WOW!!!

In 6 years as a demo, I've never seen this before!

Swaps

I was a swapping fiend for a while, but gradually slowed down to the point where I hadn't swapped in a year or two.
This fall I joined up again for a couple. Below is the card I made for an organized swap that I joined.
Next one was for general swapping.

An update...

to let you know what I'm up to.
Unfortunately, it's not much. I'm having a bit of a time trying to absorb and process everything that has happened in the past 6 or 7 months. In the past two weeks, I've also learned that I may be out of a job. Our company had to submit a bid proposal for the bus routes we still have, but was not successful. There will be lots of shuffling of personnel between the 4 bases that are now open, with the possibility of closing one of them. I've been told that by the end of February I will know whether I will be continuing with the company or if I will have to look for another job.
I do have one card from Christmas time that I have not shared. Sorry for the poor picture.

We went on a search

for the perfect Christmas tree and I think we might have just found it! Things are going to be a bit low key around here this year. I didn't really want to go to the trouble of putting up a tree but my dh really wanted one. We had a number of errands to run last weekend and on our way home drove past a garden nursery in the little town beside us. I caught a glimpse of a tree and had dh drive back to look at it. It was about as perfect as it could get. Smallish, straight trunk and very fresh! We had them cut off a bit from the bottom of the trunk, got it netted and loaded it on top of the SUV.
This first layout was made using the Christmas Cocoa II 12x12 pre-designed page ... I literally just plopped the pictures into place and typed a bit of journaling! It took all of, maybe, 10 minutes! SWEET!

This second layout was using some Christmas Cocoa II paper, but it was a "create your own" project with the photo blocks in place. Again ... really easy, fun and it only took about 30 minutes 'cause I fuss so much!

What I am really loving is the fact that I got 3 layouts done in two evenings!! WOW!
Well ... I'd better get off here ... I've got some presents to wrap and some to make. I'll come back with pictures to let you see what I ended up with.

Using up ...

my "stuff" ... finally! Ok ... I admit it ... I hoard my stuff!! There ... I said it. LOL
Last year I bought a tutorial from Andrea Walford and finally got around to making the flip book.
Why didn't I make this sooner??? Her directions were so concise and easy to understand, the pictures (for a visual learner like myself) were so helpful. It took me only 2 evenings of sitting in front of the tv to make 4 of them! I highly recommend her planners!! Here are a few pictures of this planner.

A Learning Curve ...

One of the steps to being MDS Certified was designing a card and having it printed. I decided that I would have two printed ... one that was 100% digital and the second I would make hybrid. I omitted the ribbon on the second and sent it off to be printed. Below are the cards that were sent off to be printed and following them is the card after I added the physical ribbon.

Here is another project from a Christmas Class ... a Tag Pouch. The pouch is reusable and the ribbon just slips off so that you can open the top of the pouch.

Recipe - * all products SU unless otherwise noted*

Stamps: Deer Friends, Merry and Bright

Paper: Ruby Red CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Old Olive CS, Baja Breeze CS, Holiday Treasures DP, Ski Slope DP

Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze Classic Inks

Accessories: 6x6 page protector (trimmed), scallop circle punch, 1 3/8 circle punch, 1 1/4 circle punch, 1/8" hand held circle punch, 1 1/4" Riding Hood Red/Very Vanilla grosgrain ribbon, non SU silver cord, sticky strip

On another note ... I'm working on some changes for this new year ... organizing and such, and will be posting a few things that I'm implementing. I welcome any ideas you may have or suggestions that are working for you.

I'm back to work tomorrow ... hard to believe that it's been 2 weeks already. There may be changes there as well ... we'll just have to see.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year and welcome to my blog.

This is a new venture for me and I hope you will follow along while I travel this new road. I'll probably not be able to post every day, but will post whenever I can. Perhaps blogging will force me to stamp or craft every day or at the very least, more often then I have.

I'm going to start with some pics of cards from my Christmas Card Class ... these are definately CASE'D but I'm afraid I did not save the names of the ladies who originally designed them. I'm still learning and will make note of names in the future.

Thanks for stopping by!