My First Commission

Here's a photo of something I made many years ago for my brother John to give to his wife Nancy for one of their anniversaries.  It was my 1st commission as a "paper artist" and I was so excited to do it. 

He made a CD mix of some music that had special meanings and memories for them so I made a CD cover. I wish I had had the foresight to photograph the inside but unfortunately I didn't. But the inside was a collage of similar papers and a diagonal "sleeve" that formed a pocket to hold the CD. I made a card to match. It's hard to gell from the poor scan quality but the card had a lot of stictching in metallic silver thread - the corner treatment and the outline of the heart. Both the CD cover and the card had metal charms as that was the really big thing in papercrafting several years ago. 

It's almost as funny to look back at my old papercrafting style as it is looking back at old photographs and giggling at the clothes and hair styles.  My Oh My!  How quickly fashion changes.

Way too long ago. . .

While I was cleaning up some photos on an old backup drive, I stumbled across these pictures from a wonderful day Mona and I spent in my craft room back in 2005.  She tells me that this was what got her hooked on the card making.  Should I feel bad I created another papercrafting addict???  Heck NO!!!

Hope you enjoy a stroll down memory lane. . . .

Family Vacation

What a good vacation it was!  Just got back from Jacksonville, FL where we had a family reunion for an early celebration of my parents 50th wedding anniversary and my "baby" brother's 44th birthday.  And while there I enlisted the help of my neices in making the cards for the weekly family newsletter this week.

Here's a pic of me and the girls doing a little crafting. . .

We used the Sunny Fun stamp set from the Summer Mini catalog and those cute new paper packs I got at Memory Lane a couple of weeks ago. 

Here's all six of the cards together and then a close up of each of the cards.  I thought it was so cute that they wanted to sign their "art work".  I'm sure the family will love them.  It was a true joy to just give them some stamps, paper and baker's twine and watch them create.

With the Family

By the time you're reading this post, I'll hopefully be safe and sound in Jacksonville, Florida with the family. It will be kind of cool to actually be there when Mom gets the mail and finds this card that I made for the weekly family newletter last weekend. I decided to break out the Walk In My Garden Cricut cartridge and play a little. I really liked how this turned out and Cricut Man even helped glue the pieces together. Although after he told me he'd much rather push the buttons on the machine and cut instead of doing such tedious work with the little glue pens. But despite a few off kilter centers to the sunflowers he did a darn fine job! I think I'll keep him! :-)

See you next week.

A Few More Scraps

Here's the card I created just because a had some little yellow circles that were just too hard to throw away.  Glad I didn't as I really liked the way this turned out.  I got to use my new 5 petal punch, more of the summer designer papers and the "quilting" technique where you run your entire card face through an embossing folder.  I embossed a similar card with the swirls embossing folder but this one uses the lattice folder that I've just fallen in love with.

Scraps for my Gal Pals

A quick post to show you the bookmarks I made and gave to my Gal Pals last night.  I'm hoping they can find good use for them. . . .maybe even to mark the pages in their new SU catalog ;-)

Loose Ends

 Remember last week when I said this post got away from me?  Well I thought since we started the week on a red, white and blue theme that I'd finish what I originally intended to post.

In addition to posting the picture of one of the centerpieces for tables at our 4th of July BBQ. . . . .I intended to explain that I made the little stick decorations based on a card pattern from last year.  The card included the invitation to last year's 4th of July BBQ which included the christening of our retaining wall. 

So just tidy up loose ends and make sure my little blog is complete for future posterity :-), I'm posting the rest pics.

The sentiment on the card was actually one I crafted in Word using a bunch of different text boxes and font styles.  It was based off of a Stampin' Up stamp that quite honestly I was just too cheap to buy :-(  And  the torn patterned paper was scraps from another project because I was too lazy to go hunting for new :-(.  Geez!  What a confession!  "Cheap and lazy" all in one post.  Maybe I need to reframe that into something more positive. . . ."thrifty and creative".  There!  I like that much better!!

Red, White and Blue - Always a good combo!

This is a card Mona  made for her DH (Darling Husband in Splitcoast talk :-)).  Isn't it cute!  I have to admit as the Queen of Flag Day I'm very partial to the color combination.

I thought the stars strung on the line with a teeny tiny clothes pin was so clever. 

With the pennants and banner being such a big deal right now in cardmaking, I thought this variation was really cool. And it gets my creative juices flowing about all the other fun shapes you could string on a banner. Maybe that would be a good next challenge Gal Pals???!!!!



More Scraps

Inspired by Mona's recent resolution to use up her scraps, here's a card I made for the family.  It used the Spring Blossoms patterned papers and the Hellow Again stamp set. 

I have to tell you a little secret. . . I went through my Stampin Up designer papers and looked up in the catalog what colors they coordinate with and then on one of my splurges I ordered all the matching ink pads.  It's been SO nice to be able to put a card together more quickly when I have ink and embellishments that match the papers I  want to use. 

It's still fun to play with my other stash and be creative with mixing and matching and collaging with all the things I've collected these past few years but when I'm in a hurry I'm just loving the coordination.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.  This is my last one at home before we leave for Jacksonville so I'm definitely going to enjoy it.  And it looks like Mother Nature is going to give some beautiful weather to play in.  See ya' back here Monday!

Another Blast from the Past

I was sorting through some digital pictures on an old backup drive and found these from one of our old, old, original gal pal get togethers. . . .the dates on the pictures were 2003!!!!  It was a Saturday party I threw at the house for some of the gals from Business Services. . .Faythe, Ann, Maggie, Val. . .can't remember who else.  I remember the project was to make explosion boxes but we also did a little show and tell of some cards Ann had been making - like the cute one above.  I forgot what cute designs she came up with.  Here's a little stroll down memory lane. . . .

Faythe, Ann, Maggie stacking the explosion boxes we made:

Our handmade boxes after the stacking effort:

Faythe and that's Val behind the 12x12 paper shield - silly woman!:

More of Ann's cute cards and from the samples it looks like the party was somewhere close to Easter:

These were the good old days of our office.  So much has changed since.  But I'm forever grateful for the time I got to spend with these wonderful women.  (Think of the song when you read this. . . .) "Thanks for the Memories. . . ."

A New Flower

Mona sent an e-mail with a picture yesterday and the subject line of the e-mail was so sweet. . . ."I have a new flower in my garden".  When I opened the e-mail I was so touched to see this beautiful picture of her grand-daughter Haylee.  Isn't she a cutie!

I remembered seeing this template in My Digital Studio so I asked Mona at the shop last night if it was OK to use on this page.  It seems just a perrfect fit doesn't it?  Apparently Mona's daughter to 92 other pictures which definitley is enough to finish all the rest of the pages in the MDS album template - hint, hint, Mona :-)

Pennants and more

That last post "So Missoula" got away from me.  Had it saved for publishing later but it took off on it's own.  Man! Am I have a hard time with the blog this week - first no e-mail for yesterday's post and then a run away post today.  Guess it's the upcoming full moon energy making life a little whacko :-)

Now on to what is really supposed to be today's post. . . .

This one is for Debbie at Memory Lane.  We recently shared some thoughts on all the cool things you could do with the new Pennants punch that's in the new catalog - which by the way will be here by the end of the day tomorrow.  While surfing the Stampin' Connection section of the demonstrator's web site, I stumbled on this handout from a very wonderful woman who put together all the ways you might use the new punch and the coordinating stamps sets.  You may have to click on the image to see it better.  This one is definitley on my wish list!  See you at the shop tonight!

So Missoula. . .

Posting this picture of one of the centerpieces from the 4th of July BBQ last week.

Some SU and MDS Updates

Hope everyone had a good weekend.  Mine was a little more easy going than last weekend which was really nice. 

Today's post is the FREE card template that Stampin' Up is offering for My Digital Studio.  Hope those of you that have MDS will go download it.  If you've ever ordered anything online from Stampin' Up, you  should be able to just log in, pick me as your demonstrator, order this and it should be available for you to download immediately.  Click here if you want it.  If you've never ordered online from SU then it may take overnight for the item to appear on your available downloads.

And while you're there, don't forget to download the latest updates to MDS.  They have the new In Colors for your color palette.

One last little piece of SU news to share with you if you're interested. . . .during August if you order 3 packs of designer series paper, you'll get 1 FREE.  Let me know if you think you're interested.

***Our new catalogs are on the way!!! - should be here tomorrow or Wednesday.  So I'll be sure  to get them out as quickly as possible. 

Guess that's it for now on the SU front.  Have a great day!

Sketch It

Hopefully Mom doesn't see this blog post until she opens her mail today.  This is this week's family newsletter card.  It's a one layer card using an old, old (I think retired??) stamp set called Sketch It.  Mona let me borrow a stamp magazine a couple of weeks ago and it was filled with card done on craft cardstock which I just LOVE and which was the starting inspiration for this.  I thought for a quick clean and simple card it turned out pretty cute.  I did make one boo-boo "creative deviation" :-) . . . .I accidentally got some stray ink on one of the cards when I went to stamp the sentiment (which by the way is another old, old set from Hero Arts).  So I added a little bling over the top to cover it up and then the flower just begged for a little bling too.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.  See ya' next week.

This was last week's card for the family newsletter.  It used 4 different punches and my new Posey Punch stamp set.  The leaves behind the flower are from the bird punch and the label is the Designer Label punch cut in half.  I really liked how it turned out.  And I love the bright cheery colors.

Am looking forward to posting the really cute card Mona made and showed us at the shop on Tuesday (hint, hint Mona :-) . . .don't forget to send me the picture).  So stayed tuned and have a nice day. 

Geo Dies

I can't remember what night it was last week but I was really restless and went down to the craft room just to piddle.  As I was cleaning up I came across the Geo Dies I bought a few months ago and decided to play a little.  This started out as a card but ended up as a notebook for my good friend Jeannie.  I used my Bind-it-All to put it together.  I loved how it turned out.  And I especially love, love, love that paper.  Here's a couple of more views from the side and back.  Definitely will be making a few more of these.

Birthday Cards - Part 2

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July.

Wanted to share with you the cute, clean and simple card Mona gave me for my birthday.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, her current crafting resolution is to use up all the paper scraps she's accumulated.  Isn't this card just the cutest!!!  What an inspiration.  I don't think I'll ever toss a 1 x 3 strip of paper ever again! :-)

Birthday Cards - Part 1

Thank you Val for my beautiful paper toille birthday card.  It was one of your best yet and I feel honored to have it.  Finally!  . . .  instead of teasingly saying after you finish each of your fabulous  paper toille cards at the shop. . ."Can I have that?" . . . . I *really* CAN have it!!!  You're the best!  Hope you get just a few hours of rest and fun this weekend in between all your fiscal year end stuff. 

Happy 4th of July everyone!