Tuesday, January 31, 2012

tea for two


I really wanted a prettier spoon for this pennant, but no luck at the local Goodwill and I didn't have time before the swap deadline to search around at other thrift stores (much as I would have loved to). I did find a set of grapefruit spoons at Kroger, on clearance. Unfortunately, this type of spoon has a serrated tip and wouldn't be right for a tea theme. I was thinking of gold UTEE to cover the tip, but Mike had the idea of using something that looked like sugar. Claudia had sent me a bag of tiny clear glass beads - perfect!


You can't see it in the photo, but I used Glossy Accents on her teacups. The brown velvet trims were in a warehouse sale grab bag from Maya Road.

Sunday, January 29, 2012

scherenschnitte

This is a very simple ATC I made for a swap I'm in with Marian. She had the wonderful suggestion of creating an ATC with a technique and/or theme that started with the same letter as your first name. I chose Scherenschnitte (cutting designs with scissors). The patterns I found online were way too complicated for a small size (2-1/2" x 3-1/2"). What I did was use an ATC-sized piece of thin black cardstock, fold it in half, use part of a rubber stamp a couple of times using white ink, then cut out and unfold. I hadn't intended to ink the edges, but I got glue marks on some of the leaves (which drives me nuts), so I tried to rub them off with a damp paper towel - that made the black color from the paper smear onto the red. So the inking was to hide that mess.

The scissors charm (also starts with "S"!), I got from eBay a while back. The stamp (another "S") I used is from the Stampin' Up Toile Blossoms set.

Saturday, January 28, 2012

family pics

Here are a few recent (past couple of months) family photos I wanted to share, since I'm not always good at remembering to send them to family.

Mike and I on Christmas morning, me with my new Angry Birds hat.

Jim and Mike with guitars.


Ricky, Addie & Jim. I think Jim is teasing the dogs, pretending to see a squirrel or deer or something that they want to chase. It's pretty easy to get them worked up.

Friday, January 27, 2012

ahead of her time


Another one for the vintage pennant swap. I love this image - from a disc I bought at lunagirl.com. The background is washi paper that I got at the Cincinnati stamp convention last year. Everything - including the woman - is edged with gold Rub n Buff. The edges of the pennant are covered with gold embossing powder. The pearls are from a broken necklace I found at an outdoor antique flea market. The charm was Michaels clearance.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

found money

Several years ago we found money owed to us from an account our house builder had set up in Mass. - only $120, but not bad. Last month there was a story in the news about a woman who was discovered to have 6 million bucks sitting in an unclaimed funds account in her state. Wow. So I searched again for our names, in several states where we have lived. Jim's name came up twice in Kentucky. Some states list the dollar amount, but Kentucky does not - we had to send in a preliminary claim form. We had no idea if it was even worth pursuing. So, we got our info from the state yesterday, and ... drum roll please ... One claim was for $714 (woo hoo), and the other claim was for a whopping one penny (really!). Jim has absolutely no idea where this money came from - the big one says Bank of New York, but no other info. Anway... you just never know what's out there.

Check out yourselves, and your relatives (including deceased ones). Here's an organization that has links to all the states' unclaimed property search engines.   http://www.unclaimed.org/  (and read the search instructions; in Ky. there's a single box, but you're supposed to type in last name first, which I didn't do at first). Good luck!

Wednesday, January 25, 2012



Here's a pennant I made for Phyllis' swap. I love this image of a singing cowboy, and of course I love the red/black/silver combination. The concho thingy (attached with black hemp) is from a set of beads I got on clearance from Hobby Lobby - wow, there are some amazing clearance deals in January. I've got orange sticker fever!

The sheet music is actually from a French horn book that we got at a library book sale in Cincinnati last year (that was a fun time!). Hmmm, just got an image in my head of a cowboy sitting by the campfire, playing the French horn!

The bandana is one that I wore on my bald head. I had actually purchased a new one for this project, but remembered that I had saved all my old bandanas (ha - I first typed 'bananas' - that would be gross to save old bananas!). Why keep them all when I can use one for something special and fun. Oh, and by the way, let me just say - IT FEELS GREAT TO HAVE HAIR AGAIN!

On the back of the pennant is a nice textured brown paper, with a vintage photo of a little boy dressed as a cowboy, playing a little guitar.

I'll be posting other pennants from the swap. When I get around to it....


Monday, January 23, 2012

happiness



Here are a couple of pictures of my work area. The top photo - a shelf Mike made for me. There's his silhouette, playing his clarinet. To the right is the awesome Adam doll Paulette made for me. Bottom photo: One of my adhesive baskets (I have one more basket and one entire drawer of adhesives - love them!). There's always a clutter of buttons, beads, stamps, and other stuff laying about.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

New blog

Decided to set up a blog. Will post whatever floats my goat at any given time - mostly stuff I make, interesting pics I take, family photos, etc. This will be a mess of randomness. Don't expect regular posts.