Holiday gift box

I thought I would share one of my many craft ideas with everyone.
So first you will need a small wooden box that you can find at any craft store.
I love color and for this box I used a bright red acrylic pain and brushed it on all over the box and let it dry over night.
Then I took some walnut stain and carefully dabbed it on in certain places on the box and took a old dry cloth and wiped away the staining, so that it gave the box an aged look.
I let dry once again over night.
For the top of the lid I used a clear glitter pain and brushed it on and let it dry.
I had some really cute graphic bears and downloaded them onto some photo print paper and cut them out.
I carefully decoupaged them onto the lid, using 2-3 coats and letting each coat dry before doing the next coating.
The final touches were a little more glitter paint and a good sealer to seal everything nicely.

Sorry to all

Hello everyone, sorry you all have not heard from me.
I have been very ill with a serious case of Pneumonia, it started the first of October and has lasted to now, Nov 13. It has been quite a battle for me, as I also have severe asthma, my breathing was down to 30% which is quite bad for someone my height and age. It took over 3 visits to the doctor and lots medication.
Thank goodness I am finally getting back to being somewhat well again. It has been said we are given trials to over come and I have almost overcome this one.
The asthma is just about under control again and I have a new medication that has been helping a whole lot.
I am sorry about not getting the recipes and ideas to all and I soon hope to change all that.
I am having some other trials along with the illness and those also will have outcomes.
Soon I will have some good recipes and ideas and adventures to tell you all about.
For instance the last 2 days have been very exciting, rain, rain rain!
Astoria, Oregon broke records again! over 5 inches of rain! My yard is a swamp and when the dogs come in what a mess!
Polar bear loves the couch and when I am not looking up he goes and now you can not even seen the pattens in the couch, silly dog!
I feeling bad about not being able to sew or craft, I have missed it greatly and soon I will back to it again.

Spookey Old Halloween Pillow

This pillow was fun to design, because most it is in black and white and there is a bit of story going on in it.
It can only be Halloween, the crazy old witch is out roaming the sky with her black cat guiding the way. Those ghosts look as if they are their way to gather pumpkins for the annual pumpkin contest. But look out there is mischief a foot see who is hiding? is that another ghost and just what could Dracula be up too?
I used all cotton fabrics to create the pillow cut out pieces and sewed around them with a colorful thread. I also wanted just a touch of color so I added the pumpkins and the wicked old fence for more of a story. The pillow is filled with fiber fill and a very spooky decorative pillow for Halloween. You can find this spooky old Halloween pillow in my store Frankly It's Kute Productions.

Pneumonia Season is here.

Hi everyone!
Sorry its been so long, but its back to school and of course time for those nasty old virus to come out. Sometimes I think I have a bull eyes painted right on my forehead for them. I have been down and out with a very serious case of Pneumonia which has lasted about 3 weeks now. But I am feeling better, I am here writing.
The camera is still down and I hope to get a new one this week, its been disappointing not being able to add anything to the main store.
Funny how much we all depend on those electronic things.
What's new....
This year my sons football team had their first lost in 6 years, but it was a little one sided. The JV team that they played had Juniors and Seniors on the team and the referees were a bit bias and that old yellow flag was half way down before the play even took place.
I am also going to school online; I had to with the price of food going up and having that 14 year old boy in the house with his friends. I never have understood where those boys can put all that food. The other reason was my husband was in another minor accident with his log truck. I feel I need a degree in case, I need to get back into the work force. So I attempting to get an associate degree in business. So I feel like very mature student with knowledge, I guess that would be a way to put it.
I have learned to roll with all those punches and say it could be worse... and laugh at all the nutty disasters that somehow find me. Maybe too gaining some wisdom from all that comes before me.
I been sewing and I will be adding new things soon.
Did you know that if you mix chopped onion and Catalina dressing together and pour it over chicken breasts and bake in the over at 350 degrees it makes a quick meal and is good.
Another quick idea is to take 3 cups of catchup and 1 1/2 winger, chopped onion, 2 cups of chopped celery, chopped zucchini mix all ingredients together and pour over chicken legs, breasts or thighs and bake at 350 degrees also. This also is quite a great quick meal idea, then add a green salad and corn bread. Its a big yum in my home.
Did you know you can make cinnamon rolls out of Bisquick? I will have that recipe for you later this week.
The Talking Tombstones will be coming up again and I hope to have a camera to share that adventure will you all again. Wonder if there might be more ghosts roaming around then?

Vacuums don't Work Like the Good Old Days

This week is one of the worse weeks for my electronic items. Seems everything decided to break down at once. I have now have no digital camera, no vacuum, no dyer and my son's PSP broke down in the first week.
I am somewhat bummed out out about the camera, I will not be able to take pictures of the new wall hanging quilt that I finished nor can I take pictures of the coffee cake so that you all can see the out come of the recipe. We have had to use the old clothes line for drying clothes but that's ending with rain on its way.
Vacuums don't work like the good old days, seems I go through vacuums like gum sometimes. I always buy the inexpensive ones so maybe that's the problem. I think the dyer is about 20 years old so it was due to go.
What really is disturbing, is the PSP my son bought and used for a week and the motor burned out. Now we can't replace because he choose not to purchase the warranty. Well he actually did not have enough money for the warranty. The point is to this is things just aren't made like the good old days.

Goofy Ghosting Around

Here is a sweet old ghost attempting to take his pet pumpkin and cat for a ghoulish night out. But it looks as though the kitty might have some different ideas! That impish grin can mean only one thing...
Trouble!
I had so much fun using a pattern from McCall's, I used a few of my own ideas though when it came to creating the characters. To make the ghost, I used some white Rayon fabric and painted the face using acrylic paints. The pumpkin is made with Halloween fabrics and I did a little soft sculpting for the eyes.
The Kitty is a heavy black cotton fabric and he has button eyes, a impish grin, made from white cotton fabric and sewn by machine.
Everyone is filled with fiber fill and some cat litter for weighting everyone down. These goofy guys are great for decorating or using as a doorstop for the Harvest holidays coming up.

Same pattern but a whole different look! This time I used quilting batting and stained it with coffee. I also gave this goofy ghost two pumpkins that are out of control!
Everybody is filled with fiber fill and some cat littler for weight. On this ghost I did the face with my sewing machine. These guys were so much fun to create and the ideas to make them are endless. Both of these goofy ghosts and their pals can be found only in my store Frankly It's Kute Productions.

Something from past Fall holidays, Frankie

Frankie is something I created a while back, and he was tons of fun to make. I used muslin to make the body of the the doll and filled him with some cat litter to weight him, and filled him with fiber fill. The clothes are all different fabrics, Halloween fabrics and cotton fabrics. Now his vest is a plush felt, which I have not been able to find that same color for years darn it. I did his face in black cotton floss and did it by hand. His hair is back yarn that I took and separated the yard, knotted it and sewed and glued it to his head. There are raffia bows and stain ribbon bows tied on him. The final thing I want to note is his bolts to his neck, they are gold screws I found just laying around. I made a small poke in the fabric and put a dab of hot glue on the screw and inserted them.
Right now Frankie is in the sales bin at Frankly It's Kute Productions, you can purchase him for $12.00 and he is a 22 inch cloth doll.