A "Nancy Project"

My friend Kim is always kidding me about my "Nancy Projects." I always seem to get myself in trouble by deciding to do something really detailed. This time I was working on a scrapbook page for my grandson's softball team, The Bucks. The store didn't have any camouflage paper, so I bought some cardstock in appropriate colors and was going to make my own. Then I remembered a technique I had seen Nathalie Metivier from Megenta stamps do where she cut the paper in small wedges and created a mosaic look. Here's my final effort (not a page yet, but at least the frame is done!)

Christmas Cards

I've finally gotten a good bulk of my Christmas cards done. I used two main designs this year:

Star Wars and LegoFest

Our charge this week was to make a layout for the LegoFest coming to Hartford, CT. I had Star Wars. To make it a little more interesting, I combined pictures of my grandson, Gavin who is 2 this year wearing the costume his brother wore several years ago as Luke Skywalker. Then I took pictures of Nathan from year-before last when he was Darth Vader. Good and Evil - that was it! Here's the result:

A Walk Down Memory Lane

I went to a crop last weekend and worked mostly on pictures from my college days. I think sometimes I'll never finish this project! It's fun, but I enjoy doing more current things too! I'm almost through sophomore year now. This one really took me back. Look at the maxi dress! How about that - they've been coming out with maxi dresses again this past summer! This one is from 1974! These are pictures of my friend, Jay Wilcox, and me singing in the Sunken Garden at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg. We used to sing in several of the local churches. Sorry the pictures are a little dark. Perhaps I should have scanned them before putting them in the layout, but I used the original pictures I had from the event.

This paper was from a collection I got on HSN - 3 Birds. I didn't know what in the world I would ever do with this yellow and black paper, but when I started going through my college pictures, this just seemed to fit, and the swirl cut from another piece in the same collection has a 70's feel to it.

New Swap Stuff

First let me apologize for not posting much lately. We've been absolutely swamped at work. We're putting in a new phone system and everyone has been working long hours. It's probably going to be like this for another month and a half! Yikes! Flu bugs stay away!

I have a couple of things to show you. This month our card swap is a Fall theme, and so is a swap that is being called "Pick 'n' Mix" where you do 3 items consisting of an ATC, a "twinchie" or a tag, or any combination. Here are my fall things!

Finally got my ATC swap done!

I had started working on the ATC for my September swap but got stuck - it just wasn't looking like I wanted it to. So I started in another direction. This one turned out much better! This is using one of the Stacy Stamps by Stacy Rich. I like the paper - it has little swirls that look like the wind!

A Challenge!

It's amazing when you find yourself stuck on a project, that sometimes when you finally get the inspiration, or make the decision, or whatever happens that gets you moving, that the end result can be way better than you expected! Our latest design team assignment from Wiggles and Giggles had me stumped. I loved the papers I had gotten - the Autumn Bliss line from Little Yellow Bicycle. The colors were great - I had a great assortment of embellishments - even the nice acrylic overlays and journaling cards. Pictures? I had nothing. I went through all the pictures I had on my computer - don't know why but almost none were taken in the Fall. The only Thanksgiving pictures I had were of our little sad table for two at home. I thought about doing something about the things I was grateful for, but didn't know quite how to approach the pictures. Also, since so much of what I'm grateful has to do with health, I wasn't sure I wanted to display something so personal in the store. Well, I was at the store on Saturday, and was talking with Lakisha about it. She pointed out that making it personal would really show what scrapbooking is all about and encourge customers to think about their own scrapbooking. Well, I sat down on Labor Day afternoon, and took some pictures of myself. A couple turned out pretty good. Hmm. So I got the left side of the layout pretty much conceptualized. Now I had to do the journaling. Boy - writing about yourself is HARD! About 15 tissues later, I had it written. Here's the result:













If you can't read the journaling, here it is:

Even though my health isn’t what I would like it to be and sometimes it’s really a struggle, I think about all the other people out there with problems much worse than mine…

Even though I get short of breath doing every day things like getting ready for work, I think about those who don’t’ have a job to go to…

Even though I get winded cooking a meal, I think about those who have to go without…

Even though children sometimes stare at my airhose, they’re just curious and it gives me an opportunityto teach them about how people are different, and sometimes their parents too…

Even though there are a lot of things I can no longer do physically, there are so many things I still can do, and those are the things that make me happiest and feed my soul…

Even though there are days when I need help, I’m grateful for my husband, who helps me in so many ways, and my friends at work who always think of my needs…

Gratitude and Happiness…
It’s all about perspective…

Happy Fall, y'all!
Nancy

Samples Finished for October Iris Folding Class

I'll be teaching an Iris Folding class in October at Wiggles and Giggles - I believe it's the 2nd Saturday. I finished the samples this week. The card is a very traditional format, but the scrapbook page I found the pattern for in this great book called Iris Folding by Michelle Powell. I'd never seen iris folding with these kinds of shapes - love it!

September Paper Wishes Swap

Our challenge this month for the card swap is a patchwork card. I hadn't pulled out my quilting punches in a long time, so I made two cards. Now, which one to send? Hmmmm.....

I got new cat stamps!

I saw an ad in one of my magazines from Third Coast - they have ALL kinds of cat stamps! My order came last week and here is the first creation from that set!

New Cards

I have a couple of new cards to show you. I finally finished the last card for the stencil class coming up in July and I made a get well card for Tony's cousin, who is in the hospital:

Changes to Class Schedule AGAIN!

Sliding Surprise Card - May 30 (Saturday)
Double Pocket Fold Card - June 14 (Sunday)
Scrapbooking with Photo Mosaics - July 11 (Saturday)
Stencil Class - July 26 (Sunday)

Sorry these keep changing but I guess it's a good thing that there is a lot of activity and competition for classroom space!

Nancy

Lots of New Cards!

I've been working on a few Christmas cards, and I'm also working on a new stencil class that will be offered in July. All of these are stencil-based. Hope you like them!

Update on class dates

There have been a few changes to class dates:

Sliding Surprise Card - May 30 (Saturday)
Double Pocket Fold Card - June 14 (Sunday)
Scrapbooking with Photo Mosaics - July 11 (Saturday)
Stencil Class - July 25 (Saturday)

Hope to see you there!

Nancy

New Layouts - Spring Time Means T-Ball and Softball!

Addition to Class Photos

For those of you planning to take my Scrapbooking with Photo Mosaics class in June, this is the page we will be doing together to learn the technique. Then I will lead you through creating your own page with your photos. By the way, the date on the class will be changing - we are looking at June 14, June 20 or June 27.

Upcoming Classes

I'll be teaching three classes coming up soon at Wiggles and Giggles in Wethersfield:

May 9 1:00pm - Sliding Suprise Card 2 hrs
This card is fun - when you pull the ribbon on the left side, a surprise panel opens up on the right side where you can put a second message, or attach a gift card.

May 30 1:00pm - Double Pocket Fold Card 1 1/2 -2 hrs
This is a card that is made from one piece of 8 1/2" x 11" double-sided cardstock. You can customize it all kinds of ways.

June 13 12:30pm - Scrapbooking with Photo Mosaics - 4 hrs

Here I'll teach the technique Tami Potter uses for those great mosaic pages. We'll do one page together with photos I supply to learn the technique, and then I'll lead the group into customizing their own 2nd page with their own photos.

This is not the page we will do, but it gives you an idea of the technique:

My First Publication!!!!!

Just got the news Friday that I'm going to be published for the first time! Woohoo! Scrap and Stamp Arts is publishing my Outlines Splash card. It will either be in Scrap and Stamp Arts or Just Cards! - don't know which yet, but I'm thinking Scrap and Stamp Arts because the call was for beach themed items. This is the card that was accepted:

New Layout

I had an assignment with the design team for my local store, Wiggles and Giggles to use some of the "Are We There Yet?" papers and embellishments. I had taken some video of my granddaughter, Leyda, last Christmas singing in the car and thought it would work well for this one. She had gotten an iPod for Christmas (who in the world gets a 7-year-old an iPod? Anyway, she was singing all the way down the road at the top of her little lungs "I Wuv Wock n Woll!" and "Big Guwls Don't Cwy!"

New printer/scanner!

I just got a new all-in-one and it will accept document sizes of 11.7x17 - so you can finally expect some scrapbook pages to get in here now! Woohoo! I can't wait to start scanning!

My Daughter Got Her First House!

My daughter and her husband just bought their first home. They are so excited! I made this to hang in the living room. In the very small print you can barely see in this photo, I put "For my daughter's first house" on the left, and my initials and date on the right.

One kind of heart-breaking story about this. I had pondered and pondered about whether I wanted to say Welcome to our Home, Welcome Friends or Welcome to The Marshalls'. I decided the Marshalls would make it more personal. Well, Judy's oldest, Leyda, has a different daddy and her last name is Sanders. When Judy opened the package, and Leyda saw it, she said "That doesn't include me." Oh- heart-wrenching! I'm going to have to write her a letter and tell her that it VERY MUCH includes her!!!

Some New Creations....

Here are a few of the things I've been working on over the past couple of months. The Christmas season was busy, and I made my own cards this year, so I didn't have time for a lot else, but I've been making up for it since the holidays! (Which reminds me - I need to post my Christmas card!)



I love playing with Outlines stamps. This is a
set I bought last summer at the Expo and finally had time to play with! I had gotten some really wild colors of cardstock (the lime green and watermelon red) in a set that I didn't know when I would use and the little touches of it worked well on this card!

I've just started playing the the Core'dinations cardstock -
if you're not familiar with it, the inner core of the paper is
colored, so when you tear it or sand it, the color shows.
This one is a black cardstock with a light blue inner core.
I used a Magenta stamp - 1/2 I colored with Perfect Pearls, and half I colored with metallic watercolors. The technique I used was one we played with in a Magenta class using white embossing powder on white cardstock and pastel watercolors - I thought it would be fun to try it on black cardstock with black embossing powder - worked great!

This is a Magenta stamp I decided to play with on two sides of a card, not just one or just an envelope. I made the greeting so it slides out, and you don't have to untie the bow!

This is just one for fun I submitted to Spellbinders and Shimmerz Paints. The stamp is from Stampin' Up!. It's a fun set with all frogs and sayings like "Oh, Hoppy Day!" and "What's New at Your Pad?" Love it!

And here is the February layout for our Scrappin' Sisters club at Wiggles and Giggles. We're doing pages on "All About Me" and this one is Successes and Failures.