Another of Claudia's Cards

Claudia showed me this gorgeous accordion card that she recently made.  She used the Graphic45 paper line and it is absolutely beautiful!  

This is the card folded...

And here it is opened up...  

I love how she has the ladies "hanging" off the edge of the card.

One thing Claudia shared with me is how hard it is to give her cards away, because they are such a part of herself.  I understand that feeling because if I really like a card - one of my creations - I have to make several so that I am sure to keep one for myself.  Claudia sent this particular one to a close friend, but she is planning on making another to keep.  She said she works on it for days - to get it just right.

Very nice, Claudia - thanks so much for sharing this card.

Still my birthday...

I am a day behind - Last night I just crashed after my day, which consisted of:

breakfast at Liberty Market in Gilbert... great place to eat - 

quick to get through, yet with some style

My breakfast guests:  Katie, my oldest daughter on the left, Tristan, my great nephew, Susan, my sister, Mikayla, my great niece, and Kimberly, my youngest daughter.

We all enjoyed our breakfasts immensely.  Great place.

I went home and hung out at home a little bit before heading to Paper Vineyard for my card exchange.

Then an early dinner with my friend, Cindy, at Joe's Real BBQ in Gilbert.

Now, here are some random photos of me...

I don't know exactly how old I am in this photo, but I would guess about 3.

This was just last year - I love to wear this Santa Hat during the Christmas season.  

My co-workers or my daughters would tell you that.

This was my 50th birthday - I threw myself a bunco party with 20 friends.  We had a great time!

High school - maybe my senior year...

This is me with my sisters, Susan, on the left, and Gail, on the right.  

We were in North Myrtle Beach on vacation - during my high school years.

My sister, Gail and I.  I'm the little one.  

With my little brother, Jeff.  I'm all about fashion in this photo. 

A little bit of fun today.  Thanks for reading.

So... today is my birthday...

and I've been celebrating almost all weekend.  I started off Saturday by helping out at the sidewalk sale at Paper Vineyard.  There were some early shoppers.

 
 
Then Nicole met me at the store and we drove to Tina's house where she was teaching a vintage bracelet class.  I really enjoyed it - something that I don't normally do - and some parts of it made me a little frustrated, but I still enjoyed it.  I came home and this morning I dug through my own stuff and added a few things.

Tina was very gracious and had snacks for us...

Meet Rosie - this is their pet bird.  She was quite the talker and sounded a lot like a teenager.

This is one of the tables set up prior to our starting class.  Nicole is trying very hard to stay out of my photo, while I am trying very hard to get her into the photo.  Thanks, Tina, we had a great time and it was a wonderful way to start the weekend.

After that we left and went to "Mama's Market" which was a small group of women selling their "wares" at one of their homes.  Nicole saw this advertised on Heidi Swapp's website site, so we thought we would give it a try.  I bought some very small mirrors (wouldn't they look great in the center of a flower?) and some raspberry and peach jam.  Can't wait to try both!

By this time we were really hungry, so we went to Tia Rosa's in East Mesa (McKellips Road).  We sat on the patio even though it was cold.  We wanted to sit much closer to the heaters, but that didn't happen.  The patio was beautiful.

This is the front of the restaurant...

 I love the decor.  It is one of those places where you could sit for a long time and look at a lot of different things.

This is my cheese crisp.  It was very good - thin and crunchy, just the way I like it.

I tried green corn tamales and they were served with black bean salsa.  It was excellent.  Thanks to Nicole for taking me out for my birthday and suggesting this great restaurant.  I will go there again.

More of my birthday weekend to come...

A Very Handy Tool

This is a tool by EK Success called a Powder Tool.  I mail ordered it a couple of years ago and thought it would be handy.  Well, I never used it and decided I had wasted my hard earned $$.  And the reason I didn't use it was because I typically do not work with stickers.  Lately, though, I have been using more stickers.  This tool allows you to powder the back side of something sticky which makes it not sticky.  In my blog yesterday, I showed pictures of my Easter card and I used stickers on that card.  I wanted to pop them up, so I placed my foam pop up stickers on the back of the sticker, and before peeling of the back tabs of the foam pop ups, I sprinkled/brushed a little powder on the back.  The only parts left sticky are the pop up tabs.  It works great.  This is also nice for when you have an embellishment that hangs off the edge of your project and it is sticky.  I use this with Cosmo Cricket and Basic Grey's chipboard elements. 

Just passing this little tid bit of information along to you!

March Card Exchange - My Contribution

Our card exchange is next Sunday and the theme this month is "Easter" or "Thinking of You."  I rarely, very rarely ever make Easter cards, but this year I found these little chick stickers and thought they were very cute.  This design is simple and sweet, very easy.  I used two different punches (round scallop and large flower border punch). The paper is from Stampin' Up!

The chick is on the front of the card...

The sentiment "Happy Easter" is on the inside of the card.

I am done a week early.  Whew Hew!

Art work - a little different with a lot of talent...

My friend, Josie, has an 18-year-old son named Alex and she recently showed me some of his art work.  This is her youngest daughter, Sarah's shoe.  Sarah wanted a little pizzaz added to her shoe, so her brother, Alex, took fabric markers and wrote her name on her shoes, along with some very tasteful graffiti...

 

 Josie shared this photo of a t-shirt he did - I love the shading inside the letters.

And then he sketched this Mickey Mouse. 

Quite a bit of talent.  Thanks to Josie, Alex, and Sarah for sharing these photos!

Saturday's Class

went very well, but these women were extremely quiet.  So quiet in fact, I had to ask for the music to be turned on.  They must have really been thinking about the projects.  This is the table set up before everyone sat down. I sold many kits this time so there were actually 12 in the class.  Nice size.

Say Cheese!  

You've seen these two before - mom and daughter, Carol and Brooke. 

 This is Dana - another designer/instructor at Paper Vineyard.  It was so nice to have her in my class and on the "other side of the table."

 This is Darcy with her daughter on the left, and daughter-in-law on the right.

Lois, Valerie, and MaryAnna...

Valerie was the big winner of the day - she won a card class for May!

 Pam, Marijo, Mary, and Nancy...

As you can see, there were lots of smiles.  

Everyone loved their frames and cards, which makes my day!

Un-embellished - yet still beautiful...

Un-embellished... is that a word?  I guess it is now.  I have a card class tomorrow at Paper Vineyard (the Twig line by Little Yellow Bicycle), but I am already working on April's card class.  I am using the very cute, vintage fair/circus line by GCD called Fun House.  I have two of the cards put together, but not yet embellished.  I still think they are beautiful!  I just love the lady standing on the horse's back.

I like the ferris wheel, too.  Although truth be told, I am terrified of ferris wheels.  I can handle going in reverse on them, but not forward.  It is rare that you will catch me on a ferris wheel - I have been  brave and gone on a ferris wheel with my daughters, but they are not my first choice for a fair ride.  I did it for them.

The middle section of these cards, which I have left blank, is for the saying/sentiment.  I will stamp something there.

I am having fun putting these together.  It is kind of a challenge - like putting a puzzle together, only I'm making the puzzle.  When I am finished with all of the samples, I will post them again.  I plan to keep them simple so as not to take away from the paper.

Thanks for checking in.

Squash Book Class on 4/30/11 @ 2:00

Here's the class sample of the Squash Book class being held at Paper Vineyard Scrapbook Store on Saturday, April 30, 2011, at 2:00 p.m.  There will be a choice on the paper that you use for the inside of the book, so your colors may vary...

Opened up and spread out flat.  Each square is 6" x 6".

Another view of the book opened entirely up...

A photo of how it collapses...

A better picture of how it collapses and folds together.  This is a unique, but cute book that is extremely versatile.

I used photos from a trip we took to Washington, D.C., but they can be used for birthday celebrations, holidays, weddings, babies, just anything.  They are great little books.  You might consider taking this class.  I will have help - Celina will be helping me teach this class because she loves these books!  It will be a lot of fun!

This movie has me thinking...

I rented "Into the Wild" and am watching it while I cut my kits for Saturday's class, but I realize I need to watch it again - without interruptions.  It is an interesting story and really has me thinking about life, how we live, how our thoughts and actions are fashioned from a very early age and generally... just what makes us tick.  The fact that it is based on a true story is even more intriguing.  It is really more about reflecting on life.

I thought I read the book (by the same title) by Jon Krakauer, but I don't remember this story line.  This movie, then, makes me want to re-read, or read, the book.  I know the ending must be sad, but I am not at that point in the movie.  Anyone out there seen this?  I would love your thoughts.

A Beautiful Day for a Walk

It was such a gorgeous day that I took Sophie and Jack out for a walk.  It was a huge struggle to get their harnesses on because Jack is so crazy about walking that he won't leave me alone.  He is all over the place.  Sophie enjoys her walk, but she is hesitant and tries not to put on her harness.  A friend at work told me about the "splitter" so you only have one leash - a HUGE help!
We started off okay...

Got a little side tracked...

And at times seemed to be going in different directions.

I had to make sure Sophie's harness was tight because is she like a little Houdini - she wiggles out of them - and before I  know it, she is running down the street.  We're going to try it again tomorrow.