UNDER CONSTRUCTION!

As you can see from the picture, my living room is a disaster. My dining room looks the same way – like someone just unloaded a large U-Haul. This is only one of 5 areas of the living room/ dining room:

When we moved me into the studio four years ago, nothing went as planned. Bob was anxious to turn my old office into his man cave. That meant nothing got put away in the studio the way I wanted… more dumped wherever it would fit.

Since then I’ve also added more things – mostly planner and Mixed Media items – that I’ve had to find room for. Instead, those items just got added to the already disorganized mess.

I’ve been trying since January to get my office/ studio in order – all while trying to carry on with my daily work routine, write a book and keep the house presentable. I finally came to the conclusion that plan of attack wasn’t working.

First off, I have OCD. I can’t work on something unless everything is in order. Just makes my life more complicated.

Last week, after writing all my blog posts for the week, I emptied the studio into those two rooms. I’ve worked all weekend with the cleaning part. Washing windows, shampooing carpet, detailing furniture… you know what a deep clean entails.

This week I HAVE to get stuff back in place so that office work can resume as usual. Bob comes home on Wednesday. He’d really like to be able to sit at the dining room table in the morning with coffee or sit in his recliner in the evening to watch TV. To add insult to injury, his best friend is planning a visit for the coming weekend. Kevin helped us move in thirteen years ago. He hasn’t seen the house with the addition of my studio. So yeah…. This room HAS TO GET DONE.

With that, I’m taking this week off of all of my blogs, no book writing and only the 1 crafting deadline I have for Wednesday.

Blog post should resume next week – Monday May 4th or Tuesday May 5th. If Kevin shows up, I’ll have all weekend to hide in the studio and get ahead of the week. Otherwise, that’s what I’ll be doing on Monday. I always devote Bob’s first weekend home to him. He’s been gone for twenty-one days, after all.

I’m hoping with having the s

Thank you for your patience and I’ll see you next week!

REINDEER CLUB - April

Good morning, & Merry Christmas!

As we meet up this month, I'd like you to think about something. This Covid-19 thing has created hardships on millions of people. We don't know how long this will last. What we do know is that families are NOT going to recover quickly. Christmas is going to be a struggle like they've not delt with in over a decade.

If you have the ability, watch those toy sales now and start collecting for the holiday toy drives that are sure to come.

I have been collecting whenever I go out. Earlier this month on a trip to Menards, I found these adorable bears for $4.99 each! (Yes this was an essential trip - our pets have to eat)

These are two toys in one!  The bears unzip in the back and tuck into themself to become a ball. The white bear will be come a colorful beach ball in pretty 'girlish' colors and as you can see, Bob had to play and made the brown bear into a football. There were also bears that became soccer balls and basketballs. You can tell what each bear becomes by looking at the bottom foot pad on the white bear.

Next, while on an essential trip to $General for paper supplies last Saturday I found a toy clearance. Where toilet paper should have been stocked, they had numerous toys for 50% off. Here's what I picked up:

As a side note, my dog reallyl liked the football. LOL I'm hoping to pick up a new one on the next essential trip.

Sorry, no cards this week. I'm on the final crunch to finish the studio before Bob comes home on Wednesday. Instead of making cards yesterday, I spent the day pulling the last of the stuff out of the way so I could shampoo the carpet today.  I'll have to double up next month.

FRIDAY FREEBIE - Time to Finish this MESS!!

Good morning, everyone!

I had planned to have a picture of the studio - near emptied - this morning but it's been a crazy week. I've been up since 5 this morning, emptying out the studio. Putting stuff back once the rug is shampooed will be a feat but I must get it done this weekend.

Bob will be home in less than a week and he'd really like the living room to look like a living room again.  Therefore, my plan for this weekend is to work in the studio. My only interruption will be a 10,000 word marathon on the book tomorrow. But cleaning on stretch breaks is possible.

As you can see, I've moved everything out that I can. I'm going to vacuum the floor then tear the scraprack down. Tiffany Spaulding and I came to the conclusion I had way too many spinders on the triple base. So I've taken all of my Alpha/ quote pages and moved them to one of the 12 x 12 scrapbook folios on the mixed media cart. Onlyl thing left on the Scraprack will be THEMES and COLORS when I'm finished.

this item is available on ebay but PAY ATTENTION TO THE SHIPPING!

As you'll see in the finished walk-through of the studio (coming soon!), I have seven of these portfolios on the tool cart which holds all of my mixed media ephemera (with the exception of Tim Holts - he has his own special place - and my paint chips)

From there, it's shampoo the carpet so that Monday I can move everything back in. Tuesday I'll breathe then Wednesday I'll clean the rest of the house like a mad woman before Bob gets home in the evening. LOL

I hope you'll come back tomorrow for our special APRIL REINDEER CLUB meeting!

~Creative Blessings!

THURSDAY TECHNIQUES - Embossing with Dies

Good morning, everyone!

Since I wanted to look this video up for a refresher I thought I'd share the technique with you.

Most of us have dies, many we haven't used for awhile. Maybe it's time to pull them out and use them in this new way. If you don't have the embossing mat for your machine, I'll link you to the one from Sizzix.

Sizzix Silicone Rubber Pad

Note that you also need:  Sizzix Impressions Pad

I'm also including a link to Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Mary Fish's video  - just in case you were quick to purchas the one from Stampin' Up! before they canceled their contract with Sizzix.

Here's my card for this week:

I used the Flower Border die from Lawn Fawn. With a normal die technique, I would have cut out the die several times in various colors then paper pieced the individual flowers together.

By using the Impressions pad with the die, I was able to simply impress the design into a piece of cardstock then go back and color in the flowers.

I colored the background of the strip with Lt. Balmy Blue Stampin' Blends from Stampin' Up! The individual parts of the flowers were colored in with Kirarina Wink paint pens in o18 (pink), 015 (blue), 011 (Lt. green), 001 (yellow) 

I also used the Impressions pad to emboss the smallest Layering Scappops die (Stampin' Up!) then cut it out with the next size up. The clouds are punched from a retired SU Punch. The sentiment is from one of my favorite stamp sets from Stampin' Up! - Fabled Friends

Note: While I've closed the SU blog, I am still a demonstrator for Stampin' Up! If I can help with anything related to Stampin' Up! please let me know.

WOYWW #568

Good morning, everyone!
I hope this visit finds you well.  The one thing I love about virtual visits is we don't have to don all the protective stuff. We can be ourself, touch things if we wish.. you know, like in a normal world.

Quick Note:  Blogger has been removing pictures from our blogs! I don't know what's up with that so you might want to check past posts to see if all your pictures are still in place. 

So, here's my desk as I left it Tuesday afternoon. I've been in a cardmaking mood. I made two for my Card Chicks group that I showed in yesterday's post. I was the hostess for this month and I used a stamp set/ embossing folder from a past issue of Cardmaking & Papercrafts magazine. I love that those are exclusive to the magazine.
My next card - well, 2 actually - is to make cards using that adorable squirrel napkin. I have one writer friend who is nuts for squirrels. The other card will go to the cousin of The Bellamy Brothers. She has spina bifida and has been in a care facility since she was 19.  I'm sure she could use a little cutie squirrel during this time.

The rest of the piles are a result of my SU order that came in on Monday. The ribbon from SU's clearance page, the new bling part of the Ornate Garden suite and the new Ornate Garden Stamps/ die sets. One of the border dies is on backorder til May 5th - of course, the one I wanted LOL Click on the name to see a video of this set. The border dies is what sold me! The set is available to customers NOW! (earlier than stated)

Many of you asked about my planner shelf and how many planners I have.
Well, I have several. Because of my small hands I can't do a Frankenplanner where everything is in one. So instead, I treat individual planners like file folders. I have one main planner that is beside me every day that I work from.

The best way to explain, if you're curious, is my planner video. Take note that when I show the peach 6-ring workhorse... that one just wasn't working for me. Took up too much room on my desk. I've swapped that one out for a disc-bound.

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. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

CARD CHICKS! - April

Good morning, everyone!

I was the hostess for this month's Card Chicks Challenge.

I should have taken a picture of the kit. Did I think of that? Noooo. LOL

I started with one of my back issues of Cardmaking & Papercrafts

I love getting this magazine because every issue has something free. stamps/ embossing folders/ dies/ papers... all made exclusively for Cardmaking & Papercrafts magazine. This particular issue had this set designed by Siobhan Harrison

For the kit:

I stamped multiples of the teapot, cup, cupcake and sentiments in Memento Tuxedo Black on GP White cardstock.  

I used SU Shimmer White cut to 5"x5" to emboss the doily folder.

The rest of the kit contained:

1 - 4.25 x 5.5 each 

             Blushing Bride cardstock

             Berry Burst cardstock

2 - 4.25 x 5.5 of Fresh Florals DSP (in the blushing bride)

A scrap strip of the Fresh Florals

3 pearls in degrading sizes

1 length of Whisper White Flax ribbon and of Powder Pink Shimmer Ribbon

1 strip of GP white cardstock punched with the Martha Steward lace trim

Here are my 2 cards and what I added:

I used Stampin' Blends in:

     Lt. Rococo Rose

     Lt & Dk Seaside Spray

     Lt Granny Apple Green

     Lt & Dk Soft Sueded

I cut the teapot out using the largest circle from SU Layering Circles then the largest scallop from that set to cut from Rococo Rose cardstock. 

I layered everything on a Rococo Rose background, using dimensionals on the teapot circle to let it stand out from the base a bit.

Here's my second card:

For this one, I used the largest circle form Spellbinders Large Circle set to cut the center out of the embossed doily. I layered a piece of the Fresh Florals DSP on a Smokey Slate cardbase.

I turned the cupcake into a chipboard piece by fussy-cutting the image four times from white cardstock and laying them all together. This let it stand out away from the doily base a bit. I layered the shimmer ribbon over the flax.

I still need to do Barb's kit from February. I finally found it - for the third time - and put it where I know for sure I won't misplace it again. I'll have those cards for you next Tuesday.

Creative Blessings!

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY - #Patternsofspring Challenge

Last week, while watching a video by April @PinkOddBird she showed us a set of tags she was making to enter into a challenge.

Jeneene @Lipsticklegioncrafts has a 1000 subscriber giveaway going on. She's selecting winners today.

As I watched April's video I knew I wanted to incorporate the Christmas Quilt die set (retired SU).

You can see the video for my tags here:

Thanks to the slower internet speeds both at home and through YouTube, the process video I had planned didn't happen. This is under 8 minutes. If you have questions, please leave me a comment and I'll answer them for you.

Creative Blessings!