It's been awhile, but here I am on this fine Sunday morning. What a beautiful day in Florida!

We returned from an RV trip on Thursday amid downpours... we didn't venture too far from home due to fuel costs, etc. but had a wonderful time at the Holiday Travel Resort in Leesburg. If I were a snowbird, I believe I'd like that park for the season. There is so much to do, from mini golf, to volleyball, to horseshoes, to tennis. Plus swimming, crafting, cards, etc. Even a restaurant with home cooking on premises.

Anyway, during our walks along the river (yes, there is a marina) we saw alligators, turtles and tropical birds. Looking across the river into the swamps was like seeing the Louisana bayou in the movies. Here's a couple of pictures from our trip.

  

Our daughter and her husband had visited from Connecticut the week before. We had the most divine weather while they were here. Couldn't have asked for better.

She is an avid scrapbooker and cardmaker, like me, and we had loads of fun touring the local scrapbook/stamp stores. We have three independent stores here in Spring Hill that carry unique products not found in the big chains. Needless to say, making the rounds was so much fun.

We also got time to take them to the pool and beach. A very restful vacation for them before they had to return to the "north country".

Lacy Labels Cricut Cartrige

I bought the Lacy Labels cartridge yesterday at Walmart. Oh my, oh my! What fun I've had experimenting with it. Guessing what size to cut is the challenge, but so far (I've only made two different "labels"), I only had to resize the first once and just once.

I used the March stamps for the smaller card since I had some all colored. The larger card is a 5" x 7" and I'm loving how it works. Hope you enjoy too.

Almost St. Pat's Day

I have a very dear friend whose birthday falls on St. Patrick's Day. I wanted to make a card with a little of the holiday theme, but mostly to honor her birthday, so I came up with the following card. I must say that I'm quite proud of it... I usually use a template as I don't often come up with an original, but this came out great, much to my delight.

The daffodil is the flower for March. (I checked on the internet to get the coloring correct. There are many colors for daffodils but this was the most familiar.) Once again the stamp is from Sweet 'n Sassy, but a clear stamp this time. All other products are from Stampin' Up. (I'm working at getting all 12 months of flowers.) This card was really fun to make.

More Cocoa

It's been awhile since I posted anything. Must have been busy. I've been working on my 2010 scrapbooking which I call my Annual Photo Journal. After doing heritage albums for the family and other albums, such as my husbands years in the USMC, I now do an album each year documenting what we do and where we go. Lots of pages are from Christmas and July. That's when we go north to see kids and grandkids.

Anyway, I decided it was time to do some more cards. I love the Cocoa stamps from Sweet 'n Sassy. Both of these are digital, although I've ordered regular stamps from them also. Hope you enjoy them...

My Digital Studio

On another note, I decided it was time to try my hand with Stampin' Up's "My Digital Studio". I'd recently watched part of a video on how to create a card so I tried it out today. The card below is a "hybrid", meaning I combined digital with traditional. I used "My Digital Studio" for the main part of the card...(punch, sentiment, background paper, matting and ribbon). The cute little bunny is a digital stamp from Sweet n' Sassy. I attached this to some white matting and then used dimensionals to attach it to some Always Artichoke cardstock which was attached to a white card. Still so much to learn; so little time, but this card came out okay for a first try.

Stamping Lesson

Last week a couple of newer stampers to our group wanted a demo on "two step" stamping. So, I showed them how to stamp using the "stamp-a-ma-jig". For the demo, I used Stampin' Ups Greenhouse Garden stamp set. (I really like this set..) I also used their Mixed Greetings sentiment set.

The only colors I used for cardstock were Whisper White, Basic Black and Crushed Curry. I used Crystal Effects on the flowers to highlight them. Here's a few samples of the cards I made later using the demo flowers.

The designer paper on the top flower is from Stampin' Up's designer series.

Happy Valentine's Day

A lot has happened since my last post. Found out I had a heart blockage, had a stent put in and here I am, just fine and dandy.

We had company last week for only four days. My niece from Vermont came to visit. I hadn't seen her in 15 years and what a wonderful time we had catching up. She is a delightful person and was just great to get reacquainted with her. She has two young children that I'm so looking forward to meeting.

Now that I have some time, I'm back to making cards, and the first ones I made were Valentine's Day cards for Grandchildren and Grand niece and nephew. I'm posting a couple that I made and hope you enjoy them.

I thought this was a really good stamp for a boy.



This is a standard card using stamping up products (except for Cocoa.)



The background paper and ribbon are from a digital program.