Friday Night Card-Making "Sparkly Eyes"

I had a Fabulous Weekend! Once again I am reminded of how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends and family!

Friday night was our monthly Scrap Happy Ones Together (SHOT) Scrapbooking Meetup at my place. We had about 18 ladies turn out. It was potluck and that was some good eatin', let me tell you! Not only are the ladies in SHOT amazing and talented scrapbookers, they are some of the dang finest cooks around! This month's theme was "St. Patrick's/Irish". We had everything from homemade lasagna (with spinach, of course!), pistachio fruit salad, to Wisconsin Sushi (pickles rolled in cream cheese and corned beef--surprisingly yummy!) and Corned Beef and Cabbage pizza. Yeah, I'd never heard of Irish Pizza either, but it was good.

Amazingly, I also managed to get some work done. Usually at the SHOT crops, as the organizer, I don't always get much done. Not only do I enjoy chatting and goofing off with the others, but by the time everyone gets there and settles into work, I'm too pooped to drag all my stuff out of my studio to do any work! This time, however, I wanted to re-purpose a few greeting cards I'd come across in my stash. I've been sorting through my stacks and stacks of stuff in preparation for our annual SHOT Scrapbooking and Craft Yard sale. I have so much good stuff I know I'll never use. I can't stand to part with it unless I know it will go to someone who really wants to use it! So, I had come across some old greeting cards that had little bears or something over-the-top cute like that on them. I'd also saved a few sheets of 5x7 paper from the Scrapbook a Day calendar I'd received as a Christmas gift. I knew I could add a few vintage images and vintage lace to make something simple but unique.

I was able to complete 3 sets of 6 Birthday Cards. I love to send a personal birthday greeting, but had gotten behind due to the fact that I was out of hand-made cards! It's been on my "to-do" list for a long time, now, but if you're anything like me, your "to-do" list seems to keep getting longer, no matter how many items you cross off! I was very happy with these cards. Though they are pretty simple, it's okay. Sometimes QUANTITY is what is needed. I can't always afford to spend 2-3 hours on just ONE card. But, it's still important to me to send a card that is SOMEWHAT crafty.







What's funny about the last two here is that once again I had Mr. Kirky's sing-songy-voice in my head, "There's no such thing as a mess-up!" I accidentally blemished the face of the birthday girl pictured here with a water droplet. The photo ink bled a little bit, but I was too busy/lazy to go print out another. So, I thought that I'd just make a little "mask" for her. My crop buddy suggested that I use her mini-butterfly punch for the mask shape. What a clever idea! I did so, used an exacto knife to cut out eyeholes, and then covered with german glass glitter. How lovely she turned out! I'm tempted to go back and do five more mini-masks for the remaining cards.



Speaking of card-making, a few weeks ago my family came into town for a cousin's wedding. The afternoon of the reception, after carefully wrapping the jumbo-size pancake griddle, I retreated to my studio for a few minutes to create a card to accompany. Because my Mom and my Grandma came in to "chat" with me while I worked (how do I concentrate?!), I was literally just "throwing" stuff together. I created this card in no more than 15 minutes, and was happily rewarded with how it turned out okay! Mom, obviously impressed with my ability to "whip something up" told me to make her a card, too! Apparently, she had completely forgotten to get a gift for the lovely couple. Now I would "save the day" by making a card she could stick some cash in. (Either she was truly impressed, or just too darn unwilling to get back in the car after the long drive here to go buy one!) See, that's the funny thing about doing something halfway decently well. People just love to get your "help"! :)