Christmas in....May?

It has felt a bit like Christmas around here. All my online shopping is starting to arrive...and the bulk of it ahead of the time I was expecting.

Here are some photos of what arrived.
This was from JoAnn's online. Everything was at least 40%, had a special deal for shipping for $2.95 for all of it. I know it is hard to see the detail of everything, but in all of this what I looked forward to the most was the "Once Upon A Time" paper packs (4 x 6 inch) and the punches. The paper is just awesome. The cutter was on sale for less than $5 so figured it would be good enough for my daughter (12) to have so I could keep her out of mine. The punches are working well, have already tested them, which is something I always look for as I have fibro which makes it hard to work the hand some days. If I use it too much at a time it will start to tremor a bit and then draw closed on itself. One time when I had longer nails it was so bad that the nail cut in to the palm of my hand deep enough to draw blood. At any rate, I look for punches that punch completely and easily. The Mickey Mouse punch creates a design of the head about the size of a quarter and will be great in a lay out with some strings drawn on to look like balloons. I also have some really small rubber stamps that is an alphabet and is the perfect size to stamp in the middle of the punched design to spell out what I want. That idea, I must confess, came to me when I priced a set of rubber stamps that were the shape of the head with a letter inside. I already had the small alpha stamps and the punch was way cheaper than the Disney rubber stamps. The Sizzix was all on clearance, so very inexpensive and I really do like my Big Kick. I have learned something new about it lately. I need to purchase some extender blocks and something called a crease pad.

Now, if someone could just tell me how to make my Fiskar embossing plates work a bit better with the Big Kick I am all ears.
Next came my Sizzix box. I came across their site one night and found the clearance section. They were all on sale for about $3 -$4 each several were less than $2. You have to purchase a minimum of $25 though before they will accept your order. I met the minimum...barely.
Last, but never least, is my Stampin Up order. I just can't wait to get these new stamps going. Also, I have a great supply of ink now. The Manhattan Rose stamp coordinates with the Sizzix textured Impressions Manhattan Flower emboss plate. It is back ordered. I bought a roller wheel with snowflakes for Christmas and winter projects. I was unable to order an ink cart in white for the roller, so I ordered and uninked cart and white refill ink. Hope that it works out. One of the items I bought is the Sizzix Bigz Top Note die, an exclusive Stampin Up product, which I am sure will be great for cards. This week end when I play with it I will post some photos of what it looks like. I saw a card somewhere that I knew I wanted to make, watched the You Tube video, and bought the SU supplies I needed to make it. I was disappointed however that even though the packing slip states I received the Window sheets, I did not. Will have to contact SU about that though. Am hoping they can give me some type of time frame for expecting the back ordered emboss plate as well.

Okay, I am heading off to bed. Have had stomach bug for the past few days that has wiped me out. Tomorrow night is a class at the scrapbook store that I was on the waiting list for, so was thrilled to get a call this evening that they had a cancellation and I was now on the list for taking the class if I wanted. I did want. The class is for a mini album. If folds up accordion style and slides in to a small box.

So, for the next few days I won't be posting, will be busy making something and will show it off. I want to just grab a new item and make some project with it, but that will have to wait until at least Friday night. I still have a few more stamps coming in and the Christmas papers I found on Ebay. But...before I work on anything else, I have got to finish my chipboard album for mom, birthday cards for my son and grandson as well.

I have also made a decision, or rather a goal, of making one project featuring one or more of the items I have bought to get started in this obsession with out buying anything else. Like a card using my Cricut or the Sizzix. A card using each of the stamp sets I just purchased. And one other goal, to go through everything, each and every box and case I have in order to just see what I have. I have three containers of stickers and flowers. Have already found out the hard way that there is a special type of glue for vellum paper.

I am off to bed now, will pop in and post as soon as there is anything to show.

Spring Card

I told you I would post the photos of my weekend projects when I got home, so here we go.

This is the front of my spring (for lack of a better title) card.
Not my choice for a paper, but it is spring looking and it came as a little kit.

Now, when it is opened up.
The blue flower is hanging from a string, I used the back side of the paper, the sample project called for the other side to be used, which was yellow with white polka dots. I just didn't see yellow in the print with the white background. Oh, and they gave me a little purple flower shaped button for the center. Purple? Not seeing it honestly.

The photo colors are a bit off, what looks like purple flowers are actually a lighter blue, like a periwinkle.

This is a side view so you can see the flower hanging free.

Now, I don't know a lot about how things work with a make and take, but just so you can understand, this was a project done on Friday night. I was at the Saturday night session. It was a different project. I was kind of winging it so to speak.
Why are there no printed directions with a make and take? If I ever pick up the kit for another project that I did not get to sit through the class for, I am at least going to take a photo with my phone of the finished sample card.

A few other things that I was puzzled by:

(1) Kind of odd sizes for the cardstock. But I am new to this so that could just be the size of things.

(2) I measured and measured, tried it one way and then the other. The paper for the outside of the card (the yellow print) was a fourth of an inch shorter than the cardstock. I do realize that someone had to spend a lot of time cutting all these pieces for the kits, so can actually understand that little error. I ended up cutting the card stock down a smidge.

Not sure if it is the "politically correct" thing to do, but I did write down all the measurements for future reference. I like the card and can see a lot of possibilities with this card. So, I measured the cuts, the scores, even the two sizes of scallop die cuts. I truly see how my Cricut will be handy for cutting that piece. Of course, I can always put to use all the punches I am gathering as well. I can see some basic shape with a photo or stamp image in the middle. Hmm, will definitely have to put that on my "Things To Try List". The make and take for the Saturday night session was supposed to be a slider card, it is why I took the Saturday session. But...the papers picked for the card did not come in as planned so they went with plan B. I made a teddy bear and giraffe, the plan B, gave them to my daughter. They are absolutely adorable, but not my cup of tea.

Okay, shift in topic here. I have been working on this mini album for my mom. It is from BoBunny and what ever possessed to attempt this I have no idea. I was struggling with just figuring out how to make straight cuts for layouts and cards, then I had to take this on with all the curves and designs. What was I thinking?

This is the beginning. I have the pages covered. And so it started. I was absolutely in over my head with this. The second page the paper fell a bit short so I decided to use a marker on the edges, it is just awful looking. The third page was just beyond understanding, so I took the cheaters way out and just cut a straight piece of paper and glued it down to the edge of the scallops which I had used a charcoal stick on, finished off with a piece of silk ribbon to cover the paper edge. I actually like this one. The fourth page I tore the paper when cutting the larger of the holes. I glued copper colored eyelets in the smaller holes, the chipboard is too thick for setting them in the normal way. Frustrated I just put it away while pondering possibilities to cover the tear. I even went and talked to the teacher from my beginning scrapbooking class, she just remarked that scrapbookers do tear edges. If you have read my past entries you will know how I feel about torn edges.

At any rate, I found some lovely little silk flowers and brads with amber colored crystals in the top then glued those in to the holes. I actually like the way it turned out. Here are some shots of the pages I worked on at the crop session on Saturday night.

This is my mom sitting in her mother's lap. Her mother died about two or three weeks after this photo was taken. She was not quite two years old.

Then mom and dad on wedding day to show that she found love.

My brother and I to show she became a mom. See the story line direction?

I was kind of cute there wasn't I?

He was a great big brother, still is, but when I was growing up he was always there. We share a fondness for cherry Popsicles and cookie dough. So much so that mom would have to write our name on the boxes of Popsicles and would have to triple the recipe of dough in order to get one batch out of it. Her recipe called for rolling it up in wax paper, the first version of slice-n-bake I guess. We had no clue it was not safe to eat raw dough. In fact, my brother was the first one to see me.

I was adopted as an infant, was six days old, and when my adoptive parents came to get me, they were a little nervous and so my big brother was sent in to get me from the back pew of the church where I had been left. I am in contact with my birth mother, she made a hard decision at an even harder time in her life, but I am thankful and blessed that she loved me enough to think of me. I had a wonderful childhood.

Well, I have the rest of the story to work out and finish up so I can get it in the mail. I am sure it will be late, but she won't mind.

I guess I better end this and get moving, still need to eat a bite and then work on the album some more.