Mail Bag Monday

Happy Monday Mail day! Last week I shared the cards I received in the previous week, inspired by Stamping Serenity. I commented I wasn't sure I could or would do so every Monday. I definitely have to this week because I hit the jackpot.

We'll start with this card from my friend Pam. Yeah, it's store bought but she does know how to make them. She's been my penpal for many, many years. She came to visit last month. We had lots of stamping fun.

Then came a mysterious padded envelope.... which was chock full of Stampin' Up swap cards. I forgot I joined a swap and these are my returns. Such great inspiration!

The weekly swap I do (you sign up a month at a time) netted me this gorgeous card which would have been right at home in the Stampin' Up swap.

My friend from back east sent me this flip flop card. She spends her time dreaming of summer because she says you can't trust the weather gods to not dump snow on you on Easter (It's true! They've even done that to us here in Southern Arizona).

This card came to me from the Pacific Northwest. It was a good reminder that Easter was coming. This elegant card comes from swap pal, Yara.

This card also made an appearance this week. It by the same artist who made the stand alone Stampin' Up card, Darlene. It is very fancy. I'm impressed with her command of wide ribbon.

This last card is made by me. No, I didn't mail it to myself. This is the card I made for the SU swap.

The Fine Print: Everything on my card was by Stampin' Up which was hard at the time I made it because I didn't own a lot of their products (besides stamps and dies). Now I have the sample packs of cardstock in every one of their color families. Go me!

Time to Chill

It's all just chill here today in the desert. And I meant that like laid back, not like cool temperatures but it is due to be 10 degrees cooler today so perhaps I mean both.

The Fine Print: Everything by Stampin' Up. This is becoming a habit isn't it?!

Chipboard Flower

I had this black and white chipboard flower hanging around so I decided to put it on a card with all black and white. Well, that turned out to be dull so I went for yellows instead. I swear these yellows match better in real life. My camera likes to play tricks.

The Fine Print: I have no idea, the flower came from somewhere as did everything else

Spring has Sprung

So it is yellow season here in Tucson. Yellow season is marked by oddly enough, the color yellow. You can also tell it is yellow season by the increase in facial tissue and allergy medication sales. Basically, I think yellow season is what the rest of you call spring.

Anywho.... spring has sprung here.

The Fine Print: Palo Verde tree photo shamelessly swiped from the web (Artist: Kirk Tisdale). Card stamps and dies by Stampin' Up, designer paper and glitter card base by DCWV. 

Cute Cat

I'm reading this book where the smooth talking con man is milking an older lady for all she's worth. He also hits up her adult children, sisters, other family members and long time family friends. He always has some invention or scheme that is going to be the big one, the big score, the one that makes all these "investments" worthwhile.

The book is making me think of my older brother, except my brother wasn't charming and didn't have all these schemes and plans that didn't work out. He just had some oh-poor-me stories that he'd use to talk folks out of money because of course you didn't want him to have no electricity or no food in the house or even no house.  However, he rarely used the money he "borrowed" from anyone to get his life on track. The guy in the book, never saw any of this inventions or business deals come to fruition either. I guess the thrill was in the chase.

At least my brother didn't kill anyone to further his pipe dreams, like the guy in the book did.

Huh, what a lousy story to go with such a cute card. You can rest assured that this cat has never bilked anyone out of money or possessions. He's never ever even pooped outside the litter box.

The Fine Print: Cat stamp by Stampin' Up, other stuff from my stash. The book I'm reading is Bones in the Desert, our scam artist kills his older lady friend after he takes for all she is worth. She wised up and told him to hit the road. So he did, with her body in his van. 

Road Trip!

Last night I dreamed that my dad told me to look in his file cabinet and I found information on how to find a black diamond mine in the Santa Catalina mountains. Those are the mountains along the north of the city I live in. They were in cave that wasn't easy to find. While I was rifling through my dad's files my mom was having all these ladies over for a pool party and the pool was only half full. One lady wanted to be in a floating lounge chair and read the newspaper only we didn't have a floating lounge chair. We had a metal lawn chair. She threw it into the pool and it sank. She was bringing the mood of the party down.

But I didn't have time for a pool party! I had black diamonds to find! So who do I pick to find this hidden treasure with? Why, my cat, Charles of course! It was a dream so it made perfect sense. Only first Charles and I had to stop off at this gun and drug dealer's house to see a guy about a thing. While I was talking to the guy, one of his hoodlum friends was giving Charles important life advice. I remember thinking, "Charles is probably too young for that." (But apparently not too young to climb all over a mountain looking for a hidden cave).

The Fine Print: All products by Stampin' Up. Are black diamonds even a real thing? I have no idea what this dream was telling me. I didn't even get any good life advice out of it (Charles got it all). 

Happy Mail Monday

Have you ever run across a blog called Stamping Serenity by Jennifer M? She does this thing she calls "Happy Mail Monday" where she shows off the cards she received during the previous week. I thought that was a neat idea because it gives those who send you mail some recognition and it gives you a chance to share other techniques, ideas, and projects.

That said, I decided to give it a whirl. Right away I realized a problem--you have to remember to photograph the cards you receive! Also, you have to actually receive cards in the mail. I join a few swaps to keep the cards rolling in and have a couple of penpals so we'll see how it goes.

 This card is from Fiki and is a heart shaped easel card, which I find very impressive! Fiki sent it to celebrate our 25th anniversary. It came from Croatia so it is a well traveled card.

This card was by Linda W and made me go "awwww" because of the nice note she wrote inside. She thanked me for all the hard work and effort I put into our stamp club. Sometimes it feels like shouting into the wind, so it is nice to get recognition.

This card was received from Patty M and was received for an open theme swap (which we do weekly). I recently looked at this stamp set and wondered why I had it. Patty has inspired me to break it out and use!

This card was received from Patsy C for a step card swap, and actually I received it a previous week but it was in the pile so it gets counted. I interpret it as the birds are sitting there thinking about all the cats they are taunting with their presence. It definitely made me smile.

And in case you came here to actually see a card I made, here's one from one of those blah, blah, blah kit cards.

The Fine Print: I love mail so how fun is this! My card was from a Club Scrap kit with a gear brad from the Eyelet Outlet (which is an evil place).