Stamping Room Pictures #3

Tonight is the last of the stamping room pictures. The next time I show you a picture of it will be a shot of the whole room. Right now the blue glass is boxed up while they put the roof on. When they are all finished and I put it all back up...I will shoot a picture of the whole room for you.

I just had someone knock at the door. It was Lori Ward's husband. They are here to pick up bricks from the chimney. What they don't take they are going to throw in the dumpster. I guess Joyce from Joyce's Finer Diner wanted some. They don't know what she is going to do with them. It will be nice to have them off of the lawn. Right now they have 2 piles of them, one in the yard and another pile by the chimney.

Any who....the first picture is of the table by the window where I have my marker's set up. Then there is my new Circle Scizzor's Plus and Glass Cutting Mat that I haven't had time to try out yet. Maybe soon! The large sewing machine is my computerized one and that will be going up in the sewing room when that is done. The little sewing machine I use for sewing on card stock. You don't want to sew on paper with your regular sewing machine as the dust from paper is so fine that you can ruin the machine. The next picture is a picture from inside one of the drawer's that I use to store my stamps in. I have used this storage system, 29 quart sterilite drawers, for the past 3 years and it works really well for me. I store the stamps by the size box they come in and then put them all alphabetically. The tower of drawers on the left are my current stamp sets that are in the current catalog, and the tower of drawers on the right are my retired stamps. For along time....I had the retired's contained to one drawer. Now that I sell greeting cards, it is harder for me to part with the retired sets and the retired collection has grown. But I just cleaned out a bunch of them and they will be in my stall at the fleamarket. So come shop away! Only one more day...the flea market starts on Saturday!

Home Improvements

Hello! Today I thought I would show you some more of the home improvement projects that have been going on here. This is the new ceiling fan that I had installed. I just love it. It probably would have been better if I would have waited till daytime to shoot these pictures but as you know, I usually like to post at night. For all of you that have been writing and asking me to organize your stamping space.....the answer is NO! LOL BUT....you are welcome to come and look at mine if you need idea's. I think mine is almost perfect, for me anyways and I have plenty of work space in there to have friends over to stamp too. I will show you that another day. I just have a tiny bit left to do in the stamping room but didn't work on it today as I took a friend to the ER and spent most of the day there. Perhaps I will finish it tomorrow, we will see. This book case was in the stamping room before. I kind of used it as a wall and the back was visible with dark paneling and I had picture's and a shelf hung on it. I had it moved over here in the living room at the bottom of the staircase which was also a wasted area. I had it repainted and it fits there perfectly and I love that too. I have cookbooks, craft books, quilting books, and stamping magazines on it and room for expansion. The lighting is really good there so it is a great place to have them all stored. These are all ones that I have read...I have another BIG stash of unread books and magazines out of sight......tee hee. This is another one of my love's in life. Next to the book case is part of my picnic basket collection. At the present time I own 6 of them. I am not sure what got me started on collecting them, it really wasn't intentional, but I do like them a lot and will pick them up if I can find them at a reasonable price. If I had to take it a guess why I like them....it is because I loved Yogi Bear so much as a kid...and he was always stealing picnic baskets which I thought was pretty funny. That is one of the reason I have always called Sarah "Boo" or "Boo Boo Bear" or "Sari" or Sara bear. The people I love most in life usually end up with a nick name. Jenna is Jenna Lee, Jen, or baby Jen Jen. Then Lady Di and Don when I first met them decided to come up for a nick name for me because they could never remember my name...and hence I became Boo Boo. Di doesn't call me that any more but I kind of decided to use it as a pen name so that is why you will sometimes see me sign as Boo. Until tomorrow....have a good night! Boo

Many Mower's

I made this card last night using the new set in the mini
catalog called Many mowers. I borrowed this set from Susie
so that I can make some samples up with it to show at
Nadine's party. This card I made to put in a care package
that I sent out to a friend today.
Today the roofing project started. They got a lot done. One half of the roof was tore off, sheeted with new plywood and rolled roofing, trim, fascia and is ready to shingle tomorrow. The cat's hate all this and growl out the window at the worker's before they hide. They were MIA for 4 hours this morning and did not come out till it was perfectly quiet while the worker's were eating lunch. Molly wanted to be held and purred up a storm while kind of shaking, she was so glad to be in my arms and that the racket had stopped for a while. She even gave me a kiss on the cheek. It took another 10 minutes for Taffy to appear and she slinked out...looking in all directions with her ears bent down. She was really upset. When they started working again, the growling began and then they hid for another 2 and 1/2 hours. Molly came out right after the worker's left and was my shadow the rest of the day. She wanted to be held, or petted, or was up on my stamping table in my face till I paid attention to her. Poor thing. Taffy waited another half an hour before appearing after the workers were gone and was very subdued the rest of the day. She did not get into ANY trouble which is quite unusual for her. My nickname for her is Taffy the Terror. I was just watching some TV and they both were curled up with me. Molly had to be curled up in the crook of my arm. She is my little lover. I feel bad that they are going to have to go through this again tomorrow but what are you going to do, the roof needs to be done. I am flaring up from the vibrations and noise and am trying to rest and relax so it doesn't turn into a major flare. I did manage to get 5 samples done between 2 and 7 tonite and I will have lots of cool cards to show at Nadine's party.

Stamping Room Pictures #2

Okay.....I needed a break so I shot some more pictures for you to see what I have been doing. The first two pictures are of the table that is set up directly behind my desk. This was absolutely the best idea I came up with! I was continually moving the tools when working on the desk to get them out of the way. Now I can just leave them where they are, and just swivel on my rolling chair around to use them. This is what is on there from left to right. My mini garbage can, Scor Pal, my Stampin' UP paper cutter which can cut 3 sheets of card stock at once and it really helps speed up preparing for workshops. Next are a couple of die cutting machines: the little red one is my Sizzix sidekick (These normally sell for about $50.00 and I picked mine up for $4.00 at a garage sale), and then my Big Shot die cutting machine which I am constantly using. I have 12 x 12 paper stored in the Sterlite drawer's below the table. The other two pictures are of the bookcase and I took one of the top and one of the bottom, otherwise I would have been too far away for you to see anything! In the three ring binders there is one just with different stamping techniques, one with card samples, another with ideas that I want to try, one has all my issues of Stampin Success in which is a monthly magazine that you receive as a demonstrator that has lots of cool stuff in it. I purchased all the back issues on line when I became a demonstrator. I read non stop the first few month's as a demonstrator so I could get up to speed as my stamper's knew more about stamping than I did! So I really did all the studying that I could to earn there respect. Hopefully I did! Also up on the top is the current scrapbook that I have in progress, a wall paper sample book, etc. The top shelf holds all my Stampin' up cutting dies for the Big Shot, and in the red bag is my Bind-it-All machine. For those of you really studying the picture's...don't worry, I don't have cancer. This Onocology Bag that I found at the thrift store fit's the machine perfectly and I can keep my wire cutters, and other tools for it in it. They wanted about $40.00 dollars I think for the Bind-It-All bag and I thought no cigars!!!! Later I found this. Perhaps someday I will cover up the Onocology label on it with some fabric or something, that was the plan when I bought it. The second shelf down on the book case has more Sizzix dies on it. The third shelf down has a basket of clear stamps, a basket of embossing folders for the Big Shot, some alphabit dies, xyron sticker maker, xyron design runner, Paper Gator, and nesties. Shelf 4 has by 9" Xyron Adhesive/laminator/magnet machine, DreamKuts paper cutting machine. Alot of these items I traded for or found cheap. The fifth shelf has a row of alphabet die's that I use for scrapbooking and some Jenga blocks that I picked up thrift shopping so that if I want to split up an image on a stamp set from the words I can mount the words on a separate block. Row 6 has the different cartridges for the Xyron machine. The bottom shelf has boxes of buttons on the left that are sorted by color or style. I use a lot of buttons when I am embroidering pillows. These may end up stairs in the sewing room. Then we have page protecters, hanging file folders, new scrapbooks, 12 x 12 refill pages, 4 slot card holder sleeves for 3 ring binders, clear sticker holder sheets for the black Crop in Style zippered cases that are on the top shelf. I am very fortunate that I have two of these book cases. My brother-in-law built these for me when I was a representative for Thrivent and I put all my manual's on there at that time. Anyways, I stoled some shelves from the other one that is currently upstairs waiting to be filled with fabric, so that I could add some nice matching shelves and maximize this space. I figured I can have Breezy make some more shelves for the one that it is upstairs. That one won't be in view. That's all for today...back to the grind stone!

Stamping Room Pictures #1

Hello! It's another rainy day in Mayberry....boo hoo. I know we need the rain but I do like my sunshine. But I was out bumming today so it didn't bother me too much! I was in the Stevens Point area today and had a great day.
Here are some more pictures from my stamping room. The first picture is of my cobalt blue, and blue and white collection. It looks so pretty in the daytime with the sun shining through it. The next picture is my front door that faces the street and opens up to an open front porch. I love the glass in it. I have had people offer to buy my door but I will not sell it. It gives a lot of character to my old house. Hanging on the door knob is my contraband ribbon (non Stampin' Up). I pick this up at thrift shops and rummage sales and use a lot of it on the tags and little notebooks that I make. I make loops and run safety pins through the loops and clip it to a DMC thread ring. You would not believe how many spools of ribbon I have emptied!!! This takes up way less space. I usually have it hooked on my stamping desk. Then when I need a piece of ribbon, I can just reach over and snip a piece off of it. Next we have bins that guys normally put nails, screws, nuts and bolts in. I have these bins all labeled and they are full of punch out's that I punch from my scraps. Chances are I am punching away when I am talking to you on the phone! Sometimes I pack some up for door prizes. It is very time consuming but it is so handy to have all done when you are working on projects. I can just open a drawer and have a flower that perfectly matches my project with out punching up a good sheet of paper for one item. I get teased about saving all my scraps but when people see this system they are in awe of it! Lady Di got these for me for my birthday. I picked up one more today at Menard's as I have room to put one more below these two. It is a perfect spot for them as they hide behind the front door when the door is open and this would normally be a dead spot that you couldn't use. I hope you are enjoying the tour of my stamping room. Stop back...there will be more to come!

RAK

Yesterday I received this beautiful card in the mail from someone I don't know! Her name is Pam Browne and she lives in Virginia. I have never had any contact with her. She belongs to a stamping group that I belong to. Stampers are the most wonderful people I'll tell ya! This is what we call a RAK (Randon Act of Kindness). Here is what it says inside: I hope this RAK brings a smile to your face and joy to your day! Sincerely, Pam. It sure did.....thank you Pam! I love this color combination! I plan on RAKing her back! Get out those stamps stampers.....and RAK someone back! Not a stamper!?!?!.....come and see me.....I'll get you hooked on it! LOL

Stamping Desk

Quick....take a picture while it is clean! That was my thought this evening while I was working on cleaning my stamping desk tonight! This is a sight you will not see very often as I usually have a project in process all the time!

This morning I met Debby and Ray Bjorseth for breakfast at Spot in the Woods. They treated me to breakfast and we had a wonderful visit. I had not been to Spot in the Woods since I was a little girl. And the area we ate in used to be a dance hall. The wood walls look the same but with the tables, big screen tv, etc. it really looks different. The food was excellent, and the prices were very reasonable. I would highly recommend it! After I returned to town, I went to Pamida and picked up some mini blinds. When I was in there earlier this week, I saw that they had them on clearance. I have some that need replacing right now and got some spare ones as I couldn't beat the price. The cats are hard on the mini blinds. There favorite past time is to look out the windows and if the blinds are down, they will wiggle their way around them or through them. So after awhile some of them get bent or broken. There favorite window to look out is the one right here by the computer desk and it faces the driveway so they are always checking out who is coming and going around here. They will growl if they hear the UPS man coming or if someone is plowing snow, or mowing lawn as they don't like the sound of it and don't like the sound of certain vehicles. Sometimes I swear they think they are dogs!

Ok...now to tell you a little bit about this area of my stamping space. This is my main work area where I usually work while stamping. I try to have as many of my tools and supplies at my finger tips as possible. Wheels and handles are across the top of my desk hanging on drywall screws. On the far left are boxes with Stampin Up ribbon in them that stack. They are made by craft mates and I got them at Walmart. I have one empty one on the bottom. I have found when buying plastic storage containers to buy more than you need at the time to leave room for expansion as they change plastic containers and you won't be able to find them again. If you have to switch to a different type plastic container then they will not stack on top of one another. In the middle of my desk are ink pads stored in a Napa Valley CD box. I love this system as I can readily see all of my ink pads and they are easy to get at. I also have baby wipes on the left of the ink pads and a box a kleenex. I have lots of allergies so I like to have kleenex all over the house where I am working. It saves a lot of time running to go get one. Click on the picture larger so that you can see my tissue box cover.....it is me to a "T"!!!! LOL Jenna found this when we were thrifting shopping about a year ago in Milwaukee. My crop-a-dile and ATG gun are laying there ready to use and my Stampin' Up cutting mat. I usually have white paper on top of that when I am stamping. My Stampin'-ma-jig is handy right in front of the ink pads, also handy are my stamp scrubber and stamp cleaning mist. Then I have a Pampered Chef turn table that I picked up thrift shopping and I keep all kids of tools in there, scizzers, paper piercers, different type glues, pens, erasers, etc. I had my brother-in-law install a under the counter light below the top of the desk when I first got the desk and I love it! I can have every other light in the house off and stamp there....it really lights my work area up. My embossing guns and embossing trays sit on the white set of drawers under the desk top on the right side. I did not like to emboss before as I always felt that it was such a hassle to get it all out. Now that it is right at my finger tips, I emboss a lot more! The more organized that you make your work area, the more time you will want to spend in it and the more you will get done. The drawers above the desk have various other supplies and are all labeled. I have a couple of different sizes that work well for me and they are made by Sterilite. Well...break time is over (my pizza is gone...) and it is time to get back to work! More pictures of the stamping room to come!


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50th Anniversary Card

Hello! No...I did not die.....just been working too hard! LOL I am still working on the scrapbook room and have been working on the stall on at the flea market. Hopefully soon I will get back to posting on a regular basis! I needed to make a 50th Anniversary card for Ken and Doris Collins. Thier daughter Pam is my age and we were friends all the way through school. We spent a lot of time at each other's houses. Pam's mom Doris is a sewer and a quilter. She made me lots of barbie doll clothes for birthday gifts and also alot of clothes for my Velvet doll. Do you remember the Chrissy doll's where the hair could grow long and then you could make it short again? Well my sister had Chrissy and I had the sister doll named Velvet. Velvet had blonde hair. I have many fond memories of the Collin's. Then there was the time when I was 19 and my friends had a going away party for me at Main Street Station the night before I left for Washington State. I lived there for 6 months, otherwise I have lived here in Mayberry. I missed good ole Mayberry so much that I had to move back, I was so homesick for the people here. I missed walking down the street here and saying "hi" to people. If you did that in Washington, they just didn't say "hi" back and were not as friendly as the people here. Anyway...I digress....(as usual). We got pretty tanked that night and after the dining room closed we were dancing in there. Well Pam and I decided to go dance on the sidewalk in front of bar on Main Street and were doing the polka. Low and behold...what do you know.....Pam's parents drove by and saw us! Now what are the chance of that! I never could get into much trouble as I would get caught for sure! One time when I was a little girl, I didn't look when crossing the street and before I got home my mom new about it. I don't know who ratted me out....but I always looked before crossing the street after that! P.S. The ribbon on this card is really not crooked. I just don't have that part adhered down and it moved on the scanner!

Friendship Shoe Box Swap

Yesterday we held our Friendship Shoe Box Swap at Immanuel Lutheran Church. It was a huge success and we are planning to do it on an annual basis. Everyone had a great time. Here is a picture of the card I had them make at my station. We had lots of new swappers so I wanted to keep it pretty simple. But I think it is a really cute card. Can't wait for next years! Elaine

April Stamp Camp

Here are three of the projects that we made at Stamp Camp this month. We also made Sarah's wedding invitation, see Oct 08 post for a picture of that. The gals learned some new techniques this month. The one with the black flowers from Upsey Daisy is an emboss resist technique with sponging. We had a lot of gals who learned how to emboss for the first time and they love seeing the "magic" of it rising on the card stock. The pink mother's day card was made with the new Manhatten texture die and vellum and was ran through the big shot. Lot's of fun pretty cards!

I have still been slaving away on my house but had a little break with Jenna, Antonio, and Diana being here the past two days. We met Sarah in the Dells last night at Applebee's and had a nice family dinner. Today we met my mom at Family Affair for lunch and had a nice time. The kids left late this afternoon and I was sorry to see them go. I had a couple of batches of company this afternoon and also marked a bunch of retired stamp sets to put out to sell at the Friendship Shoe Box Swap that Melissa and I are hosting here tomorrow. I did a few things at the fleamarket tonight before going to the church for final set up for the swap tonight. I just finished eating supper and returning a few phone calls and I am now headed to bed. I know I have been neglicting my blogging...but it has been an extremely busy month. After tomorrow I don't really have anything planned and I am SOOOOOOO......glad! If I ever get my new sewing and scrapping room's finished...I will post some pictures! Or better yet...come visit! Elaine

April Door Prizes

Hello- I am still slaving away with all of my house projects but what is done looks fantastic so it is all worth it. I am taking a little break at the moment and was sitting by the computer paying bills and thought I would do a quick post so that you know that I haven't died.....my body feels like it...but my heart is still ticking! I made 3 of the Number 2 Box with the Big Shot for door prizes this month and filled them with Tags that I cut with our new tag die. I stamped saying's on them with the Sweet Little Sentiments stamp set which is a current level one hostess set and decorated some of them with little punched out flowers. Jenna, Antonio, and Diana are coming to visit tomorrow and I am very excited about that. Have a great night! Elaine

Firecracker's Jump Rope Team

WOW!!!!!!!! THIS IS A DEFINITE "MUST WATCH" VIDEO !!!! WOW!!!

It is long but so worth watching!

This is the King's Firecrackers. 4th, 5th , and 6th graders from around Cincinatti , OH . If pic is jerky, pause until loaded then allow to play again and it will then play smoothly. These girls are just absolutely fantastic. Just unbelievable. They must have had to practice day and night for ages to be this perfect. And they ARE perfect. I watched this and never saw a single mistake. People in the audience had their mouths hanging open (I did too). When you think it's finished, it isn't. Keep watching until the little white ball at the bottom reached the end of the line. Put speakers on. click on: Toledo Jumbo Tron - Kings Firecrackers on blip.tv#1826380#1826380 ENJOY

Ben's First Communion Card

Hi! I bet you all have been wondering where I have been at !?!?!?! Well, I have been here but have been so busy that I haven't had time to post! I decided to turn a bedroom upstairs into a sewing room which has turned into the whole house being torn apart. I have had a couple of workers here and they have been doing a fantastic job for me. They will tackle anything I ask them to. They made a couple of trips to the dump for me, they have been hauling things upstairs and downstairs for me, hung curtains in the stamping room, moved all the furniture around in the stamping room for me, installed a ceiling fan in the living room, new light fixture in the bathroom, new mini blind in the bathroom, etc. Today they took boards home to cut to add shelves to a bookcase they moved and put in the living room for me and they will be painting them. It is so good to get some of these projects done. There is still work to be done but I can't believe how far we have come in a week! The bad news is I was a hurting scooter yesterday and woke up tired and hurting again today. I was kind of glad when they said they would work at home today. I went back to bed around 10am when they left and was sound asleep in about a half hour and slept till 1pm when the phone rang. So I got in a really good power nap and feel much better. I haven't stamped in days....but needed to get a card done for my mom today. My nephew had his first communion on Thursday night and she wanted a card to take to him when we go there for Easter on Sunday. So that is what I have to show you today! Have a blessed Easter! Elaine