Miss Bella

This is my oldest great-granddaughter, Bella. She is faster than a speeding bullet. More powerful than a locomotive. (Good Grief, I am aging myself, aren't I?) You have to be a baby boomer to remember those lines from the original Superman television series. How stupid were we in the 50's? The man changed into his costume in a damn phone booth. Hello? See through? Glass?

I digress.

I wanted to use the new little Canon camera when I went up the burbs of Chicago for Christmas. So I'm still adjusting to it, as it is all automatic and takes a few seconds to track the images you want to photograph. Bella is 15 months old. She whirls, runs, jumps, laughs, and then will ignore you completely. So just as I thought I had her entire face in a close-up, she moved. Dang.

Can you see the mischief in those eyes? Oh, yeah. It's there. Love you, Bella.
Linda

The Last Christmas Card

The last card I made for the season

Christmas was fine, the weather was great (no snow, warm temps), the driving was good, and I'm glad it is over. Is it me, or are the holidays just exhausting in oh, so many ways? I have returned all of the Santas to the antique oak cabinets, which is where they reside for most of the year. The holiday table cloths have been laundered and put away. Life is returning to normal.

In case you would like to duplicate this card, I have good news and bad news. The base paper is a discontinued Cosmo Cricut from, I believe, 2 or 3 years ago. I love this paper, and hoarded a bunch of it. The good news is the two top vintage images in sepia tones are from this year's Graphic 45 Christmas line. The bottom right hand image, in color, is from Kaiser Craft paper line.

From this point forward, I am concentrating on spring. Anything green, fresh, and airy. One can hope...

Thanks for stopping by.
Linda

Lazy Dogs

Gracie on the chair

Mom! I don't like my picture taken.

Typical afternoon snooze

In the afternoons, the sun streams in the living room windows. IF the sun is out. We've had a lot of dreary days this month. But last week, the sun was out. The dogs were in heaven. Positions alternate on the leather chair. Sometimes, not often, Jake gets to be in the chair with Gracie on the ottoman. But this is the normal order of things. I think Gracie makes Jake understand that she was in the house first, therefore she gets the chair. End of discussion.

If Jake gets disgusted, which will happen, he goes into the bedroom and nests in the pillows on my bed.

Spoiled rotten brats. I love them.
Linda

Congratulations

Front of card

Inside of card

A friend that I worked with at Allyscraps graduated from nursing school yesterday. There is an open house this afternoon so her parents can perform the giant sigh of relief. Kidding. But I do imagine it is an accomplishment that they are just as proud of as she is.

In honor of this, I made Cassie this card. The paper is from Webster Pages. This company is known for the ornate details in their paper line. Because of this, the papers are a bit difficult to use for layouts. I prefer to make cards or altered mini albums with them, showcasing the beautiful art work.

Have a great Sunday. The sun is out, and this always puts me in a very good mood.
Linda

Jake

Someone needs his nails trimmed, his facial hair cut, and a bath. Not mentioning any names here, but the boy is looking pretty shaggy. It was never a problem to trim his hair in the summer months. I sat down on the edge of the deck, he came up to me, and I whipped out the scissors and started to cut. He would stand very still.

So. Not sure if it is the change of locale, the deck to the bathroom, or the fact he is now feeling very confident that he has found his forever home and I am not going to get rid of him no matter what he does, or just plain "I don't want to do that, mom." He runs when I pull out the scissors.

I love a challenge. This WILL happen this week. He has to look nice for a Christmas picture.

Hug your dogs.
Linda

A Scrapbookk Layout

My youngest granddaughter, Allie

I bought a Christmas present for me, and have been playing with it. It's a Canon Powershot 100 HS. I wanted a small, compact camera to take with me on walks with the dogs. Plus, it's nice to have one that I can quickly grab and take a shot in the house as well.

So the first thing I now realize is to take the date stamp off. Don't like that at all. Forgive me on that one. I'm not used to all of the automatic stuff. This is a layout I did for the store to promote the Life Is Simple line of papers. This particular line is called "100 Days of Summer", and I really like the faded but intense look.

Grandma is a tad behind in scrapbooking. Allie is now in 5th grade. I do appreciate her mom sending me these kind of pictures. They are priceless.

Have a great Sunday. It is cold and sunny here. Winter has definitely arrived.
Linda

The Challenge

Dega

You can see his eyes. Isn't that nice?

The problem child

Jake needs a haircut. Not all over, because I really like the rough look of his coat. He's all raggedy and adorable, and I think it just suits his personality perfectly. But the hair on the his face gets into his eyes, and so I kept it trimmed all summer. I don't know if it's the change in weather, or the dog is getting wise, or what, but I have tried numerous times in the past 7 days to give him a haircut.

Jake thinks I'm playing, and will wag that tail and bark. Gracie, who can't stand it if he gets one more micro second of attention, will then run to see what is going on. Because I'm trying to entice him to sit still, she then will grab his ass and they are off and running. Tonight I did manage to snip off an inch between his eyes, so he does look a bit better than he did. But a lot of trimming needs to be done. The boy is not buying it.

Dega's mom, Melissa, trims Degs face every few weeks. See how nice he looks? So handsome, so adorable. Dega simply jumps up on the patio table, and will let his mom whack away on his beard, the hair around his eyes, the entire head if she likes.

And then there is Jake.
Sigh.
What is a mom to do?
Linda

Sleigh bells......

Pic taken from above so you can see inside

Back of sleigh

Side

Another shot from above

I love crafts. I love doing scrapbook pages and cards. And for whatever reason, I have been in high gear this year. The above is the Kaiser Craft sleigh that comes in five pieces that you quickly assemble. Naked. Yeah, naked wood type stuff turns me on.....

So I first primed it in white paint, thinking of a white sleigh with lots of silver trim. But the paper I had didn't say silver, it talked to me of gold. Burnished gold. After looking at the primed piece in the craft room for a few days, with the dogs asking why we kept going in there to stare at this thing, I pulled out a bottle of Ranger's Gold Dabber. Only I didn't dab it, I used a brush to accent. My original intention was to just do the edges, but it was just too pretty to stop. In a few spots, I also used a little Ranger Vintage Photo Distress ink. That really added a little extra to the gold.

After finishing the sleigh with the Kaiser Craft paper, I cut some greenery from a cheap Dollar Tree wreath, and threw in some foil ornaments, also from Dollar Tree. The Santa images are from the Kaiser Craft Christmas paper. That little cream colored envelope? I cut it out with a die from Papertrey Ink. The sleigh stamp in green is also from Papertrey.

This was so much fun to do. It now sits in the store, which is where you can buy all of the supplies. Allyscraps. Click on the link to the right to get to the blog and store.

Hope your weather is better than ours. I need a boat. Seriously, we have flood warnings all over Indiana. This is the same area that was willing to do a rain dance just 3 months ago. Crazy, isn't it? Have a good one.
Linda

Well, Dang it all!

Never assume. It's an old saying and I'm sure you have heard it before. Assuming makes an ass out of you and me. It happens to be true.

I did a craft show yesterday with my friend, Judy. As we were setting up, no, let me back up. All week long actually, fighting this cold and fever, I felt like this show was going to be a waste of time. Now part of that was just plain not feeling well. But another segment of my brain was saying, "the economy sucks, no one is going to spend their hard earned dollars on handmade cards, or Judys' aprons and knitting."

Guess again. We both kept our prices low because we both wanted to not pack up what we had brought into the building. Yes, we still took product home, but not nearly as much as what we started the day with. It was a marvelous feeling. People actually liked my cards and mini albums. The two cards pictured above were experiments. On the Christmas card, this stamping was the first time I had used this particular stamp. Sometimes you need to use them more than once to get a complete, clear image. Especially with the clear cling type stamps, which this is from Papertrey. But when you are not feeling real energetic, you (meaning me) will usually say the hell with it, put the card in the basket and leave it. The second card was my attempt to "piece" scraps of paper into an owl. I was thinking this would make a great class after the first of the year. I thought it was cute, and that I was on the right track, but wasn't blown away by this design.

Both cards sold immediately.

So the moral of this little story is, one never knows, does one? We keep hearing how bad the economy is, and my personal experience in grocery shopping and paying the utilities coincides with that depressing news. On the other hand, I think that everyone is ready for a tiny piece of sunshine. If that is handmade, all the better.. ....we weren't the only ones selling our wares yesterday.

Life is good. Enjoy it.
Linda