FRIEND-SHIP on The Open Sea...

After a full day of prepping kits for class

on Tuesday night

I still hadn't made the

Thinking of You card

my husband requested a day or so ago...

and, sadly, time may be of the esssence

in this case so I decided

I needed to CASE a card quickly

and get it done.

I knew I had the Stampin Up nautical papers

and The Open Sea coordinating stamp set

and since this was for a man---

it was a perfect fit.

I started by Googling

"Stampin Up-The Open Sea"

and the first thing that came up was

Splitcoaststampers

and they have an entire GALLEY-er, gallery

dedicated to this stamp set!

WOW!

I hit a treasure chest full!

Ho, Ho, and a bottle of rum---

I cased a card and was off to have some fun!

Thanks to

Barbara (posting under Bejoyce) on Splitcoaststampers

whose website is

http://www.inkyfun.com/!

Will have to check it out later!

Anyway-this is the finished product:

The stamps are SU--as is the patterned dp

and the baker's twine.

The solid cardstock is from my stash-

so no clue who or where on that...

Barbara even has the instructions for that fancy knot...

I laughed-me-tying a fancy knot!

I tie what my late husband called "Sharon Knots"

nothing known to man---

but they don't come undone, that's for sure!

Before I attempted it, however,

I had to get the "kinks" out of the Baker's Twine.

You know how ribbons, fibers and such get those

little "kinks" from being wrapped around the cards they come on.

Well! Do I have a trick for you!

Archivers sells a fancy little iron-to the tune of $ 25 or more

(if memory serves...)

Moi has a better and cheaper idea!

Part of my new hairstyle a while back was

flattening some of my curls and creating some chic bangs...

enter the FLAT IRON -- $ 9 at WM...

and hey, if it works on hair...

surely it will work on Baker's Twine, ribbon...

and yep-sure 'nough, matey, it does!

I just heated that baby up, ran the twin through there quickly

once (ok-twice for good measure)

and presto! No kinks!

I wanted to give it some "oomph"

so not one but two layers of pop-dots

(my hubby wasn't happy when I said extra postage

but hey...it looks awesome in person

and makes the difference between

well-done hand-made and off the rack at WM

or even Hallmark!

Here's the inside--

Close to My Heart sentiment and alphabets,

ink, too, for that matter.

SU and CTMH-great shipmates!

No naked mail so the enve got stamped as well.

Well, that's it for me today!

I've got to clean off the work table

maybe do some flylady attic time

and tend to some other housework.

I may be MIA tomorrow as well

as I am hoping to take my hubby

for the House of Blues Gospel Brunch

and maybe spend some time just sight-seeing

before we head home.

Speaking of "brunch"-

that BAD CAT...

he decided to help himself to a snack last night...

We accidently got the wrong kind of food-

so we grabbed a bucket and put the new/right food in it

but the top was not secured.

I was googling the card and heard crunching...

and this is what I found...

He was merrily chomping away

but tried to look innocent like

"hey, how'd that come off like that?!"

And we wonder why his tummy sags!

Next week I will show you

what our groupies worked on

and sometime soon after that

I will  have a TUTORIAL coming up

for THE PRAIRIE FAIRY

so stay tuned!

Until next time,

happy stamping and scrapping!

Blessings,