Come on get Scrappy

That's HOT! Lawnscaping #27 Challenge!

2012-02-13T09:24:00.005-05:00

Hi there! Things have been kind of crazy for me lately and it’s left me little energy or time to create. This weekend was another busy weekend, but I managed to fit quite a bit of craftiness in too :).

Warning: If moderate innuendoes involving toasters & bread make you feel dirty, don’t read any further into this post. If not have a look at the Valentine’s Day card I made for my hubby:
Hee hee. I say an image like this on Pinterest & immediately knew I’d HAVE to make it into a card for Sal! I mean, Lawn Fawn’s Love n’ Breakfast set was perfect!!! The patterned paper is from Echo Park’s Happy Days Collection (6x6 pad). I’m entering this into the Lawnscaping #27 Challenge - as the color combo inspired me :) On another note, my family and I spent Saturday night at Sun Life Stadium watching the Monster Jam - lots of fun!!! Here are a few pics:

Thanks for peeking! I hope your Monday is good to ya!!

Hi there!

2012-02-06T08:57:00.006-05:00

Hi there. I just wanted to stop in and share a few pics from my weekend. I had all these plans to create a mini book. That didn't really work out for me. Everytime I thought I might fit in some time, there was something else to do. I'm going to get started tonight I hope.

Anyway, one of the fun things I did this weekend was. I took my kids and niece to a farm in Homestead, Florida (about an hour - and en entire country - away. This is WAY south/south Miami. Anyway, we were invited by our friends to go strawberry picking. Unfortunately the strawberries were all picked by the time we got there, so we actually went Tomato picking instead. It was a fun experiance :).

and in the end I have tons of tomatos :). I've used 3 or 4 and they are amazingly fresh!

So that's it. Next time we will be leaving a lot earlier to get our chance at the strawberries, but I can tell you, the tomatoes are amazing!!!!! That's it for me today. I hope your Monday is good. Back tomorrow with a crafty share I hope!!

Whatcha been up to???

2012-01-30T15:58:00.003-05:00

Hi there! Just wanted to share a picture of what we’ve been up to... making Valentines for the kiddies school friends/teachers. Using Lawn Fawn of course!!!

That’s it. Hope you have a great day!

Just let it go...

2012-01-25T14:54:00.003-05:00

Hi there. Just wanted to share a set of cards I made. Inspired by something I saw on Pinterest!

Very simple. All of the stamping is Lawn Fawn. The patterned paper is Basic Grey’s Lauderdale 6x6 pad. This was my motto for yesterday. Sometimes life can feel so out of control. Just gotta let it go.

Hope you have a wonderful day!

A Memory Lasts Forever...

2012-01-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Hi guys. Today I wanted to share a card that I made for Kelly Marie Alvarez (A.K.A. Mrs. Lawn Fawn). Last week, her grandpa passed away and a few amazing souls started a card drive for she and her family. I couln't NOT participate in this. Kelly Marie is one of the SWEETEST girls I've met through crafting/blogging. She's been super sweet to me and has extended many kind wishes my way when I needed them most. There is simply no one like her. The inside of the card is stamped with a sentiment from Lawn Fawn's Say Cheese II set "A Memory Lasts Forever". I wanted to keep the outside plainish. The patterned paper and jeans just made me think of my grandpa, who we lost 2 years ago :(.

I went rustic and (finally) got #10 checked off my "32 Things to Do While I'm 32" list: "Use my Old Jeans for Art" :). I used THIS Sizzix Rose cutting die to create the two roses and spun the other flower by hand. The patterned paper is from Crate paper and the Rustic Twine is Papertrey Ink.

Anyway, I hope she likes it and that it brings a smile to her face. Thanks for peeking and I hope this week is off to a good start for ya.

TGIF

2012-01-20T08:00:00.001-05:00

Hi there. Yes, I am happy to put this tiring week behind me and make it to the weekend. I have a few fun things planned for the kids. Just normal weekend stuff, but it should be fun. I'm also hoping to work on Valentines :).

Anyway, today I wanted to share the final two Sympathy cards that I made for a friend:
and here is the last one:

While Sympathy cards are not something I usually do, I really like how well they all turned out, and when I get a minute I think I'll make a few more to stash away and that way I have them when I need them. I think I'll make a few for my Pastor too. God knows he needs them every so often.

Anyway, hope you have a great weekend, thanks for peekin' in on me.

With Sympathy

2012-01-19T08:00:00.001-05:00

Hi guys. Today I’m continuing my week of Sympathy. If you missed it yesterday, I created them for a friend who “ordered” a set of 6 of them. He’s an attorney and in our line of work, well, you end up needing them often :(.

Anyway, I’m here to share 2 more of them with you. For both of them, I've used Hero Arts images and a sentiment from Paper Smooches. and here's the other one

I love how vibrant the Copic coloring shows up on the second one. Beautiful images to color. Anyway, back tomorrow with two more. Hope you have a great day!

A week of Sympathy cards... beginning... now

2012-01-18T09:17:00.006-05:00

Hi there. A friend of mine (who is an attorney) asked me to make him a set of Sympathy cards. I knew this would be somewhat of a challenge for me because I usually lean towards a "fun-ish" stye. I don't think I've ever made sympathy cards before now. I decided to go for it because I'm up for a challenge. I pulled out some Hero Arts stamps, Copic Markers and My Minds Eye 6x6 pads and got busy.
I ended up making a set of 6 using Hero Arts' Special Note of Thanks and Antique Engravings 4x6 stamp sets. Here is another:

I really love these stamps, and they are really fun to play with. it was a challenge as I had expected, but a fun one. Hope your Wednesday treats you good ;).

Dude, you color my world!

2012-01-12T09:03:00.006-05:00

Hi there. One last stop on the ol' blog before the weekend. Today I wanted to share a corner bookmark I made last weekend. I actually made it for a friend, but I can't seem to part with it just yet - it's so stinkin' cute!
Cuteness isn't it! Another project made from that My Minds Eye pad Chari sent me. I've gotten a lot of use out of that baby! I Copic colored in the super fun Tucan from Paper Smooches My Peeps stamps after first stamping it onto some Copic Paper. Then I paper pieced onto the bookmark. I love the sentiment too, which I created by combining two sentiments from Paper Smooches' Word Salad stamps (a Christmas gift from my work peeps). I just love the fonts they use - so super cute!

Anyway, that's all for me this week. I hope your weekend is awesome!

...and another Thank You Card...

2012-01-11T11:07:00.004-05:00

Yes, I'm still sharing Thank You cards made with that fabulous 6x6 pad of My Mind's Eye paper that Chari hooked me up with! I've been cranking them out for about a week now. I really love the purple pages in this stack of paper. All different - all pretty. I decided to Copic color the Sea Critters in Pink and Purple for a girly touch. I'm also LOVING this Lavender Jenni Bowlin Ink. Matches perfectly. It also matches PERFECTLY with this Milled Lavender Distress Ink which was used around all of the edges.

Anywhy, that's it for me today.

Happy Birthday - Lawnscaping #25 2nd Entry

2012-01-10T08:43:00.005-05:00

Hi there. I decided to enter another card into this round of the Lawnscaping #25 Happy Birthday Challenge ;)
Here I used the Lawn Fawn Critters in the Sea combined with October Afternoon's Seaside's 8x8 pad. Another fun kiddie Birthday card ;).

So, there it is. Hope you have an awesome Tuesday friends!!!

Thank you friend ;) - YCU #5

2012-01-09T09:46:00.007-05:00

Hi there! Hope you had a great weekend. I wanted to stop in really quickly and share another card I made using the fantastic My Minds Eye 6x6 pad that Chari gifted me with a few weeks ago!
{Excuse my crooked photo - oopsies} I Copic colored a few of the Lawn Fawn Critters and created a sentiment using Sophie's Sentiments. The bracket was cut using a Spellbinders Die and my Cuttlebug, and then I highlighted it and the strip of graph paper down the center of the card using Mulled Lavender Distress Ink.

Pretty simple, but it makes me smile. I'm entering this into the YCU #5 Challenge since their theme this time around is Clean and Simple.

That's it for me today - I hope you have a good day!!

A Few Thank You Cards...

2012-01-05T17:40:00.004-05:00

More cards to share!

I got a way cool My Minds Eye 6x6 paper pad in a batch of Happy Mail from my friend Chari (THANKS CHARI!!!) after a particularly bad week. I just love all of the colors included in the pad. Beautiful purples, blues, mustards, graphs, and ledger paper. Matches made in heaven! It was the first thing I wanted to use when my creativity struck last weekend!

As I mentioned earlier in the week, I’ve been whipping up Thank You cards. Here are a few of them that I made using this patterned paper pack and some Lawn Fawn Goodness:

and another:

Just one more ;)

I'll share more (including my favorites of the bunch) next week! have a great weekend!

Lawnscaping #25 - Happy Birthday!!

2012-01-04T09:11:00.008-05:00

New year, new challenges! I was excited to see that the newest Lawnscaping (#25) Challenge is a Birthday theme!

This weekend I made a list of lists of Thank you Cards that I need to make/write. It’s a long list, believe me. I got about 7 of those done, and have about 8 to go. While I was making Thank You cards, I was inspired to make a few birthday cards as well.

This is my submission:

I like patchwork style cards. I used Lawn Fawn’s Critters in the Burbs, Critters in the Forest, Hats Off to You, Admit One, and Say Cheese Too and some fun Bakers Twine from The Twinery :). I thought it’d be a good “kid” birthday card. Fun.

Honestly, I was desperately trying to finish up an 8x8 pad of October Afternoon’s “Seaside”. I don’t know why (I was so “desperate” about it). Seems like I’ve made SO many things from this little 8x8 deck of paper. I had tons of scraps saved. Because those are REALLY good for stamping/paper piecing! I just really felt the need to get rid of some scraps. I made 2 birthday cards, 2 Thank You Cards, and 12 Corner Bookmarks - and still had scraps left over. It was like Jesus feeding the 5,000 I tell ya. The scraps seemed to keep appearing. I thought I’d never finish that pad. I finally decided that I’d been a good steward long enough and tossed the few remaining scraps. THEN, I went to organize the drawer that I keep my mini decks of paper in... yea, I still have 8 or 9 whole pieces of this paper. Did it multiply while I wasn’t looking? Weird.

Anyway. Also here is one of the Thank You cards I made using the same paper pad along with one of the Lawn Fawn freebie stamps - LOVE THOSE!

Ok, that whole paragraph was weird, but I’m leaving it in there ;). Hope you have a good Wednesday.

My faves of 2011!!

2012-01-02T13:33:00.018-05:00

Hi friends!! Hope Tuesday is treating you well. I had a post all set to go up today, but decided that first I's like to send 2011 out properly (like it's not already gone... I know).

I have some new following friends (BIG WAVES---HI THERE!!!) and I am surely thankful for my friends who have been following me for a while. I love hanging out in blogland with you guys! Your encouraging words, thoughts, and prayers always mean so much to me, and I love visiting your blogs too!!!!

2011 was a very fun year for me creatively. I think I did a lot of evolving. Trying different techniques and products, but staying true to myself. My projects using Lawn Fawn Stamps (which are usually my absolute favorite projects) made their way onto Lawn Fawn’s “Fawny Flickr Friday” 11 times in 2011!!!!! Crazyness! I never kept track of how many times my projects were featured until I recently applied for a DT and wanted to count them out to add it to my “Creative Resume”. I was totally surprised to see that number! To me, that is such an honor, to have had so many of my projects featured on their blog along with so many talented ladies!!

Here are 11 projects (in no particular order whatsoever) that I really loved making in 2011.

Mirrored Polaroids: We Really Click ;)

My Lawn Fawn Stamp Binder - quite literally my most used item - OF THE YEAR!!!:

Happy Anniversary to Lawn Fawn (3/2011)

My Sweet Littlest One - and her 1st Pony!!!

Literally, one of my all time FAVE layouts!!!

Lots of techniques and LF stamp sets going on here:

Happy Birthday w/ hand colored Seam Binding ;)

My Corner Bookmarks - I love making them so much!

"Up" themed Birthday - love all the Textures here!

Lots of patchwork & rustic twine:

Critters in Costume!

Love these clouds!

Ok, so that was 12 :). Thanks for taking a look back with me. Here's to more fun projects to come in 2012!!

What to do with those thin DIES - I have an idea!!

2012-01-02T13:00:00.008-05:00

Hi there! Happy 2012 everyone! I've know I've been M.I.A. lately but I'm happy to be back and crafting again! I rung in the new year right: making 20 corner bookmarks (as gifts for my mom's bible study group), 13 cards, and this:

It's a binder to house my dies!!! I got the idea from the binder that I made to house all of my Lawn Fawn Stamps - you can check it out HERE. I literally use that binder ALL the time, and recently purchased a Cuttlebug and have started a little collection of dies. The problem is that I had dies sitting all over my craft space - which is essentially my kitchen table ;). And since we do need to eat on it at least twice a day, I never leave it untidy. So, I was stacking them up and shuffling through them every time I needed one.

I decided it'd be fun to TRY to make a binder to keep all of them in. I went to Michaels and got 2 rolls of magnetic "paper" (it's actually for, like, childrens' art work - so you can cut it out and stick it to your fridge or whatever). Then I went to Office Depot and grabbed a Kraft binder and index tabbed dividers. When I got home, I used Glossy Accents to glue the Magnetic Paper to the Dividers. This didn't work out brilliantly - they aren't "perfect", but they'll do. I covered the back of the Divider (they were 8 1/2 X 11) using various pages from various Crate Paper Collections, and then did the same with the covers of the book. The Chipboard Stickers on the cover are from the Neighborhood Collection (Crate Paper). Here is a look at how the pages came out - and a look at my die collection ;)

As you can see, in the back of the book, I used a pocket/page protector to keep instructions for the various dies/embossing tools, and embossing folders in. works out pretty well. This magnetic paper isn't the strongest, but it does work. I just have to be careful at how I turn the pages; if I turn them to rough or bend them too much the dies fall off the page - hee hee, I told you it wasn't perfect - but it is functional ;).

Anyway, thanks for peeking. Hope it inspires you ;). Again, I wish you a happy healthy 2012. catch ya tomorrow.

Lawnscaping #24 Challenge: Texture...YES, PLEASE!

2011-12-19T09:04:00.001-05:00

Happy Monday friends. I've missed you all. Hope you're all doing well. Crazy time of year, I'm just trying to be with my family and enjoy it at this point.

I woke up this morning and saw on Facebook that the new Lawnscaping Challenge (#24) is Texture!!!

Texture is one of my favorite things to incorporate into my projects! And I just so happened to create a card that I think fits the bill!

So, for this card, I started by stamping and paper piecing my most fave new Lawn Fawn Stamps - Frosty Friends - and setting them aside. Next I created a heat embossed snowflake background (using a new Hero Arts Snoflake stamp I picked up in my Thanksgiving Day travels) on some Neenah Solar White paper (the embossing powder was clear) and Distress Inks. Then I decided to make another fun snowglobey card using Bo Bunny Button Packaging (again - I’m sorry, I love this effect!) and Martha Stewart’s Chunky Glitter! I added some bows to the snow-girls and then used Glossy Accents to glue the packaging down. YAY for recycling!!!

The Cuttlebug REALLY helped me out here. Turns out one of the circle dies fit the recycled packaging perfectly! Gave me clean effortless edges. I just cut the circle into the 4 1/4 X 5 1/2 card front and it fit right over the packaging.

I finished the card off with a puuuuurty banner from Lawn Fawn's Bannerific and was thrilled that the "Merry Christmas" sentiment from Bows & Holly fit into it perfectly!!! And I have to say - I LOVE love LOVE those little birdies from Making Frosty Friends! They have to be my most favorite Lawn Fawn Birds - all cozy in their lil scarves!!

Here is a closer-upper view so you can see the embossing & great texture that I was able to incorporate:

Anyway, thanks for peeking in on me today! I don't know if I'll have another post before Christmas - if I don't please know how much I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! Filled with God's promises, hope, and love!!! Thanks for being my friends and for supporting and encouraging me along my creative journey. I love you guys for that! Merry Christmas and God Bless!!!!

Lawnscaping RED Blog Hop!!!!

2011-12-09T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hi there friends!! Welcome to the Lawnscaping ALL ABOUT RED blog hop!!!! You should have hopped over to me from the fabulous: Patricia’s blog, and I’m so happy you’re here!!

I’m super excited for today’s hop & can’t wait to see all of the goodness that’s in store for us all this weekend! I mean, lets be serious - with Lawn Fawn involved how could every project NOT be amazing right?!?

A few things you should know, the hop runs from December 9th through December 11th! Make sure you comment on everyone’s blog because Lawnscaping has lined up some fabulous prized (AS USUAL) and you don’t want to miss your chance at winning one!!! The amazing sponsors for this hop are LAWN FAWN, MOLD MUSE, and WHISKERS GRAPHICS - you can find all of the full details on Lawnscaping Blog!!!! The more blogs you comment on, the more chance you have to win. You may even make some new friends along the way, Lawn Fawn fans are by far the sweetest and most creative peeps out there!!!

Anyway, so you’re here to check out my project!!! I went with the RED theme and decided to go different that what I though everyone else would be doing. I made a Christmas gift for my daughter’s preschool teacher using various Lawn Fawn Stamps, Festive Berries Distress Ink, beer bottle caps (that I’ve literally been saving for A YEAR), Fancy Pants’ Off to School Collection, Envirotex Lite Resin, a 1" circle punch, a roll of magnets, a metal tin, and Copics. Basically, what I made her was a cute little decorative tin of magnets using Copic Colored Lawn Fawn Images and beer bottle caps. Here is a look at the outside of the tin:

and here is a look at the outside:

The paper is a school themed paper, and I just used some Festive Berries Distress Ink on the edges of all of the paper. Just for added redness.

Here is how you make them:
1. Save your beer bottle caps for a LOOOONG time (and even harass your friends for theirs). Twist off caps work best because you have to glue the magnet on it.
2. Get a Metal tin (you can find them at your LSS, Michaels, Joanne Fabrics)
3. Punch out 1" circles of the patterned paper you like (1" fits PERFECTLY into the beer bottle cap).
4. Distress Ink the circles around the edges.
5. Stamp a ton of images (LAWN FAWN, OF COURSE) onto white paper (I used Copic white paper) and color the images in with Copics.
6. Fussy cut the images out (also known as paper piecing) and position them on the 1" circles that you cut and then cut off excess.
7. Use Glossy Accents to glue your circle into the bottle cap (this is important otherwise the circle will shift when you add the resin).
8. Follow directions on resin package. I had to mix two liquids together. Then you VERY CAREFULLY (we're taking super sticky stuff here) pour them into the bottle caps filling them almost all the way. I did this on my Craft Mat.
9. Let them dry for a day or two.
10. Add Magnets to the back of the bottle caps using Glossy Accents.
11. Decorate you tin!!

Here is a loot at the backs of them:

That's it. It was quite time consuming, but I just love the result. Nifty ORIGINAL gift idea for a teacher. They each will hold up 2 or 3 sheets of paper onto a fridge, filing cabinet, etc. Like I said, I made them last year and the teachers flipped!!!

I hope you enjoyed my project, it was super fun to make. I love recycling & re-purposing items in my crafting! It makes it so much more fun to see something that you’d just throw away morph into something totally cool. Thanks for popping in! Next on the hop is the super talented Shien Shien hop over and see what she’s up to. Remember, if you get lost anywhere along the hop, just head back over to Lawnscaping’s Blog & they’ll get you back on track! YAY Lawnscaping!!!

Missed you guys!! {YCU#4 - an Ornament :)}

2011-11-28T10:55:00.009-05:00

Hi there! I've missed you my friends! How is everyone?!? Good I hope. I was M.I.A. for what seems like forever! We took a road trip up to see my in-laws in Lake City, Florida. They moved up there about a month ago. While the ride was terribly long in my opinion, (6 hrs - with the kids arguing for 3 of those hours straight!!) it was a really beautiful place to visit. Lots of open spaces, which is far different from down here in South Florida.

While there, I finished another book "The Room", which I highly recommend - it was great, and I got to check a few things of my 32 list :).

Anyway, I was super happy to get back home and back into my crafting. I missed it so much! On the way home, I was fortunate to find TWO scrapbook stores. One was a bust, but THIS store in Ocala, FL had lots of nifty stuff! When I shop at an LSS that's not MY LSS, I try to find original items - goodies I don't see at my LSS. One of the things I was most excited about at this store was packaging for sale - yup you heard me right, packaging!

So, was I was most excited about this cool packagin that Bo Bunny sells their buttons in. Awesome little plastic packages like this
Last year I began saving these packages and used them all up making cutsie little ornaments. But this store actually sold just the packaging for $0.50 each - which gets you two potential ornaments!!! YAY, awesomeness!

I spend last night making ornaments ;). Here's a look at one of them:

The house is a page of a chipboard mini I got a Michaels last year - in the dollar section (SCORE!). I covered it with Pink Paisley's Snow Day Collection (adorable!) and used my Cutlebug, Distress Ink (the new Festive Berries - which I'm in LOVE with!), some MS & ArtC chunky glitter, and Lawn Fawn's Making Frosty Friends, Bannerific, and Cozy Christmas to make it an adorable little ornament. OH! I also stamped and heat embossed (with Stampedious' Kaleidoscope glitter embossing powder) a Hero Arts slow flake background behind the frosty friends for extra sparkle. Here's a closer-upper:

I figure this may be a good entry for the die cutting challenge (#4) at Young Crafters Unite. The background (circle) and around the packaging (scallop) are both made using Spellbinders ;)

I really do LOVE using my Cuttlebug! It's SO fun & so versatile!!!

I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings!! This week I'll probably be sharing more projects I'm making with this awesome packaging!! Thanks for peeking & I hope you have a great day, I missed you guys!!!!

When in a rut... make more pretty bookmarks...

2011-11-17T09:00:00.024-05:00

That's gunna be my new motto. It's been so hard for me to be motivated lately. Actually, I have been crafting, but it's for the upcoming Lawnscaping Blog Hop!!! It's on December 9th and I hope you'll come hop along!

I don't want to leak my idea, but it's a cool one, and very time consuming ;)

Anyway, I have made a few more corner bookmarks and thought I'd share them with you today. For this batch (seems I make them in sets of 4) I used Pink Paisley's Authentique 6x6 pad - I am in love with this patterned paper - and various Lawn Fawn sets (and even a Paper Smooches sentiment on one of them). Here ya go:

For this one, I used the cute piggie from Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Farm set. I really got a kick out of the patterned paper - the 5 Cent on it reminds me of a piggie bank! Bahahaha. The fun sentiment is from Paper Smooches' "Chit Chat" set. Cuteness.

I also really love making these cow bookmarks - with the awesome "you mooove me" sentiment! All of the stamps on this one are from Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Farm set ;)

Last, but not least, THIS ONE IS MY FAVE of this little batch: I just LOVE the layered pinwheel!! With Prima Bling - YUM!

I also wanted to share pics of my already decorated Christmas tree: I really love my Christmas tree & can hardly wait to put it up each year. Each & every ornament means something special to me.

When my dad died (almost 4 yrs ago, this month) and my mom moved back into their house with her boyfriend (my parent had separated 8 or so months before he died) they didn't want to use our family Christmas ornaments. They started fresh. I was grateful to inherit them. When I was a kid, my mom belonged to an ornament club through Disney and we have a ton of Disney ornaments. They mean alot to me, and Disney is significant to Sal & I. He took me on my 1st trip to Disney. Since then, it's just kind of our "thing". We used to go all the time before we had the kids(less, now, buying 5 tickets is much harder than 2), and we even honeymooned there.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of my favorite ornaments with you, because your my friends & all ;).
This is one of the Disney ornaments, I don't know why, but it's one of my faves
This is us as lil (and I mean LIL) 16 & 17 year olds - our 1st Christmas together. That's 1996 peeps:
2002 - my sister in law bought this for us the year we bought/moved into our home:
This one my boss brought us back from Maine one year. I really love it, and this is my 1st Christmas in 11 years that he's not here to celebrate with us and get us wacky gifts - it makes me kind of sad - but happy to remember his awesomeness.
Ha! I love this one too!! My mother-in-law gave it to us a few years ago - it's from my hubby's 1st Christmas. it says 1978 on it an everything. Way old school ;)
And these are my babies' 1st Christmas ornaments. Gets me teary even looking at them. They are growing entirely too fast, and there is no way to stop it!

This one is one my Grandma & Grandpa sent us from NY. It makes me miss them. My grandpa especially, as we lost him December 26th last year :(
THIS is one of my ALL time favorites!!!!! Sal's God mother (who I was VERY close to, and sadly, also passed away last year) gave it to me when I was pregnant with Alivia. She had gotten it from a family member when she was pregnant with her last child - almost 50 years ago. It's a preggers mouse, eating an icecream and standing on a jar of pickles!!! To die for right?!?
This one I made last year. I really love it. I upcycled packaging from a pack of Bo Bunny buttons and a Maya Road Coaster shaped like a house. The stamps are Hampton Arts (I believe) and I used some Martha Stewart Chunky glitter to make a snowglobeish ornament. My kids LOVE it!
Every year, I pick up a new ornament for the kids. This was last year's - a Stitch Elvis - I love it:
And this one, of the Nativity scene - I love this one - HE is the reason for the season :)

So, you get the idea. Obviously, these are not all of them (we'd be here forever peeps) but my all time (so far) favorites. This year, I think I'll have to get a Disney princess ornament, maybe Ariel. Alivia is REALLY into them, and the Little Mermaid is her fave right now! I always date them, so one day, when I pass them to my kids, they'll have good memories. They'll think back on these years, what we were into, places we've been. Things that made others think of us. I think our tree reflects us in a lot of ways. It really makes me happy.

I'll be out of blog world for the next week. I'm actually taking a mini road trip. My in laws moved upstate Florida last month, and we're heading up there. To "country folk" Florida. Never been. I'll be on the lookout for Scrapbook Stores ;). Wish me luck, and I honestly hope you guys all have an amazing Thanksgiving. I really am thankful for your support and friendship. See ya in a week!!

You make me HAPPY when skies are gray...

2011-11-09T09:13:00.001-05:00

I’ve had this song in my head for days now. Trying to keep the peace in my thoughts.

Hi friends. Just a little card I wanted to share with you today. I wanted to challenge myself a little bit by not putting the sentiment on the outside of it:

Since I’m usually hyper-verbal, this truly is a challenge for me ;). I used the cute clouds from Lawn Fawn’s Bon Voyage mini set and paper pieced them onto the cool calender page from a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper’s Portrait Collection (the background page is also from that set), distressing the edges of each cloud with weathered Wood Distress Ink, then added a few pretty gems to each of them. I wanted them to look somewhat “weathered” so I used my tape runner only on the middle of the clouds and then bent them up a bit around the edges before securing them to the card. Then I finished it off by making it a grid using some awesome grey bakers twine. Just a simple card.

Aren’t the gems gorgeous though?!? They’re new from Prima and I’m so in love with them! It’s hard to get the full effect from them in a picture, but they are very sparkly and are such pretty colors!!! The inside of the card says “You make me HAPPY when skies are gray”. I forgot to take a pic of that, but I used Lawn Fawn’s Smitty’s ABCs to create the sentiment ;).

On another note, my 32 Things To Do While I’m 32 list is coming along. I’ve read 4 books so far, 28 to go (#3 on the list). Right now I’m reading The Glass Castle. So far, so good. We’ve also planned a little road trip up to visit my in laws (#18) and also plan to ride a 4 wheeler while I’m there (#27). I’ve also been spending every Friday with my mom (#28). Taking her to run errands and to lunch. Just having a nice time together. I thought I’d try to keep you guys up to date on my progress ;).

That’s all for me today. I hope you have the most awesome-est of days!

Thankful Banner - for the office - Lawnscaping #21

2011-11-07T10:42:00.016-05:00

Good morning friends! I hope you had a great weekend. Mine was really good. I took some time to "stop & smell the roses". Just playing with my kids and spending time with my mom & my hubby. I also did a lot of organizing and put up (inside only) my Christmas decorations (oh, yes I did!). My tree looks absolutely beautious, and it makes me super happy. I've started minor Christmas shopping, so, I figured I should be able to have physical proof that Christmas is coming ;). Plus, I just needed the happy boost. So much has been chaotic, I need to SEE happy, and having my tree up definitely made me happy! Now if I can only keep my sanity while my 3 year old asks me every single day - 5 times a day - if Santa’s coming tomorrow... yep... that’s begun.

Anyway, I also spent a lot of time this weekend getting crafty YAY! I wanted to make a little banner for my office (our only Thanksgiving decoration). I love how it came out and was SO happy when I logged into Facebook this morning and saw that my banner is absolutely PERFECT for Lawnscaping's #21 Challenge (Thankful)!!

Don't you just LOVE Lawnscaping Challenges!?!?! I sure do. They are my all time favorite Challenge Blog - mainly because they incorporate my favorite things - Lawn Fawn Stamps and fun ways to use them!!!! Plus, their DT is out of this world. It is filled with sweet/talented ladies, and I absolutely love looking at what all of the participants do with the challenges!! You guys inspire me so much!!!

Anyway here is a look at my banner. {{*As you can see, I added a bunch of my Thanksgiving Cards to the equasion for today's little photoshoot ;). I'm sorry this picture is so small. My camera is just a point/shoot & it seems to not help with getting good close ups of things like this. If you click on the picture though, you can see it much better. Sorry about that - there are good pictures of each individual section of the banner below ;).}}

I just got a Cuttlebug a few weeks ago, but had to wait for a “C” Plate (from Simon Says Stamp) to use it, because I bought ALL Spellbinders Dies. I'm a 1st timer - what can I say. I used one of the larger scallop circles (on Neenah’s Sandstorm Cardstock) and then a smaller circle to cut out canvas. Next I misted the canvas with Maya Mist in orange and cut out a smaller circle, which I distressed/inked to place my paper pieced letters on. The stamps are ALL Lawn Fawn and the patterned paper is from Making Memories’s "Autumn Splendor" collection.

As you can see, I used tons of Lawn Fawn here: Quinn’s ABCs, Critters in the Forest, Critters on the Farm, Fly Free, the Birdies from Bannerific, Turkey Day, Hats off to You, and the birdies from Making Frosty Friends. Whew! All of the animals and birdies are colored with Copics, and the Twine is from Papertrey Ink. Now onto the close-ups ;)

I like how it came out. Very rustic, but bright & fun with the critters ;). Hope it inspires you today. Thanks for popping in to see me. Hope your day is wonderful!!

Wintery Corner Bookmarks

2011-11-02T09:21:00.016-04:00

Hi there.

I finally felt some weight off my shoulders this week - a very welcome feeling - which allowed me to finally get into crafty mode! Does that ever happen to you? When you're overwhelmed or stressed, do you find it hard to be motivated to craft? A lot of the time creating something cute relieves my stress and makes me happier, but when I get really overwhelmed, I can't do anything but survive. That's what I've been doing for the past few weeks. For my mom, hubby, and kids, I'm still in full "normal Heather" mode, but on the inside I've been about to break into a million pieces. It's been rough.

I've had to say this to myself a lot over the past few weeks:
{source}

And so I haven't. I can't. My family - which is my world - needs me to be strong and to laugh and be there for them. I can't go bananas just yet.

I'll tell you, I was totally unraveling when I got to work on Monday. The weekend was SO hard on me, and my husband was out of town moving his parents. It was completely overwhelming. Monday morning, I was emailing one of my most favorite blogger friends, Chari, about a really redonkulous thing I'd done & she helped me in such a HUGE way - with a small act (so she says - I have no idea HOW she did it). It wasn't so much what she did though. It was her words of encouragement. Helping me laugh at myself. Seeing that I'm not stupid and can't beat myself up over an little mistake that I made. I really and truly needed it.
{source}

Thank you so much for being there for me Chari!! It truly meant the world to me.

I'm reminded how grateful I am for you, my friends out there in the blogging world! You've encouraged, inspired, supported, and befriended me and I am so lucky to have you in my life. There have been so many times when your kind words have made me happy! Again, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Ok, that was a lot. Sorry. Now I can officially share my bookmarks with you ;). Again, I used THIS tutorial to make them. All of the patterned paper is from Basic Grey's Jovial Collection. All of the Stamps are from Lawn Fawn - my most favorite of favorite companies! I decided to make wintery bookmarks this time, and here we go:

Isn't this one sweet?! I used Winter Fox - which I won from Lawnscaping's Facebook giveaway! Thank you Laurel! I love it and it is too much fun to play with!!! The sentiment also comes with the Winter Fox mini set, and the snow flakes are from Making Frosty Friends.

All of these are also from Making Frosty Friends. I love that set!

last not not least - in fact, this one is my favorite:

For this one I made up my own little sentiment using Sally's ABCs. Very punny huh?!? ;) The birdies are from Making Frosty Friends - these are my favorite Lawn Fawn birdies, I think - with their little scarves - cuteness! Don't ya love the bakers twine "wire". Of course it's from The Twinery.

That's it for today. Thanks for popping in on me friends! I hope you have an awesome day. My outlook completely shifted on Monday. I feel a smile in my heart. it's amazing what some kindness can do for your spirit. I've got to get on track with my 32 Things to Do While I'm 32 list. I finished the 3 Hunger Games books ;). 3 books down - 29 to go. So far that's about ALL I've accomplished. I mean, it's only been 8 days - but still. I found this on Pinterest (I'm not a "Pinner" but I do LOVE Pinterest!):
{source} and I'm still trying to make some time for myself. I think that's why I've been so stressed. Neglecting myself. Hoping to be better about that. Have a great day friends!

My 1st Handmade Halloween Costume!

2011-10-31T15:04:00.002-04:00

Hi there! Happy Halloween. I've been a total crafty mute lately, but I finally finished the Halloween Tutu that I made for my daughter - with hours to spare - and wanted to share it with you ;).

This was my 1st costume adventure, it's a No Sew Tutu. My friend/coworker Googled it & after making 5 of them for her daughter, convinced me that I need to give it a try. She taught me how, so I don't know what site she got the idea from, but if you can also Google it - she said it was easy to find.

I'll hopefully be back tomorrow with some photos of her actually in it. She's being a Monarch Butterfly, obviously. I got the wings at Joann Fabrics, they were $14.99 & I used a 40% off coupon. The tights were about $3.99 and a friend gave me the leotard. In the end, it cost me about the same as if I had bought a costume for her, but I'm sure no one will have a costume exactly like hers. My son is being a SWAT Team guy ;).

Thanks for peeking - have a Happy Halloween & be safe friends!

32 Things to do While I'm 32! - Blogging my Heart

2011-10-26T11:42:00.003-04:00

Good morning.

Hope your week is treating you good. So, yesterday was my Birthday, I turned 32! Today I wanted to do a blogging from the heart. The amazing (!!) Stephanie Howell started this little challenge on her blog & I've wanted to participate for a while.

This is an attempt to partcipate in that ;). So, for the past few weeks, I’ve been working on a “little” to do list of sorts. The 32 Things I want to do While I’m 32. The funny thing is, I’m not really a “to do list” person. I’ve recently started making them though (at work), and find I find it very helpful - and it’s nice checking things off the list too.

My mom being sick has made me think a lot. Life gets so hard, and busy. I work a full time job, have an amazing (and amazingly busy) family. My hubby works two jobs, we’re active in our church, teach Sunday School the 2nd Sunday of the month without fail. Between all of that - plus playing with the kids, helping my mom, just doing every everyday tasks that come up - I sometimes wonder what I’m doing to work on me. I try so hard to raise my kids to be happy and confident - make time with my husband really count, but I find myself feeling sad and neglected.

Honestly, it’s no one’s fault but my own. My husband is amazing and helps with EVERYTHING, but I neglect myself because I’ve always thought doing things I want to do for me is selfish. I’m the oldest of 3 kids. My father was an alcoholic (he passes away from Cirrhosis of the Liver almost 4 years ago) and my mom was busy with that, and working two jobs, and going to college at night. I kept things going. Kept people safe. I’ve always had people to take care of. I realized that I have spent all of my time taking care of everyone else’s needs (which I will always do - it’s just me) but I, myself, feel exhausted and unmotivated - I don’t know where to begin to take care of me.

Really, the only thing I do that’s just for myself is craft wee into the evening hours after everyone’s asleep. It makes me happy.

This list is about me deciding what I would HOPE to do this year. I’ll try really hard, but not beat myself up if it doesn’t ALL happen. Sometimes life gets in the way - and I have to be flexible. I’ll feel happy for the things I do get to do and there is always next year for what doesn’t get done this year.

I don’t want to let a to do list dictate my life - if I do, I know I’ll get overwhelmed and quit, but at the same time I want to make myself a priority too. To myself. Anyway, it sounds like I’m wining. I’m sorry. Maybe I needed to vent. I’ve never really had goals before - besides being a wife and mother. Check and Check ;).

32 Things to do While I’m 32!
1. Open an Etsy Shop.
2. Get someone to actually BUY something from my Etsy Shop ;).
3. Read 32 books.
4. Not use my Credit Card - AT ALL.
5. Read the bible & do devotions more.
6. Write in my Prayer/Meditation Journal.
7. Visit the Library weekly.
8. Bake a 6 layer Rainbow cake.
9. Re-purpose my old picture frames.
10. Use my old jeans for art.
11. Loose at least 32 pounds!!
12. Count and record my blessings.
13. Learn to meditate and just be still.
14. Do something that scares me.
15. Pray with my kids - not just at mealtimes.
16. Go to the movies alone 3 times.
17. Find a teenage babysitter & go on actual dates with Sal.
18. Go on a road trip.
19. Clear out stuff from the kids’ closet and donate it.
20. Sew something that is NOT paper.
21. Get myself published or onto a Design Team that I love!
22. Make cards for the elderly and shut-ins of our church.
23. Make AND STICK TO a budget.
24. Be more motivated (and less distracted) at work and home.
25. No more Red Bull.
26. Learn how to run and be consistent with it.
27. Ride a 4wheeler.
28. Spend more time with my mom.
29. Make 2 new recipes a month.
30. Scrapbook at least twice a month.
31. Send cards of Appreciation.
32. Be a little bit closer to being happy with being me.

So that’s it. I have to say, I read The Hunger Games last night (what a great book!!!) & am half way though book 2 “Catching Fire”. Working on #3 on the list ;). I’m going to get a planner to kind of sort out these goals and keep track of them. There are so many things here - things I really want to do. I’ll have to keep myself accountable, and hopefully document some of the progress for ya!

Thanks for stopping in. I know there’s no cute craftiness to look at - but I appreciate you popping in on me. If you decide to Blog your Heart, please let me know so I can stop in & see whats going on with you too. I hope you have a great day!

Hi there.

2011-10-24T09:32:00.010-04:00

Hi friends. I don't have a crafty project to share today. My sister-in-law and niece are visiting from New York for the weekend, and between that and my mom being so sick it's been a bit crazy around here. No crafting what so ever.

I did want to share some pictures. A teensy peek into my weekend ;).

My kids & the New Yorkers :)
We did pumpkin carving yesterday after church:

Of course, after an hour it was just me carving 4 pumpkins alone. My carving knife broke... and I killed Yoda

We also spent some time down on the (Hollywood) Beach - just us and the kids, while my sis-in-law/niece were at a wedding. It was a beautiful night. Our 1st of the year below 80!

Also, my niece, Kristen, fell in love with our guinea pigs. This is her, my Alivia, and Krystal (guinea pig #2)
All in all this has been a great weekend. Filled with family. I really needed my sister in law. It's been an incredibly rough few weeks. I'm so blessed to have her in my life. I love her like a sister, and she is amazing to our kids.

Tomorrow is my birthday ;). I'll be 32. I've been making a list - "32 things I want to do while I'm 32" - and I'll share it with you guys tomorrow. I think that if I start & stay motivated, I can really accomplish most of it. I have hope anyway, and sometimes that's all you need. Anyway, I hope you have an amazing day. Thanks for peeking into my world today ;)

Be Merry Banner {Lawnscaping#20/Wee Memories#72}

2011-10-18T10:17:00.019-04:00

Good morning friends! I finally had the opportunity to craft this weekend. It’s been about a week since I’ve done anything crafty. Things around here have been so crazy with my mom’s medical situation. I just haven’t had the mental energy to craft at all.

Anyway, things kind of calmed down finally on Sunday, and I really needed some creative therapy. I was looking around the blog-o-sphere and was honestly SO inspired by both the Lawnscaping #20 {Paper piecing} and Wee Memories’ #72 {Holiday Madness} Challenges, that decided to combine the two {AGAIN}!

So, I decided to make a Paper pieced Holiday Banner for my office :). I don’t know if I mentioned that my mom and I work together and between her health issues lately, and my boss’ death back in June (his nephew who also works there took over & he’s a great boss BTW), well, we’ve been a bit gloomy at times. I think after Halloween, I’m going to decorate for Christmas. Get us all into the spirit extra early. I’m going to do it at home too. No time to waste. I need the good cheer. Anywho, here is a look at my banner:

{I'm SO sorry the picture is teensy - it’s been terribly rainy here for 3 days straight, and I just couldn't get a full picture that was good :(. Boooo. Scroll down to for a better view of each individual piece of the banner}

To make it I did some fancy recycling by taking cereal boxes and cutting them up and covering them with October Afternoon (Very Merry - from last year) patterned paper. I like to do that, it’s actually makes recycling really fun! I also used the alpha stickers from this collection to make the sentiment “Be Merry”. I knew I’d have to get the awesome Lawn Fawn Snowman on there too, so, I paper pieced “her” and added some accessories (the gloves, hat, and sweet birdie) for fun. I added a bit of Doodlebug (red) flock for the hat/gloves. I think it adds a bit of fun.

When it was all said and done, I decided I really wanted to add the Christmas lights from Lawn Fawn’s Cozy Christmas to the banner too. I love them 0- they’re just so fun! So I stamped them onto white cardstock and did some Copic coloring. To finish them off, I added Glossy Accents over each one and after they dried I paper pieced them onto my banner. Yep - each and every light is paper pieced onto the banner (I stamped it onto the actual banner too - so that the wires would show). In the end, I decided to use embroidery floss as the wires for the light. Just glued it right on. I set large eyelets to make the banner nice and sturdy, and tied each “link” together with 3 layers of Marachino Bakers Twine from the Twinery.

I know you get the idea - but just in case you’re interested, here are pictures of the individual banner pieces ;)

Thanks so much for peeking in on me today! If you can please keep my mom and our family in your prayers - I would really, really appreciate it so much! I hope you have a great one!

Fun Birthday Idea for a Friend!

2011-10-10T11:46:00.005-04:00

Hi guys! Hope you had a great weekend! Mine was good, until Saturday evening when it turned a bit traumatic. I think I mentioned that my mom was having her new round of Chemo Therapy on Thursday last week. Turns out she fell violently ill on Saturday. I’ve never in my life seen her like that before, and it scared the absolute crap out of me!!! We still don’t know if she caught a little bug or it was the aftermath of the Chemo (which is what I think it was) but it was terrifying! I spent Saturday night and Sunday morning praying like crazy.

Then Sunday after church, I went to check in on her and bring her some soup/jello/gatorade. She looked a lot better, but not 100%. She stayed home from work today, needs rest and to regain some strength. Hopefully she’s getting there. Seeing her like that reminded me SO MUCH of my dad when he was in Hospice (he passed away almost 4 years ago - he was an alcoholic and died at 52 years old of cirrhosis of the liver - it was horrible.). Anyway, it scared me to death. I was so relieved to see her looking better Sunday. I really appreciate all of your prayers and if you could keep them coming we could definitely use them around here.

Prior to that scare I had a pretty crafty weekend. I made several more of the cute corner bookmarks (which I will hopefully share with you tomorrow). I sure am burning through my stash 6x6 pads of patterned paper ;). Today I wanted to share a fun little birthday idea I got from here.

My friend (who also is one of my co-workers) has her Birthday on Thursday and we got her a few cupcake pans (she recently moved into a new apartment and needs kitchenwares - we also got her a pressure cooker). Anyway, so, to go with the cupcake pans I got her a Funfetti cake mix & frosting and created a little “party” for her to take home with her too. Here is the before:
Using a 6x6 pad of My Minds Eye’s Lost & Found 2 - “Blush” and a fun Martha Stewart Butterfly Punch, I punched a bunch of butterfly “confetti” - which I put into a small glassine bag. Then I also made her little cupcake topper flags and put them in their own glassine bag. I decorated both bags, and made the confetti/flags using My Minds Eye’s Blush 6x6 pad.
For the flags, I used a toothpick and 3/4 x 4" strips of paper (with wet glue) and then cut a little triangle out
Then I wrapped the cake mix/frosting in Kraft packaging paper and finished them off with some pink twine from The Twinery & Trendy Twine. Fun Stuff. I think it’ll be a cute little add-on to her other gifts. Then when she gets home her hubby & kiddos have all the goodies to throw her a little party ;).

Here is a look at the finished product:

Hope you have a good Monday friends!!! If you can, please keep the prayers coming for my mom - thank you so much!!!

Corner Bookmarks - Lawnscaping #19 & Wee Memories #70

2011-10-06T09:07:00.013-04:00

Morning, happy Thursday! EEK, I’m honestly so excited to share today’s projects with you guys!!! The story goes like this:

Several months ago I was browsing Etsy (I totally love Etsy for handmade gifts - and inspiration!!) and came across a handmade corner bookmark. What a totally a cool idea and I’d never seen one before that. I decided I must make one... I Googled “corner bookmark and found several tutorials and printed them out. Then... they sat tucked away in a drawer for about 3 months. HMPH. Just working on other stuff, I guess.

Anyway so this week is “book fair” week @ my son’s school and since he’s learning to read (and doing AMAZING) he loves getting books. My hubby took him & my daughter last night & they each picked up one. So, when I got home, my son decided he needed me to make him a bookmark, which I did. After he went to sleep, I remembered the corner bookmarks and pulled out the tutorials. I gave two of them a try and failed miserably. Here is the link to the one that I had success with. It’s pretty easy and the “hardest” part is covering them with patterned paper - which really wasn’t hard AT ALL.

Before I share my bookmarks with you, I should tell you, I’m entering the whole stash into both the Lawnscaping #19 Challenge

and the Wee Memories #70 Challenge

Both are very cool challenges and I think these babies fit the bill for both. Some of my favorite techniques are stamping, paper piecing, and I love reading. Also, I think they've got some good dimention going on.

So, without further delay here are my bookmarks:

As you can see, I made 4 of them (so far). I modified the tutorial to fit my needs, I think it says to cut the paper to 3x3 - I cut mine 4x3. Basically, then you fold the corners in {so it looks like a house}. I corner punched the bottom corners - because I like how that looks, and then covered them with patterned paper. Fun!

Before I even started - I knew I was going to use Lawn Fawn's Critters as the fun focal points, paired with their punny sayings - love those. {I used Critters on the Farm, Critters in the Sea - and then also added in a few stamps from Silly Valentine, Crusing Through Life, and Hello Friend} All of the images are paper pieced. Here is a look at them all in use - and product info for each:
This is my favorite one!! For it I used My Minds Eye’s Lost & Found “Sunshine” 6x6 pad
For this I used an October Afternoon’s Seaside 8x8 pad
And on this one I used a My Minds Eye Stella & Rose “Hazel” 6x6 pad
Lastly, for this one, I used My Minds Eye Lost & Found II “Blush” 6x6 pad

For each of them, I stamped my little personalized “Handmade by Heather” stamp on the back - love this stamp ;).

They don’t hurt your book either, just fit on your marked page, nice and snug.

I think they’ll make nice little gifts for Teacher Appreciation day. Maybe Christmas gifts for my bible study group. I brought them in to show the ladies at my daughter’s preschool (which is also our church - we’re all friendly) and they LOVED THEM!!! I basically lost 3 of them right there on the spot, but told them I’d have to take pics 1st ;).

Also, have you read this book:

My grandma referred it to me and it didn’t disappoint. Good book. I want to see the movie! Soon hopefully. Of course, I had to get the copy with the movie scene on the cover - Robert Pattinson {hunk-o-rama!}. You should check the book out. It's not just a love story - it's also about the {old days} Circus and how people look at/treat older people.

Ok, that’s it for me today. Thanks you, so very much for all the prayers for my mom!!! They obviously are working, she already got her Chemo today and it went smoothly. Her doctor is adjusting the other meds that go along with the Chemo, because she’s swollen in her face. I hope they help. If you can remember, when you can, can you keep her in your prayers for a while - I'd sure appreciate that. Anyway, have an awesome day & weekend!!!

I'm here for you - LF WCMD & YCU Challenges

2011-10-05T09:07:00.008-04:00

Hi guys! Hope your week is off to a good start. Halfway to the weekend :) YAY! I’ve been exhausted this week - plain old tired out. I took a mini break from my craftiness to recharge - gotta do that sometimes. I was not feeling totally inspired and basically knew that meant to give it a rest for a quickie. Otherwise I wouldn’t be happy with anything I created. Ever feel like that?

Anyway. I’ve been dying to submit something for Lawn Fawn’s World Cardmaking Day Challenge - to make a card AND SEND IT.

It ends today - so, I’m getting this in right in the nick of time. Also, I’ve really wanted to play along with the Young Crafters Unite #2 Challenge - to create an envelope to go with your card.

I’m entering today’s card into both challenges ;). With out delay, here is my card:

and with it’s envelope:

Lawn Fawn’s challenge wasn’t too awful hard for me. For the most part, I like to make cards & sent them right away. I usually have an idea of whom I’m making it for and sending it to before I even start the card/concept. And I always love (but have never tried) the idea of matching envelopes to the card - so personalized.

I made this card for my mom. Last week, Thursday, she got the not great news that her current Chemotherapy had stopped working. She’d been on it for 8 rounds (basically 7 months) and it was working great, 2 months ago, she had a PET scan that said her tumors (which are in her lungs) had shrunk by 50% and some were even dissolving. They kept her on it for 2 more months until another PET scan, and this one showed that they had grown a bit and now there is also a spot on her Liver and Pancreas. Sheesh.

She knows God’s in charge. He’s leading her somewhere - I know that too - but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this news is scary to me. We just have to continue to rely on him, not our own understanding. She’ll start a new Chemo tomorrow. I’m going to sneak this card into her purse today at work so when she leaves & finds it, it’ll be a little smile in her day.

On the inside of the card I wrote “Remember that you were given this life because you’re strong enough to live it” - a quote I found online somewhere and wrote it down. I like it. To make the card, I started of with Neenah Kraft paper and stamped the cute clouds from Lawn Fawn’s Partly Cloudy Set (using Papertrey Ink’s white Ink) and when the ink dried used Glossy Accents to randomly glue Papertrey Ink buttons on them. I made rainbow stitched raindrops and added gems & pearls to the end of them. My mom is a seamstress, so the stitching really say “mom” to me ;).

For the envelope, I used the cute closed umbrella - also from Lawn Fawn’s Partly Cloudy set and stamped it in various inks (Jenni Bowlin, Colorbox, and Versafine). I also added the sentiment (to the card & envelope) “I’m here for you” from Lawn Fawn’s On the Mend set.

That’s it. Thanks for having a look. If you can remember, will you please lift my mom, Kathy, up in your prayers? I would really and truly appreciate it. Hope your day is great friends.

Taking a tip from "The Help"

2011-09-28T09:40:00.010-04:00

Morning friends. So, I finished reading The Help a few weeks ago and went to see the movie this weekend. I liked both a lot!

I don't know, I've been feeling so very overwhelmed lately. I've never been to the movies alone before. It was a welcome experience. I needed a break. Needed some peace. I've been sick with a cold for about a week now and it hit me really hard. Also my kids have been fighting and "screachy" a lot lately. Especially my sweet little Alivia. It's like she grew a mind of her own overnight. Which I want, but it's making me kinds looney. So stressful and it makes me want to cry sometimes. I know it's normal. I'm sure all of you moms out there can relate (please, God, tell me it's NOT just me?!?). All I can do is be consistent and love them.

Anyway... The Help. So, in the book, one of the main characters, Aibileen, spoke about how she wrote down her prayers and then said them. I really like that concept. I pray every day - many times a day. Usually whatever pops into my head, along with the "thank you for my blessings, family, healthy children, that Sal & I are healthy and able to work" etc. Then at work, or through friends, blogs, or church friends I hear things that need prayer and I lift those things up too. But sometimes, I'm so "all over the place". I start praying for someone, and someone else pops into my head. Then it always ends up me praying for myself to be kind, forgiving, compassionate... I know God can deal with me. But it stresses me out sometimes. I feel like he's thinking "...this crazy lady again with the rambly prayers...". Ok, I know he probably doesn't say that, but like I said, it bothers me.

So... I decided I'm going to start writing my prayers down. That way I can gather my thoughts and if I think of something, I write it down. Prayers, thoughts, quotes. No one gets lost in the shuffle of my crazy mind. Also it will help me to reflect on them later. Follow up with the Big Guy ;). I had an extra Composition Book left over from "back to school" and decorated it using Crate Paper's Portrait Collection: I really loved playing with the stickers/chipboard accents in this collection. The back was left pretty plain
I'm going to try to make it a point to write in it every day. Carry it to/from work and be diligent about it. I'm a really bad journaler, so wish me luck.

Snowy Window Card for the Paper Smooches Spark Inspirational Challenge!

2011-09-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

Good morning friends! Hope all is well out here in the blogasphere. I suppose I’m recovering from this cold - slowly but surely. Thank God!

Ok, onto another note. Did you know that Paper Smooches has their very own challenge blog - it’s called Paper Smooches Sparks? Hello! How did I not know about this!! Just found it yesterday! I only have 2 sets of Paper Smooches Stamps so far, but really love them. You all know how much I love Lawn Fawn - and they are of the same high quality - and their images are truly SO original and fun - their fonts are also adorable!!

Ok, I don’t know if it’s tacky adding a project made with no Paper Smooches Stamps, but I was totally inspired by their inspirational photo and wanted to join in on the fun, so I’m giving it a shot! I'm also trying out for their DT call - fingers crossed ;). Here is a look at the inspirational photo:

So cute right?!? With it in mind, I created this:

and here is an inside view:

Here's a standing up view:

and a laying down view...

Cool huh? I really adore how it came out! I was at Michaels this weekend, and found some cute ArtC glitter. I’ve been wanting it for a while - but just couldn’t justify paying $5.99 for it, no matter how cute the little bottles are!! Anywho, Michaels a variety of them on sale - 60% off - I couldn’t help but grab 3 different sets!! Some of the sets come with beads too & they’re all so cool! I thought they’d be perfect for this project.

Onto the card: So to make this, I started by making the glittery window/pocket using clear acrylic “paper” (also found at Michaels) and Martha Stewart’s clear {chunky} glitter & the ArtC glittered hearts. Used my sewing machine to stitch it all together so it’d be nice and sturdy! Then I went to work stamping my Frosty Friends (all Stamps on this card are Lawn Fawn’s Making Frosty Friends and all patterned paper is Crate Paper) and paper pieced them. Next I set them aside and stamped the same images onto what would be my (inside) card base.

Then I stamped a few snowflakes from the set with Versamark Ink and heat embossed them using AC’s Zing in White. Next, I added the paper pieced snowmen to the card base along with their pretty bows (dark pink = The Twinery & light pink = Trendy Twine).

Then I cut a square window into the front of the card base (this was done by trial and error and I now have quite a few little scraps of this paper laying around... why don’t I just use a ruler already?!?). I glued the snowy window to the inside of the card with Glossy Accents and then covered it in Crate Paper. I stamped the sentiment using my (new) fave Jenni Bowlin ink - Robin’s Egg - and used a finger inker to also ink up the edges in the same color. I finished it off with the same twine as the bows attached with Tim Holtz’s Tiny Attacher. I love it. I’m going to make some more window glitter cards tonight if I’m feeling up to it. Maybe Halloween cards this time. OOOHHH the possibilities! Well, that’s all for me today - thanks for peeking!

OH SNAP! - Lawnscaping #18

2011-09-26T12:22:00.010-04:00

Hi there. Another Monday to contend with. HMPH. I feel indifferent today. My Grandma went back to NY today - which makes me sad. Also, I've been fighting a cold since Wednesday... and I honestly think it may be winning. Hopefully I get better soon. I was way too sick to be creating ANYTHING last week, which always puts me down in the dumps :(.

Then, on Friday night, it was so weird, I got a HUGE burst of energy. I went through and cleaned out my crafty space - went a little mad actually (cold medication, most likely). Took a bunch of goodies that I've either used once, or never used, or used a tiny bit of and made one huge pile. Sooooo I'll be having a giveaway here on the blog VERY soon in honor of my 50 followers!!! YAY! I really sppreciate you girls!! I love the support and encouragement that you give me. Blogging had been a huge spot of happy in my life. I like getting to know you guys through our creativity. It's nice to have that bond - and I really REALLY appreciate each one of you!!! It will be a whole bunch of goodies! Like I said, most of it is gently (but sparsely) used but... it's still free :D! Look for it by the end of this week hopefully.

Anyway, so, that overhaul got me finally inspired to create - yay! It was a just a little something I made for my Grandma - but a start. She reads a lot, and is heading on a 12 hour train ride home today, so I thought I'd make her a little bookmark to keep her place.
EEk, I almost forgot, I'm entering this into Lawnscapings #18 Challenge

I started off with a scrap piece of clear acrylic - left over from THIS project (which I had to add to/clean up this weekend). The size is 6" by 2 1/2". I rounded the corners with my corner chomper - that baby's made to last, I'll tell you that - and punched the hole for the twine using the Crop-A-Dile. The patterned paper is from an 8X8 pad of October Afternoon's Thrift Shop. I covered the back of the acrylic with a piece cut to size. To glue it down I used Glossy Accents and a scraper (so you wouldn't see glue). Next I decorated the fron using more of the OA paper and the Lawn Fawn Polaroid from Say Cheese. The "Oh Snap" was made using Smitty's ABCs ;). Finished it off with three pretty pieced of bakers twine form The Twinery, pulled through the whole. I likes. Made me finally smile. Rough week, last week. Thanks again - crafty girlys - for being an amazing bright spot in my day - for your love, encouragement, and friendship! I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Carbon Copying with the Bald Dragonfly!!!

2011-09-21T05:00:00.002-04:00

Hi there happy Wednesday! Today I’m so super excited to be joining the utterly fabulous Karen Baker {of The Bald Dragonfly Blog) for her weekly Carbon Copy feature!

I love Karen’s blog and every single project she creates - plus she’s absolutely one of the sweetest and kindest people ever!!!! If you don’t know what Carbon Copying is, it’s a fun challenge that Karen started over on her blog that goes live every Wednesday. Basically, she and another blogger ((that’s ME today)) choose a challenge - or a few - and use the same stamps and come up with two unique projects according to their own style! If you are interested in playing along, go and add your name to Mr. Linky here.

So, anyway, today we are playing along with this Lily Pads Sketch {which I flipped}:

and the Wee Memories #68 Challenge:

and using Lawn Fawn’s Critters in the Sea and Sophie’s Sentiments Stamps. Here is what I came up with:

Ok, so, I know I’m really reaching as far as the sketch goes, I just had this idea in my head. Every time I tried to deviate from it, I didn’t like what I came up with (and I tried 3 times!). In the end I went with my gut. My inspiration for this card is a little boy in my daughter’s preschool class, Carter. I’ve been friends with his mom for a long time and our kiddos are 3 months apart. She is also the co-director of the school and goes to my church. For the past year he’s been having a lot of health issues, they’re not exactly sure what’s going on but trying to get answers now. Alivia just LOVES him to pieces! This is the 2nd year they are in class together. Anyway, he had surgery last Wednesday and I wanted to make a card for the family to make them smile.

There are a lot of elements on the card. Everything started off as white cardstock and was colored or inked. No patterned paper is actually a toughy for me, but I did end up liking the result. To start, I used Masking Paper and Distress Inks (a mix of Old Paper, Pumice Stone, Antique Linen, and Tea Dye) to create my “sand” - creating 3 layers. Next I went to work on the “ocean”. I just took a 3x5 piece of cardstock and Distress Inked that up starting at the bottom with the darkest color (Faded Jeans) and working my way up in color (next was Broken China and then Tumbled Glass). Then I cut it to the size I actually needed and crinkled it into a ball. Opened it, sprayed it with water and ran the Broken China over the whole thing. Then I adhered the sand/ocean down to the card base. I stamped the sentiment “thinking of you” which sadly gave me issues because I adhered the ocean to the sea BEFORE stamping the sentiment. It happens. Anyway, then I went to town stamping, coloring, & adhering my sea critters. You really can’t tell but I used my Copic Glittery Pen on the sea grass, turtle’s spots, and whale’s splash. I popped up the whale for dimension and added pearls to the clams and that was all she wrote.

If you haven’t yet, hop over to Karen’s blog to see what she’s come up with!!

Well, that’s all for me today! Have an amazing day!

Rejects

2011-09-20T17:53:00.004-04:00

Hi guys! Just a quickie today. I wanted to share two cards that I submitted a whiiiile back for the Paper Crafts Halloween issue:

(hee hee, the kitty is a vampire ;) - this is when I 1st started experimenting with critters and their Halloween costumes)
and

(the inside says "or a very good witch)
That's it ;). Have a great one!!

Happy Monday!

2011-09-19T09:31:00.006-04:00

Hi there! Hope you had a great weekend!! Mine was wonderful! My Grandma is visiting from Upstate NY, and honestly, I couldn't be happier! My kids were thrilled to spend time with her and we had the best time all weekend. Yesterday we all went to the Museum of Discovery and Science. Such a fun time. My son had been dying to see a 3D documentary "Sea Rex" for a month now and my mom surprised us all with tickets. My son LOVED it, my daughter sat with her head buried in my neck the entire (45 min) movie ;). Then to Cracker Barrel for Sunday Dinner and to look around their shop - that place is just too cool!

Anyway, tonight I've got to get crafting, but today I wanted to share an updated version of my Christmas Cards:

Maybe you remember this post - my Lawnscaping Blog Hop project. I created another sample - and added in my Hermit Crabs, Hermie & Courage. My son was ecstatic! His ideas, after all ;)

Wow, my card really says "welcome to the funny farm" this year, that's for sure! But that's ok.

So, again, I've used Crate Paper's "Snow Day" and "Peppermint" collections and TONS - tons - OF Lawn Fawn Stamps {Critters in the Burbs, Making Frosty Friends, Critters in the Sea, Hats off to You, Bows & Holly, & Smitty's ABCs}. I decided I'll probably leave the girls without the flossy hair. I really liked how it looked - it was SOOOO cute, but it would be alot of work to glue hair on 100 snowgirls.

I've done a ton of stamping and Copic coloring already. Have enough critters (all of them), snowmen/women/children, and sentiments ready to get 16 cards to done so far. I figure if I start now, and cut the images out in between other projects I'm working on. I should get about 50 (my goal) done by November when it's time to take & print my Christmas photo of the kiddies and send them out.

So, that's it for me today. Hope your Monday is nice to you! Have a great one!

Happy Birthday - Lawnscaping #17

2011-09-14T09:55:00.010-04:00

Happy Wednesday!

Last night, I finally got up to working on my Lawnscaping #17 Challenge project.

Embossing. I’ve been kind of stumped on what exactly to do for this one, I love embossing - it’s one of my favorite techniques, but sometimes I just... get stumped on what I want to do, I guess. Here is my card:

I’m sending this off to my niece, Shannon today, she’ll be 11 on the 23rd of this month. Love that girl, she’s the sweetest ever!! Here she is with my hubby & my sweet little Alivia:

I started out here with white cardstock and a a Hero Arts {Happy Birthday} definition background stamp. I inked it up with Versamark and heat embossed it using American Crafts’ Zing - in Clear. Then I went down to Distress Ink town ;). I’ve used Worn Lipstick and Tumbled Glass here. Pretty :). The pretty purple twine was from “Trendy Twine” which my hubby surprised me with this week!! He got here from Annie’s Paper Boutique on Etsy - and I love it! It’s two shades of purple which adds a nice touch. {My niece’s favorite colors are pink, purple & blue, so I wanted to incorporate all 3 colors.}

Next I punched a 2" circle and inked Distressed inked it with Dusty Concord. I think I have to get a softer purple Distress Ink though because WOW that’s pretty dark. Then I clear embossed some more (and sprinkled a bit of purple Martha Stewart fine glitter before embossing) using Lawn Fawn’s {Teeny Tiny Backdrops} music notes (a la... “Happy Birthday to you...”) and attached that to a paper doily out of my stash. Finally, I paper pieced a pretty cake using Lawn Fawn’s Bake Me a Cake and a 6x6 Echo Park paper pad and attached it to the card. Here is a closer upper of the embossing:

The inside says “Happy Birthday”. I used Lawn Fawn’s Sophie’s Sentiments for that. Well, that’s it for me today. I hope Wednesday treats you right.

Picture Perfect Halloween!

2011-09-13T08:45:00.008-04:00

Hi there! I've just been crafting like a mad woman lately, and today I wanted to share another Halloween card I made using my coveted Lawn Fawn Stamps ;).
It's one of my favorite Halloween cards so far! I used several Lawn Fawn stamps: Say Cheese, Critters in the Burbs, Hats off to You, & Bon Voyage. I'm still playing around with dressing up my critters (for Halloween, of course). I've made a witchy dog (with a toole cape & sparkly hat) and a fairy kitty (using a Martha Stewart butterfly punch and a pin).

So, it's kinds funny, but I actually thought up this card starting with that cute lil Tim Holtz hanger paper clip ;). I picked it up this weekend in an AC Moore and think it's just too cute! I used Divine Twine Bakers Twine to hang my Polaroid from, which I attached to the card with Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher (LOVE THAT THING!). The cloud, witch's hat, and butterflies wings are all colored in with a Copic Glitter Pen for added pretty. The toole was left over from a tutu (my 1st) that I'm making for my daughter as her Halloween costume. Of course, the critters (and even the grass) is colored with Copics. The patterned paper is My Minds Eye - Mischievous collection. Here is a closer look:

Anyway, that's my card today! Hope you all have a wonderful day - and thanks for peeking!

Many Thanks! CFC19

2011-09-12T08:40:00.012-04:00

Hi friends! I had a ball this weekend - made 17 cards! Woop Woop! I really had so much fun doing it too. Today I wanted to share my Thanksgiving cards:

I’m entering them into Cas-ual Fridays’s #19 Challenge!

The design of this card was actually inspired by THIS card by Savannah O’Gwynn. Cute huh?!? Of course the Turkey is from Lawn Fawn’s newest mini set “Turkey Day”. So cute. The inside is stamped with “Happy Turkey Day” which also comes with the mini set. The "Many Thanks" stamp is actually my all time favorite free “Thank You” stamp from Lawn Fawn. I love those Thank You stamps & feel like it's such a nice little gift to their customers/fans!!! Isn’t this Making Memories’ patterned paper lovely?!? It’s the Autumn Splendor collection - LOVE! That plaid just makes me super happy! I just randomly cut a bunch of strips and made the into banners. and tied some twine boys. Some have brown twine, some are orange, and some have both. They're all very similar, but different :).

I’ve made 8 (so far) for myself and a set of 8 for my Grandma. She’s taking the train down to visit & will be here this Friday!!!! I’m so SO happy!

That's all for me today. Was the Lawnscaping Blog Hop not the coolest thing ever?!?!? I think that's why I got so crafty this weekend - I was MAJORLY inspired!! If you missed it, the chance to win prizes may be over, but you can still go there and hop around!! You just may find some new blogs to follow!! It was fabulous! I feel so grateful to them for letting me participate! Big thank you to Laurel & the girls!!!

First ever Lawnscaping Blog Hop!!!!

2011-09-09T00:00:00.001-04:00

Hi hoppers!!! Welcome to my stop on the first ever Lawnscaping Blog Hop!!!

Thanks so much for joining in on the fun today!! I’m so very excited to be a part of this hop, and I’m SO happy you’re joining us today!! You should be coming to me from Barb’s fabulous blog.

Since the theme here is “Holidays” I decided to get a running start on my Christmas cards for this year!! This year, I decided to start WAY earlier than I did last year and to create a different design (can’t have the same Christmas cards every year, right?!?). Anywho, when I saw Lawn Fawn’s “Making Frosty Friends Stamp Set, I knew they were the ones! I mean - HOW CUTE?!?!?

The project I made for this hop is... my Christmas Cards for this year:

Cute huh? The picture of my kiddos is actually from last year, I’m thinking this year I’ll take pictures of them on the beach around sunset. We live in South Florida and have a lot of relatives in New York, and I love the idea of using snowmen. Hee hee. I wanted to give them suntans and go with a beachy snowmen theme - and I think I’ll be playing around more with that idea - but for now this is what I’ve come up with.

The patterned paper is a mix of Crate Paper’s Peppermint and Snow Day collections (this year & last year’s Christmas collections). I used quite a few Lawn Fawn Stamps here: Making Frosty Friends, Hats off to You, Bows and Holly, Smittys ABCs, and Critters in the Burbs. I colored in the hats and animals with Copics ;). No those are not rats, they are supposed to be our Guinea Pigs, Sunny and Krystal. Tee-hee-hee. I used the cute little squirrel from Critters in the Burbs and cut their tails off and colored them the colors of our piggies. I had to add them. My son said so “They’re part of our family too mom!”

Then I get all finished with it and he gets the BIGGEST smile on his face that I used his idea. Then he gets this LOOK and says “...wait, mom, what about the hermit crabs?!?” Sheesh. I may be adding 2 hermit crabs to this baby. Welcome to the funny farm friends.

I have to say, these new Lawn Fawn Stamps (just like ALL of Lawn Fawn’s stamps) are just SO much fun! I can see myself using the cute snowmen throughout all of the cooler months. Not just for Christmas cards, but to say “Hi”, “Thinking of You”, even “Happy Birthday”!... endless possibilities! I really love them!

Before I go, here is a look at my last year Christmas card:

I used Basic Grey’s Jovial collection and Lawn Fawn’s Cozy Christmas Stamps!! I made 70 of them, and didn’t start until mid-October. I love how they came out but they sure made me slightly insane ;). This year, I want to get started now, and maybe make around 50. I’ll do all of the stamping, coloring... get all of the cards ready, and add the pictures later (which I usually take my Christmas pics. in early November). I love photo cards, don’t you? They make me happy!

Well that’s it for me, next on the hop is Stephanie’s awesome blog, which I love so much!!! Go check her out! If you get lost along the hop, or want to start back at the beginning, you can head back over to the Lawnscaping Blog.

Remember, the hop runs from Friday, September 9th to Sunday, September 11th. During the hop you will want to visit everyone’s blogs and leave comments on each and every one. There are fabulous projects up for grabs - and you wont want to miss your chance to scoop one up!!! The more blogs you comment on, the better your chances are to win one of those fabby prizes :D. So hop your little hearts out friends - I know I will be!!! If you’d like more info on the hop, just head back to the Lawnscaping home page ;).

Isn’t the Lawnscaping Challenge Blog THE best?!?!? They have such an amazing Design Team full of fabulous designers. They are truly SUCH inspiring ladies!!! Plus, they all love Lawn Fawn - they’ve got to be cool!!! I just love their challenges and have participated in each and every one! I hope you come and play along too - if you don’t already that is ;). Have an amazing day!!!

Plaid Baby Shower Invites ;)

2011-09-08T08:39:00.007-04:00

Good morning! Today I wanted to share the baby shower invites I made for a friend.

I got the template for the diaper invite from Martha Stewart's website. I wish I had the link, I'm sorry. I've tried looking and can't find it... and this has to be a quickie post today - sorry again.
For the actual invite, I used a {free} font from Kevin & Amanda. It's called "Heather Michelle" - I love that website, so many free fonts to choose from! They have a great recipe blog too!

The paper is My Minds Eye - and super fun! They don't know the gender of the baby so I went with a yellow/red/blue plaid. Came out SO cute!

Anyway thanks for peeking! Hope you have a great day - don't forget to stop by tomorrow for the Lawnscaping blog hop ;).

Some more owly fun!

2011-09-07T11:40:00.009-04:00

Hi there! Hope Wednesday is treating you well, it still feels like Tuesday to me. Then I remember it’s Wednesday & it’s like BONUS!

I wanted to share a few more Halloween cards I made this weekend with you. I was just playing around. Making cards for my nieces up in NYC. Experimenting with Lawn Fawn’s Critters in the Forest, Hats off to You, and Making Frosty Friends sets. Yesterday’s card (you can find it below this post) is my fave Halloween card so far.

If I had to choose, this one would come in second:

I used Lawn Fawn’s Bon Voyage Cloud and the snowman coals from making Frosty Friends as a thought bubble ;). The sentiments are from Smitty’s ABCs and Hats off to You. I cut “Hal-and-loween” apart from the Hats set. No biggie - it goes right back together! I’ve done this to a few Lawn Fawn Sentiments. Works perfectly because they’re amazing quality stamps! Too cute - although my sentiment is a bit wonky in there. I like the dog as a butterfly/ fairy. Cuteness.

This was actually the 1st card I made:

As you can see, I was smitten by the witchy owls with sparkly hats - flying on brooms! But this card got too busy real fast. I had this whole idea... Halloweeny woodland critters in... costumes. Yea, that didn’t really work out for me. I wanted to share it anyway. Just cause.

EEP! I also just got a few spools of Divine Twine - YUM! Orange & Brown - “needed” em! Isn’t the little packaging so cute!

I’m gunna keep this on my desk at work for a little while. Makes me happy & God knows I could use a little happy at work. Been a rough couple of months.

Can you tell I’m loving the grassy Fiscars punch?!? LOVE it! In other news, I’m reading the Help, I can’t put it down. I read half of it yesterday - didn’t get to bed until 1am! I would’ve stayed up later, but 5am comes so quickly! Also, I simply can not wait until the Lawnscaping Blog Hop Friday!!! You’ll be joining us right?!? Hope to see you there and I hope you have a wonderful day friends. {{Hugs}}

Not so spooky ;)

2011-09-06T08:48:00.010-04:00

Hi there!! How was your weekend? Mine was great. Had a great time with my kiddos & hubby. Lots of quality family fun time! I also got majorly crafty!! Woot woot! I started & completed the baby shower invites I was making for my friend, started & completed my project for the Lawnscaping Blog Hop (which starts 9/9/11!!), and made a few cutsie and fun Halloween Cards!!

Unfortunately, I forgot to take pics of the Shower Invites, (SO SAD) hopefully I'll have and share them by tomorrow.

Before the weekend started, I received my Lawn Fawn Order (YAY). I ordered a whopping 5 sets this time around (!!): Making Frosty Friends, Blissful Botanicals, Hats off to You, Turkey Day, & Bows & Holly (whew). I've been saving up for a big order & was super happy to get them!

Anyway, between the Hats and the broom on the Frosty set, all I could think of was witchy owls!! Couldn't wait to make some!
The patterend paper is from My Minds Eye's "Mischevious" collection & the stamped (Lawn Fawn) images are all colored with Copics. I added a bit of glitter to their hats for fun (using a Copic pen) and like how that came out. The moon & grass were made using Fiscars punches & I Distress Inked them both up (for the moon I used Weathered Wood & for the grass I used Shabby Shutters). Heres a closer up look:

Well, thats it for me today! Hope your week is great. Back tomorrow with more fun!

Final card in Grandma's Set.

2011-09-01T08:59:00.006-04:00

Happy Thursday!

Today I wanted to share the final card that I made for my Grandma's vintagey card set. This was actually the 1st card that I made for the set. I love how it came out!

Again, all of the products, except the stamps (which are from Lawn Fawn's Just My Type and Just My Type Too sets), are from My Minds Eye's Lost & Found collection. When I finished this card, I realized that I am totally in love with their burlap! Also, they have fabulous brads - such great colors/patters. I really love this paper too because it just has such a great vintage look! Perfect with this Lawn Fawn set!!

Well, that's probably all for me this week! I'm deliriously happy to have a 4 day weekend!! So much to do (fun stuff, but still). I have to finish up the shower invites I'm making for a friend and have BIG plans for the Lawnscaping Blog Hop that starts next week (September 9th - September 11th!!). I'm so excited about my project and hope it comes out as planned - I've been plotting it out for over a week now and just got my Lawn Fawn order in - woot woot!!!! Wont you join us and hop along?? There will be fab prizes up for grabs and I'M SURE you will leave feeling MAJORLY inspired!!!!

Have an amazing day friends - and a great weekend!

My 1st Moxie Fab - Tuesday Trigger

2011-08-31T08:00:00.001-04:00

Hi again! So, today I wanted to share another card that I made last weekend. Essentially, I made a 4 card set. I want to give them to my Grandma when she visits from NY in September. I just can’t wait to see her and give her these cards (two more of the set are in yesterday’s post - below this one). They're just her style!

I’ve always ALWAYS been a letter writer. Before I was even a card maker. My Grandma & I have been pen-pals since... well, literally forever! Ever since I was a little girl she’d mail me little boxes that contained note cards for me to write her back. I like it that now I write her letters on cards that I make and send her blank cards to write notes to others.

I essentially made a 4 card set. Again, I used My Minds Eye’s Lost & Found 6x6 paper pad to make it. Lots of Antique Linen Distress Inking going on here. I think this quilty card (yes...I make up words.. don’t you?!?) one is my all time fave cards. It took quite a little while to make - cut all of the squares (after trial & error... why do I not make my ruler my friend already?!?), then inked them up & glue them down. You get the idea. The bracket was cut from the Create a Critter Cricut Cartridge, and I paper pieced the Lawn Fawn Sew Lovely Sewing Machine ;). I decided on the Rustic Papertrey Ink Twine & it's accents last - and I am so happy I did! I love what it, paired with the mini butterflies and pearls, adds to the card. Pretty!
Here's a closer-upper:

I’m submitting this card to the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Challenge. My 1st time submitting a Tuesday trigger! Oh! Before I forget, heres a look at the trigger:

I love this photo so very much! So country/diva-licious ;). You can always count on Cath to deliver amazing images over on the Moxie Fab Blog!!!

Anyway, that’s my share-o-the-day ;). What are you working on??? I wanna see... Right now, I’m working on some baby shower invites for a friend of mine. I’m super excited about them, and CAN NOT wait to share them with you! Until next time have a fabby day friends!

Cardmaking Bliss...

2011-08-30T12:12:00.006-04:00

Hi there! So, the kids are back to school. Week two. Things are falling into place. Everyone likes their classes and teachers. Yay for the peace that routine brings!

As for me, I’ve had some good (late night) crafting sessions. A few weeks ago, I picked up a few My Minds Eye 6x6 pads (Lost & Found & Lost & Found 2) along with the cute stamps, pretty brads, and the cool burlap. I was so inspired by that collection and thought it would be PERFECT with Lawn Fawn’s Just My Type and Sew Lovely stamps! I was right ;). I ended up with a few vintage (and fun) looking cards. Here’s a look at a few of them:
So, this one (up top) was actually based on this MojoMonday sketch from back in July. I liked the sketch so much but missed the deadline :( so i bookmarked it and felt inspired to use it with thses goodies. Happy I did - fun sketch!!

I really loved playing with the burlap!!! Fabritac glued it down like a champ. I actually made a set of 4 - but I’ll share the other 3 another day... sneaky huh?!?

Well, I hope your day is good to you.

Routine...hmmmm...

2011-08-23T17:05:00.008-04:00

Ok, no crafty project today - although - I’m thinking up one. I want to make a mini-book based on what I do everyday - you know, my Routine. The Crate Paper Blog’s current challenge is to create a project using (75% of their fabulous products and) the word Routine as inspiration. I’ve actually wanted to do something like this for a while and kind of have a little something started. Hopefully I actually finish it by the deadline (8/31/11).

Last night I started thinking about my daily routine. It’s clear to me that NO mom could make a “mini” book about her daily routine, right? It’ll have to be just a few highlights.

Most of the main parts of my daily routine revolve around these two amazing little creatures right here:

I still can't believe God let me help make them! Anyway these pics are from Last night. We did our new school year measurements - and I got a mini Photoshoot!.
One of the things that is fairly new to my daily routine is taking care of our new/used Guinea Pigs. Meet Krystal (named by Christian):

and Sunny (named by Alivia):

He's not really "redish" my camera just reflected funny on him. Anyway, they're mainly a part of my daily routine because I CAN NOT have smelliness in my house, which means cleaning the cage often. I’m actually potty/litter training them. Sounds funny - but it’s working!!! We also have a fun little family thing every night feeding & playing with them.

The scoop:
They’re both girls. I got them off Craigs List about 3 weeks ago. They are about 3 years old. Did I want little critters, you ask... NOOOOOO, I most certainly did not! This is all my hubby’s doing.

He went & promised the kiddos that if they were good (meant mainly for my son) at Summer Camp ALL summer, we could get a Hamster (he’s been begging for one for months). I don’t know what’s wrong with him - making promises like that without even asking me - you know. When I (er...) “questioned” him about it, he said something like “come one, this is Christian, he’s bound to wack someone at SOME point there over the summer!” He had a point. I know my son, and he gets “handsy” sometimes. I went along with it... You know, I’m really surprised how good a kid can be when something they REALLY want is at stake.

I was really freaking out when I realized we were going to have to get a hamster, so, I started researching them online and at pet stores. I found out that Guinea Pigs are actually MUCH better pets than hamsters. They don’t bite (my son was terrified of being bit), and are not nocturnal (HUGE PLUS!!!) - so they sleep when we sleep, and they’re really friendly little pets.

Craigs List??? Yes, I looked for them on Craigs List at the referral of a friend who also bought hers from - isn’t that the strangest thing?!? I got them from a family 15 mins away from me for less than the price of 1 store bought Guinea Pig, I got 2 piggies (they do best, and are generally happier, in - same sex - families/pairs) and the cage/bedding/food/toys/accessories for $25.00! They’re actually really nice little critters. Wish me luck - it's been quite a bit of work so far, but they are sweet little things.

"HI" - Lawnscaping #16 - Second Entry!

2011-08-22T08:52:00.012-04:00

Good morning!! It's "Back to School Day" here in S. Florida! YAY! I still can't believe my Christian is a 1st grader! He was a trouper this morning in his Star Wars t-shirt! Alivia is headed to pre-k 3 (the 3 year old class in her preschool). She's so excited too! My kidlets are growing up too fast for me.

Ok, onto my card, so, I was super inspired when I got home from teaching my class at Paper Niche on Friday night that I decided to make another card for the Lawnscaping #16 Challenge

Here is a looksie:

OK - WOWZA there is so much inkiness going on here!

I started by using a post it to section off & layer a grassy area using Distress Inks (both Shabby Shutters and Peeled Paint). Then I stamped a bunch of the images I wanted to use (they are from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Forrest and Heebie's Jeebies' sets) onto sticky backed masking paper and also onto the card base where I wanted them to be - then I placed the sticky masking paper over the images. Next I stamped the stars (from Lawn Fawn's Bake me a Cake) onto the card using Versamark Yellow Ink and heat embossed them using clear embossing powder. Once that was dry, I punched a 2" punched circle out of the sticky backed masking paper and placed it where I wanted the moon to be, put another post it over the grassy area and went to town with Weathered Wood Dtstress Ink to make the night sky.

Then I punched a 2" circle out of a post it, and placed it over the "moon" section of the card and, after removing the masking tape, colored in a moon using two different Grey Copic Markers and added the bat stamp. Then I colored in the moon with a glittery Copic Pen. Next I removed all of the masks from all of the images and colored them in using various Copics. Here is a close up of the moon - I love how it came out - it looks so real to me ;):

I finished off the card my using the glittery Copic pen to color the spider's web, the owl's eyes, and the antenneas on the snail... and the snail wouldn't be complete without a silvery trail - right?!?:

Ok, that's it for me today. OH - before I forget, did you see that my son's card was picked by Lawn Fawn for Fawny Flickr Friday?!? Check it out **HERE**. He just about lost his mind, he was so happy!!! Then he said... "wait, did I win something?!?" HMPM. What happened to just, you know, the pride of knowing you were mentioned... not for 6 year olds, I tell ya! So it sost me $2.00 worth of goodies at the Target dollar section ;). Hope your day is great!!

Thanks - Lawnscaping #16 Challenge - an entry from me & my little guy too.

2011-08-17T08:26:00.018-04:00

Hi there. Hope you are having an amazing week! Mine has been a but hectic and I just feel exhausted so far - UGH - it's only Wednesday!! I was in an accident this weekend, I hit a off duty cop, no less. Nice huh? So, I was planning this fantastic Saturday day with the kids - a last weekend of the summer adventure before the school year starts.

I picked up my niece, Paige and I was going to take the 3 kids to the Science Museum downtown. On our way I stopped by Target to return some shoes that were too small for my daughter. Anyway, Paige & Christian started fighting when I was driving out of the parking lot - which is typical these days - and I looked back for a second to tell them to stop and hit the person in front of me.

So dissappointed in myself.

I'm fine, we were all fine, the guy in the other car was fine - my car is not so fine. I'm in a rental. I'm so dissappointed. I know, I know, accidents happen... that's why we have insurance... yea, yea, I know. I'm just... it was something I really didn't need right now.

Then this coming Sunday is my boss' memorial service and that's just making me think WAY more than I should and it's emotionally drained me. Almost to the point of being creatively blocked. I was so happy to finally get inky last night! It always helps me smile. I needed it!

anyway - onto the happy:

Since my hubby was staying home with the kids today (camp is closed because school starts next week), I let my son, Christian, stay up a bit later than usual. I asked him (he's 6 - going into 1st grade *sniff*)if he wanted to stamp/make cards with me - and he did :D. My little creative boy. We're going to enter it into the Simon Says Stamp Children's Challnege!

He asked who my card was for, I told him I wanted to enter it into the Lawnscaping #16 Challenge - but that it could be for him - BIG SMILES! I knew this challenge would be a REAL, well, challenge for me because I love paper piecing so much - I almost NEVER EVER do a one layer card!

After I explained the concept, he said "Ok, mommy, I'll do a one layer card too then" and so we sat there making our cards. He is too cute that boy - he's my creative buddy! He made a whole watery scene!!!

When he was done, he said something was missing... a sun... I told him I had a sun stamp, and he said "well, does it have sunglasses, your sun" um...no... he said "well then, I'd better draw it, because I really need a sun with sunglasses". Of course you do little guy. Too cute. He decided it was a card for his cousin Shannon. He has too much fun hanging out with her last weekend. Here's the inside of his card:

Ok, now onto my card. This really was a hard challenge for me. I was scared of doing just one layer... I actually made a card and hated it. So, I started over with a different idea in mind. In the end I did like what I came up with though:

I knew I wanted a Kraft background. I used Washi tape to make grass, then stamped my images and colored them in with Copics. Actually, the clouds were the 1st images I stamped, and I colored them in with a white (Prisma)color pencil. When I started out, I thought I would color the entire card in with color pencils, but in the end decided everything else needed Copics. I wanted my critters to have a bit of debth and my 12 pack beginner pack of color pencils were not gunna cut it.

So, as you can see, I also used a glittery Copic to color in the flowers, my raccoon's eyes, the dragonfly, and trace aound the clouds.

I really like the effect it gave it. Just a little something extra. I think it adds something purty ;).

Anyway - sorry for the too much info kind of post. Thanks for peeking. I hope you have an amazing day & weekend. I hope to ink up some more this week - I really hope to - but I just don't know.

Hi there! Baby mini book started :D.

2011-08-11T09:48:00.011-04:00

Hi there! I’ve been MIA all this week on the blog. We got back from Orlando on Saturday and have just had a whirlwind of stuff to do on the home front. Plus being off work for 2 days really left me with A LOT of “make-up” work to do when I got back (on Tuesday). I’ve just been too exhausted every night when I get home to craft this week.

My kidlets had the best time in Orlando though! We didn't go to any parks, just hung out with my sister/brother-in-law and our nieces. My kids absolutely LOVE being with their cousins!!!

I did start a mini-book for my friend who just had a beautiful baby girl, but haven’t really done much with it because I want to have all of the pictures before I really dig into it ;). Here’s a preview though:

I used a Maya Road “house” mini & covered it with Fancy Pants’ “Baby Mine” patterned paper (and then filed/sanded the edges). I picked up the 6X6 paper pad, a few 12X12 pages, the buttons, cutout shapes and some pretty ribbon from Paper Niche a few weeks ago & have just been waiting for Mia’s arrival to get started. It is such a beautiful and fun little collection! Here’s a picture of baby Mia Grace:

Isn’t she just adorable?!? My friend Melissa is amazing! She gave birth to this “little” 9lb (!!) girl all natural at the Birth Center (which is where I had my 2 babies - the same way. Thankfully, they were in the 7lb range!!). She’s super-woman!

Anyway, that’s it for me this week, just wanted to stop in and say hi ;). I hope you have a great day and an amazing weekend friends!

Enjoy the Ride - Tripple Challenge!

2011-08-03T08:02:00.012-04:00

Yep, this is the 1st time I'm going to combine 3 awesome challenges with 1 card! I went home yesterday, really thinking happy thoughts. Thanks so much for the sweet comments yesterday. I haven't really wanted to share about my boss because I don't want to be a depressing bloggy ;). We actually had lunch with my boss' wife yesterday, because I'll be out of town tomorrow. MMM... Pesto Lasagna! She cooked and it was amazing! It's so nice to get together and to take a bit of time out during the crazy work day to just...be.

Ok, where was I... Happy Thoughts, that's right! So, I went home yesterday thinking uplifting happy thoughts and really wanted to make a card that reflected that. I'm trying to join challenges more regularly too, so I thought it'd be really fun to combine a few. I'm entering today's card into the Lawnscaping #15, Wee Memories #63, & CAS-ual Friday's #13 Challenges.

I think it's a perfect fit for all 3! Here is a look:

Here is a closer looksie for ya:

This card was really fun to make. I Had this idea of balloons carrying a bicycle away, and of course all of my Lawn Fawn Stamps could make that happen! I started by punching 6 plain white 2" circles, and then I applied {Worn Lipstick, Shabby Shutters, Tumbled Glass; Mustard Seed, Spiced Marmalade, and Dusty Concord} Distress Inks with my Ink Blending tool on my crafty mat. Once that was done, I stamped the balloons {using Lawn Fawn's Admit One Set} and paper pieced them and set them aside. Next I went to work on the bicycle.

Oh, this bike! You know when you have a real brainy idea and then it takes WAY more work than you had initially planned. Meet my bike!

So, I stamped it onto the plain white paper {Bristol Art paper} so I could color in the wheels with Copics {I used B100 for the wheels and BG00, & BG01 for the insides of the wheels}. I also stamped it onto 3 pieces of patterned paper (all patterned paper here is from a 6X6 Basic Grey "Lauderdale" pad) and paper pieced it so I could have the bike be two tones and a pretty basket. Can you say "fussy cutting" everyone?!?!?!?. This bike gave those words new meaning! Even after paper piecing the bile, I decided I needed to get out my exacto knife and cut further intricate detail. Then I ran my black (B100) Copic around the edges of the bike to make it pop and hide any white edges. I was mildly (er...) frustrated at the excessive OCD I was exhibiting here, but it paid off in the end. Plus I kinda thrive on stress, so it was ok, kinda good for my soul actually.

You can pretty much figure out the rest... I made the grass and distressed the edges using the Tim Holtz Distressing Tool and Distress Inks (more Shabby Shutters), stamped/paper pieced the clouds {using Lawn Fawn's Bon Voyage set} and the cute birdie {from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Forest set}. I stamped the sentiment onto white paper then Distress Inked the edges so it'd pop (using Tumbled Glass) and glued the bakers twine {from Divine Twine) to the balloons using Fabritac. The two top balloons are popped up using foamies. I finished the card off by using the Tumbled Glass Distress Ink around the whole thing.

I like it, when it was all said and done it really made me smile. I have to say, I really had a lot of fun with these challenges, and I found that I'm REALLY loving the 4X9 cards! They fit perfectly into a standard business envelope (which I have a lot of for some reason). Easy to mail = happy! So, what are you up to this week? I'm off to Orlando tomorrow, my sister-in-law and family are flying there from NYC & we're heading up to hang out and visit. Thanks for peeking at my card and I hope you have an amazing weekend (and rest of the week). XOXOXO

Sending Hugs - CASual (CFC) Fridays #13

2011-08-02T13:53:00.011-04:00

Hi there friends! I've been so crazy busy that I haven't had much time to craft lately. I am in the process of making a mini book for one of my besties who just had a sweet baby girl. I'll have to wait until I get pictures to share it though ;). Anyway, today I wanted to share the card I made for the Cas-ual Fridays CFC Challenge #13. I've been wanting to try a 4X9 card, so I was definitely up for the challenge!

I've been kind of disappointed in myself that I haven't participated in more challenges. I really want to, I've just been going through a lot personally. My boss actually passed away a few weeks ago and it's been really hard on us all at work. We've all been there a long time (11 years for me) and we're very much a family. We're together more than we are with our families. Anyway, it's just taken such a toll on my creative juices. I'm so sorry, I don't want to depress you too, here is my card (double click for a larger view):

I was inspired by something I saw online (using a bunch of punched vellum circles to make a cloud and colorful raindrops). I thought I had bookmarked it, but apparently I didn't :(. I was also thinking about the current Lawnscaping Challenge when I was creating this card. This challenge is all about distressing (but I am not entering this one over there).

Anyway, to create this card, I started with a 4X9 Neenah Kraft Cardstock base then I punched 2 different sizes of vellum circles (from scraps that I saved long ago) and crinkled/inked them up with Tumbled Glass Distress Ink. I adhered them using Glossy Accents and added "Prima's e." Gems to them. Then I used a Colorbox Catseye inkpad and my new My Cute Stamps' "Cheer Up" Stamp Set to make the rain. I actually cut apart the rain drops to make them easier to use. The inside of the card said "Sending Hugs" - one of the sentiments in Lawn Fawn's "On the Mend" set.
Here are some closer-ups:

I used the "..." and heart from the Just My Type Two Lawn Fawn Set to a fun little sentiment on the outside of the card. The cute Owl is Hero Arts - I love this owl. It's popped up with a foamie, and the Umbrella is from the $1 section at Michaels ;)

I made it for my boss' wife. I'll give it to her at his Memorial Service :(. She's so strong, but it's been really hard for her. I can't imagine loosing my husband, we've been together 16 years... they were together 50!! It must feel like part of you is gone too. We've been keeping her close - having "pot-luck lunches" every Thursday at our office, we've all been taking turns cooking and everyone brings stuff. It's been good for all of us! Anyway, thanks for listening to me go on and on today - and for thanks peeking at my card ;).

P.S. My friend Christy is having a Blog Candy giveaway!!

Go check her out. If you don't follow her already, you totally should!!! She's an amazing cardmaker, and so inspiring!!!

That's all for me. I hope you have a great day!!!

VBS here I come...

2011-07-25T13:41:00.012-04:00

Hi there crafty friends. I just wanted to letcha know that I don't think I'll be sharing many crafty projects on the blog this week. In fact, if I complete anything I will be amazed!! It's VBS (Vacation Bible School) time at our church this week. My hubbs & I are always super involved with that, and we're both set to teach classes (I'll have the 2-3 year olds this time - EEK!). So, my daughter will be in my class ;).

I work full-time Monday through Thursday from 8am to 6pm (as a legal assistant), and VBS is from 6pm-9pm everyday this week. I know I'll be seriously exhausted from all of the fun {singing, dancing, crafting(!!!), story time, snacks, bible lessons, etc) and probably will be too pooped to create much this week.

I will, however, be spending lots of time with these peeps:

Some of my favorite peeps, to be exact! I love our church. It's so nice to be involved. I love it that all of these kiddos have literally been together practically since conception. I love that bond they all share. I love that church on Sunday, Sunday School, Marines for God (their Sunday night program), and awesome stuff like VBS keeps them connected even though they all go to different schools. All of us moms rotate teaching Sunday School, and it's just a great family we all have there. I love that!

Who knows, I just may surprise myself and create something awesome this week, but I doubt it. I'll probably just be enjoying my most amazing creations;). These two amazing little people:

I'll still be visiting your blogs - I mean, a girl can't be expected to live without a little daily inspiration, after all!! I hope you all have an amazing week!! Get crafty for me, will ya!?!?!

Have a Whale of a Time!

2011-07-21T08:26:00.005-04:00

Hi there!! So, yesterday's post was not supposed to be posted onto MY blog, but the Paper Niche Blog {what.a.dork}. Thank you, though, for your sweet comments about the upcoming class!! I'm really excited about it because it incorporates lots of my favorite goodies {Lawn Fawn, Crate Paper, Rustic Twine} and cool techniques {handmade flowers and a pinwheel - which I LOVE!!}. So, thanks girls - for the love {even though I am totally a dork}.

Ok, back to today's post. I have a card to share :D. I actually made this card this weekend, and thought I'd enter it into the Card Patterns #123 but... I was late. Story of my life. But I really like how it came out - my 1st time using my new Lawn Fawn Critters in the Sea Stamps - they're SO fun!! So, here is a look anyway:

and here is a look from the top - a textury view ;).

I used October Afternoon's Seaside Collection for this one (I'm really loving & plowing through my 8X8 pad of this awesome paper!). I cut the "watery" paper in half along the waves & then popped up the bottom half. Then I paper pieced the cute sea critters and added googly eyes to them for fun! I also used the tiny clam shells as a banner {it says HI, but is kind of hard to make out) and attached them to Maraschino Twine using Tim Holtz's Tiny Attacher. When I finished the card, it just seemed to plain to me, so I added the Papertrey Ink buttons with some more of the twine (from The Twinery) wrapped through it. On the inside I paper pieced a banner (from Lawn Fawn's Bannerific) and stamped "have a whale of a time" on it (fit perfectly) and tied on some twine bows. Unfortunately, the picture did not come out nicely, but very blurry every time I took it.

I think it's a fun card ;). Would be perfect to send to my sweet nieces up in NYC. Anyway, that's about it for me. I hope you have a great day!!!

August Card Class with Heather!!

2011-07-20T17:50:00.007-04:00

Hi there everyone! Hope you're having an awesome week so far! I just wanted to share the info on my next card class {again}: "Flowers, and Stamps, and Pinwheels...OH MY"!!

This is one of my personal favorite classes yet! We will have a blast creating 4 beautifully fun cards! Not only will we be stamping using Lawn Fawn’s Sophie’s Sentiments and Bannerific Stamp Sets, but, we will also be making 3 handmade flowers and a pinwheel (squeel!!!) out of... you guessed it - PAPER - Crate Paper's beautiful Emma's Shop Collection to be exact!!! These are techniques you can carry over into your future card AND scrapbooking projects. They are so fun and addicting to make, that once you get started, you wont want to stop!!!!

Tools Needed:
Basic Kit, including Paper Trimmer, Tape Runner, Edge Distresser {such as Tim Holtz’s Distresser), Fine Point Scissors, Small Glue Dots, & Wet Glue {such as Glossy Accents or Fabritac}.

The class is on Friday, August 19th from 3:00-5:00 p.m. and the cost is $20.00. I really hope to see you there!!!

Happy Birthday - Wee Memories #62

2011-07-19T08:36:00.009-04:00

Hi again! Happy Tuesday. I couldn't wait to get home yesterday to try out my new stamps that arrived this weekend {woo hoo}. I've been admiring all of the pretty projects I've seen using Paper Smooches Stamps, and finally took the plunge and ordered myself the Sentiment Sampler and Boob Tubes. I love the fun fonts & cute/fun images & they were a blast to play with!

I had it in my mind that I was going home to make a card for the Wee Memories #62 Challenge:

and so, that's what I did ;). Here is a look at my card:

I started with a Neenah Kraft card base - which is my fave for cards. {The patterned paper is all from October Afternoon's Sea Side Collection - which I LOVE - it is a perfect set for masculine cards too!!!}. I stamped one of the Boob Tubes onto 3 different patterned papers & then paper pieced them, then also stamped them onto the {Neenah} Kraft Cardstock. Next I cut out the TV screnes & stamped them with the sentiments "Happy Birthday Dad" - the Happy Birthday was from the Sentiment Sampler set & "dad" came with the Boob Tubes set - but they were the exact same font which ROCKED!!! Next I inked up the edges of the tv screne pieces with Weathered Wood Distress Ink (mainly because I cut them out all wonky & needed some type of remedy - but also because I thought it's look really cool!!). I really like how that looks, gives it a little something extra ;).

So, I had a lot of fun with this one. Clean & Simple seems like it should be so easy, but I found it to be kind of a challenge - but I have to admit, it was a seriously fun one!

I'm loving the Paper Smooches Stamps too - amazing quality and such fun designs! I will absolutely be ordering more stamps from them! The sets I have my eyes on in the immediate future are: Sugar Rush, Surf and Turf, Swanky Snowdudes! Guess I better start saving my pennys ;). Anyway, thanks for peeking at my card, I hope you have an awesome day!!

Hang in There - Lawnscaping #14 - Stamp a Scene!!

2011-07-18T09:31:00.011-04:00

Hi there crafty friends!! Hope you've had a great weekend! Mine was nice. Had a date day with the hubbs yesterday - which was really nice. So overdue! It's so funny, I was working on a few cards this weekend and then much to my suprise realized that one of them works perfectly (I think) for the Lawnscaping #14 Challenge:

What a fun challenge!!!

I really love the Lawnscaping Challenges!! First of all, the DT members are amazing - so much inspiration with every single challenge!!! This week I was so impressed with Christy's card, especially - WOW. But all of the girls came up with really amazing cards, you should totally go check them out!!!! I can't wait to see what everyone else comes up with for this one - are you playing along?? You totally should. As always they have a fabulous prize up for grabs!! Here is a look at my card:

and a closer looksie:

I made it for one of the attorneys I work for. Things have been so crazy for us at work, with my boss being sick and all. He is not only an attorney in my office, but is also my bosses nephew, which only makes it harder for him. Tough on the business end & personally. I've just been feeling so bad for him. I can see that it's having a real effect on him.

I came home from work just really feeling for him & thinking "hang in there. hang in there..." I created this little scene in my head and just HAD to ruch home & get to creating this for him right away!

All of the paper is from a 6x6 pad of Crate Paper's Portrait collection (very masculine if you need it to be). I stamped and paper pieced a few of the trees from Lawn Fawn's Critters in the Burbs set and tied a piece of The Twinery's twine between them to make a "tight rope". Next I stamped one of the smaller umbrellas from Lawn Fawn's Partly cloudy set directly onto the patterned paper using red ink. The owl is actually by Hampton Art, he was originally holding a {heart} balloon, but I just cut that piece off and stamped him using {brown} Archival ink and heat embossed him using clear {American Crafts} embossing powder and paper pieced him onto the card. Finally, I made a grassy/hilly area and fringed it up using my Martha Stewart scissors.

I used Lawn Fawn's Jessie's ABCs on the inside of the card to stamp the sentiment "Hang in There" and left it on his desk for him ;). Hopefully it made him smile. I am really happy with it! I love that I used the Crate Paper for everything - I love that paper! Anyway, I hope you have an amazing day!! Thanks for peeking at my card :D!

August Card Class at Paper Niche!!

2011-07-13T08:33:00.006-04:00

Happy Wednesday!

I just wanted to share pics of my upcoming class at Paper Niche!!! It will be on Friday, August 19th from 3-5pm!!
“Flowers, and Stamps, and Pinwheels... OH MY!”
The cost will be $20.00...

In this class we will have a blast creating 4 beautifully fun cards! Not only will we be stamping using Lawn Fawn’s Sophie’s Sentiments and Bannerific Stamp Sets, but, we will also be making 3 handmade flowers and a pinwheel out of... you guessed it - PAPER!! These are techniques you can carry over into your future card AND scrapbooking projects. They are so fun and addicting to make, that once you get started, you wont want to stop!!!!

Tools Needed:
Basic Kit, including Paper Trimmer, Tape Runner, Edge Distresser {such as Tim Holtz’s Distresser), Fine Point Scissors, Small Glue Dots, & Wet Glue {such as Glossy Accents or Fabritac.

Here are close ups of each individual card:

Ca-ute huh?!?!? I used Crate Paper's "Emma's Shop" and Lawn Fawn's Bannerific and Sophie's Sentiments Stamps and, honestly, I'm SO happy with how they came out!!! I had a class at Paper Niche this past weekend - with 5 students - and it was awesome!!! I feel really happy to be given the opportunity to tech there and I'm so grateful for all of the support and help all of the girls over at paper Niche have given me!!! They've been great. Reall encouraging and petient with me. That means a lot.

Anyway, that's it for me today. Thanks for peeking. I hope your day is great!

Lawnscaping #13 - Don't Forget the Inside/Moxie Fab's Stamp it Challenge

2011-07-12T08:13:00.013-04:00

Hi there! So hopefully your day is going good so far. Today I wanted to share my card with you for the Lawnscaping #13 Challenge:
and Moxie Fab - Stamp It Challenge:

I just picked up this issue of Papercraft's Stamp it & LOVE IT!!! So excited to see projects from some of my favorite papercrafters/cardmakers!!! I thought this'd be a good challenge combe because I could combine some of my fave things - Lawn Fawn, Stamping, and... paper piecing.

As for Lawnscaping, the DT projects were so utterly amazing!! Check out the Lawnscaping Blog - also, check out Lynnette’s card HERE - amazing right?!? Then as I browse around my friends’ blogs I see THIS card by Chari!!! Holy cow - she killed it!!!!!!!!

Here is a look at the outside of my card:

and the inside:

I went for paper pieced flowers ;).

The patterned paper is all My Minds Eye's Stella & Rose - love that 6X6 paper pack!! Beautiful patterns! And I used plenty of Lawn Fawn Stamps ;) {Say Cheese, Hello Friend, Critters in the Forest, Petite Florals, and Sophie's Sentiments}. I HAD to add in some Marichino Bakers Twine from The Twinery and a Papertrey Ink Button for extra fun!

I'm working on another submission - a pop-up card. I just really haven't done much more than the Stamping/Copic coloring. Let's see if I finish it before the deadline...

Anyway, I hope your day is amazing!!

"Hi" Wee Memories #61

2011-07-07T17:35:00.009-04:00

Hi friends. I wanted to share a card I made, that I think is perfect for Wee Memories' #61 Challenge

Here is a look at my card:

I found this 8 1/2 X 11 "pad" of clear "paper" at Michaels a month ago & have really been itching to give it a try for cards. I think it's such a fun concept. So, I started by cutting a page in half to make a 5 1/2 X 4 1/4 card. Next I covered the inside page of the card with a fun blue background - for the sky (all patterned paper here is October Afternoon's "Thrift Shop". Then I cut a yellow strip which I glued to the front/outside of the card. Next I stamped & paper pieced a few images from Lawn Fawn's Bon Voyage Stamp Set and the banner & sentiment from the Crusing Through Life With You set and adhered that with bakers twine. I popped up some of the clouds, the airplane and the banner with foamies for fun.

I really like how it came out. I think it's super fun. Thanks for peeking!

July Kit Reveal - Wedding Photos...Scrapped!

2011-07-06T08:27:00.005-04:00

Hello there. Hope everyone’s week is going well so far. Mine has been very “Meh” to say the least. My weekend was nice. Lots of family time. Which is always nice.

I just wanted to stop in and share the layouts that I created with Paper Niche’s July Kit! Gine was right when she said that this kit has to be one of the absolute best so far! It included my {new} favorite Fancy Pants collection “It’s the Little Things”!! I just love that line!!! Here's a look at the kit:

I’ve been splitting up the LOs each month to tease you, but I’m just going to go ahead and give them all to you at once this time around. I don’t have the mental energy to put too much into it:

So there you have it. As you can see, I was majorly inspired to scrapbook my wedding photos - this collection is MADE for wedding pics, in my opinion!!!

I have all of our professional wedding photos still in the fancy-shmancy book they came in almost 11 years ago. I look at them every so often, and I keep thinking how I’m really doing them a disservice by not scrapping them. But then I think of how many kiddo photos I have to scrap - seems like they accumulate on a daily basis {Oh! That’s because they do!}. I mean SO SO SO many. They’ve taken over! I really wanted to take the time out this month and honor my wedding pictures. Such a happy time for me & Sal.

We we’re highschool sweethearts, me & this boy. We met when I was in 9th & he was in 10th - at the end of the year. Not at school, but at the movie theater where he worked at the time. After we met, we’d realized that we literally passed each other every single day on our way to almost all of our classes. It’s funny how that works. I don’t believe in love at 1st sight. Maybe “like” at 1st sight. But sometimes things are funny like that. Fate. I believe in fate, I guess.

We were young. We had our share of break ups/make ups along the way, like any good, young, couple. Just over young stupidity and immaturity, I guess. But that last time, I was a senior - he had already graduated. I think I started to like someone else - which was really dumb. Anyway, I realized what I was missing and he stopped taking me for granted. We got back together after about 2-3 weeks. Both of us realized that we were in absolute REAL-REAL love and that if we wanted to stay together, we’d have to stick out the “tough times” together.

We were made for each other, as cliche as that sounds. It’s true. We compliment each other really well. We just work. We’re a great parenting team - we have each others’ backs. I’m really blessed. I love him with my whole heart, and the day we got married I just knew I was the luckiest girl around. We just celebrated our 10 year wedding anniversary. Been together 16 years this past June. I really should’ve taken the time to scrap these pics earlier. Anyway... wow, you just got a wholelotta my history and I didn’t plan on that one!

I’m tempted to delete all of this - except for the pictures - but I wont. You are my friends, after all ;). Hope your day is awesome. So far, mine was so-so {at best} but I’ve now got a huge smile on my face, just thinking about this boy.

Upcoming Card Class at Paper Niche - Girls Just Wanna Be Sew Lovely!!

2011-07-05T17:12:00.004-04:00

Hi creative girls!! It's just wanted to let you know my card class is this Saturday, July 9th from 2:30-4:30 p.m. If you're a local I'd love for you to join me ;).

The Cost is $20.00 and you will be making 4 lovely, girly cards that you will be so proud to gift upon your besties or any other special ladies in your life. Two are Birthday cards, and the other two are Thinking of You cards. We will be playing with some of Lawn Fawn's Finest Stamps: Bake Me a Cake, Sew Lovely, Saw Cheese, and Sophie's Sentiments. We will be stamping and paper piecing, inking with Distress Inks, Border Punching, and just having some good, clean stampy fun!!!

Items needed to bring to the class:
Basic tool kit including paper trimmer; precise scissors; foam adhesive; rolling adhesive; liquid glue - such as Glossy Accents, Helmar's 450, or Fabritac; black {stamping} ink - such as Versamark, Archival or Momento; Distress Inks {Spun Sugar and Weathered Wood}; and ink blending tool.

Remember:

Please click HERE if you'd like to take it!!

Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop - Stamper Keeper Tutorial

2011-06-30T23:00:00.023-04:00

Hi there! I’m so happy you’re joining me for the Young Crafters Unite Blog Hop!! You should be hopping over from Vicky Papaioannou's blog. If you get lost somewhere along the way, you can always start fresh over HERE or on Marie's Blog ;).

I’m really excited to participate in this hop! I admire so many of the girls involved and also am excited to make new crafty friends! I think what makes me a young crafter is the fact that I love creating things that make people smile. Whether it’s a card or mini book for a family member or friend; or a scrapbook page for my family’s scrap book. My kids and hubby love looking at every project I make. They love feeling the textures, and hearing the stories behind what I’m doing. That really makes me happy. I also love the crafting community. We all share our ideas and leave each other comments - it’s really uplifting and empowering. Such a positive atmosphere!

Today I wanted to share something that really combines a FEW of my favorite crafty things! They are:
*Lawn Fawn Stamps
*Crate Paper
and *Scrapbooking/Making Mini-Books.

Ok, before I share today’s project, first take a look at this project I made HERE. I made that mini book last year to keep my Lawn Fawn Stamps in, at that time I only had about 6-7 sets. Lawn Fawn is, by far, my absolute fave company for stamps {really, my other stamps are seriously jealous!} and I use them so much that taking them in and out of the packaging seemed... well, tedious and unnecessary. So I made that mini-book that was a combo of chipboard/clear acrylic pages and it has been home to my Lawn Fawn Stamps for a good year now. As my Lawn Fawn collection has grown, I needed a new - more functional - home for them. Which brings me to today’s project.

So, I saw THIS tutorial over on the Crate Paper Blog last week and was so inspired that I wanted to give it a try. I knew something like that would be a perfect new home for my Lawn Fawn Lovelies. The problem was that I couldn’t find the binder-ring-insert-thingy anywhere! I looked at Michaels, Joanne Fabrics & even Office Depot. No luck! I decided to buy a {Wilson-Jones} recyclable binder - already assembled - and it was Craft...bonus! Here is a before picture:

I started off by removing the binder clip, because I really thought it would be more functional on the back page of the binder as opposed to in the middle. With so many pages, it just makes everything more “movable”. So, I unscrewed the binder-ring-insert-thingy then used it as a template on the back page of the binder to make the holes. I had to use my Making Memories eyelet setting tool because my Crop-a-Dile just wouldn’t work because of sizing issues:

Then got out {of my stash} the pretty “Emma’s Shop” Collection by Crate Paper’s and went to town measuring and cutting. I loved that the binder came in Craft, and I really wanted to still see that when all was said and done, so I kept that in mind when measuring.
{The measurements for the sides (inside & outside) are 11 ½ x 9 3/4 and the middle is 11 ½ x 1 3/4}:

Then I went to town with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink on all of edges of all of the papers - so they would POP and be extra pretty ;):

I glued all of the patterned paper down with Glossy Accents - wanted them to REALLLLLY stick! NOTE: It is really important to glue one side of the binder down, then set the holes into the paper (using the binder).... then glue down the other side and do the same. That way you know where your holes should be. Then I added the binder rings. This was super easy to do, because the rings were attached with screws. I even used a Swiss Army knife because it was close at hand - hee hee.

Next I added a little pocket (SMASH by K&Co) to the back page of the book to keep my Lawn Fawn Year One Catalog and the empty packaging from my stamps in - so I can see the actual stamp sets if need be - and a pretty Metal Tag to the front of the book.

I used clear acrylic 12x12 pages and cut them down to 8 ½ x 11 just using my paper trimmer - worked like a charm. Then I used the Crop-a-Dile to chomp holes into the acrylic (the Crop-a-Dile cut through the acrylic like butter - seriously!!) and set large eyelets to make them move easier throughout the book. While I was at Office Depot I also picked up some {pink} clear tabbed page separators - and I’m so glad I did. I originally thought I’d cover them with pretty paper too, but I decided to leave them plain. They really keep the stamps attached to the acrylic better {and dust free} and you can see through them, which is seriously convenient.

See, nice & see through. I decorated the outside cover last. With some of the Emma’s Shop Letter & Chipboard Stickers. I really love how it came out. I love Crate Paper so much! The texture of the paper is so lush and the colors are both bold and soft in each collection - fabulous stuff. I’m so happy that my Lawn Fawn’s have a new more practical home - with room to grow! So there you have it! One more peek:

EEK, I love it! AND it fits right in on my new crafty hutch!

I hope you’ve enjoyed peeking at my project. I know some of my pics were a bit wonky - sorry about that (cell phone pics). Anyway, one of my favorite things about blogging is seeing cool ideas/techniques {like the book I saw on the Crate paper blog} and making them your own! I hope I’ve inspired you a little bit today. Next on the hop is Jess Larsen's blog.

Remember, you’ll want to try to comment on everyone’s blog in the hop to be entered to win some fabulous prizes!!! The more comments, the more chances for you to win! There are fabulous sponsors such as Simon Says Stamp, Denami Design, and Paper Smooches. How exciting! Personally, I can’t wait to give Paper Smooches Stamps a try - they are entirely too cute!!!

Also, if you like what you see, you may want to follow our blogs as well. Then we’ll come over and visit your blog too!!! It’s a happy cycle :D. I hope you have an amazing day and have fun hopping!!! A big THANK YOU to Britta & Marie for getting this hop together!! They are two creative ladies to watch!!

Now THAT'S an antique roadshow!

2011-06-30T10:20:00.008-04:00

Hi there. Today I wanted to share a layout that I’ve actually been dying to create since I picked up Lawn Fawn’s Admit One Stamp set a week ago!

These pictures were from the weekend before Easter, this year. My sis-in-law and niece were down from New York. Before she came she investigated online for some things to do with the kids while she was here. I never knew our city (Hollywood) had an annual Marshmallow Drop and Easter egg hunt, so we decided it’d be fun to check it out. Turns out it was the rainiest day of the year, so far, and rained most of the day, but you know that NEVER spoils kids’ fun! Luckily it stopped raining just long enough in the end for the kids to do their egg hunts ;).

Anyway, they had bounce houses and this really cool antique traveling carnival ride, which my son absolutely LOVED!!! He rode it a minimum of 6 times - maybe more. It was 6 or 7 little cards on a pulley in the back of this gated truck. Pulled the kids around and when it got to the curve/turn - whatever - it swung them around really fast. Fun!

Some Additional views:

So obviously the Admit One Stamps were a perfect fit for this LO. I stamped them onto Bristol art paper and colored them in with Copics.

Then added a pretty vintagey crystal brad to the center of the Ferris wheel (I really like these brads!). Next I trimmed the pictures of him inside the ride to 2 & ½ by 2 & ½ and added them to the Polaroid from Lawn Fawn’s Say Cheese Stamps. The tacks are from the Just My Type set (got that idea from the inspirational Kelly Marie!) - I tacked them into the Polaroids by 1st poking a hole with the Tim Holtz Paper Piercer and then slipping the tack into the hole - worked like a charm. Finally I stamped a few of the tickets (also from Admit One) and added a sentiment from Say Cheese Too to one of the Polaroids.
***
The title from the LO was in my head from the very second that I took the pictures. Very Punny ;). I used Basic Grey’s Oliver collection (patterned paper and letter stickers) and traced around the letter stickers with two different Copic Multiliners (I wanted the “THAT’s” and “ANTIQUE ROADSHOW” to really stand out). Then I journaled around the page... for fun with the thicker (0.5) Multiliner. I really love LOVE love how the LO came out! My son loves it too - when I showed it to him this morning, he said “COOL!!! Mom. That was the best ride ever!”.

Anyway, so that’s today’s post. I hope your day is great. Can’t wait for the Blog Hop tomorrow. I’m excited to see what everyone comes up with - and make some new friends! Hope you have a great day!!!

Happy Birthday! - Wee Memories #60 Entry #2

2011-06-29T08:12:00.015-04:00

Happy Wednesday everyone! Well, I think I've finally (for now) moved past my creative funk. I've been playing with my new Lawn Fawn stamps all this week and having tons of fun!

I made this card last night:

I popped up the balloons with American Crafts' foamies for dimension and, well, fun!

and thought it'd actually be a good entry (my 2nd) for the Wee Memories #60 challenge, which is still open ;).
I used Lawn Fawn's Admit One Stamps for the paper-pieced Balloons, then Sophie's Sentiments, & Bannerific for the Happy Birthday banner. All of this cool paper is from a 6x6 pad of Basic Grey's Lauderdale which I won off Kathy's The Daily Marker Blog a few weeks ago - THANK YOU KATHY!!! The bakers twine is by Divine Twine ;).

The colors are so bright and fun, perfect for a birthday! Well, that's all folks! I hope the rest of your week is amazing! I'm super excited for the Young Crafters Unite Blog Hope scheduled for Friday!!!
I'm participating - my 1st blog hop - YAY!!! It starts this Friday HERE. I have a super cool (if I say so myself) project to share, with a tutorial ;). I'm super excited about it, and I can't wait to hop along too!!! I've seen the line-up of fabulous girls participating & I can't wait to see what everyone has up their sleeves.

Until next time my friends!

My Sneaky Peeks from Paper Niche's July Kit!

2011-06-28T09:43:00.005-04:00

Hi there! I hope your day is off to a good start. Today I’m super excited to share my sneaky peeks from Paper Niche's July Kit! Hint-hint: I was very inspired by weddings this time around, I haven't scrapped my {professional} wedding photos yet, so I took the oppertunity with this kit to get started! I can't wait to share the full reveals :D. Here are my sneaky peeks:

Well that's it for me today! I hope you have a great day!

Some 411, Wee Memories #60 & Lawnscaping #12 Challenge Entries!

2011-06-27T08:36:00.014-04:00

Hi there! Oh yay, another Monday. That's me trying to be positive ;). Every Monday is kind of filled with uncertainty lately. I haven't shared this on the blog yet, but my boss is really sick. He has colon cancer that spread to his liver. He was diagnosed about 2 and a half years ago, and was told, about 6 weeks ago, to just enjoy his final days :(. Yea, BIG sad face! We're all in a sort of depressive state at work ever since we got the news. We've all been here a long time (my mom 14 years, me 11, and the other legal assistant Kathy has been here 6. Not to mention the other lawyer here is his nephew.) We are definitely a family. We all just feel kind of lost. Mondays seem to be the hardest, because we spend the entire weekend praying & hoping but have no clue whether he made it through. I'm looking forward to calling him and hearing his voice today. He's been so strong. True courage! Never complaining through surgeries, tests, round after round of Chemo! Never complained - ever! Please, please keep him in prayer. His name is Jim and his wife is Linda. They could both really use the prayers right about now.

Needless to say, I've been really creatively blocked for a few weeks now. I've done the projects I've HAD to do (my mother-in-law's b-day gift, my class projects & DT work) but not much creating for "fun". I've been feeling really sad about it too. I knew that if I could just get creative I would feel better - I really, truly believe that creativity heals in ways no one can explain. I know it does for me.

This weekend I decided to "fake it till I make it" in a way. I figured that if I tried to get crafty, at some point maybe it'd burst out of me. I'm so happy I did. When I just tried a little, I found that my creativity was right there waiting for me... right where I left it. And I did a lot! I completed my July DT Kit for Paper Niche, made 2 cards, a mini book, and my project for the Blog Hop I'm participating in on Friday! I feel like it really helped! Relieved some stress, and helped me get "happy thoughts" on the brain.

Today I wanted to share a Happy Birthday card I made to enter into both the Lawnscaping #12 {sketch} Challenge and Wee Memories' #60 {birthday} Challenge.

So, I just had a mini shopping spree - old bad habits, but I think I "needed" it! I picked up 3 Lawn Fawn Sets, "Admit One, Cruising Through Life, and Bon Voyage"...not to mention my mom just bought me "Critters in the Forest"!! So, I really was dying to use them - and thought the Admit One set worked perfect for both of these challenges! Here is a look at my card:

I just love the ferris wheel, so that was my jumping off point, well technically, the sketch/birthday theme was the jumping off point, but you get the idea ;). I stamped it onto Bristol art paper, then used sticky masking paper to cover it up and distress inked the sky using Tumbled Glass. For the grass and ferris wheel, I used a Copics. This paper is Fancy Pants' "It's the Little Things". I loved the tickets! I went around the edges with Worn Lipstick Distress Ink - super cute! I finished it off with a Making Memories Brad and some Bakers Twine from The Twinery. Oh! and a "Happy Birthday" stamparoo on the inside of the card. Fun!

It got me out of my funk! I'll have more to share this week. Tomorrow I'll be sharing sneaky peeks of the July kit for Paper Niche - see ya then.

I hope you have a great day, my friends!

Gifted Mini-Book

2011-06-21T10:39:00.009-04:00

Good morning all! What a week, and it’s what...Tuesday?!? Trying times. Anyway, so, last week we celebrated my mother-in-law’s birthday and I wanted to share the pretty mini-book I made for her.

She had been asking for a tea-pot mini like this one I made about a year back. I actually got that book at Michaels in the dollar section & have never been able to find it again :(. Sad too because I REALLY liked it! Anyway, I was super excited to see one similar (better, even - but not $1.00) in Paper Niche a few weeks ago. Hooray for Maya Road!!!

As you can see, I covered and embellished it with Cosmo Cricut’s Togetherness Collection. Such fun, bright colors.

I really like how it came out. I was in such a rush and wondered, a few times whether or not I’d get it completed. Thank God I did :D.

So that’s it for me today. I hope you have an amazing day!!

Mini-Book from Paper Niche's June Kit

2011-06-15T17:34:00.010-04:00

Happy Wednesday! Hope your week is going good so far. Today I wanted to share a mini-book I made using Paper Niche's June Kit. It's actually for my grandma, she was down visiting back in May of last year, and we went to the Palm Beach Zoo. I had all of these great pictures from that trip and the Daily Junque papers, and pretty embellishments just reminded me of her. I thought it'd be a nice little surprise for her.

I started off with a Maya Road mini chipboard book and painted all of the edges with Tim Holt's Crackle Paint in Barn Door. Then I went to town cutting pictures, and papers... adding the pretty embellies, and ribbons included in the kit. Here is a look at the rest of the pages:

And this is the back cover:

I really love how it came out. I think she'll really be happy to get it. I know I would love some happy mail like this ;). I hope you have a wonderful day, my friends!!

Well, hello again...

2011-06-14T10:48:00.007-04:00

I'm back today with more projects from Paper Niche's June kit. I have to say, back when it was CHA time, one of the collections that I was most excited about was the collaboration between Pink Paisley/House of 3 called “Daily Junque”!!! Seeing all of those amazing papers, stamps, and embellishments - and the projects being made me wild with excitement to play with them.

How absolutely happy was I to see a bunch of Daily Junque goodies in the June kit... um, a lot! The colors - oh, the colors. Amazing! And the patterned paper is begging - BEGGING I tell you for layering! I has lot of fun with this! I made a mini book for my grandma {will share that another day} that took up quite a bit of product, so I was basically working with scraps for the layouts I wanted to create. Here is the 1st one:

As you can see, these pictures were taken with my cell phone and a lot of them are crazy blurry, but I HAD to scrap them. This was such a fun night with my kiddos. They were so darn silly, and actually getting along - which is SUCH a plus. Here are some closer-ups of the individual pages:

This layout is trying SO darn hard to be my favorite from this kit!

My sweet utterly adorable Alivia Grace. I took it right after I made her first full ponytail. She was so happy {not about the brushing - she hated THAT part - but about having a pony like mommy}.

For this LO I was in total scrap-mode. Running out of supplies and totally using that to my advantage ;). I love LOVE that tissue flower! I really wanted to messily stitch the tissue on as a background. My mom had borrowed my sewing machine the previous weekend to use for a project with the girl scouts and it was already threaded with navy blue thread - which was perfect!

Anyway, that’s what I have for ya today. Thanks for looking. I hope you have a great Tuesday!

It’s Paper Niche June Kit Reveal Time...

2011-06-13T11:28:00.005-04:00

Hello friends! Hope you had a great weekend. Mine was awesome!

On Saturday, my son had his 1st little sleep over (and I’m still tired...) which was a really big deal for him. A little boy from down the street. They’re both 6 years old, and have a lot of fun together. It went off without a hitch - great fun. Also, it was my Sunday to teach Sunday School this week (actually, I’ve been covering for other for the last 2 weeks, so this was actually my 3rd week in a row teaching). I was a little burnt out, so I had this idea to do a bible based Scavenger Hunt! I wish I had taken pictures - it was really fun! I got it from here - and cut it down to about 10 things. Some things I bought (plastic animals, styrofoam glittery stars, and foam flip flops) and the rest of the items (besides “coins”... for that I used pennies) I cut out with the Cricut. I highly recommend it for a Sunday School Class, or VBS... something bible based. It would even be fun for a birthday party!

Anywho! Today I wanted to share a few goodies that I made using Paper Niche’s June kit!!!
I was actually in luck, because I had JUST printed pictures from when my sister-in-law visited from NYC in April. Every time she visits, we head over to Boynton Beach (about 45 mins away from us) to visit her sister-in-law who lives - literally - on the beach! The kids always have a blast!

aaaand here is a closer look at the individual pages:

This next LO is of my silly son.

How did he learn how to do that?!? I’ve been “trying” forever! Anyway, as you can see, I’m loving making my own banners from scraps!! Both of these LOs feature Fancy Pants’ “Beach Bum” patterned paper - which is just way too much fun - and were (I think) perfect for both layouts!

That’s it for me today. I hope you’re having an awesome day.

Lawnscaping 11 entry #2 & Upcoming Lawn Fawn Card Class @ Paper Niche...

2011-06-08T09:08:00.017-04:00

Hi-llo peoples. Happy Wednesday! How has your week been so far? Good I hope ;). I’m taking tomorrow off work because it’s the last day of school & the kids have a ½ day (what’s with all the stinkin’ ½ days anyway?!?!?). Just makes sense to make it a vacation day sorta day... We’re going to see Kung Fu Panda 2 after they get out - which should be fun. I'll have a 4 day weekend and hopefully I'll be doing lots of crafting in between the family goodness!!

Anyway, I wanted to share the rest of the cards for my upcoming {July} class at Paper Niche. We will be making 4 cards total using some of my favorite Lawn Fawn Stamps - Bake me a Cake, Sew Lovely, and Sophie’s Sentiments. The patterned paper I chose for all of the cards was Melissa Frances - which is absolutely beautiful!! I think it really compliments these stamps so much! I embellished the cards with House of 3 Tickets, Jenni Bowlin Buttons, May Arts Ribbons, and Pebbles’ Spiral Clips. Oh (!!) And can’t forget lots of {Spun Sugar & Weathered Wood} Distress Inks ;). Lots of fun paper piecing and inking. Fun Stuff.

So, I shared one of the cards from the class on Monday. Here are the rest of my class samples:

I want to enter this card as my second entry into the Lawnscaping #11 Challenge

I think it really goes with the challenge. Nice and simple, but really pretty and elegant.

I honestly love how all of these cards came out. The colors are amazing & I always have so much fun when I'm stamping!! Well, that's it for me today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!

Lawnscaping #11/WeeMemories #59/Moxie Fab Challenge Trio

2011-06-06T09:30:00.013-04:00

Good morning all!! Hope your weekend was good. Mine was nice. Had lots of fun family time, and I loved the MTV Movie Awards last night ;). I'm SO not up with MTV now-a-days... can't keep up with the Jersey Shore & 16 & Pregnant stuff... just not the MTV I used to like. But I have to say, I do still like the awards show. YAY Twilight! I took a LONG time to get onto that bandwagon, but I'm a Twihard now ;). Still feel a little embarrased to say that, but it's ok. {Admitting you have a problem is the 1st step}

Today I wanted share a card I made to enter into the Lawnscaping #11 and the Wee Memories #59 Challenges. I do so love both of these challenge blog so much!!! If you don't already you should really check them out & play along too. There is SO much inspiration going on at those two blogs!!

EEP! I almost forgot, my inspiration for this card (and a few others for my class) came from the Moxie Fab “Sew Excited” Challenge!! Can’t forget to mention THAT!
and now here is a look at my card:

and:

So, this card is one of 4 I made for my July class at Paper Niche!! {I’m super excited about that - and will share the rest later on in the week} I had fun working on all of the samples this weekend :D.

Both the patterned paper & the cutesie little “pocket” slot is by Melissa Frances. It’s funny because I never really pick up that type of paper when I see it in the stores - I mean, it’s absolutely beautiful (!!!) but I tend to go for other patterns & brighter colors when I’m shopping... I have to say, I am SO happy I picked these up!!! I love LOVE love how beautifully they go with Lawn Fawn’s Sew Lovely set - and polka dots are too fun!!!!!

I covered both the card and the little tag pocket with patterned paper, and then I inked all of the edges with Weathered Wood & Spun Sugar distress inks - pretty huh?!? I finished it off with a bit of May Arts ribbon and a Jenni Bowlin Button. I love the pull out tag - “sew” fun huh ;). Hahahaha... sorry, couldn’t resist.

Well that’s my share for today. I may enter another card to these challenges as well... Don’t really know yet. I just finished one that I’m so super proud of... but not quite ready to share it just yet, so we’ll see. I hope you have an amazing day!

Upcoming class at Paper Niche!!!

2011-06-01T09:50:00.021-04:00

Hi guys! I wanted to stop in today and mention that I have another class coming up at the Paper Niche!! It’s on Friday, June 17th from 4-6pm. The cost is $22.00 for a 2 page layout that is absolutely FILLED with fun techniques!!!! I’d love to see any of my local friends there :):):):):):).
Here are the details:
"PICTURES IN TIME”
{Double-click for a closer view}

Here are some single page views... closer looks:

When signing up for the class, you will specify whether you want to complete a boyish or girlish themed layout. The masculine layout features American Crafts’ Campy Trails collection, and the feminine layout Pebbles’ Everafter collection. Two really fun lines to play around with!! As you can see, my samples are of both of my children’s first year of their lives... month by month. I had the pictures (thank God for digital right!?!?!) and it was fun for me to do, however, this is absolutely not a must!!! Both of these layouts work for so many different themes. Both would work great for your favorite boy or girl’s yearly class photo. You just add the picture every year - the LO holds 13 pictures... K-12th grade ;). Super fun!! They both also would be perfect for your favorite pet, grandbabies, camping, slumber party, birthdays... etc.

Techniques, did I mention techniques??? Yes I did!! This class is absolutely FILLED with fun and creative goodness!! First of all, for you girls who love stamping - and want to start incorporating that into your scrapbooking - this is the {perfect} class for you! It features my favorite stamp company, Lawn Fawn Stamps (Say Cheese and Say Cheese Too)!!! There will be: stamping, paper piecing, distress inking, misting, masking, using punches in various ways, making handmade flowers from paper, and altering gem colors using Copics. It also combines some awesome products (Lawn Fawn Stamps, American Crafts & Pebbles patterned paper, Prima Flowers, Zva Gems, Distress Inks, Mist...sigh) So that’s it. I hope you will join me :D.

IF YOU'D LIKE TO BE THERE...CLICK HERE!!!:

Oh! Before I forget, when you come to the class, any scrapbooking supplies you purchase {then} are 20% off!!! Woot Woot!!! So, come to my class, then shop till you drop ;).
That's all for me today. A little shameless plug ;).

CFC4 Challenge - ConGRADulations

2011-05-31T10:32:00.007-04:00

Hello again! I’m back because I wanted to post this today as well!

I really wanted to participate in the CAS-ual Friday’s Challenges, last week but I posted a day late - what a nerd - I missed out on the challenge. I didn’t want to miss it this week. CAS-ual Fridays Challenge #4 here I come ;). The theme for this week was:

And here is a look at my card:

When I saw that the challenge this time was Graduation, I was totally wishing that I had Lawn Fawn’s “Hats off to you” Stamps :(, but I don’t. I did, however, just pick up this awesome Bo Bunny star mini stamp set from Paper Niche this weekend, and thought it’s be perfect. I paper pieced the star and popped it up with foamies for fun. The paper is Fancy Pants’ Beach Bum line. I used Lawn Fawn’s Harold’s ABCs and Bannerific to create the banner/sentiment. Thought it was fun. Here is a look at the inside of the card:

I played off the card for the “you’re a star” sentiment, and the flourish is also from the Bo Bunny Stamp set.

Fun stuff. I really love this new Bo Bunny stamp. I can see myself using it for so many different things. Endless possibilities.

Anyway - you have a wonderful day crafty ladies!! Hey! We're already to Tuesday - that's awesome!

Paper Niche June Sneaker Peeks

2011-05-31T09:32:00.008-04:00

Hi there!! Hope everyone had a long weekend - I sure did. It was nice quality family time, and I got crafty in major ways!! I completed two 2 pg layouts, and two 1 pg layouts, a mini-book, and a card - all in this 4 day weekend! It was great. I feel so energized getting just that extra day off!!!

So, I'm super excited to share the sneak peeks for the June Kit from Paper Niche! What a wonderful kit!! It had a few new products that I had been dying to play with, so it really made me super happy!!! Here is a look at my sneaks:

Dont forget to check out Paper Niche's Blog throughout this week, as the other DT members will also be sharing their sneaks!!

Mini Book - B-day present for mom!

2011-05-26T11:56:00.011-04:00

Hi there! YAY! It’s my Friday today... weekend here I come - well, you know, after today anyway ;).

Hope you’ve been having a really nice week so far. I’ve got to get down to crafty business this weekend, that’s for sure! I just got the June Paper Niche Kit at home just waiting for me - as usual, it’s FILLED with awesome goodness, and I can’t wait to dig into it {printing pics @ Costco as I type!}! Oh, and I still have 1 page to complete for my client. It’ll be a {fun} busy {long - 4 day - woo hoo!!} weekend!

Anywho, Today I wanted to share a mini book that I made for my mom’s b-day (June 1st). I used pictures from the Relay for Life, which we participated in back in March. It was a great experience for us to do it together. My son also stayed overnight and camped with us, which made it extra special!

I used basically all of October Afternoon’s 5 & Dine Collection to make it. I was so happy when I saw this collection at Paper Niche! They’ve always got the good stuff!!! I added in a few Lawn Fawn Stamps {Fly Free, Bannerific, Sophie’s Sentiments, Harold’s ABCs, and Partly Cloudy} to make it extra fun!

This is the front and back covers, and a overall view:

Now here is a look at each individual page:

That is a pull-out tag... and this is the back of it:

And these two tags also pull out. One I've journaled on, and the other, I will have my son journal onto it:

Since I used the Tag Chipboard book from the collection, I obviously went with a “tag” theme, and as you saw, there are several pull out tags throughout the book. I hope she likes it - I'm happy with how it turned out! I’ve been debating on what I was going to finally make her with these pictures, so I was happy when it all came to me. It took me about 3 hours to make, in total.

Well, thanks for taking a peek. This is probably my last blog post for this week. I’ll catch ya on Monday and I hope you have an amazing Memorial Day weekend.

Supplies:
Chipboard Tag Book/Patterned Paper/Stickers: October Afternoon’s “5 & Dime”
Letter Stickers: Sassafras
Punches: EK Success
Stamps: Lawn Fawn’s Fly Free, Bannerific, Sophie’s Sentiments, Harold’s ABCs, and Partly Cloudy
Ink: Archival (black) & Jenni Bowlin (red)
Tags: from Paper Niche’s “Candy Bar”
Ribbon: Martha Stewart (hearts & sheer pink); May Arts (pink & blue striped); Prima (Lacey Ribbons) - others from my stash
Other: Tim Holtz Distressing Tool

Wee Memories #57 Challenge - B-Day decorations using Lawn Fawn!

2011-05-25T10:17:00.009-04:00

Another post today ;). At work, we’ll be celebrating my boss’ birthday today (his actual b-day is tomorrow)!!! We’re going to be taking him to lunch and giving him his gift. Exciting! So, I wanted to do a quick share of the decorations I made to go on his cupcakes (I made him triple chocolate chip with cream cheese frosting). I love how hey came out. Super simple, but super fun! I'm entering it into Wee Memories Challenge #57:
Their challenge this time around is stamping. So here is my entry:

I started by punching a large scalloped circles out of October Afternoon’s Thrift Shop paper. Then I went to town stamping music notes (a la “Happy Birthday to you”) using Lawn Fawn’s Teeny Tiny Backdrops in Jenni Bowlin’s Cough Syrup (a purty red) onto white cardstock. Next, I punched put 1" circles and used a mini blending tool to ink the edges.

It was my 1st time trying those mini blenders & I really liked them!!! I got that tip from Kathy’s Blog “The Daily Marker”. You use it just like the Ink Blending Tool - just on a smaller scale. It’s cool because I matched the ink from the stamped image and edges of the circles perfectly ;).

Anywho, so then I used more pretty OA paper and I stamped the banner & sentiment using Lawn Fawn’s “Bannerific” and “Sophie’s Sentiments” and glued it all together adding a toothpick between the scallops and circles to stick them into the cupcakes ;).

Eh, just a little something. I had fun doing it too. I always have fun when I’m stamping with my Lawn Fawn Stamps ;). Hope you have an awesome rest of the d

again, with the Crate Madness ;)

2011-05-25T09:16:00.007-04:00

Happy Hump Day everyone! Aaaahhh...Wednesday is finally here. I like to dub Wednesday as my Thursday, because I’m off on Fridays, so it’s like Thursday is MY Friday. Confused yet? Sorry.

I’m back again today to share another layout.

another look:

This one was a bit tricky until I finally figured out what to do with that little plaque she gave me to include in the book. It was from her grandparents - who she is really close to. I’m sure I could have left it out if I couldn’t work it in, but I know she really loved it. I’m so happy I finally figured out a plan to include it in a way that I’m still happy with the LO.

I used Crate Paper’s School Spirit line - which I’m LOVING!!! I seriously can’t put down the Crate Paper these days!!!! It’s filled me with inspiration!!

For the cutsie little banner, I used the little circles that were actually scraps (from the EK Success Large Scallop Punch) from another LO I made using this line. I basically stapled them to a piece of purty yellow/white Bakers Twine from The Twinery {with the Tim Holtz Tiny Attacher}. I think it’s super fun! I like how it turned out. The LO is super simple, but fun, I think. I left a nice {big} journaling spot for her mom to document the memory ;).

Thanks so much for peeking! Hope your Wednesday is great!!!

Supplies:
Patterned Paper/Chipboard Stickers/Brad: Crate Paper’s School Spirit; Letter Stickers: {Blue} American Crafts, Thickers & {tiny} October Afternoon’s Mini-Market Stickers; Punches: EK Success; Bakers Twine: The Twinery; Diploma Brad: found on Paper Niche’s Candy Bar ;).