Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone.  Happy Sunday.  

I managed to spend a little time in my crafting space today... well, actually I spent a few hours in there.  The first time since before we went on our cruise.  It felt wonderful to just dedicate the time to just being crafty with very few interruptions.  The only interruptions I had were from Lou who needed help wrapping our arborvitae with burlap.  We didn't do that last winter and the deer were pretty rough on the smaller ones and the larger ones that they could reach.  Luckily the snow was so deep last year that they only got to three of them.  This year we took precautions :-)

I went looking for a few challenges to play along with and saw this great sketch from the awesome design team at Freshly Made Sketches.

I decided to use some of the DSP from the new Simon Says Stamp November card kit.  It has some super cute DSPs and I saw that I could pair two of them together nicely for this sketch.  Of course, I had to pull out my Lil Inker Stitched Rectangles!

I paired the DSP with a die cut from PTI called Wonderful Words Joy that I purchased last year.  I die cut the Joy from another piece of the DSP (music themed) in the card kit and colored it red to pick up the red elements on the DSP.  I added a little glitter to it to add just a little more bling:-)  

I stamped the sentiment onto a piece of adhesive vellum and die cut the main DSP using my Stampin' Up! Banner tag.  It was the perfect size for the sketch.

Here's my card:

I know it looks as though I dropped some of the glitter near the sentiment, but it's actually some little red elements from the DSP - a bird and to berries, I think!

The FMS challenge finishes tomorrow, but don't forget to pop along on Tuesday and check out the new challenge - and the fabulous design team inspiration cards.

On a personal note:

I had wanted to give you an update on the Cards for a Cause tonight, but I am still waiting for the (late) arrival of one more set of cards before I have a total of how many have been received.  I can tell you though that they are all fabulous and I am thrilled that so many of you participated this year!  I will be spending tomorrow and Tuesday night sorting the cards and getting them ready to send off to their respective charities.  So, I should have an update for you late in the week on grand totals :-)

Well, as nice as it was to have an extra hour in bed this morning, I really don't like the fact that it is getting dark so early.  Darkness really seemed to sneak up on me tonight :-)

I thought I would share a couple of photos from our cruise with you tonight.  As you know we departed  out of New York City and our first stop was Boston.  Lou and I decided that the tour we wanted to do was Salem, MA.  We have both been to the beautiful city of Boston many times, but had never visited Salem.

I took a couple of photographs at the memorial site.

 The memorial is in a quite spot in the middle of Salem and has a "seat" stone for every life lost as a result of the trials.

I loved the fact that someone - they didn't tell us who - was visiting the graves and leaving beautiful pink carnations.  Their soft pink petals and pale green stem look so soft and serene against the cold grey.  

I didn't take any photographs inside the Witch Museum, but did take this shot of the flag outside.

The museum was interesting, although a little cheesy.  It was interesting to sit and listen to the stories of each of the victims of the trials but there was very little description to help you understand the environment that had allowed this hysteria to foster.  Luckily our bus tour guide did a pretty good job of explaining what she could before we arrived at the museum.

After we left the museum I saw a shop with this for sale.  I literally laughed out loud when I saw it!

Very funny!!!!!

We got back to the ship and decided to drink a glass of wine on our balcony.  The sunset was glorious that night:

It was a beautiful night, not overly cold, but I needed a blanket to keep my legs warm as we toasted the sunset.  It had been a fabulous day.

Well, I'll be back with another card for you tomorrow night.  In the meantime warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• DSP:  Simon Says Stamp November Card Kit
• Stamp:  PTI Wonderful Words Joy
• Die Cut:  Wonderful Words Joy - PTI
• Cardstock:  #120 Gina K