Elegant Blue and Gold Lucky Stars

The blue stars and gold stars are very pretty on their own, but combining them leads to a stunning result.

The gold stars were placed in a circle around the bottom of the wineglass and then the blue stars were laid so two gold stars were between each of them.

The result reminds me of a snowflake! 

Really, the designs you could make with lucky stars are limitless.  You could put several rows of stars alternating colors to make a huge snowflake design for a grand centerpiece.

Of course, a simple circle of gold stars is just as elegant!

Elegant Lucky Stars in Blue Wineglass

These lucky stars are blue with gold streaks, coordinating perfectly with a blue stemmed wineglass and gold stars set around the bottom.

Although these stars could work for any occasion, the deep blue color reminds me of especially of the Christmas season.

Setting gold stars around the bottom of the wineglass really gives the setting an extra "pop"!

Elegant Lucky Stars in Gold Goblet

Lucky stars can be cute, but they are also very elegant when folded from metallic papers.

One of the most sophisticated ways to use lucky stars is to place them in a wineglass or a goblet.

You can use a plain wineglass or one that complements the stars.

This would be the perfect centerpiece for tables at a wedding or other elegant party.

If you scatter the stars around the table, they also take the form of a classy confetti that your guests will want to take home (talk about easy clean up!)

Gold stars would also be a great gift for a "golden anniversary."  Imagine giving your loved one 50 gold stars in a wineglass or maybe 500 in a vase!  The gift could be displayed for many more years to come and will be a continual reminder of your love.  You could also write one thing you love about the person on every single star and have your loved one read a new one each day.

New Blog Layout

If you can't tell, I've redesigned my blog!  I felt the need for something a little "cleaner."  I changed the colors to black and white so that things would be easier to read, especially the links.  I hope the fun fonts show up, I really like them.   I also adjusted the width of my blog so I can use huge pictures.  Then, of course, there is the header...

Okay, I'm going to brag for a moment... isn't it beautiful????  Alright, bragging done.  But seriously, I really like this.  The blog is clean, and somewhat professional looking, but still has that little "pop" that is totally me!

The curvy design is a spirelli (you know, that string art you did as a kid).  I had already made it for a digital scrapbooking set and had never used it before!  I was thinking of using the spirelli I made to accent backgrounds, but I think inserting photos within them could make a really interesting (albeit difficult) scrapbook layout.

The hardest part of creating the header (after actually figuring out what I even wanted to do for my header and trying various photo-montages) was finding the right photos.  I have tons of photos, but not all of them look good in such small spaces.  I had to stretch some of them out... the stretch is somewhat noticeable to me, but what do you think?  If you had to pick, which are the ones that you think needed to be stretched?

After finding the right photos, it wasn't to hard to insert them.  A little bit finicky re-sizing them once they were placed in their slots but, overall, not to bad.

This probably isn't the last time I'll redesign my blog (I really, really enjoy it) but I think this template shall stick around for awhile.

"Lantern" Book Folding Art

I'm at it again!  This time I decided to try a paperback book.  Take a look:

I found some really cool vintage-looking children's books along with a book rack at an estate sale this weekend.  "Well," I thought to myself, "I would feel terrible folding them... but I could definitely photograph them with folded books!"

There was a set of nine for $10 and the book rack was free (probably since I purchased all the books it held!)

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This folded paperback book is two books in one: "A Time to Forgive" and "Promise Forever" by Marta Perry.

Book folding can be placed as book ends by other books.  I would suggest using one of those slim black metal book ends if your books don't actually stand up on their own... you wouldn't want your folded creation to be crushed!  So far, I've only used metal book ends as a safety precaution since my books seem to stay standing on their own.

I really had a lot of fun setting up all these different designs!

I call this design "Lantern" because it reminds me of one of those paper lanterns you might hang up outside.  This one is made of paper too, but I don't think I'd risk putting it outside!

Thanks for reading... and looking!

Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee (Full Book Review)

Title: Somebody Everybody Listens To

Author: Suzanne Supplee 

Pages: 245

Content: V=1, D=1, S=1, L=2

Plot: Retta Lee Jones has dreamed of Nashville all her life.  The summer after graduating high school she takes her guitar and heads to that city of country music.  She knows it won’t be easy and she isn’t expecting fame overnight… but when her car breaks down her first night and she’s mugged the second she begins to doubt she can really make it.  Things don’t get any easier.  In fact, the friendship of Ricky Dean and book sales girl Emerson and her best friend from Starling, Brenda, seem to be the only things pulling her through.  Can Retta make it as a country music singer?  Pick up the book to find out!

What I liked: Alright, I like country music myself so it was really cool that before every chapter there was a half page “biography” of country music artists of where they were born, where they worked, their “big break,” and a life event.  Also, it had their full names (Did you know Faith Hill’s name is really Audrey Faith Perry?  Or Toby Keith’s last name is Covel?  How about “Richard Keith Urban”?  Also, all of the chapters were titled after a song that a country music artist wrote.  So that was super cool!

I also felt like I connected with Retta and how she had done all this research on country music and knew she wasn’t going to be famous overnight… and she wasn’t.  I feel like the same thing has happened with me: I started a handmade card business and did a lot of research and I knew I wasn’t going to have millions of orders on *my Etsy shop* overnight… and I didn’t.  I think Retta might have felt a bit like me, where you *know* something isn’t going to be easy in your head, but in your heart you hope by some miracle it will be – or that it will at least be easier then it was for others.

I really liked that there were actually a few songs of Retta’s in the book.  Sometimes it peeves me to read a book about how a character is really good at writing, or poetry, or whatnot and then you don’t see any of their work.  I only wish this book came with a CD so I could actually listen to the tune of the songs! =]

Also, just detail wise – on the page of the country music artist bio and the first chapter page there was some *really* pretty grey swirly-flowery printing.

Negative: I didn’t find anything I really disliked about this book!  There was some language, if you are worried about that, but I didn't find it particularly overwhelming.

Who would like this book: Anyone who enjoys country music!  Of course, if you are totally hate the country twang the book would still be a good read (after all, it’s not like you can actually hear the music.  Although, if you’ve listened to the artists, maybe you can.)

You can visit Suzanne Supplee’s website here: http://www.suzannesupplee.com/index.html  (Read through her Q&A or even the “Contact” page – I got a giggle from both.)

View book discussion questions (after you've read the book of course!) here: http://justbyjosephine.blogspot.com/2011/08/somebody-everybody-listens-to-by.html

Just When You Thought They Couldn't Get Any Cuter

Oh my goodness... you thought these little origami lucky stars couldn't be more adorable:

I'm here to prove you wrong.  Take a look at this little guy:

Told you.  And these ones:

And finally these:

They're like paper emoticons! =P  Can you imagine how cute these would be as earring beads?  Having colors to match your outfits is sooo last year - now expressions to fit your emotions are totally in!

The Queen of Water by Laura Resau (Full YA Book Review)

There was that moment while reading The Queen of Water by Laura Resau when I finally tore myself away from the book to get some sleep.  As I shut the cover, I glanced at the author’s names and let a loud “OHHHHH” escape my lips.

The plot:  The Queen of Water tells the story of Maria Virginia, a Quechua girl living in Ecaudor, who becomes a servant for an upper class mestizo family while she is very young.  Virginia never receives any sort of pay, nor the promised visits to her family so whether she was sold by her parents or simply given away remains ambiguous.  The Doctorita is almost the “evil step-mother” type who beats Virginia and keeps her locked in the house.  The Doctorita’s husband, Nino Carlitos, is a seemingly kind father figure until his affections for Virginia and his jealousy of other teenage boys reeks of something more sinister.  In spite of her terrible situation, Virginia is vivisima (very clever), curious, and resilient.  Even though she hates the mestizos she serves, there is something, apart from their threats, that holds her back from escaping.

The moment:  So about “that moment” I mentioned above.  If you’ve read The Shack by Wm. P. Young you might have had this reaction too (except, with The Queen of Water it’s undoubtedly a real person and situation.)  You see, the book is written by TWO authors one of which is Laura Resau, whom I recognized as the author of Red Glass.  The other is Maria Virginia Farinango of whom I had never heard.  Maybe I should have guessed after reading the words on the cover “a novel based on a true story” – but then again, I’ve read a lot of historical fiction books, most of which are based on true stories.  Once I put together that the author and the girl in the book were the same person it made the story all the better.

Random Interesting Fact: An interesting note for Spanish students – on page 259 it is mentioned that the poor indigenas are scorned by shopkeepers and middle class indigenas and they show their dislike by not using polite usted form when speaking to the poor indegenas.  So instead of “Como estas?” (as to a stranger to show respect) they would say “Como esta?” (which you only use with close friends or peers) (of course, these would have accents, which I haven't figured out how to work on blogger =)

Overall: I loved this book!  I loved it as a story, but I also loved that it was a true story.  Even better was that Ms. Resau has so much information on her blog about her experience writing the book and time with Maria Virginia.  It is so interesting to have a book literally "come alive."
Ms. Resau's website: http://www.lauraresau.com/
Ms. Resau's blog: http://lauraresau.blogspot.com/

What I Took Away: In the last third of The Queen of Water, Virginia goes to a shop and finds a book Secrets to a Happy Life in which 

“the key idea is Querer es poder.  To want is to be able to.  To want is power.  If you want something enough, you’ll find a way to get it.  You have to be creative, think outside the box.  You have to repeat your dream to yourself, with complete faith that you will get it.  You have to envision your dreams as if they’re already real.”

Querer es poder is the way that Virginia eventually achieves her dreams.  She is creative, just like MacGyver – her admired television star – and works towards her dreams.

Learning:

1 – This was mostly entertainment; I may have seen the characters learn and grow but did not do so myself.

2 – I may have learned a few interesting facts or life lessons that I’ll probably forget in a week.

3 – This book was informative on a topic I wasn’t very knowledgeable about and/or I learned a new way of looking at life.

4 – I felt like I learned about something I knew nothing of (and I will remember it) and/or it answered questions I had about life.

5 – This book was life-changing.

Vocabulary:

1 – No new words here.

2 – I might have seen one or two I didn’t recognize.

3 – A couple of words OR foreign language words.

4 – Lots of new words to look up and learn!

5 – There were new words every page, I sometimes felt they distracted and inhibited me from understanding the book.

(based on vocabulary needed for SAT or ACT tests.)

Content:

1 – Nothing to worry about, I would be comfortable reading this book to my mom, sister, grandma, or Pastor.

2 – This book may have mild violence or language.

3 – This book has medium content in several areas and is suitable for ages 13+.

4 – This book may have blatant content in one or two areas (violence, language).

5 – This book has blatant content in many areas.

(Please contact me if you would like to know specifics about the content and why I rated it a 3.)

Have you read The Queen of Water or any of Laura Resau's books?  What did you think of them?  Leave a comment letting me know, I would love to hear what you have to say!)

Another Book Folding Example

Why yes, I AM addicted to book folding.  I'd be worried if I wasn't...

Book folded from Christopher Unborn by Carlos Fuentes.

I actually did this one before the book in the last post.  Several pages are folded in the same direction at a time, which makes for a less fluid but bolder look.

The worst part was doing the mathematical calculations to see what type of fold I should do first.  I attempted this design on another book, but since I ran out of pages on a different fold the piece lacked symmetry.  I messed up again on this book, but since it had more pages I simply unfolded some at the front and some at the back... problem solved!

Book Folding

I must say, my favorite material thing is a good book and my favorite art technique is origami.  You can imagine how I felt when I discovered something that combines the two: book folding!

How I discovered this, I honestly can't remember - although I'm sure it involved searching the web for inspiration and instead stumbling upon my new hobby.

The neat thing about book folding is that the finished result is a piece of art that can be used in decorating and as a conversation piece.  If you are going to make one for a book lover though, make sure it's from a book they've read - imagine the horror of having an unread book laying around!

There are not many tutorials showing people how to do this online, so a lot of this I had to figure out myself.  I'm still not sure how others even begin to do the more elaborate designs, some of which include shapes and words.  If I ever discover the secret I can just imagine what I would be creating... lightening bolt shapes from Harry Potter books, the Mockingjay symbol from the Hunger Games, and, if I got really good, a horse for Black Beauty.

This was folded from Star Trek The Lost Years by J.M. Dillard.  I have made several different styles of books (more pictures of those are yet to come.)  I haven't put any in my Etsy shop yet, because I have not determined shipping, but I hope to do so soon!

Why Handmade Cards?

On Monday I wrote a post explaining why you should send a greeting card, regardless of whether it is handmade.  This a follow-up post answering why handmade cards are so much more meaningful than commercial cards.

Whether you make the card or you buy it from someone who did, time and effort went into the production of the card.  The card wasn’t spit out of a machine making countless card clones (nice alliteration, eh?)  In fact, most handmade cards are probably a “limited edition” (only made until the crafter runs out of supplies) or entirely one of a kind.

Not only did the crafter put effort into making the card, but the buyer (or the creator) put effort into figuring out what sort of card the recipient would like best, along with some extra time and money into getting that card.  Although handmade cards often speak for themselves, the value of the card is bumped up considerably if you write a heartfelt message inside the card instead of just signing your name.

The great thing about handmade cards is that they can stick around for a long time.  Facebook posts are all to soon lost in the deluge, e-cards are smiled at and deleted a week later, standard greeting cards are thrown away, memories of a phone call or an in-person conversation will fade but not so with handmade cards.  They are put on bookshelves where the recipient will smile and think of the sender whenever they see the card.  Even when the card is banished to the memory box it can still be enjoyed every time it is pulled out and is unlikely to be thrown away.

So why handmade cards?  They are gifts in and of themselves: gifts from the crafter, gifts of time, effort, or money from the giver, and gifts of encouragement and smiles to the recipient.

Why Greeting Cards?

Since I have a business selling handmade greeting cards I thought I’d answer the question: why handmade cards?  Well, another question needs to be answered first: why greeting cards in general?

I believe there are degrees of the effort we put into wishing someone Happy Birthday (this will be the example for this post, but replace it for whatever fits you – thank you, congratulations, etc.)  The easiest way is to text them or post a message on Facebook.  The next easiest way is to send them some sort of e-card.  After that comes sending a standard greeting card, then comes talking to them in person or giving them a call along with buying and sending a meaningful greeting card.  Giving a gift can be placed anywhere in this list depending on what the gift is, how meaningful it is to the recipient and how much time, effort, or money the giver put into acquiring it.

What is the difference between a “standard greeting card” and a “meaningful greeting card”?  A meaningful greeting card is one that will propped up on the table and won’t be thrown away for several years.  It could be saved because it was especially beautiful or funny, or maybe it was because the message you wrote inside was especially meaningful.  A standard greeting card is just like all the other cards the recipient will receive - nothing (apart from your signature and perhaps a laugh or “aww” after reading the printed message) sets it apart.

I put giving someone a call and sending a meaningful greeting card on the same level.  Both of those take time (and perhaps a small amount of money or precious cell-phone minutes) to complete.  Either is the absolute best way to show someone that you care (short of throwing them a party or taking them to Europe!)

If the message isn’t meaningful and the card isn’t representative of the recipient’s personality then the difficulty of wishing someone happy birthday is between that of sending an e-card and giving the person a call.  Even then, a standard greeting card is still more meaningful then a Facebook message or an e-card. 

Stay tuned for a post on Wednesday answering the question "Why handmade cards?"

Forgotten Word Friday: Acerbic

Forgotten Word Fridays are an attempt to bring some vocabulary back into my life and into the world.  Most of these words are not used in everday speech but they could be found in tests such as the SATs.  I choose these words when I find them in whatever book I'm currently reading and am not sure of their meaning.

.Word: Acerbic

How it's pronounced: Uh-sur-bick

Meaning: Acidic in temper, mood, or tone. (Merrium Webster)
1. sour or astringent in taste: Lemon juice is acerbic.
2. harsh or severe, as of temper or expression: acerbic criticism
(Dictionary.com   http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/acerbic)

Where I found it:  I found this while reading Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins.  Katniss (the main character) has to yell, “People of Panem, we fight, we dare, we end our hunger for justice!” into a camera to rally the people of Panem.  After summing up all the anger she can muster and yelling the line:

There’s a dead silence on the set.  It goes on.  And on.  Finally, the intercom crackles and Haymith’s acerbic laugh fills the studio.  He contains himself just long enough to say, “And that, my friends, is how a revolution dies.”  - Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins (page 72.)

(In other words, Haymitch’s laugh reveals that Katniss is a horrible actor and her speech wouldn’t rally Eskimos to build igloos.)

Word picture:  Word pictures are sometimes used to help recall a word.  Sometimes they can be incredibly funny or… as I’m doing it… just part of a sentence to help you remember.

Assure Bick = acerbic

“Could you assure Bick that the consequences will be less severe (acerbic) the sooner he turns himself in?”

How to impress your friends:

At school: "Ms. March’s criticism of my paper was acerbic.”

Politics: "Don’t you think the Judge’s decision for the death penalty was acerbic?”

For parents: "There will be acerbic consequences if you disobey us.”

Think of all the things that could be acerbic!  Your mother’s expression, your enemy’s comment, the recent hail storm, somebody’s punishment, consequences, criticism, or a poisonous drink.

How would you use "acerbic" in everyday life?  If you use it in an everyday blog post I'll link back to you here in this post =]

I just wanted another bottle of water…

You know those people who seem to give much more than you asked for?  You ask for the newest matchbox racing set – they give you a kid-friendly riding jeep.  You ask for an iTunes gift card, they get you an iPhone.  Well, I asked for a bottle of water.

See, I was at a craft fair this weekend, selling my handmade cards and other craft items.

My table filled with handmade cards.

  

Cool ironing board with my book folding, origami lucky stars, and a jar of 1001 origami cranes.

My table where people could write a letter or make a coloring page to be
sent to Operation Write Home so a hero could be encouraged.

Business had been rather slow for all the vendors, but it seemed to be picking up.  I didn't have a canopy like all the other vendors so I was grateful for the clouds blocking out the sun's heat.

My mom stopped to check in on me at one point and I asked her to get me another bottle of water and as she was walking away she said “watch out for the wind.”  It was a little breezy, but it didn’t seem too bad until WHOOSH.  All my cards, falling off the table.  Business cards flying.  Origami lucky stars falling from the sky… or rather the ironing board.



Tiny origami lucky stars in glass ornaments.

At that point I was just dropping anything I could gather into plastic Wal*Mart bags.  Thank goodness some friends had arrived earlier and had stuck around, because they were a great help making sure nothing was damaged.  Moments after all the loose cards were gathered into a plastic baggy I could feel a few drops of rain and so we immediately took all the permeable items to the vehicle… and then the ironing board… and then the tubs.  By the time only my desk was left out it had started to pour. 

Because we threw everything helter-skelter into the vehicle there wasn’t room left for me so I went to stand under the church awning to wait it out.  After five minutes it showed no sign of quitting and was getting worse, so I ran around to see if any venders needed help (everybody seemed to have their things under control.) 

I was drenched and didn’t fancy setting my cards up only to have it rain again OR to have the wind blow my cards into a nice puddle of water so my family headed home.   Thirty minutes later the rain had stopped and I couldn’t help laughing to God “goodness me, I only asked for a bottle of water… not a whole lakeful!”

I can’t help thinking God is like that person who gives so much more than we ask for… so much more than we deserve.  Sometimes it’s funny, like a lakeful of water instead of a bottle full, but often it’s more serious like forgiving our sins.  I often ask “God, please forgive me for Sin X” and God says, “Child, I will forgive you for Sin X, and I’ll also forgive you for Sins A-Z that you didn’t even know about.”  We ask for the crumbs of His mercifulness and he feeds us a full meal.  And, really, with all He has done for me, I don't think too much water at an inopportune moment is something I am worthy of complaining about.



Forgotten Word Friday: Ameliorate

Classic books can be hard to get into, hard to keep reading, and sometimes hard to understand, but one of the things I love about them is their wealth of Forgotten Words.  Those words like alacrity, perspicacious, and vermiculations.  I keep a Post-It note by my bed so I can write them down.

It wasn't until I was browsing through SAT prep materials months ago that I realized how limited my vocabulary is.  I am an avid reader and writer, but most of the words I had never come across before.  My question is when did we lose sight of these words?  Most Young Adult books today don't use these words and I wonder why.  Was it because teens no longer used them that YA authors stopped writing with them?  Or was it because YA books and the internet stopped using interesting words that teens no longer say them?  I can't help but wonder.

Last night I came across the word illimited and realized that I really want to get back into studying vocabulary.  I think what might help me become better at this is to write the occasional blog post about words I discover.  I wanted to start with illimited... until I looked it up and realized that it only meant "incapable of being limited."  Makes sense!  So I decided to start with ameliorate.

Word: Ameliorate.

How it's pronounced: uh-meel-yuh-rate.

Meaning: To make better or more bearable. To improve.  (Merrium Webster)

Where I found it:  I re-discovered this word while reading Chapter 45 (Troy's Romanticism) of Far From the Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy.  The second paragraph reads:

"There is always an inertia to be overcome in striking out a new line of conduct - not more in ourselves, it seems, than in circumscribing events which appear as if leagued together to allow no novelties in the way of amelioration."

I found this sentence hard to understand, but a paraphrase might be,

"There is always a resistance to change that needs to be overcome when doing something in a new way.  The resistance is not so much as in giving up our own resistance to change, but in limiting events which seem to be joined together to ensure that nothing unusual happens in the way of improvement."

Word picture:  Word pictures are sometimes used to help recall a word.  I'm terrible at coming up with them but here's one I thought of when I first learned this word.

Amalie-rate

AMALIE got high RATINGS because her key word methods IMPROVED/AMELIORATED the vocabulary of participants.

How to impress your friends:

At work: "Man, I really hope this meeting will ameliorate the work conditions around here."

Politics: "Does anyone really believe that the President's new bill will ameliorate our economy?"

For parents: "Your grades need some major amelioration before we'll even consider letting you go to that party on Friday."

For teens: "Dude, they've really ameliorated the quality of their pizza!"

How would you use "ameliorate" in everyday life?  If you use it in an everyday blog post I'll link back to you here in this post =]

Somebody Everybody Listens To by Suzanne Supplee (Book Discussion Questions)

Title: Somebody Everybody Listens To

Author: Suzanne Supplee 

Pages: 245

Content: V=1, D=1, S=1, L=2

***Spoiler Alert!!!  Don't read these unless you've read the book!***

1. Retta obviously wants to become “somebody everybody listens to” in her music.  Do you think she also wants to be somebody everybody listens to in her everyday life?

2. Were you surprised when Retta’s mom left her dad for King?  Do you think there is any way that her mom and dad’s relationship could have continued? 

3. Retta’s mom was obviously cheating on her dad, either physically or emotionally, long before she ran away with King.  Was she right to do this or did she deserve the happiness?

4. Retta begins to feel as though maybe she and her dad pushed her mom to run away – do you think this is true?

5. Chat tells Retta “you’ll be sleeping in your car permanently unless you scrape together some originality.”  There is also a quote in the book that says “it is your own true voice that will carry you.”  Yet, at the end Retta doesn’t sing her own song but “I’ll Fly Away” written by Albert Brumley.  Still, Chat hears that un-original song and offers to help Retta out.  Why?  Do you think Chat changed or was it Retta who changed?

(Hint: Retta was able to make the song her own because she was not just imitating someone, but was truly connected to the song on an emotional level.)

6. When Retta’s mom ran away with King, Retta was prepared to stay and take care of her daddy until he told her to go.  At one point her narrative says, “Lots of people probably left their families in times of trouble, but for some reason, I didn’t have it in me to be one of them.”  However, Bobby McGee thinks she is making a mistake.  Do you think Retta was right to lay down all of her dreams or is a family crisis more important?

7. Do you like country music?  Why or why not?

Now announcing... JustByJo.com!

Now announcing… JustByJo.com!  This is my “official” website but I will actually be selling my handmade cards on Etsy.com.

In order to "get the party started" I am hosting a contest!  This contest is mostly on facebook but for my friends who don't have a facebook or who have found this blog I am also posting it here.  You could win a pack of eight handmade cards... just by guessing the number of origami lucky stars in the wineglass!  Please only guess the number of stars inside the wineglass.

This is what 10 stars looks like next to a penny (and one on the penny.)

 .

Here are the stars in the wineglass:

Please post a comment with your guess before September 1st.  Whoever gets closest without going over will win. If everyone goes over, whoever is closest to the number will win. In the event of a tie I’ll solve it the old fashioned way – drawing names from a hat.

Here are some pictures of the 8 cards you will be recieving.

If you are a guy and are thinking, “What am I going to do with a pack of handmade cards??? I would be ridiculed if I sent such beautiful cards to any of my man-friends!.” Well, who says you need to keep them? Give them to your girlfriend or mom as a present on special days. Or keep them to send if you’re the type that forgets birthday’s and mother’s day until the last minute.

If you win, I will need your address and will then ship the cards and envelopes to you for free.

Included with the cards are eight envelopes slightly larger than the cards themselves. The cards are placed in individual plastic sleeves and are put into a beautiful ivory organza bag.

If you would like to buy something from my Etsy.com shop then you can use coupon code “kickoff111” when you purchase it to receive 10% off your purchases! Please note that (as with amazon, ebay, and anywhere else) you will have to create an Etsy account to purchase something. This coupon code will end on September 1st (but you don’t have to buy anything to make a guess =)

Any questions? Ask! No questions? Then what are you waiting for… guess!

My new website: http://www.justbyjo.com/
Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/justbyjosephine
Blog: http://justbyjosephine.blogspot.com/

Now that my shop is officially “out there” I hope to be posting here more regularly and I might create a Facebook page.

Thanks for reading and come back soon!

Origami Cards for OWH

I must be a writer – I edited that last post at least 5 times.  The first two to fix typos, the second and third time to add paragraphs, and the last time to fix one other typo.   So, if anyone reads my posts and thinks “huh… I swear that wasn’t phrased that way and I’m sure I didn’t read that paragraph before” well... you’re probably right.

Anyways, I shipped off a package of 25 cards to Operation Write Home just yesterday.  I hope they arrive safely, I'm not sure that big envelope they were packaged in was quite sturdy enough.  Anyways, I thought I would share a few more of the cards I made for them - these ones featuring my one true love... origami!

What guy wouldn't want a giraffe shirt?  Actually, there are probably tons but we never see them because of us females.  What girl wants to show off her boyfriend if he's wearing such atrocious colors?  And what wife wants to be asked "Honey, does this shirt bring out the caveman in me?"  And any teenage girl hoping to become wildly popular by dragging her father out while he wears such attire will be disappointed to find that animal prints *are* "in"... just not for men.  In spite of this, I couldn't resist making this outfit!  I just hope it won’t give anyone any ideas…

Oooh – sparklyyy!  But still totally safe.  Safe?  Yeah, glitter can be dangerous.  OWH doesn’t allow cardmakers to use glitter or sparkles that could rub off the card because it is a safety hazard to our heroes.  Luckily, the sparklies in this paper are fully embedded and won’t be rubbed off!

Here's another masculine card but with a little more sense of fashion (and the paper is all matchy-matchy!)

This card features an origami rosette which, in my humble opinion, are just adorable!

And my last card is another man card =]  I think it looks very American and patriotic.

Cards for Operation Write Home

I discovered Operation Write Home a few months ago and have since been setting aside a handmade card or two from the "sets" of cards I make to donate to them.  For those that don't know, Operation Write Home (OWH) is an organization that collects handmade cards from crafters around the nation and then sends them to "heroes" (soldiers, Marines, deployed Coast Guard) stationed overseas so those men and women have something nice on which to write home.

OWH reached 1,000,000 handmade cards last month!  I am hoping to get my cards shipped off within the next week or so.  I don't have very many (maybe 25?) but the thing I love about OWH is that you can send any number of cards - be it 1 or 300!  I don't have the time, funds, or resources to go about making 300 cards to ship off every month, but I am grateful for the ladies that do.  As for me, as I make cards for my soon-to-be business I take a card or two every few sets and make sure that they have plenty of extra glue (extreme heat tends to dry out adhesives).  I thought I'd share some of the cards I've been making.

I have never been much of a stamper - I don't have the patience (or the skills) to color in stamps and especially recently, as I've been trying to get my card business going, I haven't used them due to all the Angel Policies (those laws regarding whether you can sell things stamped with a particular image.)  But I really wanted to try digi-stamps and I found this adorable one from Sliekje (she draws digi-stamps and posts them on her blog for others to use for free.)  I love all things Japanese and this one was printed on vellum paper and then embossed.  The digi-stamp can be found here.

This is another digi-stamp from the same blog.  It reminds me of Strawberry Shortcake!  But I decided to do it in blue instead of Strawberry's signature pink so the "you are my sunshine" would match if I put it on the inside.  It's probably hard to see since I took this picture head-on, but the sticker is actually a pop-up!  I simply stuck it on some paper, cut out the sticker, and made a simple little pop-up box.

I made a few other cards with digi-stamps from Sliekje's blog but found that, because I was trying to use actual glue runner and glue dots (I didn't think cards with vellum tape would be practical to send to countries so hot that the Wicked Witch of the West could melt without the aid of water), the glue showed right through.  I'm going to have to find something to cover up those areas (really just the corners).  I'm thinking about using glitter glue to make a border or circles where the dots show through (they won't be OWH worthy at that point, but at least I'd be able to use them or give them away.)

I hope to share some more cards with y'all very soon.  These next ones for OWH will feature my true passion: origami!