Day 2 on Day 5

I managed to get a card done for the first day of the Clean & Simple class on, yes, the first day. However, the week has been filled beyond belief. I won't let myself look at Day 3, 4 or 5 until I get a card done for each day. Talk about torturing myself. 

Ink: Distress Ink Tumbled Glass; Memento Tuxedo Black
Stamps: Hero Arts 657773 Antique Flowers and Butterlies; CL139 Birthday Messages
Pens: Copics RV000, YR31, Y04; YG23; YR15
Die: Memory Box Primo Labels
Other: Judikins Eclipse Art Masking Tape; Post It Notes; Ink Blending Tool

I really did get this made on Friday. It took two more days to take a photo and post it!

Clean & Simple

I received my first email for the Clean & Simple class taught by Jennifer McGuire, Kristina Werner and Julie Ebersole. I then proceeded to make a card. A miracle! :) A card that didn't take two weeks.

I used Hero Hues Latte layering paper and Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink on Cornish Heritage Farms' License Plates Backgrounder. The Happy Birthday and musical notes are from Hero Arts Birthday Sayings. They were embossed with Zing White and the dash lines are my Signo pen.

I now have a masculine birthday card and I didn't sweat over it. Thank you, Kristina!

When did Christmas get moved up?

One week until Christmas! How did that happen? I've been so crazy busy and I haven't started on Christmas. Well, I've got a few gifts, but no tree, no decorations, no lights, haven't done our cards, no...well, you get the idea. I hate shopping and now everywhere will be crowded. Add to that, my mom asked me to make something for her. Yeah, right, I'll fit that in.

I'm still working on the books for the grandchildren. I keep adding to them. I should have said no more than X number of pages. Too late.

Our 'baby' graduated from high school in 2009. The first year it was so nice to stay home evenings. No sports, no parent meetings, nothing. It was wonderful.

Last year, it got to be slightly boring. This fall, I told the varsity basketball coach I would keep the books if he needed someone. I am now doing both the girl's and boy's books. I love it. I'm even riding the bus with the teams to their games. I didn't want to drive alone. Besides, why drive when I can let someone else do it. :)

Our church puts on a Christmas pageant every year, 22 now. I once sang in the choir. However, we were involved in a car accident (not our fault) and my back has not been the same. The chairs the choir sit in are not good for me. Everyone else loves them. Me, I take oxycodone for several days afterwards. When you take in to consideration we put the pageant on for three nights, I decided to skip the pain and medication. I now help park cars. I have power! I can tell people where to go. Okay, which parking spot. And tonight, it will be raining. I'd rather have snow.

We serve refreshments after the program. I have the baby making cookies for tonight. After Friday's program, the kitchen crew were down to one serving tray of cookies. There will probably be several hundred in the audience. We need to bake lots of cookies. That would be the royal 'we' as I'm typing and it's not in the kitchen.

We had Daphne for a couple of days last week. We took her to Storybook Land at our county fair grounds. She was slightly overwhelmed! It was my first time attending, too. I can't believe how much work went into putting it together.

This display had teddy bears everywhere, on a Farris Wheel, flying a plane, riding a carousel, ice skating, you name it.

One of the first things D likes to do when she comes is watch our Thomas the Train dvd.  

Guess who was at Storybook Land!

Her dad likes to watch...

Towards the end of the display were a couple of trains. This set also had Thomas. D was positive one of the buildings was Costco.

Santa was there, but the line was too long. Mrs. Claus didn't have a line and she handed out candy canes, too. It will be fun to take D next year and see if she remembers anything.

Of course, D always has to go to the pig barn with Papa. This trip was no exception.

I love that they are standing there, looking at the pigs and both have their hands in their pockets. For those who are interested, we have purbred Hampshire, Chester White and Tamworth sows (moms) in this picture. The white pig whose ears are standing up is a cross-bred boar (dad). Not pictured is the purebred Hampshire boar, a purebred Berkshire gilt (not yet had babies) and some other cross-bred animals.

This isn't getting any Christmas items done. I had better stop putting it off. :) 

The Only Snow We Will Get Is In This Globe

We rarely get snow. If we do, don't laugh anyone, a quarter inch closes school.

Even though the Cascade Range is only an hour away, it is amazing how few people know how to drive in snow. Of course, I admit, I refuse to drive in it. But I have a good reason. I rolled a car over a 25 foot embankment when I was 17.

Yes, that was a good many years ago but I don't want to take a chance. (I hit a patch of ice.) The only good thing, well, two I guess, it happened across the road from our house and Dad was able to roll the car back onto it's tires and drive it home.

The worst thing about it. It was a '74 Maverick, Dad bought a '76 Maverick to replace it and kept the old one for parts...just in case. And yes, two years later, someone T-boned me so the parts came in handy. I then drove a car around with the look of the '74 on the driver's side and the '76 on the passenger.

When it was my sister's turn to drive it, she had the oil changed and they forgot to put something back in (they did remember the oil). 75 miles from home, on the freeway, all the oil drained out. Not a pretty sight. But not to worry, Dad had a spare engine.

So, I don't drive in snow because Dad might keep the car just in case I need to replace something. Enough about cars.

I worked on another page for my mini album today. It is another image from Doodle Dragon Studios. The snowglobe is actually a pocket so if we get snow it can be recorded!

I put Glossy Accents around the edge so it would maybe look like a globe. I've got some stickles in there for the shine. I need to speed up my page construction, but I like to color way too much! December is in how many days?

One Page

Here is one page for a December mini album. With three grandchildren, one is not enough. I've got a long way to go.

The image is from Doodle Dragon Studios. With all of my back and forth coloring, I have no idea which Copics I used. I made the pocket it is glued on from the Echo Park Season's Greetings 6x6 pad. I love that paper. The music is also from Echo Park, the Holly Jolly Christmas collection. 

I'm planning on putting this in a book thus the empty space on the left. When I get all the pages made, I'll use my Bind-It-All to put it together.

I'm still trying to decide if I should stamp 'The Tree' across the top of the pocket. I'll probably wait until I know what else is going into the book before I decide. I have no plan. Whatever strikes my fancy is what I will do.

Here's to many more pages!

A Scattered Brain

I wish I knew why I can't start one project and stay with it.

I started our Christmas cards.  I'm using an image from Bugaboo Stamps. As I was coloring, I decided to start working on December mini albums for the grandchildren. So I started coloring images from Doodle Dragon Studios.

I checked our church bulletin and realized I missed some birthdays. I need to make cards. Then I decided I have no excuse for missing birthdays, so I went through the church directory and put together a calendar with reminders.

Wait, I thought I was working on Christmas cards!

I signed up for the Holiday Card Boot Camp with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner. I've watched the Day 1 video. I'm now four days behind. I cleared my workspace so I could work on projects for this class. Looking at it right now, you would never know. I'd take a picture but I can't find the camera. I know it's here somewhere.

I got a text from SIL #1. He has to put in long hours at work and wondered if I would like to come play with the 'grandchitlins' sometime this week. In the end, I'll go up Wednesday, bring Daphne home Thursday and she will go home on Saturday. No craft time then!

Just found the camera. It was 18 inches from my head. Figures. In a place I have never put it before. That was a major mistake!

No wonder I'm scattered! If you can find it, note the large bottle of Tylenol. No, I don't pop those geltabs on a regular basis. However, if it gets too bad, they are close at hand. 



Tubing

When I saw this bear provided by Designed 2 Delight on the CDAC Progressive Challenge, I knew he was tubing at Hoodoo.

Once again I am taking some artistic license with this card. I don't know of a single polar bear in Oregon except at the Portland Zoo. Also, keep in mind this bear did not come with an inner tube to go tubing so I had to make one. Now take into consideration I can't draw a straight line with a ruler, so please pretend you see this bear sitting on an inner tube!

I colored my polar bear with Copics E000, 50, 51, and the scarf with R35, 37, YG63, 67. His nose has a dot of black Enamel Accents. The snowflakes are Diamond Stickles. The trees are a Studio G stamp and I used Distress Ink Bundled Sage and Forest Moss. I dug around in one of my cupboards and found a jar of DecoArt Snow-Tex so the bear would have some snow.

Tomorrow starts the Holiday Card Boot Camp with Jennifer McGuire and Kristina Werner. I hope I can keep up!