Operation Write Home

I made this card for Operation Write Home’s Sketch 52 Challenge.  This is the first time that I have ever participated in a challenge.   I have been wanting to get involved with OWH for awhile.  I think it is a great idea.  For my card I used the Olivia paper packet.  The bird is from the Hot Diggity set.  Sentiment is from Hero Arts.  The little green flower is from Prima and the center is a Itty Bitty sparkle from CTMH.

I feel like I have been away for ever.  Had some nasty bug that while it wasn’t right out disabling I had no energy.  Some days I would sit at my desk and look out the window and just nothing would come to me. 

Jim gave me a Kindle for Christmas so I did sit at my computer a lot and download dozens of books.  There are a couple of free sites that I like to go to.  www.thefrugalreader.com and www.freeEbookdeal.com and when you choose a book you are directed to Amazon.

We are finally getting some winter weather.  Went snowshoeing the other day. 

Kambrie was 4 months old on the 14th.  She weighs 12 lb 40z and is 24 inches tall.  She is a very happy baby. 

I was re reading some of my earlier posts and my goodness I should really read them before posting.  So many words left out etc. 

I Can Almost Smell the Ocean

This card front was in my stash and I have no idea who the stamp manufacturer is since I most likely stamped it at a friends house.  It is layered on Pansy Purple textured cardstock.  I had trouble photographing this card.  Can’t seem to get rid of the shadows.

Talked to Leola yesterday and we decided I would make a 12 x12 shadow box frame with the idea from the cover of the spring CTMH catalog.  Kambrie is 3 and a half months old and already copying everything her parents do.  She pets the dog and the other day Leola was having a glass of water and she could tell Kambrie wanted it.  Leola put the glass so Kambrie could reach it and she put her two hands around the glass and stuck her face in it.  Told Leola she has to put some more videos on their blog. 

It is more like winter here, now we need some snow so I can go snowshoeing. 

Kathi, I chuckled when you said you couldn’t get rid of the little embossing specks.  I don’t have much trouble at home but when I go to classes I have the worst time and I follow the same procedure as at home. 

My word is goal.  One of my goals is to use up my crafting products before buying more. 

I am getting my craft room more and more fine tuned.  And rearranging where I store some of my stuff. 

It is time for supper.

A Sledding We Will Go

I had the worst time making this card.  I bought the stamp (Northwoods) at our local craft store after seeing a card made with it.  But I could not get anything to look right.  Wednesday I went back to the craft store and took a look at their card.  There’s was on stripped paper but I didn’t have any stripes that looked good.  So after getting out several sheets of paper the plaid (Paper Pizazz) hit the spot.  Down the side they had two big stars but I couldn’t get the stars to look right.  I took the mittens and cap from All Decked Out.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts.  Brad is from Hobby Lobby.  Ribbon from JoAnn’s.  The card is on dark brown paper.  I stamped the image with CTMH’s Cocoa and it is colored with PrismaColor Red.  Hat is stamped in Cranberry and mittens in Outdoor Denim.  When trying different color cardstock to put the card on again I kept coming up empty but I had a piece of brown cardstock already cut and folded and I just hadn’t put it away so I picked it up and the rest is history.  The sled is stamped on kraft paper from our local craft store and there is no name on it.  The rope handle is natural hemp from CTMH.

Today is a foggy icky drizzly day for winter in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.  It is supposed to start freezing tomorrow night.  We will need a foot of snow to cover up all the ice.  It will be nice to have fresh snow, right now it is all brown and dirty. 

Picked up the new Spring/Summer CTMH catalog and I fell in love with the cover.  A baby girl scrapbook page all in pink and delightful saying: I am so glad to meet you! This most definitely love at first sight.  And I know the perfect baby girl to send it to.  I just need to call Leola and find out what size baby book Kambrie has. 

I am going to be spending what is left of 2010 cleaning.  Tomorrow I have to hit checkbooks big time and get bills paid.

Simple

Last year we received a store bought like this.  And I thought hey I can duplicate that almost.  I used the snowflake cuttlebug folder and on the boughten card it was flocked.  Otherwise the card is pretty much the same.  Cardstock is White and Juniper.  Wreath (Serendipity) is stamped in Aspen Green (retired).  I used the Cricut to cut the white square but did the rest by hand as my Circuit goes in 1/2 increments.  I did the ribbon in two stages.  First I put the hanger part and then made the bow and attached with glue dots.  I used red stickles for the berries on the wreath.

The first of my packages have arrived in Colorado.  Now this coming week just have to get packages wrapped for here.  I use a lot of bags.  And the ones for Sam and Samantha all get tagged “Sam”.  They have fun figuring out which package goes to whom.  And they usually get it right.

Yesterday PJ posted a 30 second video of him playing with Kambrie.  He would growl at her and she would try and growl back.  I am going to wear it out watching it. 

Went for a little snowshoe hike today.  Jim put a fence around the birdfeeder that is outside my craft room window as the deer have found it.  They have been tearing up our front yard also. 

Band Practice

Leola and Kambrie made the paper.  Leola and PJ both play instruments in the community band.  They didn’t have a baby sitter the day of practice so along went Kambrie.  She loves music.  Mom plays the French horn and Dad is a drummer. 

The caption says: A potential future community band member listens while her mom, Leola Romero, and Joanna, Duane, Jack, Walter and Michael rehearse. 

Kambrie is three months old today and a very happy baby.

 

I went to town to today to have lunch with a friend, then I took some fudge to Sam and Samantha and checked out Wal-Mart.  Saw a friend there I hadn’t seen in awhile.  It was 5pm when I got home with three small grocery items.  Jim said “you were gone all day and only bought three things:?  I said “Yup and I had a good time”. 

Sam and Sam and their kitty are coming out Christmas eve, spending the night and enjoying Christmas with us.  It has been a long time since anyone has been here overnight on Christmas. 

I promised Leola I would have the fudge in the mail tomorrow.  Better get it made.

Waiting

This card uses papers from the Heirloom paper packet.  The tag is white cardstock.  Stamp color is Ponderosa Pine.  I made the tag about 4 years ago.  The stamp set is Art Gone Wild.  They are cube stamps.  The ribbon is probably from JoAnn’s and the star is most likely from our local scrapbooking store. 

This has been a crazy week.  Sunday night through Wed. we had lake effect snow and ended with over a foot.  Jim blew out the driveway Monday and when he got all done the tractor died.  It is a small one that you can put a mower deck on in the summer.  We went to town and bought a new one and it was delivered today.  Jim decided to go with a walk behind one as there is less things to go wrong.  I has an electric start and power steering.  We are bracing for a major winter storm of up to 14 inches of snow starting tomorrow night and lasting all day Sunday and accompanied by 40 mile an hour winds. 

My craft room is such a mess I need to clean it before I go any further in my card making. 

I talked to Leola yesterday and Kambrie is now weighs 10 lb 8oz and is 23 inches long.  Tuesday she will be 3 months old.  I talked to her also but she wasn’t in a talkative mood.  LOL.  I always make fudge at Christmas and Leola asked if they were getting fudge.  I told her yes but she might not get it with her Christmas packages.  I hope to get them out on Monday.  And then I will make the fudge and send it. 

Better get busy and clean my craft room.  There a papers everywhere except on the ceiling.  LOL.

Tis The Season

I just haven’t had any mojo lately but I think I finally have it together.  Card stock is CTMH’s Bamboo and Parchment.  Patterned paper is from DCWV from about 2 years ago.  Embellishments and ribbon are from JoAnn’s.  I used a wide plaid and a narrow gold ribbon.  The sentiment is from Inkadinkado.  I cut the ovals (3 “ and 4”) with my Cricut and the George & Basic Shapes since I am mass producing this card for folks at our church.  I rubbed the parchment oval in Cranberry ink.

Today I had an interesting thing happen.  In checking my e-mail there was one from my credit card company asking me if I had made a certain transaction.  I hadn’t made the transaction but before I responded to the e-mail I called the credit card company.  Because you are always hearing that they don’t contact you that way.  And I asked how they knew to question that transaction.  And she told me it was outside of my spending pattern.  I have an Amazon.com credit card and only use it for making purchases from Amazon for books.  I also used it for Shutterfly and she asked if had made that transaction. I thought that was pretty neat. 

Kambrie and I had our first phone conversation the other day.  Leola put her on speakerphone and I was chatting away and every once in awhile Kambrie would “say” something and I when I said “goodbye” it sounded just like she said goodbye.  Both Leola and I laughed. 

There was a lake effect snow warning for our county but so far we have escaped the snow but the Soo 20 miles north got dumped on and all their schools were closed.

Better go and get some dinner.