She's here!

Ashley arrived safe and sound Friday night.  She even got here early - 30 minutes early!  Although it didn't do any good since we got stuck in traffic trying to get to the airport.  Her plane arrived at 6 pm and we didn't get there until 7 pm to pick her up.  There was a wreck on Hwy 150 so it took us almost an hour just to get from our house to Mooresville onto the interstate.  And the I-77 was like a parking lot and we had to sit in traffic on the interstate.  So frustrating!  We met the family at Galway Hooker.  It was a nice reunion.  Saturday we drove up to the mountains and spent the night in Blowing Rock.  We wandered around Main Street in Blowing Rock on Saturday going in and out of the shops.  We both got a little Christmas shopping done.  Today we visited the Tanger Outlets in Blowing Rock and bought a few more things.  Sonny was a good sport - while we were going in and out of the shops for 2 hours, he sat outside at a table and read his book!

My posts may be pretty sporadic this week.  I am working on making a project for our Thanksgiving table.  Marianne will be coming over also to work on our 2012 calendars! 

I will post in the morning information about the ONLINE EXTRAVAGANZA that Stampin' Up is having.  So don't miss the big announcement!!

ONLINE EXTRAVAGANZA!!

 
Stampin' Up has announced that their Online Extravaganza is coming next week! It's the annual sale to kick off the holiday shopping season and will begin Monday, November 21, 2011, and run through Wednesday, November 30, 2011. While this promotion is perfect for online orders during an especially busy time of year, you can also contact me to order for you.

I will be sharing the direct link on MONDAY so you can see exactly what is on sale then.  They are hinting that these items will be part of the sale:

• FREE digital downloads valued at $40 when you buy My Digital Studio Express
• 30 percent off an exclusive ribbon bundle
• 60 percent off select designer fabrics.
  
• In addition, there will be two items on sale for 24 hours only (November 21, 12:01 AM - 11:59 PM [MT])

 So make sure you check my blog for the link right away on Monday morning so you don't miss these one-day only specials.

If you are a long distance customer, you can order online or on my WEBSITE.  (click Shop at top right)  If you want me to order for you, call or e-mail me to add your order to the one I will place as a group order.

November Club Projects

I had my Stampin' Club meeting this week and I think everyone enjoyed the projects we made.  I did it a little different this month mainly for my Thursday group which is larger than Tuesday's group.  They all made the 3D project and a shaker card but were able to pick the 3rd card they wanted to make.  I had made 4-5 cards with instructions and they chose their favorite.  At the next club meeting, I will have the same kits available (except for the Christmas cards) for their choice as well as doing a couple of projects that all will make together.  I am trying to eliminate the problem of everyone sitting around and waiting for the punch, stamp, ink, etc.  If I can just train them to read the instructions that are sent to them and printed out, it would be a snap!  

I haven't taken a picture yet of the 3D project that we did so I will share it later.

The shaker card is taken from the mini catalog because it is just so cute!!  They did have an option of including another stamp image inside the card but most used the little girl from Gift Givers.  Using the Shaker Rounds from the mini sure makes this an easy card to make.

Here are a few of the cards my gals chose:

Lovely As A Tree - done in purple and in Not Quite Navy and glittered.

This one looks so much better in real life.  The medallion in the middle is cut out and popped up and the whole thing is glittered with Dazzling Details

A great fall card but we will make this also in the winter and just substitute the saying for something else.  The Crumb Cake rectangle is stamped using my E clear block.  The stamp set is French Foliage.

I'm excited!  We will be going to the airport tonight to pick Ashley up.  She will be here for 10 days which I am sure will fly by.  We are having a family dinner at an Irish pub/restaurant with my mom, my sister, Angela, Marianne and her family.  I was hoping my brother could come but he will be working tomorrow in the mountains somewhere.

Sketch Challenge #13

Oops - almost forgot the Sketch Challenge today!!  But I got "er done!!

I used My Digital Studio to make this card BUT you don't have to do that.  Here are the supplies so you can make it yourself without MDS:

Stamp:  French Foilage, Simple Friendship
Cardstock:  Pool Party, Soft Suede, River Rock, Spice Cake DSP
Ink:  More Mustard, Soft Suede, River Rock
Access:  Brads

The sentiment and the "squiggly" swirls on the Pool Party cardstock came from a retired set, Simple Friendship.  But these could easily be replaced by any other sentiment and a set that has some swirls in it (maybe Baroque Motifs) or you could easily leave them off.   So even though I used MDS to make this card, it is easily reproducible (is that a word?) using your own supplies.

We had friends here for too short a time this week.  Margaret and Graham flew to NC Friday and were at their daughter's house in Charlotte until Monday when they came to visit us.  Unfortunately, as they were driving here, their daughter called and had been in a minor fender-bender so they only stayed long enough to have a cup of tea and turned around and went back to Charlotte.  But they returned on Tuesday morning and Margaret and I spent the day visiting and stamping while the guys went to the gun range.  This was the first visit we have had with them since last March!!  Hard to believe!  But it was nice for Margaret to be here for Stamp Club.  They left this morning.  We were hoping for a longer visit but they are planning to fly home to England to visit Margaret's parents Sunday so they had to head back to Texas to get ready.

Fall Colors

I think FALL is my favorite season.  I just love the colors of the trees here in North Carolina.  I think this year has been one of the best for colors.  I just wish we had driven up to the mountains a few weeks ago and seen the trees at their peak there.  Every year, I have plans to do that but never seem to get it done.  Maybe next year!  Here are a few pictures I took this weekend.

These trees (above and below) are in the parking lot of the grocery store!

Another grocery store - this time BJ's Wholesale Store!!  But look at all the different colors.

These trees are at Queen's Landing in Mooresville. 

Sonny finished painting the kitchen, bathroom and laundry room this weekend.  Only one more room to go downstairs and then it's the bedrooms upstairs.  Don't know how much he'll get done this week.  Ashley is coming Friday (for 10 days!!) so I'm hoping he'll at least get her bedroom (or the room she always sleeps in when she's visiting) painted.  We'll see!

He (jokingly) asked me if we should paint the cabinets black so we'd have black and gold in the kitchen ... for the STEELERS!!  If there weren't so many cabinet knobs, I'd consider taking them all off and replacing them with black - that would look pretty cool!

It's amazing what a little paint can do for a house.  It's like a totally new place.

Shake It Up

I had a fun day of stamping today.  I haven't stamped anything in a couple of weeks!  It took me a while to get going but once I did, I was on a roll.  I am getting things ready for my Stamp Clubs next week.  We are going to do shaker cards using Stampin' Up's new shaker frames. They are double-sided adhesive foam circles that let you make any card a shaker card!  Five of the foam circles are sized to coordinate with a variety of SU's Circle Punches.  You get 36 total circles: 6 of ea. size.  I haven't done a shaker card in several years and when I used to make them, I used bits of foam tape on the image.  The shaker frames make it so much easier!

I was trying not to use the larger frames since I want to save them for my clubs.  So I took a couple of the smaller frames and cut them and made them into a larger circle. Just make sure you make the ends meet so your filler doesn't fall out. 

Here's the finished card.  I used Gift Givers stamp set along with Serene Snowflakes.  I used Mica Flakes for the filler.



Close up of the shaker.



Here is another shaker card that I made also.  This time I used Holiday Lineup, one of my all time favorite sets. 

close up of shaker part.

Another stamp set that will work good for a Christmas shaker is Snow Much Fun.   I want to make a shaker of just the snowman's belly!  Maybe tomorrow!!

Meanwhile, my kitchen should be finished tomorrow!!  Sonny did a lot of the painting yesterday and he hopes to finish tomorrow.  Here are a few before and after pictures.

This side of the room has not seen the paint yet - tomorrow though

FINISHED side

Watercoloring with My Digital Studio

I made this card today using My Digital Studio.  I saw something similar that someone else had done and thought I'd give it a whirl. 

What do you think?

A little of this and that

Sorry about not posting the past few days.  I've been super busy with my Christmas Stamp a Stack.  I had a group of ladies Friday night and another group of ladies Tuesday afternoon.  I think everyone was quite happy with their cards.  I had a lady in each event that made 45 cards!  That's some assembly line stamping!  My Friday night gal had her mom and daughter here to help her but my Tuesday lady did hers alone.  She stamped everything she needed to while at my house and did a sample of each card.  Then she took them home to assemble them later.   I really enjoyed the stamp a stack but I am glad it is over so I can go on to do other things!! 

Several people have asked me about my mom.  It seems she takes one step forward and two steps back.  Last Friday, Angela called me to tell me mom was having really bad pain again.  When I've talked to mom in the past week, she has been pretty depressed.  I guess so - she hasn't been out of the house to speak of in over a month.  She has really been missing going to church and socializing with her friends.  She went to the dr. today for the second spinal shot.  I am keeping my fingers crossed that this one will do the trick.  If not, I guess we will be doing the surgery.

I have not been doing much stamping the past week or more except for the Christmas cards for the stamp-a-stacks except for my Monday Mailers each week and I don't think I took pictures of the cards I made to send before mailing them!  That's the way October was for me.  But I do have my most recent received Monday Mailer to share with you.  It is a great fall card using the sentiment stamp from the mini catalog that is just so elegant.

 

I also have a birthday card to share with you that Margaret sent to Sonny.  It is a great card!!  I don't what company makes the stamp but I love it!!  She did a great job with this card.  Oh .... speaking of Sonny and birthdays, someone told me that I made an error in my birthday post about him.  I said that he was now on Medicaid instead of Medicare!  Most of you know us and know that I meant Medicare!   Like I said, October was a crazy busy month!

We (Sonny) has made a lot of progress with our paint project.  He has finished the hallways both upstairs and downstairs as well as the dining room.  We had a painter com on Saturday to do the foyer with the 18 foot ceilings!   I'll take pictures of the dining room to show you.  It looks really good in burgundy!  Tomorrow he is starting in the kitchen .... oops, guess I won't be cooking tomorrow night!   So after the kitchen, he will only have the bathroom downstairs, the laundry room and his office.  Then to the upstairs and the bedrooms and bathrooms.  Hopefully, all will be done by Thanksgiving!

I love FREE .... don't you???

Check out all the details on the My Digital Studio site here

From November 4 - 7 join us on http://www.mydigitalstudio.net/ to celebrate Digital Scrapooking Day and check out the free digital downloads seen below.
my

Digital Scrapbooking Day

Celebrate Digital Scrapbooking Day with Stampin' Up! for a four-day online event. Digital Scrapbooking Day is November 5, but SU will keep the celebration going from November 4-7!  The event will include free downloads, blog posts with exciting project ideas all weekend long, and the announcement of the 2011 My Digital Studio Contest winners. Even if you don't have My Digital Studio, you can download these items and enjoy them.  So go to MyDigitalStudio.net to check out all the details.  You can also follow them on FACEBOOK.

  
Brand-new, never seen before FREE downloads include:

• So Typefelt Stamp Brush Set
• Neutral Delightful Digital Tape
• Home for the Holidays Ensemble
• Delight in the Day Photobook Template  

Here are samples of a couple of the downloads that I did real quick:



I didn't do anything to this - this is exactly what the download looks like but you could move the items around if you wanted or make them larger or smaller.



These are 2 scrapbook pages that are included.  All I did was insert the pictures and write a caption.

I did add the ruffled ribbon on the left side and the frog images to this page.