Wings banner

Guess I should share the Wings banner that was part of the promo pack! I am getting ready to start scrapping the pics that Jan has shared with me of the kids and decided I needed to complete ONE project before I started another! Now I just need to decide where to hang it!

Using up Wings

I'm using up what I had left of the Wings promo paper pack. Since I kinda got away from all of the blog card challenges I was doing, I was not gonna have as many cards to send to Debbie for the Save R Sight raffle. What better use for the paper than to make cards so she can raffle off a basket and Save R Sight gets the proceeds?! There are probably 20 or more cards using this pack up. I even went so far as to take the scrippy-scraps and glue them down on a sheet of 8.5 x 11 cardstock and then cut IT up and made 4 more cards with! So there is not even a teeny tiny smidge left! I've got a few more paper packs with very little left in them. Think I'll be using them up as well to send Deb!

leftovers

John's truck needed it's 65K check up yesterday, so we took both vehicles since they said his truck would take between 2 and 4 hours and there's nothing I like worse than sitting at the dealership for that long and went and ran Tampa errands and had lunch. At the ever terrific Datz Deli on S. MacDill. I had a pastrami on rye (with THREE half sour pickles!) and John had a corned beef on rye. You also get their hand-cut potato chips with salt and sugar and a blue cheese aioli and chopped green onions on top. OMG! Food heaven! The sammies are so darn big that we each could only eat half, so we brought the other half home (plus a half dozen half sour pickles for me!) So guess what I've had already this morning for breakfast?! They roast the pastrami there and it has this wonderful crunchy spicy bark on the outside, but the inside is still moist and juicy. The best of both worlds!

Another sad day...

in the Tampa Bay area yesterday. Two St Petersburg police officers gave their lives in the line of duty. Police, accompanied by US Marshalls, had gone to serve a warrant on a guy. He decided to hole up in the attic of the house. When the officers went in, he opened fire from above. One officer was hit and killed, the bullets striking him from above and his vest did no good. The US Marshall was also hit twice,thankfully he survived and is going to be OK. Other officers then stormed the residence to get their fallen comrades out and another St Pete officer was killed in the same way as his brother officer. The bad guy was later found dead in the house when heavy armored vehicles were brought in to demolish the house and not endanger any other lives. It is not known if officer fire or his own gun is what killed him. K-9 Officer Jeffrey Yaslowitz was only 39 and leaves his wife and three children. Sgt Thomas Baitinger was 48 and leaves his wife. Rest in peace, brave men.

Inky Goodenss

Here's my two cards for Susan's "regular" swap. Got my fingers all blue and inky working on the second one. I used the new Fanfare paper pack and two new stamp sets; Paper Lanterns and Stitched Together. Along the bottom edge is one of the new Kraft Borders. They are 12" long so they can be used as is for scrapbooking or can be cut down like I did for carding. I used Pacifica ink and swiped the borders with a sponge. It's hard to pick up in the photo, but there is also Stickles on the lanterns for a bit of bling and shine.

The first card uses the new Mayberry paper pack and the oh so fun new stamp set Splendid Day. LOVE the plane! LOVE the banner! It comes with 4 different sentiments that you can put in the banner and I've already used different sentiments from other stamp sets inside the banner for other cards. LOVE that I can mix and match stamp sets! I think the Mayberry paper pack may well be my favorite of the three new paper packs I got. Love the colors. Love the different designs of the papers. Just love it in general! I did use clear embossing powder on the plane for some shine and both it and the banner are pop-dotted for some added dimension. And there's also a bit of the new Kraft cardstock that CTMH is now carrying on the top of the plane card. That's a nice addition to our line of cardstock.

No Shame

Yesterday afternoon was the final round of the National Geography Bee at Jake's school. One young man was a no-show, so there were 9 boys competing for who would represent their school at the State level. They first asked two rounds of verbally answered questions to each boy. Each had to get 2 answers wrong to be eliminated. Jake was eliminated in the first round when he answered both of his questions wrong. We are still so very proud of him for being the only 6th grader at his school to participate AND for going on to the second round. There is no shame in that. The competition eventually wound it's way down to three boys. One answered his question wrong and was awarded third place. Now the tension mounted! The final two boys each missed one question in the final round and now we went into sudden death. Questions would be asked of each boy and if one answered wrong and the other correctly, the one who answered correctly would be the winner. It took two more rounds before Emmanuel was declared the winner! Everyone cheered and I think he was probably more than a little embarrassed when his younger brother hugged him and his mom hugged AND kissed him. Right there in front of everyone! I think I even saw a tear in his proud mothers eye! Jake has two more years of Middle School to compete. He is a very bright young man and loves to read and learn, so we have every hope that he will be back in the next two years competing for the chance to represent his school. We are very proud of you Jake. You hold your head high!

Wings

My Favorite Second Upline Susan changed things up a bit with CTMH going to only 2 Idea Books a year with the start of 2011. We had a "bridge promotion" for January because the new IB won't go live to customers til Feb 1. The promo was called Wings and it came with some beautiful vibrant papers and cardstock, embellishments and a stamp set. Colors were Black, Juniper, Sweet Leaf and Vineyard Berry. Also introduced was our new Spray Pen. You mix water (or alcohol for faster drying time) along with our Create A Shade Pearl Paint and Reinker and spray your elements for a shimmery shine.

Susan decided to do a couple of different swaps for our team to spread things out and make this transition a bit easier for us all. So first is the Wings only swap. We could use the stamp set that came with Wings or any of the other 5 stamp sets that were also a part of the bridge promotion. I chose to use the beautiful Find Your Style stamp set for one set. This is a very vintage-y looking stamp set. It has a dressmakers form, a high heek shoe, a butterfly, a bird, 4 different words and a sentiment. I also used the new A Game, a cute little set that has a tic tac toe grid, and hearts, stars, buttons, flowers and the words tic, tac and toe.

He dun gud!

Jake had the first round of his Geography Bee yesterday. And while Unca John and I were late getting there due to routine maintanence on my truck taking for.ever, we were there for the best part! There were 24 kids competing and there were 7 rounds to the first set of questions. They had already completed four rounds by the time we got there. Jake had answered all of his questions correctly. Rounds 5 and 6 were multiple choice questions and Jake missed one of those. Then Round 7, they were each asked a question and not given a choice of answers, instead having to come up with it on their own. And Jake missed his. Aunt Sue didn't do so hot either! Out of the 24 questions, I only knew the answers to TWO! Don't say much for age and failing brains, now does it?! Then the scorers huddled and decided who would move on to the next round. There were 4 kids who only missed one question each, so they went on. Then they called the names of the kids who had missed two questions and Jake was one of those 15 or so. All the others were excused. They then put the remaining kids at separate small tables and gave them each a piece of paper and pencil. They were all read the same question and had 15 seconds to write their answer down and hold their paper up to show they were done. They were then asked their answer. There was only one correct answer for that question, so that boy went on to the next round. Question two and no one had the correct answer. Question three and four had the correct answer. AND JAKE WAS ONE OF THE FOUR!!! Can you say PROUD?! So those four joined the others for a total of 10 going to the next round. Which will be NEXT Tue! So Unca John and I have already said we will be there in support of Jake. Crossed fingers are again appreciated!

Proud Auntie Moment!

Knock knock! Is dis thang on?! Oh, hai! Yes, we are still here. Took a bit of time off. I'll blame it on the holidays, but I wasn't crafting and we weren't doing anything to blog about, so I just shut my yap for a while. I'm getting back in the crafting mood, so hopefully I'll have some stuff coming up soon to share.

So my Proud Auntie Moment, you ask! Got an email from sister Jan this morning and she was bragging on Jake, so I'm gonna take her lead and share what he's been up to. Seems he had a math project that that had to use Power Point. ('Scuse me if I don't know 'xactly what that is!) But anyway! He had to apply this math project to something he was passionate about. And he is PASSIONATE about Renewable Energy. He talked Unca John's and my ear off at Christmas about his ideas! So being a typical 11 year old, he was down to the wire on getting the assignment done. Trying to find a computer with Power Point and getting it all put together. Turned the assignment in on the very last day! And he got 100% on it! Way to go Jake! Then, he comes home yesterday telling Jan that he is the ONLY 6th grader at his school to score high enough to compete with 7th and 8th graders in the National Geography Bee! How stankin' cool is that?! Next week he will compete with other local schools and possibly go on to the State and National levels. So keep your flingers and toes crossed for Jake next week and I'll post how he does. Jan said just when you think that he might be in over his head, he pulls this rabbit out of his hat and all you can do is say ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh...maybe he IS getting it after all!