Xmas Card birthing in and amoung honeysuckles

Holy Cow, Batman -- I am like so tuckered out I can hardly post this. Since about 9:30 am I have been working constantly on my 08 Xmas cards. Every year I make them and send out to special friends and family. I always start out swearing that they will be simple and quick to make. Anyone who knows me well and knows they way I create--this quest cannot be accomplished. I don't know "simple." I don't know when to stop. I just keep plugging away. What is that oh so elusive saying, "Keep It Simple Stupid."

Obviously not my mantra. I printed off a photo of me around the age of 8 or 9 at Christmas time with my brand new dolly that Santa brought. I love this photo because it also has a pup we had for a while -- a lovely little pit bull. Pit bulls get a bad wrap. It is "man" who makes them mean -- they are not born that way. Granted they are a little rascally.... yes, they do have a mind of their own but what pup doesn't. These photos will go on the "inside" as the greeting.

As you can see I am still not done but getting there. Tomorrow I will have to pull out the encaustic wax and wax the "Good Tidings" and then figure out a creative way to attach to the front of the card. This is always a challenge since I cannot figure out how much the wax is going to seep to the back and if you have worked with wax - you know it won't "glue" down to anything. That wax is slick! For part of the cover I scanned a hymn and printed it on vellum. I was happy the way it came out and loved the vellum which was made for the ink jet printer!

If all goes as planned, the "new" Xmas stamp for this year will go on top of the vellum which is on top of Xmas paper. I may have to sew it onto the card. Guess we will see tomorrow. I have planned in my mind to use some red and green wax along with the clear. I may use blue in the left hand corner over the snow flakes. The red over the gals dresses and the green toward the bottom where the sheet music is. I will play with it but I do love how well this stamp embossed on the paper.

OK, you have to remember how cute the bed looked waiting for Aaron's arrival. Well, you have to help keep me honest because it got mussed up today when I had to pull out all of my Christmas stamps out of the closet. Those stamps were packed SO well in that closet that the stuff on top of them ended up on the bed. Hopefully, when I am finished with the cards tomorrow, I will get it cleaned back to the way it was (reminds me of a song.....). And, if it is posted here, I am going to have to keep you posted which will make it a little easier to get back to the way it was. Oliver's mummy asked me if I needed to invite Jim and Aaron back ..... She's a funny woman. AND she did give me great news, Oliver's stitches came out and he doesn't have to wear that horrible "cone" anymore. He was really looking quite pitiful as "cone head." But pitiful in a cute kind of way.

OK -- it is now time to call it a night. I hope your day has been great and you have gotten done all that was on your "To-Do" list. I feel good although tired but it is a good tire. In between working on the cards, I did manage to get dishes washed and laundry done. Tomorrow just need to run to the grocery store and Samantha has another violin recital that I will run to. Here is bed then and now, now and then, hey this could be a bad country western song. I heard Imus talking this week about some tune called, "She left me for Jesus." Hmmmm. Nope, doesn't sound like my kind of song. Never mind what my train of thought just was... because it is gone now.