My Whimcees

My Whimcees

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Resting Today

Hello!

No post today - am going to read my library book and rest. I was in clinic yesterday at 3:00 pm, in the ER at 6:30 pm and home finally at 3:00 am. 12 hours - nothing to eat after breakfast of toast/cheese except for a quick yogurt between clinic and ER so very long day. It was thought I had a lung clot or perhaps in my legs - many labs, tests, procedures. I did not think I would be allowed home. But all was stable and home I came. I will rest today and hope all goes well.

Tomorrow I have photos of my friend Verda with her treasure box! She was so excited and loves it! I told her she was now famous on my blog and could I take photos to post! I did and I will do that tomorrow. :<)

Thank you for stopping by today to visit my blog! Wishing you smiles!

Barbara Diane

Monday, March 26, 2012

Bling It On!

Hello!

The current challenge on Mo Manning's challenge blog has a fun theme of "Bling It On" and this is my entry card. I looked through my files, as I wanted an image that would look good with bling and this cutie was perfect! The name of this digital image of Mo's is 'Danielle And Her Baby Muffin' and she is all dressed up and playing Mama.

I wanted to paper piece the image as well as add bling and so this card took most of the day to create! You can see from the first photo that I printed the image on various patterned papers to give me some variety. The dress and headband are green polka dot, the blanket in the buggy and the ruffle of Muffin's hat are a flower print, the ruffle on the buggy and the pillow inside are a pale green - as are the leggings which I also colored with a marker, the boa and the purse and the shoes are all a yellow polka dot - with the added yellow Stickles for bling and Muffin was printed on a gray cardstock. This all took a long time, with lots of fussy cutting, but I love the results!

A closer look at the bling on Danielle's boa, purse and shoes. Go to Mo's Challenge blog to see all of the wonderful bling at http://mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com/

Thank you for stopping by today to visit my blog! It was quite a shock to wake up this morning to a very cold bedroom! With our temperatures of 80 degrees for so many days here in this part of WI, I have been keeping the bedroom window open at night as it has stayed around 60 degrees. I have had the thermostat shut off and we had our air conditioner covers removed so when it was so cold this morning I checked and it was only 60 degrees inside the apartment! I turned on the TV to see the weather report and the temperature outside was 34 degrees! Quite a change! Wishing you sunshine today!

Barbara Diane

Friday, March 23, 2012

A Treasure Box For Verda

Hello!

Those of you who follow my blog may remember when I posted of my friend Verda, who lives in the apartment to the right of mine and comes to my apartment door - without fail - every Monday morning, carrying her candy dish of the anise candy, for me to take my weeks supply plus one for Jim and to give me a big hug. As a thankyou I make her a card or a paper project of some kind each week - trying to think of something different each time to surprise her. She always comes back again during the week to tell me how much she likes that week's surprise and she always has such kind comments to make about my work. Love that little lady! Candy, a hug and compliments - every week!

I posted the start of this treasure box I was making for her on an earlier WOYWW post and when I checked back today I saw that it was two weeks ago - and what was amazing was that just a few days before that, I posted of our big snowstorm with photos of all of that heavy but beautiful snow that was sticking to everything - making it look like a fairy land. A little over 2 weeks ago we woke to a white world with snow covering everything. We have now had 80 degree weather for over a week!

So I have finished the treasure box for Verda - and I will be giving it to her next week. I hope she likes it! A day or so after she brings me the candy, I will hang it on her apartment door as I always do so she will be surprised. Then she will use her magnifying glass so she can see the details and when her visiting nurse comes to give Verda her daily insulin shot she will have the nurse check it out to tell her if she has missed anything and describe it if she has. :<) And I will have the candy and the compliments - and that wonderful hug to last me for a week!









Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog today! I tried to visit everyone yesterday who had left me a comment and I will continue to visit all of my followers that I can this weekend! So many wonderful bloggers out there to visit amd be inspired by all of their creations!

Wishing you a great weekend!

Barbara Diane

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Think Spring!

Hello!

Today's card is my entry in the current challenge on Sassy Cheryl's Challenge blog. The theme is "Think Spring" and that is certainly easy with our 80 degree weather here in this part of WI. I guess 'think summer' would be more like it! You can see all of the great entries on Cheryl's blog - http://sassycherylschallenge.blogspot.com/ I have used her digital image "Simple Gift Of Flowers" which I love - isn't she sweet? You can see the paper punches I used on my post of yesterday for WOYWW.


Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog today! I love all of your comments - I am going to try to return all of your visits today! Wishing you a happy one!

Barbara Diane

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

It's Wednesday - Time For WOYW

Hello!

It's Wednesday - and time for What's On Your Workdesk? I hope that you check out the wonderful creations on Julie's blog at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ It is always fun and an inspiration to look at what so many creative bloggers have created. On my workdesk I am working on a 'Think Spring' card to enter into a challenge on Sassy Cheryl's blog. We continue to have weather of 80 degrees here in this part of WI so the wonderful warm breezes coming in the window helps to put one in the mood!

Thank you for stopping by today to visit my blog! Wishing you a sunshiny day!

Barbara Diane

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Are You The Easter Bunny?

Hello!

This early Spring weather we are having here in this part of WI has had me looking at all of my stamps and digital images that can be used for Easter cards and projects. It continues to be 80 degrees here and is so amazing. The weatherman said that this is our earliest Spring since 1896.

My card today is a combination of two of Mo Manning's digital images - the dog Bronte is taken from the image "Bella and Bronte at Easter" and the sweet little girl is "Big Shoes" - and the eggs are from a Stampendous wooden stamp called "Easter Egglets". I have entered the card on Mo's Challenge Blog which you can check out at http://mosdigitalchallenge.blogspot.com/ The theme of the current challenge is 'Buttons and Bows' and my bows are on her hat and his collar, with the little buttons added on the corners of the card.

I added some Stickles to all of the Coral-colored images - the inside of Bronte's ears, the flowers on her hat and her purse, the heart on her bloomers, the eggs and the buttons - to add a little bling. I also added white dots to the border and blue dots in between the flowers of the paper pattern and added cut out flowers to the yellow egg and a cut out bow to his collar.

Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog today! I love reading your e-mails and comments - thank you for taking the time to send them! Wishing you a happy day today!

Barbara Diane

Monday, March 19, 2012

The Baby Shower Invitation - Part I

This post has a Part I and Part II because of the many photos. Please scroll down after this post to view Part II for the remaining photos. I hope that you enjoy!


Hello!

I posted a photo last Wednesday on WOYW of a very labor intensive baby shower invitation project that I had been working on for days. I had been asked to make 30 invitations for a baby shower for my oldest granddaughter Tiffany, who is having her third child - my third great grandchild - next month. There are two sweet little boys waiting to meet a new sister. I don't get to see them as they live in NH and I am in WI so I wanted to make something special for her - and although there was a near disaster which almost gave me a heart attack and made me just want to cry - I was pleased with the end result.

The two colors Tiffany had chosen were a soft pink and a chocolate brown. I wanted to make something girly so I went on a blogger search and sent photos of ideas to NH and I was very happy when they chose my favorite - the little onesie. Then it was off to check out the stores and I found a soft pink polka dot pattern paper with a solid pink backside and a chocolate brown cardstock. Then I set to work.

Because I planned a lot of detail to the design of the onesie, which meant lots of cutting by hand, paper punching and gluing tiny pieces, etc. I knew that this would be difficult with my poor eyesight so I added another Ott Lite on the left side of my workdesk. This helped so much during the many hours of working that I have kept it there. I now have three lights for my workdesk - but it sure makes a difference in what I can see clearly! :<)


The first step was to print a pattern of the onesie that I had found on the Internet onto white cardstock and cut it out. Then on my paper cutter I cut the 15 sheets of 12 x 12 polka dot paper into half so I had 30 sheets of 6 x 12, folded each of those in half and started to trace the onsie pattern on one side - 30 times. :<)

Then I cut each one out - leaving the fold at the top -
30 times. :<)

To make a scalloped collar for the onesie I used a large scallop circle punch and positioned a strip of the brown cardstock so that 11 of the scallops showed on the punched piece.

Then I made the neckline using a circle punch.

For the little piece that would be at the crotch of the onsie where it is attached with snaps, I used a scallop oval punch with the strip of the polka dot paper inserted half way.

For the trim on the arms I used the scallop border punch and then cut it in strips that were a bit longer than double the length of the front of the arm and folded them in half - so that there was trim on each side of the card.

I then sponged all around the edges of all of the pieces - the entire onsie and the crotch piece - with chocolate brown ink, including all of the edges on the inside of the onsie. (That was 60 times.) The strips of the polka dot paper are just trimmed pieces that remained after cutting out the onsie.

I then glued the collars on each of the card fronts and then began to glue the piece at the crotch on the bottom edge of the onsie. You can see my invitation with the completed front of the card standing in the back. On the workdesk are all of the folded strips for the arms, and the punched circles for the snaps of the crotch piece and the hearts for the buttons under the collar.

Please scroll down for Part II.

The Baby Shower Invitation - Part II

Once the collars were all glued to the card fronts, I started to glue on the arm trims (60 scalloped strips folded in half so the scallops meet), the snaps to the crotch pieces (60 small circles) and the three little hearts (90 of them) to the front of the onesie.
This is the card front opened flat.
This is the inside of the card opened flat.

A onesie with the pieces to be glued - the crotch piece, the two snaps, the two arm trims and the three hearts that line up under the collar.
Then it was time to make the pattern for the inside of the invitation. This was to have the date, time, place and RSVP. I wanted to make my own pattern that could be printed so that the onesie could be traced one in each corner of the page to make 4 inserts per page. I had decided to use copy paper for the insert as it would not be as heavy as cardstock and so less weight for postage. It took me 14 tries to set this page up on my computer but finally I managed to get it all lined up and it was done and I printed out 8 sheets.
I traced 30 more onsies from the pattern (I had reduced it a bit so that a border would show around it when it was glued to the inside of the invitation) 4 to a page and then began to cut them out. (That was 30 more onesies to cut.) Each insert was to have 3 little hearts around the neckline so they had been punched and were ready to be added (that was 90 more hearts). :<)

Each insert was also sponged around all of the edges with chocolate brown ink. (30 more onesies to sponge.)

But then, disaster struck!

I had all 30 of the inserts cut out, sponged, hearts added and glued inside the invitations and I noticed that the necklines didn't line up! There was a little border showing on the left as intended but on the right it was right next to the neckline! How had this happened! It wasn't until later that I understood what had happened and learned a dear lesson. I had assumed - you know what is said about people who assume - that the pattern was the same on both sides. It wasn't. It was not a mirror image. After I had reduced the pattern to make it smaller to fit as an insert I had laid it down onto the invitation to make sure it had an even border all around and it had fit perfectly. BUT, when I started to trace the pattern onto the insert pages I HAD TURNED IT OVER without realizing it and because it was not a mirror image, it was a bit off on the one side.

What to do! I just wanted to cry. I had all 30 of them done - had cut out the inserts, sponged all the edges, added the hearts and they were glued inside the invitations. My first instinct was to send them and hope that no one noticed or if they did it wasn't a big deal. But it was a big deal - they were not perfect and they were for my family and they would think I didn't care. But when I thought of ungluing all 30 of the inserts - which would take forever and could destroy the invitation and all of that work - I admit I cried in frustration that I was so tired of not being able to see clearly like I used to!

Well there was nothing else to do. I could not send them this way. I started to tear out the inserts, one at a time, and very slowly.

Of course, there was damage to the insides of the invitations. You cannot have paper glued to paper and expect to just take them apart. This took forever and I thought I would have a heart attack every time the paper stuck and tore.

For those who may not realize how traumatic this was - here are the 30 inserts after I tore them out of the invitations. My poor heart.

This time I printed the new inserts on white cardstock, made sure that my pattern was right side up and traced the 30 onesies one more time. I then cut out the 30 onesies one more time - and sponged all the edges of the 30 onesies with chocolate ink one more time and added the three hearts (90 more) to the onesies 30 more times and then glued the inserts to the inside of the invitations 30 more times - this time making sure they lined up! They did. :<) This is the finished new insert.

The completed baby shower invitation.

I love them - they are so cute! The polka dot paper was heavy with raised dots so it was perfect for the invitations.

Here are all 30 invitations ready to be packed with 30 plus a few extra envelopes and sent to NH. In all of the trauma of the insert disaster I forgot that I intended to also add a scalloped collar to the back of the invitation and when I remembered they were in the mail and it was too late. Sometimes you just can't win and have to go with the flow. :<)

A most time intensive project:

Altogether I traced, cut out and sponged all the edges of 30 onesie invitations and traced, cut out and sponged the edges of 60 onesie inserts. I punched out 30 scalloped ovals for the collars for the onesies and then punched out 30 circles for their necklines. I punched out and sponged the edges of 30 crotch pieces for the onesies. I punched out 60 scalloped strips for the trim on the arms of the onesies, 60 small circles for the snaps on the crotch pieces and 270 small hearts for the outside of the invitation and the two inserts.

Can't forget that I also glued 30 collars, 30 crotch pieces, 60 arm trims, 60 small circles and 270 hearts. I think that's about it. :<)

They arrived in NH and I received an e-mail that they loved them so all is well. :<)

Thank you for stopping by to visit my blog today! The weather here in this part of WI continues to be so strange! It has been 80 degrees for days now. The weatherman said that we are averaging about 39 degrees above normal and if this continues we could have 120 degree weather this summer! That's scary. I do worry that we will have a bad tornado season this year. Maybe not. Wishing you a good Monday!

Barbara Diane

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

It's WOYW Time!

Hello!

It is Wednesday and I have not posted yet this week - I have been so busy working on this project! It was so time consuming to begin with and then a traumatic error when I thought I was finally done and had to un-do and re-do hours of work.

In a few short weeks my third great-grandchild will be born. Two little boys will have a new sister. This project was to create 30 invitations to a baby shower. I am mailing them out today so will post the photos of this journey when I know that they have arrived, so I won't spoil the surprise.


I just checked out Julia's blog and already so many posts of wonderful creations going on! So go to http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/ for all of the What's On Your Workdesk? entries! I wish I could visit them all - but I try to look at as many as I can!

We are going to have 78 degrees today in this part of WI - unbelievable for this time of year! We have had blizzards in April so we shall see what this Spring weather brings us! Wishing you sunshine today!

Barbara Diane

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Winners of Patterned Paper Blog Candy

Hello!

The winners of the Patterned Paper Blog Candy are:

Linda Decker http://kaartcreaties.blogspot.com/
Rhonda Miller http://bluepoohbear753.blogspot.com/
Mrs. A http://itsanalienlife.blogspot.com/
Duchess http://ukaminaprisvechah.blogspot.com/

Congratulations! Please send me an e-mail with your address so I can mail your paper out to you! I hope that you enjoy!

I now have the addresses and the papers are going to Utah, to the Ukraine, to England and to Holland! Amazing - the Internet has helped to make the world so much smaller!

Barbara Diane

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

WOYW Wednesday TIme!

Hello!

It's Wednesday again already - and time to share What's On Your Workdesk Wednesday!

I have just begun to plan the decorating of a box for my neighbor and friend Verda and because she has very poor eyesight I am using large pattern papers. I may use some cardstock also but am not sure. Verda comes to the door of my apartment every Monday, without fail, with her candy dish of the anise candy she special orders to have me pick out my supply plus one for Jim for the week. I also always get a big hug from her which is the highlight of my week and a great start to the day to feel someone cares.

In return I create a card or project each week - she loves receiving them. Because of her eyesight I try to use large images and bright colors and Verda also uses her magnifying glass to see the detail. She has a nurse who visits her every day to administer her insulin injections and she will help Verda with the details and clear up any images that Verda cannot make out. We have had many laughs at these mistaken guesses at what something was! I love Verda - she is so sweet.

Go to Julia's blog at http://stamping-ground.blogspot.com/to see all of the wonderful creations being made around blog land!

Wishing you a fun day of creating! We are having tempertures in the low 60's here in this part of WI - unbelievable! It was just a few days ago that I posted photos of our snowstorm and today we are to have a thunderstorm!

Barbara Diane

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Another HEAVY and WET Snowfall

Hello!

We had another heavy snowfall in this part of WI on Friday night - the snow was so heavy and wet that it seemed like half water! Making a snowball took only seconds and soaked my gloves! But it looked beautiful and I just had to go outside again after cleaning and moving my car to take some photos. It was very warm out with some soft snow flakes falling and so lovely!




















We are still having snow fall but it is melting on the ground - more through the day I guess but but it is to continue to be warmer weather until we are in the high 50's by midweek! Wishing you a good day today!

Barbara Diane