SU Christmas Gift to YOU!

Check out the OCTOBER promotion details HERE.

SU Scrap Map Challenge

We are notorious in our family for keeping our house pretty cold in the winter.  But, it works for us and we don't tend to be sick very much.  When I am in a place that is too hot, my nose and throat get so dried out so in the winter, we keep our thermostat around 70 and just put an extra layer.  So far we have not turned on our heater even though the nights have been dipping down in the 40s and the days are hovering around 70ish.  Actually, our house is so well insulated that it is colder inside than outside!  Last night we had our first fire.  Sammie did not know what to make of the flames in the fireplace and kept her distance curled up on my lap.  Since it has been colder, she has been sleeping in our bed but makes sure she stays on my side!  Yesterday morning she even snuggled down under the covers with me and Sonny captured our picture.

So with the cooler weather, I can get more in the mood for making Christmas cards!  They have all the decorations out in the stores so I guess we better get ready!!  I am going to have a Stamp a Stack for Christmas cards in November and I am trying out different cards for it.   I really got on a roll yesterday and made 4-5 cards.

Stampin' Up also has been having a contest on the MDS site each week with different challenges.  I have entered it a couple of times with no luck but I will keep trying.  This week it is to design a card or scrapbook page using their scrap map featured below.

Here is the page I created using some of my pictures from our London trip.  I used a lot of overlays from Hip and Handsome to make the background paper look grungy.  I used the new Ripped Pages technique for the background papers.  On most of the elements on the page, I used the Color Picker technique where I matched papers and elements to my pictures.  You can just hover over a color in a picture and match to a color.  I tried to do that with the purple paper to the purple in the flowers.  The text around the page was matched to the cream color in the paper also.  I used the new Freeform tool to "square" my text.  The word "london" is an alphabet punch filled with bits of the photos!  Such fun to create this while watching tv last night.

Christmas MDS Card and Paper Crew Challenge #11

It's Wednesday!  Time for my Paper Craft Crew Challenge MDS Style.  There are a lot of layers on this card.  I love to use the Overlays to make my own backgrounds and I used two on this one - the Hip and Handsome Overlays and Textured (which is listed as a stamp.)

Background:  Color = POOL PARTY 

Embellishments: 

_Designer Kits\Joyful Times - embellishments\Joyful Times - blue ornament 1
_Designer Kits\Joyful Times - embellishments\Joyful Times - green ornament 1
_Designer Kits\Joyful Times - embellishments\Joyful Times - red ornament 1
Taffeta Ribbon\Real Red
Taffeta Ribbon\Real Red - bow
_Designer Kits\Home for the Holidays - embellishments\Home for the Holidays - flag gifts (re-colored)Designer Kits\Holly & Jolly Embellishments\Holly & Jolly Embellishments - believe_Designer Kits\Joyful Times - embellishments\Joyful Times - red flower
Blossom Builders Rhinestones\Blossom Builders Rhinestones - 7mm Poppy Parade

Stamps:
Hip and Handsome Overlays\Hip and Handsome Overlays - 12, Color = VERY VANILLA Textured\Basic Black Texture, Color = VERY VANILLA
Textured\Basic Black Texture, Color = VERY VANILLA
Textured\Basic Black Texture, Color = VERY VANILLA
Textured\Basic Black Texture, Color = VERY VANILLA
Creatively Yours\Creatively Yours - created by, Color = WHISPER WHITE

Punches:
Labels & Tags\Labels Collection 1, Filled with: Designer Series Paper\First Edition - designer series paper\First Edition - 4


I actually created two cards for the challenge while I was at it.  Here is the second one:

Here are the supplies for it:

Background:  Color = 85,85,50

Embellishments
_Designer Kits\Very Merry Twenty-Five - embellishments\Very Merry Twenty-Five - top note label
_Designer Kits\Very Merry Twenty-Five - embellishments\Very Merry Twenty-Five - very merry 25 label
Designer Rosettes\Designer Rosettes - pointed old olive
Vintage Faceted Buttons\Vintage Faceted Buttons - small 1
_Designer Kits\Home for the Holidays - embellishments\Home for the Holidays - flag trees

Stamps
Vintage Overlays\Vintage Overlays - texture 1
Natural Composition Overlays\Natural Composition Overlays - 9, Color = VERY VANILLA
_Designer Kits\Eventful Year\Eventful Year - joy, Color = 165,29,45

I worked the Soup Kitchen yesterday and we made an old family favorite casserole that my mom used to make when I was growing up.  My mom was not much of a cook but a neighbor gave her this recipe and it was a good one for her to make.  I can't tell you how many times I've made it. I love to makeand take it to new neighbors or when you need to take a dish to a shut in, etc.  You can freeze it too and have it anytime. The people at the Soup Kitchen really enjoyed it.  If you want to make it, here is the recipe:   6 LAYER CASSEROLE 1 lb. hamburger meat (raw) layer of onion layer of green peppers layer of thin sliced potatoes 1 cup rice canned tomatoes on top   Cook 350 degrees for 1 hour.   I played Bunco and Left,Right,Center last night in my neighborhood.  I haven't joined the ladies for bunco in almost 2 years.  I don't know why.  I enjoy it whenever I go.  But it is always held on the 2nd Tuesday which is when Soup Kitchen is and I usually just don't feel up for it.  Tonight I was hungry though and knew Sonny would not want much for dinner since it is his shooting day and I was tired of soup!  I ended up winning one of the prizes for the most binkos so it was a productive evening as well as fun and I got to visit with some neighborhood friends that I hadn't seen in a while.

How to take care of your Sizzix Dies

I am trying to get a head start on my Christmas cards as well as my samples for my upcoming Christmas Card Stamp-a-Stack.  This card was so easy!  I used the Sizzlit die, Delicate Doilies (pg 191) for the wreath.  I adhered the wreath to a 2 1/2" Whisper White square of card stock and popped the square up on my card.  The DSP at the bottom is from the Festival of Prints stack.

The key to using these dies that have a lot of intricate work on them is to first wrap packing tape all over the the cutting side of the die.  That way, the little bits of paper don't get caught in the die.  It makes it so much easier!

Here is another card using a Sizzix die.  This one is the Large Paper Doily (pg 191).  The red circle is embossed with the dotted embossing folder and punched out with the 2 1/2" Circle Punch.  The ornament is from an old favorite, Delightful Decorations (pg 10). 

Both of these cards are simple to make - just a few dies, paper and stamps!

I am still fighting my sinus "gunk".  I thought I would be able to sleep better by not taking the decongestant at bedtime.  Well, wrong!  I went to bed at 11:00 Sunday night and was still tossing and turning when Sonny came to bed at 1.Again, I was awake every hour.  I think I finally fell asleep for any length of time around 5 am.  Guess I just can not take any drugs with pseudoephedrine.  I have been reading about it today and notice that it can cause insomnia.  Well, in the trash this medicine goes!  I felt pretty crappy all day Monday but went ahead and played bridge since I had signed up to play.  Figured I couldn't sleep anyway so I may as well do something fun.

Perfectly Preserved in Water

Hope your weekend was a good one.  Mine was.  Friday night Sonny & I went out to eat at a new-ish pizza restaurant in Mooresville, Salty Caper.  I just love that name!  Saturday Marianne and I went to a Follk Art Festival in Sherrills Ford.  It was fun and there was some neat things there although folk art is really not our style.  But I got an early birthday present out of the outing!  The last booth we visited had flowers - about 5 feet tall - that were made out of metal.  They were so cool and priced to sell.  There were a lot of people milling around and buying them.  So Marianne bought me one and we brought it home and "planted" it in my yard - a bright yellow sunflower. 

Saturday was National Card Making Day and I had all intentions of making some cards.  Unfortunately, I have been a bit under the weather this weekend.  I thinkit  is sinus stuff.  My throat has been real sore.  Saturday night before I went to bed, I took a decongestant tablet.  It helped but I had a hard time sleeping and looked at the clock by my  bed every hour!  I'm not taking one tonight that is for sure!  I took it this morning instead.  But I'm still feeling rather achy and yucky.  I'm scheduled to play bridge tomorrow and I have a dr. appointment for another issue so hopefully, I'll feel better.

Here is a card I made a few weeks ago using Perfectly Preserved.  There is so much you can do with this set.  I really like it and I haven't even touched the surface.  I stamped the jar on card stock and using a mask, sponged Turqoise on the bottom to look like water.  Then I stamped the flowers using markers.  I stamped one set with Daffodil Delight and overstamped it with Tangerine.  The DSP is from the Festival Prints in the holiday mini catalog.

close up of "water"

It was a nail biter game today with the Steelers which seems to be their favorite way to play!  They pulled it off in the last few seconds against Philadelphia.  But, the Panthers didn't fare so well.  Marianne had tickets to the game and I told her she better pull off the win for them.  But, she didn't listen!

Winter Memories

Well, it's not winter yet, but I just got this set from the Holiday Catalog, Winter Memories, and have made my sample cards with the set.  My favorite stamp in the set (and the reason I couldn't resist buying it) is the ice skates.  I've never gone ice skating in my life (and don't foresee that I ever will) but I love those skates. 

I cut the skates out separately and adhered them to the embossed oval that is popped up.  The white piece is also embossed with the Sizzix embossing folder.  

I actually didn't even realize the snowmen were in the set I was concentrating so much on the other 2 stamps.  I stamped the image with Early Espresso on the Naturals Ivory card stock.  I used Watercolor Crayons to lightly color in the image.  The red Core'dination card stock was embossed with the Woodgrain folder and sanded.  But then, I put the tape on the wrong side!  So not much of the sanding really shows through but I think it is just enough.  Plus when I took the picture of the card, I realized I had adhered the image upside down (!) but I was able to pull it off without doing any harm and turn it around.

This card was the hardest one for me for some reason.  I kept coloring it too dark when I used my markers.  So, I finally just used my ink pads and my blender pens and it worked much better.  The DSP is from the Festival of Prints found in the Holiday catalog.

Life is better with your girlfriends in it!  I had a great time yesterday visiting with my girlfriends.  Everyone needs to have good girlfriends.  It's funny about our relationship - over the years we've gotten together whenever we could but with me living in Texas for most of my married life, a lot of the times it would be a couple of years in between visits and then it would just be for a quick lunch visit when I came home to see my family.  But when we are together, it's like we are still back at ECU living across the hall from each other in Umstead Dorm.  I find myself telling these girls things I've never told anyone before and we cheer and comfort each other in our trials and tribulations of life.  Last night as we sat and reminisced over our glass(es) of wine, I remembered a meal we ate at a local restaurant when we were in college.  It was pizza steak and I have never found it again.  It was ground meat with cheese and sauce on the inside and a type of pizza sauce over the top.  They both remembered it too and said they could almost taste it.  Who knows ... it would probably not be as good now as we remember it!  Next we discovered that all three of us have recurring dreams that we are on campus but can't find our schedule to know where our class is or can't find the building that our class is in and we are frantic.  Jackie said sometimes in her dream she has missed the entire course and doesn't find it until it is time to take the final exam.  My friend Brenda is going through a lot of medical tests right now and Jackie and I are praying hard for her.  She has been having some debilitating chest pains and they have not pinpointed the problem yet.  My guess is anxiety pain but I am not a doctor.  Hopefully, she will be given some relief soon.  She drove back early this morning for a test on her gall bladder and said she had to pull over shortly after leaving Jackie's because she started having one of the chest pains.  The test she had today turned out negative as did the heart test and scope test she had last week.  Her doctor increased her blood pressure meds today and told her to stop drinking alcohol for a while.   Brenda is one of these people that takes on way too much - in her family life and her social life plus the fact that she is the most high strung person I know which doesn't help.

Paper Craft Challenge 10

It's time for another Paper Craft Crew Challenge .... #10 already!  I made this cute Christmas card using My Mittens stamp set in MDS2.   I also used the new feature that was just released yesterday to rip the edges of the paper.  This is done using the Freeform Tool.  I gave the sides of the DSP ripped edges and matted the DSP with red.  This really enhanced the torn edges.  I love this feature and will be playing with it a lot more.

Make sure to check out the other cards made by the design crew HERE.

What do you think of my new blog design?  I won't tell you how many hours it took me!  Not because it was hard, but I just kept adding different layers and overlays and recoloring the DSP to get just the right color.  In the end, I love it!  I was so in love with my previous blog design that I was worried I wouldn't come up with anything quite as good.  But I'm patting myself on the back because I like this one too!

I won't be posting tomorrow.  I am going to Forest City and Rutherfordton after my Newcomer's Coffee to visit with two of my ECU girlfriends.  Jackie still lives in Rutherfordton and Brenda's family is there although she lives on Baden Lake (west of me I think).  Brenda is going through some health issues which is hard for me to believe.  Of the three of us, she has the healthiest lifestyle.  She runs, plays golf, eats naturally, takes all kinds of vitamin supplements, etc.  Jackie and I ..... not so much!!  So it will be good to visit and find out what all is going on with both of them.  We usually always visit over a glass bottle of wine or a pitcher of frozen strawberry daiquiries and reminiscence about our college antics!  We've known each other for 46 years!  Wow - hard to believe.

Baby Cards Plus Lots of Stampin' Up Specials!

• Baby time!  I made two cards last week and then just waited for the babies to made their grand entrance.  Last Thursday Elliott Pierce Frazier was welcomed by his parents, Brittany and Travis and their daughter, Ryan.  Travis and Brittany are good friends of Ashley's and are both Army docs in Washington.   Ashley is excited to be able to meet Elliott this week since she is at Madigan in Washington teaching a class this week.  This is the card I made for them using a retired SU set:

Next was the arrival of Reed Alan Coskey on Friday.  Jeff and Heidi were super excited to welcome their first child!  I can't wait to meet him when we go to Texas in December!  Here is their card:

I used a non-SU stamp set on this one.  Their nursery is done in yellow and gray with giraffes so this card should work!

Several big announcements today from Stampin' Up to kick off October:

#1  -  Do you ever see a stamp set and wish you could purchase JUST ONE STAMP out of it?  Stampin' Up is trying something new and selling some stamps from a set INDIVIDUALLY!


Promotion Details:
These stamps are available on any order type-customer, workshop, or online.
To find the item numbers, click on the flyers. You have to use these item numbers.  The stamps won't be sent to you in our typical cases or packaging; they'll be packaged in cello bags. If you'd like a case for your stamp, you can buy our Clear-Mount Stamp Cases that come in packs of four (item 119105).

This offer is available for clear-mount stamps only.  The stamps won't come with a Clear-Mount Block, and you'll need to buy a block separately if you don't already have one. The recommended block sizes can be found on the flyers.

There's no limit on how many pieces you can buy.

Remember that this is a pilot program and currently available until January 2, so take advantage of it while you can!

The stamp sets they are trying this out on are as follows:  Word Play  / Perfectly Penned  / Seasonal Sayings
So click on the stamp sets and check it out!

#2  - Here's a big MDS announcement that will save you money!  Stampin' Up has lowered all of their My Digital Studio print products permanently! Now you can print your photobooks, cards, calendars, and other projects for less. Some have even been lowered up to 50 percent!  If you have MDS, a new update was added today so make sure you run an update when you use MDS next to reflect the new prices as well as the new features that have been added.
#3  - Christmas is just around the corner and Stampin' Up! would like to give you a gift- You can read more below or check it out HERE

You can order on line here.

Whew - a lot of news to share!

Joy with Watercolor Winter

I was working on Christmas cards last week.  The Watercolor Winter set is so pretty.  I made this simple card in a flash.  Stamped the holly with black ink and use markers to color it in.  Stamp "Joy" at the top and wrap plaid ribbon around the middle  -  done!!  'Joy" is from a retired stamp set and the plaid ribbon is some ribbon I've had for a long time and have no idea where I got it but I have a bunch.  This is a one layer card which I don't usually do but this one works for me.

I have been watching football today while I cleaned house.  I can't believe how many games came down to the final seconds with field goals - Carolina & Atlanta with Carolina losing, Green Bay and Philadelphia.  I had mixed feelings about the Carolina game.  I bet against them in my football pool but they are my second team so I really wanted them to win. 

I have bridge at my house tomorrow.  I made my grandmommy's vegetable soup on Saturday to serve Monday for lunch and I made a type of Boston Cream Pie with Vanilla Pudding, Cool Whip, Graham Crackers and Chocolate Icing.  Yum!!

Have a good week!

Sick?

Just a quick post before I head out to play cards today.

I made this card a few months ago.  I CASE'd it from one I received at convention a couple of years ago.  I had kept the card because I thought it was so adorable.  Don't you?  And easy to make!  That's the key, huh?  Use a large circle punch for the "cookies" and the Scallop Punch for the "bites"; then punch out some Chocolate Chip's with a small circle punch and glue them on.  The glass, I cut freehand - Whisper White overlayed with Vellum.  The sentiment is from Word Play and is stamped on the Whisper White.

We took my mom with us last night and tried out a new (to us) restaurant that a friend recommended to me.  It was delicious!  Really good Mexican food!  Sonny said it wasn't as good as the Texas restaurants, but it would do for here.  It is Azteca Mexican - if you live local, it is at Exit 18 (Hwy 77) off of Harris Boulevard.  Mom told Angela when I took her home that it was much better than the Mexican places in and around Mooresville.  I think she really enjoyed it and just getting out.  I was supposed to take her to the eye doctor yesterday morning, but Angela called me to tell me she didn't have to go to work until later in the afternoon so she could take her.  Mom was not happy!!  She likes me to take her because I take her to different places to eat. 

Have a good day!!