Tweaking a Cased Card

Eventually everyone cases a card design. Casing simply means to recreate someone else's card design. You pin your favorite card ideas onto your Pinterest boards to either recreate the design or to perhaps take it as a starting point and tweak it. Tweaking is simply adding your own spin on a card. Today I am going to give you an example of a card I am casing and tweaked.

Aunt Chucky Ducky (that is what I call my dear Charlie Fritts) was here last week. She was going through a box of cards I have gotten at Leadership 2012 and Convention 2012. She found one card and asked me to make sure to add it to my September Card Class.

I received the original card at Leadership 2012 from Julie LeBlanc of Guelph, Ontario, Canada. Julie does have a website if you are interested in seeing more of her creations. It is www.kewlstamps-n-more.blogspot.com

Julie made a lovely card in Elegant Eggplant, and Certainly Celery on a Whisper White base. She did use Watercolor Paper for her stamped image. See her lovely work below:

She used 2 different designs from the Subtles (Perfect Plum) Color Collection Designers Series Paper Stack, Elegant Eggplant 1/2" Scallop Ribbon, the Scallop Trim Border Punch, Snow Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (it retired from the 2011-2012 Holiday Mini), Rhinestones, Elegant Eggplant Classic Ink, Black Stazon, Stampin Dimensionals, Dazzling Diamonds and the stamp sets Perfectly Penned and Bordering on Romance. She either used a blender pen or watercolored with Elegant Eggplant and Certainly Celery on the flower image. Just not sure which technique she used.

Well, I tweaked her original design to make the "cased card" my own. I have 2 samples to share with you. When I offer this card in my September card class, each stamper will have a choice of sentiments from the stamp set Perfectly Penned (Item #122892). There are 4 sentiments in that set - Thank You, Celebrate Today, Get Well and Happy Birthday. Here is my version of Julie's card:

First of all, I changed cardstocks. I selected Naturals White Cardstock (Item 102316), Perfect Plum Cardstock (Item # 101889), and Certainly Celery Cardstock (Item # 105125). I did use Watercolor Paper (Item # 122959) for my focal stamped image. Instead of 2 different designs from the Subtles Color Collection Designers Series Paper Stacks (Item # 117152), I chose to use only the striped design.

I replaced her embossing folder choice with the new Delicate Design Folders (Item # 127023) and then I used the new Large Scallops Edgelits (Item # 127019) to cut out the Certainly Celery cardstock. I did NOT use the Scallop Trim Border punch at all.

Then I changed the ribbon from the Elegant Eggplant 1/2" inch Scallop Ribbon to a softer Perfect Plum 3/8" inch Taffeta Ribbon.

I used the Perfect Plum Striped DSP along with my Certainly Celery on a base of Naturals White cardstock. I add the Perfect Plum Taffeta Ribbon and then mounted that to a Perfect Plum Mat. Note that the ribbon does not go around the Perfect Plum mat. Then mounted it to my cardbase of Naturals White cardstock. For me, I matted the design onto Perfect Plum cardstock. I next stamped my sentiment in Elegant Eggplant. After I watercolored the design (see below for details), I used Stampin Dimensionals to add it to my card.

What did I leave the same? I left the stamped focal image of the flowers from Bordering on Romance (Item # 125482) stamped with Black Stazon onto Watercolor Paper (Item # 122959). Then I watercolored the image with a Blender Pen (Item # 102845) using my Perfect Plum Marker and my Wild Wasabi marker. The Certainly Celery marker was too light. I also colored the edges of my flowers with the Blender Pen and the Perfect Plum Marker. Afterwards I used a 2 way Glue Pen (Item # 100425) to go around the edges of each flower. I then, dipped my image into Dazzling Diamonds (# 102023) and thumping off the excess. Don't forget to add the Rhinestones to the centers of your flowers.

Arlene hint -> I use plastic sandwich containers to keep my Dazzling Diamonds and Embossing Powders. I find it easier to open a container and sprinkle my Dazzling Diamonds or Embossing Powders over an image and allow the excess to fall back into my container. So much easier for me than trying to get it back in the little jar... plus I can put several containers of Dazzling Diamonds into my plastic container at one time! For each plastic sandwich container, I label the outside of them with the name of the contents on all 4 sides. I know it sounds like overkill, but believe me (personal experience talking) when I tell you I got Dazzling Diamonds and Irridescent Ice mixed together once... sigh. Easier on me to make sure whichever side of the container I see on my shelf, I can see the content name! Also never use these items with a fan blowing or the heat gun until AFTER you close the container.


Here is another variation of Julie's card with only a change in the sentiment.

Overall, Julie had a great card design, but I wanted to tweak the design to make it mine. I took her design as the starting point of my card, changed a few items and came up with a new look to the card.

Hope you enjoyed this explaination of casing and tweaking. I should be posting at least 3 times a week now that my school routine and lesson plans have settled into place.

Also, I have all my September Card and Scrapbooking classes set up. I did send out emails advising of the times and dates. You must RSVP to ensure a seat at the class of your choice. All the card classes are the same for the month of September. This allows me to repeat the class for up to 24 stampers. Remember I do classes of 4 people at a time so you get more personalized instruction and rarely do the 12 person classes any longer.

This month we are beginning our Technique card classes. You will make 5 cards and the 5th card is a special technique card. You will also make a 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" Technique File/Flash card with a sample of the technique on it as well as the directions on how to do that technique. This month's technique is Triple Time Stamping.

September Class Schedule

* Saturday, September 8th      10:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.     Card Class for my Chemo Nurses

* Tuesday, September 11th    6:00 p.m.  to  9:00 p.m.    Card Class

* Thursday, September 13th   4:30 p.m.  to  7:30 p.m.   Card Class

* Saturday, September 15th    9:00 a.m.  to  12 noon      Card Class

* Saturday, September 15th    1:00 p.m.  to 4:00 p.m.    Scrapbooking Class

* Tuesday, September 18th     6:00 p.m.  to 9:00 p.m.     Card Class

* Thursday, September 27th    4:30 p.m.  to 7:30 p.m.     Card Class

* Saturday, September 29th     9:00 a.m.  to   12 noon     Card Class

* Saturday, September 29th    1:00 p.m.   to   4:00 p.m.   Scrapbooking Class


Again, remember to RSVP to hold your seat. Classes are held in my home and I hope to see you there!

Arlene

Back to School Monday

Gosh, it is Monday already. Today is the first day of school for us in this area of Arkansas. It is going to be a long, long day. I am pleased to be seeing my sweet student faces again, but it is going to take both the students and myself a week to get back in the saddle or the routine. Scheduling is rather strange this year too.....

Today I am going to post a card that I fell in love with at Convention. I do not know who created this card. One of my lucky roommates (and I am not sure which one of them) received it in a swap. To me this "spinner card" (the eyeball actually spins!) is the best use of this stamp set I have ever seen.

I am going to try to re-create this card to the best of my ability. I know the artist stamped the 2 monsters or aliens from Make A Monster stamp set onto Designer Series paper and then hand cut them out.  The base of the card is Pacific Point. The main mat is black and I "think" that the white you see is done with a gel pen. Remember all I have is a photo to go by.  The moon is So Saffron and the planet is Gumball Green. It appears that there are 2 layers to both the moon and the planet. The artist used various circle punches on these pieces. The Word Window punch was used in the center of the black mat. This created the window for your 2 pennies and the dimensional and big moveable/goggly eye. If you go over to splitcoastampers, you can find SPINNER CARD in their tutorials.  It is very simple to create a spinner card. Need a punch like Word Window, 2 pennies, a dimensional, and something to add to the topside (like the moveable eye). I will show you my interpretation when I get it finished!

Another card I loved was an Anniversary Card. Again, I do not know the name of the artist. Just can tell you one of my 3 roommates, (Sandy, Gail, or Pat) received this card in a swap. Love the card.

They used the new Gold Glimmer paper and Very Vanilla paper. The stamping was done with Soft Suede or is it Crumb Cake?  I can tell you the cardbase is 5 1/2" x 4 1/4" (once folded). The Gold Glimmer mat is 5 1/4" x 4". Then the Very Vanilla mat is 5" x 3 3/4" and run thru the Big Shot with the Square Lattice Folder.  I can see the Very Vanilla Doily and all those Boho Blossoms flower punches out of Very Vanilla. The leaves are Crumb Cake. The beautiful butterfly comes from our new stamp set as well as the wording for the sentiment. This is another card I want to recreate.

Okay dokey, my time is limited this morning. Still need to shower, dress, take my meds and my shot and hit the road. I have one more thing to copy off before my class needs it this afternoon. I have all the rest of my classes prepped for this week and next week. I simply just ran out of time on Saturday and decided to stay home on Sunday to tackle the laundry and clean my scrapbook room. Got the laundry done (okay 3 loads) and then after cleaning the scrapbook room, I even cut out my technique card for September card class. Tonight I type up the technique to print onto cardstock for our card rings. Only 3 cards to go and I can have class! Figure by this weekend, I will be ready to announce card class dates.

Have a great day!
Arlene

It's a Busy Saturday~

Pictured above is my Card Candy swap entry for my Convention 2012 Card Candy Swap. I first heard of Card Candy from SUDSOL SU Demo Bobbie Ganley. She hosted a Card Candy swap at Leadership 2012 in San Antonio this past January (you can see the samples from that swap in my January blog posts). I liked the idea so well, that I hosted a Card Candy swap at Splitcoaststampers for the 2012 Convention.

You wonder what is card candy? My best explaination is that is a homemade Jolee. You can make them and hand them out to your hostesses or as door prizes (or even to make fast cards yourself!). This is just a nice way to showcase the versatility of a stamp set. The items are placed on acetate (transparency film) with a glue dot to make them easy to remove and use at a later date. I also place my transparency on a piece of chipboard. Again, I cut up all the whitechipboard that comes with my Stampin Up DSP paper. I attached my transparency to the chipboard and later attached the stamped/matted images. Then I slip it all in a SU cello bag and add a topper.

When I find where I hid my camera I will take photos of all the Card Candy swap entries. We had 2 groups of 8. The swap was awesome. I will be doing it again at the next Convention! The above pictured Card Candy features the stamp set MOUTHWATERING. I wanted to make sure each stamped image had a sentiment to match it or to go with it. I had alot of questions about my purple popsicle. I used the Elegant Eggplant marker. Then  I cut them out and attached them to real wooden mini sticks I found at Hobby Lobby.

This is a busy Saturday weekend. I am in the midst of laundry right now. Then my friend Stacy is coming to do a scrapbook layout. After that I need to head to Little Rock to the teacher store and pick up a couple of items I need. I need more rings for my chart stand and I want another chart holder. Then out to the school to make copies and work on lesson plans. Tomorrow I have a lady coming from Hot Springs to see some SU products and get a catalog. Then Monday morning school starts back full time. Plus on top of it all, I am out on Friday for my 70th chemo round. My mantra is "Only 2 more years.... only 2 more years". I have already handled 5 years, so we know it is possible.

You have a great weekend!

Arlene

Oh my! It's already Mid-August!

Above is a simple 12 x 12 layout I did for a Convention Swap. It would be so easy to do a matching page layout design to complete a 2 page spread. I don't know about you, but I prefer a 2 page spread in my scrapbooks... that and I prefer the bases of the spreads to be alike (I mean the color). I am not fond of using a red background on one page and then a yellow on the other. I want my eye to flow across the pages and focus on the photos -- not the different backgrounds.

In this layout I got to showcase some new items in the 2012-2013 Catalog. Among them are:

* The Sizzix Typeset Alphabet Bigz (page 192)

* Delicate Doilies Sizzlits L (page 191)

* Be of Good Cheer DSP (page 164)

* Gumball Green Cardstock - new In Color (page 152)

Let me clue you in on a few things I did on this layout. I applied some of the Cherry Cobbler Cardstock to a thin layer of chipboard. I used the chipboard that comes in my DSP package. Then I cut out the numbers, 2012 out of that cardstock covered chipboard. I raised up the numbers using dimensionals to give the page some depth. I often use cardstock covered chipboard to cut die cuts or with my framelits. It simply gives the paper more weight and stability. Try it with your label framelits sometime, and then use dimensionals to lift the framelit off the base of your card or scrapbook page.

I cut the Gumball Green cardstock with the Delicate Doilies Sizzlets. I stamped the sentiment NOEL onto a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock and punched it out with a circle punch. Then I added the doily to the layout. Once it was adhered, I added the circle punched sentiment to the center of the doily and the pearls surrounding the doily to give the page some *pop*.

I cut my DSP into strips. Here are my measurements:

* Cherry Cobbler Stripe  (Be of Good Cheer DSP) - 3/4" x 12"

*Gumball Green Dots (from In Color DSP stacks) - 2 1/2" x 12

* Cherry Cobbler Candy Design (Be of Good Cheer DSP) - 1" x 12"

* Multi Dot Design (Be of Good Cheer DSP) - 1/2" x 12"

* Gumball Green Stripes (from In Color DSP stacks) - 1/4" x 12"

I placed the DSP paper about 1/8 to 1/4 inch apart (just enough to allow some Cherry Cobbler to peek thru) horizontally across my layout. The varying sizes of the DSP gives the page some movement visually and adds interest (in my humble opinion). Also notice I have some Gumball Green cardstock punched with the scallop edge punch along the bottom edge of the Cherry Cobbler Stripe. My large rectangular mat and the 4 other mats are Very Vanilla. You could use one of the 4 mats to journal or just add photos to each of the boxes. A piece of Gumball Green cardstock breaks up the large Very Vanilla rectangular mat and the Very Vanilla photo mats. Overall a simple design that will focus on my Christmas Papers.

I ended up with 4 of these layouts left over (folks who missed the swap) so my three roommates Sandy, Pat and Gail all confiscated one each. The 4th I gave to my new friend Debbie and I still need to make 1 for my other new friend Lynn (who is Debbie's sister). You need to visit Lynn's blog at http://www.starzlstamps.com

  Lynn even posted a photo of the three of us in the Shiloh Inn Lobby.

Now the other stuff to catch you up on.... I had scans last week that were great but Dr. Baltz feels that I need to stay on chemo every 2 weeks at least to November . Ugh... same thing he told me in June... and I feel certain he will tell me the same thing again in November. I really just want to get out to 3 weeks between treatments. But he knows best... I am just anxious to resume life.

School started (well in services) on this past Monday. Of course the week began with a severe thunderstorm. A transformer was hit by lighting and knocked out the air conditioning in the 3 floor Middle School. These days they do not put in windows that actually open and close in school buildings, so the room was an oven and we had to work in our rooms that day. I had Jenny (my sister) bring me 2 fans that I had loaned her this summer back to the classroom but they did not make much of a dent. At lunch I bought 2 more powerful fans and the room got to be at least tolerable. Yesterday they got all the a/c fixed. Just in time for our Open House last night. Students arrive on Monday. Today and tomorrow are all day in service meetings once again.

One more sad note to add. Barbara (bbkk on Splitcoaststampers) tells me that my friend, Jan Hoyt (Inkerzaway on Splitcoaststampers) lost her father in the past 2 weeks. Jan, if you are reading this, please accept my condolences. I will have a card ready for you this weekend. Have lost your phone number again, so I could not call (okay I know I am a Baby Boomer and that is tech stuff...). Thinking of you Jan.

That's all for me today. I will try to get better about posting.... July just flew past me with Sheffield Sleepover, prepping for Convention swaps, taking treatments and actually going to Convention. Came home SUPER EXHAUSTED and still no transfusions --- ugh.... Plus let's add that week of In Service (okay 4 full days) of In Service training that occurred between my chemo (that I got the day after I came home from Salt Lake City) and the following treatment and scans last week.

Prepping for a stamp class. Will announce dates once I get the rest of the cards cut. It will be at least another week before I can do that. I have my 5 designs and just need to prep. We will be starting with our TECHNIQUE classes too. The first techinque is going to be TRIPLE TIME STAMPING with the stamp set Gently Falling (a fall leaf set)....and I have a masculine card all prepped with the stamp set THE OPEN SEA....

Arlene

3 x 3 cards for Convention

This morning Vanessa pm'd me about the 3 x 3 cards. While I tried to answer her questions in written form, I knew that showing her might make it easier. I am a visual person and it is easier to for me to explain while you are looking at the photos. Sorry for the bad scan but the bottom card was too bulky and lifted the scanner lid.

These are 3 strings of cards for a 3 x 3 Card  swap at the SU Convention in July.

Card 1 - I stamped the image onto white cardstock. Then colored it with my SU markers. Then I matted the image onto Pretty in Pink cardstock.  After matting I colored in my cupcake icing with Crystal Effects and sprinkled some diamond dust in that. I had to sit it to the side to dry overnight. The card base is cut 6 x 3 and then scored at 3 on the long end. I did nothing to the base. As my own personal habit, I did cut a 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 piece of white cardstock to put inside the card. I like to write on the neutral papers of white or very vanilla and not on the darker cardstock.

Card 2 - I stamped the  Naughty or Nice saying with my Cherry Cobbler and Gumball Green markers onto Very Vanilla Cardstock. I then punched the sentiment out using a round punch. The  Gumball Green wreath shape is from the new 3 doily sizzlet die. I think it is the medium shape. I just knew when I put the round sentiment on it that it reminded me of a wreath. I added a a bow to the wreath. I took red line tape and added it to my Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon. Then I folded it in half lengthwise. This gave me a smaller width of ribbon to work with for my cards. I made the ribbons using the "FORK BOW METHOD".  I cut the card base 6 x 3 and then scored it at 3 on the long side. I did add a small strip of Be of Good Cheer Designer Paper. The strip was 3 inches across and 2 dots deep. I pop dotted the wreath to this. Of course, there is a piece of 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 inch very vanilla cardstock added to the inside of the card.

Card 3 - The snail card was fun. I stamped the snail onto white cardstock. Then colored it in. I rounded the corners of the white cardstock. Then matted it to the Tempting Turquoise cardstock. I also rounded those corners. After all that, then I added the yellow buttons (they are the ones that remind me of Life Savers!) and added a pearl to the button. I do have a background stamped on the Old Olive cardstock using Old Olive ink. And again there is a matching white insert cut 2 3/4 x 2 3/4 placed inside this card.

Vanessa, I hope this answered all your questions about the swap! Have fun making yours!

Arlene

More Card Candy

This is my other Card Candy Swap entry. I used Stampin Up's Little Friends set. This card candy will make 3 cards. I used the Label Framelits for one design, the Big Shot Scallop Square for another and finally the Big Shot Scallop Envelope for the final design.

I love this sweet little set. I used markers to color in the designs. It is more vibrant in real life. Sorry my scanner does not pick that up. Note the little brads on the wheels of the boy's wagon too. How easy would it be to grab a card base and make a card with any of these prestamped/colored/and matted designs. You could do a very simple card by only adding the card candy. You could step it up a level by adding a textured embossing folder background. You could add ribbons and patterned paper. The point is you can easily go from simple to more elaborate with the artwork provided.

I like this swap so much, I made an application at our scrapbooking/cardmaking group on Ning.com (The Crop Room) to host a both a CARD CANDY and a SCRAPBOOKING CANDY swap in mid July. I got the email it was approved! YEAH!!!! I will post it after I return from Convention.

The only difference in the 2 types of swaps - Card Candy and Scrapbook Candy is the focus. In Card Candy you are making your "homemade" jolee's to work on the front of a several cards. In Scrapbook Candy you are making your "homemade" jolee's to work on a single 12 x 12 double page  scrapbook layout.  I think this will be a neat way to showcase our work and allow my mind to expand in some new directions ! I know (by request of Lois) that one of my scrapbook candy pages will be a "Western Theme". She saw a scrapbook layout I did at Christmas in a western theme and loved it.

On the health front, this is morning 1 after chemo. Things seem to be going smoothly. Woke at 5:30 and laid in bed til 6:15 just watching some TV. Then fed the furrballs and took a nausea pill. Best to keep that at bay you know. I try to stay ahead of it. Had a banana and a bottle of water and need to go take an insulin shot next.

Tanya is coming at 8 to help me rearrange one one in my therapy room. I bought 5 more white cubes at Michael's yesterday. Assembled them all last night. Whew that was work! Kept dropping those little screws -- chemo messes my fine motor skills up alot. Then I put together the new living room lamp. Bought me a swinging arm lamp with a 3 way bulb for my recliner area a couple of weeks ago. Then yesterday, the end table I had been eyeing at Hobby Lobby finally went down to $89. It has been slowly creeping down from $150, which I deemed tooo much money. After all that could be an SU order and a girl has her priorities --- lol. Only another demo would understand and love that sidenote. LOL   Anyway that table is in my car to be brought in. It is moon shaped. I mean the back is straight and flat and will lay against the wall - no more things falling off like the current table. The front is half circle or moon shape as I call it. It has a single drawer to it. Wish it had a shelf but could not find one that did. It is a very dark brown but has distressed marks on it that I could live without. It will be next to a cream colored recliner. My other chairs/ottomans (I have 2 of them each) are a deep brown. The new laminate floor in the living room, goes in on Friday. They are a two tone laminate moving from a medium light wood grain to a medium dark wood grain. Got to run to Lowe's today and grab some pads for the bottom of the furniture to make it easier to move it and then also to avoid marring the floor. So excited to have this new flooring in place of that nasty shag carpet that was here when I moved in! Should of done this at the beginning but oh well.... it is done (or should I say) PAID for now.

Next week I have to go to Sam's and get my moving/rolling steel shelves for my garage. That is the next task to accomplish this summer. I want my 2 car garage organized and the boxes all finally unpacked. I moved into this house 2 years ago and that task is not done. There were reasons too.... moved in July. Sis got ill near the end of July and I went on child duty with Austin. Then I scheduled it for the following summer of 2011. Heck I went out of remission in January and last summer I was on weekly chemo - so that was out. I have to get this done this summer! There is only room for my car in that garage and finding stuff is a pain!

This is the shelving I am probably going to purchase for my garage. At least this way, I can roll the shelves away from the walls to occasionally sweep out the garage. That and I can move the car out and Tanya and I can load directly to the shelves from the boxes. Hate to have to pull out 3 rows deep of boxes to put standard shelves in and then have to unload those same boxes. This way we unpack as we go. Afterwards we simply roll our shelves against the wall (and I get a chance to clean the floor too!). I know I need one shelving unit just for my Christmas tubs. And remember I have alot of my mom's stuff still in boxes. Want to find it all and sort it so the family can go thru once more. There are 3 boxes that belong to sis that mom had packed for her sitting in the garage too.  I think I am going to get 4 of these for now. Later I might go and get another couple for the other side of the room. But I have a large cabinet Bruno (my brother) built for  Mom's alterations business, and an old metal china cabinet and an old metal desk of Mom's in the garage, plus a file cabinet of mine. I just want it neat and clean in there. Shelves along each side and the items organized. I am sort of anal about that and the garage drives me nuts. Hate to say I even have a guest room closet still filled with boxes. I just want my house decluttered!

Okay steriods at work. Can't you see how much I chatter on these things! Geesh.... glad they will be wearing off by tomorrow.

Have a great day! I am off to the therapy room to start moving things so we can set these white cubbies in the room! Might even take photos for you!

Arlene

Convention Swap CARD CANDY

 Wonder what Card Candy is? Imagine having/creating your own Jolee's. You could use them for fast cards or scrapbooking pages. You could use them to amaze your hostesses with a card candy gift for them to use or door prizes to show how you could use a stamp set.

I am hosting a Card Candy swap through Splitcoaststampers at the 2012 Stampin Up Convention in July 2012. I am in two different groups for this swap. These are my card candy entries.

Above you see I used the Stampin Up Mouthwatering stamp set to make 4 different designs with sentiments to accompant the designs. Whoever gets these can make 4 cards simply by mounting them to a card base.

Above is Stampin Up Little Friends stamp set. This time I only have 3 different designs with the sentiments added to the design. I tried to use several of the sizzix dies (scallop square and scallop envelope) as well as the labels framelits. Whoever gets these can make 3 cards simply by mounting them to a card base.

I had participated in a Card Candy swap in January at the Leadership Conference in San Antonio. I loved the items I got at that swap (scroll back to late January posts to view them). So I decided to host the swap at Convention. I have 2 groups of 8 ladies making Card Candy items.

My downline, Micki, did an awesome masculine set with The Open Sea. She did such an outstanding job on hers. But she does not want to show them until after Convention, so I am respecting her wishes.

For those friends on our scrapbooking ning group, The Crop Room, I plan to write Francine to do a Card Candy swap in August or September. Be thinking on it! Let me survive the Convention swaps before I add more to my plate.

On other note. Today was Chemo # 67. Glad it is over. My counts are low -- red blood is at 10.7 but I cannot have a transfusion until it hits 9.9. Normal red blood (the low side of normal) is 12.0. That explains why I am so weak in stamina and of course why I cannot raise arms to lift or move stuff without getting dizzy -- not enough oxygen traveling in my blood. At least I can still sit and stamp and still sit and read my kindle.

All this sitting however is for the birds. I miss having some activity. Hard to loose weight like this -- plus the steriods are NO HELP at all. I am so hungry on the 3 steriod days and my mind races like crazy. I have to take something at night to sleep just to turn off my racing brain. UGH.... Hopefully the August scans will place me back at every 3 weeks for chemo instead of the current 2 weeks.

Okay speaking of food... need to take my night meds (insulin and senokot for the carbo issue and a potassium pill and EAT... told you FOOD drives me for 3 days. Eat, eat, eat. Plus I got a lasix shot in addition to my fluid pills today. So it is off to drink water (so thirsty) and then guess where you have to visit to deposit all that water? I am on my 5th bottle so far today! What a circle! Input and Output.

Have a great evening. Will be back in a day or so with another post.

Arlene