Not much to say

Maybe it is good for you that I have so little to say today, but thought I'd post anyway.

This is Riley moose from hanna Stamps and I made this card for one of my kids to carry to a birthday party today. I then forget and had them use a different card. So this guy is mine now. He is adorable on his surfboard, eh? I used nestabilities for the square and the fish is from Stampin Up's set, penguin Paradise. the papaer is from a pack by Daisy D's.

Tornadoes ripped through the area where I live but we are all safe and sound and so is my family. My dad called at 8 AM to tell me he was okay. I was still asleep. You know you are used to the storms when the last words I heard last night was my oldest son walking to bed who peeked in my room and said "Tornado warning." I said "Okay, Good Night" and we all went to sleep. My husband though is always awake very late and I rely on him if we should need to wake up and go to the basement for cover.

Stampin' Friday

Sorry for the blurry photo, but you get the idea....it's a card made with Riley Moose for the Hanna Stamps Challenge of the week. We were supposed to do some paper piecing and add some bling. I gave Riley new clothes to wear and added bling to the clothes, and to the corner of the card. The paper is from daisy D's and already had some bling in it. I added pearls to the flowers, too. The tennis balls are added from the Small Dogs set from Hanna Stamps.
I made this with 2 new sets from papertrey Ink, Mailboxes and Honey bees. I used a wide variety of Stampin' Up colors, so you just have to find colors you like and go with it. The set has a row of mailboxes, but I did paper piecing and just added one to my little corner of prairie.

Not much happening here. It's the last weekend for soccer and we have ganes at 8 AM and 5:30 PM tomorrow, and the kids have two birthday parties to fit in as well. Maybe on Sunday I'll nap!

Who Knew?

See this Riley Moose (from Hanna Stamps, paper by Basic Grey)? He looks like a confident cook, doesn't he? Why is it then that I always thought spaghetti sauce came from a jar? Oh sure, I have been to the gocery enough to know that it could come from a can, too, but the can stuff seemed far inferior to me.

I found a favorite web site, Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. It's won some type of Best Blog award, so apparently it is a favorite of a lot of people besides me. Well, Pioneer Woman has recipes on her site. I decided to try out her recipe for the best ever lasagna. You brown 1.5 pounds of ground beef and 1 pound hot breakfast sausage. Then you add 2 cans of tomato sauce and 2 cans of diced or whole tomatoes. I did that, and I saw that I had made a very thick and tasty spaghetti sauce. (I'd probably add some tomato sauce if I served it as spaghetti sauce at home.) Well, what do you know, it was a whole new world opened up for me, homemade spaghetti sauce! I finished the recipe and made the lasagna, so I can tell you tomorrow how it turned out.

I just finished reading "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. I found it a thrilling adventure. She lives on a farm and her family plants for the year, cans it, and eats only local food they have made themselves or purchased at the farmer's market. This means, no bananas, lemons, or other food that took lots of petroleum to travel to their hometown. They buy locally ground flour to make their own bread and even grow their own chckens and turkeys. Wow. I wish someone would grow my food and cook it for me. I was very impressed and it gave me alot to think about, but I am not sure I can quite live like that. While I love the thought, my reality would be much different. A great read, though.

Scoundrels

The kids are scoundrels and I am not sure who I can blame. Behind our housing addition and down the street is a drug store. Kids can get to it just by crossing through some unused fields. Other neighborhood kids walk there, my kids are not allowed. Why? Mainly because the kids always want to go with friends who are not trustworthy.

Today I heard talking in my house, between some neighbor kids and mine, mainly about money. I was upstairs doing my hair and trying not to worry about why the neighbor kids were asking my kids about their money. My kids, you see, leave whatever money they earn laying around the house. I'll scoop it up and put it in a ziploc baggie with their name on it, but it ends up downstairs again, laying around somewhere.
The kids decided to take a walk to the drug store and buy candy, with my oldest child's money, and his permission. The four kids were gone and back before I ever knew what they had done, and I came downstairs to see them eating candy at the table. They each bought 2 candy bars with my son's money. Noah said he was fine and happy and they were all sharing their candy with each other.

I am miffed that they both did something they knew they were not supposed to do. I am thinking about punishment but beleive the greatest punishment of all will come when Noah realizes he has very little money left because of his excursion. Still, I am ticked off with them. If I let them break the rules and they get no punishment, my life will be worse. Anybody got advice?

Hanna Goes Green

I made this for the Hanna Stamps challenge this week. The challenge was to use chipboard, so I used some behind my home made recycling bin. I decided hidden chipboard wasn't good enough, so I used two accent pieces for the sun and the flower. They each have a Rain Drop in the center to give them some pizazz. Speaking of pizazz, I gave Hanna a pierced belly button, see that bling? I used some ribbon, colored with copic markers, made my background, and there ya have it. Maybe she'll inspire me to be more recycling minded. I am trying to do my part to save the earth, but there is always room for improvement.

Mmmmmmm Good!

I made a double batch of brownies today and put them into cellophane bags from Stampin Up. I stamped Sweet Love from Papertrey Ink as a background and used their Honey Bees set for the bumble bee image and the "Bee Happy" saying. I punched them out with the Marvy Uchida purple scallop punch. I wrapped gingham ribbon around the individually wrapped brownies and my oldest is taking them to school tomorrow for a sweet end of the year treat. It makes me wish I was his teacher. (NOT!)

Thursday Craft Report

I met with Maria (in pink) and our friend Odette in an attempt to make collages/mosaics. Odette and I thought we would start with the simplest thing possible and tried our hands at Garden stones/moisaics. Maria had tons of supplies and I had purchased some, too. The glass that we used is from Maria's collection and she brought it back froma trip to Argentina. I did not find anything similar locally.
I bought special pans at my favorite glasss store. You lay contact paper on the bottom of the pan and grease/spray the sides of the pans with Pam or wd4o. You then lay the stones or glass pieces onto the contact papaer to hold them in place.
I mixed a product called Diamond Crete and poured it over the stones in the pans. It sets in about an hour, though mine was not really ready to be popped out of the pan yet. I did a smaller plastic pan, too. This was something Maria had on hand.
This is my finished garden stone. It worked out fine as a first project, knowing I can always improve. The sqaure glass pieces are not perfect, some of the concrete seeped around the edges and makes them loook less square. I chipped away at some of the square pieces in a effort to square them up a bit, but some could not be helped. As for the smaller tub, the concrete seeped around the contact paper and it is firmely stuck in place and ugly and unusable.

You can buy a less expensive concrete mix, called QuickCrete at your local hardware store, but it sets in about 5 days instead of an hour. I wanted something portable that I could drive home with and not have to worry too much about spillage in the car.

Will I try this again? Yes. I am going to work in reverse next time. I will make my design on the table, pour the Diamond Crete into the loaf sized tub and then put my glass pieces on top, rather than having them upside down on the bottom. We are planning to get together and have the kids make these as father's day gifts so I have to find the perfect method with the best results soon. I really enjoyed making these and if you can get together to craft with good friends , you'll love what you can make.

Wednesdays with Hanna

I made this for the Hanna Stamps Flag Challenge. The challenge was to use the Patriotic Hanna set and to celebrate a country you love. The set comes with empty flags so you can design your flag, or make your country's flag. Pure genius! But I am a predictable American and used the American flag that came with the set. I am not eligible to win since I am on the Design Team, but I am a good sport anyway. The paper is from a Daisy D's paper pack.

Not much going on today. My painting classes have ended as we take the summer off and my teacher, Maria will be going back to work in the fall. She is a dentist and will be working at out local dental school. She is beautiful, too, so she would be easy to hate if I didn't love her so much. She is gorgeous, smart, talented, and has four great kids. (And a handsome husband, too. )

Today we are meeting anyway and are making mosaics from glass and tile. I have been slowly accumulating supplies this week and am set to make a garden stone or something simple. We'll have to see what my friend Odette is making, I am not sure. I am hoping this will be a new craft to master and then I will have the kids make them for Grandparents as gifts. I'll be sure to post a photo.

Tuesdsay Tutorial

I saw this idea on Spitcoast Stampers and thought "I can make that myself!" What I should have done was to find the tutorial that had already been done and just posted a link to it. I have been asked to make tutorials before, but since I rarely have an original idea in my head, I have resisted the urge. I don't know why I was over taken to try it this time. Here ya go:

1) Go to Michaels (or somewhere else) and buy some chain. Above is a photo of what I bought.

2) I cut the chain with my wire cutters for jewelry into a 7 inch length.

3) Use store bought brads that are pretty or use the Build A Brad set from Stamin Up. I made my brads with this set. I used paper from Chatterbox called "Folksy Small". The paper has a brown background with ink and blue flowers on it. You use your 1/2 inch circle punch to punch out flowers of your choice and attach them to the brad. I would have shown you my completed brads or the Build A Brad set, but Blogger appears to only let me upload five photos at a time.

Put your brads though the chain and fold back the sides of the brad. With a pair of needle nose pliers you then fold the brad spikes under. It is so much easier than it sounds! I needed another hand in order to hold the pliers and take aphoto of what I was doing. (Sorry!)
4) This is a photo of the completed bracelet after the brads are attched. I already attached the jewelry clasp on the ends. I am sorry that my photos look dark, but I am obviously still a person in need of tutorial improvement.

Not being content to end on that note, I used my jewelry making expertise and attached 4mm and 6mm Swarovski crystals to dangle from the empty loops. This bracelet is much lighter than the bracelets I usually make, as this one lacks real sterling silver and glass. It is still very pretty however, and I plan to have it on all day today so I can report later on how it really wears.

When I find the link to the genius who thought up this idea, I'll post it.

Teenage Trouble

Okay, pre teen trouble? About a year and a half ago my son went out to play with a friend and soon came in yelling that other kids in the 'hood had taken his friend "hostage" and were shooting them with airsoft guns. (Air soft guns are sort of like bb guns, but milder. They shoot small rubber pellets.) I went to sort it out and took custody of the guns.

I told the kids they could get them back after their dad came over and had a talk with me. I had been to their house before and talked to their dad about behavior issues, but nothing had ever seemed to happen. Predictably, their dad never came over. The kids came over, telling lies and wanting the guns back, but I never gave them back. Today they came back asking about the guns. They were bothered that I said I had thrown them away and wouldn't continue the discussion with them and I shut the door while they were attempting to goad me into an argument. Sheesh. Give it up already. Their parents may not have backbone, but I do. I am now thinking they'll egg my house or something. they have already been scolded by another neighbor for climbing the fence to the neighborhood swimming pool and skateboarding in it.

Todays card is another one for the "Use your brayer challenge." It is Hanna Stamps Challnge #17 I think. HSC17 would be the search word on Splitcoast. I used Riley Moose in his tube floaty and brayered the background before paper piecing him and adding him to the background. The paper is a Basic Grey card pack, if I remember right. I added ribbon, dew drops, colored with copics and SU oval punches.

Outside it is cold and rainy tonight. I hope it is better tomorrow, I'd like to see some pretty spring days ahead.

It's Friday, Baby!

Yes, and even though my kids were home from school today, it was still a nice day. Today would have been a day built into the calendar as a snow make up day, but we didn't have enough snow this year to cancel school, so there was no need for the make up day. I slept in, did laundry, crafted and ignored the kids the best I could. Thankfully a neighbor's grandchild was here most of the day playing with my boys so I didn't have to.

The card of the day is for Hanna Stamps' Friday challenge. The challenge was to use a brayer. I gave my brayer away to a friend who desperately wanted it for Christmas. I also gave her samples of cards and a lesson on how to use it as she liked the look so much. I figured, "Who cares. I never brayer anything." Oooops! I ran to Archivers with a coupon to get one for this challenge. I played around a bit, so you'll see more brayered backgrounds coming out of me soon.

I used the Moose from the Riley Moose collection and cut them out and put them on this card with a pop dot. (The female moose are named Sophie G.) I colored the sun from the SPF 50 set and added it with a pop dot, too. In real life the card is very cute. I added some bling in the lower right hand corner. I think I may add another layer of ribbon on top of the red ribbon and tie a knot or bow to jazz it up a bit more.

We are off to the Relay for Life event tonight at school. Seth's teacher had cancer this year and missed the first part of the year getting treatment and recovering. She is doing fine now and Seth wants to go walk with her. Someone from each team has to be on the track and walking for the full 24 hours of the event so we are going to keep her team company and provide support.

The Story of my Life

It's just the way it is, you know? I need to import some photos onto my blog and for some reason my photo program is not working today and my husband isn't here to help me. I'd like to think I am a self sufficient woman and can handle most any crisis on my own. But when it comes to computer stuff, I am completely dependednt on others. This is very unlike me in real life, but the way it is.

I have traveled around Africa on my own, parachuted from an airplane, even rode a bull with out falling off. Okay, the bull was mechanical, but still, you get the point. This computer stuff? I hate it.

I am recovered from the garage sale, have cleaned out the garage and donated items to Goodwill. Two full van loads went out the door! Now, if only I could tackle the closets! Sheesh, it never ends.

Last night Seth was at Irish Dance class and came home to watch Dancing with the Stars. Poor guy cried loud and long when his favorite, Marissa Jaret Winokur was voted off. Why does he love her so? She starred on Broadway in Hairspray, his long time favorite musical. He has been begging me to take him to Chicago to see Wicked. I have hoped to do that, but then Noah chimed in that if Seth sees Wicked, he wants to go to a Cubs game. Tickets to the Cubs are allegedly really hard to get, and I hate baseball. So, Seth has yet to see Wicked. The good news is that in 2009 Wicked is coming to our town, so Seth will have his dreams come true after all.

Mother's Day

I survived the art sale and the garage sale but have just been busy, busy, busy. The art sale went very well and I still have all of my accompanying items in the back of my van. I came home from the ale and immediately started sorting and pricing for the garage sale.

Noah and Seth love shopping the garage sales because there are so many affordable finds for them. Seth bought me a teddy bear for Mother's Day. He loves stuffed animals, and I hate them, so I should not have been surprised that he was trying to share his love with me.

Noah bought ne 19 shades of fingernail polish. He was so proud that they were only a nickel each and he bought all the lady had for sale. The photo above is of some of them. See the yellow? I have never even seen such a shade!

I made this card at Vicki Garrett's house using her Stampotique stamps. I love the aliens. The paper is from a Basic Grey card sized pack. The art work is from a guy named Daniel Torrence, or Daniel Terrence, I can never remember which. I love his artwork, that's all that matters.

This card is for the Hanna Stamps Challenge #16. We were to use Creamy Caramel, Always Arichoke, and Real Red. I colored Riley with copics, made my own background, and added ribbon. The small flowered background is a small SU stamp and I colored the centers with the Sakura gel pen. I love this Riley. For the Splitcoast Stampers board I titled this "Riley Lights My Fire" because he does. I love him!

I hope your day went well. I fell asleep at 12:30 after church, snug in my nice warm bed while it rained hard outside. Seth woke me at 3:30 asking me to take him to the movie "Nim's Island." It was a cute movie, but I must have been tired to have slept hard for three hours in the middle of the day.

They have photos of me naked!

Before I get to the juicy bits, let me tell ya about my card.....Made with the new Hanna Stamps Garden set, I piled up the vegetables in the wheelbarrow and I am done with my shopping at the farmer's market. I don't know who made the paper, possibly Scenic Route. I added Dew Drops, ribbon, and used circle and scallop punches from SU. See the snail at the bottom? Oh so adorable, and part of the garden set.

As for naked photos of me, they don't exist. I am so tired of getting SPAM e mails I could strangle spammers with my own bare hands. I never open it, of course, but I get many many daily e mails offering to enlarge and enliven body parts I don't even have. I get SPAM written in Chinese characters, I get SPAM that looks like I used my own address to send it to myself. And now I get daily SPAMs saying "We have naked photos of you, Judy." I know it is not true as the only ones of their kind were taken as a baby, if they exist at all. One peek at a naked photo of me and you'd be tempted to pke your own eyes out, ot burn your computer screen with acid. Get a SPAM filter, you say? I have one, as I am married to a computer genius, but I have to clean out the spam folder and make sure I haven't overlooked something. Every once in a while I lose something decent into the spam folder. I get about 150 mails a day, people!

Today is election Primary Day in Indiana. If I were elected to office, I would make SPAM an act of treason as it wastes too many resources, or at least electricity and the time of productive citizens like myself. If a politician ran on the platform of punishing spammers, they would have my vote. I used to be on the Board of Directors for the League of Women Voters in Indianapolis, so go and vote if you live here!

I have a busy week ahead, an Art Fair tomorrow where I will be selling my beads and jewelry and a Garage Sale this weekend to prepare for. I will be around but may not blog much. I have jewelry to make now, and treasures to find and clean, and organize and price to sell...

HSC 15 Friday Challenge

I am responsible for posting the challenge at Splitcoast Stampers today for the Hanna Stamps weekly challenge. I decided I wanted to see how people could mix and match their stamps. For this card I used FIVE different Hanna Stamps sets.

The bags and shoes are from the But I Need It set.
The wheelbarrow is from the brand new Garden set.
The grass is from the Spring Time set.
The flower is from the My Best Friend set.
The sentiment is from Things Hanna Would Say.

I am looking forward to seeing what everyone can do.

Thankfully we only have one soccer game this weekend and have a quiet weekend planned.

Teeny Bikinis

This is my Hanna card of the day. I used two new upcoming sets, SPF 50 and Fun in the Sun. I also used the sentiment set from Hanna's "Things Hanna Would Say." I paper pieced the shells and covered them with crystal effects for shine. I also paper pieced the bikini top she is holding. The paper is from Cloud Nine designs and I colored with copics.

Seth saw this card and held it up and said " This is not appropriate." I basically told him to get a grip, and he ran off to his dad yelling "Mommy is doing naughty things in the basement!" Yeah, I wish it got a whole lot naughtier than rubber stamping in my basement.

So, this is your look into my wild and naughty life for today.

Don't forget to go to Splitcoast tonight for the release party. Free sets will be given away. there will be fun, challenges, and prizes. Now, that's my idea of a wickedly good time!