The answer is 30. What is the question?

• What are the number of years since I was a freshman in high school?
• How long ago did the original Footloose movie come out?
• How many pounds would I love to lose?

All great tries.  The question du jour is: How many different types of page protectors do I have in my stash?

Tonight, I was going to start (and might still do so) a layout of the day-to-day happenings of Spring Break 2014, Project Life style.  It would mean starting a new album for me as, even though I did not get through a whole year, last year's album was filled to the brim (March through October...and I still might squeeze a November 12 x 12 in there...).  To those of you who do Project Life, or anything similar to it with divided page protectors, you know this is no small decision.  It used to be, back in the day when Becky Higgins Design A was the only choice.  She was pretty smart, that Becky.  And then.  Chaos.  The complication bar was raised.

I have 30 styles of page protectors.  Thirty.  3-0. That makes decisions super hard which is, if I recall, NOT what the framer intended.  BH wanted this to be easy-- a quick documentation of your life.  Your choices were 4 x 6" horizontal pics or smaller 4 x 2.875" vertical pics.  Period.  Those pages are still predominant in my album from last year.  Then this whole little idea took flight with several companies.  I adored the possibilities of multiple styles.  I even bought an oversized printer because of the inspiration of one page protector.  Yes, I am a crazed lunatic from whom you should shield your impressionable children and young adults.  

So, tonight, I decided to take inventory.  My son gave me some graph paper, and I sketched all that I had accumulated.  Now, I can have, in one spot, a place where I can make some decisions without having to take them all out.  Or so I hope!

This Too Shall Pass

 

I wanted to make this card with my new "I Like You" set by Kelly Purkey.  A friend is playing a waiting game for a job, and I there are really no words to help, but she's always up for a drink!  I also pulled out an oldie but goodie Bella (no longer available).  I paper pieced her capris, as I have done in the past, and did some layering with patterns and textured on the image.

I had a frustrating time with the sentiment. I hope it's just a fluke, but there was a whole lot of excess polymer/adhesive on the stamp.  It's still not as "clean" as I would have liked (imagine that phrase stamped many times in my craft room), but it'll do.

Size: 5.5 x 4.25"  
Ink: Adirondack and Copics

Many Thanks

I needed to make a card that was somewhat formal, and I needed to repeat the design.  These are thank-you cards for the people who interviewed me for a job.  I used my new Lawn Fawn Many Thanks set.  I also used my Cuttlebug Thanks Words embossing folder.  I hand cut the sentiment flag.  I used SU! Rich Razzleberry ink for a bit of color. The base and flag are popped up with Stampin' Up! Dimensionals.

This is a 5.5 x 4.25 card using Neenah Solar white.

For Our Little Prayer Partner

When second graders are preparing for their First Holy Communion in my church, parishioners choose to be prayer partners during their journey.  Our family chose a little guy who was in day care with Max.  I made him this card.

I went a little craft-cray-cray and even stamped the envelope!  Yeah me!

I was inspired at first by my buddy, Karen's, card, which used repetitive stamping to give a patterned paper feel.  She linked to the person who inspired her card.  This stamper's personalized notebooks reminded me that, HEY!  I can make my own patterns!  Duh!

One little note of sadness: as I was cleaning the design that I stamped in Rich Razzleberry, I ripped part of it off.  Sigh.  Hoping I can fix it somehow, but I am not hopeful.

Card size: 5.5 x 4.25"

Cardstock: Stampin' Up! Rich Razzleberry textured, Neenah Solar white

Inks: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry and Always Artichoke

Stamps: Papertrey Ink Everyday Blessings

Shut the Front Door

Yes, I bought the entire Studio Calico Home Sweet Home stamp set JUST for this stamp.

This card has some stories.  First, the story of the Movers and Shapers.

A few years ago (yes, years), I bought some Stampin' Up! Movers and Shapers dies.  One of them was the shape of an ornament stamp that I had and was cutting by hand every time I used it.  I thought I could just stick them through my Cuttlebug.  Looked simple enough.

I did not realize that there was a Sizzix XL die into which the little dies were designed to go.  Clearly the dies were not a priority.  Then I got a Big Kick, and I thought I should probably figure these out.  And figure I did.  Here's a brief video to show how they "roll" (pun intended).

So, I ordered the larger die off of eBay, as it has been retired from SU!.  It came today, and I was so excited to use it!  And then...I realized I needed XL plates to run it through.  Totally being Punk'd!  Off to Michaels I went, spending the rest of my Christmas gift card and using my 40% off coupon.  I now had everything I needed.  Woot!

I saw a fellow teacher at Michaels who notes that my purse matched the outfit I was wearing.  TOTALLY coincidental, but inspiration for my color choice.  Rick Razzleberry it is!  I cut the card, stamped the sentiment, and thought putting the house inside was pretty funny, in a clean and simple sorta way.

I used my new Stampin' Up! washi tape to give the front a little pop.  I really like this card a lot!

Hugs and Kisses

Man, people are getting so sick lately!  So many of my friends' kids have gotten knock-down, drag-out, Advil-resistant, viral sick.  For one little four year old, I decided to make her a card, because she spiked a 104 temp last night.  She was a good buddy to Max this summer, so I made the card from "Max and His Mom."

Wish I could say it was my idea to use a bandage on a get well card, but I did see some here and there on galleries.  It was my first use of American Crafts glitter tape (what a great idea!).  I used my Stampin' Up! Basic Gray cardstock and embossing folder.  The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink (Limitless Labels).  I used some Nestabilities dies, some google eyes, and some SU! Dimensionals to raise things up a bit.  

You Make Me Happy...

...when skies are gray.

So, the whole time I am making this card, that's what I am singing.  That line.  Over and over.  My crafting cadence.

The details I adore about this card were hard to photograph as I looked at the card in its entirety, so I tried to photograph snippets.  Here is the whole card (or the best I could do at 11:30 PM).

This card is a combination of multiple materials.The embossing on the base is Cuttlebug's Dots embossing folder.  The chalkboard style paper is Chevron/Chalkboard from We R Memory Keepers.  The stamps come from Stampin' Up! Studio Calico, and Unity Stamps.  The washi is from We R Memory Keepers.  I used Stampin' Up! Craft White ink, Stampin' Up!'s chalk pen, and Stampin' Up! Summer Sun ink.  I popped up the cloud and the word "HAPPY" and the chalkboard base with Stampin' Up! Dimensionals.  I love this phrase that I got with my newly-earned "See Ya Later" set from Stampin' Up!'s Sale-A-Bration promotion.  I just got it today, and it needed to see some ink.  I was hoping to use my Bitty Banners framelets in my Big Kick, but I must warn that this particular stamp was a tough one from which to pop that word.  The "y" in the word "you" was very close to the word "HAPPY," so I needed to cut the banner by hand to get it thin enough to stand alone.  Coloring this stamp also did not work well.  The markers just would not give a good image.

I LOVE how this turned out.