Hey Guys, I'm Off

Hey guys, today is the day, the CKU in Manchester.  I can't wait to go! I promise I will bring back a wealth of knowledge to share with you, as well as photo's to share with you!! I will miss you, as I know as you will miss me.  I hope you have a Fabulous Saturday, and I will be back tomorrow with I an sure a story or 2.

Karen♥

Hi Everyone!!

 Hey Guys, Sorry for my absence, but things have been crazy around here!! My son had this horrible virus, that spread through his school, and on 1 day there were 150 kids absent, or dismissed.  They had to call the Board of Health!! Then my Colitis was acting up, and I needed to have IV fluids.  So it has been a fun month!! LOL  Then after all the sickness, things really got weird!! In the Friday, ir I guess technically Saturday early morning, my dogs were growling in there sleep, barking a little, and pacing around.  I was watching a marathon of Reality T.V. when Paul (my hubby) came downstairs, and said "Did you hear that?" and I said no, but the dogs are acting weird.  He said come and look at this.  I look out the window to see a TURKEY, yes, a TURKEY walking around on my driveway.  So there it was, a turkey, I don't know if any of you have ever seen a Turkey up close, but they have these HUGE claws, (my son has corrected me, apparently called Talons) whatever, but they are huge, about 3 or 4 inches long.  They were pointy, and very scary!!  After the Turkey incident, on Saturday, things were fine, until Sunday (Easter) we went to my parents house for dinner, which is always fun, because my sister still has little kids.  Although my children woke up asking, "Are we ready to hunt for eggs?" Which in most cases would have been a reasonable question, except the child that was asking the question, was my 20 yr old daughter!! Now normally I would hide them, because the kids for some unknown reason, find that even though they get a basket filled with all kinds of candy, and little gifts, finding a pink plastic eggs filled with a few jelly beans is so much better!! So that would normally happen, that is until last year.  Hiding eggs for 3 little children, is pretty easy, I have to admit.  You can put a bright yellow egg, on a black couch, and that is probably the last one that they would find!! So we did still hide the eggs, every year, but that was until what we call the Easter Incident of 2010!!  The night before Easter last year, after the kids went to bed (which for most Easter Bunny's that is 8:00) but when the Easter Bunny is hiding eggs for 3 teenagers, it is more like midnight.  So trying to make it a little more difficult that the yellow egg on a black couch.  The kids got up, found the eggs, and we all headed off to my parents house.  When we came home, it was dark, so we turned on the lights, after a few minutes, there was a weird glow coming from the living room,  Apparently, in an effort to make finding eggs a little more difficult, we hid an egg on top of a lamp, and when we turned on the light, it caught on fire!!  So that was the end of egg hiding at the Driscoll's.  So we headed to my mom and Dad's house at about 1:15.  My mom had called and asked if we could stop and pick up my 91yr old Great Aunt Nellie. (really, her name is Nellie) So of course we said yes,  You have to understand, that Nellie, can not hear very well, but she refuses to get a hearing aide, ready for this, because it will make her look old!! Yes, my Great Aunt Nellie, who used to be 5'4", is now about 4'11", and her hair is thinning, she sits on a pillow at dinner, and to drive, yes she drives, doesn't want to look old.  So we call her when we are close to her house, so she will watch for us, because she can't hear when we ring the buzzer. I called and told her we were almost there, and she said that the door to the building was open, so all I had to do is go down the stairs and knock on her apt. door.  Even though I called her, and told her we were there, and went into the building, and down to her apt, and knocked on her door of her apt.  she doesn't hear me banging in her door! Now I have to go back outside, and walk to the car, to get my cell phone, that my hubby told me to bring with me in the first place, and have to listen to the I told you from him, and then go back to the building, and down the stairs, to her apt, where I then have to call her, and let it ring a thousand times, till she hears it ringing, the she finally answers it and says, "Are you almost here?"  We finally get her in the car, which was an event in itself, and we get to my parents house, where yes people, there was an egg hunt!!!  My kids were thrilled, but had to let the Easter Bunny know, that when hiding eggs filled with Chocolate, their best bet is not to put them in the sun!!

The next few hours were actually uneventful, but after dinner, we heard this roar, and we thought that we were on the set of MASH !!  The kids all came running in the house yelling, about the helicopter that was landing in the street, well it was not in the street, but it was landing, in my parents neighbors yard.  The people that live there own a few car dealerships, and apparently he comes and goes by helicopter frequently.                    

This is probably not a huge big deal, unless you ask my parents other neighbor, who also had company also for Easter dinner, and they had just left the dining room to do dishes, so as they are doing dishes, and the helicopter is landing, the blades of the copter kicked up a rock, that went through their dining room window, and landed on their table! Police were called, and windows were taped up, all is well. Now I know that you are all saying to yourselves, Karen, that has to be it, nothing else could happen, but I would have to say to you, sorry people but that is not  the end.  After the helicopter was safely back  in the sky, and we were staring down some Chocolate cream pie, Brownies, ice cream and cookies, the kids were yelling again. We all ran outside to find this, an albino Ferret!  We had no idea where it came from, but we were all worried that if we didn't do something, it would get run over  or anything, so another call was made to  the Police dept. and to the Animal control officer, who took the little guy away to hopefully find his family!! So to wrap this up,  I have not picked the winners of the stencil challenge, and I will get to that!! I hope everyone had a wonderful and an uneventful Easter!!                                            Karen♥

Hi All !!!!

Hi Everyone!!!
I wanted to share something that  I have been working on.  I made some molds from some charms, and bits and pieces of things that I had laying around the house.  First I took some Sculpey clay,

You spray the charms with water, you can dust them with some powder, but that is more messy.  After conditioning the clay, ( knead it) till it is soft, then push the clay into, or on top of the charms (items) that you would to make 

Then spray the charms with water, you can dust them with some powder, but that is more messy.  After conditioning the clay, ( knead it) till it is soft, then push the clay into, or on top of the charms (items) that you would to make. They will come out something like this.

Then take the clay out, which should look something like this.                   
After they come out of the oven (which was set to 275 degrees for about 10 minutes.  When they cool, you can, paint them, chalk them, use any colored mists, use Perfect Pearls, or pretty much any ways that you can color them, or you can keep them the color of whatever color clay that you used to make the charms. I would have liked to keep some of these the color of the clay, but I used Transparent, and I thought that I used like a cream color, so as my friend Charlie Sheen would say "DUH", be a "WINNER" like me, and check the label !!!! After that,they could look like these,or look a heck of a lot better!!.                                                

These were done, with all of the methods above, (I would have showed you which was which, but me battery died) I would be happy to show you the difference, let me know. However, it is fun to figure out the difference yourself.  When attaching these to your page, the best way I have found, is hot glue. I also used another technique that I have shown you before, well I showed you the end result, but not the technique.  TP charms!! Yes Toilet Paper!! I forget to take the picture before I colored them, but I forgot.  There is a photo on here if you want to check it out, I  can't help you, because I can't, so,the first person to find me the picture of the "TP" charms, and comment on here to let me know where it is, I will make you your own molds, you will also get some clay, to make your own molds. (I think you can supply your own "TP" yourself) you do need to buy the cheap one-ply "TP".  I guess the more I am writing this the more I am realizing that I need to make a video!! LOL  I will do one probably by the end of the week.  Here are a couple that I did decorate, with Perfect Pearls, Perfect Pearls mixed with water, and chalk.  the one on the left, is Perfect Pearls with water, the one center is chalk, and the one on the right is Perfect Pearls sprayed with Tattered Angels Pearls.  I hope you guys like, don't forget, the first person to comment where the "TP" charms pictures are, wins some molds, and clay to make your clay, and "TP" charms!!!!  Thanks Guys!! Karen ♥     

Hey Guys!!

Hey guys, I have missed ya! I feel like it has been forever since we chatted, well since I have chatted, and you have read! (but you know what I mean)  I have been getting a lot of emails from you guys because you miss my Rants, which cracks me up, because everyone in my family is always telling me, "Can't you go talk to your bloggers" I am thinking that they would rather I rant to you than to them., but that just kills me, I mean it is not like I am trying to tell them something useless,what I am trying to tell them is very important! Like today I was reading Joanns flyer came out, and they have 2 coupons in their flyer for 50% off any item in the store, and then here's where they get ya, EVERYTHING, and I mean EVERYTHING that you could possibly want, need, possibly need, could possibly need in the future, could possibly need in the next lifetime is ALREADY ON SALE!!!!! I mean would it be such a big deal for them to maybe leave a pencil full price so we can use the coupon?  HEY, Joanns!, we don't even care what we can use it on, yes, it would be nice if we could get to buy a Sizzix die for 50% off instead of  40% off?? Is the extra $1 or $2 really gonna make a difference?  What these stores don't understand is that we, you, me, crafter's in general love to use our coupons!  We actually get happy, I might go so far as to say Down Right Giddy!! to use our coupons!!! Would it be so hard for them to grant us this one little pleasure that we look forward to in life?? We don't ask for much, do we?? So I have decided that I am boycotting Joanns. Don't be silly, not forever, not for a year, not even for a month, just for this week.  I could probably go, and while I am looking for something to use my 50% coupon on to save the extra dollar from the regular 40% off I will spend $100 on all the other stuff that I will see while I am looking for the 1 item in the store that is not on sale to use my coupon on!  And let us not forget the list of things that you can't use ANY coupon on!  Don't even get me started on that subject!!!!  So I have decided that instead of going to Joanns to use their 50% off coupon I will be using my brass stencils that I encourage you all to get even a couple of, and making another video because i am determined to see how many ways that they can be used.  So, I am going to work on the video, and when I put it up, please become a follower, ONLY of you are interested in what we do around here, and leave a comment, and I will make another packet of Brass Stencils to give away!!!  Thanks for listening to my Rant, that my family was not interested it (SHOCKING) and if you have an idea to use the stencils for, I would love it if you shared your idea with us, and I will even get another packet of stencils for another prize for you sharing with us!! Have a nice day, Karen♥

Another Use for Brass Stencils!!

Hi Guys, well I finally got the second video that I promised with more ideas for Brass Stencils!! I also have a giveaway at the end, so make sure you leave a comment!!                                                                 

 

I Hope You Enjoy!! Karen<3

Soda can cut outs

Hi Guys, I got a lot of questions about the die cuts that I cut out of the soda cans, so I wanted to answer them for ya.  The cans are extremely easy to cut with the Tim Holtz scissors.  I don't know about any other scissors, cause those are the only ones that I used.  The can is not sharp at all after you cut it open, it is nothing like the hole is where you drink out of.  The metal is easily colored with alcohol inks, and copics, or markers of that sort.  It is easily punched, or pierced.  When you die cut it, there is no sharp edge there either.  I hope that answered all of your questions. I hope you all try it, and I would love to see what you all do with it!! Thanks for all the questions, and thanks for all your patience while I was sick! All of your packages will be in the mail today!! Thanks again guys, karen<3

Tisha nominated me for this award!!

Tisha over at http://www.tishascraftcove.blogpot.com nominated me for this award, please go check out her awesome blog!! Thanks again Tisha   karen<3

Hi Everyone!!

Hi Guys, I wanted to share what I have been doing today.  I got some new dies, from a swap last week, and I was playing around with them, and I was looking for some metal, that I know I have somewhere.  I couldn't find it, so I thought what do I have that is metal, and of course, DIET COKE CANS!!! we all know that I have plenty of them, so I got out my trusty Tom Holtz Scissors, and Tah Dah!!!! I have some metal die cuts!!! Now I have to decide what to do with them.  So here they are, I am going to keep some with the print on the can, and the others, I am going use the Alcohol Inks on.  I would love to here your ideas. I would love for you guys to try it, and see what you come up with! So here they are, let me know what you think.

Jessica over at Chick-n-scrap gave me The Versatile Blogger Award!!

The rules of this award are as followed



1.  Thank the person who sent it to you
2.  Tell 7 things about yourself
3.  Send this to 15 bloggers
I am so happy that Jessica thought to give this to me, and I will be doing the things that I am supposed to a little later, Thanks again Jessica

7 things about myself:
1. I have been married for 24 years on April 25th
2. I clearly got married at 10 yrs old
3. I talk way to much!
4. I am a middle child!
5. I met my husband in High School
6. My Favorite color is purple
7. I am addicted to Reality T.V.

The 15 Bloggers that I give this to are :
1.Tammy@   http://www.Tamminniesdesigns.blogspot.com/
2. TamiB@  http://www.Tamiscraftconnection.blogspot.com/
3. Libby@  http://www.Beachcreationsforyou.blogspot.com
4. PatN@  http://www.patsscraps.blogspot.com
5. Carri @ http://www.doubleclickconnections.blogspot.com
6. Norma@ http://www.pinkblingcrafters.blogspot.com
7. Laurie&Kel@  http://www.serenityscrappers.blogspot.com
8. Diane@    http://www.ownhomedog.blogspot.com
9. Josie0602@  http://www.scrappininthewoods.blogspot.com
10. Cricutalltime@  http://www.amomicricut.blogspot.com
11. Michele@  http://www.michelesscrapycreations.blogspot.com
12. janet@    http://www.ladyluvbug.blogspot.com
13. Sara@  http://www.thesherlockshome.blogspot.com
14. Drew@   http://www.scrappyhappiness.blogspot.com
15. Carol@  http://www.caroleesscrappinspot.blogspot.com
Please visit these blogs, and give them some love, you won't be disappointed! Thanks again to Jessica@ http://www.Chick-n-scrap.blogspot.com