorrow we'll see how it works.  While we were talking to her, she took us on a video tour of her quarters.  She wanted to show her Dad around so he could give her some advice on how to fix a few things!  We were quite impressed.  She has her own place with a bathroom and a walk-in closet!  The person who had her room before she did left her a couch/futon, desk, chair, shelving that they had built plus shelving in her closet.  They also left a small refrigerator, microwave and tv.  So she doesn't have it too bad.  She plans on buying a larger tv so she can watch some Steeler football (hopefully)!  I don't know what kind of tv shows she gets there but I think she can pay for cable as well as internet coverage.

I want to share the 6x6 Recipe Swaps from Quarterly.  I wasn't too thrilled with my card but the others were great!  I'm going to put them into a book.

My Quick Chicken Tortilla Soup

Kathy Hunt's Easy Taco Salad

Marianne's Pineapple Cheese Ball

Mary Bergere's Stuffed Jalepeno Peppers 

Mary's Recipe - peppers

Gwen Phillips Yummy Chicken Pie

Cathy Snipes Candy Bar Pie

my favorite!  Janie's Ham Rollups

Dina Wilson's Fudgy Brownie Cookies

Pat (I think - no name) Super-Chunky Christmas Cookies

Danielle Blech's Apple Cheesecake

Tina Lesson's Easy Cream Cheese Pie

Nancy Carr's S'more Meltaway Pie

Janet Marks' Strawberry Pretzel Salad

Aren't they great?  If you can't read a recipe and you want one of them, let me know and I'll send it to you.  These make me want to cook now!

Quarterly Holiday Card Swaps

I got an e-mail yesterday from Ashley letting me know they arrived safely in Mosul on Tuesday.  They ended up flying straight from Kuwait to Mosul.  She already has her computer hooked up in her quarters.  So, hopefully tomorrow we'll try out Skype!

As promised, more swaps from Quarterly.  These are holiday cards that we swapped.  A few more ideas for my Christmas cards - and prehaps yours too!!

no name - but I love this little bunny - image from the Holiday Mini



by Lynn Creech - just love the monochromatic Soft Suede!



by Janie Murphy - using the new Waffle paper

by Marianne - don't you love how she did the circle?  It's the scallop circle.  Then she took the 1/4" circle punch and punched into the scallops.

by Chaille O-Neal - that cute bunny again!

by Danielle Blech - using the Build A Bear image

by Nancy Lewis - a nice Thanksgiving card

by Marcia Enns - she used her acrylic block for the shadow stamping background.

by Becky Campbell - love that smooch spray - it's on my list!

by me - I used the Decor Elements stencil to sponge inside before stamping the Bells & Boughs on the ornament.

no name

no name

Quarterly Shoebox Swaps

Sorry I've been slow about putting my swaps and projects from Quarterly on my blog.  I've been working all day on the Newcomers Newsletter that I usually do on the 15th.  Just a tad late this month!

Without further ado, here are the Shoebox Swaps we did at Quarterly.  I know there are several who were unable to go who are waiting for pictures.  I tried to put the originator by the ones that I remember!



by Becky Campbell



by Jane Hunt

by Marianne Webb

by Janie Murphy

Quarterly Fun

I'm back from a great weekend with stampin' friends at our NC Demos Quarterly get-together in Shallotte.  Marianne and I met for breakfast Friday morning and after being pampered by getting mani's and pedi's, we hit the road.  We stopped at Lake Waccamaw first which is only about 30 miles from Shallotte and did a little reminiscing and exploring.  We drove almost all around the lake and found a state park that I didn't know was even there.  They only have a few primitive camp sites but hope to add more sites in the future.  We walked out on the pier and took a few pictures.  The lake is amazing - the water is tea colored but you can see the bottom and all the way out to the end of this pier, it was still only water that was about knee high! 





You can see all the vegetation that is growing on the sandy bottom of the lake.  I took this picture from the pier looking straight down so you can see how clear the water is.

Marianne out on the pier

We had dinner at the best restaurant ... and the only restaurant there!  Dale's Seafood Restaurant had the best hushpuppies (served with honey butter) I've had around here.  I got fried trout while Marianne got a seafood platter.  We both agreed it was the best seafood ever!  We went to Calabash on Saturday night and the food I had there couldn't hold a candle to Dale's. 

When we got to Shallotte, after checking in to our motel, we headed over to the high school to get started on the shoebox swap.  What great ideas everyone had.  But, let me tell you everyone had owls on their minds!  So many of the cards used the owl punch!  And do-do me, forgot to put my stamp set (Wicked Cool) in my box so not many people got to do mine.  I had used that stamp set the day before with my Club ladies and forgot to pack it.  One of our "virgin quarterly gals" brought her stamp set the next day so a few people did my card. 

On Saturday, we had several presentations and made a few great things.  I did a presentation on an Accordian Box that everyone made and loved.  Cathy Snipes did a demonstration on My Digital Studio that was quite helpful.  Becky Campbell did two presentations and we made two great projects with her.  And, Janie showed us how to make a fish using the new rick-rack die in the Holiday Mini.

We had three different swaps - 6x6 recipe cards, holiday cards and a tag swap.  I will be sharing all these with you this week.  Everyone is just so creative and I always come away with so many new ideas and a bigger wish list!!

Here are the great tags I received in the Tag Swap:

Christmas Tree by Danielle Blech, Thanksgiving by Lynn Creech, Snowflake by Nancy Carr

Ornament by Cathy Snipes, Snowman by Pat Wilkinson, Fence by Jeria



Snowflake by me, Stockings by Marianne & long red tag by Janie Murphy



Raindeer by Marcia Enns (others have no name)

I got a great wake up call this morning from Ashley!  She called me around 6:30 am but I'm not complaining!  I was just scared it was the Red Cross calling and Sonny & I were going to have to go out on a call.  While I was gone this weekend, there was an apartment fire in Mooresville and Sonny had to go without me (but at least it wasn't the middle of the night).  Anyway, Ashley said they were supposed to leave Kuwait City tonight.  They will be taking a 1 1/2 hour bus ride to another army post where they will board the army transport plane that will take them to Baghdad.  From Baghdad they will fly to Mosul.  I was surprised that it would take that much travel time since a flight from Kuwait to Mosul is only a couple of hours.  Ashley said they don't want the plane in the air that long is her guess.  She is ready to be in Mosul.  She said they have spent a lot of time doing nothing in Kuwait!  They went out in the desert on Friday so everyone could shoot ten rounds in the dirt just to make sure their weapon was working properly.

Ashley has been reading a lot while in Kuwait (which is no surprise since she is a voracious reader anyway.)  She told me about Operation Paperback.  They have supplied a lot of the books she has been reading this week.   Operation Paperback is a non-profit organization that collects gently used books nationwide and sends them to American troops deployed overseas.  To read more about them, click HERE.  Clean out your library and send your used books to them or even a monetary contribution!

Well, I am headed to the Y to work off some of that fried fish I had this weekend!

Oh - I forgot to mention those Steelers yesterday!  What a game .... Tennessee had 7 turnovers.  That's got to be a record.  Unfortunately, our quarterbook went out with a sprained knee.  Not sure of his status for next week.  We are just treading water until Big Ben returns - 2 more games - but at least we are keeping our head above the water and winning the games even if they are giving us a heart attack doing it.  Thought we had it in the bag until the last minute (actually 58 seconds left) when we let them score and go for 2 extra points.  Then they did a fake and an on-side kick and took the ball down the field.  They were right at the goal line but our defense held them off.  Also, Tennessee opted to wear their white jerseys making Pittsburgh have to wear their black ones.  The temperature at kick off was almost 90 degrees but that didn't stop us!  Ashley was able to watch the second half of the game over in Kuwait.  Isn't that something?  It just felt strange to us not to be calling and texting back and forth to her during the game.

Have a great day!