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!

A Touch of Asia

I made a set of 8 cards for Cathy's birthday gift. The idea evolved like this:

I know Cathy likes Asian-themed cards. I pulled out my Asian frame stamps (Magenta) thinking I am going to make some square cards. I pulled out all my Yuzen papers, but none coordinate with the cs I wanted to do the frame stamps with. I put away the frame stamps. I dig through my drawer of cards & envelope sets. I have exactly 4 of theses hand-made India cards in each color. I perused my 6x6 Yuzen papers and found 2 squares that went with each card. I cut them into 1.5" strips (yea, no scraps!) I mounted each strip on white cs, added ribbon, then layered on gold metallic cs. I added the 2 Queen & Co. white flowers with some gold brads. Wow! That fit the length of the card exactly (4.5"x 6.25"). Dumb luck! I'd rather be lucky than smart :) The India paper is rather flimsy, so I added rectangles of white cs to the inside, which will also allow Cathy to write easily. Now for a sentiment...how about some Class-A-Peels? Done!

Sweets for the Sweet!

I am overdue on some thank you notes. I made two like this one...with one exception :) See that flower over the sentiment? When my daughter 's morning cod liver oil went airborne, a splat went on the card. I covered it up by trying to create a flower like one in the dp.

Didja notice I used my Nesties?

To my American friends: have a happy turkey day tomorrow! DH & I will take the girls to my maternal grandparents. This is my FAVORITE holiday :)

Celebrate!

I made this birthday card for someone special. Her birthday is TODAY! Happy Birthday, Cathy :)

I used my Nesties for the circles and scallop square. The cs is Bazzill, the dp is My Mind's Eye, The base card and mini brads are DCWV, the rub-on is Creative Imaginations, the felt flowers are SU!, and the white ribbon is from Michael's.

Make it a great day!

Teacher Appreciation Cards

I did not get any cards made yesterday for my grandmother, so I decided to give her a few of these that I completed last week. I CASEd this card from my SU friend, Sue. We made a card almost exactly like this at her open house in August. The only difference was we used SU brown dp with tiny white polka dots. I had this polka dot dp in my self-addressed.com stash.

I am saving the rest for teacher appreciation in May. Now if I could just get ready for Christmas :)

I hope to "see" you Monday. Remember I'll be in Indiana (leaving in a bit), so I won't be blogging before then. Make it a great weekend!

Paisley Appreciation

I fly to Indiana this weekend for my step-grandmother's 90th birthday party. I wanted to make her a large set of thank you notes. I was hoping to make a set of 10 or more. I've made two. Two like this one. Hmmmm. I don't know why it took me so long just to make these two cards. I hope I have better luck tomorrow :)

The sentiment stamp is SU (I used my Nesties to do this!) The purple and light green cs is Bazzill. The dp is DCWV pad "Once Upon A Time." The metallic ribbon is old old old stash. And the paisley dry embossing is a Cuttlebug embossing folder :)