Have you missed me like I've missed you?

I know, I know, I haven't posted since July 4th! It's been a busy month so far. Of course the new Stampin' Up catalog came out and I was very busy pouring over it to see what I wanted to order. I have a TON of new stamps and designer paper to play with and share with you. So keep watch!

I have also been busy planning for a 90th birthday celebration for my sweet father! He is in great health for his age and we sisters decided back in January to have a party for him. Let me tell you, he has sure had fun anticipating it. I pulled out pictures of his childhood, his college and military service years, etc. from my mom's old photo albums, made up a couple of poster-sized collages, framed alot of 8x10 and 5x7 pictures, etc.

Since we were having the celebration at his church, we expected to have close to 200 people there (we ended up with 160-170, so a nice turnout). I designed and made the guest register shown here for our guests to sign. I used the SU July Fourth stamp set for it on Real Red and Night of Navy cardstock. (I told you I loved this set!!). Can you see the ribbons on the spine that I tied there? The fireworks are stamped in red, navy and silver (silver is hard to see). Across the top of each page inside, I stamped the same fireworks, just to decorate the pages.

I also decided to make name tags for each of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren, sons-in-law, etc. showing each person's relationship to Dad. I decorated the tops of each name tag, again with the July Fourth stamp set. Everyone wore theirs and the guests especially liked seeing all the great-grandchildren wearing theirs around.

Getting ready for the party took my whole week before (party was on July 11) so that's where I was--working on party things. But what a fun day it was!!

Here is a picture of my dad with my sisters and me at the party. Happy Birthday, Dad!!!
Thanks for visiting today! Smiles, Laura

Happy July 4th!!

I love July 4th!! It's a totally American holiday and so much fun!  We try to never miss the fireworks in our little town.  Considering our town's size, they do a wonderful job with LOTS of fireworks.    Since July 4 is on a Sunday, fireworks will be on July 3 this year.  Yeah!! Less time to wait!  Here is the final July Fourth stamp set sample I'm going to share with you (I think).

We made this one in some of my June classes.  I used the Star and the Curly Label punches on it.  We added a Fire Circle Rhinestone brad on the "fireworks" for some dimension.  And all three curly labels and the star are popped up with dimentionals. 

Whatever you and your family do this weekend, please be safe and don't get hurt!  Come back my way soon.  Smiles, Laura

Another July Fourth sample...

Here is another card I made using the July Fourth stamp set from the Summer Mini catalog. But this one also has something different. The white background is made with the Scallop Trim Corner.

I saw a video on how to do this on another blog and had to try it myself. It isn't easy to do, but it's even harder to describe. The entire white scalloped background was cut using the corner punch. Then I punched red and blue squares to put behind it. It gives a different, neat effect. I like using this set and for some reason, LOVE making July 4th cards! I guess for the same reason I named my son two very early American names for Nathan Hale and Patrick Henry. I'm just patriotric that way! So one of my favorite holidays is coming!! Yeah!!

Thanks for visiting my blog!! Smiles, Laura

One more patriotic card for now....

Are you bored with my July Fourth SS samples yet?  I hope not!!  I love this set!.  (Can you tell?  Did I say that already?)  Honestly I just love patriotic stamps and samples!  This one I made thinking we'd do it in my June class but then came up with another one we'll do.

This one has silver stamped in the fireworks and also on the navy background.  I like how  it turned out. 

Thanks for visiting today.  Next time we'll use some different stamps!!  Have a great day!  Smiles, Laura

Happy Memorial Day!

I've been having fun with the July Fourth stamp set and what better day to share two samples using it than on Memorial Day!!  I love making cards for July 4th anyway, as my family will tell you.  I usually send them all a card celebrating this important holiday.  This stamp set makes me happy, so I've been playing with it all week.  I won't show you yet what we are doing in our June classes with this set, but here are a couple of other samples to share.

This first one was in consideration for my swap for the Smudge Bunch Stamp Club June swap.  I love the new punch I used for the border.  I used the wide double-stitched red ribbon down the center with a narror blue ribbon on that.  I liked this one but there was just too much white on it so I decided to design another one.

This was the one I finally came up with for my swap.  To get that background, I cut a piece of white cardstock 4" x 5-1/4" and stamped the fireworks all over it.  Can you see the silver smaller ones in there?  Then on the back of the piece,  I marked each opposite short edge 1-1/2" from the edge and made a sort of diagonal cut from one mark to the other.  This means I could make two cards from the one sheet of stamped white cardstock.  Neat idea, huh?  Saves on paper.  My customers will tell you I love saving cardstock.  Must be a throw-back from my quilting and sewing days when I always tried to save fabric!  Anyway, I hope the ladies participating in the swap will like this one!   

Thanks for visiting my blog today!  Have a good one!!  Smiles, Laura