Pastor Appreciation Card 2014

I was asked to make a "big" card for Mark Jordon for Pastor Appreciation Day. I'll take it to church Sunday and get the congregation to sign it while he and Donna are on their vacation to the beach.  I was having a hard time deciding what to make. I scoured Pinterest for several days. There aren't many that I liked. This one is a little bit of one, a little bit of another, and a little bit of me.

I used silver mirrored cardstock for the backing of the cross. The cross is the one from the Wedding Cricut cartridge. I cut it at 6" and cut the blackout at 6" from the mirrored cardstock. I used pop-dots between those two layers so the cross would have a shadowed effect, sitting up from the silver backing. The mirrored strip was embossed with the dots folder. (It looks black in this picture, but it's a strip of the mirrored silver cardstock). I used my punches for the leaves and flowers. I used the palest pink, blue, and two pale shades of green. I only wanted faint coloring in the leaves and flowers.

I added rhinestones, silver dots, chrome blings, and green pearls for the centers of the flowers. I punched the butterfly from a piece of patterned vellum and bent the wings up and only applied glue to the butterfly body. The "In Appreciation" was printed on the paper and then cut, using the Big Kick die cutter.

The inside has folded paper, glued just to the center fold to make "pages", to give everyone space to add their congratulations.

The verse is from 1st Corinthians 9:14 - " ...the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel." I thought that would be appropriate for a preacher!

Note: If you click on the picture, it will expand so you can see the entire card.

Hallowe'en Cards for 2014

I made one like this for a friend last year and decided that it would work for Alex's Hallowe'en card this year. He's 5, soon to be 6, and in Kindergarten. He saw a bowl of apples on my table and exclaimed, "We're studying about apples in school!" I asked him if he'd like one to eat and he said, "Mmmmm, nah, but thanks for asking, Nanny!"

He later went out to help Popie pick up all the fallen walnuts.







Emma's card is a spooky tree with a glittery bat. You can't see the bright orange cardstock very well in this picture. It's almost a neon orange. The bat was re-cut in a glittery black paper.  Maggie's card is the Grim Reaper with some bright pink glitter paper behind it. The inside of her card has a bat swinging from the word "Spooky".

I wish could remember how to get these pictures where I want them. Oh, well.

Warren County Fair 2014

This year at the Fair, I entered 18 items and won 17 ribbons - 4 red (2nd place) and 13 blue (1st place) and won $38.25. I had been working on this year's entries since the last fair and spent most of the fall, winter, and spring getting things made. 

Most of my ideas came from Pinterest. I can spend a lot of time browsing through the pages and pages and pages. After finding something interesting, I click on it and WOW - there's another page that leads to another page that leads to another world and then I get lost and find that an hour has passed.  

(If you click on the picture, it will open wider) 

These are the items that I entered this year that earned Blue Ribbons. Kara's scrapbook, the fashion doll bridal dress, the knitted AG doll outfit (she's a painter and has her paint supplies and paint palette), the Trick-or-treat AG doll outfit (she has a mask and a trick-or-treat bag with lots of tiny goodies inside. I found a site where you can download lots of printables for candy wrappers and chip bags. They turned out great!) The plastic canvas tissue box cover was really pretty - it was done in ivory yarn with ivory ribbon and then I glued a tiny ivory pearl in each of the little squares. 

I had a lot of fun knitting the baby layette. I actually managed to learn how to knit cables and the front of the sweater has a cable in the middle of the front. The set includes a car-seat blanket, booties, hat, sweater, and pants. Since I was in a knitting mood, I also knitted a pair of white baby booties and a yellow baby bonnet. I had knitted a blue hat and mittens for Alex last year for the fair, but I already had a hat and mittens to enter so I save them for this year. Unfortunately, I think they are too small for him this year. I think I'll add them to the stash of hats and mittens my church group is making for the pre-K classes at one of the local elementary schools. 

The blue booties that I crocheted with thread turned out nice. We have a great-nephew who's wife is expecting, so I'm pretty sure (if the baby is a girl!) I'll be giving the booties to them along with the baby layette.

I found a pattern on Pinterest (of course!) for the knitted slippers. They turned out great! I love them! Kara, Maggie, and Emma want a pair, too. I have the yarn ready, just have to sit down and make them. The little champaign-colored purse was crocheted with cording that a church friend gave me. It is a little shiny and that makes it so pretty! I lined it with a light colored fabric and added a zippered pocket inside and also a zipper to close the purse. I used bright blue for the bookmark and added blue beads and a little metal disk to the cording. 

My afghan got a red ribbon. I really don't understand that. This thing was beautiful with the popcorn designs. What's wrong with those judges!! Two other red ribbons were for the ecru doily (again - what's up with those judges?), and the blue neck scarf that is for my little cousin in Fairfax. I had knitted hats for her and her little sisters but held the scarf back to enter into the fair. I don't think she'll mind. The last red ribbon was for the pink hot-mat. I crocheted it with pink thread because that's all I had left that was a color. I have a lot of ecru and white, but I wanted the hot-mat to be colorful. I hand-stitched a circular piece of pink felt to the bottom. 

This is my final year for making things to enter in the Fair. I've run out of ideas. Pinterest has millions and millions of ideas, but I think I'm burned out. All my energies went into finishing things. There were a few things that didn't get to the fair. After looking at them, I decided that they weren't "Fair-worthy" !  The ladies slippers are the second pair I made. I unraveled the first pair and re-knitted them. I'm sure I'll still make things, but not for the fair. I'll still be making cards and scrapbooks, too, so I think I'll still be busy.