Catching up on Four Months

Well, it's been 4 months since I posted and I really have no good excuse except for life and of course Facebook and Pinterest have taken over my life.  Back in July Eric's parents came up for a visit and we did alot of the touristy Alaska things.  We went halibut fishing, went to Denali National Park, took a trip on the river and went gold panning at El Dorado.  In August I went home to visit the family for a couple of weeks.  Always love those trips.  Got to see my 3 cute nephews and the bestest friend in the whole wide world.  September wasn't really eventful, but I didn't enjoy the little bit of fall that we received.  I think I missed most of it though!  It seems like one day we were having gorgeous days and now it's snow!  I will admit that it is looking beautiful outside with the snow covered trees.

Anyways enough chit chat.  The real reason I'm updating is for posting some of my crafty creativeness.  I have been participating in a card swap on Facebook with a friend and a few of her friends.  It's been a blast.  Here are the contributions I made to the previous months swap!

All paper, stamps and punches are Stampin' Up. The next swap is due Nov. 15 and I have 1 card done already and have a pretty good idea of what I'm doing with the other.

Enjoy the cards!

Crafting......yes I still do that!

Well, since we have officially moved into the new house, I have been slowly getting my craft room back in working condition.  And it's about time.  I was going through some serious withdrawls!  I have been able to get back to stamping and crocheting.  A friend of mine on facebook decided to get a group of people together to do a card swap, so I am actively stamping for that.  I just finished the two cards that will go out in the mail this week for the ladies.  I had alot of fun making these.  If anyone wants directions let me know!

I have also been spending some time with a hook in my hand.  Actually quite a bit!  Eric asked me if I would make a thank you afghan for the gentleman he stay's with out in Mekoryuk when he goes Musk Ox hunting.  Since widlife in general is in all of the Native's blood, we decided to go with something I've never done before.  Behold a walrus on an iceberg!  This is the "before".  I use this type of graph as a pattern and work from there.  I was a little skeptical of the design at first because I had a hard time finding a piece of clipart that would work and capture the being of the walrus.  Most of my afghans are for kids/babies so I can usually just go with something cute and baby-like.  Not this one.  I don't think a 6o-something guy would appreciate or use something like that. Anyways, I was thinking I had at least 3 weeks to work on it, but nope!  Eric decides that he is going to go out a week earlier than planned, so I have been hooking my butt off trying to get this bad-boy done.  And finally it has come to an end.  I'm really excited in how this turned out.  I'm hoping that the gift is well receive, which I'm sure it will be.  Turns out he was more than appreciative.  He immediately went and put the afghan on his bed!

Next up was a baby afghan (yay!).  I love doing these because they are so much fun.  A friend of mine asked me to make a blanket for a fellow co-worker of hers who just recently had a baby girl.  They live in Nome, so wildlife is once again people (they work for the Alaska Division of Fish and Game).  I originally found a clipart drawing of a penguin, moose, bear and fish totem pole, but I knew that wouldn't work considering penguins DO NOT live up here.  I decided to rework it a little and get rid of the penguin.  Design turned out great, but I was informed that they REALLY wanted a Musk Ox in the design.  I had fun re-creating the design by hand drawing (okay, light table coping) of the Musk Ox and the bear and fish from the totem pole.  Here is what I came up with!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to my dad and father-in-law!  Here are the cards I made especially for each one of them!  Since Jimmy Joe is a cowboy at heart, I had to make him a cowboy boot card.  I found a template online and printed it the size I wanted.  I had a lot of fun with this one!!!!!

Next up is the one that I made for my dad is a tribute to his life on a far and a familiar saying we heard growing up!  Opening up the barn doors you read the saying "I'd Walk 10 Miles in the Snow Uphill Both Ways".  The inside of the card says "to Wish You a Happy Father's Day"

The should have received the cards in the mail Friday or Saturday.

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all of those mom's out their, especially mine and the mother-in-law! The first is the card I made for my mom.  The second was made for Eric's mom.  The one I made for my mom is suppose to be a shadow box type look to it with the green frame popped out from the base.  Didn't turn out quite like the sample I followed but it's still cool because it's different.

  

The following pictures are from when our stamping group got together last weekend.  These are some bookmarks that one of the ladies made and then there is the picture of our table. 

Administrative Professional's Week

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by the Asst. Director of the Campus if I had any ideas / would make something for the Admin Professionals.  After a lot of searching and thinking, I decided to do an "Administrative Professional Survival Kit".  I had plenty of the plastic Crystal Light tubes and they actually make good holders.  I also made corresponding Thank You cards to match the kits.  They were a big hit and I had a blast making them.  Glad I was able to use up all of my Crystal Light tubes!  They were taking up way too much space!

Stampin' Up Color Renovation

Well if you have heard already, Stampin' Up has come up with a new Color Renovation that will take place with the new catalog in July.  They are getting rid of the old color families and making some new ones.  This also means that they are getting rid of some of the main colors that they have had for awhile and then bringing back some of the past In Colors that were more popular.

If you are interested in any of the retiring colors, I suggest you put an order in as soon as possible.  It's hard to tell how much stock Stampin' Up has on hand and how fast they will sell it!  Note that alot of the purples are retiring.  Also, they have rename the color Kraft to Crumb Cake.

Stampin' Up Sale-a-Bration and new Mini Catalog

Here's the new Sale-a-Bration (SAB) catalog from Stampin' Up.  SAB is an annual event that Stampin' Up does.  For every $50 you spend, you receive something from the SAB for FREE!!!!

http://xmission.com/~stampinup/catalogs/NovCatalogs/SAB_10_US.pdf

Here is the new Mini Catalog.  Since Stampin' Up has gone to 1 catalog a year they have come out with a couple of mini catalogs.  This is the newest one.  This catalog introduces the new clear mount stamps (still the great red rubber, but you use them with acrylic blocks!).  They are also debuting a new punch design.  This design will help with storage.

http://204.228.150.61/catalogs/20091231/OccasionsMini10_US.pdf

Let me know if you are interested in placing an order for anything!!!!!

Stampin' Up Deal of the Week

Well, I completely forgot to put up last weeks Deal of the Week, but it wasn't anything to extra special (at least I didn't think so). This week we have 4 different accessories on sale.

1/2" Library Clips Regularly $6.95 NOW ONLY $3.99!!!

Basic Jumbo Grommets Regular $6.95 NOW ONLY $4.49!!!

Circle Designer Brads Regular $5.95 NOW ONLY $3.99!!!

Mini Library Clips Regularly $12.95 NOW ONLY $8.99!!
If you would like to buy any of this or order anything else, let me know. These are great deals and will only last until early Monday morning.

VC Rocks II

The other day I posted some pictures from my virtual stamp group. Those were the gift card swap. Here are the pictures from the quilt card swap. The first one is mine and the rest are the ones I received in the swap.

VC Rocks!

VC Rocks is a Yahoo group that I am involved in. It is a "virtual convention" for those involved in Stampin' Up that cannot make it to the Annual Convention in Salt Lake City. This is my second year being involved in the group. I do the minimum required to stay involved because it goes on during June and July when I am busy with my summer camps. This year I decided to join 2 swaps. I did the Gift Card Swap and the Quilt Card Swap. Here are the pictures of the Gift Card Swap.
I'm not sure how many pictures I can upload in one post, so I'll do another post that has the pictures of the Quilt Cards in it in the next couple of days.

Stampin' Up Deal of the Week

Have you ever wanted to try the Stampin' Up Fire Jeweled Brads?? Now is the time to try them. Originally $10.95, you can get them this week for $6.99.
If you want to order some let me know!!!!! I'll keep you posted on the next deal come Monday or Tuesday!

New Stampin' Up Catalog

Well, the new Stampin' Up Catalog is out today. How exciting is this? I'm very excited because stamping/card making has become one of my favorite hobbies and it has turned into a side job for me. I really don't make any money on it, but it's nice to get the discount. Here's a peak of the catalog.

Stampin' Up is also doing something different this month. They are having "weekly" specials. This weeks special is the scallop edge punch. Normally this punch is $15.95, but for the next 5 days you can get it for $10.99. They are not letting us know ahead of time what the specials are so keep tuning in if you are interested.

If you are intersted in a catalog our would like more information about Stampin' Up please let me know.

Happy Father's Day....

one week late! I've been so busy with my camps that I haven't had too much time to post. I did call my dad on Father's Day and talked to him for about 45 minutes. Here's the card that I sent my dad.On the inside of the card it said "I Whaley Love You" and it had a picture of a whale. I love using stamps like this to make cards for my dad. He appreciates them so much and loves showing them off to people who stop by to visit.
For Eric's dad I went a different route. Since his parents have been know to fish and camp, I decided to use this bear/camping set.
Well, my stamping group is getting together in about an hour, so I need to get going to finish getting my stuff ready. Hopefully I'll be able to post some pictures.

Happy Mothers Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom and mother-in-law. I sent them cards earlier in the week and hopefully they have gotten them by now. I have been wanted to post a picture of the cards I made, but wanted to make sure they got them in the mail first before I posted them here. Well, I'm not waiting any more. Drum roll please.........................................................
It was hard to get a decent shot of the cards because there is glitter on the petals and leaves and it isn't showing up as glittery as they really are. Here's a link and here too that I found the idea from. If you want the directions on how to make them follow this link. I hope all the mothers out there reading this are having (or had) a great mothers day.

Teacher Appreciation

So, late in the afternoon on Wednesday, the campus director came to my office and asked me what I was doing the next couple of nights (the first thought that came to my mind was that she needed a babysitter for her boys. Don't ask me why that came to mind, but it did.) She said that she forgot that it was Teacher Appreciation week and was wondering if I could make cards for the faculty.

I said "Sure, how many?"
"Oh about 30 of them" she replied.

Good thing I had two nights to make them. I told her if she got my the sayings she wanted on them I would get to work. Well, she turned that job over to the Assistant Director, who was too busy to get anything to me on Wednesday evening. I didn' want to start a card until I knew how long the saying would be. Well, I finally got something on Thursday. I spend from about 6:30 - 11:00 pm making 34 cards. I was lucky I found something that was simple, but looked nice. I was able to use up alot of my papers from my stamping group. Here's just one of the cards and then a picture of the pile of cards. No two cards were the same (okay, maybe one or two were the same, but I think there were 30 different paper combos!)
Well, I'm off to do some more card making or maybe a little crocheting. I still have to finish the basketball blanket. I'm done with the base, but I need to decide what type of border is going around it.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to everyone out there in blogging land. (I'm doing a little scheduled post here because if the weather and Mt. Redoubt work with me, I will be joining Eric in Anchorage over the weekend.)

Here are some pictures of the Easter treats I made for everyone at work. I thought they turned out pretty good.

And I just have to show you the cutest card. This little "chick" is made using the Big Shot Top Note die and some punches. I made a few of these for the people I work with.