HAPPY BIRTHDAY SON

I wanted to take this opportunity to wish my son a public "Happy Birthday"! I made his card on time, but this public acknowledgment of how special he is, is a wee bit late (His 36th BD was Feb 6th) due to me not getting on this machine and writing some postings.

Our son is considerate, kind, giving, and loving. He is a gifted husband, father, son, and computer professional. We are extremely proud of him. He was/is our Eagle Scout and lives by the 12 points of the Scout Law that he learned years ago (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, reverent). I guess the Scripture "Train a child in the way he "should" go and when he is old he will not depart from it" really does bear lasting fruit in children. They need limits and to learn to know GOD, to respect HIS authority and honor and obey HIM and those in authority over them. I believe their opportunities for decision making should be matched to their age and abilities, but they also have to learn that there are times when some decisions are not up for discussion. With GOD, somethings are not up for discussion either. Our two turned out to be very special adults and so we salute them both. Thank you for being such wonderful human "beans"! LOL!

This is the birthday card my son's two daughters colored with a little help from Mamaw (me). I did the stamping and cutting but they did the punching of the corners with the ticket punch and sticking on the pop dots and peeling off the papers and sticking it down. They are getting pretty good with the brush markers, and like unusual colors for things sometimes, which make them all the sweeter. (Their favorite colors are pink and purple, so that is why we picked those mat colors. )

SURPRISE!!! I"M STILL HERE!!!!

It has been a month since I posted anything! YIKES! Where did the time go? I have been creating but just didn't get around to posting anything or doing any challenges, etc. I am often playing with the grand daughters. They will be 5 and 4 next month and they are so much fun. We "create" together some days and they are learning to use pop dots and adhesives and paintbrush markers with age appropriate skill of staying in the lines (for now).

We spent the better part of the two weeks prior to their Valentines party on Feb 12th making a Valentine bookmark for each child (42 in all) and 7 Valentine cards for the teachers. The oldest is in a Pre K class. Two teachers come over from the school district and teach the morning with them, then they have regular day care in the afternoon. Emma knows the shape of all her letters, writes them all, and can sound out simple words. She will be ready for the all day kindergarten next fall, although she still likes her naps. Matti has the same two teachers all day but one had a baby mid term, so there is a substitute and that makes three.

For their book marks, I cut generic CS into 5 1/2"x2" strips, used the corner rounder on all the corners, punched a 1/4" hole at one end and stamped a rectangle "Happy Valentines Day"that has a dotted border around it and I centered it. This sentiment is only 1/2" wide and about 2" long...one of those dollar finds from somewhere. I collected a variety of small heart stamps and Emma and Matti stamped their favorites around the outer border in pink and red. This was Phase 1 of the project and they took a couple of hours to do this part. (You can see a picture of one of them in another post in this grouping.)

Two of the stamps looked quilted and so they took some of my older brush markers and colored to their hearts content on each one. This also took a couple of hours on another day. This was Phase 2. No Matti, these are not smelly markers!

Phase 3 consisted of working on the 7 cards for the teachers. I did the cutting of CS and punching and used two types of heart paper and put just a simple scallop on one edge and the strips that were left (about 1/8th-1/4" wide) I put above for some added interest. They helped run the dotted adhesive to stick them on with a little help.

Another day for Phase 4, we stamped and colored a little country girl Stampin Up image (1996 I think but I don't know what set.) holding a heart and above her it says "From The Heart". I colored a sample and then let them have at it and do whatever their creative heart told them to do. I cut a pink mat and let them punch the corners of the image and the mat with the corner rounder for all 7 cards.

Still another day for Phase 5 they took a small "From" stamp and stamped on the back of the book marks. Then we took a clear alphabet set and they stamped their names on each one. I think they had the most fun with this one as they could see the stamp on the CS and watch the transfer of ink to the CS and they acted like it was magic. Maybe for all of us stampers, it IS a little bit of magic to our creative souls. : ) They had to take turns and so I had them stamp Happy Valentines on the inside of the teachers cards and sign with the clear name stamp they used on the bookmark. WHEW! A big job accomplished and I still had to attach the ribbons to the book marks. I bought small clear cellophane treat bags and their parents filled them with candy and tied on the book mark and each child got one at the party.

While this SEEMS to be a huge undertaking with young children, when you break it up into smaller projects or phases and don't over load them too much at any one sitting, they can accomplish wonderful things, even at young ages. I want to leave them with a legacy of knowing their grandma and having fun times creating and encouraging the creator inside them. I have said this before that I believe God made each of us in HIS image and part of that is HIS creativeness. HE made everything and we belong to HIM and learning about HIS creation and HIS creative side, is what we spend most of our lives doing. I want to encourage their creative side and their knowledge of HIM in the process and I pray they will come to know HIM as their Lord and Savior.

So that is part of my month's activities. Thanks for stopping by to visit with me.

WINTER FROGS

I know my title is cryptic. I wanted to do a card with dots as requested a week ago by the C4C group. The only "dot" paper I found that I thought was interesting had greens, teal, a dusty grey-blue, and were organized in concentric circles all over the paper. It cried out to me "Frogs, frogs!" (Honestly!) I found the three frogs stacked one on another and liked it and then because it is still winter in lovely WI, I decided to make it also reflect the current season...winter! I thought a lot about where I wanted to go with my chosen card theme, and in between organizing my craft area some more, I worked a little-at-a-time on it. I think I am finished with the card, but who knows...I may go back and add some bling to the snowflake shapes.

My circle paper is K& Company Girl Scout in teal. My CS matting is two shades of green, the darker being "forest" and the lighter one I must have peeled the sticker off at some point. : ( I tied a big green striped ribbon on the card front before sticking it down. I left the wire in the edges, and folded the ribbon in half so more of the image would show. The pink and yellow matched the frogs bellys perfectly in color. I stamped the image on white, colored with SU markers just like the top of the stamp, and used my MS snowflake border to punch the vertical edges. The word "winter" was done in SU marker ink, Always Artichoke, using a Little Classic Rubber Stamps mini Dots alphabet on pegs. (Those things are not easy to line up but I love the look.) I had just used the cut off portion of the white that had the snowflake on either end. I LIKE to use my scraps if possible. Inside I stamped the word "FROG" in Always Artichoke and wrote "getaboutit" to coin my own word "frog-getaboutit" in reference to the winter. I know it is a stretch but it made me laugh and I hope it tickles your funny bone too.

I think I am going back for more of the shoe box-sized bins in anticipation of getting some Copics this year. (Did you see my Copics blinkie I just got and added to my sidebar? Happy, Happy! ) My BD is in March and our 45th anniversary is the end of May. Sounds like a great time to give a really nice present, HUH? I had wanted some unique storage for the Copics, but will be happy with the bins. I can always use them for other storage needs.

I put up a copy of my Copic certificate to remember the fun I had taking the all day class. This was just a black/white copy but I added some color with pinks, and greens and purples and gave it a purple CS frame. Thanks for stopping by.

STAMP STORAGE IDEA

While crusin' Wal-Mart, I saw some under-the-bed plastic storage bin. They are fairly flat, about 6" high, 35" long and, and 17" wide. 6 will fit under my bed nicely and I am going to fill them up with my wood mounted stamps. I will categorize them...flowers in one or two, sayings in another, sceans and scenery, buildings, and such, animals and critters, and whimsical type stamps, holidays and seasons. that's 7 so I will need to combine somewhere but it will be easy to access them and they will be kept dry and dust free and away from light. The best part was the rpice. they were marked $5 and we picked out two of them. when we went through check out, they were only $4. So I ran back and picked out four more. I love a good deal!

Today I worked on a cartd, and took care of the grand daughters from 4-8. we had the rest of the lasagna, broccoli, Italian bread, and some fresh fruit salad. The girls ate pretty good and were full so we skipped dessert. They usually request an ice cream sandwich.

I am still working on a winter "dot" card. My dots go in circles instead of straight rows. Hope it qualifies. My sense of humor shows with this card. It will sneak up on you and you may even LOL!

GETTIN' THERE SLOWLY

Well, the new shelves are up above my craft table and I have taken some items out of bins to put on the shelves in plain sight. : ) Gotta' see 'um to use "um, RIGHT? I put the Martha Stewart punches up, some of the odd items I use often, my Cuttlebug and paper cutters. I am having a difficult time deciding where to put all the different embellishments, whether to separate them into groups (jewels, rhinestones, dots, brads, stickers, flowers, Stickles and glitter and so much more). Or should I just label one drawer in the cube "Embellishments" and be happy with it. I know I do have to label where everything is because I won't remember at first. I might even have to make a map! LOL So I keep moving forward with the organization of MY area. It is the first time in 44 years of marriage I have had a real, sit down craft area that didn't involve food crumbs and moving place mats at the table to get a clean, flat space to create. 'Bout time wouldn't you say?

I have so many stamps acquired over the last few years, that I know I will not have a good place to see them, but I plan to at least organize them into subjects...flowers, seasons, animals, Oriental, backgrounds, sayings, etc. Then I can find something to use when I need it, I am sure I have enough to keep on creating for a long time.

Weather is cold but very little new snow since the first part of Dec. I took the grand daughters to see the new Chipmunk movie yesterday and when we got lunch at McD's, they are giving chipmunk character toys in the Happy Meal. They were so excited!

I will try to get some cards going for some of the challenges I have missed. I seem to create in "spurts" between hanging shelves, taking care of the grand daughters, and cats...oh and hubby too. Thanks for stopping by.

MY FIRST TILDA

My card is for the Friday Sketchers Challenge for Dec 25th. I really liked this sketch and will use it again soon. Please be kind...I am just learning to paint all over again! The face was splotchy looking when I scanned the card and by using my digital camera, I got a softer look. The shadows are not quite right....GRRRR! I am afraid to go over it again. I used SU water Color Wonder Crayons to fill in this Tilda image. I don't have the right kind of card stock to be trying to blend with water. It pilled a little, but I did the best I could. I wanted the background behind her to be a cool chilling shade of blue but the only snowflake DP (from Holiday Collection Winter Matstack by DCWV) I had was more of a soft teal color. So I used a blue- toned Stickles to bring the flakes in line with the blue. I agonized over what color to make her outfit, and decided the pink would POP off the card visually. Then I realized there was a heart in her basket and I just painted it pink too. : ) I heat embossed the black sentiment and split it, part on the inside. I pop dotted her up and the one snowflake too. A thin silver cord is the only extra embellishment. Very simple really.

Our grand daughters have been staying with us for the week and I think that was part of the reason I took so long with this card. We attended a game night New Year's Eve at my church and played a couple of games, had snacks, and came home before 9PM. They really seemed to enjoy the couple of friendly children we played games with. (I stayed up till midnight by myself). The grand daughters wanted to color a Tilda too and make their mom and dad a card so I have included their cards as well in this posting. They picked the mat color and I had to help them with the MS snowflake punch. They used markers, and I reminded them that skin is white, pink, yellow, or brown, but they are their own creative geniuses and colored as they wished. The almost 5 year old did the one with the purple snowflake matting. and the almost 4 year old has the pink snowflake matting. Inside it says, "Let It Snow: and "I love you". Aren't they just the cutest Tildas especially for their ages? The sparkly snowflakes we cut off of one of those garland things...easy peasy for them! LOL! I just love these girls so much. They love stamping with their Mamaw and I am so blessed to be able to spend time with them. They recently went with me to visit a nice SU demonstrator in Appleton, WI. Cheryl Ulrich is a super person and a very kind lady. She gave them a set of art supplies (colored pencils, markers, chalks, paints, brushes, and more.) They were thrilled. I let them pick out a stamp to buy for their own too. So I will be posting their creations from time-to-time. I love watching them create with paper, and listening to the stories they make up using their toys. They are very creative and I hope to foster that creativeness. Sometimes schools squelch children by having them always color in the lines, etc. There is so much more to creating and we all are born with creative ability I believe in different amounts and in different areas of expertise, but many loose it along the path of their lives somewhere. I think that is a part of us that we got from God. He is the Creator and He made us in His image. To me that says He made us creative. He has provided all we need to be creative, if we are allowed to try and take risks, be encouraged, and do something new for ourselves. Thank you Father for making us creative as it gives us joy.

We are still working slowly on my craft area. With the grand daughters going home today, we will have more time to put up the shelves and make a place for everything. : )

Since we no longer go south for the winter, I am making "winter themed" cards for a while. BLOOM WHERE YOU GROW is a saying I have always followed. That way your happiness doesn't depend on where you are.

Happy 2010 to everyone. Hope you enjoyed a peak into my life in 2009. May we seek to please the Creator in 2010, in our obedience, in our service, and in how we honor and worship and love Him because He first loved us. Martha

THE OLD WAY...THE NEW WAY!

Here at our condo, my craft area shares a space in the front bedroom. Our little grand daughters had toddler beds there for the last year and we just recently changed those out in favor of our day bed which has a pull out trundle bed that pops up and makes a king (or two twins.) We leave the trundle down low for the youngest grand daughter and have guards on the bed sides since they are not used to the smaller twin size.

Anyway, the above is a photo of my two craft tables as they used to be. The beds are in the second photo after we flip flopped them with the tables. My extra bins are not in the room yet (there are about 6 of them and I carry them back and forth to MN so I have the basics with me where ever I go. It is a pain to do, but necessary since I can't afford to own duplicates of all my supplies.)

My hubby has recently put together the two cabinets we are installing so I can put away some of my craft supplies and make it all be more organized and easier to find things. I'm still working on HOW to organize it all but it will eventually be a vast improvement. Besides the two tall cabinets, I have 5 of those 14 inch cube storage units from Michaels to place in the space between the wood cabinets and the table. (The two bins will be emptied and so the cubes will have easy access.) The cubes are all different...one has four 6 inch sq drawers 14" deep, one has three wide drawers 14x14 each, one has a wide shelf and one drawer, and the last two are just 4 shelves each that will hold 12 x12 card stock and big paper pads easily. They still need to be put together. I may put the 2 paper storage cubes inside a cabinet to keep the light off of my paper. Wouldn't want any of it to fade. LOL Lastly above the tables we are adding 4 or 5 9" shelves the length of the wall in wood tone where the punches will go and other items
that are used often. The pink-lidded bins on the corner of the table have Stickles, embellishments, and other add-ons for my cards and will probably go inside the wood cabinets or at least on the open counter section. I am so excited to see my new crafting space emerge. I think it is so fitting to have a new space for the new year, don't you? Happy 2010 to all. : )