Treasure Each Day

I am really happy with this card. Here is the story behind this one:

A few months ago I did a mini re-org of my embellies (more of a consolidation) to help me remember what I have and make my MM embelllishment center look less cluttered. I came across this scrap of ribbon (probably American Crafts?) On my next trip to Michael's, a package of epoxys caught my eye...do you see why? The stripe pattern matches the scrap of ribbon! You know I couldn't let that coupon go to waste, so I purchased the epoxys. I put the ribbon, epoxys, and other possible "love" or Valentine's Day embellies in an old jelly jar.

I dumped them out on my work space yesterday, looking for inspiration. The ribbon and epoxy caught my eye, so I decided to start there. Then I pulled out my oldest box of DCWV cards, and found two of this pink color. I have exactly two of these "treasure each day" epoxys and 3 scrap stripe ribbon...I can get two identical cards! Next I pulled out my Bazzill scraps bags. I chose some strips, cut down to the right lengths, and layered on other Bazzill scraps. Then I was wishing I had the Cuttlebug hearts embossing folder. Then I remembered that my BF, Kaye, gave me some Fiskars plates for Christmas. I decided to see what patterns were on the Fiskars plates...wahoo! Hearts! Now that I have my Big Shot, I can use them! I still felt it needed a little something. I looked through the epoxys and saw two arrows. I put it "through" the largest embossed heart, and pointing towards the sentiment. Ahhhh...

Heart Swirls

I can't think of a catchy title today :)

I sketched this card a couple of months ago, but finally got around to making it this past week.

This is one of those cards that looked much better in my head. Perhaps because I've thought about it for so long!

Did you notice I layered the reverse side of the embossed swirls? Yes, I actually meant to do that! I thought it was a more subtle look. I think I like it as a change.

The gold embossed heart (a Hero Arts stamp) is not as shiny as I wanted, but it's done. All cs and dp are SU! The mini brads could be MM, but I'm not sure.

I mass-produced these for the coffee shops. We'll see if they like them without a sentiment. Valentine's Day is a big seller for me, so I need to get inspired and make more V-day cards. I'm not in the mood for more mass production. I want to get out bits and pieces and scraps and make unique cards. Yes, it's not cost effective, but it is rewarding to create a card from scraps and use up old embellies. At any rate, I think that is where my best cards come from (and some of my worst...LOL!) Stay tuned, and see how I fair...

Love You!

Love you, Corie, for inspiring me to make these cards. Your cards are gorgeous!

Love you, Sue, for lending me this SU! stamp and SU! markers to match with my SU! dps and cs.

Love you, Deanna, Sheryl, and Chris, for being a great inspiration to me each and every month.

Love you, friends & family, for taking time out of your busy days to check my blog :) It really makes my day!

Love you, dh, for putting up with my stamping obsession passion!

(I met Deanna last Spring through a mutual friend, Catherine. Catherine knew we would like each other. She was right! In September I invited Deanna and her best friend, Sheryl, and a friend of mine, Chris, to get together one Friday morning each month to make cards, scrapbook, alter art...whatever inspires us. Deanna named us "Design Divas". We have a great time and I look forward to seeing them every month. Deanna just started her own blog called Girls In "The Craft" . Go check it out, okay? Thanks!)

Another Award!

I am so privileged to have such wonderful blog friends.
Kristie honored me with this award. I am supposed to honor 5 people with this award, but the five I would choose already have this award. That must mean I travel in the right circles :)

Thank you, Kristie, for thinking so much of me. The feeling is mutual!

Proximity Award

I want to acknowledge an award I've been given recently. Amy Sheffer at Pickled Paper Designs has nominated me for the following award. Thank you, Amy! I am honored.

"This award is given to a blog that invests and believes in PROXIMITY - nearness in space, time and relationships! These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind of bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers!"

The rule of the award is to now pass it on to another 8 people who demonstrate this spirit.

Please be sure to visit their blogs and appreciate these deserving ladies. Thank you!

1. Tracy

2. Lauren

3. Kristie

4. Corie

5. Jean

6. Leslie

7. Sue

8. Jackie

Send Care Packages to our Troops in Iraq

I have a dear friend, Mary, that I have mentioned quite a few times on my blog. Mary has a brilliant and beautiful daughter named Kate.

Kate sent out an e-mail yesterday to all her friends and family and asked if we would pass it on. It reads :

Hi. My name is Kate. I am 11 years old and I live in northern Virginia, where I am an active Girl Scout. Our troop does lots of community service projects, but I wanted to do one on my own.
I started with the All-American idea of “baseball & apple pie” and added Girl Scout Cookies. I ended up with a cute little package that contains baseball cards, Bazooka bubble gum, an apple-cinnamon cereal bar and a box of Girl Scout cookies – tied up with red, white & blue ribbon and including a pretty handmade gift tag.
Next, I began making a list of the 900 military members in my uncle’s unit, who are deployed in Iraq, and what their favorite Girl Scout cookie flavor is.
Now, I’m asking my family & friends & other caring families to each send 1, 2, 3 or more J “All-American Care Packages.” Each gift tag will be personalized – addressed to an individual soldier and listing the name of the family who ‘sent’ it. Wouldn’t it be great if we could send one to all 900 soldiers? J
It’s easy for you to ‘show you care.’ All you have to do is:
1) Send an email to me at allamcarepkgs@gmail.com. Include your name and the number of packages you want me to send on your behalf. (This way I can get started making your packages right away.)

2) Then, send a check for your donation amount (# of packages sent x $5 each) to:
Show You Care
11259 Center Harbor Road
Reston, VA 20194
(Please make checks payable to: Show You Care)

You may want to visit my website, too: http://www.freewebs.com/showyoucare
It tells a little more about how I got started on this project, and has a picture of one of the care packages. I’ll also be posting messages we receive back from the troops. Check it out! Maybe one will be addressed to you! J

Thanks very much for helping me show our service members that we do really care.

More Aluminum Foil Snowmen

Those last set of snowmen cards flew out of the stores. Since I used that entire sheet of 12x12 making the last batch, this time I dug out some seriously old Provo Craft dp I bought at Mike's years ago. (Remember, Sharon? You made a card for Kaye with this dp, and I went to Mike's and bought ~ 20 sheets of it...and never used any until today. LOL!)

I used 3 sheets of 8.5"x11" to create 12 of these guys. I believe this meets the requirements for this week's challenge at the OCC: to use two shades of blue along with a neutral color.

It's cooooooooold here in the 'burg today and it will only be colder the next couple of days. Warm wishes to you :)

Chinese New Year Cards

My newest friend, Vicky, is a beginner stamper. We have gotten together three times now because she enjoys making cards. She chooses the theme, brings her stash, then we plan together at my house (except I use my own stash.) She brought this set of SU stamps (friendship, joy, peace...)


I found a 6x6 piece of paper and embossed black paper (it is so soft, it feels more like fabric!) in a kit of varied Asian papers I have had for years and never opened. Yep, even the gold cording was in the package! Isn't this paper gorgeous?


We wanted to make more, but in all my Asian papers, most do not have black (lots of navy, though). Since I LOVE black & red as a color combo, I used my red linen cs and my black linen cs. I ran the red through my Cuttlebug embossing folder. I used my CM square punches too.

Sweet Baby Onesie Card

I wish I could take credit for designing this sweet card. But I try to give credit to the people I CASE. I have seen a few of my blog friends create some lovely baby cards inspired by this design (like Corie and Sue.). I believe the person who deserves the credit is Lauren Meader. She has an easy to follow tutorial.

I used a piece of DCWV dp from one of their 5.5"x 6.5" pads (Nana's Kids Glitter Stack.) The polka dots are raised (dry embossed). Isn't it precious? And easy!

Happy Anniversary, Grandma & Grandpa!

I spent ~one hour yesterday perusing various sketches and trying to coordinate papers for a multi-layered card.

I finally had a plan (that I wasn't crazy about) and started cutting the dp and cs. I cut the choc. chip layer, some river rock cs, and three dps. As I was cutting, one dp flipped over, and I scrapped the original plan. I used the reverse side of what I originally intended and the choc. chip.

Yep, that's it! I ran my gold Pilot pen around the edges of the dp and choc. chip layers, mounted together, added some choc. chip ribbon, and a Class-A-Peels sticker. I mounted on a cream card.

This is going in the mail this morning. Friday is my Grandma & Grandpa's 65th wedding anniversary :)

Birthday Birdie

I bought a sheet of Basic Grey Phoebe last August because it reminded me of Lauren. Crazy, huh? I thought maybe the paper could help me create a Lauren-y card. Her cards are so fun and whimsical. After two full days, this is what I came up with. No, this is no 30 minute card...more like 4 hours.

I mounted on Bazzill cs, with the exception of the scalloped green cs, which is SU. The ribbons are from my scrap ribbon jar. I feel like it needs more. Perhaps black ink doodling around the edges of the scallops and BG dp? I dunno. I've looked at it so long, I just don't know. This is not my usual A2 card. It is ~ 5.5" x 6.5", so I made six of these to use up the BG Phoebe sheet. Let me know what you think, otherwise I'll just put it out at the shops and see what happens.

On the other 5 cards, the green scallop cs is a bit higher. This one is lower because I wanted to make sure the bird in the dp was not covered up.

Definitely out of my box :)

Mass production Thank You cards

As one of the room moms for Kathryn's class, I am responsible for making thank you notes for the parents that donated to our gift basket fund raiser (our basket theme "Coffee Lovers"). I mass produced 13 of these 4"x4" cards.

After they were finished, I had this conversation with Doug:
Me: "Sweetie, do you think the parents will like this card or toss it aside?"
DH: "It's cute. Why are there lips?"
Me: "That's a coffee bean."
DH: "Oh. I guess I'm not used to coffee-themed cards."

This afternoon my parents came for lunch. I had an identical conversation with my mom.


I used CTMH papers and cs except for the SU chocolate chip cs (embossed with CB swirls). I paper-pieced the coffee mug. I stamped in Memories black ink, except for the lips/coffee bean, which is in choc. chip ink. I colored in the "coffee" with an SU chocolate chip marker, then used Diamond Glaze. It's hard to see in the pic, but I distressed all layers with chocolate chip ink.

Missing You & All Yours

More Bo Bunny papers today. This time I was using up the two smaller and lighter blue hue Bazzill Bling primas (hard to tell in the pic.) The sentiments are MM rub-ons.

I hope you are having a happy new year so far!

Key to my Heart

Sorry about the pic...too cold and windy to photo outside today.

In my search of my craft room for all things that could be used on a Valentine card, I found these two metal charms and two "Love" sentiments (computer generated), and two small scraps of the pink ribbon. Two cards it is...add some old Bo Bunny dps, SU oval punches, a black ink pad to distress edges, a stapler, and adhesive...Voila!

Simply Scrappin'

I updated my f-i-l's album for June 2007- December 2007. I just finished November 2007 & December 2007 yesterday. This is his Christmas gift. Here they are:

Now to work on 2008 in time for his birthday & Father's Day :)