Yo Yo Challange

Donna at Donna's In The Attic has been doing a yo yo challenge and I agreed to participate. I had bought a couple of yo yo makers and wasn't sure what to do with them. Donna posted some wonderful step by step instructions that make everything so simple. Some of the people are making quilts and pocket books and Donna even made a cute little dog collar. Of course, I'm not really a sewer, so I incorporated my yo yo's into a card that I stamped.



With Donna's instructions, this was a very simple card to make and I like it a lot. Y'all might just be getting a yo yo card from me sometime soon!!

Stamp Club

I went to stamp club at Binder's on Saturday and we learned how to carve our own stamps. I had all the tools and supplies - because somebody had showed me how before and I thought it was necessary to get the supplies, but have never touched them since (remember, continuing theme here). Betty Ann, one of our members, taught the class. I always think of Betty Ann as more of an artist than a stamper, because she's really, really good. Anyway, Betty Ann had carved quite a few stamps and I used some of her stamps to show you what a really good hand-carved stamp can look like. I also have one that I carved with my initials. That one shows the beginning of a little bit of talent that needs a whole lot of work. LOL

For this, I used Betty Ann's stamp of a cat. I made several of these in different colors and plan to make them into cards.

Here's what I stamped with Betty Ann's hand-carved rabbit stamp. Another card, perhaps?

This on is really kind of amazing!! Betty Ann carved the bird on a leaf out of "fun foam". She was very precise and the positive bird fits exactly into its the negative hole in the background. I stamped the bird in Stampin' Up's Bayou Blue and the background in S.U. River Rock. I think this came out really well.

And, ta da. . . . . . . .here are my initials!! I carved them out of Speedball rubber for carving and inked them with Stampin' Up's Perfectly Pomegranite.

I always enjoy stamp club at Binder's. They have a very nice roomy class room that they provide for us and one of our club members always teaches a class on some part of stamping that they're good at. It's a good way to swap knowledge and ideas and just get together once a month and have some fun.

I Actually Stamped!!!!

Well, I went to Miriam's (my Stampin' Up rep.) house on Saturday and stamped!! I usually need some kind of prodding to get going and Miriam always does the trick. She has some really good ideas for stamp use and is probably the most innovative user of stamps for ideas they were not intended for that I know. A few examples:

Who would ever think to use a Spring bouquet as a Christmas card??

Most people use this little street scene for "we have moved" cards. Miriam did a great job of decorating the little houses for Christmas!!

And, would you believe that this is a flame stamp for a birthday candle that was made into tree leaves? Wonderful!!!

There were 7 of us at Miriam's and we made masculine cards. Those are always so hard to come up with. So many flowers and girly things to be stamped that the guys get left out sometimes.

Ellen and Tina work on techniques.

Pam and Marian finish their cards.

So, we stamped, we were fed wonderful snacks and Miriam's 2 nieces, Kate and Claudia, were there to wait on us and run around and get supplies and stuff for us. What a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. And, on top of all her other creativity, Miriam has a beautiful backyard!!!

Such a pretty scene!!!

The whole yard is filled with pretty scenes!!

A quiet place to rest.

Love this fern.

Miriam specializes in Hydrangeas.

Note From A Friend

This was a note from a friend today. It was from someone in one of her stamping groups:

I have to share this with you before I go to bed.. At work today a young man and his wife came in to buy her a bathing suit. While she was trying them on I read the back of his t-shirt which said, "Pain is just weakness escaping from the body." I commented on it and when he turned around I saw "Marines" on the front. I asked if he served over seas and he replied, "Yes, he was in Fallusha (sp) and Afganistan when things were heated. I asked if he ever received gifts and cards from any rubber stampers.. His reply, "Yes, we got everyone one of them and loved them. It made us feel so good that we were remembered." I told him about the Yahoo clubs sending things and he was so appreciative. I then found out he is a buddy of my older son and I know his mom. I thanked him for his service and what he has done for us. I gave him a discount, lol, and we both felt good when we left. I know Kendall has related messages from her nephew but I just wanted to add this.. I know there were lists of soldiers being circulated with addresses and I sent out many a card and packs of cards and envelopes for them to use and send home to their loved ones.. Well.. it works and the gals and guys are getting them and loving them..All who have ever participated in this.. feel good tonight.. Many a soldier is smiling because of you..

I thought about this a long time and felt really bad!!! Because that is what I really feel called to do - make cards for our service men and women. And, I keep buying and acquiring and hoarding supplies and tools and not stamping for the people who really need some uplifting. Maybe this will get me up and at'em and stamping for a good cause. I hope so. Y'all please pray for me to get into gear!!!

Story of My Life

Okay. . . . . so we're leaving tomorrow morning for a trip to South Carolina for a wedding. . . . and, I need to stamp a wedding card for the happy couple. . . . so, I go out to my studio and get ready to stamp. . . . nothing!!! Oh, I had the idea for the card. I had CASE'd that from somebody else on Split Coast Stampers. What I didn't have was the right color of pink ink!! I have very DARK pink, coral pink, reddish pink, rosy pink, mauvey pink. . . .about 7 colors of pink from Stampin' Up. However, I didn't have Pretty In Pink which is the exact one I need. I remembered that I had made this exact same card several months ago for another wedding, so I'm trying to decide what I did for that one. Oh, yeah, I used one of my many Marvy Matchables. So, I go to the drawer where I have ALWAYS kept the Marvy Matchables. There are 4 stamp pads (none pink) in there. Where are the rest of my Marvy Matchables. I probably have 25 of those things. Where have they moved? I sure don't remember moving them. Maybe somebody snuck into my studio while my back was turned and they moved them for a joke. Not funny!!!! So, after 30 minutes of searching high and low for the ink pads, I have given up. We'll go to the drug store tomorrow on the way out of town and buy a stupid card!!! I have more stamping stuff than the law allows and yet this is what always seems to happen when I'm ready to stamp. I guess if I were creative enough to come up with my own designs instead of using what I get from others, then I could overcome this problem and do a card with whatever pink ink I have. Not happening tonight. I'm going to bed!!

My Kiln

Well, I haven't been blogging much lately because Ben and I went on a cruise to Bermuda. Had a great time but, as soon as we got home, my computer died!!! You know how bad that is!!! Well, after taking it to the All-Knowing Computer Guru, having the hard drive re-formatted and now having Ben reload all my important stuff - it's just now getting back to almost normal. I'm not going to post in any great detail today, but I had to mention this:

I had lunch today with my dear friend Rhonda who has been by my side for right at 30 years. We met at a craft class at church and then became antiquing and auction buddies. She has seen me through an awful lot of the craft collecting that I have done over the years. Anyway, she reminded me today that I didn't mention that I had bought a kiln back about 25 years or so ago. How could I possibly forget such a major piece of craft equipment?? She and I were doing the weekly ceramics classes at church and I decided that nothing would do but that I got my own kiln!!! You know how that is. . . . . Anyway, I found a kiln listed in the Georgia Market Bulletin and I bought it. It took a special 220V outlet, so the kiln sat in our garage waiting for the day that Ben would install the new outlet. And it sat and it sat and it sat. Finally, about 2 years later, we were getting ready to enclose our garage into a playroom and so I sold the kiln without it ever having been plugged in at our house!!!! Story of my life! LOL

Show Me Wednesday

Okay, so it's actually Sunday and I'm calling it Wednesday. Give me a tremendous break here. . . . . . . . I'm slow. I just came across Hazelruthe's blog where she is asking to see everyone's sewing machine. Well, this is my pride and joy sewing machine. Don't use it (which is the on-going theme of this blog), but I love it!!! Must be because it has my last name written right on it. I passed up one of these beauties at an auction years ago, then regretted it greatly!! Apparently, it's an English sewing machine and we don't see a lot of them here in the U.S. I spent another 3 or 4 years looking for another one and finally found it in an antique shop for twice the price it went for at the auction. But, by then, I had realized how much I needed a Jones Sewing Machine.

Rubber Stamping Expands

As many things do, rubber stamping will expand to fill the space allotted. . . . or, more acurately, it will fill your whole house, neighborhood and then your world!!! There are so many kindred crafts that are linked arm and arm with rubber stamping. A few that I have taken up while stamping are scrapbooking (which needs many of the same tools that stamping uses, but thousands more pages of paper), altered books (for which you need your stamping supplies plus old books, paints, fiber, leather, several types of glue and adhesive and just about any kind of embelleshment you can think of) , polymer clay (which uses a lot of your stamping supplies and then requires a PASTA MAKER!!! plus all types of sculpting tools, canape and cookie cutters, a toaster oven dedicated to polymer clay, an extruder tool, molds (both bought and homemade) and tons and tons of either Sculpey or Primo polymer clay. Then, along with polymer clay, comes P.M.C. which stands for Precious Metal Clay. This is pure silver in a clay form (I really decided that I couldn't afford the GOLD!!!) which you mold, sculpt or carve into shapes for pendants, charms, whatever and bake in the toaster oven - then you scrub them with a stiff bristle brush until you can't scrub anymore and then they sparkle and you wear them. Next, there is assemblage which is French for sticking a lot of stuff together that makes you feel good or tells your story - well, kinda. That, along with collage (which is French for sticking a lot of flat stuff together) use many of your stamping supplies, plus the head from your first doll and the skate key your boyfriend gave you in third grade and lots of things with your initials on them and pictures of things you really like and glitter and string and pieces from the junk drawer (yours or someone else's) and even broken tail lights that you pick up in the parking lot at Wal*Mart (don't ask me how I know about that!). Then there's journal making for which you need old leather purses picked up at a thrift store. And, there's glass jewelry for which you need glass slides (like the doctor uses when they draw blood) plus a soldering iron, plus flux, plus solder, plus interesting things to go between the two glass slides. Then there's dry embossing which requires a light box or (drum roll please) a Wizard by Spellbinders. My friend Holly is on the Spellbinders design team and uses her Wizard to do the most amazing things!! I have a Wizard. My Wizard has actually been taken out of the box. My Wizard has not done lots of amazing things. Let's move on!!!

Well, I've listed lots of my stamping (and other craft) supplies that I have and don't use very often. Gets kind of depressing, doesn't it??? Maybe tomorrow I'll talk about something happy - or maybe I'll just list some more of the unused supplies lying around out in my studio. Hey, the studio is basically unused, too!!!

Home At Last

I've been telling all about my years of searching for the perfect craft - or more correctly, the craft that I can be good at. So, now I'll tell you about the craft that I've finally landed on that I think I can call my own. About 9 years ago my niece Tracy and her husband Rob moved in across the street from us. I decided to have a dinner party to introduce them to the neighbors. In thinking about all the different types of invitations I could use, I finally, for some totally unknown reason, decided to stamp them myself. So, I bought a "You're Invited" stamp and a pad of navy blue ink and I was on my way. After the invitations, it was a very easy step to start visiting rubber stamp stores and art stores that carried rubber stamps. That led to Rubber Stamping 101 classes (yes, I took 101 TWICE - at 2 different rubber stamp stores!! LOL). Then, I met a few people in class and that led to more classes and more friends, but more importantly, the knowledge that there were a lot of supplies and tools out there that I didn't have and really needed! The third class I took was an embossing class. I liked it and immediately bought a heat tool and some embossing powder. That started a years long journey of collecting almost every color of embossing powder known to man. Funny thing was that I only use clear or detail gold embossing powder. Finally, I wised up about a year ago and gave all my embossing powders to my friend Ellen who then gifted me with a wonderful Stampin' Up background stamp - "Tres Chic". This is a beautiful stamp and I will let you know when I finally get around to using it!!! I'm truly serious when I say that I amass, collect and hoard, but don't use.



The reason that rubber stamping appeals to me so much is that I can't draw. I have always wanted to do watercolors and I love them, but you have to draw (even just a little) to get the bone structure for the watercolor. So, it dawned on me that I can let other people do the drawing and I buy the art work in the form of stamps. Then I transfer their artwork to my canvas (actually my cardstock) and I finish the artwork with, what else. . . . . coloring within the lines!!!! But, I do use my own creativity to decide the color scheme, the embellishments, whether to emboss or not, which stamps to combine. I love rubber stamping. . . . . but even more than that, I love collecting all the wonderful tools that go with rubber stamping!!

Quite A Trip

Continuing this trip along the craft road, I am constantly being reminded of other crafts that I picked up along the route. There was the brief crocheting stint in college. . . . one Christmas I crocheted hats for several of my sorority sisters. But, crocheting confuses me because I never seem to know which opening I'm supposed to put the hook into. Now, in knitting, it's pretty straight forward and hard to mis-judge, but crocheting just gives too many choices of openings, thus, chances to be wrong!! Also in college, I developed my tendency to always be a "colorer" and never an artist. I had several sorority sisters who were art majors and very good at what they did. Whenever we had to make signs or scenery or whatever for Rush, skit nite, homecoming, Braves' Day, etc. they would draw the work of art and I would be one of the masses who came behind and colored. . . . inside the lines, mind you!!! When you combine this with the fact that I was a business major - well, there just wasn't any hope for my creativity. Or, was there? I seem to have been on a journey ever since. A journey to find the art or craft that I'm really good at.



Eight months after graduating from college, I married Ben (the owner of my beautiful needlepoint fraternity crest. . . . of course I had to marry him!!!). Within 7 months we had bought our first house, so new crafts started entering the scene at a staggering rate. I took stained glass classes because we were going to fix up the house and have lots of stained glass windows throughout. I actually did make one small window (which has been propped up in my playroom window - different house - for the past 32 years) and one candy cane Christmas ornament. Lots of supplies there: glass cutters, fancy pliers, goggles, solder and flux, brushes, and lots and lots of glass pieces. Ben finally talked me into tossing out the 2 gigantic boxes of glass pieces about 5 years ago. Now, I really don't like tossing out anything, but he finally convinced me that there would probably not be an awful lot of stained glass artisans at the Goodwill store. I say, "Maybe, maybe not!!"



Then there was an upholstery class. I had picked up a wonderful old fainting couch from the side of the road and was going to reupholster it for our bedroom. Also, we had Ben's Grandmother's old goose neck rocker, a caned love seat from my favorite antique store and a wonderfully comfortable easy chair from my Mother's house. We recovered the love seat and it sits in our bedroom. I did reupholster Grandma Lucy's rocker and it's in my breakfast room, but to this day still doesn't have trim around the edges to cover the tacks. Actually, a nice throw covers most of them pretty well. We paid a professional to redo Mother's chair and we re-tossed the fainting couch. It was a great idea, but just not for us!! Of course, along the way I had to get GIGANTIC scissors, tack hammer, stretcher, boxes and boxes of tacks (as if we were going into the business!), fabric, etc. Lots more tools to add to my collection.

I'm going to have to speed this up, so that I can get to the original aim of my blog - The Hoarding of Craft Supplies! So, I'll briefly mention that there was cake decorating, basket weaving (both with traditional reeds and with my own weaving supplies that I picked up where ever I could find them - think privet hedge in my back yard and kudzu on my back fence), macrame (now there's a craft that I really didn't mind being bad at), tole painting, one-stroke painting, loom weaving, calligraphy (that's the one where the teacher broke my calligraphy pen over her knee and said not to come back!!!! Just joking, but I was about that bad at it), drawing class (can you say "she sucks at this"), adult education sewing class (still messed up on the sleeves). Then, when I had just about given up, I took several classes in rubber stamping. Bingo!! This is my calling. . . . well, I didn't totally stink at it!

And each and every class and craft has added tons of supplies and tools to my supplies. There's just nothing better than shopping for arts and craft supplies. And I discovered something a couple of years ago while going through a stage of buying more and more kitchen tools. I finally realized what I was doing!!! I had bought in to the theory that "If I get enough supplies and just the right tools, then I'll be good at whatever I do." An amazing concept!!! However, it didn't work with the kitchen tools and I'm beginning to realize that it doesn't work with the craft tools either. But, I keep trying.

Continuing Along The Craft Road

Yesterday I mentioned knitting afghans and mufflers in college, but I skipped over the most fruitful time of my sewing career. That was my last couple of years of high school (good old Campbell High in Smyrna, GA.) when Villager and Ladybug dresses were all the rage. Remember those? Well, basically, it was an A-line dress made of a flowered kettle cloth fabric, sleeveless with 2 darts on the front and a round neck, no collar. There were 2 little cookie pockets on the front with a very long zipper up the back. I could go over to Wayne's 5 & 10 and get the cloth for less than $2.00/yard and knock those things out all day long!!! That was my heyday. Then, in the Fall of 1967 when I started to college, pant suits were coming in. You had to put lapels on the jacket, and don't forget the sleeves (I hate sleeves), and the slacks had to be fitted and have a waist band and placket for the zipper. Oh, how the mighty had tumbled!!! No more sewing for me.

However, I did pick up ceramics and china painting along with cross stitch and needlepoint while in college. My Mother and I would go down to Montezuma, GA. where my aunts and uncles lived and, while we were there, we would go to a local ceramics shop and spend days making tea pots and Christmas dishes and little bowls and spoon rests and I even made a cute little ceramic jewelry box. The lady who ran the ceramics shop would not let you fail at anything. Everything came out looking like a professional had done it. Well, as professional as ceramics from a little shop in a podunk town in middle Georgia ever looked back in the late 60's. I later picked up ceramics again when my son was a baby. My church offered a free nursery for mothers taking classes on Wednesday mornings. So, I took ceramics classes for years. Probably would have been a lot cheaper just to hire a babysitter every Wednesday morning, but I had fun!!! The china painting came in one Summer during college. My Mother and I signed up for a class in a lady's home and went once a week for about 8 weeks. A few of the pieces we made in that class are still sitting in my china cabinet. China painting took more talent than I was able to provide, so I didn't continue. The needlepoint came in when I was a senior in college. I was dating "Ben the Wonderful", later to become DH, and for Christmas, I decided to do a needlepoint version of the crest of his fraternity. Never mind the fact that I had never done needlepoint before!!! I got my dear friend Claire to draw the fraternity crest on canvas, then I did the crest in petit point and the background in needlepoint. That was a masterpiece and still hangs in my upstairs hall. It was also the last piece of needlepoint I ever did. I took up counted cross stitch which I did for many years. Cross stitch is MUCH easier to me. Are you beginning to notice a tendency to pick up and drop crafts? So far in this narrative, we haven't discussed the collecting of tools and supplies to go with the crafts. But, I was beginning to develop my life theme: "Always having the right tools for the job is a wonderful thing." And, along with it the corollary: "You can NEVER have too many of the right tools!!!!"

In The Beginning

Most rubber stampers - and, in fact, crafters of all kinds - can relate to the concept of accruing tools and supplies and being slow to use them. I have taken this concept to a height so unattainable by most ordinary people that I just had to write about it.

First, I'll talk about craft-jumping and being a Jack-of-All-Crafts. . . . . . . Master-of-None. I suppose it all started back in 1955. I was 6 years old and my beloved maid, Annie, taught me how to sew doll clothes. She was being kind to me and sharing a craft, but also getting me out of her hair for a while so she could clean and cook for the family. Otherwise, I would have kept her all to myself and she would never have gotten anything done. My first sewing attempts were for my Toodles doll, my Ginny doll and later for my Jill doll. Raglan sleeves, no elastic - just gathers at the waist, no collars. I was not a future coutoure designer, however it did put needle, thread and fabric in my hands and I enjoyed the feeling.

By the time I was 10, I made my own Easter dress. It was sleeveless, round necked, gathered skirt attached to a bodice with darts and a zipper in back. The material was 100% cotton and a blue bandana print. Somewhat conspicuous among all the pastel organdy flouncy dresses at church that day, but it was MINE. . . . . my work, my creation, my bragging rights!!!
At age 12, I bought a book and taught myself how to knit. I remember going to Rich's (a major Atlanta department store) and asking questions of the lady in the fabric department where the yarn was sold. My Mother didn't knit and I didn't know anyone who did, so I was getting all my knowledge from a book and from the nice lady at Rich's. For the first couple of years that I knit, I had one (1). . . . . . yes, count it ONE skein of pink yarn. I rolled it into a nice ball and I started to knit. I would knit rows and rows, many feet of stockinette stitch and, when I'd had enough, I would unravel it and start over with the garter stitch. Then, after unraveling that one, I'd start over with something else. By the time I made my first item of knitwear, I really had a lot of practice under my belt. I made a major mistake when choosing my first project - it was a sweater!!! I'm no good at sleeves (remember the sleeveless Easter dress?) and fitting things just isn't my forte. So, all of the pieces of the sweater got knit - increases, decreases, etc. But the sweater never got put together. By the time I got to college, I had learned the beauty of afghans and mufflers. Everything's flat - just miles and miles of lovely knitting!! I made a ton of them. Today, I still knit occasionally, but mostly I collect yarn and patterns and tell myself that I'm really going to make something. And, you know what? I still believe myself!