LMac's Catered Crops

Tipsy Tuesday Clutter Control

There are just a gazillion tips out there for organizing your scrapbooking supplies. My daughter is an Oprah fan and put me onto this book, It's All Too Much. Peter Walsh is a Professional Organizer from TLC's series Clean Sweep and is apparently in Oprah's good graces. He approaches organization not so much from how to store the things you have, but how to not have so many things.

I'm just in the beginning pages and right in the introductory chapter he rags on the wife of his profile couple for having scrapbooking supplies all over the house, like that's a bad thing. But, he probably has a valid point. When you've collected so much scrapbooking stuff that you spend more time and money organizing it than playing with it and it actually gets in the way of making the memories you're supposed to be scrapbooking, it may be time to rethink. So, I'll let you know if I have any big revelations with this book.

So far, here's one of Peter's recommendations that's kind of intriguing. He's talking about kitchen utensils, but I wonder how I might apply this to my Scrapbooking supplies: If you want to see what utensils you're really using, Peter recommends the cardboard box test. "Take all the utensils out of your drawers, put them in a cardboard box," he says. "For the next month, whenever you use one of these utensils, put it back in the drawer. If after four weeks it's still in the box, you don't need it."

Then what . . . how to get rid of unused/unneeded supplies guilt free? Donate. Here's some suggestions: I give mine to the Heart of Texas charity crops for silent auctions but you can also give to Girl Scout Troops, Nursing Homes, Ronald McDonald House, and hospitals. Women with problem pregnancies are often in hospitals for months with so little entertainment. The web site www.operationscrapbook.org helps gets donated items to Foster Children and Hospice patients. Dang, that feels good.

Okay . . . confession time. I've shown you lovely pictures of my scrapbooking space, but spared you the chaos. Here it is now. We'll see if it changes after reading Peter's books. You'll be my witnesses.

So here's my Tuesday Tip: join me in my quest to declutter. Pick up Peter's book and lets go on this journey together. If you have some suggestions for decluttering, please, leave me a comment. Or, if you're a self-confessed hoarder, leave me a comment, too. We'll form an AA-like group - Clutter Junkies Unite! Let me know if you'd like me to pass along Peter's jewels of wisdom.

Meanwhile, I'm thinking that buying a book about organization ought to at least count as some credit toward cleaning out my garage. Oh . . . if only thinking about it could make it happen.

Okay, off to scrap . . .

Lin

For the Captain

I rarely post twice in one day because I just don't want to be a pest. But, my adorable sister just sent me this poem she wrote her very own self just last night. First, a little background.

Dad was home from college on his 19th birthday when news on the radio announced we'd been attacked by Japan at Pearl Harbor. His home, Owen County, had just lowered the draft age to 19 and he was the first of two to be drafted at the new age requirements. He graduated from Officer Candidates school at the tender age of 21. The Army awarded Captain Clyde Black a Bronze Star for his service during World War II in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and Oahu, Hawaii.

When Dad retired from active duty he returned to Indiana State University Teacher's College in Terre Haute. Mom always said he was very handsome and quite popular. He seemed to have an air about him that said he was in control of situations, and he was quickly endeared about campus as "The Captain." He retired from the Army Reserves as a Lieutenant Colonel, but Mom always remembered how he won her heart as The Captain.

Can you tell, does it show? I am so very proud of my Dad. For me, Memorial Day will always be about The Captain. If you have someone who has served in the military and you have a blog or website, I hope you'll help us put the names and faces to the men and women who have served. If you do, please put a comment here so we can find your dedication.

My adorable sister says, this poem captures what Memorial Day means to her.

Memorial Day

A Day to Remember

By: Sharon Murray

Memorial Day is here, so what first comes to mind?

My bank is closed; a day off work and mail will be behind.

 

Here in Indiana we cherish our 500 race,

And have hopes that this year’s winner will have a female face.

 

At church things go as usual, not much difference from the rest.

Except for a message to the children, that soldier’s gave their best.

 

I then head towards the cemetery, where my parents now rest in peace.

My heart is touched as I reach the entrance,

Full size flags adorn the streets.

 

People gather round their loved ones.  Their hearts are empty still.

A longing to be with that name, that a rock in their place can’t fill.

 

At a cemetery called Arlington, the head stones multiply.

For war continues to rob our land

Of young men and women who have died.

 

History seems to repeat itself, time and time again.

As war continues to take the lives for freedom we hope to win.

 

Memorial Day is here and let us not forget,

That this day was made especially to remember

the service of our Vets.

 

Protecting us from harm is what was meant to be.

We might not agree with our leaders, but I hope that all will see…

That Memorial Day is here for a reason,

Sacrifice has been made for you and me.

All with the hopes of making

America, the Land of the Free.

You Take the Cake

Remember this cake from the May Stampin' Success magazine for demonstrators? If you get my monthly newsletter you've already seen it and the instructions to make it. If you didn't get my newsletter, just enter your e-mail in the space to the left that says "Get LMac's Monthly Ink-spirations." You can click here to get the pattern for the three sizes of cake boxes that collectively make up this cake.

Our friend, E, is getting married next Summer and says she'd like to make this cake with her wedding colors of Tiffany Blue and Brown. I can't resisit chocolate cake! So, today, I had such a great time working up a "prototype." Roses in Winter is such a versatile stamp set and there are so many fun things you can do with the cake idea. So . . . here's what I came up with.

So, E, if you're up to the challenge, here's my cake recipe.

To make the chocolate cake piece, I fed the I printed Chocolate Chip cardstock into my printer and print the cake pattern right on the cardstock, cut it out by hand (not hard since it's mostly straight lines), scored it, and stamped the smallest Roses in Winter (RIW) flower image with VersaMark ink and heat embossed it with Detail Clear Embossing Powder. I used sticky strips for a stronger hold to keep the box together. You can still open the end of it, though, to put in and take out treats.

The blue rose image uses the Paper Tole Flower Technique by Linda Duke, found here. I stamped the rose onto Vanilla cardstock using Bordering Blue ink. I also did a little of the Rock & Roll technique using Night of Navy Ink and spritzed the stamp with water to soften the image before I put stamp to paper. I also did some final touch up with art sponges. I put a little Dazzling Diamonds glitter on the rose with the two-way glue and placed K & Company adhesive pearls in the rose center. The leaves use Mellow Moss ink on Mellow Moss paper, again with a little glitter. I used a lot of glitter to try to get the sugar icing look.

The Coluzzle circle cutter helped shape the half-circle Vanilla piece. It then went into a Cuttlebug embossing folder to get the swirly design, and got some Dazzling Diamonds glitter with the two-way glue. The flower image is adhered to the vanilla scallop and the scallop just slides into the top of the cake piece and can be easily removed to open the box. I hope when all 32 cake pieces are assembled the vanilla scallop pieces will look like touches of icing along the cake's edge.

In summary, here's all the cake recipe ingredients:

• Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Mellow Moss, Vanilla
• Ink: Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Mellow Moss, Versamark
• Stamp Set: Roses in Winter (sadly, retiring June 30)
• Adhesive: Sticky Strips for the boxes, Poppin' Dimensionals for the roses, Two-way Glue for glitter
• Tools: Cuttlebug embossing folder, scoring tool, heat embossing gun, Coluzzle circle cutter, detail scissors (snip-its), art sponges, fine spritzer water bottle
• Accessories: Detail Clear Embossing Powder, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, K&Company adhesive pearls

Now my girl E gets to figure out what suprises to put in the cake. I hope she has as much fun with it as I did. Happy baking!

Just Chickin' In on Crip

My husband has a dear co-worker who broke her leg at the company picnic. Apparently she's an overachiever not just at her desk but also on the kickball field because she broke both her tibia and fibula. I can't even imagine how painful that must be. So . . . this card is for her. E, if you've somehow mustered the strength to get on line . . . don't peak. (Or, at least take another pain pill so you won't remember.)

This was such a fun and easy card to make. Can you see the bow on the chicken's leg - my little chicken leg bandage for E? This card is a knock-off of Onita VC's card here. I used the Stampin' Up! crimper tool on Whisper White paper and then made one swipe of the Chocolate Chip ink pad over it. With the Close to My Heart* metal hinges I hope you get the feeling of opening a chicken coop just outside a barn. Other than the brown checkered ribbon, everything else is Stampin' Up!:

• Stamps - Dotted, Best of Cluck (sadly, about to be retired)
• Paper - Rose Red, White, Chocolate Chip, Kraft
• Ink - Chocolate Chip, Rose Red, Creamy Carmel
• Accessories - Crimper tool, white gel pen, magic mesh (natural), stipple brush

E - It's gotta be hard being cooped up with a bad leg - hope you're up and crowing soon!

*Close to My Heart (CTMH) is such a great companion to Stampin' Up!, at least in my humble opinion. They have lovely papers and adorable acrylic stamp sets. It feels like they're in cahoots with Stampin' Up! because there's not much redundancy. CTMH has acrylic stamps and tools/accessories we don't carry while we have wood mounted stamps and a lot of things they don't carry. I met this lovely CTMH demonstrator, Bluett Madera, at a Heart of Texas Charity Crop. If you want more information on CTMH, her web site is here. 

Ode to a Stamper's Man

Hey all. I promise I'm working on some cards to post later.

Meanwhile, my guy and I are just 17 days away from celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary. Think we'll make it? Yes, be forewarned, there will no doubt be some gushy posts in your future because I still feel so honored that he somehow (after many weeks of my flirting with him) choose me to keep him company.

I just ran across this poem again. I've seen it several times, and it's so adorable, I've been looking for an excuse to share it. Yes, as I type, the laundry is not done, dust and dog hairs are everywhere . . . and my Tom  wonderfully indulges my pastime.

So, in honor of the man who graciously puts up with all this, here's . . .

Ode to My Wife
By Author Unknown.

She learned to stamp on Monday
Her embossing was quite fine.
She forgot to set out dinner,
So we went out to dine.

She brayered backgrounds Tuesday
She says they are a must.
They really were quite lovely
But she forgot to dust.

On Wednesday it was birthday cards
She says that chalking's fun.
Shading, blending and watercoloring --
But the laundry wasn't done.

Her card swap was on Thursday
Using green and blue and red;
I guess she really was engrossed,
She never made the bed!

It was shaker cards on Friday
Using techniques she just adores,
But she never seemed to notice
The crumbs on all the floors.

I found a maid on Saturday!
My week is now complete
My wife can stamp the hours away;
The house will still be neat.

Well, it's already Sunday,
And my forehead's feeling damp.
I cursed, I raved, and I ranted -- 
The MAID has learned to stamp!

Wow, The Governor Agrees

Wow, I guess Governor Rick Perry read my blog this morning because check this out.

Governor Rick Perry has proclaimed May as Older Texans Month and encourages working together to improve the lives of our older citizens, their families and caregivers and striving to ensure that all Americans have the opportunity to make the choices they desire to enjoy a healthy and rewarding future. Shew, that's a mouthful.

Really, honestly, I had no idea that was about to happen. Am I clairvoyant or what? Well, that calls for another one of Dad's jokes.

A man went to his doctor and said: "Doctor, I have this awful pain in my right ear and I can't hear a thing out of it."

Doctor: "Let me take a look. My Lord. No wonder you have pain and you can't hear. You have a suppository in your ear."

Man: "Oh! Thank you doctor! Now I know where I lost my hearing aid."

Tipsy Tuesday Soup

Yikes, gotta hurry or Tipsy Tuesday is going to be Wayward Wednesday . . .

You know what? My Tipsy Tuesdays are like the old Hobo Stew that my boy's third grade Sunday School teacher, Mrs. Sides, used to make. She'd have all the boys and girls bring a can of soup and she'd dump them all in a pot, whether it was chicken noodle or split pea. Out came some delicious if not somehwat unpredictable grub. I guess my tips are as unpredictable. You never know what I'm going to serve, but hopefully it's still delicious.

I got a chance to call Bingo this past weekend at Merrill Gardens, the Assisted Living facility that took such good care of my Mom. The staff and the residents there have been such dear friends to me. When I'd see Mom each day, those lovely folks really were my social circle, or, as I liked to call them, my peeps. Every time I come they still treat me as if I'm the sunshine that just brightens their day and yet they brighten my spirits so much more than I imagine I brighten theirs.

It reminded me of something my Dad used to say. (We're long over due for one of Dad's old jokes.) With a big ole' grin on his face, my Dad used to say: "Remember, old folks are worth a fortune, with silver in their hair, gold in their teeth, stones in their kidneys, lead in their feet, and gas in their stomachs." Then we'd have a riotous laugh, not so much because the joke was so funny, but because it was so much fun to watch him enjoy the telling of it.

My new job is making my blogging activity spotty at best, but I'm loving that it lets me be a nurse advocate for the elderly.  I love even more playing Bingo with my peeps. So here's my invaluable Tuesday tip . . . even if it means accosting a stranger on the street, find an elderly person to hug this week. It will make your week.

Congratulations Little Chickie

Happy Saturday. Just for giggles and grins, here's a card I made almost a year ago at a camp held by my upline, Melissa Smith. The only credit I can take for it is assembly because Melissa does such a lovely job of designing and preparing the cards for her camps. A dear friend just had her first grandchild, so off this card went. The only thing more fun than making a cute card like this is giving it to someone as dear as our friend Peggy.

After I took this picture I realized it was kind of silly to leave those stamp pads in the background because the only thing stamped on this card is the sentiment. Punches provided all the elements of the paper-pieced chick.

Yes, I love, love punches. I'm so nervous about the new catalog coming out in July. I'm going to have to sell blood plasma or be a guinea pig for medical research for all the new punches I'm going to want to buy. Speaking of the new catalog, I found this littler ticker below. I've never used a ticker before, so we'll see how this works.

Tomorrow some friends and I are going to check out the Crop Mania at the new Archivers store in Cedar Park. If you're in the area, come say hi, or here's the link to Archivers to maybe sign up for the crop with us: Archivers. Hopefully I'll have some things to post from the crop later.

Happy weekend, chickies!

Caribbean Butterflies

I just can't seem to get out of the habit of staying up too late, which is not good given that I've switched from at 3:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. staff nurse position to an 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. desk job (nurse reviewer). So, I'm keeping this brief and hoping to still hit the pillow before too long. I just wanted to share with you this beautiful but easy card we made at this past weekend's stamp club meeting.

If CASE'ing (Copy And Share Everything) were against the law I would definitely be serving a life sentence.This card is a CASE from the very, very talented and hard working Dawn Griffith. I came across it from Michelle Laycock's blog, Ink Artist. Michelle is, well, blogging genius, and the driving force behind Splitcoast Bloggers. So, please visit these ladies and tell them Linda sent you.

Our stamp club was bidding the color Cool Caribbean good by as well as the Natural Beauty stamp set. After we stamped the butterfly image on vellum with Black Staz-on, we turned the vellum over and dry-embossed the butterfly image (just traced the image with our stylus). We then used the blender pens dipped in the Cool Caribbean re-inker to color the back side of the vellum. The rest of the recipe is just white craft ink on black cardstock, silver eyelets, and the long notes in the Spring mini catalog. It's a very elegant card, but easy to put together.

Well . . . have you seen it . . . the preview brochure of the Fall/Winter catalog? Oh my, I was nervous about it coming out because I knew I would want everything. Well, seems I was justified. I love all of it. If you want to see it, you can click here to download it.

Download fallwinterpreview_07.pdf (2469.8K)

But, of course, unless you're a demonstrator, you won't be able to purchase from it until July 1, so you may not want to look yet . . . 

Stampin' Up! made quite a few announcements this past week. There's a lot going on in June and July with the Spring mini, retiring stamp sets, new Fall/Winter catalog, additional 20% discount for demonstrators in June, 5% price increases with the new catalog, "Share What You Love" promotion, Palette o' Prints promotion . . . With the big convention in Denver in June, too, I'm sure there will be lots of new buzz there. Gracious. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to write me. It's going to be an exciting summer!

Okay . . . off to bed.

I'm Wired and Tipsy - Oh My

As promised, we're tipsy on Wednesday this week instead of Tuesday, and we're going to figure out how to make our own jump rings. Beaders and jewelers out there know that jump rings help attach their pendants and charms to their chains. Paper crafters as industrious as us use jump rings to attach charms to ribbons, tags, just anything that will stay in place long enough to cooperate.

For this little card embellishment I created a charm by stamping the "happy" in the Polka Dots & Paisley stamp set on polyshrink using Staz-On ink. I punched it out with the key tag punch and used a 1/4" hole punch for the jump ring to go through. (Remember the hole will shrink too, so you have to make it at least 1/4" big.) I attached the charm to the jump ring and slid the ring through a heidi grace decorative pin, which I then attached to the soft subtle button and Sweet Shop stitched grosgrain ribbon.

So . . . now you're at the edge of your seat wondering how you can make these rings, huh? Okay, no more suspense . . . here goes. But, please don't use this technique for jewelry because it's really not the "proper way," it's just a fast and easy way to pull one out of your hat in a crunch. For more information about how a silver smith might advise you, click here. 

Okay, gather your supplies which will be your needle nose pliers from your Stampin' Up! tool kit, craft scissors, a set of flat-nose pliers, and wire. Stampin' Up! wire works are great because you can choose from four metals (pewter, brass, silver, and copper) and three sizes (20, 22 and 26 gauge). Remember, the larger the gauge number the skinnier the wire. I used 22 gauge and it worked well.

First, hold the end of the wire up against one tip of the needle nose pliers with one hand and wrap the wire around the "nose" of the needle nose pliers with the other hand. You can use the flat-nose pliers to tightly pull the wire as your wrap. The closer to the end of the tip you wrap the wire, the smaller your ring will be; and the closer to the handle you wrap the wire, the bigger your ring will be. Try to wrap the wire very tightly and close together so your rings will be approximately the same size. Except for the first and last wrap, each wrap rotation will equate to a jump ring. So, the amount of rings you need will determine the number of times you need to wrap the wire.

You should have something that likes like this.

Now gently remove the wire from the pliers so it looks like this below.

Slide your coil of wire you created onto your craft scissors and cut the entire coil. Be very, very careful because the wires can fly across the room (or across your face). Be sure to point the scissors down.

And, now, you have  . . . wahlah . . . custom jump rings. Was that easy or what!?

Our stamp club meeting last Saturday was in honor of Stampin' Up! retirees. Here's the rest of the card my stamp club and I made with our charm/jump ring embellishment to bid the color Cool Caribbean adieu as well as the Polka Dot and Paisley ensemble.

This card was inspired (okay, out right copied) by Debbie Olson's beautiful card she posted in February in her blog, Thinking Inking, and it involves a creative fold called a joy fold. You can find the instructions for that fold here. It's kind of hard to see, but here are a couple of pictures to illustrate how the card opens. The button holds the top part of the card in place.

So, now we can enjoy being tipsy and wired together. I hope this sparked some ideas for you.

As a postscript, somehow my "Stamping Top 50" link stopped working and I had to recreate it. Ah me, I dropped from 120 to 270 something. That's okay, right? It's not a competition. Well, okay, maybe it's just a little competition and I changed from hare back to tortoise. I also started played a little with the subscription feed system for you guys, hoping to make it easier for you. If I created any hiccups for you please just e-mail directly at [email protected]. Thanks for your patience, I'm trying to pretend that I'm a technical wiz, and you may be paying for it. Well . . . happy wired Wednesday!