Card Candy

Hope your weekend was a good one.  We went to a 50th anniversary party Saturday night for a friend.  What fun!  Wow!  50 years is a long time!  The cake they had was not only delicious but beautiful as well.  What do you think:

Sunday we went to the movies and saw Southpaw.  It was really good.  But I'll never understand why someone would want to be a boxer!!  So brutal.

I want to share the squares I got when I did the Card Candy swap at convention.  Some great ideas!

Tags & Labels Framelits

I love using thinlet dies and the Magnetic Platform makes it so easy!  This is a new die this year that has a lot of possibilities.  Check it out on page 173 - Tags & Labels Framelits.  You can do a lot of layering with these dies as you can see that I did below with Whisper White card stock.

In this card, I used a strip of DSP from Typeset Specialty Designer Paper which is really lightweight and a good deal since you get 24 sheets of paper in the pack for $13!  The card is Crumb Cake and I used the Gorgeous Grunge to spatter ink on the background.  The butterflies from Butterfly Basics were stamped with Blackberry Bliss, Mellow Moss and Night of Navy.  I punched a flower from the Itty BittyAccents Punch Pack and adhered a rhinestone in the center.  A very easy card to make.

Here are a few cards from convention that used these dies also:

This was one of the display boards - the sympathy card at the top right uses the framelit.

Isn't this gorgous?  This is the DSP found on page 143 called Timeless Elegance.  Unfortunately, looking at the DSP in the catalog, you would never know this beautiful piece is in it.  The creater used sponge dauber with pink ink to color the flower.  This DSP will be on my next order!

Sonny and I went out on the boat yesterday morning until shortly after lunch time.  It was miserably HOT and humid.  I think the humidity was the worse.  This has been the worse summer we have had since we moved back here for the heat and humidity.  Even getting in the lake was not enough to cool you off.  When we got home, I headed straight for a cold shower!

We got an email from Ashley yesterday as she is on her way to the Phillipines.  She said they have been doing a lot of busy work on the ship but the seas have not been too rough this time.  She has been teaching some of the medical staff the Helping Babies Breathe program so they can hopefully teach it on future missions.  They should be arriving in the Phillipines Sunday or Monday. Hopefully, she will have access to a phone there and will be able to call.  I am really missing our daily chats and am ready for her to come home!!

Koala Swaps and Birthdays

These are a few more swaps I made using the cute little Koala bear and the Go Wild Designer Paper stack.

Marianne, Angela and I took Mom out to dinner tonight for her birthday.  Her actual birthday was last Saturday and she turned 87.  I have had a hard time with her age this year!  I posted on Facebook Saturday birthday wishes to my mom who just turned 67!  Well that would be a little difficult since that is my age!  Then tonight I pulled out her birthday card that I made last month using the Thinlet Numbers and I had the wrong number .... again!  So I just took a Sharpie marker and wrote in "Plus 1" on the card!  I've never had a problem remembering her age since there is 20 years between her and I and another 30 between her and my son (who will be 37 in November).  Don't know where my brain was this year!  She got a couple of surprise phone calls on her birthday Saturday.  The first call was from Ashley right before they set sail for the Phillipines.  That really thrilled Mom.  Then a little later, my son, Jeff, called to wish her a happy birthday.

Card Candy Swaps

For the second year, I participated in a Card Candy swap headed up by Debbie McNeil and Amy Barnes.  In this swap, you make 2x2 card candy swaps using the new In Colors and/or Neutrals and current stamps.  You can make as many as you want from 1-50.  You just drop out of line when you have swapped all you brought.  I took 40 and Marianne took 50.  I still have my swaps from last year but I am making a promise to myself to make a collage frame with them this year!!

Here are my swaps using the DSP from Go Wild stack and the Heart punch (Watermelon Wonder.) The sentiment is from And Many More stamped in Tip Top Taupe and I added a rhinestone.

While I was at convention, I got an email from my good friend, Margaret, that her dad had died on Friday.  He has been doing poorly for a while so it was not totally unexpected but he was such a great guy, he will be missed by many.  Margaret and Graham had been there for a visit in April but when he went back in the hospital in early July, Margaret flew back to England so she was there when he passed away.  I'm thinking about you, Margaret!

As you can see, I did some maintenance on my blog today.  I have been wanting to change the blog header for a while and got some ideas while I was at convention.  Here is what the main stage looked like.  As you can see, I used it for my inspiration.

Below is one of the perks I received for celebrating my 10 years with Stampin' Up.  This was a booth set up with a soda fountain, popcorn and Dove chocolates!  Marianne and I made frequent stops here. I also received a Stampin' Up mini trash bag filled with a stamp set (one I already had), a package of buttons and twine.

We took this picture on our last day.  We looked for Debbie and my upline, Carol, to include them in the third window but could not find them at the time.

Roarin' 20s plus a Wild! Swap

There’s nothing more exciting than gathering with a couple thousand of your favorite people to celebrate the joys of card making, rejoice in our successes from the past year and plan for the future.  This past week’s Stampin’ Up! Annual Convention (called Inspire Create Share 2015) was just that – a lot of reuniting, a lot of celebrating and a lot of new stuff.  What a fun week!  But if I am totally honest, this was not the best Stampin' Up Convention I have attended (I have been to 5 total.)  We have always gotten at least 3 free stamp sets plus other "all attendee" give aways during the week.  This year, we received 1 stamp set and 3 all attendee gifts which did not amount to much (package of Holiday Catalogs, the new archival black stamp pad and a package of DSP.)  I really felt short changed this year.  Things were so very different than past years in many other ways too.

We all love to see new products and hear about new techniques for our businesses.   We love papercrafting and sharing wonderful ideas for new projects.  Still, at the heart of it all, Convention is all about the people.  I love the opportunity to gather with stampers from all over the U.S. and Canada as well as the members of Stampin' Up's staff.  What fun!

Thursday night was Awards Night and there was a party afterwards.  Awards Night was themed this year – we were challenged to dress in “The Roaring ’20’s” outfits.  Marianne and I turned out in our feather boas and jeweled headbands in our hair!  We found Debbie who looked great in her black and white 20s outfit too.

Here is one of the swap  cards I made.  I'll be sharing more swaps in the next several days.  This card was super easy to make using the Little Letters thinlets and the Go Wild DSP stack.

Convention Gifts

These are the convention gifts I made for my two downlines (Debbie and Marianne) and my upline, Carol.  I only see Carol at convention once a year since she lives all the way across the US from me - in Washington.

I got this idea from the very talented Becky Roberts.  Sonny bought the handles for me and drilled holes and screwed in the handles for me.  Then I just had to decorate and fill them.  Since I have more than enough retired DSP, that is what I used on them.

This one of course goes to Marianne who loves purple!

This one is for Carol.

And this one is for Debbie since she likes pink!

And of course, we have to have goodies inside!

These were really fun to make and very easy.  They were what I was trying to finish up when the electricity went out!

Build A Birthday with Pop Up Candles

Sorry - I've been MIA for a while!  Busy, busy, busy!  Think I'm ready for convention though.  I finished up Stamp Club yesterday and got my order sent in to Stampin' Up.  After cleaning up, I was going to finish up a few of my 3D swaps that I had started over the weekend and start packing.  Well .... Mother Nature had other ideas.  We had a storm here and our power went out!  We were without power about 3 hours.  I was able to work with just the light coming in the window for a little bit.  Then it wasn't enough so I retreated downstairs where I read in my Kindle, napped and finally decided I'd just have to eat cold cereal for dinner.  Around 8 pm, Sonny and I started lighting candles.  We had just gotten the last one lit, when "ta-da", the lights came on!  So, blow out the candles and start packing!  Think I got to bed close to 1 a.m. this morning!

Here is a card I made last week from a tutorial I found on-line.

I used Build A Birthday to make the cake with Pacific Point, Watermelon Wonder, Daffodil Delight and Cucumber Crush.

The fun part is when you open the card and the candles pop up!  They are adhered to strips of clear transparency.

Fun, huh?

Over the Rainbow

I have Stamp Club this Thursday and next Tuesday .... then I'm off to convention!  Can't wait!

One of the stamp sets we will be using at Club this month is Over the Rainbow.  I think this is such a great and versatile stamp set.  I got carried away and made 4 slightly different cards and will let the gals pick which one they want to make.  I also dug out my Circle Card Framelits that I haven't used in such a long time to make the cards.

FRONT OF CARDS

INSIDE OF CARDS

FRONT OF CARDS 3 & 4

INSIDE OF CARD 3 & 4

Not much happening here.  I finally got my peaches yesterday!!  Yum!  I am missing talking to Ashley or at least being able to email back and forth.  We did finally get a short email from her last night.   Malaita, the island she is on has absolutely nothing to do with 3 restaurants each with the same 3-4 menu options since they all shop at the one market in town.  She is eating the snacks she took (and some that I sent her) so she will have a lighter load when returning to the ship at the end of the week!  The hotel she is staying in is very basic with cold showers.  That would not cut it with me!  I love my nice long HOT showers!  She was able to sent us the email from the Mental Ward last night which is the only available internet!  She is a very organized person and some of the coordinating details there are not to her liking.  She spent the first two days at a local clinic but was supposed to be lecturing in the hospital on day 4 but she got bumped for a different lecturer which irked her. She is not sure where the communication screw up was - with the planners of the mission or on the local side.  She will be headed back to Guadalcanal on Sunday which will make her happy!

Over the Rainbow Shoe Box

I have found another favorite from the new catalog!  It is Over the Rainbow!  I have made a bunch of cards today with that set.  It is a really versatile set - good for sympathy, congrats, good luck, love you .... endless ideas!  Here is a card I made for my shoe box swap at convention.

How about that for bright colors?!!  Love it!  I also love the sentiment.  I scattered small pearls on the card that I colored with a few Copic markers (missing those Blendabilities!)  You could also color them with Sharpie markers.

I had a pretty quiet weekend - which is just fine with me!  Sonny and I went to breakfast yesterday in Denver (NC) and afterwards wandered around the Farmers Market buying a few fruits and veggies. Then we drove out to the Peach Stand, which was the main reason we went to eat in Denver, but they were already SOLD OUT!!  It wasn't even noon.  I really believe they never opened.  How could they have sold everything by 11:30????  I'll be traveling out there again one day this week I guess.  Today I got Sonny to go to the neighborhood pool with me to exercise there.  We did pretty good and were there over an hour and the pool all to ourself most of the time.  That is the coolest way to exercise and I don't know why I don't do it more often.  Gonna make a resolution to do that.

Garden In Bloom

I am loving the two-step stamp set, Garden in Bloom.  (Think I have said that before!)  Here is another card I made using the set.  The striped background is from the set, Brushstrokes (pg 128) using Tip Top Taupe ink. I cut an oval from the center of the striped piece and put a piece of Whisper White card stock behind it.  I stamped several of the flowers and leaves through the oval.  I stamped the large flower and leaves on a scrap of white, cut it out and adhered it to the front with dimensionals.  The sentiment is white embossed on the Delightful Dijon card stock that is punched out with the Tags & Labels Framelits.  I tucked a small piece of Mint Macaron ribbon behind the sentiment and a butterfly on the front.

My mom came through her dental surgery with flying colors yesterday.  I went over to sit with her today but really didn't need to.  She was not in any pain - only took 2 pain pills yesterday and none today.  I fixed her a couple of smoothies and took her to the dentist for a follow up before leaving to run a few errands.  She even went to her clubhouse tonight to play bingo!

Ashley has arrived at her next group of islands - this time the Solomon Islands.  They had to move off of the ship because it can't stay docked at the pier.  They will be staying at a compound which is the Australian military compound that is now minimally staffed with civilian police.  She will be taking a 5-hour ferry ride to another island and staying in hotels.  But she has been told there is nothing to see or do there.  She surprised us yesterday with a phone call to check up on her grandmother.  (I have been bad this week and not emailed her much with updates.)  She sent a quick note to us today to say they had arrived and were moving off the ship so she is not sure if she will have internet.  Also to tell us that an earthquake had hit the islands yesterday before they arrived.  Prayers for them that they don't have another one while she is there!