Normal Day

On January 22, Melissa, of 320 Sycamore, posted this quote on her blog.


I went back and reread it today because I needed to remind myself of the
importance of every normal, ordinary day.
I wish you a normal, ordinary day...

xoxo
Joyce

We interrupt this regular programming for an important announcement...

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Steelers for their win over the New York Jets

 for the AFC Championship and another trip to the Super Bowl!!!!!
Stairway to Seven guys!

Unfortunately....not all the fans could stay awake for the win...

(Charlie and Miles in Maryland)

They need to take a nap, next time, before the BIG GAME!
xoxo
Joyce

 

Let the celebrating begin...it's time to announce a winner!

First of all...I want to thank all of you for your Birthday wishes and greetings. It was like a virtual party and I loved every minute of it! I have said again and again that I love the friends that I've made through blogging and now I even have some new friends! I wish I could send prizes to everyone....or at least a slab of cake... but I can't,  so to those who didn't win...I send big hugs to you!

Now, I went to the random.org site and used the generator to pick a winner from the 34 comments on this post. I have the winning number but I don't know how to copy and paste the generator graphic...aack!
The winning number is #29 which is NanE....yay Nan! Please send me your mailing address Nan and I will send you your Birthday treats.

Thank you again for making my birthday a special day indeed!!

xoxo

Joyce

BirTHdaY GiVEawAy!

I love Birthdays and I love parties, sooooo....

I'm going to help you with your next party...

in celebration of my Birthday!

(isn't that great...I get to give the gifts!)

Here are the prizes for you...

A Banner to hang for your banner day..

(Banner will be similar to this one which was sold at the Craft Fair)

it doesn't have to be a Birthday...

you could celebrate getting a new haircut...

or a new job...

or the sun is shining...

or any holiday...just

Celebrate!

You'll need some supplies...

A cute stand to hold your cupcake!

Cute cupcake papers!

Exciting new candles!

and who is that peeking in on the corner????
How to enter...
The giveaway is for followers of this blog....
new ones or old ones..
it doesn't matter.
You don't need to spread the word (but you can if you'd like)
No need to Tweet or
Facebook about it
Just leave a comment  on this post to be entered!
If you don't have a blog, please let me know how to contact you.
Join in on the fun!
You're all invited!
A lucky name will be drawn on
Saturday, January 22...
(which is David's birthday, but he's not having a giveaway)

xoxo
Joyce

  

Cherished Gifts

NOTE: So as not to confuse anyone with the giveaway details...that post will go up at midnight tonight.
There is going to be a Giveaway this week right here at Scrap For Joy.
I am turning 62  on Thursday and my favorite way to celebrate is to give things away!
 I have to gather the treats together before I can tell you about it so check back after 12:00 AM EST
Until then...

 I would like to show you some amazing things that have made their way to me in the last month...

First is this amazing santos figure that I have been wanting for a long time.

I first saw one of these beautiful ladies on Mary Lou's (House of Whimsy) blog. (Mary Lou is one of my idols...I only mean that in a good way...and I find her constantly inspiring!)  These next 2 pictures have been lifted from her blog. She uses her santos in very creative ways for the holidays

This particular figure was found at Ballard Designs here, but is no longer available. They do have some similar figures. To make a long story a little shorter (I don't know how to tell a short story), before Christmas, Ballard's had an estate sale and featured this beauty......and the day I saw it they offered an additional 25% off....well, I couldn't resist any longer. When I told my sweetheart I had ordered her, he kindly offered to give her to me for Christmas. {{Sigh!}} She is even more beautiful in person than in a picture and I know I'll have a lot of fun decorating with her.
 Thanks for the inspiration Mary Lou.

I have written about my friendship with Marie (Spun By Me) on several occasions. We have been blogging friends for several years now...we've written to each other and have even spoken on the phone.

Our goal is to meet in person this year and I'm confident that it will happen. Anyway, because we are friends, we know each other's taste pretty well. Marie surprised me at Christmas with two beautiful gifts.

The item on the left is a pin, made from the hollow handle of an old knife. Marie made a little arrangement of greenery to tuck inside, tied it with a bow and added a little metal tag that says "believe". Isn't it sweet? The other item is a magnet, made using a small metal tray and decorated with vintage ephemera. Marie and I both love chubby birds (and squirrels...but that's a whole other story!) so this was fitting from one bird lover to another. Marie is a woman of great faith and exceptional talent and I love these gifts from her.

Another blogging friend that I've talked about many times is Michelle of Wood and Fabric.

Michelle hasn't been blogging for very long and I first "met" her through her Etsy shop. She lives in Quebec and is one of the most amazing stamping paper crafters I have come across. I have bought  many things she has created and she has gifted me with some beautiful things also. For Christmas this year she sent me two cards.

The first one featured a figure she often uses in her crafting...

Beautiful-no? But the next card will completely knock your socks off!

It's called a never-ending card. I had never seen anything like it before...

Michelle lifted pictures from my blog...converted them to black and white and created this...

Do you see the slit in the middle...that creates doors that you open to the next page...

Open the doors again...

and again...

and one last time...

and you end up back at the beginning.

I wish you could hold this card in your hands and see the wonder of it!

It is the most amazing card I have ever received and of course with pictures

of Charlie, Miles and David...it was even more treasured!

If you link to Michelle's post here, you can see one of these cards that she made

 for herself in a 12X12-inch size. I really want to learn how to do this! 

Michelle and I just found out that we are partners in

A Swap For All Seasons, Mini Fabric Collage Swap.

(The button for the swap is on my sidebar)

How lucky is that?

Thank you Michelle...this was the most amazing gift!
I hope you have time to visit Mary Lou, Marie and Michelle today.
Tell them I sent you.

Speaking of handmade things...many of you have written asking me about the

roses on the box and tag I featured in my last post...

I did not make them...my friend did, but here is a link from Stephanie of Under the Table Dreaming

with some simple directions. Another tutorial can be found here.
Aren't they fun?



xoxo
Joyce

Winter Brunch

It was a cold and snowy day...

David had to clear off the driveway and sidewalks...

I had planned it for weeks. Friends coming for a Winter Brunch.

 Everyone bringing something to contribute to the meal.

I had undecorated the dining room from it's Swedish Christmas red and whites

and redecorated in the silvers and whites of Winter.

The table was set with white table linens, silver placemats, the "good" monogrammed silver, glass plates, a variety of glassware, and interesting napkins...

At each place was a clear ornament ball, holding vintage white buttons and

decorated with lace and seam binding, and a sequined crown...

and treat bags for each guest...along with some homemade cocoa mix...

The table was decorated with a centerpiece consisting of a mirror square on which sat

a pewter bowl filled with an assortment of silver, mercury glass and glittered ornaments.

The large Bethlehem star was found at Crate & Barrel several years ago.

Silvery snowflakes were scattered around the table and silvery Hershey's kisses

 scattered as well. My big mistake, of course, was decorating the table the day before the brunch.

Needless to say...I had to replenish the kisses before the guests came because

every time I passed through the dining room (and I got to the point where I had to

pass through  once or twice an hour!) I grabbed as many as my hand could scoop up

one or two.

We ate, we talked, we laughed, we ate some more, we exchanged gifts...

We had a wonderful time, relaxing together after the merriment of Christmas was over.

I wish you all could have come. Next year, I'd be happy to set a place for you...

XOXO

Joyce

Happy Homemaker Tag Along

I love swaps.
I love swaps involving tags.
I love swaps involving tags hosted by Elizabeth of Creative Breathing.
I have made 76 tags to date as part of tag swaps with Elizabeth's (Creative Breating Crafters) group. (after this swap: 100 tags)
This is my 6th tag swap with Elizabeth's (Creative Breathing Crafters)group. (I also participated in a Block Swap 2 years ago)


January, 2011.  Happy Homemaker Tag Swap

* A year of tags...one per month, made for a partner to be named at the end of the year
* Choose a theme (anything you want) for your tags.
* You can only use one pad of paper for the whole year (and coordinating embellishments) or 5, 12x12-
    inch sheets of cardstock/paper and embellishments.
* Make 2 tags per month (one for you and one for your partner) following your theme.
* Tags should be 3X6-inches, constructed using the "sandwich" method...2 layers of cardstock/paper with  
    a  layer of lightweight cardboard in between.

I thought this would be simple. Happy Homemaker would be my theme...I would use vintage housewife images and make them kind of sassy like the greeting cards I make.
No, I didn't like that idea. Then I thought I would do a year of tags honoring friendship. Nope, threw that one out the window, too! I want something that will be fun all year...colorful...a theme that I love, but different than what I'm used to doing. Can't decide, can't decide! I know...I'll get a committee together and they'll help with my decision.

The Committee

After many conversations about theme and papers...we've arrived at a plan!

The Theme



PAPER DOLLS! I love paper dolls! A year of paper doll tags. I started looking on Flickr and other one-line sources for just the right paper doll images. Tried some out...couldn't find what I was looking for....and the committee didn't approve these either.



 Then I remembered that I have every issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Magazine since the first one in 1996. (Oh how I miss that magazine!) Every issue had paper dolls and most of them were of my very favorite character of Mary's...Ann Estelle...my alter ego! Viola!

Would the committee like this idea?

They loved the idea!!

 In homage to Mary Englebreit and in celebration of Ann Estelle...I have chosen "It's a Banner Year Ann Estelle" as my theme. A paper doll tag that is interactive...you can play with her and change her clothes. I'll have fun making the tags and my partner and I will both have paper doll sets at the end. I'm almost 62 years old and I still love paper dolls!!!

Let's Get Started!

The Supplies

I went through all of the pages and pages of paper dolls and selected the dolls, sized them to 83% of the original print and printed them on white cardstock from PaperTrey Ink. I mention this because the cardstock from this company is of the highest quality and prints out beautifully and also takes stamped images perfectly. They list the paper weight as 110-pound, but it feels heavier than the 110-pound weight paper I purchase at Sam's Club. Here is a link to Paper Trey's cardstock.

The clothes are printed on high quality 28-pound paper

Speaking of the clothes...there are so many to choose from so I think some months will have more than one choice. The committee says "The more the merrier Mary-ier!"

Lots of people would look at this stack of empty boxes and think they were on the way to the trash can or the recycling bin....but not the Creative Breathing Crafters!

These cardboard boxes will be cut and used for the "sandwich" layer of the tags. You know that I only eat pizza and snacks for the boxes, right?

The Papers

The paper pack I chose is from Memory Box. It is an older line as I promised myself that I wouldn't purchase anything new for this swap....I have a paper hoarding collecting  problem. The papers are 6x6-inches and they are double-sided giving me lots of options. All of the prints are tiny so I think they'll work well with the scale of the clothes and the doll.

I will also be using some plain colored cardstock to fill in.

The January Tag

OK, I have to admit that I'm still working out the kinks on this first tag...the committee and I have had some, um, artistic differences. It's coming along and I hope to add the finished tag to this post by this evening. I just didn't want to miss the chance to at least link up to Elizabeth's blog...today is the last day for Tag 1.

I have been visiting the other Creative Breathing Crafters who have already linked their tags to Elizabeth here and I must say that I am overwhelmed and over-joyed at everyone's work. I see there are some friends (Linda and Linda and  Nancy) I've swapped with before  from A Swap For All Seasons; lots of girls I've swapped with in the Creative Breathing Crafters Group and also a number of new artists. Hooray for all of you...I'm enjoying getting to meet you!

7:50PM....the tag is finished! Thank you for being patient!

It's January, and in a week I will celebrate my Birthday...my 62nd Birthday.

 I think it's Ann Estelle's birthday, too......so she's having a Birthday Pajama Party. She's inviting her friends to stay overnight...drink hot cocoa and eat birthday cupcakes and the next morning...go ice skating. Consider yourself invited...we'd love to have you come and join the party.

Ann Estelle's dresser where she keeps all of her cute outfits.

I hope you're warm and cozy wherever you are tonight. The snow has been coming down and blowing around all day. A perfect day to craft!

Next week, I'll tell you about a  giveaway to celebrate my Birthday.

xoxo

Joyce