Altered hoop

This is NOT my usual style but I sure had fun making it. I hope it's happy in its new home (should be there by the time this goes live LOL). This is a six inch embroidery hoop, painted, inked, and misted a LOT! The heart is a wooden dimensional one that I used a misting stencil, crackle paint and spray mist on. Lots of spray ink on the background. Those butterflies they are punched from Jilli bean soup packaging! You know I have to up cycle! What do you think? Would you hang this in your home?!

Stationary box

So I saw this idea on Pin interest somewhere. I can't find it now sorry! I have TONS of tins in my organizing stash so this was a perfect idea to make for a good friend who sends LOTS of cards. I think I will also make one for each of the Great Grandparents as they still believe in handwriting cards too and I love getting them, so why not encourage that? LOL!
This is the top. I cut various pattern paper and card stock to size, added some bling, letters, flowers, pearls and LOTS of ribbon. This thing is also glimmer misted to within an inch of its life! It is very sparkly!
A side few. I tried to dye the blue handle to a more green with the limited alcohol inks I have but that was not a great success so ribbon works! There is sheer polka dotted ribbon, textured green ribbon, and gross grain wide ribbon! LOTS of ribbon! I finished up TWO rolls on this and half a roll of what I had left of Scor Tape!

Inside. I covered the top and bottom panels with pattern paper. A vellum envelope with ribbon and letter stickers to hold her postage stamps, a pen, pencil, some magnets and of course post it notes on the top. The inside holds pre-made cards/envies (as she rocks the cards and I was NOT going to try to top her!), scotch tape, some shipping tags, and paperclips (mounted on a magnet strip). I sure hope she can use it, and likes it! So there you go stationary/writing/cards all in one pretty box that latches closed!

CKCB Family

Good morning. This morning I am here to share the page kit I made up for CKCB this month. My theme was FAMILY. I was to put together just enough for ONE page and find a sketch. I can't wait to see what you make with it!

sketch from Scrapbooks Etc 005

SoCal Scrapbooks: Cookies for Santa

Just a quick post to share a layout I did a few days ago using the Echo Park Holly Jolly Christmas collection that the wonderful Sandy at SoCal Scrapbooks sent me to work with. As you all know my personal scrapping has been beaten up by the baby sickness but that is OK, it will be worth it. I usually don't use this many "busy" patterns but I think it looks fun. I would love to see anything you have made using this collection!

Project Life WEEK THREE

This week (Jan15 to Jan22) was filled with doctors appointments, Tot Rock blizzard fun, staying home (mommy was sick), and ice/snow filled weekend. We got to see Baby Butler and all is well with the genetic testing thus far YAY! C got to use her Target gift card from her b day for a talking Dora Backpack (help me LOL!). This was her reward for adjusting her behavior in the bath, it is no longer WWIII! C drew a picture of me and put the baby in my tummy! I LOVE THIS! The internet blackout happened, Daddy made cupcakes and C sniped one, lots of fun in the snow/ice; and more. I did not do as well with pictures but I knew I had lots of memorabilia to add, some was not day specific so I filed it back for fillers later on in the year. What about you? how are you doing on PL so far?

Excited!!!!!

Good afternoon all! I am so excited to share some good news with you! I am honored that I was asked to join the first ever Momenta D-lite team! I will be reviewing products, giving input and designing/sharing with all of you! How cool is that!?!?!

Because Momenta rocks they are offering a FREE sample of their Design Your Own Stickers to anyone in the U.S/Canada!!! How fun right? All you have to do is send an email to social@mymomenta.com with your postal mailing address and they will send you a random pack to try. Here is a tutorial using the printer but I bet you could just color/stamp/ink/mist them too, I am excited to try them out as well! Have a fantastic day!!!

Filler page-Project Life

Very quick share today. This is the first page of the 2012 project life album since I did a traditional 12X12 page for the title page, I had extra space. This is ALL based in the PL kit. I added some puffy thickers, a few little blings, and small letters.

Project Life-Week TWO

So here is week TWO for me. I took these pictures the same time as week one, so any tips would be very helpful.

This week we had our first snow that stuck (for less than 12 hours btw which really upset C!), C asked for big girl cereal for once, my living room is filled with toys (which I am sure I will miss one day), and we had lots of tea parties and a double baby shower. I have MORE pictures for each week so far so that is good, right?

Bling with a twist

Bling. You love it, you hoard it but have you really tried to use it differently on your projects? Well that is the challenge today at CKCB! I can't wait to see what you do with it! Today I decided to make a little notebook for a friend. It is very "blingy" but most of the uses are my everyday uses, except for the SEQUINS! Yep that is right, SEQUINS!

I stole the sequins from Caitlyn's stash (ssshhh don't tell her). I had to punch bigger holes in them to save my sanity. Then I simply strung them in a pattern along some twine (added to my kit). Mini glue dots help to ensure they do not move all over the place. What do you think? If you have used sequins before let me know how since we have a TON of these now LOL!
Now for the back I wanted a little something different, she will be using this for list making so I wanted to include a pen. This is my try at that. I let Caitlyn swing this thing around for a little bit and it did not fall off so hopefully it will stay put for a while. All I did was punch two holes in the center, threaded some ribbon and tied TIGHTLY three times! I hope she likes it and can use it!

Project Life-Week ONE

Yes so I am SO going to have to work on taking pictures of these things. Any tips? YIKES! Here is my first week, its a 2 page spread with the right side being a 6X12 and three 4X6 slots, an 8.5X11 page protector in the middle and a six 4X6 vertical sheet on the left. I have decided to just use what I have on hand for page protectors as I was hearing/reading horrible things about the PL ones AND I did not want to get behind. I know me if I get too behind I will just chuck the whole project. So here is week one. I used mostly patterned paper from the turquoise kit I bought, and a few odds and end scraps from the scrap drawer. I am going SIMPLE on this one. What do you think?

Another small redo in the C.C

Creative cavern, yep that is what the sign says LOL! I redid the decorations on the top of my black/brown Expedit and finally added four layouts (that had not gotten in an album yet) to my display. Again thanks to my wonderful hubby since I am vertically challenged! I hope to rotate things out on the top of the shelf but we will see how I keep up with that! You will notice that my colors are of course blue/brown and accented with white, Gerber daisies and glass. So far this is the only place I can keep glass items away from C's hands! There are various things people have made me that fit the colors, a few things I altered, and the best thing is the light up SHMILY (see how much I love you) sign that hubby made me for Valentines day a few years back. It's a game we play and pretty important to our marriage. I love it. Better than flowers any day!

New additions to my creative cavern

I have had these dollar store/hobby lobby white paper lanterns in my decorating stash since before we moved from the old house. I knew I wanted to hang them somewhere in the house but after doing most of the decorating they just did not fit the theme anymore. :( SO what is a girl to do with SIX paper lanterns? Well alter them of course! I used tons of spray ink, chalk ink and more from my CKCB kit (and a few extras) and was very random about it (very hard for me!). I love how they came out though. Five adorn my corner above my homemade clip it up and one graces me from under my homemade Create Memories sign that one of my Soldiers made for me before I left the Army. I think they look fabulous and really fill that empty awkward space in the corner. What do you think?

First step, while they were drying.
In the corner hung up by my awesome hubby!
Closeup.
My beautiful sign that I will treasure always.

Goals, Resoultions, Challenges-Counterfeit Style

Good Monday morning. I hope you are warm and safe where you are. Anyone have any snow yet? Not here just yet to the utter dismay of my little one.

Today I am here to share the FIRST challenge with COUNTERFEIT KIT for the new year. And how else would we start this NEW year off then with projects about goals, resolutions and challenges then with a challenge all about them? Well how else would you? LOL!

The challenge, if you should accept it, make a layout/project sharing your goals, resolutions, challenges, or even a list of things you want to do this year. It can be ONE thing or a million it is up to you. With a picture or without, again all up to you. Please link it up over at CKCB so I can leave you some love if you chose to accept this first challenge!

Here is my take. This page is VERY out of my norm for me when I scrap for me. Now I do create/scrap for others in this style often but NOT for myself personally. I wanted to make my own background paper and dug out a little 6X6 Crafters Workshop template to use with the mists in my original kit. I did add the white thickers, as I totally forgot to add letters to my counterfeit kit this month (pregnancy brain!). What do you think? My goals were simple: Enjoy, Relax and let go of yesterday, live for today, and dream for tomorrow (pretty appropriate with the Cocoa Daisy stamp huh? ) What are your goals/challenges/lists or resolutions? Did you write them down? Will you scrap them? Will you display them? I can't wait to see what you are working on this year. Until next time.....

Baby Shower times two

I recently co-hosted a double baby shower for two of the to be mommies in my MOMS group. It was chaotic, loud but fun. Here are a few of the things I made. I forgot to get pictures of the "pin the diaper on the baby" game we set up for the kids. But it was just a fit to page cut of a New Arrival (cricut) crawling baby and diapers to match. Of course I prettied up the baby a bit but nothing huge. For part of each Moms gift I made a 12X12 name frame. One Mom had not decided on her new baby's name so I made the big sisters name and will make a matching one for baby when they decide. The other is for the new baby. I hope they liked them.


The other small thing I made were "Mom to be" pins, just because. I bought the decorations and it was pot luck style so that was nice. I hope they had fun, their trunks were full! YAY!

Awesome deal-Walgreens printing

ALL PRINTS AT WALGREENS can be SIXTY PERCENT OFF until Saturday January 14, 2012. Use the code PRINTS60. Have fun!

I am late to the game-flowers

Yep. As usual I am a bit late on the uptake of "trends". I made these quickly tonight for someone (who is probably reading this!). I sure hope he/she likes them. They are made from coffee filters, white embossing powder, background stamps and lots of ink/bling. Some of them I am happier with than others. He/She will only be getting SOME of these so at least there is still THAT surprise. I hope they like them, for my first attempt at flowers what do you think?
Please excuse the stained mat and off colors, they are NOT as dark in real life, but I quickly snapped this in the Creative Cavern aka our basement LOL!

My Project Life setup/space

Here is what I came up with. Now remember I am carrying a small coupon organizer in my purse to stuff all the random bits and pieces of our life, and each week will dump it out and recycle what does not make it into the album. This is a little corner next to my laptop.

In the Iris container you will find all the stamps, letters, extra scraps/journal cards I want to incorporate this year.

In the wooden box (that my wonderful hubby made me!) is HALF of the Turquoise and HALF of the Clementine kit, along with a white pen, journaling pen, regular ink pen, post it notes and two date stamps (one smash and one regular). This also holds a good assortment of the title cards, filler cards, stickers, and bi fold cards. It is a good mish mash. When I start to run low, I can restock from the rest of the items I have stored in the original box.

The pink/orange expandable file is for that artwork/creations and bits/baubles that don't fit in the coupon organizer. So far so good, except I need some page protectors. I have my pictures edited, cropped and labeled on my computer. My journaling is done. My bits and bobs need to be sorted but there was not that much from this week. In the winter we tend to stick close to home and do a lot of lounging/playing indoors.

CKCB-First annual Kit Blog Hop!

Happy New Year! How is 2012 treating you thus far? I hope you had a great memory making holiday season and you are getting back into the swing of things with this new year.You should be reaching me through our wonderful Guest Designer Van Nguyen .
With the new year come a few changes at Counterfeit Kit Blog, the first being our Designer blog hop is now going to be on the sixth of the month showcasing our counterfeited kits. This month we copied the amazing Cocoa Daisy kits (there were several but I choose to work with two below).
I must admit I have a little bit of a head start as I am a stamp subscriber to them. I choose to copy Amber Snowflake and Snowflakes and Sunshine (I think that is the title). I was drawn to the cool tones, snowflakes of course and all the little details. Here is how I made it my own:
I choose to go with various shades of blue, glitter paper (a new thing for me) some brown-yellow and basic patterns. My main embellishment was of course snowflakes, felt, metal, shiny and glittered. I am calling my January kit "Frozen Hot Chocolate". I hope to use it in my project Life and everyday albums. I think it will work well for our winter photos if we ever get any snow. Thanks for joining me and I can't wait to see how you copy this kit and start off 2012 with a kick! Next on your stop is the great Glinda. And just in case you get lost here is a master list of our order:

Guest Designer: Van Nguyen http://likethecar.blogspot.com/

Crystal http://crystalscraftycreations.blogspot.com/

Glinda http://razzledscrapper.blogspot.com/

Helen http://craftimperfect.blogspot.com/

Jemma http://just-jimjams.blogspot.com/

Jen http://mypair-a-dice.blogspot.com/

Julie Ann http://julieannshahin2.blogspot.com/

Kim http://lovejoyscrap.blogspot.com/

Lisa http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com/

Margie http://scrappinmargie.blogspot.com/

Milissa http://millermall.blogspot.com/

Rebecca http://howiburb.blogspot.com/

Susanne http://www.snapsandsnippets.blogspot.com/

Bethany http://inspiredscrapper-bethany.blogspot.com/

Meridy http://www.meridy77.blogspot.com/

Green love

Something sweet, little and green (again!) I made. I hope when it gets to its new home it will be loved. I started with a small 4X4 green canvas that I scored for 66% off at HL after Christmas and went from there. I even broke out my sparkling chalks from 2004, that was BEFORE I was seriously scrapping (like two years before!). I like the subtle bling they give it though. I did a lot of stamping and cutting on this one too. I was blessed with several Unity stamp sets for Christmas from my MIL and Mom so I want to make sure I use them! What do you think?

small and green

If you are anything like me, you ALWAYS forget at least ONE birthday a year (or more?). Well this year I was determined it was not going to happen so I made myself one of these little beauties. Super simple, and small enough to keep in your purse or in a stationary box or really wherever. Each month has one little page (about 3X5) with the dates and blank lines to write your loved ones names. There is a plastic paperclip to keep track of the month, I try to work a month in advance (but am already behind!).

Project Life-Title Page

So I decided to do this for many reasons this year. One because it is our first year in the new house. Two because we are expecting our second little one in July. Three because I don't want to get behind, and finally because I thought it was a neat concept. I will be doing it different than intended, it will be a weekly or sometimes monthly review, of all the little moments. I WANT to journal daily and would LIKE seven pictures from the week but if it does not happen that is just fine by me. I ordered the Turquoise Core kit, some digital journal cards, and Design B page protectors. I would love to get some Design A when they come in stock too. I am using an Aqua We R Memory Keepers faux leather D ring album and various other protectors as I see fit. Some weeks will be only pocket layouts, some will be traditional 12X12 some will be 6X12 it all depends on that week. I hope giving myself this freedom and easy structure to follow I will follow through. Do I think I will get behind? YES! But it will be OK! Life is not perfect so why should my reflection of it be?

Here is my first title page. This is actually the first layout I have done in months so be nice. I am TRYING to get my mojo back.