On the Mound

And while we are on a Peanuts theme - I HAD to do Charlie Brown.  I did him in his "on the mound" look but it was hard to decide - so many funny choices out there.

Frequent readers can figure this out - with just a little help.

The mitt is 1.25 circle cut flat at the top - then I "drew" some fingers and trimmed them.

You could draw the stripes on his shirt but I punched these.  You use the large star punch.  Start with a strip of paper 1.25 inches wide.  Put the paper into the punch so that you are just punching the top point of the star - move over and punch the second point right next to the first - continue for as long as you need your zig zag to be.

Reinsert the other side of the paper - again just punching away the top point of the star MATCHING the punch zig for zag - move over and punch the second point right next to the first - continue as needed.

This works for the small star too (if you ever need tiny zig zags) - the trick is to measure the "point" of the star and double that measurement for your paper width.

I have been more than a little busy with family obligations lately and need a few days to get my home back together, sooooooo I shall be quiet here for just a little bit.  I'll miss blathering to you but I will see ya soon....

On the Dog House

Well, the Peanuts Characters are just too much fun to punch - simple shapes, recognizable characters but so many poses you can use.  Charles Schultz added so much to our culture with his few panels in the newspaper each day.  Amazing what can be done with paper and ink!  Think what can be done with paper, ink and PUNCHES!!!!!!

Here is Snoopy in a familiar locale with a familiar friend.

Not a full tutorial but here is a photo of snoopy in work to aid you in making him
Head and neck - butterfly punch
collar - slot
hind legs - heart to heart
body - circle 1.25 (I think)

You can see where I drew and cut Linus's blanket on the blue scrap paper.

NOTE: I took this photo before adding the arms - the arm is the small my way arrow and the paw is flower trio trimmed down to three 'fingers'

Woodstock was a Bo Ho blossom flower - trimmed for head

Smallest in heart to heart cut in half - one half body and one half tail - I snipped straight at the end of the tail

For his feet I snipped in two 'V' shapes in the end of a slot punch - then attached it behind Woodstock, folding the "toes" around to the front.  This is some tiny little punch art - I think it would be easier to draw him!

My Sweet Baboo

Y'all must have figured out how this works by now - one punch project leads to an idea for another...

After the little girl dragged her blanket yesterday, how could I not punch Linus hugging his for today?

Head  - 1.75 circle - blush blossom trimmed on the left side with scissors
Ear - word window - blush blossom
Neck - word window - blush blossom
Body - 1.75 circle - red stamped with Solid Stripes in basic gray - piece of 1.75 circle in black for shorts (you can just barely see this between his shoes)
Shoes - 3/4 inch circle  - close to cocoa, trimmed straight on each side - pen markings on sole and sponging
Arms - small oval - blush blossom re-punched with 1 inch circle to shorten
Hands - scallop oval repunched with 1/2 inch circle - blush blossom - slot punch thumb added
Eyes and nose from standard hole punch
Hair - photo corner - offset and repunched over and over to get thin strips with the bend in them
Blanket - free hand - I drew it first with pencil then cut it out.

Add Sally to this, have her talking about her 'sweet baboo' and you have a valentine card!

Jill Shover has done several peanuts characters (including Sally) that you should go look at.  Her Linus is different than mine. Make sure you scroll down to see them all. Her Lucy is fabulous!

Book of He - Love your Uniform

I don't have to feel guilty about showing you punch addicts my scrapbooking - if I make it the second post of the day....  And I really am trying to get my scrapbook groove going again.  It was my love long before cards and punch art consumed me.

I did this for a challenge on yet another scrapbook challenge group I joined.  The challenge was to scrapbook about your "significant other" and use the word 'love' in the title.  Pretty good challenge for the month of February right?

Well, my hubby isn't that fond of having his photo taken (although he is a terribly handsome fella) so a BOOK OF HE will have to be very creative. 

I really like the way this turned out.

I journaled on a transparency - new for me and attached it with some fabulous clips that SU sells.  You probably can't read what I wrote- so you don't have to strain yourselves to figure out what I could possibly write about my hubby's closet, here it is:

Starched shirt, suit and tie - it has been the 'uniform' for over 30 years and comes off within moments of arriving home.  This is a big loss for me, because you look so FINE with it on.  Yeah, I know you look fine all the time... but I love those days when we have a meeting or award program for the girls and you don't have time to change.  I like to be seen with my own personal GQ guy.

Blanket Baby

Inspired by a card I saw on Stef Hughes' blog here and she said the image is by Susan Spiller.  Anyway, it was just precious, so I had to try something similar from punches.

My girls were not thumb suckers but they were both "blankie" girls.  And that is where this little cutie will wind up - on a scrapbook page about their blankets.

Texture wheel on free hand blanket
PJ's are wide oval, heart to heart , and small oval
head - 1.25 circle
hair 1 3/8 circle trimmed, heart to heart
bows - heart to heart, standard hole punch
nose - standard hole punch
eyes - small heart, standard hole punch
hands - 1/2 circle - trimmed for thumb sucking hand, slot punch added for thumb of blanket hand

Please note that I used THREE soft subtle shades on this project and one of them is a PURPLE.  This is a strange and rare occurrence - not likely to be repeated.  Yes, I have friends who love purple (Hey Theresa!) but it certainly is not a favorite of mine. That is why this little tot has 'close to cocoa' hair - if I had used barely banana it would have been FOUR pastel colors (shudder)

If you need a boy - you could easily change the hair and 'fabric' colors.

It is what it is....

I have mentioned a challenge group I joined.  And I joined the blog section of the challenges because... well, because I want to be your favorite blogger and challenges should help me improve. 

This months challenge is to take a photo of WHERE we blog and post it to our blogs.  And she gave us a hint to clean up but.... I didn't      (Go ahead - feel superior!)

I grabbed the camera and took a photo - AS IS.  But when I looked at it, I realized there was a huge post it note with someone's email address VERY prominent so I removed the note and took THIS photo (so I'm honest but respectful of other's privacy)  Am I your favorite blogger yet?  (grin)

At the bottom of the photo you will see a hint of next weeks punch art ...  didn't mean to include that but hey - it is what it is. (That phrase may wind up my motto for the month)

Two more recipes

No punch art on these two recipe cards from the swap - but I can personally vouch for these peanut butter cookies.  Eileen baked them for our meeting.  YUMMY!

She added crystal effects to the mixing bowl so it really looks like a ceramic bowl

Here is Madeline's recipe - I'm betting it is good too.

 Her parents own a restaurant - um-mm, I think I may have found a second source for great recipes.

Click on photos if you want to be able to read the recipes.

Read to Me

I have shown you current photos of college girl - this layout shows her when she was just toddler girl. 

Yes, that is right ....   I have 20 year old photos sitting around waiting to be scrapped.  Does that make you feel superior?  I hope so.  Come see my dirty house and you can feel superior again.  I don't mind - I like to make people happy.

A close up of my little reader - Check the top photo - I love the pose!  This was long  before digital photography - you just took pictures and a week (or month, or more) later you got the film developed and you either got a good shot or you didn't.  Leaves you with less than stellar photos to scrap but hey, it is what it is. College girl was 10 years old when I started scrapping - there are so many shots that I wished I had but I never will.  If you have little tiny ones go take a photo of their feet right now.  I have no photos of her precious little toes.  sniff, snuffle, sigh...

And here is a close up of my title...

Look familiar?  Same stack of books that I used on a layout in my BOM. Is that kind of recycling considered environmentally friendly?

I used a sketch for today's layout from Sketchy Thursdays  - a blog with not surprisingly, Sketch Challenges on Thursdays. 

A little lovin' from the oven

This is the oven that almost wasn't....

My sideline, Becky Adams, had a vision of the oven she wanted to use on her recipe swap.  She just didn't have the time to pull it together.  In fact, she told us she wasn't coming since she wasn't finished with her swap but we talked that busy girl into showing up at the meeting.  Once we saw the start of her project we all threw out ideas and ta-dah!  We all left the meeting with an oven with a steaming pot AND a pie. 

You could add the name of your recipe on the top left corner and put the recipe on the back OR you could add "Ellen's Recipes" and use it for the front of a recipe book. 

Please don't use "Ellen's Recipes" if your name isn't Ellen - that just doesn't make sense.

And don't use "Ellen's Recipes" if your family has any experience with my cooking because they will think you are trying to poison them. 

But if you are making me a recipe book as a gift, please use "Ellen's Recipes" because all your good recipes will be mine since it is my present. 

Would you like for me to hush now and discuss the 'how to make it'?

For the oven:
Back rectangle 3 5/8  x 3
Front rectangle 3 3/8 x 2 1/2  round 2 corners
Retired key tag punch unto front rectangle  - use transparency or clear window sheet behind hole
1/4 inch strip of barely banana for top of oven - use 4 brads for knobs
word window punch (punch on edge so you just get part) for door handle (cut dimensionals into thin pieces and pop up handle)
word window for oven feet
piece of silver cording for oven rack
attach the door with adhesive on the bottom and with double stacked dimensionals on the top so the door is slightly ajar

For the pot:
Retired key tag punch in silver - cut (obviously)
Arrow from My Way punch for pot handle
Drew smoke by hand with going gray marker and went  back over the gray with a glitter pen (not SU)

For the pie: (strongly influenced by something I remembered from Andrea Walford's blog)
Scallop oval in creamy caramel - repunched with scallop oval for pie top - sponge with close to cocoa for "browning" and draw on three slits
Pie pan is the tip of the retired key tag in silver (again) (Isn't it nice how the cookware matches?)

This punch project reminds me of a "funny on me" story.  My dishwasher leaked - warping our faux wood floor a couple of years back - so I switched to tile (thank you Insurance Company).  An older man and his son came to do the tile installation and they moved my range/oven so the tile could be installed under it.  The son said "Wow, this is like a new antique!"  I guess my 25 year old range with the analog clock/timer does look pretty old and yet new at the same time.  It is so rarely used and it is the ONLY appliance in the house we haven't had to replace.  I like to quip that my children are the only ones in the world that think a stove top should be cleaned with a feather duster.  And that is only a slight exaggeration.

TGIF for Office Olivia

Since I have done several men in careers - demo, dentist, firefighter, UPS driver but only one woman in a career, the nurse - I decided that I needed at least one more woman at work.  (When I punched the Inspiration Fairy she was working but I'm only counting working humans - I guess the butterfly blog babes could count as swimsuit models)

I saw something in a needlework magazine to inspire this.  The caption was "If a woman's work is never done... Why start?"  So I gave Office Olivia a coffee cup as her prop.  Amazing how she holds it with no fingers!  Do you think we could get SU to make me a couple of hand shaped punches?

I thought about naming Office Olivia - 'Cubicle Carey/Carrie' but then we'd just have to argue about how to spell the name.  I also considered 'Executive Ellen' but she would have a better chair.

Here is the chair by itself - just to help you figure this out

And someone (I'm sorry, I forgot who) asked me for a bee awhile back and I just haven't been inspired (lazy fairy) - anyway, Andrea Walford has one on her blog here.  So cute!  Hope that helps you out.

Recipe Swap - Jenifer's peach

I know - how cute is that peach?  This was designed by my talented upline, Jenifer Lange.  Looks just like a real peach huh?

Want to know how to make it? 

I knew you would.

It is a circle punch - 1.75 inch - so saffron.

Using the negative piece (the hole) - put that over your circle - offset about half way.  Using a q-tip inked in dusty durango, draw a thick-ish curved line along the edge of the hole. 

Lightly sponge (pounce) dusty durango on the right and left side of your peach (leave the inside of the circle alone). 

Take your sponge with so saffron ink and then rub all over the parts you just pounced - this smooths out the dusty durango. 

Finally take  just a little ruby red and add it at the very top of your peach (near the "line")  You can smooth this out with so saffron sponging/rubbing also.

Using scissors, trim in a tiny bit on each side of the "line" on the bottom - and trim at the line (like an apple) at the top.

Add leaves from the 5 petal flower and a stem from some scrap and viola - delicious fuzzy looking paper peach!

I'll share the rest of the recipe swaps this weekend.

And I'm sorry but I'm having to change the blog to moderate all comments - someone has left nasty stuff in another language two days in a row.  If it stops soon, I'll change back but I just can't tolerate anyone posting awful stuff in the comments.  Isn't it sad that people feel the need to do that?

AND....

If you haven't seen Jackie Topa's new punched rabbit go right now and look HERE - it is the cutest thing ever!

Recipe Rooster

My upline held our monthly meeting this week and we did another 6x6 Recipe Swap.  I got a yummy recipe from Eileen to use but whoa! - it was way too long to put on a 6x6 page.  So, I gave them one of the few things I can make that is g-r-e-a-t.  It is my mother-in-law's recipe for cocktail sauce.

Last time I showed you recipe cards, I yakked about how your embellishments don't have to "match" your recipe (lemons on lemon pie, etc.)  But y'all know me and my stupid sense of humor.  Can you guess what is coming?



ready?




it is really stupid.....

See, I warned you it was dopey BUT this really is a great recipe - don't let the stupid page fool you.

Here is is for easier reading:

Nelda's Shrimp Cocktail Sauce

1 cup ketchup

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

2 tsp. salt

8 heaping tsp. horseradish

(the kind in the jar - what I buy says "prepared grated horseradish roots")

4 tsp. Worcestershire

6 to 8 drops Tabasco

Kemper tradition says that Christmas dinner MUST start with shrimp cocktail.  I was so nervous the first year it fell on my shoulders to make the cocktail sauce - but as you see, the recipe is simple.  The trick is getting the right amount of "heat" for the assortment of folks around the table.  We have wimps but also have family members with cast iron mouths - it is a delicate balancing act.

We did our swap shoebox style - which means you bring the parts but the swappers do their own assembly.  Punch art frightens some of these girls but our newbie/potential demo just jumped right in and had the first completed rooster.  Way to go Madeline!

large oval - old olive head
1.25 circle - natural body
two heart to heart - red comb
heart to heart - red wattle
Two Step Bird  (wing) - summer sun beak
(2) Two Step Bird (leaf stem) - summer sun legs
Flower trio - 1 petal cut off - summer sun feet
Small heart - natural eyes
Standard hole punch - black eyes
Wide oval trimmed with scissors - not quite navy breast feathers
Photo corners - old olive tail

To get the breast feathers just do random spikes and cut to the size shown - it should stick out over the circle body in front and stop about half way across the circle body.

To get the tail - cut each of the photo corners in half - stopping before you make the final snip.  So that the photo corners is still intact it just has a cut down the middle (long-wise, and yes you 'turned a corner' when you were cutting)

When you have the cut - you just fold one 'half' over the other.  Makes an odd shape piece. 

Repeat for the other size photo corner and then layer one over the other.  Makes this wonderful mess of cock tail feathers!  

Please Note:
This is not rocket science and it is just paper scraps - snip and fold until you get the look you want - it doesn't have to be exactly like mine.

Complete Valentine Swap

My completed swap for my Hot Swappin Mamas group.

Cupid

Mailbox from yesterday's post...

and the last element was simple...

I made the large heart with the Big Shot die - Hearts and Brackets

Arrow is 1/4 inch by 4.25 inch strip, Full Heart and Photo Corner punches

Heart to Heart punch in pink

Simple enough for anyone - as long as you have the punches, right?

I cheated on my swap colors and made Cupid with a blush blossom body (not on the approved list)  I think he is so cute that they won't care.  I'll let you know if I get in trouble.

Valentine Mailbox

Confession.  I promised myself not to sign up for any swaps (except my upline's) for 5 months.  Then I turned around and signed up for my Hot Swappin Mamas scrapbook swap again.  I am so naughty - but I had the Cupid idea and I just had to swap him with someone!  You understand right?  I'm not too weak and spineless, am I?

I am supposed to make three 3-D items for this Valentine Swap and am supposed to use Real Red, Pretty in Pink, Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, and Creamy Carmel (typing that name always makes me want sweets)

I remade Cupid with Close to Cocoa hair to meet the requirements and I made a mailbox for my second item.  This shows the completed mailbox plus just the "wood" parts so you can see how it is made.

Wood Post:
Stamp Chocolate Chip (yes, I said STAMP, I do own some Plenty!) with the Wood-grain background.
5/16 inches by 4.25 long for the basic post
5/16 inches by 1.5 long for the cross beam
1.75 circle punched around a 1 3/8 inch hole - cut into quarters for the curved piece
1/2 inch circle for knob

Box:
1.5 inch by 7/8 inch rectangle - round one corner, sponge with ink
large oval - trim sides "flat" and trim approx in half to fix box, sponge with ink

Small heart on door
heart to heart on 1/2 circle and scrap of read for flag (mounted with brad and yes, it is movable)

Chipmunks

Kellie Paxton made a second request (don't worry, she isn't being greedy, she says it is her last for awhile).  Her husband got himself in a pickle - read this:

'I have a group of ladies that meet the 2nd Tuesday of each month. My husband, Michael goes with me. He takes pictures and helps with the projects and whatnot. Well, last month the ladies were joking with him and told him that he was welcome to bring some Chippendales with him next time.

And of course he says, "I will see what I can do".

So in all his cleverness he wants to bring Chip and Dale the chipmunks!

What do you think? Is it possible to punch chipmunks? "

Well, these are not EXACTLY those chipmunks but I hope close enough to get him a few laughs.

Here is your pictorial how to:  See photo below for which color to punch.

Row 1) Approx 2.5 inch circle from circle scissor plus for head  - large oval and 5 pt flower for ears

Row 2) 2 full hearts, 2 small ovals, 1 3/8 inch circle for eyes

Row 3) two 1.25 circle, large oval, wing from Two Step Bird, 1/2 inch circle for cheeks and nose

Row 4) two large oval, butterfly,small oval, tiny scrap for mouth

Trim as shown below....

Start your assembly...

To make the "other" chipmunk just change the nose to red and use two teeth instead of one.

The Chip and Dale cartoon I remember watching had them being brought into Mickey's house in a Christmas tree he chopped down, then they ran around in the tree moving ornaments as he decorated.  So I did this layout and will use it for photos of decorating our tree.  (not printed yet)

Guest Puncher - Annette McKillop (Mechanic card) and I got a gift!

Remember me talking about the darling Mechanic Card and giving you the link?  Well, Annette McKillop read my post and sent me the picture so I could share it directly with you.  I don't want you to miss this because I LOVE this card - I love the little wrench and the way she put her sentiment on little nuts.  TOO clever!!!

Thanks Annette for letting me show off your work!

Then my sideline. Eileen - the one that is the fabulous cook and the glittery stamper - shows up at my door with Egg Rolls (yum) AND a gift for me.  Wanna see?

How cute is this little supply holder?  She added the paper and cut it strategically so I would get the piece that said PUNCH.  I just love it!!!!

(Of course she is really sending me subliminal messages -it says "glitter" on the same side)

I said I'd get  back to punching after yesterday's scrapbook share - and I did.  I have two CUTE things in work but they just aren't ready to be revealed yet.  Soon, very soon.

At Sixteen

One more scrapbook share and then I'll do some more punching.  I bet you can make it another day without your punch fix.  If you can't, pull out your punches and see what you can come up with - might surprise yourself!

This is for another challenge on the group I talked about yesterday.  This is for the color challenge.   You were supposed to use teal, brown, yellow and orange.  Neutrals allowed.

I used those colors AND a sketch from this blog from January 21st.  Wow - layouts are so much easier when you chose a starting point and the possibilities aren't TOTALLY endless.

Here is what I did using a photo of  "kid still at home"

I used the new Sweet Pea designer series paper stack from the Occasions Mini Catalog.  The @ and the 16 are coasters covered in paper and run through the Big Shot using the SU Alphabet Simple Numbers Die.

I'd like to impress you with some fancy design talk about the colors and the circle showing energy blah blah blah but.... do you care? and would you believe my B.S.?

I really did make the teal line into an arrow to represent how this feisty red head has life by the tail and is ready to move on into whatever the world holds for her.  I'll probably add some journaling to that effect on the teal border on the left side and the top.

Back in the Scrappin' Saddle

Warning - No Punch Art this post.

I want to get back to my scrapbooking ways because
1) I think telling my "stories" is important
2) I have a gazillion photos in boxes and on the computer
3) I enjoy it

But I usually have to do a few layouts before I get my groove back.  This was my first page back and I like it but I don't love it.  That is OK because if I had to LOVE every page - well, that would be too much pressure and I'd stop enjoying the whole process.  And I like it In Real Life much better than I like this picture of it - I guess I need to work on taking photos of layouts.

I joined an online group that has monthly challenges and this was for the Recipe Challenge for January.  BRRRR - which meant it had to have
B - Blue
R - Rounded corners
R - Rhinestones
R - Rub-ons
R - Rick Rack

And it had to have lots of white space  (Empty area, not necessarily white)

I am so not a rhinestone girl.  And I had no rick rack in the colors I wanted to use - so I made some from paper and the scallop border PUNCH (of course).  My rub-ons match the One of a Kind stamp set but they are retired (Urban West).  Buttons and Rhinestones from my stash.

I love this photo of college girl but it has no specific story associated with it so I thought it would be good for a layout without journaling.

And after using the rhinestones I decided I like them and will use them more in the future - and that is the purpose of challenges - to stretch yourself and grow a little in your craft.

Check out this Challenge Group if you are a scrapbooker and interested in playing along.

Firefighter Guy

I decapitated the Stefan/Demo/Dentist trying to give him yet another career as a firefighter -but his head was too wide for my helmet.  Sorry for that unnecessary pain, Stefan.

This it to fulfill a request from Kellie Paxton because two of her "guys" are firefighters.

Here are the details so she (and you) can recreate him:

Helmet - large oval, wide oval and a piece of the ornament punch (could be cut by hand)

Head - large oval, 1.25 circle trimmed

Ears - word window

nose - 1/2 circle

Eyes - standard hole punch

Mustache - tip of the butterfly punch

Eyebrows - slot punch

Black shirt -large oval trimmed flat at bottom

Coat - wild oval cut in half and separated by the shirt

Coat collar - word window trimmed

Coat fasteners - word window around slot punch hole, re-trimmed with word window

Arms - word window folded

Gloves - heart to heart trimmed

Pants - wide ring from wide oval punched around small oval hole trimmed to make legs

Boots - butterfly punch trimmed

Hose - ring from 1.75 circle punched around smaller circle hole, snipped and folded

Hose spout - hand trimmed piece with bit of slot punch on end

Water - modern label punch trimmed

I meant to stamp a number on the red part of his helmet but forgot to do it before I snapped the photo.  My favorite number is five so that will be his number (if I ever get around to it)

Hope this helps you out Kellie!

I love you THIS MUCH Turtle

I know I have already done a turtle but I didn't have a lot of time to punch for today's post, so I took a step back from the more complex stuff.

I started with an idea I got from a 1/2 inch size picture in a craft catalog.  It was the front view of a turtle with hearts as the shapes on his shell. 

Details:
Approx 2.5 inch circle from circle scissor plus for shell
1.25 inch circle - flat on bottom for head
3/4  inch circle - mouth
1/2 inch circle in melon mambo - tongue
New small heart and standard hole punch - eyes
Word window and 1/2 inch circle - front legs and feet

Shapes on shell are the small Heart to Heart hole with the NEW Small Heart punch around it - giving you a heart shaped ring

NOW.....
Have you seen Jackie Topa's fence using the NEW Medium Jewelry Tag? Jackie has been making amazing punch art way longer than I have been punching - she is FABULOUSLY creative and does way more than just punch art.  Make sure you check this out.