Snow Fun AGAIN! And not so much fun too~

 

Home Sweet Home

Two days after the BIG STORM

The sun is finally out again, maybe something, anything will melt today!

We got about 6-8 inches of snow Friday but very late Friday night we got some freezing rain on top of it. That shrank our beautiful snow and capped it with a hard layer of ice making it impossible to make a snowman, or a even snow angel:

 

I did get some cute shots of the kids!!! 

 

 

And then we went out to play:

  

Baby bear opted for wheels instead of a sled

  

But we did get him to at least try going down the hill, once:

  

I don't care if he liked it or not. I did not like it for him! Not one little bit.

  

Daddy Bear had lots of fun. Head first. What is he thinking?!?!

  

Looks like he is thinking it's fun!

They even went sledding in the DARK!

I tried to take some pictures to prove it...

 

But that didn't work out too well. 

NOW for the not so much fun part.

As the storm hit, our heater hit the road. Could the timing be ANY worse? 

By the time the new unit arrived, there was too much snow to dolly it up our front slope...thank goodness for wonderful neighbors!!! They rushed up off their sleds and man-carried it up our front yard and into the backyard. Thanks a million guys!

  

  

Hot chocolate and new heat, the best part of the day!

 

Sketch Crazy!

 

This bright and cheery layout is based on a Pagemap by Becky Fleck. I used Bo Bunny papers, stickers and ribbon along with a few MS punches, various trims and a Prima vine. And lots of stitching of course, I even hand stitched the vine to the page~ Gotta say, I'm not happy with this one, not sure what it is but I just feel like something is off...

Here is the Pagemap:

 

And this is based on a Sassy sketch. I just LOVE these photos of the kids looking through that window! I did TONS of distressing and stitching on this layout. And that lace ~ it is vintage, I got it from Jenni Bowlin back at Vintagefest. The black flower is a Prima and the stars and pin are Maya Road. Here's the sketch:

And finally, a couple sneaks for Let's Scrap:

  

The big reveal is February 3rd! 

School's are all closed here today in anticipation of a WHOPPER of a snowstorm. So guess what I'll be posting tomorrow~~~

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques: Faux-Epoxy Accents

See this cute little button center? There in the center of the great big bow?

 

This was my very first attempt at making a faux-epoxy accent. So I can assure you that it is TOTALLY simple and looks ever so much better than a plain piece of punched paper!

 To begin, just gather these supplies:

Punch

Patterned paper

Glossy Accents

Craft mat or wax paper

Then punch your desired shape. I used a tiny circle punch for this button center.

Place your punch on a non-stick craft mat or wax paper.

Squeeze a nice big glob of Glossy Accents onto your punched shape. Squeeze it into the center and poke it around and into the shape or your punch. Try not to let it run off the edges. The GA has some pretty serious surface tension so I haven't ever had a problem with this.

 

 I always keep a pin nearby, just in case I have any clogs in the GA. That, I do run into, um quite a bit...

 ~NOW~

 This is the hard part: let it dry. ALL the way! Don't touch it, don't even test it with your fingertip {unless you'd like your fingerprint to be in your finished product}

It starts off cloudy.

 

But dries crystal clear!

Lots of possibilities with this technique, let me know if you try it and how it goes~~~

It's beginning to look a lot like SNOW!

Well, it looks like we may get some more of the white stuff down here!!! We been having flurries all morning and the forecast calls for some real snow this afternoon AND on Friday. So in hopes of urging it along. How about some more photos from our last snow a couple weeks ago.

  

Really more of an ice-run...but they had TONS of fun!

 

AND

Remember I mentioned that my DS  built me a snowman...

Well,

Here it is!!!

 

And he was the very last thing to melt.

Tuesday's Tips & Techniques-Vary your stitches

I am finally getting around to scrapping some of those railroad shots that I took of the kids a couple months ago. As I am sure you know by now, I love sketches and this layout is based on a sketch by Becky Fleck. Here's her sketch:

 

 To add some variety and interest to my layout, I used different machine stitches.

First, I used a large zig-zag stitch to go around the circle of my title.

To do this easily, sew the circle BEFORE you adhere it to the page. No one is going to know that the circle is not actually SEWN onto the page (well, now you all know mine isn't). It is much harder to turn an entire 12x12 sheet of paper in a circle as you are stitching than a little 4 inch circle. {Mom, I can hear you laughing at the thought of me advising someone else how to sew...}. Remember to tie your loose ends together when you are finished just as if your were "really sewing."

I also added a zig-zag stitch to one of my border strips.

Now this takes a little planning ahead...you DO NOT want ANY adhesive under the area that you want to stitch on. Needles and adhesive don't get along. So, I put just a couple tiny glue dots under my strip on the side that I wasn't going to stitch on. If you don't put any adhesive at all, you run the risk of your border sliding a bit on you and that...is hard to fix.

I adjusted my zig-zag to be wider than the one I used for the circle, again just for interest.

My final stitch on this page is a simple straight stitch. Since the area I was stitching was very small and the entire layout is quite distressed, I stitched in forward and reverse very tightly. It was just the look I was after.

And again, my finished layout:

Happy Stitching!

TWO PEAS!

I wake up this morning and what do I see, a layout by ME 

~featured in the Top Ten at Two Peas!!!

It is my "Summ er time" layout that I posted here just yesterday!

 Happy Monday!

Cranking out the Cookbookin'

Mr. FedEx came to see me again on Friday! He had Cookbookin's newest Gooseberry Patch line for me this time. Oh is it ever ADORABLE!!! I have spent the two days since my package arrived fully immersed in papers, ribbons, scissors and glue. And here is what I have to show for it:

~A new addition to my initial collection. I began by tracing the K onto the back of the sunflower paper. Then I cut it out, distressed the edges and added a bit of ink. Once I had adhered the paper to the wooden K, I fussy cut the sunflower and put that on too. I finished up with some rick rack and jute.

Here is one of two layouts I completed with my package of goodies. The photo mat is really supposed to be a recipe card but I just couldn't resist putting this photo of my girls playing in the sprinkler instead!

 

Scrunched up some gingham ribbon, just for fun!

  

This is the super cute busy bee paper~

 

 Here is some of the same paper around a cute little yellow tin that I picked up at Joann's. I plan to use this to hold paper clips and rubber bands. Two things that are always getting away from me.

And check out my little faux epoxy bee button in the center of the bow! I simply punched a tiny circle out of the bee paper and then coated it with Glossy Accents a few times. It dried in just a couple minutes. Oh, I mean a couple hours. Okay, so it took about 6 hours to dry but it sure is cute!

 

And here is another layout on another of the fabulous papers! There is the cutest little paper full of quotes and pictures included in this set. That is where the "Eating" quote came from here and where the "Flowers, Sun & Lemonade" quote came from in the Summertime layout.

 Here is a new card from an older Cookbookin' line. It just exudes happy, doesn't it.

And another tin, to go with my yellow tin on my desk. This I plan to use to hold, what else, FLOWERS!

Also for my desk, a new pen caddy, complete with lots of friendly butterflies.

And my final project, a clothespin recipe card holder!

Off to pack them all up for their trip out to California. I must admit, I am a little jealous that they get to go but I have to stay here. At least its raining there. The weatherman said just this morning that California is going to get the worst weather they have had in 5 years -this week! Sorry dad.