Twilight revisited

Okay, another non-stamping related post. I promise to post photos of cards from last week, but I'm battling an ear and respiratory infection at the moment and am too tired to edit them for public consumption. At least my son seems to be getting better--his fever finally broke around 10:30 last night after a week of running around 102. He too has a nasty ear infection and respiratory deal, but is clearly on the end of it (thanks to some Augmentin...what would we do without that??) and seems much more perky today. At least my lovely babysitter was here this morning to keep his newly peppy self entertained while I sat like a lump on a log.

In any case, stay tuned for those photos.

But. My sister converted me to the dark side after my guilty admission about watching the movie Twilight last fall and loaned me her copy of the first book in the series. Oh what a guilty pleasure THAT is! I will say I find myself smiling a time or two at the absurdity of it (on occasion), but I will say it's a cracking good read! Gosh darn it--now I have to read them all. I'm never going to finish Cancer Ward, I fear. Solzhenitsyn's been sitting on my nightstand since we returned from Russia (I started the book on the trip), sadly neglected, covered by issues of the Economist and The Week, my knitting and now Twilight. *sigh* One of these days.

With that, I'm off to lie down with my book and maybe some hot chocolate for my sore throat.

Blog candy anyone?

The woman that I made all those wedding invitations for in late June/early July also wants me to make her wedding programs and a few special thank you cards. So I made a couple of sample fronts for the programs and sent the pics off to her so she could pick the one she liked the best.

I have a personal favorite; I'd like to hear from you! So leave a comment and pick the one you like the best by number and I'll choose a winner on Saturday August 9 using random.org. The winner will receive a special gift hand-made by me!

#1

#2

#3

#4

#5

#6

#7

#8

Supplies:
12x12 chocolate chip cardstock (cut to 6x12 and folded in half)
more mustard, very vanilla cardstock
gold organza ribbon
baroque motifs stamp set
chocolate chip ink

The way out there

I meant to be all organized and have a bunch of posts lined up before my travels this week, but alas, it did not happen. I've been working on some projects while at home, though and will post those next week when I get back.

In the meantime, I had a great time at Meg Loven's Scrap and Stamp Staycation near Champaign-Urbana on Saturday, where I nearly finished work on a blank baby scrapbook that I'm making as a gift. Pics to follow soon!

I spent this week at my mom and dad's, hanging out with Piglet and getting some shopping and knitting done. My mom is the one responsible for my stamp addiction (when she suggested I go to her stamp club in February, I said, I don't know, I don't need another craft right now...famous last words...); she has supplies here for crafting, of course, and so we spent one afternoon being creative. I CASEd a few cards she's made recently that I thought were nifty (pics coming soon!) and made a project for a birthday gift.

All in all, it's been a good week! We are off to Minnesota tomorrow for the aforementioned wedding of my cousins, which should be a good time. We'll see how the babe does with 9 hours in the car tomorrow (18 month toddler with lots of energy + long car ride = oy!). He's a bit sick right now, which may be a blessing in disguise given the long trip tomorrow--he's sleeping a bit more and has less energy than normal (which just means he has enough energy for 2 people instead of the normal 5!)

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

How to Make a custom scrapbook for $30 or less.

My sister called me 2 weeks ago and asked me to make her a custom blank scrapbook for a friend of hers that was having a baby on July 23. She wanted it to be ready in time. I said that I could finish it by the 23rd, but she wouldn't have it in hand until the 26th or 27th. Oh, and she only wanted to spend about $30 on the project. Yikes! She wanted a brag book style album and said just do whatever you can for $30 plus shipping. Okey-dokey, says I. Her friend was having a boy and using a safari theme, so I immediately thought of Tall Tales DSP and the Animal Stories stamp set.

Basically, I used half a pack of DSP, coordinating scraps from my pile, plus some inexpensive ribbon and eyelets that were left over from a custom order. So it came in at $30! And it was fast to make--once I had cut the dsp, the whole thing came together in about 2 hours. I think it's pretty cute!

Sorry about the blurry photos; I needed to ship it in a hurry and couldn't retake the photos.

Supplies:
6x6 ring bound linen (natural) album
Tall Tales DSP (half pack)
Rose Red, Brillant Blue, Old Olive and So Saffron cardstock scraps
Crop-A-Dile
Silver, antique brass, gold and copper eyelets
Modern Label Punch
Ticket Corner Punch
Animal Stories Stamp set
Pumpkin Pie, Brilliant Blue, Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa Inks
Close to Cocoa 1/4" grosgrain ribbon (scraps), Old Olivey 5/8" stitched grosgrain (from Pearl Crafts), 3/8" twill tape

Custom mini note cards

Another alchemy order--this one was pretty fast to make, but I had planned to make it in August. The customer wanted 20 mini cards and envies with her logo on the front, 10 pink and 10 black. Then she suddenly decided last night at midnight, after accepting the bid and my having invoiced her (I happened to be online, thank God, or I would have lost the bid) that she couldn't wait that long, even though I was pretty explicit in my bid about timing and such, and wanted to find someone else to do them! So I said, okay, I'll do them tomorrow and ship same day. I should have just let it be, but I couldn't. And she's new to alchemy and I think maybe she'll understand better now how it works. I can't help feeling taken advantage of, however.

In any case, here are the cards. I had to go to Kinko's for supplies because I didn't have enough WW cs for them (which is why I was going to make them in August), but that's what happens when you want them next day. Happened to have the 20 mini envies on hand, so that wasn't a big deal.

Sometimes, I think, why do I do this??

Wedding Card for Suzanne

And the last of the posts related to my cousin's wedding (at least I think so!). I decided to make her card using the double happiness stamp before I mailed it back to her (it and the bright red ink pad were hers) and do an emboss resist card. Plus it gave me a chance to try my hand at the Crop-A-Dile (new in my box last week!) and set some eyelets. I'm so into embellishments right now as I'm starting to acquire a few! (Gotta love those hostess benefits--contact me if you want to learn how to earn them!)

Paper: Creamy Caramel, Pumpkin Pie, Red Riding Hood, More Mustard, Ivory linen cardstock (non-SU)
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Kiwi Kiss, Red Riding Hood, red Martha Stewart craft ink (courtesy of Suzanne)
Stamps: Double Happiness stamp from Paper Source, Baroque Motifs (inside card: Together Forever (mr. & mrs. stamps) and Hugs and Wishes (congratulations) back of card: Together forever flower stamp)
Technique: Emboss Resist
Accessories: Copper eyelets, Crop-A-Dile, sponges, clear emboss powder, heat gun, white gel pen

(I stamped the sentiment inside and on the back in pumpkin pie--it looks nice on creamy caramel!)

Birthday card for the Highest court in the land

My husband, when he was just a young pup lawyer, clerked for Justice Kennedy at the Supreme Court and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. Last summer we had the chance to go to one of the clerk reunions at which the Justice and his family were present and then to a casual BBQ at his house in Maclean. It was lovely and I admit I was a bit awestruck by the celebrity of Justice Kennedy, who is indeed a humble and lovely man (see photos: first is of 3 of the 4 clerks with wives in my husband's year--we are the middle; second is at the BBQ with the Justice and my son and husband). Justice Kennedy is quite famous, though, and I felt intimidated by the august company.

So when my husband casually said last week, as he was on his way out the door for a weekend conference in DC, "Oh, can you make a birthday card for Justice Kennedy? I need it by Tuesday," I will say I was a bit flustered. Make a card for the man himself? What do I do? Something classy, something understated, but what? Yikes!!

I immediately thought of this card again, and decided to properly CASE it this time, since I had Baja Breeze. I made a few changes and used Great Friend instead of All Holidays (since I don't have it!) but I think it turned out well!

Paper: Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Parisian Breeze DSP, Whisper White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze
Stamps: Pocket Silhouettes, Great Friend, Together Forever (on the back for a watermark--used the flower stamp)
Accessories: 1/4" chocolate chip grosgrain ribbon