Tag Archives: paper crafting

Christmas Lantern

I’ve been gone for a while and there is no excuse!  I’m not really sure what has been keeping me so busy lately, but I have been.

The peach tree in our back yard provided us with a bumper crop this year.  Compared to last year’s 5-peach harvest, if peaches were dollars we’d have a million.  After giving as many as we could away, eating many fresh ones, and making a cobbler and a pie, we’ve frozen about 23 quarts.  We started making peach jam with them this week.  As I write this, my husband is out back and is now picking a bumper crop of grapes from our grape vines. We again got very few last year.  (He insists on planting these kinds of things.)  He will be spending the day washing, bagging and freezing them until I can get to them for grape jelly at a later date.  I pray to God the apple tree he planted a few years ago never produces fruit! 🙂  We start with strawberries from a small strawberry patch (it continues to grow)  we have in June, cherries from our tree in July, August is peach month, then grapes…I don’t want apples, but…shhhhhhhhh!  Please don’t tell him I said that.  Oh, we can’t forget the tomatoes from the garden that make great pasta sauce!  All kidding aside, there is nothing like the taste of a freshly picked piece of fruit or vegetable.

I’m getting ready for a very busy end of the year beginning with next week.  I will be traveling without my husband to visit my daughter, her significant other, and my grand-daughter in Virginia Beach.  I am looking forward to the adventure as I have never been there before.  I mean, how could anyone not LIKE the beach!  From there, my daughter and I will drive with the baby to Ohio to visit my mother and the rest of our family.  We will celebrate Stella’s first birthday there.  We will celebrate it again when we return to Virginia with her other grandmother who is set to arrive two days before I head back home.

Two weeks after returning to Colorado, my sister and brother-in-law will be visiting for three weeks as we plan a road trip to Yosemite National Park…or whatever is left of it after the devastating wildfires in Northern California this summer.  I’m sure it will be fun!  There are always wineries and Reno, Nevada and Lake Tahoe are only an hour away from where we will be staying.

November means…you guessed it…a week in Orlando, Florida with my bestie Carol for Stampin’ Up!’s 30 Anniversary Celebration at On Stage Live!  Can’t wait! Can’t wait!  I’ll get home and I will be very thankful that I DO NOT have to make Thanksgiving dinner this year as we have been invited elsewhere.  So that means I’ll have a month to get ready for Christmas!  Hopefully January will not be too much of a let down.

So this little project I am sharing today has been in the works for a while.  I think I created it in July and decided to hold off awhile before sharing it.  But then things started happening and I was almost afraid I wouldn’t get it posted at all.  This is probably the best time for it, because it is well in advance of the Christmas holidays, which gives everyone time to react and actually make it.  I had intended on doing a video, but when I started I just couldn’t seem to get my act together.  Maybe it has been too long since my last one.  So, I opted to do this the old-fashioned way by doing a written tutorial with a million and one photos to guide you.

The inspiration for this came one day while I browsing that web site that sucks your time away before you even realize it…what’s it called…Pintrist! 🙂 I saw this photo of a Christmas lantern and wondered why I couldn’t make one myself?!

So, one Sunday afternoon, I closeted myself into my tiny stamp room (my husband forgot about me until dinner time) with a pad of grid paper and a ream (there are 500 sheets in a ream)  of cheep card stock on the desk in front of me. (I should have taken photos of my process, but I didn’t).    And this is what I ended with.

There is no stamping in this project.  Just a lot of measuring and cutting and gluing.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  As I’ve mentioned before, sometimes I impress myself.  It is amazing what we can do when we set our mind to it!  And I think I realized in the creation of this lantern why I like paper crafting so much.  When I was  kid I didn’t do a lot of cutting and pasting, and making a big paper mess.  We weren’t allowed because my mother always said it was wasting.  “Don’t waste the tape!” or “Don’t waste the paper!” was what I heard.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming Mom.  Times were different, money was tight.  Paper was needed for homework or school.  My mother grew up in Italy during World War II when you didn’t even think of coloring, or cutting, or pasting!

Any way…here are a few more photos and the link for the written tutorial.

If you have questions about it, please let me know.  I am willing to help.

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

P.S.  I got the pine cones from a local craft store.  Or if you are lucky, you can go out to your own back yard.  🙂

Price: $110.00

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Animal Outing Meets Tropical Chic

Here is what I’ve been up to lately.  I really like the Animal Outing stamp set.  The images in it are adorable.  It can be used for either an adult or child’s card.  I decided to take things one step further and paired Animal Outing with some of the images from Tropical Chic and I’m liking the result.

We made this first card at my monthly club this past Saturday and I think it was a hit.  Rhino image is so cute.  I stamped it in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink and just colored it with one of the Basic Gray Stampin’ Blend markers.   I used a blender pen and Lemon Lime Twist for the frog on the branch.

 

We haven’t made this next card at club yet.  This is the one where I combined the two stamp sets.  I  stamped the giraffe images in Soft Suede.  It was something someone suggested I try.  It did not run when I colored with the Stampin’ Blends which is nice to know.

I colored the giraffe with the dark Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blend and then went over the spots on each with a blender pen and crushed curry ink to make them a little darker.   The smaller giraffe is the mirror image of the original image that I stamped on a piece of window sheet first.  Unfortunately, the thinlits don’t have a mirror image die, so it had to be fussy cut.  The words were fussy cut as well.

Not much more to share today.  But before I say goodbye, I have to share our current promotion.  These items are new and only available for a limited time.

 

 

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Price: $110.00

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The Other Day, My Favorite Aunt Passed Away

I, along with other members of my family, am mourning the loss of my favorite aunt who passed away on Friday June 15 2018.  Married to my father’s younger brother, she was Aunt Jane.  She was 84 years old.  Some will say she lived a long and fulfilling life, she was elderly, her health was declining… it is the natural course of things.  Even still, it doesn’t make it any easier. Even though it may have been expected, it does not make it less unbearable.  She had a husband and children and grandchildren (and a lot of nieces and nephews) that loved her.  Her passing will forever leave a hole.

When your favorite aunt passes away, it’s like saying good-by to a part of your childhood.   She was a bright spot in mine.  I will forever remember the kind and amazing woman she was.  As one of my cousins said, heaven gained a saint on the day that she left us.

Since she lived in Pennsylvania and as I have other family commitments this week, I am unable to attend her funeral services.  I would have though.  My daughter is moving to the East coast this week and I promised I’d help her pack up. However, I would like to share some of the things I remember about her in this blog post.

Aunt Jane had a way of making everyone around her feel relaxed and at ease.  She was an inspirational woman who taught me to enjoy creating. Whether it was sewing, cross stitch, or embroidery she was one of the people that inspired me to create.  I still have a hand sewn activity book she made for my daughter when she was a toddler that I will soon be passing on to my granddaughter.  She was always making something for someone else, whether it was one of us, her nieces and nephews, her children, sisters-in-law, or someone at church.  She always gave herself to the service of others.

I will forever remember her for her kind smile and prize winning strawberry rhubarb pie!  Actually, all of the pies she made were excellent, but strawberry rhubarb is what I think of first. And her pie crusts were to die for!

Her pies aren’t all that make her memorable.  I remember her for the summers I spent with her and my cousins; Michael and David (Lisa didn’t come along until much later) at 533 S. Center Street.  533 S. Center Street was a giant size green-colored Victorian home situated on a busy street in a small town in Pennsylvania.  It had a large porch across the front and side with a front door entrance into a foyer, and a side door off the porch into the living room.  I can still remember going in through the front door and seeing the massive dark oak stairway that lead to the upstairs.  The upstairs housed a complete two-bedroom apartment with another porch across the side of the house and a stairway up to the attic from the bathroom.  She had also set up her sewing room in the upstairs kitchen.  I remember bathing in the claw-foot bathtubs, the dumb waiter that went from floor to floor, the ceiling high kitchen cabinets, and the beautiful antique chandelier over the dining room table. Aunt Jane always said it was an old house, but I always thought it was a beautiful house and will always remember her there in it. I remember all of these things, but most of all, I remember the feeling I always had when I was there in that house with Aunt Jane or anytime she was near.

Aunt Jane made me feel worthy.  She always listened to what I had to say and she never discounted how I felt.  When I was a little girl, probably in 3rd or 4th grade, I would sometimes write letters to her just because she would say, “Write to me Josie.  Let me know what you are doing.”  So, I wrote, “Dear Aunt Jane, How are you?  Fine I hope…” And she would write back.  A letter from my aunt!  Who would think a simple thing like writing a short note and mailing it to a young girl would mean so much?  Something she did before she mailed the letters is add the imprint of her lips in red lipstick on the seal. She always sealed her letters with a kiss.  My Aunt Jane never forgot my birthday!  She always sent a card when I was a kid, and as an adult, she always called on my birthday to wish me a happy one.  Who knew my last birthday call would be this past February?

I remember the time she invited my entire family (my mother, father, sister and me) for dinner.  She  and my uncle had some news to share!   She announced my Cousin Lisa’s impending arrival.  Of course, at the time we didn’t know it would be a girl and we didn’t know she would be “Lisa”, but I remember how happy we were.

I remember going to the Dairy Queen that her brother, Uncle Mike, owned.  I also remember listening to Uncle Mike on the radio.  One day while we were listening to him I remember  Aunt Jane asked me if I liked Tom Jones.  (Okay, now I am dating myself.)  I didn’t know who he was and told her so.  She chuckled and said, “You don’t know who Tom Jones is?  Well, when you find out who he is, you let me know if you like him.”  She said she liked listening to and watching him in concert.  (Most women did.)

There are many other things I will remember about my Aunt Jane; too many to write them all here. My thoughts and prayers for strength during this difficult time are with you Uncle Sylvester, Michael, David, and Lisa.  Something I know for sure is your wife/mother will forever be one of the beautiful things I hold in my heart.

I Love you Aunt Jane!

 

And now to share a few cards I made and sent recently.  The first is my own creation; the others are CASEd.  I hope you enjoy them.  And at the very end of this post…down at the bottom,  are photos of the activity book my Aunt Jane made for my daughter when she was a toddler.  Thank you for humoring me today.

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!

 

 

 

 

 

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New Catalog Sneak Peak

Hello Stampers!

I’ve decided to give you a sneak peek of a bundle that will be available in the new Annual Catalog.  This stamp set was inspired by Million Sales Achiever Mary Fish and I love it!  I’ve paired it with a new set of thinlits that will be making its debut at the same time.

I call this one Varied Vases meets Stained Glass Thinlits.  I used the retiring In Color card stock Sweet Sugarplum.   I’m also loving the new thinlits.  I used the square thinlit and cut it out using Sweet Sugarplum.  I then used a square from the Layering Squares Thinlit Dies to cut out a square in the Whisper White piece.  I stamped the image on a solid piece of Whisper White card stock that measures 4″ x 5 1/4″ .  I layered the cut out piece over the stamped piece and popped it up using dimensionals.  I attached the frame with a glue dot under each rhinestone.  You won’t be able to order this bundle until June 1st.

 

Hope you enjoyed your visit here today!

Until next time…

Happy Stamping!