Remembering our heroic soldiers

Have a blessed Memorial Day everyone. God bless our service men and women (past and present) - the heroes of our country.

I pray for peace and for all our soldiers to have a safe journey home.

My Handmade Card

In my previous post, I showed you my sweet earrings that I got from Ruth (rhradcliffedesigns) for the Mother's day earring swap that I just did.

Well, I also wanted to share a card that I made for Tammy (earlybird454) who I sent earrings to. Tammy, Ruth and I were a 3 way swap - I sent to Tammy, Tammy sent to Ruth and Ruth sent to me. C0nfused yet? LOL

Anyhoo, I spent 2 days working on this card because I'm not very good at making complicated cards. I mean, I can make little, extremely simple, thank you cards and such but when it comes to the more complicated cards, I usually buy them from some of the great paper crafters on etsy.

But over a year ago, I bought this tablet of paper flowers that you punch out and put together and they make pretty paper flower bouquets. I got it really cheap at Tuesday Morning, mostly just because I thought it was cool and I wanted to play with the paper flowers. LOL Remember paper dolls? I LOVED those when I was a kid.

Well, I finally used it! I seem to have trouble with adhesives and paper. I'm sure all the scrapbookers out there know all kinds of secrets about how to glue this stuff together but for some reason, it escapes me. So, I used my really expensive glue that costs $7 (so it must be good) to make this card. I glued it, then weighted it down for a whole day.

So, here it is. Tammy actually used it in some of the pics in her shop, so I know it hasn't fallen apart yet. Maybe that $7 glue is pretty good after all.

P.S. Tammy makes really cute doggie sun visors. Check out her shop if you have a really cute doggie that needs a visor.

I made a large 3-D flower with a yellow button center and a cut-out butterfly. I used pre-sticky ribbon on the bottom of the card. Then I stamped the back. Pretty simple but it still took me 2 days.

And it was fun playing with those paper flowers. :)

EtsyMoms team and an Earring Swap

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I'd like to say thanks to my new team, the EtsyMoms team, for featuring my Plain Jane apron in their Blooming gift guide. It's a beautiful guide and I'm honored to be in it with so many other great artists and crafters.

And I'd like to share my latest prize. The Etsy Texas Crafters team had a Mother's day earring gift swap. Here's a pic of the great earrings I received from Ruth at RHRadcliffedesigns. The purple ones are my favs and I've got a great skirt I made to wear with them.

Thanks Ruth!

The SAFE team's Mother's Day giveaway

(I am so far behind on my blogging - ACK! And I have so many posts to make. ACK again! LOL)

The SAFE (Soap Artisan Friends of Etsy) team had a big Mother's day giveaway on their blog. They got contributions from many of their team members and the basket was worth over $125.

So anyhoo, guess who won it? ME! YAY!

I was so excited when they notified me. Last week, I received the final package and it's all great!

Here is a pic:

What a great surprise and a wonderful gift for Mother's day.

For some reason I can't copy and paste the list of contributors from the SAFE team's blog. But I just wanted to thank each and every one of them for contributing and for sending me such great products.

If you aren't familiar with the SAFE team, they are definitely worth checking out. You will definitely find some new favorite soap artisans.

A lovely Sunday at the Lake

A very relaxing Sunday afternoon. We had a picnic by the water and then just relaxed.

There were a couple of guys with their dogs and it was fun to watch them throwing balls really far out and the dogs would swim out to retrieve them. Except for this one cute little spotted dog who apparently didn't like water. He just waited for the others to come back with the balls.

Matchbook Notepads Tutorial

One day recently, I was reading my friend Suzanne's blog, Crazy for Collars. I noticed that she has a tutorial section which included how to make matchbook notepads.


I've just recently come to appreciate the convenience of these little pads of paper. They are small, so they don't take up much room in your purse, and they come in handy when you have to right down phone numbers really quick or your kid says, "do you have any paper I can draw on, I'm bored!" while waiting at the Dr.s office.


So, I thought, wouldn't that be cute to make and send out as a promotional gift with my packages? I decided to use some Amy Butler scrapbooking paper that I already had - it's bright and colorful. I followed Suzanne's instructions except that I didn't round the corners or use a paw print punch. Instead, I printed address size labels that I already had with the web address of my Handmade Whimzy shop and a little tag line. It would have looked better if I had used clear labels, but I already had these white ones, so I thought I'd use them up.


I attached the labels to the front of the notepad so that everytime it's used, the label will be seen and will hopefully remind the user to have a look at my shop. :)


I did make one mistake. My DH pointed it out to me. Suzanne's tutorial says to fold the bottom flap up 3/4 of an inch. Well, I thought I'd be smart and go with a whole inch (or maybe a little more). That way, my label would fit on perfectly. But as my DH pointed out, that leaves less paper exposed. So to write on more of the paper, you would have to bend the little flap back to expose the paper. Oh well, live and learn - and next time follow directions better.


Thanks so much to Suzanne for giving me permission to use her tutorial on my blog. If you haven't checked out her etsy shop, you should. She has the greatest collars for dogs. And she's having a SALE right now - through Friday!


I'm going to start a tutorial section to the right --------------> and my first one will be the link to Suzanne's matchbook notepad. I've been working on my first tutorial and will be posting it soon.

Happy 19th Anniversary

Happy 19th Anniversary to my DH. I love you.

You make life grand.

What would I do without you and sweet Ben?

Gift swap gift

I recently participated in the Etsy Texas Crafters April Color Green Gift swap. My partner was Jaclyn of the etsy shop Jaclyn43552. She sells charming hand knit and sewn items for baby.

Our task was to use the color green predominantly in our gift. After reading Jaclyn's profile and visiting her blog, I discovered that she likes to bake. So, of course, I had to make her an apron. Funny thing is, she made me one too!

Here is the cute green apron I got from Jaclyn.

It is a gardening apron but I think I will also use it at craft shows. It's perfect for holding money and pens, etc. She attached a key holder and put in 3 pockets. The fabric is very durable and washable so I should get lots of use out of it. Thanks Jaclyn!

Now, here is the apron I sent Jaclyn. It's a half apron similar to the full aprons I sell in Handmade Whimzy but without the bib. I hand embroideried the "J" onto the pocket. I also sent her 2 of my families favorite recipes - the Peanut Butter Bars that I've shared on this blog and also my Buttermilk Pie recipe (my son's favorite).

I think this half apron turned out really cute. Mayhaps, I'll start offering them in my shop.:)