More more more!

02.23.09

Since I am here sick and Ken stayed home from work, I thought I would post again.

So, thanks for the comments on Facebook.  Here is the thing: I don't have a huge desire to find people from my past.  That sounds bad, but I am just happier with who I am now then I was in the past.  past.  So, I would just do it to keep in touch with mostly my sister-in-law's family in Africa.  Maybe I will try it.  Hmmm.  Also, I can share photos with people that I don't want to publically share.  Not sure.  Hmmm.

OK, since you were all helpful with that… 🙂 … can I ask another question?  What do you do with puzzles for the kids?  Colin is addicted, but we lose pieces a lot.  Have any tips to keeping the pieces together?  Smooch.

I have a couple of cards to share.

First, a Papertrey Ink card I made back in December in a crop.  I just adore these stars, alphabet and boat. :)  This was for my husband.  I tell him a lot that I appreciate all he does.  He does more than a husband should!  (Can you say laundry, grocery shopping, bedtime, picking up, dishes and more…)  Oh, and to make the waves, I punched several circles on blue paper, then trimmed close along it.

022309 PT Boat

022309 PT Boat Close Supplies:
Papertrey stamps – all of them
Colorbox Chalk ink (boat and greeting)
Hero Arts Memories White Ink (stars)
Hero Arts Shadow Ink (blue)
Hero Arts notecards, gemstones
Copic Glitter pen (on the white stars on the blue blocks)

And now some Hero Arts fun. I think I was channeling the incredible Julie on this one.  She is so good at the white-card-with-stamped-and-colored-goodness.  (HERE is a good example.)  I LOVE that look.  Here is my not-so-impressive attempt at it.  These are new stamps from Hero!

022309 Vases

This is a close-up to show the fun a Copic Glitter Pen adds to coloring.  See that subtle bit of shimmer?  So much better in real life.  Yummm…

022309 Vases Close
Supplies:
Hero Arts NEW french stamps
Black Memories Ink
Copic Glitter Pen
Prismacolor colored pencils
EK Success Corner Rounders (my must-have-tool)

I have a giveaway tomorrow… see you then. 🙂

Oh… and the Bachelor is tonight.  Any fun insights?  Wouldn't it be fun if we could all get together and be silly and laugh at it?  🙂


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59 thoughts on “More more more!”

  1. Great cards Jennifer! Ken sure sounds like a keeper to me. 😉
    As far as puzzles go… we just have them all locked up in a cupboard and when the kids want them they need to ask for them. Your question has me thinking though – what about the big ziplock bags? Would they be big enough to hold a puzzle?
    Sure hope you start feeling better soon! I have a head cold and that’s bad enough…

    Reply

  2. Lovin’ that sailboat card- brilliant idea to use the negative of the circle punch! I totally feel you on the FB thing, I started up a few months ago and just don’t have the desire to add huge amounts of people from my past just because my “friends” number will go up… if you do share your pics, make sure you edit your security settings if you want them to remain private! Oh, and the puzzles!!!! We have puzzle-mania at our home right now. The boys especially like these puzzle books from the bargain area at Borders…but there’s no easy way to store the pieces. I ended up putting all the pieces from one book in one of those disposable rubbermaid containers from the kitchen. Copy the picture of the completed puzzle and decrease the size, adhere it on top so they know what puzzle is in the container. Hope this helps!

    Reply

  3. We use plastic containers. That way they can stack on top of each other. I also cut the picture of the puzzle off the box and tape it with the strong, clear shipping/packing tape. And only one puzzle is allowed to be out at a time. 😀 It’s really worked well of our little family.

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  5. I love Facebook. It’s a great way to keep up with my college friends that don’t live close by…as well as what coworkers are up to after hours. 🙂

    The only way we can keep up with puzzle pieces is to count each time we put it away. If we only have 23 of 24 pieces, we go on a search until it’s found. So far we’ve been lucky enough to find the missing piece each time.

    Have a great day!

    Reply

  6. I use rubbermaid containers because the boxes the puzzles come in get destroyed. As for facebook too……..I too have no desire to search for people from my past for the same reason……….I love my life now and want to concentrate on that.

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  8. Sorry you are sick but I’m glad hubbie was able to stay home. 🙂 Your cards are beautiful as always! We used to use 2 gallon ziplock bags for puzzles. I love The Bachelor! I have been loving Melissa since day 1, so I hope it works out for the best either way. We are moving this weekend though so hopefully I will have TV by the time Monday night rolls around. 🙂 Feel better!

    Reply

  9. Jennifer-
    I teach first grade and we do lots of puzzles in centers. Any who- I store them all in 2gal. zip top bags if they have a board backings and 1 gal. bags if they don’t (I also cut out the finished picture from the box and put it in the bag so we know which bag is which puzzle). Also I have found it very helpful to number the pieces. Say I buy a new puzzle, I put a number on the bag or board and then put the same number or letter on each puzzle piece. That way when someone finds a stray piece all they have to do is look for the bag with the same number or letter. For a family you could do the letters I just ran out of letters and aa just didn’t make sense to my first graders so now I use numbers. Good luck- Kat

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  10. When we had tons of little kid puzzles we put them together the first time and then wrote a number on the back of each piece. Then we put the number on the box. When we find a loose piece we know what puzzle it goes to. If the box starts to fall apart, as they do, we cut the picture out and put the pieces and cover into a baggie. All the baggies were in a tote in their closet.
    I hope that helps.

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  11. Be careful with sharing on Facebook – the friends of friends…etc… can see the photo you share if your friends tag, are tagged or comment on them…

    The best way is to make those pics available for family only on Flickr and then tagging only your closest friends and family as ‘family’ contacts.

    I don’t have kids yet 🙁 I do have a niece and 3 nephews though.

    What about color coding each puzzle by adhering a colored dot at the back. Different color to different puzzle and then adhering one dot to the puzzle’s box. This way – when ever you find the lost piece you can put it right back where it belongs…

    Reply

  12. I do the same as Katherine, except I use colored paint spots. One puzzle board, zipper bag, and the back of all the pieces get a paint spot of a certain color. Each puzzle, bag, and pieces receive a different color. Then when a piece is found, easy match up. Don’t know if this would work with ink (maybe I’ll give it a try).

    Reply

  13. Hi,
    I love this card you made!

    I didn’t have a chance to comment about facebook: my friends also bugging me about it, but I refure to join. I keep in touch with anyone I want and don’t need the computer for that… besides, it seems like it takes too much time from people – staying next to the computer too much instead of having a real talk with the real people they find there… (I hope you understand what I’m saying…)

    unfortunately, I can’t help you with the puzzles issue, I don’t have kids 🙁

    Reply

  15. HI Jennifer – Hope you are feeling better.

    As for puzzles, my granddaugher loves puzzles, and I started running out of room in her cabinet for them. I finally got some quart size ziploc bags, cut the front off the puzzle box and put the box front and pieces in the bag. They all fit in a plastic tote. So far it seems to be working.

    Reply

  16. Oh Jennifer…I Love the Sailboat Card…it is a Great Man card!! I am on facebook and thinking I might not want just anyone to see my photo’s hmmm??
    Can’t wit for the bachelor tonight!!!
    Feel better soon…..Big Hugs!

    Reply

  17. I love facebook. I actually found a whole branch of my family that I never knew I had in Italy. My maiden name is not common so when I did a search on FB I found a bunch. We communicated back and for, but didn’t know how or if we were related exactly, but hoped we really were. Then one of them sent me a photo of my father in the 60’s – I nearly fell off my chair when I opened that email.
    I also have a bunch of current friends – easy to keep in touch with through FB, a bunch of cyber scrapbooking friends and a bunch of people from my past.

    I’m more looking forward to next week’s Bachelor since tonight will just be the bachelorettes reunited.

    Puzzles – I usually keep the pieces in the box and we’re doing okay that way. Some I’ve had to put in ziplocks within the box if the box gets ruined.

    and as usual – fantastic cards. I always feel like making cards after I visit your blog!

    Reply

  18. Jennifer-

    I am not sure what you have set up in your home — but we have a playroom and in the playroom we have a table that is over by the puzzles and books. This table is for doing PUZZLES!

    The puzzles are on the shelf that is a smaller short shelf — all the kids can get there puzzles by themselves. The catch is that they can only get out one at a time and sit at the table unless it is a floor puzzle, of course. Now, I find something that is important to them (like Isaiah loves lunch time — I remind him that in order to have lunch on time, that puzzles all need to be put back and only one puzzle out at a time). It took him awhile — but at age 3 he does have it down pretty good.

    Also, we mark all the pieces from the same puzzle with a shape, color, or other marking (ie. circle, square, red dot, green dot, “X” or “F”) I then have that same marking on each board to match or if it is a jigsaw then on the box — in our home we feel kids playing with plastic is not safe, so we do not use plastic bags – however, sometimes we use clear tupperware with pictures of the puzzle or toy on the container.

    If the puzzles being out for them to grab freely do not work at any given time — or if one is left out- I say, “oh no, someone left a puzzle out, now it must go in the time out box.” Then they can earn it back at another time.

    1. Label each piece with a color marking, shape, or other sign like a letter and do the same for the box or board

    2. Have a puzzle table next to the puzzle areas.

    3. One puzzle at a time.

    4. Motivate with something they like – to get them to follow through with the rules and clean up.

    5. Have a toy time out box.

    6. Lastly, play with them — showing them how it is done and only say something postive when they get it right — and if they don’t help them problem solve.

    (I may do things differently then you might have to — because I do foster care and have to run things alittle different–otherwise things would be chaos).

    Reply

  19. Cute sailboat!

    I was going to comment on Facebook — I have an account and now that I have found people and have had fun chatting, I am done with it. I have not put many photos there because I am not convinced of their policies (even though they just did say that you own the rights to your stuff, but that is when you close your account). If you know who you want to keep in touch with, it may be easier just to set up a private blog through Blogger. You can set that so it is not open to the public, only certain users can see it and you can also set so another user can contribute (say your friend X in Africa is a shared user, then you could both post photos to the same sight). There are a lot of inappropriate things on Facebook too that I do not like — in the sidebars, etc. If you do decide to do the Facebook thing, there is an article on MSNBC that tells you exactly how to make your account really private. Check this out, because there were many settings I did not know about, including Google entries, photo tags, etc. Good Luck!

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  20. Someone has probably already said it but I don’t want to read through all the comments but on the puzzles I put them in a zip-loc bag and cut the picture off the front of the box and toss it into the bag as well. I then put the bags in one of those canvas storage boxes and toss the puzzle box. Then there is less space taken up with boxes.

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  21. I have a lot of friends in different countries, so facebook for me is an easy way to keep in touch with all of them.
    I recommend going through all of the privacy settings when you sign up. Uploading pictures to share with friends is easy, but not reliable when it comes to who can see them, unless you’ve gone through the privacy settings. I’ve heard that once you’ve uploaded a picture it becomes property of facebook and they can use it however they want to. Not sure if that is true, but it should be mentioned in the terms if that is the case. Flickr is a great place for uploading pictures, and you can share them easily with friends and family, but only if they also have a Flickr account. Last but not least, if you’re still unsure then don’t sign up.

    By the way. I’m glad other husbands are as helpful as mine! We’ve always agreed that we should share the work at home. We both work hard at our dayjobs, why should only one of us have to work hard at home?

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  22. My daughter was addicted at that age and still is at 8 (only with a ton more pieces). I used to cut the picture out of the box and put it into a ziploc or one of those cheap disposable containers. If your looking for anymore puzzles I have plenty if you would like them. I would be more than happy to send them to you!

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  23. We keep puzzle pieces in ziplock bags inside the puzzle box. My SIL used to cut off the picture on the lid and put it in a ziplock bag with the puzzle pieces. She said it took lots less room to store.

    Swedie

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  24. Hmm sorry, no ideas for the puzzle :/ Wow, great cards, really like those one.

    I guess ill have to wait untill tomorrow untill i can see the bachelor (since i live in Sweden)

    hugs!

    Reply

  26. No help with the puzzles, sorry. I’m a loozer on facebook because I don’t get what all the things that people pass around to each other are…why would I want a virtual drink? I want a real one! LOL As far as the bachelor goes, I think he is going to go back to Deanna! I don’t think he likes Molly that much, but he does like Melissa. But her parents didn’t meet him…I think he IS going to hold that against her…and well, everything WAS right with Deanna, wasn’t it? She’s going to win him over and then probably mess with his head again! LOL

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  27. Jennifer, love the boat card. i tend to use large piece puzzles for my son(4yrs old) , don’t get lost as easy. i agree w/ you on the people from my past. I did’nt go to my 20yr reunion (hs) because i’m not that person anymore and if i still wanted to have contact with someone i’d make the effort. my hubby is on facebook and has people contacting him all the time, many who he doesn’t care to talk to.

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  28. love the cards!

    I had the same issue with puzzle pieces and many of our toys with lots of pieces. I now use the laundry lingerie bags. They are mesh, have a zipper and are great to take toys on the go! You can get them at walmart or target.

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  30. I’m sure plenty have already suggested it, but we kept puzzle pieces in ziplock bags inside the box. It worked pretty well.

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  31. Hi I just found you blog by way of a youtube video!
    I have enjoyed spending the last 30-40 mins viewing your art and reading your post hehe
    I am with you on facebook. I have one, but mainly to keep up with my family. I too like you have moved so far away from those that I grew up with and went to school with that I have no real desire to find them. Oh don’t get me wrong I have a couple of hight school and college friends that I keep up with, but we phone each other and gab for hours!
    Hugs,
    alison

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  32. Those cards are adorable! Love love love that lil’ sailboat!

    As for the puzzles…I’m in the same boat! LOL! We have pieces everywhere. Luckily they are still the bigger ones and I can always find them. I’ll be keen to hear what you end up doing to store them 🙂

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  33. I hope you are feeling better soon!

    I have to comment on the puzzle storage. I have all of our puzzles in two rubbermaid containers with lids – really any container with a lid works. The lid contains them but it’s a lid the kids can also open as well. I am a fanatic of making sure all the pieces are there before putting it away. My daughter used to dump all the pieces in the container and then spread the puzzles around her. She’d work on 8-10 puzzles at a time. Anyway, get them in the habit early of putting all the pieces back in place. I don’t recommend ziplocks as they are like any other plastic bag.

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  35. Hope you feel better soon!! The Bachelor I think that he is going to pick Deanna. I think that is why they had the show tonight and the girls were not there. I did see the video with the ring…But, Deanna might wear one too. Their is something going on…I just can not wait until next Monday!!

    I just love all your cards!! I wish that I was able to take another card class from you. Are you still teaching some classes at Strictly Scrapbooks??

    Have a nice night and get better soon!!
    Hugs~
    Ramona

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  36. Hope you get to feeling better Jennifer! Hope you don’t have the same crud I had, still have some of it. Horribly sore and raw sore throat. Had it last week. Anyway, the Facebook stuff, I had to laugh at what you wrote. I agree, I have no desire to find anyone from high school, etc. So no, it was not bad of you to say what you said as far as I’m concerned. I think I’d be careful of the photos thing, some of the comments in posts above mine, I agree with about Facebook. Anyway, love your blog and your cards!!

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  37. About the puzzles – I also cut the picture off the box, mark the back side of each piece to identify what puzzle it goes with, and store them in ziplock bags. I also rotate the puzzles, putting some away for a while. Hope you feel better soon. It’s tough being sick when you’re a mom. : )

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  38. Years ago my son and his next-door-neighbor friend dumped every puzzle on the play room floor!!! Once they were reassembled, I put a number on each puzzle and each piece from the puzzle had the same number on it.

    That proved to be a great time saver in years to come.

    Pam

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  39. Cute cards. When I was teaching, I put the puzzle pieces in heavy duty ziplock bags. I made a smaller copy of the puzzle to put inside the ziplock bag. You can also keep a small file of the puzzle picture that is larger. I usually laminated mine. I agree with you about high school. I like the people in my life now rather than dwelling in the past. Get well soon.
    Shirley L.
    Roseville, CA

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  40. Still not feeling well, eh? Hopefully you’ll be feeling more like your happy self soon!
    The cards are amazing. Absolutely adore the PTI card. The other is simply beautiful! CAS at it’s best!

    Puzzles at our home are usually found in two storage systems. The larger puzzles with less pieces go in large gallon size sandwich bags with the top of the box cut and slid into the bag with the pcs. The bigger puzzles with lots of little pieces (50 – 100+) usually go in plastic containers with lids that snap shut. I cut off the picture from the puzzle box and tape it to the front of the box so that when it goes on the shelf, we know what’s in it.

    We have a “puzzle center” on wheels. It’s one of those carts with multiple drawers for storage. The top drawer holds the puzzles in baggies. The middle drawer holds the puzzles still in those little 5″ x 5″ boxes that the boys have managed not to destroy. The bottom drawer holds all of the wooden flat puzzles with / without knobs (ie. Melissa & Doug)

    Sorry for the long post! HTH!
    Get well soon!

    Reply

  41. Hi Jennifer!

    I have a facebook and I am about to delete it. It’s just too easy to get sucked in. I find myself getting obsessed with keeping track of everyone’s updates. It’s just too much ya know? lol

    Anyway, as far as the puzzles go. I do the same thing as Katherine does up above. Ziploc bags and numbering the pieces. It works really well for my 3 year old. We have also, since he was old enough to learn, practiced putting one toy away before moving on to the next. Our friends are always amazed that he does this. lol It just wasn’t an option for us to have toys scattered. Somehow though we still lose Duplo blocks! Not sure where they go? It’s like the socks in the dryer thing I guess. lol

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  42. Love your card…especially how you did the water strip…CLEVER, I tell ya!
    Keep praising that hubby of yours…sounds like quite a guy!
    I really appreciate you bringing up Face Book and I read all the comments because just this week I was thinking of joining. Now I have decided not to….later,eh, we’ll see, but it seems very hyped up.
    As far as the puzzles go…I put a mark of the same kind on the back of each piece so if one gets lost we’ll know what it goes to. I keep the boxes unless they are in bad shape, then I use a Zip-loc.
    Thanks for your blog…I enjoy it!

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  43. Hope you are feeling better! My kids are bigger now, bur when they were little I wrote a number on the back of each puzzle piece and the same number on the box or board of that puzzle. Then, we always knew which puzzle the pieces belonged to. I also put puzzle pieces into zip lock bags even inside a box. Now, with 1000 piece puzzles, we keep the pieces in a baggie, and we always check the floor for pieces. I kept the board puzzles stacked in a cabinet so if a piece fell out it would be in the cabinet. A tub would have been a good idea, although I would have loved one of those wooden puzzle holders like the pre-schools have. Have fun doing puzzles with Colin – it is a great activity!

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  44. For puzzles, we cut the picture off of the box and then number the back of the picture and each of the pieces (or use letters) and put that together into a large ziploc bag labeled with that number as well. They get one out at a time and then it all goes back in when it’s done.

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  45. We put each puzzle in its own ziplock bag and store it in its box. We name the bag with the Puzzles name and how many pieces and have a rule, one puzzle at a time. Works perfectly for us and 3 years on still no lost pieces.

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  46. Just thought I’d pop in with my comment about Facebook. If I were you, I don’t think I’d bother. You have your blog, which is very public. You keep in touch with the people you keep in touch with. Other people can “find” you here. You also are very busy with HA blog and 2Peas so you are very in touch with a cyber community already. I do facebook, but I don’t blog. It can be a full-time job keeping up with “Friends” and there are many people who befriend you and then have a “voyeur” look into your life. You can always share a gallery of photos on anoher site, like Shutterfly or something and only invite certain people to see them

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  47. You little boat is so cute!

    Puzzles, one at a time and when you clean it up, put it together yourself and make sure all the pieces are there. If they aren’t, look for it NOW, cause if you can’t find it right now when he was playing with it, chances are it’s gone for good and won’t show up later.

    🙂

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  48. Hi Jennifer!
    Thank you for the time and effort you put into your blog…you inspire me all the time.
    As for the puzzles, I have two puzzle crazy kids in our house. We also cut out the picture and put into ziplock bags, but I also take one of my smaller stamps and stamp each piece with that image and the picture as well so that we know which pieces go with which bag.
    Hope this helps and I hope that you feel better soon! Karen in Canada

    Reply

  49. Puzzles. I love them, and so did my son…we tried to do one at a time, although those little pieces seem to hop around and appear in the most obscure places. I kept a little container in the game/puzzle closet for extra dice, playing pieces, and puzzle pieces. If we did a puzzle and a piece was missing, it would sometimes be in the *lost pieces* cup.
    And I’m right there with you on Facebook – very mixed bag. My 18yo loves it (obviously), and he thinks it’s pretty cool that my sister and brother (his aunt and uncle…and THEIR friends, too, believe it or not, lol) have “friended” him. But then again, yesterday he told me an old friend of MINE had contacted him and said to tell me “hi”. I let that friendship go for a reason, and would feel so uncomfortable trying to explain it, or ignore her after all these years. Some view it as a great chance for reunion, (and that can be valid), but some view it as intrusive, with sorry reminders.
    Okay, I wrote a novel…but have to add, I love those happy flowers!

    Reply

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