Cake Decorating 101 and More on the Memory Book

Hi Everyone!

Did you get the big snowstorm? We received a whopping 18 inches of snow! Although it's a pain getting this much snow in March, it sure is pretty......






It's a nice wet snow, so the kids should have a blast building snowmen, sledding and having the traditional snowball fight! lol

Are you a cake decorator? I have always wanted to create awesomely decorated cakes and have taken a stab or two at accomplishing that. I can't say I'd win any prizes but every once in a while the juices flow and I give it a try. Recently, one of my buyers wanted a special vintage image to create a tutorial for CakeJournal.com. She did an awesome job with the tutorial and it looks so easy that I'm definitely going to give it a try for my Easter cake. To view the tutorial click here . I'll let you know how it turns out... Oh by the way, the vintage chick image that she used is available via my ArtFire shop. To purchase the image click here .

Since my last post, I presented my memory book to my son's soon-to-be bride at their wedding shower. It seemed to be a big hit. But as usual, I forgot to take the final pictures of it totally completed - figures doesn't it - I always seem to forget that critical step... lol Guess I'll have to make a trip to their house so I can show you what it looked like. Till then, here's a few more pictures of the individual pages.

Megan has chosen black and purple as her colors, so I tried to incorporate those colors as much as possible. I found an awesome DP book from Colorbok that was full of rose designs and used a lot of MS punches as well as ek punches.





For this book, I planned on leaving a pretty large pocket when I put the pages together. So I decided to create a pocket insert which could be used for journaling or photos or whatever. These pocket pages are about 6.5 x 6.5" and decorated on both sides, so there's plenty of space for photos.






I guess that's all for now. Make sure you check out CakeJournal.com and make sure that you......

Have a great week, plumb full of smiles!
Peggy

Valentines, A Memory Book and a Free Vintage Image

Hi Everybody!

Wow - spring is here! The robins are back, the spring showers have started - I'm so excited! It's going to be a very busy spring, we have Easter, taxes, 2 weddings, 3 birthdays and Mother's Day coming up! I can't wait - except for maybe the tax part.. lol

It's been a while since I've posted so I have quite a bit to share. I totally missed sharing Valentine's with you and I've almost missed Easter.. lol but today I'll try and catch up a bit.

First a funny story... some of you may recall, that my hubby and I are staying at my DMIL's. She has dementia - suspected Alzheimer's. After a terrible infection in her knee which left her wheel chair bound, she has been working very hard for the last year and half to get some standing and moving back. She has gone in for regular shots in her knees which have been very painful but she has been a real trooper in putting up with it. She has been working very hard on strengthening her legs and using them. Well, she has finally gotten to the point where she could stand for a few minutes, and we've been trying to work on taking a step or two... just enough to move from the wheelchair to a seat or her bed. She's making progress on this but it has been a very slow process. For a little more background, mom has what's called a high-low bed. That's a bed that has a motor on it which can be used to raise or lower the actual bed plus it has bars on both sides which prevent her from accidentally rolling out of bed. The bars span the length of the bed except for maybe a two foot area at the head and foot of the bed that is left open.

Well now, here's the funny story part... the other morning I went in to get mom out of bed and low and behold she was sitting in her wheelchair! You could have knocked me over with a feather! The bars were still up on her bed, she had her shoes on and had almost made it to the door when I found her. I was so amazed! I asked how she did it and she didn't know, acted like it was an everyday kind of thing and she let me know that she was ready for breakfast! How on earth she wiggled out of her bed and walked to her wheelchair, I'll never know. I guess all I can say is that the body and the mind are amazing things! This hasn't happened since and I truly hope that it doesn't, it scares me to death that she could have fallen and hit her head or broke a bone but I'm still amazed that she accomplished this great feat and I didn't even get to see it! It was a nice surprise but she's given herself away now, we need to push her a little harder because now we know she can do it. She's blown her cover! lol

Ok, since I missed Valentines with you, I'd like to backtrack just a little and share the Valentine cards I made for the grand kids. This year they got to go to Disney for 10 days and they didn't get back into town until Valentines Day. With their trip in mind, I decided that their cards would have a Disney flair - what would be better than a Princess and Peter Pan.

I had the Princess and Peter Pan images but I wanted a castle and a tree house for the backgrounds, so I went searching on the Internet and found a coloring page with a castle and a how to draw page with the tree house. I had some Disney scrap paper that had Captain Hook and his helper so I was ready to put it all together. I colored the castle and the tree house with my acrylic paints and blinged up the princess with lots and lots of Stickles, added some dimension and here's what I wound up with.








I had a lot of fun creating them and the kids really enjoyed them. Would you like to create your own Princess or Peter Pan cards? You can find the images in my ArtFire store, for Peter Pan, click here , for a pink princess, click here , for a blue princess, click here .

Can you hang out with me for a little longer? I think I've already told you that my youngest son is getting married in May, well I've been working on creating a memory book for him and his bride and I'll share that with you... no not all of it today, but over the next few posts. I've been working on it for the past month and presented it to his new bride at her shower yesterday, so now I can share without ruining the surprise. Here's the very first page in the their memory book.




I love this rose image, it's so life like and it lends itself very well for a dimensional image. I used three different layers for the rose itself and two for the leaves. I added some diamond Stickles to the highlighted areas of the rose and leaves and some gold Stickles to the border - my printer doesn't print the color gold it always turns out green. For additional bling, scroll work with a black flower was added at the corners - the bride has selected black and purple as her colors. I left a pocket behind the rose image and inserted a tag that can either be used for journaling or a photo. The tag has a charm that says "love", but in the picture it's turned around so you can't see it. I wanted the memory book to have lots of places to add photos or journaling, so between each page I added a pocket that has a two-sided insert. Both sides have room for additional photos or journaling. On the insert I attached 3 little black flowers and another charm that says "I Do" and some black ribbon . I really liked the way it turned out.



I appreciate your staying and hopefully reading to the end of this post... lol and I truly think you should receive a reward for your due diligence. So I thought I'd share my dimensional rose with you. I hope you create something awesome with it and if you're so inclined, email me a picture of your completed project or share the link if you post it, so I can see your awesome creation! The image is all set to print on a 8.5 x 11 sheet so that all the images will stay scaled correctly. Don't forget to click on the image before you save it.



Have a great week, plumb full of smiles!

Peggy

Visit PeggyLovesVintage's ArtFire Shop

A Christmas Idea and Free Vintage Valentine Image

Hi Everyone,

How's your new year going? Great I hope! It's been pretty busy around here, seems like I'm always saying that lol... but it's true. Now that we have a little extra "free" time, with visitation being drastically reduced and the hustle and bustle of Christmas activities completed, we've been able to focus on some things that have been ignored.

Are you totally tired of Christmas? I hope not, because I have a couple of last minute Christmas photos to share with you. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is creating a new ornament for the tree. Every year the grandkids and I try and get creative and make a new ornament for the tree. This year we chose to create designer snowmen. Jordan, Kaiden and I had a great time making them.

Kaiden was really into the zebra print!

Jordan insisted that her snowman had arms and a lot of bling. lol

Grandma was really into pink! lol We had a lot of fun and of course created a lot of memories to go with our snowman.

This was our second Christmas staying at mom's. Last year, we only put up a couple of stockings because I couldn't find a way to hang all of them. I tried using the removable hanger thingies but either I wasn't attaching the holders correctly or the adhesive didn't like the surface of the fireplace, but either way they didn't work for me. This year as we were shopping, we happened to wander through the bath area of a department store and my eyes landed on the shower tension rods. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I could use a tension rod to hold the stockings and the S-hooks typically used to hold the shower curtain would be perfect for holding the stockings. So I purchased what I needed and happily went on my way.

This worked perfectly! I was able to put the tension rod between the mantel base boards and the S-hooks held the stockings! I was a little afraid the weight of the filled stockings would pull the tension rod down, but it held like a champ and believe me we have lots of stockings with lots of weight by the time they're all filled.

I covered it with garland and decorated the mantel. By the time I was all done, you couldn't even tell that the shower rod was there.

I got to thinking about this and it dawned on me that the idea could be used by all the folks that don't have fireplaces as well. You could use it in window frames or in doorways, or in kitchen/den areas where there's a cut out between the two of them. If you need something not quite so heavy duty as a shower rod, you could use those little gold extension rods that are made for curtains. I bet they would work just great for a couple of stockings. Anyway, I think this was my best Christmas idea for the year! lol

Are you working on your valentines? I've been browsing through my cards trying to decide which image I'll use this year. At the moment I'm kind of partial to this darling little puppy. The original sentiment refers to him as being a gingham puppy, but in my opinion, I think he's more of a plaid vs a gingham. What do you think? Make sure you click on him before you save him.

Have a great week, plumb full of smiles!

Peggy

Visit PeggyLovesVintage's ArtFire Shop

Henson Robinson Zoo and a Free Vintage Santa Image

Hi Everyone

Are you ready for Christmas? I'm not! I really envy the individuals who are so organized that by this time they have all their presents purchased, wrapped and under the tree. Maybe one of these years I'll be that person. lol Probably only in my dreams, but that's ok, I'm still going to hope that one of these days I'll reach that lofty goal. lol

A couple of weeks ago, I received an email from our local zoo - The Henson Robinson Zoo. They were getting ready to put on their yearly fund raiser that they call Holiday Lights. They decorate the zoo with Christmas lights and scenes and hold special after dark hours.  Anyway, they wanted to know if I would like to provide some  PeggyLovesVintage items for the gift shop and help with the fund raiser. I felt pretty honored that they would even ask me to participate and I was more than happy to try and help the zoo out, so of course I said yes.

I've never displayed my items in an actual store setting, so I had a ton of things that I had to do to get ready for it. So after about 2 weeks of work, my display was ready. So what do think?

I printed off lots of the collage sheets, created some cards and made lots and lots of hang tags.  I pondered for a while on how to document what was on the individual CD's and finally settled on creating individual inserts that would contain a description and a few sample images. And of course, things like price tags and package covers had to be made for the physical store setting. It was quite the challenge but I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Now, I'm just hoping that my items sell so that I can say that I helped the zoo.

Here's a couple of the cards that I created for the zoo. I had planned on using the older post card style images for my Christmas cards and had made a couple of test cards. I really liked the way they turned out, so I decided I would make some up for the zoo. The three images are from Christmas Volume 13. You can find more information about this volume by clicking here. I kept them pretty simple, using just black and white card stock and Stickles to give a sparkle to the snow.



Please forgive me, but now I'm stepping up on my soapbox. A couple of posts back, I mentioned that a scrapbook paper supplier was using my images, without my permission, in their Dear Santa line. At that time I didn't share the company's name because I was hoping that they would be a stand up company and would stop using them. I contacted the company via email on October 14, 2012 and, when I didn't hear anything, again on October 24, 2012. Both times I explained my concerns and requested that they stop reselling my images. On October 15-16, 2012, Designs by Reminisce LLC removed the Santa sheet from the Dear Santa line on the web site but left the Snowman sheet as well as all the other items connected to the product line.

Well, the company, turned my email over to their attorney, Mr. Willey,  who sent me a letter dated October 29, 2012 telling me that they weren't using my images, that I had no claim to the images,  that they had been purchased in a legal manner and to stop contacting them. Here's the summary quote from his letter.

"Please cease your communication with my client on this issue unless and until you are able to prove: 1) my client used your images, and 2)  you actually have rights to copyright."

On Novemeber 6, 2012, I sent Mr. Willey a response letter. I told him that Designs by Reminisce LLC owned by a Mr.Matt Gibson was indeed using my images for the Dear Santa line. I provided him with Mr. Matt Gibson's ebay user id, with the date that he purchased both my Santa CD and Snowman CD, with the PayPal transaction id with which Mr. Gibson paid for the CD's, and with the mailing address where the CD's were shipped. I also provided him with information on when the CD's were originally published and offered for sale,  per current copyright laws, at publication, copyright protection is automatically applied to an item.  This information was sent via register mail, so I know Mr. Willey recieved the letter on November 8, 2012. As of today, December 12, 2012, Mr. Willey has not responded nor have I heard from Mr. Gibson.,

Therefore, I feel compelled to tell my story to all of my blog friends. I have heard, although I have not been able to verify it, that Designs by Reminisce LLC may already be involved in a copyright infringement case with another individual. This information came from two different stores in totally different states. So I'm assuming that there is some credence to the information. Have you heard anything about this?  Whether it is true or not, I cannot say, but it definitely makes me wonder about all the other items that the company produces.

I know that I will never purchase anything from Designs by Reminisce LLC either in-store or on-line at http://www.designsbyreminisce.com . How about you?


Ok, I'm stepping off my soapbox now. I have an awesome image to share with you this week. I love this Santa in his Model T. Make sure you click on him before you save it.

Have a great week, plumb full of smiles and successful Christmas shopping!

Peggy

Visit PeggyLovesVintage's ArtFire Shop

Angels Are Everywhere and a Free Vintage Christmas Image

Hi Everyone

Are you having a great week? I sure hope so! Can you believe it's Thanksgiving week. Where on earth did October and November go? It sure seemed like it sped right through!

The first thing I'd like to do is thank everyone for all the sweet and supportive comments left on my last post. They sure lifted my spirits. The last year has really been a challenge but I see blue skies ahead!

In October, our area has tons of craft fairs and I try and attend as many as possible. My goal for these trips is to try and find some cute ideas to use for making Christmas presents. I'm primarily looking for ideas that won't cost a ton of money, are easy to make and make cute homemade gifts. I've never been disappointed in this quest, I always find something that I can recreate and this year was no different.

My find was a sweet little towel angel.

Now, maybe you've seen one or have made them before but the idea was a new one for me. So I looked it over for a few minutes, figured it all out and I had my plan in place. So here's how I made my angel towel.


Supplies needed:
One kitchen towel set
3 cotton balls
2 zip ties - 6" in length(mine were 8" and way to long)
3 rubber bands
scissors
ribbon
embellies

From the towel set you will need the dish cloth, the towel and an oblong pot holder that has rounded corners. Make sure you check the pot holders before you purchase. I ran across several sets with oblong pot holders but they had square corners on them. I didn't really want pointy wings, so I choose the sets with the rounded corners.

My plan was to have the solid side of the pot holder showing for the wings, but the tag was really obnoxious so I cut it off.

The pot holder hanger also functions as the hanger for the angel. Now fan fold the pot holder along the longest edge. Once folded, use rubber bands on both ends to hold the folds in place.

Place the zip tie in the middle of the pot holder. Make sure you place it so that it goes between the hanger and the holder.

Now pull the zip tie tight. Do it slowly and adjust it as needed to keep it in the center of the pot holder. Watch the little square connector as you tighten it. The connector should stay in the middle of the side of the pot holder that you want to show. This will keep the connector hidden when you have your angel all put together.

Trim the zip tie close to the connector, remove the rubber bands and spread out the fan and it should look like this.

Now lay the dish cloth out and try and get it as flat as possible. I turned in the edges of the cloth because I wanted the ends to look a little neater.

Tightly roll up the dish cloth, straightening up the edges as needed.

After it is all rolled up, use rubber bands on both ends to hold it together. Place your rubber bands about an inch or more from the ends. This will make it easier to tie on the ribbon. Wow, it's been about a whole 3 minutes and two pieces of the angel are done!

Now open up the towel and fold it in half.

Squish the 3 cotton balls together to try and form one big ball and place it at the top and center between your folded towel.

Now this is probably the trickiest part of the whole thing. I wanted my angel to have a nice A line dress so I started with a triangle fold like this.

Once this initial fold was done, I gathered it all together by squeezing closely under the cotton balls. Then it was pretty much fuss a litle, tighten up and squish the cotton balls and fuss some more. The whole time it was straightening folds and mushing and squishing cotton balls until it looked nice and round and neat. Once I was satisfied that it looked good, I used a rubber band to temporarily hold everthing in place, so that I could lay it down flat and just give it one more double check before I made it permanent.

The front looks pretty good.

The back doesn't look too bad! So it's ready for the next step

To attach the wings, slide the second zip tie underneath the first zip tie on the wings. Now be carefull here, with taking pictures and all, I forgot that I wanted the solid brown side to be the showing side and I placed my second zip tie on the patterned side vs the solid side.

Place the dish cloth roll over the head of the doll. Make sure the cloth is centered and that the "arms" are of equal length on both sides. I used a rubber band to temporarily hold the cloth on the head. Place the rubber band at about the center face area so that it doesn't interfer with the placement of the second zip tie.

Now lay the angel, face up on top of the wings making sure that the second zip tie is between the wings and the angel and that the wing hanger is located at the top of the head.

Tighten up the zip tie, making sure that it stays right under the head and that the connector piece winds up hidden between the angel body and the wings. Pull it slowly and get it as tight as you can so your angel head doesn't flop around.

Trim the end of the zip tie as close to the connector as possible and remove the rubber bands from the head.

Now tie some ribbon around the end of her arms to hold the roll and then remove the rubber bands.

Isn't that just the cutest towel angel? I think it took about 15 minutes from start to finish and most of that time was folding and squishing on her head. lol

Add a few more or a lot of embellies and you have an awesome little homemade gift for that special person. Once they tire of the angel, they can take it apart and have some useful kitchen items. That's what I call repurposing! lol

Two down and how many more do I have to make? YIKES! I better get busy! lol

Staying with the angel theme, here's a really sweet angel image for you. This card is circa 1946 through 1949. Isn't it sweet? Make sure you click on it before you save it.

Have a great week, plumb full of smiles!

Peggy

Visit PeggyLovesVintage's ArtFire Shop