Tremonton & SEI Treasures

When Brent had his interview in Tremonton a couple of weeks ago, I went up with him. (We still are waiting to hear either a yes or a no about the job….) I decided that since we were up there and so close to Logan that we’d take a little side trip and drive over to Logan and make a little stop to a place I’ve been wanting to visit for a while….

YESSSSSSSSS! We stopped at SEI and visited their OUTLET. I have a retailer account with them and have been trying to decide what products to carry (if we decide to carry any of them) at Stamper Storage and I really wanted to see a few of their scrapbook KITS in person before ordering anything. I already know that I love their buttons and things… *grin*

I think I did a good job at controlling myself for spending…. I only picked up a couple of things. I think if I hadn’t been so incredibly tired from getting up at o’dark thirty (around 5 am) and having had spent the entire day in the car driving and waiting for B to finish his interview that I might have spent more money…. LOL! I just wanted to see what they had in person and then get home, I was one pooped girlie.

I showed a friend and she said “That’s ALL you got???” LOL! Yes, that’s it. I have so much STUFF in my stash that I don’t use as it is… I only picked up things that I had ideas for already. And a girl can never have too many buttons….

In Like a Lion, Out Like a ….

… Lamb? Fat Polar Bear

Lambs are white and fluffy…

Snow is white and fluffy…

But lambs are WARM!

Mother Nature is either kidding with us or is suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder. This is nuts. But it gets worse. Check THIS out. We can expect two more days of it this week. YIKES!

Sadie was not sure about this new layer of 4-5” of fluffiness. She was so stoked about the nice warm t-shirt and shorts/lightweight pants weather we were having the day before. Ok, so that was me… but still… I think she was getting used to the idea of being able to lay on the back porch in the sunshine curled up like a cat… (That wasn’t me, but I do like to lay on my bed and nap in the sunshine if I think about it.)

Sitting down to pluck the heavy, wet snow out of her paws…

Somewhere under this fluff are daylilies already poking their green shoots out from the ground and daisies trying to green up already.

Welcome to Spring in Utah.

Tutorial: Faux Designer Paper

Creative Supplies:

DCWV Luxury 4x6 paper pad
BG Bittersweet 6x6 paper pad
Fiskars Lace border punch
Nestabilities Ovals
CTMH Inks – Grey Flannel & Garden Green
CTMH Stamps – Decorative Dainties

Designer paper…

sometimes you get this whizbang idea and you need it.  But usually, if you’re like me, your whizbang ideas come at 1 or 2 am and there’s no open scrapbook stores around.  (Sure there’s online, but then you’re waiting 5-7 days for delivery…. shush you there in the peanut gallery!) 

So anyway… you’ve got this whizbang idea or you’re totally casing someone else’s whizbang idea and you need some Designer Paper.   What do you do?  You pull out your stamps, some ink, some preprinted-wanna-be-almosta-designer-paper and you make it yourself!

I saw a card on Beate John’s blog that I wanted to re-create.  I wanted to use this awesome new DCWV Luxury pad that I’d picked up at Jo’s recently.  The problem was that I didn’t want to use ALL shiny blingy Luxury paper on the entire card front… it needed some variance in the texture. 

So here’s what I did:

Once I decided on the overall layout, I pulled out my BG Bittersweet 6x6 paper pad and pulled out the light cream sheet that was preprinted in a distressed and grungy manner.  I thought it would be super for a background for the FDP.

Step 1:   Practice stamping with your image to make sure you get the desired effect.  I wanted mine to be semi grunge/distressed but mostly stamped.  It worked for this stamp to use the piece of foamy stuff that comes with the CTMH stamps under the paper.

Step 2:  Practice on a piece of scrap paper… 

Then, random stamp your design on the final paper/cardstock.  Don’t worry about it being completely perfect because you’re going to cut up this masterpiece in a couple of minutes anyway… :)

Now you have a piece of Faux Designer Paper… Or semi homemade Designer Paper.. you decide. LOL!

Step 3:  Cut your Random Stamped FDP and create your card & send to a friend or two!

Inky Smiles!

Sneak Peak: Faux Designer Paper

I wrote a tutorial this morning… this next week could be busy for me, so I’ve written up a couple of posts to share and scheduled them with blogger.

Here’s a sneak peek of a card I made using Faux Designer Paper.

Everybody Else Is Doing It…

So why shouldn’t I?

Paint chipboard letters, that is…   

I have been stuck in the “cover it with paper” mode for way too long.  I’ve had lots of fun over the past several weeks perusing other blogs and other forms of art, etc.  Talked to my aunt the other night for several hours about crafting and such and she suggested collage… I’m trying to get my mind on board for trying out collage…. like REAL collage… where you use all sorts of media and lump it all together with some sort of glue.  But I haven’t been able to wrap my mind around it yet.  It’s messy and I have a hard time with messy. LOL!  (But once I GET messy… I’m ok with staying messy and being in the mess…)

Anyway.. no collage just yet… HOWEVER, comma, but, I did sit down to create a fun bit o’ art for Mini C #3 (shown here with his great grandpa)

… for a very belated birthday present and decided that I did NOT like the chipboard letters covered in paper… so I pulled out my boat load of acrylic paints and painted them up instead.  I LIKE painted chipboard, so much faster than adhering paper and trying to cut out the intricate curves and pieces with a craft knife…. and FAST, too… it dried up like mud on July day in the desert.

This is an altered sketchbook that was given with colored pencils, a pencil sharpener and a little pencil box to contain the fun.  Not shown: After it was finished I was worried about the letters falling off or the paper peeling off, so I sewed a slip cover from vinyl to help preserve the cover, unrolled the wires, slipped on the cover and rerolled the wire. (I originally tried using a BIA Owire, but the holes in this sketchbook were totally wrong and I didn’t want to re-punch the whole thing.)

Creative Supplies:

All Paper from Close To My Heart
Chipboard letters from Maya Road
Sketchbook from WalMart
Vinyl from WalMart
ATG Adhesive
Acrylic paint
Liquid Glass to adhere the chipboard

Thoughts for Thursday: Laughter

It’s late Wed night and I’ve had a wonky kind of day.  Not sure what the funk is… I had a hard time waking up this morning and hauling my carcass out of bed to go up to Orem for an extra few hours at work.  And then after running errands with Brent and coming home, I tried writing a post for tomorrow’s TFT and worked on editing some pictures and was chatting it up with Amaryllis on Google Talk… the next thing I new I was waking myself up snoring on my desk.  Sooooo….. I bid adieu to sweet A who I totally “dissed” and dragged myself up the stairs to my bedroom around 3 and laid down for what was supposed to be a 30 min power nap. (uhhh…“3 hour cruise”) Yup.  Brent woke me up on his way out the door to a city council meeting.  I put a movie in the dvd player and fell back asleep…. this time being woken up by a phone call reminding me I was supposed to be a meeting for church.  OOPS!  Anyway… I don’t think I’m sick.  I think I’m just worn out and tired.   We’ve been staying up entirely way too late the past couple of weeks, too.

Then there’s mother nature. 

She’s in the dog house with me this week.

Last week we had some GORGEOUS days… even NO JACKET or SWEATER days….  And today she is snowing on us.  I swear…  Mother Nature is schizophrenic.

Ok, enough whining… I promise, this TFT is REALLY about Laughter. :P

 
“Shrek, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Lopez were all having lunch together.
Shrek said, 'I have always thought that I'm the strongest man in the World, but how can I be sure?

Brad Pitt said, 'I'm pretty sure I'm the hottest man alive but I've Never had it confirmed.'

Jennifer Lopez agreed. 'I'm told I'm the sexiest of them all, but Sometimes I wonder.'

They all decided that the best way to find out if their beliefs were true was to approach the wicked Queen's mirror to confirm for them whether Shrek was the strongest, Brad Pitt was the hottest and Jennifer Lopez was the sexiest.

They agreed to meet again the next day for lunch to discuss their findings.

The next day Shrek walked up with a smile. 'Well, it's true. The mirror told me that I am the strongest man in the world.'

Brad Pitt followed and boasted, 'It is true, it has been confirmed that I am the hottest man alive!!'

Jennifer Lopez walked in, head bent, tears in her eyes and asked, “Who in the heck is Erin Grotegut?"

Knock Knock…..

Leave me a joke in the comments and I will draw a name for some fun surprise RAK on Saturday…. I’ve got a new box of chipboard letters from the Comstock collection by We R Memory Keepers sitting here on my desk… looking for a new home :)

Funerals and Trains

Hello friends!  Busy couple of weeks again.  We survived the funerals and are glad that they are behind us.   Shortly after Brent’s grandpa passed, the father of one of my best friends, Erik, also passed.  Erik and his family came up from Albuquerque to take care of his dad’s affairs here in Utah and to do the funeral & burial.  I am glad to have been able to provide a place for Erik and Jodi, their 3 loveable boys and one giant dog to stay.  It is a good feeling to be able to serve & take care of friends.  Despite the circumstances we had a great visit.  Sadie even survived having another giant furrbaby in the house, too!

Mini S #2 & Mini S #3 with Jack the Giant.
Saluting Papa “Doc” after the grave side services.
The military escort for Papa “Doc”.

 

 

Amongst it all we found time to play our favorite game….  Ticket To Ride. 

And if we’re not playing it on the board, we’re online playing it here.  Watch out, it’s highly addictive, especially that darn Europe board!

It’s not uncommon to see this sight around our house at any given time….

 

The good thing that I see about funerals is that it brings family and friends together to celebrate the life of their loved ones who have passed on.  Grandpa Wheeler’s funeral was no exception.

And Grandpa,  we did enjoy the funeral potatoes, just for you! XOXO

Thoughts for Thursday & Origami Flowers

I was perusing the web and searching out fabulous storage products to carry in our store and found these:

How cool is THAT? Paper storage made from mdf that you can paint, cover in paper, whatever you want at an affordable price! You can lay them out vertically or stack them horizontally. I am in contact with the manufacturer and am working on getting these in the store very, very soon!

So then I was perusing other items and projects and came across a link to a wonderful Origami flower project. I got super excited about making the flowers and sat down at my desk and started cutting up random pieces of cheepie paper and folding my heart out. I ended up with two flowers – a large one and a small one. What to do with them? I thought about them for a couple of days, got distracted on some other projects and time wasters and then sat down a couple of days ago and finished the project. What was in my head did not quite make it out of my hands, but I am still please with it. It’s fun, funky, and choc full of papercrafting goodness.

I quilled and folded the leaves out of CTMH Garden Green CS and then wrapped a couple of strips of GG cs around a skewer. The skewer is pinched in a binder clip that I removed the silver handles from and buried under the beads in the jar. I cut a 1/2” piece of dark chocolate CS and wrapped the lip of the jar.

Stabilized with a binder clip. Everything is attached with liquid glass. This is attempt #2 to get the small flower to stay attached to the stem.

This is a binder clip… I had it confused with an alligator clip. I was trying to explain it to Jeanne and I had her all sorts of confused thinking that I had used an alligator clip (the kind with little teeth that hold your pom poms for chalks n things… )… lol!




We are on our way up to Tremonton, UT (about 3 hours north of Payson) today for a job interview for Brent. YAY!!! He is interviewing for his dream job and I am very excited for him and very hopeful for the job. Wish us luck!

Today's Thoughts for Thursday applies to all of us. It's HOPE.

"Hope is not knowledge, but rather the abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promise to us. ... It is believing and expecting that our prayers will be answered. It is manifest in confidence, optimism, enthusiasm, and patient perseverance."In the language of the gospel, this hope is sure, unwavering, and active. The prophets of old speak of a 'firm hope' (Alma 34:41) and a 'lively hope' (1 Peter 1:3). It is a hope glorifying God through good works. With hope comes joy and happiness. With hope, we can 'have patience, and bear . . . [our] afflictions' (Alma 34:41)."
~ Dieter F. Uchtdorf

On Socks & Funeral Potatoes

It’s been a very trying week. In fact, it’s been a very trying year so far. I won’t recount all the negative things, but I’d like to take a minute to express my gratitude for all the blessings that I DO have including a sweet and wonderful husband to share my life with.

Do you ever wonder what happens to your socks once they go in your dryer? I keep ending up with one sock here and there. There are only two ADULTS living in this house, so I know that we aren’t “losing” our socks, leaving them at friends’ houses or at the playground.

Brent pulled apart the dryer the other day to figure out why the drum stopped rotating and found quite a few treasures including a dryer sheet that had snuck behind the lint catcher AND a LONE {clean but lint covered} SOCK…. crammed into the blower which must have triggered an “auto off” switch to the drum to prevent fire. WHEW!!! It makes me wonder how many other lone socks have escaped through the lint catcher and ended up stuck in a pipe somewhere… hrrrrm… YES, Virginia, there is a Sock Monster. It lives in your dryer behind the lint catcher and feasts on lone socks.

And sadly, Brent’s grandfather, Lavon Wheeler, has been fighting a long battle with pneumonia which also complicated his congestive heart. We went to the hospital on Friday to see him. On Monday morning the nurses asked him what he wanted for breakfast and Grandpa cheerfully replied, “Funeral potatoes”. He teased the nurses and teased the family members who came to visit and say their goodbyes. Brent’s mom told me that he would throw his hand up in the air and wave and say “Goodbye!” or “See Ya!” when family members came to call. That’s Grandpa…

Later that afternoon he answered Heavenly Father’s call and returned Home. {Funeral services will be Friday.} We are grateful for the time that we had with Grandpa and for the love that he shared with all of us. He was a talented woodworker, a family historian, and a loving father and grandfather and loved his little dog, Skip.

We’ll miss you dearly Grandpa and on Friday we’ll all have a big plate of funeral potatoes just for you!


Funeral Potatoes:
Funeral pototatoes are a common tradition served at LDS funerals... I think mainly in Utah because before I moved here I had never heard of them. They are traditionally served with baked ham, green beans, salad and sheet cake.

• 12 large potatoes or 1 (32 ounce) bag frozen shredded hash browns
• 2 (10 3/4 ounce) cans condensed cream of chicken soup
• 2 cups sour cream
• 1 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 2 cups crushed corn flakes (or other crunchy topping goodies)
  
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted

1. Peel potatoes and boil for 30 minutes, until just tender.
2. Cool and grate into a greased 9x13 inch baking dish.
3. Heat oven to 350º.
4. Combine soup, sour cream, cheese, ½ cup melted butter and onion.
5. Gently blend into the potatoes.
6. Combine corn flakes and 2 tbsp melted butter. Sprinkle on top.
7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Quilling & Butterflies

I’ve been really busy and sick with a nasty cold that will not go away this week and crashed out this afternoon and then got up to do some papercrafting and finish a project that has been rolling around in my head.

I had a FANTASTIC birthday last week… turned the big 35… ouch!  We had a bunch of friends over with their kids for cupcakes and ice cream…. CHOCOLATE cupcakes, of course, with fluffy white frosting!! MMMMM!   Brent gave me some border punches and the Score-Pal (and the trim in my studio).  I’ve been having a blast punching borders on various scrap papers and scoring lines just for the heck of it… lol! My friends gave some awesome gifts:  a cookbook, a beautiful stoneware bowl, dinner out at the Olive Garden, etc., and Jeanne surprised me with a package in my mailbox!  Many months ago we were talking about quilling and I briefly mentioned that I would like to try my hand at it sometime.   Jeanne remembered and my little package contained the most GORGEOUS quilled card, a little quilling tool, and a book on quilling!!  She totally remembered!!

My desk is now strewn with strips of paper and odds and ends quilled rolls, leaves, and other odd shapes. LOL!  This afternoon I sat down and decided to throw together a simple card with a quilled piece.

Here’s what I came up with.. click photos for larger view.

Creative Pieces:

Dark chocolate cardstock from Archivers (free with coupons!), DCWV Luxury CS, CTMH Garden Green, Hollyhock and blush CS, American Crafts shimmery ribbon, White Gel Pen (my handwriting), American Crafts foam tabs, quilling tool, Martha Stewart punch, Little dew drops? from Susan Culotti, and the ever handy ATG gun :)

What I learned:

Quilling works better with thinner cheapie CS and not white core CS.  Martha Stewart punches punch so much nicer than Fiskars (even though I love both).   Practice writing before you assemble the card so that you don’t have to move the butterfly to cover up the first try. LOL!

Inky Smiles!!

Bind It All Starter Kits- Major Enabling Here!!

Are you teetering about buying the Bind It All machine from Zutter? Does someone you know want one? Do you want one and don't know where to start? Well, Stamper Storage has just what you need!

We have several retired blue BIA machines that we are blowing out in a package deal! Surf on over to Stamper Storage and pick up a FABULOUSLY priced BIA Starter Kit! This kit includes a sampling of the basics to get you started... and then some... You will also need a good pair of wire cutters/pliers available at any local craft or hardware store (or your hubby's tool box *wink*).

Our Starter Kit Includes:

		Reg Retail
1	Blue Bind It All Machine - version 1	$ 65.00
1	Package 1" Owires, Silver (6-12" pieces)	$ 7.49
1	Package 3/4" Owires, Silver (6-12" pieces)	$ 5.99
1	Package 5/8" Owires, Silver (6-12" pieces)	$ 5.50
1	Package 1/2" Owires, Silver (6-12" pieces)	$ 4.50
1	Package 3/8" Owires, Silver (6-12" pieces)	$ 3.99
4	Pairs of 4x4" Chipboard Covers, Craft	$ 4.00
4	Pairs of 4x6" Chipboard Covers, Craft	$ 5.20
4	Pairs of 6x6" Chipboard Covers, Craft	$ 6.00
	Total Regular Retail Value	$ 107.67

Look at that over $100 worth of product to get you moving on making some great crafty projects.

A HUGE SAVINGS... all of this wonderful scrappy stuff for only $75.00! Supplies are limited and when this deal is gone, it is GOOOOONE!
(freebie gift certificates from blog may not be used on this deal... it's already super low!)