Christmas Cards

Every year around Thanksgiving I remember that I like making Holiday cards to send to my friends and relatives. Every year thinking of a creative/new idea becomes more challenging. If memory serves me right I talked about this a few years ago. Yep! I did. Pinterest makes this a bit less challenging. The idea for this years card came from Pinterest. Before I show it to though I thought I'd show you the past few years cards. 

2007. To this day this one is still my favorite. Skates and mittens made from paper, blades of the skates are paperclips. My grandmother always e-mails to say thank you for each years card, and then says that this one is still her favorite. She still has it on her bulletin board in the kitchen.

2008. Reindeer thumbprints. I liked doing this one, but the individual painting of each card took a long time, and a lot of space. This was when we still lived in our tiny apartment and I remember cards being strewn everywhere. 

2009. I liked this card too. It was made with paper lunch bags so the back had the opening in it, which is where I put the picture of Charlie and I. This was the last year I used brads (the little star) on cards because I had to pay 20 cents extra for each card since the envelopes were not flat. What a pain.

2010. The next two I cut up to put in a scrapbook so just the main part is saved. This card took a while too. It's made out of four different potato stamps. I love potato stamping, you should try it.

2011. Last years card idea came from Pinterest as well. It's the bottom of a celery stalk.

2012. This years card is made from paint swatches. They were pretty fun to make as well. I always complain about the process but then I have fun making them, and I love to hear from my family that they liked the card.

Here is the picture we included this year. Thank you Jaimie for taking 100 shots of us. Charlie liked it this year because I blamed the bad shots on Penny, not him. And, if you really like us you can read our holiday letter. I'd never done one before, and felt kind of weird writing it because I thought holiday letters were only for people with kids, but it was fun to review the year and think of what was most important. Charlie made me cut out all of the funny parts. He also signed half of them with his full name, like he would sign a check. Jeeze! 

Lauren

Valentine's Day Cards

Happy Valentine's Day Reader(s)! I typically don't really like V-Day. *Inset heard before jargon about consumer holidays and broadcasting your love on only one day a year , or read THIS article. * One thing I do like about Valentine's Day is doing crafts and making cards. I made picture frames with a bunch of the kids I work with at school with their adorable pictures inside. That was fun but boy was there a lot of glue on the table. For some reason kids on my caseload don't understand the concept of "a little bit of glue." After getting some practice using Picnik to make Charlie's Christmas present I decided to try to make a Valentine's Day card. It proved to be more difficult than I had thought. Who would have though making a realistic yet cute owl out of geometric shapes would be so hard? Here are my results: 

The colors look different but they were the same when I created them, it's due to the depleting ink status of the printer I used.  The goes against the flow of "cool" kid inside of me is secretly upset that I jumped on the "owls are cool" train, but oh well, they're so dang cute! And the SLP inside of me hated writing "Owl" instead of "I'll", but the cutesy crafter in me won over...this round at least. As you can see I won't be quitting my day job to become a graphic designer. I sent them to my friends and family members, one friend said my card was "a Hoot", har har, she's just as funny as me. Here are close ups of the cards as well as the "owl" (I use that noun lightly when referring to my cards). The links to download them are below each one, free of charge even, imagine that! If the links don't work let me know and owl try my best to fix it *laughs hysterically while slapping knee/patting self on back for being so comically genius.* 

The "Owl Love You Forever" card can be downloaded HERE. 

The "Owl Be Your Friend Forever" card can be downloaded HERE.

Just the "owl" can be found HERE.

I did have fun making these cards, after I got over the I want to throw my computer into a wall phase, and am sad to find that Picnik is closing, insert sad face here.

I hope you have a Happy Valentine's Day with someone special to you!

Lauren

Third Time's the Charm

Well....sewing the invisible zipper into my dress took me three times, for each side, to get it right. But here is a picture of the final product. I even got the waistbands to match at the zipper, and the zipper is nearly invisible inalmost every spot. And I also did it all by myself, with only spiritual support from my mum (thanks mumma!)

Oh and here is a picture of the lace pinned in to the front to make it less revealing/appropriate to wear in public. 

Here is the mothers day card I made for my mom on the rainy day. I liked the way it turned out so much that I made one like it for my friend Kirsten, but her birthday has not yet come so I will wait until afterwards to post, although she sort of rejects modern technology and would probably never see the pictures anyways. Mum said she really liked the card, I don't know if she meant the inside or the outside though. 
This is another card I made for Charlie. He just ran a 21 mile race on the Wapac trail that goes from NH into MA. I liked the card because it was like a trail. Although Charles criticized me because I put a river/lake in the wrong spot. My talents are wasted on him, that's for sure. 

 Lastly, here is a picture of the budding herbs we planted and are growing on our tiny porch. Luckily, our neighbors blasting bad music from the early 90's hasn't stunted the herbs growth (yet). 
Off to hand sew the hem of my dress. 

Goodnight!

Lauren