Birthday Boys

Hey there ....... Curt is packing and I am doing a blog post...... hummm sounds a little unbalanced but I have to be ready to jump into action with Little Miss Ava at a moments notice and he is packing stuff in the basement ...... or as we call it, The Man Cave!!!  

So today I have 2 cards and a Smilebox.  The cards are for my dad's birthday ....80 years young and my handsome nephew Andre'.  The Smilebox has photos from Anton's birthday weekend and some other photos that I love of him and it is playing the "Anton" song ....... groove version!!!  Cracks me up every time I hear this song.  Okay down to business.

The first card is for my handsome dad ........

I used the "letterpress" technique from this post by Heather and this post by Maile.  I wanted the center to have a bit of background stamping so I cut another exact layer and stamped it with my Text and sentiment and put it right in the impressed spot ........ 

My nephew Andre' is the one on the right ..... he never fails to tell me that he is taller then me and I will mention that my sister is wearing a bit of a wedge .... he is a tall boy.  His brother "Jr." is on the left... 

I LOVE these boys~~~

My stitching is CRAZY but hey that's how it goes :)

If you have time ........

 Here is a Smilebox from Oktoberfest and The Planting Fields 

The song is in German it is "Anton Aus Tirol" 

All good Bavarian's have an Anton in their house.

Opa is Anton and Curt also has an Onkel Tony (Anton) he also has an Uncle Hans and Uncle Franz

not sure why I wrote that other then it makes me smile!!!

Create your own slideshow

September Blog Hop

This month for the BLOG HOP we are suppose to focus on tips, tricks, tutorials or ideas we have learned from fellow crafters.  I learn everyday from all of my fellow crafters and here are a few things that I did this week using tips, tricks and tutorials that I have learned along the way.


I wanted to make a notebook for someone and wanted to use my mat stack 1 die but felt that since I was not using a stamp that would give me a boarder I needed one.   When that thought entered my over crowded mind thankfully 2 conversations were still up front so I did not have to put too much brain power into my solution.  In this post from Ingrid and this post from Laurie you can see how they had a boarder around the mat stack.  I asked and the answer was to flip over the die trace and hand cut.  Quick, easy and looks great.  Here is a photo of the notebook that I made with the mat stack and boarder.

I have to say that I love how this notebook turned out and the leaf paper with my rock and roll technique 

The next project for the Blog Hop is a tea cozy that I adapted from a tutorial by Dawn.  I do not often make something for me but since I am a total Chai Tea Latte FREAK I thought I should have something cute and perky for my yummy tea.  I only get this as a treat on my way to work and that is usually only twice a week.  They have some of these for sale in Starbucks but they are grey and BORING!!!

The flowers were placed perfect for my hand so I do not have to put my fingers over them ...... my sewing on this is not perfect........ it is kinda quirky like me!!!  

And last but for sure not least.  I was visiting Jenn K's blog a month or so ago and she has a tutorial on there about how she did her PTI stamps.  I have been having issues with my stamps and CD cases for some time and I had to do something ASAP.  I have always been a notebook kinda girl myself so I started to look for products that would help me accomplish this new storage system.  I knew I would use top load sheet protectors because that is what I use in my kitchen and I LOVE THEM!!!  My hang up was what I was going to use for the stamps.  I finally found these and they work perfectly!!!  I slice off the bottom that is sealed and about 1/8th inch on the opening side.  This has changed my life of stamping.  For the sets that I already had I printed the stamp set photo off the website but now all my new sets I adhere the label to a piece of white printer paper.  I love having the white backing because that helps me see the image or sentiment.  I love how easy I can flip through my stamps and I can combine so that helps me with space.  I can get 3 background sets into one sleeve and it is not over crowded at all.  I can put 4 Fillable Frames in one sleeve and 2 YOF on 1 page.  I like that for these 2 particular sets because the sentiments can be used with the frame or the flower and I can have them all grouped together and just flip between 2 or 3 pages. I typed out what sets I have in each binder and slipped it right in so I know exactly where everything is located.  I saved the file so if I do need to change anything it will be very easy.

Here is a photo of the page with Fillable Frames

And here you can see the notebooks put away in my cabinet and the area that I have to be creative.

This is a 100 year old built in that was originally the Butler's Pantry in our house.

The drawers under the work surface are filled with ribbon in one and my hand made paper for books in the other.

The doors below swing open and I have my cricut, cuttlebug, ext all under there.

I cannot wait to have a space that is a bit larger.  I have the storage but the depth of the work surface is only 12 inches.  I cleaned up a bit for the photo ....... it never looks like this.

Oh and that foot on the wall is for reflexology.  Since I am a massage therapist I love studying all different types of healing and I tend to surround myself with books and photos that I can refer to on a regular basis...... I really need to get my books out tomorrow and get some acupuncture points down to help out one of my clients this week.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!!!

xoxox

Sue Ann

Papertrey Peeps Tag Challenge

Normally I cannot even get my own group challenges for The Papertrey Pals done but Rhonda has been making me crazy with all the tags she has been making lately and then she gave a challenge over on the Papertrey Peeps blog.  So here I am today posting tags.   These are few that I have done so far and there are more in the starting phase on my work bench.  I am using some for cards and then some to attach to brown bags with clothes pins that will be filled with Halloween goodies!!!

Thanks for the challenge Rhonda ........ it was fun to get my tag mojo flowing!!!

Have a Spooktacular Day!!!

xoxox  Sue Ann

Pallange 15

WOW I cannot believe that I actually got a challenge done for our group.  Curt being gone for a few days with the older 2 assisted in this happening I am sure.  The challenge was to use Melon Berry, Hawaiian Shores, Plum Pudding and Simply Chartreuse.  I will admit that at first I thought OH LORD ..... how am I ever going to do that but I think it all turned out okay.

If you look too close you will see that I need to snip a thread ...... it is really hard to even see the stitching, I was a wee bit off on getting zig zag to be on both colors not sure if that is because it was too dark in the kitchen, Ava was assisting or because I am blonde ~~ 

I do love that rolled flower die ...... 

And now off to work on some Halloween tags ...... Thanks Rhonda for making so many that I had to go buy some at Staples.  And it is either a mile to get my car to drive there and then park and walk a mile home or 2.5 miles to walk there round trip so Rhonda also made sure I got my exercise today.

Have a great day!!!  xoxox

PCD Challenge

Last week I read this post from Dana and I thought maybe I could come up with something between all the other "stuff" going on in the crazy house!!  There is a flower in Barefoot Summer from PCD that is a good size to mix in with the flowers from PTI BBII, you can see it peeking out in Plum Pudding and then full size in Spring Moss.

Have a GREAT DAY!!

xoxox

Sue Ann

Card Patterns Sketch 80

Well I have not ventured out in the world too much with challenges but today I thought ...... what the heck live on the edge~~  

This card is for Card Patterns.  I really was not sure what I was going to do but after visiting Mish's Blog I was feeling the whole yellow thing so I went and found a piece of my favorite paper and it all kinda just fell into place.

The card is leaning a bit towards the camera because I ventured outside for better light but because our house is 100 years old NOTHING is level ........ including me:)  

All good stuff going on at the homestead.  We found a house to lease while our house is being built  and I have movers coming this week to give us an estimate on moving.  All we need to do is review the terms of the lease........I cannot think about it too much because there is SOOO much to do and 3 kiddies 5 and under ........ hello calgon take me away!!!!

Have a great day!!!!

xoxoxox

Sue Ann

A Little Argyle

So today I wanted to make a few cards but I did not have the patience to take out a ton of different stamps and ink so I went with the same colors on both although I am much more happy with the first card then the second, I wanted to change the flowers on the second one but I decided that after there was glue involved HUGE MISTAKE ...... that is what I get for not putting it on dry first.  If you guys could see how I stamp you would laugh.  But today I was lucky enough to have light at my window so I did all of this in my window sill ....... and I got a touch of red ink on the paint ARRRR.

So I had out my Argyle set and All out You set so off to work I went .......I also had some flowers left over from the "Niclole" blog post so I grabbed those as well and headed on over to my window.

And I think we have found a house to lease down in NC.  SO HAPPY~~  and as soon as Curt gets a job then we will start on our dream home!!!  

That is it for me today.

~Have a Great Day~

xoxoxox