Dry embossing

So, last week I mentioned that I wish I had a cuttlebug or had the stuff to do dry embossing...well, not cuttlebug (Darn it!) but I did get a bulb for my light table and added some dry embossing to the bottom half of this card I made last week and I love what it did to it. Better? :) I think so.

Scrapbook Workings

Well, I have actually gotten some major work done on the scrapbooks this week. Again, I don't scrap like I stamp cards. I just cannot ever get them done if I do it that way. So I simplify. I figure it's in the middle of just putting them in sleeves and then full out scrappin like some people do. My main purpose is to have some journaling/record for my kids and for my kids to get to look at them. They love looking at their pics and I need to get more in books for them. There are just so many to choose from when they are little though-it's hard.

Anyway, again, these are the books I started in 2006 and I am almost done with them. I chose a couple of colors and did every page in that color. That way it all is coordinated with less time and effort. They are very simple. I am anxious to start on this year's books soon. They will be done quite differently.

Here are some recent pages for now. I would love some constructive criticism...be kind though. I know that they are not "all that". :)

Alzheimer's Day cards (PT 2)

Here are the three cards I made for the cause.

I almost think that the first one is too much. I had the sketch challenge in mind from Splitcoast this week when I made it.

And then the other two are so simple, but I still like them. Couldn't decide if I liked it better with the ribbon or not? Thoughts? I think it would like nice too if I had a cuttlebug to do some dry embossing background on that green gable. I would have done some"manual" dry embossing, but my bulb is out on my light table...need to get another.

Another thought: this second card would be a great and easy one to change to become a masculine card. I always have a hard time coming up with more masculine cards and with a change of colors and changing the flower brads out to just regular circle, or even square brads, this one would work.

Anyway...here they are.

Wonderful Cause

I was stalking blogs tonight and came across this great give-away and wonderful cause on "My Blog". (This is her blog heading on the right.) I've looked at this blog before (obviously, since I have it bookmarked and was "stalking" it). She, Cammie, makes the most wonderful cards. And then to learn of all that she is doing to help people who have Alzheimers and the caregivers as well-was just inspiring. I know our neighbor's husband died just last year of this disease and it was really hard for my neighbor to see him change over the years and to continue taking care of him. She kept him at home for as long as she could and cared for him herself. She is elderly herself and is the sweetest, most caring woman, who is also such a hard worker! I can't imagine all of the time, energy, work, and tears that all the Alzheimer's cargivers so selflessy give. I am so happy to make a card for this cause. I think I will give one to my neighbor as well as send some to the address that Cammie listed.

Anyway...check out her blog and the awesome blog candy she has going on. It would be a dream come true-like Christmas times 10 for me! LOL

To go to her blog, you can click on the hyperlink above (and below), or here is her blog address:
http://myblogbycammie.blogspot.com/
Happy Bloggin'!

Happy Fall, Ya'll

My sis-n-law gave me the vinyl lettering and the board to make this sign over a year ago, and I FINALLY got to make it yesterday. I didn't have a color I loved for it, so I mixed some red, purple and brown and came up with this kind of rust/cranberry color! :) I forget how fast and easy they really are to do too. I love it! Thanks M! (It really isn't staying on our front porch too (I'm afraid of the moisture and humidity out there with it.), just thought it looked good there next to the scarecrow. Now it's inside in my dining room on the buffet with some leaves around it.)

Special Delivery

This is driving me nuts...not stamping cards. I keep seeing the challenges and I soooo want to do them. I was good yesterday though and worked on a scrapbk of BJ's and am almost done with the whole thing. (This is the one I never finished from Christmas 2006.) I just need to finish a few things, and then I will show you more. Maybe when I finish it...as a reward to myself, I will get to stamp a card. LOL I also want to paint and put together a vinyl lettering sign I have had the supplies for since last year....hoping to do that today or tomorrow as well.

For now though, here is a card that I sent my sis-n-law a few weeks ago. It is just one I threw together real quick. Simple, yet not too shabby.

It's almost Friday!!!! Anyone want to come over and stamp tomorrow? :)

(Swiveling) Whale of a Card!

This is the last card that I have to show you from my "club cards" from August. I hadn't tried this before. You sandwich a penny behind the whale in between two papers and dimensionals (if that makes sense) to create the ability to "swing" or "swivel" or "Rock" (whatever you want to call it) the whale. It's fun and lots of fun for kids to receive.

For the splitcoast tutorial, click here. (It's called a "Tilt card" on splitcoast.)

I'm planning on posting some of the scrapping I am working on later this week.

Hasta for now!

Small gift

Sorry, I haven't posted in so long...Hurricane Ike has kept me busy. I am still praying constantly for others that were affected by it.

In our church, we are assigned to different women to be their "Visiting Teachers". We visit them once a month (or more as needed) and give them a short spiritual message and just to let them know we are here to help with anything as needed.

Well, for this month, I really liked several of the quotes in the lesson, so I printed one up and put magnets on the abck of it and added a stamp to decorate it with as well and then made a cute and really quick treat pouch to go with it. (It is those paper cups we used to make in grade school.) :)

Very simple, very quick, and still cute and fun to receive. (Hopefully) :)

Another cute club card

Here is another card we did at our club mtg last month. I keep spreading them out to show you. I haven't been able to spend much time on anything lately-even scrapping. I have though...in the last week or so...mowed the lawn (and it's big!) weed-eated, weeded the front flower garden and the back veg garden, hoed the garden up, planted our pumpkin plants that we had growing inside, finished sorting through a mountain of misc toys and junk in the boys' room, did the regular cleaning, dishes and laundry (and am actually caught up on them all, started teaching piano again last week, planted flower seeds with AJ (my daughter), de-junked and sorted through all of my growing piles in the dining room, went to PTO mtg and have been trying to get our room parents for this next year squared away, organized the game closet, fed the missionaries, helped the kids with their homeowrk, etc etc etc...Today I am cleaning out the garage and then on Fri, I am cleaning off the top of my daugher's bunkbed. (It always seems to accumulate stuff, since nobody sleeps up there-so it has dress-up clothes, toys, and all kinds of other stuff up there right now.) I want to finish painting the bathroom next week and the back of the house the week after maybe (that depends on how hot it still is). I also need to be figuring out my kids' costumes for Halloween this year. We know what we are doing, I just need to figure out how I am going to come up with the costumes...Anyway-enough of my jibber jabber. I am hoping to do more with scrapping this next week, since I will have most of this of this stuff done. I'll keep showing you what I have for now though. Have a good day!

Dried apples

This was my favorite card we made at our club night last month, although I was joking that the paper flower we made looked like a dried apple. I like how simple it is though and I can just throw on a sentiment if I want later.

To make the flower, we just tore a circle and then crumpled up the paper. Then we rolled the edges up a bit and inked them a bit as well. Pretty easy! :)

TLC183 Faux Dry Embossing

This was another one of the challenges last week on Splitcoast. It was Faux Dry Embossing. I did it on the small green square near the top. Not as good as they made theirs look, but my first try...so I can work on it. :)

The card didn't turn out really how I wanted, but it's ok-I'd give it a C+ maybe?

Gotta wake up my youngest and run to pick up my boys from school. Happy Weekend!

Stained glass technique

Here is a card that we made last weekend at our stamp club mtg. It is stamping and using crystal effects on acetate to creat kind of a stained glass effect. (The flower image is on acetate and there is a white background inside the card. See the bottom pic to the right.)

I saw this done as a challenge a couple of weeks ago on Splitcoast as well, but I didn't have any crystal effects (from Stampin' Up) or any acetate, so I didn't get to do it. My friend and demonstrator, S, uses transparencies for the acetate as well and gets them at the office stores (rather than from a craft store). I think it may be cheaper that way.

The bottom dark green "weeds" :) are heat embossed on as well.

Anyway-it's always fun to learn and try something new. Thanks S!

Here is a link to the "stained glass" challenge on Splitcoast, if you want a tutorial on how to do it.
http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=372057

Scrappin' Sea World

Here are two of other pages in my son, B's, book.

I did the whole book in coordinating pages and colors of blues and browns. That way it all ties together and I don't have to spend as much time trying ot match pages and colors to pictures and events.

Since my DH is in the military, Sea World allows us to go to Sea World each year. Our family loves it! I sooo want the Sea Life stamp set by S. U. to go with so many pics I have from so many years. Someday...I still need to journal in the bottom left corner of the 2nd page.

No more cards?...not quite yet.

Well, it's September 1st and I said I was going to work on some scrapbooking this month (for Christmas presents), rather than cards...BUT I had to get a few in this past weekend AND I still need to finish my last set of OSW. I also had my stamp club mtg this past weekend and have some cards I made there to show you. Soooo....I WILL be scrapping, but will have some cards to show you as well.
Usually when I start stamping, I get into kinda a "style", but last night, each card seems very different from the other. I did three of last week's challenges on Splitcoast. This card was for the sketch challenge, SC191. I think it turned out pretty cute. It wasn't my favorite one from last night though. We'll get to that one another day...

But now, I want to show you some sneak peaks at some of the scrapbk pages I have been working on. They are actually from a book I made for my son two Christmases ago and haven't finished. So before I make their new ones for this year, I am finishing the "old" ones.

Like I said before ina previous post, I am into some very simple scrapbooking. The "new" ones I will start on this month with include more collages made from a program I have for my computer and then a little bit of stamping and decoration. The "old" books, I didn't use (or have) my computer program when I started them, so I will finish them that way. Here is the first page in the book. :)