Algona Bound

Tomorrow is Sisters Day (well SOME of us sisters anyway...the local ones)! Sissy Gail drove up from Omaha this afternoon. Tomorrow we will get in the car and head to Algona, a lovely 3 hour drive through rural Iowa, to go to one of the best quilt shops EVER! Heartland Quilts. The proprietress is the kindest, funniest, most down to earth lady to ever grace a shop! Seriously! Interestingly Algona is home to the one of the BEST quilt shops and the absolute WORST quilt shop in the state of Iowa. (The opinion expressed here is the consensus of the four-members-strong "3/5s Sisters Club"...just sayin'.) (And we KNOW quilt shops!)

School starts soon (too soon) so getting a day off now was imperative as there is a moratorium on day-off requests during the month of August. Too many things to do on a college campus for anyone to even THINK about asking for a day off in August...

My dear blog friend Julie, at Rainbow Days, noted that there is still time to enter the Ladybug Crafts Ink challenge for birthday cards so I decided to pop in for a quick upload. Then it's off to bed - have to hit the trail early in the morning - quilts await!!! (Check out Julie's blog - her cards are extraordinary!) I can always spot her cards out on the sites she designs for! To use her UK vernacular - her cards are 'scrummy'! Her birthday cards are usually personalized and frequently feature the birthday 'number'. She is a whiz at Cricut! I'm a whiz a Cricut envy! I look over at that unused, misunderstood, piece of green electronics and could swear that it is mocking me! Snickering at my fear of attempting to learn its tricks....

On to the card. Sorry the image is a bit blurry...this is the TIME SUCKER of blogging...PHOTOS!!!! You will just have to trust me that the card is sharply focused in real life! Like my previous post I let the design paper do all the work - sorry Copics - you continue to be abandoned at this time! This is the best pad of design paper I've ever had. I seriously used every piece, every snippet, every inch of it. If I ever see it again I will buy two or three of them! I will buy one just to hoard and never cut into!

Inside of card.

Birthday Balloons

~Base card - Stampin' Up cardstock
~Lots of layers of Happy Day by Simple Stories
~Stampin' Up Spiral Punch
~Rhinestone balloon (how fun is THAT?!) I remember when I hesitatingly bought them thinking "where will I ever use these?" But they were on sale....
Challenges/Inspiration
Ladybug Crafts Ink - birthday card
My Creative Moments - birthday
Sister Act - anything goes

I must 'hit they hay' as I have a busy day of sissy time and shopping ahead of me! (If only sister Judy lived closer than 900 miles away...)

Thanks for clicking by!
Nancy in Iowa