Inky Sneak Peek

Here is a new image and sentiment coming out by Inky Antics. Isn't this little porcupine the cutest? I used Basic Grey's "Max & Whiskers" 6 x 6 paper pad. I love the rich fall colors in this paper.

I really HAVE been busy!

** Edited to add: I don't know what is going on with blogger but it wasn't posting my posts. Be sure to scroll down to see a post I had for the 4th and 7th.
Just showing proof that I've been really busy making cards. Here are 62 cards and 3 boxes that I made for Inky Antics for CHA. AND I did a lot of coloring of images for Inky Antics for their catalog. That may come as close as I get to getting published! LOL!!

Hopefully, I will be able to be a better blogger.

PS: Thank you for all the e-mails I rec'd saying you were praying for my Uncle Mic. Please keep them praying. He had his second round of chemo yesterday. The family appreciates all they prayers on their behalf.

Clearly Hambly

This week Tombow is partnering with Hambly Studios. Hambly sent the Tombow design team a wonderful package. It was full of clear cardstock overlays and stickers. The cardstock is VERY thick and sturdy...perfect for making a fun little box.

A few weeks ago, Splitcoaststampers had THIS wonderful tutorial. I had planned to make a different clear box, but it just didn't work very good, so went with this one and love it! This box is soooo easy to make! I will definitely be making more of them. Its' perfect for just the "little something" to give as a gift box for any reason.

I did a couple of different things than the tutorial. Because I was using a clear cardstock, I didn't fold the sides down, but cut them off. I used Tombow's Mono Adhesive Power Bond and WOW is that stuff strong! I am loving that product! It is perfect for making my little boxes and home decor items that I love to create.

I used the aqua hearts overlay to make the box. For the front I adhered an owl from one of Hambly's sticker sheets onto a label from a label sticker sheet. I love their Kraft Cardstock Stickers. It was just the perfect little "something" to decorate the front of my gable box.

Around the House

One of the things I love to do is decorate my home. I don't have alot of time during the school year when I am working full time, but have enjoyed decorating this summer. I love all things Patriotic and went "shopping" in my home with the things I already had and decorated for the 4th.

Here are a few things around the house...

I collect ivory and medium green Fiesta and this ivory vase has a crack in it, so I can only use silk flowers. This is sitting on a small table in our bay window. The old table is card table size and perfect for the 4 of us to play games on.
When Benjamin was a baby (almost 18 years ago!), I took a quilting class and this is the first item we made. I love how this looks hanging on my wall.
SHHHHH don't tell Aaron I am showing this. He had a fit when he saw me taking pictures of it. This cute clay figurine is one of his firsts and he thinks it is terrible. I love it and it is perfect sitting here with the red and blue Jelly Bellies.
This raggedy angel is hanging above the monkey/train figurine and candy.
Sitting in the other corner of the roll top desk is this little arrangements. I love raggedy ann dolls. See the star glass dish of jelly bellies? That is this year's new "treat" that I bought for myself.

Each year I buy just a little something to add to my Patriotic decor. I was at an antique store and a booth had 5 of these for $2.50 and then marked down 50%! What a deal! They are really candle holders, but it's too hot to light candles, so I thought they would make the perfect candy dishes. I can use them again at Christmas time with candles.
In the living room, I have this arrangement on a little antique dresser that used to have a towel bar (didn't when we bought it) and in the "old" days would have had a large pitcher and bowl for cleaning up.

I normally have a cream lampshade, but found this one at Goodwill for 25 cents and use it for the summer.
The "candy dish" originally had a cinnamon candle in it from Bath & Body. After the candle had burned out, I cleaned it up knowing I could use it for Valentine's Day, July and Christmas.

A fun tip: as you can see with the M & M's here and the jelly bellies in the photos above they are all red and blue. I buy M & M's when they are on sale and separate the colors. Green for St. Patrick's and Christmas, red and blue for July (as well as red for Valentine's Day and Christmas) and the yellow, orange and brown for fall. I have them separated in zip lock bags and keep them in the freezer. Then put them out in the months that the colors coordinate. My "boys" love having the candy dishes around the house. I normally don't have Jelly Bellies, but they were left over from Benjamin's graduation.
This isn't patriotic, but just had to share. This is hanging right above the photo above. Aaron had to do a self portrait in school and this is sooooo good! It looks just like him. He is so talented! I just got around to getting it framed.

My grandma made this little lap quilt and I pull it out for the 4th every year.Right beside the rocker which was a gift from my grandma and grandpa when we had Benjamin is this basket that holds my knitting needles and netting that I use to make scrubbers.
And last is this yummy treat that I made for the 4th. It is broken up oreos and pretzels. Then melt almond bark and drizzle on top, then sprinkle M & M's and patriotic sprinkles. Refrigerate until firm and break into bite size pieces.

"Clean"

Paper Posies and Tombow partner up this week. Be sure to check the Tombow blog for inspiration all week from the other design team members.

Someone gave me this little plaque as a gag gift of sorts and I needed a little home decor project for Tombow using the Paper Posies kit that they sent me.

It has fun paper by October afternoon that I used as well as this little tag that was attached to a mini chipboard ticket album, so I decided to alter it too.

Our bathroom is in SERIOUS need of being redone. But money and time is tight right now. Even if you have a room (or whole house LOL) that needs redone, you can still do little things to make it look nice until you can get to it. Now I know of what I'm talking about cuz ours seriously needs regutted. I could get discouraged by how bad it looks OR do little things to keep it looking as nice as possible considering all that needs done.

Okay, I digress, back to my project. It is soooo easy and yet adds a fun little element to the room. I cut patterned paper to fit inside the frame and attached it with Tombow's Mono Adhesive Power Bond. Then I used the same adhesive to attach these fun letters that were in my Paper Posies kit.

Perfect word for a bathroom don't ya think? Ü I could have left it just like that, but it needed just a little bit more.

I printed the verse out on cardstock and attached it to the chipboard tag with the Power Bond adhesive and then stamped a flower from Darcie's set and grunged the edges a bit, added some vintage rayon ribbon and there you have it. Here is a tip for cutting smooth rounded edges: It is hard to cut rounded edges to look nice. Just cut and adhere to chipboard and then sand the edges with an emory board. Makes it smooth and look more professional.

Super easy, super fun and super cute. What do you have around the house that you can alter with some pretty papers to pretty up your home?

Calling all Prayer Warriors

If you believe in the power of prayer, please pray for my Uncle Mic. He was diagnosed with peripheral T cell lymphoma and is hitting some bumps in the road to recovery. The family would really appreciate all your prayers. Please feel free to pass this prayer request along. The more praying the better.
Thank you

Shoebox Swap

Just to let you know I really HAVE been creating, but it's for CHA and I can't show it to you yet. Ü I do have some things in this post to show that I've been busy.

I've also been busy just working on the house. This is when I have time to do my "spring" cleaning. I am enjoying my time at home sooo much! I am able to cook full meals for my "boys" as well as many sweet treats that they like so much.

Edited to add: The theme to my shoebox swap was "Very Vintage"

I also fixed the link to the last swap I entered. Sorry for the confusion

LONG post...
I entered my second Shoebox Swap that Carrie and Monica host. I had so much fun with my first one (see details for that one here) that I just had to enter to play again. This time I was partnered with Monica. I don't know how Carrie does it, butshe matches up partners perfectly! Monica and I had so much in common and it was so much fun to create a pkg for her.

I had so much fun opening this package and going through all the goodies that Monica sent. I can't wait for the next one! LOL!!

Here is a picture of everything all together:

Monica made this ADORABLE bag! You can read more about how she made it on her blog here. Two fun books to read. I love reading cookbooks and old ones are especially fun. This one also has some yummy recipes I'm going to try.

We get a survery to fill out to know our swap partner so we have an idea of what they would like. I had mentioned to Monica that as a family we like to play games and watch movies and that DH makes the YUMMIEST popcorn. (we have an old crank style popcorn popper and he adds sugar to the oil after it gets hot with the kernels. Then when it all pops together it has a sugar coating...YUM-O) So Monica sent these fun popcorn holders for our next movie nite. I can't wait to use them.

oh my....be still my heart....a bag full of vintage lace, buttons and lots of goodies!
Some yummy flavored tea bags.
A beatiful frame with verse that Monica made for me.

vintage tray that I can use to carry tea and goodies when friends come over

Can't wait to play with this kit. These flowers will be perfect for Christmas decor projects.

I have to tell you a story about these star tins. I was in Grand Island in an antique store and had tins exactly like this in my hand. I knew what I wanted to do with them, but for some *reason* put them back. After I got home I was kicking myself for not getting them. Then I get Monica's pkg and here they are!! I think it's cool that God knew I wanted these and prompted me to put them back knowing they were coming in the mail. I will have a post later for what I plan to use these for with the holidays coming up.

Goodies to use to make invites for having friends over for tea.

Here is just a little bit of what I sent her. I think she will post the rest on her blog.

She mentioned that she needed notecards and I have had this Stationary Box tutorial saved in my favorites for a long time ever since I saw it on Jackie's blog. SCS now has a step by step tutorial and a video that you can watch. It really is so easy and quick to make.

This is what it looks like closed

and here it is opened when you take the lid off

the little pocket by the note pad is for postage stamps. I put some in, but forgot to take the picture with them in

a close up of the pocket with candy

here are the tags I made that she can attach to a gift with a card if she wants

and here are the cards. I made them very simple so that she can use them for any occasion that she needs them for

Here is the vintage tin I got her and put ribbon, buttons, books and other goodies in.

You can see what others sent by going here to Carrie's blog: http://watibg.blogspot.com/

Zentangle

Ever heard of it? I had never heard the word til the end of last month when Joanna with Tombow challenged us to create a project with this technique. Basically it's a fancy word for doodling, but with more detail. You can read more about it here.

Now, while I like to doodle, this isn't exactly my type of doodling. But I found some tutorials on YouTube and someone had doodled a paisley, so I went with that.

This month Tombow is also partnering with Basic Grey (I know!!! One of my all time favorite paper companies!!) and I rec'd a lovely Cappella packet. So very vintage and lovely!

For this card I used their paper, brads and some lovely vintage lace from my stash that matched perfectly! To keep with the scallop and circle theme in my "zentangle" drawing, I punched one edge of BG paper with an eyelet scallop punch.

Here is the inside:

I colored my image with Tombow's markers and put the whole card together with Tombow's Mono-Adhesive Dots. I am pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Vintage Cappella

I love this new Cappella paper by Basic Grey. I received this lovely package with papers, stickers and brads from this line. To me it is very vintage.

Tombow is highlighting their Mono White Gel Pen this month. I used this on both of my cards today.

For this first card, I stamped with a versamark ink pad on a Basic Grey black paper then pierced around the image and then "connected" the dots with the white gel pen. I love how it looks like chalk on a chalkboard. The brads are from another Basic Grey line.

The stamp set is a retired one by Stepping Stones. I used the two smallest flowers and a sentiment.

For this next card I went totally vintage! All the papers are from the Cappella line. The ribbon is from my vintage stash and the lace was white. I rubbed peach ink on it and then spritzed it and rubbed the ink into it more evenly. I love how it turned out!

The mini tag is from SU! from long ago that I still had.  I stamped the "for you" with my Karen Foster snap stamps. The pin is from last month's Maya Road pkg. I wondered what I was going to do with those pins. They match the Cappella paper perfectly!

I used Tombow's Mono White Gel Pen to make "eyelet" dots along the peach scallop border.

Both cards were put together with Tombow's Mono Adhesive Dots.

Week 2 Pantry Challenge

This is what we ate for June 6-12.

Sunday:
lunch: Cheeseburger Pizza & Snickerdoodles
Nebraska has a buffet style restaurant called Valentino's and they serve a cheeseburger pizza that we like. I had a little hamburger and bacon that needed used up so thought I'd give it a try. Since it was still just DH & me, I used two flour tortillas for our shells. To 1/2 cup pizza sauce I added 1 TBSP ketchup and 2 tsp mustard. I fried diced bacon, onion, chopped dill pickle and hamburger for the topping and then added cheese (I think American shredded would have been better, but just went with what I had in the fridge).

Snickerdoodles:
1 cup soft butter or margarine
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 3/4 cup sifted flour
2 tsp. cream of tartar
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp salt

Mix butter, sugar, and eggs thoroughly. Sift together the flour, tartar, soda, and salt. Add the two mixtures together and stir. roll into balls the size of small walnuts. Roll in mixture of 2 TBSP sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon. Place 2" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until lightly browned, but still soft @ 400* for 8-10 minutes.

supper: hamburgers on the grill, chips, veggies, cookies


Monday
dinner: we just had cereal. Aaron slept in til noon (very tired from being gone all week)
supper: grilled steak, veggies, tator tots, snickerdoodles

Tuesday:
dinner: pancake puff, fruit
supper: beef & noodles, mashed potatoes, green beans, angel food cake

Wednesday:
dinner: leftovers
supper: BBQ meatballs, scallop potatoes, veggies, strawberry/rhubarb crisp

Thursday:
dinner: homemade egg muffins with egg, cheese, ham and homemade English muffins
supper: grilled pork steak, scallop potatoes, green beans, leftover strbry/rhubarb crisp

Friday:
dinner: leftovers
supper: lasagna, salad, garlic bread made with homemade English muffins, brownies

Saturday:
dinner: leftovers
supper: homemade pizza, scotcheroos

Pantry Challenge 6-3 to 6-5

The third was our 21st anniversary. DH made me deer steak for dinner and we went out for supper.

Day 4:
lunch: grilled cheese and leftover baked beans, raw veggies
supper: hamburgers and homemade french fries

Day 5:
lunch: french dip, potato chips, raw veggies
supper: roast and corn, homemade bread and leftover pear cobbler

Note: unless I post otherwise, Breakfasts are cereal, pancakes, scrambled eggs, waffles, french toast or muffins (banana or blueberry). If I make anything different than that above I will post with a recipe.