New Year's almost here!

Holidays are always a busy time, but this year they seem busier than ever! Out of my 8 days off so far, i only had 2 where I did absolutely nothing! And in 2 days, new years eve, and new years day, then the weekend and back to work! UGH! Why does the time off go faster than the work time?

I have gotten some cards made, worked in my craft room, visit with friends and family, so it's not been anything negative. Just BUSY! We had a really nice Christmas. Not sure of New Year's Eve plans yet, but there's still time...

Happy New Year's to everyone in cyber land. Thanks for reading, and see you in 2009! Be safe.

Holidays are Here

Hello anyone out there reading! The holidays are here since I started my school break after work yesterday afternoon. Two wonderful weeks off! And they will fly by. I have managed to get ALL my Christmas shopping done, and almost ALL of my cards made. The only ones I didn't make this year were for the co-workers in my hall that I don't know so well. My kids & their parents got a photo card of the class with Santa. Last year, I got a few done, and sent those to family and friends, and sent manufactured ones to everyone else. I am quite proud of myself for getting all handmade ones sent out this year! I am going to TRY to start on them earlier next year. So, here's what I came up in addition to the ones in the previous post. Enjoy looking! If I don't get back here in the next week, Merry Christmas to all of you!

Times fun when you're havin flies...

Or something like that! Haha...I can't believe how busy I've been. The last post was right before fall, and here we are at the beginning of winter. It's already snowed once, and had black ice 2 mornings. That's a great thing when you have to drive 30 miles to work at 8 am. Luckily it's mostly highway, and I haven't had any big trouble yet!
So again, as usual, I'm lacking creativity because of work being really busy the last couple months. And my Christmas cards aren't putting themselves together for me either. I took Saturday and tonight as a break to work on cards for our girls' scrappin club this Saturday. As far as the cards that I'm sending out...they MIGHT make it by Christmas. My break from school doesn't start until the evening of the 19th.
Anyways...Here's what I came up with for my girls' club. I tried to be quick and simple. There's a picture of Bitty Kitty too. Two weeks ago, she got declawed and spayed. She's doing pretty good, but I can tell her paws are still sensitive. She's just so sweet!

Happy Fall!

My mom came over today for some girl time & to stamp! She used some of my stuff, shared some of her stuff, and I used some stamps I've just gotten, or haven't had the chance to use yet.
It's DEFINATELY fall now. The temps have been cool, and going downhill. It rained 3 days last week. My class is going to the pumpkin farm on Wednesday. Thank goodness it'll be a SHORT trip, as the temps are not going to be very nice. At least they'll get a pumpkin in time for Halloween!

Here's the cards I made tonight. Mom liked my deer card, so she stamped some extras out and is going to copy. I was going for 1 layer cards, and stuck pretty close to it. Sometimes simple is just as good as the fancy stuff. And OF COURSE my stamp room isn't complete without a cat in it. So here's Buster hard at work doing what he does best.

Have a great week and I'll check in soon!

Post World cardmaking day

My Stampin Up upline and I had a card swap yesterday at her house to celebrate world cardmaking day. (Did you know there was such a beast?!?!) Here's some of the cards we made, with a couple additions/changes that I added today.

This has been a GORGEOUS weekend. I have been in the mood to decorate for fall, and will post pictures of that when I'm done. The sky has been clear blue, with the crisp chill of autumn air in the mornings, and no warmer than 80 in the afternoon. My walnut tree is dropping the nuts like crazy, and I jump every time they hit the roof. Squirrels have been busy gathering them too. There's shells all over my driveway!

More pictures to come soon!

Sympathy Cards

One of my family's LONG time family friends lost his wife over the weekend. I made him and his kids sympathy cards. They aren't the best, but I felt like they would appreciate something handmade. He and his wife were married 67 years. Can you even imagine? It's so rare now days to stay married for 10...I took off work today for the funeral, and gave them the cards at the dinner. I'm sure once they all get home and settled, they will look at them.

I made my secret sister from splitcoast stampers her birthday card. I'm only posting part of a picture of it, hopefully not giving away the rest of the card. I thought the kitty turned out cute. I colored it with prismacolor pencils and baby oil and blending stumps. I love this coloring method!

I went to my friend's house on Saturday night, and worked on my honeymoon scrapbook. We went in 2006, and I started the book almost a year ago. I'm not good at laying out scrapbook pages, so I'm just layering and sticking...Not creative, but I'm beginning. I'll post some of those pictures eventually.

Thanks for reading!

Where Have I Been?

In case there's anyone checking in somewhat regularly, you have noticed that no recent posts have been added since the beginning of the month. For one, I'm still exhausted after work, and two, the little ankle biters have already gotten me sick which doesn't help! I did manage to pump out a card, though I'm not really satisfied with how it turned out. It's ok, but not what I wanted. If you like it, thanks. Send your address and I'll mail it to you. :) It's a new Cuttlebug embossing folder colored in Stampin pastels chalks from Stampin Up. (I'm a demo if you didn't know!) The sock monkey is a new set i have had for a couple months, and yet to use. I thought he'd be cute with a pumpkin...

Time for more cards!

I've not posted in a while! I've been getting my classroom ready, and started back to work a week and a half ago. It's draining with 3 year olds! I came home and ate dinner, and crashed for the night for the first week! I have some good kiddos though, so I'm looking forward to see how far we go!

Anyways...I have some new photos to post of cards I've made. I haven't used my new room as much as I would like. I have tons of ideas, but like I said, I've been way tired at night. The top 2 are Martha Stewart glitter stickers from Wal-Mart. I thought they were pretty, and liked the colors. The cherish one is for my mother-in-law to give to her friends for their anniversary. The single bird one was a thank you for my mom for watching our critters while we were on vacation. The aloha one is for a family friend who is retiring and having a surprise party later this afternoon. On the inside I wrote, aloha (goodbye) work, aloha (HELLO) retirement!
I thought it turned out cute for a quickie! I made another one too, but I can't post it. I'm doing a secret sister thing on SplitCoast Stampers. She would know it was me if I showed it here and she saw it, and it'd ruin the surprise.

For kicks and giggles, I'll put one more picture up. This is my friend Erin and I outside a winery on the Great River Road near Alton, IL. We tasted wine, and both bought a bottle, so we're acting like we're boozing it up on the sidewalk outside. I thought it was pretty funny.

Yard Sale!

My mom and I are FINALLY having a yard sale! I've begged all summer long, so it's gonna be Saturday. I have a whole room full of stuff, and I'm pricing it really reasonable so it will sell. If you want to come, let me know and I'll give you the info. :)

Home again!

We just got in from visiting my husband's brother and sister in law and our ONLY 2 nephews in Oregon. We had a nice time, and missed out on the 2 hottest days of summer and a really bad wind storm here at home. They drove us to Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Valley, and WOW was it gorgeous. We hiked up the mountain to the top of the waterfall too! Coming down was much better than going up. :) It was our "end of summer" trip since my hubby had to go back to work today, and I will be going in this week to set up my classroom. I've gotten spoiled having the summer off! I am going to post more card pictures eventually...Just haven't gotten around to it yet! I got my car back today too. It broke down a week and a half ago, and BOY did I miss it. It was our only transportation, as my hubby's truck is broken down too. Welcome home my little sunfire! :)

More Cards

Here's a closer look at the card I made for my FIL birthday (being guarded by the fierce kitty in the previous post). I worked forever to get a layout I liked, and finally decided to glue everything down. The clown card was a splitcoaststampers.com ways to use your scraps challenge. The balloons I had punched out a while ago, and I cut the clown using my cricut and scrap pieces of already been cut on papers.

They called it the Baby Blintz!

I know lots of preggo people right now, and none of them wanna know what they are having yet! I made this card for a splitcoaststampers.com challenge. If you haven't been there yet, GO! It is an awesome resource! I'm there way too much! :) For those from SCS coming to visit my puny lil blog, I humbly thank you!
This is called a blintz base card. Origami. There's a tutorial to make it at http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=360809&highlight=blintz+base+card
and then follow the adobe link in the first post. It's pretty easy to do!
The origami cards are becoming my fast favorites. I like the challenges because you can see so many different perspectives from all these creative people! I'm not as good as some of them, but when I do participate in these challenges, my cards seem to be better than if I try coming up with something on my own.

How organized can I get?

So for those who have been looking, and messaging me about how insanely organized I appear to be, I thought it'd be funny to post how I organize my small scrap pieces that I cut, but then decide not to use. It's a fishing lure organizer from Wal-Mart! Yes, I took the time to actually do this! Don't worry, I'll be back to work soon. Then I'll be too busy/tired to go back to my hide away!
I worked on a card for my Father In Law's birthday tonight too. It took me FOREVER to get a layout that I liked. Notice I have it guarded by the fiercest kitty ever!

Last round of room pictures!

This should be the last group for now, unless I decide to change again! Haha...Just other storage items and the rest of the room. I made the Create sign with my Cricut and the Mickey Font. I used the circles from Snow Play SU set for the background stampng. The paper was a Paperbilities pack on clearance for 5 bucks at Wal-Mart. The punches are stored in the bottom 4 drawers of an Iris Christmas Ornament storage cart. The smaller ones have the dividers in the drawers. The top drawers are my SU accessories. The Plastic carts hold my jars of ribbon, extra wood stamps (not SU) Quilling materials, and some other stuff. Back in the corner is hidden my piles I have no room for and projects to work on! (That's why it may look a tad messy. I was working in here late last night!)
I tried to set up the space as "stations" The former kitchen table is the "coloring" station, with most of my markers, pastels, etc. Everything wouldn't fit! The former microwave cart is the "cutting" station with the cuttlebug and cricut, plus accessories for them in the drawer, and shelf under the drawer. In the cabinet part is all my craft books and magazines. The drafting table is my main work area. I tried to keep it more open, so i have room to spread my stuff on it when working. The other table is the inking/accessories table. Honestly, it's just another place to work! :) My mom comes over a lot now, and this is right where she goes! No clock, no TV. Just crafts.
Thanks for looking!

Craft room Storage

Ok, so apparently I can't load too many pictures at once, so here's how I store some of my things. Eventually, I would like all floor cabinet/drawer storage with table tops. But that's for another year. :) My favorite finds are the black slider boxes from Wal-Mart's school supply section for 50 cents a piece! I put my markers by colors and labeled them. There's one picture of them in a drawer, and one box open. My other favorite find, was my white yard sale shelf. It was only 2 bucks, but it was an ugly mauve, coated with dust and dirt color. I washed it up, hammered the top off to get off this heart routered into a curvy piece of wood, layered white paint on it, added hooks to hang, then decorated with rub-ons from stampin up. I had a small white shelf too from flowers I bought, and it sits perfectly on top to make it more decorative! I had to put rub-ons on it too! It may be a bit much all together, but they'll scrape off if i want to change it!
The table is my coloring station, though not all coloring items would nicely fit. Yes, that's a Longaberger basket with markers in it. (Don't worry, it has a liner!) We got it as a gift for our wedding 2 years ago, and never used it. Now it has a purpose! My oh-so-kind artist brother in law sent me most of the markers. They were his extras. Wasn't that nice?

Nice Place for a Crafty Space!

I intended to set this up for my crafts/cards, and so far haven't gotten around to it. I took more pictures of my new crafting area today (during the day, with the blinds up!) so it can show off the view, and how nice the room colors blend with the nature outside right now. Also have pictures of my storage solutions for now. It seems like every few months it's changing! :)
A favorite touch is the sage umbrella! I found it on clearance at Hobby Lobby. The flowers in it were on clearance at my husbands work. So with his discount, they cost a whopping 92 cents! Not bad, huh?
This was our carpeted breakfast nook. We never really eat in it, unless we had guests, so it was kinda wasted space. Over a year ago, we had a puppy, and she decided to make the carpet her outside place. We gave her away, I ripped out the carpet and matting, and my father in law had to cut out the baseboard. We installed new baseboard, and Pergo flooring. Most of the items in here I "redesigned" for the space. The apple cloth covered table, was my 1st dining table. (We were given a bigger one, now in the kitchen.) The drafting table and other table were in my living room on either side. My father in law had 3 drafting tables, and gave me this one. I moved all the storage stuff into the new room, and rearranged for about 4 days. I ordered some new SU stuff for storage, found a matching green/brown striped "back to school" area rug at Target, and this is the result! I want to get some shelves (really the Making Memories embellishment center) to store my jars of buttons, flowers and ribbons. They are all in mason jars. Another cheap storage solution! Right now, they're just outta the way. Eventually, they'll be a pretty addition to the wall!