With Sympathy

My teacher friends are requesting cards again this fall, and unfortunately sympathy cards are always needed. Instead of just mass producing a bunch of the same design, I decided to play around with my JustRite alphabets to see what I could create. I started out with a Classic Oval Stamper border and the Brayton alphabet for my first card. I really like how the sentiment stands out front and center. Very simple and clean. For the next card, I wanted my sentiment to be a little smaller so that my stamped background design could be seen more. I used the same combination of stamps as the first card but just took off the oval border stamp.
For the next card, I experimented with combining large and small alphabets together. To use the tiny alphabet, I needed to transfer my letters to the Classic Rectangle Stamper block. I used the Brayton alphabet for the large letters and the Small Font Set for the tiny letters to spell out *for my friend*. I really like the way you can create any sentiment you want with these combinations of alphabets. Then I got to thinking that not everyone needs a sympathy card for a friend per say, so I decided to make my smaller sentiment more generic in nature. So I changed out my small fonts to read *and caring thoughts*.

When working with the alphabets, it does take a little set up time. That's why I always like to stamp off at least five or six of the sentiments. You can mass produce all at once or save your stamped sentiments for later. I prefer to make the cards up all at once while I have my supplies out.

For the floral images on my cards, I used Papertrey's Spiral Bouquet stamp set, patterned paper, Plum Pudding and Lavender Mist cardstock. For the scallop edges, I used a Fiskar's border punch. Spellbinder's dies were used for the embossed squares and scallop squares.

??...I've questions as to what JustRite Stamps I suggest to purchase first. I really suggest that you take some time and go throug ALL the wonderful products JustRite has to offer. There are so many new alphabets and borders, it might be hard to decide what to get first. Think about what you want to create.....do you want to make monogrammed cards for generic cards? Then perhaps an alphabet stamp with fun borders might be the ticket. If you're making wedding or baby invitations/cards, then definitely look at the more specific baby and wedding stamps. If you want to make Christmas or gift items, then look for those products.

For my preference, I like to stamp with the wood stampers best. I can easily change out the ink colors and I like the feel of working with a wood stamp block. But if you want a single ink color that you'll be using lots and want to mass produce easily, then be sure to look at the original stampers. It's all up to you and the possibilities are endless. Have fun!!

Lockhart Quilts

Hi everyone, Happy Labor Day Weekend! Thank you for all the fun comments about my craft room. I'll be back later to answer some questions. For today's post, I have some beautiful cards I made using Karen Lockhart's quilt block stamps. I found more inspiration from my fun ribbons I got at Archiver's a few weeks ago....and this wonderful paper from Melissa Frances. I paired the beautiful green and blue tones with black. I thought that made the cards really pop. I also used sentiments from Papertrey's Quilter's Sampler stamp set. Perfect combination.

Here's some up close details of buttons and shiny sequins, Spellbinder's dies and the ribbon.

Look at the detail on the stamps too, Karen did a wonderful job with her quilt blocks.

Guess what? I've found a friend to start quilting with me!! My friend Carmen wants to quilt so we're going to seek out lessons and hit some great shops we know of. I can't wait!!! Now we just have to find the time to do it.

I hope you all have a great weekend! My girls spent the night at Eric's folks last night so we met up with some friends for dinner at this little country style restaurant. I saw an antique store next door but of course it was closed by then. So Eric came in this morning and said *get up dear, I'm taking you junking!*. WHAT????? Awwwwwwlright, ya don't have to twist my arm! So I'm having coffee, chatting with you guys and now I'm heading for the shower! I'll be back later my dearies. What are YOU doing fun this weekend, I'd love to hear your plans! We saw lots of campers last night out on the highway, wish we had one!!

My Craft Room

After the girls got back into their school routine, I got inspired to rearrange my craft room. I tore into everything and totally rearranged my room and purged. Man, does that feel good. I'm not showing you the areas that aren't done yet though. I have a huge closet that is still a mess but that will have to wait for another day. So here we go! My room suits my blog name....a total Mish Mash of this and that. Stuff I like, stuff I purchase here and there, just lots of stuff!

This is a wall of tall shelving units, Target open cubes, Pottery Barn desktop organizers and plastic Sterlite 3-drawer units. All of my solid cardstock, small embellishments, punches, tools, etc are here. Each drawer is labeled with a homemade tag and tied on with ribbon.
More Target storage units, wire shelving from local hardware store and wall hanging units from Pottery Barn. My friend Cami told a bunch of friends about these PB units going on clearance. I think we bought them ALL. I know I bought 5 and was hiding boxes for days. Man, I laugh about that! It really WAS a good deal and it was Pottery Barn!!
This is my stamping table. I sent my mom on one of our so called *missions* and she found this standing height table at a garage sale for $35 bucks. Score!! It's got drop down leafs and 4 drawers, just perfect!
My shelf of M's, kinda got a monogram thing going on there. Shelf is made from old barn wood and door knobs. I get a new one each year at this awesome craft show my mom and I have been going to for about 20 some years in Hillsboro, Kansas.

Plastic pegboard unit my brother made for me when he built our house. Ancient Fiskars scissors (had to have every pair!) are on wooden pegs. Ribbon spools are on wire pegs that slip into the pegboard holes.
This is where my room takes on it's personality. I swear my craft room is turning into a kitchen and laundry room of sorts. I found an old wooden ironing board that I thought would be perfect for my sewing machine that my mom found at a garage sale for $10 bucks. Another one of those craft show shelves holds my precious clothes pin dresses. Aren't they adorable? I started collecting them a year or so ago. They hold my clothespins that I use to clip together papers and wrap ribbon around. Rows of Longaberger canning jars full of buttons and flowers sit on the top shelf.
More shelving and this cute little cabinet I found an an antique store. Once I got it home and started cleaning it, I found an orignal Hoosier label on it. Score!! I think I paid $35 for it. It's got a laminate top and drop down side leafs. Two shelves on the inside that smell like old baby powder. Lots of bobby pins too, I think someone used it as a stylist station or maybe in a bathroom.
Jars of buttons sit in a wire hanging unit. Underneath are tins that have magnets. More storage!
My new type of old storage are these boxes. They're the perfect size for my CD cases full of wonderful Papertrey Stamps and more. HEAVEN! And easy to flip through too. I have my mom and dad on another *mission* to find more of these on their vacation. They love when I send them on missions, it's like a scavenger hunt for them!

Paper towel holder that matches those craft show shelves. My friend Pine needs one of these so that she can wipe off her acrylic blocks. Have you seen her blocks??????? LOL! Love ya Piney!
Closeup of the clothespin dresses just because they're so cute.
I have about 15 of these old locker room wire baskets. They have the number plaques on them and they sell for big bucks at places. I've seen them starting at $15 each or more for good ones. My sister got these for me on Ebay for $4-5 bucks each. She got a good stash for herself too. I keep them on a sturdy steel storage unit that I got at Sam's Club years ago.
I like to see my stuff yet have it contained in one place. Each basket holds a grouping of supplies, like my JustRite stamping stuff. Soldering stuff in another. Crafty Secrets stamps in another and so on. No mixy matchy here, only one group of stuff for each basket.
I framed Jordy's little picture she painted of the birds that nested on the front porch this spring. Isn't she GOOD? Takes after her mother I think.

Old scraps of wood that I painted and added clothespins to. Holds lots of lightweight papers like my Copic color charts, address labels, finished cards I want to display, etc.
Are you still with me? Okay. My Copic markers. What's more to say, they're awesome!! I store them in a Pottery Barn Kids lazy susan organizer. Making Memories now has a cool one out too.
Useful but kind of awkward to store tools go into hiding, like my Cuttlebug and folders and Bind It All. I found these old tin bread/flour bins at an antique store. Love them, need to find more. You should see the smirks I get from Eric when I'm on my missions. I bypass the fine antiques and head right for the cheap junk. He's always amazed at where stuff ends up at our house.
Looky here at my new ribbon. I found this canning jar pan (I think that's what it is) in an old basket. Totaly forgot I bought it but what a surprise. You'll notice that I don't use a lot of plastic to hold my stuff. I like REAL things like wood and metal and glass. You'll also notice that I like the word STUFF. It encompasses so much with just one word. Stuff is good.

Here's some more good stuff. The round tin plate came in a box of tins that I got at an auction. The plate is from this one store I can't remember the name of but it's cool. You should go there sometime. Not Apothecaries but something like that. The small rectangle tray is from a garage sale. I love to keep a stash of these handy so that I can dump out buttons, beads, etc. Have to be careful though of junk starts piling up.
I love little tin drinking cups and measuring cups to keep tools in. What is the name of that STORE! Anyone?
Here's a new find, some textured bread tins. These are perfect to hold finished cards. I found these at a junk store nearby. This old drunk guy runs it. He always try to sell me stupid stuff....I tell him his price is too high and that his store stinks like musty old cigarette smoke. We have a great time together when I visit. Cratchety old fart.
My must have tools that I must have sitting on my table top. They all fit into this divided wooden drawers, see the little pull handle? One slot fits my CLEAN(ahem, Piney) acrylic blocks of all shapes and sizes, cleaner spray, blue dots and SU! Dimensionals, pens, scissors, sanding blocks, adhesive,etc. If you borrow something from this box, it BETTER get put back. Probably best if you just bring your own stuff when you come over to stamp, okay? LOL!! Jordan frequently *borrows* my supplies and I've been tempted many times to call the school to ask where my stuff is!!
Oh, I see I've run out of photos now. Well that should be plenty. So there you have it. All of my stuff...my own room......what more could a girl want.....besides Nichole's stamping room? LOL!

Edit: Ding, ding ding, we have a winner! I knew you girls would help me out....

The store you're trying to think of...is it Anthropologie? Thanks for sharing!--

Tammy D.

That's it Tammy! Thank you, you just saved me a day's worth of pondering!! You guys are awesome!! Soooooo, do you think I could start a business....guided junk tours.....new ways to shop for junk to hold your stuff! Sounds kinda catchy to me!

Ducky Baby Card

All summer, I've had no card business, nada. I go back to school and I get a request for a gift ensemble for a friend's mom for her birthday, a request for my card basket so the teachers can refill their stash and 10 baby shower invitations. Woohoo, I'm back in business!! I knew that the Bitty Baby Blessings set from Papertrey would be a perfect match for the baby shower invitations. The invites need to be non gender so I think I'll use the onsie or perhaps the baby elephant, who knows. I'll post those when I get them done.

In the mean time, here's a baby card I did a while back. I used the large ducky from the Bitty Baby Blessings set to do some paper piecing for the main image. It's mounted on a Spellbinder's cut and embossed square which was also airbrushed with a Copic Sketch marker and the airbrush system. I adhered that piece to a piece of Lemon Tart cardstock which was cut with the Spellbinder's Label die template. For the bottom of the card, I stamped the tiny ducky images all in a row and colored them in with Copic markers. I love that there are large and small images of each animal in this set, cute!!
For the card base, I used Papertrey's Lemon Tart cardstock and matching Lemon Tart Swiss Dot Satin ribbon, tied in a big bow. Background paper and alphabet strip are from Cosmo Cricket.

Hope you enjoy! There's nothing like being at that age when you're first married and then all your friends start having babies. It's such an exciting time of life.

Answers to some questions...

Q: I love the samples you did with PaperTrey's Quilt stamp set on July 14's post. Are all the paper strips from Cosmo Cricket's Honey Pie set? I recognize a couple but some on the left side (of all the strips) I don't see as coming in single sheets. Did you get the 8x8 pack or are they all single? Thanks!

A: All of the papers are from the 8 x 8 pack, I believe. I cut papers into strips for my cards. I think there were some individual papers in that pack that also had little strips that you could cut out individually.

Well, now I can't find the rest of the questions. If you have a burning question for me, post it here and I'll try to shoot back some answers. Thank you all for visiting my blog, I just love to read your comments!

I'm so into reading right now. I loved all the book suggestions you gave me. I made a list to find at the library. I loved this comment from Josie, what a great idea:

Reminds me of years ago after I read a quilting fictional book, I passed it on to a friend. On the inside I put a little inscription that as quilts are handed down to very special people in our lives so should this book. I asked that it be passed on from friend to friend. Asking each person to put a little note inside of it. About five years later the book was returned to me and I was amazed at how far the little book had traveled. I passed it on again and have not seen it since, but hope it is still bringing joy! Just wish I could remember the name of it!!!!! Thanks for the memories! Josie

Someone asked how to thread a button...not sure if you were serious or not with the *lol* comment afterwards. But if you are, and you need to know, here's a great link:

http://www.wikihow.com/Sew-a-Button

Instant Inspiration...Rustic Branches/October Afternoon

This day, I created just for myself. I needed a bunch of birthday cards for upcoming September birthdays so I set out to make a bunch. Check our Nichole's post HERE. She did the same thing but for thank you cards. Are YOU sending out cards? Don't forget that feeling you get when you receive a hand made card in the mail.....just for you. Other's love that feeling too and you are sure to make some one's day by sending them a card to let them know you are thinking of them.

On to my cards. Instant Inspiration.....I just started pulling out supplies from my stash that I like. I purchased all this new ribbon at Archiver's recently so that was my starting point. My October Afternoon paper was a perfect match. I just love to see these little piles of products on my stamping table.

I already knew the stamp set I wanted to use...Pine's new Rustic Branches stamp set from Papertrey Ink. She totally got me hooked on Twinkling Watercolors too. So after deciding that I was going to make six birthday cards, I went to work. I cut and embossed 6 Spellbinder's Label dies from Papertrey's Vintage Cream Cardstock. I think painted my Twinkling H2O's onto my wreath stamp until I had 6 completed images. Hint: I keep a little spray bottle handy and just keep re-wetting my Twinkling H2O's. I find that if you get the little paint really wet and let it sit a little bit, it gets a little thicker consistency. This helps it apply to the acrylic stamps a little better.
Next, I stamped the berries on the wreaths with Papertrey's Dark Chocolate ink. Then I reached for my jar of vintage buttons. This whole jar of buttons has been snipped right off of clothing, so lucky for me they're all threaded. I just adhered them to the centers of the rustic wreath and set them aside to dry. These will become my focal images.
Next I decided on specific paper and ribbon. I chose two patterns from October Afternoon and four different ribbons. It was time to assemble my cards. I cut my patterned paper into 4" squares to get maximum usage out of a 12 x 12 sheet. For my card bases, I used Papertrey's Vintage Cream cardstock.
And here's my finished cards. I did three of each design for a total of 6 cards. I love how vintage and homemade they look. I finished up the cards with a *Happy Birthday* sentiment from PTI's Birthday Basics stamp set.
Here's a closeup of the ribbon. Hint: Because this ribbon was a little pricey, I only use it in snippets, never all the way around a card. So what I did for my cards was cut enough for the card fronts only, applied a little adhesive and then stapled the ends at the edges of the cards. This holds it all in place and adds to that homey feel of the cards. The textures are amazing too!

I did the same thing for the little ribbon snippets on the focal piece. I added a little bit of adhesive and then stapled the ribbon to secure it in place.
Here's my cards, all ready to be sent out. I placed some envelopes and all of my cards into a junk store bread tin find....they're all ready to be written in, addressed and sent out. September birthday cards done!! Oh, zoom in on this photo below to see the shimmery effects of the Twinkling H2O's, it's soooooo pretty.
So, my dears, I now challenge you all to do a little mass producing of your own. Send out those birthday cards, get well cards and just plain ol' thinking of you cards to those that would really love your creations. You'll be sure to make someone's day.

Lockhart Harvest Candle

As I was strolling down the aisles of Michael's yesterday, I was surrounded by the sights and smells of Fall....lots of wreaths, flowers, cinnamon smelling candles, fake pumpkins and gourds, decorations and more! It made me think of Karen Lockhart's new stamp called Harvest Candle. This is the perfect stamp for Fall season. You could use it clear up to the Thanksgiving season. I've paired the stamp with sentiments from Papertrey Ink's First Fruits sets and ribbon to make a nice card to give out around Thanksgiving. Image is colored with Copic markers and cut out with a new Spellbinder's label die. Sentiment is stamped and layered on Spellbinder's circles. Ribbon is Summer Sunrise from Papertrey Ink, Patterned papers are from Webster's Pages, which I purchased at Emma's Paperie.
My *sweet* reds earned themselves some extra chores around the house today, so my photos of my shopping trip from yesterday will have to wait. I'm playing the role of mean mom dictator today! Have a great day today, I'm hoping my afternoon will be a little smoooother.

Cherry Fruit Dip...Lockhart

Edited to add printable version of recipe.

Hi everyone, it's the weekend and I'm off to have some fun. I'm going to a purse party today and my favorite scrapbook store. It rained here very heavily last night so I slept in til 8am! I gotta go girls, there's shopping to be done! You wanna see what I got when I get home? Ok.

Here's a little recipe for you today. It's Cherry Fruit Dip that my niece made for my nephew's graduation a few years back. It's yummy and the girls can't get enough of it! I'll post the cut and past version of the recipe for you later. Enjoy!! The stamp is from Karen Lockhart, paper from October Afternoon. Becky Higgins cursive font from Creating Keepsakes. I'll be back later girls!!

Here's the printable recipe, just copy and paste into your own word document:

Cherry Fruit Dip

1-8 oz package cream cheese
1-6 oz cherry yogurt
1 cup Cool Whip
1 cup marshmallow creme

Beat cream cheese and yogurt. Fold in marshmallow creme and Cool Whip. Serve with fresh fruit such as strawberries, pineapple, apples, etc.

Lockhart Apple Card....Jenni Bowlin inspired

I'm subbing today at the high school. It's my first official day....I went in Tuesday to sub and I was a month early! They didn't need me til September 19th. I'm sure I wrote it down correctly....it wasn't my fault....I'm always right....just ask my husband. LOL! Anyway, I thought a nice teacher card would be appropriate for today. I'm using Jenni Bowlin's cool papers from yesterday's post and the Lockhart Apples in Chintz Bowl stamp. I colored my image with Copic markers...love how you can shade so effortlessly with Copics! This photo is a little blurry on the closeup...again, not my fault, it's the camera's!
Here we go, this one's better. I cut my image out with a new Spellbinder's die and layered it onto my patterned paper background. Love those polka dots! I added buttons and a flower for embellishments.
And here's the bottom of the card, all tied up pretty with a Papertrey Spring Moss ribbon and an adorable Spellbinder's ribbon slide tag. I love it! The sentiment words are from Papertrey.

I love the idea of making teacher cards a bit more sophisticated than the typical primary colored cards. My girls are in middle school now...I still love to send stuff for the teachers but this type of card seems a little more grown up for the girls to give. Hope you enjoy and wish me luck today!