Good Things Come in Small Packages

Beate Johns is a prolific stamper and template designer, and this week in the SCS Weekly she posted a tutorial for a triangle box. I enjoy traditional shapes, but I like that this one can be adjusted for size, giving you the option to create smaller versions than this 5" x 10" original.

Who wouldn't like to find this hanging on their door each day during the 12 days of Christmas or the 24 days before Christmas, for that matter?! Inexpensive, fast, and unique, they have the potential to bring a very fun, different twist to an Advent calendar or Christmas Countdown.

This container would also be fun to use as a place card for Thanksgiving. Fill with some sort of nuts or candy corn, and they're a nice take-home favor for your guests. The Haiku DSP is made for autumn and the festivities that come with it! This took me about 3 min., start to finish, so don't feel like deciding to make these is going to be a big undertaking.

If you'd like to order the designer paper to make these, please feel free to contact me! There's an email in my profile, or you can leave a comment. Add that special touch to your holidays by doing a little advance planning. You'll be glad you did!

Living in the Cone of Creative Silence

Hey ya'll. I know it has been some time since I posted, and I can't really offer any better explanation than the title of this post. I've just had no desire to craft--gasp! I don't know how I got to this point. I don't know how I found myself there, but you'll be happy to know that I think my time in the "cone zone" is nearing an end.

Today I finished a card I had put aside almost 2 weeks ago. (You may not be impressed, but I am.) I had been putzing around with the Haiku DSP and Season of Friendship, since the colors seemed to beg for a tree devoid of leaves. The sentiment is from the retired Lots of Thoughts. I seem to always choose a thanks sentiment when I'm not designing a card for a specific person. Why? There's always someone to thank, isn't there?

I'm not going to blather on. There's laundry to do, dinner to prepare, and a beautiful evening walk with my dogs and my husband awaiting me before day's end. Thanks for bearing with my silence. What have you been up to while I've been quiet?

This Ain't Your Mama's Box of Christmas Cards!

I know there hasn't been much to view this week. After all that mass production on Monday, I was not really in the mood to go near my craft room the rest of the week! Even though I wasn't feeling crafty, I continued to read blogs, and I earmarked several things to try.

I came home from Starbucks with this massive ache near the nape of my neck, radiating upward into my scalp. YUCK! I took ibuprophen and that didn't work, so I resorted to my chilled sock filled with rice. I am happy to report that I can now turn my head to the left. This put me in a better frame of mind to consider making something.

Earlier this week I saw what's officially referred to as a pizza box, due to how the lid hinges open like the famous fast food container. It's made from designer series paper, and is very elegant, in my opinion. What's AWESOME about it is that it's an excellent container for 4 or 5 standard sized 4.25" x 5.5" cards and their envelopes. What a Christmas gift for a coworker or party hostess or neighbor or teacher!

This interior view shows how great designer paper works as the medium for this box. The box is automatically decorated inside and out with NO work on your part. I'm lovin' this! Thank you, Susie Nelson, for doing all the math on this project.

The November Stamp-A-Stack will feature 5 Christmas cards with this box as a bonus. Are you coming? The gals I mass produced all those cards for will get one too.

ON A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT NOTE: my son has discovered Weird Al, the guy who did parodies of all the great '80's music, perhaps most notably "Eat It" (originally "Beat It" by Michael Jackson). Oh my how these song lyrics stay in my head, and I find this very ironic, since I can't remember having to be somewhere, but these lyrics won't LEAVE my brain's hard drive! I didn't like him all that much the first time around, and now I get to hear him again! Some things about being a teenager must be classic.

Happy rest of this lovely fall weekend to you!

The Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

Thanks to those who left encouraging comments about my memory loss episode. Here's the outcome of that incident: I summoned my courage first thing yesterday morning and called the office to see when there would be an opening. Miraculously, there was one later that day!

I made the phone call in the presence of my husband, and as soon as I was off the phone he put me through a tutorial on how to set text alarms--yes, plural!--for my Google calendar software so that I would receive gentle beeping reminders of the impending appointment.

I also put together a packet of my cards and a Starbucks gift card to soothe my conscience. I presented them to Stephanie, who immediately said I didn't have to do that. I responded firmly that I most certainly did need to, and I walked out of the office with a lighter heart.

This experience forced me examine how important my "got it together" image is to me, and how it makes me appear "just a wee bit superior" (to quote The Church Lady from SNL). Eeewww....

I want to defend myself and explain why forgetting is something I try to avoid at all costs, but that's not what the lesson of this experience is supposed to be. What is important is recognizing that I need to be less proud of what I can tick off my "to do" list each day and more concerned about accurately presenting myself to others...forgetfulness and all. That's what the last two posts have been my attempt to do. If you are dancing a jig because you finally saw me slip up, I understand.

I'm Losing My Mind

I do not know what to do. I'm so ashamed, I can hardly stand it. I'm not this kind of person, ya'll! What have I done? I've missed 2 doctor appointments that have been scheduled for Michael, and we've been late to a third because I nearly forgot that one.

I really don't know what's happening. I'm not a forgetful person! I'm organized; I have had all these marked on my old-fashioned pencil and paper calendar that I carry in my purse, as well as on the family electronic calendar in Google. What's going on?!?

If anyone has any ideas to help me get out of this scary spiral, I'd appreciate hearing them. I'm embarrassed beyond belief, because the nurse herself called me yesterday to confirm the appointment and I profusely apologized for missing the last one and told her that we would be there, "come hell or high water. I will not forget!"

I know I'd be ticked, perturbed, confused, irritated, frustrated, and put out if I were Stephanie. How do I face this woman? I just pull up my big girl panties and own my early onset dementia and set another appointment...and have my husband take him.

Seriously, I'm perplexed. Any idea what's going on?

Productive Day

Ever wonder what your friendly, neighborhood barista does on her day off? She cuts card stock!

This afternoon I spent about 4 hours measuring, cutting, counting, recounting, and bagging up:

67 8.5" x 11" sheets of card stock
6 12" x 12" sheets of designer paper
360" of ribbon
54 snowflakes
18 brads
90 envelopes

That's enough stuff to make 90 cards for an upcoming Christmas Stamp-A-Stack for a group of 6 women at an office in Buckhead. I'm really excited about this opportunity to connect with these women after hours at their place of business. Nobody has to clean their house, or even go anywhere. Everything's coming to them--we're even bringing in dinner! They're going to have a little more margin in their holiday season, since, for $35, they'll go home with 15 unlike anyone else's Christmas cards in 3 hours' time!

There's still time for me to do this for YOUR group of friends! Contact me and we'll get a date on the calendar, or come with your group of friends to my November SAS on Sat., Nov. 15, from 10a-1p. Leave me a comment to indicate your interest!

And Now, As Promised...

two cards! It has been a busy week, but today I had some quiet time alone here at the house to craft to my heart's content. The first card is one that came to me as I was driving home. I don't know if it's a weed or some real bush, but in lots of random places I see leaves that are almost a fuschia red. They're gorgeous, of course, so I pulled out my Pocket Silhouettes set to try to replicate nature in still life. (What a joke--nature's beauty can hardly be captured, but I'm giving it a shot anyway!)

I sponged the leaves with Tangerine Tango, went over those ever so lightly with Pink Passion, and used my SU! Chocolate Chip marker to make the branches. The rest of the design just sort of fell into place with stuff that was laying around on my craft table. This card is 4.25" square, and the sentiment is from Upsy Daisy. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the piece of card stock underneath the main image is PP that has been sponged with TT. It was just too screamin' pink otherwise.

This second card was inspired by someone's creativity. I don't remember the stamper's name or where I saw it, but isn't this a cute takeoff on the grass stamp from Inspired by Nature? I really like cattails, and remember pausing to touch them whenever I saw them in a dried flower arrangement at my aunt's house. So soft and fuzzy! The 'tails are made using the slot punch, of all things! Clever people, card artists are.

I inked up the grass with So Saffron, sponged it with More Mustard, and applied the 'tails where I thought they'd look best. The frame around the image is also in MM, using 1/4" strips. The sentiment is from a retired SU! set and I really like the thought it communicates. I'm not sure what this sentiment has to do with the image, but sometimes that's how it goes.

I'm hoping to watch the Frontline documentary about McCain and Obama with what's left of this evening. The tv is currently being used as a video screen, though, and I'm not sure when it will be free. I'm having a very difficult time making up my mind who to vote for this year.

Thanks for hanging with me! I hope you have a beautiful weekend.