Victory Criss-Cross Birthday Card

Hi y'all!  Yeah, I'm from Oregon, so I don't have an accent, but I think it would be fun to sometimes.  :)  I'm popping in to give a peek at another card we'll be making in my upcoming "mostly masculine" card workshop this weekend.  This is a Criss-Cross card w/ pull out insert.  I used the new "Victory" paper pack.  Isn't the plaid and camouflage fun?  I also used two different Stamp Sets: "Card Chatter - Birthday" and "Varsity Alphabet".

For my sample I stamped and cut out a number for a future birthday boy.  If my workshop attendees have a particular birthday in mind, they can do the same or they can change it up and put the word "Dad" or "Son" if it works for them.  We'll also be stamping directly on the twill ribbon.  I love to do this and unfortunately the twill is no longer in the catalog, but I've got lots in my stash, so we'll work on using it up. 

Thanks for looking!

Awesome proposal

This is already spreading like wildfire on the internet, but for anyone that hasn't seen it, wow, what a fun proposal from right here in Portland, OR.  I've never seen anything like it.  Enjoy!

Facebook is slowly killing my blog

I haven't always been the best at posting on my blog, but I can definitely tell when facebook began to rule my cyber world.  It's so easy to jump on there, especially on my phone, upload photos of the kids or projects I'm working on and my poor little blog has been suffering for it.

I think it's going to have to come down to me scheduling a certain time of the day/week/month (or whatever) to sit and write up some blog posts.  They do take a while sometimes, especially when uploading photos (because I have a bazillion still sitting on the camera), but I do enjoy keeping family & friends updated on what's going on.

I also like to be able to write more than a sentence or two like on a facebook status (I'm a little wordy if you haven't noticed).  So as of right now, I'm vowing to be a better blogger.  I'm still going to post a mix of my family and crafty stuff  (sorry Eggers).  I hope that the readers that are here for my family stuff can bare with me through the crafty stuff and vice versa.

So without further ado, here's a quick little crafty post:

I've mentioned in the past that my Close to My Heart unit has a monthly card swap between us unit mates.  One person is the hostess and picks out a sketch for us to follow and we take it from there.  We choose papers and embellishments and interpret the sketch to our liking.  Amy was the hostess last month and chose the sketch was from the Mojo Monday blog.  Each Monday they post a new sketch and you can play along and link a photo of your project to their post.  I've yet to work on a current sketch and be able to link mine, but I like the sketches anyhow.

Here is the sketch we followed:

  
Knowing that I would be doing a mostly "masculine" themed card workshop in May, I chose some more masculine colors and this is what I came up with:

Supplies used: 
Papers - Typeset, Footloose
Stamps - Blue Ribbon, Happy Birthday (retired)
Inks - Cocoa, Creme Brule, Vineyard Berry
Embellishments - Wooden button, Colonial White Waxy Flax, Twill Ribbon (retired)


What do you think?  I like a lot of dimension on my cards, so hence several embellishments.  This is one of the cards we'll be making at my workshops on Sunday, May 27th and Wednesday, May 30th.  Hopefully the attendees like it.  I need to start working on the rest of the cards.  I'll post them here as I complete each one.  Until we meet again...

What is the French word for Pig?

I don't know what made me think of this yesterday, but as I was getting ready for work I had a flash back to the Summer of 1986. My parents and I were at the dinner table with our French exchange student, Philippe. I'm not sure what the main dish was that night, but I do know one of the sides was corn on the cob.

I remember Philippe's face as we all buttered & salted our corn and then picked it up and started eating it. He was bewildered. He kind of laughed and then told us that we were "savages". He told us that they don't eat corn like that in France, they eat it off the cob. Only pigs eat corn on the cob. He then went on to teach us a new word in French - "cochon" (pig), ha ha.



I often think of Philippe when I'm savagely eating my corn on the cob in the summer. :)

Philippe, if you're reading this, thank you for the laugh. Please give your lovely wife and two beautiful daughters a hug from me. I hope to meet them some day. :)

It's swappin' time again...

no, not wife swapping, although that could be interesting. (Have you seen the new Celebrity Wife Swap show, I have to admit I've enjoyed a couple of the episodes.)

OK, enough of that, let's get to the reason I'm posting on here right now. I've been so bad about posting, so I'm just going to say my normal apologies and make my obligatory "I promise I'll start posting more often" statement and move on.

I'm supposed to be getting ready for a workshop I'm doing tomorrow afternoon, but while I'm thinking about it I thought I'd share a couple photos of some cards I just made for a swap I signed up for. The idea of this swap is to promote items in the new Idea Book, that just went live this week.

I'm participating in a couple of different swaps, but for this one I'm assigned a particular new paper pack to work with and a specific project. In this case I was assigned a 3x6 greeting card and the new paper pack called Cruisin'.

This is what I came up with.



Isn't he a cutie? I used the stamp set called "A Bowwow". I stamped him on one of the papers in the new Cruisin' paper pack, cut him out and glued him to my card front. I also stamped his little collar on a different paper from the pack, cut it out and glued it on. Some people think I'm crazy but I really find scissor cutting very relaxing. In case you're new to stamping, that's called "paper piecing" of which I'm a big fan. I also added one of the new little "gilttery buttons" to his collar with an added sparkle in the middle. Even dogs can use a little extra bling in their lives, right?

Here's a close up of the doggie and his collar.



I just love the argyle paper too. I wanted to use it as soon as I saw it in the Idea Book. So after a couple nights of cutting and gluing here are all 41 cards before being mailed to their destination.



Whew, that was a lot of work. And because I'm a glutton for punishment I signed up for two different spots in this swap, but since I'm supposed to be prepping for my card right now, I'd better stop and show you the other card tomorrow. It's almost midnight here, so I'm going to pop in a movie (I think it will be "You've Got Mail" this evening/morning) and I'll open a Mountain Dew (yes, I'm that healthy) and get to craftin'. Thanks for looking!

Randomness - Eyebrow Girl

This is totally random, but I just love this video and she's such a pretty girl, it's a bit mesmerizing. What does that little pink frame on my sidebar say? Yes, apparently I am the queen of Random, lol. Enjoy!

First Holiday Craft Bazaar of the season down...

only 5 more to go - yikes! With that said, I just can't seem to get my crafty mojo working today, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to post some photos of Linda's and my first Holiday Bazaar of the season.

This event took place on Tuesday, October 18th at the Sunset Presbyterian Church. This was a fund raiser for Eve's Daughters, a non profit and volunteer run organization for the benefit of single mothers, a very good cause. This was the first time they had put on an event like this and I hope it was a success for them. The vendors were asked to donate a portion of their sales in turn for a spot in the show, which we were glad to do.

The evening went by very quickly as there were only 2 hours of sales, but both Linda and myself did very well in that short amount of time. It was also a nice way to ease into the Bazaar Season as we've signed up for the most shows ever this year. Hopefully we'll survive this, lol.

Here we are at our table. One of the volunteers was nice enough to take our photo.
The only thing that was kind of strange about where they put us was that big display behind us. We felt a little odd about it because it had nothing to do with us. You can't really see in this photo, but there was an easel behind where we were standing which was all about kisses and had photos of people kissing on it. But we were able to make a few jokes during the night, offering up "a kiss with purchase", etc..

Just before the doors opened I took a quick tour of the table with the camera so I could show off our crafty items. Lots of fun stuff.



Here are some of Linda's beautiful flower pins and hair clips. The photo doesn't really do them justice, they're so pretty in person. There are also some fun bookmarks she made as well.

These are a new addition this year. Linda molded these cute little flowers and turned them into rings, earrings and hair pins. I love how they turned out!

Here a some more of Linda's items; some fun little girl hair clips, tissue cozies, magnet sets and mini notebooks.

Here are some of my altered Tic-Tac "Snowman Kisses", Linda's embroidered towel sets and fun fabric wristlet key fobs also made by Linda.

Here are some of my Post-It note stands with matching pens. I made these for the first time last Spring for a show we did and they were quite popular, so I thought I'd see how they did for the holidays.

New this fall are my Cozy Sock Cupcakes. You may have seen them in my previous post. These turned out to be pretty popular and I sold about half of them, so I'm replenishing my stock.

Here are some single magnets made by Linda and some Halloween test tube treats filled with Skittles, put together by me.

More goodies...

I hope you've enjoyed seeing what Linda and I have been up to. We both have more items planned to sell at our upcoming shows, so I will try to take photos of those at future events. Our next show is this Friday, November 4th. It's a private in-home show that a group of ladies put on for their friends to come and shop and they also raise money for a good cause. Should be fun, but I've definitely got lots more to do before then. I see some late nights this week after work.

Thanks for looking!

Inedible cupcakes anyone?

What?!? Inedible cupcakes? Yes, and inedible because THEY'RE SOCKS!! Okay, these are just so stinkin' adorable and I couldn't wait to share.

I saw some on line last fall and had to try them for myself. I spent most of the day yesterday making these and am loving the way they're turning out. Each one turns out a little bit differently, which adds to the fun.






I'm displaying them on a stacked dessert tower that I borrowed from my mother-in-law. Funny thing is, there is a ceramic "Ratatouille" figurine attached to the top, so I covered him up with a display cupcake. As Tim Gunn says, "make it work". lol

Now I just need to wrap them in some cellophane and add a tag. I'm going to be selling these at some upcoming bazaars in the next month and a half with my friend Linda, but these aren't the only things I'll be selling, so I'd better get to crafting, chop chop.

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 40th Chico!

Chico turns the big 4-0 today! Even though I'm still a year older than him, at least he can't give me a hard time anymore about me being in my 40's.

Rose had a party for Chico on Saturday at her new house and it was a pretty good turnout. He knew his mom was making dinner for him but didn't know we had invited a "few" extra people. :) This was Chico opening some of his cards. He looks a little embarrassed.


I know he enjoys being around his family & friends, so it was nice that we could have people there to celebrate with him.

The boys and I love you very much Chico and we hope you have a wonderful day today and that this is the beginning of a fantastic year for you!

The 2011 Autumn / Winter Idea Book is in the house, or rather it should be.

The New Autumn/Winter 2011 Idea Book has arrived! As always it's loaded with TONS of fabulous new products! It is larger, has more artwork, has the stamp sets shown at 100% (much easier to plan your projects).

For my local friends, let me know if you want your very own copy and I'll make it happen. ;) Anyone out of the area, I'd be happy to mail one to you, but I would ask that you pay for postage. Send me a note at kandig@comcast.net if you're interested.

If you just can't wait to get a copy in your hands you can view the Idea Book online here.

Last month I was able to attend my very first Close To My Heart Convention. It was located in Anaheim, CA (at the Disneyland Hotel) and it was a blast! I spent time with some wonderful people, actually got to go to Disneyland for the first time in 22 years (although without the hubby or kids, so felt a bit guilty) and got to see all of the new products in person. I can't wait to share all of the amazing new goodies with you.

As always, the new Idea Book includes fabulous new paper collections (with heavier weight decorative papers) and many, many new stamp sets (at lower prices - yay!), along with lots of wonderful new embellishments, but I think one of the most exciting new products has to be... wait for it... an EXCLUSIVE new Cricut Cartridge called "Art Philosophy"!! Yes you heard me correctly, we are now paired up with Cricut to add some wonderful new dimension to Cards and Scrapbook pages as well as creating some cute 3-D items.

This cartridge has boxes, bags, tags, tons of different card shapes, envelopes, banners, a font, flowers (flat and 3D), and TONS of images that coordinate with our stamp sets! Yes, you don't have to cut out those intricate shapes anymore with scissors! Just select the size of the shape that is shown on the stamp set carrier sheet and your Cricut will cut as may as you like. Then just stamp your image directly on the die cut image. Soooooo much faster, simpler, and easier!

After Convention I was able to order up a bunch of the new items and they're here in my house and I can't wait to start playing with all of it. I'm participating in a couple of artwork swaps using lots of the new products, so I'll be sharing what I come up with here soon. Currently in my free time I'm working on a project at my mother-in-law's new home, so once that's finished I'm going to get my hands inky. ;)

In the mean time, contact me or get on line so you can start your wish list!