Chalking Embellishements

When you want a different look for embellishments or cards, try using chalks. Below is a Smilebox sideshow which shows you the project step by step.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Make Personalized Stationary

I love personalized stationary .
Fine Stationary
Paper Wink

One of my favorite presents was a box of "Sharon Markell" stationary on extra white, heavy cardstock. The treasures in the box included a variety of cards, note pads, gift cards, post cards, note cards etc. Some were printed with my intials, some first name and some my full name. When I got married I put the box away, figuring I would use it up "later".

Almost fifteen years later, I unearthed the box while cleaning out the basement. It brought back memories of how much I enjoyed using the stationary. Personalized stationary makes a great gift.

Making cards for Tasha was a lot of fun. I wouldn't want to make 10 or 20 of each one though. It would take a long time. However in the day of scanners and color printers, making personalized stationary is as easy as buying quality paper, ink and choosing 1-2 favorite designs.

The cards were made by printing the base paper with green ink, stamping with versa mark ink and embossing with shiny green embossing powder. The "Tasha" paper was run through the Xyron before embossing but next time I would wait until after embossing.


Once you scan the designs, you can resize and recolor to make different types of cards. It is important to have a VERY CLEAN design because the scanner will pick up all the flaws.

If you don't want to use your own paper and ink you can order from VISTA PRINT!! Have you discovered them yet?
Vista Print

You upload your design to their website and for a very reasonable price you have your own set of cards. My plan for the weekend is to order 4 sets for gifts. I'll let you know how they turn out!!

Hmmm! This young lady does not look too happy!!!

But look what a few years will do!!!

Traditions ~ The Sap is Running

~~TRADITIONS~~

We all know family traditions are important. When we were first married, I tried to be very intentional about establishing traditions. What I found was that most of the ideas out there revolve around families bigger than 2!! Many of the suggestions are focused on kids. Somewhere along the way I forgot about establishing traditions. Looking back, our traditions have naturally evolved out of living through the seasons with Larry who loves events of all kinds!


St. Patrick's Day at the Buffalo Irish Center and going to the sugar bush during Maple Weekend are two of our favorite traditions. This year we chose Moores in Freedom, NY. We decided to leave early since last year arriving at 1pm put us right in the middle of the crowds.

First we had breakfast at the pancake house. Best pancakes I have ever had!! Thin, eggy and hot- more like crepes than heavy pancakes. Then we left on the wagon for the woods. It is so peaceful to be in the woods on a crisp, sunny morning!!
I couldn't NOT take this picture. I'm sure most of you had the same thing come to mind that I did...

Two roads converged in the woods... And I took the road less traveled... And that has made the difference! Robert Frost.

Here we are learning that adding a vacuum pump at the end of the lines increases the sap flow by upwards of 50%.

Did I say it was CRISP?? read COLD!!

Cold

and BEAUTIFUL!!

Down the road from Moores there was a field full of junk. Someday I will blog about how drawn I feel to these places. My grandma's maiden name was PICkUP!!

Where other people see an ugly mess I see a collage of life and possibilities. Who know what secrets can be revealed by exploring such places.

A weathered gardening hutch slumped in the middle of the muddle. I wanted a picture! (Truth is I wanted to take home the gardening hutch but that was not an option!) Larry turned the car around and we went back so I could take pictures only to find my batteries were dead. Maybe I can convince him we need to go back for more pancakes.

Next blog- What' on my bookshelf these days??

I am trying to learn layers and having a hard time teaching myself!!!
and
Vicki Spandell says that when kids draw in preparation for writing they have composed a story, plot and all before ever writing a word. With all the focus on push push push - this is a concept we need to pay attention to!!

Like Mama Like Daughter!!

Which one is the mama??

Almost a year ago!

CARDS FOR SOLDIERS

My friend Debbie has gotten very involved with anysoldier.com. She communicates regularly with several soldiers, some who are moms with young children back in the states.
One thing I never thought about is how hard it is for soldiers to find cards, birthday, anniversary etc.. There are no local Hallmark stores in Iraq.
Debbie asked me if I could come up with some simple designs for cards that could be made quickly. These are my first attempts.
The base papers are made on glossy white card stock or matte colored card stock with Adirondack Inks. I LOVE the effects of the inks. So different than inks that blend. They react very differently on matte papers. The effect is much more muted.
It was hard to capture the true colors in the photos. They are brighter than the pictures show.


This is my favorite.

I am working on a way to send the sentiments separately from the cards. If we sent an assortment of xyroned sentiments, soldiers could use any card for any occasion.