We are going camping tomorrow morning near Bull Shoals Arkansas. It is such a beautiful place!! Lots of trees, NO mosquitoes, lake & river nearby and usually very hot!! It is for my mom's family reunion. I love getting to see everyone and just hanging out in camp chairs, sharing a fan, and drinking lots of tea & water.

Camping is much work but I really do enjoy it. My daughter doesn't care for the tent part and my oldest son rents a room. However, my 19 year old son loves it with me. DH has to work.

We don't really rough it too much. I bought the largest tent I could find, there are showers & flush toilets and electricity. We bring radios, DVD players, & electronic games and we sleep on air mattresses. So pray for us as we travel. God bless!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!!!
I am having one of those nasty birthdays today!!! OK I admit it I really hate telling my age. I generally avoid telling the truth at all costs!! I don't know why it just is. However, I think the cat is out of the bag and most of my friends and acquaintances know the truth I am . . . . . . 50.

This past Friday my friends surprised me with a party. It was supposed to be a Retirement Party for Stampin' Up!. Instead they all walked in with lots of goodies to eat and cake and balloons and funny cards and most importantly of all PRESENTS!!! I got a bag full of goodies like denture cream, muscle rub, hairnet, rain bonnet and prunes!! I received some impressive red shoes with purple flowers, a hand crocheted red hat with a purple flowers, some brads & eyelets, chocolate, gift card, a container with 100 different colored gel pens, bath & body works goodies, a lovely hand sewn bag, a bag of gifts with a story (thanks Barb) and many hugs!! It was such a great surprise and a wonderful party. And . . . we even made a card and I still got SU orders!!

Seriously, I am gazillion times blessed because I have so many delightful women that I consider my friends!!!!! My red hat off to you all and THANKS!!!!

Look another sock monkey card! This sock monkey is a girl-notice the pink socks and the heart with some iridescent ice EP. All of the scallops are done with the new scallop border punch. The sentiment is a rub-on as well as the heart & flower. Only a few more days until the new catalog comes out. As soon as it is available online I will put a shortcut to it on this blog.

I am definitely feeling the sock monkey fever!! This little guy is so cute!!! I stamped him with basic brown on DP from the hostess print pack. Then I paper pieced red riding hood red. The banana is stamped with basic brown on (what else?) barely banana. I used my coluzzle to cut the circles, my corner rounder to scallop the circle and my crimper to make the leaves with garden green.

I stamped with all of the new inks and compared them to current SU colors. Red riding hood red is very close to ruby red, baja breeze is just a shade darker than soft sky, pretty in pink a shade darker than pink pirouette and pacific point blue a shade darker than brocade blue. However the other colors are unique!!

At least I finally got to play with my new stuff!! This is supposed to be summer when I get to stamp & scrap more but . . . At least my basement is making progress and I have made more room!!

Looky Looky!!! I received my new sneak peek preview order from the new catalog. Here are the new in-colors!!! I can't wait to get stamping with these!!

I really want to use my new Sock Monkey and scallop border punch! Yeah!! I now have my new crop-a-dile!! I punched a hole right through the SU box lid!!!

Okay must go to bed-one more day of VBS and getting up early!!! how hard it is to leave all this pretty ink & paper and not play with it!!

This is the card I made for Christie's challenge. Click on her name to go to her blog and view her inspiration photo.
I loved the photo but for some reason I had trouble with this one. I am still not real pleased with this card but I am not sure I will have time to redo it. I used a retired set called Terrific Tulips. The colors are all bold brights. I kept having trouble working the orange in. Maybe it needs glitter or eyelets!!!

I think I am soooo ready for my new sock monkey set and the new in-colors to get here. I really, really, really, want the new scallop punch and my new crop-a-dile!!! I just checked and for some reason my shipment was rescheduled and will not be here until Friday!!!!! That's what I get for waiting until late to order-ugh!

I did manage to organize my small collection of buttons. I haven't actually used any but they are all in one place and off the cardboard.

Well no glitter but I did use pink!! This paper is from the blog candy I received from Christie for participating in her blog challenge. She will be posting a new challenge soon so check her blog! The flowers are punches from the scallop punch with slits cut at each scallop. This idea was on a blog I visited but I can't seem to remember which one or I would give her credit. The ribbon is polytwill chocolate chip.

I am soooo in withdrawal because I broke my Click-It (an eyelet setter made by Karen Foster). The metal shaft broke in half and the Click-It went flying!! I had to go change my SU order and add on a Crop-A-Dile. I have been wanting one but since I already owned the Click-It I couldn't justify spending money on a tool that I wanted but didn't need. (Ok, I really don't need paper, ink, stamp sets or most of what I order but . . .)

So now I am awaiting my new tool, my new Sock Monkey stamp set, and the new SU in-colors. Next week is VBS-I hope I find time to stamp!!

I have been playing with my pearl x powders and the only things I liked that I made were some backgrounds and some leaves that I colored but haven't built a card for yet. I also found some gold rub-on stuff that I got several years ago at a recycling center. I used it for the border around the card. I simply framed the card with double stick tape and rubbed on the gold. The only bad part is I kept getting the sheet of gold stuck to my card because I kept trying to rub it on UPSIDE DOWN!!! Thus all the wrinkles where I pulled the paper off UGH!

Next card I make is going to be pink, cute, and glittery!!!

Look what I received in the mail today!! Blog candy I won from Christie just for making a card! Not only did I get some cool paper, a cool notepad, and pink (my favorite color) ribbon but she also made me the most fabulous thank-you card! Thanks Christie! Now I must make a card with my new paper & ribbon-off to the stamping table!!!!!

So how do you like the butterfly? It was made with a 5 petal punch and was, in fact, an accident. I saw on someone's blog (sorry I cannot remember which blog) how to make a 2-tone flower using the 5 petal punch, however, when I tried to duplicate it for my upline I folded the flower the wrong way and she said "Look a butterfly on a flower!" One of my friends (thanks Trisha!) gave me the stamens to use as antennae and the butterfly was complete!! Cute, cute, cute!! All you do is punch 2 flowers out of double sided DP, fold them in half and glue them on a scallop punch with the folded edges together. I used mono adhesive to glue them down and to glue the antennae.

I have been experimenting with my pearl x powders and I am not happy with most of my experiments so I am not posting them. Maybe I will try again or maybe there is a reason I hid them on the bottom shelf!

This is my version of Jan Tink's carousel note purse. This is one of the items I offered at the card buffet last Saturday! Don't you wish you had come to the card buffet and made one for only $7? This would make a great gift with or without photos. Thanks again to Jan Tinklenberg for sharing her creativity to the rest of us. Now just who should I give this to?????