Happy Scraps!

FINALLY I was able to get back in the craft room again!!! I've missed being creative. Tonight I came home from my second 6-hour shift in a row at Starbucks and started playing with some new things that came this afternoon to a porch near me from Mr. Brown.

I've had an idea cookin' in my head for several weeks, ever since I saw a decorated clip on Nicole Cooke's "Stampin' Library Girl" website. But things evolve differently once you get into a project, and what was going to be something for the mantle became something for the front door instead.

I saw these chipboard letters in the SU! catalog and was intrigued. I only have 2 sets of alphabet stamps, and wanted to try something different. Chipboard has always intimidated me, but I figured I could make letters work in some way on a card. This next picture is a teaser of what I did after breaking into the package.

I traced around the sturdy letters onto Dashing dp and cut them out. Then I used a dauber and applied Real Red ink around the edges to hide the pencil tracings. As you can see, I mounted the letters on 4" chipboard coasters.

Here's what the finished project looks like. I'm very pleased with the relative ease with which this went together. I measured the front door's width and then laid it out, spacing 1 1/8" between the coasters. The twine (gotta love the local Ace Hardware for crafting supplies!) is attached to the back of each coaster with Sticky Strip.

Here's a closeup shot so that you can see how pretty that dp looks!

Thanks for being so patient with my lack of postings this week. Working 20+ hours a week really eats into my crafting time. I'm hosting the all-day Christmas Card Assembly Party Saturday, so I'll be posting then. I'm off to dreamland now...

What's Up?

Good morning dear friends! No picture yet today because, while I have the day off, I have to prepare my house for the staff from Starbucks. They--all 12 of them--will be arriving at my house for the holiday meeting (don't know what that is, but I'm sure it has something to do with whatever promotional stuff we'll be selling SOON). We're going to be dining together, with everyone pitching in. It's Italian themed, so I'm making lasagne (although it won't be as good as yours, Sandra!), someone else is bringing chicken parmesan, someone else caesar salad, etc. etc. etc. I'm looking forward to it. I love hosting people in my house!

I'm hoping I'll be done with all my work early enough to do some crafting. OH! Just opened the door to let the dogs in--my freshly bathed dogs, mind you--to find their paws ALL muddy! Guess I know what I'll be doing before I do anything else!

Happy day to you all!

Coming Clean...

Many of you think that I'm a very neat and tidy person who keeps a neat and tidy home. That is mostly true. However, I feel the need to let you know that I am messier than the appearance of my house may lead you to believe. So, in the spirit of full disclosure, here are pictures I snapped this morning of my craft room.

This is the surface of a table given to me by one of my friends. I have really put it to good use, huh!
At least I've covered every square inch of it with something! The lower right corner of the table is where I have my cutting station, and what you see is what happens to the unused paper when I go on to my project! I'm having storage issues, as you'll see in the next picture.

This card table is on the other side of this bedroom cum crafting space. My designer paper landed there when I took it all out of the closet, where it lays on a shelf, to photograph it for the DVD notebook tin paper options I'm offering you. I really need a good storage solution for this too, but hanging file folders aren't working because the paper's 12x12.

Lastly, I reveal my craft table, which is where I work. Hard to believe, but I just walked away and left it like that. I was productive there this weekend, and I'll show you what I made later this week. But I'm not getting things put away before I'm walking off to do something else, and then I have to do that cleaning up when I come back so that I have enough room to work! Santa's supposed to be bringing me a LARGE wall unit that will store all my stamp pads and markers (the deadline for ordering one for Christmas delivery is Thurs., Nov. 1), and I'm really looking forward to figuring out a perfect spot for that. Maybe that will clear more space on the table. I'll still probably only work in a 6x6 piece of real estate on that surface!

If anyone has any good, inexpensive storage ideas, I'd be glad to hear them! I need help, and the first step to getting it is admitting you have a problem. "Hello, my name is Jenn, and I'm a messy stamp room keeper."

Good Day and other things...

Real mail was in the mailbox for me today, which makes it a good day! I don't know anyone who doesn't like to get personal mail, and when it's a package, that's doubly great!

My childhood best friend lives in Vietnam with her family. She's the one I was pictured with in my last post. I hope you have someone in your life that you have as much history with as I do with Shelly. We have birthdays 3 weeks apart, and we exchange presents. This bracelet is one she bought this summer while she was in CA. A boy and his family were raising money for him to go with his parents to get his adopted baby brother in Russia. How cool is it to be part of that! I love it, Shel! Thanks so much...

Recently, I received this card from fellow demonstrator Nadine. She and I are former Illinoians, and she made 100 of these cards for her husband to send out to colleagues. She's done with her Christmas cards already, gals!!! Amazing! This card is beautifully sparkly in real life. Great job, Nadine! You inspire me to get on mine!

Something else I designed this week is a bookmark using the Wanted stamp set. I'm taking it to a swap with other demonstrators in a few weeks, and I wanted to do something a little different than just a card front. It's hard to photograph, but the top is a copper metallic scalloped punch circle, then the image secured with an eyelet. The gingham moss ribbon travels down through the book and is anchored by a paisley from the set. I was inspired to make this by something I saw on splitcoaststampers.

Hope your weekend is going well. Gotta run and get ready for dinner...beautiful day today. Picture perfect!

Quick and Easy Photo Card!

I know many of you have a long standing tradition of sending a family Christmas picture to friends and family every year. You do this, in part, because you think you don't have time to make Christmas cards. After doing some blog surfing last night, I was inspired to challenge this notion, and I came up with this SIMPLE, QUICK and EASY upgrade to said photo card that will make those who open your card THIS year sit up and take notice!

Tell me this isn't more special than what you've been doing! This took me all of maybe 5 min. to make, and mass producing these would be one evening's worth of pleasure. It's designed to fit into a standard business envelope, which measures 4 1/8" x 9 1/2". The picture I used (of me and my friend Shelly--the only loose one I had laying around at the moment) is a 3 1/2" x 5 1/2". If you prefer 4" x 6", this size will fit this layout as well, just without any border around the photo.

Seriously now, isn't this nicer than what Walmart or Target can print off for you? I don't know about you, but to me it communicates so much love and care. You might even have so much extra time that you could print off a little summary of the year to attach to the back of the card.

This is the version I created for those who'd like to do a little--emphasis on the word "little"--more crafting. Here I added 2 lengths of ribbon--the green one vertically, and the red bow. This dresses it up a bit, but still doesn't add a ton of time to the project. Sandra, I know you wouldn't choose this one because you consider yourself bow challenged, but this is an easy one to make, really! The bow is a self-tying one--imagine making 2 bunny ears, crossing them and pulling one through and you have it--and is secured with a little glue dot. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!!!

This type of card can be coordinated to match with the clothing your family chooses to wear, and there are multiple greeting options in the stamp set that I used. Let me know if I can help you in any way with this. I think you'll be glad you did!

One more thing: I learned this morning that there are 66 of you who are subscribed to my blog! I'm so excited by this, but I'm stumped at the same time. If there are so many of you, how come I never hear from you? You're lurkers, aren't you. Just like to look and remain anonymous. That's fine with me, but please know that I'd love to hear your thoughts about what I post. It's part of why I'm out here in cyberland!

Just thought you'd want to know...

that the bathroom is clean (including the globes for the light fixture and the shells in the fishbowl that were gathering dust and the floor--I did it ALL!), my bed's sheets are stripped from the bed, the fan in the bedroom was dismantled and washed and reassembled, the furniture in the bedroom was dusted (I HATE DUSTING!!), three or four loads of laundry are done and put away, son's drawers and our front closet have been sorted and outgrown clothing has been bagged up to be dropped off at the Goodwill, the hardwood floors are gleaming (yes, I washed them on my hands and knees like mom taught me!), and I'm now going to go to the shower!!

I think we'll be heading to Chick-Fil-A tonigth for dinner--I've earned it!

Tomorrow I'm going to PLAY...and wipe the dog snout marks off the front door glass!

Christmas Layout Inspiration

One thing I love about living in the Eastern time zone is that mornings start late. It doesn't even begin to get light these days until 7:30! We ease into the day here, and I like it.

I'm also writing this early this morning because I have the day off and I really need to do some major housecleaning. Bathroom, hardwood floors, vacuuming, wiping dog snout marks off the front door's glass...fun stuff. You're welcome to come join me! I can get majorly sidetracked by sitting down at the computer, so I'm forcing myself to post, get Michael and Bob out the door, and then put my nose to the grindstone and WORK!

I wanted to post this last night after I finished it, but Bob was doing some computer stuff and he took the network down for awhile. Then I was too tired to post when he had it back up, so you get it with your Cheerios this morning.

This card was inspired by Cambria Turnbow, who put a twist on a card layout she saw on someone's blog and at an SU! regional convention. Here's the link to her blog where she shares the details of the dimensions, and where you can see the card that inspired mine.

When I saw that circle on the front, I thought that it would make a great Christmas layout. I just took the dimension of 3" for the width and reduced mine to 6" instead of 8" and scored it in the middle. I don't have a Coluzzle circle cutting system, although SU! does, so I traced around the lid from a Pringles can! There's a small hinge underneath the ornament topper, which is cut from copper metallic paper.

Here's how the card looks when it's open! Isn't it cool how the ornament can hold a Christmas wish? It may be a little hard to see, but Merry Christmas is in amongst the snowflakes on the bottom fold. If I'd had the Peaceful Wishes set from SU!, which has a pine bough, I would've tried to make this look like it was hanging from a tree, and if a friend who has it loans it to me, you may see another version of this card. Wouldn't it be cute to put a family or child's picture on the inside of the ornament as well? Perhaps on the outside, with the designer paper serving as a background? Lots of potential here, I think!

Here are the details, and then I'm off to do the stuff I said I'd do. River Rock card stock base, Old Olive ink, Dashing designer paper, Many Merry Messages, Snowflake Spot. Thanks for stopping by!