Natalie's Hoppin' Again!

Another Hoppy Birthday Card by my 11 soon to be 12 year old Natalie! I have to say, I think this is the best job she's done coloring yet. She used my Copics this time (gasp! I let a child use my Copics! LOL!) AND I let her use some K&K paper in my special stash. ; )

This is for:
House Mouse & Friends Challenge: Monochromatic

Papertake Weekly Sketch:
Natalie loves teal (um, can you tell?). I think she is going to use this card for someone special with a birthday coming up who also loves teal, so I won't mention any names on here. I don't THINK she reads this, but just in case.

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to leave some "blog love" for Miss Natalie!

Chocolate covered Autum Digi Stamp Sketch Card!

Hee, hee, the title had to include the challenges for this card!

This is for the Clearly i-Stamp Digi Card Challenge HERE. It is to use any Clear Dollar Stamps Digi Images. This digi image is actually free with any purchase. Plus, they have a new free image if you want to try out their images & do the challenges. I must say I like the colors on this card better than the last one I did with the same image!

Also for The Shabby Tea Room Challenge HERE. Photo Challenge for :Chocolate Covered Autumn. I would totally love to just take a big bite out of this cake, but it's probably not gluten free. Rats! LOL!

AND Tuesday Morning Sketch Challenge HERE. (oops, just realized this was supposed to also have PINK on it---guess I won't enter my card there! LOL!).
Details:
Image: Fall Floral Jug from Clear Dollar Stamps.
Words: Autumn Blessings Stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps. (This IS available as a digi image, but I WON this set from CDS, so used the regular stamp version). Thank you Clear Dollar Stamps!
Paper: DP: Paper Studio from Hobby Lobby; all colored cardstock from Hobby Lobby. White cardstock Georgia Pacific.
Other stuff: Cropadial, Ranger Distress ink in Antique Photo, copics, brads from my friend Jenn, Scor-Pal, Paper Punch from EK Success (scalloped scallops)

I made the criss-cross design in the orange paper by putting my paper on my Scor-Pal diagonally, then making marks every 1/4", turned & did it the other way. It's kind of the quilted look, too. I added distress ink to make the ridges pop out.


Now, it may appear that I like to color outside of the lines. Actually, in very few cases in life do I do that on purpose! What I did try to do was give this a "chocolate covered" feel, so when I drew around the jug with a brown, it was SUPPOSED to look Chocolate Covered. Instead it looks like I forgot to take coloring 101 in Kindergarten. Oh, well, a little chocolate spilled over the edge never hurt anyone. : )

Thanks for coming by today!

Fat Quarter

If you are a seamstress or you just love buying fabric, you may be laughing hysterically at reading the sentiment on this card. I did. (if you aren't laughing scroll to the bottom of this post)

The story:
This is a set of Darcie's stamps that my dear friend Kathy bought me. Seriously, folks, this woman has gone to Houston from San Antonio about a million times this year to have surgery, get chemo, see the doctor, etc. to cure her of this thing called breast cancer, and I just drive her car there. She had a body part cut off, gets medicine pumped into her that leaves her tired & with an upset tummy, has lost her hair, has had 2 blood transfusions, has paid out of pocket up til now and I drive her car to Houston & back. Well, I drive HER there, too. I get free food, free lodging, a break from my house (I love being a homeschool mom, but it's a 24/7 job), and then, when Kathy got some money for her birthday, we found Archivers & she bought ME some stuff! She did buy herself some goodies, too, that we couldn't find here in San Antonio, but she also bought ME some fun goodies! Seriously, I'd take the FRIEND chair in the cancer battle any day, even without all the "bonuses," and I am doubly blessed by the cancer patients in my life. Kathy finished her chemo last week & our friend Linda is finishing her chemo treatment this week! They still have radiation ahead and Kathy has to get Herceptin every 3 weeks through June, but they are done with the yuckiest part.

Back to those stamps. When we found Archivers, we knew we'd be there for awhile, but 3 hours was longer than we planned. Oops! We saw these stamps & I thought they were too funny, but wondered, "Who will I send these to?" Most my friends stamp, but don't sew much (some have machines just to sew on cards). Kathy decided I NEEDED this set, so I just said, "Thank you" and let her buy them for me. tee-hee. Then we found this adorable paper by Cosmo Cricket & of course I HAD to have that, too. The background paper has a variety of stitches on it & of course the "ribbon" for this sketch is paper that looks like a measuring tape. Buttons were in a fall set I had here. The cardstock is from Hobby Lobby, but doesn't it match well?

Other stuff:
Spellbinders Nestabilities, ink is SU Ruby Red & a Spectrum in Cappuccino.

I used the sketch from Card Patterns this week (yes, loosely translated):
Wow, I got to make THREE cards last night! That was fun! I've missed getting inky!

Thanks for swinging by!

NOTE: For those who didn't "get" the humor in the sentiment, a fat quarter is a piece of fabric cut 18" long by 22" wide. It's not my mid-section. That would more like a fat half. LOL!

Fall Bouquet

For the Clearly Inspired Challenge: Use Black & Orange (purple & a neutral optional)

For the CPS challenge (sketch)

I'm not a huge fan of Halloween. I love the dressing up part & yes, I like to go through the kids' candy after hours for the good stuff (well, I DID til they got old enough to count it, separate it & memorize each piece). I just don't like ghosts & goblins & such. The obvious images for these colors would be a Halloween image. My 14 year old told me this would have been better as a Halloween card with the colors. I almost said, "Duh," but I was afraid she might ground me. Hey, that's a good idea! Anyway, I didn't do Halloween. Isn't gray a shade of black? I'm going with that! LOL!

I DID do flowers. This is a free digi image from Clear Dollar Stamps. They are actually having a Digital Image Challenge this month HERE. This card is for their regular monthly challenge, though. Ladies, if you haven't done one of these, DO IT! They give away great prizes!

I used the Card Positioning System sketch for this week.

Stamp: Fall Floral Jug from Clear Dollar Stamps
Papers: DP is from a Fall Stack, cardstock is from my stash (probably paper studio from Hobby Lobby), Flowers are primas, centers of flowers are stickles. Used Spellbinders Labels 8. Wild Honey distress ink.

Thanks for stopping by!

Think Pink!

For Clearly Delightful Blog Challenge, use ribbon and a Doodle Pantry Image

Midnight Madness Sketch challenge


Our Creative Corner, Embellishments, the more the better

2 on SCS: HYCCT08, flower power

HYCCT14, ribbon ribbon ribbon

Stamps: Digital image and words from Doodle Pantry Images, I will Survive It includes precolored images, but I did color these
Paper: Assorted dp from Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby), Pink cardstock from Hobby Lobby, heavy white cardstock
Ink: Memento Rosebud
Markers: Copics
Other stuff: Spellbinders, flowers, stick on gems, ribbon, flowers, sizzlet swirls

Thanks for dropping by!

Countdown to Craft Fair = Messy house!

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm messy. Organizing doesn't come naturally to me. At all. Well, I can micro-organize. Give me a tub of ribbon & I'll color coordinate it then sort it by size & shape. But a living room or dishes overflowing in the kitchen? Uh-uh. Gotta work extra hard to figure that kind of sorting out. It drives my dad crazy. No, he doesn't live in our house. He just doesn't like it messy at anyone's house.

Today my folks stopped by earlier than expected. I was still sleeping after being up ultra late prepping for the first craft fair on Saturday. I set my alarm, but they arrived before it went off. Isn't there a fairy tale that happens that way? Anyway, he told me later that my house was messier than it's ever been. He's right. It is. That's because it was 2 days before my first craft fair (did I mention that?). I intended to meet them at the door & explain this before they walked in, but alas, they arrived too soon (I think I mentioned that, too).

I thought I would show my readers why my house was messier than ever (now that we are in the packing stage, it is getting into boxes & off the other open spaces, which I knew would happen). You can click to enlarge any pictures.

For weeks now I've been cutting out fabric & sewing. I believe the fabrics get married & have babies overnight. What do you think? Notice the games that haven't been put away? My table is blocking the cabinet. The table will be in the van tomorrow night, so I expect games to be put away.

Natalie has been working on several projects. She's made mini-food items out of polymer clay (Sculpey). She's made some really cut items. Along the way it involved packets of clay spread out, using the toaster for clay rather than food, and room for things to dry once she glazed them.

Natalie also made some really cute things out of glycerine soap. Notice the stack of fabric things behind her? Tater bags. Totes hanging in the right top of the picture. Spray on adhesive for quilting on the floor. A box of stamping magazines to sort through & pass along. A bag from MIL of craft stuff she doesn't want anymore. And toilet paper. : )





Those tater bags I've been working on. Dear Kathy took a bunch of stuff & trimmed threads & pressed things for me yesterday before she left for chemo!


And some stray books. And Bethany's box of colored pencils.

Finally, sometimes you find yourself stooping to hiring children to help finish work. These girls work for fried chicken, soda & donuts. Just sayin'. They're pretty efficient, too.





Deer corn. It's what's for dinner. Well, only for the deer. Or in this case, it's what you put in your hot/cold therapy neck bags.

I've vacuumed twice today. Now there are soap scraps on the floor, so I will vacuum again in the morning. Then again after we get the rest picked up. The table will go into the van. The tater bags, soaps, piggy wands, and more will also find their way into the van. The living room will resume some sense of normalcy. And if my family will learn to put clothes away instead of going through the piles of clothes on the couch & dumping folded clothes in with the unfolded ones, we might even be able to sit on that tomorrow night!

We can at least hope.

Thanks for touring my messy house with me. I'll take pictures at the Craft Fair on Saturday to see how it all looks in a booth.

Ladybug, ladybug

I'm sure there is some children's poem that starts with Ladybug, ladybug. I don't know it, but I'm SURE it's out there! This is my latest potholder/hot pad/trivet (what do YOU call one of these?). I saw some online & decided to figure out how to make them. This lady is blind at the moment and has a pin in her side (sounds a bit like the Apostle Paul---blinded, then a thorn in his side), but soon she shall see and have the pin removed. Well, as soon as I decide EXACTLY how to do the eyes.

Just wanted to show you a creation that is part of my endless stacks of things to finish by Friday!

Natalie's House Mouse & Midnight Madness card

Natalie's (age 11) made this card for both the House Mouse Friends Challenge and the Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge. House Mouse theme was Back To School. MMSC is a sketch. This week was:
or

Stamp: Happy Hopper
Paper: Paper Studio DP, computer printed images used for balloons.
Computer generated words.

Thanks for hopping by!

Birthday Card

Another card made. Wow, 1 per week. Better than none, right? LOL!

This is for my friend who is 7 months younger than I am. She's always the "young" one of the moms in our homeschool co-op. Except now we have new younger moms. ; ) She also has fibromyalgia, so she totally will get the "pane/pain" statement! She has a child with Asperger Syndrome/autism who once said she likes my Bethany (my Aspie girl) because, "We are autism." Cracked me up!

This is also for Creative Inspirations Challenge: Birthdays.

The stamps are from Clear Dollar Stamps: What a Pane
Ink: Memento Black, Memento Plum, Distress Ink Peeled Paint
Paper: SU Certainly Celery (I think), DP is Basic Grey Green at Heart (a gift from my sweet Kathy)
Flowers: I think these are some I won from Midnight Madness Sketch Challenge
Bling: Stickles Yellow (another gift from Kathy---isn't she wonderful?), diamond stick ons: Green is K& Co. Pink is ????
Markers are copics

Thanks for stopping by!

i-Pad bag, Beta Version

Seems everywhere you look there is a new "i" product. I-pod, I-phone, I-pad. Collectively I call it i-junk (or other fitting words). I (meaning Lori, not "I") have a free phone from AT&T. I would LOVE to have i-junk, actually, but since I have a hard enough time using the tiny keys on my phone, might be just as well I don't. However, I know that a lot of people are technologically more advanced than I am and love their "I-junk." : ) I asked a friend if she'd like me to make her an "i-pad bag" in exchange for some stamps. I find it a fair trade. LOL!

Now you know when a new computerized anything comes out there is always an initial version that has more kinks that my knotted hair. In the sewing world, I might call this my sample. Since this is a bag for a computer, though, I have to call it the beta version. You know the beta version has to get "bettah" (since this is for a Mac product, though, not a Bill Gates---I mean Microsoft---product it might not need as much work).

I could tell you the following pictures were adjusted on Photoshop with the Blur feature, but truth is I didn't take the best pics.OOPS!

This is the initial bag without a button on it. It will have some kind of closure on it. I like the basic design. Am not sure if the size is correct so will take this one to my friend on Tuesday & let her see if the ipad fits into it. The batting I have right now is way too thick, which is probably good for padding for the ipad, but it makes everything bulky. Gotta figure out a better way to do that. Also, I think a might want to use flannel for the lining to keep the screen from getting scratched.

I like the idea of the flap like this. My friend showed me one similar to this type closure. Improvements for the flap: make the wide part at the top come down over the front more.

Pocket may be a bit too big. I might reduce that size. I think having the pocket there will help protect the screen a bit more than just the bag.

Side handle: I like this concept. It is WAY too thick, though, and was hard to sew. Stitching through this much fabric doesn't result in a nice looking product, either, IMO. I will also add a removable shoulder strap. Need to figure out exactly how that will work. Long enough that it can be used as a sling bag, I think.

Zipper. Oh, this is awful. This was a zipper I got from my MIL's stash. She's giving up sewing for the most part & I'm collecting all her unwanted pieces. It had a funky plastic piece on the end. It wouldn't allow me to sew the ends closed. So I just cut that thing off and was going to sew it at the end to hold it closed. Of course, I decided this AFTER it was sewn to the bag. The zipper started to come open from the end! YIKES! I tried stitching just at the end, but it kept opening more. I wasn't about to tear out the zipper, so I just kept stitching. You know how a rolling snowball keeps growing? Well, I've heard it does. I wouldn't know living in South Texas! Yes, I sewed this "lovely" zipper. Lesson: get the right sized zipper & don't cut off any parts. DUH! Maybe it's the lesson to not sew too late at night, also.

What do you think so far? The fabric I'll use for my friend's bag is REALLY Cute. I can't wait to show you that one all made up, when I get to that point!

Thanks for stopping by!

I won!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. You MIGHT have noticed I love Clear Dollar Stamps. I mean, just possibly you noticed. Perhaps. ha, ha! I LOVE the stamps, but I also love the gals who make this company work. The fact that the owner is Lori (maiden name was Lori Ann Smith, my maiden name was Lori Anne Smith), one of the stamp designers is Laurie (and lives in Texas, so I've met her), and one of the employees is Lorie, makes it kind of fun. Lori M., the owner, has a huge line of Christian stamps, Bible verses, Christ focused Christmas stamps, etc. Love that. Do you see the word DOLLAR in there? The stamps are affordable.

I love to play in their monthly Clearly Inspired challenges when I can. When I saw the new releases for this month, I knew I HAD to get a card made. You can see it HERE. I'd watercolored the image earlier in the month & needed to make a card with it. I got it posted on the 30th, the last day of the challenge. Guess what? I was the "random" prize winner! The WHOLE new release of stamps! Even though the stamps are affordable, I've been buying sewing supplies and stamps have not been in the budget. This is such a huge blessing. I am overwhelmed!

Now, to top THAT off, I was chosen as one of the top 5 Clearly Inspired Challenge cards! What an honor. Thanks CDS lovely ladies!

If you want to join in a challenge, check out this month's challenge HERE. They're changing things up a bit, so FIVE people will win a $10 gift certificate to CDS!

Thanks for stopping by.