I recently showed our local stamp group how to create an origami pocket to embellish their cards or to use as a little packet to tuck in charms, tags or a special surprise for a friend or family member. The inspiration for this embellishment came from a class I attended at Cyberstampers taught by Wanda Hentges.

The following posts show a scanned image and the instructions. Hopefully, they are large enough for you to create one of your own.

You can't beat a pleasant fall day with falling leaves, cooler temperatures and the gorgeous fall colors. With this type of weather fall can last a very long time even though we had snow up on Bogus Mountain this week and it is expected in the high Sierras.

Today, I wore my "gardener's hat"again and decided to mix up some of my friend's magic potion. Miss Annette is another treasured friend who moderates one of my favorite Yahoo groups, Oriental Stamp Art. I gave her recipe to my daughter a month ago and she told me it worked well on her aphyd invested roses. With the extreme hot temperatures in Idaho, we didn't have a problem with aphyds but a little fertilizer before winter is a good thing; and, if there are bugs waiting to nest up for winter, I need to send them elsewhere. Here is Annette's magic for beautiful flowers:

"Mix together in a Miracle Grow-type container that you screwed to a garden hose to spray fertilizer:
1 beer, any kind, any price
1 cup ammonia, yes, ammonia. Lemon scented is fine or unscented works just as well.
1/2 cup liquid dish soap, any brand. I use Dawn. It makes great bubbles.
1/2 cup powdered (crystals) fertilizer, Miracle Grow-type or the store brand of the same thing.
1/2 cup clear corn syrup
Spray this mixture on the leaves, flowers, trunks of trees, limbs, branches and on the ground. According to legend, the soap helps the mixture stick to surfaces and drives away insects without killing them. The beer has whatever affect and effect, but I don't know its purpose. Perhaps it marries the ammonia and creates a chemical reaction."

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This afternoon I spent preparing cards for our monthly Friday stamp club. This is a small group of five and we always make a card for each member. The theme this month is "end of summer" (beach or whatever). My passion is oriental art or flowers and I struggled a bit with my swap cards. I made one batch of cards but wasn't satisfied with the results so I made up a second set using some die cuts in the design. When I showed them to my art critic, Jim, he told me, "You should stick with your creative style. I like that much better."

I decided to take both sets to club and let the gals pick the card they would like to keep. Tomorrow I will upload the most popular and put the others aside to send out when I need a quick card.

I really dislike throwing things away and stash all kinds of papers, embellishments and bits and pieces from past projects.

Because it was raining, I decided to untie one of my boxes and found numerous stamped images that were just sitting there waiting to be made into something beautiful. There were four cards with the same oriental themed image from a stamp borrowed from a friend. I liked it so much that I later purchased this stamp and forgot all about these uncompleted cards.

I recently purchased some new Tria and Copic sketch pens and used them to color part of the images; pulled out some paper from my Far East stash and completed four cards. I feel like I accomplished something without a lot of effort.

Interesting analysis....you think you glue everything perfectly and how the cards turn out differently is beyond me. The uneven layers always jump out in a scan. I'll work on that some other rainy day.