WANTED: Photographer

Wanted:  Looking for a professional photographer who is willing to work for pennies.  Skills required for this position are:  1) the abilitity to take clear and precise photos of the establishments paper crafts and other creative endevors that the owner might produce and
                    2) the abilitiy to photograph before mentioned creative endevors even if they are on brushed copper cardstock with iridecent ice embossed on them.
Please apply ASAP to the owner of this blog.
                                                                              

Ok.....ever had  project turn out GREAT but no one will ever know it because despite the 50-70 pictures (unfortunately, I am NOT exaggerating on this one) I have tried to take, none of them showed the fact that the brushed copper and the beads MATCH in real life or the fact that the pinecone is stamped in chocolate chip craft and embossed with iridescent ice embossing powder.  You are just going to have to trust me on this when I say that this looks wonderful and everything matchs!!  This is the project that inspired this card.

I cut and embossed 3 Spellbinders Fleur de Lis on brushed copper and attached them on the diaganol to make my 3D ornament.  I threaded some nylon monofilament through and added the beads to the bottom and top.  The top is tied off on a hand made copper hanger using 26 gauge wire.  I then stamped the Small Pinecone Ornament from Just for Fun twice using SU's craft chocolate chip ink and embossed with iridecent ice embossing powder.   I cut out both pinecones and attached them back to back over the center portion of the monofilament.  Supplies:  Paper:  Brushed copper.  Inks:  SU's craft chocolate chip. Stamps:  Just For Fun Small Pinecone Ornament B2499.   Accessories:  Spellbinders Fleur de Lis S4-204, Big Shot, iridescent ice ep, heat gun, glue dots, monofilament, beads.

Thanks for stopping by again!!  I'm off to do some more decorating for the holidays!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!! If you are traveling, I hope you have a safe (and non-eventful) trip.

For all of the men and women who are serving our country to ensure our basic FREEDOMS
THANK YOU!!

I'm very lucky in that my mother in law does all the work for this day of feasting.  The only thing that I'm requested to bring EVERY year is the following recipe for the cranberry salad.  All of the family LOVES this!!  It is very easy to make (my type of "cooking").  This would also make a wonderful summer treat~~just buy some extra bags of cranberries, freeze and enjoy in the summer time.

Cranberry Salad (originally found in some little book called The Little Book of Christmas Joys)

Yield:  16-20 servings

1 pound cranberries
4 oranges, one unpeeled
1 15-oz can crushed pineapple, drained, reserving the juice
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
3 envelopes of unflavored gelatin
1/2 pound pecans (optional....my family is nuts, but doesn't like the nuts!)

Wash and sort the berries.  Peel all but one orange and cut up all of the oranges.  In a food grinder or food processor grind the cranberries and oranges.  Add the drained pineapple, reserving the juice.  Stir in the sugar and mix well.  In a small saucepan combine the reserved pineapple juice and orange juice.  Sprinkle the gelatin on top and stir.  Heat until the gelatin is completely dissolved.  Add the gelatin to the fruit mixture.  Pour into a pretty bowl that will hold  about 3-quarts (the recipe calls for pouring into a greased 3 quart mold, like a Bundt pan....I tried one year to do that....the "Erma" in me couldn't get it out of the pan all nice and pretty, so now I just make it in a pretty glass bowl and we serve from there!!)

I'm off to try and make a Pumpkin Flan recipe.  Pumpkin pie is not the favorite dessert offered on the table,  so I always take the opportunity to experiment with a new pumpkin dessert!!  I figure if it doesn't turn out, there are lots of other desserts to eat and we can pitch the experiment!!

Again~~Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!  And THANK YOU for dropping by and visiting my little corner here in cyberland!

SALE!!

Just a real quick heads up on a SALE that starts Thursday at midnight!!

JUST FOR FUN is having a special 48-Hour Black Friday Sale! Beginning at 12:00 midnight Thursday, Thanksgiving Day and until midnight Friday, November 28, all purchases will receive a 25% discount!

I will be back tomorrow to wish you all a formal HAPPY THANKSGIVING and to share a DELISH recipe (every once in a while the "Erma Bombeck" pulls a "Martha Stewart" hehe!!)

Till then.....sweet dreams!!

Here Comes Santa Clause

Here comes Santa Clause, Here comes Santa Clause, right down memory lane (and now, you too, can have that song stuck in YOUR head!! hehe)

Christmas is my FAVORITE time of year!! I just LOVE all the lights, decorations and music (though, I could do without all the added stress I put on myself during this holiday! hehe).  I'm pulling out the decorations today and thought I'd share a small peek.

I have different themes for the different rooms of my house.  My formal room will have my large tree that is decorated in white, cobolt blue ornaments leaning towards snowflakes/Santa.  My other room accents are my small, but growing collection of Santas.  Now, mind you.  Not just any Santa will work.  All the Santas that I have must fit a certain criteria.  Which is very simple.  They must be dressed in white/silver or cobolt blue.  That's it (ok...I broke the rule for one Santa. He is dressed in a lovey brown/copper suit that just goes lovely with my brown walls)

A couple of years ago I made a wreath to go over my couch in this room. OH MY!!! Can I just take this moment to pat myself on my own back? I LOOVE how this wreath turned out. It far exceeded my idea. I wish I could capture the beauty of this better on the camera (seriously, I REALLY like this wreath, can you tell?! hehe!!). Since I just pulled it out and put it up on the wall I thought I'd share a peek.

 

Ok....so I'd love to hear what your favorite Christmas/holiday decoration is.  If you have pictures, even better!! I'd love to take a peek between decorating binges!!

Off to work!! Thanks for taking another peek today!! I'm hoping that doing some decorating will get my creative juices flowing for some paper crafting!!

On Your Mark, Get Set.....

..........GOOOO!!!!

Howdy Strangers! Been forever since I've been here!  Yes, yes.  I know that you are use to my flakiness, but that does not mean that each week I don't strive to do better!! I will only offer this explanation (versus an excuse)~~It would seem that when one is the on-call therapist, that same therapist might THINK she is only scheduled for ONE day of work in a week, but will actually end up working ALL week.

Ok...enough blabber.  On with the goods!!

I'm going to show you two different versions of this card.  The first one is the original.  The second I added a folded piece of Wild Wasabi under the transparecny (it is not attached as I like the fact that I can change the look of the card easily)  Personally, I like both of them. 

Today's card is actually very simple, but I like it.  It was inspired by one of my mother-in-laws trees (yes, she has two).  She has one tree that is her "rustic" tree and is covered with bronze and gold(ish) ornaments that are all in the theme of the outdoors (pinecones, birds, leaves....).  I used my new Spellbinders Fleur de Lis Pendent and cut out two pendent frames using brushed copper cardstock.  I then stamped the Small Pinecone Ornament from Just for Fun Stamps  twice on a scap piece of the copper cardstock with SU's craft chocolate chip ink and embossed using iridescent ice.  I then taped down the pendents on a piece of 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 piece of transparency (I use Office Depot's write on transparencies).  Then carefully, I held my breath as I used my stampamajig to stamp the Merry Christmas using Timber Brown stazon directly onto the transparency (the seniment was masked off so that I could "split" it on either side of the bottom angle of the pendent).  I used some more iridescent ice to CAREFULLY emboss the words to give them a little sparkle.  The transparency did warp a tad, but nothing to stress about.  I then colored a couple of self adhesive rinestones with my copics and DONE!!

This card was actually inspired by another project that I'm woking on.  Got almost done and realized that I don't have the perfect embellishments for it.  I'm hoping that I can  run to JoAnn's soon (I'm dreading the thought of doing it on Black Friday, but I just might brave the horror of shopping on that day just for you, my dear and faithful readers!!).

Until then~Thanks for stopping by again!! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING and please remember~~we are FREE to celebrate THANKS to all the men and woman who are serving in our armed forces to ensure that!!

In the Trash.....

.....are all three DIFFERNT projects that I attempted today.  My mojo has come up with some AWESOME ideas.  The problem?  My creative output cannot get them to work.  Why am I sharing this?  Because I just decided that sometimes it is best to throw ideas away.  Sometimes it is best to walk away and clean your house (yes, that is how frustrated I've become!) and sometimes everyone needs to admit that it doesn't always come easy and that is ok too. 

I need to realize that when I look at all your blogs and see your creations, I'm seeing the end product.  Not the process of getting there.  I don't see your trash can.  Just mine filling up. 

I'm walking away now.  And that is ok

Golden....

It has been forever and a day since I've done one of the weekly challenges on Splitcoaststampers.  So today I decided to combine the sketch challenge with the CAS (clean and simple) challenge which was a color challenge using white and ONE other color.  This is the idea I came up with while walking the pooch (hmmm....maybe I should try walking him more often! lol)

Did you notice the RIBBON?!!  I actually got this tied on the VERY FIRST TRY!! (yeah, I just about passed out!! I'm not getting my hopes up yet that ribbon and I can work out our differences...but I'm giving points to the ribbon for at least working with me on this!!) 

I stamped the Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps with Encore gold metallic ink and embossed using SU's gold embossing powder.  I filled in the stem using my new Krylon gold leafing pen.  Scored an edge around a piece of Whisper White using my Scor Pal and used the gold leafing pen to add an edge.  I then ran this piece  it thru my Cuttlebug with the embossing folder (ok, I'll admit...have NO idea what folder this is!!).  I cut out my squares (2 1/2 x  1/2 inches) and embossed an edge again using my Scor Pal.  Added gold leafing to these edges as well (gotta luv the look of lots of layers without the bulk!!).  I then cut out my main image using my Spellbinders rectangle nestabilitie and did the edge as the previous ones. 

Quick and easy!! LOL!! I will admit that the ribbon is a little more fru-fru than I consider my style (grunge to fru-fru...how's that for an ecletic collection?) Supplies:  Paper:  SU's Whisper White.  Stamps:  D2762 Holly Swag from Just for Fun Stamps.  Ink:  Encore metallic gold.  Accessories:  Cuttlebug and cb embossing folder.  Spellbinders rectangle nestabilities, Krylon gold leafing pen.  SU's gold embossing powder.  And the beautiful ribbon came from my friend Melody!!

******
On an unrelated subject.  It would seem as if my outdated computer is wanting to die.  It is still (kinda) working, but I'm having major issues with pop ups, virus warnings and my every day applications not working like they should.  I think that a new computer is in the works.  But! Just wanted to let you kow  what was going on if I disappear for a while (oh yeah!! I've prepared you all for that possibility with my flaky postings already!!  Well, good.  At least this time I have an excuse other than my over scheduling of life!! hehe)


Thanks for stopping by again!  I really appreciate all your comments.  It helps the creative juices to keep flowing!
'Till next time!