Shipping with Flair, Edit Fail...

Hi there,

Thought it would be fun to play a bit today. My DIL left a few things behind last time they visited with their new daughter...unfortunately they remembered to take my granddaughter with them. Lol....kidding...

Anyways, I thought 'why be normal when you can be different?' Especially since it only took a few seconds.

I'm a little embarrassed to reveal my lack of photo editing skills, but you're all probably aware of that by now. A little paper sufficed. 

I'm either brilliant, or lazy...

probably the latter.

This should thrill the postman....okay, probably not.

I also finished the hat I was working on. Remember? This one...

Here is it finished...

Then today I made some cards. If you're Janell or Izzy, turn away here....

Turn away! 

Janell is my SIL and Izzy is my sister....they were both married on the same day. Different years, in case you're wondering.

I pretty much threw these together as I've been sick and was running out of time!!

This last one I totally scarfed off of Pinterest....I was really in a hurry!! Isn't that why they're there? (tic) I just used my own sentiment, pencilled it in and went over it with gel pens.

Well, that's it for now.
Have a great day!
Carmen

Life is Great!

What a weekend! 

I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! We celebrated Mother's Day and my birthday this weekend...well, if you include Monday in the weekend. 

Anyway, it was a busy weekend with company and a fun Monday night dinner out with the family. My hubby gave me an Android for my birthday...and I couldn't be happier. Now I have to learn how to use it! It'll be a fun challenge. 

I made my Mom a really quick card. I can't remember where I first saw a similar one, but it involved paper piecing, which I love! 

I had fun taking a gel pen and outlining the paper pieces to highlight them. I like this simple style.

Here's what I've been pinning lately...very Pinteresting!

I started a "Quick Cards" board for some inspiration...sometimes you just need an idea for a quick card!

Have you heard of YUPO paper?

There's some new pins on my Free Digital Stamps board!

The photo below is the last pin on my Altered/Recycled Board...many of which are DIY.

Cigar Box Drawers

 I've been walking every day lately. I am journaling it on my Pinterest Board "The View from Here"

When I've lost about 30 lbs, I'll start posting some pictures of myself on this journey to health! 

Well, have a great week! Remember, life may be hard, but it's easier if you choose to be happy anyway! 

Carmen

Featuring Art by Jean.

Hi there!

Just popping in to share some awesome printables with you!

I'm featuring Art By Jean...so much on this site to see. 

Her Blog:

Art By Jean

Check out this Pinterest Page:

Art by Jean on Pinterest

Here is my Printables Board on Pinterest with more Printables: 

An example:

***Please do not download from here, go to the artists site and download. There's many more free printables there! Please leave her a comment if you use any of her printables. :)

That's all for today!

Carmen

Time, Yarn and Pinterest...in that order!

Hello! 

Just having a little fun here and stopping in to show you some of my old watch parts. My husbands' uncle used to fix watches as a hobby and somehow we ended up with all his supplies. 

I laid them out and took some pictures. Click on them and print them off. Maybe you can use them.

Some real strange ones in with these....look at the one below. Kind of unique! 

I find them interesting...now to incorporate them into a project! 

I'm still crocheting. Here's what I'm working on. Care to guess what kind of hat it's going to be?

Show ya later on my FB page!

Pin Cushion anyone? 

The weather's been hot enough here to warrant the happiness of this little cactus!

Are you following me on Pinterest? Here's what I've been pinning lately:

Onto Mixed Media  (Color of your Dreams canvas by Artful Evidence)

Onto Craft Tutorials (Textured Fairy Wings)

Onto Craft Tutorials (Skin Colors with Copics tutorial)

Onto Craft Ideas I Love  (Lace Terra Cotta Pots)

Onto Masculine Cards   (Masculine Cards and Mini Albums using Tim Holtz Dies)

Onto Mini Albums  (Camera Mini Album)

Phew....time to move into the room with the air conditioner! Have a happy day everyone!

Carmen

Off the Hook on FB!

Hello!

I'm stopping in to let you know that I've started a separate FB page for my crocheting. I just thought it would be fun to share some of my creations there, as well as some amazing crochet!! 

Seriously, some of these people are crazy talented!!

So click here or check out my sidebar for my FB page and it'll take you right there. 

My last few projects...

Last but not lease, a little lamb hat. These are all for sale too...newborn sizes.

In the meantime...

I'm melting away here in Kamloops until my hubby gets our air conditioner working again. It is HOT!

Have a good week!

Carmen

What Do You Keep in Your Wallet?

Hi there!

First things first....

Yesterday I whipped up a batch of homemade Nestle's Toll House Cookies without the nuts. My plan was to give them to my secret pal. Great plan, except I had nothing to put them into! 

I took a trip to one of the local Dollar Stores and found a glass jar to put them into. Now all I had to do was decorate the jar...but I really had very little time. Luckily I found some printables! 

I ran them off on Kraft Cardstock and stuck them on with double sided tape. Here's the back:

I'm pretty sure that's correct! Then I added a little tag for fun!

I wrapped it up and brought it to our venue. Lots of fun!! She loved the cookies. She sat and talked with me and ate about 4 of them, but this lady is generous....she offered one to everyone there. My DIL took one happily...she knows I baked them, and being dutch, baking is something I love to do. 

Want to make your own? 

Energy in a Jar Labels, plus more, from The Gunny Sack! 

Cookies Fix Everything, from Little Pieces of My Life.

Label with the heart is a free printable from Love vs Design.com. The sentiment is a wood stamp I have.

That's not all! 

My Father-in-laws' birthday is coming up! He is a happy fellow with a very good disposition who loves to tease. He has happy eyes! I love happy eyes! 

He tells people that it took him a while to loosen me up.

I'll bet he's sorry he did now. I can be humorously sarcastic. I think it's a Canadian thing...not sure.

Some of you have seen my wallet card. 

I took a picture without glue-ing down the vellum. I was checking to see if it fit and decided I would need a  picture. Of course, I didn't notice it was crooked and not glued down. Sigh...only me. 

I put some money in it and looked at it. 

Boring!!! How can I spice it up? It needed some cards!

 I wanted to encourage him......at first.

Then the tease in me took over and in addition to some nice cards, he got a Revoked Man Card, A Super Hero Checklist, and an Emergency Moustache....because you never know when you might need one.  

My intentions were good...honest!

The other cards are personal jokes....I call it dinner, he calls it supper....

Anyhow, this is how it looks now. I had to add a little tag to let him know we love him...in case he wondered.

Oh, and after I licked the envelope I realized I still hadn't glued down the vellum. Sigh...only me. 

Well, now I'm done. Almost

Chalkboard Printables

Super Hero Check List

Emergency Moustache

Hope you can use some of those printables, Such awesome blogs and generous bloggers out there!!

Happy Summer Days!! 

Blessings!

Carmen

Shhhh....it's a Secret!

Hi!

I participate in something called Secret Sisters, or Secret Prayer Pals. The idea is to pray for a certain someone (done by picking a name out of a hat), while letting them know through cards or small gift items that you're praying for them.

To me, this is a lot of FUN! So I'm in!

Recently I ran across an idea that I decided to copy. Now I've made a few of these, some with white backgrounds, and some with kraft stock. You never know when someone might want one, so I made extras.

However, here is the picture of the one I still have, because I'm so terrible at remembering to take pictures. Really. Terrible!

A $2 Dollar Store Frame, a $2.19 Hershey bar and the rest is history. Oh, except for the sentiment....and here's one if you want to make your own. You'll have to size it to fit your frame...but that's the easy part! 

Just click on the image above, it takes you to another window. Right click, Save as, and save it to a folder.

The white background is actually easier to read. I've used Kraft stock on the one in the picture above.

Oh, and if you too have a Secret Pal, I have a Pinterest board for Secret Pal Ideas...check it out! 

Speaking of Pinterest, I added a new board called Ummm, I Don't Know, because sometimes it's just hard to know what to think!

I know you're almost expecting this next topic. Crochet!

It's a newborn Minnie Mouse Hat! I cheated though...still have to sew on the buttons.

I just visited my parents in the undiscovered paradise of a little town named Lillooet, snuggled between the mountains in British Columbia. I included a link because it's beautiful there! 

While I was there, my mom gave me these. 

They're for paper tolle, but I want to use them for something else.

 Any ideas what I could do with these besides cards or scrapbooking? I think they're adorable! 

Well, that's all folks! I really should get on with my day before it gets away on me! 

Blessings!

Carmen

I Confess, I'm Obsessed

I get focused!

You know, I love all kinds of crafts. If it's crafty, I want to do it.......and it seems the sky is the limit. The only thing is, I have to get it out of my system and then I find some kind of normal. 

Sometimes it takes a while.

Right now I'm the CRAZY crochet lady! Um huh...

please be patient with me...

Newborn size Chocolate Cupcake Hat with flower sprinkles.

A little boys Puppy Hat, size 3 - 6 months.

A little girl's Puppy Hat, size 3 - 6 months.

I don't know about you, but I feel better....I'm just itching to make more though. Yep...still not done! Call me CRAY.....oh wait

We already did that. 

Anyway, these and a bunch of others are all for sale on my FB page HERE if you're interested. 

I wasn't planning on selling...but I'm making too many not to. Silly me. Sigh....I think they call it obsessed.

All of these patterns come from Repeat Crafter Me  if you too want to be obsessed!!

                                *************************

My nephew recently had a birthday, so I sent him a card I made a while back, but I changed the inside of it so thought I'd show it to you again.......

Remember the card above? Here's the new inside....

Okay, who am I kidding? I'm just trying to make up for the low scrapbooking/cardmaking posts of late. 

Although I do prefer the inside of the card to the way it was before, which was rather plain. 

Small offering. I know. 

Well, I hope your weather is nice today

                (Really, I'm talking about weather?). 

Seriously though, it's all over the place!! My family is seeing snow and blizzards!

 It's been pretty good here though. I've even been able to get some walking in.

Well, in between crocheting.

Can't complain at all.

Blessings!

Carmen 

Have You Found Me?

Hi there,

I want to update you on the places I can be found lately!

I've tested out Pinterest and also Facebook for BTFC. These mediums make it a little easier and quicker for me to post things that catch my fancy. 

On this blog I like to post things I've made myself. I recently made a penguin hat but it's already gone, so I will make another to show you!  There's a card coming up soon too...

My Pinterest account is carmengamble1. On it I pin whatever I find interesting. There's a lot of links to tutorials, depending on the category.

My FB account for Beyond The Fringe is more along the lines of digital freebies and printables on the web, interesting tutorials, posts on my blog, etc. 

On my FB there is a small photo album with items for sale that I've made. I will be filling it up asap.

Personally, I've had company for the last week. My son and daughter in law with their new baby...she's such a sweetheart. Happiest baby on earth, I'm sure!! I'm going to miss them terribly!! 

Needless to say, I've been happily giving all my time to my family!

Here's what I've pinned lately: 

Paper Silhouette Art, onto my Craft Ideas I love Board.

Faux Polished Stones, onto my Craft Tutorials Board.

Here's what's new on my FB page: 

Free Vintage Paris Dress Form Digi

Free Brother VS Superhero Printable

I'll be back with a picture post soon!

Hope to see you on Pinterest or FB page! 

Carmen

Lace and Buttons and Yarn, Oh My!

I have a question....

Have any of you ever run out and bought a card for someone even though you have a ton of cardstock and paper in your stash? 

Well, I have. 

Then one day my husband made a little comment about it. He was right. 

I get too busy doing other things and don't get the "fun" things done, like making a card. So I promised myself that I would make all the cards this year. I just about failed...just about....but I did it! The card needs to be at it's destination in 4 days and it just might make it! Lol...

So here it is. In fact, I totally used another card as my inspiration for making this one, even though it looks quite different. 

I love the many uses for the "jar" stamp. Here's just one way to use it. 

I used Brazilian embroidery thread instead of yarn or ribbon over the lace. 

More embroidery thread over the lace on the jar and some buttons for inside.

I've been working on lots of crochet projects as well. Here's a couple of my latest projects.

Crocodile stitch booties. The pattern can be bought from Bonita Patterns. 

I love this little Owl Hat! This one is size 6 - 12 months. So cute! 

Unfortunately the photo is a little overexposed. 

Get the free pattern at Repeat Crafter Me.

Well, that's all I have to share today. I post almost daily on my Beyond the Fringe FB page and often on Pinterest, if you'd like to follow me there. 

Blessings! 

Carmen