MOPS auction items

Well, after much preparation, we finally had our MOPS auction tonight- it is our only fundraiser, which we rely on to offset the costs of running our MOPS group. God blessed us again this year with a great result- it's exciting because it opens up more possibilities for how we can serve not only our MOPS ladies, but those in our community too. I made a set of cards, the 'live, love,laugh" votive holders, a bunch of the magnetic memo boards (the leaders had set the minimum bid for $5- which I thought was too much to start with but I didn't quibble about it,) and to my surprise, they not only sold but were bid on higher than that... go figure! They were very basic... I also made a bunch of gift tags with my scraps that I hate to part with, a couple of altered notebooks, a "mother" themed mini album, and a crackled paint picture frame. I was also surprised at how much people bid on the gift tags.. again, go figure. I also made an 8 1/2 x 11 inch layout to be framed, but I ended up in my rushing to leave for the auction leaving IT on my kitchen counter... ugh! Anyhow, it's always gratifying when something you make sells. It would just be nice if I could actually make a profit from crafts in general. I think I just have to stick with making them for gifts, it's more fun that way... :)

The latest card...

I saw the original version of this card in a stamp shop in Poulsbo, WA while spending a weekend with my best buddy. I needed a card ( the other one of two) for a card craft I am heading up for my mother in law's ladies evening out at her church in Tillamook, OR on Friday. Anhow, we each bought the stamp that was used. The original had a script stamp for the background of the paper that the flower was stamped on. I didn't want to buy another stamp just for script, so we came up with the idea of using the Cuttlebug Script embossing folder for the paper covering the card base instead. In an ideal world, I'd probably be inclined to ink around the edges of the all the pieces, but since this is for a group of up to 20 women, who mostly haven't any experience with cards (haha.. like I have much either!!! :) ) and inking and techniques used often in scrapbooking and cardmaking, I was trying to keep things as simple as possible. I will be stamping all the images ahead of time, and making kits for the cards, and my best buddy helped cut out the paper - the mat was cut with a die from Quickutz, most excellent layering I would say!! :) I used pop up foam dots to pop the white paper up from the rest, I like how it adds another element to the card. I used organza ribbon to complement the colors of the card with the color of the flower- also added another element to the card which I liked The original had this tiny little bow which was so perfect, but I don't want to try and get a bunch of women (pardon the pun) all up in knots over trying to make bows for the cards. A simple double tie worked great for me. I think I will be using the Script embossing folder a lot, I really like how it looks.

Card Day for MOPS service project

This last Saturday, ladies from our MOPS group got together to make cards to go in kits for families of deployed military. These kits have cards for various occasions during the year- birthday, Mothers/Fathers Day, 4th of July, Holiday, First Day of School, and blank (just for fun), along with postcards for the recipient to send back to their child/family, and stamps. Our group's card efforts will be going to Fort Lewis. Despite not being much of a card-maker, I made some efforts to create some cards too. Here are some of the results- I ended up making a set of the green cards for our MOPS auction- from a suggestion of one of our fellow MOPS members and card maker that day. I used a couple of card sketches to jumpstart me- I still struggled, but I'm satisfied enough with the results. My category was "just for fun".