Do This Not That

Okay so I got the pearl cotton at Pat Catan's this morning and made a flower to dye. I decided to use Pumpkin Pie reinker. So I started out my putting several drops of ink into a container, then put the flower in...mistake. What I should have done was add some water to the ink bath before putting the the flower. I was able to save the first flower by putting it back in the bath that was diluted with water. At this point I made another flower and dropped it into the dye bath you can see by the photo that the one on the right is lighter than the first one. I blotted the flowers with newsprint after taking them out of the bath just to adsorb some of the water. Then I had a thought......how bout making some designer paper? Got out some cream cardstock an while the flowers were laying on the newsprint I took the cardstock and pressed it on top of the flower and continued to do that in a random fashion and I got some pretty cool designer paper. Aren't I the clever girl? On to the card. I used the handmade designer paper for the background. I ran it through a Cuttlebug folder. Autumn Day stamp set by SU!. Because I was to lazy to cut part of the Old Olive strip to even it with the layer I just rolled it up till it was even then used a library clip to hold it in place. I like the look....sometimes it's a good thing to be lazy!

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

More Flowers

I'm just loving all these crochet flowers! I got pretty fast at turning them out. Each one takes about 10 minutes. The cream color ones were done with pearl the rest are made with floss. Turns out I didn't have white cotton so I need to make a run to Pat Catan tomorrow and pick some up. The box is made with a Big Shot die sold through SU! I forgot I had a package of corduroy buttons so I used one of them for the center of the flower. I'm happy how it turned out. Lots of endless possibilities to use these flowers on cards or other projects. I may play around with some more flower patterns or use different size hooks just to change them up.

Took the day off from work. I have to share this great cake recipe with you. I made it this morning. Called Cherry Surprise Cake

4 cups mini marshmallows
1 box yellow cake mix
1 can lite cherry pie filling
10 oz of diet sprite
2 egg whites

heat oven to 350, spray 13x9x2 pan with cooking spray, layer all the marshmallows in the bottom of the pan.
mix cake mix, eggs, and sprite in bowl
pour cake mixture over the marshmallows
spoon cherries over the top of the cake
bake for 40 minutes. It's really cool how it works. While baking the marshmallows rise to the top of the cake to form the frosting while the cherries sink to the bottom of the cake. It was really good. I say was because it's all gone now. Sarah stopped over and had some John had some, and even hubby who doesn't like most of my lighter recipes loved this cake....so it's gone.

Stamping Trails
Karen 209

Chocolate Oatmeal.......

Where have you been all my life? My new favorite breakfast is dark chocolate oatmeal. Made with dark chocolate Hershey powder mixed with 1/2 mashed banana, dash of fat free milk and cooked rolled oats. Looks odd but it tastes really good!

Thanks to my friend Lisa I found the pearl cotton thread I was looking for yesterday. I remember while talking to her this evening that I put the thread in with my mom's quilt. I was using some of the thread to tie the quilt with. So I'll be able to make more flowers.

Skip and I went for a long walk at a local park. It's a great work out. Lots of steep hills and slopes, and it's just a great nature hike. Took us little over an hour of hiking to explore it all.

I have tomorrow off so I'm looking forward to that. I really needed a mental health day!!!

Stamping Trails
Karen 209 (did you notice? I lost a pound. Go Me!)

Did you Ever.....

Have craft stuff sitting around in the same place for months (gasp even a year!) without using it? Then knowing that you haven't used it you move it to make room for more stuff only to find one day that you want to use the stuff you moved and then discovering that you moved it so well (or your just getting old and the brain don't remember anymore) that you can't find it when you need it? Well that's where I'm at right now. I know I have skeins of pearl cotton thread and I know I have white in one of the packages and now I can't find it. GOOD GRIEF!!!! I was going to crochet some more flowers while watching my favorite movie The Mummy (Brendan Fraser sigh)but now I'll have to wait till I have the energy to look some more or make a Pat Catan run for more. I did make some flowers out of colored embroidery floss, but still have more to make.

I did work out on the treadmill for 35 minutes. It was 95 degrees in the garage and I had to keep the doors closed as we had a big thunder storm so I didn't even get a breeze, but hey I know I sweated lots!!!!

Stamping Trails
Karen 210

Punch Happy Clown and More Cards

Isn't this a cool card! I was very surprised to find it in my mailbox today. Card was made by my friend Connie. Thanks you made my day!!!

The Paris card was made by another good friend Kat. She has been busy making me many cards and I have been remiss to post them to the blog....(not to mention that I really need to send some cards out to my buds!) Big thanks to you too Kat! Love you gals.


Did pretty good on my plan today. Stayed on my target points and did a 1 1/2 hour bike ride with hubby. Just got ready to turn in for the night but before I do I'm watching my new favorite show....Memphis Blues. It's on TNT and features the same actor that played in My Name is Earl, Jason Lee.

Have a good night
Stamping Trails
Karen 210

Crochet Flower

These little crochet flowers are so easy to make. I'll be churning out lots of them to use on my cards and 3d projects. This one was made using embroidery floss. Going to have to try to adjust the pattern so I can use pearl cotton as I've had requests to make them in white so they can be dyed using ink refills. How fun will that be to have flowers to match your cardstock?

I'm very tired today so I'll be signing off. Need to get to bed. I stayed on plan today and did 35 minutes on the treadmill. I can jog on the treadmill now for 4 minutes at a time. I know it may not seem like much but I feel so good about being able to just jog for a little bit!

Stamping Trails
Karen 210

Your're Crafting Again

Well you know it's been a long time since you crafted when hubby makes the statement "You're Crafting Again". I was in my stamp room yesterday when Skip came in a saw me working on this card.





I made this for Jessica for graduation....its a bit late (two months), and I'm not sure that I'm happy with how it turned out, but I enjoyed making it so that has to count for something.

The stamps came from an exclusive by Archivers. Everything for the card was supplies I had. The curling label tag that reads Congratulations will have to be removed so the messaged underneath can be seen. I do love the colors! Blush Blossom, Always Artichoke, Close to Cocoa, and designer paper by Basic Gray. Oh the little beads on the peacock were added by this nifty heat tool that melts the glue on the back of the beads. I'll take a pic of the tool and post later.

Off to see my mom.
Stamping Trails
Karen 210 (yes it's 210 I gained weight as I got away from my diet....you'll be happy to know I'm working out again and leaving a puddle of sweat on the treadmill! Keep me in your thoughts as I really do need all the support I can get)

Happy Birthday John

John's birthday was yesterday. He's 22. Making me feel old! Made this card for him. Its a standard A2 card but I wanted to have the sheet music to hang over the card so I cut the base card 1/4 shorter. Then of course the A2 envelope wouldn't fit so I used a square envelope and decorated it to match the card.



Sarah made him a cake. John said he didn't want a cake and Sarah said she felt bad about him not having one so she made him an ice cream cake. It was very good. I'll need to get the recipe from her as she made it a low fat version.

My vacation is over. I have to go back to work tomorrow. Not looking forward to it at all. I have some great pictures of Niagara Falls and Lincoln Caverns. I'll be posting those sometime this week. Right now I'm going to get back to my stamp room and clean it up a bit then get some stamping done!