OWH Memorial Day sketch Blog Hop!

Today is OWH's annual Memorial Day Blog Hop. Over 100 bloggers, including companies, are participating and the inspiration is out of this world. Bloggers are using one of OWH's sketches to create their cards. Winners will be chosen from the comments left on each blog on Monday, May 28, 2012. Even after the blog I urge you to do the hop for ideas and inspiration. The link is here for the full list of bloggers. Companies are noted by asterisks **.

Time To Shine blog hop

First, let me apologize for being late to the hop. My internet connection went down during the night and it has taken all morning to get it fixed. I am truely sorry for any inconvenience this has caused anyone. Thank You!

If you came here from Caroline King's blog you're in the right spot. If not then you'll want to start at the beginning with Brooke Smith 

The theme of this Blog Hop goes along with the Crop title "Time To Shine". The type of project has been left open to us hostesses. The only requirement is that our project has to able to be used for a day in which someone has their "time to shine"; such as birthday, graduation, wedding, new baby, or whatever. We've also been asked to share something about our favorite memory of our "time to shine". You will want to visit every stop on the blog hop, and be sure to leave some love while you are there. At each stop you will collect a letter for the Unscramble It game. You will be given all the details at the end of this post .

Graduation is fast approaching and so is Senior Prom. My memory goes back in time, to the 1960's, when prom was a big deal for girls. It was, indeed, our "time to shine". Couples went "steady" meaning you only dated each other. Girls looked forward to prom all year with the fancy floor length dresses, bouffant hair, beautiful wrist corsages, and pointy toed 3" heels. Oh those were the days!

I made my dress out of light pink rayon taffeta with a printed organza overlay. Even though I had been sewing for years, my mom was a nervous wreck. Those kinds of material left no room for mistakes because they showed every pin or needle prick. You had to get it right the first time. The material was also easy to scorch when you ironed it. Day before the prom... my dress was made and ironed without any pin hole or scorch marks.

I had really wanted to wear the white crocheted shawl my aunt got for me, but mom decided I needed a matching long stole made out of my dress material. I thought to myself "yuck" as mom set about making the stole. When she went about pressing it... oopsie... she scorched it in the middle. Oh my goodness!! Mom ended up a crying mess and very upset. She sobbed that she ended up doing the exact thing she was worried I would do, scorch something. I consoled her the best I could and reassured her I wasn't upset because I could always wear the "store bought shawl". It wasn't until years later that she found out I "really" wanted to wear the shawl in the first place. With my memory being told, I present my rendition of a girl's graduation card featuring... a prom dress. My camera does funny things to pink. The dress is actually a coral pink color. It was fun to make and I hope you enjoy it.

supply list:
Card base - Ivory cardstock embossed with Cuttlebug D'vine Swirl embossing folder
Rose trim - is called small organza rose ribbon-cream from MayaRoad
Dress pattern - from Paper Crafts Magazine
Dress material and vintage rhinestone trim - from the stash of my dear cousin, Nell Orndorf. The material was adhered to the dress pattern made of white cardstock.

Your next stop on the hop:
I'm sending you off to the talented Susan's blog. Susan in one of the nicest people I know and you'll be in for a real treat with her project.

Unscramble It game for hoppers:   My letter is   L
Each blog hostess has a letter and you will collect each one when you visit their blog. Once you collect ALL the letters, the last hostess in the blog hop will direct you to the thread in the forum where you can find all the details you need to enter the drawing. All hoppers collecting ALL the letters, unscrambling the word or phrase, entering the game by following the directions in the forum, and leaving feedback on EVERY blog they visit WILL be entered in to a random drawing held on May 23, 2012. ONE lucky winner will have their name drawn and will wind a prize!! Fun... right? Then get hoppin and GOOD LUCK!

Here is the list of hoppers in case you get lost:

Brooke Smith  (CardMaker Blog)
Jeanette
Ashley
Anya Schrier
Golda
Ivanka
Ana
Michelle Woemer
Judy L
Lisa  (risalenee)
Trudy Sjolander
Jane
Angelina
Kimberly Crawford
Laura
Tammy  (tampatha)
Carolyn King
Marlene  **you are here**
Susan
Colleen Schaan
Meredith
Lora

Only 1 more day until our Time to Shine Card Crop kicks off!

Have you signed up yet? There's still time! Don't miss out on the fun card challenges, games, prizes & more that we've got planned!

Get the full scoop & sign up here: http://bit.ly/L6pK9b

Happy Belated Mother's Day!!

I made this card for mom because she loved to sew and was very good at it. She made all her clothes, mine when I was growing up, and clothes for her grandkids.

At 89 years young mom's eyesight is failing so the texture helps her "see" the card better.

I can't take credit for the spool shaped card and scissors. I found this wonderful template on Pinterest and all credit belongs to Heather Cserni Thank you Heather for allowing me to make the perfect card for mom! I originally saw the "button cards", again on Pinterest, at Kirsty's blog. She has included the link to the free button cards on her blog. Thanks Kirsty! The cardstock is from Bazzill and the ribbon and buttons are from my stash. The mini coathanger is from Diane Dezso at Paper Crazy and the flower is by Prima Flowers.

I hope you've enjoyed visiting my blog, and Thank You for stopping by.

How I spent National Scrapbook Day

Saturday, May 5th, was National Scrapbook Day but I didn't scrapbook... I made cards. My friend Ashley, a SU demonstrator, held a "Stamp - a - Stack" at her house. If you're not familiar with this I'll explain - you have 4 or 5 designs of cards and you make 4 of each design. Ashley had 5 designs x 4 cards each = total 20 cards, plus envelopes. Here are the 5 designs we made:

On the two end cards the paper used was double sided. I couldn't decide which side a liked best so I made 2 cards with one side and 2 with the other side. Needless to say I had a great time at Ashley's... it was a perfect day.

I hope you like these cards and thanks for stopping by.

More Convention pictures and my haul

Next on my stop was Our Daily Bread . I was able to talk to the staff and thank them for their support and donations to Operation Write Home (OWH), of which I am a member. OWH is a national group of talented and creative ladies who donate their time to make greeting cards which are blank on the inside. These cards are mailed to our troops so they can write home to their loved ones. I urge you to check out OWH and their blog Stars and Stamps .



       And of course, my haul ->




Here is the next link on my stop. Darcie Heater's Darcie Country Folk and I just love her stamps.

Sample boards for 2 of the sets I got. At $8.79 a set you can't go wrong. And, below, my haul.

My next stop was Toomuchfun Rubberstamps and here is their link .  Talk about unique and FUN!!!

 Some of their sample boards. I couldn't help but think of my friend Jane when I saw the board on the left. And, of course, my haul is below.

More pictures and a Joy

The Joy: Those of us who are rubber stamp enthusiasts are unstoppable! This past weekend at the convention I saw stamp enthusiasts with walkers, quad canes, wheelchairs, and oxygen tanks. It takes a lot, and I mean A LOT, to hold us down. I saw the cutest couple ever, OMG!! Two ladies were leaving the convention, both in wheelchairs, one chair was motorized and one not. The lady who was NOT motorized was holding on to her friend's motorized chair and away they went just chatting to beat the band. Would have loved to get a pic but they were gone before I could think of it. God Bless you ladies!

Some more pictures:
This lovely lady is Diane Dezso of Paper Crazy. Here's her link and I love it because she's only a few minutes away.

Of course I had to get some of her vintage lace and trim. I also got the cutest metal coat hangers and dress forms that I forgot to get a picture of. :(

Adventures in Stamping Convention

This past weekend I went to the Adventures in Stamping Convention here in Akron. It's been held the last weekend in April for the last 17 years and, as usual, I had a blast. There were a total of 151 vendors and 19 of them are here in Ohio. I'm really fortunate to have this fabulous event in my hometown... just a 10 minute drive from home.

And this is only 1/3rd of the room!!! It's an exhausting 2 days of fun and I get to see a lot of friends I've made over the years. I think the best part is when I buy something I don't have any shipping charges. YAY!!! Yes this is definately something you save $ for the whole year so you can go the following year.

If you're interest in the vendors that participated, and their websites, you can go to this link

Some of my local favorites are: Our Daily Bread, Darcie Country Folk, Paper Crazy, Inky Antics, Verses Rubber Stamp Co, and Stacy Stamps... just to name a few.