Hello Love Baby Card

Time for Tuesday Weekly Deals!  If you enjoy using embossing folder, this is the week for you!!

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I want to share with you a baby card I made.  My daughter-in-law's oldest daughter is pregnant and will be welcoming her own little bundle in May so I made this cute card for her.

This uses a hostess only stamp set - Hello Love.  I used Pink Pirouette and Naturals White along with a little Strawberry Slush.  Cute, huh?  Hope she likes it.

Celebrate Today Bundle Plus MDS Challenge Winner

Wow!  I just checked on MDS Monday and my fall picture was chosen this week.  I am honored.

Here are a few more cards that I made last weekend on our Girls Weekend:

This one uses the bundle found on page 11 on the Occasions Catalog - Celebrate Today.  The DSP is found on page 12 - Birthday Bash.  I decided to cut the DSP a little different for this card.  I used Candy Dots next to the "birthday" tag.  I forget to use those Candy Dots!!

This card also uses the Celebrate Today Bundle.  I decided to make a shaker card for this one.  The DSP behind the shaker is from the Irresistibly Yours DSP in the Sale-a-Bration catalog.  I used the dauber and sponged the paper with Pink Pirouette.  The bow is made using the Build a Bow Punch and DSP from Sale-a-bration, Best Year Ever.

This last card uses a stamp set that you can earn when you are a hostess.  I don't usually order the hostess sets but I have ordered two of them this year!  This one is called Hello Love (pg. 239) and I think these birds are just so cute!  The other hostess set I have is a keeper - Bloom With Hope (pg 240).

I have been using the Ninja Blender that Ashley left with me to make all kinds of smoothies.  If you have any good recipes, please share with me.  I bought a lot of fruit and try different combinations every day.  This morning I mixed up Cranberry Juice, frozen banana chunks, frozen Mixed Berries, a little fresh ginger, a handful of carrots and some Vanilla Yogurt.  Sonny just shakes his head but it really was delicious!  I took advantage of the mangos when they were on sale last week and bought five, cut them up and froze them.  I usually throw a bit of kale in with my smoothie too.  Friday, I made some fresh salsa with jalepenos, fresh tomatoes and spices.  It was very good - even Sonny thought so!  So, tell me what you have tried - either making them at home or buying them at Jamba Juice!

Using Photos in Punches with MDS

I am playing around with My Digital Studio today.  I am determined to finish my New Zealand scrapbook in the next few months.  It's only been a year!!  I worked on the scrapbook a lot last spring but have neglected it since.  The problem is I have soooo many photos (plus Ashley's, Courtney's and Taffy's) and I want to include them all.  It's hard for me to select just a few.

In the meantime, I thought I'd do this page for MDS Monday before the deadline.  I actually couldn't decide which one I liked best so I did two pages!  They both are meant to go on the front of a 2015 calendar.  Wish I'd thought to use it on Ashley's calendar this year, but I will remember it for next year!

The challenge this week is to use pictures in punches.

The pictures above were taken last fall when we returned from New York.  We walked around this beautiful fall area at Ft. Belvoir.  Funny what is hidden on Army posts!!  I used the Timeless Junior Numbers Punches for "2015" and a square punch for the background, lowering the opacity to about 50.

This is probably my favorite!  It is similar to the cover for Ashley's calendar except I didn't think about adding pictures to my punches at the time!  This picture is from Lake Tekapo in New Zealand.

There are some great ideas for photos in punches on MDS Monday's blog.  Make sure to check them out here.

Indescribable Gift with Banner Blessings

I am having a busy week so far.  Monday I played bridge and from there went to see the chiropractor and later that evening we met friends for dinner in Cornelius for Queens Feast.  We went to Alton's Restaurant and it was delicious!!  Tuesday I had Stamp Club at my house.  I had a friend that came and made the projects with her.  I am hoping she decides to join us.  Today I played Mahjong and came home and unpacked my supplies from Club and tried to catch up on TV shows that I had taped (I am really behind!!)

These are a couple of the cards I made this weekend.  I used a stamp set from the Occasions Catalog, Indescribable Gift (pg 35).  I used Blendabilities on both cards.

The Happy Birthday sentiment is from Butterfly Basics (Occasions pg 26)

SHINE sentiment is from a Photopolymer set (Banner Blessings) that is not in any of the catalogs but I really love it!

BANNER BLESSINGS - $15.95

Weekly Deals

I am busy getting things ready for Stamp Club today.  I will be posting our cards soon.  In the meantime, I wanted to let you know what the weekly deals are:

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The Workshop Code for this month is:  HX9XBUWS

Please use it if you place an on-line order

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Girls Weekend

What a fun weekend!  Marianne and I set out Friday after my chiropractic visit a little after noon for Spartanburg and our Girls Scrappin' Weekend.  When we got to Spartanburg, our first stop had to be for lunch at Wades Family Restaurant.  Just as good as we both remembered!  In fact, we stopped again on our way out of town on Sunday and had to wait in line both times.  Sunday the line was out the door and into the parking lot!

If you are ever near Spartanburg, you need to make sure you take time to stop at Wades to eat!   Here are some facts that I found funny -

Each year, they prepare:

• Nearly 150,000 lbs of chicken (most fried chicken:  52,000 lbs of chicken breasts, 28,000 lbs of legs, 11,500 lbs of wings and 1800 lbs of thighs)
• 98,000 lbs of turkey for Turkey and Dressing
• 96,500 lbs. of fresh potatoes for creamed potatoes and potato salad
• 170,000 lbs of green beans and 108,900 lbs of sweet potatoes 

We stayed in a really nice house with lots of land around it for our cropping weekend.  Marianne's neighbor, Debbie, and her friends had won the weekend last year.  There were about 20 gals there.  We couldn't imagine how it would all work but there were 5 bedrooms with at least 2 double beds in each.   The larger rooms had four bed in them so there was plenty of sleeping space.  Most of the furniture (in the den, dining room, etc.) had been removed and there were crafting tables - long ones so everyone had their own table.

This was the area right off the kitchen and I imagine where the dining room should be.  There were two more rooms just like the one above.

Marianne and I were in this room with our tables in the foyer and butted right up to the front door!

And believe me, there was no worry about going hungry.  Several of the gals took turns preparing all the meals.  We had chili, taco salad, BBQ, chicken spaghetti, breakfast casserole, cinnamon rolls ..... and more snacks than we could ever eat!  I took my Angel Poop (corn puffs with white chocolate) and it was scooped up in record time!

This was just part of the snacks on the snack table!

I actually got a lot done.  I had a couple of kits that I had started a couple of years ago that I finished.  And I put together Stampin' Up's Perpetual Calendar Kit that is in the Occasion Catalog.  Plus when I finished all that, I made 5 or 6 cards.

When we left on Sunday, we drove down to Greenville.  I've told Marianne several times what a good job Greenville has done on their downtown area and she wanted to see it.  We parked and walked around a bit.  We really needed that walking since we'd sat on our butts all weekend!  When we left, we stopped for lunch and then drove on home.  Of course, we passed the "Peach Butt" (Peachoid water tower) right outside of Gaffney.  There had been quite a discussion of the Water Town among us gals who had spotted it on our drive to Spartanburg.  Evidently, they are doing a repair job on it and have a big plastic cover on the top.  Everyone had an idea what that plastic cover represented from a shower cap, diaper and condom!!  What do you think?

This is what it usually look like:

Paper Craft Crew Challenge #127

This is my card for the Paper Craft Players sketch challenge this week:

This is a retired stamp set that I never purchased.  That is one of the reasons why I love MDS so much.  I can find stamps - retired and current - in the program and don't have to make room for them on my shelf in my craft room!!

Check out the other design team members cards using the sketch HERE

Use the sketch and create your own card!

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Stamp Club Cards for January

I have January Stamp Club projects to share with you today.  My Stamp Club members met yesterday and the rest will come next Tuesday to do their projects.  I think they were very pleased with this month's projects.

Since we won't meet again until the week after Valentine's, we made a cute Valentine card using one of the new stamp sets from Occasions.  I was given this set when I attended the live unveiling of the Occasions Catalog in Charlotte in November.  It's a pretty versatile set with sentiments for a new baby, birthday, love and this one plus a tag to stamp that matches up with the new Note Tag Punch (pg 28).  I punched out the heart in the center of the Real Red card, pricked little holes all around the heart and adhered a piece of Designer Paper (from the Stacked With Love stack) behind the heart.  I used the cute little Bow Builder punch for the bow.

The next card was the favorite of the day!

This one uses the Sheltering Tree set (pg 22) which is one of my favorites in the catalog.  The pink striped paper is from Sale-a-Bration.  It is the white glossy paper that we brayered (or sponged) with Pink Pirouette ink to color it.  Really pretty!!

Our final project was a vellum note card box with three note cards and envelopes inside.

I made this set at Allison's Stampaganza last Saturday and knew my gals would love it.  It is made with the Lotus Blossom stamp set from Sale-a-bration.   The instructions for the box can be found on QBee's Quest blog.  I love it when demonstrators share their tutorials!

Marianne and I are attending a Girls Weekend Stamp-a-thon in Spartanburg this weekend.  I am meeting her tomorrow after my chiropractic visit and we are heading to Spartanburg.  I didn't know what projects I wanted to work on so I have pack way too much stuff!!!

I have been having back issues.  Last Friday when I got out of bed, I could hardly straighten up my back was hurting so bad.  I found a chiropractor in Mooresville who could see me right away and headed there.  He took x-rays and did some adjustments which helped tremendously.  I have gone to see him three times this week but should be tapering down to one or two visits a week for the next few weeks.  Whatever he is doing is really helping a lot!  I am still having pain shooting down my left side from my hip to my knee but my right side seems ok and that was where the major pain was last week..  I have had this pain on my left side for a couple of months and should have gone to see a chiropractor much earlier so I am paying for it now.  He thinks the pain on the right side was because I was overcompensating for the pain I was having on the left.

Hope your weekend is a great one!

Better Than EMail and Weekly Deals

Hi Friends!  It's Tuesday so that means updates from Stampin' Up!  New Weekly Deals and a new Photopolymer stamp which is oh so cute.  If you need cute little stamps for the back (or front) of your cards, this is the set to get.  It's called Better than E-Mail.

Item #140463 – $15.95 

And next .... Weekly Deals:

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Final Shoebox Swap Cards

A few more cards to share from the Occasions & Sale-a-Bration catalogs.

Balloons are from Balloon Bash (pg 13 - Occ.) and saying is a Sale-a-Bration stamp

DSP  from Sale-a-Bration

Stacked With Love DSP Stack and stamp from You Plus Me (both on pg 5 -  Occ.)

Hey Valentine decorated bag

Best Day Ever stamp and Best Year Ever DSP - both Sale-a-Bration