Friday-10:30am

Finally! What an ordeal. Okay--now I know that the world of computers has totally left me behind. I am eating cyber dust.

When I tried to find out why I STILL couldn't upload pictures today and went to contact Google/Picasa it took layer upon layer, screen upon screen, until I finally arrived at my answer. After half an hour I found out that all I had to do was sign out of Google and sign back in. Duh! Apparently this was so obvious that they didn't bother to mention it until quite late in the question screen game...where the computer illiterates end up, I guess.

Well, pull up a chair--have I got pictures for you--hehe! :)

BTW--this is what it looks like in Fargo now. Maybe winter has finally arrived and settled in?

Okay--back to the Black Friday craft treasures we ordered over the phone and Leah picked up on Monday. Four of the basic shapes Spellbinders Nestabilities dies!!
Each of the big sets contains four of the normal size sets. They are all different sizes and "nest" on top of each other.

We got squares...
...circles with petite scallops...

...ovals...

...and circles with classic scallops.

And this is the awesome little box that Leah found to hold all our dies!!

She got a set of plastic dividers to fit the 4" X 6" box...

...and sets of magnetic sheets that they use with 4" X 6" photos so you can stick them on the frig, I guess. (I think you can print right on the white side?)

I filed the sets we already had. Deckled rectangles...

...our ever so cool snowflake set...

...and our Christmas border set.

The Spellbingers Impressabilites snowflake die we have fits, too. I could take it out of the paper folder, but it is quite delicate and thin--so I just stuck it in the back of the box.

And we even had room for all our Cuttlebug embossing folders!

This is going to work so well! The magnetic sheets are pretty thin and pliable, but we can always glue them right on to the stiffer plastic dividers and they'll be fine.

Meanwhile--I was working on the Christmas cards. Here are the sentiment strips I embossed.

Black pigment ink, clear embossing powder, heat gun, and voila! Raised and shiny. I've always thought heat embossing works like magic. :)

I cut down the snowflake embossed white paper (Fiskars texture plate pressed thru the cuttlebug) for the fronts of the cards.

We use pieces of removable tape as guides when we are working assembly-line style. Then you don't have to stop and measure each and every time. :)

So--the fronts were all pre-cut and ready to go. They will fit on the front of the green card with an edge of green showing all the way around.

That was what I had worked on before Leah came over on Wednesday. (And why I was too sore to be of much use when she was here, of course.) But I got all the fronts cut down and all the inside white strips embossed. :)

Dagan and Leah came on Wednesday night and we had spaghetti dinner. I started dinner and Dagan finished making the meal. :)

After dinner--here's Leah messing with the big sets. I told you how I forgot that they are attached to the cardboard with double-sided tape--gummy!

So--instead of being fun--it was kind of a pain in the butt. We abandoned that project for later. Dagan left shortly after I took these pictures. The roads were absolutely terrible that night! Took forever to get across town. Ice and then snow--very, very slick because it was so cold. Lots of vehicles in the ditches. Been in the teens at night and the 20s during the day--brrrr! But Dagan and Leah were fine--made it here and home okay. :)

Oaky--then Leah and I "confabed", as I said, to figure out exactly how we wanted to put the cards together. Then Leah worked on the cards Wednesday night.

I think you can see better on this picture the templates we made for punching the holes in the same spot--hehe! And the black line across the Seasons Greetings is our template for how far from the bottom to place the sentiment strip on the inside.

Leah made our first two complete cards--TADA!!! Here's the red snowflake card...

...and here's the burgundy snowflake card!

I don't know why, but Leah and I just love, love, love these cards!! Simple, but elegant. We just smile and smile! :):)

Anyways, while we watched Northern Exposure Leah punched all the holes with the templates. And then she put together some red snowflakes and attached them to the front pieces with the snowflake brads.

Oh my goodness! It is now 1:45pm! I have to take breaks and it took forever to load all the pictures--hehe! Funny!

Anyways, Leah told me to take it easy for a few days so that we can work on the cards together on Sunday. :):) So yesterday I just had my grocery delivery to put away and today I am washing clothes. I'm being good and letting my back and shoulders rest up--and taking long breaks.

Now you are pretty much caught up. :):) Bye for now!