Monday, November 29, 2010

More Mini Album

Hello!
Well, I am happy to say that I survived exam week! Woo hoo! I think I actually did alright on my exams, but I won't know for sure for three weeks! I don't know how I am going to be able to wait that long...
This past weekend, since I didn't have any homework, I thought I would get a whole lot accomplished for Christmas. Yeah, not so much! I spent Friday lugging a very heavy tree up the stairs (in two parts and it still felt like I was lugging an elephant up the stairs!). Once I got it upstairs, I looked for the stand...and looked, and looked. I finally gave up and started pulling out other Christmas decorations to set up...and I eventually found it in the storage room behind some Christmas totes. So then I set up the stand, and now the two elephants I lugged up the stairs, and I now have to stand them upright and connect them...more struggling! I finally got it put together, and thought I'd plug it in and use the remote to turn on the lights...then I couldn't find the remote! Longer story short-the only thing I accomplished this weekend was the tree! Geesh.
Today I am posting two more pages of the mini album. I have some Christmas card pictures to post, and I should be able to put them up this week, so stay tuned!
These two pages mark the start of my own creativity-I no longer had instructions to work from, so I had to think these up all by myself. Hope you like them!
Have a great day!
Donna

Friday, November 19, 2010

Mini Album Part Two

Hello!
As promised, here are some more pictures of the mini album that I worked on this summer. This album was a part of a kit I bought from SU a couple of years ago. They were selling these kits to raise money for Big Brothers and Big Sisters. They had instructions on how to put together the cover and these pages, but the rest I had to design myself. The kit itself came with a number of die-cut adhesives as well as designer paper and matching textured paper. My goal was to complete the album, and use up as much of everything as I could, to see if there was enough fixin's for an entire album.
Guess what? It worked! I finished the entire album with what they had in the kit. I don't think there was too much left over. So I am posting these four pages today. The next post starts the pages I designed myself. Some are simple, some are a little more involved.
Hope you like it! See you soon!
Donna

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Christmas Shopping

Hello!
This past weekend my hubby, girls, and in-laws travelled to Birch Run-Frankenmuth for our annual shopping trip. Usually I manage to get a fair bit of Christmas shopping done on this trip. Last year, as we were driving home, I realized, in a panic, that I hadn't bought a single gift for Christmas, and I would have to do all of my shopping at home! This year, however, I was a woman on a mission-I had to cross more names off the Christmas shopping list than last year! LOL Anyway, I accomplished my mission at the Cracker Barrel where we had lunch on our way to Frankenmuth.
Then we went on to Bronner's Christmas World that night-have you ever been there? It is awesome! If you like Christmas, you'll love Bronner's! It has everything. It's a great way to kick off the Christmas shopping-just walking around the store puts you in the mood for Christmas.
On Saturday we went to the outlet mall at Birch Run, only to realize it was Deer Widow's Weekend. We made the mistake of going to Birch Run on Deer Widow's Weekend about 5 years ago. Oh my gosh...there are women everywhere! You see, the weekend is the same weekend as the start of deer hunting weekend, so all kinds of women are shopping in droves, and it is busy! It usually takes about 7-10 minutes to get to a parking space from our hotel, and this year it took at least a 1/2 hour!
However, being on a mission, I managed to cross off even more names from my list. This weekend was a success! I'm not done, but I have a good start. I'm good with that!
Ok, so speaking of Christmas gifts...
I made this mini album, thinking at some point it might come in handy to give someone as a gift. I didn't finish it for a couple of years, but pulled it out this summer when I was visiting my friend Kim. I am posting it in the hopes it can work as a jump-off point for anyone out there who is considering a mini-album, and who may be like me, and has a hard time trying to figure out page layouts.
Hope you like it!
Donna

Friday, November 5, 2010

Thank You!

Hello and Happy Friday!
Before this September, because I stayed at home, Fridays didn't mean too much out of the ordinary, usually. I just tried to tidy the house so we could have a clean house for the weekend. Now that I'm back in school, Fridays have taken on a whole new meaning, and I am extremely grateful when they come around! It means a little break from school, I get to sleep in, and hopefully I have more time to work on my homework. Hopefully. ;)
So today's card is appropriate not just because I'm thankful for Fridays, but also because I'm thankful to those of you who are hanging in there and still reading my blog, even if I forget to post at the beginning of the week. It means a lot to me that there are those of you who still check in to see what's new with me or my stamping. So with all my heart I say Thank you!
On to the card for today...
To make this card, I dug into (aka dusted off! LOL) some old designer paper, and a technique I hadn't tried in a while! The card (dsp part) started off as a circle, and then I scalloped it by removing the paper guide from the corner rounder (remember that technique?). I carefully tried to line up the scallops, or rounded corners to create a (somewhat) even scallop all around. It's pretty easy, and I like that it's different from my usual quarter-fold card. I made sure to cut the circle to a size that would fit into the usual envelope, just so I wouldn't go crazy trying to find the right-sized envelope in my mountain of unused envelopes. It's best to stay away from there....you know, in case of "avalanche"! LOL
Well that's it for today-have a great weekend! We are going as a family to see Megamind-I'm not sure who's more excited about it, the adults or the girls!
I will be back next week with a mini-scrapbook series!
Bye for now!
Donna