More craft therapy

Time in the craft room whether sorting paper, cataloging my stamp sets or actually making cards is always a sort of therapy.  I can sit and think through troubles while doing something like sorting paper scraps or push troubles out of my mind while searching the internet for new ideas and techniques. 
Recently I worked on some sample cards for one of my customers.  She does not have access to the internet so is always thankful when I share some of my card samples with her.  She recently purchased the Floral Frames framelits and I wanted to show her a couple fancy cuts using those.

 

 The Floral Frame is partially cut through the cardstock - just from the back of the card - so that the flower sticks up about the fold of the card.   The Daydream Medallion stamp set coordinates well with the frame dies. I have used some retired Designer Series paper and a retired stamp set, Sketches for the card. 

 

The Floral Frame again for the card on the left.  I set it up wrong and cut out more than I wanted but it works :-)  For the card on the right, I used the Oval framelits.   Another one I like to use is the Heart framelits.  I will have to make some more of those and post them.

 

Another request from my friend was a cut-out card.  She saw one in the new catalog with a square and just a single flower stamped inside the card.  I know she has the Floral Frames so tried that on one.  The other uses the Heart framelits   I will probably do more of these as they are 'special' but still easy.

 

 

I also am low on anniversary cards.  Last time my sister was visiting (probably around Christmas/New Year) I asked her to bring along any stamps she had for anniversary cards.   I stamped up a bunch of the love-birds and love image and finally got around to doing something with them. 

 

 

Here are some more of the love image.  The scraps of retired designer paper worked perfectly for the hearts. 

 

 

I also did some of these Sketches images.  really like these for an anniversary card.  I stamped on whatever scraps I had so had a variety of colors.  These were quick and easy.

 

 

I liked the Sketches set so much that I checked it out on E-Bay.  I found 3 retired sets of various sketches that I wound up bidding on and winning.  This one is a sketch of a woman with a baby.  I combined it with sentiments from the Cuddles and Kisses set.  I really like some of the sentiments in that set.  There is one for twins, one for adoption and one for either boy or girl babies.  So you can be more specific on the card if you like.  I love the grandma sentiment on the card on the left.  I have a couple friends who will become grandmas for the first time later this year so will put that to good use.  The set also has a "Thank you from baby and me" which I used for thank you cards I made for my daughter. 

I have been forcing myself to use up scraps before I can get anything new :-)  I have done a pretty good job but still have so many to use!   The polka dot ribbon on the grandma card was from a baby gift at my daughter's shower.   I don't throw anything away - one reason why I have so many scraps to use up.

 











Happy Anniversary and a Big Shot Center

Happy Anniversary to my daughter and son-in-law .  Three years ago we had the most fun celebrating with them on their wedding day.  Here is a photo of the bride and groom -

And this is a photo of my family - siblings, spouses and their children and grandchildren.  We have a lot of fun when we get together.

It's a family tradition to take a 'ee-haw' picture with our donkey ears.   If you can't laugh at yourselves, then who can you laugh at?

And tonight I finally got my Big Shot Center set up.  I painted my craft room and rearranged it all so I could move a computer desk that we have in the family room upstairs into the craft room and use it for my Big Shot and supplies.   We all have laptops and don't have a desk computer any more.  The printer was stored in the desk but it was a waste of a lot of storage space. 

 Here I have everything stored and tucked away neatly.   And I have not filled it yet - but give me time!

 The work area slides out and I can place the Big Shot on it to work.   I love it and it will get much more use here than just storing a printer that gets used one or twice a month.

And when the craft room becomes a guest room, it all closes up neatly and is a nice piece of furniture.   I'm very happy with it and can't wait to have some time to play - maybe this weekend.
I also inherited the desk chair which is much nicer than sitting on a folding chair - and there is a small desk in the craft room that I had been using for my Big Shot which is now holding the printer.

Now, I have to get the room ready for guests.  Katie and Adelyn will be sleeping in there tomorrow night.  Glad I was able to take a vacation day tomorrow to work on it and get things back to normal. 

Birthdays and anniversarys

I use more cards for birthdays and anniversaries than any other so I am always running low on these and looking for new ideas.  Recently I saw an easy but interesting card on Pinterest and CASEd it.   Here is my copy -

Isn't that a fun card.   I made several like that using the same strips of paper and just alternating the width of the strips and the color ink spritzed on the top.  I also made some with rounded edges on the strips.  So much fun to make!

And while I was playing I grabbed out some valentine's DSP with Love written all over it in various fonts and sizes.  I paired Pretty in Pink with Early Espresso and make several Happy Anniversary cards like this one.  Love the interlocking hearts -

so much so that I am also using them on another project.  Here is a sneak preview but can't show it yet :-)

Christmas Day - fun in the craft room

It's Christmas Day and I'm in the craft room.  DH is working.  DD2 is playing with her new Sims game and DD1 and SIL are coming over later.  I'm loving the time to be creative since I haven't done much of that lately.

First on my 'to-do' list is a Keepsake Box.  It has been so long since making one of these that I had to look up the directions - glad I have an online tutorial on that.



This one will be filled with 20 cards and donated to a local silent auction.  I used some old DSP called Raspberry Tart.  I don't have a lot of 12 x 12 solid card stock any more (need to place another order :) and the Regal Rose went well with this paper. 

While I had the DSP and coordinating card stock on my work table, I made some anniversary cards.  Was running low on those so searched the SU demonstrators site for ideas.  Never short on ideas there!

On this one I used a new embossing folder that will be in the spring catalog - Honeycomb.  Love it!  Can't wait to play with it some more.

I added a little honeycomb edge to the inside of the card too.

 This uses a couple other designs in the DSP pack.   The stamp is from the Trust God set.

 

This one could be a fun one to give.  I imagine putting in something like Remember when we thought we knew what love was..... we had no idea!   Or remember when our hair was thick and our waistlines thin.  Times have changed.

 

 

This was a fun one.  I pierced the base paper with the new piercing templates - hearts within hearts - but after adding all the cut out hearts it really doesn't show up. 

 

This one uses the same colors but looks more orange in the photo.  Don't know why -- maybe the Night of Navy has something to do with that :-) 

 

 

And while I was at it, I made a birthday card based on one I saw that I liked. 

 

Lots of fun - and need to do some more but that will have to wait until later.  I need to get some things ready for tonight. 

 

Merry Christmas Everyone!





SALE-A-BRATION is here!

Sale-a-bration is here! This is the best time of the year for Stampin Up - lots of chances to get free merchandise and Stampin Up has outdone themselves in the beautiful products they put together.

These is what greeted me when I got home last night. Although I was tired from a lack of sleep the night before (just could not sleep) and a trip to the airport after work with DH to transport some relatives to the in-laws for the weekend celebration of his parents 60th anniversary (can you believe 60 years!), I had to dig into the boxes instead of crawling into bed like I planned.



I had orders for two workshops to sort so I spread everything out on the floor.


The two hostesses really got some deals. For a $150 dollar or more workshop they received a beautiful tote bag - exclusive to the 2012 Sale-a-bration. One of the hostesses used her money to purchase the color caddy - a good choice!
So - that accounts for 3 of the boxes (2 orders plus the color caddy was shipped in it's own box) - so what was in the fourth box????




Yep! More stuff - and this is all mine! I made sure to stock up on all my papers and adhesives - plus embellishments I plan to incorporate into workshops over the next couple months - so I got the beautiful tote too! Now - can't wait to play with some of it - but that will have to wait until tomorrow as we have to celebrate the 60 the anniverary first. Oh, I do have to decorate a basket for the cards - I knew I could find an excuse to play :-)

Ain't Love Grand

Ain't Love Grand is one of the new hostess sets from Stampin' Up. I broke mine out this weekend and grabbed a handful of ribbon from my scrap jar - here are some of the cards I made.

Congrats - Bashful Blue, So Saffron and Crumb Cake. I used the square lattice embossing folder on the piece of Crumb Cake.

Sending love your way - what a cute hot air balloon stamp! I used the new lace punch and wove a scrap piece of Certainly Celery 1/4 inch grosgrain through the holes. The card stock is So Saffron, Certainly Celery and Soft Suede.

Ain't Love Grand - simple but elegant. The oval is embossed with one of the new frame embossing folders. This is in Basic Gray and Basic Black. I thought I would add a modern label sentiment to it but am not sure if it will be a wedding or anniversary card.

I miss you - the new stripes embossing folder works well with the ribbon stripes. Basic Gray and Real Red are a great combo.

Heard it's your birthday - more of my ribbon scraps combined with Real Red, Pacific Point and Daffodil Delight.

Get well - one of my favorites! This uses the other frame in the embossing folder set. The background is Cajun Craze embossed with the square lattice inked with Night of Navy. I used the eyelet ribbon punch for the trim - and the button is made from Night of Navy card stock! So much fun.

This stamp set is only available to hostesses - and you get a great discount on the price! Contact me to schedule a workshop so you can earn free merchandise!

Avoiding shopping and other ramblings......

Avoiding going to the store yesterday turned out to be more work than I thought - but it was still worth it. When I started looking over my menu for today I realized I did not have any hamburger buns for the barbecue turkey. I had already 'tweaked' the menu from Carolina Crock Pork (barbecued pork basically) to Barbecued Turkey Sandwiches - since I had some leftover turkey in the freezer. (It always feels good to use up something I have put in the freezer thinking we will eat is in the future.)

So I got out the bread machine and mixed up my favorite butter roll recipe and tried making some Silver Dollar Rolls. I like using them for sandwiches in place of the larger buns anyway - smaller sandwiches means fewer WW points :-)

I think they turned out pretty well (can't say the same for my photography attempts). I really need to use my 'readers' when taking digital pictures - without them I can not see the image on the camera clearly :-)

I rarely use my bread machine to make loaves of bread. Even at the lightest setting, the crust tends to be darker than I like. But I often mix up rolls and pizza crust using it then do the shaping myself. That way I still get my hands in the dough but don't have to do the stirring and mixing.

So we had a bonus of hot rolls with our supper last night (I divided the batch into the silver dollar rolls and some 'knots') . For the knots I use the amount for a serving and roll it between my hands to make a short rope and then 'tie' it in a knot. That is my favorite shape as it is easy but a nice decorative look.

The Chicken with Sour Cream Curry Sauce was very good - I had half a serving of the chicken on a cup of rice and that was plenty of sauce. I shaped the rice using a measuring cup then placed the chicken piece on top and finished it off with the sauce. Very nice presentation. I'm sure we will have that one again. There was plenty for DH and I (DD17 decided she did not want to wait for supper and had a sandwich and fresh pineapple earlier) and I have 3 meals in the frig for leftovers this week.

I have been trying to add some Thai and Indian cooking into our menus. We have a Indian restaurant in town that is supposed to be very good but we have not gotten to try it yet. We planned to do so for our anniversary last year but they were closed - it was Thanksgiving Eve. Don't think we'll be able to celebrate our anniversary there this year (or anywhere on the actual date) since it falls on Thanksgiving. Guess we'll have to pick an alternate date :-)

Still here

Well, I am still here even though haven't posted lately. I've been busy on the planning committee for a marriage retreat through our church. It was a big success but I put in a lot of time getting things lined up.

I've also been busy cross-stitching, knitting and planning a scrapbook. I need to get busy on DD17's scrapbook which will be part of her graduation gift. I made one for DD19 last year and got an extra copy of some of her photos that included her sister. Hoping that will save me a little time. Of course, I will have to come up with some different pages for DD17 so her book is not the exact same thing as DD19's.

Last week I also organized a dinner to encourage a young lady at our church who is in the middle of a messy divorce. Her wedding anniversary was last Thursday and she would have been sitting alone. We all met at a local smokehouse and had a great time. We'll have to find some other excuses to have a girls' night out.

DD19 comes home this weekend because it is her BF's birthday and he has to come home to celebrate with his family. It will be good to see her. She called today and she is doing very well in her classes and getting used to the couple instructors. The campus was closed for several days last week due to ice so I imagine the instructors are going to be rushing the students to stay on schedule.