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Get Well Soon, Mary Ellen!

Aloha, all!

Our friend and fellow duplicate bridge player, Mary Ellen, was taken ill last week and is still in the hospital.  Oh my!  And of course we decided that I should make a Get Well Card for her for the bridge group to sign and send off to her.  But what to use?  As I was going through my stash of "stuff," I came across a purchased-never-opened-totally-forgotten-about pack of the Designer Series Paper, "Jackpot"!  If that’s not THE perfect paper to use for a card for a bridge player, I certainly do not know what is.

This card is a bit larger than the usual card that I make–it’s 5-1/2" wide and 8-1/2" high, and fits in the Extra Large Envelopes in the Stampin’ Up! catalog.  This gave us plenty of room for the signatures of everyone at last Sunday’s regular weekly game of the Hilo Bridge Club.

The colors in the Designer Series Paper are Basic Black, Real Red and So Saffron, all on a background of Very Vanilla flecked with a bit of Whisper White.  Yes, the Spades and Clubs are Basic Black.  And the Hearts are Real Red.  I can only guess that the reason that the Diamonds are So Saffron is to give the paper some color interest.  Oh, well.

Recalling that I said that the red in the paper is Real Red, I nonetheless used the Rose Red 1" ribbon (left out on the Craft Room table from Mother’s Day!) to accent the card.  It actually looks very nice in "real life" as well as in the picture.  I’ve decided that the reason is that the Real Red in the Hearts is muted a bit by the Very Vanilla that surrounds it.  In keeping with the Rose Red theme, the accent card stock is also Rose Red, with a bit of black, including a strip of Basic Black 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.  The brads at the bottom alternate between Black (from the Vintage Brads set) and Rose Red (from the Rich Regals set).

Now that I’ve made the one card, I’ve decided to go buy more of the paper, with May being the perfect time to do that. Why?  Because

Designer Series Paper is on sale this month!  Buy 3 packs of paper, and get the 4th pack FREE!! 

We can mix and match, but I’ll be stocking up on the "Jackpot" paper.  For one thing, DH is now the owner of the Hilo Bridge Club, and he’s already thinking of ways that I can use the paper.  And, of course, now that he knows about the stamp sets, they’ll be on the same order that I’ll place later today.

If you’d like to include something that you need with the order, just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me and I’ll add it in!  It should be here before I leave for the mainland later this week.  If not, DH will be happy to get anything you order to you (assuming you’re in East Hawaii!)

Now off to visit Mary Ellen at the hospital and take this card to her!

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Happy Mother’s Day 2009!

Aloha, all!

And Happy Mother’s Day to all of my readers who are mothers!  I know that I, for one, am very happy to have a grown son who calls me often, and a grandson who always ends a phone call with, "I love you Grandma Robin!"  What more could one person want on Mother’s Day.

For this Mother’s Day I decided to make a card that I would like to receive.  For one thing, even with those beautiful Hawaiian flowers, bananas, and palms in the background, there are no Dogwood Trees in our garden.  In fact, I have never seen a dogwood tree on our island at all, and can find to reference it the tree in Hawaii anywhere.  But I digress.

I love the look of the Dogwood Tree in bloom.  When I lived in Maryland and Virginia, seeing the Dogwoods in bloom in gardens and out in the wild of the local parks was the sign that Spring was here, and here to stay!  So I was delighted when I found this stamp set on our table at the Honolulu Regional in February and then in the Occasions Mini Catalog.  My first reaction to seeing it in the catalog was, "Well, they don’t grow here, so why should I bother buying the stamp set."  My history with the tree won out and it now sits in the Craft Room, well used on many projects.  And what better project than on a Mother’s Day card?!

And here I’ll digress a bit more–the name of the Stamp Set is "Soft Summer."  Hmmm.  Summer.  MY Dogwoods always bloomed in Spring! 

OK–digression finished!  The stamp, "Happy Mother’s Day," is from the All Holiday Stamp Set.  You’ll be seeing a Father’s Day card made with a stamp from the same set right here in early June.

To make this card just a bit out of the ordinary, I trimmed the Very Vanilla Card stock layer below the top and bottom leaves.  I used the Fiskars Paper Cutter, stopping the cut just before each leaf and starting just after each leaf.  Then I trimmed around the leaves.

The colors for this card are Rose Red and Garden Green.  Garden Green is fast becoming my favorite of the Stampin’ Up! greens, overtaking my long-time favorite Old Olive.  Maybe it’s because there is so much Garden Green in our Hawaiian Garden!  The ribbon is the 1" Rose Red Grosgrain Ribbon, and the brads are the Clear Rhinestone Brads, which are new with the current Spring-Summer 2009 Idea Book and Catalog.

For the rest of May, I’m going to be focusing on many of the flowers found throughout the Stampin’ Up! Catalog!  I’m going to be on the United States mainland most of the rest of the month, but that won’t keep me from finding a computer and letting you know what’s going on in my world of Stampin’ Up! even when I’m not in my Craft Room!  It also won’t keep me from placing orders for you if you’d like.  And, no matter where I am, my website is always available for you to place your orders online!

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Donations for the FCE Fair

Aloha, all!

This Saturday is one of our FCE (Family and Community Education) club’s fundraisers.  In fact, it’s our biggest fund raiser of the year.  All of the clubs in East Hawaii get together and rent a venue in Hilo.  Then each club has tables where we sell handmade foods and crafts to the public.  Last year I donated greeting cards for sale.  This year, I’ll also have some greeting cards. 

But I’m also donating several dozen non-card items, including these boxes of candy made with the Sizzix Pillow Box Die.  Each little box has an ounce of Skittles (I thought Sizzix and Skittle seemed like an appropriate match!), and is embellished with a window framed with an oval made with the Scallop Oval Punch and the Small Oval Punch.  The window itself is punched with the Large Oval Punch and covered with squares cut from the transparent Medium Window Sheet.  Both the Window Sheets and the Scallop Oval punch are featured in the Occasions Mini Catalog, which is still current for orders!  Oh, and every one of these little boxes is finished off with a color of 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.

As we get towards the end of the Stampin’ Up! catalog year, I’m trying to use up a lot of the papers that are made from 2008-2009 In Colors, as well as the Hostess sets that have had paper associated with them.  I’m doing this so that I’ll have room in my Craft Room for all the wonderful NEW papers that Stampin’ Up! will be featuring this coming year.  This way I’ll be better able to help you pick papers for your Summer and Holiday projects this year. 

YOU, on the other hand, should pay attention to the fact that there are lots of papers that you may love, but you won’t have a chance to buy once the new catalog comes out.  To help you be able to purchase more paper than you might normally purchase, Stampin’ Up! has a special offer that’s on RIGHT NOW!  Buy any three packs of Designer Series Paper or Textured Card Stock, and get one pack FOR FREE!  How cool is that?!

For more details, click on the link to the left where it states, "FREE PAPER!"

Now back to some gift pouches that I’m hoping people will buy for Mother’s Day gifts.  Wish me luck in supporting my great FCE club!  Oh, and if you’re in East Hawaii, the event will be held Saturday morning at Aunty Sally’s Luau Hale, from 8 am to 12:30 pm.

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