TIME WITH FRIENDS

If you follow my blog you may remember that once a year some of us who belong to a Yahoo Group meet in Des Moines to share our "toys", shop, make  cards, eat and enjoy each other's company.  This was our 10th year of getting together......9 out of 10 gatherings have been in Des Moines.  Last Tuesday we met first in Ankeny IA and shopped at Memory Bound Scrapbooking after having lunch at Applebee's.  Then we checked into our motel in Urbandale and visited until it was time for a wonderful meal at The Machine Shed.

Wednesday we went to Outstamping Designs in Valley Junction and spent the day sharing new ideas and taking a class where we made four cards using a sheet of beautiful Penny Black stickers.  Suzanne designed the cards and had all the materials pre-cut and in kits for us to assemble with her directions.

This is one of the cards.  It isn't finished yet because I wanted to put my own sentiment on it when I needed to use it.  The circle portion is simply laying on the card so I could take the picture.  NOTE:  I learned something new about adding stickers to pre-cut mats - especially if they are round.  Remove the sticker from the sheet and then cover the back side of it generously with a glue stick.  That way if you have to reposition it, you can easily do it.

We added a bit of glue to the black center of the poppies and added black glitter which really makes the flowers stand out.

We had a great time together!  I'll be showing the other three cards this week.  Thank you for coming by today...........your comments are always welcome and appreciated!

PINK BALLOONS

Elizabeth Craft Designs peel-off sticker.

I made this card a few days ago and thought it would be a good choice for today - me celebrating another election behind me - but I'm too tired to think about celebrating. 

As I said in yesterday's post, when the election poll hours are from 7:00 AM to 9:00 PM, it makes for a very long day having to get up early and not getting to bed until I can unwind afterward.  To make things worse, somehow my alarm clock had the time set wrong and I ended up getting up an hour  earlier than I needed to........4:00 AM was NOT welcome!!!!  By the time I realized what the real time was I knew I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep again.  I wish I could have slept in later this morning but my body still woke up at its regular time and I did have to get the election materials returned to the County Seat this morning.  I don't normally nap, but today it just might be calling to me. 

Thanks for coming by today!

PINK CONE FLOWER

I don't think this card needs much of an explanation but if you have any questions, just let me know.  

Probably by the time you are seeing this, I will have been up very early and working at the local precinct for the Iowa Primary Election.  I really enjoy working at the election.  Ordinarily I am not  an early morning person,  but this does require getting up at 5:00 AM so that I can get to the polls at 6:00 AM.  We have to set up and be ready for voters at 7:00 AM.  Then the polls stay open until 9:00 PM.  It takes about an hour to tally up the information to submit to the County, pack up and then get home hopefully shortly after 10:00 PM.  It makes for a very long day but I have two other great helpers who serve with me.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

ROUND GREETING CARD

Making shaped cards is something that I rarely do.  I had used these two peel-off stickers and colored them on a piece of white card stock.  I decided to use a Spellbinders circle die to cut it out.  Then I used two pieces of Stampin' Up! card stock to cut the two mats.  It only made sense at that point to make a round card for it.

The white scalled piece was cut with the largest scalloped circle and then embossed with the Swiss Dots folder.  I added it to a round card base.  I used the largest plain circle die and placed it slightly above the fold of the card base and cut through both layers at one time.

Hope you had a great weekend!  The weather has been quite nice here.  Thanks for coming by today!

LOTS OF SPARKLE

I have a stack of Elizabeth Craft Designs peel-off stickers and decided to pull out a couple of packages and get them added to some card stock. These two were added to double sided adhesive and some were just added to plain white card stock without the glitter.  I color the images with Copic markers but try to choose colors that coordinate with the Stampin' Up! card stock that I have.  When I color with the Copic markers, I don't brush the color on, I use a "dotting" motion to protect the brush end. 

For this card I simply reversed the way I used the two pink colors on the flowers.  This is sticker set is one of my very favorite designs.  

Thank you for stopping by today and have a great weekend!

CLEAN AND SIMPLE

I couldn't stand it any longer........I had to make something!!!

I chose the Stampin' Up! "Sheltering Tree" stamp set.  The background behind the butterfly is from that set.   The butterfly is one of the dies from the Spellbinders "Wonderful Wings".  

First I cut a piece of white card stock to 4" x 5 1/4" and stamped the background with SU Melon Mambo in.  The butterfly was cut with the same color of card stock.  My plan was to add the layer with foarm squares but before doing that I decided to edge the layer with the Melon Mambo Ink using the ink pad.  It really helped to set it off.

Below are picture of three beautiful mansions we saw in Charleston SC.  

McLeod Plantation

We were able to get into this first one which has not been open to the public for a very long time.  There were no furnishings inside but I have a feeling they will eventually find pieces to include.  A young lady there gave a wonderful talk giving the background of the time when the owners had slaves.  She also concluded her presentation by singing phrases from two of the songs which the slaves would sing while working.  It brought tears to my eyes.

Drayton Hall Plantation

Magnolia Plantation

We didn't tour the mansion, but the grounds were just beautiful!!!

HEADING EAST

 Pigeon Forge,  TN

We didn't actually go to Dollywood though.  The park was a short distance from here and we drove there just to see what it was like but it was so far off the entrance we couldn't see it.

Smokey Mountains

My husband

Fort Sumter 

The start of the Civil War began here.

Inside the Fort