Yesterday I packed up a lot of my card-making supplies to take with us to Florida for the next few months. It took me a long time as I had to go through a lot of stuff (blush), figure out just what to take, and pack it safely. While Christmas shopping at Target one day, I found the storage container shown here. I ended up buying one and then returning to buy two more. They turned out being perfect for so many things from ink refill bottles to small tools to embossing powders to stamp pads to adhesives to single stamps ... well, you get the idea. I've filled up 4 flat rate boxes from the post office full of paper. My rolling supply case is almost full and the matching shoulder bag has my Cuttlebug, my Sidekick, and so much more in it. My dear husband says "No Problem!". He says we have room for all of it! No need to mail those 4 boxes!
Today I continue the packing ... clothes, financial papers, etc. And if I finish all that, I will start taking done the Christmas decorations. One big motivator to get all this done as soon as possible is that the temperatures are predicted to dip down below zero the next few nights! We definitely want to start our drive to Florida on Saturday.
Thank you for stopping by and have a Blessed New Year!!!

Before the tree gets "undecorated" and taken down until next Christmas, I thought that I would capture its evening beauty and post it on the blog. Tonight I plan to take a few minutes to just sit and enjoy it one more time. I usually keep the tree up into early January, but this year we will be heading "south" and it has to come down sooner than later.

We had a very Merry Christmas and are now preparing for our first four month winter stay in Florida. Mike (my DH) and Molly (whom you see in the photo) don't think that it should be too hard to pack up all we want/need to take with us in the car. We have been taking things do there since we closed on the house the end of June. This trip we won't be bringing much for the "house" since it is going through the remodeling process. For January and February, we will be staying in a rented house a mile or so away. We will probably get lots of use out of our bicycles riding over to check the mail every day as well as checking the progress on the house.
Being the CFO of the family, I need to organize/bring all that goes along with that position as well as bringing personal items AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, card-making supplies. That might be the most perplexing task ... what do I NEED to bring? what do I WANT to bring? how much CAN I bring? will we have ENOUGH room in the car? should I MAIL some things? (thank goodness for the USPS's newer FLAT RATE boxes!) And I will be bringing along my Christmas gift ... the Scor-Pal! I am so excited to start trying it out!

I am really looking forward to some dedicated card-making time this winter. There is an idea swimming around in my head ... I plan to visit some of the smaller gift shops on the island to see if they sell any handcrafted items. Perhaps I can find an outlet for some of my cards. There is a shop called Island Paws that I'd like to see, especially.



Well, back to laundry, etc. The temperature has finally reached 12 degrees F here this afternoon. We have so much snow for the end of December as so many of you must, too! We definitely had a beautifully white Christmas.

Wishing you all a Happy New Year a wee bit early ... we might be running around like crazy on the 1st packing the car for our departure on the 2nd.

JustRite Stamp Storage

I bought some JustRite stamp sets over Thanksgiving weekend from their online store (on sale!). After removing them from their various packaging, I wondered how I was going to store them as well as transport them when needed.
I used the box of the "10 Designer Center and Borders". It had a liner in it which held the stamps separately. I cut it up to make two dividers and a place-keeper (so the stamps can't move around). In the lid I am storing the printed images of all the stamps from each set. Again, I used a bit of the liner to keep them secured in the lid. Thanks for looking!

A Fun New JustRite Stamp

Having seen so many great cards made with the JustRite Stamper sets, I had to try them. Here is a thank you card I made using the "thank you" circle. It probably is NOT my best card design-wise, but I wanted to combine the new stamp with my favorite puppy stamp. And I am working on using ways to put more depth into my coloring. This time I used chalk to make the puppy seem soft and furry as well as shading around the puppy. The cardstock and patterned paper is from one of the DCWV tablets entitled DOG. The puppy stamp is by Stampland and the thank you is, of course, by JustRite (the set is called "10 Designer Centers and Borders"). The card base is SU! Kraft paper. The ink is SU! Close to Cocoa ... I LOVE that color and the name, too.

It is 17 degrees here today, but sunny. I hope wherever you are, you are having a sunny Sunday, too! I think it is a good day for me to decorate the tree.

Snowflakes and Scallops

It's beginning to look and feel a lot like WINTER here in Minnesota today! So I decided to post a card I made earlier in the week.
I used So Many Scallops stamp from Stampin' Up, three embossing folders (from Quickutz, Sizzix, and Cuttlebug), Bashful Blue cardstock from SU! and white Bazzill as well as the Bashful Blue ink. Thanks for looking! And have a good weekend!