vacation is over

I love vacation.......but today I had to go  back to work.  Tomorrow the kiddos have to go back to school. 

Time goes by so fast.

I'm going to try and be quick tonight.  No blah, blah, blah from me.  

You're welcome.

I got the rest of the pics printed for the December Daily.  Here are a few more days for you.

Day 13

day 14

day 15

I know it seems hard to read here, but in person its fine.

day 16

day 17

day 18

day 19

This page is a little hard to read, even in person.

day 20

Okie dokie, thats it for today.  I'm pooped and ready for bed. 

Thanks so much for stopping by.  I hope everyone is staying safe in the snow and ice.  The weather reports show some scary stuff.  Just stay home if you can.  I'll be thinking of you.

Blessings, b.

back from the dead

Okay, I didn't really die.  For a few days there I just felt like I wanted to.  Especially when I'm laying there, coughing up a lung and a pile of tissues is threatening to overtake me, and the children are home on vacation.

"I'm bored." 

"What's for lunch?" 

"Mom, the computer is doing something weird." 

"Where is my fill in the blank ?"  etc...............

UGH!  I love my kids.

Now, I did get to read a few books.  I reread the last Harry Potter.  I wanted to go see the movie but haven't quite made that yet.  And I read the first 3 Anne of Green Gable books.  I've never read them before.  I loved them!  Have you read them?  (I've been trying to read more of the classics this past year.)

I love reading about that time period.  Things were so much simpler then and Anne has such a wonderful outlook on life.  She makes the best out of everything.  I'm trying to be more like that. 

Things are very uncertain for me job-wise for the next school year and so I've been trying to make the best of everything.  Trying to see what opportunities are available, what other paths I can go down........trying to be somewhat excited for changes to happen instead of dreading them.  I have a hard time with change. 

But you know, when you're laying on the couch, (for more than 10 minutes because you actually do get up and fix the computer or help them with the dial on the washer or play a game of Scrabble where the biggest word you can conjure is "snot"), and contemplating your life, you notice how dirty the windows are.  Or the spider webs that are softly swaying in the heater's breeze.  Or the accumulation of cat hair on the back of the couch.  Or the dust on the lamp shade.  Or............the list goes on.  Really not the best of environments to be contemplating your life.  Kind of depressing actually. 



What was my point?  Really, I was going somewhere with this.  Give me a minute...................................

See?  I've been interrupted 13 times (not joking) since I sat down to write this and have lost my train of thought.  Its a wonder I get through the day.

It'll come to me.  Probably at 3:00 in the morning and then I'll forget again by tomorrow. 

Anyway, Mommy is definitely feeling better and things are starting to run smoothly again.  I'm playing catch up on so many things. 

I know, you'd think I'd be catching up on cleaning.  Yeah,.......no.   Although the laundry is done ;)

I've been getting the December Daily done.  And I am done except, I ran out of ink.........again.  I'm only 1 picture away from it being complete.  Woo Hoo! 

Here is the front cover:

Classic Numbers (retired) and Christmas Classics set.  Confetti white, early espresso and daffodil delight cardstock.  More mustard and real red ink.  Brights and Neutrals Patterns DSP, sticky rhinestones and dimensionals.


I started this without an album to put anything in.  Ali was making hers 6"x 8".  So I thought I'd just do the same.  Now I'm just too cheap and lazy to go find an album it will fit in so I just punched some holes and put book rings in them.  It works really well but I'm a little concerned about the fact that the pages are not protected.  I used the Tombow Multi Glue on everything so I don't think anything will fall apart.  Time will tell I guess. 

Then here are days 1-7.  A few weeks went by and I didn't even sit at my desk to do the Dec. Daily.  BUT, I did keep taking pics and a running list of anything that happened each day.  So that when I went back to put it all together, all I had to do was find the pic and put it together.  Next year I hope to be more on top of it everyday or so.

day 8

Not much happened this day so I put in Grace's Christmas list.  The boy didn't make one this year and nobody can find 16's. 

day 9

What you may notice is that I quit making each day a 2 page spread.  My life is just not that exciting to accomodate that.  So I started doing 1 pagers. 

day 10

This page didn't photograph very well. 

day 11

day 12

Alrighty then.  I have more done but I'll show you later.  I need to get the ink and finish printing the pics. 


Holy cow!  I just reread this whole post and its so long and hardly makes sense!  See what happens when I don't talk to anyone except myself and teenagers in too long?  I just ramble.  Okay well, maybe you just skipped all that talk and just went for the pics.  Does anybody read all my nonsense anyway?

Thank you so much for stopping by and keeping things tidy around here.  I hope you are all staying healthy.

Blessings, b.

Happy New Years Eve!

Hey stampers! 

Sorry again for not posting.  I've been sick.  The hubs got sick right before Christmas and decided to share.  How nice :(

So I've been laying low and trying to rest.  Those with children know how easy that is to do.  Luckily, none of the kids has gotten it.......yet.  Low fever on and off for 2 days. Sore throat. Sinus. Ear ache. 

I'm feeling better today and just wanted to let you know that I've been thinking of you and I miss you.  I'm still working on stamping stuff (December Daily and my grandma's book) but haven't sat at my desk in almost a week. 

I uploaded a bunch of pics from last week and wanted to show you some:

Christmas Classics set.  Real red, crumb cake and very vanilla cardstock.  Old olive, real red and going gray (retired) markers.  Newsprint DSP, Tombow Multi glue, silver glass glitter, brights prints DSP. 

This is a little box I made for my SIL.  We got her some lottery tickets (she loves to play) and I thought a cute box would be cuter than a cute card to put them in.   I didn't get the chance to take a pic of it until we were in the car on Christmas Eve to go to my inlaws.  No, I wasn't driving ;)

The box measures 3x5x11/2.  I wrapped the Old Olive print DSP around the box to make a belly band. 

I cut 2, 1 1/2" x 8" strips of the Newsprint DSP and scored them every 1/4".  Then folded and glued the ends together.  This accordian circle thing measured out 3 1/4" in diameter when finished. 

I put the Tombow glue along the edge and poured on the glass glitter.  This glitter is so cool because in a week or 2 it will tarnish.  Kinda nifty, eh?  I also used my silver glitter gel pen to sparkle up the bell.

After our lunch of grilled burgers (yummy!), we got Grandma and Aunt Renee to help make some ornaments.   I try to have some kind of ornament making day with the kiddos every year and this year we just ran out of time.  So I brought all the supplies with us to Grandma's house.  It turned out really nice because then we could send some home with Renee and leave some with Grandma. 

These are cinnamon applesauce ornaments.  Just mix equal parts cinnamon and applesauce.  The smell is awesome!  Let dry on a wire rack and hang around the house. 

My brother in law gave my husband a toy helicopter as one of his presents.  Seriously?  You would have thought he was 10, he was so excited to get outside and play with it.  Everyone had to take a turn.  Its very hard to steer (drive?) a helicopter.

Anybody know what the heck this is? It was on the neighbor's tree hanging over the fence.  The tree was loaded with them.  Of course we had to pick it and open it up.  I forgot to take a pic of the innards but it was hard and fairly solid and didn't really have any taste.  What is it? 

I thought the medallion thingy turned out so well on her box.  I decided I would make it into an ornament.  This is the back:

Just squint and maybe you can see it clearer.  I used my silver glitter gel pen to go around the outside of the pic. 

This is the official Christmas pic that was supposed to go on the, handmade with love, Christmas cards that never got made.  Its true........I never sent out cards this year.  I KNOW!  CAN YOU BELIVE IT?  Yeah well, thats what happens when you procrastinate and then get sick. 

So what are your plans for tonight?  We are staying home.  I'm going to enjoy my Christmas tree for one last night.  Its all getting put away tomorrow.

I just put a couple of chickens in the oven and the hubs just got home from work and I can tell he won't be up past 8:30.  He still doesn't feel very well.

We do have some sparkling apple cider to bring in the new year and the latest Shrek movie to watch.  WooHoo!  Living in the fast lane.

I have also been reflecting on this past year and have lots of things I would like to work on in the new year.  But I'll bore you with that stuff later. 

I do know that I'm so thankful for you, dear reader.  Who knew this blog would make new friendships and strengthen old ones.  I so enjoy sharing things with you and love it even more when you share things with me.  Thanks so much for coming by and letting me get to know you.

Blessings and Happy New Year!  b.

busy busy busy

Howdy stampers!  Its been another couple of busy days around here.  BUT, tomorrow is the last day of school and hopefully I'll get to take a little breather. 

I got ink today for the December Daily, so I can catch up on that this weekend hopefully. 

I wanted to show you what I made for my Secret Santa for yesterday and today.

Christmas Classics set.  Old olive and riding hood red ink.  Riding hood red cardstock.  Dotted ribbon punch, Newsprint DSP, 5/8" brad, silver glass glitter, retired ribbon and Tombow Multi Glue.

I made her a candle.  Cute eh?  Let me show you what I did.

This is a 4 oz. jelly canning jar. 

I took a votive size candle.  This one happens to be a PartyLite candle, Yuzu flavor.  I think its retired.  I love it though.  Anyway, take out the wick.......

and place it in the jar.  Place that on a cookie sheet or a pie tin.  That way you can stick it in the oven and it will sit straight.  You probably could have put it in the microwave, but I'm a chicken and didn't want the wax to boil over or anything.  The oven was slower and I could monitor it better.

Looks just like a urine sample huh? 

Sorry.

I put the oven on 275 and checked on it every 5 minutes.  After about 20 minutes I turned it up to 300.  After it all melted (another 10 minutes or so) I decided that 1 candle didn't fill it up as much as I wanted it to.  So I stuck another one in there. 

This little nub is what is left of the second one. 

After it wasn't blazing hot anymore but still liquidy, I stuck the wick back in and let it completely cool.   I have to say, it seemed like most of the smell was gone.  Did I burn it off in the oven?  I don't know.

Of course I had to make the lid cute.  Doing so probably gave my identity away but I just couldn't give her an ugly candle, could I?  I knew you'd see it my way.

I was going to try to keep it simple but you can see that didn't work.  I used the Newsprint DSP for the base.  A strip of riding hood red punch with the dotted ribbon punch on the side, old olive and riding hood red markers and a big silver brad.  I used the Tombow Multi glue to glue the lid into the lid rim. 

I put a small line of the Tombow glue around the top edge and pressed it into the glass glitter.  So pretty! 

I put sticky strip around the outside and stuck on some retired Riding hood red taffeta ribbon.  After I tied a big bow I decided it would look pretty hanging on the tree.  Just put a pic on the backside or something.  Just an idea.....

Then I needed to package it up. 

I had a white lunch sack and some kraft crinkly paper. 

I used my scalloped edge punch to pretty it up and stapled my tag to it.  TA DAH!! 

I did pretty good considering I still didn't spend any money.  This would make an excellent hostess gift or small presents for under the tree.  I think I'm going to try that ornament idea with the lid.  I'll show you if it turns out nice. 

Okay, I still have today and tomorrows gifts to show you but I'm so pooped out.  I have one last pic to show you though:

We had a cookie exchange at work today and so last night I needed to make some cookies.  That got the boy so excited.........so I told him he had to help. 


Alrighty then.  I'm going to bed.  Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

Christmas tags

Hidey ho! 

So, did you go shopping?  I always hit Target and Best Buy on Black Friday.  Yep, I'm one of those people.  Only 2 stores though.  I'm home by 9:00 am.  The kids never even know I'm gone. 

Did you have a wonderful Thanksgiving?  I'll tell you about ours later.  I have pics to share but my camera isn't cooperating.  I can't tell my story without the pics.  I'm so thankful we were able to spend it with family.  And that I didn't have to cook it.  HA!

I do have some tags to show you though. 

A Word for You and Christmas classics sets.   Riding hood red, crumb cake, whisper white and old olive cardstock.  Black Stazon and whisper white inks.  Big shot, top note die, tombow multi glue (green bottle), silver glass glitter (holiday mini), and dimensionals.

Aren't these cute?  The finished size is 4x4.  I made these to go on the bags for some customers. 

I know they are very plain and simple.  But I like it!  I stamped the tree in old olive ink on old olive cardstock. 

To get the die cut shape you just cut out a Top Note die.  Then turn it 90 degrees, line up the points and cut again.  Gives you a perfect square.  Okay, not a square, but you know what I mean. 

I used a dollop of the Tombow Multi glue and then poured the glass glitter on there and pressed it down a little with my finger.  It gives it some nice dimension.  It almost looks like a big ol' fat snowflake. 

Then I wrote my little thank you on the back. 

Alrighty then, I am pooped out!  I think I'll sleep in tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by.

Blessings, b.

blah, blah, blah and a card!

Howdy stampers! 

Ahhh....Thanksgiving break.   Yes!  Although all I've done so far is clean.  And clean some more.  After the tournament last week, my house was seriously neglected.  Now we are back to normal.  Whatever that is.

So whats on the agenda this week? 

I do love me some Harry Potter.  And Ron.  I love Ron too.  Oh okay, Hermione is wonderful too. 

The boy said he wants to go to but he wants to read the book first.  That is my fault.  When they were little and wanted to see a movie, I made them read the book first if there was one.  But man!  I don't want to wait around for him to read it.  We'll see how industrious he gets. 

Harry watches me stamp.  He hangs on the blinds by my desk.  He is wondering why I haven't seen his latest movie.  I'm working on it Harry. 

Really, I don't talk to inanimate things........often.


What else is coming out?

This comes out next week.  I'm getting it but will save it for Christmas.  Give me a chance to read the book again. 

Okay, I do have a little stamping goodness for you.  

Christmas classics set.  Whisper white and real red cardstock.  Old olive ink.  Neutrals Patterns DSP, scallop trim border punch, real red satin ribbon and misc. button. 

What a sweet simple card eh?  I totally ripped this design off of Connie Collins.  Love her stuff!  Really easy card to mass produce.  Not so sure about mailing that big ol' bow though. 



Now, normally I don't endorse naked buttons.  They need thread!  I originally wanted to use the 5/8" brads.  The silver one looks so pretty for the bell, but I was doing this for a workshop and I didn't have enough.  So on with the naked button.  I used a glue dot to stick it on there.  Easy peasy!

Okie dokie, its nighty night time for me.  Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

just call me, Dr. Beth

Howdy!

It decided to be Fall today.  It only got to 65 degrees and was windy and had big puffy clouds.  Perfect!  I hope your weather was as perfect wherever you are. 

I want to show you another project we made last week.  Everyone gives out gift cards, right?  Well you might as well put them in something super duper cute.  That makes the gift card extra special. 

Christmas Classics and snowflake from Season of Friendship sets.  Crumb cake, blue bayou and whisper white cardstock.  Whisper white craft ink and old olive and real red markers.  Dotted ribbon punch, 1/2" circle punch, 1/8" circle punch, crimper, crumb cake envelope, real red striped grosgrain ribbon, curly label punch, hemp, corner rounder and sticky rhinestones.

This is one of the first things I learned how to make almost 8 years ago when I became a demo.  I'm such a loser I can't even think what its called; envelope gift card holder?, crimped envelope envelope?, uuummmmm........help me out here folks. 

Anyway, you take a regular envelope and seal it.  Then lop off 1 1/2" from the side.  Then crimp the large piece.  (You remember the crimper right?  That tool you hardly ever use?  Well dust that bad boy off).  Then the little piece you cut off will fit on like a lid.  Cute huh?

 
I used the snowflake from Season of Friendship and stamped snowflakes on the lid and then swiped the white ink pad along the edges.  I punched a strip of Blue Bayou with the Dotted Ribbon Punch and stuck it inside the lid so just the little scallops showed. 

Inside I made a little card.  I used the markers to ink up the stamp.  I used my AWESOME Tombow Multi glue to put a very thin line of glue on 3 sides of the whisper white and left the top open to slip the gift card into. 

For the tag, I just cut a 2 1/2" x 2" piece of crumb cake and rounded the top corners.  Added some snowflakes and punched ribbon.  Check out the holly berries.  Can you see?  I used a red Sharpie to color in some of our Sticky Rhinestones!  Can't you just see all different colored rhinestones on a stamped tree?  I see one in my future. 

Anyhow, I used my old olive marker to ink up just the leaves.  Then punched out.  Stuck on some holly berries and put it on the tag.  I love it!

Put it all together and tied it up with the striped grosgrain.  Tie on the tag and you're good to go.  Super easy way to dress up a gift card.  I like to hide the gift cards in the tree.  That way they have to look for them.  When they're all pretty like this, they just look like another ornament.  Makes it more fun.  For me anyway.......

late sunflower

Alrighty then, I know you're all dying for a garden update.  Since the weather has stayed pretty warm here (it was 100 last week) the veggies are hanging on.  But the bees seem to have left.  So I did a little artificial insemination.  Yes, you can just call me Dr. Beth from now on, thank you very much. 

I had a few zucchini that were blooming and there were no bees around so I took it upon myself to do the deed.  I had done this earlier in the summer and had great results.  You just take a male flower, take off the petals and, (ahem) rub the stamin inside the female flower.

I know, I know, its all very embarrassing.  But sometimes you just have to help.  Become one with nature and all that. 

Okay, thats all for today.   Thanks so much for stopping by and putting up with me.  You guys rock!

Blessings, b.