A Change of Heart In the Tropics

 

The Beach Club, San Simon,
Roataan, Honduras 

Having no knowledge of the card troubles to come, we gaily proceeded to the most beautiful, albeit crowded, white sandy beach I have ever been on. Palm fronds waving in the breeze, local beer chilled and given to us courtesy of our excursion package, fresh food available, and the inviting azure blue waters of the Caribbean lay before my mattressed tanning bed. Yes, I could definitely get used to this! And another pleasant surprise- our friends! Lani and Nancy, Emily and Beth, Me and Daphne; 6 scrappy ladies out to take a picture for any imaginable reason we could think of...


This little piggy went to the Honduras

I've always assumed that being a winter loving girl woud make me somewhat opposed to the tropics, but I found myself completely in love with instantly dry hair and the tan that was revealing itself within minutes of doffing clothes. I even found a punched paper heart in my bag to confirm that perhaps in my advanced years I have come to appreciate not shivering on vacation!

I {Heart} the Tropics

I used up the last of my cash on a woven bracelet featuring a large, grey swirled flat stone in black thread for only $3. The moon was shining above the cabanas and thoughts that my girls might be looking at the moon too added happiness to the purchasing experience.


Say Hello to my little friend

 All too soon our driver was there to let us know it was time to put our clothes back on and head back to port. Excitement at getting our passports stamped dissolved my tears and let me see the beautiful flowers around in better detail. A couple of these photos would make terrific canvas prints for Christmas or housewarming presents. 

Once back on board, it was time to rinse off the salt water and then to change into something appropriate for dinner and dancing. Yes,dancing! Salsa dancing lessons to be exact. A celebratory drink of the day at dinner was followed by a refreshingly sweet DeSarono on the rocks in the Star Lounge while I watched all the couples already on the dance floor one, and two, sal-sa-step out of sync. Already regretting my shyness at not having roped some willing mens into accompanying me to this event, I had to admit to that there was not a single available man to dance with. Not that there weren't men in the room not already dancing. No, these unmatched were simply unwilling. I guess I can just finish my drink and go back down to the crop room...

Will this be the end of my evening's adventuring? Not likely! Come back tomorrow for more fun, and a whole lot of dancing by myself. Thanks for stopping by!






 

 

 

Another Fun Stamping Class



Need some crafting help?



My classes at Michaels are always such fun, and last night was no exception! My friend Becca and I met at the six o'clock start time and got right to work, excising our creative muscles with a trendy Mason Jar stamp. Not being an experienced stamper wasn't at all a problem for her, and hopefully the little tid bits of stamping lore I supplied her with will inspire her at home as well.

Aren't these two cards she created so cute? I love the mason jar stamp she chose, it is so versatile and could be filled with any idea. We chose a few little birdies helping a friend, and some hearts and flowers to fill our stamped jar images. Can you see the subtle hand painted accents added to the jars? It makes them look sooo realistic! Especially the brown swatch painted on the yellow card's jar- it looks like the kraft border is showing through the glass...The baker's twine and ribbon definitely added some textural pizazz to the card fronts, and then we trimmed the bottom edges to show some peekaboo pattern showing from the inside.

The custom, color coordinating envelopes were made with the WeRMemoryKeepers envelope punch board. A unique tool and defiantly a cool addition to your go -to tool supply, once you get the directions down that is! We laughed as we attempted envelope after envelope with mixed results. I have the same kind of fun with my Martha Stewart score-board, so I guess it's just all part of the process, lol. Another bit of patterned paper inside the envelope adds just the right amount of summer time fun and fabulousness to an otherwise plain yellow card cover.

WELL, this is the last day to comment to win in my July contest... go ahead and subscribe to my blog and or YouTube channel, and comment away for an opportunity to win either a custom die cut or scrapbook page made especially for you, by me:-)  

Thanks for reading and good luck!

Wait! Don't throw that away?

I admit, I have a problem throwing away little bits of pretty paper. So I'm not surprised that I was inspired to create my own version of enamel dots with this tiny punched circle from a cricut cut tag I used.

It doesn't look like much, but you wouldn't believe how proud I am of this little shiny dot and it's friends!


They were really easy to make, I just  added a blob of Close To My Heart's Liquid Glass to the top and let it dry overnight on a shred of wax paper. I wanted to be sure it was really dry before I touched it because sometimes I get over eager and ruin things!


This isn't a project I would necessarily recommend, as it was a tad tricky getting the paper to come off the glue tip without spreading sticky all over the place, but it was fun, and now I know how to make a very coordinated little blingie for any layout that "needs" it. And since you bothered stopping by today, now you do too!

Product of the month for February

I decided at the beginning of the year that each month I would focus on a different product, and try my darndest to include that featured product on all my projects. In January, I chose to focus on bakers twine. I love how easy it is to use, and the variety of colors in my stash were incorporated into nearly every project, so yea me!

This month I was hoping that some of the blog hop commeters would give me a suggestion, but my wheels have been spinning trying to find the answer myself.

I kept coming back to "paper." Now, does that sound like a challenge? Heh heh, me neither :-)

 This morning just as I selected a representative photo of using different papers, I changed my mind and have decided my product of the month for February will be...

(Drumroll)



Superbowl Champs Card for Ed in NJ

LETTER STICKERS!

And paper.

Together.

So let's Sea(hawks) what comes of my personal challenge this month!
Thanks again to all the people who left lovely comments on my post for the DCC blog hop this weekend!

-Anna

Christmas Cards Continued

I've been concentrating so much lately on getting organized around the house that I haven't taken much time to write about it, what a bummer. But, as usual, in between my chores I have still found ways to release some creative energy, so here is another fun way I figured to use my Christmas cards received this year; enter the hole punch.

This relic of our school days still comes in useful and makes it really easy to slip just about anything into a binder, provided it can span the width of two of the binder rings. Otherwise things get a bit wobbly, which bothers me, but may not bother you?

I put all these cards in between the couple of Christmas pages I've created and I love the way they break up the monotony of my regular 12x12 album pages. For some extra visual and textural interest I added this large chipboard piece and glued on all the postage that was on the mailing envelopes. I just couldn't let all those pretty little pictures go in the garbage :-)

I accomplished two things with this dash of inspiration: 1) I got that stack of Christmas cards received off my craft desk. Who put them there anyway!? Oh yeah, me, whoops! Anyway they are cleared and there is more room for crafting yeah! and 2)Now we have the names and addresses of those thoughtful clients and family members who spent the time and postage to let us know they were thinking of us over the holidays. Every year it seems like I hear of more and more people doing away with card sending. Even Ray has made the comment a few times, but of course I still make him take my homemade cards around to all his clients heehee.

I even included an extra Christmas letter card Rainier helped me make for my Close To My Heart friends. I think this is a really neat way to include a little summary of what I thought it was important to share with people I don't see very often but think of while crafting regularly. Since I didn't do any journaling yet on my Christmas layout, I now am feeling completely guilt free about what I consider to be "unfinished business."

Last bit of this post, and then I'm going to spend some time on a new process video I'm hoping to release in conjunction with this Saturday's Valentine Die Cut Crazy Blog Hop... I've got a couple other blogs started up and put some new posts on there tonight as well. So if you're interested in what I have to say about the latest in our families lifestyle/food choices, or what I'm up to with my PartyLite business, just click on my blogger profile and you'll see them listed under my name.

Thanks for stopping by!