MORE CARDS MADE WITH GLORIA.....

OKAY, now that's not even FUNNY, that card started out turned the right way - and the blog demon turned it sideways - not kidding. I have it downloaded in the other direction on my computer and somehow, on the journey from my hard drive to blog land, it turned sideways.....so anyway you will still have to stand on your head to see it. but at least it's still here....I am NOT trying to turn it over again cuz POOF, it will be GONE WITH THE WIND.......just lean way over and take a look, okay? And then I thought as long as I was downloading one more I may as well download a couple more that we made.......but hey - I am all blabbed out so it's time to switch to the really big font so we can get through this and move on somehow...cuz I said about all the flowery things about friendship that I could think of on the last entry.....
This card here on the left is so darn cute, isn't it? That set, Bloomin With Love makes you feel like you are 8 years old when you stamp with it....I don't know what it is but it's just so darn cute....and fun to stamp with......I got the idea for the watering can over the top from my stamping friend Cindy....now that's another wonderful friendship that SU blessed me with........we not only think alike, folks say we look alike, and folks say we stamp alike!! How's that? I
am looking so foward to catching up with Cindy and Tina and Lynn and all my SU cronies when I go to Convention - it was a weak moment - saying YES I will go to convention - and I'm so glad we have weak moments like that - pay to register first because when you see the ticket prices this year you need something to anchor your decision to go.....but you know, no matter how much those airplane tickets cost - it will be worth it all to see all my precious friends - the end.....until next time- keep on making new friends!!

I've been thinking a lot lately about FRIENDSHIP. Thinking specifically about struggling through making new friends, and celebrating old friends. Thanking God for the friends HE has blessed my life with, new and old. In this journey called life, friends truly are the flowers!! (hey, that sounds like a stamp.....) Last week, or gee, two weeks ago now, Gloria and Glenn came for a visit. My friendship with Gloria is an interesting story. Way way way back when I FIRST became a Stampin'Up demonstrator, Gloria's daughter Christy had my first workshop for me at Nyack College in NY. I had met Christy thru a mutual friend when she sold PSX stamps, (I was her best customer for a while there) and when I told her I was going with SU, she had just decided to stop selling PSX, so she said she would have my first workshop for me. I signed on( with a promise like that), so in a way I have Christy to thank for helping me make the decision to be a demonstrator!! :)Christy added on to her first workshop order with an order from her mom,(I can still hear Christy saying "I like to stamp, but my mother and sister, they are the ones that are really over the top with it....") Christy said her mom loved the catalog and would like to have a catalog workshop with her stamping friends......the rest is sort of history. Gloria has given my SU business a huge boost down thru the years....and all the while our friendship grew right along with her stamp collection. She always said to me, if you and Keith ever want to take a trip you should come on out here and have a live workshop for all these ladies that have been placing orders over the years. I talked to Keith about it and he thought it sounded like fun, (the only person I know who gets more excited about a road trip then my husband is my dog......:):):) So one year about 5 or 7 years ago, (who's counting?) we went to Orrville, OH, and had a wonderful workshop and met the gang and we've gone back every year since.......hey - I forgot to say, that card that we just passed is me giving Gloria a lesson in watercoloring with markers, and hers came out beeeuuuutiful too!! :) Keith and Glenn have become friends over the years too, and it's just one of the many friendships that SU has blessed my life with down thru the years. Here you will see Gloria and I feverishly stamping the hours away......she arrived at just before 2:00 pm and we didn't stop stamping until 2:00 am!! Well, of course we stopped long enough to eat, but honestly that was it. At 2:00 a.m., we called it a night. We made lots of cool cards but I have shown my 3 favorite ones that we made here.....Gloria is a card machine, she stamps in a moving car, she stamps in her sleep, she stamps like 25 of any card she likes and the thing that makes Gloria different from me is SHE actually SENDS cards to people......you know, like puts a stamp on them and puts them in the mail....she doesn't hoard them in a basket like me. :) I am sure there are people all over OHIO and beyond that are blessed regularly by the cards Gloria makes and more importantly, sends. : ) My hero. :) Going to Gloria's house is awesome too, she and Glenn have a little apartment off of their home and she always has all kinds of little presents and my favorite candy and fruit and muffins.....I look so forward to my visits there which happen at least once a year. Which takes me to "THE REST OF THE GANG" but honestly, Gloria's workshops always have about 40 people ~ but here is a small sampling of the ones I have grown to know and love, below. These ladies have always been like a shot in the arm to me, they sort of swarm around my samples and ooohhhh and ahhhhh.......and I always go away feeling like a star. :) If I ever felt discouraged in my business with Stampin'UP I could just think of this group of ladies and know that in a small corner of OHIO I have some serious stampers who love me. :):):) And honestly, I love them too. Of the ladies in this picture, I think most of them have been there each and every year, or close to it. From left to right in the back row - Anna Mae, Margo, Terry S, Terry and GLORIA, front row from left to right, Janet, Bev, and Judy....missing Joanne and Barbara.......So there is an example of the friendships we make a long the way. I told Gloria that her stamp group (these ladies, and 2 more who didn't make it the night the picture was taken) really need to come and have a stamping get away here in my town. I think we would have such a good time, I think we could have a shoebox swap and everyone design a card and we could have a stamping marathon.....or else I could just design a few and we could all make them together - as many of them as wanted to make the trip - we are going to do that one of these days for a weekend....right Gloria?? :) Anyway, I have just been thinking a lot about all the friendships that SU has brought my way, people I would have never known if not for becoming a demonstrator and sharing the JOY all these years of stamping with friends!! Okay, now I feel some usual blogger's frustration coming on because that card coming up is turned on it's side....and you know me being blog challenged I will never be able to get that card right side up in this life..... I needed to do that BEFORE I downloaded it to a blog....so help me out here folks and just bend your head over and take a gander at this one from the side.......it's not that bad......you get the idea, save me the untold hours of frustration figuring out how to turn that card right side up, it's ain't happenin folks, lets face it......but hey - it was the special one I was sending out there to all my friends, new and old, saying I miss you......and I do. OKAY - I HAD TO DO IT - I TRIED AND TRIED TO TURN THAT CARD RIGHT SIDE UP AND POOF!! IT WAS GONE, IT JUST TOTALLY DISAPPEARED, SO AFTER I POST THIS I WILL GO BACK AND ADD IT.....GEEZ I DESERVE THE BLOGGER OF THE YEAR AWARD - ME BLOGGING IS LIKE A 5 YEAR OLD DRIVING A CAR.....BRAVE BUT STUPID..........I JUST DONT' GET IT AND I NEVER WILL BUT IT'S SO MUCH FUN I CAN'T STOP......ANYWAY- IMAGINE A CARD HERE THAT SAYS MISSING YOU,,,,,AND THEN YOU CAN SEE IT LATER......ARGHHHHHH.... I was just saying to Keith though that after 2 years now living in OHIO, (can you believe it's been 2 years already?) I finally honestly feel like I am making some friends - and what a great feeling. Not all friendships are deep friendships, tonite I made two new friends in Kroegers, and I don't think we'll ever be that close.....it never ceases to amaze me how fast SOME people around here want to make friends, the lady in front of me in line in five minutes told me things along the lines of, "when my first husband left me he left me with nothing, no money, no job, no house.....and that's when I started smoking.....and now I have a wonderful fiance but I can't quit smoking......yadayadayada.....AND i was like, "Uh gee, I'm sorry to hear that.......while MEANWHILE, the lady behind me and I kid you not, with sort a a wild and crazy look in her eyes she said, ( and she was at the very LEAST 70 years old or so) "I don't care how handsome the next man is that looks my way and what he promises me, men are just trouble.....I had two husbands and I wouldn't give a plug nickel to have either one of them back again......in fact, the first one, I often contemplated killing with a kitchen knife....." and I was like Uh, gee, I'm sorry to hear that......(I am NOT MAKING THIS UP.....)So you can see that being a cold NEW YORKER and being dropped into the middle of friendly OHIO, I have had to be discerning and make friends slowly, but I am here to tell you it's happening.....and I am so happy!! I have some new friends from Curves, some new friends from church, and my new friend Michelle Zindorf, who I spent another Saturday stamping with and that's what my NEXT blog entry will be about......and none of these people hate men, or talk about murder to me in the grocery store.....they are nice sane folks. :) And I am just thinking that for at least a year I mourned the friendships I left behind.....and felt this sad heaviness that we left behind a history with people that we may not have enough life left to build that deeply again, and then you spend a Sunday afternoon chatting with a friend from church and you really feel a connection, and you think, maybe it won't take 10 years.....and then last Saturday, spent with Michelle, laughing and talking non stop all day and not wanting her to go home......and thinking wow, it feels like I've known her a lot longer then a month......God is good, and HE knows what we need and when we need it and then HE gives it to us. :) I can think about Convention coming up in the end of July and all the bestest friends I will get to reconnect with - it's true, Friends are the flowers in the garden of life, and ALL that good stuff!! Corny, but oh so true. What would we do without friends? Thanks God for all the friends, new and old and everything in between that you have so abundantly blessed my life with!! :) Come see us again Glenn and Gloria!! Bring those ladies Gloria!! :)

My Magical Day in Zindorfialand.....

Are you all ready to hear my wonderful story of my journey to Zindorfialand??? Isn't that card to the left a beauty, if I do say so myself? (Nothing like loving your own stuff, but I do love that card....) Let me back up..... For a long time, I have admired, more like drooled over the work of Michelle Zindorf who has a wonderful gallery at Splitcoaststampers.com - that's where I have my gallery and when I'm not checking my own cards to see how many hits they have had, I am looking at everyone elses. Michelle's cards stand out on a page.....so I went to her gallery a few times and read her profile, and low and behold I found out she grew up in Dayton, OH which is where I work! So one day I left an innocent (??) little comment on one of her cards saying that I realized I live very close to her.....I would never have boldly just said what was on my mind which was, "Hey, I am stamper starved, I have no friends around me who stamp.....and actually, I have very few friends period since I only moved here less then 2 years ago, and this is actually a desperate worm I am throwing out there in an attempt to fish for friends......." (Sorry Michelle if you are reading this, but there you have it.....) I never dreamed that the great Zindorf would send me an email msg back in about 1/2 hour that was subjected, "Let's get together to stamp" - Can you picture me, doing the happy dance??? Picture it sister, cuz that's what I did. It's no secret that I actually love my own stamping,,,,,,but Michelle's stamping is a notch above anyones that I know, including and definetely my own. :):):) She is actually a watercolor artist first, and on her blog you can see some of her beautiful watercolor work. I tried to act nonchalant, but it was hard. Let's see, let me check my calendar, is later this afternoon okay? Ha-ha - For all my fine NY/NJ friends who know me, I am a social kinda gal, I NEEEEEEED friends, and as far as stamping goes, I crave friends that I can share what I do and they can share what they do......and now I have one!! YIPPEE!! To make a long story short - OH....quick look to the left - and that is the card that Michelle helped me make step by step at her house, (I wormed my way in pretty fast, huh??smile......) And the rest of these are me playing with her wonderful brayered sky technique ad: obsession like I do everything......help me - I can't stop - how much FUN is this???? So anyway, we met for lunch....at a wonderful quaint little restaurant called the Twin Creek Tea House, and turns out Michelle is no more bold then me but wants a stamping buddy too!! :) Must be a GOD thing.....but what fun!! We ate at the cute little restaurant, (anyone who comes out here to see me I am going to drag you there for sure, it's so cute and has well,,,,,,you know how they use the term "chick flick"? Well, this place has a "chick menu" - like stuff your husband would say, what's up with this place, where are the hamburgers.....where are the french fries, no -they have stuff like quiche, and fruit salad, zucchini bread, and iced tea, and the BEST carrot cake you ever ate!! Definetley girlie stuff.....so come see me and I'll take you there!! Okay- so anyway- we ate, we tooled around the gift shop(Cindy and Fran, it has Vera Bradley....come to Ohio....come to Ohio.....come to Ohio.....) and then we went to Michelle's stamp room for the afternoon and she gave me a lesson in this brayered sky technique.....it's so darn cool.......and if you want a tutorial, hey- go to Michelle's blog,,,,,cuz you know ME and tutorials, they tend to be pretty, well, um.... S-H-O-R-T......but Michelle's is awesome AND you can see her original creations instead of mine!! :) But isn't God good....cuz he not only gave me a stamping friend, but an ARTIST!!! How cool is that???? (If you are reading this Michelle, I promise you I really am NOT stalking you........just thanking God that we got to meet and stamp) and now I have invited Michelle back to my house in a couple of weeks and I will take her to my favorite restaurant in Miamisburg, what it lacks in charm and possesses in downright tacky decor, it makes up for in the best THAI food I have eaten around here and equal to my favorite restaurant in NY!! And then I will bring her back here and I think I will show her my Black Magic stuff and see what gorgeous twists she will make with that technique!! Everyone on SCS accuses her of having a magic brayer......but hers really did LOOK just like mine....hmmmmmm.......the only thing was that once I accidentally started to pick hers up instead of mine and that was the only time she got borderline violent the whole time I was with her....other then that she seems so nice....hmmmm... do you think she really DOES have a magic brayer?? Anyway, Michelle is very humble and down to earth - she is a flippin celebrity in the SCS world..... and I have gotten more, "I'm so jealous comments" on my cards....cuz I got to have a lesson and they didn't - come on, grow up, cry me a river, build me a bridge and GET OVER IT ladies......... just kidding.........JUST KIDDING......... but I do feel so blessed to have spent the day with Michelle not only because of her amazing talent - but because she's just plain sweet!! Do you like this birdy one? There is no end to the possibilities with this technique......good thing I started on Wednesday night, cuz man, I stayed up so late I was like sleep walking at work......have to save that for the END of the week, Friday we have no patients, and that's a good thing cuz I was borderline comatose today.........diet coke to the rescue.... several times!!! Anyway- here comes another one at ya, these last two were my first two
attempts, and I wasn't too sure about placement ~ but I liked the finished product......can you believe these start from whisper white cardstock? yep, they do...... Okay- now - you all know I don't do maps, right? well there's another thing I don't do........sorry guys but I don't do "links" - ain't I a sorry excuse for a blogger?? I DON'T DO LINKS!! This is my round about way of sending you to Michelle's gallery and/or blog.... Go to my gallery which Claire put a link to on the right side of this blog up a ways.......from there you can go to that elephant card, or for that matter almost any of the cards that use this brayered sky technique and Michelle Zindorf, aka, the GREAT ZINDORF has left comments for me, (I ASKED her to leave at least one comment so all those jealous groupies of hers would know I don't come from la-la land and it was really the truth that we met.....) From Michelle's comment, you can go to her gallery or her blog....cuz they say gallery and blog and you just click and voila!! Hey, while you're in there, you can leave me a comment to , cuz after you see HER creations, you won't think mine are so great anymore,,,,,,haha.......give me a little glory while I still have your respect, okay??? In fact, you might decide to visit her blog instead of mine after this.....boo-hoo.....it's okay, I can stand it...... after all she actually explains what she does in terrific tutorial fashion.......but remember who sent you there, okay? Friends? Yeh, you're gonna love me for this......haha. Well here is my last first creation here, I mean the last on this blog, but actually my first solo attempt at a Zindorf
brayered sky inspired creation!! It's a kind of a fantasy card......a magical mystical place..... Don't ask me why flowers would be like out there, in the desert with a purple sky......with swirls coming up around them......this is Zindorfialand and it's MAGIC and anything can happen!! Thanks for coming along on my journey with me....and don't ask me if you can borrow my brayer either, cuz the answer is NO!! (Or my white gel pen for that matter either.....)unless of course you come to Ohio to stamp with me, and then you can borrow anything you WANT!! That's all for this chapter ladies, keep on stampin!