Creations of a Paper Addict

A little update

2012-02-19T12:45:00.000-08:00

Since I had a few minutes I thought I'd update this. It's kind of a rarity these days to have any free time. I read other blogs where the authors have multiple children, and in all honesty, I have NO idea how they keep up. The only reason I have any time tonight is because my kids are at my mother in laws for the night. All three of them. YAY! It's nice to have a little time to relax. I have a ton of projects I'm wanting to work on but I really don't have time to do it. One of things I really need to do is just to simply reorganize my scrapping life. I want to just take little bits of time and set them aside just for scrapbooking. So many of my families stories are sitting on my computer just waiting to be told. I need to get them on paper!

I was reminded this week of how precious time is and how we need to make the most of the time we have with our loved one. Several of my church family members lost people they love this week. My husband, children, parents, and sister are all I have in this world and I need to work on being better at telling them this. My husband is the greatest, most awesome husband ever. He truly is. There has never been something he's denied doing for me and he is always going out of his way to do things for me without me even having to ask. Today for instance he not only did the laundry, but he arranged for all three of my kids to spend the night elsewhere, giving us a chance to enjoy dinner together and actually have a conversation without having to talk over the kids.

At the moment I'm watching 'I Am Legend'. I don't even know why I bother. This movie gives me nightmares. I don't even know why it does. It's just that when I was pregnant I watched it for the first time and it gave me the worst nightmares of living alone in this world, how I would survive and how I would protect my baby. I don't even like to think about it. In a way I hope that if some horrible virus or plague sweeps over this planet that it takes me with it. Being alone in the world is not something I have a desire to do.

I still have so much to fit into this weekend! Especially cub scout stuff. This Saturday is our Blue & Gold banquet. I have to get all of the auction items together as this event doubles as a way to honor and recognize our scouts, and also to help us fundraise for the pack. We were fortunate this year to get signed memorabilia for both University of Louisville fans AND University of Kentucky fans.....including a signed helmet, signed football, and signed flag. It will raise a lot of money for our pack and go along way toward helping provide a successful program. It's a lot of work to put on but worth it in the end. This is the last year will be our last year in scouts for awhile. My older son will continue on to Boy Scouts, but my husband and I are taking a back seat for a little while. We've been fully involved for 5 years now and just need a little break. When Oliver gets older and hopefully wants to join we'll get back into it.

My goal for Sunday is to get the scout stuff done, laundry done, a little cleaning, and then get to scrapbooking!! I need to get my stories on paper! Here's a little look at the start to my weekend.

Back to Basics

2012-01-13T22:06:00.001-08:00

I cannot believe it has been this long since I posted to my blog. There has definitely been a big gap in my life while I haven’t been crafting. It’s now a new year, and I have new ambitions and new goals.

Several months ago I was busy pretty regularly with projects for other people. It was always for other people, never for myself. That started to get really frustrating and annoying that any time I did have available was always spent on projects for others. Now, I’m not saying that I was resentful of doing things to bless others, I just thought that I needed to stop taking on more than I could feasibly handle. On top of it, one of my projects was not well received, and since I put a lot of time, effort, and love into everything I do, I was pretty bummed. Needless to say I found myself completely out of crafting juice. No motivation. No inspiration.

I have not been on blogger in months to see what others are up to. I put doing any kind of crafting on hold. What I didn’t stop doing was buying paper. Oh my did I not stop buying paper. While I believe one can never have enough paper, my husband does not share that belief. Looking at book and reading blogs was not giving me the jolt of inspiration that I needed.

The last half of 2011 was such a rough one for me and my family and I was happy to see it end. And with its end, I decided to also stop my sulking and start making time for more of the things that I want to do. Those things include working out, doing more meal planning for my family, spending time with them, and of course, scrapbooking.

You’ll notice that I didn’t say crafting. I did a lot of thinking and soul searching and what I was really missing about my craft room was doing actual scrapbooking…taking the photos of my life and preserving them for my family’s future. There are so many memories that need to be written down before they are forgotten forever.

While I like making other things, I am a scrapbooker at heart. I miss it terribly and its time I get out of this rut and back to why I started this hobby in the first place. It’s pretty late here right now so I think I’ll go to bed. Tomorrow I’ll talk a little more about getting back to the basics of scrapbooking. Why we do it, what makes scrapbooks special, and what my personal goals are for the coming year. I might even have a little project thrown in.

Good night crafty friends!

Winner of the 100 followers giveaway!

2011-09-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hello Crafty Friends!
It's been really busy around here. This is really the first chance I've had to get on and update my blog. Since I've been working so hard around the house, my husband let me go out (alone...NO KIDS) shopping. It was so nice to be able to shop slowly rather than having to hurry and fighting my kids from touching everything in the store! I was able to find some great deals at Hobby Lobby.

Anyway, the moment you're all waiting for.....the winner of the Wall Decor & More Cricut Cartridge (selected by random.org) was #5, Patti! Congratulations Patti! I have your email and will be in contact with you to get your mailing address. Thank you to everyone who commented, and I'll see you back here tomorrow with another layout.

Goodnight!

100 followers Cricut Cartridge Giveaway!

2011-09-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

I must again say thank you to everyone who has taken the time to become a follower of my blog. I'd like to give something back by giving you a change to win a Cricut cartridge! I am so excited I cannot begin to tell you.
I've decided to giveaway the Wall Decor and More Cricut cartridge! This is in my top 5 all time favorites and I use it a lot in my scrapbooking. In fact I have a fall layout coming up using it. And since I am sponsoring it, I just wanted to giveaway something that I truly loved.

All you need to do to win is:

Leave a comment on this post and
Be a follower of this blog
If your comment does not link back to your blog, please be sure to leave a way for me to contact you!

The reason I am requiring you to be a follower is simply because this giveaway is as a thank you for following me. You will have until next Friday, September 23rd, 6pm to leave a comment and enter. I will use random.org to choose the winner and I will make the announcement later that same evening. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. Good luck!!! And again thank you for helping me get to 100 followers!

Welcome Baby Hailey – Simple Layout Sunday

2011-09-11T13:48:00.001-07:00

A good friend of mine had a baby about 7 weeks ago and I am working on a scrapbook for her to put pictures of her new little bundle of joy in. Of course I’m behind and was supposed to be done with this weeks ago, but traveling for my job kind of put a hindrance on that. So here’s a 2 page layout. It will be an 8x8 book.
Below are the supplies I used. The patterned cardstock is from DCWV Safari Kids stack and I also threw in some Kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink. I also used my Gypsy (with the Phrases, Straight From the Nest, and Cheerful Seasons Cricut cartridges), designer templates from Kiwi Lane Designs, white StazOn ink, Vintage Photo Distress Ink, adhesive and a stamp from Pink by Design.

First thing I did was cut out my words. ‘Welcome’ came from Straight From the Nest, for ‘Hailey’ I used the basic font on the Creative Memories Cheerful Seasons cartridge, and finally I cut a tag from the Phrases cartridge.

Here are my words with shadows all assembled.

Next I picked out my background paper and decided to go with the giraffe pattern. Since all the paper I chose was from the same stack, it all goes together nicely. I really like the DCWV stacks….what I don’t like about them is how they cut in my Cricut. I typically have been luck with other brands but I make do since I like the stacks so much. I then took out my Kiwi Lane Designer Templates and laid out the pattern that I wanted. I believe I used the Paisley Place set and strips set.

After that I traced the templates and cut out my pieces from various other patterns I had picked out. When that was done I took all the pieces and inked the edges with my Vintage Photo Distress Ink. I really like this color for inking and using a sponge dauber gives it a nice, soft, finished look. It also helps separate the patterns from each other.

I glued everything down and then worked on the journaling tag. I inked the edges and then added the stamp ‘You are loved’ in white StazOn ink. The stamp was from the Pink By Design ‘Our Kids’ stamp set. I also decided to hide the tag behind one of the photos. Below is the completed layout.

The lion on the bottom was already printed on the paper I chose. Since I have to do a whole book in a short amount of time, I need to keep it simple. I didn’t add any extra embellishments but I still like how it came out.

I hope everyone is enjoying their Sunday. It’s time for me to get back to laundry and cleaning (which take up the majority of my time) :) Happy crafting!

I made it to 100!!

2011-09-10T06:57:00.000-07:00

I am so totally excited this morning!! I made it to the magic number of 100 followers! That means we'll be doing a Cricut cartridge giveaway! I'll be doing some shopping then this weekend and I'll have the giveaway posted on Monday. I am so completely excited I just cannot tell you.

I was up ALL night last night reorganizing my craft room. I unpacked 12 boxes of stuff......yes TWELVE. I located my Peachy Keen stamps which I haven't been able to find since I packed them up 7 months ago along with a lot of other things that I thought would be lost in storage forever. The most surprising part is that it all fit into my tiny room. And my room is TINY. When we remodeled our house 6 years ago, we converted our garage into additional living space. We have a large detached garage and just felt like, knowing we would be adding to our family at some point, that an additional bedroom and bathroom would serve us better. The remodel took like a year and a half and one of the things I had my husband build was an office in our bedroom. I didn't need a large space so it's only about 9x9. It was just supposed to be a place for my computer desk away from everyone mostly so that I could keep the mail/finances in order and do school work with no interruptions. This was pre-crafting days. Well I only got to use it about 6 weeks and found out I was pregnant. :) So then my nice space just for me turned into a nursery and was a nursery until my son was about 13 months old. Yes he was attached to my room for forever mostly because he didn't sleep well and I really didn't feel like getting up twice a night every night to walk across the house to make sure he was ok. Any of you out there with kids that were horrible sleepers will know the feeling. :) When I was pregnant was when I started getting into crafting. We have both a living and family room and we don't really use the living room. So I took it over little by little with crafting stuff. Then when we had hit a serious financial crisis and were having to think about moving, the realtor advised us to set it back up as a formal living room to make it more appealing. So I had begun the process of downsizing my stuff to fit into my tiny 9x9 office. What I learned last night after unpacking it all.....It all fits! I actually didn't have to pack up any of it. I could have left it as is. And actually I thought it would take me forever to get it done and it didn't.

A few obvious things though....
     1. I need a few creative organization ideas. I have some jars for my buttons and also for brads, but I definitely need a ribbon storage solution. I have an idea I'd like to do that I saw on the Crafty Storage blog. I can't find the exact post but it involved hanging 2 chains with bars running between them holding ribbon. This would be a very cost effective solution.
     2. Do I really need 2 cricuts plus my imagine? I'm really struggling with this one. My original Expression has not been updated and still works with my SCAL 2.0 software. And I've recently discovered Kerri Bradford Designs. My have to keep it around and try out some of her designs.
     3. I seriously need a clear stamp storage solution. I'm thinking of going with a binder type. I don't have a whole ton of them but what I do have is in CD cases, and while I like the CD cases, they take up too much space. I need to condense it and conserve space.
     4. I have way too much paper. More paper than I'd probably be able to use in 2 years. Some of it I don't even like anymore. How sad is that? I haven't gotten rid of it because I paid for it so I feel like I should use it. Maybe I'll figure something out. Ebay may be the way to go.
     5. I have many things that haven't been opened or that I haven't even tried out! That tells me I need to be banned from online and in store shopping until I use what I have!
     6. And finally that I just adore my husband....no one else would put up with me and this hobby of mine.....or rather obsession.....is there a support group for addicts of this kind?? :) If so I may need to join.

Anyway, that's how my evening went. I'd love to get some things done today....BUT, we actually have a leak that has to be fixed and I think I'm going to have to go to an immediate care doctor today. I've been sick for over a week now and now I sound like a MAN when I talk! Ugh....don't you hate that? A few months ago we noticed a leak in our family room. After several roof contractors looked at it, it was determined that the leak is actually coming from the chimney. The top or our chimney is cracked, water is getting in and seeping through the brick onto our ceiling. This was actually good news because my handy husband will fix it himself. And since I was out of town on training for so long this has been the first chance he has to fix it. So that's what is involved in today. He'll be fixing the chimney and I'll be running after 3 kids.

Again I'd like to say how completely excited I am that I now have 100 followers. It really uplifted me to see that so many people have clicked that button. So on Monday I'll have something to give back. Thank you all for making my day. I'll have many projects to post VERY soon! October will start my new blog schedule and I am so excited to be a little more organized in what I share. I'll also post pictures of my craft room (still a work in progress) soon and will take any organizing ideas out there to try to maximize my space.

Have a great day everyone!! Happy crafting!

Organizing my craft room and new schedule

2011-09-05T15:59:00.001-07:00

Life is still pretty crazy around here today. My kids and I have been cleaning ALL day. I cannot believe my house is this far out of sorts! But I guess that’s what happens when I get sent away for three weeks for training. I was able to go to Orlando, FL for my training. It was hot and humid, but I did get to have some fun along the way. I did so much shopping I almost couldn’t get my stuff back home! I had taken a bunch of my scrapbook stuff with me and bought more while I was in Florida, so now I have the task of trying to get everything organized and cleaned up. It’s a process. I have a ton of organization ideas that I can’t wait to make a reality and share.

Starting soon, I’m going to be trying to follow a schedule on my blog, to try to help keep me sharing with you all and to try to keep it interesting :)

The first week of the month there will be a product review….something new I’ve picked up and had the chance to play with, and I’ll be giving my opinion about it (whatever that’s worth :) ) and also sharing some projects made with it during that week.

Twice a month I’ll be doing a ‘Quick Tip Tuesday’ so that I can share some of the shortcuts and tricks that I’ve picked up.

Every Sunday I will be doing ‘Simple Layout Sunday’ where I’ll share a layout I completed that week that was quick and simple. Doing scrapbook layouts can be fun and doesn’t have to take a ton of time. I hear people alot saying that they don’t scrapbook because of the time it takes to complete pages, they fall behind, and lose motivation to even try. Being behind doesn’t matter at all….I’m about 6 years behind. The important thing is to just do what you love and tell the stories of your family and know that those stories will be treasured when your kids are grown.

At the end of the month, I’ll share with you a new blog I’ve found that has really given me a ton of inspiration in hopes that you can check them out and they’ll inspire you too.

I’ll be back very soon with a new project! Hope everyone has a good evening!

Long overdue update!

2011-09-04T19:48:00.001-07:00

Wow has it been a long time since I updated this. There have been many big changes in my life and those had to come first. I have seriously missed both crafting and blogging about it. I wish I could say my shopping addiction stopped but that just isn’t the case. I know have about 10 times as much stuff that I’m just dying to use, try and show you all about.
First, I had to move my craft room from one room of the house to another. We were forced, due to our financial constraints, to put our house up for sale. My craft space was in my living room, but to make the house more sellable, we turned that room back into the living room and I moved my craft room to a much much smaller room off of my bedroom that used to be my son’s nursery. That was a huge undertaking and many of my supplies ended up in storage due to lack of space in the much smaller room. That lead to me not doing as much crafting cause every time I wanted something it was in storage! Ugh….
The summer was super busy. In June I got an absolutely amazing job offer. It seriously was like a dream come true for me and my family. God completely answered my prayers by giving me this job. I’m not working for the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Fiduciary Unit helping manage finances for incompetent veterans and their beneficiaries. It is truly a very rewarding job in which I’m able to use my financial background to make a real difference in people’s lives. It’s the kind of job I’ve wanted for years.
Along with the awesome job came some awesome benefits! More money meant that we didn’t have to move. It’s still going to take awhile for our financial situation to improve, but we were at least able to take our house off the market and many of my supplies were able to be moved back inside. YAY! The job also meant I had to go out of town for training…..for THREE WEEKS! EEK! My poor spouse! I actually just got back home on Friday (I’ve been back about 48 hours), my house is a wreck, but life is getting back to normal. Now my only dilemma is what to do about crafting space….stay where I am or move back to the living room. I could really use a scrapbox. :) Maybe I’ll get ambitious tomorrow and take some pictures.
If you haven’t visited me in awhile, you’ll notice that I’ve had a blog makeover. I still have some tweeks to make to it, but Leslie at Sweetie Baby Blog Design did an awesome job. I’m in love with the color combination! Along with the new design is going to be a new blog schedule, to include a lot more scrapbooking layouts. Layouts are what I like to do most and I’m excited to get back to doing what I love most. Cards are nice and fun to make but scrapbooking is definitely why I started all this crafting in the first place. I’m excited to share how I incorporate my cricut, my imagine, my serious paper addiction, and some awesome new products and share them with you all. I’ve learned some new techniques I’m also excited to share.
I’m also ONE follower away from 100. When I hit 100 we’ll do a Cricut cartridge giveaway! New blog schedule and new project coming soon! Have a good night everyone!

Baby Shower Invitations

2011-05-19T19:10:00.000-07:00

I actually made these a couple of weeks ago. The theme of the shower is ladybugs and sunflowers. My friend happens to love sunflowers. The ladybug is for the baby...it's a girl but has no name yet....so its just ladybug :)

I had to make a lot of these so I kept it pretty simple. I know there is a sunflower cut on the Walk In My Garden cartridge but I really did not want to put that many layers together on that many flowers so I went with something simpler. The ladybug is from Walk In My Garden. The flowers and the grass both came from Straight From The Nest. I used my Gypsy to lay everything out so that I could cut it efficiently. Surprisingly doing 25 invitations only took a couple of hours.

The background paper came from Joann's, the butterfly is from K&Company sticker set, I used a white gel pen to accent the leaves, copper Stickles on the inside of the flowers, and finally the stamp is from Pink By Design Big Thoughts set. The inside is decorated too but I didn't get a chance to take a picture before I had to mail them out.

The most important thing was that my friend loved them. :) Only 2 weeks left until her shower.

And just because I like her so much, I'm making her a special cake that looks like a sunflower, which was inspired by Sarah's (Pink Cricut) post "For Peep's Sake". Click on the link to see her post. I'll let you all know how it comes out. :)

Good night!!

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 12

2011-05-07T20:40:00.000-07:00

And I made it to #12! This was a kid-themed challenge. I had to take some time to put my youngest to bed. For whatever reason he's been clinging to me all day. No big deal though. We crafted together :) I have some more pictures of my little cutie down at the bottom. Here's the scrapbook page I made. It is for my son's scrapbook but I don't have the pictures printed yet to put on it. I was also working on the 2nd page to it but I'm whooped. It's after 11:30 and I have to get up bright and early for church. The paper in this layout was from My Mind's Eye and cricut cuts are from the Boys Will Be Boys cartridge. I don't know about you all but I'm exhausted and am calling it a night. I hope everyone else had a good time today too! I can't wait until next year.....or at least I'll be looking forward to it after I take tomorrow to relax :) Good night!

yes, he was making a giant mess out of peanuts

he was also playing with my bottles of stickles

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 11

2011-05-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

I really love this challenge....my favorite colors....pink, green, and black. Unfortunately I only had about 15 minutes to do this so the size of my present is a little off but.....present is from Create A Critter, cardstock from my stash, and the stamp is from My Pink Stamper "Everyday Life". This has been a ton of fun but I am getting really tired! I'll be glad to finish but so proud at the same time to have completed all the challenges in one day!

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 10

2011-05-07T17:59:00.000-07:00

This one was neat...use a pet :) Fish are pets too. So I created a shape card using the Create A Critter cricut cartridge, cardstock from DCWV and my stash, and the stamp was from My Pink Stamper "More Punnylicious". Dinner time :) I can't craft forever.

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 9

2011-05-07T17:20:00.000-07:00

The challenge was to use glitz, glam, and glitter!

I saw this stamp in the Pink by Design "Our Heroes" stamp set and decided to make a card for my husband. I used Create A Critter for the dog and fire hydrant. Patterned paper is DCWV and the solid is just from my stack. For glitz and glitter I added some stickles...not too much though since it is for my man :)

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 8

2011-05-07T16:14:00.000-07:00

Wow I cannot believe I got this one done this fast! Literally only took me about 20 minutes but of course there is the photo taking and uploading to blogger that adds time. I'm ready to take on Challenge#9! For Challenge 8, the idea was to make something for summer. So I made a BBQ invite....I mean really what says summer in America better than BBQ? I almost put a pig on it :) but decided for the flower which was from Life is a Beach cartridge. Cardstock is DCWV, and I also used stickles and some Viva Decor glass effect gel that I received in a past Club Ruby kit. Stamps are from Pink by Design "Party Time". Is anyone else keeping up with these? :)

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 7

2011-05-07T15:33:00.000-07:00

I'm still at it. I've completed 7 challenges so far! I'm not sure I'll get to number 8 since I'm running behind. I might take a break and then just start with #9. But I sure was lucky....Challenge 7 was to make a scrapbook page! So I was able to make the 2nd page of my daughter's birthday layout. I used the same papers, some chipboard letters, American Crafts stickers, an EK Success border punch, the balloons were cut from Once Upon A Princess cartridge, and the stamps I used were from Pink by Design "Take the Cake" and My Pink Stamper "Everyday Life".

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 6

2011-05-07T14:24:00.000-07:00

This challenge was to incorporate a tag. I made a scrapbook layout of my daughter's 5th birthday party. I mostly just used paper from my stash. Happy Birthday is from Simply Charmed cricut cartridge and the present is from Create a Critter. The tag is from Birthday Bash. The stamp is from Pink by Design "Take the Cake". This will eventually be a 2 page layout but I didn't have time to finish the 2nd page :) Thanks for stopping by. I must say it is rough to keep up with all these challenges!!

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 5

2011-05-07T13:05:00.000-07:00

This challenge was really tough for me! I love making altered items but there was no way I could do it in an hour. So I decided to just try to make something off of one of the cricut cartridges...I chose Wrap It Up. I made a little box to go a long with my mother's day card and cut out a rose to put on top of it. I know...It's way too plain but I was running out of time! So here it is :)

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 4

2011-05-07T12:03:00.000-07:00

This challenge was to make a Mother's Day project. Since I took some time to eat and still wanted to participate in the challenge so I went through my stash, pulled out some scraps of cardstock, some stickers, and stamps. Here's the result. The patterned cardstock is a scrap from the Club Ruby May kit as are the cardstock sticker letters, ribbon from my stash, stickers are American Crafts that I got awhile back from http://www.scrapbooksteals.com/ and I stamped my sentiment on the inside. The stamp is from My Pink Stamper "Happiest Moments". I put it in the bottom right to leave me room to write. Hope everyone else is having a good time today too!

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 3

2011-05-07T10:59:00.000-07:00

So for this challenge you had to make something (card, scrapbook page, 3D item, etc) that has a breast cancer theme. Here's my card. I used cardstock from my stash, my I-Rock, cricut (I think the heart was from gypsy font but now I can't remember...eeek!), my cuttlebug and Pink by Design "Faith" stamp set.

I'm going to take a break and eat lunch now :)

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 2

2011-05-07T10:14:00.000-07:00

Well I managed to get challenge #2 done and by 1. It woudl have been posted by now except blogger was giving me fits. The challenge was to make a card for a man using Kraft cardstock. I used Kraft cardstock for the base, the patterned paper is from DCWV and all the other plain paper is from my stash. The twine and the stamp are from Pink by Design.

And here's a little peek at what Oliver is doing....we're crafting together :) I have a mess to clean up later.

My Pink Stamper NSD Challenge 1

2011-05-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

To my credit it did take me less than an hour to do this BUT the photo taking and cleaning up after my 2 year old is adding to the time :) Here's my card for the "Anything Cupcake" Challenge.
The Cupcake is from Birthday Bash cartridge and the papers are from the Club Ruby Designers May kit which I used cause it was on hand and accessible :) The stamp is from Pink By Design "Take the Cake" set.

National Scrapbook Day!

2011-05-07T07:35:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it's been so long since I've posted. Happy NSD!! I look forward to this day every year. Unfortunately it comes on the same day as the Kentucky Derby so I can't dedicate the day to scrapbooking cause there is partying to be done, but its going to be a great day anyway :)

In about 25 minutes I am planning on following Robyn's, My Pink Stamper, blog and trying to participate in the challenges that I can. Would you believe the grand prize is a Cricut Imagine?? Oh how I would love to have one. I know people have had their problems with them but I just keep drooling over it. I want one so badly!!

I have lots of upcoming posts of projects I've made. I've been out of the loop for awhile due to having surgery a few weeks ago. It wasn't any serious, but it was important....at least if you like breathing :) I had my septum (which was completely blocking my right nostril) fixed and a bone growth cut out as well as some glands that were taking over my airway on the left side. I will have to say that a few weeks after having it I can breathe SO much better. It won't be my last surgery unfortunately. I have to have sinus surgery too but that won't be for a few months to give me a chance to heal really well from this one. My doctor was awesome....I had NO bruising and NO swelling at all, which was nice. It was quite painful though and at the moment I have stitches inside my nose driving me nuts! Enough gross stuff though....

Long story short, I'm hoping I'm getting back into the swing of crafty things. What better day to start than NSD! Have a great day everyone!!

Test

2011-02-04T19:25:00.001-08:00

This is just to see if my new computer is functioning. This is only a test.

Glitter It Ornaments - A Christmas Gift I forgot to share

2011-01-08T07:32:00.000-08:00

What a night it was with all those Ustreams going on! I managed to see part of all three of them (My Pink Stamper, My Creative Time, and Above Rubies Studio). Above Rubies Studio had several big announcements and I can't wait to see what comes in the future. I am a member of Club Ruby Designers and I have LOVED the kits I get. Emma (My Creative Time) announced her new DT. I would love to be able to buy her stamp sets but I'm on a buying freeze....and I already spent my craft budget for the month on 2 new cartridges. My craft budget is very small :) Robyn (My Pink Stamper) announced her new DT and unfortunately I didn't get picked but it was still fun to participate in the challenge. She is coming out with a brand new product that she hasn't been able to announce yet. I cannot wait to hear what that is!

When I was doing gifts for my family this year, I saw the post on My Pink Stamper about Glitter It!. I had been trying to think of something I could easily make for my each member of my family and this was perfect. I bought the Glitter It online from Signature Crafts. It was very inexpensive ($3 I think) and I found glass ornaments online also. I bought 16 and with shipping only paid $20 for those. These were SO easy to make, I just couldn't believe it. Literally all you do is pour in the Glitter It, coat the inside, let it drain, pour in the glitter, coat the inside and dump out the excess. It only took my an hour to make all 16. And let me tell you, they were SO PRETTY! Here's a few pictures.

Once that part was done, I wanted to personalize them. I used my Songbird Cricut Cartridge, some white vinyl, and Armour Etch. My initial plan was to glass etc the initials of who they were for into the ornaments. This did not exactly work as planned. The glass etch cream says to leave it on for 10 minutes. I left it on for 30 minutes (after reading some recommendations from other blogs from people that have used it). It still did not have a very strong image. So after that, I decided to use the letter cut out on the other side of the ornament. So each one was etched with the initial on one side and had the vinyl initial on the other side. My family completely LOVED them. I was so excited that I was able to give them something so pretty that they actually liked! Here are the pictures of the finished ornaments.

After going through my pictures, I found out I have a couple more projects to share from things I made over Christmas so I hope you'll come back when I get them posted. I hope you all have a great day!

~Mandy

My Pink Stamper Challenge Submission

2011-01-05T15:06:00.000-08:00

Robyn, My Pink Stamper, is having a challenge to pick 2 members for her upcoming design team. I have never submitted anything before, mostly because I don't think I have a chance, but I decided to take some new chances in this new year, so here goes!

The challenge was to make a project (card, scrapbook layout, etc) using the following colors:
Pink
Green
Brown
and one optional color (I chose blue)

The details for the challenge and the design team are (from the MPS site):
*You will need to have a blog

*You cannot already be serving on a DT that has product that is a conflict of interest (most DTs are just fine as long as they do not sell product that is similar to My Pink Stamper Original Cricut Stamps idea)

*Your project must be made just for this challenge

*Post a pic on your blog with a full recipe along with what the challenge is about

*This needs to be a new project that you make just for this challenge

*Only one entry per person, please

*You must have either a Cricut or Imagine to serve on the team

*No experience necessary but you must have a love for the craft! :)

I decided to make a scrapbook layout. All of the paper was DCWV. The green patterned paper was a scrap from my stash. I used the Celebrations Cricut cartridge for the party hat and noise maker. Happy New Year was from the Wild Card cartridge. The banner (incl. numbers), the ballons, and porcupine are from Birthday Bash. Birthday Bash is definitely my favorite of all my cartridges. There are so many images on the cartridge and I love the font.

If you want to submit something for the chance to be a My Pink Designer, you have until tonight at midnight to post your project to Robyn's blog here.

Thanks for letting me share :) I hope everyone is having a great day!

~Mandy

Quick Journal with Bind It All

2011-01-02T20:24:00.000-08:00

Good morning fellow crafters! Today I am a guest designer over at The Bug Bytes. Thank you Pam for having me back to share with everyone this hobby that I love so much. Crafting is a such a release in my crazy life.

For this project, I have been wanting a new journal. I am getting close to filling my current one and since we have begun a new year, I wanted to start it off with a new journal. I am not making many resolutions this year, but the few I am making I want to put a lot of effort into. With that said, I made a journal with my Bind It All tool that I acquired several months ago but haven't gotten to use yet.

I used the Graphically Speaking cartridge and my Gypsy to design the cover. I kept it very simple and with the exception of the Stickles drying time, this only took about 30 minutes to make. I used my big Carl cutter, O wire, Bind it All, wire cutters, adhesive, plain white paper, and colored cardstock from Papertrey Ink. Later I added some stickles and glitter for embellishments.

I believe the Papertrey Ink colors were Simply Charteuse, Aqua Mist, Plum Pudding, Pinefeather, Linen.....and I can't remember the others :) Getting old...the memory is going. I started by laying out the cuts in my Gypsy and cutting all of my paper to size.

While the cricut was working on the cutting, I punched holes in my cover and in my pages. I need some more practice at this though. I didn't exactly end up with them all lined up correctly.

Also, when it comes to cutting the Papertrey Ink cardstock, because it is thicker, using the multi cut function is a good idea. I also find that this type of cardstock is good for cutting more intricate designs...at least for me, because it doesn't tear as easily. I don't usually have good luck with thinner cardstock or paper when it comes to making detailed cuts.

Once the cuts were done, I put everything together. The cuts I used were all from the Graphically Speaking cartridge. The flower was on the "icon" creative feature and the enjoy life was from the "phrase" creative feature. I cut the "enjoy life" twice in two colors and pieced them together. The background was also from this cartridge. I used my ATG to put adhesive on the background piece and completely covered the holes with adhesive. After sticking the background to the cover, I poured gold glitter over the holes and it stuck to the adhesive.

Next I glued my other elements to the cover.

After everything was assembled, I followed the instructions that came with the Bind It All and bound my book. My O wire didn't exactly come out "O" shaped since I'm not very practiced but hopefully it will get better if I try to make another one. :)

I hope that you enjoyed my project for today. I'm so thankful that Pam has allowed me to share with you all. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year!!

Use up some scraps! Wrap a box!

2010-12-20T19:28:00.000-08:00

If you're like me, you always have a ton of scraps and you're too stingy to throw them away :) I cannot bring myself to get rid of paper....I love paper. I am a total, complete, paper addict. They should have a support group for people like me, LOL!

I am making monogrammed ornaments for everyone in my family this year. I purchased kraft boxes to put them in. Well, because I don't want just "kraft" colored boxes, I was going to wrap them. Then I decided that I had some Christmas paper from my scrapbook stash left over and why not use that? So I took some measurements and cut a few pieces and used my ATG gun to adhere them to the box, cut out a few decorations, added the initials and a bow and TA DA! I don't have enough Christmas paper scraps to do all my boxes (since I'm doing about 20) but still I like how simple it came out.

The paper is Cosmo Cricket, as are the picture embellishments on the side. The letters are Thickers....pretty glitter ones, and then just some silver cord I had in my stash.

Christmas Gift Idea: Stamped Candles

2010-12-18T17:13:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is having a good weekend so far. I spent my Saturday getting up and going to work (I don't normally work on Saturdays but due to the weather here Thursday I wanted to make up some time rather than use vacation) and when I got home I was so exhausted. I put my 2 yr old down for a nap and preceded to take a nap myself. My husband let us both sleep for FIVE HOURS! Wow I must have REALLY been tired! Shortly though I'm going to step away from the computer and work on my family Christmas gifts. Both my mom and mother-in-law recently acquired cricuts and I'm also pondering shopping for a good cartridge deal. Just don't know if I could get it by Christmas or not :(

Anyway, today I have a cool cricut-less project to share for you that as made as gifts for 2 of my co-workers. Next week I'll have another similar project where I make a matching set and matching packaging, but for today we'll stick to the candle.

Did you know that by using a few things you may already have around the house you can make awesome, super easy, decorated candles?? Well you can! Candles can be expensive but there are several online sites where you can get them pretty cheap. The sets I'm making next week involve using online purchased candles, but for this I just picked up a pack at Meijer. It was $5 for the set of two. White and Cream colored candles work the best. I haven't experimented too much with other colored candles but if you do, let me know as I'd love to see what kind of results you get. In addition to candles, you need tissue paper, wax paper, stamps of your choice, ink pads in the colors you prefer to use, and a heat gun. A blow dryer will not work for this.

Since this was Christmas themed, I chose a stamp set from Clear Dollar Stamps called Holiday Patterns. The ink I used was from their Clearly Coordinating Collection in Spring Leaf, Wild Huckleberry, Deep Sea, Turquoise Gem, and Bubble Gum.

First I measured my candle and cut a piece of tissue paper that would fit around the candle exactly. I then cut a piece of wax paper larger that when wrapped around the candle would completely cover all the tissue paper. You place the tissue paper in front of you and stamp away! Anything you'd like...this can be decorated in any way you choose. Once you've stamped all over the tissue paper and you're happy with how it looks, wrap the tissue paper around the candle. Then wrap the wax paper around the candle over the tissue paper as tightly as possible. Secure the wax paper down with a piece of tape. Next you take your heat gun and run it over the wax paper. You will be able to see the tissue paper change. Keep the heat gun moving though. Spending too much time in one spot can cause it to melt too much wax out of the candle and make pits and bumps in the candle. Believe me, I've found this out the hard way in the past. When you've gone all the way around the candle, turn off the heat gun and roll the candle on a hard surface. Next remove the tape and was paper and VIOLA! A perfect, pretty, festive candle that anyone is sure to love! Here are some pictures of my finished candles. Feel free to leave comments. I love comments! To see a video tutorial of this technique, My Pink Stamper has a great one.....it's Episode 38. This is where I learned how to do it. I love all of Robyn's videos, but I think this technique is my favorite :)

Apologies...it's been too long!

2010-12-16T10:52:00.000-08:00

Hello craft world! I have been somewhat MIA. After looking at my blog today I realized I have not posted in 3 months!!! Oh my....where did all that time go? I have been hard at work on some awesome projects. And I have even been looking into doing my very first video. Just trying to figure out exactly how that's done :) I have a few things to share today.

This time of year is super busy, but this year was especially busy because my family was VERY involved our churches production of "The Christmas Post". If you've never seen this musical, it is truly something special and SO much time and effort went into making it a success. My family and I live in a pretty small town and pulling this off really impressed everyone in our community. They are already talking about next year! Being a part of it was truly a blessing, but it was a ton of work. We spent nearly every weekend at chuch and two weeks before the performance, nearly every day! Here is a video of one of our songs from the show. If you ever get a chance to be a part of something like this, I highly recommend it.

Now that all that is done, I have also had a ton of things to do to get ready for Christmas. Like many, the economy has really had devastating effects on my family. I am SO blessed and thankful to God that we have been able to continue on this long keeping food on the table, a roof over our heads, and utilities paid. Tax time can't get here soon enough! :) So due to our money situation, this year is going to be a lot of homemade Christmas.

I've always bought all of our gifts and have never tried to undertake a big project like this. I now know why everyone does just buy things. It's so much easier! But it's also so much more special. Over the next few days I'll be sharing with you the Christmas projects I've been working on.

Last week, we had a Christmas party for our cub scout pack. We have a very large pack, and every year at our Christmas party, Santa visits and gives the boys presents. I wanted to have something for the siblings too so I made goodie bags for all of them. I did 20 goodie bags. Here's a picture of them:

To make them, I just filled cello bags from Clear Bags (size 3.75" x 6") with a variety of miniature candy bars and made toppers for them. The toppers are from last year's DCWV Christmas stack cut at 4x2 and folded in half. The layer used paper from both the DCWV Christmas stack and Cosmo Cricket. The stamp was from Clear Dollar Stamps "Christmas Blessings" set (I LOVE their stamps by the way. Check out their website, the stamps are inexpensive and awesome quality) and the ink is from their Clearly Coordinating Collection in Spring Leaf and Red Velvet Cake. The images on the bags are from Cricut cartridges Paper Doll Dress Up and Create a Critter. It probably only took about 2.5 hours to make all the bags from start to finish. Not bad!

I hope you enjoyed this post for today. I'll have another post either later today or tomorrow. I have so many things to post. I promise I won't be so far away from now on.....and keep in mind that I'm still trying for 100 followers. If I get there, I'll have a Cricut cartridge giveaway!!!

Happy crafting!

It's embarrassing how far behind on scrapbooking I am....

2010-09-17T18:50:00.000-07:00

Yes, it's true. I am so super far behind on scrapbooking that it isn't even funny! And you'll see just how far behind I am in a few.

First, I wanted to say how lucky I was to be one of the first members of the new Club Ruby. It is really exciting to get a kit in the mail at the beginning of each month and I have promised myself that I will use this kit to help catch up on my scrapbooking! Many times I buy material and end up only making cards or other projects and never create a single layout.

The kit from August included paper from Sassafrass Lass and it was very summery! Not that that is even a word, but oh well. I created this layout to put on some of my summery pictures on :)

yep, that says 2004....six more years of layouts to go!

2010-09-01T09:00:00.000-07:00

I am excited to once again be the guest designer on The Bug Bytes! I realize that the cartridge of the month is Robotz, however, I don't own that cartridge so I chose to do use the August cartridge, Just Because Cards. I love making cards and I love giving sets of cards to people. When this cartridge came out I just had to have it and I got it! Here are the cards I made from the cartridge:

In a Pickle?, You Take the Cake, You are my Sunshine, and Apple of my Eye. These are just cards I made up to use when I needed something fast. All four cards were made in a little over an hour. Most of the paper was from my stash of My Mind's Eye and DCWV. I kept them really simple because I wanted to make a box to put them in. Card sets are so cute and this cartridge is great for making sets.

I saw a tutorial on you tube for a box and it was so easy! The best thing about it is that I didn't have to buy clear boxes to put my card sets in anymore. Here is how you make it. You will need a sheet of cardstock, something to score the cardstock, scissors, bone folder, adhesive, and corner rounder.

You start with an 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock...you need a sturdy kind because it will be a box :)
Put the cardstock portrait, and score it at 1", 1.75", and 7.75". Then turn it landscape and score it at .75", 5.25", 6" and 10.5". After that, fold on all the score lines. It should look like this.

Next you will place the sheet portrait with the double score line on the left. Cut out the bottom left two tabs. Then also cut out the top four tabs. See picture. It's a little hard to explain.

Then cut out the bottom right tab, and make slits only down the rest of the right side.

Place adhesive on the back of the top right tab, and the back of the small tab on the right in the middle. Then place adhesive on the front bottom tab, and the bottom right.

Peel off the backing and stick the box together.

To make it fit together more easily, the opening tab at the top should be rounded. This will make it much easier to open and close.

When you are done you can decorate it any way you choose. For my box, I chose some scraps that were left from making my cards. Since these are "Just Because" cards, I decided to make a label that is "just bee cause" and put a little bee on it. The background and the bee and the ink are from Clear Dollar Stamps. The sentiment is from Papertrey Ink. The box will hold at least 6 cards and envelopes depending on how many embellishments you have on them.
I hope you've enjoyed this project. If I make it to 100 followers I'm going to do a giveaway!
Happy Crafting!
Amanda :)

2010-08-30T18:42:00.000-07:00

I am a little sad today, but it's been a really long day. Issues at work are taking their toll on me, and I had too much to do when I got home to craft!

Unfortunately, I didn't any links to submissions for the challenge so I won't be able to give the stamp set away. But thank you everyone for the wonderful comments on my box. I will keep looking ahead for the 100 followers.

Here are some things I've done over the last few weeks. One of my end of summer projects was to clean up my craft room. In the process I decided to use up all my scraps. I literally used everything I had that was big enough to make a card and ended up with seven cards. They are pretty blank but they are a start to my card stash. Next time I need a quick thank you card, i won't have to start from the beginning....which will be SO nice.

Some of them came out really neat looking.

I also have my July DT project for Scrapper's Delight to share with you. I used one of my pre-made cards in the picture above and paired it with the cutest digital stamp. If you've never been over there, you should visit Bugaboo stamps. They are so adorable and there is such a wide variety of styles of stamps. I chose the fat mouse and colored it in with my copics.

When I wasn't paying attention, I put the stamp on....and it came out crooked. But oh well. That just gives it the handmade look. :)

I hope everyone is having a good evening. I have to get back to what I'm doing. It's my husband's birthday today and I didn't even make him a card!! He knows what kind of stress I've been under and like the wonderful man he is, doesn't seem to mind at all. But I do have brownies in the oven that should be ready when he gets home :) So at least I did a little something, even if it was last minute.

Wednesday I am the guest designer on the Bug Bytes and I'm working on a super cute project that I'm going to finish up tomorrow!

Good night all!

Challenge Ends Aug 29th!

2010-08-28T05:56:00.000-07:00

There is still time to make a creation for the Scrapper's Delight Sweet as Candy Challenge! It ends on August 29th so be sure to visit their blog here to get your entry in. And keep in mind that I will also be choosing a winner from my own blog to someone who leaves me a link to their creation for the challenge. And since there aren't many entries, your chances of winning a new cute stamp set is pretty good! So get those entries in! I'll be back later today with a few of my latest projects :) My craft room and I have a date!

Happy crafting!

Want a chance to win a prize??

2010-08-21T19:33:00.000-07:00

It's the SWEET AS CANDY challenge on Scrapper's Delight!

If you've come here from their blog, then welcome!! To find out what this is all about, please visit their blog here. If you hop on over there, you will find links to all of the awesome project for the design team. The inspiration for the theme of this challenge comes from snacking while crafting. What do you all snack on when you craft? Personally I tend not to simply because it drives me nuts getting stuff on my fingers (like potato chip grease). Just a thing of mine anyway :)

Now, onto the project I created. For this challenge, I pondered over what to do for awhile. Many times I tend to make cards but I wanted to do something a little different. My husband's birthday is coming up next week and he LOVES Recee Cups (however you spell it) and I tend to get him a bag to go along with whatever gift I give. So, since we're thinking candy for this challenge, I decided to make him a cool container and put them in there. Here it is:

This box is 3.5"x5"x1.5". I started with an 8.5x11 sheet of cardstock and just went from there. The top is actually hinged so it's kind of like those doughnut boxes. I kept the colors similar to what would be found on the candy I was putting in it...unfortunately I did not have time to get to the store to buy candy to put in it before I had to send off my picture. The little candy corn (isn't it just adorable?!?!?) is from the cricut Mini Monsters Cartridge. BTW, there are a ton of cool cuts on that cartridge. With Halloween coming up I'm definitely going to explore some more projects with it. Other supplies I used were cardstock (from my stash and scraps....no idea what some of it is), stamps and ink are from Clear Dollar Stamps, Stickles, and the circle and scallop are some Nestabilities dies I just got and had to try out. Oh, and I used a glue pad and Martha Stewart glitter for the tag.

To be eligible for the Scrapper's Delight giveaway, you'll need to enter on their blog. I also wanted to give something away to another lucky person who follows my blog. After going through my stamps, I have an extra, brand new set of Fiskars stamps. It's a coffee/tea set that I just thought was adorable. To be eligible to win this stamp set, please leave a comment on this post with a link to your creation for the Sweet as Candy challenge. So for those participating in the challenge on the Scrapper's Delight blog, just also let me know where to find your project and you might win these stamps!

If I can make it to 100 followers, I will do another giveaway of a Cricut Cartridge. So please follow me!!!

Here are some other pictures of my project. Thank you for stopping by!

Winner of Joy's Life Stamps!

2010-08-02T17:08:00.000-07:00

It is Monday! I am sorry for the delay in posting this. I have been at work all day and have to do the mom thing when I get home. Thank you all for your patience and nice comments. I am slowly but surely making my way to 100 followers. :) It will be so exciting if I reach it and get to give something else away!

The winner of Joy's Life "Lots of Pun" stamp set is:

Mary Beth!!

mbchoj said...

What an adorable card! You used a great cart and stamp set. If I don't when will need to buy them both.Mary Beth

I will be contacting you for your information so Joy can get the stamps out to you. Thank you for everyone who played along!

From OWL of us - Thank you card

2010-07-31T20:54:00.000-07:00

First I just want to say another thank you to everyone. It was inspiring to have so many more followers and wonderful comments than I ever had before. If you haven't yet, you visit my post here where you can comment for a chance to win Joy's Life "Lots of Pun" stamp set. I'm also still hard at work trying to reach 100 followers. If/when I get there I'll choose a cricut cartridge to give away. Not sure which one yet since there are so many great options, but it'll be a good one, I promise!

I have a whole pile of thank you cards to make. Today was a big day for my son's cub scout pack as we had a huge field day. My husband and several other leaders have really been working hard for months to put all of this together and it was so successful. We're hoping it becomes an annual event. And what boy wouldn't have fun being sprayed down by the fire department? I managed to stay dry. It was an event held at our local high school and we want to send the principal a thank you card. The school donated not only the use of the field (which is typically being used for football practice at this time of year) but also the time of the school employee who had to sit with use all day. They could have made us pay his overtime but they didn't. So he'll get a thank you card too since if he hadn't been available to be there, we wouldn't have been able to use the field! Anyway....enough babbling and onto the project.

This is the card I made for the principal. This is one of the few cards I have ever done where I added almost no embellishment. It is all paper and nothing else. No ribbon, no stickles, no brads or buttons....not even a single stamp! I used the Straight From the Nest Cricut cartridge which I LOVE LOVE LOVE! The owl, the branch, and the phrase were all on the cartridge. The phrase has some very thin words on it. If I had done this over again I would definitely use a more dense cardstock. Most of the cardstock was from the DCWV Flower Shower stack. The plain textured cardstock is from Couture Cardstock. The pink was ran through my Cuttlebug using the D'vine Swirl folder. And that was it...simple simple. I even decorated the inside but forgot to take a picture of that part and its really late and I'm exhausted. Anyway, enjoy the card. :)

Overwhelmed!

2010-07-29T19:42:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe the response I've had on my blog since yesterday morning! You all are amazing. Thank you, thank you for the wonderful comments.

When I started my blog, I didn't do it to get followers, I just wanted to be a part of this fabulous community of people that enjoy crafting as much as I do. I get so much inspiration for everyone else and if I can inspire even just one person, it just makes my day!

If I get to 100 followers, I will do another giveaway....maybe a cricut cartridge?? I don't want to get ahead of myself, but secretly I do hope I get more followers and I'd love to give all of you another chance to win something.

Again, thank you for the comments and the support. It means so much to me.

Happy Crafting!

Amanda

Day 3 Joy'sLife.com Give-A-Way!

2010-07-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

Hello crafting community! I cannot believe it has been so long since I've posted a project but I suppose life does get in the way. What better way to make a come back than to be a part of the Joy'sLife.com give-a-way! Wednesday is Day Three and you could be the lucky winner of a brand new, awesome Lots of Pun stamp set!

First, here is the project I made for you all today. This was done using the Lots of Pun stamp set "cute as a bug" stamp and the Paisley cricut cartridge. The heart stamp in the background is also in the Joy's Lots of Pun stamp set. These stamps are so versatile and work well for tons of projects.

Now, onto the exciting part! Joy is going to be giving one lucky commenter on my blog a set of these stamps! All you have to do to be eligible to win is leave a comment on this post with a way to get a hold of you. I will be picking the winner with random.org on Monday, August 2nd.

For all those that do not win, you can still purchase they awesome, amazing stamps. They are high quality photopolymer and stamp beautifully. I just love them! Not to mention how cute the phrases are! These stamps will ship first class to the US and internationally or will be shipped Priority Mail. Click here and you'll be taken to Joy's site.

Again, leave me a comment on this post. Thank you for visiting and I hope everyone is having a fabulous summer!

Happy Crafting,
~Amanda

Giveaway coming soon!!

2010-07-26T19:46:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe I haven't updated this in a month!!!

Please visit me on Wednesday for the chance to win a great prize and see my newest project! Until then....

Happy Crafting!

Father's Day card

2010-06-29T06:08:00.000-07:00

Because I had so many father's day cards to make, I tried to keep them simple. I saw a shaped card like this on Emma's blog, My Creative Time. I had these adorable Bee sentiments from Papertrey Ink that I've been wanting to use so here we are....a father's day card for my DH! I should have taken a picture of the inside since I used the stamp that says "Your hive or mine?" My husband got a laugh out of it. :) And while sparklies are not very manly, I can't help but put stickles on everything!! Including this card...

Supplies used:

Paper/Cardstock from DCWV, The Paper Company, and Cardstockonline.net

Stamps used: Honey Bee sentiments from PTI; Lots of dots and bee stamp (on the inside) from Clear Dollar Stamps

Create a Critter Cricut Cartridge

Stickles!

A simple Thank You card

2010-06-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

I cannot believe it has been so long since I've posted, especially since I've made a ton of projects. June is birthday month in my family (actually everyone's birthday is in June except mine) and that combined with Father's Day (for my dad and 2 father in laws) it has been so hectic around here! My kids have been a huge help though since they've been home from school.

During the first part of June, my husband and son went on a scouting campout. He asked me to make a Thank you card for the family that allowed them to stay on their property. I needed something simple and quick since I had so much else to do this month. I decided to use this card from the Wild Card cricut cartridge. It can be easily customized with any colors for anyone and any occassion. I used blue and yellow/gold because those are cub scout colors. The tag on the front was from Tags, Bags, Boxes, & More and the stamp was from a Fiskars baby set. I used my gypsy to customize it to fit an A2 sized card and also made a matching envelope. I will definitely be using it again (in colors I like better next time)

Card for Throwback Thursday Challenge on 'My Creative Time'

2010-06-11T18:39:00.000-07:00

I have been following Emma on My Creative Time for awhile now and I was so excited when she started doing challenges! This week was about Stretch your imagination, however as you can see I didn't use that one. The challenge was to use Red, blue, and brown. Here's what came to mind while I was going through my brand new Wall Decor & More cartridge. I made a card that actually has quite a bit of dimension and lots of layers, and trust me, looks MUCH better in person. I did some techniques on this card (like wet embossing and inking on the edges of the waves as well as decorating the inside (which is not pictured at the moment). Anyway, supplies used are paper/cardstock (all scraps so I have no idea what was what), embossing pad and heat gun, Wall Decor and More cricut cartridge, white gel pen, brown marker and lots of glue!

Happy Crafting!

Bee Mine Card with "Lots of Pun" stamp set from Joy's Life

2010-06-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

I am so thrilled to be given the opportunity to work with Joy's stamps. They are awesome! The stamped images came out so clear you would have thought I printed them on my printer! "Lots of Pun" is full of cute, adorable phrases that go perfectly with the Create a Critter Cricut cartridge, however, I must say I can think of about a hundred more uses for them with other cartridges. For my first project I created this card. I just love the Bee on the Create a Critter cartridge. The card base is from the Elephant button phrase feature. I welded two of them together. The rainbow is also from this same cartridge on the sun button. Cardstock is from several places including DCWV and My Mind's Eye. I added a bow and lots of Stickles....I LOVE Stickles!

If you want, you can buy these stamps here. You won't be disappointed!

Handmade Birthday Gift

2010-05-31T20:36:00.000-07:00

I had a really great weekend! I got to take lots of pictures of my niece. I miss babies being that small. Oliver no longer will sit still for me, but here's a couple pictures of them. I just LOVE the lens I got for my birthday. It really does well.

Here also are what I created. I made the box myself. It was a 6x6x1.5 box that I filled with goodies for my sister to scrapbook with. I used a lot of blue and orange because she likes those colors. The extra colors I added came out a little funky but it was a learning experience. :) I also made the card using the Straight From the Nest Cricut Cartridge.

Exciting news and a Giveaway!!

2010-05-27T14:25:00.000-07:00

I was so completely thrilled this week when I found out that I had been selected to be a Joy's Life Featured Designer! I will soon be creating away with her new stamp set "Lots of Pun". They are too too cute and go great with the Create a Critter cricut cartridge. They can also be used in all kinds of other ways and my head is just spinning with ideas! Here's what they look like:

Aren't they just adorable???? Oh I just can't wait to get my hands on them. You can get your hands on them too! Joy is celebrating 300,000 hits on her blog and is giving away one of these "Lots of Pun" stamp sets! All you have to do is follow this link for the giveaway. If you aren't one of the lucky winners, you can also purchase her stamp set by following this link. If you go to her product site you'll also notice she's going to have a DVD on using vinyl with the Cricut. I am SUPER ecstatic about that!!! I can't wait to buy it!

Later this week I'll have a cute project to post but can't do it yet in case the person that it is intended for reads this :)

Tweet Day!

2010-05-26T11:28:00.000-07:00

I don't often enter things with my cards but I saw this sketch on Card Patterns and thought it was just so cute.

Here is my card:

Digi stamp and sentiment are from AiFactory. White cardstock from Papertrey Ink. All other cardstock and patterned paper from DCWV. I colored it in with my copic markers and added some buttons and ribbon and viola!

Birthday goodies!

2010-05-24T17:46:00.000-07:00

Since life if finally starting to slow down a bit I actually have a chance to post about these! My daughter wanted something special for goodies for her overnight guests and after she saw the video on http://www.mypinkstamper.com/ using the Forever Young cartridge to make a purse with cards we knew that's what we wanted to do. Since I do not have that cartridge, I turned to my trusty Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. I wanted to make 3x3 cards with envelopes to go in the bags so I used my Gypsy to manipulate the bag to accomodate a square card, rather than a rectangle. I also used the Create a Critter cartridge for the cute flowers on the front. I ran the blue cardstock through my Cuttlebug using the Swiss Dots folder and I think that helped dress it up a little. The cards were all made basically from scraps that I had. The stamps on them are from Clear Dollar Stamps and the sentiments were from Papertrey Ink. It was a lot of work putting them together but I think they came out pretty cute :)

Mother's Day cards

2010-05-14T11:41:00.000-07:00

Now that my cards have been distributed I can finally post them!

For both my mom and my mother in law I made a special card with a matching CD case that contained a CD of our family pictures. I think they both turned out so cute! I am especially proud of my little owl card.

Birthday Invitation

2010-05-12T18:31:00.000-07:00

Well they are done. I finally made time the other night and made the invitations for my daughter's birthday party which is next Friday, the 21st. Now I need to get busy on her party favors and buying all of the other stuff we're going to need :)

This was a really simple card. I didn't want anything complicated since I had to make several of them. All of the cardstock is from the DCWV Flower Shower stack which I am just in love with. I love how they all coordinate together. I used the Create a critter cartridge (my favorite of course) for the bird. I was lucky to find that I had some ink that actually matched the paper. Woohoo! I love it when things work. And I just threw the orange ribbon in there for a bright color. My daughter just loved them. She couldn't hand them out fast enough and she's even more excited that we have 2 confirmed guests so far. What was I thinking allowing a sleepover of a bunch of pre-teen girls????? I must be out of my mind.....

But here's the card :)

Projects coming

2010-05-11T18:22:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately my mom and MIL have not yet seen their cards so I cannot post them yet. But tomorrow I will have my daugher's birthday invitations!! I also realized I did not take a picture of my circle journal before I mailed it. Ugh.....Oh well....tomorrow's another day. And I can always take pictures of it when it comes back around to me :)

Card and Journal

2010-05-07T06:20:00.000-07:00

Sadly, this is one of the projects that kept me busy earlier this week. A week ago, a good friend of mine lost her mother. While it wasn't unexpected, it is still sad and my prayers are with her and her family. Her favorite colors are green and blue so I made her a card and a journal since she likes to write.

For the journal, it another altered composition book. I used a cut on the Graphically Speaking cartridge to make the background. The cardstock is from My Mind's Eye. The oval and scallop are from Gypsy Wanderings and for her name I used the Gypsy font which I first welded together and then welded into the oval. For the cardstock dimensions for covering the book, please see my previous post here. I then added the ribbon, which at midnight was very hard to tie!

I also made a card using the same colors. For this one I decided to try something different. It is a brayer technique I saw on Robyn's (My Pink Stamper) blog. It was one of her older videos. Can you believe I did not use the cricut to make this card? I myself was shocked :) To do this technique, I used glossy cardstock, a spectrum ink pad (these are pretty expensive but I bought mine used on ebay. I got all 12 sets for less than $20 and they work fabulous! Totally beat paying $10 a piece for new ones), stamps (I used a set of circles from Clear Dollar Stamps), a black inkpad (I used the Perfect Match Hybrid Pad from Papertrey Ink), a Versa Mark pad, and a brayer. I discovered I need a better brayer. You can see Robyn's blog for instructions....I'm in a hurry this morning because I have a little one that doesn't feel good. So I made the background, trimmed it down chose another stamp from Stampendous for the image on the front.

Time to go! Happy crafting everyone!

An Altered Journal

2010-05-04T18:22:00.000-07:00

This was the project I posted yesterday on Pam's blog TheBugBytes. I haven't had a chance to get the cut file yet. Been really really busy!

I have been making a lot of cards lately and wanted to do something different. I had several composition journals sitting around and my daughter wanted to know if she could have one, so I decided to make her a journal. The cartridges I used for this project were Home Accents and Home Decor. Here's what I started with:

Paper/Cardstock (I used a combination of cardstock from My Mind's Eye, DCWV, and The Paper Studio.

a Composition Book
Scor Tape
Trimmer
Mono Adhesive
ATG Gun
(and of course my Gypsy and Cricut!)

I started by cutting down the paper I was going to use for the cover and binding. The front and back cover pieces were trimmed to 9.75" x 7" and the piece for the binding was 9.75" x 3". I put Scor Tape on the pieces. I then stuck them to the book and trimmed the corners. And this is the result:

After that it was time for the fun part! I started in my Gypsy with 12x12 mat and got a rectangle from the Plantin Schoolbook cart. This was simply so that I could see how everything out fit on my notebook. My daughter is a huge fan of butterflies so when I saw the butterfly on the Home Accents cart I knew I wanted to use that. I also liked the corner flourishes. Since she is a daydreamer, I also picked out the words "dream" and "imagine". On the Home Decor cart she wanted to use the star and also the words explore. I then separated the images so I could cut them. The main images were on one page and the shadows on another. (I was having lighting problems so one of the pictures is a screenshot from DS)

And here is what my mats looked like.

After I had cut them out, i noticed a few cutting problems. I had to go back and recut the "dream" and "imagine" shadow and image. I ended up putting in the cartridge in my cricut and cutting them so that I could adjust the speed because the paper kept tearing. But I finally got it. Then, when I finally was ready to assemble the book, I decided the butterfly was too big and that the journal was looking to cluttered. So....I ended up only using the corner flourishes, butterfly, and "dream". And here is the end result:

I was pretty happy with it and my daughter was ecstatic (which is all that really matters).

I hope you enjoyed my project! I will have it up on my blog later today along with the gypsy file. Have a good day everyone and happy crafting!

~Amanda

National Scrapbook Day!

2010-04-30T20:57:00.000-07:00

That's right! It's National Scrapbook Day! And what better way to celebrate than with a challenge? :)

My challenge for you today is to make a layout and incorporate a mosaic. It doesn't matter what sketch you use for the layout. And post a link in the comments to your layout. I'd LOVE to see it!!

You can also participate in other challenges and games being done by other design team members on Scrappers Delight.

Here is my layout :) Sorry its a little blurry. It's close to midnight, I'm exhausted and I dont' have good light in here :)

Happy Crafting!!

Gate fold butterfly card

2010-04-30T18:49:00.000-07:00

I tried something new with this card. There was a challenge on the Scrapper's Delight site for creating a card that was NOT a square or rectangle. So here's mine :) It is the card I made for my daughter's 11th birthday (boy am I getting old). It was really hard to photograph, but it is sized to fit in an A2 envelope. If I had to do it over, I'd do it bigger for sure. This butterfly was the one from the Create a critter cricut cartridge and the stamps inside are from Fiskars. The paper is all DCWV. I used the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder on the inside of the wings and also decided to add some stickles and white stitching. The ribbon was not what I had intended to use by my bigger hole punch broke, I only had the tiny one so I just used a tiny ribbon. I also made her a coordinating envelope to go with it. The wings are actually super sparkly even though you can't tell in the picture :)

A birthday card and exciting announcement!

2010-04-29T11:34:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, in addition to it being Derby Day, I am celebrating Breezy and Joey's birthdays with my family. I made cards for both kids and they turned out so cute. Do you have any idea how hard it is to make boy themed stuff?? It seems that craft things in general are catered to girls so I did the best I could. I used the Paisley cartridge to get the zebra in the car and the flame on it came from the Graphically Speaking cartridge. The numbers are the Roly Poly font on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge. Cardstock was from DCWV. The stamp is a Fiskars stamp. The inside of the card says "let the good times roll!" although I didn't get a picture of that.

I'll post the card I made for my daughter tomorrow. It too came out so cute!

Now, my exciting announcement! I need to say a big THANK YOU to Pam @ The Bug Bytes for letting me be a designer on her blog! The other ladies selected are so talented so be sure to head over to her blog and follow it. My project will be posted there on Monday. When I first got my gypsy I learned so much from her site. There are so many great tips and tricks and I am so excited to be on the design team!

April DT projects for Scrappers Delight

2010-04-26T18:53:00.000-07:00

This has been a whirlwind of a month. I had every intention of doing projects every week that would be Mother's Day themed....well, it just hasn't worked out that way. It took me this long just to finish my DT projects and I still have a few things I need to get together. I'm totally excited to be a part of a circle journal! Can't wait to be able to send that off. And this week is also busy with party planning as we are celebrating both my older two childrens' birthdays on Saturday....which also happens to be the Kentucky Derby (and that's a big deal around here in KY). And of course there is also National Scrapbook Day...busy busy. So anyway, on with the projects :) I decided to make 2 cards again. AiFactory is an awesome sponsor and provided us with some really cute images! If I get time this week, I'm going to use the ballerina to make an altered journal for my daughter. I think she'd really like it. But for now, I made a circle card and matching envelope. I will have to admit that when it comes to boxes and envelopes, I really don't like the DCWV cardstock. it just does not fold well. But I wanted it to match the card so.....

Image is from AiFactory

Sentiment stamps from Papertrey Ink

Cardstock from DCWV and Papertrey Ink

Copic markers

Wild Card cricut cartridge

This card is a window card:

Image is from AiFactory

Sentiment Stamp from See D's

Gypsy Wanderings cricut cartridge

Fiskars border punch

Copic markers

stickles

ribbon from cheapribbons.com

I have been busy designing away today and can't wait to share the projects I'm working on.

Happy crafting!

Gypsy update!

2010-04-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

Ok now that the site has finally let me update my Gypsy it is absolutely fabulous!!! I linked all the cartridges I have (only 30....not the over 100 many people have) and I started designing. The thing i would have to say I like the best so far is that when using some of the cartridges with cards on them (Stretch Your Imagination for example), even though the main image was not designed to be layered onto it, the software on the gypsy makes it so easy to tweek the main image exactly to fit on top of the card. I may have to do my first video showing that....I've done it on several designs already and its so super simple.

I have decided to theme all of my projects for this month for Mother's Day. It's coming up in a month and I've already done Spring (BTW it feels more like summer in KY) so Mother's Day it is! I need to try out some new techniques so I will have at least one new project a week. This week is a little tight because my husband and I are doing some extensive remodelling while the kids are away for Spring break but by this weekend I will definitely have something up! I hope everyone's having a great day!!

New Gypsy owner here!

2010-04-05T06:19:00.000-07:00

I was so excited to come back from my Easter weekend with my family to find a package on my porch. My new GYPSY!!! Of course I immediately opened it. I haven't had too much time to play around with it yet as I have all the laundry to do from when we took our trip but it is definitely in the plan for today! So far, I LOVE IT!

On a side note, when I was trying to decide what Cricut Cartridges I wanted for my birthday I learned something interesting from the Creative Critters Cricut Club blog. Did anyone else know that ProvoCraft now has the handbooks digitally online?? How awesome is that?! So now when I wanted to know what I wanted, a cartridge that I thought might be just a font on the outside, I can see actually has all kinds of stuff on it making it worth it to buy! YAY! Yes, I am completely excited about this....partly because I have a few cartridges that I really don't use much because they weren't what I thought they were. On the other hand, there are cartridges that I now want that I didn't know were so versatile. And I have finally racked up enough reward points to get two free cartridges...so what am I doing? Looking at the handbooks of the free ones to see which ones I want. I'm thinking Paper Pups may be one....any thoughts out there?

Create-a-Critter!

2010-04-02T21:17:00.000-07:00

I was SO excited today when the mail came. I have a new Cricut cartridge and I think it is by far my favorite!!! The Create-a-critter cartridge has a ton of cute images and phrases on it. There is so much I can do with this! I made a few of the animals a few minutes ago. They were so just so stinking cute I couldn't help myself. Tomorrow I am off to spend the weekend with my parents and I'm so excited about our egg decorating contest. Hopefully I'll win since my egg is going to be adorable (I hope). I'll post pictures of the eggs after the weekend. Happy Easter everyone! And PS...I ordered a Gypsy. With any luck I'll have it one day next week. I can't wait to make something with it! Here's a picture of the critters I put together tonight. Yes my gluing was sloppy but its midnight!

Scrapper's Delight Easter Blog Hop!

2010-03-27T21:27:00.000-07:00

It's here! It's the Scrapper's Delight first birthday! In celebration of this and of the Easter Holiday, we are holding this blog hop (details are below my project). You should have arrived here from Lori's blog. If so you are on the right path! If not and you're lost, please go to the Scrapper's Delight Blog to start at the beginning. We'd hate for you to miss anything!

For my project, I felt inspired to make my own Easter baskets! This actually did not take that long to put together once I figured out what I was doing. It is the perfect size to hold a couple of plastic eggs with candy and some grass! I think it turned out so cute!

For this project, I used MANY things. The basket itself and fencing was from an SVG template. I don't remember where I bought it now.

Cardstock from Bazzill and cardstock online

Cricut cartridges I used were Plantin Schoolbook, Stretch Your Imagination, Walk in my Garden, and Doodlecharms.

Copic Markers

Chalk

Peachy Keen Stamps

Flowers from Prima and Blue Hills Studios

Stickles, Brads and Ribbon

There is some great blog candy up for grabs!

In order to have a chance at winning this candy, you must follow our blog hop collecting the letters from the eggs lost by the Easter Bunny. Once you've reached the last blog and collected all the letters (some blogs may have 2), unscramble them to reveal a well-known children's character. Please also work out which famous children's book the character appeared in. Following the link from the last blog, post your comment on our main Design Team blog with your answers with a link back to your blog so we may contact the winners. While there, please also sign up for the Scrapper's Delight group as we have many giveaways, monthly swaps, and challenges going on. The hop will close on April 4, 2010 and the winners will be announced on the 5th.

The next stop on the hop is Rebecca's blog! When you're ready, continue the fun!!

Coming Soon to Blog Near You!

2010-03-26T14:06:00.000-07:00

Sunday to be exact! It's the Scrapper's Delight Easter Blog Hop! I am almost finished with my project and from the sneak peeks I've seen from other designers there are going to be tons of great projects shown. You'll also have a chance to win some great blog candy! (pictures below) Hope you'll join us!

Congrats to new grads!

2010-03-22T17:53:00.000-07:00

This card was made and inspired by all those becoming graduates this spring. Congratulations to all of those people on their accomplishment!

Image: Brentwood Graduation from Jessica Lynn Originals

Cardstock: DCWV Latte stack
Copic markers
Stickles
Brads
Ribbon from Cheap Ribbons.com
Sentiment stamp from See D's
Prima Flowers

Thankful for our Military

2010-03-22T10:44:00.000-07:00

This card was created for the Design Team on Scrapper's Delight. I live near Fort Knox, KY. At the hospital there, they have a division called the Wounded Warrior unit, where soldiers that sustained severe injuries go to recover because they cannot be sent home yet. Many times it is lonely for them because their families are not local. As part of a scout service project, we make cards for these soldiers just to let them know someone cares. I was inspired to use this image from Jessica Lynn Originals to make a card for these soldiers.

Image: Vet from Jessica Lynn Originals
Cardstock and paper: various sources included Cardstock Online, Paper and More, Karen Foster The Great Outdoors paper pack, DCWV
Sentiment Stamp from Clear Dollar Stamps (I highly recommend checking out this website for stamps. They are awesome and so reasonably priced)
Copic Markers
Stickles
Creative Memories Square Paper punches

March DT projects

2010-03-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Done and coming soon! I need to take pictures of them. :)

Scrapper's Delight DT projects

2010-02-17T20:03:00.000-08:00

Below are the projects I created for the Scrapper's Delight Design Team. Our February sponsor is Jessica Lynn Originals and they are such adorable stamps! Check them out!

For my first card, I used the Happy Birthday Owl.
Cardstock came from www.paperandmore.com
Patterned Paper from My Mind's Eye
I also used an A2 embossing folder from Sizzix on the blue cardstock
Ribbon from American Crafts
Stamp from Jessica Lynn Originals and colored with Copic markers
Flowers and buttons from Making Memories

For card 2, I worked on a Valentine Card for my husband. This owl was just perfect.

Cardstock from www.paperandmore.com
Patterned paper from My Mind's Eye
Stamp from Jessica Lynn Originals and colored with Copic markers
Ribbon from American Crafts
Heart brads from Making Memories

For my third project, I made a scrapbook layout that will go into my new neice's scrapbook. (I made my sister a scrapbook for her new daughter) This page will be toward the end for pictures of her first birthday.

Cardstock - Bazzill and DCWV
Stamp - Pinata from Jessica Lynn Originals
Border embossing folder (Cuttlebug)
Cricut cartridge A Word Party
Offray Ribbon from Joann's
Copic markers
Stickles in various colors

Card with Sassy Cheryl's stamp

2010-02-17T19:40:00.000-08:00

This digi stamp was so cute I just had to make a card with it. The white cardstock is GP from Walmart and the colored is from Bazzill. Patterned Paper is from a My Mind's Eye paper pack, ribbon is from American Crafts. I colored the stamp with Colored Pencils, and the stamp is a sentiment from the Clear Dollar Stamps "Cherish" set.

Spring LO

2010-02-17T06:44:00.000-08:00

I was feeling rather springy while the kids were off for some snow days, so I made a LO to get into the spirit. I used the Walk in my garden Cricut cartridge. The flowers and brads are from Making Memories. I added some Stickles to the die cut flowers and my copic markers on the "Smile". And after seeing my pictures I need to work on some editing before I post them. The white balance needs to be fixed! :)

Halloween LO for Kaylee

2010-02-12T21:39:00.000-08:00

This is another LO I made for Kaylee's scrapbook. I was looking forward to seeing her this weekend but unfortunately the snow is prohibiting those plans. This is what I made for Halloween. Each square lifts up to put a picture of Kaylee of journaling. Tomorrow I will post the 11 month layout I made. :)

Ten Month Layout

2010-02-10T19:05:00.000-08:00

This is another piece of the scrapbook for my neice Kaylee and my sister. My sister really likes butterflies so I made the ones on this page sparkly :) The background paper is actually purple but the picture makes it look blue. Oh well.

Nine month layout for Kaylee

2010-02-09T17:26:00.000-08:00

In December, I became an aunt for the first time! YAY! So, in honor of that and to make my sister a special gift for Christmas, I decided to make her a one year scrapbook for Kaylee. The bad part is I didn't get it all done before Christmas so when I gave it to her, I only had through 8 months done. This past weekend I was able to finish several of the layouts to add to her book when I go to Dayton this weekend. Here is the 9 month layout I made. Patterned paper is from DCWV and My Mind's Eye. Cardstock was from paperandmore.com and I used the Plantin Schoolbook Cricut Cartridge to cut the circles and the letters.

Valentine Cards

2010-02-06T19:58:00.000-08:00

My kids decided that they wanted to make their Valentine Cards this year for all their classmates. I was excited about this of course because I simply LOVE to make things. Both of them were very creative. The only stipulation I had was the use of the red paper (because I have TONS of it and it needs to get used up). They picked out all the other elements and put the cards together. All I did was some stamping. I think they did such a great job and I am so proud of my munchkins!

Blue & Gold Invitation

2010-02-02T05:39:00.001-08:00

Blue & Gold Invitation
Originally uploaded by amp41080

For those involved in Cub Scouts, the annual Blue and Gold Banquet is a big deal! This year I volunteered to make all the invitations for the families and guests. I decided to keep it simple since I'm making 50 of them. The background was embossed with the fleur de lis cuttlebug A2 folder. The larger fleur de lis was made using the Sweethearts Cricut cartridge. The tag is stamped with "you're invited" and I used just a touch of waterfall Stickles for some bling. I really like how it came out. The paper is actually gold metallic so it looks much better in person.

About Me

2009-10-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

If it isn't obvious already, I have a serious paper addiction! Literally I visit scrapbook stores and online stores ALL the time looking for deals on paper....and honestly I probably have more paper than I'll ever know what to do with.

I began scrapbooking and paper crafting about four years ago, but it was in December 2008 that it truly became an obsession. I was pregnant and home on bedrest with nothing better to do than use my laptop to peruse the internet. It wasn't long before I was spending my days watching videos on youtube of various crafting and stamping techniques. The rest, as they say, is history.

I started this blog as a way to share my passion for scrapbooking and share the techniques I've learned with you. I'm all about doing things as simply as possible, and especially about using paper.

On a personal level, I'm a mom to three great kids. Brianna is my oldest and she's 12. She's following in my footsteps and also loves scrapbooking and cardmaking (yes, she even has her own cricut). My son Joey is 11 and then my youngest, named Oliver, is 2. The boys are boys and they keep the house lively. I'm married to the most awesome man....he has to be to put up with this kind of craft addiction right? I just love him to pieces and am so grateful to God everyday for bringing him into my life. I work for the Department of Veterans Affairs in the Fiduciary Program.

If you have any questions at all, leave a comment on a post or feel free to email me. :) I'd love to hear from you.

Videos

2009-10-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

UNDER CONSTRUCTION