Girls' Night Out

WOW!!! What a way for me to start the weekend! I've had a somewhat rough week. My daughter is teething even though she is only 4 months old and has been teething for the last 5 weeks or so, my son joined Cub Scouts this week which required some running, I went to visit a friend who just had her super-cute baby and of course there was all the usual "stuff" that I am required to do as The Mommy.

Thanks to some lovely women at church, actually all of the women at our church are lovely but two in particular hooked up an awesome GNO for us this evening. Eight cards for us to stamp after a delicious potluck dinner because that is what lovely Methodist women do. Is there a better way to spend Friday night? I think not!

Now, if you haven't taken advantage of your demonstrator's clubs or camps, please do so. You will not regret it. If your demonstrator doesn't do these, let them know that you are interested. I say this out of experience because as a demonstrator I had no clue about such things. Obviously the best part of stamping is creating something unique that speaks to you and hopefully the person you've made it for but clubs and camps take it a step beyond that. This evening I chatted with women that I see all the time at church but maybe don't always get to talk with. I also had a chance to see products that I own being used in a different way which is a big plus because I'm sure it will save me from buying something that I don't need. I'm sure my husband is happy about that too. I guess for me, stamps and friends together are like my very own "chicken soup for the soul". It's a reboot for more than just my attitude, it's one for my creativity as well. Sometimes I just find myself in a rut and nothing gets the hamster moving on that wheel better than seeing things in a new light.

I recently added the scans of cards that I have done recently. Some are my own layouts and some are courtesy of camps and clubs. I want to support these women in what they do so I'll be creating a new section this week that will feature those cards and give credit to those who did the cutting work so I could do the gluing. These women are also more than thrilled to hold the aforementioned teething 4 month old. These women make me so happy!

Happy New Year...

I know, it's a little late in the year for that but I've been busy and I swear it was only yesterday that we were snowed in for 3 weeks. Of course I also feel like there's no way in the world that my daughter is going to hit 18 weeks this Friday.

I mentioned in my last post that I had been making cards to send overseas. I did make some cards but they never made it overseas. It's not surprising. Let me put it this way, it's a good thing a human pregnancy goes for 40 weeks. I'm not sure what else my daughter would have broken if she had remained in utero any longer.

Obviously after putting out lots of pregnant woman effort I didn't want the cards I made to go to waste. Through Facebook I found a wonderful group, Operation Write Home. Please, please, please take the time to visit them. www.operationwritehome.org

The cards that I will be sending are pretty basic. I did make some of the work hard on myself because I started from scratch with everything. I always do my best to make sure that I am extremely thrifty with my supplies and in this case because the idea was quantity as well as quality, I made the cards from basic white card stock that I'm pretty sure I bought from Walmart. On top of that, I layered patterned paper that was cut from 12x12 sheets that I found at Michael's in the $1 bins. The stamps I used were from Close to My Heart and I used Stampin' Up! ink. As you can see in the pictures, the layouts themselves are minimal but the end result is still pretty snazzy.

This is something that I fully intend on continuing to do in the future so I went ahead yesterday and made a small investment in two OWH stamps. I believe my total was about $10 and that was including shipping. The shippers for OWH do have a stamp of their own but when you watch the video on the website, it quickly becomes apparent that they are taking on a huge task as it is and I don't think the kitty is much help. ;)

(Pictures coming as soon as I find the scanner, lol)