Christmas Card Swap

My friend Dawn made me one of her beautiful vintage bracelets (see some at her Etsy shop) in exchange for some Christmas cards. I can't wait to see the bracelet. I think I got the better end of this deal! :-) It occurred to me as I was leaving for her house to drop them off that I had a "bloggable moment" so I snapped these photots with my phone camera on my way out the door. If you are a blogger, I bet you can relate to this bloggable moment phenomenon. Very often I'll see or do something and think, "note to self, this is so bloggable". Sometimes it makes it to the blog, sometimes it doesn't.

Had my first run of the year on snow today. Running the 10 mile Frost Bite on Saturday.

Repurposing Materials for a Christmas Card

In exchange for one of these FABULOUS bracelets my friend Dawn makes, she asked that I make her a couple of cards--one being a Christmas card for a swap she is doing and another for her daughter's piano teacher. (I wonder who is getting the better end of the deal on this exchange, hmmm? Yeah, umm, me no doubt.) I started on the Christmas card this evening. I love this wrapping paper! I've had it for awhile now and have been wanting to use it on something. The beads, from a magnetic bracelet that Lydia broke, will soon be garland. I plan to do some stitching on this too. I had fun digging through my stash for stuff to use on this but man did I make a mess of my craft room!

Plarn Anyone?

It's been so long since I've been in my craft room that it is RIDICULOUS! It always seems to be last on my things to do list these days but this evening I picked up an issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and it inspired me to get in there and make SOMETHING. Reading this magazine I realized I really love fiber arts and collage and would reallllly love to take some classes.

We watched Al Gore on Letterman last night and he was promoting his new book Our Choice: A Plan to Solve the Climate Crisis. He sparked our interest so we bought this book today and I've started reading it. Now I'm inspired to make some projects out of recycled materials so I started to look around online for plastic bag ideas because I am just disgusted with how many of those I dispose of and oh my goodness, there is a plethora of things to make with plastic bags. Did you even know there has been a word created for plastic bags used as yarn? Yeah, it's called "plarn". I love that.

Surprise Gift Cards

I made these cards for the girls on my lia sophia team. I like how when you lift the cover it pulls the gift card up and out of the pocket. I found the template here.

Big Heart

Valentines are always fun to make. I would have liked to have made time to make more!

Cupcake Card Swap

This is a quick post. Just wanted to share these really cute cupcake cards I got this month in the swap. The card I made is the set of 5 above and in return I got the following 5. So fun!

Crafter's Block

My blog posts have been few and far between lately. I seem to be procrastinating about crafting. What the heck?!? I am observing, partly due to the lack of posts on this blog, that whenever I find some free time I come up with something else that "has to get done" before I craft; Stuff like organizing all of my daughter's hair gizmos (rubber bands, barrettes, etc.), cleaning out desk drawers, file cabinets, and closets. I usually don't get the urge to do these things. Ever.

Today I actually crafted some things to necessitate a post. The card above is for a swap I am in that I turned in a day late but nevertheless did finish. We were given the owl stamped in black. I am looking forward to seeing what the other girls in the swap did with this guy.

I didn't feel like putting the paper, stamps, and inks away just yet so I made this card for a relative whose b-day is coming up soon.

My friend Dawn put one of my cupcake pincushions in a cupcake swap that she is in this month. I had the cupcake close to being done (as shown in this post) but she needed to finish it off with some embellishments which I never got around to doing (shocker). I am looking forward to seeing what she did with it because she is super crafty. I love cupcakes. The theme for the card swap in September is cupcakes too!

Sparkly Card Swap

I am part of a monthly card swap. The theme for this month is "sparkle". For this card I was inspired by a card in the latest issue of Paper Crafts (page 54). You can download the template for the bird and flourish from the Paper Crafts web site. Ken, Lydia, and I are going for a bike ride now to deliver these and they are ready to go...

Bugs, But Not Butterflies

The theme for the card swap this month is "Bugs, but not butterflies". This is what I came up with. I was inspired by my EYE - Bee - M (Rebus) screensaver (IBMers who have been around for awhile would know what I mean). I used a brown lunch sack as the base and slipped inside of this card is the following:
I was having crafting withdrawal so I had to make this card this morning before I did anything else. We are leaving for Disneyland tomorrow and I have lots to do to get ready before we leave, but crafting had to come first! Lydia also crafted with me this morning and made this tree which she requested be posted on the blog. :-) She is a blogger too.

Pink and Brown Card Swap Challenge

I have been playing around with that idea I got from Natalie for the pink and brown card swap this month.

The flower on this one needs a rhinestone but I don't have any at the moment.

My niece Laurel joined me for some crafting time yesterday. Look at that focus she has! She is an intense artist. :-)


Something unexpected and exciting happened to me today. It's always nice when that happens right? My friend Nina contacted me to invite me to go with her to see Matchbox Twenty and Alanis Morissette tomorrow at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. To top it off, she has some great seats right by the stage. Her husband bought her the tickets for Christmas and now he can't go so I am the lucky duck who gets to go in his place. That is if the weather cooperates. We had a bunch of snow dumped on us again today and it's supposed to be pretty white in Milwaukee tomorrow so we aren't sure if the bands will be able to fly in or not. The event could be canceled. We shall see. At first I passed on the offer but when I told Ken about it he asked me if I was "getting old or something". I thought "shuuuuh" and I immediately called Nina and told her I was going. :-)

The Purple Scarf is Done!

This afternoon while we were waiting for my niece to arrive Lydia helped me finish up the fringe on her scarf. She was happy to receive it and even commented that it will go really well with her lavender coat (gee, who-da-thunk?) and I am glad to finally be done with it! I started the darn thing in September. In the meantime, Lydia recently mentioned to my grandma that she would like a pair of blue mittens to match the hat she had made her. A few days later grandma had the mittens knitted along with a very long scarf to match! :-)

This is one of the projects I made last night when I got together with the girls. Thanks to Natalie for bringing such a cool project. I love this design. It opens up like so...
Natalie is soooo talented. I love the work she does. Because of this project and another card she brought, I have some ideas swirling in my head for this month's pink and brown card swap. I also now want to get a Cuttlebug for embossing. I used Natalie's last night for this project and I love it. I have a Sizzix that I am going to sell on eBay.

A Little Birdie Told Me...

I made it, phew. Finished the project and the cards for the swap tomorrow night. I even have all the boxes cut out, scored, and ready to go so the ladies can make one of their own. Inside the birdie card it says "about your good news!". I also made a few modifications to the goodie box as you may have noticed if you read yesterday's post. The box I posted yesterday didn't look right to me. The yellow was too distracting. The birdie card was fun because I got to use my chalks and blender pen, things I don't use often but should because they create a neat effect. Tomorrow night should be fun. Can't wait to see what the other ladies made.

Buns of Steel

You can't tell because I am so far away but this is a picture of me cross country skiing this past Saturday for the first time in at least 20 years. Because I am so brilliant, I did not stretch before taking on this activity. The following day it felt like I can imagine it would feel if you did a Buns of Steel video 100 times in a row -- without stretching first. Girls, I highly doubt there is a better way to tighten your buns than by cross country skiing. What a workout. I was sweating the whole time. It was a blast. If you are in the area, I highly recommend the Iola Winter Sports Club Nordic Center for cross country skiing. The people were very helpful in getting me set up with the right equipment and everybody there was smiling. The trails are very nice too.

OK I have been neglecting my crafts this past week but I need to kick it in gear this week because I have due dates. I need to have some cool things created for this Friday night for a Stampin' Up! gathering I am going to. We are doing a Shoe Box Swap and for that I'll need to create anything but a card. They call it a shoe box swap because you need to prepare enough supplies for everyone attending to make your project and everybody puts their supplies in some sort of box or basket so they are easily passed around the table. I also need to create a card for a card swap using any of the new Stampin' Up! stamps. I spent some time this evening looking for ideas and I have a few in mind. I will need to get busy with this stuff because Friday will be here before I know it!

January Card Swap - Snowmen

The theme for the card swap this month is "snowmen". I have 2 stamps with snowmen on them. So with the one stamp I dislike just a little less than the other, I've been trying to come up with a card I like enough to put into the swap. I think my problem with this stamp is that I don't like the saying on it. It's too cutesy-poo for me (as is the heart but I was thinking these could still be used in February around Valentine's Day). Think I'll give it another try but without the words this time. If I don't come up with anything I like, I'll just skip this swap and wait until next month. No big deal. I enjoyed getting my watercolor paper and brushes out for this and I love playing with glitter.

Valentines for First Grade

My crafting buddy and I got a head start on her valentines for school. She is about half way done with coloring them. She is personalizing the colors for each of her classmates. I hope she will enjoy giving these valentines even more because she made them.

November 2007 Card Swap and More Christmas Presents

I finised the cards for the November swap last night. Here is the sketch we were told to use as a guide.

I am a Stampin' Up! hobbyist demo. No, I don't "deal" stamps. I have to laugh when people ask me how long I have been a "dealer". It sounds like I am pushing drugs. I received this set of stamps in the mail yesterday, free of charge, as a holiday gift. I am looking forward to stamping with them and coloring the images with some bright colors.

Keeping Busy

I had quilt class last night. I finished all of my home work for it! That included ripping apart the four squares I did in the first class and finishing five additional squares. Last night in class I made a nine-patch variation block and I started 3 log cabin blocks. The next class isn't until 11/20 so I have plenty of time to finish up one more 9-patch variation and the 3 log cabins. I have been using my Brother $150 special from many years ago to do my home work and I use a Bernina 240 in the quilting class. Now that I've sewn on a Bernina, I can tell how clunky my Brother machine is. If I keep with this quilting thing and sewing more often, I will get more serious about looking for a Bernina to bring home.

So all was well in my world....until I woke up this morning with a migraine. I thought I had the flu but I'm feeling better already so I think I just got really sick from the headache. I am so relieved to be over the worst of it.

This is the sketch we are using for the card swap I am in this month:
I played around with this and came up with these 2 variations so far...


I have made some progress on the purple scarf I am knitting for Lydia, my first knitting project. I am hoping to finish it before the snow gets here. Also, I think I have all of the prints and supplies ordered that I'll need for the scrapbooking retreat on November 9. I am known to procrastinate when preparing for something like this but I think I will be in pretty good shape as far as being ready for this one.

Ready for the Card Swap this Thursday

I finished my cards for the card swap happenin' this Thursday. The theme is "stitches". The frosting confetti does look yummy enough to eat but I wouldn't recommend it because it's not good to eat beads.

Thankful for the folks who make crafty podcasts

I finished my cards for the next card swap I have coming due next week. The theme was "flowers". I really like this set from Stampin' Up. It's the Big Blooms set. I have a need to do a more substantial project next. Lydia is not feeling well today :-( so I might get some extended amount of time to work on something.

I did a 14 mile run this morning. I would like to get to 18 miles soon since the marathon is only 11 weeks away now! Before I left for my run I searched around on iTunes for some more crafty podcasts. Doing these long runs gives me a couple hours to catch up on my favorite podcasts so I'm pretty caught up and need more than 2 podcasts for this amount of time, especially when I don't have a CraftSanity podcast to listen to which are usually at least one hour. Jennifer admits she likes to talk and I am just fine with that because I like listening to her. I didn't find any new podcasts to add to my listening stash but I did find a cool video podcast from Crafted by Us. I watched two of the Crafted by Us video podcasts when I got home and I really enjoyed them. The show is hosted by Michelle Johnson. I've added a link to her blog under Podcasts. What I like about her podcast is that we seem to have a lot in common. She isn't stuck on one type of craft but likes to try all kinds of crafts and isn't afraid to try new stuff. Also, if something doesn't turn out, she is not bummed because at least she had fun with the process. Amen! I checked out her blog and discovered that she runs too! I'm thankful there are Jennifer Ackerman Haywoods, Sister Dianes (CraftyPod), and Michelle Johnsons out there who take the time to put these podcasts together. Thank you ladies!

Put My Butt in the Chair

I love how Alison Lee talks about putting your butt in the chair on her podcast CraftCast. The point is that one of the things you have GOT to do is get yourself doing SOMETHING to get your creativity flowing. Recently I listened to one of her podcasts where it was pointed out that artists do NOT always (probably hardly ever) get their finished product on their very first try. There are lots and lots of things that get thrown away before you come up with something you like. Even though I probably knew this all along, hearing it was very inspirational for me and freed me up to try new stuff. I did put my butt in the chair and I did throw away a few drafts before coming up with this final design. That is OK! I pulled out all kinds of supplies that I normally don't use and just started experimenting. The result is that I finished my cards for my first card swap and I think they are acceptable. I am my worst critic so I can't say for sure I love them but I do like them. I pushed myself enough to know I did the best I could on this one at this time. The theme for the swap was "Tag You're It!". I made a pocket card and in the pocket is a tag (= bookmark).

You can't tell from the picture but the bookmark is very sparkley. I covered the whole front with dazzling diamonds glitter (made by Stampin' Up!).
Here are the directions and supply list for the card and bookmark.

I liked this swap and will do more because the deadline forces me to get DONE and it encourages me to push my creativity level up because I want to make something that people are going to really like.

I am running in a 1/2 marathon on Sunday in Madison (WI). I think I am ready for it. I ran 10 miles this past Wednesday and as soon as I am done with this post I am off to run 13 miles.