A little update

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

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!

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!

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:

1. Leave a comment on this post and
2. Be a follower of this blog
3. 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

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!!

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.