I'm still here!

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I haven't really done any crafting whatsoever. I made one name frame for a friend, but forgot to take a picture before I gave it away. I just haven't felt like doing much lately.

We have done a few fun things with the kids the last couple of days, but no pictures to show. We have made homemade butter, cheese and mayonnaise. I found some really great tutorials on YouTube. All you have to do is search their web site for "how to make......" It was really fun, and you probably have most of the ingredients already sitting in your fridge or pantry. When we do it again, I'll try to take pictures. We are going to make Chicken Salad Sandwiches for dinner tonight using our homemade mayo. Mmmmmm, good. And last night I made Chocolate Chip Cookies using our homemade butter. They were so good. Anyway, on to another subject.

I recently got a blog award from Twila. You should go check out her blog. She has some really neat projects. The rules of the award (To pick up the Lemonade Stand Award):- Comment on this blog.- Cut and paste the award logo and use it in your own blog.- Nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude.- Link to your nominees within your blog post.- Comment on their blogs to let them know they've received the award.- Link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation. So, here are the nominees (drum roll, please)....... Aubrey, Nancy, and Hope. Now, I know I don't have 5 blogs listed, but I think I'll just stick with these 3.

I'll try to have something crafty to show you soon. I'm kind of in a creative slump right now, so I'm not promising anything great! Do you have any ideas or suggestions? Maybe you could help me out.

Later today I'm hoping to go weed my flowerbeds. The grass and weeds have taken over. It's like a jungle out there! I'll take some before and after photos to share with you. Well, I think that's all the news for today. Talk to you later!

Fishing Rodeo

Hello everyone! I haven't done any stamping since my frame class last Friday, so I don't have anything to show you :( But, we took the kids to a fishing rodeo last Saturday, and have some pictures of that! I hope to get them printed and onto a scrapbook page soon. This is Bubba and Amanda at the start of the day getting ready to catch some fish.

Bubba caught 3 catfish within the first 10 minutes. Here he's trying to get one off the hook. He used a rag to hold it because they are really slimy and they can sting you with their fins.

Here's Amanda with her one and only catch. She had at least 3 get away though. She did a pretty good job of baiting her hook and casting. She loves to do everything the boys do. In fact, last week I put a little sample bottle of lotion in her room, thinking she'd like some lotion. After all, don't all girls like lotion? Well, when she found it, she asked me what it was. When I told her it was lotion for her hands or legs, she told me, and I quote, "I don't want any lotion, cuz I'm a tomboy and boys don't wear lotion."

Here's Bubba,

and here's Sammy...

Here we are all fishing.

Sam has an old 1955 Willys Jeep, which we drove to the fishing rodeo. It was only about 5 miles from our house. On the way home, it started giving us trouble. It would shut off, and Sam would let it roll to a stop, crank it again, roll again, crank again, roll again, etc... (No, we're not Rednecks, what ever gave you that idea?) Sam thought it was the fuel pump having a bad connection or something. It turns out we were just out of gas. We were only about 2 miles from the house, so we all jumped out and had a nice (hot) walk home. This is Sammy. What a cutie pie.

Of couse, this is my other half, Sam. He looks all cool in his hat and sunglasses.

Here's a great shot of Sam and Amanda. She's affectionately known as "Baby Girl." Bet you can't guess why.

And that's my tale of the Fishing Rodeo. See you next time!

Frame Class

On Friday night I held the first sessionof the Name Frame Class. I was planning on taking pictures of everyone working, but I got busy and forgot!! Oh well, I only got one of Dee working on her frame. Here she's almost done, trying to see what it would look like in the frame.

These ladies are my Mom (on the left) and Kelly (on the right). Hi Kelly!! How do you like seeing your picture on the web? I'm sorry the picture has a glare on it, but you can get an idea of what they look like. Everyone's frames turned out so pretty. They all had their own little differences so they were similar, but different.

Here's Dee with her finished frame. I was impressed with how well everyone did. Lisa managed to sneak out without her picture being taken. She's the sneaky one.

I have one more session for this class on May 29. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for stopping by!

This is the Name Frame I made for myself. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you should probably remember this frame I made as a gift. Well, I had a couple requests for a class on this, so I decided to go ahead and make myself one and hold a class. My husband said I should take step by step pictures and do a tutorial, so I'm taking his advice. Here is my first tutorial.

First, you will need to collect some supplies. You'll need the following items:

1. Picture frame with (3) openings for 4 x 6 photos


2. Designer Series Paper of you choice. I used Le Jardin


3. coordinating card stock


4. vellum


5. vellum runner


6. Snail


7. temporary adhesive


8. foam mounting tape


9. craft knife


10. paper trimmer


11. assorted embellishments of your choice

The first step is to take out the matting of your frame and cut out the dividers with your craft knife. This will make one large opening for your name.

I sponged ink around the inside edges of my mat, but that is up to you. The opening is now wider than 12", so you must cut a 12 x 12 paper in 1/2 and match up the pattern to hide the seam.

Stripes work best for this because you can match up the stripes. They'll be camaflouged and therefore hide the seam better. Make sure you cut your paper so the stripes will run up and down.

Adhere your 12 x 12 strips together, matching up the stripes. Now your paper is wider than your opening.

Trim off the paper so it's about 1" wider than your opening.

Next, print your name onto vellum paper. I used the Monotype Corsiva font with italics. The size was about 80. If your going to put the first names or anything else, print that onto a neutral card stock.

Cut out each individual letter, and cut out different patterns of DSP the same size to put behind the vellum. Now your beautiful DSP shows through the vellum.

To attach your vellum to the DSP, use Vellum Runner. It's the only adhesive I've found that doesn't show through the vellum. Put the adhesive onto the DSP then attach your vellum letter.

Layer those squares onto coordinating card stock. I made each layer 1/4" bigger than the last.

Now, to get your letters on there straight, lay your paper on grid paper nice and square. Lay a ruler on a line, and and bump all your letters up to the bottom of the ruler. To make sure they're centered, find the center of the paper, and lay down your middle letter first. Make sense?

Now you want to start to embellish it. I chose a coordinating card stock, and used my new eyelet edge punch. Now remember, your opening is wider than 12". So you'll have to cut another piece of card stock and match up the punches to make a seam. Make a note that the card stock is about one inch lower than your bottom edge, to make extra room to attach it at top and bottom of the mat.

You can barely see the seam in the Always Artichoke. Make sure your seam is on the right hand side, because we're going to hide it later.

I chose these flowers from the Pretties Kit to embellish with. I colored the big one with my Bashful Blue marker on the petals and left the center white.

I used my So Saffron marker on the medium flower. I didn't end up using the smallest one, but it was Always Arthichoke. Sorry this picture is so blurry.

I used my blender pen to soften and blur the lines, adding and removing color until I liked how they looked. It was very easy and I love the results on the flowers. I then layered them and added a halfback pearl to the center of my flower.
I used my *gasp* Creative Memories cutter to cut out the oval for the first names and Bible verse. I really like how this tool works, and I haven't ever bought the Coluzzle. I layered Very Vanilla onto Bashful Blue, then onto Always Arthichoke. Once I had all my main pieces, I just started laying stuff out and moving it around until I like how it looked. I used the ovals to cover up the seam in the Always Arthichoke.

Once you know the placement of all the "Stuff", it's time to attach it to your mat. I used Foam Mounting Tape, folded in half to make it thicker. Attach it all the way around the inside of your mat. Then just attach your finished piece, making sure it's straight.

The Pretties Kit flowers were attached with glue dots after my main panel was attached to the mat. So were my ovals. I put Snail on the area where the ovals came in contact with the mat, and I put some mounting tape where they were supposed to be raised off the main image. Then you just pop the whole thing into your frame and you have a beautiful work of art.

If you decide to try one, let me know!! Send me a link and I'll be sure to check it out. Thanks for stopping by, and have a great day!!

Boys Can Stamp, too!

Here are the cards my boys made for me on Sunday. The first one is from Bubba. He asked me for help to cut and score it straight. Isn't that cute? Then he used the ink and stamps I already had out from making my own cards the day before.



The inside says "hope your day is blooming with love." I think it's so sweet and I'll keep it forever!!


This one is from Sammy. He didn't use any stamps, just wrote what he wanted to say! Sammy didn't ask for any help, of course if you're 12 years old, you should be able to cut and score straight! Oh, he's standing here reading over my shoulder, and he said he didn't score it!! Now I'll have to go make sure he just folded it straight. LOL.

I love the drawing of the heart inside. So sweet.

On another note, this Friday is the first Name Frame Class. If you are coming, please be sure to bring the following items:

1. paper trimmer
2. scissors
3. vellum runner
4. picture frame
5. adhesive

The vellum runner can be purchased at Carolina Stamper for $5 or $6. If you don't bring the required supplies, I will have some available for use for a fee. I'll be calling everyone to see which date you plan to attend and remind you of supplies.

I plan on posting a tutorial for the Name Frame on here soon. That will be interesting!! I've never done a tutorial before, but I took pictures of every step while making my frame, so it might take me a while, but it will get done!!

Thanks for stopping by today. I'll see you later!

Mother's Day

Hello, everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day!! Mine was pretty good. We went to church, and then out to eat at a Japanese Hibachi Grill with my Mom and sisters. We always have a good time watching the chef prepare the food and throw food at people!! After dinner, we went over to my Mother in Law's to visit for a little while before evening service. I actually took a little nap on the couch.

Anyway, I finally did a little crafting last week, and this is what I created. I made 2 of each layout, but I figured you didn't need to see every one of them. I know, my pictures are pretty blurry, but when I took them Saturday afternoon, the kids were begging me to take them fishing. So I was just taking pictures as fast as I could so we could get out the door!!

For the first card I used sketch # 125 from Diva Coffee Break Design Challenge.

The next 2 cards started with a sketch also, but didn't end up looking anything like it!! That happens to me alot. I really like the Flower Fusion felt flowers on these. It adds just the right amount of punch!

This last card is one of my favorites. To find out how to get the diagonal strips of DSP, click here.

I needed a nice way to package up these cards, so I made a matching box using this tutorial over on Split Coast Stampers. It was really very easy!

Then I just wrapped it with some matching ribbon and made a tag. Easy and so cute!! This one went to my Mother in Law.

For my Mom, I picked out some of my favorite cards I had in my stash, and put them in one of those nice card boxes you can get at Papertrey Ink, wrapped it with a ribbon and made a tag.

That's about it for now. Next time I'll show you the cards my boys made for me. It's so cute to have your 11 yo DS ask for help to score a straight line for your own card!! See you next time.