DJ's Sundries

I spent a very busy day in the ER today.  I'm sitting in the recliner - exhausted!  It is often impossible to leave my work "at work".  As I see so much hurt out there, I often experience a huge range of emotions - everything from compassion to anger to frustration.  That's part of the job that I love and it makes up part of who I am.  I felt those things today as is usual for me. However, getting home I continued to see the deep hurts that abound.  As much of the West that I love continues to burn, so many more are hurting.  I heard that Camp Grace is gone along with the home of a dear pastor and his wife.  The Flying W Wranglers are meeting in Colorado tomorrow to encourage the victims of the Colorado fires while they have lost so much themselves. I read of grandparents who recently found that their 18 month old grandchild has stage 3 cancer.  These grandparents have lost a son as well as a grandson and still remain faithful to serve th...

I trust you are having a great day.  This little vase was inspired by Amy at Love To Crop.  Her beautiful sunshine yellow vase can be found by clicking here .  Thanks for the inspiration Amy.  I knew I had to make these for the 4th of July.  I love decorating for the seasons.  I think next year that I will get them out around Memorial Day and leave them through July.  I chose artificial daisies so the water doesn't get spilled from the naughty cat getting on the table (just ask me how I learned this lesson). I found these round place mats at Walmart.  I only use tablecloths or place mats for very special occasions, but I almost always have a table runner.  I decided to use the place mats for a runner.  I like the effect. You will find complete directions on the video.  Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to check back soon for more projects and ideas. I am linking this project to the following challenges: ...

Good Morning Friends!  I hope you are all having a great day.  Please remember to keep praying for the firefighters fighting all those fires in the West.  There are so many fires and many people are hurting from the loss of their homes.  I heard from my family last night that a town near them had evacuations.  My dad, 2 brothers, and sister-in-law were helping move 4-H livestock.  PLEASE KEEP PRAYING!  The West needs rain!  Fires are also raging in Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho. I know this has been a post heavy day, so if this is the first post you're seeing, please scroll down because I have two others today.  The post before this one is asking for your help in identifying a stamp set that I have had for years.  I don't know who made them and I'm hoping that one of you will.  Click here to go directly to that post.  The post prior to that is the first post of a new feature I have added to the blog.  You can quickly ...

I have a quick video today showing a set of stamps that I need help identifying.  Can you help?  Have you seen these before? I would love to hear if you recognize them.  Thanks in advance!

Good morning friends.  Today I am starting a brand new feature on my blog.  It's called "How do I?..."  This is a place where I will show you how I do something and ask for your feed back.  It is a place where I hope we can learn from each other.  If you have a question you would like featured please feel free to contact me through my profile on the homepage.  Please remember that any tips posted here are just ideas.  You try them at your own risk, so please use common sense when trying other people's ideas.  Now to today's question: How Do I Take Care of my Cricut Mats? I find Cricut mats challenging.  We all know that as paper builds up on them, they lose their stickiness and cuts are messed up.  We also know that they can be pricy.   So how do we prolong their life? I saw a few tips on YouTube a long time ago when I first began having this problem.  I have tried several things and still don't have the answers.  I...

Colorado is the land of my birth.  You can take the girl out of Colorado, but Colorado is still in the girl.  It is the land I will always consider home, though I haven't lived there in a very long time.  When I was 14, I had crossed eyes.  The local eye doctor really wasn't able to treat them, though he had tried.  I was blessed enough to be taken to one in Colorado Springs.  It took several trips back and forth from my little home town to complete treatment.  At that time, I stated that if I ever had to live in a big city, I would like it to be Colorado Springs.  Over the next few years, I would make a few trips there and would enjoy the scenery surrounding the area. As my love and I prepared for marriage, he decided to move to Colorado Springs to seek a job.  We were married January 1, 1991 and spent the first 3 months of our marriage living there.  I loved it.  It was a great place to live. Now much of this area is burning a...

Hello everyone.  I haven't made it into the craft space long enough to craft lately but I have done some cooking.  I found a new channel on YouTube called the Chuck Wagon Cowboy.  He has some interesting recipes and I printed a few to try.  Now I don't endorse everything on his channel, but tonight's dinner was delicious. Now I will admit, it may not look like much in this picture, but it was delicious!  It can't be low calorie, but will make a good occasional treat.  You can find the recipe on YouTube by clicking here .  The recipe is in the comment section.  I think the jalapeno really adds to it. When we were in South Carolina on vacation, we had some delicious green beans.  They were fresh and cooked in a pressure cooker.  They were finished off with a tiny bit of bacon grease.  Well I didn't have fresh beans and I don't have a pressure cooker, but I did have bacon grease.  Now before you panic, listen to how I mad...

I have a fun card today for you that I made for the final card exchange club of the season.  It has been so fun to see the cards come in each month over the last 2 cycles of the club.  I'm looking forward to starting again in the fall.  Its also been nice to receive a great variety of cards each month.  Thank you Crystal for arranging this.  Now on to this month's card: Isn't this card fun?  I used Create-a-Critter to cut this little owl at 3".  I used papers from Scrapbook Warehouse, DCWV, Coordinations (Tim Holtz Distress), and WeR Memory Keepers to make him.  The solid papers are also from the Tim Holtz Distress paper pad from Coordinations and the base from PaperTrey Inc. The little printed trim piece on the inside of the card and the number strip on the outside of the card were cut from the 6X6 "Fine and Dandy" paper pad fro My Mind's Eye.  I combined stamps from "Owly Hoo " and "Splashtastic Summer" from K. Andrew Desig...

Hello everyone.  This is a different kind of post for me.  I haven't spent much crafty time lately.  I know I posted a few projects earlier in the month but they were actually projects that I completed by June 2nd and just spread them out.  Want to know why?  I was on vacation!  Woo Hoo.  My husband's nephew married a beautiful young lady so we flew to South Carolina to share their special day.  We decided that we were going to take a few extra days with just the 4 of us so we drove over to North Myrtle Beach and had a great little vacation.  Despite the fact that we were near the beach, we only spent a couple of hours actually at the beach.  We had a great time! Here was my attempt at body boarding.  It was so fun (minus the mouth and nose full of water). My son had researched the area prior to vacation and decided he wanted to take a ride on the Sky Wheel - a 200 foot Ferris wheel.  This is my husband and I insid...

A couple of days ago, I showed you a military appreciation card.  In that post, I mentioned to be on the lookout for the matching envelope.  Here it is. This was super easy to do.  I could really add detail since I hand these cards out personally and don't mail them. Supplies: Tim Holtz Distress Ink - Fired Brick and Faded Jeans Yellow Cardstock from my stash K. Andrew Designs - :Freedom Isn't Free stamp set Cricut - Stand and Salute Thanks for stopping by and have a great day.

Freedom is so often taken for granted.  We often fail to take a moment to show those who are working to protect our freedom our appreciation.  These cards were designed to do just that. I try to tuck a little Starbucks Gift Card into these and carry them in my purse.  That way when I come across a member of the military I can give them a little thank you.  Its not very big, but it is one way that my family can show our appreciation to those who are serving our country.  Now I'm not saying this as a pat on the back.  I just want to remind you that EVERYONE - even someone who doesn't make cards can do something to thank members of our military.  I often take the cards I make to work to show my friends.  I took a couple of these and when I opened them up later, one of my co-workers had tucked a $5 bill inside.  It was her way of thanking our military as well.  I pray that the Lord will have me give these to the person who n...

This is the final card in the series.  I really hope you have enjoyed the series.  Did you have a favorite?  Which one?  I'm not sure which card was my favorite.  I had fun making the whole series.  I hope that the person that receives the full 8 card series as well as the 3 who received the 4 card series (the first 4 published and the box) enjoy them. I believe that I used Vintage Cream cardstock from PaperTrey Ink for the base and the sentiment box.  The brown on the bunny is from a piece of cardstock that was from a pack that I picked up at a Scrapbooking Expo because I didn't have a scrap large enough.  I used scraps from my scrap stack for everything else.  The sentiment was stamped in Gathered Twigs Distress ink using the "All About Animals" set from K. Andrew Designs.  I rounded the corners of the sentiment box with my Corner Chomper from We-R-Memory Keepers.  A tiny bow is made from twine from The Twinery. ...

I used the LeCreme Matstack from DCWV for the patterned paper and most of the other papers were from my stash.  I did pull out a piece of grey textured paper from the Paper Company for the mouse because I couldn't find a scrap big enough.  I believe that the red base came from the Soda Pop pack from Recollections but can't be 100% sure. Of Mice and Lil' Men by K. Andrew Designs had the perfect sentiment for this cute card.  Scripture Sayings provided the sentiment on the inside.  The little mouse was cut from the Create-A-Critter Cricut cartridge at 3.5". Thanks for stopping by today and watching the video.

I don't have a lot of time to post this, so you will have to get the information from the video.  The sentiment comes from "All About Animals" from K. Andrew Designs.  The cute little duck is from the Animal Kingdom Cricut Cartridge.  Want to know what I used for his "feathers"?  Be sure to check out the video. Thanks for watching and have a great day.

I know, I still haven't finished the Animal Series, but I will get to it.  I really wanted to show you this fun project first.  This is a project that I have been planning to do for a couple of weeks now.  I wanted to post it now to list in a couple of challenges: Decorate to Celebrate - Beach Party Getting Cricky - Summertime My Sheri Crafts - Summer Lovin'   I think these little books would make a perfect Beach Party decoration, though that isn't what I plan to do with them.  You could give them away as party favors for your guests or you could even use them for a guest book, autograph book, photo book, or combination of the 3.  Sound like fun?  They are so simple to make and so versatile.  Add stamps from K. Andrew Designs and you have a great little book.  I used Splashtastic Summer, but I see that Kristal is releasing 2 other summer stamp sets that would also be perfect for this. I'm looking forward to getting these someday! ...

If you are looking for the next installment of the Animal Card Series, it will be back soon.  I wanted to post this one today.  The Animal cards will be back in a day or two.  There are 3 more in the set to go! I must admit that of all the graduation cards I have ever made that these are my favorite.  I got the idea from a Mojo Monday sketch several weeks ago, but didn't end up following the sketch after all.  The video explains more.  It also includes the the measurements for the card. Stamps - "Scripture Sayings" and "Fashionable Friends" from K. Andrew Designs Everyday Paper Dolls Cricut cartridge Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment Punch Paper - Black from my stash, Red from Recollections, "Graduation" from Hot Off the Press, White from the scrap stash Ink - Black Excelsior, Fired Brick Distress Ink I hope you enjoy the video.  Have a great day! I am linking this project to the following challenge Party Time Tuesday - Anythi...