I'm so far behind I think I'm first!

Happy Tuesday!

Ya ... it's been more insane than usual around here lately!  I STARTED this post on Sunday ... and here it is Tuesday night!  Sheesh!  Truth be told I'm only finishing it now because it's only 8:04 pm and I'm trying to stay upright until at least 9:00.  If I stop moving I'm PRETTY sure I'll fall asleep.  Not even kidding.  This week I've tried to watch a 20 minute show at bedtime and three nights in a row I've passed out within the first 2 minutes!  hee hee.  The FALLING asleep is easy.  The STAYING asleep is not!  SOOOO much going on in my head - classes, birthdays, Easter, new catalogue, retiring products, pre-orders, planning .. and COUNCIL WORK!  Tomorrow is THE big day for me with council worl.  I will be spending the entire day working on my part of the seminar we are putting on in Toronto THIS weekend.  Ya.  Gotta get it done tomorrow as Thursday I'm booked ALL day and I leave for Toronto on Friday.  So that's my crazy right now!  What was my crazy last week?

Well ... we had Easter at Mom's, as we always do.  It was a feast of feasts.  SO good!  Mom and Alicia had made this cute little edible bunny bread with dip in the tummy,  So cute!

We also had Rebecca's 16th birthday celebration on Thursday.  Sweet 16.  *sniff.  Not a baby any more!

Mama and Papa brought balloons that had money inside.  SO fun to pop them all and watch the money rain down!

We spent our traditional Mom/Daughter day at the mall.  It's a tradition we've had since she was about 7.  Long may it last!

I made her a Twist and Pop card.  It was actually QUITE quick and easy to come together ...

I held a Coffee and Cards class yesterday at Second Cup.  These are the cards we made.  SO quick and easy!

I had a class on Friday (and again Saturday).  These were the little notecards that went inside a "clutch" style package.

I CASED this project form Chris Slogar and a tutorial she posted on Splitcoast Stampers.  You can check that out HERE

We also made a "Triangle Corner Pop-Up 3-D Card". 

I CASED that one from fellow demo Jan Brown.  You can find HER tutorial at Jan B Cards or on youtube.  Here's here video.

I was struggling to come up with a third project for the class ... until I realized I DID have this new bird stamp set "Free as a Bird" so I CASEd the Make and Take from Vancouver On Stage.  A changed it a little, to use up some of the retiring Powder Pink Card stock.  I LOVE this bundle and I know I'll use it a LOT this year!

I finally got around to mailing the box of 180 notecards to our friend Mr. Dan in GA, USA.  This was the card I put inside with a little note ...

If you follow me on Facebook you will have seen this little tip a posted.  My friend Claudine had mentioned that if you use a self healing cutting mat in place of the bottom cutting pad your TOP cutting plate won't warp.  I decided to give it a try.  IT WORKED!

I ran this top plate through the Big Shot at LEAST 40 times and it is just as straight as when I took it out of the package!  Oh sure, the mat isn't very good at fine detailed dies but for outline dies like these there are just fine!  We can't get the cutting plates through Stampin' Up! anymore so using these self healing mats will definitely help extend the life of the two new plates I have!

Here is a video showing you want I mean ...

You can probably tell I'm exhausted ... my rambling isn't as long or detailed as usual so I'll leave it at that for today.  I wanted to get this post finished, as I'm trying REALLY hard to be consistent in posting but also trying to get a good life/family/work balance.  I WAS doing really well .. until the last few weeks.  It's all good - just a slight blip until next week, once these Council Seminars are over.

I hope you're all well and having a stampy night!

Tam