New Year's resolutions (or accomplishments)

Today is New Year's eve! I have been thinking of what I wanted to accomplish this next year. While this list could be never ending, I will start with these few desires:

To eat and be generally healthier. Hopefully that will include exercising (when my heel, heals) as well as getting outside more with the girls.

To de-clutter my home (hubby will be very happy with this) and get rid of things I haven't used or may never use (again hubby will be very happy).

To organize my craft supplies (sewing and paper crafting).

To reach more women with my scrapbooking business. I want to have everyone I teach feel better about themselves, while realizing they too, can do more than they expected (just as Jesus is teaching me, I can do more WITH Him than without Him!)

To start my (sewing or paper crafting) gifts lots earlier than this past year! I think the goal should be at least once a month.

While these seem like a few, it could take me all year to accomplish.

What are your goals?

What ever they be, may you be a blessing to others.

Gifts made with Love

Looks like I am not the only one that likes to make gifts. This is what my sister gave me for Christmas. I remember her making this at a crop we went to in Rockland in November. I thought the black and white combo was striking! Little did I realize I would be the recipient! Lol.



Here is the whole shabang she included into the stationary box. You can click onto the pics for a better view. I have tags, 3x3 gift tags and 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cards with envelopes as well. Also a place to put all my addresses, and stamps! What a lot of goodies packed into a small package!




Another view of all the goodies!



Here it is when you first take off the top!



Here it is all boxed up! What a beauty!



Thank you dear sis, I LOVE it!

May all of your days be blessed and all of your gifts, if not homemade, given with love.

Christmas Morning

Santa left the girls with great goodies! They each got board games (age appropriate), card games and cd players with a cd each.



They had several games of Chutes and Ladders, Connect 4 and listened to their new cd's until the family arrived for Christmas dinner.



We had a good time opening up the gifts this morning. Santa chose not to wrap the gifts he gave this year. So the clean up was minimal. Smart Santa!



May everyday be filled with joy and happiness.

Reveal day

Remember this image I was teasing you all a few days ago?



Well here is my reveal. I made this for my sister for Christmas. She has a passion for lighthouses (as do I). When I saw this panel at Walmart some time ago, I immediately thought of her.

Since I had the time when Emmy was recovering from the flu (and later pnewmonia), I thought why not check out my stash of fabric for Christmas gifts?

I made the wall hanging first then had some panels of matching fabric (probably for pillows)and decided to make her a tote bag as well.

This shows how large the tote bag turned out to be! Wow! She should be able to put quite a bit of stuff in there! LOL.

I have my two girls showing off the bag here. They were more than happy to model for me.



Here is a pic of the wallhanging hanging on my wall. The tote bag is in the chair beneath it.



Not sure if she will like it. I hope so.

Merry Christmas everyone.

May your Christmas be merry and bright.

Wall hanging for hubby

This is the gift I made for my hubby, Les. He loves eagles, and when I saw this panel at Walmart a while ago (could be 3 to 5 years ago now), I knew I had to get it for him.

Well last week my 5 year old was sick with the flu and pnewmonia so I started digging thru my stash of fabric in my closet. I found many delightful things I could work on. Here is another of my stashes.



May your Christmas be Merry and bright and your New Year the best ever! Many blessings to you and your family.

More Christmas gifts

I have been working on more gifts this morning. I have now completed Christmas stockings for Mark and his family, all 7 of them. I will let them choose their stocking and put their own names on it.




I hope they like them! At least they will know it comes from my heart.



May all of your gifts come from your heart. God bless.

Shhhhhh Don't Tell!

But I have been busy! Making Christmas gifts.



I have more I need to take pics of. Will post more later.

Have a blessed day!

Destiny turns 10!

It is hard to believe that Destiny is now 10! Wow WHERE has the time gone? It seems like yesterday I brought her home. She was so little then, and such a cutie. I had wondered all those years ago if I had done the right thing when she sat on the floor and cried. Little did I know she would soon blossom into the beautiful young lady she is today.

I look at her and realize how blessed I am. What a kind and loving heart she has. If more people were like her, the world would be a much better place for all of mankind. I find I learn from her too. Her, with her innocence wrapped around her like a cloak. Trusting in her instincts when she sees a child that has withdrawn from others, she walks over with a smile on her face, and says "Hi I'm Destiny. Would you like someone to play with?"

When her sister Emily came to live with us almost four years ago, Destiny was right there helping us. Destiny saw Emily was withdrawn and indifferent to us, she was the warm and loving Big sister. Destiny tried to get Emily involved in playing with toys, with walking and talking. Soon Emily came out of her shell, and now adores her sister. You can see the adoration for Destiny Emily has in some of the pictures I have taken. Emily is smiling brightly looking adoringly at her sister.

I hope Destiny will continue to bless others as she has our family. My wish for you, dear daughter, is to have a happy and peaceful life. May you spread joy where ever you go.

Love,
Mom

30 Cards and 5 Totes made today!

I got the Jingle paper pack from Close To My Heart last week. I didn't have a chance to use it until today. Yes from the name of the paper pack it does say Christmas, but I thought I would use it for birthday's. Here is my take on it.



Yep, I didn't even take out the right cards to show how I used it! Groan! Well, the cards out of the tote is from the Perfect Day paper pack. I like the colors in this as well.



Now the cards with the Jingle papers are made with the polka dots and the presents. To me that can also say BIRTHDAY!

May you have a blessed day.

some Christmas cards

Here are the cards I made yesday (Wednesday). I used the same formula as I posted earlier today.



How do you like them?
May all your days be blessed.

How to make 100 cards in 5 days

This is my recipe for making 100 cards in 5 days. You will be surprised how quickly these work up!

Step 1. Choose stamp, card stock and Designer Paper to go with the image desired.

Step 2. Cut out card stock for the image times 10. This is where you will save time.

Step 3. Stamp images onto pre-cut card stock.

Step 4. Color images. I color all images with the same color first, then go to the second color, and so on. This saves time as well.

Step 5. Cut the designer paper for the front of the card, remembering to cut 10 for each card you are making. You can also make the number of cards you desire.

Step 6. On the inside of the card bases stamp the saying you want for each card.

Step 7. Glue the designer paper to the front of each card.

Step 8. Glue or use foam tape (for dimension)on the images you have stamped and colored.

Step 9. Add other embellishments (if desired) to the cards.

Step 10. Match up the cards with the envelopes and viola, you have 10 (or how ever many) cards finished!

Of course you can do as many cards at a time as you desire. This is how I make as many cards as possible in a day.

Happy cardmaking!

May you have many blessings.

I'm Back

Hello everyone. Just wanted to take a moment out of my busy life and let you know I now have a monitor! Yippee!

I am in the process of making cards for more of my workshops. If anyone is interested, I hold my workshops at the Scrap N Yak Shack (475 Mount View Rd, Thorndike). Usually Thursdays, but can make other arrangements.

I will be taking pictures and posting on here soon. I seem to be having technical difficulites with the quality of the photos.

In the meantime, have a safe and happy Thanksgiving.

God bless.

Yes I am still alive!

But my monitor is not! So I will not be able to post any cards or other pictures until I have a new one. Not sure how long it will take me to save up for it. Keep checking in.

Thanks, and God bless.

Guess who's comming to dinner?

I am so excited! I have some company comming today! I pick her up at the airport this afternoon. Her name is Michelle Zindorf! Yes! I will be taking her beginning and advanced classes at my house this Friday and Saturday! She is an incredibly talented lady, and cannot wait to learn from her. I am sure you will see some of my artwork after the classes.

You all have a blessed day!

First Day of School!

I am posting these late this month as I have been one busy Mama! LOL. Here are the pictures I took of the girls as the momentous occassion took place!

Destiny and Emily are waiting impatiently for the "big yellow bus" to take them to the brand new school at Mount View Elementary. At this point it looks like Emily is thinking about not being able to see me at any given moment and is feeling a bit unsecure. I am proud to announce she did great and didn't even cry (I did have tears!) when she got on the bus and left for school. Destiny, on the other hand, is like an old pro at it by now and has her usual smile on her face!



This was taken inside, before the long bus wait. Emily was full of smiles and anticipation of her big adventure.



This is Destiny with a grin on her face as she tells me Mom! You do this every time! Yes my dear, so you can put this in your scrap book and look on it years later to remember the occassion, and so I can look back and see just how adorable you were back then!



May you have a blessed day!

Where has the time gone?

Where did the month go? Seems like I have been playing catch up for quite some time now. LOL. Geeze, now I know I am getting old! My grandmother always told me time would move faster when one gets older. How right she was!

So what have I been up to? Well let me see, getting card classes together. check.

Organizing my home - well cannot check that as it seems to be a work in progress! Insert screaming girl here! Ahhhhhh!

Got the girls ready for school - check.

Got Emmy her first "real big girl's (twin) bed, check.

Got out Destiny's dresser (thank you Mark, it lasted for awhile), check.

Clean up and organize girls room - hmmnnn, no.

Clean up and organize my bedroom - oh boy, let's go to something else!

Sewing/scrap/play room - oh forget this list, I need to go and find something else to chat about!

I have Michelle Zindorf comming to my home to teach her amazing brayering techniques (still room available), and I am no where ready. Groan. I have also been working to get ready for the Scrap For Hope in Augusta, Sept. 19th! Almost done there!

Whew! Seems I cannot get my to do list out of my mind, so I know what I will be doing this weekend!


So you all in the blogging world have a great weekend! I will as soon as I can go and find my shovel!

41 Years Later

It has been 41 years since I have graduated from the 8th grade! Wowza! Where has the time gone? We got to do some catching up Saturday when we had a reunion. This was a super idea! I hope we don't wait that long again before we can get together again!

Here I am with Mr. Hill, my 8th grade teacher, and principle. I am afraid we, the students, were the ones that have changed in our looks. Mr Hill still looks the same, maybe a little grayer in the hair, but still the nice looking teacher I remember way back then. Look at his smile.



Here is (from left to right) James Temple, Norman Lander, Harvey Johnston, and Raymond Phelps.



Here is Kevin StThomas.



Raymond Phelps again, Mike Chadborne and Charles Randall.



Kevin Dyer is peeking over Dawn Turner, Terry Lynn Taylor, Laurie Hartley and Jewel Clark. Sorry ladies I know your last names have been changed when you got married, and I cannot remember them.



Here is a group shot of us. We had many more in our original class, however these are the few that was able to make this reunion.



Now, aren't we just the cutest? LOL.

Thanks for stopping by and visiting with me.

I will have more to post later, as I have been very busy creating!

MSS13

Here is my offering for the MSS13, I hope I have it right.
I am not sure of the papers I used for this (I have so much on hand I lose track of what is what)

This was a cute template to do! Now all I can see is this design. LOL!


I have used Penny Black transparent stamps for this card.

Crop for Heros 5-30-09

On my first Crop for Heroes, I had a total of 4 at the tables in my kitchen. Actually my sister was the only one that came, but Destiny and Emily wanted to make cards too, so they made 2 each, Patty made 16, and I made 28! Not too shabby!

Here I am coloring in an image, notice the concentration? LOL. I had a headache that would require more than the Tylenol I took to get rid of. I am surprised I accomplished as many as I did with the whopper of a headache.


Here is my sister Patty, she did an amazing number of cards in the amount of time allotted. See the smile on her face?



Here is Destiny, my beautiful granddaughter of 9 years. What a sweet person she is. She is so excited to be making cards to send to solders. I am not sure if I will be sending her and her sister's cards with the ones we send, or just keeping them (for a layout). I may have them draw a picture to send with the cards instead.



Here is Emily, my 4 year old. She colored her images and glued the pieces together so quickly she acted like a pro. What fun we had! LOL. Well at least for the first half hour or so. Then she got antsy, so her sister Destiny put in a movie for her, Snow White.



So there you have it folks. This is what it is all about. Taking some time out of our busy day to show others our appreciation for their sacrifices while protecting us, and our rights as United States Citizens.

May you be blessed.

Crop for Heros

I am having a Crop for Heros, at my home Saturday May 30th, from 10am to 2pm. Join me and friends to make some cards to let our Heros know how much we love and appreciate them! Free crop, bring your own materials, my stamps and ink will be available for use for this project.



The next Crop for Heros will be June 27th, same time, same station. Hope to see you there.

May God bless.

Yet another "From The Desk Of" card box with 12 cards

Using papers from Paper Trey Ink

I had a hard time choosing a pattern for this box. I want to do more! Is this a sickness or what? I used Papertreyink vellum cardstock for the paper Piercing. I think I may even make some cards with this little jewel of vellum! Almost like parchment paper. Love it.



Here is a close up of the front of the card box.



And here is the back of the box. I like to finish my boxes so it looks decorated all the way around.



Here it is posing so casually on top of the railing.



Well geeze! Do you think I could have cleaned up the deck before I take pictures? LOL. Got to love the kids and their toys.

Thank you so much for stopping by my neck of the woods! May your days be plenty and blessed.

Shades of Purple

I have another of Lauren's Timeless Templates "From the Desk Of" here in shades of purple. The cards and the card box have been made the same as the previous post using different papers and vellum. All are hand pierced by me. Check out http://papertreyink.com and get your own templates.



Since I like the natural light so much better than my flash, I decided to take these outside for a photo shoot.



I even covered the back of the card case to match the sides and front, nothing like having a completed look!



The front has been outfitted with the paper flowers and the half pearls to give it bling and a more finished look.



The papers used here are some from My Minds Eye and the vellum are some from It Takes Two. Beautiful colors! What a great Mother's Day Gift this would be! LOL.

Thank you for stopping by! Blessings to you.

Card Class at AC Moore in Bangor, May 17th from 3pm to 5pm

I have decided to become an instructor at AC Moore in Bangor. I taught Accordian fold cards in April and thought I should do something simpler for May. This is what I came up with.

I named this card workshop "6 Simply Beautiful Cards". Since these cards are simple AND beautiful, I thought it was aptly named.

I used 2 DCWV 4" x 6"; The Spring Matstack and The Spring Glitter Matstacks. What beautiful papers! On the first one, with the dandilions, I thought I would just emboss the sentiment. The second one has a wise old owl asking "What's the word bird". LOL. LOVE owls!

If you want a closer look, just click on the picture.



For this next card I choose To have this bird on her nest, and she says "FRIENDSHIP (that means you chick). The next card has yet another owl sitting on a branch saying "HAPPY BIRTHDAY you old bird.



This next card is monocramatic and has the beautiful saying "with thoughts of you", I pop-dotted a butterfly to give it some dimension and put crystals on the dot of the I and the for the flower centers, to add even more glam to it.



This last one took advantage of the silhouette of the flowers, and just embossed in black "Thank you".



These cards have a sparkle to them that my camera (or should I say my picture taking abilities) do not do them justice. These are much better in person. LOL. Ya, don't we all say that?

I used 2 stamp sets from Inkadinkado: Garden Flower and Bird Assortment.

This card class has openings for 18 people. If you are interested, you need to go to the AC Moore in Bangor and sign in and pay for this class (or others). There is a project sheet that will let you know the products for this class (you provide your own supplies and pay a $10 fee for this class). How simple is that?

Thank you for stopping by my humble blog, and many blessings to you!

Cards in a box

Have you ever purchased patterns online? Or even thought about it? Wondered if the directions would be too confusing? Well wonder no more. I purchased this template "From The Desk Of" at Paper Trey Ink dot com. The designer is the talented Lauren Meader. I love this design and have made three to date already. This will be great for gifts, whether or not it is filled with cards as mine is, or you can fill with what ever you wish. If you go to Lauren's blog (mytimemycreationsmystampendancedotcom) you will see how she used a few different takes on it. So when you purchase the templates you also get 5 different designers using this template to help with the creativity flow. And all for $5! What a bargain.

You can see here I have my box filled to the brim with 12 note cards and envelopes. I have been using my cuttlebug and embossing folders (love them) for the designer papers and the flaps of the envelopes. I also purchased some piercing templates from Cheryl Horton from Inspire Me!, which I cut in half and adhered to the front of my cards.

Have I mentioned I LOVE texture on my cards? LOL. I really like the way these turned out. With the box, this will make a gift that will show someone you care!



I also made a square tube to put in the bottom of the divider (darn forgot to snap a picture of that) to make a step up for the cards, so now you can see both patterns for this set.




I took one of the half circle piercing, trimmed it and then adhered to the circle front, added a strip of desginer paper and some paper flowers to the front bottom and viola! Done!

So tell me what you think! Thanks for looking and have a blessed day.

Lollipop Covers

I saw a few different lollipop covers on several blogs I frequent often, and decided I wanted to make some as well. The covers I saw involved ribbon to secure the lollipop. Since I didn't want to go to that length and extra steps needed to make it that way, I decided to add another flap and secure it with a glue dot instead. That way I could make a hundred of them without hurting my hands with the extra punching.



It took a little bit of figuring out for the measurements to have the cover equal on all sides. Here is what I came up with:

Cut card stock 8 1/8" x 2 1 /2"
score at 2 1/2", and 2 3/4" at each end
fold at score lines
cut 2 3/8" square of card stock
2 1/2" square of designer paper
cut a square of card stock to stamp image
a 1/4" square of card stock to mat image
You will need a big bite or hand held eyelet punch and hammer, to punch the hole for the stick to go thru. Center this in the middle of the 1/4" margin on the bottom.

Hope you like!
Have a blessed day.

Happy Easter

Just wanted to wish you all a Happy Easter! Remember why we celebrate this most holy of holidays!

May you be blessed in all that you do.

We present to you . . . .

Emily Sue Kendall!

Yesterday, March 25th, was a special day for us in the Kendall family. Not only was it Les' birthday, but Emily was adopted as well. The girls had a wonderful time in the ceremony, the judge was very nice, and family and friends came to celebrate with us in this wonderous event.

This picture is Nancy (Emily's caseworker) with Emily. See the smiles.



Here we are friends and family (thanks to Nancy for taking the pictures), from left to right: Margaret, Les, me, Patty, Dottie, Pastor Brenda, Scott, Tom, Destiny and Emily. What a happy bunch we are!



Here we are with the Judge.