Make a Difference

Julia has been doing some beautiful stamp design work with the Rummage Bin line at CHF. I adore this Sweet Bee set, and I thought I’d make up a few Honey Do Lists for the girls’ teachers. I was really looking for a way to use some of my layered and buttoned flowers and a few bits of the new October Afternoon: Farm Fresh.

On Saturday afternoon, I took a jar of big creamy Prima flowers and layered them and sewed on buttons while I wanted a movie with the girls. My oldest always wants to know why I don’t ‘just watch tv’. Well, the truth is it’s hard for me to just sit still and not do ‘something‘.  So, I watched a cute movie, completed about 15 or so big ole button blossoms and had some wonderful quality time with my family.

I even finished the inside with October Afternoon’s Farm Fresh - South Forty and Farm House patterns (available late August) paired up with Core’dinations Cardstock from the Vintage Collection - Autumn color:

inside quote: that is shall never come again makes life so sweet ~ emily dickinson

This skinny notebooks came from my stash. Like many of you, I buy the little legal pads at an office supply store and have them cut them down the middle for me. The store will cut the whole stack at one time with a nice crisp cut. The covers dimensions are easy: 8″ tall by 5 5/8″ wide - score at 2 5/8″ and then flip and score at 2 5/8″ from the other side. That leaves you with a 3/8″ ditch for the width of the legal pad. I attach the notebooks to the covers with a sticky tape. They aren’t going anywhere.

Mmm, paper buttoned blossoms and a lesson in fractions - all in one day.  I know Mish makes these notebooks a lot and has included lots of tips and tricks over time to make the covers, so I won’t re-invent the wheel.

I did have a little ah-ha! moment while I was working on these last night. I originally stamped the Honey Do List four or five times on white cardstock with brown Memento ink and colored with Copics (YR21, YR23, YR24 and W1) and then realized that I should have used cream cardstock. Since I got an air compressor for my Copics, I’ve been much more liberal with the air brushing, and I thought I’d try to change the tint of the cardstock because ivory would look much nicer with my flower and my printed paper. Easy peasy:

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Pop some popcorn and plug in a movie for the kids…It’s time to stamp. Virtual Stamp Night at Splitcoast - it’s going on now thru Saturday night!

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I made some time to stamp this morning. I had wanted to do the Whiff of Joy sketch challenge, but then I saw Lynn’s SCS Technique Challenge and thought I’d pair the two. Lynn’s challege was to create an orgami box. You can see the directions and PDF template HERE. I actually needed a little box like this (explained below). I used Cosmo Cricket’s Chemistry Paper. I got mine from Sweet Lindsey at Jacksonbelle Embellishments. The box is approximately 5″ square and 2″ deep. The instructions were easy-peasy and it can be made with 2 sheets of 12×12 cardstock.

Last week I missed my monthly book club lunch due to a last minute conference call. I also had completely forgotten that I had volunteered  to bring dessert this month. I had made this big production (I know, my real-life friends are having trouble understanding that I would make a big production out of anything!?) My poor, poor book club lady friends - they had no dessert last Wednesday. It never even occurred to me until Wednesday night on my way to church that I had left them high and dry without chocolate. I feel terrible. My solution is to take each of them some chocolate chip cookies sometime this week. Now, we’ll see if I can actually get it done… but wouldn’t this box be so cute with the Willow with Cookies stamped image?

Remember the weekend shopping trip I was so pumped up for? It was a fabulous day! I got the best piece of furniture for my stamping room, as well as some cool organizational stuff. The furniture comes tomorrow via Daddy’s Delivery!! (I live so far out in the boonies - the mailman is the only one that delivers here <eyeroll>) I can’t wait for Mom & Dad to pull up and unload the pickup truck. I have another piece that won’t be here until Friday, so hopefully over the weekend I can show pictures of my space. I promised that months ago, but honestly it’s such a weird space and nothing has seemed to work, thus far. I’m so excited to see it all pull together and share because I think it might work for several other addicts out there!!

I need to get back to work. Thanks for stopping by!

… to you wish you a Merry Christmas!

What a bunch of fun we’ve had today playing with the kids and learning the ins and outs of our new wii, playing Pitch with my parents and grandma, feasting on a wonderful dinner. It’s been a wonderful day!  Where ever this post finds you, I hope that your Christmas was happy, your fellowship was sweet and your heart was warmed with the Christmas Truth.

• Stamps: Vintage Christmas from Crafty Secrets Clear Art Stamps & Fancy Flex Phrases (Stampin’ Up!)

• Cardstock: Chocolate Chip and Caramel Stardream Metallic

• Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic

• Accs: Misc. ribbons, Dew Drops, metallic gold thread, Nestabilities by Spellbinders

 See you soon!

While planning for my stress-free Christmas, I ordered some of these precut boxes from Taylor last month in my standby color: Chocolate! I’m so glad I did. I was able to assemble these treat packages with tags cut from Thomas Kinkaid scrapbook papers from CHF. Taylor carries a large variety of precut boxes and treat containers. They come to you, cut from beautiful Prism cardstock and carefully packaged for safe arrival.

I used my Label One Spellbinders Die, Christmas sentiment from CHF and glitter to accent the tag. I cut, stamped and glittered 4 in about 5 minutes last night. You can use this same concept with pretty printed papers.

What’s inside? 7 layer - Magic Bars. These are a Christmas favorite of mine since I was  little, little girl. My mom would make them every single year for us.  They are so easy. If you can smash graham crackers in a ziplock bag, you can make these yourself in about 6-7 minutes of prep time. No mixing, stirring or mess to clean up. The recipe is for a 9×13 pan, I cut mine into 5×3 chunks. I got 6 blocks from each pan. They fit perfectly in my boxes.

Wrapped in wax paper allows the recipient to sneak a peak. It also prevents the oils from the butter from seeping thru to the cardstock box. Easy, easy. I did purchase Taylor’s Sticky Tape to assemble the boxes. I’m glad I did. The tabs aren’t all that long that hold the boxes together, and you need a strong adhesive that works well in a smaller space. This worked like a charm.

I can’t wait for the girls to take these to a few neighbors later today and tomorrow.

I’m all about Merry Christmas, but these silver cookie tins were calling for a snowy, winter themed tag. Good thing to because the last day of school before Christmas break was called for a power outage this morning. At the least, this message will still be timely when the girls carry them to teachers in a few weeks.These gorgeous tins come filled with Danish sugar cookies, 4 tins to a package for $9.97 at Sam’s. LOVE THEM!

I made some pretty red, chocolate and gold ones, too. But I was thisclose to a Amy Rohl idea steal, that I can’t bear to show you. That girl has got pure, beautiful talent! You can oogle and ah over what I copied HERE. :)  Have a warm, wonderful weekend!

• Stamps: Joyful Winter Wishes & Heart Warmers by the lovely Kim Hughes for Cornish Heritage Farms
• Cardstock: Whisper White & Ski Slope DP (Stampin’ Up!)
• Ink: Baja Breeze, Basic Grey (Stampin’ Up!)
• Accs: pink glitter (Art Glitter Institute), orange marker, Label One Nestabilities (Spellbinders)

So, here’s that Cupcakes & Copics project I’ve been working on and a double chance at sweet blog candy!

Finally, I remembered to select my patterned paper first thing, Good Cheer from October Afternoon. It was easy to match my Copic colors up to the pretty patterns for coordinated cupcakes.  I had colored them over the weekend and glittered them up. I cut out all these little cupcakes while I was sitting under the hairdryer at the beauty shop yesterday. Yes, here in small-town America, it’s still the beauty shop, just like in Steel Magnolias. No salon trips for me!

I’m going to  let the girls have a few friends over for caroling, cocoa and cupcakes in a few weeks. I made these little song books for each of them. My girls love to sing, so I know it will be a fun, fun time. I’ll keep it *really* simple - we have a retirement complex just for ladies on our street, so we’ll go there and a few neighbors.

My girls are still pretty little, so I only included 4 songs. That’s enough for them, and less chance of the pages blowing out and away like that. The pages are tied into the book with Baker’s Twine from Martha Stewart. Then, I’ll bring the girls back here for a quick cupcake and oh, so sad, it’s time to go! Gotta keep it short and sweet or I’ll have barbie heads and polly pocket shoes all over the house in a matter of 3.8 minutes. You think I’m kidding?

I do think this will be fun! I’ll try to remember to post pictures when we do the thing…I bet you think some Copic and Cupcake blog candy would be a lot more fun than watching my 2 angels sing and sling cupcake crumbs.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving this is for you:

How about an adorable stamp set, ‘Season’s Sweetings’ from my fabulously fun and giving friend, Taylor at Taylored Expressions?!  Wait! there’s MORE:

Copic candy to go with it! Prize package from Marianne at Copic Markers. (Note: I did edit my picture from the original post. What is pictured is what you will receive in this blog candy!) Now isn’t that sweet?

How do you enter? Leave me a comment with title of your favorite Christmas carol! It’s that simple…I’ll choose a winner on Friday evening, post on Saturday morning and ship this prize pack out on Monday.

But wait, there’s MORE! Double your chances to win by dropping by to see what Sharon Harnist has created with her Season’s Sweetings and/or Home Sweet Home stamps from Taylor. I got to see the sweet beginnings of her project when I was at her home earlier in the month…you are going to drool over it. I know!! She’s also got a blog candy package just like mine! So, with that, I’ll wish you good luck and get back to my pre-Thanksgiving chores.

So, last week in Texas, Jami walks into the room with all these little cello bags and says, ‘here’s your challenge!’ She’s so fun like that! (’Oh! and you have to use a little bit of all of it!’) I worked on mine over the weekend and had a blast. It will be great to see what everyone else does. Be sure to check out Jami, Jenn, Jess, Sharon and Taylor today. I know they’ll have cool ideas on how to use up what you might consider scraps if you saw them on your craft table. Here’s what we started with:

This trip kind of got thrown together. It ended up that several of us were going to be in Texas about the same time this fall. So, I called this trip, the ‘Great Texas Escape’. It was also the first time that we were all meeting up from across the country at someone’s house (thank you, Mr. Sharon!) instead of a hotel, so I thought his little Maya Road chipboard house would make the most appropriate dated ornament.

The decorative paper was applied to the chipboard with a SU! glue stick. For the smoothest application, give the chipboard and the patterned paper both a light, even cover of glue. This helps eliminate bubbles. Make sure to get glue all the way to the edges. This helps to prevent peeling. The ‘lights on the edges of the ‘house’ are Beaux Regards trim that I got from Cindy Lyles. The tag was cut from a Spellbinder’s die and stamped with a sentiment from Taylor’s set, Home Sweet Home.

On the back, I created a little dated medallion with my JustRite Stamper so I can remember the laughter and good times that we had talking about kinky hair, heat guns in the wrong places, good guacamole and ‘what not to wear’ - Good times, good friends. What a fun keepsake from the Great Texas Escape 08.

Tomorrow: A fun Christmas activity and more Copic/Cupcake blog candy…hmmm, hmmm, good!

 Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord ~ Luke 2:11

Several years ago, a friend gave me a baby food jar with a spiced tea mix and a sentiment about making Jesus my Priority. The idea was that we would make time for Him in our busy daily lives. I kept the empty jar, label facing out on my spice shelf long after the tea was gone. I was thinking about all of the special gifts that I need around Christmas, and thought this tea would be perfect for a few. Isn’t this the time of year that we get most lost in the shuffle and bustle and forget a few of our priorities?

I used the recipe that Sharon shared last year HERE, but if you google ’spiced orange tea recipe’ - you’re sure to find a recipe that suits your fancy. There are many. I put my tea mix in cello bags and then inside new kraft coffee bags. The coffee bags were stamped with the Fiery Floral Scrapblock from Cornish Heritage Farms. I used a Cranberry Pigment Ink Pad from Ranger. It gave such a rich, deep look.

Next, I stamped the sentiment with my JustRite Stampers, C41 Stamper and mini alphabet. Pssst, they are having a ‘buy one, get one free’ sale thru 11/30/08. Check it out HERE. The ‘Believe’ is a Rummage Bin sentiment that I love, created by the beautiful Lesley Langdon for Cornish Heritage Farms. It took a few minutes, so stamp several when you get it all set up! Don’t forget your Stamp-a-ma-jig.

I used Cranberry and Pesto Adirondack Dye Ink on the labels. It’s great that Ranger offers the colors in both dye and pigment ink. Make coordination a breeze with the proper ink for different mediums. Speaking of coordinating, the brads were colored with Copic Marker R59, it matches perfectly.

I cut the labels and the matted frames with Nestabilities. The tags are MayaRoad chipboard covered with Basic Grey Wassail patterned paper. I used Mod Podge to adhere the paper and dimensional dots to pop up the die-cut labels. Various ribbons from Webster’s Pages, Beaux Regards and May Arts (all available from the fabulous Cindy Lyles at StarLitStudio) finish it off.

This is the label on the back with a few suggested Christmas readings for a few stolen moments of quiet time. By the time I got here, I was getting lazy, so these are just printed on a clear label from the ole computer.

I’ve had a wonderful weekend full of crafting and getting ready for Christmas. More tea packaging, gift and Christmas ideas to follow this week. What’s up tomorrow? A challenge issued by Jami. She’s the bossy one! <wink> So, I wouldn’t dream of not following orders. See you in the morning.

And there came a voice to him, saying, Rise up, Peter, kill and eat.  ~ Acts 10:13

My Divine Design project this month is a gift for my sweet husband who is sitting in a hunting blind as I type.  This is a journal for him to keep track of what he hunts, where, with whom and how they did that day. He’s kept logs of his waterfowl hunting effort and success for the Department of Wildlife for years, but those get mailed back in at the end of the season. I think he’ll write stuff down for himself, as well, given the space. Secretly, I’m hoping to use this as evidence next fall when he says, ‘ah, babe….I haven’t been huntin’ all that much this year!’ Though, if I’m fair, I knew what I was getting into with him when we were dating. He’s always been a big outdoor/hunting type of fanatic.

 Imagine his delight when Wes came across Acts 10:13 several years ago in a men’s study, well it might have been a study…I think it was probably Phil Robertson’s fault. There it was in black and white, the Lord’s permission to hunt, wiping away the confines of Old Testament law of what was and was not clean meat for consumption! What loving, submissive wife could argue with ‘I feel called’…

I used my Bird Watching stamp from Cornish Heritage Farms, the Saturday Evening Post collection stamped with Espresso Adirdonack ink and then lightly colored with Copic Marker. The background paper and the journal covering paper are from the Thomas Kinkaid Masculine Paper Pack (also from CHF). They provided the perfect backdrop for the stamped image. The main image was cut with the Spellbinders Label One die. I printed ‘Acts 10:13′ off and accented the bottom right corner with a build-a-brad. The keychain bookmark is from the Tim Holtz collection that I picked up at the Crafty Scrapper in Waxahachie, TX last week. I used an elastic cord from 7gypies to hold it closed. The actual verse is printed on the first page inside the journal.

You can see other Divine Design inspiration from Angel Wilde, Nancy Morgan and Jami Sibley. They posted their beautiful projects over a week ago. If you want to read about the original Divine Design challenge, you can do that HERE. We’d love to have you join us. If you are looking for more scripture inspired work, you can do that at Triple the Scraps from my friend, Patter Cross. She has a wonderful Bible based project she’s been working on all year. Her wisdom and insight always speaks to me.

Thanks for stopping by. See you tomorrow!