Monday, October 31, 2011

Watch Out For.....

Black Cats.....
(our daughter)


Crazy College Football Fans......
(our son)


and Giraffes?!!.........
(our niece)


This Halloween!

I made Bethany's cat ears and painted her face. She thought that was the grandest thing. When our niece came by, she wanted her face painted and cat ears too! My sister said she's just gonna have to start checking with me each Halloween to see what Bethany's going as and let Presley go as the same thing! hahaha I went ahead and did it for her. She left with a cat head and giraffe bottom! *giggle*

Happy Halloween!
Oh and enjoy the candy but don't get a tummy ache! :~)


Blessings...


Melina

Thursday, October 27, 2011

From All Us Penquins!

Hello!
I hope you've had a great week so far.
Even though there is no snow on the ground quite yet around here......I am in Christmas card mode and made this card for yesterday's Card Sketch Challenge over on SCS.


We have 4 family members but our 3rd member is a little silly and is hiding inside the card. Well, if he would have joined us on the front, I wouldn't have had the right sketch LOL! Anyway, I can see him doing this, hiding, when we have Family Christmas pics made! hahaha!

Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope you have a wonderfully crafty weekend!

Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: All SU! white, bashful blue and not quite navy c/s. northern flurry ef, circle punches, dotted scallop ribbon border punch, silver brad, white baker's twine, sponge daubers, basic black and craft white ink, white gel pen
stamps: Jolly Bingo Bits, Family Phrases

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

You're in My Heart

Hiya! I hope you're having a great day.
Have you been crafting today? :)

I made this card last week. But, with all my crafting for the sale, I've just now had a chance to upload it.
Sympathy cards are tough. I think there are a few of us that think that.

I like the crumb cake, black and cherry cobbler combo. It's very subtle, a trait I think all of these types of cards should be. I haven't double stamped in quite a while. The stamps in this set work well for that. I made the corners of the crumb cake piece by placing them slightly in the decorative label punch (the point).
Thanks so much for visiting me!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: SU! natural white c/s, cherry cobbler c/s, basic black c/s, and crumb cake c/s, scallop circle punch, circle punch, decorative label punch, black marker, crumb cake, cherry cobbler and basic black inks
stamps: SU! Fabulous Florets, Word Play

Monday, October 24, 2011

Fall Blessings

Hello
Is is cool where you are? The highs around here are in the high 50's. In Alabama that's cool for October. Anyway, I guess this card is my "Ode" to my vanishing colorful flower bed. :( Oh well my potted mum and pansies are beautiful too :)

Here's my tribute *giggle*

I used the SU Sweet Summer set (sale-a-bration). I love "build a" sets. The flowers and stems in that set are too cute. The sentiment is from the Little Pumpkin set by Verve.

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: SU! natural white c/s, linen thread, crumb cake ribbon, brights button, Lucky Limeade, cherry cobbler, elegant eggplant and pumpkin pie inks.
stamps: SU! Sweet Summer, Verve Little Pumpkin

Thursday, October 20, 2011

My First Step by Step Tutorial!!!!!

Align Center**>>First off the project I am making in this tutorial is not a brand new idea. My project is a little bigger than the original and doesn't use ribbon<<**
I got this idea from AnnMarie's blog. Hey girl! Here's the link to her post....Boo
She lists in her post where she got her idea from.

I made a Candy Corn Treat Box. In AnnMarie and Heather's posts they used ribbon as a handle for the treat box. I am very stingy with my ribbon and wanted to find a way to make this cute as can be box without using my wonderful ribbon.
So here goes....

First get a 12x12 piece of basic black c/s. Cut it in half at 6" then fold it in half. Then with the open end facing up, make a mark at 3". (see pic)(I made my mark with my Scor Pal tool.

Then with the c/s folded, place it on your cutter lined up with the 3" mark and one of the corners. Score a line on that diagonal. Then do the same to the other diagonal.

Then flip it over and do the other side.
Put the black piece to the side and get out pumpkin pie c/s, daffodil delight c/s and white c/s.

Cut the pp c/s 2"x6.25". The DD c/s 2"x4.75". And the White c/s 2.25"x3".

This is a triangle box. Adhere two of the flaps (see pic for where to place adhesive on flaps) to the outside of the other flaps.

After you adhere the flaps, your box should look like this.

Now, adhere your c/s strips to the front of the box. **MY ORANGE AND YELLOW ARE BACKWARDS!!!! ON A CANDY CORN THE YELLOW IS THE TOP AND ORANGE IS THE MIDDLE. JUST SWITCH THE CUTS ON THE YELLOW AND ORANGE TO FIX!!!**

....Leaving overlap as shown in above pic. Cut the strips around the box, leaving overhang and round the corners, I just did this freehand.

I used a sponge dauber and inked the edges of my candy corn then made some doodles around the edges.

I drew on a smile with 2 weird looking teeth (filled in with white gel pen). You will do much better teeth, I know! The eyes are done with the circles on the SU! owl punch. I glued them together with tombow adhesive.

You treat box is complete! Now, all that's left is to fill it with candy. The slot at the top is large enough for smarties, nugget Hershey's, peppermints, jaw breakers, anything small like that.
To give you somewhat of a measurement, the box holds a good handful and a half (my hand that is) of candy. The way to fill and empty this box reminds me of those coin pouches from long ago. You know the ones you could squeeze the ends and it opened like a mouth? Same concept with this box....press slightly on the front and back (at the top, white part) to make the opening wider. Turn it over and shake out your treat!
I hope you get to make some for Halloween!
Well, this concludes my very first step by step tutorial. How was it? Easy, hard, uninteresting? Give me your feedback, please. Let me know how I did.
Thanks so much for visiting my blog today.

Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Psalm 46:1-2

I SHALL NOT FEAR! HE IS WITH ME!
I tend to forget that a lot when I start my worrying. I have to continually pray about this. I'm such a worry wart!!! Ugh!
2 things:
I finally got a SCOR PAL! I don't have to score using my cutter anymore LOL
and...
Okay, so I don't have a lot of new SU! sets. I keep using the same ones. I really love Watercolor Trio and Refuge and Strength though! Don't you! :)

Even though this is a tame color combo, I really like them together especially for a Sympathy card.
...hope you have a great day!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: Crumb cake c/s, choc. chip c/s, white c/s, scor pal, pearls, choc. chip ink, crumb cake ink, sponge daubers
stamps: Watercolor Trio, Refuge and Strength

Monday, October 17, 2011

Oh Tidings of.....

Another CAS creation by yours truly!
I know what you're saying, "CAS from Melina! NO WAY!" *giggle*
That's me, Queen of CAS, I love CAS!!!!
Here's a sweet CHRISTmas card I did...

The new SU! Tiding of Joy set has a big outline stamp in it. It is very intimidating to me. I tend to stamp solid images. This, is the way I like to color outline images, punched out so there's not so much to color. I'm NO good at coloring.
I used SU! retired paper pack, Jolly Holiday. I have 2 packs of it. Don't know how that happened! LOL

Thanks for visiting my blog. I hope you have time to leave a comment. I do appreciated them so.......MUCH!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: SU! Crumb Cake c/s, Jolly Holiday DSP, Choc. chip c/s, white c/s, circle punches, watercolor pencils, blender pen, white gel pen, sponge daubers, choc. chip ink
stamps: Tidings of Joy

Saturday, October 15, 2011

A Crisp Dueling Darlings Challenge

Hello all!
Fall has officially arrived and I LOVE IT! This is my favorite Season. So, when I received my kit from the Dazzlers hostess ~ Darlene....I fell in Love! She sent so many beautiful things, papers, leaves, ribbons, brads, balsa wood pieces, die cuts....I was overwhelmed BUT in a totally GOOD way!!!! :~)
This is what I made with her outstanding kit....

Darlene wanted to see how creative we would get with the pieces of wood. Well, as far as what I made with them, a pumpkin, I think that was the obvious choice. So, I wasn't creative with them in that way. But, I think the way I altered them was a little different. I colored them with a More Mustard marker then used a cotton ball and "sponged" on pumpkin pie ink. Then, over that I stamped the smallest doily from the SU! set Delicate Doilies in chocolate chip ink. I added some twine for the stem.
I colored the image with watercolor pencils, copics and a blender pen. I added some of the wonderful ribbon she sent behind my sentiment (SU! Curly Cute set) that I stamped in Old Olive ink and cut into a banner before distressing it and inking with chocolate chip ink (did that around the edges of my image too).

My Mom's birthday was the 7th. This was her card from me :~)
Darlene and Tami (the Divas hostess) also wanted us to post a favorite Fall recipe. My has to be Chicken Stew. There's nothing better on a cool day. And of course, like my crafting, my recipes are simple too!
Chicken Stew
3 Chicken Breasts 1 large can Veg-All
1 medium onion 1 can whole kernel corn
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon Seasoned salt
1 clove garlic 1 teaspoon fresh cracked pepper
1 teaspoon table salt 1 teaspoon sugar

In large pot sprinkle seasoned salt over chicken then add water to cover chicken. Boil for 25 minutes or until no pink can be seen. Take chicken from pot, let rest on paper towels until cool enough to handle. While chicken is cooling chop onion and mince garlic, add to pot (leave broth that chicken cooked in, in the pot, add the other ingredients to this). Add in can of crushed tomatoes, drained can of corn, pepper, table salt and sugar (the sugar takes out the bitter bite of the tomatoes). DON'T ADD VEG-ALL YET! Cook on medium heat 10 minutes. Shred chicken and add to pot. Cook, covered, on low heat 40 minutes. Add can of drained Veg-All then cover and cook an additional 25 minutes (since everything is already cooked in the Veg-All, if you add it at the beginning, the potatoes in it will become mush). Serve. Add more salt to taste if desired.

Thank you so much for visiting me today!
Don't miss out on all the other Dueling Darlings! Their blogs can be found in my left sidebar.
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Need Coffee?

I'm still making craft fair projects.
I need to make lots of gift card holders with the Holidays coming up.
I decided a pocket card would work well with a gift card.
This is what I came up with...

My "coffee cup" is 1.25" at the bottom and 1.75" at the top. I scored my "sleeve" b/c I don't have a crimper :( I love the patterned paper. It came from a My Mind's Eye stack. SU!'s old olive matches it perfectly!

Thanks so much for stopping by!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: SU! old olive c/s, very vanilla c/s, Crumb Cake c/s, choc. chip c/s, My Mind's Eye, glittery c/s, Prima Chocolate flower, SU! brights collection buttons, misc. cream button, SU! linen thread, sheer vanilla ribbon, choc. chip marker, circle punches, computer generated sentiment, sponge daubers
stamps: SU! Sanded

Monday, October 10, 2011

My Ribbon is Not STRAIGHT!!!!

Yes, I know, odd title. But, ever since I took the pic of this card that is what stands out to me! UGH! I'm such a prissy pot! :)
I'm in the process of making projects for a Ladies Fall Luncheon. They will have tables set up for sell items and they invited me to make some crafty goodies to display and sell! This will be my first "craft show" of sorts. I'm very nervous.
Here's a set of cards I'm selling (after I fix the ribbon of course *giggle*)

I got the idea for this card looking in the SU! catty. Page 192 has the cutest card made with a kit. I decided it could also work with the stamp set Circle Circus. This has to be one of my favorite sets. I love circles. A lot of my creations have circles somewhere on them.
I appreciate you stopping by today!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: white c/s, choc. chip c/s, circle punch, scallop border punch, old olive ribbon, old olive ink, cherry cobbler ink, choc. chip ink, pumpkin pie ink
stamps: Circle Circus and Watercolor Trio

Friday, October 7, 2011

Another One Just Like the Other One

Another week winding down. Wow, the older I get the faster time goes. YIKES!
I liked the layout on the card I posted Monday so much that I decided to play around with it and make another card along those same lines. Same images just different colors and papers.
Here's what I did...

I'm loving the images in the SU! set Delicate Doilies...soo pretty and fussy.

TODAY IS MY MOM'S BIRTHDAY! SHE IS 20 YEARS AND 5 MONTHS OLDER THAN ME *GIGGLE* THAT IS SOOOOOOOOOOOO NOT OLD! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR MAMA! HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU! I HOPE YOU HAVE A GREAT DAY! LOVE U!
Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: SU! very vanilla c/s, old olive c/s, pearls, My Mind's Eye patterned paper
stamps: SU! Delicate Doilies, Curly Cute

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

SUO Challenge 29 ~ Leaves

Hey girls!
The crisp air around here in the mornings is really getting me inspired!
I checked out the Challenge over at SUO Challenge blog. They're wanting to see LEAVES this week :)
Here's what I came up...

I love my Leaf Lines stamp set from SU! The background might be a little too bright now that I look at it. I always second guess my creations :)

Thanks so much for coming by!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: whisper white c/s, pumpkin pie c/s, choc. chip c/s, Play Date patterned paper, scallop circle punch, circle punch, 1/16 hole punch, sponge daubers, old olive ink, pumpkin pie ink, choc. chip ink
stamps: Leaf Lines, Watercolor Trio

Monday, October 3, 2011

Simple Doilies

Helloooooooooooo! :D
It's time for the CAS challenge over on SCS.
Here's the card I came up with....

It's very simple. Just the way I like it! *giggle*
I hope you're having a perfectly crafty day! Thanks for visiting and leaving me comments. They are so appreciated!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina

supplies: crumb cake c/s, cherry cobbler c/s, white c/s, vintage brad, pearls, night of navy ink, elegant eggplant ink and circle punches
stamps: SU! Delicate Doilies, Curly Cute

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Hay Lofts and Tractor Tires!

Scrapbook pages!
Yay!
I've finally gotten back into the scrap mood. It's taken me forever it seems. I'm so behind. I do believe my scrapping "drought" was mostly caused from trying to scrap like everyone else by myself. I see all these beautifully embellished, 1 pic pages that I tried to duplicate and just wasn't satisfied. So, I've gone back to my scrappy roots......SIMPLE. I like it. I hope that other people that look at my albums like them too, but if they don't, that's okay too. :)


These are pics from a farm we visited. They had all sorts of fun things to do. It did seem that our kids favorite though was climbing the tractor tires. Who knew? If you look really close, you can see Bethany with her arms up....she's not at the top but she was saying "I'm on top of the world!!!" hahahahahahahaha
Thanks so much for coming by today!
Until next time...
Blessings...

Melina