Here are the two batches of jam:
Here are some pictures of the kids helping:
Sunday, July 29, 2007
More Jam Today
I got two more batches of jam finished today. One batch of blueberry jam, it was on sale every where this week. I usually like to pick my own berries but I just didn't have time this time. Then the kids helped me make a batch of blackberry jam from berries we picked in the backyard. We had a lot of fun, even Alek decided to help.
Here are the two batches of jam:
Here are some pictures of the kids helping:
Here are the two batches of jam:
Here are some pictures of the kids helping:
Saturday, July 28, 2007
Christmas Stamp Camp "It's a Wrap"
Today I went to what I think is the best stamp camp ever. My demo Melissa is great. She and another demo held a stamp camp at our local library from 10-2. We made a ton of items and it was all for Christmas. Melissa is coming to be posting more about how we did everything on her blog, The Stamping Chick, later this weekend. Here is a group photo and some individual shots of what we made.
The first thing that I made was a whole bunch of gift tags using the new level 2 hostess set Perfect Presentation. We also used the new In-Colors Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, and Blue Bayou.
The next item that I made was the Five in One Template Box using the new Baroque Motifs set and the new Pretties Kit. We painted the flowers and it was so much easier than I thought. Got to use one of the pearls and the hat pin too.
Next up was the wrapping paper using the All About Christmas wheel. And then it was on to the cirlcle tote that Melissa won an SU contest with. I am thinking about making these as the favor at Regan's birthday party.
After that we made one of Cambria's gift tag holders. Melissa premade the holders for us so all we had to do was stamp and glue. After that I got to make a Christmas Organizer using the On Board 5X5 Art Journal so that if we own the spiral punch it can be refillable year after year. I think this was my favorite Christmas item that we made today. I believe I will be making some as presents.
Only two more items to go. Next up was a nice little gift tin. I even have some left after the spa kits I made last year. And last but not least was the Joy gift bag. I know I will be buying plain bags and dressing them up from now on, it was so easy.
Whew!!!!!!!!!! All done. And the most amazing part is that we got all that for $25. I can't believe that I got all this done in about 2 1/2 hours. Check out Melissa's blog, The Stampin' Chick, later this weekend for more indepth details.
The first thing that I made was a whole bunch of gift tags using the new level 2 hostess set Perfect Presentation. We also used the new In-Colors Purely Pomegranate, Wild Wasabi, Soft Sky, and Blue Bayou.
The next item that I made was the Five in One Template Box using the new Baroque Motifs set and the new Pretties Kit. We painted the flowers and it was so much easier than I thought. Got to use one of the pearls and the hat pin too.
Next up was the wrapping paper using the All About Christmas wheel. And then it was on to the cirlcle tote that Melissa won an SU contest with. I am thinking about making these as the favor at Regan's birthday party.
After that we made one of Cambria's gift tag holders. Melissa premade the holders for us so all we had to do was stamp and glue. After that I got to make a Christmas Organizer using the On Board 5X5 Art Journal so that if we own the spiral punch it can be refillable year after year. I think this was my favorite Christmas item that we made today. I believe I will be making some as presents.
Only two more items to go. Next up was a nice little gift tin. I even have some left after the spa kits I made last year. And last but not least was the Joy gift bag. I know I will be buying plain bags and dressing them up from now on, it was so easy.
Whew!!!!!!!!!! All done. And the most amazing part is that we got all that for $25. I can't believe that I got all this done in about 2 1/2 hours. Check out Melissa's blog, The Stampin' Chick, later this weekend for more indepth details.
Friday Dirty Girl Challenge - Camria's Pink, Pink, Pink
I have only got one of the Dirty Girl Challenges finished yesterday and it was Cambria's Pink, Pink, Pink. I used a new technique that I recently learned called Faux Tearing because I only had one piece of pink cardstock. I even wrote a tutorial for it, check it out. Here is my card:
Supplies:
Stamps: Paint Prints
Paper: Pretty in Pink
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Non-SU white craft ink
Technique: Faux tearing
Supplies:
Stamps: Paint Prints
Paper: Pretty in Pink
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Rose Red, Non-SU white craft ink
Technique: Faux tearing
Faux Tearing Tutorial
I recently learned how to do this from my demo and I loved it. Faux Tearing is so easy to do and it comes in handy when you do not have a lot of cardstock in a certain shade or hue.
Supplies:
Card base
Ink to match
brayer
paper/cardstock to rip
Step One:
Fold cardstock base in half and decide which way the card is going to go, vertical or horizontal.
Step Two:
Take your piece of paper or cardstock and rip it in half, making sure that there are some curves in the paper.
Step Three:
Place your ripped cardstock on top of your card base so that the part of the card showing is where the ink will go.
Step Four:
Ink up your brayer.
Step Five:
Hold down the white paper and run your brayer over the base card. You will have to reink it several times to get full coverage.
Step Six:
Finish your card. Here are two examples.
Supplies:
Card base
Ink to match
brayer
paper/cardstock to rip
Step One:
Fold cardstock base in half and decide which way the card is going to go, vertical or horizontal.
Step Two:
Take your piece of paper or cardstock and rip it in half, making sure that there are some curves in the paper.
Step Three:
Place your ripped cardstock on top of your card base so that the part of the card showing is where the ink will go.
Step Four:
Ink up your brayer.
Step Five:
Hold down the white paper and run your brayer over the base card. You will have to reink it several times to get full coverage.
Step Six:
Finish your card. Here are two examples.
Thursday, July 26, 2007
Thursday Dirty Girl Challenges
Today I only did 3 of the 4 challenges on SCS's Dirty Girl Challenges (I didn't have any flocking).
Challenge 1 was to make an elegant card and to say why we thought it was elegant. Here is my card:
Stamps: French Script and Too Terrific Tags
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Basic Black and non-SU silver (came from one of those scrapbooking mat stacks)
Other: Sterling Silver embossing powder and silver square brads (three in each corner)
Why it's elegant: I always think of anything French as being elegant and anything that is embossed so I combined the two.
Challenge 2 was Beate's sketch challenge.
Stamps: Carte Postale, Sincere Salutaions, and Leaves a la Carte wheel
Ink: Basic Brown and Versamark
Paper: Pale Plum and Heidi Grace double sided patterned paper
Other: Non-SU ribbon (brown)
I love how this card turned out. At first I didn't have any ribbon underneath the stamped flower of the wheeled background but the card needed something. I added the background image and that still wasn't enough. Then I thought about making a bow with some thick brown ribbon that I had and that was awful. That is when I got the idea to use smaller ribbon and make petals that woule make it look like a flower. Each petal is an individual piece of ribbon. The back is a total mess but I love how it turned out.
Challenge 3 was to only use clear stamps. This was the perfect excuse to break out my new stamps from PapertreyInk.
Stamps: Butterfly Kisses and Thanks (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink: Almost Amethyst
Paper: Almost Amethst and Palette o' Prints
Other: Primas, brads, and ribbon
I am having a blast with all of these challenges.
Challenge 1 was to make an elegant card and to say why we thought it was elegant. Here is my card:
Stamps: French Script and Too Terrific Tags
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Basic Black and non-SU silver (came from one of those scrapbooking mat stacks)
Other: Sterling Silver embossing powder and silver square brads (three in each corner)
Why it's elegant: I always think of anything French as being elegant and anything that is embossed so I combined the two.
Challenge 2 was Beate's sketch challenge.
Stamps: Carte Postale, Sincere Salutaions, and Leaves a la Carte wheel
Ink: Basic Brown and Versamark
Paper: Pale Plum and Heidi Grace double sided patterned paper
Other: Non-SU ribbon (brown)
I love how this card turned out. At first I didn't have any ribbon underneath the stamped flower of the wheeled background but the card needed something. I added the background image and that still wasn't enough. Then I thought about making a bow with some thick brown ribbon that I had and that was awful. That is when I got the idea to use smaller ribbon and make petals that woule make it look like a flower. Each petal is an individual piece of ribbon. The back is a total mess but I love how it turned out.
Challenge 3 was to only use clear stamps. This was the perfect excuse to break out my new stamps from PapertreyInk.
Stamps: Butterfly Kisses and Thanks (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink: Almost Amethyst
Paper: Almost Amethst and Palette o' Prints
Other: Primas, brads, and ribbon
I am having a blast with all of these challenges.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Busy Day
Today has been a really busy day. And I didn't have my kids after 10 AM until about 6:30 PM. Baker got the kids fed and I got them dressed. While they were eating, I cleaned my dining room. This is the room where I just dump stuff on the table and walk away. VERY BAD HABIT. So today it got cleaned and dusted. Wahoo!!!!!!!!! Here's a picture. 
After the kids got picked up it was time to make jam. We have a slope behind our house that has a ton of wild blackberry bushes. Baker and I have been picking them for days to try and get enough. We didn't quite make it so we had to add a few half-pints of store bought blackberries to the mix. As it turned out we didn't have enough sugar so I ended up having to go to the store and buy some, and of course a few other items like sushi (spicy shrimp and soft shell crap), Brie, and French bread. Then I came home and made jam. The recipe made 8 containers of Wild Blackberry Jam.
After that I had a late lunch and then went to work on the SCS challenges that I posted earlier. Baker came home right after I finished them. I took my pictures, uploaded them to SCS, and then made my blog posts. I also made Beer-Can Chicken for dinner. I learned how to make it last month when I visited my friend Pam in PA. Thanks again John. We loved it and it was so easy to make.
Whew!!!!!! I'm wiped out and it's not even bedtime yet. I will try to be better about posting to here and to Smugmug's, which I will be doing after bathtime.
Wednesday Dirty Girl Challenges
Dirty Dare '07
WHAT IT IS: A week of stamping challenges for SCS Fan Club Members only, presented by the Dirty Dozen Designers Past and Present. The challenges may consist of something as simple as a single layer card, use of a particular color combination, technique, or even a 3D (non-card) project.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to participate in any or all of the challenges all week long! You may, or may not, have *all* the supplies and materials on-hand to participate in every single one of the 36 challenges presented this week. However, it is highly likely you already have the supplies needed to participate in the majority of them!
Here are Wednesday's Challenges and my cards to go with them.
Challenge #1: DTGDSweetMissDaisy Pet Card
Kock-a-doodle-doooo Fan Clubbers!With my menagerie of farm animals and pets I thought it would be fitting for me to host a challenge that has everything to do with pets! My challenge to you is to create a card that's either For a Pet, From a Pet, or Of a Pet... can be your pet or someone else's.There are all kinds of occasions worthy of a pet card!- Birthday- New Litter- New Critter- Thanks for Pet-Sitting- Get Well...etc... Be creative!Please use the keyword DTGDSweetMissDaisy when uploading. (No spaces)
Stamps: Fish Friends (SU) and Thanks (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise, and Gable Green
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White
Markers: Brocade Blue and Certainly Celery
Other: Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Challenge #2: DTGDtexasjodylynn Using Brads
Hi Fan Clubbers! Thank you for joining the kick off day of challenges! After a long day of participating in challenges you may be ready for a nice long bath, but FIRST I want you to bathe your card in BRADS! Don't be shy... you know you have tons of brads sitting there begging to be used, so why not indulge and use lots of them on your card? If you don't have any brads, feel free to use any other material you can think of that has the general appearance of a brad.
Welcome to the first day of many fun challenges this week, Fan Clubbers! This challenge is easy, all you need is one color of cardstock and/or ink (and embellishments, if desired) and a white or vanilla/cream neutral! We are using toile patterns as our inspiration . . .Wikipedia defines toile as: "…a type of decorating pattern consisting of a white or off-white background on which a repeated pattern … consists of a single color, most often black, dark red, or blue. Greens and magenta toile patterns are less common but not unheard of. Toile is most associated with fabrics (curtains and upholstery in particular), though toile wallpaper is also popular.” So my challenge to you is to create a toile-look card or project that is one color on a white or cream/vanilla background (think of Grandmother’s blue & white patterned china!).
Stamps: Solo R and Solo Y (CTMH)
WHAT IT IS: A week of stamping challenges for SCS Fan Club Members only, presented by the Dirty Dozen Designers Past and Present. The challenges may consist of something as simple as a single layer card, use of a particular color combination, technique, or even a 3D (non-card) project.
Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to participate in any or all of the challenges all week long! You may, or may not, have *all* the supplies and materials on-hand to participate in every single one of the 36 challenges presented this week. However, it is highly likely you already have the supplies needed to participate in the majority of them!
Here are Wednesday's Challenges and my cards to go with them.
Challenge #1: DTGDSweetMissDaisy Pet Card
Kock-a-doodle-doooo Fan Clubbers!With my menagerie of farm animals and pets I thought it would be fitting for me to host a challenge that has everything to do with pets! My challenge to you is to create a card that's either For a Pet, From a Pet, or Of a Pet... can be your pet or someone else's.There are all kinds of occasions worthy of a pet card!- Birthday- New Litter- New Critter- Thanks for Pet-Sitting- Get Well...etc... Be creative!Please use the keyword DTGDSweetMissDaisy when uploading. (No spaces)
Stamps: Fish Friends (SU) and Thanks (Clearly Wordsworth)
Ink: Cool Caribbean, Taken with Teal, Tempting Turquoise, and Gable Green
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Taken with Teal, and Whisper White
Markers: Brocade Blue and Certainly Celery
Other: Dazzling Diamonds glitter
Challenge #2: DTGDtexasjodylynn Using Brads
Hi Fan Clubbers! Thank you for joining the kick off day of challenges! After a long day of participating in challenges you may be ready for a nice long bath, but FIRST I want you to bathe your card in BRADS! Don't be shy... you know you have tons of brads sitting there begging to be used, so why not indulge and use lots of them on your card? If you don't have any brads, feel free to use any other material you can think of that has the general appearance of a brad.
Stamps: Little Lady (PapertreyInk)
Ink: Ruby Red and Cameo Coral
Paper: Ruby Red, Cameo Coral, Very Vanilla
Other: Copper Brads
Challenge #3: DTGDStamperSharon - Toile Inspiration
Welcome to the first day of many fun challenges this week, Fan Clubbers! This challenge is easy, all you need is one color of cardstock and/or ink (and embellishments, if desired) and a white or vanilla/cream neutral! We are using toile patterns as our inspiration . . .Wikipedia defines toile as: "…a type of decorating pattern consisting of a white or off-white background on which a repeated pattern … consists of a single color, most often black, dark red, or blue. Greens and magenta toile patterns are less common but not unheard of. Toile is most associated with fabrics (curtains and upholstery in particular), though toile wallpaper is also popular.” So my challenge to you is to create a toile-look card or project that is one color on a white or cream/vanilla background (think of Grandmother’s blue & white patterned china!).
Stamps: Carte Postal and French Flair
Ink: Cranberry Crisp
Paper: Cranberry Crisp and Whisper White
Other: Scallop Scissors
Challenge #4: DTGDgenie1314Sketch Sketch Challenge
Welcome Fan Clubbers to the Dare To Get Dirty Challenges. One of the first challenges that we have for you is a sketch challenge. These are some of my favorite challenges to do, so I figured it would be super fun to host one! For this sketch, you will create a square card or standard dimension card. The sample that I have created uses a card base that measures 5 x 5. Whether creating a square or standard dimension card, you will need to follow the layers as shown. Here is the sketch:
Stamps: Solo R and Solo Y (CTMH)
Ink: Vintage Violet, Lavender Lace, and Almost Amethyst
Paper: Vintage Violet, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, and Whisper White
Paper: Vintage Violet, Lavender Lace, Almost Amethyst, and Whisper White
Other: Vintage Violet Grosgrain Stiched Ribbon
Make n' Takes from Upline Meeting
My demo is great. I use to be in her downline and she still includes me in with them. Melissa had a make n' take party on July 2nd so that we could all ohh and ahh over the catalog along with making a few new cards. I provided 2 projects, one card and one 3-D item, and Melissa had 3 cards set up. She had a brand new demo coming so we tried to showcase some techniques as well.
My card used Carte Postale along with the coordinating wheel, Leaves a la Carte, and background stamp, French Flair. I got the idea for the layout from one of Beate's Sketches.
Paper: Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter, More Mustard, Glossy, and Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter, More Mustard, and Versamark
Techniques: I used the Stampin' Around Wheel Guide with the Leaves wheel and Versamark ink on the base of the card. I also sponged Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter, and More Mustard on to the glossy white paper after I stamped the French Flair background stamp in Basic Black.
This card was really easy to do.
My 3-D project was a wood frame that I got at Michael's for $1
To make the frame I added about 15 drops of Tempting Turquoise Reinker to plain white craft paint. It makes a very light blue color that I painted on to the wood frame in 3 coats. I then used Taken with Teal and the new Baraque Motifs stamp set and stamped away. Nice and easy.
Melissa had 3 cards for us using the following techniques: Faux Tearing, Faux Metal, and Dry Embossing. It was great I hadn't used any of them before so I was really excited.
My card used Carte Postale along with the coordinating wheel, Leaves a la Carte, and background stamp, French Flair. I got the idea for the layout from one of Beate's Sketches.
Paper: Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter, More Mustard, Glossy, and Very Vanilla
Ink: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter, More Mustard, and Versamark
Techniques: I used the Stampin' Around Wheel Guide with the Leaves wheel and Versamark ink on the base of the card. I also sponged Certainly Celery, Handsome Hunter, and More Mustard on to the glossy white paper after I stamped the French Flair background stamp in Basic Black.
This card was really easy to do.
My 3-D project was a wood frame that I got at Michael's for $1
To make the frame I added about 15 drops of Tempting Turquoise Reinker to plain white craft paint. It makes a very light blue color that I painted on to the wood frame in 3 coats. I then used Taken with Teal and the new Baraque Motifs stamp set and stamped away. Nice and easy.
Melissa had 3 cards for us using the following techniques: Faux Tearing, Faux Metal, and Dry Embossing. It was great I hadn't used any of them before so I was really excited.
Monday, July 2, 2007
Came Home to Lots of Goodies
I went out of town for a day and a half and came home to lots of goodies. First off I got the mail and there were two packages in there for me, one from Rebecca Bacon and the other from Stamping Bellas. Woo Hoo!!!!!!!!! And then I turned into my drive way and hanging on my front door handle is a Stampin' Up! bag. I was totally shocked as I am going to Melissa's house tonight to do a few make n' takes and ohh and ahh over the catalog. Inside the nice pretty bag is my retired accessories order and a BRAND NEW CATALOG!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are pictures with descriptions of what I got.
From Stamping Bella I got the chefabella, diplomabella, sistahoodabellas, and veggiebella. Now I just need to figure out how to mount them.
I got a bunch of stuff from Rebbecca Bacon. My upline introduced us through e-mail as I live in VA and she lives in IN. Rebecca was nice enough to stamp me some images from Ahoy, Matey stamp set and the Matey's Map wheel so that I can make a name frame as a birthday gift for one of Regan's friends. She also made me a wonderful cardfront to use for the birthday card and she made me a card using Baroque Motifs and the new SU palette paper. It is so pretty. Wasn't sure I was going to like it but I do. Thank you Rebecca!!!!!!!!!!!!
And last but not least the Stampin' Up! bag on my front door. I got all 3 Pearl Ex's. I am so excited about these. My mom is doing her guest room in teal and I am making some frames for her using Baroque Motifs and the pearl ex. Now that I have seen the new designer papers there is one in there that would go perfectly with what I want to do. YEAH!!!!!! I also got one more ATC album and a pack of refills for it. Along with the 3 ribbons that went with last year's In Color colors. And then there is the new catalog. I love it. I got home at about 2 PM, unpacked the car, got the kids situated, opened everything up, called hubby to say we were home, finished up the frames for tonight, and then got to look through the new catalog. It has lots of pretty yellow sticky tabs sticking out, and that was just from my first run through. I want all the halloween stuff and a bunch of the new wheels and backgrounds. First order is going to be really hard.
From Stamping Bella I got the chefabella, diplomabella, sistahoodabellas, and veggiebella. Now I just need to figure out how to mount them.
I got a bunch of stuff from Rebbecca Bacon. My upline introduced us through e-mail as I live in VA and she lives in IN. Rebecca was nice enough to stamp me some images from Ahoy, Matey stamp set and the Matey's Map wheel so that I can make a name frame as a birthday gift for one of Regan's friends. She also made me a wonderful cardfront to use for the birthday card and she made me a card using Baroque Motifs and the new SU palette paper. It is so pretty. Wasn't sure I was going to like it but I do. Thank you Rebecca!!!!!!!!!!!!
And last but not least the Stampin' Up! bag on my front door. I got all 3 Pearl Ex's. I am so excited about these. My mom is doing her guest room in teal and I am making some frames for her using Baroque Motifs and the pearl ex. Now that I have seen the new designer papers there is one in there that would go perfectly with what I want to do. YEAH!!!!!! I also got one more ATC album and a pack of refills for it. Along with the 3 ribbons that went with last year's In Color colors. And then there is the new catalog. I love it. I got home at about 2 PM, unpacked the car, got the kids situated, opened everything up, called hubby to say we were home, finished up the frames for tonight, and then got to look through the new catalog. It has lots of pretty yellow sticky tabs sticking out, and that was just from my first run through. I want all the halloween stuff and a bunch of the new wheels and backgrounds. First order is going to be really hard.
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