Joe is ....... PUBLISHED!!!!

 The hubster has published a short novel/ book on Amazon's kindle! It is available for your Kindle for  $0.99 or for free if you have Amazon Prime.

To read about it...go here..... Beneath My Garden of Eden.....

Way to go Joe!!!

A Sentimental Journey with May Arts Ribbon

 A sentimental journey....May Arts Ribbon's February challenge conjurers ups such sweet images and emotions. May Arts sent four ribbons and you had to use all four on your project.  My journey began the moment I laid eyes on the ribbon selection- I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it- I wanted to create an old fashion lingerie envelope. I knew I probably wouldn't be tucking it into my dresser just yet though so I wanted to make it yummy enough to sit out for the month of February! The idea at first was to use plain fabric to make the envie but as I was looking through my stash I came across this wonderful vintage linen from my Mother in law. I am not sure if it is one she or her mom had made but I suspect it is. (A lesson learned late- ask all your questions now before it is too late- there are so many questions we wish we knew the answers to!) I hand sewed a plain fabric onto the front to make a pocket so not to destroy the linen piece. The linen simply flips over to form the flap. I made a heart pin to attach on the front but it can be removed and used as a piece of jewelry. The front is decorated with all four ribbons as well as some vintage buttons and a cute gold floral pin that just so happened to be laying around out on the cutting table while I was working on this project (like it was meant to be!). I made a card  using all four ribbons as well, this time using  Stampin' up doily stamp.

So here is my Valentine sentimental journey, inside I will tuck away a picture of my mother-in-law, a note about the linen, and maybe some small treasures. Oh, and the Valentine part, the heart of course but also my mother in law's birthday was Feb 14th.

 Thank you May Arts Ribbon.....

I should have posted this one on Superbowl Sunday....

This card was for my oldest son's birthday back in July of last year. His birthday fell on the day our local village celebrates the 4th with fireworks so I made him this fireworks and beer card. The beer can is cut from wrapping paper that I picked up in a garage sale- I just knew it would be perfect for some male cards! I simply cut out the can, layered it on some card stock and cut that out and the focal piece was created....easy breezy....

Stay tuned, my younger son's birthday was a week later and yes, he too, received a beer card.......

Time for a Warm Mug of Cocoa......

Based on the sketch for CPS 252 this card was created using a wonderful Inky Antics stamp, Marshmallow Friends by Tammy DeYoung. I received this stamp set, along with two others, from Jackie at Inky Antics. Not only did she send me these sets but she introduced me to a new family favorite game, Pictionary! Thank you Jackie!

I am also using this card for the January challenge at Papercrafts Connection- there is nothing like being last minute...

And on the subject of thank yous,  I won this pack of Authentique paper and twine from suburbNgypsy. The two sided paper is beautiful! I have not yet made anything from it (bad me!) but I need to get the thank you out. Please check out the suburbNgypsy blog- she makes amazing creations!

This could be a first for me...

The OWH Stars and Stamps blog posted sketch #105 this morning and I made the card already today! Usually I never even get the sketch done....good intentions but time is one thing I definitely do not have good management of!
Off to work on some other projects......

A Huge Thank You to Scrap-Mart

This December I was one of the grand prize winners st Scrap-Mart and I won this wonderful
Spellbinders package. I could barely contain my excitement- what an amazing group of dies! And look- some exclusive Scrap-mart ones! These are extra special!!!! I can not say enough.... but I will say this Scrap-Mart Rocks!!!!!
So go on over and check out their site- they carry amazing products (at super prices!). Tell them debb sent you!
Now excuse me, I need to go die cut something.....
debb

Twirling Chicks

 

Twirling chicks....yes, seriously, they twirl...this is a spinner card. An experiment of sorts, if I made it again I think it would be more effective with just one twirling or maybe one twirling and two stabilized on the bottom as stoppers....  Can you tell I just think and babble to myself as I write...lol...

I won a gift certificate to DeNami Design and selected these chick stamps along with a couple of others- (and as long as I was ordering... I might as well buy a couple right?). I really loved the way the chicks are tumbling and thought why not try a spinner card- and why not try a circular one - I am sure it has been done before and I probably should have searched for some instructions but that is not me...I just like to make it up as I go...lol... 

 

And one more shout out to Copic Markers- I won this one from their ten days of giveaways. Woo hoo....love my copics!!!!

Fashionably Late... in many ways....

Always behind....or fashionably late...yep that's me! I could not help the play on words on this cards as it serves double duty... I might use it as a belated birthday card...or it may go on a scrapbook page that befits the theme...but it also refers to all the bloggy thank yous I need to post about, beginning with this one! I won this stamp set over at Lisa Pace's Antiquated Collection facebook page and am sending a big thank you out to Lisa and Pink Persimmon for sending it to me!
Go on- check out the links- the stamps are amazing!

I can not believe I am going to show this but here is my craft room.....

 I know. I know. I know. What a mess- but the potential is here! Let me tell you a story....This room was my sewing room. It is approximately 35x15 and was expanded on our house 20 plus years ago. It is in fact, the original house, turned into a garage then we added on as part of the house. Complicated I know. But the people who built our house over 70 years ago first built this part and lived in it while they built the house. When we purchased the house 27 years or so ago this room was the garage and breezeway - complete with a dug basement and hardwood floors that were rotting (can you image hardwood floors in a garage- not a good choice for the northeast!). And the garage was deep and long - sometimes I miss it but that is another story.....!
My sewing business ... this was the room I used for it. It once housed all my sewing machines - industrial and regular, hundreds of bolts of fabric, dresses, dress dummies, a 12' by 4' cutting table, and general chaos. Then after 15 years or so, I decided I was over that.... hmmm... sold off all the industrial machines and all the remaining fabric bolts.I did it slowly but it was the end of an era....

But I still had tons of stuff from other hobbies, lol and it was still my room right? Wrong....bit by bit inch by inch in they came... a couch here, a chair there, a desk, newspapers, magazines, boys! There is currently a huge leather couch , two wing backs, a long coffe table thingy, a roll top desk and tv, etc in here. And lots of windows - can you say no wall space?
My space got smaller and smaller but I was still taking up too much of the room - after all this has turned into "the" room in the house- we live here and in the kitchen (which L's off of this room- it blends...).
The cutting table was cut down (in several steps- it is traumatic- I love my big table!) it is now 8'x4'. I built wood panels to disguise it (see those two unpainted ones- we turned it last year so I needed more panels built - have not painted them yet!) For Christmas of 2010 I asked for lumber so I could build the space in the closet. Previous to this, all this mess was out in the room and visually it was a nightmare. My storage is a great combination of garage sale finds (I never meet a shelf or cabinet I did not like!). So in Jan  and Feb 2011 I built the bottom part of the closet, the two new panels for the cutting table and the very messy wooden cube shelf on the back side of the cutting table (the one with all the baskets). this shelf has still not found it's proper home- it was going on top of the cutting table but it cut off too much natural light from the room so for now it is sitting on the floor in back of the cutting table. I then jigsawed my garage sale pieces into the closet- on top of the shelves. They are still not filled and organized as I want them but I will get there eventually...The closet is supposed to be my paper and ink area- stores my paper, inks, etc. The cutting table top is supposed to be clear (not!) for my paper cutter and big shot. Under the cutting table is all sorts of storage - not well organized but I am trying. The picture with the panels off is showing bead  storage and the bottom shelf are sizzix dies. I am adding a book shelf divider (comes out into the room) to the space between the two closet doors because I need more storage. One thing you can not see is in the rest of the room where there are not windows, there are cabinets (dressers) with drawers that store stamps - even the TV is on one- we bought this danish modern bedroom set at an estate sale  (put a bid on it for the end of the sale and got it! $100 for a desk, three dressers, a bed, a corner desk, a desk and a nightstand!). I love danish modern - or the 60's - very practical furniture and clean lines- excellent storage- it does not look like bedroom furniture- more like built ins- sort of!.
My oldest son  moved out this year so I moved my sewing machine cabinet into his bedroom - just finished that project in Nov- painting the room etc. BTW we were able to use the danish modern bed frame in his room now!
Did I mention what a huge purge I had to do to get to this point- it was so sad. My recycling bin was full for weeks - I got rid of so many magazines, old papers, books, cards, etc. I think everything is a project and save too many vintage items I know will be great in a project but out they went. The church got lots of stuff for their white elephant sale and the local salvation army was 'gifted" items too. I still have a lot of organizing to do. But, says the optimist, I will get there!
Did I mention the bad part of all this stuff? This is the main entrance to our house - we never use our front door (and our living room is neat and clean!) so this is one of the first things guests see- along with the kitchen which can be very messy at times! We do live in our house....
Still with me? Whew- I am worn out. But I do have a few concluding remarks
-I am a hoarder of craft stuff-lol!
-I am cheap (hence the mish mash of storage)
-I am disorganized
-I need to use my products more!
-I love my junk!!!!!!

I had better push the publish button before I chicken out!
debb

Last Year's Valentine....

....so I guess I am slightly behind in my blogging! I found tons of pictures I never posted last year- do you think I will be better this year...hmmm... we will see!

Happy Sunday!
debb