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Christmas in July…or May?!

I don’t think I’ve ever made a Christmas card in May, but the fun new Swirly Bird set makes an awesome Christmas card and I couldn’t resist.

I entered this card in the Christmas Card Challenge.

The colors are Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo and Bermuda Bay. OK, I know they aren’t traditional Christmas colors, but last year I had my Christmas tree decorated in bright colors like these and it made me so happy that I left the tree up until almost February. At our Iowa Caucus on February 1, my neighbor who’s lived behind me for twenty years, ran up to tell me she was so worried that something was wrong at our house when I didn’t take the tree down New Years weekend like I always do. I had to explain that the bright colorful happy tree was the reason for the delay and not a family emergency. 🙂

Remember the Swirly Bird card I made a few days ago…

well, I was so excited to find out that my card was selected as a Pick of the Week at Pals Paper Arts!! Yeah! I’ve entered several weeks and never been selected before. My family laughs at me when I get so excited about these things. Ryan said, “Great, what did you win?” “Well,” I told him, “you don’t actually win anything…but they picked my card! Yeah!” I guess you have to be a stamper to understand. I made cards for about twelve years without ever entering a challenge and now I’ve been doing challenges for about a year. I went back and counted, I have entered Pals Paper Arts challenges 13 times in the last year and this was the first time my card was selected! See why it’s a Yeah! If you’ve never entered a challenge, I encourage you to start. Message me and I can point you to some I really enjoy.

Have you seen enough of Swirly Bird to put it on your wish list?

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Yesterday Superman and I took Sean and Ryan to the Cubs Club for lunch and then watched the afternoon Triple A Cubs game in Des Moines. It was a beautiful day and fun even though the Cubs lost.

Today Sean and Ryan went to lunch with my parents, played Euchre and visited. My parents love it when the grandkids visit and my kids had a great time too. I should have warned my parents the boys have been practicing. They beat Superman and I at Euchre last night too.

Keegan volunteered at church for two hours tonight, greeting people who came to our Outreach Night. He said he had a great time and met some interesting people. He has one hour left to serve before June 1.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

Make sure you add a fun envelope!

Stampin’ Up! 2016-17 In Colors

These cards are made with the awesome Stampin’ Up 2016-17 In Colors! Do you have a favorite? I thought Emerald Envy was going to be my favorite, but Peekaboo Peach is really pretty in real life. I want to make a birthday card set for a friend and I am having trouble deciding which balloon and which type of string I like the best. My thought is to make all five cards with the same design, but each with a different color. Do you have time to help me? If so, do you like the balloon being cut off on the edges (like the Sugarplum, Flamingo and Denim) or do you prefer the entire balloon being on the card (Emerald and Peach.) Do you like the balloon plain like Flamingo, dotted like Peach, dotted with silver embossing like Emerald, speckled like Sugarplum or swirly and white embossed like Denim? Only one more question… Do you like the Emerald cardstock string, Sugarplum and Denim curved string, Peach straight string or Flamingo Baker’s Twine string? OK I forgot the very last question… what do you think of the tassel on the bottom of the Sugarplum balloon?

I appreciate any help you can give me. Here’s a close up look at the cards:

Can’t wait to hear your favorite color and also any design advice you can give me. Yep, Abby was at work tonight so I’m depending on you!

I picked Sean up at the airport this morning and we went to La Mie Bakery for breakfast. I think it’s his favorite place for breakfast because we seem to go there every time he comes to visit. He did make a bee line for the strawberry patch when we got home, but most of the strawberries need a couple more days. Superman, the kids and I are so happy when Sean comes home. I took the pups, Maya and Molly to the airport and they were besides themselves with joy when they saw him. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Molly so happy! Whoever said a dog forgets people after two weeks, forgot to tell our pups. They haven’t seen Sean in 5 months and they knew their “boy” was home. We always say it’s a party when Sean comes home!

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

Swirly Bird

Guess what? This card was chosen as a Pals Paper Arts pick of the week! Thanks so much to the PPA design team for choosing my card!

My favorite stamp set in the new catalog is called Swirly Bird. I also used the coordinating framelits, Swirly Scribbles Thinlits. The Bermuda Bay water splatters are made with a stamp from Swirly Bird. I used the Pool Party wavy water paper from Cherry on Top DSP stack.

PalsPaperArts.com had an awesome color challenge this week. If you know me, I think any color challenge including Bermuda Bay is awesome! *Update- This card was chosen as a PalsPaperArts Pick of the Week! I am so excited!! #PPA301

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Sean made it safely home from his work trip to Amsterdam and London. The EgyptAir crash happened while he was there, so we were happy to receive the text when he landed in Seattle. It was his first trip to Europe and he loved it! Tonight he is taking the red eye from Seattle to visit us in Iowa for a week. Sean will be very excited when he finds out he’s coming home just in time for the strawberries to ripen. I picked the first strawberry of the season last night. Come to think of it, Sean LOVES strawberries! Do you think he timed his visit knowing it was strawberry time?

We’ve enjoyed having Ryan home from college. Last week he went to Davenport to visit Steve’s parents for two days (three hours from here) and planted flowers for his Grandma, played cards with them and went to a baseball game with his Grandpa. He’s home the rest of the week and then heads to Okoboji to be a counselor at our church camp. This is Ryan’s second summer as a counselor. Last night was just like old times. His high school friends were over jumping on the trampoline, playing Carpetball, ping pong and eating from the bowls of nuts, fruit and veggies that I leave on the counter each day. I’m so glad he has stayed close to his besties from high school.

Abby had a great time with her friends at Prom Saturday night. Her AP exams and most of her finals are over. Abby has four regular days of school left and then a couple projects to do. She feels like most of the stress is over for her this school year. Abby will be joining Ryan has a camp counselor this summer.

Keegan got the results of his singing auditions. He made the select junior/senior choir and jazz choir. He was very excited about making these two choirs. The other select choir he tried for, he did not make. He was a little disappointed, but Keegan shakes things off pretty well. He’s already said he will try again next year. He’s been finishing off his volunteer service hours this week. Yesterday he was planting peppers at a community garden. He’s going back to the garden and helping me with therapy dogs later this week. All of Keegan’s finals happen next week.

Some of you have asked about the status of the garage. Superman spent some quality time cleaning and organizing the garage this weekend. He’s not done yet, but certainly making progress. He kept telling me about a lot of things he wants to put in the attic. Yep, the attic I organized last month is about to take a hit. Oh well, I guess it needs to go somewhere.

It’s been beautiful in Iowa the last three weeks. Sunny and 60-70 degrees. The rain is supposed to start again this week.

Hope things are going well where you’re at.

Blessings,

Beth 🙂

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Christmas in July…or May?!

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Stampin’ Up! 2016-17 In Colors

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Swirly Bird

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