Service Project

So I took on a Service Project to create greeting cards for the Women's Axillary at the Mormon Church. I was pleasantly surprised with how fast and easy it went, but disappointed the project didn't last longer. I want to share the outcome. Enjoy!

First photo is hand made stationary boxes to hold the cards and white envelopes

The miscellaneous cards including geometric, floral, and vintage styles

Baby cards, Sympathy cards, and cards that have a surprise matching bookmark inside

30 cards that state Relief Society on the outside, have the Declaration of the Relief Society on the inside left cover, and a white blank area to write a personal message on the inside right

Scrapbook Classes at Michaels!

I am now a certified Scrapbook Design and You teacher from EKSuccess. I will begin teaching scrapbook classes at one of our local Michaels stores in January. Please come join me and sign up soon as they are running a 40% off class special right now. The $45 price is reduced to $27. Very exciting!

My Michaels store 6401 W Plano Parkway and is the one at Plano Parkway and Park, just west of The Shops at Willow Bend. Easiest way to get there is get off the Dallas North Tollway at the Park exit, then go west.

We are looking at offering Day classes and Evening classes.
* Tuesdays 12:30-2:30pm Feb, 8, 15 ** CHANGED ** Mar 1, 8
* Wednesday 6:00-8:00pm Feb 9, 16 ** CHANGED ** Mar 2, 9

Call the store to register 972-473-7313
Call me directly if you have any questions.

Never-ending Card

Enjoy!

Business Cards

So I really love angel wings as the logo for my business. Mane Concepts is the business name which has been in the family for many years. Vista Printing had a promotion of free cards and so these were the ones I had printed up. I am working on an angel wing design to be made out of wire, also.

More Inchies

These were for a B&W and a Blue and Black swap. I was glad I got pics of them, I think they turned out quite well. If you want any for yourself, just let me know.

B&W cards

I was very proud of both of these. The butterfly is my design and I am doing lots of things with them and my Silhouette cutter! Very exciting!

Greeting Cards

I think I found the design of general greeting cards. I need to post them to Etsy, I wasn't sure whether to list each card separately or have the four cards together and include in the description to pick the color theme of the card and the color of the wire. Anyway, enjoy!

St Patty Inchies

I made these for a swap bot inchie swap for St Patrick's day.

FontAid

I believe in posting things that inspire me:
SOTA : The Society of Typographic Aficionados

Matchbox Template

I believe in giving credit where credit is due. My discovery of matchbox decorating came from joining swap-bot.com. One of the user's, Rachel, created a template that is free to download and has some great instructions for making matchboxes. There are some really pretty pictures of decorated ones also.

This is the path to cut and paste:
http://blog.swap-bot.com/rachels-matchbox-template

Active Link Here

cutout letters

So I cut this out with an exacto knife, then scanned it and converted it to an outline that my new Silhouette SD can cut for me! I used spray adhesive to attach it to vellum paper and folded into an envelope. I was very happy with how it turned out. Enjoy.

matchboxes

These are some of the matchboxes I have made. They are deeper than a regular matchbox, I made my own size. They are perfect for swaps of Inchies. Enjoy!

Glossary of Paper Crafts

I started keeping a list of paper craft projects and the list kept growing. Since I was typing it up for myself, I figured why not post it, also? This is a glossary for paper craft projects, all units in inches unless otherwise specified. My favorite listing are Inchies, ATC’s, Moo Cards, and grocery sack pages. These are in alphabetical order:
• Accordion Album – any album that is folded into zig-zag pages (mountains and valleys) that expand out to display. Usually 3x3 to 6x6 size and may include pockets and tags for additional storage.
• Acid/acid-free – Acid-free is required for archival quality to have your projects last over time. Acid will eat away your projects making them yellow, brittle, and faded. You can purchase a spray to convert acid items to acid-free.
• Acrylic Album – mini album made from clear plastic sheets, can be precut design, mixed shapes and sizes, or square; takes advantage of clear effect of pages
• ATC’s – Artist Trading Cards “art in your pocket” collectibles with sports trading cards as their origins. Must be 2.5x3.5 (64x89 mm) and fit in transparent card sleeves. Have the art on the front and the artist’s info on the back. These are traded and collected and should not be sold. See Inchies for ideas for artwork.
• BLOG – short for Web-Log, a personal, online journal to share with others
• BOM – (1) book of me, see personal album (2) Book of Mormon for us daughters of the Utah Pioneers…
• Bookmarks – anything pretty and flat that can save your place in a book, often with pressed flowers
• Brads – two prong fasteners used to embellish or bind paper together
• Business cards – standard size are 3.5x2 calling cards for businesses and have now expanded to personal or promoting yourself cards
• Cards – standard sizes are 3.5x5 or 4x6. USPS basic first class postage applies to 3.5x5 up to 6.125x11.5(x.25 thick). Square or vertical envelopes subject to surcharge ($.20 as of Feb 2010)
• Carousel Mini Album - folds flat and opens to four 6x6 “rooms” in a carousel display, also called a square mini book or room mini album
• Chipboard – aka book board, used to make mini album covers or matchboxes or embellishments; thicker than cardstock, similar to cereal boxes (which are not acid free)
• Chubbies – see fat pages
• Chunky Book – a book made of all or several fat pages
• Concertina Album – see Accordion album
• Corner Chomper – by same company as Crop-A-Dile, a super-strength tool to cut ¼ or ½ rounds to corners
• Cricut – the brand name for a well known digital cutting machine to make die cuts and laser cut outs. Requires cartridges for each design. I personally have the QuikCuts Silhouette SD as my personal digital cutter as I can create my own designs and use any true type font I have on my computer.
• Crop-A-Dile – a super-strength hole punch and grommet setter. You can see where the holes will punch (unlike traditional hole punches), and replaces grommet setting tools.
• Cropping – the art of cutting photos to the size or shape you want
• Crystal Lacquer – a clear glaze that adds depth and dimension to your accents, can be used for adhesive for small beads or add tint to make a glass paint
• Embossing – (1) dry uses a stylus to create a bumpy or pressed design in paper (2) powder used with rubber stamps and a heat gun to create a shiny, pretty, painted look
• Envelopes – can be hand made, store bought, or created in miniature to hold notes and journaling; or clear to hold mementos in albums
• Fabric Paint – common term for fine tip paints that can be used to make lace dots on paper or paint for stained glass art; most common brand is Tulip
• FAT Inchies – 1x1 inchies that have depth or dangles to make them thick
• Fat Pages – embellished pages that are more than .25 inch thick with buttons, foam, zippers, 3-D, etc items of bling to make them pretty
• Frames – cardstock cutouts to place multiple pictures into, often to create a themed scrapbook page
• Glossy Accent – see crystal lacquer
• Grocery Sack Papers – take 8-12 layers of the white plastic grocery sacks, laid flat, and iron between brown paper. It melts and fuses together. Then cover with paint and wipe off, it looks like a fake leather. Gives you a warm fuzzy alternative to adding plastic to landfills. Can be cut to make MiniCards or used to make mini albums.
• Grommet – (not to be confused with Wallace and Grommit) little metal circles in pretty colors that decorate or attach pages. Can be used as the holes to bind pages with ribbon or embroidery thread, requires a hole punch and grommet setter.
• Heat Embossing Tool – a scrapbook gun that melts and sets embossing powder. I have tried both a hairdryer and a flame lighter… there is something to be said for having the right tools to do the job right. Packs a lot of heat and will melt carpet and household plastics.
• Inchies – 1x1 square small embellishments or collectables, may be kept in a matchbox; made with paper punches, rubber stamps, embossed, lace, ribbon, hand-drawn, brads, collage, painted, altered art, wire, photo, words, color themes, yarn, sequins, beads, buttons, charms, pressed flowers, hand written or anything else you can think of. These started with fiber art in fabric and sewing, and have expanded to paper crafts via rubber stamps and embossing. Today they are huge for swaps and collectibles and to some degree are replacing ATC’s.
• Journals – usually written text of thoughts, ideas, questions, philosophy, lists and/or notes of a personal nature. Can also include sketches and drawings. In papercraft can be a pretty paper cover or hand made book.
• Jump Rings – small wires used for jewelry which can also be used to bind mini albums or make embellishments
• Lignin – the stuff that bonds fibers in trees, it makes newsprint go yellow. Will deteriorate photos, avoid it for archival quality projects
• Mail Art – postcard size are 3.5x5 up to 4.25x6 for reduced USPS rates
• Matchboxes – the 32 count size is approximately 1.5x2x.5. It is decorated and can hold anything, including inchies and twinchies. Can be made from cardstock.
• Matting – paper slightly larger than your cropped photos, adhered behind the pics to make them stand out; can be multi layers or sideways/offset
• Mini Books – any size up to 8x8 with one theme or a limited number of pages
• MiniCards – see Moo cards
• Mod Podge – paper craft adhesive and sealant, comes in glossy or matte, gazillions of uses as both a glue and project protection
• Moo cards or MiniCards – 2.75x1 , created by moo.com, these are conversation openers (approximately half size of business cards) intended to have varying photos in each pack on one side and your blog or business or info on the back
• Origami Mini Book – two sided, photo only book made from one 12x12 piece of cardstock, holds 18 units of 3x3 pictures, folds flat to just over 3x3
• Paper Bag Album – brown lunch sack size pages, bound, glued, stapled or tied together to make a mini book or scrapbook
• Personal Album – a scrapbook for yourself, by you, to preserve your personal history, your legacy, your thoughts, dreams and life
• Pockets – similar to envelopes, decorative holders for tabs or journaling
• PSI – plus size inchies are fat inchies, or inchies with depth
• Room Mini Album – see Carousel mini album
• Skinnies or Skinny book – 4x6 to hold only pictures rather than traditional scrapbooking with journaling and embellishments
• Skinny Pages - either 3x7 or 4x8 pages, usually made for swaps with a theme
• Square Mini Book – see Carousel mini album
• Stab Binding – Japanese art of binding paper together, very chic to make your own albums or journals
• Tabs – anything that sticks out from the “normal edge” of the paper, can include pockets with journaling, tabs sticking out of envelopes, something to draw attention to a particular page in an album, etc
• Tag Book – made of tag shaped pages, can be bound at the top or the bottom of the tags. Also can use tags to bind 6x6 or 8x8 pages into a book.
• Twinchies – 2x2 square medium embellishments or collectables, may be kept in a matchbox; see Inchies for ideas
• Waterfall card or book – this paper craft has a slider to make the pages flip. Usually about 8-16 sides of pages available. Do a Google search, there are a lot of tutorials on line.
• Zine (/ˈziːn/ "zeen") small circulation publication, self-published, not-for-profit

Inchies

So Inchies are 1x1 papers that can be traded, exchanged, and collected for paper craft projects. I recently made a bunch for a swap. I also made a little box to hold the inchies, I called it an Inchie Box. I am excited that they turned out so fun! They are intentionally only Black and White. Enjoy!

Valentine Cards

I have been busy being creative. Each pic has four cards, enjoy!

Stationery Boxes

My missionary son requested something to keep his mail/cards in. I created this template from a box of cards that I had. I am quite pleased with how it turned out! Feel free to download the template and try for yourself. It is two files, you can print them out and tape them together.


Supplies you will need:
One file folder
Metal ruler
Embossing tool, bone folder, or butter knife
Exacto knife
Cutting board
Push pin
Corner round paper punch

I have some tips and tricks I recommend:
Practice on a plain, vanilla, boring file folder to get the hang of it
I actually use the metal ruler to be the width of the folds, so I don't have to measure or mark anything
Use an embossing tool to score the lines, you can use a bone folder, or probably even a butter knife
Keep the metal ruler in place after you score the lines, hold it steady and bend the file folder against it
After you have scored the whole thing, use the exacto knife against the metal ruler on a cutting board to cut
Use a push pin to mark the holes and tabs. Just mark the ends and make free-hand cuts
Make the side tabs only half-circles, but cut the center tab with little horizontal lines off the edges; this circle will be used often and doing this will help it from tearing
Trim a little from the edges if necessary to fold flat for mailing or storage
Use a corner punch to round all edges, this makes it look really professional
I add a brad on the front because I think it looks more finished that way

If you want me to make you some, let me know. I can do one in about 15 minutes, start to finish. If you need the "template" as an attachment to an email, just let me know. Cheers!

Ears follow-up

I did go to the doctor. My ear is red, but not infected. My nose is badly inflamed and so I have a anti-histamine nose spray that I am supposed to use daily for a Month! It leaves a weird aftertaste that I get the pleasure of experiencing all day. But at least I am not infected, for the time being. Thanks for all the good thoughts for me out there.

Ears

I begin by saying the dates and ages are from my memory, so I reserve the right to be inaccurate. My grandpa, my father’s father, had ear problems in his twenties, and had his entire inner ear removed from one side, I think it was his left. So he was completely deaf in that ear. The grandpa I remember had chronic hearing loss and hearing aids you could hear buzzing when you hugged him. My dad got his hearing tested around age 45 and was told he had the hearing of a 70-year old. He has not accepted hearing aids yet. His poor hearing is a great source of upset for him. My mom has had chronic ear infections, and ongoing ear problems for at least the last fifteen years. I am proud of her for getting hearing aids, and she loves them and highly recommends them. Actually they are kind of cute.
So I usually don’t mess around with ears. For the last ten years or so, if I have any pain at all, I get right in to the doctor, and ninety-eight percent of the time they say, yes you have some inflammation, but no infection, thank-you for your co-pay and have a nice day. So I have been trying to be less of a hypochondriac with my ears.
I have noticed over the years that I can’t hear as well as I used to, so in July 2008I broke down and got a hearing test and a hearing specialist. They said, yes, you have hearing loss, probably genetic, enough of a loss that you qualify for a hearing aid with your insurance, would you like to see our multi-thousands-of-dollars choices? I said thanks for the info and I will get back to you. On one hand, knowledge is power but knowing this does what for me? I am able to tell people so when they whisper to me and I ask them to repeat themselves, I have a good reason for it. I have a good excuse for turning up the volume on the TV when the dialogue is too quiet, even though the music and the commercials are ridiculously loud. But that is another subject for another blog entry…
Back to my ears, over the Christmas holiday, we took a road trip to Utah, me, Tony, and our two puppies (full grown dogs, but we call them our puppies). I got the sick, maybe January 1st, during the trip, with my usual post nasal drip, sore throat, clogged ears, and a mild cough. I was mildly sick for what seemed like forever, but was likely less than a week.
In my letter to my missionary son, January 6th (I like to use different fonts in my letters to keep the letters exciting):
Monday night my right ear was itching, so I figured that I could scratch it with my pinky finger. I thought if I wasn’t using a q-tip, I should be okay. I was wrong.
It kept itching so I kept scratching. I don’t know if I have scraped the ear drum or what I have done but it really hurts now. The thing is, if I went to a doctor, they would just tell me I have hurt it and it needs to heal. I can still hear. If I broke the ear-drum it would have bled. So I am stuck with knowing I hurt myself and it is my own fault.
January 9th my letter said my ear is finally trying to equalize and is making popping noises. I haven’t really thought much about my ear for the last two weeks, except when I take the puppies for a walk. When the weather is chilly, I notice my ears are cold and the right one hurts a little. But when I get home and warm up, I forget about it. I can hear okay, so I have not really thought about it.
Now this morning, January 27th, I woke up with ear pain. As I sit here typing I am in pain. I broke down and called the doctor and have an appointment in an hour. I hope it is all in my head, thank-you for your co-pay, and have a nice day. I guess this post will need a follow-up, huh?

Letters for Joe

My Missionary.
I can't believe I am old enough to have a son on a mission. My Joey, Elder Joseph John Calcote, who I now address as Elder Joe (EJ for short), is in Atlanta Georgia serving the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS or Mormons). He will be there until October 2011 and he is doing incredibly well.
I created a profile for Joe on www.DearElder.com/ElderJCalcote (working link on the right), and I am including this on my blog because missionaries need mail! If you go to this site and pick send a letter, you can type him a message on line and DearElder.com will mail it for you, and charge it to my account. This way you don't have to worry about envelopes, addresses, stamps, or catching the mail-person. I invite everyone to send him a message from time to time so he can get lots of support.
Thanks for your help on this endeavor. I call it my "Letters for Joe" project.

The Mystery of the Oven Mitt

When I was growing up, we had a stranger living in our house. His name was Senhor Ninguém (neighn-game is how I remember saying it). That is portuguese for Mister Nobody. He was the deviant who ate all the maraschino cherries out of the bottle. He opened the container of treats and ate them slowly one by one over time, so mom would find just a few in the bottom when she thought there was a full container. He left just a smidgen of milk in the bottom of the bottle and yet put it back in the fridge. He threw our clothes on the floor. He tracked dirt through the house and pulled the fur off the dog and blew it into the corners to become dust bunnies. He was the one who hid our things under the bed or in the back of the closet so a little brother or sister would get blamed for taking things. In fact, he took things and put them in those little brother or sister’s rooms to provoke a fight. He was always getting somebody in trouble.

The bad news: he has now moved in with us.

Tony and I have two, ratty, well used, oven mitts. Dark blue, the normal mitten style with the quilted material. One has a burn mark where it had caught on fire after touching the oven coil. One is slightly torn with the stuffing peeking out. They only work medium well, but there is one catch to them. You really need two. Two mitts for two hands. Call that the safety tip of the day.

Our aberrant friend, Senhor Ninguém, decided to take one. Usually with enough searching you can find where he hides the goods. But not this time. We have searched high and low, all the cupboards and drawers in the kitchen. The laundry and the laundry room, behind and beside the washer and dryer. Even in the garage, which enters into our kitchen. We are stumped.

So now that I have shared about our friend, I plan to go buy replacement mitts. Surprisingly, it’s not that easy. So far, all that I have found are either really expensive, or crappy quality. Oven mitts that are thin are bad news. But the silver lining inside the dark cloud is as soon as I get new ones, the old one will reappear. And we will have another story for solving this mystery from our best buddy Senhor Ninguém.

My favorite movies

I made a list and limited it to twenty. I might have other favorites that I prefer more, but this is my list for today. Yes, many are rated R, so be forewarned. In alphabetical order and with the ratings as I remember them:
• Blind Side – I am a sucker for a based on True Story movies (PG-13)
• Braveheart – adventure love story, set in historic times (R)
• Count of Monte Cristo – love the plan the revenge, adventure, romance of it all (PG-13)
• Fight Club – the twist made it worth the violence (R)
• Incredibles – probably my favorite cartoon, but some of those Disney classics are hard to beat (PG)
• It’s a Wonderful Life – my favorite classic, almost a tie with Bridge over the River Kwai (PG)
• Ladyhawke – my favorite movies as a teenager (PG)
• Pay it Forward – a classic good movie, sad but in a good way ending (PG-13)
• Pretty Woman – my favorite movies as a twenty-something (PG, but before PG-13 ratings)
• Rob Roy – similar story to Braveheart, the adventure love story set in historic times (R)
• Seven Pounds – will watch this one over and over again. It makes me cry in a good way (PG-13)
• Se7en – I would put this in a horror category, but it really made me think (R)
• Shawshank Redemption – fitting this is Stephen King and rated R, but is an amazing story (R)
• Sixth Sense – classic suspense, twist in the end, excellent movie (PG-13)
• Sommersby – amazing story. Everyone who watches it with me yells at me and asks why I made them watch it. But I love it. (PG-13?)
• Steel Magnolias – classic girly movie, makes me cry, love Julia Robert and a fabulous all star cast (PG)
• Sweet November – for my hubby, this movie reminds him of me. A carefree, out there personality who shows someone a world they didn’t know exists. (PG-13)
• The Life of David Gale – this is a less known movie that is also a thinker (R)
• The Piano – Holly Hunter, less known movie, appropriately R-rated, I am a pianist and found the story to be very intriguing (R)
• The Usual Suspects – another Kevin Spacey classic. Makes me smile to think about the plot. (R)

My Blog

I am happy with my blog, but I want more. My best friend in high school, Marike van der Veen, has a beautiful blog. She is my inspiration. I want a place to write. Which is kind of ironic because Marike was the one who wanted to be a writer, I was the one who wanted to be an engineer. In some ways, we both achieved our dreams, Marike is a writer, because she is writing, and I have an engineering degree. But want to expand my dreams.


One of my life goals is to write a book. I doubt it will be fiction, although I have thought about writing my life story and calling it “Better Than Fiction,” realistically I think changing the names will still allow people to be offended so I haven’t really pursued that writing aspiration. I have been called the goddess of lists. Or maybe more aptly the evil goddess of lists. I have thought about writing a reference book that includes some of my lists that have been helpful to me in my life. Something that could make a difference for other people. I am still trying that idea on.

Anyway, I have hesitated creating something publically since I have some people in my past I really want to avoid. That is another story for another day. What I discovered about myself if that I would rather be myself: outgoing and self-expressed, and not worry about that right now. This stems from my marriage to Tony, he is a born and raised in New York City, Dominican with all the reservation, suspicion, and judgment that comes with it. Yes, I was going to put paranoia, but that is a little strong. He is reserved and suspicious of the world, at the far end of that spectrum. Then there is me: the opposite of him, open, carefree and trusting of most everything. Between the two of us we become one “normal” person. I will trust the universe that I will gain more than I might risk by creating a blog and proceed.

My oldest, Elder Joseph Calcote, is on a Mormon Mission to Atlanta Georgia. I write him at least five times a week. I think that writing also reaffirms my desire to create a blog because it is such a good outlet to share my thoughts.

So Marike’s blog is dedicated to children, food, and the arts that turn the average mom into a domestic diva. These are the things she loves. She asserts that the blogs that work are written from the heart and are about the things you love. I can take that on. My blog will center upon family, paper crafts, and living life full out. Paper crafts will include scrapbooking and card making and all that entails. I feel a little backwards creating my blog, and then figuring out what it is about, but this is part of life! It well represents that things don’t always go as you planned, but they do always go perfectly.

In closing, the pictures above are of me and Marike, probably halloween of 1982 or 1983. Enjoy. Marike, I love you. Thank-you for sharing your life and being my inspiration.

Lisa Mane’s A-Z About Me, January 2010
A – alphabet lists are a great way to add journaling, I have not made a list of things I love in a while, thank you for this assignment swap-bot.com!
B – books, especially hand made ones are unique and wonderful
C – computer, since most people will say crafts, I will say I love my computer
D – dogs, I am a relatively new dog lover, I have two of my own
E – elephants, my mother collects them, so whenever I see one I think of mom

F – fish, tropical fish are a hobby I have enjoyed in the past, I am thinking of putting up my tank again. Also Family. I am the oldest and the shortest, I am the one in the middle. There are six kids, five girls and a boy and he is the youngest. And yes, he has hot pink hair…
G – google is one of my favorite websites, I love gmail and google earth
H – home is wonderful, I like our house, I love living in Texas, I love our pool

I – iPhone, I didn’t think I would love it but I have to admit I do
J – Joe is my oldest, he is serving a Mormon Mission in Atlanta, GA, I am very proud of him

K – kitchen is not my best place, I am better at baking than cooking.
L – love is what makes the world go round
M – Maltese, the type of dogs I have and Mane, my last name which I love, from my husband. Daisy, the girl is on the left, Sage, the boy is on the right

N – new toys, basically any craft thing I don’t have yet
O – origami architecture is a new craft I have discovered, Peter Callesen is an artist I am following.
P – purple, probably my favorite color, it is so regal and is a mix of red and blue.
Q – quick projects are some of my favorite ones.
R – Rob is my youngest, he is a senior, lives with his dad and might come to Texas (I hope)

S – sunshine makes me happy, it is the best thing about the color yellow
T – two boys is what I call my kids, I love boys, but I also love my nieces (and nephews). There are now 18 nieces and nephews (and still counting)
U – umbrellas are fun as a photography prop and paper-craft embellishment
V – Van Orman is my maiden name, it is Dutch, I am proud of my Danish and Dutch heritage
W – water, I love the ocean, our pool, SCUBA, snorkeling and all swimming things
X – eXcel is a great tool I use it for tons of things, my computer is full of files I have created
Y – yard work, I love when I am doing it, but it seem tough to get into it… The picture of our house above was proof we had snow, before Rob raked the leaves and Tony trimmed the bushes.
Z – zine, a new word I learned (from Wiki) is most commonly a small circulation publication of original or appropriated texts and images.

Grocery Sack Album

I created an album of my favorite ten pictures. It is posted on my Google Picasa account.

Fav Pics - grocery sack album

It is made from plastic grocery sacks. I cut off the handles and the seam at the bottom. Then I cut out the logo and flatten. Put eight layers together inside a brown paper sack, and iron on medium. Make sure to keep the iron moving or you will melt holes in the page. After you are confident it has melted and fused together, let it cool. Cut to the size you want and cover with water based craft paint. Wipe off with a paper towel and let dry. Then use the pages as scrapbook pages as you want.
Let me know what you think of the grocery sack pages and also of the album in general. I am quite pleased with how it turned out! Enjoy!

Link to Day in Dallas scrapbook

Ok, I gave up trying to get the pics in Blogger and uploaded them to Google's Picasa. Hopefully this link will work! Enjoy

http://picasaweb.google.com/lrmane/DayDallas?feat=directlink

p.s. Now I figured out how to post a direct link so you don't have to cut and paste the link above into a browser window.

DayDallas

More Kirigami

So I continued with my Kirigami projects today. The one of a puppy looking out at the moon is supposed to be Sage or Daisy, but I don't think I have the tail right. The dark blue one is one of Tony's favorites, I will be able to duplicate any kind of design in the middle circle now that I have the basic pattern down.

Kirigami

I found a new art form when looking for three dimensional card ideas. Tried a couple experiments then jumped right into making some cards. Kirigami is Japanese for paper cutting and folding. Enjoy!

Nieces and Nephews

I created sixteen of these little books for Christmas for my nieces and nephews. This is the six that are my sister Jana's family. They are baggie books, using 4x6 baggies for the pictures with cardstock covers. It was a fun project.

3-D card

I tried this as an experiment. Turned out pretty nice!