Pish Posh Paperie

Just A Few Cards

2012-01-10T23:03:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to take a minute to show you the cards I have made lately. I haven't had a lot of time for crafting in the last few weeks. But I managed to do a few cards. Plus I also made my dad's birthday present. It was pretty cute. I neglected to take any pictures though :(. So I will have to post it another time.

Here are the cards:

hello Card

Supplies:

Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Very Vanilla, Basic Gray {textured}, Going Gray

Patterned Paper - Authentique Blissful line

Ink - Stampin' Up! Basic Gray; Stazon Black

Stamps - Stampin' Up!

Punches - Stampin' Up! Scallop border, Large Scallop Circle, Itty Bitty Flower

Cricut Cartridges - Once Upon A Princess {hello tag, tea pot}

Ink Spray - Tattered Angels

Crochet Flower - Imaginisce

Brad and Jewel - Stampin' Up!

Ribbon - American Crafts

Foam Adhesive - my stash

I just love this paper from Authentique. All of the paper that they have come out with is gorgeous! But for some reason, this one seems to be my favorite. I don't usually gravitate to these colors, but I totally love the color combinations.

Be Mine mini Card

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Real Red Stampin' Up!; Kraft Archiver's

Patterned Paper - Echo Park Yours Truly

Cricut Dies - Accent Essentials {scallop circle, large heart};

Forever Young {red and kraft tag}

Stamps - Studio G {Be Mine sentiment}; Stampin' Up! Established Elegance {established 1873 sentiment}

Inks - Real Red, Crumb Cake Stampin' Up!

Ink Spray - Tattered Angels Be Mine

Punches - Scallop Border, Small Heart, Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!

Glitter Glue - Martha Stewart

Jewels - Stampin' Up!

Button - Basic Grey

Ribbon - American Crafts; Stampin' Up!

Liquid Glue - Crystal Effects Stampin' Up!

This year I had a hard time choosing the Valentine's paper that I wanted. That is until I saw the line from Echo Park. I loved the other brands I saw, but I LOVE this Echo Park line. It's just fun and I love the traditional color scheme. I am sure this is not the only project I will be using the products for.

Thanks So Much Card

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Stamps - Established Elegance, {Thanks So Much sentiment} Stampin' Up!

Inks - Island Indigo, Crumb Cake Stampin' Up!

Spray Ink - Studio Calico Mister Huey's Clay

Jewels - Reflections

This is a very simple card for me, if you all don't know already. It takes a lot for me to not piece a card together. When I got my new Island Indigo stamp pad, and my new Established Elegance stamp pad from Stampin' Up! however, I got inspired to simplify just a bit.

Happy Valentine's Day Tag

Cardstock - Kraft, Jet Black textured Archiver's; Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Echo Park Yours Truly

Cricut Cartridges - Once Upon A Princess {Envelope and Tags}, Accent Essentials {Large Heart, scallop circles}

Punches - Itty Bitty flower, Small Heart Stampin' Up!

Stamps - Happy Valentine's Day sentiment Studio G; flourish Stampin' Up! Embellished Elegence

Inks - Real Red, Basic Gray Stampin' Up!

Jewels - Reflections

Glitter Glue - Martha Stewart

Ribbon and Twine - Basic Gray satin Stampin' Up!; twine is my stash

When I saw the cute envelope and tag on the Once Upon A Princess cartridge from Cricut, I knew it was only a matter of time before I attempted to do something with it! And it didn't take too long after all! I love this darling envelope and tag. I will get plenty of use out of it for sure!!! And, yep. Used more of the Echo Park paper for this one too. I really just absolutely LOVE it!

I know I keep mentioning the Cricut cartridges I have been using on all my projects lately. But I haven't mentioned the fact that I got a Cricut! :). I borrowed my friend Marci's Cricut to work on my sisters shower decorations. I fell in LOVE with it, told my mom and then she got me my very own! I was debating whether to upgrade to the Cricut Mini but I like the fact that I don't have to plug this one into the computer. I want to eventually get a Cricut Expression. A girl can dream :).

I am lucky to be able to borrow cartridges from Marci and also from Thong's cousins, Thia and Bea. I have purchased a few on my own, and also got clobbered on Black Friday at a local store who was selling them for $10!!!! I got three that morning {after waiting in the freezing cold for 4 hours}, one of which wasn't really one I wanted, or one that I have yet to use. Since then, I have purchased two more since then - Once Upon A Princess {MY FAVORITE} and Cindy Loo {Love the font on this cartridge!}

I got it early and was supposed to wrap it and put it under my tree. Somehow though it ended up straight up in my craft room instead, open and turned on with a cartridge just waiting to be used! What can I say, I used it right away :). It was practically begging me to anyway, right!

I have got to show you all this adorable pin cushion {you can see the ones that Amber made me, and one that I made right behind it}. I didn't make this most adorable pin cushion ever! No, that was made by Thia, my husbands cousin. I fell in love with it right away! Could you just die! :)

Hope this year is coming along great for everyone. I admit, it hasn't all been roses, but it has been good! I have a new addition to my family. His name is Jack and he is such a cute little happy guy! He belongs to my sister and her husband. He is just a few days old, but is loved immensely already!

Peyton couldn't wait to meet her new baby cousin and hold him for the very first time. She is already planning games for them to play when he gets a little older. I told her it may be a while, and she said she will wait! :)

Talk to you all soon!

Once Upon A Princess

2012-01-01T01:09:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time...

There was a little girl who said when she grew up that she wanted to be professional soccer player, tooth fairy, dentist, doctor, and of course a princess. When her family would drive by the large professional soccer stadium she would tell them how much she longed to play there someday. She was a happy girl who loved to dance, sing, dress up, watch movies about fairies and longed for adventures. Cinderella was her favorite princess in the entire world and her favorite color was blue. She loved blue so much she would make her mom go to the blue doors at Super Target any time they went there! She was all ready to be a "big girl" and told her mom she was no longer 3 but 33 years old. She dreamed of big celebrations to spend with her family and friends. She spent lots of time making decorations and invitations for her events. She played hard and loved everyone around her.

The End

I know all mothers think their kid is the best kid in the world. I am by no means the exception. I love how much Peyton loves life and loves her friends and family. She is such a happy girl and she makes me happy that I am her mom.

My Cricut has been a lot of fun already in the short time since I have had it. Although I have mostly done Christmas stuff at this point, I have made a scrapbook page, some cards, and am also currently working on a project for my dad's birthday next week. Peyton's birthday is coming up in February, so I am going to start working on party decorations as well. She wants a princess party, no surprise there :). Right after I got my Cricut, since I only had the cartridge it came with, I ended up purchasing 2 more {not counting the 3 I got trampled for on Black Friday}. One is Cindy Loo. That cartridge has such a fun font!!! I've now used it on a few projects already. The other is Once Upon A Princess. This is such a fun cartridge for all things Peyton! I instantly knew that it would inspire projects for Peyton's birthday party to her bed room, and even some paper dolls for her to play with. I had been working some sort of wall hanging out in my head for the last few weeks since I had got the cartridge, but it took seeing the special issue of Cricut Magazine Home Decor, to get the gears really moving.

Here is what I came up with:

Yep, still addicted to these junk bows. Thanks Amber! :)

A few years ago, I had to ground myself from a little local store called The Wood Connection. I LOVE it! It's full of unfinished wood projects and such. I got the frame from there. It's been sitting in my craft room closet just waiting for me to use it. Hence, the grounding due to excess products purchased there that I have yet to use all of. But I am glad I finally had the perfect use for it. A few years ago - actually 2007 - I posted some small magnet boards. Those were actually purchased from The Wood Connection.

Anyway, here are the supplies used for the frame:

Paint - Acrylic cream
Stamps - Pebbles, Inc.; Stampin' Up!
Ink - Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip, Baja Breeze, Soft Suede, Old Olive
Ribbon - American Crafts; Stampin Up!; tulle is my stash; Close to My Heart
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Echo Park; Stampin' Up! {only on junk bow}
Cricut Cartridges - Once Upon A Princess {Princess, butterflies, large scallop border, rose}; Cindy Loo {flourishes, Font}
Punches - Itty Bitty Flower, Tiny Heart Stampin' Up!

Glitter Glue - Stickles
Flair - American Crafts
Jewels and Pearlies - Stampin' Up!
Paper Doily - Wilton

To make the frame "dirty" I take a sponge and cover it in ink - same as when I distress a piece of paper - and then I rub it all over the wood. This is of course once it is painted and the paint is dry. I love the effect. It makes an instant impact.

For the month of December, local paper craft company, American Crafts, had a warehouse sale. I guess they do the same thing every year. I have mentioned many times how much I love their stuff. So I knew I would have to make the trip at least once. I was pleasantly surprised at how much great stuff I found and at such great deals. It's actually where I got all the Crate Paper patterned Christmas paper from. I also got some cheap clear stamps, {we are talking $2 for sets normally $6} including the princess phrases I used in this frame. I also got tons of ribbon. They were ridiculously low {40 spools for $5!}. I even got a large 12x12 paper trimmer there for $8. They had great deals on scrapbooks, inks, Thickers and all kinds of things. Can't wait to check it out next year for sure!

Hope you are all enjoying your holiday week! Happy New Year!

Linking to Paper Issues

A Little Christmas Cheer to End the Year

2011-12-31T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Yes, yes, I know Christmas is over. Thing is, I have had these pics on my camera for a few weeks and haven't had time to post. So here it all is!

As I have been saying and saying, I want to make a Christmas village. So I made another house to go into it. It doesn't fit the same theme of papers as my house from last year, but I figured it was how all the houses will end up being anyway. As much as I love the one I made the one I made last year, I LOVE this one even more!

Here are the pics:

I am totally in love with picnik. It's so easy to use, it's free and it's tons of fun. As you can tell from the pictures, I was playing around with adding the words to my photos. Not to mention this paper from Crate Paper makes me want to use the 1960s photo edit to every picture of projects made with it!

Here are all the supplies used to make the house:

Deco Podge House - Hobby Lobby {mid size}

Patterned Paper - Crate Paper

Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip {used for reindeer}

Mini Ornaments, Bells and Lights - Michael's Crafts

Mini Jingle Bells - Stampin' Up!

Baker's Twine - my stash

Ribbon - Stampin' Up, Michael's

Cricut Cartridges - Cindy Loo {reindeer reins, flourish below roof}, Christmas Cheer {sleigh, reindeer, wreath}, Forever Young {flower on Santa's sleigh}

Pre-made Cutouts - Crate Paper {Santa and Tree}

Jewels and Half Pearls - Stampin' Up!, Reflections; Doodlebug Designs

Border Punches - Stampin' Up!, Martha Stewart

Punch - EK Success {corner rounder to make large scallop trim below roof}

Glues - Mod Podge, Crystal Effects, glue gun

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas! We sure did. I asked Peyton what her favorite present was and she said, "Everything Mom. I love everything!" It made my Christmas for sure.

Happy New Year!

Linking to Paper Issues

Thank You Cards Bundle

2011-12-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I made these thank you cards a while back. They were a requested order. I think they turned out pretty cute. I love small cards, as I have said many times before. These cards are all made by Stampin' Up! And they have coordinating envelopes for each that fit perfectly. They are all retired cards, so you can't order these particular ones anymore. But they still do have some currently in their catalog.

Here are the ones I made:

Stampin' Up!; Cricut, Baker's Twine, October Afternoon

Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up, Cricut, May Arts, Target $1 Spot

Stampin' Up!; October Afternoon; My Mind's Eye; Cricut

These cards were all really simple and fun to make. My favorite turned out to be the button one. But I actually loved all of them.

I have Friday off this week, so 4 more working days, then 4 days off!!!

Packaging and Sugar Cookies - What Could Be Better

2011-12-18T12:36:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Are you all ready for Christmas? I'm getting close. A few loose ends to tie up. But lots and lots of presents to wrap.

Last night, my mom had me wrap a present for her work Christmas party. What's inside is pretty cute, but I think the packaging turned out pretty cute too!!!!

Thanks to Amber, I am obsessed with making these bows on anything I can. And then I have been having more fun adding mini ornaments or regular size ornaments to them! I like to add some of the tinsel ribbon and silver elastic cord too. Or even baker's twine. I add as much ribbon and tulle as I want and always a little bit of type style paper, or a book page. Sometimes I will distress the paper with ink. A lot of times, I have just left it plain. The last touch is usually a little tag of some kind. And walah! There you have it! A fun and festive package just ready to be given away!

So this week, Peyton and I made sugar cookies. It was a lot of fun and very messy!! She wasn't crazy about frosting the cookies, but she loved the cookie cutter part, playing in the flour and topping the cookies with sprinkles! Okay, love is an understatement! She went crazy and went through a whole bottle of sprinkles. It was pretty funny.

It started off calm. Peyton didn't like the sour cream frosting, so I frosted some with chocolate frosting just for her.

She decided on the pink and purple Barbie sprinkles that we still had. And then she wanted to mix it up with the Christmas sprinkles too :).

It is so hard to get a picture of Peyton looking at the camera. She just doesn't do it usually. All of our tricks to get her to, usually fail. So she sort of has scary eyes in this picture, but she is actually looking at the camera!

There ended up being more sprinkles on the plate than there were on the cookies!!!! It was pretty funny. And really pretty cute.

We are making cookies this week for the neighbors, so wish me luck that I don't run completely out of sprinkles before we get them all done! This time around I am making gingerbread cookies! Yum, yum!

Hope you all have a great last week before Christmas!

Christmas Banner

2011-12-11T16:34:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Hope you are all having a crafty and wonderful holiday season. Last night we took Peyton to see Christmas lights at Temple Square. It was cold, but we bundled up warmly and had a lot of fun. It has been a while since we had ventured downtown Salt Lake so it was great to see all the changes that have been going on there. It's going to be really nice when it's all finished. Hopefully it will help bring back small businesses when it's all finished too. All the construction didn't stop there from being Christmas decorations everywhere!!!

So for my sister's baby shower, I borrowed my friend, Marci's standard Cricut. She also let me use some of her lettering cartridges. They came in super handy. And I admit, I totally fell in love with it! So I started talking to my mom about it, and sure enough, that's the very thing she got me for Christmas! I got the standard Cricut too, thinking of price and portability as the key factors. After I had it, I started looking more and more into the Cricut, and found a brand new one they came out with recently called the Cricut Mini. So I have decided to list mine for sale - along with a few other things - on the local classified listing site, ksl.com. And then I am going to get the Mini. I am pretty excited either way though.

But enough about that...

I have been a busy little beaver making all sorts of fun things with my Cricut. Thanks to being trampled on Black Friday, for $10 cartridges, borrower some from Marci, and my hubby's cousin's Bea and Thia, I have been able to do quite a lot. I went down to the American Crafts Warehouse Sale that is going on this entire month and picked up really cute paper by Crate Paper super cheap. I brought it home, and made a darling banner with it!!!

What I love most about the Cricut is how much you can do with just one cartridge.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics Textured, Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Crate Paper
Die Cut Machine - Cricut
Cartridges - Christmas Cheer,
Ribbon - Mostly my stash, May Arts, Stampin' Up!, Offray, tulle, American Crafts, baker's twine, stretchy silver elastic cord is from Stampin' Up!
Little Somethings - bells Stampin' Up!; Red Jewels Reflections; button Autumn Leaves
Adhesives - 3M glue stick, glue gun, foam adhesive, Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!

Cutest Tree Hugger Ever!

Peyton loved all the lights, but she was slightly disappointed by the lack of blue lights! I know, she is pretty silly. So when we found some blue trees though, she was pretty excited. She ran right up to one so we could take her picture in it.

The Reason for the Season

Part of the road was converted into this garden at the side of Temple Square. It was sort of a big controversy here when it all happened. Literally, the road was torn out and a garden was put in, so traffic has to go around now to get down the road, instead of being able to go through like they used to. I have to admit, it is rather beautiful though. And right now, with it being Christmas and all, they have the big tree, you can see in the distance, plus animals, shepherds, Mary, Joseph, baby Jesus and lights everywhere. I love the little bubble lights on top of the water. Those were my favorite. I was really happy, that despite all the people around, I was able to actually get this photo. It's so peaceful and it's such a great reminder what all the fuss around this time of year is actually all about.

Hope you are all enjoying your holidays this year!! Merry Christmas!

P.S. All the photo editing was done using picnik.com. Check it out! It's a great site and it's free!

It's Your Day Card - Made From Scraps

2011-11-08T01:06:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone! How was your Halloween? We had a lot of fun! Last Saturday we went to Thanksgiving Point for a little Halloween fun. They do something fun for the toddlers called Barnyard Boo. They transform the little petting zoo into fun little games and activities. We had a great time!

Halloween is also Thong's birthday, so it's double duty for us. This year though we just concentrated on trick-or-treating. A LOT OF TRICK-OR-TREATING! Thong took Peyton to the mall, then we went around our little neighborhood, so Pey could go to her little friends houses. And then finally we ended up at my brothers house and went around with a big group of people that usually come out for the festivities. His neighborhood has a small handful of houses that go all out for Halloween decorating. The kids get totally freaked out and it's really entertaining to see all the spooky decorations people get out. I LOVE Halloween!

Before I show you my card, here are a few of my favorite fall photo's of Peyton:

This is taken at a local pumpkin patch. They have a bunch of tractors, pumpkins, corn stalks, an old truck, this old trailor and other fun things that work as great photo props. I liked how the sun came into this photo.

Same trailer as above, but from the open end. She looks thoughtful, but really she is just thinking "Why are you making me stand up here mom!"

Isn't this old truck so cool! It's hard to tell, but the whole bed is filled with Pumpkins!

Probably my favorite picture from this whole day - and we took over 300 pics! I love the lighting on Peyton's face, and I love her expression. Even though I know she looks so much like Thong, I see this picture and it feels like I am looking at one of myself taken when I was her age. She has a lot of her mama in her too.

My parents took Peyton and my nephew to Disneyland. This was our pre-trip goodbye. She was all ready to go, wearing her Mickey and Minnie t-shirt and her princess mouse ears, so I just had to take some pictures. Of course, all silliness broke loose!

This is taken at Thanksgiving Point. There was this little mini western town with just a dance hall or jail. Since Peyton is obsessed with all things girl and princesses and dancing, she was most excited about the dance hall. This is 100% my favorite picture taken that Saturday!

As you can tell from the red nose and cheeks, it was getting cold! This is on the tractor ride.

Right before trick-or-treating. Peyton, Malia and Avery. 3 pretty cute girls! Notice how 2 out of the 3 are princesses! Malia, the one in the middle, She is just as much a princess as the other 2 girls!

I really do love fall. I know I have said it before, but it's true!

Alright, and now to my card made all from scraps! Love it when that works out!

Don't you love when you make something and it becomes your favorite thing ever that you have made! That would be this card! And guess what!! Everything, including the card base itself, is made from scraps! I have really been working hard lately on not just making the decorations for my sister's baby shower coming up in just under 2 weeks, but also on getting my craft room clean and organized. So I went through all of my scraps! Yep, all of them! I have them all separated by patterned paper and cardstock now, and it's so much easier to find what I am looking for! It made putting this card together a much simpler process!

I wish I could remember where I saw the pattern for this card, over the weekend, but it has totally escaped me! But I couldn't stop thinking about it, and when I was cleaning, I cam across the perfect paper for the card in my head! Don't you love it when that works out!

Here is a quick rundown of the supplies:

Cardstock: Stampin' Up

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon, Fancy Pants {clouds and oval}

Ribbon: my stash {brown and baker's twine}

Punches: scallop border, scallop oval, large oval, small heart, itty bitty flower Stampin' Up!

Button: My Mind's Eye

Glitter Glue: Stickles

Adhesives: 3M glue stick, Pop Dots, foam adhesive and Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!

Yep, I totally love it :). Now I don't want to give it away to anyone, okay, maybe just not quite yet, anyway.

As a footnote, do you see the jar off to the right side, with my name on it? Amber made it! It was for a little party at her house. She had it filled with M&M's! So I knew I had to put some of my misc. buttons in it when she gave it to me! It's so cute, isn't it!

Alright, everyone! I am off! Enjoy fall while it lasts! Winter is just around the corner!!!!

P.S. I almost forgot to mention, I won the Halloween desk decorating competition! I got a $25 Visa gift card! I was so excited!

Decorating My Desk For Work

2011-10-25T20:08:00.002-06:00

Hi Everyone! Are you all as excited for Halloween as I am! {as a side note I am almost finished Christmas shopping for Peyton! Woot Woot!!!} So I thought I would finally show you all my desk at work! We are having a Halloween Desk Decorating Contest, and I finally have everything up that I wanted to get! Well, almost. My ideas are always grand!

I took my BOO letters and girly skull to work, but I made some other things, just for work. I made a few goblets, a spooky tree, and a haunted house {my favorite!}.

Here are the pics:

I fell in love with the new line from Tim Holtz with all these fun Halloween cutouts. This one uses the black skeleton body. I used the boney hand on the scrapbook page frame that I posted last.

Here is the fun bow on the goblet. Get ready to see more of these bows!

This tree is from Michaels. I added the garland, like the same as my tree at home, but this time I added the little bats to it. I am having a hard time finding a small enough light set for it. Maybe next year.

Close-up of the tag on the tree.

I love these fun spiders and the web all over everything! As you can tell, I got pretty crazy over the spiderweb and used it over everything!!!!!! It is too much fun!

Goblet #2. This one has a lollie, scallop circle and another fun label from Authentique. The spider is from last year used on my SPOOKY banner.

And her is the tag on the side of the goblet.

My favorite is this little Halloween House! I have been wanting to make one for the longest time, finally, I just made myself do it last night. It was staring at me, and said "Make me into a Halloween house!" So I said "Okay!" You can't tell in the picture, but there is black spider web all over the house.

Here is the top of the house. Another bow! And I love these spiders!

Hi Skully! Ooh, like from X-Files! I just admitted some of my geekiness that I have been hiding! I was a total X-Files nerd! I love a good conspiracy theory, what can I say.

Here are the BOO letters again.

And then everything, including my HALLOWEEN banner and then a felt bat banner from Martha Stewart.

So cross your fingers for me that I win the contest! It's Thursday morning, so I will keep you all posted!

Since there are so many different projects, here are the supplies for everything. If you want more specifics, just leave a comment or email me :).

Patterned Paper: Authentique, Fancy Pants, My Mind's Eye, Stampin' Up!
Cardstock: Bazzil Basics, Stampin' Up!
Ribbon: twine my stash, Offray, Stampin' Up!, May Arts, TriMar, tulle my stash
Die Cut-Outs: Tim Holtz, my stash
Stamps: Imaginisce, Stampin' Up!
Ink: Stampin' Up!, Stazon
Punches: 3/4" circle, 1" circle, Itty Bitty Flower, Small and Large Scallop Circles Stampin' Up
Jewels: Doodlebug Designs
Stickers: Tim Holtz
Buttons: Stampin' Up!
Dies: Stampin' Up for Bigshot
Glitter Glue: Martha Stewart
Glue Mediums: Mod Podge, 3M Gluestick, Elmers Gluestick
Die Cut Letters: Cricut {cut by Amber}
Decopodge Items: Skull Michaels; House Hobby Lobby
Tree: Michaels
Goblets: my stash and Target

I am off! Hope your Halloween is Spook-tacular!

When Witches Go Riding

2011-10-24T00:14:00.000-06:00

Hi crafty friends! Hope you are all having a spooky Halloween season! My house has been really quiet this week. My parents took Peyton down to their house in Saint George last Sunday. I have been able to clean my craft room, get some crafting done, and watch some TV that I was behind on! Thong has watched sports non stop - it's his favorite time of year for sure! But boy do we miss our little girl! She is still gone too this whole next week, as well! But Friday, my parents took Peyton and my nephew, O.J., down to Disneyland! I am so jealous!! But I am so excited for her to go and have fun! They went yesterday, and then are going back tomorrow and Tuesday!

Yesterday, I got a call in the afternoon. Peyton was so excited to tell me that she saw Cinderella! When we went earlier this year, we didn't get to see her the whole time, so she could hardly stand it that she got to see her this time! She did say that she didn't get to see Ariel yet, so maybe tomorrow she will get to. Here's hoping!

At work we have been having a Halloween Desk Decorating competition, so I have been making lots of fun decorations to show off. So far, only some people have been decorating. I did get a few people though to finally decorate theirs later this week. On my next post, I will show you all my desk.

In the mean time, I made one more thing to hang up at home with my Halloween decorations. I had some fun tags made from Fancy Pants left over, along with the rest of the Halloween paper I got this year.

So I made this scrapbook page frame to go with a pic of Peyton from Halloween last year. She was the cutest little witch - if I do say so myself :).

So here are the supplies I used:

Frame: Provo Craft

Paint: Cream acrylic

Distressing Ink: Ranger

Die Cuts: Tim Holtz, Cricut, My Mind's Eye, Authentique

Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye, Authentique, Fancy Pants, Stampin' Up!

Cardstock: Bazzill Basics

Punch: Martha Stewart border, Small Scallop Circle
Jewels: My stash, Stampin' Up!
Stickers: Tim Holtz
Ribbon: Stampin' Up!, Offray, tulle

I love the boney hand!! As you can see, I had to make another bow, thanks to Amber! She got me addicted to making them! And I love the quote in the center of the layout:

"When witches go riding

And black cats are seen,

The moon laughs and whispers,

'Tis near Halloween."

Totally spooky and great for Halloween!

One more thing before I am off to bed.... One of Peyton's favorite books that is perfect for Halloween season is called "Room On A Broom" by Julia Donaldson. It is such a cute story about a witch and her companions and the adventure they encounter together. It's a really cute story told in verse. If you are looking for a fun Halloween story for your younger children, check this out. It will become a classic for future Halloweens to come!

Stay crafty and hope you have a great Halloween!

Boil Boil Toil and Peyton - Oh, I mean Trouble!

2011-10-09T21:36:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone! Ever have those days when you think your kid is the best kid in the whole entire world and that they can do no wrong! And that you couldn't ever be prouder! Then ever have those days where your kid cries about EVERYTHING non stop all day long and you want to pull your own hair out and ground yourself to your room so you can have a break! Oh, today is so one of those days where the crying just doesn't stop. Today is one of those days where I did almost ground myself to my room just to have a moment of piece and quiet. Ahhh! I feel better now. Thanks for listening! :).

Now on to all that is crafty! So I have been working on a banner for Halloween for a few weeks. I got the pennants all cut out and my black cardstock scored to make lollies. And then I had my friend Amber cut out the letters for me, along with the scallop circles. I am so happy with the way it turned out!!!! I am sure those of you that have been visiting for a while know that I have a hard time just leaving things be. I always have to clutter things up. It's my style. It's what I do :). But I got the lollies, scallop circles and letters on, and then strung the whole thing with ribbon and tulle, and I loved it just as it was! I know, something is seriously wrong with me! I got my Halloween decorations up a week before Halloween and I didn't keep adding more stuff to my banner! Ha! What can I say, I loved it just the way it was.

So here are the pic's:

I love all the fun papers!

This spider was on my high counter, but when I put up the spider-web, I knew it would have to be moved over. Peyton and I decided that it is Aragog and the other small spiders are it's kids!

The spider-web was such a pain to hang up! I have tape all over my pretty banister :(. It didn't want to stay. But finally I got it all up. It's literally all hanging on by a thread.

Here are the banner supplies:

Cardstock - Bazzill Basics
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants, Authentique, Echo Park
Ribbon - May Arts, my stash, Stampin' Up!
Die Cut Letters - Cricut {Thanks Amber!}

Smallest supply list ever!

After I finished my banner, I was going to start working on my paper mache skull that I got the other day, but I guess I am out of mod podge :(, so I made a little circle garland for my little black Halloween tree. I have been wanting to make one of these for the longest time, and so finally, I just did it!!!

Here are the pic's:

After I added on the garland, I added on a small amount of spider-web and then Peyton and I put on a few spiders! I have been trying to figure out for the longest time what to add to this tree, and I am so glad that the garland worked out so well!!!

Here are the supplies for the garland:

Paper - Fancy Pants, Echo Park, Authentique

Twine - my stash

Glue - Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!

Punches - 3/4" cirlce, 1" circle from Stampin' Up!

Hope you all are enjoying this Halloween Season!

Linking up to:

Paper Issues

Halloween Time!

2011-10-02T21:25:00.001-06:00

I truly love fall! I love the cooler temperatures. I love the changing leaves. I love the warm colors of fall and Halloween decorations. I love pulling my sweaters out of storage. The only thing I don't love about fall is the shorter days. I am a lot better than I used to be, but I used to have a really hard time with the days getting shorter. Not so much anymore.

I got my Halloween decorations out last weekend! That has to be a record for me, right! Two things prompted me to get them out this early though: My cute new Halloween advent calendar, and my fun jars that I made, well I added to them.

First, here is the advent calender:

I found this super cute advent calendar up at Swiss Days. It's a local celebration that takes place up in a city called Midway, about 20 minutes south of Park City. It happens every year during Labor Day weekend. It is filled with hundreds of local craft booths, wrapping paper booths, bakery items, Navajo tacos {lovingly referred to as Swiss tacos} children's clothing, Halloween costumes. This is just the tip of the iceberg. There is so much fun stuff there! And it's 2 days of shopping fun! It's so big that it has busted out of the original square from where it takes place and has booths across the street on the north and south side of the square, as well as down the street!

This year, a camera crew from HGTV was there even to film some of the fun and more original stuff. So so so fun!

The advent calender is all handmade! Hand cut and hand sewed. How cute is it! They had plush nativity scenes, church books, finger puppets and all sorts of fun things. They had Christmas advent calendars too.

So as I mentioned there were 2 things that prompted me getting my Halloween decorations out already. The other was some super cute jars - also purchased at Swiss Days!

Here are the jars:

The jars came with the candlestick bases and lids. What I wanted to do was make sure I could use them all year long. So everything comes off very easily. The other thing I wanted to do, was make them decorated from both sides. From this view the jars spell BOO.

Sorry, this pic turned out blurry. It's the only one that I have. The little saying says "Things that go bump in the night"

Here is the B.

And then this is the back side of the B. The image is a witch that says "broom rides 25 cents" and then there is a pic of a witch. I thought it was pretty cute!

First O Jar. In order to get the letters to stand up inside the jars, and in the middle, I attached each one to transparency sheets. I stamped spiders on them in black Stazon Ink, as well. Then the candy corn works to hold up the transparencies. Hard to tell from the pic though.

Here is the backside of the first O.

And then the last O.

Sorry, again with the blurry pictures. I thought I was done with that :). This is the backside of the last O.

Here are the supplies:

Patterned Paper: Echo Park, Authentique, Fancy Pants
Cardstock: Stampin' Up!
Punches: Stampin' Up!
Score Board: Martha Stewart {to make the banner}
Ribbon: Stampin' Up! My Mind's Eye. {the white lace ribbon and wine came on the jar :)}
Stamps: Stampin' Up!
Inks: Stampin' Up!
Dies: QuicKutz, Spellbinders

The Hello Kitty basket is what I pass out Halloween candy in. I haven't been home for the last few years though so we haven't passed out candy. The ceramic pumpkin was made by my grandma :). I know you can't tell on from the pic, but the tree has flashing lights on it that are candy corns! I love them. I got the cute little pumpkin at Tai Pan Trading this year. The little dish is filled with a candy that I didn't love, in fact despised, until this year! Candy Corn!!! The runner was made by my mommy, and is Hello Kitty Halloween :).

The spider is also from Tai Pan. I LOVE that store!

These BOO letters were made about 4 or 5 years ago for a class that I taught. The style is sort of outdated already. But I still love them. All supplies are Stampin' Up! {do you like my rice cooker in the background :).}

And here is the other side of my living room:

I made the banner that says "SPOOKY" last year. A few things here stay up all year long - the drawers, glass jar on top of them, and usually the stripped vase.

The little scary guy was from my dad, to Peyton! You press his belly and his eyes turn red and he makes a screechy noise. It's pretty funny and Peyton is terrified of it! The skull garland, small black glitter Boo, and spider on the far right side is from Tail Pan. the white jack-o-lantern and big metal pumpkin are from Rod Works. The glass pumpkins are from Walmart. The banner from last year, is partially also from Tai Pan.

Here are some closeups:

Hope you all had a great weekend and have a great fall season as well!

A Shadowbox For Peyton

2011-08-28T20:43:00.000-06:00

Sorry, I know it's been a few weeks. My post from last week got delayed because I was getting ready for a garage sale. This week has been a lot of purging, pricing and Pride & Prejudice! Alright and a lot of Twilight and, New Moon, and Eclipse. What can I say, I watched the movies a lot this week!

And as I am typing, I am watching Breakfast At Tiffany's - one of my all time favorites. I love everything of Audry Hepburn's that I have seen. Some day when I grow up, I want to be just like her :).

My garage sale went great! I sold a few hundred dollars and then the rest went to the thrift store. Not too bad. I want to buy a sewing machine, so we shall see what will come of that.

A few months back I went to crafty night with my friend Trudie, who I also work with, and I made something for Peyton's room. It's a shadow box. You know the darling little tiny shadow boxes from Maya Road? That's what I used. I love how it has the square chipboard pieces to fit in the back of each section, so you can decorate those and then stick them right in the spot. That also allowed me to move the pieces around until I got each of them just where I wanted them.

I painted the shadowbox a light turquoise/blue color. Peyton is obssessed with blue, so it had to be blue! And it matches her room. Turns out the paint was a few years old so it was pretty thick and didn't go on so smooth. It actually added to it and made the whoel thing look like I painted it a few years ago. Not intentional at all, but it worked out into my favor. The scallop trim at the top is the endge of Sassafrass paper. I love their paper, don't you! The top banner is American Crafts and Sassafrass paper. I made it by cutting strips of paper, folding them in half, cutting the ribbon edge into them and then glueing heart and flower punches onto each section. The whole thing is strung on twine. It's currently my favorite thing to make right now! I can't get enough of these banners!!! {If you remember, I did one on the picture frame I showed on the last post}.

Here are the supplies and photos - Square by Square:

Square 1 - Old Olive cardstock Stampin' Up!; Sassafrass, American Crafts patterned paper; Pink and White bakers Twine My Mind's Eye; White and Yellow headpins Joanne's Crafts; EK Success border punch, Bird punch Stamin' Up!; Polka-dot embossing folder; pearlies Stampin' Up!

Square 2 - patterned paper Sassafrass, American Crafts; Ribbon Stampin' Up!; thimbal; Scallop border punch Stampin' Up!.

Square 3 - patterned paper American Crafts; ribbon Stampin' Up!; dress stamp Dear Lizzy for American Crafts; heart button Stampin' Up; pearlies Stampin' Up! Scallop border punch Stampin' Up!

Square 4 - patterned paper Sassafrass, American Crafts; punches Designer Label Stampin' Up, Scallop Trim border Stampin' Up! Heart and flower punches Stampin' Up!; Butterfly stamp American Crafts; Pearlies Stampin' Up!; Baker's Twine Martha Stewart.

Square 5 - patterned paper American Crafts, Sassafrass; Martha Stewart glitter glue, Stampin' Up! polka dot brown ribbon, yellow lace my stash, Martha Stewart baker's twine; Stampin' Up! Itty Bitty Flower punch.

Square 6 - patterned paper American Crafts, Sassafrass; baker's twine American Crafts; Stamps American Crafts; Inks Stampin' Up!; Flower Prima Marketing; Scallop circle punch Stampin' Up!; border punch EK Success.

Square 7 - patterned paper American Crafts; Ribbon my stash. Scallop border and scallop circle punch Stampin' Up!; blue flower Prima Marketing.

Square 8 - patterned paper American Crafts, Stampin' Up, Sassafrass; Ribbon Stampin' Up!; Baker's twine American Crafts; Stamps Dear Lizzy for American crafts; Scallop border and designer lable punch Stampin' Up!; Button American Crafts; flower dies Sizzix Bigshot for Stampin' Up!.

Square 9 - patterned paper Sassafrass; scallop circle punch Stampin' Up!; polka-dot ribbon American Crafts; Scallop circle Stampin' Up!; Itty Bitty Flower punch Stampin' Up!; tea cup stamp Stampin Up!; Martha Stewart glitter glue; pearlies Stampin' Up!; clear button Basic Grey.

Sweet Lable - stamps Stampin' Up! {lable} Dear Lizzy for American Crafts; Inks Stampin' Up!; flowers Itty Bitty Stampin' Up!; blue jewels Doodlebug Designs.

Top - {See above for scallop border and banner details}. Ribbon May Arts and Stampin' Up!, my stash {yellow ribbon}; flower Prima Marketing; bird and birdcage charm Prima Marketing.

So when we went to Costco the other day, they had out princess Halloween costumes. Peyton has been saying that she wanted to be a butterfly. Well once she saw the princess costumes that all went away!! There was Cinderella, Tiana, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Barbie Princess and Snow White. Of course Peyton wanted Cinderella, but that would be #4!!!! So she decided upon Snow White. And she looks so cute in it, if I do say so myself! What do you all think?

One last thing before I head out. Peyton told me the other day that she wishes the workers on our house would come back and paint her room blue! Blue is her absolute favorite color! And Cinderella is her most favorite princess. So now she wants her room blue. I told her sorry, but repainting her room was not an option right now. My mom found the blue paper lantern in the photo below and got it for her bedroom. It's super cute and would be fun to add a light to. But I think it's cute as is too. I want to make some smaller balls to hang next to them. But it adds a fun splash of turquoise blue to her room in the mean time. And she loved it too!

I am off! Hope you are all enjoying this busy time of year!

Happy Crafting!

Receipt Holder and Picture Frame

2011-08-08T09:15:00.001-06:00

Hi all! Hope you have all had a great first half of 2011! Sorry I have been in cyber oblivion. Thanks to Amber, I am getting my butt in gear and posting again!!! I have not crafted a lot. But I did make some fun stuff for my bed room and thought I would show you all.

Let's start with the receipt holder:

Are you all just as in love - and obsessed - with 7 Gypsies as I am! When I saw the vintage receipt holder, I knew I had to have one! Notice something different about mine though???? It comes black! I spray painted it this cream color. When I have it all finished I will show you what the back still looks like. I have 4 more spaces to go though, so I can't wait to get it finished!

Here is a rundown of supplies though in the mean time:

Paper - My Mind's Eye, Fancy Pants, Stampin' Up! {cardstock}
Stamps - Stampin' Up!, My Mind's Eye
Inks - Stanpin' Up!
Dies - Sizzix for Stampin' Up!
Punches - Stampin' Up!, EK Success
Buttons - Stampin' Up!, Bazzill Basics, My Mind's Eye
Glitter - Stickles
Brads - My Mind's Eye
Paper Doilies - Darice
Ribbon and Twine - Stampin' Up!, Martha Stewart, my stash
Pearlies - Stampin' Up!

As you can tell, I still have some work to do on it. But it will be so pretty when it's all finished :). I have my bed room as the last room in my house to decorate. So I figure it's about time. I have been wanting to do black, cream and blue for the colors. I wanted a black and cream damask for the bedding. But I haven't been able to find scrapbook paper to match my color scheme. So I have decided to go for brown instead of black. I think it will transition better with some of the furniture pieces that I already have anyway. And I love brown. I also don't want just a straight plain old blue. I have been trying to find a good balance between turquoise and country blue. I want that pretty bright blue that looks great on furniture and so many other things. So I have a few things down and am on search now for fabric for bedding. Can't wait to get it all together!

Before I go, here is one last thing:

This frame was super easy and inexpensive to make. I bought it thinking I was going to paint and distress it. But when I changed my mind on the color scheme for my room I realized it was perfect the way it was. It cost me $6 at a local home decor store here called Rod Works. They have great furniture and decorating pieces. A lot of my house is decorated in their products :).

Here are the supplies:

Paper - My Mind's Eye, Fancy Pants, Stampin' Up! {cardstock}
Punches - Stampin' Up!, EK Success
Ribbon and Twine - American Crafts, Martha Stewart
Stamps - Stampin' Up!, My Mind's Eye
Inks - Stampin' Up!
Glitter - Stickles
Charms - Prima Marketing

The whole thing took me about an hour to put together. It probably would have taken me less time, but I was totally engrossed in Keeping Up With the Kardashians at the time :).

An interesting side note - Peyton, my 3 year old - took the picture of my DH and I! Not too shabby of a job, if I do say so! We have a lot of fun in the summer. We go from city carnival to city carnival. Hit up some sporting events and love to watch as many fireworks shows as we can. This picture was taken at a Bee's Baseball Game - the local minor league team. Baseball games are one of our favorite things to do in the summer! This time we even got tickets right behind home plate! I have to say, it was my favorite spot that we have ever sat at. Peyton even made friends with the cute boy in front of us, whose name happened to be Easton. She was so excited that it was the same name as Amber's cute little girl!

Alright crafty chicks! I am signing off for the night. Hopefully I will be back soon. I am working on posting once a week, so I will be back shortly for sure!

Happy Crafting and Happy Summer!

Next Card Kit

2011-03-28T09:00:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a great weekend. I had a busy one but still it was good.

On my last post, I showed you all the next card kit I am listing on Etsy. But I decided to try something a little different out of my normal kit process this time around. I always get idea overload and come up with several concepts that I want to attempt. But because of time, most of them get pushed back. So what I decided to do this time was to create a few cards at a time, and then make the kits for each card at once. That way I can still use my creative energy to make the cards that I want to in this moment, get them out of my system, and finally move onto creating the kits. I am hoping I can then start the cycle over again. So I plan to make 5 cards in this particular series - so far that is how many I have planned out in my head; we'll see how that goes though - before I start making the kits. Designing is always my favorite part anyway. And seems to take up most of my time. So cross your fingers for me and here's hoping! :)

So I continued with the same sketch to come up with this next card. I do have to say though that I made the dimensions 4 1/4x3 this time, just to try to get more use out of one sheet of cardstock. I am still LOVING this Echo Park paper line - and as I mentioned above I am trying for a series here - so I stuck with that patterned paper. For the stamp image, I went with Stampin' Up! of course, as well as for the embellishments, punches and cardstock.

And here is the card:

Amour Eiffel Tower card:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - For the Record Echo Park

Stamps - Stampin' Up!

Ink - Early Espresso, Crumb Cake Stampin' Up!

Button and Bling - brown button and half pearlie Stampin' Up!

Ribbon - 1/8" Old Olive Stampin' Up!

Punches and Die - Small Heart, Scallop border, Designer Label, butterfly {embosslit die} Stampin' Up!

Adhesive - glue stick 3M; Continuous Line Glue Dots; liquid adhesive Crystal Effects Stampin' Up!

I thought it would be fun to make the focus of the card not fit on it entirely. So that is why I kept with the smaller card and made the main section taller than the card itself. And I do have to say, I like the results. It was fun to experiment with going outside of what I normally do. Another thing I don't usually do is mat the main stamped image, but again, I wanted to try to get out of my comfort zone a bit. Although I don't love that part of it, I like the color the mat provides, as well as helping with the overall flow of the card. So my gut told me to leave it. :)

Hope you all are good and staying crafty! I am off!

Best Wishes Echo Park Mini Card Kit

2011-03-23T22:44:00.004-06:00

Hi Everyone! Thought I would show you my next card kit to go on Etsy. Is it just me or is there not enough time in the day! I wish that I could get more kits made. Oh, well :).

So I am still liking to make small cards for my kits. But I thought I would try a different size besides my standard 4" square card. So, okay, it's still 4". But I did 4"x3". Ha! Talk about a variation! :). But I do have to say, I was pleasantly surprised.

Here is the card:

Best Wishes Card Kit W/Echo Park paper:
Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Soft Suede Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - For the Record Echo Park
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Soft Suede, Early Espresso, Marina Mist Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop border, Designer Label, Itty Bitty Flower Stampin' Up!
Mini Clippie - Stampin' Up!
Twine - My Stash
Ribbon - cream grosgrain My Stash

I think it is safe to say, I have finally joined the Echo Park band wagon. As much as I have loved all the lines that I have seen, I am already a huge American Crafts fan, and I feel like a lot of their lines look like American Crafts - even though they are super super super cute! But I found a line of theirs today called For the Record. It has my name written all over it! It's so shabby and pretty and reminds me of my grandma :). I can't wait to see everything I can come up with now!

As for the shabby stamp set above - it's actually a combination of 3 - the pretty birdhouse and "no. 147" is a Stampin' Up! set that I have been debating for quite some time of whether I should get it or not. Well I finally bit the bullet, and I love it!!! I admit, I don't love all of the stamps in the set, but I have a few like that anyway. The set is called Nature Walk and it is in the current mini catalog. The bird is from the Sale-a-Bration set, Bliss. And the Best Wishes stamp is from the Vintage Labels set that is now retired. As you all know, I am a Stampin' Up! girl, through and through! The images of their stamps are consistantly top notch. And the quality of their stamps is amazing. In my opinion - :) - there are only a few other brands that I think are as good of quality. Okay, there is my 2 cents! I promise that is all for the night!

Hope you all like it. When I get the kit put together, I will post it on here. And of course on Etsy to sell.

Linking up to:

Paper Issues

Have a great night everyone!

P.S. While I am thinking about it, have you all been watching American Idol! How do you choose a winner?? They are all so good! Paul is probably my favorite. And then Lauren Alaina. But I love almost everyone!

And last thing, have you been watching Outragous Kid Parties on TLC? $30k for bday parties. Who does that kind of thing? Well apparently 2 families here in Salt Lake, plus other families across the country. I don't get it!

Alright, off for the night, I promise :). Have a great one!

Stampin' Up! Club Swaps - Owl Boxes

2011-03-21T17:00:00.002-06:00

Hey Everyone! So Amber, Marci and I go to club once a month at my Stampin' Up! Upline's house. Cindy has a great blog. Check it out if you get a chance. A few months back Cindy started a swap with her club members. As you all know, I love to make mini cards. When Cindy sent out the first email to give the details, she specifically said to make FULL SIZE cards. He he he! So I did, just like a good girl. But this time around, I decided to not make a card at all! I got a petal box die last month, so I decided to make boxes for everyone.

Here they are:

Counter curtosy of Amber Lafata! :)

Owl For You Petal Box:

Cardstock - Real Red, Kiwi Kiss, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye

Stamps - Stampin' Up!

Ink - Old Olive, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!

Punches - Owl and Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!

Die - Petal Box Sizzix for Stampin' Up!

Liquid Glitter - Martha Stewart

Baker's Twine - My Stash

Jelly Beans - Life Saver and Starburst :)

These are so simple to make. You cut out 2 petals. Then you glue the flaps on each side to just inside each piece. I glued the flaps down on top, but you don't have to. You can leave them loose or fold them on top. I planned on having them open though to have the candy sticking out of the top. Otherwise I would have closed them. And because I was being cheap and didn't want to buy Sticky Strip to hold it all together, I used my glue gun. It wasn't perfect. But they held together just fine.

Two non-crafting items to mention:

The first thing, has anyone read Water for Elephants? I just started it today finally. And I am really loving it so far. I am hoping the movie will be good! The movie coming out is the reason why I finally decided to read it, although I have been wanting to read it for quite a while. I admit, I am worried Robert Pattinson won't be a strong enough actor to play the part. Hopefully, I am wrong though! We shall see.

And the second thing is, I am watching Les Miserables 25th Anniversary Concert The O2 tonight. It's been forever since I have seen the movie and listened to the music. I forget how good it is. So many good songs and characters! Wow, it's such an amazing experience. Even on the small screen and just the music. It's on PBS, so if you get a chance, watch it!! So so so good!

Linking up to:

Paper Issues

Alright, I am off. Hope you are all good!

Card Patterns Sketch Challenge 107

2011-03-20T17:59:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone! Thought I would show you my very first attempt at a sketch challenge. The card didn't quite turn out how I wanted. Oh well :). Card Patterns Blog always has cute sketches. But I have never made a card from any of them. Or any sketch for that matter. So I thought I would give it a try.

First, here is my card:

Bliss Card - Card Patterns Sketch Challenge 107:
Cardstock - Pink Pirouette, Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts
Stamp - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Early Espresso Stampin' Up!
Punches - Flower Petal border EK Success; Bird, Itty Bitty Flower Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Brown Grosgrain May Arts
Paper Doilies - Darice
Bling - Half Pearlie Stampin' Up!

For the doily, because it was a lot bigger than the paper rosette, I folded it in 1/8th's, cut the center out and then gathered it so it fit snugly behind the rosette. I know it's pretty subtle, but there is an embossed hydrangea blossom on the top right hand side of the patterned paper. I didn't want to cover the whole thing up because I love it, so I did the borders, ribbon, rosette and bird on the bottom 1/3rd of the card. That way the hydrangea blossom wasn't lost.

And now here is the sketch:

As you can tell, I also rotated the the card on it's side and then, like I mentioned above, moved the scallops, ribbon and rosette down to the bottom 3rd.

I linked up my blog to the sketch challenge. I hope I win because the prize is Unity Stamps! Love them! I haven't ever purchased any of their stamps but the images are so cute! And now they have teamed up with Webster's Pages, another brand I love. So cross your fingers for me :).

Before I head off, here is one last card I made:

Happy Birthday Banner Card:
Card - Studio G
Cardstock - Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Early Espresso Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - May Arts
Punches - Scallop border, Itty Bitty Heart and Flower, Designer Label Stampin' Up!
Button - Stella and Rose for My Mind's Eye
Glitter - Martha Stewart

The card is from Studio G. They have a few packages of cards where you get small cards - my favorite!!! - and coordinating envelopes. There are two of each style, and three designs. And of course, they are only $1. You can't pass that up! And because I love small cards, I definitely couldn't pass them up.

I made the banner by cutting the different papers into half in strips and then just cutting the flag end into each piece. Super easy! Oh, and before I cut the end, I scored them at 3/4" so that way each one would be a rectangle and not square. But since the card is so small, I didn't want the flags to be too big.

I am linking my post up to

Paper Issues

and

Card Patterns

If you haven't checked out either blog, I highly recommend to do so! They are both great!

Off to craft a little more before the weekend is over. Hope you have a great rest of yours!

Listography: If I Could I Would...

2011-03-19T13:29:00.002-06:00

I'm in a mood for lists today! So bare with me for one more :-)

1. Eat dessert everyday.

2. Always wake up on the right side of the bed and be happy.

3. Make a living out if being crafty. I have lots of ideas but haven't gotten anything going yet.

4. Dance to my own theme music all the time! He he he. I always wanted to be in a musical :-) "I feel pretty..."

5. Sleep in everyday and stay up until 3 am. I'm a bit of a night owl.

6. Buy a sweet NIKON SLR camera. And take classes on how to use it too.

7. Figure out how to make the days longer and need less sleep. That way I could get everything I want done in a day! I know, I'm crazy :-)

8. Go to Disneyland at least 4 times a year! Hehehe.

9. Visit Wine Country. I've always wanted to go.

10. Not be so afraid of trying to be crafty for a living :-)

11. Get my motorcycle licence so I can drive an Easter Egg blue moped.

12. Get my weight down 40 more lbs. I can do it!!

13. Go on a Mediterranean cruise. I want to see Europe so bad!!!

14. Blog and craft every day.

I am off for the day! I promise :-). Make it a good one!

I Am Greatful For ...

2011-03-19T10:23:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone! I just wanted to make a short little post to say what I am thankful for today :-)

1. My husband works so hard for our family and ALWAYS tries to do the right thing. He doesn't falter easy. He makes me laugh everyday and loves me for who I am.

2. Peyton has brought light into my life that I didn't even know I was missing. She is so excited about life and learning anything new she can. She is every dominate trait of Thong and I put together! And we love every part if her!

3. My mom has always been there for me. Even when she doesn't agree with my choices, she still loves me. She always makes me feel confident and loves to get crafty! It was definitely something I picked up from her and from her mother.

4. My family is crazy and fun! As we have gotten older we have learned how important it is to stay close. My nephews and niece are so much fun and I love them to pieces.

5. My dogs are full of never ending love. They are so happy to see us everyday without fail. I love smuggling with them on the couch and just having them around!

6. My craft room has become my own private space where I can escape life and just go create! I live to be in there and do what comes natural:-).

7. Red Velvet is my favorite dessert. Okay, and cheesecake. And key lime pie. And lemon squares made by Amber Lafata. And.....

8. Spring is here! I always say fall is my favorite season. But I think I have been mistaken all this time! I love the days getting longer. Starting to wear warmer clothes. Trees turning green again. Flowers starting to bloom. Spring and summer themed scrapbook products. Being able to spend mire and more time outside.

9. My Nook and my books. I love reading. I love how books allow me to escape reality for just a bit and live a little in someone else's shoes. Good books make me happy - even the sad ones!

10. Okay, you may laugh at these next things, but I can't help myself! My ipod, cell phone and all the electronics in my life. I love music and I have been able to learn all kinds of new artists that I wouldn't have been able to discover without the help of my computer and even itunes. Ha! I am making myself laugh! I am such a dork! I love how I can stay connected to the world so much easier and all within my palm. I'm even writing this post on my phone.

And there you have it. Isn't life grand!

Finally, The Rest Of The Valentine's Cards

2011-03-18T20:11:00.001-06:00

Hey everyone! I will keep my typing short and sweet to get to the goodstuff tonight! Here are the rest of the Valentine's I made. Hope you guys like them :)

XOXO Card:
Cards (used on all the cards shown) - Stampain' Up!
Cardstock - Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Punches - Scallop border, Pinking Hearts border Stampin' Up!
Bling - jewels Stampin' Up!; Red liquid glitter Martha Stewart
Bookplate - Very Vanilla Hod Podge Hardware Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Tempting Turquoise grosgrain Stampin' Up!

From My Heart To Yours With Love:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Glitter Cardstock - American Crafts
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Punches - Dotted Ribbon border, Scallop Ribbon border, Scallop Trim border Stampin' Up!; Lace border Martha Stewart
Gems - Stampin' Up!
Ribbon and Twine - Red Grosgrain Packaging from Christmas pajamas a few years back!!!; Banker's Twine my stash

Happy Valentines Day:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Punches - Lace border Martha Stewart; Dotted Ribbon border, 4 petal Itty Bitty Stampin' Up!
Bling and Glitter - half pearlies Stampin' Up!; Red Liquid Glitter Martha Stewart
Ribbon - My Stash

My Heart Is With You:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Punches - Word Window, Scallop border, Scallop Circle, 4 Petal Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!; Fancy Flower border EK Success
Ink - Crushed Curry Stampin' Up!
Stamp - Stampin' Up!
Bling - green candy dots, yellow gems Doodlebug Creations
Ribbon - Brown Gingham Making Memories

I'm Glad You're Mine, Valentine:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Punches - Fancy Flower border EK Success; 4 Petal Itty Bitty Flower, Multi Petal Itty Bitty Flower, Scallop border Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - My Stash

Won't You Please Be Mine:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Stamp - American Crafts
Ink - Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop border, 4 petal Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Regal Rose Stampin' Up!
Brad - Doodlebug Designs

Happy Valentine's Day Zebra:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Glitter Cardstock - American Crafts
Stamp - Studio G
Ink - Real Red, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Twine - Baker's Twine My Stash
Punches - Itty Bitty Flower, Scallop border Stampin' Up!
Bling - pearl and jewels Stampin' Up!

Fishy Amour:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Ribbon - My Stash
Ink - Chocolate Chip, Real Red Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop Oval, Oval, Itty Bitty Flower,Scallop border, Pinking Hearts Stampin' Up!; Fancy Flower border EK Success
Eyelet Brad - Pebbles, Inc.

Everything Grows Better With Love:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Glitter Cardstock - American Crafts
Punches - Itty Bitty flowers, Scallop border, Scallop Dotted Ribbon border
Bling - Half pearls Stampin' Up!

Stupid blurry picture! Sorry!!
Head Over Heels Owl:
Card - Stampin' Up!
Cardstock - Real Red, Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Ribbon - Old Olive, Stampin' Up!; Baker's Twine My Stash
Stamp - American Crafts
Ink - Baja Breeze, Early Espresso, Riding Hood Red markers Stampin' Up!
Punches and Die - Itty Bitty flowers and tags die Stampin' Up!; Lace Trim Martha Stewart
Bling - Half Pearls and Jewels Stampin' Up!

Happy Spring! Yay! I am so glad it is almost here!

My Short Little Break From Blogging Turned Into A Long One!

2011-03-07T21:04:00.002-07:00

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all good! I can't believe how long it's been since I have posted anything. In my defense I have been super busy. I went from quiting my job, to going to Disneyland 2 days after my last day, taking a week to recover from my 5 days there, to starting my new job! Then it was Peyton's birthday and a few days after that it was mine! Wow, February sure went by fast...

Back to Disneyland - it was so much fun! It was Peyton and I, while Thong stayed home with the pup's, worked, played poker and watched movies. He called it his Bachelor week :). In the mean time, Peyton and I went with my sister and her husband; my brother, his wife and 4 kids; and last but not least, my parents. We stayed in a motel across the street, within walking distance and spent 5 WARM and funfilled days in the

Happiest Place On Earth.

Peyton fell in love with a Cinderella tutu, and then of course I had to get her princess ears to go with it! I love this pic of her. What you don't see though is what a total princess diva she was being while I was trying to snap it! :)

This is one of the first pictures taken on our first day. We had to get a picture of "Cinderella's Castle"! Yes, I know it's Aurora's Castle, but Peyton LOVES Cinderella, so she dubbed it Cinderella's Castle. She stayed certain of it until close to the end when she finally got to venture inside.

My parents got Peyton this Tiana dress. It's absolutely darling! She fell in love when she saw her in real life too! Even though Cinderella is her favorite princess, she told me that Tiana is now her 2nd favorite! Ha! Too funny! Tiana was so sweet and so great! And so pretty!

Card No. 1:

Stampin Up, American Crafts, Studio G, Martha Stewart

Card No. 2:

Stampin' Up!, Fancy Pants, Studio G, Martha Stewart, my stash

Card No. 3:

Stampin' Up!, Joanne's, My Mind's Eye, Darice, my stash

Card No. 4:

My Mind's Eye, Stampin' Up!, Studio G, American Crafts, my stash (sorry the pic is blurry! I don't have the card anymore, so I can't take another pic of it :()

Card No. 5:

Stampin' Up!, My Mind's Eye, Doodlebug Designs, American Crafts, my stash (sorry this pic is blurry too. I was in a hurry when I took the pictures :()

So when I was just about ready to post, I was doing spellcheck and I am not sure how, but I somehow erased this whole post! :(. I had gone into detail of all the supplies. And then because it auto saved right after, I lost everything for good! Ugh!!!! Unfortunately I am not going to be able to do that tonight again. So here is my post without all of those. But I hope you like it just the same. So if you are wanting to know any of the precise details, just leave a comment on what you would like to know, and I will let you know. Sorry!!!

And there you have it. Well, actually there are 10 more! But I will save them for another time :). Hope you all are well. I promise I won't be such a stranger!

Pass The Love Around Valentine Sucker Cover Kit

2011-01-30T23:34:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all enjoying the weekend and the last few days of January. I know I can't wait for spring - as I keep on mentioning! But in the mean time, I am certainly enjoying making some fun Valentine kits! The one I am showing you right now is one that I sold to a girl I used to work with :). Thanks Nikki!

As I am typing this, I am watching The Lost Valentine with Betty White and Jennifer Love Hewitt! I haven't watched one of these specials since I was a kid! But I couldn't resist tonight for some reason :). And it's cheesy goodness for sure. I am totally loving it! And I am totally loving the Hallmark commercials too.. He he he. What can I say, I love cheese!

And now for some of my own cheesy goodness!

Here is the kit...

I used the Slot Punch - now retired from Stampin' Up! - to punch through the cardstock and to wrap the ribbon around and hold the sucker in place.

Here is everything that comes in the kit. You get everything needed to make 9 more covers plus the suckers. All that you need is a glue stick and liquid adhesive.

And here everything is all all packaged up all pretty :-). This is side one.

Here is side two. Sorry for the glare on the picture.

And here is the header for the packaging. The price for all of it was $13.

I plan to make at least one more similar kit this week, so if anyone is interested let me know :). As I mentioned above, only a glue stick and liquid glue is needed to put everything together. All the punching stamping, inking is already completed. So putting together the items is super fast.

Here are the items I used...

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Love by American Crafts

Glitter Cardstock - American Crafts

Stamps - One and Only by American Crafts

Punches - Butterfly, Lace Trim border Martha Stewart; Slot {retired}, Itty Bitty 4 petal flower and Scallop border, Scallop Circle and Large Scallop Circle {on packaging only}

Ribbon - Brown polka-dot grosgrain May Arts; Love Turquoise American Crafts

Pearlies - Stampin' Up!

Liquid Glitter - Garnet Martha Stewart {I love the fine point tip on this liquid glitter! It is AWESOME!}

Adhesive - glue stick 3M; foam Dimensionals and liquid Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!

And there you have it! Enjoy the last day of January! Spring is just around the corner!

I'm Back! And I've Been Busy!

2011-01-29T20:31:00.002-07:00

Hello. My name is Leana and I am a crafting supply hoarder. {admitting feels good! :-)}

There, I said it! Well, not only do I hoard crafting supplies, but I am just a cluttery person in general. Sigh.... Well, my husband has been really wonderful and is helping me get out of my rut! It started with turning the weekend of Martin Luther King Day into a three day holiday of cleaning my craft room - I started the weekend before really, but kept it going. Now I am loving my room all over again! I still have a lot of work to do on it, but it is at least getting manageable.

But wait, there's more....

I also cleaned out my bedroom closet this week! I had about 6 bags of clothes that went to the D.I. - for those that don't know what that is, think Good Will - and found a bunch of clothes that fit me again :-)! I was able to put some pants and other clothes that are too big away, and get out clothes that I haven't been able to wear in like 5 years! I haven't actually typed it down here on my blog, but I can tell you all that I have lost 30 pounds :). I am starting to feel like my old self again. I still have a lot of work to do and I am not down to my goal. But I actually feel like it's achievable now. I have been basically working with the old Weight Watchers point program, but didn't follow it strictly. I have worked hard though with portion control and trying to eat healthy - though it doesn't always work.

Because of all the cleaning that I mentioned before, I was able to go through my stamps and get rid of a lot that I don't use anymore. I have them listed on Etsy for purchase. I have them listed pretty cheap, if you all want to hop on over and check them out. :-)

Aside from all this other news though, I have been trying to craft when I could sneak in some time. This evening I finally finished two things to list on Etsy. They are both card kits. One comes completely assembled with the cutest little envelopes to fit the cards. The other comes with 1 finished card and then everything needed to make 5 more cards to match.

I'll show the assembled kit first...

Don't you love that chair! It's one of my favorite stamps from the current Stampin' Up set. And it's one of my most recent purchases.

This little envelope is a Big Shot die from Stampin' Up! Isn't it so cute!

As you all know, I love to make smaller cards. It's just my thing lately! I am doing a swap with some friends, and I was specifically told that I had to make my cards 4x5! Ha! Funny hu! Oh, well.

Anyway, I have had this envelope die since I got my Big Shot and never used it. I have used my upline, Cindy's, at her house for our monthly club projects, but I have never done anything with mine on my own. I knew though that I wanted to make a small set of cards that had envelopes to go with them. And then it hit me - du! I have envelopes that I can make and then make the cards to fit them! Gotta love the light bulb moments! So I took my favorite chair stamp and some My Mind's Eye patterned cardstock and this cute little set was born. I made 6 cards and 6 envelopes to sell at my Etsy store craftydork.

Here is the kit all packaged up and ready for Etsy :-) ....

This is what I used to make them:

Cardstock - Pretty In Pink, Bashful Blue, Old Olive, Very Vanilla and Naturals Ivory Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye
Die - Scallop Envelope Big Shot for Stampin' Up!
Punches - Itty Bitty 4 petal flower, Designer Label, Scallop Trim border, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border, Large Scallop Circle, 1/16" hole Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Pretty In Pink Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Old Olive grosgrain Stampin' Up!
Pearls - Stampin' Up!
Adhesive - glue stick 3 M; liquid glue Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!

A few things to note: I stamped the envelope flowers in Soft Suede on 3 envelopes, and then Chocolate Chip on the other 3. Also, for some reason, even though all the chairs are in Soft Suede, a few of them came out darker than the others. Not really sure why, or how I did that! And the last thing is, the envelopes don't seal. I think they would be cute with a bit of ribbon tied around them, or just a tiny dab of Crystal Effects to hold it closed would work too.

And there you have it folks. I think these would be adorable on a present! What do you all think?

So my next kit features one of my most favorite paper brands, American Crafts! But more specifically, their Dear Lizzy line! I've said it before, but Elizabeth Kartchner is such a cutie! And her stuff is to die for! And her Enchanted papers are so cute! I love the big florals and bright colors.

This card just makes me happy....

Isn't the paper so pretty! :)

Stampin' Up!'s spring mini catalog is full of gorgeous stamps, paper and accessories. The dress form stamp is from the Oh Sew Suite line and it is one of my favorites! The button is also from Stampin' Up! but it is in the main catalog.

Here is a breakdown of the supplies:

Cardstock - Daffodil Delight, Whisper White Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Enchanted Dear Lizzy for American Crafts {the solid paper, besides the white, is the reverse side of the patterned paper}
Stamps - Sew Suite {dress form} Stampin' Up!; frame and "my favorite" sentiment Dear Lizzy from American Crafts
Inks - Perfect Plum, Baja Blue, Early Espresso Stampin' Up!
Punches - Small Scallop Circle, 1/16" hole, Scallop border, 1 3/8" Circle Stampin' Up!
Bling - half pearls Stampin' Up!; orange jewels Doodle Bug; pink metal flowers with rhinestones Making Memories {aren't these so cute!!!!!!}
Ribbon - blue and brown scallop American Crafts; baker's twine my stash
Button - Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Up!
Adhesive - glue stick 3M; ribbon line Pop Dots;

Here is the kit all packaged up...

The only things you need to assemble the kit together is a glue stick and a little bit of liquid glue! The liquid glue was used to adhere the orange jewels and then just a dab behind the bottom of the stand on the dress form. Everything that needs to be inked, cut, punched, tied or scored is already done for you.

As I mentioned, this card just makes me happy. :-) The colors and patterns are all about spring. And I am so anxious for it to just be here already! How about you all?

And lastly, I have some fun Valentine cards I made. Originally I had made these to go on Etsy too. I am working on a set of 10. But I had the owner of the company I work for, purchase them already :).

Here are the 3 I have finished so far...

The patterned paper is absolutely adorable, don't you think! It's all Fancy Pants brand, except the red glitter paper. The cards - in Sahara Sand - are from Stampin' Up! about 4 years ago. They have envelopes that fit them. The patterned paper is actually to make little Valentines. They have a label on the other side so you can put to and from. But I decided I would just convert them into cards - at least for the set of 10. I bought another sheet of the paper though, so I may make some to go along with some candy as just regular Valentines.

Here are all the supplies used:

Patterned Paper - Fancy Pants
Cardstock - Whisper White, Early Espresso Stampin' Up!
Glitter Cardstock - American Crafts
Stamp - Love American Crafts
Ink - Early Espresso, Ridinghood Red markers Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop border, Itty Bitty 4 petal flower, Itty Bitty flower, Scallop Trim border, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border Stampin' Up!; Lace border Martha Stewart
Button - BasicGrey
Bling - pearls, rhinestones Stampin' Up!
Glitter Glue - red Studio G {used on the Happy Valentine's Day card. I used it on the heart shaped balloon}
Ribbon - Brown and white polka-dot grosgrain May Arts; Red grosgrain Making Memories; Baker's Twine my stash
Adhesive - glue stick 3m; foam adhesive Dimensionals from Stampin' Up!; Glue Line Pop Dots; liquid glue Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up!

So for the Everything Grows Better With Love card, the hearts are cut out from one of the patterned papers. On the From My Heart to Yours With Love card, those pink hearts were just hand cut out. Stampin' Up! has a heart punch that I so want, but I just haven't bought it yet.

And there you have it. As soon as I get more of the Valentines cards finished, I'll post those. And check out my Etsy store if you are interested in the card kits. Oh and as soon as my room is finished, I will post updated pics of it here too.

Last thing before I am off... I decided to try out for the Stampin' Up! Artisian Award this year. I don't know what my chances are, but here's hoping! I have a few things completed already. But I will share them at a later date :)

Hope you are all good and staying crafty!

Used Stamp Sets For Sale On Etsy

2011-01-09T23:49:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Hope you are all well and staying crafty! I am taking the week off of crafting and concentrating on getting my craftroom organized and cleaned up. It really needs it. And I am excited to get it into shape.

In the mean time, I am listing stamp sets and maybe a few other things that I am liquidating. I am out of room and am getting rid of stamp sets I don't use anymore.

Head over to my Etsy store, craftydork, to check out all the cute sets listed! While you are there, pick up some for yourself! :). I have them listed extremely inexpensive. Some of them I have never even used before. So head over, check them out and send me a convo if you are interested in purchasing more than one set so I can combine shipping! :)

I Love Birdies!

2011-01-02T19:51:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone! Look, 3 posts in 2 days! It's got to be a record for me :). A great way to start off the new year!

I have all my Christmas stuff put away, and am totally feeling spring! Forget the fact that the low for the last couple of days has been 5 degrees! I am more than ready for spring to get here and winter to be gone!

And because I am feeling all about spring, it's showing in my cards! As I have mentioned before, I love birdies! I love bird cages and bird houses! I can't help myself :). One of my favorite new sets from Stampin' Up! this year is a set called Aviary. It's bird cages and birdies - one of the birdies is even a cute owl! So I have been pairing up my various birdie stamps along with some fun paper and am totally loving the results.

Here is card number 1:

This bird and bird cage are from Studio G. I can't say enough good things about this brand! I love how economical their products are without sacrificing quality!

Here is card number 2:

Isn't this owl just the cutest! This owl and cage are from the Aviary set from Stampin' Up!

Who ever thought so much brown would scream spring! :) Recognize the card in the background in the top right. It was one I made a few weeks back. That birdie and cage are Studio G.

Here are the supplies I used for the Splendid card:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue, Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Stampin' Up!

Stamps - flowers {stamped on the blue circle} Stqampin' Up!; Splendid sentiment Dear Lizzy for American Crafts

Inks - Daffodil Delight, Purely Pomegranate, Old Olive Stampin' Up!

Bling - Rhinestone, Pearl Stampin' Up!

Punches - Dotted Ribbon border, Large Scallop Circle, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" circle, Itty Bitty Flower Stampin' Up!

Ribbon - Pumpkin grosgrain Stampin' Up!; Baker's Twine my stash

Here are the supplies for the "Birdie" card:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper Stampin' Up!

Stamps - Aviary Stampin' Up!; "birdie" sentiment Studio G

Punches - Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" circle, Scallop Trim border Stampin' Up!

Ribbon - Artichoke grosgrain Stampin' Up!; Baker's Twine my stash

On both cards I cut out the birds and cages by hand once they were stamped onto the cardstock. Also, notice that I cut both words out by hand just around the letters. Not sure where that urge came from :). I laugh at my self with some of the things I am drawn to do!

So even though spring is a way away, it seems to be right around the corner here! Ok, not really, but I can dream, can't I!

Stay crafty! Hope your new year is going well thus far.

Purchase & Exchange Card

2011-01-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hi Crafty Friends! So as I have mentioned before, Amber, Marci and I go once a month to a crafty night at my upline, Cindy Petersen's house. We make projects and order supplies and are obnoxious - ok, mostly I am obnoxious! - and get to have a nice girls night out. But we always have fun. We started a while back doing our purchase and exchange swap so that we always are trying to use the products we purchase. It has been a lot of fun and we have had some great results.

Here is the card that I made for this months:

Ok, don't you just love the chair stamp!

The supplies I ordered from Stampin' Up! were the stamp set with the chair, the pearls, and the lace ribbon. I didn't have any Stampin' Up! patterned paper that would fit the mood that I wanted to create, so I went with some My Mind's Eye paper. Then I couldn't decide what side I wanted to use the most, so I decided to do some of each instead :).

Here are the supplies used:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Marina Mist, Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - My Mind's Eye

Stamps - Stampin' Up!

Inks - Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight {my favorite new color!}, Wild Wasabi Stampin' Up!

Punches - Designer Label, Itty Bitty Flower, Scallop border, Large Oval, Scallop Oval Stampin' Up!; Small Corner Rounder EK Success

Ribbon - Lace Ribbon Stampin' Up!

Half Pearls - Stampin' Up!

These cards totally make me want a nice cup of tea! I wanted to write on the inside of them: Happiness is reading a good book on your favorite chair! Ok, so at least that is my happiness! :)

Cindy announced this last time at our crafty night that she is having her clubs start to do the Purchase and Exchange swap with each other! So look at what we started :). And we have been making Cindy our projects in the mean time too!

I am off to some friends for a birthday party! Maybe I will get my glass of wine after all! Hope you all are good and staying crafty!

Happy New Year!

Neighbor Gifts

2011-01-01T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hi Crafty Friends! I was going through my pictures on my camera and realized I totally forgot to share some projects with you all! Oh the shame :). Well fear not, because here they are :).

Thong and I live in a town home community. We know only a small handful of our neighbors. But for the first time ever, I decided to make some neighbor presents! I just got some bags of candy, some clear bags, my sealer, and made little toppers for the candy. And wallah! I thought the results were super cute!

These were super easy to make! I think I may try to make a variation of them every year now! The stamp

for the top of the packages was on clearance at Michael's. I loved it and my mom ended up getting it for me :). It's Tim Holtz. I know it's hard to tell in the pictures, but just behind the ornaments is a Santa Clause. Then I added Crystal Effects to the pine tree and added glitter onto it. There are so many fun elements to the image! I can use it over and over and come up with different results each time! Isn't Tim Holtz amazing! Before I got really into Stampin' Up!, Tim Holtz was my first introduction to stamping. He has great products. I am really wanting to get my hands on some of his Big Shot dies!

Here are the products used:

Cardstock - Real Red, Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Figgy Pudding from BasicGrey
Stamps - Tim Holtz; Ornaments Stampin' Up!
Punches - Itty Bitty Flower, Scallop Trim border, Dotted Scallop Ribbon border Stampin' Up!
Inks - Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede, Old Olive Stampin' Up!
Adhesives - foam, Crystal Effects Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Soft Suede Polka-Dot grosgrain, Linen Thread Stampin' Up!; Red Organdy May Arts
Glitter and Bling - Rhinestone, Green Glitter Stampin' Up!

I also made little packages for people I work with of Swedish Fishes. My mom purchased 5 of the big bags from Costco, so we were able to make over 50 packages! And they turned out pretty cute, I think. So my mom, sister and sister-in-law all ended up with some too.

Here they are:

Do you like how you can see my little tree in the top right corner. I made these packages the same day I made the tree and ornament.

We kept them pretty simple. My mom and sister and I made them and it took about 2 hours to make them all once we got going. We added the little flower, pearl and glitter on the star after we had some already finished. They made it just a little more festive.

Here are the supplies:

Cardstock - Real Red Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Figgy Pudding from Stampin' Up!

Stamp - Stampin' Up!

Punches - Itty Bitty Flower, Designer Label Stampin' Up!

Glitter - yellow Stickles

Half Pearl - Stampin' Up!

Hope you all are staying crafty in this freezing weather! {a low of 2 degrees today! Brr! I so don't like the cold :(}

Have a good new year!

Oh, P.S. I fell asleep last night at 10:30! I haven't missed a New Year's since I was a little kid! I was pretty exhausted though. I didn't even get my glass of wine :). Maybe next year!

Happy Birthday Card Kit

2010-12-30T00:11:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a great Christmas. Our family sure enjoyed the holiday! Peyton is still all excited about it all. She still sings Christmas songs and wants to watch all her Christmas movies. On Christmas Eve my entire family - minus my brother serving an LDS mission - went and saw Tangled. What a cute movie! Even Thong was laughing throughout the whole thing. I enjoyed it even more than Princess & The Frog. I can't wait to get it on D.V.D. And then on Christmas, we all got to talk to my brother who is serving a mission in Montana, of all places :). We actually all got to video chat with him through Skype. It was really awesome to see him. He left at the beginning of the year and has been greatly missed by everyone. But at least it is halfway over and he has one more Christmas to go before he is home again :).

Look how cute Peyton is in her Christmas Mini Mouse pj's. She was just starting to get into her stocking. The crazy white mutt is our dog Izzy :). Yep, I named her after Izzy from Grey's Anatomy. And then there is me in all my Christmas pj's glory!

Here is my next kit for my Etsy store, craftydork:

Don't you love the mini rosettes! I added them on after I thought I had the card finished :). I do that a lot!

And there is the finished kit! I made this kit so that all you need is a glue stick. The foam adhesive and Continuous Line are provided for you. I will have it listed on my Etsy hopefully tonight, so be sure to check it out. My favorite part about the whole card is the rhinestones in the middle of the rosettes. Thong and I went to a wedding of a friend a few months back where she had rhinestones in the middle of rose buds and it was so pretty! And now I want to put rhinestones in the middle of everything - not that I didn't want to before!

Here are the supplies I used:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Cosmo Cricket
Stamps - birdcage and bird Studio G; Happy Birthday and scallop circle Stampin' Up!
Inks - Wild Wasabi, Marina Mist Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop Circle, Scallop border Stampin' Up!; small corner rounder EK Success
Buttons and Bling - Stampin' Up!
Baker's Twine - my stash
Adhesive - foam Stampin' Up!; Continuous Line Glue Dots
Ribbon - Soft Suede polka dot grosgrain Stampin' Up!

I thought it would be fun to show you the next kit I am currently working on. I have been getting inspiration from all over the place. I knew I wanted to make a kit that had envelopes. Because of the size of cards I usually make - 3" x 3" or 4" x 4" - it is extremely hard to find envelopes that fit the cards right though. So until I can find some online or until I can find a template or die to make my own, I will make them without. But I do already have this cute little scallop envelope die that I first got when I originally purchased my Big Shot. I haven't really used it a whole lot though. When I have it has been to put a cute little envelope onto the front of normal 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" card. I decided to stick with my small card theme though and make a card to fit the cute little envelope! And can I just say, I love it :). I am working on getting all the pieces together.

Here is the finished card in the mean time though:

I absolutely adore this chair stamp! It is part of the newest set I purchased from Stampin' Up! In the words of Vallee Wright - a youth leader from when I was growing up - "Could you just die! Could you!" I know I could! :)

I will list the supplies and everything once I have the kit complete. So check back soon and come buy it on Etsy :).

Now the that holidays are behind us, I am going to start focusing more on starting the decorations for Peyton's 3rd birthday party. She wants a princess party. And then also, I am really super duper excited!!! I am getting the opportunity to teach at a local scrapbook store coming up in the next few months! I really could just die! I am so excited, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I really am! This will be my first teaching opportunity that didn't occur in my home or someone that I knew. A real class in a real store! I have absolutely no idea of what I am making or anything! So I will for sure get started on that very soon!

It is way past my bedtime, so I am off! Hope all of you are doing good and that you have had a wonderful holiday season! I am looking forward to New Years and a nice glass of wine!

Stay Crafty.

7 More Sleeps 'Till Christmas!

2010-12-19T01:42:00.000-07:00

Are you as excited for Santa to come as our house is!!! Peyton is bouncing off the walls with excitement. I am looking forward to how excited she will be Christmas morning opening her presents and seeing everything Santa brought her. Plus I am looking forward to seeing Tangled with my family on Christmas Eve, dinner of stuffed green peppers, green bean casserole and on and on and on.... :). Oh, I can't forget, can't wait to open Christmas pajama's! They are one of my most favorite things about Christmas!

I have been a busy little crafty beaver this weekend. Want to see what I have made! I was inspired to make this ornament from some that I have seen around online. I love it!

It looks so pretty on my tree :). I want to make more!

The pearlies are my favorite!

I made this by gluing several paper rosettes to a styrofoam ball. I made the rosettes from 3/4" strips of 8" patterned paper. I was using Crystal Effects at first {on a different ornament than shown} but switched to my glue gun. It was holding the patterned paper together a lot better. Plus I used the glue gun to holdthem onto the ornament as well. Then I used the glue gun to hold the pearls on too. I ran out of the half back pearls so I was using regular ones as well. I used them to try to cover up the big empty spots. But for the most part, I was able to cover them up by using 4" strips to make mini rosettes to fill in the holes.

Here are the supplies:

Stampin' Up! - Pearls, Brown Satin Ribbon
My Mind's Eye - Dear Santa Patterned Paper
Adhesive - Glue Gun

My shortest supply list ever :).
Here is the next thing I made this weekend! It makes me happy!

Although the tree isn't completely my style, I still love it!!!! I love the whimsical look of it. And I adore the tinsel plus the button and pearly ornaments. It's supper, super easy to make!

I was sad I ran out of buttons, so I will have to get another pack. I love these buttons from Stampin' Up! The assortment has really cute shapes and the colors are awesome! They are definitely a staple I want to continue to have.

As I mentioned, the tree was super easy to make. I again used 3/4" strips - starting with the left over ones from my ornament - and cut them down to 1 1/2". Then I ran my glue gun along the top of the strip and stuck it to the tree. I lined up the pieces to keep them as straight as I could. I curled up each strip at the bottom to resemble tree boughs. I glued on the tiny tinsel ribbon, buttons and pearls. That's it! Oh, and of course the bow on the top was glued on too.

I can't wait to do this again in some more vintage, shabby paper! It doesn't really match my Christmas house, but I don't mind :).

Here are the supplies:

Stampin' Up! - Pearls, Tinsel Ribbon, Buttons
My Mind's Eye - Dear Santa Patterned Paper
May Arts - Red Organza Ribbon

And there you have it!

I am off to bed. Hope you all are staying crafty! We have to finish Christmas shopping tomorrow, but I am hoping to get a few more crafties done before the weekend is over.

Merry Christmas

Christmas Cards and Tags Listed On Etsy - And A Few Other Things {Okay, A Lot Of Other Things!}

2010-12-14T20:17:00.001-07:00

Hi Crafty Ladies! Hope you are having a great Christmas season and staying crafty. I have been trying to post this entry since Sunday but my Internet went out that evening. Then I tried again last night and fell asleep posting while watching Hawaii Five O! So 3 times the charm, right!

Also, Hello to all my new followers! I {heart} all of you!!!!! I love that you all come and visit :).
I finally got some things listed on Etsy. I have been slow, slow, slow getting them listed for sure. But I can't wait to show you everything now!

As usual, this weekend, I didn't get all the crafting that I wanted to completed, but I did craft! So I am definitely not complaining :). I made a little flower frame for Peyton's room, some fun springtime cards {and of course they are teeny tiny}, a Christmas card, a gingerbread house with Peyton {and it's so not pretty! :)}, and finished my card and tag kits for Etsy. We also got to meet my brother-in-law's cute new lab puppy, went to a local scrapbook store called Heartland Paper, went to dinner at Spaghetti Factory, hung out with Peyton and my hubby, and watched the made for T.V. movie from the '80's', Alice In Wonderland! {I love this movie! And I was super excited to introduce it to Peyton!} I found it on D.V.D. at Wal-Mart for $7.50. I have been wanting to get it for the longest time. I miss made for T.V. movies coming on every year like they used to when I was a kid.

So I'll show you the gingerbread house first. It's scary, let me just warn you. Here it is in all it's glory:

For being crafty, this house was hard to make! Looks like I don't need a Cricut Cake! :)

Peyton did such a great job adding on the candy! And she helped with the frosting on the windows too! Too bad my skills aren't any better than my 2 1/2 year old's :).

These monkey pajama pants of Pey's are my favorite :)

Look how the walkway is just covered with candy! It's a candy cobbled road. Peyton has this thing where she doesn't like to look directly at the camera for some reason. She'll smile her biggest smile but look somewhere other than the camera.

As I mentioned above, I went to a local scrapbook store called Heartland Paper. I was sad to learn as I pulled up to it that it is going out of business :(. Stores like Micheal's, Joann's, Hobby Lobby, and Roberts {a Utah craft store chain}, seem to be getting the business. I admit that I like those stores a lot. So don't get me wrong. I am also a fan though of the little guy. I love mom & pop shop's and family owned businesses. LSS's are my favorite because I find more selection of supplies and things than at the bigger chain craft stores. The stores that try to carry a little of everything crafty, don't have as good of a selection, for sure.

Ah, sorry for the rant. I did end up getting a few fun things; ribbon and stamps and a die. Plus I got a darling shelf for 50% off. I'll post it at a later date :). I put my Stickles, embossing powders, loose glitter, and some fun other little things on it.

Okay, here are the fun things now, I promise!

I got this frame at Heartland. Peyton saw it and loved it and asked for me to make it for her room. How could I say no!

Take a look:

Gotta love that messy hair :). Peyton was insistent on me taking a picture of her with her frame. Look at that cheese!

Here are the supplies used:

Patterned Paper - Ooh La La and Boo! To You from My Mind's Eye
Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Chipboard Tag - Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop Circle, Large Oval, Scallop Border, 3/4" Circle, Itty Bitty Flower, Word Window Stampin' Up!; Butterfly Martha Stewart
Spritz - Olive Tattered Angels
Stamps - Punch Posies {retired}, Always {retired}, giggle sentiment {retired} Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Pom Poms and Rick Rack, brown and white baker's twine My Mind's Eye; Green Polka-Dot American Crafts
Brads and Bing - yellow brad All My Memories; Green Brad Bazzill Basics; White Bling Stampin' Up!; Pink Bling Heidi Swapp
Adhesives - foam Stampin' Up!; Continuous Line Glue Dots
Metal Flower - 7 Gypsy's {I have had this for about 5 years!}

It took me about a half hour to put together. So I was proud I made it so fast! Especially while watching my current guilty pleasure - besides Vampire Diaries of course! - Hawaii Five O. He he he! I love it! :). But the frame does look pretty cute in Peyton's room!

Before I made the frame, here are the cards I made:

I added the key on after it was completely finished, but I love it! The whole card has an Alice In Wonderland feel to me for some reason. I am totally in the mood for spring, can you all tell! I love Christmas time, especially with Peyton getting big enough to start learning about it. But I LOVE spring! And warm weather. And this paper just makes me want spring even more :).

I am loving Studio G. They come out with great clear stamp images as well as liquid glitter, loose glitter and other supplies that are only $1! Isn't this such a cute tiny birdhouse! It goes so well with the patterned paper.

Happiness is 4"x4" and Friendship as I said above is 2 1/2"x2 1/2".
Hello, my name is Leana Khouang and I am addicted to tiny cards! I can't help myself! :)

Here are the supplies:

Happiness Card

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight and Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Ooh La La! and Boo! To You My Mind's Eye
Stamps - bird in cage Studio G, Happiness sentiment and frame Stampin' Up!
Punches - Large Scallop Circle, Large Oval, Scallop Ribbon border, Itty Bitty Flower Stampin' Up!
Bling, Button and Pearls - White Bling Stampin' Up!; Pink Bling Heidi Swapp; Half Pearls Stampin' Up!; Button BasicGrey
Key - 7 Gypsy's
Ribbon - Orange and Pink Polka-Dot American Crafts; Baker's Twine My Mind's Eye
Adhesives - Crystal Effects, foam adhesive Stampin' Up!

Friendship

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Ooh La La! and Boo! To You My Mind's Eye
Ink - Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Stamp - Friendship sentiment Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop Circle, Word Window, Scallop Trim border, Small Corner Rounder Stampin' Up!
Bling - Pink Heidi Swapp; White Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - May Arts

For both of these cards, I got the templates out of my current Paper Crafts magazine - the January/February 2011 issue to be exact. The Happiness card template was from the article with the silhouettes. It was the first card in the article. I loved the template so I new I would have to put my own spin on it with the supplies I had. The Friendship card was actually from one of the sketches in the magazine. Mine is a lot smaller than any of the samples though :).

This next card is also from a sketch from that same issue of Paper Crafts. I also put my own spin on it. It was supposed to have a pennant banner along the scallop border, but I did the ornaments in place of the pennant banner. And I just did them in one section instead of along the whole card. As you can see it's a pretty simple card for me :). I like the size of it it though! Final size is: .

Here are the supplies:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Red Polka Dot American Crafts; Green Patterned BasicGrey
Ink - Ridinghood Red, Soft Suede, Old Olive Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Larger Ornaments My Mind's Eye; Smaller Ornament from Tree Trimmings Stampin' Up!; Be Merry sentiment Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Brown Pleated Satin Maya Road; Baker's Twine My Mind's Eye

And finally! Lastly, here are the kits for Etsy :)

This is my fav of the 4 kits. I love the bright red with the splash of blue and the olive green!

Merry Little Christmas

Don't you just love the glass glitter!

Be Merry

I love birds, as I have mentioned before. But isn't this little Christmas Cardinal the cutest! I also have used him in blue for the tag set that will be posted a little further down.

Tag Kit

I had listed all the supplies in a previous post I had made about each kit. Click here, here, and here if you are interested in seeing the supply list.

And the last things I made this weekend were my Purchase & Exchange Swapp. I struggled with these tags! I had a hard time with placement and getting the stamped images to work. But I think they turned out pretty cute.

Once I give them to Marci and Amber then I will post the pictures. I don't want to ruin the surprise! :)

Oh, sorry, I lied. Here is the last card to show! I don't want to forget:

Supplies:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Red Polka-Dot American Crafts; Green Pattern and Red Pattern {punched circle on small ornament} BasicGrey
Stamps - Large Ornaments My Mind's Eye; Small Ornament and Be Merry sentiment Stampin' Up!
Inks - Real Red, Soft Suede, Old Olive Stampin' Up!
Button and Bling - Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Brown Satin Pleated Maya Road; Baker's Twine My Mind's Eye; Twine Stampin' Up!
This is quite the post, so I think this is deffinitely a good place to end :). Sorry if I went to long, but I hope you all like the projects. Hope you all are great and having a great holiday season!

Stay Crafty!

Silver & Gold - Finished My First Christmas House!

2010-12-04T13:39:00.005-07:00

Yep, finally did it! It has been quite the work in progress to get this little house done! I finally just made myself finish it and I am quite glad that I did!

Thanks to Amber, I re-learned how to Mod Podge. I forgot from when I was a kid to get the paper partially wet and then apply it to the surface with a coat of Mod Podge already on. Then once that dries, you can add an additional coat to give it a nice finished look. This helps prevent the annoying bubbles that I have gotten so upset about before! It makes me excited to use Mod Podge again!

So here is the finished project:

I got some snow in a can to add to the houses I am making. i am not sure if I like it. It doesn't stay fluffy once it dries up. I think I need more than what I added to make it work right, but I don't want to add any more because it will cover everything up.

I made the wreath using the bird punch from Stampin' Up! It is just the branches. I formed them into a circle and glued them together. It was pretty easy, just a little time consuming because I had to punch so many out. But it really wasn't bad at all to make.

Isn't the chimney so cute!

The snow in a can ate the ink on the tree a bit, so I didn't add too much on.

So there you have it. Not sure how I feel about the snow in a can. But I will try it whenever I get my next house done too. It will be probably twice the size as this one, so maybe it will work a little better.

Here are the supplies used:

House - Hobby Lobby
Patterned Paper - red swirl, tan {on lower part of roof}, brown {upper part of roof}, paper used on wreath Stampin' Up!; Green and cream {roof trim} My Mind's Eye; green, cream and red trim {on roof}, scallop border around base of house and cream strip around base of yard, red polka dot on chimney BasicGrey
Ribbon - tan on wreath, tinsel on tree Stampin' Up! green on chimney May Arts; red pom and tinsel Michael's Crafts; baker's twine is my own stash
Fabric - Stampin' Up!
Bling - Stampin' Up!
Glass Glitter - Stampin' Up!
Adhesives - Sticky Strip and Crystal Effects Stampin' Up!; Pop Dots Glue Dots; Mod Podge
Punches - Scallop Trim border, Scallop border, Bird Stampin' Up!; Large Corner Rounder {to make the large scallop border} EK Success
Cardstock - Stampin' Up!
Ink - Old Olive and Daffodil Delight Stampin' Up!
Stamp - Stampin' Up!

Well there you have it. Hope you all are having a great Christmas Season and that everyone is well! Off to take Peyton to see Santa at the mall.

Oh, and look! I linked up to some parties! I haven't done that for a little while. Make sure to check these out:

Have a Crafty Day!

Making Lots Of Kits!

2010-12-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone! I hope that your week has been good! We had a great work here in freezing Utah! The snow has been brutal and the wind has been worse. I try to stay positive because we can always use the water, but it sure makes the roads hard to deal with!

Thanksgiving this year was awesome as usual! It was up at Thong's cousin, Bobby's house in Ogden. So his family that is here in Utah was there, including his mom and dad and brother. And then of course Bobby's husband, cute brand new baby, her sisters Set and Thia, parents and cousin Tyler and his dad too. We always have a lot of fun. This year we crafted a little, played some board games - I found a fun new game thanks to Bobby called In a Pickle! Thong hated it, but the rest of us loved it! I had to buy it cause I loved it so much - and I went with Bobby to Toy's R Us at 10 pm with flip flops on because I didn't think we would be standing out in the cold for 2 hours! Her husband had to bring the car closer to where we were in line so that I could go warm up after about 45 minutes of being outside in 13 degree weather. Not my brightest moment! It was fun though going shopping then. I haven't really ever done the whole Black Friday thing before. I have gone shopping that weekend of course, but I usually have had to work that day and so I skipped the shopping thing early in the morning. I was all excited this time but was completely naive about what to expect and didn't think twice that I would be standing out in the cold for 2 hours just trying to get into the store. It was Thursday night so I figured that not that many people would be there. Boy, I was wrong! But it was totally fun and I of course got some good deals!

I also got my Christmas decorations out on Friday! Peyton helped of course, and we had a lot of fun. Two weeks a head of last year!!! Woot! Unfortunately, I didn't get anything else done on my countdown calendar. I haven't counted it out. I just can't do it all. I would love to be able to, but I just can't get all the crafting done that I want to. That is quite the opposite of where I was about a month ago where I just couldn't get inspired to craft anything, So I am glad to finally get moving in the right direction. Now, I am just wanting to do everything!!!!!!!!!!!! I will find a balance some day, right? :)

So besides the turkey, all the shopping, and not doing my advent calendar, I did get some crafting done! Not as much as I would really have liked to. But I did get some done, nonetheless. I got a few kits together to go on my Etsy store finally. I keep talking about it, but I am finally almost ready to get them listed in my store. I still have to make labels for everything, but you get the idea in the mean time. They were a lot of fun to make though! I hope you guys like the results.
Here are the pics of Kit 1:

Here are the supplies used for this first one:

Cardstock - Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss {retired} Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Tinsel and Twig The Girls Paperie
Inks - Real Red, Chocolate Chip from Stampin' Up!
Stamp - Stampin' Up!
Ribbon - Michael's Crafts
Punches - Large Scallop Circle, Scallop Circle, 1 3/8" Circle, Word Window, Scallop Ribbon border Stampin' Up!
Glitter - Silver glass Stampin' Up!

Finished Card size is 3"x3" - no surprise that I made it small!!! :)

Here is the next one:

This is my favorite out of the 3 cards! And it was the one I struggled with the most!! With the size being so small, I couldn't get the placement of the ornaments and the tag to look right. Finally I came up with the above layout. As you can see this kit comes with 2 different tag versions. I ran out of the ticket punch vanilla hardware, so I had to replace it with the circle one :(. But I think either tag looks cute, and I thought it was fun to have more than one option for the same card.

Here are the supplies:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Kiwi Kiss Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Red and Cream Snowflake are Tinsel and Twig from The Girls Paperie; blue and red polka dot are Dear Santa from My Mind's Eye
Inks - Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Soft Sky {retired} Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Tree Trimmings {ornaments}, Celebrate sentiment Stampin' Up! {retired}
Ribbon and Twine - Green silk May Arts; Natural twine Stampin' Up!; Brown and White baker's twine my stash
Punches - Scallop border, Ticket Label Stampin' Up!
Metal - Very Vanilla hardware {tag frame and brads} Stampin' Up!
Adhesives - foam Stampin' Up!; Continuous Line Glue Dots

Finished Cards Size: 3"x3"

And here is the last card:

The supplies used:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - Dear Santa and Holly Jolly from My Mind's Eye
Ink - Ridinghood Red Stampin' Up!
Punches - Scallop Oval, Large Oval, Scallop Trim border, 1 1/8" Circle, Small Star {retired}, Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!; Lace Trim Martha Stewart
Ribbon - Martha Stewart
Stamps - Be Merry sentiment Stampin' Up! {retired}; Cardinal My Mind's Eye
Bling - Rhinestone Stampin' Up!
Epoxy Finish - Crystal Effects Stampin' Up!
Adhesives - foam Stampin' Up!; Continuous Line Glue Dots; my own glue gun.

Finished Dimensions: 3"x3"

So yes, as you can see, I still love making little cards! I can't help it, they make me happy :).

Did you notice all the pictures have the ribbon wrapped on the cute little spools! I purchased those from a local craft store here called Robert's Arts and Crafts. They were in a package of about 12 or so. They should be available pretty much at any craft store. I can't remember the brand off the top of my head. But I have seen similar products at Hobby Lobby, Michael's and Joanne's, if anyone is interested.

So what I wanted to do with each kit is try to take the boring stuff out of the cards. Although I love simple styles of others that I see, it just isn't my style. But because of that, sometimes projects that I make are too complicated for a beginner or someone who likes to papercraft but maybe doesn't LOVE it like someone else I know :).... I just wanted to make some kits that would still produce cute cards, but that would make the process a lot simpler than what I have been known to make for some of my classes :).

When Thong and I moved from our old house and into our current one, his mom gave me this small machine that is used to seal plastic. I recognized it from one of the bead stores here in Salt Lake that I used to frequent regularly - that I still absolutely love!!! - called String Beads. When I decided to make these kits, I knew that I had to finally bust it out and start using it! So I was so excited to get everything all packaged! Almost as excited about it as the cards themselves. I know, I am a total dork! Once I started to get everything all packaged, I noticed that the kits were reminding me of the Jolee's stickers that you see everywhere! And I really can't help myself! I love things that I packaged all pretty! I am still learning how to use the machine to seal the best. Sometimes it would get the plastic bag stuck a little and part of it would burn and rip. Or sometimes, I would get too much plastic into a section and it would cause creases. Or sometimes I would flat out forget pieces!!! So I did have to repackage some of the kits a few extra times! But I can't wait to get the tops of the packages on and get them listed on Etsy! I will post again once I do. So hopefully tomorrow {Wednesday} or Thursday this week!!!!

Remember those tag sets I made a few weeks ago? I decided to sell them in a kit of just the 2 that I had come up with, instead of a kit of 4 different ones. So those are almost ready to be listed too. I really am giddy over these kits. What can I say, I am a cheese!!!

I really hope you all like them too. And if they aren't for you, tell a friend please, maybe they will like them for themselves :).

I hope you all are good! I am about 3/4 of the way ready for Christmas! Yay! That is not normal for me :).

Have a Crafty Day!

Demonstrator Swap tags

2010-11-21T22:48:00.001-07:00

Hi Crafty Friends! Hope you all are good! Thought I would share my swaps that I made for tomorrows demonstrator's meeting. I am loving one of the tag sets that I made to sell on Etsy so I thought I would change it to be all Stampin' Up! supplies to use for the exchange.

Here they are:

It's not easy to tell in the pictures, or really in person, but on the little tag I made with the word window punch, I stamped the "friend" sentiment in Early Espresso instead of Black!!! Not really sure why. But I had made them all before I even realized it! It does look a little off, but at a glance you don't even notice. Still annoyed with myself that I did it though :-).

Here are the supplies I used:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla smooth, Real Red textured
Patterned Paper - Love Letter Designer Series
Inks - Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
Stamps - Tiny Tags
Punches - Large Scallop Circle, Designer Label, Bird, 1 3/8" Circle, Word Window, 1/16" hole
Button - Designer Naturals Basic Black and Crumb Cake

Normally everyone makes cards for the exchanges but I really just want to make tags lately :). So that is what I went for instead. I like this tag though. I think that it's a fun versatile template that can be used for any occasion. And for some reason it reminds me of candy! Not sure why though :).

I almost forgot! Have you seen Harry Potter yet? It was absolutley amazing! I saw it on Friday night with Thong, Marci and her husband and some friends from work! I loved it and so can't wait for the last installment to come out! I thought it was done extremely well!!!! I have been re-reading the book and didn't get as far as where the book ended but I was very happy with where they chose to end the movie! I really can't wait though for the final movie to come out in July. I looked it up and it shows it comes out 7/15/11. Looks like I should add the countdown widget to my sidebar! :)
In other crafty news, this weekend I did make 3 more numbers for my advent calendar!!! I will show those sometime this week! I think I should be halfway through by Thanksgiving. Not at all where I wanted to be, but that still gives me hope to get them done by December 1!!! So cross your fingers and here's hoping...

Hope you all have great Thanksgiving plans! My hubby daughter and I spend it with Thong's family. We do Thanksgiving with his and Christmas with mine. It works out nice that way, I think. So excited for Thanksgiving food and crafty day with Thong's cousins! We figured it would be fun to do some crafties this year instead of the normal board games, so now I am even more excited!

Hope you all have a great week!

A Few More Numbers Down...

2010-11-19T00:55:00.002-07:00

Hi crafty friends! Hope you are all doing good! I am excited to show the next few numbers that I have completed. I have decided that I am being super slow because I watch TV while I craft and pay more attention to the shows sometimes than to my projects!!!! :) Like last night, I was watching Glee - the episode with Gwyneth Paltrow - and crafted maybe 5 minutes out of that time! Oh, well. Such is life. But I did get 2 numbers done last night, plus I started on some of the ornaments to decorate the tree too.

I have said it before, and I will say it again! I LOVE Dear Lizzy's lines! She is the cutest and makes the cutest supplies. Her current Christmas selection - a throw back to the 1930's - 1950's - is so fun to work with. I wasn't crazy about the colors at first, I admit. But the more I use the papers, the more I love them!!

Here is how #6 turned out:

As you all know, I have a hard time leaving things well enough alone when it comes to being crafty. I love other's simple styles, but I always have urges to just keep adding! So I was proud of myself that I stopped where I was here. Sometimes, I admit, I get a little crazy - too crazy! I wanted to add more though to the picture of the sleigh and kids, but I left it alone with the exception of adding the glitter to the horse.

Here are the supplies used:

Patterned Paper - American Crafts Dear Lizzy line, My Mind's Eye {the polka dot scallop oval tag}

Cardstock - Stampin' Up! {only the #6. All other solid colors are the Dear Lizzy papers}

Punches - Scallop Ribbon border, Scallop Oval, Small Oval, Itty Bitty Flower Stampin' Up!

Ink - Soft Suede Stampin' Up!

Bling - Rhinestone Jewel Stampin' Up!, Red liquid glitter Studio G

Die - QuicKutz

Magnet Sheet - QuicKutz

Brad - 7 Gypsy's

Ribbon - All My Memories {you can tell I have really been digging into my stash with using old brands!}

This next number I made with the oh so adorable Margie Romney-Aslett Twig and Tinsel line. OK, could you just die! Could you! I so am in love with her style and papers and everything. Her materials have been hard to come by here in the good old Beehive State! I tried to get the Toil and Trouble line but it ran out so fast everywhere, I couldn't get my hands on any of it :(. So as soon as I saw her Christmas papers, I knew they needed to be mine :). I didn't even get all of them, but I got one of each the store had!!!!! I love the shabby chic/vintage look of all of her things!

Here is what I came up with for #8:

Here are the supplies used:

Patterned Paper - Twig and Tinsel The Girl's Paperie

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Inks - Soft Suede Stampin' Up!

Punches - Scallop Ribbon border, Small Star, 3/4 Circle Stampin' Up!, Large Corner Rounder EK Success

Die - QuicKutz

Magnet Sheet QuicKutz

Ribbon - Brown Gathered Satin Maya Road, Green Seam Binding May Arts, Baker's Twine My Stash

Button - Brown bling Bazzill Basics

Half Pearls - Stampin' Up!

Fabric - Stampin' Up!

Adhesive - my glue gone to hold the fabric flower together, Crystal Effects {used to make the epoxy circle on #8 and to attache the half pearls}, Pop Dots and Continuous Line Glue Dots

Here is the first ornament I made for the tree. I borrowed Amber's ornament punch and stamp set from Stampin' Up! so I could make these cute ornaments with patterned paper and cardstock stamped with the cute stamp set. Don't you love this ornament punch! I know I do!!!! The stamps are just as awesome too!

Here is the front:

Side 2:

Side 3:

So, as you can tell from this picture, I shoved the ribbon down into the 3 layers of the ornament to have a little hanger. Then I am going to clippy the ornaments on the tree. I think I need about 10 of them!!!

I have my tree sitting on top of my kitchen counter until I get it hung up. My dogs are so the dogs that would "eat homework" if given a chance!!!! So there is no way I can have the tree sitting against the wall until I hang it up. As you can see, I still need to make 3, 4 and 5 but then the bottom is finished. I was really hoping that I could get this done before Thanksgiving since I plan to get my Christmas stuff out right after then. But since I am going slow, doesn't look like that is going to happen. I guess it depends on how much I get done this weekend for sure.

Well, I am off! I hope you are all well and being crafty!

Oh, and I will list the supplies for the ornaments on my next post.

More Christmas Tags for Etsy

2010-11-16T20:55:00.005-07:00

Hello Everyone!!! Hope you are all having a good week so far. Here is the next set of tags that I mad to sell on Etsy. I want to do a set of 4 different tags, 4 of each of those. And then like I mentioned before, package them up all cute together and sell them together. So I have 2 down and 2 to go.

Here are the pic's of tag #2 in the mean time:

Supplies:

Patterned Paper - Dear Lizzy for American Crafts {this is the Christmas line she came out with. Don't you just love it! It reminds me of Christmas in the '50's!!!} - the solid green, blue {the be merry tag}, silver{under the button} and brown are the reverse of the patterned papers.
Cardstock - Whisper White - Stampin' Up!
Stamps - Bird is from the Dear Lizzy line that came out in spring; the "be merry" sentiment is Stampin' Up!
Punches - Large Scallop Circle, Designer Label, 1 3/8" Circle, Word Window, Itty Bitty Flower, 1/16" hole Stampin' Up!
Buttons - Itty Bitty pack Stampin' Up!
Bling - Jewel Rhinestone stickers Stampin' Up!

The bird that I used is from Dear Lizzy's spring collection, like I mentioned above, but I thought it was still perfect for Christmas. I am a total fan of Elizabeth Kartchner. She is extremely talented and she also has a great sense of style. She is the cutest pregnant person ever!!! :) I can't wait to see what she comes out with next!

This next tag isn't for my Christmas set to sell on Etsy, but I liked it so much I may make a set of them to sell on there as well. What do you guys think?

I was sad that you lose so much of the cool patterned paper behind the stamped tag image, but I thought what you could see was still perfect for the scale of the tag. Looking at the banner in the pic, I can see that it's a little crooked. Going to have to fix that :). But I absolutely love this set from Stampin' Up! And I thought paring it together with this Basic Grey patterned paper was the perfect combination.

Here are the supplies:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Basic Grey

Punches - Small Oval, Scallop Oval, 1/16" hole, Itty Bitty Flower, Scallop Dotted Ribbon border Boho Blossoms Stampin' Up!

Stamps - Stampin' Up!

Inks - Ridinghood Red, Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake Stampin' Up!

Bling - yellow jeweled brad and rhinestone sticker Stampin' Up!

Ribbon - Blue Seam Binding May Arts, Baker's Twine My Stash

And there you have it. I would change some of the placement around a bit for the jewels and the banner before making them to sell, but I love the colors combined with the stamped images for sure!!

Alrighty, I am off to bed. Hope you are all well and see you next time :).

Woot! Another Day Down...

2010-11-14T01:24:00.002-07:00

Yep, I went out of order. That's right! I made 1, then 2 and now 7. :) I can't help it sometimes. I just have to craft whatever I am feeling in the moment. Cindy, my Stampin' Up! upline would laugh and tell me it's because I am right brained!!!! It's true, I am. I found this test online to take that tells you what is your dominate side. It's not very scientific but it's fun. Click here if you want to take the test. It's only 20 questions.

Back to crafting....

Here is the latest number that I made:

Isn't the pink frame adorable! Another Making Memories one from Amber. It is actually supposed to be a baby's first Christmas ornament. But I cut off that wording - it was attached to the snowman, and then decided I didn't want a photo.

Here are the supplies used:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Dear Lizzie for American Crafts {I love her Christmas line!! It reminds me of a '50's style Christmas and that reminds me of my grandma :)}, My Minds Eye

Stamp - I Believe from My Minds Eye

Ink - Early Espresso & Ridinghood Red Stampin' Up!

Buttons - Naturals & clear Itty Bitties

Punches - 3/4" Circle, Itty Bitty flower, Designer Label, Large Scallop Circle Stampin' Up!

Die - QuicKutz

Ribbon - Pink Polka-Dot & Baker's Twine my stash, Soft Sky Double Stitched grosgrain Stampin' Up!

Magnet Sheeting - QuicKutz

Chipboard Frame - Making Memories {the snowman was originally attached to the frame

So until Amber gave me all the fun Christmas stuff, I wasn't going to do pink in my calendar, but as soon as I took one look at it all, I knew that I changed my mind! I love traditional colors, prints and patterns when it comes to Christmas. And I love the more traditional looks than cutesy usually. But I love this Making Memories stuff! And I love mixing all the brands together! So now I have pink and turquoise and different colors of reds and greens in the calendar, and I love it!!!!

Well ladies, it's late and I am tired! So it's off to bed I go! Hope you all have a great rest of your crafty weekend!

Christmas Tags

2010-11-13T17:43:00.001-07:00

Hi Everyone! Hope your weekend is going crafty. I was able to get a little more Christmas shopping last night with my mom. I am hoping to avoid shopping the week before Christmas this year for sure! So it's been good to get as much shopping done as I can. Unfortunately I left some of my shopping inside Ikea after I had already paid for it! A whopping $6 worth of merchandise - $2 kitchen scissors and a $4 two pack of cardboard portfolios {Heidi Swapp showcased the cutest mini album with this portfolio on her weekly web show about 3 weeks ago or so!}. This was after going there last night with my mom. When I got home, I realized that I didn't come home with my stuff. So Peyton and I headed off to there this morning. We went to the returns area to explain our predicament, showed the receipt, and sure enough, they pulled up the camera feed of me leaving the stuff at the register, but making sure I put my mom's stuff in the cart :). So then I had to go all the way back through the bottom section of the store and get my stuff all over again! But at least I got it!! And I can't wait to attempt the mini album Heidi made! She used a binding machine to attach the pages. So I will have to see if I can borrow someones. But I can't wait nonetheless!!!

Finally after my adventures in Ikea today, I was able to come home and get some crafting done!!! Yay! And I was totally hit by the Christmas tag bug! This is the first set that I made. I can't wait to get a few more sets done, package them up all cute, and sell them on Etsy :)!!!!!

Here is what I have so far:

I couldn't decide if I wanted to sell a kit or the finished product. I decided for the finished product but may still sell a kit separately from this set. I do plan though to sell 2 other sets with this set, for a total of three. And I want to get them packaged up and presented all cute :)

Here are the supplies I used:

Cardstock - Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper - Tinsel & Twig The Girls Paperie {love this paper!!!!!!!}, book pages my own stash from a book that i didn't like. As much as I love books, I was so happy to figure out a better use for a book that I didn't like! What better than to combine my love of crafting and reading!

Stamps - Wreath & Bird are I Believe from My Minds Eye, Merry Christmas sentiment Stampin' Up!

Inks - Softy Sky, Early Espresso, Kiwi Kiss Stampin' Up!

Punches - Double Scallop Ribbon border, Itty Bitty Circle and Flower, Scallop border, Tag corner Stampin' Up!, 1/16" hole punch Fiskers

Buttons & Bling - Jewel rhinestone sticker & Itty Bitty clear button Stampin' Up!

Red Glitter - Studio G {love love love this stuff!!!It's so cheap and is lasting forever!}

String - Baker's Twine my stash

Adhesives - Crystal Effects & Sticky Strip Stampin' Up!, Pop Dot {cut in 4 pieces} Glue Dots, Glue stick Scotch Brand

I am loving this stamp set from My Minds Eye {the wreath and bird}! It was super inexpensive for how many images it came with - $6!!!

Oh, I used Crystal Effects from Stampin' Up! to make the flower with the piece of book page. I glued the bottom of it to a piece of heavy packaging {chipboard packaging from the ornament of my previous post} cut into a circle. Then I put some more in the center and the jewel on top of it. The jewel is self adhesive, but the Crystal Effects helps hold the flower together. I also used the Crystal Effects to attach the Itty Bitty punched flower and clear button together. This product is so versatile - from epoxy to adhesive! The Ranger brand has a comparable product that I also really like a lot that accomplishes the same thing.

I am for sure going to be making some more tags, but for now, I am off to go work some more on my countdown calendar! Hope you all are good!

Day 2 Is Complete

2010-11-11T13:40:00.002-07:00

Hi Everyone! I haven't really had any crafting time lately, but to our surprise yesterday, we found out we got to take Veteran's Day off! I figured I could use some of the time to craft and of course more time to spend with Peyton! Thong left just a bit ago to go to Jordan High School's football game today with his brother. So it's just Peyton and I hanging out right now :).

I started working on Day 2 last night. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted, but it did turn out nonetheless :). Hopefully I can get some more time today to get a few more numbers done. I want to get the whole thing done before Thanksgiving, if not sooner.

Here are the pics:

It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be on the tree, but I thought it still worked perfect.

I was having a hard time with the colors of the chipboard ornament and the patterned paper that I have. The reds are different shades, but I tried to make it work.

The chipboard is from Amber. One of her really good friends, Kausi, has a husband that has done some work for Making Memories. They have given him free supplies because of it!!! So of course Kausi shared the love with Amber and then Amber shared the love with me! There is the cutest metal pink reindeer that i can't wait to use for one of the days!

I did the same thing for this number that I did for the 1. I put a strip of magnet behind the scallop circle and then die cut the 2 backwards and put it behind the 2.

Here is another picture of the full tree so you can see just what I am working on filling up. I have some mini ornaments and beads and ribbons to decorate it further!! Can't wait to get it all done!

Here are the supplies for this number:

Chipboard - Making Memories

Patterned Paper - My Minds Eye, The Girls Paperie

Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!

Ink - Early Espresso Stampin' Up!

Ribbon - Red Organdy May Arts, Baker's Twine is from my stash, Blue with Brown Polka Dots All My Memories, Blue Grosgrain Stampin' Up!

Magnet Sheet - QuicKutz

Die - QuicKutz

Punches - Large Scallop Circle, Ticket Label, Itty Bitty Circle Stampin' Up!

Stamps - My Minds Eye

Button - Itty Bitty clear Stampin' Up!

Glitter - Red liquid glitter Studio G {a whole big tube of glitter is only $.99!!!! Think Stickles, but a lot more and cheaper!!!} I love this stuff! I used it on the reindeer's nose :)

And there you have day 2. Hopefully I can update you soon with more numbers today!

1 Day Down, 24 To Go

2010-11-07T11:09:00.001-07:00

Wow, look at all these posts in a few days! :) I love when I have this much to blog!

The weather here in Utah is still super nice. I am just waiting for the cold to come. I am so not a winter person, but I do love the fall! So hopefully the crisp temperatures will last a little while before the bitter cold comes. Doesn't usually work that way here though. So we'll see.

I did day number 1 for my countdown calendar last night. It took me a while to figure out exactly how I wanted to do it. I did know that I wanted to add something on for each day instead of take something off, that way the tree gets fuller as Christmas gets closer. Then I figured that I could add the numbers each day - and that Peyton could definitely help with this part. The tricky part was figuring out how to make it work.

This is what I came up with:

This first day happens to be 4" x 4", but I think I am going to have each day vary in sizes. I love the blingage for sure! :)

Here is day 1 without the number. Behind the plaid tag is a strip of magnet. The magnet isn't strong enough between 2 pages of cardstock, so make sure you only do it behind one piece of paper or it won't work.

Here is the front of the number.

And here is the back. I die cut the number backwards with the magnet sheet. It's self adhesive so it's so nice to be able to stick it right to the paper without any extra work!!

I figured I can keep the numbers in a binder page sectioned for small things, to keep the numbers from getting all mixed up. And then we can pull the current day out each day to add it on. I am so excited to get this finished!!! The end product for attaching the item for each day wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but I think it will still turn out super cute.

I can't wait to keep showing you guys each day as I get them finished.

Oh, really fast, here are the supplies before I forget:

Cardstock - Early Espresso and Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Patterned Paper - {blue and white background} Dear Lizzy for American Crafts, {Red and Cream/Green Polka dot} The Girls Paperie, {red punched flower on 1} Stampin' Up!, {Plaid tag and blue under clear button} My Minds Eye, {flower lollie} book page
Punches - Scallop Trim border, Scallop border, Bird, Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!, Large Corner Rounder EK Success
Blingage - Jewel stickers Stampin' Up, Red Glitter Studio G
Ribbon - Brown Satin Stampin' Up!, Bakers Twine from my stash
Buttons - Brown Bazzill Basics, Green Stampin' Up!, Clear Itty Bitty Stampin' Up!
Ink - Early Espresso Stampin' Up!
Magnet Sheets - QuicKutz
Die - QuicKutz

Before I had my Big Shot, I had the QuicKutz manual die cut machine. I am glad I upgraded for sure. But I am still able to use all my old dies, because they are compatible. So I don't feel like what I invested into my QuicKutz was a waist for sure. I got the magnet sheets at a convention a few years back and have only used it a few times, so I have plenty to complete my project! And the sheets are super thin so they are very easy to die cut. It makes it super nice to work with. Plus as I mentioned above, it's adhesive backed, which makes it all the better!!

I love that Day Light Savings is over! It was nice to have the extra hour today! Hope you all enjoy the rest of your Sunday. I will certainly do my best to do the same!

New Blog Look

2010-11-07T00:22:00.001-06:00

Hi Everyone in Blogerton! I was visiting one of my favorite blog design sites, shabbyblogs.com, and decided it was time for a blog makeover! So I hope you all like it :). It's not so fun and whimsical as the old look, but it's certainly shabbylicious, don't you all think!

Have a crafty 'ol time!

Purchase & Exchange Swap Results From Marci & Amber - & What I Am Working On Next

2010-11-06T20:17:00.002-06:00

Hello! Hope you all have enjoyed your first week of November! It's been warm and quiet at my house this week. Peyton went to St. George to spend the week with my parents and niece and nephew. Thong and I enjoyed the quiet but missed Peyton fiercely!! Have you seen the HP printer commercial with the baby in the walker going across the country? Well, it is Peyton's favorite! Every time it comes on she tells me, "Mom, that's my favorite baby. Her's so cute!" I don't have the heart to tell her the baby is a boy. But he is pretty adorable. Anyway, that commercial came on a lot this week and every time I saw it, it made me miss Peyton even more! She is back home now though, and not feeling so well. It's that time of year and it seems she has the stomach bug that I had last week :(. Hopefully it will pass soon! We did snuggle yesterday for quite some time when she came home! It definitely feels good to have her home :).

Now to the crafty goodness! I wanted to show you what Marci and Amber made for our exchange! Although Marci's box is very very cute - as you will see below - she totally cheated and used her new Cricut Imagine, instead of her new Stampin' Up! stuff! But I'll allow the violation this one time only, Marci! :)

Here is her box:

Marci got the Cricut Imagine for her birthday a few weeks ago and has been dieing to get some crafting done! This box was one that came with the cartridge and all the patterns and everything were already chosen for the box. But the owl tag, Marci came up with all on her own. She even put a yummy no bake cookie inside for each of us! The owl is pretty cute hu! Amber's has an A charm and mine has an L. Aren't these so fun!

Onto Amber's card:

How cute is this card! My favorite part is the splash of tulle that she added! Notice something similar to my card? Yep, it's square too! Totally addicted to squares!!!!! Also, this is the same paper that I used to make Marci's plate stand from a few posts back. Amber had mentioned that she bought this paper last year, but I got mine only maybe 4 months back or so. She made the cutest pumpkins last year with the same paper! Check out her current blog post to see them! You will want to make your own for sure!!!

Amber's Supplies used:

Cardstock - Stampin' Up! Crumb Cake {I can't remember what the textured paper brand is}

Patterned Paper - My Minds Eye and a book page

Punches - Scallop Circle {Amber what brand is your punch? :)}, Itty Bitty flower Stampin' Up!

Inks - Stampin' Up! Chocolate Chip and Crumb Cake

Stamps - Stampin' Up!

Rhinestone Brad - Stampin' Up!

Tulle - Amber's stash

As I have mentioned, I LOVE Tai Pan Trading! I went there last night to go and get some additional snowball garlands to do my next project, but I was sad to see they were all out. So I will have to try to figure out something other than what I had planned with the one I have :).

What I did find instead was something that I am super excited to get working on!!!!!!!

So what I have planned for this bare looking tree is to make a Christmas countdown calendar! I counted and there are exactly 25 loops to hold photos. But instead of photos I am going to do paper to countdown until Christmas. Woot! Woot! I am so excited! I have glitter and mini ornaments and paper and ribbon. I so can't wait to get this finished, can you tell! I have Dear Lizzy, Girls Paperie, My Minds Eye, Studio G, Maya Road, May Arts, and some others to get this completed. Can't wait to show you all either, once it's all done.

I am trying to figure out where I will hang it once I have it finished. I think on the half wall where my stairs are. And what I plan to do is make it so Peyton can add something on it for each day. I will probably have it be done with magnet strips. And then that way the tree will get fuller as the days get closer to Christmas.

Time to watch Cinderella with Peyton and make her some noodles. At least she is asking for food right now, so hopefully that is a good sign!

Have a crafty weekend everyone!

A Tiny Hello

2010-11-03T23:37:00.003-06:00

It was "Purchase and Swap" time again this weekend! Marci and Amber and I received our bags of Stampin' Up! goodies from our monthly club night at Cindy's house. So we haven't been exactly consistent in our swap, but we always have the best of intentions to use every supply we purchase to create a masterpiece for each other - and then of course one to keep for ourselves!

I have this thing lately with making small cards. I can't help it sometimes. And they usually open from the bottom, and I don't remember the last time I made one that wasn't square! It's a sickness really :). Well, I decided to switch things up a bit this time around. Yes, I kept the card square, but what I did do was make the smallest card I have ever made - 2.5 inches - but I also had it open from the side! What!!! I know, I was feeling free and reckless! What can I say, sometimes I like to be a rebel. :)

Here are the results:

So this adorable teacup stamp is just over an inch tall! The "hello" sentiment sits just under the cup on the stamp. But I decided that I wanted to separate the word from the image on the card layout. All the supplies are Stampin' Up! except the adorable Bazzill Basics clear button with the rhinestone center. {I cut the back of the button off with my wire cutters and adhered it to the card with a Pop Dot.

Here is a breakdown of ALL the supplies:

Cardstock - Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla

Patterned Paper - scraps left over from a pad that was available in the Spring Mini catalog earlier this year

Satin Ribbon - Daffodil Delight {my favorite new Stampin' Up! color!!!!}

Inks - Daffodil Delight and Chocolate Chip classics

Punches - Large Oval, Scallop Oval, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border, Word Window

Jewels - Rhinestone Stickers

Button - Bazzill Basics brand

Just so you all know, I had to fight all my urges to add a small butterfly punched shape to each card!!! Where would I have put it, right! But the urge was definitely there. And for how small this card is, there is already so much stuff on it!

I am off to bed ladies, but I hope you like the Tiniest Hello ever! I'll be back soon :)

P.S. Hello my newest followers :)

SPOOKY Bat Banner

2010-10-31T22:57:00.002-06:00

It's me again. I am sad to see Halloween to go, but look forward to Thanksgiving and of course Christmas! I never posted my Spooky Halloween Banner, so I figured I should do it now, or wait a whole year! I love this banner! It turned out cute and it is super fun. I will look forward to getting it out every year!

The year Thong, and I moved into our house, my parents got me a gift card to one of my most favorite stores, Rod Works! I was ecstatic to see that it was for $200!!! So I ended up buying the mirror and shelf you see in the picture below. I am wishing they would have had the bigger shelves they have now, when I bought it, but I love the red color! I bought some of the smaller decorations too that you see - black drawers, green candlesticks and candles, the red clock.

The one thing I don't do is change out the items really for holidays. I am thinking I need to start though! I change it out for Christmas every year, but other than that, the items stay the same. I put my Halloween decorations on my high counter top, but next year, I think I will add them to the shelf. And maybe I can start adding to my Halloween decorations. I have hardly any.

The one thing with my banner is that it is heavy - which I didn't take into account when I was making it - so it weighs down too much to actually hang. I set it up on my shelf, but as you can see, there aren't any other Halloween decorations with it. But next year, I think it will be cute when it's all Halloween!

Here are the pics:

Here are the details:

Banner - Black bat glitter Tai Pan Trading

Patterned Paper - My Minds Eye, Martha Stewart, Stampin' Up!

Cardstock Letter Squares - Little Yellow Bicycle

Gold Glass Glitter - Stampin' Up! {Careful with this! It hurts when you cut your finger!}
Black Lace Ribbon - Stampin' Up!
Stamp Set - Dark & Dreary set Stampin' Up!
Ink - Basic Gray Stampin' Up!
Punches - Large Scallop Circle, Large Oval, Scallop Oval, 3/4" Circle, Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Stampin' Up!; Real Estate Sign EK Success
Jewels - Black and Silver Rhinestones Stampin' Up!
Buttons - Stampin' Up!
Clear Buttons w/Rhinestones- Bazil Basics
Crystal Effects - Stampin' Up! {I used this to attach the glitter. I also used it to trace each letter and have them stand out more}
Black Glitter Spiders - Paper Creations LSS here in Salt Lake - aren't these so cute! They were all cut out and ready for me to buy them! I had to buy like 8 of them since they were only $.15 each!
Ribbon - Purple Satin May Arts; Cream and Gray Polka Dot Tai Pan Trading
Embossing Plate - Spider Web Stampin' Up!

Hope you guys like it! It was a lot of fun to make! I can't wait to get started on Thanksgiving and Christmas projects! I still have my village to work on, and wreath to finish!

Hope you all are good!

Happy Halloween & Happy Birthday Hubby!

2010-10-31T20:23:00.001-06:00

Hi Everyone! Hope you have all had a great Halloween weekend! It was a lot of fun here! Not only was today Halloween, but it is also Thong's birthday! We celebrated by waking up early with Peyton, watching Disney movies in our bed, letting Peyton head down to St. George with her "Pink Gramma" and Papa {Pink Gramma is the name she has given my mom! She gave Thong's Mom the name of "Black Gramma!} until Friday, went to Simply Sushi with Thong's brother, Kyto and friend Bean, came back to watch football and take a nap {Thong did the watching, I did the napping!}.

Are you guys Trick-Or-Treating tonight or did you already yesterday? Here in Utah, most people did it yesterday. We took Peyton to the mall here. There were so many kids in costume and it was a lot of fun! She was the cutest little witch ever, if I do say so my self! :) Here she is in her costume glory!

I had this bright idea to spray the tutu, hat and shirt with glitter. So I got glitter body/hairspray to add it on. Can I just tell you, glitter is all over my house now!!!! It is everywhere! On my couch, kitchen floor, on my dogs, on me and Thong, on our clothes! Great idea I had :)

Thank you Marci for selling me your priceless plastic cauldron so I could use it to go with Peyton's costume as her candy bucket and decorate it up a bit! The $45 was totally worth it! :-). Okay, I didn't really spend that much. You can't tell from this picture, but the handle is covered with ribbon, there is orange flower trim around the brim, and then the green flower has an orange center and purple rhinestone brad. I searched and searched all over for a plastic cauldron and couldn't find one!!! So my good friend Marci was kind enough to let me have hers for the price of a fountain Diet Coke. Deal!:) Thanks Marci!

Aren't these the cutest leggings! The tutu, hat and leggings are from Swiss Days back in September. I love this costume! Gotta love the spider socks too!

This picture just makes me laugh!

Peyton was so done with pictures but I kept trying. Didn't turn out so well but this picture totally captures Peyton in this moment. The moment was "Mom, I just want to get my trick-or-treat on!"

Like most little girls, Peyton is obsessed with the Disney princesses! But when we saw 4 of them dressed up yesterday at the mall, she did not want to even get close to them!!! So in order to convince her to get her picture taken with them, I had to do it with her, and even then she was still not wanting to do it. Now when she sees the picture she talks about them, but she was not having it in that moment!

On the way home from the mall, Peyton fell asleep and was down for the count! We were going to go up to my brothers house to go hang out with the Fam, but that didn't happen. But like I mentioned, she ended up going to my parents house and won't be back until Friday! It is going to be a quiet week for sure!!!!

Thong and I are spending the rest of his birthday going grocery shopping at Walmart and then coming back and watching The Event! Woot! Happy birthday Hun! I love you and I can't imagine a life without you! You make everyday better and I am proud to be your wife.

Hope you all have a great rest of October and I look forward to November!!! Turkey and stuffing! Can't wait!!!

A Birthday Present For Marci

2010-10-23T09:38:00.001-06:00

My really good friend, Marci, had a birthday yesterday, so I knew that I had to make her a plate stand! I couldn't wait to get started on it, but unfortunately I ran out of E6000, so I had to borrower Amber's. So I made the lollie on Wednesday and then glued the plate stand together on Thursday night and then put it all together.

When I saw this gorgeous yellow plate - at my current favorite store, Tai Pan Trading!!! - I knew I would have to make it mine. But then I decided that it would actually be a good color for Marci's house. I debated back and forth about adding soft blue or olive green papers and accessories to decorate it. But I decided to stay with the brown, cream and really cool mustard color instead.

So here you have it:

Again, these are super, super, super inexpensive to make!!!! This plate was $2.97 and the glass was $1.01! Everything else I had on hand. I think that is why I like this project so much. It's super inexpensive to make and I don't have to buy a lot of new and expensive crafty supplies to make one!

The Details:

LOLLIE -
Patterned Paper & Dandelion Tag - My Minds Eye
Cardstock - Very Vanilla Stampin' Up!
Book Page - {bird wing} Danielle Steele's Sisters {I found a better use for this book :-)}
Clear Buttons - Bazzil Basics
Brown & Cream Flower Buttons - Stampin' Up!
Clear Mounted Stamps - Stampin' Up!
Inks - Early Espresso & More Mustard Stampin' Up!
Grosgrain Ribbon - Chocolate Chip Stampin' Up!
Jewel Rhinestones - Stampin' Up!
Bird Punch - Stampin' Up!
Real Estate Sign Punch - EK Success {the Friends tag is punched from this}

STAND -
Plate - Tai Pan Trading
Glass - Tai Pan Trading
Ribbon - Large Brown Grosgrain is my stash, Yellow is American Crafts, Cream Organza is Stampin' Up!

PACKAGING -
Ribbon - Large Brown Grosgrain is my stash, Blue & Brown Polka-Dot Organza is All My Memories
Cellophane - Tai Pan Trading
Card - a really old one that I made and apparently I didn't even notice the flower that was attached came off :). Sorry Marci!

Once I got to work yesterday, I added some chocolate onto the plate that I had stashed away. These are totally my current favorite gift to give right now! I am making my sister one, and my sister-in-law, who had a birthday last week. {She, she doesn't know what she is getting!} Happy Birthday Lindsi!!! And of course I need to make myself one!

Hope you all have a great weekend!

A Sneak Peak Of A Halloween Banner - Spooky Bats!

2010-10-21T07:44:00.001-06:00

Hi everyone! I was too excited to wait until I am finished to start posting about this project!!! I took pictures from my phone and emailed myself. So hopefully you can see them all okay.

Here are the pics of it so far:

As I said, I am not finished yet. I know, I know - Halloween is right around the corner. My craftiness has been fleeting lately. I just haven't been feeling like crafting a whole lot. But I got out this banner that I purchased from Tai Pan a month or so ago, and all of a sudden I felt the urge to add to it! Love it when inspiration strikes!!! I have said before how much I love that store, but it's true. I so do love it! The banner part is the glitter bats, wire and beads. And it was only $3! My goal is to have the banner finished tomorrow, so hopefully that will happen. Knowing me, the lollies that I have pictured here will have much more stuff on them before it's all said and done! Cause that's the way I like it! :D

I am off everyone! Have a great day!