On the first day of Christmas...

"my true love gave to me, a partridge in a pear tree."

I love this song.  Years ago, I did 12 cross stitch ornaments representing the verses of the song although I still can't get all the numbers straight.  Is it 8 maids a milking or 10?  Anyway...

The card was inspired by a new stamp set from Lawn Fawn called "And a Partridge."  I already had this pear stamp from the Cheep Talk set by Stampin' Up! and I certainly had plenty of bird images.  This one is cut on my Cricut using the Straight from the Nest Stamp Set.

The card is for both the color and sketch challenges at Splitcoaststampers this week.  This is the 400th sketch challenge!  We could pick any of the past sketches.  I twisted the elements of SC390 around a bit to make them work with my supplies.

Mary Marsh picked wonderful late summer colors for this week's color challenge - Lucky Limeade, Daffodil Delight and Rich Razzleberry.  Bright summer tones that blend into the deep wine color often associated with fall.  And then I turned them into a Christmas card :-)

Thanks for stopping by!  Hope you have a wonderful holiday weekend.

Happy? Baby

Were you a good baby?  Did you cry a lot?  Or do you know?

I was not a good baby.  Apparently I cried most nights keeping my poor mother up rocking me.  My father, wanting to escape the crying infant who had overtaken his peaceful home, went out in the dead of winter and constructed a split rail fence.  I am not kidding. He really did build the fence and I was told all my growing up it was to escape my crying!  The jokes on him though, that fence still needs regular maintenance.

So I was surprised to come across this photo of me looking so happy in my crib.  Maybe it is because it is daytime.  Apparently I wasn't so difficult during the day.  Mother said I outgrew the crying about the time I started walking.  Perhaps I wore myself out during the day and finally slept at night.

For the layout, I wanted to emulate the look of a mobile with the MME doily stickers.  Most of these products including the cute clothespins are from previous month's ArtfulDelight kits.  I've been  mixing kits and now I don't know what came from where.  They are coordinating nicely.

I did photo corners for the photo so the original could be removed.  My mother's handwriting is on the back.

This was the first page on my shelf I shared yesterday.  All the other layouts there have been blogged about before.  I'd forgotten I hadn't posted this one yet.

So I was a difficult baby but I think I was a fairly easy teenager so I guess everything evens out.

Thanks for visiting today!

Scrapbook Page Display Shelf

For years I've been wanting a shelf to display my completed pages for a few days before putting them away.  I had the perfect spot but there were two problems.

One was my laziness.  The shelf would go under a high window that had leaked ages ago.  The window was repaired last spring yet I'd never gotten around to repainting the wall.  I knew this had to be done before a shelf went up.

The next part was that I couldn't find a long enough shelf.  I guess the procrastination comes in here a bit, too.  I had someone who would make the shelf if I got the materials and provided a drawing.  Finally last week, I went shopping for moulding.

I found the perfect thing and was able to do it all myself after I had my husband make one cut of the moulding.  I'm tickled with the result and I have to say a bit high on the accomplishment.  I only painted the damaged part of the wall as it is a cathedral ceiling and you can't tell at all that it wasn't entirely painted.  It pays to save paint chips when you build or remodel.  I've done far more complex projects in my window treatment business but for some reason this little job gave me an extra thrill.  I live such an exciting life :-)

Anyway, here's a video showing the moulding used with a brief description of how to do this if you want an inexpensive shelf for displaying pages.

Watch at YouTube


The moulding is from Lowes Hardware.  It is Primed Radiata Pine Crown Moulding, $15.  I recommend displaying your pages out of direct sunlight.  Paper and stamped ink fades fast if you windows do not have total UV protection.  Even if they do, you can have some fading over time.

Thanks for watching!

Garden Pages with Punched Borders

Garden Girl challenged us to make pages with punched borders.  What more appropriate subject than garden pages!  These are from the Biltmore House.  Actually only the first layout is of the gardens.  The 2nd is more of the grounds and the critters who live there.

For both pages, I used a Sale-a-bration paper pack from Stampin' Up! that went with their Vintage Floral stamp set.  The colors were perfect for the pages.  Mostly I used scallop border punches but handcut the fan border based on the paper design.

For this first layout, I added some flourishes cut with the Cricut.  The two metal tags have been in my stash for at least 5 years.  I remember buying them on a trip to Tennessee at the Scrapbook Superstore in Sieverville.  I have no idea if the store still exists.  I hope so.  They have an awesome sale area.  Anyway, it was about time to move those pretty embellishments out of my stash.

Also for this first layout I used the scroreboard to score some Sahara Sand cardstock and added a Crate Paper die cut to create a column look for the title.  The scoring shows up better in person.

The second page is about some of the current residents of the Biltmore Estate - geese.  Geese are very proprietary and they certainly thought the road belonged to them.  This isn't the first time I've had to yield the right of way to feathered friends at Biltmore.

Rather than die cuts, I stamped flourishes on these pages.

Many brads were used on these layouts but more are on their way from a Peachy Cheap order I did last week.  Peachycheap.com is a deal of the day type site for scrapbooking stuff.  They are getting more and more good stuff on there.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Challenge Card and Roses

Aren't these lovely?  My cousin Jeffrey grew them!  I was delighted when he brought me a bouquet.  There are 7 different varieties by my count.  Currently they are bringing some color and wonderful scent to my dining room.

My card today is based on Rainy's sketch this month on her blog.  There are still a few days left to play for a treat.

I used the new Summer Afternoon hostess set from Stampin' Up! and added some now discontinued In Color designer paper.  I'm a bit rusty on the card challenges.  It took me forever to make my paper choices. Typically I pick paper before doing my coloring but this time went the other way round.   I can always count on those SU! paper pads to come through.

The daisy is cut using the Accent Essentials Cricut cartridge and curled a little with my paper piercer.

Thanks for dropping by today!  I finally shopped for something to display my scrapbook pages.  Now the project begins!  Where did my helper, I mean, husband go...

He mows...

and mows and mows and mows.  My Dad retired in early 2011.  He was always passionate about mowing his yard but now he mows our yard, too.  It is a big help.  The only challenge is keeping him from mowing when it is wet.  He gets downright depressed when it rains so much he can't get out there on his tractor.  He has been known to mow our grass only 1 hour after the rain stops.

While I know most of the country is under a drought, we've been fortunate to have rain most of the summer.  This keeps him mowing and happy.

Daddy has always mowed some here.  He started cutting the large field on my property years ago.  I asked my Mother if I should hire someone else to do that so I wouldn't take up his time.  He and she ran a business together right beside their home.  "No!" she said.  "It gets him away from the house and shop for awhile."  Years later, when Lenny retired, I knew exactly what she meant.  :-)

For the layout, I did another basketweave.  The last time I did this, I covered up so much of it.  This time I used narrower strips and kept it as more of an anchor in the design.  The main papers are Macho Nacho from Jillibean Soup mixed up with some Basic Grey and MME 6x6 Paper pads.

The scallop sun and other designs are made from Stampin' Up!'s Quintessential Flower stamp.  This coordinates with two scallop punches and several circle punches.  I just used varying shades of yellow inks and cardstock.  To get the yellow flecks, I stamped them on using a dot stamp and yellow paint.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Crop via Skype

This is not my regular craft space.  It is my dining room table covered with several stamp sets, inks and embossing tools.  My husband was out of town and I was having a fun card making session.  Alone?  No, I had a wonderful friend with me - just not actually in the same room or even the same town.

My best friend Karen now lives 4 hours away :-(   It seems though that we talk and even 'see' each other more than ever :-) thanks to the good old telephone and Skype.

I was planning to go for a visit this month; however, some of my aches and pains have returned in unpredictable ways so I decided to wait on the visit.   We had planned to do some crafting together and found a way to do it anyway via Skype.  We both have laptops with built in webcams.  My only catch was my regular crafting table just isn't big enough for all my stuff and a good place to put the computer.  That's why I'm in the dining room.  We positioned the laptops to see each other most of the time but quick tilt of of the lid would put the focus on our techniques.  I even carried the laptop into the kitchen to continue to chat while I fixed lunch.

While there is no substitute for being in the same place together, there are some advantages to sharing your creativity from home:  no packing and you never really forget anything - supplies aren't more than a room away.  It doesn't take a lot of planning to do this either.  You can Skype for an hour or two and then return to other activities you have planned.  Skype is available on regular computers and mobile devices for free.

The cards above are ones I completed after our session using components we did together.  We tried several techniques including the water stamping on Splitcoaststampers shown on the left.

The scalloped design is from the Four Season set from Stampin' Up! - one we both own now.

We had fun and plan to do this again soon.  I also hope to get down there for a visit again before the end of the year.  In the meantime it is nice to have technology on our side.

Thanks for stopping by!

Our newest resident

Last Thursday was a beautiful day here.  I was feeling good after lunch strolling down to the cantaloupe patch to pick a much anticipated melon.  We have some 'old' melons and 'new' ones.  The old ones are volunteers from last year.  The new ones are those we set out when the volunteers hadn't come up yet.  The new ones look great but are hard and not very sweet.  The old ones have just about stopped bearing.  On Thursday, I'd considered picking the last ripe one but held off one more day just to make it a bit more perfect.

When I got to the patch, here is what I found:

Something had eaten my perfect melon!

This isn't the first time.  Earlier in the season we had several melons nibbled on.  My husband said it was rabbits.  My uncle claimed rats were the culprit.  But I knew what critter had done this.  I'd seen them in the yard and later that afternoon I saw them in my patch - Crows!  To be even further insulted, the crows are only eating from the 'old' ones.  They apparently don't like the new melons either.

So on Saturday, Sally the Scarecrow was born out of necessity.  My husband wanted to name her Mrs. Delacroix.  He may have seen a bit too much Masterpiece Theater.  Anyway, Sally is on the job now so let's hope we get some more melons.

You know this is going to become a scrapbook page eventually.  By then, perhaps I'll know how good Sally is at her job.  Her first full day was a success. I saw a lot of crows on Sunday - in the neighbor's yard.

Hope you have a great day!