It just came together, by itself...

I colored this image last January (see post HERE) but could never figure out what to do with it.  I made the Scrappy Background just as long ago, this one with squares and rectangles and again, didn't know what to do with it.  About a month ago, I die-cut around the image and distressed it, STILL not knowing what to do with it.  So it and the Scrappy Background have been floating around my desk for quite awhile.  YESTERDAY, they met up with each other and a lightbulb went on in my mind.  HOLY COW!  They belong together!  I love how this came out...

December Daily, 5th thru 31st...

If you've been following this progress on the "DDIG -Anything Goes" Facebook page, then you know I'm doing my December Daily as an extension of my Project Life album...

So, WOW! This is moving a little better than I expected. Here's page two...

And page three (added 12-17-14)...

page four 

page five (includes some hidden journaling, my first evah)

And page six

I amazed myself in completing my December Daily SO CLOSE to December... finished on January 6, 2015 (pages 4, 5 and 6 added on January 7, 2015)

December Daily Prompt...

Welcome to your prompt for today for the "DDIG - Anything Goes" Facebook group...

 

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make a journal card or page commenerating a Christmas tradition or traditions.  This could be a tradition you remember from your childhood or one you do now.  It could be a picture of your tradition or a journal entry.  After all, "Anything Goes!" in this group...

 

Here's what I did...

I started writing down some of the traditions I remembered from when I was a child and those I do now.  It was interesting to see the things that didn't change. Now, THAT'S tradition... :)

If you're stumped, start asking yourself these questions:
Do we do an Advent calendar? 
Do we bake cookies?
Do I take a picture of my favorite ornament?
Do we cut down our own tree?
Do we open our gifts on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?
Do we drive around looking at light displays?
Do we host a party?
Do we go to a Christmas pageant or Church service?

Once you start thinking about it, you'd be surprised what you remember and the list can be endless...
so go now and have fun! 

December Daily...

I'm doing my first "December Daily" and I actually have the first couple days done... OH MY GOD!!  What an accomplishment for me!  Aren't you proud Susan?!!

 

My friend Susan started a facebook group called "December Daily Inspiration Group - Anything Goes" (click HERE to join us) and it has been wonderful.  Looking at everyone else's creations just confirmed to me that I didn't want to be left out in the cold... literally!  This has been challenging to keep up with but LOOK, I'm up to Day 4 and it's only Day 6... HUGE!!

 

The upper right hand panel is supposed to represent my album cover.  Susan gave me the printout when we were together last Saturday and it just fits perfectly in the ongoing theme I have thru out the rest of the book.  Each month has an actual calendar on it.  Why shouldn't December's be bigger?  It's a special month...

 

So, wish me luck on this endeavor and we'll see where we end up together... :)

Not ANOTHER group...

Yeah, I joined ANOTHER group.  This one was started by my friend and co-conspirator Susan Hiles... uh, I mean co-crafter, co-crafter, that's it!  Anyway, it's called "December Daily Inspiration Group - Anything Goes".  Come check it out on Facebook...

There was a FLASH challenge to make a tag and this is my entry...

This is a Scrappy Background that I have embossed and cut with a Sizziz Label Die-cut thru my Big Shot.  I punched a hole for the ribbon and reinforced the hole with, are you ready for this?, reinforcements!  I know, right?!!  CRAZY!!!  :)

The center piece is something that was gifted to me years ago that finally, FINALLY, found a use...

I've never done a "December Daily" but let me be the first to tell you... this GROUP is uber-talented!!  What GREAT inspiration I'm going to see.  :)

October PLCS Swap...

I joined another group on Facebook called "Project Life Card Swap".  In this group, you sign up for "themed" swaps.  You make eight of one kind of a themed journal card and receive eight different themed journal cards back.  I signed up for two swaps.  The first swaps I could be involved with after joining were for October.  This one was called "Color Theme - Autumn". 

 

I decided to do a Mixed Media piece.  I used very colorful napkins, kept the top layer and modge podged pieces of it to my journal card.  When they were dry, I trimmed the edges and added the bling.  I loved them but wasn't sure how they would be perceived by the group...



 

The second swap was called "Getting Cozy for Fall".   Again, doing Mixed Media, I created these. There were alot of different steps involved but the final result was interesting. The longest part was letting the piece dry before sending it to the hostess...

 

So, what did I get in return you ask?  Take a look...

 

 The one on the left is "Getting Cozy for Fall" and the one on the right is "Color Theme - Autumn".  I was SOOOOO blown away by the quality of the cards I received back that I couldn't stop doing the happy dance.  They are AMAZING!!  And I can only hope that those people who received my cards are just as happy with mine as I am with theirs... :)

 

So, the following month (November) I signed up for FOUR swaps... ou vey!!  :) 



Paying it Forward...

 

I'm trying out a new group on Facebook called "Card Swaps for Card Addicts" that matches you to a partner once a month and you swap that months "themed" card.  Before I was matched up with my partner however, I received a "Pay it Forward" card from a women in the group.   The idea is that once I receive the card from her, I post it, people like and comment and I pick two "winners" to continue the game.  These are the two cards I made to send to my two winners.  I was very pleased with them as they're using up the flowers I make from
the Mixed Media monoprints that I enjoy doing...

I was so pleased with the "Pay it Forward" idea that I introduced it to Seongsook's Stampers.  This is SOOOOO fun that I can only hope I will be picked again to play the "Pay it Forward" game.  What a fun, fun, concept... :)



From the Die-cut Swap...

We had a die-cut swap in the group Seongsook's Stampers back in October.  I finally got around to using these precious pieces.  We only got one but, boy, if I had twenty more of these I'd make twenty for Operation Write Home.  FIVE, I mean five... :) 

Since Sandy hasn't been receiving as many cards from cardmakers of late since the drawdown, she has requested we make no more than five on any given design...
 

O Holy Night...

 The Ernman wants to give out twelve Christmas cards to his co-workers this year and he wants them all to be different. I told him to look thru my blog and see if any previous designs jump out at him.  This is one he picked from last years collection (see HERE).  This is an updated version of that card.  This year, I distressed the edges of the "Very Vanilla" cardstock before adding the stamped image.  That image is also heat embossed.  Instead of an embellishment, I did the double bow with ribbon I purchased from the Flower Factory while out in Ohio.  I made four, so three will go in our personal stash.  If I hadn't run out of the burgandy and deep green paper, I would have made more for our personal stash... oh well!


Christmas is coming...

These are cards cut with my Silhouette!!  Woot, woot!  I have not used my Silhouette to it's fullest potential so this was quite exciting to complete.  AND, it fulfills my monthly challenge to make at least five Christmas cards a month.  I made SIXTEEN of these...

The tree is a semi-circle that the Silhouette cuts folding marks into so I'd know where to fold.  Pretty darn cute!  And quick...

 

But, I have to share about my paper choices.  I went to Michaels' and Hobby Lobby looking for Christmas paper pads with double-sided paper.  Could not find ANY, anywhere!  Are you kidding me?  These used to be a dime a dozen.  Apparently, not anymore!  My husband would say, "Follow the money..." and I guess he's right.  It must cost more to create a doubled-sided pad of paper than a single-sided pad of paper.  SO, the last three years when I was determined NOT to buy any of those double-sided pads until my three were gone, has turned out to be a bad idea... :(

 

Anyway, my friend Susan had some leftover double-sided pieces in her stash that she gave me to do this project.  Thank goodness she had something or these trees would have had alot of white showing...



All my "Get Well" cards...

 Here's all the "Get Well" cards I received when I returned to New Jersey from my emergency surgery ordeal while out in Ohio.  They are displayed on our mantel in New Jersey. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. There's nothing like snail mail to help with the healing. I'm STILL beaming... :)

I was so touched, I decided to pay it forward by sending each and everyone who sent me a card, a card in return.  I made eighteen of these.  I picked a couple "Fall" papers at Hobby Lobby and combined them with papers I already had and created this Starburst.  I stamped the "thoughtful" sentiment, added the burnt orange ribbon and bada bing, bada boom, ready to mail!!  These all went postal Thursday, Friday and Saturday of last week.  I think the majority have been received by now so I can "Go Live!" with this post... :)

 

This was relatively quick for me to do that I could easily do more for my final shipment of the year to Operation Write Home.  And with only recuperation time on my hands until the middle of November... well, my not?



Get Well Soon...

Good Grief Charlie Brown!!  Look how long it's been since I did a blog post... yikes!  Three weeks... three very LONG weeks.  While visiting my husband in Ohio last month, I ended up in the hospital having an emergency appendectomy!  Yowza mama!  Talk about painnnnnful!  When I returned to New Jersey, I was greeted with over a dozen "Get Well" cards.  I was sooooo happy... and it did wonders to cheer me!

 

So, yesterday, when a request was put out in one of the groups I belong to on Facebook by a fellow crafter to send her son a "Get Well" card... Well, I was all over that like white on rice!  It's amazing the power of snail mail to a recuperating body. :)

 

This is a CASE of a card I saw on Pinterest.  Relatively easy EXCEPT for the washi tape.  Trying to fold it over the string without it sticking to me was a nightmare!  If anyone has any insight on how to do it with less agita, please share.  I would make many more of this design with different sentiments if I knew a better trick... :)



My five for September...

Here are my five for September.  Since there has been a significant drawdown of troops in Afghanistan, we no longer need to send the same amount of cards we were sending to Operation Write Home.  My last shipment of Christmas Cards went postal last week.  Which means THESE cards are for my personal stash... :)

The Encouragement Project...

After making the card on the left for the weekend challenge on Seongsook's Stampers, I decided to dedicate my entire Sunday to making cards for it. This is a challenge started by a Senior in high school out in Utah (daughter of a fellow crafter I've never met). She is calling it the Encouragement Project. The idea is to have cards available to teachers and staff to write encouraging notes to students who are struggling, or being bullied or feeling very alone. They will also be used for students who went the extra mile or finally "understood" something. With each card I made, the more I thought this was an incredible project...

Although no cards were asked of us during this challenge, I have decided to send these for the project and I have TWO reasons...

1. I think it's a FANTASTIC idea and I hope it gets wings and flies... :)

And 2. When Zack was doing his project during his junior year to get every student at his high school to send an "Any Hero" note, I was overwhelmed by the amount of help I got from my crafting community. People I hadn't even met sent us card fronts to adhere the notes to OR helped color in the notes. Since we had 710 to do, the help was much appreciated.

This is MY opportunity to Pay It Forward...



Inspiration Challenge...

 Colleen gave us a challenge this weekend on Seongsook's Stampers to create an inspirational card for someone who could use some encouragement.  This first card, I was trying to keep with fall colors.  I used three different Marvy pens on the sentiment and then huffed on it to make the ink "wet" again before stamping.  I know someone I would really, really like to send this to... but I don't have her address.

 

This second card is the good ol' Starburst that I've taken completely circular.  I think the paper with the black printing in the lower left is a little too out of place in this card (didn't look that way until I photographed it).  Next time, I'll skip that piece... :)

 

So, here are two submissions for the challenge... time for more?  Who knows...



Scrappy Backgrounds...

Last night I had a special request for one of my Scrappy Backgrounds.  I whipped it out pretty darn quick and got it in the mail...

 

This morning (5am btw), I see all the scraps still on my craft table and they were just screaming to get used.  I forgot how much I LOVE doing these.  In three hours, I had these all made, cut, layered and put on card bases.  All but the sentiments... they were a struggle.

 

You see, I have a little box of already stamped sentiments and I was DETERMINED to use only from that box.  Now, that wouldn't really be a problem if these cards were going to Operation Write Home.  There are plenty of missing you, thinking of you, thank you and happy birthday.  However, I want to use these personally and there just aren't alot of people to whom I wish to say I'm missing you, thinking of you, thank you or happy birthday.

More from Saturday's playdate...

I cut this down from one of the papers I created on Saturday at Susan's.  Using a gelli plate and one of Susan's favorite stencils, I added red, brown, white and gold acrylic paint.  After cutting it down, I mounted it on brown and then onto a card base.  It looked so much like a poinsettia that I added the three red beads.  I LOVE how this came out.  If I could create another thirty like this, I'd call it our personal Christmas card... :)



All in a day's work...

Working with acrylic paints and Staz-on inks yesterday at my friend Susan's, I created several sheets of paper with mixed media designs on them.  This morning, I cut some of them down to create these cards.  The one in the middle, I used handmade stamps that Susan had received in a swap AND one I made myself out of her stash.  The one on the right is done on a ripped out page of a book.  I thought by mounting it on black helped to "pull" the words out.  The one on the left seems very cheerful with the yellow in it.  All of these fulfill the current ODBD (Our Daily Bread Designs) Challenge.  All of the sentiments are from a RAK I received from my friend Sherry a few months ago...

A closer look...

 

Patriotic maybe?

 

Up close and personal...



One of a Kind Christmas Cards...

I'm not a big fan of creating one-of-a kind's.  I much prefer making multiples because I feel like I can accomplishment so much more in the same amount of time.  In an attempt to use up some Christmas stuff that's been hanging around for quite awhile, AND fulfill my five for the monthly Christmas challenge, I created these...



Mixed Media again...

I seem to be making the same layout over and over but I'm really, really liking this mixed media stuff.  Thanks Susan!  This is wicked fun!  On this one, I was trying to work with "fall" colors on my gelli-plate and maybe partially accomplished that? What do you think?  I used Staz-on Saddle Brown for the Salamander and a pre-printed sentiment that comes on a sheet.  Who makes them is alluding me at the moment... do you know?



Another Mixed media card...

I had been playing around with Mixed Media last week that I had learned while spending the day with Susan a couple weeks back (see post HERE) and had made this card.  On it, I used one of the many sentiments that Sherry had sent me a month ago (see post HERE).  In order to make the sentiment "fit in" with the rest of the card, I inked the edges with the same ink I had used on the piece.  Then, I used the "punchinella" that Susan gave me, both on the piece AND the sentiment.  For those who don't know, punchinella is the plastic ribbon that is leftover after sequins are punched out, it looks like this...

 

I used my Staz-on red and a dauber and randomly inked around the card and over the sentiment.  Neat effect, eh?!!  I then added the sentiment and popped it with dimensionals...

 

I decided to send the card to Sherry so she could actually see and feel what a Mixed media card looks like AND so I could send her some of the flowers I had learned to make.  Sherry is a HUGE fan of flowers and I can't wait to show her how we made these.  I had done Mixed media on a few envelopes while at Susan's too but when I put the envelope thru my printer to do the address, the ink smudged.  I printed the address on another piece of paper, layered it and adhered it with glue.  I really, really like mixed media on the envelope too but I think I'll put the addresses on first BEFORE I play around with a design on the envelope.  In my haste to get this in the mail, I never took a picture of it... my bad. 

 

But Sherry did!!  Woot, woot!!  So, why not blog about it, right?!!



Creating with Mixed Media...

I spent an entire day with my friend Susan last week, playing with Mixed Media.  And when I say entire day, I mean ENTIRE day.  We played for ten hours!  What wicked fun!!!  Then on the weekend, Ernie and I had a wedding to attend of which I had not made a card yet.  On the fly, I used some of the papers we had made to create this.  I am sooooo LOVING it...



Christmas in July...

It's getting a little too close to the end of July and I hadn't made my Christmas cards... so, I got crackin' AND Christmas in July!  Woot, woot!  For those of you who make cards for Operation Write Home like I do, the deadline for Christmas cards this year has been pushed back to October 10th.  We can do this!  No worries...

 

So, I need to tell you a story about this paper.  This is from a pad I purchased when I was just beginning to make cards four years ago and have hated it for almost as long.  And before you tell me I should have just parted with it a long time ago, you apparently don't know me well.  I am a painfully frugal person.  If I buy something, I MUST use it.  I hate waste... and I'm OCD.  But I had finally decided to put it out of my misery and had packed it away to sell at next year's Yard Sale at Cozy Crop.  As I was moving it from one box to another, it caught my eye again.  I started looking at it in terms of that wonderful OWH Sketch #218 (see HERE) that showcases a larger print paper.  I just couldn't resist to see if it brought this pad to life.  Well, I'll be jiggered... it did!  I LOVE how this came out!

 

 I made eight of these...



OWH Shipment...

This is my largest shipment to date... woot! woot!

 

143 Handmade and 18 Any Hero... 

 Of those, I'm proud to boast that 55 are "missing you" cards.  Also, this puts me over last years TOTAL cards by alot and it's only July.  What's the difference you ask?  Ok, maybe you're not asking... but I'll tell you anyway.  LAST year, I was working out of a sardine can in Massachusetts, planning a wedding, a graduation and a move.  THIS year, I'm settled in New Jersey with the most amazing studio where I can get lost for hours...



One bright birthday...

 As I was preparing my box for shipment to OWH, I realized I needed to make several more to actually FILL the box.  There are too many cards for a Medium Flat Rate box but not enough for a Large Flat Rate box... go figure!  So, I went to Pinterest and found this (see HERE) and LOVED it.  I've had this embossing folder forever but have never found anything that made sense to use it on.  THIS is perfect!  I made eight, but three are staying in my personal stash...

All the paper is from my Scrap folders, except the black which is from a Recollections paper pack.  The sentiment is also Recollections which I probably found in the dollar bin at Michaels ions ago.  The sentiment has brads and is popped.  The color combinations you could do with this are endless.  I however, am very partial to the rainbow... :)



City Scene...

This is a die I've had for awhile with thoughts of making a city scene.  I finally got around to using it... why'd it take so long?  I'm loving these!  I have been questioning the ribbon though.  I thought it might be too bright, but the whole look has definitely grown on me...



 

The die is by Taylored Expressions called "Neighborhood Border".  The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn's "You've Got Mail" collection and was heat embossed with white embossing powder.  Ribbon and bling from Michaels and the paper is from Hollo's in Ohio...