Scrap Like Crazy

Sure a Great Day for a Wedding

2011-06-14T08:12:00.004-05:00

My good friend Goldy Locks, who lives in Nashville, just finished writing a super fun new wedding song and she is giving it away for free right now!!

It's called "It's a Sure Great Day for a Wedding" you can get a download of it for free on her website at goldylocks under "freebies". You can also purchase it on itunes

BUT you definately need to go to Youtube and watch her fun video! you tube video

Iowa Balloon Festival

2010-08-06T08:44:00.005-05:00

We went to the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Des Moines, Iowa last weekend. My husband's sister and three of her kids came and camped with us and joined us for all of the festivities.

Mass Balloon launch

We got to go right up the fence and watch them blow them up and take off.

They slowly went up one by one.

We got to camp out and have some fun!

Always time to swim!

We also got to go to the parade in town and get lots of candy!

BFF Necklaces

2010-07-10T08:52:00.005-05:00

These are some of the new Scrabble Tile Necklaces that I have put together lately. One for you and one for your bestie!

Mama's Happy

2010-07-08T07:38:00.006-05:00

Wow! This summer is busy, busy busy. We are having fun, just not a lot of extra time :)

A friend of mine recently talked me into being part of an occasional sale store in Mound, MN. They are open the second weekend of every month for Thursday - Sunday. We rent a small-ish space and then we have to fill it up each month! The above photo is our space so far for this month, we have a little tweaking to do but almost there.

I used to be part of a 50's store in St Paul and have always liked this sort of thing. Sometimes it takes a lot of time and I have a big mess at my house, but enjoy the challenge and the creativity.

If you are in the area come and check it out!
Mama's Happy

We will open Thursday 10-6, Friday & Saturday 9-5 and Sunday 10-5

Fathers Day Card

2010-06-22T21:22:00.003-05:00

Here is my Father's Day Card that I made for my dad this year. I hate to admit to this, but I was very behind on making things lately because so far this summer has been very busy! I made it in the car on the way to my folks house. I even had to borrow a tape runner from my mother because I forgot one on the way out the door. Well I like it anyway!

I hope you had a great Father's Day! We had a lovely day outside on the lake, I even took a nap on a blanket in the grass.

Proud Aunt

2010-06-21T11:28:00.005-05:00

We were in Omaha a couple of weeks ago for my niece's graduation party. While we were there another one of my (10 year old) niece's remembered that I had worked on my embroidery when I was there the last time. She asked if she could learn to do it too.

The only thing I had that she could use was a blank towel, so we came up with a pattern that had her name and a cute little ducky.

She was really determined to get it done and learned without much instruction at all. So in between all of the crazy busy-ness of the weekend she completed the whole towel and picked all of the colors herself.

We didn't have time to iron it before we left, but I'm sure it will be well used soon enough anyway.

Well done Emma, Well done.

More Wrist Cuffs

2010-06-11T12:54:00.010-05:00

We have been making more reversible wrist cuffs.

This was my first one and it's the one that I wear. Made from a scrap of Moda Wonderland fabric.

These are two kiddo ones.

Sock Monkey on the outside and rainbow on the inside for my daughter.

This one was for one of Soph's friends who is kinda girly so I tried to add a ruffle to the edges. It's a little hard to see in this photo how it looks on, but in the above photo of Soph wearing them both you can see how it turned out. Kinda cute and girly.

I think there will be more of these made in the near future.

Peonies!

2010-06-11T12:46:00.005-05:00

We have been out of town the last few weekends and almost missed them!

They bloomed while we were out of town and we have about a million things going on right now. But we did stop and cut some Peonies from our garden.

I have really enjoyed Peony flowers and tried for a few years to grow some. I finally have one awesome bush! I just wish they would last longer.

Don't mind all of the junk in the background, I seriously need to clean! Just look at the awesome splendor of the large blooms.

Graffiti Cuff

2010-06-02T22:02:00.008-05:00

Sophia's kindergarten class each had a 5th grade buddy that would come to their classroom once a month to help them do an art project, play games etc... Last week was the last time they were coming and we wanted to make a gift for Jesse, our fifth grade buddy. Now, I don't know too much much about 5th grades boys anymore, but we have been testing out some wrist cuffs and thought we could make a boyish one for Jesse.

So we cut up an old pair of my hubby's jeans and stitched it up, on one side we wrote all over it with a pen and on the other side I stitched a "manly" pattern so it can be reversible.

The teacher said it was very sweet when she gave it to him and he put it on right away and wore it the whole time!

Colin Bag

2010-05-27T19:48:00.005-05:00

Why does Blogger flip my photos? I have no idea, please turn your head :) thnx!

So a couple of weeks ago we went to a 4th birthday party for my friend's son. I asked her what he might like for a present this year. She is very crafty and makes the kids handmade things all of the time so they love handmade and don't need store bought gifts, which is fun.

Last year we made his brother an art bag, I made it out of black vinyl, added some "real" pencils and drawing paper etc. Danielle thought Colin would love his own bag because he is always trying to get into his older brother's stuff.

This is what I whipped(haha) up a couple of hours before his party.

A kid sized messenger bag with a letter "C" on it!
I had this cool modern upholstery fabric on hand and thought it might be stable enough, since I don't have any interfacing on hand.

I even decided to add an inside pocket to hold the stencils that I found. We also included a sketch book, pencil box with twistable colored pencils, eraser and his own box of fruit leather because he loves that stuff.

It looked a lot better in person, really it did.

Sugar Cookies

2010-05-24T23:15:00.005-05:00

We made about seven dozen cookies to donate to the school carnival for the cake walk.

They have it set up in two different rooms at our school and it's s very popular game. I made these sugar cookies because they are so addicting. I had Steve print up some labels for me and we labeled each plate that we made so that people would know what they were getting. I also labeled that these were peanut free in case someone had a nut allergy.

Earlier in the day I helped to "sort" the donations and learned for next year that they divide up what they can so it goes further. So next year I will put 1/2 dozen cookies on a plate :)

Mother's Day Card

2010-05-23T22:54:00.005-05:00

Here is the card I made for my mother for Mother's Day.

I found this paper and really thought it was nice and didn't need too much stamping. My mother's kitchen has the soffits painted a spice color and this reminded me of that.

I have this sentiment stamp from a new to me stamp set by Stampin Up that I keep using on lots of things and it says "to thine own self be kind". I think that is something that we ladies often forget when we are taking care of everyone else's needs around us.

I fussy-cut out another flower, stem and leaf from the rest of the paper and popped it up on top of the other ones. I also had to glitter-ize the edges to make them super sparkly.

close up shot.

Sandi Henderson

2010-05-20T21:59:00.005-05:00

Alyson and I went and met Sandi Henderson last night! Everyone is in town and it is so fun to get out and meet them.

She was so nice and normal too! We actually got to talk with her and her husband for while and at the end of the night they had a giveaway. We didn't win, but it was fun to be there anyway.

You can find out more about Sandi and the things she designs on her blog at Porta Bello Pixie . Sandi was wearing the sweater that she made and is also on the cover of her book. So cute.

Amy Butler in person!

2010-05-18T21:23:00.008-05:00

Tonight we ran over to Crafty Planet (which is a local fabric/yarn shop) to meet THE Amy Butler!!

There will be a lot of people from the fabric industry in town this week and through the weekend because this years annual Quilt Market is here in Minneapolis.

When we heard that she would be here in town, we figured we better go and get a photo with her :) I brought her one of my Scrabble Tile Necklaces that I have been making that used a piece of her paper on it(and some glitter). She seemed almost humbled and grateful that I gave it to her. I also had to wear my crazy pants that I made with Alyson out of Amy's fabric. My lucky kiddo got to come with and meet her too because the hubs was working late tonight.

She was just so sweet and "normal" and I will be happy to continue to support her in the future. In fact we bought a new pattern and a couple yards of her fabric when we were there tonight!

Tomorrow night Sandi Henderson will be at Quilted Treasures in Rogers and on Saturday night Anna Marie Horner will be at Treadle Yard Goods in St Paul.

Art -A-Whirl

2010-05-13T23:33:00.007-05:00

I am participating in Art-A-Whirl this Saturday May 15th! See Art A Whirl Website.

I have not been involved in this art crawl for the past 10 years, but I was there when it all started in 1995. I am very excited to be doing it again this year after a friend of mine over at Second Street Designs asked me if I wanted to have a table at her son's school.

We will be there on Saturday from 10 am until 7 pm and we are right by a trolley stop, near Johnson Street and the Quarry. A lot of the items are geared towards children and will have children's activities along with live music all day long. It looks like a large, fun and varied group of items available at the school.

Yinghua Academy
1616 Buchanan Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413
Yinghua Art Fair

I have been making items geared towards children and end of the year teacher gifts, because we all need a few of those! I will try to post some of them, but right now I am trying to finish them all up.

More Silent Auction Items

2010-05-10T10:16:00.004-05:00

These are the other sets of cards and necklaces that I donated to the school's silent auction.

The carnival was last Friday night, we went and had A LOT of fun! Our PTO asked parents to donate newer/slightly used toys and books to use as prizes, which is great because you get to clean out the items you don't use anymore and then get "new" ones to play with.

The book walk was the best! I didn't even know about it before last weekend, but just like the cake walk(but not as busy) the kids stopped on a number when the music stopped. Then a winning number was drawn and the kids could pick a book from the huge assortment of books. The best part was that they kept drawing until everyone won a book! We came home with 4 different Magic Tree House books to read. How fun

Home is Where your Mom is.

2010-05-03T22:22:00.004-05:00

Our elementary school is having their annual carnival and silent auction this week. Back when I was selling my Scrabble Tile Necklaces for the Haiti Relief Fundraiser one of the mom's in charge of the silent auction bought one and thought that they might be a nice addition for the auction.

She wanted three different necklaces for three separate auctions and then I told her that I also made cards and I could whip up a few matching sets.

The first one I geared towards Mothers Day.

I recently saw this stamp and for some reason I connected with it and decided I would make my cards with this one this year. I also made the floral background with some two step stamps by Stampin Up.

I matched up the (Martha Stewart)blue gingham in the necklace to the gingham on the left side of the card. It's really hard to tell in this picture but they do match! and the little glittery circles on the right side are actually a matching purple to the ink color in the flowers.

Artist in the Making?

2010-05-02T22:43:00.005-05:00

A little while back I decided that I was tired of the paint color in my kitchen. The easiest project was to re-paint just the one and half walls that had a natural break to them.

Of course the kiddo wanted to "help" so I let her get in on the fun. I did the trim parts first and she worked on the middle.

Here she is painting a shark and some seaweed.

She really got into her work and her only real rule was to not leave a big streaky blob thing that I couldn't smooth over.

Proud of her work!

We finished the first wall and then moved on the half wall. She thought it needed this groovy guy hanging around. I was actually tempted to leave him up there, but my trim job wasn't so great and needed to be filled in.

Sympathy Card

2010-04-28T23:42:00.005-05:00

Unfortunately I had to make another sympathy card this week.

I made a similar one for my cousins fundraiser a couple of weeks ago and I now I really like this layout/paper for a sympathy card because it could be for a man or a woman. maybe I will have make up some more for my stash o' cards ")

Lilacs Already?

2010-04-28T23:39:00.003-05:00

We went out for an evening walk tonight and could smell these down the road. I can't believe that they are already blooming.

Inspiring Mother's Day Giveaway

2010-04-22T09:56:00.006-05:00

Want to win these awesome items for your mother or yourself?

Go to Inspiring Ideas and enter to win, you have until April 26th! or you can find them at all Hallmark Gold Crown Stores

Birthday Bear Card

2010-04-20T22:00:00.008-05:00

We made this card for the other sweet little boy turning 2 this weekend.

Just a simple and cute little bear floating away on balloons.

Robot Birthday Card

2010-04-16T22:45:00.005-05:00

We have a double birthday party on Saturday. Two brothers born two weeks apart sharing one party.

We made them two different cards and here is the one we made for the sweetie turning 5. I'm not sure why it is, but I think little boys need a robot birthday card these days. His theme is a super hero one, but I don't have any super hero stamps so hopefully a good robot with suffice.

I printed this groovy graph paper on my home ink jet printer from a free printable I found online(I will have to find out who it is and add a link). There were six cut-outs to a page and I just cut out the one I wanted and stamped my little robot in the middle. I colored him in with Prisma Colored Pencils and then I went over it with a little Gamsol to smooth it out a bit.

I cut out the outer blue square thing with my new Spellbinders Nestabilities and then I added the shiny star sticker and the dark blue Rhinestones to the peaks.

I stamped the "Blast Off" on the front and then drew on the sewn-look border, I stamped a happy birthday message in the inside. I also stamped a "shooter" on the envelope and colored it to match and drew a "bullet path" dotted line.

Homemade Laundry Soap

2010-04-13T20:39:00.006-05:00

Lately I have been seeing a lot of recipes for homemade laundry soap on the blogs I check somewhat regularly. One of the sites that I saw it on was Pea Pod Creations, but I decided to Google it and see just how hard it would be.

Turns out it is really quite easy!

All that you need is:

*A box of Borax(this is new style packaging)

*Super Washing Soda

*Fels Naptha

Walmart had the Borax and Cub Foods(here in MN) had the Washing Soda and the Nels Naptha stuff, all found in the laundry aisle.

First I cut down the Fels bar into smaller pieces so it wouldn't overwork my food processor.

Then I used the grating blade and chopped it down, I think you can use a hand grater but I wanted to get it done quickly. I'm sure there is a way to grind it even smaller...

Then I added:

1 cup of the grated Fels Naptha

1/2 cup of the Borax

3/4 cup of the Washing Soda

and mixed it well.

Here it is all jarred up and ready to use! 1-2 Tablespoons per load, won't get foamy like other detergents and will wash A LOT of loads. It appears to only cost penny's to do a load with this stuff.

Price Breakdown

Borax -$2.98

Washing Soda -$2.57

Fels Naptha -$1.07

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I grated the whole bar of soap and it was enough to make 3 batches of the above recipe.

Raffle Basket Cards

2010-04-13T20:20:00.006-05:00

Our school had their annual Bingo Night last week. They also do raffle baskets that you can buy tickets for a drawing. There were some really great baskets to try to win!

Our Kindergarten class made up a Tea themed basket, but I thought we needed some handmade cards to add to the loot :)

I made up a dozen assorted cards & here they are:

Some of them are similar to the ones I made for my cousin's Silent Auction for their Catholic School. They were fun and easy to reproduce.

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I am also working on some other crafty projects that hopefully I can post soon!

Como Zoo Conservatory

2010-04-07T13:46:00.006-05:00

We had Spring break last week and one of the days we went to Como Park Conservatory in St Paul. It is a zoo and conservatory and lots of fun! We usually get there a few times a year.

Here are some of our pics from the day - Sophia took most of them.

They had just switched it to the spring flowers and we were loving the bright colors!

Stopping to smell the flowers

Funky trees and leaves galore

Orchids

The funny thing is, this is the closest we got to a picture of an animal!

A penguin sculpture.

Crazy Eyes

2010-04-05T19:05:00.004-05:00

These are the Easter Eggs that my mom colored with the kids this year.

I'm not quite sure where she found the crazy face kit, but the kids sure thought it was fun to make all of those silly faces!

When it came time to eat them, no body wanted to peel them apart....

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-03-29T22:47:00.005-05:00

We went to our first "real" Easter Egg Hunt last weekend at a church near our house. We heard that it was s fun place to go, so we thought we would try it. They had music and a magician first and then the hunt. It was LOTS of fun!

She(we) found lots of eggs and are still eating candy:) as you can see all of the eggs in the grass around her.

I liked this pic because this is a genuine smile when she picked up an egg and not a posed look for the camera.

School Fundraiser

2010-03-24T14:13:00.007-05:00

My cousin, who is my good buddy, asked me to help her with her project for her daughter's school fundraiser again this year. Each grade puts together a basket for the silent auction, her theme for this year is a "Stay in Touch basket".

Each child will bring something like stamps, a fancy pen, gift card for gas, dinner or groceries, basically things that will keep you in touch with other people.

She also thought they needed lots of cards and wanted the second grade class to help. I did a "One Sheet Wonder" thingy last year at her house, which turned out fine, but not my best work. This year I did it at home, using all of my supplies when I needed them.

I decided to make it as easy as possible for them as I could, so I found stamps that the kids could color and them matched them up with co-ordinating paper. I made a totally different layout for most of them. My cousin wasn't sure that she would know how to lay them out, so I made a little diagram that they could use when taping them together.

Here are most of the card "fronts" that I made up for them:

We wanted to have a variety of cards for all occasions.

I bagged them all up separately with their little diagram I added later.

My cousin said it went really well! All of the kids really enjoyed it and a lot of them had never made a card before. I am glad I could help to introduce these young minds to the world of card-making!! I just hope that it will help to raise some money for the school.

Sketch Challenge TESC105

2010-03-23T15:24:00.005-05:00

I made this card for my quilting sister-in-laws' ( Alysons Petals) birthday. We had a small gathering at my parents house last weekend.

Sometimes it is easier to get started when you have a card layout to start from.

I found this one over at Taylored Expressions and thought it would be a fun one to use! I just bought my first Nestibilities Dies and finally tried them out. I think I need more practice to get a good emboss too...

This is some more of the fun paper I bought at Crafts Direct when I was there. I had to use a bird stamp on it because Alyson really seems to be into birds lately! She even posted something on Facebook about being old because she likes birds :) I colored them in with Prisma Colored Pencils.

I also worked really hard to make a yummy cake from scratch. It was good, but very rich! It took me all day to make the filling, the frosting and the cake, but well worth it.

Chocolate cake with chocolate cream cheese frosting and raspberry/whip cream filling. yum.

18th Birthday

2010-03-13T17:56:00.009-06:00

My niece's 18th birthday was Saturday! I tried to post this then, but Blogger flipped my photos and I can't figure out how to fix them so please bear with me. I still don't know how to fix them, so I am just going with it.

She loves the color Teal, Zebra print and Bows!

This is what I came up with for her birthday card. It's a tri-fold card, but I didn't add an actual closure because I didn't have anything that would have worked and not ruined the ribbon look.

I glued this sentiment on the inside to keep it simple and sweet.

Just imagine this turned the right way, how cute huh?

The only sad part about all of these birthday cards is that I mailed them Priority last week and no one has received them yet! I also added some money and other fun things into the box - I just hope no one took it for themselves...

Birthday Cassette Card

2010-03-13T10:30:00.012-06:00

My Nephew turns 15 on Monday - it's his golden birthday! I tried to make him a cool card to celebrate the big day

I found this sketch over at Jacksonbelle Embellishments as one of their Tuesday Sketch Challenges, you can find it here

The "Cassette Tape" is actually an iron on patch, so he can iron it on something later :) I love it when you can get 2 uses out of something.

Hopefully he even knows what a cassette tape is. he he

I didn't love how the ends were coming loose so I added these matching star brads on the ends to help hold them in place.

The sentiment is stamped in white & them embossed to make it stand out more. I lightly colored around the words with a Spica glitter pen for a subtle glittery effect

Celebrate Card

2010-03-11T23:02:00.004-06:00

Here is another of the Birthday cards that I made to send to the family in Omaha.

Just cute, quick & simple ! I also bought this paper at Crafts Direct when I was there the other day. The stamp is from the $ section at Michael's. I colored it in with colored pencils. The other paper was scraps on my desk, along with the Rhinestones from my stash.

Make a Wish

2010-03-11T18:22:00.004-06:00

I made some birthday cards to send down to my husbands family in Omaha.

We are a little late for two of them, but better late than never, right? Since I was sending a package down there we just thought we would include them all at once :)

I found this new paper at Crafts Direct in St. Cloud the other day and thought it would make for a super cute birthday card. The stamp is from a set by Stampin Up. The green ribbon I had in my stash and the fuchsia is American Crafts.

Haiti Relief Fundraiser Update

2010-03-01T15:45:00.005-06:00

WOW!

So far, we have raised around $500 to donate to Haiti!!! That is so exciting :) I think I will continue do this for a few more weeks. Thank you to everyone who has purchased a necklace or passed my name on to someone else.

I was up really late on Saturday night making a whole pile of necklaces and my wonderful mother & aunts bought a whole bunch of them.

Here are some of the latest that I have to sell if you are still looking for one :)

Not the best photo as I took it with my cell phone, but hopefully you can get the idea. These also come with an 18" or 24" chain necklace.

Thanks Again!!

Fun in the Sun

2010-02-26T13:39:00.007-06:00

Here is how we spent last week when we were in sunny Arizona:

Spending time with our BFF

(that's what Sophia told grandma last week)
Swimming in a outdoor pool

Eating on outdoor patios
(this one is next to the London Bridge)

Riding the Ferris Wheel

Driving through mountains.

We did a lot more, including driving to Phoenix to hang with my cousin and his family for the day, but I still need to get that photo from my mother. We also ate at the best place EVER when we were there. Joe's Farm Grill. I highly recommend it.

Carnival of Fictional Amusement

2010-02-18T13:39:00.004-06:00

You can find Mr. Nine(and many others) at Pirate Gallery in Denver. The Opening is February 19th and the show runs until the 28th. You can purchase the riders and have Corn Dogs and Jelly Beans!! You should really check it out if you are in the area. Matt and his Wife Shawnna are the nicest people I have ever met, you will feel like you have known them forever!

More info: Pirate Gallery

You can read a review in the Westword: Here

Mr. Nine

2010-02-15T13:01:00.006-06:00

I am still doing the HATI RELIEFFUNDRAISER, click Here to find it

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My friend Matt is having a Gallery show this coming weekend over at Pirate Contemporary Art in Colorado. They are having a "Carnival of Fictional Amusement" and invited some people to create a "rider"

Mr. Nine is what we came up with.

He is made out of upholstery fabrics and has vintage Ric Rac for his mouth.

We also made him a "9" necklace(one of the fundraiser ones) that matched the color of his arms.

Sophia drew a picture of him on the outside of the box so Matt knew he was coming. She was really quite sad to put him in a box and ship him away.

Valetine's Pancakes

2010-02-15T12:58:00.002-06:00

Steve was sweet enough to make us these heart shaped pancakes on Sunday and they even tasted better than they looked!

Valentines Cards

2010-02-11T16:05:00.004-06:00

****HAITI RELIEF FUNDRAISER info posted below*****

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These are the Valentine's that we made up for Sophia's class this year.

We matched the topper color with the same colored heart sticker inside.
She also helped to fold over the tops, staple them together and then helped to stamp the "you rock my world" stamp at the top.

Haiti Relief Fundraiser - Scrabble Tile Pendants

2010-02-05T23:05:00.014-06:00

OK so here is the fun part!!

I decided instead of just donating my $10, $20 or $50 to help Haiti I figured that if I make something crafty & fun with that money and sell it instead, that my money could go a lot further.

So I have created a whole lot of these awesome Scrabble Tile Necklaces, made from reclaimed scrabble tiles(see the back photo below) and have listed them on my Esty site. See the side bar on the right for the link to my etsy site and there is also a tab on my Facebook page.

***I AM DONATING 100% OF THE PROCEEDS TO THE HAITI FUND RELIEF***

-see the post below for where the money is going-

This is sample of one of them close up, they are all different(but most of them can be reproduced if it has already sold).

Here is the back view

This is a thumbnail collage of a sample of them, click to see it larger. There are many more available, if you are looking for something specific just let me know.

Every order comes with the scrabble tile charm and a chain necklace, either 18" or 24"- see below photo for the difference in lengths.

There are also kids necklaces and any of them can be made into a key chain style.

**IF YOU ARE LOCAL TO MINNEAPOLIS**

*If you do not already have and do not want to set up an Esty account(it's super easy & safe) and would like to meet me instead, then I can discount the normal shipping charges or you can donate that amount to the Haiti Fund.
*Or I can include the cute little round silver container shown above.
*Another payment option is that I can send you a bill through Paypal.

THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO CONSIDER MY FUNDRAISER

Just in time for Valentine's day :)

*please see my post below*

Haiti Relief Fundraiser

2010-02-04T21:43:00.012-06:00

I really want to help and my way of doing that is doing a fundraiser, but giving something in return. Stay tuned for the plan to come....

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Haiti

What does it mean to you? I'm pretty sure it means something different to all of us at this point. Some of us feel sad for them, but Haiti seems so far away and it's easy to forget about it after a few weeks. Some of us appreciate our safety, our families and our homes a little more than we used to. I bet a lot of us are thankful to be in a safe and secure nation such as ours.

I wondered what I could do to help, to make it a little more personal, to know where my help would be going.

Our church has worked with Pastor Dio in Port-au-Prince for the past 20 years and they typically do mission trips there multiple times a year. We have helped them to build and continue to support a special needs home called The Mephibosheth House. In fact we had a church team down in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit. At this time Pastor Dio has moved most of the special needs children to a safe place in Tricotte and have moved in 35 families who have lost their homes and basically everything they have ever owned in the earthquake.

Open Door has set up a Haiti Relief Fund to be distributed by Pastor Dio where help is needed the most. He is a real, trusted, honest person living in this everyday and seeing where the needs are the greatest. He is down there doing what he can to help those around him.

For more information about this you can go to this link at Church of the Open Door.

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Not everyone belongs to a church, not everyone believes in God, but most of us WANT to help somehow and with every one's extra funds a little low these days, it's nice to know that the money will go directly to HELP the people.

Scrabble Tile Pendants

2010-02-01T17:02:00.006-06:00

I have picked up another new hobby!! Scrabble Tile Pendant necklaces. I bought one at a craft sale we did last November & really thought they were cool. I figured that I already had most of the items to make a few for myself and the kiddos.

So we have made some of them necklaces and some of them key chains for the kids backpacks or wherever they want to clip them on to.

I am thinking about using these for a **Haiti Relief Fundraiser** Stay tuned for more info!

Bee Mine Tea Holder

2010-01-26T20:06:00.010-06:00

I saw this cute tea bag holder on Lollychops blog and thought it might be fun to make these with my daughter. I found this stamp in the $ section at Michael's and thought it would be easy for my daughter to color for her valentines for her kindergarten class.

Lollychops version had a lot more detail, but I wanted to keep it simple so we could repeat it 25 times.

You can find the pattern and directions over at Lollychops

Blast Off

2010-01-23T10:02:00.007-06:00

I recently purchased this awesome Space/Rocket stamp set at Michael's and I think it's by Recollections. The paper is some co-ordinating stuff that they have out right now too.

I stamped some of the stars on the envelope to add a little more fun to it all.
I frayed the edges of the burgundy and the cream colored papers by using my X-Acto knife on the edges.

I stamped the Happy Birthday(I think they are K.I. clear stamps) and then colored it in with colored pencils. I stamped some random stars around on the card for balance and colored them also.

I stamped the rocket and then colored it with colored pencils and added Diamond Glaze to the window and the very tip to make them shine.

Here is the weekend sketch challenge that I based my card upon. It is a pretty literal version of the layout, but I think it will work good for a fun boys birthday card.

Valentine's Heart Craft

2010-01-20T17:24:00.007-06:00

Here is an easy & fun craft to do with kids. I found the directions on Martha Stewart's website.

Start with a sheet of waxed paper folded in half the long way and put crayon shavings in the middle of it. We found out after the next step that this was not enough shavings. It works better with thicker shavings and in multiple shades. But be careful not to make too many shavings or they will ooze out the sides.

Then I cut a paper bag in half and put one half under the wax paper and the other on top of it and then ironed on top to melt the crayons underneath of it. They melt pretty quickly so check it often.
This is how one of ours turned out. Then the kids traced hearts on the wax paper and cut them out.

We are going to take down the snowflakes that we made and hang up the new hearts in the window instead. My nephew wants to cover his whole bedroom door with them!

Close up pic.

Part Way Done

2010-01-16T11:39:00.005-06:00

Here is the project that I started and still need to "save".

Here is the part that I embroidered for my buddy GoldyLocks. I traced the guitar off of the fabric in a funky matching green color and then I traced her logo font around the guitar and embroidered that.

I could really use a light box, because I held this brown fabric up to my lamp shade and tried to trace it that way...
I want to make this into a pillow with the guitar fabric on the sides, but I cut it a little too small trying to master the Rotary Cutter/Ruler thing. I will try to find some other fabric that matches and make it work. I just hope it doesn't look too county, as she is a total rock chick!

New Phone Holder

2010-01-14T15:33:00.010-06:00

I'm not even sure how I came across this tutorial, but when I saw it, I just knew I had to make it.

My husband went out to get me a new phone the other day & it's one of those really nice touch screen phones. I have to say that I really do enjoy having a phone that works, plus has talking GPS, Internet, email, Pandora, Facebook etc... Then he(and other family members) decided that I really needed a Bluetooth for talking and driving. Only now I needed a place to put them both together in one place so that I didn't misplace that crazy small earpiece.

Then I found this tutorial and directions for making a phone/camera holder & decided I needed to make it! I found it over at Sew Mama Sew's website: Sew Mama Sew Tutorial

It is really quite simple and you can even use scraps! The fabric I used(by Alexander Henry) was leftover from the other project I am still working on. I even improvised because I didn't have any batting to use for the lining but I did have a scrap of fleece I found in my "Pile of Scraps That I Will Use One Day".

The photo is turned for some reason but you get the idea. I just sewed along the edge of the fleece instead of trimming it afterwards. Now, I come from an upholstery background and we just make it up as we go & then steam the heck out it at the end :) haha
Here is the final product! I also have an industrial sewing machine that really doesn't do too well on light weight fabrics and it's nearly impossible to sew along the very edge of something because the machine will "eat" the edge. But this is for my own personal use & not to give or sell and I am pleased with how it turned out. My fancy phone peaking out. Perfect fit.

Holly Jolly Towel

2010-01-13T11:43:00.005-06:00

This is a sweet towel that I embroidered for my sister-in-law's aunt. She wanted three towels with simple holly patterns and this is what I came up with.

In the Works

2010-01-07T22:33:00.005-06:00

This is a sneak peak of something that I am working on for my friend Goldy who sings. It's a part of her Christmas presents that I am sending down to her. She is so busy I am sure she doesn't read this blog so she will still be surprised when she gets it.

I cut a part of it smaller than I wanted to so I will have to see how I can "save" it and then I will show you what it's become.

Christmas Snapshots

2009-12-31T12:17:00.009-06:00

Here are a few snaphots from our Christmas celebration this year.

Sophia feeling festive

Sophia giving Grammy & Grampy the gift she picked out for them.

The new Star Wars Pajama pants and Lego Shirt from Santa

Sophia & her daddy

The cousins with their new baby cousin(who wasn't in the mood for a group photo)

The Red Velvet cake we made to celebrate Jesus' Birthday. This is the cake that Steve grew up with and is the recipe that his mom made when he was little.

Coffee Please!

2009-12-31T12:00:00.003-06:00

I embroidered this towel for a friend of mine who never seems to be seen without a 2 go cup in his hand.

I sort of traced a medium sized cup that I had on hand and then traced the bottom of a cup to make the circle in a size that seemed to work. I had to put the American Red Cross in the middle as a joke because it seems to be his lifeline! haha
He did get a kick out of it and said it now has many uses around the house which is good to hear.

Snowy Trees Towel

2009-12-21T17:53:00.008-06:00

We had one side of our family's Christmas celebration yesterday and I wanted to give something to my grandma who just turned 86. She has been cleaning out some of the extra stuff around her house so I wanted to give her something she could actually use and that I made for her.

I came up with this winter tree scene from a vintage pattern I found online. I copied the trees that I liked and moved the deer up to run between them. It just felt cozy to me.
I think she liked it, she said she would put it on display anyway.

Waechtersbach Pattern

2009-12-10T21:55:00.005-06:00

My crafty sister-in-law Alyson, has a mother who has commented varies times on my towels recently. I have the feeling that she really wants one, but doesn't know what to get.

I asked Alyson and she thought that a towel made with the tree from the Waechtersbach Dishes she has would look cool. So we found the dishes online, printed one out and then I pinned it to the back of the towel, held it up to a window and traced it. That made my pattern! Really you could do this with anything that you wanted to try to embroider.

The whole point of those dishes are a solid red background with a solid green tree and all of the bulbs, candles and stars are solid white, but this is how I could improvise on a white dish towel. I thought about doing the candles and stars in yellow, but just didn't think that would be true to the pattern.

I like how it turned out & hope it will be a great surprise for Mrs. Bev!

ps. if you know her, don't tell

Here it is up close.

Towels for Aunt Laura

2009-12-10T13:52:00.006-06:00

My dad's Aunt Laura was in town this fall and requested that I embroider some towels for her daughters for Christmas. These are a few of them.

She gave me ideas for patterns and colors that would work in their kitchens.
I tried using different stitching techniques for different areas. Mostly I used the Back Stitch, but also tried the Chain Stitch and some Stem Stitching.

Hopefully she will be happy with how they turned out. I went to the post office today and the line was super long, so I tried the automated machine and then the parcel collector was full! I hope they make it there :)

Holiday Botique

2009-12-08T22:43:00.005-06:00

These are some of the items I had at the Holiday Boutique I was in last weekend.

My version of Rodolph's Spare noses, I got this idea from Kerry over at Pete and Kerry She has so many great paper crafting ideas and she does a lot of craft sales too.
This year's version of Snowman Soup. I like these much better than last years that I made.
My husband really wanted to make those "Frustration Pencils!" Do you remember them as a kid? I had forgotten all about them until he told my daughter about them. We couldn't find the "fur" at any of our local stores, but when we were in Omaha for Thanksgiving we went to a smaller hobby type shop & bought some there.

This sweet girl around 8 years old(or so) bought most of them to give to her friends for Christmas. My husband was thrilled that he sold so many of them!

A few of the gift card holders that I made this year... More to come...

I have embroidered a bunch of towels for gifts and the holidays so as soon as I get some good photos of them I will get them posted.

Homemade Vanilla Experiment

2009-12-07T13:11:00.006-06:00

I have found some recipes online to make your own Homemade Vanilla Extract and decided to try to make my own as holiday gifts.
You need Vodka and Vanilla Beans. I bought Vodka that wasn't too expensive in case it didn't work out! A friend recommended this Vodka and said it didn't leave that bad after taste. I bought a 2 pack of Vanilla Beans as Costco, it was 10 beans for $12 which I thought was a great deal.

You need to split them down the middle for the flavor to come out, but leave the top still attached.

Then I tossed them all in my jug of Vodka. Then I needed to leave them sit for 8-10 weeks and hope for the best.

Now that it has been a few weeks I have put them in individual bottles to "brew" better. I think I will need to add another bean to each bottle to really make it work. I read that you should have 3 beans per 1 cup of Vodka, but I may try it with 2 beans and see how it works. This is something that you should be able to just add more Vodka to your bean bottle when you are getting low and will last for a long time.

Holiday Candy Jars

2009-12-01T10:45:00.004-06:00

These are some of the candy jars that I did for the craft sales that I am doing this fall.

I added the little Rhinestones this year & people seemed to like the extra bling!

Gift Tags

2009-11-29T22:37:00.004-06:00

I recently participated in a local craft sale. These are the gift tags that I made & sold most of them. They were 12 tags for $3.

I used my scalloped square punch(I think it's the purple one by Marvy Uchida) to punch the Kraft paper and then cut out squares of designer paper and plain white to stamp To & From on.

Jenny Hart!

2009-11-23T20:25:00.007-06:00

I got to meet her last week! Can you believe it? Jenny Hart from Sublime Stitching had a book signing at Crafty Planet to support her new book Embroidered Effects. I had to go, after all she is the reason I started embroidering and I LOVE her patterns. It was great, she took time to talk to all of us for a few minutes and sign her new book. I even showed her what my 6 year old daughter was working on. She seemed so genuine & sweet. I dig crafty women!

Luckily the book signing was early enough that I could still make it to Twilight at 9pm and then New Moon at midnight. What a fun night :)

Birthday Gift Card Holder

2009-11-08T22:41:00.007-06:00

My husband's sister turned 40 this week. They live out of state so we sent her a gift card to buy herself a nice dinner. I saw this gift card holder on a blog and thought it would be fun to make.
You can find the one I saw and the video tutorial by Dawn over at Dawns Stamping Thougthts. The cupcake stamp was one that we bought in the $ section at Michael's. I colored it in with my Prisma Colored Pencils and added glitter Stickles on the swirly parts for some sparkle. I added the big Rhinestone as the cherry on top!

It opens into a flap card so I stamped the message into the middle section. The gift card is supposed to go in the slot/hole on the bottom flap. I didn't have the same punch that they used in the video, so I just tried to use my small square punch instead. As you can see it didn't really go far enough up from the bottom to slide the gift card in, plus I taped it too close to the edge to slide the card in. So instead I used double stick tape and just centered it over the hole(hopefully she will never know- until she removes the gift card I guess).

The top kind of tucks behind the stamped image & holds it together when you close it all up.I really like this sentiment and it can apply to so many things, but works great for a birthday. I thought it was something different and turned out pretty cute! Who doesn't love to get a gift card in the mail no matter how it arrives?

Star Wars Birthday

2009-11-06T15:32:00.004-06:00

This is the awesome cake that my friend Danielle made for Sophia's 6th birthday party. It's the coolest X-Wing Fighter cake ever! Can you see R2-D2 hiding in there?

Halloween Week

2009-11-03T08:42:00.005-06:00

It was a really busy week last week doing all of the fun Fall/Halloween things that we could :)
On Wednesday I volunteered in class to help carve pumpkins, this is our table & how it turned out (One of these children got bored with cleaning out the pumpkin & when I turned around had stuck two of those big red pencils up their nose-but not the one holding the pencil...).

On Monday the class walked to the local Fire Station and learned about fire safety and got to check out the big fire truck.

The last 3 or 4 years we have driven over to my cousin's house and went Trick-R-Treating with their kids. They live in a big neighborhood with lots of houses, lots of kids and lots of candy.

Halloween Craft Project

2009-11-02T21:47:00.009-06:00

This is the craft project that we made at the Kindergarten Halloween party. I only had approximately 8-10 minutes per group of 4-6 kids. I wasn't sure the skill level of the kids for making crafts & was advised to keep it super easy.

I remembered that someone gave me a cute little pumpkin like this a few years ago. So I made up a couple of projects and had my daughter try them all out to see which one would be the best project to do in class. This one was definitely the winner!

We used 5(seven might have worked better) Orange Slice candies, stood them on end in a circle on a piece of plastic wrap. Then pulled all four corners to the center and twisted them together, trying to keep it centered. We took a piece of floral tape and twisted it around for the stem. We had gold Pipe Cleaners on hand so I used those and cut them in half. Each child could then twist the Pipe Cleaner on the stem however they wanted too to look a vine. And if we remembered we trimmed off the extra plastic wrap on the top.

Voila, Candy Pumpkin

Kindergarten Halloween Party

2009-11-02T21:41:00.006-06:00

I volunteered at my daughter's Halloween Party on the 3oth(I did the craft Project, which I will post). She was Darth Vader of course and all of the other girls were in a sparkly dress of some sort. Which is fine with me and all of the boys who came up to her and thought she was so cool! Here she is with Obi-Wan and Luke at the party.

Bird in Tree Towel

2009-10-21T23:25:00.009-05:00

So my friend Matt Doubek is this awesome artist that I knew from high school. I recently got back in touch with him & his lovely wife, when Shawnna was in town this summer. I talked to her about Matt's awesome paintings & I decided to use one as an embroidery pattern.
I actually took things that stood out to me in 2 different paintings and combined them. I found out that some things are easier to transfer to thread than others.

I used 2 different colored threads on the outer orange part of the tree to match the shading idea in the painting and also in the brown threads for the trunk.

I just LOVE these trees, I think these would look great embroidered on a long skinny piece of fabric, framed and hung up on my wall.

They actually took a really long time to embroider because they are open tree trunks and not just one skinny line as I typically do.

This is the painting where I got the Birdie from, I just love that little spinner hat.

This is the print that I got the trees from. I thought about doing the umbrella, but the dingle balls just said "French Knots" to me & mine never turn out too well, so I decided against it and added the sweet bird instead.

I sent this one to him because I just enjoy having different patterns and ideas to try to embroider and hoped he could enjoy my interpretation of it.

You can find Matthew's work

Charming Wall

Matt's myspace

joyengine

Fall Towel

2009-10-20T19:54:00.008-05:00

I thought it was about time to take down the 4th of July towel I had hanging on the stove and switch to a fall one. I did a search for fall clip art online and found a pattern that I liked. I then enlarged it on the copier to the size I wanted and traced it onto my towel.

I ended up filling in the moon because I thought it would look really cool, like it was "glowing". I debated filling in the Bat and the leaves but decided I like it the way it is.

This is my first real try at filling in a space, I know there are other stitches that you can use, so I may try those down the line. I decided to add the stars for added effect.

Sketch Challenge

2009-10-15T11:26:00.006-05:00

I had some time to work on a card the other day & I finally finished it. It is based off of a sketch by Jen over at iheart2stamp. She does awesome stuff and has new layouts all of the time. I think this one was from July.
The cardstock is some brown stuff from Archiver's, the cream is slightly textured cardstock I had in my stash, the blue was a scrap, the ribbon is velvet from a swap I did. The funky blue & green paper is by We R Memory Keepers. The coffee stamp is by Heart Art Studios, Inc. and the "Seriously" stamp is by BC Dzyns.

Because I seriously need coffee!

Here is the sketch that I went off of. It is a pretty literal version of it, but I was just happy to find time to make a card again.

New Boring Shelf

2009-10-09T16:41:00.006-05:00

This is how the shelf looked when I bought it at the thrift store. I really thought it was unique with the clip board clips on it and thought it could be more attractive with a little spray paint.

I removed the clip things, then spray painted the whole thing in a black matte paint that I had in the basement. After it dried I took some sand paper to all of the edges and rubbed until I could see some of the natural wood show through the paint. I rubbed until it looked as "aged" as I thought looked good. I wiped off the dust and then sprayed on some matte clear coat to finish it off.

As you can see in the photo on the right it looks shiny. I had a can of shiny clear coat that I was going to use and it ran out after about 3 squirts. So I had to buy a new can, which I just sprayed over the shiny stuff & I think it still looks great. It is hard to mess this up.

Now I just have to find the perfect place to hang it. In the craft room? To display my favorite projects, or maybe the things that are inspiring me. Maybe in my daughter's room to display the latest master pieces from school. I will post photos after I figure it out.

Final Product

2009-10-06T22:57:00.003-05:00

I have been busy working on real work & haven't had as much time to "play" as I would like to have. This is the photo after I finished this groovy & CHEAP shelf from the thrift store. I think I paid less than $1 and Now it looks like a Pottery Barn shelf.

I will post the before photos and the steps I took to create it when I can find the media card that they are on :)

Nature Walk

2009-09-28T11:42:00.004-05:00

My daughter and I took a cool nature walk last week, she was leading the way. There are some groomed trails located near our house, but she decided to follow the deer trails instead.

We found a Milkweed
Some crazy looking berries

Sumac changing color

Here is a look other than a poised smile, it's a smirk I guess

This is her leading the way...

Update on Sigg bottles

2009-09-26T13:54:00.006-05:00

I do not own a Sigg bottle but I know a lot of other people do. I found this update/alternative bottle on someone's crafty blog and thought that I would pass it on to others. You can view her report at The paper Seed

Plus on the Sigg website they are having a contest find it : here

In Progress...

2009-09-24T22:16:00.006-05:00

I feel like I have too much to do and can't finish anything lately, so I have nothing to post most days. Sorry. I have STARTED a new project for my upcoming craft sale, will post when I finish...

This is another one of the towels I have been working on for my Dad's aunt who was recently in town visiting my folks. It is almost done so I will post the finished project when I can.

How to hem Jeans

2009-09-19T10:12:00.004-05:00

I have not tried this yet, but it looked like it could be great help & I thought someone might be able to use it. It is a tutorial on how to hem jeans in 3 easy steps. Who couldn't use those skills?

This comes with a warning - This is mainly for short people- You can find it here: How to hem jeans

Cafe Latte take II

2009-09-16T13:17:00.005-05:00

Does this towel look familiar? This was the first pattern that I had ever embroidered & now I have been commissioned to do some more coffee towels for my Dad's Aunt. This is one of them.
I think it looks much better on my second try. The first towel I did is on the left and I used 6 strands of thread for the whole thing. I also used a Chain Stitch because that is what I learned to do first.

Here is a close up of both of them. The one on the right I used 3 strands on the whole thing and used a Back Stitch for the whole pattern. Depending on the stitch, it really gives it a totally different look.

Toasting Marshmellows

2009-09-14T22:44:00.006-05:00

I finished another towel using a pattern from the Camp Out set by Sublime Stitching. I am liking how these are turning out & I am going to have a hard time giving them all away as presents when I am done :).

Coming Soon

2009-09-14T22:34:00.005-05:00

I found this awesome pillow at a thrift store the other day. My friend Karen used to make one just like this. I found some cool fabric and I am going to try to make my own version of it. I dug out a home sewing machine in the basement that needs a tune up so once that's done I can start sewing on lighter weight fabrics.

My daughter has been wanting her own "crazy pants" because I told her I would make her a pair a while ago. We found this awesome Yoda fabric and made a pillow for my husband as a surprise one day. Now she wants her crazy pants out of the remaining fabric, so hopefully that will be coming soon too.

Yucky Spider

2009-09-10T22:46:00.005-05:00

The past two days there has been this big nasty spider hanging out on my plant. It was hard to get a good photo of it, but look at the size of the web it's spinning. Yuk!

Labor Day Camping

2009-09-08T14:34:00.005-05:00

We went for one last long camping weekend for the season and had a great weekend! The weather was great, almost no bugs and good company. Our fancy swimming lessons have finally paid off and we swam a ton this weekend. We went to a campground where we have the option of swimming indoors or out depending on the weather and we did both.

The boys even helped with the dishes.

Deer Towel

2009-09-01T22:00:00.007-05:00

This is the towel I embroidered for my sister. She has a really cool Deer tattoo on her lower back that reminded me of this one. I will have to get a pic of the one on her back.

I told her it was sewers choice as to what pattern I was going to do for her, but as soon as I saw this one I new I had to do it for her. She has gone deer hunting for as long as I can remember. She can kill em' clean em' and cook em' like no one else I know!

This is one of the bigger projects that I thought I would try to do back stitching on. When I first started embroidering I always used the chain stitch and then I tried the stem stitch. I did all three of them on this project, but the deer head is all done in the back stitch. I made the eye a little too bulky to be seen clearly, but I really like how it stands out against the rest of it. I have seen other projects done where the shadowy parts are in a darker color and maybe I would try that next time. I still stink at French Knots, maybe one day I will get it.

This pattern is by Sublime Stitching of course and I think it's from the Forest Friends pack. Find them Here

First day of Kindergarten

2009-09-01T15:21:00.004-05:00

Somehow she survived the first day of Kindergarten. I wouldn't have guessed it when I dropped her off this morning. More like, when they pried her off of me. I knew she would be fine and love it once she was there, but obviously she didn't think so. The is what she looked like when I came to pick her up at lunch time. Happy to be going home or to McDonald's because that was the first day of school deal we made.

Hopefully tomorrow will be easier and the next day and the next day until she is happy to go on her own one day :)

Wedding Thank You cards

2009-08-31T14:43:00.005-05:00

My sister and I made these thank you cards to give to my cousin who I made the Wedding Invitations for back in June. See them here. Originally we made 170 invitations, but we decided to make 100 thank you cards as a gift. Hopefully she will be happy with how they turned out!

We used plain cream card stock, stamped the same branch but in the lower left corner, hand colored them in with Prisma Colored Pencils and them stamped "Thank You" on the right middle side. We also used a Bone Folder and scored the bottom and both sides at 1/4".

Grain Belt Sign

2009-08-27T22:34:00.003-05:00

I was out appraising the other day and had to go take some photos in Downtown Minneapolis. It was an awesome sunny day and I drove past this sign. I have driven past this sign many, many times when driving from my house to the Upholstery shop for years. Every time I crossed the Mississippi River there she was. I get a warm fuzzy feeling when I drive past this sign. I had to get a photo. It feels a little like home.

Star Wars Guys & a Chair done

2009-08-27T07:32:00.007-05:00

Yesterday was one of those rare days. The limited amount of days that you get when your child plays nicely next to you and you can finish a project that should have been done a while ago.

My daughter watched Star Wars with my husband the other day and now she is hooked! Steve went and found his old Star Wars Guys(and Trains and GI Joe Guys) and they started playing with them. I had been meaning to finish this chair but somehow the summer flew by. Finally I just had to do it. So downstairs we went to play with "Dad's Star Wars Guys".

She played for hours with them and built towers like in the movie, and even built Darth Vader a house out of Mega Blocks. How nice... So I was able to get my chair done. Finally.

Sometimes you think you can just get something done really quickly, but it turns out differently... The back on this chair threw me a curve ball. I am used to working with conventional fabric and this one is Oilcloth, which just doesn't have the same amount of "give" as I'm used to. But after processing it for a few extra weeks I finally figured it out :)

You can see the before photo here.

Thanks Naphtali for the challenge! You can find her at Second Street Designs

Cushions

2009-08-25T23:08:00.005-05:00

I have been working on a bunch of different projects lately. One of them that I had to get done pretty quickly were these cushions and pillows. The homeowner had a bench seat and storage for the mud room built-in and wanted something to protect the fancy wood and look nice at the same time.
He picked the fabric that matched up really well with the wood tones. The bigger pillows are stuffed with down. I have seen pillows like the little rectangle one and thought they looked cool. So I tried one & think it turned out nicely.

He already had the black pillow in the back for some added comfort.

Camper Towel

2009-08-21T14:01:00.006-05:00

Wow, was has it really been so long since I last posted? Sorry, where did the time go? We are getting ready for the first day of kindergarten and I am having a hard time with it. Big changes to come...

I have been doing some projects: Cushions for a friends bench seat & mud room, A cool old chair that I ran into a curved back problem(that I am currently working on as I write), Thank You cards for a gift, Embroidery projects and I am thinking I am going to do a minor re-do on the bathroom.

Here is another pattern from Jenny Hart/Sublime Stitching I embroidered. It's part of the camping set. Love the fun old style camper. Once again my French Knots stink so don't look too close. thanks.

Masculine Fishing card

2009-08-10T10:03:00.005-05:00

Another masculine fishing card that I made with the images that I made at my retreat. I found most of these layouts over at Card Positioning Systems You should check them, they have some awesome layouts when you run out of ideas.

This was stamped in Sepia Ink by Versamark on Whisper White paper. I slightly colored in the background with colored pencils.

Deer Birthday Card

2009-08-06T11:21:00.004-05:00

Here is another masculine card I made with some of the images I got at the retreat. Most of the paper is misc stuff that I had. The leafy print paper is some that I had gotten in a paper swap. I inked the edges with Chocolate Chip ink. I tried to keep these very simple because most men don't want a card with a bunch of ribbons & buttons & stuff :)

Fishing Basket card

2009-08-05T12:57:00.004-05:00

When I was at my Scrapbooking retreat a couple of weeks ago I stamped a bunch of images to bring home and use at a later date. They were all sorta masculine images and I am pretty sure they are all from Stampin Up, but I don't know what sets they are from.The brown background paper is some new stuff I found at Joann's and I thought it looked like a basket weave pattern. I slightly colored the image with colored pencils and inked all of the edges.

I may give some of these to my aunt, who bought a bunch of cards that I did with my cousin for her daughter's school fundraiser, she bought them hoping there would be more birthday and anniversary cards included. My aunt is super sweet so I should do this for her :D We also have a lot of hunter's and fisher-people in our family so I may just make as many as I can from these images and give them out as I need them.

Cool Dinosaur shot

2009-08-05T11:35:00.003-05:00

Here is a fun photo from Dinosaur park in Rapid City, SD.

Finally - I made some Cards

2009-08-04T15:49:00.006-05:00

This card is based on a layout challenge over at Fresh & Fun I think I am too late to enter the challenge but it motivated me to try a new sketch.

My daughter and I got down to the craft room for a little while yesterday so I made a few cards I will be posting. I made some men's birthday cards for once. I kinda owe them to my aunt. I will tell ya about it later when I post them.

It is 6x6" square made with Ruby cardstock by Core Color Coredinations(new at joanns), The awesome striped paper is from a monster designer pad by We R memory Keepers. The blue, brown & green are scraps. White is Whisper White by SU. I stamped the Agapanthus Cluster by Stampendous in "Tea Leaves" (a Dew Drop thingy) by VersaMagic. The groovy blue flower and brad I got in a swap I did. I also punched a brown circle and crinkled it to go under the brad and bring the brown to the front corner.

Thanks for looking!

Mystery #2

2009-08-03T12:27:00.003-05:00

Do you know what this is? We saw this while in Rapid City. Maybe that gave it away...

Mystery?

2009-08-03T10:15:00.005-05:00

I saw this while out walking on our trip. We were by Pactola Dam. Can you guess what it is?

Black Hills Trip

2009-07-30T15:38:00.009-05:00

The Mighty Presidents

Our plate of food at the Chuckwagon Dinner and the cutie cowgirl in the wagon

Bedrock City

I can't believe the legs didn't give out on this poor birdie

The only photo of Needle's Eye. It was so busy that we couldn't stop to walk around at all.

Crazy Cosmos Place. My husband is not a believer

Our view every morning....

I have a ton more photos, if there are any good ones I will post them otherwise I will spare you. We had a great time, it just went way to quick. Click on any photo to see it larger.

Floss

2009-07-30T14:03:00.005-05:00

I was hoping to get tons of embroidering done on our trip to the Black Hills. I got a small amount done. More importantly I got organized. Sort of. I found this case and the little holder thingies and worked on it the whole way to Sioux Falls. My mom helped with the really tangled ones. Then my daughter re-sorted the colors a million times and "helped" find colors when I needed them. This isn't all of them but most of them....

I will post some of the photos from our trip next.

Giveaway!

2009-07-27T15:19:00.006-05:00

Remember how i said Alyson wrote her first tutorial? she is having a giveaway on her blog!! it is the same Moda cake layer that she used to make the super awesome quilt. run on over and enter to win :D send your friends too! see the quilt & enter here

Hotdogs over the Campfire

2009-07-22T11:09:00.004-05:00

Another awesome pattern from Sublime Stitching! I am making up a bunch of these fun camping/fishing towels next(maybe for Christmas presents, shh).

My family is heading to the Black Hills for a few days and I will hopefully have lots of fun photos to post after we get back!

Cafe Mocha Towel

2009-07-21T22:45:00.004-05:00

I tried another of the transfers from my Aunt Martha Coffee Set. I made this one for one of my cousins who loves Mocha's.

I feel like I should have made it look like there was something in the glass. I did the darker brown on the outside and the lighter brown on the inside, but it is still hard to tell... Anyone know a design that is fun and looks good for this type of thing?

Parade Photos by a 5 year old

2009-07-21T15:28:00.006-05:00

While I was in the house eating my grandmas delicious home cookin' my 5 year old daughter was outside waiting with her aunt & cousins for the parade to start. We always have the best corner to sit and watch. Here are some of the photos she took while waiting....

If you recognize yourself, consider yourself famous!

Fresh Ground

2009-07-20T22:13:00.007-05:00

I have finished a few more kitchen towels that I need to post. This is one I made for my mother, I used a pattern from the Aunt Martha coffee set that I had. She requested this one because she has an old ceramic grinder that was her mothers. There are still a few flaws so just enjoy the overall look of the towel :D

I washed it to remove the circle left over from the hoop and then the pattern seemed to "pucker". Does anyone else have this problem? Should I prewash the towels first?? Thanks!