D.C.

June 29, 2009 By

capitol-dome

I was twelve years old when my grandmother took me to Washington DC as I was preparing to start my 8th grade year of grade school.  It was a trip I had looked forward to for several years; since she had made the same trip the previous two summers with my older brothers.  Only this time, disappointing as it was, my mom insisted on coming and bringing along my younger sister.  UGHH!  What was supposed to be MY special trip turned out to be a three ring circus, or so I thought.   (Blistering heat in August and unwanted company dosen’t make for a great time.)  Not to mention it was 1963 and the preferred mode of transportation was the Greyhound Bus from St. Louis MO to Seabrook MD, where my uncle lived just outside of DC.

I also visited our nation’s capitol with my sweet hubby when we were first married in the early 1980′s for one of his national meetings but it was late in the fall and the weather was quite dreary and miserable.

This trip however, was a wish come true!  Everything I could have hoped for and more.

iwo-jima-memorial1

Every year I hear the advertisement for American Family Radio’s ‘Spiritual Heritage Tour’ ,and every year I wish I could go…this year I made it.  Travelling with Colin and I was our good friend Alexa and her two son’s Michael & Ben as we joined a group of about 140 people, from all over the U.S. on a guided, whirlwind, packed-to-the-gills informative tour of our nation’s spiritual history.  We were treated to history lessons by not only Tim Wildmon (son of AFA founder Don Wildmon) but by Stephen McDowell, well known author and noted historian. http://www.providencefoundation.com/tours.php

We got a peek at the founding father’s and what motivated them that not many get to experience.  We also came away with a fresh appreciation for how precious our liberties are and why we should protect them fervrently.

We left on Wednesday (6/17) and returned late Sunday (6/21) and had a full three and  days of touring.  Starting at the crack of dawn and not stopping until dinner at about 6:30, but it was worth it, boy was it worth it!

break

 

Now I’m looking forward to going back…I just hope it’s not too long in between trips!  Hope you find a worthwhile trip to take this summer that will enrich your lives as much as this one has!

Thanks! Katherine

Filed Under: Family

Happy DAD Day

June 24, 2009 By

happy-dad-dad-day

I hope your Father’s Day was a good one! There always seems to be a ‘rush’ around Father’s Day…I think it has something to do with coming just after kids are out of school and their summer activities getting cranked up, but maybe that’s just me.

Anyway, I completed this great little piece for my darling hubby just in time for Monday night’s dinner. (We were out-of-town for Sunday so had planned ahead of time to have our Father’s Day celebratory dinner on Monday.)

The piece is from the Triology folks and is called Happy Dad Dad Day, I’ve worked it on a 40 count Abecedarian Blend Linen with one floss over two threads using Gentle Art and Weeks Dye Works Over Dyed fibers. I was grateful that I not only got it finished in time but also was able to mount and frame it. WHEW! You should have been around on Monday afternoon! Stuff was flying…

tree-card

Of course there were the cards that needed to be completed. Once you’ve created hand made cards and such, there’s just no going to the store and buying anything along that line…so of course the guys wanted one of my cards for dad as well…and there you go! Yes, stuff was indeed F-L-Y-I-N-G!!!

saw-card

The Tree Trio card uses the Trendy Trees Stamp Set with Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Yo Yo Yellow and Old Olive Classic Ink, The center of the Styled Silver Hodgepodge Hardware is a piece of Chocolate Chip card stock with ‘father’ stamped from the Wonderful Favorites Stamp Set using White Craft Ink. A Chocolate Chip 5/8″ Grosgrain knot is alongside. (A design element to take note of is the use of a strong accent color, Chocolate Chip in three places on the card…ribbon, tree trunks, and medallion.)

The Dad Sawed card uses the great Totally Tool Stamp Set, in Chocolate Chip classic ink. The Large Star Punch is accented with one of the small circle brads to repeat the dots in the upper portion of card. I dyed a piece of the Very Vanilla 5/8″ Grosgrain ribbon with a few drops of Only Orange re-inker and topped it off with a knot in the Chocolate Chip 1/4″ Grosgrain.

Both cards use scrap pieces of Designer Series Paper leftover from other projects.

Dad’s are vitally important in the lives of their families and many times are the unsung heroes behind the scenes. It’s hard to know what to get dad for father’s day, most of them don’t really ‘want’ or actually need anything of a material nature. Rather, they generally speaking, just enjoy the opportunity to spend some time with their family.
I hope you got the chance to give your Dad, or your kid’s dad that time this Father’s Day.

Have a great week!
Katherine
(Oh Yeah…I’ll tell you about where we were last week in the next post, it was AWESOME!)

Filed Under: Cards, Family, Needlework

CHIRP chirp!

June 16, 2009 By

Here’s another sample of a medallion card (from last week) that I thought would give you inspiration and to re-iterate how quick and easy they are!

2009-medallion-cheep-card

What you’ll need:

Good Morning Sunshine Designer Series Paper (pg 160 $9.95)
Cheep Talk Stamp Set (pg 90 $26.95)
God’s Blessings Stamp Set (pg 134 $33.95)
5/8″ So Saffron Grosgrain ribbon ( wa available as a Sale-A-Bration 2009 item)
Stampin UP! Pennant bigz xl die (pg 194 $39.95)
Scallop Circle Punch (pg 185 $15.95)
1 1/4″ Circle Punch (pg 184 $15.95)

2009-medallion-cheep-card-c

Happy Stamping!
Katherine

Filed Under: Cards, Stampin' Up!

French Bird Card

June 13, 2009 By

Noticing how wildly popular French Decor’ is in current  magazines, antique and gift boutiques and the likes, I decided to try my hand at it with my card creations and found it to be much easier than I ever imagined.  I think the end result is lovely and interesting to the eye.

 2009-french-bird-card

It looks much more time consuming than it ever is and I really appreciate that!

All you need is a re-inker and a small travel size spray bottle from Dollar General or wherever and your set to get going!

I put about 1/8 C of water (tap water) into the bottle and added 10 drops of ink, color intensity can be adjusted easily to your liking, and spritzed a 3 x 4 1/4″ piece of Whisper White card stock. (Initially the moisture will make the paper curl but just hit it slightly with your embossing gun and it flattens out lickity split…Fear not!) The EnFrancais’ background stamp was used with Classic Black ink and a brayer to achieve optimal coverage, (note: I ink the background stamp face up, then put the whisper white piece face down and brayer over the piece; this technique works better for more even coverage than using your fingers to rub.) Next was stamping the lovely bird from the Friends 24-7 Stamp Set then adding distressing to the edges and corners by rubbing across the top of the stamp pad and dragging in some areas for added distress for a final touch.

2009-french-bird-detail

Place your gingham check ribbon, mount with Dimensionals and place on a standard Whisper White card. TA DA and OOh LA LA!  Anyone for Beignet’s at Cafe Du Monde’ in New Orleans?

I hope you try this quick simple technique for a different look when creating your notecards, tags, scrapbooking, or use it with greeting cards.  You’ll love it!

Happy Stamping! 

Katherine 

Filed Under: Cards, Stampin' Up! Tagged With: ,

Because you asked!

June 12, 2009 By

I’ve had lots of you ask how my Williamsburg Remembered stitching project is coming, and here it is:

2009-06-09-williamsburg-pro

I have one more bar of stitching and this side of the outer case is finished! I think I’m doing pretty good in moving right along. I need to start practicing some specialty stitches that are challenging on the front cover rose arbor. I’m sure that will slow progress a bit over the summer, but I’ll keep you posted.

Meanwhile, I’ve started a piece for my darling hubby :) for Father’s Day that has my attention right now. You’ll have to wait till then to get a peek at it, but I think you’ll love it!

Remember what your grandmother used to say (at least mine always did!). . .”Idle hands are the devil’s play toys!” so keep busy!

Katherine

Filed Under: Needlework

Mr. Brown CAME!

June 11, 2009 By

I was so excited yesterday (Wed.) that I could hardly get through the day. My FIRST June order was due to arrive and along with it my first peek at our new 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog!

Stampin’ UP! has had a special demo promo to slip in an advance copy with our first June order and I jumped at it of course! I can’t wait to share it with you, but for now here is a little something using our beautiful new vivid In Colors.

2009-razzle-dazzle-bouquet

It’s a Razzle Dazzle Bouquet fresh picked just for you! SU now has markers for the In Colors and I knew exactly what I wanted to do with them when they arrived last night. I specifically pre-ordered the new Razzle Dazzle Stamp Set to bring this card out of my thoughts and onto the table. It’s one of those really great sets that you will see used again and again in a myriad of ways and with wonderful different and fun techniques.

This curvy card uses the Big Shot Scallop Circle Die along with the Scallop Circle #2 Die. The bouquet is stamped using markers to color the image and then ‘huffing’ to re-moisten the ink and stamping the image on our Whisper White card stock. I added a touch of Crystal Effects to the flower buds for shine. The colors used were Bermuda Bay for the stem and leaves, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo, Dusty Durango, and the Rich Razzleberry. The only new In Color I couldn’t work in was the Soft Suede, but there’s always another day for that one….

I snatched a piece of Rose Red 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon for the bow, it has the same general ‘feel’ as the Melon Mambo card stock used for the larger scallop…

I hope you have a Razzle Dazzle day!  I’m off to Belton TX for Colin’s Univ. Mary Hardin Baylor FOOTBALL Camp…can you guess what I’ll be reading?  OK, that was a dumb question, maybe not actually reading, but looking, gawking, drooling over possibly…would be a more adequate description of what I’ll be doing with the new catalog. 

If you’d like to reserve your copy, they’re STILL only $9.95 or FREE with a $25.00 order so let me know and I’ll get you your very own copy!  They should be here and available by July 1st (barring any unforseen transportation issues). 

TTFN!  Katherine

Filed Under: Cards, Stampin' Up!
« Older Posts