FROM THE CRYPT... PART 2

As promised, I am back today with my other 3 cards form my fun new "From The Crypt" set, made by Stampin Up. I am really having a good time with this one, which makes me glad, cause so many of my beautiful stamps never see ink for such a long time after I've gotten them. Then today on Oprah, they were talking about horders. Do you think I may be a stamp horder?? I just love them, and want them all...
But to appease myself from thinking I have some weird sickness, I do read on many other blogs out there that there are hoarders~ I mean collectors~ just like me. Yea!!! I'll go with the " there's safety in numbers" theory for that one.
Well, here are my other 3 cards made on WCMD. Hope you enjoy them. I've noticed that my green cards are not photographing too well. They are quite striking in real life. The green is so vibrant. Not sure what is going on.

Many thanks for stopping by...

FROM THE CRYPT

Well, this weekend on World Cardmaking Day, I played with one of my newest Stampin Up sets called "From The Crypt". It has 4 stamps in it, and obviously the skull is my favorite. The bat, the spider, and the other design stamp is pretty cool also. They work so well together and were a joy to emboss.
I made 6 cards in total this weekend, and today I am showing you 3 of them.
The first is my personal favorite. I did a poll on my husband and son, asking them to rate the 6 in order of preference, and the choices were very different, which I liked. They all came out wonderful~ After embossing with Versamark and black embossing powder, I masked the skull and color dusted around it with Distress inks in Orange Marmalade. I also got a chance to use my new Martha Stewart Spider Web punch.

All of these cards are a 5 by 7 inch format, so that gives me lots of room to play. The designer paper is from my never ending stash of paper, from several different companies.

I'll be back tomorrow to show you the other 3.

Many thanks for stopping by...

BAD BLOGGER!!

I have been a slacker lately as far as the blog goes. But although I could have snuck in a post here and there (maybe?) I didnt. I am sorry. But for your veiwing pleasure~ here is one of the reasons ~ actually 41 of the reasons~ that I havent been around lately.
I was hired by a local family to make birth announcements for their brand new baby boy. He is sooo cute and his name is Derik John. They wanted traditional boy colors, and since we live by the sea, the sailboat was a perfect choice. It is all done in Stampin Up cardstock- Night Of Navy, Soft Sky (retired), Old Olive and little snippets of Bashful Blue. The verse is a Verve Stamp, Edge punch by Martha Stewart, and Cuttlebug embossing folder.

Here they are lined up on my work table before the sailboat was made. They were a pleasure to make, but quite time consuming. The stamping was minimal, but there was so much measuring, cutting and glueing.
The little squares behind the sailboat ended up to be me cutting 164 shapes!

The boat is made with the circle punch cut in half for the boat, a 1" square punch for the right sail, and a 3/4" square for the left sail. These were punched and then cut on the diagonal. The little flag on the top was hand cut by me.

The inside of the card has his computer generated stats on the right side in 2 different fonts, and a photo of him on the left. I did not photograph this as to not invade the privacy of my customers, but it was as cute as the outside.

Many thanks for stopping by, and I promise to be back real soon~

MY NEW BICYCLE

I am excited to share with you pictures of my new bicycle!! In my quest to lose some weight, I once again signed up at our local gym with my son as my trainer, and decided to do some biking each day. The problem with that was I didnt have my own bike. I had been riding my stepdaughters' bike from when she was about 12?
Needless to say, it was time for a new one. I sold hers on Craigslist, along with another old bike that was just taking up space in my garage. With that money, and only $35.00 more, I went shopping.
Here is what I found!!!!!!! Since I live in a coastal town, right near both ocean and river, it was only fitting that I get a "Beach Cruiser" style of bike. Its made by Schwinn (just like the bikes I always had as a kid), has a retro look that I love, and best of all~ its pink!!! I think Im in love!

When I went to pick it up at the store after they assembled it, I spied this great basket and knew it would look awesome on my handlebars. Boy was I right!

Well, I'm off to take a ride.

Many thanks for stopping by...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!

Yesterday was my birthday. We had a very nice day, and since my sister and her family just moved to NC this summer, it was my first birthday since Im here (5 years) that we actually had a housefull of people. It was really great.
I wanted to show you the beautiful cake that my husband and children got me this year. Its called Basket of Flowers and it was one of the prettiest cakes I have seen. Everything is made of whipped cream and it was 2 huge layers of chocolatey goodness inside that frosting. It was so realistic, my Brother in Law asked if it was the cake or a centerpiece for fall.
Here is the whole cake on my vintage milk glass cake pedestal. This is a closeup of the flowers~ which were about 2 inches thick in parts.

This is a shot of the basket weave the talented girl did. Impressive, huh??

And this is a photo from my kitchen island. I took this one cause the titles on these cards are the 3 most important to me~ MOM,WIFE and DAUGHTER. I am honored to be all of these 3 things to the best people in the world. Thanks for making my birthday so very special.

The photos of blowing out the candles and all of us enjoying this cake are on my Husbands camera, and are yet to be downloaded. I'll try to get them up for tomorrow.
Many thanks for stopping by...

PROJECT TUESDAY CHALLENGE

Jennifer M over at Stamps and Smiles always hosts the lovliest and fun challenges. This week over at Project Tuesday the challenge was to make a gift card/envelope. They even supply a link to the template, so not only is it fun, but its easy too.
I decided to do mine as a Thank You card with with a whimsical , fun flavor. The stamps are from Stamps and Smiles. The lollipops are from the set called "Cuppyland" and the inside sentiment is from "Happy Birthday Cuppy". These sets are just adorable, arent they?
This is the outside, front of the card. After stamping each of the 3 lollipops, I colored them with my Copics, then used Stampin Up Crystal Effects to give them the look of freshly unwrapped, shiny goodness. A SU punch was also used for the belly band. Here is a closeup of how well the Crystal Effects works to give a realistic shine wherever needed. I have applied it a bit thick as to give each pop a raised, domed look.
The sticks were glittered with an ultra fine glitter, and tiny bows were added to each to finish them off.

This photo shows the inside of this versatile little card. There is room for a gift card on the bottom, as the cardstock folds up to make a pocket. Best to use a double sided cardstock for this project.

The middle panel is for your sentiment and hand written note. I double layered this panel, and added some glittery goodness to the edges in a "fairy pink" glitter from Hobby Lobby.

Who would'nt love to receive this in the mail. I know that I would.

Many thanks for stopping by.

DINNER WITH MY MOTHER IN LAW

This past weekend, Bob, Michael, TT and I were invited out to dinner by my Mother in Law. She is a member of the Marianist Community, and was in North Carolina to attend an executive board meeting at The Christian Family Living Center in Topsail, NC. This is about 1 1/2 hours north of where we live. She lives in New York, so tries to get together with us when possible after her duties are fulfilled.
We went to a wonderful restaurant right in Topsail that serves great American fare. It has many seafood dishes, as it is right on the beach. That is what most people ate, but as TT and I dont like seafood, we each had a sirloin steak. Mine was served with a goat cheese herbed butter on top. Yummm!!!!! Here is Michael hamming it up for the camera with his Grandma Carol.

Here we all are after dinner with smiling faces and full bellies~ I wish our oldest son Stephen could be with us more, but that is difficult as he lives in NYC.

By the way, did I metion that I tried Alligator Tail, which was one of the appetizers. This is quite a feat for me, as I am pretty picky as far as what I will eat. It tasted like a chickeny-pork type of white meat, but it was pretty chewy. I think I'll pass on that next time. The cajun batter it was in was good though.

This is actually my first husbands' (who passed away years ago) mother, but I will always call her my Mother In Law. I am very grateful that we still get to spend time with her and that she and my husband Bob get along so well.

One last shot of Michael and Bob before we left for the evening.

Many thanks for stopping by~