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!!