Christmas Banner and a Good Bye

Hello Cardz TV Gallery friends, Brenda here from Friends Crafting with Friend and it is my turn to share a project with you. It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that this will be my last post for Mary's Gallery DT. It has been a struggle to create since the passing of my beloved husband and I just don't feel I'm giving a 100% to my DT projects anymore. I think I just need to focus on getting some scrapping done of my late husband so I can heal some and decide who I am without him. Sounds weird I know, but how I am feeling right now. Also my German Shepard, Savannah is keeping me very busy as well. I've never owned a big dog before and she isn't like my sweet little Pockets, who I had to have put down as well. Anyway, I hope to come back and design for Mary one day, but who really knows what God has in store for me. I hope I continue to do some crafting in some form, but one never knows. Right now, I'm just going to focus on getting crafty in my scrapbooking and gifts. It's been a pleasure and honor designing for you Mary, I will miss you and the design team very much!! I plan to keep up with both blogs as well cause I don't want to miss anything. Mary, you are awesome and I thank you for having me as a designer!!!!

Now that that is out the way, lets move onto my last project for the Gallery. I did a banner for my bathroom. I had a cute little one before that I hung at the bottom of my mirror, but over time (many years) it got wet and such, so I finally trashed it and decided to make another. This one I hung up high so water wouldn't be an issue. I'm sorry for the pictures, hard to get a good photo in the bathroom!!! The recipe is on my blog if you are interested. The Cardz TV stamp sets I used are: Glad Tidings and Merry Everything and you can find them here. 

Here is my banner before I put the gems on the letters.

With the gems and hanging on my bathroom mirror, up close.

Trying to get a pic of the whole mirror, didn't quite get it.

Another angle

A better view

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Cricut Cartridge-Pretty Pennants, Art Deco
Cardz TV Stamps-Glad Tidings, Merry Everything
Gems from my stash
hemp twine

The Stockings Were Hung...

Hello my crafty friends, hope your Sunday is one of relaxation. I'm off to a good start this Dec., and went to my first Christmas show of the season. It was a gift to me by my cousin and her boyfriend. We went to the American Music Theater in Lancaster, PA. Oh what a beautiful show it was!!! They took me last year too and I was hooked! We had such a lovely time and I didn't want the night to end. lol This is a picture of my cousin's daughter and I. She always called me and my husband aunt and uncle so she is more like a niece to me. Isn't that tree gorgeous?! There were many more in the theater that was just as gorgeous! They sang a lot of traditional songs as well as religious ones like "Mary Did You Know" and "Ava Maria". Just a stunning show and beautiful costumes. If you are ever in the area around this time of year, this is one place you have to go! Trust me you won't be sorry!

  Tis the season and I needed to get some tags made so I can get to wrapping my  Christmas gifts. So I made some simple, but oh so cute stocking tags. You can dress these up or down as much as you want. I kept mine simple so I could get many made. I still need to put my twine on these and I need to make more tags. I had fun making these and they only took me about an hour to make! I will just hand write to and from on the back of them. I put a white stocking on the back of each finished stocking to make them a little more substantial. This stocking die is a great way to use up those snippets as well. Everything I used to make these were snippets! Love it when I can do that!!! So I think I will head across the pond to play at the Snippet's Playground. It's always a great time over there!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope you will come back each day as my design team sisters will have more inspiration for you using Cardz TV Stamps! 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
stocking die, snowflake die-My Creative Time
sentiments-Cardz TV Stamps

Let's Party!

Hello my Cardz TV Gallery friends, Brenda here from Friends Craftin with Friends and it's my turn to share with you today. Today I used one of Mary's sketches, sketch 6 to be exact. These sketches of Mary's make making a card so quick and easy, you should check them out if you haven't already done so! My image came from a stamp set from Disney, it has 4 of the Disney Princesses, the castle, a mirror, crown and 3 butterflies. Such a cute set if you have girls. I colored Cinderella with my Zig's.  My sentiment comes from the Cardz TV "Let's Party" stamp set, which you can get here!  All papers but the card base came from my scrap bin, I'm always excited to use up some scraps! This card will be used for my granddaughter's birthday in Dec. I can't wait to make some more of these Princesses for my other granddaughters and Mary's stamp sets make it so easy when you need a special sentiment. I hope you will come back each and everyday to see what inspiration my design team sister have for you!! 

Thanks so much for stopping by and visiting a spell, I know the weather is a little rough but it is warm inside!  Where I plan to stay today. And speaking of warm, your comments always brings rays of sunshine to me and I appreciate them so much!! 

Since I used a lot of snippets, I am going across the pond and joining in at Pixie's Playground for the second week in a row. Di is surely gonna faint with me coming 2 weeks in a row! lol 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Disney Princess Stamp Set
My Creative Time-Bunch of Fun Circle Dies, Stitched Starburst Dies
Cardz TV-Let's Party Stamp set

Christmas Tags

Hello Crafty Friends, I hope you are having a beautiful Friday. It's a beautiful warm day here, the calm before the storm I suppose. We have been blessed with such gorgeous days and decent temps for this time of year, but a blizzard is working it's way across the mid west and supposed to hit here tomorrow night. No blizzard for us, but it will bring in the cold temps and snow showers. Tis the season!!! 

I wanted to try and get a tag in for Loll's Twelve Tags of Christmas challenge. She has guest designers making tags for it too each day. It's almost over! So I thought I would rush out a tag. Yeah, it never goes well when you rush does it?! But it is what it is and I'm going with this tag anyway. So please go over to Loll's blog and look at each day's tags, you will be amazed! Oh did I tell you the tags have to be mixed media?! lol Yes, you head me right. But as it turns out, we all do mixed media and don't even know we are doing it! Anyway it is all explain on Loll's blog, so go over and check it out. She will have the linky open for a while longer, to the 25th I believe. So you do have some time to make a Christmas tag and join in on the fun. 




For my mix media, I used stamping, die cuts, wet embossing and the Splash Watercolor background. It didn't turn out as well as when Loll does it, but hey, I'm working on it. lol My ornament should have been die cut in a different color to it showed up on the background better, but I was to lazy to die cut it again. So this is what I have to offer, not great but will work I think. I also used all snippets to make this tag, I'm so proud of myself for doing that. My dies and stamp are NBUS as well, so felt good to use it! Now, I would do things differently if I was making this tag over again. And maybe I will make another and fix my blunders...But for now, this is it.

As always, thanks for dropping by and visiting a spell. Your comments always bring sunshine to my day and a big smile from ear to ear. I know I'm behind once again, but will be working to catch back up with my commenting as well. 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
My Creative Time dies and stamps-Fun Stitched Ornaments & More
tag was created out of watercolor paper and a Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper
Embossing powder-Ranger Platinum
Hand dyed seam binding ribbon 

Look Who's One

Hello my crafty friends, hope your Sunday is a good one. I can't believe that we are in November with December being just around the corner. Where did 2016 go?! I sure hope that 2017 will be a better year for my youngest son and I. As if it wasn't enough for Bret to lose his good friend and roommate, we lost my MIL, Bret's grandmother yesterday as well. I know he is getting his fill of funerals lately! But such as it is, we move on as best as we can.

I have a little CAS card for you today, or at least I think it is CAS. Not always sure about that, but it seems CAS to me. lol We had my youngest granddaughter's first birthday party last weekend to go to and this is the card I made for her. Nothing elaborate, but I thought it turned out pretty cute. I was keeping in theme with the farm for my dearly departed husband, thus the little cow. I used my Cricut to write the "look who's one".  Recipe below the photo.

As always thank you for stopping by and visiting a spell. It always brings a huge smile on my face and your comments always bring sunshine to my day!

It has been a really long time since I played over at the Snippets Playground, so I'm taking my card using my snippets over to play along with these fabulous ladies. Di always makes sure we play along nicely, but with women like these, there is no problem playing nicely! You ought to come and join in sometime!!!!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
pattern paper and black paper-snippet from my snippet drawer
embossing folder by Darice
circle, scallop and cow-My Creative Time
Zigs to color my cow
Bristol watercolor paper for the cow
heavy white card base made from Heavy Cardstock by Hobby Lobby

Your the Best!

Hello my crafty friends, it is with a heavy heart I come to you today with my design team post. We found out yesterday that my son's friend and college roommate was killed late Friday night in an auto accident. He had just turned 22 years old back in Sept. He was with another friend, who was doing the driving. The young man hit a tree and it killed both of them. My son, thankfully, had came home Friday. This was Bret's first year rooming with Nick, but they were friends and decided to room together this year. I was so happy that Bret had Nick to room with instead of living alone up at college. After my husband passed I really worried about Bret up at college, but Nick would come over and stay with him. He was a good friend to my son and he was very nice to me. He and Bret came home last winter just before our big storm hit and the boys shoveled and plowed snow together. Nice young man and it makes my heart so heavy knowing he is gone now. And now my son has to go back to his apartment with all Nick's things being there. I can even imagine how it will be for him. He said he guesses that he and Nick's parents will just sit down and cry for Nick. I'm sure they will, I've already been crying most of the day. I know God has a plan, but sometimes it is hard to understand that he does. So please keep these families in your prayers as they deal with the deaths of their son's right here at the holidays. And say a little extra prayer for  my son as well. Thank you so much!

Well on to my post. When I went away back in Oct, a special family took care of Savannah for me. So I made two thank you cards just for the little girls who helped take care of her. They really are the best, so I had to make two cards telling them that. The Cardz TV Stamp set that I used today is one of Mary's newest, it's call Favorite Sayings and you can get it here.    

I stamped and colored the leaves with my Zig's markers, I stamped them on some Bristol watercolor paper. The Zigs color so nicely on that paper! I used my Misti to line up sentiment and was able to move my paper on it to keep stamping. 

Remember to come back each day as you get inspiration each and every week. Happy crafting to you all! Crafty hugs, Brenda

Here is a new picture of Savannah, she has finally grown into her ears, but she hasn't grown into her feet yet! lol She is 47 lbs, I think she would have been over 50 lbs, but she stopped eating as much when our little Pocket's girl got sicker and then after I had Pocket's put down. Her appetite is slowly coming back, very slowly.  She is 5 months old today and she is such a beauty. 

One last photo I'd like to share is me and all the teachers when we went to on our trip in Oct. What a good time we had!!!

As always, thank you for taking the time and stopping by to visit a spell. Your comments always bring sunshine to my life!!! I do have a couple more cards to share and I will do that soon. 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Cardz TV Stamp Set: Favorite Sayings
Leaves: My Creative Time Gobble Gobble
Bristol Watercolor Paper
Zigs Clean Brush Markers
Misti

So Cool!

Hello my crafty friends, hope your Monday is off to a great start. Mine is so so, lol, it's chilly willy here after just having unusually high temps in the mid to high 80's. Of course it could have stayed at those temps to me! But not normal for around here, so I guess I will have to suck it up and accept that winter is knocking on the door. The other things that had me "quiet" is that my husband's death anniversary was last week and I was nursing my little furbaby and taking her to the vets. Thursday after talking to my youngest son, I had her put down as she was in liver failure. She lived a nice life and lived for 11 1/2 years, not really long like some dogs, I knew her diabetes would cut off some years for her and it did. Of course it didn't make it any easier to put her down, but it had to be done. I didn't want her suffering anymore. So when they gave her the shot to relax her, I held her so she knew I was with her to the end. My youngest son was with me, so I didn't have to do it alone. Still hard, but necessary and as you can probably guess, tears were rolling down my face. Bret buried her with our two outside dogs, so now all three are together in the field. I know my little girl is in heaven with my husband as she loved farming with him and now they can once again farm together.  Sure am glad now that I have Savannah cause I wouldn't have liked coming home to no furbaby!!! Savannah is doing much better, but of course is still puppy. I walk her every morning and that really helps. But yesterday and today she wasn't a happy puppy because she missed our Pocket's girl. 

Today is my turn to share over at Cardz TV Gallery.  The Cardz TV stamp sets I used are:
Basic Borders, Just Chillin', Winter Cheer, and Let's Party. All are fabulous stamps sets and you can get yours here!!! 

Nothing to really explain about these cards as they are super CAS. But I think they are kinda' cute. 

I hope to get back on track here with commenting. I'm sorry it's been a while since I've visited you, just can't get it together and keep up with Savannah. It sucks getting old!!! I will try and get by soon, but I'm not getting my email notifications that I usually get on the blogs I follow, so be patient with me as I try to get on bloglovin to find you all! I don't know if it is my provider or if the problem lies in the feedburner where I sign up to follow blogs. All I know is that it is a pita!!!  Thank you all for stopping by and visiting with me, you always bring so much sunshine into my life!!!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
No recipe really and all stamps were Cardz TV stamp sets
ink-VersaFine
Zig marker-Persian Blue

I've Got My Eyes on You!

Hello my crafty friends, hope your Sunday is going well. I'm home resting from my trip to VA with my retired teacher friends. Boy did we have a blast. 9 women, what do you think?!!! But I'm glad to be back home with my girls, I really missed my fur babies and was afraid they would forget me since I've been elderly sitting for a week and then was gone for a week in VA. But they didn't, thank goodness. lol Also tomorrow is Dwayne's death anniversary. The trip was a good diversion from dwelling on it. The grands are going to let a balloon go with a note in them to send up to Heaven for Papaw. It's going to be an emotional go of it but I will get through it like I got through the year because I can't change it, so I have to go with it. sigh

 It's my turn to post over at Cardz TV Gallery today and I've got a Halloween card for you. I went really simple with this card, which I was inspired from Pinterest. This will be a card for one of my grands or nephews. I might even make a couple more because I think some of the nephews might get a kick out of it and because it was a simple card to make. Here are the Cardz TV stamp sets I used on this card and you can find them here.

I hope you like my card for today and I hope you will keep coming back to Cardz TV Gallery each day for more inspiration using Cardz TV Stamps!  As always thank you for stopping by for a spell, your comments always bring sunshine to my day! 

Crafty hugs, 

Card Recipe:
Speech bubbles-My Creative Time
Google Eyes-from my stash
Stamps-Cardz TV
Versa Fine black ink

Wedding Favors

Hello my crafty friends, I'm back as promised with the other wedding favors I made for my friend. If you remember, I made these favors here first. I made 61 of them. Then my friend asked for me to make some more favors as she wanted to give the adults some candy and she wanted something for the grandchildren to put candy in. She wanted to do more for the grands and asked me what she could do. I said get them a gift card to McDonald's since just about all kids love going there, so that is what she did. 

So for the grandkids, I did shopping bags for the girls with candy and the gift card and for the boys I did pillow boxes with candy and their gift cards. I placed a doily and a rosette on each favor with the wedding couples last name initial. I used the wedding colors of navy blue and white alternating the colors. And some cheap ribbon from AC Moore. 

For the adults I used a milk cartoon die. Filled with candy and stapled shut, I placed a bow over the staple and also added a "thank you" label.

 The restaurant wanted some name cards for the tables since my friend was having wine at each table, she later nixed that idea but I had the cards already done. I used my Cricut to cut out the cards and write the names on them. Then I stamped the blue stripes on them. I was glad when these were all done as my friend sprung wanting more favors on me two weeks before the wedding! But I think they are simple, but elegant. The restaurant loved them and wanted to know where she got them from. She told them and they told her to tell me that they could keep me in a job since they do so many weddings and that is one question the wedding couple ask about and want to know where to get the favors from. I will need to check angel policies first before I accept this "job", which would be perfect for me since I would be able to work from home. But I have to make sure I am legal first! 

As always thanks for stopping by and visiting a spell. Your comments always bring sunshine to my cloudy days and I thank you for them. The weather has cooled off and is lovely most of the time. We are supposed to get some rain which we so need!!! I will end this with a picture of Savannah, she is really growing fast, already 31 1/2 lbs and is 4 months old. As you can see she is just beautiful and I'm already so fond of her. She is a momma's girl like Pockets and stays by my side to protect me. She doesn't like it when I get out of her sight at all! Of course I'm all she had until Bret comes home. lol And yes she will grow into those ears!!!! lol

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
shopping bag, milk carton, thank you label and stamp-My Creative Time
pillow boxes, name cards-Cricut

Candy Corn Anyone?

Hello my crafty friends, I'm posting! Can you believe it?!!!! Well my design team obligations started today over at Cardz TV Gallery, so I will be back to posting twice a month at least. Still super busy with training Miss Savannah and we are getting there very slowly. I also was busy with last minute favors for a friend who was getting remarried in the Catholic church. The wedding was Saturday, so glad to have that done! Good news is that I was told I can have a job of making wedding favors for the restaurant that the wedding reception was held in! Wow, I just thought the favors were plain, simple so I could just get them done. So I'm excited about that. 

Today I have a little home decor project for you. I got the cut files from My Scrap Chick for these adorable candy corn boxes.  They aren't a box you can put any thing in, just for decor. I used a fall set of stamps and some Halloween sets from Cardz TV because I made it fall on one side of the candy corn and Halloween on the other side. So all I have to do is flip them around to keep them out a little longer!  They look so cute on the shelves and now I can't wait to get out the pumpkins to decorate!  Will be back this week with the favors I made for the adults and grandchildren and the place cards for the tables. Until then have a wonderful Sunday!!

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe:
Cardz TV stamp sets: Fall Fun, Oct. 31st, Trick or Treat
candy corn cut file: My Scrap Chick
twine: WalMart

What Do You Think??

Hello my crafty friends, popping in here for a bit to show you the progress of the flooring. Still have to get the quarter round installed and some caulking done. Bret did the quarter round in the kitchen pantry for me so I could put that closet back together and start emptying out the guest bedroom. I will also put the shelving back in the hall closet to get those items back in there. I will just have to keep stuff off the floor as he didn't do the quarter round in that closet. He does have part the living room done, then I realized that it would be better to get the closet's done, so I can get that stuff out the way. It's all that little stuff that seems to take up so much room! Right now my house is looking like a hoarder's house and I'm not liking that at all! Especially the kitchen and spare bedroom! 

Anyway, I'm beat! This isn't a job to do when you are trying to train a puppy! It came to a point when both dogs had to be in their crates a good bit of the time. Couldn't be helped. They did run around after we stopped for the day, but it was late and then I just wanted to go to bed as I was exhausted each night! We started first by ripping the years old, dirty (I shampooed all the time) carpeting out of the living room, dinning and hallway. Then the dinning and hallway carpeting was laid by a different store than the living room carpet and boy did we have a million and one staples to pull out the floor in the dinning and hallway. I didn't think we'd ever get them all done, but we did. Oh, who is we you ask? That would be Sandy, her husband, David and her brother Dale and of course myself. Sandy and I met in 5th grade and have been like sister's since. We claim each other as our sister. I grew up with her brothers, so they are all like brothers to me and of course Sandy, Dave and I ran around together as teens. So he is really like a BIL. After the nasty carpets and staples were out, we got to painting. Ok, I know it looks white! I didn't go with Bret's color choices because my house is small, my furniture is on the darker side and I just thought it would make things to dark. He wanted a darker tan and a red accent wall in the living and dinning room. Yeah, I didn't want to have to paint multiple coats of red either. I do love red however. So I decided on a  whipped buttery color....what, it doesn't look very buttery???? Yeah, you are right. The color I chose was called Toasted Oatmeal and it looked about like what I already had. lol In person you can tell a little bit that it is more of an "creamy" color compared to the ceiling. I didn't know that the paint chip was darker than the paint was going to be. So Bret wasn't a happy camper when he got home at my color choices. I told him he can change it, but he had to repaint. I wasn't! Painting all done on Thursday evening, so I did relax some on Friday. Not much with a puppy in the house, but some. Then Saturday morning the guys got started laying the floor.  I didn't take pictures of the old carpeting, because I know I have pics on my blog that shows some of the carpeting. It was light brown in the living room and that was over 30 years old. Dark brown for the dinning and hallway and that was 25 years old. Here's some pictures showing the floor coming along. Now take in mind that yes, the house did have original hardwood flooring. This house was Dwayne's grandparent's house and when they passed he bought it from the bank when the estate was settled. When we married though, the house was to small, so we started added on in Oct. 1992. Married in Feb. 1993. So walls were torn out and there the flooring was messed up due to the spots being filled in where the walls where taken out to get ready for a new floor-which was carpet. Thus why the floating floor now. Ok, here's the pics, warning pic heavy:

This is the type of flooring I picked. Is very durable, especially with dogs! Holds up to water as well. Got it at Home Depot,  the pattern, color I picked is called Highland Hickory.

Getting started in the living room with the first rows.  Bret gets it going.

Dale explaining something to David

 David adding a row of flooring.

Yay, living room half done!

Living room is done and now moving into the dinning/kitchen area's. 

Dinning room is more than half done as is the kitchen. My stove was their area where the guys wrote their measurements down for cutting of the flooring. Dave was doing some calculations.  

Bret working his way into the kitchen closet.

Kitchen done! Except for it looking like a hoarder lives here. :-(

Dinning room done!

Living room done!

Hallway done!

Now I get the honors of putting the house back together again. Bret left for college at 8 am this morning since he didn't have a class until 11 am. So I guess I'd better get started, but going to take my time and clean out before putting back. Besides, right now I'm the only one living here. Kitchen comes first because I can't even make anything to eat with all that mess in there. lol I'm not going to rush the things back up on the walls, that will come a little bit at a time. Plus some things will go back up and some won't, changing things up a little more. I am really pleased with how the floors turned out and even my choice of flooring. The dogs have been playing on the floor and no scratches, so that is a good thing. Of course they are having a hard time getting any traction. lol They just slip and slide all over. lol 

As always, thanks for putting up with me and my long posts. I hope you like the floors as much as I do. Now only 3 bedrooms to go! But that will be just one at a time. Not doing this much at one time again! As always your comments bring so much sunshine into my life and I appreciate you all so much!! 

Crafty hugs,

Card Recipe: