Wonderful Waves

Thank God it's Friday.

If my boys let me, I plan on relaxing today as much as possible. Ha. Who am I kidding? I have grocery shopping to do, laundry to do (big time!), and a house to clean (or pick up). Life (as I know it) has prevented me from doing any of these things on a consistant basis lately! I didn't get a lick of stamping done yesterday {insert sad face}, but I plan on remedying that today. I was on such a roll last weekend, that I have to keep that momentum going in order to accomplish what I need to accomplish! I want to get lots of cards made this weekend!

Since I didn't share any cards yesterday, I'll be nice and share TWO today! Woo-hoo! They are similar in nature, so I figured I wouldn't hold out on you and make you wait until tomorrow to see the other one......aren't I sweet? LOL.

My first order for the new SU catalog contained the new set called Stem Sayings. I really didn't get this set to use as flower stems, I just got it so I would have more sentiments, something I always seem to lack enough of. To make the wave of the sentiment line up perfectly with the wave of the designer paper, I first stamped the sentiment on the back of a piece of plain designer paper (the teal colored paper). THEN, I laid my Bo Bunny flexible ruler right underneath the sentiment, bent it until it matched the wave of the sentiment, and then gently lifted the ruler up and laid it on top the polka dot paper (which I had already cut to the size I needed it to be) and drew a pencil line across the paper. Then I cut it out with my scissors and positioned it on top of the teal paper. Once these two pieces were adhered together, I took my scallop scissors and cut the teal paper just above the sentiment, in the same wave paper as the sentiment has. Is this too confusing to understand? It's sort of hard to explain how to do it. If you don't get it, let me know and maybe I'll do a tutorial (they are not my strong suit though).

After this was done, I laid the wavy sentiment piece on top of a scrap piece of Basic Grey paper. The flower is a punched out of the polka dot paper and the spiky little flower on top of the big flower was made using my Martha Stewart cornflower punch. They are held together with a gem brad.

The same concept was used for my second wavy card! Using my Bo Bunny flexible ruler, I bent it until the wave of the ruler matched the wave of the sentiment. Then I transferred the ruler to the coordinating polka dot designer paper and drew a line and cut it out. One special note.....in order not to have to go through this rigamaroll every time you want to use this set, I made a template for each sentiment and just keep it in a template folder I've had for a long time. Then, when I want to use the sentiment again, I just pull out my template and use it to cut the designer paper or cardstock. Very cool, uh? I just write on the template which sentiment it's for and I'm set.

So far, I don't know any of the victims yet from the bridge collapse. Many of my collegues have shared their stories with me, however, of what happened to them right before the collapse. My rep from the CBS television affiliate here in Minneapolis (WCCO-TV) drives over the bridge every day to and from work. On Wednesday evening, at 540p, my rep threw his pen down on his desk and stood up to leave. But at the last minute, he sat back down and decided he wanted to get a few more pieces of business completed first before he left for the day. Gulp. The chief engineer at the same station was 1/4 of a mile from the bridge when he saw the plume of smoke shoot up and then saw the bridge collapse right in front of his eyes. In situations like these, you just know it's not your time to go yet if you survive something like this by such a close call. It makes you realize that you were spared for a reason, a reason that has not yet been revealed to you. Talk about a serious life-altering event. I am so thankful those in my circle were spared, but truly, you do get a feeling of survivor's guilt when stuff like this happens. Like I said yesterday, two days earlier and it could have been me experiencing this tragedy on a more personal level.

I spent a little time with Muriel yesterday, and I have to say, she was the most alert I've seen her since her second surgery many weeks ago. She was re-intubated, but it was a small tube and she was trying to mouth words to try and communicate with us. I could make out "I love you too" when I told her I loved her. When I told her that her grandson was taking drivers traning, she rolled her eyes and shook her head like "look out world"! When he promised her he would try not to crash the car and that he would try and stay off the sidewalk, she smiled slightly and her shoulders shook up and down. She always laughed with her shoulders. It was a relief to see. The bad news is that her staph infection is probably back and the drs involved in her care, for the first time, do not concur on what is happening and which direction to take next. The intensivist (the ICU doc) says the staph is back with a vengence in her lungs (a culture proves this), the ID (infectious disease doc) says that's baloney. Uh? {scratch head}. The ICU doc says we still have hope, the ID doc says he doesn't believe she'll make it. Hopefully today will shed a more clearer light on the situation.

Well, this documentary has gone on long enough, it's time to turn you lose! Have a wonderful weekend and here's to getting some stamping done!

Hugs,
Amy