It's All About The Journey

Hot Cup Wrap

Last night I took another free on-line class atCornish Heritage Farms. Lisa Strahl was the person to head this class this week. What fun I had. I was not able to put the finishing touches on my project due to lack of time once again. Wow! I have been very bust every day this week so far. Anyway, I would love to share with you what we learned last night.

This was such a simple project to make. I all ready have 10 other cup pieces all made. Now all I need to do is put them together and I will have another home made Christmas gift to give. I can not tell you how excited I am to have some of my holiday projects all made or almost made. I will be giving all of you a list of what I used. Here is a picture of the contents that I put in my cup.

I used some shredded craft paper to put at the bottom of the cup. I added a a package of Taster's Choice Decaffeinated coffee on the go, 2 sticks of sugar, and 2 International Delight Hazelnut creamer singles. The thin black stick that has a decoration on top of it is stir stick. All this cup needs is some boiling water and Bam! You have a nice cup of Hazelnut coffee to go. How cool is that!  I am going to make some with Hot chocolate and add a  regular creamer and a small package of mini marshmallows, How about adding a package of hot apple cider and add a Cinnamon stick.You could also do tea too. I have decided to give all of my cups to my family members, and the woman who delivers my mail  as a little Christmas gift.  The kids will all be getting hot chocolate. Just think how awesome it would be to make and give one of these cups to your co-workers, teaches,Mail men or women, the UPS man who delivers all of the goodies that you order all year.:) There are so many people who would love this gift. Okay, I will stop rambling on about this but I am truly excited that I am getting some of my Christmas gifts done now thanks to CHF. Here are the products that I used.

Stamps:

 Christmas Cheer (the Kim Hughes collection) and the Polka Dots backgrounder both from Cornish Heritage Farms.

Card-stock:

Kraft and Whisper White from Stampin' UP! I used Razzleberry Dark from Prism papers.

Inks:

Adirondack Pitch Black from Ranger. Vintage Photo Distress Ink from Ranger, Crimson Red Versafine from Tsukneo and Cloud White Versamagic chalk ink.

Accessories: 

Burgundy stickles, from Ranger, Puffy Velvet fabric marker purchased from Stamping Memories,red Austrian crystal, Coffee cup with lid purchased at Shaw's and black stir sticks from Wal-mart.  I also used Marvy Uchida punches. Due to my not having a lot of the paper products on hand I did a lot of running around to get them. I am good to go now. :)

Techniques:

 DP and stippling.

Although I used the same set of stamps that were used for the original coffee wrap I changed it to the way that I felt it would work for me. Truly, this is a fun project to make. Go check it out.Holiday drink wrap.

I hope you do not mind but I am going to put a little plug in here for myself. Yesterday one of my cards and the story behind it was put on the Creative Imaginations blog. This is a huge Honor for me and I just wanted to share it with all of you. So many good things have been happening for me lately and I am so grateful and feel so blessed. It means so much to me when all of you leave a comment or write to me privately telling me that you like my work. I'm sure that all of you who blog feel the same way. Thanks for supporting me.

I am still walking every evening or night that we do not have a storm or rain. I am feeling lots stronger and that as Martha Stewart would say "Is a very good thing."  I hope that all of you are doing something that is good for you at least once a day. Maybe eating some of the fresh fruit and veggies that are available to us right now. Perhaps taking a walk when ever possible, reading a good book or maybe chatting with your friends and family. Be good to yourself......................life is too short have some fun and don't forget to Smile. :)

Shaker Village & Scrap News

No card today. But I do have a few pictures to share with you. :) I remember when I first started blogging I would have a few cards or projects to share each week and then I would show pictures of Wayne and I or of our family. September will mark my second year of blogging the years are going by so quickly. Anyway, what I have noticed and I am sure you have too is that I am once again posting a few cards or projects each week. I have not shared as many photos because this is suppose to be a blog about crafts. So recently I started a second blog called Photo's by Mary C. Anderson. On that blog I have put some of my photos but not personal pictures. So I have decided that once in a great while I am going to post some photos here like I used to. If you would like to see the photos larger then please double click on them.

On Saturday Wayne and I went to Shaker Village so that I could take pictures of some of their beautiful flowers and butterflies.  We both had a fantastic time. It was a beautiful day so we took full advantage of it.

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I took at least 600 pictures on Saturday. If you have ever been to Shaker Villagethen you know why taking that many photos would be so easy to do. I am sharing this picture with you because it is the very first time that I have been able to catch a butterfly in flight. If you would like to see a few more of the butterfly pictures I took please visit my other blog.

Wayne took lots of pictures as well. This one was taken up on a very high hill where a building used to be.

I love that he captured some of the peace and beauty at Shaker Village. Here is another picture with some of the buildings.

Wayne and I took time to take pictures of one another. Here is a picture that I took of Wayne.

Isn't he cute?

Wayne took at least 100 pictures of just me. He loves taking my picture. I never liked having my picture taken but now that I am lots older I don't mind too much. After all what we did that day is a memory. I think that having pictures to share with our children and grandchildren is a great way for them to share in our memories.

 Me again. :) After we took lots of pictures of each other and I was finished taking flower and buttefly pictures I headed for the small market they have. Ever since we have had the scare of tomatoes making people very ill I stopped buying them in the supermarkets and only buy them at the local markets. They are much more expensive but so fresh and so delicious and in my opinion a heck of a lot safer to eat.  So of course Wayne *had* to take a picture of me buying tomatoes. :)

 

Note to self. Stop wearing big t-shirts and stop with the bad posture! I really do not have a huge stomach but I sure look as though I do in this photo.  Please do not double click on this one.Ha-ha. I have decided to scrapbook all of our Shaker Village photos. I will be using the new Share & Tellsystem by Pebbles Inc. Have you seen it yet? I bought mine at Scrappin' Soul Sisters and will be using it the "Creative Time way". I stopped making big scrapbooks when I began making cards. For me it is one or the other. I can not do both. However, I must have at least 1500 pictures that I have taken in the past 2 years of Wayne and I, our family, of our get togethers, places we have been etc.. I need to put my pictures some place other then in the boxes that I have them in. I thought that this would be an easy and fun way to store my photos and do some journaling. Speaking of journaling. Have you heard about Erika Martin'son-line Journaling class? It looks as though it will be lots of fun.

I guess I got away from Wayne and I going to Shaker Village. We really did have a wonderful time. If your ever up in NH and planning a trip there please let me know I would love to meet you. I am a member of Shaker Village and live a hop skip and a jump from there. Okay I am off. I have a few things left to do before Wayne gets home from work.

I hope that all of you are keeping busy with summer "things" to do. Before we know it our summer will be gone so get out there as often as you can and have lots of fun.  Smile. :)

Come Rain Or Shine

 Although the title is the sentiment that I used for the card that I made it certainly has lots to do with our weather here in NH too. More on that later.

One of my local stamp stores, Art Plus is participating in the Memory Box card contest. If you would like to know more about the contest and live in NH then please contact Karen at Art Plus. I have submitted 2 cards and although I do not expect to win I had a lot of fun making the cards for the contest. I do know that you can go to the Memory Box blog to find out if a store near you is participating too.

This is a 5 1/2 x 4 1/4 " card

The stamps that I used are Umbrella Penguin, Cloud and Come Rain or Shine all by Memory Box. I purchased mine at Art Plus. I used Whisper White and Really Red card-stock from Stampin'UP! The designer paper is from the summer collection from Memory Box.  The buttons are also from SU. The green and yellow sheer ribbon is my May Arts and I purchased it from Stamping Memories. The techniques that I used are paper piecing and stamping on and off.  The corner punch that I used is from Creative Memories. As you can see this was a very easy card to make. :)

On a personal note........please do not read any further if you do not want or have time to. I really do understand. :)

I think in my last post I mentioned that we have had rain and storms since last Friday. We would have small breaks in between the thunder storms and the rain but only small breaks. Yesterday was very bad. We had a tornado touch down in 9 of our towns. Many homes have been damaged or destroyed.Power lines and poles were torn down as well as many, many trees. We had one fatality. Wayne and I were very fortunate to have only experienced torrential rains off and on. We had lots of thunder and lightning and barely a break from the rain all day and all night. As I said, we were lucky. Today the sun came out and we had a beautiful day. So for now the storms are gone. It' as though nothing bad or frightening happened at all yesterday. As for the people who have lost their homes and one who lost her life they have been and will remain in my thoughts and prayers. This is not normal weather for NH so it all came as quite a shock to all of us. I can only imagine what it must be like to live in one of the many states where there are tornadoes and hurricane's daily for many months each year. My son, Jeremy lives in TN. he has been through many Tornado warnings this year. He called me tonight to make sure that Wayne and I were okay.What a good son. ;)I think for many of us we have been experiencing very strange and scary weather this summer. Let's hope that that the rest of the summer will be calm, sunny and delightful.

Today is Friday and that is the one day each week where I do lots of errands. As a rule I do not get home until after 8 pm. and tonight was no exception. I am looking forward to a slow and easy weekend which will include seeing one of my sisters and brother in-law. They are super people and I have missed them. Wayne and I will take a walk tomorrow because it is going to be sunny. Sunday we may have to walk in between the storms again. This time I will time it right. :) We will have a BBQ and maybe I will go out and take some photographs like I did today before I started my crazy day. I hope to get some new photos up very soon on my other blog called Photos By Mary C. Anderson.  

What will you be doing this weekend? I hope that what ever it is your going to do that it will include having lots of fun, some rest and much peace. Smile. :)