Making Lemonade…
- posted by: Stephenie
- posted in: Uncategorized, My Life
- on: May 16, 2008
out of lemons.
Yes, I know this is quite the wacky picture of my mom and I, but let me explain my life for a minute.
Over the past few weeks, we have dealt with some illness stuff around here… most recently was the surgery my grandpa had yesterday. (All went well, by the way… and thank you for all of the good wishes!) Thanks to all of this illness stuff, life has been a bit stressful around here.
And, it is not over yet. Matt’s mom is having surgery first thing Monday morning and then we will be on the road to dealing with the fact that my grandmother’s blood counts are up, indicating that her Cancer has returned. Yes… loads of fun around here!
So, as we were making our way to the hospital, my mom and I took the scenic, nostalgic route to Galesburg, IL. That included driving through Galva, IL, where I lived my toddler years up until I was in the third grade. We went past our old house, the school, downtown, etc… enjoying some time to reminisce.
From there, we made our way Bishop Hill, IL which is a little artisan town full of true Swedish heritage. This took us to the Colony Store, where mom and I found lots of Swedish memorabilia and items, including our Viking hats that we really bought for the boys. We decided, however, to blow off some steam and wear them around town ourselves. Needless to say, we made a statement, which included pillaging (or rather shopping) at the pottery store.
We decided to make lemonade out of our lemon-y day and just blow off some steam that had been building up with everything that has been going on. It was goofy, childish, and a lot of fun! I love the fact that my mom and I can just spend time together being silly and hanging out. We enjoyed our morning adventure to the hospital and at the end of the day, we had great results, thanks to a great team of doctors and some heavenly intervention.
I hope that you all have a wonderful weekend and that you, too, can make lemonade moments out of the lemons of life.
3 fiskateers: vellum flowers
- posted by: May
- posted in: Uncategorized, 3 fiskateers
- on: May 15, 2008
Cloud 9’s new vellum flower kits are so fantastic. I can’t get enough of them! So, I asked 4 fiskateers to share projects featuring them…
Jennie Kader- My first concern when I received this project was if I could do the product justice! I wanted to create something amazing to showcase the vellum flowers. My second concern was how to give the project depth. How could I give the flowers layers, yet not cause the frame to feel too heavy. I wanted to create a family garden of sorts. Since having my twins, Connor and Chloe, I’ve been planning to make an altered project showing my husband, Chad, our twins and myself when we were young. I decided to use a wooden frame.
I played with one of the vellum flowers and started to fold each petal in half. I decided to roll with that technique and continued to fold the petals of different sized flowers and stacked them to create a flower. By altering the angle of the fold, I was able to create the appearance of depth without adding too much bulk. On a few of the items, I used a folded paper technique to add height. I used this technique on the upper left hand flower on the outside of the frame, on the photo flower of Connor and Chloe and finally on the bottom right sentiment sticker.
Karen Hobbs- I wanted to do something other than a page layout this time. I’ve had this plain wooden frame around awhile and vellum seemed like a good choice to decorate without overwhelming frame or photo. The flowers are fun and easy to layer and work with. The “ribbon” strips were a nice addition and made my “lace ” trim possible! This is actually a very simple project that would make a lovely gift for mom, friend, sister or daughter.
I painted the frame with the paint, after the 2nd coat I sprinkled on the shimmer and let dry overnight. Meanwhile I assembled my vellum flowers with leaves, vines and 2-3 flowers per set. The 2 larger flowers I attached together with the enclosed brads.On some flowers I curled them slightly with a pencil. I used the Fiskars heart border punch to transform the vellum ‘ribbon’ into ‘lace’. On the 3 corners where it didn’t show I attached the ‘lace’ with glue dots. On the 4th corner I used 3 mini Hugz to attach. The pointed Hugz just push right into the soft wood. The smaller flower set used 1 mini Hugz in the center. Then I used 2 small round open Hugz to attach the 2 larger flower sets, again just pushing them into the wood. Insert photo and ta da, a lovely frame!
Kristin Fetters- This is a layout of my daughter on her 7th Birthday, when she received her first American Girl doll. I love the girly-ness of this layout. It is so her! The vellum flowers were fun to use. I enjoyed creating each one unique. Adding all the bling to the flowers it totally out-of-the-box for me. I am so glad I used it though. I think by adding it, it really makes the layout “shine”. The background paper is Heidi Grace, It’s My Party/Tall Flower paper, double sided. The “You” tag to the right of the picture is a pull out tag, where I wrote a little note to my daughter about her special birthday gift.
Laura Casey-I love these Vellum Flower Kits by Cloud 9 so when I was asked to do this mission, I was thrilled ! I knew the flower kits would be great for cards and layouts, so I thought I’d try something a little different with them.
Frame:
In each Vellum Flower Kit, there are many various flowers, vellum leaves, brads and vellum strips for borders. I used those strips and attached them on the back side of the glass frame so it looks frosted! I assembled my flower, attached a leaf, picked out a brad and attached it to a darker vellum strip. Setting aside the flower, I took some matching grosgrain ribbon, and attached it to the metallic frame that was in the center of the glass. I then placed the vellum strip with the flower across the corner of the frame.
Lamp Shade:
Using the same floral ribbon and your tacky adhesive, attach to the top and bottom rim of the shade. Allow to dry. Assemble another flower using the pieces of your choice and a brad. I used another glue dot to attach it to the shade. This way, you aren’t poking a hole in the shade!
I hope you enjoy these ideas as much as I do! Thanks to the fisk-a-teers for sharing!
Mom’s With Young Ones ~ Your Input
- posted by: Cheryl
- posted in: Uncategorized
- on: May 15, 2008
With Mother’s Day having just passed . . . I had a busy weekend and didn’t get the opportunity to wish you mom’s a Happy Mother’s Day. So happy belated Mother’s Day.
Speaking of being a mom . . . we need your input if you are a mom of four to eight year old children. The survey is open until Saturday at 9 p.m.
Here’s the link for mom’s of four to eight year olds.
Thanks for sharing your opinion. So great that we have a company that wants to hear from you.
Winners
- posted by: Holly
- posted in: Uncategorized
- on: May 14, 2008
The winner of my ‘Day Dream Beliver’ RAK is- Karen Timm
The winners of my ‘Changes’ RAKs are- Jessica (with the very long, very detailed response) and Linda A- because anyone that references one of my favorite childhood movies deserves to be a winner.
Congrats, ladies. Email me with your mailing addresses so I can get your goodies to you. (holly@fiskateers.com)
…If you are waiting for a package from me I hope to get them all packaged and out by the end of this week…
Baby Girl
- posted by: Cheryl
- posted in: Uncategorized, Crafts
- on: May 14, 2008
I wanted to share with you a cute little project that one of my co-creative team members displayed on her creative board. She used an acrylic album and Cloud 9’s cute baby girl line. Karen is talented and says she loves her Cloud 9. I thought this was a darling album and wanted to share.
Be inspired by all that is around you! Have a great day.
the gift of handmade-
- posted by: May
- posted in: Uncategorized
- on: May 14, 2008
I have been blessed in life to have received several handmade gifts. I always love and cherish them because someone took the time to craft it for me, plus it becomes something I can keep and think about that person each time I see it.
Yesterday I received an envelope with foreign stamps. Hmm. What is this? I wasn’t expecting any air mail…
It is a lovely note pad (with acid free paper inside so I can utilize in scrapbook layouts if I want!) from Fiskateer Debbie Buckland. My favorite color (purple!) and a lovely bouquet. She used Cloud 9’s Brittany’s Castle paper too. Wow! So pretty!
This beautiful and thoughtful gift just reminded me of how special a hand crafted gift can be. I hope that you all join me in my personal challenge to do more homemade giving…
Summer is almost here, but we are thinking Back-to-school…
- posted by:
- posted in: Uncategorized
- on: May 14, 2008
Hi, Carrie from Brains on Fire here!
I hope everyone had a wonderful National Scrapbook Day and Mother’s Day!
Spike, Geno, Jen and I just got back from Madison, WI…Fiskars HQ. It was an incredible trip for many reasons, the biggest being the people we got to meet with that work for Fiskars…remarkable!!!
Brains on Fire has been asked to help Fiskars School division with a project. I’m thrilled I will get to work with more of the wonderful people at Fiskars and learn about more wonderful Fiskars products!
I’m writing to ask for your help…If you have children that get Back to School lists or if you are a teacher or have any friends or family members that are teachers that make these back to school lists, can you send me a copy? URLs for school websites are great too. You can email me at carrie@brainsonfire.com or mail it to:
Brains on Fire
Attn: Carrie
148 River St.
Ste 100
Greenville, SC 29601
Thanks so much! Have a wonderful day!
Life…
- posted by: Stephenie
- posted in: Uncategorized, My Life
- on: May 14, 2008
sometimes gets in the way of crafting. And this is one of those weeks. Part 3 will be a few days late, as we have some family illness stuff going on. I am heading down to my mom’s tonight to be with her as my grandpa goes into surgery on Thursday. I will be back on Friday and can hopefully share part 3 of the BNL adventure then.
Thanks for your patience!
not to be missed…
- posted by: May
- posted in: Uncategorized
- on: May 13, 2008
I tell you, the fiskars design team continues to amaze and inspire me. I love working with them, and I love working on all the fun themes and such for the fiskars site. Have you been keeping up with the project-a-day over at www.fiskarscrafts.com/projects? Lots of great stuff- a new project every day and I love them ALL. The calendar/project-a-day format is every other month. This happens to be one of THE months. So fun.
Of course every week we have new projects with the featured tool. This week it’s a trio of cards by Janna Wilson. LOVE the simple and beautiful way that the cloud 9 stamps add so much to the project. love it! You can see those (and directions) over at site too. (here)
Another thing I simply MUST mention- because I’m totally inspired to get out my sewing machine- is Lisa Truesdell’s new article that just went up yesterday.
She made baby projects inspired by Heidi Grace’s famous little bird. (article is right here) Her model (son) is sooo darn cute!
Anyhow, I hope you all are being inspired by the wealth of projects over at fiskars site. I know I can speak for the whole team when I say that creating projects and all the work that goes into the site is truly a labor of crafting love. I’ve got some special give-aways planned for the end of the month here. Super fun… can’t wait to spill more.
In the meantime- have you entered the sketch-of-the-month contest? Every month we feature a scrapbook layout + sketch. To enter for fabulous prizes all you have to do is upload your take on the sketch to the fiskars gallery! Don’t miss out!
Ok everyone- happy Tuesday! I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. I’m working up a storm here- and it feels great!
The Gift of 48 Hours
- posted by: Cheryl
- posted in: Uncategorized, My Life
- on: May 13, 2008
I have been away for a few days and don’t even know where to begin. I want to share so much with you.
My husband encouraged me to pack for a weekend away (to celebrate both our 40th birthdays) so I assumed he and I were going away together. Well, on Thursday evening he was returning from work and after picking my daughter up . . . he called and asked me to wait in the house . . . he had a surprise. In walked this special gift! Bow and all.
This is Valerie and she is one of my dearest friends. My reaction . . . a little messy with lots of heartfelt tears. She is beautiful inside and out. Because of the proximity of where we live and our schedules, I rarely get to see her except for maybe holidays (from time to time). Well, my husband arranged for her to come down for a couple of days. She’s a teacher and a pastor’s wife so I’m sure there was some rearranging of schedules on her part and that of her family so I was so grateful and thankful.
That Thursday we went to see a movie and after returning home had a cup of tea. I thought to myself . . . I’m going to use my fine china and I did just that. The next morning Val gave me a birthday gift and do you know what part of that gift was . . . a fine china teacup in the shape of a heart! Wow . . . that was a gift and so fitting. That was just part of the gift and I felt so blessed by her whole package. She is always so thoughtful . . . her gifts meaningful, her cards full of encouragement . . . she is awesome. She even packed ’smores by candlelight’ which our family partook of on Mother’s Day evening.
On Friday (which I had already taken off of work) Val and I headed to Disneyland and had a blast. So many memories. There is a story behind that Monte Cristo sandwich. Let’s just say Val has been waiting twenty two years for that sandwich. There was so much we shared together. We had lots of laughs.
Friday night we met up with my family and some dear friends at a favorite family Mexican restaurant where I felt so blessed to have so many dear to me in one room. People who have impacted my forty years of life! They were so generous (although we asked for no gifts) and the time was so precious.
Then on Saturday morning Val and I joined Mitzi for a beautiful brunch at Las Brisas in Laguna Beach. After brunch Val and I talked on a bench overlooking the beach on a perfect afternoon until I had to take her to the airport.
Saturday was also my husband’s 40th birthday. In the evening my husband, daughter and I went out to dinner, enjoyed Cold Stone ice cream and rode some rides at the Irvine Spectrum. It was a wonderful evening of being together.
While I know Val probably went home super tired and I was feeling pretty tired myself . . . the late night talks were something I will cherish. We were able to catch up, reminisce, and laugh! I still feel overwhelmed. My heart is so full it’s overflowing. My hubby was so thoughtful and blessed my socks off by gifting me with 48 hours including Mother’s Day where he blessed me with some wonderful gifts and actions. In fact, there were many who were a part of those 48 hours and I feel so blessed. I am so blessed as I reflect back on forty years of my life . . . those teachers that have made footprints on my heart, my loving and supportive family, faithful friends who have been there for seasons and friends for a lifetime, for my church families of present and in the past, and my Fiskateer and Fiskars family. I am one totally blessed gal and still overwhelmed. As I think about it . . . tears well up and I can’t but feel my heart warm. I could not have thought of a great gift nor a greater birthday. God is good and I am blessed!!!