Classy and Fabulous

I finished off another kit this week. Years ago I made all the prescribed cards out of it but a nice selection of cardstock, cardstock scraps, and a sheet of card toppers languished all that time. The fabulous fluer dis lies stamp was tucked away in there too along with some interest paper ribbon. That stuff is pretty nifty.

These are three of the cards I made. I'll parcel the rest out over the next few days/weeks/months.*

The Fine Print: *One never knows with me. Card parts, stamps, 'n stuff by Club Scrap "Haberdashery" except for gem stickers by Stampendous.

Happy Birthday!

Yes! These are the last few cards I made with the left over bits from a kit. I promptly picked up another kit another and finished that off, but you'll have to wait for another day to see those.

I can't believe how fast the days are flying by especially since I've done a whole lot of nothing much (shivering, crafting and reading) lately. Before you know it my vacation will be over.

The Fine Print: More Club Scrap parts from "Henna" with bits from my stash and Gorgeous Grunge splatters by Stampin' Up. 

Today's Lesson

So for today's class, kids, we are going to learn about differential equations.

Or not. How about we not? Y'all good with that?

The Fine Print: More leftover blah de blah stuff.

With Sympathy

On and off since about Thanksgiving I've been puttering with some leftover kit bits. This kit just never did it for me with the weird wrinkled cardstock, the dark card topper greetings, and the oversized cards.

In the end I cut them down to A2 size, added ribbons and flowers. The end result was something I'm not too displeased with.

As for choosing to show you the sympathy cards first they fit my somber mood today. I'm reeling over the news of Leslie The Crooked Stamper's passing.  She always was so vibrant, creative and encouraging.  We should all go die cut or stamp something today her honor.  Just don't use pink!

The Fine Print: Card kit stuff from Club Scrap "Henna" and other stuff from my stash. 

Silent Night

Shh........  in just a few more hours Santa's gonna bring me a present!

I know cuz Santa used Amazon to deliver it and I could smell it. It smells real nice and happy.

December 24

I work Christmas Eve. I know bunches of folks think that is terrible and horrible and have other places they'd much rather be, but not this girl.

 I like being at work. It's probably one of the only calm public places in town (besides DMV). It keeps me off the streets and out of the madness.

 Plus we get to go home at noon so after a token work day we can go home and still have a day with the sun still up and everything. Can't beat that with a stick.

 And if you are wondering around the amount and quality of work we accomplished today let me tell you that we were all busy beavers.  We ate first breakfast, took down Christmas decorations, had second breakfast, finished off projects, had coffee and danish, straightened paperwork, had third breakfast and are now working on our before-we-leave snack.

Actually, with the new year I get a new boss so I spent most of the day trying to get the old boss to put his stuff in boxes and git.  We can't seem to chase him out of here.  He must like us or something.

The Fine Print: Enjoy your A Muse Studio January Collection Sneak peak!!!!! 

The Weirdness of Reality

Let's say for a minute that there is something that you always wanted to try like white river rafting. You listen to tales of white river rafting with intense concentration, you tell all your friends that you'd love to try white river rafting, and you fantasize how much fun that would be.

Then suddenly your dreams meet reality and you get a chance to go white river rafting. You get to the end of the trip spitting water, drenched to the core, nauseated as hell, and completely disoriented.  You decide that white river rafting is not for you.

You tell everyone white river rafting isn't your bag and people will nod and understand. Pretty much no one will question your decision or try to make you change your mind.  People respect your decision.

However, take something less frivolous and talk about wanting to do that like going to college to study anthropology.  You watch programs and articles on anthropology, you tell all your friends that you'd love to go to college and study anthropology, and you fantasize how much fun that would be.

Then suddenly your dreams meet reality and you get a chance to go to the college to study anthropology.  You get to the end of the semester spitting water, drenched to the core, nauseated as hell, and completely disoriented.  You decide that going to college is not for you.

People rarely will accept or respect that.  They'll tell you try again, it will be different next time, this is what you dreamed about, this defines you as a person, and they'll call you a quitter.  I just don't get it.  It seems like Person X knows what is best for Person X more so than say person Y.

The Fine Print: Just so you know I'm not going white river rafting or back to college to study anthropology. I made these mini cards for a mini card exchange. I don't remember how mini they were but pretty mini.  Stuff from Club Scrap.

Feeling Flowery

Fancy that, we've not run out of Christmas cards yet. For these two I used this old lady wallpaper looking designer paper I had. I think they came out great. I managed to use a few of my random Christmas embellishments as well.  My stash of those isn't quite as extensive as the Halloween ones, but I still have some fun stuff to play with.

The Fine Print: designer paper by Basic Gray, joy embellishment by K&Co., greeting by Simon Says Stamp, poinsettia by Making Memories, ribbon from my stash but starting next month A Muse Studio will have this in both red and bubblegum (that's pink in case you found that confusing). 

Manic Monday

You do realize that Christmas is just later this week, right? Okay, just wanting to make sure you were in the know. I don't want you to have a nasty surprise in a couple of days.

It's not too late to be terribly naughty and save Santa the trip!

The Fine Print: This card was me trying to prove or possibly disprove that while you can turn any card into a birthday card by stamping "happy birthday" on it you can't really make any card into a Christmas card by making it red and green. 

Santas on a Sunday

First there were the greener pastures, then the traditional reds, and last we had the blues.  I have no idea what this was all about.

I mean besides a desperate attempt to get my cards made and use up some of the scads of holiday themed paper I have. It looks like I might have put a dent in some of that excess ribbon I have too.

The Fine Print: Yep, still and SU stamp. I'm Santa'd out--how about you? These were fun to make though. I found a stack of white cardstock already cut to size from an abandoned project so I just went to town with these.

A Study in Blue

After all that red and green I started feeling the blues. Believe me, I really need to feel the blues. That's cuz I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay more blue winter/Christmas paper than should be legal.

So next year all my holiday cards should have blue paper on them.  Y'all gonna hold me to that?! C'mon, I'm counting on you!

The Fine Print: It's all fine, really.  Santa by SU, designer papers probably by DCWV, snowflake punch by one of those old punch making companies (back in the day when they didn't think to put their name on the punchs).

Red Friday

After all that green from yesterday I thought it was time to hit up the traditional Christmas color--RED!

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stampin' Up "Get Your Santa On," red & white striped paper by Basic Gray, holly punch by Martha.  Yadda, yadda, yadda.

More Santas!

This is the point where I broke out some of my green designer paper and headed for greener pastures.

Apparently I got all bo diddly with the red ribbon too!

The Fine Print: Stamp by Stampin' Up "Get Your Santa On."

A Santa or Two

Recently (because I waited until December was well underway before starting holiday cards, being under the mistaken belief that they had cancelled the holiday this year), I made this Santa card.

That worked out so well that I made a second one.

That got me on a roll and I made a whole bunch of cards with this Santa, but you'll have to stay tuned for them. These two cards were made with leftover bits so they can take a jaunt over to Pixie's Snippet Playground. I haven't been there for so long probably they have forgotten who I am.  I might have forgotten who I am.

The Fine Print: Santa from Stampin' Up "Get Your Santa On" retired set, papers from DCWV, and ribbon from my stash. 

Hello Sunday

Yesterday the day kept getting later and later. However, I kept thinking, "I have time to update my blog." Then my husband turned off my computer which basically signaled that it was too late.

That's just as well because I now see that I would have had to fiddle with the camera and downloading Christmas card photos and frankly I'm tried of Christmas cards now.  So here is a nice fall card that was already downloaded and waiting to be shown off. I'm not tired of fall. In fact, I wish it would come back. I'm tired of winter already too.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Stampin' Up, designer papers from my stash, eyelets and twine by A Muse Studio. This lizard is not amused by the weather.

A New Day

Well, check that out... it's a whole new day. So time for a whole new card. I really like this one.

It came about because the smaller piece just ended up resting on top the larger piece. I decided that wasn't half bad and just needed a little calming down to keep the eyes from boggling.

The Fine Print: Merry die by A Muse Studio, paper by Basic Gray, holly embellishments and ribbon from my stash. 

It's All Good

I get together with this group of paper crafters who are a lot of fun to play with. In December instead of playing we go out to eat, distribute Christmas cards and little gift bags to each other. I always try to make an extra special card for them; something that is different from the norm.

This year after getting all excited about that experimental card I tried out I decided to use it for my design. This is the card I came up with, except that I switched up the designer paper on all of them. Here they are.

They turned out to be more time consuming than I had originally guessed (are you surprised?) but they were fun to make. However, I do want to caution you that these are a bit rough on your dies.

You can see here how it is now warped and no longer flat. It cuts just fine and I'm sure it will straighten out again after being used normally for a few turns. I know that kind of thing can get some folks' undies in a wad, but really it's all good.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Stampin' Up "Polar Party," dies by Spellbinders, designer paper from my stash (mostly DCWV). Party on!

Gettin' Fancy

Remember when I went crazy and tried some technique shown in a magazine? If not, you can refresh your memory here. After I made that rather square card I fussed around with design until I perfected the A2 sized version.

Or so I thought.  Later I discovered that I needed to dock 1/4" off that middle section because as it stands now it is 4.5" wide.  Oh, so close!  

Luckily I rarely use A2 envelopes, having received many boxes of A6 for free*, that the off size is a non-issue for me.  Good thing because I made a whole passel more of these--Stay tuned!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Taylored Expressions, circle dies by Spellbinders, corner dies by Cheery Lynn, snowflakes from Recollections and paper from my stash. *They throw out the leftover graduation announcements and A6 envelopes every year so every year I dumpster dive. 

What's Your Number?

It's not always about Christmas in this land (and thank gosh for that). Sometimes there are other things to celebrate, like cake. Cake is always worth celebrating.

For those of you keeping track of Dio after his ear surgery. He saw his doctor for a follow up yesterday.  She said he was looking good but to keep shoveling all those medications into him. That infection that was in his ear was staph and that some serious stuff to be treated aggressively.  Dio will go back to visit his lady doctor in early January. Dio likes the ladies but he doesn't understand why they have such an obsession with his ears.

Free kisses

The Fine Print: Cake stamp and punches by Stampin' Up, number embossing folder by Cuttlebug, and fancy designer paper from my stash.