Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Back from Florida!



Had a wonderful time of R and R with my sister and her friend, Sheila. We even got to the Metro Miami Zoo on a quiet Monday with no crowds. As you can see by the photos, it was picture-perfect weather!

Thankfully for all of us, especially a curious little white egret, the tigers had just been fed! The big cats are my personal favorite, and this zoo had a white tiger (shown) along with several of the orange Bengals. I also enjoyed seeing a Koala, the elephants, lions and some very delicate looking antelopes that were super slim (an inspiration???)

After a turbulent flight home, I'm looking forward to posting some Valentines--as soon as I get the house clean again!!

Thursday, January 24, 2008

OFF TO FLORIDA!

Looking forward to spending some time in the warmth and sunshine of the East Coast of Florida for a few days with my sister. See you when I get back! Meanwhile, be sure to cast your vote at right...

Wednesday, January 23, 2008

IF IT'S WEDNESDAY, WE MUST BE STAMPING--Part 1




Mary brought the Enveloper to play with today. Here is the group of cards I made, with a few more of them highlighted in Part 2 below. Click on them for further detail.

The grape card is embellished with a flat button I've had in my stash for years. Just proves you never know when you might "need" something! It was perfect for the colors in the paper.

For the celebrate card, I chose the candles to coordinate with the stripes in the envelope paper.

MARY'S NEW TOY: THE ENVELOPER, Part 2




...WHAT FUN! Mary, Joan and Evelyn were here today for our introduction to the Enveloper which makes envelopes in a jiffy. We pulled out our stash of double-sided designer paper, and before you knew it, I had 6 envelopes with leftover pieces to use on the cards. Here are a few of my favorites.

The yellow tulips are highlighted with yellow stickles.

Since I wanted to show as much of the floral image on the brown dp, I settled for a smaller design off to the side. The circle "tag" is embellished with a pearl and mounted over sheer ribbon.

The second brown card looks similar, but is really quite different. Mounted horizontally, I pulled out the beige in the dp for my lily blossoms and the heart button on the right.

We can't wait to see what Mary brings next time!

Sunday, January 20, 2008

THE GIANTS WON!

They're off to the Super Bowl after defeating Green Bay 23-20 in overtime!!

Just thought I'd mention it...

Friday, January 18, 2008

MOTHERS CLASS INVITATION


This crazy cat is purple and yellow--the purrfect??? invite to launch the Mothers Class Bible study for 2008! If you got an invitation like this one, wouldn't you want to come?

Thursday, January 17, 2008

One Sheet Wonder


Yesterday, Joan, Evelyn and I worked on OSW's in the newly reorganized stamping tower (see posts below). It was such a delightfully sunny day, we worked from 10-3 on our new creations from the samples shown here. I'm so blessed to have such good friends and a cheery place to share ideas with them!

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

CLEVER CARD HOLDER



Here's the card holder my DH made for me, as shown originally on the Carol Duval Show and mentioned in the posts below. It's made from a yellow slinky and I use it constantly! As I make birthday and other cards, I write the date in the upper right-hand corner where the stamp will cover it later. Stored in chronological order between the Slinky spaces, they're ready to mail on time!

REORGANIZED AT LAST--Part 1!






Here's the New Look! I found white cabinets on sale, (just what I wanted!) to store everything within arm's reach of my chair in a way that made everything accessible and neat (not leaning as it appears in the photo!) If you checked out the old arrangement (see Dec. 27 post) you can see that I reversed the room so that these storage units are on the wall where the table used to be.

Behind the cabinet doors are most of my mounted stamps. Now I can keep the blinds open (or up) during the afternoon when the sun shines in without it damaging the rubber. The rest of them are stored in the 2-drawer unit under the window. The unmounteds are stored elsewhere in the room.

I enjoy having my computer handy, with the printer to the right of my desk, adjacent to the closet doors. My tiny Dell speakers have a full sound, allowing me to listen to a variety of radio stations streaming on the internet. On Sundays, I enjoy listening to classical music from Seattle; nights I often tune in to Delilah's "sappy love songs" as she calls them.

Across from my desk is a 3-drawer wooden dresser which houses my TAC unmounted stamp sets, 12x12 designer papers and a bottom drawer full of scrapbook pages and photos. On top sits my cutter and the special card holder my DH made. Above that is a shelf my husband also made and mounted for me to display my cards before I use them. The horizontal cards hang on the string beneath the shelf, with the vertical ones above. The door at left leads to the hallway.

(Continued below...)

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

REORGANIZED AT LAST--Part 2!





Don't you just love a rainbow of color??? I store my paper on a paper rack I bought (used) for only $25 at the Rag Shop going-out-of-business sale last Fall. By keeping it in the closet with the doors closed most of the day, the paper is protected from fading. Notice the cubbies underneath, which I purchased at Walmart awhile back and use for storing odds and ends like zip-loc bags, light bulbs, baskets of photos, etc.

My table is positioned in such a way that I can see out the windows to my right or out the door down to the foyer and a view of the driveway to my left. There's plenty of room for guests! Under the window, my DH mounted a wire grid to keep my scissors and heat gun handy. Behind me are the white cabinets and drawers I purchased last week at Target. To keep the tablecloth out of the way (it's a flannel lined plastic) I secured it underneath with velcro tabs.

The hardest part of this whole project was sorting and purging through all the "stuff" that had accumulated over the years. Thanks for looking!

Monday, January 14, 2008

REORGANIZATION ALMOST COMPLETE

I've been working hard on my stamping room redo, and it's almost complete. My plastic carts have been emptied and the contents moved into new storage units. The carts will be given to my stamping buddies to use until it's their turn to outgrow them!

Two goals have been accomplished so far: to make my limited space look neater; and to store stamps behind closed doors, safe from damaging sunlight. In the process, I've purged a lot of unused stamps and supplies to pass on to others, ridding the room of a lot of clutter. Most-often-used items will be within reach from my chair, with less-used items stored away but still easily accessible. One major challenge was the addition to the room of my desk and computer, reducing stamping space even more.

As soon as I have everything back together, I'll be posting pictures. Meanwhile, January is traditionally "hibernation month" for me when I stay home more and catch up on things. So I haven't been stamping as much lately, allowing time to recharge my creativity after the busy-ness of the holidays.

Thanks for visiting--I always enjoy all your comments. Check back here soon for the results of my reorganization efforts!

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

HAPPY NEW YEAR!



Off to a running start in 2008! Here's a super-easy card made with one stamp and one color. The balloons were punched from scraps of silver paper with embroidery floss attached on the back and popped out with mounting tape. This will be the first card mailed in the New Year.

Meanwhile, I'm still working on reorganizing my stamping space; and I'm halfway there. There's still time to leave a comment with ideas for storage and other helps. As soon as it's done, I'll post photos!

Best wishes to all of you who have visited my blog -- have a creative New Year!