I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas holiday!!

I've been purging again and found yet more items to donate to From Our Hearts which is a fully certified 501(c)(3) non profit that collects full cards in addition to card fronts to ship to our servicemen/women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Did I mention what a swap queen I was back in the day?

Here's a few of the full cards with coordinating envelopes swap I remember hosting using stickers only. These were done when stickers fell out of vogue and this was a creative way for all of us to "use up" our existing sticker stashes.


In total? 57 full cards & matching envelopes decorated with stickers!

Also, I found even more SU card fronts in yet another cubby. This should hopefully be it except for the shoebox-full I've held on to for continued personal inspiration.

In total? 77 SU card fronts! I got a little ambitious and decided to do some leg work to alleviate the workload of FOH's volunteers and converted as many as I could into full folding cards. I got all but 29 done which I'll be sending directly to Regina to finish off.

Yep, I'm mailing these babies out to Martie and Regina in Missouri and Kansas respectively before the postage rates go up on Jan 1st. Of course, I've sent along an itemized list of everything I'm sending for their IRS reporting purposes to help save them processing time. I also packaged each folding card with a matching envelope and FOH label in a cello bag so that they'll be ready to go directly into their sorting bins upon arrival.

Yay for another clean cubby for me!! And that's a total of 134 cards for our troops. Here's my running total for the year 2010 which totally warms my heart :)




I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops. It's a small but heartfelt way to thank our troops for their service to our country.

I'm in a huge PURGING mode so that I can finally organize the way I need to be in order to be fully functional. Else, it's such a pain to have to find and dig for things in order to get any project going. No wonder I have major scrappers' block!!

Guess what I found recently?

Card Fronts!!

Yes, lots of priority envelopes, ziplock bags, shopping bags and boxes of card fronts back from my swapping days from when I was a SU Demo (2000-2005). I was a swapping FIEND!!! and unfortunately, lol, I'm also a hoarder as I never had the heart to toss them.

I loved them for exchanging ideas on how to use various stamp sets, card layout ideas, color combinations and most of all to learn techniques. Each and every month, I had a few stamp clubs, in-home hostess parties and a crop I held in a hotel conference room back in my heyday, so it was wonderful to always have a slew of fresh card samples to share with my customers to inspire (and to spur on orders).

I wanted to donate these for a good cause especially since many of them were beautifully made. It truly would be a shame to just toss 'em. I was so glad when a kind lady by the name of Martie Shea answered my query on Splitcoast Stampers and I thus became aware of her amazing non-profit group called From Our Hearts which collects full cards as well as card fronts to ship to our servicemen and women serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Take a look at her blog and you'll see that they're quite organized with designated (and dedicated) volunteers who spend hours of their personal time to give back to those who are sacrificing their lives for our freedom and way of life. I'm very thankful that such a group exists and it warms my heart that I'm able to help.

So, here's what I'm sending to Martie and her non-profit From Our Hearts.....


I thought to make it easier on their volunteers by sorting and categorizing the card themes for them before I ship out so that's what I did at a crop I attended yesterday.


That's a total of 587 card fronts I'll be shipping to Martie's From Our Hearts Monday Morning. Here's my inventory sheet to make it easier for them for IRS reporting purposes. (Yep, they're legit!)


I'm also sending along these boxes of blank envelopes I found. 9 boxes of 500 envies each = 4500 envies!! Whoohoo!! They're a bit old so I hope they can still use them.


Martie, from my heart to yours, THANK YOU for all that you and your volunteers do!! I've read EVERY single post on your blog and have shed many a tears because I am so touched.

I urge you to take a look at From Our Hearts and see if you can donate too....cards, envelopes, clear envelopes or even paypal them money to help them send those boxes of greeting cards to our troops.

Yay! I'm feeling the mojo awakening in me to scrap again!! I've been going through all my stash in detail to get reacquainted with all "my pretties" and decided to purge a few things.

A relative of mine saw my listings and wanted this stamp set, so I decided to make a little video tutorial to show her how she could get the best out of this 2 Step Stamping set from Stampin' Up called "Terrific Tulips."

Bear with me, because this is my first video tutorial and I was holding the camera with my left hand - I'm right handed. This is the best I can do for now until I obtain the proper software for video editing.



Thanks for taking this set off my hands Sally. Enjoy!!

I was still in my creative hiatus in the fall when my sister in law asked if I could make / contribute to my niece's birthday party invitations.  I *think* I may have offered to do it, but I just couldn't think of anything fabulous enough by the deadline so I fessed up by suggesting she go ahead and order the invitations.  Yep, I had a massive creative block.  In the end, i..e the week before her birthday banquet, I managed to dust off some Spellbinders, located my Big Shot and rummaged through all my old SU sets to come up with decorating her cupcake favor boxes for her guests.  Yup, her parents, both grandmothers and I were die cutting, stamping, adhering several nights before her big party to assemble 120 of these favors!!







She's a precious little girl indeed!

 

"Cupcake Favor Chinese Take Out Boxes"
Paper: Solar White Crest; Bazzil Bling Diva & In The Pink
Embellishments: Clear Rhinestones on Pink Ribbon Flowers from Michaels' Bridal Section
Accessories: Spellbinders Labels 4 Dies; SU Rose Romance Dye Ink; SU "Yummy" Stamp Set; Glue Dots

Happy 1-1-11 Everyone!!

I've been skimming 2Peas lately and came across a thread about setting blogging resolutions in addition to scrapping ones which I thought was a fabulous topic!! Since I'm trying to return from a 1.5+ year hiatus, it's certainly good timing for me to make some specific goals to accomplish this coming year.


2011 Blogging Resolutions

1) Simplify the look and organize the content of my blog (3 to 2 columns, less graphics to reduce busy look, etc.). DONE!!

2) Blog at least 1x per week - Eek! that means I need to actually create! lol

3) Learn how to create polished and professional video tutorials so I can showcase more technique and creative tutorials.

4) Create a proper light box so that I can showcase my work beautifully instead of photographing in my office underneath florescent lights which is my current method.

5) Schedule posts ahead of time on the weekends so I have time to take pics, photoshop them and draft/proof my posts.

6) Feature a weekly organizational topic because that'll get me moving in the direction I want with my scrap area organization project.

Now that I'm no longer bound to deadlines, I really want to keep it simple so I can really enjoy my paper crafting hobby while maintaining a balance with my other interests, i.e. yoga, fooding, reading, moving going, spending time with friends and family, etc. in addition to more rest. As sacrilegious as it sounds, I'm not interesting in living and breathing scrapping every moment of my free time.

2011 Scrapping Resolutions

1) Use as many of my stamps/stamp sets at least ONCE in 2011 or it gets purged by the end of the year.

2) Use as many of dies/punches/tools at least ONCE in 2011. Specifically, pull out my Cricut bug and figure out how to use it. The carts seem easy enough, but I really want to begin using SCAL formatted files. Is this a good time to mention that I've had my cricut for 2+ years and I've never used it?

3) Cut down in my existing patterned paper/cardstock stash.

I'm really looking forward to making as many cards as possible which will be an enjoyable way to use up my existing supplies (and accomplish #1-3 of my Scrapping Resolutions) to donate to From Our Hearts which I have a passionate need to support.

4) Finish at least ONE of the altered book projects I've accumulated from various conventions/CKU, etc. type of events. (I'm cringing about this one as I type this, so I can tell this one will indeed be a challenge. Thankfully, I have 364 days to attempt this.)

5) Continue with my NO BUY policy which isn't that hard since I have pretty much accomplished this the past 2 years. (I'm so well stocked even in adhesives, lol, so I need no caveats.) However, this may prove difficult this year since I've just discovered My Favorite Things. I'm absolutely in love with their Pure Innocence and A La Modes stamps and their Die-namtic dies. I'll admit that I fell off the bandwagon recently and got a few items with some ebay money during their Black Friday and End of Year Sales. I haven't loved so much from one company in a long time since discovering Stampin' Up almost 10 years ago! That really says alot about MFT I think. :)

6) Participate in least 2 challenges per month as that'll get my mojo going as well as facilitate a return to interacting with existing and new friends in the scrapping community again. :)

Yep, it's definitely time to stop feeling overwhelmed and dealing with how much I have, i.e. purging, etc, and start actually ENJOYING my things by creating and playing again. :)

Coming from ground zero, and considering I'm a slow scrapper with a full time job where I work an average of 10+ hours per day with a 2.5-3 hour daily round trip commute, I think the above 12 resolutions will indeed be quite a challenge for me. Hmm, 12 Resolutions for the next 12 months. Doable wouldn't you say?

I sure hope so!