Post Thanksgiving

Last night after all the Thanksgiving company was gone and I was done cleaning for the evening. I cut a slice of pumpkin pie, loaded it up with whip cream, and by the glow of the computer monitor, I put my feet up and listened to
"Alice's Restaurant Massacre" on Mike Putman
(aka jack and cat curio) blog play list.
The perfect end to a Thanksgiving day, thanks Mike!

Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.

This morning I do believe I finally got the last of Thanksgiving paraphernalia put back where it belongs. All the "stuff" you only pull out once or twice a year, so you have to get down on your hands and knees to put it away. We had such a house full for dinner, a lot of the furniture had to be moved. Of course that leads to a cleaning while you are at it. I have started bringing out Christmas decorations and trying to remember how I displayed them last year.

Now it's time to get back to making my Christmas cards...yes I do know I'm cutting it kind of close!

The cat beat me to my table... she is right on top of the glitter!

I got an Award!

Best thing that happened to me all day...I received an

Kreativ Blog Award from Tanya Watts, a wonderful mixed media, scrapbook and altered art designer in Belgium.

Thank you Tanya!

The rules:

1. The winner may put the logo on their blog

2. Put a link to the person who sent you the award

3. Nominate 5 blogs for the award.

I'm going to pass it along to ...

Flippinpest
An designer from Scotland. She always has such lovely mixed media art on her site, it's fun to see what she will do next.

Lindsey

Is not only a great paper artist and but she creates wonderful solder ornaments.

Sheri

She has to be the fastest scrapbooker there is, and all her design are such fun...and she is a cat lover too!
Sandy

Has the most wonderful old photos and creative art on her blog.
Lisa
Is just getting started in the blog world, and really working it! She designs (among other things) these great Palo Verde Gals. And Lisa lives in Gilbert so that makes us neighbors.

If Tanya hadn't already given Mike the Great the award, I would have given it to him. Mike makes all us Mystic Paper groupies look good.

So take at peek at these artist they are all very talented, and such fun to visit their blogs!

PS...thank you to my niece Sarah in Idaho, that talked me through, over the phone on how to cut and paste my blog award!

Cards of Christmas Past

Sheri, our Mystic Paper Design Team Captain sent out an e-mail to all the team members...we officially have the month of December off. With all this free time on my hands (HA!) I'm in great hopes of getting my Christmas cards completed. The good news is I have actually gotten started, which comes as a big surprise to even me. So to fill in the time, I'm going to share some of my cards from Christmas pasts. Just let my know if it gets boring.

THINK PINK!

Got the new monitor up and running, we're back in business!

We were talking about my Mystic Paper Design Team project for November. The paper in my kit was all soft pastels, perfect for all the spring, baby and wedding ideas. But I went way out of the box and came up with a Christmas album. That's right PINK for Christmas. Before you say "she has really gone too far with this idea"... have you seen the front cover of Scrapbook Etc. for November/December. The Christmas layout is in PINK and green.

The front cover of Romantic Homes magazine...PINK for Christmas. So we are going PINK! And who doesn't love all the sparkly glitter this time of year?
Yes, the album is loaded with glitter. I know what you are thinking...wouldn't this be a great gift for your aunt-cousin-secret sister-coworker-neighbor. And you are right, it would be! Heck it would look wonderful sitting on your coffee table for your friends and family to woo and aah over while they are visiting during the holiday season. Come on! You can do this...just think PINK

We are experiencing technical difficulties

My monitor kicked the bucket! I've unplugged, jiggled, shook and pounded on it, and it's not coming back. Yes I am very much annoyed...and that is putting it nicely. The good thing is my husband had the for site to buy an extended warranty, so "they" are sending us a new one, eventually. It's pretty sad when you have you call and ask somebody if you can use their computer so you can post a blog! I'm at my Aunt Louesa's house using her computer. You remember Aunt Louesa from the "Family Connection" post. I get to post and have a nice visit too. As soon as the monitor comes in , and DH has it hooked up, I'll show you the Sugar Plum Christmas book. In the mean time you can catch part of it at the Mystic Paper blog site.

OOPS!

Almost forgot the back cover...it wouldn't be a book without a back cover!

I turned my Mystic Paper Design Team project in to Jennifer on Saturday, she said it was "stinking cute"... high praise indeed. If you are up to another book I'll post it. Here is a sneak peek...

Sheri finished her Design Team project as soon as she picked out her kit, while she was on her way home in the car! Seriously she is so fast, and she designed such a fun book. Lindsey has come up with so many beautiful ideas, her ornament is fantastic. Yasu once again has designed some great layouts. So click on over to their blog site and take a look.

The End

All good books must come to an end, and these are the last pages in the Summer Book. Which by the way still doesn't have an official title. The page on the left is another junk mail envelope with a large velum window, stamped, rub-ons , distressed with ink and lined with Basic Gray patterned paper. The tag has puzzle pieces that I sanded, then inked.

An acrylic page has a black rub-on flourish. Behind the acrylic is the last page. It is of my grand kids. I photographed them (and photoshop the picture to sepia) as they were walking away, turning to wave good-bye. I have taken care of both GK since they were three weeks old. This year they are both off to school, so except for holiday weeks I won't be watching them. The side of the page reads "8 years of Granny Day Care" and on the bottom of the page"Remember everything I taught you and when you need me I'll be here".

We all know that summer ends when the school year starts, so...the end

Aberdeen on Holiday

Remember back to the beginning of the

Summer Book post...I was whining about not taking a trip this summer. These are the pages that started the whole book. The first"NO" is pointing to an embellishment that says "journey". The second "NO" is to a washer that says "destination" and the third "NO" is to a strip of negatives (no pictures). The page on the right with the three butterflies was the first page. At the bottom of the page was another summer incident. We have some friends George and Linda that live in Shetland. Of course Shetland is famous for their wool sweaters and they raise sheep for the wool. While Linda was growing up her family raised sheep. Linda and her sister got to have a lamb to raise. As the lamb got older and became a sheep it was destined for other things besides being a pet. The sheep that weren't raised for their wool were sent off to Aberdeen (to become some body's dinner). Linda and her sister would come home from school, unable to find their pet sheep were told by their mother " They have gone off to Aberdeen on holiday". So when I called my children to tell them the news of the cat, I told them Dingbat had gone off to Aberdeen on holiday.

Station Break

Time to take a "station break" from the SUMMER BOOK. I received an email from our fearless design team leader Sheri, letting us know our design team kits for November were ready to pick up at Mystic Paper. She picked one of my favorite patterned papers, Melissa Frances. In fact years ago Mystic was the first place I was able to purchase Melissa Frances paper (the company is located in Canada). This patterned paper is from the Thankful line. A portion of the proceeds are donated to a breast cancer awareness and support website. We like this paper. When I opened my kit and saw the soft pastel patterned paper, velvet ribbons, fairy dust glitter and fun tag book, I was thinking it would be wonderful for baby cards, wedding layouts, Easter projects and Mother's Day albums. Then I started thinking outside the box...way outside! I may be in dangerous territory ...stay tuned.

PS; I haven't looked to see what Sheri, Lindsey and Yasu got in there sacks yet, I'll have to check out there blogs.

Feeling HOT HOT HOT!

I am a fifth generation Arizonan. While I did spend my early years living in other states, as an Air Force brat, Arizona has always been home. I love it here, I don't understand why someone would move to the "Valley" and be so surprised that in the middle of July it's 120 degrees. We live in a desert for crying out loud! So the Arizona summer got pages in the "Summer Book". The birds (see "Fancy Colorful Birds" blog) got their tribute on these pages also.

Waiting for Grandma

If you remember back to my "Family Connection" blog, I had spent the summer going through family photos, histories and working on genealogy. Most of this renewed interest came about because of the death of my husband's grandmother last November. Grandma's death was sudden. She was 100 years old, and in good health. These pages are in remembrance of her.

The paper has the look and feel of textured wall paper. I rub a white ink pad over the surface, and highlighted with a white gel pen. I used the same gel pen to decorate the laser cut "Waiting for Grandma".

I pulled apart then re-assembled a large white flower. The center is a brad, I covered with tacky tape, and rolled in tiny glass marbles. The "together" tag probably came off a shirt, and the love charm from a wedding announcement. Grandma is hiding in a velum envelope.