handmade by donna

birthday cake madness

Here's a very simple birthday card which was inspired by a page from last year's Autumn Leaves calendar.  I don't usually do much decorating the inside of my cards, but I had a new sentiment stamp that I thought would look good inside this one.

zutter madness

There have been two different stamp shows hit this part of Texas the last two weekends.  So you know what that means ... lots of new toys!  One of my new toys is the Zutter binding tool.  It is so cool and so easy to use.   Here's the first little notepad I made with it, and there's lots more in the works.

handmade book madness

Big Picture Scrapbooking has a monthly online class each month for a different type of handmade book.  This month is a Japanese stab bound book.  The instructor and her instructions were awesome - very easy and very clear.  Lots of fun!  I had forgotten how much I liked making books many years ago.  Below are pictures of my January book; needless to say, I've already signed up for the February class.  You can get details at www.bigpicturescrapbooking.com.

quick cards

love this paper and "happyness" stamp ...

working madness

lots of paper crafty goodness happening here but nothing quite finished yet ...

flower and glitter madness

Yes, I finally used the spiral book punch from Stampin' Up that I bought months ago.  I so like it ... but just never remember to break it out.

simple, simple madness

I'm always embarrassed to post pictures of some of my simple cards, but a lot of times I think they are the best.  I guess I just like the clean lines and straight forward look.  And hey, I did emboss the wings.  (I very rarely emboss.)  I do like the sentiment I picked for the inside of this card and the wing stamped on the envelope as well.

calendar madness

I am crazy about calendars ... almost as much as bags (purses, backpacks, etc.).  For the past four or five years, I have made calendars to put inside of the Christmas cards we mail out.  I felt like I was doing the "same ol' thing" year after year and was not feeling the calendar mojo at all.  Then I started seeing pictures of calendars made with blank coasters (like the kind at the restaurant but not printed with anything).  That's all the motivation I needed.  Here's a picture of a couple:

In case you were wondering, the coasters and calendars were purchased at www.stamponthis.com.  They are a wonderful company with exceptional customer service.

hello, 2008!

This should be a very interesting year.  I've sorted out the New Years Resolutions and narrowed the long list down to the ones that really mattered, the ones I would want to keep.

Now to prepare myself for these new resolutions, I set up a separate blog just for photos - something I've needed to do for a long time.  The fact that I couldn't commit to paper crafts or photos has made my posting rather erratic recently.  I am hoping that having two separate places for each hobby will make things a little more consistent.  We shall see.  You can take a look at the photo blog here:  http://handmadebydonna.typepad.com/3652008/.

I'm not going to post my resolutions here, not that they are extremely close to me or anything like that.  In fact, they are rather boring.  I have them written down in my journal where I will look at them often.  That's good enough for me. 

So please come see me again  tomorrow when the paper madness shall resume.

it will be sad to pack this up ...

I'm already thinking about New Year's resolutions.  I did really good with the ones I made last year, so I want to be sure to set some good ones for 2008.