A fun visit with our granddaughter

Yes, we had Allayah for 3 days last week and had a marvelous time! It's amazing how much she has grown this year. Grandpa had to take off her training wheels so she could ride her bike and she was great on 2 wheels!

Speaking of Grandpa........Allayah was so happy to see him when he came home from work she jumped right into his arms to give him a hug. While we were grilling out she had to play a little golf with grandpa too.............she's getting better everytime she comes up. She even decided to wear a golf glove and here she is carrying her clubs!

Allayah still loves to play with the Barbie dolls & her baby dolls. We have so much Barbie stuff and she sets it all up in the rec room and plays so nice. She has 2 baby dolls that look like they are about 3 months old & we took them to the park and played with them on the swings. Someday (a very long time from now) she will make such a good mommy!

We got to do allot of swimming and her new swimming suit barely fit! She is one girl who could and does spend hours in the pool diving for toys or playing volleyball or games with me. That is a good thing too since the 1st day she was here it was raining.

We had to do some crafting of course so I taught her how to use my Cuttlebug and she not only made a birthday card for her cousin Alex but she made a bookmark and some images to take home and color. She loved using my new "toy" and also my glitter pens. Had to send a few home with her so she would have some to color with at home.

Our 3 days went fast and we had so much fun. My only regret is I never got one picture of her and I together but I did get a bunch of her to scrap. I also made a collage at Walgreens of some of the fun things she did here, framed it and sent it home with her. She loved her Hannah Montana backpack I got her for school and this has to be the first time that she loved all the clothes I got her and took them back so she could wear them to school. We can't wait until she comes up again!

Where have I been?

Sorry about the delay in blogging...............don't think I have ever gone that long without blogging but it has been an eventful week.

Right now I am involved in a Fiskars online crop...............challenges, questions and just plain fun. This group has meant allot to me and has become an extended family. Not only do we share our love of scrapbooking, crafts and gardens but we are there for each other when we just need someone to listen or care or even get advice from.

Speaking of Fiskars they are planning another warehouse sale next month...........that means more shopping and more bargains! I can't wait! I'm even hosting a get together on the night before it starts since there is a group of Fiskateers coming down this way from Illinois and spending the night at my place. We are going to have a pizza/pool party, do some crafty stuff and just spend time getting to know each other in person since most of us have only met online. It should be a ton of fun!

Today is a special day too as my grandson Alex turns 8.............sometimes I just wonder where did that time go? Here is a picture of him and his cousin Allayah from yesterday when we stopped over with birthday presents. Aren't they the cutest? While I was visiting with my son Travis they both drew and colored pictures for me to take home and hang up on my fridge. That was the end to a perfect day.

moving stamps to a binder

I will be the first to admit that I do own a FEW stamps both wooden and acrylic. The wooden stamps are displayed on 2 long shelves and also stamped in a book so I know what I have. The unmounted ones were all in CD cases in a CD stand...........they looked nice and it worked but I was always searching thru them to find the ones that I wanted to use.

So I meet this new friend Lori and she sells stamps from The Angel Company and while looking through their catalogue I see that they sell plastic storage sheets for the stamps. You get 3 sheets in a package for $4 and of course you can use both sides of the sheet. You can fit allot of stamps on a page and then when you are done.............you ink them all up and press a sheet of paper against it so that you have a stamped image sheet next to your stamps. Some of the clear stamps are very hard to tell what they are until they are stamped (as you can tell by the first couple of pictures). It took me 3 sets to do all my stamps and each set is in a binder so I have 3 binders full.

I think not only is the right way for me to store them but I will be using my stamps more since they are easy to access and easy to find! I actually did even find some stamps that I won't use so will be sharing those with someone soon.

My 1st acrylic album

I think I bought this little album over a year ago but put it away cuz I never felt quite comfortable doing something new like this. Always waiting to take a class so I could learn to do it the "right " way. Well I finally got that urge and took the plunge and I like it! The back of this album has a quote that says "when You are not by my side you are in my heart.......I miss you!

I found some gorgeous 2 sided paper from the Black Market Paper Society and searched thru all my ribbons and embellishments finding things that matched. I actually made another small mini album for my husband for our 10th wedding anniversary which comes up in a few weeks so you can't see that one yet.

I love the way the teal and brown work together and even the green. The tag shape was actually easy to use and cut out the paper and pictures to match. The size was 5 x 3 so it will fit nicely inside my purse. I used the Zip glue but though it says dry clears..........I can still see it so when necessary put embellishments and pictures over spots I wanted to hide.

So for a first attempt (no instructions included) I am really very pleased with the way this turned out and will try another one very soon.

Stop & smell the flowers

Endless summer hydrangea..............blue, purple or pink...........gorgeous huh? And they will bloom all summer!

This morning Kevin & I went to IHOP for breakfast and then came home to do some yard work before the heat set in. He is on vacation this week though we have no big plans at all. He mowed the lawn and I pulled a few weeds and did some dead heading of my flowers. It seems like everything is in bloom and so many pretty flowers out there that I thought I would share some pictures since he went off golfing for the afternoon. If you can remember earlier this spring we put in some new flower beds to finish off our landscaping project and they looked pretty sparce back then but take a look now!!!

And this is near the pond and waterfall tho it is quite hard to even see the stream anymore!

Flowers seem to bring out the peace in me and I love the way they attract birds and butterflies and especially all the hummingbirds right now. The beauty just goes on and on and the fragrances back there........well I wish I could just bottle it!

I Love my green thumb and love sharing the beauty with all of you.

house warming gifts

We are going to a house warming party out of town this week-end and since I have not seen the house it really got my mind working as to what could I give my friend Shirlee?

I made a cd case mini album so that she could just add pictures from her party. I used the paper line Max's Backyard.........the embellishments were so pretty and the paper is foiled and glittered. Here's the front and the back of the case. Some were rub on's and the other stickers. It actually is a pretty easy project to do & we all have cd cases laying around after we end up putting the cd's in a player or case etc. All you need to do is take out the inserts and then make an accordion style insert for pictures and journaling.

Here's a couple pictures of the inside. It actually will hold a dozen pictures. I'm not sure if you can see how pretty the paper is but it looks awesome without even pictures in there.

I also made this altered clipboard. Not sure if the color scheme will fit in but it is pretty and most of us women like to keep lists.........whether it be for shopping or things to do.....so I added the friendship theme to it by using some rub ons. I attached a pretty pen with a ribbon and then added more ribbons to the top of the clip. I made some pretty paper with my border punch and then just put some plain white ruled paper behind it. It turned out so nice that I need to make myself one soon!

The best part is both of these gifts are handmade and I know she will treasure them just because they are from me and made with love.

hand made flowers RAK

This next RAK will be for an envelope full of flowers............right now there 17 crocheted flowers of various sizes and colors that I made. To win these you have to send a card before our 10th wedding anniversary on September 2nd. For evey card you send you get your name put in a hat & I will draw out a name on our anniversary. You can also get your name put in again if you become a follower of my blog or send someone over to visit and they mention your name. If I get more then 15 cards in the mail the envelope will continue to grow or if I get 15 more followers!

I will continue to update with the progress and take new pictures if more flowers get added.

Guess some of you will need an address huh?

Louise Johnson

1008 Sunset Blvd

Stevens Point, WI 54481