Christmas Stampin All Year Long Gift Set Challenge #6 - Keepsake Box

Hello Friends!!! Well, it's that time again! Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge! This week is a gift set challenge. The challenge is to create a "Keepsake Box". The tutorial is on the CSAYL blog site. Come play along with us and also stop by and check out the beautiful gift sets the design team created.

Hey. . .before I begin. . .I just want to update you on my craft room reorganization. Well, it's progressing! My husband helped me rearrange the furniture in my room and I now I can actually put things away! All this time, all my craft stuff have been all over the place. . .in the hallway, in the loft, in the guest bedroom and even the guest bathroom! LOL!


I've been listing my craft stuff on Ebay. Check out my current listings: Click Here. I will list more. . .actually many, many more. I've been trying to list items on Ebay on a daily basis so if you don't see anything you like, stop by the next day. . .you may find something you may need or like.

I don't have my stampin' stuff quite in order yet so I had to use sticker embellishments to design my card. It's a quick and easy way to create a card. All you need to do is stick on the image! I think by the end of next week, I should have my craft room almost put back together. The difficult part is organizing the little things. I'm tempted to just stuff everything back into my room but well, that would be ridiculous.

What I'm excited about is that I now have a "sewing and crocheting" section in my room. It's just a small section in the corner of the room but I'm excited to start sewing and crocheting! I can't wait!

Anyway, here is the matching keepsake box. You can make one too. . .stop by Christmas Stampin All Year Long and try out the challenge!!

That's it for today! Hope you all have a wonderful Friday!

Posted more stuff on Ebay

Click Here for my Ebay Listings

Hi Friends!! I listed more crafting stuff on Ebay. I'll be listing more every day this week so stop by and check out my Ebay listings. I'm doing a super purge. I'm hoping to reduce my paper crafting stuff down to half so be sure to check daily to see what I've listed.

Craft Stuff for Sale on Ebay

Click Here for my Ebay Listings

Hi Friends! I just wanted to let you know I'm selling a bunch of my craft stuff on Ebay. I'll be listing on a daily basis so be sure to check in daily for new stuff. I'm going to be selling Stampin Up stamp sets some starting from $7.99, other brands of stamps, ink pads, scrap book items, crafting tools, and a ton of other crafting items.

I'm cleaning out my craft room and I'm going to down size my paper crafting stuff so I can make room for my crocheting and sewing stuff. I want to get more involved with crocheting and sewing but don't have the space for them so my loss is your gain. . .:)

Some items are brand new still in their packages, some are used. Anyway check out the items that I have listed. Remember to check back regularly for new listings. I can't list them all at once but I'll be working on getting them listed this week.

I do combine shipping . ..cost of shipping will be based on the weight of the package or box.

Message me via Ebay if you have any questions. Don't email me directly because it'll be hard for me to keep track of the messages. Thanks

Doodle Bug Memories and Crochet Beanies

Hello Friends!! Happy Sunday to all of you! Hey. . .I wanted to share this cute little image that Melissa of Doodle Bug Memories is sharing for free! She was kind enough to share it with us! Yay! Melissa is a new blogger but a super talented one! Stop by Melissa's blog and grab this image. ..

Isn't the image super cute or what? Well, I colored this sweetie with my Copic Markers and used the Crazy 4 Challenges sketch! I really liked the sketch so I decided to use it again.

Just to let you know. . .all of the embellishments except the ribbons and the papers are from my scrap pile. Now that my scrap embellishments are organized, it's easier to look through them and actually use them

I also wanted to share some of my crochet beanies that I created this past week. It's my first beanies!!! I'm really excited as to how easy it is to create a beanie. I was a little intimidated initially but once I got started, it turned out easier than I thought it would be. Well, the beanies are basic stitches and patterns . . .maybe that is why they were easy to create. . LOL!
Here is my daughter modeling my beanies. .. no, it's not me. The last photos of my crochet scarves. . someone thought it was me in the photos so I need to make a clarification. For one thing, I'm not as cute or as young as my daughter! LOL!

Okay. . .once I get really good at crocheting. . I'll be sure to add more info on the stitches and such. Right now, I don't even know how to read the yarn labels. When I choose a yarn, I feel it, look at it, then say "oh, this one looks good". That's about as much as I know about yarn! Hilarious.

This beanie was created using the "V-stitch" pattern and I used Lion Brand Jiffy bulky acrylic yarn in "Rust". Do you see the fuzzy part of the beanie. . .it's my first time using fun fuzzy yarn. The yarn is Patons - Allure. I really like it with the fuzzy brim. I think I'm going to use more of the yarn on my beanies.
The 3 following beanies are of the same stitch. . .half double stitch throughout. These were my first three beanies I created and the white one is my very first. The pattern is actually called the "Usher" beanie. . .you know, the singer. He apparently was wearing a similar patterned beanie in one of his videos.

I made this beanie a little bigger/wider for my daughter. She said she doesn't like how the other two below fit snug on her head so I made one that wasn't so snug. All the yarns I used for all 3 were 4 ply acrylic. I believe by Red Hat. I think the white one below was created using a Carron acrylic yarn.

This is a gray one. . .I like the color. . .it goes with anything.

Lastly. . .this is my very first crochet beanie. . .:) I did make a beanie before but I used the Kniffty Knitter so this is actually my first crochet one.

Anyway. . .I'm going to make more of these beanies. I'm having too much fun creating them. . .:)

Hope y'all have a wonderful day!!

Crazy 4 Challenges C4C48 - Sketch Challenge

Hello Friends!!! It's challenge time again and this time around it's Crazy 4 Challenges! Yay! Jessie came up with a great challenge this week. . .:) It's a sketch challenge and a fun one at that. Do you like sketch challenges? I love working with sketches! Come play along with us. . .we'd love to see your pretty card!!

Be sure to stop by C4C and check out all the fabulous cards created by the design team.

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden
* Angela Wood
* Vicki Garrett
* Silke Kittmann

If you stopped by my blog yesterday. . .I talked about using pigment ink with rubbing alcohol and how it colors similar to watercoloring. I'm having a lot of fun playing around with my pigment inks! For Stampin Up fans. . .the craft ink pads are "pigment" based inks so if you have the stamp pads, you can use them to color similar to when you use dye inks and water. The beauty of using pigment ink and alcohol is that you can color on regular card stock. Because the alcohol dries fairly quickly, the card stock don't warp like it would if you used water.

Well I colored my image using pigment ink and rubbing alcohol. Doesn't it look a bit like watercoloring? I used my MFT stamp set "Are We There Yet?". The border going across my card is by myscrapchick.com "Border Strips". I cut it on my Cricut and weaved the ribbon through the holes to create the X design.

Just a short update on my craft room. . .I finished up unspooling and re-rolling my ribbons on to ribbon cards! Oh gawwwwd! That was painful so I'm so glad I'm done with that. I also organized all of my embellishments and scrapbooking materials by categories. Do you see the flip-flops on my card? If it weren't for the fact that I organized my embellishments. . .I wouldn't have known that I had them! It worked out perfectly with the image.

I still have a long way to go in putting my craft room back together but the really tough job of organizing the ribbons and embellishments is done. The goal this weekend is to rearrange the furniture in my room and start putting some of my stuff back in to my room.

I also crochet a few beanies . . .my first crochet beanies! Yay. My goal with my crochet stuff is to sell them at the craft fair during the winter and for every item I sell, I'm going to donate a scarf or beanie to the homeless shelter or my church's rescue mission. I need to sell a few so I can buy enough yarn to create for donation. Sounds like a good plan, huh?

Anyway. . .enough of my blabbering. . .hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Christmas Stampin All Year Long Challenge #59 - Sketch Challenge

Hello Friends!! Hey it's Christmas Stampin All Year Long time again! The challenge this week is a sketch challenge so stop by CSAYL and check out the sketch and the pretty cards the design team created!! The winner this week will win a spot as our guest designer on one of the challenges! Be sure to play along!


I need to make this quick so I'll get down to business! As you know by now, I've been reorganizing my craft room. I came across all of my "pigment" ink pads and Stampin Up craft pads. There was a time when I heat embossed my images so the pigment ink pads were very handy. I love pigment inks because they are very versatile. . .they can be used to stamp images on anything as long as you heat set or emboss it.

Anyway. . .to make a long story short. .. .nowadays, I tend to color outline images usually with my Copics or some sort of coloring medium so when I came across my pigment inks, I thought of selling them because I haven't used them for a while now. Luckily, pigment inks rarely dry up. .. they can remain juicy for years! As a last ditch effort . . .I thought of a bright idea (yeah, I thought so. . LOL) I decided to try to use the pigment inks as a coloring medium similar to watercoloring.

I know water and pigment inks don't work together like it does with dye inks so I thought maybe alcohol would work. ..and you know what! It DID work.

I didn't use Copics or dye inks to color my image...I used pigment inks! OMG!! It colors nicely on regular card stock. Because alcohol dries quickly, the card stock don't warp and it also dries the pigment ink very quickly!!

The awesome part of it all is if you have the shimmery pigment inks like the Encore brand. . .you can add a shimmery effect on your image. The concept is similar to using dye inks like Stampin Up ink pads and water but instead, you use pigment ink pads and rubbing alcohol.

Just rub a bit of pigment ink on a plastic palette and dip a paint brush in alcohol and "water down" the pigment ink with the alcohol. You then color the image but you have to work fast because alcohol dries really quickly. You may need to dip it in alcohol more often than you would if you were using water in watercoloring. I'll see if I can post a tutorial some time soon but don't count on it. . .LOL! I still have to finish my craft room reorganization.

I know. . .long story but well, I'm happy to say that I'm keeping all of my pigment ink pads. . .I was actually ready to sell them all on Ebay. . .LOL! Well, they've been saved and they're all happy in my drawer! Yay!

That's it. . .hope y'all have a wonderful Friday!!

Aloha to Little C's Challenge - Last Challenge

Hello Friends!! I have a bit of a sad news. . .this is the last challenge at Little C's Challenge site and my last challenge card as a designer at Little C's. Little C's stopped selling rubber stamps about a month ago and continued on with the Little C's challenge in spite of it but Jen decided to close down the challenge site. With that being said, I had a wonderful time as a designer off and on for Little C's in the last year or so.

Well the last challenge is a dark pink photo inspiration challenge. Stop by and play along in the last challenge. If the challenge is not yet posted on Little C's, be sure to stop by later and see if it's up....:) Also check out Jen's and Mackenzie's cards. . .


I used an already colored image for my card. I have a stock pile of colored images. .. thank God. If it wasn't for the already colored images, I don't think this card would have been possible. My Copic Markers are somewhere in the hallway covered with other crafty stuff. I am not in the mood to dig through all my stuff.

The progress of my craft room re-organization is well. . .not progressing much. I think my problem right now is that I'm "mirco-organizing". So far, I've unrolled all my ribbons off their spools and rolled them on to ribbon cards so they would take up less space. Can you imagine unrolling and re-rolling hundreds of ribbons? It's been taking me FOREVER!!!!! I can't even begin to tell you how time consuming it has been. I'm just about 98% done. I am getting a bit sloppy towards the end. . rather than re-rolling the ribbons on to ribbon cards, I've been tying rubber bands around the unrolled ribbons to hold them together. Uggggh! But. .. there is good news. . .by unspooling all my ribbons, the amount of space to store them has been reduced by almost half. Yay!

Because I can't quite paper craft right now. . .I've been crocheting. I've been practicing using different stitches and yarn. I think I'm ready to move on to a different type of project other than scarves. Creating these scarves have been really helpful in learning the different stitches.

The two scarves I made were created using 2 rows of double stitch borders and 3 rows shell pattern.


With this scarf, I used Bernat Silk acrylic yarn. It's thin and pretty soft. It's a light enough scarf to use as casual wear.



This scarf is the same design as the scarf above but using a heavier yarn so it's a little thicker.


This scarf can be used during the Fall or Winter seasons. I bought a few Mohair and Wool yarn. I can't wait to create something with them. I'm a super newbie with crocheting . . .just a month but I've learned a lot in a short period of time. I'm having so much fun crocheting!! I can't wait to get good at it.

Hope you all have a wonderful Tuesday!

Crazy 4 Challenges #C4C47

Hello Friends!! It's time for Crazy 4 Challenges again and this week, Jessie came up with an awesome challenge this week! It's an inspiration challenge. . .stop by the Crazy 4 Challenges blog and check out the inspiration photo and the lovely cards the design team created.

* Angela Wood

* Barbara Anders

* Cindy Haffner
* Frances Byrne
* Jessie Rone
* Joanne Grzelak
* Joycelyn Pelkey
Lynda Benden

* Silke Kittmann
* Vicki Garrett

I love inspiration challenges because it's fun to see different ways that others interpret the photo. I focused on the circle and stripe patterns of the photo. . .I didn't stick to the colors.


Do you see the beads? Well, believe it or not but I've had the trimming for at least 4 years now. I discovered it looking through my craft stuff. Yeah, I'm still organizing my room. I think it'll be a while before I can get my room back together.


I wanted to share a 2 of the scarves I recently made. One of the new hobbies I'm growing to love is crocheting. I started learning to crochet about a month ago and I've progressed somewhat. I've learned to crochet several types of stitches and patterns. I have a lot to learn. . .especially on the best types of yarn for different projects. Right now I'm focusing only on scarves and beanies mainly because I want to learn the various stitches and patterns. Crocheting scarves I think is the best way to practice.

I created this scarf using the "Solomon's Knot". The yarn is the Vanna White Yarn. I don't have the details of the yarn with me at this time so I can't give you the info.

Here is a close up of the scarf. The scarf has a loose weave and is very stretchy.

With this scarf, I used Bernat Silk Yarn. The stitch is a shell pattern. The weave is very tight so the scarf is rather stiff and a bit heavy but for winter, it'll definitely keep you warm.

As you can see, the pattern has a shell pattern. I like the pattern. I have to remember to keep the label so I can provide the info of the yarn. I made a few more scarves using different stitch and patterns. I'll share them next time.

Don't forget to stop by Crazy 4 Challenges and play along with us!!

Hope you all have a beautiful Saturday.