Kick Up Your Heels

We are definitely in the hot, muggy days of summer where just a little bit of rain makes the air so heavy.  But this is what we were wishing for back in January and February.

I have been plugging away at making swap cards for convention.  I'll be sharing those later.  But I took a break and created this fun card.  I had been neglecting this Bootiful Occasions set so I dusted it off and inked it up.

 

I used some retired paper with the Woodgrain embossing folder and the new stars frameless.  My favorite is the "rope" I made with the Baked Brown Sugar thick Bakers Twine.

June Paper Pumpkin and Weekly Deals

This week's deals include some great prices on FRAMELITS!!  I'm ordering the Envelope Liners this time since I have put it off in the past.  What about you?  I have seen some great projects on Pinterest using them for things other than just lining your envelope.  Check out this link - HERE





I received my June Paper Pumpkin last week.  This month it is all about patriotic pinwheels and it was a box chocked full of them!  The kit contained 3 stamps, an ink spot, 24 pre-cut pinwheels, 24 red and white paper straws, 20 banners, 24 cello bags, Basic Gray Baker's Twine, 24 silver brads, 24 silver clips and 96 glue dots .... that's a lot packed into a little box!  I put together several of the pinwheels this morning (in about 15 minutes) and put them in a Mason jar.  At STamp Club Tuesday, each person took one home with them.  They were really cute.

I took one of the pinwheels and cut it down (before making the pinwheel) about 2 inches and made a spinner card with it.

Stamp Club Cards

I have Stamp Club tomorrow and we are going to do things a bit different this month.  We are all going to make two cards together to learn a couple of techniques.  The first one is a spinner card using the "two pennies" to make the slider.  It has been years since I made one of these cards but in the past month, I have made several.  I thought I would demonstrate it for the girls.

This card also uses a new stamp set from the 2014-15 catalog - Cupcake Party as well as a new embossing folder, Large Polka Dot.  These are such fun cards to make!

We are also making a type of shaker card using Sea Street stamp set.

 
I used a cello bag to make the pocket for the shaker stuff.  The background is a piece of the Maritime DSP.  Another fun card!

After doing these cards, I am going to let them do a couple of card creations using Work of Art.  I got carried away and made about nine different cards using the set.  I couldn't pick just one or two for them to make so I decided to let them choose their own.  I shared a few of the choices in THIS POST.  Here are a few others:

Using the swirl from Just Eleanor in different colors.

Polka Dots with labels from Chalk Talk framelits

A sympathy card using the tree and sentiment from Thoughts and Prayers

So .... what would your choice be???

The Versatility of Work of Art!

I was really on a roll yesterday and made a lot of cards - some for convention swaps and some for my stamp club next week.  I pretty much used one stamp set for all the cards!!  I just love the versatility of Work of Art which is the stamp set we received at the catalog reveal party.  I wasn't so sure when I first got it but I have been definitely won over!!  Most of the cards I made are soooo easy and take just a few minutes to make.  That's my kind of creating these days!!  Here are a few ideas for you.

Make a sailboat!  I embossed the Coastal Cabana card with the chevron folder to carry on the waves theme.  And how about the little crab from Sea Street?  Colors on this one are Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar and Calypso Coral.

Yummy popsicles to celebrate the first day of summer tomorrow.  Colors used are:  Real Red; Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Bermuda Bay and Perfect Plum.  The sentiment is from Really Good Greetings.

Stamp the birds from Wetlands on the beach.  Colors used are all the new in colors - Hello Honey, Tangelo Twist, Lost Lagoon and I added Baked Brown Sugar for the sand.  

How about a rainbow for these summer storms that keep cropping up?  Add the saying from Feels Good.  Rainbow colors are:  Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Lost Lagoon, Rich Razzleberry and Wisteria Wonder. 

This one is just a soft "love you" but a sentiment could also be added to the bottom.  I used the Envelope Punch Board to make the little cut-outs on the side.  Colors on this one are:  Hello Honey, Crisp Cantaloupe, Pistachio Pudding, Strawberry Slush and Coastal Cabana.

I had a request for an anniversary card - how simple!  Colors used are:  Strawberry Slush, Pink Pirouette, Crisp Cantaloupe, and Pistachio Pudding.  The sentiment is retired.

I think Sonny and I are going to go see Jersey Boys today.  The Four Seasons are one of my all time favorite groups and I can't wait to see the movie.  I have seen the play in Las Vegas and we both loved it.  When I was in college (at ECU), I dated a boy who was in a fraternity.  A few of the guys rented a house out in the country and we would go there on the weekends to party.  It never failed that they would put on a Four Seasons album (yes, no CD's or smart phones back then!) and we would all gather 'round and sing every song on that record belting them out one after the other!  Those were some fun days!  Needless to say, we were thrilled when the Four Seasons played at ECU one year for Homecoming - none of us missed them!!

Paper Craft Crew Challenge #98

Well, summertime is here!  It has really been hot with not much relief in sight.  Of course, I could be in Texas where it is really HOT!!  Enjoy that heat, Ashley!  I think instead of going to the Y tomorrow, I will just exercise in the neighborhood pool instead.

I am hoping to get a few swaps done tomorrow and Friday as well as finalize my cards for club next week.  I haven't had much time this week to get anything done with bridge on Monday and mahjongg today.  Plus I got a new Kindle Fire HDX this week and Sonny got a Kindle reader (for Father's Day) so I have been learning how to use both of them and download books for us.  Ashley and I weren't too sure if Sonny would like the Kindle but he has finished reading one of the books that I downloaded for him on Sunday.  So I guess he is handling the digital age ok!

Here is the card I made for Paper Craft Crew Challenge sketch #98.

Make sure you check out the other designer's cards HERE.

Here is the sketch if you would like to make your own card using it:

MDS Monday Challenge

Last week I discovered MDS Monday blog where a sketch and/or other challenges are given for you to follow by incorporating it into a scrapbook page using My Digital Studio.   Well, last week, I submitted this page and found out today when I checked for the newest challenge, that my page had been chosen as one of the featured picks (here) for the week.

Tonight I decided to do another page for this week's challenge.  The sketch this week was to use circles (or other shapes) and layering them.  I thought this was a great challenge for the zorbing pictures of Ashley and Courtney!!  At least this is getting me started on my New Zealand scrapbook!!

MDS Monday Challenge Take 2

I realized after I posted my last picture that I didn't follow all the rules for the challenge!  I was supposed to follow the sketch, add sequins, a frame, ink splats and overlays.  I think I only did the overlays - that's what I get for not reading thoroughly!!  Anyway .... here is my page following all the rules!!

This is another picture from New Zealand.  This one is from Lake Tekapo.  I had gotten up early in the morning to go to the bathroom and caught this picture real quick of the sun coming up over the lake.

MDS Challenge

I've been neglecting My Digital Studio lately!  I really need to get busy with my New Zealand scrapbook before I forget all the details!!  I have sooooo many pictures that I think it is intimidating me.  That is one of my biggest problems with scrapbooking - I want to include ALL the pictures and if I did, the book would be too heavy to sit on my table!!

In the meantime, I decided to do a MDS Monday challenge page using one of the pictures from New Zealand.  This picture was taken at Bruce Bay, which is on the west coast.  We were driving from Fox Glacier to Queenstown and it was a beautiful sunny day.  The drive was just gorgeous and we made many stops along the way.  My favorite was this stop where we walked along the beach a little bit collecting unique rocks and shells.  I couldn't resist getting my feet wet in the surf but, boy was it cold!!  The worst part of the beach was the sand knats!!  I didn't get bit but poor Taffy was sweet nectar to those knats!

Edited to add note:  Just realized that it was also a sketch challenge.  Oops!  Guess I'll have to do another one!!

 I used a couple of kits to create this page - mainly Be Awesome and Beautiful Today.

Ashley with a handful of the rocks we collected.

Rocks on the beach.

Super Hero and Card Swaps

If you are into Super Heroes, do I have the stamp set for you!  This would make a lot of cute cards for your kids and grandkids!  This photopolymer set was just released yesterday.  If you have not tried Stampin' Up's photopolymer stamps, they are great and stick to your blocks so good!

A lot of possibilities!

Here are a few more of the card swaps to share with you:

Top one is by Kathy Hunt, Way to Go by Lisa Pressley and Work of Art by Sharon Measmer

Top is mine, Baby is by Frances Wagner and Sea Street by JoAnne Hewins

My Swap Cards

I recently participated in a New Catalog Card Swap and received some beautiful cards!  Here is the one that I made using the popular, Work of Art.

 I was so happy to see that the 7/8" Cotton Ribbon made back into the new catalog.  It is so easy to stamp on this ribbon.  The stamp sets I used were:  Gorgeous Grunge and Work of Art.  The frame comes from the On Film framelits.

To give you a few more ideas, here are a few of the swap cards.

The top card is Marianne's and the bottom belongs to Sandy Herman.

Three more swap cards - The top card is from Nancy; Wetlands is Patty's and the purple one is Allison's.