Merry Christmas To All

Wanted to wish you all a 

Very Merry Christmas

and the

Happiest of New Years

I just love snow at Christmas time and I was missing my folks so I decided to take the plunge and go home for Christmas.  It snowed yesterday morning and was so beautiful to see.  It's been 9 years since I've seen snow at Christmas time. This is a shot out the back door of my mother's house looking towards my step-father's garden.

We also made some divinity.  I haven't had any divinity for 9 years either because you can't make it in Florida and have it turn out correctly.  And man I wanna tell ya, this batch turned out so perfectly, it was still in the mountain that we poored it out in to the pan in.  And tasted magical, just melt in your mouth. Love it!!!!!

So............ya, I just wanted to share what I am doing for my Christmas 2013 and I hope you are getting your family & friends meters full as well!

Hugs,

~Jody

Christmas Tea Party Invitation

Hey there bloggers, wanted to share my Tea Party Invitation now that everybody has received theirs in the mail.  I used the new Tim Holtz Ice Skate die.  I saw on his blog that he made a card with it today and it reminded me that I hadn't posted my card yet, thanks for the reminder Tim, lol!

I used white cardstock to make my skates, actually I made 8 pair, lol.  I found some glitter paper at Michael's for the blades and I used kraftcore black to make the heel of each skate.  I sanded each heel  down a bit and inked them with some vintage photo too.  I laced each one with cream colored embroidery floss that I distressed with vintage photo before lacing.  I used a beading needle to thread through the slits.  The first one I did, I ended up tearing the paper so a little trick I will share with you is, place a spot of glossy accents at the edge of each slit and let it dry over night.  It prevented the thread from tearing through the paper as I laced and you didn't see it after all the laces were over the top either.  That probably wasn't an issue if you used grungepaper like he did.  The lettering was done on the computer both on the outside and the inside.  The snowflakes and  wintery florals at the bottom are from a Close To My Heart stamp called Snow Flurries, D1384.  Not sure if it's still available but I love this stamp set.  I used white embossing powder.  The edges were inked with Chipped Sapphire distress ink.  On the inside I also used the Mover & Shaper Ice Skate to ask for an RSVP.  The blue blob in the middle of the inside is just a piece of torn paper I used to cover up my address, lol.  

 

 The Ice Skate die is so cool.  It just reminds me of the days of old.  I have an old pair that I got at a yard sale that I hang on my door at Christmas time.  I had never adorned them before but since I have now seen what Tim Holtz can do with a pair of old skates you can bet I will be adorning mine this year.  It has become kind of the theme to my Tea Party to this year so it will help if I have them all decorated up on the front door when every one arrives.  It should be a sight to behold.  I'll be sure to take pictures and share with you later.

Well, that's it for me today.  Hope you had a great Friday and an even better weekend.

Hugs,

~Jody

Merry Christmas To All

Good Morning Bloggers, have you seen the new Tim Holtz tag for Dec 2013.  It's a beauty, I think.  I am in love with the way that poinsettia turned out.  My red and green colors are not quite as dark as his as I had to use a different kind of ink.  I used Close to my Heart ink, which is the only permanent ink I had in those colors.  But the tag turned out just as good, I thought.  I had purchased some of the frosted film quite a while back and had a play with it once but did not get the result I was looking for at that particular time so I stashed it and had not worked with it again.  I also had gotten some Cleary For Art sheets but had not played with them yet.  Guess I was waiting for the perfect moment, lol.  It's pretty cool stuff how it rolls and curls all by itself when heated.  Then you can manipulate it yourself for a short time before it cools.  Way Cool!!

The only other thing I had to improvise on was the Harlequin stencil.  I haven't had a chance to purchase any stencils yet so I made my own.  I die cut the Harlequin decorative strip and cut it in half and glued it top to bottom lining up the outline as best I could.  It was more square that way and easier to manipulate where I wanted my markings to be.  It worked beautifully.  I liked how it turned out so much, that I, too, made another one. 

This time I used some blue ink.  I stopped at Micheal's to see what they had in archival ink for blue.  Got a Colorbox brand that I had never tried before.  My Micheal's only carries a very limited supply of Tim Holtz/Ranger products.  They had some Ranger Archival inks but only in the huge pads, which I didn't want so my only other choice was this Colorbox brand.  It worked good though.  I went with a blue/silver/white theme and I do like the results.  See what you think.

I started with blue cardstock.  Marbled some white picket fence on the tag first.  Then I embossed the sentiment with silver.  I ran some white ink around the outside as well as the stencil part and then sprayed it with Perfect Pearl.  I used some brushed pewter distress stain on the leaves and around the outside of the petals.  I went a little lighter with the white splatter this time as I thought I may have gotten too much on the first one.   However, you can't hardly see it in this picture.  May need to do that again.  I just love how that Clearly For Art film just curls and shapes itself.  Soooo Pretty!

Well, it's shower time for me.  Hope you have a great day!
Hugs,
~Jody

Post Thanksgiving

Hey there bloggers, just wanted to drop in and say I hope ya'll had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that you got your family/friend meters filled up.  I sure did!  I was able to spend the day with my daughter, Miranda.  She only lives an hour away but we seldom see each other.  We had the traditional Thanksgiving dinner with all the trimmings.  Her and her friend even brought three pies, lol, for three people?  Well, I guess that's a pie a piece, lol.  My favorite was the cherry pie.  It was store bought but unbaked so we popped it in the oven right before we sat down to eat.  It was still warm when the urge to devour it appeared.  A dollop of whip cream on top and oh man, was that ever great.  Talk about the perfect ending, the only thing left to do was nap, and that we did.  After it got dark, we stoked up a little fire in the fire pit outside.  It's rare that you can share a fire in Florida, it's normally just to dang warm here, but Thanksgiving night it was only going to be about 50º so it was perfect for a fire. 

Here's a little tag I made to give to all the tea ladies at the November Tea Party.  It was very nice to see everyone once again and we were even visited by Carrie.  She had moved to Chicago last May and no one had heard much from her, including myself.  Then there she was at the tea party.  Was nice to see her.  The tea party was great with lots of good food and lots of good friends. 

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!
Hugs,
~Jody

Be Thankful

Good Morning Bloggers, have a little 'seasonal' card here to share with you.  I was inspired by a card that was previewed on the Ranger Blog yesterday.  The colors just spoke to me, I guess you could say.  The card was designed by Michelle McCosh.  I loved the greenish turquoise background.  She used liquid pearls for her leaves but I didn't have any of those so I just used some distress inks and sprayed them with some Perfect Pearls spray.  I didn't have the stamp set she used either so I improvised.  I die cut Tim's Tattered Leaves after I colored my paper with Wild Honey, Spiced Marmalade, Crushed Olive and Ripe Persimmon.  Inked the edges with Vintage Photo a bit and then ran a thin bead of gold around the outside.  Just love the fall colors and this is as close as I will get to them this year.

Hope you like it too.  I'm off to take some things to a friend up in Maitland today and will stay for drinks/dinner and then head back tomorrow in time for football, of course.

Just wanted to give a shout out to my little daughter this morning.  Her little Toki cat passed away yesterday and she is so very sad.  I love you honey and I'm so sorry for the lose of your little Toki cat.  I know he meant the world to you.  I believe this is his way of telling you that he will fine where he is and it is ok for you to move on. Hugs baby girl, I Love You so much!!

Ser Toki

Got the Boot.....................done!

Hi again bloggers, I guess it's the year of the witches 'round here, lol.  I found this cute witch boot tutorial over at My Craft Spot.  She cut hers from a Cricut Cartridge called Happy Haunting, I think, anyway, I don't have that particular cartridge so I drew mine out freehand and cut it out with a scissors.  I used an 8 x 11 sheet of cardstock and it covered most of the paper just so you know how big it is.  I then cut out another one and cut it up to get templates for all the pieces.  I cut each one out of different Halloween paper I had in my stash and added the ribbon I inked with Spiced Marmalade and Ripe Persimmon.  Found the Tim Holtz Happy Halloween tag in my stash too so I added some stickles to it and tied it on with the 'shoelace'.

It was fun making.  There are a couple of things I would do differently next time, like making the toe a little shorter. To me, it appears to be a little long in proportion to how high the boot is.  I can make that adjustment next year.  I do love how it turned out though.  It's setting on my desk at work.  Wish you could see how it sparkles.

Anyway, hope ya'll have a Happy Halloween!
Hugs,
~Jody

Last One!

Good Morning Bloggers, have just finished up the last card for Halloween 2013.  On this one I used a picture for my focal point.  It came on a 12x12 sheet from Authentique.  They had a pretty cool line of Halloween paper I found at Scraporium last week.  The pumpkins and bat I had in my stash and the black ribbon was new from Michael's.  It sparkled at me in the store so I brought it home, lol! I added a little 'boo' that I also had in my stash and then of course a little Tim Holtz ideaology.  The orange ribbon is actually some left over yarn my daughter had, can't remember what it's called though.  I used an old Creative Memories punch to make the octagon shapes for the inside and the spiral was in my stash as well.  I'm really trying hard to use what I have. My little craft room is bursting at the seams, lol.

So........hope ya'll have a great Halloween, stay safe.  I'm off to build some witches for the Annual Black Hat Society Tea Party today. 
Hugs,
~Jody

Another Halloween Card

Hello Bloggers, here's another Halloween card like I promised. On this one I used Tim Holtz's witch die cut plus the little bat.  The sentiment and the cat are from Close to my Heart.  The sentiment was cut out with a Spellbinders plate.  The cauldron is a stamp I picked up at Michael's and then I added some stickles and some markers.  The '31' is also a Tim Holtz die cut, one of the movers and shapers, he calls them.

Hope you are enjoying making your Halloween cards or whatever little decorations you are dreaming up.  I will also be making some little witches out of marshmellows for out Annual Black Hat Society Tea Party.  Found the recipe online at Taste of Home.com, aren't they the cutest?  The only ingredient  I was unable to find was the chocolate wafers, however, I did find a recipe for them so I made them myself, super easy.  I will be putting mine together Saturday morning so they will be ready for travel to the party Saturday afternoon, wish me luck.

Happy Halloween,
Hugs,
~Jody

Halloween Card

Wow, it's been a long time since I've been here blogging.  Life took over there for a while and I am finally back to creating again. 

Have this Halloween card that I created this past week or so.  I used a cricut cut tree and a new stamp from Inkadinkado, Witching you a Happy Halloween.  I thought it was so cute when I saw the sentiment, that I just had to have it.  Then I went looking for some kind of background stamp or paper and found this Raven one at Michael's.  It worked perfectly.  An loving how it turned out, hope you do to.

I'm off again, place to go, things to do and people to see.  Hope you have a great day and I'm going to try and get back here again with some more Halloween stuff.
Hugs,
~Jody

Better Late than Never.........God Bless America!

Good Morning Bloggers, hope you all had a GREAT 4th of July!  Mine was pretty uneventful, although I did all the things you're supposed to do on a holiday.  Went down to an Arts/Crafts Festival down in Gulfport, FL, about a hour south of here.  There were some cool vendors, some great getups to be seen and lots of little kids riding in wagons, etc.  Had a blueberry lemonade and sweated my you know what off, lol!  Then I came home and made some macaroni salad, burned a dog on the grill and promptly took a nap, ha!  Woke up just in time to see the rain end and the fireworks start.  It was great!  I finally finished up my 4th of July door decoration this morning so I thought I would share it with you.  Like I said, better late than never.

This started out as a plain ol' wooden star.

Used some papers from my stash and some Tim Holtz papers as well

The USA are wooden letters from Michael's and stained with Tim Holtz re-inkers

 and tied with wires

                                      

The blue rosette is just half of it place at the seam

The AMERICA, Let Freedom Ring  from Close To My Heart and is embossed with blue powder

I added a bauble made from Tim Holtz's 4th of July paper and a crinkle ribbon stained with his distress stains

More blue embossing powder here with stamps from Crafty Secrets and some little tan star buttons with the hanks cut off

 It may be a little late but I still love it, it looks so cool on my front door.  The neighbors probably think I'm nuts but that's ok, what they don't know won't hurt them, lol!

Hope you are still having a grand 4th of July weekend,
Hugs,
~Jody

Authentic Cowgirl

Hey there bloggers, I finished another page in my daughter's scrapbook.  I really like how this one turned out. It has a few Tim Holtz elements and a few Close to My Heart elements and a few elements from my stash.  A great combination I thought.

Love the burlap ribbon.  I got that at a little store in Asheville, NC when I was up there visiting a friend last September.  My little girl is not a cowgirl anymore but she sure made a cute one at 8 years old.

Hugs,
~Jody

Here's Your Sign............

lol, Good Afternoon bloggers, have been busy today making some more signs.  Today I did flowers, tulip, daisy and peony.  They turned out so good, I just love the way they look.  I am going to take them over to a place here in my home town this next week and see if they would sell some in their shop.  It's a flower shop, of sorts, they sell lots of old world things, at least that's what I call it.  They sell flowers too but alot of their things are things that you wouldn't see in your basic Walmart, for example.  Was in there the other day and they do sell local artist's things so it's worth a shot.  Anyway, here's a look at the ones I made today.

So, if you're interested in some cute signs for your porch or deck, have I got a deal for you, lol!  These ones are going for $24.99 plus shipping.   I will have them up on my Etsy shop too soon.  

Preference

Daisy $24.99 USD Peony $24.99 USD Tulip $24.99 USD Tea $19.99 USD

Hope you all have a great rest of Memorial Day. Remember what we are really celebrating here, Our Freedom!!!
Hugs,
~Jody

Ramblings.............

Hey there bloggers, it's been a little while since I've blogged so I guess I'd better get at it here.  Have just a few things to share with you today.

We had a nice day on Mother's Day.  Some family came over and we barbequed some burgers on the grill.  Ate some chips and potato salad and played some yard darts.

Here's a few shots of the day's happenings.

 

I'm kinda moving backwards here but I received the prettiest little rose bush for Easter.  I re-potted it and it's been sitting outside my back door ever since.  I think it likes it there too, look at the pretty roses it has produced.  They are a real pale pale yellow, like creamed colored.

Next up is a card I made for a lady at work.  She had to have some surgery and will be out for about 6 weeks so I made this card for her and sent it to her house.  I used some of Tim Holtz's 'shabby chic' paper pack.  I don't think I have ever seen him use this paper pack himself but my sister used it for a card for me once and it was so pretty.

The chipboard flourish is from my stash.  The sentiment is from Waltzingham Mouse.  I stamped a little swirly on the envelope too.  Hope she liked it.

And last but not least is a wooden sign that I made tonight.  It turned out pretty cute, actually I really like it.  I used a piece of wood I had hanging 'round the house and painted it with one coat of white paint, very lightly.  After it dried I sanded it down a bit.  I distressed the edges and printed the word 'tea' on it and then banged it up with the hammer.  Just love it.  As a matter of fact, I am going to make some more so if you'd like one, let me know.  They sell for $19.95 and you can order one right here. I can print other words on them as well, like your favorite fruit or veggie, a name, etc.  The background can be a different color too but it has to be light or you won't see the words. If you have different preferences about the background color and the printed word, just send me an email and let me know what you'd like.

 

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a joyous Memorial Day weekend.

Always Remember, All Gave Some, Some Gave All!!!

Hugs, ~Jody 

The latest Scrapbook page

I have been working on my daughter's scrapbooks for a few years now, I'm up to age 8.  I'm also on the third scrapbook.  It's tough when you only have one child because you keep EVERYTHING for the first one, lol.  Sometimes I wish I had been better at taking pictures back then.  Most of them are either lop-sided, in the shadows or have a limb missing.  OR I missed the occasion all together.  I recently realized that I don't have any photos of her on her 8th birthday so I'm fudging.  No one will ever know, right?

Anyway, here's a page I did including a few different things.  I had this pocket book for all the grades of school that they go to.  Each grade had a page for their photo and their handwriting.  I also included the receipt for when we had her ears pierced.  I had noted it on one of the pages in the pocket book and still had the receipt for it. 

I really need to get some more of these done.  I've been working on her albums for like 6-7 years now and I'm only up to age 8.  I keep getting distracted by everything else I'd like to create, lol.

Hope you all had a very Happy Mother's Day!
Hugs,
~Jody

Mother's Day 2013

Hey there bloggers, long time no blog!  Wish I had a really good reason for it but I don't, just been a slacker.  I'll blame it on post-menopausal ideations, lol, and those don't really have any definite descriptions so, you do the math, lol!

Anyway, I have gotten a jump on Mother's Day this year.  Already have my mother's gift done and ready to be put in the mail.  I started with six pieces of chipboard that measured approx. 3 1/2 x 4 1/2.  I found some paper in my stash that was from a class I took with my sister about probably 3-4 years ago.  I never finished the last two pages that were in the pack so it was kind of a neat little package with vellum quick quotes to match.  And it matched my thoughts exactly.  Pulled out some Tim Holtz ideology goodness and some old photos from my very first scrapbook.  That's a post for another day, my first scrapbook!  Let's just say  what a difference 30-40 years makes, lol.  So, this is what it turned out to be.

All of the edges on the right side were done with Tim Holtz On the Edge dies

The 'life moments' is one of his new stamp sets, Simple Sayings. The Family stamp is from Close To My Heart.

The papers were from an old kit from a class of years ago. The heart shaped photo is of my mother and step father taken at Cheyenne Frontier Days when they were first married. The family portrait was taken around the same time.  Probably both about 40 years ago or so since the little boy sitting on my lap is my nephew and he's like 43 years old now.

This is my older sister, Cindy, she's probably about 6 years old here. 

This one is me at about 6-7, I think.  Lots of fun embellishments too.  The saying along the way says "The Past speaks in Voices that can only be heard with the Heart"  It was a vellum quick quote that I applied to yellow paper with a liquid glue.

This photo is of little Kelly, probably about the same age.  She passed away at the age of 19 about 32 years ago.  The little ties on the green side are there because I cut that one wrong.  See what you can do with your mistakes.  I actually really like how that turned out.

This is the baby of the family, little Charmin.  I think she's about 5 there, like probably the first school photo taken of her.  The yellow circle on the other side is a Fiskars round punch that I've had for years.

And finally the back.  The bottom part was on that vellum sheet as well.  I also added the rub-on family from CTMH but you can barely see it here.  

I tied a bunch of ribbons on the ring that is holding the whole thing together.  Really like how it turned out.  I'm sure my mother will too.  Hugs, ~Jody

Belated Easter Project

Hey there bloggers,

I finally got this little vintage cart done that I have been working on for a while now.  Wanted to have it done by Easter but as you can tell, that didn't happen.  I was inspired by a cart that Jim, The Gentleman Crafter did last year.  You can see his cart here. Mine is a bit smaller because I wanted to use the Tim Holtz rabbit die and it was smaller than the ones that he offered diagrams of.  Needless to say, my cart had to be smaller.  I saw a cute challenge over at Eclectic Paperie to use corrugated cardboard on a project so I made my cart out of that.  Unfortunately, when I went to attach my link to their website it said the challenge was closed.  The challenge stated that it would be open until Thursday, April 5th until 6 p.m. EST. However, April 5th is not a Thursday, April 4th is a Thursday so their website was incorrect. I wondered why I walked around all day yesterday thinking it was the 5th!

Anyway, my Vintage Easter Cart turned out so cute.  It will definitely be a keepsake for years to come.

I used skewers for cart rails

I covered the grungeboard bunnies with 100% wool felt

The wheels are a circle and a gear made out of grungeboard and a screw cap

 and they actually roll

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

all the flowers are a punch that I've had for years

the little bunnies running along side the big ones are from a punch as well