Q-tip Christmas!

I love Christmas!

I love vintage magazines!

So what could be better than vintage Christmas magazines!

I've really been enjoying these copies of Better Homes and Gardens Christmas Ideas from the 1950's and 1960's , that I found on eBay.

I've tried my hand at a few of the fun package decorations and toppers and I'm dying to try some of the craft projects in these issues. Actually, most of them! One of the things I love about them is that the majority of them are made of recycled and house hold items. Tin cans, paper tubes, used flash bulbs and cotton swabs seem to be a few of the favored supplies. After all, who wouldn't want a lovely holiday wall hanging, depicting Christmas carolers, made out of Q-tips?

There is something so fun about "retro" Christmas decorations. Maybe, since I remember a lot of this stuff from my childhood.

Although, I was a child in the 1970's and early 1980's, my parents and, of course, grandparents had plenty of leftovers from the '50's and '60's. My little sister and I loved looking at Grandma and Grandpa's Christmas Tree ornaments and coffee table decorations at the Holidays. We loved the dish full of ribbon candy too! My grandmother was a talented lady and the whole neighborhood anticipated the annual display of her beautiful, life size nativity set that she had painted herself. Unfortunately, a fire in the mid '90's damaged her lovely Nativity set and destroyed those delightful old Christmas ornaments. A few, short years later her life was taken by cancer and so, my Grandfather hired someone to repaint the Nativity scene figures, but somehow it is not the same.

I remember making craft projects similar to the ones in these magazines, with my Grandmother when I was a little girl. My sister and I would go to Grandma and Grandpa's house while my parents went Christmas shopping. Grandma would have all the supplies ready to go when we arrived. I specifically remember making "shelf sitter" Santas from toilet paper tubes and felt. After we were done with our creations, we might go to Kentucky Fried Chicken , where my sister and I loved to get our dinners in those red and white striped boxes! After dinner, we'd eat popcorn and apples and watch my Grandpa's favorite show, Lawrence Welk, on television. Ahhh, the good old days!

I think I'll go look for some toilet paper tubes and Q-tips!

Oh so busy.....

Wow!

I know. It's been such a long time. We are still having internet problems, but I won't bore anyone with the details!

I have been soooo busy working on LOTS of projects. I'm doing a workshop this weekend and I realized that my sample board was in dire need of attention, so I've been a busy beaver AND a real night owl lately! I've also been working on a lot of Halloween decorations because, of course, I can't work on just one thing at a time. But none of you would understand that, right?

( hee, hee)

I'll be occupied with my workshop projects through the weekend and will start posting new projects next week.

I was thinking about making a separate page for recipes and instructions in order to keep my main page from getting too "messy". I know, I know, there's not much there now, but just you wait.

I'm also contemplating trying my hand at making videos. If anyone has any tips on that, please give them to me. I'm especially worried about lighting . I'm having trouble with this when I take my photos also and I would really like to hear how you are lighting your photos as well as what you are using for backgrounds. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated!!

Last, but by no means least, please take a look at the blog candy shown on my sidebar. This is being offered by Nikki Schmaltz on her blog "Nikki Stamps". She is taking donations for her friend Priscilla. Priscilla has been diagnosed with cancer. She and her husband have both lost their jobs and have no insurance and she and her family could really use your help. If you donate at least $5 to Priscilla's fund you will be entered into a drawing for this great blog candy prize. Just link to Nikki's blog above or click on the photo in the side. You will be able to get all the info for placing the donation and entering the contest. There are only a couple of days left so check this out right away.

I hope to hear your great advice soon!

Thanks for visiting!

A Change

Hi everyone!

So sorry about the long wait for a new post. Unfortunately, my internet connection problems have not been solved yet!

My hubby has been too busy with his new job at ABC television to fix it, but he has some time off this week and has promised to work on it then! Hooray!!

You might notice that I have removed the "Order Online" button from my sidebar.

Money is tight for our family right now and I wasn't getting enough online orders to justify paying for my SU! website. So sad. The good news is that you can still e-mail me with your orders and I would be happy to place them for you!

I hope to have some new projects up next week, so, keep your fingers crossed!

Thanks for visiting!

My recent absence

Sorry, it's been so long since my last post!

We changed internet service and it has been intermittent. I haven't been able to remain online long enough to write a decent post. Hopefully, we'll get this trouble figured out soon!

I'll put out a "tweet" when a new project is up.

Thanks for being patient

Free Clip Art

If you are a clip art junkie like I am, there is a great website where you can get lots of fun and free images. Vintage Holiday Crafts has a lot of great images that you can download .

I loved these vintage travel posters as well as the beautiful victorian images available, a lot of which have holiday themes. They also offer a lot of contemporary clip art, printables to make masks, scrapbook paper and embellishments, vintage postcards, fashion illustrations...... lots of fun stuff!

You can visit the website HERE.

They are also listed under my Favorite Sites To Visit.

Thanks for visiting!

Stampin' for Micah!

This month I am asking for help for a precious little boy named Micah Gower.

Let me give you a little background on my relationship with this family.

Micah's dad Brian is an old friend from my days of working at Disneyland, who has been a brother to me. I met Brian when he turned his pants into the Disneyland laundry with his wallet in the pocket. This was the day after his wallet had been returned to him after being stolen. After an hour of searching laundry bags we recovered his wallet and he rushed off, being late for his next job. He returned 5 min, later heading to the security building next door to mine. My shift had ended and I went to see what had happened. In his haste that morning, arriving from his previous job ( Brian worked three jobs to pay his bills) he had accidentally parked in a carpool space and a Denver boot had been placed on his car to prevent him from leaving. I waited with him for the hour that D-land security forced him to wait before removing it, and from then on we were the best of friends! I soon discovered that days like this were not uncommon in Brian's life and he earned the nickname "Murphy" from my sister, referring to Murphy's Law, of course. Brian has faced many trials in his life, from divorced parents, to repeated break-ins and vandalism of his business, and the untimely accidental death of his father. Most recently, their garage caught on fire, and as they had just moved in, half their belongings were still in boxes in there and were destroyed. Through it all Brian has forged ahead with a positive attitude and faith in God.

Right now, Brian and his wife Laila are going through the biggest challenge of their life. Their little boy was born with a heart defect called Tetrology of Fallot or Tof. This requires lots of machinery and 24/7 in- home nursing care. Insurance does not pay for this and Brian and his wife are working six jobs between them to pay their bills. As you can imagine this is very hard on them and Micah's big brother.

So, here's what I am doing. I will be donating 10% of all my sales in July to the Micah Gower Fund which has been set up to help pay for Micah's medical expenses. This offer is available only through me. All you have to do is place your Stampin' Up! order through me and 10% will be put in to Micah's fund. You can place an order anytime through my Stampin' Up! website HERE or you can call or e-mail me if you prefer. My contact information is also on my Stampin' Up! website.

If you would like to learn more about Micah, you can visit his page at Caring Bridge HERE.

I did it!

Well, I am finally getting a project posted! Hooray!

Here is a stationary box I made for my big sister. I used the Bella Rose designer series paper which I love, but is now retired. So sad. I must apologize for the fact that a lot of the supplies I used are now discontinued. I haven't received my new stuff yet, but will definitely be making this box again when it arrives.

I got the pattern from Jackie Topa's blog and you can view the tutorial HERE.

The original design had a stamp pocket and a address book which I omitted from my design. It also contained gift tags but I didn't think my sister would really use them so I made a bookmark instead and just popped the pen in the same pocket.

Here are the contents of the stationary box. I made four 3"x 3" cards in two different designs and four standard note cards in two designs as well. I also made a book mark and, of course, a matching pen. This pen did give me a little trouble though. The opening was so tiny I had a hard time getting the paper in. I hear RSVP pens by Pentel work really well so, I'm going to try that next time.

The supplies used are:

SU! stamp sets - Dreams du Jour, Bella Blossom, & Classic Stripe

SU! card stock - Red Riding Hood, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip & Whisper White.

SU! designer series paper - Bella Rose.

SU! classic ink - Riding Hood Red, Pink Pirouette, Old Olive, So Saffron, & Basic Brown.

SU! accessories - grosgrain ribbon in Old Olive, Choc. Chip & striped Riding Hood Red, red gingham ribbon, scallop edge punch, scallop square punch, scallop circle punch, various size circle punches.

Thanks for looking!