To me from me, Happy Day!

It's not even my birthday but I totally just ordered myself two new Cricut cartridges! Oh yeah! Die Cut Central was having a great sale.... $29.99 each!

I have been dying for "Give a Hoot" since it came out. So I thought... great time to get it! Then, I was looking around and have been liking "Country Life". Then I noticed that it had a quilt on it and I am going to be making some scrapbook layouts for my Grandpa Leroy. I thought, what the heck! I am going to work tomorrow aren't I? Might as well get them.

Yeah me!

Mr. Frans Vanderpool

Many of you know that I drive an incredible distance for work. I always use my GPS, even though I know where I'm going, just to make sure that I am on schedule to arrive on time. For about a year, I just had the plain voice (American, basically no accent, woman) but I had chosen a name some time back for my GPS:

Mr. Frans Vanderpoole He's British :)

So, I changed up my voice...think Sean Connery. And, I love it. Just between you and me, I snicker almost every time he tells me to turn!

A trip to The K

For those of you unfamiliar, The K is the new Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals. JJ, my good friend Leslie and I took a trip to Kansas City to see the Royals take on the Rays.

We saw the Friday night game, second one of a three game series. KC won! It was also Friday Night Fireworks which were incredibly cool but all I had was JJ's Iphone to take pics with so.... yeah, not so good.

Anyway, here we are in our blues!!

JJ, Me, Leslie

The stadium is really nice! If you are in the KC area, you really should check it out. And the best part!!! The tickets are pretty reasonable!!

Iris Folding Answers

First of all, thanks for stopping by on World Card Making Day. In case you missed my iris folding card, you can see that whole post here. I must say, I was really impressed with how my card turned out!!

I received so many lovely comments {thank you} and a few questions. I'd like to take this time to answer the questions.

1. Percy the Black Cat commented that she thought it "would be interesting with fabric". I had not thought of that before the Cat's comment but I immediately thought of Stampin Up's new Christmas fabric! Now that would be fancy!!!

2. Several comments including one from Gail Varland mused that making the card must have taken a long time. Honestly, it took about an hour. This was my FIRST try, I had to choose papers, then choose again :) and then re-cut them because I had been too chincy the first time and my strips weren't long enough.

3. Several people said they love the technique and the card, then followed with "but I can't do that". To which I say, "Yes you can!". Seriously, with a pattern, the directions I wrote and the Youtube video (check the original post)... it is super easy...for real!!

4. Lora, you can come over to my Cavern anytime!! :)

5. There was one more comment with several questions but... I accidently deleted it and I can't seem to locate it now. Sorry!

(If you left a question and I missed or deleted it or you have another, please leave me a comment or shoot me an email. If I know the answer, I would love to help you out. Even if I don't know the answer, I will post your question and see if my friend Terrie stops by...she's the iris folding Queen!!)

Rats!!

My laptop has the black screen of death! I am hoping that the video card died or something and that the whole thing isn't junk!! Anyway, I have some things to show you but I am not sure how I am going to handle the whole downloading of pictures since I am using JJ's work laptop right now.

Well...I was planning on purchasing some antique sleigh bells this weekend but I guess I will toss a few more Benjamin's on the pile and go for a computer instead. Ugg!! Maybe my good friend Lora can pull off some magic for me and I can get bells after all!

CardSwaps World Cardmaking Day Blog Hop!

Iris Folding!!! It's new to me but how stinking cute is this!?! (OK, don't skip to the pictures quite yet!!)

Ok, the dirt: You are on the CardSwaps World Cardmaking Day Blog Hop! Welcome!! You should have arrived here from Jeanette's. Doesn't she have cute stuff!? If you got here differently, make sure you start at the beginning and work your way around. You won't be disappointed, I promise!!

Challenge: CASE challenge. I found a thread on Iris folding on CardMaker message board and decided to try my hand! The thread references recipes found on Circle of Crafters for inspiration. I chose this cutie. There's also an article in CM News Letter!

Technique: I watched this video posted by nightcats (very well done) to get my feet wet. Did I mention that I had never done Iris Folding??

I traced the pattern onto card stock (held it up to the patio door).

Next, cut out the inside only. You will want to preserve the outside or the negative image. Then, tape your negative image over the recipe or map and start laying your papers down, following the pattern.

Oh! About the papers... Choose your papers (4 different ones for this pattern), cut them into 3/4" strips. The video said 5/8 but I found these to be just a little too small given the size of my pattern. Then start taping them down:

I just used scotch tape. Keep going, and going, and going. Once you have covered all the numbers, flip it over and here's what you will have from the pretty side:

I added a Rich Razzleberry center and a sparkly gold topper. Love it!!

Be sure to hop around!! Leave a comment on every blog by midnight CST, October 3, 2010, to be entered in to a drawing for prizes (Waa--hoo!!). The full list of prizes are on Lora's blog.

My story: I started papercrafting...dabbling in scrapbooking over 10 years ago. I was in college, had no money so I just used whatever I could come up with.... And I loved it!! I had made a few cards here and there but just wasn't too happy with the way they turned out. Then!! About a year and a half ago, my friend Lora (who was really just my neighbor back then) invited me to a Stampin UP party. My cards and my wallet haven't been the same since!! But I love it! I have made some new great new friends and met tons of people through playing with paper. Probably the coolest thing that has came about primarily because of paper was an extremely successful fundraiser to benefit my Relay for Life team for the American Cancer Society. Last winter I hosted a Cancer Crop and raised over $1200 for my Relay team. WOW!!

Your next stop on the hop is Faith Skrdla at Designed 2 Delight. Hop on over and See her!! But before you go, leave me some love so you can win!!

Here's the whole list:

Lora

Jeanette

Laura <--- You are here!!

Faith Skrdla (Designed 2 Delight)

Redonna

SusieQ - http://lilbitofme-susan.blogspot.com/

Jane - http://jane-notsuchaplainjane.blogspot.com/

Lori (representing Stretch N Bubbles) -http://lorispurplegiraffes.blogspot.com/

Irina - http://sami-creativityworld.blogspot.com

Meredith - http://whatsnextma.blogspot.com/

Ana - http://anaggarciam.blogspot.com/

Dustin Pike - http://dustinpike.blogspot.com/

Diana - http://b4ustamp.blogspot.com

Angelina - http://angel-artdesign.blogspot.com/

Ashley - http://handstampedbyashley.blogspot.com/

Fancy Fall Wreath

I found this fabulous wreath completed originally (at least the first time I saw it) by Sarah at Thrifty Decor Chick. As soon as I saw her gorg. wreath, I knew I had to make one of my very own...well, for my sister. We are going to her housewarming party mid-October; I can't wait!!!

So here's my finished product:

(I showed it to you first because I thought the "process pictures" weren't very interesting...and I was afraid you would stop reading. :)

Side Note: I hung the wreath on the banister because I was afraid I wouldn't take it down and actually give it to Sister once I had it on my door!!

Here's the dirt: Sarah (with an H just like my sister!! But this one isn't my sister but that would be cool!) made her wreath with a foam square. Go look at hers! Just don't forget to come back. I made mine with this wreath form that I got at Michael's for $3.99. It wasn't on sale but...

I covered the parts that I thought might scratch the door with scraps of an old bath towel. I just cut the towel and hot glued it on. I suppose any fabric glue would have worked but I got out hot glue for the leaves and decided that I wasn't going to go downstairs to get any other glue.

I got bags of fall leaves at Dollar Spot. There are 4 different colors (all the same color in one bag). I used all of 4 bags then part of 2 other bags... follow me? They were pretty pancake flat in the package so I wadded them up and threw them on the floor (not exactly the way the Thrifty Decor Chick recommended but it worked for me and wadding them up was pretty fun!)

I love that they almost look like actual leaves instead of fakes!! Also, notice that the leaves are void of stems. I cut them off using these bad boys!

They used to belong to JJ but now they are mine and they will cut anything!! Ok, so I don't know if they will really cut anything but my Fiskars would only cut one stem at a time. These cut all 10 at once!!

Best part! This whole project cost me only about $8.

(I had the glue and gun and snagged the snips from JJ.)

And Just A Tick More Black & White

Here's the rest of my cousin's shower present! (I showed you the first part here and the "gift bag" here.)

Here are the other cards I made to fill the basket. I also tossed in a Target gift card just in case she hated the rest of the present! You know, not everyone thinks our crafts are as cool as we do!!

Above is some snazzy Smooch spray on SU's Presto Patterns Specialty Paper. (I should show you that sometime...it's kinda cool!)

That's just a black piece of SU card stock stamped with white craft ink on the Medallion stamp then sprayed with Smooch spray...pretty easy! I showed you in more detail here.

Here, you can see their wedding card too (hope she doesn't stalk my blog...but this is wedding week so even if she does, she's probably not right now!).

Lucky for me, she loved them!!

Side Note: My roommate from college, Christen, used to always say "tick". Meaning little or quick like, "I'll be home in a tick; see you then Luarel." Or, "I think I'll have just a tick more chocolate cake. It is my birthday!"

If you're still here, show me some love!!

Some more black and white

So here, I showed you are card I made for my future cousin. I also promised to show you the rest of her present. It is very important to keep your promises so here I am!

I made a gift bag based off a cute little number box I learned to make from my good friend right here last fall sometime. I just made this one a bit bigger (the original held 3x3 cards). This one holds standard A2 sized cards.

A good blogger would have taken pictures while I was making the bag so I could share...well, I didn't. Why you ask? Well, I wasn't sure it was going to work so I started with typing paper.

Oh, did you see that beautiful satin ribbon??? LOVE!! I ran a line of Terrifically Tacky tape across the front of the bag and bunched the ribbon as I went across. I like it!!

Anyway, I didn't get to go to the shower because I chose to spend the weekend with JJ, Sister and my Dad down at the river. I am sure I missed a wonderful shower but I had a blast with the fam!!!

Here are a few more shots of the bag.

Stupid Picture Sizes

I think I am going to go insane if my edits don't start saving properly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Side Note: That many exclamation points are certainly necessary! !!!!! And those too.)

For real... if there's a crazy sized picture, let me know (they're scheduled throughout the next couple of days)!