Sympathy Card

I thought it was time to get a new sympathy set. Sorry to say, but every so often it is necessary to have these cards around. This card is using the Love & Sympathy stamp set.

"My Guy" mini album continued . . .

Here is the fishing page. My boys are avid fishermen so I had to include this page. The pattern didn't have this idea so this is one of my own or well, my son drew me a picture of waders on a sticky note. The green is suppose to look like waders. The straps have magnets on them to hold them shut. The flannel shirt flaps open to reveal places to put photos.

The last page is the hunting page. This one I had to look on Internet to see what a hunting vest would look like. The shirt is made from camo looking paper.

The front pockets have tiny tags in them for pictures. I used magnets to hold the flaps shut.

 The vest unties at the bottom and flips up to reveal the camo shirt.

 The camo shirt flips up to reveal the pants pocket and places to put photos.

On the back, I made the vest all orange. When you lift it up there are places for pictures too.

 Again, all the shirt collars pull out from the pocket and gives even more places to put photos.

 Here's the back cover. Nothing fancy, but another photo could go here. I added a stamped image "Memories preserved by" at the bottom and signed my name.

I purchased a Bind-It-All (Merry Christmas to me!) to make the binding. I added ribbon and fabric tied around the binding for decoration. I hope the girls like them.

Latest mini album

Hope everyone has survived the Christmas holiday. We still have the Dexter Christmas tomorrow and then we will have the New Year to celebrate. I finally finished after three days of pretty steady work on the "My Guy" mini albums. I made three of these albums. Two go to the boys' girlfriends and one is for me to keep as a pattern and to show you guys when I see you in person. They were a lot of fun and I'm sure I'll make more in the future. I'll upload a few pictures and probably upload more in the days to come. Since being at home the upload is a lot slower than when I upload at school so I'll have to spread them out. The album is made up of four pages. I bought the pattern online, but ended up making one of the sample pages and then revamped the other three to meet the interests of my boys. So the album has a dressed up look, a t-shirt page, a fishing page, and a hunting page. The original pattern has a dressed up look, a golfer page, a flannel shirt page, and a sweats/t-shirt page. You probably have to see it to understand. Anyway, here is the cover.

The first page is a well-dressed man. I held the jacket together with velcro.

Opening the jacket flaps gives opportunities to put pictures or journal on the tags. The collar pulls out which is a tag that you can add pictures to both sides.

Here is the second page. The white collar pulls out as a tag and the red t-shirt lifts up to reveal places for pictures. I went on Internet to get the Husker logo and printed it out to add to the t-shirt.

I'll upload the other two pages tomorrow.

Hope everyone has had a chance to spend some time with family and friends today. Merry Christmas!

Snowmen card

Here's a card from last year. I've had to work on some orders from the craft show today so didn't have a chance to work on anything new. It is that time of year when the snow could fly so I figured it would be okay to post snowmen.

The stamp set is Holiday Lineup that I colored in using the aqua painters and ink pads. I used the paper piercer to form a square shape around the image and then took a pen to draw the squiggly line. I added some string around the card front and glued a snowflake that looks like it is hanging from the string. The snowflake was cut using the die Snowflake Set #2.  I rubbed two-way glue all over the snowflake and then added dazzling diamonds. Let's just keep the snowmen on the card. I really don't need snow until school is out.

Clearance Rack Blitz

From December 15, 2011, through January 5, 2012, nearly 200 products are being added to the Clearance Rack on the Online Store--with some discounted up to 80%.

You can go to my Stampin' Up online website HERE to see the clearance rack. The link is on the left column as 'Clearance Rack'. Be sure to go past page 10. There are more pages to look at. Check out the bargains! There are punches, paper, buttons, ribbon, dies, etc. I'm looking at the Valentine's paper and a few punches I've been wanting to get. Let me know by emailing me at dexterjane82@gmail.com if you have any questions.


Here's one more Christmas card . . .

I used the crumbcake paper for this card. I really like to sponge the edges to create the dimension and the antique look. The stamp is from the Bells & Boughs set. I colored the image using pencils. The ribbon and pearls finished it off.

Christmas card

We had a late start for school so it was really nice to sleep in just a little. School is about to start so here's a card I made really quick last night.

Gotta go.

Cookie Stamp

I found time this weekend to make some sugar cookies. It also gave me a chance to try the cookie stamp that is available through Stampin' Up. I used the recipe that came with the cookie stamps and they are very yummy. I like a soft cookie so I was hoping this recipe would be for a soft cookie and it is. I had read on another demonstrator's blog that she had baked the cookies and then when she took them out of the oven, she pressed the stamp onto the cookie. I tried this idea and it worked pretty well. Next time I will press the cookie before cooking and see which way turns out the best. Here's a couple pictures before we gobbled them up.

Next time I won't make the cookie quite so big so the stamp will fill the whole cookie and not have the extra around the edge.

I'm getting behind in my posting. I still have a couple pictures of craft show items. Here's the Starbucks gift card holder.

The lips stamp is in the catalog. I think this stamp will come in handy for Valentine's Day.
I looked through my photos of the craft show and I think these were the only photos I missed to show you.

Out of all of the bookmarks, I only had a couple apples and a couple flower 'For You' ones left. I couldn't remember if I had posted the Grandma's Brag book. I had made one using camouflage paper and had 'Hunter's Brag Book'. That was my first sale of the day. I should have made more of those. I'll definitely make more for next year. It's Friday! I'm ready for a weekend.

Here's a few close up pictures of craft items.

Once again I sold out of the windowsill angels. I've made different versions of this angel over the years, but the words have never changed. Every year I sell out of these angels. This angel has a very special story behind it. (If interested, here's the story . . . ) I had seen this angel many years ago at a dear friend's house, Beulah Scofield. I had mentioned to Beulah that I would love to borrow the angel to get the pattern and make some for a craft idea. Probably over a year had passed and after church one day my family stopped at the local quick stop and Beulah was in there having a sandwich. She had her sandwich half eaten and got up and said she needed to go get that angel for me. I told her it wasn't necessary, especially because she was right in the middle of eating her dinner. She insisted and out the door she went. She left her sandwich and wallet sitting on the table. I can still picture it in my mind. Anyway, she returned with the angel and we went on our way. That was the last time I saw Beulah. I'm not sure on the lapse of time, but Beulah ended up in the hospital and she didn't return to her home, but joined our Lord in heaven. So I had this angel for quite a while (again, I don't know for sure on the amount of time), but eventually the angel was returned to one of her family members after I met Nancy, Beulah's daughter. Ever since, Nancy and I have built a friendship. So I believe all things happen for a reason and we just have to notice what is going on around us.

I've kept the price of the angel as low as I can because I want to sell as many of them as I can. So far, I've sold out every time I've had them at craft shows. This may seem strange, but I feel that I need to continue making the angels.

 

This FAMILY frame is 11 x 14. I had seen this idea on Internet and I knew I had to try it. I only had time to make two of them and they both sold to a couple wonderful friends. I hope they will enjoy them or be able to give them as gifts to their family or friends. I'm going to make more of these because I want one hanging on my wall. I used the Mocha designer series paper for the squares. It is so nice because the paper all matches. I did throw in the blue from the Well Worn designer series paper. I liked how it turned out. I did some heat embossing, added ribbon, punched some edges on some paper and added a few embellishments. I think this would make an awesome bridal shower gift and I could put the letters of their last name instead of family. My mind is always working.

 

Here are the washcloth cupcakes. I used the cupcake wrapper die (no longer available in the catalog), wrapped a washcloth, stitched and gathered a ribbon top, and stuck a tooth pick with a red pom pom hot glued to the end through the ribbon down the washcloth. I made boxes that the cupcakes fit in that had a ribbon handle with a tag attached to the ribbon (photo below). The tag opened up and had a poem in the inside. Here's the poem . . .

Don’t get excited

and don’t get misled,

this isn’t a real cupcake,

but a washcloth instead.

Enjoy the cupcake,

but when you are through,

unwrap your small gift,

a ‘no calorie’ treat for you.

Here's several items in this picture. The hand bags are made to hold greeting cards so you can give cards as a gift or just to store your cards in. In the basket toward the back there are composition notebooks that I covered with designer series paper, made a bookmark (it's made of a hair tie, ribbon, and flower embellishment) that goes around the cover of the book, and there's a matching pen. The bear pins are mounted on card stock. I made them out of polymer clay and have a mold of a bear. The gift card holders look like a Starbucks cups. The top part of the cup pulls out and a gift card can be attached to the brown (coffee) inside. The blue, red, and green little things in the front are more bear pins. I made the bear sticking out of a little stocking. The tins have nugget candies that have been wrapped with designer series paper. I wrapped a ribbon around the tin and have two tags. One is a Christmas greeting and the other is a short poem about having good intentions of making a homemade treat, but because of being so busy, here's this year's homemade fudge (candy bars).

Here again are the washcloth cupcakes. The boxes are to the right. In front of them are the two mini scrapbook albums I whipped together the morning of the show up until 4:00 a.m. I did sell them both so they might be a good item to make more of for future craft shows. Wow! I believe this is a long enough blog this time. Guess I got to rambling.

Whew! It's been a crazy time around here, but I have taken time to realize how fortunate I am. God has blessed me with a wonderful family and terrific friends. If you haven't taken the time lately in this hectic time of year, it would be well worth your time.

The Chambers craft show is now over. That's why I've gotten behind with keeping up with this blog. I'm very relieved to have the show over, but very happy with the results. Here are a few pictures I took before the show.

I'll share throughout the week some closeup shots of a few of the crafts and stamped items that I made.