A Card & that's it

Actually, I have been working on a number of different projects, but things have gotten a bit crazy around here. I made 2 cards, but forgot to take a picture of the first one that was a Sympathy card for my uncle & his daughter. My aunt Jennie passed away on Mother's Day, and it was quite unexpected, since she was only 51. Since they are Jehovah's Witnesses, the holiday isn't celebrated & so it won't have tragic memory attached to it for my cousin. My aunt was a great lady & just fun to be around & talk to. She made my husband feel right at home when we first got married & she would include him in card games at family gatherings like he's been there forever. She LOVED to cook & was very good at it too! Unfortunately, that was her downfall in the end. She would cook all the time & there was only 3 in their family, but she cooked like she was preparing for an army. I feel bad for their daughter & that her mother will never see her get married or her grandchildren.

Aunt Jennie was a wonderful lady & great person and she will be missed by so many of us.

Now about the other card.


It's not that great, but it's not that bad either. Simple. It was made for one of my other aunts. A year ago, she made my daughter a handmade teddy bear & I never got around to sending her a thank you card. Since we were all going to the same funeral, I figured I should get it done. I think this teddy bear cut on A Child's Year Cricut cartridge is one of my favorites. Maybe because it reminds me of the teddy bear I had as a child. I cut it from a raspberry colored flocked paper because I was looking from texture. Isn't that what teddy bears are for? Soft to the touch & cozy feeling? The "Thank You" is from the Storybook cartridge, I think?

I also made a couple of gifts, but I am not going to post them because I seen that there is a call for publication that they may fit in. So, we'll see at a later date. If I don't forget.

God bless & have a great day!

Garage Sale find

Before I went over to my friend's house to work on Staff Appreciation gifts on Thursday, she called me up & said there was a garage sale at one of the mansions if I wanted to check it out. I thought, hmmmm.... might be too pricey for my blood, but ya never know.

So I go & check it out, but it was mostly clothes with just a few odds & ends left. But. Over along the side was this coffee table. Looking kinda cool, but it required a closer look. And that's what I gave it too, a much closer look. The only thing wrong with this table was that the finish is a bit worn, but not even that bad really. no dings. no wobbly legs. solid wood. cool basket weave top. unique elongated octagon shape. best part? $5! Yep, that baby was MINE! I didn't even have $5 on me, but the lady was nice enough to hold it for me so I could go get some cash. She was willing to take a check, but at the price of those suckers, I don't want to waste one for just $5.









I'm trying to decided if I want to just stain the top & paint the rest or do a 2-tone with the design on the top. Whaddya think?

If I were Miss Mustard Seed, I'm sure I'd know the best look for this table, but I'm not, so I'm kinda at a standstill with it.

My plan is to sell it, but the DH kinda has his eye on it, so who knows where it will actually end up? I could be happy either way. ;-)

Today, I've been working on getting my stuff prepared to ship off for the Cricut magazine pub (they don't give you a whole lot of time to get it shipped out with all the stuff they want). I also started working on the suitcase project. I can't dawdle on this stuff too long, DH & I are going out tonight for his birthday.

And with that note...
God Bless & have a great day!

Pub News! + long post, kinda pick heavy

I don't know if I'm starting to become one of the Cricut Magazine's Vinyl regulars or what ;-), but I've had FOUR vinyl projects accepted for the September issue!! Waaa Hooo!!!

I hope I can get them all in one of those Flat Rate boxes, because otherwise it's gonna be heavy & expensive. I had a 12x12 tile, a ceramic plate & a glass cutting board accepted along with a set of 4 mini hand soap bottles. I submitted other non-vinyl projects, but they didn't get accepted. One is a little mirror, so maybe I'll try to submit it to Papercrafts & see where that gets me. Probably like all the other times I've tried...no call. If not, then I'll be posting it here on my blog.

I have been crafting a lot this week, but it's been for teacher/staff appreciation week at my daughter's school & I'm not doing them at my own home so I don't take pictures. She found lots of really cute ideas like making a pencil from Rolos & a Hershey's Kiss, A treatbag of M&M's with an owl head topper, a Smore's kit in a baggie, a pieced branch picture with the leaves being the kids fingerprints as well as the little birds, butterflies & a catepillar. That's what we're working on today. I think I'm missing something, but can't recall at the moment what it might be. We're already working on ideas for next fall. That might be a little crazy for me, since that's when my craft shows & 2 birthday's are.

Here examples of what we made. These are where she got the inspiration from, NOT OUR actual projects.

Rolo Pencils - our version had a happy face stamped on the apple & baker's twine to tie the tag on. We used silver kisses for the "lead" portion instead of the gold too.













Owl Baggie Toppers - our owls were light pink & dk. pink with little primitive shaped hearts for the beak. I think I mostly used the Accent Essentials cartridge for this, but not 100% positive on that.







We Need SMORE people like you (this was Staff Appreciation, not just teachers) - our version had kraft paper backing with the bark looking embossing on it & a scalloped border punched at the bottom with a red, green or blue & white gingham for the label with rounded corners.



Fingerprint art - for our version I cut out a branch from my cricut & TONS - like 450 (.80 sized) ovals for the kids to put their fingerprints on to create the leaves, birds, & we're adding a butterfly & a caterpillar to ours, since most classes have over 25 students per class. I hope to get a picture of the one for my daughter's teacher.

On a different note for today, we finally have our new roof completed & the guys are just finishing up the loose ends & doing a repair on our ceiling where one of them slipped & their foot came through out ceiling - oops! It's not a big deal, since we had to replace a section of the ceiling from the leak damage anyway. We just hope that it holds up better than the last new roof we had done just 5 years ago & it started leaking in the 2nd year. No, we were NOT having those people back to attempt to fix anything ever again for us. The crew that's doing our roof(s) this time seem very knowledgeable about what they do & they're Amish. So now I have finally been able to get the 3 buckets, one large tote & towels with trashbags under them, out of my family room & the nasty 2 ft. long stained part of the ceiling will be gone too. YAY!!! I just have to shampoo the carpet to get rid of the light water splashes. Finally....*sigh*

So, if you've hung out here for the duration of the post, THANKS!! Perhaps if you've needed some student or teacher gifty inspiration, maybe you've found some here.

God Bless & have a great day!

Thrift Stores

I have nothing crafty again today, but I'm getting there. I promise. I have noticed that I've been a bit on the whiney & a complainer lately, but things just seem to really be spiraling out of control these days. I mean, I went to my local Salvation Army thrift store today & they had a nice mirrored dresser in there. They wanted $125 for it & it still needs finished! And yet, I have a really cute one myself that I've been trying to sell on Craigslist for $100 and can't get any takers. I just wish I could get my hubby to let me refinish the ones we're selling, but he doesn't want to put the effort into them just to turn around and sell them. I don't understand why not. They didn't cost us anything. I think we could get the money he's wanting for them if we just painted them a vintage white instead of the 50's funky looking white wash paint that has been yellowed over time.

I also priced a set of 3 candle holders at the thrift store & they were asking $5 a piece for each piece! I did find a pair of ice skates, but I'm hoping to get those half price along with the candle holders. It's not this week.

I thought the idea of a thrift store was that their prices were for the thrifty.... I guess I'm too thrifty even for the thrift store! I know everyone expects me to practically give my stuff away, but their stuff is gold & priceless! what. ever.

One of my favorite shows is American Pickers. Man, I would love to make my living that way! I just don't know all that they know about all the stuff they do. Wouldn't that be the coolest tho? My problem would be that I'd want to keep everything I buy instead of reselling it. I sometimes have that problem now with some of the crafts I make. I've spent so many years selling stuff I've made for myself, that now I have a tendency to make something to sell & I keep it instead. Funny how things have a way of turning around, eh?

Well, enough of my complaining post for today. I'll try to get motivated tomorrow to work on the tumbler, frame & card I'm supposed to be making. I know. I procrastinate too much. I'm outta here.

God Bless & have a great day!

After Easter

Well, I'm pretty exhausted after this weekend of preparing for & driving down to Tennessee to spend Easter with my grandmother & deliver my 1977 Trans Am to uncle, who was buying it from us. We had a tire on the trailer literally desintegrate on us, but we did have a spare & we were only an hour away from our destination.

The weather & scenery was beautiful & we had a pretty good time, but I know how my family is and I just kept hoping that things were different because people get older, but that was not the case. I know the card I made for my grandmother was not my best work by magazine & designer standards, but I thought it was pretty enough. I guess my grandmother was not impressed with the card at all. She thanked me for the card, gave me a quick hug, put the card back in the envelope & tossed it on the kitchen counter for it to get food & grease on. Later it disappeared. I guess we do things a little differently around at our house. The cards go on display for everyone to see & definitely NOT on the kitchen counter to get ruined within 5 minutes. I guess I'll just skip the card making for her. This isn't the first time that she looked so uncaring about a card I made for her. I just thought that she would appreciate something hand made more than a non-craft person, since she had made things herself for years.

Dealing with my grandma is kinda like dealing with my mother, it doesn't matter what you do, it's not going to be the right thing for them, so I'm gonna do what I want to do & how I want to do it so at least that way, at least someone is happy & it might as well be ME! ;-)

Brooke did wonderful the whole trip. She didn't complain, but did keep asking if we were getting closer. We always tell her that we're getting closer all the time because we keep moving, but it's still a long way to go yet. Thanks goodness for the Nintendo DS & the portable DVD player, which that had to be swapped back & forth between Brooke & then to my sister, who rode with our dad. I guess my sister trying to sing along to the movie Mama Mia was some interesting entertainment for my dad, to say the least. LOL!

I need to get to work on making some gifts for a friend of ours who's having a 40th birthday this weekend. I bought one of those acrylic tumblers to add some vinyl to & then maybe a picture frame for his desk at work & of course, a card.

Oh, and last but not least, today is my hubby's 46th birthday! I need to go get a cake for him & start on making him Chicken Parmesan for dinner. I haven't even gotten him a gift, but he may not want one since he just went back to work a couple of weeks ago. It's hard to say about him on that whole gift giving thing.

God Bless & have a great day!

Weather & other stuff

I don't know about most of you, but the weather has been quite soggy here just this week. That doesn't make for a happy us here. Rain doesn't bother me, but heavy rain does & lots of it. And of course, it doesn't get that way around here until we're ready to have a new roof put on. The buckets are getting full, we even have to use a long tote underneath the beam because you just never know where it's gonna leak there & we don't want a bunch of buckets lined up along there. Then, there's the towels under the buckets & flattened trash bags under the towels to help protect the carpet from splashes when the buckets get too full. No, it's not pretty here. And, because of the rain, they have now postponed starting on our roof until Monday. It's supposed to rain Monday & Tuesday here too. The April showers finally showed up here for the last 2 weeks of the month. Yes, things are looking lush & green now.

Speaking of spring, last night was my daughter's Spring Music Program. It's a big deal for the kids because they get to get dressed up & look like movie stars. They do a great job & it's so cute to watch the little Kindergartners. Brooke is in First grade, but they go in order, so you get to see the smaller children perform. It was a huge crowd last night & it was very warm in there. I am rarely warm until about July, so for me to say it was very warm, is really something.












Brooke likes to have her hair done up & so we did a single braid in the back, but the problem with her having her hair in tales of any kind is that she won't leave them alone. So, several times during the her grade's portion of the program you see her with her hands along the back of her head, fiddling with that braid.












And, the little boy that was standing next to her was so funny! He had stage fright, according to Brooke. We noticed him hiding behind her during different parts of the program & we were wondering what that was about. LOL!

I knew Tracy would ask to see the Easter basket that I decorated a little for my daughter, so I took a picture of it & here it is.












It's not put together in a professional presentation, but I just have never had a knack for that, so I could never make a living out of making gift baskets, that's for sure.

I haven't quite figured out the point of having Easter grass in the basket. Maybe I just put too much stuff in them & I try to dig it back up so you can see some, but it doesn't stay there & it all just ends up settling to the bottom. I actually spend more time picking it up off the floor & digging it out of my vacuum more than it serving a purpose in those baskets. Am I right? Oh, ya know I am. ;-)

And so I leave you with a Happy Easter wishes & God Bless!

Preparing for Easter

It never fails around here. The weather can be glorious & beautiful for many days & weeks on end, but the week before Easter...rain...and cold.....and just plain gloom. Maybe God gets sad during this time of remembering the sacrifice His son made for us. But at least we can rejoice in His glory and that sacrifice & know that God loves us that much! I don't know that I could give my only child, or any of my children as a sacrifice for anything. I feel truly BLESSED by Him.

Now I have never gone on in a religious sort of way on my blog, but I would never deny knowing and loving God either, however, I did feel moved to say something as a reminder during these troubling times that everyone is witnessing these days. I just hope it causes you to stop & think about what is really important & not let the non-essential things get in the way of letting you do what is right by not just yourself, but everyone else around you. And, if you don't believe in the same God as I do, it still can't hurt to be nice to someone who may really need it, but just doesn't know how to show it.

And now on to another part of Easter....




I have made my 84 year old grandmother an Easter card. I'm not all that sure that I like how it turned out, but it looks better after adding lots of colored Stickles than before I did that. I made the mistake of trying to "re-glue" my Cricut cutting mat. I don't have one of those big chunky blue glue markers, but I found something else to try instead. I was looking at my local Walmart the other day & thought I'd try one of those Elmer's glue pens that has a fine tip nozzle on one end & a rubbery wide applicator on the other. The bottle said for a permanent adhesion, apply wet & allow to dry. For repositionable, apply & let dry completely first. So, I bought it & tried it. I wasn't too thrilled with how the applicator thing worked, but I managed to get the mat covered & I let it dry overnight. Well, I gotta say, if you thought your Cricut mats were too sticky when you first buy them, you ain't seen nothing!! I guess my first recommendation would be to perhaps water down the glue a little after you apply a super thin coat on your mat and then do the de-sticking with your mat, where you pat the sticky side of your mat to your shirt and hands many times. So, after all this trial & error on my super duper sticky cutting mat, I had all kinds of issues trying to get my intricate design to come off without tearing it to pieces, including the uncut portion of my paper. Ugh! Then, I had issues with my Word program on my computer to create the greeting, but that's a whole other story that took almost all day & I ended up using the first one I did. what-ever. On this cut, I decided that I'd use one of my markers in the cricut to try to add a little extra punch to the design. yuck. Not to mention that my blade must have moved just a tad in between removing the marker & adding the blade back in the housing, because parts at the top had no outline, but did at the bottom. So, I just went around the blank areas with the marker by hand & added green stickles to that afterwards. I then added the pink Cotton Candy & blue Waterfall stickles for the flowers & then sprayed it with Iridescent Gold Glimmer Mist. Not something I'd try to submit to a magazine, but I hope my grandma likes it enough. In general, I think it's pretty, but the details aren't very nice - that's where the layers of other colors comes in ...to throw your eye off the bad glitter job. LOL! I did finish off the inside as well, but I've already written the sentiment, so I'll just leave that part to your imagination.

Also today, I needed to get started on putting my daughter's Easter basket together, so I wouldn't be rushing to do it at the last minute where I'd be discovered, ya know? I didn't take a photo of the what I did to the basket & it really isn't a big deal either. I just wanted to mention it in case someone wanted to try doing it too. You see, I seen a really simple, yet pretty basket at Walmart (are ya noticing a pattern here with WM?) . It has a little layered ruffle around the basket that looks kinda like a ruffly skirt. I thought Brooke would just adore that, but they wanted too much money for that. I'm thinking Hey! I can do that for a lot less & in no time! I had found a 6 inch wide spool of Organza ribbon that I got for a $1 at Jo-Ann's in a raspberry color & I reuse the kid's basket every year & it sort of matched that. I just took the ribbon & took the measurement for the length by wrapping the ribbon around the basket 3 times & cut it off. Then, I had some left over 1.0 mm thick stretchy clear elastic that they use for making stretchy beaded bracelets, cut it to length that would fit around the basket snug, but not tight, & I just hand basted that about 1 1/2" down from the top along the whole piece of ribbon. Tied the ends together & put it on the basket. It has a little ruffle at the top & a ruffly bottom too. Definitely girly. I might take a pic, if anyone really wants to see it. The worst part is the Easter Bunny will get total credit for it. ;-)

Boy, have I been getting long winded on these posts these days, or what? I guess that comes from lack of outside adult interaction - especially now that my hubby is working again, it's probably even worse.

God Bless & have a great day!

One of my MANY projects in the works

I think it's safe to say that everyone who reads my blog is a crafter to some degree or another. Mainly paper crafters, but there are a few of you who dabble in other cool things outside the realm of paper & scrapbooks. Myself included. I swear that I'm ADD & I classify that as a downgrade from being ADHD as a child. I think motherhood & middle age helped to eliminate the "H" factor, but I digress....because of being ADD, I have too many interests & many things in the works, so that when I come to a roadblock, I can shift gears to another that has been waiting for attention. I so wish I wasn't this way, but I must say that when I was working outside the home, it was actually somewhat beneficial. In the corporate world, there are always roadblocks & delays until someone else can get you the information you need to complete YOUR portion of the job & there goes the trickle down effect.

So, you're probably asking yourself what this post is about. (if you haven't nodded off or just plain left my blog already) It's about another project that I am planning on starting to make for my dear, sweet Brooke. I just hope I finish it before she loses interest in what it is. LOL! Now mind you, prior to this project, I was planning on adding vinyl to a door mirror for her bedroom. Simple enough. The mirror is still waiting to get done and it was supposed to by done by her last birthday back in Oct., then it got pushed out Christmas & yet, hidden behind the door of my craft room here in the middle of April, it sits waiting to get completed before she's too tall to make good use of it for her age.

And now, drum roll please............ this is the going to be my next project for my daughter.
























I'm not going to reveal what this gorgeous {snicker} suitcase is going to be transformed into yet & it may never get revealed as slow as I work! LOL! Actually, that's really not that funny. If I had every penny back for all the stuff I've purchased thinking I was going to make it into something, but didn't, we could afford a fabulous trip to just about anywhere. I will admit that I'm doing much better in the last couple of years of either talking myself out of buying something or just actually getting stuff made with what I have on hand. It's a good feeling.

Well, I'm off to go work on yet another project that isn't this one. ;-)

God Bless & have a great day!

Another Boy page

I know many of you scrappers out there can crank out pages in just under an hour or two and they look fabulous & with lots of cool details!! Me? Not so much, no so much at all. It can take me daaaaays to complete ONE page & they end up looking pretty simple in design. Sometimes I can create something that I know is awesome, but they're few & far between. I think part of my problem is that I'm basically lazy & don't want to have to put that much effort into creating things.

I guess when I'm doing a page for my son, I have permission to keep it simple & in his opinion, minimum is best. He tells me I put too much thought & effort into doing a scrapbook page as it is ~ boy, if he saw the pages I see online, he'd be in artistic overload! lol.

This is a page I just completed this morning & yes, I started on it yesterday. I had most of it done then, but I thought it needed something along the sides of the photo, I just didn't know what. Now, I don't know about you all, but my best ideas come to me while I'm lying in bed or even in the middle of a sound sleep. Is that weird, or is it just normal when you're somewhat creative, like myself? {*snicker*}







So, while lying bed, it came to me to add some simple swirls that my son wouldn't think was too feminine. I guess I don't care what he thinks about the pages I do for him. At least someone is keeping track of his life & memories. I know he won't really admit it, but I know he's glad that I do scrapbooking for him, because he forgets a lot of his experiences & if he hadn't seen a scrapbook page of the event, he would completely forget that it even happened.

I know this page doesn't look like a school page by any stretch of the imagination, but the colors went well with his shirt. I thought it needed something else to add a little pop & the little strips in the title border that are the backside of the blue paper had some orange & it looked pretty good, so that's what I went with.

The title was cut on my Cricut Expression using the Mickey Font cartridge at 1.50" & then I ran them through my crimper, that had to be dusted off since I hadn't used it in years! I've noticed that the crimped letters are becoming popular. I like that look. I hand cut the chevrons on the corner & used Lyrical Letters with the Capital setting & cut at .80", I think. The little primitive stars were cut at .50" using the George cartridge & the swirls were cut with the Home Decor cartridge & cut at 1.80", 1.40" & 1.20" for each set, but I used the "Flip" option for the left side because the card stock has a texture to it on one side. The little tag is a Maya Road chipboard tag I just got in the mail yesterday as one of my gifts from having a project published in the Cricut magazine. How cool is that? I just covered it with more orange card stock & added his teachers' names on it. Then.... I added dimensional glaze to the circles in the upper right corner, because you know wet cup rings are a staple in every kid household! I like how the page looks, but in the photo, it looks like the orange is brighter than it really is. It's more of a burnt orange than this pumpkin-y color. I might add some little brads to the page here & there, but I think I'm mostly done with this one!

And with that long chapter from the novel I seem to be writing, I'll end this post!

God Bless & have a great day!

Scrappin' again...

Well, I have started to do some scrapbooking again. The hubby found a job that may only hopefully be temporary, but it pays more than unemployment. So, with my once again found alone time, I've started to get to work on getting my son's scrapbook pages done for his high school graduation. It actually feels good to dig back into all the pictures and all that old product that I've had piling up for yeeeeears. I will NEVER put a mild dent in it, but progress is progress, no matter how large or small it may be. I've also been working somewhat simultaneously on my daughter's pages too. When you come across pictures that fit in both of their books, you might as well do them both & be done with those pictures for good, right? right. Dog pictures fit into that category.











Now, I mentioned digging into some of my old product...see that tooth die cut? That is sooooo old, it came from Creative Memories probably before my son even lost his first tooth!!! seriously.

Now, these pages are incredibly simple in design because I really need to start pumping some pages out, & since the majority of these pages are going to be for my son, simple is best. I've started on the dog page for him, but need a picture that I don't have made before I can finish it to MY liking. ;-)






But, I did get a dog page done for Brooke. Now, for this page of my daughter & new puppy, that scalloped die cut paper was all the rage about 3-4 years ago, before I ever knew anything about a machine called the Cricut & border punches were big, but you couldn't do corners with them. The title sticker & other matching embellies are as old as the time we first got the dog 2 1/2 years ago. The little lacey scalloped heart was a leftover from some Valentine bookmarks I made for Brooke's class this year. I just hate to waste anything. I still want to cut a little banner with my Cricut that tells the date & age, but I might get that done today. We'll see.

Before I got started on scrapping again, I did start working on cleaning up my scrap areas, but only got about 1/3 of the way through, but it was still a huge improvement because I found some of my floor! I still need to clean off my tables better so I can use them to work at instead of the floor {picture rolling eyes here}. What inspired me to clean the room, you ask? We were having people coming in to give us estimates of our roof & the last time, one of them wanted to see the attic for damage & the access to that is guess where? In my scraproom. Needless to say, that was a tad embarrassing! I thought I could just keep the door close to hide all my hoarding sins, but I was soooo busted! And guess what? No one asked to look there this time! Ugh! Oh well, it needed to get cleaned even though it was still looks a total mess in there, I can at least say it's Organized Chaos.

I do also want to mention that I have been creating before this, but I submitted things to magazine in hopes of getting published more, but since I haven't heard anything in a month on the Cricut & Cards calls, I'm guessing nothing of mine was chosen. bummer. The only thing I can say about that is, I haven't heard of anyone else getting the notifications either. Two Peas says that they post it when the notifications come out, but I can't find where that is. I'm not a 2Peas regular. I love the inspiration there, but I'm not a fan of many of their forum posters. not. nice. "ladies". That's all I gotta say bout that.

So, I need to get back to work on more stuff & I think there's a pile of laundry that's about ready to walk itself into the washer. Gee...wouldn't that be great?


Oh, before I forget....if you want an opportunity to win a really cool looking scrapping kit, check out my friend Monique's blog. She's an awesome designer on FOUR design teams & she's giving away a pretty cool looking kit on her blog. Just click on this link to go see it & check out how you can get a chance to win it for yourself. While you're at it, check out her amazing work too.
Creating {Non}Sense by Monique

PS: I have been having some issues with blogger, so I hope you can see my pics. I reloaded them, so I hope they're there.

God Bless & have a great day!