A Little Christmas Cheer to End the Year

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

Decorating My Desk For Work

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

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!

Halloween Time!

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!

Stampin' Up! Club Swaps - Owl Boxes

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!

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

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!

What's The Title Of That Layout?

Hey everyone! Hope you are having just as good of a lazy Sunday afternoon as I am. I am loving this slightly cooler weather and looking forward to fall! It's my favorite time of year - even though I really hate winter :-). As I stated before, I have been making lots and lots of tags! Plus I have also done a few scrapbook pages. Love getting back into the crafty swing of things for sure.

On my previous post I posted a picture of the pin cushion I made for my crafty twin, Amber Lafata. I posted it super late at night and failed to mention that I stole :-) the picture from her blog! The shame! He he he ! Love ya Amber. If you haven't checked out her blog, do so as soon as you finish reading my post! She has more pin cushion jars and they are super super cute!

As I mentioned, I have mad a few new scrapbook pages, so I figured I would show them. As my title suggests, something crazy is up with one of the titles to my scrapbook pages. I use a lot of Thickers from American Crafts - which I have mentioned several times how much I love them! But when I was making my page  yesterday, I didn't have enough of the one alphabet to finish my title. So for now I have it with the letters missing :-(. I will have to buy more letters to get the title finished. Thank goodness for Robert's 40% coupons!!!!!

So here is the layout that I did yesterday:

There is glare on the picture, but the background is leaves from trees. We were on the Train at Hogle Zoo. I love this picture. Peyton has such a huge love for life! Hence the title name, but as you can see I need some more letters to complete the title to actually say that. We had a lot of fun at the zoo that day but this is probably my favorite picture from the whole outing. I just can't get enough of how much she loves to learn about everything and anything. She gets so excited to learn and find out as much as she can.

Here are some more detailed pictures of the layout:

I was inspired by a favorite blogger of mine, Maggie Holmes. She has such an awesome style. About a week ago she made a post showing her kitchen table covered in layouts. She admitted once she makes her layouts she has a hard time actually putting them in albums. So she has stacks and stacks of them in her house! I decided then and there, that I was going to CASE each layout on the table that was visible! I couldn't help it! I love all of the pages! So this is my second one that I did off of her table. Here is the link to the post that I am referring to. Check it out! It's an awesome post! If you go to it, on the table, I started on the top right hand corner of the photo. This layout is the second one in on the top row. It looks quite different than mine does. But I did use some of the same elements. I broke out my acrylic paints and pained on the cardstock - a technique that I have loved and admired for quite some time but never tried. Also, I used a combination of dies and punches to create the border on the right side. They have 2 things in common. They are all Stampin' Up! brand and they are all labels. I can't get enough of labels right now! Label punches, dies, chipboard! Love them!

Here are the details:

Cardstock: Wild Wassabi, Daffodil Delight {love this new color!}, Kiwi Kiss {retired color}, Close To Cocoa {retired}, Whisper White and Very Vanilla from Stampin' Up!

Patterned Paper: Letterbox line from American Crafts {green and white polka dot fabric paper is Dear Lizzy from American Crafts}

Stamps: Medallion background and tags Stampin' Up!; Journal spot Autumn Leaves

Thickers: American Crafts

Chipboard: flowers, circles label, bird Letterbox line from American Crafts; flourish Maya Road

Punches and Dies: scallop and pinking hearts borders Stampin' Up!; lace border punch Martha Stewart; label dies all from Stampin' Up!, Butterfly embosslet Stampin' Up!

Flower: Prima

Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pretty In Pink Stampin' Up!

Acrylic Pain: Vanilla and Pink Making Memories

Ribbon: blue polka dot grosgrain American Crafts; skinny pink grosgrain {my stash}

On to the next layout....

I have been trying to get inspiration for titles from my daughters favorite Nick Jr shows. There is so much my little toddler loves from that channel, so where better to turn to than her favorite channel. I got this title from the show "Little Bill". There is an episode where Bill has to perform in the school play and his little class sings this cute little song called Spring Is Here. I couldn't resist the urge to use it for the title of these pictures from an afternoon spent at Thanksgiving Point's Tulip Festival.

Here are some more pictures:

I love the mini acrylic albums from Maya Road! I couldn't help but use one of the butterflies from it here on this page!!!

As I mentioned before, I got inspiration for this layout from Maggie Holmes. This layout is on the top right corner of her photo of her table covered with layouts. It's on the top row.

Here are the details:

Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight Stampin' Up!

Patterned Cardstock: Letterbox from American Crafts

Thickers, Stickers and Flair: American Crafts

Stamps: Letterbox American Crafts

Circles, label, photo corner and Border Strip stickers: Stampin' Up!

And there you have it! One complete page and one just about completed. Hopefully it will be sooner than later.

Hope you are having a great lazy summer just like I am!