Happy New Year!

I have not been blogging for awhile now. Feeling guilty, so I am starting before the New Year to get me off to a good start. My New Year's Resolution is to keep up my blog on a weekly basis. I think I can put that in my plans now. 

Sisters' Designs now has a small area at Cole's Corner in Wells to try and sell our crafted items. We are excited about this venture. Diane, the owner, has been so nice to us as we try and create a niche that will attract people to our endeavors. 

This is a music box that I made using a prebought box from Tate's in West Bath. It was perfect for this lovely little song, "Love Story".  I love the pink rose on top.

Music Box for sale.

I made another music box , but I actually made the box from chipboard and decorated it with Graphic 45 paper called, "Love Notes". 

 It is an awesome collection of paper that is perfect for Valentine's Day. 

This music box plays " Somewhere Over the Rainbow". Love the little feminine accents such as the pearls and the pink shoe. Could it be any prettier?

I think this would be great for anyone looking for a gift for someone to give on Valentine's Day. I am thinking of charging $30.00 for each music box. If they don't sell, I plan on giving them to my granddaughters for Valentine's Day. So either way I am happy that I made them.

Music Box for sale.

   I also took some small ball jars and decorated them with snowmen using my Cricut machine to cut out the images in my SVG file. 

  I thought they were super cute especially for a saleable item this winter. Who would not love receiving these little guys. I am thinking that the jar could be filled with candy, or soaps, or anything that would be fitting for a gift or a favor. 

 I like recycling items so they do not end up in the trash. This idea is one of our driving thoughts for my sisters and I. We plan on trying to use our talents in making old items new again. Not an easy task I will tell you.

Snowmen gift idea!

    On a side note, I am please as punch, to show you my new acquisition for our bedroom. This is a storage solution I found on Amazon for my scarves, winter sweaters, and whatever does not fit in my bureau. 

   It fit perfectly in this little area outside of our bathroom door.

I love how the handles are a wooden color and show off the black of each little cubby. 

  I can't tell you how it puts a smile on my face to be more organized than I was before this item was put together by my DH.

    We had such a fun Christmas with our kids this year! It was good to be together and enjoy the happiness of seeing our grandchildren open their gifts. This picture is when they saw the innertubes their parents gave them to use on our hilly hills around the area. They have tried them out for real and you can imagine how much fun they had. 

 

Fun at Christmas....

  I hope everyone stays well and has a Happy New Year. I know we are going to try and see the silver lining in all things.

  Stay positive and healthy. 

Where Has Summer Gone?

 Summer has shot by like a rocket. I have been busy doing gardening work and crafting. The hydrangeas are coming in quite well this summer. We bought two more because they do so well here. 

 We hired our neighbor to use his tractor to pull two mini lilac bushes away from our shed and help us plant them in the front . What a job! 

Still gotta take out the other plant.

They seem happy in their new place.

Cool tractor!

  We were so happy to have him work with us cause we were pooped. We could not have done it without him. 

  I really like how everything came out though. I plan on planting flowers in front of the shed. 

  It is raining now so no planting until it clears off. I will use flowers from my other two beds to help with the cost of buying new flowers. I love how I can move plants to where I want them because I have so many.

  I have also been using my Cricut Machine to make August birthday cards. Whew! I have alot of family with birthdays in August. This is just one for my brother-in-law. He is an avid golfer so this is perfect for him. I bought the SVG file from Lori Whitlock. It was so easy to put together.

The front

 The golfer on back is a stamp I have from Stampin Up. I just fussy cut him out after coloring him. I like how it came out.

The back.

  I am excited because Sisters' Designs 

Candlestick with moulds

got accepted into the Kennebunk Craft

Fair for 3 Saturdays in August and September. 

 This is new for us so I hope we do well and have fun meeting new people that like our crafts.

  This candlestick is one I was working on. I used moulds from IOD . I glued them on and then painted them a mineral chalk paint color. I decided that using a white was on the whole candlestick would give it a beachy look. It came out great.

  You will have to come to the Pavillion on Main Street Kennebunk to see it in its finished form.

Banana holder is now hold a basket.

     Here is another piece I am trying to sell at the Kennebunk Craft Show. I used a 

transfer on the bottom. I added a lacy handkerchief to the basket to make it look a little more elegant.

  I love that mineral color and use it alot. I need to buy more. 

  You could hang anything you want from the hook, but I really like the small basket.

  Our granddaughters are growing up but we still love babysitting them whenever we can. This is a great picture of them having fun together.

  They are so sweet and kind to each other. Such a joy to be with on these days. I try and take pictures each time to keep a memory .

  Hope you have had a good summer so  far. Maybe I will see you in Kennebunk Artisan Market Place on August 14th. 

February Fun~

This is the weather outside our home this February. We have had 
snow and more ice.

This month has been a busy month so far. We just got back from our trip to Florida, which was a fun trip. 

  We quarantined and then got out Covid test which proved negative. Amen.

We were able to see our grandkids again which is always fun. It is good to be back to our regular routine again too. 

We have not had alot of snow this month, but have some of the light fluffy stuff which I will take any day compared to the heavy snow. I HATE the ice because of my fear of falling. However, it is pretty on all the trees and shrubs. We did not lose power which I am so grateful for in this cold weather. Not as cold as Texas though. Praying for them down there.

Love these drawers. Not from Ikea.

   My DH was so good to me this month. For my Valentine gift he put these 4 drawers together and the 4 cubbies on top. He anchored the top to the bottom which is awesome because it makes the whole unit so strong. I love them.

   These drawers are not from Ikea, though. I purchased them from Wayfair. They were ten dollars cheaper than Ikea and free shipping. Color me happy. I am still moving things around to fill these drawers. I have not labelled them yet til I am done moving. But  I absolutely love them. They look so clean and neat. I have organized the rest of my craftroom around this inspirational drawer organization. I feel a halo about to land on top of my head. 

Valentine Cards

I worked on these Valentine cards for my family. I used my Cricut machine to cut them out from My Scrapchick file that I bought. I have not heat embossed the sayings yet onto each card. I was waiting for my Versa mark pen to come so I could finish them. One said, "Toadily  Awesome, Lovin every inch of you, Bee mine, and Love Bug". I thought they were wicked cute. 

    

Happy Valentine's Day

  I also made these candy

 boxes for my grandkids.

 This was also a file I bought from My Scrapchick. She was having a sale so I got them for half price. She is great for having sales on occasion. I love her files. Most of them are super cute. 

 These boxes were easy to make and held about 8 pieces of chocolate. This was perfect as we were going to celebrate Evy's 6th birthday the next day.

Birthday Girl!

Sharing 

  Evy is into Transformers as you can tell from her shirt. She has a new haircut too which looks adorable on her. We had great fun watching her open her gifts. She is such a good sister to , Izzy. Izzy would play with one of her gifts as Evy opened another one. Evy was fine with sharing. Both girls are so sweet to each other most of the time.

Tags for Evy's gifts

  I made these tags to go on Evy's gifts. I think they are so cute. I bought them from Wish so I do not know who makes them. I colored them with my Copic markers which was fun. I did not have any Transformer stamps so this would have to do. 

   I will end this post with a picture I took while in sunny Florida. The weather was so great while we were there. Thanks Chris and Tom for a wonderful visit. Hope we can do it again next year without masks and hand sanitizer. 

Florida

 
 

January Blues

Mark's Card for his birthday

  January has been a ho hum month. We have gotten some snow, but the warmer weather has brought rain which has taken all the snow pretty much away with just an inch or two left. 

  I like it to snow the light fluffy stuff so that I can go out and push it around and not worry about my back going out. Oh well, we will just have to wait for it.

  In the meantime I am crafting for birthdays that occur in January and February. I am loving my Cricut  for cutting out these awesome pieced to make a beer mug for my brother-in-law, Mark's birthday. He collects beer mugs for fun and he has quite a collection. This will be perfect for him. 

  I love how realistic it looks with me inking the suds a little to give it more on an authentic look. Even the gray paper I used for the actual mug gives it a realistic slant. Hope he likes it. This beer mug comes from Dreaming Tree SVG files. It only costs about , I believe, around 2.50. Much cheaper than a die. 

  

  My friend, Cindy, just bought a Cricut for herself. I went over to help her move files to her Design Space. She is a quick learner and has sent me pictures of the projects she has done since my visit. 

  She graciously made this "cozy" for my Cricut. It is so cute. Love the tassels that go around the outside. It will keep dust out of my machine and give it an awesome look. Thanks, Cindy!

  

Knobs

Happy Birthday Card

  I made birthday card for my daughter-in-law, Kristin, Her birthday is in February. I used the eclipse technique again. I really like how this technique looks on cards. You can also use it to make a frame sampler, too.

  I used my Stampin Up Tranquil Tulips stamps. I really like this set cause it reminds me of spring to come. 

  Look up the eclipse technique on Pinterest and some awesome projects come up to save. 

  

Great technique

  This well wishes card was super fun to make. I used my watercolor paint to dab onto the paper in a haphazard way. Then I used my Stampin Up stamps called Dandelion Wishes. This is a great stamp set for cards. I also used it on making coasters, too. 

    I purchased some knobs from Hobby Lobby cause they were on sale. You got half off most of the selection. I use them for music boxes or any box I might like to open.

  The small black knob I am using on the top of my lantern as a decoration. My DH has to cut off the screw a little bit cause it is too long, but it will work great. Love a sale. 

I am hoping that we will have a Spring Craft Fair to go to at USM in April or May, not sure when it might be. My sisters and I are working this winter on the possibility that we might be able to participate in it. 
So I have been looking at ways we could display our work for customers to see our projects better.

Display stand

  I put my wooden stamps in drawers that are labelled so that I could use this graduated stand for our goods. I think it might work. It will surely save space on the table and give the customer a better view. We will try this come spring , if we are able. 

  Well, I guess I will get back to work on making a new card called Outside the Box. My Favorite Things coined this name. They are selling a die for 50.00. My sister and I are making a similar card using out Cricut machine. We can make it larger or smaller which is awesome for us . Will post pictures next time. 

  Hope you all are well and happy. Keep safe.