Fake Snow All Over & Wearing of the Glitter

It was a quiet Thanksgiving break. The oldest had to work and the youngest had Snowbird at Harris Hill. I decided to start decorating so at one point the fake snow was covering the floor, I was wearing more of the snow with accents of glitter and I nearly dropped a tote on my foot which resulted in some screeching on my part as I pinched a finger. Decorating is hard work!

I got crazy this year and actually pulled out a curling iron to get those ribbons to curl all pretty like that. I really like how they turned out. I put a few less ornaments on this year. I did add all the icicles from a previous Twelve Tags. Just needed to touch up a few wee things with the hot glue gun. ;-)

I also set up a display with my current Twelve Tags for the Funkie Junkie. Only three left to go! Goodness! The fun will be over soon.

Aren't they cute! I'm kinda thinking I might hide them locally like they do 'round these parts as a RAK and post them to Steuben County Rocks. This way I have the joy of making them and the joy of passing them along....and I don't add to my stash! Unpacked this year and was like woaaaaahhhh nelly too much stuff!

Still, it's fun to unpack past projects. This one is all blue birds! I made those Vintage Holly Birds back in 2015 for Visions of Sugar Plums.

Speaking of that....It's on it's way!

Happy Hump Day!

Happy Crafternoon Cardmaking Potluck

It's that time of year! (Unless you are Lizzy Hill of course and THAT time of year is all year...) It's Christmas Card time! A group of us gathered down at Angel's house this past weekend to stamp, cut, and assemble.



It's like a cardmaking pot luck where you bring enough cut card pieces and embellishments for everyone to make two cards from your kit. You get to enjoy everyone's stamps, ideas, and also snack. I came home with 14 homemade cards and a full belly! Just about every card is different and range from sparkly to CAS.

Well, perhaps the card was designed CAS, but then when you add a double bow and extra sparkly strips....

Some like these little bear ones came all ready to assemble and were precut and stamped. I hadn't tried this paper line before either, so was really fun.

Somebody asked as we made cards if we really sent all of them out. To be honest, I totally do! In fact, I came home and made a few more just in case. In fact, I'm gearing up for the Pratt Family photo...Lexi and I have been brainstorming what everyone will wear, including the dog.

Happy Tuesday!

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Nine

Goodness gracious, I have only three more times I can play along with Linda's Funkie Junkie challenge and it will be over for this year! I feel like I've just gotten started!

She's been using some very non-traditional colors for the past couple and I've loved it! A huge thanks to the Funkie Junkie Boutique for hosting. They are having a huge sale at the moment so hop over when you are done and take a peek.

Really loved that blue that she used for the night sky so I painted my bottle that color. I also grabbed two trees and added some glitter snow and that polka dot deer. Then I did manage to find one last jingle bell. It's a little oversized, but its cool as it's rusty!

I used three different kinds of glitter on this one bottle....Isn't that fun!

Happy Monday!

Unicorn Horn Ornaments & Wild Roses Platter

I've been stalking our Habitat ReStore these days for vintage Christmas because who doesn't love a really cool mercury glass ornament or some velvet holly. I spotted this platter in a huge rack of plates out of the corner of my eye. I am always on the look out for hand painted plates and this one was super cool.

It was hand signed E.D.J. on the back in gold. I was super impressed with the shading myself. I am pretty sure these are roses. I thought for a bit maybe cherry blossoms although I could run with maybe both? Anyhow, super pretty. I am expanding my plate wall a bit. Grandma Skip started it with her pretty plates and I've been collecting since.

This little shabby chippy wall art is also on the agenda for the long break over Thanksgiving. I have some things to make for Visons of Sugar Plums! I usually give away three hand made things and so far I've got two planned....maybe three if I can figure out a good way to use those unicorn ornaments!

Happy Wednesday! I'm off getting glittery & eating good food the rest of this week!

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Eight

I've got another little jar here to share with you! This one was so much fun. I lucked out and found a little salt shaker that was missing a pepper and needed to be pretty. It had such a cool shape and retro top.

I was inspired by the snowflakes and that lovely blue color on Linda's Funkie Junkie tag. I used a little bit more of a turquoise on my bottle and switched out the salmon color for red. 

I built a big topper for this jar out of vellum snowflakes and a plastic snowflake ornament. Then I added itty bitty red sparkle flowers to the center. Lots and lots of glitter was involved because it's snowy!

One more photo and I'm off! It's Tuesday and we have Turkey Day at work! I'll be working on Jar Nine too over the break! I'll also be taking a peek at the Funkie Junkie Boutique where I am sure there will be an epic Black Friday sale! 

Happy Tuesday!

Bitty Silver & Gold Box for THE CUTTING CAFE

Goodness gracious this is such an adorable cutting file! There is something super cool about little boxes. It didn't start out little, but I used the TISSUE BOX TEMPLATE from over at THE CUTTING CAFE and shrunk it just a tad.

I removed the circle that the tissue pokes through and then added a little cardboard inside the box to make it extra sturdy. Had so much fun decorating the top! So pretty!

I really have been enjoying this paper pack. It's the Silver & Gold Close to My Heart set. I added some silver trim that really was pretty and another piece of paper with those little deer on them. I'm really excited to add a little gift to this box for Visions of Sugar Plums!!!

Mark your calendar! It's coming up soon!

Happy Monday!

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Seven

I've been holding on to this little itty bitty sprinkle jar for the longest. I liked the shimmery vintage shabby label and I was waiting for the perfect Funkie Junkie tag to use it for.

Linda at the Funkie Junkie totally delivered this past week! I was doing a happy dance because I could make some crinkled ribbon and get all funky! Love these non traditional colors!

For some reason, the plaid & stamped sentiment gave me this whole woodland vibe so I got out a sparkly cream colored butterfly that reminded me of the flower and those pine cones. Added a little fern and some vintage greenery. 

I really love those vintage ornaments I grabbed too. They are so pretty! Talk about pretty, I've been checking out the flowers Linda has in stock over at the Funkie Junkie Boutique! I'm making my shopping list and checking it twice!

Happy Hump Day!

Paper Therapy Hammered Christmas Joy Cards

I promised myself last year I would make some hand made cards for our volunteers at Christmas time. Low and behold this very old Stampin' Up Woodie set of tools fell into my hands so I was inspired to start some. It was quite an adventure not using a clear stamp, but I managed to work through it old school. ;-)

I've got a huge pack of plain cards & envelopes on order, so these are just the card fronts. Should be pretty easy to get them attached. I think they are really pretty as the gold hearts on this paper are metallic and the Christmas Joy sentiment is embossed. I've been working with the Silver & Gold collection from Close to My Heart and it's really lovely.

Was good to get some paper therapy going. I was so inspired on the card making front that I made two sample cards & cut all the kits for a Christmas Card making party I'm going to at Thanksgiving time.




































I was inspired by this vintage rose post card to make some really sparkly & rather simple cards. I scanned it in and cut a bunch out on photo paper. Usually I pile it on when I'm making cards, but then it's harder to mail as you have to make sure the postage is correct. These are nice and flat so mailing should be easy peasy.

Looking forward to making these with the girls at Thanksgiving! We'll each bring kits for each person to make two cards so if you are quick, you walk out of the party with enough cards to send to everyone on your list. At least I usually do!

Happy Tuesday!

Please Kill Me if I get Mean

I said to my husband this past weekend: Please just kill me if I get mean when I get old. He blinked a few times. I felt like an explanation was in order. Take for instance my little Grandma who has dementia and hits people. Granted, it's like getting hit with a really tiny popcorn fart, but still somewhere in her brain she is super pissed. He said calmly and carefully like one who is aware that there is thin ice somewhere....I won't let you get mean. Besides, you'll have a dog. You'll have a reason to live and not be mean.

I pondered this. The lady I had met yesterday had a tiny dog with one tooth that growled and eighteen cats. Wasn't buying the dog thing. It was a toss up if the little fur ball was more mean than the owner.

He went on. A GOOD dog. Besides we all know cats don't count as we are dog people.

Baby, I said....near tears. Yesterday was HARD! I got yelled at twice by people I was trying to help! Why are they so mean? I had meant to hang around home on our Veterans Day holiday. The fam was off school and work and I had plans of some easy emailing and scrapbooking. Instead, I knew that I had a contractor visiting a lady who hadn't had her gas on in over two months and was living without her furnace, stove, hot water heater and dryer. We needed to meet up and sign some paperwork and I needed to beg in person that the guy running the gas lines got everything working. Her natural gas supplier had basically locked out her gas as all the lines were leaking inside her house. It's a wonder she hadn't blown herself up due to smoking like a fiend.

Here in New York, we are in the middle of our first real cold snap this winter and heating guys are busier than a one eyed cat watching nine rat holes. Besides, the heating dude had previously complained about the two cat boxes full of little toosie rolls and unpleasant odors and I wanted to show solidarity. I would have slipped a twelve pack in his van, but I wasn't sure if he would get in trouble or not.

Lady without gas was super bitchy. I'd have been far more understanding if she had not rescheduled the tech which pushed the whole process out a week further. I had called the Heating company up to check the time of the appointment and the local peeps knew her by name, which meant she had been harassing them.

Several hours earlier I had gotten yelled at by a lady because we hadn't sent her an application yet to see if she qualified for our emergency repair grant. I was suspicious that she was the one that was horrid to us previously when she had requested a new stove and it arrived without a large enough window to see into the oven. Turns out I was right and she blistered my ear about not coming to pick up the new free stove that she hadn't wanted as she had bought her own. I happened to know for a fact that we would have picked it up and used it at the next Habitat House if she had given us that option. I hung up on her saying to call back when she could be civil.

Not everyone is mean thankfully or I'd be running for the hills. In fact I've met some very nice people lately. One sweet old lady has an 80 lb lap dog named Buddy so I suspect my husband's theory is correct. Buddy was bark bark barking at us from his dog house as we filled out paperwork so we can try to help his dog Mom with her leaking roof. The lady of the house said that Buddy doesn't like to be far from her and that he often times climbs up in her easy chair while she is sitting in it. I could tell, Buddy is a GOOD dog.

Well, onward and upward. Here's to a new week which hopefully will contain a lot less yelling.

12 "Tags" of Christmas for the Funkie Junkie: Jar Six

Goodness, I'm half way done with these jars! As you can see, we got our first snow today so it was a good day to take a photo of a Christmas project!

I was inspired by Linda's tag but really ended up going a lot more vintage with the velvet ribbon & burgandy roses. The gold deer made me do it!

I did use the snowflake though! I also used the cream color on the actual jar. Some spray paint got all drippy down the side and made me so happy!

A huge thanks to the Funkie Junkie Boutique for sponsoring this challenge and inspiring us to start Christmas crafting!

Flameworking with Silver & Dichroic

Ever since Lexi picked up a summer volunteering gig at the Corning Museum of Glass, she has been fascinated by the hot glass shows. One birthday she conned her Grandfather into sitting through five hot glass shows in a row and she's always taken friends there.

Fast forward to last summer where she was got a job working there. She did a lot of demonstrations and made friends with the flame workers who also do shows, but of course know how to flame work which is more complicated than just demonstrating optical fiber. When summer ended, she took her hard earned cash and paid for her own flameworking class that basically takes up an entire weekday evening so she has to plan accordingly with homework and go to school tired the next day. With the holidays, she'll also pick up some more hours working which is nice for her. Good thing the other kid has us staying home for Snowbird & Harris Hill Gliding!

Her favorite item she's made so far is this marble. The swirls are real silver. So pretty.

My favorite is the one on the top made with that coppery colored dichroic glass.



It's hanging out out with my air plants and pretty ceramic koi fish!

Thanks for hanging out with me for a proud Mama moment! Happy Hump Day! Back tomorrow with my Jar for the Funkie Junkie 12 Tags of Christmas!

Centerpiecing with Musuem Trees & Silk Plants Direct for the Civil Air Patrol Christmas Party

I always swear I'm going to start things sooner for the holidays. It's my third year making the centerpieces for the Civil Air Patrol Christmas Party. This year I took my own advice and started gathering things up mid July. If you know you are running with red, white and blue for a color scheme, it's not hard to find deeply discounted items after the 4th. I like the centerpieces to be inexpensive yet really nice so they can give them away by asking for a small donation.

I used dollar store vases combined with black and silver spray paint. My Mom hand made a bunch of bows using the ribbon I had from last year, those white poinsettias were six for a dollar at the ReStore, and the snowflakes under the CAP logo were ten for a dollar.

I lucked out even further as I was asked to review a product made by Museum Trees. I was asked to pick out an item from Silk Plants Direct, a sister company. It was VERY hard to pick just one. I decided to pick out this pinecone centerpiece that looked like I could use it at the CAP Christmas Party. I was really pumped when this super amazing item arrived on my doorstep! It's very high quality and really nice. Those super huge pine cones aren't real!!! Can you believe it? I know, me neither 'cause you really can't tell. I added some sparkly white lights and those bulbs to pull it all together.

I then had to play with a big bow my Mom sent me. I can't decide whether I'll use it or not. To be honest, this product is very versatile as you can really switch what you put in the big glass jar in the center up so you could run with an elegant three wick candle and a snowflake bow and have this be out all winter.

For all my readers, they are offering 10% off orders on their Silk Plants Direct Website if you use the code BLOGGER10. Let me know if you are interested in reviewing one of their items and I'll forward your info along. The hardest part is picking an item to be honest!

I'm back tomorrow with some work by my daughter. She is taking a hot glass class and you have to see what she's been up to. Proud Mom Moment!

Friends Together Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

We had a really nice bunch of kids at our house this past Sunday for paintball. Luke likes to host one of these right events around his birthday, however it's never a Birthday Party. Despite the rain, lots of paint was splattered and kids left grinning. I alternated standing by the wood stove in the garage eating cupcakes with hanging out in my office playing with this really sweet cutting file called Happy Fall Scene Card Template from THE CUTTING CAFE.

This red truck makes me very happy as does the very cool pumpkins I put in the back. I ran with a water color look that I got by stamping the color on white paper and then spritzing with some clear mist. I even stamped on some grass...little loops. FUN TIMES!!!

So pretty!!! Those little leaves for the pumpkins are like icing on the cake!

Well, I'm off to put another load of paint clothes in the laundry and start the dishwasher...from party clean up. The smile on my boy's face is worth it though!

Happy Monday!