I'm pooped

Once again I'm apologizing for my lack of posting.  January started out so fun but its gone downhill and I'm just emotionally and physically pooped.

First some fun things.

My hours at work have been extended.  I now work more hours per day....which is a good thing.....but it has taken some getting used to.  God Bless my Asst. Principal, as she really went to bat for me.  Love her!

The Hubs has finally gotten his own job site to manage.  He is excited to try his own wings.  I know he'll do a great job.

18 went back to school and now has her own room.  She loves it!

I got a SU! order.  I haven't played with any of it!  But I wanted to show you these buttons.

These are the Basic Designer Buttons 129325, in the Spring Catalog.  The big one is just so much bigger than I expected.  So I thought I'd show you how big it is in comparison to a quarter.


Then the other day I got a letter.

 My 10 year anniversary came and went.  I didn't even remember. 



Now the downhill part.

This is my dad and grandma on New Year's Eve.  I know they don't look too happy here but trust me they were.  They are so much alike. 

My grandma passed away last Monday.  She was 92.  I'm so glad I got to see her one last time and kiss and hug on her.

I'll be going back to Iowa in a few weeks to help my cousin straighten things out with her estate.  Grandma was a tough old broad and left specific instructions that no memorial be held and to not even put her ashes in the cemetery until all the snow is gone.  My cousin is having a really hard time with that. 

So life has been a little topsy turvy lately.  Now that I have my travel stuff decided I'm feel like I'm coming up for air.  Things are settling down a little. 

I have cards to stamp before I leave so I hope I'll be able to show you something stampy here pretty soon. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and checking in.  You warm my heart. 

Blessings, b.

December Daily 2012

Okie dokie.  I took pics of my Dec. Daily album today.  So grab a cup of something yummy and maybe even a snack.  There are ALOT of pics today. 

note:  some of the pictures in the album are blurry and over or under exposed.  I decided I would rather add a blurry pic than not use it at all.  The memory/story is still there even though the pic is not crystal clear.  

The final size is 4x6.  I will probably just use some binder rings to put it together. 

This originally was going to be the inside of the front cover.  Grace had wanted to make the cover  but then changed her mind.  So I turned it over and made this the front.  Genius!

The inside of the front cover is just a little bit about each of us during this time in our lives.

The journaling for Dec. 1 is a 4x3 piece of cardstock.  I stamped the number on a wood sheet and used the lid of my chapstick for the ring.

I just glued the pictures to each other.

I don't have Photoshop or anything fancy.  So I opened Dec. 3 in Paint and put a text box on it and just put the journaling right on the pic.

Some days I had more than one picture.  I just added more pages.  Simple.

I plan on putting the Costco receipt in here.  The green is actually a pocket so I can slip it in. 

See that button up there?  That is one of the buttons that they were giving away at J.C. Penney.  I got a few of them.  I took off the pin part and then hot glued it to the tab.

The same day of the Newtown shooting, Grace's school was on lockdown when I went to get her.  Talk about scary!  I wrote on the pic with my white gel pen. 

I did my journaling on a cone wrapper from Coldstone.

On the 16th I did my journaling on a piece of vellum.  To cover the glue on the sides I put a piece of sticky strip and then covered it in glitter.  I know glitter is not a good thing to have close to pictures but I like it anyway. 

Another button from JCP.  I got behind on the picture taking and journaling for a week.  So I just put them all on one journal page. 

I was playing around with picture sizes and found a way to open a Word doc. and put 2 pics on a 4x6 page.

I printed the 3 pics as a wallet size and then just cut them down to fit. 

I'm leaving the back of the album blank. 

Alrighty then, thats it.  I so love this project.  A big reason I love this project so much is because there is no right or wrong.  It is whatever you choose to make it.  Not all of the pictures are perfect (probably none) but they tell my story. 

You can see here to find out what Dec. Daily is all about.  On the left side of my blog you will see links to my past Dec. Daily albums.   Plan on doing it next year.  You won't regret it. 

Okay, Downton is coming on pretty soon.  I have my tea all ready.

Thanks so much for stopping by and hanging with this lllloooooonnnnnnngggg post.

Blessings, b.

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great New Year's Day.  I spent mine traveling.......and building a snowman. 

We left 3 days after Christmas to visit my dad.  My cousin came with her family and brought my 92 year old gramma.  It was a fun family reunion.  Gramma was real tired though and happy to go home.

I did finish my Dec. Daily.  I will take pics of it tomorrow and will post it. 

I have just a few pics I want to show you of our trip.

We went to the Albuquerque Botanical Gardens to see the lights.  There were lots of people.  The lights were pretty cool.  It was kinda cold. 

The Boy couldn't come with us.....he had to work.  He had a good time staying home though.  A real good time if you know what I mean.

On the way home we stopped at 18's dorm and built a snowman.  The snow was so dry we had a really hard time packing it.  She wanted a much taller one but we did the best we could.  It was getting dark.  His name is George and I hope he is still there when she gets back to school. 


So now we are home and I have had so many chores to catch up on.  Last night we went and saw Jack Reacher.  It was pretty good but I was squirming in my seat a little.  The chick that is the lead character played Jane in Pride and Prejudice.  I kept listening for her accent...never heard it.

A few weeks ago I signed up for Ali's One Little Word.  I tried this on my own last year but I didn't do so well.  I did so bad in fact, I can't even remember what word I chose.  This year my word is Courage.  I may be showing stuff I do following the workshop. 

In other news, Downton Abbey is starting again tomorrow!  WooHoo!  I tried watching some of Season 2 today but there were too many things to do.  I'll have to at least watch the last episode before the new one starts.

Alrighty then.  I have lots of stampy things I should be doing.  Hopefully I'll get some of that tackled on Monday.  Tomorrow is getting the Christmas tree down and spending some of my Christmas money.  Well, probably ALL of my Christmas money. 

Thanks so much for stopping by. 

Blessings, b.

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.