Archive for August, 2009

I’ve made this card a couple of times and I’m always amazed at how a little paper folding and some embellishments makes this card look like a shirt.

This is a great card for a man and the directions and templates can be found on the Paper Wishes website:   http://www.paperwishes.com/webisodes/?page=high&id=165.

My Father usually wears a cross on his tie, so I thought I would place one on the tie on his card.

There is not a lot of room inside but it is big enough to get a sentiment across to the person you are giving it to.  It also helps when you tuck in a gift card or a check that drives that sentiment home.

TIP:   Be sure and use paper that has color on both sides.  This helps if your folding is a little off.  The pattern or color on the other side will be complimentary to the side that is showing.  If you use paper with a pattern or color on one side and white on the other, the white will show up usually in a place you do not want it to show.

The Happy Birthday is a $1 stamp from M’s (love those sweet finds) and then I took a glaze pen from Sakura to embellish the stamp, a little glitter (not too much, so I could keep it masculine.

We attended his birthday party on Sunday.  He is turning 85  on August 12th and still going strong.  I hear you get your longevity from your Father.  Looks like I’m in for a long, full, great life!

My #1 Daughter is getting her new business up and running and I’m trying to help her out the best I can.  She has a little shop up and running on Etsy and actually has received a couple of orders.

The next big adventure will be this next week end.  She is trying to decide if she should have a booth at the Wylie Farmers Market (outside) or get a booth at the WHS Choir craft fair (inside air-conditioned).

I’ll try to take some pictures and show you how things go.  Nothing much happening at this point, except my Dad is getting ready to celebrate his 84th birthday.  That is where I am headed today, to share a little cake and ice cream.

I’m taking a break for today and not posting much.  However, I’m working on the PaperCutz #3 challenge and I will have something to show when I get that done.

I’m also going to use the Cuddle Bug to emboss with the metal stencils I recently order so I can show you how that turns out.

So stay tuned and see what I have to show, once I get to play this weekend.

I started this little sewing project a while back and got side tracked.  I was bound and determined to get my first sewing project for my DGD (Rylan who is a little over 1 year old) done.

The problem is, if I don’t get this done she is going to out grow what I’m trying to get sewn.  You know children grow like little weeds.

I loved sewing for my children and now I have the honor of sewing for my grandchildren.  .

The back is even cuter, with the criss-cross straps.  She’ll be all decked out for her play time in this little Hawaiian print.

Remember, my “Woman Cave”.  The magazine racks that are hanging on the far wall came in very handy with this little sewing project.

I refinished my cabinet that my sewing machine sits in (I have a 36 year old Necchi sewing machine) and it now sits right at the base of these magazine racks.

If you look closely, you can see where I took two clips and hung up the instructions on the lower part of the magazine racks.

This is perfect while you’ll trying to sew and follow directions.  I love it when things work out to provide form and function. I also love it when you have an “aha” moment that ends up meeting the need.  I use to just take straight pins and hang the instructions on the wall.

Here it is completely finished.  The top and little capri’s.  Rylan’s legs are so short that it may be hard to tell that these are capri’s and not pants.

I can’t wait to see her in it, now all she needs are some P.F. Flyers or Keds to make this little outfit complete.  Oops! I’m showing my age.  Maybe I should say she needs some “Yellow Shoe Box” flip flops to complete the outfit.

This is a shot of the back.  Now I think if I add 3 buttons I could have the PaperCutz #3 challenge done…..let’s see 1 ribbon (rick rack), 2 colors (shades of blue and white), 3 buttons…hmmmm, where could I put 3 buttons.

With this project completed, I’m gearing up to make the costumes I promised my DGS.  They are a Cowboy, Magician, Handyman and a Safari Guide.  I bought the hats at Michaels and now I just need to make some clothes to go with them so he can dress up.

Oh by the way, Gareth loved the mini-album.  I picked him up from daycare and took him to Chick-fil-A.  We ate chicken nuggets together and looked through the pictures.  He liked pulling the tags out of the sleeves and didn’t want to put them back in.  But more importantly, he needed to know how many pictures he had.  Once we counted them he was done. 

I usually order from Paper Wishes those items I want but can’t easily find any where.  I’ve been wanting some Paper Piercing items.  I recently got a magazine that talked about how to do this technique and I immediately went to Paper Wishes website to see if they had anything in this genre of paper crafting.  I was delighted that they actually had the items in a set that the magazine discussed.

These are absolutely beautiful and what you are seeing are a couple of templates that are made of metal, a couple of black piercing pads, some very small sharp scissors, a paper piercing tool, a white pen and parchment paper.

The two larger stencils are some that I’ve had on my wish list for over a year.  I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the box to see how detailed and large they are.  I can tell you that these will emboss nicely through my Cuddlebug. Oh yes, I will use chalk, paint, some water colors and maybe even Prismacolor pencils.

Lastly, I also got the Mix Your Messages (65 acrylic stamps).  These remind me of those magnetic phrases that were so popular a couple of years ago.  You can just use all the words and make up what ever sentence you want.  I like this idea, I don’t always want to print something out using my computer and sometimes my handwriting does not work either.

Now I’m ready for some time to just sit and play, and play, and play.

I can’t seem to help myself.  I made a trip to JoAnn’s to check out some of their paper from DCWC that they were running on sale last week.

I made a quick trip down their bargain aisle and found two packets of ki memories paper.  There are 10 papers, pattern on one side, solid on back.  There is also two pages that are glimmer papers that are included.

On sale for $3.97, and a quick math in my head (sometimes I can still do that), it roughly came out $.397/sheet.  Nice price for paper and the paper was actually cute.

Here they are displayed for all to see and ooh and aah over.  They are also a nice weight.

Now, there is a little catch to this that makes me even happier.  You guessed it, when I got to the check-out it was still marked down even further…….I got each package for $.37/ea.

That’s 20 sheets of paper that equals (wait I have to get my calculator out on this one) $.037/a sheet. 

Now, is there any wonder why I have to make that weekly trip.  It’s not just the coupon’s that you receive in the mail (if you’ve signed-up) or the magazine they come out with in the Spring and Summer with 40% and 50% off coupons on the back.  It’s the awesome, stubbling into a great blessing, that makes me want to keep going.

Here it is a cute little mini-album made out of upcycled TP rolls.  Mary over at CardzTV, recently did a video on how to make a mini-album out of TP rolls.  Here is the link to her video (http://cardztv.blogspot.com/2009/07/cricut-mini-tag-album.html).

I loved the idea and decided I would try my hand at it.  The mini-album is for my DGS (dear grandson) and it is about his mini “bacation”, as he calls it, to the Wiggle World in Fiesta Texas at San Antonio, TX.

This came out so cute and although there is ribbon on it I tried to keep it as boyish as I could.

I started collecting TP rolls and then following Mary’s video, I flattened them out using my bone folder to get the edges sharp.

I put them under a stack of books; however, I still wanted them flatter than what they were so I decided I would try a different approach. 

I took a spray bottle of water (this is actually the spray bottle of water I use on “Henry”, our grandkitty to make him get off things he shouldn’t be on) and sprayed the TP roll until it was damp.

I then took a paper towel and wrapped the dampened TP roll and placed it under a large stack of books.  I also left it over night, to make sure it was dry.

This works perfectly.  The TP rolls flatten out just right.

Lucky me, I had the Tags, Bags, Boxes & More cartridge and the 4″ tag, cut on blackout was perfect for my TP rolls.  The 6″ long x 4-5/16″ paper was just the right measurement I needed to cover each roll.  I used my paper cutter to even up  the ends on anything that was off after covering them.  As you can see I used 5 TP rolls to make the mini-album.

The crop-a-dial was perfect and so easy to use to cut the holes in the TP rolls.  It has this one feature that allows you to set a gauage at the depth you want to make the hole in the item.  That way the holes are all the same distance in from the edge.  No worry about having to measure and make sure you get them all the same.  Then it made setting the eyelet very easy.  Just a quick squeeze, no pounding.  So Mary, you were right!  This instantly became one of my favorite “TOOL OF THE TRADE”.

I wanted this mini-album to be about the pictures and not about emblishments, so I simply put the ribbon on with staples and added the pictures.  I also put just a little bit of information on the white space of the tag but nothing elaborate.

These pictures don’t show it but I also added a few rub-ons here and there on the pictures.  Don’t tell Gareth, but I signed the Wiggles picture “love Wags” and put a paw print on the tag.

I matted some of the photos and put them on the outside of the covered TP rolls.  This way he can flip through the book and see some photos or he can pull the tabs out and see the special photos.

I can’t wait to give this to him.  It is the perfect size for his little hands and it can sit on his shelves or in a book case.  He loves books and loves to have you read stories to him so I’m sure this is going to be one of his favorite stories that he will want Mom and Dad to look at and read over and over.

My hats off to Mary at Cardz4U and CardzTV for a great video on how to make this darling mini-album out of recyled (or should I say upcycled) TP rolls.

Now, I need to start saving them again for another mini-album.  I’m sure my DGD will want one of these for her adventures.  After all you can’t do for one unless you do for the other. 

Oh my, this is the weekend for First Monday Trade Days, or what is commonly known as Canton Weekend around these parts.  For us it is about 1 hour and 45 minute drive to get to Canton, Texas.  They have one of the largest trade days around and there is everything you can imagine (and wished you hadn’t seen) at this monthly event.  The way the schedule works is it is every 1st Monday of the month.  It opens up on Friday before the first Monday and by Sunday it is pretty well winding down.

This Trade Day is so popular that you can’t even get a hotel room anywhere close.  Canton is a little town most of the time but it is a full blown traffic jam on the weekends that they host the trade days.  What also makes this great is all the little farmers markets that pop-up to sell their home grown goodies along the side of the road.  East Texas is also know for it’s peaches.

All I can say is, it is like being at the fair (but no rides).  There is great food and booth after booth after pavilion after pavilion to walk through and browse.  It is so large that you cannot see it all in a day.  I hate to admit it but we have a cart with 4 wheels that we take just so we can carry everything we find and can’t live without.

Now, I’m hoping I will at least get to go one day, but they are predicting rain all weekend.  Hmm, that might be the best time to go.  Now where did I put that gigantic golf umbrella.  I have to have something to keep me and the goodies I buy dry!

My Mother loves to crochet and I’ve gotten her interested in making some cards.  I have been trying to get her to try her hand at crocheting some items that can be used on a card.   These are her first attempts at designing some items. 

Here she has various sizes and colors of her rose flower.  I love the 3-dimensional look she achieves with the petals.  I also told her the little pink flower would be perfect for layering together with other flowers.

These are little borders of crochet to add down or across a card.  I’m looking forward to sharing these pieces on a future card.  However, it is a little difficult to give them away since my Mother made them.  But, some lucky person will get to see just how beautiful her crochet handwork is and I pray they appreciate it as much as I do for every little stitch she has done.

There is a lot of years of experience and a lot of love that goes into each item she makes.  She told me this week she had designed another flower that she thinks is better than this one.

 Now that is what I’m talking about, getting those 80 year creative juices flowing.  Thanks Mom, for your beautiful work!

P.S.  If you are interested, I’m sure she would be glad to sale you some.  She can always use extra money for her “stash”!