Happy Memorial Day!

Here's a great tribute to our armed forces from KISS' Gene Simmons. Do YOU know the words? If not, take the time to learn them & show your gratitude for America's military...they've earned it!




See you tomorrow!

K.I.S.S. postponed

Happy Sunday! I hope everyone is enjoying their Memorial Day weekend. For those not celebrating the holiday, I hope your weekend has been spectacular.

Well, I had a post all planned out for tonight, but I can't share it just yet. It contains a sneak peek for the upcoming catalog & we've been asked to wait till June 1st. I know that it's only a couple of days away, but I do play by the rules {for the most part}, so it's on the back burner. When I come back on Tuesday to share, I hope that you love it as much as I do & you feel it was worth the wait.

With that having been said, I hope that those celebrating tomorrow, take a few minutes between burgers on the grill and making homemade ice cream to remember WHY we all have the day off & the price paid for our freedoms.Happy Memorial Day!

Card Shower for Jayme

Yesterday while surfing BlogLand, I came across a couple of friends that were making cards for a lady named Jayme. They all linked to her sister's blog for you to read the story (I'll do that at the end). I was so moved, I wanted to get involved. I've posted about it in private forums & on public message boards. The request is for something to make Jayme smile and it has to have frogs, because she collects them. When I read that, I knew exactly what I had to make.

Fonts used: Stern & Stimson condensed. I cut out the square with Fiskars edge scissors (ripple) & inked the edges with VersaMagic Aloe Vera. The paper it's mounted on is from My Mind's Eye "Laundry Line" paper pack.
Image is "frog prince" by Diane Duda & was purchased from FunkyKitsUK. I colored it with COPIC markers (colors listed at the end of this post) & cut it out with my largest Labels 4 Nestie then inked the edges with VersaMagic Aloe Vera & Pixie Dust. Green background paper is from Prima & covers the entire half-fold card.
Inside of the card. Font used is "Stern." Here's what the card looks like all together. The ribbon is some of my vintage seam binding, colored with mix #1. This is going out in today's mail, headed for Oklahoma...hopefully, it will bring Jayme a smile.You can read about Jayme on Lisa's blog HERE. Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

COPIC markers used: YR00, E02, E04, Y11, Y21, Y26, B00, YG03, YG06, W01, W03, E29, E31, E49, E50, Rv02, Rv11, RV19

It's Time to Get Your VINTAGE On!

First, let me apologize for not being here Sunday for KISS or posting before now. Sunday was my wedding anniversary & it was such a weird/crummy weekend that I couldn't bring myself to do anything but watch old movies and blog surf. I've not been very good at shaking it off, like I normally do. Definitely a "MIBAD!" for that one - I should have crafted to get myself out of my funk!

School is ending tomorrow and all three boys are absolutely WIRED...not sure where I'm gonna stuff them for the summer...I'm thinking maybe the crawlspace (don't flame me or call child protective services -- I'm just KIDDING!).

Our weather's been crazy, which is not helping my moods, & Al Gore's theory of Global Warming has been soundly DISPROVED yet again...I drove Chris down to Mapleton EARLY Monday morning & once we hit "Point of the Mountain" (just south of Draper, UT) we drove into....SNOW, of all things! It snowed on me so bad through Provo that I couldn't see past the hood of my car (traffic was moving at a rip-roaring 25mph). It was like that all the way back UP till I got to Layton (just over an hour's drive on a clear day), and by the time I arrived back home in Ogden, the clouds had parted & the birds were singing. *LOL* Just gotta LOVE springtime in the Mountain Desert region!

Now, I normally put blog candy alerts on my Candy Jar page, but this one needs some front page time because it has the vintage girly-girl in me jumping up and down, waving her arms in the air in a VERY un-lady-like fashion, squealing "OH, PLEASE....PICK ME! PICK ME!" *LOL* You can see why...just LOOK at all of these pretties...
Doesn't that look DELICIOUS?!? Don't they make your mind just WHIRL with the possibilities of fun projects you can whip up...or is it just dorky ole me? I know that my fate is going to be up to a random generator, but oh, to win this would be such FUN! Click the pic to go enter for your chance to win if your vintage girly-girl is squealing now, too. {winner's name will be announced Monday}

I'm off to work on a project for the CONTEST that the Vintiquities Workshop is having - some really fabulous prizes being offered and the pieces that she's challenged us to work with are just amazing. Chris is riding with his Club to California for the Memorial Day weekend, so in addition to doing the "Summer Widow/Biker Boogie," I'll be crafting in the ole she-cave, so I'll be back soon to share what I've made...I've got so many ideas running through my noggin that I may have to enter over there a couple of times, since I've got till June 14th! *ROFL* Oh, if you have a bit of extra time, be sure to look around her blog & if you'd like to, become a follower like I have...she has so many different inspirational crafts to get your mojo hopping in excitement - you'll be glad that you did.

Thanks for stopping by, good luck to ya & happy crafting!!

Did ya guess?

This was your visual "hint" yesterday...did you figure out what I've been up to? {I know you did, Sharron! *LOL*} If you did, then your prize is a great big Dating Game Kiss! Or if you prefer a good old-fashioned cyber-hug! *ROFL*

No? Well, I'm pretty sure that most of you don't know that before I made cards or altered composition books, I enjoyed tole painting. I really got into painting on fabric when my kids were younger - I don't think they ever left the house when they weren't wearing a t-shirt or sweatshirt that had Batman & Robin, Bugs Bunny, The Green Lantern, or something I'd taken from a coloring book! This project was more grown up...

It's a vest! I bought a bunch of these from a Utah craft store (Zim's) that went out of business a while back. In typical hoarder, um, I mean CRAFTER fashion, I always figured that I'd end up using them for something, just not sure what. Well, over time, I've fused different holiday appliques to them, done some pen and ink drawings, and now I can add tole painting to that list. These darling buggies are from Annie Lang ~ her little critters are always so whimsical! I have quite a few of her tole painting books, but luckily for y'all she's online now & you can download her books and packets...gotta love that instant gratification feature! *LOL*
Don't they just make you smile?
I just LOVE these lil ladybugs!
It's relatively easy to do, especially if you have loads of acrylic paints & Delta's Fabric Medium to mix in, or in this instance, some DecoArt So Soft Fabric Paints. I've done both methods and they wash/wear beautifully and last for a good long time without fading.

I hope you enjoyed my little departure from making cards. Now, I'm off to play with these....
Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

We'll always have Paris...

*sigh* Bogart & Bergman...I just LOVE the classics! Don't you? I was playing around with my newly made vintage seam binding this morning, uncovered a little digital stamp button and a photo of the Eiffel Tower in my pile of "clippings" and it hit me....I had to make this:I used papers from My Mind's Eye; the dress pattern from Little Birdie Secrets & my sunflower decorative edge scissors (the sleeves and the bottom scallops); my yummy new ribbon colored with my homemade glimmer spray in Mix #3; distressed the edges of the photo & inked them with Ranger Distress in Vintage Photo; some homemade pearl glimmer spray on the butterfly; COPICs to color the digital stamp (E04, E50, & BG10); two crocheted flowers from friends; half pearls; Ranger's Liquid Pearls around the neckline. For the ribbon, I just did a double row of 1/4" tacky tape, slightly layered over each other (NOT butted), then scrunched the ribbon as I laid it down. I made sure to leave some on the ends to wrap underneath - it's not bulky at all!I love my little crocheted flowers...I need to use them more instead of just admiring & putting them back into the jar! *LOL* When I finished with the project, I wasn't really thinking about Ingrid Bergman, although that famous line from 'Casablanca' was stuck in my noggin. I actually pictured...{bowing} Your Majesty....
Ingrid probably would have done better in a navy wool or black/gray tweed ensemble, I think.

Whaddya think? These two papers & some more of my pretty ribbons for the next KISS? These are DCWV papers & two 1-yd pieces of ribbon that I dyed the other day, using mixes #1 & #5. Mandy was right in her video on how to make this vintage ribbon....it just wrinkles so beautifully and looks perfectly aged. I just got some COPIC various ink refills in the mail today...think I may dye up some more ribbon this weekend...This is a sneak peek of tomorrow's post...any ideas on what it might be? Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Wowzers!

Holly shared this on her blog today & I loved it so much, I had to share it too. Enjoy!

K.I.S.S.

Happy Sunday! I hope you're having a lovely day. The sun is shining, we've transplanted some veg into peat pots & played with the neighbor's new baby chicks. While the boys are at the park with Aidan, I figured I'd make a couple of cards to share with you today. My goal was to get at least two cards out of an 8x8 sheet of cardstock. I really like this textured paper by DCWV, called coral brocade...it's not really orange-y, but more of a grungy, peachy-pink with rusty tones in it. Kinda reminds me of a wallpaper that you'd find in a beach-side bed and breakfast.

For this first one, I used the next to largest square Nestie & cut out a deep coral from DCWV's Spring Mat Stack, then inked the edges with cream & jumbo java chalk inks. I also had a square paper doily that was 8x8...I quartered it, cut the center ground out & misted it with Mix 5 from yesterday's glimmer mist project. I also misted the round tag from MS with the same spray. Now I can stamp on the medallion when I know what I'll use the card for, or just leave it blank.

This one uses a heart doily from the same pack as the square one (I think I got them in the decoupage section of Michael's). I used wheat & pink chalk inks to tone down the bright white & some of the satin ribbon from my first dying experiment.

I'm not sure which one I like best...they both turned out nice. I've got another project to share with you this week, so I hope you come back by. Have a great rest of your day!!

What Can Happen in 4 Days?

In this house?!? Turns out, a LOT! *LOL* On Wednesday, I got a wild hair and decided to use up some apples sitting in the crisper to make homemade applesauce. I took SIX softball-sized locally grown apples, peeled them and put them on to boil for about 30-40 minutes. Mashed 'em up with my potato masher, tossed in a teaspoon of cinnamon & stuck them in tubs for the freezer. I did sneak a taste before freezing...it turned out so good!

On Thursday, I went to Michaels for their "Friends and Family Event" and picked up a couple more packs of mini misters and a pack of Ranger Alcohol Inks (Farmer's Market) to make some more of my homemade glimmer mist sprays. These are the ones I made last month, using Tim Holtz's YouTube video:Pearl and BronzeGold and copper. These are the colors (below) that I made from the Ranger Inks and two Stampin Up! colors this morning.I numbered the bottle tops as Cordell asked me, "How are you going to keep track of what you're doing with those, Mom?" Good question! I've also got a pretty good solution...Remember that little hardcover book that I altered a while back...the one with the blank pages inside?Well, I figured I'd write down my recipes in there! {NOTE: I changed the "4 drops of color" to 8-10...when I did my first tests, the colors were pretty thin.}I'll share under each "mix" the color combination that I've used, in case you'd like to recreate it.Mix 1 - 8 drops of Ranger (Lettuce), 1 small scoop Perfect Pearl (Pearl), & 1 small scoop Perfect Pearl (Gold)

{NOTE: 1 small scoop = enough to fill the end of a small craft/popsicle stick}

Mix 2 - 8 drops of Ranger (Eggplant), 1 small scoop Perfect Pearls (Pearl)

Mix 3 - 8 drops of Ranger (Currant or Cranberry), 1 small scoop Perfect Pearl (Pearl), & 1 small scoop Perfect Pearl (Bronze)

Mix 4 - 10 drops of Stampin Up (Soft Sky), 1 1/2 scoops Perfect Pearl (Pearl)

Mix 5 - 10 drops of Stampin Up (Groovy Guava), 1/2 scoop Perfect Pearl (Gold), & 1/2 scoop Perfect Pearl (Copper)

Here's what they tested like on plain white carstock:

You can easily alter these mixes to suit your tastes (more or less color, more powder). I like my color sprays to be subtle and soft, almost translucent, and I really think that these will fit the bill.

Today, was yard working day. Chris dug up a rose bush right outside the back door. It had to go...I pruned it down when we first moved in last October, because it was a monster, but the thing was right up against the house and every time you went out the door, it tried to snag you. Aidan played with the neighbor's kids. Devin weeded my front and side flower beds. Cordell pruned my lilacs...the one on the southeast corner was so overgrown that you couldn't see the gas meter. Sweet boy brought me the clippings so I could have that lovely smell in my house for a day or two. Aren't they pretty?
Aidan brought home some seeds that they started in class. We'll get some potting soil and transfer them from the glove into the peat pots tomorrow & give them another week or two before putting them in patio planters. We'll have tomatoes, peppers, carrots, radishes, and maybe a cucumber or two.
On Thursday morning, I had a reply from Mandy of Little Birdie Secrets...turns out the rayon ribbon she uses in that vintage tutorial is called "HUG SNUG" and you can order it from ZipperStop (see the Shopping Section in my right sidebar for the link). I ordered it as soon as I read her reply and it arrived TODAY - I don't know about y'all, but I absolutely LOVE that kind of customer service!And it FEELS...OMGosh, it feels absolutely fantastic! This spool was 100 yards, so I'm splitting it with a friend of mine...50 yards is plenty for me to play with for now & I can order more from them later. This eggshell color is just gorgeous (they had OODLES of colors to choose from if you don't want to color your own & the prices are GREAT!). I can already tell that I'm going to have so much FUN making up some vintage ribbon for my cards & other projects.Now to get 50 yards of ribbon wound around some of my antique clothes pins...
Oh! Before I forget, I've posted a list of stamp sets that are retiring from The Angel Company's "Big Book" - 25% off. The list is on my KILLER DEALS page up top. I'll get the May Specials put up there for you tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!