Technique for Sunday's Open Stamping

Some of you already figured out that I'm not teaching another glitter project for a bit - I just got all the December glitter cleaned up!!  The technique for this Sunday's Open Stamping day is actually making these paper flowers.  I've seen a couple of tutorials, but I think my favorite was this one by Antoinette.  She also shared an idea about using old paperback books to make the flowers - way cool!


So - since these 3-dimensional things are not going to fit into our tutorial albums, I thought the group should make a card.  I took a photo of mine, added it to the technique instructions in a Word Document, and printed it out for them to put in their albums.  Almost the real thing!


I'm still very tired.  As much as I want to stay up tonight, I think it might be smarter to go to bed.  Tomorrow is a long day and I'll need my strength.


Hugs!

Spoiler Alert! Jen's February SWAP

I'm participating in a card SWAP in February and just hate leaving things to the last minute - so my card is already designed (just need to kick it into production!).  This one uses the gorgeous new Veranda papers, and the Love You Forever stamp set with a tiny Happy  Birthday stamp from the Birthday set that I like to call "50 ways to say Happy Birthday" but is really just called Happy Birthday.  All Close-to-My-Heart.

It was a productive day at work, but I came home so tired that I could barely walk through the house!  I fell into bed and slept 2 hours.  Now I've been up a bit - had a nice hot bowl of chicken soup, and am winding down.  I don't think I'll have any trouble going back to bed soon!  Hope your day was good - and that you are safe from the foul weather that seems to be moving around!

Veranda and Glitter

I was just playing around with some scraps - and working with glittering images - and came up with this little card (3 1/2 x 4) to add to a smallish spot on my new Spring Catalog demo board.  It's with the Veranda papers, and the new hostess set of stamps called Bee Mine.  My favorite stamp in the set?  I put it on the inside and forgot to take a photo - but it's "Be Yourself".

Today is loads of laundry in between spurts of crafting.  I'm so happy to get the afternoon at home!  Happy Sunday!

Kathi Carlson - CASED!

This was my version of Kathi Carlson's great card here.  Kathi has the bestest ideas . . .

We have experienced the strangest weather here in Arizona that I've ever seen.  It's rained all week (they're calling it a 100-year flood) and there were dust storms (really!) and a tornado that touched down and swooped up a very large tent covering a gazillion dollar car show (the paper said that all of the cars had cosmetic damage - YIKES!) and there has been hail and wind, and oh-my!  There was so much rain that the reservoirs were all full and they began releasing water - so all of our usually dry rivers and washes were flowing like crazy.   In Northern Arizona there was so much snow that the State declared a state of emergency!  The main interstates were closed for many, many hours.  There are avalanch warnings at our favorite ski place (Flagstaff Snowbowl) and - well, it's just not usual Arizona sunshine!  I've been blessed - only a bit of "tree-trash" in the yard, but otherwise I'm fine.  

My hats off to you mid-westerners that have this kind of "scary" weather on a regular basis.  I do not know how you do it!

Hugs!   

Caboodle - and Treasure Life

One of the things that Jeanette Lynton, Owner/CEO/Artist of Close-to-My-Heart, did for the new Spring catalog was to bring back the "A" size stamp sets.  I think this was very smart of her - since not everyone can afford to buy the top of the line, but they still want the new things!  Treasure Life is a small set with the birdie, the branch, some pretty flowers (not shown here) and the saying "Treasure Life" - all that for $7.95.  I was playing around with prisma glitter techniques and at first, really hated this card.  But, it's growing on me!  What do you think?  

I'm so thankful that tomorrow is Friday!  What a week!!!  I have plans to attend a candle / wine tasting party (now that sounds interesting, huh!) and to get my weekly planner up to date.  I need to pick up pantry supplies for church, and with any luck I'll get to spend an hour on Skype with my DD - we're planning to scrapbook together and also she'll do a fashion show for me of her new sale clothing finds!  What are your weekend plans?

Namaste

An "Anna Wight" original !

I am over-the-top-excited about the littlest thing - - - recently my blog-friend Anna Wight (you must visit her blog here) created adorable little zipper bags and put them up for sale in her Etsy shop.  I saw them within an hour, I think, but didn't get to the check out fast enough and it was GONE.  The one I wanted was a farm scene featuring a rooster that reminds me of Anna's "Tiny Tim".  If you don't know this story - you should take a few moments and go visit Tiny Tim - be sure to scroll down a bit until you see the photo of him wearing his little coat when he was just a little tiny rooster.  This one is guaranteed to bring a smile to your face!  Anyway - I received the bag this week and LOOK at the drawing on the back of the envelope?!?!?!  I'll treasure it forever!  Maybe frame it?!

I think I forgot to say - I commented to Anna that I had missed getting the Tiny Tim bag - and she made another one just for me!  Look how cute the packaging is?!  (I'm all about the packaging!)

And here is the bag!  It's just wonderful - she's quilted along the sun-rays and curves of the hills, etc.  The little pouch is lined in a "Chloe Green" fabric that is bright and cheerful - making it easy to find the things tucked inside (dark fabric just doesn't work for me any more!)  Thank you Anna!  I'm just thrilled!

Hugs!

A little Get Well message . . .

This focal image is from a darling set I bought last fall from The Cat's Pajamas.  I also used, for the first time, a Close-to-My-Heart set that is called Buttoned Together.  The beauty of doing this, rather than real buttons, is that this card can be mailed without needing a padded envelope or extra postage!  I like the look of the buttons, too.

My local friends gave me a perfect day yesterday - it was a late celebration for my birthday (which falls at a very inconvenient time of year!).  We dined at a fabulous place (new to me) called Cafe Pino and then went to see "It's Complicated".  I don't think I'll ever get enough of Meryl Streep - she's just amazing.  

I came home and finished putting Christmas away (yes, I know).  That wore me out so that my eyelids were heavy by 7:30 PM!  I went to bed!
So, here we are at 1 in the morning and I'm wide-eyed and busy-tailed (as my dear Mother used to say).  I'm heading to the craft room ;-)


Edited to answer the question:  I didn't realize that no-one knew I'd suffered celebrated another birthday!  Yes, I'm a Christmas baby.  12/26 to be exact.  And too old to want to think about what year! 



Hugs!

An oldie! Sarsparilla and Lovely Buckles

I found this old (2008) card in my stash just in time for a masculine birthday!  This one had two interesting techniques on it - the liquid glass accents on the "raised" part of the belt buckle, and the belt itself - done with a faux suede technique that blends re-inker into liquid applique, spread it on paper, then hit it with the heat gun.  It looks (and feels) like suede!  I knew I hadn't posted it because it was very well buried and I only started my blog spring of 2009.


Thank Goodness tomorrow is Friday!  I'm so ready for some "me" time.  I need to put away Christmas!!!  I started gathering things on the dining room table (I can do that now that the kitties aren't here to play with them).  It will feel good to get it cleaned up - like a weight off my shoulders.  

I hope you have been counting your blessings.  I know I have!
Hugs!

You Rock and Springtime

One of the new paper packs in the Spring CTMH catalog is called "You Rock".  It's bold and vibrant, I didn't think I would like it at all, but, as usual, I'm growing to love it as I work with it!  This stamp set is called "Springtime" - I just LOVE these little ducks!  The umbrella has different patterns you can use - but I just stamped the outline over the patterned paper and made matching rain boots.  The umbrella, the top boot, and the chick on the boot are all on pop-up dots.  The "grass" was trimmed casually by hand.  I forget who taught me (was it Vicki?) to distress with the scissors closed (much safer!) and it really works (thanks!).  


I got my stitches out today!  It was easy-peasy!  The ones that had "grown in" were actually under the skin and will dissolve (silly me!) so I had been worried for nothing!  I'm continuing to gain strength every day - thank God!  Soon I can return to Yoga class . . .



Namaste.

Caboodle - by Joanne

Our unit swap for the new catalog was due over the weekend - look at this GORGEOUS card my upline, Joanne Zubal, made to show off the new Caboodle papers!  Just yummy!

Well, my annual huge spaghetti dinner at church was last night and I might have over-done it a bit.  I'm pretty wiped out.  I should have gone home after setting up . . .   ahh, live and learn. 


Hope you're having a wonderful weekend!
Hugs!

YaYa trip - beaches and bridges

 

Two more pages of the YaYa scrapbook!  Both of these pages have flip-flaps that go on the outside of the page protectors!  Jeanne said the most brilliant thing in a recent comment - about using one of the spaces in the flip-flap to tuck the journaling!  I hadn't thought of that - and I'm very grateful to her for the idea because I was pretty stressed out that one of my photos was vertical instead of horizontal!  Now I can replace it with the STORY instead - tuck the photo somewhere else (maybe even behind the journaling).  This is just one of the many joys of blogging, if you ask me!  I learn so much from all of you!  Thank you for helping me grow!

Day 3 - YaYa Scrapbook Sisterhood trip

 

Day 3 - a very exciting "discovery" for me - FLIP-FLAPS!!!!!  If you haven't used these, you should.  In the foreground you can see "extra" photos on the chair?  These are the NUMEROUS photos that I took on this fantastic day - and to actually scrap all of them would have filled the entire album!  So, I have 3 photos where each 1 photo is placed on the layout.  How you do this is you decide the layout page (photographed here out of the page protector) so that the "best-est" photo is actually going to be shown on the top of the FLIP-FLAP on the outside of the page protector.  Amazing, huh?  I'm sure I'll be thinking about orientation of my photos more on the next trip (such as - "I have 2 horizontal photos and 3 vertical, I need another horizontal one").  :D

This part of the trip?  Well, Keri couldn't actually move into her apartment until Tuesday so we enjoyed the day together by driving over to the ocean (Newport, Oregon) and up along the coast to Lincoln City.  From Lincoln City we realized that there was fog swooping in from the North - so we jumped into the car and kept moving - stopping at many places along the way until the fog caught up with us.  It was really fun - racing the fog!  We had a lovely lunch at Rogue Ale House (a micro-brewery that also had fabulous food!) and visited park beaches as well as wineries!  What a perfect day!  The Oregon coast is wild and beautiful - much more so than I had imagined!  It's amazing.

So - first day back at work?  I am tired, but not overwhelmingly so -  It was a good day.  I'm getting around so much better than before.  I'm truly blessed to have such an excellent health care team! 

Hugs!

 

Day 2 - YaYa Trip Scrapbook

 

Day 2 of the trip - working on this scrapbook has been so much fun as I feel like I'm doing it all over again!  This day was mostly just driving - but if you look for it - adventure and interesting things come while you're driving, too!

I enjoyed an afternoon with my dear friends scrapbooking today - what a blessing!  I go back to work tomorrow (I'm strong enough!) and I'm sure the week will test my will-power!  Have a wonderful week full of a sense of awe and accomplishment! 

Namaste.

YaYa Scrapbooking Sisterhood Adventure of 2009

I've finally got to work on the YaYa Scrapbooking Sisterhood Adventure!  These are the two pages from our first day on the road (or rather, the end of the day) spent at Harris Ranch in Coalinga, CA.  I've used a mish-mash of photos, clippings from brochures, and post-cards!  The bright green image on the 2nd page is actually from a shower cap (my friend Pam's idea - and a good one!).

Hope your New Year's Day was good - ours was quiet.  I attended a funeral (a dear church family member), and went to the gym to do my rehab.  After a late lunch, I fell asleep and slept hard for a couple of hours.  Tonight I'm playing in the craft room for a bit while running loads of laundry.   Tomorrow should be a little more fun as we're hoping to go exploring a bit.  

Hugs!