Crocheting with alpaca yarn ...oh my

There have been some gifts being made around here lately but not a lot of Christmas cards.  I hope to get some house cleaning and decorating done tomorrow and then sit down and get the cards finished. I have a few ready to send out but not many.

Those of you who follow me on Facebook probably already heard this story, so you can tune out if it's a re-run :)  This cute little baby girl hat and bootie weren't quite finished the other night.  As you can see, the flower still needs a button on it, and the bootie isn't completed on the top (needs edging), but the issue was that I ran out of red yarn, so I tried my hand at dying just a little bit more to get the booties completed.  Here are the instructions if you are looking to dye some of your alpaca or wool (works for animal hair).

http://knitty.com/ISSUEfall02/FEATdyedwool.html

Can you believe the color was Blastin' Berry Cherry, and it was a little bit lighter than the hat, so I tried again last night with Tropical Punch, which was just right.  :)  Not only does it look good, but it smells good too.

Hoping you all are getting your Christmas decorating and gift making done at your home.  My to-do list is a bit long, so I better get off here and get moving on them ...

Have a great day!

Hugs,
Kelly L

Eighteen years and counting

Well, it has been 18 years and counting for my parent's anniversary.  Yes, he's my stepfather, but not too many people realize that.  I was often told how much I looked like him when I was younger (and still have similar tastes in some things and freckled feet like he does, wierd huh?).  Well, they definitely have come a long way, and this is one of my favorite photos of them.

So, I stressed for quite a while on Saturday about what stamp should I use for their card and would I have time to make one before I had to leave at 6 p.m. to go up to their farm for shearing day (that was Sunday, hence the alpaca photos below).  Then I looked through the SCS gallery and found some inspiration but still couldn' t decide on the perfect image to go along with it, so . . .

 I ended up not using an image at all.  I used the d'vine swirls folder for the Bermuda Bay cs and then Textile folder on the white piece.  I then sponged Taken with Teal on that piece to color it a little and make the embossing folder part show up.  Then I used my Flourishes sentiment stamp set for the Your Anniversary part cut out of a piece with one of the ribbon tag trio dies, and added some Prima ivory roses and half pearls.  My parents both liked it and the pretty poems I added to the inside (with thanks again to the authors of the Ultimate Guide to the Perfect Card).

The Herdsires from Heaven's Gate Alpacas

after shearing

Little Lazarus after shearing -- you should've seen all that fleece

he had on him.  They were all happy to be cooler! :)

Thanks for stopping by.  Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Hugs,

So busy . . .

Hello friends!!
I have been SO busy with work, promoted to a new position that takes quite a bit of my time and totally neglecting my blog. I can't believe it has been almost 20 days since I have been on here. Well, I don't have any cards created in fact, I pulled from my stash last weekend for both my mom and my DH for their birthdays, isn't that terrible?! Well, they were cards that I had created, but I usually like to make something special for my closest family members. The time just slipped away from me.


So here are a few photos of this past weekend on the farm to show you . . .




Joey up close . . . and Noah with me. I liked this one better because of my smile, but I have another photo where he is looking me almost in the eye too.

This one is Shiphrah after a roll in the hay . . . boy did she get messy or what?!

My mom with Ariel. She is such a sweet, sweet pup. Great Pyramese are such big dogs, great for herd protection, but so loveable to humans. You couldn't ask for anything better than that.

The last three are actually from our trip to a Maple Syrup farm/restaurant in New York. This is a photo of my mom and dad, son and mom, and then my guys all kicked back enjoying a wagon ride. I couldn't ever get everyone all together. Oooh, I had some yummy stuffed French toast and sausage too. But the best part was really spending time with my family.

Alpaca Farm Days, new website and BLOG CANDY!!

Thank you SO much to Tina Jewel, I am able to show this post at the top of my blog until the drawing date of Monday, Oct 13th!! So hurry and get your comment in for a chance to win.

The picture of the goodies is at the end of this post!
To see more recent posts, please scroll down. :) Kelly

Well, I told you I would have some pics from the weekend (Open Farm Day at Heaven's Gate Alpacas). Although it was a real washout, we did have 9 people stop on Saturday between showers, and I have a few photos to show you.
This is a closeup of Nevaeh before I dried her off a little bit. Wow, was she a little pigpen or what?! LOL Her fleece is usually bright white, but then she rolls and plays in the dust/dirt to keep the flies off her. Well, with the rain, the dirt really showed up, and she looked all muddy. Still cute as a button, but wow, it is amazing how dirty she can get.I also created these stationery sets I mentioned last Thursday to take up with me to possibly sell. I had decided if they didn't sell that I was going to give a set to my mom and the other set I gave to her good friend, Carolyn who also has an alpaca farm in the Woodhull, NY area.There is so much going on that I want to tell you, and I am making this post rather long, but . . . I have opened a web site to help us crafters get things cheaper (some things even very close to wholesale costs), so you should check out my website at http://www.klstampinnscrappin.com/ If you don't see what you are looking for there, shoot me an email at info@klstampinNscrappin.com, and I will see if I can order it in. Today, I received the stamp sets from C.C. Designs for the website, and I ordered a few more that I hadn't seen on her site again today. Oooh, I do love to shop. :)

So since I see my hit counter is over the 10K mark, I would love to celebrate by giving away some blog candy!!!

How about Jack the Handyman set with some manly embellishments?

(sorry about the terrible picture too much reflection and not enough natural light)

• Handyman Jack set from C.C. Designs
• 12 screw brads
• Dad, Hero, respect, strength, and tie buttons by Junkitz
• Handyman 3D stickers from Jolee's boutique
• Classic clear stickers of boot treads
• Baseball 3D stickers from Sandylion
• Some decorative black mesh from Pixie Press

All of this will be sent to one lucky winner just for commenting here on this post. The winner will be drawn Monday, October 13th!

Heavens Gate Alpacas: Ariel and Sophia

I was alpaca sitting today, and luckily I didn't have to play midwife to Honey and her cria, as she didn't have her baby today. Here is the reason I was assisting on the farm though. I just had to show you the pictures of the little cuties that are the newest additions to my parent's farm. They went to Ohio to pick them up. Aren't they cute?!! :)
Heavens Gate Alpacas: Ariel and Sophia

Critters and candy

First I have to say you NEED to hurry over to MichelleO's blog. She is giving away the cutest donkey stamps I have ever seen! Check out her wonderful blog HERE, but I warn you, once you go there you will just HAVE to add her to your blog reading list. Her cards are scrumptious! :)

I got busy yesterday and a little bit this morning creating some cards to take to the Open Farm Day this weekend at my parents' farm. I really can't wait to see the babies again! I haven't even met Zack yet. Can ya believe it?! I even miss giving carrots to the bigger boys. I may just have to go shopping this morning for a few things (especially a bag of carrots to take up with me).

So I saw these really cute card holders/stationery sets on Kristine B's blog from Dannie's instructions, and I just have to try my hand at them. I am hoping to create at least two boxes to take with me. I don't have the box itself made yet, but here are the cards I plan to use.

Some cards, some news, and . . . blog candy for my blogaversary!!

First off, I wanted to show you the August SOTM card I created with my HM stamp (called Apple Delight). This was my first Z-fold card, too. I ran the front through the swiss dot cuttlebug folder to make the dots, and after it is folded, they show up on the inside, too! How cool is that?!

I just LOVE this photo corner punch, too! I have waited a LONG time for it, and I finally was able to get it as a hostess gift (so it was FREE)! Cool, huh?! I played around with some of that shrink plastic stuff that I haven't used since I was a kid (but this was made by Avery -- actually a sample piece about 4 x 5 was in with my photo paper another FREEBIE! can't beat that!) So I tried it out for the oval piece that covers the Z-fold. It worked great punched with the small oval punch from SU and a paper punch for the brad hole. Believe it or not, that stuff REALLY shrinks. LOL I punched it the first couple of times with the regular punch that I use for brads (what is that thing 1/16 of an inch or something). Needless to say, it will not work for the brad now. LOL Doh!

Here is the outside and the inside. When closed, it looks like the mouse is holding the outside oval, too. The image was colored with prismacolor pencils, Gamsoled, and then crystal effects was used on the apple to give a waxy shine.
stamps: Apple Delight from Stampabilities (see hmstamps.com tell Dick Kelly Little sent ya) and the sentiment to match. cs: ruby red, white, black, summer sun, and olive green. dp: unknown stash, so it could be SU retired paper but not sure. tools: prismacolor pencils, Gamsol, CE, photo corner punch, shrink plastic, brads, coluzzle, white gel pen, and scalloped small oval nesties.Sadly, this card was needed for a family who is terrific friends with my family. They are The Clark's, and they are fellow alpaca owners. Dan's dog Missy was very ill, and she had to be put to sleep earlier this week. Bless his heart, he was very close to her, as she had been a part of their family for a long time. I found the sentiment on a card on SCS by Cherbear49908. The inside says . . . "That's why we miss them more than we could have imagined. With Sympathy and friendship, especially during this time of loss."

cs: close to cocoa, creamy caramel, vanilla, white and black. Tools: photo corner punch, 1/16" punch, vanilla brads, and linen cb folder for embossing, computer and printer for the sentiment.
Lastly, here is the package I came up with for the blogaversary. First, I was going to stick with a beach/picnic theme, but since summer is almost over . . . well, I have had:

• this purple, orange, yellow, and black packet from 7Children'sCollegeFund (from Ebay for about 1 1/2 to 2 years now). It is cut to size for cards and layers with matching ribbon and halloween eyelets. So cute!! I just never get around to using it when it is halloween. I have had it stored out of the light, so there hasn't been any fading.
• assortment of pieces of ribbon (grab bag from the store not shown).
• picnic 3 D stickers by Sandylion
• some sand and seashells
• assortment of mulberry paper
• some buttons and cuttlebugged word window punches (also not shown)
• some cards created by me (only 3 shown the other one is a surprise)

Okay, the rules are you need to comment for 1 chance to win. If you link my blog you will get 2 more chances to win, and if you link my parent's farm blog as well as the other two options, you will get a total of 5 chances to win. The farm blog is here and we had a new addition to the farm as of last night, so you might want to see our cute little Naveah there anyway! (Her name is Heaven spelled backwards). I will draw the winner next Tuesday morning, Aug. 19th.

:) Thanks for stopping by and Good Luck!!

Heavens Gate Alpacas: Some photos of the girls

Heavens Gate Alpacas: Some photos of the girls

Thought you might be interested in some alpaca photos (click link above). I am working on a few swap cards, which I can show you soon, but I just had to drop in and show you what is new at HGA. Two new females to the farm today, and another new cria will be on the way around August 26th as well. Stay tuned for updates either here on this blog or you can subscribe to the HGA blog. I don't update very often there unless something new and exciting is going on.

***************************

Our Virginia Trip:

We were gone for a long weekend last Thursday through Sunday, so there wasn't a whole lot of stampin' goin' on. LOL We were in Virginia. Here are a few photos from our trip.

I am not sure what these trees are, but the flowers on them were beautiful.

This is a photo of me (squinting badly from the sun) and my hubby (or DH as we say on Splitcoaststampers).This is our son, Cody. LOL -- don't ya love how he is so much taller than his dad. I can't laugh too loudly, because he is also taller than his mom. ;)
This one was Cody fooling around and hamming it up for the camera. Definitely my favorite "recent photo" of him.

Thanks for dropping by,

Kelly L :)

Heavens Gate Alpacas: Central New York Alpaca Classic (our 1st show)

I know this is not exactly stampin' or scrappin' related, but . . . this is a new blog that I started last week to showcase some of our accomplishments at my parent's farm, Heaven's Gate Alpacas. I just wanted to show my readers what I was up to this past weekend, and I am SO proud of my son, mom, and our yearling males that I wanted to show you all. If you are interested, click on the link below!

Heavens Gate Alpacas: Central New York Alpaca Classic (our 1st show)
Thanks for looking! :) Kelly

Father's Day Cards A Day Late

I made a few Father's Day cards earlier in the week, but with all the work we had last week, and then the excitement on Friday . . . I didn't get a chance to show them to you. The first one is made with bordering blue, green, black, and kraft colored scrap. The image was stamped on ww using Brilliance graphite black ink, and then colored with my prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. My silver sakura gel pen was used to make the little eyelets sparkle. The paw prints are again from the Button Bear stamp set, and ribbon was from PinkHedgeHog. I love the argyle look to that, and it adds a ribbon touch without being too soft.

The tool card was created for my dad. I stamped the image on ww, colored with prismacolor pencils and blended with OMS. I then crinkled the paper all up and smoothed it back out. It was then sponged with creamy caramel ink to make it look distressed. This was layered on a kraft piece of cs, adhered to the mellow moss with plaid bg stamp, and an orange piece was added, which was sponged with really rust. It didn't quite look that orange IRL.

Then the other puppy with boot image was colored the same as the first, but sponged with creamy caramel around the edges, layerd on a 3 x 3 diamond shape dark green cs with dp to match. Close to cocoa was used for the base with vanilla and kraft accents. the string/tie at the left is from a tag that was on a pair of jeans. I thought it looked like a shoe lace, and I roughed it up a bit to make it look ratty. Then I used green eyelets, which I sanded down with sandpaper to distress them a bit, too. The bottom has a strip of chocolate chip ribbon ran across it as well.

These pics here are the reason I was pretty busy this weekend. I just had to share a couple more with you. Isn't he just the most adorable little thing you have seen?! He reminds me of a little lamb. His color is very light fawn or caramel. He is a lot lighter than his mama and closer to his Aunt Amber (as she is white). His mama is there in the other picture with my mom. She will be upset that I posted this picture, as she thinks she looks terrible, but it was a REALLY long day for both of them, and by this time it had started raining. She was trying to get Sarena and the baby in the stall for nighttime. This proved to be the easiest way to get Sarena to follow her. *wink*

Also, as for the winner of the post below . . . I have some images stamped, and I will be sending them out to Alison for her guess of Noah. My mom had said Friday night that she kind of liked the name Noah, and the next day he definitely looked like a Noah. Besides, he came just before the hard rain Friday evening. :) Thanks so much for all of your guesses and suggestions. They were all considered, and we appreciate your help.

It's a BOY!!

Okay, I know this isn't card related, but . . . I just had to show you these cute pictures. I also need your help. I am at my parent's farm tonight, and we can't decide on a good Biblical name for our little boy. We want to keep it Bible-related to go with the farm name. We came up with a few but can't decide, so if you could think of any, PLEASE . . . leave a comment. I will send a little something alpaca and card related to the best name. I am not home to show you what I will send, but I am sure it will be something you will like. In the meantime . . . enjoy the pictures. :) Kelly L

No baby cria yet . . . :(

Well, I got back late last night. We had a pretty productive day at the farm, but no cria (baby alpaca) yet. Sarena wasn't ready to give birth yet. She did lay down in the dust/dirt trying to get cool, and a few times we saw her lying in a different position than usual. This got me excited that "today might be the day." I jokingly said probably tomorrow (Sunday) after I leave she will give birth. Maybe . . . maybe not. Then again, maybe she is holding out until next Sunday to surprise my dad with a Father's Day gift. LOL The first two pictures are of her with the other girls around her, but the last two pictures are Dark Knight's Templer and Wonder Peaceful Warrior (the young males). They are now yearlings but still so cute. They were out with us most of the day --very inquisitive they are. LOL



I also created twelve more cards to take up with me to the farm. There were six of the Hugged card and six of the others using two of each alpca colored in white, brown, and black. They really liked them although I kept them simple using only the alpaca stamps from Kritters In the Mailbox , Rough Edged alphabet and Delight in Life's swirly flourish from SU.



Anyway, I have a few pictures that I took. :) *cough, cough* few There are more that will be added to the Heaven's Gate Alpacas web site if you are interested.

EDITED: PIF information . . . I now have three ladies that are participating in the Pay It Forward. I already sent out Sparkle's package on Friday, and the other two will be going to Marcia and Kristine tomorrow morning. Be on the lookout ladies. As for the rest of my readers and friends, if you are interested in playing along and paying it forward, click on the links for the girls' blogs to stay tuned for their own PIFs. :)