Be Happy Rocks for Steuben County "Rocks"

The other day, someone did a private hide for my daughter. I'm in a Facebook group that hides art glass called Gorge Glass for the Fingerlakes and they knew she had donated a bunch of her glass pieces as prizes for a kid event, so this really sweet lady wanted to thank her. Anyway...

Long story short, she messaged us the location and we rooted around the bottom of a tree for a bit and found these beauties! While looking, we found that striped rock up there! It was buried. The stripes were peeling...and I didn't have the heart to post it to say I found it without cleaning it up a bit. See, we have another group here called Steuben County "Rocks" and this was a rock from that group.

While repainting the stripped rock & converting it into a caterpillar, I also decided to make some fellow bug friends. Of course, sparkle modge podge! I'll be sending these little guys out into the world tomorrow on the way to work. I'll probably hid them near the library.

I like Monday morning hides. Gets me in the mood to do something fantastic on a Monday!

Sharky the Sea Plane Layout

Recently we went camping with friends for the sole purpose of hanging out near Hammondsport NY. It's pretty local to us, but Civil Air Patrol wanted Luke to help with the Sea Plane event both days and it was so much easier just driving him a couple of miles and coming back to to the camper to hang out vs. a lot of round trips each day.

The highlight of the event for Luke was getting a ride in Sharky the Sea Plane. He had suffered through the heat of Saturday and was in no mood to head back in the fray Sunday as his allergies had started. Later on Sunday when I went to pick him up he was elated and so pumped as he got a ride on this awesome sea plane! Huge thanks to the pilot for picking him!

I grabbed a photo of the poster I had from the event to add to my photo layout and then finished the whole thing off with some poppies & leaves. One of the sea planes that was flying was one designed and built by Glenn Curtiss from the Glenn Curtiss Museum who hosted the event. It was quite a highlight as the plane was flying it's last flight before hanging out in a museum.

One last page from summer as we are officially heading into fall here in NY. I spotted a couple of trees that were changing color and it's time to break out the leave cut outs & stamps!

Happy Hump Day!

Set Your Phasers to Stun Today: Pew Pew!!!

Last Christmas, my oldest gave me a jar. It was full of happy thoughts. It might have been a project for English class. All those little tiny pieces of paper carefully tied with floss were a bit daunting. So, I enjoyed the jar as a whole until the other day when she came bopping in the office, flopped down on the chair and said hey you should open one or two of these.

So I did. Turns out this little pink one is on unicorn paper. It's pink and sparkly and awesome. Can't argue with any of these messages either.

Turns out I have 98 happy thoughts to go. She counted. Looks like plenty! I think they might make a nice addition to an evening when I roll in super tired of the daily grind or first thing in the am with a cup of coffee! Regardless, hats off to the kid for taking the time to make all these and what a great project! Good job English teach!

Happy Tuesday!

Back tomorrow with a layout!

The Crystal City

Recently a someone I know 'round these parts complained about all the glass in her yard and I thought wow, she must have missed the memo. There is a TON of glass in the yards here! ;-) I however don't mind finding the glass. Means there is lots of history! The nickname of our town is the Crystal City due to 150 years plus of glassmaking, which means a lot of scrap glass got tossed. Love finding it when it's cool!

One of the houses I'm working on for Habitat is super old. When the new concrete blocks were laid up in the basement, this green bottle showed up. The other two pieces I've found recently. The people working on the house usually drop their finds on a windowsill.

This little brass pipe and rolling papers were found over the door frame going down into the basement. The basement has made a huge improvement over when we first got the house, but I can't imagine that hanging out down there to smoke a joint was all that fun.

The next yard over is where we're digging in the sewer for another house. The trench for that house contained these pretty metal pieces. They will be so much fun to play with when I'm working on some mixed media. It's amazing how well they came out from the dishwasher. ;-)

I'll be back later with something that Lexi made and with any luck, a layout!

Truly Blessed Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE, or alternative title: The Tail of Two Little Pups

The other day we were hanging around the campfire with Mike and Angel and wondering how Teri's little dog was doing. We had heard the new puppy had issues with it's heart and that it was going to be quite expensive to fix. We HAD however spotted this awesome photo on Facebook and concluded that all was well, because hello, two dancing dogs photo bombing the back to school pic.

Later we heard that the surgery went very well, so that was quite a relief! Then we went back to enjoying the cool photo of her two girls! I thought it would be nice to gift her a page so she could tell the story a little. Left plenty of room for Teri to journal right above those pretty pumpkins!

I am truly in love with these pumpkins I added. When I first made the layout, it was only a sunflower & some acorns. Teri's Mom had paper pieced those and passed them along. Then I added Sparkle Pumpkins and I was like wow, that is such a fun page! I cut them all out of white, inked them up, and then misted them with sparkle spray. Love the mottled look. Kinda matches the grunge thing I have going on the rest of the page!

Want to make your very own pumpkins? You can find them over at THE CUTTING CAFE. I used the Pumpkin Trio Card and just omitted the card part & cut out a lot of pumpkins! I'll be back with more pumpkins at some point since I cut out a ton! They are fun and it's getting to be that time of year around these parts!

Happy Thursday!

Ash Marbles

Recently my Grandma Skip passed. It's been a rough couple of weeks for my Mom, Dad, Aunt and myself. However, recently I noticed my heart doesn't feel as heavy and I don't tear up when I think of her. She's been sick for a long time, so it's not like we didn't know this was coming. However, finally saying good bye is so final. (statement of the year there, jeeze louise)

We have a memorial service coming up and I am hoping that the combination of all those good people in one room and a nice meal will really bring all those warm memories to the surface and send her off in our minds in a good way. Cousin Josh recently texted me and asked about incorporating some of her ashes in glass. The idea made Lexi twitch a bit, but then she headed off with some wood stove ashes in a little container to try it. The idea was interesting to her and she lucked out and had a little lesson with a flame worker who happened to know a bit about adding ash to glass.

He explained that you were actually changing the composition of the marble which made it much more difficult to keep the round shape. The actual carbon in the ash would burn off, but the process seems to make the marble really bubbly.

So, now she's had a study and might actually do the real ashes. We will have to see. I've figured out that I shouldn't push my agenda on a budding glass artist!

Happy Tuesday to you!

Little Bits of Pretty Around Here

I had two lonely flowers from another project so decided to pull out some card bases & fancy them up with scraps, a little stamped bird, and whatever else was hanging out on the desk. Next thing you know I was spraying them with shimmer spray, inking the edges, and adding glitter. Nothing can be just a little fancy here...must go all out and add a strand of pearls....

While I was cleaning the desk, I came across a huge bag of buttons that someone had gifted me so I sorted and picked out my very favorites. A quick google search has shown me that those copper ones up top are from World War II and now I want them on a long wool coat. They are really tactile and heavy. So pretty too those little gem ones at the bottom. Will be hoarding them all for a while!

The reason I need some little bits of pretty is that recently we had a lot of very large pine trees taken down. I am pretty sure they were originally planted along the property line, but they had gotten very large and sickly. Not to mention the mess from the needles. So, we paid a pro to come and drop them and THE MAN has spent very single evening for a week working on getting them chopped up and dropped over the bank. We could have paid a lot more for the work, but opted to do a bit of our own sweat equity while also making some wildlife habitat with the brush we piled up. I am hoping that front flower bed can now house veggies as now we have sun on that corner of the house!

Happy Hump Day!

Anything Goes at THE CUTTING CAFE or Why Does that Box have Wheels?

I was totally looking forward to Labor Day as it's a Monday off work. It was too hot to spend outside although THE MAN was working on cutting up some trees we had taken down. I wasn't invited to help due to it being a side slope and only one chain saw. Found a nice sturdy box and knew I wanted to use flowers from THE CUTTING CAFE. Decided to get my crafty on!

The most difficult part was to get the wheels attached.  It turned out that a nice study box with some holes cut in the bottom with an exacto knife and hot glue made it pretty easy. I then got busy with some washi tape, modge podge, and then later gold & turquoise paint. 

The wheels do actually work, honest! The box reminded me of a little wagon. I was going for whimsical with all the colors and the splashes of gold and silver. The wheels had been in the stash for a very long time so it was super cool to add them to the box, along with those cool gold metal pieces. 

Making the flowers were a lot of fun! I always enjoy this cutting file! It's called the Paper Flower Template and Cutting File and they always make me so happy! You can glam them up any which way you like. I like mine with a little bit of glitter and hanging out with a vintage button!

Aren't they pretty! 

Happy Hump Day! I'm off to work on a house for Habitat! Wish us luck! 

Little Lovelies in Amber Purple Not to mention a Tortoise

The latest batch of coolness came home with Lexi from the Corning Museum of Glass the other day. I really love her marbles and this one with a hint of dichroic glass is extra special. She's freaking out about this photo I took of the marble...

It's not molten still, honest! One of the great parts about glass is it's ability to look different depending on the light.

This fish is made out of the same glass. Wasn't made at the same time, but the colors inspired the rest of her pieces. Amber purple glass rocks!

Check out this little pendant. It's so pretty! We have something 'round these parts called Gorge Glass of the Finger Lakes where people hide handmade marbles & pendants. I really wanted to hide this one several times but I haven't been able to part with it yet!

Check out the spots on this little dude. I love him! Labor Day (yesterday) was Lexi's last day of work for a while. I know she's going to try to keep flame working. I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Happy Tuesday!

Rehabbing a Bench

The other day Luke came home from work with a "bench." Well, in my mind it looked like a very sad dilapidated bench that might need to head quickly to the nearest dumpster. My lack of vision was evident when nearly a week later and five million coats of stain & clear coat, the pieces of the bench were looking a LOT better. I was still skeptical but was willing to give the project the benefit of the doubt. I've rehabbed worse....

Megan, Luke's bff and sidekick was so relieved when it was finally back together. She had gotten conscripted at the very end for assembly. Luke promised an hour and nearly a whole day later....Megan learned a very important life lesson. Men lie. Even when they are nearly 16 year old men and think that a few screws won't take very long. A rehab NEVER goes back the way you think it will...and to that point perhaps taking a photo or two prior to disassembly might help in the long run. Anyhow, it was a great project and is back to the owner.

THE MAN is overjoyed that it's out of his garage....I am too. I'm scouting for my next piece of furniture!

Happy Labor Day if you are here in the States! It's a day off for us.

Paperless Post : Fabulous Fun with Digital Cards

Dear Me. I saw a Christmas layout out and about on blog land yesterday. Scared the shorts right off me. I have a sneaking suspicion that the fall leaves are on their way and next thing you know it, we'll be jingling all the way....Summer is on it's way out.


To me, this means it's officially CARD TIME around here! The Pratt Family starts getting older right about October, unless you want to mention my Dad who has a birthday at the end of September. Then there are Thanksgiving Cards and Christmas Cards and then my birthday slides in at the very end of the year. I love making cards, but sometimes....there just isn't the time. My focus these days has been more on interior projects vs. ones on paper. THANK GOODNESS for Paperless Post!

I made a quick card for Luke complete with a plane in about two minutes. I sent it to myself so I could see what it looked like. It was dumb to be excited about getting a card I made in my email , but I was!

Then I made one for Lexi. She brought macaroons home from the airport when they stopped in Paris, so this card made me think of her. Love the script font!

The real genus though is sending invites. They even have it set up so you can get your RSVPS though email. I started making an invite to my 45th Birthday (which happens to fall on a Saturday) until I realized it's legitimately four months away. A smidge too early for save the dates!

Anyhow, if you are feeling crunch time, I urge you to check out Paperless Post! Its awesome fun!

Happy Hump Day!

Maine Diner Layout for Luke

 Things sometimes just show up in my office and then I'm left to guess what I'm supposed to do with them. The other day a big wadded up menu from the Maine Diner appeared. Much later the boy showed up and mentioned he brought it home in hopes I'd add it to a scrapbook page. I hadn't seen any photos so I was a bit perplexed on how I'd make a page...Then my inbox started dinging and these beauties popped in.

The menu proved to a simple addition. A quick fussy cut, backed it with some dark gray paper, and then pop dotted it up. I love it as it makes the perfect title. That little bloom makes me happy too. Not extremely beachy, but it matches Luke's shirt! Added some die cut fish and a pine cone to finish the flower cluster.

And there you have it! My page from the weekend! I'm not doing a lot of paper crafting at the moment, partially because it's nice outside and also because the adventures are a bit more adult like this summer. I don't think a page a week is all that bad though because (!!!!) there are 52 weeks a year and that's like two books full right there!

Happy Tuesday!