I won!!! I won!!!! In the Sweet and Sinister Swap by ArtsyMama

I won the first give away on ArtsyMama's Sweet and Sinister Halloween Swap! I won 5 pieces of vintage crepe paper in each of the following colors: autumn gold, black, orange, Halloween images and stone wall. These are all old and in good condition. Also included was a piece of Black Ribbon. I can't wait to use them in a Halloween project.

This was one of the first give-aways for her Sweet and Sinister Swap and The Sweet and Sinister Blog. Her swap filled so quickly she decided to open a Blog so one's that didn't want to do the swap could still do the Halloween projects. At the time of this give away I was on the Blog site, doing the projects and then was lucky enough to get a swap partner, and I am very EXCITED. I have a wonderful partner, We have several of the same interest, just like it was meant for Sherri and I to be together. There was 3 winner's from The Blog and from The Swap!

Kari, thanks for these great blogs. We are having a wonderful time. And THANK YOU for the wonderful Vintage Crepe Paper!

Thanks for stopping by,

Debxx

My little guy turned 19 yesterday. Just seems like it was yesterday that I was in the hospital holding him. I can't believe the years have gone by so fast. He has graduated from High School this year, has a great job, and is going to go to college soon. Wow, its all so hard to believe.

On our 7 Anniversary I was in the hospital having Caleb. What a wonderful anniversary present he was. The good Lord blessed me with 2 wonderful boys. I am so proud and honored to be their Mom.

So last night we went to Applebee's had a wonderful dinner and of course had to have the waiters and waitress' sing to my "baby" for his birthday.

I don't know if I want to know what he was thinking at that moment. I know I will pay for it later...he always has a way of getting even....such a cutie...

My husband Chuck and I, we celebrated our 26th wedding anniversary yesterday also. I have some handsome men in my life.

Thanks for stopping by.

Debxx

Scrapbooking and Craving Ham and Beans

The past two days (Thursday and Friday) have been a blast. I spent them with my nieces and we scrap booked till 9:30pm on Thursday. I loaded my goodies into my Jeep then headed to Mom's. Mom and I set and had coffee and talked a while. Then on Friday the girls came over to my house and scrap booked for about 3 hours. They are going to come back soon. (And I didn't think to get a picture one from Friday while they were here.) ;(

I decided it would be A LOT EASIER if they came to my house from now on. Whew, just didn't know for sure what to take. So I took almost everything.....not really, I have a room dedicated for my crafts.

This is my sweet niece Corissa. I went over to scrapbook with her and give her some pointers. We had a blast, laughing, throwing comments back and forth at each other. Constantly, reminding her that journaling is VERY IMPORTANT, and embellishing the Heck out of her pages. Corissa did really good . She had made about 8 pages that day I believe.

Later in the morning my sweet niece Helen joined us. She had never really scrap booked either. So I got her started on 12 X 12 sheets and I am going to get her a scrapbook for her birthday. She did really good, made about 6 pages after she got to rolling. We had pictures taken of us working on our scrapbooks, but I didn't get pictures of our Layouts, I am sorry I will have to get some and post pictures later.

I know you are wondering what "Craving Ham and Beans" has to do with Scrap booking!?! Well Thursday my son Caleb text me and told me to get ahold of my Mom - his Grandma. And tell her that he was hungry for Ham and Beans. You haven't had Ham and Beans until you have had My MOM'S. They are wonderful I am telling you..And her cornbread is to die for....oh my did we eat well for supper that night.

Well Grandma couldn't make them on Thursday, so he had to wait till Friday. But by watching him eat, I believe they were worth waiting for. YUM YUM Mom, you did wonderful again. We Love you...Thank You!!!!

Have a wonerful weekend dear friends!

Love,

Deb

Cupcake Swap goodies

What a surprise when I came home today and found a box sitting on my front porch. Actually I had 2 boxes, the one was some sewing, embroidery, and crocheting books...The books were nice and exciting but nothing like the 2nd box.

The 2nd box contained my gift from my Cupcake Swap Partner, Heidi, over on her blog, Foxgloves,Fabric and Folly. She has a beautiful blog, with incredible artwork.

Sent sent me beautifully wrapped goodies. Each prize was wrapped so beautifully.

I received a Cupcake book, a Cupcake, tags, die cuts and ribbons, and some beautiful flowers on my ribbons. Also enclosed was a beautiful card and envelope.

Isn't my Cupcake just darling....I love the blue with the little "sprinkled" beads with a Cherry on top. So CUTE!!!!

The cute little tags even have cupcakes stamped on them....

There is 3 beautiful blue ribbons and some die cuts also. What a Bunch of wonderful exciting gifts. And a tag with my name on it...

Heidi, thank you again for such beautiful gifts. I dearly love them.

Hugs,

Debxx

day ten: Telling Tall Tales

For day 10 we were to "keep our readers guessing". We were to create a layout telling 8 truths and 1 lie about ourselves. I glued scraps of papers down the edge of one page, painted a border on both edges of the pages. I doodle painted over the borders. Glued a piece of material to the lower left edge of the left paper that I had pinked with my pinking shears. I drew my banner on painted and added the title into it. A picture of the girl was added, and a lot of her features were outlined in a darker color.

I painted doodles into any open spaces that I had. Now you are suppose to guess which are the truth, and which one is the lie...Good luck!!! Post which one you think is the lie, thanks.

I cannot get the photo link to open, so I will list the 8 Truths or 1 Lie here so that you can read them.

1. I love Gingham material. 2. Springtime is my favorite time of the year. 3. My family loves my home made biscuits. 4. I love vintage buttons and trims. Once I purchased 12 lbs. of buttons off of Ebay. 5. I enjoy long walks with my husband and our dogs - Hollie and Kylee. 6. I love living in our trailer. 7. I hate retro- shag carpet (especially gold) 8. I enjoy camping with the family. 9. I have a new Cricut Expression Machine.

I typed them like they were written into my journal. At least you won't have to read from page to page.

Thanks for stopping by, Have a wonderful weekend,

Debxx

16 Weeks Challenge

I have been doing a 16 weeks challenge over on Barb's Blog. I haven't posted any of them so I thought I had better start posting some so that she knew I had been doing them. Here is a bit about the Challenge:

16 Weeks Challenge
Starts Saturday, May 3rd., and ends Aug. 16th. One layout a week for 16 weeks. I will post a prompt each Saturday. To get in for the prizes, you must do a layout for each week.

Week 1 Prompt - Awake/Asleep

Awake Layout

For my Awake Layout I decided to use some of the beautiful Spring Flower pictures that I took this Spring. I had several to choose from. "I love the first signs of Spring, It gives us hope for a New Beginning." Just like our Lord always gives us. I am so thank for such a caring Savior.

Asleep Layout

For my Asleep layout, I also used pictures that showed the Earth asleep. No signs of life when these pictures were taken. We had an Ice Storm hit southern IL in March. My son and I were driving around and seen the sign in the middle of my layout. We live in "Kell, Illinois" and the storm hit in "March" and Kell and March were the names on the Road signs. SO I had to have a picture of them. =)

Week 2 Prompt - Likes/Dislikes

Likes Layout
For this prompt I picked some of my favorite things in life. I love spring flowers. Making beautiful cakes, especially Wedding cakes, A Fresh blanket of Snow, and my Mom's sense of humor...Yes my Mom's Christmas Tree is hanging from her ceiling...She is such a nut. I love you Mom. =)

Dislikes Layout

For the Dislikes layout, I used pictures and letter die cuts that I didn't like. I do not like it when my pictures turn out blurry, when the cakes I decorate turn out ugly, When I am stopped by trains when I think I am in a "hurry", and The ice storm that hit our area and blocked the roadway to my house, and destroyed many of the trees in our area.

Week 3 Prompt - Clean/Messy

Messy Layout

I wanted you to see the Messy Layout first, so you would appreciate my Clean Layout. My poor Scrapbook room was terrible till I finally got my shelves and organization. Everytime I would purchase new products they would lay on the table or my desk because I didn't know where to go with them. Or if I needed something that was in one of the 10 totes under the long table, it would get threw on the table. Frustration would set in, then it wouldnt get put up, and I couldn't scrap or do anything. So it was always a mess. Then one day I had it. I boxed everything up, set them outside of my room, told the hubby lets go, we went to the shed I got the shelves out of shed cleaned them up and that was the start of organizing my Scrapbook/Craft Room. YEAH!!

Clean Layout

This is my CLEAN Scrapbook room I am so proud of it. My desk stays so nice..well except when I am doing something. But now I can put the supplies up as soon as I am finished with them. They have a home..=) The first pic is of my desk, 2nd is my new Cricut Machine...so wonderful, and then one of the Shelves that I put in my room. I have organizers with drawers that helps alot with the organization. There is another set of shelves beside this one that I keep my sewing supplies on, yarn, material, crochet thread, and ribbons. I also have a cabinet with my sewing machine and supplies in the other corner. But couldn't get the pictures of the machine and the shelving unit on this layout.


Week 4 Prompt - Fire, Water, Earth, Wind (had to pick 2)


So I choose Water:


I picked beautiful pictures of people having Fun In the Sun at the beach. There isn't any thing prettier then the blue water against the sandy beach. So thats where my mind went when I seen the prompt for Water.

I also picked Fire:

These are some of the fireworks from our local 4th of July Celebration. The 4th of July is one of my favorite Holidays. Even as a kid I couldn't wait till the 4th of July to get here. The firecracker in the middle of the page is made from cardstock, yarn, and fibers.

Week 5 Prompt - City/Country
(I am really sorry about the scan on this one. I have tried different ways to scan it and it just will not turn out. I guess its because of the light paper that I used to scrap on.)

For the City Prompt I have pictures of Motels, Tall Buildings, Villas, and heated indoor pools...then I commented, " Everything is way too close together. I need breathing space like in the ----->"

Country Prompt

Here I used a picture of my son at a Go-Cart Race in a friends pasture, my sisters dog swimming in the horses water, a long beautiful path that one can go for nice quiet walks, and of course the beautiful wild flowers that one can see on those walks. "Country - A lovely place to Live"

I hope the long post wasn't too bad, but I wanted to get these posted so Barb could see them. Thanks again for the challenge Barb. I have really enjoyed working in it, I will post some more soon, I want everyone recover from this long post first. =).

thanks for stopping by,

Debxx

day eight: windows to my world

I believe this project was one of my favorites. I loved everything that we done in our journal. Each project was new and exciting to me, so each adventure was a lot of fun.

This layout was decorated with scrap pieces of paper from my stash, journal boxes, flowers that I used "My New Cricut" to cut out flowers and leaves and brackets. The window is "plastic" from a package of new product that I had purchased. The "window" was cut into 2 pages, the plastic and window dividers were sandwiched between the pages.

I also drew lines across the page to make it appear as if there was "siding" on my "house". I put a window box and flowers with small jewel centers.

The 2nd layout of this project we were to decorate with journal boxes, grids and connect the pages together some how. So I made a large swirl that went from one side of my window to the other page.

I decorated the "room" with paper stash scraps of paper, painted the background. I made a curtain from a scrap piece of material, tied it back with twine. I used the space below the swirl as a journal box.

I have my little girl, who looks out the window and appears to be praying. I also journaled in the swirl underneath the little girl. I will journal as the summer goes when there are more memories to add.

Another wonderful project from Teresa McFayden for her Summer Journal E-Zine.

Have a wonderful Monday,

Debxx

day nine: distorted sketches

"Grab a pencil with your least dominant hand. I am left handed, so my pencil goes in my right hand. Now, look around you and find something in your immediate surroundings. Zero in on it with your one good eye. Squint...stare...study the lines and shapes.

"Fixate that squinty eye on the top left (or right) of the object. Draw it on your journal page. Slowly. Very slowly. Study those lines...where are they going? Slow down and study them and map them on the paper with your pencil. Here's the kicker: don't pick up that pencil. Ever. Well, pick up the pencil a couple times if you must (I did) but try your absolute darnedest not to look at your sketch while it's in process. For if you do, you will become stupefied and upset....enjoy this process and look forward to the end result. It will be quirky....you can bet your bottom dollar on that!

After you've given your sketch color, add some shading now. I used that ever popular charcoal pencil and mostly shaded the right edges of the sketch.

Let's move on to the other page now. Add a few snips of paper, or doodles and spritzes of color to pull things together. Company's coming for crying out loud...we gotta clean this mess up! I left room for journaling. Hope you do, too."

This was a lot of fun. I had never did anything like this. Was really pleased with the sketch, especially since I did it all with my left hand. I am right handed. Thanks Teresa.

Have a great day!!!

Love,

Debxx

day seven: title page and pretty post

Now that we are half way through our Summer Journals, it's time to create a title page. In this post we will be going backward and also forward a bit...but worry not, it's all good!

So now that our Summer Journals have a sense of style and personality about them, it's high time we move to the front of the journal and create a title page.

A title page serves as an introduction to the entire book. It gives the book definition and an introduction. It's typically clean and simple--lots of white space.

You create yours as you like. I chose to stay with that clean and simple notion. Some of the elements or techniques we have covered to date were incorporated into this title page. It helps us use those ideas again, and reinforce them a bit. It also can serve as a way to change them a bit, now that you've tried them once.

For this title page, I did the grid background and

built up from there. First a light pink wash of acrylic paint

was applied and then a grid was penciled in.

Next, I added a phrase: THIS IS THE BEGINNING OF A WONDERFUL STORY. This is one of my all time favorite titles.

I doodled a framed label, placed on the left page, with my

Initials inside of it Viola!

Close up!

Full View.

What a fun journal this has been!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Debxx

Pay It Forward

PIF, standing for Pay (or more recently Pass) It

Forward is based on the concept of the movie “Pay it

Forward.” Where acts or deeds of kindness are done

without expecting something in return, just passing it on,

with hope that the recipients of the acts of kindness

will do the same.

I want to say THANK YOU to NICKY over at The Altered Inker,

I received my PIF from her today. Now I have to honor my

word of Paying It Forward.

How it works:

If you haven't seen this in blogland before now,

it's simple.

1. Be Attentive: So the first three people to leave a comment

on the blog offering the PIF, stating their

intention to join the fun.

2. Do something nice for someone you do not know:

will get a gift which may be

something handmade or shop brought.. it's entirely up

to the blog owner.

3. Spread the word: In return, you agree to post

the "Pay It Forward" message on your blog.

4. Pay It Forward: Now you do the same for the first three

people who comment on your blog.

A really nice way to show "random acts of kindness."

So let's make some one's day.

Remember the first 3 people to comment on my blog

will receive a PIF from me.

New Pictures added - Post long overdue

Back in March I attended a Altered Art and Scrapbook Retreat. We stayed in a beautiful cabin near Pinkneville, Illinois.

At this Retreat we made art muses. I was recently reminded that my friend, Paula, hadn't seen my muse. So I will post now for all to see.

This is my Faith Muse.

I am sorry the pic is alittle dark, but I believe if you click on the picture it should open so you can see it better. Here's another picture of it.

We took foam board and cover with tissue paper and then scrapbook paper. After everything was covered to your liking, we embellished the muse. I choose to add different embellishments that represented my Religion to me. I love looking at her hanging above my desk.

Thanks for stopping by,

Debxx

What brings tears to your eyes?

Weekend Wandering, by David McMahon, over on his blog authorblog is wanting to know "What brings tears to your eyes?"
Please answer today's question on your own blog, any time until next weekend. Just link to this blog (or to this post) so I can follow the progress of the discussion.

The question is: What brings tears to your eyes?

1. If someone in my family is hurting.
2. Watching my son and his track team, them trying their hardest, the effort they put into their performance..I don't know why, but it just chokes me up at every meet. (they are a great team, 1st place in sectionals, and several went to state this year)
3. Weddings make me cry.
4. Onions
5. A good sermon at church.
6. Sad movies
7. Commentaries on TV about People or Animals being mistreated.
8. Families of disasters...seeing what they are enduring on TV, breaks my heart. I helped clean up after Katrina in New Orleans, and I still cannot talk about it...Was so terrible to see what everyone lost, they their whole life and throwing it to the curb for the trash companies to pitch it away. Losing their homes, cars, etc...was so devastating.

So post what tears you up, and link back to David's Blog.

Thanks for playing along.

Debxx

Deck Of Me cards

Thought I would go ahead and post the other two cards that I have completed for the Deck of Me ATC's.

"My Happy Place" (front) card was made form Basic Grey Mellow Series, Settle Down paper. With Making Memories Bubble letters. Distressed with Quick Quotes Mocha Momma Powder Puff.

"My Happy Place" card (back) was covered with the Mellow series, Equinox paper. I then used the die shapes for the boy, girl, and "dachshund" puppy from the Mellow Series. Aren't they just cute...I love them. I used embroidery floss for the leash that matched the pups collar. Which says. "our walks". I enjoy our walks and just spending some quality time with my husband and the our dogs.

Week 20 - Home is....... I used some scrap brown papers and papers from my stash to make my house. I took one of my stamps from my stamp craft "quilt" stamps - the windows are actually a quilt block, but I turned them upside down to make the curtains and window box, colored them, then drew and colored the flowers in the "window boxes". I drew flowers on both sides of the doors. The doors are closed in this picture. (front)

Same front view with the doors open, here I also used the "heart" stamp from the quilt series and stamped the heart inside of the door in red with my StazOn. (front)

"Home is....." (back). I stamped Home is Where with my snap together stamps. Used the same heart stamp from the front. Because that is the center of any home: is one's heart, love..without them it isn't much of a home. Then I just started writing things that I would use to call a house a home...family, memories, pictures, traditions, together, meals, pets, flowers, children, parents, love, happiness, family night movies, etc....many different things could be listed there. Background paper is from my stash. Distressed the edges.

Have a Blessed rest of the Weekend...I just wanna take the time also to THANK all who have made it possible for us to have our freedom.

God Bless,

Debxx