LMac's Catered Crops

Where Do Snowmen Come From?

Where to snowmen come from? Well, from seeds, of course, everyone knows that! And, more importantly, they come exclusively from D.V. Burrell Seed Grower's Co. of Rocky Ford, Colorado.

Okay, back tracking just a little . . . We traveled back to Rocky Ford, Colorado, this summer to take my father-in-law to his resting place, nestled in the shadows of the Rocky Mountains, and just over the hill from his parent's old homestead. He was home, resting peacefully with his wife. While we were in sleepy Manzanola and Rocky Ford for a sad occasion, we were very happy to have the chance to spend time in my father-in-law's childhood home and visit with his sister and her family.

Bill and Shirley Burrell have been the long-time proprietors of the 105 year old D.V. Burrell Seed Company, owned by their family for four generations. Bill Burrell just turned 80 this month, but, as you can see, he's still very much involved in his company.

Touring the store is just like a family scrapbook, with so much family history is every corner. Here's Uncle Bill showing my husband their wall of 105 annual catalogs.

What does the inside of a seed company look like - like lots of drawers of seeds!

Right in their backyard is their beautiful test garden. Wow, how incredible is it to step out into this every morning?

Okay, back to our card. (Thanks for indulging me this little family visit.)

When I came across these seed-packet templates from Katheryn over at Katydid Creations, I knew I had to try it. I changed her template to customize it for my Uncle and his family, and just resized it a little. I can't wait to try some of her other templates. She has incredible instructions that make these cards easy to make. 

I thought it would be such a treat to turn these into shaker boxes, too, so that there really are snowman seeds in the card. So, check it out . . . my very first shaker card. Can you see the seeds better in this picture?

For the rest of the recipe: I used the Punch Pals stamp set, Sky Blue designer series paper and textured paper, basic black card stock and black Stazon ink. I watercolored the snowman with sky blue, old olive, purely pomegranate, pretty in pink, and pumpkin ink using the aqua painters, and added a little hologram highlight snowflakes. The snowman seeds are Stampin' Up! microbeads. The bow is from a company that's no longer with us, called Shoebox trims, but, basically, it's just torn fabric. I used my Cricuit with the George font to make a 3" rectangle the Silhouette feature to get the frame of the shaker box. Beate Johns (may she live forever) created a tutorial on Splitcoast Stampers, here, for making the Shaker cards.   

I wanted to card to be as jovial as my uncle, but reminiscent of the rustic 105 seed company. It was a blast to make.

I Took the Pledge

How fun is this? I saw this on Sarah Moore's fantastic blog site and decided to join her. We've pledged to buy homemade this Christmas season and to request others to do the same for us. Just click on the pledge icon if you'd like to join us in this pledge to offer an alternative to the chain-store culture and global marketing.

My very sweet friend Solange Phillips is walking for the Susan G. Koman Race for a Cure. She's oh so close to reaching her pledge goal. Her walk is on the very day that would have been my Mom's 80th birthday, so it was an easy choice for me to pledge. I can't think of a better way to honor Mom's memory. Here's her pledge site if you'd like to help Solange inch just a little closer to her goal.

Solange Phillips - Koman Race for the Cure

Don't Sleep In

I got to eat some yummy Chinese food with some good scrappy friends yesterday. (Whaz up Frances?) My fortune cookie said "Tomorrow will be a productive day, don't sleep in." I about spit out my Moo Shu Pork laughing. Okay, I did get the point, though, that maybe it was time to update my blog.

I know. I know. It's not even Christmas yet and we're wishing a happy New Year. But, isn't this gorgeous? My ever-so-talented Stampin' Up! sponsor/upline, Melissa Smith, created this card. Like many cards, the picture doesn't do it justice because you can't see all the pretty glitter in her snow image. Check this out, though . . .

Kewl, huh?! It's a window card! Almost as pretty on the inside as the outside. And, with the square punches, you could crank out a ton of these for a lovely New Years party invitation. Melissa used the Purely Pomegranate designer series paper, cardstock and ink. Easy breezy.

Happy Sunday, everyone.

For My Aunt Naomi

I had such a blast at my favorite scrapbook store this weekend. Scrapbook Fever gave us a fabulous day of classes, and I got to make my first teabag fold card.

Okay, I know, it's a little spooky, but I'm lovin' this card because that teabag fold think is amazing. I feel like I'd be giving away my store's trade secrets if I share too much about this card, but I'm sure they'll teach this class again. In fact, on October 20th they're teaching it with a Christmas twist. Yep, I'm totally there.

I did just a little Google search on tea bag folding and found tons of information. According to the site, www.teabagfolding.circleofcrafters.com, it's also known as kaleidoscope folding or miniature kaleidoscope origami. The story goes that one day a woman in Holland named Tiny van der Plaas was sitting at her table, worrying that she'd forgotten to pick up a birthday card for her sister. So Tiny began folding her fruit tea bag envelope. This gave her an idea and, also, gave birth to tea bag folding.

I just learned that one of my very favorite Aunt's, my mother's sister-in-law, is gravely ill. So, I grabbed some paper at the store I thought she might like. Aunt Naomi is an incredible woman. She was a naturalist long before it is a hip thing to be, and she can listen to any bird song and tell you what bird it is. Among a family of strong Irish/German personalities, she was always the voice of reason. So, for Aunt Naomi . . .

Thinkin' Pink: I miss my Mom a lot, but, truthfully, we never talked about really girlie things. I mean, when it came for "the talk," her heart was in it, but she just couldn't do it. So, she handed my adorable sister and me some pamphlets she'd collected. You can imagine, then, that Mom never showed me how do a proper breast self exam, and, since her Mom never shared girlie things with her, I imagine she probably didn't know herself. Pamphlets really just didn't do the trick (especially back in the 60's, where their idea of how to please your man was a good pot roast). I was really excited, then, when I found this video on the Susan G. Koman site. http://cms.komen.org/bse/. Even though I've been a nurse in the women's health field, I learned a lot by watching. It is the absolute best resource I've ever seen about breast self exams.

Click for Pink

I'm not a marathoner (anyone who knows me knows I wouldn't raise much money running). But, I can click away like nobody's business. Join me in a little finger exercise by clicking at the The Breast Cancer Site. Because corporate sponsors and advertisers use the number of daily visits to donate mammograms in exchange for advertising, each click brings the site closer to providing a free mammogram to an underprivileged woman.

The Breast Cancer site has funded free mammograms for more than 16,000 women in need since they began in 2000. Here's the web site! Click Here to Give.

There are some really exciting things emerging for women's health that include digital (more comfortable) mammograms and genetic testing to help understand how your family's history might impact your risk for breast cancer. I promise, I'm walking my talk, I even scheduled my long-overdue annual exam this week. From the Susan G. Komen for the Cure:

Susan G. Koman for the Cure recommends a 3-step approach to breast cancer screening that includes, depending upon a woman’s age, a combination of mammography, clinical breast exams and breast self-exams.

• Mammograms every year starting at age 40.
• Clinical breast exams by a health care provider at least every 3 years starting at age 20, and every year after 40.
• Breast self-exams every month starting by age 20.

Women under 40 with a family history of breast cancer or other concerns should talk with a health care provider. Screening tests may be needed more often and/or started earlier. As part of a total approach to breast health, it is also important that women become familiar with their own bodies, play an active role in their own health and develop a close partnership with their health care providers.

The look on my web site is kind of obnoxious, isn't it. Well, it's just for a month. For more information about breast cancer detection, click here - You can't get me, I know where you are. And, I promise, I'll put my nursing hat aside and give you some pix from the terrific projects we made at Scrapbook Fever yesterday during World Card Making Day. Stay tuned.

I'm Going Pink

I learned something this week at the Texas Women's Conference that, well, made me want to learn more. I learned the older you are, the greater your risk is for breast cancer. I don't know why, but that surprised me. But, then, again, I don't know why that surprised me given that we lost two parents to cancer this year.

So, I did a little more digging and learned that after the age of 70, 1 in 8 women gets breast cancer. Wow! Well, that does it. I am most definitely going Pink in October as both a commitment to myself to learn more, and a commitment to you to share what I learn.

Oh, yes, and I changed the colors on my blog in honor of going pink in October for breast cancer awareness. If you have a blog or website and would like to join me, you can go to this website: Pink for October.

I found so much more information than I can digest in one sitting at the Susan G. Koman foundation web site here: One Promise, Two Sisters. And here's what I learned about the risks that increase with age.

To learn more about the risks of breast cancer, click here - You can't get me - I know the facts!

So girls, let's make sure our mothers know how much we love them. Share these facts with them, and take good care of yourselves.

We are mighty, hear us roar.
We can fight this beast, we know the score!

On a Happy Trail

Happy Trails to All of You. I'm aspiring to making a cowboy Christmas card, but finding it a little challenging. That Boho West collection just begs to be a Texas Happy Yule Ya'll card. (If you've tried it, be sure and leave me a note.) I thought I'd just warm up a little by CASE-ing one of Beate Johns' beautiful creations.

 

If you don't know Beate's work, well, honey, let me tell you . . . She is a wealth of talent and know how. Click here for Beate's card; she gives very detailed instructions on how she did the beautiful shading with Creamy Caramel, Really Rust and Chocolate chip. I don't think I've used so many colors to sponge the edges before, and I really like the result. I also loved the way she use the Paisley form from the Wanted. She used it in Creamy Caramel on the main piece, stamping it off once and then again over the image.  (You'll probably have to click on my card and enlarge it to see this detail.)

On this card, Beate stamped the cowboy in Really Rust ink onto Really Rust paper for just a gentle touch. I added the Linen background stamp to distress it just a little more. I think it makes it look like old-timey wall paper and takes me back to my Aunt's kitching in Indiana.

I found some great pre-printed twill tape and just had to find a way to add it, and those big new grommets beg to be used with the Boho West line, so here's the inside of my card.

These will be my swap cards for the upcoming celebration of World Card Making Day at Scrapbook Fever in Round Rock. If you're in the Austin/Round Rock area, come join us.

Blog Friends

I am so honored to be nominated as a best blog friend by the very talented Nancy Riley, all the way in Phoenix. Nancy has incredible projects you won't want to miss at iSTAMP. She just did a really fun Halloween project using fruit cups. You gotta go see it.

You know, I just blog for fun, but how fun is it that I get to make friends all over tarnation by doing it! Well, you know, anything this fun has to be shared. I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, but these very talented ladies are probably the folks I stay in touch with the most.

My adorable sister has a new blog. It's not craft related, but it is very inspirational: Roll Call Ministries.

Catherine Harwood has a really fun Halloween projects at her site, 321 Stamp! But, then, she always has some fun going on there.

Chris Twing is a busy Mom here in central Texas, but, I'm telling you, that doesn't stop her a bit. Her projects are totally amazing. I love that she's close enough that I get to see some of her beautiful work in person from time to time. Go check her blog out at For Love of Paper.

Want to feel like a world traveler? Check out Erre's blog at non ho ancora trovato il titolo per il blog..e' grave? (I have no idea what I just said. I hope it wasn't dirty.)

Thanks, Nancy, that was fun.