Getting down to business...

June is one of my favorite months. It's filled with birthdays and best of all, school ends for a few months. It's a time for me to do some scrapping or stamping and kick back and relax-usually.

This year it seems that I have had no time for the relaxing part. Since my husband recently lost his job at GM, we have decided to start a business of our own; Red Line Performance, LLC. This has consumed nearly all my spare time (of course I put aside a little time for browsing the new catalog). Jerry is the brains behind the garage, and it turns out that I need to be the brains behind all the "other stuff." I didn't realize how much "other stuff" there is, nor did I realize this would consume as much of my time as it does. I'm a teacher by trade, and have never even begun to (or wanted to begin to) sink my teeth into the business or financial aspects of life, but it looks like I will be. To top it off, since we are starting the business at our home, Jerry is here everyday instead of off at work. This means that he can monitor my deliveries from Stampin Up! He hasn't said much so far since I only had one delivery, but who knows what the future may hold....
Anyway, I have made some time over the past few weeks to make some birthday cards (all work and no play makes Rach a dull girl). Since I had some birthday cards to send and I plan to do a birthday card class in a few weeks, I thought this would be a good start. Hopefully I'll get a few more cards done later on this week when I visit my friend, Lynn (http://lwdesigns.blogspot.com/). She gives me great inspiration.

So, here is what I've done so far. The first is a card and little gift bag for Lynn. Her birthday was June 6. The rest are cards for other people and a cute little box.

The little tag slides out from the pocket...

This box is just the right size for all that mail and "other stuff" that keeps stacking up on my desk. I'm still trying to decide what to put in the circle.... I'm planning to squeeze in some card time later, so hopefully I'll have more to share tomorrow.

Cute Little Flip Book

If this isn't the easiest, cutest thing to make, I don't know what is. I don't know what got into me on Sunday night. After dinner I went into my little room for a while to surf Splitcoast for some ideas, and I came across a flip book. The one I saw was very simple, but it gave me some inspiration. So, I decided to try one out. I used some old scrapbook paper that I've had sitting around here for about 4 years now (just in case it didn't turn out I didn't want to waste any of my beloved SU! paper), and, not to toot my own horn, but, the little book turned out super cute. The best thing was it was super fast and easy to do. This is what it looks like from the front.

This is the center back cover (it's open, so the ribbon you see is normally wrapped around the book).

This is what it looks like when you open the cover. It's a tri-fold book, so this is the left side of the book when it's open and the other back cover (the back of the right side).

Next is the view of the whole book open (with all the flips closed).

This is the left side with just the gate fold flips open.

This is the next flip on the left side (where you flip the center up).

This is the right side with the gate folds open.

And the right side center flip up.

This first center flip open. (Sorry, I forgot to crop the picture first).

And finally, this is the second center flip open.

Well, like I said, it was pretty fast so do. I started Sunday night around 7:00, worked until about midnight and finished in the morning. All in all I think it took about 7 hours, but that was designing the pages and deciding on flips and stuff. The most time consuming part was deciding on the layouts for the pages. Now that I have it figured out, I'll bet the next one will only take about 4 hours. pretty cute little gift, ay? I can't wait to do another one now that I know I won't be wasting the beloved paper!

Well, that's all I can share for now. I have a couple birthday cards that I've been dying to post, but can't until the recipients see them. Maybe next week.

This is June?

I thought June is supposed to be warm? Today it's going to be cloudy, rainy and only supposed to maybe get to 70 degrees, if we're lucky. What is going on? All this cold, cloudy, rainy weather is supposed to be during the school year and go away on the last day! Oh well, I guess it's another excuse to be in my stampin room and have some indoor fun.

Well, here's a cute little 2-5-7-10 box that I made. I used the window word punch to make hinges so you can open the little card on the front.

Ta ta for now....

School's Out!

WooHoo! School is finally out, and I am sooo excited! This means I can get out my toys and play all the time without that horrid interruption of having to go to work! I have only one card to share right now, and it is another card I made for my SIL's baby shower (I went to two of them). For this shower did not bring any hand made gifts, but did make this cute card. It is nearly a total CASE from SCS'er Sassiangel. I adored it when I first saw it months ago, and have been waiting for the opportunity to use the design. I just love those cute little babies in the Baby Firsts set. Too bad it's retired...

Well, I have a list of things to do tonight, so I can begin my SUMMER VACATION tomorrow morning!!! WOO HOO! I have three reasons for becoming a teacher: June, July and August!

The Rest of the Stuff

Here it is, the project I've been working on for such a very long time; my very first quilt. My sister-in-law is about to have a baby girl, and it is for her. They live on the lake, so I thought this would be perfect for the boat trips. I was so worried that it was not going to turn out good, since it was my first one, but by the time I got to the last little fishy, I had the technique down. Here's a close up of one little fishy. Not to toot my own horn, but, I think I did a pretty good job!

I made her a couple cards for the shower, (one for each gift). this one incorporates some of the fabric from the border of the quilt.

I got inspiration for this one from mt very good friend, Lynn. You can see her talent at http://lwdesigns.blogspot.com/ . She's the one who introduced me to stamping and Stampin Up! I hope to one day become as creative and talented as she is.

For the baby shower, I also made a little 6X6 scrapbook that has a page per month for the first year of my sweet little niece's life. While I was doing it, I worked with a colleague who had never scrapped before, on one for her grand-daughter. I think I may have shown her how simple it really is, and inspired her to do it again. I hope so. For me, it is therapy after a trying day in 6th grade!

This was the January page, and darn it, I forgot to take a picture after I colored it.

February

I forgot to take a picture of the cute little Easter page (shoot!). The next few can be any month the mother-to-be chooses.









Obviously, October, November and December follow.

This is one of the party favors I made for the shower. Each guest took one of them, and a gift from the basket of prizes. I also made enough of these so that I could give one to each of my esteemed colleagues at school, as an end of the year token of appreciation. Teaching special education can be challenging, and I'm lucky to work with a gorup of people who make life at school easy (or at least tolerable)!


Well, thats all for now, so toodle-ooo!

More stuff!

I'm back! I have a little bit of time, so I thought I'd share a few more things I've been working on.

The first is a sympathy card for the family of a dear staff member who recently passed. Grandma, as as she was called, worked for our school for more years than many of us
can remember. She will always be in our hearts.

This was an anniversary card for my brother and sister-in-law.

This is a set of cards that will be one of the gifts for my sister-in-law's baby shower. I totally CASE'd this from Amy Celona

This is another set of cards for the shower that I also CASE'd, but can't remeber who I got it

from. Whoever you are, Thanks!

These coasters will also be shower gifts.

This card was just for the fun of it! Actually, I was dying to use this cool new circle cutter tool I got from the Great lakes MegaMeet. You can see the tool here: http://www.heartfeltcreations.us/results.php?keywords=circle+cutter
It works like a compass, only instead of a pencil, it's a cutting blade.

Finally, this card is for a colleague that I know won't see my blog. I'll still have more to share before the shower on Sunday (and a couple that will have to wait until after (so the new mom doesn't see them).

It's about time....

It's not that I haven't done anything creative, it's just that I've been so busy creating I haven't had time to post. Since we have this beautiful 3 day weekend ahead of us, I figure I have an extra day, so today I'll share some of the stuff I"ve been working on before May is over and I miss my monthly post. It looks like it's going to be a beautiful weekend, so I don't plan on spending much time indoors! I actually have a lot to share, but I'm going to save the other part for another day. I need to get outside...

This is a card I made for my brother-in-law.

My husband is starting his own business, so I made this little steno pad for him to keep track of his daily activities.

This is for the son of a colleague, and the rst of the cards I made are for door prizes at my sister-in-law's upcoming baby shower. I have plenty more of those to share, but as I said, I want to go outside so they'll have to wait.

Until next time.....