Tags to Die For

Hope you didn't "labor" too much today!  I sure didn't.  I finished up a couple of cards I was working on, did a quickie SEI scrapbook that I had gotten at CKC and went to the movies with my hubbie.  We saw The Americans with George Clooney.  The movie was ok; a little slow in my opinion, but George was smokin'!  He is such a hunk.  I used to love to watch him on ER. 

Sonny & I also went to M's real quick - he was surprised that I could go in and out of there that quickly!  We were looking for a flag to put up next weekend for 9-11.  I ended up getting a small garden flag and a new holder.  That way, I can keep the US flag up and change out my other seasonal garden flags.  I also want to go back this week with my coupon and get a yellow bow to put on my mailbox while Ashley is in Iraq.  I have been pretty teary today just thinking that at the end of this week, she'll be leaving US soil.  We probably talk to each other at least once a day, so there will be a huge gap in my life when she is gone.  I have Skype installed on my computer so that will be a help when she gets there.  Who knows how long it will take?  They will be leaving on Sunday for Kuwait.  She's not sure how long they will be there - probably a month before heading to Mosul.  She is going to try to get "qualified" tomorrow with her weapon.  That has not been going so well for her.  I'll have my fingers crossed for her.

I am participating in two Christmas Tag Swaps and I have both of them finished thanks to my trusty Big Shot and a few other tools.  I really like how they both turned out.  What do you think:

This one is for a swap at our local stamp store.  It uses a stamp set by JustRite.  I embossed the Happy Holidays in white detail powder.  I didn't even know there was a detail powder in white!  I made a couple of discoveries making this tag.  The other one was how I cut out the top of the tag.  I used my Nesties and just put the top through the Label Six die and cut the top out.

This one is my favorite!  It uses the SU Sizzix Two Tags Die with the Big Shot.  The tag is folded up & tucked under the little slit.  I made the little trees using my SU big star punch.  The snowflake is an SU punch and I ran a little glue over it and dipped it in white chunky glitter.  The button is actually from a die also!  It is the SU Sizzix Buttons die - doesn't it look real?  I distressed the white bottom part and stamped the sentiment from Punch Pals stamp set.  I'll be swapping this one at the SU Quarterly in Shallotte.

Just Believe

I have been playing with my new stamp sets for a few days now and I think I have made a card using each one of them.  This one was made for a friend's birthday.  She reads my blog so hopefully, she will have received her card before she reads the blog! 

This card uses the Just Believe stamp set.  I think this is one of the sets that was given to demonstrators at SU's convention this summer.  Sadly, I had to purchase mine!  Well, I guess really, they purchased theirs when they payed to attend convention, forked out $$ for a hotel & plane ticket ... maybe mine was cheaper!  I keep saying I won't buy anymore floral sets, but they are just too hard to resist!! 

This next card does not use a new set.  It is the final Monday Mailer that I sent to Naomi for August.  It uses one of the Decor Elements stencils that I love.  I sponged the flower in Peach Parfait (In Color) and Pumpkin Pie and used the Greenhouse Gala DSP to accent the card.  The ribbon is Peach Parfait

Have you been enjoying the Labor Day weekend?  I have.  Marianne came over Friday and spent the night so we could work on our projects for the upcoming SU Quarterly meeting we will be attending in Shallotte.  We are doing several swaps - a Christmas Tag swap (which I am coordinating), a Holiday card swap, a 6x6 recipe swap and a Shoebox card.  I am also doing a demo for the event that I have to prepare for 32 people.  A lot to do!!  But, we made a lot of headway on Friday and Saturday.  I actually have everything done except the recipe card!  I am so proud of myself.  Marianne also got a good start on her projects and I think only has the recipe swap to finish also.

Sonny & I went out on the boat for a few hours this afternoon.  The weather is starting to cool down a bit and it was nice.  But, I hear the humidity may be coming back next week.  I hope not! 

Well, enjoy yourself tomorrow!

Winter Flurries

Wow!  It's Thursday already.  Where has this week gone?  Definately not to posting on this blog ... sorry about that.  Yesterday was my Newcomers Coffee.  We had an antiques expert there who assessed some of our valuable antiques and gave us an estimate of what they were worth.  I took in a couple of items and learned a bit about them.  I have a beautiful porcelain pin that was my grandmothers.  Her son brought it back to her from France when he was in the Army in the spring of 1946.  On the back, it says "Imoges France".  Turns out these were popular for soldiers to purchase back then for $5-$10.  But it is worth a bit more than that now.  He estimated about $50.  (I was hoping for more!)  I also took in a stein of Sonny's that was given to him by my mother's cousin.  It has a German slogan on the front that loosely translates to "Dr Luther speaks well, Water alone does not make you happy"  Turns out it is worth more than my pin - around $100.  Really, what difference does it make?  These are our treasures and we will not be selling them!

I received a bunch of new goodies Tuesday but have not had time to play with them much.  This morning I was determined to make a card with something new.  So, I got out the Northern Flurries embossing folder and a piece of SU's vellum.  (I love their vellum because it is thick similar to cardstock.)  I ran the vellum through the Big Shot with the Flurries folder and dabbed a little glue on the back where the snowflakes were so it wouldn't show through.  Then I glued it to a piece of Bashful Blue cardstock and tied a Bashful Blue bow on the front.  The final touch was adding a few little pearls to the center.  Voila!  A Christmas card .... my first!  It was so simple but looks so gorgeous. 

I love SU's embossing folders ... combined with the Big Shot, you just get such a deep impression and it shows up so well.

Well, I am off to a luncheon at a friends house.  One of friends and neighbors moved away a few months ago.  She is back this weekend so we are having a luncheon for her.  I am making brie in a new brie pottery bowl that Ashley gave me.  Hope it turns out!!  I am going to top it with a little Pepper Jelly and pecans.

Friends

"It takes a long time to grow an old friend."   ~John Leonard

I had a wonderful day Monday with my girlfriends.  My two college friends come for a visit Monday.  It is so wonderful that we have kept in touch all these years.  We met in 1966 when Jackie and Brenda lived across the hall from me at Umstead Dorm at ECU.  They were such a livesaver to me since my roomies weren't the greatest.  They were both from the mountains and called me the rich city girl.  We were pretty inseparable and all three were education majors.  Those were the days!  We have come a long way from those silly college girls to now be silly senior citizens! 

This is us at the end of the night drinking our usual strawberry daiquiris!  I used to make daiquiris for us in the dorm room - sitting on the floor with the blender and the contraband rum.  Of course, drinking was against the rules in the dorm but that didn't stop us.  So, everytime we get together one of us brings the rum and we have a drink or two. 

We started out the day Monday with lunch which Brenda treated us to since she will be first one of the three of us to receive her Social Security check!  Her birthday is next week, mine in October, and Jackie in December.  Then we headed out to do some damage with our credit cards!  We shopped till we dropped and finished up with appetizers at P F Chang's.  We had to watch our time because Brenda had forgotten to bring the rum so we had to get to the ABC store before they closed! 

It's funny - in college, everyone thought Jackie and I were sisters.   We really never saw the connection.  Jackie told us about one time when she was stopped in the hall of our dorm by a girl from Charlotte that I had gone to school with and who knew me.  The girl, Jane, asked Jackie if she was my sister.  Jackie replied, "no - are you Dracula's sister?"  That is so funny now and so unlike Jackie who was always pretty quiet and shy.  (Of course, around Brenda and I, we didn't give her much opportunity to get a word in edgewise.)  Well, last night I found an old picture taken our freshman year.  It was of the three of us pretending to be in a band.  Brenda was playing guitar with the broom, one of us was drumming a washpan and the other was singing in a pretend mike.  Would you believe Jackie and I had a hard time trying to figure out which one of the two was her and which one was me.  Brenda had to tell us.  I guess we really did look alike back then.  Jackie said she felt bad now being a smart-ass to Jane!!

Do you have a friend you haven't connected with in a long time?  Give her a call!  Girlfriends are the best!

Bird Cards

I've had a pretty busy weekend.  I taught a class at the stamp store in Mooresville Saturday morning.  We had 9 gals - a lot of new faces.  The class was a little challenging but we got through it!  After class, Marianne and I had lunch at Friendly's and then drove to Charlotte.  We had gotten a deal through Groupon a couple of months ago to a scrapbook store and had not used our $$.  Well, the store was a little bit of a disappointment.  It was mostly a stationary store where you can order invitations of every kind.  They did have some Bazzil paper and other scrapbook paper and a few accessories.  Marianne got a good deal on a guillatine cutter.  When we left there, the people in the shop directed us to another scrapbook store that was just a couple of miles down the road.  It was much better with stamps and scrapbook supplies plus they offer classes. 

Today I did my least favorite job .... cleaning house!  Ugh!  Two of my college friends are coming to visit tomorrow.  We are planning on going out for lunch and then do a little shopping.  Where they live, there is not a lot of shopping places so we will be headed to the mall.

We are also babysitting Sammy, mom's cat again.  Mom and Angela have gone to Pigeon Forge (I think that is where) for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, they forgot to bring us any litter!  I am trying out shredded paper tonight - we'll see!!

The class I taught on Saturday was a Northwoods stamp class with a lot of embossing, glitter and watercoloring.  So, when I got home, I decided to do a couple of cards myself of birds.  Here they are: 

I colored a couple of other ones but haven't made them into cards yet.

Clearance!!

Just a quick note to you - SU has just put a bunch of great items on Clearance.  These are retired cardstock, buttons, ribbon, etc. but they are a great deal.  There are TEN pages of goodies.  So, check it out HERE.  Click over on the left side at Clearance & you can submit your order from the site.  I hope you'll go and check it out.

Challenge Central

If you are like me, you enjoy a good challenge.  Well, this site has all the challenges out there in Blog World listed - or at least they have all they know about!  Check them out.

More Cards and a Box

I did my Flower Brooch class today and it went so well.  I was really pleased.  I had about 15 ladies.  One of my friends from Club came to help me.  The only problem the ladies had was figuring out how to weave the pieces.  But once they tacked that, they were off to the races.  Most of them made 2 pins but a few made 3 or 4.

Tonight one of Sonny's groups had a raft-up on the lake.  We had about 8 boats and it was a beautiful night.  We watched the sun go down and the full moon go up.  The weather has finally started to cool down a bit and I'm loving it!  Although that is not the case everywhere in the country.  When I spoke to Ashley yesterday, she said they were breaking records there and it was miserable.

I want to share another project I made this week.  Here are four cards and a great box to put them in.  I got the box directions from Andrea Walford.  She really does some great projects.

The box has an acetate cover over it.  It opens from the back.

These cards use Sahara Sand, Chocolate Chip and Bermuda Bay (retired) card stock.  The stamp set is Watercolor Trio, which will be retired real soon.  I stamped the flowers in white craft ink and embossed them.

Tote-ably Awesome Tote

I had a full day of playing today!  Most of the morning was spent getting every ready for tomorrow.  I am showing the Garden Club how to make the fabric flowers.  I think I have everything packed and ready!  I've got about 20 ladies signed up and a one of the gals from my Club is going to help me out.

This afternoon I made a this little tote for four of the cards I made last weekend.  This is Becky's Tote-ally Awesome Tote (Inking Idaho).  It took a little more time than I had planned so I don't know that I will be making too many of these.  But I thought it turned out cute.

These are little bookmarks or tags in the outside pocket.

This is the top closure (velcro underneath).

This is the box open.  I made acetate pockets on either side for the cards.

And here are the cards:

The DSP is called Urban Garden and I got it several months ago from the Clearance Rack.  The stamp set I used is Friends Never Fade.

"Will you walk into my parlor?"

"Will you walk into my parlor?" Said a spider to a fly" 

Sonny and I watched the most fascinating spider do her weaving today.  I just have to share the pictures that I took.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO SEE THE WHOLE WEB!!

The web is just huge and right in the center, she is making her weave.  I don't know what kind of spider it is, but she is really pretty!  I know my sister is skipping this post.  She HATES spiders!! 

Sonny was so good today - he worked out in the yard just about all day pulling those dratted weeds while I whiled away the day playing bridge!  Our yard is just awful and all my flower beds are overgrown with weeds.  It has just been so hot and humid that I would not go out and work in the yard.  This weekend is supposed to be in the low 80's!  I'm looking forward to fall!!

Several of you have inquired about my daughter, Ashley.  Well, she reported to Ft Hood (in Texas - about 2 hours from her home) last Monday.  She is by herself in a barrack and had to bring her own set of sheets.  She called that night after getting settled in to report - no wi-fi, no pillow, no shower curtain and only a small refrigerator & microwave.  Going out to eat for a month will get old.  The next day, she showered to no hot water!  So after she was done, she drove to her cousin's to spend the night (an hour away).  Wednesday didn't get much better - she went out to dinner and locked herself out of the barracks!  She couldn't get anyone to respond to unlock for her so that night was spent in a motel.  She'll probably be glad to get to Iraq!!  Luckily, she has her weekends free so she can go back home or to Austin to her cousin's home.  She was successful this weekend in renting out her house while she is deployed so that is one worry off her mind.  She will be leaving September 12th for Iraq.  Don't know how long it will take to get to her final destination of Mosul or for her to have a mailing address.  Many have requested her address for sending letters.  I will let you know when I receive it.  Thanks for all your kind words and prayers for her safety.

OK - I do have a card to share with you.  This is my Monday Mailer I did on Sunday.  I was on a roll this weekend and actually got quite a few cards made for my craft fair which I will be sharing with you later this week.

This card uses the Seasons of Friendship stamp.  I almost forgot I had this stamp.  I used some DSP from the mini catty (which retires next week!) for the grass.  I sponged clouds behind the tree with Bashful Blue.