Still in Florida!

I'm still in Florida!  We have been having so much fun!  Sonny has been such a good sport about the beach and the sand - gonna owe him big time!!  It has been so relaxing.  We spent most of the day out on the beach - we would go out around 10 a.m. and walk a couple of miles before settling down in our beach chairs to snooze and read our books.  Then up to the room for lunch and back to the beach till around 3:30 pm.  After we showered and got ready, we would go into the town of Fernandina for dinner and a few drinks.  Last night we found a piano bar that was a real treat.  Today we checked out of the motel and decided to drive down to St Augustine while we were so close.  We toured a chocolate factory (free tastings!!) and hopped on a tour trolley to learn a little about the city.  I found a local winery for a free tour and tasting so I was happy!  We went ahead and got a hotel for the night so we could find a sports bar to watch the Penguins play-off hockey game.  (It is now in it's 2nd overtime!)  Tomorrow we will have a long drive back home but we both have obligations on Tuesday so have to get home.  Plus Sammie is missing us I'm sure.  Angela was a big help and came over to feed Sammie a couple of times while I was gone but she told me Sammie was not very sociable.  Guess she's pouting since we're gone!

My new hat!

footprints in the sand

Sonny snoozing

Seashell in the sand

Early morning sun on the ocean

Posting from Florida!

We are in Florida - Fernandina Beach - enjoying the sun and sand.  We arrived yesterday afternoon after a stop Tuesday night in Sumter, SC in time to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game.  (That was a challenge - to find a sports bar that carried the hockey game in Sumter!)  Last night Sonny and I wandered arround the shops and bars downtown.  We ended up at the Thirsty Pelican and joined a trivia game.  We didn't do too well but it was fun anyway ... and the food was excellent!  Today I spent most of the day on the beach soaking up the sunshine.  It was a perfect day - overcast all day so I didn't just burn up.  Sonny was a sport and sat with me for a couple of hours.  Tonight we met some friends who live in Jacksonville at the Green Turtle for a couple of drinks and then on to an Italian restaurant for another wonderful dinner.   When we got back to the hotel a little after 8 pm, I wanted to watch American Idol since tonight was the finale.  I forgot that I could not get the sound on the tv to work last night - but only on Fox which is the station that carries Idol.  I went to the office tonight to tell them about it.  Turns out our tv is the only one it seems that the sound does not work on Fox!  The TV in the office and in the empty room next door both work.  After about a half hour of fooling around with the tv with no luck, I finally convinced the gal to just let me sit in the empty room next door to watch the show.  She first told me I would have to pay a cleaning fee if I did that!  But she finally called the owner who ok-d it so I was able to watch the finale.  I liked both of the gals who were in the finale and wasn't surprised at the outcome.  (I'm not saying who since I don't think Ashley has seen it yet since she is in Vegas this week!)

This week's Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch was a great one.  I made my card Tuesday night while we were in Sumter but didn't have time to post it.  That's the great thing about MDS.  I can make a card while I'm traveling by just using my computer!!

I used the kit Big Top Birthday for most of the card.

Make sure you check out the other cards from the design team HERE.

My Mother's Day Card

I received a beautiful Mother's Day card from my sweet daughter.  What a lot of work went into this card .... especially knowing that she does not own a square punch!  She cut all these squares out with her cutter.  Wow!  She told me that this would have been an easy card to make using MDS.  So I thought I'd give it a try!

I made my "inchie" card into a birthday card.  So, what do you think?  Ashley's is better because it has a lot more elements but an MDS card is very "doable"!!

Sonny and I are headed to Florida tomorrow to celebrate our anniversary a little late.  It's been a long time since we took a little vacation - just the two of us.  He is not a big fan of the beach and I think I could live at the beach.  But, he is being a good sport.  We are staying on Amelia Island at Fernandino Beach which I think is a pretty quiet little beach.  I've got a few good books packed, my sunscreen and my bathing suit .... ready to relax!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope your day is special!  We are taking my mom out to eat this afternoon.  We are hoping to miss the crowd by going around 3 pm. 

I've been busy the past few days trying to learn how to use my new smart phone!  It's sad when a phone is smarter than a person!!  The kid I bought the phone from at Verizon ran through the instructions so fast my head was spinning when I left!  I'm planning on going back to take a class on how to use my phone and find out about all the apps.  In the meantime, I did learn how to play Words With Friends!  I had dinner last night with Marianne and Greg and she helped me out with my new phone.  Although I think my phone doesn't like me.  Every time I power it on I get a little green man who I'm guessing is the Droid laying down.  He stays like that for a while before continuing to power on.  Not sure what that is about.  Looks like I killed him!

I've been working on making cards using the retired card stock and stamps sets that didn't make it into the new catalog.  Button Buddies is one of them.  It was one of my favorites when it first came out but I have to admit, I didn't use it near as much as I thought I would. 

This one was easy!  I just stamped the flower in the Button Buddies set with white craft ink and embossed them all with white embossing powder.  Then I glued a button in the center of each flower.  The card stock is Certainly Celery.

Wonderful Mother's Day Card

Well, the Red Cross has disappointed again.  We got a call yesterday that they had opened a shelter for the local flooding victims and needed volunteers to man the shelter.  We told them we could work it from 1-7 today since I had a meeting this morning.  The shelter was set up in north Charlotte and when Sonny and I arrived, there was no one there.  And I don't mean no clients, but no workers ... no one!  I called the Lake Norman office to see what was going on and was told they had closed the shelter at noon.  Didn't we get a call?  NO!!  Sonny and I both have cell phones and had them turned on but nothing and when we arrived home, there was no message waiting for us there either.  You know that old adage, three strikes and you're out?  Well, we're OUT!   Every time we've worked a shelter, there has either been no one needing our services or one person.  It would make much more sense to put one person in a hotel rather than all the manpower necessary to set up a shelter!

OK - on to other things.  I made a Mothers Day card for the Paper Craft Crew challenge using MDS.  I love using this trick with ribbon.  I used the grosgrain ribbon bow and cropped it so I just had one loop; copy, paste and voila, two loops.  It's a pretty simple card but I think I will be printing this one out for my mom for Mother's Day.  Now I just have to find a gift for her.

Make sure you visit the Paper Craft Crew Blog site and check out what the other members have done with the sketch.  And while you're at it, make your own card using the sketch.

Just Believe and Build A Blossom .... Going, going, gone!

I have been doing some serious purging!  My craft room was getting pretty bad so I knew I had to do something.  Since I had already gone through a lot of stuff to put in the sale last week, I decided to keep it up.  I needed to redo my paper storage to get the retiring colors out and put the new colors in the files so I got all new labels typed up for that.  I had three drawers full of bits and pieces and some whole pieces of card stock that has long been retired as well as DSP that I found I really wasn't using that much.  So I have made goodie bags for my stamp club gals full of paper and DSP.  They can use it or pitch it - it's up to them!  I also found bags full of 3-D items I have required over the years in swaps that needed to go.  I went through them and kept out a few I wanted to keep and put the rest in a box and I will let my gals pick out what they want this month.  I feel pretty good and my floor is clean since I even vacuumed!!  I still have a big container of DSP to go through but I'm getting there!

I did have time this afternoon to make a card to share with you using a stamp set that I think a lot of people will miss - Just Believe.  It is such a pretty set that I am going to hold on to mine just a little longer!  I also used retiring colors for the card - I love Certainly Celery, Bashful Blue and Pretty in Pink together!  They have always been my "go to" colors for spring and flower cards.  Guess I'll be finding a new combo now - how about Pear Pizzazz, Pink Pirouette and Pool Party????

Here is another retiring set - Build A Blossom and the coordinating punch.  I sold this set on Saturday - I had to do it quick before I thought about it too hard or it would have come back home with me!!  I used the Soda Pop Top for the center and stamped the butterfly from Collage Curios to put in the middle.  Collage Curios is in the Spring Mini Catalog - if you like this set, you better buy it now - just saying!

 Here is a close up of the center.

 This tulip card was also made using the Build A Blossom punch!  I just used the leaf portion of the punch and punched out 5 petals for each flower - from Rich Razzleberry and Regal Rose.  How different from the card above!

MDS Sale

I participated in a webinar today by Stampin' Up about My Digital Studio.  I had almost forgotten about their big MDS sale going on now but it is a good one.  From now until June 15, MDS select digital content and printing is on SALE!!  Go HERE to see all the sale items.

Here are a few for you to check out -

Make a swatchbook for Mother for Mother's Day with this kit:

How about this one for some great layouts -

or this one for graduation - All you’ll need for a graduation party: invites, food flags, mini rolled diplomas and it is complete with 12" x 12" page classmates can sign for a lasting keepsake.
 Make sure you select me as your demonstrator to get the best price!

Here are a couple of cards I made tonight with MDS using  a couple of retiring stamps - French Foilage and Greeting Card Kids.  If you want to order these stamps, you'd better hurry.  They will be gone by the end of the month!

Remember - if you comment on the cards, you will be entered to win my BLOG CANDY which is the cards I have made using the retired stamps.

Doing Wheel-ies!

On Saturday Stampers Alley had their annual Used Stamp Sale.  This year they did it a little differently.  It was set up like a garage sale with us setting up our tables in the parking lot instead of Stampers Alley having to sell our stamps for us and taking a percentage.  Marianne and I shared a booth and spread our stamps and craft things out on 3 tables and set up shop.  We did pretty good.  I made a little over $200 and got rid of a lot of my retired stamp sets so I was quite happy!  And most importantly, I didn't spend all my profits.  I only bought a couple of things ... maybe spending about $10.  I still have a box of stamps left and I will be offering them to my Stamp Club gals in a few weeks.  Our only complaint was the weather!  We almost froze to death!!  It is May but you would think it is March.  The temps have been in the 50s during the day.  It's more like Seattle weather - although my friends there tell me it is in the 80s!  I keep hearing folks say that they are tired of this cold rainy weather we are having.  Well, I am as well but it came to me that I am using little to no heat and no air conditioning right now and haven't for weeks, so our energy bill should be a lot less this month.  That's a good thing.   Marianne and I were both bundled up and to make matters worse, it started sprinkling  Marianne called Greg and he came to our rescue and brought us a canopy so our things wouldn't get too wet. And the icing on the cake - at the end of the sale, we gave what we didn't want to take back with us to one of the gals there who is going to send it all to the Sandy Hook community.

A lot of people have trouble when It comes to using a wheel on a card.  I don't use them very often (mainly, because I forget about them! ) but they are great for backgrounds on your cards.  Here are a few hints when using a wheel:

■stand up as you get straighter lines and more even pressure that way

■start rolling the wheel while off the card stock to prevent lines showing

■start at the corner of the page closest to you and roll away from yourself

■if you do not have an ink cartridge in the wheel handle, when rolling it on the ink pad do not roll it back and forth, roll it in the same direction ~6 times to ensure it is entirely inked

■always test the wheel on scrap paper first to ensure that your design/words are oriented the right way

■If the roller wheel does have a sentiment on it, line up the seam of the roller just off the page to ensure that you get the sentiment over the page in its entirety and not half a word that doesn’t make sense

■store the ink cartridges in zip lock bags to help keep them moist

■practice on scrap paper a lot!

Here is a bookmark that I made using the Very Vintage Wheel:

I wheeled it using Versamark Ink and embossed it with white embossing powder.  Easy to do.

Retiring - Raining Flowers and Word Play

Here are two more cards I've made this week using the retiring sets.  This time I used Word Play (oh how I am going to miss this one!) and Raining Flowers.

Word Play

With the Word Play card, I just cut some strips of DSP to create my candles.  I used the Bird Punch for the flame - easy peasy! 

I had a little help while working on my cards this week.  Sammie wouldn't let me out of her sight!  I guess since I was gone over the week end, she was making sure I wouldn't be leaving her again any time soon. 

Checking out my lunch!

Taking a nap in the box!

For the Raining Flowers card, I also used Best Friends Forever (retired) to stamp the leaves in the background.  The flowers were stamped, cut out, and popped up.  A very quick card to make.

Raining Flowers

Sketch Challenge #40

I used MDS to create my Sketch Challenge this week (what else is new???)  I love this DSP - it is from the Wonderful Whimsey's Kit.  I think I used paper from that kit on last week's project - that's how great it is!  It's hard to tell but there is also a Honeycomb Overlay over the card and DSP - maybe if you click on the card, you can see more detail but the overlay made the "squiggly" lines over the triangle shapes on the DSP.  There are all kind of techniques you can use with MDS.  You just need to get in there and play around with it.

Background - Color = Crushed Curry

Embellishments -
Designer Rosettes\Designer Rosettes - pointed very vanilla
Designer Kits\This And That Epic Day - embellishments\This And That Epic Day - friends flag
Designer Kits\Hello There - embellishments\Hello There - flag
2011-2013 In Color Ruffled Ribbon\Ruffled Ribbon - pool party
2011-2013 In Color Ruffled Ribbon\Ruffled Ribbon - pool party knot
Sara's Sequins\Sara's Sequins - teal

Stamps -
_Designer Kits\Family History\Family History - overlay honeycomb
Apothecary Art\Apothecary Art - for you

Punches -
Extras\Flag Punch,
Basics\1.25 Circle Punch,
Labels Stamp; Tags\Labels Collection 1

Designer Series Paper\_Designer Kits\Wonderful Whimsies 1

 I have to brag and share the project Ashley sent me last night that she has made for one of the residents at the hospital.  She designed it with MDS and took it to an office supply store to have it printed 12 x 12 and is going to frame it and give it as a gift.  The theme for the nursery is Dr. Seuss and Ashley was able to find a free Dr. Seuss Font even!  What a great gift for just a little bit of cash!  And she has only had MDS since Christmas!