January Tea Party

Well, I've not been too on the ball lately. I forgot to post the pictures from the January tea party. I know you have just been dying to see them, lol. The theme this month was "peaches and creme". It was held on the 24th at one of the ladies' flip houses that never flipped. The house had been renovated but never sold so it was empty and very nice inside. We had 16 ladies for tea that day and the food was delicious. It even included peach soup! We had a great time. I didn't stay as long as I normally do for a couple of reasons. One, I was about an hour away from home and the last playoff game was starting in about an hour, didn't want to miss that. Yes, I am a huge football fan, you would have never guessed hugh? And the other reason was because this house was empty the echos were awful. It was so loud in there that I couldn't hear my self think. I am deaf in my left ear and it is hard for me to hear anyway but the noise that day in there with 16 ladies chatting up a storm was very loud and it gave me a headache, excuse #2, lol. It was a great time and the hosts did a fabulous job. Thank you ladies.

MoJo Monday #123

He, he, he, I actually finished a MoJo Monday card ON MONDAY!! That could be a first. This was a little tricky for me. Used spellbinders for both scallop edges but didn't have the regular circle in the in between size, I had to punt. It could have been a bit bigger, probably was before I distressed it, lol. Anyway, the paper was some from my stash, the ribbon is CTMH, the buttons are from Oriental Trading, the crocheted flower I made myself and the little pink bead is from an old pair of earrings that broke, told ya I was a pack rat........I don't ever throw anything away, it's too painful, lol. The sentiment is from Annotations (CTMH #D1307). Oh, and the words are from an antique book I bought at a garage sale a long time ago. I think the card turned out pretty cute, what do ya think?

2nd Grade Layout

Have been neglecting my daughter's scrapbook lately so thought I'd better do a page or two in her book. Here's one I finished up last night for her 2nd grade class photo. She's the one on the top left with the long strawberry blonde hair. She looks like she freezing hugh? The wind in WY doth blow, lol. Anyway, the lighting was bad but I thought the page turned out pretty cool. I used and old file folder that I got from work. These things have metal tabs and apparently they used to be secured to the drawer with a rod that runs through that hole at the bottom of the folder. Anyway, we have updated to the green hanging file folder so no one wanted those, PICK ME, the pack rat that I am. I think it looks pretty cool. The part with words on the it is just a page out of an old, OLD book I bought at a garage sale one time. The school name is out of scrabble tiles and the ruler is really just a piece of cardstock. I have this really old looking ruler, maybe it was mine in grade school, lol. Anyway, I scanned it and cut it out and roughed up the edges and it looks just like the one I actully have. Good job! The number 2 I cut with the cricut and the "abc sign" I got off the internet. I thought it turned out pretty neat, what do you think?

National Papercrafting Month

Hi Peeps, Just wanted to let you'all know about National Papercrafting Month. Close To My Heart is celebrating this month with the "Felicity" collection. They are asking today about our favorite embellishments. I think my favorites lately are charms and trinkets. I really like the new charms that CTMH came out with (will get some of those at a card class this weekend, yeah!). I have been making a few of my own trinkets lately with shrink film. I have a soft spot for miniature things as well so that works out good too. So check out their blog at www.nationalpapercraftingmonth.blogspot.com

MoJo Monday #122

Here's the latest mojo I've been working on. Needed a birthday card for a friend's daughter so this sketch helped me out. Don't know who the papers are by, just from my stash. Used a Martha Stewart edge punch and of course my cricut. Don't remember where I picked of those cute little balloon eyelets but they filled the bill perfectly, even had the right colors, lol. Hope she likes it, ya know how those pre-teenagers are. Thanks for stopping by.

Inside of MoJo Monday #121 card

Since I had a special someone in mind for this card, I thought I had better do something with the inside of it. I used a stitching guide around the outside and then stitched it with some DMC thread, actually the same thread that the little flowers are made out of. Then I stamped the sentiment. I stamped the sentiment on a different piece of cardstock and cut around it and used it as a mask and brushed ink all around the outsides. Then I cut out another flower on the cricut and put two little crocheted flowers on it with some brushed gold brads. Then I added a little teapot charm with a safety pin. Those tea ladies just love these little charms that I bought off ebay some time back. I added some liquid glass spots all around the outside edge for a frilly look. Not sure I accompolished the "frilly" part but it looks great. Hope you like it.

MoJo Monday #121

Well, I finally finished my card for this week's sketch, better late than never, as they say. Not really sure I like it but it's done. I had a particular person in mind for the card and I think she will like it so that's all that really matters. Used some cuttlebug dies and embossers and then printed the sentiment on the computer. It was a little tricky cutting it out on the cricut once I had it printed but I got it pretty close on the first try, lol. Hope you all have a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapbooking Crops

I forgot to tell you about a lady I met yesterday at the unit meeting. Her name is Brenda Lewandoski. After both losing their jobs this past year, her and her husband have started a new company called Scrapendipity Retreats. They host all kinds of crops for the scrapbooking world to enjoy. Most are held in the Tampa Bay area but a few are out of state, so if you wanted to venture out of your normal realm, you could. They have vendors there at most retreats for your purchasing pleasure as well as a massage therapist to give those tired aching ol' muscles a little workout. Mostly from the scrapbooking/card making field but I'm told there may be some others there like Pampered Chef and Party Lite. Prices vary from about $75 - $125 depending on the retreat itself. Your cost includes a gift bag, buffet dinners, games, contests and door prizes. There is even a Grand Prize at each retreat. They have a couple of retreats already scheduled so check them out and see if you'd like to attend. Maybe I'll see you there!!

CTMH Unit Meeting

Man does it ever smell good in here! I just put some chicken in a pot to make some chicken and dumplings and some bread in the bread maker and the smells are heavenly. It is so cold outside here, I think the high here today in Tampa was supposed to be 41º, BBBBBrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!! We are not used to this. Have had to pull out all my old Wyoming sweaters and sweatshirts AND SOCKS! My feet haven't seen socks for years, almost 6 to be exact, lol! My toes don't like to be encased in shoes either. I have in-grown toenails and they hurt when they are crammed in a pair of closed toe shoes. Ok, maybe that was a little bit too much information, but it's true. Anyway, you get the idea, IT'S COLD HERE!!!!!!!

I did venture outside today though for a while. Was watching the morning news this morning, which I never do, not sure why I turned on the TV this morning. Actually, yes I do know why I turned on the TV this morning. It was because I wanted to see if it had snowed anywhere here in Florida. It had up in the Northern counties. Not much, NOT LIKE WYOMING anyway! A few people had sent in some pictures of the white stuff on their lanai screens and the hoods of their cars but as far as I was concerned, it didn't REALLY snow. Then they got to talking about all the homeless people that were having a hard time finding a warm place to lay their heads at night and that the shelters were really needing some blankets and coats. Got me thinking, I have a whole closet full of blankets. Maybe I should find out where that shelter is and take some of them over there. We have more than enough. So I gathered up the ones I could do without and as I got to looking around, I also find a couple of coats that had long since been used by us too. Then I called my older sister on the phone and told her what I was going to do and asked if she had anything she could donate. She said she could probably find some stuff so I told her I would come and get them in a couple of hours. I ate some breakfast, took a shower and headed over there to get her stuff. Then I took them to downtown Tampa and dropped them off at the Salvation Army. The place was a buzz. There were people dropping off all kinds of warm blankets and there were volunteers standing at the door to help you unload your stuff. They were quite grateful for the donations. I left with such a good feeling in my heart. I know all that stuff I dropped off will keep someone warm tonight. YEAH!!!!!!!!!

After I left there I went on up my uplines' house for the unit meeting. It was such a great time. We talked about all the new products and even made a few things. She gave us some scraps from one of the new paper paks called "top stitch" and challenged us to make a card. She gave us three ink pads, baby pink, chocolate and vineyard berry and the stamp set #D1402 called "togetherness". This is what I came up with. Everyone's was so different. It was fun to see what other people come up with. They never cease to amaze me. We had so much fun, thanks Adeline!

Then she showed us how to make an easel card. I have been seeing alot of them pop up on other peoples's blogs but had never tried to make one before. It turned out so cute. I really like the idea and was sure to keep the directions, so I could re-produce when need be. We used the new "you rock" paper pak and stamp set #C1388 called "rock star". There are some really pretty papers in this pak. The photo on the left is the card opened up hince the "easel" name. The photo on the right is the card laying down so you can kinda see how it's put together. Pretty cool hugh? Let me know what you think!

MoJo Monday #120

I need a couple of birthday cards this month so decided I would use the MoJo Monday sketch to create a couple. Here I used some scraps of paper that were in my stash. A nestabilities for the scallop circle, the coluzzle for the red layer circle and the cricut for the white center circle and the sentiment. Then I added some red stickles and some red rhinestones. Stamped the swirls with D1066-Romantic Backgrounds and Holiday Red from CTMH. The scallop at the bottom is also a stamp from CTMH #D1332 - Boutique Borders. I'm sure the tea lady that gets this card will really like it. The black shiny "ribbon" is not really ribbon, it's fabric paper that I picked up from Big Lots a long time ago. One side is flat black and the other side is shiny. Let me know what you think!!! Hugs, ~Jody