Quickies

I know it was over a week ago that I shared these with my friends at school.  Just wanted to share with you the fast and quick St. Patrick's Day cards I made in one night.  I just punched them out for colleagues at school using Jeanette's Color Me Monday for March 1:  Ponderosa Pine, Sweet Leaf, Topiary, and Colonial White. 

Is Spring Coming?

I've been on a card "kick" lately.  I am still loving Jeannette Lynton's template making several cards at once from just a few pieces of paper in her Wishes book.  Anyone who has been in my studio knows I have "stash".  I'm one of those that wants it all but is often afraid to use something because I'll run out and then I won't have it when I need it.  LOL  Is that illogical hording?  But, after a mild winter, its starting to feel like spring.  In the stamping/scrapping world, spring means we're on the last leg of the year before all the company conventions and release of new, exciting products (and the retirement of the older products that have become the friends of many).  Close to My Hearts convention is in July and I expect there will be new colors, old colors retired, new catalog format, new programs, and new uses of technology (J Studio, CTMH TV, etc.).  That all means I'm trying to use up my "stash" to make room for new stuff and I'm carefully thinking what products do I want to stock up on before they are retired.  Here are cards I made from the Wishes pattern using the old Cocoa Cafe Collection from a couple of years ago.  I made birthday and thank you cards since I never have enough of them!  It is fun to mix old with new: along with the older papers, I use new stamp sets that are in the current CTMH Idea Book.  While these turned on wonderfully, I'm ready to turn my attention to scrapping.

I also needed a birthday card for a good friend at work and sympathy cards (my biggest challenge in stamping/scrapping is making sympathy cards).  I used a color challenge I found on the CTMH bulletin board for the birthday card and I used more old paper for the sympathy cards.  I'd be lost without the inspiration fellow crafters on the internet!

The Love of Valentine's Day

My friend Erica challenged me to do something with black, white, and another color to pop. Usually, I end up posting at the last minute on her color challenges but this week, I finished early. I used the template from Wishes and made up 16 cards using black with Colonial White and popping it with Bamboo and Tulip. It was fun and fast! I made show

Busy and Productive Weekend

I finished a layout of my niece Susan playing soccer. I used the Game On paper pack along with Clover Meadow. I like the way it turned out. :)






A friend posted a color challenge: Cranberry, Indian Corn Blue, and Sweet Leaf. I used a pattern from the book Wishes that makes 12 cards from just two pieces of cardstock and background and texture papers. I always need thank yous!!!!

2010 Whether I'm Ready Or Not

So, my youngest son has a puppy and is engaged. I'm totally entrenched in another 5th grade class/year, Michael and I celebrated year number 3, and I occasionally find time to scrap/stamp. Bunch of stuff happened in between but I'm not going into the details. :) Here are some project I've completed since the last time I added a post here. I do wish I were more organized or blogging easier or that more people wanted me to blog. It mostly feels like writing to empty air, as if I'm on a stage under lights and the lights in the audience are black so I have no idea who's out there, how many are out there, or if anyone is out there. LOL

Fast thank you cards made from the book Wishes template for several cards from just a few pieces of paper. These used up lots of leftover "fallish" stuff and I gave them to students as thank yous for Christmas gifts. :) One of my new goals is to have several of these sets made up but keep them blank so I can tailor to suite the need: thank you, birthday, anniversary, sympathy, etc.

Couple of challenges and birthdays and anniversaries and etc.

Michael bought me a great lightbox to take pictures of my layouts and cards. The quality of the photos is a lot better....well except the couple of times I'm flying out the door with the ink and glue on the card still wet. :) But for the most part, the colors are more true, picture straighter, and details clearer.

I'm working on a layout of my niece Susie playing soccer. Sometimes, the title of the layouts just stump you, if you know what I mean.

School Starts Soon

Although I've been in and out of my classroom for the last two weeks, the kids finally come on Wednesday!!! I'm looking forward to this year especially since so many of my students I've had before from one of the very best classes ever!

Here are two cards and a layout I did in August since my last posting. I'm still working on Jeanette Lynton's Color Me Monday color combos that she posts once a week on her blog. I'm about three weeks behind and with school starting might as well resign myself to get even farther. LOL

Comments welcome, as always!

Catching up on Blogging

The end of the school just took a lot from me. LOL Teaching the 4/5 split class was a lot of work. Then, when school ended, there were visits from Paul and Katie, Loren and his brood, and my brother moved it. Somewhere between all of this, my wishes did come true to find some friends to scrap with. I am not in a card club with gals from the neighborhood, and I have a few friends from school who gather with me for crops. Life is good. Busy is good. So, here are the things I've done since April. Some things are copied, some finished CTMH Album Retreat layouts, and some are color challenges from Jeanette's blog. When I posted on the CTMH site I did give credit where due but somehow, I've lost the original inspiration for most of these and if you see your card or layout here, please chime in as I'd love to acknowledge our talent!

Layouts:

Cards:

Drop me a line when you visit!

Quick Cards

These are two quick cards I made last night. I've been so focused on getting my classroom ready I didn't think I'd be able to create. Last night I went upstairs about 9 and finished these about 10. Not bad, very quick. Challenges by Erica and Karen K:

Outdoor Denim, Desert Sand, Sorbet, Crystal Blue, Bamboo with Happiness and Decorative Dainties



Sorbet, Juniper Desert Sand, Vineyard Berry, Vanilla Cream with The Giving Hand and February Word Puzzle

Another Color Challenge from Karen

This will probably be my last layout for a while because school is about to start which means less time for stamping. Weekends will be full doing things that couldn't be done on weekdays, like laundry, errands, spending time w/ friends and family, even grading or doing things for my classroom. I have loved the challenges of my friends and will miss them. But, this does give me time to collect more photos so that the next break I do have some things to work with the paper art.

So, here are some of the pictures I took on our dinner cruise through Lake Washington and Lake Union in Seattle. We cruised by the UW football stadium, down to Bellevue, past Bill Gate's house, past the house boat used in Sleepless in Seattle all the while enjoying a wonderful summer evening with a full moon and gorgeous, colorful sunset. The food was fabulous with seafood appetizers and a pasta bar where they made pasta dishes to order. It was a nice evening for Michael and I. I have some cute pictures of us.

I used Karen's color challenge: Sorbet (new color), Petal, Honey, Ponderosa Pine, and Chocolate. The colors weren't hard but finding a layout that I could get all the pictures on and all the journaling on was the challenge. Some parts are OK, other....eh. The layout is OK, not a total disaster, just not as good as some of the others this summer. Feels like I lost my mojo so it really is time to go back to school.

Quick cards using some more new colors and new images

Erica had another color challenge and wanted to do cherries but alas, I have not cherry stamps so here is what I came up with. This challenge was Juniper, Tulip, Black, and White.

New Colors!!!!

I played with two of the four new CTMH colors: Tulip and Creme' Brulee' in this layout of our Granite Falls day trip

Newest Katie Layout

It's been a couple of days since I posted. I had a class and then Michael and I went on a fabulous dinner cruise in Lake Washington and Lake Union. Dinner was great! I took almost 130 photos. There should be something to scrap out of those! But, I still have last year's cruise to do. Guess I'd better get scrappy!

Here's a layout I did of Katie. She was 4 months old here. I used Marjorie's 29th color challenge: Cranberry, Black, Bamboo, and Grey Wool. This is the first time I've used black and white and color photos together. I also stitched on this layout for the first time. That was fun! I like it. Let me know what you think!

Karen's Challenge

Another color challenge: Hollyhock, Buttercup, Garden Green, Vineyard Berry, and Bamboo and any Solor stamps sets chosen by Karen Kemme. I used the Boom-di-Ada Creative Basics papers. I made my own word puzzle stamp by going though all the Solo sets and picking words that conveyed my feelings about my friends and our get togethers. This did not turn out to be my favorite layout I've even done. I used ricrac for the first time on a layout, too. It's really thick and bulky. I'm not sure I like it, either, and I have a lot of it to use up. :( so for better or for worse, here is:

Erica's Second Color Challenge

Breeze, Twilight, Cocoa, Orange, Topiary. This is a very unusual layout for me: no stamping!!!!

Erica's Color Challenge

So, Denise, Karen, Erica, and I were chatting about our new catalog. Some things we like others we don't. Some of us like some of the new colors some of us don't. LOL As we got to colors, I said I thought you can really use any colors together. It's not what the colors are but how you use them. Erica disagreed.......and to try to prove her point, she went to the CTMH Color website and let the computer randomly pick two different color combos. I did the first one using Taffy, Hollyhock, Olive, Outdoor Denim, and White Daisy. When I saw the colors, I actually loved them. Erica really wanted to come up with some ugly colors but I like challenges so here is what I came up with:
Tomorrow I'll work on the other challenge: Breeze, Topiary, Twilight, Cocoa, Orange

Finished!

The Halloween Layout I did of Erika and Coley is finally done. My friend Karen Kemme stamped and sent me pumpkins from a retired stamp set she still has. Look at the cute wire she attached for the vines! And thanks, Marjorie for the color challenge of Orange, Holiday Red, Sunflower, and Bubblegum (I added the black). I would never have thought to put pink in a Halloween layout! So, what do you think?

One Page Layout for the End of Album

Ok, I'm feeling a whole lot better about this layout. I think it's from Imagine, who knows after all the altering I did. LOL This is for Majorie's 25th Color Challenge. These pictures are of my two sons and my nephew in "yesterday" and "today" photos. As much as they have changed, you can still tell who is who. The three of them are very, very close and my sister and I laugh at what a big deal they made of getting together at family gatherings. One thing changed: the tallest in the first picture is now the shortest and Mason, the youngest, is now the tallest at 6'5". Love these kids!



Couple of cards I made using Marjorie's # 29 color challenge: Barn Red, Olive, Honey, and Chocolate. I tried the reinker squash technique to create a unique background. Kind of cool cards!




Sure is nice to be out of that yucky Blue Ribbon paper and layout. I may never get to the journally because for now, I quit that layout! LOL