TIME TO MYSELF

Hand Sanitizer Bottles

2011-08-21T21:56:00.002-05:00

These make great teacher gifts at the beginning of the school year.

Vinyl Pencil Boxes

2011-08-21T21:55:00.003-05:00

I had fun making these for my sweet friends' girls. I had a hard time finding a glue that would adhere the bling to the plastic, Diamond Glaze finally worked after heat setting it.

Vinyl Tumbler Gift

2011-07-22T21:53:00.001-05:00

Personalized Pencil Case

2011-07-18T23:56:00.001-05:00

I need to figure out how to make the name stand out more. It looks better in person than pictured.

Vinyl Tumbler

2011-07-18T22:54:00.004-05:00

I almost forgot to take pics of this tumbler. Thanks to the MakeTheCut! forum, I learned how to layer the "w" with no mistakes! :)

HTV & Onesies!!

2011-06-25T20:00:00.002-05:00

I was very scared of heat transfer vinyl, not sure why, it just really intimidated me. However, I conquered the fear and can't for the life of me figure out what took so long. It's so much fun!! Using my Cricut and Make the Cut, I made the cutest onesies for friends who just had babies.

This baby's initials are CCC and the grandpa is an engineer so I thought a math equation would be cute (although it should actually read "3C", I thought the C to the 3rd power looked cuter on the shirt). Did you get the "cutie pie" immediately or did it take a few minutes?? :)
I found these tie svg's online and fell in love with them! I put baby Dylan's initial on his. My son wants one now so I'm off to buy a tshirt for him.

And this one is for a sweet kiddo named Price...I couldn't resist! :)

Vinyl Tumblers

2011-06-09T22:12:00.002-05:00

I made these for the bunco winners this month. I did a luau theme and thought these designs were fitting. I also included strawberry daquiri mix since we made some that night. I used outdoor vinyl so the cups can be washed. I found the tumblers at Old Navy of all places, weird. The girls liked them, I just hope they hold up over time!

Teacher Appreciation

2011-05-01T19:58:00.000-05:00

I made personalized notecards for my son's teachers, using SBC3+ of course! I love how they turned out. Shadows and glows are your best friend for making things pop off the page. I also threw together a Hershey Kiss pencil for each of them. They were fun to make.

Easter Goodies

2011-04-24T19:56:00.000-05:00

Magnet board gifts for my son's PK teachers for Easter. I stamped their initials for the magnets. They seemed to really like them.
And I had to include my awesome rice krispy treat eggs! I was very proud of them. They were a stinker to make but the kids loved finding M&M's inside. :)

Valentine's Day Treat

2011-02-14T19:54:00.000-06:00

Cookie treats for my son's PK class. Easy-peasy using SBC3+!

12x12 Tile Magnet Board

2010-12-04T00:24:00.000-06:00

I made this 12x12 tile magnet board for a silent auction at church. I got the idea of the magnetic part of the tile a year or so ago from Adhering Thoughts blog. I've wanted to make it ever since. I like how it turned out. The metal is step flashing, I rounded the corners, adhered with liquid nails. The magnet is a flat page pebble that I inked with brown and red and heat set until the color matched, adhered to the magnet with liquid nails and E6000. I used brown Oracal vinyl and red Silhouette vinyl, choosing random fonts I liked on my computer. I have no idea where I got the heart shape, found it in my file stash.

Blessing Mix

2010-11-23T00:18:00.002-06:00

I made Blessing Mix for my son's church and school teachers. Got the idea from Chick'n'Scratch

I used party favor boxes I had in my stash, wrapped with PP and attached the poem. Easy and cute (although they look horrible in the pic). Note to self: buy the candy corn during Halloween next year, it took me forever to find a Kroger that had any.

Mini Album

2010-11-12T17:53:00.004-06:00

My bff threw her mom a 60th birthday party and I made this album with 60 pages for messages/well wishes and 12 pictures using the Lost & Found Madison Avenue "Cherish" line by My Mind's Eye.

Halloween

2010-11-12T17:49:00.003-06:00

I made stickers for mini playdough tubs using SBC+ for my son's friends at school:

I made these for his teachers and a couple of special people, got the idea from Skip to My Lou:

Birthday Stuff using SBC+

2010-11-12T17:42:00.002-06:00

My son wanted a Lightning McQueen birthday party. Here are some things I made for the party.

The invitation, printed as 4x6 photos: Thank You Notes, front and back, printed on 4x6 cardstock:

My bff made boxcars of the following characters, so I made license plates for the back of the boxcars, this was so much fun:

First Attempt at File Sharing

2010-09-24T14:08:00.004-05:00

Creating Keepsakes posted this freebie today on Facebook from OScraps. They posted the files for Photoshop so I converted them to png files so I can use them in SBC+. The page dimensions are 5"x6". I will probably just save each page as a jpg and insert them into Word to print at home. I know SBC+ has a calendar feature but this was already done and I really liked the font, besides it only took a few minutes to fix up for SBC+. I hope someone finds this useful. I've gotten so many wonderful files from so many wonderful blogs, just wanted to give back. :)

april.page
august.page
december.page
february.page
instructions.page
january.page
july.page
june.page
march.page
may.page
november.page
october.page
september.page

Why I Love Crops!

2010-08-16T14:25:00.003-05:00

I saw this template from CK's NSD, it was a digi template for Photoshop and I fell in love with it. I love anything with butterflies. Anyway, I made several unsuccessful attempts at recreating it in SBC+ until my last crop. A friend of mine showed me a picture that she shaped as the butterfly then cut into a grid and it hit me...I knew exactly what I needed to do to recreate the template. This is as close as I could get to it. The background paper and flourish are freebies from the CK NSD digifreebie kit and the large butterfly and title are from CM's Black and White Kit. I changed the opacity of the background paper, rubber stamped the flourish and for the title, I changed the color, glitterized it and added the 3D effect.

I couldn't think of any other recent pics that would fit the page except these (hence the color choice on the background/title).
This is a different version I made, I like them both. You can use either pictures or paper/color in each of the sections. I'll post the live templates just as soon as I figure out how to do that! :)

Thank you Crista!!

Lined Zippered Pouch

2010-07-22T22:47:00.003-05:00

I had so much fun making this pouch today. I saw the idea on a friend of mine's Facebook page and it looked so cute I had to try it. I was afraid it was going to be hard but it turned out to be rather easy, thanks to the wonderful tutorial here (and the great advice on doing corners without a quilter's tool here). I used 15x9" fabric pieces and a 12" zipper, next time I'll try to make it deeper and use heavier interfacing (used light-medium weight kind this time). You can't tell in the pic but the lining is deep purple. I still need to press the sides.

And in my true fashion, I sewed the handle in backwards at first, I always do this and double-checked myself and still put it in backwards. But that's the beauty of sewing, you can always rip it out and try again! :)

Hooded Towel

2010-07-21T22:35:00.002-05:00

I used this tutorial at Obsessively Stitching to make a hooded towel for my son. It was so quick and easy and best of all, less than half the price of the hooded towels I've seen in stores!

5x7 Magnetic Board

2010-07-15T17:22:00.006-05:00

I made the magnetic board using the tutorial found on this blog. Angie's things are always so beautiful! The board itself is galvanized steel flashing and I couldn't find it anywhere locally (only aluminum) so I went in with a couple of other friends and we ordered 100 pieces from a seller on Amazon. Anyway, mod podge will not work to adhere the paper to the metal so I used my Glue Glider Pro and it worked just fine. I used PP and ribbon found in my scraps and the magnets are just white flat marbles that I inked to match glued on round magnets from Wal-Mart (although I think those magnets are too large, will use the smaller ones when I get some). You can attach pictures, notes, recipes...anything to this. Very quick and easy!

T-Shirt Dress

2010-07-14T17:15:00.004-05:00

I tried my hand at a t-shirt dress and think it looks pretty good. I used the directions on this blog. I wish it was longer but it can also be worn as a shirt. The flower is another reverse applique, the edges will roll back in the wash.

Dinosaur Reverse Applique

2010-07-12T19:59:00.003-05:00

I did this shirt today. I'm going to make the elastic waist shorts to match (like the Lightning McQueen shorts). I love this little dinosaur! I found the template online (can't remember where right now, will post when I find it). I did the eye, spots on the back and toes by hand since they were so small. I learned about this technique from a fellow mommy on a message board I'm on but can't get her blog to link here. :(

Reverse Applique

2010-07-09T23:58:00.004-05:00

This is a shirt I just finished for my son, he loves Lightning McQueen! There are a ton of tutorials out there on how to do reverse applique, here is one close to what I did: http://lilblueboo.blogspot.com/2009/04/reverse-applique.html I really liked how this turned out and I think my son is going to love it. He saw it halfway done and wanted to wear it right away, I told him to wait b/c I needed to add some more "Kachow" to it. :) I think he's going to love the lightning bolts on the sleeves. I added the # on back for fun, it doesn't look as good as I hoped but it'll do. I'm making elastic waist shorts to match.

The "Kachow!" lightning bolt on the sleeve is his favorite part!

It's "time" for more SBC+ fun!!

2010-06-15T13:27:00.004-05:00

I have a clock that I wanted to alter and after seeing photo clocks online, I thought I'd give it a try using SBC+. I think these turned out great! The hardest part was figuring out where to put the numbers for the clock so I found a worksheet online for kids, pasted the .jpg in my project, changed the opacity so I could barely see the numbers and added my numbers on top of it in a font I liked. In the first one, I blended the edges of my photo, used film grain on the background shape, color sampled from my pic, used an overlay (that was square and I cut out the part I liked in the shape of a circle) and added texture to the wordart. In the second one, I used a photo mask for the pic, gradient tool for my background paper color sampling from the pic, the same overlay as in the first one, used freebie wordart and flourishes (changed the opacity of the flourishes so they blend in) and typed the text. I don't like how the second one doesn't fill the circle but I had a hard time placing that pic without the hands of the clock inserting through my baby's face, thought that might look odd, haha! I'll post the finished product when I get the clock put back together.

Gifts

2010-06-06T14:19:00.003-05:00

This is a finished baby cross, I used SU rubons to decorate the mat to match, there are butterflies in the baby's room. I'm now officially out of my favorite SU rubons ever. :( I've seen these tiles all over the place and recreated my 3 favorites for bunco gifts, the girls really seemed to like them.

2010-05-18T15:15:00.003-05:00

This template is from a blog I found called SquarePeg. I love how the page turned out. I don't usually do intro. pages for my scrapbooks but was forced into it to make the pages I made fit, I do both 1 page and 2 page LOs. I've made 25 other pages but won't post them all. :)

Virtual crop

2010-05-14T23:40:00.005-05:00

I am so sad that I missed my crop so I decided to join them virtually, hehe. I saw this challenge and decided to take the plunge and join one. I think this embossing technique is amazing. And I can't believe how E-A-S-Y it was to do, gotta love SBC+! The frame is a CM digifreebie and the word art is from the Cottage Garden kit. I will say that the full resolution version is a lot more impressive than the low-res version I uploaded here. I'm really curious how this will print out in 12x12.

I'm selling all of my supplies

2010-05-13T21:48:00.004-05:00

I mean, I might as well! Look at this digicard I made with SBC+. I did everything I'd do with paper but no mess, no cleanup. I even "rubber stamped" the word art and "edge punched" the purple mat. The only thing I didn't do was tie the bow, haha. Fun stuff!! I used the CM Delight kit and I can't remember which kit "thankful" is from.

Mother's Day

2010-05-12T23:33:00.003-05:00

Great template from Pixels2Pages, which is sadly going to be taken down this summer. Boo! I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Anyway, isn't my little guy so sweet? :)

Wow!

2010-05-11T11:44:00.002-05:00

I saw this quoted on a blog I follow and wanted to share:

Here's some interesting information I learned from child psychologist, Dr. Ken Condrell. Dr. Condrell specializes in helping children recover from depression and trauma. He says, “ALL children, no matter if they have stress in their life or not, need to have strong self-esteem. And viewing family photo albums with children emphasizes what is right about a child’s life and shows children that the bad stuff is temporary. Pictures and stories offer proof of how they are loved. Everyone, no matter their age, needs photo albums to build their self-esteem and give them hope.”

A Toddler Lives Here

2010-04-23T23:37:00.004-05:00

I saw the idea for this page in a recent Creating Keepsakes magazine. That layout was really neat but I wanted to try this new London's Eye template from Pixels2Pages so I went for it. I wasn't sure where to place the journaling and played with a few different options but finally settled for this.

But, the more I looked at it, the less I liked it. I didn't want the journaling to take over the pictures so I played around by flipping the page the other way, making my own matching elements by cutting pieces of the paper out and used the design of the paper to place the journaling. I'm a lot happier with how take 2 turned out. See how cool digiscrappin' is!!

It's coming together...

2010-04-23T22:38:00.004-05:00

My new craft space, that is! Dh put my cabinets together and hung my shelf for me. I'm so excited! We are revamping this entire room and this is my space in it. I had the desk already and all of my supplies crammed in an old tv armoire (you can see a little of it in the pic). It worked but we needed to get the armoire out of there to make room for a guest bed. So, dh found these cabinets at Big Lots that happened to match my desk, yay! I thought I was going to have to paint everything. The cabinets hold everything scrapbook related, the desk has some scrapbooking tools on one side and my sewing machine and supplies on the other side. And the Sterilite drawers under the desk hold all of my stamping supplies. The white shelf holds a variety of embellishments for various crafts. On the desk is everything I need for my current project, my tool turn-about and my wonderful Ott light. And my trimmer and Wishblade are top of one cabinet while the other cabinet displays a few things I've done. The desk has an extention leaf that allows me another 12" of work space and I'm going to make something to cover the Sterilite containers. I still need to organize it a bit more and decorate a little but I'm very happy with the progress so far.

Funny Story

2010-04-23T22:31:00.003-05:00

I made this card for a good friend of mine. I can post about it now b/c she should have received it. I've been wanting to send her a card to say hello for a couple of weeks now and knew I wanted to use this paper, it just took me a little while to figure out what to do with it. You see, I recycled this paper from a bunco host gift she gave me a year or so ago. She gave me a can filled with some goodies and when I was done with it, I couldn't stand the thought of this cheerful paper being tossed. So, I did what any good crafter would do, I took it off of the can. However, that was a difficult process b/c she used the good tape (the red stuff) to adhere it. I told her about this and she thought it was funny so I thought it appropriate to use it to make her a card. I don't really believe in original ideas but this idea just hit me one day, to have the cute circles peeking out from circles on the card. I made the card square and used my CM circle cutters to cut the circles in the cardfront. I wish I had thought to add a few smaller holes with a hole punch but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. And of course, I had to use stickles!! I think it helped to make the "i" even more i-ish, hehe. And I like the circle peeking out inside as well. Wonder if she recognized the paper?

Scrapping Simply vs. Costco

2010-04-15T15:00:00.002-05:00

I printed 1 digital scrapbook page at Costco and 8 through Scrapping Simply and I have decided to go with Scrapping Simply from now on. They both use the same paper but the service of SS can't be beat and the price is cheaper if you print enough. I don't have a membership to Costco but my best friend does and in a pinch I could get her to pick up a print for me or meet her there. But, I like how easy it is to upload to Scrapping Simply, the customer service is outstanding, if you're not happy with anything you get a full refund and the price is better. If you print/ship 5 prints, each print is the same price as Costco and if you print/ship over 5 prints, the price is cheaper. I placed my order on Sun. and received it today (Thurs.). I was worried about them bending in shipping but they were packaged very well, no bends at all. I sent 2 emails, 1 before placing my order and 1 after I placed it b/c I was concerned about something and received a response in less than 24 hours and of course my prints turned out perfect. So, I definitely recommend SS!!

Sweet Compliment

2010-04-15T14:51:00.003-05:00

The other day I was talking with a friend of mine about the photo globe page I made and she gave me the sweetest compliment. She told me how much she loves my scrapbooks, she said that they are beautiful and I'm an inspiration to her, that I inspired her to make her son an ABC book. I wasn't quite sure what to say, no one has ever said anything like that to me. It made me feel wonderful. I get so much inspiration from my scrapbooking friends and online that I never thought of myself as an inspiration to others. This friend did make her son an ABC album and all I could think about was how he will probably cherish that album one day and how it was made by his very own mommy. That's why I scrapbook. I may be slow and I really don't care if I have a page that's "in style". I enjoy the process of it, both traditional and digital and I want my son to know about his family and our life and maybe one day when I'm gone he'll cherish the stories I've written for him and there will be no doubt in his mind how much he is loved.

Photo Globe

2010-04-11T00:03:00.002-05:00

Sheri-I catered this globe to Noah's pics of the day, let me know if you prefer this for your scrapbook.

I am having a blast with SBC+!! I found this awesome group on Facebook called "Go Digital" and they were trying this Photo Globe technique. I found wonderfully written directions here and gave it a try. It was so much fun....I mean SO MUCH FUN!!! I could do every page like this for a year and be happy I think, LOL.

Storybook Creator Plus Layouts

2010-04-10T21:25:00.005-05:00

I made these layouts yesterday/today. I love SBC+, have I said that before? B/c I really, really love this software!! :)

In this one, I used CM Construction Zone paper, "fun" sticker and brackets from the CM Discover set and the labels are CM digifreebies. The "3" is from a free alpha set from ComputerScrapbook.com and "mud" is typed in a free font (I googled "mud font" and was kind of shocked that one actually existed). Anyway, I love the power of color sampling, as you can see on this LO! And I had tons of fun with the "fun" sticker with texture and the glow effect. On the brackets, I used 2 textures - the bricks then concrete. This was a quick and easy page using CM's Cozy Winter set, including the digifreebie snowflake.

This is where I love SBC+ even more, Walgreen's offered a free 8x10 this week but I didn't need anything that size, I needed 5x7's of this pic. So, I created an 8x10 page and fit 2 of these 5x7 pages I created, saved as a jpg and uploaded to Walgreen's. Cool stuff! This is a pic of my son and his 2 BFF's. Me and the other 2 moms love this pic, first of all they were still enough to get all of them in a pic together and secondly they are doing what they love best, watching a life-size toy! I could have just printed this pic and given it to them but I wanted to make it a little extra special. The paper is from CM's Primary set, photo mat was color sampled from the shorts and the font is called "Rubber Stamp" and was color sampled from the bench.

Another Cross

2010-04-07T22:54:00.003-05:00

A "Jesus Loves Me" cross for a baby girl.

You are my SONshine!

2010-04-07T22:46:00.006-05:00

Walgreen's had a special on 11x14 posters this week and I had an empty 11x14 frame, yay! I made this to go in my bathroom, pics from various baths throughout my sons' first couple of years. Since the opening in the frame isn't quite 11x14, I'll trim the border you see around the photo so it will fit. Can't wait to receive it! I used a paper and sticker (I changed the color) from CM's Discover kit and the duck and bubbles were CM digifreebies, gotta love 'em! I can't remember which CM kit the ribbon is from. The pic looks grainy because I saved it as a low-res to load quicker on the blog.

Jesus Loves Me

2010-03-21T23:26:00.003-05:00

Someone bought something like this for my son when he was born and I've seen them at gift shops. They are usually done in actual handwriting but mine is horrible so I thought I'd try making it in SBC+. I think it turned out pretty cute! I created half of the cross with the "custom shape using straight lines", then I copy/pasted-flipped-grouped-flattened. The hard part was the text path, I've only played around with it once before and got frustrated. But, this time I zoomed in and clicked all the way around the cross, then zoomed even closer to edit my path and make sure all lines were straight. Then, I had to tinker around with the text to make the spacing look right. I made a frame to go around by cutting a rectangle out of a rectangle, using the same paper as the cross but gave it some texture/amplification and...voila! I think it's adorable! I'm going to print it as an 8x10 matte print and on cardstock at home to see which I like better, frame it and give it to my great nephew.

More Cards

2010-03-15T14:14:00.005-05:00

I copied this card idea from my friend Jennifer, who I think copied it from SCS (I could be wrong though). I've learned a lot from Jennifer over the years about cards, especially since she was my SU rep. for a while but one of the most helpful tips for quick and coordinated cards is she told me she buys paper packs with cards in mind. So, I found these paper packs at Tuesday Morning with the intention of making cards. The top and bottom left packs are Making Memories and the bottom right is Deja Views. I used Jenn's SU punches the 1 3/8" circle and the scalloped circle and the Zutter Round-It-All since SU cardstock is very thick, it punched through like butta! The sentiment stamps are from a set I bought a while back from Archiver's, I used different sentiments in each card pack. The top stamp is from an SU Country Living sample set and the bottom left is from SU's Seeing Spots set. And of course you'll see either a little bling or stickles on each! I made several packs of each to use as teacher gifts and one to keep for myself. :) Thanks Jenn, you're the best!

Cards

2010-03-11T22:34:00.004-06:00

I made these cards at the last Make & Take weekend at Archiver's. I really liked the colored-core cardstock in the 2nd one and bought some more to play with. I saw this card on Dana's Dabbling Studio blog this week. I really liked the paper, then I remembered seeing it somewhere before, then I remembered I had it in my stash, duh! :) Archiver's gave it to us at a crop I attended there a few months ago. I figured out that she used a mini deck of this same paper which is why her dimensions look more appropriate than mine but I still like how they turned out. I rounded the corners of the card base with the Zutter Round-It-All that I recently bought. It's so much fun b/c it rounds tin, thick layers of cardstock, chipboard, acrylic and more. I'm just looking for stuff to round now! :)

4x6 prints on SBC+

2010-03-01T13:02:00.002-06:00

I'm doing Becky Higgins' Project Life approach to scrapboking for 2010. Every now and then I have a couple of pics that are vertical and the same event. Last month, I just printed 2 pics on 1 4x6 page using Picasa and it was pretty boring, had a white border around both pics. But this month I decided to use SBC+ to print them and add a little something extra to them. Just another way to play around. :)

Hours before I took my furbabies to their new home:

Babysitting my son's friend for the first time:
Journaling is done on journaling cards in Project Life so this was just a way to spruce up the pics a bit.

Freeze Frame

2010-02-14T14:52:00.002-06:00

I used this template from CM's Simple Start CD. That CD is wonderful! I love how you can use the templates as-is or change them to suit your needs. I changed the pic arrangement on this one a little bit. It's easy b/c you can use the alignment tool to make sure the new picture frames you've added are perfectly in line with the ones already on the page. Love that feature! I used CM's Cozy Winter and NYC 2010 kits and 2 misc. papers. My favorite part is the overlay (on the small dotted paper) from the NYC kit, I changed the opacity to make it a light grey so it blends better with the other elements. Love overlays! There's not a whole lot that I don't love about what all the SBC+ software can do (but there are 2 things - the dreaded updates that the software won't recognize and the random errors. Ugh!).

DH is digiscrappin'!

2010-02-06T11:26:00.001-06:00

DH wanted to try his hand at the new software and used this template to create his first scrapbook page! I think he did a great job. I showed him how to "glitterize" and use shadows, etc. and he went with it. He told me that if he could scrapbook like this, he'd go to crops too! LOL Yeah, I don't think so...

Template

2010-02-06T00:15:00.002-06:00

I used this beautiful template from the Scrap It Digital blog (listed on the right side menu). I loved it the moment I saw it and decided to use the Black & White PowerPalette. I've always loved the look of multiple patterned papers but wasn't sure how to pull it off. I like this page right now but may not like it tomorrow, haha! I deleted some textboxes and used embellies in the place of some photoboxes. Fun stuff! I promise I won't post every single page I do! :)

A little bit of everything...

2010-02-05T21:49:00.002-06:00

That's what I used to create this page! I received my Creative Memories Storybook Creator Plus today, got everything installed and made my first page. I watched several webinar videos last night and this morning and ended up using a little bit of everything I learned. I used the Discover PowerPalette, which I love! I used: rubber stamping (for the brackets and arrows), color sampling (changed the colors of the brackets, arrows, "all smiles" sticker, and selected a photo mat), opacity (changed opacity on the notebook paper and the little pic in the brackets), photo edges (blurred edge on small pic and rustic edge on larger pic), made "all smiles" look like glitter (surfaces->amplification), and made my very first embellishment (I used the silver staple from the office supply kit and made a silver staple photo corner png file to reuse on future pages). I am excited to make more pages and use different techniques. Many thanks to the people who took the time to make those awesome webinar videos (you can see those on the list on the right side menu of my blog)!

Can't Wait!

2010-01-30T17:25:00.003-06:00

I will receive my Creative Memories StoryBook Creator 3.0 Plus software in a week and I can't wait! I've started a blog list on the right-side menu dedicated to blogs I've been reading in preparation for my new digiscrapping adventure. I really think this is what is going to get my pictures off of my computer and in a place where me and my family can enjoy them. I'll add other blogs I find as I go along so stay tuned.

Last of the Tiles

2009-12-23T23:30:00.002-06:00

This is the last of the tiles, for a while anyway. I made these for my bff, she gave them to her mom, MIL and SIL for Christmas. The one in the middle is an 8x10" tile. My favorite is the terra cotta.

Christmas Ornament

2009-12-16T22:03:00.002-06:00

I saw these on an email from Chick'n'Scratch a while back and decided to make a few for ds' Santa pics this year. Since I only made a few, I used the CM cutting system to cut the circles and the "top" of the ornament is an SU punch. The light paper is double-sided and the back is solid so I printed our message on the back.

Revised Rudolph & More

2009-12-10T22:16:00.003-06:00

I did not like the pipe cleaner antlers so I decided to make antlers on my Wishblade. Worked like a charm and no mess! I also taped the base to itself so I could just slide the candybars in/out.

I added a little holiday cheer to my kitchen:I added a personal touch to Glade holiday candles for ds' teachers:

Rudolph

2009-12-04T09:35:00.003-06:00

I made these Reindeer candybar holders for my bunco group. I told them they could never throw them away, haha! I followed these directions: http://www.staceystamps.com/stacey_stamps/2009/11/rudolph-the-reindeer-candy-bar.html, between my friend Jenn and I, we had the punches to make it. Although the assembly took a while, they were a lot of fun to make. I decided to use pom-poms for the nose to add some more dimension. I wish there was something different to use for the antlers b/c the pipe cleaners shed everywhere! For the next ones I make (for my son's class), instead of taping the candybar in the holder, I'm going try to just wrap the sleeve tightly enough around the candybar so that the recipient can slide the candybar out and potentially reuse the reindeer sleeve to gift to someone else.

Baby Gift

2009-11-08T19:34:00.004-06:00

I wanted to make something special for my new great nephew. I knew I was going to make a tag blankie but found a few other things I couldn't resist. His nursery is done in a cowboy theme so I tried to find cowboy related material. I had so much fun and am very excited for his mommy to receive the package this week!!

Tag/Lovey Blankie -- I made this one a little larger than usual it's almost 17" square. I posted the website with directions on an earlier post. The ribbon on the right in this pic is a pacifier holder. It was very easy and only took a minute to do. Directions here: http://angieasplund.blogspot.com/2009/01/soother-pacifier-clip-tutorial.html

Then I made a diaper/wipes holder. I had some trouble with the first one I made b/c the pattern I found online and used wasn't large enough to hold the wipes container and a couple of diapers (the wipes contianer on its own was a tight squeeze). So, I tweeked it a little and it now holds the wipes container and two size 5 diapers so it will hold several newborn diapers and can be used for a while. Directions here: http://boogaboobabies.com/download/Diaper_Wipe_Case.pdf
With flap open:

And these burp cloths only took a few minutes to whip up. The flannel is so soft! Directions here: http://chickpeastudio.typepad.com/chickpea_sewing_studio/diaper-burp-cloth-tutoria.html

I'm so thankful for these wonderful blogs with tutorials. I do a lot better when I see pictures of the steps. I hope my sweet Great Nephew enjoys his gifts!

Fun fun fun!

2009-10-28T13:48:00.003-05:00

I finally broke down and bought my first font. I thought this one was perfect for monograms! I made this for a friend's birthday and she really liked it. The design looks crooked in the picture but it's not in person. I didn't think to get a picture of it until right before I gave it to her, luckily I had my camera in my purse. :)

More you-know-what

2009-10-06T11:55:00.003-05:00

Played a little more with vinyl. This 6x6 tile will be an original b/c I will not weed this design at this small size again. What a booger! But worth it, I really like how it turned out.

I don't have the lights to go in this block yet but thought I'd share what I have thus far. I downloaded the "JOY" design from a Wishblade file website. It was actually a card and I changed the size to fit the block. And, added bling! Remember: it don't mean a thing if it ain't go that bling! :) I really like this and can't wait to see it glowing with lights.

Somebody Stop Me!

2009-09-29T14:48:00.003-05:00

A naptime project...with vinyl! Woohoo! This was so much fun. The Wishblade will cut any true type font (TTF) so I found this free font online and went to town. The hard part is "weeding" the design, which I didn't realize my overhead light wasn't on until I was finished, so that may have had something to do with it. It was also difficult trying to center it on the tile, I had to remove/reapply about 3 times. It doesn't seem straight in the pic but it's the camera angle, it looks great in person. I'm sure there's a trick, that's my next google. I bought the tile from Lowe's, got the tumbled look so it's not a smooth finish. I inked around the edges with a dark chocolate ink and heat set it and glued dark brown felt to the back. The sides and backs of most tiles are not attractive so I think that helped make it prettier. I'm not going to seal this and see what happens, may need to do that on future projects, I'm still learning what the vinyl can tolerate on different surfaces.Anyway, LOVE how this turned out!! I'm almost finished with my next project: glass block, so stay tuned! :)

Train Bank

2009-09-27T20:08:00.003-05:00

You guessed it...more vinyl! When I get on something, I stay there until I'm tired of it (so you'll definitely see more vinyl through Christmas since I plan on a lot of vinyl presents, hehe). This is a train bank I made for a friend of mine's son. He loves trains and I imagine has every Thomas the Train gift there is so I went for something unique. I hope to find a $2 bill to drop in it tomorrow before I give it to him.

I used a smooth-side Ball jar (can find at HL), brown vinyl with a train pattern I made myself, and PP covered chipboard for the bank top. I tried to cut a coin slot in the metal lid insert but it didn't work very well.

More Vinyl Fun!

2009-09-22T13:17:00.002-05:00

This pic is not the greatest but it was worse with the flash on. I made this train silhouette with my Wishblade and vinyl for ds's room. Then, I saw the bridge idea online and created it as well. I love it! It runs along the top of the cribrail and the best part is, when he transitions to the big boy bed, I can just peel it off. I love it!! Now on to my next vinyl project: glass blocks, pics coming soon.

Vinyl Words

2009-09-06T10:20:00.000-05:00

I have had so much fun with my Wishblade lately!! I decided to make vinyl words to go around this picture group. I used Scriptina font for "Together" and American Classic font for "IS OUR FAVORITE PLACE TO BE". I usually like things centered but tried offsetting this for a different look. I really like how it turned out. The great part is, if I get tired of it, it's removable and I can try something different. Love love love it!! :)

I'll post the other things I've been working on later...they aren't quite done yet.

Craft Party

2009-08-15T20:16:00.002-05:00

I went to a craft party today hosted by my friend Paula and a SU demonstrator. We made these neat blocks. We were supposed to create "faith" or "hope" but all ended up doing names and something else on the other side. I made these to go in either my great room or kitchen. As you can see, you can stack them vertically or horizontally. We used SU DP and misc. embellies. The demonstrator used the Cricut to cut out the letters, that's a pretty cool machine. It was a fun project and would be nice to do as gifts. My advice: have a paper/color scheme in mind in advance, it will make it a lot easier if you're like me and have a horrible time matching papers/embellies.

Hanging Treat Box

2009-08-13T23:37:00.002-05:00

I made these hanging treat boxes for my ds' teachers for their first day back to school. I used the Deja Views paper pack that Archiver's gave out as a free gift this past weekend. I didn't have to stamp anything, which made these very quick and easy.

Tutorial found on SCS: http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/hanging_treat_box/

Another M&T

2009-08-09T23:35:00.002-05:00

I went to Archiver's Make & Take today and made this cute card and an 8x8 scrapbook page.

Crayon Roll

2009-08-07T00:31:00.003-05:00

I made 2 more Crayon Rolls. I used the directions from this blog again: http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/ but tweaked the measurements a little to make one that holds 18 crayons and one that holds 8. I also changed the closure to an elastic loop, it's not as cute but I think it will be more functional for me.

Nap Mat Cover

2009-08-03T12:16:00.003-05:00

My mom brought me a sewing machine this past weekend. It's amazing how fun sewing can be when you have a machine that works! :) And this one is neat, it has cruise control, haha! Anyway, my ds has to use a nap mat this year and I wanted a cover made for his mat. I know we could use a crib sheet but that wouldn't be as much fun, would it? He has a 2" thick mat, length and width are typical dimensions. We layed the mat on the fabric (which mom also brought, thanks!) and cut. We used 2 pieces of 26"w by 60"l fabric and 1 piece of 45"w by 16"l fabric (for the attached pillowcase, travel size pillow). She did an envelope opening on the end to remove for washing, we didn't use Velcro, it doesn't seem necessary right now. These dimensions leave enough room to fold the mat to carry and remove the mat easily for washing, it's not a tight fit. I am going to make 1 more just for kicks. It's a great way to practice for other projects I'd like to do. Envelope opening:
My ds, the ham, I can't imgine they are actually going to get him to sleep on this mat! :)

Baby Tag Lovey

2009-07-25T20:17:00.003-05:00

I decided to practice sewing by making baby tag lovies. There are several people having babies soon and I thought they would make sweet gifts IF I can learn to sew straight. I read these blogs for instructions and hints:

http://mamasdoodles.blogspot.com/2008/08/twiddler-tag-blankie-tutorial.html

http://www.chicaandjo.com/2008/07/22/make-your-own-taggie-blankets/

http://ideas4fun.blogspot.com/2009/03/make-your-own-tag-blanket.html

http://craftblog.com.au/2008/07/04/appliqued-ribbon-blanket-tutorial/

When I get the hang of sewing straight, I'm going to make one using minky for my great-nephew, he is due in Nov. so I have plenty of time to practice. It irks me, though, that I can sew straight on a scrap piece of fabric, ugh! I bought the fabric and ribbon at Joann's. I learned to test the ribbon before using it on this though, one of the ribbons "pulled" when I ran my finger across it-not good for chewing on. Anyway, pretty I'm happy with how it turned out and look forward to making more of them.

More Quick & Easy

2009-07-15T16:16:00.002-05:00

This is the rest of the teacher gifts. I used the SU rubons and a glass vase/container I found at the $ Tree. I learned something with the rubons...making it not so quick but a great lesson learned. I used a large flower and it came out bubbly, which I didn't like at all. So, I scraped the rubon off with my fingernail then wiped the glass clean with alcohol on a papertowel to remove any leftover traces of the rubons. Then, I chose a different design that didn't have such a large, solid design. I like how these turned out.

Quick & Easy Cards

2009-07-14T14:53:00.004-05:00

Well, quick once I figured out what to do. I made the monogrammed cards as part of my son's teacher gifts. I found the cards at Michael's, used SU and misc. cardstock, SU ink and ribbon and JustRite alpha stamps. They turned out the way I pictured them in my head but I needed help from my friend, Jennifer, to execute it properly. I was using circles that were too big and a border around the letters. She helped me to make it more uniform. Thanks Jenn! :) I'll post the rest of the gift tomorrow.

The top two cards were very easy as well. I used SU rubons for the card on the left and added a little bling. For the card on the right, I used new CM paper flowers and an SU rubon. Those flowers are really cool! I like how they are paper, they'll probably hold rubons, bling and ink better than fabric ones. Thanks Amy!

Anniversary Gift

2009-06-28T23:23:00.003-05:00

I saw this at the LSS and thought it was a perfect anniversary gift for my brother and SIL. I used an 8x8 paper pack from CM called the Valentine's pack for the clock face and 3 squares. The stickers used on the 3 squares were also from this pack. I used SU rubons for "love, friend, happiness" and the heart in the middle of the flower. And I used MM rubons for the clock numbers. I put these on the glass and love the way it gives dimension. There are dots for the other numbers but you can't see them well in this pic. A fun project that the couple loved! They have been married for 25 years...what a great accomplishment!

Wedding Card

2009-05-31T19:21:00.002-05:00

I made this card for my nephew, who is getting married this week. The card is from a pack from Big Lots that already had the windows in them. I gave them a batter bowl with lid, the dry ingredients from this recipe and a gift card to buy the rest of the ingredients and dinner. I printed the recipe card on the computer and stamped the flowers. I used Stickles on the flower centers, around the sentiment and on the tux/dress.

Baby Shower

2009-05-21T12:22:00.006-05:00

My dh's cousin is having a baby girl, the first one in the family since her. How fun! Having a boy myself, I couldn't wait to get my hands on all things pink. I made a diaper cake and clothes line to be used for shower decorations, then made a gift for mom of thank you notes and a coupon holder. I had a ton of fun!

This is the clothes line. I made these cardstock diapers and used punches to include the baby's name. I printed the letters on the computer. I found this idea and template here: http://www.scrapjazz.com/gallery/image/layout/313078.html The dresses and shoes on the mantle are the mother-to-be's from when she was a child. I thought that was so sweet!

This is a gift tag I made to add to the gift bag. I recycled the gift bag and luckily the CS matches perfectly. I don't remember the name of this stamp set but I borrowed it from a friend a while back and stamped a bunch of images. This is my last girrafe, maybe she'll let me borrow it again. I colored it in with colored pencils and of course added Stickles!

This is the gift set for mom. I made 10 than you cards, my friend Jennifer showed me how to make the box. I still think my coupon holder is an original idea from when I made one for myself 2 years ago. I folded CS to make pockets and used the BIA to put it all together. Each pocket is labeled with a different baby item using the cute Baby Firsts stamp set from SU.

I wrapped Hershey's Nuggets using Avery 8160 labels and Microsoft Word. I shaded all of the labels with pink and added the clipart image. I like how they turned out and they were so EASY!

And last, but not least, the diaper cake. I love making these. I usually make them where the diapers are wrapped in a blanket and gifts are stuffed everywhere but since I wasn't what the mother-to-be would preferred, I made a simple version. I love how it turned out!

I think she really liked how everything looked.

Archiver's M&T

2009-05-09T23:02:00.002-05:00

Another Archiver's Make & Take. They are so sweet there, they insisted that I do the card even though I had my 20 month old son with me. He sat in my lap and the lady helped me with the embossing and adhering the bling. It made my day, the simple things right? :)

Post-It Note Holder

2009-04-08T23:33:00.003-05:00

I put an Easter basket together for ds's daycare teachers. In addition to the candy, I thought I'd make post-it note holders with the teachers' initials on them. I didn't really use a pattern, just fit the CS around the post-its, I've seen so many of these on SCS. It was a very quick project! I used all scrap paper, scallop and circle punches, paper piercer, some leftover stickers and of course, stickles. :)

Live & Learn

2009-04-07T13:01:00.003-05:00

This was a "free" make and take at Archiver's that cost me an hour of my life...ugh!

Tool Turnabout

2009-04-07T12:42:00.002-05:00

This is the Pampered Chef Tool Turnabout that I used in my kitchen for a while, then repurposed it as my craft tool turnabout. I love this thing! It holds most of my scrapbooking/crafting tools. I put it in a drawstring bag to take to crops and know that I have most everything I need. I decided to use some old SU rubons (surprise, surprise!) and dress it up a bit. I love this color and all of the flowers. To some, it may be too many flowers but I love it. Of course, I used my nifty Basic Grey rubon tool and it made applying the rubons so easy. As soon as I get to Archiver's to get some multipurpose glue, I'm going to add some bling to some of the flower centers on the bottom tier.

Fun Project

2009-03-21T23:16:00.003-05:00

We celebrated a good friend's 40th b'day tonight. He loves guitars/music so we threw him a surprise b'day dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe. I helped set everything up and decided to make a centerpiece for the table. I used my Wishblade! I was so excited. I found this guitar file from http://pabykincreations.com/. It is the free "guitar hero" file. I only used the guitar part of the file. You see the full guitar in the centerpiece and only the outline to make the guitars that are glued on the can (which is a formula can, without the label it was already silver and worked perfectly). I made the guitar amplifier myself. I used Crayola's stardust sticker paper that you can print on for the label that is supposed to look like the metal screen. My dh said it didn't look like an amp at all but once our friend looked at the centerpiece he said "look, there's even an amp". So haha! The guitar picks were part of the party favors, I used the extras. I'm very happy with how it turned out.

Card for Mom

2009-03-11T14:35:00.003-05:00

I made this card for my mom using the SU rubons again. I have really had fun with these lately. The card/envie was from the clearance wall at Hobby Lobby. And of course I added the bling and did some outlining with a new pen, I think it's called Stardust. It glides on like paint, I love that pen! Anyway, I wish I hadn't put the stem flower in the middle of happy day but it'll do. Mom will love it no matter! :)

Make and Takes

2009-03-07T23:33:00.002-06:00

Visit my friend Jennifer's blog to see the Archiver's make and takes. I did the circle card, journal block and mini album as well-piggy backing on her post b/c she already has all of the photos uploaded, hehe! :)
http://createdbyjen.blogspot.com/2009/02/free-make-and-take.html
http://createdbyjen.blogspot.com/2009/02/more-make-and-takes.html

Other than this and the card I just posted, I haven't done a whole lot of crafting, time to myself is at an all time low right now. But, I printed a ton of pics recently and am organizing them for my scrapbook. At least I'm getting something accomplished!

Like Butta

2009-03-07T23:12:00.002-06:00

Inside of card:

So after using the Basic Grey rubon roller at the last Archiver's make and take, I bought one and have fallen in love with it, it glides so easily! I used it for this card, which is for my BFF's birthday and it was so quick and easy-no popsicle stick hand cramps or stresses in the paper. It was awesome! Everyone really needs one of these things. And, I also used a little adhesive/rubon eraser that I really liked. I have the square adhesive eraser but haven't liked it lately. I found this other one on sale and thought I'd try it and really like it, but I don't know who makes it, it's a little green stump. Anyway, the pink passion paper and rubons are SU. I used pieces of several different rubons to fill the front of the card, it was fun. And of course, what card is finished without Stickles and bling?! :)

More Craftin' Fun

2008-12-11T23:11:00.003-06:00

I have had so much fun over the last couple of days making things. I made a birthday/anniversary calendar and a gift card holder for my son's teachers. I personalized the front of the calendar with their initial using the JustRite Special Occassion set and also used the Fiskars threading water punch and bound each calendar with my BIA. I included a sample of the inside pages. I created/printed them on the computer and then used SU chalks for the borders and misc. stamps/ink to decorate according to season/holiday. I sprayed each page with hairspray so the chalk wouldn't rub off too much over time.

For the gift card holder, I used the idea found on this wonderful stamping blog: http://www.chicnscratch.typepad.com/ I love her blog and check it daily. She has the cutest ideas! I cut the circles on my Wishblade, put them together and decorated. The back has a 1/2 circle that holds the gift card.

Weekly Planner

2008-12-11T23:05:00.002-06:00

This was very simple. I bought the weekly planner in the Michael's $1 bin and used the title page as a template to punch holes with the CAD then cut a slit in each hole so it would punch onto the spiral binding. I used some scrap paper, a leftover sticker, stickles (love me some stickles), and a stamp to add some color and to serve as a daily reminder for me spiritually. I like how it turned out and it took about 5 minutes.

Tag Time

2008-12-06T22:57:00.002-06:00

I went to an open house today at Amy's-The Croppin' Queen. She had a wonderful tag make'n'take and had some vendors. She went all out, everything was so organized! We made the tags you see below using the Creative Memories Tag Punch and a variety of other supplies. My fave is the one of my son. I had to laugh b/c it looks like he's wearing the bow! :) The CM tag punch is awesome! Thanks Amy for such a great time! Check out her blog, she's one of the craftiest people I know: http://collaborativecreations.blogspot.com/

Cards for Newlyweds

2008-11-16T14:31:00.008-06:00

I am safe to post this prior to the wedding because I doubt my niece checks this blog and with the wedding only a few days away she is undoubtedly too busy to even think of blurfing at this time.

I made 20 monogram cards with for the husband-and-bride-to-be. I love how they turned out! I have to send a shout-out to my cropping buddies b/c they helped me with the color selection and put up with my hissy-fit when my scallop punch decided to quit punching. Haha! I lost patience trying to make a box big enough for 20 cards and envies so I just used this bag. I've altered containers for her before so I figured she didn't need another container laying around. And, if she wants, she can save the cardfront I used on the front of the bag in her scrapbook and toss the bag. I decided on a design by searching the JustRite blog and SCS gallery for cards that I really liked and used some of those ideas until it turned into what I wanted.

Supplies: SU cardstock - Close to Cocoa CS and DP, Summer Sun, Pumpkin Pie. Misc. cream cardstock. Stamps - JustRite (love, love, LOVE!) border and Special Occassions font. Ink - Colorbox Chalk Ink in Burnt Sienna. Other - Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder (used with a pasta machine, worked like a charm!), Fiskars treading water punch, scalloped circle and circle punches. Misc. ribbon from Michaels. SU envies.

Finally!

2008-11-09T22:44:00.003-06:00

I finally had some much needed playtime. I have had a blast playing with my Wishblade today. I made this birthday card for my friend. I belong to a Wishblade yahoo group and this file was made by someone obviously very talented, I love it. As you can see, I used pink and brown cardstock and misc. "bling" (not sure of any brands). I really liked how this turned out so I may make a few more to keep on hand.

I also made these onesie cards. I've made one before, by hand, scroll down the blog to see it. Well, this time I decided to make a Wishblade file and see what happens. I worked on it all afternoon and am very excited about how it turned out. I am definitely making some more of these and stocking up for future baby showers. I used pink, blue and white cardstock, a baby stamp set, some eyelets (not sure of any brands) and SU Bashful Blue/Pretty in Pink ink and markers. I'm not fond of my faux stitching, it looks messy. It looked so good on other cards I've seen. Oh well, I'll keep practicing.

Crayon Roll

2008-09-24T13:08:00.002-05:00

I've never heard of crayon rolls until recently-someone gave my son one as a gift and I thought it was so cute. So I did what every person in the world does-I "googled" it and came across the instructions on this blog (http://www.skiptomylou.org/2007/04/25/on-a-roll/). I made the felt one for a friend's daughter, she loves ladybugs. It's not perfect but I don't think it's too shabby for my first one. And I used a sewing machine, yay! I don't think I'll make another felt one as the shape had a tendency to morph throughout the stitching. I bought some cute jungle material to make my son a larger one that holds more crayons to use at home. I'll post it when it's done.

How many days to "glow"?

2008-09-11T12:11:00.003-05:00

A friend of mine is going through radiation therapy for breast cancer. Her husband told me I should come up with some kind of countdown so she wouldn't have to make big X's on the calendar. He said I'm crafty and made sure I didn't misunderstand it as "crappy", haha! He was kind of joking but I thought it was a great idea. I was going to see her today so I threw something together really quick late last night. She jokes and calls her radiation her time to "glow" so I ran with that pun. She has 38 treatments so I took 4 sheets of business cards and stamped them like a OSW with SU's Burst Into Bloom stamps and Gable Green/Pretty in Pink/Positively Pink/Lavendar Lace ink, Lavendar Lace marker. I also used a binder clip, misc. CS and misc. ribbon. On the back of the business cards, I printed some inspirational quotes I found online and added a few jokes, a card with her husband/sons/grandson's names on it, a half way there and you did it card. Some were serious, others were funny, like "You Glow Girl!" and little things to make her giggle. I know I could have done a million different things to make it bigger/better but I didn't have a ton of time and I think it turned out cute because of what was printed on each card.

My Unmounted Stamp System

2008-08-07T22:49:00.008-05:00

Okay, I am going to try to explain how I use SU stamps unmounted. I can't take credit for this system-I learned about it from someone at SCS. But, I've had people PM me with questions so I thought I'd take a few pics to explain it. The examples here use SU Happy Winter and Spring Solitude stamp sets. I purchased the Tack'N'Peel from Joanns.com and I already had a bunch of CD cases at home but you can purchase them most anywhere. The slimline cases do not work.

Storage in CD cases: Before I use the stickers, I make a photocopy of them and tape it to the front of the CD case. Then, I take the label and adhere it to the spine of the CD case so I can see it at a glance on the shelf (I adhere it to white paper first so I can see it clearly).

To keep the stamps in the case, I adhere as much vinyl cling as is needed to hold all of the stamps in the set, the sticker adheres to the vinyl cling (I used to use vinyl cling on my blocks to stamp with but it wasn't as sturdy as using Tack'N'Peel).

Step 1: Trim the stamp. I try to trim it in a way that gives me a hint as to where a certain place is in the stamp. For example, the t, k and y on this stamp stands out when trimmed.

Step 2: Adhere the sticker to the stamp. I stick the design sticker on attempting to line it up using the t, k and y as guides.
Step 3: Trim the sticker. I've tried to adhere the sticker and trim that and the stamp at once but my alignment is not very good (it wasn't when I used wood blocks either).

Step 4: Stick on block and stamp away! I've tried adhering the stamp to the block several different ways but my favorite is to use Tack'N'Peel on the blocks. That's all I use now. That stuff is great!

I used to adhere the sticker to white paper first then stick it on the stamp but my placement was always off. I got lucky a few times but not enough to continue doing it that way. Here's an example of what that looks like:

Although the design stands out against the white, I can see it just fine against the grey foam and it's one less step and less hassle.

Here's a side view of the block with Tack'N'Peel and the stamp:

Well that's it, I hope this makes sense. I love using this UM system. It works great for me. If you're interested in it, try one stamp set and see how you like it.

P.S. If I buy stamps that are already wood mounted, I pop them in the microwave for a few seconds to pull the stamp off of the wood block. Then, I make my own "sticker" by stamping the image on vinyl cling using StazOn ink. I do have some where the foam came off of the rubber and those work just fine by sticking the rubber image (without the foam) on the Tack'N'Peel.

Treat Box

2008-08-07T13:55:00.003-05:00

I made this for a friend for her birthday. I love finding reasons to use my JustRite Stamper. When I first put the T and Tricia's Treats on there, there was too much space between the letter T and the rest of the words so I took a chance and trimmed off some of the rubber around the T so the words would fit more snuggly. It worked like a charm! The 2nd picture is the bottom flap of the card, opened. I wanted to make it a little different from a typical card shape but also wanted enough room to write a note. I used: misc. PP from Michael's (scraps from another project, the colors worked great for this project), SU Bashful Blue paper, blue Sterilite box, JustRite Stamper, Chocolate Chip ink, SU Curvy Verses, flower from SU Seeing Spots, stickles, and scallop punches.

Photocopying Scrapbooks

2008-07-19T08:30:00.002-05:00

At the crop last night, we discussed the cost of photocopying our 12x12 scrapbooks (among "other things", haha!). I googled this and found an interesting article. Check it out: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Scrapbooking-2602/2008/6/12X12-copies.htm

The article led me to this website, the prints are very cheap as compared to $10/page at Kinko's. I may have to order a print to check out the quality: http://www.scrapbooksplease.com/

Time Well Spent

2008-07-14T09:40:00.003-05:00

I made this card for my friend, Jennifer (took me a while to upload). The sentiment read "Time spent with friends is time well spent" from SU's Time Well Spent set (as well as the flower here on the front). I used chocolate cs, cream cs, Making Memories pp, Cuttlebug A2 flower embossing folder (with my pasta machine, hehe), chocolate chip ink, Twinkling H2O's and misc. ribbon. I sanded the embossed image so it would show up better. I really like the way it looks. I'm not sure I'm happy with the card overall, it's not bad but it's not my fave. I'm still trying to get the hang of my Twinklers.

Lil' Rebel

2008-06-18T23:50:00.006-05:00

I made this for a friend's ds and dil. They are expecting a baby boy in August and they are huge Ole Miss fans. The baby's room is in an Ole Miss football theme,...can't wait to see the pics of that! How cute! I made this onesie card using this tutorial: http://laurenm.blogs.splitcoaststampers.com/2008/02/05/create-your-own-onesie-card-tutorial-and-important-note-please-read/
I "hung" it on the bag as if it were on a clothes line, not sure why it just seemed like a good idea at the time. The card was really easy, I couldn't believe it.

I also made the new mommy a coupon holder for baby coupons since she'll receive a ton. I guess I came up with this idea on my own. I thought of how grocery store coupon organizers work and went from there. I'm one of those people who believes that no idea is new...but I haven't seen one like it that I know of (please correct me if I'm wrong). I used the Bind-It-All to bind it. To be honest, I just look for things to bind, hehe!

There are 6 pockets: diapers/wipes, formula, food, medicines and creams, bath/body and misc.

And yes, that's my Scor-Pal in the background. I almost love it as much as my JustRite Stamper! :)

Thanks for looking!

Another Version of 1st Card

2008-06-14T11:33:00.004-05:00

The more I looked at the first card I posted, the more I didn't like it...there was just something missing. So, I disassembled it and tried again. This is what I came up with. I love the Swiss Dots embossed background. I bought the Cuttlebug embossing folder and ran it through a pasta machine. Yes, you read that correctly, a pasta machine. Worked like a charm! :)

Bunco Gifts

2008-06-05T15:10:00.006-05:00

It's my month to host bunco and since we aren't actually playing bunco (we're going out to dinner) I thought I'd make a little something for everyone (we usually do prizes based on bunco scores). I found these little memo pads with pens at Michael's. They had fairies and stripes on them. I decided to cover them with this PP I found and fix them up a little bit. I used bashful blue cardstock, my pink Mary punch, SU's scallop punch, SU's seeing spots stamp set, ribbon from Michael's, stickles, and of course my favorite new toy...the Just Rite Monogram Stamper for the verse. For those of you who don't know, the binder clip is made into a memo/photo holder. You just slide the paper or photo between the "handles". The ribbon keeps it together to actually hold something. I used my big Xyron with permanent adhesive on everything. It doesn't want to stick on the metal binder clips though. Next time I do those, I'll use the tape runner. It seemed to work fine on my sample. I hope they enjoy their goodies!

My New Toy

2008-05-24T15:23:00.008-05:00

I went to Archiver's last night and bought a new toy, the JustRite Large Round DIY Monogram Stamper (http://www.justritestampers.com/). It is so much fun! I made this card using: the JustRite small text that you purchase separately, SU "Seeing Spots", Marvy scallop punch (pink), paper piercer, ribbon and cardstock. To get the red stars in between the "thank u", I used my needlenose tweezers by Making Memories to hold the little star from the JustRite small text set and inked it in Real Red (SU Stampin' Spot).

I read some tips online last night that really helped me with the JustRite stamper:

Stamp on a mousepad and use even pressure to get a crisp image.
When you use letters to make a border (like "Thank U"), stamp plenty of extras because it takes some time to place those tiny letters (especially after you drop them a million times like I did, hehe).

When using the little letters, snap them all into the border area of the stamp and then slide them around to space them as you like. This is easier than taking them out to place them again.
When using the self-inking stamp, stamp once and look before lifting. This way, if the image isn't as dark as you want it, just stamp again. (I came up with this tip on my own, hehe.)

I like how this card turned out. It's very simple to make but I think it looks nice. It reminds me of ladybugs and summer! :)

This was my first blog post ever. Thanks for looking!

Update: I realize now this card is a little too simple. I should have layered and maybe used eyelets for the ribbon. Oh well, live and learn!