Response to Cards for Troops

Wow! Your response to this was overwhelming. I am sorry I could not accomodate everyone. Remember if you have a level one kit to bring, that would be great. It should be fun. I will post the results.
If you got a confirmatory email, then you are in.

Level One Card Class for the Troops

Here is an example of cards made from a Level One Close to my Heart Kit. This is one of my favorite things tod o becasue they always look great and they are sooooo fast and easy.

These were made rom an old level one Silhouette pack I had hanging around.

On Jan 23rd at 1:30 I will be teaching a level one card making class. I will be providing all the materials If you want to bring a level one kit you have to "donate" that will be great. Here's the twist..... I will be teaching the class and you will make the cards, but we are going to donate them all to soldiers in Iraq and Afganistan. My husband said when he was there, the card basket was one of the most popular things.

So let me know if you want to come and have fun for a good cause. Let me know if you are going to donate or need me to order for you. You can then take this skill and use it on your own. I promise you will, cause the are the easiest, quickest and most elegant way to make a bunch of cards.

Fights at the Feeder

There have been big fights and crowding at the bird feeder these last few days. I have had a red headed woodpecker coming to feed. He is so big her can barely hang on long enough to get the food. I have also had tons of a bird I have never seen here, a house finch, which is a beautiful red color, like a toned down tiny cardinal. Needless to say, the cats have crowded around "cat TV" for the Christmas special. Tato has even been napping on the table in front of the window, like falling asleep watching TV.

Favorite recipe Project

This is the project we did in my last Oasis class. It took three classes or about 9 hours, not including the time to journal and assemble picture and recipes.

This was inspired by my friend Joy's project to catalog her family's special objects and heirlooms. As a matter of fact some of my student used the same format but did a project called our Favorite Things.

We used dimensional elements on the front. We cut the old 6x6 album project with random stamping for the base pages. We doubled this, so we had 24 pages.

On each page we used a different technique or embellishment to highlight our family recipes. We included stories abou the person or story behind the recipe or object in the case of favorite things. The 6x6 display book is perfect for this, since you can stand it up and the pages are protected.

Some of the recipes were hilarious like "hot chocolate for 100". We rewrote some recipes, but left others in the original form. This was a great project.

More Mistletoe

I saw in one of the old idea books a card made with the three elements pattern.

I thought this idea was intriguing so, having a lot of mistletoe, I decided to experiment with some different ideas. I changed the dimensions to 4x4 form the 6x6 so it would be easier to mail and I also wanted to use smaller "elements". After the first two, I came upon the stamp set I bought, Just for the Holidays, and the third design came to me. So I made 18 of these to give as a Chrsitmas gift. It also uses the stamp set holiday commentary.

I liked how it came out and I plan on using this pattern for some birthday and all purpose cards.

Haley, if you read this, tell me again how to post from here to the art boards.

Thanks for looking.

Making a page from a photo page

I saw this idea for the first time this year in the idea book on page 63 and I thought, wow! how clever, using a photo page to make a page!

Many times I have many more pictures than I have spaces in my scrapbook pages and often I will stick in a photo page, horizontal or vertical. But rarely do I have the exact number of photos to fill up exactly one photo page...

TAH DAH! The team at CTMH came up with a brilliant solution, make a page out them, or incorporate page elements in the photopages, like journaling.

This top picture is a close up of the upper left corner. It is not rotated correctly, but I wanted to show how you can embellish this area.

The second photo shows a photopage I made as a companion to my Christmas pages. They are vertical photopages and you can either use them as a decorative element and fill the rest photos, put journaling on the white insert, or even crop photos to put on all of them.

This is an example of the one we made in my Oasis class. But check out the one on page 63 in the Autumn/Winter catalog. The funny thing is that I was looking through a catalog from 2 years ago and there was the same idea! That's what I love about the idea books...every time I look I see something new...even years later!

One of my favorite time wasters

I have a lot of them, but one of my favorite is to link to one of the blogs I follow (left hand side of my post) and then link to a blog they follow and so on and so on. I have found some of the most interesting blogs and some of the most inspiring doing this. Give it a try. Link to at least 5 and see where it takes you.

Oasis Scrapbook Class Winter Session

Starting in January I will be teaching a class through Oasis at the First United Methodist Church in Blairsville where we will use a level one and level two paperpack from close to my heart and using layouts from the Reflections scrapbooking guide to make a 20 page themed scrapbook. Each week we will do 2- 4 pages and learn two new techniques with each layout. I am making a scrapbook for my daughter Katie, chronically her life and times so far. Another lady is making ababy album. Some other themes could be wedding, heritage, tribute, travel.... your imagination is your only limitation. We will learn ghosting techniques, incorporating hidden elements, different ways of using dimensional elements, and many others. Some new some old.

If there is enough interest, I would be willing to tech this class on a monthly basis at my home, completing the same album, but over and eight month period rather than an eight week period. Leave a comment if you are interested.
If you want to take the course through Oasis, call the church. The class limit is 6.

Another Christmas card

Oh my! I have so much Mistletoe left over..so I am making more Christmas cards. I already have more cards than I have friends who are "card worthy". In scrapbookers lingo this is a person who is worthy of my lovingly made cards. Others get a boxed Hallmark from ones I buy after Christmas at mark down.

I love the wishing star stamp, which has been around for years, but I am just now discovering.

So today I made 18 of these cards and cleaned out the attic. So that would explain why today I am distressed around the edges.

Paper: Mistletoe Stamps:snow flurries sentiment, Wishing star. Techniques:embossing, bracket shape form the pazzles bracket shape from the cutting cafe.

John is working wednesday

Hannah and are are alone tonight with the animals (and grandma, when she gets home) and we are all geared up to watch our favorite show, "The Middle" on WSB. We found this show when my sister kept talking about how good Modern Family was and we watched this first, waiting for Mf to come on. We laughed so hard. MF may be good, but the Middle is the real star. I so identify with Frankie, who says she is a lazy parent and makes dinner by bringing home fast food.

We hate that John has to work 24hours straight,but we love our time together being girls.

Thanks with the mix and match

Here is a table top decoration I made for Thanksgiving, saying Thanks!

It uses the twitterpated paper again and the mix and match medley base, which you can configure in many different ways. I cut the shapes and alphabet on the pazzles and used stamping and embellishment, both stamps,dimensional elemants and stickers. My grandmother has a ledge outside of her assisted living area for seasonal decorations and I gave it to her to use here. I loved how it turned out and I will be making a door hanging for Christmas for sure.

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WIth gratitude

Here are some cards I made using the twitterpatted paper from CTMH, which was one of my favorite paper sets ever from close to my heart. I used the leaf shaped cutting file from the cutting cafe and modified

it on my pazzles to make a two layer card. I made tags out of her printable stamps. I love how these turned out.

My latest favorite CTMH product

Lately, my favorite close to my heart product is the circle cards and the clear cards. I love the challenge of arranging the layouts on the clear cards to creat layers and suprises.

A new blog for me

I am starting this blog to showcase my scrapbooking and cardmaking hobby, but also to link you to those people and places that inspire me. I love my "day job", but I also love crafting with paper, creating and preserving my families memories. I started making cards in 1998 with my friend Amy Bell. We made Christmas cards that took us hours and hours and if I could see them now, I am sure we would have a good laugh. IT was hard to get supplies here in the mountains and I would go to Micheals, spend all kinds of time and money and then come up with ideas and try to learn techniques all on my own. Very time consuming.Amy's sister started selling crafting supplies for the Close to My heart company and teaching classes. Finally, I didn't have to come up with it all on my own! I love their products and I can get it all delivered to my door, which is a big thing living in Blairsville.

Since then, I have loved learning about scrapbooking, scrapping with my friends, making memories with my family, scapping with my friends, and making new friends through scrapbooking. I teach scrapbooking at Oasis and I love sharing my passion with others. It is so fun to see other people discover their creative selves.

My family loves our scrapbooks. I find my kids and husband pulling out our books over and over again, reliving our great times, trips, people we love and things we have done. I think if our house burned down, they would be the first things we would save.

Most people's fotos end up a jumbled mess in the attic in a box. Come with me and find out how to make your memories come alive!

Cards from Christmas Card Class

Here are the cards from my November Card Class

We are making 6 different Christmas Cards :

Left to right:

4 1/2" clear card, mistletoe creative basics, stamp:Holiday Commentary, Wishes: down the middle.

cuttlebug embossed background, mistletoe creative basics, Originals:Front tab, stamp: Holiday Trinkets

embossed background, stamp sets: I believe & snow flurries.

Photo #2: colonial white circle cards, Wishes: Ricochet, mistletoe, stamp:wishing star embossed, pewter bracket mini accessory

Photo #3: 4 1/2 clear card, jingle paper, twinkle brad, stamp: Just for the holidays,

Wishes: Inner Court

Photo #4: Colonial white circle card, mistletoe, Wishes: Simply secure, Stamp:Just for the holidays, holiday craft button collection.

They incorporate my new favorite -- clear cards. They are so classy and it is interesting to figure out the layers and surprises.