I hate blogging and don't even know why I have one but once in a while I like to post pictures and tell about them.  I have read a few blogs this morning and suddenly felt the urge to blog... something anything. I love working on crafts and digging in the dirt. It is hard to stay inside and work on house work while the weather is so beautiful outside.

Kira had an awesome party on Saturday at her house. Her house is so cute and comfortable. Why is it so much easier to help clean someone else's house and not easy to do your own?  I went to Kira's in Lyndonville, NY after work on Thursday afternoon and helped out straightening things up for the party. We had fun too. We went for "Dirty Chai" at Shirt Factory Cafe.

Okay, I know why I don't blog... my brain is ADOS. Attention Deficit OH SHINY.

Card making

Adam's Shutterfly Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly photo books offer a variety of layouts and cover options to choose from.

Shutterfly had an offer for a free 8x8 book so I tried my best to figure out how to do it.
I am not a Graphic Designer so it was very difficult for me. It took me ALL day one day to do it. Sometimes it said the pictures were poor quality and may not print well also some were too close to the edge of a page and I was warned they may not print the way I want them.

But the package came today in the mail and I think it turned out great.  It is broken into 3 parts.

The beginning is about the Willow Tree that Adam loved so much while he was growing up. We had to cut it down and we made a table out of one of the chunks of wood from the trunk. Adam had wrapped a chain around it years ago and the tree eventually grew around the chain. The piece the chain was embedded inside was not able to be ground up in the machine that mulched the wood so they just left it in our front yard. It has sat in our yard for over two years before we made the table that was used at Adam and Nicole's wedding to hold their Unity Candle.

The second part is the Shel Silverstein story of The Giving Tree.



The third part is some fun family photos.

Beechwood Cemetery in Kendall, NY on a March afternoon.

Spending an afternoon wandering around the country side of Western New York on a cold overcast day in March does not sound like a lot of fun. If I add to this fun afternoon that we were looking for a cemetery it sounds even more strange. I really enjoy family history and learning about what life was like for our ancestors. I am lucky enough to have an autobiography written by my husband's Aunt Carrie. She was Ray's mother's sister. I starting looking up where things took place and where people were born, lived and buried. Some years ago I found Sandy Creek Cemetery on Route 104 where most of the Fredrick family is buried. They lived in Kendall Mills, NY near by.

We drove around Kendall and fround a small cemetery but it was not named Beechwood so we asked a jogger if she knew of any other cemeteries around and if she knew of Beechwood Cemetery. She told us about a larger cemetery on "Woodchuck Alley".  She grew up in the area and was always told to stay away from Woodchuck Alley and the cemetery. It was on a gravel road which comes out onto W Kendall Rd. We followed her directions and found it.

We walked back and forth looking at all the headstones and reading dates and names. The weather started to clear up a little and almost got sunny. It was not even windy. As Ray was talking on his phone to our friend, Scott, I continued to look and there it was.....

Benjamin Bartlett Morse Born November 22, 1816. Died January 17, 1890.

Benjamin Bartlett Morse was the son of Benjamin Morse (born in Mass) and Elizabeth Thomas (born in NH). They were some of the original settlers who came from New England to settle this area. Benjamin B. was the first white man born in Kendall, NY.  Benjamin B married Eunice Barton in 1846. Eunice Barton was born May 2, 1831  and died December 19, 1916.

Eunice Barton was born May 2, 1831 and died December 19, 1916

Benjamin Bartlett Morse and Eunice Barton Morse is my husband's Great-Great-Grandparents.
I would be interested to know what happened to Benj. B parents. That will have to wait for another time.  We are lucky to actually have a written family tree of the Decendants of Thomas Wells Allis and Electa Irene Morse

Crafting My Son's Wedding Invitations: Step by Step

There are so many steps to planning a wedding invitation design! 

But I love card-making so none of it was really like work!

Picking out the colors was up to the bride and groom. Some greens were too bright some were too dark. Purples too....too pink too plum...finally it was decided moss/olive green and an eggplant deep purple.

I cut each linen textured deep purple 12x12 sheet in half. Then scored at 2 inches and 5 inches.

I am not a graphic designer so I had to really work at getting the picture of the Pepperpot Tower in Ireland (where my son purposed) to look right and give me the color and space I needed for the text to show and the tower to show through. And I needed Kira's help to get them to print out four on a page the right size to use on the inside of the card.








I used a Word file to create the text for the inside of the card. I read through numorus wedding invitation wording to find what I thought they would like. Finally, I came up with the right thing. I sent it to the bride, she chose the font and I printed four to a page.
I measured the olive paper 4 1/4" x 5 5/8". Then I found a beautiful punch to punch the corners and hold the papers.

I trimmed the tower picture and the vellum with the text to fit. Then used tape runner to glue to the inside of the card.









I cut 70 pieces of peach colored ribbon in to 5 inch lengths. The doves were so cute.. I had to punch 140 of them (2 for each card) and glue them to each end of the ribbon I had tied like a pretzel.

Half way through this process I started to second guess myself and think I should be tie them into bows, which would have been so much harder. So I texted the bride to verify "pretzels" were right.  Ahhhhh... ~sigh of relief~.

 

I used a rubber stamp and embossing powder with a heat gun to emboss a metalic purple tree to the front of a 3x5 5/8 olive green piece of  paper for the front (you can read the previous blog post to see that process).

I then glued the doves with the ribbon over the tree and cut strips of vellum with "Help Us Tie The Knot" on them and glued them just above the doves.

Using tape runner I glued the front panel to the center of the purple card.

The RSVP card was made to fold in half and seal with sticker provided and mail back with response and dinner choice for each guest. We also provided a map of the location of the wedding.

There needed to be a pocket on the inside of the invitation to place the RSVP and map...









...So I had to use tape runner on two at a time as to get only a small strip (half size) of glue in order to glue the pocket on each edge. I placed two cards side by side and ran the tape half on one and half on the other.

Per Adam's request, I place a stamp of a tree with a tire swing on the back because he really liked that stamp. (It must be his association with trees and tire swings with his childhood)

Then I placed each one in an envelope and mailed them out to the bride on 04-23-12

Crafting My Son's Wedding Invitations: Embossed Trees

My son is getting married to a wonderful girl in August, and I am hand-making their wedding invitations!

There are a few steps to the process of making the final product.  This first post is about using a rubber stamp and embossing powder (available at most craft stores) to make an embossed tree that will be on the front of the card. 

I used a chalk bag to rub on paper to avoid static cling. Then I used a rubber stamp medium (it's like clear rubber stamp ink) and the Tree stamp to stamp the design onto paper...then I poured embossing powder on while it was still wet.

Pour on embossing powder and slide off into a container to reuse.

The powder sticks to stamped image.  Now the magic...

I use the heat gun on the underside of the paper so it does not blow off any of the powder... 

... And it melts into a beautiful metallic image!

More to come!...

 Making Apple Cider with friends.

First we had to cut the apples with a huge knife. Ray really liked that part.

Then we had to feed the cut apples into a grinder/masher while someone kept pressing them through the grinder.

The mashed up apples were dumped into a press and squeezed through a screen.

The apple pulp is then removed to feed deer or compost.

We poured them into jugs to take home.

A neighbor that was helping brought over some of his hard cider. I think it tasted like white wine.