Back In The Saddle Again

     This is the weekend.  No kids, no pressing urgency to clean, no real gardening where I HAVE to get something out and put away for the winter.  I will begin my Christmas cards!  I will finish the journaling for 2014!  I will start it all right here:

     I am refreshed!  I opened a drawer in my filing cabinet last night and saw paper that needed to be used.  I saw doodads and geegaws that begged to be used, at least once, so I could decide whether I liked them or not.  I saw the photo of my beloved cat AJ and her eyes were saying “Girl, you need to do something for you!  Grab some tea and scrap with me!”  Her photo often talks to me.  In my head, not out loud.  She’s been gone two years now, don’t judge me!  When she was alive we would hold conversations.  They sounded like this:

“What are you doing AJ?”

“Meow”

“Meow?”

“Mew”

“I love you baby girl”

“Puuurrrrrrrr”

     I still miss her so much.

     I did a page for her.  I should do another one.

     I’m looking forward to using the new products I ordered from HSN several months ago at the insistence of my boyfriend.  You heard that correctly.  Months.  I’m getting back in the saddle again. Here, take a listen!

https://youtu.be/E5F-O_19lSI

     He has such a nice face!

     Maybe I'll even have time to catch up on a few episodes of Mad Men!  Love that show!  I just started watching it on Netflix and I can't get enough of it!

I LOVE Don Draper!

It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like...

Christmas!  

Yes, it IS just around the corner and will be here before we know it.  Which means, in card making terms - you're late!  You better get moving now in case you haven't started already - and by you, I mean me.

I'm really excited this year because I've been hitting up sales and I've picked up some new (to me) embossing folders that scream "Use me!" and I've been scouring Pinterest for ideas.  Just the other day I laid out all 30 or so choices and told my boyfriend to choose the ones he would like us to send.  He gets this choice because he actually helps me make them.  He's so good about that!  I, however, get final say.  

He chose several that I thought he would.  I was very surprised by some he didn't choose and when I asked him why he said he thought they might be too hard.  Sweet boy, don't challenge me so!  Anyhoo, I reminded him that my choices trumped his and that maybe the hard one wouldn't be as hard as we thought.

As I was searching the internet the other day I found another card that I just fell in love with and I think it is going to be THE ONE that I'm going to love.  I'm going to change out the background, add some texture and possibly some bling but I think this will be our go to card this year!  So excited!

Have you started your cards? Where did you come up with your ideas?

Scrapping 2014!

     I am almost done scrapping 2014.  Finally!  I stepped out of my comfort zone of standard 12x12 pages and worked with some clear photo dividers.  I received this album through my SEI membership.  It came with the initial page dividers but as I started scrapping I ran down to the local big store and picked up more – larger pages with different blocking. 

     As I started this endeavor I realized that I couldn’t stay all cookie cutter – photo here, journaling there.  Some pictures begged to be in a certain spot on the page or with another photo that screamed “We’re together!!!!”, so I started some cutting photos in half.  The first one killed me.  After that it was easier.  Check out the weirdo with the mohawk!

     I love using the white gel pen with the black background - it looks so cool!  Plus, it reminds me of the scrapbook my mom had from her youth.  Black pages, white writing.  Something old that binds us together...

That's a snowy owl looking at you right there.

 

The miscellany page... (There's always one... or two!)

Check out my pages!  I even got some journaling done (the bane of my existence)! 

     I got a little crazy on the photo cutting but I wanted them a certain way!  I don't think it looks too shabby!

Notice the purple hair!

     I’m getting ready to move on 2015.  It seems fitting that the year is nearly over.  More on that later.  

     What have you done to shake up your scrapbooking, even just a little, this year?

Bake Sale!

     This past weekend I was asked to make something for a bake sale to support our local Historical Society.  I am always honored when I get the call to make something.  This is a small village and the committee is fairly full of the oldies.  They are hard to infiltrate.
     I knew I wanted to make cupcakes because you can sell them for more than cookies and bring in the big bucks! lol!  After cruising on Pinterest for awhile I did an internet search and decided on a butterfly/dragonfly cupcake.  I think they are the cutest little cupcakes ever!
     Although I didn't save one for myself, my boyfriend and kids went to the fire hall and bought their own and said they were very good!  I hope they all sold!  Here is a photo of one!

Helpful Hint From Jenny B!

Wow!  I’ve been really bad about blogging my creations!  I guess it’s because I limited myself to scrapbooking and crafts.  Truth be told, I’ve been planning a garden for months and started seeds a few weeks back…

Today I’m going to let you in on a secret – well, it was a secret to me, it may not be to you.   A while back I was using my Cricut and I used some paper on it that must have been extra fuzzy or something because it left an awful mess on the cutting pad when I pulled it off.  It was a brand new cutting pad!  I was so angry because it was darn near impossible to put anything else on it for fear of getting the remnants on new cuttings.

After cursing myself out – You should have known better!  Why did you do that?  Where is your brain???   And realizing I would never even think to say these things to a fellow crafter, I decided to try and fix the problem.  How could it hurt?

I thought and thought and then I grabbed cotton balls and rubbing alcohol, and started rubbing.  To my surprise, the paper came off and the sticky-ness stayed!  Not as strong as it was before, but I definitely could use it after the cleaning!  So if you get some paper fuzz on your cutting mat, and you decide you can’t use it anymore, try this out – it’s worth it and cheaper than running to the store for more mats.

Happy scrapping!

 

 

Birder Candle

        I started this candle a couple weeks ago, then got side tracked while life was going on around me.  I started with a clear jar, that may or may not have had a candle in it before.  I just take old jars and throw them in a drawer until something catches my eye that I can use them for.  I saw a great tutorial on the Plaid website: https://www.plaidonline.com/burlap-wrapped-candle-holder/4313/project.htm?utm_content=bufferd28f4&utm_medium=social&utm_source=plus.google.com&utm_campaign=buffer , so i decided to give it a try - Jenny style.

        I loved the little candle I saw on the site and I had some Modge Podge and some Tim Holtz Grungeboard (Nature) and some old burlap I picked up at a yard sale so I thought "Why not?".  It was definately something to add to my creative flow.  I've been practicing for a play the last six weeks and our final performance was this past Saturday.  Today was the perfect day to finish.

        The burlap was secured onto the glass with Modge Podge and then sealed with the Modge Podge as well.  I painted the grungeboard bird and glittered the dragonfly.  I added some raffia wrap-a-round and flowers and secured it all with hot glue.  The only time consuming part of this project was waiting for glue and paint to dry.  I plan on making more as gifts.  I think they'll be well received.  

        Here is my finished project.

Modge Podge
Tim Holtz Grungeboard
Galleria Acryllic Paint
studio G Glitter Glue
Colorbok Layered Flowers

Happy Birthday Kid!

This weekend was my grandson’s birthday party.  I had asked him several weeks ago what type of cake he wanted for his birthday and he said a Mario and Luigi cake.  Then, a couple days before the party he changed his mind and said a hot air balloon cake.  We stayed with the Mario cake because he got the hot air balloon cake the year before for his 9^th birthday.  Something new every year.  And maybe he thought we couldn’t do a Mario cake.  I don’t know.  It’s not like the kid to doubt me.

I searched on-line for a decent, simple drawing of Mario and Luigi and found one that I thought I could draw. 

Since I am in play rehearsals nearly every night, and I work during the day, I enlisted the help of my boyfriend to make the cake.  I had made cupcakes the week before using a recipe from the latest AllRecipes magazine and the cake was awesome so we thought we could convert it to a sheet cake, which he did very well.  So we started out Friday evening with a super moist chocolate cake.

At 9pm, after the kids were in bed we began the frosting part.  I made up the frosting using the classic Wilton Buttercream Icing Recipe.  Never fails – I love it.  Then I mixed up some black frosting to outline the guys.  We followed the colors for Luigi and Mario and then my boyfriend suggested we use their shirt colors on the opposite sides of the cake instead of having one solid color for the background.  It was a great idea because it totally makes the cake pop!  We took turns doing the piping.  The first time I made one of these cakes with my boyfriend he was shocked at how easy it was to pipe – and fun – so now he helps on every single cake.  We finished at 10:30pm. 

 

 

         The next day we celebrated at Pizza Hut Wing Street and the cake was a hit.  The kid loved it as well as the waitresses.  I left some cake there for them because they were awesome and so accommodating!  I think this is the best cake we’ve done for either kid so far.