Enjoy Every Moment

I made this great birthday card this weekend to send to a good friend for her birthday.  I had such fun making the card.  It was trial and error cutting the little squares and getting them spaced out but I finally got it pretty close.  The squares are 3/4" each and I didn't have a punch for that size so I used the good ole SU cutter.   I used last fall's Spice Cake DSP (which is no longer available) and Pool Party card stock.  I used a lot of different elements for this card - the eyelet at the top is retired but I still love them!  I ran a piece of the eyelet ribbon through it and used my Crop-a-dile to set the eyelet.  The tag is just a metal tag that I got at an office supply store.  The bird is from a retired SU set and I colored it with markers.  The butterfly is punched using the SU butterfly punch.  I layered the Pool Party behind the Spice Cake DSP and used the Butterfly Embosslit Die for the small butterfly in the center,  I wrapped twine around the center for the antennae.

I got news today that my friend and the owner of our local stamp store lost her husband in a battle with dementia.  What a cruel disease!  He had steadily been going downhill for the past year and died in her arms last night.  She told me recently to enjoy every moment I had with my husband and I am passing that advice along to you.  Enjoy every moment of life and take time to give thanks for what you have.

Well, it's starting to storm here - thunder, lightning and winds outside so I'd better sign off and shut down my electronics!!

And the Blog Hop winner is .....

True Random Number Generator Min:0 Max:7 Result: 4

I used Random.org for the drawing of the cards from the Blog Hop and Tiff is the winner:

 Tiff said...

Love love love the little snow gal. She's super cute. And I love those colors on that card. Beautiful job will all of the stamps!
October 24, 2011 10:42 AM

Tiff - please contact me with your address so I can get these cards in the mail to you.

I have been working on a big project for the past few days.  When Sharon was visiting me on Thursday, she made Christmas cards from the samples from the upcoming Christmas SAS while I worked on making "lollies" / rosettes!!  I have been wanting to make a fall rosette wreath but it was intimidating me and I kept putting it off.  Finally I cut a few strips last Wednesday night and scored and pleated them while watching tv.  That got me started so pretty much all day Thursday, I made rosettes - a total of 22 in all!  They are all different sizes and colors.  I used mostly Spice Cake DSP but I also used a few strips of Paisley Petals and some non-SU DSP that coordinated. Let me tell you, if I didn't have the SU Simply Scored Scoring Tool, I don't know that I could have done that many!!  I scored each strip (2" x 12") every 1/2" on one side.  Then I flipped it over and scored in between each of those score marks.  So, the finished piece was scored every 1/4".  Then I accordian folded the strips and hot glued 2 together forming a circle.   I used a round lid that I found that measured about 4"  to form the rosette in.  It made it much easier.  I punched a 2" circle and hot glued it to the back side of the rosette and used one of my punches to sit on top of the rosette while it dried.  I bought a styrofoam wreath at M's and covered it with strips of Spice Cake fabric.  I hot glued the medallions onto the wreath and used various buttons on the centers.  Mostly I used the big Designer Buttons from the mini catalog (love, love these!!) but I also used a few (retired) Corduroy Buttons and a metallic button that I found in my stash and 2 heart shaped silver earrings that I don't wear anymore.  The hardest part for me was trying to figure out whether to put a ribbon on it!  I tried a strip of Spice Cake fabric but didn't like it so I used some spray starch on the (retired) Chocolate Chip striped grosgrain ribbon and tied it at the top.  

I had a pretty busy weekend.  Sharon and Bob (from Florida) were camping nearby - in Denver and Marianne and Greg decided to take their camper over their and join them.  I went over Friday night while Sonny was painting (!).  I borrowed a friend's mahjong set and taught the Marianne and Sharon to play mahjong.  They caught on quick and kept the set on Saturday and played a little more.  Saturday night, we joined them for dinner at a restaurant right across the street from the campground along with Mom and Angela..  After dinner we went back to the campground where another couple joined us.  We had a camp fire and made smores and visited.

Today is Sonny's birthday - he's now officially on medicaid!!  Wow!  I fixed breakfast for us this morning and now have 2 big pots of my grandmother's delicious vegetable soup cooking on the stove - not that he will eat it - he doesn't like veggies!!  But I am going to take a pot of it over to my Mom, freeze some of it and enjoy the rest this week!  We finally turned our heat on yesterday.  We didn't get any of the snow that the east coast was getting but it has been pretty cool here the past few days.

Well, time for me to get ready for my Steeler game!  Not too sure about today's game against "Pretty Boy Brady" and the Patriots .....

Where Does Time Go?

No excuses .... life just gets in the way of my stamping sometimes.  I hate it when that happens!!   But also, I have gotten addicted to an internet game and it's eating up my time!!!  It's an old game - Jewel Quest but I keep telling myself, I'll just play for 15 minutes .... next thing I know, it's an hour later!  Just got to stop it.  I did play Mahjongg last Friday and lost all my money ($2)!!!  I hadn't played in a couple of months and I think I was just rusty - just couldn't get anything going.  The one time I thought I had won a game, I ended up with an extra tile in my hand so got disqualified!  

Saturday I did face painting at the Sherrills Ford Library.  The Friends of the Library put on a little fall festival for the children - face painting, games, pumpkin painting, decorating cookies, etc.  It is all free and great fun for the little ones.  My specialty was bats and spiders.  I think every little boy there wanted a bat on his cheek!  Sonny and I went out to dinner later that night and there was a family sitting behind us in the restaurant with 3 children.  They each had their faces painted .... by moi - a bat, ghost and candy corn!

Today we went to Big Al's to watch the Steelers play.  They were flying high at the half with the score 17-3.  I think they got a little cocky because it was sure a different game the second half.  We won but I was chewing my nails up until the last few seconds.

We stopped by to visit Mom after the game.  She seems to be doing much better.  She has quit taking the Oxycotin and is taking the Hydrocodein at night.  That seems to be the worst time for her.  She said she is real restless at night.  I'm sure a lot of it is because she is doing nothing during the day to make her tired.  Plus, she probably naps during the day.  She has narcolepsy (a sleep disorder) and takes meds during the day to keep her awake.   But since she has been on the pain meds, she has not been taking her sleep meds.  She was sitting outside enjoying the beautiful day when we got to the house.   She is still using the walker and going slow but I did not see her wince as she was walking.  She will be getting the nerve root block on Tuesday.  We have an appt. on Thursday to talk to the surgeon.

I got 2 Monday Mailer cards this week from Brenda Tapp.  They are great!  I don't have the Sizzix Leaf die but I sure wish I did after seeing the card.

Isn't this pretty?  She used faux tearing - it looks like two pieces of paper but it's not.

 

 

Another great card using my favorite .... Spice Cake DSP

I have Stamp Club next week so I will be sharing those projects with you soon.

Stamp Club for September

I had great intentions of posting this last night.  I downloaded all the cards, resized them.  Then I got interested in watching TV and as I was turning off the computer, I realized I hadn't written my blog post!  By then it was almost midnight so I did a Scarlet and said "fiddle dee dee .... I'll think about it tomorrow"!

Both my Tuesday and Thursday club meetings went good and I think everyone was pleased with the projects.  Thursday as usual was challenging - but more because of me than anything!  I was scheduled to only have 6 gals with 3 not being able to come when I got a call from Joyce that she had not gone to Texas as scheduled so she would like to come.  That was fine - I had enough cut.  About 15 minutes later, I get another call from Anna that her golf game was rained out and would it be ok if she came.  No problem.  Well, I guess I had been gone too long because I told 2 of our newest members that we meet at 12:30.  About 11:45, Sonny told me no, he thought they usually came at 1:00.  I ended up having to call Joyce and ask her what time we met!!  Now, that was embarressing!  Sonny was right .... 1:00!!  Luckily, I was dressed and prepared by 12:30 because Tesa and Anna came right on time at 12:30 just like I had told them too!!  We had a nice visit while waiting for the others to arrive though.  That is the only drawback to having a big group - I don't feel like I get to visit with them on a personal level when they are here.

OK - enough chatter .... you're waiting patiently for the pictures, huh?  Without further ado, here they are:

Judy N. was hostess for Tuesday and she made each of us these darling treat holders .... puts the pressure on Thursday's group!!

This uses SU's note cards and envelopes (pg 182).  You cut 1" off the sealed envelope and punch 1/2 of a circle using the 2 1/2" circle punch.  Decorate the note card to slide inside the envelope.  The birthday cupcake is from the great Easy Events set.  We used markers to color it and then glittered away!  The little flower is from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punches with a tiny rhinestone in the middle. 

This card uses the two-step stamp Raining Flowers (pg 111) that I received at convention this year.  We cut out one of the flowers and popped it up over the others.  The colors used are Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Cherry Cobbler, and Daffodil Delight. 

This is by far my favorite!  It is a CASE from Kimberly Van Diepen.  I love, love, love the Spice Cake DSP, fabric, and buttons!!!  Everyone was given their choice of buttons and DSP to punch 4 circles from.  The stamp set I used was French Foilage.  We used the spatter stamp to lightly stamp Pool Party and Crumb Cake all over the Confetti card stock.   For the leaf, we took markers (Mustard and Pool Party - some also used Lucky Limeade) and randomly colored on the stamp.  Then it was pressed into the Crumb Cake ink pad and stamped onto the Confetti paper.  Everyone's turned out a little different but they looked great!  That was the only thing they had to cut out which made some happy.  The verse is from Pursuit of Happiness. 

Corner Bookmark using quote from Daring Adventure stamp set

Corner Bookmark using Triple Bouquet Punch



Corner Bookmark using scallop circle flower and retired corduroy button.



The final project that we did was to make Corner Bookmarks.  I put cardstock, DSP, brads and ribbon in a basket and passed it around.  They used my bookmarks as ideas as they made their own.  I was really proud of everyone as they did their own designs!  I should have gathered them all up and taken a picture of them.  The directions for the bookmark can be found on Splitcoast but they are quite easy.  Here is how I made mine:

• Cut cardstock 4"
• Mark the center of 3 sides of the cardstock (2") with a pencil.
• Line up 2 of the markings and score diagonally
• Line up the other 2 markings and score them diagonally (your score marks will form a "V" at the top of your paper)
• Fold back on the score lines and tape over them.
• Punch a decorative edge on the bottom
• Cut DSP 2 3/4" square
• Line up the DSP square diagonally on paper cutter and cut in half (2 triangles).
• Put 1/2 of the DSP on the back of the bookmark (where you taped the corners down)
• Put the other 1/2 of the DSP on the front of the bookmark
• Decorate as desired.