Welcome to the Boutique

Welcome to the JN Boutique! J & N are the initials of my daughter & her best friend and this is their boutique. All the items are made of quilling paper and wires! These are tiny little items made by some rather small hands. If you click on the picture above and compare the hand to the boutique items you'll see what I mean. The 3rd best friend from this trio, "A," and Natalie (my dd) both love to quill. So, they decided to teach J. how to do it! It's really fun to see the 3 of them doing a craft that has been around for a long time but hasn't been as popular. I think they are helping it make a comeback!

This is the hat and ballet outfit rack. Who wouldn't want a lovely hat to go with a new tutu?

A girl needs to look pretty. Lipsticks and compacts are on display with a mirror, of course.
Earrings for those who prefer hoops. Large hoops. And, girls after my own heart (or at least my business): they made purses! Love the handheld mirrors here, too.

In case you missed it, on the far left of the boutique are dressing rooms. We are of the "try it on before you buy it" thoughts around here.

Should you need anything made of miniature paper rolled up, these are your go-to girls! The JAN quillers! LOL!

THREE new bags!

Wanna hear something funny & dorky? I thought I had posted each of the purses I made on this blog. I put them on my Loribelle Bag Blog, but thought I'd linked them to THIS one, which has all of 5 followers vs. my family blog which has about 2 followers. Yes, I am the most popular blogger of all. Ha, ha!

Anyway, I did get 3 bags finished this week. You can see them all on my bag blog HERE. Also, if anyone missed it, I've posted the Kathy Kraft Carry-All Tote, which is still missing straps, but I'm working on it.
Speaking of Kathy, I don't remember if I posted a picture of her after getting her 3 feet of hair cut off. She has CURLS! It's so cute as people see her as her long hair was pretty straight. They ask how it is to care for & she just grins & says she just lets it dry! So pretty. Today she had appointments with doctors out of town about the cancer. Waiting anxiously to hear what she found out. Please do keep praying. Insurance issues are a nightmare, so I know she'd appreciate prayers all around.

Maybe I can make a card this weekend. That would be nice! Thanks for stopping by!

More than you can see

This is for the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. Click on the picture to see the details.

The sketch for this past week was this:
Details:
Stamps: Pieces of the Puzzle by Technique Tuesday
Ink: Green Galore
Paper: Glossy ink jet paper, green cardstock (gable green & green from my stash)
More: computer generated picture, 3-d "pop dots," photoshop elements

My Story: As soon as I saw the sketch I knew I wanted to do something with Autism Awareness. April is Austism Awareness Month and my 13 year old dd has Asperger Syndrome, or high functioning autism. We have autism awareness on a daily basis here. The symbol for Autism Awareness is a puzzle with pieces colored in the primary colors. Solving Autism is a puzzle. I thought I was going to borrow a friend's Cuttlebug puzzle die for this, then I decided to look up puzzle outlines on the Internet. I stumbled on a tutorial for making a puzzle at this website. I decided to give it a try. Though, by the time I got to the end where I wanted to make the edges look like a puzzle, I just could not go around each and every little piece of puzzle again, so I went for the large puzzle look. I love how you can take pieces out and move them around. My PS Elements doesn't have the pen feature, so I had to use the lasso. It wasn't as easy as the pen would be, I'm sure, but I zoomed in enough that it was manageable & then when I zoomed out, any mistakes weren't noticeable. I chose this image and this design for several reasons. First, the sketch was of a puzzle. LOL! Next, this picture is of our autistic child (another obvious choice!). This image caught her in motion. She loves to be in motion. She loves to twirl, swing, run, climb, and more. As a tiny baby she had "colic." I am not convinced it was truly colic, but the dr. said it was. She slept about 30 minutes at a time on a good day. She screamed almost non-stop. This was NOT in the What to Expect Book, not even the "Your baby might even" categories. No one told me this could happen. Babies are supposed to sleep. Colic is supposed to be a few hours in the evening. She would only nurse, would not take a bottle no matter if it was my milk or formula, and did NOT want to be in a crib. She did not want to be held or rocked. What she DID want to do was be bounced. We (anyone we could find to take a shift) would hold her against us on our shoulder and bounce up & down with her. My dad liked to just sit on the side of his bed & do this. Cheater. LOL! About 1 week into this I headed to the store and found a bouncy seat with a vibrator on it. That was a true gift from God. We could set her in that and make that thing bounce and vibrate to keep her calm. She still screamed a lot, but for parts of the day, this would soothe her. So, you can see why a moving picture of her is appropriate it! This picture is also interesting because the camera focused on the tree limb and the bell tied to the tree limb. And, yes, our girls can ring that bell quite easily now with their foot! But, Bethany is out of focus. That's the way life is with autism. The autistic person never is really in focus with the rest of their surroundings. What seems crystal clear to most is often blurry, at best, to the autistic person, or to those caring for the person with autism. I took pieces out of the puzzle for effect, but it has a meaning, too. The symbol for autism, as I mentioned, is a puzzle with colorful pieces. I have decided that isn't a true picture of autism. You see, in the symbol, the puzzle pieces fit nicely together. There are no missing pieces. It all lines up (in rainbow order, no doubt) and fits nicely into a pretty symbol. Life isn't like that for us. Sometimes we have the pieces we need, but they aren't quite fitting into place. Some people will try to take pieces that they THINK fit in certain places, and might even force those pieces in, but the piece really doesn't belong. Then, there are times when there is a big gaping hole that we can not fill because the piece is missing. Yet, the pieces we do have make a beautiful picture full of life and color.

If you can't see the words around the page, they say: speak, listen, connection, believe, joy, learn, voice, courage, hope, strive. The title stamp reads, "There is more to me than you can see."

Thank you for stopping by my blog and sharing a piece of my world.

Autism Awareness Month

Are you aware that April is Autism Awareness month? Are you aware that I am able to add alliteration to my Anglican Ambles? (I used a bunch of "A" words & am pretending "Anglican Ambles" means my wandering posts in English---LOL!). In our house every day is Austism Awareness Day. I'll save my essay for later.

Last Friday when I saw the sneak peek for Midnight Madness I knew what to do. I didn't know how at the time, but I knew what to do. It's a puzzle. The sketch, that is, has a puzzle as the main part. Did you know that a colorful puzzle is the symbol for Autism Awareness? I've got more to say on that, too, but not tonight.

I've not made my project, but on Tuesday I played with Photoshop using an online tutorial and created this REALLY COOL image. I feel so smart! ha, ha! I'll turn this into a submission for the MM sketch challenge by Monday, but I just had to share the image with you today. Isn't this cool? You can change the size of the puzzle pieces, too, to a certain degree. If you want to check out the tutorial, I found it HERE.

I have a yard or two of autism awareness fabric. I'd been thinking of making bags with it (I've had the fabric just living in my house for a couple of years now) and a few months ago my friend Emily suggested I make Autism Awareness Bags with a donation to an Autism organization. I intended to do it for April. Oh, well! I want to make something unique, as each person with autism is unique. I have about 8 bags waiting to finish, though, so those must be first.

Proud of you for popping in to ponder my perplexing post about puzzles and people.

Help, I'm alliterating and I can't stop! Bwahahahahaha!

What's the Scoop?

This card is for the Clearly Inspired Challenge 11 (color challenge) and the Stamp Something weekly challenge (to stitch something on your card).
Have you seen the new colors at Clear Dollar Stamps? SO much fun! I don't have them yet (note the YET! LOL! It's on my very long wish list!), but I found my own version of the challenge colors to make something scrumptious: Lime Juice * Cherry Go Round * Bee Pollen and Neutrals: White or Cream or Black. If you can't see the 3 words, they are Lime Juice, Cherry Go Round and Bee Pollen. Aren't those names fun? See "my story" for more on that below.

The stickers actually match the paper. The flash washed them out.

Stamps: CDS Sweet Scoops
Paper: as close as possible to Lime Juice, Cherry Go Round and Bee Pollen, plus white
Ink: Memento Black
Markers: Copics
Extras: stickers from $ area at Michael's a long time ago, sewing machine & thread, Fiskars edge & corner punch (from my precious friend Kathy), Paper Studio dp

My story: I colored these while I was still on the couch sick over the weekend. I finally figured out how to work my fantastic new punch from my friend Kathy! I decided to try stitching fancy stitches on paper using my machine. I hear it's not good to do that if you also actually sew with your machine, and I do, so don't tell! I may need to set up my old machine for paper stuff. The colors were so much fun to work with. I think my daughter was on to something. She's 13, mildly autistic & very artistic. She said recently, "I'd like to work for a company that gets to name colors." She loves colors. I'm pretty sure autism is called a spectrum b/c from the time she was old enough to talk (which was EARLY and never lost speech, just didn't communicate well), she knew her colors AND put them in "rainbow order." I taught her the actual color spectrum (which I didn't learn til college): ROYGBIV. She loves indigo. And periwinkle. And every other shade. So, if you are looking for a color namer, I've got your gal! I know just who will get this card if I can ever get to the post office for stamps, or just drop it off at her house.

Thanks for stopping by to catch the scoop today! I am SO hungry for ice cream now! LOL!

Duck, Duck, Hens!

Details to follow! Correction: Details are here now! LOL!

I had not made a card in WEEKS. Then along came a sinus infection. When I wasn't a dizzy blonde (oh, wait, I'm that always), I mean when I wasn't dizzy from the fluid in my ears, I sat on the couch and colored images. Then I sat on the floor & cut them out. Then I went up & down the stairs to the craft room for supplies since I couldn't seem to get it all at one time. I'm a TAD better today, but still sick. Who knows, I might do some more stamping!

For Laurie Wilson's Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge 4 (dry embossing & yellow) and Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge:

If you have not visited Laurie's DOODLE PANTRY digital stamps, you need to waddle on over! She has FREEBIES and then some amazing and adorable stamps to buy. SO CUTE!
Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Digi-Image Fuzzy Ducky
Ink: Memento Black, distress ink
Paper: yellows, blue & white cardstock, dp from Hobby Lobby (for flowers), vellum from my friend Kathy (can you see the duckies at the top???)
Other stuff: brads, ribbon (Target $ spot), Copics, CB folder, flower punches

The story: This image I actually had already colored. It was perfect for both challenges, so I pulled out the cute vellum with the duckies on it (and other animals, but you can't see them!), and got to work. But, I did the sketch from memory. The ribbons on the side are supposed to be in the middle. OOPS! My stamping supplies are scattered hither and yon so I was scrambling to find ribbon to match. The sketch has bows where I have flowers. When you run out of ribbon you make flowers. I didn't have any to match, so I punched them out. Once they recovered from this abuse (I'll wait for you to catch the humor there), I pierced them through the middle and inserted a brad. Poor flowers. That's all.

For Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge 4 (yellow, dry embossing), C.R.A.F.T. (buttons), Pixie Cottage (sketch and/or embossing) and Stamp with Fun (3 Papiere/ 3 Blumen/ 2 Knöpfe or in English 3Paper/3Flowers/2Button)


Stamps: Clear Dollar Stamps Digi-Image Fuzzy Ducky, CDS Christian Critters (ALSO designed by Laurie Wilson
Paper: Green & Pink from my stash, colorful dp is K&Co. Berry Sweet, the others are from an OLD pad of paper in my stash
Ink: Memento Black and Rosebud, distress ink
Extras: Prima flowers, brads, 1/2" circle punch (SU), cardstock, scrap paper, paper piercer, thread, needle, CM oval cutters, copics

The Story: Can you tell I love this ducky? I decided to use him again. I thought he'd work well for the sketch. I also thought I had flowers and buttons to match. My daughters like to use my bright embellishments (and I let them do it---which proves I have no brain cells) and one of them forgot where she put it when she was done. So we (read "I") searched high & low, which isn't easy when vertigo is just a head drop away. I never found them. Finally the other daughter found them. Turns out I didn't have flowers or buttons in the colors I needed in that box. So, I punched out more flowers. What? Those don't look like punched out flowers? That's because I changed my mind. Again. and Again. I then went upstairs and found my primas. I had the 3 perfect colors! Button, button, WHERE ARE MY BUTTONS??? I don't know where my buttons have gone, but I'm thinking there's a button convention in town that I missed. I remembered seeing a tutorial on SCS to make buttons from cardstock. I didn't really want to use the cardstock I had, plus I had no orange cardstock (fall kind of wiped that out), so I used cardstock. Bwahahahahaha! I used cardstock for the base of the button & some layers, but I added the colored paper for the tops. I have no clue where my paper piercer is, but my daughter has one, thanks to my dear dork sister Grace, for her quilling. I used that. Then I sewed green thread into them. Good thing that's the color of Bethany's dress so I had the thread & needles in my bag I take my homeschool co-op things in. Don't ask....just trust me that's where they were. And finally, about midnight, I had a card finished.

P.S. Don't you love Laurie's stamps? Can you tell how much I do?!!!!

For Teapot Tuesday and CPS 162

Stamps: CDS Farm Critters (ALSO designed by Laurie Wilson, the gal's a genius with these things!), SU's Best of Cluck, SU's roller Rough around the Edges
Paper: Red & Yellow, Black and White (they are precious in His sight...sing along)
Ink: Kaleidoscope browns from my friend Kelly, Memento Black, distress ink, basic brown
Other stuff: Copics, 1 1/2" circle punch, ribbon, a LOT OF TIME because nothing seemed to work right the first time! ha, ha!

The Story about Cindy's Story: Seems Frizzle da Dizzle was looking for some chicks. He's the type that likes to be seen with hot mamas. After sitting on eggs in the Texas heat, these were some seriously HOT MAMAS. Enter Henny, Penny, and Red. Henny is a bit like me. You might notice she's bulging out of her feathers a tad. She likes chocolate, what can she say? Then Penny is just as sweet as can be. Not sure she's going to want to hang with someone like Frizzle. She might prefer Gertie as a friend. And Red. Red has a cold. You might not be able to tell, but her beak is slightly pink. A-CHOO. Oh, excuse her. She really should see a doctor about that and eat some chicken noodle.....um, wait, maybe some nice veggie broth might be better.

The chicks was sittin' til their eggs started splittin' when YO....I said YO....
Frizzle came along and tried to sing a song but mamas ain't hearin' what Frizzle be cheerin'
He say WHAT???? He say WHAT???? Frizzy Frizzy Frizzle. Frizzy Frizzy Frizzle. Word.

That's as much as you get from me. I REALLY don't like rap. I mean REALLY REALLY REALLY. Give me Dr. Seuss any day and I'd love to stay. I can eat my eggs even if they're green but please don't give me rap (that would be really mean). NO rap, rap, rap! I can't take that rap! Not in my chair, not in the air, I DO NOT LIKE GREEN EGGS AND RAP!

My story: Ever have an idea for a card & by the time you're done it's NOTHING like you started with? I colored the chicks last week when I was first sick. Then I had this idea to use all 3 on a card. These I actually did for Cindy's challenge. A purpose driven stamping time. I punched them out & was going to punch a slightly larger circle for the back of them. Except, like everything else this weekend, my punch disappeared. It's the gold colored one if you happen to see it. Since the 3 chickens were going to take up a lot of space, I decided it was okay & just distressed the edges. Then I used Rough around the Edges (which I've had for years & NEVER used before) on some yellow paper. It was cute until I tried to use a punch my friend Kathy gave me. I didn't read the directions. It's a Fiskars edge & corner punch. I was SO excited to get it! But, always read the directions. Okay, I HAD read them when I opened the package. I just hadn't read them when I needed to read them. My square kept getting smaller & smaller. It was a mess. I scrapped that (as in put it in the trash, didn't make a scrapbook page out of it) and redid the yellow paper with brown rough around the edges. Oh, before I did that, I took a piece of black paper and made a crisscross diagonal design using my Scor-Pal. I thought I could sand it & get some white to show through looking kind of rustic. It was solid core paper & just looked dumb. It's the background black piece on here. So, I did the crisscross ---oh, LATTICE is the word I'm thinking of---on some yellow then did the roller over it. And tore the edges. I found the ribbon in my stash. I don't even remember ever getting that one. Scary! The rest is pretty cut & dry. Well, it's stamped, dried & cut. It took me all day to finish 3 cards. Maybe stamping while sick isn't as easy as I thought. Hmmmm!

Thanks for chicken in with me today! Hope you'll waddle back over soon!

Cricut CAKE! YUM!!!!

Note: Have you ever posted something in the wrong place? Thankfully this wasn't an embarrassing personal thing that I meant to send on e-mail but went to millions of readers (HA! I don't even think I could find hundreds of readers! LOL!). I posted this on my family blog last night. Oh, well! If you read it there, you'll know why you're getting it twice!

Have you ever seen a crafting product that made your jaw drop? That's a silly question for crafters! We've probably seen a LOT of those! I was going through my Google Reader with blogs listed and clicked on "Everyday Cricut." The funny thing about me even clicking on it is that I don't own a cricut. It's one of those pricey items that never made it into the "I could use this for my business" (thus justifying the price) list. I have a dear friend who lives near me who has told me I can go use hers, but I have yet to do it. I think I'm afraid I might like it too much.

Back to my clicking. I saw the words "Cricut Cake" and thought, "Oh, ANOTHER version of the Cricut. This one must have some kind of cute little feature that makes it called a "Cake." You know how crafters are. Everything must have a cute little name. Then I noticed they were giving one away. For free. Yep! That got my attention! I clicked on the link to find out more about this "yet another" Cricut. That's when I found out when they said CAKE, they meant CAKE.

If you haven't heard about it, let me share this link with you: CRICUT CAKE GIVEAWAY. Why is it called cake? Turns out, it can cut shapes out of food items to put on CAKE! I'm thinking fondant or gum paste must be what it primarily cuts. Can you imagine? How many overnight Chef Duffs will we have?

I posted on Facebook that I have this random desire to be a cake decorator (I bought a Wilton "yearbook" in the 70's in junior high & started teaching myself how to make icing flowers & such). I've never had official classes. I want to do that. Again, one of those that hasn't made it on the list. It's way cheaper than a Cricut! LOL! I think the whole gluten free issue makes it not so much fun to take classes icing cakes I can't even TASTE. It's one reason Pampered Chef became so hard for me. I had to cook & serve food I could not taste to be sure it was made right. I mean, I trust PC recipes, but I couldn't tell guests anything about some of the food. So, my OTHER part of the desire to decorate cakes is to learn to make REALLY tasty and NOT DRY gluten free cake. I have found a way to make most foods taste decent in a GF formula. I've still not made a crescent roll, but that's another story for another day. I would love to be able to make DELICIOUS GF cakes AND decorate them.

I told my daughters this the other day & they both said, "I want to help you!" THey thought the idea of a Cricut Cake was amazing. Natalie would help bake, I know. Bethany would help decorate. I have not decorated a birthday cake in several years b/c she does them all. Actually, they both do. B. is on a GF diet now, too (hoping she'll gain weight), so I'd like her to learn to cook & bake GF. She likes to make food concoctions without recipes. Some are, well, interesting, to say the least. Natalie loves to bake and cook. Here's the only issue I have with the idea of a "bakery:" I don't do mornings. Not well anyway. So we could only REALLY do cakes. The kind you make the day before & they pick up sometime AFTER noon. LOL!

I suspect this Cricut Cake will cost much more than the other Cricuts, so it's not really on my justifiable list either. But if I win the contest, well, I'll start baking cakes faster than you can blink an eyelash!

Easter Dresses

I finished the girls' dresses in time for Easter. Woo-hoo! Bethany (left) is so skinny that it's nice for her to have a dress that actually fits. Natalie grows by leaps & bounds, so making one to fit that will hopefully last was the goal. They picked out the patterns & fabric. I had to do some modifying on Natalie's to make it more modest than the pattern. I added several inches at the top & bottom. Looking at it, I should have made it even longer so she could wear it longer.

The sewing machine I have now sews like a dream. Bethany's slippery fabric was tricky for me to keep together, but it went through the machine just fine. Nat's is slippery & stretchy, so I did a zig zag stitch and it also sewed very nicely. I was totally impressed as I've never liked sewing with these fabrics.

I got to get inky tonight, and colored a bit, but didn't cut anything out. I'm hoping to play in some challenges this week AND get some more purses made!

Thanks for stopping by!

What's Lori been doing?

Note card to match a tote for a customer. It says "Tote-ally Thankful."

This is Ginger, or Jennifer (I forgot!), Natalie's new Giraffe. I cut it out last summer & just finished it. She added the bow! Nat looks like she's wearing lipstick, but she wasn't. Probably a touch of leftover sunburn.







A fun pincushion. I want to make more for my Etsy store.



Easter Dresses. one still needs a hem, but I made these in record time! Can you guess which dress goes with which child?


I had to add about 2-3 inches to the top to make this a dress that kept things covered.
I didn't have twill tape so used some ribbon from my stamping stuff!
THIS is what I want to be working with!




I am also just itching to get inky. I haven't stamped in a couple of weeks. HELP! Off to MIL's for Easter, so maybe next week I can get inky.

Have a blessed Easter celebrating our Risen Savior!