Happy Memorial Day

Today is an important day to honor our brave men and women who have fought and died in uniform to defend this great country of ours against all enemies.  We grieve with those families who lost loved ones too soon.  For them Memorial Day will always be a time of solemn remembrance.   From our War of Independence to Operation Enduring Freedom and wars inbetween, we are blessed to have millions of men and women to step forward and serve to preserve our freedom.  Today we stop to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice at home and on distant battlefields in our defense.

Today at 3:00 pm there will be a National Day of Rememberance.  During this time, Americans pause for the duration of one minute, regardless of where they are.  This time was chosen because it is the time when many Americans are enjoying their freedoms on this national holiday.  This "Moment" is an act of national unity in which all Americans, alone or with family and friends, honor those who died in service to our great country.

God bless the U S A.

"There is nothing wrong with America that the faith, love of freedom, intelligence and energy of her citizens can not cure." - Dwight David Eisenhower.

This card took me about 5 minutes to make this morning.  That is thanks to a new stamp set that you will be able to order soon - Work of Art.  It is a keeper!  I will be sending this card to a friend of Ashley's who is serving our country in Afganistan.  Come home soon Courtney!

Happy Memorial Day

How do you like my new blog look?  I made the header with My Digital Studio.  I used a new download (at least new to me!) called Beautiful Today.  It is a great kit and even comes with two "how to" videos.  For those still trying to learn to use MDS, these kits with videos are perfect!

Well, just a short hi tonight (or rather this morning as it is 12:15 a.m.)  Having a lazy weekend.  We went out on the boat for a while Saturday and that's our plans for Sunday too.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Click here for a few inspiring videos.

Patriotic Card Set

This set of patriotic notecards is great for Memorial Day, Fourth of July, or celebrating the heroes in our armed forces any day. It includes eight cards with matching lined envelopes and a coordinated box with a window and themed gift tag.

This fun project comes to you designed by Yapha!

To get the instructions for Yapha’s project, just subscribe to Craft Project Central - May!  And if you have a minute, please leave Yapha a comment on her project.  Have a fun crafting weekend!

All Occasion Card Class

I thought I had shared the cards from my All Occasion class that I had a few weeks ago.  But I had someone ask about them today, so maybe I did not.  Without further ado, here are a few .... (I'm a poet and didn't know it!! - ha!)

One of my favorite cards!  Butterflies from Papillion Potpourri.  Glittery - hard to tell in the picture.

For the Birds

Creative Elements - gonna miss this stamp set!

Flower Garden embossing folder - another one I'm sad to see go away.

Happy f Watercolor from Occasions catalog.  This set did not make it into the new catalog but there is another one that is just as good so I'm ok.

Swallowtail Dream Pillow Set

Craft Project Central has a great project for you today!!

This Swallowtail Dream Pillow Set is a fun way to use your stamps on velvet!  This set features a velvet dream pillow with a coordinating tag and matching gift card.  What a wonderful gift for a special friend!

Isn't this a gorgeous gift idea?  Michelle Wecksler designed this project for Craft Project Central, which is where you will find her step-by-step instructions.  Did you know that it's not too late to subscribe to this month's awesome Craft Project Central tutorials?  When you subscribe, you have until April 2015 to access this month's tutorials!

Sale plus a Paper Pumpkin Deal!!

EDITED TO ADD:  If you want to try Paper Pumpkin - the stamping kit that is delivered to your door each month, I have a deal for you!  You can order June's kit for 50% off (making it $9.97)!  Try it out and see what you think.  If you are not happy with it, cancel!!  Go HERE and enter the code SHELLIDEAL to get your 50% off!!

Starts Tomorrow (5/22)! Retiring Product Blowout. Save up to 50%!

Oh, how I was hoping Stampin' Up! would do this!  However, don't delay.  At these prices, the remaining retiring items will sell out quickly!

Get 25% - 50% off many of the retiring products - This special offer begins tomorrow, May 22 and is only available through June 4, 2014 (while supplies last). If you missed out on a product the first time, this is your last chance to get it before it's gone for good!

UPDATED RETIRING STAMPIN' UP! PRODUCT LISTS 

• Retiring Stamps (Available April 21-June 4, 2014, or while supplies last)
  • PDF
  • Excel file
• Retiring Accessories (Available April 21-June 4, 2014, or while supplies last)
• PDF
• Excel file

Be ready for the special pricing tomorrow!   

Challenge 94

For the Paper Craft Crew challenge this week, I definitely stepped out of my box!  I still used My Digital Studio to create the card but it is not my usual style.  I found a stamp set that I had downloaded that had these cool brush strokes and just randomly "stamped" them on the square card.  I kinda like the result!  What do you think?

Check out the rest of the challenge cards HERE.

Surprise Box

This is Post #2 for today!!

A “Surprise Box” is a fun way to cheer up anyone who is having a rough day, to entertain the kiddos if they’re having a “sick day” and are tired of being in bed, or to keep them entertained during a long car trip.  It’s easy to change the contents, so you can use the box over and over.  Each time it’s opened will be a new adventure.

I can't imagine that anything has been left out of this project!  The designer, Buffy Cooper, seems to have thought of everything, and you can find her complete tutorial at Craft Project Central.

Mickey and Minnie

My oldest granddaughter is living her dream.  She loves Disney and has been accepted to the Disney College Program starting out being a character performer.  Can't wait to hear which character she will be!  She and her mom left last week for Orlando.  I know it will be hard for Darcie to leave Torri there in a few days.  I remember how hard I cried when I left Ashley at Trinity University and then three years later, left Jeff at West Point.  Whew!  That was hard!  But your kids grow up and leave home and life goes on - at least that's what's supposed to happen!  I am so proud of Torri and know this is just the beginning of a great adventure for her.

This is the card I made for her and hope she got it before leaving last week!!

It's funny - I didn't use the Dress Up framelit much and now that it is retiring, I've used it twice in the past couple of weeks!  I made the Mickey head and ears with punches.  The dress is made using the Dress Up framelit.  I die cut two dresses.  The second dress was cut at the waist; split down the center; and popped up with dimensionals on top of the first dress.  The black ribbon at the waist hides where the dresses are adhered together.  The sleeves were made using circle punches.  The lace peeking out at the bottom of the dress is made using a piece of a doily.

Hope Torri liked the card.

Charleston, Blendabilites and Endless Wishes

I was in Charleston last week and had a great time.  We met Ashley there.  She was attending a medical convention of some sort (and was one of the lecture-ers!)  But she still had time to spend with us.  We took a  bus tour around the city Wednesday morning before she had to go to work.  On Thursday our plans got changed around a bit. Originally, Sonny was going to go to Fort Sumter with one of Ashley's friends who was flying in from Houston and I was going to go to one of the local beaches.  Well, best laid plans .... first off, it was pouring rain most of the day Thursday so the beach was out. And to top it off, Julie missed her flight and instead of arriving in Charleston at 11 a.m., she didn't arrive until around 5 p.m.!!   So Sonny and I drove over to Wadmalaw Island to tour the Charleston Tea Plantation where Bigelow American Classic Tea is made.  It was very interesting to see what goes into making a tin of tea.  I didn't realize that tea is grown from a version of the camelia plant.  Right down the road from the tea plantation, we found the Firefly Vodka Distillery!  They have a tasting room where you get a tasting shot glass (to keep) and you can select 6 alcohols to test.  I had only heard of Firefly sweet tea vodka so I was surprised they have many flavors of the sweet tea vodka but also rum, bourbon, liqueurs, and moonshine, too!  You do only get a sip of each, which ends up being about a shot in total.  Despite the fact that Sonny is not that into infused vodkas or 'fruity flavors,' we both had a fantastic couple of hours here. Indeed, at the end of it, the tasting was just a very small part of it. We walked away with Lemonade Vodka for me, Apple Pie Moonshine and Chocolate Pecan Pie Liquor for Sonny!  For a beer drinker, he surprised me!  The Irvin House Vineyards was next on our list!  It is owned by the same people as Firefly.  Sonny does not drink wine so he came in and sat next to me during my tasting.  The wine was right up my alley .... a sweet muscadine wine!  They have 5 varieties of wines and I walked away with the Magnolia Wine (for my health you know)!! Muscadines, once thought of as "the fountain of youth", have been praised for its significant levels of resveratrol, an organic molecule and powerful antioxidant. A study by the National Institute of Health found that muscadine wines have seventtimes more resveratrol than other wines.  

Good to the last drop!

Vineyards

Me and Waddy having a "cuppa" tea

 

tea fields

I was playing around last week with my Blendabilities.  I really love them!!  They blend really well and makes me look like a great water-color-er (is that a word???).  Anyhoo ... here are a few images I colored using the markers.

For the Birds stamp - Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities

Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities

Pumpkin Pie Blendabilities