En Francais and Rudolph

Happy Happy Happy Happy Monday!!!!

What else can I say??!!  I'm in SUCH a good mood this morning!!!  It really DOES make a difference to your mood when you sleep for 7 hours straight rather than the 5 I have been averaging lately!  WHY did I manage to sleep 2 hours longer than usual I hear you cry?  Yes, I suppose pure and utter exhaustion may have played a part ... but I've been exhausted for weeks now but that hasn't stopped me from waking up around 3:00 am every morning.  Nope - exhaustion wasn't it ... it was because for the first time since, oh, MAY I feel like I'm getting on top of things!  It's so true what "they" say ... clutter causes stress.  I have had clutter building and building and building as I have gotten busier and busier and busier this year and I finally snapped on Friday.  I couldn't take it any more!  I had my "major" projects completed so I HAD to turn my attention to the clutter.  As always I started in my bathroom.  I started small and slow ... "what the hell do I HAVE in my makeup basket that is beside the sink??!!"  I only ever seem to use the same 4 things out of it so WHY is it overflowing???  I emptied it and started pitching things ... everything to dusty, hairy, unused cotton balls to bobby pins (WHEN was the last ... or FIRST ... time I've ever used a bobby pin???)  I found 5 black combs ... 5 hair clips (um, my hair isn't long enough to fall in my eyes let alone clip up!!!), Q-tips, eyeshadow brushes, eyelash glue ... you name it, I found it ... and pitched it!  Right!  Now I was on a roll ... I purged under the bathroom sink and my 3 bathroom drawers ... onward!  I purged and tidied the linen closet ... next the girls' bathroom cupboard ... on to expired medicines ... unused bathtoys ... I even entered into (enter spooky "dun da da da daaaaaaaaaaaaaa" music here) THE PLAYROOM!  Now I'm not gunna lie ... I was a little scared ... and a little hurt after stepping on one of the 300 pieces of Lego on the floor ... but I pressed on.  I hauled out 7 Safeway bags of toys, garbage, crap and things .. and I only just made a dent in it!  I had a very full day and went to bed feeling good about what I had accomplished ... although I still needed another 3 or 4 days of the same to truly get to where I wanted to be.  So I went to bed ... and woke up at 5:00 am with my mind reeling with things yet to do.  I was up at 5:45 am and purging the pantry.  Apparently when we moved into this house in 2006 I figured we needed every food product known to man-kind ... and kept most of it!  I'm not sure why I felt the need to have TWO cans of coconut milk on hand ... my family doesn't LIKE coconut milk or meals MADE with coconut milk!  Nonetheless there they were - two cans ... best before June 2006 ... wait a minute!  That means I probably BOUGHT them in 2004!  Ewwww!  I threw out half used bags of shredded coconut (again with the coconut!!), pine nuts, spices and unopened packages of instant rice.  Next it was the "baking" cupboard ... and the tupperware cupboard ... and the (gasp) junk drawer!!!  I was a woman possessed!  Craig took the girls skiing and I just kept going ... like the Energizer Bunny!  (Oh ... as an aside ... I did have a bit of a disasterous weekend accident wise.  Thursday night I managed to badly burn Alicia with my hot glue while making ornaments ... Friday I managed to burn mySELF with boiling water while draining the Kraft Dinner ... and Saturday I managed to drop the iPad and shatter the glass!).  I worked and worked and worked.  Sunday I felt like I had been hit by a truck but I forced myself to keep going .. and a little Kahlua in my coffee didn't hurt matters ;)  I am BEYOND thrilled to say I finally got the girls' SCHOOL WORK FROM LAST YEAR organized and pout away!!!  That has been hanging over me like an annoying wasp since JUNE!  Wow!  It was like the weight of the world had been lifted from my shoulders.  As usual, that task took all of about 20 minutes so WHY I hadn't made the time to do it sooner escapes me!!!  I had a VERY successful day in my craft room as well.  I STILL needed to finish off some cards I promised a club member last month ... finished those off ... I still needed to design my 3rd En Francais Stamp set of the Month card ... finished that off ... and then I needed to make 4 of each of the 3 En Francais cards ... finished THAT off (AND I redisgned the second one as I fell out of love with it *lol*).  I toyed with napping ... NO!  No rest for the wicked .. press on!  So I cracked off 25 gifts for my Club Members!!!  I went to bed at 9:30 ... fell asleep in about 34 seconds and woke at 5:00 am.  Ahhhh ... feels great!  Today I'm gunna walk the pup and then do some Christmas shopping ... MUCH later than usual ... and the toys my kids want are not to be found anywhere but oh well ... I'll pull something off somehow :)

So that's why I'm in such a great mood today.  You still with me?  Still reading??  What are YOU procrastinating on today that you have time to read all my crazy??  I had a long think about what I was procrastinating on to do so much around the house .. and then it hit me ... my Christmas cards!!  *lol*  Every year I'm the same ... I do EVERYTHING under the sun before tackling the stack of cards to mail out.  Apparently I never change *lol*.  Anyway ... I'll do those another day ... maybe tomorrow ... in the meantime let's get to those cards I made for the Stamp Set of the Month Club, shall we??  Ok.  First up is the one I redesigned from my last post.  Remember how I loved the embossing on the vellum and said I might revisit it?  Well I did.  While I was cleaning up I found some scraps lying around and things fell into place.  I didn't like how "heavy" the En Francais was on the card so I softened it ... a lot.  Lookie:

I started with the Very Vanilla base and then have a layer of Early Espresso card stock.  On top of that I have ANOTHER layer of Very Vanilla that was stamped with En Francais in Espresso (not embossed).  That vanilla layer is only 1/4" smaller than the espresso layer so it is very subtle.  I then have yet ANOTHER layer of Vanilla - 1/4" smaller where I have the sentiment (Thoughts & Prayers) in espresso and 3 butterflies ... 2 in espresso and 1 embossed on vellum.  There are pearls for their bodies and 2 more under the snetiments.  This is a much cleaner look.  I like it ... so I made 8 :)

The next one only took me about 15 minutes to bring together.  Again I had scraps lying around and I just had a play with them.  While I LOVE the En Francais script ... and I love the full-on look of it stamped on a sheet of paper ... it is very intense and competes with any other sentiments or embellishments so I again just used it as a bit of an accent on this Valentine (or Anniversary) card ...

Sigh ... I still haven't mastered the new camera.  I took about 12 pictures of this card and still didn't get the lighting right.  It is Whisper White with a smaller layer of Whisper White and then a smaller SMALLER layer of Whisper White stamped in Cherry Cobbler with the En Francais set.  I used my Heart Collection Framelits for the hearts as well as the small heart punch for the teeny tiny one.  The LOVE YOU sentiment was one of the single stamps I bought last month ... it can also be bought as part of the "Seasonal Sayings" set in the mini - page 34 - $20.95 clear; $27.95 wood.  I stamped it in Midnight Muse ... the hearts are in Midnight Muse and Cherry Cobbler.  I used a rhinestone to finish it off.  Hmmm ... looks better in person.

Last up I just HAD to make this adorable ornament that I cased from Melissa Davis.  She has a tutorial on her website www.rubberfunatics.blogspot.com .  Check it out!

  

OK ... Time to go ... gotta hit the stores!  Hope you had a productive weekend like I did ... now I can have a stampy day!


Tam