been a while

Gosh, I've been a bad blogger lately. Probably because of the fact that its dark outside by the time I get home from work at 4:15 and its impossible to get decent pics!
This year we had Thanksgiving at our house, just the 4 of us. My husband is an awesome cook and made his usual feast. His turkey is SO good!

My main job was to make some homemade rolls. Well, they are semi-homemade. Used some frozen dough here and twisted them.

Kendall wrote some love notes to us when we were having a bad day. i love that girl and I wanted to showcase these to show her sweetness. one compliment that I get all the time is that she is sweet :) I used some super old Bazzill library pockets and added some embossed stamping. The banner stamps and banner diecuts are from Papertrey Ink and I'm crazy in love with those!!!

Got our first snowfall a week ago...we went sledding and on the way back captured some pretty trees.

I had my sister make these silhouettes of my kids, then I printed them on 8x10 photos. While I was at it, I printed some 4x6's and used some fun Bo bunny valentine paper.

Got this free print off the internet, printed it on 8x10 photo paper and then got this cute metallic frame from Michaels.

Have a great weekend!

as of right now

as of right now
Eating - shrimp
Drinking - diet cherry 7 Up
Last Night's Dinner - Turkey Tetrazzini
Listening To - my kids watching Scooby Doo
Reading - (nothing)
Doing - Chillin'
Creating - finishing up my trip to California album
Next Crafty Thing I Want To Explore - Better PS skills
Waiting On - my silhouette from Santa :)
Anticipating - my next career move
Exited About - being on vacation in a few weeks
Super Thankful For - my kids, who keep me grounded!
Watching - Raising Hope (LOL!!!)
Last Movie Watched - oh-gosh-I-have-no-idea!
Next Movie To See - Eclipse
What I'm Wearing - green lounging pants with skulls on them and a brown Crazy Shirts hoodie that doesn't match...but I'm cozy!
To-Do, At This Very Second - Get off the computer and put the kids to bed.

Do this on your blog! What's up with you as of late?

Been super busy this week in my craft room. I can't believe how many pages and projects I've done. First up, this 7 gypsies artist tray:
I was inspired by this idea here . I pretty much lifted most of it. There were some products I didn't have so I changed those squares to my own design. Used a ton of October Afternoon Papers and a lot of Maya Road chip boards and stick pins. Lots of misting going on and also used a lot of Making Memories Vintage Findings. I have a whole drawer of that line...got most of it for 80% off last year at Michaels. And when I went to photograph this my flower was missing on the upper left hand corner so pretend there's a large flower there.
The tray took forever to complete but I've been working on it here and there for a few months.
This is a pic of my dinning room. Its part of our front room and the place that people see first when they walked in. The room used to be yellow and the table was pine. I painted the table and the walls, added the mirror, changed out the light, put a medallion on the ceiling, and changed out the curtains. The curtains and the mirror are from Ikea. The whole project cost me less than $300. Its been going on for a few months now. The table took me forever. I'll post some how-tos soon on that.

I also took profile pics of Kendall and Aydan and my sister worked her magic in photoshop. Had them printed at Walgreen's-even though I have 2 printers, the amount of black ink used was worth paying them to print. The frames are 9x12" and are from Michael's.

This layout if a lift from my friend Laura Vegas. You can see her layout here. I love her style and this layout was perfect for 2, 4x6 pics.

See that rosette under the heart? I've tried to make those with no success, this was made with the Tim Holtz Rosette Die for Sizzix. I went to my LSS just in search of that and when they had it, I ran to grab it. It was on 2 peas before but was sold out. Lovin his dies!

And the title? Its just a nickname that I've had for both kids since they were born. Just a term of endearment. Used mostly KI papers here (pink and brown and the border diecut), lovin their products lately. I wasn't a fan before. And just a layout of Maui when she was a pup. She got real sick and had to be in the hospital. These are pics that I had printed out for my trip with Heather but didn't have a chance to finish. This was a super quick layout!

I've also worked on my california album last week. I have 12x12 page dividers that divide the page into 6x12 pockets, with 3, 4x6's. they are made by We R Memory Keepers. I made 9 of these pages using October Afternoon and Jillibean Soup papers. The diecuts are also from OA.

I used some AC letter stamps (Ginger) on the title page above on the diecut.

Aren't those letters cute? I got them at Michaels and I love the size of them. I also used my new Fiskar's postage border punch. Love. Love. Love!!!

If you're still with me, thanks, lol. That was a lot!

Super Easy Baby Cards

I have a job at a hospital where I work with a LOT of people . I have no idea how many but its way over a hundred just in my immediate area. Because of that we are always celebrating babies, weddings, etc. I'm the one assigned to provide the card cause they know how crazy I am about this hobby. So anyhoo I made one card last night (the one above in the middle) and went to clean up my mess today and figured I would make a stack of them.

So I decided that I would make them easy and try to use up my scraps and leftover stickers. So I started with this sheet of Pebble stickers below that had 8 stickers left on them. I love these, so perfect for baby cards! And I think I paid $1 for them. (Pardon the yucky basement pics)

Then grabbed my favorite scraps of October Afternoon (Thrifty Shop and Fly a Kite). I have 2, 8x8 packs and just throw the scraps back in the kits cause the paper is just too gorgeous. The paper below was a casuality of my Slice and I seriously don't know why I kept it.

BUT, it was perfect to make some borders with my ever growing collection of border punches, which are my favorite tool ever!!! Then I grabbed some super old fiber that I should have thrown out ages ago...and also used up some of my skinny super old AC ribbon.

Here's some of the scraps I used...and grabbed a package of Hobby Lobby kraft premade note cards. Super cheap and easy, you don't have to cut or fold cardstock.

Remember these rub ons? I think I got these way back in 2003 when I first started scrapping. I still love them to this day but I have 3 left so I finally used them up.

Placed those on some leftover pieces of Making Memories Noteworthy. I got this paper from Archivers a few years back. They are 8x8 speciality papers and all have a fun edge on them.

Pretty much just used up a lot of old stuff and scraps and now I have 8 baby cards all ready to go and got rid of 2 packages of goodies. This idea would be good for weddings, kids bday cards, and sympathy cards. I usually keep sympathy cards on hand because its usually something you have to make right away. Have a great weekend!

Creative Scrappers 126

Hey, just a quick layout here based on Creative Scrappers Sketch 126. So much fun! The sketch calls for 3 pics but I only had 2. These are from my baby shower way back in 2003 and were on film and they're scanned so they aren't the best. I scrapped these pics before but wanted to redo the page cause it was full of super dark Chatterbox paper and lacked brightness. I'm not one to redo pages but this event was too important. I loved the doily look on the sketch and thought its be perfect. I also wanted to try my hand at layering...I tend not to use too many embellies on my page because its hard to place them sometimes without looking overdone. In that bottom pic, all three of us girls were pregnant. My sister is on the left expecting my nephew Nathan and my neighbor Cindy is in the middle expecting Kendall's friend Abby. Kendall was born in February, Nathan in March, and Abby in April, LOL. I love that pic!
I had some leftover stamped kraft paper in my stash so I typed my journaling over it, think it looks cute like that.

For the title I was going to use all chipboard letters that said "baby shower" but I ran out of room. The embellishment "baby" that you see below was already placed before I put the title on and it was a lucky accident that it ended up there. And one of my new favorite products are the silk leaves! They are either by Prima or Recollections (Michaels), I have both mixed in one jar, lol. They add a lot to the loose flowers. Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Hobby Lobby (kraft) and Stampin Up (orange and brown)
Patterned Paper, Lady Bug Tag, Arrow Tag: Cosmo Cricket
Large Doilies: Paula Dean
Small Doily: Martha Stewart
Metal Clip, Chipboard Letters, “Baby” embellishment, epoxy stickers, brads, transperancy tag, clear frame: Making Memories
Bingo Card: Jenni Bowlin
Flowers and Leaves: Prima
Plastic flowers: Queen and Co
Ticket: Ranger
Stamp: Hero Arts
Ink: Papertry Ink
Border Punches: EK Success

Not much to say here, but just wanted to share a few more of my layouts from my scrapbooking trip with Heather. I used sketches on all of these. Some are from pagemaps and some from Scrapbooks, etc. Right now, I have no idea which issue...sorry. And these are nothing to write home about, I know, but my goal was to get caught up on my scrapping and I did.

I used some Echo Park Summertime on the layout above (journaling sticker and thickers from AC) and printed a collage on a 5x7, such an easy way to scrap. I really wanted something simple because sports layout are really about the pics. It was cool this year because Ozan was an assistant coach for the first time!

With Kendall's birthday in February, I always get super dark pics so it can be a real challenge to get some decent ones. Once again, this type of event is more about the pics. If I had a party or something, there would have been more journaling.

Used almost all Scenic Route on Aydan's t-ball layout. Those letters are diecuts and are really flat. I wanted to spruce them up a bit so I inked the edges with some distress ink. I also did that to the arrows. The star stamps are Fontwerks, a stamp set that I use a lot! I embossed it with some Ranger distressing powder, which has a rough sandpaper like appearance to it. I layered that on a chipboard circle that I made using DCWV colored chipboard and a Sizzix diecut...can you say old school???? I used a stitch border punch from Recollection at the bottom of the page. The star brads are from Hobby Lobby.

Thanks for looking!!! Have a wonderful Halloween!

autumn pics and fun photo site!

Just wanted to chime in here and share some pics. Autumn is my favorite time of the year and with that comes some gorgeous weather during the day, cold nights, and leaves changing color. I was outside with the Aydan the other day so that he could ride his bike.

And within seconds it turned into this...

Notice the rounded corners? I used this free editing program: Picnik. Such a fun site...they even have a poloroid frame! Fun.

My treat bags were made a week ago for Kendall's class. I didn't want to go too crazy with techniques. I just used my SU Top Note Die and added some stamps. Kendall helped me and she had a blast!

A quick card for my future sister in law who unfortunately lost her father. The background was embossed with a clear embossing powder. The sentiment was stamped on a journaling spot from Heidi Swapp.

One more pic of Maui who just celebrated her first bday! I used the Vignette effect on this photo as well. Love it.

Creative Scrappers Sketch 125 Celebration

Creative Scrappers, my favorite sketch site, is celebrating their 125th sketch this week!! I was honored when Kristine asked me to participate in the celebration.
I have been wanting to do a layout about my facebook status' for a while now, just a way to document a month of me. Most of the time my status' are meant to be lighthearted and funny...sometimes they are a way to vent about the stresses of everyday life and mommyhood.

I wanted the layout to display some of my favorite products (bright colored paper, stamps, border punches, and thickers) and colors. I am a huge fan of gray and turquoise and I just love the look of yellow on my pages lately. I'm also crazy about the Delovely line from Cosmo Cricket, such fun colors.

The bubble word stamps are Hero Arts. I could have handwritten them but I don't think it would have matched the theme of facebooking or tweeting. To fit the tweets in the bubbles, I filled a piece of white cardstock with the stamps I wanted to use.

I scanned that sheet in photoshop then added a second layer to add the journaling to the bubbles. I kept the page "unflattened" and only printed the layer with the words onto white cardstock. Then I simply stamped over the words. I'm pretty happy with the results.

Oh, and BTW, I don't Tweet, I facebook but "Tweets" looked so much better, plus I could use my bird embellishment and stamp :)Thanks for looking!Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill and Stampin Up

Patterned Paper and Chipboard Diecuts: Cosmo Cricker

Vinyl Thickers, Rub Ons, and Bird Stamp: American Crafts

Bubble Word Stamps: Hero Arts

Ink: Stampin Up and Memories

Mini Letter Stickers: Making Memories

Border Punch and Circle Cutter: EK Success

Tools: Corner Chomper

3 layouts

whew, I'm on a role!!! Got this scrapbooking bug up my toosh and I have this ball of energy to get caught up! I had about 6 sets of pics for layouts that I didn't get to from my scrapping weekend so I'm determined to finish them.

this past week on Laura's Blog, she challenged us to a 10 minute layout. You can see that HERE. I had some rare time one evening after work this week so I finished this one. I probably could have done it in 10 minutes but I had a few technical difficulties, lol.
I've been dying to create of layout of both of my kids at birth. They both had a pretty good size weight to them so the title came easy to me.


Next is another layout that I lifted of Laura's...I was looking through her gallery trying to find something that would work with these field trip pics from Aydan's Kindergarten class. I found this LO HERE, which is one of my favorites of hers, although its hard for me to narrow it down, lol. After I finished it I was looking through my blog looking for something and then I found THIS. I already lifted this page two years back, lol. I totally forgot about that. Oh well, it worked out great!


I did a lot of techniques on this page, especially on the chipboard tree. The green body of the tree was misted with Glimmer Mist. The trunk was made with Ranger Crackle Paint(I don't care for the poop color, lol) and for the apple I inked it red and added a red glitter glaze by Lil Davis.


I just got these hero arts apple stamps after I used Heather's over our scrap getaway. I just love those stamps!

This Halloween layout was supposed to be quick but it didn't quite come out that way. I really don't like to put a lot of time in layouts that don't have a whole lot of meaning. Layouts like these are more for the pics.

I used the Spook Alley Slice card to make the web (how cool is that?) and the "2009". The web was white and then I added some gunmetal Stickles. I used an old stack of DCWV for the numbers and then inked them with some Distress Ink.

And stop again on Thursday, one of my layouts will be on a sketch blog :)

Supplies Used

My Big Babies:

Patterned Paper, Chipboard, journaling tags, trim, tag, and brads: Making Memories

Border Punch: EK Sucess

Apple Farm:

Cardstock: Bazzill and Stampin Up

Patterned Paper: Provo Craft and Jillibean Soup

Journaling Spots: Jillibean Soup

Stamps: Hero Arts

Staming Ink: Stampin Up and PTI
Circle Cutter: EK Sucess

Stickers: Doodlebug

Chipboard: Maya Road

Glimmer Spray: Tattered Angels

Paint and Crackle Paint: Ranger

Glaze: Lil Davis

Halloween 2009:

Patterned Paper, Die Cut Machine, Clear Die Cuts: Making Memories

Cardstock: Archivers and DCWV

Border Die Cuts: Bazzill and Doodlebug

Sticker: 7 Gypsies

Stickles and Distress Ink: Ranger

Just a few more layouts to share from my scrapping trip. This is Kendall with her first grade teacher from last year. She just adored her! I would love to make layouts like this of my kids with their teachers each year. The layout was a bit of a challenge because of the purple shirt she's wearing. I decided to go with colors that matched Kendall's shirt and then I used some of my AC Dear Lizzy felt embellies...the one on the upper right has a purple button. I thought it worked out perfectly.

I've been dying to use my Martha Stewart Doilies and my Dear Lizzy Rose Ribbon! I'm so bad at hoarding my products...just wanted to have fun and use it! Heather was so nice to give me her "Sweet Memories" sticker! That spot really needed something!

And a layout of the kids and the pup in the pool! The center piece took a while to make, I used some of Heather's Lawn Fawn animal stamps, colored in with Copic and used some Glossy Accents on top. I used my Martha Stewart Gooey Drip Border punch to look like water.

And BTW, the title is clear and says "pool", hard to see the "l" there.

Supplies for Teacher Layout:

Patterned Paper: Creative Imaginations (pink) and American Crafts (blue)

Cardstock: Hobby Lobby and Stampin Up

Border Punch and Doilies: Martha Stewart

Sticker, Rose Ribbon, and Felt Flowers: American Crafts

Journaling Sticker: Creative Imaginations

Letter Stickers: Sassafrass Lass

Other: Typewriter

Supplies for Pool Layout:

Patterned Paper: Scenic Route and Jillibean Soup

Cardstock: Hobby Lobby and Stampin Up

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug

Ink: Versamark Frost and Ranger

Markers: Copic

Glossy Accents Glue: Ranger

Clear Letters: Bo Bunny

Border Punch: Martha Stewart