Pocket Letter # 2 - Coffee is Always a Good Idea

Coffee is Always a Good Idea

Sharing the pocket letter I created for a swap with one of my favorite youTube crafters - Scrapdaworld.  I photographed them outside of the page protector to avoid glare.

I know she loves shabby chic so I tried to use soft colors and lots of lace and pearls.  With the browns, this is probably more vintage than shabby (needs more white) but I am still really happy with how it turned out.

My signature frame on the left block and the cup on the lace background is my favorite I think.

I tried making a little shaker on the center block but the sequins do not show up very well.  The right block is embossed with some "vintage" embossing powder that kinda puffed up when I heated it. Really loved the way it looked!

I failed to take a picture of the back with the goodies.  I included some embossing powder, glitter, sequins and lace for her as well as a letter and a prayer.  I wrapped it in a graphic I printed off and wrapped that with a vintage handkerchief I picked up at an estate sale recently, finished off with a little flower closure.

Pocket Letter #1 - Better Get Better

I came across a new "thing" that uses my craft supplies and feeds my creative side.  They are called Pocket Letters, created by Janette Lane.  If you click on the link (in that last sentence), you'll pull up all her posts on Pocket Letters. Basically, they are ATCs (which the more I create and work with them, the more I enjoy it), decorated and slipped into a page protector.  Also integrated is a letter so there is the pen pal concept as well.  You can also view quite a bit about them on youTube and link over to the community at Janette's blog.

I have been creating ATCs for many years now with my local stamp club.  We make 12 every month which involves quite a bit of assembly line work, not unpleasant but after the initial design, not entirely creative.  What I really enjoy with the pocket letters is creating a set of coordinated cards and the letter component.

Better Get Better

The first PL I created was sent as a cheer me up for a lady that has a hurt wrist and as such, limited creating time.  I am out of practice in taking photos so I apologize for the glare.

I pulled out the floral print paper first as I wanted something bright and cheery - yellow and red seem to fit the bill!  The center pocket is stamped and painted; the third pocket is stamped and then flocked.

I wanted to have something to incorporate on every pocket letter I create.  The frame stamp on the center block fits perfectly and I will use it for each one as well as dating when I work on the project.  I know that many people create the entire letter at one time; I enjoy crafting as a form of relaxation and so tend to linger over my projects. 

My favorite bit in this letter is the far right block.

The fun comes in adding little bits to the pockets as well.  I've included some of the items I used: tags, stamped labels, twine, washi tape as well as a prayer, and a list of books I enjoyed last year.

I'll share another Pocket Letter later this week.

Waiting

is not one of my strengths.

I received word this week that two recent swaps are winging their way back to me. Can't wait to spend some time in my rocker soaking up all the beauty from this swap and then time in my creative corner creating with tidbits from this one.

I also can't wait for this swap to come in. I love bling and perhaps wearing this while I do the dishes will make the task more pleasant?

I did manage to get a set of ATCs completed for my local stamp club. Our theme this month was "Domestic Animal". There was quite a bit of debate last month on what was meant by the theme - domestic, domesticated, domestic to where (or should that be who? whom?)

I found this sweet old childrens book at an estate sale awhile back and even though the covers were missing and it had pencil lines on almost every page, I snagged it because I knew that my little man would get lots of giggles out of the story of a puppy named Wiggletail.

And I was right.

I scanned in one of the pages, resized him and cut him out. Applied color to my watercolor paper base in a variety of ways - just playing around - to get the look of sky. Then added some vintage book paper colored with ink to simulate the grass and the sun.

It's very one-dimensional and I wish I could've thought of what else to add. Days later I think of a collar of course. My little man awoke from naptime about the time I was thinking of sentiments. I asked him once what he thought the little puppy was saying and for the next 15 minutes he had me in stitches. Of course, they got more elaborate so I just stuck with a simple please.

I hope you've had a chance to giggle this week too!

Flutter By Wednesday: Blessings

This is my 2nd post today - please scroll down for my Cuttlebug Challenge and Diedrich Dare post!

This week the challenge is an open one for FlutterBy Wednesday - you can do anything you want as long as you use a butterfly, fairy or angel (for the holiday season) on your creation. We also have a terrific guest designer this week - Mercy! Can't wait to see what she has for us!

I created an ATC this week using pink - I was wearing pink when I created it so it seemed fitting somehow. LOL!! I hope that you are having a wonderful day and that you feel the blessings of God around you! Be sure to link up your creation over at Danni's blog!

Be sure to visit the rest of the Flutter By team - Taylor has stepped down - she's getting closer to welcoming a new bundle into their home - I wish her all the best!!! Leave her a little love this week, K?

Please visit the rest of the Flutter By team to see what beautiful creations they have for you this week!

Ann ♥ Chris ♥ Christine ♥ Danni

Harriet ♥ Heather ♥ Jodi ♥ Karen

Kris ♥ Kristie ♥ Lelia ♥ Michelle

Nancy ♥ Nicola ♥ Pam ♥ Stef ♥ Taylor

Flutter By Wednesday: A Kaleidoscope

The butterfly counts not months, but moments and has time enough - R. Tagore

Is that not a beautiful quote?!? Love, LOVE it!!

This week Danni challenged us to use punches in our creation. Danni has added fairies to the weekly challenges as they flutter just like butterflies. We'd love to have you join us. You can use keyword FBW when uploading at SCS/PCP. Be sure to visit Danni and leave the link in Mr Linky so we can all come see them. Kristie is this week's Featured Member so be sure to leave her some love!


I created this card a long time ago actually and just never shared it. So this week it fit perfectly with the challenge!! I saw a card very similar to this at SCS that used the Cuttlebug Butterfly die and was on a much grander scale. I can't find it now but thought it was lovely and wanted to create something similar!

I know I shared yesterday that my local stamp club was meeting and the theme was butterflies. I just played with scraps and my butterfly punches for my swap cards. They are very, very simple compared to what I normally do. No cuttlebugging. No dimensionals. Just pure PLAY! Here are some of my favorites! I hope you enjoy them.

Love the pearl body on this one! I don't think I've seen anyone else use 2 different sizes of pearl/bling before and will definitely be using it again!

This one was Very Much like one of the PMS cards I made.

Have a beautiful day ladies!! I hope you'll play along and create something with a Flutterby or Fairy! My Cuttlebug Challenge card is next to post!

Twinkling Tuesday: Butterfly ATC

I'm back!! The haircut went really well! Thanks for the tip Heather. I did that. I also bribed him with a new Car if he sat still and didn't scream. He did say "ow!" a lot when she was wetting his hair. And for my family that reads my blog, here's an after photo:

This week's Twinkling Tuesday sketch really makes you think. I can't wait to go visit the rest of the team and see how they interpreted it. You should give it a go too - I'd love to see what you come up with!!

HunH!?! I know - I tell ya, these kiddos are soooo talented!! Tonight is my local stamp club. I suggested a theme of butterflies and am happy that it is this month. Thought I would try this sketch out in a small ATC size. I have to warn you - it is BRIGHT!!! Lots of pattern and color, not my usual style.

A close up of my Bright, Beautiful Butterflies:

That's it for me today! Come back tomorrow - it's Wednesday so lots going on around here!! I can't wait to show off my Cuttlebug Challenge card!

Be sure to check out the rest of the Twinklettes this week! Their links are over in my sidebar!! As always, have a beautiful day!!

Paper Flowers

It's still Thursday - barely I know, but I wanted to share this today and my list of 13 is below. I created this ATC for a "love flowers" swap. I wanted to be able to participate in the paper flower challenge at the PAMC blog as well. I did veer a bit from her tutorial as I used my SU Scallop Circle Punch and some scallop=y, flower=y Cuttlebug die to create this instead of cutting out my own circles. I used some old dictionary pages, some buttons and twine to create them.

Isn't that just magnificently fluffy?? I love it all fluffed out like that!! I just cut at all the little divets and layered and fluffed. I know they will flatten out some in mailing, but they should easily fluff out again should the recipient wish to do so. I will be making more of these I know it!

Here you can see all the different colors that I used. I hope everyone enjoys them!!

I hope your day was lovely! Tomorrow is Friday and I'm looking forward to it!

Silver Flowers

Good afternoon girls!! Today we had a dusting of snow outside. I was hoping for a little more snow - crazy as there were tons of accidents this morning with people out driving. It's all melted away now and the air is crisp and cold!!

Are you ready for the weekend? Sunday is going to be a great day!! There's the Club Anya blog hop in the morning (7 am to Noon) and then at 11 am (est) the PMS Party begins!! WooHoo! I can hardly wait!!! Both will be tons of fun I can tell you!! Stamping and blog hopping with my most favorite stampers in the world? I can hardly stand the wait!! Will you be there?

Today I wanted to share the ATC that I made for this month at my local stamp club. Our theme was to use black, white and silver as that is one of the gals favorite color combos. I just love this quote. It's from Paper Makeup Stamps and is the small one. I really love that Katie offers them in 2 sizes - how smart is she?!?!!??! I overstamped the quote in Silver ink with the Happy Harmony set from SU. I love that set and can't imagine ever getting rid of it. I used the Textile embossing folder for the base and the flowers were in the wedding section of Hobby Lobby. A whole bunch for only 77 cents - what a bargain!! As I was working on this it of course took a turn and I ended up with what you see here. It is definitely inspired by the Banana Split Sketch this week over at 2 Red Bananas. Another new awesome stamp store! So even though it doesn't use 2RB stamps, I'm going to enter it there too. And since I just got my order from there I might just have to make a second entry too!

I also wanted to share with you the Ready Set Create Altered Sampler. I am so happy to say that I have a project in this issue. It's an ezine so you download it and can browse through it right away! Several other gals from the Cuttlebug Challenge team have projects in there as well - and OH MY WOW!!! It's full of really wonderful ideas and I'm not just saying that because I'm in there!! *grin* It's only 4 bucks for 65 pages with very few ads - so you are getting tons of ideas!! Gotta love that!

Shoe Collection? Obsession? Affinity?

I have a serious affinity for shoes*. Cute shoes, sexy shoes, comfy shoes. I joined a Shoe Fetish ATC swap over on SCS. When I signed up I wanted to use my marabou shoe stamp. I can't find it. So I had to re-think my plan. I recently got that polka dotted paper (I totally love polka dots!!) and it makes me think of all things vintage and retro. So I wanted to use it for this project! And red goes so beautifully with cream and black. And I have 2 pairs of red shoes that give me an extra spring in my step when I wear them. I feel incredibly trendy in one pair and totally sexy in the other. If I had red polka dot shoes I'd probably swoon!!

Of course I had to dry emboss the base layer. I used my Swiss Dots cbug folder and then ran my craft white ink pad over them to really make them pop! By this point, I decided to just get carried away with the polka dots. I used a stamp to give my flowers some polka dots and a little touch of ribbon. This is just one of the shoes that I cut out for my ATCs. There was a whole row of 5 all lined up! I just picked my favorite one!! A little torn edge, some inking and overstamping for a slight distressed look! And yes, if I saw a pair of shoes like this I would totally buy them!! ** I hope the rest of the girls in the swap enjoy this ATC as much as I enjoyed making it! I can't wait to see what I get back!!

**Assuming that it came in a size 11. Yes, that's my shoe size. Causes me much grief and angst often I can tell you. I can still clearly see a fabulous pair of shoes that I wanted to buy a few years ago in Chicago. They only went up to a size 10. And trust me, I've tried to wear a 10 - but it's not pretty - so I don't do that anymore! Why, oh why, don't the shoe manufacturers realize that girls with big feet like pretty shoes too? And that we don't all have wide feet? Or want 4" stiletto heels?

*I got a kick out of everyone's comments regarding the various "collections" in my stamp room. I also have a serious shoe collection going on. When I was teaching, it didn't seem to be a problem but now that I'm a work-at-home-mom who lives in bare feet (yes, I prefer to be barefooted in my home) and flip flops these days it seems a little ridiculous. I have gone through them and gotten rid of lots of pairs. But I still have tons. And can't quite bring myself to get rid of them yet. I'm looking for new storage solutions for my vast collection - I'd love to hear how you store your shoes!!

Do You Know Me?

It's a new year for my local stamp group. Every month we meet and swap ATC's. It's hard to believe that I've been back meeting with them for a year. A year ago was my first month back that we made ATC's. It was a "bag swap" - we each brought a bag of goodies and had 2 hours (really less) to make 12 ATC's to swap that night. What an introduction, huh? I remember that I totally hated what I created. It was such a struggle to go from making a card to an itty bitty ATC. Now, I love making them. I don't usually make them except for club, but that's okay. You may remember THIS CARD where I mentioned that I used scraps to create my background panel. This is the ATC that I designed resulting in all those scraps. I used Fresh Cuts again, a wonderful set in my opinion. I think the image is "technically" upside down on my ATC but you can't really tell and I think that's pretty cool! I also used Cameo Coral and Basic Gray as my color combo and fell in love with it!! My base is embossed with the cbug Divine Swirls folder**.

Since it was a new year, we needed new challenges for our ATC group. I suggested a "secret" kind of swap so we all hid our creations in an envelope. Our fearless leader pulled out one and numbered them all. Then we passed them around and tried to guess who's was who. I think everyone knew this was mine. That's because I played by the rules and made an ATC like I normally would. Some of the gals thought the idea was to "trick" us so they made cards that were not their usual style. It was a ton of fun!!! And one that I hope we repeat at some point in the future. **I think it was my embossed base that gave me away. Or it might have been the use of dimensionals. Or the ribbon.

Thanks for stopping by today!! I hope you have a beautiful one! Hubby is off today so we will be spending some quality family time together!!

Some ATC's

Back before Christmas I joined a Vintage Christmas swap over on splitcoast. I do not mind mass-producing cards but a few years ago, my MIL put a pad of ATC images in my stocking that were all vintage images. I knew they would be perfect for this swap so I pulled them out. I added stickles to every image and then trimmed them and distressed them. Most of them had their base run through a cuttlebug folder for texture and I tried to use bits of lace and buttons or pearls on each one too. Once I was finished with them, they sat on my shelf for a day so I could admire them. I really loved each one and it was hard to pack them up and send them off. I hope that those who received them have enjoyed them as much as I did!

Love to You & Yours

Just a quick post today! We are leaving for my in-laws today; I can't wait to see them. My husband's brother and his wife will be there as well as the rest of the family. We haven't seen them in sooo long. They are expecting their first baby in February and I am pumped about seeing my SIL's preggo belly. I'll have online access at my in-laws but sometimes it's a pain to try to blurf as they block all cookies and it just takes forever it seems. So I just want to say to my SBS gals - have a wonderful week and I'll be catching up with each of you about this time next week. I'm sorry I haven't even been by *this* week yet but I know you are each busy just like me. Actually, this applies for all of you that I visit every day. I hope to be able to check in while I'm away but if I don't, I'll see you soon! And now for a little something:

I had been saving this to share as it was for a swap and then by the time they were swapped and received, I had forgotten about it. We had to use scallops somewhere on our ATC and I chose this funky lime green lace! The flower is totally glittered and really stands out! About a year ago I started attending the local stamp club again and instead of cards, they were making ATC's. It has been such a great year with lots of familiar faces and even more new ones. The neatest gals are in the club and I have so enjoyed getting to know them. I remember last year thinking I would hate ATC's and never be any good at them because they were so small. I was going to do it for the fellowship with other stampers but I have grown to love making them. Are any of you ATC creators too? How do you store yours? Mine are in a ziploc bag for a month and the little man loves to look at them every day. And every day it's like he's seeing it for the first time. Cracks me up. Then they go in a basket when I get the new bunch in.

Merry Christmas. May it be a beautiful, peaceful one for you.

Hi girls!! I hope you are having a wonderful day!! It's Friday and tomorrow I have my last 2 jewelry parties of the season!! I'm looking forward to them....but also looking forward to being done with work for awhile, KWIM?

My local stamp club was supposed to meet on Tuesday for our Christmas party but it was cancelled. Apparently the roads were slippery. As a result, I was totally depressed the rest of the night and into Wednesday. We were to make christmas themed ATC's this month and here is my creation. I searched for vintage sheet music and vintage santa images on Google Images. After trimming and adhering to my card base, I did the Cracked Glass technique. When I pulled them out of the freezer, almost all of them had those little bitty holes on them. They were perfectly smooth when I put them in. Not sure what happened --- maybe my EP is too old???

I wanted to do a transfer technique for my Santa image but decided that it would take too long to do 16 of them. So I was so happy when he became transparent during my heating and embossing process. I'm calling it "faux transfer".

Just a little snip of paper, lace and some vintage buttons to finish him off. For the gingham ribbon, it was originally brown and white which was too stark , so I just used a light brown copic marker to tint it. Perfect!!

Scalloped ATC Swap

I love swapping! And sometimes I just get in a big whirlwind of signing up for lots of them for a time. A gal hosted an ATC swap that required Scallops on it and since I think scallops are so fun, I had to join! HAD TO!!

This is the card that I sent along. That image is from Dreams du Jour and is my favorite from the set! I glittered it in pink, green and yellow although you don't see the sparkle on the screen. I also added glitter on the pink panel as well and a gem in the corner. I just love that bright green lace!! I can't imagine what kind of outfit it would go on, but I think it looks just wonderful on a card!

Also, I am still waiting on some new images from Simply Sista's so we have moved our Showcase to Friday this week. We got to see a few of the new sets coming out and they are so cute! It was hard to pick one!!

And, just in case you were dying to know about our fall foliage tour, I'll talk about that too! It was a wonderful day!! My dad and my youngest brother went - and he brought his new girlfriend!! She is super cute and seems really nice! The trees were just beginning to turn so lots of yellow, some orangey-yellow and very little red. We don't get a lot of red in the trees here in town so I'm not sure about up there. There is a small lake that we drove around and even hiked a short trail to see an OLD cottonwood that was HUGE!! I'll have to post a picture when hubby gets the pics off his camera and I'll tell you how big it was then! I can't wait to see them as I am hoping that maybe it'll be a good pic to send out to family! Then we ate at this restaurant called The Cattle Exchange. SO good! A steak was $25 (which may seem normal to some but I thought was expensive!!) But it WAS HUGE!!! And very tasty!! And the dessert is included in the price. Hubby has been there before and told me about the bread pudding. I was skeptical as the thought of soggy bread doesn't really sound great --- but it was TOO DIE FOR!! I just remembered my mom bought a gallon to bring home - wonder if there is any left??? They also had apple cobbler which had the most yummy crust!! The guys were very patient while we shopped and shopped and walked the small town. All in all, a beautiful day!! I just love getting to spend time with my family - don't you?

Have a beautiful day and come back on Friday to get a sneak peek of a new Simply Sista's image. You can see some sneak peeks of new sets coming on Amy's blog!

Chic Polka Dots

I joined an ATC swap over on SCS that was required the use of Polka Dots! I love polka dots and so didn't even stop to think about signing up - I *knew* I wanted in!! When I sat down to work on my creation, I had just gotten in the Tres Chic background and was aching to use it. And I had pulled out this polka dot ribbon as well. I paired it with Apricot Appeal - a color that I now think is chic and a pink - not sure which one this is!. I stamped in Apricot Appeal and then used my Versamarker to highlight certain words and then embossed with the sparkly embossing powder. It is hard to see the glisten but it is there!

Thanks so much for stopping by and spending a few moments with me! Isn't it fun to share our art with each other? Have a beautiful day!!

My Cups Runneth Over

The theme at my local ATC Club was "punches". My original card was some flowers but then I saw a card on SCS that used a scalloped circle to make a bra. I thought it was so cute and decided to go in that direction. My circles were too big for an ATC so I used a smaller scalloped oval that I had. The straps were from a picket fence punch that I cut in half and then of course the word window punch. I also browsed the gallery for some fun sayings and saw a few that highlighted the pun in "celebrate". I think this is a fun card for the Fourth of July.

Have fun ya'll!! Thanks for stopping by. We are headed to NM with my family for some R&R. I'll be back next week to catch up with all that ya'll have been doing!!

That Week

This week has been "that" week. I have just been in an icky funk all week long. I have been working on some things - a project, sorting some things in my craft room - did I tell ya'll that I decided to move some things around? - that's created havoc in there, let me tell you. And a whole lot of sitting in my chair, staring at my stamps.

I did get on to share my swap from the MFT swap over on SCS. I had my original photos on my EHD that is still dead so I had to take new photos, and I just haven't really been motivated to do that until this morning. All of the ATCs in this swap were phenomenal!! They are sitting here right by my computer in their little baggie. Every morning I start reading my email while D. eats his breakfast. Most mornings he finishes before I do so then he joins me here on the computer. And he always grabs this bag and wants to look at them. So they have brought us much joy in the few weeks that we've had them. He does get frustrated though because I won't let him "hold them, hold them". I don't want them to get bent - ya'll understand right?


I was a little worried about the umbrella being over the edges, but then decided if it's okay in a card, it should be okay in an ATC too! And if I had need of an umbrella in my life, I would definitely have a scarf tied around the handle. Oh - and what fun it would be to have polka dotted rain galoshes (is that what they are called?) But alas, rain is scarce around here - and when it does rain, it's usually pretty quick so I just wait it out. Or run quickly --- it's not like I'll get soaked!
I guess that's why I like this set so much - I can carry out my polka-dotted, fancy umbrella dreams through this girl.

Have a wonderful weekend! I'll be back on Sunday with my last card as guest designer for the PagePlans sketch blog.

Texas 2 Stampers April ATC

In April, the local stamp club that I go to worked on an ABC project. We worked with half the alphabet and we'll finish the other half later in the year.
I knew as soon as I got A that I wanted to use this angel stamp by Acey Duecy. I just love, LOve, LOVE her!! I stamped her in chocolate brown chalk ink, masked her and then stamped the harlequins with white ink - I think it was Colorbox. I chose to hand write my sentiment - not sure why, just wanted to try it out. I call her Apathetic Angel.
Really love this one.


I also did an M card. I guess this is what they would call a "hybrid" ATC. I knew I wanted to use the concept of "measure" but didn't like the one ruler stamp that I have with anything. So I browsed around and found these 2 images and printed them out. It was just a matter of cutting and pasting then.

I wanted my sentiment to read "do you measure up?". I thought it was great, I know that I am constantly wondering if I "measure" up. How do I compare to other ladies in my stamping group. Is it neat? creative? original? pleasing to look at? and on. and on. and on.
My hubby thought that was mean. And gave me all sorts of grief about being positive so I changed it. One gal at stamp club loved the original idea and another told me I made the right choice in changing it. *shrug*
The one thing that I really am not happy with was the stitching on the side. I *intended* to have sewing on my card - with actual thread. Didn't work out so well. So it just has the holes pierced. My mat pack is still on backorder so I just ran it through the sewing machine w/o thread. It's really hard to see.
Once we finish the other half, I'll post the whole set together. They are really cool!

Make it a beautiful day!

Do You Believe in Luck?

My local stamp club makes ATC's to trade every month. For March, we had to use the theme of St. Patrick's Day. (Yes, club was several weeks ago, but I just got this photo off the camera.)

I didn't want to do anything too cheesy and traditional. I wanted to use a really cool "lady" stamp - I have several in my stamp collection that I just love, loVE, LOVE and don't use enough. And I wanted to have those little cut up words to make it ultra cool! (I really wanted something like my SBS3 sis Sandy creates --- a style that I admire, but really struggle to produce. Be sure to stop by her blog and check out the gorgeous card she posted on Tues, Mar 25)
I stamped this lady on some old patterned paper I found (and while I have a TON of paper, I have very little green paper that is actually pretty or cool. This was as good as it got! Such a shame I'm on a self-imposed paper buying boycott) and then matted her on the green. I accented her with some itty bitty sparklies (because every woman deserves to shine, right?!??!). I came up with the slogan you see, printed it off (remember this post? or this one? and began to assemble - in the kitchen b/c Dane was up and wanted a snack. I get one done, and decide she looks kinda weird with hand --- so I decided she needed something IN her hand. I went digging in my punch drawer and found a clover punch ---- can't believe I actually own that punch (well, yes, I can) or that I forgot that I owned it (*sigh* okay, I can believe that too!). The only way that it really looked "right" was to have it falling out of her hand. I decided that it looked like she was discarding it with a look of disdain on her face. SO - I had to think up a new slogan --- which I like SOOOOO MUCH BETTER!!! So I re-printed and assembled them all. I made 11 - one extra than was needed for club, but we had more people there so I only ended up with 1 extra and not the 3 or 4 like I was planning. Of course, everyone else loved the second sentiment too - who can blame them??? The rest of the ATC's that I traded said
Luck had nothing to do with it