Hello!

Hi!  Miss me?  Sorry I've been MIA for so long.  I had to step back from the stamping for a few days to get a grip on everything else around here!  Easter and Rebecca's birthday had me waaaaay behind on my usual tasks - I even missed paying a bill!  I have spent all week purging clothes and putting away the winter "stuff" - of course that means going through everything - deciding what is too small and what still fits - washing it etc etc etc.  Next weeks entertainment is the playroom.  Ugh.  THAT should be fun.  I tidied it 2 weeks ago but the influx of toys from Easter and the birthday have it out of control again.  The girls have authorized me to sell off some toys but I have to get at it - I expect it to be at least an 8 hour job.  Maybe Monday ....

I actually HAVE been stamping a little - I just didn't get around to photos and posting them so here we go ...

Thursday night I made 14 of these cute little 8 1/2" x 4 1/4" cards to pop in with my club orders.  They only took about an hour to make - they're so cute :)

I made them with the new Hello Blossoms stamp from the Summer Mini which comes into effect tomorrow.  So cute - and reasonable!  (only $9.95)  It's a great one to have.  I used my markers - Wild Wasabi, Poppy Parade (I'm using this color all the time lately!) and Daffodil Delight.  I punched the edge, put some Poppy Parade cs along the edge and tied it with some Daffodil Delight 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  Quick and easy :)

I love this next card.  I have realized that when I NEED to make a card for someone or something I can put one together in about 20 minutes.  It's when I go down to make a card "just for the fun of it" that I struggle and sit for hours agonizing over every detail.  This one is an example of a 20 minute card.  I made it for my friend Pam.  For those of you in Edmonton - you may have heard of the little boy who was hit by a truck in St. Albert on Easter Sunday - this was Pam's boy, Carter.  Carter went to playschool with my daughter Alicia.  Needless to say Pam and her family have gone through hell for the last week praying and caring for Carter.  Pam and her family have a LOT of great friends who rallied around and helped out with everything from child care (for her other 3 children) to meals (another friend, Helen, organized a "meal train" and managed to arrange for 15 meals in only 12 hours!  BTW - check out "mealtrain.com" if you ever want to organize meals for a friend who needs help in this area - anyone with a new baby or going through life stresses ...).  I wanted to help Pam in some way but meals were pretty much covered so I thought it might help if I gave her some Thank You cards so she could thank the dozens and dozens of people who helped her through this horrible time (oh - I should say that Carter is now home (despite him suffering a fractured skull!!!) and is doing very well).  So - Thursday night I went down and made her 25 Thank You cards.  Here is what I came up with:

I got inspiration for my card from Julie Davison (juliedavison.com) from a card she posted on Stamper's Showcaes.  It uses the Paisley Petals DSP from the upcoming 2011-2012 catalogue (the one that was on promo last month) along with Not Quite Navy CS (and ink) and Crumb Cake CS (and ink) and the Crumb Cake seam binding.  I also used a jumbo eyelet in the corner.  The frame is from the Four Frames set (also from the upcoming catty) and the sentiment is from "Sweetheart" (page 58 of the catty).  It came together so effortlessly.  Pam was thrilled to receive them.  One less thing for her to have to go out and get and giving her more time to care for her beautiful boy.  We are all so thankful that he is home!
That's it for today - I need to make more cards.  It seems I forgot to make Rebecca a birthday card last week and Craig's birthday is Tuesday so pop back again next week to see what I came up with for them.  Hopefully they only take 20 minutes too :)

Have a fun weekend - thanks for looking in!

Tam