4 NEW postcard kits from Crafty Secrets

I am SOOO excited .. check out the four NEW postcard kits from Crafty Secrets!
I cant wait to get my hands on these. I love these postcard kits anyway.. but these really have me excited. Don't they look fun?
You can check out the post on the Heartwarming Vintage Blog HERE and see the little individual stamp sets that come in each set.


I'm all about beautiful "robins egg blue" and "vintagy pink" colors .. and they nail them perfectly every time. Check out the floral background with the birds. ahhhh.


They did such a great job with baby girl.. I new baby boy would be fantastic also.



Beautiful stuff to look forward to playing with soon! Cant wait!


Speaking of Crafty Secrets, I'll be leaving for Canada in about 2 weeks to teach for them at the BC Creative Expo. Looking forward to some time with my Canadian friends.

My Class Info HERE
If you live near and can make it .. we'd love to see you!

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I didn't feel like doing much today after starting out the day at the dentist. ( not pleasant). So I worked on editing photos from Arizona. Got all the family ones edited and burned to discs to send to the Arizona fam..and when through all the others. I picked out a few scenic favorites I wanted to share with you here.
Hope you enjoy.

My sister and brother-in-law just went out of there way to show us a great time.

I'm pretty sure they were getting tired of having to stop a hundred times for the camera bug they had with them. lol

There were just so many beautiful things to see and take in .. and all of them so different from what I'm used to seeing.

It's amazing to me the things that survive the extreme heat there.

Good thing my suitcases where full of class stuff , or I could have been in trouble. I did bring home a few things...but when I got the tattoo from Taylor.. I said "I had to bring something home from there as a souvenir, and my suitcases were full.. sooo". lol

The color of these papers hanging on those blue poles ,was just so intriguing to me. Beautiful!

This sorry looking little bird , became my friend as I was eating my "prickly pear" ice cream cone. ( I'm thinking he thought it looked pretty good too) lol As skinny as he looks , he certainly needed the calories more than I did.

Mom and I both had such a great time ... great memories!

Hope you all have a great day.. and maybe find a little time CREATE!

There's a chill in the air

Fall has defiantly arrived in Nebraska. brrr I'm not in the mood to be cold..but I am in the mood for fall. I love the colors and smells of fall. I made pumpkin muffins today so the house smells gooood!

I have been adding to what fall decor I do have out with projects like this paper mache pumpkin I got the other day at Micheal's. Glimmer Mist just takes to paper mache stuff so well.. it always call to me when I see it.

I tried something different this time. After spritzing it with Harvest Orange Glimmer Mist, I let it dry and then brushed on some crackle coat. Once that was dry, I sprayed on "Brick" Glimmer Mist and let it settle into the cracks before taking a paper towel and wiping some away. It's a subtle effect but really pretty cool.

Someone had mentioned that you could emboss your papers using Spellbinders Wizard and Tattered Angels Glimmer Screens.. so I gave it a try over the weekend. All I can say is WOW! Does it ever! I have about 5 other projects to share with you soon showing how this works. I was so impressed!

I used one of the screens to emboss this piece of paper I had misted, and then just cut these leave shapes out by hand ( um.. .simply because I don't have a leaf die) lol But you get the idea .. pretty cool huh?
After it was embossed, I ran my ink pad lightly over the raised design that was left. Then I took my quickie glue pen and Martha Stewart Glitter to highlight around the design edges.

It's always fun to try out different techniques and mediums just to see how they work together .

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Today was the perfect "chilly" day to get the oven going and make my favorite pumpkin muffins.

The are really EASY, really moist and freeze really well. It's an OLD recipe. It actually says to bake them into loaves in 3 coffee cans. Isn't that funny? Well, I didn't ever do that , but I have made them in loaf pans ,( but mostly as muffins). I share this recipe on my blog every fall because it's just so good. It's not fall without them.

Pumpkin Bread ( or muffins)

3 cups sugar ( I used a bit less)

1 cup oil

4 eggs

2 (15 oz cans) of pumpkin

2/3 cup water

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp cinn

1 tsp nutmeg

3 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

Combine all and mix with electric mixer until well blended.

Pour into greased pans bake at 350 ( 60min approx for loaves) for muffins much less.. just until tops are firm.

** I wrap them individually and freeze them in ziplocks so I can take them out as needed.
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Other than baking , working , laundry ect.. . the dogs and I played outside for a little bit , this afternoon. Molly's favorite game .. .frizbee of course.

Aly.... she likes the old "hide the empty toilet paper roll under the table" routine. funny dog. lol ( she's getting sooo grey) I love this dog SO much!

Iput out a little bit more fall decor I found the other day.. like this cute little sign .

And this little cutie.

When I was in Achievers at Mall of America.. I saw some cute real pumpkins decorated with black bling and thought ... I'm going to do that when I get home.

whaaa la....
not to hard .. and kinda fun huh?

Not planning much for tomorrow as I have a icky trip to the dentist first thing in the morning. (dread).

But I'll be back with more to share on Wen.

Have a start start to your week!

Fall projects from the archives

As I was looking back inmy files, I was noticing just how many fall projects I've done over the past few years.. so decided I'd share a few. So todays post is dedicated to fall! lol Most of these projects were done with Crafty Secrets Halloween goodness. Happy Fall!

Crafty Secrets DT blog hop

I am so excited about today because the Crafty Secrets Design Team have all posted projects on their blogs today. I cant wait to see what everyone created for this blog hop. At the bottom of this post, I'll have links to all of their blogs.. so be sure to check them out. You'll be in for a treat.

I'll share what I created using Crafty Secrets Heartwarming Vintage products.

First.. ATC's

( click to see larger)

For the ATC's I started with paper mache ATC cards from Walnut Hollow as my base. I stamped directly on these using the Happy Halloween stamp set below.

After they were stamped I misted them with Orange Harvest Glimmer Mist, let them dry and added my paper, images and embellishments.

Halloween Fun Clear Art Stamps

Halloween Cuts sheet
The Halloween cuts are one of the very first Crafty Secrets Products I ever used... quite a few years ago.. and they are still one of my very favorites.

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Okay... on to the next project. I was digging around in my box of alterables, and found these candle holders. They started out cream colored with green ivy on them. hmmmm... I changed them up just a bit lol

( Click to see larger)
You really need to click on it to see it closer so that you can see the cute little spider stamp. I used the spider stamp all the way around the top and the bottom paper pieces. I used the border piece for the strip around the middle.

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Okay.. just one more Halloween project for good measure. lol
(Click to see larger)

Feeling "fallish" yet??

It's cooling off here in Nebraska. Last night I put another blanket on the bed and broke out my slippers. It's feeling like fall, but ...

there were no mums or pumpkins out on my porch....

until today! yay!

Okay... Here are the links to the rest of the Crafty Secrets Design Team , so that you can check out their beautiful creations

Anna Wight
Pam Hooten
Heidi Blankenship
Marisa Grosson
Michele Kovack
Linda Duke

Crafty Secrets website

Heartwarming Vintage Blog

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HAPPY FRIDAY!!!

Getting back in the swing of things

Well, I'm unpacked, laundry is done, house is clean and emails are pretty much caught up. whew! No time to create yesterday with all that going on ..but I do have this project to share that I finished before I left. I have been dying to use these cute baby/puppy photos I took a while back.
I did this hanging using one of the chipboard pieces from the Fancy Pants "Mixed Media Albums". They are such fun albums... some of the pages are chipboard, some acrylic and some heavy felt. They are great to use as separate pieces also. I used the "Dancing Girl" line for this project.
All the ribbons, buttons, and extra embellishments are all also from Fancy Pants.

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While I was gone I got my new "My Book" Planner in the mail. I try to tell everyone about these every time I get my new one for the next year, because they make great Christmas gifts. I cant survive without mine! They are so fun because they also have ink jet sheets inside so you can print out photos or pages to slide in to personalize your book.
I use mine for organizing my teaching, trips, important dates, ect..but as I was just reading the back of the packaging I see they could work for so many different things.
Planning your wedding
Collect recipes and mementos
Record Sports Hightlights
Record Baby's first year
Organize your fitness schedule
and on and on.

I keep mine pretty simple ..because it goes everywhere with me. It sits on my desk for me to refer to when I'm home and in my bag when I go.

I just have photos of my family slid in mine right now. My dates set on the other side and then I also clip extras on the inside. I'd certainly be LOST with out this thing.

I always like to hear things that work well for others, that's why I share things like this that I use daily. If you need a personal calendar.. you'd love this.

Here's where you can get them , if your interested.

My Book ( The Adaptable Planner)

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Okay... remember me showing you this photo.. and then leaving you hanging on the story? lol

Well here's the scoop. That is my nephew Taylor who is a tattoo artist in AZ... the foot???? well... it MINE! I did it... I have a tat. lol

A little unlike me your thinking? well yes probably..but again.. for me it comes down to two things. ..ART and FAMILY. In this case they ...again... went together for me.

I never really wanted a tattoo..but I consider it a gift of Art ... a gift from my talented nephew.

Here how it happened. We were all out eating lunch and I said, "I'd get a tattoo if Taylor gave it to me". I'm sure he thought I was kidding. He said... " I'm open til 4", and laughed and said "okay then", he said "lets do it!". I said "okay!

Now that's called spontanaity.

Here is a photo of Amber ( my niece), me, Taylor ( my nephew) and his sweet sweet wife, Lena, outside the shop , when we were done.

It only took about 40 minutes. The funny thing was , my mom, and my brother-in-law Ron, sat in the waiting area right there while I was getting it done, and my sister Donna and my niece Amber took photos of the entire process. They certainly got some FUN shots. I can wait to do a little mini album!

All I told Taylor before he started was that I wanted it on my foot,and not very big. I'd like a flower. After that I didn't look until he was finished. I was pleased when I finally got to see it. It's SO something I would choose. A apple blossom.. and PINK none the less.
It's such a great memory every time I look at it. I said... "My suitcases where full and I had to bring something back from my trip to AZ.... so ...." lol

If your ever in the area, here's Taylor info. He is an amazing artist.

Speaking of Being a Proud Aunt and bragging on my nieces and nephews....

I'm so excited about my niece "Neely's" Band "Tilly and the Wall"

Their music is now playing on a Target commercial and also in the new Drew Barrymore movie that is coming out.

I cant believe how you guy are so perceptive! I've had comments and emails from Blog readers , saying they heard "Pot Kettle Black" on a Target commercial , before I even mention it. lol. The commercial will be playing on Monday evenings during "Gossip Girls" on KXVO. that I know for sure .
Here's the video of the song that will play. Pot Kettle Black
( Neely is the one with the long blonde hair in the middle.)

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Okay time to get my bedding in to wash.. and then off to get some groceries for my Ohhh so empty fridg!!

Have a fantastic day everyone!

Tattered Angels at ScrapFest

Wow.. so much has gone on in the last couple of weeks my head is still spinning. Just got home a few hours ago,... unpacking , starting laundry.. and catching up on emails. I edited some photos so I could actually do a blog post. Seems like it's been forever! The past couple of weeks have been great but I'm missing "creating" and blogging too! Tomorrow.. I'm hoping to have to some to make a little something.

ScrapFest was a huge success for Tattered Angels... really busy, lots of people eager to learn Glimmer Mist techniques , that's for sure. Over a thousand make and takes a day for three days! That's alot of Misting, .. my friends! lol

Here's the Tattered Angels that worked ScrapFest... standing in front of Archivers in the Mall of America.
A crazy , fun , sweet bunch .. I tell ya! I love them all!

Tattered Angels products at Archivers.
Our demo booth in the mall.
and LOTS of people waiting for our fun Make and Take. They were such an enthusiastic bunch!

Also .... sold out classes... filled with scrappers ready to learn and create.

See that window in the classroom? Well here's what you saw when you looked out it.

Pretty cool huh?

Here's the make and take table.

and you know ..you gotta have a little fun .. as is Misting ..isn't enough.

The very best part of the trip.... I got to see Greg , Trina, Adriana and Austin! ( Greg is my nephew. My sister Sharons son ).They picked me up and we went for dinner at this amazing roof top restaurant in the middle of down town over looking the city , and had a great time together..chatting it up. It was WONDERFUL! They are just such a sweet sweet family.. and I love them so much. ( Here they are standing outside the hotel when they dropped my off)

Oh.. I miss them already!

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I still have so much to share with you from my trip to AZ.... and some things I've been working on . Lots of catching up to do this week, here on the blog. Thanks for holding down the fort while I was gone. I miss ya!