I totally spaced last week. Bob and I got an early start into the city (2 hrs away) for a day of Christmas shopping. I remembered it was Wednesday on the drive home almost 12 hours later. LOL
I went back into the city on my own yesterday after Bob mentioned a couple of things. Why couldn't he have dropped the hints last week? ::: smh :::
First off, Lynn. You asked about my writing. If you'll check the side-bar you'll see my Christmas romance that came out eight years ago (Yeah, I had no clue it was that long). If you like Hallmark style stories, I think you'll enjoy An Ozarks Christmas. I'm pushing now to have Book 2 released in May.
Okay.. my desk as I left it yesterday morning:
Nothing super exciting except the glue mat from Stampin' Up! where I was using a dauber to glue the snowflake and the cards those snowflakes went on.
Here's a close up of the card:
This is the last of the elements from the November 2019 Paper Pumpkin kit. I have a few items left over that I'll put in the Christmas crafting section of the ScrapRack.
I hope to get back to Reindeer Club in 2026. I have projects I want finished and still more Paper Pumpkin Christmas kits to work through. I'll talk more about that next week.
That's it for my desk (and story)
this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?
When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’sCraft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah 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.
I apologize for not getting 'round last week. Seemed every time I sat down to visit, Bob would come upstairs needing something. This week will be better. LOL
Bob leaves in a couple of hours for our niece's wedding in OK. I'll be taking advantage of the place to myself for the next six days to really dig into this mess. I've listed five specific areas to target, one per day with a little wiggle room.
I'll give you a list but first, here's the desk for this week:
I cleaned part of the desk off yesterday after making the Week 2 Christmas card. I worked from the same Paper Pumpkin kit as last week. There are two designs left in the kit. I want to get them made up this week, filmed and scheduled so they're out of the way. Here's a close up of one of six cards:
The original design had the sentiment Love And Joy stamped in Shaded Spruce on a white banner. I thought Peace went better with the snowflakes. I also heat embossed the sentiment.
Okay.. the list. I find it more encouraging if I make a list of what needs to be done and push to accomplish each in one day. When that task is done, I'm done until the next day and the next item on the list. Next week I'll embarrassingly show a before picture of items #2 & #3. for now:
Wednesday - Put away all the stamps/ dies from the #31days of Halloween AND catalog the dies.
Thursday - Sort/ file all the Halloween crafting into their binder
Friday - Sort/ file all of the Christmas crafting into their binder
Saturday - Clear out the sewing corner (mind you, very little of sewing is in the bedroom lol) and put actually sewing stuff where it belongs
Sunday - Finish any of the above that needs finished (wiggle room day)
Monday - Read the book I need to review on Wednesday
I hope to pitch a lot of stuff. We shall see.
That's it for my desk (and story)
this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?
When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’sCraft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah 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.
After a crazy month of a video every day, I'll only be posting on Tuesday's this month. Time to get Christmas cards done.
These are modified from the November 2019 paper pumpkin which was to be all tags. I made the first set of tags and put them on the card front. I still need to put the liners in.
Haven't decided if I'm doing another set from this kit or pull up another kit. Guess you'll find out next week. ;-)
As to my uploading of videos. I live in the middle of no where. Here in the states, it's referred to as "directions to my house include turn off the paved road". Between my internet provider, youtube and where I live, uploading takes a long time. a 30 minute video can take up to 3 hours. That's one of the reasons my videos are usually short. I also can not do lives because I pixelate too bad. It is what it is.
Not everyone has this issue. If I want to travel 2 hours north and stay at a hotel, my videos would upload in minutes instead of hours.
That's it for my desk (and story)
this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?
When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’s
Craft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah 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. It is what it is. LOL
I have the next six tags in the series. I can't believe we're almost finished!
For Day 22 - Whatever I Want Wednesday, I played with lots of different elements from Simple Stories Vintage Halloween. I love this kit. I really need to make an album with the rest of the kit.
Day 22
Day 23 was Thrifty Thursday. I took strips from Halloween Night (Stampin' Up! 2016) to do a strip collage inspired by a picture in Stampington Halloween. I added Mr. Bones. When embossing his hat, my large heat gun went out. Thankfully, I had a small Commotion stamps gun as a back up. Both are over 20 years old so maybe time to replace LOL. I added the Googly eye for a little more effect. Almost looks like Mr. Bones has a monical.
Day 23
Day 24 - Fabric Friday. I pulled out a 4" swatch pack from Moda called Midnight Magic #2. I initially bought the pack to go with the G45 Midnight Tales. I also used a piece of the fabric to make a small yo-yo. The ephemera pieces fre from Tim Holtz Halloween 2023 and 2024
Day 24
Day 25 - SACs Saturday. I've been wanting to play with this black cat napkin ever since I saw it. The background is pieced with black tissue paper to fill out the space. I added a crescent moon embellishment from my stash. I'd like to have found a crow the same size to perch on his hat.
Day 25
DAY 26 - Spooky Sunday. The background paper is from Stampin' Up! Toil n Trouble. I stamped the house and colored in the windows. you can't see it very well in the picture but I die cut 3 ghosts from that same stamp/ die set from packing material. Very ethereal look against the background. They almost look like wisps of smoke. LOL
DAY 26
Finally, for today - Day 27, I played with Skeletons for Mixed Media Monday. I call them Dancing Skeletons.
The background is a treat bag from the Sept. 2019 Paper Pumpkin. I opened the bag and glued it to the base by using Tombo Mono white glue to adhere the bag. The other elements are also from that same kit.
DAY 27
That's it for me today. I'm going to be working on Meals In A Jar today with Ramen Noodles. I like to replace their seasoning packet with real bouillon then add extra freeze-dried veggies to mine. I put mine in pint jars with only 1/2 pack of noodles. I also only put 1/2 pack in the quart jars (sans veggies) for Bob and I for a quick lunch. I found out yesterday he prefers ramen noodles over Campbell's soups. After 42 years, I'm still learning things about him!
I'll try to get caught up in here tomorrow or Wednesday.
Bob came home on Wednesday, then we decided I'd spend the weekend in Springfield for a 'sister weekend' with my sole surviving sissy, Dona from Crazy Lady Creations. That meant getting videos through tomorrow recorded - six in total.
We met up with one of the crafty ladies from our junk journal group then spent the rest of the day in Springfield doing a little shopping, visiting an Antique Mall and enjoying an enormous dinner at the Smokin' Crab. The place is a bit expensive because the seafood is based on current market prices. For Bob and I it was a treat. My sister and I both love seafood and I knew no one in her family would ever take her so it was our day. We were on the go for twelve hours but it was an awesome day we'll both remember.
I have pictures on my phone to share with you guys, but don't have time to resize/ edit them this morning. Probably a long post on Wednesday. I only have a couple of hours left at the hotel before I have to check out and need to finish up a planner project so the next of this quarter and all of the final quarter of 2023 run relatively smoothly.
I'll leave you with video links for now if you want to catch up:
Tag Tuesday - another tag for the journal - https://youtu.be/BpZnXkDRuYw
Color Challenge - Guest Checks - https://youtu.be/R-I4YQOaZL4
Finish It Friday - More Guest Checks - https://youtu.be/olRISTfmdBY
NOTE: I wrote this post Tuesday morning, thinking it was Wednesday. By the time you read this, I may have finished breaking down the Paper Pumpkins. LOL
Also, if you haven't checked out the Creator's Corner visit with our very own Tracy Easson, here is the LINK to her post.
I spent most of yesterday breaking down the mound of Paper Pumpkin kits in hopes of finding fall themed kit elements I could use in the #KCDSeptJJ23 journal. Tag Tuesday's this month will feature tags for that journal. After breaking down about half of the kits, I'd found a few orange paper feathers. This is where I left off:
The postal box on the left is where I'm putting kits that need completed. The photo box on the right holds the stamp sets from completed kits.
And here's my desk as I left it last night after recording the tag video:
The brown card stock to the left is my 'reminder' of dimensions for the size I need to cut the file folders down to. You can just see the spool of lace in the center back and that's pretty much all that's left of the tag session.
For my journal this month, I'm making a requested tutorial for using file folders and junk mail envelopes.
That's it for my desk (and story) 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.
I made all nine cards as instructed in the directions except for two. I switched them up a tiny bit to fit my needs. That's one of the great things about Paper Pumpkin. Their direction sheet is just a guide. Make them as they were designed or mix things up. You can always find alternative ways to use a kit by searching the kit name on YouTube.
Keep in mind, I'm not a PUN kind of person but these cards are really cute:
Here's the video for today:
Since we're working with new colors for the 3KCDSEPTJJ23 Color challenge, I'm hoping to dig into some of the kits to use items for both the #tagtuesday posts as well as journal elements. I hope you'll come back to see what I create. I'm always open your suggestions, so please leave a comment.
Poor lighting but I'm trying to get a gazillion things done at once so I can get back to writing my book.
While this looks staged, technically it was... for the Reindeer Club video I shot this morning. I showed the 21 Christmas cards I made from two Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin kits. Now to figure out what I'll do for May Reindeer Club. Hmmm... maybe get some projects out of the way?
Last week was super busy getting all the time I could in with Bob. He found out his very best friend since grade school will need a quadruple bypass. Since he doesn't know when the surgery will happen, Bob went up a day early just to spend some time with him... which meant I was doing everything last minute LOL. In spite of that, I made my way 'round to every desk yesterday in time to start over this week!
But we're fine now. He's in Chicago and I put in most of a full day of work yesterday. Well - until I picked up a book for research and couldn't put it down. The book - The Unremarried Widow is an amazing story of a woman's journey from meeting The One she didn't even know she was looking for to feeling like an outsider amongst military wives then becoming a widow less than a year after they'd married. #heartbreaking. I recommend the book.
Have any of you read, GreenLights by Matthew McCounahey? Yes, THAT Matthew McCounahey. I haven't read all of the book but Monday I had the opportunity to sit in on his The Art of Livin' webinar - all 4+hours! Amazing inspiration from him, Trent Sheldon, Marie Floris, Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi. Another book I recommend.
You saw my painted book pages in progress last week. Here is what I made with one of the pages.
I took part in a challenge by Natalie from Line Dot Arrow to make a Stuffed Paper Bag. You can see my flip-through video here: (it's a short video.
As I mention in the video this is to be the front cover of my spring journal. I should have the full flip-through of that journal the first Wednesday in May for you.
That's it for my desk (and story)
this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?
When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over toStamping 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.
I've not posted cards for this in awhile. Not sure why, but I'm trying to get better.
I've been with the SMMR card group for about ten years. Doesn't seem possible! I've had the pleasure of meeting up with some of the ladies at Stamp n Scrap Expo in Collinsville once and we swapped ATCs. We're down to a handful of us now.
Each month, our fearless leader, Barb matches us up with another member of the group for us to send a card to. I was running really late on my cards there for awhile. Got tough for me after we lost the Yahoo groups. I don't do FB as much - but I'm trying.
For this month, I tried out a die I'd requested from Madi @ Spectrum Art Creations. I'd seen a similar die on a FB ad demo and fell in love. To my surprise, Madi was able to find three different ones - including the one I used for this card. (I don't see them on their website so they must be sold out)
Here is the die I used:
I had a strip of leftover paper from Mintay called Graceful that was the perfect size for me to cut two cards from the single strip. I bought the last one Madi had but I found it on FranticScrapper
The card:
After cutting out all of the pieces (does everything in one pass!), I mounted the frame on Purple Posey cardstock (Stampin' Up!). The green pieces are the reverse of the floral print. I cut a scalloped circle from Fresh Freesia, stamped the Hello from the Oct. 2016 Paper Pumpkin in Tuxedo Memento Black on Basic White cardstock.
I love this die and can't wait to play with the other two!
Now that I have a filming/ crafting table again we can get back on track. I ran the Reindeer Club today because I was involved in prepping for an on-line writing retreat that ran last weekend. I totally spaced getting the Reindeer Club project scheduled. But here we go:
I made these two cards from the October 2022 Paper Pumpkin entitled Ho Ho Ho. I'm going to finish up the rest of the cards today before I clear the table off for the March Junk Journal Challenge. I'll show those cards next month when I also work with the November 2022 Paper Pumpkin- From the North Pole.
Here's the video where I put these two cards together:
I will be back Wednesday for WOYWW then again on Thursday for our final stages of the #KCDMarJJ23 Challenge.
Are you working on Christmas? Remember, one day a month can make a big difference in the serenity of your Christmas season.
We have a major snow storm headed our way but today is to be gorgeous so I'm hurrying to post then heading into the city for the day. Bob has plans and is going to hold down the fort.
The January 2023 Paper Pumpkin kit came just in time for this. Hard to believe it's time to start thinking about sending out Valentines!!! Do you send out cards for this day of love?
Here's the kit contents:
Key to my heart design was inspired by the Locks of Love bridge in Paris. You can read about the bridge/ fence HERE
I made one of each card in my video (posted below) but here is a picture of what the cards look like when completed:
I finally made time to pop open a current paper pumpkin and so glad I did. Aside from the florals and bee theme, they included free honeycomb foil laser cuts I can add to the bee journals! Journals, which I intend to finish this week!
Here's a shot of the instruction sheet:
This kit will make nine cards and the envelopes are GORGEOUS! Everything has the 'look' of having been created on watercolor paper. If you missed out on this kit, I'm so sorry for you. If the items come up on a kit in the future, I'll be sure to let you know because I'll probably be buying a refill for myself.
I made one of each of the three cards.
For the first one, the flowers to the left as well as the sunflower and the sentiment strip are all raised on dimensionals. So are the bees. They gave us the sunflower base as a die cut. All I had to do was use the stamp set to stamp the sunflower, the center and the sentiment:
Card number two was the simplest of the three. The only stamping required was for the sentiment. Everything was just die cut and layered with dimensionals and glue dots!
I loved this. The honeycomb and the florals are all one piece. just adhere with four glue dots to the card base. The bees and the sentiment mat were attached with dimensionals. I just had to stamp on the sentiment mat then adhere.
Seriously, if you want quick cards or projects, Paper Pumpkin is the way to go! With the exception of the stamps and inks (included) you don't have any leftovers unless you want to go out on your own journey and do your own thing. So you are not adding a lot of bulk to your already bulging craft supplies.
The stamp sets are created exclusively for Paper Pumpkin.
I think the September kit will have something to do with Halloween Treat containers of some sort. Remember, you must subscribe before September 10th to get in on the mailing.
Demonstrators don't even know what the kit will actually contain. We are surprised when we get our box just like you are! Once you subscribe, the kit usually arrives around the 21st of the month. Please use the link below to subscribe and join the fun with me!
Trust me, I don't feel as chipper as I sound. Thanks to the Tabby cat, I've been battling a headcold for right at a week. She sneezed in daddy's face almost two weeks ago. He had the cold for all of three days. Me, I guess I'm just lucky. I am improving but still slow going on things my brain has to process.
I had a lovely visit with Terri, my crafting friend from England. We spent two days shopping, chatting, eating out then the first signs of the headcold showed up the night before she left.
I'll link the video showing all the lovely things, Terri brought me as well as the items I picked up while we were out and about, down below.
First, Make It - Mail It Monday cards.
I worked with the Celebrate In-Color Paper Pumpkin Box to make two cards using each of the five In-Colors: Starry Sky, Parakeet Party, Sweet Sorbet, Tahitian Tide and Orchi Oasis.
Because I feel positively rotten and it's Bob's last day home, I'm going to ask you to watch the video to see the five cards.
I will have a Card Chicks card tomorrow then that is probably the extent of this week. Thanks to lots of things, I'm behind - again. I have five projects to complete by Sunday night for the German Scrap Challenge at Spectrum Art Creations.
I have two things to share today. One is my card for the April Card Chicks group. We got kits in far-out tie-dyed tyvek envelops. Super cool happy mail. Inside, Roxie sent us this:
The items included:
papers from Stampin' Up! Flowering Fields
Stamped images from Inky Antics
A section of stamps from Jill Bean Soup
The embellishments are from Stampin' Up!
This is the card I made:
I used this sketch from SCS:
I used Lt. Smokey Slate Stampin' Blends to color in the bunny as well as Dk. Pink Pirouette for his nose. I used Garden Green watercolor pencil for the grass and the Auqua Painter brush and watered down Balmy Blue ink for the background. The circle is cut using Layering Circles and the sentiment from the Stitched Rectangles dies.
Stampin' Up! has a campaign running from 14 April - 14 June 2022 to #SUShareHope. This is a ressurection of a past Paper Pumpkin kit to share hope and inspiration.
If you've never tried Paper Pumpkin before, this is the perfect opportunity! You get everything in the box you need except for the clear acrylic block (this comes in the first regular Paper Pumpkin subscription box) but our standard D block can be ordered by clicking on the shopping link below.
If you are a Paper Pumpkin subscriber and have the original kit, you may purchase a refill kit. That link is also provided below.
Before I forget again, Angela (craftingwithjack) I replied to your comment from last Wednesday if you haven't seen it)
It's that time of the week again. Today is double indemnity for me. I get to show you my current 'desk' then begin the flight of the bumblebee to make the house presentable before Bob gets home this afternoon.
I didn't accomplish anything I wanted last week. I finished the book edits for June late Wednesday. I followed that up the rest of the week with a tummy bug. By then I was in the throws of projects with deadlines. Now it's time for Bob to be home for three weeks and not a lot will get accomplished except what must be done...and so goes my circle.
I worked on my Christmas cards for the #10onthe10th collab last night while watching Madi on SpectrumArt live. (she was altering playing cards with distress oxides/ stamps/ stencils/ crayons)
These Christmas cards were from the October 2019 Paper Pumpkin kit - Winter woods. Here's the video link . You can check out my YouTube channel to see the 3/10/21 video.
The cards are just to the left by the keyboard. straight to the back of them, you'll see the kit box with an unmade card that I can put together on video this morning. To the right, you can just see the corner of the instruction sheet plus my workday essentials. What looks like a plastic drinking cup is actually a snack cup from nutter butters. I've spray painted three of these to match my office so that I have a small place on my workspace for small trash items like the paper backs from dimensionals, bits of string/ ribbon/ etc that get clipped away when I'm working.
That's it for my desk (and story) 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.
I will admit I'm writing this on Tuesday evening, tried to do a bit of tidying up before your visit. As you can see by the photos, there is progress but still a long way to go.
While the office corner needs more, I can put my computer here and work. I can use the print and nothing is cascading off of my binders onto the top of the machine.
Before After
I've also cleared the filming table, making it possible to not just film, but actualy craft here while I'm watching a movie. See, miracles do happen! lol
Here is my filming table/ desk this week:
You'll see little booklets in the center. I'm getting ready to stitch the first of three mini-journals together.
I am part of a collab on YouTube called Canned Pumpkin. Each month we choose one of our past Paper Pumpkin kits from Stampin' Up! (a monthly subscription) and see if we can use up everything. I chose the January 2018. I'll have the full walk-through of what I've done with the kit on my YouTube Channel on the 31st. We post our project(s) the last day of each month.
That's it for my desk (and story) 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.
Whenever we have a fifth Tuesday in a month, we swap cards amongst the teapotter group. One of us hosts the challenge and then we sign up to get a swap partner.
This month is my turn to host. I signed up for October because, well, it's October! LOL
Here is the challenge I posted:
Hello,
Teapotters!
I love FALL.
Some of my
favorite memories are from my twenties through late forties when we lived in
central Illinois. No autumn was complete without a trip to Tanner’s Orchard.
The family owned business has grown over the generations from a simple apple
orchard to a thriving Fall Festival destination. Tanners is a staple on any
elementary school child’s first field trip of the season.
Aside from
their apple cider donuts still warm from the fryer, I loved their pumpkin
scarecrow characters. These larger-than-life play on real life people greet
visitors and passers-bye at the front entrance.
While Autumn
has officially arrived here in southcentral Missouri for some folks, I miss my
annual pilgrimage to Tanner’s Orchard.
Check out their
webpage – www.tannersorchard.com and be sure to watch the video for a
long-distance experience.Then show us
your best jack-o-lanterns, scarecrows or any favorite fall memory you want to
share.
Keyword:
Here are a
couple of teapots to inspire you:
Happy Fall
y’ all!
Here are the tea pots I sent with the post:
Here is my card:
I used a Mossy Meadow card base then added a 1-1/2" strip of Balmy Blue for the sky. The straw bales are cut from Crushed Curry with the baling twine drawn on with Cajun Craze.
The pumpkins and the sun are stamped from the 9/16 Paper Pumpkin. The clouds are from the 7/17 Paper Pumpkin.
The scarecrow is a digital image from pixabay that I sized down. This is what he looked like originally:
After fussy cutting him out, I trimmed the hands/ shoes away then added tiny pieces of Raffia Ribbon behind the cuffs of his sleeves/ pants then reattached the hands/ shoes.
The sign is stamped in and mounted on Early Espresso
For his head, I added Raffia Ribbon to the bottom of his chin then attached one of the jack - o- lanterns from the 9/16 Paper Pumpkin. The straw hat is trimmed away from the image of a farm guy I found on Pixabay.
I'm pretty sure this is going to the bank in IL with my deposit this month... let them know I how much I miss them and Tanner's Orchard.
