Baby Thank You Cards.

I’m always trying to spread word of my business around, and I recently had the opportunity to participate in donating something to a gift basket to be given to a husband and wife in Texas who just welcomed quintuplets into their lives!  I decided they’d probably get lots of gifts, so maybe some “thank you” cards would come in handy.  These are what I came up with.  I created a set of 10 quintuplets thank you cards, but not all are shown here.  I stamped them all the same and really just changed the ribbons and the type of letters used.  So whatcha think?

Do you like Big Picture Scrapbooking?

I’m a huge fan of Stacy Julian of Simple Scrapbooks Magazine (so sad to see it go) and I’ve also taken some of her classes at Big Picture Scrapbooking.  Have you?  I have 5 passes to Stacy’s “Glimpses” class at Big Picture Scrapbooking that will be going up for auction soon for my “Anita Auction.”   How cute is it that you also get a green mousepad with your class certificate?  Thanks so much to Stacy and Paula at BPS for helping me with my cause! 

Here is the description of the “Glimpses” class given by Big Picture Scrapbooking:

Glimpses

Not all scrapbook projects are created equal. Some, like the album in this class, are just plain more meaningful and more important than others. Join Stacy Julian, Founding Editor of Simple Scrapbooks magazine, as she shares with you a unique 6″ x 6″ handmade book that she says every woman should create, whether or not she considers herself a “scrapbooker.” Says Stacy, when you use the colors and textures you love to celebrate what you know and feel, scrapbooking becomes easy and personal and oh so SIMPLE! In this project-based class, Stacy will help you generate ideas and content for your own Glimpses album and give you detailed instructions on the creative process of presentation. She also talks to you about what inspired her and share tips and insights into making this album a true reflection of who you are.

Stacy’s class includes:

• Voice message from Stacy
  Supply list
  Colorful step-by-step guidance and instruction for compiling a 6″ x 6″ book about YOU!
  Easy-to-use journaling template (Microsoft Word)
  Bonus Quicktime movie to showcase Stacy’s album and inspire yours!

• Private posting gallery to share your work with other students

If you haven’t been here before and want to know what auction I’m talking about and who Anita is, go here to read about the auction and then look through January and February posts to see all the other goodies I’ve shown so far for the auction.

**Come back to bid on any of the items you’ve seen in my previous posts or this one.  You can subscribe to this blog by filling out your email in the top of the column on the right to receive updates about other donations as they come in and get notification when the auctions goes live. 

Donations from Jill.

I mentioned the other day that my friend Jill had sold a bunch of her scrapbooking supplies and donated money for my trip.  Then she sent me the pages she helped me make for Anita’s scrapbook and added in more supplies in the box for the auction.  The girl is GENEROUS!  If you want to know what auction I’m talking about and who Anita is, go here.  And then you can read the rest of the January and February posts to this point to see what’s been happening since I wrote that.

Here’s what Jill sent for the auction:

Rusty Pickle wedding stamp with love and wedding words.

Rusty Pickle baby stamp with baby words. 

Lots of chipboard alphabets.  Some from Lil Davis…

Some from Queen and Company…

Some from Making Memories……

Heidi Swapp embellishments…

Some foam stamps…

A mixed bag of chipboard letters, butterflies, swirlies, and flowers…

and Heidi Swapp clear word stamps.  I love these!  This one is DESTINATION.

and then FAVORITE…

and then we have LOVE…

and then MOMENT…

and TOGETHER…

and flowers!

**Come back to bid on any of the items you’ve seen in my previous posts or this one.  You can subscribe to this blog by filling out your email in the top of the column on the right to receive updates about other donations as they come in and get notification when the auctions goes live.  Right now there are 3 auctions up on ebay (and will be changing every Sunday afternoon) and you can get those links from my post here.

Want to take a class from Shimelle?

**Another auction update…

** Then consider bidding on these when they go up for auction.  Shimelle has generously donated to my “Anita Auction” two spots in two of her classes.  One is called “Learn Something New” in September and the other is “Journal Your Christmas” in December.  I’ve taken Shimelle classes before, and I love them.  She’s SO creative. 

You can read about the “Learn Something New” class on her blog from 2007 here to get an idea of what it will be like this year. 

You can read about the 2008 “Journal Your Christmas” class on her blog here to get an idea of what it will be like this year. 

Thank you, Shimelle, for donating to my cause!  You rock!

**Come back to bid on any of the items you’ve seen in my previous posts or this one.  You can subscribe to this blog by filling out your email in the top of the column on the right to receive updates about other donations as they come in and get notification when the auctions goes live.  You can also see all the posts of upcoming auction items here.

I love ScrapScene.

I really do love the ScrapScene blog and subscribe to it so I don’t miss any of the daily announcements or the Saturday Speedlink.  There’s always something included that inspires me to make something or shows instructions on something I’ve been wanting to do, or just gives me awesome things to see that other scrappers have made.  I’ve even had some of my own projects shown on there.  Angie generously donated to my “Anita Auction” a copy of each of their 3 e-books that they’re selling.  These books are “Scrapping Spring“, “Mini Book Projects“, and “Scrappy Gifts.”  Click on the names to see the descriptions of them on ScrapScene and all the projects you can make with them.

Angie, thank you from the bottom of my heart for donating and helping me with my cause!

You can go here on the blog to see all the posts for upcoming auction items.

**Come back to bid on any of the items you’ve seen in my previous posts or this one.  You can subscribe to this blog by filling out your email in the top of the column on the right to receive updates about other donations as they come in and get notification when the auctions goes live. 

Donation from Country Bum Creations!

First of all, I just think the business name is cute!  haha  But the story with this one is that the lady who owns Country Bum Creations works at Karen Foster Design and when she found out that I was asking Karen Foster Design for donations she wanted to help also so she sent me these DARLING items that she makes and sells.  How COOL is that?  She doesn’t have a website, but man I think she should GET one because her items are so cute and really well made.  She does have a blog with some photos of her products here.  You can purchase items from there by emailing her.  Becky must be selling at craft fairs because she has a photo of her booth from November.  She also holds classes, so if you live in Utah you might be local to her and can take one of those.  Check it out on her blog.  Thank you so much, Becky.  The daisy and the kite are really just beautifully made and I appreciate your donation so very much!

Daisy is 18.5 x 18.5 and retails in her shop for $25.  It’s a light ivory color with a burgundy raffia ribbon.  You can hang it by the wire or there’s a sawtooth hanger on the back.

I LOVE this kite.  It is 20 inches long not including the tail, which is 3 feet long all by itself.  I couldn’t fit it all into the photo above!  haha  It’s a bard red color with an ivory colored flower.  These retail in Becky’s shop for $28.  It also comes with a sawtooth hanger on the back for hanging it. 

Hawk attack.

I wanted to take a break from all the auction posts and tell you a little story.  This one is especially for my 3 friends Sandie, Connie, and Jerry, who are loyal readers of my blog, and a few of them love to call me up and harrass me and laugh their heads off (laughing AT me – not WITH me) whenever I tell a traumatizing story on my blog like the Illini football game story.  Yeah, they really enjoyed that one.  So I dedicate this blog post to you 3.  haha

So…..totally not funny when it happened and frankly I’m still not laughing about it but my husband Ken about choked himself laughing when I called and told him about it, so thought I might share with you all and start your day off with a chuckle.  My trauma is for your amusement.  And when I say trauma, I’m sooo not kidding.

Here goes…….

So one recent morning I go out my back door to walk to the garage (not attached to my house) to get the car out to take Summer to school.  Let me preface by saying that our house/garage is VERY OLD.  Frankly, I think our garage is in such bad shape that if we hit it hard enough with the car it could potentially fall over and crumble into a pile, but Ken won’t let me try it.  Anyway, the doors broke many years ago.  I’ve lived here for 9 years and the left side has never had a door, right side door is a piece of crap and is very hard to open and close (no electric opener). 

On with the story………….Lots of snow out there (no path shoveled and it had just snowed 6 inches) so maybe my footsteps were kinda noisy and I startled the “bird” inside the garage.  He starts fluttering around in there and I involuntarily scream, you know how it is when you suddenly hear wings flapping about and a bird starts flying toward you, which startled him more (I wasn’t inside the garage yet THANK YOU LORD).  He starts to fly OUT of the doorway (that I’m standing in front of) and I can plainly see that this “bird” is a HUGE HAWK in the garage.  I guess I was scary looking…or maybe it was my second involuntary scream?…but he’s startled again, so he just DROPS THE DEAD BIRD he was holding to the ground AT MY FEET and flies back into the garage, where he continues to flutter from side to side.  At this point I want to puke and I’m too scared to go into the garage to get into the car!  Yes, I’m a weenie but I’ve never had my head attacked by a huge hawk and I think I can safely assume that I wouldn’t LIKE IT.  I go over and stand in front of the other garage doorway where the car is parked and wait a few seconds hoping he’s going to flutter around and see me gone from the doorway and fly out.  He does.  WHEW. 

The fun doesn’t end there kids.  I run and jump into the car only to find I don’t have the keys.  Summer comes out the back door and I ask her to go back in and see if keys are in my purse.  She comes back out with said keys, brings them to the garage.  Runs to the garage and doesn’t even notice she passes by this huge dead bird!  I couldn’t believe it.  Anyway, I start the car blah blah blah, back out into the daylight (garage is dark) and almost barf my breakfast.  You know how you get startled and involuntarily scream AAHHH ?  Yeah, did that.  Again.  There are bits and pieces of bird feathers with bits and pieces of bloody bird still attached to them ALL OVER my windshield and STUCK to the hood of the car.  I AM DYING by this point.  SO GROSS.  Bloody bits!  Ack.  We are borderline late for school at this point, so I drive Summer to school looking at this “stuff” all over my windshield and hood.  A few feathers flew off on the way.  LOL  But I figure most of them are stuck on there cause they’re frozen to it!  I came back and tried to scrape them off best I could without vomiting.  My husband was giving me advice on the phone, “Oh, just go out there with a cleaning rag and wipe them off.”  Um, NO.  Sorry, can’t do it.  Weak stomach……blech.  But that dead bird the hawk dropped down to me as a gift?  Apparently he came back later and picked it up because it disappeared by the time I took the dogs outside later in the day.  Whew…

Donations from Dorothy part 2.

**This is another post detailing donations I’ve received for the auction to try and raise funds for my trip to Canada to deliver Anita’s scrapbook to her.  If you’re a new reader to my blog and don’t know who Anita is, you can read my previous blog post here.  To see other donations I’ve received that will be put up for auction in February and March, you can go here and here  and here.

**Yesterday I showed you some items that Dorothy had sent me for the auction here.  Here is part 2 of Dorothy’s donation.

The Fiskars ShapeBoss and lots of stencils to go with it.

The Fiskars CardBoss with 3 stencils to go along with it.

**Come back to bid on any of the items you’ve seen in my previous posts or this one.  You can subscribe to this blog by filling out your email in the top of the column on the right to receive updates about other donations as they come in and get notification when the auctions goes live. 

My latest Pazzles project

So if you’ve been reading my blog for any length of time you know that I love the Pazzles Inspiration machine and that I’ve been to a couple scrapbooking conventions and worked for my friend Klo demoing the machine.  I’ve shown several projects by me and some of my scrapbooker friends who own Pazzles here before, and here’s another one I did the other day.  Figured I’d take a break from bombarding you with all the “auction talk” (sorry to my non-scrapbooker readers!) and show you what I made for my bathroom mirror. 

Cool, huh?  I put this on my husband’s side of the mirror because he’s always cheerful and sunny in the morning and I hate him for that (haha) and I’m not usually pleasant, which makes me feel bad so this way I can tell him GOOD MORNING honey without actually SAYING it! 

I’ve got another little project planned in my head but when I tried to actually DO it there was a roadblock, so I have to call my friend Klo the Pazzles Guru and ask her what I did wrong! 

Another donation!

**This is another post detailing donations I’ve received for the auction to try and raise funds for my trip to Canada to deliver Anita’s scrapbook to her.  If you’re a new reader to my blog and don’t know who Anita is, you can read my previous blog post here.  To see other donations I’ve received that will be put up for auction in February and March, you can go here and here  and here.

So, if you don’t know a scrapbooker, then you’re missing out.  We are really an awesome category of people.  I’ve always known that anyway (duh, because I AM one!), but with this whole fundraising thing I’ve got going on, that belief has just been proven to me time and time again.  I belong to an organizational group for scrapbookers on yahoo and I mentioned on there about my Anita scrapbook project and how I’m trying to raise money to deliver the book to her in Canada.  I had a nice lady named Dorothy McCarthy contact me wanting to help.  She gathered up a big box of supplies she had that she could part with along with a neat little scrapbooker tool that she invented and sent it off to me.  Thank you so much Dorothy! 

Here’s some of what she sent.  I’ll show more tomorrow.

A McGill scallop tag punch that punches 3 different sized tags.

And “somebody” used to like Sizzix paddle punches and must have gotten tired of them.  haha  She also included a Sizzix hammer and a Sizzix craft mat, the ejector tool, and replacement heads for the hammer to go along with these!  I’ve tried to do some research because I don’t own any Sizzix products.  I have found out the names of these punches.

These are the retired tropical fish (#38-0851) and the retired palm tree (#38-0859).

These are the snowflake (#38-0845), retired snowman (#38-0862), and retired Christmas tree (#38-0848).

These punches are retired primitive star #1 (#38-0824) and retired primitive star #2 (#38-0825) and retired primitive heart #1 (#38-0822) and the retired sun (#38-0835).

Here we have the dragonfly (#38-0833) and the butterfly (#38-0834).

Lots of decorative scissors (click to see them bigger).  I’m thinking of bidding on these myself for my Girl Scout troop!

Lots of letter stickers (click to see them bigger)

Packs of papers and cute diecuts.

A couple leaf punches

and up close

Here’s the tool Dorothy invented below.  She calls it the 2nd Chance.  She describes it as tool for separating tape runner adhesive from paper craft items but she has also used it on glue dots, stickers, double-sided tape, postage stamps, and even items used with the Xyron sticker maker.  You can see a video demonstration on her blog here.  She also sent me one to keep so I can try it out for myself.  Looks pretty neat to me. 

Thanks so much Dorothy!

**Come back to bid on any of the items you’ve seen in my previous posts or this one.  You can subscribe to this blog by filling out your email in the top of the column on the right to receive updates about other donations as they come in and get notification when the auctions goes live.