Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the evenin' to ye, lads and, more likely, lassies!

Oh, and any rogue leprechauns that may be lingering about!

 

At least I seem to be getting some posts done for holidays at least

if no other time!

 

I wanted to send some St. Patrick's Day cards to a few friends

I do not have the first bit of Irish in me (English and German)

but

I married an Irishman

who called me his little red-headed leprechaun
(yes, I can  be a little mischievous at times!)

 

Anyway---here's what I came up with:

The mason jar stamp and die are from Lawn Fawn.

The friend stamp is from Stampin` Up.

I just happened to have the small shamrock punch in my stash-

so each one of those are hand-punched, color dusted and the centers

colored with a white colored pencil.

Then I just applied a little pressure to the center

while they were on my mouse pad

to give it a little dimension.

I made 6 of these cards...oh!

And the trick to make the shaker part easy-peasy...

I cut a piece of foam--yes, craft foam--fun foam--

whatever you call it--

just slightly smaller than the yellow designer paper--

and then I die cut the mason jar out.

I used two layers of foam and glued them together

with fun foam glue.

Worked like a charm!

The acetate is glued to the back of the dp--then the fun foam layers

and then the card background piece that was cut the same size

as the front dp piece.

Hope that makes sense!

If not, go to the Lawn Fawn website and watch the video on how to make

a shaker card-that is where I got this idea  to start with!

You can see a tiny glimpse of the micro beads

that I added for some gold---just at the bottom right corner.

The layering and the glue worked great-no leaks like I`ve often had

trying to do this with foam tape!

For the inside of the card

I used a retired Close To My Heart stamp set...

(since my computer was in the shop for repairs...)

and a tiny Studio G shamrock

The envelopes were of course covered with some shamrocks as well.

 



Our Poppa Cat wasn`t so lucky-

we learned about a month ago that, somehow,

he managed to to break his pelvis!

That and he has severe arthritis in his hips.

Oh, and before he came to live with us

(he was a feral who came in one day and wouldn`t leave...!)

he had been shot twice and the pellets are still in him.

Did I mention he`s also diabetic and starting with early kidney issues..

So momma has had her nurses   ``vet tech`` cap on again (yet, still!)

We`ve been doing lots of meds along with a week of 3x a day cold laser

therapy treatments at home.

He`s improving.

 

So when I`ve not been doing cat care,

or working,

or trying to keep up with the rest of life-

I`ve squeaked in a little --and I do mean little!--craft time.

Hope to change that-soon!

 

Until next time,

May the luck o` the Irish be with ye!

Happy stamping and scrapping.

Blessings,



Happy (Belated) Valentine's Day...

Eh, "Better late than never" as the saying goes...!

 

I am ever grateful for our vet and her staff

as they give us top-notch care and never give up

trying to solve our what seems to be constant conumdrums

of cat woes.

And since Valentine's day is coming up came and went,

we wanted to spoil them a bit

so here's what I came up with...

 

Inside the box...

are packages of Hershey Nuggets...

 

 

 

on their own cute little tray...

this is the inside...

and this is the outside...

 

I *think* the measurement for the tray was something like 4 1/4" x 1 7/8"

then score each long side at the 1/4" mark...

If when I do this again...

I think I will try a 4"x whatever it will take to maybe give me a

1/2" score on each side---

gotta try that to see-it's a little longer than it needed to be-

and I think  I'd like a little higher side...

but that's just me!

 

Here's another tip---

Avery Address Labels (5160 or 8160)

fit almost perfectly!!!

There's just a smidgen that was not covered on the bottom!

I formatted my label in Publisher

and printed them out. 

Easy peasy.

I used a pretzel bag to wrap them-

twisted a piece of washi tape at the top and flagged the ends.

Trimmed off the excess bag at the top

(it would easily hold 8 nuggets I think...)

Had a plain white box in my stash

so wrapped a piece of washi tape around it

and then hot-glued some nuggets to the front.

 

I did Minion heart treat boxes for the preschoolers

but failed to take a photo of them

before I handed them all out.

Life has been wide open upside down wild for me.

 

Tomorrow this guy gets to go to the vet again.

 

 

Seems something is wrong with his right back leg and he's been on pain killers

for the last few days.

Will get some x-rays to see what's going on and,

if all that isn't enough,

he's got some kidney things starting in conjunction with his diabetes.

So we are in for food changes and adding a few meds to his daily insulin injections.

Oh boy....this should be fun!

I am just thankful that, for now at least, we do not have to do

subcontaneous  (sp?) fluids like we did with BC.

I am sure it's in our future but, for now, we don't have to deal with that.

I love how he sometimes "forgets" to put his tongue back in!

 

That's all for today.

Keep warm wherever you are--

the wind is in the willows here at the beach-

its been blowing a gale for two days now.

 

Until next time,

happy stamping and scrapping!

Blessings,



Washi Tape Woes....to Washi Tape Wonders!

Long time, no post.

Life is a MAJOR struggle right now on all fronts for me.

I won't bore you with the details.

Suffice it to say

I cleaned a little in the magic kingdom

and then played a bit.

After Christmas

I fell HEAD OVER HEELS IN LOVE with WASHI TAPE!

I had some...and I want a ton more

(all those cute vintagy florals....and so many more...polka dots

bicycles...banners....)

and I needed a way to store what I had.

So I started surfing

and ended up on Etsy

and saw some cute wooden boxes.

They were more than I wanted to spend

so I looked real close...a number of times....

and decided to go for it.

WRONG.

What was shown...and what arrived

were two very different products!

This is what I got:

First its much darker than the ones shown...

The rolls do not fit nice and snug (not even my big ones)

so the roll all over and fall out if you don't pick it up just so...

The wood is cheap cheap cheap ----think wood aisle buy the pieces

and glue them together yourself at AC Moore or Michaels...

and then, what really frosted me...

is this VERY VISIBLE spot that didn't take the stain...

and the shop owner shipped it out anyway...

This isn't even covered when the tape is in there...?!

And I PAID for this----????

Buyer beware....

Look close before you purchase this product from an Etsy seller...

SO.

Today I decided was the day

to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear as my grandmother would say.

I got my crapppy  boxes

and my bottle of Valspar paint

and started by giving them several coats.

I wasn't too worried about brush marks-

I have a distressed semi-vintage feel going on in my room anyway...

So then they were a nice seagreen blue-y color.

Nice but needed something.

I spied my doilies.

Modgepodged a doily on the back of each one.

Still needed something...

Hmmm....how about a washi tape banner?!

A little twine, tape banner pieces, a little ribbon,

mini clothespins....

Ok.

So now to fill in the label spot.

Old fashioned label maker.

One says "wishin" 

and the other...

can you guess...?

"4 washi"!

Here's the finished product...

Now granted, you are not going to see much of those banners

once the tape is in there...

but it is a cute little surprise once you pull the tape out....

I still need to find a way to fill in the huge gap---

as I can see me pulling this off a shelf and all of it go rolling 

like the meatball off the top of Old Smokey...

Perfect? No. Better than what it was? OH YEAH!

And, not all Etsy sellers are bad.

I will post the MOST AWESOME GLUE GUN AND GLUE STICK HOLDER

that was hand-decorated and matches my room PERFECTLY

sometime soon.

I absolutely adore it and the seller even switched the side the 

gluestick storage was on per my request!

Now that was $$$ well spent!

I need to get motivated and do Valentine treats for 25+ preschoolers

maybe tomorrow.

Maybe not.

Until next time 

happy stamping and scrapping.

Blessings, 

Happy New Year!

I won't even go back and look at how many blog posts I have started out by saying, 

 "I have not abandoned my blog!"

 Far too many! 

And, as usual, its been far too long since I blogged. 

 I am about to change that.

First, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

 I have lots of things to post that I did-

but will save that for another day-maybe Christmas in July-past and preparing for the future one! Hmmm...not a bad idea!  

Second, I hope and pray that everyone will have a HAPPY, HEALTHY and BLESSED 2015.

While last year held a lot of heartache for me 

with the loss of two of our furbabies and a number of other significant trials, 

I will say that, even with each challenge, loss and heartbreak...

from those scars came new insight, healing and yes, even growth. 

 One of my favorite Christian songs asks God to

 "heal the wounds but leave the scars" so we'll know how far we've come...

'nough said.

Some of you I know tune into my blog for my CAT TAILS -- er, TALES...

the littles (aka Sir Stirling and Sir Sebastian) are six months old give or take--

and FULL of themselves!  

This is what happens when two littles 

get to wrestling in a papasan chair...they spun the whole thing off the base!  

If you look close in the far upper left corner you can catch a glimpse of culprit #1...

aka Sir Sebastian...

and in this photo culprit # 2 aka Sir Stirling 

(who was, most likely, the instigator in the whole incident) surveys the crime scene...!

They keep me laughing with their antics 

and I have plenty more of those to share as well...

but let's get to some crafting because I have some great things I want to share...

at least I think they are!

Flylady would be proud of me because not only are ALL my Christmas thank you notes MADE

but they are signed, sealed AND MAILED!

This is what I came up with.

Yes, that is a doily, yes, those are SU mini pearls 

and the sentiment is SU also as is the now-retired dp.

The bird is a Cricut cut with a teardrop punch for the wing

(since I broke my SU bird punch (unusual as SU punches are awesome)

 and it flew to Theresa's for repairs...and we've both forgotten about it!).

The leaf is a Martha Stewart punch---that has also died (which is typical for her punches).

I did some of these in blue and some in a burgundy with CTMH retired Bella Vie papers.

Yes, I know the colors aren't a purr-fect match but well, close enough to suit me!

Trying to use what I have on hand--so I will have a legitimate excuse to buy more!

I have to confess--that stamp is awesome and I've had it for ages---

and it had never touched an ink pad!  

It's a new favorite for me now that it has!

And I just realized...that I didn't take pics of the thank you notes I did for the preschoolers

who gave me gifts.

I may try and peel open an enve to post those or just make one or two more

since I have not cleaned up my supplies yet.

It involved lots of color, and crayon stamps---they were cute, too, but I am biased and bragging.

Isn't that what a blog is for?!

Ok.

So, something about the quickly approaching New Year every year

puts me in a clean it up, throw it out, organize it frenzy.

This year was no exception.

I was focusing on my magic kingdom FIRST for a change!

And I came across all my bits and pieces of punched items,

die cut items, parts I didn't use but well, just couldn't part with.

How to organize them so I actually might USE THEM

instead of just moving them around the room?

Well-one trip to Wal-Mart and one box of 

COMPUTER CD ENVELOPES

and some tape later...

and this is what I have...

I just put each item in its own sleeve and taped a sample on the outside!

I "filed" them in the basket in categories (flowers, shapes, Halloween, etc.)

I have not (yet!) made dividers and, ideally, I would like to have something with a lid on it to store them in as I can see myself turning the whole basket upside-down and having a grand mess!

As I made/cut things-I tried to remember to write the size or dimensions on it 

in case I want to make more!

And yes, I just wrote on them-my OCD in me wanted a pretty printed label-

but I LET IT GO and did it the quick and easy way--

maybe someday my computer and printer will be in the craft room together with my other tools!

This has been super super handy in the last few days!

FYI-if you try this---get TWO boxes of cd enves--they even make a heavy-duty brown chipboard type enve that I really liked-these were cheaper-I just should have gotten more!

A few of my cuts...were too big for the envelopes--and I will have to deal with that...

I am thinking one of the long accordion hard-plastic envelopes would work for those.

I did not take a picture of the organizing of the embellishments like the strips of

adhesive backed crystals and pearls---but that is easy to imagine.

I simply got snack size Ziplocks,

put like things together,

printed a label and stuck it on the upper right-hand corner of the bag.

These, too, are organized into another green basket and labeled-

and as the bags are slippery-I can see them going everywhere as well.

Next trip to the $ Store I think I will pick up a couple of coupon holders

to slip the bags into and then put them in the basket.

I *think* that will work!

Ok.

Another crafty tip or trick that I KNOW WORKS! 

I have a few rolls of WASHI TAPE.

Really-only 6-7. For now.

And I've been looking for a dispenser/storage idea for those as well

so they were sitting out on my worktable.

I went to cut some things on my not-so-sticky Cricut mat

when the paper went cattywhampus and slid off the mat

while it was still cutting.

Oh so not good!

What to do?

Of course, I was in a hurry---

and I saw the washi tape sitting there so I grabbed it,

tore off two small pieces

and taped the very edge of my cardstock to the Cricut mat.

I reloaded it and presto! Perfectly adhered paper to the mat

and the cutouts I wanted!

WOW!

And the good news is---it peels off easily without leaving a mark or tear on the paper!

Guess you know what I will be scouring the clearance shelves for-the ugly ones that are cheap, cheap, cheap until I have time to learn how to and try to resticky my mats now that my warranty is up.

(and yes, I have tried painter's tape-but it stuck worse than it helped...).

But then---that's not all with the WASHI TAPE!!!

THERE'S ANOTHER TRICK UP MY SLEEVE!!!

I did all those pretty notecards---even stamped a doily border on the enve

and put them inside and tried to seal them.

No go.

The enve barely stuck shut.

DAGNABBIT!

Now what to do?

Well, WASHI TAPE to the rescue again.

While what I had on hand didn't perfectly match my card and enve--

it was ok and it worked like a charm!

I am now IN LOVE WITH WASHI TAPE!!!!

My collection is going to grow-and fast!

SOOOO many pretty ones out there.

Whew! 

Long post.

The blog needs updating, there's lots more to share and tell,

thank you, computer, for behaving long enough to let me get this post done.

2015 is going to be an interesting year.

So far, I have managed to maintain the changes I hope to make

and, in the days to come, hope to add to that list.

NOT beating myself up if I fail or don't live up to my own expectations,

just starting over where ever I am.

Stay tuned.

I will be back soon!

In the meantime,

happy stamping and scrapping!

Blessings,

The good.... the bad....but no ugly

At least I hope not.

 

Ok.

I had no idea I hadn't posted in quite sometime.

So let's get the bad out of the way first.

We lost our Bad Cat

(who was misnamed by my husband)

two weeks ago this past Wednesday.

He had a number of health issues

and I suspect

that cancer had taken over

just as it had with Ms. Dolly

(who we lost earlier this year).

He spent his last night cuddled in my arms

snuggled in his coat that he loved.

In his last week

he caught a cicada bug and even climbed out on our roof!

In the last few months
he spent many long hours in the sun

and got to eat anything he wanted whenever he wanted

with people watching (he loved that!).

He was the most vocal of our kitties

and his purring me to sleep when insomnia takes over

is greatly missed.

I became a cat person after meeting him.

I hope he is chasing bugs, sleeping in the sun

and enjoying all the fish he can eat

over the Rainbow Bridge.

 

Ok.

Before I short out the computer with the waterworks...

I have gotten  few things done in the magic kingdom!

I finished the "Boo" treat boxes for the preschool kids.

They are wrapped and ready to go.

Then I made this treat holder for a very special girly girl

I saw something similar on Pinterest-and ordered it from The Cutting Café.

I then realized that I had almost the very same image (skull and bones)

on my CTMH Cricut Art Philosophy or was it Artbooking  cartridge!

DUH!

I simply cut it out, cut the bones in half and attached them to either side of the skull.

Glittered the bones and added a hair bow! I thought about fake eyelashes but nixed that

as I really didn't want to drive across the bridge

and sometimes less is better!

I attached a box to hold the treats and simply added another skull shape on the backside

(minus the eyes, etc. of course!)

So that one is filled with Reeses Peanut Butter Cups.

 

Next up

I couldn't pass up a cute die even if was from---gasp--Tim Holtz.

And I wanted to do something for the vets office

so I cut out French fry boxes at 7 1/2" using the CTMH Art Philosophy cartridge

out of kraft cardstock

and then cut tons of the Tim Holtz die thingy.

This is what I put together

(pardon the poor photography-I will repost better ones later)

I cut the ff box out of kraft paper-

then wrapped it with a band of the the orange and white polka dot paper

with a band of black crimped cardstock under it.

Now-here was my conundrum--

how to wrap it---and it isn't flat---or "squared"---?

I solved it by putting the middle of the band on the middle BACK of the ff box--

and wrapping the ends to the front-which then is covered by the decorative tag!

The ends angle up a bit--and I just trimmed them off!

The tree, fence, kids, trick or treat and bat

are all from the Tim Holtz die.

The mini pumpkin I hand made. All 14 of them...

using 7 circles each...and it's probably about 1/2" circle--if that!

I cut a strip of paper, ran it through the Xyron, and then punched the circles.

Peeling them off the Xyron was another challenge---but I won.

I used a piece of twine for the stem and a piece of fuzzy yarn to mimick the leaves.

The "trick or treat embellishment was fun!

I coated a circle with Martha Stewart's glow in the dark glitter,

hot glued a coffee stirrer to it, and then covered that with another circle

(to make the back pretty).

I added the bat and the trick or treat.

The Cat--the ADORABLE BLACK CAT

is from a Penny Black stamp and die set...

and since we have a BLACK CAT...well...'nough said!

The ff box at 7 1/2" is big enough to nicely hold three Ghiardelli chocolates.

I am half way through putting these together.

The hard part is keeping myself from eating the fillers!

Especially the Dark Chocolate Salted Carmel!!!

 I will put a note in each one that there are no tricks-just TREATS

for treating us so well!  And they do!

 

Let's end on some more fun notes---

here's Poppa Cat playing with one of my catnip fish---

and bunching up the rug in the process...

 

Here is Sir Sebastian in the craft room....

 

And Sir Stirling....who when I glanced over my shoulder and first saw him in the basket...

made me think it was Bad Cat....

 

I had considered naming them....Poppa Cat's Shadow and Bad Cat's Shadow....

as they really do look alike...but decided they needed their own identities.

 

And here's the black cat--aka Inky aka Turbo Kitty

(that's a shelf above the toilet in my bathroom!)

 

 Ms. Dolly and Bad Cat were his real buddies...

so I am trying to give him some extra attention.

He's intimidated by the high energy of the kittens

and the fact that there are TWO vs. one...

Poppa Cat has taken to them--

and often meows for them to come and play with him!

 

Well

I have rambled on enough!

Better go finish the treats.

Next up will be a frame for a very special baby girl

using a Julie Nutting doll stamp and some really pretty

chalkboard papers with pinks and reds and whites...!

 

Until next time,

happy stamping and scrapping.