Archive for December, 2009:
A Quick My Digital Studio Card
Aloha, all!
As I said last week, we have a new garden cat, whose name is Honu, who has made our indoor cat, Cholla (from New Mexico, thus the name of the cactus that is ubiquitous where we lived) just a teensy bit jealous. In fact, we have to keep some windows closed as the cats have taken to trying to claw each other through the screens! Not so bad this time of the year when it’s not really very hot at all. Hopefully they’ll get over it before spring arrives and starts to warm things up a bit!
I managed to catch both cats in something of a Christmas pose, so just had to make a quick scrapbook page with Stampin’ Up!’s My Digital Studio.
This digital papercrafting program is just so neat – and things ship quickly, too! I’m going to start on some Valentine’s cards for my Stampin’ Up! friends before long. If you’d like to be on the list to receive one of the cards, just add a comment below and then I’ll e-mail you to get your address! I’ll need the information by January 23rd so I can get my order in and still have time to mail them before Valentine’s Day. I’ll certainly remind everyone about this a few times between now and then.
Subscribe to the comments for this postOK, what else can I get into?
Aloha, all!
Here I was today trying to design just the perfect "thank you" notes for all the wonderful people who gave me Christmas presents (those hearts are from the set, Simply Said, with the saying, "Simply Said from the Heart – Thank You"). I left for only a second to go find an errant pair of scissors; but miss Cholla took advantage of my absence. She’s usually very respectful of my Craft Room table. But today she must have been just a teensy bit jealous because of the new garden cat we’ve adopted (or, rather, I should say that the new cat adopted us). I’ll introduce her later in the week to you by way of a My Digital Studio card.
But just imagine what havoc Cholla could have wrecked upon the craft room had I (gasp!) left a stamp pad open! But, whew, I’d been good, and all stamp pads were closed. No Ruby Red paw prints around today!
I’ll be featuring my (very simple) Thank You card in this week’s newsletter to my Newsletter Mailing List. It’s the last of my "Twelve Weeks of Christmas Cards" newsletter series. Soon I’ll be featuring a shorter series, "Four My Valentine." If you’d like to receive those four e-mailed newsletters with detailed instructions for four wonderful Valentine cards, just click on "Sign Up for my Free E-mail Newsletter" above right! The Valentine card series will begin on January 6th.
Cleaning Day
Aloha, all!
For some reason some of my posts here didn’t make it out to you last week! But here is a retrospective of what should have been as I got ready for Christmas. Hopefully I’ll figure out what "went wrong" and make sure it doesn’t happen again!
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Finally all the Christmas cards are made and sent out! But there is a trail of paper and ribbon and label scraps throughout the house. I thought I’d escape to the craft room for a few minutes before I tackled the house cleaning. But I couldn’t believe the disaster that awaited me. So I went out onto the lanai (porch) just to look at the garden, only to be faced with two very bare Christmas trees. More work!! Is there no rest for the wicked???
Ah, yes. Here at the computer, where my desktop is as neatly arranged as it was yesterday and the day before and the day before that. Lovely how computers stay uncluttered (at least on the surface, which is the only thing I see anyway
).
But I can look out the windows of the house while I go do my cleaning up chores. Here’s another of the poinsettias that are growing in one area of the garden. I just can’t get enough of looking at them actually growing in the garden! No piddly little house plant here in Hawaii. In the Kailua-Kona area, whole hillsides are covered with these flowers that bloom during the late fall/early winter time. I’m happy for just the small display that I enjoy every day.
Getting the Cards in the Mail
Aloha, all!
For some reason (certainly not my own ineptitude?!) my Christmas Week posts did not managed to see the light of day. I really like the pictures, though, and would like to share them with you, albeit late!)
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I’m speaking, of course, about getting my own cards in the mail. I’m finally about to send the last of them out, and what an array of postage to go along with the wide array of cards! In case you’re as late as I am in getting these wonderful handmade cards off to friends and family, here’s a bit of advice on packaging and stamping (the postal variety) them.
If you write one of those one-page Christmas letters, fold it and, instead of putting it inside the card, place it in front of any card that has any mettalic or sharp embellishments. That will help keep your envelope intact in the mail.
Weigh your card (in the envelope, with the Christmas letter). Then massage the envelope a bit to figure out if there’s anything thick or rigid about it. Here are the current postage rates for the variety of cards I’m sending out:
- Less than one ounce, no brads or hardware type embellishments and it’s rectangular: 44 cents
- More than one ounce (but less than two), no brads or hardware type embellishments, and it’s rectangular: 61 cents (extra 17 cents for going over the 1 ounce)
- Less than once ounce, but there’s something thick about the card or there’s some kind of rigid embellishment or it’s square: 64 cents (an extra 20 cents for the thick, rigid or square)
- More than once ounce (but less than two), with thick/rigid elements or it’s square: 81 cents (extra 17 cents plus extra 20 cents)
So here I sit with my 44 cent, 17 cent, and 64 cent stamps, weighing away!
And another beautiful poinsettia from our garden to distract me!
Taking a Break!
Oh, my! Has it been a week since I’ve last posted a note here?! Well, with all that’s been going on, I guess I can believe it. We spent a very hectic, but productive week, buying a new car, adopting a new cat, getting ready for a Christmas party, and having a group over for some last minute Christmas gift paper crafting! The first two items were the real time sinks.
And today it’s (finally) time for me to gather together all those Christmas Cards I’ve made over the last few months and mail them out. I’ve already had three crafting friends look at me like I’m crazy when I say I’m going to mail them out. Well, what else would I do with them? I could save them and show them off when people come to visit. But I’m having a lot more fun matching this person to that card and then writing notes in all of them. Thank heavens my list is only about 75 people long!
But I’m taking a break right now (the writing hand is a bit cramped at the moment). I just went out and took pictures of the various poinsettia plants growing in our garden. This is truly something to be thankful for as it really makes it feel like Christmas here. We don’t have the snow, but we have the traditional Christmas flowers! Enjoy the pictures this week!
Use those Christmas Supplies all year long!
Aloha, all!
Now that we’re getting so very close to Christmas, I was thinking that I’m about to say, "Goodbye," to all those wonderful products that I’ve been using the past few months for making Christmas cards and gifts.
NOT!!!
Here’s just one example of a project I just made that’s totally NOT Christmas, but makes use of not one, but TWO, of Stampin’ Up!’s products featured as holiday products. The Old Olive Designer Series Paper that forms the larger border for this card is from the set, Merry Moments. But it is totally not looking Christmas-y at all. And the Ornament Punch is a – VASE!. How cool is that!
I’m pretty much booked up for the next couple of days with activities related neither to the holidays nor to my paper crafting. But as soon as I get back into the Craft Room (hopefully Wednesday afternoon) I’m going to pull out some more of those holiday products and show how you can use them even after December is gone!
Oh, and the vase is made from Perfect Plum Textured Card Stock, punched with the ornament punch, with just a teensy bit sliced off at the pointed end. I wrapped the top of the vase with Linen Thread. The stamp is from the set, Eastern Blooms, one of my favorites for stationery sets.
If you’ve been thinking about making some last minute purchases from the Holiday Mini Catalog, you’ve just got a couple of weeks! Many of the products featured in the mini won’t be in any future Stampin’ Up! catalog. If you have any questions about anything in the Holiday mini, feel free to call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and I’ll either answer you right away, or get an answer for you as quick as I can!
I Finally Made a Calendar – With My Digital Studio!
Aloha, all!
I finally made a calendar using My Digital Studio from Stampin’ Up! I am so pleased with the result, and have sent it off to be printed by Stampin’ Up!’s printing service. I love that I can put a photograph behind the grid page, and change the font styles and colors wherever I want. I especially liked that I could use the color picker and pick up a color from the flower that is the main picture on the calendar and make that the color for the text for the Month and Year.
Here’s a short (less than a minute) video that shows all the pages. I can hardly wait to get the printed version. (And I sincerely hope that I didn’t make any serious mistakes calendarwise!)
Happy Hanukkah!
Aloha, all!
My Jewish friends are into the season of Hanukkah, and I really miss being around when someone is celebrating Hanukkah. I have a very fond childhood memory of going to my friend, Phyllis’, home for one night of Hanukkah when I was in 3rd grade. Of course, I was just thrilled of the idea of a present every day for 8 days! And lighting the Menorah candles was such a treat for the family–all the traditions that were so new to me back then still make me smile as I remember that year. I was, of course, happy to have my Christmas Tree at home on Christmas morning, and all the traditions in which I had grown up. But I’m glad to have learned about other traditions at an early age.
This is the card I made to send to my friend, Janet, for the holiday. I probably overdid it on the bling. But I really liked the look when it was finished! All those Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads look so rich against the backdrop of the Holiday Lounge Designer Series Paper with the Sahara Sand and Taken With Teal accents.! I used a variety of markers to color the stamp called Let There Be Light, and added one last rhinestone brad to top it off.
Stampin’ Up! has stamps and creative ideas for so many different sets of traditions, whether cultural or religious. If there’s something you’d like to make for something other than Christmas or Easter, or the traditional "Christian" holidays, just let me know! I’m sure we can find something just for you to make!
Stampin’ Up!’s 12 Days of Holiday Sales!
Aloha, all! Look at all the Sizzix dies on sale!!!
Just a quick note as there’s a group of stampers coming over this morning for some Christmas Card projects! Stampin’ Up! has announcd a sale that runs from today, December 11th, just until Tuesday December 22nd! I’ll be showing off some projects made using some of the items for sale – especially Big Shot Dies!! – but for now here are links to a list of what’s on sale, and my Stampin’ Up! website if you’d like to order online. Of course, you can always order directly from me by calling (808.854.6145) or e-mailing me!
Oh, There’s So Much That’s New!
Aloha, all!
Today I’d like to share FOUR of the new products that you’ll be able to order in January 2010. This Christmas Card features the brand new Scallop Trim Corner Punch (from the Occasions Mini Catalog) and the brand new Scallop Trim Border Punch from the Sale-A-Bration brochure. I think I did a lot better on this card than I did on yesterday’s, don’t you think? I’m learning these punches!
Now look at the card again, and you’ll see some of that gorgeous 5/8" Satin Ribbon, today using the Real Red color. There’s a whole new line of this ribbon and does it feel yummy! I bought some Real Red and Old Olive, and will be showing them off with Christmas cards through the rest of the month. And that Real Red Corduroy Button in the lower left corner is also new–there will be Real Red and Pretty In Pink Corduroy buttons for all your Valentine needs this year! Of course, I’m featuring them for Christmas this month. THEN I’ll switch holidays.
And there are some current products in this card as well: There’s the lovely papers from the set, Merry Moments, some Fire Circle and Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads, and the lovely greeting from the stamp set, Heard from the Heart. The old and the new go wonderfully together!
There will be lots of Christmas cards that I’ll be sharing over the next few days and I’ll be telling you more about Sale-A-Bration, too! So keep coming back!
