folded tree

Merry Christmas Eve! 

I have one more last tag to show you.  This one is so quick and easy you still have time to make one.....or two.....or....

Delicate Doilies set.  Crumb cake and whisper white cardstock.  Whisper white ink.  Brights patterned paper DSP, brights buttons, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds, sticky rhinestone and sweater trim.

I don't have any Christmas tree stamps.  So I just made my own tree.  Here is how:  (a video might be better for this but maybe next year)

I used my Coluzzle to cut a circle.  Then cut that in half.  Then crumple it up.  You don't have to crumple it, that is just my spin.

Decide how wide you want the bottom to be and fold.

Then fold it over back the other way.  Lining up the edges.  See?

Then line up the edge and fold over again.  This one came out even, which hardly ever happens.  If when you line up the edge and fold over and it hangs over the other side a little, just cut that part off. 

Does that make any sense?  See, a video might have been better.

Now you just stick a little glue inbetween and there ya go.

Look, I even took a picture of the back this time!

Alrighty then, thats all for today and the next few days probably.  Have a wonderful Christmas and give the ones you love an extra hug. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out. 

Blessings, b.

no directions

Merry day before the day before Christmas Eve. 

We spent the day today at my in laws celebrating Christmas.  I love my in laws.  You don't hear that very often huh?  I do though.  They are awesome people. 

So today I wanted to show you 2 of the tags we made at the meeting.  The first one was from the Ornamental Elegance kit.  It is the ornament you see on the cover of the Holiday Catalog.  You can buy all the supplies to make the ornament and then of course you have the stuff to make a million of them if you want.  The kit made 10.  I thought it would be fun to make them at the meeting. 

Except the kit came with no directions.  OY! 

Took me awhile to figure it out and then thought to check out the You Tube.  I was on target. 

So here is the kit version:

It is very pretty and pretty big.  It says Merry Christmas on the back.  I didn't think to take a pic of that. 

The kit is sold out but if you'd like to know what supplies to order to make your own, just let me know.


Here is another tag we made.  Alot more simple.

Watercolor Winter and Teeny Tiny Wishes sets.  Naturals white and soft suede cardstock.  Garden green, crumb cake and early espresso inks.  Big shot, woodgrain embossing folder, wood buttons, vanilla seam binding, window frame framelits, 2 way glue pen, dazzling diamonds and linen thread.


I really like this one.  I left the tails of the ribbon long because I thought it would look pretty on a package. 

Pretty glittery pinecones.

Again, I didn't think to take a pick of the back.  I used Fabulous Phrases to stamp the "to" and "from". 

Alrighty then, I'm pooped.  Everyone and their mother was on the road today and it took forever to get home.  Stay safe out there. 

Blessings, b.

Peace on Earth

5 days.  5 days left.  Really though, if you think about it, there are only 4 days left. 

Are you ready?  

Me neither.  Almost though.  I'll finish tomorrow. 

So I finally got the projects from our group meeting photographed.  Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

Greetings of the Season set.  Choc. chip and soft suede inks.  Very vanilla and soft suede cardstock.  Newsprint DSP, big shot, lg. doily die, window frame framelits, 1 3/4" circle punch, glass glitter, blender pen, sticky pearls, paper piercing pack.

It was overcast when I took these pics but I didn't realize how dark they are.  So envision more light, okay? 

This is supposed to be a gift tag but it came out more like an ornament.  It looks more complicated than it is too. 

Heres the order it goes in from the bottom up:

Large circle (I used my Coluzzle), doily, rosette, framelit, 1 3/4" circle. 

One other thing:  for the words, I used a choc. chip marker for the "Peace", cleaned the stamp and used a blender pen in the soft suede for the "on earth".  I don't have a soft suede marker so the blender pen and ink worked just fine. 

I used the Simply Scoring Tool and scored (2), 1 1/2" x 12" pieces of DSP, every 1/4".  See here on how to make a rosette.  The only different thing I did with this one was to use a glue gun instead of the glue. 

Then I put a line of the Tombow Multi Glue around the edges and put the glass glitter on.  Since I made these a few weeks ago I can see that it is already starting to tarnish.  Love it!

I think what I'm going to do is put a family pic on the back and hang it on the tree.......or.....I could actually put it on a package.  Hmmm....what to do, what to do. 

Alrighty then, I will be posting another project tomorrow.  I have to put a little tutorial together for one of them. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

not yet

Well, I haven't taken pics of the projects we made at the group meeting yet.  but I am caught up to date on the December Daily.  I just need to take the pictures to show you. 

So tonight I thought I'd show you another Christmas card. 

Watercolor Winter set.  Garden green, whisper white and crumb cake cardstock.  Garden green, riding hood red, whisper white and cherry cobbler inks.  Big shot, window frame framelits, sticky pearls, paper piercing guide and dimensionals.

I don't think I've shown you this one yet.  Pretty quick and easy card.  It would mail nicely too. 

Although I just remembered I used all my pearls at the group meeting.  I'll have to come up with something else. 

Watercolor Winter and woodgrain sets.  Garden gree, whisper white and crumb cake cardstock.  Garden green, whisper white, cherry cobbler and riding hood red inks.  Big shot, window frame framelits, cherry cobbler seam binding, sticky pearls and dimensionals. 

Here is another version.  I have yet to color in the poinsettia with my aquapainter.  I'll have to try that soon. 

Alrighty then.  That is all for tonight.  18 is on the train coming home for Christmas as we speak.  So excited to have her here for a whole month!  I have to get to bed because I have to get up really early to go get her. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

winter holly

I haven't photographed the projects from our stamp group yet.  I've just been so busy the last few days.  Cross your fingers I get it done tomorrow. 

So today I have another Christmas card to show you.  When I got Watercolor Winter from the Holiday catalog I made lots of cards with it.  This is another one.

Watercolor Winter set.  Garden green, whisper white and crumb cake cardstock.  Cherry cobbler, garden green and black Stazon inks.  Cherry cobbler seam binding, wooden buttons (holiday mini) paper piercing pack, aquapainter, big shot, window framelits and linen thread.


I really like this one.  It is 4.25 x 4.25.  I think it would mail easily enough.......maybe. 

When watercoloring on the whisper white you can't have your brush too wet.  The cardstock will pill and warp.  So this was quick and easy coloring. 

Alrighty then, thats all for today.  Oh!  Did you see The Amazing Race last night?  I even stayed up late to watch it.  I'm so happy The Beekman Boys won.  They were so nice the whole time.  I would love to go to their farm.  Those twins!  UGH!  They were horrible! 

I have one more funny thing to show you:

Proverbs 31 is my favorite and when I saw this I laughed out loud (LOL!) 

Okay, thanks so much for stopping by.  You make my day.

Blessings, b.

another goof up

I know, you're surprised I goofed up again. 

Oh, you're not?  

Yeah, me neither. 

So last month when I did a workshop I diecut the wrong size for a project.  We didn't notice it until they were ready to place it on the card. 

Luckily, I had the Big Shot and extra cardstock with me. So we took a little creative liberty.

Here is what it was supposed to look like:

Watercolor Winter and Greetings of the Season.  Crumb cake, very vanilla and riding hood red cardstock.  Riding hood red, crumb cake and Versamark inks.  Crumb cake seam binding, gold embossing powder, big shot, window frame framelits, lacy brocade embossing folder. 

So this was the original idea.  Yes, we could have just restamped the right size die cut but you know, that would have been too easy.

So this is what we came up with:

We diecut the bigger size and layered it.  It also gave us the opportunity to use the paper piercing tool.  I think they came out pretty great. 

I might even like it better.  Happy mistakes.


So I'm going to keep it short and sweet tonight.  It was a really long day.  We had our first stamp club meeting today.  I went a little overboard with the projects and I think I wore the ladies out.  I know I'm worn out.  But I had so much fun with them. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out. 

Blessings, b.

Hello? Hello?.......

.............is this thing on? 

So sorry for the absence.  I really hope it doesn't happen again.  :(  I miss you guys.

So much has been going on and I'm not even going to bother trying to tell you about it.  So we are going to pick up where we left off........sort of.

We are already into the 4th day of December.  What?! 

How did this happen?

Did you start your December Daily? 

I started mine and am up to date on it.  Can you believe it?  Me neither.

So here we go.  If you don't know what December Daily is about, check it out here.  Ali Edwards is the creator behind this awesome idea.  You can check out mine here:  2009 , 2010 , 2011

The popular size this year is 4x6 and who am I to argue?  Every year mine has been a different size.  I think the smallness of this one is making it easier for me to keep up with already. 

I think I'm going to get some 4x6 page protectors, although I'm not sure yet how I'm going to bind it all together. 

Anyway, I'm using Naturals White cardstock.  My main colors are going to be Crumb Cake, Naturals White, Red (Riding Hood Red and Real Red) and Gumball Green. 

This is the front cover.  Grace wanted to decorate the front so I'll let you know when she gets that done.

Taffy Alpha (retired).  Crumb cake, riding hood red and naturals white cardstock.  Riding hood red ink.  Big shot, label framelits, paper piercing guide, gumball green stitched ribbon.


Title page.

I cut one of the pages in half and did my journaling on it.  I used the gumball green marker, retired round tab punch, 3/4" circle punch, retired classic numbers and riding hood red ink. 

exciting stuff happening around here right now.

This is such a horrible picture.  I realized I had my ISO set wrong on the camera....but you get the idea. 

I tried getting all computer savvy on this one here.  Talk about easy!  I don't have a fancy photo program so I just opened the picture in "paint" and then layered a text box on top and typed my journaling, then just print like normal.  Cool eh?

So thats it so far.  I'm going to try really hard to keep up with it.  Cross your fingers. 


I do have a Christmas card to share with you but I think I'll  plan it for tomorrow.  I'll be showing the December Daily every few days. 

Now if you didn't get yours started yet, don't fret.  You can do it any way you want.  That is the beauty of the project.  There is no "right" or "wrong".  You could do the week of Christmas.  Or the week between Christmas and New Year's.  Or every hour of Christmas Day.  Its up to you.  The point is to just tell your story. 

I don't love every page of my old ones and really who cares?  The story is there.  That is what matters. 

So hop in.  You won't regret it.

Thanks so much for your patience while I was gone.  It gives me warm fuzzies that you're here. 

Blessings, b.

Yo Voté

This is what you get when you vote after 6:00 pm in So. California...........only Spanish stickers left.  Do all states supply stickers in other languages?  Did you vote?

I've had this card on the wall for a loooooong time.  I had to dust it off. 

God Bless America. 

Thanks for stopping by and hanging out.

Blessings, b.

it was the books' fault

Can it really be that long since I last posted?  Sorry about that.  I read a book.  Okay, 4 books. 

When I start to feel overwhelmed ( being too busy or thinking too much) I read.  Some people may drink or eat or smoke or exercise (smarter choice),  but I read.  I can enter someone else's world and forget about mine for awhile. 

Some may call that avoidance but I seem better able to handle things after I've zoned out for awhile. 

I pulled out the Nooker (Nook Color) and looked up FREE books because I'm cheap.  This one had very high ratings.  It is not the type of book I normally read.  I like historical fiction.  Historical fiction with some religion and romance thrown in and you got me.

This one had none of that. But because it had such good reviews I thought I'd try it.

Modern day girl security guard, danger, profanity and sex.  Totally not my cup of tea. 

But I gotta say; I digged it.  There are parts that are very sweet and laugh out loud funny.  Some parts are a stretch but not enough to make me stop reading. 

There are 4 books in the series with another coming out.  Check it out, the first book is free. 

This was another one I really liked.  Its not free now on the Barnes and Noble site....sorry.   There are more to the series but for some reason I like how this one ended just fine. 


Okay enough book talk.  I really just wanted to show you some bag tags I made. 

Jack of all Trades, Woodgrain and Fabulous Phrases sets.  Naturals white, old olive and crumb cake cardstock.  Pumpkin pie, old olive and black Stazon inks.  Window frame framelits, xl bird punch, hemp, big shot, sponges. 

I put these on the latest orders I delivered.  I wrote a little thank you on the back.  I hope they like them. 

I punched out the leafy branch from the bird punch and just used my fingers to curl up the stem and then just man-handled it to come around the stem of the pumpkin. 

Did you all have a nice Halloween?  This was the first Halloween that all my babies weren't home.  Yes, I might have teared up a little. 

We had a few extra girls over to trick or treat with us.  Did I get a pic of Grace by herself?  Nope.  So I cropped a pic because I knew you would want to see. 

I wanted her to wear ruby red slippers but they were against it.  She even wore a broom on her back.  We got LOTS of candy around here. 

Alrighty then, thanks for letting me share.  I promise to have more stampy projects coming up. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking things out.

Blessings, b.

Sorting Hat?

Hidey Ho!  I hope today finds you all just wonderful.  The weather is cooling off again.  It was 101 yesterday.  UGH!  (my children just informed me that I'm old because I always talk about the weather.  Well, I think the weather is interesting.....give me a break man.)

Anyway, this old lady has a little Halloween card to share. 

I don't send out Halloween cards.  Well I guess I do now because I'm going to send this to 18, along with a little care package.

Jack of All Trades and Teeny Tiny Wishes sets.  Basic black and very vanilla cardstock.  Black Stazon and more mustard inks.  Howlstooth and scarington DSP, 2 way glue pen and dazzling diamonds glitter. 

There was a card in the latest PaperCrafts magazine the used a layout something like this and so I thought I'd try it. 

Just cut strips of your DSP and lay them all wonky on the card and trim.  Great way to use up those little pieces.

You can see the glitter better here.  I can also see a cat hair in it.  Well she misses her cat so I'll just say I did that on purpose ;)

I had a hard time getting the hat to ink up completely.  Its the first time I've used this stamp and I guess I need to condition it.  (the best way to condition a stamp is to rub it with an eraser or stamp it with Versamark a few times) BUT, I decided that it looked kinda old and Sorting Hat-ish this way. 

I'm guessing everyone knows what the Sorting Hat is. 

I'm going to put this card in the box I'm sending her.  I've got some other goodies in there too.

Grace and I made her a bunch of goodies that she can give to her friends.  She'll give me a hard time that I made them but I'm hoping she will secretly enjoy it. 

Alrighty then, thats all for today.  I hope your weather is more Fall-like than around here. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging out.

Blessings, b.

halloween goodies

Hello everybody!  How was your day? 

Grace and I went shopping.  I hate shopping.  BUT we needed shampoo and stuff.  Of course we picked up a few things not on our list..........like caramel apples and.............underwear.  

We're friends right?  So I can share this with you.....right?

I've been needing some new undies for awhile now and everytime I happen to hit Target I look to see if they have what I want. 

And they never do. 

Its not like I want anything special.  Just white cotton.  (I know, I'm so boring)  Not neon.  Not nylon.  Not microfiber.  My underwear do not need space age technology!

Well today we went to the outlet mall and there was a store there that sold underthings (don't know the name of the store) and danged if they didn't have exactly what I wanted! 

I bought 2 packs.  You can never have too much underwear.

So anyway, I wanted to show you the hostess gift and door prize gift I made for that last workshop I did. 

Teeny Tiny Wishes set.  Black Stazon ink.  Tangerine tango, basic black and very vanilla cardstock.  Howlstooth and scarington DSP, neutrals buttons, hemp, 2 3/8" scallop punch, 1 3/4", 1 3/8 and 1 1/4" circle punches.

For some reason the picture will not get bigger. 

I used one of those paint cans from the $Spot @ Target.  I bought them a long time ago. 

I used my Simply Scoring tool to score the DSP every 1/4".  I really wanted black hemp because I thought it would look more like spider legs.  I punched the black cardstock with the scallop punch then punched it again lining up the points to the scallops.  Get it?

Fabulous Phrases set.  Black Stazon ink.  Naturals white and old olive cardstock.  Big shot, window frames framelits, howlstooth and scarington DSP, brights buttons, linen thread.

I made up a little door prize goodie bag with the leftover candy and put a couple of really old stamps in there too. 

You can see here where I folded the gray piece in on itself right behind the button.  Just to add a little bit of texture. 

I cut a thin strip of old olive cardstock to thread through the button and curled the top to resemble a stem. 


Alrighty then, thats it for today.  Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

sour cream for everyone!

Hey there! 

On Sunday I had another workshop.  Yay me!

This time I didn't spill or ruin anything.  Yay me!

But I did forget 2 items.  Dang it! (And there was one other thing I messed up on the card we made but I'll tell you about that in a few days.  It would be so unlike me to have things go perfect.)

Lucky for me the hostess had one thing and the next door neighbor had the other thing.  So it all worked out.

Remember the sour cream containers that were so popular sooooooooooo long ago?   Well we made one.  A pumpkin one.

Jack of all Trades and Teeny Tiny Wishes set.  Tangerine tango, old olive and black Stazon inks.  Howlstooth and Scarington DSP, big shot, window frames framelits, black taffeta ribbon, word window punch, crimper and 1/8" circle punch.

Isn't it cute?  Love that crooked little smile.

Just the perfect size for some Skittles or M&M's or gummy worms or..............

I remember when I was first taught how to make one that I had never seen a sour cream container quite like this.  I guess some fast food places use this design.   I'm sure if I had a mind to I could have figured it out on my own but I though maybe some of you are like me and just don't have a mind to.  So I thought I'd do a quick little tutorial on how to make them. 

Lets begin shall we?

Mine uses a 5"x6" piece of paper.

Turn it over and lay a thin line of glue down the short end.  I used my beloved Tombow Multi glue.  This was actually too much.  A little goes a long way.

Roll it up.  You can rub the paper on the edge of your desk or bone folder to get it going in the right direction first to help you out.

One of the ladies at the workshop had the idea of using a toilet paper tube to use as a form and then you could just slide it off.

Line up your seam off to one side and stick a little glue in there and pinch closed.

Get it?

Remember your crimper?  That tool that is collecting dust in your bottom drawer?  Get it out and crimp the end just 2 or 3 clicks.

Cool eh? 

This would be the time to fill it with candy.......or jewelry......or a gift card (you might need to start out with a bigger size piece of cardstock).....or tickets......or money..............

Then squish the open end the opposite way of the closed end and lay some glue in there.......

and pinch it closed and crimp it.  Now you've got a nifty shape.

People will be in wonder at your cleverness.  Then just punch a hole in the end and tie a cute tag on and you're all good to go.

These are so easy and you can do them for any kind of occasion.  Just think, showers, wedding favors, you could make 25 of them and turn them into an Advent calendar, classroom treats......

Try using different papers too.  Vellum makes a really fancy looking one.  Its easy to make them bigger or smaller too.  Just start with a different size rectangle.


Okay, I've got one last pic to show you.  I was working in the garden........I know you've been wanting a garden update huh?.............and I saw that the top of this carrot was good size so I pulled it.  It wasn't fully grown yet but check it out:

HA!  A 3 legged carrot!  Oh my, why is it so easy for me to get a kick out of veggies.  Remember "Carrots in Love"?





Okay, I'll stop there.  Thanks so much for stopping in and hanging out.  You give me warm fuzzies........which is different and much better than the hot flashes.

Blessings, b.