Gift from Alaska...

Check out this AWESOME picture of

Diane & Dennis...

I am SO jealous!!

We have had record high tempertures here in New Mexico

109 degrees...yikes!

Let's just say...that SNOW looks so inviting...

While on her trip to Alaska,

Diane picked up this sweet little gift for me

It is a Sourdough Starter

(Diane is SO generous and just LOVES to SPOIL us!!!)

I always had Sour Dough Starter in the refrigerator

ready for breads and my favorite...Peach Cobbler.

When I became ill, I lost interest in EVERYTHING

including...baking

I am now starting to bake again and I am really excited

to start my Sourdough...

This kit has the Sourdough Starter along with directions and recipes...

This is a very simple recipe...

starter packet, 2 cups flour and 2 cups warm water

into a bowl

mix gently with a wooden spoon until smooth

now cover with plastic wrap and a dish towel

Place in a warm place for 36-48 hrs

(gently stir several times a day)

Thank you so much Diane!!!

Have a Blessed Day...

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Monday Everyone!!
I am so glad to have survived the weekend...

Thursday was my husbands birthday...Happy Birthday Babe!!!

This is the b-day card I made for Roy,

my friend Karen gave me a piece of this really cool

sticky back metal sheet

that already had this awesome patina all over it,

and I used one of her vintage truck stamps with black staz-on ink to

stamp the image onto the metal sheet

 then used some grey card stock along with the

new My Mind's Eye Portobello Road paper collection

and some Tim Holtz gears to create his card

Then friday was spent adding the finishing touches to the decorations for my Mother-in-laws 90th Birthday party.  I was in charge of decorations and wanted to Upcycle and here is what I decided to make...

these "flower bouquets" were made using vegetable cans that were spray painted,

here is the cute card box that I created for her

It's a Flower Pot!!!

The theme was "Shades of Blue"

but she also LOVES flowers so I went with that...

Cheerful Giver...

Hello Everyone!!

I have been SUPER busy lately, but even in the CRAZINESS of life...there are lessons to be learned

I have known for some time that I was placed on this earth to be a servant,

and I TRY  to do so cheefully!  I LOVE to share with others and I

will help you in any way that I CAN.

Unfortunately...I have a hard time accepting gifts or help from ANYONE even family. 

Now this is not necessarily a bad thing but...
the Lord wants to Bless ALL of his children

EVEN  his servants.  Right?

It is easy to Bless your family with a kind word, or a home baked dessert, or maybe help them financially if they are going thru hard times but has the Lord ever used you to be a Blessing to a stranger?  Well today I was reminded that the Lord does know our heart and he pays attention to the "simple" things that we get excited about.  I have been collecting rubber stamps for about a year now but lately there are more important things that we need so I had not been able to add to my collection. 

Today I had a new FRIEND stop by to bring me a gift...

yeap you guessed it...STAMPS!!!

I just have to say that...there is no question in my mind that this was from the LORD...

My friend Gloria
(she & I met through our husbands who work together)

 had no clue that I {heart} stamps! 

The reason I wanted to share this with you is because I want you to know that the "little things" that we do for others can make such a difference. 

I am EXCITED about all my new stamps but...

 ECSTATIC about the new friend God has placed in my life...

(there are 5 Close to My Heart sets and 15 Stampin Up sets)

(and 16 single stamps)

Thank you for stopping by....
Have a BLESSED weekend  :-D



Bingo Card Picture Frames...

I've had these Jenni Bowlin Bingo Cards for a while now

and I thought I would create something with them... 

I took the new Tim Holtz Small Easel die...

 and some thick black chipboard

 

 

and I created some picture frames for my grandbabies

 

Here is Bryan (age 3) on his first day of school (August 2010)

and Savanna (12 months) sitting in Bryan's classroon "Reading" a book...

the possibilities are endless!

One man's junk is another man's treasure...

Have you ever come across something that well...looks like junk?

My husband & I were driving home one evening and what do we see,

 an old canapy bed that someone decided was JUNK!

we knew IMMEDIATELY what we wanted to create with

this canapy bed...

Yeap...a bench!!!

Isn't this just awesome?

Thinking Bazaar...

Every November my church hosts a Grandma's Attic Bazaar .  

 All proceeds are used to support Missionaries.  It is a fun filled weekend with tons of handmade crafts, quilts, and of course a WONDERFUL BBQ meal that includes a  home-made cobbler (YUM!). 

 I have been creating for them for about 15 yrs.  I had to take the last 2 yrs off due to health reasons but I am SUPER excited to start my projects for this year. 

I was given a sample of a Tea Cup and was asked if I could make more of them

Well here they are...

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think...

The Magic of Oz...

As you may know, I design for my local scrapbook store. 

Well we finally had the "Magic of Oz" paper collection from Graphic 45 arrive on Thursday  

and I decided to create a 12x12 layout of my "Adorable" grandson Bryan. 

This is a picture of his 1st Halloween...he was 6 months and just as
"Cute as a Button"!

I added some stitching with my sewing machine and notice the cute little zipper on the top left corner...

"Sew Cute"!

I did TONS of fussy cutting but it was worth it!!

Have a Blessed Weekend!!!

Spools Galore...

Today I thought I would share this cute

Shabby Chic Bird Cage. 

I bought it a couple months ago at my local Antique Shop.  It had been sitting in my craft room and then on saturday I found another bag of wooden spools

(380 teeny tiny craft spools) 

 I placed them in the birdcage and...

 I LOVE how this looks. 



Yard Sale Find...

Check out this Vintage Typewriter!!!   I found this little baby at a yard sale...for $10.00!

Isn't it just the COOLEST thing?  I have been looking for one just like this for a while but was not willing to pay the price... glad I waited!  I have NO clue if it works, some of the keys get stuck because if you can see it has a LITTLE rust.  I will clean it up and if it works great and if it doesn't well....that's fine with me. 

I LOVE my typewriter!!

Homemade Laundry Detergent

I am so excited to share a recipe I came across at The Bee Hive Cottage .  I LOVE that I can make my own detergent!!  I have included pictures of the supplies I used because after reading the recipe I had to google some of the ingredients because I had no idea what they were...lol

Here is a picture of the container I use for my detergent...I found this at Restoration Hardware years ago and I LOVE how it looks sitting on my dryer. 

Okay so here is the link to the recipe: 
 http://thebeehivecottage.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-made-my-own-laundry-detergent.html

now for pictures of the ingredients:

3 - 5 1/2 oz bars of Fels- Naptha laundry bar soap (.97 each)

I used my food processor to grate the soap but of course you can use a hand grater

you need a 4 lb. box of Borax
($3.74)

and a 4 lb box of Arm & Hammer Washing Soda
($3.24)

and last you will need 4 lbs of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda (this is the one I used),  it is almost 5 lbs so I set aside about a lb for my next batch
($5.47)

now just mix it all together...

I just washed my bed sheets and they smell so CLEAN!!

cost is $15.36 = .10 per load!

16 lbs of detergent

this recipe makes:

150 full loads = 2 TBSP per load



I hope that you will give it a try...

Flowers in Bloom...

We are celebrating my mother-in-law's birthday in August and I am in charge of the decorations.  I decided that my theme would be "Shades of Blue" since this is her favorite color.  My mother-in-law also loves her flower garden so I am creating flowers to use as center pieces on each of the guests tables. 

I ordered the new "Flower Shoppe" Cricut cartridge and it arrived today...

This is the Daisy and it is cut at 10"...

I then took it and scrunched it up...

then I rolled it up and used my glue gun to adhere it together...

now what I did was use the negative of the die cut to make a small rose...

you may be familiar with the MFT rolled flower dies, well this works the same way but what I like is that I can make them as small or as large as I need  

now I'm off to make flowers...

It's the little things that make me smile...

 My friend Diane is just as EXCITED as I am about our NEW Vintage Camper Trailer ...

She picked up this stamp set for me to use in my SMASH book, and I think it's PERFECT!!!

(See the little trailer on the top corner...that's what ours looks like)

As a Thank You for Diane..    I created this little Shabby Card

Thank You SO much Diane!!!!

Great Find!

I enjoy visiting  a cute little Thrift Shop which supports our local animal shelter and sometimes I find the cutest things.  I found an entire bag  of wooden spools (195 to be exact) for $4.00... not sure what I will create with these cuties but I HAD to have them!  For now I think they look  cute in this glass jar I picked up at walmart.

Good Ole' Days!

Do you remember the Good Ole' Days?  I sure do...

My husband just bought a Vintage camper trailer and I am so excited to start the restoration process!

This camper is in fairly good shape...she just needs a little TLC.  I plan to journal each and every step of this process and I was so excited to find a Retro SMASH book  for our new addition. 

Our trailer should be home is a few days so...STAY TUNED!!!

Mother's Day Card for my Mommy!

Happy Mother's Day Ladies!!  I pray that everyone is able to spend time with their mothers today.  Those of us that are Blessed to have our Mothers with us need to spend as much quality time with them as possible. 
Here is the card I created for my Mom using the Lemon Flower Stack by DCWV.  I have colored La-La Land's Marci using my Copic markers.  I hope you like it.

Happy Mother's Day Mom!!

Artsy Addicts Blog Hop Winner!!

     First of all I would like to say "Thank You" to all my new followers, I hope that you will continue to stop by my Blog to see what I am up to.   I plan to post some new projects and ALWAYS appreciate your comments and suggestions. 

     For my give-a-way, I have chosen some of the Prima flowers that I used on my project.  Orange is not a color that most people will pick for their layouts but I LOVE orange and I think it was the perfect color for my layout. I do however want to apologize, I have been trying to post a video of the drawing but for some reason I continue to get an error at the end of the upload.  This has only happened once before and I have no clue what is going on.  I had my grandson draw a name on video but since I can not get it to upload I will just post the winners name. 
     So the winner of my giveaway is...neddie58!!  Congrats neddie!!!  Please send me your home address so that I can get this package out to you.  Thank you to everyone for playing along with us, and stop by ANYTIME!

Artsy Addicts Giveaway Closed!!

I will be back on Tuesday, May 3 to do a drawing for 3 packages of Prima flowers.  I had 29 comments on my technique post and once I verify that ALL the comments were left by followers I will place every one's name into a bowl and draw one lucky winner!  Good Luck to Everyone!

The Artsy Addicts Technique Blog Hop

                                      
Welcome to The Artsy Addicts' Technique Blog Hop!
If you have arrived here from Liz's blog then you are in the right place.  Now if you just stopped by, then you will want to start with Angela's blog.  Today 24 of us Artsy Addicts have chosen a technique that we like to use on our projects and we will sharing it with you.  You will want to make sure that you visit every one's blogs in order to pick up some great tips and possibly win some awesome goodies along the way. 

This is a technique that is very popular and is used in many different types of projects so I thought I would share it with you today.   You will need some Crackle Medium and two different colors of acrylic paint along with a paint brush. 

First you will apply a base coat to your item, I am using Tim Holtz' bird cage die.  I am using a Burnt Umber for the base coat. This is the color that will show up in the cracks

Second step is to apply Crackle Medium to the areas that you want to crack.  You can apply it to the entire project but have chosen to apply it randomly.  The thicker you apply the medium, the larger the cracks will become

Now the third step is to apply your final coat of acrylic paint, here I am using Linen by Folk Art.  Be sure to allow your project to dry in between each step. 

Here is what the bird cage looks like after the Crackle Medium has dried

and here is the bird cage in this layout that I created using the Butterfly Garden Collection by Pink Paislee. 

I have put together a little bag of goodies for one lucky follower so please be sure to leave a comment on this post.  You MUST be a follower of my blog in order in be entered in my drawing.   Now it's off to visit
M-C.  Thank you and Good Luck to everyone!