Sunday, May 24, 2009

Nothing new.

I haven't posted in a while so thought I would pop in a minute. Nothing new as far as crafting going. Have just been so busy around here with other things. We are in the middle of getting a new roof, now have two holes in the ceiling where feet have come through that will have to be repaired as well. Hubby is doing all the work himself, it is really hard on his body. He sometimes fails to realize that even though he has been finished with chemo for a few years it still changed his body and his physical condition.

On another note, I have been watching some co-workers bring their Nintendo DS to work and play at lunch. Realize that we are agriculture based so our office is out in the middle of nothing. At any rate, they have been playing a game called Animal Crossing. I simple game that is quite addictive. We bought it for the Wii system and for daughter's DS at Christmas. I had never played it as I only played some casual style games on the computer. Big Fish is my game friend. At any rate, I went to a game store and bought a used DS and Animal Crossing for me. I would have just used my daughter's , but in order for both of us to play we each have to have the game. It is kind of fun to sit with her and we go visit each other's town. I then decided to play it on the Wii and am now hooked totally.

If you have never heard of these, which unless you have kids in the house you probably wouldn't have, the game in a nutshell is take your character around the town to gather things (such as fruit, shells, fish, bugs) and sell them to pay your mortgage and buy things. There is a lot more to it, but that is it basically. The game keeps moving in time even when you aren't playing. For example, you pick the fruit from a tree, three days later it grows back. Plant a fruit, it grows a tree and you get more fruit. If you remember to water it. You can also shake a tree and some times money or furniture falls out. Like I said, it really is a silly game but oh so fun to play with.

I bought a couple of other games to go with it: SkipBo, Uno pack and a word game (crossword, word search, anagrams) most of the games are geared toward younger minds but Nintendo has figured that out and are coming out with games with a bit more mature interest. The personal trainer cooking one has recipes and how to techniques for cooking, another cooking on is based on one of the TV chefs. Out new this week is the personal trainer walker that has a little arm band you wear while you walk. This records your progress as far as weight loss. Along those lines we had bought the Wii Fit, which for me was way too much Yoga in it. But it was fun for a while, with running in place, hula hoop and such. Still younger minds mainly. However, I just purchased the new Sports Personal Trainer for the Wii that is supposed to be better. I comes with resistance cords and hand weights to follow the program with and it will track you progress. Plan to break it out this afternoon and give it a try.

Enough about the games. This is a holiday week end, Memorial Day, observance of all those that gave their all to keep us free. My dad was vet from WW II and so I am very patriotic when it comes to country. I may not agree with what the current leaders are doing, especially in my home state of California, but I do support the military and am thankful for the job they do. So, I have Monday off and plan to play with my paper crafts. Today however, I have to hit the grocery store, Wally world for household stock, the dollar store for my trash bags and resealable bags, probably Sam's Club as well. I have to clean out the nasty fridge full of left overs and do some laundry (okay a lot of laundry) as well.

Have got to get going or will never get anything done because sitting at the computer makes me want to play games or scrap. Which by the way, I am taking a Disney class this week to make an exploding card thing. Really kind of cool. Will post photos when I am done.

Oh and by the way, with the way my schedule has been going will probably only be posting on weekends for a few weeks. Oldest daughter from Texas is coming out the first part of June so will be busy with them, but getting lots of photos of grandson, who turned 6 yesterday, so will have those to make in to layouts.

Thanks for checking in and feel free to leave a comment.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Just a few thoughts

Okay, no new photos of the great projects I have finished, haven't finished anything. I had every intention, but with the temps in the triple digits around here, just haven't had the energy to do much of anything.

I did however manage to get my grandson's birthday card made. I got it all sealed up the package all taped and ready to mail. I forgot to take a picture, forgot to put my little "handmade for you" stamp on it, but it is read for the mail. Should have been in the mail a week ago.

On a brighter note, hit a sidewalk sale, more like a yard sale as it was all personal booths as opposed to business booths. WOW...did I clean up. I got an assortment of doodads and the best buys in the whole thing was the carry cases and a tote that is the perfect size for my little cricket. Lots of neat dies, embossing plates, papers and a book. Some other stuff as well. I also had a couple of Michael's coupons for 40% off that expired on Sat. so of course I had to use them or loose them. I bought a Sizzix Sidekick to hang out with my Big Kick. I really debated on whether I really needed the cute little Sidekick, but it is sure nice for the smaller dies and embossing plates so I can do a small project with out pulling out the Big Kick. I had a blast playing with it this afternoon making samples of all the plates and dies I bought as well as the embosslits I recently purchased from Sizzix. I AM SO HOOKED on the Big Kick and my Cricuts. I also bought a new punch, it is a pop up punch of a butterfly. Sooo cool, the butterflies wings are free to pop up but the body is attached. Kind of limited with what I can do with it, but a really delicate touch to a card.

Speaking of cards, here is my little rant for the evening. I have mentioned before about the lack of printed instructions with the classes I have taken at the local scrapbooking store, especially the "make and take". I paid for my daughter (12) to take a cardmaking class. Five cards were to be made, sets for the 5 cards were included. You know, the papers and embellishments. All pre-cut, ready to go. Well, she was able to get three of them completed. The other ladies were all...older in years...compared to my daughter and I noticed that they were asking for the directions to finish their cards. They were told to come back to the store the next day and the instructor would be there to help them finish. I asked about buying a kit for the class so I could make the cards at home later, which they were all to happy to oblige me with (cost the same as the price of the class) and told that I could come down and look at the cards any time I needed to finish them. A little later I asked one of the employees of the store why there wasn't any printed directions. I have taken my share of quilting classes, all of which included the printed directions or pattern for the class project so you could make it again. As I started thinking about it, all the quilting magazines include the written directions and supply requirements for every featured project. I have noticed that the cardmaking magazines list the supplies, then tell you what to do, but absolutely no size or dimension information. The employee explained to me, off the record, the reason for no printed instructions was simple, and it just drove her crazy for an instructor to even give out a photo copy of the project as well, the reason was that every time there is a class or make and take project that has had written directions with in days the project ends up as a display sample at the competitor store. You know, I could understand if there was a patented technique or such, but I know these things are not the personal work of these people. No new technique that no one else has done. I just think that if I am paying that much money to come learn how to make a card or album that I should be able to have the details - the measurements for the cut pages, the size of a punch used - so I can make it again if I like the project. Do the rest of you find this to be the way of your classes?

Okay, I am over it. Down off the soap box. On to other subjects.

Which by the way, reminds me. As you can tell by my postings, I have been on a shopping frenzy trying to get my supplies built up so I can make most anything I see that strikes an interest in my mind. I do believe that the shopping has concluded. Of course I will have to shop to replenish what I use in making something, but the expensive things are pretty much all taken care of. Except for SCAL, Cricut cartridges, maybe even a Slice. I must admit that last week end I did purchase a Disney cart for the Cricut while I could get it on sale for 29.99 feeling that I had to get at least one Disney set. You know, to go with my Disney stash, even if I'm not really big in to the whole Disney thing, but it's growing on me. How do I know my supplies are pretty much all set you ask? I bought a recent publication for cardmaking, can't find it at the moment to give the name, but two projects that I really liked listed the supplies and I actually have them all, including dies and punches, already purchased. So, can make them right here at home.

AND...that has been my goal. Now to finish a couple of projects in the works and maybe even look at getting in to a couple of swaps as well. I had a really rough night last night, was about 4:30 am before I was able to sleep, so I am calling it a night. I will post more when I have something to show. You know I can't just not post a photo though, so I will leave you with how our afternoon went.
Both of these are our rescued buddies and we were completely surprised to have them both just climb aboard so to speak. My daughter would kill me for this photo, but it is just too cute.

Oh yeah, and by the way, I did purchase something for myself that is totally unrelated to crafts. I bought a Nintendo DS hand held game system that I can carry and play at work during lunch. The office in the middle of nowhere and several of my co-workers have been spending lunch hour playing "Animal Crossing" a silly kids game that is kind of fun. I did however buy a crossword game for it as well.

Sunday, May 10, 2009

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

A very Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

Around here it was nice and quite. Actually pretty boring. Thought I would share some photos of my gifts though.

You know how it goes.

Clay pot $3.99
Paints $2.99
Pipe Cleaners $1.97
Tissue Paper $2.49
Styrofoam Ball $2.29
Dried Moss $2.59
Scrapbook paper $.26
Stickers $3.97
Printed photos $.50

A gift from the heart made by my youngest daughter, 12, all by herself.

PRICELESS!


All my kids together with printed quotes for me from each.


My card she made, the little envelopes all have great little notes in them including one giving me the gift of two papers of my choice from her very own stash of scrapbook paper.

Oldest son and his wife came by for a brief visit to tell Mom hello, ask if there was food, then play a video game with his brother before he had to leave to get ready for work.

Youngest son didn't have time for shopping, he is working part time at a near by restaurant and taking the finals for his college classes, so he told me he would buy me dinner this week. His last day of class is Tuesday, Wednesday he starts his full time summer job out where I work, along with working at the restaurant and taking one summer class. He does stay busy.

Oldest daughter texted me to check my email. She sent me photo of my grandson, the kindergarten graduate.
Isn't he handsome? Can't believe he is going to be six this month. I am making him a birthday card, since that is what I do now, make cards and scrapbook pages you know. I had gathered so many supplies and what have you over the past few weeks in order to start this new hobby that I was spending half my time looking for everything and buying some items over again because I couldn't find what I bought the first time. It was time to organize it a bit and if nothing else go through it all to see what I actually have.

This was my corner space when I first started this new obsession. Notice the room on the shelves, the little Cricut all by itself? Thinks have a way of changing. Just look at it now. It has grown a tad bit. Have more papers to play with. Way more stamps and inks as well. Here are some closer views.
As you can see, my little corner is pretty well stocked for a beginner. Notice the addition of the larger Cricut, several dies, all the jars of beads and box of trims was left over from when I did crazy quilting and used them to embellish the embroidery work.

Oh, and my sweet hubby gave me a gift certificate to the local scrapbooking store. Well, I didn't get any projects finished, but I do know where it all is at least.

I am off to bed, took allergy medicine and it has kicked in enough to stop itching. Need to shower and get some sleep. The roofing job is well under way, which is making me break out due to allergies, which has actually been milder than I had anticipated. A helper lost his footing a bit and stepped through the ceiling which has left us a nice hole to repair in the living room.

I will post more when have some on going projects completed.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Mini Album Class

I told you about the class that I was on the waiting list for which I ended up getting to go to because they had a cancellation. Well, I went and learned to make a mini album.

This is a view of it all closed up. The whole thing folds up and a ribbon ties it shut and it slides in to the box.










When it is pulled out and opened up, it has several places to put small photos, big tags that pull out of pockets can be used for photos or sentiments. It isn't quite finished yet as I still need to add a bit of glitter or something to the center of the flowers and around the butterflies. Which by the way are punched out of the brown print paper and turned to the opposite side which is a vanilla color.

Now, I will post some photos of it opened up so you can see what the whole thing looks like.




It was fun to do and I ordered three of the blank albums before the class ended.

I still do not understand why they do not give out printed directions to a project. I know that there are several customers that sign up for the class and then do not show up, they just pay for it to get the kit. The store is still selling a product, whether it be the kit or something we need during the class. Like I did, running out of glue runner (barely opened) and so pay for a refill and promptly used up all of that one. We did get photo copies (black & white) of the finished project so that we could see what to put where. However, all the papers where pre-cut for us and there was no printed directions to help in making additional ones. I do however have the one I made to measure from for the next ones. By the way, if you know of a source (preferably cheap one) that carries these type of albums please let me know where it is.

I have to say though, I learned a great tip from one of the other ladies taking the class. It has to do with glue dots. You know, those little round things that look like contact lens, sticky on both sides? I know I am new to this, so laugh if you like, but would peel one off an then stick it to the piece I wanted to attach to the project, peel it off of my finger (well most of it anyway) and then stick it to the project. This was just frustrating enough to make me want to give up on them all together. But, the lady showed me to attach the piece I am wanting to glue directly on to the circle of glue while still on the roll. Then pull the piece off and the glued piece is ready to attach. It really does work. OH MY GOSH, after I learned that I was a glue dot fool to attach the flowers to the pages. Now, to finish up with the glitter glue and some photos.

I am keeping this one, as I said, not only for myself, but for a guide for future projects as well. Now for a few things I learned from last night.

1. I do not like the bling that that looks like tiny diamonds strung together and shaped in to a design. If pulled off the plastic sheet too quickly it loves to twist all up and around, totally loosing the design and then breaking off.

2. Either I use way too much glue runner at a time or I need to find a cheaper source for the refills. I used my Xyron (shaped like an X) to glue all the leaves. Oh my, so fast and easy.

I am once again nodding off as I write and still need to head to the shower. Tomorrow I have to buy a bill of groceries and household items, plan out some meals, do just enough cleaning while I play with my new arrivals to make it look like I am working. Hubby will be stripping off the existing "shake shingle" roof to build a new one that is not. For one, shake or wooden shingles have become almost impossible to insure. It will take him quite some time to accomplish this, but by doing the work our selves is saving us literally thousands of dollars.

Okay, have crossed over to the ramble stage of tiredness so I am stopping here for today. I will post more projects when I have them this week end.

Neat gizmo.

Every once in a while you come across a neat little gizmo. This is one I had to share.

It is scissors for shredding. I sell AVON and this little gem is coming out in Campaign 11 which as of this posting is the current one. I was really surprised at how well it cut, the paper is folded in half so it cut through two pages. Can't you just see a grass skirt, a roof on a hut, a border of grass, eyelashes on a face? It even comes with a nice pouch to store them in.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Christmas in....May?

It has felt a bit like Christmas around here. All my online shopping is starting to arrive...and the bulk of it ahead of the time I was expecting.

Here are some photos of what arrived.
This was from JoAnn's online. Everything was at least 40%, had a special deal for shipping for $2.95 for all of it. I know it is hard to see the detail of everything, but in all of this what I looked forward to the most was the "Once Upon A Time" paper packs (4 x 6 inch) and the punches. The paper is just awesome. The cutter was on sale for less than $5 so figured it would be good enough for my daughter (12) to have so I could keep her out of mine. The punches are working well, have already tested them, which is something I always look for as I have fibro which makes it hard to work the hand some days. If I use it too much at a time it will start to tremor a bit and then draw closed on itself. One time when I had longer nails it was so bad that the nail cut in to the palm of my hand deep enough to draw blood. At any rate, I look for punches that punch completely and easily. The Mickey Mouse punch creates a design of the head about the size of a quarter and will be great in a lay out with some strings drawn on to look like balloons. I also have some really small rubber stamps that is an alphabet and is the perfect size to stamp in the middle of the punched design to spell out what I want. That idea, I must confess, came to me when I priced a set of rubber stamps that were the shape of the head with a letter inside. I already had the small alpha stamps and the punch was way cheaper than the Disney rubber stamps. The Sizzix was all on clearance, so very inexpensive and I really do like my Big Kick. I have learned something new about it lately. I need to purchase some extender blocks and something called a crease pad.

Now, if someone could just tell me how to make my Fiskar embossing plates work a bit better with the Big Kick I am all ears.
Next came my Sizzix box. I came across their site one night and found the clearance section. They were all on sale for about $3 -$4 each several were less than $2. You have to purchase a minimum of $25 though before they will accept your order. I met the minimum...barely.
Last, but never least, is my Stampin Up order. I just can't wait to get these new stamps going. Also, I have a great supply of ink now. The Manhattan Rose stamp coordinates with the Sizzix textured Impressions Manhattan Flower emboss plate. It is back ordered. I bought a roller wheel with snowflakes for Christmas and winter projects. I was unable to order an ink cart in white for the roller, so I ordered and uninked cart and white refill ink. Hope that it works out. One of the items I bought is the Sizzix Bigz Top Note die, an exclusive Stampin Up product, which I am sure will be great for cards. This week end when I play with it I will post some photos of what it looks like. I saw a card somewhere that I knew I wanted to make, watched the You Tube video, and bought the SU supplies I needed to make it. I was disappointed however that even though the packing slip states I received the Window sheets, I did not. Will have to contact SU about that though. Am hoping they can give me some type of time frame for expecting the back ordered emboss plate as well.

Okay, I am heading off to bed. Have had stomach bug for the past few days that has wiped me out. Tomorrow night is a class at the scrapbook store that I was on the waiting list for, so was thrilled to get a call this evening that they had a cancellation and I was now on the list for taking the class if I wanted. I did want. The class is for a mini album. If folds up accordion style and slides in to a small box.

So, for the next few days I won't be posting, will be busy making something and will show it off. I want to just grab a new item and make some project with it, but that will have to wait until at least Friday night. I still have a few more stamps coming in and the Christmas papers I found on Ebay. But...before I work on anything else, I have got to finish my chipboard album for mom, birthday cards for my son and grandson as well.

I have also made a decision, or rather a goal, of making one project featuring one or more of the items I have bought to get started in this obsession with out buying anything else. Like a card using my Cricut or the Sizzix. A card using each of the stamp sets I just purchased. And one other goal, to go through everything, each and every box and case I have in order to just see what I have. I have three containers of stickers and flowers. Have already found out the hard way that there is a special type of glue for vellum paper.

I am off to bed now, will pop in and post as soon as there is anything to show.

Monday, May 4, 2009

Spring Card

I told you I would post the photos of my weekend projects when I got home, so here we go.

This is the front of my spring (for lack of a better title) card.
Not my choice for a paper, but it is spring looking and it came as a little kit.

Now, when it is opened up.
The blue flower is hanging from a string, I used the back side of the paper, the sample project called for the other side to be used, which was yellow with white polka dots. I just didn't see yellow in the print with the white background. Oh, and they gave me a little purple flower shaped button for the center. Purple? Not seeing it honestly.

The photo colors are a bit off, what looks like purple flowers are actually a lighter blue, like a periwinkle.

This is a side view so you can see the flower hanging free.

Now, I don't know a lot about how things work with a make and take, but just so you can understand, this was a project done on Friday night. I was at the Saturday night session. It was a different project. I was kind of winging it so to speak.
Why are there no printed directions with a make and take? If I ever pick up the kit for another project that I did not get to sit through the class for, I am at least going to take a photo with my phone of the finished sample card.

A few other things that I was puzzled by:

(1) Kind of odd sizes for the cardstock. But I am new to this so that could just be the size of things.

(2) I measured and measured, tried it one way and then the other. The paper for the outside of the card (the yellow print) was a fourth of an inch shorter than the cardstock. I do realize that someone had to spend a lot of time cutting all these pieces for the kits, so can actually understand that little error. I ended up cutting the card stock down a smidge.

Not sure if it is the "politically correct" thing to do, but I did write down all the measurements for future reference. I like the card and can see a lot of possibilities with this card. So, I measured the cuts, the scores, even the two sizes of scallop die cuts. I truly see how my Cricut will be handy for cutting that piece. Of course, I can always put to use all the punches I am gathering as well. I can see some basic shape with a photo or stamp image in the middle. Hmm, will definitely have to put that on my "Things To Try List". The make and take for the Saturday night session was supposed to be a slider card, it is why I took the Saturday session. But...the papers picked for the card did not come in as planned so they went with plan B. I made a teddy bear and giraffe, the plan B, gave them to my daughter. They are absolutely adorable, but not my cup of tea.

Okay, shift in topic here. I have been working on this mini album for my mom. It is from BoBunny and what ever possessed to attempt this I have no idea. I was struggling with just figuring out how to make straight cuts for layouts and cards, then I had to take this on with all the curves and designs. What was I thinking?

This is the beginning. I have the pages covered. And so it started. I was absolutely in over my head with this. The second page the paper fell a bit short so I decided to use a marker on the edges, it is just awful looking. The third page was just beyond understanding, so I took the cheaters way out and just cut a straight piece of paper and glued it down to the edge of the scallops which I had used a charcoal stick on, finished off with a piece of silk ribbon to cover the paper edge. I actually like this one. The fourth page I tore the paper when cutting the larger of the holes. I glued copper colored eyelets in the smaller holes, the chipboard is too thick for setting them in the normal way. Frustrated I just put it away while pondering possibilities to cover the tear. I even went and talked to the teacher from my beginning scrapbooking class, she just remarked that scrapbookers do tear edges. If you have read my past entries you will know how I feel about torn edges.

At any rate, I found some lovely little silk flowers and brads with amber colored crystals in the top then glued those in to the holes. I actually like the way it turned out. Here are some shots of the pages I worked on at the crop session on Saturday night.

This is my mom sitting in her mother's lap. Her mother died about two or three weeks after this photo was taken. She was not quite two years old.

Then mom and dad on wedding day to show that she found love.

My brother and I to show she became a mom. See the story line direction?


I was kind of cute there wasn't I?

He was a great big brother, still is, but when I was growing up he was always there. We share a fondness for cherry Popsicles and cookie dough. So much so that mom would have to write our name on the boxes of Popsicles and would have to triple the recipe of dough in order to get one batch out of it. Her recipe called for rolling it up in wax paper, the first version of slice-n-bake I guess. We had no clue it was not safe to eat raw dough. In fact, my brother was the first one to see me.

I was adopted as an infant, was six days old, and when my adoptive parents came to get me, they were a little nervous and so my big brother was sent in to get me from the back pew of the church where I had been left. I am in contact with my birth mother, she made a hard decision at an even harder time in her life, but I am thankful and blessed that she loved me enough to think of me. I had a wonderful childhood.

Well, I have the rest of the story to work out and finish up so I can get it in the mail. I am sure it will be late, but she won't mind.

I guess I better end this and get moving, still need to eat a bite and then work on the album some more.

Quick Update

I am getting ready to head to work, so will have to keep this short. Just wanted to post an update on what I am working on. I am still waiting on my recent orders to get here. Amazon.com has been pretty quick with their shipping, even if they did split the order in to three shipments, two of which have arrived. JoAnn's has processed the order and it is scheduled to arrive May 7. My Sizzix and Stampin Up orders for some reason are still being processed, no shipment date yet. It would seem that if they are going to take your money the second you submit the order, they can at least send the order out with in a reasonable time.

I did a little local shopping over the week end as well adding to my supplies and some great tools. Love my Crop A Dile big bite. I can honestly say that everything I bought was on sale, most for 40% off. Glad I did the bulk of the shopping on Friday, seems the sales changed on Sunday.

I knew that Saturday would be a hard day. It was my dad's birthday, he passed away almost 6 years ago, it is still hard. I don't think I handled the death well and it has recently started to really come back on my mind. They are good memories though. Along those thoughts, my youngest son, 19, took a photo of dad taken in his army uniform and did a pencil drawing of him. It is just awesome.

The photo:


Wasn't he handsome?

The drawing:


Like I said, I think he did an awesome job.


Of course, it was National Scrapbooking Weekend and in honor of that the local scrapbooking store had a marathon cropping session. They had 8 hour sessions, I went on Sat. for the 6 PM - 2 AM session, which I only lasted about half way through.

I will post details and some photos of that this evening.