Kelly Times Two

I'll admit, this is a ridiculous amount of pictures that I took of a bunch of cardstock and embellishments , but since I have invested so much time in making these, I want to remember the results of the efforts of not only me, but a handful of others who helped out here and there in the production line, before I distributed them to the ten different congregations of Mormon women who have been invited to our conference. Nine hundred invitations are in English, and one hundred are in Spanish. Now that these beauties are all out of my house, I'll spend the next three weeks working on details of the conference and have my fingers crossed for a successful event, where women will be glad they came to it, and leave feeling uplifted and ready to spread a little love by small and simple things they do for others. Anyone can attend this, by the way. Your presence would be greatly appreciated by me especially.

The past few days I've been creating some Valentines , and in the meantime, my sweet little son just sent me this touching email that he wrote for me, for no particular reason. Talk about an amazing Valentine! It melted my heart. In Christopher's own words, (including a couple of misspellings and incorrect capitalization) here's what he had to say about me. There is one reference to Mrs. Goss, his school teacher, whom neither of us are very fond of. Reasons Why I Love You You are smart You are pretty You are cute You are awesome You are amazing You are nurturing You are funny You are cool You are loving You are unbelievable You are Astounding You are unspeakable You are stupendous in ways that cannot be spoken You are silly You are nice You are helpfull You are LDS You are my rolemodel You are a perfect example to me You can cook a mean grilled cheese You can deal with Mrs. Goss (dont tell her I said that) You can do unimaginable things for people You are the reason i wake...

Well, maybe not ALL of them. But at least a big chunk of my Christmas cards were sent out in the past two days. At least anyone who sent me one already, got one sent out. Now I'm working on gathering addresses for a few who didn't send me a card. I had a lot of fun making them this year, and worked on them while I was in Colorado. I love getting cards in the mail! It's the best kind of mail there is. Fun mail is welcome ANY time of year, so thank you to each of you who sent me and the family a card this holiday season! I treasure opening each of them and here's something strange to know about me...I don't throw them away, but keep them for YEARS! I keep them all bunched up together by year, and sometimes I have fun going through old ones. If you are reading this post and didn't get a card from me and would like for me to send you one, email me and I'll be happy to. (But if you already mailed a card to us this year, yours is en route.) Happy new y...

I finally posted something on my other blog after a one-month hiatus. Happy Father's Day to all the dads I know! We've got big plans for today to celebrate.

Some of you may not realize that I have ANOTHER BLOG , but it's true! I recently started it as the title "And Everything Nice," and it had the web address of http://mylittlehobby.blogspot.com then today, I renamed it to My Little Hobby, to streamline it with the web address and gave it a new look. Thanks for checking it out, and please tell your friends who have been stalking my site too. I get tickled pink when hearing from anyone on my new blog! It keeps the creativity flowing.

Frequently I surf the web and subscribe to feeds for card ideas. I am reluctant to leave comments on other paper crafting blogs, because I don't want it to be associated with my identity to this blog, with my little personal stories, my family pics, etc. So I started a fun new blog where I can show off my cards and leave it basically unpersonalized, other than from an artistic point of view. I'll have a link to it from here, but I will not have a link from there back to my "everyday" blog. After searching for availability, the name for the hyperlink will be My Little Hobby , but I wanted a different blog title. I looked through the SU catalog and spotted a stamp set that's not exactly my style, but I like the name of it. It's called " And Everything Nice ." So check it out if you'd like, and feel free to leave comments on it any time. I'm excited about it!

Last night/tonight, depending on what time zone you're in, several friends came over to my casa to make cards and it was fun, as always. This was just an indulgent card (above) that I made for myself, but not for card camp. I also enjoyed lunch out today (Tuesday...it's after midnight so it is documented here as Wednesday as I add this post) at the hip Galaxy Cafe on West Lynn for our monthly Lunch Bunch group and was happy to meet a new friend, Cheryl, from our ward at church.

This "Crab & Company" set is such a fun new design and I love using the googlie eyes for an added dimension. (Kathy designed this card, by the way.) I'll have both a pink and a blue marker to color the baby's layette in the hue of your choice for this card below. We have not made baby cards lately and since there are several pregnant women in these parts, I'm sure this card will get used quickly. Lindsay made a special request for a wedding card, so I promise to do one for next month (so be here, Lindsay Ü). The image below is from the "Very Punny" set with the words "crib notes" included, if you prefer that to "yeah baby." This new Easter set "Glorious Gift" is elegant (as opposed to the usual whimsical Easter cards I have made). I've stamped the scripture onto a piece of vellum with it overlaying a piece of whisper white paper, where the floral design is stamped. The sentiment inside is perfect too, "Celebra...

Last month, I made 80 of these colorful bookmarks to pass out in our Relief Society so everyone would know what lesson we'd be on that week. This photo is of the back sides with the pretty patterned papers. The other sides of the cardstock were the schedules that I typed and used coordinating ink colors. They turned out well and it took quite some time to do, but most everyone seemed glad to get a schedule for the year...and a cute one at that.

At my last card camp, we created more than 200 cute cards altogether that were Valentine themed, but not specific to that day. This one was the favorite by most. I LOVE (get it?) the way it turned out. The yellow lighting doesn't do the soft colors justice. Imagine the love we sent out with our handy work when each card reached its recipient and put a smile on his or her face! That's one thing that makes this process worthwhile, not to mention the chance to get together with our girlfriends and meet new friends for an evening. My friends and I will make some of these "so very happy for you" cards at my next card camp on March 6. (Sierra is doing our precutting for this card. Thank you so much, Sierra!) I just made this one (below) tonight and am still stuck on the love theme apparently. I love putting these cardstock colors together: pumpkin pie, pink passion, pretty in pink, and old olive. I just used a new stamp from my Trimtastic set (the ric rac stamp on the choc...

Some days, I just want to make cute cards and that's how I felt tonight while Kelly was deejaying the stake youth dance, and Lindsey was there dancing the night away. I bought this S.E.I. patterned paper last week for the Valentine's mailboxes that Lindsey and I were making, and had some scraps left over. I created these two cards. It's hard to tell, but the square window is a cut-out, using two sizes of punches, and it is more three-dimensional than the photograph shows. When I get a gift from someone that has a fabric bow, or buy anything where the packaging come with ribbon, I always recycle it to use again for cards that I make. Also, I want to share with everyone that I have lost five pounds since I set my goal to lose twenty pounds. I'm a fourth of the way there! The hardest part was turning down pecan pie at Stubb's last night where Kelly and I went to listen to an awesome band from Virginia called Carbon Leaf . I'll post more on our fun concert later...

Since I'm finally feeling better, I've been having a splendid time making Valentines and decorating some little mailboxes for the family for V-day. Lindsey and I have enjoyed each other's company while crafting and creating together.

This is what I designed this year for my family Christmas card, with a little booklet layout including family photos and a summary of what we've all been doing this year. These cards were a lot of fun to make with the kids helping me. Lindsey stamped and cut all the cranberry and black parts. Christopher cut all the "merry" pieces of cardstock and helped stuff envelopes. Because I started so late, I didn't plan ahead with a mailing list, and I mainly sent cards to those who sent us cards, and simply used their return addresses to know where to send each one.

These are the cards that I created this month for my friends and me to make for our monthly gathering. It is so much fun to get together with all the other women to create and visit with each other. We make three of each of the designs, making nine total. I'm planning to have more Christmas cards in store for December's card camp.

Today at our monthly group that we call lunch bunch, I gathered up the registrations for the next card camp from those who plan to join me. Once a month, the lunch bunch goes to different places in Austin and today we went to Mama Fu's. There was a huge turnout today, with Conni (plus Claire), Cristin, Peggy, me, Aren (plus Micael), Michelle, Caroline (plus Olivia), Jenny (plus Jolie and JJ), Sue, Sierra (plus Abby), Paige (plus Tyson), Molly (plus Liam and the baby), Molly's mother-in-law, La Nan (plus Dalin and Rhett), Michele, Kim, Holly (plus Kennedy), Jillian (plus Simone), Lonna (plus Gwen), and Lindsay (plus Adelyn). Wow! What a turnout--twenty women and fifteen children! My deadline for registering was today for my card making shindig that I'm going to hold two weeks from tonight and I wanted to plan what cards we'll be doing so I could show everyone. I came up with an entire Halloween theme and most everyone seemed excited about them, so I was pleased. Afte...

Once a month, for the past half a year, I have delighted in having a house full of women gathered around my kitchen, dining room, and family room tables, passing around ink pads and rubber stamps, designer papers, deckle-edged scissors, eyelets, ribbons, and all manner of embellishments. As we discuss our events of the day, our feelings about parenthood, the best restaurants in town, our favorite music, the nice things our husbands did, and any other topic that crosses our minds, we absorb this high dose social time, doing what we do best, talking and listening to each other. And yes, we whip up some adorable keepsakes on paper. Some may even call this group therapy. It is fulfilling to share the two to three hours doing what can be done in factories in Asia for pennies, but no one can put a price on what we leave with. And the benefit or justification for time well spent doesn’t end there. Afterwards, the hundreds of cards we have created, end up being sent to loved ones around the...