Thanks Debbie Olson

Good morning blog surfers! I hope your Thursday is off to a good start!

I've been working on a digital card using an adorable new Two Peas in a Bucket kit, but I'm just not happy with the way things are going! The card I made was just okay, nothing special, no wow factor, which is okay. I suppose. But I know I can do better! And to do my creative team job right, my project needs to inspire you and make you want the kit, right?

When your creative juices dry up, what do you do? I turn to my favorite blogs to get me fired up again. The other day I wanted to play with some of my latest Papertrey Ink stamps and since I'm pretty new to stamping, I didn't really know where to begin. So I hoped onto Debbie Olson's blog and found a super cute card to lift.

This is the card I created with Debbie's help. Isn't this an amazing design?!?! I love Debbie's work and I love Papertrey Ink. I secretly want to be a Papertrey Ink girl. Oops, I let that cat out of the bag! ;)

It was cool to recreate Debbie's card, to experience just how she combines the Papertrey Ink stamps and die cuts together. I never would have thought to stamp the flap of this seed envelope. Cute, huh?

I'm also pretty new at coloring with Copic markers and using Debbie's card as a guild, I was able to see how to color these beautiful flowers.

I love all the little details that Debbie puts into her cards like the little butterfly.

Here's Debbie's card. Mine turned out almost as cute as hers! And I had a lot of fun doing a self-taught Debbie Olson class!

Now maybe I can get back to my Two Peas digital assignment and create something with a little more zing!

Kathy :)

Mediterranean Crunch Salad

Hello!

At the risk of sounding like a broken record....where do the days go? Didn't we just begin the week? And here we are at Wednesday! Another blink of the eye and it'll be Friday and we'll be looking forward to the holiday weekend! Now that's a good thing! I love weekends with my boys and having three days to play instead of two sounds fabulous to me!

I thought I'd share a healthy salad I made the other day with a recipe from Whole Foods. I've been hearing that a lot of you are trying to eat healthier.

(source)

This salad is so good, and healthy, and crunchy, and beautiful! I must warn you, however, you may want to add a little of your favorite salad dressing or some avocado or cheese...a little something extra to jazz it up a bit. You know? Like some fat! ;) I make my own salad dressing and had some balsamic vinaigrette to add. Now we were talking! Good stuff!

I hope you give it a try. Let me know if you do and what you changed or added. It's a great salad for experimenting with different ingredients. I thought some fresh cut corn would be a nice addition.

Enjoy! :) Kathy

All American Boy

Good morning!

One week from today we'll all (in the US) be celebrating the Fourth of July, our country's 235th birthday! How will you and your family celebrate? Ever since Christopher was born, we've lived in two homes where fireworks are legal so we have a little fireworks display after dark. I spend the day making some of our favorite all American foods, potato salad, baked beans, watermelon and either fried chicken or grilled hamburgers. We always have some kind of dessert too, chocolate chip cookies or cupcakes. I'm thinking of making home made ice cream this year. Sounds really good, doesn't it? I'm looking forward to it!

I just finished a scrapbook page using a photo of Christopher from last Fourth of July and a new Two Peas in a Bucket Digital kit called 'Celebrate' by Polka Dot Pixels.

Wow, these July 4th papers are colorful and patriotic! Most supplies used are from this kit with some buttons, alphas, brads, die cuts, card stock and ribbon thrown in for good measure.

I adore these Jillibean Soup corrugated alphas! The color matched this kit perfectly!

I used a Spellbinders circle die to cut out the star accents.

I only needed a couple strips of paper for my journaling.

If you're like me and you love paper layouts because of the dimension and ability to make things with your hands, paper and tools, don't pass up digital kits because they are a fabulous way to hoard tons of papers and accents without being buried alive with them! ;)

Hope you have a great week! :) Kathy

Birthday Wishes Card

Happy Saturday! How's the day/weekend going for you so far? My weekend is off to a great start. I went to the Raleigh flea market this morning and found some great treasures for my vintage Etsy site that I'll be listing over the next week. It's always so difficult to decide which things to list and which to keep! I only buy stuff I would love to have which makes that decision pretty difficult!

I thought I'd pop in this afternoon and share a card I made during the week. Little by little I'm trying to learn how to use stamps and incorporate the many sets of Papertrey Ink stamps into my projects.

I used five stamps from two sets on this card along with scraps of paper from my stash.

I love the 'Post Marks' set! You can create all kinds of different stamps, post cards and mail related crafts with it!

Another love of mine are these mini paper clips from Tim Holtz! Too often I buy accents that are cute, but never make their way to a project. These clips...swwoooonn...I need another package!

These soft pink tulle flowers from Prima Marketing are another item I've got to purchase more of! Of all the colors they come in! ;)

Well, I've been working on a fun Fourth of July page over the past couple days. I've gotten a little crazy with the stitching on this one so it's taking a while. I'm going to go finish it up so I can share it with you. I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. :) Kathy

Hello Friend & Free Download

Hello!

It's been a busy morning at our house all ready. I drove Christopher to camp this morning. He's so excited about making tie-dyed T-shirts today! Then I came home and made some butter, cleaned the turtle tank and now I'm leaving a crafty share for you! ;)

Did I tell you we have a couple baby turtles? Yep! One found at the strawberry patch...a baby aquatic turtle that seemed to be quite far from any water source. So we thought we would enjoy watching him for a few weeks and let him grow a little before we brought him to a nearby lake. Then about a week later, we found another aquatic turtle marching across our driveway!?!?! Go figure! They've been a lot of fun to watch, but you have to be very careful to wash your hands well after touching them as they have salmonella! Something that's natural in turtles.

Okay, enough about turtles...I have a card share and a free download for you!

I made this fun feline card yesterday using scraps from my stash and a darling vintage image.

The envelope and tiny tags die cuts are from Papertrey Ink. Love their products!

I had a lot of fun giving this card some shabby goodness...inked paper edges, vintage mother of pearl buttons, hand stitching and millinery flowers.

Here's the image I used for my card. Click on it to enlarge and download. If you would like to share what you make with it, I would really enjoy seeing it! :)

Have a super Thursday!

Kathy :)

Coffee & News

Hello there! Hope you are enjoying summer...actually tomorrow is officially the first day of summer! I've been hearing about a lot of beach trips and vacations on your blogs. Sounds like so many of you are living your summer days to the fullest!

My dad was here for a visit last week and I created this page of a photo I took of him. He didn't even know I took his picture! ;) I love candid shots!

This is another one of my hybrid pages using a awesome new digital kit called 'Bad News' by Polka Dot Pixels. I love text papers so I absolutely had to have this kit. They are the perfect papers for this page about my dad enjoying the daily paper.

With a couple of the papers included in this kit I made some accents like stars, circles  

and a banner.

I've been using a lot of stars lately! They go with about any theme. And tags...love 'em!

As usual, I put a couple of my border punches to use and created the title with some fabulous October Afternoon letter stickers from my stash.

Hope you enjoyed my crafty scrapbook page share! And I hope today is good to you! Enjoy! :) Kathy

Happy Father's Day

Hi!

I hope you all have had an amazing weekend and Father's Day! We've been enjoying a relaxing day! I made Dan breakfast, a card and oatmeal raisin cookies. What else is there, right? Life is certainly good! :)

Here's the Father's Day card I made.

Dan really likes it! The fabulous bicycle is from a new digital kit at Two Peas in a Bucket called 'Bicycle Ride' by Shelley Castillo. The kit has five different bicycle silhouettes that are oh so fun!

I printed the bicycle right on top of some map paper from another digital kit I got recently called 'Discovery' by Dianne Rigdon. I love this paper and knew I'd want to use it again soon!

This card was pretty simple, I just added a couple brads to the bicycle wheels and a sentiment banner.

Kathy :)

Vintage Goodness

Hello!

T.G.I.F! Do you have any special plans for the weekend? I'm going to hang out with my boys! My favorite kind of weekend! Later this summer while Christopher goes to camp for a week, hubby and I'll be travel to Charleston South Carolina and then we have our annual family beach trip. I'm looking forward to these adventures.

I just spent some time listing some fun vintage items in my Etsy shop and I thought maybe you would like to take a peek. I always love browsing antiques!

This is an antique walnut sewing drawer. I love the double handles and think it's perfect for displaying cards or packages of embellishments!

I was lucky to run across these half pint ball jars which are hard to find. They are perfect for buttons and other small items!

I can never resist a pretty little bone china teacup! This one is a Queen Anne set. It's the latest of many teacups in my shop.

Here's a little decor idea...this is how I display some of my teacups. This is perfect for mismatched cups and saucers!

I hope you have a great weekend! Stay cool! It's heating up around here again! A visit to our community pool is sounding pretty good! :) Kathy

How to Make Butter

Hey!

How are you today? It's a lovely day in my neck of the woods since the heat took a leave of absence for a few days! I spent some time in the yard yesterday and today I plan on making some banana bread with a couple of very ripe bananas. First I'll need some butter for my recipe.

Have you ever made butter?  I hadn't until recently and since I can't recall my mother or grandmother ever making butter, I assumed it must be a real time consuming and or messy proposition. But it's not, it's actually easy and delicious !

To make butter you simply need a food processor, blender, or Kitchen Aid mixer. A pint of heavy whipping cream, a little salt and some cheese cloth. That's it!

In a blender whip your cream and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt approximately 10 minutes. It's important to buy heavy whipping cream. At first your cream will become a whipped cream consistency.

Later, lumps of butter will appear along with a bit of liquid...this is buttermilk that can be used for pancakes or making bread.

Scoop the lumps of butter out onto a piece of cheese cloth. Make sure your butter is completely wrapped and then squeeze out any excess buttermilk. This part is a little messy, but as I've made more batches, I've learned how to keep the mess at a minimum.

Store your butter in a container. Or make fun shapes using chocolate molds. I use vintage glass refrigerator containers because our family is trying to reduce the amount of plastic we use.

Here I have some homemade wheat bread that I toasted, the perfect way to enjoy butter! Hope you give butter making a try. I bet the kids would enjoy participating too! You can make sweet butter by adding honey instead of salt. You can make unsalted butter or experiment with garlic and herbs. Enjoy!

Kathy :)

He's So Shy

Hello!

Since complaining of the heat in my last post, we've cooled down about 10 degrees to more normal temps for late spring! Thank goodness! I was surprised to hear how many of you were suffering heat waves too! Hopefully, things have cooled a tad for you as well!

I'm popping in real quick to say hi and share another photo of Benny the adorable hedgehog I'm babysitting before I spend more time with my dad who is visiting from Nebraska. He's leaving tomorrow morning.

Isn't this guy just precious? Look at that wee little face and those tiny toes! I have him cuddled in a fabulous quilt I got at the flea market last weekend. Benny is quite shy so he's taking his time emerging from ball mode.

I hope to be back tomorrow or Thursday with a scrapbook page share. It's a page in progress so it'll depend when I get it finished. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! :) Kathy

Hello!

How has your weekend been? We are smoking hot hot hot here in North Carolina! Whew! It's somewhere in the mid 90s! The kind of weather you need a pool or ocean within a few feet! How about you? Is it scorching where you are?

If you haven't heard, I'm baby sitting my gal pal's hedgehog for the next three weeks! This here is little Benny! He should be called something like speedy, zippy or turbo because he's as quick as lightning! And he cracks me up when he runs around the house! He's so dang cute!

We're also waiting for another guest to arrive...my dad is on his from Pennsylvania where he was visiting my brother and family. My brother's son just graduated from high school this year! There are lots of graduations and special end of school everts going on!

It would be appropriate if I had a graduation card to share, but I don't! I do, however, have a cute little country western card I created with a new digital kit from Two Peas in a Bucket called 'Country' by Polka Dot Pixels.

I adore vintage and so this cute image had to be the focal point of my card!

I thought it would be fun to have the little boy in the image lasso the sentiment! It was easy to do with a little jute.

I love the brightly colored patterned papers included in this kit since most other country themed lines are more rustic.

Well, I'm working on another scrapbook page. It's a critter page. Care to guess what kind of critter? :) Kathy

Happy Birthday

Hello!

Friday once again....woot woot! What's happening with you and yours this weekend? I've been seeing lots of vacation and poolside photos in blog land already!

I'm getting a little visitor today! :) Maybe you were visiting my blog a few weeks ago when I told you I get to babysit my girlfriend's baby hedgehog for three weeks? Little Benny is coming to stay today!  I'm so excited!

Isn't Benny the cutest little guy?!?! While he's here with me, I'll let you know what we're doing. Hedgehogs love to cuddle up so I'll probably let him make a little nest in my shirt while I sit and read. Can you believe these little guys like to swim? Yep, they float on their backs! :) Maybe we'll have to have a little dip? ;)

Okay, I got side tracked talking about little Benny! I have a card to share with you today!

This is another hybrid project, using an awesome new digital kit from Two Peas in a Bucket called 'Summer Meadow' by Chrissy W.

Oh how I adore this tweet little bird accent from the kit! I framed the feathered critter with a couple Spellbinders die cuts and then added a craft string, tulle and button bow along with a rub on sentiment.

These leaf springs are another lovely accent that I printed directly onto my card stock. Then I printed a couple swatches of patterned paper to stitch to the card. Fun and easy!

Supplies:

Card Stock:  Neenah Paper

Digital Kit:  Summer Meadow by Chrissy W.

Circle Dies:  Spellbinders

Button:  Stampin' Up!

Craft String:  DMC

Rub-On Sentiment:  Scrapworks

Sewing Thread:  Coats & Clark

Tulle:  Stash

Yankee Doodles

Hey there!

I'm back with another patriotic, red, white and blue project. I created this scrapbook page with the new We R Memory Keepers 'Yankee Doodles' line I talked about Monday.

I love the mini 6x6 paper pads for cards, but they also include plenty of paper for scrapbook pages too!

Stars are the perfect accent for Fourth of July projects, don't you think? Here I made some die cut stars with some corrugated cardboard and some of the Yankee Doodles papers using an old Sizzix die plate. I dug out another old set of dies from Quickutz for the title and stitched around the edges of those alphas. I'm seriously addicted to stitching these days!

I also used a 'Just the Edge' scalloped boarder cut from Bazzill Basics and some star buttons I've had for a looooooong time!

Speaking of having something in the stash box for a while...those metal license plates, I believe they were made several years back by Karen Foster. Finally, they get their day in the spotlight!

Well, I have more fun projects in the pipeline. I'm looking forward to perusing your blogs and seeing your crafty projects while I work away in my office. You all give me so much inspiration! Thank you! :) Hope you have a great Wednesday! The weekend is right around the corner! Kathy

Supplies:

Card Stock:  Bazzill Basics

Patterned Paper:  We R Memory Keepers

Jute:  Papertrey Ink

Star Buttons:  Blumenthal

Metal License Plates:  Karen Foster

Die Cut Alphas:  Quickutz

Die Cut Stars:  Sizzix

White Paint:  Folk Art by Plaid

4th of July

Hello!

Have you noticed a decrease in blog posts by the crafty chicks you follow? I sure have! Since the official kick off of summer, Memorial Day, and with kids getting out of school for summer break, there's a lot less blogging going on! :) Hope all of you are enjoying your vacations and time with the kiddos! This is Christopher's last week of school.

Before you know it, July 4th will be upon us and I was in the mood to make a card for the occasion with the new 'Yankee Doodles' papers by We R Memory Keepers.

I love these colorful papers that come in a 6x6 pad that's the perfect size for cards! And great for scrapbook pages! I'm actually working on a page right now!

For this card I got out some white paint to brush on the edges of my paper and the corrugated die cuts.

I added a jute bow and a decorative star pin from my stash.

Well, I have my usual Monday errands to run...the post office, the Goodwill. We've been simplifying things around our house for a couple of months now. Each week we go through a closet, set of drawers or room and have been donating lots of things. Sometimes it's hard to let go of stuff. And I often wonder if I'll regret letting go of other things, but overall, it's been fabulous! It's such a freeing feeling to donate all these things! Less to take care of too!

Hope you enjoy your Monday. Thanks for stopping by! :) Kathy

Supplies:

Patterned Papers:  We R Memory Keepers

Corrugated Cardboard:  Etsy

Jute:  Papertrey Ink

Paint:  Folk Art

Die Cuts:  Papertrey Ink, Quickutz, Sizzix

Border Punches:  Fiskars, EK Success

Decorative Pin:  Fancy Pants

Rub-Ons:  American Crafts, Doodlebug Designs