Apologies All Around...

     I would like to apologize for my lack of creativeness on paper (or anything else) the last several weeks.  I have joined a theatre group and we are getting down to the last several weeks of rehearsals and once I get home from work I spend time with my guy and turn around and leave again!  Busy, busy, busy!

     I got home the other night at 10pm after a complete show run-through and the dogs were absolutely going crazy!  He told me they had been watching for me since 8pm, wondering where I was, why I wasn't there with them.  My boy (Toby, the beagle) was all wiggles and howls when I walked through the door.  It was like I was gone for a week instead of four hours!  It's nice to come home to that, even if I hate that they're so upset when I'm not there.

Not everyone has a Barrot (A Beagle-Parrot)!  But we do! 
Here is Toby on my boyfriend's shoulder.
It's usually mine so I was lucky to get this shot! lol!

     This weekend we are having a birthday party so I will definitely get some good photos to scrapbook and make some great memories too!  I hope everyone has a warm and creative weekend!  Sub-zero weather is being served up here, maybe I'll have a chance to create after all!

DCWV January Stack-a-holic Challenge

   First, this is not the project I was going to try to get to today.  The first project I wanted to do was to sand and paint this great bird feeder we have - except I can't find the sand paper and my boyfriend has the flu, so I am out of luck on that one til I get to the store or he gets better.

   I've been wanting to get to the DCWV challenge so this evening seemed like the best time.  Although I'm not sure if I will be asked to drive said boyfriend to the ER.  He should have gone earlier but he thought he'd be ok.  He's got a temp of 101.2.  And he's a man.  And he's sick.  So I'm basically living with an oversized child right now.  I just hope he feels better soon.

   Anyhoo, I got down to business and took the card challenge.  Here is the challenge drawing:

   Here is my interpretation:

   I used plain cardstock, patterned paper (Switchboard)  from Pinkpaislee, burlap paper from DCWV, and dimensional hearts by Pebbles.
   
   The notebook border was made by using my Creative Memories border maker and the tag was made with the Creative Memories Shape Maker Circle Tag.  I used my Fiskars 3-in-1 Tag Maker that I won several months ago.  I do love that little piece of equipment!  Actually, I love everything I have or I wouldn't have it!

   We just received Christmas gifts from my bf's sister this past week and I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell her thank you!  I will be writing her a personal note and then sending this out and I hope she likes it as much as I do!

New Posts Soon!

   I apologize for not posting lately!  Getting cleaned up after Christmas and now coming down with some kind of flu-ey thing has kept me from the studio longer that I expected.  If my nose dries up today I AM starting a new project and will post photos.

   More to come...

   Meanwhile, take a look at my partners for the last couple of days!

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…

Gingerbread Houses

Recently, for a contest, the kids and I and my significant other, made gingerbread houses for a local contest.  They made a house last year just for fun and then got to eat it.  They did such a great job for first timers that I thought they should do the contest this year.  When I asked them they jumped at the chance. 

The kids decorated a regular house with candy they helped pick out.  They used laffy taffy softened in the microwave for a front door and pretzels for a fence.    I taught them how to make a snowman out of the cement frosting and powdered sugar.  They got right into it, each kid taking a side of the house and working independently from each other.  It was fun listening to them chatter while they worked. 

Gaige wanted to quit after a while and when he finished his roof I told him he could.  Hannah took over from there.  She’s our little bohemian artist.  We know someday she will be running around barefoot selling her paintings while living off the land with like-minded friends.  When it was finished it was the sweetest little gingerbread house ever!

 

 

As for me and D, we chose to create a local landmark, our hometown corner store.  It has been around since forever, just under different management for different uses.  As soon as I heard about the landmark theme of the contest I thought of this place and knew we could make it.  As with any gingerbread house I have ever made, and there’s been quite a few, trial and error is a huge part of it, with error being easily erased with frosting!

Ever since I finally received my amazing KitchenAid mixer for Christmas several years ago from my fantastic boyfriend, making the dough and icing has been a pleasure!  I used to hate making it with a regular mixer because the dough is just too hard to maneuver and the icing takes forever!  Hence, two batches of gingerbread and four batches of icing this year – with a smile!

D has never made a gingerbread house before, much less helped, so he really got into it.  He rolled out the dough and cut along the pattern I made.  After everything was baked and cooled I frosted the walls, trying to make them look like smooth cinder blocks (didn’t work), and set up the building.  D wanted to make the air pump on the side of the building so while he did that I made the sign and secured the steps.  When it was done he decided it needed the gas pump and that pulled the whole thing together. 

I love how it turned out!  D was all hyped up about how great it looked and how we would win but I warned him that we were amateurs compared to others who entered the contest, so just feel good about the job we did.  When we dropped the houses off yesterday and he looked around at some of the other entries he started seeing what I was talking about.  I think we have the best little houses ever, no one can tell me different, and there is no need for a prize to make that so.

 

 

I’d love to know if anyone else out there does gingerbread houses and what some of their favorite ones were and what they looked like.  Please share!

 

 

Christmas Paper Dilemma

I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed I am with my local scrapbooking store.  I was out this past weekend looking for Christmas paper stacks so I could start on my Christmas cards.  I didn’t think it was too early to look seeing as how I see new stacks on the internet and am getting emails from www.blitzy.com and www.scrapbook.com with Christmas stacks advertised.  My problem is I wanted to see them in person.  I wanted to see the colors up-close.  I wanted to feel the paper.  You know what I mean.  I also wanted to be able to start my cards right away.  No such luck.

I looked at the old Christmas stack I used last year and I just didn’t want to face it again.  After 50 or more cards the paper gets old fast.  I just couldn’t stomach it again this year.

Last night I scoured blitzy and a couple other sites.  I ended up on scrapbook.com where I did end up ordering four Christmas stacks of 6x6 that I think will work well with the cards I want to make.  They are also paper brands that I have never used before.  I’m not worried.  I am curious to see what this paper will be like.  Will it feel ok?  Will it work for what I need it for?  Will the colors be vibrant?  I took a chance and there’s no turning back. 

Hopefully I will have the paper by the end of the week.  Once it gets here, let the carding begin!