April Club Cards

Just finished getting everything ready for my club this week.  My Tuesday gals will be here late this afternoon for some stamping fun.  I just love having gals over to stamp with.

Here are a couple of the cards we will be making today:  They both are using sets that will be retiring May 31.  So, if you love these cards, you better order the stamp sets so you can CASE me.

I think this is my favorite!  I made my own DSP by stamping a piece of white card stock with various flower stamps from FLOWER FEST.  What's super about this stamp set is that all the flower stamps coordinate with punches so you don't have to cut the flowers out - you just punch them!

 SUPPLIES USED:

• Stamp:  Flower Fest, Happy Birthday to You (both retiring)
• Card Stock:  Peach Parfait, Whisper White, Watercolor paper
• Ink:  Versamark
• Accessories:  Watercolor Crayons, White Embossing Powder, Heat Gun, Top Note Die, Big Shot, Aqua Brush
• Punches:  Flower Fancy, 5 Petal Flower, 2 3/8" Scallop, Butterfly, 1 1/4" Circle

HOW TO:

•  Stamp flower stamps randomly all over 3” x 4 ¼” white card stock in various colors   Adhere to bottom of Peach Parfait card
• Die cut Top Note from white cardstock.
•  Stamp sentiment about the middle and to the right side on top Note with Black Ink.
•  Stamp flower images from Flower Fest stamp set onto Watercolor paper using Versamark Ink and emboss with white embossing powder.  Heat with heat gun.
•  Color flowers & leaves using Aqua Brush and Watercolor Crayons.
•  Punch out flowers using – 5 Petal Flower Punch,  2 3/8” Scallop Punch, Butterfly Punch, Fancy Flower Punch,  1 ¼” Circle Punch.
• You have to cut leaves out with scissors and adhere to the card.
• Stamp Butterfly antennae in black and cut out.

This card uses a great stamp set - Inspired By Nature.  I'll be sad to see this one go.  I also used a Wheel for the Textured background.  I seem to forget about my wheels.

SUPPLIES:

• Stamp:  Inspired by Nature
• Card Stock:  Not Quite Navy, Sahara Sand, Poppy Parade, Confetti 
• Ink:  Not Quite Navy, Poppy Parade
• Access:  Textured Wheel, Dauber, Scallop Oval Punch, Blue Denim Ribbon, Dimensionals

HOW TO:

Not Quite Navy cardstock:  8 ½” x 5 ½”  /  Sahara Sand cardstock:  4” x 5 ¼” 

Poppy cardstock:  4 ½” x 3 ¼”   /  Confetti cardstock:  4 ¼ ” x 3”

• Use Textured large wheel and wheel the Sahara Sand card stock using Not Quite Navy ink.  Adhere to card.
• Stamp flowers from Inspired By Nature onto Confetti cardstock using NQN ink.  Adhere to Poppy card stock.
• Stamp sentiment with Poppy ink on scrap of Confetti.  Punch out with Scalloped Oval.  
• Tie ribbon around Confetti  card stock.   Adhere using dimensionals.

Surprise Monday Mailer Package

Last week I received a package from Pam, my Monday Mailer buddy.  I was totally surprised!  She sent me a beautiful anniversary card plus a little 3x3 box with a few note cards and envies from the new Summer Smooch sneak preview plus a little purse made with the Summer Smooch Purse Die.  They are just so cute!

This is a beautiful card with embossing and white satin ribbon and pearls!  She used the Apothecary Art stamp set from the Mini Catalog.  It is so much prettier in real life!

This is the little purse that she made.  It is so elegant!  She punched the Marina Mist handle on either side with the Hearts Border Punch and adhered the Lace Ribbon down the center.  The button on the flap has a little rhinestone in the center and the three itty bitty flowers in the corner each have a rhinestone in the middle.  So much detail!!

 

 

 

 

This is the little box that she made with the Summer Smooch DSP and stamp set.  Again, the button has a small pearl in the center.

These are the three note cards (3x3) that are in the box.  They also use the Summer Smooch stamp set.  So cute and colorful!!

If you would like to order any of the Summer Smooch items, you can!  Stampin' Up is giving our customers a chance to order a "sneak peek" from the upcoming catalog.

 Check out the flier HERE. 

This offer is only good until the end of the month!!

Retirement Is Here!

Stampin' Up has announced it's retired STAMPS.  This is by far, the LARGEST LIST that Stampin Up has ever presented, with over 300 items!...They decided with the NEW catalog format, size and date of release, it was also a great opportunity to revamp the entire content, so, while you may be sad that so many are leaving - Be JOYFUL, that we are getting a WHOLE CATALOG of new exciting Products!......these stamps will no longer be available when the new Idea Book and Catalog goes live June 1st, and sometimes they also sell out.....so if you have a favorite on this list, consider ordering soon.

View the list HERE .  

Contact me with your must haves!

Those Were The Days!

 Someone recently sent me this and it is just too good not to share! 


Black and White (Under age 40? You won't understand.)


You could hardly see for all the snow,
 Spread the rabbit ears as far as they go.
 Pull a chair up to the TV set,
 'Good Night, David.
 Good Night, Chet.'
 My Mom used to cut chicken, chop eggs and spread mayo on the same cutting board with the same knife and no bleach, but we didn't seem to get food poisoning.

 My Mom used to defrost hamburger on the counter and I used to eat it raw sometimes, too. Our school sandwiches were wrapped in wax paper in a brown paper bag, not in ice pack coolers, but I can't remember getting e..coli.

 Almost all of us would have rather gone swimming in the lake instead of a pristine pool (talk about boring), no beach closures then.

 The term cell phone would have conjured up a phone in a jail cell, and a pager was the school PA system.
 We all took gym, not PE...and risked permanent injury with a pair of high top Ked's (only worn in gym) instead of having cross-training athletic shoes with air cushion soles and built in light reflectors. I can't recall any injuries but they must have happened because they tell us how much safer we are now.   Flunking gym was not an option... even for stupid kids! I guess PE must be much harder than gym.

 Speaking of school, we all said prayers and sang the national anthem, and staying in detention after school caught all sorts of negative attention.   We must have had horribly damaged psyches. What an archaic health system we had then. Remember school nurses?  Ours wore a hat and everything.

 I thought that I was supposed to accomplish something before I was allowed to be proud of myself.
 I just can't recall how bored we were without computers, Play Station, Nintendo, X-box or 270 digital TV cable stations.

Oh yeah... and where was the Benadryl and sterilization kit when I got that bee sting? I could have been killed!

We played 'king of the hill' on piles of gravel left on vacant construction sites, and when we got hurt, Mom pulled out the 48-cent bottle of mercurochrome (kids liked it better because it didn't sting like iodine did) and then we got our butt spanked.  Now it's a trip to the emergency room, followed by a 10-day dose of a $49 bottle of antibiotics, and then Mom calls the attorney to sue the contractor for leaving a horribly vicious pile of gravel where it was such a threat.

We didn't act up at the neighbor's house either; because if we did we got our butt spanked there and then we got our butt spanked again when we got home.

I recall Donny Reynolds from next door coming over and doing his tricks on the front stoop, just before he fell off.  Little did his Mom know that she could have owned our house.  Instead, she picked him up and swatted him for being such a goof. It was a neighborhood run amuck.

To top it off, not a single person I knew had ever been told that they were from a dysfunctional family.
How could we possibly have known that?  We needed to get into group therapy and anger management classes.  We were obviously so duped by so many societal ills, that we didn't even notice that the entire country wasn't taking Prozac!

How did we ever survive?

Stamping Queens Sketch plus CLEARANCE items added

 

Yesterday was the Stamping Queens Sketch Challenge.  I designed another card using My Digital Studio.  It was a pretty easy sketch this time. Here is my take on it using the stamp set, Fabulous Florets.  Click HERE to see the cards the other gals designed with the sketch.

Margaret has been visiting me for a couple of days from Texas.  We went to Charlotte on Monday to pick her and Graham up and stopped off on the way home at the Original Pancake House .... yummy!!  Sonny and I took them to the airport this morning  - an almost costly trip.  We were driving back home just talking when flashing lights pulled up behind us.  We were on a highway that we hardly ever travel on and Sonny thought the speed limit was 60 or 65.  NOT!  It was 55.  Don't know how fast we were going - the officer did not tell him, just that he was speeding.  After he ran his license, he ended up only giving him a warning.  Such a nice guy!!  Whew!

NEWS FLASH: 

 55 NEW Clearance Rack items have been added to my Online Store, including a number of punches, dies, and accessories.  I will be putting an order in this weekend for Clearance items.  If you want to add yours to mine to save on postage, let me know.

Monday Mailer from March

This is a card I made for a Monday Mailer in March.  When I was in Texas, I forgot to share it with you.  I love this card and the stamp set.  I need to dust it off and use it more.  I used Field Flowers, Just Believe and the Butterfly Embosslits with some masking.  The flowers are stamped in Daffodil Delight and Peach Parfait using the two-step stamping technique.

Friendship Card

 

Here is a card I made last month to send to an old friend who has been having all kinds of medical traumas.  I hope it cheered her up!  I found the tag shape in a stash of stuff I had.  It was already distressed and had the background stamped on (from It's About Time) so I stamped the sentiment (from Blessings from Heaven) and tied a pretty ribbon on to it.  I used my heat gun to melt the ribbon a bit and make it crinkle up.  I found a flower in my jar of flowers and using a glue dot, attached it to the card.  The doily is cut using the Doily Die.  A pretty simple card but sometimes simple is best.

Spring MDS style

Spring is such a beautiful time in North Carolina!  These are some pictures I took when the pear trees were in full bloom around my area.  I scrapbooked them in My Digital Studio.  Enjoy!!

Happy Easter 2012

Many people wonder what Easter actually means, as the true meaning of Easter has been lost. What I can tell you is it isn't about cute little fluffy chickens, nor does it have anything to do with Easter bunnies. It isn't even about Easter eggs.  Although an egg can represent 'new life' because new life hatches from the egg, and Jesus was resurrected on the third day - giving us new life in Him. But just like Christmas, the real meaning has been forgotten.  Easter is the day when we celebrate Jesus Christ rising from the dead. Jesus is the Son of God and heroically gave His life to die for our sins. On the third day after He died -- the day we now celebrate as Easter Sunday -- His friends went to His grave, and found that He had risen from the dead. They saw an angel who told them, "Don't be afraid! I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He isn't here! He has been raised from the dead, just as He said it would happen." Jesus rose from the dead on Easter Sunday; now He offers to you the gift of eternal life and forgiveness of sins.

Celebrate this gift of Jesus today with your friends and family.  I will be going to church with my Mom and sister in their brand new church.  This will be their first service to be held in the new church and they are so excited to see it.  I only wish I could also be celebrating Easter with my daughter and my son and his family.  

39 Years!

Today is our 39th wedding anniversary.  Wow!  Hard to believe.  We've had our ups and downs like any couple but hung in there and made it work.  I think young people today don't understand that concept.   I read an article several years ago that said statistics tell us that first marriages today stand a 45 percent chance of breaking up and second marriages a 60 percent chance!  That's a lot!  Divorce has increased not only in frequency but also in acceptance it seems like. And even if we don’t focus on figures per se,  today far more marriages end in divorce than a couple of decades ago.  I attribute a lot of these failures to the "Me-Now" generation.  Why stay in a difficult or loveless relationship? Move on! Find whatever it is that will provide happiness.  I grew up and saw divorce in my own family.  My mother was divorced when I was about 2 years old, my grandparents divorced (but later remarried plus it was a family secret about their divorce and I didn't even know it until I was in my teens because they had always been together in my lifetime.); my uncle was divorced, my aunt was divorced .... So, my cousin, who was my best friend back then, and I were afraid of marriage and determined that when we did marry, it would be forever.  Unfortunately, that was not the case with her - I think she is on her third or fourth marriage.  So you can understand how important 39 years together is to me.  Just hope we live to make it to 50!!

Here is the card I made for Sonny.  I saw the sentiment on the front of the card somewhere and just knew I had to use it.  I created the circle with the sentiment on My Digital Studio, printed it and punched it out with my Nesties.  I used the Nautical DSP that is now retired (but I can still get it on MDS.)  The DSP trim piece was cut using the Tasteful Trim Sizzix Die.  The heart stamp is from the SAB set, Sprinkled Occasions.

Inside - uses the sentiment from the retired set, Love Matters.

Was I really that skinny?