Oh my! My to do list is pretty long today. I am wondering how much I will get done. I am kinda starting out late in the day but, better late than never right? And I figure if I write my list here I will have to be accountable for it! LOL I can check them off later in the day as I get them done. Ignore if not interesting! I don't mind! LOL DONE clear off work table on porch DONE bring in baskets for basement DONE sweep porch vacuum sofa on porch (love those cats!) :) DONE! vacuum LR vacuum steps DONE laundry basket 1 DONE laundry basket 2 DONE laundry basket 3 (sensing a trend here?) DONE!--put new hardback books away to read later DONE dusting Liv Room DONE! -collect toiletries for flood victims from hall closet DONE! -package up cards for troops to ship to KS declutter kitchen cabinet DONE sweep kitchen floor DONE! make guest bed up Goodness this seems like a big list. I better get crackin! Ready set go! 11:58 am MN time! Will report progress later. :) Rock

I know it seems like most of my recent posts are about cards--and they are! I have been using my supplies and trying to create something useful from the stash. It seems to be working. :) Here is one more set of cards for the Operation Write Home collection for the troops overseas. My friend Sue gave me some adorable unmounted rubber stamps and one of them was perfect for this project. I used my Copic markers once again and did a small platoon of 15 army cards. Now I have to pack up all the cards and send them off to Kansas so my regional shipper can get them going to the troops. I feel good about this project and in the last month I have made about 50 cards or more for the cause. I truly hope 50 soldiers--or 50 family members-- enjoy the cards.

(click on photo to enlarge) Thank you Christie at http://creationsbychristie.blogspot.com/ for the idea! I did this above Christmas set of about 15 cards today with the Lovebird (digital image by Jennifer Aho, 2010) for Operation Write home. http://operationwritehome.org/mailroom If you have some surplus (perhaps left over from last year?) blank handmade Holiday cards, consider sending them on to Operation Write Home so the troops can use them to send to their families in 2010. Due deadline is Oct 31. 2010. That is soon-- so get crackin! :) Email the shippers listed on the left side of the OWH webpage to be sure of what they need. My shipper said cards that are different from each other are preferred right now over sending a massive identical set. This is because we are getting closer to that Oct 31 deadline. Keep that in mind. Having them all designed differently would actually be a GOOD thing for stash use! Use one basic card layout idea but change out the papers and accen...

o I issued a challenge this afternoon over on ScrappersChallenge on Yahoo Groups for members. I wanted them to join me as I sorted and ripped articles from my 20 some magazines and kept only the best pages, ideas, or articles. these magazines ranged from way back in 2000 and 2002 all the way up to Jan/Feb 2010 issues!! Did you do the challenge with me? You still can! Here above is the BEFORE stack I had of mostly home and craft magazines. 21 in all---all before spread out on the table. The stack if stacked upright was about 12 inches tall but it never stayed upright for the photo as magazines are so slippery! And here is the AFTER. I included a shot of the ruler in here so you can see that the space saved is amazing. The saved pages, articles, sketches and tips all amounted to about 2 or 3 in each magazine. I ended up with only 1/2 an inch of saved articles!!! Yippeee! So much easier on my mind to find what I want now! I only kept those I thought would REALLY get used or be infor...

The cover Title page (above) The Costa Rica Album! Time to upload some new pages! I talk about speed scrapping a lot. I heartily advocate just getting the job underway --and not second guessing your own personal style and good taste. It can be done. Plan efficiently. Make page kits. Set aside time to crop. Use your stash! I just finished a speed album of 38 vacation pages that I did for my daughter about her Costa Rica trip. My daughter can add her own personal journaling later if she likes. We have plenty of room for that. I am posting the layouts here so you can see how I used what I had. It did not match. Some papers were what I would call downright old and frankly too neon for me. I also used up ribbons, flowers, and more that were bold and bright. However, for this kind of tropical travel album project-- they really did work! I tried to match color schemes to each other (within each two page layout) but not necessarily to the next layout sets. You can get a feel fo...