Why would you be mean to this face?

Friends,

I have some news that I MUST send on to you. Now this is really not like me but this just boiled my bottom and I think you need to be aware.

During August of 2009 a dear friend of mine, Julie, wanted to purchase some digi scraps for a son, Connor, she just had. He is the first child for her and her husband and boy were they proud. I have even became an Aunt. Well there is no relation but I am known as "Aunt Lisa from Over the Pond". Remember I live in Michigan and she, Julie, lives in England.

Julie asked Robyn, from Scrapper Girl Design, http://scrappergirldesigns.com/blog/ to create some "boy" patterns. Robyn agreed and over $52.00 dollars was sent to her. What Robyn sent to Julie was very girlie and Julie was not happy. I don't blame her. When your a baby, you really need boy/girl embellishments. To make a long story short, Robyn stopped ALL contact with Julie and kept the money. That's not right. I would try to make one happy and I would feel bad that you didn't like my creations.

On happier news......Julie, from Pretty Scrappy, http://prettyscrappy.com/xcart/home.php and Valerie from Valerie N Design http://valeriendesigns.blogspot.com/ saved the day when they didn't have too. They created some beautiful pages for Julie and they did it for free. What a kind heart they have! I would like to say thank you to you both!

Please, for me, do your research. Know who you are buying from and maybe ask for a quick layout, including embellishment, before you send money.

To get the full story, from Julie, please go to her blog at http://juliescreations1.blogspot.com/2009/12/robyn-from-scrappergirl-designs-took.html

Thanks again Valerie and Julie for helping my friend at a time of need.

Lisa

Happy Holidays!!

First I would like to wish you all a safe and happy holiday. I hope Santa brings you all that you wish for.

For my last file of the year I thought I would do something different. How about a tag? I saw this done by someone, sorry I do not know who, and I thought it was gorgeous. Mine is no where near her excellence, but I tried. :) Please do not go by the picture. lol When I put the tag together I noticed it was reversed and now that I look at it I see I left no hole at the top. OOPS! haha Use a cute punch. I have a small heart that would look good. See where it is blank on the left side? I tried to cut snowflakes but they were just to small. Maybe you could draw some ot use a small punch. I think I might have laser stickers that would look good. :)

So I hope you like my first attempt at these tags. I was wondering if I made several of these to sell would you buy them? How many do you think I should place in a bag and for how much? I would really like your import. Please email me or leave a comment.

Again, I hope you all have a safe and wonderful holiday and I will see you next year. lol
Remember, I am looking for ideas. If you have one, pass it on!

Hugs and kisses
Lisa
Snowman Tag

Let it Snow..........

Hi ya all,

As we get closer to X-mas I am wondering where the snow is. Now mind you I will complain in a few months to you. haha

Hope you have all your shopping, baking, and wrapping done. I am almost done with the wrapping and I think I might finish on Thursday. I did all the baking over the weekend with no help. I feel like that story "The Little Red Hen.". Do you remember that one? http://www.enchantedlearning.com/stories/fairytale/littleredhen/story/

Any who I know that I have this one as Let it Snow card, but you don't get the card. :( It's just the title. The card I placed it on was 6"x6" so you know the title is very small. Oh I don't know if you all received my note on the Yahoo Groups but DO NOT send 6"x6" cards/envelopes. As of the Summer, the post office raised their rates! They told me that the machines do not recognize this size and they have to be moved by hand. So I paid double of a normal stamp. It's the holidays and I should not care, but I think I will never do that mistake again.

I will see you next week, which is when you get my X-mas present to you. As you can tell, Im very excited. :) So you all be good. Santa is still watching you and he know's you just bought more paper that you didn't need! Oh that's right, that was me!!! hahaha

Have a wonderful week,
Lisa
Let it Snow

Part 2 of the Mouses........

Someone asked me if there were parents to my two mice. No I am sorry that there was no clip art for that. I wish there was. :(

Just enjoy her and I will see you next week. Oh what ever you do, don't go by the picture for her teeth. I think I put them on upside down! hahaha

Hugs,
Lisa

Girl Mouse

The History of a Christmas Card

Ever wonder how the Christmas card got started? Here is the website I got my information from.....
http://www.ideafinder.com/features/everwonder/won-christcard.htm

A relatively recent phenomenon, the sending of commercially printed Christmas cards originated in London in 1843.

Previously, people had exchanged handwritten holiday greetings. First in person. Then via post. By 1822, homemade Christmas cards had become the bane of the U.S. postal system. That year, the Superintendent of Mails in Washington, D.C., complained of the need to hire sixteen extra mailmen. Fearful of future bottlenecks, he petitioned Congress to limit the exchange of cards by post, concluding, "I don’t know what we’ll do if it keeps on."

Not only did it keep on, but with the marketing of attractive commercial cards the postal burden worsened. The first Christmas card designed for sale was by London artist John Calcott Horsley.

A respected illustrator of the day, Horsley was commissioned by Sir Henry Cole, a wealthy British businessman, who wanted a card he could proudly send to friends and professional acquaintances to wish them a "merry Christmas."

Sir Henry Cole was a prominent innovator in the 1800s. He modernized the British postal system, managed construction of the Albert Hall, arranged for the Great Exhibition in 1851, and oversaw the inauguration of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Most of all, Cole sought to "beautify life," and in his spare time he ran an art shop on Bond Street, specializing in decorative objects for the home. In the summer of 1843, he commissioned Horsley to design an impressive card for that year’s Christmas.

Horsley produced a triptych. Each of the two side panels depicted a good deed-clothing the naked and feeding the hungry. The centerpiece featured a party of adults and children, with plentiful food and drink (there was severe criticism from the British Temperance Movement).

The first Christmas card’s inscription read: "merry Christmas and a happy New Year to you." "Merry" was then a spiritual word meaning "blessed," as in "merry old England." Of the original one thousand cards printed for Henry Cole, twelve exist today in private collections.

Printed cards soon became the rage in England; then in Germany. But it required an additional thirty years for Americans to take to the idea. In 1875, Boston lithographer Louis Prang, a native of Germany, began publishing cards, and earned the title "father of the American Christmas card."

Prang’s high-quality cards were costly, and they initially featured not such images as the Madonna and Child, a decorated tree, or even Santa Claus, but colored floral arrangements of roses, daisies, gardenias, geraniums, and apple blossoms. Americans took to Christmas cards, but not to Prang’s; he was forced out of business in 1890. It was cheap penny Christmas postcards imported from Germany that remained the vogue until World War 1. By war’s end, America’s modern greeting card industry had been born.

Today more than two billion Christmas cards are exchanged annually, just within the United States. Christmas is the number one card-selling holiday of the year.

Here is my part one of the two part Mouse creation. Hope you enjoy him and look forward to the girl next week.

Lisa

Boy Mouse