Christmas Day 2003

I finished scrappin' 2003 in our Christmas album. I actually made it to Ritz camera today and chose 5 or 6 pics to do a LO of 2004. Perhaps tomorrow...

I love these dps from today's LO (and yesterday's). Trust me, my photography of the LOs did not do these papers justice.

I used my QK font Tangerine and it's shadow for "Dec 25" and "2003". I used my CM gold gel pen to journal.

Christmas 2003

Yep, five years ago. I have a gazillion cards & projects I should be working on. But I made this simple LO this morning. Do you do that too? Do something that has very low priority when you should be doing something else?

This first page is of Julia, the next page of Kathryn ( they were 16 months old).

My friend, Angela, brought over 4 craft containers filled with 12x12 last week. She said she is so tired of having so much stuff that I could have whatever I wanted. I certainly want to compensate her somehow, because she motivated me when she showed me these Christmas dps. I knew I had to start on our Christmas scrapbook.

I purchased this CM embossed Christmas album when my CM consultant had her moving sale (she didn't want to haul all that inventory to her new home, so she sold everything at 25% off. I bought the album in early 2004. About four years ago I actually did the first page of the album (Christmas 2002; the girls were 6 months old.)

Today I finally started on 2003 (pages 2 & 3 of this scrapbook). My next two page LO will be of Christmas Day 2003 (can you believe I have the pictures developed and ready to be scrapped?) That will be pages 4 & 5.
<***insert heavy sigh***> I looked through all our pictures from 2004. Can you believe we did not take a single picture of our two little angels on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day that year? We are such bad parents! I had to get my dad to make a cd of pictures he took that year. Now that I am started on this album, I'd like to get it caught up through 2007. Shouldn't be too hard when you don't take pictures!!!

Just Rite Stationery

I had just a little of this SU! dp left from this chipboard clipboard project from earlier this year. I had enough to make 3 portrait and 3 landscape orientations of the card set pictured. This set will go to dh's little cousin, Alice. We are headed back to NC in ten days for Alice's bridal shower, rehearsal dinner, bridesmaid's luncheon, and wedding. PHEW! It will be an event-filled Columbus Day weekend. This is my first attempt using my new Just Rite stamp set. I could not find any cs to coordinate with the dp, then I remembered the 5x7 Bazzill pads that Mike's had on clearance last month. Only $4/pad! I bought one of each color palette.

But you know what made this even better? The card base is Mike's Value Pack cards that are not quite A2 (4x 5.5). If I leave a .25 border, the Bazzill should be cut at 3.5x 5...exactly 1/2 of the 5x7! WAHOO!!! NO SCRAPS :)


I eked out one more scalloped circle out of the scrap dp and stamped one more monogram on whisper white, added the ribbon for this finished product to put with our gifts to Ali.

And I used my D'vine Swirls Cuttlebug embossing folder :)

Still with the Stiletto & Meeting Brian

When I went on a coffee date yesterday with dh (to Greenberry's Coffee & Tea Co., of course), one of the barristas, Stacy, said she was going to buy the last stilleto card for her sister's birthday. The next customer who came in purchased the card! Stacy said she didn't know what to do. She felt that card was perfect for her girly-girl sister. I asked her what her sister's favorite colors are, and she replied,"hunter green and black." I told her I would try to make one using those colors, but if she didn't like it, my feelings would not be hurt...just stick it in my basket to be sold.

Yesterday was errand jam-packed and I was gone from the house all day at meetings and volunteering. Wouldn't you know it, but I had a bad dream last night that woke me up at 1:30a.m. By 3:15a.m. I knew sleep was no where near. So I got up, made this card, and went back to bed. I used Ponderosa Pine linen cs, Augusta Green linen cs, and black suede paper. The prima is SU and the brad is MM.

I invoiced a handful of Halloween cards and some various birthday/thinking of you cards after the girls got on the bus, and took them over to Greenberry's. The stiletto card and purple haunted house card (see previous post) never made it to the basket. Stacy loved them both and told the other barristas, "These are mine." Then I saw a gentleman walk behind the counter. I asked him, "Are you Brian?" He replied in the affirmative and I introduced myself as, "June; the card lady." You see, Brian just purchased G'berry's from the previous owner about a month ago. I had not met him yet, but the previous owner made Brian aware of my arrangement with G'berry's.

Despite the fact that Brian dropped the vendor that sold the super-fantabulous-chocolate tea cakes, he is very nice. He hurried around the corner and sat down with me and asked me if I would consider selling my greeting cards at his other Greenberry's (in Reston, VA). He said he has had lots of postive feedback about the cards and his wife came in one time and loved them. His wife runs the Reston location. Wahoo! Now I will be selling at all 3 Greenberry's locations in northern Virginia. That means a little more mass production (a little boring, but saves time) and another location to move cards around that don't sell as quickly (this happens rarely, but it has happened a few times). I love having the 2 stores because if a card sits for two months at one store, I move it to the other, and it usually sells quickly. Go figure. But at least I don't have a stash of cards taking up space in my craft room that nobody wants. Everything sells eventually.

Wicked Cool Halloween Card

Modest title, don't you think?

I didn't know if I would have time to make cards today or not. I'm not feeling particularly creative lately; it seems like my cards have been all the same lately.

I used my 40% off coupon at Mike's to purchase a package of glitter foam stickers (there were 3 of these purple houses) and another 40% off coupon to buy the small pack of K&Co. dps to coordinate. The ribbon I won as blog candy from Sarah. The yellow cs is scrap and the base card is DCWV.

The sentiment, "Things have not been the same since that house fell on my sister" is computer-generated. I think this card will sell due to the sentiment alone :)

Apple Cider and a Cupcake?

This is a variation of my "kind" and "cherish" cards, pictured here (below the Halloween and American Crafts cards). I used my SU! Apple Cider dps again and some yummy chocolate chip ribbon :) The brads are MM and the sentiment stamp is MFT.

I managed 2 cards like this one. Very simple, huh? The "celebrate" is a QuicKutz icing (aka rub-on).

Make it a great day!

Giant Cupcake One-of-a-Kind card

Last night I started straightening up my craft room...again. I like it neat, but I have so much schtuff. I started putting away the dps I have been using lately, and then I came across this Basic Grey dp that I used to make 2 cards with already. Rather than file it somewhere and forget I had it, I cut it up to make a total of 5 more cards. When I was satisfied with my mini re-organization, I noticed this brown fuzzy scrap. I have long since forgotten the name of this type of textured paper. Back in the day I mostly saw people die cut teddy bears out of it. I don't do cute very often, so my scrap sat for 6 or 7 years. I had enough to eke out one cupcake bottom. I love my pink irridescent hand-made paper from India...it works well as icing, or on Valentine's Day cards. I got a chance to use these red doo-dads (I don't know the name of these either...aren't I a wealth of information today? Somebody help me!) I bought a jar of green and a jar of red doo-dads. I thought they might look nice on a stamped Christmas tree. I used dimensionals under the "icing". The base card is DCWV.

Now I'm going to go see if I can design 4 more birthday cards from this BG dp. Thanks for stopping by!

Frankie Say Relax, Don't Do It

OOPS! Wrong Frankie. That was Frankie Goes to Hollywood. This SU! Frankie says, "Trick or treat, smell my feet." This card is completely SU! (dps, pumpkin pie cs, stamp, & dimensionals) except for the Martha Stewart spider web. I purchased the papers last year to make teacher gifts, and I had plenty left over to make 12 cards like this one.

I actually made this card last month when I went to NC to visit my girlfriends. I just made the other 11 yesterday :)

Taking A Break from cards/ Using my stash

This paper is new stash. This was a bargain at Mike's. It was a 12x12 paper pack marked down from $19.99, to $10, to $2.99! Okay, for less than $3 it needed to come home to my stash. When I went to do this LO, I went through all of my dps, and this new pack had the best match :)
Who is the hottie in the top left picture?




This dp came from an 8x8 paper pack (also at Mike's) that I used a 40% coupon for last June. The two cs stickers and white snaps were in my stash. The dp has that white-paint- distressed look...I like! The guy in the orange hat is my f-i-l. This scrapbook album will be his Christmas present this year.

This is from the same 8x8 pack as the previous LO. I used pink double-dipped cs to mat (and white cs), but I used an SU scallop punch and white acrylic paint on the pink mat on the left-hand page. I used my SU white gel pen to journal.

Okay, I confess. I bought this pre-made LO from Mike's this week. It was 40% off. Please forgive me. I did come home and find some green-ish paper to mount the pics on so the blue-green Princess Ariel costumes would coordinate a bit better with the pre-made LO. I never thought I would use that blue-green paper. It was part of an old slab that I barely use, so it feels good to get some use out of it :)

So you got to see a glimpse of my two cuties from September & October 2007! Hopefully I will get more LOs completed between now and Christmas. I'll post as I do them. Now, back to Halloween cards...(come back tomorrow, okay?)

Oh, Deer!

I went to post this card two days ago (well, one very similar to it anyway) and realized I had accidentally deleted the picture. Bummer! So I went to Greenberry's to cheer myself up with an cinnamon mocha shake. When I walked in Carrie, one of the barristas, says, "Oh, June! I am so glad you're here!" (It is nice to feel so warmly welcomed, isn't it?) Then she says, "My favorite card you brought in this week has sold. Will you make me one? I have a friend I want to send it to. It was the deer card." ACK!!!

I had made 5 of these "to a deer friend" and by the next day they were gone. I think they are cute, but I thought they would slowly dwindle for the rest of September/October. I told Carrie I had deleted my picture, but I would try to remember what I had done. I used October Afternoon dp, green Bazzill cs, ivory notecard stamped with the SU! linen background stamp in Memories sand ink, and the sentiment (A Muse) stamped in chocolate chip. The ribbon is a scrap. I used SU! punches and dimensionals behind the sentiment. I was able to get 4 more cards from that one sheet of 12x12 (it would have been 10 total, but one piece did not have an entire deer showing). Besides, I had exactly enough of the wide dark brown ribbon in my scrap jar to do these last four cards. I guess I should look for some at Michael's :)

I also noticed all my giant cupcake cards were gone too. Looks like I have my work cut out for me :)

Welcome Baby

I certainly have my baby card stash up right now :)

The onesie stamp and sentiment stamp is SU!

I also used the medium SU! oval punch, colored with SU! markers, and used SU! dimensionals. The base card is from Lasting Impressions.

Sweet & simple.

Happy Fall, Y'all!

I mentioned in yesterday's post that I had to buy the SU! dp apple cider last year. I was enabled by Sue when we made this card at her monthly Stamp Camp.

Last week I went to Sue's stamp camp. I was inspired by last year's card (yes, still!) and I borrowed those same pumpkin stamps to make this "happy fall" card. I was going through my card & coordinating envelope drawer and I found 3 of these Lasting Impressions striped dry embossed cards with green envelopes and orange envelopes. I found my coordinating LI dps, and brought it all to Sue's house. I used SU! cs (craft & black) and SU! oval punches and dimensionals. The mini brad is DCWV. The stamp is by KT Designs.

I used these 3 cards up! I also have 8 LI square dry embossed cards with swiss dots. I borrowed Sue's baby stamp and I hope to make some simple baby cards today.

Make it a great day! I'll see you tomorrow :)

A Little Mass Production...Autumn Colors

I made 6 cards like this with these SU! Apple Cider dps I just had to have last year and just opened :)

The ribbon is from Michael's and I used SU! Chocolate Chip ink to stamp the leaf and sentiment. I am in love with chocolate chip :) The base card is from Michael's Value Pack.

I hope you enjoyed a nice weekend. Ours flew by! We went to Six Flags on Saturday, and today we ran errands and worked on our "To Do" list.

I hope to visit my favorite blogs tomorrow and leave some comments for you!

Pretty Scraps

I found this pretty striped dp in my scrap bag. It is ds, with the mint green on the reverse side. I don't know the manufacturer, but I could go through my notebooks of classes I've taught and try to figure out where it came from if anyone really wants to know :)

I drew this onesie many years ago, and I use the template to cut out more when I feel like making them. It is one of my favorite baby cards to make. I trace and cut out the onesie, add the eyelets, then make a card with it.

The sentiment is a MM rub-on, and I don't know who made the white eyelets. The base card is DCWV, and I used SU! dimensionals behind the onesie.


This pink/orange/green striped dp was also in the same pastel-ish scrap bag of unknown manufacturers. I had the idea to make these cards (I made 4 total). It seemed like a good idea at the time, but now I'm looking at them and I'm not so sure. Oh well, we'll see if they sell.

The primas I bought at Michael's last month (I used on those St. Pat's cards, remember?) The sentiments are CI rub-ons. The base cards are DCWV.

See you tomorrow!

Taking A Break of sorts

I need to take a little break of using little scraps and do a little mass production . I went back to this designer paper pack from Stampin' Up! I used a little to make a few cards around Mother's Day earlier this year.

I made 6 cards like this. I originally wanted to put the scalloped circle/sentiment in the bottom center instead of bottom left. But the words "Stampin' Up! 2006" were in that corner. Ack! I had to cover it up, then I added the 3 Making Memories brads for balance. (This is from the fabulous Julee's Monday Mojo Sketches, #7.)

I like it even better than my original plan. My mom often says, "Sometimes when things don't work out, they really do." Yep. Works for me :)

The sentiment is a Hero Arts stamp, using SU! chocolate chip ink. See you tomorrow :) Thank you for stopping by!

Birthday Wishes to 3 GREAT Girlfriends

I am uploading this card as sort of an e-card to Tracy Parlett, Amy Sheffer, and Jean Yates. (I listed in the order I met them, so as not to play favorites.) Seriously, what are the odds of having three great girlfriends all born the SAME day (assuming they aren't triplets, of course!) And these ladies are different ages. Amy is 40 today, and Tracy and Jean are just a couple of years older. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

Today's card started with this square scrap of October Afternoon dp. (The flip side is that apple print I used to make the teachers their back-to-school gifts, remember those?) So now I have used that entire sheet of 12x12.
I bought a pack of these pretty green dry embossed cards at ACMoore a couple of years ago. They still sell them, but beware...they are very very very flimsy! The green was a pretty good match to the dp, as well as the Creative Imaginations rub-on sentiment. The blue cs was more difficult to match (embossed with Cuttlebug Birds & Swirls), but thank goodness for scrap bags. Scraps usually come to the rescue. Iused SU! punches, dimensionals, and silver frame around the sentiment.

I actually glued 2 pieces of 8.5"x11" cs together, then cut to fit inside. Yes, 2 pieces! Did I mention the green base card is flimsy??? I like my cards to have weight. I used an SU! stamp and Marvelous Markers on the inside corner.

Designing a card around a scrap is way too time consuming, but the end result was worth it, I think :)

Cupcakes Galore & Using Up Bits of Stash

This is another version of my card that is somewhat Lauren-ish. This time I used up the Jolees flower stickers from yesterday's post (where I used all the butterflies.) All dots and stitches are hand-drawn :) The dps are KI.

For the second card, I used white acrylic paint to distress. These dps are Wild Asparagus. The base green that I ran through the Cuttlebug embossing folder is tropical green from ACMoore.

For the last card I used up my last aqua prima and my last 3 red primas (all Making Memories). The mini brads and base cards are all DCWV.

Have a great day!

I was inspired by my blog friend, Leslie Hanna ( aka The Crooked Stamper), to make these cards. See her card here.I used up a whole 5-pack of these Hero Arts specialty paper bamboo cards that have been collecting dust for 7 or 8 years :) I also **nearly** used up some Jolee vellum stickers (I used all of the butterflies in the package) that are equally as old. The hat pins, pearls, and clear bead are all from the SU! Pretties kit. The sentiments are all Class-A-Peels.
The hand-made paper is difficult to write on, so I scored and folded a half sheet of cs (8.5"x5.5"). The cards are a little larger than that, so it was a perfect fit. To "attach" the inside piece of scored cs to the bamboo base card, I punched two holes at the fold and used ribbon. The ribbons are all CTMH; also collecting dust, but only ~2 years old. I had to have the ink pads, papers, ribbons, and brads all coordinating (like SU!), but of course I rarely use them. I forget I even have them. So yea, ME! And a big thank you to you, Miss Leslie :)

Elegant Birthday Card

My friend, Kaye, made a card similar to this for me a few years ago. Our friend, Dora, had made a card like this for Kaye, and Kaye knew I'd love it too, so she made one for me. Rubber Stampers are really good at enabling each other, aren't we? I immediately went to ACMoore to buy the shoe stamp, but didn't use it (you know how that goes!) until over a year ago when I made the card below it (I originally posted in July 2007).

Now the stamp was put to good use a second time, on red linen cs, white linen cs, black suede specialty paper, whisper white (sentiment computer generated), and May Arts ribbon. This card is really classy IRL on the linen cs and the suede paper.

I hope you are having a fabulous weekend! See you tomorrow :)

Funky Scraps Card

I attended a local scrapbook convention in February 2007 with my girlfriends Kaye, Dora, and Jackie. There was an SU! consultant there doing make-n-take tidbits. I made this "y o u" at her booth. I came across it when I was going through my SU! scraps bag (to make the cards from yesterday's post.) I put it on my scrap table, hoping it would "speak" to me. I decided on a "happy 4 you" sentiment. I used my QK "happy" and a pink Bazzill cs scrap. I took a scrap of green SU cs and stamped it with versamark and my SU! polka dot stamp. Then I used my QK Tangerine font w/ shadow for the "4". I ran a scrap of white cs through the Cuttlebug swiss dots embossing folder and added a DCWV mini brad. I grabbed another scrap of pink Bazzill cs and used my Fiskars scallop border punch. Lastly dimensionals for the "y o u". Done.

A question for you: I spent almost an hour on this card for the satisfaction of using the "y o u" up. I did consider just tossing it. My question is this, would you have tossed it and not spent so much time on one card? It is more time & cost effective for me to mass produce; but sometimes I do enjoy a challenge :) I'm not crazy about this card in general, but my younger customers will surely like it.

So Sweet of You set of Cards

I made a set of cards for Julie, Julia's summer tutor. (Confused yet? Their names are one letter different!) We have known Julie for over 2 years. We first met her when she was a teacher assistant in Julia's pre-school class (Julie age 19, Julia age 4). Julie & Julia have a very strong bond. Julie requested to be an assistant in Julia's 1st grade class this year. Together again! (Now ages 21 & 6). We feel so very fortunate. I can only hope my daughters grow up to be like "Miss Julie". I'm thinking I should let Julie's mom raise J&K as long as I can get visitation rights :)

I did not get a chance to make Julie a thank you gift for tutoring Julia over the summer. I made this set of cards in this acrylic box(completely SU! scraps except for the DCWV mini brad and Michael's ribbon...how long are these scraps gonna last???) . We love you, Julie!

Using 2007 Halloween stash, part II

Keeping it simple. Distressed everything with black ink. Used SU! Oval punches and purple eyelets. And don't forget those dimensionals! I should buy stock in those.

I used one of Kaye's stamps (the witch flying in front of the moon). I made these at her house when I was in NC ten days ago. I hand drew the stitches on the arrow.

Very simple. Used th SU ticket corner punch on the orange layer. This was the last metallic blue card I had in my stash. It looks cool with the spooky fun ticket, dontcha think?

Fun, fun, fun to make. But I seriously need to get in my craft room now and make birthday, thinking of you, baby, etc. cards and stop the holiday cards for now. See ya tomorrow!

Using 2007 Halloween stash

Halloween cards are a big seller for me. I made all of these from scraps from last year's (K&Co. 2007) stash. I really want to use it all up, but you know how that goes :) I have stash from Making Memories, and I'd like to use that too. I use a lot of that green-yellow (top left card in pic), and I'm almost out. Last week I purchased the small scrap pad of this year's K&Co. Halloween dps ($3.99 less 40% coupon), which has a few sheets of a similar green-yellow, plus some other super cute dps. I resisted the 12x12 K&Co. pad, though it is a much better deal. I love the K&Co. Halloween papers (I love all their papers...always so classy), both the 2007 and 2008, but I would get tired of using the same patterns to make Halloween cards every year, kwim? They would last forever.
Last year I put out my Halloween cards starting October 1st, which gives me one month to build the stash. I sold 40 Halloween cards last year, so I'd better get busy!

I just called both my coffee shops. I sold a combined total of 85 cards for the month of August. Wahoo! I don't know when I'll get to McLean to pick up my pay, and I need to invoice cards for them anyway :)

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps => Card for Martha

I made this card for my friend, Martha. I still had out my KI scraps bag from Kaye's card (yesterday's post). The circle of KI dp shown here was already cut. I had taught a circle book class at Memories, and apparently I cut one too many, or it would not have been in the bag.

The card came together this way (a little trip through my brain):

1. Pulled circle of dp out of KI scrap bag.

2. Wow! That's a big circle...no A2 card today...gotta get out the larger cards from the ValuePack cards.

3. I love green & purple together; I'll get out the green Bazzill scrap bag and the purple Bazzill scrap bag.

4. I usually leave a 1/8" border on my cards, but the largest scrap of purple Bazzill is shy of that, so cut my green strip the same length. I'm not cutting into a fresh piece of 12x12 if I can help it, people :)

5. I want to find a stamp in my "flowers" stamp drawers and use eyelets in the center of each. I don't use eyelets much anymore. I've become a mini brad girl. Hmmm...this Hero Arts stamp is the best fit for that idea.

6. Stamp and color petals pink (3 color rule).

7. I don't have eyelets to coordinate. Color centers green or purple? I'm layering on green over the purple, so green. Add a strip of pink Bazzill to the bottom and add 3 purple brads.

8. I'll use 3 purple brads vertically in the top left of the card. Oops! I paper pierced my spacing wrong. Two holes are way too close together. Now what should I cover that up with?

9. Pink prima. Purple brad? Oops. No. I already colored the stamped flowers with a green center. Find a green brad that coordinates. Replace 3 purple brads (step 7) with green brads also.

10. Still a little flat. Cuttlebug! Swiss dots to the purple cs, and dimensionals under the stamped & layered panel.

11. Wow, that took a long time. Find a pen and get this baby in the mail.