Lorien's Laundry

This is what I did last night. Yes, I did laundry. You are probably asking yourself why you came to my blog to see laundry. I'm sure you have enough of your own. I did more than just laundry. I made a card. Check it out!

Look familiar? I was inspired by the colors in my sweater. I wasn't able to work the lighter pink into it. I tried Pretty In Pink, but it was too light. And Regal Rose just wasn't quite right. So I left it out. I tried sponging Regal Rose on Pretty in Pink and it just wouldn't work. Now it is bugging me though. I may go back and try to get it in there some how. This card follows this sketch. It is the sketch you need to use to submit an entry into the Verve Visual Honored Guest Challenge. The winner will be the Verve Guest Designer for the month of June. This card uses Verve Visual's Seeing Stars and Polka Stars (for the sentiment), Papertrey Stampers Select White, SU! Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Purely Pomagranate, Blue Bayou, Creamy Caramel, and Close to Cocoa. I heat embossed the sentiment and the stars with black embossing powder. The ribbon I got from a secret sister so I'm not sure where it is from and the brads are SU! black brads from the Vintage Brads collection. I punched out the large and small stars with SU!'s star punches. The medium ones I cut out.

As I was putting my jammies on last night I was checking out the colors in my shirt. This may become a reoccuring feature on my blog. Now go do some laundry and be inspired!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. I am an April Fool's baby. Aren't I lucky? I don't get too many tricks played on me anymore, but I used to get a few when I was a kid. My dad usually tries, but I have become wise to his ways.

I finally emptied out my stuff from the mingle and started putting it away.

JANA - Yes you can come next year. Any SCS'er that wants to come and gets registered is welcome to join us. Here is a thread for the MI Minglers. That is where you should be if you want to be in the know about the next event. We are looking at the last two weekends in March or the 1st weekend in April of 2009. We had a gal from Wyoming come this year. She has a daughter in MI, so that is why she travelled so far. We are trying to find a space for 100 stampers, this translates to 200+ regular people. Hee hee.

Patty, Tracy and I had lunch this weekend and went over the survey results from the mingle. We talked about what we will do differently for next year, some possible locations, etc. Number one thing is to find more space. I honestly didn't think we would have 50+ people register this year. The last two years I attended we had 25-30 people. I know that space was an issue this year and we are going to make sure it isn't in the future. We were there for 4 HOURS! It was fun though.

Check this out! Caroline in Toronto CASE'd me. Tracy was doing some blog hopping and looking for info from the SU! cruise when she came across this and freaked out. Too funny! I feel almost famous.

ETA: The winner for the cute baby contest was announced this morning on the radio and I missed it. No one called me so I am guessing it wasn't Morgan. Thank you to all who voted for her!

Brighten it up baby!

Winter is hanging on and won't give up around here. I'm really ready for spring! I made some changes to my blog to try and brighten things up. I was getting tired of the tans and browns.

This is another card from the SCS MI Mingle. I really think this is the last one! This was Jen's challenge card. We had to use the paper and ribbons and at least one of the images she provided. We could add to it. I added some stickles to my cake, but you can't see them very well in the picture. I wanted the ribbons to be on the left, but after I suck that part on I realized I had done it on the wrong side. The card opens to the right there. Oops!

This was the card I did for the shoebox swap at the MI SCS Mingle. Can you believe it has been over 3 weeks since the event and I am still talking about it? I still haven't unpacked my stamping stuff from that weekend either. This card is done in Old Olive, Soft Sky and Chocolate Chip. It uses the SU! Paisley background and the main image is from www.starvingartistamps.com. That ribbon is the new olive twill in the Occasions mini catalog.

Look at those piggies!

Aren't they cute?
I couldn't resist. I just had to get some pics today.
And she was hamming it up and posing for mama.
By the way, Morgan was entered into a cute baby contest through one of the local radio stations here. If you feel compelled to vote to help her win we would really appreciate it. Here is how you can vote:

* VIA EMAIL: Send an email to mornings@wiog.com. In the e-mail, the SUBJECT LINE should contain ONLY the number of the baby as assigned by WIOG on the website gallery. MORGAN IS 106
A “#” sign or any other information in the SUBJECT LINE besides the number may cause the vote to not be counted.
In the body of the e-mail, please include your name, address and daytime phone.
ONLY ONE EMAIL PER DAY.

* VIA TEXT MESSAGE: Send a text to 62582 with keyword: baby (this MUST be first in the body of the message), followed by a space and then ONLY the NUMBER of the baby as assigned by WIOG on the website and no other information (providing additional information may result in the disqualification of the vote) MORGAN IS 106
NO LIMIT TO THE NUMBER OF TEXTS YOU CAN SEND

The contest ends at 5:00PM EST on March 28th. Go vote!

WILDLY CHERRY M&Ms!!!!!

WOW! I was just at my local dollar store and saw these wildly cherry m&ms. Hmmm. I'll give them a try. I LOVE THEM! YUM!! YUM!! YUM!! So I had to run over here and share with someone. The package says Limited Edition. I'm going to have to run out and stock up.

Here is a birdie card that I made for the current DKOS. I had to use the A Little Birdie Told Me stamp set from SU! and do some paper piecing. That is what I did on the umbrella. The polka dot bacground is from a stamp by PaperTrey Ink. Emma let me borrow it. I love how it goes with the polka dot pomagrante ribbon. That is from one of the SU! ribbon originals.

What? I have a blog? I like totally forgot!

Well, not really. The last couple of weeks have been crazy. There was the prepping for the SCS event, then the event itself, stomach flu going around my house, busiest time of the year at work, volunteering to do testing on a new system during the busiest time of year at work, me getting sick, etc. And here we are. I did manage to find a few pictures from the big event to share because I obviously haven't done anything creative since then. Here is one and I will try to get some more up in the next few days.



These are the boxes I gave to my roomies. The boxes are from the dollar store. Can you believe that? I used the SAB rub-ons on them and I filled them with alterables, like a naked frame, coasters, watchmaker tins, some giant paper clips... Pretty cool huh?

Drum Roll Please!

I know you have been waiting so patiently to see my finished swap card from the MI SCS get together, now called the Michigan Mingle. Well, here it is. Ta-Da!

Al-u-min-EEE-um

That is how you say aluminum in England. That is one of the many things I learned this weekend at the SCS MI Mingle. I am exhausted. I got about 3 hours of sleep each night. My roomies and I stayed up late talking and giggling both nights. I talked my husband into letting me take a nap after I got home yesterday. He thought it was so funny that I was so tired. I had come home, took a shower and got dressed, had a bowl of cereal and talked to him and the kids for a few and then I took a nap. At 9:00 or so at night I realized that I had put my shirt on backwards. That is how tired I was. I have my camera packed up still and didn't take too many pictures cause I was busy, busy. So I will have to get to those later this week.

Fruit Punch

I was looking for an excuse to use my Fruit Punch Stickles so I made this card. I really love that color of stickles, usually I am just a Star Dust kind of gal. I thought they worked well with the Purely Pomegranate and Groovy Guava. The card base is Certainly Celery and the ribbon is too. The stamp set is SU!'s Doodle This.

Busy, Busy, Busy

I have been busy prepping for a big SCS stamping event next weekend in Birch Run. I helped to organize it. Here are some of those things that I have been working on.

This is one of the goodie bags for the 1st ten people that paid for their registrations. I thought it would get people to act fast. It did and I had no clue the event would sell out. The last two years we had room for more people. This year we are over 50 and it will be tight. I'm not telling what is inside cause I want it to be a surprise. I went with black and white. The stamp is from Baroque Motifs and I used my tag punches for the tags.

Here are some of the treasure hunt prizes.

And this is the gift for my secret sister. I made it by accident. I was playing with it and was going to use it for something else and when I finished I thought this would be a great gift for my secret sister. The paper is from Rubber Soul. Inside the middle are some more goodies.

Graduation Cards

In addition to the baby card from the last post, I needed to come up with a graduation card. Both of these cards use the same pieces. I used the chipboard star and covered it with encore silver ink and then I clear embossed over it. That is where the texture came from. I wanted to use a neutral pallet so I went with black, white, and gray. I have the star punches on order so if the campers want to add punched out stars in the school colors that will be easy. I thought about adding some ribbon, but kind of liked the cleaness of these cards and thought if they were going to a guy it didn't really need any ribbon. What do you think? How could these be spiced up a bit?

I'm a dork! & Here is a card

Jana gave me an Excellent Blogger Award back on 2/14 and I totally spaced it. Thanks Jana! But obviously I haven't been too excellent lately. I will work on that though. I'll start out by showing you a card I made this weekend.


This is a baby card for our next stamp camp. I bought a bunch of the sticky cuts and chipboard pieces that SU! offered to demos in bulk in anticipation of using them for our next camp projects. Here I have used the sticky cut heart with beads and microbeads. I was planning to use it with glitter, but I didn't have a color that would look good for the heart. My plan for the camp is to use the pink bead duo that SU! offers, but I didn't have that on hand this weekend so I had to improvise. I used some pink beads and microbeads that I had to attempt to get a similar effect. I also had to improvise the background. I want to use the polka dot background at the camp, but I don't have that so I used a pencil eraser here. The colors are Certainly Celery, Barely Banana, and Groovy Guava. I stamped the giraffe from Wild About You in Apricot Appeal.

BTW - You can click on the picture to make it bigger if you want to see the beads closer. For some reason my blogger stopped making the pictures clickable and bigger automatically, but I was able to find one that worked before and modified the html code from that to make it work on this one the the last card I posted.

Want to laugh so hard that you cry and snot flies out your nose?

Not that I would know or anything.

I just love it when people do those "what they looked up to get to my blog" posts. I don't know how to do that. And I highly doubt many people end up at my blog on accident, but Dawn over at Because I Said So did this the other day. Oh is it funny.

And the Poineer Woman used to do them every so often, but I haven't seen one recently.

My DH googled himself the other day and got this...He sent me an email and said people must think we abuse our children.

Two Weeks?!?!

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I posted last. Wow! Time flies. I only have one stamping project that I have worked on in those two weeks. And it all happened this past weekend. I made 56 cards for the Michigan SCS get together that is coming up at the beginning of March. I don't want to show the finished product until after the event, but here is a peek of what they looked like in the middle of the assembly and stamping.

That is the card base with 55 of it's friends stacked up next to it. In front are the cut pieces for the main image. The stamp on the card base I got at http://www.starvingartistamps.com/. It is the Ornate Tooled Leather Background. I love it! I bought the unmounted rubber and then I put it on ez mount cling foam. When I went to use it I realized I probably didn't need to do that. When I stamp with my backgrounds I do it upside down. So I lay the rubber, image side up on my grid paper and then I ink it up. Next I lay the paper on top of the rubber and fold my grid paper over top of that and rub all around to make sure the paper is pressed into the rubber image. The base is Really Rust, Chocolate Chip, and Creamy Caramel. The background was stamped in Really Rust ink on the Creamy Caramel and then the edges were sponged with Really Rust. More to come on the finished card later. I hope you enjoyed this sneak peek. And I will try to make a whole card that I can show you this weekend!

Bronc Buster Stamp Camp Card

This is my other card for the next stamp camp. I wanted to do a masculine card. This can be used as a birthday card or whatever. The colors are Blue Bayou, Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, Ruby Red and Very Vanilla. I used some Hemp Twine and an Antique Brass Jumbo Eyelet.

One of a Kind Stamp Camp Card

This is one of the cards we are doing at our next stamp camp. Similar to some of the other cards I have done with this set. Pretty In Pink, Purely Pomegranate, Close to Cocoa, and Chocolate Chip.

The Card from H - E - Double Hockey Sticks

This stupid card, and her 5 identical twin sisters, took me 5 hours to make. Umm, why? This is a relatively simple card. It was not the gate fold, or cutting out the flowers. It was the darn patterned paper I picked out to use on it.
Last Friday night I went to stamp at my pal Crystal's house. I needed to borrow her stamp set to make this card so I precut everything and took it all with me. That way I could finish these cards and spend the rest of the night making the samples for my upcoming stamp camp, making the sample for my shoebox swap for the SCS event in March, bringing the design in my head to paper for the 52+ swap cards for that same event. Did I get any of that other stuff done? NO! The pieces I cut for the main image on this card included a whisper white rectangle instead of the River Rock one you see here. When I put it together it just did not work with the patterned paper. I tried a few other things Crystal suggested, but could not make it work. Then Lorie says what about River Rock. Duh! That is the weird color in the patterned paper that I couldn't figure out. This is no masterpiece. But it works.


Here are some closeups of the glitter on the flowers. I used a clear copic spica for the glitter.

The colors on this card are Rose Red, Taken with Teal, Pumpkin Pie, and River Rock. The patterned paper is from a pack by Pink Martini I got at Verve Visual called Orange Creamsicle. And it is on sale right now. So if you are looking for something to go with River Rock, here is your ticket!

True Friend meets Bali Breeze

Another DKOS swap! For this one we had to use the Bali Breeze paper in a way that shows both sides. Me being the ding bat that I am forgot to order the paper on my last order so one of the gals sent me some pieces to use for the swap. The colors on this are Old Olive, Purely Pomagranate and Summer Sun. The paper also has Taken with Teal in it, I believe. I used my markers to color the flower. I had to go back over the dots on the flower border after I stamped it because they didn't come out quite as dark as I had hoped. They were muddied by the Summer Sun. Some sponging on the edges. Some Old Olive brads holding the folded paper over so you could see the other side.

Did I ever show you this?

I don't think I did cause I sent these both to my secret sister at one point, I think. It is hard to remember.

This Bella card is very similar to an ATC I did for a swap. So if it looks familiar that is why. Wild Wassabi, Purely Pomagranate, and Blue, blue...Bordering Blue? No. Ballet Blue? No. The other one...Brocade Blue. That's it! Man I am slipping. The third kid did me in. My mind isn't what it used to be. This here is Cosmobella from StampingBella. The Cocktails sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas and the background is SU Crosshatch. I love that stamp. Not long after it came out I was sitting in the bathroom at work and realized the wallpaper had the same pattern on it. Don't know why I had to share that with you. I paper pieced her shirt. I think that is Cutie Pie paper. Colored with marker in other areas. Then there is a big fat rhinestone brad there with her just cause it needed some bling and I didn't know what to do.

Here is Stem Silhouettes in fall colors. This was a DKOS swap too. Old Olive, Really Rust and More Mustard. Pretty straightforward here. The background is Sanded. I like Sanded a lot too. If I had to choose between Sanded and Crosshatch I'm not sure which one I would pick. I love them both. If I really had to pick just one I guess Crosshatch, cause I could create a look similar to Sanded with the DTP technique. You could duplicate Crosshatch too, but I am too lazy for that.

Baroque Motifs in Red and Green

Baroque Motifs. I just like saying that. You have to say it with a French accent you know? Another DKOS card. For this one we had to use reds and greens with Baroque Motifs and add some background paper and some ribbon. I'm guessing background paper means printed paper. So that is what I went with. I found this in the pack of Rubber Soul paper that I bought when I had to buy the Snowman From Above stamp that I haven't used yet. I found that the leaves were similar to the leaves in the Baroque Motif stamp. See that. Pretty clever huh? The paper pack had brown with the reds and greens so that is why I matted my pieces with Chocolate Chip. I used Old Olive for my green and Real Red. I sponged the edges. I took forever to tie the knots in the ribbon. I don't know what my problem was that day. I just couldn't tie a good looking knot for nothing. I tried several ways and made note of which side crossed over which etc. I couldn't get the same thing to work twice. I finally got all 6 cards done that I was making. Phew!

Awe! Aren't they cute?

Ok, ignore the fact that she has a dislocated shoulder. It takes some time to get used to lining up the body parts. I made this card for the DKOS swap. The instructions said to make a kids Valentine card with the All in the Family set and do some paper piercing (I double checked it said piercing and not piecing. See the holes in the pink on the right side?), and I think we had to do ribbon and sparkle too. Her skirt is sparkly, you just can't see it here. I picked some kid friendly colors and when to town. Real Red, Lovely Lilac (I think, I always get the purples mixed up) and Pretty In Pink. The hearts along the bottom are from Monkey Business. The skirt and the flower are part of the All in the Family Accessories set.

So Many Cards

I've made so many cards since I finished my stamping room last week, I just don't know what to show you first! Plus I have some that I didn't want to post until now because I sent them to my secret sister and I didn't want her to discover me in case she was to happen upon my blog. Let's see..... These two have a similar color scheme. Let's start here.

This card is for the DKOS swap I am in. We had to use the So Much stamp set. I liked this set when it first came out in the Fall/Winter catalog, but then I looked at the price and said - I can't believe it costs SO MUCH. So that is my guess how it got its name. Hee Hee. Anyway, I got it free when I went to regionals this fall so the price was right then. The colors are Soft Sky, More Mustard and Chocolate Chip. I really like this color combo. I wanted to do something different than my standard main image, mat it and stick another piece of card stock on there somewhere. I had already cut my pieces to have a main image and mat it twice, but I decided to use those pieces and mix it up a bit. The Chocolate Chip panel has the circle image stamped with white StazOn and then edges DTP'd with the white StazOn. The Mustard panel is next with the dotted circle image stamped multiple times in Chocolate Chip. I DTP'd the edges of that piece with Chocolate Chip. The white panel is on dimensionals. I stamped the flower image in Soft Sky a few times and once in More Mustard. I also DTP'd the edges of that piece with Chocolate Chip. I stuck in a jumbo eyelet, and voila! I really like how it turned out.

Next up is my card front for Crystal's new catty swap. The colors on this are Blue Bayou, So Saffron, and Chocolate Chip. I wanted to use something other than the pinks and browns you usually see with these sets. I had a lot of Blue Bayou so I chose that for the base. I stamped the flower images from the Boho Backgrounds set all over in Blue Bayou ink. Then I took some of the 5/8" Chocolate Chip Grosgrain and tied a knot in it. I attached it to the back of the So Saffron strip and then stuck that on the card base. The main image is stamped in Chocolate Chip on Very Vanilla card stock. I colored in my flower with the So Saffron marker. I then stamped the flower trio in Chocolate Chip on So Saffron and punched them out with the coordinating punch. The main image and two of the flowers are up on dimensionals.

oops!

I got these all ready to post at the end of last week and didn't post them. This is what I sent to my secret sister for our reveal gift this month. There is a card with the new Berry Bliss paper and the One of a Kind stamp set.
I wrapped a crystal light container with the DS paper and covered the top. I filled it with nuggets.
This is a bracelet I made with little shrinky dink flowers from the One of a Kind set. I had some black shrink plastic that I stamped the flowers on with white StazOn. Then I used the coordinating punch to punch them out. NOT EASY!! Then I flipped them over and placed them in the punched out template so I could stamp the back side. Then I punched a hole in them and shrunk them in the oven.

After they cooled I put a jump ring on the little flowers and made the bracelet and some coordinating earrings. I hope she likes them!

In other news - I didn't make the Gina K guest team and I didn't win the contest at Pink Hedgehog. Oh well. You can see the pink hedgehog winners here, and my card is posted there too. http://www.pinkhedgehogpapercrafts.com/Gallery/Contest_jan_2008.php

New Stamping Space

Well my stamping space is pretty much done so here are a few pictures. I should've taken some befores of the other area so you could see how dark and sad it was.
Now it is nothing fancy by any means, but it is nice to have a little corner that is bright and pretty much clean.
My cuttlebug now has a home on top of the file cabinet that holds all my 8.5 X 11 cardstock. I have a peg board to the left that holds some wheel handles, scissors, a few embellishements. I need to get some more hooks or baskets so I can put that to use more.
This table you see on the right is my daughter's craft table. So she can be in there with me and working on her own projects.
These are my plastic candy jars filled with ribbons wrapped on those old wooden clothes pins. I need to label these. I have them divided into SU current, SU retired, and non-SU ribbons. I got the idea to do this from Nichole Heady's blog. Her jars are the pretty glass ones and she has one jar for each color of ribbon. Whew!
I stole this drawer unit from my husband's old office. My punches go in the drawers instead of taking up space on my desk.
That basket of scraps next to it needs to be filed.
The pink and brown things are from the dollar store. I also got a few other containers there that I throw my embellishments into.
See that one pink and brown container holding my incolor ink pads... it can fit two ink pads side by side. I haven't tested how far up you can stack them. Right now one side has 5 and the other had 4. Pretty nifty and it only cost $1. The narrow one next to it has all my adhesives like glue dots, dimensionals, super sticky tape, crystal effects, etc.

Take a look at these stamps. The top row that is only on one shelf is my SU current stamps. The next row that is across two shelves are my retired stamps that I haven't been able to part with. And I have parted with many retired stamps.






I also have a little cabinet that isn't pictured that holds some ink refills, craft spots, and some other misc. stuff.

You Make My Day!

I was nominated for the "You Make My Day" award by Laura over at The Stamping Soldier. Yeah! And now here is a list of the bloggers that make my day.

1. Crystal at http://stampwithcrystal.blogspot.com/
2. Jana at http://indyemmert.blogspot.com/
3. Alicia at http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/
4. Dawn at http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/
5. Ree at http://thepioneerwoman.com/
6. Dark Yet Lovely http://jseib.wordpress.com/
7. Patricia at http://patriciarobitaillejewelry.blogspot.com/
8. Tandra at http://alittleinkalicious.blogspot.com/
9. Karrie at http://stampgirl.typepad.com/burnin_rubber/
10. Elizebeth at http://www.ebethonline.com/

Award rules: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on.

Can I go home now?

I need to take a day off to finish organizing my craft room. Ahh-choo! I think I feel a cold coming on.

I am so close. I just need to organize all my stamps on my shelves, and my 12 x 12 paper and all the clipboards, tiles, notepads, pens, tins, candles, and other alterables somewhere. I don't want to throw it together. I want to get it right. My desk is pretty much set. The card stock is mostly all filed in its folders. I need to go through my scrap basket and file the scraps. I need to label the folders and I need some more folders for the incolors and neutrals. My ribbons are all wrapped on the clothes pins and sitting in the plastic candy jars.

Maybe I can at least get pictures of my desk and post those tomorrow.

I got my SU! order from the new catty yesterday. It was a very small order. One of a Kind and the coordinating punch, Boho Backgrounds and the Berry Bliss paper. I ran downstairs last night and mounted one stamp and quickly made some little shrinky dink flowers that I am going to use on a bracelet for my secret sister's reveal gift. I need to get cracking and finish that.

Oh the agony!

I keep stalking the http://www.pinkhedgehogpapercrafts.com/ site to see who won their contest awhile ago and the announcement keeps getting postponed! You can see the card I entered here. I took a picture of it before I sent it in. Heck! I don't even know for sure that she got my card. I'm hoping yes. Well, it sounds like she will be posting all the entries in a gallery on their site so at least maybe my card will be in the gallery.

And this weekend I will be stalking my inbox for an email from GinaK. She posted that she will be sending emails to the people they have chosen for the guest design team this weekend. And the announcement will come Monday. You can see the cards I submitted here, here, and here.

In the meantime, I have started a SU! demo website and opened a Etsy shop. Links over to the right. Check them out and let me know what you think. I need to make some more things to add to the Etsy shop. There is only one in there now. A custom made name frame.

Isn't she lovely?

I took this picture last week when we had a snow day from school. This is Maddie and Bailey. I can't get over the smile on Maddie. She usually makes goofy faces when I try to take her picture. I made this my desktop at work.


I don't have anything stamping related to share right now. I haven't been able to get to my craft area since before Christmas. But I need to get down there soon. I've got some projects I need to get done and I'm also trying to better organize my space.

Teacher Gift

For Christmas I was going to make my daughter's teacher a name frame... and I got to thinking about how young she was and how she had a boyfriend and what if she gets married and changes her name and then wouldn't be able to use her name frame for very long. So I looked at my All in the Family stamp set and decided to do a sort of class picture. I counted the number of girls and boys in the class, but I didn't really make note of their features so I winged the hair colors/styles, etc. Here is how that turned out.

It took me a few tries to get them all in the space alloted. I finally figured out to start in the bottom row and put the heads on before I started the feet for the next row. The ribbons are the school colors. I paper pieced the clothes and colored with markers for the skin and hair.






I wasn't too thrilled with how this came out. So I attached another piece to the back and put her name on it so she has the option of choosing which side she wants to show. Here is the name side.

I went with the school colors again. Bravo Burgandy and More Mustard.

The thing I am the most thrilled with is the frame. When I bought it at the dollar store it was bright red chrome. Really shiney and bright. So I sanded it and rubbed some brown StazOn ink on it and voila! Perfecto!!!





We got a thank you note from the teacher yesterday and I think she prefers the "class picture" side because she went on and on about it and how the kids were all trying to figure out who was who. When I gave it to her, it was on the name side with an explaination that she could flip it over.

It's a new year

Time to get back to work, back to posting, get organized.




Here are a couple of ATC swaps I did in late November/early December. I can't recall exactly. It seems like the month of December was a blur. The swap hostess took these pictures and posted all the swaps on her blog. I borrowed the pictures she took of mine since I hadn't taken pictures of mine yet.



I've been thinking a lot about this hobby/obsession and what I want to do differently in the new year. One thing I have decided is that I will not sign up for any more swaps. I have already commited to a few and I will complete those, but I need to focus my energy/stamping time elsewhere. I have bags full of swap cards just sitting. I need to donate those to the troops or somewhere that will get some use out of them. I am going to clean out my stash and only buy things I KNOW I will use. I will make use of the stuff I bought that is just sitting there. That is about it.
Stayed tuned for the gift Maddie gave her teacher this Christmas.

Oh the doggie and the lava lamp are from The Cat's Pajamas. The paisley paper I got at Joann's. Not sure who makes it. The other ATC features Cosmobella from Stamping Bella and the Cocktails sentiment is from The Cat's Pajamas.