Paper Crew Sketch Challenge

Please say a little prayer for my computer!  I'm worried it is on it's last legs.  I spent yesterday working on trying to speed it up and think it helped a bit.  But it's getting old in computer years I guess - about 5 years old (I think) so looks like I'll be shopping for a new one in the near future.  Hoping it can hold on until Christmas when there will be some sales.  I also worked diligently yesterday on my MDS2 Alaska album.  The deadline for the 31% off sale has been extended to mid September so I'm hoping to get it finished and off to the printer by then.  We leave tomorrow for Texas for a couple of weeks so I'll be working on the album on the airplane as well as at Ashley's (while Sonny does his handy man jobs!!)  That is another thing I like about MDS - I don't have to be hooked up to the internet and can work on it in the car, plane, etc.

(Well, my computer must have know I was talking about her .... the power went out as I was typing this for about 30 minutes!  Luckily, this was saved!)

So, I didn't get to post my Paper Crew Sketch Challenge last night as my computer was "defragging" whatever that means.  It was actually still in the process this morning so I don't know if it really did anything or not but I turned it off.  I had things to do, people to see ......!!!!

I once again did my sketch using MDS2 and I love it.  This card also was for a color challenge from Heather where I am taking her MDS2 classes.  The colors are:  Sahara Sand, Basic Gray, Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay and Whisper White.  Go ahead .... create something with those colors.  They are probably colors you wouldn't usually use, isn't that right?  And I know my good friend, Margaret has lots of Crushed Curry cards stock!!!   That is my challenge to you today.

Again this would be a very easy card to duplicate using good old card stock and ink! 

POSTING END TIME:  If you'd like to be considered as one of our spotlight cards, please be sure to link your project by Monday 7 AM EST and  link your post over to here too


VOTING: Starting on Monday, August 20th at 7 AM EST, you can start voting on the entries.  The voting will end on Tuesday, September 4th at 10 AM EST.

Outer Banks pics

I made a few scrapbook pages using My Digital Studio from our trip to the Outer Banks.   These were super easy to make.  I used the Template / Kit called Sweet Details.  The pages are predone ... all I have to do is drop my pictures in. 

But after I got MDS2, I decided to change up the pages a little bit ,,,, adding different colors, overlays, text in a circle, etc.  What do you think?

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.

Button Jar

How about another card with Perfectly Preserved?  This time the jar is filled with buttons.  Did your grandmother have a button jar?  Mine did a lot of sewing but I never found her button jar.  But, I do have several buttons that belonged to my great Aunt Love.  I keep them in a container in my vintage guest room along with a lot of items belonging to my grandmother.

I punched out a bunch of different colored buttons from cardstock (Daffodil Delight, Rich Rizzleberry, Tempting Turquise) using the Big Shot and the Button Sizzix die.  Here is what I did to make this card:

• Use the jar framelit to cut the opening in the front of the card
• Stamp the jar onto vellum and adhere to the back of the opening
• Sandwich the buttons between the vellum and a rectangle of white card stock
• Adhere a piece of Summer Smoosh DSP inside to cover the jar opening and vellum

 

I cut the curvy piece of DSP using a template that I bought at CKC.  I think it adds just the right touch along with the banners at the top and the card stock button.

Inside of card

I was at the grocery store earlier in the week and saw a display for Hatch Peppers.  There was a big sign announcing that Hatch Chilies were back.  Well, I had never heard of them and had no idea what to do with them but I bought a couple of them anyway.  After looking for recipes on the internet, I found a recipe for Quesadillas and made them for dinner tonight. They were really good but pretty hot.  If you like HOT, these are for you!!  Even Sonny thought they were hot!  Here's the recipe if you want to give them a try:

• 2 hatch chiles (the recipe actually called for 4 but 2 was plenty for us)
• 1 T butter
• 1 t olive oil
• 1 med. onion, sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• pinch Kosher salt
• 4 flour tortillas
• 1 1/2-2 C shredded pepper jack cheese (I used a Mexican pre-packaged shredded mix)

1. Broil chilies (with oven rack 6" from top) until skin is blackened & blistered about 5-6 minutes.
2. Transfer roasted peppers to a paper bag & close for about 15 minutes.  This allows peppers to sweat making removing the skins easier.
3. Remove the skin, seeds & stems of the roasted peppers (you should wear gloves but I didn't have any.)  Chop peppers.
4. Heat butter & olive oil in skillet.  Once butter has melted, saute onions.  Cook until they start to brown, about 15 minutes.  Stir in roasted peppers, garlic and salt.  Remove from heat.
5. To assemble quesadilla, place one tortilla on a flat surface; sprinkle half cheese & half of pepper mixture onto tortilla.  Place the other tortilla on top.  Cook quesadillas in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat until the cheese is melted & the tortilla begins to brown.  Slice and serve immediately.

Tortillas are a staple in our house and ours are large ones.  One quesadilla was plenty for both of us although I had made 4 of them with the above ingredients.  Luckily, I did not cook the other two and froze them for another time.

Paper Craft Crew Challenge

I have spent the past few days with my nose glued to the computer screen.  I am taking an MDS2 on-line course with Heather Summers who is one of the top Stampin' Up demonstrators in Canada.  She does some awesome MDS pages and projects and I am enjoying her tutorials.  I'm even learning a few things!  If you are interested, you can join in anytime.  It's only $20 for a month of daily tutorials and projects.  You can check it out HERE.

Meantime, I have also got a new sketch challenge for you. I forgot to post this earlier!!   Of course, I did the card in My Digital Studio.  But the good news is, with the new   I am loving MDS2!!  I worked with the free trial for a few weeks but have finally downloaded the real thing.



Paper Craft Crew Challenge 53

Don't forgot to check out the other cards the team created HERE and TO VOTE for your favorite!

Only 26 Letters!

Good Morning!  I wanted to share a few more pictures from my Storybook ABC album I made with My Digital Studio.  Jayce should have received it by now and I hope he is enjoying it.  I had so much fun making it.    You'll notice on some of the alphabet letters, I had to stretch to come up with a word to fit the pictures I had (like N & Q!!)  But some of the letters, I could have filled the page with words.  Speaking of the alphabet, I had a funny thing happen last week.  When I was in Charlotte, I stopped for lunch at a cafe and had a book with me.  Whenever I go out to lunch by myself, I always take my book so I can read while eating or waiting on my meal.  Actually I had forgotten to take my book that day and stopped off at a store in the shopping center to buy one.  Anyway there were two older ladies sitting a table near me.  As they were leaving, they stopped by my table and asked me what I was reading.  One of the ladies commented, "Don't you think it is amazing there are only 26 letters in the alphabet?"  I thought that was kind of odd but the more I've thought about it, she is right.  Think of all the millions of books that have been written and only using 26 letters over and over!

 

Monday Mailer

I got the cutest Monday Mailer card last week from Carren.

I haven't been super excited about the new DSP this year and so far, have only ordered the large dot paper.  I still have some Summer Smooch DSP from the pre-order last spring also.  But, Carren may be changing my mind with this card.  She used Floral District DSP and I love the colors and layers she used in this card.  She also did a lot of paper piercing using the new Paper Piecing pack.  I'm also loving the stamp set she used (one I don't have), One in a Million.  Just a great card!

I'm taking Mom to the neurologist tomorrow.  Hopefully this will be her last visit.  She is doing so good!  After that I'll be hurrying to get back home to get ready for Card Class.

Girly and Masculine

Hope you had a restful weekend.  For some I think this was the weekend before the start of school.  But not for us here in Catawba County - they started school 2 weeks ago!  Really early so it wasn't much of a break for the teachers.  Glad I don't work for the school system here.  I usually went back to work 2-3 weeks before the students when I worked at Coppell High School.  My job was in the Counseling Office and our biggest job in the summer (besides transcripts for students heading off to college) was preparing the schedules for the following year.  I have fond memories of working on those shedules and sometimes I miss it.  But other times, I'm glad for where I am now.  I wouldn't have time to play bridge, hand & foot, mahjong, go to the movies during the day, play in my craft room, go out on the boat, etc. etc. .... al the fun things we do when we retire!

Sonny and I went out on the boat for a few hours on Saturday.  We were trying to beat the rain.  We fixed our lunch and headed out.  We only had a couple of hours before the sky turned pretty black so we headed back to shore.  Oh well ..... gave me a little more time to be crafty.  I mostly worked on some MDS projects.  I am trying to get a few things finished so I can send them to SU to be published and take advantage of the 31% off sale

Sunday Marianne, Mom and I went to see Hope Springs at the movie theatre.  It was really good.  I just love Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones.  It was a different role for him but he did a good job.  I saw him a couple of weeks ago on The View and they were really struggling to interview him.  He mostly gave them one word answers and didn't expand too much.  It was funny watching them trying to pull the words out of him.  They finally pretty much gave up and concentrated on interviewing Meryl.  I was surprised to learn that he went to Harvard!  He is a Texas boy and went to school at St Mark's in Dallas which is a very good private school.

Here are a couple of cards I made recently.  They use retired product but you could definitely substitute other DSP, etc.

Isn't this a great card for a man?  I used my Pennant Punch to make the ties.  The middle bowtie has a button in the center and the top and bottom ties just have DSP circles in the center.  I used a black Sharpie to doodle around the edges.

So from a masculine card to a girly card.  I got this stamp set at a used stamp sale recently.  It is retired but I got it for a good price and thought it was cute.  The dress forms are stamped directly on the Crumb Cake cardstock and the middle one is paper pieced.

August Stamp Club

I have been so busy this week, I have not had any time to be creative.  I hate it when that happens.  Although, to see my stamp room, you wouldn't believe me.  It is a mess - just about every surface is covered up with something not to mention the floor!  Tomorrow is the first day this week that I don't have anything scheduled.  I hope to be able to play a little bit and clean but I think Sonny has plans for us to go out on the boat.  Maybe a little of both will happen.  Monday I played bridge (and won $3!! - whoo hoo!)  Tuesday I drove to Charlotte for a Red Cross meeting.  While I was there, I drove over to Park Rd. Shopping Center, which was my old stomping ground when I was a teenager.  It's so funny to see that some of the same stores are still there!!  I had lunch at a cafe there that my mom loves.  When I told her about it that evening, she told me she hoped I had indigestion!!  I tried to do a surprise visit to my aunt who I haven't seen in years but she wasn't home.  Wednesday, I had a doctor's appointment as well as my mom.  I had scheduled them both on the same day so I wouldn't have to go twice so that helped.  He was really pleased and surprised at how well my mom was doing.  She has stopped taking the pain meds and just takes Alieve during the day.  It is so great to see her getting  back to doing her regular stuff again.  Keep your fingers crossed that this continues.

Today I had my Thursday Stamp Club.  We made several items.

For the Birds

 On this card, each person chose their stamped image from the stamp set, For the Birds.  A few chose to make it a Christmas card with plaid Christmas DSP.  The image was colored with markers.  I colored the Baker's Twine with my marker to make it pink.

Stippled Blossom

 This was the favorite!  I think almost everyone bought the ink and the stamp set!  It makes a gorgeous card and I know I will be using this set again and again.  We stamped the image with Primrose Petals - the outline image is stamped full strength and the inside image was stamped off on scrap paper before stamping on the Vanilla cardstock.  We did the same thing with the leaves.  The shape is from the Apothecary Framelits.  We used the paper piercer and the new Piercing Templates to prick around the image.  The final touch was to lightly sponge Chocolate Chip ink around the edges.

Perfectly Preserved

This is one of my favorites.  I just love this little mason jar!  I also showed them how they could just use the Framelit to cut the jar into the card itself and put the images (apples, pears, etc) on the inside of the card just peeking through.

We also made a 3x3 card box with cards and envelopes inside using Bootiful Occasions.  I'll share those later.  I need to take a picture.

My Digital Studio 2

Don't forget about the free 30 day trial for MDS2 OR the special Stampin' Up has for MDS2 for the month of August!!

Storytime

It's that time ,,, Paper Craft Challenge Wednesday and today is our FIRST ANNIVERSARY!!  For my digital card this week, I used a really cute Digital Kit called Storytime.  I just love it!  Yesterday was my grandson's birthday - hard to believe he's 6, just started 1st grade and I haven't seen him in 4 1/2 years!!  I called him last night to wish him a Happy Birthday and he sounded so grown up.   I made him an Alphabet Board Book using Storytime.  The book was so fun to make.  I made it all about his dad, including pictures when his dad was a kid.  Since we have such a disjointed relationship, Jayce hasn't grown up seeing the pictures of his dad as a child or hearing the stories I could tell him so I thought this was a great way to share that history.  Oh, the memories making this book brought to me.

The kit comes with the "A is for art, B is for Boat" etc, and I just added other alphabet words as the pictures dictated.  I had it printed by Stampin' Up and they did a wonderful job.  Now is the time to get your things printed by SU since they are having a 31% off sale!  Think about those Christmas presents!!

Please make sure you check all the other cards made for this challenge HERE .  We want moreparticipation and ask that you please pass  the word around by sharing on your Facebook page, Pinterest, Twitter and anywhere else you can think of to share and get the word out about the Paper Craft Crew challenges!  Each time you participate "adds up" and may earn you an invitation to be a guest designer for a future challenge!  You can also sign up for e-mail updates.   As the new Challenge Blog develops, there will be new challenges, blog candy and more.  There will be a "Grand Kick-Off" for the new blog the end of October.  You can also find us on Facebook HERE.

Grab your supplies and play along with us.  We are doing something new this week -

POSTING END TIME:  If you'd like to be considered as one of our spotlight cards, please be sure to link your project by Monday 7 AM EST and  link your post over to the blog too

VOTING:   Starting on Monday, August 20th at 7 AM EST, you can start voting on the entries.  The voting will end on Tuesday, August 21st at 10 AM EST. 

 (I'd love your vote!!)

Here's the card I made along with the sketch:

Monday Mailer #1 for August

Our Monday Mailer program has been on a break for a couple of months.  But I kicked it back in gear this month and now I have to get myself in gear!  I made (and mailed) my Monday Mailer card last week to Beth Fox.  I sent her one of the Postage Due cards I had previously made (seen HERE).  I received a really cool card from my partner, Carren Heartley.

Our theme this month is to use something new from the catalog so it is pretty wide open to interpretation - new stamps, paper, ink, accessories, etc.  Carren used the new stamp set, Flowering Flourishes.  She also told me that she did not seem to use her Regals much so it was a new color combo AND that she used Window Sheets for the first time!  I think she did a marvelous job with all her new discoveries!  The flourish isis stamped onto the Window Sheet which she attached to the card with brads..  The Cajun and Green ovals are punched out and layered onto the Mustard layer.

A really great card!

Home Again!

Wonder how many posts I've done with this title!  We had a great time in the Outer Banks.  Unfortunately, the weather was a bit of a problem but we worked around it.  Ashley and I laid out on the beach most of the day Sunday and Monday.  The water was ice cold and we never got much further out than our waists.  Don't know if it's always that cold or not but our legs would feel like they were frozen when we got in.  We stayed in Kill Devil Hills Saturday - Tuesday and then drove to Hatteras to catch the ferry to Ocracoke.  We stopped at the Bodie and the Hatteras Lighthouses along the way.  The Bodie Lighthouse was under construction with scaffolding all around it.  Luckily, the Hatteras Lighthouse wasn't (it was when I was there a few years ago!)  So there were lots of photo opps. 

When we got to Oracoke, we found our motel, got unpacked and drove over to Howards Pub.  We all loved Ocracoke Island and wish we could have stayed there longer.  Unfortunately, it poured down rain on Wednesday most of the day.  We were able to sneak down to the beach for a couple of hours late in the afternoon.  It worked perfectly - Ashley & I took our chairs down near the ocean and read our books while Sonny sat up on the wooden shelter out of the sand and read his book!  Perfect!

Our motel had a great view of the ocean and the Ocracoke Lighthouse.   I got some great sunset pictures from our balcony.

Ashley and I on our balcony at sunset

Sonny and Ashley sitting on beach shelter railing

Beautiful sunset - see lighthouse in background

Ocracoke Lighthouse

Paper Craft Crew Challenge

Made it Okrakoke Island today.  It rained pretty hard most of the day today.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that the rain is done!  Unfortunately, the play (Lost Colony) that we were going to see last night got rained out.  The bottom dropped out around 6:00 and the play was scheduled at 8:30.  We were lucky that we had rain insurance so we got our money back.  I so wanted to see that play though.  Guess we'll just have to come back next year.

This is my first official challenge card for the Paper Craft Crew (formerly Stamping Queens).  Guess that means I'm not a Queen anymore!!  Oh well, easy come, easy go!  Actually last week was the first official launching of the new crew.  I made my card, posted it here on my blog BUT I forgot to post it on the Paper Craft Crew site so I didn't get included.  Duhhhh!

I made this card using My Digital Studio 2!!  I am loving this update to MDS once I finally got it to download.  I had some problems downloading it but after a couple of tries, I contacted Stampin' Up and they got to work on it.  Seems there was an error in the program which they fixed quickly and I got it downloaded correctly Monday night.  I have only downloaded the FREE Trial version.  I wanted to play around with it a while first before purchasing.  I can play with this one for 30 days and then make the purchase.  It has been very easy to learn all the new features by watching the videos HERE.  There are several videos in each catagory - Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced.

Play along and see the other cards made by the Paper Craft Crew HERE.

Here is the sketch we used this week:

Greetings from the Outer Banks!

Having fun at the Outer Banks!  I'll be back later in the week.

Another Postage Due

I'm packed and ready to hit the road again!  We are picking Ashley up at the airport tomorrow at 2 pm and driving to the Outer Banks for a few days.  I can't wait!  It's been too long (a couple of years??) since I put my toes in the sand.  (I'm not counting the few minutes I walked in the sand when we were in Florida on our Red Cross "deployment" last month!)

I have another Postage Due card to share with you.  I can't stop with this set .... I just love it!  This time I used the Adorning Accents die to die cut the Early Espresso piece.  I stamped the image onto Vanilla with Espresso ink. Then I used the new spritzer bottles filled with alcohol and reinkers (Pool Party, Starfruit and Soft Suede) and spritzed the piece.  I cut the "3" and flower out separately and popped them up.  I used the Itty Bitty Banners and popped up the sentiment from Teeny Tiny Words.

Supplies:

• Cardstock:  Summer Starfruit, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla
• Ink:  Early Espresso, Reinkers - Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo
• Accessories:  Framelits, Itty Bitty Banners, Spritzer Bottles, Shimmer Spray

I have downloaded MDS2 tonight and plan to play with it during our drive (6+ hours!) tomorrow.  All the feedback I have heard has been great.  I played with it a bit tonight and am liking a lot of the new features.

Perfectly Preserved plus lots of SU News

The new "not so mini" Holiday Catalog is up and ready to order from it as of yesterday.  It's a great one and I am going to go broke ordering from it!!  Click HERE to see it online. 

And our MDS special -

•MDS 2 Free Trial: – Full access to the software at NO COST for 30 days. (Item #130910)
•MDS 2 Full Software: $39.95 US (Item #130644) Compatible with Mac and Windows
•MDS 2+ Full Software plus over $500 of digital content: $79.95 US (Item #130646)
•MDS 2 Upgrade: Full Software for those who already own the original MDS software. $19.95 (Item #130650
•August Special Offer: 31% OFF Select Digital Content!

AND during August, Stampin' Up has treats but no tricks for you! If you join Stampin' Up! during August you will get a FREE Howl-o-ween Printer's Tray project kit - a $60 value!

I am excited to have my Stylin' Snowfolk card HERE featured on Kelly's Blog Finds of the Day today.  Blog Finds of the Day is a service Kelly provides members of the Late Night Stampers Yahoo Groups. It is a daily list that is emailed out to the Yahoo Group Subscribers.  Its sole purpose is to keep all those amazing links in one easy to navigate place. She makes it easy for us to find some great ideas.  Check it out!

Below is a card I made using the Perfectly Preserved stamp set from the Holiday Catalog.  I can see a lot of possibilities with this card PLUS there are dies (Framelits) that match for cutting out the images.  If you buy the bundle of the stamp set and the dies, you save $$$ (and we all want to do that!)  On this card, I stamped the jar onto vellum and cut it out (using the die).  The flower stems are stamped directly onto the white rectangle.  The flowers and leaves are stamped onto scrap white and punched out (with the die).  I cut about 1 1/2" off the side of the Peach Parfait paper (retired).  The Sale-a-bration DSP and the Pear Pizazz scallop strip (all retired) are adhered to the inside of the card.  I also used some of the Pear and Peach ribbon from Saleabration.  I just love this Everyday Enchantment DSP even though it is retired.  I ordered a pack of it before it retired and now wish I had ordered more!!

August Specials AND New Design Team

Get 31% off 31 digital content options and most of SU's print products for all 31 days in August!   With digital goods on sale and the 30-day FREE trial of the software, August is the perfect time for you to enter the digital designing craze and see what it's all about.

What's on sale?
ALL cards, photobooks, individual pages, and tags. That's right: print any photobook, board book, swatchbook, individual pages, greeting card, postcard, trifold card, or tag-all for 31% off. Click HERE for more info on our Print Products.

Some of our best digital content. 30 downloads and 1 content disc. Yup, that equals 31.

:•Print product bulk pricing isn't included as a part of this sale. 
•You can only get the digital downloads and print products via an Online order.
•The Floral District Collection Disc can go on a workshop order as it is a tangible item.
•There's no limit to how many sale items you can order. Go crazy!
•Get your orders in by Friday, August 31.
•Still trying to keep up on all this? Get more info about MDS 2, the new software (coming soon) HERE
 
Also August 1 is the launch of My Digital Studio 2!! I'm so excited for this!

• 75 new features!!!
•Design in spreads
•Create with custom canvas sizes
•Add more than one color to a single stamp image
•Resize vector stamp images while keeping them crisp
•See color combination suggestions
•And much more

Now on to my Design Team news.  As you may have heard or read, Cristena Bagne, is stepping down as the author and owner of the Stampin' Queens. Over the next few weeks, you will start to see some small changes as Pam Staples transfers the Stampin' Queen's to a new blog platform. With the transfer, there will  be a name change as well.  We will now be know as The Papercraft Crew.  We hope you'll continue to follow us along with participating in our weekly challenges.

As the new Challenge Blog develops, Pam will also be introducing some new challenges including a Scrapbook Challenge, Color Challenge, Topical Challenge and Digital Challenge... Yes, that seems like a lot of challenges but there will also be more design team members added to specific teams.

To stay current with the Stampin' Queen's Challenge Blog and the upcoming changes, you can also visit www.sunnygirlscraps.com for current updates along with the link to the new challenge blog. 

So, stay tuned over the next couple of weeks and for now, please play along with this weeks challenge!

Here is the sketch and card for the week:

I made the card using the Delight in the Day My Digital Studio kit - paper, stamps, and embellishments.

Check out the other sketch interpretations HERE or HERE.

Stylin' Snowfolk

I thought if I stamped this snowman snow woman, it would make it feel like winter.  No such luck although the temperature is a little better this week than it was last week in terms of the humidity.  Sonny still came back this evening from putting the cover on the boat drenched.  You would have thought he'd jumped in the lake!  

So how do you like my snowfolk?  Ain't she stylin?  This is the first card I've made with this new set but I see lots of possibilities!  I also found a video tutorial (but can't remember where it was) of how to make the scalloped rectangle using a border punch.  I made several different sizes while I was making this one - hopefully, I will remember how to do it the next time I want to make one!  (The mind is a terrible thing to lose.)

I was a good girl today and went to the Y.  It was the first time I had been in several weeks although I have gone over to our neighborhood pool and done a few work outs in the pool.

I have been glued to the Olympic coverage day and night!  Tonight I watched the men's gymnastic.  Unfortunately, Team USA didn't fare well but I was pulling for Great Britain.  China was listed as the winner, at first, with Britain second and Ukraine third. But those results did not last. As the crowd — Princes Harry and William included — whooped and hollered because the British team had just won its first men’s team Olympic medal in 100 years, the judges huddled for about 10 minutes to discuss the outcome. In the end, China remained the champion to win its second consecutive Olympic gold medal and continue its domination.  Japan won the silver medal, moving up from fourth after the judges rejiggered the scores.  That knocked Britain to third and Ukraine to fourth, causing boos in the audience.  One thing that did not change was that the United States team — a favorite to win a medal, and maybe even the gold — was leaving empty-handed. It finished fifth.  That was almost as bad as last night's girls's gymnastics.  I felt so sorry for Jordan Wieber (the reigning world champion in the all-around and a favorite to win the Olympic gold medal) when she was eliminated.  Bela Karolyi,  the coach of the last United States team to win an Olympic gold medal, said Wieber was cheated out of a spot in the all-around. 

We're saying a few prayers tonight.  My brother in law is in the hospital in Texas.  Sonny spoke to our nephew earlier and Jack is having trouble with his pacemaker.  The doctors are keeping him overnight to see if they can figure out what is wrong.