My Craft Bargain of the Season

As I mentioned earlier, I hoped to get to the dollar store for marked down cards in order to get the envelopes. Lucky me! I was able to get a dozen boxes of 16 cards each, so I now have 192 A2 size envelopes for a total cost of $6.36. I could have gotten many more but restrained myself. I plan to do the same again next year.

Purple Dotted Tissue Box Card

This is another card I made using a piece cut from a tissue box for the background. I needed one more birthday card to get me into January. I also had to make four more Christmas cards today. Somehow I miss counted, again! (p.s. after reviewing my Christmas Card address file a couple weeks ago - in January 2010, I discovered where 15 cards went!!! I had made them then immediately mailed them to the Holiday Mail for Heros in Capital Heights, MD!!! I didn't miscount just had a senior moment that lasted for a couple months! LOL!!!) After everything goes on markdown after Christmas, I'm going to stock up on envelopes by buying the dollar store boxes of cards and discarding the cards. Hopefully I can buy about 15-18 envelopes for about 50 cents a box.

A Last Minute Christmas Card

Donna and Emily had an open house at Donna's today as a 'thank-you' event for everyone who has attended workshops this past year. We had two make-and-takes: a last minute Christmas card featuring a large snowman and an early Valentine's card (sorry haven't taken a photo of that one yet). This card measures 5.5 x 8.5 inches.

Another Card from a Recycled Item

Recently I purchased an edger punch made by EK Success. The pasteboard backing for the package was beautiful!!
Here is a card I made using it. The cardstock is from Stampin' Up which matched perfectly.

Recycling can be so much fun. I've checked out the new tissue boxes and can't wait to use some of them again

2009 Christmas Cards

The first card is one that I made at the Christmas Card Gallery held by Donna and Emily. I used it as a template for the 100 cards I'm making this year.




Some of the papers/cardstock are from years past so I don't know the company's name or, in the case of the red plaid shown above, it's from the packaging used by Prima Marketing, Inc., for their packs of layering flowers. The images are from the SNR Universe Holiday Image Swap in October.

Last Chance Christmas Card Gallery

These are the cards we made today at Donna's and Emily's Stampin' Up Christmas Card Gallery.

I Got'um!!

The Christmas stamped images came while we were gone and they were in our hold mail which we got yesterday. I only had three of same Santas in that whole envelope of 74 images. Most of the images I've never seen any where. These should finish up my Christmas cards especially after I attend a Last Chance Christmas Card Gallery being held by two Stampin' Up demonstrators, Donna and Emily. Yes, I plan to participate again next year.

They're In The MAIL!!!

Yesterday I received a message that the stamped image swap was over and they were in the mail. She explained that out of the four groups of fifteen participants, only enough people followed through with their commitment and now there are THREE groups of fifteen so everyone who honored her word will receive the promised number of images.

Picture Me Very Disappointed!

By accident I happened onto a blog which was offering an image (stamped, please in black ink on white cardstock) exchange. It was to be about 15 people per group stamping five different images and sent to the hostess who would then divide them up and mail them out to the participants. We had to provide a stamped, self-addressed envelope for this purpose. The cut off date to join was September 11th. The drop dead date to have them in her hands was to be tomorrow, October 5th. Wow! A whole month to do them and get them mailed out to the hostess. This sounded like a wonderful way to have some 70 different images to use on Christmas cards this year. As I usually make about 130 every year, this could save me hours as I assembled them to give out this year.
I checked this morning to find that the hostess has not yet received images from most of the people who are in my group (15 people including me). Also, several people sent messages as late as this morning saying they haven't even begun to stamp those 70 images or they just got them in the mail yesterday afternoon.
Don't you just love it when someone makes a commitment to do something by a certain date, then fails to follow through even when other people are depending on them??? I do know that I'll get my images probably by the time I return from this trip (we are leaving Thursday) to Northern Virginia around November 3rd, but I had unrealistic expectations of having them to share with my sister. Yes, I can mail her some but I had wanted her to choose some for herself, not for it to be my choice. When I worked in a bank the day closed at 2 p.m., not 2:01, 2:08, 2:15, but always 2 p.m. If your deposit wasn't there to cover that check you wrote, it went back NSF. I know, just don't ever participate again or lighten up!!

Cricut's New Gypsy

Ok, click on the link to get hyped about the new hand held "Gypsy" coming September 24 at 12:01 a.m. EDT on HSN. This would be a great addition to my craft tools as we do travel quite a bit and taking the Design Studio plus Cricut plus cartridges would be too space consuming in an RV.

Holiday Stamp Swap 2009

I found this wonderful blog called Scrapbook News and Review Magazine hosted by Anne House ( snrcarduniverse.ning.com ). She is hosting a Holiday Stamp Swap with a total of 55 participants which closed on September 11th. These are the stamped images I'm sending and I can't wait to see what I get in return!

Cards for Autumn

These elements (paper/cardstock/embellishments, etc) have been sitting around my workroom for a couple years so it's time to use them up. I made several versions of all these examples to get enough cards to last through December so I can concentrate on my Christmas cards and our next trip scrapbook.
Also, I am trying out my new tabletop tripod for the camera hoping to get clearer pictures instead of the shaky ones in the past or having to scan them.

Florentine Peacock

This card is made from a 3-D download I found at http:community.webshots.com/user/dOnpen designed by Penny Wessenauer (http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c191/dOnpen/). These downloads are free and can be saved in your computer's photo program as a .jpg. For this particular card, there are two separate sheets to download; one for the front and one containing a variety of sentiments for the outside and inside of the card plus some trim pieces. This card was a total of six layers. I used the cushioning from a box of Whitman's Sampler for the large pieces as that mashes down when in an envelope. For the smaller pieces I used regular pop-dots. Anything going through the mail thicker than 1/4 inch requires extra postage.

Go take a look!

Whatta Mess!!!

When my sister, Janice, her son and his wife and baby, arrived on Thursday to spend the night and hopefully some beach time on Friday morning before leaving for the airport to return home, I shut the door to my workroom with good reason: I cannot even see my work table nor my desk where I normally work on my cards. I know my sister was horrified at the mess; even I get the willies whenever I go in there. I have to search for supplies and take them to the dining room table to have space (and sanity)to work on anything.

The Fashion Diva

Today is Morgan's third birthday which we celebrated last Friday. I had made her a few outfits which she agreed to model for us. The first two outfits were made using Simpicity pattern 2684; the last one is made from See & Sew 5405 (this was an old pattern dated 1985!)

Christmas 2009 Scrapbook

Yes, it's a little early but time IS running out. These are the pages we made at Donna's and Emily's Christmas scrapbook pages workshop. Again, they did a wonderful job with the pages. I usually do 12x12 and have never done a 6x6 but these look like keepsake album pages to me! I'm doing two, one for each of my sons as part of the family's gift this year (I may do it again next year if they are well received).








*We normally don't ever get snow in this part of Florida, but you never know!*

Send a Sick Child A Love Letter

A couple days ago I happened onto this web site: http://www.loveletterscares.com/ This 501(c)(3) organization in nearby Altamonte Springs, FL, has a wonderful project to send uplifting "Love Letters" to sick children (up to the age of 18). Visit this site to find out more about how you can contribute some of those cards in your stash, plan a "Love Letter" card making session with your crafting friends, or send the organization a book of "Forever" stamps to use on the cards.

From the Stash Drawer

This is one of several cards I've made using a trading card from Donna when she gleaned her stash (before moving to her new house) of Stampin' Up trading cards from their conventions. The card is Brocade Blue cardstock from Stampin' Up, the ribbon is a scrap from the last Card Gallery, the flower centers have Silver Ice, Starry Night, or Candy Cane Stickles, and three shiny silver 'dots'. The blue dot background paper is from my stash. You could use different color ink pads and various sizes of pencil erasers to create your own.

Christmas in July Card Gallery 2009

Donna and Emily have again given us sixteen very different cards. A few were simple to make, several were complex! The one I liked the best was the tenth one down, then the nineth or maybe it's the fifth one, no, I think it's the last one. Well, they're all beautiful cards and are very different. (Sorry for the blur on some of them; even with my elbows on the table, I still can't shoot photos up close!)