Fair Time

Hello, long time no post! Life and work have gotten in the way of my crafting and scrapping! Hopefully my next post will be sooner. 

It was just county fair time here in Sonoma County. It is always a summer must for us to visit, to see the beautiful themed flower show, the animals, carnival and fair food!

I also love to check out the Adult Fine Art and Home Art Exhibits, and also the Kids exhibits. 

There are some talented people in our county. 

Almost every year I also enter items in the Home Art Exhibits. It is fun to see my creations on display and see if I won any ribbons! 

Below are a few of my entries this year. 

I entered my smashed penny bracelet, made from my smashed pennies I gather on my travels. I added some bead accents and used my handy Crop-a-dile from my scrap tools to punch a hole in each smashed penny. 

I also entered this little sewing book I made while scrapping at my friend Narda's one weekend. I covered manila file folders with sewing themed scrapbook paper and real sewing pattern tissue. I covered chipboard for the covers and put it all together with my bind-it-all.  

 

I embroidered the little heart for the cover. The photos that will go in the album are photos of my sewing projects that I have given away or were out grown! 

I also made another paper mache figure, this time a Santa with his toy bag on a paper mache book. Santa is molded from styrofoam shapes and aluminum foil, covered in paper mache medium.  

Painted and covered with mica flakes, all set for Christmas!

I entered some cards too! 

 

And of course some scrapbook pages!



My 4th Fervor page even won a blue ribbon!

I had another 2 page scrap book lay out, but the fair crew only displayed one page! I was disappointed they only displayed one side as they were attached together? The judge wrote on my entry, "where's the journaling?"  On the half of the lay out you did not see!

My son Henry entered a Lego creation, as he does every year. He always themes his creation to the Fair theme, and wins a blue ribbon every year he has entered.

Thanks for visiting! Hopefully my next blog post comes a little bit sooner that the last! 

Missed the deadline!

For the last several years I have entered my crafts in the Home Arts exhibits at the Sonoma County Fair. I have enjoyed seeing my entries on display and have even won a few ribbons! I am still hoping to win Best of Show some year, like my friend Lisa did a few years ago.
My son Henry also enters the Junior Exhibits with a Lego creation. He has won a blue ribbon every year!

But this year, we MISSED the deadline! I felt so bad for my son, that he did not get to show his Lego creation! He always makes a Lego creation based on the fair theme and this years theme is the 75th anniversary of the Sonoma County Fair. Here is Henry's entry, a ribbon winner for sure!

I was planning on entering scrapbook layouts, cards, jewelry and a paper mache figure, but since I missed the deadline, I will show a few here.


This was to be my travel layout entry. Babe the Big Blue Ox. Photos of me and Babe, 49 years apart. I think we have both aged well!

My second entry was a layout about a funny story between my sister and I. How like each other we often are, even with 17 years between us. While out shopping together one day, we both secretly bought this greeting card, which says "How do people make it through life with out a sister" and gave them to each other that night.

 My third layout is about our new little chicks we bought to get our own fresh eggs. While making this layout I was going to use some pre-made chip board letters to spell "peeps". But I had no "s" left. And I had no other pre-made letters I liked. I could have used my Cricut and cut them out of card stock, but I wanted something with more dimension. I decided to try some yellow felt, as it would be "soft and fuzzy" like the little chicks.

I cut some with my Cuttlebug die cutter but they seemed thin and see-through. I tried backing them with yellow card stock letters cut from the same die, but it was hard to line them up. So I decided to add the cardstock to the back of the felt before I cut them. It worked great!

I first chose the die font I wanted to use and got all my materials together. I used a quick dry paper glue you apply with a dauber. It goes on quickly and evenly. Then I pressed the felt into the paper and let it dry for a few minutes. Next I assembled my die cutting sandwich. A Cuttlebug die, Quickutz or Sizzix die will work, you just need to use the correct "sandwich" of paper, plates and material, felt, fabric or paper.

I tried several different dies and found that some cut better with a paper "shim". It depended on the die I chose. A thicker "font" works best as felt can be fragile if cut too thin. The paper backing helped support the thin edges of my "sun shape".

Below you can see how the felt looks with a cardstock backing (top) and one with out (bottom). It is a subtle difference, but on a layout looks so much better and is easier and to apply to the page with a paper backing.

The lower letters are almost see through.

I hope to post a few of my cards I was going to enter in a few days. When I go to the fair I will still check out all the entries as there are some talented crafters out there and it is nice to get inspiration from fellow crafters who live near you!

Missing in Action...

It seems like forever since I posted anything here! Summer is always so busy and add in overtime at work, it seems like I can never get into my craft room and play!

I was busy getting ready for a yard sale we held Saturday the 16th. My friend Heather was having a yard sale and she and another friend of ours all went in together for the sale. She lives in town, so foot traffic for a yard sale is much better than our country home!

I did not have too much to sell, but any chance to get rid of some clutter is a good thing, so I gathered around the house, what I could, to sell. I decided to sell some old purses I never use. I was going through the pockets of the purses and found a wad of bills. Turns out my "find" was more than I made at the sale, selling my junk! So it was a successful sale after all!

My sister Sally and her hubby are avid Giants fans and have season tickets and go to almost every home game. Sometimes they can't make a game due to other commitments so on Sunday Aug 10th my son Henry and I got to go! It was Buster Posey Bobble head day and the game was sold out, so it was crowded and the lines started forming early. We go to the game 3 hours early and there were already long lines! But we got in and got our Bobble heads, some food and sat down to enjoy the game and the Giants won! This was Henry's first major league game and he had a great time.

I did get to meet up with my friend Narda and wander through the Rohnert Park Farmers Market one Friday evening. She shared with me some fresh black berries and a cobbler recipe.

I made the Berry Cobbler from a recipe from cooks.com that Narda delivered with the berries. I doubled the recipe for my house as my boys all love cobbler. With a scoop of vanilla ice cream it was yummy! And it was so nice to spend time with a friend!

I have lived on our ranch here in Sonoma Cty for over 30 years and have always wanted to raise chickens for fresh eggs. But time and everything else always seemed to get in the way.

My son Daniel decided he wanted fresh eggs so he built a chicken coop, and he used all recycled materials where he could, or milled the lumber he needed and built a coop for these little girls below.

We went to Western Farm Center and picked out 10 little chicks. We bought 5 Red Sex Link (yellow chicks) and 5 Ameraucana (mottled brown chicks). We will have both brown eggs and blue green eggs.

We have had them now about 6 weeks and they have moved into their new home. But still remain inside the coop, they have to be a bit bigger to be safe outside. I can't wait to have our own farm fresh eggs!

Yesterday was our local Volunteer fireman's annual BBQ and we went to enjoy the food, the music and fun.

It was a perfect day for the BBQ, not too hot and no fog in the afternoon. If it had been warmer though, the beer sales might have been better!

I have another family reunion coming up this weekend for my hubby's side of the family. And I hope to finish the scrapbook page I have been working on and post it this week.

But the Sonoma County Fair is coming and I need to get all my entries in this week! And school is only a few weeks away! My baby enters High School this year!

Where does the time go?

Berta