You Grow Girl

I am just lovin' these Martha Stewart border punches now that I figured out how to use them properly!!!! I had no clue at first the corner punch had guide wings that fanned out to help position the paper just so!!! Geez!! Soo Much easier that way! Now I am punching my lil' heart out! I hope I can find more of these soon! This LO is for Lucy's sketch challenge at Dixie Pieces. I used mostly Basic Grey, added some Thickers, Prima flowers, and voila!

Crazy Love

I just LOVE how bright and cheery this LO turned out!!! I used Prima papers and some Sass, along with some AdornIt bellies (flowers and transparency words), and the buttons are from foof-a-la. This is for the cut from patterned paper challenge at Dixie Pieces.

For the Love of Puddin'

I am just in LOVE with October Afternoon and am in hopes I can continue to get it without ordering online!!! This LOs title was created by using some paint over chipboard letters I placed down..... I guess maybe something along he lines of a mask?? Not sure, because I really am not totally clear all the time on what a mask is!!! LOL! I created this for the Use Your Stash challenge between Dixie Pieces and MSW..... this is a DP challenge to use paint in your title. Had fun with the glitter on this one too.... FYI no stickles were used..... I am an old fashioned glitter girl! I also used Twisted Sketches #25 for this and the twist this week was to use ruffles in some way!

You've Grown

I have oodles of LOs stacking up everywhere!!!! I have been busy craftin' in so many ways I just can't keep up with getting everything blogged without putting too many things in at once!

Here are some LOs I have created for various challenges and scrappy happenings!

You've Grown



This is my DS. The first set of photos are from when he was in kindergarten..... the next is 8th grade....Sigh.... time really flies! I created this LO with NO ADHESIVES!!!! Can you believe it??? It was a challenge for the Use Your Stash Crop that us wrapping up at MSW. Thanks Lisa for helping me step out of my comfort zone! Most of this LO was created using some Sass along with stuff from from my stash, Thickers, and AdornIt letters.

Challenging Friday

At Let's Scrap that is!!!! :0) It is my turn this week to host a scrappy challenge and I have a yummy recipe for you all to try out!!

Here is my sample LO:



This is a picture of the men in my life!! They are my goodfellas!!




Close up of the bellie cluster.

The recipe for this LO is:

Take 1 Let's Scrap card sketch and stretch it into a LO.

Add 2 pieces of ribbon, 5 patterned papers, @ least 3 dimensional embellishments, a movie title, and be sure to fussy cut an item for your page!

It's as easy as that and if you hop on over to Let's Scrap to play along you will get your name into the draw for a sweet RAK from me! :0) Hope to see you there!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all my scrappy pals out there in blogland!! I hope your day was filled with love, family, food, and thanksgiving! The Lord has been soo good to my family I just cannot express! We have soo much to be thankful for and it's nice to just take a day and express that thanks to Him!

Today also marks the beginning of the Christmas season!!! YAY! With all the sales going tomorrow, decorations going up, and Christmas shows and music playing I am in the full Spirit of the season!! I have decided this year I really want to show the true meaning of Christmas to my kids..... yet again.... it is soo hard as they get older to help them focus on the giving part, rather than the receiving when society and their peers are telling them they need to be asking for the latest and greatest stuff. Well, around here, it's going to be a homespun Christmas!! Now, don't get me wrong, I am sure my children will have some beautifully wrapped store bought presents under the tree, but leading into that they will help prepare many hand crafted gifts, baked goods to fill them, and decorations for our house, as well as others!

So, I thought I'd share the first gift I have completed. I made this for my DHs sister. They lost their mom quite a few backs now and I have always been soo sad I never met her. I hear them share the wonderful memories they have of her and look at all the wonderful things of this world she left behind and just know she was a beautiful woman inside and out! My SIL has soo many recipe cards because her mom liked to collect recipes. She has them stored on teh bottom shelf in a cupboard and always talks about how she just can't get rid of them, but they are useless where they are at. So I decided to help her solve this problem by making an irresistible recipe box. I know this will be the perfect thing to hold all the memories.

Recipe Box & Dividers



I was soo pleased with how this turned out!! I regret that I didn't take a before picture, but I do have a smaller version and may just take a picture of that and then update this. The wooden box I used was a plain wood color and I think it was supposed to be some sort of bug box. The cards are chipboard from Fancy Pants and 1 was created myself using a 12x12 piece of chipboard I had.



This is the front of the box. All of the papers I used are from the Domestic Goddess collection by Graphic 45. I just picked this up recently at my LSS (see side bar) and I am in love! There is soo much potential here for soo many cute projects! The letters used are this are from AdornIt.



This is 1 end of the box. Again the papers and the tag are from the Domestic Goddess Collection and the button is from Foof-A-La. They have these great sacks of buttons I picked up at my LSS and I am soo glad I did! I have used them a lot and so has DD!



This is the back of the box.



This is the other end of the box.



This is the top of the box. I fussy cut the flowers out of the patterned paper, inked and curled the edges a bit, then added the dressed button for the center. I had no idea how I was going to age up the look of this box to match the papers when I started this project..... and then it hit me..... INK! Yup, I used my handy dandy ink pad and just went to town to create the look I was content with!



These are the divider cards up close for the inside of the box. Most of the papers used are again from Graphic 45, but there are a couple of Cosmo cricket things in there too! I used a prima flower as well as a fussy cut one..... this time with the other side of the patterned paper showing. To age the chipboard, I used my ink pad. The tabs were from some ribbon scraps.

I cannot wait to give this to my SIL in the next couple weeks for her birthday... we don't do adult gifts at Christmas anymore, so she will get this soon! :0)

365 Cards - Day 266 using ICS#43

Day 266 - Color Me With This using ICS #43: The challenge was to color in an image using something other than markers.



had a lot of fun using this sketch and really like the 2 cards I came up with! I used colored pencils to color in the stamped image.

365 Cards - Day 265

Day 265 - Keep it Simple: use 1 Paper, 1 Embellishment, and 1 Sentiment



I will be honest in saying that after I took the photo of this, I dolled it up just a bit (insert the embarrassed face here)!!! I just couldn't help myself. So, I will take a picture of it tomorrow and put here to compare. I think you'll agree my choice in adding a few touches was REALLY helpful!

365 Cards - Day 264 using ICS #43

Day 264 - Keep It to Yourself using ICS #43



I had a lot of fun creating this card!!!! I LOVE me some Sass!! I figure I will use this to give to a friend who just had a baby girl. They have a Curious George themed nursery, so I thought the lil' monkey was appropriate.

365 Cards - Day 263

Day 263 - Ad Inspiration

Silent Night Holy Night



I was inspired by the blue color and the peaceful look of the room.

365 Cards - Day 262

Day 262 - Color Challenge - Make a card using the color palette given.



I tried to get the colors as close as I could to the ones shown...... this is the best I could do. I really like how the card turned out and it for sure has a different look than anything I have created so that's cool too! Love when I learn I like colors together I would have never chosen myself!! LOL!

365 Cards - Day 261

Day 261 - Recipe Challenge: 4x4 card, Red background, Snowflakes, 1 Ribbon, stamped sentiment

Let it Snow card



I had a lot of fun making this card. It was soo quick and easy, minus the waiting for the glitter to dry ( which I am soo not good at!!) and I think it turned out pretty darn cute! TFL!!

365 Cards - Day 260

Day 260 - Sketchy Sunday

Jingle All the Way card

A Day Late

Yesterday a new card sketch and reveal was posted on Let's Scrap.... it's my week for a reveal there and lemme tell you the sketch had me thinkin'!! Love the challenge it created and even more so the card I was able to come up with!

So without further ado, here is my take on this week's card sketch by Kimmy:




Supplies
Patterned Papers - Making Memories, cardstock - American Crafts, Eyelets - MM, Border Punch - Martha Stewart, Twine - Stash, Ink - Martha Stewart

There is a fabulous prize up for grabs from Jenni Bowlin this week, so head on over there to check out the sketch and play along!

A Christmas Pleaser for Sure!!

I am a woman who loves the Lord our God with my heart, soul, mind, strength. I delight in celebrating the things He does everyday and knowing He will be there when I need to call! I thank Him for His wonderful gift in Jesus! I adore Christmas and all that it brings (minus the commercialism)!! To celebrate the birth of my Savior is just wonderful. I love all the senses one engages during the Christmas season......smells of cinnamon, hot chocolate, cookies; sights of all the decorations, especially the lights!; sounds of all the awesome songs.... I personally could do Christmas songs all year!!; I could just go on and on! The one thing that really sticks out to me from when I was a kid was waiting to get my advent calendar for the official kick off to the season! I absolutely LOVED when my mom and dad would get me the store bought calendar with the little perforated windows that fold back to reveal a little chocolate. Now, you have to remember I do not like chocolate, so I exchanged these tasty morsels to my dad for other candy and change. I have carried this on with my own kids and now DH even gets in on the action and loves his. Well, lemme just tell you my eyes almost popped outta my head when I saw a beautiful handcrafted scrappy advent calendar in the Holidays magazine by Scrapbook Trends. The project in the mag was done by Elisa Giffin.

This is my recreation of her project:


Holy Advent Calendar, huh?? I thought initially this would be a huge, time consuming project to do; it actually went rather quickly since I cut and prepared all the papers in advance.

So, I know you are just itchin' to know how to do this, right??
Supplies Needed: 16x20 canvas (in the mag it is a stretched canvas on a wooden frame and I used a flat one from WalMart that was MUCH cheaper), wedding favor tins (I purchased mine from Michael's.... be sure to use a coupon, you can get them sent to you via email), card stock, patterned papers, 2 inch circle punch, bellies, and number and letter stickers.

Here's what to do:
I like to do all the prep work first so I am listing what I did in the order I did it in.... do what works for you!!

Cut 12x12 cardstock into 3x12 inch strips to create top border.

Cut rest of cardstock into 24 - 3x3 squares.

Cut a alternate color of 12x12 card stock, or patterned paper if you like, into 2 5/8 x 12 inch strips.

Cut patterned papers into 24- 2 5/8 x 2 5/8 squares.

Using your 2 inch circle punch, punch 24 circles out of patterned papers.

Cut thin strips for the wedding favor tins..... I know they had to be 7 inches long to go around with a bit of overlap, but I don't know what the exact measure is for the width.... it just worked out perfectly on my trimmer on the silver part.

Line it up and glue it down! I eyeballed mine... but you could use rulers to create the grid too.

Adhere the punched circles to the tops of the tins with a glue dot.

Embellish your heart out!!

Add numbers and your lettering for Days til' Christmas and voila!!!! You have one awesome advent calendar.



This is going to be DSs. He thinks it's really cool and is glad he won't have to deal with the chocolates anymore like I did!!! LOL!!! Apparently I passed that dislike on to him!



DD has requested that her and her daddy have a more girly calendar! She looked through my papers and decided on some non-traditional Christmas papers and she wants me to incorporate penguins somehow!!



Thanks for looking at my project.... if you make one leave a link so we can all be inspired!

A Coupe of LOs

So I really do not know why I don't make my way here everyday to post something!! I have been mojo blessed lately and really need to share so I can keep up. Hopefully I can get better at this whole blog thing someday!! LOL!!

So here are a couple of LOs I have made to go towards the 2 crops going on at my 2 fav scrappy places on the net..... My Sketch World and Let's Scrap (in no particular order of course!!! Love 'em both!!!)

Furever Friends


This is DD and our faithful ol' girl Tika..... they are both 9!!! Tika and DD always sit together in this spot before school and watch for the bus! When the bus gets here, it's a kiss to Tika on the head and one to daddy and she's off to 4th grade for the day!! This was actually taken when she was still in 3rd, but they still sit together!!

I used a sketch from Cheri for the RETREAT challenge going on at Let's Scrap and I used up oodles of my stash of flowers and other snibbles of yumminess!!

Christmas...Bah Humbug!!



This is me and my dad who does not EVER smile for pictures!!!! UGH!! This is actually one of the better ones!! LOL!

The little tag sticking out by the picture comes out to share the story of my dad never smiling and I used a sketch again from Let's Scrap for inspiration.

Here is a picture of the tag out:

365 Cards - Days 255, 256, 257, 258, & 259

Well, I was in hopes to have had these posted yesterday, but that just didn't work out. So I am posting them today..... even though I should really wait to get better pics, but I enjoyed seeing my name among the list of All Stars last week, so I'm going to go ahead and post them now. It looks as if it is going to be a beautiful day here, so hopefully I can get some better pictures to replace these with!!

365 Cards

Day 255 - All Patched Up: use a patch



Day 256 - A Perfect Pair: use ric rac and buttons



Day 257 - Use the yummy picture of the cupcake with the perfect pink frosting for inspiration



I totally thought I would go with a Birthday card for this when I initially saw the picture, but I came out with this instead...

Day 258 - Use a hat



Day 259 - Use snow for inspiration

I finally got.....

Some yummy October Afternoon!!! I have been drooling over the Cherry Hill collection for the longest and the LSS I recently discovered had it in! WaHoo!! I immediately had to play with it and am soo glad I did!!

Siblings are Friends Given by Nature



This is a picture of my kiddos hanging out by the backyard pond. They always have soo much fun and so many adventures back there!! I love how this line worked so wonderfully for this photo! I will be hanging this one on the wall for sure! I used Let's Scrap sketch 120 for inspiration.



All the papers and borders are from October Afternoon, as well as the flower, journaling card with the bee, the word happy, and the sticker quote. The card that has the word nature on it is from Sass and the letters I used are Thickers and AdornIt. The bling is Recollections from Ms. and the buttons are Foof-a-La.



One of my new fave techniques is paper rumpling, gathering, ....... whatever you may call it......!! LOL!!! I think it adds such a great dimension and gives the appearance of ribbon. Just love how it looks! I am on the prowl now with my projects to see where I can add it next.

Inspirational Card Sketches #42

Holy Night Card



This is the first time I used Graphic 45 papers.... loved these and totally had this type of card in mind when I picked them up! This week's sketch was perfect for it! I also used my Martha Stewart snowflake punches and border, button from Foof-a-La, Pearls from Queen Ann & Co, pearl string from my stash, & stamp from Studio G.

365 Cards - #254

All Hung Up Card - The challenge was to make a card that could double as an ornament.



I will soo be making so more of these quick cuties!!!



I am super glad I picked up this cutie line by Bella Blvd. Love the colors and patterns and all the fun cardstock stickers!

365 Cards - #253

Sketchy Sunday Card

Challenge #253 was based off the sketch posted. Loved the ease of using this sketch.

Gotta Add a Lo or 2

I couldn't close out bloggin' tonight without adding a couple of LOs.

I am playing along with a couple of fun crops at Let's Scrap (Retreat challenge through Nov.), My Sketch World (Use Your Stash Crop), and Dixie Pieces (Use Your Stash Crop)..... so I am hoping to be really productive this month!

Here a couple of LO's I have done:

Thankful 4 Each Other


I am truly Thankful for my family!! We have soo many wonderful memories together and I am just amazed at how the years seem to be flying by! My kids are growing up soo quickly and I delight in scrappin' days of the past! These pics are from our Florida Disney vacation in 2006.

This LO was made for Wendi's Thankful Challenge from MSW and I used LS101 Sketch from Let's Scrap. The Earth Love line from Cosmo Cricket is delightful to play with!!! All the papers are from this line. The journaling card is Jenni Bowlin' and the letters are Thickers. The little stick pin is from Maya Road and the pearls are Recollections.

Double Digits At Last


This is DS on his 10th birthday!! He was soo excited to be turning double digits like all of his friends already were! I cannot believe this is from 3 years ago already!!! It all just goes by too quickly..... makes you wanna freeze time, but then I am always excited for the next phases in life with my kids!

This Rough and Tumble line from Fancy Pants is just fabulous!!! I love it!! All the papers are from it. The banner is from Basic Grey and the BINGO card is from Jenni Bowlin. The letters are from thickers and JoAnn's and most of the other stuff was random in my stash!!! Gotta love using up all the scrappy randomness lying around!!

Inspirational Card Sketch #41

I used ICS Sketch #41 for the feather inspiration card at 365 Cards.

Here it is:

So Little Bloggin, but Oh so much Scrappin'!

November has really prompted me to get productive creatively. There are Christmas cards to make, altered gift items to create, advent calendars, and more! I have had a good dose of mojo going and am just thrilled at all I have gotten done! Now to get it all blogged about.... that's another story!

I had a blast with this week's challenges at 365 Cards. I was able to complete all of the challenges (insert shocked face here!!)!! Yay!!!!

Here are my creations for 365 Days - #s 246-252

#246 Sunday Sketch



For this card, I used MM's Fa-La-La line of papers. The chipboard letters are Maya Road and I covered them with Martha Stewart class beads...still need to find a better way to apply these lil' buggers! The felt shapes are MM, The pin from Maya Road, Flower is Prima.

#247 Ad Inspiration



I am in Christmas card making mode and when I saw the ad it immediately converted to a Christmas wreath in my head. I again used MM's Fa-La-La line and the buttons are from All Dressed Up Christmas pack. The border punch I used is from Martha Stewart.

#248 Feather Inspiration



I wasn't really to sure what I would come up with for this one!! Really glad I tried it out tho'! I have no good idea where I picked this fiber cording, but it worked, so I used it! LOL! The papers and mitten are from Cosmo Cricket and the pearls are from Ms. The snowflake button is from All Dressed Up.

#249 80's Inspired



I made this card for my DH. I hope he likes it! I had a blast making this one! the papers are Prima. I covered the chipboard with ink and then went over them with Glossy Accents. The letters are from AdornIt - Carolee's Creations and Thickers.

#250 Mondrian



For this card I used Cosmo Cricket papers and a Fancy Pants chipboard snowflake. I covered the snowflake with Martha Stewart tinsel glitter.... really love that look for Christmas.


#251 Favorite 2 Colors




This is another card I made with DH in my mind. I love pink and green together and decided to use the November card sketch from My Sketch World. The chipboard is from fancy Pants and Basic Grey, covered with ink and then Glossy accents. The letters are Thickers/AdornIt - Carolee's Creations and flowers are from Prima.

#252 White Space (or in my case pink)



This had me thinking for a bit on how exactly to do it... I really don't leave much white space very often, so this was a challenge. The papers I used are from MM and My Mind's Eye. The tree and snowflakes are from All Dressed Up.