Happy Valentine's!

Happy Valentines!  We weren't sure what the weather was going to be like today so we went out to eat last night.  I suggested Hawthorne's Italian in Huntersville.  We have always liked the Hawthorne's in Charlotte and just found out they had a restaurant closer to us.  Well, forget about being the least bit romantic!  Right next to our booth was 4 tables pushed together with 4 or 5 young couples with a few of their kids.  The rest of the kids were seated in the booth behind us doing whatever they wanted!  The noise they made was crazy!  Plus where we were seated, every time the door opened to the restaurant (a lot!) a blast of freezing air blew over us.  (It never got past 35 degrees yesterday and it was 29 degrees on our way home.)  I ended up wearing my jacket most of the time.  Luckily, the food was really good even if I did blow all my Weight Watchers points.  

Sonny gave me a beautiful Valentine card.  I just hope he didn't pay the $7.99 that it had on the back of it!!  Makes my Stampin' Up cards worth a lot more than I charge for them that's for sure!  My new neighbor left me a sweet Valentine's gift on my front porch too.  Plus, her card is beautiful!

My son, Jeff, and his family left Arizona on Friday and are moving to Alabama.  They will be closing on their house at the end of the month.  Yay for them!!  Luckily, my Valentines to Jayce arrived before they left.

Sky is the Limit Congratulations!

I made a card using the Sale-a-bration airplane set.  I really like this stamp set and am sad to see it be retired so soon.  This card was my "congrats" card to Ashley for getting the new job in Hawaii.  Now that she has received it, I can show it to you.

When you pull on the tab on the right side, the airplane flies across the card and the message pops out.  I used some non-SU paper that I found in my stash.  I found the video for making this card on Splitcoast.  Here is the link for the SLIDER.  I find it easier to follow a video for instructions so that I can start and stop it when I need to.

Hope you are staying warm wherever you are!!  Haven't seen any snow here yet but it is bitter cold!

Number of Years Fancy Fold

I am almost to the end of my swap cards from Quarterly.  This next card was my sister's shoebox card!  She had all the pieces cut out so it was just a matter of putting it all together but what a beautiful job she did!

I love this set!  The stamp set and the framelits are ones you will use over and over - for birthdays, special events, anniversaries, etc.  

Here is another card using the Number of Years set.

It has turned super cold here!  Yesterday I think our upstairs heater ran all day trying to get to 68 degrees!  I was cold all day and I had my Cuddle Duds on!  Don't think we got out of the 30s.  And it is not going to be much better the rest of the week.   Ashley didn't want to tell me that the high in San Antonio on Thursday was supposed to be 80!!  Wahhhhhh!!!   So where ever you are .... stay warm!

Sale-a-bration & Occasions Swaps

Well, the Super Bowl has come and gone and the team I was rooting for did not win.  In fact, not even sure they showed up for the game!  What a disappointment.  But I am happy for Peyton Manning (Denver QB) that he is going to retire (we think) with a Super Bowl win.  Always good to go out a winner!  I am really sick of hearing about all the hype about Cam Newton.  It is time to go on to other topics!!

A bit of news from Stampin' Up:  The Woodland Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (item 139673) has been so popular that we are going to do something that we don't normally do: we've decided to bring it back in the 2016 annual catalog! It will be available in the new Upcoming catalog this June. 

This is the final week for a few items from Sale-a-Bration - like this one - Sky Is The Limit.  This has been a very popular set.  If you want it, it will only be available until Feb. 15!  With a $50 order, you can get this set for FREE!

The SAB sets will be replaced with some great items.  Check them out HERE.


This next set (Flowering Fields) has also been a popular item and one of my fav's.  I like to put all the stamps on a large clear block and stamp them all at the same time.  Sure makes things easier!

These next swap cards are from (top) Botanicals For You and (bottom) Hello.  The Hello set will also be retiring Feb. 15.

This set is from the Occasions catalog and perfect for your special Valentine!  You can find these items on pages 16-17.

Here are more swap samples that come from the Occasions Swap at Quarterly.

I hope these cards have inspired you today!

Go Panthers!! plus Playful Pals

Well .... it is SUPER SUNDAY!  Go Panthers!!!  We are going to join some friends at a restaurant/bar in Mooresville to cheer on the Carolina Panthers.  (Yes, I can cheer for a team other than the Steelers!)  I even have a couple of Panther tee shirts!  It's just that Carolina didn't have a team when I became a Steeler fan - and they didn't have one for many years while I was cheering on the Steelers.  But as you can see below, I have my own little Panther.

She didn't like having her picture made and was roaring to get down!  But makes a cute picture.

Isn't this the cutest??  I love this card.  This is one I saw when I was at Quarterly.  I think this will make a great Valentine for someone special. 

Go Wild Collage Frame

My new neighbor's daughter had their first grandchild in October.  With the holidays and all the craziness in the fall, I wasn't able to get around to making something for him.  Well, finally I did and took it to her Tuesday.  She was thrilled!

Check out my baby collage.  She had told me that their nursery theme was animals so I dug out all the animal stamps I could find!  I used the DSP from Stampin' Up's Go Wild stack.  The animal images are from various stamps I had - not all Stampin' Up.

Occasions Catalog Swaps

I still have loads of samples to share with you.  These are some of the swaps I received at Quarterly. I tried to group them together so you can get an idea of the different variations you can make with each stamp set.

A Nice Cuppa (pg 35) comes with framelets, DSP Stack, embellishments as well as the stamp set.

These are from two different balloon sets - Balloon Celebration and Balloon Builders.  There is also a Balloon Bouquet Punch that punches large and small balloons.  (pgs 12-14)

Beautiful Ride (pg 15)is a great set for several different occasions.  

Birthday Blooms (pg 9) is a beautiful set - ideal for watercoloring or just using markers or Copics.

This is one of my favorites!  Botanical Blooms (pg 26-27) comes bundled with the gorgeous DSP and the Framelits Dies.  I just got this set late last week and haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet.

Don't miss this week's Weekly Deals.  There are some good things offered up at good prices.  The Mini Treat Bog Die is a great deal as is the Crazy About You stamp set!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

NC Demos SAB Blog Hop

Welcome to the first NC Demos Blog Hop!  A group of NC Stampin' Up demonstrators have decided to start a monthly blog hop.  We will be publishing our blog hop on the last day of the month.  So make sure you mark your calendars and check out our blogs and our great projects each month!

For January, we have decided to focus on items from the Sale-a-Bration Catalog.  Remember - for every $50 you spend, you can choose an item from Sale-a-Bration for FREE!!  There are some great stamps and papers in the catalog.  Also, there are a few items that are only offered for a limited time (pg. 16 - 18) so if you want one of those items, you'd better grab them now!

I love making Framed Collages so that is what I have done this month showcasing the Flowering Fields stamp set (pg 12) and Perfectly Artistic Designer Series Paper.  Instead of making my collage in a 12"x12" frame like I normally do, I found this frame on my shelf and decided to use it.  The opening is 9 1/2" x 7 1/2".  I matted each DSP square with Basic Gray card stock and matted the whole thing on Smoky Slate card stock.  You can see all the other items I used by scrolling to the very bottom of this blog post.

Next I made a card using the same stamp set and a few other goodies to go along with the framed piece.

I love the Pool Party Glitter Ribbon!  (pg 9 Occassions)  I also used other Sale-a-Bration items - Perfect Pairings (Hooray!) and Botanical Gardens Designer Vellum Stack (pg 4).  I hope you enjoyed my portion of the Blog Hop and will hop on over and see what Mary has made to share with you.

Shavron Borders

Regina Campbell

Tamra Davis

Kitty Helton

Jo Anne Hewins

Amy Ingram

Michelle Irinyi
Melissa Kerman

Tracie Langley

Sharon Maranich (you are here)

Mary Robinette

Sue Root

Pam Staples
Lisa Tedder
Frances Wagner

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Sunsets and Birthday

Well - I keep saying I am going to do better about posting my blog posts but so far, I'm not doing so well!  This week was a pretty busy one for me plus I don't even want to think how many pounds I put on.  I went out to eat every day this week and am going out tonight for my sister's birthday!  Monday Sonny and I went into town to escape the snow to the movies and had dinner at an Italian restaurant. This is the sunset that we saw when we came out of the movies!

Those cars in the picture are on I-77!

The day before I took some great sunset pictures from my back deck.

And the following day, I saw another beautiful sunset as I was driving home.  I tried to snap a few photos while I was driving but they didn't turn out so good!  (I know - not a smart thing to do.)

Tonight we are taking my sister (Angela) out to eat for her birthday which is Monday.  This is the card I have made for her using some new stamps that I just got yesterday.  I think I am really going to be using this large number set a lot.

Occasion Samples from Quarterly

I've got more samples to show you from Quarterly.  These are still some pictures I took of the Display Board.  I still have lots of swap card to share with you too!

GOING GLOBAL (pg 39)

GOING GLOBAL w/World Traveler Embossing Folder

GOING GLOBAL

GRATEFUL BUNCH (pg 22)  Love this color combo!

HAPPY HOME (pg 21) coordinates w/Hearth and Home Thinlets

HAPPY HOME

HELPING ME GROW (pg 20)  Love the way they stamped the flower on DSP and "fussy cut" it.