New Mini Catalog-along with Tyler update

Wow, I have so much to catch you up on.  First, Stampin’ Up’s! Occasions mini catalog started this week.  What fabulous products we have and Tash and I have been playing a bit—can’t really believe that we’ve found time—especially as stressed as I was last week but sometimes what we imagine is usually worse than what actually happens so, it’s been a great week of schooling, stamp classes and some doctor’s visits.

Okay,  I have to show you what we came up with the other day:

this is Tash’s design using Rose Red, Old Olive, River Rock,  and our Subtles Designer Paper.

The flower is made with Build A Blossom from our Occasions Mini and the new coordinating punch—Blossom Petals Punch. Each petal has a dimensional under the middle to lift it up a bit.  The button in the center is from the Mini—Big Time Designer Buttons.  I used the Curly Label Punch in a little different way to create this tag.  The Thanks is from our SAB set, So Happy For You. 

Here’s one that I cased from a talented demonstrator, Jackie Topa.  Uses the petals from Build A Blossom for the fish, the center of a leaf for the tale and the fins.  For bubbles-the flower center is embossed with clear powder on white cardstock, then embossed.  I sponged blue ink over the whole card to get the ‘bubbles’ to ‘pop’. 

Here’s another view that shows it better.

White gel pen for the eyes.

I thought this fish ideas was quite brilliant—thank you for the great idea Jackie!

I wanted to give you a quick update on Tyler—We saw a neurologist in Hanover on Wednesday.  The guy was quite frazzled as he was running the office with no secretary so it was a bit disconcerting but we were thrilled to find that Tyler’s basic vision had greatly improved since the last check.  He did order more blood work and wants Tyler to have a Spinal Tap.  I’m not convinced at this time that it’s necessary as it won’t really tell us anything we don’t already know.  Optic neuritis will lead to MS in 18-50% of the cases over a 1-20 years.  Add lesions on the brain in specific areas like the Brain Stem and another area medulla, I think, which in itself is 50% positive for MS.  Put the 2 together and you’ve got a pretty sure diagnosis.   Dr. Cho went to the hospital and looked at the MRI himself and called Tyler to let him know that he had many lesions in those MS specific areas and is fairly certain that he has MS.  He did order some blood work like a SED rate and some other things that I didn’t catch with his Chinese accent and couldn’t read his writing—ugh!   We also are planning to see another specialist—Dr. Shin-from University of Maryland on the 27th.  It will be good to get a second opinion about the Spinal Tap and then hopefully, we can get some ideas about what treatment to get started.  Thanks for all your prayers!  We are truly blessed by God and all of you.

That brings me to another card that my friend, Verna Jane, and I came up with today (so much fun to stamp with friends).

She was helping me stamp my scrapbook page swaps for convention and we had pieces laying around and she decided that a card with the small flower would be really cool.  This card uses the same stamp set as above with Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, and Wild Wasabi.  Also, the embossing folder, Framed Tulips---love it!!!  Just sponged some Pretty in Pink ink over the raised design.

 

 

 

 

 

Tash did this card the other day with my brand new set from the catalog, Countryside.  I’ve been wanting this for so long and when I needed to place an order to get to my goal, I finally got it! 

then she changed it up to this card for our classes this month….

 

 

 

 

 

 

This uses the same technique that I’m going to tell you about in a minute but first—the stamps are from SAB-So Happy For You; the stencil is from the decor element catalog and the button is also from SAB—the ribbon and button pack.

Okay, so before I tell you how we got the watercolor look—I asked her to change up the original card cause I want to use a different set for our Stamp A Stack at the end of the month-here’s what the masculine card will look like:

 

 

This uses our new set from the Mini catalog, Plane and Simple. 

Okay, I’ll tell you how we did it!

Supplies: Watercolor Paper, Distressing Essentials Kit, Ink Spots (Cajun Craze, Marina Mist, Basic Grey). Piece of plastic like a cello bag, spray bottle of water.

Directions: Lay plastic in front of you.  Apply each color of ink by rubbing the spot across the plastic in straight strips—it make take a few rubs of each color in the same spot to get enough color. Continue til you have 4 colors next to each other on your plastic (Tash used one color from the distressing kit).  Spritz the ink on the plastic sheet til it beads up just slightly. You can also spritz the watercolor paper very lightly if you want more color blending as in the flower card above.  Place watercolor paper on the plastic with the ink. Press all around—wipe edges with paper towel, then lift.  Dab at any runny areas, with the papertowel,  as you lift.  Dry with heat tool, then stamp.

That’s all for tonight.  I’ll try to get back real soon.