Weekend Projects

How do like the new blog background and banner?  I had such fun designing it.  I'm taking an on-line class and learning so much!  I just love that I can recolor the DSP and embellishments now.  It makes matching everything so easy.

It was a beautiful weekend here in the Carolinas ... hard to believe it's August.  Sonny and I got some fried chicken and fixins' from the grocery store, gassed up the boat and went out on the lake in the late afternoon after I got home from playing cards.  We threw the anchor over near Queen's Landing and settled in to listen to the band that was playing, Too Much Sylvia.  They were really good and I would love to go hear them again some time.   I would highly recommend them if they ever play in your area.  We didn't cover the boat at night and went out again on Saturday for a few hours before it got too hot.  And I still had time to play on Saturday afternoon.  I saw this cute snowman card on Pininterest and just had to give him a try.  Isn't he so cute?   The card base is white and I just freehanded the black and red cardstock on the top and bottom.  I used the Star Punch for the nose (sponged with Cajun Craze).  I used my white gel pen for the accents on his hat.  The felt holly is retired from Stampin' Up.

Another project I worked on this weekend was making Sour Cream Containers.  These have been around forever but I have never made any.  I volunteered to make the name tags for our Southern Living Bingo Dinner.  We auctioned the dinner away at our Bingo Night in June and got $300.  So, our group is preparing and serving a dinner for 10 people next Thursday. Sonny and I will be on our way to Texas on Thursday so this is my contribution.  I decided these Sour Cream Containers would make great name tags.  I bought some dinner mints at the Dollar Store to fill them. 

I used a retired DSP to make them.  I cut the DSP 6" x 4 1/2".  Here is a tutorial for them if you want to make one.  Warning - they are addicting!!  I think we will be making them at Stamp Club soon.

A Birthday Shout Out and my swaps

First off I want to give a shout out to my friend, Margaret.  Today is her birthday.  I couldn't send her a card because they are en route from their home in Colorado back to Texas.  They have their mail forwarded to Colorado and I figured my card would get caught in the forwarding and who knows when she would receive it.  Anyway, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

By the time you see this, I should be at the Quarterly meeting in Greensboro.  So I can go ahead and show you a couple of the swaps I am taking.

The first one is the general Holiday swap card.  I can't believe how long it took me to put this card together!  I don't usually pick a swap card with so many bits and pieces.  What was I thinking!  But the effort was worth it I think.  My snowman turned out so cute!

 I punched all the pieces out for the snowman and put him together while watching TV.  But when I started assembling the card, he was too tall!  So I had to make some adjustments - cut his hat down a bit and cut his bottom a bit (wish I could do that with mine!)  The punches I used are:

Body:  2 1/2" circle punch, 1 3/4" circle punch
Head:  Ornament Punch
Hands:  Snowflake Punch
Eyes & Cheeks:  Owl Punch
Nose:  hand cut
Scarf, hat band:  Label Punch
Hat:  Tag Punch
Heart on hatband:  3 Hearts Punch

Of course the stocking in his hand is stamped with the Stitched Stockings stamp from the mini and punched out with the Stocking Punch (so easy!!).  It is so easy to punch out the toe, heel, and top trim with the punch and stamp.  SU has grouped them together so it is just stamp and one punch to get all three .... easy, peasy!  I used a white gel pen to accent the hat, eyes and do the mouth.  The bottom snow is hand torn white cardstock, sponged with Bashful Blue and glittered.  The Bashful Blue background was run through the Big Shot with the new Snowflake embossing folder (mini catalog).  The DSP is from the In Color Stack - Poppy Parade.

We are also doing a technique 6x6 card swap.  I received a great card at Convention that used a new technique (to me anyway).  It is called Iced Crystals.  So that is what I did.  Can't wait to do a card with this technique.  I think it would look great for a Halloween card background.  What do you think?

It's hard to get a good picture due to the glare of the crystals.

I have a couple more to share with you but I haven't snapped the pictures yet so I will try and share them tomorrow.

Have a great weekend!