Happy New Year!

It's New Year's Eve and I'm at home doing what I love to do... stamping! Some of my friends have called today and think I'm crazy to be home stamping when I'm childless and could be out doing who knows what! We're all different! In my travels blog browsing I came across Joan's blog, Stamping, Cooking, Knitting...My Life, she has some cute calanders made with rectangular shaped coasters that I had to C.A.S.E. I added a post it note holder to make it a desk set for a friend who has a birthday soon.

I ordered some of the coasters on line from Pub Decor, they came today but they were all square. I can't seem to get it right ordering stuff lately. Instead of placing another order I made my own, is anyone missing any cereal boxes? My corner rounder punches couldn't handle the the weight of the cardboard so I settled for square corners.

See you next year!

Late Christmas Gifts & Looking Ahead

We received a Christmas gift from our next door neighbors the day after Christmas that I'm pretty sure will be life changing around here. He's 4 months old, his name is Fritz and the cat definately likes him! She's bigger than him too.

I've lived in this house since 1992, my neighbors and I have been through children (little ones to teen agers), pets, good times and bad. Our relationship as neighbors is still intact. At times I've wondered how and thanked God that we keep moving forward.

They go away in the summer time to South Dakota, this year when they came home they had a litter of Dashound puppies with them. I greeted them in their yard shortly after they pulled in this fall and helped unload the puppies and everything that goes with them.

Almost immediately he started talking to me about buying one of their puppies for my kids. I politely declined with the reasoning that I couldn't afford to "buy" a puppie let alone keep one and have the year round resources to support it along with my family.

My kids visited as often as they could and started Pet Sitting for our neighbor when they had to run to the store or just wanted a break. One by one the puppies were adopted out and the kids had to learn to say goodbye.

All that was left was one pup and his Mom for quite some time and my neighbor mentioned several times that he sure would like to see this last pup grow up close by so they could enjoy him too. He dropped his asking price and we talked again about my finances and how I didn't think I could afford to squeeze a dog into it even as small as he was.

It wasn't too long before the pup was offered for sale for five dollars and I declined because I know how much more there is to it than just the initial cost.

On returning home Christmas Eve I found packages at the front door outside and a flyer about the puppies with all the for sale parts crossed out and smiled but didn't respond. I was starting to cave on the puppy front but hadn't said much to anyone.

The day after Christmas my neighbor came over with the pup in his arms and offered him to us as a Christmas gift and a package deal to go along with him. Shots, neutering (if I'd like), bed, toys, and an occasional bag of dog food. As you can see I accepted his offer.

Fritz will be spending a large part of the day today with his "grandparents" my neighbors, they're going to get his last puppy shots. My kids are with their grandparents in Wickenburg and one of my girl friends invited me to go shopping in Lake Havasu with her. Fritz & Miss Kitty

My card today is a Valentine for a class I'm planning in January. I used a sketch challenge from Splitcoaststampers that I really like with my MFT digital paper.

Supply List: Stamps - Eureka, Paper - White, Red Light, MFT digital paper, Ink - Real Red, Accessories - Foam tape.

My post seems quite long today so I'll leave it at that.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas morning has arrived! There's wrapping paper all over the living room, the kids are playing happily with new toys and I have company due to arrive in 40 minutes, and I'm still in my pajammas. (insert silly grin here) They are my friends after all, I think I'll write a Christmas blog post... My first picture is of my kids opening packages this morning. ~Happy faces~
This is a gift set I made for a friend who's favorite color is pink using my MFT digital paper and Papertrey's Holiday Treat's stamp set. I copied Nichole's tea tin and nugget box, she has great ideas! This friend is out of town at the moment so I think it's safe to show it to you today. I made several just like this one using different designer papers for my friends who are coming over today. I'm excited to give them to them and hope they like them!
This is a picture of a candle in a tin from the Dollar Store that I covered with Stampin' Up!s Wintergreen designer paper and again used the Papertrey Holiday Treat's stamp set. The snowflake on top is a Sizzlets die and I added a rhinestone for a finishing touch.
My last picture is a gift for another friend who's told us he does not want food for gifts! Like most of us he struggles with his weight and most if not all of my gift items this year were food related.

This one took some thinking... The funnest thing for me about making gifts for friends is incorporating what I know about them into the right gift. (do you think funnest is a word?)

This friend tries to go for a hike almost everyday and I also know he likes candles. Not a lot to go on so I slept on it. I woke up with this idea of going to the thrift shop and checking out their awesome collection of glass jars and canisters for just the right size and a top with a wide opening. I knew I had that Stampin' Around wheel with the camping theme that said Do Not Feed The Bears! I thought I'd like to change that to Do Not Feed The Man, I looked around town for candles and so wanted to find some that looked like food but didn't. Oh well!

When I'd gathered my stuff together the above is what I came up with, I'm quite pleased with it and he liked it too.

I hope you have a blessed day with your friends and families as we celebrate the birth of Christ!

See you soon~

A Little Help From My Friends~

This s a card I made with the new Time Well Spent set that Stampin' Up! sent out to all their active demonstrators as a gift recently. What stampin' girl doesn't want a little rubbah for Christmas?! I like this set and haven't gotten to play with it much yet, but I will!

I really like this sentiment that comes in the set. I must say that I did cut the little flowers on either side off and they went in the trash. Too much... I'll add my own when needed thanks...

I'm learning in my life that time spent with friends is time well spent, I thank God for the people He's put in my life. There are so many things to learn from our friends and I couldn't live without the love and support they provide. Sometimes I need to sit and talk about the same old stuff and they're always available to listen... and cheer me on. What an awesome gift.

With the holiday season upon us I'm again reminded of how blessed I am and my friends.

Yesterday comes to mind~

I'm part of the Thursday Morning Women's Ministry at Christ's Church On The River here in Parker and we met yesterday for the last time this year and finished up our study of Bad Girls of the Bible. Toward the end of our meeting they presented me with a big bag of Christmas gifts for my children and myself, gift cards and a beautiful ham for Christmas dinner. I was simply overwhelmed and blessed by their love for me and so grateful again to God for the people He has put in my life. I'm overcome with emotion again as I think about it.

And today~ Our youth Pastor was just at the door bringing Christmas gifts for my children.

Here's my perception of what's happening. A demonstration of God's love through His people. Sometimes it's difficult to accept all this with grace, but I'm learning how to do that too. It's not nice to steal other people's joy.
So... Time Spent With Friends Is Time Well Spent.

Hey! Did you notice that I used my digital paper again? I really like having an endless supply of paper I don't have to store!

I don't have ALL the right colors of Copic markers yet but I'm working on collecting as I go. I found a new web site for them that has good prices and FAST shipping too!

I colored my flower with Copic markers and the Copic Spica glitter markers, matted the image on Forest Dark by thepapermillstore.com, added a strip of MFT digital paper to a Red Light (thepapermillstore.com) card body and had a fairly quick card.

I had to show you the whole story behind the picture of the card today too. I had more help than I needed when it came to picture taking time. That's why I titled my blog post as I did too.
Her name is Miss Kitty (how original, I know!), she jumped up into the window about the time I started taking pictures. The card fell over, the blinds moved and blurred the picture and I felt like pulling her tail. I didn't give up and got some good pictures, life goes on.

Oh! my gosh, I almost forgot!! I'm the featured blogger over at QK Bloggers Club today! I just noticed the date of the post 12-16-07. All this emotional stuff going on with me and I must say Internet Explorer had a glitch and closed so I lost my first blog post. Excuses, excuses! I think you should click the link and goe check it out!

Christmas Cards My Friends Have Made~

I wanted to share some of the Christmas cards my friends have made with you today because they're so pretty! I wasn't able to go to our Stampin' Up! demonstrators meeting this month and I still received swaps from the ladies. This is Camille's card. I haven't tried this technique yet with my tag punch and need to put it on my must do list. I think her card is simply georgous! Thanks Camille!
This card is from Deb who lives in New York, isn't Fluffie snowboarding cute?! And I just love the colors she used! Deb and I are blogging friends and we recently swapped some stamped images with each other. Thanks Deb!
This is Judy's (my Stampin' Up! upline) swap card, isn't it georgous with all the sparkle?! Thanks Judy!
This card is from my friend Pat in California. She and I met on Splitcoaststampers and have gotten to know each other via e mail. We have fun swapping stamped images back and forth. I love the acetate cards and haven't tried this technique either but I'm gonna! Thank you Pat!

We're just a few days away from Christmas, I think I'm about ready too!

Have a great day!

Something a little different today~

So much going on with Christmas a week away and the Christmas card orders complete, on to the gifts I want and need to make... I know you can relate!

My card today is a special order from a lady, she bought one for her Granddaughter and wanted one for herself too.
Supply List: Paper - Real Red, Basic Black, White, Translucent Vellum, Accessories - sentiment is printed from my computer, Gingham Ribbon, Silver Brads, Circle Punch, SU Oval Punches, Round Paper Clip, Lady Bug by Quickutz.

I'm back and I seem to have a lot to say today!

Say... what's that?!

It's a weird picture of some of the digital paper I was telling you about the other day!

I purchased the digital Holiday Collection paper over at My Favorite Things last week and it took me several days to get it downloaded. The several days was operator error... I called a friend of mine yesterday morning and told him about my download and the problem I was having and he gave me a different perspective and I opened my new Winzip program and there it was! Boy was I excited!!
So as I sat and worked on Christmas cards I couldn't resist printing some of them out to see how they looked. I'm impressed, they're nice! What more could a girl need? An endless supply of patterned paper and she doesn't even have to store it, just print on demand. I may never have to leave the house again, what will they think of next?

I have one dozen more Christmas cards to make for an order and I'm done! I've just completed a little more than 600 Christmas cards for this season.... and I haven't used all my Christmas stamps yet.

These two pictures are gift card holders using some of my new digital paper and my Elzybell's stamps that have been sitting on my kitchen table patiently waiting for me to have time to play with them.

Oh, I found the velcro tonight for these to keep them closed. I used a cool little magnet on my last one. Someone left a comment about the magnet messing up the strip on the gift card inside. GOOD POINT! I'll use that one for cash if I need it!

Supply List for gift card holders - Stamps - Elzybells, Merry Christmas by Hero Arts (the crooked one) and Inkadinkado, Paper - Neenah Super Smooth Solar White, Thepapermillstore.com Sky Blue Light, Blue Deep and Red Light, MFT Digital Patterned Papers, Ink - Palette Noir, Real Red, Brilliant Blue, Accessories - Copic markers, Copic Spica Glitter markers, Snowflake punch, Blue Rhinestone, Spellbinders Oval & Scalloped Oval dies, Corner rounder punch.

My last picture today is of 3 of the cool Christmas cards I've received from friends who make their own cards so far. I love getting hand made Christmas cards too! Top left is from Diane, top right is from Judy and the one on the bottom is from Stacy.
One last thing today~ Sharon signed my guest book today, she's from Bouse which is about 30 minutes from Parker where I live. She asked if I used to work at the Safeway in Parker. Yes I did, I worked for Safeway for 18 years, I had 2 more children at 40 years old and had a hard time finding day care for them so I decided to be a stay at home Mom and now I'm a stamp at home Mom! Sharon also said she received one of my Christmas cards today at work from Shelly at the La Paz County Recorders office. I think that's pretty cool! Maybe she'll end up in one of my card making classes some day.

Class Marathon

I've had 3 classes in the last 24 hours, whew! Lots of fun. The first picture is of two of our projects for the afternoon class. We used Stella Ruby paper to create a little purse and our paper pieced Hannah card. We also made the folded Christmas tree in each class but I didn't get a picture of those. This mornings class was "Susan's Choice" since she was the only one who was supposed to attend. In the end there were three of us and the ladies chose what they wanted to make and it was fun. We just kind of made it up as we went along.

The second card is one of the cards we made this morning. I designed it yesterday morning for a Christmas card order. My customer had seen the stamp and told me she wanted a dozen, have fun with it. I did!

Supply List: Paper - SU Soft Sky, Always Artichoke, White, SU Wintergreen designer paper, Stamps - Snowman family by Cornish Heritage Farms, SU Circle Of Friendship, Ink - Palette Noir, Aways Artichoke, Accessories - SU Punches - 1 1/8", 1 1/4" circles, Scalloped Circle, Photo Corners, Copic markers, Copic Spica glitter markers, Stickles Ice, Clear Rhinestone, Crystal Effects, SU Mat Stack, Paper piercing tool.

Before my two ladies left today they had me online at Ellen Hutson's store ordering all the Copic Spica markers for them. Maybe I could become a Ellen Hutson Consultant.

It's been a fun day and I'm tired. It's time to go relax - happy stampin'

The Rush Is Over - I Think...

I have a couple more dozen Christmas cards to make and I think the rush might be over. If I just lay low and don't go anywhere maybe...

Anyway, I think maybe now I can get back to regular blogging and I'm looking forward to it.

The first thing I need to share with you is I signed up to become a member of The Sisterhood 4 of Blogging Stampers. What is that you might ask? It's a group of stamping bloggers who visit each other's sites regularly and leave comments and encourage each other. I'm meeting other stampers from all over the world, how cool is that?! I have most of their blogs posted in my side bar, you might want to check them out.

The next thing I'm supposed to do is tell a little about myself, so here goes~

I'm a single stamp at home Mom of 3 kids. Rubber stamping is my passion and not a day goes by that I don't stamp. I've always loved crafting, my Mom taught me how to sew when I was a little girl. We spent countless hours together making clothes and just about anything you could imagine. I learned to make quilts in my 20's and now everyone (almost) has one. I live in a very small town in western Arizona along the Colorado River, it gets really hot here in the summer and I'd love to be anywhere else at that time of year. I'm a Christian woman who loves the Lord and I'm very involved with our church, not complete yet but enjoying the journey.

On to the card! I made this Saturday when I was supposed to be doing something else. Ever have those moments when you don't want to be doing what you're supposed to? I felt the need to use up that half sheet of 12x12 Stampin' Up! designer paper, so I went with it!

This is a sketch challenge from SCS but I don't remember what number and I'm too lazy to look it up right now. The snowman stamp is from Cornish Heritage Farms, the Merry Christmas stamp is from Elzybells (oh, I can't wait to play with those!!), the designer paper is Stampin' Up! retired of course... Brilliant Blue and White cardstock, Stickles Ice for the snow and Copic markers to color "him" in.

I need to go to bed now, I just found a really funny mistake I made. I fixed it! Good night~

Fluffie's Gift Card Holder

I was blog browsing yesterday morning as I was drinking my first cup of coffee and discovered these cool gift card holder cards on Jami's blog More Is More. She has a link on her blog to Sharon's blog No Time To Stamp for the directions to make them so that's where I went next!

You really should check out both these ladies blogs, they're awesome!

I've been working on Christmas card orders and have scraps from my Stampin' Up! Dashing designer paper so I thought I'd make my first one from those. I really like how it turned out and plan to make some more.
The picture below is the card open for you to see. I used Basic Grey magnetic snaps to hold the card closed. Very neat little item but they're rather expensive so I've been dreaming up other ideas of how to keep these closed in my head. I haven't tried any of them yet so all I have are theories so far.
Supply List: Stamps - Fluffie's Snowboarding by Stampendous, Holiday Happiness by Stampin' Up!, Paper - Very Vanilla, Dashing Desinger paper SU, Ink - Noir Black, Real Red, Accessories - Copic markers, Magnetic snap, Real Red eyelet, Marvy Giga Scalloped Square punch.

One other thing I have to add today is I'm downloading digital paper to try out. I was reading Kristine's blog Inkastamp and she was telling about it and gave a link to My Favorite Things where she purchased it. I'll let you know how it goes! I love the idea of printing my own paper and having as much as my little heart desires and not having to store it. A stamper's dream come true?

I have other stuff to share but I think I'll save it for another post. I'm off to deliver Christmas card orders this afternoon.

Have a great day!

SC152 And Hannah

So, last night after my blog post I did take a little detour and went to bed really satisfied with myself, my card? it just felt good to play for awhile and I liked what I came up with.

I have a friend that I had this card in mind for and actually took it to her this morning. She loved it.

I haven't done a sketch challenge in ages and have really missed them. The Hannah images are big enough I thought she'd work out nicely using SC152 and I was right. My card size is an A6 and I think the sketch challenges are made for the A2 size cards. I like the bigger palette to work with. I remember back to a time when I couldn't cover that much space! I can now...

I've worked on Christmas cards today and this batch of 40 is progressing nicely. I stopped and took a break when the kids got out of school. We visited our local scrapbook store, today was it's last day in operation. I'm sorry to say it's just a memory now. The town I live in is pretty small so supporting a scrapbook store didn't work out.

I did buy some georgous Basic Grey Stella Ruby paper for 75% off that will be fun to use for classes. I picked up some spools of ribbon and other odds and ends too. I spent my twenty bucks wisely! Supply List: Stamps by Hannah, Paper - White, Confetti White, Nut Brown, Stampin' Up! retired designer paper. Ink - Noir Black, Basic Brown, Accessories - Copic markers, Copic Spica glitter markers, Primas, Brad.

I've never done paper piecing before, it's really fun! Her dress and 2 of the bags are the Stampin' Up! retired designer paper. Funny how you keep something like that around for years not knowing what to use it for and then...

We are getting rain here this evening, it's a "winter" storm for us. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 61 degrees, brrrr. Sounds silly, I know.

Have a great weekend, I'll be back with you soon.

A friend wanted red, white and blue themed Christmas cards to go with her office and keep it simple was the last thing she said. Ah... me simple (grin), simple becomes difficult when you have to think about it! As far as I'm concerned anyway~

Simplicity is nice for mass production though and that's the next step with these. She's seen 'em, liked 'em, we corrected my spelling and I'm off to work again. Supply List: Stamps - Cornish Heritage Farms stamp of the month Nov., Inkadinkado Merry Christmas, Ink - Palette Noir, Paper - White, Navy, Red Light, Accessories - Spellbinders Scalloped Rectangle Die, Cuttlebug Swirl Embossing Folder, Copic Markers, Copic Spica Glitter Markers.

I've worked hard today! I think I'm going to take a little detour tonight and play with my new Hannah stamps that arrived in the mail today!! Oh boy!

A Mid Afternoon Blog Post~

Wow, I feel like it's been a long time since I've been here with you. I've been busy making Christmas cards and everything I'm working on you've seen before so I've just kept on working.

Today's card isn't a new one for me but it will be for you. I bought this "set" last year from Touche rubber stamps after Christmas and made up some cards. One of my girl friends saw the cards and wanted some for her Christmas cards so that's what I've been doing.

I'm waiting for the UPS man to deliver my Stampin' Up! order so I have the designer paper I need for the batch of cards I'm working on and I have about a half an hour before school is out so I thought I'd sneek on here real quick! I stamped the snowman with Stampin' Up! White Craft Ink and poured a mixture of White embossing powder and glitter on the image and heat embossed it. I didn't have Hologram Highlights embossing powder so I made my own.

The snowflakes and This Christmas verse are stamped in Night of Navy Classic Ink by Stampin' Up!, the card stock used is White, Navy and Sky Blue light from thepapermill.com. White grossgrain ribbon from Ribbons and Bows Oh My! Stamps used are Stampin' Up! Snow Flurries, all others by Touche rubber stamps.

Have a great day and happy stampin'

Folded Christmas Tree Tutorial

I'm back with the Folded Christmas tree tutorial. I've never done this before so I hope it all makes sense. The best way for me to learn how to do something is by someone showing me and you might be the same, so here goes! The supplies needed to make this project are very basic. A 12 x 12 sheet of designer paper, the single sided works best because the thinner the paper the easier it is to fold. Especially the smallest square! You'll need your paper trimmer, a bone folder helps and an adhesive of your choice.
The next step is to cut your squares. The first square is 3"x3", the second square is 2 1/2"x2 1/2", the third square is 2"x2", and the forth square is 1 1/2"x1 1/2".
Now we get to the folding part.
I've drawn pictures for you because it was hard to see the fold lines on my patterned paper.

The first in the series of pictures is folding your square in half and creasing it.

The next picture is folding your square in half again in the other direction and creasing it.

The next picture shows folding the square from corner to corner each way and creasing it.

The next step is to fold the square in half after you've done all that.

Now, you will fold it to look like the first triangle shape pictured by pushing the top left and right outside corners toward the bottom center. You'll end up with a triangle, a puffy triangle.
Next you'll take the top section of this triange and fold it in to meet the center scored line and do the same with the opposite front side so it looks like the one in the center of the picture above.
You now have a "tree part". Fold the other 3 squares just like the first one and you can build your tree from the bottom up by stacking them one on top of the next, largest to smallest. Stick your tree together with the adhesive of your choice. I used a scrap of brown paper for the trunk of my tree, you can see my finished tree card pictured below.

The first Stampin' Up! background stamp I ever saw was Holiday Print, I loved it! It took me a long time to buy it and I haven't used it much. Retired as it is... The tree is from our tutorial of course, the star on top is from a package of star shaped sequins I have and I added "Christmas Stickles" to it because I was curious to see what it would look like. The Merry Christmas stamp is from Inkadinkado, my papers are White, Garden Green, Nut Brown, ThePaperMill.com Red Light and the patterned paper is by Frances Meyer. I had to unfold part of the tree to find that out!
Now... how about if you try the tree folding tutorial you post a comment with a link in my comments section so I can see yours too. Audience participation time!
We had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday, we had dinner out on the patio. If you know me you know I don't want to clean off my kitchen table! My kitchen is my stamping room. Besides, we're in Arizona and the high was in the 80's yesterday. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving too!

Amazing!

That's what I'm thinking about you today! Wow, my blog is in it's 6th month with this being my one hundred fifty first post and I'm just over 7000 visitors. It just amazes me that people check out what I'm doing, the comments are pretty cool too!

I made something with a friend of mine yesterday that he posted on his blog and linked to mine today, it's a fund raising poster for a mission trip he takes to Myanmar every year. And then of course I get to make his Scrap Books of the trips. It's almost as good a being there! You can check out his blog HERE. I have a card for you today that I made last year. My upline asked me if I'd make the pattern for her and I kept forgetting and finally got that done and delivered to her yesterday too. We learned how to fold these Christmas trees last year when Paula visited us.

I thought it might be neat to do a tutorial on this if anyone was interested. Leave me a comment and let me know.

And... I'm done with those 200 Christmas cards I've been working on, they are 'outta here and I'm so glad! I have more Christmas cards to make and there will be a good variety from here on in I'm happy to say!

Here's Sprinkle Again! Been Good?

Sorry I've been missing, life seems to be in fast forward again and I think I'm trying to come down with something too. Which of course is terrible timing since I'm cooking a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner and have about 10 people invited to join us. It will all work out the way it's supposed to I'm sure.

I posted this same card on November 3rd with the Christmas tree from Stampin' Up! Season Of Joy as the focal image. I started thinking about it and thought Sprinkle from The Cat's Pajama's would be perfect for this "sketch" so I changed my card. I used my Copic markers and Copic Spica Glitter markers to color the image. You can see the details for the entire card in the previous post if you'd like by clicking the date above.

I also wanted to say my friend really liked the altered band aid box, I gave it to her Friday evening.

Have a great Thanksgiving if I don't get back here before then!

Continued...

I've been working on a Christmas card order for the last two days and desparately needed to make something "new".

I decided I should finish the altered band aid box and had some idea of what I wanted to do next. I pulled out my boxes of stamps that have friendship verses and bible verses in them and went to work.

I cut several small cards to fit in the box and rounded the corners then I stamped a friendship verse on one side in Basic Brown and a bible verse that fit the sentiment on the other side. That was easier to do than I thought it might be.

Next I used the swirl from Season Of Joy and stamped it on each card using Brilliance Pearlescent Jade ink, then again with Creamy Carmel and the flower from Seeing Spots in Cranberry Crisp.

I was going for an aged look so I pulled out my Stampin' Up! Linen background stamp and inked it up with Sahara Sand and stamped each of the cards front and back. I next took a sponge and Creamy Carmel ink pad and sponged around the edges of each card front and back. Ah, now we're gettin' there!

Next I scored a couple scraps of Confetti Tan, Jade, and Nut Brown card stock and punched them with the Stampin' Up! Round Tab punch and attached them randomly to the tops of my finished cards. I really like the way this project turned out and I can't wait to give it to my friend!

Happy stampin'!

Do you ever wonder if ???

Hi, my name's Jan and have this "thing" about boxes... I attend Celebrate Recovery every Friday night at our church, maybe I should start staying for the small group meetings and talk about this. My Mom saved boxes too so maybe it's a heriditary disorder? The boxes she saved seemed different though, hers were bigger and more practicle, you know, not the band aid boxes. Oh my, yes she did! They were made out of metal, or was that me? Or do you think it's more like this~ You know you're a stamper when... empty containers catch your eye and right away your mind goes to work altering them and making them into something fun!

That's what happened to me this morning after I used the last band aid in this box. I was about to throw it away and thought gee, wow, I could... hmmm, oh ya that would be cool. I gotta go do that!

I knew I had one more sheet of Basic Grey Blush and some scraps from the companion papers and that's what my mind had wrapped around the box. I used my ScorIt to score the paper to go around every corner for a nice fit. I like the "belly band" look so I had to add one and some dotted organdy ribbon in chocolate. I absoulutely love my All Holiday's stamp set by Stampin' Up! and this stamp was the main selling point to me so I used it. And, it had to have a flower so I pulled out my flowers and layered several together and found a cute brad to hold it all together.

I just realized I missed an opportunity to use my Build A Brad by Stampin' Up!, oops. Next time?

I have a friend in mind to give this to, I think she's having a moment and needs a lift. My plan today was to print out neat quotes and bible verses to encourage her, decorate them and fill it up. When I started that part my printer wasn't working the way it usually does, guess who's out of black ink? One of life's minor difficulties when you live out in the middle of NO WHERE! I promptly ordered some from Sam's Club and got a shipment confirmation a little while ago. I'll be back in business soon.

Check out that naked band aid box! Just think, it could be in the garbage right now waiting for the trash man to come by tomorrow.

I spent some time outside today too. The weather is beautiful right now and my trees need to be trimmed so I worked on that for awhile too. Back to stamping for me now!

Have a great day!

All Occasion Treat Box

As promised, one of Paula's All Occasion Treat Boxes finished! I made this one, the kids are in bed and their treat boxes went with them. That's a good thing, it means they liked them.

It was a beautiful day here after the rain last night. I don't have much to tell about as I've been cleaning and making Christmas cards today.

A very enjoyable day, hope yours is too!

Making All Occasion Treat Boxes

Today's pictures are of my kids making Paula's All Occasion Treat Boxes. Could this be a tutorial? Probably not today but who knows about the future? Michael and Jenny spent the weekend with their grandparents, when they returned home today of course they noticed our kitchen table littered with boxes and purses and stuff I'd made and they loved them. After dinner we got busy and made a couple.

Would you look at that cat keeping an eye on what's going on! I didn't notice her until I saw the picture on my computer screen.

This was their first experience setting eyelets and they did really well for being six and seven years old. Funny how we take so many things for granted. Mikey started out using the hammer left handed, scissors too. Once he discovered he's actually right handed the tools worked great!
You won't believe what they said to me when I told them I'd show them how to set eyelets! Oh Mom, we already know how to do that, we've watched you... Future crafters here we come!
Michael is pulling the ribbon through the eyelets and tying the ribbon in knots to finish the sides. The knot tying was tricky for him but with practice he did real well.
The last picture is of Jenny, she's putting her eyelets in the paper. She let her brother go first so when it was her turn she already knew what to do. Hmmm, sounds a bit like her mother!

Would you believe I couldn't get one more picture to download? I guess you'll have to stop back tomorrow to see a finished treat box. I didn't get a descent picture of the kids with theirs but I did get a good picture of one "holding still".

I remember being a little girl and my Mom teaching me how to sew. She'd be right there with me pinning and having me sew. We spent countless hours together making things, she was an awesome seamstress. We'd even get together at her house after I was grown up and sew together. She's gone now but each time I sew and make clothes or something fun for my kids I remember her and I'm always blessed by what she taught me and the hours of pleasure that gift still brings to me.

We are getting a gentle rain right now. This is what we've been waiting for to cool our weather down, it was supposed to be 93 for a high today. Yippee! I planted my winter grass not too long ago and this rain will bring it in for me.

Have a great day!

What a fun day we've had!!

Are you ready for some pictures today?! I hope so... Remember that Shop Till U Drop event I was supposed to be at today? Uhh, I had a better offer and changed my plans! I got a phone call from one of my Stampin' Up! demonstrator friends telling me we were invited to Camille's house Saturday, Paula was coming to visit! Cool, I'm in! Paula is a Stampin' Up! demonstrator from California who vacations in Lake Havasu for about 10 days each year and when she's here she invites us to spend a day with her. It's too fun! The first picture of is of me starting our first project. It's an All Occasion Treat Box, Paula loves to make boxes and taught us to make several today.

I'm sitting there looking confused because Judy (my upline and dear friend) had handed me her cutter and it was like trying to use something totally foriegn that I'd never seen before. I'm used to the big guillotine cutter at home and this was one of those that the blade slides back and forth to cut and is about 5 inches wide. Ah, what do I do with this?!

This next picture is Paula showing Dagmar and Camille how to make something with one of the Stampin' Up! punches.

We were all totally involved absorbing and learning everything Paula had to show us. I can't believe we spent 6 hours together, it went so fast. Whew, Creative overload! This little purse is one of the projects we made with Paula today. It uses a 12 x 12 sheet of double sided designer paper. She told us she found it on Jenn Diercks blog.
I wanted to show all the angles of the purse, it will make a cute gift bag for little things.
It's decorative and functional! I wish you could see more of the paper inside, the other side of this paper is really pretty. Oh well, the paper is called Spring Flowers and is retired. I haven't bought any paper in the new almost old now catalog yet because I feel "designer paper challenged". After today I think I can do this!