WOYWW #442 - Final Desk of 2017

Good  morning, Deskers!
This is the final shot of my desk for 2017. I take all of December off from blogging to enjoy the holidays and prep for 2018. Fitting that you should see my desk at one of its messiest

From the foreground you can just make out my lazy susan  with my implements of creation and a notebook. From there a SPAM can with my journal markers, to the left of that are 2 spools of lace ribbon I picked up at $Tree last night. They are in with the Christmas stuff. The November Paper Pumpkin box from Stampin' Up! waiting to be opened. Just to the right of that you'll see pieces of burlap ribbon. They are part of the Christmas $Tree video I need to film today. That plastic bag are the remnant pieces I need for the process part of that video. My SU collapsible litter bin and a coffee container that held quarters I turned into the counting machine yesterday.

I'm all about YouTube filming today. Tomorrow, Bob and I will enjoy a quiet day of Thanksgiving. I'll start with the Macy's parade. A tradition for as long as I can remember, then on either side of dinner we'll play card/ board games and be very Thankful for our time together.

We found out yesterday that Bob is off work probably until sometime in January or February. For the first time in 33 years he will be home for all of the holidays from Thanksgiving through New Years.

Also, last week I quit my 'day job' with the publisher. While I understand a fledgling business being built mostly on apprenticeships, we need an income the publishing job wasn't providing. 2018 is all about building my creative business and getting some consumable books published. Doing what I love and bringing in some cash.

I'll have at least one more creative post in the coming weeks but mostly about wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, Blessed New Year and winding down our eventful year.

That's it for my desk this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

Christmas Decorating Day 2

Yep, I'm one of THOSE people. At least that's what a lady in JoAnn's Fabric accused me of one day (several years ago). I was purchasing fabric for Halloween curtains for my kitchen. She asked what I was going to use it for. When I told her she said 'Oh, you're one of those people'. LOL Okay..

If one of those people is the type of person who loves to decorate for the holidays and make my curtains coordinate with everything else in the room, than I plead guilty- with pleasure. As I said yesterday, I've determined it all relates back to color. I love colored lights - or tons of lights in general (like looking out over a city from the 16th floor of a hotel), colors portrayed in fabrics, ornaments, embellishments. Just give me color and I'm a happy girl. If I were one of those people (sorry, no offense intended - just couldn't resist), I'd have Color My World playing on here to greet you every time you visited.

I began decorating with the gingerbread theme in my kitchen several years ago. It started with this adorable fabric I found by Marcus Textiles. I can't remember for sure but I think it was suppose to be for a tree skirt. I saw valance. At the time I had 2 very wide windows and the fabric called to me. I wound up not only making valances but also an apron. Coordinating fabrics in the line were the images you'll see on the table centerpiece and the fabric covering the canisters. There was the all-over gingerbread baking images as well as panel fabrics with the small gingerbread boy/ girl/ heart and the larger image I've turned into pot holders. Little by little I've added other things to the kitchen but this is the first year I've been able to bring it all together. In fact, I spent yesterday making the canister covers, pot holders, condiment basket liner and the embellishments for the front of the glass jar canisters.

So let's take a walk around my kitchen.

Our dining room table normally doesn't sit in the kitchen. When I show you the Christmas tree on Sunday, you'll understand why it's in here for a few weeks. I made place mats and the hot pads yesterday to dress it up a bit. I painted the little plate several years ago for a county fair entry.

This picture is of my favorite 'alcove'. The counter gets totally cleared off when I do my Christmas baking. It is my rolling / cutting station. The baking supplies are in the cabinets above, measuring spoons/ cups, parchment paper and baking-only spices in the drawers. The cabinets below house all of my jumbo mixing bowls, cooling racks and baking pans as well as my prized kitchen aid mixer. I have puck lights underneath the upper cabinets for a nice work-light.

My other favorite spot to be is at the stove. I love to cook and bake. The microwave oven is a bit high for me but it makes a nice display shelf for my candy jars and the little peppermint candy tree. To the left are the canisters and the condiment basket. A picture of the 'naked canister' is below so you can see how just a little time and fabric can really change the appearance.

Of course, I was designing the pattern yesterday so it took awhile. But now that I have that part done, I can see these covered for other holidays as well. The condiment basket is a pint canning jar box! I like being able to move the entire box of bottles to clean rather than shifting them one at a time. It will also help keep the counter clean of drips. I can just remove the liner and toss it in the laundry. Yep, definitely making more of these! Because I have yet to get hubby to install the puck lights under these cabinets, I ran a 20-light string of Christmas lights to brighten the corner.

What's left in here? Eventually I'd like to make chair pad covers for the chairs and add woven/ braided/ or crocheted rag rugs in a deep brick red and hunter green. I have a hunter green/ white checkered fabric already cut into rolls of long strips. I'm on the hunt for a solid brick red of the same weight so that might take awhile.

I'm taking tomorrow off the blog to work on the dining room and the Christmas tree. I'll be away to a writers meeting on Saturday. So my hope is to have pics of the tree/ dining room for you on Sunday. After that, the only thing left for this year is my village. My poor houses/ stores haven't seen the light of day in over five years. I've missed them. Just not sure where they're going to go. LOL But I'll have Sunday, Monday and Tuesday to figure it out while you look at cards.

Sweet Treats!

Magazine Monday...

... with a twist.

First off, I apologize for not posting last week. The week passed in a blur of trying to get the attention of a literary agent and making my house presentable for weekend company. Oh yeah, and hubby came home on Wednesday after being gone on the boat for 3 weeks. I didn't tend to any business at all last week.

Today's Magazine Monday isn't from a magazine layout. A couple weeks ago I took part in Virtual Stamp Night (VSN) at SplitcoastStampers (SCS). I had a blast! Over the course of the two days, I completed all 17 challenges based on the theme You Make My Heart Sing. Seventeen Hostesses took a turn at offering up a challenge based on the theme. I had a couple of favorites.

The first challenge asked us to create a card based on the layout of the 4 champers of the heart. For some reason, my mind went directly to Easter LOL. I made this card for the challenge and liked how it turned out so much I made 20 more for a Easter card front challenge for Ronald McDonald House.

I used a combination of Studio G stamps (carrot and sentiment) and the bunny/ basket from Hello Spring (Retired SU) I'm still trying to use up as much of my Valu CS as I can so I eventually work exclusively with SU. The cardstock was from the ValuCS Garden collection. I added texture with the CuddleBug Dotted Swiss folder.

But one card really surprised me. I was challenged to use a technique I'd never done before (well, not on CS anyway) and to make it for a guy. The Soot Technique required using a candle flame to burn off the glossy finish on Glossy Cardstock to give you a black/ sooty effect to dry-stamp into. I knew I had to use the STAG from Noble Deer (Retired SU) The scorched edges were an accident but wound up adding to the overall effect.

This card was chosen for the Honors Award! I was soooo surprised. One card is chosen from each challenge for the award. I didn't even knew there was such a category! LOL I think what surprises me most is that it was on a technique I'd never done before.

This technique reminded me of the old burnt paper bag technique I learned years ago from Aleene's Crafts.

Because my three-year-old granddaughter is here for two weeks, instead of a magazine layout next week, I'll showcase a couple more cards from VSN.

Creative Blessings!

All About Me

Back in January I applied for a staff position with Scrapbook News and Review, an on-line scrapbook magazine. Part of the application required submitting a layout showcasing ourself. It took me a while to figure out how to tell them about me in a scrapbook page. I referred to various idea books, including The Book of Me by Angie Pedersen and Scrapbooking your Adult

Years from Memory Makers . Finally it hit me. Everything I do stems from my love of COLOR. And I knew what the basis for the layout needed to be. I needed to include the color wheel.

I also needed to submit 4 other items that showcased my work - items I am the most proud of. I chose to use 2 additional layouts - 1 of a 2-pg spread and one of a single - as well as a card and a altered tag.

The 2-pg layout. It is a tribute to my late brother-in-law, Dan. A. Fellows. He was career Navy and served a tour of duty in Diago Garcia - his only unaccompanied tour. While there, we corresponded and I learned a lot about my brother-in-law. In the LO, I included a poem his wife (my sister) wrote about his leaving her and their 2 young children behind, called A Family Says Goodbye, which I chose as the title. I used a Christmas card he sent me from the island as a pocket to hold the letters I received.

Eventually I'll change the layout a bit to include the Navy insignia embellishment from K & Company. The military items were released after I'd created this for a competition.

The single page layout showcases a dear friend (and former daycare child/ Daisy Girl Scout troop member) She was only 6 in this picture. She's now 14! Man they grow so fast. But regardless of how old Kassie gets, I know she's always going to be very much like me.

Next week I'll have a springy layout to show you, introducing you to my very first daycare child. She recently became a mother for the first time. Remember what I said about them growing up so fast? Whether it be your own child, grand child or just a young one you have a fondness for, cherish each moment in your heart and on a scrapbook page. You'll be happy you took the time.

Creative Blessings!

Magazine Monday!

Happy Monday, everyone!

After a storm moved through here in the wee hours of the morning, disconnecting my power for a few hours, I'm happy to see blue sky, sunshine and have power again. :-)

Friday night and for almost 11 hours on Saturday I had a BLAST at Virtual Stamp Night (VSN for short) over at Splitcoaststampers. Awesome hostesses put together a series of challenges - one new posting every hour - around the theme, You Make My Heart Sing. I'll try to squeeze in some of my favorites of the SEVENTEEN cards I made for the event. But it was one of the participants' take on a texture challenge that had me thinking. Then when I went magazine cruising for this week's card, the VERY FIRST one I came across lent itself to the technique. I had to do it!

This week I used Christmas Crafts for Kids - a Better Homes and Gardens publication from 2002.

Here's the sketch:

The sky blue background with blue and white snowflakes almost looked like a stamp resist. The mitten on the outside mimics a row of 3 hanging 'clothes line' fashion across the center of the opened card.

What I liked: The busy background and the layers

What I didn't like: Lack of real 'image and lack of texture. The background was busy but it was too flat for my taste.

So I inked up the inside front of my Cuddle Bug snowflake folder with Bashful Blue ink (SU), then proceeded to emboss the front panel with textured snowflakes. I loved how it came out:

Instead of one big centrally located, multi-layered panel I did 2 separate panels to incorporate an image and make it more Christmas rather than just winter. I haven't settled on an inside quote yet. I'm still shopping. But for the most part, I have 12 of these made to complete the Christmas Card Challenge for February at SplitcoastStampers.

Are you thinking Christmas cards? I guess now is as good a time as any to remind you there are only 10 months till Christmas!

Creative Blessings

Magazine Monday!

This week we're going to visit Crafts n Things Magazine

I'm in a swap at SplitcoastStampers to create Valentines for the children at Ronald McDonald House in Little Rock Arkansas. I have the most adorable stamp set from Stampin Up called Greeting Card Kids. I've combined it with some $1 stamps from Michaels and HEARTS stickers from EK Success . The CASEd pic (removed for copyright purposes) is from February 2008 Crafts n Things Magazine.

In making these cards for kids, I've modified it a bit but the basic sketch is there. I used ValuCardstock in Baby Girl and Seaside collections. The stripe through the center is from ThePaperStudio. I stamped my own DP on the Baby Girl CS using a $1 stamp and SU Regal Rose. Both the little girl and the sentiment are matted on the SeaSide mint green. After coloring with Memory Maker pencils, I added a puffy heart sticker to her hand and smaller ones as an accent.

I made 5 of these for Ronald McDonald House - Little Rock AR. I have 5 I'm doing with the little boy from this same set. I used the school boy but eliminated the bundle of books from the image and placed a heart in that hand. I'm using Blue tones of the CS. I've also created this same layout in Lavender using a bear image. He appears to be drifting through the sky with a bundle of heart shaped balloons. Hopefully 15 children will like what I've created for them and make them smile when there are days they just don't feel like it.

So, What's in your Magazine?

Creative Blessings!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of my creative friends! I hope Santa was very good to you, bringing you lots of new toys. When you've had time to play, please share links to your creative pieces.

Enjoy your family and friends.