Oh, wow!

Has it really been almost a week since I've been here??? As the ol' saying goes, time flies when you're having fun! And now that I look back, (with the help of my trusty calendar!), it has been a busy but productive week! Hubby's traveling and meals have been coming from the crock pot, allowing some projects to be moved from the "to-do" list over to "DONE!!!!"

Melissa and I made progress with our bathroom re-do, taking plenty of time along the way to admire our handiwork, :-) the minivan finally has some new tires, I layered on warm clothes and plugged away at yard cleanup, and I got to "work" in my craft room, puttering away on some swaps, prep for last weekend's stamp camp, and a little surprise for my stamp club members. Can't show you the surprise just yet, because there are a couple gals who don't have theirs yet, but I'll try to remember to show you later this week.

What I can show you is the other project the Stamp Clubs did at their November meeting. Each month we focus on a different technique and everyone in Stamp Club takes home a "technique card" that can be used later to recall just how to do what was learned. This month the technique was "Markers on Vellum." We used the "A Christmas Cardinal" stamp set from the Holiday Mini Catalog, embossed the cardinal on a piece of vellum (that was cut with the "Top Note" Big Shot die), and colored the image on the reverse side using markers, thus the highly-technical technique name!!! Kiwi Kiss and Riding Hood Red, two of this year's "In" colors gave this Christmas card an up-to-date look.



A reminder that if you'd like to start YOUR collection of technique cards, new stamp clubs will start up in February with the launch of the Spring/Summer catalog. I'd love to have you join one of my clubs, so let me know if this interests you and I can fill you in on the details.

One other thing that I puttered with this week isn't really stamping-related, but I'll share anyway. I was intrigued by a local news story last week that featured a website showcasing handmade crafts and I had to check it out. Etsy.com allows crafters of all kinds to offer their products for sale. I've often had people tell me that I should sell the caramels I make, but I'd never taken the time to try it--until today. I put together a listing, calling it "CaramelsToDieFor". We'll see what happens. The kids were just excited because I had to make a batch in order to take the pictures--they told me they would have no trouble taking care of the "used" caramels for me!

Have a great week!