While I have...

been busy making Christmas gifts (not ready to be posted) and getting ready for my daughter's brief return for Thanksgiving, I received this award nomination from my friend, Rinda. She has recently embarked on the blogging adventure - and has been doing a fabulous job on content and art! Check out her blog at : http://gallorganico.blogspot.com .



I need to share 7 things about myself and nominate others....



1. I have a BS and MS in Health Science.

2. I have waded in the Arctic Ocean.

3. I helped teach middle schoolers life science for 5 years.

4. I have 2 college age kids.

5. I have been stamping since 1990/91.

6. I could live in Barnes and Noble!

7. I usually have a latte or tea in the afternoon as a pick me up.



Other blogs that keep me inspired (including Rinda's!):



Ginny Carter of Small Studio smallstudio.typepad.com/ginnycartersmallenburg/

Kelly Kilmer kellykilmer.blogspot.com

Elaine Schader elainescreations.blogspot.com

And, a couple of others that Rinda has already named.

What a wonderful surprise - and I better get busy with postings! My daughter is home for the Thanksgiving Holiday - I picked her up from SFO last night. Today was busy doing some shopping and going out to lunch. She drove - after not driving for 2 months. Thankfully, all was well and she is enjoying her car.

Wishing everyone a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday!

Taking a Break...

from making Christmas gifts, i.e. Christmas scrapbooks. I thought I'd tackle another GAB book page. This one was "wishes", and had me stumped for awhile. Never being one to put much stock in wishes, I wasn't sure the direction I wanted to take. There are a number of cliches I could have used, but nothing seemed right. I decided to look up some quotes as a start, and I found one that I liked. I decided to use some of the cliche sayings as a background.

There is an Internet site called "Wordle" where you can type in words, sayings,etc and it'll create a background to your specifications as to number of words, color, font, etc. So, I typed in several lines of "wishes" and had a background created. It's a pretty interesting site and fun to scramble words and phrases. I stamped the woman (Paula's Kit Club), colored her with Copic markers and used mounting tape the pop her off the page a little. She's now ready to hit the road!

It's been a week...

since my last post! I've been busy, but haven't had much time to post. Good news is my mom is home with 24 hr care, and will continue physical therapy at home twice a week. Thankfully, this has all worked out well.

Thinking about all this with my mom, finally spurred me to scrap her 80th birthday photos from a year and a half ago. I bought this Club Scrap ziplock (yes, as in baggie) book project to use for the photos. I made it very simple and did little to drop or alter the photos. I have also shown a couple of sample pages. I ended up painting the covers since they were chipboard and the cover papers didn't cover the entire chipboard. I also added different fibers to the binder rings - colors more in tune to the colors of the album.

I do have a couple more little albums to do for Christmas gifts. My cousin (and godmother) turned 65 last March - there was a surprise party for her (and her husband - same birth date but a year older!). I have photos from that event that I want to make a book for them.

All this scrapbooking is making me want to make books and do some journaling...

Thankful...

for our freedom. Today is Veteran's Day. What better way to observe it than to make get well cards for our hospitalized troops. One of the Club Scrap members has a sister who visits the troops at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval Hospitals. So I made 6 cards today and will make several more before they are due to her at the end of the month.

GAB Book Page

My GAB group continues each month with a new book page based on a members suggestion. For November, my friend, Rinda, picked the theme of Micah's List. I'm not familiar with this piece of writing (poetry?) and it has given me a lot of trouble coming up with a page to illustrate its principles. In a paraphrased nutshell, it speaks to being kind, fair, just, live well - an almost treat others as you would want to be treated. I'm very much over simplifying this - but I'm sure you could Google "Micah's List" and see it in its entirety.

The background is a marbled white with some gold - a paper I bought in Florence a few years back. I thought I would go with the white for its connotations of purity and goodness. The "dancers" are stamped in gold and silver (center image) - all from A Stamp in the Hand. The sentiment is from Postmodern Design. I stamped the sentiment and attached it to a gate image - thinking of heaven (St Peter guarding the gates of heaven).

Thankfully, it all came together once I had the stamps picked. Now, to work on "wishes"...

CORRECTION: Micah's List is a scripture - thanks, Rinda, for the correction!

Birds of a Feather card

This was the birthday card I made my friend, Nancy. All the very cheery cardstocks and the striped ribbon are from the September Club Scrap kit "Birds of a Feather". The pink mat was embossed on my Sizzix with the swirl Cuttlebug embossing folder. The sentiment was from the Birds of a Feather stamp kit. The bird is a clear stamp from Inkadinkadoo.

I have a couple of book projects and altered book pages in the works. I'm hoping to finish in the next day or so (unless I'm driving to So Ca to check on mom).

The "Sandwich" Generation...

That's of what I am a part. We "sandwichers" still have kids that need us and our parents are of the age in which they need assistance. About 2 years ago, I was spending week or two at home and then week in So Ca (I'm in San Jose) caring for my mother who had hip replacement surgery and became ill afterwards. She had recovered as much as she was going to given that she refused further assistance and therapy (long story - won't go there!).

So, last Saturday, she fell at home on her reconstructed hip and fractured her upper thigh bone. Thankfully, the bone is in place - no surgery or casting, just physical therapy in a rehab unit for a while. That's where she is now. I do have a brother who lives close to Mom - so he's handling things (I did everything last time - including being on his case to visit his very sick mother - but we won't go there either!)

So, I'm in a funk - wanting to make art and just lacking the motivation. I did put together a Paper bag book - which I'll use for photos. The photo above is of the cover.

On a more fun note - I received a "thank you" gift from Jeannine Stein, author of Re-bound creating handmade books from recycled materials. A lovely collection of ephemera that is calling my name to be used...perhaps it will be the motivation...

More Cards...

A few days back, I made the above cards for a couple of friends. The top "Owl" card was made for my friend, Janice, as a "thank you". She made all attendees of Mini Retreat these wonderfully sewn fabric book binding kits. I used on the gesso techniques from Technique Junkies that I included in my tech book. The cardstock and ribbon is from Club Scrap and the owls from Inkadinkadoo.

The second card was for Farley's birthday. The entire card was made with Club Scrap's October kit, Natural Resources. I did use a Cuttlebug border embossing folder on the green cardstock near the bottem edge.