A little more blog candy!

Happy Saturday everyone! We put our Christmas tree and interior lights up today! Hopefully we'll get the outdoor lights up this next week. We are gonna have some wintery nasty weather tomorrow and I'm glad at least we have the tree up. We are so excited to have out little buttercup with us, hopefully we can get a picture of all three dogs in front of the tree this year. Hey where did I put those darn extention cords anyway?! As you can see up for blog candy now is a set of inkadinkado Christmas stamps. This is added to the tin and Christmas ornament. Remember I'll draw blog candy probally the 13th or so of December in anticipation and celebration of my 44th birthday! Made a quick shopping trip to AC Moore today and picked up a few sizzix dies for 50% off! I was inpressed with the selection still available even after black Friday. No, I'm not really brave on black Friday. More than a few years ago, I broke my leg on black Friday and it has never been the same. So I don't press any bad karma and stay close to home. My sweet husband swears I should just stay in bed to be on the safe side. I did venture to Michael's for a few things but that is about it. I hope every one has a good evening. Blog you later!

The Friday after!

I hope that everyone is having a wonderful Friday! I just induced a new turkey coma by having left overs a few minutes ago. Darn they where delicious!

I'm posting a few Thanksgiving pictures from yesterday. I decided to wind down a bit before we ate our meal and took out my violin. Since I 'blog' about it so much I decided to have Craig (my oldest son) take a picture of me while I was playing. Normally I do not sit in the reclyner to play, but the grape background made for a lovely picture!

I also decided to take some pictures of the table. The china is Franciscian Desert rose and I have been collecting it since I was 18 years old. My husband is the total enabler here and has picked up some beautiful and unusual pieces to add to my massive collection. Honestly, I could feed a battalion of soldiers with these dishes!

My table setting was simple and I used the turkey place cards. The place cards where a big hit!

Adding to blog candy today, I'll send along one of the finished ornaments for you to enjoy!

Have a great holiday weekend! Stamp happy!

A blogger award!

I received a blogger award from Martha!

Rules; Post award to your blog, link the award to the person who sent it to you and nominate 5 more people you think deserve this great award.

Please click on Martha's name to view her blog;

Here are my nominees;

Michelle

Cami

Theresa

Dargana

Carabecca

Thank you so much Martha for the really great and neat award! It is an honor!

I hope everyone is enjoying their day. Chad's braces came off today! Yipee! His mouth is a bit sore and irritated, but he teeth look fantastic!

Here are some pictures for you. First off the picture to the far left is my early Birthday present. It is a beautiful Seiko watch Mike picked up for me at the local jewelry store. I am thrilled. The next photos are pictures of the ornaments I made yesterday. All together I have made 36 total. With a tragic incident three of them were broken. All that work, at least I saved the stamped portion and can easily remake the ones that were lost.

I took eight of these ornaments with me to the orthodontist office today, the girls and Dr. Heller really enjoyed them. The receiptionist couldn't believe that these where not 'store' bought. They really enjoyed receiving them.

Trying to get the last minute arrangements together for Turkey day. We are so excited to have Mike's two kids join us for lunch along with a family friend. I will try and take alot of pictures and post to the blog on Friday. Blog candy will be added too on Friday as well, so please keep those great comments and the encouragement up. I need all I can get.

For those who are asking about Melissa (my niece) there is still no word from Georgia. Just continue to pray for our family!

Here is a picture of the goodies I received from this round of secret sisters on Splitcoaststampers. How much fun are these!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

More Christmas Creations

Happy Tuesday!

One of these days I'm gonna take a html class and figure out for myself exactly how to get my text and pictuers to be and do what I want.

At least I figured out how to fix my screen size on the laptop. Darn thing was like trying to look through a peep hole at the drive in movie.

Ok, I promiced 'finished' projects for today's post. As you can see above I did a small sleigh in hughes of blue and paisley. I still need to do some re-touching on the paint, but over all it came out nicely. Three new images for this years ornaments, the cow is penny black, the mouses are house mice and the small snowman is from stampeded.

I have a few new penny black and other stamps I plan on tryin gto use for the ornaments.

COPIC TIP!

Ok, you're not going to believe this, I didn't until I tried it and it worked. A quick tutorial for the ornaments.

1. Cut out 2 1/4" circles from acetate

2. Stamp image onto acetate using staz on ink quickly heat set

3. Turn acetate over

4. Color the acetate on the opposite side that you stamped on with the copic markers. Darker colors work well. Allow to dry and assemble the ornament.

5. Poke a small hole toward the top of the acetate and thread in a length of about 5" strech cord.

6. Put the cord through the small opening, roll the acetate together and insert into the ornament (I put glitter and fake snow in first), put acetate into ornament and straighten out with a piercing tool or paint brush handle. Tie cord tightly into a knot and finish off with a legnth of ribbon.

Have fun and Stamp Happy!

My work table!

I just couldn't wait to get into my stamp room this morning.

Chad finally has clear eyes, but will need to finish up his eye drops until next Saturday. It is a good thing he is off from school for Thanksgiving break this week! He is enjoying some much deserved "gamecube" game time!

I coulnd't bear to do another card, but forced myself to finish off the last six cards from yesterday.

Today's projects are straight forward. I plan to do eight of the sleigh's all together. The picture of them above they are sitting out drying. They still need a coat of glittery decopauge.

The small mail box was already red, so a little sanding and some decorative paper made easy work of this altering business! I just love to alter stuff!

One of these days I swear I'm going to do a craft show. I've seen alot of folks do very well by diving into this venture, it just sounds like fun.

Hey you computer geeks out there, what the heck have I done to make my screen long and narrow? It is driving me nuts. Please tell me how the heck to fix it!

I hope every one will have a great day!

Stamp Happy!

Loretta's Christmas sweat shop!

Hello! I am hosting a stamp afternoon in my home on December 7th. I have been teasing the girls that will be attending that if they don't have a project to complete, I'll gladly turn them into Loretta's Christmas sweat shop helpers!

Today I spent most of my day cutting and assembling Christmas cards. When I turn out the light on my stamp table tonight I will have completed 16 of these cards! I did them old fashioned 'assembly' line style.

When i first started these cards, I thought I'd be 'cute' and do spinners. Then I thought about that and disregarded that quickly. Then I thought word window punch for the Merry Christmas saying. Well, that was ok and you can see some of the pictures I did this. Finally, to save time in the production line, I cut a strip of paper to 1" x 2 1/4" for the sentiment. Much easier and faster and it still looks great.

As I have run out of materials (mostly embellishments) I have substituted dew drops for snow flakes. They are all relatively the same with subtle differences.

I also picked up two beautiful turkey's today. A 16.5 pounder that I will roast and a 13.4 pounder that I will have Mike put in our smoker. Oh man, turkey from the smoker is so good. I take the left overs and freeze them in smaller portions. Take them out of the freezer and turn it into smoked turkey soup. Let me tell you that is good eats!

I'll do most of my prep cutting on Wednesday which makes Thanksgiving day much more relaxing.

I should take a picture of my very messy desk to make those of you who feel like your craft area's are a mess can see my "Christmas" mess.

I wish you all a great evening. New blog candy will be put on the blog this week!

I have to admitt tomorrow I need to stamp something that is not a card! I need to alter something (or more than one somethings) I will probally do at least 12 more Christmas ornaments. I will also do a few outlines Christmas ornaments. I only do a few a year for very special friends as they are very time consuming and the attention to detail is extremely important.

For those of you who have comment about Chad and the pink eye -- unfortunately his eyes are still red and cloudy today. If they are still red in the morning I have to take him back to the clinic. I know the kid is tired of hearing 'wash your hands', 'keep things away from your face' and 'don't touch anything'. And -- I love the new vacuum. Darn thing could suck ticks off a dog at 30 paces! It picks up great. It has a washable heppa and regular filters and the dirt cup is also washable. Which means things stay cleaner and dust mites go down the drain! The vaccum is not very heavy and it is easy to carry up and down the stairs. It also has a nice long cord and is green, which is one of my two very favorite colors!

Have a great night, and a wonderful holiday week. Stamp Happy!

Christmas?!

Hello everyone!

This is yet another snow sled image I colored with my copic markers. I just adore the way they are coming out!

I started my Christmas gift wrapping today!

I am using the small area in my laundry room as my wrapping head quarters. After some discussion with my husband, we decided to buy Chad (my youngest son) a Wii for Christmas. I also bought him one game. I went ahead and bought one today. I just didn't want to chance them not being available for me.

This year the older "children" (Ok they are all grown but they are still our kids) will be receiving good ol fashioned Benjamin's. In any launguage kids love money! I have purchased a few 'stocking stuffers' mostly for my step daughter who knits, does jewelry making and stamps. I will be doing some for my step son's girlfriend Julie. She stamps !

I broke down today and bought a spare vaccum. It was under $130 and is really neat, it is a hoover with a built in hose (upright vacuum) and was extremely easy to put together. It is really easy to dump the bin as well. No bags!

Have a good evening! Stamp happy!

Loretta

Christmas ornaments and an "Oh No" week!

Last year I made some similar Christmas ornaments as gifts for my neighbors. This year the new neighbors will receive these and so will some close family and friends!

These are very easy. I use the same E600 transparencies from 3M as I use to make the butterfly pins.

The acetate circles where cut using my cuzzle round circle and swivel blade, the circles measure in at 2 1/4". They are stamped with staz on and colored on the opposite side with copic markers. I bet you didn't know you could use copics on these, but they work great (as you can see!)

I have seen so many beautiful ornaments on line I just had the 'need' to make some more for myself this Christmas!

I spent most of the day stamping with a dear friend. It was so much fun! I was able to complete twelve of these ornaments and still have time to clean off my craft desk and table.

In a few hours I'll be heading to the airport to pick up my sweet hubby. He has been gone eight days now, and if it could go wrong around here it has!

Oh No! Not again.... First off the week started with him having to leave town on fairly short notice and all that goes with getting him out the door, the laundry, the house work well -- right before he left the dishwasher was acting up.

After my feble attemps of diagnosing the problem I finally broke down and called sears service, who came out the next afternoon! The guy was the same one who fixed its electrical problem a few months ago, and he found a pumpkin seed so lodged in the drain he had to pull the dishwasher out to get to it.

Lets just say I'm serioulsy considering an extended warranty for my kitchen appliances!

Then yesterday it was nice and quiet in the house. I had finished up the laundry (again) and had decided to wash sheets. While the bed linens where washing I ran upstairs to vacuum the main level of our home. When I turned it on it sounded funny. I'm thinking, ok, one of the kids has run over a piece of paper and it is not vacumming properly. I sat there with the vacuum unpluged and dug the equivalent of 3 cups of junk from the brush attachment, checked the hoses, and cleaned the filters. While I had it pulled apart the door bell rings. It is the local Kirby guy (vacuum is sitting behind the couch looking ill) I'm thinking ,man you are not gonna believe this one. Anyhoo, I sent him along his way.

Woke up this morning. Bound and determined to get the darn task done. I put the filters back in, make sure everything is ok, and plug her in. Still doesn't seem to be sucking up the dirt how I would prefer. About 3 feet of vacuuming later, the vacuum turned itself off. Now I am pulling my hair out!

I called Sears and sure enough it is under warrenty. I took it in but it won't be home until November 29. I will be borrowing my neighbors as needed until mine comes home. Thank God it is under warrenty!

So, I'm sitting here with my friend Chad walks in the door to say hello. First off the kid had no brains, he came down stairs in shorts and a tee shirt. I'm like dude go change clothes, we had snow yesterday, you need long pants.

I happen to look up at him. That's odd. I took a closer look, he has pink eye. Arrgh! I called the school to let them know and called the neighborhood moms as well. As you guys know pink eye is very contagious, if one kid has it chances are alot will have it soon! He has an appointment on Friday. I'll call the clinic in the morning and see if they can get me in tomorrow instead. I am using the OTC visine AC drops for now, but feel the kids eye will be crusted over in the morning. Click here to learn more about pink eye, how to prevent it or know you have the condition.

With all the weird stuff that has gone on this week, at least I was able to squeeze in a little stamping!

Stamp Happy!

A tad bit over the top!

These projects are a tad bit over the top -- even for me!

Good evening every one!

It has been snowing most of the day here in Southern Maryland. It is so pretty, we have not had any accumulation as of yet, but as for my youngest son, Chad, he took an early shower and has his PJ's on backwards!

I know the projects are a tad bit over the top (even for me) but I had a hankering for flowers. The bottle is an old bottle Mike found at a thrift store, I had some wine corks and decided to throughly clean it out (put it in the dishwasher) and alter it to actually hold my olive oil. Hey it is just paper, if it gets a little mussed, I'll just re-do it!

Arrggh, have to tell you I had to break down and call the dish washer repair guy! My dishwasher wasn't draining. I was thinking the darn thing is only 3 years old, what the heck is wrong with it now? Well, ladies, a pumpkin seed had lodged itself in the drain causing it not to pump the water out at the end of the cycle! I so bought a warrenty that covers are kitchen appliances. A month ago it was the fridge that needed a $145.00 new mother board. I'm thinking what else can go wrong, so prevention is the better route to take.

Here is the first *offical* item of blog candy. As you can see it is a cigar tin. It measures 5" X 4 1/2" and is approximately 1/4" deep. It can easily accomidate a CD or would make a great scrapbook tin. Its yours to alter as you wish. If you win the blog candy I would really like to see how you alter this cigar case!

Blog candy will run until December 15th on which day I will celebrate my 44th birthday!

Update, check out my blog side line, my first class will be on December 13th from 11:00 am until 2:00 pm. It is the never ending card class. Click here for their websight.

I so encourage you to visit this store. Kim is the owner along with her husband James. Salt of the earth good folks here! I always enjoy my shopping trips to the store. I always find something new to play with. Not to mention how excited I am to begin teaching again.

Have a wonderful evening!

Stamp Happy!

Loretta

Acetate treat boxes

Good evening fellow crafters!

Here are a couple of pictures of the acetate treate boxes I have seen in many places all over the web.

To make my boxes, I used the pillow box die (purchased with a coupon from AC Moore) since the transparency film is so thin, I used the scoring mat for crisp easy to fold scores.

I purchase the 3M multipurpose transparency film CG6000 from my local office supply store. These are easy to find, a bit pricey but they can easily be stamped and embossed as well. They are the same transparency films I use to make my now famous butterfly pins.

By the way, you can also use rub-on's for these. They emboss nicely with the Cuttle bug embossing folders. There are many uses for this versatile material.

The label is the new curly label punch set from Stampin Up! Find a demonstrator and order one. It is a very versatile tool and stamp set.

For all of you who have been kind enough to email me, thank you for your encouraging words and compliments on the blog and my crafting skills.

I made another bella card, but unfortunately my scanner is not working properly this evening. Its driving me nuts, it was fine earlier today now its being a pain in my backside!

I hope everyone is doing well. I know alot of you out there are not feeling well with the flu season strong upon all of us!

I'll be starting blog candy tomorrow. As a teaser, you can count on seeing one of these little treat boxes among the mix of goodies!

My last blog candy winner was Ann. Ann your envelope of goodies went postal this morning (priority mail) you should have it in a couple of days. Once it arrives please post a comment as I included a few surpirse goodies for you!

Have a great evening! Stamp Happy!

A few Christmas Ideas!

Hello! Here are a couple of Christmas cards I am working on: The images are from Whipper Snapper Designs. Click here for their websight! They have such cute stamps! I also love that they are not only doing cling mount stamps but they also offer a nice varity of the clear stamps as well! The inside of both cards is finished off with a light blue random snowflake stamp and "Merry Christmas". It is so cold here today. The wind is something else! I went out earlier today to pick the last of my peppers and pull some lettuce and spinach for dinner. I plan to make good ol' fashioned spagetti with meat sauce. Just thinking about it makes me hungry! Both images for the cards are colored using my copic markers. The red felt a bit stak so I hughed it down with a light pink. The card is detailed with three different colors of stickles. For both of these cards, I experimented with different combinations of the markers until I liked the finished product! Two Cards down... umm about 40 to go. I'll probally have four or five different designs for this years Christmas Cards. I am also *still* working on the small gift baskets I give to neighbors. Once I have one of them complete, I will be sure to post pictures. Have a great rest of your Sunday. Blog Candy will start on Tuesday! Stamp Happy!

Gobble Gobble! Thanksgiving Place Cards!

Gobble Gobble!

I can almost taste the Turkey! Most every year I prepare Thanksgiving dinner. This year I will be doing so and I always look forward to the time spent with family and friends. The food is always delicious! The wine pours and every one just has a great time. I have so seen these turkey punch art all over the internet. My idea came from one of my favorite video blogs, Chicknskratch. Check out the video tutorial on how to do these adorable little turkeys! I plan to dress these up a bit more with some chalking. I need to allow them to finish drying first!

I haven't decided if they will ultimately become napkin rings or just place cards. They do stand up on their own very well. I used the stampin up exclusive top note die for the base of the place cards.

I changed a couple of them out so I can do some fun little extra goodies on Thanksgiving day!

The six place cards took me about an hour to complete.

My step daughter may be on an upcoming episode of the Discovery Channel. She works for Combustion Science Engineering in Columbia, MD (They have had special shows on Discovery before) they do fire investigations. Anywhoo, the film crew was there this last week and you may see her or her hands on the video's. She was so excited!

This will be the second time she has appeared on television! The first was several years ago when she attended a Christmas concert in October, and dressed in Christmas attire. Her and a few of her friends where seen on the videos. Darn its been so long ago I have forgotten which concert they all attended.

I hope every one is having a great weekend. It was nice and clear here this morning and the weather turned very nasty! Now its overcast, raining and windy ... again! I'm so tired of the gloomy weather!

For those of you who are wondering, Mary Dawn should be able to fix my blog header in the next few days. I'm not really sure how I got it so messed up, but ... I did! Remember she does great blog design for very reasonable rates, a link to her blog is on the right side bar! Go check her out!

Have a great night!

Stamp Happy!