I'm Back and With Swaps!

Sorry for the delay in getting my posts up! The internet was horrible while I was away and took FOREVER for anything to load, so I just gave up! I do have things to post, I just have to get them together. We came back Friday, the 13th late afternoon and have been busy, busy, busy, ever since! If you're local, I have a Christmas Card Class on Thursday, the 26 at 10am & 7pm. Would love for you to join us! Please RSVP for either time ASAP!


Just before I got home my swaps for June were waiting for me! I love getting this kind of mail! Normally it's bills or junk mail, so when someone sends me a card, I'm just so excited! Ok, back to the swaps. The theme for June was Wedding/Anniversary and Carol was the host. I'll split this swap in two so I don't make the post too long!

Some of these cards will be hard to see since they are white on white. Vicki used the Seasonal Wreath Dynamic Embossing Folder here, which I'm not sure if you can see.
Vicki Wu
Stamps-Beautiful Bouquet, Pop of Petals
Ink-Black Memento, VersaMark
Card Stock-Whisper White regular and thick, Sparkle Glimmer, Vellum
Accessories- Leaf & Four-Petal Punches, Seasonal Wreath Dynamic Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Dimensional

Lilly Ruiz
Stamps-Petal Palette
Ink-Soft Suede
Card Stock-Very Vanilla regular & thick, Gold Glimmer
Accessories-Softly Falling Embossing Folder, Starburst & 2" Circle punches, Flourish Thinlits, Big Shot, 3/8" Metallic-Edge Gold Ribbon, Dimensional

Mena Green
Stamps-Petal Palette
Ink-Soft Suede, VersaMark
Card Stock-Whisper White regular & thick, Gold Foil
Accessories-Petal Burst Embossing Folder, Gold Embossing Powder, Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool, Petals & More Thinlits, Big Shot, Dimensionals, Pearls

On Pat's card I wanted to point out because I don't think you can see it. She used a new embossing folder that looks like a quilted or tufted (hence the name) and put Wink of Stella on each center point. It really looks great in person!
Pat Militello
Stamps-Flourishing Phrases, Detailed with Love
Ink-VersaMark
Card Stock-Whisper White regular & thick

Accessories-Silver Embossing Powder, Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool, 5/8" Polka Dot Tulle Ribbon, Silver Metallic Thread, Tufted Dynamic Embossing Folder, Stitched Shapes Framelits, Big Shot, Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

I hope you enjoyed these cards. If you need any help with making these cards, please contact me. You can find all the products used in my STORE and make sure you use this month's VIP Host Code 9MD4MGKV to earn your FREE product and card kit! I will (if all goes well with my internet) have my Feature Friday up, so please stop by and see what I've been working on! Have a wonderful day and catch you Friday!

Camp Gift

I was going to post this last week, but wanted to make sure this wasn't seen by the recipient. In case you don't know, I'm a Girl Scout and have been for most of my life! The Girl Scouts has done so much for me and have enjoyed traveling with them. I guess I wasn't your typical Girl Scout. I didn't go to summer camp. I went to camp at different times of the year. There was just too many bugs during the summer! Then it turned out when we (husband & kids) moved to the northwest part of New Jersey I wasn't that far from my childhood camp! Yay! I now go there for an annual Octoberfest for adults and I teach all kinds of stamping home decor. I love it and have a great time! As with stamping when we have gatherings it's so nice to see our old friends and make new ones, so is with Girl Scouts. Well anyway, the woman who runs the camp (Camp Director) has been doing so for 30 years! Some of the old timers had a surprise luncheon for her and I offered to make a few things for her to give as a gift from everyone.

So here is the card I made. I didn't do this in the "A4" size. Not sure what size they call this but it's a sheet of card stock (8.5 x 11) folded in half. I wanted it bigger so everyone attending could sign it. I used Number of Years and the coordinating framelit call Large Numbers. The image behind the "30" is the punch Best Badge. If you don't recognize the other stamps, that's because the are retired. I purchased these my first year as a demonstrator and retired that year. I love these and don't think I'll ever get rid of them! I think they're called Girl Power and Camp Out. The Girl Power was made to imitate the Girl Scouts. They also had one that imitated the Boy Scouts.

So initially I was just going to make the card and thought why not make this piece of home decor! It's basically a scrapbook page on a clipboard. I bought some paper that had the Girl Scout theme and thought that would be perfect for this! Everything I used here was retired! As you can see I still have them because they were favorites of mine and worked great! There are no pictures because I was sending this to the coordinator of the luncheon and she was to put the pictures in. My thought was to put  now and then pictures. In case you don't know what that "thing" is next to the lined card, it's a friendship knot. When you're a counselor at camp they give out a strip of fabric and you have a "friend" tie the knot for you! A very nice tradition!

So I was having so much fun making everything and as I was scanning the internet for some inspiration I came across this saying "I'm _________ what's your super power? and thought this would be perfect for a "badge" so I had to make one! I had made a sleeping bag button (out of shrinky dinks we used to sell) and it wasn't working for the clipboard and thought it would fit perfect on the badge! Then, still having so much fun, I thought I'd make a backpack! I've been wanting to make one of those for years! I love the way this turned out! I made another button to match the rope hearts that I stamped all over as a faux closure. This also gave me another idea to have a class using the Gift Bag Punch Board! So stayed tuned for that! It'll probably be next year at this rate, but you never know!

I hope you liked these gifts. I really had such a great time creating them! It was great to be able to just create!

If you didn't get my weekly newsletter, I'm running a special while I'm on vacation. The special is to just place ANY order and I'll send you a sampling of the Year of Cheer Embellishments. Now if your order reaches $50, not only do you earn a Butterfly, you'll also receive this month's card kit with a PDF and when your order reaches $60, you'll get all that I mentioned but you'll also receive the 1/4" Copper Trim! To receive all these things, you need to use HOST CODE 3DSR7NFJ to make it easy for you, you can Click HERE to Shop! My little way of saying Thank You for your support! I always appreciate it!

Thank you so much for stopping by! Have a great weekend!

Happy Anniversary!!!

Also Happy Saturday! I hope you can enjoy this long weekend! For a good friend, it's her 50th Wedding Anniversary! So of course I had to make a card! I did CASE (Copy And Share Everything) this card and thought it was gorgeous. It does use some retired items. I loved the background vellum. It's something we had in a previous holiday mini and I fortunately still had! So much easier then trying to figure out something different. I'm not sure she received the card by today but wanted to share it on her anniversary anyway. I hope she enjoys it as much as I did making it and that you do too!

This card also uses some current product as well. The Bloomin' Heart Thinlits and it's coordinating stamp set Bloomin' Love as well as Large Numbers Framelits and one of it's coordinating stamp set Number of Years. I used gold embossing powder and the outgoing gold satin ribbon. I don't use this ribbon much but it's a really nice elegant ribbon.

Well this is a short post today because since it's finally not raining, I need to get outside and do some yard work! With all the rain, things have been growing by leaps and bounds and they need some trimming!



Don't forget there are only a FIVE more days to get any retiring items! Click HERE to get your favorites before they're GONE!

Enjoy your weekend and hope you're able to do something fun! We're keeping it low key and taking it easy after all the yard work! Oh, btw, if anyone wants some frogs, come on over, they keep getting in the pool and I'm getting really tired of scooping them out!

Almost Done with Swaps!

I should be done posting my swaps in another few days. Don't want to post them all in one day. That would make the post waaay to long. I could just show all the cards just like to give you info about them.

This first card was made Pauline. Another very talented demonstrator in our group. Although I must say by all the swaps I received, they are all very talented! Anyway Pauline used the Cool Treats bundle for this card. I've been wanting to make a card like this and will have do come up with something similar for my technique class. The ice cream cone is shiny. Not sure it really shows up in the pictures. To make the ice cream cone shiny, she used VersaMark & clear embossing powder. For the openings, she used two different size square framelits.

 Here is the card opened so you can see a bit better how it all looks.

 This next card was done by another Barbara and used the Window Shopping bundle. I really like this bundle and have played with it a bit. This die is a bit different where it's the negative part you use. She stamped images from Swirly Bird behind the die cut to give it contrast. What a great card to re-create!

 This card was made by Lily and used So in Love bundle. This is another bundle I just love. This is another suite that can be used for weddings, anniversaries, birthdays. Behind the lacy looking die cut is a piece of the coordinating DSP called Falling in Love. This would even work for Valentine's Day cards.













This last card uses the other set that coordinates with the So in Love called Falling for You and also used the Falling in Love DSP. Amazing how different the cards look! The DSP in this suite is soft hues of our subtles & neutrals. This card was made by Vicki. Both of these cards could be for a wedding or birthday. The butterflies in this cards were from Sunshine Wishes and it's hard to tell but also used the petal Burst Embossing folder and Stitched Framelits.

I should be able to get the last group posted all together and will be done with all of those swaps!

I hope you're enjoying them and don't forget if you see anything you like and would like to purchase it, you can find it in my store here.

Happy Anniversary!

Today is my anniversary! We've been married 32 years and life is great. I was going to make John's card last night but our daughter was feeling well so went to deal with that and since it was late, went to bed. So this is hot off the press. Here is my card to him.

My card to him

Enjoying card

His card to me

As you can see, he put a lot of effort into his card. The sad part is, he really is a good artist. But I must say he keeps me laughing! I was on Pinterest looking for ideas for his card and needed something simply and above is what I came up with. I did find some other verses that would love to use. Here is one I thought was cute: "You're the only one I want to annoy for the rest of my life. Happy Anniversary". Here is the other I thought would be good too: "On our anniversary, I want you to know how much I've enjoyed annoying you all this time & how excited I am to keep doing so in the future." Now of course I don't think I annoy him but of course he does. His typical question to me is "How much do I charge to haunt a house?" Well my response is: "Nothing! But I charge a lot to keep the ghosts out. Trying to hint, but he doesn't get it. The response is something like that and doesn't sound great but exactly what eludes me right now and John can't remember either. So I guess it wasn't a great response anyway. So this is my anniversary, but life is good and wouldn't want to be married to anybody else. We've been through a lot and look forward to the next 32 years! Life is GRAND! He's the best!
Cyndy