WOYWW #112

It has been a very busy and eventful week for me so much so that I almost missed out posting on WOYWW! I have been finishing up making 12 of the journal pages I posted a picture of last week and got them mailed off to Mississippi where the swap hostess lives. I have been making 7 ATC's for a swap on OWSE that I participate in each week. I also made a couple cards but I can't show them till I give them to the people I made them for. If you would like to participate in WOYWW visit Julias blog to get the deets. Be warned it is very addictive.

Okay here is what it is all about...here is a picture of my desk that I took today after I finished making the ATC's and had lined them up to dry before I put the info sticker on the back. I have made them all alike again this month because I get really anxious when I think I have to come up with 6 or 12 different things so I tend to do the same thing and not worry.

The theme for this month was green and yellow so I used a yellowish based card stock and embossed it with a Tim Holtz ATC folder. I think they are called texture trades. I then distressed around the edges and on the embossed image I then added some Liquid Pearls, a sentiment, and ribbon. I like the simpler look to ATC's.


The baby birds are gone so I don't have a picture this week. I have to confess that I am the cause they are gone...and I am hoping I am not the cause of their demise. I went to take one last picture on Friday cause I knew it wouldn't be long till they flew the nest and I almost fell. Unfortunately my balance really sucks due to my disorder and when I went to fall I grabbed for the wind chime to the right of the hanging basket to keep from falling and I startled them all. All four flew out of the basket and over the fence and yard. I tried to catch them but when I would get close they would fly off. I am hoping they are okay. I learned a valuable lesson. I told my daughter I loved to watch them grown and now I feel like a baby bird killer. I cried for hours after the incident.

I didn't make it around to everyone's blog last week so I am going to persevere this week and visit everyone. Hope everyone has a great week and I will try to get posted earlier next week.

WOYWW #111

Happy WOYWW #111 it has been a good week for me I have been busy trying to get my room straightened up some more and finish up some projects I have been doing. I have to be careful not to over do so what might take some of you a day or two may take me weeks. That's okay though cause all I have is time and it eventually gets done. Here is a picture of my workspace that I took today to show you what I have been doing. I decided I needed to reorganize the dies and the scrap paper basket and spent most of the day doing just that. I also reorganized my desk an made some things more accessible and put other things away.
I decided to get rid of one big basket of paper scraps and I had an old crate with hanging file folders in it that I color coded and separated the scraps out. The print scraps I did a holiday folder, female, male, and child folder and if that doesn't work out I will try something else. Any suggestions.
Way too many scraps. I decided to only keep those pieces that were at least 4"x6".

Remember the 6"x 9" Journal pages I am working on for a swap on creativeblock-stampersanonymous a Yahoo group I belong to? I don't have all twelve done yet but will have by the end of the week so I can mail them off!


The front is sprayed with Meadow colorwash masking a journaling area with flowers. I used the stamps from the Tim Holtz Papillion stamp set, Shabby French set. I embossed the butterflies with clear embossing powder and black ink then colored them with Derwent Inktensive pencils. The flower is sprayed with Luminart spray and a button applied. It is distressed with Vintage Photo and Walnut Stain. I used some of the Sketches paper tape on the left side.






The back is a little different. I thought being from Oklahoma and western I would do it using the Tim Holtz Wild West stamp set. I also used the Ultimate grunge set, the sentiment was from the Stuff to say set. The sentiment I used the vintage photo to distress the edges and to stamp the grunge stamps, the wild west stamps, and black soot for the sentiment. I finished it off with a little boot charm hung from a page tab. I thought it was cute!

The baby birds are just about grown and from the noise the Mom and Dad were making today I would imagine they will be flying the nest soon. Here is a picture I took yesterday with them all hunkered down in the nest. I am so happy that all four eggs hatched and all 4 birds have made it so far. The next few days will be dangerous for them as they take wing and fly off.

I have a couple bits of good news to share with you that occurred this past week. We had an adjustor out last weekend who said that the hail damage on our roof was pretty extensive and that insurance company will be paying to put a roof on our house. It was pretty beat up so I was glad to hear that. I also heard from the Social Security Disability folks that I have been judged severely disabled at this time and my claim for medical disability has been approved. They are now investigating the non-medical portion of the petition and will make a decision soon. Usually that part is just figuring out how many credits you have paid in, if you are who you say you are, and what they are going to pay you. I am breathing a lot easier tonight because of getting it approved! I have been out of work since last August and things have been pretty tight around here. I had always anticipated working till I was at least 70 because I like being a nurse but I guess burning the candle at both ends took a bigger toll than I realized. I am really doing great right now!

Well I have written a book today and I am going to close it off now and go hop around the other blogs and see what is on everyone's desks... I have been blathering on and I bet you would like to know what it is all about. Check out Julia's blog Stamping Ground and join us as we flash around the world to see what other crafters have on their desks this week!

Christmas Card Club and The Summer of Color

This is the first time I have participated in the Christmas Card Club and I am putting a picture out to show what I made. The other participants have published their cards to their blogs since July 3 with today being a deadline day and the start of a new fortnight challenge. This is a challenge where a member sets the rules as to what the requirements that fortnight are and this time Pinky decided that everyone should have a bear on their card. If you are interested in seeing this fortnights cards there is a list of everyone's names with links on my side bar that all you have to do is click on a name and it will take you to each of the participants blog! When Keryn told me about the club I thought it sounded like an awesome way to get a head start on getting cards ready for this next Christmas so if you are interested in playing in the club contact anyone on the list and they will tell you how to get started.

I also decided to use this for the Summer of Color entry this week because the color this week is RED! I love traditional Christmas colors and luckily red is one of them. If you would like to know more about the Summer of Color...there are a few more weeks left, come play with us...click on the link on the side bar and go to Twinkle Twinkle and check it out!

Here is the card I made:
Believe it or not I didn't have a single Christmas Bear image...I don't do bears much. Keryn turned me on to the Inger Harding blog where she has free images, stuff you can buy, and awesome things to look at. The image of the girl AND the bear is called "waiting for Santa to come" and the sentiment wreath are two of her free images. Click on the link and check it out!
Other products used include:
Stampin' Up! Card stock Real Red, Whisper White. Ribbon is retired. Ink for distressing is Soft Suede.
BoBunny Christmas papers from 2009. I hoard but eventually use everything I buy.
Ranger Stickles, Candy Cane.
Copics markers

OMC contest!

UPDATE: I {{{{love}}}} my Skiddy Kitty and I guess the folks at OMC did to cause we were chosen as one of the winners in the contest! Yay! Skiddy you rock!!

I love Oh My Crafts!! OMC carries a lot of great things at reasonable prices and they are having a contest this week to win a gift card and a prize. It is called Love Notes and you or someone is suppose to hold a note and send them a picture. Here is my Love Note to OMC! What do you think?
This is Miss Skiddy Kitty my oldest fur baby and she loves to get into my craft closets to see and smell all the things that she can reach. I think she especially loves anything with adhesives cause I catch her sniffing at the glues a lot! Skiddy has also been known to steal my tape runner! You can just about catch a glimpse of what we think looks like the great state of Texas she has growing on her left flank in that black hair patch.
If you love OMC you should enter the contest before it ends on Sunday!

WOYWW #110

It has been a busy and crazy week around here. The weather has been very hot all week with the exception of Tuesday when it didn't get over 100 degrees F. and there were some small showers around to cool it off a bit. I read posts that it did to over 100 deg in some parts of the state so it is over 2 weeks at this high heat.

Thought I would start the post off with a picture of the House Finch nest this week. The cuties are getting bigger and it seems like Momma and Dad are always on the go trying to keep them fed. I read that it is only about 3 weeks before they fledge and are gone so I will have to try and get a couple more photos before they go. I hope they stay close to my water/bird bath cause the summer is usually hotter after this time of year and water is short this year. This little fella squawked until he didn't get food then he stopped and looked right at me then went back to squawking again. So fun to watch but I stay away so Momma can take care of them.

Okay the bird visit over with and on to my desk this week. If you wonder what I am going on about and you would like to join in the fun head on over to Ms. Julia's, the originator of the weekly snoop fest. Stamping Ground It is painless and oh so much fun to visit desks all around the world.

My desk is very cluttered and has been very busy as I am trying to get some 6"x 9" journal pages done for a swap I am doing at the CreativeBlock-StampersAnonymous In May I was reading posts when I ran across the call for people to participate in this journal page swap. We are making 12 journal pages (front and back) and then we ship them off to the hostess who is making the front and back covers for our books punching the ring holes and putting rings to bind them. Sounds like an ordinary swap in some ways but it is a whole lot more! It was limited to 12 stampers and we have to use Stampers-Anonymous stamps and in return they will be giving each of us a set of stamps from this falls new releases. Nice huh! I love swaps.

I used color wash to spray the page that I masked the corner with a couple flowers to leave a 'clean' spot to journal in. I then stamped the background stamp in Vintage photo on the front of the page leaving the journaling flowers open. I stamped the butterflies from the same set in Black Soot and embossed them with clear embossing powder. After they dried and cooled of I used Derwent Inktense pencils to color in the butterflies then dabbed at them with a water brush. I ran a strip of the butterfly tissue tape from the Sketchbook tapes down the left side of page. The flower is sprayed with Luminart spray and a old button glued to the center. I think I am done but will give it a day to settle in and see if I need to do more. The back is just going to be simple stamping with more journaling space. I am thinking about using the Wild West stamps and a saying from the Stuff to Say set. Any suggestions?

Summer of Color Brown

I signed up to do the up to do the Summer of Color Event a few weeks ago and kind of let time and deadlines on a lot of stuff get away from me. I decided that this week I am going to participate and catch up with the others that I didn't get done as soon as I can and if I don't get them caught up I will keep up from now on. What happened is life interferred with getting the first one done then I allowed that to persuade me that I didn't want to turn the second week in because I didn't have the first one done and on and on and on...I am a procrastinator like no other...my reasons even have reasons.

Anyhow...This is a card I made for the Summer of Color Brown week.
The paper is from the BoBunny Timepiece Collection.
Card stock is Soft Suede and Very Vanilla from Stampin'Up!
Ink is Brushed Corduroy Distress ink and Tumbled Glass Distress ink.
Stamps used were: Stampers Anonymous/Tim Holtz Shabby French and Stuff to Say sets.
The ribbon and roses were something I had in my stash. I brushed the roses with some of the Tumbled Glass Distress ink to distress them.

Around the house

Well today has been a quiet laid back day. Thought I would post a couple of pictures about the tamales and tortillas I made and what is growing in my garden. Lets start there...in a flower pot.

For the last few years we have had some birds that have decided to honor us with raising their broods in the hanging flower pot that is under the highest part of the gable on the patio. I don't have any idea what kind of bird it is just little, brown and has a finch type beak. The dad has some reddish coloring on his chest and neck. Last week I went out and took pictures of the nest so I could show you the 4 little blue eggs. This is an 8" hanging planter so you can see those eggs are tiny!
Today I went to look see what was happening in the nest and this little guy greeted me. There are only 3 birds in the nest so I don't know if the other egg hasn't hatched or just didn't make it! If you have any idea what kind of bird this is let me know. It is so cute!
UPDATE: My friend Jeanette Bider, PhD, biological scientist, carves birds, bird watcher, travels to exotic places to see birds, supplied me with a name for these awesome, industrious, brave little birds. They are House Finch! Here is a picture I picked up on the net of the male and female birds I have been watching outside my window. My male isn't quite a bright red but according to Wiki they vary in colors and hues depending on what they eat. They are vegetarian and eat seeds and fruits and a flock can ruin a fruit tree in a summer. The birds come from Mexico and SA and have been taking over the US over time.


The past couple of days I have been in the process of making Tamales. I sort of used a recipe that I found on the net and altered it to fit what I needed! I think the tamales turned out very tasty and my husband loved them but thought that they might need a little more spice/heat to them. When I served them I covered the tamales with a green chili sauce and served them with refried beans, rice and tortillas that I made. The tortillas turned out kind of funky looking and thick but they tasted pretty good! I think before I do them again I will buy a tortilla press so they are more consistently shaped and of a more even thickness.

Altered Whisky Can

UPDATE: My DH just told me that I have incorrectly spelled the word Whiskey here. In America Whiskey is spelled with an ey (whiskey) but in Scotland it only has a y (whisky.) Sorry my Scottish friends I didn't mean to blight the work and words. I will change it now!!

I decided to alter another of the whisky cans my husband gave me. Chuck loves single malt scotch and they only place it is made is in Scotland and they ship the bottles in these nifty cans. This is the second can that I have altered this year. The first can be viewed here. I really like the blue and whites in that can and the cutesy little birds. This can is different in that I used distressing and quite a few different techniques then I did in the first one. The first is feminine and this could be for either a man or woman.
I used the Tim Holtz Paper Stack Crowded Attic to cover the can and used Basic Black card stock to make the scalloped edge trim. I stamped some of the labels from the Tim Holtz/StampersAnon travel sets, Air Travel and Travel labels, on Very Vanilla card stock with Black Soot, Fired Brick, and Old Olive and cut them out.

Here is an up close of the details:

I mounted the air ticket on Basic Black card stock and adhered it to the can with Dimensionals from Stampin'Up! The labels I cut out I also popped some of them up on the dimensionals and some are glued directly to the paper. The air plane was cover with Accents Glaze and let dry before popping it up with a glue dot on the brad that holds the ball chain and philosophy tag in place. A mini paper clip 'holds' the ticket together.

WOYWW #109

It has been an interesting week so far as the weather goes around here. Today I am out running around in the heat getting my errands done when I realized that my air conditioner didn't seem to be cooling off the car very well. I checked my iPhone weather app and here is what I saw! It doesn't look like it is going to be much better the rest of the week either!! I am guessing that my electric bill will be somewhere around $100-$125 per week if not more if this keeps up! I think I will just stay in and play in my craft room!

Welcome WOYWW #109. I have a lot of fun blogging and visiting the blogs of friends that I have made around the world. If you are curious as to what WOYWW is go to visit Julia Dunnit at Stamping Ground and see what I am talking about.

Speaking of craft rooms this is a picture of my desk today. See the big glass if Iced Tea in front of my stamp pads? I bet I will be drinking gallons of the stuff this week to stay cool. Back to the desk, I am persevering in getting my stamps off of wood blocks and making them acrylic block mounted stamps. I have so many stamps that room is becoming and issue with storage of the stamps. I have a friend who is freaking out about me doing this and her number one worry was about the resale value but you know I don't plan on selling them so for me that is a non-issue!
I learned about using Aleene's Tack-It Over and Over from Sue in Oregon, another blogger, to use with the stamps and have been working on completing removing the wood this past week.




I thought I would show you a canvas I finished this week using the paper I had left over from making the Christmas in July tags last week. All the paper on the tags and the Santa came from one sheet of Graphic 45 paper. This canvas was a lot of fun to make and I might have to add it to the class if anyone wants to make it too! I used some of the Candy Cane Stickles, the mini Flourish die from Tim Holtz.

One last picture then I am going to go...I made bread this week and I just thought I would crow about it since it has been bugging me to death that bread has gone up over $3 a loaf here. I made a loaf of bread in the bread machine, then I got a wild hair and while that was making made a loaf of cinnamon raisin and 10 sandwich rolls. I have a mixer that kneads so I don't have to do the hard work. I am just excited I made all this and I probably have enough of all the ingredients to make twice as much more and I paid less than $7 for all the makings. Call me cheap!! I don't care I need to the money to buy more stash!

I'm off now to have a snoop around the other blogs. I need more iced tea and I will be set for a pleasurable time. Everyone take care. Stay cool.

UPDATE! I just realized as I was reading Tuire Flemings post that I hadn't posted a picture of the PIF she sent me. If you look closely in the desk picture at the pen holder in the center back of the desk I have the cat that she made. Here is a pic of the brooch and cat. Thank you Tuire I have received compliments on both of them.