Shopping In Ft. Worth

While in Ft. Worth I shopped at two Stamp/Craft Stores. Hobby Lobby is a Craft/Home Decor Store located throughout the southeast and southwest. They are like a Michael's only better with a lot more home decor items. The closest one to California are in the Phoenix, AZ area. I thought I saw a brand new one west of Phoenix.

I visited the one in Ft. Worth on my own. We had seen it on the Friday we were in town. We had gone to the Stockyards and were driving over to another part of town to eat at a Japanese restaurant Keith thought we might like. So the next day (Saturday) Gerry and Keith were going to go on a bike ride in the morning and after checking with Keith making sure I knew how to get there, I ventured off on my own. I had no problem finding it.

The stamp section was not very large with a very limited amount of stamps. I did find these stamps that I thought were nice. (I am not sure what happened to the picture. It was fine with I downloaded it to my computer, however for some reason I have a line splitting the images in two pieces).
They did have a nice selection of Cuttlebug embossing folders. This one has 5 different butterfly folders. You know I love butterflies!!!

The next 3 are border embossing folders. I have looked at these online at several different spots and have wanted to get them. I used the swiss dots border on a card I made for my granddaughter's birthday. I also have the full size swiss dots folder which I have used a lot.

I really liked this branch with leaves.

I am anxious to do some creating with these folders.

Before we left on our vacation, I asked Gerry to ask Keith if there were any stamp stores in Ft. Worth. The next time Gerry was on the phone with Keith, I reminded him to ask Keith. Keith googled stamp stores and found one that was going out of business.

So after getting to our hotel in Ft. Worth, Keith asked me if I wanted to go check out the stamp store. Gerry needed to find a bike shop to get a rear view mirror he clips onto his sunglasses when he rides. He had left the one he has at home. Keith said there was a bike shop right around the corner from the stamp store. So we went down to the stamp store, parked the car there and they walked around the corner to the bike shop while I shopped. The owner still had quite a bit of stock left, marked down to as much as 40% off.

Here is what I purchased: some VersaMagic chalk ink pads, 5 yards each of 3 different kinds of ribbon by May Company, a couple of packages of 2 different kinds of brads, glue dots and an A Muse stamp.

The owner has had her shop for 13 years and decided not to renew her lease which expired today. Her husband is retired and they want to do some traveling.

I'm Back!!

It's been almost a month since I last posted. We arrived back in Sacramento June 13th after being on our vacation road trip for 29 days. We drove over 6,173 miles. We visited family in LaPuente, CA; Phoenix, AZ; Ft. Worth, TX and Enterprise, AL. We had layovers in El Paso, TX; Big Spring, TX; Pearl, MS; Baton Rouge, LA; Webster (Houston), TX; Austin, TX; Sonora, TX and back again at El Paso. We visited family again in Phoenix and LaPuente before finally arriving home.

We spent 3 days in Ft. Worth with our son, Keith. This visit was probably one of the highlights of our trip. We had an absolute fantastic visit. I've posted pictures of our visit in Ft. Worth on my other blog. Gerry and Keith went out on 2 days for a nice bike ride along the bike trail that goes along the Trinity River. I have some pictures to post on my other blog of those rides. We visited the Stockyards, the Japanese Tea Garden in the Ft. Worth Botantical Gardens and ate at some really fantastic places.

We had some thunder storms getting across Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama. Entering Mississippi it rained so hard, we were doing 20 mph on the interstate with our emergency flashing lights going. The other cars on the interstate were doing the same. The windshield wipers were not doing much good.

We drove down to Destin, FL from Enterprise, AL to see the Gulf of Mexico. That part of the Gulf was beautiful, the water reminded me somewhat of Hawaii. Beautiful green and turquoise farther out from shore.

We did some sightseeing in Louisiana, visiting a plantation, going on board the USS Kidd anchored on the Mississippi River and driving north along the Mississippi River to the town of St. Francisville. We took a ferry ride across the Mississippi River and then drove down on the west side of the river back to Port Allen where we were staying. We also visited an Acadian Village in Lafayette, LA that was on our way to Houston.

Leaving Lafayette we drove down to Holly Beach, LA and followed the coastal highway along the Intracostal Waterway into Texas. While in Webster (Houston) we toured the Johnson Space Center at NASA and drove down to Galveston Island where some of the destruction left by Hurricane Ike could still be seen. The gulf along Galveston Island is not as pretty as it was in Destin. We took another ferry ride over to the Bolivar Penisula which is across the Intracostal Waterway and Galveston Channel. The destruction left from Hurricane Ike was pretty intense there. It was a long 2 plus hour ride back to Houston from there so we turned around and got back in line to take the ferry back across to Galveston. That was a very long day.

In Austin we stopped at Mellow Johnny's Bike Shop (Lance Armstrong's bike shop). Gerry bought a bike jersey there and we got our grandson Nathanael a LiveStrong hat. From there we drove about 45 miles north to the historic town of Salado to go to Stamp Salado. An AMuse Art Stamp design team member who lives in Austin told me about the shop. This was the neatest shop. I will have some pictures to post in a later post.

Our visit to Enterprise, AL was the top highlight of our vacation. My grandson's graduation was fantastic. There was a slight delay in starting the ceremony to wait for a thunderstorm to pass over. After the rain stopped, a beautiful rainbow appeared. Our visit there in Enterprise was great and we were happy we made the trip to be there for his graduation. I thoroughly enjoyed the time I got to spend with Denise (my daughter). It was fantastic "mommy/daughter time". Also got to spend some quality time with Rebekah and Nathanael (grandchildren) and Stephen (son-in-law) spoiled us at the coffee shop. And got to know Britta (grandson's girlfriend) a little better. She is a sweet girl!


So it's back to a somewhat normal routine. We've had lots going on since we got home and it doesn't look like it will slow any time soon. We've had two memorial services to go to, I am planning Gerry's 70th birthday party for later next month (our Southern California girls from LaPuente will be in town) and I am hosting a Shoebox Card Swap here at our mobile home park the end of August. And somewhere in between all of this, I need to get back to my craft table and get some cards made. Oh, I'm also going to be taking a couple of classes the middle of July with Julie Ebersole at The Paper Garden for AMuseapalooza week. This is when AMuse Art Stamps releases their new holiday stamps. I'm looking forward to these classes because the Shoebox Card Swap is a holiday theme and I need some new stamps/ideas for that event. :))

Thanks for sticking with me and I hope to not be so absent from this blog. :))

Just Checking In

Hi all!! We are still on vacation. We are in Houston, TX, got here last night and leave tomorrow for Austin. Going to the Johnson Space Center today and drive down to Galveston. After T-storms yesterday, it is hot here today.

I am anxious to get home and back to stamping. Its been too long since I inked up stamps!!! Hope to visit Stamp Salado in Salado, TX tomorrow. It is about an hour north of Austin. Geeta, A Muse Design Team member, who lives in Austin told me about the store. The town of Salado is a historic town so it should be interesting to visit.

The plans are to get home on Saturday June 13th. The trip has gone well. Had a great time with Denise and family in Enterprise. Check out my Betty's Ramblings blog to see what we've been up too. http://anewdaywithbetty.blogspot.com I have tons of pictures to download to that blog and am way behind in doing that.

Be back soon!!

Vacation

Just a quick post. Tomorrow, Saturday 5/15, we begin a road trip with a final destination at Enterprise, AL on Monday 5/25. We will attend the high school graduation of my grandson, son of my daughter. We return to Sacramento on Saturday June 13th.

I will be blogging our trip over on my other blog if you care to follow along. http://anewdaywithbetty.blogspot.com/.

I have a few cards to post which I will do next week sometime.

Mother's Day Cards

Here are cards I received for Mother's Day. The first one is from Denise. She used a digital kit from Creative Memories. It is a girl with a lei around her neck and flower in her hair. The background has hibiscus blossoms and other tropical flowers, all in the tropical colors. She told me she bought the kit especially for me. :)) She is going to use it to make a birthday card so she will get other use from the kit. My granddaughter didn't like the girl because she has blond hair. Her tutu doesn't have blond hair. With as much gray hair as I have now, it will in time match the little girl's. :)) It is a very sweet card and I love it!

The next card was given to me by Michelle. She named my blog and is so very special to me. It is simple yet a beautiful card. She tied the ribbon so the ends would be the leaves for the flowers. She used 3 different size flowers with a yellow brad in the center.

She wrote in her card "Thanks for being a mom to more than just your own! You are always there for me." I must say I got misty eyed reading that. I do refer to her as being one of my girls. She is also my stamping buddy.

The next card is from Wendi, my youngest step-daughter. She always remembers a card for Mother's Day. Although it is not a handmade one, it is beautiful. The flowers in the center are cut out. So beautiful!

Thank you, Denise, Michelle and Wendi!! You brightened my day with your beautiful cards!!

These next cards are the ones I made and sent to some special moms in my life! I didn't make as many as I did last year. I wanted simple yet beautiful cards and I think I accomplished that with these cards. They are for the most part A Muse stamps and card bases.

The card base on this one is olive green and the zinnas were stamped with two different chalk inks. I stamped a closed zinna first in one color and then stamped an open zinna on top in another color. These stamps are new for A Muse this spring.

The stamp on this card is one by Impression Obsessions. I inked the flower with tangerine chalk ink and the stem with olive pastel chalk ink. The leaves are a separate stamp and that was stamped with olive pastel also. I thought I did pretty good in getting them right on the stem. :) I bought the cardstock I used for the base from The Paper Garden some time ago and is a peach color.

The card base is lavender polka dots from A Muse and another new A Muse stamp, a cherry blossom branch with the bird. It is two stamps in one with the bird mounted on the side. I didn't get him right on the branch like I wanted. :(

Another A Muse. The lime green polka dots with two different size flowers stamped on the branch with 2 different chalk inks.

A Muse. The card base is a light aqua and I colored the poppy with Copics.

The girl is by Elzybells. The yellow cardbase and yellow polka dot layer is A Muse. Copics to color.

Another A Muse new stamp and card base. Light aqua card base. Used Copics to color.

You will have to click on this one. I wanted to show what I did on the bottom. I used a Martha Stewart eyelet lace border punch on the bottom and then cut a strip of light aqua card stock and adhered it under the scalloped border. I liked the way it turned out. I now have a couple of Martha Stewart border punches and I know I am going to be using them a lot. They sure finish a card off nicely!!

I made this card in an A Muse card class I took last summer. I liked the way it turned out so decided to do another one as a Mother's Day card. I love it. The card base is red. There is a layer of black and the layer with the tea cup on is white with red polka dots. I used Copics to color.

Another A Muse. Simple! Copics to color.

Another new A Muse. This is another cherry blossom branch. Again, Copics to color. The card base is light aqua polka dots and I colored the blossoms lavendar.

Another A Muse. I used different chalk inks to stamp the two different size flowers and the butterfly. I used a fine point black pen to do the butterfly trail. Not too happy with the way that turned out.

Update on Thank You Card

I got an email from the SU Demonstrator who sent me the Thank you card. The colors of the cardstock are Pacific Point and So Saffron. Pacific Point is an In Color for this year, meaning it will only be available this year until it is sold out. The stamp set is called "Fifth Avenue Floral" and the embossing folder is an SU exclusive called "Manhattan Flower".

A Thank You Card & Another Bumper Card

I finished making my Mother's Day cards yesterday. I made a total of 11 cards, not as many as I made last year, still a lot. This morning I got the pictures taken and will wait until probably next Monday before I post them. Several of the people getting a card read my blog so I don't want to reveal the cards just yet. I still have 2 birthday cards to do and a couple of Bumper cards that I should make before we leave on our trip back east.

What I can show you are a couple of cards I received this past week. The first card is from a Stampin Up demonstrator that I met at the card swap last month. I ordered a couple of SU products off of her website and she sent this card.
The card base is white and the layers are a turquoise and mustard yellow. They are SU cardstock and unfortunately I don't know what the names are. I love the combination. It may be difficult to see in the picture, on the yellow layer she embossed some beautiful roses (click on the picture to enlarge and you may be able to see it better). The ribbon is the matching turquoise with white strips. And she stamped the saying in the matching ink. Beautiful card.

Here is the inside of the card. This stamp set is called "Fifth Avenue", I believe. It is these beautiful blossoms that she stamped in the same color inks as the cardstock layers. She left the inside blank and a note to me said she intentionally leaves her cards blank in case the receiver wants to use the card. What a clever idea! Anyway, I want to get this stamp set!!

This is another bumper card that I got from Angie in Oregon. She mailed one to me already, the one with the skunk. When I emailed her to thank her, she said she couldn't remember if she had mailed one to me so sent another one. LOL!! It's an A Muse card and so adorable! The sentiment inside says "You're my cup of tea".