30th Wedding Anniversary

We have friends that will be leaving on a cruise with their adult children soon.  They will be celebrating their 30th anniversary shortly.  The children bought the cruise for them as a combination anniversary and Christmas present.

Merry Christmas

I think this is the perfect card to post on Christmas Day.  The doily in the background is cut from glimmer paper.  The one on the left is silver and the right is champagne.  They are very pretty and shiny IRL.  Wishing all my friends and family a very Merry Christmas.

Northern Lights Technique

We just returned home from a trip to Sweden where we had hoped to catch a glimpse of the Northern Lights.  Unfortunately, we only had a glimpse and nothing like we had hoped to see.  It was too rainy and cloudy.  I will be posting a few pictures of our trip after Christmas.

The Sunflower Circle Twin

Here is the twin of the lamp I posted earlier.  Do you see the difference between them?  Aren't they called fraternal twins when they are not quite the same?  Someday I will take a picture of them together so you can look for the difference. 

Musical Nativity

What would make this card perfect is if the music in the background was Silent Night.  I am so glad that Stampin' Up! came out with some single Christmas stamps this year.  I needed something with a religious theme and this was just what I wanted.

Pink Poinsettia

I saw this card on Splitcoast and knew I would have to CASE it.  I love the subtle blushing bride pink with the touch of cherry cobbler.  What a great contrast.  The poinsettia was stamped with versamark and the embossed using white embossing powder.

Sunflower in a Circle

Many years ago we bought this lamp base, no shade, at an antique store near Mt Dora, Fl.  We always look for bases at a reasonable cost to use for lamps.  This one and another that I will post in a few days never got used that is until recently.  I will post a picture of the twin later.  Then I will post a picture of both of them together so you can see the difference between them. 

 

 



Vintage Santa

I bought this vintage looking Santa so many years ago that the stamp itself is probably considered vintage by now.  This is the first time I have used it.   I never seemed to find anything to dress it up without going overboard.  I think the embossing folder is just what it needed.  It may go into the rotation for family Christmas cards some year.

Scrap Christmas Tree

I have so many small pieces of scrap paper that when I saw this idea I knew I had to make this card.  This is another card I made with my ladies.  To get the nice tree shape I used the petal cone die and cut out the triangular shape.  If you look close you will see that some of the strips are glitter ribbon.

Dasher

My ladies love Dasher so we make a different card every year using Dasher.  I used some retired DSP that has a nice gold sheen.  Maybe you can see it if you click on the picture and make it bigger.  They liked the card with the Bermuda Bay paper so that is the one we made.

Black Friday Shopping and Small Business Saturday

Did you go out shopping yesterday? Are you going out shopping today?  I try not to shop this weekend because I don't like crowds and traffic.  If you did shop, I hope you found some good      deals.  Don't forget to support your local stores    as they help your community too.                        

Happy Thanksgiving

Each year I buy a new fall or thanksgiving set.  This is the one that immediately caught my attention.  I hope everyone enjoys their day today with family, friends, and food. 

Thanksgiving Plans

Thanksgiving will soon be here.  We will be spending it with our friends Betsy and Ted and their daughter and son - in - law, Karen and Brian.  We have spent many Thanksgivings with them over the past 39 years.

Happy Birthday Dad

Today would have been my dad's 96th birthday.  It is hard to believe he has been gone for over 10 years.  We had a bird feeder in our backyard and he always kept it full especially in the winter.  So I thought this stamp from Stampin' Up!, Simply Sketched, would be a good one to post in his honor. 

My Favorite Thanksgiving Set

This is my favorite stamp this Thanksgiving season.  I used it on my family cards and I don't usually use it a second year for them.  I have decided though that I will be keeping this set and using it again, maybe not next year, but again.

Jim's Most Amazing Glass Project


Pictures will never do this creation justice.  I have three different shots to try to get you to see what it looks like.  IRL it changes depending on the light so we tried to change the light when we took pictures.  This is what the glass picture looks like when there is no light behind it.  Notice the background is blue.

As the day goes on pretend that more sunlight is coming behind it.  What will happen is you will begin to see some red behind the tree.  When the light is completely behind the tree, a full sunset appears.  This is not three separate projects.  These effects are created by building layers on the glass and playing with lighting.



Santa Bag with Bow

This is another purse that I use to hold a set of cards.  If you look at the sides, you can see it is different than the one I posted earlier this week.  I will be using this card purse for another raffle prize at a future event.   The card stock and DSP are both long retired.  The awesome bow is made using the die featured in the Stampin' Up! holiday catalog.  I have enjoyed using it and so glad I ordered it.

Pinwheel Bag and Tag



 

These pinwheels are so fun and easy to make.  I thought they would look cute on another one of the Dollar Store bags.  My group did one of these bags last month too.  They made the tag for the bag too.  Here is a close up of the tag.  The square I used to put on the bag was 4 X 4 while the square to make the pinwheel on the tag was only 2 X 2.

Christmas Tree Bag and Tag

I bought this kraft colored bag at one of the dollar stores in town,  2  for $1.  The design of the bag came from Stampin' Success, I think about a year ago.  It looked to me like they used the 1  1/4 scallop circle punch because they were able to get another row on their tree.  But maybe the bag they used was bigger than mine.  That is one of a very few punches that I don't own so I used the 1  3/4 punch instead.  My card group made this bag last month and liked it so much that they want to do more bags this month, a new design of course.  They joked that it would make a good gift the way it is.

Some More K-Cups

Here are two more of the K-Cup holders that I made.  These two are all packaged up in a cello bag because the shows I do are outside.  The bag protects them from people's hands and any dust that is flying around.  If you want to make these remember that I made them for a specific brand,  Trader Joe's medium roast.  There are other templates on line if you want to use the original K-cup.

Here is an outline of how I made these.

1.   Cut your cardstock 4 X 10  1/4.  I used Stampin' Up! cherry cobbler and real red. 
2.  Score at 1  1/2, 2  1/8,  3  7/8,  6  3/8,  8  1/8,  8  3/4
3.  Starting at one end do a valley fold, 4 mountain folds, and one more valley fold.
4.  Fold on the score lines making sure to go over them with your bone folder.
5.  If you look at Saturday's post the side view shows how the everything folds up.  Punch each handle separately using the Stampin' Up! large oval punch.  I put some sticky strip to hold the handle together better.  The ribbon is just for show.
6.  Decorate.  I used retired Stampin' Up! DSP.  The coffee cup is stamped with Perfect Blend and cut out.  I also stamped the lid again and cut it out and attached with dimensionals.    Then I stamped the middle section again and cut it out so it looks like the wrapper around the cup.

I used my corner rounder on the handle if you like that look.  Just be sure that you do each side individually so you don't break your punch, 

I will be featuring bags, tags, and bows for the rest of the week.  Come back and take a look.

Coffee and Cards

 The theme for the Hawaii Ink Blog Hop this time  is 3D projects.  Our hop officially starts Sunday so if the other pages aren't ready yet come back later.  I have mine scheduled to come out early.  For our last hop I made some teabag holders and since they have been a big hit, DH suggested that I make some K-Cup Caddies.  Since my K-cup packaging was not like any of the templates I saw online, I designed my own caddy.  I made 14 of them in various Christmas designer paper, but decided to post this one. 


Another project I have been working on is some purses to hold cards. This one holds about 8 cards if it doesn't have Velcro holding it closed.  It looks cute closed up but I needed it to hold more cards that I donated for a raffle prize at a craft show.


Come back to visit all next week starting Tuesday.  I will be featuring Bags, Tags, and Bows.
If you started at Lisa's Blog you have finished the tour.  If you haven't been to Lisa, click the NEXT button at the bottom.
If you get lost on the tour, participating in the hop are:

Lisa Curcio -  Lisa Curcio

        Patty Coone - One Creative Coone

        Brooke Doerfler -  Brooke Stamps

       Beverly Messerschmidt - Beverly
 

 Sue Gilroy - Glass and Paper    (you are here)

Happy Birthday

I have sort of stopped listing birthdays on the blog unless it is one of those important birthdays.  Our brother in law Skip has one of those important birthdays this year.  It isn't a zero birthday just an important one and I will leave it at that.

Thanksgiving Plans

It just seems to me that school just started and here we are with Thanksgiving getting close.  We always have glass decorations for the holidays, of course.  Here is one of Jim's turkeys.  He seems to just make this one now but he has had other designs in the past.  I think this one is my favorite though and it is the one I use.

We will be spending Thanksgiving with friends who will be coming here for food and games.  What are your plans? 

Happy Fall Y'all

Yeah I know today is Halloween not Thanksgiving.  I mailed out all of my Halloween cards before taking a picture.  So just pretend that the greeting says Happy Fall Y'all!

What are you doing for Halloween?  Our neighborhood always has a little get together about 5 PM for pizza and cokes.  Then the kids go trick or treating.  I am going for pizza and then off to band practice.

Thoughts of You

I don't really have anyone in particular that I am thinking of I just wanted to post this card.  It doesn't show as well in the picture but the colors on this card go well together.  I like to have cards like this ready to grab if I need one in a hurry.

The Best Things in Life

 



Isn't the saying the best things in life aren't things?  I think I have heard some other phrases too.  What are the best things in life for you?  Some of my best things are my DH, my friends, stamping, the beach, and music.  I am sure there are others too but that is what first came to my mind.  I saw a card like this one in Stampin' Success which is a magazine I get because I am a Stampin' Up demo.

Best Friends

I love this Friend greeting.  I am so grateful for my close friend Betsy and glad that she has found papercrafting.  We  used to share our profession, teaching, and now we can share one of our hobbies too.

Feel Goods

One of the greeting sets that I bought this year from Stampin' Up! is called Feel Goods. It has really nice greetings in it.  The next few posts will feature some of the cards I made using the Feel Goods set.  I have seen this butterfly on so many other blogs that I had to give it a try.  It is very easy to make yet impressive looking.

Coffee and Flowers

Some times instead of taking pictures of groups by stamp set, I group by theme.  Both of these cards are for a friend.  Ironically, the pansy punch belongs to my friend Betsy.  She has just recently started stamping and is doing a great job.

Coffee and Friends

Like I said, I don't drink coffee, but I do have friends.  They know I am a tea drinker and that is ok with them.  It was so nice in Ireland and Scotland to have a teapot on the table along with the coffee pot.  So much nicer than a teabag hanging out of a cup.

Grungie Coffee

I know that I have said before on here that I am not a coffee drinker, never touch it.  In spite of that, I really like this coffee set paired up with Gorgeous Grunge, both from Stampin' Up!  So like I usually do, the next few posts will feature these sets.  Many of the ideas are from splitcoaststampers and Lyssa Z.

Engagement News

 

Congratulations to our niece Molly who recently became engaged to her guy Alex.  I know this card is more for a wedding not an engagement but it is close enough.  I haven't heard any date set yet but it will be another good chance to see family for a happy occasion. 

Festival of Trees

Jim and I belong to Creative Craft Guild based in Pinellas County.  Each year they decorate a tree for the festival of trees which benefits a local charity.  Each member of the guild donates ornaments for the tree in the craft that they do.  These are the paper, glass and wire ornaments we made  representing our crafts.

Old Friends

Not the card I sent her, but today is my best friend from high school and college birthday.  We still email and send cards to each other but it has been a long time since I have seen her so I guess she doesn't have the best friend status anymore but the memories are still there.  Happy Birthday to Carol, who doesn't even know I have a blog.

Upsies Momma

 
 This is another of Jim's glass creations.  Here is what he said about it on his Goodsmiths blog.   Fusing involves cutting the glass and then stacking the pieces in a kiln. They are then heated to 1450 degrees F to melt the glass into one piece. At that temperature the glass is more liquid and it fuses into one piece. In this piece the mother and little girl are fused separately and then glued together and put on a glass base for added stability. I can imagine the girl crying "pick me up momma" or something like that. I called them "Upsies Momma" because they reminded me of nieces looking at their mother with love and uttering that phrase.   I think it shows the love between a mother and her daughter. The piece comes with a choice of blonde or black hair and I would consider other choices.
 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday Mom

My mom  was almost thirty when she had me so it was always easy to just add 30 to my age and I knew how old she was turning on her birthday.  She would have been 92 today.  I miss her even after more than seven years.  I sure wish I could call and wish her Happy Birthday.

Sunburst Technique

I have been seeing this technique a lot on splitcoast but I had never tried doing it.  I found a video on Dawn O's blog and decided to give it a try.  Some people call it starburst but I thought living in Florida it needed to be Sunburst instead.  If you want to know how to do it, look for Dawn's video or leave me a comment and I will find the link for you.  It is an easy way to use up some designer paper especially scraps.

Sunflower Sympathy

 

This will be the last sunflower card for awhile, not that I didn't make others, but I think you might want to see something different.  The designer paper in the background I have had for about three years.  I know I have been using a lot of designer paper lately, but the stack doesn't seem to get smaller.  Of course I did buy four more packages which doesn't help the stack either.  You might be thinking didn't she just post that same card a few days ago?  If you think so look just a little closer to see the subtle differences between the two cards.  They are slightly different.

Notice Anything Different?

Do you ever wonder how a person names a blog?  When I made that decision, Jim made jewelry and I made greeting cards.  You would need to look back to April 27, 2010 to see a post of his jewelry.  He hasn't been making it because he gets bored and needs a change. His first craft love was stained glass so he is back to making glass the past three years.  But since I am the blogger, I take the pictures and do all the posts.  So I thought it was time to start posting some glass.  Since there is no longer any jewelry being posted, I changed the name of the blog.  Do you remember the old name?

 

Triple Time Sunflower

I love using the triple time stamping technique.  Someone on splitcoast used the large sunflower stamp with this technique.  I never would have thought to use such a big stamp for this technique but it worked well.  This card flew out the door quickly at my last craft show.  Don't know how this method works?  If you want to know, leave me a comment.

Sunflower Get Well

Another goal of mine is to try to use a large amount of designer paper.  I have so much of it but I am always tempted to use more.  My mom's craft was sewing and she was always tempted by fabric but paper is my downfall.  I realized I don't have many get well cards made up and flowers are always a good way to cheer up someone who is not feeling well.  I made another card that I will be posting in a few days that looks almost like this one.  See if you can find the subtle differences on Thursday's card.

Sunflowers and Sunshine

Because I was away most of June, I just recently ordered from the new catalog.  I decided I was not using any of my old sets until I had used all of the new at least once.  So the next few posts are going to have sunflowers.  It isn't new to Stampin' Up! just new to me.

I know on this day we always remember the Twin Towers victims.  I also think about Jim's mom whose birthday would have been today.

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad

This is the card I made for one of the girls in our neighborhood who got married last month.  Her colors were real close to eggplant.  I am posting it today because today would have been my mom and dad's anniversary.  They were married 57 years when my dad died.