A lot of things have happened since I posted last. Some good and some not so good. The bad news is that Posh Impression's club, Club Posh, has gone "dark" for an undisclosed period of time. IBFS and Posh have severed relationship and are no longer together. With that happening, those of us who were on the design team for Posh have been dismissed from that position. It has caused a bit of upheaval in my life, as I was very active in the club. It greatly saddens me. I do hope it will come back someday. A new company called Judikins is thinking of becoming the representative for Posh, so maybe they will bring the club back.

Now for the good. When the club closed, we were having a contest. It ended before the winning card could be posted, so I am posting it here! The winning card, the purple one, was made by Daniel R. Boone! He did an excellent job on his card. Very unique and "spooky" without being scary! Congratulations, Daniel! Good job.

The other card I posted was also made by our Daniel. Some of the club members decided to continue the Card Of The Month (COTM) swap. I happened to be the recipient of Daniel's card this month! He did a great job with this card. It is hard to tell about the "rising moon" at the top. The scanner did not do it justice at all. There is a witch riding her broom in the circle with the moon behind her. Thanks, Daniel. I love it.

We will be gone on vacation to Pennsylvania starting Wednesday through the end of the month. I hope to be able to share some of the things we see in my next blog installment. I also hope to see, or at least talk to Daniel, as he lives in that area. What a treat!

Until then, keep stamping and looking UP!

Thank You!

Today is my birthday. I have hit a milestone, and I am grateful. On the other hand, I don't think I like the idea of 60. I hated 30, but I'd like to go back and do that again! I guess I'd rather be 60 than not here!

I did some fun things today. I went to church. I ate pizza and didn't throw up. I watch a movie with my husband. I got barrels of birthday wishes on Facebook. I got phone calls from friends and relatives. I got e-cards from people at Posh. I stamped a card.

The card you see above is my "thank you" to everyone for making this day a wonderful birthday! I just felt like I needed to make a card for all the blessings I had today, but if I did a card for everyone of them, I'd be stamping them til my birthday next year! So, thank you all for such a wonderful birthday. I am blessed.

I'll tell you a little about the card. It is done on craft color cardstock. I stamped the flower background, using a Posh Asian stamp from the new set. I stamped it on bamboo colored CS from CTMH. I then did the butterfly with another of the Asian set stamps and put pearls on it and some glitter gel pen. I also put pearls in the flower centers. The "thank you" is a Posh stamp from an ATC set. I used rusty hinge distress ink on the bamboo layer and tea dye distress ink on the butterfly and borders. Borders were punched using a MS punch and the scalloped circle is from a Marvy punch. Hope you like it.

Rooster in the Weeds

For this weeks' card, I used the rooster and the vegetation from the Asian set. I really love the images on the two new sets. I stamped the rooster and weeds with the brown blending blox. I used Tea Dye Distress ink around the card. The borders are punched with a Martha Stewart punch. I used copper brads on the borders.

I have had my sweet little Abby with me for most of the week. She is my 6 year old grand daughter. We had so much fun. It's getting hard to keep up with her energy! We baked cookies, cooked quesadillas and watched dozens of movies. She stayed up late every night and I dragged every day!

She said she thought I was looking better and better. I asked her how I looked better to her, and she said, "Well, Nana. I think you are getting shorter." Not exactly what I wanted to hear! She was precious.

Hope you enjoy the card. If you like it, leave a comment! (or even if you don't like it!)

Rick Rack Medallion Card

Philip is gone for the weekend to a Walk to Emmaus retreat. He asked me to make him some cards, and this is one of the ones I made him. He seemed to really like them. I used a medallion stamp from the new Posh Asian set and layered it on circles I punched out with Marvy punches. I then took some decorative zigzag scissors and cut out the "rick rack" and then intertwined them to make the borders. I like the simplicity of the card. Works well for a "manly" type card, I think.

I have been doing better with my weight loss this week. I have lost 143 pounds so far. My sweet daughter, Katy, told me that I was not getting enough protein. She said that would make my weight come off slower. So I started doing my protein shakes like I should have been doing all along, and I believe she must be right. I still get sick some, but not as much as I did before. I have a doctor's appointment on Sept. 9. That will be 3 months post op. I lost 100 pounds 6 months before the surgery and 43 pounds so far since the surgery. Not too bad. I am certainly not skinny yet! I am working on it, though!!

Asian Card

This is an unusual card if I do say so myself! I took a long border stamp from the new Posh Asian set, stamped it with Versamark ink, embossed it with Ultra Thick Embossing Powder and then cut it up. I think this set is very versatile and I love cutting up stamped images. The little branch is also from that same set. I ran the little pieces through my Xyron machine, so it was very easy to adhere to the card.

Don't forget, if you want to order some of these stamps from I Brake For Stamps, you can use my design team code and get 10% off your purchase. Pretty good deal I think. The code to use is SAVE10LAELA. Use this code, and I'll get a discount, too!

I have been doing very well this week. Feeling much better. Hope to see about getting my oldest granddaughter for a visit next week. She's a doll! I'll show you a picture of all my grandkids soon!

Butterfly Wishes

Another week has flown by! More laundry, more rain and more stamping!! The truth is, I never have minded laundry and I love the rain. Stamping is always the highlight of my day. It doesn't have to be physically stamping on cards, but anything to do with stamping will do. I love to watch You Tube videos of other stampers creating cards or scrap book pages. I also love to read stamping magazines. One of my favorite things to do is to go online and visit Posh Impressions where I have a bunch of friends that I talk to almost daily. It's a good time.

I have stamped the card for this week using stamps from the new Posh Asian set. I really do love these stamps. You can find them at the IBFS website. They are a great buy. This card was made using a 5 1/2 by 4 1/4 inch card base that opens from the bottom up. Each consecutive layer is 1/4 inch smaller than the last. The last pink layer is embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots folder. I used Marvy Blending Blox to stamp the images. The butterfly has Star Dust Stickles on it. Each corner has a small rhinestone flower.

Hope you enjoy this card as much as I enjoyed making it!

New Cards!

Della from I Brake For Stamps is soon releasing two new Asian Posh Impressions stamp sets. These sets are very pretty. I've made these 3 cards for everyone to see. There are tons of stamps in the two sets. I really love them all. There are lots of borders, a frame, flowers and many other neat images. If you want a sneak peak, go to www.clubposh.com and become a member. Click on the IBFS logo and you can get a peak and even buy the sets before everyone else has a chance! Club Posh is a really neat place. There are lots of techniques and fun people to visit with. Check it out.

I really had fun doing these cards. I used the Cuttlebug to emboss the backgrounds on each card. I got these Asian CB folders by using my Cricut rewards points. There were 7 of them and basically I just paid S&H and got them for free! I love to get free stuff. These folders are really neat.

The stamp I used for the Asian writing in 2 of the cards is made by Just For Fun. I used CTMH cardstock and ink on all the cards. I'm ready to go make more! Hope you enjoy them.

HOT, HOT, HOT!!!

It has been so HOT here in Texas! It is just too hot to do much of anything. I got a new stamp from I Brake For Stamps and it made me start thinking of cooler weather and Christmas time. So, I made a card that is absolutely COLD! I used a Martha Stewart punch on the corners and Stickles glitter for the snow. These penguins are so cute!

Go to the IBFS site and look around. The stamps are the cutest! They will have POSH stamps soon. If you order from them, use this code and get a 10% discount! SAVE10LAELA

I am doing quite well now. Still have to watch my food intake. Meat does not agree very well, so I've turned into a semi-vegetarian! Strange for me since my favorite food has always been steak! I've lost 133 pounds so far. Wish it would come off faster. Need to do more exercise!

Till next time, stay cool!

Stamping Again!

I am so excited to be stamping again! After my surgery, I just did not feel like stamping or doing much of anything. I am now feeling so much better. I got in my stamping room and gave it a quick clean so I could begin creating again.

I decided to do my first card for my Posh Design Team card. I am so happy to be on this wonderful team with some great ladies. I am looking forward to designing some cute cards with Posh Impressions stamps as well as some I Brake For Stamps products. They are now sponsoring and manufacturing for Posh.

The background on this card is done on Close to My Heart card stock. I used the Martha Stewart Scoring Board to score the diagonal lines and then I sanded the cardstock so that the white core shows through. All the stamps are Posh. I used Stampin' Up dimensionals to raise the panda up just a bit.

Feels great to be stamping!

Well, I'm alive and well after being gone from home for 3 weeks. I had surgery on May 20 and am recovering well. I had a gastric bypass done. I have been working for 6 months to lose 100 pounds and finally did it! To date, I have lost 126 pounds and hopefully still going. I'm ready to get back to stamping and doing some creative things.

As a member of the Posh Design Team, you will be seeing weekly cards and hopefully hearing a lot more about what I am doing and how I am feeling. I am ready to get busy and do things!!

Hope you are having a wonderful summer wherever you are. Hope you are healthy and living life to the fullest. I have learned that you should never take anything the good Lord gives you for granted!!

See you soon!

I'm still alive!

Just taking a moment to give you an update. Sorry I have not posted in such a long time. It has been really hard for me to adjust to Katy and Darin being gone from Texas and all the way to Pennsylvania! I miss them terribly. I just really lost heart in posting after they left and I'm just now getting back to caring about it!

I am probably going to have surgery sometime in May. I am having bariatric surgery to by pass my stomach so that I can lose more weight. I currently have lost 90 pounds, but I need to lose much, much more. I am hoping and praying for a successful procedure and quick recovery so that I can get on with my life. I have missed out on so much. Hopefully, I will get a new outlook and even do some things that are now not possible for me. Two things come to mind: taking a trip in an airplane and wearing jeans!

I am still stamping and making cards. I have a new Cricut machine that I really am having fun with. It is amazing what you can do with it! I am just learning, but it is so much fun.

I've finished knitting a pair of socks for my friend in California. I've been working on them for way too long. Now I am ready to start a spring/summer sweater for Katy. Maybe I'll feel closer to her if I'm working on something for her to wear!

I guess that's it for now. I'll put some pictures up soon of what I'm making. I'll let you all know when the surgery is scheduled!

Well, it's crying time again. You're gonna leave me...

I just got an e-mail from my sweet daughter informing the family that in spite of our denial, she and her husband, Darin, are leaving Texas in less than 2 weeks. They are going to move to Pennsylvania where Darin will work in the family business. I could be mad at Darin for taking my baby away to a foreign place (I've never been there), but I love him too much to be angry. So, it's finally here and finally real. I am feeling so sorry for myself. I miss them already.

All the stamping and knitting in the world will not make this better. My son and his family, however, will make me able to tolerate it. My sweet grand daughters are going to have to talk to Nana and play with Nana a whole lot more. Andy and Stacie are going to have to put up with me twice as much! That will make it better.

By the way, the picture at the top is of Andy and Katy when they were about 2 and 3 years old.

The other thing that will help, will be making plans to visit them in the near future. They leave on the 13th, I'll start planning on the 14th. Too soon? Not for me.

I pray that Darin, Katy and Dillon will have a wonderful, fulfilling life in PA. I wish for them good health, prosperity and much, much happiness in everything they do. I also wish for them to remember their family in Texas who love them so very much. You can't get rid of us. You gave me a map of PA for Christmas!

Posh cards

I bought more Posh stamps. They were a very good price and I just couldn't turn them down! I have spent hours playing with them and having all kinds of fun. The first and second cards are done with a scoring technique on glossy cardstock. Color is applied to the scored card with a blending felt similar to the Tim Holtz tool. The first one was stamped with Posh "tall grasses" stamp and the second one with the Posh "vine" stamp.

The third and fourth cards were made using the Posh cultural stamps which were stamped and cut out. The dragon card was embossed with gold EP. They were all really fun to do. Love those Posh stamps!

I started out the week by checking my weight. 56 pounds down!! I am so glad. It is very hard, but well worth it. I am beginning to see a bit of difference!

Katy, my daughter, and her sweet husband, Darin, are moving on Feb. 13 to Pennsylvania. This is a very hard thing to deal with. That is a world away. Thank goodness for cell phones with free minutes nationwide! We can at least talk every day if we need to. I will miss them terribly.

That is all in my world for this minute. I need to get something on the needles to knit and I will be very content with life in general!

Grapevine Convention

My friend, Gayle, and I just returned from the Heirloom Stamping Convention in Grapevine, Texas. We really did have a good time. We saw a lot of products and demonstrations. Many of the vendors were selling the Cuttlebug folders and Spellbinder dies this time. That was a new thing at the convention.

I probably bought too much, but way less than I have in previous years. Not much new stuff going on. I did get a few things that were unique. I got a brush for getting glitter off of me. That is very useful, since I always have glitter all over me, my workspace and even the dog!

The Posh Impressions booth was fantastic! We met the owners of Stamp A Mania, who is now producing and selling the Posh stamps and supplies. They were the very nicest people. I really loved them both. They took us out to eat and we had a wonderful time. Barb Benson was also there. She and her husband also ate dinner with us. We laughed til I was afraid the restaurant folks were going to ask us to hush!

Now the fun of trying out and playing with what I bought will begin! I love new stuff! The only problem I have is finding a place to put it!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010! My goodness. How fast the years pass. They go faster as you get older I have discovered. As I promised you and myself, new year's resolutions are the first thing on this blog this year. I did not say I would be successful in doing the things, but I do vow to try very hard to accomplish what I start. Here we go.

1. Keep a positive attitude. I do that one every year I think.

2. Stay on my new diet. I've lost 39 pounds so far.

3. Have weight loss surgery as soon as Dr. will do it.

4. Visit my daughter in Pennsylvania. (they have not even moved there yet, but it's coming!)

5. Be a better wife.

6. keep my house cleaner.

7. Save some money!

8. Complete Katy's wedding scrapbook.

9. learn to use my Cricut machine better.

10. Be much more active. Watch less TV, exercise more, get out of the house more, get outside more.

Well that's enough for one year. Too many and I set myself up for failure! Don't want to do that.

Hope you all have a wonderful New Year with all the best of everything!