A Sign?

We have been thrown some curve balls this year, but despite all the turmoil, anxiety, and the unknown - we're still here! Right now I am potty training my two-year-old and I just keep thinking this has got to get better, and I know it will, but my patience is wearing VERY thin. So tonight after a crazy storm that seemed to almost come out of nowhere (much like many of the things that we have encountered this year), we saw this. This is the second rainbow in as many weeks, and I can't say that since I moved to Virginia, about 10 years ago, I have ever seen one. I felt like it was a sign! Sometimes you just have to get through the bad to get to the good. Here's to rainbows, long journeys, happy healthy families, and potty trained two-year-olds!

Have a fabulous weekend!

PTI - Acetate Blog Hop!

This is my first time joining in on all the fun with the PTI Blog Hop! I know I am a *little* late, I have two little ones who don't want to go to sleep this evening! UGH! Love 'em anyway!

Back to PTI, the challenge this month was to use acetate on your creation. I used it as the window for the bird. I couldn't quite figure out where to put the sentiment after I had the whole thing put together. Still not sure I figured it out! he-he!

My card is pretty self explanatory though. But I do want to share my inspiration with you - Pottery Barn of course. This was my inspiration for this card... You can click on the link for a better picture. http://www.potterybarn.com/products/p10028/index.cfm?pkey=cbabqltall

I have been saving this picture from the catalog for months and am now just getting around to using it. Candice's set Birds of A Feather spurred my imaginaton! Who doesn't love Pottery Barn?

Have fun blog surfing and enjoy the hop! Have a fabulous evening!

Hello Again!

Ok, here I am again apologizing for being a bad blogger. I really never expected some of the turns life has taken for us over the last few months. Trust me when I say blogging was one of the furthest things from my mind. So, thanks for hanging in there with me! This card is for you :-)

*** ETA: Once I saw the pic below on the screen, I felt like their was too much white space above the bird, so I added a little slit with my craft knife and some sponging over and now I think I like it better the old way :-( Oh well, too late to change it now!

I haven't had a desire to create much of anything lately. It could have had quite a bit to do with the fact that my craft area looked like it was in the middle of a hurricane still in progress! BUT... my WONDERFUL husband bought me some new cabinets for Mother's Day, which he put together on Father's Day - LOL! Here they are...and I LOVE THEM! I feel like I am in paradise! I don't need much, just new cabinets.

I needed some motivation and was blurfing and found Sarah's inspiration piece, just what I needed to get started again. I am seriously HOPING that I can make it at least a weekly update - HOPING!

I have had this chipboard bird for years, and never used any of them. I bought some fun flock months ago and never used that either - bad crafter! So, Sarah's inspiration piece forced me to finally use both and then some. I love the Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush and Kraft cardstocks from PTI - their paper is such a nice weight, well worth every penny :-)

Ok, well we are off to run in the sprinkler and paint doors - oh, what fun! Have a fabulous Friday! We are heading to a summer solstice party tonight, enjoy the longest day of the year!

What I used:

Stamps: PTI Mixed Messages and Polka Dot Basics

Paper: Kraft, Berry Sorbet, Sweet Blush all PTI, Chocolate Chip SU, Vanilla unknown

Ink: Ranger Distress Antique Linen, Staz On Timber BrownAccessories: Circle Nestabilities, Cuttlebug and Flower Dies, Ric Rac American Crafts, Corner Rounder, 1/16" Whole Punch, Flower Thumb Punch, Rhinestones, Fun Flock in Caramel and Dimensionals

I think that's it!

Everybody Has A Little Princess In Them...

My daughter is only 2 and a half, but she is quite the little princess. Over night she transformed from the little girl who never wanted to wear a dress, to only wanting "princess" dresses (as she calls them) and twirling in front of the mirror for 20 minutes at a time. Although we have many struggles over the outfit for the day (an issue I am sure we will not overcome for many, many, many years :-), I have to admit that it is pretty darn cute to see her so excited about fru-fru frilly dresses. When she shows up at the park wearing pants/shorts my mom friends know I won that day! (secret, sometimes I just give in because she is just so cute!)

So, in my search for a way to keep all her girly barrettes in one place (hard to do considering she has a lot of bows and bulky barrettes to go with her dresses), I came across a ballet barrette holder that I just thought was the cutest thing. The one I saw was much smaller and made of covered cardboard, so I decided to pretty it up a bit. Here is what I came up with...

The 9x12 canvas is painted with acrylic paints, the flowers are the Bride flowers from Michaels (they take paint REALLY well!). I highlighted the centers of the flowers with stickles or pearl, whichever matched the colors better. Every other flower is popped up with a dimensional glue dot. I used two different widths of ribbon to make the waist and the bows. You just clip the barrettes onto the long ribbon strips and you have a prety way of storing your bows without them getting all scrunched up! My daughter loves it!

Apparently so do moms. I have made 9 of these over the last four weeks and am finishing up my tenth today. They are custom order to match the color the customer wants. They can also be personalized with a name or inspirational word or phrase. After that showcase day I wrote about a few weeks ago, I got several orders and the possibility for more on the horizon. The one I am finishing today is a present for a dance teacher, so I HOPE as others see it hanging in the studio, I may get some more orders. They are a bit time consuming, and with two little ones I have to keep coming back to it over and over and over again - LOL! But, I have to tell ya, I am starting to hate the color pink - LOL! Everyone wants pink, I want to do something green and yellow or purple, anything but pink! he-he!

Hope you enjoyed visiting today! Make today fabulous!

Nestabilities Anyone?

Short post, but just curious... I have an opportunity to purchase the whole set of circle nestabilities at a really great price (a friend doesn't want them), but I already have the large scallop circle set, which would then mean I would have two. I don't need two of the same set - I know, not a phrase we crafters often here ourselves saying - LOL! So, I would like to sell mine.

I used only one of them once, so they are not in their original package, but I could put them in a CD case for you??? I just haven't had the time to use them. Would anyone be interested in buying the set I currently have? I want to sell them for $22 plus shipping, and would likely only take Paypal. Let me know if you are interested, otherwise I might just put them on ebay - UGH! Thanks!

Have a great day/night!

One More Thing...

One more thing before I leave the computer for the day... I wanted to share a fabulous Blueberry muffin recps that I found at Allrecipes.com. LOVE that site! I have made it several times an changed tings a bit here and there and found that this version is THE best! For us busy moms out there, this is a quick and easy way to get another serving of fruit into our kids, (we all know how hard that can be sometimes :-) Try it out!

World's Best Blueberry Muffins

INGREDIENTS:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar (I don't use that much, I use a little more than half cup)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil (I substitute with unsweetened apple sauce)
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
1 cup FRESH blueberries (frozen really do NOT taste the same)

TOPPING
1/2 cup white sugar (I use brown or topping)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS: Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners. Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil (or apple sauce or you can half/half this) into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.

To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

Delicious! Start your Sunday off right! Enjoy!

No Where Near Needing This...

Like I said last week, although my blog took a little time off, I unfortunately did not. We had a showcase day at my MOPS group a few weeks ago to show off our home businesses. Now I don't really have a home business per se, but since people had been encouraging me to show others what I can do, I thought this might be a good opportunity to do that. So, this is one of the projects I did for that showcase.

I am in Love with Cosmo Cricket's Sugar line! It is so girly, yet it's classic too. I have decided that is what my daughter's room will be decorated with. I am going to cover her name letters with it too. I just love the colors and the patterns! Gotta stock up now before they yank it from the shelves to make room for the new stuff, which I have to tell ya does not make my heart go pitter patter :-( like this does.

Guessing by now everyone knows how to make one of these! I used Maya Road rub-ons for her name and the flower is from MM. I did cover the inside with paper too, and attached an organza pull ribbon bag to keep the tooth and money in.

I actually got three orders for these in their choice of color scheme. Not bad!

So, what do you think?

OK, well off to clean and hopefully stamp tonight. I have a lot of painting to do to - you'll see that next. I miss my stamps! :-(

Have a fabulous Sunday!
Thanks so much for stopping by!

What I Used:

Paper: Cosmo Cricket Sugar Collection

Accessories: Maya Road rub-on letters, MM rub-on flower, Ofray cream satin ribbon, organza bag (inside), MM Copper Flower Brads, Tin

A Little Something...

I wanted to share this project because this was very special to me. A while back in this post I wrote about my cousin, Tricia, who was going to be starting chemo for ovarian cancer. Anyone who knows Tricia (or as she calls herself these days *wink* Patty) knows how much she loves to play waitress. She takes coffee orders at every family get together. She never makes the coffee, just likes to take the orders :-) So, when she finished her last chemo treatment, we went up to visit and celebrate with her and her family. She was too busy on the phone with her boyfriend to really notice we were even around :-) but she did enjoy this little gift I made for her - her very own personalized notebook. My 11 year old cousin was there and she loved the polka dots, apparently they are big right now among the tweens :-) She had polka dot socks on and a bandana to boot, so I know my notebook was cool (is it still cool to say cool?) LOL!

The notebook was actually pretty before I covered it, but I did it anyway. I covered the notebook with Mod Podge and adhered the paper, and added the rub-ons (American Crafts) for her name. The P and the heart chipboard are painted with Making Memories Specialty Glaze in Ruby, see the close-up it's pretty shimmery (love it!). I sprayed the cover with an acrylic sealant before I attached the ribbon.

The sentiment obviously has special meaning for her now more so than ever; I know it does for me.

Hope you have a fabulous weekend! We will be very busy again, starting with my son's t-ball game at 8:30 am - UGH! We are test driving cars this weekend for my hubby, I'm praying that goes well because me and car salesmen don't go well together :-(

What I used:

Stamps: PTI Out On A Limb

Paper: MME patterned (I think), Pink is Carnation from Martha Stewart, PTI White

Ink: Staz On Black

Accessories: Ribbon Michaels Basic Basic Collection, American Crafts rub-ons, Mod Podge, Acrylic Sealant, Scallop scissors, Making Memories Specialty Glaze paint Ruby, Black brads MM, Flowers Prima, Chipboard letter Colorbok and heart MM

It's Been Forever...

It has been a while since I last posted. We have been doing a lot around here. We had a *HUGE* yard sale last weekend and I spent many, many, many hours going through closets, drawers, cabinets... to get everything out of here. Unfortunately, it rained at 11:00 so we didn't sell as much as we would have liked, but we made some ***mad*** money and the rest goes to the American Veterans, so we feel good!

I also spent a great deal of time getting a portfolio of things together for a showcase day we had at my MOPS group last Thursday. That is probably the biggest reason I haven't posted. I was busy gathering goodies for the show and creating like mad. It was pretty successful, not all my stuff is stamping. I have a lead to be commissioned on painting some canvases for a woman who makes beaded things and bows. She sells at a lot of craft shows and wants to make some of my stuff part of her booth. I'll show you the biggest seller in a post this week.

For now, here is a card I did for our MOPS coordinator who just turned 40 a few weeks ago. Unfortunately, we were not able to go to her party, since we had NO babysitter. We don't have any family around here, or at least none that we claim :-). So finding sitters has proved to be our "BIGGEST" problem over the years. My kids do just about everything with us, we don't have much of a choice. Good thing we like them! :-)

So, for this card, pretty self explanatory really. This was my first tent topper. I bought these stamps from Shannan Teubner (thanks Shannan! :-) a while back when she was selling some of her "old" stuff. It's true what they say "One (wo)man's trash, is another (wo)man's treasure!" I love this martini girl!

I colored her with Prismacolor Pencils and OMS to match the polka dot paper, which I think is MME. The scalloped bottom is done with a corner rounder. The scallop around the image is done with scissors, while the scallop around the sentiment is a marvy punch. I don't have the oval nesties *yet*; they're on my long list! I added some stickles across the top of the drink for some added sparkle, and colored some faux baubles with a sharpie to match the ribbon . I popped up the sentiment with dimensionals and other than that, pretty darn simple!

Hope to be back this week with some more samples. Things are dying down a little around here, so perhaps I will...

Have a great week!

What I used:

Stamps: Inky Antics

Paper: PTI White, Base is Carnation by Martha Stewart, Polka Dots MME, Pink is Prism (don't know what shade)

Ink: Staz On Black

Accesories: Faux Baubles from Michaels, Sharpie marker, Lime Green Stickles, Liquid Pearls in Petal Pink, Prismacolor Pencils and OMS, Scallop scissors, Marvy Mega Oval Punch, Oval Coluzzle, Paper Piercer, Ribbon Basic Basic Collection rom Michaels, dimensionals