WOYWW 12-9-15

Another week has gone by on our march to the holidays! Does anyone else feel a bit overwhelmed? I sure do!

So here is my desk this morning. I finished the cards for the residents of the facility, for the most part. I also went to a Christmas party/crop on Saturday. Right before leaving I realized that I had forgotten to print the photos for the scrapbook gift I was planning on working on. So instead I worked on some more bookmarks. I still need to punch holes and tie ribbons to them.

And here is my desk yesterday. We have a system set up in our Facebook group where members who are blessed with too much stuff can bless others. This is the contents of a package I received on Monday. Needless to say, I am a happy camper!

Well, my email doesn't seem to be working well right now. I've sent the picture twice and still don't have it. But there are a lot of stamps, a pad of paper, and some precut cards with envelopes. If you see a picture here, it means I finally got it to come through!

Well, that's all for this week. I'm going to try to visit a few more blogs this week than I have been able to recently. Be sure to check out some talented crafters at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/.

WOYWW 12-2-15

Wow, December already! Only 23 more days until Christmas!

I've decided I'm not busy enough, so I'm making some cards and gifts, and hosting two parties. Hopefully I will still be sane after New Year's.

I'm still working on some cards for the residents at the group home. I punched out snowflakes using metallic paper and attached them to blue cardstock. I'm going to stamp a blue nativity scene on a white panel for the front.

After perusing Pinterest for ideas for handmade gifts, I was inspired to make bookmarks for stocking stuffers. I cut up some used Christmas cards, punched out snowflakes on complementary cardstock, and adhered that layer to the card. I will punch a hole in the top and tie a ribbon to them. What do you think of them? I need to make a lot more!

That's all the time I have to write today. I need to get busy with all of my projects! Have a good week and be sure to check out the other crafters at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/.

WOYWW 11-25-15

Well, here we are at another Wednesday! And here across the pond, it's also the day before our big feast day, Thanksgiving. So today is also known as I-can't-believe-how-much-I-still-have-to-do day!!

I really didn't think I had been that productive this past week until I lined up my things for the photo. Then I was pleasantly surprised!

The card on the left is a birthday card for my son-in-law. I stenciled the leaves using my Scrapboss and then filled them in using my new watercolor pens. I made the background using a cotton ball and ink.

The middle item is a book of babysitting coupons for my daughter and son-in-law that I made for a Christmas gift (fortunately they don't read my blog). The coupons are a template from Microsoft, but I made the cover myself.

The card on the right is a card I made at the Scrapbook Expo with Fun Stampers Journey. They provided all of the materials. I'm sending it to a Facebook acquaintance who requested cards for a family member going through a difficult time.

I would appreciate prayers for my daughter's father-in-law. He is back in the ICU with possible pneumonia. He is also very depressed because he is on disability. Thanks.

Well, I should go and get to work! Have a great day and holiday! Be sure to visit http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see some other talented crafters.

WOYWW 11-18-15

It's Wednesday again, time for our weekly blog hop where we get to take a peek at each other's desks and see what's going on!

This week I have been working on a birthday card for my son-in-law, as well as finishing up some Christmas cards. Here's my photo:

I apologize for the darkness. For some reason this website won't allow me to upload edited photos from my Kindle.

I used my recently bought Scrapboss to stencil leaves and then used watercolor pens to color them in. This is my very first time using the pens. I'll use a small panel to stamp the sentiment. The background was made by patting a cotton ball on an ink pad and then daubing the panel. 

I'm committed to making a dozen Christmas cards for residents of homes for developmentally delayed adults, so I'm trying to finish those up.

Thank you to everybody who expressed concern for my granddaughter. She is okay, somewhat. Her cough got better after seeing the doctor, even though nothing was prescribed, but her mom got a stomach bug and then she got it (I'm avoiding them both!). It's always something, huh?

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to check out http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see some other desks of some really talented crafters!

Vive la France!

WOYWW 11-11-15

Here we are at Wednesday again! Two more weeks until Thanksgiving, and then the Christmas season starts! (Well, for most, anyway. My English blood says no, the first day of Christmas is Dec. 25th, and for 11 more days after that. But just try telling my fellow Americans that . . . )

Another busy couple of weeks for our household. My daughter's father-in-law was gravely ill last week. Thankfully, he has recovered somewhat and is in a nursing home for rehab for the next few weeks. So I took a break from Christmas cards and made him a get well card. Here it is in the making:

It isn't quite finished yet. I still have to attach the front panel, and will place a distressed oval with the sentiment Get Well Soon on the bottom left. I think it looks nice and cheery and hope it will cheer him up a bit.

The granddaughter who lives with us, along with her mom, still isn't quite healthy. She has a bad cough and my daughter finally listened to me about taking her back to the doctor. So that is what I'll be doing this afternoon. Her cousin had croup a couple of weeks ago, so she could have that. We'll see!

Now that you've visited me, please take a gander at http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to check out some super talented crafters! Happy Wednesday everyone! 

WOYWW 11-4-15

This is what my desk looks like today. Nothing new, just trying to finish up some Christmas cards. I hope to design some new ones and also work on a couple of Thanksgiving themed cards before next week.

Thank you to all of you commenters last week. I didn't have much time to visit a lot of blogs, but hope to do better this week. This week has been a little crazy too, with an in-law relative in intensive care. My granddaughter has a mild ear infection, and now a cough, and is on antibiotics. But she seems to be otherwise healthy and is full of vim and vigor like usual!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see some very talented crafters at work!

Christmas Cards Galore - WOYWW 10-28-15

Another Wednesday is upon us - time to check out our workdesks! With the holidays fast approaching, I have been working on more Christmas cards. 

This week's selections have a more secular theme, with the word Joy on the cover. I used my very low tech Fiskars Scrap Boss to emboss the snowflakes and also stencil the word Joy and the holly. 

However, since I was having trouble deciding on the color of the base, I decided to make two!

As you can see from the top photo, they are stamped inside with Have A Holly Jolly Christmas (which song is now stuck in my head!). So, what do you think? Personally, I like warm colors better, so I think I have to go with the brown. But I wanted to try the grey too, after seeing a particularly lovely card that was grey and white on Facebook. After taking the pictures last night, I decided they both look a little plain, so I'm going to add some bling on the corners or sides of the fronts.

Now I should go. We have a sick baby in the house (granddaughter) and I'm not sure if I or the father is taking her and her mom to the doctor. I'm going to try to squeeze in a little more sleep until the decision is made. 

Happy WOYWW! Be sure to check out http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to see some very talented crafters!

WOYWW 10-21-15

It's Wednesday again!! Yay!! I'm trying to get a little more organized for our blog hop by taking pictures late on Tuesday, so all I have to do in the morning is edit them and write my post. I hope that's not cheating!

Here is my workdesk this week:

I've been working on Christmas cards. I went to a crop on Saturday (my first one ever!) and stamped some dark blue cardstock with a snowflake stamp using white ink. I love the effect! Here is the final version:

 

How does it look? I have to say, I'm quite proud of this one! I've been trying to make cards with a religious emphasis. I see so many lovely, creative, handmade Christmas cards that have a secular theme, that it's hard to stand out in the crowd!

Thank you to everybody for your suggestions last week, especially Julia! I tried rubbing an emery board over the stamps first before using them and the results are much better. Here is a closeup example of the problem I was talking about:  

I rubbed this particular stamp and tried again and the difference was amazing! I'm so happy to have a solution! (I also learned a few techniques for applying more even pressure at the crop, which has also helped). 

Well, that's it for today. Head on over to http://www.stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ to take a gander at some other wonderfully talented crafters!

WOYWW 10-14-15

Here in Chicago, it has finally started to cool down for fall. I love autumn, and everything about it. This year October makes me think of Christmas, since I am trying my hand at Christmas cards for the first time.

After making my first Christmas card last week, I realized I had cut the card the wrong way, at least wrong for a typical A2 card. So yesterday I tried out some more cards, along with some new gold ink I bought on Monday. Unfortunately I had quite a bit of trouble with my stamping. The images are coming out with broken lines. I don't know what the problem is, whether it's the stamp, my technique, or something else. I'm going to have to do some investigating. So I now have a couple of panels that I might use personally, but nothing more for my Etsy shop! Oh, well, back to the drawing board!

Thanks for stopping by! Check out the other talented crafters at stamping-ground.com.  

WOYWW 10-7-15

Here we are at another WOYWW! My, how time does fly, especially at this time of year, when we are all gearing up for the holidays.

Today on my desk I have my very first Christmas card, and also my first A2 card! Most of the time my cards are approximately 5x7, to give me more room to work. What do you think of the card? Comments are welcome. I wanted to come up with an original design with a Christian theme.

Enjoy your Wednesday! While you're at it, head on over to http://stamping-ground

.blogspot.com/ to see some great work by other crafters.

WOYWW 9-30-15

Here is what I've been working on this week. I decided that I will do some scrapbooking on Sunday afternoons. I've been so busy with cardmaking than I have neglected my scrapping! I got married 4 1/2 years ago and still have barely begun our album.

Well, you can't scrap without pictures. I had problems with my printer on Sunday, so I only got as far as editing and printing out the photos. Oh, well.

I read a great tip somewhere about using the extra ink on stamps to decorate tags, so I have a couple of those on my desk too.

Thanks for the visit! Head on over to stamping

-ground.com to check out some more talented people from WOYWW!

Birthday Card for One Year Old Girl

Here is the card that I made from the materials I had last Wednesday. I placed two patterned papers on white cardstock and placed a button made of varying degrees of pink cardstock, using die cuts of scalloped circles. I traced the number one from a sticker and colored it in with a bronze gel pen. The tag was stamped with the sentiment Happy Birthday with bronze ink. Then I placed two gold rhinestones on the bottom and top of the patterned papers. I love how the rainbow patterned paper complements the pink plaid paper. Hope you enjoy my card!

WOYWW 9-23-15

I joined a link party called WOYWW (What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday?). (What's the fun of having a blog if you can't play with it?) This is my workdesk today. I'm working on a card for another granddaughter who is turning one soon - and whose party is on Saturday!. As you can see, it will have quite a bit of pink in it. I'll post a picture of it when I'm finished.

The pile of papers on the right are things I need to file - soon. My craft area is also my office and writing retreat. While I would love to have a separate room for each,

that is just not going to work right now!

Cute Birthday Card for Little Girl

Here's a cute little birthday card that I made for one of my granddaughters who was celebrating her first birthday. Three white ovals with the stamped sentiment (Happy Birthday) are set on top of lilac ovals, positioned on a pink and lavender plaid panel. Pink and purple embellishments adorn the corners. Inside, a white panel set on lavender is blank for a personalized message. The card is 5 1/2" x 7 3/4". Now, off to make two more birthday cards for two more granddaughters! Whew, my family keeps me busy!

'Tis the Season!

Are you ready for Christmas yet? It's coming on fast! Coming soon to my Etsy shop - Christmas cards with a Christian theme. Check them out!