More from Santa's workshop

I need a bumper sticker that says, "I'd rather be crafting!" I really enjoy doing stuff like this, and it's a good thing since I have 5 million projects that I need to get done before Christmas. I saw these for the first time about 3-4 years ago at a craft fair in Indiana (remember these Emily, Mitzi?) and have wanted to try making them ever since. What a satisfying project! The pictures just don't do them justice though.

Yet more cards...

Dare I say, Christmas cards?

OK, just so everybody knows, I feel very strongly about waiting until after Thanksgiving before talking about Christmas. However, in the crafting world there are reasons to be getting in the holiday spirit early. I'll never get my projects done in time if I don't! Here are my first 2 Christmas card attempts of the season - made at 10:00 pm last Saturday night so that I could have them ready as samples at church the next day. Once again, I must sing praises to my Cuttlebug. I am having so much fun with it!

Craft 'till you Crash!

I am trying to get November's layout and Craft 'till you Crash items done this week, so here's the first installments! And just so you know - I'm not so presumptuous as to think that my designs are oh-so-wonderful. It's just that nobody else is willing to step up and help yet!

For those who haven't seen them before, those are plain old ceramic tiles in the easels, stamped with a special kind of ink called Staz-On. After the ink is dry you seal it with Crystal Effects (or you could probably just use clear nail polish) and voila! You can use the tile as a dry erase board! I think it's a fun, inexpensive gift idea - and as you can see, you can have one for every season!

My latest projects

So, there are definitely some advantages to being in a card swap and being on the Enrichment committee. I don't think I would ever sit down to make cards or scrapbook if I wasn't.

This month's theme for my card swap was Baby Girl and I am quite pleased with how this one turned out. I LOVE MY CUTTLEBUG! I'm not sure I'll ever go back to rubber stamping!





And here is the 2-page layout that I have done for the inaugural meeting of our Scrapbooking Enrichment "activity". The page on the left was inspired by a Becky Higgins page that I saw recently. Once again, I used my Cuttlebug heavily. Isn't it just so cute? (if I do say so myself...;-) ) Now that I have finally done some scrapbooking I can justify going to the Scrapbook USA Expo tomorrow and buy some more supplies! To the Fort Wayne crowd - guess who I always see when I'm there? Beth Anderson - and she's always sitting in the same spot!

Since I am on the topic of Enrichment Activities, I would just like to take this opportunity to say how strongly I feel about the importance of Relief Society, and in particular, Enrichment meetings. Although I understand the wisdom behind the decision to change Enrichment Meetings to only 4 times a year, I fear that many wards have completely lost the vision to have these smaller Enrichment "Activities" on a regular basis. Women need women! We need this interaction with our sisters for our own benefit and for the sake of unity within the ward. That is why I am a woman on a mission! This month I am launching a monthly Scrapbooking activity and a monthly Recipe Exchange. No small task in Utah where I have found, ironically, it is extremely difficult to get people interested in associating with other members of the ward! Alright, I'll get down off of my soapbox now.

Finished projects...

So now that I am a woman of leisure (ya right) with 2 daughters in school all day long, and a precious 6 month old boy who takes regular naps (wouldn't that be nice), I am able to get so much done during the day! Here's the reality: the day after Samara and Lindsey started school I got the worst head cold I think I've ever had. This is my second cold this summer - both times after I had decided to get motivated and start exercising regularly. This, of coarse, is proof that exercise is hazardous to your health.


In spite of it all I did manage to get Samara's baptism dress done. As you can see from the picture, it's really quite simple and elegant. I gave Samara her choice of 2 different patterns, and this is the one that she chose. The picture doesn't really do the dress justice. It looks much better when worn by a beautiful little girl. Well, not so little any more! I can't believe she's eight!



I belong to a card exchange group and this month's theme was "Baby Boy". I thought this would be easy since I am kind of in baby boy mode right now, but this was really hard for me! I blame it on the fact that my head has felt like it was going to explode and sleep deprivation. The end result was something very simple, but honestly, I prefer simple.

I hope to be posting much more of my projects soon as there will (hopefully) be many in the coming weeks. That is, if Daniel will let me. He is now quite mobile, rolling everywhere, and fast! He is also teething and wants to be held constantly. I thought he was going to be my mild, quiet, laid back child. Apparently not!