In a hurry & a tip for you!

Hi friends,  I am sorry to be absent so often.  I am in the middle of moving (long story, will explain at a later date). 

Here is a tip for you.

I hope this helps some of you...does it drive you nuts trying to keep up with sponges, daubers and which go with which inks. Well, I thought of a great solution. Long ago and far away, I used the Halo system (Velcro) for my unmounted stamps. This was before all the wonderful clear cling and my finally using the cling mount sheets.

The female part of the Velcro went on the stamp, but I always had a ton of the male part left, because you only needed a little bit on your block to attach your stamps with. I know someone out there knows what I am talking about. :) Anyway, I kept all of the male part and still have quite a bit of the female part. Now Ranger has the pads for sponging and there are the little daubers or dabbers as some call them. I have so many Ink pads that it was hard to keep track of these critters that I would use for a certain color. I noticed that each ink pad has a well on the bottom of them. Yup! They do! Go look...see it?

So here is what I did: I took the male part of the Velcro and put a piece of it on the back of my ink pads as I used them. When done using the pad, I removed it from the handle and attached it on the bottom of the ink pad that I used it on! Viola! Now for the daubers, some have finger holes, so I just stuck a little of the female part on the side and attached it to the side of the pad. I did this because the ink pads stack and the dauber would take up that space so that you could not stack them.

I have quite a few that don't have anything attached yet, but as I buy new pads, I will add them. I hope you like this idea. I know I love this one!

I have been honored by Nancy Waterman of Vampstampnews.com .  She is printing this tip on her next on-line article.  Anyway, thank you Nancy and thank you for coming to visit my blog.  Hopefully once settled from the move, I will be back to share some goodies with you.

Hugs Lori

Dragonfly

Hi friends, 
I told you I was going to try to be here more often!  Didn't believe me huh!  Well neither did I LOL!  I have taken a lot of photos in the past that were meant to be shared here, so I will be trying to get some of them out here.

The first ones I want to share is the Dragonfly I found just outside of my door a couple of  Springs ago.  (Yeah, I know!!)  I was just floored and luckily able to grab my camera before it flew away!

 

Isn't he a beauty!!!  I had never seen one this beautiful before and was so delighted when I found him sitting out there!  He seemed to sit there and model for me!  He stayed out there for a long time! 

If you have a good photo editing program, feel free to snag & use the photos in your projects, if you wish to.

Have a Happy Friday & a great weekend!

Hugs Lori

WOW! I did it again...same hop!

Guess What friends!  While e-mailing back & forth with Michelle to get my prize sent, she told me that another blogger from the same hope had posted my name as the winner on her blog.  I asked Michelle for the blog addy and went over there to see if it was me.  I wasn't going to assume that it was since I see so many others with the same moniker (name).  Anyway I boogied over there and clicked on my name and sure enough it was me.  Her blog candy is a mystery box, so I will have to wait and see the goodies I get.

Is that weird or what!  If Michelle didn't tell me that she saw my name, I would not have known that I won.  She told me I should go buy a lottery ticket!  LOL!

Gee! Does anyone have any kind of system on how to keep track of them.  I get tons of blog hops and while I don't do all of them, there can sometimes be up to 10 bloggers to comment on there posts.  If they all have blog candy, it would be hard to keep track of.  Any ideas!

Thank you all for your wonderful comments on my last post.  I love hearing from you and if you are just visiting I would love for you to come and follow me.

One more last thing.  I had a blogaversary in February...Oops!  I missed it!  However, I am hoping to post a rather large blog giveaway to celebrate anyway.  I will be working on it in the next few days and send out the details ASAP!

Thanks for stopping by!  Yall come back now! :))

WOYWW, I Won & Happy News

Hi Everyone,

I know, I know....I am so bad and should be here much more often.  Ya know there are many times when I say to myself, I need to blog this.....  Then I get side tracked and no blog post!  I am so sorry & really will try to do better.  That said, on with the good Stuff... :)  This is a long post and please forgive any blurriness in photos! (More on that another time).

I think I will do this backward from the title.  First the Happy news!  My Grandson Dylan is getting a baby bother for his birthday!!  Dylan will be 3 on May 7 and his baby brother is due to  see the world on May 8th!   Yay!!  Me Grandma for the 4th time!  2 beautiful Granddaughter and now 2 very handsome Grandsons!

The next yay is I won the goodies in this picture on Michelle's blog!  Yummy!  Love the Spellbinders and the baby dies are perfect for me right now!

 Thank you bunches Michelle!  I am so excited to play with these new goodies!

Now what you have been waiting for WOYWW.....My Mess!! :)
Well I tried to remove a couple of these pix, but blogger won't allow it for some reason.  This first one is very dark, but shows an overall picture....actually skip it.  Don't try to look at it.  Awful picture!  Lets scoot on down to the next one.

This one below is a better picture.  I told you it is a mess! Most of it is of new goodies received last week.  Next picture.....



 Here you can see my new Die D-Lites, Embossing Folders and that fabulous new ribbon from the Stamp Simply Ribbon Store.  On of them is a special Baby Boy ribbon.  Can you see it?  There are also some older EF there too for a project I am attempting to work on.  Hopefully I will be able to post on that as it comes along. 

See that wonderful Bling!  A whole box of 50 pieces arrived this week from Want2Scrap!  Woohoo!

 Here are 2 more pictures of the same area.  Hopefully you can get a good look from one of them.

 And here is my new Purple Cows Laminator from MyBinding.com It is so cute and came with a bunch of Pouches.  My old laminator bit the dust and missed it when I needed to laminate something.

 You can also see some Justrite stamps here, my trash can peeking out from under the desk and my pride & Joy!  The Shadow box frame has vintage Hat Pins in it and I attached them to a piece of Black Velvet to display them.  They normally sit on top of my 1906 antique sewing machine, but I brought them out to share when I show you the gorgeous hat pins next to them.  I got these from Christina at Card Making Magic.  Her link is in the left column here on the blog!  These pins are absolutely stunning.
I have had my hat pins for many years and collected hat pins long before they became popular.  I believe I got mine at an antique shop.  Anyway, back to Christine...this is one amazingly talented lady and shares all of her special projects, techniques and has a whole Library of written and video tutorials.  Now she has opened her own shop and sharing some of her wonderful creations with us, so go take in some Eye Candy if you have time.  (Not related, just in love with her talents).

 

Well now you have seen my big mess of fun goodies!  If you want to share your goodies or just see other bloggers fabulous desks and what they are up to, go visit Julia's blog to see more WOYWW.  Thank you Julia for all the fun you provide by doing this!

 

Thank you blog friends for stopping by.  I hope you are doing well and will see you soon.  Oh and will someone please find out where Spring is!  Not here, that's for sure!  Brrrrrr!

Good News on the Home front!!

Yay!  I don't know where she has been, but I just went out to check my mail and my sweet Lucy Twos was there waiting to be fed.  Did you know cats don't like to be squeezed!!  LOL!

I am so happy to see her.  She has never been gone for so long.  Now I will go call Mark at work and tell him she is home!

Hugs Lori

You will be missed Dear Friends.....

 

 

 

I have just learned of the passing of a dear friend, Joe Nathan.  I know some of you here know Joe, as he was a member of both The Best of House Mouse and StampersUnite.  I don't have all of the details, except that he had a stroke and was in hospice for a few weeks.  I knew Joe as an on line friend, most of my stamping career, close to 20 years.  He was a kind, sweet and very talented stamper and artist.  If you click on his name, it will take you directly to his website show casing his wonderful House Mouse art.

This goes along with the loss of another sweet furry friend, my Lucy Twos!

She has been missing for about 4 days now and it is not like her to be gone for even one day.   When I would go outside, she was always there and would follow me down to the mail box, roll over, get up on her hind legs to tell me she wanted me to pick her up and carry her.  We would snuggle and cuddle back up and she would load me with love & kisses.  Mark has searched for her everywhere and the sad news is that this is the time of year when other critters come looking for something to eat.  Our fear is that one of these critters may have taken her.  She was very good at staying close to home and up high so that nothing could get to her, but she was also getting old and her response time was a lot slower.

I am so sad at the loss of these 2 special friends.  At least one is in heaven with Jesus and I believe the other has crossed the Rainbow Bridge.

I am sorry for more sadness friends.  I truly wanted to post something more up beat and creative here.  Maybe tomorrow.

God Bless you & have a great weekend and don't hesitate to tell friends and loved ones how much you love & care about them, because you never know what tomorrow may bring.

Hugs Lori

Oh Snap!!!!

I did not mean to publish that last post!  ARG!  I wanted to save it as a draft and hit the publish button.  Well, as  you can see, the link goes right to my very first post on the blog!  More information later..........    :))   Hugs Lori

After Searching.....

Here

Surprise!! I am here!!

Hi Friends, 

I hope you are all doing well.  As for me, bet you wondered what was up with me!  Mostly health issues, but I won't go into details and bore you there!

I know one thing.....I am so sick of the cold weather and can't wait for Spring & Summer!  I am a California girl living in South Carolina!  You would think after 20 years, I would be used to the weather here, but NOT!

If you notice, I changed my blog template again.  Since St. Patricks day is up next, I thought it would be appropriate.  I want to change the template often according to upcoming Holidays or Occasions, to keep you from being bored.

Before I share a card that I made, I want to welcome and thank my newest follower for coming over to join me.  Christina is my newest follower and I am so happy she is here.  If you look down my left column, you will see her pretty blog button for Flowers, Ribbons and Pearls.  She is such a talented lady and loves to share her gorgeous projects and how she does all in lots of (free) videos and written tutorials.  And, the exciting part is that she has just opened her on line shop with some Tools made by her Film crew & very pretty items that she has made, (not telling you what, you must go look for yourself).  Note:  I am not related to or receiving any gratuities for this information.  Just loving and grateful for all of her fabulous works.

Now, it has been a while since I made any cards (just drooling over others cards), so please excuse the imperfections.  This card has 3 hours into it, only for the lack of trying to find things and decide what I wanted to do with it.  It was a Birthday Card for my dear Father-in-law. 

I started with Brown textured card stock from The Paper Studio for my card base.  The white panel is Neena white, cut with Spellbinders Card Creators A and designer paper is from Bo Bunny's Timepiece collection, cut with S/B Card Creator B, then cut in half.  the brown ribbon is Grosgrain that I had in my stash for ages.  The Mustache is S/B Dear Old Dad, designed by Becky Fleck of Page maps.  I mounted it with Glue dots after curling each end on a pencil to give the raised effect.  Dad by "My Sentiments Exactly" (don't know if they are still in business) is stamped and sponged with Memento Rich Cocoa and cut out with S/B Fancy Tags die.  The Birthday tag stamp & die at the bottom are from Whimsy Stamps .

Well that's it for now.  I hope you are having a wonderful weekend and may the good Lord shower you with many blessings.

Hugs Lori

HAPPY NEW YEAR...A New Beginning!

Hello dear blogging friends and a HAPPY NEW YEAR to you.   May this New Year 2013 bring you many blessings and your hearts desires through the year.

I know that I have been absent from my blog for quite some time and I must apologize.  I hope you are still with me.  While I make no promises or specific resolutions, my mind is all over the place today with thoughts of New beginnings.  I am just going to keep these thoughts in my mind/heart and see how they go.  Am I making any sense?  It is just that making promises and resolutions out loud, I believe puts more pressure to do and can hinder actually doing them.  I know I am blathering here and just hope you can understand.  I have many hopes & dreams for this new year and am starting here and just moving on from here!  

With Love, Blessings & Crafty Hugs, Lori

A crafter in need of help!

Hi friends,

First I want to apologize for not being here.  Every time I try to post blogger has been acting up and won't even let me access anything.  If it begins to work better, I will be posting some stuff, but not today!

I am so heartbroken for a fellow crafter "Darsie Bruno".  She was awakened on Tuesday morning to a fire in her home.  The post with all of the information is Here  This is so devasting and I thank the good Lord that her & her son are o.k.  She has a very hard road ahead of her (I have been through 2 fires, so know this first hand).  She has lost everything including her craft room.  Please click on the link to read the story and if you can help in any way, please do.

Have good, safe day my friends.

Big hugs & Blessings, Lori

Aaaand the winner is.....

Hi everyone, 

I am so sorry I am late, but blogger has been playing games with me for 2 days!  It keeps telling me that I logged on somewhere else and do I want to relog in.  Well it won't let me do that when I attempt it.  This is the first time I have been able to get in!

Drum roll please............ And the winner is #14 Susan Martin!

Congratulations Susan!  I have selected you through the Ransom generator.  Please send me your snail addy by way of e-mail to stamper572000@yahoo.com.  If I don't hear from Susan by Wenesday at 6p.m.est. US time, I will choose another winner.

No worries folks!  There will be a big blog candy when I hit the 100 member mark!

Have a great evening!  Hugs Lori

Hello, Reminder & Something New!

A Big Hello & Good Morning To You Dear Friends,

I hope  you are all having a wonderful Saturday, full of play & creativity!

Today is the last day to share my blog candy (click on button at the top of RIGHT column for instructions).  I have doubled my following since I started this candy.  Woohoo!  Keep em coming friends and thank you to my new friends for coming to join me on my journey & path the good Lord leads me to.

While checking my blog newsletters this morning I discovered a new site.  I have added their button to the top LEFT column here for you to click on to go there.  They are Flowers to Flourishes and they have only 1 really good deal a day.  Todays deal is for Spellbinders brand new Ribbon Threader dies and they are $17.99 + $3..99 for shipping!  WOWZA!  I have not seen prices this good on the new release anywhere!!!!  Be sure to click on the FAQ's tab at the top, so you have a complete understanding of how they work.  So hurry, get yours quick!  When they run out, they are gone!!

I have been busy since my Mothers Birthday and I will explain, maybe in a later post today.   I will share pictures of my business in my next post! Lots to share!  As hubby says "It's all good", I think!  LOL!

Creative Hugs, Lori

My Mother's Birthday!

Hi  everyone,

I am going to be quiet for a couple of days.  You see, tomorrow would have been my Mother's 75th Birthday.  It is so odd because I am sitting here thinking about her and I opened a post from Lisa Sommerville to find this card Here   Please go take a peek at her card.  I feel like it was meant for me.

Have a bright, creative crafty day,  Hugs Lori

My Light Tent

Hi everyone,

I have had some questions asking about my Light tent.  First I must say that I love it and it was a really great buy!

Here are the Details on where I got it.

I bought it on e-bay from the user id: mekingequipment

16" Deluxe Photo Light Tent Cube Soft Box 40cm New (290602807680)  I paid $15.13 for it. 

The only issue, was I had to wait for it for over a month.  It was worth the wait though.  I believe this company is in an Asian country and that is part of why it took so long.  Their main business is in photography lighting and equipment.

I really give them high marks.  By the way,  they did not charge me extra for shipping, which could have made it quite expensive.

However, if you are not able to purchase one, you can make one yourself.   Get a box measuring 12 x 12 square and cut off the opening flaps.  With the opening looking at you, you want to cut out squares, leaving about an inch, in the top and 2 sides.  Then line all sides..Top, bottom and sides with white poster board or high quality 12 x 12 white card stock.  If you have an ott light, just put it close to your box when you want to take pictures.  This was my first light box.

The difference between the 2 of them is that, you cannot fold the box and the light tent folds up to about 8 x 8, which makes it very easy to store.  I like this because I have a major dust issue, so I just wrap mine in a plastic bag and store it in a drawer to keep it clean.  I used to put a large trash bag over the box I made, but there was still a space issue.

One last thing, my light tent came with 4 drape clothes, 1 white, 1 red, 1 Black & 1 Blue.  This way I can change my background and the lines in the tent don't show up.  This all comes in a nice little zipper bag that holds the drapes & the tent when folded.

I hope this information is useful to someone.  Good Luck and Have a wonderful evening!

Hugs Lori

Yay! It's time for WOYWW

Hi everyone,   I hope you are having a wonderful Day/Evening!  This is a short post (bet your glad!) to show you my desk for WOYWW (Whats on your workdesk Wednesday).  I am a little late posting.  Had a busy day today!  Now you see my light tent set up to take pictures!

 

If you want to share or see bunches of work desk go visit Julia at the Stamping Ground

Have a wonderful evening!  Hugs Lori

Card to share

Hi friends,

 

Well, the day has not gotten much better, but no worse...I think!

 

Anyway, here is the card I spoke to you about this morning.  The necklace be low it will be going with the card.

 

 

I have been trying to work on my design around the card, like the Mahjong tiles, necklace and washi paper in the background.  Any tips or ideas would be very helpful on this subject.

If you don't mind, I will post in the morning on the supplies for this one.

 

Have a great evening, Hugs Lori 

Ugh! 2nd part of post!!

I did not mean to hit publish!  ARG!

Oh well, it might be easier to read the rest in a 2nd post!  A lot less to say!    I was almost done with that one!  Whew!

When I finally got pc back up and was checking e-mails, I noticed a reminder to wish my Mom Happy Birthday!  It is September 25th.  All I could  do was cry!  She would have been 75 if she would have lived!  I don't go a day without thinking about her and missing her!

I must thank my newest follower and friend in Jesus, Grace   Just as I was crying, I saw her comment to my blogpost!  Her kind comments were just what I needed at that moment.  Thank you Grace!  Isn't it amazing how the good Lord works!  She was there just when I needed her, which means he was there when I needed him!

Can you tell I have had a rough morning and am a bit emotional.  Please excuse my negativity this morning.

I did manage to get a card completed last night and will share it later today!  I could not take a picture with the power off because this old house is very dark without lights!  No Ott light, no photos!  Anyway, it is for a very special lady whom I have know for about 15 years and would not know her if I bumped into her on the street.  I missed her Birthday with all of the issues around my mom's passing.  I don't think she visit's here, so I will share it later.

I do hope you are all having a much better day than my started out to be!  I am going to go take a nap and  start over when I wake up!  :))

God Bless you & Happy crafting, Hugs Lori

Good morning dear friends,

Well, I the Lord has really been challenging me this past week and maybe showing me what is ahead in our future.

I have had 1 technical challenge after another.  First it was the Nikon camera, then all week my broadband connection has been flipping off right in the middle of me doing something that I did not want to lose.  Well yesterday, it kept flipping off over & over again, so I attempted to call my ISP(Phone company).  Well wouldn't you know it!  I had the most horrible static in my phone!  Then it went dead.  Some of you may not know this, but I am almost completely deaf and my phone is for the hearing impaired, so I can't just go somewhere else to use a phone.  Well I kept trying and after about a half hour the phone was working, so I called AT&T and the recording told me that there was no problem!  WELL, I GOT KIND OF LOUD AT THIS POINT AND SAID.....I NEED TO SPEAK TO A PERSON!!!  (Don't ya just love those recordings!  NOT!) .   Anyway, the nice tech lady told me there is a problem on my end and that a tech would have to come out (And come in the house....Oh Lord Help me!!!) and would be here by noon.  I told her he needed to call me so I can put the dogs away before he gets here!  Well I am nuts waiting and put the dogs out just before noon (It is raining here, so I just put them on my closed in back porch) and he does not arrived until 1:30.  He called at 12:45 and said he was on the way (by that time, I had already brought the dogs back in.  In the mean time, I am in a panic because he has to come into my stamp room and all of the cords are behind tall fill cabinets and my stamp desk is in the way (Less than a foot away from the socket) and it is heavy metal, so not moveable.  So I am running around trying to get at least stuff out of the way so he can get in there.  (Sorry, I had no idea this would be so long).

Anyway he gets here (dogs are locked back on porch, but having a tizzy fit, because there is a strange man in the house with their Mom!) and I show him to my room.  Very nice guy comes in like it was nothing, gets to work on phone, puts in a newer, smaller and sleeker modem and changes the thick phone cord (Yup, he got it there and got that cord changed, even with all the heavy file cabinets, PC desk, stamp desk, etc.  Big guy so he just went over the top.  Anyway,  he was going in and out checking the problems outside and in and was here for about an hour & a half.  Well, guess what happened next!!  He was going out the door and THE DOGS (4 Boxers) BROKE THROUGH THE PORCH DOOR and headed straight for him like mad dogs!  Oh Boy!  Was I in a panic or what!!!  I am freaking out trying to grab them,.  They are barking at him and I am trying to hold them back!  2 dogs get out the door (I am thinking at this point....great this man is gonna get bit and I am going to loose 2 dogs, 1 being pepper).  Needless to say, I am disabled with heart problems and not very strong, as the dogs are!  Well, this big young man did not panic and help me get them back in, stepped out and put his foot against the door, so I could get the dogs back in and shut the big door.  While he was outside, I took some food and enticed the dogs outside (rain had stopped) and locked them out there, so he could finish his work.

He was almost done and had to come in 1 more time.  It turns out that the main problem is with the outside connection box.  But, I knew my pc has been running way to slow for high speed internet and I told him about this!  He did really good and now I have speed again!  The modem was an older model and I really needed a new one!  Anyway, his final words were that another repair person would have tocome and work on the outside problem (at least within 24 hours).  Needless to say, when He left, although he was very nice, I was happy he was gone.  My poor dogs were so tramatized and SO WAS I!!

So, this morning I get up and there is NO POWER!  UGH!!  NO PHONE (Phone still works, but not the part that helps me hear), NO PC, NO WATER and hubby is trying to get ready for work.  He said the power was flipping on and off for about and hour.  I sat there at my kitchen table for about a half an hour and decided to try to call the power company (not being to able to hear).  The nice lady talked to me louder so I could slightly hear her and said she would report it and that there were other outages.

Within less than a half hour I had a number of big giant trucks on the property and in the road!  They were both power and phone company!!  Talk about service!!  Since I live 20 minutes from anything, I was quite surprised that they were all here!  Just after hubby left for work (I keep bottled water so he could get ready), the power came back on!

OH SUE!!!!  THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!  I JUST LOST THIS WHOLE POST AND YOUR TELLING ME TO USE CNTL  Z WORKED!!!

Back to the rest of the story (almost done).    Yay!  Power back on, but modem still flashing red!  about 10 minutes later the phone repairman knocks on the door and I open it slowly (dogs going crazy!).  Well my dogs went absolutely bazerk!  While I am trying to hold them, 2 of them rush out Pepper again) and after quiet a struggle I was able to get the other 2 back so I could run out and chase down Pepper & Sugar while they were running around (Sugar barking like crazy at the phone man).  Well, I had to bribe them with cookie (dog kind) and the final words of the phone man were "Good dogs you have there"!!  I finally coaxed Pepper & Sugar back in the house!  Even though everything was up and running, things were not quite right with me.  All of a sudden my whole body was shaking and hurting!  I am feeling like someone hit me with a mack truck!

What do ya Think?

Woohoo!  What do you think of my new Template!  I love it!  It took me forever to figure out how to change it.  Everything changed when they changed the blogger site.

I hope you like it and would love to hear your opinion!

Giving you Thanks for visiting my blog!

Hugs Lori