Right on schedule!

My goal was to get both the circle journals I received at the beginning of the month out by May 16th.  Didn’t happen.  I did get the first one out.  Gave myself a more realistic goal of having the second one out by the end of the month.  It will go out tomorrow.

Spammy Amy, if you’re reading this and want to be surprised, don’t look any further…..

I mean it!

OK – so Amy’s theme was “Spamily Pets”.  We had to do a tag in the front in our favorite color (purple!) answering some specific questions about ourselves and including a photo of our family on the back and a funny photo of ourselves.  I only have 2 “funny photos” of myself, so that was pretty easy.

Then we had a 2 page layout in 6x6 size to tell all about our pets.  Well, since we’ve only had Coco for 5 months, it didn’t seem right to do a two page layout all about her when we had Taz for over 15 years and Aspen for over 10.  Then that brought my other cat, Sandi into the equation….  So I ended up doing a full “pet resume”.  EIGHT pets.  Yeah.  EIGHT photos on two 6x6 pages.  I wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out, but I’m actually kinda pleased with it.  (and if you are wondering, I was about nine when the photo in the layout was taken)

The base is from a DCWV pad called “Luxury Stack” and it’s shimmery.  Really pretty.  With that many photos, I really needed something subtle for a background!  To create a pocket for the journaling panels I mounted the background paper onto a 6x6 Whisper White piece, leaving the center of the top side open for the panel to slide in and out.  The gold brad keeps it from dropping in too far.  The photos are all matted on Chocolate Chip cardstock, as are the journaling panels, which are printed on Very Vanilla.  The name tags are printed on vellum paper and then adhered using Krylon spray adhesive to the same DCWV paper and then punched with the Small Oval punch.  To make them stand out, I ran the edges across my Bravo Burgundy Craft Ink spot and then popped them up with Dimensionals.  The mouse, heart and collar embellishments are Jolee’s.  Sorry about the flash reflections.  Between the glossy photo paper and the shimmery cardstock, this was the best I could do!

The layout:

The left page, with journaling panel:

And the right page:

Cherie – this will be on its way to you today…. Look for it Wednesday or Thursday!

Thanks so much for looking!       =^..^=

They're done and GONE!

Just put my Christmas cards in the mailbox! YAY! The ornaments are done except for a few that I still have to put the ribbon on them. Shopping.... almost done. Just need to get the list from Russ of what I'm buying his family. Need to put Mom's present together and get that mailed on Monday. I wanted to send Judy her replacement Journal Monday, but I can't find the Michael's bag that has the journal in it. Still looking..... HOPEFULLY I will find it today and get that done tomorrow.

Got my layout for Janice's Circle Journal done and mailed out this week. I had planned to scan the pages and upload them here and then I FORGOT TO DO IT! Oh well.

I've been trying to get a decent photo of Taz to send out in the Christmas cards. No go. Here are the best from this week.... She's just not very jolly this year, I guess. Her response to the collar was to either play dead or look away. Or walk away. Got several of THOSE pix.... sigh.... Don't you love the little tags? "Jingle Cat" (heart) and "Holiday Princess" (snow cat) is what they say.

I am surprised she hasn't pulled the stockings down. They are hanging right over her toybox this year and I thought she might find them too interesting to resist. I know if I had Judy's crazy dog here they would be EATEN within 30 seconds! Judy tells me that Mocha is a poodle, but I think there is some goat in that bloodline somewhere.....

Got my Secret Santa present today.... highlights from that are a YUMMY bottle of wine, some darling wine glass charms and this totally AWESOME travel mug.... even has my name on it!

I think I know who my Secret Santa is, but I'm waiting patiently for the revealing which is later this week.

Need to bake some cookies to send in Mom's package. Need to get the last presents for Russ' family so I can get the wrapping done. Ten more days..... LOL!

Packages received! Now I can post!

So for my group of friends that I affectionately refer to as "the Spammies" or my "Spamily", I made some cute little altered domino Christmas ornaments.







I would love to tell you who makes the stamp I used, but it has LONG been buried in the Christmas avalanche of projects and will likely not be seen again until Spring! I sanded the blank side of the domino and then stamped the image in Black StazOn. The red and green are colored with Sharpie Markers and the grey is silver glitter pen. The beverage is Dazzling Diamonds glitter sprinkled over glue from a Quickie Glue Pen. The ribbon is from Michael's (it was wired, but I pulled the wire out) and is secured around the domino with 1/8" super sticky tape or "red liner" tape that I get from PennyWise Arts. They have an AWESOME selection of widths of this indispensable adhesive, reasonable prices and ship FAST! I added beads at the top and bottom for a little more "bling" and dabbed a little Crystal Effects around the holes for added measure. The numbered side of the domino is covered with a piece of patterned paper. This is my first time altering dominoes and will not be my last. They are a fun fast project.

Of course, now I needed something to put them in..... I scored some little tins at Michael's this summer on clearance for some ridiculously low price and they have been sitting, waiting for me to do something with them. (All papers, ribbon and inks used to decorate the tin are ©Stampin' Up!, as are the rhinestone brads.) I painted the tops white and then dusted them with Dazzling Diamonds while the paint was still wet for some added BLING!



I wrapped them in Always Artichoke Prints Designer paper and added 1/4" Real Red Grosgrain for the trim. Using my Crop-a-Dile I punched a hole through the tin and added a Fire Rhinestone brad through both the tag and the tin. The tag is from one of the retired tag sets and is stamped in Real Red craft ink on Whisper White and then layered onto Always Artichoke.

The Star on the top is done using the Large and Small Tag punches, vellum and a Quickie Glue Pen. You really need a fine tip glue applicator for this - makes it sooooo much easier! Here are instructions on how to make one. Searching the SCS Gallery, a lot of folks have done these with a double star, but since I was making 10 of them, a single layer was all I could muster! The center is a glass pebble using Gold Stickles to glue it down.


I filled the tin with shredded paper fill (WalMart) and then topped a little York Peppermint Patty with the scallop circle punch layered with Garden Green and Real Red circles as a gift card. The scallops are accented with a red glitter pen.



So that was my big project I have been working on for a while. The family ornaments are almost finished... I decided to add some little flat back rhinestone crystals to them... 4 on the snowflake side (1 in the center of each of the small snowflakes) and then 2 red ones on the sentiment side on the center of the little swirls between the words. It was a nice touch, but now I have them spread out all over my table again while the glue dries since I can only do one side at a time. SIGH. Maybe tomorrow I will actually get the Circle Journal done. I'll save the tale of today's embellishment odyssey for then.....

The picture from Portland!

Thanks to Melissa - here is the photo of me, Russ, Melissa and Jason!

Fun fun fun.....

I have resorted to going back to IE for my internet browsing, which I really don't like, but it seems to be working. If I could say the same for my ISP, life would be good. We are looking at changing from comcast to ATT, I'm just waiting for some tech clarification from ATT on the issue of the alarm system which uses the phoneline. Whee.......



In 2 weeks I'm going to take a trip to Austin, TX for a long weekend to see 2 of my Spam Ma'am friends, Janice and Kate! They are having a Stamp Camp that Sunday. It looks like one of the other Texas Spammies, Heather is going to drive to Austin to join in the fun too! I'm also told we are going to a "Schnapps Bar" on 6th Street for something called a "Flaming Dr. Pepper". Looks interesting....



I got some stamping goodies in the mail today from another one of the Spamily, Cherie! I'm not going to go into detail since she sent packages out to all of us, but I will upload the card here. I love Pretty In Pink and Gable Green together! And the Cuttlebug embossing folder she used, Stylized Flowers, is one of my favorites. It's hard to see in the picture, but she colored the embossed parts and then used glitter on the flowers. VERY SPARKLY!!!! The panel is also Shimmery White card stock, so it really just shines!



So pretty!

The Spamily is doing a circle journal! We each start a small scrapbook with a theme and instructions to the rest of the group and then mail it off! We will mail the book we have on the 15th of each month. 10 months later, I will have done a 2 page layout in each of their books and I will get mine back with a 2 page layout from each of them in it. Those of you who know me know that I do NOT scrapbook, so this is a HUGE step out of my comfort zone. It should be interesting! Here are some links I found on the web about circle journals:

http://scrapbooking.com/article/8001 http://www.pagesoftheheart.net/artma...icle_923.shtml
And: http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/mag...dex_field=1002

It's about 100 degrees outside (second day in a row).... State Fair is open, so I'm sure that's why it got hot again.... it's always "stupid hot" when the State Fair is running! I'm hoping it cools off next week so I can go.... I LOVE COTTON CANDY!!!! And so does Taz! Yeah, she's really strange.....

Oh, my.....

I am getting SO excited about Convention!!!! Only 23 days till I get to meet Peggy and Melissa and Kristi and Lori and Heather and Janice and Amy and a whole lot of other Splitcoaststampers LIVE AND IN PERSON!!!!! OH THE SPAMMY MAYHEM we are going to unleash on Stampin' Up! and the city of Denver!!!! I just can't wait!!!!

Last night in one of the Convention threads there was talk of syrup and beavers and moose...... I can't even begin to explain.... Poor Peggy is just not quite prepared for our wild Spammy Humor, I think.... Love ya, Peggers!!!!!

OK. When I got up this morning there was a new message on my cellphone from one of my Spammy Sisters, Lori, who is off camping on the North Coast, about 100 miles from where I'm gonna be next week. Now, when I go camping, I "civilize" the experience by camping only at facilities near showers (even if they are coin operated), I bring a french press for REAL COFFEE, and my tent sports a double high, queen sized Pillow Top air mattress complete with down comforter and body pillow along with a small folding table and chair for stamping. Yeah, I know... hardly roughing it. WELL... Miss Lori sent me this picture last night....



Yes, that is a LIGHT UP FLAMINGO in front of her Travel Trailer! Lori, you are my Hero of the Day!

That's all for today.... I'm in a pretty good mood for Monday, even if I did spend most of my day arguing with my ISP and tech support.... grrrrrrr...... I think I need to plug into my iPod and UNWIND after that! LOL! Have a great week!!!!!