Craft Room Re-Org & Sale???

Here are the scraps from Sunday's card. That makes one more card I can use as a thank you card.

BEFORE:
The last time my craft room was organized, it looked like this (April 2008). See the green Cuttlebug on the floor (bottom right)?

AFTER:

Now with my Jet Max cubes, it looks like this:

JMO: this is not as high quality as the Crop n Style cubes, but it is also much less expensive. It's workin' for me. I hope I can keep it neat and organized, because it sure is helping me be more productive.

Here is (mostly) SU! products on the right side and bottom left.

On the left:

The top left shelf are DCWV pads. The 2nd shelf has varied 6x6 pads and my basket that is more of a catch-all.

The 3rd shelf is Cosmo Cricket.

The 4th shelf is scrap SU cs.

The rest is all SU! Sue has enabled me quite well...not that I need much of a push :) Wanna see what is in the drawer?

Yea, most of my SU! punches. See? Thanks, Sue :)

Top: Cuttlebug embossing folders, idea books, families (Wild Asparagus; My Mind's Eye; KI Memories;etc.) of 12x12 papers in seperate large ziploc bags, sketch idea notebook.

Bottom: The Cuttlebug and QuicKutz Revolution are off the floor!

Then this arrived in the mail. Now I'm gonna buy some SU! dies from Sue, but now I suppose I should sell my Cuttlebug and Revolution.

Cleaning Up, One Scrap at a Time

My friend, Sheryl, made this tag for me. I decided to put it on a card, so it has been sitting on my craft table with other bits and pieces. When I updated the SU school picture albums (Dec. 26th post), I thought those Creative Imaginations dps went well with the tag. I layered scraps of the dp on scraps of brown Bazzill. I had one leftover "to a deer friend" circle from the deer cards (also Dec. 26th post), so I stuck it on. So my craft table is neater by a few bits and pieces AND I have a thank you card ready to go :)

Did you see this in the Michael's ad the past 2 weeks? 40% off?! I did. I immediately thought, "I can get my Cuttlebug, QuicKutz Revolution, SU tins, SU dps, etc. off my floor!" (I'll post my new re-org tomorrow).

In the meantime, this is how I store all of my Revolution big dies and Nesties (I have circles, ovals, squares, and rectangles now!)

Any suggestions for an easier access storage solution?

Thank You Very Moose! I Love Moose!

My dear friend, Kaye, made me this thank you card a few years ago (when these SU tag & tag stamps were brand spankin' new.)

I have wanted to CASE it, and I finally did it! I've been trying to make cards lately to accomplish two things:
1. Build up my stash to take to the coffee shops.
2. Thank you notes for Christmas gifts.

I've done a pretty good job of both (you've seen them all in my previous December posts.). All my thank you notes are now caught up (I wrote out a dozen more yesterday).


Here is my CASE of Kaye's card. I made a dozen of these.

They are packaged and invoiced and 4 will go to each store.

By popular demand (okay, maybe just Leslie), this is the Great Impressions stamp I used to make my "to a deer friend" cards:

Moose and wreath

Moose and scarf

I hope you all had a Merry Christmoose!

It all started innocently enough...

(Leslie, I had lots of problems with blogger this morning...now this post has words!)

I purchased this Imaginisce snowman dp at Angela's Happy Stamper to use for winter cards to sell at Greenberry's on my first trip to meet Leslie. In my clean up my craft room by bits and pieces, I found these two metal charms (snowflake & snowman). I decided to copy the cards from my previous sketch. I knew I had metal eyelet snowflakes in my stash, so I prepared to use up the entire sheet of Imaginisce dp...it would make 6 cards. Great!
I originally wanted a more monochromatic card (layered on shades of blue), but I found no matches in my stash. The red & green in the dp match very well with both SU Old Olive and SU Ruby Red. (I just purchased a ream of each last month and I have used it a lot!) As you see above, Santa brought me oval Nesties :)

Now to add charms to the last 4 cards...I'll use 3 as thank you notes for myself, and 3 to sell.

When I went in my metal charms container for those snowflake eyelets, I found none. I now think I recall using them up last year. So now I had 4 cards made, but no metal embellie.

Off I went to Michael's to use my 50% coupon. I found these snowflakes.

I came home, but did not like the blues in the epoxy of these new charms with the blue in the dp. So I left those 4 cards.

I had my epiphany while lying in bed early this morning.

One of the thank you notes I need to write is for my friend, Deanna, who gave me these Winter Jelly embossing folders. I love to try to use my crafty gifts to make a thank you card for the person who gave me the gift, but I am usually successful 10% of the time :) You know I use it eventually...

Deanna is also a great technique junkie. She told me earlier this month how to make faux metal:

1. Run a scrap os cs through your Xyron.

2. Adhere to aluminum foil.

3. Press out any bubbles with your fingers.

4. Dry emboss.

Cute, yes?

I hope you had a merry Christmas, Dear Friends!

And as not to leave out our antlered friends, I hope moose, elk, deer, etc., had a merry Christmas too :)

You may recall last August I purchased two 6"x6" sheets of this paper. I made two ~5x7 cards with a stamped & colored snowman. Out of the scraps and an A2 DCWV card, I stamped a moose with a wreath around his neck. Last week two of the barristas at Greenberry's asked if I had more of these. I stamped this moose with a scarf and made these non-Christmasy.

The past 10 days (or so) I've been in a clean-up-the-craft-room-by-using-the-stuff-piled-everywhere-to-clean-up-so-I-don't-have-to-find-a-place-to-put-it-away mode. It seems to be working, because I am feeling more creative, even if some are just repeats of earlier cards. I like being productive.

Back to the deer card...
When I was in NC for dh's cousin's wedding in October, I picked up 2 packs of 6"x6" Memory Box dps. There were 3 sheets of this dp in one of the packs. I went to Mike's earlier this week looking for something to spend my 50% coupon on. I purchased another box of 50 DCWV cards (10 colors, 5 of each). I still have a pretty full box, but it is an olio of previous boxes; 37 cards and only 5 colors. The MB dps will make 9 cards...the olio box had 4 brown, the new box 5 =>9!!! It's a sign, right? I kept 3 for me to use as thank you notes.

I also finally updated our parents' school pic SU notebooks that have been on my craft table.

Merry Christmas Eve!

Looks familiar, doesn't it? When I stamped these snowmen to make cards for the teachers, I stamped an extra just in case I goofed coloring or cutting or whatever. This extra was sitting on my craft table and I noticed the red and green matched the BG dp from yesterday's card.

Since the snowmen are on cream cs, it looked funny if I used the white cs w/ swiss dots dry embossed (like the "snow" in the dp). So I went with a strip of red. Since the red in the dp are larger circles, I embossed with the circles embossing folder.

I also used my SU white gel pen on the santa hat and ear muffs (trust me on this.)

Merry Christmas Eve!

One of the bits and pieces of Christmas-y items sitting on my craft table was this adhesive metal square by Magenta. I bought it 2 or 3 years ago. I pulled it out a few days ago hoping it would get some love and make it onto a card.

I was foraging through my Christmas Basic Grey Papers (Blitzen & Fruitcake) to make a little something for Tracy for Christmas. I saw this sheet of BG and knew I had to use my little metal.

BTW, I also succeded in making Tracy a little something, but I can't show you just yet...she may be lurking ;)

The Phoenix Rises & A Re-Run

This is my Phoenix card...rising out of the ashes (bits of scraps) with beautiful gold and red plumage (new Versamark Dazzle used on the red Nestie scallop), and almost immortal (internet).

Let's start with the "ashes":
* The red scallop was a scrap I was given at Angela's Happy Stamper to try out the new Versamark Dazzle. Leslie and I tried this together :)
The sentiment is a Savvy stamp I purchased at Angela's.

* The dp is a scrap of DCWV from this card.

* The red photo corner is one I punched months ago (SU punch), but ended up not using.

* The white ribbon was a small scrap too large to throw away, but too small to do anything else with (to the best of my knowledge).

In my desire to use more Christmas-y items before filing them away in my Christmas folder, this card emerged. I actually started it after the New Year Card Debacle. I had layered the dp on old olive, then on red linen, but my reds did not match. Also, I was trying to place the scallop circle on top, which covered the dp too much. So I left it. This morning it just kinda came together. I love it when that happens! Ya know I had to add the paper piercing ;)

Next I did a re-run (an almost re-run) of a thank you card I made last month for my grandmother. On Friday I had a customer at Greenberry's request some romantic cards he could buy for his girlfriend. I promised him I would come up with something and have it in the store right after Christmas. (I need to get some reserves ready for when I pull any leftover holiday cards.) I had exactly enough dp to make these 4 cards.

I was flipping through my own sketches looking for inspiration. Yesterday's New Year's cards turned out so dull. Especially after my Corie & Kristie cards that I was so happy with in the days before. Don't get me wrong; I know the New Year cards I posted yesterday are okay. It's just that after 2 agonizing hours, that was the best I could come up with :) Yesterday can be now termed as "The New Year Card Debacle."

Back to my own sketches. I came across a sketch I did for back-to-school teacher gifts in August. This time I rotated the sketch 180 degrees. I used my new SU rub-ons (oval sentiment) and my new SU "Holiday Treasures" dsp. The green cs is scrap Bazzill. The brads and card base are DCWV. I like!

I am a mini sub franchise...

I am a mini sub franchise. I am now at three Greenberry's Coffee & Tea Co. locations. Greenberry's started out in Charlottesville, VA. I have taken over northern Virginia :) I took this box of cards over to the Reston store yesterday. I had to make it look good after I saw Leslie's presentation at Chloe's Coffee Cafe in Kentlands, MD.

I had to show you that first, because I tried to make 3 cards today, and this is the best of the three. Oh, the humanity! I won't even post the other two :)

Kristie Christmas

Today I am CASEing blogfriend Kristie. I love when I see a card sketch I love and when I have all (or most) of the same dps to make it. Just like yesterday's post...that Corie card WOWed me... last month there were two, yes, TWO cards of Kristie's that I was in love with.

I started to use the exact dps that she did, but when I pulled out the SU paper pack, guess what fell out? This floral scrap, the sage shadow stamped snowflake, and the "'Tis the season circle". I didn't even trim it...which is why it is much larger than Kristie's original card. And then no room for the scallops.

For the next card I decided to use the exact dps she used, but I had no more of that stripe. So I made a hybrid card.

Now, you may be thinking, "What? No ribbon on the past 3 cards?" I actually like these without the ribbon and they don't even feel nekkid to me. JMO.


Then just three days later, Kristie WOWed me again. She used the SU "Spring Flowers" dsp. I tried to duplicate it, but I ended up rotating the sketch ninety degrees.

You might be thinking, "What? No scallops?" Yeah, I know. I love scallops. It seems I'm back on a paper piercing kick. I love paper piercing and faux stitching :)

Corie Christmas

I am CASEing Corie, one of my very first blog friends. I fell in love with the sketch as well as being excited that I have the same dps and one of the stamps she used on her fabulous card.

I hope you will come back tomorrow...I will be CASEing Kristie :)

Teacher Gifts Galore

I bought these red 4"x4" cards, cream cs, and the Memory box stamps when I went to Stamp Bella in NC last August. I bought enough (so I thought) to make 30 cards. I cut the cream layer first (for all 30 cards) and stamped the sentiment. Then I stamped the birds on the rest of the cream cs. Oops! Only 20 birds and I ran out of cs.

When I came home, I layered the birds on SU chocolate chip and finished the first 20. I looked through my hundreds of stamps, and could not find anything to go with the "Christmas brings us together" sentiment. Sue to the rescue! She had these two cute snowmen (SU!) I layered on an SU green cs, then again on choc. chip cs. Phew! I packaged them in sets of 4 with envelopes in an acrylic stationery box. I had 2 left over, so I put them at Greenberry's.

If you follow my blog, you know how much I love the elementary school that Julia & Kathryn attend. One of the special ladies that works with my girls is Joy Ackert. We love Miss Joy! Joy took the time to send me a hand-made thank you card last year. She is new to card making, but she even used eyelets on the card she made me! I put this notebook together for Joy of simple card sketches, samples to go with the sketch, and the dimensions to cut each piece to make an A2 card. I used a Basic Grey dp on the cover and my QuicKutz Tangerine font with Bazzill cs scraps to create "Joy's card ideas".

Joy also loves chocolate. I got this paint can tin from Sue, and re-decorated it with SU stamps, markers, and cs. I filled it with M&Ms.

This Bayberry candle and tag is for our beloved Heidi Sonsino. (The stamps for the tag are by Rubber Stamp Tapestry.) Heidi is our favorite speech therapist. The quote is computer generated: "To bring good luck for a year, they say, you must burn a bayberry candle on Christmas Day. And if the flame burns bright and clear, then heaven will bless you all the year." Heidi truly is an angel. It is more than her beautiful blonde hair and her sweet smiling face. She is always happy and pleasant. We miss her very much. She will be out of school for awhile. Her cancer has returned again. She is a very young adult and has battled cancer since she was a teenager. We love her dearly! We pray for her every day and I hope you will too :)

I made this for Lynn Bittinger, Miss Joy's assistant. This is a trail mix. I covered the can with new SU dps Holiday Treasures" and choc. chip felt ribbon. I cut a circle of chocolate chip cs for the top and a Nestie scallop circle from old olive cs. I used a DCWV brad and two Bazzill primas to attach the tag. My mom actually made the tag (computer generated): "Sprinkle on the lawn at night, the moon will make it sparkle bright. Santa's reindeer fly and roam. This will guide them to your home."

Something that has been driving me crazy is all the stuff on the floor of my craft room. When I run out of room on the floor, I start to stack stuff on top of my stamp containers. I blame the mess in part to my lack of creativity/blogging in November & December. When I was frantically making the gifts (above), I decided I was going to try to use every Christmas-y item that was stacked on top of the Christmas stamps container. What was up there? Joy's paint can, the Bayberry and reindeer tags, and this soda pop label.
I actually made this label almost 2 years ago. I made the mistake of making it flat. When I went to wrap it around the bottle, it did not lay well. Have you learned this too? If not, learn from my error! On Saturday I carefully took it apart (my mom had laminated it for me in her Xyron). I adhered to the bottle, layer by layer. It took a long time. But the laminate held up nicely. I took this to a cookie exchange I attended on Sunday. I mentioned in an earlier post I have a new friend, Vicky, who also stamps. I knew she would appreciate this.

Now the top of my Christmas stamp container only has a scrapbook-in-a-box on top. There were a few other tags, but I moved them to my Christmas file. Ahhh....progress. All of our Christmas gifts for family are still in there. I have not wrapped any of those yet. I can't put wrapped gifts under the tree anyway, because Julia & Kathryn will un-wrap them! So I will have to wait until Christmas Eve to get my craft room looking better. And I still want to get my Revolution, Cuttlebug, etc. off of the floor. When is Nate Berkus gonna come help me? I guess I should write Oprah and tell her I need a "Knock, knock, it's Nate" visit!

The Punch is in da House!

Thanks to Sue, I have another curly label punch. I returned the non-working punch to Sue on Wednesday and SU sent me a new one. And this one works!

These will be dh's thank you notes for his birthday presents. I still have lots of prep for Christmas (and only 9 days left...but who's counting?) so I kept it simple. I have this virginal box of K&Co. cards from Mike's; I pulled out all the ones that look like this base card. I used scrap cs (blue) and scrap Bazzill (purple). I used the SU curly label punch and an SU 3 flower punch. The purple ink is Memories, and the flower brad is Provo Craft.

I made these cards to help me start on my own thank you cards for Christmas. All the papers, stamps, inks, and ribbon is SU except the base card (DCWV). Sue taught me how to make this cool die cut (chocolate chip). Cut your cs into a 2.75" square, then use your SU scallop border punch on all 4 sides. I tried using the Fiskars scallop border punch (it has holes in each scallop), which is officially called "Threading Water", and I could not figure out what dimension to cut the square to get it to work. If you figure it out (using the Fiskars punch), I will send you blog candy!

Something Old, New, Borrowed, & Blue

I'm back! And I've actually made a little bit of stuff to show you. I know I have been conspicuously absent in November & December, but I have stuff to show you. So, PLEASE come back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, 'cause I've finally been makin' stuff! I actually thought I'd forgotten how to make a card, but I made 6 of these just this morning. It was 3 am and I couldn't sleep, so I got up to make cards and it feels SO GOOD :)

Something old: The shimmery silver paper used on this card. I actually had to blow the dust off of it. A lot of dust. Gross. I feel confident this paper had not been used in over 5 years.

Something new: I have never made a Hannukkah card before! Nope, not for my Jewish friends or even to sell at Greenberry's. For them I've always done blue and silver and a "Happy Holidays", "Let it Snow", or "Warm Winter Wishes".

Something Borrowed: This SU! stamp set (the sentiment). My lovely friend Vicky brought this over to my house and I asked if I could borrow it.

Something Blue: The ribbon, ink, and cs layer.

I don't own the Spellbinders Rectangle Nestibilities...yet. I feel confident that Mrs. Claus is reminding Santa that no self-respecting card-making papercrafter should be without the supplies she loves and is inspired to use ;0

I actually used my SU! scallop border punch. Not nearly as nice as a rectangle Nestie...

Santa, if you are reading this, I have been VERY good this year!

Not Your Average Joe

I got nothin'. I actually was making cards yesterday (thank you cards for dh whose birthday was last week...now he is 42 like me!) I went to use my brand new curly label SU! punch and it doesn't work. Bummer. So I got nothin'. If you are still reading this, you must be more ahead on your holiday prep than I am or you are one of my 6 loyal blog followers :)



What have I been up to since I last blogged?



Well, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving the Sears repair man (actually, he was a she, so repair woman) came and fixed my washing machine. I spent Thanksgiving with my parents and grandparents at my Grandma's house. That was all good. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday...it's all about the food. We e-mailed our Christmas photo to Ritz camera for our holiday photo card. I send out 100 of these out, so I needed to get them done. I spent the rest of the weekend doing 2-3 loads of laundry each day until I was caught up, taking care of Kathryn (congestion head cold), and Christmas shopping. I picked up my photo cards on Sunday and got them all mailed by Thursday. Whew.



I kept Kathryn home from school last week (Monday & Tuesday), which put me behind on my errands and chores, but it was nice to spend time with her. Then dh came home with a fever and congestion on Wednesday. He stayed home Thursday and most of Friday. He was feeling a lot better by Saturday, so he helped me pick out 100 pics of the girls from Dec. '07-Nov.'08. I buy those little photo books that have sleeves for 100 4x6 pics and give the album to all of our grandparents (Julia & Kathryn's great-grandparents) and their Godparents for Christmas. So I buy 6 albums, fill with pics, wrap, and send. One hitch: I called to see if they were ready on Sunday, but the machine at the shop was broken Monday-Thursday.



This past weekend I sorted the photos into 6 piles of 100. I had 7 of one pic and 5 of another. Argh. Then as I filled the 6th album, there were 4 pictures leftover. I checked to see if any pages were stuck together. Nope. Only 48 pages instead of 50. Bummer. So I called Ritz camera to get them to print the missing pic. I drove to ACMoore to exchange the faulty album. Yes, I counted the pages in the new album before exchanging :)



I wrapped the albums and prepared for mailing and went to the post office yesterday morning. I went to our downtown Leesburg post office for the first time. I happened to be downtown anyway, so I stopped there. I arrived at 9:15am. Our other post office here in the 'burg opens at 9am and it is much larger, but s l o w . I heard this little one is quick service, but parking can be problematic. But the downtown office apparently does not open until 9:30am. No worries; I decided to enjoy the gift of 15 minutes to relax. I knew the rest of my day would be rush, rush, rush. There is one man in front of me, and we exchanged pleasantries. Then another man walks in (this is not your average Joe guy...in reference to today's blog title), and we chat. Another woman and man come in and we all chat. The first guy kinda turns his back to us. The last two people kinda chat amongst themselves and I talk to Not-Your-Average-Joe guy. He is very pleasant. He picks up his POBox mail and delivers a tin of cookies to the Postal workers, whom he knows all by name. We continue to chat. He's wearing a ball cap, a sweatshirt, and jacket. An average Joe, right? I'm thinking he looks familiar, but figure I've just seen him around the 'burg. This is not a big booming city, ya know. Then it dawns on me.





Duh! I ask, "Are you Joe Theismann?" Yeah, it was him! #7!!! Then I turn into crazed-Redskin-fan-woman :)

Now that's a good day!