Easter isn't too far off ...

I decided to make a few Easter cards. Here is one I made for my godchild who is 10. I got the teacup template here and it was super easy to make. The little "thing" hanging off the side of the teacup is supposed to be a teabag. I wasn't sure where to hang it so I hung it off the handle. I stamped her name on the inside and hand drew a few eggs since I don't have any tiny egg stamps. I got this stamp from Jan in Alaska as a RAK last year.

Looks like carpal tunnel surgery is in my near future ...

I have been having numbness in my left hand for about 3-4 months. I knew it would be carpal tunnel since I have had it in my right hand and had surgery for that hand 5-6 years ago. I went to an orthopedic dr and they did a EMG/NCS test which stands for Electromyography and Nerve Conduction Study. The test wasn't painful, it was just annoying more than anything. The nerve conduction study had them putting electrical current into my nerves so see how they function. It felt like when you get static electricity built up and then you touch a metal object. You know that little zap. I had about 20 of those zaps but it wasn't bad. The 2nd part of the study went all the way up to my elbow and he stuck a small needle into my nerves to see how the nerve is reacting to the muscle (I think that's what he said). So I failed the test and he said I do have moderate to severe carpal tunnel in my left hand (lucky for me I am right handed). His nurse is going to call me Monday to schedule the surgery and I would imagine it will be within the next 2-3 weeks. It is done as outpatient and I would be home within about 4 hours. I will have stitches and wear a brace for a week. I go back in a week, he will check the stitches but not take them out yet. He will put me in a different brace that I can take on and off. I go back after 2 weeks to get the stitches out and then continue to wear my removable brace and I will be able to use my hand by then with my brace on. I think he said after the 3 weeks, the brace comes off and I can try clutching a soft ball and things to work the muscles in my hand. No physical therapy is needed unless I am having a problem. When I had my last surgery I swear I wore the brace for 6 weeks so this sounds like a much faster recovery!! Now I just want to get it over with!! :) Here's a short video (its more animated) if you care to see what I will be having done.

LAURA HAHN - I am emailing you but you are not answering

I see you are commenting on my blog and I have emailed you three times but you must not be getting my emails. My email address is flipflops4sherri@yahoo.com. Maybe my emails to you are going to your spam folder. I would love to get back in touch and catch up. I hope you see this post!!! Can't wait to hear from you!! I'm waiting ...

Now that I have my 365 day blog I don't want to neglect this one ...

Its already Wednesday and I see I haven't posted anything in a few days so this is what I am working on at the moment. Its a circle journal. There are 8 of us doing this swap and we each pick our own topic for this swap. I picked "All About Me A-Z". You will see my journal here at the top and it is already off to Ellie. She is the person who I will send my journals to .We have 3 weeks in between each of us sending out our journal to the next person. We each always send to the same person every 3 weeks but we are constantly getting a different journal. Like this journal I am working on is "My Town" and it belongs to Joanne. We are allowed to write about our town we live in now or where we grew up. I chose Concord, NC since we have Nascar, I decided to put that on my pages. I just got this book 2 days ago and I went ahead and got my pages done. (This does not normally happen this fast but it came to me really fast and I had the idea in my head so I went with it! LOL) The last one's due date is June 25th (Emily's birthday) so that means I will get my finished journal a few days after that. I can't wait to see my finished piece. Tell me what you think.

Sympathy cards are always a challenge for me ...

I have to send a sympathy card out to a stamping friend of mine. I made 2 cards so I have an extra in my stash. If you are wondering how I got the image 2 different colors, this is when my Stampin Up markers come in handy. I use them to color directly onto the stamp. That way, it will stamp in both colors at the same time. Very easy!

Twig/Bird stamp - Hero Arts

Sentiment stamp - American Art Stamp

Paper - Maisy Mo

Used some Stampendous Sparkle Dots and/or little rhinestones for corner

Also, used Stampin Up's scallop border punch

How do you like my new blog header?

I decided as cute as the doggies were with their new year attire on, it was time to change my header. I did it all by myself. I took this photo of my sunflower 2 summers ago and I just now found it. I love this photo. So this is what I will use for now. I really need to learn how to upgrade my blog header like my "blog fairy" would do for me but I only know the basics. I must learn how to do that!

The TAC catalogs came today!!

They are actually calling them Magalogues now since they are much smaller than a standard catalog. (You can click on images to see them larger) The cover is very pretty and it looks like a "magazine". There are several cute sets in it. Lots of birds, trees, swirlys, butterflies. Will have to figure out my order I am putting together. I will post a few pages that I found cute. I will be shipping yours out on Monday if you ordered one from me.

Saturday morning came too quick ...

Emily has to take her SAT test today and her check in time is 7:45. I made her a big breakfast of chocolate chip pancakes with bacon. So I hope I can go back to sleep after she leaves! I decided to make a couple of Valentine cards with the images that my new friend Susan sent me. Susan and I are having fun exchanging images when we get new stamps :). I hope Emily finds the place where she has to go. Its at a different high school than she goes to and she swears she knows where it is. Have a great Saturday!!

The new pasta diet ...

1. You walk pasta da bakery.
2. You walka pasta da candy store.
3. You walka pasta da Ice Cream shop.
4. You walka pasta da table and fridge.



Now ... this is NOT my kind of diet!!! Who's with me? LOL

Thanks Sue for posting this at the Stamp Shack. It gave me a laugh this morning!!

I made this card for a friend ...

Friends are the marshmallows in the hot chocolate of life ... (I saw this saying on Splitcoast and thought it was perfect for this card!!

Stamps by: Cocoa stains (although I think they are supposed to be coffee stains) LOL are by CTMH, Stampendous "Changito Cocoa"

Paper by: Bo Bunny

Supplies: Teeny tiny buttons

I got an order for a few cards the other day

so I have been busy stamping these. I made 25 total so I hope she likes them. Here's a few of what I made for her:

Happy Inaugeration Day!!

Its 11 am and it has stopped snowing. The snow is already melting on the driveway and sidewalks so I think this is all we're getting. The kids got their gloves on and their coats and their boots and got the sleds out but it wasn't enough to go sledding. Talk about disappointment! LOL We can drive about 50 minutes to Monroe and they got at least 4" looking at Angela's photos this morning. I bet they're having fun. Oh well. Maybe next time! We will make up our no school day on Thursday (it was a no school day for us along with Friday) as of right now.

Its still snowing and its 9 am but we have only about 1" if that ...

Enjoy the photos for those of you in warm sunny spots. People up north will laugh at my photos! LOL

Winter Wonderland ...

Its snowing, its snowing!! Its a big deal here in the Carolinas, when it snows. It snows in the mountains alot but not here in Concord. Its still dark out but I can see about 1" on the ground and its still coming down. No school for today so Charlie, the kids AND I will all be sledding once the sun comes up. LOL Will post some fun (or funny) photos later ...

Brrrrrr. Its 9 degrees this morning ...

That is COLD for us!!! The ground is "crunchy" and luckily, there is no wind but it is cold!! The dogs don't seem to mind, they keep coming to me to go outside. Are they crazy? We are expecting a snow/rain mix tomorrow so we'll see if it amounts to anything. I say "bring it on". We have no school on Monday since its Martin Luther King Day so some snow would be fun!!! I hope you are staying warm wherever you are!!

When it comes to cupcake stamps, I can't seem to get enough ...

Is this not the CUTEST cupcake stamp ever!?!?!? I got it from Summer over at Roses on Paper. Summer is fantastic to work with. She is in Hawaii and her shipping and customer service is just the best!! I just can't say enough great things about her!!!

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Stamps by:

Cupcake is by Alota Rubberstamps

Girl is by Magnolia

Sentiment is by Impression Obsession

Paper by: Frances Meyer, American Crafts

Long lost friends ....

Just in the past week, I have reconnected with 3 old dear friends. Diane from Scotland found me on Facebook . Jacque from California found me on Facebook. Laura from Indiana found my blog. It has been at least 12 or more years since I have talked to either Diane or Laura. When I was a teenager, I loved to write letters. It was not unusual for me to have 100 pen pals all at once. Of course, I haven't met all of these pen pals over the years but I have met a few. Laura and I met once if I remember right. Diane and I have never met face to face but its so nice to get caught up after all these years. Jacque and I are stamping "friends" and met in Las Vegas about 3 or 4 years ago. The internet is a great thing!! So this is a shout out to Diane, Jacque and Laura!! Its great to hook back up and I hope we can keep in touch!!!

Sometimes I have a hard time making masculine cards ...

I don't know why, I just do. I got out my Riley moose stamps today and decided to make 2 cards. One for my brother's birthday which is in April and the other one for Tim who's birthday is in March. I know I'm way early but I figure why not knock out 2 "men" cards at the same time?! They are the next ones having birthdays (besides Charlie and I can't post his on here or it will ruin the surprise!! LOL) Anyway, here they are. Think they will like them?





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Stamps: Hanna Stamps (Riley), Hero Arts, Amuse
Techniques: I used my brayer on the card on the top.
I sponged the card on the bottom.

Birds, birds and more birds ...

The first 2 sets of cards I used Stampendous stamps. I got this set from Michelle for Christmas. On the next 2 cards I used a brand new set by Hero Arts. All paper by Basic Grey "Bittersweet".

Made a few cards while watching the Carolina Panthers game

As of right now, the Panthers are losing so we'll see if they can do better after half-time. I made these 2 cards. The one is a Christmas card and I know you saying "Geez, does this girl ever quit making Christmas cards?" Actually, I got the 2 Magnolia images from Melanie on Splitcoast so I wanted to show her what I did with it. She and I traded lots of Magnolia images along with Susan and I also trading images. (Thanks Melanie & Susan!) The 2nd card I used my brand new Hero Arts set that I picked up at Stampers Alley yesterday.

Its almost the weekend!!!

For several months, a few friends of mine have been trying to get me to try "facebook". I had made myself an account but that's as far as it went. I pretty much just forgot I even had a facebook account. Then, yesterday I got an email from an old friend (a pen pal in Scotland) trying to find me and she found me through Facebook. I haven't heard from her in about 12 years!!! So I go to facebook, found lots of other people there I know as well and a new hobby has formed. LOL My pen pal Diane from Scotland emailed me, I emailed her back and I hope we can keep in touch again, after all these years!!! She emailed me these photos saying this was the last ones I had sent and as you can see the kids are little there. (Look how skinny I am too!)

I've also started a new blog in addition to this one. Its called My Life in Photos in 365 days. I am going to TRY and post a new photo every single day. We'll see how long I do it!!

2 more Valentine cards

I made 2 more Valentine cards today. The card with Riley and his valentine candy is for my godchild Mindy. I figured she would not want a card with "the love shack" on it. hee hee

First Christmas card for 2009 ...

Yes I know Christmas is now over but I am hosting a Christmas card swap at the Stamp Shack for 2009. There are 30 of us in the swap and we are going to each make 5 Christmas cards a month. So far I have made 1 (the one you see here!). I got both of these images from 2 different people. We actually traded Magnolia images and I decided to make this card first. I really like how it came out. Now just 100 more to go! LOL

I did see a card very similar to this at Splitcoast but I cannot remember who made it. If you are the one who made it, let me know and I will glady give you credit here.

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Stamps - Magnolia, The Stampin Place

Paper - Daisy D

Supplies - Martha Stewart scallop punch

Stickles glitter

Do you make Valentine cards?

I used to not make them but I decided this year I will make a few for friends. I got the a couple of the brand new Amuse Valentine stamps and now I am singing "Love Shack" by the B52's in my head. LOL Wanna see?

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Amuse stamps - Love Shack, Love Bug

Paper by My Mind's Eye

Supplies used:

Heart punch

Heart buttons

Heart brads with thread

Red rick-rack

Stampin Up scallop punch

Finally got the Christmas trees down and the decorations put away

I know its only January 3rd but I have been wanting to get all the decorations put away and I finally did it today. Emily was out shopping, Nicholas was doing his 2 book reports that are due on Monday and Charlie was outside doing something so I decided today was the day. I took most of it down myself and I had Nicholas help me take the boxes to the basement.

Charlie and I also started working out on the eliptical machine today we got for Christmas. I only did it for 8 minutes, I bet I will be sore tomorrow! HA Back on it tomorrow ... I will be glad when the kids get back to school on Monday and life returns to "normal".

I'm wondering if someone can help me ...

Can you look at these images and tell me who makes them? I bought them unmounted a few years ago and I forgot to write down the brand of stamp they are. I am thinking the one on the right is from Viva Las Vegas but I am not sure that's the brand of the stamp. Do they only sell their own stamps? If you happen to know who makes these stamps, please email me at flipflops4sherri@yahoo.com or leave a comment here and I can get it that way too. THANKS SO MUCH!!!

EDIT - the image on the right is from Viva Las Vegas. Thanks to Joan for finding that one .... the image on the left is from Stamp Francisco. Thanks Mary for finding that one.

Now I can make some terrific cards with these and hopefully they will get published (you always have to tell them the name of the stamps that you use).

Woke up to a cold rainy day this morning and the temps may be low enough

to cause some problems. I'm not sure. I know they were predicting ice and when they say the "i" word or the "s" (snow) word, I stay home!!! I think I will make a few cards for the upcoming Just Cards or Scrap & Stamp issues. I want to submit more cards. The hardest thing about doing that is just writing everything down that you do to make the card. I always submit about 15 cards as you never know what they will accept. I did find on the Just Cards website a 2009 editorial calendar of what cards are due when and you can see it here if you want to take a look. I see the next due date is January 10th which is coming up quick. They are asking for Mother's Day cards for that issue. Maybe I will make a few of those. February 21st is the next due date and they want beach party scenes, flip flops (boy do I have LOADS of flip flop stamps!), ocean scenes and christmas in July cards ... and the list goes on. If you haven't submitted a card before you really should. Its so fun to see your card and name in print! Do it, today!!!

Happy New Year!!

So ... did you make it till midnight last night? I did, but barely!! I did make a few cards and you can see them here. These images are all digital. I have never done digital before but I love these images so I wanted to try them. I got them all from www.allthatscraps.com.