That Jokester Mother Nature

Yesterday it was mid 60's outside, bright and sunny.  We went to the park and it was full with little babies, teenagers, parents, and grandparents.  About half the people  were wearing tshirts and shorts (it has to be 90 for me to get shorts out); people were BBQ-ing hamburgers (which smelled wonderful).

Today at 6 am it was sunny and birds were chirping and singing.  Now it is cloudy and snowing and is suppose to snow for the next few days!  Hopefully it wont add up to much or last long.

Tea Light Gift Set

Here are the tea lights in a box together.  The pattern can be found here.  I used decorative card stock for the bottom and clear acetate for the cover-that way I could show off the pretty candles LOL.  I don't really care for the tag in this picture.  I am sure I will change it.  Also I need a large square punch because as you can see I can't cut a straight line at all!

**WARNING  Always keep burning candles in a safe place and don't leave them unattended. Tissue paper may catch fire.

Tea Light Stamping

I have stamped on large round candles before using the technique of stamping on tissue paper first and then using the heat gun to melt the tissue paper into the candle.  This time I did it with tea lights.  This isn't an original idea at all, several people posted it to their blogs.  I stamped a circular design on tissue paper then punched it with my circle punch.  To make this easier, place your tissue paper over scrap card stock and punch them out together.  I used a 1/16 punch in the center to poke the wick thru.  I melted the tissue paper into the wax with my heat gun.  I measured the side of the metal holder, cut some decorative paper to cover the outside with.  Once I did the Christmas theme-I thought of Valentines Day etc.  Any design that is circular is shape could work.  I discovered darker colors work the best-dark green is very pretty.

Snow Flake Scarves

I was inspired by someone who made a fleece baby blanket with the snowflake die.  I was shopping in the dollar store and saw pink scarves the same color as the baby blanket and I thought "Hey I could make a scarf with a snowflake on it".  I ended up making many of these for my co-workers who loved them.  I think I bought the supply of fleece scarves at the dollar store.  I plan on making more of these for next year along with a few other ideas that my son & I came up with.  I would hate to deprive my co-workers of any new scarves.....

So keep your eyes open for those dollar store goodies.
Happy Stamping

New Storage Unit

My new storage unit should be here tomorrow if all goes well according to UPS. Even if it is a day late (which I personally think it might be) I can hardly wait.  I am hoping it will give me floor room and lots of storage space.  Once I get it put together I will take photos of my craft room. With any luck I can put it together by myself or with my sons help.  If I have to wait for DH I am not sure how long it will take.

I am slowly getting it organized in a more user friendly way little by little.  I used to do so many crafts, and I needed/wanted everything for all the techniques I could learn.  Now I am trying to organize to what I really use all the time, what I use seasonally, etc and share things I didn't need after all.

Off to finish as much house work as possible so I can be ready for when the UPS man comes.

Happy Stamping

Dollar Store Finds

After enjoying a breakfast buffet with my family (very rarely my son & husband have Sundays off) we went to the dollar store so my daughter could spend some of her birthday money.  She had a hard time finding something to spend her money on.  NOT ME!  They had the cutest mini clipboards great for altering!  Then we went to the salvage store next door and they had packages of crayons (4 per box) 10/$1.00.  So I bought a bunch of those thinking they would be great for kids projects or at the very least my daughters class will be getting crayon packets next Halloween or Christmas.

Flower Gloves

Here are some gloves I made.  The black ones were made with a large die so they weren't overly difficult.  The brown ones I used a sizzlix die which was a little more difficult to cut material with.  However, they were for my close friend who loves crafty things, so it was worth the trouble.  I was afraid of melting the yarn not knowing what it was made of.  Instead of my iron I used my hair straitening iron on a low setting.  It never got hot enough to straighten my curly hair but it works well on material.

Another Happy Day

I am excited once again.  I know it doesn't take much lately.

After the awful times we had starting in the middle of  January-going into February-it takes so little.  For those who dont know my husband had flipped his car over in a bad "northeaster" snowstorm.  He was only going 35mph, tried avoiding another driver, hit something in the road that flipped his car and he ended up in the snowbank-facing the opposite direction-on his roof .  I don't know which angel was with him that day(but I am glad they were with him)  he wasn't hurt at all!  Luckily, his moon roof was closed otherwise he would have been covered in glass.  the only part of him that was sore was his shoulder where he had to drop himself out of his seat when he was hanging upside down.  He was on his way to a business meeting, which he obviously did not make.  It has taken quite a bit of time for the insurance company to settle but finally that is all taken care of and we have a used Forester now.

A week later (to the day) it rained so much and melted all the snow we had our basement had almost two feet of water in the deepest part.  Luckily, our furnace is raised off the floor somewhat, and our basement floor slants.  The water was inches from hitting our furnace.  So to the hardware store we went to rent a portable sump pump.  Luckily, we were the first ones in line and got the strongest one.  A few hours later we were water free.  Then we just had the mess off all the boxes to clean or throw away.

The third week we did have something small and I cant remember what it was. A week ago my husband got poked with metal at work on his finger.  Eventually he had to go to the ER with blood poisoning. Now that all the bad things are done (knock on wood) it takes so little to make me happy.

As I posted earlier in the week I was able to order a huge roll of magnetic sheeting which I have made 34 BAB's and 34 pairs of jeans.  I have other clothing colors picked out I just haven't had time enough to cut them out.

Well tonight we had our taxes done yippeee and I am able to buy a new shelving unit for my craft room. For years I have been unmounting my rubber stamps and putting them into CD cases and I have them in boxes on a small bookcase.  Of course I have run out of room on the bookcase.  I am actually going to buy a large, revolving, 4 sided CD holder.  It says it can hold up to 1160 CDs.  Not that I have close to that many but I figured I would get something that could grow with me.

I also want to put my small selection of DVDs that I like to watch/listen too while crafting on there.  I am also hoping that my Sizzix dies can fit on the small shelves as well.  I am hoping this will help my storage situation-I am hoping for lots of storage on a small floor area.  Our house is 200+years old so my walls are short with slanted sides going to the ceiling.  Hanging things on the wall isn't an option for me.

Also, another thing that I am excited for is this Saturday is my monthly stamp club at my demo's house.  We always have a great time.  It is once a month that I get to see my BF.  We have been friends since we were 5 years old.  (Lets just say it is over 30 years we have been friends.) Even tho I have moved a few hours away- I still go back once a month to see the girls and have a fun night out together.  We all bring muchies, stamp, and take turns being the hostess.  What is more fun than that?!?!

Happy Stamping

PS After re-reading this,  I noticed I had lots of "luckily"s and "hopefully"s ...I am grateful that I could/can think of things as luckily and hopefully.  I truly think we are given things to us for a reason even if we don't know at the time what the reasons are.