I MUST be crazy! LOL

RIBBON SHARE IS NOW CLOSED! Thanks to all who joined. I will be ordering the ribbon 12-31-06. :)

My January ribbon share has begun... in December. I received a special offer from one of the companies I am ordering from and decided to put a RUSH on my share. :) The details are below.

· I have just barely recovered from the second round, but I am hosting another ribbon share due to popular demand.

Ribbon share Details:

• 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon (NOT SU most colors will match SU colors. SOME ARE repeats of past shares. Due to time constraints, I will not take suggestions for colors. I don’t order anything repulsive, so you’ll have to trust me. LOL)
• 30 different colors10 yards of each color300 yards total
• $47 per participant (including shipping back to you and $2 to cover my paypal fees)
• I cut the ribbon, bundle it by color and ship it to you in a priority box (international shipments are sent airmail usually). Time to ship to you depends on shipping from the manufacturer, but should be around a month or less from the time I receive all payments. Cutting and bundling takes a tremendous amount of time, but I do my best to get it done quickly.
  *Canadians add $3 to total for a total of $50. All other countries add $8 for a total of $55. IF shipping is much more than I charged for international participants (non Canadian), I will ask that you paypal me the difference. If it is a small difference, I will cover it.
  
• You may sign up for more than one spot if you would like to. Just double the price when sending payment. IF you sign up for more than 1 spot, your ribbon will still be cut into 10 yard sections, but you will get 10 yards of each color per spot.
  
  There has been a special offer extended to me from the company that I order from. This special is good ONLY until the last day of December. For that reason, I am making this a RUSH sign up. You MUST send me paypal for the total above no later than midnight on December 30th. My paypal address is: I realize this is VERY short notice giving you about 36 hours to respond, BUT this is a GREAT deal that I can’t pass up. ALL PARTICIPANTS will receive a FREE gift with this order. It will either be MORE ribbon, or something stamp-supply related. It will depend on how many sign up by the deadline. If you would like to participate, please send me paypal and add the following info in the “notes” section while sending paypal:
• name
• SCS name (if applicable)
• mailing address
  I am only accepting Paypal at this time to cut down on wait time. I will be ordering the ribbon on December 31st! If you would like to sign up, just send your payment and all the info requested. No need to PM or e-mail me, but you can if you have a question. I am trying to be as efficient as possible since there is little time to organize this. LOL. DO NOT SEND PAYMENT AFTER THE DEADLINE WITHOUT MY APPROVAL. I will be compiling all the info in the mid-morning on Dec 31st. I will acknowledge that you have paid, but it may take me a few days to get to that. Paypal is very easy to use. Just go to http://www.paypal.com/ and follow the instructions to send payment. They can take it directly out of your bank account or from a credit card. I will keep my blog updated as always to share the progress of the order with you. J My blog:
  
  http://confessionsofaribbonaddict.blogspot.com/
• See some ribbon from my 1st and 2nd ribbon share here:http://scrappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/2006/11/ribbon-ba-by.html
  http://gamblemom.blogspot.com/2006/11/wooohoooo-its-ribbon-fiesta.html
  http://gamblemom.blogspot.com/2006/11/ahhhhh-wrapped-and-ready.html
  http://mojo-creations.blogspot.com/2006/11/im-sick-i-woke-up-this-morning-feeling.html
  http://inkspirations.blogspot.com/2006/12/got-ribbon.html
  http://inkfullyyours.blogspot.com/2006/11/rainbow-of-ribbon.html
  
  WHEW! I think that covers it! As I mentioned, please PM or e-mail if you have any questions that are not answered in this message.
  
  Have a wonderful day and sweet dreams of all that RIBBON! LOL
  
  Hugs!
  Jody

"Pine cone" Tree

I discovered pine cone balls last year in a non-stamping magazine. I made a TON of them and sent one with the directions to Amanda Sewell last year. She revived the pine cone balls this year and started a craze on SCS. :)

I decided I would try something new this year... pine cone tree. Truth be told I am not thrilled with the results. There are flaws and after spending hours making it, I was quite disappointed. I showed it to my hubby and told him I had spent a long time making it and that I felt I had wasted my time. He assured me *someone* would like it, so I am posting it anyway. :)

I started with a cone shaped foam piece. Then, I cut 1 X 2 pieces of Basic Grey patterned paper and folded them into triangles (fold in each side to meet in the middle.) Then, triangles are pinned on in an off-set fashion all the way to the top. I finished it off with a 1 inch circle on top, topped with bow that is adorned with a gem brad. Then, I pierced each dark blue triangle and inserted a silver brad in it. I repeated that step to stud the bottom of the tree.

This will be used as a table topper. :)

I hope you all are ready for Christmas.

HUGS!

pine cone ball directions can be found on Amanda's blog:

http://inkspirations.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-here-tutorial-for-pinecone-balls.html

Mass production...

I am not a big fan of mass producing cards or other stamped goodies, but sometimes it is necessary. :) I am attempting to get ready for Christmas and I wanted to have "ready to give" gifts ready. I reproduced an earlier project I made. I changed a few small things, but in effect it is the same project. I am a bit annoyed that I am OUT of my satiny chocolate polka dot ribbon. It REALLY is a travesty. How in the world can I be OUT? Those of you who know me understand. I don't have "just one" of anything. I am a stocker-upper. LOL It's not even on sale this week, so I guess I will have to wait. *sigh* I subbed the dark brown gingham for the polka dot ribbon on half of them. Each of these hot cocoa packets uses almost 2 full yards of American Crafts ribbon. YIKES! :)

Until we meet again, gorgeous satiny polka dot ribbon...

Exciting News!

OH MY GOODNESS! I can FINALLY share a bit of news I have had to be so quiet about... I am a DIRTY GIRL! :) I have just joined the ranks of the Dirty Dozen Design Team on Splitcoaststampers.com. Read all about how YOU can join here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/about/fan.php . More info here: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/

Thanks to everyone for being SO supportive! I truly appreciate it and look forward to many more months on the DD team.

I am hoping to be adding to my blog at least a couple times a week. :) The rest of the time, I'll be in my stamp room with my thinking cap on or browsing the forums on SCS. LOL

Have a wonderful day!

Next time, maybe LESS than 47 steps..

Next time I make Christmas cards that is. I didn't actually COUNT the steps, but if I count all the pierced holes, sponged layers, faux stitching, ribbon and everything else on this card it sure felt like that many. LOL Note to self: next time, go for a *little* simpler design! :)

I stayed up until 4 a.m. finishing these cards. I only made 40 of them! LOL Today I will finish addressing them and send them out on Monday. As I check off each task this holiday season I am feeling jollier and jollier! LOL

Have YOU finished/sent out your cards yet? Tick, tock, tick, tock! LOL

The ribbon has left the building!

I am SO shocked and surprised, but the ribbon is DONE! All 12,000 yards have been cut, bundled, taped, sorted, packed and SHIPPED! WOOHOO! Special thanks to Tracy and Sue for helping me. :) You ladies helped me keep my sanity and for that I am SO GRATEFUL!

All international packages were shipped airmail post and I was told it would be 7-10 days on those. All US packages were mailed USPS priority mail. Shipping is normally 2-3 days on those.

I had no sooner gotten those packages out the door... that I decided to order a sample card from the next ribbon company I am ordering from in January. LMBO! Yes... I have ribbon issues. LOL So, I will be color matching in preparation for my January ribbon share. I have already convinced Tracy to help once again. Thank goodness for friends! :) The colors will be mostly different from this round, although there may be a few similar colors. I will need to receive the sample cards prior to deciding exactly which ones I will buy. I can say there is an EXACT match to pixie pink that I am ALL OVER! LOL The cost will be $45 including shipping back to you for approx 300 yards of 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon. I have an informal list of interested participants started. If you are interested, go ahead and comment on this post. Make sure to include your name and E-MAIL ADDRESS so I can contact you with further details. I will not be working on this until AFTER the new year. ;) My ribbon cutting arm needs a break and my stamp room misses me. :)

Thanks to everyone who joined and I look forward to hearing from you when you receive your ribbon. :)

The ribbon is HERE!

The box looked like it had been kicked out of the truck on the freeway AND was a bit of a tangled mess, but it is HERE.

I will need to now cut it into 10 yard sections, bundle it, sort it and mail your packages. This is a time consuming project. For the last ribbon share I cut 9,000 yards and it took a total of 40 man hours. I had a friend helping me (THANK YOU TRACY) and it took us EACH 20 hours. This time, there is 12,000 yards, so I am expecting it to take me about 25-27 hours. I am hoping to have it done by this coming Monday at the latest. I will keep you updated here on my blog. Thanks again to everyone who joined. The ribbon is GORGEOUS! :)

P.S. Thanks to Lois Michael who sent me an extra $5 to buy energy drinks for ribbon cutting. That should help! LOL :) Also, thanks to everyone who sent me beautiful cards with their ribbon payments. :)

Have a great day. If you need me, I am here... tangled in ribbon. LOL

A little sneak peek

Here is a sneak peek of the ribbon that DID come yesterday! This is the ribbon that was backordered and happened to be delivered on the same day as the rest of the ribbon order. Of course... we know the other ribbon was "damaged" and UPS will be contacting the sender. I tried calling UPS again, but they are closed for the weekend. The UPS agent at the 1-800 # took a message and said the local office will call me Monday morning.

Jody, where have you been?

I was told tonight in a very NICE way that I have been neglecting my blog. (Hi Darlene LOL) The truth is, I have been. With the holidays creeping up on me and being sick for so long I just went BLAH!

I would LOVE to share a project with you inspired by my beautiful girls!

This was made with chipboard coasters. A friend sent them to me last week and I was SO ready to try them out. I adhered patterned paper to the front of the coasters. Then, I sanded the edges. I stamped the cute Snowman and sentiment by A Muse and placed all the pieces on the coasters. Then, I attached the coasters together with some hinges. To finish it off, of course I had to adorn it with ribbon galore. The sentiment on this project says, "you make my heart melt." My girls DEFINITELY have that effect on me. :)

ETA: The hinges were thrown in my embellishment box, so I am not 100% sure who makes them. I am thinking they are making memories though. To attach them, I used my crop-o-dile and punched holes in the coasters to put the brads through. If I made another one, I would probably try a smaller hole. Tyhe hinges are a little "jiggly" and I would prefer them to be more sturdy. I used chalk inks to color the backside of the coasters. It is a darkish green that matches the green in the paper. :) I hope that answers your questions. :)

SO SO sad!

I was VERY excited today! I checked my UPS tracking numbers this morning and all the RIBBON was out for delivery. There had been 20 spools back ordered that ironically were scheduled to be delivered on the the very day the initial order was being delivered. I grabbed my boxes out of the garage in anticipation of stuffing them full of ribbon for all the ladies in the ribbon share. At about 5 p.m. my doorbell rang... it was UPS.... YAY right? Um, Mr. Brown only delivered one smallish package that I KNEW could not be 120 spools of ribbon. So, I opened it up and it was 20 spools of ribbon. I checked the tracking on the 1st package that had the bulk of the ribbon in it and this is what it said:


EL PASO,TX, US
12/01/2006
4:54 P.M.
THE PACKAGE WAS DAMAGED IN TRANSIT. UPS WILL NOTIFY THE SENDER WITH THE DETAILS
12/01/2006
8:10 A.M.
OUT FOR DELIVERY
12/01/2006
6:33 A.M.
DESTINATION SCAN
12/01/2006
6:30 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
ALBUQUERQUE,NM, US
12/01/2006
1:04 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
ALBUQUERQUE,NM, US
11/30/2006
2:23 P.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
HODGKINS,IL, US
11/28/2006
9:30 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
11/28/2006
1:08 A.M.
ARRIVAL SCAN
PALATINE,IL, US
11/28/2006
12:28 A.M.
DEPARTURE SCAN
PALATINE,IL, US
11/27/2006
5:50 P.M.
ORIGIN SCAN
US
11/22/2006
5:02 P.M.
BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

I immediately called UPS who could give me no more info other than they would be contacting the shipper to advise them of the situation. I am SO SO SO annoyed. I tried to call the local distribution center so that I could physically go see the ribbon. UPS would not give me a phone number for them. The 1-800 # told me I would be contacted within 1 hour. It has been about 7 hours now and I have not received a call! I don't see how it can be damaged unless it got wet. It's not like ribbon can BREAK KWIM? So.... now I have to wait until Monday to figure out what is going on with that poor homeless ribbon. I guess we will have to wait a little longer. :( In the meantime, I will begin cutting the 20 spools that DID make it. *sigh* SO close, yet SO far away.

So, there is the ribbon update. Sorry for the delay. It is out of my hands. :( I will keep you updated.