Spectator Conduct Rant!

No pictures for this one, just ranting. My boys have always been involved with sports, both for the schools and local amateur clubs. They are not professional, payed athletes BUT some parents treat them as such. Just because you paid for your ticket to get into the game, it DOES NOT give you the right to yell whatever you wish. It just doesn't. We have a mom who is unbelievable in her behavior. she is well known in our town and in others quite frankly. Every single sport her son is in she has always caused trouble. We feel so sorry for him. He has actually yelled at her to shut-up from the soccer field DURING the game! I would be mortified. She just yells more and says if he listened to her she wouldn't have to yell so much???? WOW. Of course, as parents, we want to encourage our children to do their best. But come on...And when someone tells her to only yell at her child she goes bonkers. Then she makes it a point to be even more obnoxious and makes sure he knows it...What motivates that type of behavior?? I will be glad when the season is done and we do not have to deal with her... for a few months at least! Thanks for letting me unload!!

Christmas notecards

I have been very busy lately. Crafting, cross country and soccer games have my days full! But, I wouldn't have it any other way! Here are some folded 3x3 notecards I stamped. Use a 12x12 sheet of cardstock and cut it in half ( at the 6" mark.) You end up with 2 sheets 6x12 inches long. Simply cut 3" strips and fold those in half for the notecards. The cards measure 3x6 when opened.

The cardstock is Bazzill smoothie and the sentiment is a PTI stamp. The dove stamp is from the $1 bin at Michaels, ditto for the ink. You can't tell in the pics but I also applied glitter to the doves.

The sparkles do not show up, it just looks like dirt!!! Could be at my house...

Here is a pic of my batch on the dining room table competing for space with a bunch of Legos.

Legos are great UNTIL you accidently step on one! OUCH! We must own a few hundred pounds of them, plus Nerf guns, matchbox cars and dirt!!! Back to crafting...

I will also be selling these at my upcoming fairs. I will package them in glassine bags with a stamped tag. Perfect for little gifts, don't you think?

More PUNCH goodies

I have been going punch crazy here at the house! I have combined different brands and sizes to create colorful gift tags. How cute are these? ( And pretty easy to make as well.)

 The stamps are from PTI, and the inks I used are from the dollar bin @ Michaels. 

Here is my assembly line process.

I stamped the images on an 8 1/2 x 11 paper. I didn't measure, just eyeballed it! That's how I craft...I tried to fit 20 images on the page.

I went through my punches and found a Paper Shapers circle punch that was just right!  Turn the punch over, line up the image within the opening and punch away!! It really takes no time at all!

For the scalloped edge, I used a Paper Studio punch (Hobby Lobby brand). The size is 1 7/8. I matched the ink color to the cardstock to make it very easy. Glued the two papers together and punched a small hole with the crop-a-dile and its done! Now for the packaging...more on that later!!

Cross Country and MORE Cross Country!!

Out of our four boys, two are cross country runners. Or, I guess I should say are distance runners. The oldest runs for Wabash college and the youngest for the middle school. Both boys are having a FANTASTIC season so far! All of the training and miles logged in have really paid off!

This is a far shot of the teams lined up before the gun goes off! It is an amazing site to see...hundreds of runners pounding the ground at the same time! It reminds me of a horse stampede. This race was at Purdue and Wabash won the Little State Division!!! 

Great job Red Pack!!

Big "J" is in the red and white uniform with the bandanna!!!

Here is Collin running the home course. He uses only one strategy-run as fast as he can! He is quite a competitor on the course! I LOVE to watch them both run!!

This one was taken Monday at an away meet and he finished almost 1 minute ahead of the rest of the runners!! This is a tough sport, both mentally and physically so kudos to those cross country

runners everywhere!! BTW, tonight we are going to an awards ceremony for Nathan at Columbia College. He is being inducted in the college version of their Honor Society. Maybe he will be elected president of the society, like he was in High School!?!
My boys make me so proud!!

Clothespin Clips!

Thank you, April, for your kind comments!

OK, now I jump to a winter project! I plan on selling these at my upcoming craft fairs.
Clothespin crafts are all the rage now, so I jumped on the bandwagon. (Remember the goose craze of the 80's???) The project didn't seem complete until I added the punched tags!

I simply covered both sides of wooden clothespins with strips of paper. (I used white tacky craft glue.) Then I mixy matched some buttons, tied them with strings and adhered them with glue dots. I clipped the clothespins to a larger shipping tag and put them in a clear bag for protection.

Here is a close-up of the buttons and twine I used for the Fall set. I just love the mini leaf punch...

Next, I decorated the outside of the bag with punched images and a stamped tag. I also inked all the edges with brown. I actually ink all my edges with brown or black, 

I just like the antiqued look of it.

I even included a strip of self stick magnet, if you prefer these on the fridge. I think this makes the cutest little gifts! All packaged and ready to give!

Fall Tags

A local national craft store has their punches 50% off and I, let's just say, bought a few! I made these cute gift tags with the blue Marvy punch. I really love their punches...so easy to use!

For the little pumpkin, I went looking in my font file for some dingbats. (Dingbats are the cute little characters instead of letters...but they are still listed as fonts!) Using Microsoft Word, I made rows of the pumpkins across my cardstock paper. I also changed the font color to orange instead of black. I didn't really measure, I just eyeballed the spacing between...

I cut the cardstock into strips and then started punching out the tags. I used the crop-a-dile for the hole near the top and I inked the edges with brown ink! I didn't center the pumpkin image on the tag because I wanted to leave room for writing...Next, I used cotton string or brown and white bakers twine for the ties. So cute and easy!!

Fall is the perfect time to start the baking season. Wouldn't these look great tied to your homemade taffy apples, spiced muffins, pumpkin bread...Hey, now I'm hungry!

OUCH!

Yep, that is Logan. With the eye swollen shut! 9 stitches. He actually thought he was going to play soccer like that!!! He refuses to use the very expensive Mederma we bought...He wants the scar. UGH...teenagers.

Hospital Visits, Again!

Can you believe we are back to the ER again!! Our medical bills are outrageous!!! Logan bashed heads with someone at the last soccer game and that resulted in 9 stitches above his eye. The next day the eye was swollen completely shut, no school for him. This is the same son who had the broken ankle in May, BTW. Then, I had an attack of the sharp, barbed little devils-kidney stones. UGH. But, I am back and on to crafting! Everyone be careful out there!