Happy New Year!

In the words of writer Phyllis Mcginley,
"Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy;
Happy New Year, everybody!"

Wizard of Oz Note Cards

Someone contacted me and asked if they could buy some Wizard of Oz cards similar to the ones I made last Christmas. We had several conversations about it and I made two sets of eight blank note cards so they could choose which one they liked best. Then that person flaked and even ignored my emails. Just tell me you don't want them, geez.

So I shared photos of them with the Oz club I belong to and sold the top set! It really gave my crafting ego a boost. And the person who bought them is the founder of a major Oz convention, so, extra booster. I'm so appreciative for the sale, it came at a good time.

Card-making Frenzy

I've been making cards like ca-razy!

This is for one of my beautiful nieces. I did a lot of detailing on the paper doll because she's worth the extra effort.

The next two are for my daughter's co-workers. I love the little dress my other daughter cut with her Silhouette.

And that bow!

This was for my brother, one of my favorite people in the world.

I was excited to use the confetti pieces I embossed and inked up.

This was for one of my closest friend's parents. They celebrated 65 years together, can you imagine that?!

I helped decorate, and when I saw the colors I went directly to a craft store and bought paper especially for it, even splurged on some confetti vellum and pretty blue ribbon.

Topped it off with a bow on the envelope.

My daughter Dawn made this sign, by request, for the basket of goodies my friend laid out for the kids who attended the celebration. She used paper left over from my card and foam stickers. Isn't it adorable?

I use these dresses every chance I get.

I always pop them up with pop-dots.

I love the simplicity of these. And the pink ribbon with a fine line of gold trim? My new favorite.

I have so many, I'll make another post so this one won't be never-ending. ;-)

Had A Little Trouble Posting

Don't know why I couldn't sign into my Blogger account, but I'm finally back in!

I have been playing around with my embossing folders lately, which have been sorely neglected. I've used a few in my card-making, but I feel like I'm not doing them justice. So when I came across some flat, silver and gold sequins at Michael's, $1.99 for a package of a gazillion, I wondered if I could run them through my Vagabond. Would they crumble under the pressure?

To my pleasant surprise, it worked! I tried just about every embossing folder I own, it was so much fun!

A few days later I wondered if alcohol inks would work on them. Another success!

Aren't they fabulous?! I love how differently the colors look on the gold as opposed to the silver, and how much they look like metal.

I went back to Michael's for more (you know, in case they quit making them, ahem), and came across some good-sized hearts, so I bought a packet. The embossing worked great on them as well!

Now I'm on a kick of embossing everything I can think of that's flat enough to glide through my Vagabond. I did some small clear bags and was very pleased with them. They're difficult to photograph, but I'll see what I can do about that and throw some photos on here.

What shall I emboss next?

In The Garden That's Not A Garden

We tore down the covering for our hot tub, but left the 4 corner pieces for now because they’re cemented in. A summertime ivy climbs one of the beams, and when it does I start looking forward to the time the leaves turn red.

The remnants of this year’s tomato crop. I didn’t realize tomatoes could be so tiny. And we only got one zucchini, but, man, was it tasty.

 A hardy succulent that desperately needs dusting.

Not a gardener.

Black Birds Singin' In Broad Daylight

These black birds were freakin' me out! If you listen real close, one of them sounds like a barking dog. They're also making clicking noises. Don't know what that's all about, but, man, they sure were making a racket.

And just as suddenly as they appeared, they were gone.

Cards!

I'm not big on Halloween, but for some reason I love making Halloween cards!I started with a 3” circle punch for the white cardstock and stamped the image with this adorable Halloween Witch set by Inky Antics my daughters surprised me with for my birthday. I used colored pencils, glitter pens (Wink of Stella), Glossy Accents on the image, embossed the foil background and popped up the top two layers with pop dots.

I had a tablet of the cardstock with the web edging, which was on the long side, so I cut 2 pieces from it, one for the front, the other for the inside. I was so happy it worked out so well. (There is a sheen of glitter pen where I colored, but the camera picked it up as crappy coloring, ugh.) When I make my cards I usually don’t have a set layout. I’ll pick out a background paper or an image I want to use and go from there. One step always inspires another.

They turned out heavier than I anticipated, which makes for more postage. So I have some different ones in the works that won't have any pop-dots. That's my intention, anyway, we'll see if I follow through.

This was made for a dear family friend who is a young 87 years old. She doodles ladies like these, so I thought she'd like this paper doll stamp by Prima. I fussy-cut her dress from printed cardstock, colored her hair with two shades of brown colored pencil and added sparkles here and there. She was too wide for my folded 8"x8" paper, so I brought part of her dress to the inside. I like how that turned out.

The bicycle card is an anniversary card, the one below it is for a friend who's having a serious procedure to help her heart pump while she's on the transplant list, and the last one is for someone who bought their first house.

I've been a busy crafter the past few weeks!

I'm a year older!

I received some lovely flowers and awesome hand-made birthday cards from my family. My husband even made one! Of course the biggie was my Kindle Fire, wowie-zowie! On top of that they gave me all sorts of crafty fodder, something I always welcome.

I had a wonderful day hanging out with my sister and then my daughters (hubby wasn't up to snuff). A couple of days later I received this magnificent purse from my best friend in the whole-wide world! And the next day my brother took me to lunch, my choice!

To top it off, I opened my Facebook to over 60 birthday wishes...I didn't even know I knew that many people. I am so blessed!

Big Ben

My favorite photo of me in London, England, in front of Big Ben. We heard it bong. In person. In England!

I Still Can't Believe We Went To England!

It was a whirl-wind trip and I loved every minute of it! It was a long flight there and even longer on the way back. I'll post when I've had a chance to go through my photos so I can share them here. It's good to be home!