Hospitals and Sleep

Most of you know that I spent "4 luxurious days" in the hospital a few weeks ago due to my annual "mystery pains". You also know that I absolutely LOVED the medical staff that visited me during the night while I was not sleeping and during the day when I was napping.....since I really didn't sleep the whole time I was there! Seriously, these staff members should be going around to each and every hospital teaching "bedside manner" classes!!! To show my appreciation for their kindness, I made mini pound cakes (using my grandmother's recipe of course!) and a "Thank You" card for each one that took care of me.

After the tests that were done, I still have one more (Monday morning at 8:30 no less!) so the doctor can see how much damage has been done over the years but his diagnosis is Crohn's Disease...but only a mild to moderate case and he sees no reason that I will not be able to live my life as I always have! He has me on medication for the inflammation and one of the meds will be my "long term" medication to treat the Crohn's. I believe I've been lead to Dr. Lee and have all the trust in him that he will treat me as a whole and not just the "disease". He's a wonderful man that wants to get to the bottom of what ails you....how refreshing!!

Now, these are pictures of the boxes of mini cakes (no, I didn't think to take one out and take a picture of it....what was I thinking?) and cards that I delivered to the hospital the week after I was released. By the way....my sleeping "habits" are still all out of whack....I was up at 4a today and am still awake at 11:49p!! YIKES! Good thing the meds are giving me energy! LOL!!

Gift Exchange Goodies

Each month on a Yahoo! Group that I belong to, we have a Gift Exchange. I am the Moderator of this program and I really look forward to it! I get to pair two members together for the month and they e-mail, chat, IM, etc. to get to know each other and then they send a "goodie" package to each other at the end of the month. Last month, I got a late start to getting my package together because of my little "4-day luxury hospital stay". LOL! I got myself together after I got home and sent my package late (communicating with my GE partner the whole time of course!). I had a BLAST putting this package together and thought I would share what she received....

The whole package (almost)

I bought this frame at the Dollar Tree...simple.

I added the flowers in the corners as well as the words between the hearts and "dressed it up".

How easy it was with the rub-ons that I used....how cute is that?!

This is a drink "topper".

You put it over the top of a water bottle (through the hole) and it holds your drink mix.

The top picture shows the drink mix & sent and the bottom picture shows

how I "popped up" the flower.

This is an "Embosslet Holder" that I made for the Stampin' Up! gift I sent.

I used the Big Shot to cut out the scallop envelope....SO easy it should be illegal! LOL!

I had to laugh after I sealed Shaline's package and opened my package from her

(I refused to open it until I had finished my package to her!)....

She sent me the exact same Embosslet!

What's that saying...."Great minds think alike" ;o)

This is a "to do" note pad that I covered and added a ribbon to keep it closed.

I got this and 2 items that are not in the picture from Michaels.

The other items were a tin that I filled with ribbon

and a magnetic notepad with an "S" on the front.

The colors were what I chose to use when I covered the notepad above.

I got this idea from a Demo friend of mine....how cute is this?!!

The paper bag is from Michaels (they're small).

The front and back is cut using the Big Shot Top Note Die!

Decorate, embellish, adhere the bag to the front & back and you're done!

Fill the bag with candy treats and you've got an E-A-S-Y goodie bag!!!

How in the world can you send someone a goodie package near Easter & not send a bunny?!

This little guy is created using ONE Top Note Die and a 4.5"x6" sheet of card stock!

Amy Celona is the Demonstrator that created this little guy and I followed her instructions.

You can find them here.

She has other tutorials as well so be sure to check them out.

You can see the Hershey's Nuggets that I added to the inside of the box in this picture.

The perfect little treat...a cute little critter and chocolate!

Gail's Easter Card

Another talented stamper alert! Look how Gail used a FLOWER stamp (Tulips) to create the bunny.....How stinkin' cute is this?!!

April Birthday Cards

Open
Closed

These are the cards that I created to send out to the April ladies of the "Birthday Club" that I belong to on an online group. It uses a 12x12 sheet of card stock cut into thirds, then you score it at the 4" mark and fold that over. You end up with 3 cards out of one sheet of card stock and they can be mailed in the regular letter envelopes. Pretty darn smart for the person that has tons of those envelopes! ;o)

I made another one for my mom (her 60th was April 1st....YES, that day fits her perfectly! LOL!!) and did the layout a tiny bit different. Instead of having the stamped image go all the way under the flap, I stopped it 1/4" shy so that I could write in that covered area (under the flap). I like that layout better but forgot to take a picture or scan it before we left to go meet her & take her to dinner. :o(

Diane's Easter Card

Isn't this card just beautiful?! Diane gave me permission to post it to my blog and I'm so glad she did!

I have a *lot* to add to my blog and I'll be updating it shortly but I wanted to make sure y'all had something new to look at. Hopefully I'll be able to add some tonight after I get some cards stamped for some April birthdays that *have* to go out tomorrow! :o)

Featured Project of the Month

This will be something new that I add to my blog each month. Be sure that you check it out each month & if you create the project, please let me know by sending me an e-mail with a picture of your project. Experiment with the colors and layout of the project and see what you come up with. I look forward to seeing what you create! As a matter of fact, I think there should be a monthly "contest"! Everyone that sends me their version of the monthly project will be entered into a random drawing to get a gift from me. Go ahead, start creating~

Love, Peace, Joy card

Stamps:
Branch Out
Paper:
Bordering Blue card stock
Bravo Burgundy card stock
Very Vanilla card stock
Ink:
Bordering Blue Classic Stampin' Pad
Bravo Burgundy Classic Stampin' Pad
Close to Cocoa Classic Stampin' Pad
Stampin' Up! Accessories:
Very Vanilla 3/8" taffeta ribbon
Chit Chat Rub-Ons
Stampin' Dimensionals
Scallop Edge punch

Instructions:
Scallop edge of Bravo Burgundy card stock using Scallop Edge punch. Adhere to Bordering Blue card.
Stamp snowflakes image repeatedly in Bordering Blue ink on Very Vanilla card stock.
Stamp tree image in Close to Cocoa ink on Very Vanilla card stock. Stamp bird image in Bravo Burgundy ink on tree branch.
Tie Very Vanilla 3/8" taffeta ribbon in a knot and adhere to bottom-right corner of Very Vanilla card stock.
Apply "Love, peace, joy" Rub-On to Very Vanilla card stock using stick included with Rub-Ons.
Adhere Very Vanilla card stock to card using Stampin' Dimensionals.

Anything Missing?

Have you noticed anything missing from the Spring/Summer '09 catalog? Even though it's 212 pages long, there are over 20 pages missing. Those missing pages are the project "recipes" that you normally find in the back of each catalog. Why leave them out? So that more products can be included in the catalog!

There is a big difference in these pages and what is usually provided. What is the difference? There is a picture with every project so that you'll know which "recipe" goes with which project. It's a pretty cool thing but you'll need to download the Supply List and save it to your computer. That's even easy to do - just click on "Supply List" in the previous sentence and it will start to download for you. Once it finishes (it may take a few minutes), save it to your hard drive for future reference.

Place An Order, Get a Catalog!

From February 1-April 30, 2009, we're giving away our award-winning Idea Book & Catalog with every online purchase. To receive a free idea book, simply place an online order through my web site during the promotional period. There is no minimum order required, and you can combine this offer with any of our other current offers. To place an online order click on the picture above to view and select products. Once you place your order on my website (don't forget to select me as your demonstrator), you'll be eligible for the free idea book and you'll also qualify for the discount price listed on all products.

Stampin' Up! will be offering free idea books with the first 22,000 orders or until April 30, 2009, whichever comes first.

Valentine's Swap

I made this card for a Valentine's Day swap I was in. I used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to put the birds on top of "Love" and left the flower off so that the birds would be the only thing there. I used the Big Shot to cut out the pink layer as well as the DSP layer. I cut the DSP into thirds and put one section at the top, middle or bottom depending on which section I grabbed. This made it SO easy to use less DSP and do more cards! I'm telling you, I'm loving that Big Shot!

What do you think? Hopefully the ladies that received the cards liked them. I was happy with the way they turned out. :c)

Ghirardelli Boxes

I made a couple of these EASY boxes for friends and got the bright idea to see just how easy they were to make. My niece and nephew came to play with Trevor until he had to go back to his dad's. I decided that they needed to stay a little longer to play with me and my stamps so I took Trevor to meet his father and came back to play with Sydney and Donny before meeting their parents (my brother and sister-in-law) for supper.

I showed them my box and asked if they would like to make one (dumb question, I know). I let them pick out their own colors and stamps and this is what they came up with. I forgot to get a close-up of Donny's box before I left and this is not the better of the two pictures of Donny, but it absolutely, positively captures his personality.....cracking himself and everyone around him up! Donny made his box for his dad (you can see his head over Donny's left shoulder there).


Sydney made her box for her mom. She was quick to pick Tempting Turquoise as her box color and then the coordinating DSP. This girl's got an eye for coordinating! She came back the following day and made a card and another treat holder but I forgot to take pictures of them. :-(

This is a close-up of Sydney's box.

If you would like to try your hand at it, you can find the directions on the SplitCoastStampers (SCS) website - or just click here to go directly to the directions. If an 8 year old and a 5 year old can make these with very little help (seriously! I only cut out the sections because they couldn't see where they had scored - that's it!), you can whip out a dozen or so with no problem!

If you make any, please be sure to leave me a comment with a link to your finished version - I would love to see what you came up with!