And still the cold lingers on.  I don’t know why it is that when you get a cold on vacation, they just seem to last forever.  We went on a Mediterreanean cruise (many years ago) for our 25th wedding anniversary and on a bus tour, a lovely gentleman coughed actual phlegm on the back of Rich’s neck..We caught the worst colds from that, and mine lasted for a month…and I’m not making it up.  I really hope that this one doesn’t last that long, but it’s really holding on.  I probably told you all of the preventative measures I took, but of course, they didn’t work.

Since we’ve been home, I have yet to wear real clothes…I’ve only had two showers in a week, and went from one set of pajamas to another after those showers…and I feel really pathetic for doing this, but don’t have the energy for anything more.  Valentine’s Day was a big celebration.  We ate chicken noodle soup and crackers…oh yeah, we live exciting lives.

My sister fell last week and has to have surgery on her wrist this Thursday…I had bought a diamond painting of Mother Mary (my sister is Catholic,) and I thought she would really like the painting.  I started working on it yesterday and might have it done and sent to her in time for her to have it when she gets home from the hospital.  Her mail service is lousy, but maybe this time, mail will get there in two days, like it’s supposed to…I’ll be sure to post a photo of the Mary diamond painting before I mail it to her.  That’s the extent of the excitement we’ve had since we’ve been home.  Wait, Rich did take Bella for grooming, and the groomer decided she needed to have her hair cut relatively short.  I’m not sure why he did that, but she has a ton of hair, and even cut shorter (for a golden retriever,) she’s a big fuzz ball…Cute, and fuzzy…

I guess that wraps up my week…Let’s hope next week is better.

I started with a Jumbo Peony Stamp from Stampendous and stamped it with Gina K’s Black Amalgam Ink and then used clear embossing powder and heat set it on a piece of vellum that was cut to 5 x 7″. I used Blick alcohol markers that I got at Christmas…I think they have discontinued their markers and are only selling brush markers…bummer. I used a lot of colors in purples to color the back of the image…You don’t want to color on the front for this technique to work. The darker the colors used, the better. I used a wide variety of colors on the back of the vellum image, and once the marker ink was dry, I used a rag with hand sanitizer from the Dollar Tree on to dab the colors off.   It worked really well and I liked the effect I got from doing this. I cut a card base with Recollections Heavyweight 9 1/2″ wide x 5 7/8″ tall. It’s 9 1/2″ wide and scored at 4 3/4″ to make the card front 4 3/4″.

I cut a frame out of glitter paper by using my largest rectangle die and one that was the next smaller die, and cut them with my Vagabond to put on the front of the card. I glued the peony image to the front of our card base using a Tonic Studio glue pen and gluing behind the peony only. I also glued the outer edges because the frame will be on top of the glue.  I used my Stampin’ Up snips and trimmed off the excess vellum once it was glued to the card front.

I stamped “Thinking of You” inside the card with Versafine Onyx Black Ink and then used nail art that I bought on ebay (Link: https://tinyurl.com/vh56obg) and my diamond picker from diamond art paintings to adhere the nail art. I glued the frame to the front using thin foam tape, and then used Wink of Stella markers I bought on Amazon (link: https://tinyurl.com/t2ejg7n) to add color and sparkle to the front of the vellum peony. I added a die cut “Hello” from the same glitter paper as the frame to the front of the card and made an envelope using my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Punch board and added washi tape to the bottom of the envelope to make it match the card.

St. Maarten is such a wonderful, relaxing place, but travel home has always been terribly stressful for us.  I’ve talked to so many people our age that tell us they’ve never missed a connection, never even had a delayed flight, and we laugh.  I can honestly say that we have almost NEVER flown anywhere (within the USA or outside,) that we haven’t been delayed for one reason or another.  This trip was no exception.  The airport in St. Maarten was seriously damaged in the hurricane of 2018.  It has been two and one-half years since the hurricane, but the airport is still not operating at capacity.  I was trying to find a good way to say that, since I don’t want to discourage tourists from going there, but, with that being said, the airport was a mess.  Just to check in, (after printing our boarding documents before coming to the airport,) was awful.  The average wait time to get to the counter, was between two and three hours.  As soon as we got to the counter, the woman working there, tore up the documents I’d waited in line to print at our hotel for an hour.  I’m not sure why, but she said they were worthless.  We’ve never had any airlines rip up boarding passes, but then again, I have no idea why she did that.

Then we had more forms to fill out (while checking in) and it probably took us ten minutes there, even though we had our seat assignments and had prepaid for our luggage before arriving there that day.  And then the line from there to TSA….it wrapped the whole first floor of the airport….Our plane came in over an hour late, and if it hadn’t, a lot of the people who would have been on it, wouldn’t have made it from check-in because of the lines…The people of St Maarten are upset about the airport, and well they should be…It’s what’s standing between them getting tourism to 100%, and that means less jobs for all of them.  I wish I could say that we saw a lot of construction going on but we didn’t.

We’d heard people complaining about traffic jams, and only saw it once.  Wednesday from 4-6PM, there was a line of cars wrapped from Maho Beach to well past the Atrium in Simpson Bay.  Only going in one direction, so I’m not sure if maybe there was an accident that stopped traffic, but it was the only time we saw the traffice worse than any other time we’ve been there.  Overall, we thought the traffic was the same…

We flew Spirit Airlines and I know we all complain about lack of leg room and tight seats, but this airline takes cheap to a whole new level..Leg room isn’t great, but the seats don’t recline at all and are smaller than normal, and we were in “the good seats,” the ones they reserve for people with physical limitations..I can’t imagine how much smaller the seats would have been further back in the plane.  The pockets in the backs of the seats are bungee cords in an “X” shape, so nothing you try to put inside can possibly stay there, unless you figure out a way to lodge your item behind the security information pamphlet…and they made sure the security information is well and truly secured to the seat back….Of course this is a no-frill airline, but there’s a disconnnect between no frills and complete discomfort, and that’s where this airline comes into play.

Our connection shouldn’t have been tight, as we initially had almost three hours to play with.  But, as per usual with us, there’s always a snag.  Customs told us we had to walk through a set of double doors (in Ft Lauderdale airport) where we could drop our bags for re-boarding them onto the US based flight.  We walked through the doors and there’s a sign that says that area is closed.  It wasn’t late at night, maybe 9PM, and there were no further directions.  While in customs, one of the employees approached me (because I was bent over the wheelchair trying to stretch my back) and asked me if I was OK.  I said I was, and then asked about the flight to Pittsburgh, because I knew we were running close…She said it was leaving on time through gate G2.  I asked if that was a long walk, and she said, No, it’s right outside TSA….Great.  There were no arrival/departure boards that we could see, and our tickets also said G2, as I checked them after the customs woman gave me the gate number, just to be on the safe side.

We ended up at the ticketing counter, where Rich went to the front of the line and just threw our bags on one of the bag slots and, at this point, I thought his head might explode if someone tried to stop him….As we were hauling two big suitcases, a wheelchair, and a carry-on, my travel Vera bag, and Rich’s backpack.  Now we only had to get through TSA.  For some reason, others with wheelchairs are offered assistance…that never happens with us.  I even asked for it this trip and was told everyone had to be off of the plane before they could help me.  That made no sense since I’d seen four or five other people taken off with wheelchairs and assistance before we ever got my chair at the entrance to the plane.  So we struggled on…and ran into another man assisting a woman at TSA.  Rich asked him where we should go and he said “anywhere.”  Which isn’t true..there’s always a line devoted to people with wheelchairs, but we couldn’t find it.  We got to the place where you take everything off and put it on the conveyor belt, and someone told me to put my wheelchair “over there,” so I did.  I’m now standing there and at one point was told to get in line for the scanner.  I normally don’t qualify for it, as I can’t get my arms over my head.  I tried, and they told me to get out and go through another machine that immediately beeped like crazy because of my four artificial joints.  Back out of it…Now my shoes and my wheelchair are gone and I’m standing there…The woman that had assistance, I thought had already gone through, as I saw her in the machine where you put your arms over your head…Somehow she was now back in her chair behind me again.  So I decided to lean on the glass partition that separated me from Rich and the rest of the world.  And waited.  No one asked what I was doing, and I just stood there….and stood there…for thirty minutes, I stood there…at the end, I was crying because I knew I was missing my flight and there was nothing I could do to stop it.  I’d tried asking the people working TSA if they had a female to pat me down, but they basically ignored me…And when a woman finally did come over to do the pat down, out of nowhere the other lady in the wheelchair that I thought was long gone, appeared and wanted to go first.  I don’t blame her, but on the other hand, if her flight was later than mine, couldn’t someone have figured out how to acommodate both of us?

The TSA agent that patted her down disappeared after that, never to be seen again….I’m still standing there..Rich is asking everyone if they can help me, and they just ignored him.  A woman approached and I asked if there were any female agents that could pat me down, and she took pity on me and did so.

And now Rich is literally running to get us to G2….it’s not right outside TSA, it’s the furthest gate from TSA….which seemed weird, until we got there, and the gate people said our gate had been changed to G8 (right outside TSA)….He’s running again, and when we finally get to G8, we find out our flight has been delayed.  If it hadn’t, we would have missed it, all because of TSA, and that seems wrong to me.

I never saw one departure/arrival sign anywhere in that entire airport.  When we got to Pittsburgh, we called our hotel to send their van for us.  It was after 2AM when we got to the airport, and it was deserted…..Half hour later, still no van…Rich calls again, and the hotel profusely apologizes and says he should have been there a long time ago.  Another half hour and he arrives and Rich is MAD…..where have you been?  Driver says he’s only been told we were there five minutes before….and there’s another group from our same flight, waiting at another door…they’d called five times. Our driver calls his dispatcher who says he can’t keep track of all the calls he’s got coming in…How many calls could he be getting from a deserted airport?  We get to our hotel after 3AM and by now we’re both past the stage of exhaustion, but Rich is still got a boatload of adrenaline from our last hour’s wait.

All in all, I wish I knew the secrets that other travelers have.  The ones who are never delayed…who get good service and are treated well.  I feel like we make the wrong choices when nothing ever seems to go as planned when we travel, and we almost always end up frustrated and upset.

If I could wiggle my nose like Samantha in “Bewitched,” I’d go to St Maarten (or anywhere) in a heartbeat…but knowing the pitfalls of travel that plague us, I’m sure my nose wiggle would somehow transport me to a customs agent with a glove and a cavity search in my future.

I bought this writing tablet at the Dollar Tree that is 5 3/4″ x 8 3/4″ tall. I put tear tape on the front of the tablet.  Your measurements will depend on your writing tablet and it’s dimensions that may vary from pad to pad..I cut a piece of 12 x 12″ Stampin’ Up retired designer paper to 5 3/4″ wide and leaving the 12″ length….I scored on the 12″ length at     8 7/8 and 9 1/8″ so it will wrap around the top of the tablet.  Here’s a link to the tablet I used from the Dollar Tree: https://www.dollartree.com/ruled-writing-tablets-6×9/919662

I couldn’t get the tear tape to stick to the top of the tablet, so put the tear tape between my two score marks on the underside of the paper. I also added wet glue so I could put the paper on and move it if it wasn’t perfectly lined up. I wrapped the short end on the back and the took the other half of my 12 x 12″ paper cut to 12″ x 5 3/4″ wide and scored it at 8 7/8″ (because my length was a little off), and folded up the score mark to make a pocket. I added a thin line of glue on both edges to create the pocket, then glued this and tear taped it to the back of the writing tablet. I decided I wanted to add more features to the front, so took my We R Memory Keepers Envelope Board link: https://tinyurl.com/s9be4xc and made a 5 x 5″ envelope….I wanted to make it stand out from the background, so took Spiced Marmalade Distress Oxide Ink and a makeup brush and inked the edges of the envelope. I decided to close it with brads and used a 5/8″ circle hole punch with orange cardstock (punched two circles) and two turquoise brads…I should have measured where I punched the holes, but didn’t, and found when I poked a hole inside the lower flap of the envelope,  it was too close to the other flap, and had to poke a second hole…bummer…I used a 5/8″ circle hole punch for the orange paper, and then used thin matching twine and wrapped the twine around the brad legs before inserting them though the envelope. I poked a second hole above the first hole on the top flap of the envelope and put another orange circle with a turquoise brad on the top flap and wrapped the twine around it. I also wanted to have a post-it note pad above the envelope, so used a scrap of the same designer paper, that was 3″ wide by 6 1/4″ long scored on the 6 1/4″ length at 3″ and 3 1/4″ as my post-it note pad was 1/4″ thick. I glued the designer paper to the back of the post it notes and along the top of the post it notes and then glued it to the front of my writing tablet. I put a turquoise brad near the bottom of the post it note pad paper as an accent. I also inked the edges of this piece as well. I also inked around the edges of the front of the writing tablet with Spiced Marmalade and called the project done.  I’m planning on using this for notes and reminders that I’ll keep in my kitchen.

We’re having a great time on vacation and wish it could last longer…We are travelling back to Pittsburgh tomorrow, and not getting in until after midnight, so going home Sunday morning.  Our dog sitter couldn’t stay tomorrow night, so my best friend volunteered to stay for us….She’s the greatest….Spent a whole day while the well drillers were there this week, and said the dogs couldn’t decide who should be sitting on her lap….one was always on her.  And that’s after she gave them anxiety medications..I can’t tell you how much it means to me to know there’s someone who loves my dogs sitting there on my behalf…She’s one of a kind…the best of people.

Of course, no trip is complete without me getting sick from fellow travelers.  I even wore a mask on the plane rides, and wiped every surface with anti-bacterial cleanser….still, I caught a cold….I always plan for as many unforseen illnesses as possible, so had cold medicine, as well as zinc, Vitamin C, and tablets there were supposed to boost my immune system…I know you think I didn’t bother taking the immune boosters, but I did….and they didn’t help…Or maybe the cold would have been a lot worse without them, we’ll just have to wonder….

Rich always gets a sunburn…Always…No matter how much I nag him about sunscreen, he doesn’t seem to care.  This burn on his chest and arms was really driving him crazy today.  I wish he’d remember days like this when he decides not to wear sunscreen, but a man’s gonna do what a man’s gonna do.

We went into Phillipsburg today to buy something for my girlfriend whose been so good with the dogs….I saw a white top at one of the straw market vendors a couple of days ago, and thought she’d like it…(at least I hope she does)….My first visit ended like this…Me–how much is that top?  Vendor–How much you want to pay?  Me—Please give me a price…Her–how about $30?  (Now I know she’s playing with me and I tell her that I would just like her to give me her lowest price.)…She says “Just tell me what you willing to pay….”  I say “I don’t want to offend you and make you mad if I give a price that’s too low.”  Vendor–“Give me a price.”  So I say $12, knowing it’s low, but not knowing how far off I am…I REALLY HATE BARTERING…She says “NO, $15….and she’s yelling at me.and continues yelling about $12 and this not a cheap shirt…so I tell her I’ll think about it and come back later in the week….She thinks I’m a liar….When I came back today, she remembered and when I asked if she had two of the same shirt, she seemed to think I should pay more for the second one…How does that work? Any way, in the end, I bought both myself and my girlfriend this top…I hope it doesn’t fall apart in the washing machine, but you never know.  The same top at different vendors ranged for $25-$35, so I think I got a good deal.  And in the end, I did figure out a way to stop the women from abusing me.  When I look at something and they start to bug me about buying it, (as happened with this shirt I bought) I said “I just bought this shirt.”  And then they wanted to know how much I paid for it and I told them $15, and they stopped asking more and told me I paid a good price….Which makes me feel like I just bought a used car and everyone but me knows it’s a lemon that I should have paid a lot less for….but that’s me.

I wanted to take some video on the beach for my channel, and the boardwalk was literally deserted.  If there were twenty people from one end to the other (blocks of sidewalk) that was probably an exaggeration…Rich was standing maybe four feet away from me and I was talking into the camera and it was clear that we were videotaping….A man was walking down the boardwalk and clearly saw us, but felt rather than take two steps to walk around us, he should walk right through the shot like he didn’t see us there….What’s the matter with people today that they have no common courtesy?  I get so frustrated that people can’t be bothered to be kind…sp I said something rash, and could have gotten Rich killed if the guy had decided he didn’t appreciate what I said.  I need to remember that people are also crazy..Luckily, this man was just inconsiderate…Apparently the only one bringing the crazy was me.

 

Yesterday, Rich and I spent the day at the beach.  Not in direct sunlight….under an umbrella…I’m the color of a vampire, and with the medications I take for my arthritis, sunlight and Sandy don’t mix.    As soon as we got to the beach, a woman approached us to do a back massage with fresh aloe vera leaves.  Rich has been complaining of his back and neck bothering him, so before he could say no, I told the lady we’d be thrilled to have her give him a massage.  She did a great job, and he said his neck and head stopped hurting when she was finished, so that’s a good thing.

We took a picnic lunch to the beach, so we didn’t have to leave when we were hungry.  I like to grocery shop as soon as we get to the island so we have foods and drinks we like in our room.  We bought a dozen eggs, and hadn’t used any yet, so after a long hard day of reading on the beach, we decided to eat in our condo and have breakfast for dinner.  We had bacon and eggs and some pastries…..so you can’t beat that.  After dinner I decided to work on a diamond painting front to a journal I bought on ebay.  It’s supposed to look like this when it’s done.  I really like how it looks so far and I haven’t really spent more than an hour on it.  I think another hour and it’ll be finished.  I think it’s lovely and might give it as a gift or maybe use it for my next travel journal.  Anyway,  here’s the link to it on ebay…it was a little under $5 and you get everything you need to complete it.  https://tinyurl.com/w5znr8t   If you’ve ever wanted to try diamond painting, this is a fun way to give it a try.  I find crafty things that are useful are more in keeping with my style, and things like the wall art don’t really speak to me like this did.

Today, we slept in, and then went shopping in Phillipsburg.  There’s a restaurant there that we like to have lunch at, called Pasanggrahan Boutique Hotel, where they have an amazing Jamaican style fish and chips.  After lunch, we wandered around and found a couple of fun new t-shirts for Rich….he lives in Life is Good clothing, and it’s about time some of those shirts were destroyed, so I’m encouraging him to replace them with something new and different.
It wasn’t particularly hot, but for some reason I was sweating profusely the entire time we walked around.  It was gross…Rich said I looked like my head was going to explode, my face was so red.  (I know it’s a pretty image, and add to that the rivulets of sweat running down the sides of my face and neck, I made for a lovely image.  Stores here hire people to try and convince you to come inside and look around.  One man was singing “Pretty Woman” to me and I told him it would have been more fitting if he was singing “Sweaty Woman” instead.  He thought that was hysterical…..I was just telling the truth.

We stopped at the grocery store on our way back to the condo because I wanted to have brie with sliced almonds and butter (melted in a frying pan.)  You microwave the brie after slicing an “X” in the top, and then when it’s soft, you take the fried almonds in butter and pour it over the cheese.  Then you take a baguette, slice it about 1/2″ thick and use the slices of bread like a dipping spoon, into the cheese, butter and almonds.  I’m pretty sure it’s good for you..and has very few calories.  Actually, I made a fruit salad out of watermelon and bananas so we had something to cut the grease we were eating.  It worked well, and made me feel like we were eating at least one thing that was good for us.

Since St. Maarten is half French, there are a lot of French bakeries around.  If you’ve ever had their pastries, you’d know why we spend every other day, making a trip to the bakery.  Such wonderful confections, and we’re both suckers for sweets, so it’s the perfect place for us to visit.   I love almond croissants…LOVE them….can’t eat enough of them..and they’ve been sold out the three times I’ve been there, so today, I order three to pick up tomorrow…I’ll put the extras in the refrigerator, and I know they won’t be as good as the fresh one, but at least I’ll have some backups for later in the week.

Today, at home, the well drillers came to fix our water problem. We have terrible water in our neighborhood….So much rust in the water, that it clogs the pipes, the hot water tank and the systems we bought to remove the rust.  The truck’s been there since before we left home and I knew that today would be a horrible day for the dog’s and their anxiety….I have a very very good friend who has always been there for us, and today, she spent the entire day in our basement with our dogs, entertaining them (after she gave them the anxiety medications we had prescribed for Honey.)  She said they took turns laying on her, and with each dog at least 65 pounds, they aren’t exactly comfortable to have on your lap.  She would have liked to have taken them to her house, but both dogs are afraid to ride in a car, so that would have made things even harder than they were already.  We got an email from the well repairman, and he said that they had to drill our well deeper, and our water still isn’t usable because it’s got to clear the rust from it….that could take a day, I guess…..so he’ll be back tomorrow and hopefully, the water problem will be behind us, until we have another issue with it in the next few years.  It’s one of those ongoing problems that springs up when you least expect it…I’m just sad that we weren’t home to be with the dogs and that my friend had to be there in our place.  I felt terrible bringing it up to her, and of course, she immediately volunteered….that’s just the kind of great person she is.

Tomorrow is supposed to be a rainy day, but that could mean a passing rain shower or off an on rain…..we’ll figure it out as the day progresses.  They’ll be cleaning the condo, so we’ll have to make ourselves scarce.  As long as I have a book to read, I’m good anywhere.  I’ve already read two books this trip…..Having a great time on vacation!!

I wanted to make a fun congratulations card for a professor of Rich’s and mine from college.  I wanted to use supplies from my stash, and think the card is really fun and frisky.

I started by using a Hero Arts stamp set called “Congrats” in my MISTI on 5 x 7″ card base from Recollections heavyweight card stock from Michaels. I stamped Versafine Onyx Black ink several times to ensure a very black image and then used clear embossing powder and heat set it. I divided the front of my card into thirds and used Picked Raspberry Distress Oxide ink on the top third, then Broken China in the center, and Wilted Violet on the bottom section. I have corresponding felt ribbons colors to adhere over the inks that I bought at Hallmark after Christmas on clearance..

To ink the card, I put scrap paper inside the card but sticking out on the edges and another piece of scrap paper under the card sticking out the left edge, so I don’t get ink on the inside of the card base or on the back of the card base.  I taped a paper to block the parts of the card I don’t want to get ink on, and then ran the ink pad directly over the area I want to be that color. Then I took a brush I bought on Aliexpress and blended the ink into the surface. link: https://tinyurl.com/s9u2fl5 I moved the paper with each color change, to ensure the colors didn’t blur into the areas where I didn’t want them to be. Once you color the top section where the words have been embossed, you’ll want to take a damp cloth and wipe the letters so they are dark and shiny again. After coloring the front of the card, glue the felt ribbon about 1/2″ above the color change. I bought my ribbon after Christmas at a Hallmark store on clearance, but didn’t know where else to find it, and checked Aliexpress and found this…link: https://tinyurl.com/ugzeejv I decided the front of my card needed something else, so used glittery brads that matched the colors on the front, and strategically placed them on the front of the card. I decided I needed to cover the backs of the brads, so took a piece of the same cardstock that was 4 7/8″ wide by 7″ tall and glued it to the left inside of the card. I stamped more sentiments from the same stamp set inside the card. I took two different sparkly washi tapes and glued them to my envelope to make the envelope and card match.

Below you’ll find complete instructions and products used in this video. Please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWhlN… to see Rebecca Walton’s version of a Valentine’s shaker card using the same stamp sets.

Peg stamp sets used:

Heart Dust (still available) Link: https://tinyurl.com/sk4nff5

Full of hearts stamp (hearts within a heart) link: https://pegstamps.com/product/full-of… Double heart stamp link: https://pegstamps.com/product/double-…

Saponaria stamp link: https://pegstamps.com/product/saponar…

Follow Your Heart Set link: https://pegstamps.com/product/follow-…

To My Valentine Set link: https://pegstamps.com/product/to-my-v…

Cardstock used:

Stampin’ Up retired cardstocks Pink 8 1/4″ tall by 11″ wide score at 4 1/4″ and 4 1/2″ on the 11″ length Red 8 1/2″ tall by 11″ wide scored at 4 1/2″ on the 11″ length

Inks used:

Gina K Red Velvet

Gina K Bubblegum Pink

Stampin’ Up Berry Burst

Colorbox Rich Razzleberry

Using a layered set of heart dies, choose one that fits well inside the borders of the pink card front so you have plenty of room for foam tape. Place it on the pink card front so you have room for your sentiment and room on either side of the heart for your frame. Tape it in place and run it through your die cutting machine. When you are stamping background paper, start with your largest images and work to your smallest.

In order, I stamped: Full of hearts stamp (hearts within a heart) with Red Velvet ink from Gina K Saponaria stamped with Stampin’ Up Berry Burst Double Hearts stamped with Gina K Bubblegum Pink Heart Dust stamped with Color Box Rich Razzleberry After stamping the first large stamps, I put clear embossing powder on them, and heat set them. After each additional stamping, I heat embossed with more clear embossing powder.

Put tear tape or glue on the back of the heart cut out and around the edges of the pink front, and place a piece of acetate (clear plastic) on the tear tape to glue it in place. Make sure your acetate covers the opening completely, or you’ll have shaker pieces come out. I opened the red card base and glued the back flap of the pink card base to the inside left side of the red card base. The pink part with the heart should close over the red layer when finished. I put a lot of foam tape along the edges of the heart and on the edges of the card….make sure the foam has enough height that your shaker components will shake, and also so that the foam has no gaps in it. I put my shaker components on the red left side of the card base so all I have to do is close the pink heart side on top of it. Make sure your shaker pieces are in the center of the red layer and if you want, glue some down so they will always be showing in the window.

Shaker Components:

Red Table Scatter hearts from Hobby Lobby

Clear Enamel Hearts: https://tinyurl.com/u6b2szf

Diamonds for my Nephew’s Wedding in a Variety of Colors: https://tinyurl.com/szd76nf

I also had some enamel colored dots in my stash that I added that glued to the background and I don’t remember where I bought them, sorry.

Once all of the shaker components are inside your card, you should make sure that you rub your embossing pouch around the inside of the foam tape so it reduces it’s stickiness…If you end up getting any glue on your acetate, use an alcohol pad to wipe it and then use a damp rag to wipe off the remaining alcohol/glue residue that remains. Shut the card carefully so the shaker components don’t shift around. I then made a frame to cover the fact that you could see the foam tape inside the heart. I used one size larger than the opening and one size smaller than the opening dies and cut red cardstock with them. This will make a larger frame and cover the inside of the heart that you don’t want to see. I used my original frame and the heart I cut from the larger frame I made, and glued them inside the left side of the card. I used a Happy Valentine’s Day die and cut the red cardstock with it and ran it through my Xyron machine. Link: https://tinyurl.com/yynlccyv

To get rid of any excess adhesive, Xyron makes an adhesive eraser…Here’s a link to it: https://tinyurl.com/uwvu4ql I had a heart border die that I cut out and attached to the back right edge of the red card base. Inside the card, I added a sentiment from Rubbernecker Stamps from a set called Freehand Phrases stamped with Gina K’s Black Amalgam Ink. To finish the card, I added some black heart washi tape along the seam on the right side of the inside of the card, and on the envelope. I stamped the Made by Sandy Parker stamp on the back. I bought this stamp at Stampanda and it’s called a square address stamp named Molly. Use a coupon you can find online for a big discount 

Rich is watching the Super Bowl and since we’re in St Maarten, and I haven’t written in a few days, I thought I’d give you an update.

Our flight out of Pittsburgh was 7AM yesterday morning…that meant we had to be at the airport at 5AM….Our hotel wanted us to meet the van there at 4:30, so we got up around 3:45…why did we even attempt to sleep?  Of course we didn’t….we were too worried about not hearing the alarm, or the electricity going out (like it did on a previous trip when we had to get dressed and packed in complete darkness in a hotel room we’d only stayed in the previous night, and didn’t really know where things were..)

We flew Spirit Airlines and it’s a no frills airline, but one thing they do that I really like, is they charge you more to put luggage overhead than if you put it under the plane.  I hate it when someone gets on hauling three pieces of luggage and stuff it everywhere but under their own feet….Makes me crazy….and then when you have a tight connection, those people take forever to gather all of their luggage and get off, while you’re trying to get off with your single bag.  I do have to say, there still were a lot of people with a lot of carry on…and I’m not sure why you’d pay to do that, but they must have.

We got in early and got our car and made it to our  hotel in record time.  It was one of the best on-time trips we’ve ever taken…But then again, if you know us, we are cursed travellers, something always goes wrong…so we’ll just wait for the other shoe to fall…

We fell asleep early last night and didn’t wake up until almost noon…so we got a late start and went to the pool and spent the afternoon reading…best day in the sun….

I don’t plan on spending a lot of time blogging on vacation, but I did want readers to know we’d made it here and are having a great time.  And Rich is enjoying his Blink security cameras, as they send him 5 second videos of the dogs going outside to go to the restroom….he loves watching them run around in the snow…I just look at the snow, and am happy I’m not experiencing it right now…YAY!!

I found the scene stepper fun fold card on NOLA Creations YouTube…Here’s the link to her video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX707j2ZmyA

I started by using watercolor pencils by Arteza (set of 40) pumpkin, carmine red, crimson, sunflower, and coral on a House Mouse stamp called Sweet Kiss. I used a waterbrush to liquify the colors, then cut the image out.

To score, use your cutting board instead of your score board, as it will make it a lot easier. Use a stylus or the back of a butter knife or knitting needle to score with.  I used Stampin’ Up green 8 1/2″ x 11″ cardstock and put it in the trimmer on the 11″ length to score. Score putting the paper at 1″ and score up to 1″ and then to the top of the paper from 7 1/2 to 8 1/2″. Do the same thing, moving the paper to 9″ on the right , score  to 1″ and from 7 1/2 to 8 1/2″ , leaving your paper where it is, score from 2″ to 6 1/2″. Move your cardstock to 6 5/8″ and score from 2″ to 6 1/2″. Move the paper to 5 1/2″ and score from 1″ to 7 1/2″. Move the paper to 4 1/2″ and score to 1″ and from 7 1/2″ to 8 1/2″.

Cutting: Turn paper to the 8 1/2″ length in the trimmer. Your score lines should be at the top of the paper trimmer..Putting your paper at the 1″ mark on your trimmer, cut from 1″ from the bottom to 1″ from the top of the paper. You’ll need to do the exact same cut 1″ from the right side of your paper, cutting 1″ from the bottom to 1″ from the top (you’ll see me do this later.) Move your paper to 2″ on the ruler on the bottom of your trimmer and cut from 2″ to 4 3/4″ Move paper to 6 1/2″ on the bottom ruler, and cut from 2″ to 4 3/4″. Turn to the 11″ length, and line it up at 4 3/4″ on the bottom of the trimmer, and cut from 2″ to 6 1/2″. Move to 9″ on the trimmer and cut from 2 to 6 1/2″… Fold your score marks and use your bone folder on the folds.

Cover papers: Try not to use patterned paper that has a direction, as it’s a lot harder to deal with than a pattern that has no direction.

Step: Designer paper 1 7/8″ tall x 4″ wide and backing colored cardstock (I used red) that is 2 1/8″ x 4 1/4″ Glue this down after you’ve glued a stand under it.. For the stand, cut a piece of scrap to 2″ long by 1″ wide and score on the 2″ length at 1″. Glue this piece to the center underneath of the step paper, then glue the step paper in place. Glue the House Mouse image to the front of the stand we created

Inner Side Pieces: Two of Designer 3 tall x 1/2″ wide x Red 3 1/4 ” x 3/4″

Outer Side Pieces: Two x Designer 4″ x 1/2″ wide x Red 4 1/4″ tall x 3/4″ wide

Section below the step: Designer 8″ x 1 1/2″ tall x Red 8 1/4″ long x 1 3/4″ tall, cut 1″ squares out of the top corners on both pieces.

Back piece: 8 1/4 x 5 1/4″ Designer paper only cut 1″ squares out of the top corners per my instructions.  Inside the card, you’ll glue this to the opposite side as the step. You’ll glue it over a slit you made, & you’ll need to use your Xacto knife to re-open the slit once this paper is glued in place.

Top piece for above the opening: (I said this in reverse in the video) designer 4 1/4″ long by 1/4″ tall and red piece 4 1/2″ long by 1/2″ tall

White back piece to write on: 8 1/4″ long by 3 3/4″ tall with 1″ squares cut out of the top corners.  I stamped a Happy Valentine’s Day stamp from peg stamps with Gina K Red Velvet ink for on this paper along with red table scatter hearts I got at Hobby Lobby after Valentines last year. I cut a very thin strip of red cardstock and cut it thicker at the bottom and thinner near the top and glued the thicker part on the front and adhered it to the back where the bird head and mouse head meet. I glued one of the hearts to the top of the red strip so it looks suspended over the animals. I glued more of the scatter hearts around the card face.

I stamped a bird on the front near the base of the card with Soft Suede ink from Stampin’ Up, and stamped a bird and nest on scrap then cut them out, cutting off the birds’ feet. Then glue the bird to the image on the card so it has feet again. I used a “You are Special” sentiment on a white scrap and used a matching green marker to color the edges, then die cut it wih an oval Spellbinder die. I used peg stamps from the Robin’s Nest and Secret Garden sets and colored the nest and bird with colored pencils.