Blessings.

I was blessed after coming home from holidays with this beauty in my mailbox created by Melinda. Isn't it great! It's still sitting on my shelf. :) Melinda is such a wonderful woman. I met her up North Island very soon after I moved there and I still remember coming home & telling my hubby about this amazing woman that I met that just seemed to touch everyone she came across. She's one of those women that can do everything. Seriously. She was a Kindergarten teacher and she made scrapbooks for the children to take home at the end of the year -- YES FOR EACH AND EVERY CHILD! Like I said ... amazing! Even after I've moved away, she still thinks of me. Gives me warm fuzzies!! Thanks Melinda. LOVE the clear snowflake!!

Friday's are going to be my *SPECIAL* days. For the next while I will be posting sales & giveaways! Everyone LOVES free goodies. Tomorrow will be the start, and of course will start with a freebie :) So come have a peek tomorrow as I bless you :)

Goodbye.

Today is our sad day as Daddy leaves for work (commuting to another province for work isn't working so much.... guess my next title needs to be "change.") :) We miss him dreadfully when he's gone. Lots to do while he's gone with going through my stamping space.... gotta be tough and get rid of items I'm not using ... plus I can put it towards the camera I'm REALLY wanting (that goal might help me 'let go' of other goodies)! Here's a card I made quite awhile ago. I can't say it's my design by any means as I found the card in a "Take Ten" book I purchased a few years ago. It's actually made on whisper white cardstock and I achieved those colors by sponging on assorted colors (summer sun, more mustard, creamy caramel...) I actually made a bunch of these at one time and my hand got tired of all that sponging! Then I used Watercolor Garden II which is one of my favorite 2-step stamping sets by Stampin' Up! I used retired Eggplant Envy for the flowers. A flat card, with the only detail being the black grosgrain ribbon, but it caught my attention in the book & I had to recreate it :)

Simple Scrapping.

I finally dusted off a few supplies & scrapped a simple little 8x8 page of one of my favorite photos of the girls. I think it's just natural & simple so I kept the page the same way. A few touches of ribbon, a little chipboard and ribbon & that's it. I did add a bit of journaling on the back of it (mostly so I can remember). I really need to incorporate more journaling, but like everyone else hate my handwriting & don't know how to work the printer well enough to print DIRECTLY on my page. I do often print it, crop it and mount journaling, but I do tire of that look as well. So hopefully it was the start I needed to get going. I have a few more laying out on the table that I would like to finish up.... and I haven't forgotten that blog candy -- hopefully by the end of this week. Stay tuned ;-)
.j.

Stamps: Totally Tabs
Paper - Creamy Caramel(SU), Rosies & Posies(Imaginisce)
Ink - Noir Palette, Craft Rose Red(SU), Craft Baroque Burgundy (SU)
Other - ribbon (SU & We are Memory Keepers), Chipboard (SU), Tab Punch (SU)

Dream.

Well, we're off to Victoria this morning to get passports processed for the kids. Dreaming of taking a trip. :) Thought we better be prepared in case a dream comes true.
Here's a final postage card to share with you. I have some more to upload (including an 8x8 page), but I just didn't have time this morning before flying out the door here. Enjoy your week. Happy Monday. And... don't forget to dream.
.j.

Gadget.

I actually got into my scrappin' mode last night.... yeah! I have a few pages started -- all spread out. My space is always a mess!! Then I'm left working in this tiny little space on the table.... even if I try to "clean-as-I-go" (who wants to do that!) I still end up crammed with all my goodies creeping into my shrinking space. I tried 8x8 for the first time and I love it for single photos (might even have a page to share with you tomorrow!) Still needing some touches and my creative juices emptied out last night so I had to walk away and now I'm trying to put it together today. My youngest (6) is stamping too which usually involves much glue, glitter & ink. :) We'll see if I'm able to get back to my layout or not. :) I bought a gadget awhile back and I finally pulled it out yesterday -- yeehawwww~it's fantastic. If you're like me (and most paper crafters I know) you're addicted to ribbon. You've got snippets and rolls of it spilling out of drawers, on your table and in most nook&crannies in your stamping space. SO.. when you want to USE a piece, it's wrinkled & crinkled. I don't iron. Honestly. Drives my friends insane when I iron a shirt for hubby... if he has a jacket to go with it, I simply iron the front/collar! Poor guy has to deal with the heat as I DO NOT want him to take it off and show the world the back of it is WRINKLE CITY! :) So... to pull out my iron to straighten a piece of ribbon.... not gonna happen. I'll use extra glue dots and pull and hope it'll lie flat. Until.... I found this goodie!

A RIBBON IRON! You just plug 'er in. Heat 'er up. and pull your ribbon through (think hair straightener - in fact, I bet that would work!!). It was fabulous to find my curled up ribbon, pull it through and have a perfectly flat piece of ribbon.
*sigh*.... I love gadgets.
.j.

Eventful Scrappin'

I'm feeling the need to scrapbook. I've been a collector the last while or else scrappin' for gifts & others.... and not really at all for myself. This year I really want to get back into the swing of scrapbooking. I'm never "behind" as I don't scrapbook EVERYTHING. I started that way and I really should pull out those albums and figure out if I want to keep going that way or convert. I'm thinking I'd like to convert :) I started scrapbooking after my kids were older (OK, by older, I mean past the baby stage, but still under 5) and after trying to go back and "catch-up" I realized I was always feeling like I had SO MUCH to do and it zapped me of my creativity. SO... then I started doing little albums for grandparents & friends and I loved how quickly those little books came together. Then I thought I should start that myself and get out of the "BOX" that I created for myself that scrapbooking meant I had to start at the beginning and go all through each and every stage of life. SO this year I'm starting with fresh perspective. I thought I'd do a few albums of varying sizes in themes: Christmas, Birthday, Family Moments..... I did a scrapbook for my mom one Christmas that was a album and a couple of pages and then each month I created a 6x6 page for her about something that happened that month. I love going over and flipping through that album, so I'd like to do a 2008 one just for me :) One event in a month that stood out. It's time to blow the dust off my supplies.... and scrap!
I thought I'd share with you a card for a birthday party. Sarah's off to a zoo-themed birthday party this afternoon so I thought ZOOFARI would be the perfect set to use :)

Stamps - zoofari & birthday banter
Inks - palette black noir, rose red
Paper - bashful blue, chocolate chip, whisper white & rose red
Other - ribbon (assorted companies), pink rhinestone, cuttlebug, word window punch, prismacolor pencils.

Thanks.

I'm a procrastinator. I have great intentions, but don't always follow through. Now this occurs in a number of ways... I can walk by a pile of clean laundry and WISH it was folded and hope to come back and folded right away -- then a few days later I still SEE it in the basket! Argh. I'm hoping this year to conquer this. To see something that needs to be done, and simply take the 15 minutes and do it WHEN I SEE IT instead of side-stepping over it thinking I'll get to it later. This is one of the reasons I re-joined flylady -- having someone remind me throughout the day to stay-on-task is something I find useful. Being a stay-at-home mom can be a challenge as there's so many things to do it's overwhelming some days and for me, in those moments, nothing seems to get done at all. Writing thank-you cards is another one for me. I have great intentions, but then time passes & I think it's "too late" to get the card mailed out. Christmas has just ended, so my challenge for you is -- do you have any thank-you cards you need to send out? As you look back on the celebrations & season, does anyone stand out to you that touched you in some special way? Maybe a relative had the whole gang over this year and gave you a break, or someone out of the blue sent you an unexpected gift.... I bet you could touch them by a note of thanks. This is a card I made for my dad. I was nervous to drive up to my family's Christmas without hubby on those nasty roads and my Dad drove ahead of me so I wouldn't be alone. I kept the card simple. I did add some microbeads to the words (tried to get a close up shot of it but it didn't come through too well). I also have another card to mail out to my Mom's tenant. She was away and let my family stay in her suite which was so wonderful. Something she didn't have to do, so I thought a note of thanks in her mailbox was appropriate :). I hope to have a few finished up today to mail out (that's when having cards on hand is handy!!). Go for it - don't procrastinate -- give a card of thanks to someone(s) :) today!
.j.