{stylish blogger award}!

My friend, Marlene thinks my blog is stylish. Alrighty then, Marlene!!! Thank you so much! {I've been putting some effort into my blog as of late. Trying to kick it up a notch...so thanks for noticing!} She awarded me with a "Stylish blogger Award". Yay!!! :) :)

By accepting this award I must complete the following tasks:

1) Thank and link back to the person who awarded me.
This would be Marlene!!! Thanks, Marlene - you are over-the-top-awesome!!!

2) Share 8 things about myself.

3) Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that I have recently discovered.

4) Contact those bloggers and tell them about their awards.


Okay, 8 things about myself…



1) I sing loud, awful & often.
2) I love my dog like he's a person.
3) I have two fabulous adult sons who I have a hard time calling "men".
I still see them as my boys.
4) My hubs and I love to travel and have visited 14 National Parks in the U.S. - from California to Maine.
5) I'm in my 20th year at the same job!
6) I am a Landlady. I nice landlady though, not a mean one.
7) My family requests my kick-a$$ cheesecake (oh, and sometimes....I swear).
8) I love to meet new people and can talk to anybody - airports, the mall, public restrooms - it's all good. ;) :) :)



Now, 8 blogs that are new to me and totally fabulous!!!

1) Mara - "Love Your Mother" Not only does this girl scrap, but she bakes like a banshee!! Then....she posts mouth water, wicked tease you pics w/recipes and directions! Love me some Mara!!

2) Kelly - "Living in a House of all Boys" - Kelly posts beautiful pics of her little boys and she makes the most cool, hip & fun projects that come together quickly. Hey, this woman has 4 little boys!! She needs quickly. ;)

3) Aimee - "Optimistic Scrappiness" - Love, love, love Aimee's attention to detail. And, if I can say this without sounding like a weirdo stalker.....she reminds me of me. Love her stuff!

4) Natalie - "Keeping It Simple" - Natalie totally rocks color!!! Love her use of embellies and her fun, happy style.

5) Amy - "CurlyQ Mosaics" - Run to Amy's blog. So many unique, fab projects!

6) Nicole - "Four Wise Guys" - Nicole is a fun, all-around excellent scrapbooker!!

7) Nora Anne - "Robinson's Nest" - shut-up!!! NoraAnne can stamp & design cards like it's nobody's business!! Inspiration alert!!!

8) Scrappergirl - "The Velvet Lemon" - first of all, who comes up with such a unique blog name as "The Velvet Lemon"? So love that!! Second, love this girl's scrappy style!! Plus, her blog posts are filled with beautiful photos.
~~~~~

YOU'VE ALL BEEN AWARDED "The Sylish Blogger Award"!!! Grab the image and display it proudly!!! :) :)
~~~~~

So, if you have a few extra minutes (and I know they're getting harder to come by with the holidays upon us)...but, you won't be sorry if you sit and browse at the above blogs. Get yourself a nice whatever-it-is that you like to drink, and treat yourself to some fab crafty eye candy. :)


have fun!
~patti

{a snowflake paper garland}

Today I took out a couple of Christmas decorations.

The wooden snowman family on top of my quilt shelf was given to me by my mother-in-law when son Matthew was a baby. That's 20 years ago now. Does that make it vintage? LOL!!! The shelf sitting snowman was given to me by same son, Matthew, last year. (He also gave me a Santa who stands on the floor and a cinnamon candle w/snowman ornament set.) How cute is it that my then 20 yo son picked out Christmas decorations for me? He is so sweet!!

{Getting decent shots of the garland was a challenge. There is zero natural light in here today...it's been snowing off/on all day and the sky is gray.}

So, I hope you can see it well enough to know that it is a wicked easy project to make. I used an ek snowflake punch and some Scenic Route Christmas pp, Bazzill and Worldwin cs scraps. Just punched a bunch out and stitched them together. Total time - an hour and a half. My garland is 5.5' long. I wanted it to be tight...so I overlapped the edges of the snowflakes so that I wouldn't have a lot of wasted thread. You can make this garland "looser" if you want. Just think about all the ways one could decorate a garland! If you are a person who likes glitter - glitter 'em up! I'm a simple kind of traditional decorator, so I chose to keep mine plain.

Thanks for lookin'!

hugs, patti

twisted sketches #35!

{what's black and white and read all over? this thank you card!!! haha!}

My friend Jan introduced me to the Twisted Sketches challenge site.

This week, their challenge is to use layers on a card.

I so love an easy challenge!!! :) :)

I started with a kraft base and then just piled on some Jillibean Soup. YUM.

There's pp, cs, and then a couple of journaling sprouts w/cs sandwiched in between.

I also used a Jillibean fabric flower, topped w/a MM button tied w/MS baker's twine.

Machine zig zag and a sentiment stamp by Fiskars and voila! I am done with this card in about an hour - which, seriously....must be a record for me. haha!

Thanks, Twisted Sketches girls for a fun challenge!! :)

~patti

{p.s. this is a little bit embarassing - I saw this challenge and did not pay close attention to the actual sketch! duh! was only thinking of the layering. ooopsie!!!}

{gift bag challenge}

~christmas joy~

to/from tag ~

I saw this alter a gift bag or box challenge at The Paper Variety - challenge # 11 - and thought "oh, yay! I'm gonna dig into my Christmas stash!!!" ...and digging I did. :) :)

For this bag (by Hallmark, purchased for $1. @Walmart), I used stash pp. ~ Scenic Route, Making Memories & Crate. The "christmas" rub on is old - and I was so glad that it actually rubbed, not sure who the manufacturer is. "joy" letters are felt AC thickers. Pom-pom trim and buttons from stash too. I machine stitched around the circles & added MS baker's twine to the buttons.

For the tag, I used a stampin' up! to/from stamp w/red staz-on and added a MM eyelet and some AC ribbon. That's it!!

Note ~ when covering a bag, I use glue, not just adhesive. Fabri Tac will hold this pp down for-ev-er.

{I'm a gift bag recycler.}

Thanks so much for coming by! Happy Monday!!

hugs, patti

{a blog give-away!!}

I've been thinking {for about a month now} that it would be wicked cool to have a blog give-away. So, I started making some purchases....thinking "what scrapper wouldn't like this?", all the while putting together a prize that I feel every crafter would like and have fun creating with. Doesn't that sound like fun? It has been!!! I've scoured some sales and have used some coupons. LOL!!!

{this is what I came up with. click for a bigger, even yummier image.}

Want to win it???
All you need to do is make a comment about what you like most about the prize, if you're already a follower.

If you're not a follower...why not become one? Every once in a while I have a good blog post. ;) Ya just never know!! Once you become a follower, make a comment about what you like most about the prize and you are in. Easy cheesey lemon squeezey, right??

For the record, I like the box of 45 Bazzill cards w/envelopes the most!!! {I so love it!}


Here is a list of items in the prize ~
1) Box of 45 Bazzill cards & envelopes
2) Bag-O-Buttons by foof-a-la
3) Sassafras "indie girl" 6x6" paper pad
4) Dear lizzy Springhouse crocheted flowers
5) jenni bowlin embellished butterflies
6 & 7) jillibean soup journaling sprouts (2 pkgs.)
8) AC thickers - raw chip
9) jenni bowlin crepe paper ribbon
10) Lush by MME bling
11) Cosmo Cricket "togetherness" stickers
12) Kaiser craft "limited edition" rub ons
13) 1 yard fancy green ribbon
14) jenni bowlin brown journaling dies
15) my little shoebox mini alpha stickers
16) Scenic Route label cardstock stickers
17) Technique Tuesday clear background stamps
18) Maya Road chip tags
19) Felt

20) Basic Gray bling it on


I plan to run the give-away for about two weeks.

So, what are you waiting for?

Tell me what you like most and you'll be entered in my fun give-away {which also, BTW, includes free shipping. haha!}

It's my way of thanking all of my blog followers.

I so appreciate the love & praise that comes from my scrappy friends!!

...and, now you all know it. :) :) :)

xo, patti

p.s. feel free to share this give-away with your friends!!

{julie ann shahin}

Today my friend Julie Ann is coming over to scrap!!!
Yay!
Only thing I need to do is find some chocolate. The hubs ate all the m&ms!!!

You can find Julie Ann here.

And here.
And here.

happy scrapping!! :) :) :)

{trash to treasure!}

I should say from "tarnished trash" to treasure.

Wish I had taken a "before photo" of this sterling silver plate that my MIL gave me Wednesday night. She came down from the attic and handed me this "piece of sh*t" - her words!! She can be a feisty 75 year old. LOL!!

I sat with my polishing cloth for a couple of hours. The thing was black!!

I was so happy with how it cleaned up that I wanted to keep it out - plus I think my MIL will get a kick out of it when she sees it (she's coming for supper tonight). :)

Melonie (Mel has this "make it look easy" kind of sophisticated style, a really hip, fun blog and she is a fabulous photographer!!), at Citrus Tree Studio has a "banner challenge" for November. One of the banners is by 7 Gypsies - and was my inspiration for this piece. {thanks, Mel!!}

~my humble little foyer~

I started with some bazzill and roughed up and then stitched the perimeter of my bottom piece. Then I added a gray piece of bazzill, some Adorn It! pp, BG curio die cuts - also hand stitched. The key is from my scrappy friend Kelly Day, glued down w/Tombo metal glue. Flower is Prima, letters are Kaiser craft painted w/MM black paint. The kraft envelope is Maya Road and I placed a Tim Holtz grungeboard swirl piece on top and then sprayed w/coffee shop glimmer mist to get that pretty pattern. More grunge by TM, painted w/TH crackle paint - shabby shutters. So love this stuff!! :)

This was such a fun project!! I'm looking forward to changing it up - making a little something for the center for Christmas and then again for the Spring. :)

Thanks for coming by!!!

hugs, patti