The KOA Flume Layout

This is the accompanying page that goes with one I showed you last week on Penn's Cave. I'm using up the last of a Valentine's Day kit...so it matches quite well...almost done with it! Wow, for not buying kits for months, I'm still going strong paper wise!

I'm also using up those silver letters! I was so pumped I had the right ones to make a title!

This page is rocking at least four washi tapes....I have no control when it comes to those....which is why you can see the very newest flamingo one that has nothing to do with camping...but I had to use it...yeah....doing well on the paper front, not so well on washi....

It's nice having this one done! This page celebrates one of those random times where the kids acted like kids. They are so grown up most of the time!

Luke had wanted to buy a bag of sand filled with gems in the gift store at the cave, but his Dad picked on him. Then when we got back to the campground I noticed that the KOA had the same set up. So, he and I walked down to the camp store to "get an ice cream" and accidentally bought a bag to play in the flume with. It was hot so playing the water was awesome.

Then we texted photos to his sister, who came down to watch and then had to have her own bag.

It was pretty full of semi-precious gems and what not!

Happiest of Hump Days to you!

Always Ready for Use 12 tags of 2016-June & One Little Quote

I have been watching a lot of the June Tim Holtz tags come in on Facebook and it looks to me that especially with this tag, lot of artists take his tag and jump! Jump into things that get their feet wet and hands dirty and come up with something unusual. Which makes me feel better as my tag looks nothing like his...

He had white tissue paper, I only had black....I didn't have archival ink, but white embossing powder...I didn't have the cool dude with a top hat die cut...So I made use of what I had. ;-)

My black tissue paper needed a strong stamp...pulled out my very favorite which happens to be a woody from Stampin Up! and some white embossing power. I then adhered the tissue paper to a base of cardboard with some white glue and a paint brush. I then decided I need a cut out, similar to the man with a top hat....so I used a scallopy punch and then went hunting for a dude with a top hat image...

Here is where things went horribly wrong...I ended up finding the one I wanted on a site called Sexy Victorian Men. I was somewhat astonished that such a thing existed so when I went to my stash of Tim Holtz paper, the piece with the slogan "always ready for use" jumped on my cutter and was glued to my tag in about five seconds flat amidst giggles...so there you have it....yes sometimes I have a dirty mind!

I am half way through my One Little Quote! I thought it would be cool to use a quote instead of a word this year. It's got even more meaning now! 

Happiest of Tuesdays to you!

Something Went Terribly Wrong: Memorandum Monday

I didn't break it, honest. It was broken before I got there. The fact that I had this catchy little tune sung by a purple alien in my head daily as soon as I walked in the door at work was a constant reminder that things were f-ed up. (I'll leave you with that YouTube video at the end. It's worth a watch if your pc ever died unexpectedly).

The first five minutes of my new job involved the guy who hired me telling me that he wasn't my boss anymore.  He was gone two weeks later, RIF'd. Shortly thereafter a senior guy left on family medical leave and his contract was terminated two days later. Then the girl who trained me quit. The fact that she was eight months pregnant and had managed to find a higher paying job even though she'd be starting and then leaving for six to eight weeks was astonishing. I'd walk down the row that my team sat in and people were working on resumes. Outsourcing in two years was the offical word, but word on the street was that by next year, everyone would be gone.

I'm a fixer. In fact, I spent an hour and a half before I left telling soon to be ex boss some ideas. Don't hire another person who will just quit, pay the ones you have a little bit more and offer them overtime to cover the slack. Think out of the box and come up with things that make people happy to stay, even if you can't do much.

And then I fled into the sun and rolled down the hill with the tunes blaring. Randomly, Carry on Wayward Son was playing. I'm off to work today at Habitat for Humanity as a Project Manager. I can go back to fixing stuff. Stuff that I can fix.

And since this is Memorandum Monday, dreamed up by Sian over at From High In The Sky I must leave you with a tid bit of knowledge or in this case a quote for you to ponder:

“A house is to a family what soil is to a plant. A plant needs to be rooted. A family is like that. If a family is not rooted, it will not flourish. But once a family is well-rooted, all kinds of wonderful things will begin to happen.” Millard Fuller

For a giggle, check out the little purple alien below....




P.S. Thanks CW for stabbing my cake. It made a most epic photo...

In My Corner

Last week I got lucky and found a couple of more corbels at the Corning Habitat ReStore. I didn't know I was collecting them until I found two more...The bottom one is resin, so I just cleaned it off with a wet soapy cloth. The top one is wood, so I spent some time with the spray paint last weekend layering and spritzing to get an aged look. Believe it or not, I even used an ink pad!

I really like the splatters. It's a bit nerve wracking applying just enough...But I'm pretty pleased on how this corbel turned out. 

The last project I did similar to this I used mists...nothing is sacred when you are working on a project! 

Happy Hump Day! Or should I say, Happy Corbel Day! 

Sweet Lights Layout: Penn's Cave

I've really been enjoying getting some pages done and dusted. It's even more exciting when it's a page from a recent trip. ;-) I blogged about our trip to Penn's Cave just a couple of weeks ago. There are a ton of photos that are neat from inside the cave, but I picked my favorite. They have a little light show with different colors at the very end of the cave that I enjoyed quite a lot.

I loved the Penn's Cave House. It's so vintage and pretty! That is exactly why I decided to print it out smaller and add it to the bottom of my page. I also dug out the tickets we had from the day (they were lurking around in my purse) and added them.

Love that little metal camper I used down in the corner and some little gold and pink splatters...

Just a super fun day that I'm happy to share with you! Happy Tuesday!

Happy Spraying & Washing Memorandum Monday

This weekend was well....interesting. I have some news to tell you on what I did Saturday, but I'm not quite ready to dish yet so you'll have to wait on that patiently. I say patiently, but I don't exactly resemble that trait myself...I'd be tapping my foot a little looking annoyed so you are welcome to do that too. THE MAN held down the fort while I was gone and pressure washed the garage with his new Father's Day pressure washer.

Working with water was a smart move on his part because it was blazing hot both weekend days. I mean not as hot as say like the desert, but probably in the nineties. He's prepping for staining the garage in a weekend or two.

As it was a nice hot day perfect for drying spray paint, I took the opportunity Sunday to set up the spray painting table and play with this frame a little. I wanted a nice vintage antique gold color. I was really leaning towards NOT painting the frame, but it smelled a little too vintage for my taste, so cleaned it off and painted it. The internal part has since been painted in silver leaf which is now currently drying...that has it's own special smelly smell. I am toying with the idea of adding a mirror in the middle...but still thinking....

All that warm weather has inspired my rose to bloom even more. It's such a lovely pink orange color. You can also see that someone was keeping his dog eye ball on me when I took this photo. He highly approves of hot afternoons that involve chasing chipmunks, long drinks from the water dish and then throwing youself on the kitchen floor to pant and enjoy the air conditioning.

Hoping for a few more dog days of summer and a week that goes quickly so we can have more weekend!

Join me in waving hello to Miss Sian From High in the Sky, our Host here at Memorandum Monday....if she was my neighbor I'd snip off one of my blooms for her scrap room table!

Red, White and Blue (and Aqua blue) Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

 The very epic thing about a good digital file is that it can be used in various ways...print on a large format printer and you have background paper for a scrapbook page! I used THE USA PHRASES........PRINTABLE STAMP SET from THE CUTTING CAFE to make this patriotic page. I used this photo of my son's Civil Air Patrol unit to cover up the very middle section which said Happy 4th of July as the photo was actually taken early spring here...

The Civil Air Patrol kids were actually helping at a Wellness Retreat, but since they took the photo in front of a flag, I thought the printable worked quite well. Add in the part where I then didn't even need a title or to find special red, white and blue paper, the digital file made this page extra easy. 

A simple flower cluster, some ink drops and a little torn paper....completed the page. If you are curious as to which kid is mine...I put his name over his head in this photo....yes he's one of the tallest even though he's likely one of the youngest....

Love that I have this layout done! Thanks Regina for an epic digital file! I've got a little list of layouts that have been stacking up as we've had a lot of weekend events and end of the school year things....

Happy Father's Day!

GlassFest Layout & the Market Street Collection

Recently we celebrated Glass Fest here in Corning, NY. We are totally big on all things glass, so why not block off all of Market Street, invite in food vendors and crafters and have fun.....Lexi was down at Centerway helping face paint little people for Sister Cities but lots of her friends were out and about so she joined them later for some food and fireworks.

Look at those pretty girls! They are on the walking bridge that connects Centerway with the other side of the river & eventually takes you to the Corning Museum of Glass. It's cool on that bridge...they have a garden running down the middle and you can look over the side at the huge carp that swim in the Chemung. I do suppose it would be epic to watch fireworks from, which is what she did later that evening.

We wandered around GlassFest ourselves with Grandpa Roger and Grandma Donna. Of course I had to score a beer cozy & a free bowl at the Corelle store. My plan (which worked perfectly) was to fussy cut the logo off the beer cozy...and then add glitter....love how that M turned out...that is the new logo for Corelle's new Market Street Collection which of course is named after OUR Market Street and is a pattern I really love....so we're taking a quick field trip to look at some plates...

Yes, I see you agree. They are epic....but not available for purchase yet of course! ;-)

Happiest of Thursdays to you! I'm busy making a list for the weekend....lots of crafting I think and perhaps some spray painting....gold anyone?

Meant to Be Frame from the Corning Habitat ReStore

I walk past a LOT of things at the Corning Habitat ReStore. A LOT. My theory is that if I love it once, I'll love it again when it's still there next week. Sometimes this doesn't pan out very well and I make an emergency trip back for something that must be mine. Or, it's gone.  In this case, the $7 frame was still there.....meant to be!

It's MOSTLY in one piece......and it's only slightly smelly....but oh I do love it. I need to dust it and let it air out a little...and then decide whether it needs a very light coat of spray paint or not....

I don't want to use too much spray paint and lose that detail! Check it out!

Love the wood pieces I found. Again, not sure what I might do with them, but they need some warm soapy water and then a decision! Good thing the weekend is coming up again! Might have to have a date with some spray paint!

Happiest of Hump Days!

Hawk Pride Layout: National Junior Honor Society

Having read the essay that the boy submitted for National Junior Honor Society, I can honestly say that it was from the heart. They asked him about being amazing and he basically wrote that he was on the path to being amazing, but that he wasn't quite there yet. He made a valid point in my opinion. Anyhow, it must have been what they were looking for as he was inducted in!

My absolutely FAVORITE thing that I did with this page was use the sheet they gave us with all the names as paper! As you can see I used a gold letter O sideways to circle Luke's name.

I also used up a piece of scrap vellum and a little piece of lined paper that I had laying around. I am at the very bottom of this kit and I was trying to use a lot of neutrals so that the blue logo of JNHS would pop.

I printed out a very small version and then fussy cut around it, added a Tim Holtz star and a few little pieces of bling.  A really simple page, but it makes me happy!

And on that note, Tuesday here is at an end. I'm behind on blogging due to camping, but I'm enjoying writing these in the evening. ;-)

Spelunking in Penn's Cave: Memorandum Monday

I told the kids we were going spelunking this past weekend and they didn't believe me. Later they claimed that it didn't count as we were in a boat, even though it was a real honest to goodness cave...so I googled it. Yes, we  were spelunkers this weekend. If we were in the UK or Ireland, we would have been potholing, which also sounds pretty exotic.

We hauled the camper about two and a half hours south of us to camp in Belmonte, Pa and then visited Penn's Cave. I had thought it might be a bit hokey. I was happy to be completely wrong. This cave was really cool! In fact, I can't wait to share photos of the inside, when I get them scrapped.

Things in a cave are measured in inches and over hundreds of years. This particular cave has had paid visitors since 1885 and with the exception of the lights, I doubt much has changed since then although the stalactites and stalagmites might be a wee bit bigger today, but not much.

Between the legend of the Indian Princess Nita-nee and Malachi the French trapper, we were pumped to see the cave. Add in cave trout that you could feed and a boat ride, it was a really cool experience. In fact, it was somewhat bittersweet to get back home. Good thing I had an epic rose that bloomed while I was away to greet me.

Isn't that lovely? So pretty! Snuck out there this morning before work to take that photo just for you!

Happiest of Mondays! Join me in a wave over at Sian From High in the Sky who has an epic blog post title to share with us and all our Memorandum Monday friends!

Make Today Amazing Upcycled Spool Angel Cloche for LESSology

Lately I've had angels on the mind. I have also been working a lot with cloches since the Corning ReStore has a stash they have been selling. I decided to combine the two! 

Paired up this glass plate and candle stick I got at Corning ReStore the other day and spray painted them with copper & black paint. I used Epoxy to glue the candle stick to the plate. As you can see below, they are actually three seperate pieces.

Love that you can take it apart in case you want to use the base, angel or choche seperately. It's always nice to have versaility in a decoration. ;-)

The little angel on the upcycled cardboard spool is made out of a ceramic sink handle. The hair is the top of a seed (like an acorn top) while the wings are cut down flower petals and some pearl branches. I opted to go with a neon pink sticker for the base & brightly colored hand dyed seam binding as we're having a neon challenge this time round at LESSology. In fact, that is why the base has a lot of black as it looks good with brights!

Love the decorated bottom of the cloches and the very top. I made the latice from bright metallic duct tape over cardboard which I cut out with my Big Shot. 

I also cut some aluminum tape and dyed it to match. Love that it's already sticky!

Leaving you with one more photo of my sink handle angel! Make Today Amazing and play along with our challenge!

Grandma Crin Wagner's Butterfly Angel

While digging through the bottomless box of hankies I was recently gifted from my Grandma, I found a couple I really liked. In fact, I found one with a H which I believe belonged to my Great Grandma Helen Peckham Mero, which would be my Grandpa's Mom. Then, I received a little butterfly in the mail from my Aunt with a note saying that Great Grandma Crin knitted it who was my Grandma's Mother. So I dreamed up my own angel with things from both Great Grandmas! I have been wanting to make myself one for ages!

Here is a close up of the yummy flowers and that pretty butterfly. Can you see the little H peeking out from under it? Love the little pearl branches peeking out from under the flowers and the gold thread. I've got her hung up and on display near some of my other favorite things.

That whole display makes me smile! Love the vintage!

Happy Hump Day!

You Sparkle Dress Form Card for Angel and THE CUTTING CAFE

Every since one of the designers at THE CUTTING CAFE got married, I've had wedding stuff on my mind! Thankfully this is designer's choice week here at the Cafe so I could totally indulge my inner bling and design a card for my friend Angel's wedding.

By card I mean a 6 inch by 4 inch cardboard mixed media shabby bling filled dress form mounted on upcycled cardboard. I cut THE CUTTING CAFE's dress form as big as I could on my silly! 

Now my friend Angel is always happy & cheerful. I wanted to tell her that she sparkles! I also added a little glass of wine on my card, which is how I met Angel. We were on a wine tour together and I thought she was awesome-sauce! Believe it or not, THE CUTTING CAFE has a file for that wine glass too! That wine glass I scaled down to itty bitty! Love it! 

One more peek at my card! I hope she loves it! I know I'm enjoying it's bling, glitter, and gold! 

Happy Monday! I'm posting twice today as I'd hate to miss Memorandum Monday! 

Gold Fish in the 'Post: Memorandum Monday

I knew I was a bit late for a hair appointment down in Painted Post due to someone chatting my ear off on the way out of work, but I also knew that I was out of crickets. See, Madeline Moody eats live crickets, so one must keep a stock of those handy. Heaven forbid she miss a meal. She counts on her crickets in the am. Swung into the petshop and groaned a bit when I saw at least six little people clustered around the cash register. The dude who runs the place had out his lizards and everyone was having a good time.

I was pretty sure I would now be really late. I decided to stop worrying about it and to enjoy the situation. I soon understood that the tallest boy in the group was buying gold fish. He had a fist full of change and was carefully and methodically counting out $2.67 worth to pay for his new pets.

Just then Lisa handed me my container full of crickets and started ringing me up. I decided to make that boy's day and buy his fish. His eyes got round and he said WHY THANK YOU. I suggested that he and his gang buy ice cream on the way home with the now extra change and a girl in the group said...oh....we just came from there.

Tomorrow then I said, you can buy more ice cream. The pack of them left with their bags of gold fish and I was only three minutes late to my appointment. Turns out this was pretty much the highlight of my week. I haven't done a Random Act of Kindness in ages, unless you count giving away my cart at Aldi's.

Lexi said later that she still remembers the lady who gave her an entire pack of hubba bubba gum when she six at the Demolition Derby, so I suspect the boy with the fish might remember for a bit. I know I will.



All those GOLD fish musta bought ME luck because the next day at the ReStore, I got a bag of gold! And silver. Somebody cleaned out their stash of metallic trim and I scored! Loving that decorative glass & metal thing too. Not sure exactly what it is, but it screws apart so might be made into something else...

Anyhow, waving hello over to Sian who's blog is pure gold. You can find her at From High in the Sky where she collects us on Mondays for story telling, memories, and useful tid bits.