It's fall!

 I hope you like the fall blog header!  Someone was getting tired of the other one!

I have been out of town for a week but now we are back at home until Christmas - at least that's the plan!  My sister and I went to Winston Salem a few weeks ago for the NC Demos Quarterly.  It was the best one I have been to!  We did so many wonderful projects and were busy working on them all day.  I participated in the Friday Shoebox and also the Saturday night Shoebox.  Plus, I was in several swaps - Christmas, Sketch, 3D, and Fun Fold so I now have plenty of cards!!  

Last week Sonny and I drove to Pittsburgh Friday and met Ashley on Saturday.  We were going to the Steelers game which was Sunday night.  But at the last minute we got tickets and went to see the hockey team (Penguins) Saturday night.  We had good luck on both games - they won!  Our Steeler tickets were the best!!  We were on the second row from the field and on the 10 yard line.  Unfortunately, all the action was done at the other end of the field but thank goodness for the jumbo-tron!  Monday we drove to Ashley's house and stayed with her until Thursday.  It was a good visit as usual.

A couple of weeks before we went on our trip, my husband was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML).   It is a chronic form of leukemia (long term and slowly developing).   Leukemia is a type of cancer of cells in the blood and bone marrow.  People who have it have an increase in the number of immature white blood cells in their blood, bone marrow, and spleen.  He did not have any symptoms when he was diagnosed with CML.  It was discovered when blood tests were done on his recent check ups with his doctor who then referred him to an oncologist.  He is able to control CML with daily medication so he won't be having to go through chemo treatments or radiation.   So far, so good - he is tolerating the meds with no side effects.

Ashley worked at home one of the days that we were there with a little help from her cat!

These were the signs they were giving out - my birthday was 10/22!

We took a boat shuttle across the river to the Steeler stadium.  This was a great picture out of the window of one of the many bridges in Pittsburgh!

More Hope Kit Cards!!

 ALERT!!  The CLEARANCE rack has just added new goodies.  Check it out!!  There are a couple of kits there along with the Memories & More kits.

I have made 19 cards (so far) using bits and pieces from the August Paper Pumpkin.  Stampin' Up hit it out of the park on this kit!!

I made a triangle card.  Take a 8 1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock and score it at 5 1/2" and 4 1/4" first.  Then cut up from one corner to the next.  I had to cut one side first and take it out of the trimmer, turn it around and do the second cut.

This is the card closed.  Again, I used one of the envelopes.

Don't we all need just a little hope in our lives??!!

The die cut that is in the kit looks great on this Blackberry Bliss piece.

Another great use of the Tailored Tags dies!!  The flowers and leaves are from another favorite of mine - Pierced Blooms Dies.

Hope kit

 

Would you believe ----- more cards using the Hope Kit, Paper Pumpkin from August.

The Bermuda Bay tags had writing in another language so I made the little white tags to cover up those words.

I really don't like this one!  I just added some blink, butterflies and a vellum sentiment to the card based that has background stamping already on it.

Another card using the tag from Tailor Made Tags.  I love those dies!!

I cut apart one of the envelopes to made the background piece.  The envelopes are really pretty!

Another easy one.  I cut apart a few of the tags that came in the kit.  Plus I made the tags in the middle using parts of one of the envelope!  I love the birthday sentiment using Biggest Wish.  

Hope Kit - Paper Pumpkin

A couple more of the Hope Kit using August Paper Pumpkin.

Love that die cut - straight from the Hope Box - Paper Pumpkin Kit.

After die cutting the tag, I used a Coastal Cabana marker to go around the edges of the tag.

 

Paper Pumpkin - Love Box

 Enjoy these cards I made using elements of the August Paper Pumpkin Kit.

This is one of my favorites!  Simple embossing with white embossing powder.

This piece has been sitting on my desk for over a month.  Decided to finally make it into a card!

Love the saying!!

I love creating alternative cards with Paper Pumpkin Kits  I would love to see your finished creations that are inspired by this tutorial! 

Today is my alternative card ideas using the August 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit – Hope Box. 

This card was super simple to make.  I stamped the sentiment onto watercolor paper with Versa Mark.  I used white embossing powder and embossed the sentiment.  Next I used my Aqua Brush to put stripes of colors on top of the lines of the sentiment.  I used Bermuda Bay, Polished Pink, Pear Pizzazz, Bumblebee, and Highland Heather.  I used one of the butterflies and a few purple rhinestones scattered around.  The watercolor piece is mounted on Highland Heather and the card is Soft Sea Foam.

These next two cards are what I call a two for one. You use one cardbase from the Paper Pumpkin kit and create two cards. I love how the gradient really adds a nice pop of colors and goes so well with the fun patterns from the banners.

1- Cut the Melon Mambo Cardbase in half at 4 ¼”. Trim down the Melon Mambo side to 4” x 5 ¼”. Remove the top section at 1 ¾”.

2- On the White card (that you cut off from the back of the Melon Mambo piece) create a blend of colors using Blending Brushes and Bumblebee, Bermuda Bay, Melon Mambo, & Blackberry Bliss. Trim down to 4” x 5 ¼” and remove the top section at 1 ¾”.

3- On the larger pieces. Stamp the greeting. ( I used the retired stamp set, Ridiculously Awesome.) You can choose to stamp in Blackberry Bliss or VersaMark and heat emboss with White Embossing Powder. If you choose to heat emboss, make sure to apply a generous amount of powder (embossing buddy) to the top of the Blended Background so the powder doesn’t stick to any wet ink.  I used my stamparatus & inked the sentiment a couple of times with Blackberry Bliss ink.

Place the greeting on the top  of the Blended Background and the bottom right corner of the Melon Mambo piece.

4- Swap pieces so you have a blended piece with a Melon Mambo piece then add to your cardbases. I placed the Blended Background pieces on top for each of my cards – see images above.

5- Randomly stamp the flower image from the stamp set that came in the kit with Pool Party ink on the Pool Party 1” strip. Then cut down the middle to create two ½” x 4” pieces.

6- Attach the strip over the seam between the two papers on the cardbase.

7- Cut each banner in around the half mark making one side small and the other a little bigger. I cut some at 2” and others at 1 ¾”. Mix and match patterns and sizes, then attach them to the card with dimensionals. Make sure not to cover any of the greeting. Add sequins.

All Done!

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.