Merry Christmas

Today is the day that young children look forward to because Santa has arrived.  Let us remember the real reason why we celebrate Christmas though as we spend time with friends and family.

Church Street Stroll

Last night we went to Dade City with our friends Rod, Elyce, Zac and Alyssa to attend the Church Street Stroll.  The houses and churches along the street are all decorated for Christmas. There is free musical entertainment along the street and inside the churches.  Some of the businesses are along the street giving out free hot chocolate, cake, cupcakes, and donuts.  We really enjoyed it and hope to return again in the future.  A cold front has come through so it is finally starting to feel like winter instead of almost summer weather.  The cold air made it feel like Christmas.  This is the card I made for one of my band directors.

Valentine Already?

No it isn't a valentine card but the stamp is from a valentine set.  I used it as an anniversary card.  I never would have thought to do this but I saw a card like it on splitcoast.  I kind of wanted to draw a heart on the brown tree bark and put some initials in it.  I didn't think I would draw well enough though so I skipped that step.  Jim's mom and dad were married sometime around this date.  I forget the exact date though and don't want to go look it up.  But I do remember that today is the anniversary of Jim's dad's death 24 years ago.  I can not believe he has been gone that long.  We buried him on their wedding anniversary.

Christmas Door

I saw this card on my friend Linda's blog.  I love doing punch art so of course I had to CASE it.  I have a link to her blog on our blog if you would like to see her card. (L C Creations, Oct 1 post) Merry Christmas, Linda and thanks for sharing you work.

Last Two Cards from Brayer Class

I really enjoyed taking these classes with Michelle Zindorf and plan to make some cards using the brayer on my own.  She has free tutorials on her blog so I am going to try to improve my skills.

December Already?

Today is December 7 which means Christmas is very near.  I made this card months ago and saved it for my first December post, then forgot to add it on Dec 1.   It uses some of my stash of retired teal card stock.  You can't tell from this picture but the white snowflake layer has silver ink that I smeared on them.  The silver and teal look good together.

December Birthdays

Turquoise is one of the birthstones for December.  This card is made with bermuda bay cardstock.  It is in the turquoise family.  Heather and Tim have birthdays this month.

Some More Brayer Work

Here is another of the cards I made at the class that Michelle Zindorf taught.  I didn't get the blue near the beach quite dark enough for the white foam at the edge of the water to show up well.  If you look real close you can see it.  This stamp set has a lot of sealife stamps so I am going to try it again using a shell and get the blue darker.

Glittery Christmas Ornament

This ornament was CASEd from the Stampin Success magazine that I receive.  The ornament is nice and glittery but you can't tell from the picture.  The glitter paper is silver but I colored the top olive green to match the base of the card.

No Picture Today

I have reached the end of the number of pictures I can post on blogspot for free.  Those of you who know me well, know that I am not paying for a blog.  I have thought about just ending the blog, but I know that a very few of you look at it regularly.  So I am going through old posts and either deleting the post entirely or removing a few pictures from the post.  Starting now there will be fewer posts per month also.

I already started doing this and it is mainly jewelry pictures that are being removed as we don't do much of it anymore.  So if you have any favorite posts that you really don't want removed, speak now because I am going through a page of 20 posts each day.

Big Shopping Day

Well, for some people, not me.  I doubt that I will even venture out today.  I don't buy Christmas gifts and I know that sounds so bad.  Our parents are gone, we have no children, and we don't need anything.  Instead of buying gifts for each other we take a nice trip each year.  Maybe we will spend today thinking about where we want to go instead of shopping.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my friends and family.  Here are the apples for my dad.  I knew I had an apple card somewhere.  The designer paper I used with the apple is SU Comfort Cafe. It has some great fall colors and patterns.  I got the idea to use big apples on a card from Markey on splitcoast stampers.

Happy Birthday Dad

My dad loved pie or should I say he loved my mom's homemade pie.  He preferred apple but I have this card made with cherries on it so this is for him.  He liked cherry pie too.  He would have been 95 this year.  His birthday was Nov 22 so it would have been on Thanksgiving this year.  He liked when that happened.

Comfort Cafe

It is Mid-month already and getting closer to Thanksgiving.  Do you have your turkey yet?  We always buy two around this time of the year and freeze one of them.  The price is so good now that we just can't pass up a bargain.

These cards have Stampin Up Comfort Cafe designer paper on them.  It is my favorite paper this year.

Brayer Class

Yesterday was an amazing stamping day.  Michelle Zindorf was in St Petersburg and I took her beginning and advanced brayer classes.  If you are not familiar with her work, here is a link to her blog.
http://zindorf.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com  I have a long way to go but I am happy with what I did yesterday.  I see some messy days coming up because ink goes all over the work space.  Not a problem though because I use Stampin' Up! grid pads to keep my surface clean.  These are all from the beginning class.  I will post the advanced class after Thanksgiving.

First Card Made 

Pumpkin Pie

Well, not really a pie but there is a pumpkin.  I love this simple thanksgiving card and wish I had more of this designer paper.  It was in a small pack of paper and I only have enough of it to make 6 cards.  Since I send everyone in the family the same card, that isn't going to be enough to make it for them.

More Honeycomb Using SU stamps

Inside

Inside

So after making all the honeycomb cards,  I thought about other stamps that I already had that were symmetric.  I thought right away of a hot air balloon and of course a Christmas ornament.  So I made these cards using Stampin Up! sets that I already have.  Jim drew the inside balloon on the paper and the ornament is a SU framelit that I traced half of.  This is the end of the honeycombs.

Honeycomb Rose

If you have been following my posts, there is no explanation needed for this.

Honeycomb Teacup

Inside of the card

I have a few friends who are tea drinkers like me. I had to have the tea cup.

Honeycomb Thanksgiving

So one of the topics in calculus was revolving a curve (graph) about the x or y axis.  It is sort of hard to explain something that is going to be 3d on a flat surface.  So I used those old time decorations made out of honeycomb paper.  When we were in Branson, I saw these cards made from this paper so I had to buy some and try it.  No Deb I didn't try to figure out any equations for the curves.  Back on October 30, I showed you Jim's idea.  These are what the stamps were suppose to look like.  The puffy acorn is on the inside of the card.

Birthday CASE

This is a very easy card to make and yet it is a wow,  how did you do that card.  I am going to have my ladies make this one in one of our futures get togethers.   I CASEd it from Stampin' Success which is a magazine that Stampin' Up! demos receive.

Bookmark Card

I got this bookmark idea on splitcoast.  I am not real happy with my design because it is rather plain for me.  I love the bookmark idea which is what I copied.  I used the scallop edge punch making sure the paper I punched was bigger than one punch of the punch.  Do you think I used the word punch enough in that last sentence.  I think next time I will put a big shot flower instead of the greeting.

Election Day

I know I should be posting a nice patriotic card on election day.  But the truth is I am so over all the political nonsense that has been going on this election.  So instead I am sending thoughts and prayers for our country that we can find a way to learn that compromise is necessary in order to obtain goals.

A Few Christmas Cards

Before you know it, Christmas will be here.  I won't be using either of these this year, but I do need to get busy working on whatever design I decide to use.  I never post it though until after Christmas.

Thanksgiving is Near

Thanksgiving is getting closer and you know that means that Christmas is not far behind.  I think these are the two best Thanksgiving cards that I made this year.  I haven't decided what I am going to make for my family yet.

Happy Halloween

I don't buy many Halloween sets because I really don't use them that much.  The boot set has boots for other occasions and the set with the monster also has a bat, a spider, a ghost, and a mummy so I will get a few years out of it.

Honeycomb Halloween Idea

 When we were in Branson, I spent a lot of time in a scrapbook store there.  They had these cards that are dimensional when you open them.  Remember those old time decorations made with honeycomb paper?  That is what this is.  So Jim had this idea to put a mask on the squirrel and turn the acorn over and make it a jack-o-lantern.  For thanksgiving I have one of these made the way it suppose to be that I will post.  And I may even tell you how I used honeycomb paper when I taught calculus.  I know you can't wait for that explanation.

Turtles

I try to make cards with a variety of things on them that people like or collect.  I met a lady a few years ago at a craft show that always looked for turtles.  This die of the turtles is a multi-tasker.  I used the cut out on one card and the negative on the other.  The stamp set is Nature's Nest from Stampin Up.

Versatile Stamp

I bought this stamp when I was in Branson.  There is a great scrapbook store there that I can't resist going into.  I thought this stamp would be good for Easter, Christmas, or sympathy so I bought it.  I haven't made the Easter version yet.

Another Asian Card

For some reason red and black cards look Asian to me.  That is why I am calling this one another Asian card.  It is just one I have in my stash for when I need a thank you card.

Dragonflies and Turtles

I always get people looking for cards with turtles and cards with dragonflies.  So here are two that I made recently.  The left turtle is stamped on very vanilla card stock and a sheet of vellum was attached using a brad.  This gives the card a softer look.

Fall in Florida

People say to me all the time, you don't have seasons in Florida.  Well, yes we do.  True our leaves don't drop now, they do that in the spring, but the humidity and temperatures do start dropping by October.

Mr. and Mrs.

Our good friend's daughter is getting married today. I made the card, though this is not the card we gave her and Jim made the gift, all stained glass.  When it came to wrapping the gift, I used some white paper that comes in a huge roll.  I used it to cover bulletin boards back when I taught.  I stamped it all over and used some Stampin' Up! rub ons with various lovey expressions.