A Stitch In Time

Can you guess which one of  the 3 gal pals is the seamstress of the group?  It's certainly not me!  Even though my mother and great aunt Bertha could both make some wonderful things on a sewing machine, I guess I just never inherited that gene.  Putting thread on a bobbin and trying to sew a straight line is quite a challenge for me.  But I'm so grateful to have a friend like Mona - so gifted in so many ways - but one of the best is her sewing skills.  I've been the lucky recipient of a few cards that have included some stitching.  Isn't this one great?!    

Griz Thank You Notes

Made a set of these Griz thank you notes for some folks at work.  Got the paper at Memory Lane last year.  Wanted more of it because it's so perfect for friends at UM but Debbie said they don't make it anymore.  Darn!  Didn't get much craft time in this weekend - Double Darn! But Allan's leaving tonight (Sunday night) instead of his regular Monday morning flight so maybe I can squeeze in just a couple of hours.  Whoo-Hoo!!! 

Val's Alcohol Ink Samples

Got sidetracked and didn't get the pictures of Val's cards from the Saturday alcohol ink class taken until yesterday and then had to work a little late last night so I didn't get the pictures posted as planned.  But here they are.  I love, love, love how her "smoosh" technicque turned out - especially the one that  is the bright golds and orange.  Wonder how much it would take to bribe her out of that one? !  :-)  The flowers on her "shimmer" technique are fantastic. Loved the colors and the layers of color.  Hope everyone has a good weekend.  When Mona gets back from vacation next week I'll get pictures of hers posted.  P.S.  September 7th - our "show and tell" date for the 1st Gal Pal Sketch challenge is quickly approaching.  I haven't even started!  Have lots of ideas swimming in my head though.

Clean and Simple

Maybe it's because I'm lazy but I've really been drawn to all the clean and simple card designs and blogs lately.  Here's a wedding card I made for my neighbor's daughter Meghanne who recently got married.  Both UM grads by the way!  P.S. Val - I need to keep you alcohol ink cards one more day - didn't get them photographed last night but will definitley do that tonight and get them posted.  Off to work.  See ya' back here tomorrow.

Card Class

We had so much fun!  It's been a long time since all 3 of us learned something totally new - together.  Spent Saturday afternoon at Memory Lane exploring 4 techniques with alcohol inks.  We learned how to do a rust technique, a "crystal" or stained-glass technique, a smoosh technique and a "blow it off" technique.  Here's my samples.  Val and Mona's turned out much better but I didn't have my camera with me so I'll have to post them later.  And of course after having so much fun we had to make a "little" investment in all the stuff we needed to make more cards.  Eeesh!  I'm not sure any of us can afford to learn anything new! :-)

This is the regular pouncing technique on glossy paper.
This is the rust technique - really cool!  The bird is the stained-glass/shimmer technicque which is also on the flowers on the next card.

This is the "blow it off" technique - we used compressed air to blow the ink around until it looked like it was marbleized (sp?).

And finally - and most definitely least - my least favorite card that is - is my version of the smoosh technique.  I kind of ruined it when I tried to add a darker color.  Will definitely have to try this one again.  Wait until you see Mona and Val's samples of this technique - they're great!

Paper Tole

Isn't this birthday card beautiful!  This is my 2010 birthday card from Val.  I tease her all the time when I watch her do her paper tole cards. . . ."Is that one for me? :-) "  They are all so beautiful.  I certainly couldn't do it - don't have the steady hands and really don't have the patience that Val has.  You ought to see the ones from a Victorian Christmas kit she has.  Maybe she'll bring one next Tuesday night so we can get it photographed and up on the site (hint, hint Val ! :-) 

I found this good description of Paper Tole in the web.. . . .Paper tole - an art form that originated sometime in the 18th century, also known as three-dimensional decoupage, is the art of handcrafting three-dimensional pictures from flat prints. Paper tole art is created by skillfully cutting, shaping, and assembling pieces of paper layered onto an image until a three-dimensional version of the image emerges. The photo below shows a little more of the detail and dimension.

Tomorrow's post will hopefully be pics of the cards we're making at our Alcohol Ink class at Memory Lane.  Until then. . . .Happy Friday!

Noah's 1st Birthday

Noah - my grandbaby (Allan's step-daughter's child) - is turning 1 next Monday. Allan will be at his big party this weekend in Wilmington, North Carolina. Natasha, Mom, rented a club house and there are 50 people on the invite list. While I'm really looking forward to my "party for one" weekend, I sure do wish I could be there to see how he handles all the fun. It's been so much fun to watch him grow this year. Natasha and Cameron, Dad, have been great about posting pictures once a month and Allan and Natasha talk every week so all the updates make us feel as close as possible. And we've even Skype'd a time or 2.

Here's the card we (and I really mean we) came up with. Allan's so funny when I'm in my craft room doing something like this - he wants to watch what I'm doing, play with the Cricut and then of course can't resist giving me his input. Most of the time his input is really great and this time was no exception. He basically was responsible for the embellishments in the corner and the placement & pop up of the scalloped circle. Got the paper with matching ribbon and embellisments at Memory Lane. Loved the dinosaurs and the colors are ones that Natasha seemss to dress Noah in. Hope he loves it. And most of all I hope he continues to have a wonderful life full of love and adventure.

What a "Treat"

Our Tuesday night craft night was fun. I know it seemed like we didn't get alot done but we really did!!; my Gal Pals helped me play with some Martha Stewart punches, found paper for the post-it note holders I'm making for my new team, caught up on happenings in our lives (one of the best parts of our time together!), browsed the new Stampin' Up mini catalog (Uh-Oh! That could be trouble :-) ) and shared recent card crafting adventures. Here's a super cute card Mona made with the Stampin' Up treat cups. She's so funny (and clever). . . said she just couldn't fill them with treats somebody couldn't get to so she used small buttons. Kind of like a shaker box card. Isn't it great! And guess what my favorite part is. . . .. . . .. Yep. . . . .RIC-RAC!!!! :-)
Have a great day everyone!

Challenge Crazy!!

After weeks of just sitting on the sidelines and looking at all the submissions to the Splitcoast daily challenges, I finally jumped back in. Did the Try a New Technique challenge AND the Clean and Simple challenge. Here's the links to the challenge so you can read what they are and then I have the cards I made right below.

TLC286:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/try-new-technique-f44/tlc286-~-anything-but-bow-knot-~-08-16-10-a-t502707.html

Holiday Cheer:

CAS80:
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/clean-simple-cards-f239/cas80-sketch-stampingout-8-16-10-a-t502710.html

Love:
Will bring the camera to card night and hopefully will have something new to post tomorrow.

See ya' soon.

Gal Pal Sketch #1

Wow! It's been WAY too long since we've had any activity on this blog. I'm gonna' try to change that.

I'll start by posting our current sketch. I've been so enjoying all the challenges on Splitcoaststampers. Spend most of my mornings surfing around while I'm having my cereal and coffee. Can't say I get too many challenges done but it's fun looking.

So I talked Val and Mona into giving it a try. But Val cautioned that we can't be too overly ambitious especially since our jobs can sometimes drain the life out of us. Can you tell she's thee wise one of the 3 of us? :-) So we're starting with this one.


Use any patterned paper and any embossing folder you like - can't wait to see what Val comes up with since she has almost every single Cuttlebug folder :-). I couldn’t find a shape in Word that looked like the scalloped punch but the hope is that we’ll use the scalloped oval or circle with an inner circle that contains the sentiment. Ribbon (maybe ric rac1 - my favorite!) will be along the mid section / embossed section. (Hope you can tell the "hourglass" was a boo-boo when I took the print screen and shouldn't be a part of the sketch)

We decided we would do our show and tell on it the Tuesday after Labor Day. Hope that gives us enough time.
More postings soon!