Check out this awesome blog candy!

My dear friend Kisa has some absolutely FABULOUS blog candy right now. Check out her terrific blog here!
Hopefully I can find some time today to make something worthy of posting; if not, I hope you all have a terrific day!

Ribbon Blossoms

Do you have tons of ribbon just sitting around waiting to be used?
Then you have to check out this blog: Indigo Studio

Happy hump day!

Well, we made it through half the week and we all sorta seem healthy. Annabelle got a HUGE spot (hive? - it was the size of a half dollar) on her forehead last night that may have been cause from the antibiotic but today was her last dose so hopefully everything is ok. For those of you who know me well know that I have a lot of up and down days. I've been depressed a lot lately which is why I have been trying my best to make bright happy cards. I tried yesterday and couldn't do a single thing. I colored a couple Elyzabells images and then couldn't do a thing with them to save my life. Today I decided to try a Whipper Snapper image that I got from someone in the wishRAK group (sorry, I can't remember who sent it to me). Once again things are pretty basic but for the first time in a while I actually used some ribbon out of my stash instead of just adding glitter (my absolute fav embellishment). Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday! Thanks for stopping by.

The secret to dieting...

is not to eat cookies for breakfast. I've been experimenting with this type of dieting for the past couple weeks and my desired weight loss seems unattainable; in fact, I think the scales are tipping in + direction rather than the -. I think I may have to look at other breakfast options in hopes of diet success!
Anyway....it is cold and rainy and just all around gloomy here today. My motivation level is pretty much zero (except for my cookie dieting motivation - that seems to have peaked during this gloom). I didn't even want to take Annabelle to preschool today but in the end I managed to drag my tired butt out of the house. I even managed a little grocery shopping with Beckett after I dropped her off.
After grocery shopping, I decided that gloomy days and cleaning the house are an awful combination so I put a movie in the DVD player for Beckett and headed to my stash of colored images (no coloring motivation today). Once again the Penny Black frogs were calling (or maybe they were croaking) out to me. I am still using scraps from my stamp table so the color combos I have been using lately might not be the greatest but they are using up my scraps so that I don't have to put them away. Creating less work for later is always a good idea for me. Nothing too fancy here again today, just some glitter, brads and a few layers of paper. Seems I have been using a lot of bold bright colors lately, not sure why since I typically shy away from brights. Maybe all this gloom and cold is getting to me...what am I saying, maybe, should have said DEFINITELY getting to me. I can't wait for 70 degree weather! Hope you are all having a wonderful day!

Sunday already?

I can't believe it is already Sunday night. Where did the weekend go? We are still the household of the sick but I'm trying to keep a good attitude about it...the kids are building up a great immune system. I didn't get much accomplished today except for a long afternoon nap and a couple birthday cards that I should have had done last week. When I'm in stamping rut I tend to stamp and color a lot of images for future use. Today I wanted to throw together 2 cards in less than 30 minutes (the amount of time the crab cake mix has to sit in the fridge before I could make dinner). I dug through my colored image box and found these cute Penny Black chickens. Have I mentioned that I just love Penny Black? So I glittered, added the balloon, stamped the sentiment and threw these (I made 2) together in 36 minutes. Not too bad, especially since I just used scraps of paper that were already laying all over my craft table. I like how it turned out so much I decided to post it before I finished making supper...now I'm off to fry some crab cakes. Hope you all had a great weekend!

Just not my day!

I had a huge day planned for today and due to circumstances beyond my control nothing went as planned. First of all I had a hair cut/highlight appointment this morning. I left early because I finally had some Joann's coupons and the other day when I was there they had some of the new cuttlebug folders. I drive right by Joann's to get my hair done so it was going to work out just perfect...wrong! When I got to Joann's they were completely out of all of the new folders. Just my luck. Instead of using my coupons on CB folders I bought a pad of watercolor paper and some decorative candy flowers that go on cakes. Not what I went there to get but I was making a cake this afternoon anyway so at least the coupon didn't go to waste. Tonight Tom and I were supposed to go to a movie/pizza party at a friends home but Tom woke up not feeling well this morning so I was going to go alone tonight. I had my sister help make a really cool pink and purple checkerboard cake for me to take along tonight. I frosted it and decorated it with the cute candy flowers I got at Joann's. A couple hours later when I should have been getting ready for the party...I started feeling like total crap. I think I should have just stayed in bed this morning. I called my friend and had her pick up the cake so at least someone would still appreciate our totally cool spring colored checkerboard cake. So instead of partying with friends I hung out in my stamp room and experimented with the watercolor paper that I bought earlier today. The verdict...I TOTALLY SUCK AT WATERCOLORING. I tried and tried to figure out how people make such beautiful things on watercolor paper but the more I tried the uglier things got. In an effort to "fix" my image I had to resort back to touching it up with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. I was determined to make something with this and in the end it turned out ok despite the fact that I colored and recolored and recolored again. I'd love to hear how you all watercolor, maybe I'm doing something wrong.
Hope you all had a better day than we did. I think I am heading off to bed, early. I just have to remember that tomorrow is a new day!

The tough week doesn't end with yesterday's post

After I posted yesterday Tom came home early so that I could run to Target and to the post office. In the 45 minutes that I was gone Annabelle went from a fairly normal 4 year old to a 4 year old with the WORST ear infection EVER! When I got home Tom loaded her up in the van for yet another Friday night trip to the urgent care. She has had several ear infections (and when I say several I mean A LOT) in the past but usually once we get to the doctor and get her some meds she calms down. Last night was a totally different story. Her ear hurt....BAD. Tom dropped her off after the doctor appointment so he could run pick up her script at Walgreens. She cried and screamed and cried some more because her ear was hurting her so bad. I did everything I could for her and in the end she cried herself to sleep. I just don't understand how she can play and act normal all day and then out of the blue is in this awful pain. I felt terrible, but honestly she didn't give me any indication anything was wrong during the day, not the slightest bit.
So on that note, I needed something to make me smile today so I pulled out a picture of a card that I made last summer. No fancy embellishments or techniques...just plain and simple. Penny Black animals always make me smile! I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

Tough Week

Thank you to everyone who sent messages asking if everything is going ok. We have had a tough week. We did go to my parents house for Easter but Annabelle's asthma/allergies started acting up and by the time we got home she was coughing like mad. Meanwhile, Beckett was still running a low grade fever. Annabelle seemed ok on Monday and part of Tuesday but then the fever kicked back in, in full force. It has been a really really long week. I haven't had much time to do anything crafty what so ever. I think I am in yet another stamping/scrapping slump. Yesterday I did try to do a little basic scrapping. These pages are a far cry from good but I'm way way way behind on working on the kids scrapbooks so I need a couple easy pages. I made this layout twice (one for each book). I've had the Cricut for almost a year and a half and I am finally starting to play with it. If only I had more fonts to choose from. As you can see from the pages, I am still WAY WAY WAY behind. These are from June 2005....yes, almost 3 years ago. I don't scrap in any particular order. I look through my stash of pictures and pick whatever I feel like scrapping. I still haven't done Annabelle's birth or 1st birthday but I do have Beckett's birth and first birthday done. See...no sense what so ever. I spent some time organizing some of our photos today and found a bunch that I can definitely play with. The problem with having everything digital is that we never ever print any of pictures. If I want to scrap I usually go through several months and send a huge printing order to Wal-mart...on the likes of 500 pictures at a time. Anyway...that is a long story about nothing. Hope you all have a great weekend!

Cards from my SBS sister Jo

I don't really have anything new to post today, but I just wanted to share a couple cards that I received in the mail yesterday from my SBS-13 sister, Jo. These are cards are absolutely adorable. Thank you for brightening my day!

HAPPY EASTER!

I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

It's a holiday weekend, SO you know what that means...

We are SICK. Annabelle and Beckett are both running fevers. Beckett's started in the wee hours of Thursday morning and Annabelle's started last night. We ran out of Tylenol last night and I had to brave the elements (it was a blizzard here yesterday - 8 inches of snow) to go to Wal-mart for a thermometer and some children's Tylenol and Motrin. For those of you who have been with me since the begining you know that it is our joke here that it isn't a holiday without a trip to the urgent care. Someone from our house is sick on every holiday. We are supposed to be traveling to my parents tomorrow for Easter but those plans are up in the air until we figure out how sick we all are. Sucks since this year instead of the traditional Easter dinner the plan is to have Lobster and Prime Rib. I'm crossing my fingers (but not holding my breath) that everyone is feeling better tomorrow. I hope you all have a wonderful day and a Happy Easter! Thanks for stopping by!

Blog Candy WINNER!!

Thanks for all the great color combo comments! For those of you who asked, my favorite combo is always Chocolate chip with just about any color, I also like black and purple combos!

The winner of my first ever blog candy give away is: ElyBlair!!! Please contact me with your snail mail addy so I can get this sent out to you!

ElyBlair said...

Good luck with everything. I tend to go for red and blue :)

March 18, 2008 2:17 PM

ElyBlair - please send me an email with your snail mail addy so I can get these sent out to you.


We are in for a LONG weekend here. Beckett has been running a high fever for the last 24 hours with no end in site. As you have "heard" me say before...It isn't a holiday without one of us heading to the urgent care. To top things off we are getting 5-8 inches of snow today.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and a Happy Easter!!!

Easter Treats

I found a little time yesterday to whip together some Easter treats. The basket bottoms are cut out of dp using my Cricut and I just cut a strip and added a handle. The little tins are from the wedding favor section at Michael's. I filled them with bunny/duck shaped sweet tarts. The stamps used were from a retired TAC stamp set (sorry, don't know the name). Bunnies and chicks were colored using prismacolor pencils and gamsol. As usual, I couldn't finish a project without a little glitter so the bunnies and eggs are covered in dazzling diamonds! Hope you all have a Happy Easter!


Don't forget to sign up for my blog candy drawing by leaving a comment here. Drawing will be held on Friday!

Time for some BLOG CANDY!!!

Sunday nights always totally bum me out. I had so many things that I needed and wanted to get done this weekend and now that the weekend is almost over the # of items crossed off my to-do list is ZERO. I NEEDED to get some housework done...nope. I WANTED to get some stamping done...nope. I NEEDED to get some good rest...nope. I am also suffering from the "WINTER IN WI IS TOO LONG" blues. The weather has been nicer the past few days but not nice enough. I NEED spring to get here ASAP! The one positive thing about the weekend is that I saw a robin today...a sure sign that spring is almost here! To celebrate this first robin of the year siting I have some blog candy to give away: some super cool glitter rub-ons (they go on like regular rub-ons and then you add whatever color glitter you like-totally cool), some metallic red chord and a clear holiday stamp set from Autumn Leaves. To be entered to win all you need to do is leave me a comment on this post telling me your favorite color combo to use scrapping or stamping. I will draw a name from all the entries on Friday morning. Have a TERRIFIC week!!!

*Please read my previous post for info about donating handmade items to help raise money for a 3 year old who was recently diagnosed with Leukemia.*

*Blogger with a cause*

My friend Lynn has a post on her blog about a 3 year old family friend that was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. Lynn is taking donations of handmade items that will help raise money for the family and for the hospital where 3 year old Lyndsey is getting treatment. These items will be used for a raffle/silent auction at a future fund raiser. Lynn is also donating money through her Fashion Flips business. Please visit Lynn's blog "Just Monkin' Around" for more details. As a parent of a 3 and 4 year old I can't imagine what this family is going through. I am working on making a couple items that I will be sending her way. If you have the time to make a little something please consider this, it is definitely going to a good cause!

A Birthday Surprise!

I am SO excited that today is finally here. I started working on this project almost 2 months ago. Shortly after I started my blog I got a message from someone named Melanie, who just happens to also be friends with my friend Delia. She told me of a plot to surprise Delia for her 40th birthday (which happens to be tomorrow). She asked me to make a 2 page 12x12 layout as part of the surprise. Delia is the best scrapper that I personally know and let me tell you, I was NERVOUS! I spent many nights laying in bed trying to think of themes/layouts/colors/etc...
When I finally decided on layout and colors I nervously started getting my stuff together.
As my ideas started to flow, I got pretty excited about these pages. I searched this entire town on multiple occasions looking for exactly the perfect pieces and I think in the end it turned out terrific. Those of you who know me well, know that I seldom think anything I make is terrific but I LOVED these pages when they were done. I honestly think they are the best pages I have ever scrapped...EVER. I am so thrilled that they turned out so well, especially since they were going to such a special person. To go along with this surprise I so wanted to make the drive to New York for her surprise party (which is scheduled to start in less than 10 minutes from now), but Tom was too nervous about me making a 15 hour drive by myself (I think he was really just nervous about fending for himself with the kids for a few days). As a consolation I will hopefully be getting a call from Melanie (from the party scene) so I at least get to wish Delia a Happy Birthday from Wisconsin.
So without further ado...

Here is a close-up of the flowers I added.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DELIA!!!!!!

I've been tagged!

Earlier in the week I was tagged by my good friend Jen from Glitter In My Hair.
Here are the deets:

P.S. - You've been tagged!

The rules of the game:

• Link to the person that tagged you and post the rules on your blog.
• Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself on your blog, we all want to know them.
• Tag 7 random people at the end of your post and include links to their blogs.
• Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Random Facts About Me:

1. My middle name is Renee (so with my hyphenated last name I have a total of 9 E's in my name)
2. I've broken my right arm twice in my life, once when I was 4 years old (falling off our swing set) and once when I was 26 (falling off my mountain bike).
3. In my mid 20's I did several off-road mountain bike races.
4. In high school I played fast pitch softball and I was a varsity basketball and football cheerleader.
5. I love singing. I'm hoping dh will buy me a good karaoke machine for our anniversary (but I'm not holding my breath). My dream is to be in a band (and also to be about 10 years younger than I am).
6. My first music concert I ever attended was MC Hammer and Vanilla Ice for my 16th birthday. I have since bettered my music/concert tastes to the likes of Prince, REM, U2, John Mellencamp, Harry Connick Jr., Indigo Girls, Bare Naked Ladies, Sheryl Crow and lots more. During our pre-marriage/dating years (all 5 of them) dh and I went to A LOT of concerts.
7. I love HS Musical and Zac Efron (you ladies knew I couldn't post facts without this obvious one)

Boy this was a challenge. After trying to figure out something interesting about myself, I realized that I am totally boring. I'm going to have to spice up my life so next time I get tagged I have something good to write!

According to the rules I need to tag 7 people so we can learn all their secrets too. I know it says to tag 7 other bloggers but I'm going to bend the rules and tag a few bloggers and a few non-bloggers. All of you non-bloggers please post your info in the comments for this post.

Here we go:

Kisa

Delia

Mary Webb

April (my sis)

Nessy (Nessy's Notes)

Lynn (Just Monkin' Around)

Jo (Only Joking)

New Banner Info

I have had several people ask me about my new banner. When I said I was totally NOT techno savvy, I was not kidding. The banner was completely simple to do. I downloaded this months free digi-scrapping kit from Shabby Princess and used one of the border components for my banner (used the shrink to fit option). That is all! I know nothing about digital scrapping so I am not able to do anything more than this. There are several other blogs (Thinking Inking and Inky Doodles are two that I can think of) that I have seen in the past few days that used several compenents from the kit, but because of my lack of photo editing software I think I will just be happy with my basic banner. Thank you for all of the wonderful comments about my new look.

Christmas in March???

I got some much deserved stamping time on Sunday afternoon but couldn't decide what I wanted to stamp. When I get in a stamping funk I tend to go to my stash of "favorite cards" (mostly made by my former monthly swap friends) for inspiration. As I looked through my cards on Sunday I kept coming back to a poinsettia card made by my friend Kisa. I loved the card when she sent it to me and even bought the TAC stamp she used solely because I loved her card. SO....even though it isn't Christmas, I decided to make a holiday card, if for no other reason than to get my stamping mojo going.
This card took me a LONG time. I think I had about 6 different renditions (including an exact CASE of Kisa's card) before I finally settled on this one. In fact I originally stamped the poinsettia, colored it with gamsol/pencils, added glitter, added Prima poinsettias and then sponged the white cardstock with real red (almost exactly what Kisa did, except I used different colors), but the real red sponging just wasn't working for me so I cut just the flower portion (without the leaves) off of this first attempt, re-stamped the whole image, re-colored, added glitter again and then I layered the first flower with dimensionals over the new image. I liked this look much better. Because the poinsettia image is pretty big I had a hard time fitting a sentiment onto the card. I didn't want to cover up the leaves because I had just spent a lot of time coloring them so I ended up cutting the lower corner out and layering the leaves over the sentiment. The background is a piece from the DCWV glitter mat pack that I ran through the Cuttlebug. The glitter on the poinsettia leaves is "Lions Mane" ultrafine from Art Institute.
In the end, I really liked how this one turned out....simple, but elegant (IMO).
Hope you all have a wonderful day!

New Look

So what do you guys think of my new look? I have to say, I'm not very techno savvy so trying to make my blog look half-way ok is a major challenge for me, especially since I don't have any photo editing software except for the iphoto. Let me know what you think of it so far and if there is anything you would like to see changed.

AWESOME tutorial!

Good morning! I have ANOTHER busy day today (swimming lessons and preschool) so I'm not sure if I will get to my stamp room today or not. Even though I don't have any cards or pages to post this morning I wanted to share this ABSOLUTELY AWESOME tutorial with you from the blog of Jody Morrow (Confessions of a Ribbon Addict): Drunken Watercolor
I can't wait to try this out!
Hope you all have a great day and if I find some time this afternoon I will try and post again.

Busy Day

I have a busy day ahead of me and probably won't find any time to create anything except for maybe a headache. I thought I would share a scrapbook page I made a couple months ago. Some of you have already seen this as it is in my ASB gallery, but I thought I would share it here too. I was doing one of the sb layout challenges from ASB and came up with this page. The picture is Annabelle's school picture from last year. The page is nothing too fancy but I really liked how it turned out with the exception of the fact that I cropped the picture a little shorter than I wanted.
I hope you all have a terrific day!

Scrap Mania Project

Blogger has finally decided to cooperate this morning. Here are some pictures of the project I made at scrap mania last week...I finally got around to finishing it this weekend. I saw a project made with the Bo Bunny chipboard book on Jody Morrow's blog a few weeks ago and it reminded me that I had one of these bare chipboard books stashed somewhere in my stamp room. After a lot of searching and re-organizing I finally found it just in time to take to scrap mania to work on. The chipboard letters are covered in Basic Gray paper and then embellished with rub-ons and Primas. I used the SU! SAB rub-ons and I have to say that they TOTALLY ROCK! I put a friendship themed quote on each page of the book.
I'm not exactly great with covering chipboard with paper so there are definitely a few areas that could have been better, but overall I think it turned out ok.

Hope everyone had a great weekend! I wanted to add some pics of a project I finished this weekend but Blogger is not cooperating with me tonight. I will try again tomorrow!

Blog Candy for a GREAT cause

If you haven't already heard about or checked out Wendi's blog Kaput Krafts, I definitely recommend heading over there. She has some awesome blog candy that she is giving away for a great cause!

Enabler alert: 10% off at Queen Kat Designs

All this month you can save 10% at Queen Kat Designs. Just use the code found in the blinky banner. Queen Kat just happens to be one of my SBS-13 sisters!

You Make My Day award

I totally forgot that I received a message a few days ago from Nessy (Nessy's Notes) that she was giving me a "you make my day" award. Thanks so much Nessy, YOU totally made my day!!!

I haven't even stepped foot in my stamp room all week :(
Hopefully tomorrow I will get lots of time to play while Tom watches the kids for a bit.

I did however finally make a list of all the stamp sets I am trying to sell (unfortunately, I need to pay bills so I can't even buy new fun stuff with any funds I make). If you are interested in any of these please feel free to send me an email or comment on this post.

Here is what I have available:
Stampin Up! FOR SALE:
A is for Adorable $8
Watercolor Minis $6
Pretty Princess $18
Baby Annoucements $8
Sweet Spot $10
Cute Converse $8
Cuddles and Tickles $8
All Natural $14
Cheesecloth $16
Island Blossoms (new/unmounted) $18
Retro Alphabet lower $26
Noteworthy $6
Too Terrific Tags $6
Festive Four $5
Around and About $5
Alphabet Soup $6
Tagger's Dozen $14
Dot Invitation $8
Everyday Celebrations (flower, sundae, Happiness is not perfect until it is shared, your baby is a dream come true Happiness to all of you) $8
Monkey Business (this set is on EZ mount - stored in a CD case) $18
Perfect Ending $12
Hearts and Clovers $14
Greatest Gift $24
DD set (don't know the name) has a large watering can and a bunch of flowery /leafy type stamps to go with $12
Headline Alphabet $30
Jumbo Wheel Everyday Blossoms $5
standard wheel Candycane Christmas $4
standard wheel Gifts Galore $4
standard wheel Love Swirls $4
standard wheel Butterfly $4 (I have 2 of these, don't ask me why)
standard wheel Blossoms and Bugs $4
standard wheel Busy Bees $4


Gina K FOR SALE:
Punchy Words (new/unopened) $15
Simple Pleasures (new/unopened) $15

Misc. FOR SALE:
Marvy GIGA scalloped Circle, MEGA scalloped circle & MEGA non-scalloped circle $28 for the set
Marvy GIGA scalloped square & MEGA non-scalloped square $20 for the set
Marvy GIGA scalloped oval & MEGA non-scalloped oval $20 for the set

I've been tagged!

I've been tagged by one of my SBS-13 sisters, Nessy from Nessy's Notes. It is a great day for it since I don't have anything new to post today.
Here goes...

1. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 10 YEARS AGO??? I was working in a dairy ingredient quality control lab...testing yogurt and buttermilk cultures to make sure they could make what they were supposed to.
2. WHAT WERE YOU DOING 1 YEAR AGO??? Pretty much the same thing I am doing today....taking kids to preschool and swimming lessons
3. NAME YOUR 5 FAVOURATE SNACKS
chips and salsa, rosemary/olive oil Triscuits, veggies and dip, Reese's peanut butter cups, Flavored chips
4. NAME 5 THINGS YOU WOULD DO IF YOU WERE A MILLIONAIRE: I would join a gym (and get a personal trainer), hire someone to make us delicious/healthy meals everyday, hire a maid, visit all of my out-of-state stamping friends (Mary, Kisa, Delia, Lisa...), donate to charity
5. NAME 5 THINGS YOU LIKE DOING Stamping, Reading, Sleeping, Camping, Biking
6. NAME 5 THINGS YOU WOULD NEVER WEAR AGAIN Leg warmers, Anything in Flourescent colors, Pants that you roll up tight at your ankles, a bikini, stirrup pants
7. NAME YOUR 5 FAVOURITE TOYS! Cuttlebug, Cropodile,iPod,...can't think of anything else right at the moment.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. We had a busy weekend even though we didn't really do anything. I took advantage of the fact that Tom was home and got a lot of cleaning done on Saturday and then Saturday night my good friend Jen (glitterinmyhair.blogspot.com) and I got some quality stamping time in at the Archiver's scrap mania. It was nice to have 6 uninterrupted hours of stamping time. Hopefully I didn't annoy Jen too much with my non-stop chatter. It was nice to talk with her without having to yell over the kids screaming. Tom managed to handle the kids just fine except, when the kids went to bed, Beckett told him he could lay down next to them but only until mommy gets home and then you have to get out of her spot. I'm so glad to know someone here loves me.
I can't show you the project that I worked on at scrap mania because I didn't get it finished yet, but I do have a card that I made yesterday afternoon to share. This is just a simple wedding card. The couple image is Stampendous and the sentiment is from one of the clear Studio G $1 stamp sets. I colored the grooms tux with prismacolor pencils and gamsol. The rest is pretty simple...glitter, cuttlebug, ribbon, etc.
Thanks for stopping by!

Wedding Invites

One of my sister's coworkers asked me to put together a couple simple examples of wedding invites that she could make. She doesn't have a lot of time to get them done so she wanted them sweet and simple. Her colors are pink, black and white. Here are a few of the simple ideas I came up with this morning. For the 1st and 3rd examples I just printed and stamped on shimmery white cardstock. The 2nd example I printed the invite on vellum and layered it over cardstock that I had stamped one. Her flowers are tulips but I tried one using Roses in Winter also. Let me know what you think. Nothing too fancy but I think they are still quite elegant.

Sick again : (

Sorry I haven't posted anything new in a few days. I am sick again. This time just a nasty cold but nasty enough to keep me pretty much from doing anything. Hopefully there will be something new to post soon. Hope you all have a terrific Friday!

Got Ice Cream?

We have been eating WAY WAY too much ice cream at our house lately. Last week I even bought a big gallon instead of the half gallons. We ate the entire gallon in less than a week. When Tom threw the empty gallon bucket in the recycling bin a little light bulb came on in my head. I took it out of the recycle bin and put it in the dish washer. A few hours later I covered it in paper, ribbon, primas and left it sit in my stamp room for a couple days. Today I decided to take a spur of the moment trip to Archivers to buy the Cropodile Big Bite. I couldn't drive home fast enough. As soon as I got here I punched a bunch of holes in the bucket and filled it with ribbon. What do you think? (I know some of the punches are crooked but besides that, what do you think?)

Monday already?

I just can't believe how fast the weekend went. I didn't really getting any real stamping done, although I did start working on a project that I will hopefully be able to finish and show you later this week. I did take some time for myself and went to see a movie yesterday afternoon while Tom watched the kids. I saw "Juno". It was a really good movie-VERY funny in a lot of parts but kinda depressing for me too. I had very puffy eyes when I left the theatre...good thing I had sun glasses with me. This was the first real movie I have gone to see in a long long time; I ususally see movies with animated characters. I'm thinking I may need to do this "ME" time thing more often. Next time I think I will see something a little more chick-flicky (cheesy, unrealistic, with a Happily Ever After ending)...like Fool's Gold. I will try and post again sometime later today if I get a chance to create anything. Have a great Monday everyone!

I am 32% weirdo

But you all knew that anyway. You were all probably thinking it would be much higher than that, right.
Here are my results:

You Are 32% Weirdo

You're a little weird, but you'd be even weirder if you didn't have a few quirks. You are just strange enough to know it, but nobody else seems to notice your weirdness. That's because, deep down, everyone is a little freaky!

Are You A Weirdo?

It's FINALLY the weekend!

I had a house full of kids all week and I am SO THANKFUL that it is finally Saturday. Annabelle has a birthday party to go to this afternoon so I thought I would try and make a quick name frame for her friend Lauren. I totally cased this idea from Janette Olen (blessingsx3). Janette hosts a monthly swap that I used to be in and last summer one of the months we made gift items. Janette made everyone in the group AWESOME name frames. I just love mine. I cased the layout of the frame she made for me and change the colors and the name (of coarse). I think it turned out pretty cute. The whole project from start to finish only took about 45 minutes.
The only stamping on the entire project is the word "friend" from the SU set Noteworthy and I also used sponge daubers on the white cardstock. The letters are cut out using my Cricut and the rest is well...simple. Hope everyone has a terrific weekend!

Happy Wednesday

I have been so busy all week I haven't had a chance to even think about stamping. I did though, want to share with you a little something the kids and I made a few days ago. Because our weather has been so bad we have been confined to our house for more days than I would like to think about. We spend a lot of days in the basement playroom. We don't have any real furniture in there, just toys and a tv, and the kids have been complaining of no place to sit. So... we decided to create some furniture for them. Here is our first piece. We decided to start with something simple...a chair. Ok, so it wasn't oh so simple but we finished it. We covered a bunch of boxes with construction paper and stickers and then covered the entire thing with packaging tape. I filled the seat box with paper so it wouldn't collapse when you sat on it. I think it turned out pretty cute. You can't have a chair without a foot rest so we made one of those too. The kids love it and actually use it so it was worth the entire roll of packaging tape it took to cover it. Not sure if we will be making any additions to our playroom furniture collection, but it was still fun coming up with this one.

Trying to catch up on some scrappin

Here is another one of the scrapbook layouts I made on Sunday. I made the page without having the 5x7 photo in hand so I had to hope my measurements were ok...they weren't. I just went downstairs to put the 5x7 on and take a picture and I realized I had obviously made an error in measuring so there is a wide black strip to the right of the large photo. I may add something down that strip like brads or something, who knows. I'm a bit disappointed right now as I had really liked the page when I thought the 5x7 was going to fit perfectly. I didn't glue the large photo down just in case I want to change something there. Let me know what you think.
Have a great day!

My "E" blog award choices

It is now my turn to spread some "E" love...I picked 5 blogs of fellow stampers that I have met or swapped with at one time or another on SCS or ASB. I visit the blogs of these 5 ladies every day and am truly amazed at their AWESOME stamping abilities. They all inspire (and enable) on a daily basis!

In no particular order:
Linda (studbo) - The Stamper's Touch
Jackie (Babitoons) - Stamping Sister
Lynn (Lynn in St. Louis) - Stamperosity
Dawn (Dawnsing) - My Favoite Things
Tricia (T. Joy) - Simply Stamping

Here is the graphic for you to copy and display on your blog

Scrappin Sunday and an "E" award!!!!

Yesterday was a great day for scrappin at our house. We were snowed-in (more like iced-in actually) and Tom was home to help watch the kids! I got 3 (2-page) layouts done yesterday. WOW, I haven't scrapped that much in 2 years. Here is one of the layouts that I did (I'm way behind so you will notice that Annabelle is only 2 years old, instead of her current 4).
This is the first time ever that I have used the computer to print something out for a scrapbook, and I really like how it turned out.





And on another note.....


I also wanted to mention that last week while I was sick and not posting, I received an email from Jen (Glitter in My Hair) nominating me for an "E" for Excellence blog award. I am so sorry it took me this long to thank you and get this posted but it has been a crazy week or so. I feel really honored to be nominated especially since my blog has definitely not been all that excellent as of late. Hopefully now that my stamp room is back together and our housesold is a little healthier I will have more to post. Thank you so much for thinking of me! The cool thing is I get to pass on the love to other deserving bloggers, YAY! Check back later today for my list of Excellent bloggers!

Another Verve Visual sketch challenge card

Here is the third card I made the other night using the Verve Visual sketch challenge. I really liked the sketch, it works with any theme!
We got terrible freezing rain overnight and EVERYTHING in town is closed so it is a great day for stamping. Hopefully I will have a couple more projects to share later tonight. Hope you are all having a terrific weekend!

I'm FINALLY stamping again!!!!

After weeks of not being able to stamp due to broken pipes and sickness...I FINALLY got to stamp tonight. Since it has been a while since I've stamped I decided to use a sketch challenge and what better one to use than the Verve Visual honored guest sketch challenge contest. I made the first card using SU! Roses in Winter. It turned out ok but not exactly what I had envisioned. The second card I made is in my opinion MY FAVORITE card I have ever made. I absolutely love this card. I used my Verve Visual set "Starlight Starbright". I LOVE this set and I LOVE this card. It was really hard to get a good picture of it. I sprayed the black background cardstock with glimmer mist and you can't see the shimmer in the picture but it looks great in real life. I bought some silver curling ribbon after Christmas at Target thinking "this looks cool" but never really thinking I would find a use for it...I was wrong! It worked great with this card. Can you tell I'm pretty excited, I seldom make cards that I think are good and I am so happy with this card. Let me know what you think of it. Thanks for stopping by. Have a great night!

Here is my Roses in Winter card. I used SU Ballet Blue, Apricot Appreal, Real Red and Whisper White along with some Basic Gray dp. Along with Roses in Winter I also used SU! French Script and a Flourish Set from Autumn Leaves.
Here is my "Rockstar" card. I used "Starlight, Starbright" stamp set from Verve Visual. I stamped the sentiment in Brilliance Black Ink and the Stars in silver pigment ink. The black cardstock is sprayed with glimmer mist. The first picture is taken with the camera flash off and the second one is taken using the flash. The main image squares are elevated using SU! dimensionals.

Wish RAK goodies

I am finally feeling a little better so I thought I would drop in and say HELLO!!!
I still haven't stamped anything but I did want to share some pictures of some goodies I received in the latest Wish RAK secret swap on SCS. The reveal day was last Saturday but I was so sick I didn't even open my package until Monday but WOW was it fantastic! My secret wish RAK friend was Karen Haynes (greyhound stamper on SCS). Karen went WAY WAY over the $15 minimum you are required so spend and TOTALLY spoiled me. The package was AWESOME. Thank you Karen for all of the wonderful goodies!!!! Here are some pictures of my new treasures:
This is the ADORABLE card she sent. I just absolutely love it! I always struggle coloring the hedgehogs but Karen did an AWESOME job! I just love it!
She sent me an adorable flowered 8x8 scrapbook, 2 8x8 packs of designer paper from provo craft, a hard cover A to Z of cardmaking book, 2 packages of Marth Stewart dimensionals, some MM shimmery brads (oh how I love bling!), a multi pack of SU! In Color cardstock, a cute decorated bag of bath salts....
and theres more...4 packages of Art Accentz glitter, some mini clipboards, some luggage tages, a provo craft roller to picking up glitter, a bag of primas, a photo wallet, 3 provo craft clear stamp sets and 5 packages of bits and pieces storage containers (not shown).

THANK YOU SO MUCH KAREN!!! YOU TOTALLY MADE MY DAY!!!!!!!

Still alive

Sorry it has been so long since I have updated anything here. I have been suffering from terrible vertigo since last Friday. I still don't feel up to doing much of anything but I wanted to post a quick note to say Hi to everyone. Tom even put my stamp room floor back together on Saturday and I still haven't had enough energy to put it back together...so you know I'm really sick. I will try and post something tomorrow or Friday if I can. I hope you are all well! Have a great day!

What Mythological Creature Are You?

I saw this on my friend Jen's blog the other day and since I have absolutely nothing stamping related to share I thought I would share this. After answering the questions I learned that... I am a Pegasus.

You are a perfectionist, with an eye for beauty. You know how to live a good life - and you rarely deviate from your good taste. While you aren't outgoing, you have excellent social skills. People both admire you - and feel very comfortable around you.

What Mythological Creature Are You?

A dreary day

Today was just all around dreary. It was cold and rainy. For the first time in a long time I actually opted for a nap instead of doing anything craft related. We didn't get my stamp room put back together this weekend like I had hoped and I was a little depressed. Tom was studying for another computer exam all weekend and that was more important so I completely understood but I am still disappointed my room is still a complete mess. Thankfully all the studying paid off because he did pass his exam this morning. Only one more to go, YAY!
On another note, my sister called tonight to say her mailbox was full of cards today. She was completely shocked and touched by the kindness of everyone who sent her a card. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of you who sent some happy mail her way!
I'm hoping to post something craft related tomorrow, but we'll see. We are having a girls night out tomorrow night. April and her daughter Raechell and Annabelle and I are going to see the 3-D Hannah Montana movie and then we are going out for dinner. Should be a fun girls night. I'll let you know how it is. Hope you all have a wonderful evening. Thanks for reading!