Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Ready for June Birthdays?


I don't know about you but I've got a lot of June birthdays coming up and I know Val does too.  In fact, one year all but one person on her team at work had a birthday in June. 

So I thought it was only appropriate to share this card I received from Stampin Up for my birthday this month.  It's one that is made from My Digital Studio.  I'm not sure if this really counts for a hybrid card but it has a little bling of a rhinestone on the "O" in the word "You".  I think it was probably printed from the service SU offers.  Not sure of the cost but it has a really nice feel to it.  I'm sure if you were mass producing something like Christmas cards - or June birthday cards :-) - it might be worth it.

Hoping everyone is planning on meeting at the shop tonight.  I'm really missing you guys and looking forward to a little Gal Pal time.  See you soon!

Friday, May 27, 2011

. . .and now we return to our regularly scheduled programming

Hi My Gal Pals,

Sorry there were no posts this week.  I was at a conference in Denver.  Got back on the late night flight Wednesday and took most of the day yesterday to catch up at work and home.  But feeling back to good again and looking forward to the long weekend.  Have a backlog of cards I need to make for various weddings, graduations, birthdays and Father's Day so I'm planning on taking advantage of the rainy day we are supposed to have tomorrow and spending it in the craft room.

Not sure if you had a chance to watch the Week of Webisodes on cardmaking Paper Wishes had last week.  I was only able to catch a couple.  But the ones I did catch demo'd some new and old Dazzles.  Got me in the mood for wanting to try to use my stash of Dazzles a little more.  Here's a card I made awhile back with the Coffee&Tea themed black Dazzles.  It was the first time I did the paper piecing technique with them.  Kind of simple but still a little cute I think.


Hope you have a good weekend.  Happy Memorial Day!

Friday, May 20, 2011

Cute! with a capital "C"

Check out this *really* cute paper purse Sandy R. made for our SU downline swap yesterday - isn't it the cutest?!!!!  And when she gave it to us she said. . . "Look inside to see how much you're worth".  Inside was a little $100,000 candy bar.  How CUTE! 


Sandy is going to e-mail the pattern and I will share as soon as I get it.  In the meantime, there's several patterns out on the web - some not as cute as this one - but still worth exploring.  Another cute idea for a "just a little thank you" or "thinking of you" gift for someone special.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Flower Power


Remember yesterday when I was talking about being in love with citrus colors lately?  Well here's a card I made Sunday with the new K&Company 12x12 paper pack I got at Memory Lane.  Every single sheet in it is fantastic!!!  And because the citrus colors are so hot right now, the papers go with the new ribbons they had at the shop and a big bag of buttons I found at the quilting store the other day when I was getting one of Aunt Hazel's birthday presents and they just happen to go with some of the colors of the cool crochet flowers my Aunt Shirley is making.

I've found 3 cute card patterns and a scrapbook page sketch that I'm going to be doing as samples for the store to display next to the box of flowers in hopes of giving some additional inspiration for using the flowers.  Will try to get those done this weekend.  Looking forward to a quiet one at home with my sweetie.  Kind of wish it was Friday already.  The beautiful weather and all these card ideas floating in my head are way too distracting!

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Inch by Inch


I've been playing around with some inchie stamps.  This is a candy box I made for Staci and Debbie as a thank you for being so good to me on National Scapbooking Day.  I found some little treat boxes at Michaels.  I wanted to use the inchie stamps to decorate the outside of the box but unfortunately the box had a glossy finish on the outside which I find hard to stamp on.  So I just covered it with paper.  Used my new corner punches for the top of the box.  Here's a couple of other views of the project:



I made a similar treat box for my Aunt Hazel - tucking the wrapped candies into a bobbin box that I hope as a quilter she can make good use of. 

I found another inchie set at JoAnn's and one from PaperTrey stamps that I'll be playing with soon.  Just thinking that they're very versitle - they can make such cute embellishments or can also be part of a bigger focal on a card. Here's a cute card pattern I found on Splitcoast - love the clean style - and the way it makes good use of the inchies.  Plus it's a citrus color which I seem to be really drawn to these days.  More on that tomorrow. 

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Humble Beginnings


In the midst of trying to create some order in my craft room - which by the way is still under some construction - I found the very first Stampin Up card I ever made.  It was at a workshop my sister-in-law Nancy was hosting while I was visiting Jacksonville one year.  Even though it's kind of messy - well more than kind of messy - more like a total wreck! - I like it.  And it will always trigger such wonderful memories for me. 

Looking forward to craft night tonight.  Have a fun card panel I've been working on for the next family newsletter.  Also looking forward to Cricut Man coming home tomorrow night.  The house is way too quiet without him.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Ready, Set. . . Go!

Cricut Man was out of town this weekend and in addition to working at commencement I spent a few hours getting my life a little more organized. 

I curled up with a cup of coffee and my DayTimer one morrning and and started taking stock of all the ideas and project notes I've been accumulating.  Found a resolution that I think I've made every year for the last 20 years to start Christmas projects in the summer.  Even though last year I started in October (which was really good for me), it still didn't seem like enough time to get to all the things I wanted to get to. 

So I'm backing it up and little and declaring a start date of JUNE 1st!!!  Which after flipping through my DayTimer I'm realizing is right around the corner!  I guess the lingering cold and late spring we've had has lulled me into thinking it's still April.

Here's where I'm going to start. . . .I have probably 12 old Folgers coffee cans in a shopping bag waiting to be turned into Christmas goodie containers.  This is a prototype I made a few years ago and like so many of my other projects, got pushed to the side to make way for a more urgent project. 





I bought enough paper and stickers at Memory Lane a few years ago to make 10-12 more.  At the time I was going to use them to hold goodies for my team at the office.  A lot has changed since then - specifically I'm working with a whole new team of people in a completely different office - so maybe they'll be the lucky recipients this year.  That is if I can keep this resolution.  6 months and 1 week until Christmas. Ready, Set. . . .Go!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Deals


Since we were joking at the shop about what a bad SU Demonstrator I am :-) , I thought I should try a little harder.  So here's some latest info about a special promotion SU has going on for National Scrapbooking Month.  The sale lasts until the end of May.

There are a couple of sets I've been thinking about. . . Printed Petals, which is the one used in the picture above from the Splitcoast gallery. . .and then Simple Friendship, which is the one used below. 




But I keep thinking. . ."You need another stamp set like you need a hole in your head!!!". . . so I'm still thinking about it.  Maybe I'll decide by next week.  And in the meantime, I you do want any of these, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Have a good day.  I'm planning on enjoying this sunshine as much as possible.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Springtime Wishes


As I was driving home last night after craft night in the warmth of one of our first sunny days, it struck me how green everything was.  The balsom root is blooming on the south side of the hill next to I-90 . . . a sure sign spring is really here.  It will probably be another 2 weeks before they'll be blooming up in my area but what a thing to look forward to.

Here's the card from last week's family newsletter.  It is my take on this one that one of my SU team mates made for a swap we did at the last downline meeting.  I love the pink and green color combination.  And also loved trying out the matting of the label.  I saw on Stampin' Pretty's blog how she punches a second label in her mat color, then cuts it in half and positions it behind the stamped label.  You can split it either way - vertically or horizontally.  Kind of cool.  Will have to try it on some of the other label punches soon.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Christmas 10 From 1 Set



As promised yesterday and Saturday during the card class, here's a couple of pictures of the gift box and the 1st card of the Christmas version of the 10 From 1 card set.  Because there were so many pictures, I went ahead and posted them on Splitcoaststampers with the other Fall card set.  Here's the link to the section of my gallery where they are all posted.

Now that I have a Fall, Christmas and Spring set, guess I'll have to make a Summer set.  I bought a really, really cute paper pack at Memory Lane Saturday that has all the bright, citrus colors of summer.  Stay tuned for that set!

Monday, May 9, 2011

National Scrapping Booking Day was a BIG hit!

Hi All,

Back in the drivers seat after a week off from blogging.  Hope everyone is doing fine.  Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow night at the shop.  I'll be there for sure this week.

Saturday was the big day!. . . .the National Scrapbooking Day celebration at Memory Lane.  It was great fun.  Classes running from early morning to early evening.  And a really cute Make-n-Take idea which I'll post Wednesday. 

Staci and Debbie were very generous - lots of food and lots of give-aways.  I can't imagine how tired they both were.  I know how tired I was! 



Well I did it!  - taught my very first card class.  The ladies were so very patient with me.  I hope they had a good time.  Everyone did a great job on their cards.  This is the display board that was up at the shop.  It was the "10 From 1" class.  Here's the link to the 1st 2 cards and another link to the rest of the cards - 3 through 10


I was a little nervous as I wasn't sure if I could explain the cuttting instructions well enough. I had an instruction sheet which was probably way too long and then a handout from the Valentines version of this class that we took years and years ago.  I tried to have all the pieces cut and kits assembled ahead of time.  My sweetie helped me get everything in baggies Friday night.  I swear that man never ceases to amaze me sometimes at how supportive he is of all my grand schemes.



I gave everyone in the class a little card with the Gal Pal blog address so they could check out the pictures of the other sets I made with these instructions.  Here's the link again to the Fall version of the cards that I have posted on my Splitcoast gallery. 

In my rush to get to the shop I forgot to bring the Christmas version of the cards :-( so I told them I'd post them on this blog as well.  But I'll do that tomorrow as my morning blog time has run out - gotta get to work - darn it!  Wish I could play in the craft room all day - especially since it's a rainy Monday.  I don't think there's anything more cozy than a rainy day and paper crafting in the girl cave.  Oh well - I guess I'll have something to look forward to in retirement!