Happy Anniversary

I had to make a few anniversary cards this week to mail out.  I still have one to make and mail - Marianne's anniversary is Sunday.  It seems like just yesterday that she got married!  But, don't guess so - my son was a ring bearer in her wedding and my daughter was the flower girl and they were 1 1/2 & 4 1/4 years old (they are both now in their 30s!)

This card uses the flower from Fifth Avenue Floral.  I masked and stamped 3 flowers in the background.  The two flowers up front were stamped and cut out; then they were raised with dimensionals.  The little butterfly is die cut using the embosslit die.  I love the sentiment!  It is from the new stamp set, Word Play.

This card uses a retired stamp set, God's Beauty.  It was a hostess set in 2009.  The flowers and butterfly are all raised with dimensional tape.  I put a Dew Drop in the center of the flowers and on the side piece.  I did my coloring with my Tombow markers.

Unwelcome Guests

We have had a couple of unwelcome guests at our house the past few days.  On Monday, Sonny went into the downstairs bathroom to discover the first guest .... a mouse.  After chasing it into the pantry, he ended up sucking it up with his shop vacuum!  (yeah - yuck!)  So we called our pest service.  We have monthly pest control visits since we live in a wooded area and have mice quite often - but usually not where I can see them!  When he went under the house to spray, he pulled out a HUGE black snake skin!  I know they are supposed to be a "good" snake but to me, a good snake is a dead snake! 

I can't even imagine what I would have done, if I had seen ths snake in the yard - with or without it's skin!!

So, when are you coming for a visit????

Mojo Monday on Tuesday

My new catty goodies finally arrived yesterday ... about 6 pm!!  I didn't get any time to play last night - just got the box unpacked and orders bagged up.  And then this morning bright and early, I had to go into town to work at the Soup Kitchen. My volunteering at the Soup Kitchen may be coming to an end if things continue to go as they did today.  The ladies in charge of the Soup Kitchen berated the volunteers today over stupid things - we weren't putting the food on the plate fast enough, we used the end slices of the bread on the sandwiches, etc.  This has happened before but not as much as it did today.  It's sad that volunteers are treated that way when we are there to help them out. 

 So, I was happy to finally get home this afternoon and make a couple of cards.  It had been a while and it was nice.  I did a sketch for the Mojo Monday challenge using the flower from Apple Blossoms, a Level Two Hostess stamp set.  Here is the sketch:

And here is my card:

I stamped the flowers on white cardstock in Old Olive, Daffodil, Bashful Blue and Cherry Cobbler.  I cut out the smallest flower and mounted it on top of the large flower with dimensionals.  The flowers are punched out with the 1 1/4" square punch.  I edged the squares with my olive marker.  The "wish big" sentiment is from another new stamp set ... Wordplay.  I love this set!  So many great sentiments.  The DSP is some I bought last month in the Clearance section.  This paper may not be available anymore but there are still some good deals there on other stuff.  Check it out (see my sidebar).

Beach Book

My family - sisters and mom - just returned from a week camping at Myrtle Beach.  So, my pet sitting days are over!  Sonny was celebrating yesterday - he is not a cat person.  Sammie was definately a handful but she is just a kitten and she was fun to have around for a few days.

Before Marianne left, I gave her the BEACH scrapbook I had made for her.  She enjoys making these types of books and is always making them for others.  I thought I'd surprise her and make one for her.  Here are a few of the pages:

Hopefully, she took lots of pictures to put in her book!  If not, she'll be going back to Myrtle in a couple of weeks so she can take pictures then!

Great Minds ....

Have you heard the saying, great minds think alike?  Well, guess that's true in this instance. I received my July Monday Mailer today from Ariel and think she was CASE-ing the same card I CASE-d this week!  I just haven't had time to upload it until now.  (We took Sammy home today and I am able to reclaim my work area!) 

What do you think?  Here's my card:

I cut a rectangle out of a piece of cardboard and placed it in the center of my card.  Then I sponged using Crumb Cake.  I stamped the hydrangea in black craft ink and embossed it.    I watercolored the hydrangeavon a separate piece of white cardstock in a mixture of pinks and reds.  I cut the whole thing out and raised up the flower part with dimensionals.  I used pink rhinestone brads in the corner.  The white image is mounted onto a Rose Red card.  The two-sided ribbon is non-SU but it matches the card great!

Here is the Monday Mailer card I received from Ariel:

How cool is this?  The card is Crumb Cake with a Chocolate Chip piece embossed with the Big Shot Lattice folder.  She sponged the Crumb Cake onto a Very Vanilla piece and stamped the flower in Chocolate Chip.  The hydrangea is stamped in Cherry Cobbler, cut out and raised with dimensionals.  She used silver brads in the corner.

Here is the inspiration for our work from Splitcoast Stampers - BECAUSE I CARE.

Get Your Groupon!

My daughter hooked me up with this great site so I thought I'd pass it along to you.  It's called Groupon.  The way it works is - you sign up with them for free by e-mail and each day they feature something cool to do at a really good price. You only get the deal if enough people join that day.  Many times the deals are something I am not interested in or they are in Charlotte.  But here are 2 of the deals that I have taken advantage of:

#1 - I paid $10 for a $25 gift certificate to "Oh Scrap" - a scrapbooking store in Charlotte.  I actually bought 2 of these for a total of $20 for $50 worth of stuff.  It doesn't expire until mid-December so I have plenty of time to use it.

#2 - I paid $30 for a Segway Tour of Charlotte - a $65 value.  I bought 3 of these and when Ashley comes to town in a couple of weeks, that is one of the things we will do while she is here.  Fun!

When I was in Texas, Ashley had bought a Groupon deal for a wine tasting and free bottle of wine at a local winery.  I think she paid about $20 for it and we had 3 wine tastings and a couple of bottles of wine to take home!  She has used Groupon quite a bit for local restaurants in San Antonio.

If you have further questions, check out their FAQ HERE

If you decide to check it out and sign up, tell them I sent you and use THIS REFERRAL.  You get $10 in your account each time you refer someone.  I appreciate it!

July Monday Mailer

This month our theme for Monday Mailers is New Stuff from the Catalog!  Since I am still waiting on my goodies, I used a stamp set that I ordered last month during the "sneak peek" to make my card. 

I really love this stamp set - Awash with Flowers.  It is a wonderful 2-step stamp set.  The sentiment comes from another new set, Because I Care that is a hostess set.  I also used that great embossing folder, Square Lattice.  It is available in the Summer Mini catalog but you better hurry - it expires soon!  The colors I used in this card are Baja Blue on the Top Note Die and Old Olive.  The ribbon is the white taffeta ribbon that I sponged with the new Cajun Craze.  That is also Cajun Craze in the largest flower. 

I had a crazy day yesterday and I'm blaming it on AGE!!  I had a routine well woman check up yesterday a.m.  When I got to the doctor's office to check in, they did not have me scheduled - my appointment was the day BEFORE!!  grrr  What's the kicker is I also had a thyroid ultra sound scheduled the day before & I had changed it to Wednesday so I could knock both appointments out on the same day.  So, there I was with a couple of hours to kill so what is a girl to do??  Shop of course!  I went over to Stein Mart and browsed through their sale racks (I was pretty good - only spent $11!)  After my ultra sound, I got my hair cut, went to the Y (I'm trying to do better with exercise) and then met Sonny for dinner.  We went to PF Changs.  They have a great deal from 4-6 - they have a happy hour menu with items from $4 - $6 plus a few drinks.  So, I had a Cosmo with lettuce wraps and Crispy Green Beans.  Yum!!

More Baby Cards

I came up to my craft room this morning with the intent to get started on making a few Christmas cards.  Then, as happens a lot ot the time, my mind went off on another tangent and I remembered I needed to make a couple of baby cards.  So, I figured I'd whip a couple of them out and then do the Christmas cards.  Well, 5 hours later .... here's what I've got:

 

Of course, I did take a lunch break plus I was called away by the Red Cross.  But after I got in the car and went about a block, they called and canceled.  We had a drowning in the area yesterday.  A father was trying to teach his daughter to swim and he drowned himself.  The Red Cross has been on site providing meals to the rescue team.  They found his body this afternoon; so therefore, they didn't need me.  So sad.  Please, please, if you are out on the lake, use your flotation device - even if you can swim.  You just never know.  Supposedly, this man was a good swimmer so I don't know what happened.

Ok back to the card - This is why I don't do punch cards very much.  They just take me forever and when I'm finished, I have every punch I own on the table!    I found a similar card to this one on Splitcoast and set to work. HERE is the link to the directions on the punches to use.  I changed it up just a little.  Instead of drawing in the legs, I used the Word Window Punch and for the "hoofs", I used the 1/4" circle punch and cut it in half.  There's a lot of retired SU cardstock used in this - Barely Banana, Really Rust, Close to Cocoa, Creamy Caramel, Gabel Green, Green Galore!!  A good way to use up what ya got!

I had to do two giraffes because the couple I am sending it to had twin girls last week.  I am so happy for them.  They lost a baby girl a year ago so this was a blessing for them to get pregnant with twins!

Here is another baby card that I am sending to the new grandparents.  This was much easier!!

This card was also a Sketch Challenge over on OWH Stars and Stripes.

Here is the sketch - I didn't do the measurements exactly.

 

Getting my Mojo on

Tonight I did a couple of cards in response to the Mojo Challenge this week.  The sketch challenge is always a fun one.  Plus I had a couple of new stamps that I wanted to use. 

This card is my favorite!  I just love this stamp.  I made two cards with it tonight.  On this one I embossed the black craft ink.  The stamp is "Inspire Butterfly Collage" by Memory Box.  I sponged So Saffron, Regal Rose and Bashful Blue on the butterfly trying to blend the colors together with muddy'ing them up.  I used my Nestabilities to cut out the ovals.  I stamped the French Script (SU) on a piece of So Saffron in black ink and adhered it down one side of the card.  I glued black strips down vertically and glued pink grosgrain ribbon horizontally.  The "inspire" is actually cut out separately and pieced onto the oval. 

Here is the other card I made with this stamp.  This is the full stamp image.  I sponged Turquoise, Amethyst, Celery and Banana onto the butterfly this time for a softer look. This card is also glittered.  And I used my Scor Pal to score lines around the card.

This is second card I made for the Mojo challenge.  I just love this saying!  Are you flipping right now .... or flopping???  The stamp is one from "M's" $1.00 bin that I have had forever.  The seashell paper is some I had left over after making Marianne's BEACH book which I'll be sharing soon.

Of course, I had company all night while I was stamping.  Sammie was either sitting on my desk or in my trash!  Here she is in my little mini trash bin:

I have trash all over the floor now!

My local stamp store, Stampers Alley had a close call this weekend.  It is in an old wooden building and behind it there is another long wooden storage building.  I don't know what it was used for but it caught fire Saturday night and burned to the ground in quick time.  There are pictures of the fire on the left column under Stamper Alley.  Also, you can read about it HERE and see other pictures.  See for yourself.  Brenda at Stampers Alley was extremely lucky.  The firemen did a good job of keeping water on her building so it didn't catch on fire also. 

Happy 4th!

Hope you have a wonderful ... and safe ... Independence Day!  As you are celebrating this weekend, think about what this holiday means to you.   The meaning behind the 4th of July Independence Day holiday came about as the result of the valiant efforts and strong commitment of our American forefathers not so very long ago.  Brave and restless people uprooted their lives, left everything behind, and crossed the Atlantic Ocean to come to this land where they sought freedoms and rights not available to them in their homeland. They formed settlements and organized into various groups of towns and colonies with their own local laws and rules, while still under the authority of the King of England. The country was being born and the ideals of just how and what those freedoms would entail were ironed out through controversy and cooperative efforts of the differing opinions of the day.  We, as recipients and inheritors of their magnificent efforts, must hold our heads up high as we express our thanks and jubilation  that we live in such a great country, and we should be encouraged to work together to resolve our problems and differences in order to maintain the integrity and values that the great and famous document, the Declaration of Independence was founded upon.

We went out on our boat this early in the evening and found a good spot to watch the fireworks.  This is the first time we have taken the boat out at on such a busy holiday weekend.  Usually, Sonny does not like to be out after dark and when the lake is so full of crazies!  But it was wonderful to practically sit under the fireworks and watch them explode above us.  They were just beautiful.  It is hard not to smile while watching fireworks, don't you think?  It doesn't seem to matter how old you are, you just love them.  Although I can remember a time when my daughter was young and was scared to death of the loud noises of the fireworks.  While we sat outside watching them, she curled up in the back seat of the car covering her ears!  Now, she buys her own fireworks for her 4th of July party. 

I want to share a card I made for last week's Monday Mailer.  I saw a card similar to it in Paper Crafts magazine and had to give it a try.

I made the flag out of grosgrain ribbon and used half-pearls from the Pretties kit for the stars.  It is layered on a black card.  I used my white gel pen around the edges and stamped and embossed  "thank you" in white craft ink!