St Patrick's Day Sign

Welcome back everyone! 

I am so glad to be back in the saddle. Well, the craft room chair. I have not blogged about crafts in forever! But here I am, trying once again. 

I'm sharing a video from my Facebook, and it's all about making a Saint Patrick's Day sign using my Chalk Couture products. 

So sit back, enjoy, and if you have any questions - definitely ask me! 

Enjoy!

Video: St. Patrick's Day Sign

Here's our finished project!

 

Gingerbread Time of Year!

Cottage by the Sea

This year’s gingerbread house competition subject was “Cottage/Camp”.  I decided to recreate the first beach house that I stayed in.  Of course it doesn’t look exactly like the real one, but it’s close and I love it.  It’s not very Christmas-y but it has a bit of charm.

I sketched the house first, then figured out how I needed to lay it out and how big it could be to pack the most pow and also, to be sturdy enough to withstand driving it from point A to point B.  One I figured it out I had my boyfriend secure a base, cut it to size and drill a hole in the bottom so I could snake a light up through.

I made my gingerbread from a recipe that I’ve used for a couple years now.  It makes a good strong cookie.  I got the recipe from a gingerbread house workshop I attended.  If you are at all leary about building your own house, but you want to do it, I suggest an afternoon (or morning!) workshop.  Check your local Chamber of Commerce to see if there is one.  If not, suggest they schedule one.  Someone in your community is an expert.

I cut out the windows and doors and used Jolly ranchers (hammered in a plastic bag) the last four minutes of baking time to create a colorful façade.  I set the house up a little bit higher than level using a pan of rice crispy treats.  I made them without butter so they would be harder and hold the weight of the house.  I covered the sides of the house before I put them up – because it’s easier to do siding that way.  Then I ran the knife across it to look like wood planks.

The sand is ground up rice crispies and brown sugar stuck to icing.  The ocean is hard candy.  I pulled it out of the cookie sheet just before it was totally cooled.  It gave it a look of movement – which was totally unexpected, but totally welcomed!

I hope you like it!  Comments & questions are always welcomed – and encouraged.  Remember – it’s not too late to make your own gingerbread house!

Dresser Re-do

     I’m so bad about posting what I do!  Here is a little project I worked on in the dead of winter.  It was for my mom for Christmas, but she goes away, so I had it ready for her when she came home in April.  Yes, it took me a while to get to it.  Meh.  I’m a procrastinator.    

     I picked up this dresser at a yard sale last August.  For free.  Yes, I love that rock bottom price.  No haggling.  Friends of ours were moving their mother closer to where they lived and they told us to take what we wanted.  Well, I’ve wanted to paint a piece of furniture for some time now, so we took it!  Once I got it home life of course happened, so it sat in the living room collecting dust for months!

     After we got it all sanded (my boyfriend did this part) we went shopping for the perfect color.  We got this one at Lowe’s.  I love the beach house feel of it.  We had wooden drawer pulls at home so they got sanded up a bit too.

     I did two coats of paint.  It took weeks for it to dry.  It was the primer & paint all at once.  I like it. It gave good coverage.  It just stayed tacky for a bit.  The pulls I painted white, and I was going to finger paint teal and coral swirls on them, but alas, that didn’t look good.  Instead, I looked around my studio and thought “What can I paint on these pulls?” and then I grabbed the stack of DCWV Hey Sailor paper.  Between that and the nautical stuff I have laying around I was able to create some nifty pulls!

     My mother loved it.  It took her a couple weeks before she decided how she was going to use it, but now it has its own place and it is loved.

     Remember – comments are always welcome and so appreciated.  You have no idea!

Saying Goodbye...

Cal’s office visit is not going well.  He appears to have a tumor on his jaw and we are going to have to make a decision – whether to operate or to let him go.  I always pray that my animals will go in their sleep but it never works out that way. 

Cal has always been thorny to me, with a rose thrown in here and there.  And those roses were so precious!  He’d let me hold him and cuddle him for a brief time before he would turn on me with his claws and teeth. 

I know what I would tell someone in my position.  Let him go, before pain cripples him and the quality of his life is shit.  But how do you tell a doctor to stop the heart of a soul you’ve been connected to for twelve years?  I did this eleven years ago for Jack when he was in the midst of losing his faculties.  It wasn’t an easy decision then and it’s not now.  I always wondered afterwards if I should have waited.  If he wanted me to wait. 

Cal can’t go outside now.  He’s falling over when he jumps and is having trouble walking on any surface that isn’t flat.  He knows something is going on.  Last night before I went to bed he was resting in the dog kennel.  He loves a soft surface.  This wasn’t soft by any means.  I kneeled down and called him to me and he got up and walked to me.  Another thing he doesn’t do if he’s chilling.  I picked him up and carried him upstairs and put him on the bed.  He walked over to Derrick and laid down on him for a minute then went to his blanket and snuggled with that.  This morning he got up on the bed with me and laid on my chest while I pet him.  I got up late because I didn’t want to stop.  That’s not his normal with me. 

In my head I’m hoping that the vet says it’s a very simple and cheap procedure and that he’ll be fine, so do the surgery and take him home.  In my heart I know that time is fleeting and I hope that even though we had our differences, and our personalities clashed, that I loved him and love him, still.

I know this is not a crafty post, but I will eventually scrap this and I want it here.

Painting

     This past week has been a flurry of painting.  

The ones on the wall are not mine.  The theme was clouds.

     I was involved with a murder mystery that included art - pointillism paintings to be exact.  I have had no experience with this form of art so I was on my own.  Thank God the artist was portrayed as not all that great at his craft.  I have spent several evenings this past week popping out paintings.  I'm not exactly super proud of them (somewhat proud, I am!).  I've discovered a new respect for pointillism artists.  It is a tedious art form and they must have the patience of saints as they create.  Plus, they use the tiniest dots.  I did not. As you can see.  

     I did one painting before I realized that it was supposed to be pointillism.  I really love the sky.  It's not finished, but I wanted to show it to you now, just in case I ruin it later.

"Ponyless Prairie"

     I'm not sure if I'll continue with my painting.  I may for awhile, to see if I can do more, do better.  Paints and brushes are expensive though, and I've already discovered that wiping stray bristles off a wet canvas causes blemishes on your art.  Ugh!  I need some guidance!

     Enjoy, and as always, comments are greatly appreciated!

Chipboard Book

Helloooooo!  So here I am and I thought I would share this really cool little book that I made out of chipboard and craft paper.  I have wanted to make one of these for a while.  I actually started one about a year ago with homemade page holders and pockets but I became discouraged because the projects I watched on www.youtube.com  were so awesome!  Lol – so I stepped back and tried my own thing. 

I laid out the outside of the book in 5 pieces.  I made the spine large enough to hold a black binding comb that I recycled from work.  One end was broken, so I cut it down and voila!   I had something to hold my pages in place.

I then covered the chipboard with black cardstock, leaving about a quarter-inch between the individual pieces of board so they would bend.  Just watch the videos here:   https://www.youtube.com/user/mysistersscrapper

 – They are amazing.  Ginger is so talented! 

I used DCWV Travel paper stack.  I used the solid colors as my pages and the printed for the front, back, inside and spine.  I also used some of the paper as embellishments, fussy cutting them, and then gluing it onto chipboard. 

The flowers on the front I made from the DCWV flower stack.  I like the way they look.  I even put a little center pearl in one. 

I made this little album for the postcards that I’ve received from www.postcrossing.com .  I love receiving postcards from different countries, hearing about other peoples’ lives, and seeing the (mostly) beautiful stamps.

I hope you enjoy, and comments are always appreciated!

May Scrap-A-Holic Challenge

Finally!  I finished my page for the DCWV May Scrap-A-Holic Challenge!  I really wanted to do the card as well, and maybe I’ll have time this weekend to do that.  I don’t know.  The weekend is pretty full.  Here’s the lineup:

Friday:  Pick up kids, bake something for the Village bake sale tomorrow (benefits the local historical society)

Saturday:  Village wide yard sales, put garden in, cemetery, work on 4H projects, possibly kayak

Sunday:  4H projects if we didn’t get them done on Saturday, dinner, bring kids home

I may be able to make the card while the kids do their projects, if I’m not helping too much.  Maybe it will distract me from hovering… lol!

I hope you like my attempt at this challenge!

Have a great weekend!

The Challenge!

My answer to the challenge!

Products used:

Alphalicious Cricut cartridge, DCWV Hey Sailor Stack, Inkadinkado, Martha Stewart crab punch, Memento ink