Postcards!

Recently I was turned on to a site that promotes international communication.  It’s called Postcrossing, and it encourages people to send postcards to strangers.  They give you names and addresses after you set up a profile.  Once a postcard you send is received, then you become eligible to receive one from someone.  I love this idea!  I love receiving mail through the post office, I love pictures, and I love the idea of connecting with others from different cultures. 

I signed up in January, went out and purchased a couple of postcards and started sending.  You can send as many, or as few, as you would like.  I’ve sent out six so far with one getting ready to go today. 

The one I’m sending out today is going to a girl in Germany who wouldn’t mind getting a homemade card.  Some people specify that they want specific cards – art, places, history, dogs, cats, etc.  This girl likes food and recipes.  It gave me an idea.

I went to the local craft store to see if I could get a postcard stamp.  Alas, no luck.  I ended up ordering a set of Tim Holtz postcard stamps.  

They seemed the most versatile.  The others I saw didn’t appeal to me, but I always try to keep an open mind.  The stamps were delivered to me yesterday, so last night I set out to work.  The only food photo I found was of the birthday cake I made a few years ago for Gaige.  

I trimmed the edges a little and set it on a 4”x6” piece of cardstock that I had salvaged from an old report.  I glued it on with Aileen's Tacky Glue.  I really want this photo to stay on during shipping.  I stamped the back and let it dry and now it’s ready for an address and note!

I really am excited about sending it out.  I hope she likes it.  What I truly want is to have a pen pal.  I had one when I was a kid.  She was from Japan and we sent letters all the time until we were in our late teens.  I don’t know why we stopped.  Perhaps it was boys and dating.  I know in my case that was probably it.  I wish I knew what happened to her.  I miss learning about someone else’s culture through private letters.  It’s one thing to read Wikipedia.  It’s another to read it in someone else’s handwriting about their very own experience.

I hope you like the postcard and the idea of it.  It’s a pretty simple project, but one that can give you a lot of satisfaction and could definitely brighten another’s day.

Scrapping 2014!

     I am almost done scrapping 2014.  Finally!  I stepped out of my comfort zone of standard 12x12 pages and worked with some clear photo dividers.  I received this album through my SEI membership.  It came with the initial page dividers but as I started scrapping I ran down to the local big store and picked up more – larger pages with different blocking. 

     As I started this endeavor I realized that I couldn’t stay all cookie cutter – photo here, journaling there.  Some pictures begged to be in a certain spot on the page or with another photo that screamed “We’re together!!!!”, so I started some cutting photos in half.  The first one killed me.  After that it was easier.  Check out the weirdo with the mohawk!

     I love using the white gel pen with the black background - it looks so cool!  Plus, it reminds me of the scrapbook my mom had from her youth.  Black pages, white writing.  Something old that binds us together...

That's a snowy owl looking at you right there.

 

The miscellany page... (There's always one... or two!)

Check out my pages!  I even got some journaling done (the bane of my existence)! 

     I got a little crazy on the photo cutting but I wanted them a certain way!  I don't think it looks too shabby!

Notice the purple hair!

     I’m getting ready to move on 2015.  It seems fitting that the year is nearly over.  More on that later.  

     What have you done to shake up your scrapbooking, even just a little, this year?

Christmas Cards - Part 2

Whew!  All that’s left is the writing personal messages on all 60 cards!  Last night the boyfriend and I tried our hands (literally) at stamping.  He is much better than I am.  And that was after I gave him lecture after lecture of what NOT to do.  He was like, yeah, yeah, yeah.  I should have been the same way. 

This past weekend we took the hour drive to Michael’s and purchased stamps and ink pads because I was still waiting on my internet order to come in (arrived in Monday’s mail – figures).  On Monday night we finished putting cards together.  Then on Tuesday night we brought out the ink.  We practiced with different colors and techniques and finally got down to business.  His card interiors came out really well,

 mine not so much as you can see here:

            However, the cards and yearly pic are complete and ready for signing.  Speaking of the yearly photo – we took two – a test and a final.  Usually we do one in the house by the tree with the dogs.  This year D wanted to shake things up a bit and take it on the porch that he extended this past summer.  Plus, the wagon wheel would be in it and he definitely wanted to include that!  We put down a blanket on the step, gathered the dogs, dismissed the cat, set up the tri-pod and then D got a great idea!  A tremendously, wonderful, all-encompassing idea!  He thought let’s get the bunny in the picture my dear!  He’s new in the family, his image we must share! (Channeling the grinchy-claus right there!)  So he went and got Snugs (also known as Checkers) and pressed the shutter and ran to the porch for the photo and the dogs went bonkers!  Wouldn’t sit, wouldn’t stay, wanted the bunny – yes, it was chaos!  But it really signified our year! 

He put the bunny back in the cage and we took a perfectly respectable photo with the dogs being good.  You can see it here – it came out pretty good.  Later that evening as I was getting ready to order the prints I looked at them on the screen and just started laughing.  That first photo – all chaotic and un-posed was perfect.  I called D to look and he laughed too.  That’s the photo that should go in the card he said.  I totally agreed and ordered them.  I don’t know if friends and family will think we lost our minds, but this is our life and I wouldn’t trade it for a different one.  Crazy dogs, crazy boyfriend, new porch and in debt to our shoulders.  It’s still a good life and I am so very blessed.

I hope you like the cards, they were definitely a labor of love and I will try to mark my calendar in July to start then in getting them ready for the next Christmas season!

Christmas Cards - Part 1

It’s the most wonderful time of the year (besides summertime!) and it’s the time when I feel I can get most creative in some areas of my life.  If you haven’t checked out my post about the gingerbread, please do!  In the meantime, I will enchant you with my Christmas card journey.

            My cards should have been started in July so I wouldn’t be waiting until last minute to get it done, but my name should be “Last Minute Jenny”.  Therefore, I’m right on time!  I actually started thinking about cards before Thanksgiving.  I scoured Pinterest for card ideas as I am not a good card idea person at all, and I found some pretty good, albeit easy, examples. 

I started scouting my local crafting store for Christmas scrapbook paper and finding none, thought there would be some there for Black Friday, which of course it wasn’t.  I went on-line and found some 6x6 paper packs at scrapbook.com – all brands I had never used before, so this would be a learning experience as well.  I picked up some red 8.5x11 cardstock and Kraft paper for my cards and envelopes and got to work getting those cut out while I waited for my patterned paper.  I used my Cricut to cut the envelopes – all 60 of them.  Last year I did them by hand.  With a pattern.  Not again.

My patterned paper came in magically fast – I thought I would have a longer wait than I did so I started my card prototypes.  This is important.  If the card is too difficult my boyfriend will say so and then getting him to help will be no fun!  It took several days to get started and then I had one day all to myself and voila!  I was able to get all prototypes done and made into kits of 15 each and they are now ready to assemble!  Only one last problem – I thought it would be easy to go to my local Joann’s and get a set of Christmas stamps.  Well, it isn’t.  There was nothing Christmassy in that store except the decorations.  Once again, the internet should have saved me but as of this writing the stamps I ordered have not even shipped yet. 

We are headed to Michael’s over the weekend, even though it is an hour away, so we can get the cards stamped and ready to go out by the 17^th.  That is my deadline.  I will have to do the family picture this weekend, have it reproduced in-house and ready to go in the cards by then. That should not be a problem.  Getting the dogs to pose properly will be!  LOL!  I love them.  Last year we let the cat sit in the photo for the first time.  We’ll see if he returns…

Results and finished photos to come…