Summer is Here!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I know I did.  We had a BBQ at my Sister and Brother-In-Law's house to celebrate Father's Day.  It was so nice to visit with everyone one.  We watched the kids play on the Slip-n-Slide.  I think the older boys had more fun that the little ones!

Last weekend I went to a scrapbooking retreat with a great bunch of ladies from Orrick.  We stayed in a lodge in Mt. Ayer Iowa.  We had such a great time. It was so nice to get away and just do whatever!  I need to do that more often. On Saturday we headed out to find a scrapbook store we had heard about.  What an awesome store.  If you are ever around Creston, IA you should stop in.  The name of the store was Maple Street Memories.  Their website is Here  It was an old Post office office and court house that was bought and refurbished then turned into this wonderful store.

Below is a birthday card I made for a good friend.  Happy Birthday Tana!  It was my first attempt at an Easel Card. This card is really nice because it supports itself on an easel so that it can be easily displayed.  This card was very fun to make.  The directions can be found Here. This is a digital stamp by Pink Cat Studio. 

I also wanted to just drop in a couple of words about the Cricut Gypsy.  I caved and bought one.  I LOVE it.  I honestly didn't see what the big tah-doo was all about.  I bought one just so I didn't have to tote all of the cartridges around when I went on crops and retreats.  Well it is just a great gadget.  I found one cheap on ebay.  I would recommend it to anyone on the fence like I was. 

Well that's it for now.  Have a great day!

Ahoy!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I am going on a scrapbook retreat this weekend with some friends.  I can't wait for the chance to make pages and cards ALL WEEKEND! 

I played my second game of golf this weekend.  I must say I was pretty frustrated.  I had visions of improving with each game but sadly that will not be the case. Maybe I will do better next time. 

I am also trying to take up running.  I bought the Ipod chip that fits in your shoe and then works with your Ipod to track the distance you've ran.  This is a pretty nifty gadge and it motivates me to get out and run and it also encourages me to try to run a little further each time. 

Below is a two page layout I did as an assignment as for The Scrapbook Page.  The theme was "Pirates".  The patterned paper is by the Rusty Pickle.  Also as a requirement I had to use the Quick Kutz dies which I cut out with my Cuttle Bug.  All of the objects were cut using these dies except the Palm Trees which were by Jolee's Boutique and the letters which were Base Camp by Cricut.  I aged and distressed the paper with the Making Memories distress tools.  The sand on the second page was done with Petal Soft.  It is their sand color in ultra fine.  The Treasure map was cut out with core paper and then sanded down to get to the lighter color, giving it an aged look and then I also went around the edges of the map with a dark brown cats eye to give another layer of the aged and distressed look. The gold in the treasure chest was made using Stickles.

I hope everyone has a great day. I plan on talking more about Flower Soft in the near future for those ofyou who haven't used it. If you have any questions about any of the other items I've used just let me know.