1st Anniversary

Today March 13th is the "first" Wedding Anniversary of our daughter Stephanie and her husband Pat (Pasquale). Boy has time flown by for us. I cannot believe it. So when they asked us to watch Tillie (one of their four dogs, who doesn't get along with other people. They have someone staying to take care of the others) so they could go away for the night we of course said yes.

So while Tillie runs around with Bailey, Cookie, and the two foster dogs we are caring for, I am keeping busy. Tonight I finished these soldered charms.....

While I was working away, I thought wouldn't it be nice to take the few photos I had from the wedding and make something for Steph and Pat as a keepsake for their Anniversary. I do not have many photos from the wedding, you see the photographer "lost" them. (Audible gasp)

Yeah, I know we were all devastated when we were finally told. While the photographer apologized and offered to re-shoot Pat & Steph in their wedding attire, it hardly made up for losing all the memories. So I decided to touch up the few bad photos I had taken, and some that were "found" of the reception, make Steph a charm bracelet, and Pat a key chain.

I am going to place them in the box I decorated tomorrow when they come to get Tillie. I am going to make dinner for them, and although it is little compensation for not having a Wedding photo album, it will be something to look at and reminisce.

P.S. I was so happy to find a photo of her dancing with her father (the father and daughter dance) , she was hugging her Dad, and the tears were about to fall. Of all my wedding photos I cherish the photo with my father, I am so glad she has that.

OWOH WINNINGS!!!

I was very fortunate to win these incredible items this year at the 2011 OWOH Blog event hosted by Lisa Swifka. My first was from "CreativeBlessingsofJoy", Jules made the sweetest "gift", see the lovely card. Well she also included these little "extras"! Some pretty glitter, a punch, and some fun embellishments for scrapping!

Also there was this small matted sentiment card ( just precious) and the prize, a wonderful handmade baby shoe pin cushion! So Vintage, and I can't tell you how much I love it! Then I won this fantastic hand embroidered felt heart from Susan at "ThreadsofInspiration". So very nicely made and simple, yet so very pretty. I again thank Lisa Swifka, and to all the participating Bloggers, as well as all the other winners out there. Thank you again Jules and Susan for these "made for the heart" items.

Fun with Stamps

I purchased quite a few of the Kraftin Kimmie Stamps. This "sweet" gal is Olivia Orange, one of a series of Fruity Cuties! After visiting the Kraftin Kimmie Blog, I decided to try the Kraftin Kimmie Challenge.

They have some really fantastic cards to see, and those are just the "examples". It's very inspiring to see the beautiful cards that everyone makes. I wanted to see if perhaps I could do the challenge. I decided to use my Cricut, and the preserves cartridge to make an orange for the background circle. I think the trickiest part was cutting her out. She has such a tiny neck. Not to bad for a first attempt.

Winner OWOH!!!

The winner of the OWOH giveaway is.....

Linda, of Charmed Victorian!

I then decided to have a drawing from those that decided to follow my blog....

So, Helen , of A Midsummers Night's Dreamer you also get to choose!

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog and left such nice comments! I wish I could give everyone something. I have visited some very lovely blogs, and am still sifting through many new ones. Thank you Lisa Swifka for being the amazing Hostess of these events!

OWOH Giveaway!

Oh MY Goodness! I am sooooo very late. Sorry but I hope you can forgive me. I am offering one of my handmade soldered charms for the OWOH Giveaway hosted by Lisa Swifka. Please leave a comment on on Feb 17th I will randomly draw a name for a chance to win!

I am supposed to introduce myself? Hmmm, well my name is on the blog and if you are browsing my blog then you will at least know what I am thinking. I know this is supposed to be about "blog" promotion, because with all the blogs I visit (an I favor quite a few, so many in fact I never seem to have time to attend my own as often as I should) I do not feel I "know" the people behind them. I may learn a little about what they like to do, how they feel about some things, and yes I dearly love the ones with eye candy. Truth is, you may visit here thanks to OWOH, but there are so many wonderful blogs out there, many much more entertaining than mine (I am not being humble here, its a fact) I really do appreciate you stopping in, and leaving a comment (it's okay to just say hi). Be sure you leave me an email so I can contact the winner of my offering for this event.

Happy Valentines Day....

How about some "Scary Love" Valentines? I was asked by a young lady from Youtube to stamp out some out some of the images I purchased from Stampotique. I am a big fan of their stamps and have promoted them to many of my friends and the Art Group I was part of. I had sent a few to another Youtube-r named Lollyrot who this young lady follows.

When she found out that I had done this for Lolly, she asked if I could do this for her. My initial reaction was, lets say not enthusiastic. I did not want to start making this a habit, but she was very young (14 or 15) and well she could not afford to purchase them.

So while I had them out I decided to play myself. I decided to also send this young lady some chipboard hearts and stars to play with. As I was cutting them out I thought wouldn't it be fun to make some "Creepy Love" Valentines.....

I colored the images with my Prismacolor pencils, and added glossy accents to their eyes. I used some holographic glitter here and there to add a little sparkle to them, as well as Stickle buttons!

I stamped a Tim Holtz Valentine Ticket, scanned it and shrunk it, and coated it with glossy accents to make the "Love" token in the right hand corner. I used Utee and glittered two small punched hearts....

The hearts were sprayed with Russet Red and Jolly Roger Red sprays from Lindy's Stamp gang, then edged with black ink.

I stamped the heart with the "heads" background stamp from Stampotique, embossed them and put a sash of glittery ribbon across it. The rosettes were made with red crepe paper, tipped with black ink and black Stickles. Happy Valentines day!!! If you like these images be sure to visit Stampotique, the artists are Daniel Torrente and Jill Penney!! Tell them I sent you.

Yeah!!! They Arrived!!

My friend Sarah (3dogsand2kids on Youtube) and "TheHandmadeCard" blog from the UK introduced me to "Folksy". It's the UK equivalent of Etsy. She sells her lovely handmade cards there. Well I was perusing Folksy one day I came across a sweet shop names "Spots&stripes1984" and Emma.

Emma Witwicki makes some of the neatest jewelry you will see. She makes rings that she stamps song lyrics on, and well as some very cute charms. I emailed her inquiring about having the rings made with our names on them. She was very sweet and after several emails discussing the details I decided to order them.

They arrived today!! So I loaded the pics, but they are not in the right order....

That said, here is the smaller of the two bands with my children's names on them. My Son-in-law's name(married to my eldest Stephanie) is inside the band (with room for more, when John, and Kim settle down "wink")

Here is the larger band with Steven and my name inside are the names of our "fur" babies, Bailey and Cookie! They arrived in the the sweetest little box on a bed of wool. I was a bit concerned with her mailing them. It can be a gamble sometimes (I recently had a package mailed to the UK go missing). I LOVE them! Please visit her shop, and if you are looking for that special something to give, why not consider something like these!!! Thanks again Emma!