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: