MDS Monday - Friends 24-7

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Hey y'all. Happy Monday! It's a beautiful day in the DMV. Ok, maybe not beautiful but the sun is weakly shining and the flurries are holding off for at least the time being, and the wind was absent while I waited in line at the the carpool line so it's hard to complain. (:

I hope you're having a great day. If you're just catching up and you missed the weekends posts, I am happy to announce, that after a few more anxiety provoking tests, I have been medically cleared and am healthy, health scare/crisis averted, Thank God! Thanks once again to all of you who might have sent up prayers or positive thoughts.

With that thought in mind, I made this card last night for sister. She was my rock through all of this. She took time off from work to be with me on Friday at my appointment and after my second mammogram while I was waiting to hear if I was done or would need further testing she looked at me and said "I'm not going to touch you right now because you'd fall apart, so I'm hugging you from over here." At which point I pretty much almost fell apart anyways, (but inside) so the technician couldn't see it when she came in a few minutes later to tell me I needed a sonogram. And when I came back after the sonogram and was able to tell her everything was ok, she just held me while we both cried with relief and joy. I really don't know what I would do with her.

Here's one of my favorite pics of us. It was taken this summer when we were getting  ready for night one of our 3 day DMB weekend in Atlantic City. (Which by the way was EPIC). I love it because we're like Snow  White and Snow Rose. She's my Best Friend in the Whole Wide World!

That's me on the right

I wish I had this stamp set and color cardstock at home, I would make this card for her, but for now, she'll just have to see it here. I hope she'll like it!  Wanna see?

I used a base of Brocade Blue and layered it with Very Vanilla. The Large Flourish is from the Friends 24-7 stamp set and is in Night of Navy that I lightened up. The 24-7 is from the same set also in Night of Navy left at original intensity.

Here's the inside-

The flower is from the same stamp set, stamped again in Night of Navy and lightened up. The sentiment is from For All You Do and left at original intensity.

I am really enjoying my MDS. It's so easy to make beautiful digital cards and to make digital cards that you will use as templates for regular cards as well. Also, I was browsing through the MDS catalog last night looking for a particular punch I needed to create a certain project. Well, I found it alright. And of course like most of SU products, I found other items I really wanted that would make the project even better so I put them in my basket as well and went to check out and my grand total was....are you ready.... < $10.00. Yep! I said < $10.00. And the best part of it all? No waiting! It was delivered immediately to my computer. Within minutes everything was downloaded, already filed in it's appropriate places in my MDS program and ready to go. How sweet is that? If you don't already have MDS and are interested in finding out more, hit me up or go to my website to purchase it.

Well that's all I have for today. Mr. UPS should be making a stop at my house this afternoon with my New Occasions Mini items so I'll be back with new stuff for you later this week.

If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

Some Good News & A Helpful Tip

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Hey y'all. Happy Sunday to you. Just a quick NSR post for you today.

First off I wanted to update everyone. Sorry for the delay, I know I should have posted Friday or even yesterday but to be honest even though Friday brought good news I was a complete and total HOT MESS! (Actually that's putting it a little mildly! (:  ) After a second mammogram was not enough to clear me and I needed a sonogram I was finally given the all clear. Thanks be to God and the Blessed Mother and of course to all of you that offered up prayers and positive energy.

Yesterday, I was able to actually sleep in and then run some errands before going to work and then heading over to my sister's house to enjoy a glass of wine and call one of our best friends to wish her Happy Birthday.

So, sorry for the delay, but one of my resolutions, excuse me resolves for this year was to make more time for family and friends. So I am trying, and at the end of the day, I did say that was what it was all about, trying.

To that end - another one of my resolves was to manage my money more effectively. I think that's a pretty good idea right? I mean I don't know too many people with throw away money just lying around. If you do, and you want to throw some my way great, I'm more than willing to take it but until then I'm gonna have to do whatever I can to save whatever I can especially since my Government is intent on wasting as much as possible.

Now we're friends right? Yeah, I thought so. So I thought "Hey Shan, Why don't you share some of these ideas with your friends? So every once in a while when I stumble upon something that seems like a really good idea, I'll let you know too, so we can both save some money. I figure that way we've got extra money for other stuff right? Right.

Do you have a car or some other kind of vehicle that consumes gas or diesel? Do you like to made to order sandwiches, shakes, coffees, doughnuts, sodas? Do you have a Sheetz in your area? Then you need one of these-

You get $.03 off each gallon automatically everyday. Now, in my area Sheetz is usually the lowest price everyday anyways comparable to even Wawa's. The only places lower are the big warehouse stores, you know the ones I mean (where you have to have a membership) and even those are usually only about 2-3 cents lower and they are out of my way. In addition with this card I get free food and other discounts in the store, pretty sweet. You can either use the key fob or the "credit card"style card if you hate having all those fobs on your key ring. *Please note I have not been compensated by Sheetz in any way. This endorsement and opinions listed herein are totally my own.* Now if you do not have a Sheetz in your area it might be worth it to check and see if any of your local stations offer something similar to this. I know one of our local grocery stores pairs up with a big name gas station to give you 10-20 cents off a gallon but those stations are almost always at least 10 cents higher than any of the other stations in the area, so I would have to spend a lot of money on groceries just to get my gas there at the same cost I could get it anywhere else. Not a smart financial move, for me at least. So, I know that 3 cents a gallon, really when you look at it is not a lot. Most of you have 10-12 gallon tanks so it's what, 30 cents a fill-up but you know what, 30 cents a time depending on how often you fill up adds up.

Sometimes it's the small things in life that trip you up, but you know what else, sometimes it's the small things in life that can make all the difference. Is 30 cents a week going to do it? You never know. It just might, especially if it's combined with other savings. If it does, or if it even helps a little, I hope you think just a little kindly of me and maybe let me know.

I'll be back tomorrow with a MDS Monday.

Till then-

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

End Of the Week Technique 14 - Hinge Cards

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Hey y'all. Really quick post here. I should be cleaning house and getting ready for the Good Lord only knows what I will need to be getting ready in 3 hours but since I may not have time to post much later, let me give this to you now.

I was trolling the Internet the other day and saw this cute idea for a card and decided to give it a try. Not sure where I saw it, I think it might have been Dawn Olchefsky, if anyone knows let me know so I can give credit.

Here it is-

Isn't it cute? Everything on it is Sale-A-Bration except the base c/s of Calypso Coral and the punched strip across the center.

One of the nice things about this card, besides coming together really quick is that you only need one piece for the base instead of a folded piece, so if your trying to conserve cardstock or you're looking for a cute swap card this is a great one to use.

The bottom DSP is Everyday Elegance from Sale-A-Bration and I Tombowed it to my base. (You know how I love my Tombow. No-one's getting one of my cards and going to show it to someone and have it separate. No sir-ree!)

For the upper layer I took a strip of Calypso Coral and punched it with my Scalloped Ribbon Border Punch and adhered it to a piece of Very Vanilla c/s that I had rounded the upper edges using my corner rounder punch on. I used my Two-Way Glue Pen on the back of my punched piece so no adhesive would show through. I then laid it down next to the DSP and using my Mat Pack and Piercing Tool pierced a hole and made it wide enough to put one of our new brads from our Everyday Elegance Brad and Ribbon Pack from Sale-A-Bration. Isn't it cute?

Then using a strip of the striped DSP I made a little "present" and topped it with a bow from our free sheer Lucky Limeaide and Calypso Coral ribbon that's also coming up in Sale-A-Bration. Are you getting excited about it, yet? You don't have to wait too much longer, just a few weeks more.

Wanna see how the card works?

See... How Cute is that?

TA-DA!

Easy-Peasy!

Now, I know your thinking, but Shan, there's a brad sticking out the back! I got you! I trimmed the edges of the brad, stamped an imaged from Fresh Vintage, cut it out and adhered it over the brad, covering it up, see.

So, I hope you liked today's EWT. I really did! It's quick, easy, great for swaps, sure to please those that receive and easy on the wallet (always nice). I know it's definitely one, I'll be coming back to. If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

Well, I'm off to eat lunch, do some laundry, clean house and then off to the doctors, hopefully for some good news.

Till next time-

Be Safe,

Shan

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Love You Just The Way You Are!

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Hey y'all.
So here's the post I've been meaning to post all week. I am hopefully still sound asleep in bed, but as my mind has been all wrapped up the last few days I truly doubt that is happening. Hopefully, I at least got to sleep in at least a little though.

When I saw this sentiment in the Sale-A-Bration set Sprinkled Expressions I knew I had to have it! I love the sentiment "You make my whole face smile" but I would have purchased $50.00 in merchandise just for this one sentiment to stamp cards for my sweet daughter.
It says "Love you just the way you are" and I do. I hope she reads this post soon. She recently moved to Tennessee and I miss her like Crazy! Actually, I kinda hope she doesn't read this, because this will be going in the mail to her and it would be nice to have it be a surprise.

Wanna see it?

This is how it started

I used a base of Poppy Parade, love that color! So sad this is the last year it's an in color. ): *tear* I then took a layer of Everyday Enchantment DSP (a Sale-A-Bration bonus) and used one of my new heart framelets to cut out the heart in the center. Love how easy they are to use and of course now I have a beautiful heart that I can use in another project. Bonus! I inked up the heart image from the Sprinkled Expressions Stamp set with Poppy Parade and stamped it on a scrap piece of Very Vanilla c/s and adhered that to the back of the DSP. I then popped this up with dimensionals on the Poppy Parade base and the front was done. So quick and easy.

On to the inside-

I stamped the central image again in the lower inner corner after stamping off 3 times to get a much lighter image. I stamped the sentiment full color.

*Tip* Wanna know a secret? All 3 sentiments in this set have sentiments and curvy symbols either hearts, stars or flowers. I got this set in clear mount and cut the stamps separating the sentiments from the symbols so I could stamp them with the symbols as I did above or I could stamp just the sentiment as I did in my other card here. This keeps you from having to mask the stamp. You can also do this when you mount your wood stamps or when you transfer your wood mount to cling mount.

So, I thought that I was done, but I just felt like it needed a little something else, so I went to my old stand by and you know what I did right? Yep! I called on my old friend Tink. Here's what she did-

Unfortunately, I could not get an angle where my Stoopid BB would pick up the true shine that was coming off of this card. It just looks sugared here, but trust me, it was just the extra touch that was needed.

Well, I hope you like it, and I hope you think it was worth the wait. But more importantly, I hope my sweet, darling, baby, girl who "I Love Just The Way She Is" loves it!

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I am still, despite everything, going to try and get a EWT done for this week and ready to post either late today or tomorrow and as soon as I know something health wise I will be sure to post it.

If I don't get to post over the weekend, I hope you all have a great weekend with lots of time to spend with friends and family and of course lots of time for stamping and designing.

Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan

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A Little Love, A Little Resolve, and A Challenge (FMS #16), Personal Challenge (PC#1)

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Hey y'all.

Do you make resolutions for the New Year?

I try not to really make resolutions for the new year anymore. Know why? Let me tell you. I've discovered in my 29 years here on this earth, *tee-hee-hee* Why, yes I do have 29 years here on this blasted earth, Thank you very much, now where was I? Oh, yes- I've discovered in my 29 years here, that resolutions are very much like diets, in that we start out with the best of intentions only to break them because, lets face it, they probably weren't very realistic to start with in the first place, and then because we feel so very bad about the fact that we let ourselves down by breaking our resolutions, we indulge ourselves in something totally in-appropriate and usually start ourselves in a downward spiral of overindulgence that leads to self loathing that can take months at the gym and months in the wallet to recover from. You can stop with the vigorous head nodding now, because I know you know exactly what I mean.

So instead of making firm resolutions each year I simply resolve to try... To try and do more, to do better, well, u get the idea. It's just so much easier that way. If I mess up I haven't failed, I tried, maybe I just need to try a little more.

Some things I'm going to try this year, I'll put it out there for everyone to see- after all, if no-one knows then it's a little easier to not try as hard.

With regards to my little blog here- 1- I'd like to enter a challenge a week. It may not always happen, but it's a nice goal. 2- Try to keep up with the EWT's. There again, may not always happen, in fact may not happen this week due to all the things going on in my life right now, but like I said the goal is to TRY. 3- Post at least 3 times a week. Should be easy, that's where I'm at now. 4- Increase my followers- Don't really know how to do that other than to just keep doing what I'm doing. Am at 4 on Google now. I know I have more that follow me in readers but no way to check that. Maybe I should change that to more page hits, hmmmm.

In life- The usual- 1- Take better care of my self, Make time for myself. 2- Make my finances a priority so I can sell my house and buy a condo & start saving more for retirement. 3-Work on my Stampin'Up business 4-Finish my first novel (I'm half way through and start the second one (plot already started) 5-Work on finishing the degree I really don't want so I can have it out of the way to pursue other options 6- Look at other life/career options

For Fun- 1- Make more time for Friends and Family 2- Make more time for stamping and other creative ventures 3- work on other blogs

Wow! Maybe I should have put sleep in there somewhere!

Well, to work on Numero Uno up there way at the top I have a new challenge entry. Now I know I had intended to show you a card with product from the new Mini in it but I saw this challenge and new what I wanted to do and so the other card will get posted tomorrow. In fact it will get done today for a scheduled post for tomorrow, so I hope you'll forgive me. It's just when I do previews, the preview gets all the hits and the blog post never gets hit, so I feel like the doing the post is kind of not needed. Know what I mean? ):

Here's the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches-

Pretty simple and straightforward, and I knew right away exactly what I wanted to do, colors and everything. Love it when that happens. It almost worked out that way too. I had hoped to use my new heart framelets, but too big, but I used some leftover pieces I had from a swap and I'm so happy with how it turned out. Ready for the card? Here it is-

Do you love it? I LOVE it! So quick and simple and yet so striking. I tell you what, I would love to receive this card for valentines or just anytime. Also, I think it's a great masculine card, even though that's not the direction I was going with it when I started. And I just looked at the other cards that have been submitted and none of the other cards look anything like mine. Yea Me! Ok- Basic recipe- Basic Black card base 4 1/4 x 8 1/2 folded in 1/2 to make a square then layers of Real Red and Whisper White with the Whisper White going thru the Big Shot and the Perfect Polka Dot Embossing Folder (love that one). They are separated by a band of Basic Black and Real Red. The individual layers are all Tombowed together and then separated by dimensionals. The final touch is the three little hearts punched out of Red Glimmer Paper with the small heart punch and popped up with dimensionals.

Here's the inside-

I added one small glimmer heart and left the rest blank. I could be "artistic" and say "I left it that way for the sender to write their message of love", but truth be told. I'm waiting for my new Valentine's stuff to arrive from SU. (:

What do you think? I hope you like it. I like it so much I think I'm going to make it one of my Valentine's Day StampCamp cards (with one of the new Occasions Mini Stamps inside of course). Quick, Easy, Big Shot, Punches, Occasion items, Pretty, what's not to love, right?

If you liked today's card, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :)

I hope it inspires you to create and to maybe do a sketch challenge yourself.

Card recipe-
Cardstock- Basic Black, Real Red, Whisper White. Glimmer Red
Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder
Punch- Sm Heart
Accessories- Tombow Adhesive

And for those of you who have read my recent posts- I have been able to get my follow up appt. moved up to tomorrow afternoon so I should have some news one way or another then. All prayers and positive thoughts to this point have been appreciated and any more would be so as well. Here's a little video for you....
He says- I know that I can count on you like 4-3-2, you'll be there, cuz that what friends are sposed to do. This is especially for my sister who is taking the afternoon off to sit with me at the radiology department tomorrow afternoon just in case and for any and all of you who have ever said quiet prayers and thoughts for me or those important in your life. Enjoy-

Till next time,

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

Try Try Again, A MDS Re-Do

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Morning y'all. Really quick post today. Migraine is really kicking my butt today. I'm sure it is just all the stress I'm under. :-(   Unfortunately that doesn't look to be letting up any until after next Friday, so I'll just have to push on through. At least I'm not at my old job where I had one literally every single day, hand to heaven, EVERY DAY!

So, you know I'm learning MDS, right? Are you learning yours too? I think overall it's really very intuitive and easy to do, and probably most of the stuff I make harder than it needs to be. (Go figure!) I did this card last week for New Years-

And, while I liked it, it wasn't everything I want it to be. I wanted the DSP to be on the top to signify the fireworks in the night sky, but I wanted a colored bottom with a scalloped border and every time I tried to get the border I could only get the border to go across the whole card and not just the one layer so I finally  had so settle for this layout.

Luckily, I have the guru of all MDS guru's for an upline Jan Wakeland and I shot her e-mail and she helped me out and after a quick little tinker I was able to tweak my card to fit my original idea. Here it is-

Not a big change, and now that I'm looking at them both here, I may actually like the first one better, but would go back and add the scalloped border to it. What do you think? Either way, I think  one of the nicest things about MDS is no wasted paper! SCORE! :-)

Well like I said quick post today card wise. I have a quick little video for you today. I was in the mood for a little pick me up and this song always does it for me. It's a really positive message and it never fails to make me smile. I hope it makes you smile too-

I hope you have an Amazing day and come back tomorrow to see the new card I have for you featuring items from our new Occasions Mini and Sale-A-Bration Catalogs.

Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It

MDS Monday - Sympathy Cards

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Hey y'all! Well, 2012 is finally here. I hope 2011 ended on a good note for you and 2012 is starting on an even better one! This is going to be a quick post as I am working with a small migraine. I put this off till the afternoon hoping it would go away, but no luck. I also know it's Tuesday, but I took the day off yesterday to do some "Spring cleaning around the house and to play in the studio, so as it's a "Monday-Tuesday" kind of week I figured I could get away with posting my MDS Monday post today.

I don't know about you but sympathy cards are not the easiest to for me to do. I always think masculine ones are hard, but sympathy ones are even harder. You want to hit just the right note. You want to be pretty without being over the top. I like this stamp set, Thoughts and Prayers, and it's one I've been wanting to get for a while and have been passing over in favor of occasional items and was so glad that it came standard in my MDS suite.

Here's the card I made-

I used Soft Suede, Always Artichoke, and Very Vanilla for the colors and I really liked how it came out.

In fact, I liked I so  much I just changed the words to make it card for a friend of mine who is going through a rough patch right now.

And here's the inside-

And here is one of my favorite songs for her and for anyone who is going through a tough time in their life-

Enjoy-

Now, for a really personal moment- As I was finishing this post I got a call from the doctor's office. I'm sure everything will be fine, but the mammogram I did last week had an abnormality on it and I'll be going back in next Friday ( Augh, Friday the 13th!) for another exam. So, if you believe in prayer or even just positive thoughts and energy, I'd really appreciate it if you could send them my way. Thanks.

Well, that's all I have for today. I hope you liked my card and I hope you'll stop back in real soon to see what else I have in store for you. I've been playing around with my new supplies and can't wait to show you.
 If you liked it, I would love it if you left me a comment. It's great when I get to hear from you! Also, if you liked today's card, please feel free to +1 or Pin it. I've added the buttons to my side-bar for your convenience. Friends and Followers are also welcome. :) 


Till next time-

Be Safe,
Shan Pin It