Art Tote!

Happy Birthday to a friend of my daughters. ;-)
At our house, we love Twistables, they don't break as easily as crayons, and they don't make as big a mess as markers, so they are perfect for travel. So my daughter wanted me to make an art tote for her friend to fit Twistables. We started at the fabric store to find some red fabric (the recipients favorite color), and then we found some beautiful lady bug ribbon for the trim. Me being the procrastinator that I am starting making the tote the night before the party. I work best under pressure... OK, well maybe not, I totally cut the lining the wrong size (TOO SMALL). Thank goodness the stash came to the rescue with another red to match.

Apologies are in order as I started this blog and then left for a while. I love creating, and I love posting pictures and writing about what I create, but I don't really like taking pictures and uploading them to my computer. It has been months since I uploaded pictures. But I am going to try to do it more often and or start taking cell phone picture (I know they can be scary sometimes), but if I take cell phone pictures you might get to see more posts from me!!! :)
Oh, I have to share my good news! I GOT A NEW JOB!!! I officially start on Monday. I am really excited and as silly as it may sound I am looking forward to dressing a bit more professional than shorts and a tank top everyday. (Or I will admit jammies till 4pm some days) :) I know that feeling won't last long as I put on my dress slacks or hose in this 90+ degree weather. I am sure I will miss my kiddos more than I currently realize, but in the end it will be great to be in a professional environment again. :)
PS I think I am going to miss my tennis shoes the most, well that is after my kids. ;-)

Fabric Basket!

Teach appreciation week was a few weeks ago at my kiddos school, and I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish making two of these GREAT little baskets. I was able to make them quickly thanks to a super tutorial over at Pink Penguin Yes, it was a last minute decisions to makes these little baskets. They have been in my "want to make" list for a month or so, and I thought what a perfect opportunity. Sorry about the picture on my dashboard. I stayed up until about 1am then got up at 6am to finish up. :)

Boy Scrapbook pages!

Blogging has been put on the back burner as I am trying to find a job. Any free time I have, I try and create something, or spend time with my hubby :) (I LOVE HIM!) Those things keep me sane. :) Here are a few pages I did somewhat recently. ;-) I am going to a crop in a couple of weeks, so hopefully I will have more pages to share soon.

The pages above were created with the Boys will be Boys cartridge and Birthday Bash.


Wow, I didn't realize I used so many different cartridges on this one. The tree is from Stretch Your Imagination (I cut off the apple that was hanging down) The road and the car are from Paper Dolls for Everyday. The letters and the arrow are from Boys Will Be Boys! The scallops are from Plantin Schoolbook. I think I got them all. :)

Happy Valentines Day!

Wow, I have lots of Valentines projects to share! I have been busy making things, being a Mom, a Wife and looking for a part time job. Luckily my family has been patient with me as I try and juggle all of those things. ;-)

Valentines Cards
Yes I finally made some cards out of the K & Company valentines kit. I have to be honest, I looked at the beautiful paper for hours before I finally figured out how I wanted to use it. ;-) It was just to pretty to cut and I am also very used to using solid colors. But I was very pleased with how the cards turned out, although, I didn't take a picture of my first card. :)!

Valentine Fabric Fun
Scraps, scraps and more scraps! I am so thankful that I save my scraps, because I have been able to do so many extra projects with them. I made this quilted valentines wall hanging from some scraps I have had in my closet for years. Including the batting. :) The binding is from a small remnant I just bought recently. The letters are cut from the Birthday Bash Cricut cartridge. I haven't mastered cutting fabric on the cricut yet, so I just cut the letters on card stock and then trace them on the heat n bond.

Re-purposing an old t-shirt with a stain on the bottom and some pants that were a little short. So simple and so CUTE!

Reusable snack bags!

Woohoo to Fly Away Home with the awesome tutorial on how to make these cute GREEN little reusable snack bags. The great thing about these little bags is the velcro helps them stay open enough for little hands to get in and out, but also closes nicely! Another plus is that my kids can open them by themselves! :) My plan is to make about 4-6 more so I can stop all plastic bag use for snacks. ;-)

Quilt!

My Grandparents have always been a part of my life, and I love them very much. My grandmother taught me a few things about quilting. So I decided to make this quilt for both of them. I started this quilt years ago, maybe 4 or 5 years ago. It is finished now!!! :) My goal this year is to try and finish as many projects as I can and boy am I on a role!!! It feels so good to finish things.

Boys carry all bag!

My son is really into carrying things around lately. He has to have something in each hand, whether it is cars, balls, spatulas, crayons, markers, crackers, etc... So I decided to make him this very simple lined bag.

This bag is made from a flannel remnant he picked up at Joann's. Yes, he grabbed it as we walked by. :) Gotta love little hands. It was less than a dollar, so I decided to go ahead and buy it. The flannel remnant was the perfect size for the bag and I used some fleece I had in my scraps for the handles. Most of the time you can find this bag full of cars and being carried to and from our car, and the store. :)

Valentines Paper

My Mother-in-law gave me this pack for Christmas. I am going to try and create a scrapbook page or 2 and some cards out of it. This pack is from K and Company! I am excited, this paper is very cute!

ABC Bean Bags!

They are finished!!! Thank you to Chez Beeper Bebe for the great tutorial! My favorite part of making these was going through all my scraps of fabric, some of which I have had for 15+ yrs. :) It was great fun to use a lot of my little scraps, it made me happy that they were finally being used for something. My least favorite part was whip stitching them closed. Next time I make these adorable little bean bags, I think I will sew three sides, turn right side out, fill and then machine stitch the 4th side closed.

I've been sewing like crazy!

I have been playing scrabble with my hubby and sewing the past several nights. :) I actually won a couple of times at scrabble which is very rare.

Sewing, Sewing, Sewing. I finished the spelling bean bags! Pictures to come soon. Yes, I let the kids play with them right away, so I need to clean all the dog fur off before I attempt to take pictures. ;-) Yesterday during nap time I worked on a quilt for my grandparents. All I have to do now is finish sewing the binding on. :) I made my son a pillow case with some ball material he picked out at Walmart. ;-) Yes, my 22 month old appreciates fabric already. :) It was a tough decision between Thomas and Sports Balls. Well it is time for me to go do my job ;-) Make my love a lunch, play with my kiddos, get everyone dressed, hopefully get a shower, go to the library, shopping, playing, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning, and hopefully some craft time later or at least some picture taking time. ;-) Happy Thursday to All!

PS One night really late, I did go through all my printed pictures for my sons albums and planned out what pictures will go on what pages, and started sketching out some layouts. I was putting off going to bed.

Felt Flower Pillow

Here goes... a little peak into my sewing world. I really love to sew when I don't have to cut out pattern pieces. ;-) Yes, sometime I do sew from some patterns, and really enjoy it once the pattern is pinned on, cut out and marked. :) This year I made my kids Halloween costumes and that got me into a sewing kick. So I just kept going. I made several Christmas presents this year and had a blast making all of them, well most of them. ;-)
My lucky sisters received these pillows for Christmas!

I found the great tutorial on Cluck Cluck Sew
I really did have a good time making these pillows and Allison has a great tutorial for this one.

The black and white pillow was fun and a bit challenging at points. I decided to pleat as I went after I couldn't get my sewing machine or serger to gather as it went. ;-) And the pleating was easy, the only challenge was I ran out of material with about an inch to go. That was my bad planning I guess, but luckily it was really easy to add a little more fabric on and Viola! It was complete and I think and hope my sisters really liked them.
Right now I am making spelling bean bags, I got the idea and directions from Chez Beeper Bebe Hopefully I will have them finished in a couple of days so I can share them with you!

Happy Crafting!

I've been busy

Finally, I have gotten back full swing into scrapping! How good it feels to get several layouts done this week for my sons album. Now if I can keep up the momentum I will be good to go for a while. It has helped that months ago, I had picked out the papers to go with the pictures. ;-) Choosing paper is always the most time consuming part for me.

This is our "Family Bedtime" which occurs in the morning while everyone is trying to wake up. The buttons are cut from the Wild Card cartridge. I embossed some of the buttons and added some some glossy accents by Inkssentials to add some texture to the page.

Tummy Time was an easy layout to do, because I had so many pictures to use, and I couldn't pass up on any of them. What a Happy Baby!!!
The letters are from Birthday Bash. The tags and shapes are from Tags Bags Boxes and More, and lastly the airplane is from Boys Will Be Boys.

I have to say, as much as I am enjoying scrapping again after a bit of a break when I was on a sewing kick, I struggle every night with what to do. Should I scrap or sew??? ;-) I have hundreds of pictures ready to scrap and a long list of "want to makes" with materials in my fabric stash. For now I think it will be...
Onto more scrapping. :) Maybe some Valentines projects in the near future.

Flowers and Bugs!

Friday night fun! My Pink Stamper live! Congrats to all who made the design team. A little scrapping as Hubby and I have been trying to figure out how to watch TV. ;-) I know, I know sounds really silly, but we just canceled our cable and then bought an antenna, but realized our TV's are just to old. So then the search for the converter box has begun. Gotta love technology.

I need some scrapping energy, so I was looking through some of pages, and I found this one. It is one of my favorites!!! I made this page a couple of years ago, but every time I look at it I SMILE!

Simple or Not?

Are you a simple scrapper, a complex scrapper, or do you like to mix it up?
I like to mix it up a lot!
Here are a few of my layouts.
Yes, I am over a year behind on scrapbooking. ;-)

(That little cutie is almost 2!)

Simple

This is one of my more detailed pages.
I made it for a My Pink Stamper challenge a long time ago, I just never took a picture until tonight.
This is one of my favorites!!!
The challenge was to use pink, brown, orange, and green.
Not as simple ;-)

Have a great night! Happy Scrapping!!!

My Pink Stamper Challenge

So one of my favorite blogs is Robyn's My Pink Stamper!!! I happened upon it a couple of years ago, and was immediately hooked. Now I send any new Cricut owner her way. :) One of my friends said that Robyn's videos were addictive (this friend started watching her videos before she even bought a cricut).
Soooo...
I have decided to enter Robyn's challenge and Design Team call.
Robyn's Challenge was to make a paper craft using
-pink, brown, green, and one color of choice (I picked purple)
-your favorite Cricut cartridge (Create a Critter)

I decided to make a baby girl card, although, I don't even know anyone that is expecting a girl :)

RECIPE
Pink Pirouette, Certainly Celery Designer Series, Pink Passion, and Early Espresso paper from Stampin' Up!
Create a Critter and Once Upon a Princess
Chocolate Chip Ink, and Certainly Celery Ribbon from SU!
My Pink Stamper-Everyday Life

I started with an 8.5"x5.5" piece of pink pirouette card stock folded in half, then layered a 4 1/8" x 5 3/8" of Early Espresso on top. Then I cut a piece of Certainly Celery Designers Series Paper into a 5 " x 4". To make it look like a quilt, I cut it into 1" squares and flipped every other one over. Double sided paper is great! ;-) I used a piece of certainly celery ribbon. And my favorite part, the Giraffe is from Create a Critter, and little shape is from Once Upon a Princess. The shape was embossed with the Cuttlebug swiss dots folder. Then using the chocolate chip classic stamp pad, I stamped Welcome Baby from Robyn's Everyday Life stamp set. To finish it off, I used a white pen to give it a quilted look and also added a few purple rhinestones. I hope you enjoy! :)

Whooo Whooo Whooo Some cards for you!

My favorite Cricut cartridge is Create a Critter. Here is a cute owl card made out of scraps. Every once in a while I pull out my scrap bucket and make cards just from the bucket, except for the actual 8.5 x 5.5 part. ;-)

One of my best friends had her third child while her husband was away serving our country. I used Mickey and Friends and Lyrical Letters to make this card.

I love love love this paper by Stampin Up! I can't remember what it is called, and I think it is now retired. It is full of beautiful purples and greens. Image is from Lyrical Letters.

Birthday Card

Away we go, here is my first post with a picture. I made this birthday card for a card making gathering. I wanted to show some of my stamping friends how easy Cricut images are to use on a card.

Card Recipe

Cupcake-Create a Critter
Border Punch-Marthe Stewart
Stamp-SU!
Sweet Treats-DCWV

Here goes, I have decided to start blogging. :) I am really excited to be able to share the projects I create!