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.