North! To Alaska!

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd FINALLY been able to take the cruise to Alaska that's been on my Bucket List for over 20 years! YES!

I tried to talk my mom into it MANY years ago, and she just wasn't interested. She never did say why, and now that she's gone, I wish I'd pursued it further with her. I don't THINK she got seasick, but maybe that was the reason.

Well, she went on the cruise anyway!

I went with my brother and sister-in-law (hey, you two!), and I took Flat Mama with us!



Here she is, resting in the floral bouquet that Jim & Laurel received once they'd boarded the ship.

And here are the four of us, toasting with champagne in their on board upgraded suite!


They never did figure out how or why they were upgraded, but I never heard a bad word about the idea from either of them! LOL

They had a FULL SHOWER and a FULL BATHTUB in that suite - and a great deck from which we viewed the glaciers during our day in Glacier Bay.

No, I STILL haven't attempted to upload all the pix I took on my new camera - so I don't have a lot of photos to share, but here's one I really liked that I was able to get with my old trusty camera.




Yep - that's Mount Rainier!

It decided to "come out" for the afternoon, just as we were setting sail. And it was quite lovely, wasn't it?

We really enjoyed our cruise and ensuing land excursions! In Juneau we took a tour to Mendenhall Glacier and saw a BEAR! And that bear caught a salmon while we were watching - but those pix are on the new camera, so I'll have to show them to you later. Please come back to check it out!

In Skagway, we took the Yukon Railway tour. And while it was drizzly and overcast in Skagway, by the time we got to the top of the mountain, the sun was out, and it was beautiful (but COLD!) Come back for those pix, too!

And Glacier Bay... well, it was a whole day and was very interesting...

Last Alaska stop was Ketchikan, which I LOVED! So quaint - and, truthfully, not very large, since it clings to the mountainside! Come back for pix of that, too...

We spent a couple of days in Seattle after our return from the cruise, so I'll share those pix with you one of these days, too!

Sorry - no stamping stuff today - but come back soon, and I promise, I'll have some Halloween stuff to share with you!

Thanks for stopping by...

Bingo!

About 3 months ago, Faye, the Curves attendent where I belong, asked me if I could help her think of a way to store the members' bingo cards she wanted to use for a game at the gym.

It typically takes quite a while before someone gets a Bingo, so, a safe storage place for the duration was a must.

Last year, she hung large sheet of paper on the wall, and we just adhered our card to the paper, and checked off squares as we were able.

But this year, that wall space has been taken up with other things.

She suggested she'd like to keep them in a box (recipe card size, maybe?) and that she wanted dividers.

She wanted 26 - one for each letter of the alphabet.

So, I came home and thought about it, measured a bingo card, scrounged around in the Stampin' Garage and found enough cardboard, left over from tablet backs and other things, to make one for each alphabet letter.

I had punched out a number of sets of letters using the Naturally Serif alphabet for the Big Shot a while back. I've been keeping them in a storage container that I use for my Swarovski crystals, so it makes it a little easier to find an "A", without sorting through ALL those I've punched.

So, I glued some Designer Series Paper to each of the cardboard backs and added the appropriate letter and took them to her. She liked them!

Then we found out that the box she'd wanted to use wasn't big enough, so I scrounged around in the Stampin' Garage again, and found a box that used to house envelopes that was PERFECT! And, it had a lid, so once this year's game was over she could store the whole thing until the next time she wanted to bring the game out.

So, I covered the box with Gray CS, stamped a Bingo Card image and spelled out "Bingo Cards" in a larger font, added some side decorations made using the Lace Ribbon Border punch, along with a button for dimension, and took it in to her. She loved it! What do you think?




I thought it came out pretty good!

While I was putzing around making this, I also stamped the Bingo card stamp on Whisper White CS and used the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set.




Wouldn't this make a nice game to be given as a Christmas gift?

Stamp up 6-8 cards and laminate them. Create a master set of the all the Bingo Bits, wrap them nicely, and voila! A great gift!

We also have a set for Halloween called Spooky Bingo Bits. I keep thinking there might be yet another set of stamps that are the same size as these in the catalog, but didn't dig around to see what it might be called.

Hey - you could use them ALL on the Bingo cards, provide a master set of all of them and use these year - round! That would keep everyone on their toes, wouldn't it?

BTW - what did you think of my Shoe Box Swap from the other day? Would YOU swap with me?

Thanks for stopping by - come back soon!

Latest Shoebox Swap

Just thought I'd share with you my latest shoebox swap. Waddya think?

Remember Me?

Yeh - I'm back...

It's been a VERY long time since I last posted - life got in the way again.

Let's see, since I posted last I have:

• gone to the annual Stampin' Up! convention in Salt Lake City.
  

I received my 20 year pin- yes! I've been a Stampin' Up! demonstrator for 20 years! It sure doesn't seem that long - and it's been a fun ride!

I'm planning on sticking around for a bunch more, too, so call me when you need something!















Here's a photo (thanks Kelly!) of yours truly (in the red shirt and white pants) along with several other demonstrators who also received their 20 year pins. The gal to my left is Sherrill Graff - I know a lot of you know her, since she's the moderator of Late Night Stampers.

Unfortunately, I don't know who the gal to the far right of me is. You'd think, if we've all been around for so long, we'd know each other, wouldn't you? But I don't! The gal on my right's name is Jill, but I don't remember her last name. If you know, leave me a comment! TIA!

I've also:

• had cataract surgery on both eyes (and, miracle of all miracles, I can now see FAR AWAY! YEAH!!!! Up close? Well, I need cheaters to work on the computer, but, hey, seeing far away without my glasses is something I can't even remember being able to do! )

• Gone on an Alaska cruise with my brother and sister-in-law - we did the Inside Passage from Seattle and had the pleasure of visiting Glacier Bay National Park, which I understand not every cruise to Alaska is allowed to do. It was awesome!

• Gone to my upline's annual Stamp A Thon in St. George, UT.

• Played a lot of games on Facebook (yes, it's my guilty pleasure!...)

• Shipped almost 500 cards off to From Our Hearts to be sent to our troops overseas.
  

So, that's what I've been doing - what about you?

Yes, I've been stamping during all that time, too - but not sharing. How could I be so selfish?

I had to invest in a new camera while on the cruise - my old, dearly beloved, point & shoot camera kept giving me error messages while trying to take pix, and I just WASN'T going to go on my once in a lifetime Bucket List cruise and not have photos of it.

So, I still have not had the nerve to try and upload those photos - that's me - scared of technology!

Maybe today... And once I get them up there, you can be sure I'll share some of them with you!

In the meantime, here are a couple of photos of Halloween that I took with the Old Faithful point & shoot camera. ENJOY!

This is a witches boot made from...


Wait for it.....


The STOCKING die!

Isn't it cute?

This one was made by one of my stamp club ladies, Linda - didn't she do an awesome job? Her's was so much more classy than my sample, I just had to show it off!




And this is one of the Halloween treats I'm making for my favorite Starbucks baristas - SHHHH - don't tell them, OK?

I used the Howl-o-ween Creeps set and the 1 x 8" cellophane bags we're currently carrying in the Holiday mini.

I need to make about 20 of these for my baristas, and they ARE ADDICTING!

I've been working on them for about a week now, and beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

The hardest part is sliding the candy into the bags!

Well, hope you didn't forget about me while I was gone. I certainly didn't forget about all of you!

Come back soon, OK? I promise not to be absent for so long!