Cole Update

Hello everyone!  I hope you all had a lovely Christmas wherever you are. Several of you have asked so I thought it would be a great time to update you on Cole's progress and to thank everyone who has sent cards and other goodies for him.

Well, the Thursday before Christmas he went and had the thigh high cast removed. He did very well with this - so well in fact that the nurse told them that he did better than most of her other patients.  He actually giggled when they were cutting it off because he said it tickled.  What a kid!  

So they took an x-ray and it wasn't as healed as they would have liked it to be. :(  Bummer...  He is now in one of those plastic boots which has the big heal on it until the middle of January. They are hoping that the extra time it will heal up better before he can roam free again.  Good news is he can take it off and have bath time again!  This kid loves to play in the water so that's a giant plus.  The first night he was in the tub for an hour - LOL!!

He's not allowed to walk on it yet other than a step or two at a time but he can stand from time to time if it doesn't hurt.  He did so on Christmas and I snapped a shot of it before he sat down again.  He has to have something solid to help pull himself up so he grabbed a hold of the wall by their sliding glass door...

And he was so thrilled to look out into the back yard and see all of his outside toys again!  He hasn't been out there since he fell which has been quite a long time for a little boy.  He was so happy...of course he wanted to go out and play but accepted the explanation that it was too cold. 

I really appreciate everyone's cards and letters to the little guy. It has been lots of fun to see him perk up whenever I show up with a bag of envelopes. It helped to break up the boredom of just hanging out on the couch with his leg up. He really enjoys opening them up and trying to guess "what's in there?". 

Thank you all so very much!!

Merry Christmas to all...

Merry Christmas friends...

hope you have a wonderful day where ever you are.

All the best today and always.

Please enjoy these Christmas postcards from the past.

All are circa 1908-1912.

Carve December 2018 - #25

Today's carve is a special request...

my dad loves wolves and he asked if I'd carve him one.

Here goes...

I left quite a bit of the "sketchy" lines in it to give it a feel of scruffy fur.

I hope it comes across as that and not messy.

I was going to cut away the bottom too but I liked the look...what do you think?

Sure hope he likes it!

Pretty Star Ornaments

Today I wanted to share some fun and easy Tea Bag Folding ornaments I made using Rinea Foiled Papers....

You can make them single layer, double layer and more.

You can also add various extra goodies in the center for a bit more style.

I used the paper from the Frosted Foiled Paper Variety Pack but they would look great with any color scheme.

For complete details on how I made them please see

Teabag Folded Star Ornaments with Roni

Carve December 24

Another wildflower - this time I have a rudbeckia which is the a member of the sunflower family. The more common names are black eyed susans or coneflowers.  They come in all sorts of colors from yellows, purple, maroon, orange, red, pinks and multicolor. Most are very easy to grow and are pretty all summer long.

The cool thing about this stamps is I can change up the ink colors and it could be any or all of the varieties.

Shadow Box #12

Merry Christmas

The final shadow box and so appropriate for Christmas Eve don't you think?

I am so in love with this one, I almost didn't give it back to Mom!

The background paper is Carta Bella - Let It Snow plaid, the sentiment is a cut-out from Carta Bella's Christmas collection which was adhered with double stick foam tape to pop it off the background.  I then cut multiple pieces from a kraft sheet of Christmas paper from Canvas Corp - the deer, holly and scarf.  I hand colored each piece then assembled them into what you see here.  I added the snowflake glitter to finish it off.

Carve December #23

Carve December #23 - Chickory

I don't know if you have chickory where you live or not but here in my neck of the woods in Indiana it grows wild just about anywhere you let it.  I love driving on the back roads in the summer time seeing the lovely blue flowers dancing on the breeze. 

Carve December 19 - 22

Falling behind a bit on posting my carved stamps while catching up on Christmas stuff. 

Here you go....

I wanted to start making wildflowers to go with my weeds and grasses.

Carve December #19 -

Carve December #20

Carve December #21

Carve December #22

Creepy Chrismtas

Hidee Ho Neighbors

Today I have a wickedly creepy Christmas card to share with you for the Cold & Frosty Challenge at Lost Coast Designs!

This card was created using the Skull Christmas stamp by Teri Sherman. It was colored using Memento Dual Tip Markers and a bit of Memento Ink which was watercolored using a waterbrush.  I fussy cut the image and affixed it to the background mat, added the sentiment and mounted it all on a blue card base.

A close up of the image...

I hope if you have a bit of time you'll join us for the 

Cold & Frosty challenge - 

open until December 31st.

Shadow Box #11

You'll Shoot Your Eye Out.....

Oh My....

this has got to be my favorite out of them all....

An ode to a Christmas movie classic in our house - A Christmas Story!!

The background paper is from Farm House Paper Company and it's an add for vintage toys - so cute and perfect for this shadow box.  All of the letters are MFT cut from Rinea Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper.  The glasses die-cuts are also MFT cut from several layers of black cardstock glued together to make it sturdy enough to stand up to the bb's which are real btw.  The 2 shotgun shells were taken from a hunting ornament we found at Hobby Lobby.  Let me tell you I had a heck of a time keeping all of those bb's corralled - LOL!!

Shadow Box #10

Winter Wonderland

Here is another creation by Morgan...the background is from American Crafts Peppermint Express collection with the die-cut sentiment from Sizzix which was cut from Rinea Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Paper.  She used vintage white tinsel garland around the top and sides then glued the darling little snowman couple in the corner.  She finished it off with the glittery snowflakes.

Shadow Box #9

Ho Ho Ho

Oh my...I so wish you could see this one in person!!  It is so shimmery IRL, it's amazing.  The entire background is made using various colors of Rinea Foiled Papers - Ruby/Gold Glossy, Ebony and Silver Starstruck. The letters were cut from Ebony/Gold Glossy Foiled Papers. I hand cut the belt and belt buckle free-hand and it really buckles!  I then filled it with red, green and gold small jingle bells.  So much fun!

Carve December #18

Earlier in the month I tried to carve a foxtail but I didn't like the results.

I gave it another go and I like this one MUCH better!

Which do you like better...

current attempt above or previous attempt below?

Carve December #17

A few more Dewlet stamps...

I'm sure everyone is getting tired of these so on to carve something different tomorrow :)

Carve December #16

Good Sunday Morning Friends!

I hope you're all having a wonderful weekend.

If you recall yesterday I told you about an idea I had about making stamps that work with the new Imagine Dewlet dies.  These are dies that fit the Dew Drop Ink Pads.  I thought it would be fun to carve some stamps that can be used as is or die-cut with the Dewlets!  I have been having fun thinking up designs for these stamps.  Here are a couple more....

I love sea turtles so I thought it would be fun to give it a go.

I also really like acorns and thought it would be fun to have one for fall stuff.

I'm going to be giving this some more thought...

I want to come up with more designs for these nifty little dies.

Shadow Box #8

Merry Christmas

Morgan came up with this one all on her own...she started off with the background paper from Crate Paper - Bundled Up then added some chipboard holiday pieces (unknown) and finished it off with a wood ornament with Merry Christmas stenciled on it.  Finished it off with a bow and called it good!

Carve December 13, 14 &15

I've been really busy the last few days and haven't had time to post my carvings.  

Here you go....

#13 - Cat Face

#14 - Leaf Branch - I'm thinking this would look nice as a swag, in bunches (using different colors) as a border, etc. 

#15 - Dewlet Stamps...o.k...this is something I am really excited about. Imagine has a new little die-cut that fits the size of a Dew Drop ink pad.  I thought it would be fun to design some stamps that fit into it!  First up a mushroom and alien!  The stamps could be used as is or die-cut for small fun petals. These could be really cool - I can't wait to find the time to actually make something using the stamps, ink pads & die-cuts.

Need to clean up the blank space on this one...

Jingle All The Way

Just a quick card made exclusively with Rinea Foiled Papers!

It was so easy...just cut and punch (yes these papers work with paper punches)

then glue it all down.

Couldn't get much easier and it's so stunning!

Supplies:

Rinea Jolly Foiled Paper Variety Pack

Sizzix - Foliage & Sentiment dies

Spellbinders - Bow die

Bells - Paper Punches

Black cardstock

Shadow Box # 7

Shiny & Bright!

Another of my favorites!

This shadow box is filled with vintage Christmas bulbs from my own collection. I hated to part with them but they look so pretty don't they?  The background paper is unknown but the letters are a combination of MFT (letters) and Sizzix (&) cut from Rinea Foiled Paper in Ebony/Gold Glossy.  We sprinkled in a few little jingle bells for fun.

Card Assortments Anyone?

YEAH!!  They are all spoken for :)
Glad they found new homes!

I have a dilemma that I was hoping you could help me with.

As you know I make cards - lots and LOTS of cards. So many cards that I'm starting to drown in them. I have tried craft bizarre but nobody wants to pay for cards so that was a bust. I've tried charitable organizations but nobody seems to be interested in them (they want store bought so they are all the same) so I thought I'd offer them up to you.

What I have is an assortment of cards which are either card fronts only (which you would just adhere to a blank card) or finished cards - most are 4A but there are a few specialty sizes.  They range from thinking of you, thank you, birthday, some have quotes, a few seasonal, there are NOT many holiday cards though. There are some cards that feature a technique or focus on a stamped image which actually leaves the card wide open. You can add your own sentiment and make it into whatever you need.

Anyway, I was thinking of sorting them into packs of 50 cards (no envelopes).  You can have the cards for free if you'd help out with postage.  I am thinking they would have to be shipped in Flat Rate PM envie (due to weight) which is $6.70 now but if you could send me $5.00 to help cover some of that cost it would be great. That's just $0.10 per card! Of course if you'd like to pay more I sure won't turn it down ;) LOL!!

What do you think?

Would you be interested?

If so I'll start sorting and see how many bags I come up with.

Frosty Blue Vertigo Ornament

You all know how much I love ornaments.

Well today my Frosty Blue Vertigo Ornaments are up on the Imagine blog!

If you've never played with the Vertigo film from Imagine you simply MUST do so.

It is the wildest stuff with such great designs that add so much depth and dimension to any project.

As you can see the Vertigo film can be die-cut, inked, glittered and so much more!
Here I have created 2 different ornaments one using a set of heart dies, the other circles.  

The possibilities are endless!

Be sure to check out the Imagine Blog for full detailed instructions and supply list.

Have a lovely day friends!

Carve December #12

While I was off carving other things Bessie ran off, 

got herself a wizard hat and enrolled in classes at Hogwarts.  

She is now an official member of Gryffindor!

Doesn't she look fierce in her new hat?

Of course she had to buy the scarf to match.