3x3 Quarterly Swaps

Marianne and I traveled to Raleigh this weekend for the NC Demos Quarterly Get-together.  It is so much fun to see old friends there and meet new ones.  I can't wait till our next one in September in Wilmington!  We did several swaps and although I told myself in advance I would only do one swap, I ended up doing all three - 3D swap, 3x3 card swap and full card swap.

Here are the 3x3 cards I received in the swap:  (Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of my own swap!)

I think these make cute little gift enclosure cards.

Happy Birthday to my little sister, Marianne.  Today (Monday) is her birthday!  She is catching up with me!!

Marianne getting started with her stampin'!

This was the "voting" table.  We voted on the best "WOW" card and the card that was the most demonstratable.  Can you guess which ones won?

If you guessed the purple flower card for a WOW!, you are correct.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  It was made by Denise James.

My card was voted as the most demonstratable (is that a word?).  It was also my swap card.  Here it is close up:

I love the colors in this card.  I used the Flower Patch stamp set along with the Feels Good sentiment.  I masked the center of the card while I stamped the flowers and when I finished with that stamping, I removed the mask and stamped the sentiment.

Butterfly Basics - MDS Style for Paper Craft Crew

This is my card for Paper Craft Crew challenge this week.  It uses the Butterfly Basics stamp set from the Occasions Catalog .... but in digital form!  Yes, I used My Digital Studio to create this card but it can just as easily be reproduced using the stamp and ink method!

Make sure to check out the other designers take on the sketch this week.  (http://www.papercraftcrew.com/)

I finally finished my projects for Quarterly this weekend.  Marianne and I are headed to Raleigh tomorrow.  She is going to leave work around noon and we will be on our way.  I don't usually wait till the last minute to do my projects but I ended up working most of the day finishing up my 3D swaps.  Luckily, I only had to do 8!  I needed 12x12 card stock to make them and I didn't get my order until Wednesday afternoon.  I scored them all Wednesday night and got them made today!  Whew!  I will be sharing them with you after I swap.

Have a great weekend!

MDS Monday Clown Sketch

This is my sketch for this week's MDS Monday.  I have had so much fun this week going through old pictures.  Monday I got a box full of slides from my mom that belonged to my aunt.  They were mostly from the early 60s and I have been posting a lot of them of my sisters and cousins on Facebook. 

This picture was taken when we lived in Birmingham in the early 80s.  Ashley and Jeffrey had gone to Clown School!  I don't remember what tricks they learned but this was the result of them applying their own clown make-up!!

Here is the sketch we were to use:

 Check out the design team pages HERE.

Blendabilities Issue

I am sad to tell you that Stampin' Up has discontinued the Blendabilities line.  This is a major announcement received today from Stampin' Up:

Due to the nature of the defect, we have concluded that difficulties, dissatisfaction, and product returns will only become more widespread. The manufacturer is unable to correct the problem in a manner that we are certain would meet our high quality standards and provide us with a stable, long-term solution. Therefore, after a great deal of deliberation and in order to prevent further disappointment, the Blendabilities product line has been discontinued. 

As you know I am a huge fan of Stampin' Up! product and the Blendabilities were no exception.  I think I have all the pens except a couple of colors.  While I am disappointed to lose this product line, I am pleased that Stampin' Up! is keeping its standards high and not trying to "make a buck" and sell you an inferior product.

Most of the markers that have already been sold have been absolutely fine, but there have been some packs with problems.  If you have bought these pens from me and have any concerns about them, please let me know.

Luckily there are other ways of coloring your images with colors that match Stampin' Up! paper and accessories.  Pull out those markers, blender pens and aqua pens!  They will work great!

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A friend sent me this today and, wow, it really hit home with me.  Don't know about you, but we had lots of burned biscuits when I was growing up and I was famous for burning the biscuits when my kids were growing up!

When I was a kid, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then.  And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work.  On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burned biscuits in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed!  Yet all my dad did was reach for his biscuit, smile at my mom and ask me how my day was at school.

 

I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the biscuits. And I'll never forget what he said: "Honey, I love burned biscuits."

 

Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, "Your momma put in a long hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides a burnt biscuit never hurt anyone!"

 

You know, life is full of imperfect things and imperfect people. I'm not the best at hardly anything, and I forget birthdays and anniversaries just like everyone else. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other’s faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences, is one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.

 

So please pass me a biscuit. And yes, the burned one will do just fine!  And please pass this along to someone who has enriched your life. I just did!

 

Life is too short to wake up with regrets! Love the people who treat you right and forgive the ones who don't, they could just be having a hard day.

Ain't that the truth?  There are a few people who I'd like to send this along to but, I'll just take another burned biscuit please!

Have a great day!

Big Day Sale-a-Bration

We had a beautiful weekend for a change!  I think the end of winter is in sight.

I was busy over the weekend trying to decide on my shoebox card for next weekend as well as my 3x3 card.  I was successful!!

Have you seen the Chalkboard Paper in the Occasions catalog and wondered what to do with it? Well, you can make a card like this one I made.  I stamped the (Sale-a-Bration) Big Day stamp onto chalkboard paper in White Craft Ink and heat embossed it (but you don't have to emboss it). Then I stamped the "celebrate" part of the stamp and the cake on a piece of Pink Pirouette, cut them out and added them to the card.  The DSP is the Back to Black in the big catalog.  I just love the look of this card.

And in other good news ....I won again this week with the MDS Monday page.  If you missed my page, here is the link to it.  I used pictures from a trip we took in 2005 to Tucson.  The cactus background is what makes the page, don't you think?

MDS Monday 103 - Saguaro National Park

I almost let the challenge for MDS Monday get away this week without doing a page using the sketch.  It is a fairly easy one this week.  I dug through some of my old photos and found these pictures from 2005.  We went to visit Jeff and his family and they took us to Saguaro National Park.  It was amazing!  Who knew cactus could be so beautiful?  I learned to identify the saguaro cactus from the yucca and the barrel cactus and the prickly pear cactus .... who knew there were so many different cacti?  The kids were pretty young at the time.  It's hard to believe looking at these pictures now that Torri is 6 months pregnant and Kennedy will be graduating from high school this year!

Hope you enjoy my scrapbook page and a look back at a happier time.

Check out the sketches by the design team and the sketch I used for this page HERE.

Lovely Amazing You

It's a beautiful day here today but just a tad on the cold side!!  As I'm writing this, it's 3:30 pm and it's only 38 degrees!  I played Hand and Foot today and a couple of the gals said they have put away their "Cuddle-Duds" and heavy coats.  I'm not there yet but hopefully in a week, I will be.  We play cards and Mahjong at the Mooresville Bowling Alley and it is always freezing in there as it is at the NY Deli where I play bridge on Mondays.  So I still wear my Cuddle-Dud under my shirt along with a sweater to stay warm at these places.  I need to get some fingerless gloves because my fingers get so cold.  (and it's not because I don't have enough meat on my body!!)

 These are two of the projects we made at Allison's house on Monday night.  The first one would hold a candy bar in it.  It uses the Photopolymer stamp set, Lovely Amazing You.  I just love this set.

The next card is a Shaker Card.  Allison said this was the first shaker she had done (and she has been a demonstrator for ten years!)

Well, short post today.  We are meeting the family for Angela's birthday dinner.  Her birthday was Feb. 1 but this is the first time we could all get together!

10 Years with Stampin' Up!!

I have a Quarterly Meeting coming up in a week and half.  So, I worked on coming up with a swap card, shoebox card, 3x3 card and 3 D project last weekend.  As usual, I went through a few ideas before I settled on one.  (Although I am still working on coming up with a design for the 3x3, and shoebox cards.)  Here are two of the cards I made but ended up not choosing them.

This one uses a great photopolymer stamp called Flower Patch.  I love the flowers in this set AND it comes with matching framelit dies (although I didn't use them on this card.)  I punched the center out with the Deco Labels framelits.  

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I love this card mainly because I love the Four Feathers stamp set!  The only reason I didn't pick it was I would have to cut out a lot of feathers for the number of cards I have to make.  The sentiment comes from Feel Good, stamped in Blackberry Bliss.  I embossed one of the feathers and stamped the two smaller feathers in Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey.  The multi-colored feather is sponged with Blackberry and Honey and then stamped (in black Memento ink) with one of the stamps from Wetlands.  I love the effect it makes!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I hit a milestone in my career last month.  I celebrated my ten year anniversary as a Stampin' Up demonstrator!  I received this pin and letter.  It's hard for me to believe I have done this for ten years.  I have loved every minute and still say, Stampin' Up is one of the best companies to work for.

Paper Craft Crew Card

I finally finished off my Feb. Stamp Club today.   I can do those 4 cards in my sleep!!  But I think everyone liked them and we had a fun time making them.

Our weather has really been funny.  Monday it was almost 70 degrees and today I don't think we got past 40.  Sure hoping spring is coming soon. 

I got my 10 Year pin in the mail last week from Stampin' Up.  It's hard to believe I've been a demonstrator for 10 years!  I have enjoyed every minute being creative with Stampin' Up products.

This is my card for Paper Craft Crew this week.  I got most of My Digital Studio files downloaded onto my new laptop and made this card:

Isn't this a pretty baby card? 

Here are the Weekly Deals:

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

February Stamp Club

My February Stamp Club continues to drag itself out.  I have had gals come last Thursday, Saturday and the final two are coming on Tuesday .... all due to Mother Nature!  But we will get there.  I thought I'd at least share the cards we made this month in club:

Isn't this a great masculine card?  And oh so easy!!  If you haven't taken a look at the Adventure Bound Paper Stack in the Occasions catalog along with the Hello You Thinlets Dies, run (don't walk) to your catalog and look at it!  You can make some great cards with very little effort with this paper.  I put the paper on the table with some card stock backings and let the gals create their own card.

This beauty is a bundle that you can purchase - getting the Butterfly Thinlet Dies and the Basic Butterfly stamp set.  They makes beautiful cards.  The stamp set also coordinates with the Bitty Butterfly and 3/4" Circle punches.

This card had lots of parts to it but was another simple one to make using the Saleabration DSP and the pretty embossing folder.

This set is one of my favorites in the Occasions Catalog - Painted Petals.  I love how the Wisteria Wonder, Old Olive and Elegant Eggplant all blend together.





STARTING TODAY!  Stampin' Up! has added FOUR new products to the Sale-a-Bration list of free gift choices.  Earn an exclusive, free Sale-a-Bration gift with every $50 you spend (before shipping and tax).  Sale-a-Bration ends March 31.

IMPORTANT BLENDABILITIES UPDATE!  Unfortunately there have been quality issues with the Stampin' Up! Blendabilities Markers.  They are currently unavailable (including as a Sale-a-Bration gift) and back orders cannot be filled.  I'll keep you posted when the problem is resolved, and they are available for purchase again.  I know this is frustrating for those who were planning on ordering them through Sale-a-Bration, but I'm glad that Stampin' Up! believes that quality comes first.