A Sewing Challenge

This week at Phindy's Place Challenge Blog, the challenge was to use sewing on your card. It could be either real stitching or faux. No question here for me as my real is far superior to my faux. I've been sewing most of my life, so love the concept of combining stitching with my card making.

I used the sketch from Papertake Weekly Challenge #45 for my starting point., then it was on for a search for papers. I loved these papers from October Afternoon's Spring release. I thought the stitched look to the paper, especially the Cathedral Quilt pattern would be perfect with sewing. I used my machine to straight stitch around the bottom layer, but decided I wanted to do something a bit different on the top layer. I used my wing needle to punch bigger holes and then sewed a chain stitch on either side. I didn't pick an image until I had decided on paper and sketch, and of course with this quilting theme going, what better than Not So Hot. Everyone knows that when you're not feeling well, bundling up in a cozy quilt is just the ticket. I colored him up with my Copics and tried to use all the colors that were in the "quilts". You can find him at Phindy's store along with some other images, you really don't want to do without. I added some flowers and the sentiment that's from Rainbow Echo. I'll be hanging on to this card for when I need to send out a Get Well card to someone.


Thanks for stopping by, and I love hearing from you.

Carrying on a Tradition with a Little Lagniappe

During WWII my mother worked for Knickerbockers Garment Plant in West Point, Mississippi sewing uniforms for soldiers. I can't remember a time in my life that she didn't sew on something, but her very favorite thing was making quilts. There is no way I could come up with how many she made over the course of her lifetime, and how most of those were given away. One of her favorite things to make for new babies were oversized doubled flannel blankets. I think she thought the receiving blankets you buy at a store were a joke, since they would barely wrap around a newborn. Her blankets were at least 44" x 44". Once she was no longer able to see well enough to sew, I took up the torch. I've continued the tradition by making these blankets for my friends' grandchildren, but I've done that little bit extra(lagniappe), by crocheting a border around them. The great things about these blankets is that they'll still cover a child that's 4 or 5, and they're perfect to throw down on the floor for a quick pallet.

Here are the blankets I made for my newest great niece. The pink one is spread on a queen sized bed, so you can see the size of them. You can see one of my Mom's quilts on the bed underneath the blanket. Before I left for Phoenix, I got the blankets sewn and turned. While I was in Phoenix and on the way home, I was able to get the one blanket finished and over 3/4's of the second one. I finished it this afternoon, and got them washed and dried and ready to be wrapped and delivered.

Here's a close up of the crocheted edging on the blankets.

Thanks for letting me share a memory with you.

Home Again Home Again Jiggety Jig

I've been in Phoenix or rather Anthem, AZ since last Wednesday. I flew out to bring my grandson(3 1/2 going on 35) home for a two week visit. This isn't the first time. His parents have generously shared him with us and our DD, said it was very important to her that he know his Mississippi family. I've been unable to craft on any cards, but I have succeeded in getting the edges of one baby blanket crocheted all the way around. I'm hoping I can make a good start on getting the second one done on the flight home tomorrow.

I have to say I'm more than ready to get home and back in TM. I am definitely having carding withdrawal system. I missed out on two of my favorite challenges last week and I need to get back with the program. I think MM(MonkeyMoo) is going to be my able assistant. He loves paper, and he's already a whiz at stamping. Of course, he has a list of things that he has to do besides crafting. Some of these are the things he's been doing every trip since he was 3 months old and include driving(promoted from just riding he can now steer) the tractor, riding a horse, going on a boat ride and maybe to the river and swimming, just to name a few.

I have some OWH cards that I made before I left on this trip, but I'm going to share those with you on another day. I just fell the need to check in.

Halloween is Hoppin' at Tiddily Inks

Tiddily Inks is throwing a blog hop today to celebrate Halloween in July. Yes I know, you're used to Christmas in July, but hey everyone knows Halloween comes before July. The Blog Hop officially starts at 6 PM CST, and you can link to all participants from the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blogspot. After you check out all the fantastic cards on the tour, I know you're going to want to go shopping for some Tiddly Inks images at the Store.

I grew up in a small town and was one of 5 siblings. I can still remember the joy of Halloween and Trick or Treating. We didn't have money for costumes, so our costumes were whatever we could make with what we had readily available, much like this sweet little image from Tiddly Inks called CandyAvenger. All it takes is a mask from the dime store(that's right I said dime store and the prequel to dollar stores) and a towel for a cape and you're a superhero. I remember going to the door of a house and knocking, and yelling Trick or Treat when the door opened. I wanted to reconstruct that memory, so I built a house using my Cricut to make my shingles, window frames, curtains, door facings and my Halloween decorations. I cut strips of yellow to do the lapped siding of the house. Then I finished it off with my little sweetie heading up to the door looking forward to another sweet treat.


I'm into 3 dimensional cards lately, so besides Candy Avenger being cut out and raised, the columns and porch floor are raised with foam sticky and the porch roof has three layers of the foam sticky backing.


Now be sure to head back to the Challenge Blog and visit the next link on the list. And join us on the Tiddly Inks Digitals Page on PCP for the party later tonight.


Happy Halloween in July !

Do You Match

your papers to your colored image or do you pick your papers and color to match them? This topic was under discussion over on Tiddly Inks Digitals PCP page this week due to the Tiddly Inks Challenge of the week "Match It Up". I tried it with the coloring first and ended up always getting frustrated when I couldn't find the papers to match my coloring. Now I pick the paper and the sketch out and have a really good idea of exactly what I'm doing before I color the image. The downside to this method, I never have any colored images on hand.

Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog is heading into a Halloween Blog Hop starting Thursday, but in the meantime I need to show you my "Match It Up Card". I actually had another image and a completely different color scheme in mind, when I first started thinking about my challenge card. However, by the time I finished the invitations, I'd had time to rethink my card about 6 times.

Usually I look for a sentiment after I pick an image, but I'm working totally backwards this week. Paulette of Create with TLC posted the sentiment "Ladybug Hugs" as a freebie last week, and I knew I had to use it on a card with my Martha Stewart Ladybug Punch around the Page punches. I sent me looking through my chest of TI images for the perfect image to use. With some paper piecing, I realized I could change the delightful Daisybugg into the perfect Ladybug Bugg.

The Ladybug Paper was a free download from Cuddly Buddly. I shrunk the paper as small as I could to create a smaller print for her dress and cap. All the other papers were created with Word and the effects menu of the Insert Shapes function so my colors all matched. I learn something new everyday.

Hope you enjoyed your visit.

It's Christmas In July

There are always Christmas in July sales going on. Not only does Sassy Cheryl have a sale going on until the end of the month on her Christmas images, but at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog there's a Christmas in July card challenge. Considering how hot and humid and dry it's been in Mississippi lately, pictures of snow make me feel cooler at least, so this challenge couldn't have come at a better time.

Who knew that snowmen could be so colorful, and I could have so much fun with one. This image from Sassy Cheryl's Store is called Up In Arms and he's colored very colorfully with Copics. I actually think I like the mix of colors.LOL Papers are all from The Paper Studio. I used my Spellbinders reverse scalloped circle to cut my image out. I had used a Martha Stewart daisy punch to create the snowflake border down the side. The by product of the punch was a perfect snowflake to go in each of the circles created by the Spellbinder nesties. It almost looks like he's juggling snowballs doesn't it? I created the sentiment myself in PSE and overlayed it onto a snowflake that was already the perfect color for my card. The sentiment says "Christmas Snow Much Fun".

You may not have the Christmas spirit just yet, but hopefully looking at the snowflakes and the snowman , you can at least think yourself cool.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting. Love hearing from each and everyone of you. Oh and don't forget to go shopping for those Christmas images. It's never too early to start those Christmas cards.

She May Be Blue, But She's Not Blue!

I finally finished the invitations and the directions/registry cards. The envelopes are addressed, stuffed, sealed and ready for mailing. WOOHOO!!!!! One more project down before I leave for AZ on Wednesday. I have to say that I colored 6o of the Something New images by Phindy O'Neill and I still love the image.

Sequed right into my card of the day didn't I? This week at Phindy's Place Challenge Blog, the challenge was "Got The Blues?" Good thing that that meant color and not emotional state, because, I don't think there's a Phindy image out there that looks sad or blue. I'm so hooked on the summer cuties(found here), that I'll be using them for a while to come. Phindy added the cutest little image called Catch Something this week, and much as I love him(and I do own a copy of the image), he wasn't my first choice for my challenge card. Instead an image called Little Swinger did?

Do you remember the sheer joy of swinging on a hot summer day and creating your own breeze as you pumped to make yourself go higher and higher? I think that explains the look of sheer bliss on this little cutie's face.


One of my favorite fabrics to smock little children's summer outfits out of was micro-checked gingham. I found a free printable microdot paper on line(can't find the link), and it was perfect for paper piecing her dress and hat. I also decided I wanted her swinging from a tree, so I found a tree shape to go by and cut it out and colored it up with Copics. I mounted the limbs of the tree with foam adhesives along with Little Miss Swinger and the clumps of leaves for a 3D effect. I tied a knot in some twine, shredded the end to give it a rope look and tied it to a limb to make her look like she's really swinging. The grass was a piece of scrap paper and the blue of the sky is the base of the card. I cut the smaller violet blooms off a package that I had purchased from the Dollar Tree, and voila' I have a challenge card. The sentiment simply says "Happiness" and isn't that so true?

Now close your eyes and think back to those hot summer days of your childhood. Do you remember that feeling of being on a swing, with your feet extended and pointing to the sky and looking down at the ground as you pumped harder to go higher and higher. Oh, what a feeling!


Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed the visit. I love hearing from you.

A Baby Shower Invitation

Our youngest niece is having a baby boy in September. That's so hard for me to believe, because I'm sure it was only yesterday, she was an adorable baby that I loved to keep and sew for. She's going to be a great mom, and she's going to be close enough that I can be a substitute Gran. My youngest daughter and I are giving a Baby Shower Luncheon. Of course, my daughter won't be there, since she lives in Arizona, but she wanted to be a part of it. My best friend is letting me have it at their guest house which is perfect for entertaining and is helping me with the food preparation. At any rate, I've been waiting for the paper to go on sale at Hobby Lobby before starting the invitations. It finally did this week, and not a moment to soon. I fly to AZ next week to get MonkeyMoo and bring him back for a two week visit. I sure won't have time when he gets here. These are the same papers we're going to use for the Birth Announcement, so I sent my niece to her HL for all the paper they had(for the announcements), and I went to Tupelo.

This is the invitation. It's nothing more than textured cardstock punched with a Martha Stewart around the page and folded down over the gingham paper. I wanted to make the bottoms match so punched those also. The hardest part was punching the double slit punch for the ribbons. My thumb is never going to be the same.

Since the shower is being given at my friend's guest house(not a business) that's not on the beaten path and not on the Garmin either, my daughter suggested that I add a card with both registry information and directions along with the invitation. Her idea was that the invitees could just slip the card into their purse instead of having to take the invitation shopping or to the shower. I thought that was a great idea. However, her thoughts on what I should do would have taken me forever. From the get go I wanted to use this image from Phindy's Place called Something New. My niece and her husband are animal lovers and have dogs and have had cats, so it's perfect for them. I am doing minimal coloring on the image, just enough to make it noticeable. I also embossed the image card, used a corner punch to insert the directions sheet and then mounted it onto the gingham paper.

I love designing and making invitations that are not run of the mill and are unique. I think this one qualifies.

Hope you like it and I love feedback.

She's as Cute as A Button.

Yesterday was a good day in TM. I actually got a set of OWH cards finished and another set cut out, colored and ready to put together. That's on task for today, and tomorrows blog will be dedicated to them.


I also had a wonderful time putting my Phindy's Place Challenge card together. This week the only requirement was embossing. Since I love the feel and look of embossing this wasn't my personal challenge. Each week, I have a problem picking an image, only because there are too many wonderful images to pick from. Phindy has introduced a series of images called Summer Cuties. I didn't have my girls when they were small(I got them as a bonus with my DH when they were 7 and 9), but I have nieces, cousins and friend's grandchildren, that I used to sew for; and these little girls in their precious summer sunsuits and dresses bring back delightful memories. This image is called Birdie. Isn't she the cutest thing with that big hat and dragging that stick with a birdie catching a ride. Along with embossing I found a sketch over on Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge that I followed. The base card is made from a textured cardstock, and it, along with the patterned paper are all from The Paper Studio. The white is embossed with Cuttlebug's D'Vine Swirl, one of my very favorite embossing folders. My image is colored with Copics and cut out with the Spellbinders Scalloped Oval. The sentiment is from Ginger's House. I used some Color Box inks to make the sentiment stand out from the card. I've also entered this card in The Beary Sweet Design Team Embossing Challenge along with the Mojo Mondays Challenge.

Thanks for stopping by and I love getting comments. See you tomorrow.

Reading is Fundamental

Books are an obsession of mine. If you think I'm bad with crafting supplies, you should see my library of books. I have always loved to read, and sometimes much to the dismay of my husband. Once I get into a book, I'm likely to stay up to the wee hours trying to get it read. I have lots of favorite authors, and I even reread my favorite books. Some of my favorites are Jan Karon's Father Tim series and Robyn Carr's Virgin River Series. Reading and re-reading these books is like going home and visiting friends.

This week's at Sassy Cheryl's Challenge Blog, the challenge was a sketch to follow. No problem there, but what image? I decided to use the Color Throwdown Challenge colors with the sketch from this challenge, and those colors just screamed relaxing with a good book. When I first discovered digi images, one of the few places that had them was Squigglefly. I purchased several images, not realizing that they were drawn by different artists. Much to my delight Avid Reader turned out to be a Cheryl Alger(our own dear Sassy Cheryl) design, and of course just the thing for my challenge card. Papers were from my Sam's Club purchase of many years ago, and the flowers are made using a tutorial that was in Magnolia Magazine. My little reader is colored with Copics, and the little blue embellies are Bella's Baubles. The sentiment is a paraphrase of the following quote by Charles W. Eliot, "Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors; and the most patient of teachers." As long as I've got a book, I've got a friend.

Thanks for stopping by and I love hearing from you. Who are your favorite authors? Now I'm off to read my new Nora Roberts book The Search.

Picture Perfect Summer Day

If you've ever been around small children in the summer, you know one of their favorite things to do is play in a wading pool. It doesn't matter that the water is only 8 inches deep, they need a ring and floaties and of course goggles. When the challenge at Tiddly Inks this week said Summer Fun with Sun, Sand and Toys, I knew the exact images I wanted to use.

I knew I had to do these two cuties in a wading pool, so I went to work with my Cricut and the wonderful MTC software. I found a clip art of a wading pool, copied it into MTC and then went to work refining the cut image. I punched the stars in the pool, which required 4 layers for the pool which gives it dimension. I found the clouds in the gallery of MTC(one of the many reasons I love MTC). I love digis for so many reasons, but one of them is the fact that you can easily combine two images and know you have them in the right place before you print. When I originally did the card, I did it without a sentiment in mind. When the sentiment popped in my mind, I knew I had to frame the image, which necessitated me taking the card apart and starting over. I created the sentiment in Photoshop Elements and printed it on yellow for a little "sun. The base card is blue and the grass was a piece of scrap paper. I colored my images in Copics and as a final touch, I had to add bows to her hair. After all, I am from the south and little girls have to have bows.

Thanks for stopping by, and why don't you join us over on the Tiddly Inks Challenge Blog. There's a $10 coupon up for grabs. Oh and be sure and check out the other summer images located at the Store.

Popping Up for a Thank You

Yesterday, I mailed off an OWH box with 62 blank greeting cards and 50 Any Hero cards with notes. I'm really excited in the participation I got from the folks at the Shrimp Boil. I was also delighted to find that the younger ones, teenagers on down to 2nd grade were all about writing a note to a soldier.

I seem to be in a "let's try something new" mode here of late. I subscribe to Amazing Paper Grace's blog and the other day, she had a standing pop-up card with a link to the tutorial. Seemed pretty straight forward, and I decided to have a go at it for the Phindy's Place challenge this week. The hard part was finding an image that was more vertical so that I could keep my card to the A2 size. Thankfully, Cat Thank You, filled the bill. The challenge was to use Red, White and Blue. I'm about starred out(after 72 patriotic cards), so I scrounged around in my stash(which is organized for patterns rather than color) and found this red alphabet paper that came in a GIANT package I bought from Sam's about 5 years ago. Using the tutorial I found HERE. I cut the box base out of the red. I "stamped" my image on some GP white cardstock, making him a little taller and leaner(one of my very favorite things about digis is the resizing option). I colored him with Copics using red, white and blue for obvious reasons. I cut out the back-up block out of the same alphabet paper, and backed it with a matching piece. The paper is Light Blue Check from Remember When. I punched the red strip with my my MS double loop punch, and cut the cat out(the hardest part for me). My tab for the top is made with Spellbinder's Label Four. Finished it off with some red and white ribbon. It is of course, going in my next OWH box, I'm just not sure where they're going to write their note.

I love hearing from you and all comments are appreciated.

It's Dripping Happy

After 3 days of absolutely no crafting, I couldn't wait to get home and get busy crafting today. We were up early at the camphouse, and I packed up everything and was home and had it all unloaded by 8:30. I told myself(yeah,I talk to myself) that I couldn't have my latte(a necessary fix for each day, thank you Deb) until I got home. It was just like dangling a rabbit in front of a greyhound. I WAS motivated.

I was in the shop and first off had to make a sympathy card for Phindy. One of her sisters passed away. Fortunately Phindy was there and able to be with her and say good-bye. I still need to write my message and that will certainly be the tougher task.



After lunch, I was able to get to work on my Sassy Cheryls Challenge card. We were charged to make a card using light blue and/or tan and peach. I got the blue(although it's got some green tones to it) and the peach. I love this image from Cheryl called Paint Something. I picked up this MS punch on mark down last week at Walmart for a song. It's called Drippy Goo and perfect for this image. Paper is called Fruity Dots and cardstock is some I had on hand. I went into PSE to create the sentiment. I finally found the drop shape and figured out how to use it. I think this card can be sent to anyone, mother, wife, friend or child.


Thanks for stopping by. I feel so much better for having a crafty fix today.

What's A Swoope?

One of the greatest things to come about from marrying my DH is that I got a WHOLE lot more family. I always thought that my family was pretty big with my parents and the five of us kids. I got over that when I met my DH though. He was one of 14 living siblings with two of them passing away as either toddler or infant. Now at this point I have to interject that I did the calculations on this and my MIL, was pregnant for 12 years out of 30. Yep, you heard me right, she had her first child when she was 17 and her last child when she was 47. I should also tell you at this point, I have never known a finer person than Miss Carrie or Granny. Talk about love multiplying. She made every child, son or daughter-in-law, and grandchild feel like she loved them most. In the years that I knew her, I never heard her say an unkind word about anyone.

At any rate, one of the things that we started doing as the Grands started getting married was taking a picture of the Siblings and then a picture of all the Swoopes that were present. I have these pictures sitting all around my house and it's fun to look at them and see Miss Carrie's namesake when she was 18 months old in her mom's arm in one picture and then see her day at 28 pregnant with her first child. At one of the niece's wedding we were doing the "family" picture and there was one little boy that kept trying to get into the picture. His DM pulled him aside and tried explaining to him that you had to be a Swoope to be in the picture. He looked up at her and asked "What's a Swoope?

Over the weekend we had our annual "Around the 4th of July Shrimp Boil". We haven't done a set of Swoope pictures lately. I decided we needed an updated "What's a Swoope" set of pictures, especially since the oldest sister at 87 is getting frailer with each passing day. The 13 surviving Swoope Siblings were all present,

although one was late getting there and isn't pictured. The first picture is of the Swoope Siblings recorded on 7-3-2010. The oldest is on the bottom right and the youngest is standing on the far left. The second picture shows all the Swoopes that were still around for the picture. There were 79 present(no where near all of them), but some had left to go fishing and others were wandering around. The last is a picture of 16 of the 26 first cousins that were present. The woman on the front row in the green shirt is my niece that it is expecting the next great nephew in the family. The youngest nephew is the giant in the center on the back row and the oldest nephew is standing immediately to his right.

No card today to post yet today, but give me time. I'm home and totally unpacked and in TM to work on a challenge card or two.

Around About the 4th of July

It's July 3rd and about as around the 4th of July as you can get without it being the 4th. We're down at the camphouse gearing up for our family Shrimp Boil. However, before, getting too busy, DH, nephews and I went out for a kayak run on the creek. You know it's going to be a good day when you see the eagles out. This is one of a pair that we've had living on the creek for the past 5 years. I never fail to look at one and not count my blessings on living in the GREATEST COUNTRY in this world.

We have one grandson whose nickname is Monkey Moo. My DD and DSIL are in to talk radio, so how they managed to have a child that loves music and dancing as much as MM does is beyond me(truly must be in the genes as DH and I love to dance). At any rate MM got hooked on Garth Brooks and to him, Garth is the epitome of the term cowboy. Last year he told me he needed a cowboy shirt, a rope and a buckle, so for his 3 year old birthday, I decked him out with cowboy hat, western shirt, blue jeans, cowboy boots, a belt with a "buckle" and I even made him some chaps. He wasn't too fond of the chaps and informed me that cowboys didn't wear chaps. I informed him REAL cowboys do. This is a picture of him in full regalia. I had to promise to go on a trail ride on a real horse to get him to get his picture made with the chaps(something I don't plan on ever doing again.)

This is one of MM's birthday week cards that will be mailed to him on his "birthday" week. Do you recognize the paper. It's scraps leftover from my Annie's Hat card of yesterday. This time my image is from a Precious Moments coloring page. MM got his mom a "but tar" for Mother's Day so he has something to play. How perfect is this image for him? I decided to make the denim look like the rear of a pair of Levis and was actually able to find a jpg clip art of a Levi's pocket that I used as my sewing guide. I double stitched the denim with an Orange thread. I also added the same birthday message from yesterday's card to the "bandanna handkerchief and it pulls out of that back pocket. The inside of the card has a clip of a coiled up lasso with the message "Here's roping you have a rodeoing Big Birthday". Cheesy I know, but it will be perfect for a 4 year old.

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to grab the free Word Art posted below. Hope you all have a wonderful 4th, and please take a moment to remember the price that has been paid and will continue to be paid in order for us to celebrate this day.

It's a Red White and Blue Birthday!

Happy Birthday America! I can't begin to put into words what being able to say that means to me. I had to start a blog just so I could participate in all the fun goings on at OWH. This is an organization that I believe in with all my heart. For the past month I've been on a campaign making blank Any Hero Cards. My DH's brother and his wife and my DH and I host an "Around about the 4th of July" Shrimp Boil each summer. We invite their family(13 brothers and sisters with spouses, 26 nieces and nephews with spouses and children, and friends). This year, I'm planning on making them write for their supper. Many of the brothers served in the Armed Forces, and we're all American to the bone. I'm going to get them to write a note in the blank cards so that I can send Dixie a huge box of Any Hero cards. I even have some cards I left the images uncolored for the children to have some fun and write a note too.

Here's my card for the Blog Tour. This is a Tiddly Inks image called Annie's Hat, as in tipping your hat, so this would make a great Any Hero card also. You'd just need a different sentiment. The challenge over at Tiddly Inks this week was to create a red, white and blue card, which went along perfectly with the OWH Blog Tour. What's more American than denim, gingham and bandana print and it's red, white and blue. The paper is from Paper Studio, and the buttons are from Walmart. I found the tied rope clip art on line and created the sentiment myself in Photoshop Elements. Those red and black cowboy boots bring back fond memories, as I actually owned and wore a pair when I was dating a wantabe cowboy another lifetime ago.

I'm posting two sentiments that I created that could be used with this image. For those that might like to have them. It's my small way of giving a little back. Just right click on the sentiment and then click on save as. Be sure to check back with the OWH Stars and Stamps Blog here for the start to the tour.

Thanks for stopping by and would love to here from you and be sure to come back tomorrow for another Red, White and Blue birthday card that I made for MonkeyMoo.

TazMania Today

Welcome to TazMania and come on in for a tour. This is what it looks like as you walk in. Oh and would you mind taking off your shoes? You know those hours and hours I spent varnishing the floor have made me a bit anal about taking care of it. The left side of the room is set up with my neighbor's scrapbooking stuff. She's working on scrapbooks for 7 grandchildren and it's going really slow. The back of the room is my sewing area and the door in the back on the right isn't to the bathroom(for that I have to go back to the house). The building isn't anywhere near the septic tank.
To the left, when you enter and not visible from entry is my entertainment center. I have my TV with satellite, my stereo, my Wii and my exercise videos. I also have a plastic shoe tray for you to leave your shoes, and help yourself to some dusting houseshoes.

This is my sewing corner. The red doors are hinged together and can be pulled out and opened up to block off the area.

This is a picture of my ribbon rack located in the sewing area. It's a canned goods storage rack I purchased from Lowe's and it's perfect for the ribbons.

This is the completed cedar storage cabinet. My fabric and lace stash is stored inside and protected both from light and bugs.

This is my Christmas closet. On the shelves to the right are all my Frick and Frack(DH's name for Fitz and Floyd) serving pieces and the boxes on the left are filled with decorations.

You're looking at my main storage wall. I think my two cabinets turned out pretty darn good. The one on the left has my Cuttlebug, embossing folders, Spellbinders, Cricut cartridges and extra tape. The one on the right is filled with boxes of pictures, cardstock and colored paper(that was given to me and I never turn down free paper). I bought the paper racks from a scrapbooking store that was trying to upgrade their storage system. I just need to figure a better organization of my pictures. You can get a glimpse of the bowling alley table and under it storage boxes that contain either rubber stamps or scrapbook memorabilia.

And finally we're back to the front where what used to be my office desk and is now my Cricut/Printer/Computer area. It' s not a Cricut cake, it's a red Cricut that I got on Black Friday last year(the one and only time I've ever gone shopping on Black Friday at 5:30 in the morning). DH just recently built the punch shelf for me and then I found a clear shoe holder that's perfect for my corner punches.

Hope you've enjoyed the tour and would love to have you come and play with me making cards anytime you want. You're welcome anytime.

Fun Time with my Sister

Yesterday was an incredible day. My younger sister(and we ain't young) is on vacation this week. I met her for shopping and lunch on Tuesday, and yesterday she drove down to play in TM with me. She brought a whole passel of colored images, and we spent part of the day putting them into cards.

My talents with Photoshop Elements isn't too great with editing pictures, but I have figured out how to do Word Art from a tutuorial that WAS on the internet. When DS went to watch it the second time, it was gone, so I shared my knowledge with her, so that she can make her own word art.

Today is the final day of the Phindy's Place 3D Challenge card. I've had a plan for several days, and had my image colored. I finally got to make the card last night. This is my first easel card.

Isn't this image something we are all familiar with? One cookie is never enough, you need at least one in each hand. Phindy catches childhood memories so well in her images. He's colored with Copics and papers are cardstock I had on hand and scraps out of my scrap box. The ribbon is from Walmart. I decided to cut him out and raise him up off my Spellbinders scalloped circle. When I saw this Word Art by Create with TLC, I knew that it was just the PERFECT sentiment for my card. Then I got to thinking about what to use for the stop on my easel card.

NO, the cookies aren't real. I'd have eaten them if they had been. When I go to Hobby lobby, I shop the WHOLE store. I couldn't find any cookie embellishments to use in the Scrapbooking department, but over in the aisle with wooden crafts I found these perfect little wooden hearts. I painted them with acrylic paints that I matched to the color of the cookies in the image. I then covered them with Alene's Paper Glaze and sprinkled the tee-tiniest glass beads on them for a sugar effect.

Then I remembered cookie eating by every child I've ever known that included sugar EVERYWHERE and "sprinkled" some sugar on the cookies in the image, a few on his face and of course down his overalls. He VERY much reminds me of MonkeyM00, my grandson.

Tomorrow is the grand tour of TM as it is today. Off to prepare for WW Thursday. Have a great day.

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