Cards, cards, who's got the cards...

I've taken my life in my hands and started to try and come up with card classes for the store. Sharon, Debbie, Mona, Linda and Laura can come up with cards in 30 seconds flat - me, more like 30 days if I'm lucky...

First they want me to stamp. I DON'T STAMP!! Maybe it I say it often and loud enough I may begin to believe it. I have the largest collection of stamps of anyone I know who doesn't stamp! So I decided to stick with what I think I can do - again, a stretch, thinking...

So here are photos of the samples of my March/April classes at Buffalo Stamps and Stuff.

I wish the photos were better. Above are three cards done with Tapestry peg stamps and Versacolor inks. I've always been intrigued with these stamps so I thought I'd try and give it a go.
My first favorite stamp company was Lockhart Stamps. I loved the simple style and coloring these stamps. They have a series they call 'windows' and I made a set using transparencies, popping the feature in the window and cutting out the window to view the inside of the card. The coloring was easy, the rest - OMG! It took me forever and I had to use inspiration and hints from the Lockhart design team.
These are also Lockhart images. Again, coloring was a piece of cake, but making the card...Each time I tackle a card class I say "never again!" In this class there is a cute bug in a jar - Caught a Bug? A comfy easy chair with a throw blanket, a cute little teddy bear and a bunch of ducks walking in a row. They are really cute, and with a little help from my friends - Thank you Debbie! I got the colors right.

Is it Spring yet?????

I've been working hard at maintaining the fantasy that I'm a sweet, cuddly black bear hunkered down in my cave sleeping away the winter - ahhhhhh. Well, not so much. Heaven knows I can sleep! but the baby bear, MIL bear and papa bear keep insisting I wake up! If it's spring I've got no problem, but if not - then leave me alone! I've got claws remember....

So much for my fantasy life. It's mid March. We've done the day light savings thing but our backyard still looks like a swamp and the grass is a sickly yellow-brown. Alexa is finishing up her last semester of middle school and then it's off to high school in September.

We had to attend an assembly for all incoming high school parents. I figured it was your usual sex, drugs, drinking kinda thing and boy was I right. The school system has officially put the fear of drugs, drinking and the law in us! Norman and I have been in education for the past thirty years or so and we are aware of what goes on in college, but we got a huge eye opener about the 12-20 set. Something that rattles me is that I know all Alexa's middle school friends and have met and spoken to all the parents. Next year she is going to a different school than all her friends save one. So all new friendships will be made and we're going to have to make an effort to know these kids and their parents if possible. It is a scary world out there.

On the good side, Alexa and her friends are responsible kids and I think she will seek the same kind of kids at her new high school. As far as Alexa was concerned this meeting was a must attend by us because if we didn't -- she wouldn't be allowed to go to Homecoming, Prom and other school activities - the only perks of high school...

Back to spring. My Hillside Scrappers will meet in a week or so for another relaxing, contemplative soul searching, bonding, creative weekend - yeah right, bring on the Country Pub II! No, seriously, I missed November's retreat because I went to New York for a a fabulous weekend with some Buffalo and around the US friends and I'm so looking forward to getting back with my peeps, posse, rick-rack pack!

So as I stretch and yawn and try to stay out of bed...Spring, here I come!