It's All About The Journey

A Simple Luminaria

Last night I went over to CHF for their first on-line class. The class was called Sandra Kuck Luminarias.The class began at 6 pm EST. Lisa Silver provided us a wonderful tutorial to follow and then she came on-line at 8 pm to answer any questions that we night have. Although I had to leave halfway through the class due to an unexpected call, I was able to finish the class and then leave a message for Lisa. If I had been able to concentrate on the project I'm sure that I would have come up with something a little differently then I did. However,I kept my Luminaria simple and to be honest, I really like it.

 

The only thing that I did differently from the tutorial provided for us is I used Brilliance Coffee bean Ink and I added the green and gold sheer ribbon. The box is made from vellum card-stock. The stamp that I used is the new release from the Sandra Kuck series from Cornish Heritage Farms. I bought mine at Stamping Memories. Just in the nick of time too. :)I used Vellum tape from WackyTac. Love that stuff. Inside I put a little white plastic votive that I purchased from Michaels. I think I bought 8 of them for 9.99. They look nice and the quality is very good. I put it right by the little girls dress. Hence the yellow glow. After I made this I realized that it would make a great little gift for each the girls in my family that will be attending my family Christmas party.Every year I buy or make everyone a little party gift. The girls and the children all get a big kick out that. I get a huge warm feeling inside when I see there faces. There are so many different ways that you can decorate this lovely project. You can use Copic markers to color it, add buttons, Dew Drops and so much more. If you would like to see what the other women came up with please visit the CHF gallery and check them out. They are all awesome!

Okay onto the personal side of my blog. If your busy please skip this part. I know what it is like not to have lots of time to read blogs.

I will  keep it short. Today I was gone from 1 pm until 8:30 pm. I had to go to Jarred the Galleria of Jewelry to have my diamond ring fixed again. It is too long a story to go into but at last my ring is fixed. After 2 hours of waiting and watching while my ring was being repaired I was very happy to get out of there. Off I went to a private jewelers to have someone look at it to make sure that it was indeed fixed. Yes! After a month of going through a lot of nonsense, a private appraisal that cost me money, many calls to Kay Jewelers headquarters, going back to Kay jewelers to have it fixed and being told it was when it fact it was not. Well you get the idea. Lets just say that I will never buy a nother piece of jewelry at Kay jewelers again. I am an honest person. I do not lie to people. I guess I expect that people will not lie to me. Just goes to show you not to always trust people you do not know well. But like I said my ring is fixed. I stopped at Sears Portrait Studio afterwords and visited with Colleen, my stepdaughter. She is such an awesome young lady. I went to the mall, to Wal-mart and then to Shaw's. Whew!  I could not walk today due to the rain that we had all day. I am so looking forward to the sun again.Although yesterday we did have an afternoon of sun and it was awesome. So what did I do? I went for a 2 mile walk and I thought for sure I would pass out from heat exhaustion. Ha-ha.Leave it to me to to walk in the bright sunny 82 degree heat and humidity. I'm not always the brightest bulb in the bunch. I came home drank a bottle of water in about a minute, saw how red my face was and got in the shower quickly. All better and hopefully a bit smarter. :)

Oops! I did not keep this post short. So I will stop here for now.

I hope that all of you are having a lovely week full of sunshine. Smile. :)

Bee Yourself

I think everyone should *just* totally be themselves as often as possible. Let's face it there are certain times and certain situations where being ourselves may not be appropriate and that's cool. Why am I writing this? Because the stamp that I used to make my card reminded me that there are times that I should just be who I am. There is a silly side to me and I should show it more often. :) Is there a side to you that you do not show as often as you would like? I would love to hear about it.

 

This is a 4 1/2 X 4 1/2 " card.

~ Stamps:

Bumblebee Penguin  image and Bee Yourself sentiment both from Memory Box. I purchased these stamps from Art Plus. Polka Dots Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms.

~ Inks:

Versamark and Marvy Matchables Black ink from Marvy Uchida. Coloring pencils from KOH-I-NOOR.

~ Card-Stock:

Whisper White and Basic Black from Stampin' UP! Lemon Tart and Summer Sunrise fromPaperTrey Ink.

~ Accessories: 

Mini buttons from Favorite Findings, Dazzling Diamonds glitter from SU and Summer Sunrise ribbon from PaperTrey Ink.

~ Tools: Marvy Uchida oval punches and corner rounder from Creative Memories.

~ Techniques: DT and a little doodling,my first time. :)

These little penguins are so darn cute and so much fun to stamp with.

Did you know that CHF is having a free on-line class tomorrow night? If you have time go check it out. I don't know about you but I love FREE things.

Also did you know that by leaving a post at Gina K.'s blog by tomorrow you might be the lucky person to win a free set stamp from her? Go check it out.  

I hope that you do not mind my sharing a couple of neat places to go to where you have the opportunity to receive or win something free. I don't normally do that on my blog but I thought it would be fun to try it out and see what some of you think.

If you would rather not read about my personal adventures then please feel free to exit my blog. :)

Last night, Wayne and I went for a walk. We took a different path then normal because we are trying to  see more of the town that we live in while traveling by foot. Last night was not a good night to walk. I knew that it was going to rain but I thought that we had plenty of time before it did. After walking a mile I heard rolling thunder in the distance and I began to panic. I am extremely frightened of thunder and lightning storms. I have my reasons. ;) Anyway, in order to get back home we had to walk back another mile. Instead of going home the same way came we kept going until we knew another road we were on would lead us back home. The road was uphill quite a bit and that slowed me down. The sky got darker and darker and the wind picked up. I kept saying to Wayne "We are going to get struck by lighting". He laughed at me for a bit and told me we would be fine. We did get home in the knick of time thank God. Because soon after the thunder, lightning and down pour began. I love to walk because it is good for me, I get to see beautiful land and homes, the air is fresh and clean and I get to see some awesome people. I also walk because it helps me unwind and not be stressed. No more walking for me when the sky looks dark. I have learned my lesson. Side Note:During our walk I was totally being the scared me.

I hope that all of you are having a good week so far. I know it's only Monday but my wish for all of you is that you have a wonderful week. Smile. :)

Books & Paper Snip Scissors

A few days ago I mentioned that I would do a product review. I know that when I read a review on other blogs I find them all very helpful in one way or another. Although one of the items that I will be giving my opinion on is not new to any of us who love to stamp, scrapbook or do paper crafting I thought I would share my thoughts about an old tool.

So the first thing I would like to give a review on is scissors.Yes, scissors. :)

One technique that I *love* to do and seems to be making a come back is Paper Piecing. The first time that I made a card using the Paper Piecing technique I used the Cutter Bee scissors made by EK Success. They cut my paper with precision and gave me the control that I needed to get into the tiny sections of the image that I stamped out and needed to cut. I love that they have comfort grips for my fingers to slip into and hold onto. The blades are just the right length for small to very small cutting. The other feature that I like about these scissors is that it has a safety cover. I am a bit of a klutz so having a protective cover is important to me. These scissors are made in Taiwan.

The scissors made by Fiskars have a longer blade. Although I have used them to cut out small pieces of papers I found them to be a little stiff and they did not give me the control that I needed to get the results that I wanted. They do not have the comfort grip or a safety cap. They are a good pair of scissors but in my opinion are second best to the Cutter Bee. One thing that I do love about Fiskars is that they are made right here in the USA.

Last but not least is the pair of Martha Stewart scissors that I recently picked up at Wal-Mart. Did you know that Wal-mart is now carrying some of the Martha Stewart collections? ;) Out of curiosity I decided to buy them and try them out. I also caved into buying them because they have pretty green handles. I know not a good reason to buy them . I like that they have a safety cover and that they glide easily. Oh and of course the green handles. What I do not like about them is that the blades are too short. This made me feel that I did not have very much control when using them. Getting around corners was a little harder then need be. I also do not like that they are made in China. Okay so I'm one of those people who want most if not all of our products made in the USA.

So there is my review on the scissors that I have tried and have used. As you can see my favorite pair are the Cutter Bee. Love them! I would like to know which brand of scissors you use for paper piecing. I am always open to trying different products.  

The last product that I would like to share my opinion on is a book that I bought a few weeks ago from Stamping Memories. Perhaps some of you have noticed that I enjoy using punches to make cards. Yet another technique that I like to use. I recently made another card using a flower punch but can not share it with you at this time. But I will as soon as possible.

A few weeks ago Liz, got the brand new book in by Susan Tierney Cockburn. It is called Paper Bouquet.

If you love making flowers using punches, lots of different punches then I do believe that you will love this book. This book shows you how to make different flowers that will help to make your card or other projects pop. I don't know about you but I am very tired of buying flowers that are all ready made only to get then home and find that they are either too big, too small or not the right color that I need. Trust me I have bottles filled with flowers that I have never used for these very reasons.Now I have made my own flowers the colors that I want and the size to fit the cards that have made. In this book the author has flowers listed from A to Z. Her instructions are very easy to follow. She uses pictures so that you can see how each flower is made. Also included are pictures of the punches that you will need to make each flower. I paid 14.99 for this book and it is  worth every penny. I am so very excited to have this book.

So there are two product reviews from me for you. I hope that each of them has been helpful to you in some way. Again, I would love to hear which scissors that you use and would recommend.

I hope that all of you are enjoying your weekend so far. Wayne and I had our Saturday evening BBQ. We had to eat indoors though because we had a storm and it was too wet to eat outdoors. It was still nice. After the clean up we went for a mile and a half walk because the temperature dropped from 90 to 70 degrees. It was so nice to walk in cooler air. :) This afternoon Wayne was out in the backyard practicing his golf swing. I had never tried swinging a golf club in my life. Today I decided to try. Oh my gosh it was hilarious. After missing the golf ball several times I hit one and it went about 5 feet. No lie. The second one might have gone 8 feet. In my defense, I have bad shoulders so I did not use them to swing and hit. I decided that I will leave the golfing to Wayne. Ha-ha. But heck at least I tried right? I'm sure that Wayne is secretly very glad that I gave up.

I am in the process of making a simple card using a Memory Box penguin and will post it as soon as the weekend is over. Thanks for stopping by and Smile. :) 

A Baby Boy Gift Bag & Card

What a day I have had. I have been very busy and have stopped only long enough to eat. I was able to make something to share with all of you in between the other things I had to get done. Hope you like it.  

 A couple of weeks ago I visited my other local stamp store. Art Plus. While I was looking around I noticed that Karen had lots of new stamps in. I was drawn to the baby stamps made by Printworks. The teddy bear is a cut out and it is blank and comes in a package of 10. Seeing the sample board from Printworks inspired me so I purchased a few of the stamps.The neat thing about the bear cut out is that it can be made into a card, an announcement, a baby card invitation and much more. I chose to make it the focal point of my gift bag. 

Stamps: 

Printworks bear face and Rocking Horse purchased from Art Plus.  The sentiment is from Hero Arts Baby Boy and the sentiment on the gift card is from Noteworthy from Stampin'Up! I used the Polka Dots Backgrounder from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Card-stock:

Whisper White from SU, Teddy Bear card-stock from Printworks and the designer paper is made by Paper Salon and the collection is Bliss Boy.

Inks:

Vintage Sepia from Versafine and Versamagic. I used the brown coloring pencil from KOH-I-NOOR and some Gamsol.

Accessories:

 Buttons and round tag. purchased from Stamping Memories. The blue organdy ribbon I purchased from Michaels. Plastic blue pacifier also from Michaels. Brown kraft bag.

This was a very simple project to make. I made the bag and the gift card for someone I know who is expecting her third boy in October. Yikes! Three boys!

I was not able to get out and take a walk today due to the high heat. It looks as though we are in for a heat wave for the next few days. Yuck!  At least I got a lot accomplished inside of my home today. :)

In a couple of days I Will be posting a product review. I hope that you Will stop by to read my opinion about a few  new things that I have been using. Well, new to me any way. :)

Well, I am off to clean up my craft room and do a few other things before Wayne gets home. I hope that your all having a terrific week so far.This week has certainly gone by super fast. I also hope that you have had lots of things to smile about. Smile. :)