A special Thank you!

Happy Mail!

My 'anything' goes card swap

First off for today's post I would like to thank "my secret friend" for the package. I would love to share the details of the letter that came with the package, however out of respect for the sender I will not. It was a nice surprise and I really will enjoy the contents. I want to thank you for the sincere letter. At least I am not the only one to address certain issues that you brought up with kindness and respect. The package and the letter are both blessings to me.

I am not sure if you can see all the wonderful goodies or not, but inside the box wrapped in a bunch of bubble wrap, plastic bags and tissue paper I found a bunch of fun stuff. There are fun brads, ribbon (I love ribbon) and some stuff to alter, two tag books (I plan to use as patterns). Some cute stickers, page adornments and more.

The package couldn't have arrived on my front porch at a better time. As many of you know, my sweet Michael is working far from home. It is difficult on us both. He will not be coming home this weekend I probally will not see him until next Friday.

I had gotten a bit spoiled with him working from home and being able to spend my day to day with him beside me. I made a decision a week ago that I will treat myself to a one time maid service. Yes, I can do house work on my own, but this is the deep down stuff I will gladly let some one else do!

For those of you who are participating in my 'anything goes' card swap, here is a list of the cards I have currently received. Please have your cards in my mail box no later than Thrusday, March 5, 2009. I am extending the deadline to allow my late swappers a chance to participate.

Received; Loretta

Jeanne

Teresa

Alicia

Colleen

Debbie

Lily

Mary

P&J

Peggy B.

Peggy

I really think every one will be thrilled with the swaps they receive back. For those of you who sent hostess' gifts, my sincere thank you. I also really appreciated all the kind words and notes/cards you sent along with the swaps.

Have a great day !

Loretta

San Diego -- Zoo!

What a long week!

Here is the story. I haven't been blogging very much in the last few weeks. I know, it sucks!

I had a case of a stomach flu the beginning of last week and my hubby was in New Jersey for the week. He came home on Thursday night and invited me to go to Yuma, AZ and San Diego. Mike had to work all day on Saturday, which meant I spent a few hours in the Arizona sun shine and at the spa. Ah nice.

I recently purchased a Sony Walkman and enjoyed listening to my tunes while enjoying the sun!

We took Monday off and went to San Diego zoo. It was so much fun. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the lack of viewing for many of the exhibits. My favorite part was the sky tram and bus tours.

I will be catching you guys up tomorrow on what I have been stamping.

Have a great night!

The blog candy winner is!

A quick am post. (Will do a long post this afternoon).

The blog winner is:

CREATE=FUN said... great layouts! January 26, 2009 12:52 PM

I put all the names from the comments in a hat (for every comment your name was put in once) and the winner was drawn this morning by my son Chad. Create+Fun, please email me at: ms.rhetta@verizon.net and let me know your snail mail info so I can mail you off the goodies!

For those 'in the loop' I am feeling much better. My three day stomach flu finally cleared up. Just in time for a quick trip to Yuma, AZ and San Diego, CA. I loved the zoo! I hope to have my laptop up and running again in the next few days. I have so much junk on there that I am having to transfer larger files to my external back up (terabyte) drive. I am also having issues with the computer's battery. I finally have decided to just replace the unit.

I am really enjoying my new Sony Walk man. My hubby has taken a few hours and lots of music later and I have a nice collection on the Walk man. I'm now one of those 'mom's' in the grocery store listening to tunes while picking out veggies. It is really kinda fun. Favorite Gene re's include Christian and Country. Even though I have a new appreciation for old 1950's and 1960's music.

Have a great day. I'm off to run some errands.

Hugs,

Blog candy on hold

SO sorry for not posting. Last week I had a terrible tummy flu, and this weekend I'm in Yuma, AZ. I actually went swimming and laid by the pool thi afternoon.

So since I am not home, I'm putting off blog candy, so continue to try for it if you like.

I'll probally post some pictures of what I have been up too soon. PS, Craig will be working on the B-2 bomber program when he finishes up at Sheppard AFB, TX. How cool is that?!

Have you seen?

Image is from Sandy lion designs

A bit of blog candy for you guys!

Hello!

I hope you all enjoyed a wonderful Sunday! It has been a quiet day and I spelt in!

There are bunches of kids in our neighbor hood and when I hear one of the younger ones is having a birthday I try to make a card. This one is going to our little 'Candie' for her upcoming birthday. I will add a chipboard #6 above the birthday. I just don't have one for the card example. Close your eyes, you can picture it there!

If you are in the local area, it is worth a trip to the Michael's in Bowie, Maryland. It is one of the new 'signature' stores with all the stamping and scrap booking supplies in the center it is well organized and I found a few really nice deals and goodies. Including these stamps. Gotta love the online 50% off coupon. I put my son and hubby both in line with the coupons!

Have a great night!

Stamp Happy!

*FREE* Shrink plastic!

Hi Everyone! Did you know that you have 'free' shrink plastic in your cubbard or fridge right now? All this time I have spent some money on shrinky dinks and could have saved a bit by doing this. Go to your fridge or pantry (probally fridge) and grab that container of strawberries. Step 1. Enjoy the strawberries. Step 2. Clean container and remove any labels. Step 3. Cut off as much of the flat parts of the plastic as you can. Step 4. Stamp on the plastic with either staz on ink or a good pigment ink. Cut out being sure not to smear the image. I used the heart from stamping ups 'Happy Heart Day' stamp set. Step 5 and its option: Using a heat gun and a pair of scissors start heating the plastic up. Be sure to keep the scissors flat so the image doesn't curl up. Heat until it shrinks. This process took a good two minutes for me. Option 2 -- preheat your toaster oven to 375* place the plastic into the oven and leave for about 3 to 5 minutes. I do a bunch at once so I get the plastic smell out of the way. I only use my toaster oven for crafts. Use reasonable caution when experimenting. Watch your project carefully and don't burn down your house! Remove from oven using oven mitts. Other plastics I have tried include the packaging of sizzix dies (they wrinkled but I'm still experimenting, also they did not shrink as much as the containers did). The shrinking is not as much as your standard shrinky dink plastic, but they are definitely smaller and make great accents for scrap book pages or cards! I hope you will have fun experimenting! Stamp Happy!

Scrap Simply -- a great deal or you!

Hop on over to Scrap Simply click here.

They are offering some fantastic discounts up to 15% off your entire purchase. Now that is a great savings. Go check their great store out!

The Valentine treat box above measures 6 13/16" X 3" score at 1" - 3 3/8" - 4" and 6 3/8"

Punch a hole at the top put your ribbon over the treat box and through the holes to create handles. I used the "happy heart day" stamp set from Stampin Up for the front panel, she is colored with Copic markers.

Craig is doing well at Sheppard AFB in TX. I was able to call him last night. He was thrilled to be able to shower by himself for a change. I'm getting a goody package together for him today and hope to make it to the post office tomorrow.

No new word n Mike's deployment date. The really bad part is he will be traveling most weeks and some weekends until he leaves .

I hope you all will have a great day!

Hugs,

More blog candy! A new online community!

Isn't that nice candy?! I hope you guys will like this offering of blog candy, remember I will be drawing a name on the 21st of February. You may leave a comment any where on my blog and get a chance to win the candy. Yes, you can leave as many comments & kind suggestions as you like.

If you are not signed into google, please leave me a comment via email. The information is on the side bar of the main page of the blog. I will put the comment onto the blog and enter you into the contest, don't forget to tell me your first name!

The card is by Gloria Jewett and it is for my 'anything goes' card swap that I am hosting on cuppas and cards. Click here for the link. It is a fairly new on-line community for paper crafts, stampers, scrappers and artists.

There are lots of fun forums, a wonderful gallery and really nice people to chat with. I hope you will consider joining our fun group!

I hope every one has a great evening!

Stamp Happy!

A qucik post and project

This was my first attempt at using my new sizzix purse die. You can't really see the embossing on the front of the purse and the chipboard letter "T" is too dark, I also don't like the flower, its a little too matchy - matchy for me.

I will be redoing this with some more color combinations probably tomorrow.

Today I did get some 'utility' stamping in. I have recently purchased some stamps and wanted to get some images onto card stock. My hands are still inky!

I enjoyed another great day today! Craig was able to call home last night and he was getting settled. I know he was in for a long day as tech school kids hit the ground running!

I hope you will all have a great day. Watch the blog! I am going to add to the blog candy this week!

Have a great night, Happy Stamping!

Airman Basic Graduation!

Don't forget to see my last post in regards to blog candy, it is still up for grabs. I am using my hubby's computer for today's post. Here is a picture of Craig and I shortly after graduation! All I have to say is WOW! The kid has diffidently changed and we had a wonderful weekend together. Chad was a bit of a toad making weird faces in some of the pictures. We spent a few hours on post before heading out to the town. Craig's flight had won "Beast" week. The group photo of the men in their blues is wonderful, the caption reads 'From knuckleheads to Knights"! We visited the Alamo and other down town features like the river walk. I saw another mom hugging the stuffing out of her son, and couldn't help but to reply 'be careful or you'll pop that hat right off', the kid just smiled and shook his head 'yes' while the mom just giggled. Craig was like -- yes, mom you got that right! Craig's cell phone was returned to him yesterday, so he was thrilled to give me a call earlier today. He is headed to Shepard AFB for his Technical school training. He will be gone for another six weeks. I will go down for that graduation (I hope) and he will get to return home for two weeks. After seeing how clean that dorm was I'm thinking of hiring him to clean this house.... just kidding! I hope you are all doing well. Oh, the local bullies are at work again. Please pray for me. Why can't people just leave you alone when you've asked them nicely? Here is a link I think you'll find helpful to lean how to deal with bullies click here, it is designed for children, but since these adults do not get 'grown up' way of doing things I'm posting it for those of us who may be dealing with difficult circumstances and inappropriate behavior. I hope to be able to do some stamping tomorrow. Today was all about the post min-vacation catch up with the laundry and housework. I will have Chad help with some of the vacuuming. My back is a bit strained from long flights. Have a great day and I'll blog you all later!

Blog Candy!

OK, forgot to mention the 'blog candy ' rules. They are pretty simple.

You may leave a comment on any post on this blog. I will be 'adding' to the candy in the upcoming weeks. I will draw for the candy around Feb 21.

For those who asked about the journal, I tried to use my crop a dile big bite and I was just not strong enough to punch through the thickness of the note pad. That is why I elected to drill the holes with my dermel tool. Please note, the friction does cause the paper to 'smoke' a bit, so please use reasonable caution!

No stamping for me today. I had a bunch of work around the house to catch up!

I hope to get a little time to stamp today.

How do you like the picture of that spoiled little blond dog? She was very content under my feet and in front of the heater, I couldn't resist but to take her picture and share it!

I hope you guys have a great night! Blogger's spell check is not working so please forgive any typo's or incorrectly spelled words!

A pretty journal -- BLOG CANDY!

The top picture is BLOG CANDY!

The journal was purchased from an office supply store. It measures 5" X 8" . To complete this project, you will need either drill or a dermel tool with a poly carbonate bit. This material is very thick, you must be patient. Use reasonable caution use safety glasses and a dusk mask. It takes a good 15-20 minutes to drill through using a dermel and a poly carbonate blade. I used a bar type closure to hold the cover on. Using the sizzix I cut the flower out of felt. I died some of the felt using my rose red die pad from Stampin Up! It is stamped with a sentiment from Stampin up as well. I used my sizzix and a texture plate to emboss the lower half of the note pad. I used the die ink and a sponge to add more texture and color. Have a great evening! Stamp Happy!