Thursday, September 30, 2010

Sweet Peas

Hey everyone! You may have to come rescue me if it keeps raining as it has been for the past couple of days! Bring a little boat, a couple of oars, life jackets and a some Starbuck's! ;) We really did need this rain since we were dry for the entire month! That's not normal for North Carolina where the trees and vegetation are quite thick!

Okay, enough about the weather! I have a scrapbook page to share with you. If you saw my post on Monday, it was loaded with pictures of the Liberty Antiques Festival I went to on Saturday. And since I only spent the entire day looking at old junk, I turned around and spent the day on Sunday doing the same thing! I addicted I tell you!


On our trail for treasures, my friend Audrey and I discovered Sweet Peas, an adorable little antique and garden shop in a tiny town North of where I live. Oh it was fun and just so darn cute!


I created this page with an ultra cool new digital kit called 'Apple of my Eye' from the talented Vinnie Pearce of Two Peas in a Bucket. Look at these cute accents and lovely papers!


My fun little banner is made of tags from my Sizzix die cut machine and features even more accents from this great kit.


With a larger Sizzix tag, I printed my journaling and tucked it behind the middle photo of my page. The buttons are vintage from my stash, the title alphas are from American crafts and that sweet crochet flower was purchased on Etsy. There are so many great accents to be found on Etsy...just love that site!

Well, that's my post for the day. I hope I'll have something interesting to share with you tomorrow. Oh, how about some Halloween decorations? I'm going to be spending a bit of time decking out the house today. Do you decorate for Halloween? I just started doing this last year! Yep! I had a couple little things I put out, but I wouldn't call it decorating.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Digital Doodles Tuesday

Hi! Glad you're here today because because it's a Digital Doodles Tuesday and that means the design team and I have some fun projects to share with you! This week I asked our team to pick any of the Digital Doodles stamps or sets to make their projects with and they came up with some pretty fantastic projects!



Thankful Card by
Kathy Martin


Boo Scrapbook Page by


Halloween Haunted House by


Birthday Party Invitations by


Halloween Tomb Stone by



Apple Bread with Labels by


Trick or Treat Hanging by


Boo Haunted House by

Wow! What a line up! I'm amazed each and every week with the projects the design team creates! They are so inspiring and just plain fun! I hope they have inspired you to creates some fun projects too. If you would like Virginia's apple bread recipe, click here.

Last week's 'Card Creations' stamp set winner is Amy Duff of Paper Trails! Congratulations Amy! This week's giveaway is a Digital Doodles stamp of your choice. Just leave a comment on this post by this Friday and you will be entered into the drawing!


Monday, September 27, 2010

Liberty Antiques Festival

How was your weekend? If you came by for a visit on Friday, I told you about my plans to attend the Liberty Antiques Festival. Well, it was awesome with over 400 vendors from 25 states! The festival had it all and then some! Anything you could image and more was there, including lots of yummy food! There was so many booths that my friend Audrey and I didn't get through it all! We gave it the old college try, but the record high temperature of 98 degrees slowed us down a bit!


As you can see, the tents were set up in a big field so in addition to the intense heat, it was very dusty too! But look at all the great antiques!








I owe Audrey big time for remembering to bring her camera, carrying it around, and shooting these great photos since I forgot mine!


Both Audrey and I agreed that Dad's Follies was our favorite booth! Have you ever seen anything like this? These are all chocolate molds! It's an extensive collection that included one of a kind pieces like the zeppelin in the lower left hand corner of the photo above. Be sure to visit there website if you are interested in seeing more or purchasing one of these amazing pieces.


This 4 foot tall Santa Claus chocolate mold is one of only three in the world! One is in a museum in Germany, another in a private collection and this one! I considered bringing the jolly old soul home, but I didn't have $40,000 on me!


In addition to chocolate molds, quite a selection of ice cream molds were available.


Meet Butch one of the owners who has a fantastic sense of humor and is quite passionate about the business. He spent a good deal of time teaching Audrey and I about chocolate molds. Before we left, we knew enough about these treasures to really appreciate what we looking at. We learned how these pieces were first manufactured and as time went on and new technology was developed how they evolved.

During our lesson, I couldn't help but wonder how Butch, a big Harley riding tough guy, finds himself in the chocolate mold business? "By default. My mother loved and collected chocolate molds." he told us. Then when I was examining a little turkey chocolate mold, his sister let us in on a little secret about Butch and the turkey mold I was admiring. "Butch actually likes to use that piece to make butter molds for Thanksgiving! He shows up for dinner on his bike with his turkey shaped butters!" she tells us! Can you imagine!?!?  LOL


Well, If I could have afforded it, or hadn't recently spent hundreds on a pair of ceramic elephants, I would have purchased this guy! I had to settle for a photo instead!


At lunch, we found a booth that was grilling cheeseburgers and serving french fries. Desert was some home made peach ice cream made in this John Deere machine! Oh it was delicious! And refreshing in the heat!


We found some lovely linens! I didn't get a picture, but I got a quilt from this booth. One that was hand stitched in a pinwheel design, lovely blues and prints on a white background. There were so many beautiful things and a lot of pretty aprons which I thought I'd try on. Looks like an apron from the I Love Lucy show, doesn't it?!?!

Well, that's my ultra long post for the day. I hope you enjoyed it. I sure enjoyed sharing with you!

Don't forget that tomorrow is Tuesday and the design team was challenged to use any Digital Doodles stamp of their choice. Wait until you see what they did! They are one awesome group that I am fortunate to work with! :) Kathy


Friday, September 24, 2010

All Hallows Eve Tags

T.G.I.F. everyone! Seems like every other day I'm wishing you a happy Friday and weekend! Time is a strange thing the way it goes by so quickly! Does that mean life is good, you know, time flies when you're having fun?

Well, I had some spooky crafting fun creating these hybrid tags with a new Two Peas in a Bucket kit called 'All Hallows Eve' by Polka Dot Pixels!


Aren't these Halloween images a scream?


The uses for tags are limited only by your imagination! Here I used them to decorate my black Halloween tree. You could attach one to a treat bag or gift box.


I loved taking my images, tags, circle punches and patterned paper and crumbling them up and adding smears of ink. It's was so fun to get messy and create all this texture! Each tag has a bit of hand stitching, buttons, and paper fasteners. On a couple tags I printed the image twice and cut a portion out to add with pop dots.

Now if only the weather would cooperate and cool down from the 90s it would feel a little more like fall!

So what are your weekend plans? Anything worth mentioning? I have some great plans for this evening and tomorrow. Tonight I'm going to stay with a friend and we will most likely go to dinner and do a bit of browsing at one of our favorite decor stores. The store just sent out an e-mail about their Thanksgiving decorations. Oh boy! Can't resist! Then tomorrow, it's up and at 'em bright and early to attend the Liberty Antiques Festival. It's a bit of a drive and promises to be a great event. I plan to bring my camera for pics and scrapbook pages later on!

Thanks a million for coming by to see what I've been up to. I really appreciate your visit and comment if you would like to leave one. Have a super weekend! :)

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Falling for You

Today is the first day of fall, but it doesn't feel like it with a predicted high of 95 degrees here in North Carolina! Nevertheless, I've been preparing for fall activities and holidays with some fun projects like this card I created with a new Two Peas in a Bucket digital kit called 'Little Autumn Girl' by Holly Brooke Jones.


The kit contains six accents; four leaves, a piece of candy corn and this adorable little autumn girl. I used the leaf images to create my background patterned paper. I love using Kraft paper for fall projects as it really creates a rustic feel. The die cuts are from Nestabilities.


I used some wrinkled seam binding for my bow and topped it with an old Fancy Pants felt flower and a cream button. I created the sentiment and used my old Sizzix die cutter to make the little tag for it. What do you think of the gems? Nice touch or a little over the top? Sometimes it's hard to decide if a project needs a little extra something or if it's just right the way it is.

If you haven't had a chance this week to check out a second helping of the Digital Doodles 'Thankful' kit, scroll down to the next post. I will warn you, however, that the images might send you to the kitchen for something sweet! ;) Oh and while you are drooling over the yummy projects, don't forget to leave a comment to win the 'Card Sentiments' kit.

Have a great fall day! Thanks for dropping by! :) Kathy

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

A Second Helping of 'Thankful' and a GIVEAWAY

Who can sit down to Thanksgiving dinner and not dish up seconds? I can't! Thanksgiving comes but once a year and the turkey is so delicious and tender and the gravy is so savory that I can't resist a second helping! So we decided to give you a second helping of Digital Doodles 'Thankful' projects too! Just look what the design team and I have cooked up for you...


To give my white and red gingham ribbon an aged appearance, I just placed the ribbon over my Ranger Antique Linen stamp pad and swirled a tole brush over it.

Jar of Apple Butter with Tag and Card
Kathy Martin
Digital Doodles Designer



Fall Decor Blocks



Candy Apples with Tag




Apple Cupcake Toppers and Wrappers


Happy Thanksgiving Cards


Please Don't Go - Scrapbook Page


Thanksgiving Napkin Rings


Candle with Pumpkin Card


Didn't these gals rock the projects this week?!?! What's your favorite project? I think I gained a few pounds just gazing at all the goodies that were created! And I would love to decorate my Thanksgiving table and hearth with the banner and napkin rings! If you would like to whip up some Thanksgiving goodness, the 'Thankful' set is exclusively sold at Two Peas in a Bucket.

Want a few good reasons to buy Digital Doodles stamps?

They're adorable! ;)
They require no physical storage space or creative storage solutions!
You do not need dozens of stamp pads since you can color the images with an unlimited color palette from your computer!
You can resize them to make little bitty icons or great big images for scrapbook pages and more!
They can be used countless times without any wear and tear!
They are less messy!
There are no shipping costs when you order since they arrive by e-mail!
You don't have to wait a week until they arrive...ah instant gratification!
They are environmentally friendly since there is no physical product! Now you're talking! ;)
They are less expensive too! Gotta love that!

I can't think of any more reasons off the top of my head, but do you need any? ;)

Before I close, I'd like to offer the Digital Doodles 'Card Sentiments' set to one person leaving a comment on
this post by Friday!


This set has oodles of fun sentiments for all your Digital Doodles designs.

Thanks for stopping by! I enjoyed having you! :) Kathy