First Advent

Today is the first Sunday of Advent, a time of anticipation and preparation for the birth of Jesus. One of the visual aspects of the passing of time is with an advent wreath where one candle is lit the first Sunday of Advent, the second Sunday the first candle and another are lit and so on until December 25th. Another visual and tactile way to count down the days is with an Advent calendar. I have several of these - oops I think it's now another collection.


2008 Advent Calendar swap- round cookie tin painted beige with gold highlights and lots of fun rub-ons to decorate the tin when the calendar pieces are not there yet. I ran some small faux greenery around the outer edge just to give it a more wreath-like appearance.


Our hotel key Advent calendar filled with great pictures of Christmases past and family. More pictures HERE.


Michael's Advent calendar made solely of QuicKutz dies and lots of embellishments.


Advent calendar swap 2009 - I just fell in love with the snowman ornament found at Michael's in 2009. My friend Stacy did a beautiful job with the bow!


This is a talking story of Christmas Advent calendar. Each day that is opened, another nativity figure gets placed on the magnetic background and a portion of the Christmas story is revealed.


Here is the Advent Calendar finished. This was purchased in 2008 at The Shop, in Santa Fe, New Mexico.


This musical Santa Advent calendar, also purchased in Santa Fe at the The Shop plays music when a switch is turned on. Grandkids love this one!


I found this Lego calendar in Chicago. Or was it Huntsville, AL? I don't remember. What I do remember is lugging it back home! It's one that gets used year after year. the kids can build the little Lego characters. Very entertaining, even for the 29 yr old.

I am linking to Tablescaper's blog for Seasonal Sunday.. be sure to jump over and get some great decorating and seasonal inspiration.
I am linking to Holiday Haven's Christmas Blog party.. check this blog out for some great ideas!

August QuicKutz club project ... and a CSN giveaway!!!

It's Thursday. It's late Thursday, I know.. but you tell Regan he needs to let me type on the computer. You tell Regan that I can't rub and type. And you tell Regan that the whirring of the scanner is okay. Whew! Regan is the new almost house kitty. He's adorable. Well acclimated, but he is certainly taking up a bunch of time. And I love each minute of it.

Supply list:
5 Basic Grey designer papers as shown. You may or may not have the stripe - I do.
3 faux leaves - Prima flowers 'Autumn Leaves'
paper or cotton floss in off white and orange - scrappers floss orange and tan
Crewel or tapestry needle to fit floss (floss has to go through the eye)
Paper piercer and old mouse pad
adhesives and glue dots
Color Boss cat's eye inkpad Mango Tango and an almost dk brown.
basic scrapbooking supplies

Basil Paper jewel templates - mystical flourish
QuicKutz - Special Delivery Limited Edition Gift set

See you Saturday at 10!

Now for the giveaway: CSN contacted me to host this giveaway. Wow, I was excited. Me. I love CSN! A $40 gift certificate!!! You can find your new dutch oven, you can find some new dishes (I've got my eye on a few), scrapbooking and sewing supplies or the perfect accessory for your home, office or self.

So how do you enter to win that great $40 gift certificate?? It's pretty easy. And you can earn up to three entries!
1. Go to the CSN stores and come back and leave me a comment as to what item you would love to have. Notice that many items have free shipping! - one entry.
2. Become a follower (subscribe to posts) and let me know by leaving another comment - entry #2.
3. Link back to this blog post on your blog - leaving me another comment - entry #3.

If you don't have a blog, be sure to leave me your email address on your entries so that CSN can contact the winner with their gift certificate!

But in order to enter the giveaway - you must click here to go the original post!!! Posting here will NOT enter you in the giveaway - I've got my heart set on a fabulous set of dishes!! oh but it's not about me.. it's all about YOU!!!

June QK Club project - club date has changed!! June 12th now.

It's the rick-rack season! QuicKutz came out with a new 6" die set consisting of zigzag outlines, circles and zigzag edged circles. I fell in love with this set when I spotted it hanging on the shelf in the store Love it. Can you spell L O V E??
So I paired with with rick-rack and voila! a pretty cool combo if I say so myself. We are going to lean to make some NO SEW rick-rack flowers. Why do I emphasize the no-sew??? Because traditionally these are made with a needle and thread. But I figured out how to make them without those two little tools.. wooo hooo.

Supplies:
Designer Paper as shown (My Mind's Eye)
1 yd mini green rick-rack
1 yd blue rick-rack
1 yd pink rick-rack
1" circle punch
1/2" circle punch
Tweezers
2 straight pins
Baby Blue Liquid Pearls
Color box cats eye ink pads: robins egg, lime pastel and olive
4 mini brads and brad setting tools
1/4" Terrifically Tacky tape (this is a must this time!!)
Glue dots
Adhesive of choice
removable tape

QuicKutz dies:
Nesting rick rack circles
popup leaves

See you June 12th, 10am!

Hey there is a giveaway going on till the 11th - you need to leave a post on this blog post - click here! It's a lovely hand embroidery book... I'll be drawing on Friday!

May QuicKutz Club project & supply list

Right page embellished with ribbons and a flower.
Left page.. 10 things I love about everyday life uses 4 different fonts that are die cut and then a quick 'about' stamp.
And the ten little inserts onto which you can record your ten "things".

Supply list:

Little Yellow Bicycle papers as shown plus 1 sheet white cardstock
5 ribbons
1 ric-rack
Cat's eye Smoke Blue ink pad
Distress Ink Broken China inkpad
1" circle punch
corner rounder
"notebook" edge punch
1 brad
sheer glitter glue (Stickles - Icycle)
Glue dots
Adhesive
Basic scrapbooking supplies

QuicKutz:
Chicken Noodle font
Lemonade font
Phoebe font
Flirt font
Studio font
Nesting Flowers
Flowers


See you Saturday at 10am! I've got the buttons ;-) thanks to Dallas.

May Calendar - at last

Nothing slow about me. Calendar has been complete for over a month. But it was on display at the store and I seemed to have lost my memory lately. Each time I was in, I'd forget it. So dear sweet husband went and picked it up for me this evening! Redemption on his part ;-).


Basic Grey Kioshi designer paper, fabric covered buttons, paper rick rack and some yarn make this just a really fun project. Sew the variegated yarn through the openings in the paper ric-rack. The variegated yarn is by YLI, a favorite company whose products I simply adore and employs a cherished friend of mine. Lucky lady! Stamped month on a label die cut from a QuicKutz die. Backed with ribbon and yarns. Cool brads and pop dots to raise the piece off the base.
t!m Holtz tiny attacher to attach ribbon to the tags on which to write important info!
My eldest son. It's hard to believe that he is going to be 34 this month. Where of where has the time gone? Flown by for sure. Besides being a son that would make any mom proud, he's also the best dad to the most beautiful little girls in the world.

Perfect motto! Make it yours. Things to add to the calendar: two trips to Dallas (son and Martha Pullen market), shopping at the Garden Center in Dallas, shopping at the market in Breckenridge, QuicKutz club, soldering class, lunch with colleagues, lunch with a dear gal pal, Memorial Day, Mother's day, sis's in law back from Israel, BFF has a birthday this weekend, oh yeah and work without which all this wouldn't be possible! I'm tired already...

Pennies from Heaven - the project

Finally, here is the project. I used an old 1960's edition of Reader's Digest for the front and back covers. I love die cutting printed pages or using them for other projects, so old books are great. These still have the cool textured and printed covers with leather spines. A great find for 25 cents each! Have you realized that the cent sign is missing from the keyboard??? I used a Zutter Bind It All to punch the holes along the spines of the covers and the pages. Added a few stamps, letters, die cuts, pennies, Graphic 45 paper, and the keyhole and key embellishments from Mellisa Francis. The "m" is diecut using QuicKutz's new English Rose alphabet dies from a paint chip from Lowes.
Quickutz Lemonade font die cut and edged and then adhered to a piece of graphic 45 paper cut using a Spellbinders die.
A quote I'd been saving.
This keyhole started out white! I used alcohol inks in various colors, tapped on and sprayed on and then finished it up with a bit of gold antiquing.
A close up of the key. Oh and don't you love that ribbon. I onlyhad a few inches left of this precious commodity. It's a french woven ribbon in the most luscious shades of browns and metallic.
Cut out an image from the Graphic 45 paper. Here's a tip. use a small hole punch to get the "postage stamp" affect!
As I mentioned earlier, just a bit of the ribbon left. so i ended it just on the back of the cover and covered the ends with a round dot of paper!
I loved using the 'from the library' page from the book. On the back of the front cover is a stamped image into which I'm going to write a bible verse.
And my favorite card. I've kept this for a long time. And those that know me dearly know that the more 'I'm fine's' that come out of my mouth, the less fine I really am. Yes, I'm fine.
I also insert some cards into this journal. Cards from special folks. Oh the mess I've made in doing this. And it didn't really start with this project.. I was looking for some sewing note cards I'd purchased eons ago to put in a frame! I finally found them, but not after I manager to amass 3 piles of cards on my studio floor. I have plans I have plan I have plans.. Does this ever happen to you?
another sweet card...
I also inserted some 7gypsies pages that were just the perfect size. Notice the blue ledger paper? that came from a small "legal" pad. Used the whole pad, a few pages at time!
I had saved this beautiful envelope from a dear friend. Trimmed it a bit and now I have a perfect pocket into which to place items to keep!
It was too pretty to discard. Now wasn't it?
A really cute shoe card. You know the saying, you can't have too many friends or too many shoes!
A beautiful handmade card by a really wonderful person.
A note recently received in the mail.
And i finished with another envelope on which I placed a very happy Mary Engelbreit postcard.
Here's a tip on inserting small items or those items you might not want to punch. Punch and insert a strip of cardstock.
onto which you can then adhere the smaller items. Works like a charm.
All those note pages will make a perfect spot to keep track of all the pennies from heaven that fall my way!

I hope you enjoyed this little project. Make one for yourself, it's fun. And a great way to use some of those things you've been saving!

'For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11

How do you organize?

How do you put away all your "stuff"? Today, I'm showing you how I have some of my craft items stored. Some are conventional, some very unconventional. One thing is for sure, this has shown me that I need to purge. I love these clear shoe bags for holding ribbons, I can use one shoe holder for each color. Usually it's a wee bit neater than this, but as you can see, the ribbons are easily accessible. I open the closet door and pull just the piece I need. Shoe holders from Bed, Bath and Beyond.
This is an antique thread cabinet that came from my Godmother, to my mother to me. My mom had sewing "stuff" in it. I repurposed this cabinet to house scrapbooking brads, eyelets and other small items. Cabinet: Ackermann threads.
Each drawer is divided, can you believe it came this way?
...and is perfect for all that little stuff.
I'd show you the desk portion, but I would die from embarrassment. Momentarily, it's a wreck. These are styrofoam packaging pieces. Can you believe this? They stack perfectly and house my most used stamps, stickles, glitter, embossing powders, specialty glues, alcohol inks, and the best part: I can pin things into the shelves!
These Iris carts from the office supply store are stashed in two hall cabinets, 2 small ones like these ....and two larger ones such as these.
They house specialty threads
EZ Glitz swarovski crystals and the designated heat tool.
Sewing machine needles.
Scissors and rotary cutters.
The lower shelf holds paper in the plastic sleeves and then some just shoved in between. The pink notebook is my storage system for QK Alphabets. The middle shelf holds specialty papers, QuicKutz mini tins for the 2x2 alphas and mini alphabets. I used all these Bernina notebooks to house the remainder of the QuicKutz shape dies and one has the Tim Holtz stamps inside. ;-) The top shelf has some books and specialty and photo printer papers.
And one of my favorite tools I use for organizing project pieces and other smaller items by groups are my "free" - recycled - lettuce containers. They are clear, stack well, and they are my little bit of recycling!

Hope you've enjoyed this little tour of my mess. I hope it gives you some ideas. How do you store your "stuff"?