A Birthday Card and a Ribbon Album

Yesterday was my son-in-law's ??th birthday. Here's the card I made for him. My DD left me a message that he really liked his card. What do you think?







The eagle image is from Cornish Heritage Farms. The "man brads" from GinaK. The ribbon from AC Moore. The ovals and tag were cut using my Cuttlebug and Nesties.




As you will learn very quickly, I am compulsive/obsessive when it comes to my hobbies - no matter what the hobby was at the moment - I had it all. There are many crewel embroidery kits in a box on a high closet shelf. I have every color embroidery floss that DMC made up to the time I quit doing counted cross stitch. I had shelves of quilting books and magazines when I was in my "Quilt phase" and a closet full of fabric I will never use.

So now that I am in my "Cardmaking Phase" I have many gizmos and gadgets, lots of cardstock, all of SU's inkpads including the last 2 years of In Colors, SU markers, Prismacolor pencils and watercolor pencils, Cuttlebug folders, Spellbinders Nestibilities dies, brads, eyelets, and ribbons galore!! Remembering which ribbons I had became an impossible challenge. I needed some way to know what I already had.


So-o-o-o-o I created a Ribbon Album!



I folded 3 sheets white card stock in half and glued them together like a book.


Then I sorted my ribbons by type - satin, grosgrain, solids, printed, etc., cut one inch pieces of each ribbon, and glued them to the pages.

Since I took this picture I put a ribbon around it to tie it shut.





Now I just take my Ribbon Album with me on a shopping trip and know exactly which ribbons I have!


Yes - it is expandable by just gluing in another page at the back!!






Until next time - Blessings,

Trying to Get Organized

My sewing/stamping room is very small - about 11 feet x 10 feet. Trying to put all the "stuff" necessary to sew and stamp in that tiny space has been a real challenge. I have lots of plastic storage containers in various shapes and sizes. Organizing small things like the ribbons, brads, eyelets, stamp pads, pencils, markers, punches, crimpers, and all the sewing goodies and gadgets, etc. has been time consuming. But -- now the little things are done!


This pic shows the newly organized wire shelves above sewing/stamping counter.
All the sewing notions are in the drawer units on the top shelf.
My Cuttlebug embossing folders, backgrounder stamps, Nestibilities dies and In Color stamp pads are on the bottom shelf, along with my sewing bobbins.








My stamp scrubber pads and ATG glue gun lean against the side of the drawer units. My SU ink pads are behind the SU markers.
Prismacolor pencils, Prisma watercolor pencils, SU pastels are beside the markers.

In the clear plastic boxes (embroidery floss organizers) are my brads, eyelets, very small ribbon spools, metal pieces (clips, spiral clips, etc). Adhesives, stickers of all sorts, gel pens and glitter pens are in clear shoe storage boxes. My specialty inks (VersaMark, Colorbox chalk inks, Versacolor, StazOn) are in the white box against the wall.




This in under the sewing counter. The desk on the left is an old child's desk that perfectly fits under the counter and helps stablize it. Most of my regular sewing thread spools are in the clear shoe boxes on the shelf and part of my ribbons are under that shelf. The 2-drawer unit has my 12 x 12 paper stacks and a lot of small stamping goodies - sponges, daubers, paper trimmer, ink cartridges for my stamping wheels. The clear boxes to the right of the 2-drawer unit hold my Madeira embroidery threads. My serger is against the wall to the right. The white thingy at the edge of the pic is my clothsetter for my newest embroidery machine.

All of this area looks pretty well organized.

BUT -- then you turn around and this is what you see----




An organizing project (or many projects) for another day.

An Adventure in Frustration

This is my first try at blogging - so far very frustrating. Good thing my DD has a great sense of humor and is willing to put up with my computer ignorance. She set up her blog a couple days ago and has been helping me with mine.

I started making cards at a mini workshop at a ladies retreat I went to with a dear friend, Ruth. Shortly after that I went to a Creative Women workshop at our church when my friend Kim did a mini stamping program. In July, 2006, Kim had an SU workshop at her home and the rest is history. I haven't really designed many of my own, but I sure have CASED lots of them! My love of cardmaking is second only to my love of eating:(

Now to decide which of my many, many cards to upload first -- seasonal, birthday, get well, thinking of you, oldest cards, newest cards -- decisions, decisions. I definitely cannot make all these decisions on an empty stomach:)

Thanks for reading!