This past weekend was my last Craft and Vendor Fair. It was held at Evan’s school along with their annual Cookie Walk. I was there both Saturday and Sunday. While there I sold out of my Post It Note Wish Lists and had an order for 18 more. Here is what I’ve been working on for a good portion of today. I know I shared these with you a few weeks ago, but it’s what I’m working on again. 

Saturday night I should have known Colin wasn’t feeling well when he didn’t come to dinner.  Starting at 11 pm he asked for water almost every hour so we’d give him a little drink.  Around 1 am the stomach bug hit and we’ve been washing sheets almost around the clock since then.  Yesterday he ate 5 saltines and that was it.  He has been drinking a lot of lemon lime soda so he’s getting some calories from sugar and is keeping hydrated along with all of the water he is drinking.  Today he finally ate a few times and has kept it down.  Chicken noodle soup and saltines are our foods of choice right now. His fever hasn’t come back since 6:30 this morning so hopefully he’ll be well enough to go to school tomorrow because he’ll have not had a fever for over 24 hours by then if the fever stays away.

Evan has been fairing pretty well.  He’s had strict orders to stay away from his brother and is not allowed to use the boys bathroom and has to stick to ours even though I sanitize everything almost every time Colin leaves the bathroom.  Lysol and Clorox are my constant companions and my hands are suffering from that.  We started Evan on a new nutritional supplement about a month ago and he’s doing well with that.  I think it’s working for him.  He now gets nutrition from 7 fruits and 10 veggies a day even if we can’t get his picky little self to eat the actual thing.  *Knock on wood*, he’s been well for almost 3 weeks now, a month on Friday if we make it, and that’s not been the norm since the beginning of September. 

I just wrapped up the 18 Wish Lists and have a few more loads of sheets to do, a bathroom to re-sanitize and dinner to figure out still.  I didn’t get to go grocery shopping this weekend.  I think we’ll have chicken noodle soup since I did buy several cans of that.   Tomorrow I’ll start on a new project – or maybe I’ll start planning my Artisan Award entries for next year.

Yesterday the Ways to Use it Challenge involved Caroling.  You were to pick your favorite Christmas song and then use it to inspire a card.  It was easy with the Home for Christmas stamp set.  I started by turning the sketch from yesterdays card on its side.  I stamped the image in Basic Gray and watercolored it in with an AquaPainter and my watercolor pencils.  I haven’t opened them in a long time and it was fun to use them again.  I then added some Frost White Shimmer paint to the evergreen and the snow on the steps.  I matted the layer on Chocolate Chip and Real Red.  The base of the card is Garden Green that was sponged with Whisper White craft ink and stamped with the Serene Snowflakes stamp set.  I did use a few retired items on my card that I’ve had laying around.  The Alpine Originals ribbon was one of my favorites and I found a stash of Felt Flurries that I had forgotten about.  I tried to heat emboss on the felt ribbon and I wouldn’t advise you to try the same.  It does not work as well as on grosgrain ribbon and I actually started to melt some of the fibers.  It was worth the attempt.  When I first poured on the white embossing powder the words were really clear and crisp looking.  When I heated them they melted the felt fibers a bit and then they smeared together. 

Today Roger is working a half day as when he took a shower this morning he only had warm water.  He went down to look at the water heater and can’t get the pilot light to stay on.  He thinks a part went bad and he’s going to replace it after lunch.  After this weekend I am FREE!  From the beginning of October through this weekend I’ve been at Craft and Vendor Fairs.  This weekend marks my very last one and I am ready to be done.  I can’t wait to have a weekend at home to relax.  It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to do that.  I’m hoping it will also allow me to be more creative instead of feeling like I have to create to fill my table back up.  Although I still have to make items for my Silent Auction basket, but they are normally one of a kind originals. 

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend.  I’m going to make a separate post with the 12 Days of Holiday sales from Stampin’ Up!  There are new vinyl sheets in many new Stampin’ Up! colors as well as discounted Big Shot dies!  Make sure to check it out.

I’m not quite sure where the last 4 years have gone, but today Evan turns 4 years old. I wish he was feeling better, but at least we are at home and he’s having a good day. He is going to go to the pediatrician for his 4 year well check visit and to see if they still think he has bronchitis or if he has a viral infection on top of it. He’s still running a fever after taking antibiotics for 3 days already. So far cold and flu season has hit our household hard. I can’t wait for it to be over, but unfortunately winter isn’t even here.

I wanted to share my glass block project with you. I was able to get Roger to drill holes through these blocks with a diamond crusted drill bit. I then put in a string of 35 Christmas lights and decorated the front with velum paper that I stamped. This first block uses Season of Friendship and is stamped with Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Ruby Red.  The ribbon for the bow is not Stampin’ Up! but I needed wired ribbon to help it to keep it’s shape.

On this second block I used Baroque Motifs and Delightful Decorations. I stamped the swirls in Old Olive and the ornaments in Ruby Red and Not Quite Navy. I drew in the hangers with a Stampin’ Write marker in Basic Black.

I have another busy weekend coming up with a Shop Til’ You Drop vendor fair, but at least this weekend my Sunday after church is free. I’m looking forward to the upcoming Thanksgiving break too. In about a month my schedule will slow down and I can hopefully catch up.

I apologize if I’m a little scatterbrained this week. I have a few projects going on at once and not all of them are in the completed stages yet. Evan has a speech evaluation on Friday. I have a craft fair on Saturday and we are celebrating Evan’s 4th Birthday on Sunday. However, I do promise that my projects are fabulous and as soon as they are done I will post them here for you to see. One involves glass blocks that we drilled holes in yesterday so I can thread Christmas lights into them. This morning I made 8 bows to go on top of them and this afternoon I am going to decorate the fronts. Plus I have 4 purses cut out and ready to be sewn, thanks to Angie Juda and her fabulous Rag Quilt Purse videos.

Anyway, these are a few Post It Note Holders that I put together this past week. They went super quickly. The fronts are decorated with Patterned Pines, Taking Care of Business and Delightful Decorations.   They are held closed with a velcro dot. 

Well I better get back to work if I plan to have everything done by this weekend.  Today is also cake baking day.  Evan requested a castle cake and if I have any hopes in decorating it I have to bake it first.  LOL!

Jenn

My weekend went a lot faster than I had planned and I didn’t get stamping done for myself so this morning I jumped into the Clean and Simple Challenge on SCS. It was a challenge until I figured out exactly what I wanted to do. The challenge was to use Whisper White plus one other color and that included embellishments. I was lucky enough to find only items with Real Red and Whisper White.

To make this card I did Blank Embossing on the Whisper White layer of the card with the Finial Press Embossing Folder. I then stamped the sentiment from Season of Joy using the Stamp-a-ma-jig and then simply added the Christmas Jingle die cut ornament with dimensionals. I added a piece of Real Red Polka Dot ribbon and secured it with a Real Red brad. The main image panel is then set up on dimensionals.

Well I’m off to pick up Evan. We all have head colds, which is not fun, so hopefully that won’t affect my stamping this week.

Jenn

The Clean and Simple Challenge this week was a sketch challenge. I love sketch challenges so I couldn’t pass it up, plus it’s fun to be getting back into a routine of stamping. With that being said, this card uses no stamping at all and only a little bit of ink and paint for the edges of the ornaments. The designer series looking paper isn’t even paper, they are the border strips from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ Kit.

To make this card I started with a 4 1/4 X 11 piece of Old Olive card stock.  I added a strip of Very Vanilla card stock and on top of that layered 2 of the border strips.  The striped strip overlaps the Chocolate Chip one just a bit.  I attached the strip to the card base.  I then used my Embossing buddy on the back of the two ornaments to take away the stickiness of the adhesive.  I sponged the edges of the Real Red ornament in Chocolate Chip ink and the Chocolate Chip Ornament in Frost White Shimmer Paint.  I adhered them with dimensionals and added silver elastic cording bows.  The sentiment was set up on dimensionals and I added a Real Red Polka Dot ribbon to the top of the card.

Now I have to find a way to show you the finished insides of my cards.  I can’t get them in a good position to photograph them, but I’ll figure it out just like I fixed my white balance on my camera to my favorite settings once again.

Tomorrow I have a wintry birthday card to share with you.  It’s another you don’t want to miss.  Right now I hear the kitchen timer and it’s time to get our Chocolate Muffins out of the oven.  Evan found a recipe yesterday on Nick Jr. and he wanted to try it out.

Jenn

Supplies:
Cardstock: Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Christmas Jingle SS kit
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Frost White Shimmer Paint
Accessories: Sponge, Dimensionals, Embossing Buddy, Silver Elastic Cording, Real Red Polka Dot Ribbon

One of the hardest parts of getting back into stamping after a long break is finding a place to start. Yesterday that was my biggest hill to conquer, so I started with a challenge on SCS, the Try a New Technique Challenge. It’s been something I’ve had on my list to try, but just haven’t gotten to and I tried out the Blank Embossing Technique. I have to apologize because it is hard to get the embossing to show up in my photo. I think the white balance settings on my camera got changed and I have to sit down with it and figure it out today because it’s not set where I want it to be. The center of the white layer has an blank oval and it is surrounded by embossing using the Finial Press Embossing Folder from Stampin’ Up!. I then used the Stamp-a-ma-jig and Patterned Pines to stamp the image in Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Old Olive. I love this non-traditional Christmas combination. I added the sentiment from Best Wishes & More in Chocolate Chip ink and then added the Pretty in Pink Grosgrain ribbon and made the slots with the horizontal slot punch.

Well I have only a few hours alone so I better get started on another stamping project.  I have a fun card to share with you tomorrow that uses no stamping, but utilizes elements from the Christmas Jingle Simply Scrappin’ Kit.  Make sure to stop on back to see it.

Yes, I’m still around, but most of the time I’m chasing myself trying to catch up. Life is crazy right now and it’s only going to get worse before it gets better.  At the end of this post I’m going to post a list of places you can find me from November – mid December, so if you are in the area of one of my Craft Shows or Vendor Fairs you can stop by and say hello. 

This project is a little gift card holder.  It is made from a My Timeless Template by Lauren Meader and it’s from the Cash or Charge Collection.  I printed the template on Kraft card stock, cut and folded it and then stamped it with the Serene Snowflake stamp set in Whisper White Craft ink.  I added some Holiday Lounge dsp to the flap, tied it closed with Tempting Turquoise ribbon (I think the one I have is retired) and then added the Ornament punch stamped with the Holiday Best Hostess stamp set.  I know I give a lot of gift certificates out for the Holidays and this is a perfect way to dress them up to give out as gifts. 

So you want to know where I’ll be for the next few weeks?
November 7th – Private Workshop
November 14th – Unlimited Additions Holiday Shopping Extravaganza at the American Lutheran Church in Bourbonnais from 8 am – 2 pm
November 21st- Shop Til You Drop in support of Relay for Life at the Quality Inn in Bradley from 9 am – 2 pm
November 28th – Heart of Downtown Holiday Craft Fair in St. Charles at St. Charles Free Methodist Church from 1 pm – 7 pm
December 5th – Shop Til You Drop at Maternity of the BVM Church in Bourbonnais from 10 am – 2 pm
December 12 – 13th Cookie Walk at Aquinas Catholic Academy in Kankakee (Time TBA)

Well I hope you are all having a fantastic week and have a fun Halloween! I’m going to be working on restocking my Craft Fair baskets because they are severely depleted after my fair last weekend.

As you can see I haven’t been able to let myself get rid of my Peaceful Wishes stamp set. I’m glad because the pine stamp came in handy when hanging my ornaments. I pulled colors from the Holiday Lounge dsp pack for this first treat. The colors are Taken with Teal, Very Vanilla, Rose Red and Old Olive.

I wanted to show that you can make this treat with current stamp sets. The branch stamp from Berry Christmas works to hang the Sweet Centers ornament from too. The colors are Soft Suede, Very Vanilla, Old Olive and Real Red.

Here is one more using the Peaceful Wishes stamp. I used Real Red, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla and Old Olive.  The ribbon is Soft Suede.

Well that is all of my Sweet Treat cups for the week.  Only 2 days until my craft fair.  I hope I have enough to fill my table.

Since Christmas is right around the corner I wanted to see how the Pennant would look made with Red and Black felt. I added a white felt belt buckle and some fun fur along with the Real Red Polka Dot ribbon. I think these just may replace stockings for us this year. I may be biased but I think they are adorable.

Well I have 30 Blue ribbons to cut out for Children’s Church on Sunday so I better get to that task so I can start making my 120 Sweet Treat Cups that I have sitting on my craft table.