Cards, cards, cards get 'em while they last!

I love to swap cards and I do a fair amount of it during the summer and not at any other time. I use them as I can for birthdays and such but mostly I have tons of cards and nothing to do with them. I have been promising my church that I'd give them the ones I really didn't want but hadn't gotten around to it. A week ago in church a letter was read from a mom of 4 stationed in Afghanistan that received a box from our church. It brought tears to my eyes and I had a DUH! moment. I gathered up about a dozen cards to go into each of the 6 boxes. Then I set to work putting card bases on at least another 70 or so cards. I am proud to say that after much house cleaning that I've donated about 150 cards to my church and to the military personnel that will receive boxes from us!
Go Me!

The final camp installment

I'm sure by now you've had enough camp projects but until my swaps are received, I don't have a lot of new things to post. I am busy working on August swaps for VC_Rocks, the best SU group out there. We're having our 10th anniversary this year and it's been so much fun this summer.

What we have here is a small covered composition book, a decorated tin and the accordion file folder album from yesterday. Everything is decorated with retired DSP in colors my daughter likes. The story on the tin is that it's empty, except for a poem that explains even though the tin LOOKS empty it's really filled with hugs and kisses for her in case she was home sick.

Camp Projects

I knew I wanted to make some kind of album for Katie to bring with her to record names and contact info, yearbook style signatures and various other first time at camp memories. Because of time and supplies on hand, I chose an accordion file folder album. I was up until 2:00am the day she was going to camp and still didn't get everything I wanted to done. I wanted folders entirely covered with decorative paper but in the end, sleep won. The following photos show the album and it's inserts. More small camp projects to follow.

A big thank you to my friend Kari who shared a memory book made for her in 1975. I used many of the ideas from her book for the insert pages shown below.

I broke by Big Shot

Can you believe it? I actually broke a part of my Big Shot, my brand new, hardly used, only had it a month Big Shot. WTH? This is a tale of woe and stupidity. When I ordered my machine I thought I got all the pads and such that I'd need. I forgot the silicone rubber deal for the texturz plates. I found this awesome substitute ... a mouse pad except of course that it didn't fit quite right. Well I made my little BS sandwich with the mouse pad doing duty for the silicone and the result is shown below!



I called all the craft stores in my area because I was in the middle of another card swap after all. I finally found what I needed (the impressions pad and silicone mat) but I had to buy it as a kit with 3 additional texturz plates. Thankfully they're plates I didn't have but they're also not SU plates. At least I can use Mr. Big again!

More Camp Projects

I remember going off to camp with Brownies for the first time. I called that first night and BEGGED my parents to come and get me and take me home. It was so dark at Camp Dorothy Thomas and I was terrified. They convinced me to stay by reminding me that I was already signed up for a week in the summer where I'd be able to ride horses. It worked, I stayed and had a wonderful time!

My 9 year old daughter went to camp on Sunday for the first time. It is our church camp and boy are things different. She's got a "cabin" (read hotel room) that is air conditioned! No lie! Real indoor showers with hot water ... this is not camping, it's a week long sleepover with friends you don't know.

I did make her several cute things though, one is the card with box drawer shown in an earlier post and here is another!



Smart mommy huh? pre-addressed, pre-stamped post cards! I'll have HER back before I see a post card I'm sure.
-Brandy

VC Rocks Blog Hop #3

Welcome once again to a VC Rocks Blog Hop. If you don't already know VC Rocks is a wonderful group of paper artists that have a love for everything Stampin Up! Make sure to check out the VC Rocks Blog for ...
1. the beginning of this blog hop
2. lots of gorgeous Make N Takes by our very own rockers
3. information on following the group so that you too can be a VC Rocker next year
http://www.vcrocks.blogspot.com/

Most of you have joined my blog from Crafting with Kim where she shared a gorgeous card in several of my favorite colors. You can go back to her blog by clicking below:
http://www.craftingwithkim.blogspot.com/

I have a card for you made with a new 2010/2011 In Color named Concord Crush, it's a deep purple that goes nicely with the others here, Tempting Turquoise, Whisper White and Basic Black. Another new item is the bird & cage from Aviary! I just LOVE birds and this set was a must have as soon as my eyes gazed upon that new catalog. I've also used the new Elegant Lines embossing folder on the outside and just a touch on the inside of the card. The outside features the de-bossed (or inny side as I call it) and the inside of the card features the embossed (or outty side). The inside was run back through the Big Shot in order to flatten the design so it could be written over. Whisper white ink enhances the outside and tempting turquoise on the inside. Isn't this just the cutest thing?



I hope you've enjoyed my card share, please hop on over to Kimber Dunn's blog where ... do I see this correctly she has used flowers for her share. This is new for Kimber so do enjoy!
http://kraftykkreations.blogspot.com/

Camp Card

My dearest darling daughter is going to sleep away camp after church on Sunday. I am working on several items for her to go into a care package. I found a tutorial to make a box card with a drawer and thought is would be cute to add into her stash. I'm not allowed to send candy so I've placed elastic hair bands in the box. I also made the box in yellow, her current favorite color and stamped on the dog from Ruff Day a retired SU stamp set. This project uses a few Stamps by Judith (bone, woof & paw) and the sentiment is a current stamp set also from SU called, Smarty Pants. More projects to come and another VC Blog Hop this weekend.





If you'd like to make this for yourself, click on the link below to be taken to the tutorial I used.
http://juliedavison.com/Tutorials/1007_BoxCardWithDrawer.pdf

Thanks for checking out my blog and don't forget to stop back by for the blog hop this weekend and another project.
-Brandy