A housefull of crafting bloggers
vintage paper/collage art
Craft day was such fun! We laughed and talked and played for about 8 hours and the day flew by like it was no time at all.
And I actually got the studio cleaned up!
The tables were all cleared for work space and I just sat out some wallpaper pieces and the tags for each person to mark their spots. 
It didn’t take long for all the tables to turn into this! Everyone brought such interesting piles of goodies it was a day long adventure just to check out everyone’s stash of stuff.
Especially our new pal, Gwen. She is a reader who answered my blog invitation to come by and play.
I’m so glad she did, what a fascinating and fun person. She was an FBI agent, stationed in France for years and brought back the BEST French ephemera.
Gwen gifted all of us with French book pages, and Shawn brought her Cuddlbug. We were rolling papers through it and embossing everything in sight.
I kept wanting to put pasta through it and make embossed noodles for lunch.
I actually got very little made today. This is a 100% French papered background for a tag, I will add a picture to the center later.
I was busy Cuddlebugging a lifetime supply of papers to use later, and scanning all the cool old Frenchie things that Gwen brought!
We all made books too, here is one by Marilyn. I had my binder out and she used some Cuddled papers, post cards, and sheet music to create this.
Since I met Marilyn and Shawn through our Birds and Bonnets Swap, I thought it was appropriate to use the screen from that swap as part of my centerpiece for lunch.
Shawn’s daughter, Bethany had a good time sipping out of a tiny teacup at lunchtime. She was adorable all day, one cute thing after another.
Lunch itself was pretty great, everyone brought a dish, and all were tasty! Shawn even brought each of us a bag full of home made marshmallows. I was going to arrange them on a pretty plate and take a photo, but I ate them. Sorry.
I know this isn’t the best picture of Beth, but she is only looking worried because I threatened to knock her over and steal her hat.
She taunted me all day with this rose encrusted gem of a hat that she bought for $5, and that I couldn’t take my jealous, little, beady eyes off of.
Gwen is a reader that has never left a comment, and I hadn’t met her before. I’m so glad she took me up on the invitation and came out today, along with our other blog friends.
Sometimes I wonder who is out there reading this, and it was very nice to meet one of "silent majority" who is on the other end of the blog, but I never hear from.
I’m sure she won’t mind if I share this with you, it is an old ad from a magazine she brought today. I scanned it to print and use for backgrounds. Please feel free to use it for your own work too, just click and save. I’d love to see what you do with it, if you make anything from this ad.
And thanks again to Beth, and Shawn, and Marilyn too for the fun time!
ooops, another one frittered away and gone
family, parties, Sugarwings, vintage paper/collage art
There is a party here tomorrow. A craft day with blog friends, that I am really looking forward to. But, somehow, today got away from me, and I haven’t got my craft room picked up yet.
I might just be saying, "Welcome, kick some crap out of your way and make yourselves at home!"
I did make little giftys for the crafters coming. B for Beth.
(why it is such a wintry tag, I don’t know, maybe I had the air conditioner too high today and was chilly??)
And an M for Marilyn.
S for Shawn.
And Gwen gets a G. I haven’t met Gwen yet, she is an antique dealer at the mall I used to be at. Beth has a spot there too, so they have met. I am looking forward to meeting her, Ive seen some stuff she has made and love what she does!
My speakers are finished, covered with wallpaper and neatly tucked under the new cabinet. I was afraid they might look cheesy, but I think they will be fine. I also painted the cords so they disapear too.
The rest of the day was put into making a scrap book for Sugarwings. 
Have you seen this site on flickr where you can make your name in a variety of letters? I did that for the fairy grand baby, then wrote something about her for each letter.
Too bad there are no C’s in her name, because she is very Cuddly and Cute. 
This photo of her hard at work on her painting is mounted onto the artwork she did that day.
I found this cool Wizard of Oz paper and couldn’t wait to use it to back Sugarwings in her Halloween Dorothy costume.
(the opposite photo of her with Twinkles, says "every Dorothy needs her Toto".
Aren’t these papers fun?
I used a close up of the baby’s ruby slippers on the first page, then inside the card on the second page, is another picture of her in her costume.
Am I obsessed or what? Here I am cutting out pictures of the baby all day instead of getting ready for my craft party!
Oh, but isn’t she cute and cuddly???? Do you blame me at all? Looking at her photos was a beautiful way to fritter away a day.
A garden tour
Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), flowers, redos
I finally found the perfect stereo cabinet to match my new dining room table!
Well, almost perfect. The black speakers stick out like a sore thumb when I tucked them underneath the cabinet.
So, Twinks helped me (and I have to say, she really isn’t as much help as she thinks she is) cover them in silk brocade wallpaper over the box and cut up lace curtains over the woofer/tweeter parts.
I know they aren’t exactly gorgeous, but they will kind of blend into the background now and not stand out like the black did.
Today started out humid and in the 90s, but a light rain brought the temperature down and made weeds easy to slide up out of the ground, so I spent some time in the veggie garden this afternoon.
LUSHNESS was overflowing everywhere!
Our garden is planted inside the foundation of the 100 year old barn we had to tear down. Years of manure and composted hay on the site make for some fantastic soil.
I’ve added compost to it too and use plenty of Miracle Gro. Sometimes, I think it might be too lush! I’ve had to trim back the spaghetti squash just so we can get in and out of the gate.
There is green everywhere in my yard. This year, all the plants are enjoying the milder temperatures and extra rain.
My large perennial beds are thriving, with no attention at all. 
These are just "ditch" lilies, but I enjoy their dependability and abundance. And especially the fact that they choke out all weeds and I haven’t touched this bed since I planted it 16 years or more ago!
The overgrown green plant in the right hand corner is another that chokes everything else out. I have to shoot it with Round UP to kill it off regularly, or it would be the only thing growing on my land!
Too bad I don’t have more plants in bloom right now. The problem is that I didn’t fill in around the perennials with enough annuals this year. I knew I’d be going to DC and taking some other trips, and didn’t want to make the yard work too complicated for my son while I was away.
Right now, I have hoses and sprinklers running to key areas (mostly veggies and new plantings) and all he has to do is turn the faucet and it all self waters.
Of course, a sprinkler system would be nice instead….. but not in my price range. 
I’ve done my best to plant traditional Kansas plants that take care of themselves and adapt to the weather conditions.
If they start to brown up in August when the ground gets dry, I know that is just normal and let them go, they’ll rebound and come back in September when things cool off.
That just makes me appreciate the yard even more when it is going through its lush phases like now.
Flocked Finery and hot dogs
Dorkies (Yorkshire Terrriers), fairies, family, magazine pictures or articles, vintage paper/collage art
I got some of the best new (old) wallpaper! I had to make something with it right away, so put together this card with one of my painted cupcakes and some other vintagey pretties.
The same flocked paper is used as a background for this tag. 
Sissy sent me these ballerinas, and I made one into a fairy to tie to the cover of the photo album I am sending to her.
All three new papers are wonderful, but I haven’t had a chance to use the other two yet.
If I would stop buying wallpaper, I could probably afford the good camera I whine about wanting.
I really like my camera, but I sure do drool over photos taken by Carol and Sara. Both of them use Canon Rebels, and their pictures are always so good. Of course, both of them are great stylists too, that sure helps!
Speaking of Sara, she has added my two latest magazines to the list to the side of my blog.
She is always so fast when I ask for something to be done and I am still thrilled with the blog design she has done for me! I hope to have some extras added some day when I have time. I’d like to have a seperate page with my blog roll and "about". But, I seem to always have other things to do. Someday I will get that blog roll revamped and more blogs added to it.
I am such a blog addict, I read so many more than what I have listed there!!
Sara isn’t the only person I need to thank today. LOOK AT WHAT BETH MADE!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t knit and never will, but I love to look at yarn shops and day dream about the gorgeous colors. I bought a specialty ball of yarn and Beth whipped up this scarf for me out of it.
Its even prettier in person, soft and sweet and lighter than air.
This came in the mail from my friend, Shawn. The first thing I noticed about it, besides how cute it is, of course, is that the name "Nathan" is in the sheet music on Twinkle’s wings!
Shawn is coming to my blogger’s craft day this Thursday. If you are a KC or Topeka area blogger and like to do paper crafts, let me know if you’d like to come too.
Amy is the winner of my June Garage Sailing Giveaway Prize Pack, and since her blog is titled
"Bunny Rose Cottage" I added this cute enameled bunny charm to her gift.
I haven’t decided what my July prize will be yet. But all comments on all posts count for the month, whether the prize has been announced or not. 
Looks like July is finally here, it has turned hot! The poor dorkies didn’t even want to work in the garden with me this morning, I came in and they were lounging on the bench in the breezeway out of the sun.
Happy Fourth!
celebrations, family, Food and Drink, Sugarwings
Happy 4th of July weekend! I hope you are all having a good one. Mine is filled with Sugarwings, boating, yard work and pickle making.
This is my first ever attempt at canning, and it seemed to be way too easy. There must be some botulism lurking somewhere in these jars, because it just seemed too simple to do.
My biggest problem in canning was getting the labels right. These are too big, I’ll need to make more if I do more pickles this week.
And what do you do with a baby while you are trying to make pickles and she wants to help?
We sat up her art table in the kitchen and gave her some cucumber stump "stamps". 
I cut the end of a cuke, carved a design in it with a knife, then let her ink it up with her washable markers.
They really made pretty stamps, with a watercolor effect. And it kept the fairy grand baby pretty happy while her daddy and I chopped and pickled.
This year, fireworks were shot off over Lake Clinton where we keep our boat. The air was cool, the stars were out, and the water was calm, a perfect evening for watching the exploding colors in the sky.
We parked far away from the dozens of boats tied up together, so it was like a private light show of our own.
Now, off to do some yard work and take advantage of this unexpected mild weather, not typical at all for July in Kansas!
How to become a fairy, and the Hat Whisperer strikes again!
antiques/junking, celebrations, fairies, family, how to's, Silver Bella, Travel
At a sweet shop in St Augustine, I picked up a bag of Key Lime Pie hard candies. I can’t belive I still have this many left, they are so good and they remind me of the beach every time I pop one into my mouth!
I miss the beach!
So while my mind is still lingering in vacation mode, I made some scrapbooks to send to Bobbie, Sissy, Randy and Kevin as a momento of our trip.
By the way, the bikini babe is my Sissy who is in her SIXTIES. She’s always been a teeny tiny thing.
One day while sitting on our balcony and watching a storm roll in across the ocean, we saw a rabbit hop across the sand.
That is why I turned these pages into "beach bunnies". I didn’t know there were rabbits on the beach. I thought that all those long eared hopping rodents lived in my yard and were busy at home eating my plants while I was on vacation.
I filled the books with lots of memories of the trip.
This cute, scallopey edged card stock comes in a package at Michaels. One $9.95 package made 4 scrap books, with some left to make at least one more.
I used my binding machine to put the pages together into a book after they were decorated.
Here is how I turned us into fairies:
I made 5×7 copies of a picture of Randy’s garden and wallet sized copies of a photo of the three of us, then cut us out.
Hosta leaves in the garden photo were cut away with an exacto knife. I cut around the plant, so that I could lift the foliage and slide our picture underneath.
Before gluing the photo down, I spritzed Glimmer Mist on watercolor paper, glued the cut out picture of us to it, then drew on wings and cut it all out.
Once the wings were done, I slid the sister picture under the hosta leaves in the garden picture and glued it all in place, then glittered and dood dadded it up.
On Bobbie Sue’s album, she is holding a magic wand, on Sissy’s she has one to hold. I used vintage stick pins for wands and just poked them through the photo at an angle and added a drop of glue.
I tried to add a lot of hand drawn elements, like lady bugs and vines on the pages that show us setting a bag of lady bugs free in the garden to control pests. 
Randy raises butterflies, so can’t use any chemicals out there.
I used a lot of Glimmer Mist some pages before adding photos, and did all the writing and drawing with metallic or sparkling pens, so the books have some shimmer to them.
While in St. Augustine, I put my Hat Whispering skills to work.
Most vintage hats I saw in this touristy area were EXPENSIVE. $38-$200!!! My goodness. Lots of hats were in these antique shops, but few were in my price range.
While in one fancy antique mall, the hat search looked hopeless, but I told my sisses that I felt one upstairs, and walked up the stairs, around the corner and into a back room right to it. Loaded with pink and red velvet roses, it wasn’t cheap, but it was affordable and beautiful and some how it had called out to me.
I bought only 3 hats all week, for $4, $9, and $15. But, it does go to show that even in a high dollar shopping area, with the right hat hunting skills, millinery flowers can be affordable!
I kept my souvenir shopping to a minimum. 3 hats, lots of candy, these two shells, and a handful of old charms. Oh, and a pink St. Augustine hoody. I love trashy tee shirts and sweat shirts from tourist trap shops.
The shell necklace pictured IS NOT from a tacky shell shop!!
It is hand made over 80 years ago by my great aunt, Caroline. The lovely box was hers too. She gave me those years ago, along with the turquoise pendant that was her mother’s and the wonderful green glass bead necklace that her grandfather made. Yep, lucky, lucky me!!
Speaking of lucky- I got all the classes I signed up for at Sliver Bella! I was at the keyboard the minute sign ups began. Here is what I signed up for:
Secret Santa Diary/Pam Garrison, Saturday 1:00pm
Home for the Holidays/Pam Garrison, Friday 11:30 am
Christmas Pageant/Teresa McFayden, Saturday 8:30
am
Soldering For Virgins/Sally Jean, Friday 8:00am
Winter Faerie Shrine/Kim Kwan, Saturday 1:00 pm
Total 510.00
Yes, the price went up this year, but it is worth it!! If you haven’t booked your trip yet, do it now before it is full, I can promise you it will be FUN.
A fairy wonderland garden and a Prize Pack Giveaway
celebrations, Etsy Goodies, fairies, family, flowers, give away, Sugarwings
See why I am glad to be home? I missed my Sugarwings. She had a sleepover last night and we played tea party with her dolls and then this morning she let me semi-French braid her hair. 
I think her hair grew while I was gone.
After the fairy grand baby left to go home, I listed a few things on etsy, wrapped packages, and got some things ready to mail.
These are the gifts that I am sending out to the 8 winners of the drawing from the pool of card makers.
Sandy, Melissa, and Sherry– I still need your addresses. Jen, Lili, Alice, Irma, and Robin should be expecting something in the mail soon, theirs is on its way.
Thanks again to everyone for their help! And here is a note from my great Aunt Caroline’s niece, Caroline Beth, who hosted the 100th birthday party:
Our Aunt Caroline had the BEST birthday!
Most of the praise goes to all of you who donated your time and effort to show so much love and affection for a lady you’ve never even met. What a heartfelt effort!
Thanks to Karla and her sisters who were "everything" to her on her special day. She’ll talk about this forever and we’ll be delighted to listen.
All of us who were lucky enough to spend the day with Caroline were amazed at her vitality and glowing disposition. You could watch as she gained even more positive energy from her well-wishers. The cards sent a huge burst of appreciation for a life well lived and a lady well loved.
We can’t thank you enough for the blessings, thoughtfulness, and amazing beauty of your creations.
God bless you all.
Carolyn Beth ( another of Caroline’s nieces)
Caroline’s birthday wasn’t the only one we celebrated while in Florida on our Sister Trip.
We got to spend time with my brother-in-law, Randy the Birthday Boy Nathan, who lives in a house filled with antiques, laughter, and fun plus a magical garden full of fairies.
Around every corner there is a surprise in this yard.
Its full of whimsical elements and beautiful blooms. 
Not one inch of space goes to waste here. To make it seem larger, there are winding paths that keep you guessing about what is around the corner, and a mirror is hung on the bright red garden gate (I want to try that trick!).
This old iron railing was picked up at a garage sale, and re-purposed to become trellises.
It seemed like everywhere I looked, there was a smiling face looking back at me!
More garage sale finds brighten up this corner. The shiny thing hanging in the foreground is a chandelier found in the trash and taken apart to add some sparkle to the garden, since sparkly things attract fairies.
See, I told you so!
And the fairies have shelter on rainy days, here in this vase turned on its side and tucked under the foliage.
Randy and Kevin’s garden is a vacation in itself! I could spend all week just exploring all the nooks and crannies there.
My sisses and I spent a day crafting with Randy, (that explains the blue, glitter encrusted fingers). Then we spread lady bugs around the garden to eat pests, this lush landscape is not only beautiful, it is chemical free! 
Our craft day consisted of making fairy pages for each other. This is what I did for Sissy. She and I both love the smell of Birthday Cake scented candles sold at Kohl’s and have had some serious bonding time while sipping wine and burning a cake candle, so the background of her fairy page is of sprinkled frosting.
Bobbie Sue is deep into genealogy, so the fairy page for her is made from photos of my great grandfather and his brothers glued to a copy of some hand written family history.
And after seeing Randy’s back yard, you’ll understand why I made a fairy gardener on "I love you" paper for him.
My little friend and fellow fairy lover, Adeline Grace, is turning 7 this week, so when I saw a poem in an old book, titled "Adeline" I cut it out and made a faery birthday card for her with the poem glued inside.
The best vacations are ones where I get to make things, so I loved my crafting day, and also my chances to play in the sand and make a "Twinkle".
Ooops, I almost forgot to announce the winner of June’s Garage Sailing Giveaway Prize Pack-
it goes to:
Thanks to everyone who left a comment and entered the drawing. Remember, all the July comments go toward a prize too!
100 happy years
celebrations, family, give away, Travel, tributes
I miss the beach already. But it is good to be home and have little Sugarwings back in my arms again. Her hippy chick mommy let my fairy grand baby come and have a sleep over tonight since I missed her so much.
But while I was away from Little Sugarwings, my sisses and brother were fun play mates.
Sissy, Bobbie Sue, and I did sand sculptures, picnicked on our balcony over looking the ocean, and shopped, shopped, shopped between family visits.
We danced on the beach in the dark wearing glow sticks too. No, I wasn’t drunk at the time, and even though you probably think I must be quite soused to do this, I am not drunk now when I am posting this photo of a 50 year old granny in a swim suit with a glow stick in her cleavage. Good thing the beach was deserted, I am not the graceful sort and dance a bit like a delirious cow. One decidedly ungraceful ballerina-esque jump had me landing flat on my back in the sand.
As wonderful as the trip was, the highlight of course, was Great Aunt Caroline. Now, that is one graceful, gorgeous, and gracious lady.
She is so sharp, entertaining, and full of stories, it was a delight to listen to her speak with such wit and charm. At 100, she can still tell a tale that has a whole room enthralled from beginning to end.
She was touched by all of the cards, and couldn’t get over the fact that so much time and work went into them.
She has been making beautiful things all of her life, and that cane next to her is a good example. She told us how she collected drift wood from the beach, cleaned and polished and decorated a piece to make this cane.
The painting that I am pointing to was done by Aunt Caroline’s mother, my great grandmother.
And we heard stories that day about how my great-great-grandfather was an artist too. He was a farmer who made beaded jewelry in his spare time. He also collected shells from the beach and hand wired them together into curtains for his parlor. Caroline remembers the tinkling of the shells as the breeze blew them together.
Our Sister Trip was priceless, and the visit to our aunt’s 100th birthday was just the best, and all of your cards helped make it even more special.
Caroline remembered the dress she was wearing in this photo that so many of us used in the cards and was pleased to see it. She told us about making it herself, that in the 30s, all of her clothes were hand made.
For the party, I wore the pearls that she had on in the photo and she also recognized those and told me she appreciated me taking such good care of them. Like I had done something nice for her??? She is really something sweet.
This darling lady is one of those people that looks you in the eyes and makes you think that you have to be the most special person on the planet. She has a sincere caring quality about her that just melts your heart when you meet her.
Since she was so touched by the cards everyone made, I wanted to show you my appreciation by adding a few more prizes to the drawing.
All the cards pictured today are by the people whose names were randomly drawn.
Jen, Alice, Robin, Lili, Melissa, Sherry, Irma, and Sandy, please send me your addresses and I will send you a thank you prize.
I just wish I could do something for all of you for doing this kind and thoughtful thing for my aunt! 
As Caroline said when she blew out her candles, "I wish you all this many happy years!"
New manicures and last minute inking projects don’t mix well
fairies, family
I am almost ready for my trip. This evening was spent ruining the manicure I treated myself to this afternoon. By the way, walnut ink doesn’t look very good on newly manicured nails.
I used Glimmer Mist to spritz a turquoise gift bag for some glitz. Then, I took a piece of vintage stationery and made a gift tag to glue onto the front of it. It’s a good sized bag, and it will be full to the brim with these 100 plus, fantastic, handmade cards!
Then, I decided I needed some little gifties to take to my sisses and to my brothers-in-law.
We are all fairy fans, so I whipped up some bottle fairies. I’ve been wanting to make some for so long, and was glad to have an excuse to finally make a few.
And I knew I was going to miss being in my studio, so it was also good to have an excuse to hang out here for an hour or so.
Each one is tied up with vintage ribbon, a personalized tag, a gnome charm, and a guardian fairy note.
I chose the notes at random, rolled them up and tied them on, so they will be surprises to me too.
I just hope the glue is set enough for them to travel well. Maybe I shouldn’t have waited till the last minute….
Like packing. I still have laundry to do! I’d better get to it! Edit- I just learned the hard way that if you are packing things that have glitter on them, don’t do it on your bed, unless you have plently of time allotted for changing the linens! Or unless you don’t mind sleeping in glass.
Remember, you can leave a comment to be entered into the June Garage Sailing Giveaway Prize Pack.
I’ll announce prizes for that and for the gifts for my card donators when I get back.
I will reprint the guardian fairy list that Beth and I came up with, in case you didn’t see it before and had no idea what I was talking about when I said I was tying one to each bottle:
· “Pinkie Sugar Fly” will guard your windows from bugs flying in through tears in the screens
· “Kitty Flitter Flower” watches over you during cat naps to bring you sweet dreams
· “Tootsie Twinkle Tulip” is always ready to touch up your toe nail polish before you even notice it was chipped.
· “Blue Bird Buttercup” sprinkles cookie crumbs for a trail to lead the blue bird of happiness to your door
· “May Belle Lina” watches out for smudged mascara under your eyes.
· “Flossy Flutterby” picks spinach or other goobers out of your teeth after meals.
· “Pearly Pear” keeps an eye out for an earring that is about to slip off your ear, then tucks it back before it drops.
· “Splenderina” This sparkling little yellow fairy touches your coffee with her magic wand to make it sweet and tasty without any calories
· “Sweet Pea Tee Pea” checks the bottom of your shoes for trailing toilet paper when you walk out of a public stall.
· “Blissa Expressa ” will speed you through the checkout stands at the grocery stores by magically opening up an extra cashier line for you to be first in.
· “Dee Essella Delight” always keeps your Internet connection fast.
· “Zippy Zooma Zella” will watch out for radar speed traps and whisper to your toes to lighten up on the gas pedal before you are caught speeding
“Spamicka Sparkle Sparrow” keeps al of the junk cleaned out of your email inbox and full of sweet messages from people you love to hear from instead.