Another Granada Getaway

Hi all - yikes, can't believe it's been 2 months since my last post!  Last weekend some crafting friends and I went to the Granada Getaway in southern MN off I-90 near Fairmont.  This was my 3rd time at this event to benefit a Relay for Life team, lead by our friend Karen.  I had to miss last year due to a chorus retreat but when I arrived it was like old home week - I was so glad to be with these 14 other enthusiastic paper crafters!!

I drove my own car with trunk and back seat full of stuff - of course, I didn't use all of it but it was there just in case!!  I wasn't as productive as 2 years ago but I managed to finish 13 cards.  Here are some of them:

The facility is so comfortable, both for crafting and for living - cushy beds, big kitchen, lots of craft space & tools.  This year each subgroup prepared a meal for the entire group.  We Twin Cities girls - Bonnie, Julie, Sandy & I - made brunch on Sunday, including 2 eggs bakes, a fabulous fruit/lettuce/granola salad, croissants, and OJ or mimosa depending on how soon one had to drive :)  Thought I'd share the recipe I made - modified from one that Bonnie found:

Egg Bake with Hash Browns
30 oz bag of frozen hash browns (shredded style)
1/2 pint half & half
1 dozen eggs
1 lb ham cubed (I used a 1/4 inch thick slice from the packaged meat dept)
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups shredded cheese (I used a cheddar/cojack mix)

Butter (or spray with Pam) a 9x13x2 baking dish.  Line bottom of pan with hash browns.  Crack open eggs and place atop hash browns; break the yolks but don't scramble.  Add desired salt and pepper, then top with 1/2 the cheese.  Pour half & half over this mixture, then add meat and the rest of the cheese.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.  Next morning, bake about 40 minutes at 350F.

I'm sure you could add lots of other things depending on your tastes - mushrooms, switch the ham with sausage or bacon, etc.

Back to the cardmaking - my masterpiece, according to the crafting girls, for the weekend was this flower basket card.

 

My friend Julie found the basket stamp at a thrift sale - it just says by Judith on the side.  I googled and found it here.  I remember meeting Judith and Heather at the Bloomington Rubber Stamp Show last year, now that I think of it!  They have tons of cute basket stamps and many other categories as well.  I stamped the basket on kraft card stock and embellished with brown markers. 

I stamped the dogwoods from the Hero Arts/Sizzix set Antique Flowers and Butterflies three times on a pinkish Basic Grey paper, then trimmed them out and arranged in the basket.  I added some highlights with markers.  The dimension on the handle was achieved with foam tape; I also put some behind some of the flowers.  The tag was cut from a Spellbinders label set and stamped with a sentiment from Hero Arts clear set It's your Day.

I also made my Father's Day card at the Getaway.

 

I used a fun Stamp & Cut Hero Art's set for Archiver's featuring four ties with a matching tie die cut.  I put a diecut tie on the inside of the card but simply stamped the four ties on patterned paper for the card front.  The cute banner and sentiment comes from Lawn Fawn.  The patterned paper came from a 6x6 pad by Basic Grey called Hey You.

After the Getaway brunch I headed to my parents' house for Father's Day dinner.  Here I am with my sweet Dad - he loved his card, of course!

Thanks for stopping!  Hope you had a crafty weekend!!

Crafting is great therapy!

Hi everyone - on Thursday my sister and I hauled out the craft supplies to make thank you cards.  Tami has plenty of people to thank - lovely neighbors, dear relatives and sweet friends who brought food or housed relatives, sent flowers or gave moral support during these tough times.  Tami is more of a scrapbooker than a card maker but she asked me to help her make some cards.  I thought it would be very healing and it was!  I have accumulated many supplies that I leave at her house, plus I usually bring a few stamp sets.  She says she can only create when I'm in the room for inspiration but I'm sure she could do it on her own too!  Here we are creating:

 

Here's about 1/2 of the cards we created together:

 

We used some wonderful Hero Arts clear and wood block sets, especially an excellent 2013 release CL663 Thanks a Bunch.  I had Tami repeat some of the designs if they were going to different areas. Then I stayed busy creating while she addressed the envelopes. And, of course, here's a shot of our messy crafting table:

This mess was over at my parents' house earlier in the week, then I cleaned it all up and created a new version at my sister's house - LOL! And they didn't even mind that I left it messy for several days as I continued creating. We did a lot of running around to the post office, the outlet mall, for lattes, etc. so I didn't get a chance to publish this until today. Crafting is great therapy - it really helped to heal as we personalized the thank you cards for the people who sympathized & shared with us. Thanks for stopping and hope you have a safe and crafty weekend.

April Card Chain Challenge

Hi all - another Card Chain Challenge has arrived on Deborah's blog.  She extended the deadline which I appreciated as I had a lot going on and missed the original one. 

My dear brother-in-law Dave lost his nearly 3 year battle with lung cancer last week.  My sister Kari went right away to help my sister Tami and I came in for the funeral.  Tami has been such a trooper taking care of Dave; you may remember I visited them in February while he was in the hospital with pneumonia.  Well, he recovered from that but the cancer had spread to his "good" lung.  He didn't even last two months after that.

We're all glad he's not in pain anymore but I will miss him soooo much.  We both love to read and we shared many books over the last 27 years - John D. MacDonald, John Sanford, Lee Child and many other authors.  I made a bunch of sympathy cards - for my sister, the three kids and Dave's 3 siblings.  Didn't get a photo of any of them but they were appreciated by all. 

Now I'm visiting my parents and was able to pull out enough supplies to make a CCC card.  Here's what I came up with using this month's sketch and the theme of friendship:

I used a Hero Arts Shallows folded card, My Mind's Eye papers (The Sweetest Thing Bluebell), a zig zag cling stamp from Hero Arts, and a sentiment from a clear set by Hero Arts called Friends.

Thanks for stopping and I hope you're living life to the fullest and doing what you love!

Another Die Cut Diva Challenge Entry

Die Cut Divas are using GREEN in their challenge this month.  I created this Easter card today and lo and behold, I have green fringed grass on it!  Yay - I have another entry for this month.

The main image is a fun new "rabbit with carrot" die-cut from Hero Arts for Silhouette.  I cut Mr. Bunny on Hero Arts blush designer paper, gave him a googly eye, a bit of cotton for is tail and a pink gem for his nose.

 

Since I was die-cutting on the Silhouette, I made a whole sheet of items with the blush designer paper, including the butterfly on this next card.  The butterfly is a design by Totally Jamie that comes with several others in a set.  This card was made for a fun Scramble with Barb to use a tic-tac-toe grid for the elements you needed to include.  I used the row with twine, patterned paper and washi tape, although some of the other grid items landed on my project (colors pink & green, pearls, die cuts).  The bold flower die is Hero Art's Chrysanthemum fancy die; I popped it onto some fun patterned paper and cut a mat around it.  Both cards use the Easter sentiment from a great Hero Arts clear set:  CL498 Celebrate Everyday.

  



 

Well, I'm feeling better having started my Easter cards but I still have more to make.  Off I go to keep working.  Thanks for stopping - hope you're having a great weekend and thanks to Barb for a fun Scramble today!!

Happy Mail from Jacqueline in France!

Came home from another long day at work to find happy mail in my box!!  A few weeks ago I sent sweet Jacqueline some Prima Botanical papers she needed - I found them at Hobby Lobby while I was in Arizona.  She reciprocated with a lovely package of fab items shown below:

At the left, a set of gorgeous coasters - the colors are perfect for my living room!  But I probably won't want to use them, they are so stunning; I love the vintage garden look of them.  On the right, two of Jacqueline's amazing tags - just love the pink dogwoods and the peachy dragonflies!  At the back, a beautiful grid card - love the soft blues, greens and pinks! 

If you haven't visited Jacqueline's blog, you're missing something special.  Her work always draws you into a better appreciation of nature and her collage style inspires me.  Thanks Jacqueline for all the goodies and for being such an inspiration, both on your blog and on the Hero Arts Flickr group!

It's Scramble Time!!

Hi all - I'm hosting today's Scramble over at the Hero Arts Flickr group.  If you're checking this out around 1 p.m. USA PST, it just started so come on over.  It only lasts 90 minutes so if you're stopping by later than 2:30 PDT, you won't be able to play but you can check out the cards people created.  For Scramble details, go here.  If you're new to Scrambling, you get a theme and have 90 minutes to create, photograph, upload and post your card.  Here are the sample cards I created for the Scramble using the theme Embossing Technique.  I used two kinds of embossing - powder and folder, and yes - I did my cards within the established time limit :)

Card 1 uses Hero Arts Tall Flowers - a cling stamp I just love!  I white powder embossed the flowers then colored them with various Distress Markers and shaded with Copics (C1 & C3).

On card 2 I used an embossing folder; this one is from Hero Arts/Sizzix and is patterned after the Hero Arts Magical Background cling stamp.  I also embossed the sentiment using clear ep over some yummy Distress Ink.  I just love the large script for the sentiments in Hero Arts clear set Fancy Basics!

What's your favorite embossing technique?  Have you ever done the embossing with the little gold templates and the light box?  I have a bunch of them but don't use them much - may have to pull them out again!  Thanks for stopping!!

Die Cut Diva's March Challenge

Ooops - it's been a while since my last post.  Oh well, I've been busy acclimating back to winter - we just got a heap more snow this week!  Hope it all clears up before the big St. Patrick's Day Parade in St. Paul next weekend!!

And speaking of St Paddy's Day, I made this card for the Die Cut Diva's March Challenge to use green.  March + green = St Paddy's Day to me so I went ahead and made a card with that day in mind.

 

Besides the big green 4-leaf clover and green ribbon, I used green metallic accents from Hero Arts and their Neon green ink for my chevron background (a Hero Arts Cling stamp called Edgy Background).  After stamping it, I embossed it with a fun chevron folder by Hero Arts (with Sizzix).  I just love this look!  The clover was done on my Silhouette SD using a design from Sophie Gallo (available on Silhouette's online store) called Lucky Charms.  It has a pot of gold, a horseshoe, and some other fun charms too.

Be sure to check out the Die Cut Diva's challenge and, if you need something to do this weekend, please join me on Saturday on the Hero Arts Flickr group for our next Scramble - 90 minutes of crafting chaos!  Time is 1pm PST - details here.  Thanks for stopping!