DE-STASH SWAP

Hi Everyone . . . I know, I know, it's been a loooooong time since I posted anything to this blog, but I'm BACK . . .

At the moment I am participating in a swap with 6 other ladies, where we each make a 5"x7" page using only what paper and goodies we have on hand. This swap was created by my good friend, Debi Schnabel over on the Pita Babes & Bulls Facebook page. What is so fun about this swap is that not only do I get to clean out some of my stash that's been around for a while (hours? days? months? years?) but it's international. The ladies in my group are from the Netherlands, Spain and the United States.

Here are some pictures of the fantastic page (front & back) that I received from Barb Engelking who lives in Wisconsin:

This 5" x 7" page (front & back) that Barb created can hold 26 pictures. Can you believe it? 26 pictures! It's like a mini album in and of itself. Barb even included extra paper. And I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her choice of colors. Thank you so much Barb!

Well, that's all for now . . . take care and thanks for stopping by . . . until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses LindaB

HAPPY JULY 4TH!!

Have a fun and safe 4th of July!!!

GETTING READY & THE BOYS HAVE ARRIVED!

Greetings Everyone . . . I have had the most amazing past week and I am still running on "high" soooooo I thought that I would take y'all on my adventure . . . it all began back in early April when I learned that Jim Hankins, The Gentleman Crafter , and Cesar were coming from Texas to teach a class on National Scrapbook Day at "Chico Scrapbook" store (they arrived on Thursday and left on Sunday) . . . I was soooooo excited, I felt like a kid again. You know, Christmas is getting nearer and Santa was going to pay me a visit; that kind of feeling . . . well, I was not the only one with those feelings, my friend Sharon Young was also extremely excited. Sharon and I wanted to give Jim and Cesar something special to remember each of us by and to thank them for coming to Chico.

After brainstorming, Sharon decided to create for each of them a special plaque . . .

In my search on the internet for a particular line of scrapbooking paper that Jim loves I ran across fabric that was made by this paper company . . . I was in heaven and ordered enough fabric to create something for Jim and Cesar . . . the paper line that Jim loves is Cosom Cricket's Circa 1934 and I hate to tell you but both the paper and fabric lines are out of print soooooo the pickings are slim . . . but I was able to purchase fabric from a Tennessee quilt shop and from Beverly's in Rocklin, CA.

And this is what I made from those beautiful fabrics . . . 

Apron for Jim

Needle Cases for Cesar

(he loves to knit & crochet)

Here they are modeling their gifts from me . . . 

I also purchased a ruler basket and Sharon and I had fun filling it with local goodies; . . . a couple of hats from Sierra Nevada . . . rice chips, nuts, fruits and candies for them to snack on in their hotel room . . .

After Jim and Cesar had a short nap, Sharon and I picked them up at their hotel, took them to Chico Scrapbook to pick up Jodie and off to dinner we went in beautiful downtown Chico at Christen Michaels!

Well that's all for now . . . I will post more about this fabulous weekend tomorrow . . . thanks for stopping by to visit and until later . . . Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

ATC SWAP

Hi Everyone . . . I want to tell y'all about my participating in an ATC swap! This is the very first time I not only joined a swap but the first time I made any Artist Trading Cards. For those who don't know, Artist Trading Cards (ATC's) are like mini tags with very specific rules.  The cards have to be 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" and only 1/4" to 1/2" thick (limits the height of your emblishments-LOL) and the artist signature must appear on the back of the card. . . after that anything goes!

This all came about when one day I was looking at the entries on the PITA facebook page and Vicky Nash commented that she would like to participate in either an ATC swap or album swap and she was welling to act as hostess.  Well things took off fast from there and before you knew it there were 12 people who signed up for the ATC swap (it was limited to 12 because one of the participates bought a wooden ATC display tray and there were only 12 spots for cards-LOL). 

I made my 12 identical cards and sent them off to Canada (where Vicky lives). Oh, did I forget to mention this swap was international. Cards were not only coming from the United States, but from Canada and Europe. Well LOOK at what the mailman delivered yesterday . . . 

I am afraid that my old camera does not do justice to these beautiful cards. They are absolutely stunning!!! This is a very talented group of ladies and I will treasure these cards always. Vicky made this such a wonderful experience that I am looking forward to participating in many more ATC swaps.

Well, that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

PERFECT TIMING

During the month of March I received two gifts from some very special people in my life. . . the first gift  was from my very multi talented friend, Diana Higgins (I did an earlier posting about her being published  in Somerset Life). . . she gifted me with this beautiful black scarf which she hand knitted . . . 

I am afraid that this picture does not show the beautiful twisting ruffle of this scarf nor all of the black crystals that Diana sewed at each end of the scarf . . . I don't know how she knew that the weather was going to change from  an extremely warm spring to a windy, rainy, cold spring but her timing was perfect . . . thank you again Diana for this wonderful gift-YOU ROCK!!! . . . 

The other person who gifted me was my son, Jerry . . . he gave me this . . . 

That's right, he gave me his Apple lap top!  Actually he got a new one and asked if I wanted his old one (this old one is only 2-1/2 years old - LOL) . . . his timing on this gift was perfect as we got a recall letter from Apple regarding the hard drive on our big MAC and had to take it in to get a new hard drive (at Apple's expense) . . . this is when my hubby and I found out that we cannot function without a computer --- so thank you Son!!!

I feel blessed to not only have a wonderful family but to also have very loving and caring friends.  Well, that's all for tonight . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . .
Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

A MONTH IN REVIEW

Hi Everyone . . . I cannot believe that another month has flown by . . . I mean really, where did all the time go for the month of March . . . I felt like I got nothing accomplished, that is until I looked at my calendar --- LOL I was busy . . . that being said I decided that I would share a little bit of what took place during my life in the month of March . . . soooooooooo grab something to drink - go potty because this is going to be a loooooooong one . . . 

It all began on Thursday, February 28th . . . we were at the Tank watching the San Jose Sharks vs Detroit Red Wings hockey game . . . 

And while hubby and I were done in San Jose, I was able to take a live class being taught by the  talented Stephanie Ackerman at Scrapbook Island on Saturday, March 2nd . . . her class was called "52 Card Pick Up" . . . Stephanie also offers this class on-line and you can check it out here . . . 

Now you may think that I would have a quite Saturday evening, LOL, but nooooooo . . . because the majority of our family is down in the bay area I contacted everyone before we left Oroville and we celebrated my hubby's 65th birthday a few days early (his b-day is March 7th) . . . our son hosted a family BBQ at his home . . .

We now leave the bay area with the promise to return soon (which turned out to be sooner than we thought-LOL) and have a few quite days at home . . . the reason it's quite is because I have to renew my Notary so I am studying (cramming) for the Notary Public exam I have to take on Friday in Rocklin (1-1/2 hours away).  It met spending Thursday night in Rocklin as I had to be at the seminar at 7:15am  (BTW I just got notice this past week that I passed the test with a 96-YAHOO!!!) . . . 

During the next week I began working on a new project . . . I had decided to participate in an ATC swap with 11 other women . . . we are from all over the world and we know each other only on-line though Kathy Orta's site, Paper Phenomenon . . . this is my very first ATC swap and I had to get 12 ATC's done and in the mail to Canada by March 20th . . . right now I will only show you the back of the cards I made for everyone --- I don't want to spoil the surprise for any of the other swappers . . .

Moving right along, on Saturday, March 16th I spent the evening at one of my LSS, Paradise Scrapbook Boutique celebrating St. Paddy's day with a few of my wild & crazy friends . . . 

Next up, it is time for the annual egg dying party with my granddaughter and friends . . . 

LOL - I don't know which stains my hands more, dying eggs or using Tim Holtz products.  The egg dying always starts out nicely but soon gets out of control - hmmmmmmm same thing happens when I use TH and Dylusion products - LOL . . . 

Well, believe it or not we are coming to the end pretty soon . . . just one more thing . . . we found ourselves back down in San Jose for Easter weekend . . . my son's girlfriend owns a high end consignment shop, It's A Girl Thing and I make speciality flags for some of her customers, like this one 

Oh and while we were down there we attended another San Jose Sharks game as the guests of It's A Girl Thing (she had her name advertised on the Jumbo Tron during a game break) . . .

Well, CONGRATULATIONS!!!  You have made it through the longest posting I have ever done . . . now aren't you glad you went to the potty at the beginning - LOL . . . that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses . . . LindaB

LET THE LITTLE GIRL DANCE . . .

Good Evening everyone! I know it has been a little while since my last blog, but like everyone else sometimes life takes over and you are very busy!!! That's my story and I am sticking to it-LOL. . . Tonight I would like to share with you one of those layouts from my stash of incomplete layouts . . . yes, I finished another one (LOL). . . you would think that the cabinet that is storing all of those incomplete scrapbooking layouts would be going down, but nooooooo it doesn't look like it yet . . . anyway back to the layout I did complete . . . Back in 2008 my hubby and I attended one of our son's high school friends second wedding. Also invited to this wedding was our daughter and granddaughter . . . it was a very nice proper wedding until the live band began to play at the reception . . . all of a sudden little girls came out of the woodwork and took over the dance floor . . . they were having so much fun and we adults were enjoying their free style form of dancing a lot . . . the poor bride and groom had to cut and serve the wedding cake to get these little dancing queens off the dance floor . . . so drum roll please here are some pictures of my granddaughter having the time of her life . . . For this layout I used the Fancy Pants "Dancing Girl" line of paper. It was just perfect for these pictures of the little dancing queens - LOL!!! . . . Well that's all for now . . . thanks for stoping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

HAPPY ST. PADDY'S DAY!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Good Morning . . . I want to wish everyone a JOYOUS & HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY and I want to share with you today some valentine "lollies" I made. Last Saturday I spent a wonderful day at Paradise Scrapbook Boutique's annual Valentine crop . . . you know where you visit a lot, eat way too much food and get some scrapping in (very little scrapping on my part as I am busy visiting - LOL) . . . at each assigned seat was this little stack of goodies waiting for us. Well, the wooden thread spool and wooden dowel in the packet of goodies just screamed "LOLLIE" (as well as the store sample) . . . sooooooooooo I made one. Which lead into my making two more at home! Here are what the individual lollies look like. Don't know what I am going to do with them as my dear hubby points out they do not exactly go in with my home decor, but I do soooooooo enjoy making them . . . I am already thinking of ones to make for St. Paddy's Day (hahaha). Sooooooo, that's all for today . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

AND THE ANSWER IS . . .

Hi Everyone . . . back on February 3rd I posted a picture of this container that I made for a friend, but I wouldn't tell what was wrapped in the green tissue paper . . . Well the time has come for the big reveal . . . Hmmmmmmmm, still can't figure out what it is . . . here's some more hints (and you should get it this time) . . . . . . TADA . . . it's a SEAT BELT SNUGGLE and it is being modeled by the lovely birthday girl herself, Diana Higgins!!! I know you are saying to yourself "what the heck" but we short people have a terrible time with seat belts rubbing against our necks and these little cozies are an answer to our prayers . . . they also keep that side of the neck warm (hahaha). I found the free pattern for this little jewel back in 2006 on the internet (tried to link it to this post but apparently the site no longer exists). . . so now I am off the take pictures of some valentine lollies I made . . . Thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses . . . LindaB

AND SO IT BEGINS

Hi . . . in my last post I said how I had amended my New Year's resolution from "not starting a new project until I finished the current one" to "for every new project I complete I will blindly reach into my unfinished project cabinet, pull out one of the incomplete projects and finish it before I move onto my next new project" . . . well yesterday I did just that and here is the 2-page layout I finished . . .

This was a kit I purchased back in 2008 (only know this because of the copyright date on the Teresa Collins paper) from MMK scrapbook store in Chico that is no longer a physical store (Michelle, the owner, now has an on-line store) . . . I was also lucky in that the instructions, bits & pieces and a colored picture were all there so it was easy to complete (YAY) . . . the line of paper that was used was Teresa Collins "Travelogue" and I remember at the time of purchase that I thought this would be a perfect layout for putting pictures of our Disneyland trip with our granddaughter . . . as you can see there are no pictures as we have not taken our granddaughter to Disneyland yet . . . but I am now ready with this layout when we do (hehehe). . . . . . Well, that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

OH NO!!!

The title of this post tells all!!! Look at what I found when I was cleaning up the mess I made from my last project (LOL-still have glitter everywhere) . . .

That's right UNFINISHED SCRAPPY PROJECTS!!!! I can not believe that I have this many unfinished pages . . . most of them are 2-page layouts, some need both pages completed (which means I never started them), some need just one page completed and all of them need pictures! EGADS!!!!! Some of these kits are current (well 2012 current) and some go back at least 6 years to when I use to scrap at a scrapbook store that is no longer in business. I now feel very guilty over not finishing these beauties . . . sooooooooooo . . . I have added an addendum to my New Year's resolution . . . my resolution was that I would not start a new project until I finished the current one . . . well it's now going to be . . . for every new project I complete I will blindly reach into this cabinet, pull out one of the incomplete projects and finish it before I move onto my next new project . . . looks like it is going to be a very long and busy year - LOL! Well, that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses - LindaB

A NEW GIFT CONTAINER

Happy Saturday Everyone . . . I wanted to share with you today a little container I made to put a handmade gift into for a sweet friend for her birthday . . . I will share with you, at a later date, the gift I made her (just in case she reads this posting) . . . I am known by my scrappy friends for these rounds boxes I decorate to look like little cakes . . .

As the majority of my friends have received one of these boxes from me I had to come up with something new to put little gifts in and this is what I made . . . .

Now I probably saw an example of this somewhere on the internet and I am sorry to say that I don't remember exactly when or who made the original (even though I am pretty sure it was Karin of Creative Chaos - I love her blog) . . . anyhooooooo, I made this container by covering up a purchased paper cone with some scrapbook paper from my stash (wish I knew the name of the is paper as I would love to get more, that is even if they make it any longer-LOL), gathered strips of crepe paper (did this by hand while watching the SJ Sharks win another hockey game - YAY), found some silver tinsel and ribbon in my stash, cut out scalloped circles with my Cricut and went on a Martha Stewart glitter frenzy (glitter everywhere and I mean everywhere!) . . . it is any easy peasy project . . . Well, that's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses . . . LindaB

TIM HOLTZ 12 TAGS OF 2013

Well, I finally did it. . . I created my first tag as part of the Tim Holtz 12 Tags of 2013. This is something that I have wanted to do for at least 6 months, but I just plain lacked the courage. . . sooooo this morning I bit the bullet and created the above tag. It was fun and I know that in the coming 11 months I will be learning a lot more techniques and LOL- needless to say I will also be adding quite a few new products in my craft room. Here are the products used: Broken China, Faded Jeans and Weathered Wood Distress Ink; Brushed Pewter Distress Stain; Snow Cap acrylic paint dabber; Snow Flurries & Snowman Sizzix Alterations embossing folders; Idea-ology Mirrored sheets; mini mister; Boundless Flight cling stamp; Heidi Swapp snowflake ghost shapes (snowflakes); and rhinestones. That's all for now . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses . . . LindaB

ALL MY BAGS ARE PACKED

A few weeks ago I was on Pinterest (LOL - like who isn't these days) and a photo of a suitcase caught my attention. As it was near my bedtime I posted the link to one of my Pinterest boards and off to bed I went. I never dreamed that the photo of the suitcase would haunt me for days . . . after I finished the current project I was working on (trying to keep that New Year's resolution I made) . . . I looked at the photo again, gathered up the supplies I needed (for once I didn't have to go out & buy anything-I had it all the supplies already - LOL) and went to work . . . here is what I made . . .

Who would have thought that an Altoids mint can could be turned into something so cute! It turned out to be a very quick and easy project. I will be giving this little suitcase to my engaged daughter with some "honeymoon" cash in it. When they return they can add the little fold out and place pictures from their honeymoon on it. The orginial little suitcase can be found here on Jocely's site, "It's All About Me" along with other uses she found for the suitcase . . . SUPPLIES USED: clean Altoids can; Graphic 45 Tropical Travelogue paper; Staz On Ink pad - timber brown; Color Box Chalk Ink pad - Chestnut Roam; Tim Holtz mini brads - 2; glue; We R Memory Keepers 1/2" round corner chomper; and Making Memories Great Escape metal tag. Well, that's all for tonight . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hugs & Kisses . . . LindaB

TALENTED FRIEND

I am very blessed to not only have kind, caring, witty and funny family and friends but these people in my life are also extremely talented . . . tonight I want to tell you a little bit about my sweet friend, Diana Higgins. . . the very creative Diana has been PUBLISHED and not in just any magazine but in the Somerset LIFE Jan/Feb/Mar 2013 issue. . .

The 4 page article is about Diana's love for "felted" wool and shows pictures of some of the felted hearts she created, along with suggestions on where you might use these "love tokens" (as she call them) . . . here are just a couple of pages from the article . . .

Over the years the lovely Diana has gifted me with a few of her felted creations . . .

Are they not BEAUTIFUL!!! . . . as I said I am very blessed to have this sweet lady call me friend! Well, that's all for tonight . . . thanks for stopping by and until next time . . . Hug & Kisses . . . LindaB