Where have I been all this time?

Lol...yup - I've been MIA again!

If I haven't been commenting on your blogs, I've had a decent excuse :)

Here's what I was working on... needed favors for a baby shower at church Sunday.

I had THIS template from Creations by AR.

I worked it up half a dozen different ways, and it just wasn't what I wanted for this event, so I emailed the incredible Adela Rossol, and asked if she could tweak the front of the outfit to become a cute little scalloped edge dress.  LOOK what she did!  Love that lady - she's so talented, and so very sweet!

I had all of the pieces cut out, and ready to create the little dress fronts.  

One morning, my amazing friend, Shirley, came over, and we assembled the dress fronts, 

assembly line style.  THANK YOU, Shirley!!!

Each dress got a blouse behind it, a collar, a strip of ribbon, and a rosebud.  

Oh...and two cuffs!  

Then, we glued a strip of DP around each box, to hide the staples (yes,

the box was quick and easy, with one staple in each side)

Later in the week, I adhered the dress to the box, fixed puffy little bags of Hershey's kisses,

with cute little baby words on the bottom, and lots of white 'shred' material.

Still later in the week, I did this...a glassine bag, stamped with simple Pebbles stamps,

made Ghirardelli White Chocolate Covered Pretzels, with pink sprinkles, and tucked in a Hershey's white

chocolate bar.  I computer generated the little saying "Thank you for being here today. You have showered us with blessings, and made our day so 'SWEET'.  The names and date followed.

Then, I had leftover kisses.  What to do? What to do?  AHA!  I made these, and they just

filled in some gaps on the food table.

Here is the whole kit and caboodle, ready to party on!  It was a wonderful day.

The fellowship hall was full of love and friendship, and OH SO PRETTY baby girl gifts!

All of the designer papers, glassine bags, and ribbon are A Muse Studio products,

which I purchased from my good friend Shirley, who is a demonstrator for the company!

Anyhooo....that's my excuse.  50 of everything later, I'm ready to get inky again! Maybe

I'll have something new to share tomorrow :)

Thanks for stopping by,

Patti J.

The Baseball, Football, Basketball, Volleyball, Soccer Ball, Locker Card

Here is the card front with all three lockers closed.

Note the lockers are labeled 1, 2, 3 and at the bottom of each locker

is mom, dad, and baby's name) Sentiment is The Angel Company.

Here is the card front with the third locker open!

The balls on the left of the lockers are actually a tag. You pull the ribbon and the tag has

a Welcome Baby sign on the pennant. Since I don't know how to 'blur',

I just made a photo of the left and right of the tag.

This is the photo album.

I could not get a good pic of the inside. No matter what I tried, it looked pink.

Well, dear friends, there it is, the baseball, basketball, volleyball, soccer ball, locker card! Hope you like it! I pretty much cased this one from Melanie. It's not totally identical to hers, but it is very close.

I had also cased a card by Theresa Momber while working up samples for my friend to look at. When she did not pick that card, I took the image, and made a new cover for a photo album I picked up at the Dollar Store. Hopefully, it will come in handy for something! (maybe baby pics?)

Both Theresa and Melanie's cards can be seen on the Stamp TV site. Just go into the gallery, and type in "Sporty Accessories" in the search box. I'm not at all sure how to link them up on my blog, so I will send you that way!

Hope you've had a good day. It's football weather in Mo. Chilly, windy, overcast or rainy, depending on the hour of the day! I survived a trip to Wal-Mart, so I guess all is well! As my DD reminds me, I am certainly happy to be healthy enough, mobile enough, and wealthy enough to be able to go there and shop for 'the finer things in life'. I am, indeed, blessed!

Thanks so much for dropping by! Have a great evening - hope to be back tomorrow with a challenge card or two!

Patti J.

Food for thought: I plan on living forever. So far, so good. ~Author unknown

New Baby!

NO, not me!

I told you a few days ago that I'd let you see what I've been working on the last week. I was asked by a friend, to make 40 baby shower invitations, and a card. The new baby's room will be decorated in a sporty theme, and the colors are primarily black and red.

I have very few sporty looking stamps, so I was literally THRILLED when I won a challenge at Stamp TV a few weeks ago, and was able to shop for a new set. What better set to choose than Melanie Muenchinger's "Sporty Accessories" - great timing! If you are familiar with this set, the card I'm going to make next, will use the locker theme. I'll share it tomorrow, hopefully!

Here are my invitations. All coloring was done with Tom-Bow markers. While shopping last week at For Keeps Sake in St. Louis, I found this fabulous 12 x 12 sheet of basketball 'leather', and another of football 'leather'. Sheesh! How cool was that - stamp and cut! The footballs were trimmed with a white Vision Pen. Several of the pieces were popped up on dots for some dimension. I can't show the inside as I don't know how to blur the names, but I re-used the star stamp (Stampland) on the inside top and bottom flaps. All of the stars were dotted with a Starburst Gelly roll pen for a bit of pizzazz. The 'grid' stamp in the background is from Morning Star Stamps

I hope the lady will like them. Off I go to work on her card. Have a great weekend, everyone - thanks for stopping by. See you very soon.

Patti J.

Food for thought: I've been told that one should never, under ANY circumstances, take a laxative and a sleeping pill at the same time!

Batteries are a good thing....

DD is a goddess on her pedestal tonight! She brought me in some camera batteries, and I can finally post what I've been doing this week instead of challenges!

The first pictures are of some thank you notes that I made for the new mommy and daddy.













There were SO many scraps of paper, that it seemed sinful not to use them for something.

So... I took some Ivory Wasau CS, and some Ivory envelopes and made some cards with the scraps. (Lisa, are you reading this??? Windy City Stamper??? I USED SCRAPS!!! The sound you are hearing is me patting myself on the back!

I then took some blue and brown CS and made a box for them. The lid is scalloped with a Martha Stewart edge punch. I could absolutely NOT get the lid exactly right, thus the strip across the top to hold the ribbon in place to hold the stinkin' box lid on!!! Lol... Whatever works!

The gorgeous basket was made for me by a friend from work, Paige Reid, for my retirement. The nugget favors fit into it beautifully. A piece of 2" dotted ribbon tied it all together.





Again, the photo's just seem dim to me. The colors are so pretty IRL, and I'm a little disappointed with the pics. I'm working on an outside spot, so hopefully if it ever stops raining, and the tornados run their course, that will work better!

DD is in charge of the food for the shower, so except for a couple of easy peasy games, I think I'm done!

Hope I have not bored you all to tears! Thanks so much for looking!

On a personal note... My countdown is at 14 work days now. It's very bittersweet. I'm itching to get started cleaning and painting and fixing things here at home, but at the same time, it's breaking my heart to think of leaving the kids that I work with. To some of them, I'm like the 'mom' they have never known. Anyway, the days are flying by, the tears are falling, I'm giddy with excitement, and frozen with fear over what the next phase of my life will bring.

Arghhhhh....enough of that dismal, depressing, boo-hooey stuff! Life is good!
(except that the power has gone off 3 times while I've been trying to save this!!!)

Have a wonderful night, dear friends!


If any of our Wisconsin family is reading, we had such a nice visit this weekend! Loved seeing each of you - BIG hugs!!!



Patti J.
~Some days you're the dog, some days you're the hydrant...

New T-Shirt!

It is Country Days weekend in Farmington!

There is much to do, and Saturday begins with a 1 mile run, a 1 mile walk, or a 5 mile run. Well, I am certainly not physically able or mentally inclined to attempt anything that says 5 miles, and does NOT include wheels and an engine... So, at the sweet young age of 55+, and probably at LEAST that many extra pounds, I decided to get up at 6-ish this a.m. and go into town with DD for an attempt at something a bit smaller. I have never, EVER done a walk or a run before, so this was a first. I got very brave and decided that after DD ran the 1 mile, that I could certainly WALK the one mile. (especially, as DD was going to come back from running her mile and walk WITH me!!!)lol... So... I get in line, am trying to be so very brave, and Senator Kevin Engler, who is in charge of the event, says, "okay, we are about to begin - are you ready?" Of course we are. (ugh). THEN he says, "runners in front, walkers in back, it's one mile down and one mile back". Yep, I panicked BIG TIME! I'm nearly hyperventilating at the thought of walking TWO bleeping miles when I have not even had my coffee yet!!! Of course, DD says we can do it, and off we go. The long and short of this story is that Patti J. walked her very first official MILE race! We went oh so far, and decided that we would only walk half of the two miles. Anyway, long story, and I really didn't earn the shirt, but it's paid for, and I did walk the mile that I intended, so I am spending the rest of the day patting myself on the back for a job well done. Next year, I will walk between the cones and cross the finish line!

We have family in from Wisconsin, so tonight, we will all go to the free concert in the park, featuring Aaron Tippin. Should be fun!

NEWS FLASH!!! I entered the Etsy Inspired Challenge over at Heart Hugs Designs on May 31st, and I found out yesterday that I won! I know it was just a random generated pick, but it still feels like winning a lottery! Ha! I got so flustered when I saw my name on their site, that I didn't look to see what I won! It will be a surprise!

I've been working on baby shower favors for a shower DD and I are hosting next weekend for some friends of hers. I posted the invitations a few days ago, and now I'll show you the favors that have been popping up all over the place this week! There are lots of photo's showing the progression of the boxes, so don't feel obligated to look at them all! DP is all by The Paper Studio. CS is all DCWV. Ribbon is from Hobby Lobby.

Have a great Saturday, and maybe I'll get back to post again tomorrow!

Hugs...

Patti J.

~We make a living by what we get - we make a life by what we give.

Chldren are a Gift from God...

Don't you just adore working on baby stuff? I can't help but smile when I'm playing with pink or blue papers!

I know I've been MIA for several days. I've been working on some invitations for a baby shower mid-June. Their theme is Bon Voyage, and consists of blue, brown, white, and tan. It features planes, boats, and cars. I couldn't find a stamp that worked with any of their theme items, so I cut up some patterned papers and made my own boats! I had seen a similar layout on SCS eons ago, and sketched it out, and was actually able to find it when I needed it! Lol! Hope the new momma and grandma will like them! (The photo's are terrible - the beautiful soft colors look yellowed...so sorry!)

(The punched ovals say that the baby's favorite colors are blue, brown, tan, and white...

Have a great night - I'm off to watch the end of American Idol, and finish a swap!

Thanks for stopping by!


Patti J.
~The simplest toy is one which even the youngest child can operate...it's called a grandparent!