All things grow with love

So on National Scrapbook Day (yes May 3 of this year) I went to a crop at my friend Lori's house. I was excited to be able to spend the day scrapping with my daughter and friends Lori and Mandie. My big goal for the day was to make my mom a present for Mother's Day. I had found this glass tray at the thrift and it was just SCREAMING to be altered!

After lining the tray with some gorgeous prima and MME papers and adding a touch of ribbon, I grabbed my new toy (the Fiskars Woodland tree shape template for the USX... courtesy of one Ms Rebecca Peck (lead Fiskateer to the stars ;) and some Prima cardstock and started a cutting. I love this template, the tree is fabulous for a 12 x 12 page and the leaves, and hearts are the perfect accent. I inked my edges (Ranger Vintage photo) and then stamped some random swirls on them (Autumn Leaves swirls and flourishes) and heat embossed with some clear embossing powder to add a bit more shimmer.) I then built my tree. Added a wonderful fall photo of the kids...All it needed was a title.

The letters I used were We R Memory Keepers Metal letters in Pewter. I carefully laid out the words only to find the box didn't have any letter "h" in it. Not a one. I tried to "alter" some didn't work. I was so disappointed. I had been envisioning giving this to my mom for Mother's day since I found the tray 2 months prior and here it was 8 days before and I couldn't finish...I tried other things...cutting them out with the Cricut, chipboard etc. But nothing looked as perfect in my mind as the pewter...

So I went on a hunt.... we looked online, I contacted WeR...apparently they were discontinued even though they were new they no longer made nor had any...I tried friends...nothing

So mom's day passed ...then came her birthday, I found something I thought I might do instead...but nothing looked as "perfect" in my mind as the original plan. I did tell her about it though... but she couldn't have it till it was DONE...(she's crafty she totally understands)

Then it happened.... Last week the shelves collapsed in my closet and I found "metal tags" that I had purchased a zillion and two years ago on clearance thinking they were cool and maybe someday I would use them (Ok now seriously I got them like in 03 on clearance I think in silver and gold and never used them but couldn't bear to toss them now I'm glad I did, score one for the scrap-pack-rats) So I roughed up the metal a bit and added some black stayz-on to darken it. Then cut it out using my trusty Fiskars Finger tip craft knife and micro tipped scissors (I used the letter "F" as a pattern.) I was quite pleased with the results....

Here it is without the tray (to avoid the glare)

And here it is with

Moral of the story: ya never know what you might use so save it??? Or maybe the help you need is right there with you all along, or maybe it's plain and simply I have too much stuff...nah that couldn't be it!

Supplies used: Fiskars USX shape template Woodland Tree, WeR MemoryKeepers Metal Letters-Pewter, Metal Tags-brushed silver, Autumn Leaves Stamps-Swirls and Flourishes, Ranger distress ink-Vintage Photo, Cardstock/Pattern Paper, Prima, My Mind's eye, ribbon, Xyron

Christmas gifts--candied popcorn trial run

So I love candied popcorn and it's one of the easiest gifts to make for the holidays BUT we always have to have a trial run so I remember the recipe. Tonight was the night, we are having a movie night and one of the kids had a hankering for it (and I only make it around the holidays.)

Ingredients are simple

4 quarts (16 cups) popped pop corn

3 T. butter melted

a couple of shakes of salt

1/2 bag of Wilton candy melts

Pop corn, add melted butter and salt (you want a 'hint' of salt not need to get a gallon of water to finish your popcorn salt) toss until mixed, melt candy melts according to directions and then pour over popcorn, toss until coated and then I throw the bowl in the freezer for 10ish minutes to harden it faster be careful though when it's frozen it can "break" when you are removing it from the bowl )

Break apart and store in an air tight container. (or eat like a pig it's YUMMY)

You can also color the candy melts (Wilton makes special coloring for it) to match the holiday, (think red and green for Christmas, red, white and blue for the 4th, orange and green for fiskateer events ;)

I'll package this up in clear gift bags and then top with cute ribbons with tags...it's always a hit!

Craftastrophy!

So I had a bit of a "catastrophe" in my crafting area...my area is all of 6 x 8 feet square. BUT I have this closet that is 5 x 4 x 4, up until a few days ago I had a set of plastic shelves inside that held tools and photos and other wonderful things. Then there was a collapse...it didn't just go BOOM...things just slowly started falling....before you knew it I had a wonderful jumbled pile of all my crafty treasures.

Thankfully nothing was broken or damaged, just messy. That resulted in a complete overhaul of the area....after poor hubby hearing again and again of the mess he finally relented and built me what I am now calling SUPER SHELVES....they are strong enough to support the weight of my 9 year old daughter. (Or 4 tubs of punches and a die cut machine.)

Well the good thing about all of this it's causing me to go through pretty much everything, finally putting things away that have just been kinda shoved into corners and bins, organizing while I'm doing it. I'm getting down to the dregs...all of the odds and ends and bitty stuff that needs to be put away...

So here I sit taking a brake from the sorting of THIS to come up for some air...

Hopefully when I'm done I'll be able to show you some after pix of the new shelves and organized space.

Cards for troops!

I must admit, I tear up at parades when I see the veterans march past. I also tear up when I say the pledge of allegiance. I am so grateful for our freedom here in the United States and even more so for those men and women that have sacrificed so much to serve and protect them.

Scripture tells us

Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. John 15: 13

To think of those that have given up time with their families, loved ones and friends, not to mention the comforts and security of home to serve and protect our freedoms overwhelms me.

I love having opportunities to give back to the troops and when my friend Diane asked me if I would create some "card kits" for a cards for troops event at her church. Operation MOMS Cookies sends care packages to our troops and the cards would be a part of them. I was more than willing to not only put together card kits but help with the event as well.

Knowing I had small group last night immediately following AND knowing my jr/sr high girls love creating I asked if they could come with. Five of us left early grabbed a quick lunch at Micky D's then went to help make Christmas cards for our troops.

Tables were set up all over the room with supplies to make dozen's of different types of cards! They girls went from table to table creating and I stayed at mine helping those that wanted to play with the tools I brought (Fiskars squeeze punches, stamps, stickles and more.)

The girls and I were joined with about 30 Men, women, teens and children from Our Savior Lutheran. The ladies there had YUMMY oatmeal raisin (my favorite of the two) and chocolate chip (the girls favorite) cookies and lemonade to keep up our strength. We spent 3 hours crafting cards. We had a blast!

When all was said and done yesterday afternoon, Diane was excited to share that they had 1502 cards! What a privilege it was to be a small part of it!

True creativity is never neat!

Mom used to quote to me all the time "true creativity is never neat!" I know that's the case cause I am a VERY messy crafter, I like sitting in the middle of all my stuff (normally on the floor) have everything within reach easy to get to the next piece of my project or the adhesive to stick it together. How come though when even I have to "clean up" the craft area I find bits and pieces of projects that somehow "fit together" to form something new?

I'm suppose to be cleaning up the area and trying to pack for the class I'm teaching tonight (Cricut 201) as well as getting samples together for my etching class (plus hubby's tolerance to the chaos finally reached it's peak...;) but some how I keep finding a sheet of cardstock here and an embellishment there or a bead and so far have managed to create a 2 page layout a couple of pins for friends and found a box of goodies for a prize I even managed to squeak out a card. I will say you can now walk through my miniscule niche of the house (because I made a path not cause it's clean...;) so at least thats' a start right?