The kids and I made up these chocolate covered marshmallows the other day for a party we were going to.
They were quite a hit with the kids. TOO sweet for my liking though!!!
These are GINORMOUS marshmallows, although you can't tell so well from the photo. I DO however think they will be PERFECT for some s'mores!!! :)
I think I threw out the rest of my lollipop sticks so I had to use short skewers...eh....it worked!!

Coffee Cozy

I've been wanting to make up one of these cute little coffee cozies for some time now, I just haven't had the time. So this morning, before I took Sammo to his 9am Soccer game, I whipped this little beauty up. Nikki claimed it right away, which was fine with me. She just 'LOVES' this fabric. I even sewed on a little 'Sassy' tag for her........because she is! :)

CHECK out THIS BLOG!!

I've been doing some blog hopping this weekend. OH MY GOSH have I EVER been finding some GOOD/FUN stuff!!!!
Check out Becca's blog HERE.
She has a giveaway going on right now, until April 2, so HOP on over and check her out. You WON'T be disappointed!! :)
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!!

My FIRST digi-layout

I hope this works..........
I guess it did.
But wondering if it's SUPPOSED to be THIS small??? I know it's not THE BEST picture....lighting....BUT I wanted to just get going and the brown hat.....orange emblem.....it worked. :)
My little man.....my sweet boy! Can't believe he's going to be TEN next week!!!!

Cards for Connor

Please jump over to Rachele's blog to see how you can either participate or make a donation for Connor!!

CU or BUST!

My DEAR, SWEET friend Erin, who's blog you can find HERE
came over from Utah to spend a few days with us before we headed over to Lutherhaven in Idaho to spend the weekend at CU!!!!

(Creative University, in case you didn't know) :)

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

We had THE MOST AMAZING time!!! One can only EXPERIENCE CU to FULLY understand and appreciate the 'FABULOUSLY ARTSY' goodness it holds!!! :)

A quick pic of Erin and myself en route....

We HAD SOOOOOO MUCH FUN!!! I can not even EXPRESS into words what an AMAZING time was had by ALL! I, interestingly enough, didn't take many photos at ALL!!! WHAT??? I know..........but it's TRUE!!

This LOVELY bag was waiting for us when we arrived, filled with goodies

c/o Tresa.

I LOVE it!!!!

Here is it showing off one of the GORGEOUS charm sets I received, made by the lovely Donna Authenreith.
I don't have pics of ALL the GORGEOUS projects we worked on.........YET but I DO have a few! Allow me share what I DO have up.....

THIS is the sample of the canvas we did. Is it BEAUTIFUL OR WHAT????My flowers don't look quite as good as Denise's but..........still, I LOVE IT!

This next pic is of the necklace we did.....well, we made the pendant. :) Yes, that WOULD be a BIG 'ol NASTY FLY STUCK in the middle and YES! That WOULD in fact be MINE!!! UGH!!!

Bren, the amazing woman who taught us how to make this incredibly awesome pendant, was sweet enough to let me make another. I LOVE it and Nikki loves it!! She even wore it to school yesterday!!! No kidding! I haven't taken a picture of my NEW one yet.......

Some of you MAY remember my post about the charms I was preparing for the charm swap at CU......well, here is a picture of me and my roomies (hands) sprting our NEW charm bracelets!!

Now, THAT, my dear friends, is a CHARM BRACELET!! :) And OH MY GOSH!!!! The charms are GORGEOUS!!!! I'd LOVE to share my individual pics but that post would be FOREVER and a day LONG!!!!!

We also made some lovely watercolor cards. Mine aren't completely finished quite yet and a layout that I will be using for CU.

I ALSO NEED to take a pic or two of the GORGEOUS 'SPRING' banner, handiwork of Tresa herself, who btw, is AMAZING!!!!! She is SO much FUN!! I feel TRULY BLESSED to have had the opportunity to meet her. What a FABULOUSLY :) WONDERFUL woman!!

Valentine's Day (Part Three)

So here we are........it's Valentine's Day! :)

Nikki HATES this 'holiday'. Probably because she doesn't have a Valentine???

I woke up this morning with a HORRIBLE shoulder/neck muscle pain. One of those ones that actually makes you feel sick to your stomach. So after I came home from church I rested on the sofa with a heat pack to my shoulder, some motrin and a little massage from my hunny! :)

Thanks to Erin, I made up these FUN Valentine's for our kids.

They are CUTE little coupon books made from (playing) cards. She actually found the idea at THIS blog.

You WILL have to scroll through to find the right post but she has some PRETTY COOL stuff to be found there!!!

Then I made this up real quick for Nik..... :)

It's just an inexpensive SS puffed heart I found along my 'travel's'. I thought of Nikki when I first saw it and thought Valentine's Day would be the PERFECT time to give it to her. Of course I am a little ADDICTED to making charms anymore, so YES, I added a little crystal to it too.

She LOVES it! :)

This was ONE of Joe's cards.......His Candy Card.....

AGAIN, BIG THANKS to Erin for the idea!!!! THAT GIRL ROCKS!!! I am SO BLESSED to be able to call her MY FRIEND!!! :)

I actually had a hard time finding a few of the candies and kind of improvised a little.....but he liked it. Especially the PS. :) (P.S. I'll show you my whoppers if you show me your whatchamacallit!!) :)

I made a lovely dinner tonight. Not really SPECIAL as I do make it every now and again but still......it's something we ALL like! ...lasagna, toss green salad and gahhhlic bread. Mmmmm.

And then for 'dessert', these babies:

There was a little melted chocolate left over so Samuel and I dipped and dotted a few big pretzels. Mmmmmmm....

Okay! I'm off to watch The Time Traveler's Wife with my girl!!! I hope you ALL enjoyed your Valentine's Day as much as WE DID!!!!

Until next time.....

Valentine's Day (Part Two)

Another Valentine's Day card:

And this is a book/card I made for Joe. First time using my Bind it All and I'm thinking this puppy will be getting more use now. Makes me wish I'd pulled it out before now! :)

The paper used was a cardstock sheet by Fancy Pants that I picked up from CW. It had 11 or so 'card fronts'. I just cut them out and embellished a little. Ribbon and buttons were just stuff/scraps I had laying around that I was HAPPY to be able to use up!!

I'm hoping to run down to Omak sometime today to pick up a few things I would like to pick up in order to finish up Nikki and Samuel's Valentine's and another little something I have in mind for Joe (Thanks Erin!!!).
I hope to be back later!!!
-S

Valentine's Day (Part One)

I found this paper/card fronts at Craft Warehouse the last time I was there because I LOVE them but ALSO because they looked like something I could 'whip' together REAL quick!!

I ONLY JUST cut them tonight. Yeah...........so, I'm a little behind. :)

This card will be sent to my Mom & Dad.

These are just some SIMPLE little treats I put together for the 1st Grade class I subbed for, for 6 days in January. I saw the idea in a crafting magazine and thought it was easy enough and cute at the same time!! :) The procrastinator that I am.......I literally put them together in ONE HOUR today. I decided I wasn't going to make them very fancy because they're 6&7 year old kids for goodness sake. All the care about is the lollipop inside! :)

I'm STILL busy trying to get this scraproom/studio of mine organized and together. It's coming along......slowly but surely! HUGE THANKS to my sweet friend Erin for ALL of her help, inspiration and encouragement!!!

Jewlery

I'm going to a retreat the end of February, Creative University, aka CU, put on by Tresa Black. If you're a paper crafter chances are you KNOW who Tresa Black is, her artwork is in ALL KINDS of magazines!! :) And if you DON'T know who she is, you're missing out!!!! Check out her BLOG that you can find by simply clicking HERE. :)

Creative University is Tresa's 'baby' held at the Lutheran Church Camp (Lutherhaven) on Lake Coeur d'Alene. This will be my FIRST time attending and I am SO EXcITED!!!!

You can find MORE on Creative University HERE.

NOT ONLY am I able to attend Creative University this year and meet Tresa and ALL the other SUPER talented woman who are attending BUT my SWEET cyber friend Erin (who's blog you can see HERE) is flying up a few days early to meet up with ME!!! I am SO EXCITED to FINALLY meet in person!!! We'll enjoy a few FUN FILLED days together and then head out for CU!!! HOW LUCKY am I?!?!!?

This woman is TRULY like a separated at birth sister!!!! I've known WHO Erin is for years. We were both Consultants with CTMH so I've been aware of and seen her amazing creations for a LONG TIME now, AND her hubby's woodwork!! Does Stamper Storage ring a bell??? :)

Anyways, Erin and I had been chatting for a while when on Nov 1 she mentioned something about thinking about going to CU!! OH MY GOSH! I said, 'Let's DO IT!' So.....we registered and here we are........anxiously awaiting the end of the month.

Soooooooooooo............WHY am I 'sharing' all of this???

Well, one of the funnities (yes, I'm pretty sure I just MADE that word up...) of CU is the charm swap. Those who chose to participate make up a certain number of charms to swap with the other ladies. I REALLY wanted to participate because I KNEW if I didn't, I would be kicking myself. The biggest 'problem', I didn't have the FIRST clue of what to do to make a charm. ERIN was ALL OVER IT though!!! She directed me to some FABULOUS sites and jewlery making sites and now..........I've been bitten by the jewlery making bug.

Because I NEEDED ONE MORE creative outlet!!!?!?! :)

It is SO MUCH FUN though. I'm just a beginner and just playing around with stuff I have...well, I've bought a few new items but really, most of what I've been playing with is stuff I've had just hanging around. Intended for some OTHER project that just never got done!

So..........last night I was just playing around, I kinda wanted to try my hand at a bracelet similar to something Erin has done.....her's btw....BEAUTIFUL!!!

This is what I came up with:

This is for Nikki. :) She hasn't seen it IN PERSON yet, she had a Cheer Sleepover night last night but I sent a picture of it along with a text and she SAYS she loves it!! I can't WAIT to pick her up today so I can give it to her......AND see if it fits! :) (Easy adjustment if it doesn't!)

I also put together some earrings:

Right now, I think, these are my favorite...

So THAT is what I was up to last night!!! :)

I hope to have something more to share later on today or tomorrow.

The TRUTH of the matter is, I SHOULD be CLEANING this room AND preparing for CU!!!

Until next time..........

Smiles,

-S

Bra's are like FRIENDS...

I 'whipped together' this card for a special friend today.....

I actually DID!!! I had another mostly put together, aside from the MAIN image, card ALL ready to use for this card but it just wasn't going together the way I wanted so I QUICKLY rummaged through my PURPLE paper drawer and whipped this one right up!

SO TRUST ME when I tell you, I KNOW, this is NOT the best photo BUT it was a do it NOW or NEVER type deal......so I went with it. I was already running late.

Stamps are Skipping Stones Design (I HEART this company!!!!)

Paper: They were SERIOUSLY scraps from my purple drawer.....

Ribbon from CW

Ink: Archival CTMH

and STICKLES, Ranger. You know I LOVE ME some sparkley!!!!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this stamp set. I just can't EVEN begin to TELL YOU HOW MUCH I LOVE this set!!! And I CAN'T WAIT to MAKE some time to put together MORE cards with it but chances are it won't be until after I return from CU! Just a reality! :)

Enjoy the rest of your week!!!!

-S

Like a fine wine we get better with age.........

This is the card I made for my friend Summer.
Her 30th Birthday was Monday.
Stamps used were Skipping Stone Design, misc paper, misc ribbon and baubles from stampingbella. The little stick pin is from some other project I had. What do you think of it?? I wasn't quite sure at first but it's kinda growing on me!! :)

My Little 'bin'

I was TRYING to make a little 'bin' like this for a project......

While shopping yesterday, looking for JUST THE RIGHT pattern, I happened upon a quilting magazine that just so happened to HAVE what I was looking for. Only thing was.........IN THE BOOK was the pattern for the LARGE bin only, NOT the small, that I was interested in. I found, in the article that the pattern for the small bin was available ONLINE. WOOT WOOT!!! Do you know what THAT meant??? I didn't NOW have to spend the $6.95 on the magazine!!!

I printed off the pattern this morning and I was IN BUSINESS!!!

I had picked up some fat quarters for my SAMPLE RUN.....The 'scalloped' edge really went with the MEDIUM bin but I thought I'd give it a whirl anyways. I don't think.......NO, I'm pretty SURE I won't be doing the scalloped edge on the 'REAL' bins!

Regardless......THIS is my 'sample run' little bin.

It's cute, I think. The nice thing about the trial run is you can improve on the others right??? The only thing, aside from my poor, sad, scallops, that I'd like to change is I don't like how the seam is showing when you flip over the top. I THINK I have an idea of how to remedy that problem BUT if you have any suggestions..........please feel free to share in a comment.

NOW, as much as I'd LOVE to continue 'playing' and creating........I need to go figure out WHAT I'm going to wear to the Clinic Party tonight!!! Now THAT is a CHORE! :)

Happy Saturday ALL!

Me

Sew.........it's true

I've been BIT by the sewing bug!

I started with my 'table topper' but I've decided to make mine into a table runner......2 blocks by 4 instead. I just bought the fabric for the border, backing and binding so I hope to get going on that again.........mmmmm.......sometime next week.

In the meantime I've been working on these other table runners.....'Erin's Easy Peasy Table Runners'. My DEAR, SWEET friend Erin shared this with me. And they ARE EASY PEASY!!!! They take about 15 minutes to complete. I don't have a picture of the first one but this is the second one I've done:

And yes..it has black backing and a black border all the way around. It's kind of hard to see being it's on a black chair.

and the third::

THIS ONE I decided to add a little to. Making it not quite as QUICK to complete but I have SO MANY buttons I figured I'd add some.

Good idea?

Maybe, maybe not but it's done!

GINORMOUS THANKS to ERIN for sharing with me! You ROCK! :)

And THIS.........

well........I started by sewing strips of fabric together....then cut them and sewed them into this......it wasn't QUITE what I had in mind for this particular project so...........I picked up a zipper yesterday and I'm going to TRY to put a zipper in the top and make it into a little bag. I AM 'THE BAGLADY'...can NEVER have enough bags as far as I'm concerned!! :) Soooooooo.......we'll see how it turns out!

You WILL notice not ALL of my corners match up very nicely. I'm working on it! LOL This bag will be for me though and I don't too much care! LOL

Hope to have more to share soon..........

See you next visit! Have a Happy Weekend!

-S

You MUST watch this video! :)

Go HERE and watch Tresa in another of her amazing AND FUNNY videos!!!
CAN'T wait to MEET HER IN PERSON the end of FEB at CU!!!!!! :)

My NEWEST hobby....

I'm making a quilted table runner. I am having SO much FUN with this!! A few girls I know were going to start these. I told them I was interested...next I know, I'm sewing again!! LOVE IT!!!! So I went to pick out fabric....I wasn't sure if I would make a tablerunner or quilt for my guest room......well, I found fabric for my Guest Room quilt BUT found this other fabric on sale for $5/bundle down from $8. I HAD to get it! HOW could I turn it down?!?!?! I'm only PART through but it's been SO long since I've used my rotary cutter, though I SWEAR I just saw the darned thing the other day, I can't find it. Sooooo...I'm going to buy a new one and a new mat tomorrow so I can get going and finish my top.

This is just a sneak peak at SOME of my finished squares before being cut.......

Then.......Look at this!!!!

These two beauties were right outside the house, down on the river today.

Samuel first noticed her:

She was munchin' on a fish. Kinda hard to see I know.....Thank heavens for my zoom but even still.....

Then her buddy came along....

I wished I could have gotten a better picture. (I just LOVE Eagles.) I took this one from a window in the daylight basement that faces the North end . Then I went upstairs, out on the deck but by the time I got up there........

....she had decided it was time to leave. UGH!

They'll probably be hanging around for another day or two. I'll have to see if I can get a better pic or two. I keep hoping for the 'perfect' Eagle pic.

I'll have to post a pic of my EASY Tabletopper c/o Erin tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!

I'm such a LUCKY/BLESSED girl!!!!

My SWEET, SWEET friend Erin, sweetie that she IS, sent me THIS stamp set. It arrived TODAY in the mail!!! I just LOVE getting packages in the mail, don't you?!?!?! :)

I LOVE this set!!! It is from Skipping Stones Design. Is this NOT one of the CUTEST sets you have EVER seen?!?!?!

I was only just introduced to Skipping Stones Design stamps earlier this month...(or last???) by Erin and I just LOVE them. Erin is on the Design Team for SSD. Every Tuesday they do a challenge. If you have a minute and are feeling creative.....jump on over and see what they have goin' on over there.........NOT TO MENTION the AWESOME stamp sets!!! :)

Not ONLY did Erin send me this INCREDIBLE set....but she ALSO sent me THIS:

HOW TOTALLY SWEET is THIS?!?!?!

It's a pedicure set and some peppermint lipgloss wrapped up in that ADORABLE wrap courtesy of Erin and all her creativity!!!!!

I LOVE it!!!

Erin, you are AWESOME and I am SO THANKFUL and BLESSED to be able to call you my FRIEND!!!

I'm SO excited to see you next month We are going to have SO MUCH FUN!!! :)

(Erin and I are going to Creative University together the end of February!!!!!)

SOOOOOOOOOOOO, OF COURSE I HAD to play with my NEW set tonight. I used scraps.....well, I had this set of scraps in mind from the get go........WILD thing!! :)

Only thing is.......The, "Bra's are like Friends" didn't show up as well as I'd envisioned it would in my mind. Back to the drawing board on that one I guess but it's alright. I'll figure something else out. BUT, I'm LOVIN' the (black) lacey looking piece there AND the stickeles!!!! You KNOW I'm a STICKLER for stickles!! Teeheeheeheehee.....

I LOVE me some stickles!!! :)

So YES, "Bra's are like FRIENDS......", ".....THE GOOD ONES NEVER LEAVE YOU HANGIN'"

Thank you again Erin!!!!

I {heart} you!!!!

:)

Thanks for stopping by.

Until next time.........

-S

My 'filler charm'

This is my filler charm for CU.

Simple.

But I like it!

I do believe I am now addicted to making charms and earrings.

Ay yi yi!

This is the FIRST filler charm I did.

I decided it was just too long.

I'll bring it along just in case...........

I'll have to take pictures this weekend of the earrings I've made.

JUST because they're FUN!

:)

Off to make a card for our nephew's birthday in a few days.

Whoooooooo

Joe and I made a 'run' to Wenatchee yesterday so OF COURSE I made a stop at CW!!!

I could have stayed in there a LOT longer than the 2 hours Joe SAYS I was in there BUT Joe was with me. After he finished his 'errands' he was back and although I must admit he is pretty patient when it comes to my CW time, after a while.....he was HUNGRY and ready to GO. I must admit......I was hungry too....so off to Mai Lee Thai (our FAVORITE place to eat in East Wenatchee)....yellow curry with chicken, #3 please, for ME! Heavenly I tell you........just heavenly!!!

Anyways..........I digress..

I picked up only a few stamps....I just bought a few sets online the other day, and a few more a few days before that,.........(CAN'T WAIT to get them!!!!) so I really didn't feel like I could justify too many!! :) Trust me when I say I could have easily talked myself into some more though....teeheehee.

This is one of the stamps I got.....Stampendous, cling rubber (I LOVE these!!! I have a few others and I REALLY do like them!) Owl Friends.

I FOUGHT with the original layout I was going to use for this image a good part of last night and for a little while this morning before I decided to just GO SIMPLE! I like it a LOT better. :)

Those little owls are just SO sweet to me. I'm thinking Father's Day card..........Whoooooooo's the best Dad?!?! You are!!! ..................Owls remind me of my Grandmother. She LOVED owls.

I colored the images in with my colored pencils and used OMS and a blender pen. I 'ruffed' up the edges of the image paper a little........just because.

I also used some of my new 'SMOOCH spritz', (Clearsnap Holding Inc.), but you can't REALLY tell so much in the photo. New product for me....kinda cool! Picked up some SMOOCH, Pearlized Accent Ink too. LOVE the bottle. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the colors!!!! DELISH! and FUN!
I'm BIG into Monsters for some reason lately. I just LOVE them. So I picked up a monster set by Hero Arts. I don't have anything done yet with them so you'll just have to wait! :)

And............

THIS is my latest project.........I am LUCKY enough to be going to Creative University this year!! I am SO excited! charm I joined the charm swap.....colors are pink, green, white and silver. We are to make 15 sets of two charms......one creative, one filler........ These would be my creative charms.

So the question is..............

white eggs or green???

I already have one vote for green....

These are really quite fun to make and I'm thinking they'd make cute little Mother's Day pendants or charms for friends!

Thanks for stopping by!

Until next time........

Scrapbook for Liliana Rochele

My friend Sandra has a beautiful daughter named Danielle......and Danielle is getting ready to have her FIRST baby!! A baby GIRL!!We've already done the shower thing BUT I wanted to make her up a book to get her started with recording memories of sweet 'lil Liliana as SOON as she gets here.
The book wasn't QUITE ready at shower time, actually I didn't even HAVE the RIGHT book at shower time.......just the pages.... AND although I THOUGHT I'd add more embellishments............I decided not to. Weird huh?

This is the FIRST page

For whatever reason I've been having serious issues uploading pictures and getting them where I WANT them. So, after this one.....it's anyone's guess WHERE in the book these pages are really located BUT the nice thing is that she can rearrange the pages HOW EVER she likes anyways. They are ALL, except for the first and last, two page layouts.

As you can see they are VERY SIMPLE pages.

This is the LAST page.

Now to get it mailed off to her!

Thanks for looking!