Welcome to my studio!

With a busy work schedule and the making of some of my Christmas gifts I found I had no time to connect here on my blog.  Hopefully each of you have had a wonderful Christmas filled with the love of  family and friends.
With the beginning of a NEW YEAR I wanted my studio to be  all tidied up.  With it looking its best I want to welcome you to my studio!
WELCOME !   Do come in for a visit!

As you enter from our hallway you can pretty much see all my paper crafting area.  It is small but cozy!!  It's a fun space to share with my friends and family that enjoy paper crafting together here with me .

Here you will find the chair reserved for my guest at my main work table.  Two people can comfortably join me as I can move the Cricut table to open another work surface.  Nice, huh!?!

On this side of the table I have MY main creating area.  Everything is very close at hand and well organized.  The natural light is so enjoyed during the day.  The ceiling light fixture that my husband gave to me last Christmas, the Ott lights and table lamps offer good lighting during dreary days and at night.


This East wall has storage for most of my paper crafting supplies.  How helpful to have it well organized so I can find what I'm needing.  

This vintage cupboard on the South wall offers a good amount of storage.  My paper cutter sits handily here.
Hanging above it on a line of string  I have some of the beautiful handmade cards from friends that I so enjoy  ~ all ages!!  

       This West wall contains my reference area for my varied handcrafts that I so enjoy.

My Cricut is at the ready.  As of yesterday I joined the CRICUT CRAFT ROOM.  What fun to be able to create on a virtual online mat ~ FREE.  One does need to have the cartridges necessary to cut your paper and a USB cord to connect the Cricut to your PC or MAC.                Do try it!

Stampin' Up! stamps are stored alphabetically in bins so I can readily find the one I am looking for.  The shelves below keep my Cuttlebug and Spellbinder dies, and Zyron machines at the ready.   

As we leave my studio I thank you for sharing this time with me!  

Lots of color and many gifts from family and friends
surround me here in my haven!

My birdcage memo holder and my bulletin board hold special quotes, photos and many other special reminders of the dear people I so love having in my life! 

Feel free to leave me a note and it might just get posted with my other special belongings!!

May your NEW YEAR be blessed with the love of family and friends!  Our God has many special things in store for each of us!  Seek Him!

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.  ~Psalm 89:15
Blessings of joy..........~Sandie

A Ring of Great Value!

My oldest son has given this ring to his cherished lady and set a wedding date for this coming June 2012!  What fun it was to have a hand in putting the design to paper.  My husband is the jeweler/custom designer BUT he gave me the part of putting pencil to paper in the design stages.  WHAT FUN for me!!  As I enjoy drawing I felt so honored to put my skills toward something so important!  To gain a daughter(in-law) thrills my heart!!  My youngest son is already married, so now I will have two wonderful "daughters" to call my own!  They add so much sweetness to my LifE.  I am blessed!

Lip Balm Holder Card

Greetings, my friends!

Here is a simple yet special way to present a gift of lip balm. You can find a tutorial and pattern from Renee O. on Splitcoaststampers.com. Splitcoaststampers is an excellent resource for paper crafting tutorials and information. Their "gallery" photos feature many beautiful cards & projects for inspiration.

I gave these during my early years in paper crafting  as a small gift to family members during our Christmas gathering. It seems one can always use lip balm during these Minnesota winters!

Holiday Cranberry Layered Salad

YUMMMM! This is one of my favorite tasty layered salads from my childhood holidays. To this day I look forward to savoring the sweet/tart yumminess of it each year.

It is so easy to make. The ingredients are in the photo.

First~whip the 1/2 pint of heavy cream to fluffy peaks adding sugar & vanilla extract to taste.

Then crush one inner package of graham crackers to a fine crumb.

The 2 cans of jellied cranberry or rasp/cranberry need to be mushed with a fork.

Now you are ready to layer this goodness together in a glass bowl.

I like to begin with 1/4 C. of the mushed cranberry sauce, then a layer of whipped cream topped with graham cracker crumbs. Repeat this layering to fill the bowl. OH YUM!!! What a delightful Thanksgiving and Christmas food tradition!

Snowy Winter Wonderland

Welcome to our snowy winter wonderland in Minnesota!
Streets are clear now and walking on the sidewalks is fairly safe!  The ice just limits my walking our dog, Ladie, which is not good for either of us!  TEE HEE!!

Seems that all my listed "followers" disappeared!  OH YIKES!!  If possible PLEASE sign up again to stay in touch with me.  No idea what happened out there in the blogosphere to do that to my followers!

My days are kept BUSY with work and in the making of Christmas gifts.  Since it wouldn't be wise for me to show what I'm making at this time I will have to offer other creative endeavors.    With the weekend coming I am eager to begin baking some sweet treats for Christmas visitors.  OH YUM!!!  My mother and I want to make divinity together.  Memories from my childhood of biting into the soft sweet delectable clouds spur me on!

Knowing everyone has a  busy agenda at this time of year be sure to take good care of yourselves and stay SWEET!!
Joyfully......~Sandie 

Manilla "YOU CAN FLY..." Tag

Hello to each of you that visit here!

With hopes of creating a project to share at least once a week I have this tag that I so enjoyed making. Using stamps from 4 different designers I created the final layout. Scroll down for supplies used.

Using a manilla tag I created a vintage feel with Distress Inks, Glossy accents and Clear Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint

Hopefully in this photo you can see that I used the Crackle Paint on the clock face.  It gave a time-worn look.  Glossy Accents was used to high light the bird and leaves after I used red, green and yellow distress inks.  Glossy Accents also adds slight dimension to the areas.  After distressing the edges with my Ranger Distress Tool I used my Ink Blending Tool to add color.  

The following photo features the reverse side. Using my Ranger blending tool I stamped randomly to give a finished look to the tag. Fiber strands tied to the top added the finishing touches.  What I enjoyed most was that whatever happened  happened with my stamping.  There is no right or wrong ~ just lots of creativity happening and that thrills my heart!!

Stamps:  Stampin' Up!, Unity, Clear Art Stamps, and Tim Holtz
Inks:  Tim Holtz Distress Inks, Glossy Accents, and Ranger Distress Crackle Paint

A heart that is grateful.......

Hello, my friends!
Bonnie Gray at Faith Barista (http://www.faithbarista.com/) has such encouraging words for us at this time.  Remembering to give THANKS to God, our family, friends and even someone you don't know for their smile, listening ear or just a simple "hello" can make such a positive difference in our daily lives.  What fun it is to see when that person responds, yet that isn't necessary if we are willing to just give without expecting something in return!

How grateful I am that many of our family are getting together on Thanksgiving Day for our tasty meal and fun fellowship at my childhood home!  I am SO ready to share the time together with the grownups and children alike!
Blessings of joy and gratefulness fill my heart for each person that touches my life!
May your THANKSGIVING be filled with love and the gift grace overflowing.
Joyfully......~Sandie

These are two of my cards that I made awhile back, but I wanted to share how the choice of paper can make such a difference in the feel of the card. The floral stamp is from a Stampin' Up Set.

This card combines stamping and gold embossing on designer and ivory colored papers.

Inside the card is a simple sentiment from Stampin' Up with more gold embossing of small chipboard flourishes.

Thank you for your prayers! Wayne is recovering so well from his dreadful car accident. We are AMAZED and so grateful that he remained in such good shape! His vehicle did not make it! Many more people were not as fortunate due to the slippery roads and poor visiblity on Saturday! My prayers go out to them and their families.

For those of you that have a heart for prayer I would so appreciate your prayers for my husband, Wayne, this evening and the days to come. He was involved in a roll-over car accident on a highway 3 hours away from home this morning. How grateful I am that he is alive and whole in body and mind. Being quite shaken up due to his Bronco rolling 4 to 5 times off the road in icy conditions has left him with minor cuts and bruises. How grateful we both are that he had his seatbelt on!

With prayers of THANKSGIVING my heart is GRATEFUL that I still have my husband to be with me, and Lord willing, he'll return home tomorrow with the help of a very kind and generous friend. Wayne was driving to his son's home, so he is able to spend the night there. THANK YOU for your prayers! ~Sandie

My First Blog Calling Card

How fun it has to been to dream up a design for my very first BLOG CALLING CARD!  I wanted to be able to share these with family and friends when they request my blog address.  The card contains computer/printer generated lettering and stamped lettering and images.  I distressed the edges and then inked them using "fired brick" Tim Holtz distress ink.  Now I'm off to make a few more.  Who knows where this will lead me as I really enjoyed the process of creating!
This Saturday we have the Mayo Clinic Craft Show to enjoy and find inspiration.  So many delightful artisans display their work for sale.  A special time to share with my friend, Dawn! 

Anemone and Spiral Beaded Bracelets

A good morning to each of you!

Enclosed is a photo of two other bracelets that I have made and enjoy wearing often. The top one uses the anemone technique which creates seed bead fringes on a beaded base. You can find the instructions here: www.fusionbeads.com

Years ago I made the spiral bracelet and I no longer remember where I picked up the pattern for that one.

Irish Linen Beaded Bracelets(2) & Leather and Bead Ladder Bracelet

What fun I am having while creating these beaded bracelets using waxed Irish linen!  This first one has 8* beads on the outside of the burnt orange linen center.  It will have a length to encircle my wrist three times.  You can find an excellent tutorial by Andrea at Beadaholique here:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nVoFooYL5Lw

This blue Irish linen single strand tutorial is from Beadholique also.  It is awaiting my choice of a vintage button for the closure.  This bracelet twines three times around my wrist also.  I used the same size 8* beads.

The following Crystazzi gold glass pearl & brown leather ladder-style bracelet tutorial is from Kelly at Auntie's Beads.  I added a vintage button from my stash of collected lovelies!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lijTSeylc2k

Hopefully this inspires those of you who enjoy beading and want to try these techniques!
It's SO GOOD to be creating!!!!

My Cottage Style Home and My Sweet Hens

My husband and I enjoy our cozy cottage style home in a wonderfully friendly neighborhood. These are backyard photos with our pond in the center and chicken coop to  right of garden shed (from Summer 2011).  My gardens of flowers, aromatic herbs, and vegetables are small but ever so productive.  Along with our vibrant chocolate lab, Ladie, and our sweet cuddly feline, Fauna, I have my Buff Orpington hens that I so enjoy throughout my days.  Such sweet blessings!!

Our Home With Views From This Past Summer

Our new front porch, that my husband built, has become such an inviting place to entertain, especially on spur of the moment, when a friend is just passing by.  With our porch at the front of the house we are able to enjoy our neighborhood and its friendly people to the fullest.  I made the awning to shade the sitting area so it is an excellent place to relax.  Come sit a spell!!  

Be sure to check this out.....

A lovely GIVE AWAY at A GATHERING PLACE...

Rebecca features a train case that she is giving away to some lucky person just in time for decorating for Christmas!  OH HOW FUN!!!      Sign up on her blog listed here! 
  
http://rebecca-gatheryeroses.blogspot.com/2011/10/vintage-train-gathering-case-giveaway.html   

Napkin Holder Now A Guest Towel Holder

A fun little project for the morning!

 This is a wire napkin holder I found at Michaels Craft Store yesterday for $1.99.  With its open bottom  I found that my guest towels wouldn't stay flat in it.  So, I added a foam core piece that I covered with some designer craft paper.

Whahlah!  Now I'm ready for guests to feel free to wipe their hands on these lovely paper towels instead of a community hand towel.  Seems to make good sense with winter time colds and such going around!  How pleased I feel having created something "simply" useful once again.