Happy St. Patrick's Day! _ Made this using the Faux Textured Metal Paper technique with my crafting friends this week.

via Instagram https://www.instagram.com/p/BgcImLdBem9/

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#craftingwithfriends

I get together with friends once a month and we each take a month to teach a card technique. This was my month and last night I showed them how to make this "Block Card".
via Instagram http://ift.tt/2n6Idup

Double Slider Card

Last week was my turn to teach a project to my stamp club. I got the idea from Stamps to Die For. She even has a great video tutorial.

Just pull the little tab and the secret panels will pull up to reveal a hidden message. Cute and surprisingly simple to make.

12.1 Daily December

It's that time of the year again! The busiest time, but the time when we should try to remember what the season is all about.

You might recall that the Daily December idea was started several years ago by Ali Edwards as a way to document and remember the little details that happen during this month. I've done this on my blog for several years, though I didn't really follow through last year. I'm hoping to do a bit better this year. Admittedly, starting off is easy this time around because my 1st Christmas party was tonight.
I got together with my crafty friends. Every December we go out to dinner and exchange presents.

The tree and gingerbread house were at the Palace Hotel. I walk by the hotel almost every day. As I walked by today, I looked into the hotel and saw they had a stunning tree in the garden courtyard so I stepped in to enjoy the tree and take a few snapshots.

A fun start to the month!

Surprise

Would you be surprised if you received this cute pop up box in your mailbox? My friend Kristina taught this tonight at our monthly craft night. And yes, it actually folds flat so you can mail it in a regular envelope!

A fun little added bonus is her 7 year old daughter joined us tonight. While we were making cards she kept busy with her own crafting and made her first rubber band bracelet...and guess who was the very lucky recipient? I've never gotten one before so I feel extra special that "A" gave me her original one.

11.8 Getting Christmas Card Ideas

A few projects my friend Elizabeth's showed us how to make yesterday:

Time to start thinking about my own Christmas card designs.

11.4 Crafting Friends

Tonight was my night to teach a project to my crafting friends. I showed them my version of the Layered Window Frame that I got inspiration from here. It's a fun little dimensional card that folds up flat and fits into a standard envelope to mail to your nearest and dearest. 9 of us got together on this beautiful crisp fall night to craft, chat about our hobby and talk about what we've been doing the past month since we've seen each other last.

3 Cards on Thursday

Elizabeth had her stamp club get together this morning. She always designs the prettiest cards.

3.14 - no pie for me

Today is π day which has given everyone free reign to eat pie. Not that anyone needs an excuse to eat pie. Jimmy and I both prefer pie, but I doubt I'd ever turn down a slice of cake either. But today, neither of us ate pie. {sadface}. Do you prefer pie or cake?

misc. photos from my day.

On the {crafting} table

In January, I mentioned that I was starting a new project for the year, Project Life. We're 7 weeks into the new year and so far I've kept it up.

Week 2: Jan 6th-12th
Finished the quilt I started in May. Humiliated myself by walking hard into a glass door and extended the humiliation by posting it on FB, which seemed to make my friends laugh a lot. Doris and I visited our friend June who suffered a series of small strokes during the holidays. The photo I have in this album is from 2 1/2 years ago.

Week 3: Jan 13th-19th
Saw a couple of movies: "This is 40" and "Zero Dark Thirty". Jimmy and I went ice skating at Union Square when it was 40 degrees out at 11pm. Visited the princess niece and ninja nephew (who are shy).

Week 3 addendum
I did an extra page with photos from our anniversary road trip to Point Bonita and Rodeo Beach.

Week 4: Jan 20th-26th
Jimmy was oh so very sick for 4 days. But by Saturday night, he was feeling well enough to go to Supercross in Oakland.

Week 5: Jan 27th-Feb 2nd
Jimmy left for a 10 day work trip to Austin then Boston. Wanted to see "Les Miserables" before the Oscars. Drove down to San Diego County with my MIL and SIL (who are shy) for Ashley's shower.

Week 6: Feb 3rd-9th
Superbowl Sunday! The 49ers were in it, but lost against the Ravens. Playing dolls with shy Princess niece. June passed away on 2/3/13, she was 92. Jimmy came home from Boston right before a big storm hit. His flight was one of the last ones out of Logan Airport before it closed for 2 days.

Week 7: Feb 10th-16th
We were in San Diego during my SIL's birthday so we waited till this weekend to celebrate. Explored Dolores Park. Valentines day. The bay bridge got a new lighting installment! So cool!

I have a couple more cards on my crafting table:
I'll use them for my exchange cards for stamp club next week and the week after.

12.13 Seeing Red

Tis the season for everyone to wear red for a holiday party! I almost wore my black pants, too. I guess I should have.

12.3: It's beginning to look...

A lot like Christmas...
Put the Christmas tree up today! Yipee!!!
Makes me so happy.

1st Christmas party of the season.
Always so much fun getting together with my crafting friends.

Nov5 Gratitude: Craft Out the Vote

-We signed up to be able to mail in our ballots but didn't get them in the mail in time. I'm grateful that I can still fill them out at home and just drop them off at any polling place.
-Monthly crafting with friends. Tonight was my turn to teach the project. I taught the stairstep card above. Got my inspiration from here. We kinda had a small group today, only 6 of us, but it's always a lot of fun getting together with friends to craft.

The Week in Photos

My brain hasn't been able to focus on anything longer than 2 1/2 minutes this week. Well, that's not exactly true because I've been over focusing on some things so everything else gets lost.

So in keeping with the random theme that matches the thoughts in my head, here is a mishmash of snapshots I took this week.
Getting ready to board Caltrain on my way home from Sunnyvale.
I live about a mile from the Caltrain station in San Francisco. Caltrain travels down the peninsula to San Jose. When I don't have the car or when I don't feel like driving, I can hop on the train and be in San Jose in about an hour and a half. Sunnyvale's about an hour away by train.

During the summer months, almost every weekday, there's a musical performance during lunchtime. It moves from one plaza to another, entertaining business workers as they eat their lunch.

I found a new park. The Transamerica Redwood Park. It's small but amazing! Because of the direction I was facing When I 1st walked into this park, all I noticed were the amazing redwood trees. Such a sight in the middle of the city! I ate my lunch and read my book. Then I noticed someone taking a photo of something the opposite direction I was facing. I turned around to look at what he's shooting and saw the towering Transamerica building next to me.

One of the local janitor's union is going through contract negotiations right now. When I got off BART the other day, I heard and saw them walking towards Market Street in a peaceful protest march.


I got together with my crafting friends this week and we made an accordion file folder mini-book. We got our inspiration here from Splitcoaststampers.

When it opens up, you've got 4 pockets to tuck in messages, photos or momentos.

T-Slide Card

Got together with my crafty friends tonight and made this sweet little card. Doris got her inspiration here and showed us how to put it all together.

When you pull that little pink tab on the right...

the card folds up and reveals a secret message underneath.

Small Box of Sweetness

It's been a long time since I've posted a crafty project. And the truth is, I haven't been doing much crafting this month.

Except for a couple of weeks ago when Kristina showed us how to make these sweet little treat boxes.

Perfect for Valentines. Those are Hershey Hugs wrapped up in scrapbook paper and little stamped messages on each one.

I'm hoping to make 6 or 10 of these for Valentines Day.

11.12.11 Today's Projects

Holiday crafting is in full force in my home. Made these cute little projects from Kristina's stamp club. I'm thinking multiple tree baskets will be made before Dec 25th. Check out her video tutorial if you wanna make some, too.

11.10.11 Crafting at Elizabeth's

11.7.11 stamp club

Paper Terrarium

work in progress



Gloria and Joyce

Finished product

Sept 12th

Elizabeth's projects at Stamp Club Monday night: