Amy Sheffer/ Pickled Paper Designs

If you have not added Amy Sheffer to your list of favorite blogs to visit, add her now ( http://pickledpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/). She is my partner in crime! She has been consigning cards with me recently at Greenberry's Coffee & Tea (Leesburg, VA and McLean, VA locations). We met for coffee (can you guess where?) and she brought me a set of great Valentines to inventory. Check them out:
http://pickledpaperdesigns.blogspot.com/2007/12/another-rescue.htm

Lauren, are you near 46 South Park Place, Morristown, NJ 07960? That would be the closest location to you. Of course I do not know if the owner of that store can get the famous chocolate tea cakes...but at least you could get a decent cuppa joe and not have to go to Starbucks!

P.S. GO REDSKINS!!!

Happy New Year (almost)

I just could not get a good picture today. This was the best of 7! The pink card is DCWV and really less Pepto-Bismol IRL. It is actually a very pretty salmon color. I stamped in black on a glossy background paper I made using Tria inks, a gold Pilot pen, and rubbing alcohol. The cat w/ presents stamp is by Magenta and the "happy birthday happy birthday" is SU!. I made this card two more times in the same color scheme and card design using the presents from the other two stamps pictured Denami Designs (3 presents) & Magenta (dragonfly).

Merry Christmas!

Here are my girls enjoying their scooters and Dora dolls my Sweet sweet sister& hubby (aka Aunt Angela & Uncle James) bought for my girls. We celebrated Christmas with them on Saturday. You can't pick your relatives, but I sure feel fortunate to be related to one of the most thoughtful, considerate, and generous people I have ever known. I love you, Ang and James :)

A tradition in my family for as long as I have been alive is to celebrate with my parents, grandparents, my aunt, and cousins today, Christmas Eve. Tomorrow we have Christmas here as a family of four, then off to my parents' house to celebrate with my Godmother. Fun, fun, fun!!! I love tradition :)

I may not blog for a while...maybe not until 2008, so here is wishing you a very happy new year!

Don't get me started on 'Joy'

A little mass production goin' on. I usually like to make one-of-a-kind cards or maybe a few of the same/similar. Of course, that's what happens when I try to make cards out of every last scrap...I like the challenge of that. But once in a while a little mindless mass production is therapeutic.

My left index finger is a little sore opening up all the mini brads used on both cards :) The "O" in "JOY" is popped up on dimensionals, though the pic makes it look flush with the card.

Many of my blogger friends have posted that they are a bit frazzled with Christmas preparations and not having time to scrap. I'm behind on some things and ahead on others. And you know what? I'm not even stressin' over it. E.g. I am gonna send out Christmas photo cards again this year, but the photo has not been taken yet :) Hey, I figure as long as I send them out before the Epiphany, I'm okay, right? But I have already written and sent 7 thank you notes for Christmas gifts. I also got all the gifts that needed to be sent wrapped and mailed and all have been received as of yesterday. And the girls' teachers, teacher assistants, therapists, and bus driver & her assistant have all received there gifts and sent me thank you notes. But I have not finished buying Julia & Kathryn's gifts or their stocking stuffers. Buying for them is SO much fun, so I'm saving the best for last.

I have today and tomorrow, and then Friday morning I am meeting Tracy at Greenberry's. What a GREAT way to kick off the big holiday weekend :)

And if you are curious about today's title, "Don't get me started on 'Joy'", it is a quote from one of our favorite tv shows, "Monk." Adrian Monk (Tony Shaloub) does not like Christmas, and in this year's Christmas episode he says that at the beginning of the episode. He cracks me up! I have that playing over and over in my head today. I took the online Monk quiz and I scored "more Monkish than most". Go, ME!

Simple Scrapbook Page

I am skipping around. Those of you that have been with me for awhile know that I scrapbooked all of 2004 in July/August. I'm taking a break from it to make cards (my favorite craft thing to do.) I started planning 2005 with dps and developed pictures too, but I am not yet motivated to do more. As part of the class I am teaching this Saturday, we are doing two Criss Cross cards (posted Monday) and a January scrapbook page (this one). So I pulled these pics of Julia & Kathryn, Kathryn & Julia (age 3 1/2) from January 2006. In my completely objective unprejudiced opinion, these are two CUTE girls!!!

On another note, My dh (aka Hottie McSexy) has been working from home 1-2 days/week. I LOVE having him home and spending lunch with him and the time that would have been commuting :) On the down side, it means no blog time 'cause he's on the 'puter. So if I have not been leaving comments on your blog, it's not because I don't want to! I'll be by soon :)

Deck the Halls card class

Here are 7 of 8 different cards my peeps made on Sunday. Everything is pre-cut, they just have to assemble. They could make as many as they wanted in a 2 hour time frame. I'm offering the class again on Saturday, Dec. 15th, following my techniques class (2 criss cross cards from yesterday's post + a simple scrapbook page that I will post tomorrow.)

Criss Cross Cards

I taught a Christmas card making class yesterday at Ashburn Family Scrapbook Center...8 different cards, they could make as many as they wanted in 2 hours. WHEW! That was fun, but exhausting. I've worked so long preparing for that class that I have neglected my monthly Teaching Techniques class that I teach this Saturday! 5 days away and I have not prepared. Kely (store owner) asked me to use the 2 Karen Foster papers and pinch tabs (pictured right). She also asked me to do a scrapbook page with it. Okay, so I couldn't see me doing a scrapbook page with a New Year's theme AND I have been wanting to try these criss cross cards for 3 months now since I first discovered them at the end of September. (Thank you, Ms. Cambria Turnbow! http://cambriaturnbow.blogspot.com/) After I cleaned up from my card class, I grabbed the 4 colors of Bazzill cs to coordinate with these papers and I just made these two cards this morning. Don't you think these could also go for anniversary cards? Even the one on the right...if you wrote "Olive you" on it? Maybe the one on the right could even be a birthday card?

Okay, now I'm off to design a simple scrapbook page too. Yes, it will be simple. Hey, 2 cards and a simple scrapbook page is a good value for a $10 class.

Birthday Cards

(Left) My design using Sharon Ann scraps and a TLC rub-on.

(Top) one 8x8 of DCWV dp "Happy Birthday", a scrap of DCWV 8x8 from a previous card (floral print; http://simplyelegantpapercrafts.blogspot.com/2007/10/birthday-cards.html), and cs stickers also included in the DCWV 8x8 stack.

Cardmaps Sketch @ {Caardvarks} Day 7

No scraps today...I cut 2 fresh sheets of AC 12x12. The sentiment is a TLC rub-on and the metals are SU!

I went by Greenberry's for my chocolate tea cake fix and a mocha latte. The district manager came in and told me they had an event and bought up all the birthday cards. So while I was waiting for Caardvarks to post today's Becky Fleck sketch, guess what I did this morning? I'll post those tomorrow...

I can't see what Caardvarks has in store for bloggers next week! I hope that Becky Fleck will be back. She is awesome :)

Cardmaps Sketch @ {Caardvarks} Day 6

Wow! I've made it through Day 6...one day to go! I am lovin' these Becky Fleck sketches. For today's card I used Sharon Ann scraps that I used on a previous project and had not yet filed away :) The green cs is Bazzill. The rub-on and ribbon is AC. I used an SU! punch for the flower. I curled up the petals for added dimension. Viola!

Cardmaps Sketch @ {Caardvarks} Day 5

Scrap of SU! dp, Michael's ribbon, K&Co. acetate sentiment, DCWV mini brad, cream cs. My dh, DH bought the K&Co. acetates for me 1 1/2 years ago as part of my Mother's day gifts. I wanted them so much, and I just used my first one LOL!

Cardmaps Sketch @ {Caardvarks} Day 4

I made the blue floral & stripes card first. I used discontinued MM double-sided cs, 6 mini brads, and an SU! green gem brad. Sentiment by PSX. I agonized over this card, and I'm not sure about the end result. So I took a shower and the idea to use black, white, and red popped in my head. The black & white are both Bazzill cs. Sentiment is Hero Arts. Black snaps by MM. Faux stitching using a paper piercer and a white gel pen. The red polka dot paper I found in the trash can at the scrapbook store. (I love me a good scrap!) This one seems to be too bare at the bottom. Hmmmm....any suggestions?

Cardmaps Sketch @ {Caardvarks} Day 3

Thanks to Caardvarks 7 day Cardmaps challenge, I am slowly getting caught up on some cards I needed to make. My card from Day 1 is a thank you card for our realtor who gives us a gift certificate every year at Christmas. My card from Day 2 is a thank you note for my husband to write for his birthday presents from my parents (dh's birthday was yesterday). Lastly, Mr. Al Saunders requested some congratulations cards. Here it is! I hope he likes it :)

New sketch day 2

Here is my card using today's {Caardvarks}sketch. I used all scraps from a class I took at Sue's house last spring...I love when I use my scraps. All are SU! products except the mini brad (DCWV).

A sketch to try

Caardvarks blog is featuring Cardmaps (http://caardvarks.blogspot.com/2007/12/week-of-cardmaps-day-one.html)

This is today's sketch to try.

I used red linen cs, scraps of dk green Bazzill, cream cs, ribbon from Michael's, sentiment is an Anna Griffin stamp, the polka dots on flower is an SU! stamp, and thescallops and flowers are all SU! punches. I used dimensionals for the sentiment and flower.