Beach Trip

 Wow - it's been almost a month since I posted anything!  Life sometimes gets in the way.  This past week I was at Ocean Isle Beach for a whole week.  We had such a great time that we are going to book a condo again for next year.  We started our trip by driving to Pinehurst on Friday, meeting up with Ashley and having dinner and drinks at a brewery there that Sonny had gone to with the guys a few days before on a golfing trip.  From there we drove to Fayetteville and spent the night there since Ashley had been at Ft Bragg for a couple of days and we were able to share the room with her thanks to the Army!  On Saturday, we drove to Wilmington for the night and explored around Wilmington and had dinner on the pier at Wrightsville Beach.  Sunday we headed over to Carolina Beach to have some delicious Britt Donuts on the boardwalk.  They have been in operation for over 80 years!  They offer one-of-a-kind handmade, raised doughnuts in one variety - glazed!  They are made from scratch and follow the original 1939 recipe without using any premixed ingredients or preservatives.  As you place your order or sit at the counter (as we did), you see doughnuts being rolled, cut, fried, and glazed.  They are served warm and melt in your mouth.  We ordered a dozen  and they were all gone when we left!!  Yes, I need to get back to Weight Watchers!!

After stuffing ourselves with doughnuts, we headed to our condo in Ocean Isle.  The week was just perfect.  The ocean was actually warm and not freezing like it was last year in Emerald Isle and Ashley and I went in the water every day except Wednesday.  It was really windy on Wednesday & the sand was blowing all over us plus it was cloudy thanks to the tropical storm.  We could only take the sand blowing for an hour before we packed our things up and went to the condo.  We had brought Stampin' Up supplies so we made a few cards and watched Sweet Magnolias on Netflix.

Wrightsville Beach bar on the pier.

Ocean Isle - walkway that connects with our condo & the beach.

Windy!

Beautiful sunsets.

We found a cute wine shop so we stopped & had a flight.  

Luckily, they had beer for Sonny!

Friday night there was a concert in the park... lots of people.  I might have been doing a little shagging in the grass!

When we were at the Friday night concert, I was talking to the lady sitting beside me.  It turns out that she was originally from Charlotte & we went to the same high school!  She asked me what year I graduated from South (1966) and when I told her she said "you're old!".  How rude!  She graduated in 1969 but Sonny & Ashley both told me she definitely looked older than me by about 5 years.  

 

Paper Pumpkin The Adventure Begins

 I've been having fun with the June Paper Pumpkin.  I love the little camper that is in the kit and wish that it was also a stamp and not just part of the card.  The kit is called The Adventure Begins and contains the materials to create 12 full size cards with coordinating preprinted envelopes.  The kit made three different tri-fold cards with a peek through to one of the inside panels.  The colors and designs are great!  Of course, as you know, I usually made one each of the cards as shown in the directions and use all the other bits and pieces to make several more different cards.

 

Quarterly cards #3

 Back again!  Monday posts don't usually work for me unless I get it done on Sunday & schedule it for Monday.  I play canasta Hand & Foot every Monday and love that game.   Yesterday I took a "walk about" at WalMart.  I got about 25 of these great clear pouches for less than $1 each.  I am going to use them to store each month's Paper Pumpkin Kits.  It takes up much less than the boxes do & I can see most of the elements from the kit without opening the pouch.  Maybe you have some good uses for them in your craft room.

Well, thanks to my persistent daughter, we got a partial refund for our hotel stay in Hendersonville for the Quarterly.  They refunded one room for us so that was great!  Now I can't decide whether to still give them a bad review or just let it be!

Here are a few more cards we made at Quarterly.

This was a shoebox card.  I can't remember what the technique is called but I remember doing this several years ago & it was a technique I saw on Splitcoast many years ago.  I used post it notes to mask off the center and sponged ink around the sides and top and bottom.  

This is a popular fold now called the Book Fold.  The 1 1/2" section on the left side is scored and adhered closed so the card opens like a magazine or book.

Card - opened.  Great fun fold!

This card took a lot of work - hats off to the creator !   It folds flat for mailing.

All Squared Away

 Day #3!  I played bridge today with friends at my house.  Can you believe the COVID numbers are going up again?!!  I talked to Ashley yesterday & she told me the number of cases in Maryland (where she lives) is 64 per 100,000 whereas in NC where I live the number is 197 per 100,000.  We were planning a trip to Tennessee the end of August but their numbers are even higher - 265 out of 100,000.  So, we have booked a condo at Ocean Isle that has a full kitchen so we will enjoy the beach, Sonny will enjoy the golfing and we'll cook most of our meals ourself, limiting our contacts.

Here are a few more of the cards from Quarterly using the All Squared Away bundle.

I can't tell if the watercolored background is DSP or made with the alcohol technique!  The card is made with Soft Succulent.

Another great one.  Love the way she used the words on the card.

I like the way she raised the middle image up with dimensionals and left the 2 yellow one adhered to the Crumb Cake card.

This card had me stumped!  Can you see the background on the yellow piece?  That is a die that I didn't see but will be putting it on my list!  It is on page 165 of the annual catalog & is called Stitched Greenery.  It does not cut anything out but is just used for background.  You can see a sample of it also on page 83.  This is a die that definitely gets lost in the catalog.

Hope you have a good weekend and create a few of your own cards!

Quarterly Cards #2

 I'm on a roll - two days in a row!!  I have lots more cards from Quarterly to share with you.  Unfortunately, I don't know who made each of these cards!  I was in charge of lining the gals up for the swap and that was like herding cats!  

What a great use of the Pattern Party DSP.  You can purchase this pack of 48 sheets of paper with a $150 order for just $18.  On one side of each page is a black and white design while the reverse side is colored in all different colors - pinks, greens, yellows, blues, reds ......!!  I have used this paper a lot.

This is really a good idea - she used the stamp from Artistically Inked to create the water.  Wouldn't you like to be on that sailboat?!

Another good use of DSP.  This time she used the In Color 6"x6" assortment.  

I fell in love with this die during the Quarterly & have it on my next order.  I have several cards that were made using this bundle & when I first looked through the catalog, it didn't do anything for me.  Well, I have changed my mind after seeing all the cards that were made using it.

Tune in tomorrow to see several more cards made with the All Squared Away bundle

Isn't this paper gorgeous?!!  A simple card but oh so elegant.  I had to look up the DSP because I must have missed it too in the catalog.  But there on page 133 at the top you will see the beautiful Simply Elegant DSP.

This is a neat fold that I have never seen before.  Notice how the Crumb Cake piece tucks behind the blue circle to keep the card closed.  She used the new Painted Texture 3D Embossing Folder (pg 155).  You can see the opened card below.

Quarterly Cards #1

 Can't believe that I haven't posted anything since July 20!  So sorry.  I am well though .... for a change!  Well, actually, my left hip still hurts a bit but I can handle that!  Some days I even forget to take the Alieve!

We had a NC Demo Quarterly meeting in Hendersonville, NC July 23-25.  Ashley drove down for it (and for her grandmother's birthday on the 25th) and we rode up to Hendersonville with my sister, Marianne.  We stopped off at a brewery/restaurant that Marianne knew about for lunch.  The seats were inside a barrel!

We arrived at our hotel around 4 pm and were told that their washing machine had broken down the day before so they were behind in check-ins - probably our room would be ready in 1/2-1 hour.  Well, at 9:00, we finally got checked in & were able to take our things to our room.  Luckily the even was held at the hotel so we were able to just take our things & start with our shoebox swaps.  When we went up to bed, the temperature in our room was stifling - had to be at least 90 degrees - plus, there was no cold water coming out of the sink!  We didn't get much sleep that night.  I reported the problems to the front desk Sat. morning.  When we went to our room Saturday night, the cold water worked BUT our room was still stifling hot.  We were given the key to another room so we hauled all our stuff to it which happened to be the room right next to ours - which wasn't any cooler than our room.  So, we called down to the desk again & were moved to another room which was cooler thank goodness!  We tried to talk to a manager about compensating us & were told the manager was not there & we would have to speak with her the next day (Sunday).  OK - Sunday we were told the manager doesn't work on Sundays!  Since we've been home, we've tried to contact the manager several times & left messages on her phone to no avail.  She has not called us back yet.  We were not the only ones complaining about the place.  On Saturday, we were given box lunches (no choice) with bacon on them that looked like it was raw so we were all pulling that out of our sandwiches.  And of course, those that don't like mayo were out of luck because it was on the sandwich also.  That evening we were supposed to get a cookie snack but because of all the complaints, they "uppped" the cookie dessert to key lime pie, tiramasu or cheesecake.  Well, they ran out of those so some didn't get any plus we had to ask them for forks and napkins!  I spoke to the Choice Hotel group to register my complaints and will get additional choice points.  (I would rather have them reimburse me for a night!)

Other than all that, we had a good time at the event.  I haven't been to a Quarterly in a couple of years so it was really nice to see all the old and new faces.  We did a Shoebox swap on Friday and Saturday nights and made a few projects on Saturday along with swaps.  I participated in Fun Fold, Masculine and Slimline card swaps.  Here are a few of the cards that were made or swapped.

I love this black and white fun fold card!  A lot of embossing went into this card.

I think this was Marianne's Fun Fold.  The tulips on the bottom are adhered with dimensionals so the top part can prop open.

I love the look of the In Good Taste DSP!

I love the use of this die to make this fun fold.

Another fun fold similar to the above except this one uses Stitched So Sweetly dies.

Another piece of In Good Taste DSP

I just love everything about this card!  More DSP from In Good Taste (I need to get this paper!)  She used the Tasteful Textures embossing folder on the Cinnamon Cider card and Stitched Sweetly for the Cinnamon die.  The glasses are covered with Crystal Effects (I think!  they actually feel laminated!)

Even the inside has the Crystal Effects on the glass!

A great masculine card.  I struggle with making them, do you?  Looks like she used the Postage Stamp punch and made it a bit smaller.  The Daffodil Delight paired with the Basic Black cardstock is just stunning.

Expressions In Color

I am ready for this year to be over!!   We all thought 2020 was a bad year but truthfully, I didn't mind the quarantine so much.  It gave me lots of time to make cards, read, etc.  This year it seems like I have something happen to me every week!  First it was the fall I had in late December when I injured my shoulder and back and started the year doing Physical Therapy for a couple of months.  Next I went to the doctor and was diagnosed with kidney stones in both kidneys.  Then there was the fall I took on Memorial Day which hurt my hip.  I saw the ortho doc today and he said I probably still have a few weeks before I am not limping or hurting but he dismissed me.  My daily Aleve helps with my hip pain. Hopefully, I won't see him again!  Last week was my annual trip to see the eye doctor.  Well, he diagnosed me with the beginnings of glaucoma!!  I am now taking drops for that.  Oh .... I'm not done!  This weekend I suspected I had a UTI (urinary tract infection.)  I went to the urologist yesterday.  He gave me antibiotics and pain pills to take for 3 days.  He will send my urine sample to be tested.  So, hopefully I will hear something today to confirm or deny the UTI.  If it is not a UTI, then I will go back to the urologist to determine what is going on!

In the meantime, here are a few of the cards I have made with the June Paper Pumpkin kit Expressions In Color.  It was a fun one!

Everything on this card came right out of the kit except the Thick White Card Base, a piece of white cardstock to stamp on and the Evening Evergreen that is used for a mat.  I love the simple-ness (is that a word?) of this card!

This is a Z Fold card.  I used an embossing folder on the white background.

I love that the dies and stamps from the Artistically Inked bundle.  The leaves were die cut onto copper foil paper.

I cut small square from a scrap and tried to line them up straight!

Such a simple card but packs a punch!