Winter Bird Trio in Wreath and more...

Hi everyone - hope you're having a great weekend! I'm popping in with my third and final entry for Christmas Kickstart #101 Let's Wreath it Up! Busy week and weekend but more on that later...

Supplies: Paper - Paper Studio A2 card;

Recollections Wood Textures; Neenah Solar White

Stamps - Recollections Mini Bows

Stamps with Dies - MFT Winter Wreath 

& Winter Songbird (retired/NIB)

Dies - AJVD Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set

Other - digi sentiment strip (Hero Arts);

Recollections gems; foam tape; Copics

This one involved stamping, coloring, die cutting and assembling. The coloring took the longest, otherwise it wasn't too laborious. Love those Winter Birds and have used them a few times. You can see a couple earlier versions Here & Here if desired.

Next, I'll share my card for Craft Roulette Episode #280 which aired Friday night:

Supplies: Paper - Neenah grey linen A2 card;

Neenah Solar White; BoBunny Banner Year;

Authentique Irresistible; scrap of black

Stamps - Raisin Boat Drinks Anyone (retired);

MFT Uncorked (retired/NIB)

Stamps with Dies - MFT Something for Everything (retired/NIB)

Dies - AJVD Stitched Dot Rectangle Backdrop Set

Other - Copic Markers; foam tape

Host Mary had Carrie Giletto (‪@carriegiletto9662‬) who was making her 2nd appearance. She's also a Craft Roulette member who loves sharing paper crafting tips on her YouTube Channel. As usual, the wheel was spun four times for the parameters to use on our cards:

• Project - Thinking of You: I used a Thinking of You sentiment.
• Colors - Hometown: Used maroon & gray - colors of my hometown university.
• Element - Cup or Glass: I used a pair of wine glasses.
• Random - Add a Doodle: I doodled the corners of my maroon panel.

I quickly decided on wine glasses for my element (you'll see why in a sec), then found a thinking of you sentiment & a wine related subsentiment for my glasses to rest on. The wine glass stamp also has a squiggle stamp to represent wine but I added some Copic shading.

This card will go to our friend Maureen who organized an outing for this past Wednesday. We traveled north of the Twin Cities to Panola Gardens - a gorgeous spot that offers lunches and teas, among other things. Check the gallery on their website for photos of the grounds, if desired - they are far more professional than the ones I took! I will share the photo of our group - my former quartet, our coach/mom (seated in center) & our friend Maureen (seated at right):

As if tea wasn't enough, we repaired to Rustic Roots winery for more frivolity (the Gardens doesn't serve wine). I don't have any photos from there but they also have amazing grounds (owned by a nursery). 

Next I'll share a photo of two friends and me at the Minnesota Lynx basketball game yesterday (we won!). It's hard to tell but the cap is the team mascot - they gave them away to celebrate the mascot's birthday & there was a lot of craziness between quarters.

Chorus was invited to sing the National Anthem before the game and it was amazing! Here's a shot of the big screen above the court; I'm not visible but our director is standing a foot away from the starters hugging it out before the game. 

Behind the chorus is a group of sweet Girl Scouts displaying the colors. They were enthused about the music; some had already earned that scout badge. My friends and I took the train from Mall of America to Target Center in downtown Minneapolis - my first time making that trip! So quick and cheap - only $2! There was quite a crowd of Vikings and Lynx fans all headed downtown; luckily the Twins didn't play until the evening!

That's it for today, friends! With all the activity this past week, I'm lucky I got some cards made! Thanks for visiting & happy crafting!!

A Music themed card and more Print-making coloring for Day 15!

Hello, hello friends! We've made it to "hump day" 15 of Kathy's (The Daily Marker) 30 Day Coloring Challenge - woo hoo!! Today I'm sharing a music themed card then some more print-making coloring per Kathy's Day 1 post (linked above).

Supplies: Paper - DCWV A2 card; Poptone Black Licorice;

Neenah Classic Crest Solar White 110lb

Stamps - Hero Arts CG279 Musical Clef &

Raisin Boat Feel the Beat (both retired)

Dies - Hero Arts DI337 Nesting Oval Infinity Dies

Other - Recollections flowers (from Michaels)

I've mentioned that my chorus (City of Lakes Chorus) is relegated to rehearsing on Zoom during the pandemic. To help members connect, my chorus-mate & friend Debbie heads a "Stay in Touch" program. She gives us 8 names every two weeks and we can reach out by phone, mail, email, text etc. I've chosen to make and mail cards to over 100 members over the course of the program. Nuts, I know - that's more than my Christmas mailing list which I work on for 11 months of the year!! The card I shared above is a design I've used with slight modifications (different patterned papers & flowers) for the first 25 cards (Debbie slipped in an extra person one time!!). Another modification is that front row members (I used to be one until I got too slow & fat!) have both words Sing & Dance on theirs. I stamped, then fussy cut, the words and the treble clefs. I'm working this week on my next batch of 8 to be mailed out next Tuesday; then I'll have two weeks to work on the next 8.

I decided for my Day 15 coloring to revisit Kathy's print-making coloring (see it at the 30 Day Coloring Challenge link above which is for Day 1). I enjoyed it so much the first time (see my butterfly print here) that I decided to try again using some music themed dies I own. Here's my print:

I used Cheery Lynn Designs Whistle a Happy Tune and My Favorite Things Musical Notes dies (both retired), cutting from TH Distress watercolor paper. I then watercolored them (using Yasutomo watercolors and some Twinkling H20s), working on a large slab of Strathmore 140lb watercolor paper. I also painted watercolors on a Hero Arts sheet music cling stamp (from the same set as in the card above), spritzed and stamped in a few spots. The red in the corner was a bit too bold so I softened it in other spots by adding more water before stamping. Dribbled paint a couple times so figured I'd add some splatters while I was at it but not too many. The MFT dies were a bit small for this technique. Also, it seems to work better using a large symmetrical diecut. The butterfly I used previously was pretty much the same front and back so it was better for use as a stamp. I didn't want to stamp the music items because they'd be mirrored (did try a few partial clefs). I added extra color to the diecuts (off print) - they seemed a bit light. Figured I'd use some of this paper for future chorus cards.

I got enabled on the Cheery Lynn die by my friend Heather (Stamping and Stitching) who sent me a bunch of glittery treble clef diecuts. Loved them so much I had to buy my own die, though I've saved some of the ones Heather sent (you guessed it, the purples!!). You can see my gift bag project using the treble clef die here, if interested.

That's it for today - happy hump day - day 15!! Color something if you can & thanks for visiting!!

Coloring Challenge Day 5 and an anniversary!

Hey friends - hope you had a great 4th yesterday!! No fireworks in our 'burb but I watched the ones on tv from Washington DC - gorgeous!! Very low key 4th in the days of covid19.... Anyway, I've continued to work on my blossom panel started yesterday for Kathy's (The Daily Marker) 30 Day Coloring Challenge. Here's where I am today after spending another 90 minutes on it. Managed to get the basic coloring on the flowers and leaves and started some shading. In real life the flowers I'd started yesterday looked very lemony so I added some bronze. Liked it but decided to warm up more of the flower petal with some orange. A lot of my pencils are by Staedtler and have no color name - I just go by the look of the tip. The Crayola pencils have names, as do the few Faber-Castell pencils I own (like Cool Grey II pictured)

Coloring with pencils takes a lot of time!! As Kathy has advised, I have a sharpener on hand and use it often. She recommends a sharp point and using the side of the tip to add color. Remember coloring as a kid and grinding the point straight down?? Not a good thing!! I have to keep reminding myself to hold the pencil at an angle and touch the paper lightly. I feel myself starting to hurry, eye on the prize, get 'er done & have to slow down. Good for the blood pressure, I'm sure Kathy has said!

Now to my other life which I don't mention too often on my blog. You may have seen this photo on Facebook but I know some of you aren't on it. I'm celebrating 40 years with Sweet Adelines International (women singers of Barbershop Harmony) this year. I met a couple chorus friends yesterday for coffee; they were also celebrating and we exchanged certificates, with appropriate distancing of course!

One of the great things about Sweet Adelines is being able to continue singing throughout your life and to entertain audiences, not just during your school years or in church choir. We have loads of fun doing shows and contests and traveling; of course, just not right now due to the pandemic. Surprisingly, we've had people seeking to audition, even while we're on Zoom!! If you're a woman singer looking for an outlet for your voice, find your local barbershop chorus here. Live in the Twin Cities? Check out City of Lakes Chorus!

Finally, a funny photo of Misty from the day after she arrived. I was snapping my fingers, trying to get her to look up into my phone so I could grab the photo. She got offended and hissed at me as if to say "Quit taking my photo!" Anyway, the family got a good chuckle out of this photo!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!! I'll add my coloring to the 30 Day Challenge FB page.

Night Before Christmas and Chorus news

Hey everyone - I'm back from an exciting Sweet Adelines Regional contest weekend but more on that later... First up, this week's Merry Monday challenge from Nina who wants us to use the theme of the Night Before Christmas.

I know I have some Night Before Christmas paper around here somewhere but haven't found it yet!! In my search, I happened upon a pad of My Mind's Eye paper, though. I found a piece with the final phrase of the famous poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement Clarke Moore. Here's my card:

Supplies: Paper - Hero Arts Pool folded card, Neenah Classic Crest Solar White, My Mind's Eye Christmas
Stamps - Hero Arts H5267 Santa with Gift (retired from 2009) & CG690 Confetti Bold Prints (on card)
Other - Copics, foam tape, Michael's gems, Hero Arts Soft Pool ink, snowflakes from ??

I can't help but brag a bit about my chorus City of Lakes who scored our highest ever (a bit higher than 2 yrs ago) at our Regional contest this past weekend! This will take us to the 2018 International Contest in St Louis. Here I am at center with my two roomies Connie and Pat (both of whom are International Quartet Champions with 4-Star Collection. My old Chord Company quartet lead and bass, Heidi & Jan, competed with their new quartet Spice and won. This qualifies them for the 2017 International contest in Las Vegas this October. Choruses go next year because it takes a lot of planning for that many people; it's easier to arrange for a quartet so they go the same year they win.

That's it for now. Chorus has a show coming up on May 21st so I'd better get practicing! Also, for any of you Twin Cities residents, we're doing a free concert at Como Park's Pavilion on May 7th. Thanks for stopping by and have a crafty week!!

It's been a while!

As usual, I'm slow to post - it's been a busy Fall!  I sing in the City of Lakes Chorus and we recently returned from Baltimore where we competed in the Sweet Adelines International Chorus Competition.  I'm thrilled and proud to report we came in 6th (we were 7th in 2012; we couldn't compete in 2013 since you have to "sit out" a year).  For our semi finals round we performed "My Foolish Heart" and "That's How You Jazz & The Jazz Jam Medley".  See it here.  If you watch the video, I'm in the fourth row, a couple people to the right of center from the audience viewpoint.

Here's a photo of me with my former quartet members in our chorus rehearsal room wearing our semi-finals costume.

After landing in the top 10, the chorus was eligible to perform a 12 - 15 minute finals package to determine the final standings.  Our package revolved around the story of Rosie the Riveter, doing that song plus two contest songs and a reprise.  The cast included Rosie and her two friends and Harvey, the factory boss (played by director Scott).  We had a lot of fun with this package.  See it here.

Here's a photo of me with my friend Connie as we were leaving for the finals.

In the video you will find me in the same place in the chorus.  My friend Connie's former quartet 4-Star Collection (the 1997 Sweet Adelines International Quartet Champions) has a cameo in the reprise.

We had such fun in Baltimore!  We stayed at the "headquarters" hotel, the Hilton which is attached to the convention center - so convenient!  Other than rehearsing and competition, we don't have time for too much else but we walked around the harbor, did a bit of shopping, and ate at a wonderful family restaurant in Little Italian called Sabatino's.  We all ordered 1/2 size portions and they were still too much to eat for one meal!  Of course, that was after we shared an order of garlic bread - to die for!!

The Melodeers of Chicago won the chorus contest and the quartet champions are Bling! - both were amazing and will represent our organization well over the next year!

Well, back to reality of work and getting Christmas cards made!  Yesterday, I participated in a Scramble on the Hero Arts Flickr group.  The theme offered by Theresa, the host of the event, was Snow.  Perfect - a chance to make another Christmas card!  Here's my card:

I used the Hero Arts Tiny Ink Dots background, inked in white, as snow behind my white embossed snow flake.  This Dazzling Snowflake isn't being sold on the Hero Arts website right now, but I do see it here at Simon Says Stamp.  The sentiment is from a fun current Hero Arts clear set "Friends and Family" - just love the trees on that one!  Thanks for stopping by!

Bowling for Barbershop

Hi everyone - most of the time my blog is about stamping but I have to include the singing part of my life now and again.  Today my chorus, City of Lakes from Minneapolis, participated in a Sweet Adelines International fund-raiser called Bowling for Barbershop.  What fun we had from 1 to 5pm at Pinstripes in Edina MN!!

Here's my team, the Bari Strikers:

I chose that name because I sing Baritone and we, obviously, wanted strikes in our scores.  Well, the strikes were few and far between but we enjoyed our time on the lanes.  There was no competition involved - no prizes awarded based on scores.  It was all for fun.  It only cost $10 per person to bowl three games, including shoes.  And what delicious food Pinstripes serves!  We ordered the chicken avocado flatbread - wish I had a photo of it - yummy!!

When I bowled on a league years ago, I had an average of 151.  Well today, I was glad I broke 300 for my 3 game series!  Guess I should've practiced a bit beforehand!!

After bowling, we headed over to the bocce ball courts - they have three at Pinstripes.  Heidi and I took on Stella and Mary (Heidi's mom).  Elaine had left us and Mary's team hadn't started bowling yet so she joined us at bocce.  I had never played and had a hard time throwing the ball gently!  Many of my throws ended up hitting the back wall - a dead ball - darn!  I got better with practice but Stella and Mary triumphed, reaching the magic 7 to our 2 points.  Here we are:

     

 

Thanks for stopping and I hope you visit the Hero Arts Blog this week for some special fun!

 

Scramble 52 and a chorus medal!!

Hi everyone - hope you're having a great Sunday!  I was excited to be able to participate in Hero Hostess sister, Kathy's Scramble today over on the Hero Arts Flickr Group.  Theme - use a background stamp and a border punch - so simple and effective.  Here's my card:

As I've done before, and many others before me, I did the background with white on kraft - so yummy, especially with Colorbox Frost White ink - love it!!  Hero Arts created the delightful Holiday Background cling stamp that I've used for many Christmas cards since I bought it last year.  The border punch is EK Success's Bracket Edger - love this too!  And my snowflake is three layers of felt embellishments also by Hero Arts.  The cute little circle tag is from a Tim Holtz die by Sizzix and I used kraft string twine from May Arts - love them both!  The striped paper is not from a Christmas paper pad at all - I dug around for something with some navy and purple and found a My Mind's Eye Lime Twist paper pad - perfect.  And I won one Kathy's random draw prizes - yay, thanks, Kathy!

Now for the big news - just got back last Sunday from Denver where my chorus City of Lakes Chorus earned a 7th place (in the world!!!) medal in the Sweet Adelines International chorus contest.  We had a great time - lots of rehearsals and make-up, camaraderie and yummy food, beautiful city and friendly people, balmy weather and exquisite mountain views.

Here's the early a.m. view (that's the moon setting) from our 17th floor Downtown Sheraton hotel room:

And here I am with my friend Ferne from California.  She's a Queen of Harmony, hence the crown.  She sang baritone (like me!) with the Shalimars back in the 60s.

I'm in my semi-finals costume complete with our new jewelry - oops, my necklace is rather askew!

And here I am with my dear friend Connie - we're in our finals round costume.

I'm certainly glad I don't have to wear false eyelashes and red lipstick every day!!  Our finals package was a parody of the QVC shopping channel - we were SASN (Sweet Adelines Shopping Network) where you could buy all the fabulous things you need to look glam, including an "all-in-one".  One of the members disappeared behind a screen to don her "all-in-one" foundation garment; a different member (a foot taller and a few sizes smaller) popped out instead - got a good laugh on that one!!

We had last week off from rehearsal; this week we'll be able to review our contest videos and then move on to Christmas music for our December 8th show.  No rest for us busy singers!!

Hope you had a great weekend doing what you love.  Thanks for stopping!

 

More singing and a BIG birthday

It's been a while since my last post - May just flew by!  I've been busy singing and crafting so thought I'd share a bit of each.

The weekend after Mother's Day found the City of Lakes Chorus at our Regional convention and competition held at the Mystic Lake Casino complex.  What a great facility and how amazing to be on the Showroom stage where fabulous entertainers like Jay Leno, Maroon 5 and Adam Lambert have performed.  As outgoing chorus champions, we performed a show package and helped behind the scenes with the contest.  Here are a couple of photos of me with some of my friends in our new costumes - just love all the metallic blues and silver!

Elaine, Lou & me

Connie and me

Becky, another chorus friend, knows a woman from her mom's chorus in Iowa with a special birthday coming up.  This sweet lady, Mary Ela, turns 106 years old on Monday!  And she's still singing in shows with her chorus!  I can't imagine making it to that age but, if I do, I hope I can still sing too!!  Becky let us know about a card shower for Mary Ela so I made this card last night.  I used Hero Arts fun clear set Wish Big and a great cling background Life of the Party Words.  I cut the numbers on the balloons from a friend's Cricut - don't ask which cartridge cuz I don't remember :)
I used fun papers from Basic Grey's PB&J 6x6 paper pad.

Happy 106th, Mary Ela!  And thanks to you for stopping.  Have a great weekend!

Showtime and A Cut Above class homework

It's been a while again - oh well, I try... Thought I'd do a post including some of the Singin' part of my blog! 

Since I last posted, my chorus, City of Lakes Chorus, had a successful 60th Anniversary show "60Carat Harmony" (April 14th) at Bethel University.  Yes, the chorus (not me!) has been around for 60 years!!  What a great history of camaraderie and harmony!

We sang 12 songs, including "How We Sang Today" with any past members from the past 60 years who wanted to come onstage.  It was so fun to see some familiar faces!  My former quartet, Chord Company which retired about a year + 1/2 ago, got to sing at the after show party we call an Afterglow.  Here we are in the dressing room wearing our chorus costume.  That's a lot of glitter there! 

Here's a photo of the whole chorus, courtesy of Annette our videographer.  Can you find the 4 of us?  Hint - two are in the front row and two are in the center section.

And if you'd like to see a clip of  the chorus singing "So Long Dearie", go here.

Speaking of anniversaries, here's card I made today for my parents' anniversary next Monday.  I'm taking the latest Online Card Class - A Cut Above so I brought out a Tim Holtz die cut "Bird on a Branch".  Since it was an anniversary card, I thought it should have 2 birds so I cut a mirror image & cut that bird off its branch.  Added part of cut branch going down on the card.  The inked background used the Distress Stain with Rock Candy Distress Stickles technique I learned in Tim's Creative Chemistry 101 online class.  Very shimmery in real life.  Stamps are from my favorite company, Hero Arts.  The grey bird is stamped with the Newspaper Background; the blue bird is patterned paper from My Mind's Eye.  I doodled a bit on the branch using my new Distress Markers.  (Yes - they came into my LSS finally - the entire set!!)  I am NOT a good doodler - oh well, my parents will love it anyway :)

Hope you had a fun and crafty weekend!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Hero Arts 2012 Catalog Release Parties and City of Lakes Christmas Show 12/10/11

What a busy day - I had yesterday!  Must've been the extra excitement of the 2012 Hero Arts Catalog release parties and my chorus Christmas show - I was up at 4 a.m.!  Since I was awake and had my stuff all ready to go, I went ahead a made a card for our Hero Arts Flickr group holiday exchange.  Won't share that yet since I'm just putting it in the mail tomorrow.

Was at Archiver's in Roseville MN when they opened at 10:00 a.m.  Bought some great new Hero Arts goodies and then headed over to Anchor Paper in St Paul where they also had a release party.  Their make 'n take wasn't supposed to start until 11 but they had it ready early.  Good thing as I had to travel to Bloomington for my chorus Christmas Show.  We had to be on stage ready to go at 1:00 for a stage check and I had my stage make-up to put on after the release parties.  Didn't want to scare anyone at those!!

So here are a couple photos from the release parties - you can see more in my Flickr photostream if desired.

I'm at Archiver's holding up some of their display boards - the clerk thought

it would be good in the photo - I didn't make any of these!!

This is one of the display's at Anchor Paper in St Paul MN, not too far away from the Roseville Archiver's.

Here's a photo of my dear friend, Connie Miller, and me in our Christmas show garb and make-up.  False eyelashes, bright red lipstick and all.  We each got to wear whatever holiday garb we wanted - I chose a beaded and sequined duster coat that my retired quartet, Chord Company, ordered but decided against for the group.  The duster looked great on the three tall members but our lead is petite and she looked frumpy in it.  So I just kept my coat and the rest went back to the store - it has come in handy for several occasions such as this!

Don't we look alike?  We have been mistaken for sisters often; she is like a sister to me and has been adopted into my family.  See her gorgeous crown pin?  She is a Sweet Adelines International quartet champion with Four Star Collection!

Finally, after the show - you'd think I'd be tired?? - I went to the Archiver's in Woodbury where I knew some friends were doing Scrap Mania.  By the time I got cleaned up of all the stage make-up and drove across town and picked up my craft supplies, it was already 7pm.  I still had 4 good hours to invest in Christmas cards!  I'll share this one, made with one of my new 2012 Hero Arts stamps - a great friendship background.  Since I needed a card for Connie to give at our Christmas party tomorrow night, I decided to use that stamp along with the wreath stamp.  Here's my card:

Long post - whew!  Hope you're having a great Sunday!  Thanks for stopping!