Another Simple Card ...

...for Operation Write Home. I know this is similar to one I did earlier this week and you're probably sick of seeing the big fat rick rack, but I just love my rick rack die!










Supplies used: stamps - Lizzie Anne Designs, Hero Arts; dies - Nestabilities, PTI; pp - The Paper Studio; felt

Delightful news on my floor saga -- he used a saw and made a couple of slices in between the baseboard and the moulding and the floor flattened immediately without having to replace a single board.

Have a great weekend!

Some time ago, I cut out and assembled these persnickety apple die cuts. But, then, I couldn't figure out what to do with them. So today, I finally used them to make simple note cards.











Supplies used: CB embossing folders, CB dies, ribbon.


Not much going on today - the floor is going to be taken care of this afternoon. The floor has been quite a saga. Right now we are renting the house we are in.

We moved into the house in December 2008. The laminate floor was replaced (in every room) just prior to our move. Just after Christmas, water started seeping up thru the floor boards in the kitchen. Servpro came and pulled up the kitchen and livingroom floor to find a sheet of water beneath. Turns out the reason the floor needed to be replaced originally was a broken water pipe. Unfortunately, the plumber replaced the wrong pipe. So, kitchen/livingroom replaced for the second time in 2 months. 6 months later -- the floor in the livingroom was buckling. Servpro replaced the floor, again. The 3 gentlemen that were sent out were less than stellar. Extremely unprofessional! They came 3 hours late to pull the floor out and only worked half days and this was 10 days before Christmas which delayed my Christmas tree's appearance in the livingroom. Now, 7 months later, same story. Finally, Servpro has called in a real flooring company. I know long story, but, it should be done this afternoon. Since my husband went in at 1 a.m. this morning to supervise a construction pour on the base, he will be home early so I can leave when the floor guy is here. Yippeeeee!

Christmas in July

This week's Midweek Throwdown at OWH is to create a Christmas card for a soldier to send home during the holiday season. For my card, I pulled out one of my favorite whimsical snowman stamps:










The supplies I used: stamps - Whipper Snapper Designs, Hampton Art; dies - Nestabilities, PTI; buttons - PTI Holiday Mix Vintage; felt; MS Bakers Twine

I'm off to wait for a flooring service call. The laminate floor that was put in 6 months ago is buckling -- perhaps the floor boards were put in a tad too tight!

Paper Piercing

This week's tutorial over at OWH involves paper piercing. Although I don't have the neat Stampin' Up template, I made an attempt.

Using the same stamp, I cut one into a rectangle and the other I die cut using the scallop Nestabilities die. On the rectangle cut, I used the Tim Holtz Idea-ology ruler with the piercing holes. I have not had very good success with this tool as I think the ruler itself is just too thick. The rectangular one is now in the trash. On the oval scallop, I free-hand pierced each scallop.

Nothing fancy, but here it is:










Supplies used: stamps - PTI, dies - PTI, Nestabilities, pp - Daisy D's, Designs by Reminisce

Have a great day!

OWH Sketch 27

Here is this week's sketch:












I deviated a bit from the sketch with the dimensions, but, here is my card:











Supplies used: stamps - PTI, Hero Arts, pp - Heidi Grace, die - PTI, rhinestone brad, Stampendous Dot Sparkle Stickers, felt

I just love the dies that PTI makes. So far, I have the 2 rick racks and one of the scallop dies. But, I WANT THEM ALL!!!!!!!

Had a lovely, but hot weekend. My son, Alexander, his wife Alexa and Sweet Caroline came from a visit on Saturday. We are all huge deviled egg fans, so I tried a recipe I saw on Food Network last week. The Neely's made Fried Deviled Eggs! Although they were good, I think we'll stick with our original recipe. They were very messy to prepare and very filling.

With the temperature hovering at the 100 degree mark again today, I thought I'd do a Winter card.














Supplies used: stamp - Stampendous, inks - Black Soot Distress and Copics, pp - Heidi Grace, CB embossing folder, and organza ribbon.

Tomorrow is the local library book sale. The email said the books are generally $1. I hope to score some children's books for Caroline and maybe a few reference books to embellish a few projects.

This is the book I am currently reading, so I'm off to see how long I can hack reading on the veranda in this dreadful heat!

The sketch for this card was found on littletreasures blog.













The supplies I used were pp scraps, Inkadinkado stamp, PTI Rustic Jute button Twine, embossing powder.

Another garden photo:

For these cards, I used the same design layout that I used for my husband's Father's Day card and made Halloween and Thanksgiving cards.










Since yesterday's banana bread came out good, here is the recipe:

Raisin Bran Banana Bread

2 c Raisin Bran cereal
1/2 c milk
1 1/2 c flour
3 1/2 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt
1 c mashed ripe banana
1/2 c sugar
1/4 c brown sugar
1/4 c vegetable oil
1 egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease the bottom of a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a bowl, combine the raisin bran cereal and milk; let stand for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, bea together mashed banana, sugars, vegetable oil and egg. Combine the cereal and banana mixtures. Stir in the flour mixture just until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 50 to 55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean. Let cool before slicing.

Mine was baked in an 8 1/2 x 4-inch pan and was done in 50 minutes. Recipe is from allrecipes.com

And now, I'm off to make Pork Wontons!

Sesame Street is brought to you today by the letters "C" and "E". Wow, it's been quite a long time since I've heard that!

The tutorial today on Operation Write Home is to use paper punches and create simple cards for children. These cards would be perfect for soldiers to send home to their small children.

Here is my Elmo and Cookie Monster:










I like the Elmo better than the Cookie Monster. Sandy's version of Cookie Monster on OWH came out much better than mine, in my opinion. Perhaps my paper needs to be bluer. Anyway, once you get all of your components cut, you can make quite a few in a short amount of time.

This morning I made banana bread using Raisin Bran as one of the ingredients. I'll post the recipe tomorrow if it turns out as good as it looks.

And, another garden photo:

I'm back to posting after 4 days of no internet service last week. In the last month, we have had 4 tech visits, 2 new modems and the cables outside replaced! Right now, everything is running at a blistering pace, but I probably shouldn't talk like that, should I? It's kinda like a pitcher in the process of having a no-no. You don't talk about it!

Here is this week's OWH sketch:












And, my simple take on it:











I will leave you with a couple of photos of the Cannas in our back yard. They are about 7 - 8 feet tall.

It was a miserably hot weekend here!!! Although, I am not complaining -- after all, it is the South and we chose to live here! That'd be like someone to the North complaining about the snow in the winter, right?

Anyway, here is the OWH sketch for this week:













For my card, I thought it would be a great design to use for either gender. Although I wanted to put a flower or heart smack dab in the middle of the rectangles, I kept it simple. Other than the card base, it was made solely from scraps.

Not much to post about today -- just a simple card I made for my daughter-in-law's grandparents to go along with the mini album I showed here yesterday. I saw it in the most recent Papercrafts magazine -- yeah, I pretty much copied it exactly!














Finished this book yesterday:









Paul's wife, Lexy, is found dead after an apparent fall from an apple tree in their yard. The only witness is their dog, Lorelei, who cannot relay the answer to Paul's most important question -- did Lexy fall on accident, or was it suicide? As a linguistics professor, Paul does a lot of research and work with the spoken word. Why couldn't he teach Lorelei to talk? So Paul takes a sabbatical and embarks on the process of teaching Lorelei to say what she knows about that fateful day.

There is a very painful part of the book when Paul, through his research, encounters an underground group dealing with horrific ways to make dogs communicate. But, all in all, I did enjoy the book.

This week's OWH Midweek Throwdown uses this floral pillow for a color inspiration for cardmaking.










I chose to use the pink and yellow in the pillow for inspiration to create my card:














This past weekend I made 2 more mini photo albums. The covers are made from bar coasters and hold wallet-size photos. The left one is for my nephew's best friend. He and his wife just had their 1st child. The one on the right is for my daughter-in-law's grandparents.










That's all for now -- off to make American Chop Suey for dinner tonight!

For this week's OWH sketch, I chose to create a holiday card.




















Supplies used: Scor-Pal to create the lines, stamps (Magenta, Hero Arts, pp (Imaginisce)







Finished this book yesterday. It is the 3rd of 4 books in the Bride Quartet series by Nora Roberts. Each book focuses on one of 4 best friends from childhood that go into the wedding-planning business together as adults. I have really enjoyed this series and look forward to the 4th book coming out in November.

I will leave you with a photo of my newest flag.