Hello...Thinking of You...Best Weekend Ever!

I just got back from central Florida where I had the BEST WEEKEND EVER!  I met up with some ladies I went through the fabulous Florida State University Speech Pathology program with a few (ok, more than a few) years ago.  We all started the undergraduate speech path program together and went straight through and got our master's degrees.  3 of the ladies still work in the schools doing speech pathology/therapy, one works in the business world...and one plays semi professional tennis (me)...well, at least semi professional in my wildest dreams!  One will be retiring after the upcoming school year and the others are also looking at retirement in the not too distant future.
Anyway, we had not seen each other in 7 years and we met up at a friend's condo on Lake Weir near Ocala.  We had the BEST time.  Lots of reminiscing, sharing...lots of laughing, teasing...eating, drinking, boating, and just hanging around with the best group of ladies.  We have known each other for 39 years and when we get together you wouldn't think we'd ever missed a day of seeing each other.
Great friends are like that.  I. AM. LUCKY.
Here we are all together (standing...Linda and Jan and sitting from left to right...me, Teri and Margaret).

Here we are being a bit silly because that is always important, too....

Here are 4 of the ladies when we went out to dinner one night:

We seriously love each other so much.  I know I {heart} them...

So fun...I had to come home and rest.  Fun wears me out!!!

Anyway, I thought I'd share where I'd been.  :)

Back to card making...another card idea I was inspired by stole from Laura Bassen...love her style of cards and if you are interested in checking out her blog it's Doublestick Heaven.  I learn so much from her and get so inspired by her beautiful creations.  And let's face it...why reinvent the wheel when you can borrow steal such wonderful ideas???

Here is the card I made....I used 6 different Distress Inks with my blending tool to make the rainbow colored effect that was adhered below the cut out "hello".

So simple...and I love the way it looked!

I did a card like this with watercolors a few years back which my daughter kept and has hanging in her guest room.  Love that idea....  OK, well, let me explain that...her card does not have a big whopping "hello" on it....it was a die cut flower and I did watercolor behind it.  OK?  And it looks pretty hanging in her guest room (well, in the bathroom).  :)

Here it is:

The puffy little sticker on the bottom is from Pink Paislee.

Here is a bit of a closeup:

The hello die which many of you probably are familiar with is a Simon Says Stamp exclusive die and is one "toy" I have played with again and again!

Well, I think my 'studio' may be calling me today....
My SSS August kit came in.  Yay!...time to get creative!