I've been absent, I know

Just in case it was noticed, thought I'd own up to having been gone for a while.  Nearly a month, sheesh.  After I returned from San Francisco, I came down with a cold and had to lay low for a few days.  Then I needed to get cracking on my sister's 60th birthday gift/card and get it done before leaving for Hawaii for 10 days.  So I focused all of my attention and energy on that project and finished it 2 days before departure to Hawaii.  I did laundry and began packing when taking intermittent breaks from the birthday project, got pre-vacation hair cut and manicure/pedicure appointments out of the way.......I felt that I didn't have a spare moment to make cards or scan them or post anything on my blog.

Unfortunately, I also had no time to photograph the gift I made for my sister so I could share it here.  We returned home from Hawaii yesterday evening and suddenly it was today and time to go to our daughter's where a celebration for my mom's birthday was held.  It was there that I gave my sister her gift as her birthday was celebrated yesterday.  Her guy and her two adult children came down to southern California to celebrate, bringing one of our sisters with them.  In addition, another sister and her two adult children also came down and two other sisters who live here in southern California, along with their families, also celebrated the 60-year old's birthday yesterday.

The gift I made for my sister is a vintage-look album made from heavy chipboard and has card stock flag pages.  That's what it's called when an accordian-folded base is affixed to the inside of the spine and an individual page is then attached to one side of each of the folds.  The cover, spine, and pages are covered with decorative paper in vintage colors and patterns.  Papers are Prima products from their Printery collection.  There are Cricut cut embellishments, lots of Prima flowers and bling and, of course, a good smattering of distressing in Mementos rich cocoa ink.  I also used clear Stickles to highlight some areas on the pages and give them a bit of extra bling.  I placed sepia toned pictures of my sister; of groupings of various sisters (by the way, I have 7 sisters.........); of my sister and her kids; of her guy and her, including their high school grad pictures; and I also included sayings about sisters and birthdays.

Sure wish I'd had time to take pix but I'm glad my sister loved her gift and that I was able to complete it before our trip.  And I have a bit of a reprieve from making another birthday card for a sister turning 60 since that birthday is still a couple of years out.

I found another organization that has requested Christmas cards, this time for folks in nursing homes who need to be cheered, and I will be making cards for them.  In addition, I need to make Christmas cards to be given to the troops, not for them to mail out, but for them to know they're not forgotten.  And then I'll be cranking out some Valentine cards since that's another holiday coming up.

My internal time clock is still a bit cuckoo and I still need to unpack and begin laundry.  (Thank goodness the saga of the washing machine is done.)  I plan to post more cards as soon as they're made and hope to do so soon.  Tomorrow will be partially a recovery from the hustle bustle but I hope to find time for stamping too.

Another week gone by

It's been nearly a week since I last posted.  I've come to accept that I'm not able to consistently post on a daily basis and am okay with that.  There was a time I couldn't adjust a goal, it was all or nothing.  Glad that's over.

I had a great weekend.  It actually began on Friday when my daughter and granddaughter arrived early Friday morning and we left for a trip to northern California.  We arrived at my sister's around 6 p.m. where we stayed until Monday morning.  It was a great visit.  On Saturday my daughter and granddaughter took BART into San Francisco to play tourists at Fisherman's Wharf and had hoped to get onto a tour of Alcatraz but had no success as all the tours were booked in advance.  They were prepared for that to happen so they just strolled in and out of shops and enjoyed the nice weather until it was time to catch BART to return to the east bay.

My sister and I spent the day at her home, leaving once to go to a local craft store.  Of course we had to.  I bought paper and embellishments and a storage case for my Cricut cartridges and booklets.  One of our cousins joined us at my sister's home and we spent the afternoon playing.  Our cousin brought her Cricut and we stamped and created cards and tags .  I showed my sister how to heat emboss a stamped image and also explained my techniques as I finished some Christmas cards I am sending to OWH.  I shared some tips and tricks for stamping and my cousin and I shared with each other.  I didn't even realize that my cousin likes to make cards and this past weekend I learned that she also gravitates towards the same tools and supplies that I do.

The next day we traveled south of San Francisco to attend a party for another cousin's 4 year old grandson.  My granddaughter was delighted that some of her other cousins were there also.  The cousin we'd spent the day with on Saturday arrived with her husband, daughter, 2 grandsons and her sister.  So we got to see another cousin we haven't seen in a while.

Driving home on Monday went fairly quickly until we hit commute time traffic coming out of Los Angeles.  We ended up taking longer to get home than we did going north but at least it was uneventful.

I enjoyed spending time with my daughter and granddaughter and visiting with my sister and cousins.  It's good to be home, though.

Never say never and more cards

I was never going to buy a Cricut.  At least that's what I declared on a regular basis.  Unfortunately hanging out at my local scrapbook store and seeing the creations of the instructors there......some very talented wormen......gave me second thoughts.

Once of the reasons I've been MIA here is I bought a Cricut......the new Expression 2.......and have been playing with it rather than composing blog messages.  So I think I'm ready to produce images for my cards now.  I've amassed 10 cartridges and 2 came preloaded on the machine.  I'm looking forward to spending some "quality" time using the Cricut and hope to be able to post some results soon.  Never say never.

I've also been making and scanning cards and I'm getting ready to ship another box to Operation Write Home.  They're primarily Christmas cards and I'm going to finish up the last batch I'm making in the next few days.  I'm including some of the Christmas cards in tonight's blog posting and there are also a couple of cards from the get together I attended with friends a few weeks ago and 3 from another class I took at Hearts N Crafts.  Oh, and I'm also posting the mini scrapbook I will be teaching at the next get together that will be held in March.  You'll see in that scan there are white index tabs attached to black tags that slide out of the "pages" of the scrapbook.  Each of the pages will have a tab but I only tabbed 3 of them for demonstration purposes.  The tags will be used for photos or journaling.

So, without further ado, my cards:

First, the mini scrapbook -

Some Christmas cards -

The cards I made at Hearts N Crafts.  We used patterned papers with coordinating printed card stock die cuts

My own cards -

The last of the cards made as part of the 10 minute projects at the get together in September =

Cards from Michael Strong's classes

I took two additional card making classes taught by Michael Strong last weekend.  And, of course, I'm now signed up for his November classes.  After all these years, getting to meet him and to learn from him........ I am completely thrilled.

Once again, one of the classes was given in the morning and the other in the afternoon.  The morning class focused on Michael's set of 3 panel stamps: hummingbirds, dragonflies and butterflies.  During the class in August we used the dragonfly panel only.  In the afternoon class last weekend, we used Michaels set of fans for the cards.

Voila!

The following card includes a bookmark.

The disks on the following card are two of the smallest fans in the set,  placed together at their straight sides.

What a great experience! (and more of my cards)

I participated in my very first blog hop this weekend and have come away very pleased. There were over 130 participants in Operation Write Home's Card Making Day blog hop. So many beautiful Christmas cards and such inspiration! If you didn't get a chance to see the entries, please check them out here: http://www.owhstarsandstamps.org/2011/10/world-cardmaking-day-bloghop-starts.html  (sorry, I don't know how to make the word "here" a link yet.)

You'll need to scroll down to see the 132 blog names listed, I'm # 132 having been moved there after it was found that there was a bad link to my blog and it had to be deleted and I was re-added at the end.  Anyway, I did receive some very nice comments from folks when my blog could be seen after the move and it was gratifying to hear good things from other artists.

As I stated I would yesterday, I'm posting more of my cards tonight but will still have more to follow.  I've spent my time very productively at Hearts N Crafts these last couple of weeks.

So, enjoy..........

My post for Operation Write Home's blog hop

Following is a Christmas card that I'm sending to Operation Write Home so someone overseas will be able to send it to a loved one or friend.  

To make this card, I used white ink to stamp a solid poinsettia on red card stock.  Then I stamped and embossed a poinsettia outline stamp with silver on a small square of the same card stock and layered it on a slightly larger square of white card stock.  I attached that to the front of the previously stamped card and also silver embossed the outline stamp on the card.  I attached sheer red ribbon at the card's fold.  The completed card measures 4.25" x 5.5".

I found Operation Write Home through a link on another web site.  I don't remember exactly which one but  I'm sure it had to do with rubber stamping since I've seen other links since then.

I read all of the information about Operation Write Home on their site and was immediately energized to participate.  One of my nieces is married to a man who was deployed to Afghanistan and I know of others whose loved ones have been deployed overseas.  My sisters and mom and I participated in a group named Operation Gratitude to help send packages for the holidays to troops overseas and I believe that started my appreciation for helping to bolster the morale of those who've been deployed and to provide service to those who provide so much for us.

Being involved in making cards for our troops has been so uplifting and has become a passion.  I hope that I instill this passion in others as I tell them about OWH.  So far, a sister and some folks I've met at my local scrapbook store have started making cards also.  I would like the troops to know that people here care about them.

Please visit other blogs that are participating in the OWH blog hop.  Here's a button to help you on your way:

Catching up, again

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted.  It seems that every time I thought about sitting down at the computer, there was something else calling for my attention and suddenly it's now more than a week later.  This week just flew by.

Last Saturday I joined the group that gets together twice a year, this time for just the day.  We had so much fun creating all day, sharing projects and learning new techniques from each other.  Following are the 10 minute projects that others provided for us to complete.  Others I completed during the days I spent at Hearts and Crafts this past week are still packed away and need to be scanned.

Our washing machine has been repaired once again and seems to be working just fine now.  My husband and I have been playing laundry catch up and, sadly, enjoying it.  I thought about my mom washing by hand and also using an old wringer type washer and I know that what I had to do for just a couple of weeks is nothing like what she had to do for a much longer period of time.  I'm grateful for what I have.  I don't always remember to be though.

I plan to post more cards tomorrow.  Right now I need to make sure I get a post in for the blog hop.