It Could Be A ....

{Pirate Thank U}

2009-05-14T22:52:00.000-07:00

For those who volunteered at my son's cub scout day camp I made a thank you for them.

It is a dollar store compass and rolls of smarties, with pirate themed thank you.

No time to craft

2009-04-28T22:21:00.000-07:00

I haven't said that since I had babies to take care of in my house. But it seems that my crafting time is rare and when I get the chance it is rushed and always for a purpose. It is crazy!

I hope this summer brings some "me time" that can be used for craftiness!!

So last night at the last minute I whipped up this happy birthday sign for my now 9 year old son!

Very basic, very easy but fun and added a bit more to the birthday decor around here!

{art}

2009-03-26T20:56:00.000-07:00

A little something to inspire you to create....enjoy.

Bow Tin

2009-03-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

So a wonderful friend had her first baby girl but her 6th baby. Yes she is a mom of 5 boys and now one girl. And with the surprise of a baby girl I thought the greatest gift would be a box of bows. Then she can "Karo syrup" them to baby girl's head and everyone will know she is a she.

Tying little bitty bows was challenging but gave me a great reason to use up some of those girl colored ribbons I have around here!

Simple

2009-03-24T20:47:00.000-07:00

A simple mothers day card but really it could be used for any holiday.

I am trying to make some cards to send off to some our soliders overseas to send back to thier mom, wives, etc for mother's day. I am doing this with the same group I did last year. This year is more challenging as my life has changed a bit and I don't have as much crafting time as I did this time last year.

The stamps are SU!

{Valentines for Teachers}

2009-03-02T21:23:00.000-08:00

I am about 2 weeks late but I thought I'd show you the small gift we gave each of the boys teachers this year. We packaged them in little clear baggies with chocolates and a cute tag...and yes I was crafting away late at night and forgot to take a picture of them all ready to go...so here's a picture of just the notebook.

I found the notebooks back last year at big lots, the sentiment is PTI, the PP is old chatterbox (one of my favorite brands!)

Valentines for School

2009-02-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

So I am trying to get a little head start on the things the boys need to bring in on Friday for Valentines Parties.

So Sunday we sat down and got their Valentines made.

Personally I hate the premade box of Valentine cards, and my boys don't seem to even miss giving them out, since we have always avoided that. Each year we make a little goody bag for their classmates.

This years has m&ms and an inflatable balloon. That needs a bit of explaining I think. I am a dollar store shopper when it comes to goody bags so we saw these cool bags that said "hit the bag and watch a balloon inflate." And they were valentine themed. So hoping they would really work i bought a ton of them for their classmates. We tried it and yes you have to hit it really hard and a few minutes later the bag explodes and out come a balloon. I think it will be a hit at school on Friday!

The circle stamp with words is a Micheals dollar stamp from last year, and the heart is from a SU set.

Wedding Guest Book

2009-01-29T21:22:00.000-08:00

I was happy and honored to make a guest book for my brothers wedding. The bride wanted something original and had no other specifications as to what she wanted. So in my mind I was thinking of something a little different but wanted to stick with her colors which were this bright green and royal purple.

What I ended up with is a mixture of a chipboard album and acrylic album. I covered the chipboard pages with bazzill papers and put the acrylic pages in every other page.

The acrylic pages hold engagement pictures and the pictures are mostly 4X6 with a few 5X7s.

It turned out beautiful (i think) and they seemed very happy with it. I finished it right in time to travel up for the wedding and forgot to take pictures before the album was used so these pictures have all the signatures and well wishes already written in.

The embossed papers are done with the textile cuttlebug folder, and the fonts are all from my computer.

The quote on the page reads "falling in love can change everything Forever"

Close up of the same page

I love this picture and the quote reads "And the Story Begins"

So Simple

2009-01-28T20:28:00.001-08:00

I put this in my mil's pile as a girl card...but change the colors and it is for anyone!!

All stamps are studio G dollar stamps

Manly Card

2009-01-28T20:19:00.000-08:00

I am so sorry about these blurry pictures...but I gave all the cards away and can't retake the pics.

This is a PTI set...all of it and the cirlce part looks cool IRL.

Very Simple Girl Card

2009-01-27T20:21:00.000-08:00

I am thinking this card would work for anyone....it is a punched out flower with a rhinestone and a PTI sentiment.

Another Boy Card

2009-01-27T20:15:00.001-08:00

This was made with 9-11 age bracket in mind.

Boy Card

2009-01-27T20:11:00.000-08:00

So I put this in the stack as a boy card for ages 6-9. I think they will like to receive this rocket card!

I have no idea what PP this is but the sentiment is PTI.

Teen Boy Card

2009-01-26T14:45:00.001-08:00

So I love this card.

Tthe PP is from a DCWV stack and the stamped images are form PTI. I just love everything about this card...except the blurry picture!

Cupcakes

2009-01-26T14:42:00.001-08:00

Remember I am doing the best I can with these blurry pics...just put up with it for a few more posts and we will get this figured out! Sorry!!

I think I put this in MIL's pack under her section for 9-11 year old girls.

I have no idea who makes this paper...besides the fact that it came in a pack from Target.

Toddler Birthday Card

2009-01-26T14:34:00.000-08:00

So the pictures are blurry and I can't seem to fix it. I got a new camera over Christmas and my learning curve seems to be taking a long time. But at least I finally got some to load onto the computer today!

This is another card in the collection of cards I gave to my mother in law this weekend.

Nie Is Back

2009-01-18T22:06:00.000-08:00

She has begun posting on her blog again....

http://www.nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/

go ahead and read and marvel and give thanks that she is alive, and learning how to live with new vigor and the same strong love!

A Variation

2009-01-14T09:40:00.000-08:00

This is the same card I made for mother's day last year (i did 130 cards to send to the troops to send back to their moms, and wives) and I just changed the sentiment and didn't pop the flower out since mil gave instructions not too. I will suggest that this is a card for adult girl birthdays.

Child Birthday Card

2009-01-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

I think my mil can use this for a child card...i am thinking little like toddles preschool aged.

The paper is from a DCWV stack, and the stamps are fom the Studio G series you get at Michael's.

Kid Card

2009-01-09T19:42:00.001-08:00

another card to add to my mother in laws pile.

I think this is a kid card...i love how simple it is.

the cadstock is all bazzill the PP is chatterbox, the sentiment is PTI and the

cupcake stamp is hero arts...i think.

Birthday Card again

2009-01-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

I think this is a more "manly" card...so it will be added to the pile for my mother in law

I don't know what PP this is and the sentiment is from inkadoo I think.

Birthday Card

2009-01-07T17:45:00.001-08:00

Here is another card to add to the stack for my mother in law.

I don't know the company for the PP, the sentiment is PTI, the white cardstock is cuttlebugged with the swiss dots.

More Cards

2009-01-06T19:55:00.000-08:00

My mother in law has requested enough birthday cards to get her through the next 18 months while she serves a mission for our church alongside her husband. We are now a blended family as she has remarried and she is in need of 126 cards. She gave me a list of girls and boys broken down into adult, teenager, preteen, child, and toddler. So I am busy working on these. (she leaves on Feb 8th for Rome so they have to get done. My goal is to have them done in a week so i can take them with us when we go visit them.

So I will be sharing these cards I have been making over the next few days.

I am proudly using up my stash and hoping to not have to purchase to many things for this card order. I already know I will have to purchase more adhesive so that will be good, as I have used up a huge stash I have had for about a year now.

First card is a teenager card.....

Scenic Route PP, Bella stamp, stampin up ink and watercolor crayons for the coloring, PTI sentiments, Martha Stewart Punch for the border

Feeling so lucky!

2009-01-03T15:44:00.001-08:00

Today I figured out that again my blog has been on the Card of the week.com list

How lucky, honored and surprised I feel.

Thanks for choosing my project...it is the mini book below that I made for a niece.

Here's the button I get to add to my blog now.

Jump over and visit...it is a great blog and has wonderful projects of other bloggers!

Christmas Thank yous

2009-01-03T14:36:00.000-08:00

I needed to also get our Christmas thank yous done with the boys before school started and everything else would start to take priority. So these are really simple and fast. But I like them and they tie a little bit into the Christmas cards I sent out this year with the snowflakes and the colors.

The snowflake stamp is from PTI and the words are from another set...I don't know who made it..sorry!

Happy New Years!

2009-01-03T14:28:00.000-08:00

Well it is the 3rd day of 2009 and so far I have crafted each day!! Go me!!

I think this will be short lived as we get back on schedule with our lives on Tuesday (the day the boys go back to school) So I am enjoying it as much as I can.

I wanted to show you a last minute gift I made for my brother in law. It is based off a frame I saw on another blog in the past few months. and I knew it would be a perfect Christmas decoration for us and for him. The picture is horrible of the frame but it is the only one i took at 1 am the day before we gave it away. (i still need to make ours) The box in the right hand corner says "he always read us the Christmas story on Christmas eve."

My Father in Law past away 3 years ago in May and he always read his children and his grandchildren the Christmas story from the Bible. It is a memory all of his children treasure. I am so happy I took this picture years ago and packed it away. I remember thinking that it is a horrible picture and I would never use it for anything but I added it to the collection of other pictures I thought I'd never scrapbook and now it is a family treasure. Another reason to never throw out a bad photo.

This was an unfinished shadow box that I painted brown. The colored papers are bazzill and the PP is making memories (i think). The words are stamped with inkadoo letters and i had wrote everything else.

Stephanie is Home

2008-12-31T20:45:00.001-08:00

If you have been following the Nie Nie story the great news is she is home with her family. What a great thing to hear on the last day of 2008....

To Share

2008-12-31T11:44:00.000-08:00

Well Christmas has come and gone and I find myself thinking about all those things I need to do for the rest of my non-Christmas life. You see I was thinking only about getting to all the Christmas things I needed to do prepare for that one big day of the year. Well we have opened presents, ate and ate more, played, watched all the new movies, had family sleepovers in front of the tv...and now with a few important phone calls I am thinking about what happens with the rest of our lives this year.

And then I remembered our little niece who is being baptized a member of our Church (we are LDS) this weekend and I haven't made her remembrance book yet....I do this for all our little nieces and nephews and her birthday is during the Christmas season so she is up next in our family line.

Here are some glimpses of her book. Since I have 2 boys it is a treat for me to play with girly colors. And sometimes I even find it a challenge, because I am naturally drawn to the blues and browns as it is.....so I'll stop talking and show you what I did last night.

TIme's UP

2008-12-24T16:07:00.000-08:00

I figure if it isn't done now..it's not getting done.

presents are wrapped

gifts are delivered

food is bought to make for tomorrow

cards are sent

music is playing

everyone is happy

and now we are just waiting for Santa to show up

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas

and remember to give someone else the camera to take a few pictures of you with all the fun too!

What Holiday Cookie Am I?

2008-12-21T20:33:00.000-08:00

You Are a Gingerbread Cookie

You are an organized, responsible person.

You value success, and you're likely to get an early start on the day.

You are good with both planning and numbers.

You have ambitious life goals, and you're well on your way to achieving them.

What Holiday Cookie Are You?

What Holiday Drink Am I?

2008-12-21T20:31:00.001-08:00

You Are Hot Chocolate

Your holiday personality is generous.

The holidays are your favorite time to practice the art of giving.

You enjoy picking out presents, sharing treats, and making everyone's day a little brighter.

And you don't even notice if you don't get anything in return.

What Holiday Drink Are You?

Guess What?!

2008-12-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

The teacher boxes in the post below...are one of the projects shown on the blog

Cardoftheweek.com

I have never been on someone Else's site for something I have created and shown here!

How fun!

Thanks for visiting if you have come here from there!!

Quick Last Minute Cards

2008-12-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

Somehow I found myself without any extra Christmas cards to put on presents for the boys teachers so at 1230 last night I whipped these up.

Just thought I'd share. All the stamps and ribbon are from the dollar spot at Micheal's, but from last year.

Ignore the mess all around the cards. It was late.

Teacher Gifts

2008-12-19T09:42:00.001-08:00

My kids go to a Christian based school so this year I used this poem for the gift for all the teachers from the PTA

Snowflake Blessings

Although a simple snowflake is all I seem to be, Please take me home and hang me upon your Christmas tree. I’ll remind you of the blessings that come from Heaven’s way, Just like the little snowflakes upon a winter’s day. Each snowflake is unique in shape, design and size, Just as our blessings differ to fit our needs and lives. One solitary snowflake would hardly make a mound. but when they fall in millions they cover all the ground. One solitary blessing might seem rather small. But God sends down so many, it’s hard to count them all.

We count each of you as one of our “snowflakes” in our lives & the lives of our children. Thank you for all you do for us!
Merry Christmas! from the AHAPA

On the front is attached a snowflake for their trees and inside is chocolate covered pretzels with m&ms. I think I will make these for my primary teachers too!

It turned out really cute. If you want to make these boxes yourself go to

http://inkingaddict.blogspot.com/2008/07/easy-box-tutorial.html

She has a great tutorial and it is so easy just like it says!

Trying to Check Things off the List

2008-12-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a good 10 tens since I was here....so sorry!

But I am trying to get Christmas ready over here and then throw in a little bit of the flu (for me) and a snow day (yes snow day=no school even here in VEGAS) so the boys were home unexpectedly and I am just trying to stay on top of it all.

So I will quickly post some things I have finished up around here and some things I wish I could do!

Checked off
teacher gifts for ALL the school teachers at since I am the Committee for teacher
appreciation for the PTA.
teacher gifts for the teachers that actually teach my boys.
Christmas cards sent
most of the shopping for the boys done
gifts sent and finished for my parents, and the brother whose name we had this year.
gifts sent up with my mil for her and my brother in laws family who we had names for this
year

To still finish
making sweets for neighbors and ward members
small gifts to finish for people who teach in our primary
shopping for husband....yes still have to get that done
shop for food for the big dinner on Christmas day
some last minute cards to make
make thank you cards to send out after the holiday (yes i make the boys do them too)
work on my 25 days book.

That's all I can think of for now. So I hope nothing else pops into my head.

They ARE DONE!

2008-12-09T12:01:00.000-08:00

I can finally check "Christmas Cards" off the list....well they aren't officially in the mail seeing as I still need to buy Christmas stamps but they are finished, envelopes are addressed and waiting for that one last thing before they go into the mailbox.

I forced myself to decide on a card last night. The funny thing is that when I was thinking about how our card would look this year I was set on kraft paper (again) and wanted to use this huge snowflake punch I got.

Well I couldn't get it to "look right" so i gave up and made two different cards. One red, gold and a bit of tan with a family picture on the front which I think is great...until I tried adding a "happy holidays" or any other sentiment on it and than the card was a disaster. The other card was cute but I didn't love it. SO it was out too. This process took up a week.

Than last night I sat down and was back to my kraft paper and snowflake and it just all came together. Pocket card with pull out family letter that has pictures on it with some traditional holiday colors (red and green) and no traditional (kraft, pink, lime green) and I love them. At first I added some sparkle to the middle of the snowflakes too pictures and called it good. But as I addresses the envies I couldn't stand the plain look so I did add a silver brad to the middle of the snowflakes.

So onto the next Christmas project!!

New York City

2008-12-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

You Belong in New York City

You're the energetic, ambitious type.

And only NYC is fast enough for you.

Maybe you'll set yourself up with a killer career

Or simply take in all the city has to offer.

What City Do You Belong In?

That was fun and too funny b/c I have ALWAYS wanted to live there!!

A Christmas Gift

2008-12-07T17:57:00.000-08:00

So once again another blog inspired this craft. I saw out in the blog world someone else make a whiteboard out of a frame. And of course this was weeks ago and I can't find it again, but I knew right when I saw it I was going to be making these for Christmas gifts out there. So I know a few of my close friends read this blog so just close your eyes or just don't be shocked if you get one of these from me this year.

I made 4 of these already and this is the only one I took a picture of. It is a love notes one and the other 3 were Christmas wishes themed.

I love them all. But that's why I made them.

They are simply a picture frame with some items "scrapbooked" inside of it and then buy yourself a pack of whiteboard markers. The ones I gave away I literally wrote "this is a whiteboard for your love notes /Christmas wishes to one another" with the marker than packaged it up.

So I hope they get what it is when they open it.

Anyways here's another Christmas idea for you.

Now I am off to try to get a Christmas card designed for my family's Christmas card. I can't seem to make one I really like this year. I hope to have one finalized tonight so I can mass produce this week!!

a Big "W"

2008-11-29T22:04:00.000-08:00

So my husband laughed at me the day I walked in with a huge "W"

But I saw this great wreath made on another blog and had to have one with our initial.

So today with staple gun in hand, and all the garland I got for 90% off about three Christmases ago I created this....

See it does pay off to save those great bargain finds (the garland) for years until you have the greatest craft to make with it. And I totally loved using the staple gun....I forgot how easy and fun it can be.

I totally just kept winding the garland around the "w" and stapling whenever I felt like it. In the end I stapled down more areas to give it more of a "W" shape. It was easy and fun.

The "W" is from Joanns and with a 40% off doupon it was only 5 dollars or so.

I am loving this newest decoration. And yes we already have the inside of the house all decked out for the holidays. Not the outside yet though.

Get the Tissues out

2008-11-26T11:23:00.000-08:00

I was checkin gin at one of my favoirte blogs http://blog.cjanerun.com/ and she posted a like to Nie Nie....and said to check it out...so off I went to

http://nieniedialogues.blogspot.com/2008/11/thanksgiving.html

and found a wonderful thank you....you'll need the tissues....

The glass ornament

2008-11-25T11:36:00.001-08:00

So this is the post to try to explain how to make those glass ornaments that I showed in the "I can make that Party" post.

I cannot find the template I used and I am still trying to dig out the box that my Christmas ornament crafty stuff is in but I will explain so that you organized people out there can get some kind of idea of what I did.

You will need:

a round glass ornament

a picture

a circle template,

a patterned paper

a pencil with an eraser on the end

ribbon

and a paint marker

Okay so after trial and error I found that one of my dinner glasses was the same size as the ornament I was using. This means that when you insert the paper in to the ornament the paper will unroll and be the same dimension as the inside of the glass ornament.

So I cut out that size circle from my picture and the patterned paper. Adhered the paper to the back of the picture.

Than really carefully pull the metal hanger top thing off the ornament.

You will roll very gently the circle of paper and photo into a tube and put it inside the ornament.

This is where the pencil with eraser comes in handy. I used the eraser end to open up the edges of the rolled paper (the paper should bounce open when it is completely inside the ornament). The eraser end allows for some grip on the the paper and you can move the paper around in the glass to get it to be correctly positioned (so that people are laying sideways in the ornament).

This is the HARDEST part. And I broke a few tyring to get the photo the right way....so don't get frustrated just keep trying.

When you have the picture positioned put the hanger metal part back on and tie a cute ribbon on top. Then on the back I wrote the year and where we were. Some aren't a place but a few words like "Ethan's first toe in the pacific ocean" I kept it really short and sweet though.

I hope that helps some of you....it doesn't seem to do much without pictures though so I will get on that. I thought we'd be out of town for the holiday but we are here so I am hoping to find some time to work on this for you!

Happy ornament making!!

A Nie Nie update

2008-11-24T16:35:00.001-08:00

Stephanie is in Utah with her husband and family but still in a hospital for rehab. Christian has moved into the home that the children are living in with their aunt and uncle. Here is the story from a Utah paper.....

http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/289626/17/

Hopefully you can get more detail and learn more there.

I just wanted to let you know more of the story.

A List

2008-11-19T20:44:00.001-08:00

I saw this on another blog and thought I would copy it and share some random things with you about me...

If you want to play along, just copy the list and highlight all the things you've done. and now i am italizing all the things I want to do.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland/world
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35.Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37.Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67.Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77.Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

25 Days

2008-11-17T10:56:00.000-08:00

Well if you are a follower of Ali Edwards as I am you will know all about that blog title.

Ali does a 25 days of December book. The idea is to make the book in NOvemebr than fill with memories and pictures as it is happening. It is fun to make a book without having the pictures and journaling becuase for me I can think more outside of the box. It will interesting to see who it comes together in the end. This way I think I can spend more time makingmemories instead of scrapping them and working on that side of it. I'll let you know how that plays out in the end.

The hardest part for me was deciding on an album size. I wanted something similar to Ali's size and finally decided to make an album with a cardboard back and acrylic front. It measures about 6X9.

So I am going to get picture heavy on this post and let you see every page as they look now. I am hoping to show it again after the new year when the journaling and pictures have been inserted and it takes on a different look.

And if you want to see Ali's hers it is at

http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/2008/10/creating-a-dece.html

Here is my page by page. Most papers are either making memories, basic gray, or bazzill for the cardstock. the snowflakes are heidi swapp, I don't know who the numbers are by...sorry.

If you notice you can see one page under the next. This is on purpose. I love the layered look. Ali does this alot and this will be my 3rd album this way. It looks really neat in real life and I think adds more visual interest. Plus I always can't wait to turn to the next page becuase I can see one peeking out form underneath.

Page 7 is a pull out envelope. I just added the extra paper on the inside of the envelope for some pictures

Page 10 is a transparency. So it looks like nothing now, but will have a totally different look with pictures and writing on it.

Page 17 is also a tranparency, and The T in "together" got lost when I punched through the paper so that I am still looking for...I hope I can find it!!

page 22 is another transpancey page.

I hope you got some great ideas for your own book! and This has to be my longest blog entry EVER!!

Happy Monday!!

Tip Junkie Shop a thon

2008-11-13T20:39:00.000-08:00

Tip Junkie is having a mom preneur shop a thon.

She is trying to promote online Christmas shopping from other mom's business. IT is a great idea. And to promote it she is doing a 12 day give away. So pop on over and look at what is going on!

Metal Board How To

2008-11-12T19:18:00.000-08:00

Okay lets see if I can describe this well enough for you to understand....

1. I found the sheet metal at Home Depot, I looked for it again this year and couldn't find it but found it at Lowe's....it is REALLY big, like bigger than a sheet of poster board.

2. the wood is a 1 X 8 board that my husband cut to a length that is the same as the metal. (does that make sense?)

3. I painted the board black with leftover high gloss interior paint that we had.

4. I didn't not cut down the metal.....this means that I laid the metal so it was horizontal (for instance if you took an 8 X 11 sheet and laid it so the 11 went across horizontally.) Than I drew with Permanent Marker and a straight edge a line making the line at 7 inches. This makes a long strip of metal 7 inches wide. I cut them with normal scissors...nothing special...it was actually very easy to cut but the edges turn out very sharp so be CAREFUL!

5. I used super glue to glue metal too the board.

6. Hubby than drilled two hole in the top of the metal and board to sting cute ribbon through for a faux hanger. (we also put a picture hanger on the back of the board. So when you hang it you can put it on the wall with the picture hook, that make it look like the ribbon is holding it up but taping the ribbon to the wall....yes i tape my faux ribbon hangers to the wall.

OR you can skip that whole step and just give an easel to hold up the board.

Yes I made the marble magnets...there are better tutorials all over the web for the but here is my basic instruction.

I got the marbles at Target in the vase section, they actually are called vase filler. There are all different sizes, I got the biggest roundest ones.

I use perfect glue #1 by liquid nail.

I simply rub the glue on smoothly to the back of the magnet...than lay it on a scrap piece of paper. I do a whole bunch at at time covering my scrap table with them. I let them dry over night.

Than I cut out around the marble...none of the marbles are perfectly round so do NOT cut the paper first b/c yo will still be trimming it later. It is very easy to cut around and is surprisingly fast.

I use the think round magnets that come maybe 30 to a package for 6 dollars.

I glue the magnet onto the paperbacked marble, using the same glue and I let it dry overnight.

And you have a simple very cute magnet.

Now here is the catch....I tried other glues and it wasn't successful. The magnets either slowly fell apart crashing onto my floor off the fridge or would soak the paper so much it was just a huge gloppy mess. Also you have to use strong magnets or you get a magnet stuck to the fridge and the paper and marble just fall off of it b/c it is too heavy for the magnet.

So you might want to experiment a bit first.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense, or if you need more direction.

Happy Crafting!!

Metal boards and Ornaments

2008-11-12T15:34:00.000-08:00

Okay so a few of you have asked for directions on how to make these...

I will get back on tonight with a step by step for the metal boards.....but not with pictures since I didn't take nay last year when I made this....but I'll try to explain it as best I can....it has literally been a year since I made them and I don't have one to measure so that will be the biggest challenge for all of us!

Oh and I have never done a step by step via blog...so this will be a first....I guess there is a first for everything though.

Then I will try to get hubby to dig out the Christmas box, because I packed away my pattern for the inside of the ornaments with the ornaments so I wouldn't lose them, and I need that to give you a step by step. So that will have to come this weekend or sooner.

See you tonight!

I could make that PARTY!!

2008-11-11T19:12:00.000-08:00

So one of the greatest blogs is hosting a "I could make that PARTY!!"

Her blog is at http://j-a-girl.blogspot.com/2008/11/welcome-to-party.html

There are already a ton of great Ideas there and I thought I would add a few of my own. Some I shared last year and one is a brand new one I haven't shared here before. I'll start with this one.

About 2 years ago I decided to start making family memories into ornaments., so after a lot of broken glass ornaments I was able to get about 32 of these type of ornaments done. Each one has a picture of something memorable from our family in it, not necessarily Christmas memories. This one is my hubby and 2nd child about 5 years ago. And he is getting his tows dipped into the water off the North shore of Hawaii! Great fun Memories!!!

Now each year I make about 10 more to add to our collection. On the backside I write who when and where...sometime just when and where but I love these!!

This next one I made last year for Christmas gifts for close friends....they are magnetic boards, made with sheet metal from home depot, leftover wood from the garage, leftover black paint from another home project, and marble magnets too. I also used rubons to make each board personalized.

The last one are blocks that have letters on 5 sides and have 15 blocks. I have a "key" that tells you which way to set it out so you can get over 20 different sayings out for the 15 blocks! I love these and sold them at a craft fair last year!

Thanks for looking and hope you got some great ideas!!

A new Class

2008-11-10T21:22:00.001-08:00

So I have never taken a class online for ANYTHING! I have always heard great things about the scrapbook classes you can take online but have never tried one...until today.

I am taking the "Stories in Hand" class at JessicaSprague.com and

so far I am loving all her ideas!

Tonight I have printed off all the first day and second day work. And it gave my printer a workout! But all the pages and the colors are beautiful.

Now I need to find the 6X6 album that will hold all of this work.

I am sure I will be looking forward to each day and finding out some new ways to express myself through scrap booking. But I am most anxious to tell the stories, ones I haven't even thought of as being an important part of who I am.

Cupcake Fun

2008-11-09T20:11:00.000-08:00

Well this week two of my friends had birthdays and I couldn't resist making them each a super huge cupcake. You use a mold of course and and hour later you have a huge cupcake.

I put the sprinkle container in the picture so you could get the idea of how big the cupcake really is. And the messy table is just becuase I was rushing to get them done to get them delivered...so I was just happy to remember to take the picture.

Fun isn't it???

Yes...I'm still crafting

2008-11-05T17:41:00.000-08:00

After all my go out and Vote posts you're probably wondering if I am creating anything crafty over here. I am .....but here comes the tricky part, what I am working on are Christmas gifts. SO I can't share them until after the big day!

It seems a lot of my crafting will be Christmas presents this time of the year, but I am sure I can throw in a few "for fun" crafts too. I need to get a great start on everything so that I am not staying up late the week before Christmas.

So sorry. but here is a picture of my mess.

GET OUT and VOTE

2008-11-02T20:10:00.000-08:00

This is my last post about voting...

I just want you all to vote...

I don't care who you vote for.

Just learn about all the candidates

you are going to vote for than VOTE.

I won't say anymore except turn up your volume for this little song.

VOTE VOTE VOTE

2008-10-28T16:42:00.001-07:00

Talk to me Tuesday..Christmas Gifts

2008-10-28T16:42:00.000-07:00

This Tuesday on Tip junkie she is asking us to share our homemade Christmas gifts from last year. So here are a few things I made last year.

Metal boards for hanging family pictures, notes, etc on with personalized magnets.

Albums for my mom and mother in law about the family reunions we attended for both families.
I made sugar cookies, put them in cute pizza boxes, and provided frosting and sprinkles in cute wrapped packaging and delivered to our neighbors and friends. Then each family could spend sometime together decorating their own cookies.

You can see them in this posting

http://itcouldbea.blogspot.com/2007_12_01_archive.html

After christmas this year I'll show gifts I have made for people this year!

Remember Stephanie of Nie Nie's Dialogues?

2008-10-26T14:08:00.000-07:00

Remember when I posted about the plane crash and a fellow blogger who is recovering from burns, who has been a coma for 2 months...well here is an update from an Arizona paper.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2008/10/26/20081026sisters1026a1.html

It is a wonderful article and will bring you to tears. I look up to this family and the strength and love they share with the whole blogging world. You can also read more about all of the family on this blog

c jane is Stephanie's sister and has Stephanie's children living with her in Utah. She is amazing and loving, and so many things I can't even begin to say.

Amazing....love can heal, faith can heal and just read their story.

I don't know them in real life, but hope to be able to share their story so others can find the faith, love and thankfulness we need for each day of our lives.

A little Fancy

2008-10-17T14:52:00.000-07:00

So I was talking to one of my closest friends the other day...just a regular old chat, and she mentioned that she bought cards at the store!! I mean that is just wrong wrong wrong...you never buy cards from the store-no matter how desperate you are-if you know me. I should be making you cards to give away...all my closest friends know to just show up on the doorstep and we will either "whip up" some cards, or you can start going through all my boxes of cards to find what you need. If you guys didn't know this than you do now!!!

I was making these cards for said friend last night and I love the paper and didn't want to try to find something else that would work with these colors so...look at these cards in this order.....

Can you tell I was running out of paper? The patterned paper gets smaller and smaller as I was creating so I could use very inch of it and not waste it! I still love each card though.

The papered paper is Sassafras, the sentiments are PTI, and the red and grey papers are bazzill.

Have a great weekend!!

Christmas Tags

2008-10-15T15:40:00.000-07:00

So I have a great friend who hosts swaps every month and I haven't been swapping with them but when I remembered that this month was Christmas tags, and got her email I was all ready to sign up again. Each person makes 14 of the same tag and turns them into my friend, she gives out one of each kind to each person and you get back a bag of beautiful handmade Christmas tags for your Christmas gifts! WE have done this a few years now and I have learned to sign up for 2 spots so I can keep some for myself...I always have a few favorites that I can't part with.

This first tag is made with all basic grey papers, punched with a big scalloped punch, PTI sentiment stamp, ribbon, and some rhinestones...very easy.

This one is red bazzill paper, a large snowflake that was intended to be an ornament on a mini tree, and a sentiment from an inkadoo set.

Thanks for visiting...and I'll get back to working on some Christmas gifts!

Travel Tags

2008-10-10T19:56:00.000-07:00

If you have ever traveled on the plane you know that once you get to baggage claim almost all the bags are black. And so are our families....so this past summer a few hours before we got on the plane I made these tags. Our luggage has never had fancy tags on them that had our information so on the back of these are our names, phone numbers, home address and who we are staying with. I can change it out often since I hand wrote it all and didn't glue it down. We have had our luggage "lost" at least twice i can think of and it was on our outbound flight so I find it important to list a phone number and place for where we will be staying on vacation.

Usually I tie matching ribbons on all of our bags but sometimes those are even hard to see. This time when the luggage came around the circle we could see our clearly. I think they are fun and cute, my husband thinks I can't go anywhere without something "scrapbooked"...I guess he is right.

One last thing....these tags are NOT PINK! They are red and white polka dotted. So they stand out great on our baclk luggage. They also are made with ID tags I got at the dollar store.

New Scrap Shelving

2008-09-28T21:26:00.000-07:00

My husband's work was getting rid of some cabinets etc so we brought one home for the scrapbook room. I am loving that I can see so much stuff. Before everything was in drawers and shoved in the closet. Now I can see it all. There are two deep shelves on the bottom.

And then I have a small cabinet with three drawers, the bottom one being a filing cabinet drawer so I put all my 8X11.5 paper in that one.

I think I will end up painting it black and I will love it even more than.

The picture is crooked but I'm tired and I'm not fixing it tonight.

Another Teacher Gift

2008-09-25T20:22:00.000-07:00

As you know by now I am the appointed person for our school's teacher appreciation committee. My committee is me and on e other mom. our budget is low like next to nothing so I make a lot of what we give the teachers.We aim to do something once a month.

With September quickly coming to a close I needed to get something out so yesterday I slaved over the hot oven making apple bread in mini bundt pans. and then we added the invite for the teacher luncheon for next month. Tie it up with a fun bow and it was done. They love food and I love apple bread so it was a great reason to cook!

Follow up on Believe candle thing

2008-09-25T20:20:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked where they can get these....well you can't. at least I don't know where you can get them. We made them at a craft day for church. If you are really daring you can have someone cut the vinyl letters for you and adhere them to the blocks after painting them black. If you want to do that I will be happy to measure the block sizes for you.

Sorry...not much help am I?

top 10 favorite things in my house

2008-09-18T12:50:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite blogs is "Tip Junkie" http://tipjunkie.blogspot.com/ and on Tuesday she was/is doing a show me the top 10 favorite things in your home....so here are my 1o....

1. In my boys bathroom there is this on the wall over the towels. Both my kids when they were little...I love pictures in rooms that show things that happened in that room

2. Flowers...I am "keeping" this for a great friend until she wants it back...so far it has been here for about 1 1/2 years I think. And it fits in perfect in my house.

3. This mirror. We got it as a wedding gift from a family friend. It has always had a great place in all of the places we have lived. One day my "fancy" living room with be based around this mirror.

4. My Small hall...with a picture wall. It took a long time to figure out what should go on this wall and I love this look. Some of the frames still need pictures and I am tempted to add more frames

5. More pictures. These hang in the back of my house. one is me and my boys at a waterfall we hiked to on Oahu. the other is our family on the beach. I have a third to find a frame for that is my husband and boys in front of a frozen over waterfall in Canada one winter. But they don't make this frame anymore so I have to get 3 that match.

6. This is the shelves my husband built for me. They fit perfectly in the spot he built them for! I have loved these for a few years now. He HAD to build one for me to fit my 12X12 albums in since I couldn't find one that I liked with the fit dimensions.

7. Both these canvases also hang I my house. One for each boy. It is a blurry picture but IRL they are pretty cute!

8. My scrap room....no picture b/c it is a mess but I love the space to do projects and not put them away when it is time to eat.

9. My two little boys-no this isn't in my house but it is one of the only pictures i can find that they both look good in

10. our family

Thanks for reading!

My Name

2008-09-15T22:25:00.000-07:00

HowManyOfMe.com

There are
3
or fewer people with my name in the U.S.A.

How many have your name?

I thought this was fun and thought you might too.

Believe

2008-09-15T15:57:00.000-07:00

So this past Friday I went to a Super Saturday (yes it was on Friday but i don't remember the clever name they came up with for it) and was able to make a few crafts there. It brought back out that craftiness I have been missing. Sometimes I just need to do someone Else's craft and not have to think of the idea all by myself. I like to be able to see something I like, buy the kit and make it all in about an hour.

When I saw this across the room, I knew I needed one. I just had to paint the blocks black, rub one the vinyl lettering and tie a ribbon....so easy and fun. Plus I got to be with two great friends while we all painted and had fun.

The hardest part was rubbing the vinyl on the candle...that took the longest and was the part I hated, but doesn't it look good?

Happy Monday!!

September 11th....7 years ago

2008-09-11T22:26:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking about if I should post today and what I should post. It is a hard one. My blog here is for card making and being crafty But I would feel badly if I didn't acknowledge this day and all those we as a nation lost on this day 7 years ago.

7 years ago....it seems like just yesterday but than I look at my 8 year old and remember that he was just a baby and I was waking up to his cries that morning. It was back in the day when we had just one car and that day my baby had a well check so I was planning on dropping off my husband at work. We were (and are still) living in Las Vegas, but I claim DC as my home and it is where my parents still live. In fact my dad has worked in the pentagon for years ever since we moved to DC when I was a kid. So we were waking up to hearing the "news" planes hitting the first tower, watching the first tower fall seeing the 2nd plane hit than hearing that the White House was being evacuated and that the pentagon had been hit.

That is when my heart really dropped.....it was hurting before and I was stunned but when they said the pentagon I could feel my heart drop into my stomach. I remember looking at my husband and him saying "he's not there don't worry...he's not there" meaning my Dad. I knew that my Dad wasn't traveling that day, and I knew he was there. I just kept staring at the tv. But my husband HAD to go to work. I had to take him across town. We had a cell phone and on the 45 minute drive we turned on talk radio and listened to the 2nd tower fall we got to his work and they were all watching the tv there. The whole ride I called my parents house and their cell phone but all circuits were busy and the one time I got threw no one was home.

I left my husband at work and had to get gas, while I was filling up the phone rang...it was my Dad....he had heard the plane hit he had run out to help and he saw the aftermath, but the MPs at the pentagon were sending everyone home and trying to get control of the "crime scene" By the time I talked to him he was home....safe.

I think of that day every time I fly. I think of it when I go home to DC and we drive past the pentagon. I think of it when I hear "special reports" come across the tv screen. I don't think I'm waiting for it to happen again, but I am trying to be emotionally ready if it were to happen again.

The world is different. My boys know no other way of flying....no water, no juice, no liquids through security. they are experts at removing shoes, belts etc at the security gates and don't find it weird that our family can't walk us straight up to the gate anymore. They have seen pictures of the memorial lights in NYC and they know what happened there. It is very sad and hurts my heart that they can recount the parts of the "story" we have told them.

I pray for all those who lost their lives that day. I pray for their families and their friends who miss them daily. I pray for those serving our country now. I pray for their families that are missing them and are waiting for their loved one s to return from serving our country.

And I hope that none of us ever forget.

1. http://www.flickr.com/photos/soldiersmediacenter/2848611914/, 2. explosion in the sky, 3. SEPT_11_0D7XW.jpg, 4. Blue light tribute, 5. In Memoriam, 6. WTC tribute in lights over Brooklyn Bridge

Hello!

2008-09-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

Well it has been awhile...Things are a bit busy in our home with school starting again and all the back to school drama and the schedule we now have to keep. (The drama is a bit of my own and mostly my 2nd son's but that's a whole different story:) We are getting back on track with school and trying to get to bed early since we have to be up so early (630 am--yuck yuck yuck..I am NOT a morning person) and this schedule thing is really cramping my crafting time. I am mostly crafty at night but I am as exhausted as my boys so I am in bed at 9 pm....9pm? yes I wrote that....hard for even me to believe.

Plus I have been working on two projects, both I am not showing b/c one is a friends invitation for her son's baptism so it is her's to show and plus she took them all when we got together to make them the other day. And the other is a project for church and I am just not comfortable showing other people's kids here without them saying I can and I am not asking all of them for that. So I am picture-less on the blog today and probably tomorrow. Sorry.

I'll make something to share this next week though!

Happy September!!

PS no matter what I do blogger won't space between my paragraphs....so sorry it is hard to read!

NieNie Love

2008-08-28T12:38:00.000-07:00

So I'm taking a time out to ask you to help a blog-friend.

If you haven't read her blog before it is here at

Nie and her husband were in a serious plane crash in Arizona and are currently in a coma with burns all over their bodies. The pilot of the plane died (they were in a small private plane.) Some of you might have heard through other blogs and through the news in Utah and Arizona. You can read the news story here http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=148&sid=4054762 and here http://www.azfamily.com/video/localnews-index.html?nvid=273958 .

They, like me, are LDS and she is the mom to four young children. They are a young family with a love for each other like no other. Nie's blog has been one of my favorites for a long time and I loved to see what was happening in her world and to "hear" her thoughts on many things.

You can go to her sister's blog http://blog.cjanerun.com/ and read more of the story. She is keeping 3 of her sisters children and expects to have them for months. She is excellent at sharing and writing and seeing our Heavenly Father's love for her family and her sister and brother in law. She gives updates on Nie and the children for all of the small blogging world.

The point of this post is that there are some auctions happening in the blog world today and the next few days at various blogs. You can see the list at this blog....http://www.designmom.com/

This blogger decided she could help by organizing the blog world together to raise some money for Nie and her care that she is receiving. The bills will be huge and they are doing all they can to help Nie and her husband raise some some while they are in a coma and don't know what they are in for.

I hope that you can at least check out Nie's story and c jane's blog

and send a little prayer up for them if nothing else.

I'll return to regular blogging tomorrow!!

Thanks for helping out!!

ps I don't know how to do those fancy links so you get the

old school way at this blog!!

Milk Cartons for teachers

2008-08-26T15:28:00.000-07:00

Today was the first day back to school and that means that for my committee assignment I needed to bring the teachers a little snack for the first day with students. So here is what I took in this morning.

They didn't take too long. I downloaded the template and printed them straight onto the paper. They are filled with mini brownies with Reese's peanut butter cups in them....yummy!

I took the picture last night so the color is off and they aren't the best pictures but at least i remembered to take them this time. I only had 15 to make so this is a sampling of the papers I used. They are all papers out of the DCWV School Stack.

I'm Back!!!

2008-08-25T12:56:00.001-07:00

So I've been a terrible blogger but now that we are ready for school to start tomorrow and we are all getting back on a schedule I think I'm going to be able to be blogging more. Our family is a summer family..late nights, sleeping in, do whatever whenever, eating dinner at 8pm because we decided to have ice cream at 530 pm instead of dinner, breakfast for lunch or snaking all day.

We really like the non-scheduled part of summer.

But school starts tomorrow and the scheduling is coming right back. I'm pulling out the calendar and my planner and my hubby's planner and getting us all back on schedule again.

With all of that scheduling I tend to organize too.

So the boys love to have their "own" money and love to save it up for Wii games or DS games, but they don't have wallets and don't

really want one so we found a couple jars for them. I wanted to

add their names on them so we weren't arguing over whose was whose so I pulled out my fancy (well not that fancy) rub ons from Making Memories.

And this is what the boys ended up with.....

Long Time, No Blog

2008-08-06T17:50:00.000-07:00

Wonder if I fell off the edge of the world?

Well I didn't. This year for my Mom's birthday we decided to throw a family surprise party so I have been doing that. Since my last blog I have been planning, creating, and than traveling and pulling off the surprise with my 4 siblings and their families.

It was a big to do since 3 of us live in the Mid-west now and my parents are in Washington DC. It was a lot of fun and Mom was surprised. Imagine driving up to a front porch full of your grandchildren, in which none of them live in the same town as you. She was happy and we were too.

So we did a bright table with pinwheels etc.

(picture taken before the kids climbed up and started "testing" everything out and before food was added on top of the rounds down the middle)

I did one pinwheel at home in Vegas and than showed two brothers and two sister in laws how to do it and they finished 11 more while I started cooking. So here is the pile before they got the straws hooked onto them.

We had lots of fun and now I'll try to get back to regular posts and crafting.

I couldn't post about the party in case Mom looked here and found out and that was all I was working on so sorry for not sharing earlier!

Fun Easy Simple

2008-07-19T22:10:00.000-07:00

All three of those words describes these cards. All 35 of them only took about an hour. Punch a flower, run flower through the cuttlebug, stamp sentiment, attach flower and you are D O N E. I really needed something simple tonight since I need these for first thing in the morning.

I had these white cards and didn't want to decide on what color to make the flowers out of so I decided to do white on white. I love the look of white and white and I have decided that when I do white on white it means I need to add texture to the whites to make them stand out from one another. I think that way the white on white works. There is one flower that wasn't run through the cuttlebug and I don't think it stands out enough. But I thought I'd leave one that way so you could judge for yourself.

The cards are part of those boxes of cards you can buy at Michael's and the sentiment is PTI.

Happy Sunday!

Let's Talk about that "flag"

2008-07-19T16:15:00.000-07:00

Okay so I wanted to share about the "flag" on the previous post....the pullout cupcake card.

All I did was stamp a scrap piece of paper...I didn't measure the scrap, I just tried to find a piece my sentiment would fit on. Than I cut the two triangles out of the end pieces than rolled the paper around a pencil but only halfway. Than rolled it halfway on the other end so the paper would have a wave in it instead of being all rolled into itself. Try it, it will make more sense than....But I just wanted to share that in case you wanted to try it at home....So go ahead and try!

Yummy Cupcake card

2008-07-18T17:29:00.000-07:00

So I have been wanting to try this style of card since I saw Jennifer McGuire's how to video on the hero arts blog. I think this is my favorite style of pullout card!

I see this card as a Christmas card for my family this year but I really have to figure out a fast way to mass produce this one. Hopefully after this first try I'll get better and faster at it.

This view shows you the "flag" i put the sentiment on. Just so you can see the dimension behind it all since it is hard to see in the first picture.

The cupcake is actually a sticker that is pop dotted together. The Stamps are inkadoo brand. The inks are SU.

This is what happens you you pull up on the ribboned tab.

And this is what the card looks like from above when it is "opened."

I'm thinking this is a card to hand deliver, with the big wide ribbon and the flag on it, but maybe it will survive in a package or bubble envelope!

Baby Frames

2008-07-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

Well this is another item I made for the craft fair back in November. I did this one, one that said "joy" and another "family". They were a lot of fun to make and once I figured it out they went really fast. I will give this to a friend who is expecting a baby boy in the fall.

For the picture....it was hard to get all the frames in the same picture. So here is another view of them.

It is funny to look at them after all these months....I think I will add some ribbons and other embellishments to make it not so simple looking. Each frame is 4X4 and I found them at Joann's. The paper is crate papers and the letters are covered chipboard.

Do you like this?

2008-07-16T19:16:00.000-07:00

I'm not so sure about this card. In fact it has been hanging on the board in my scrap room while I try to decide. Like it not really---but I like the idea of it. The square with the words on it is actually popped up off the base of the card and the lines are hand drawn brown lines. Maybe with a different paper or maybe I should just stick with two PPs instead of 4. Any ideas of how to fix this one?

Oh and do you like the ink pad stains on my Scrap table? It seems to be getting more and more "permanent damage" from my hobbies!

Pink Cards

2008-07-14T17:19:00.001-07:00

Here are two cards I don't think I have shared before. The anniversary card is my favorite anniversary card. I think I give this one all the time and need to stop because everyone probably has it by now. It is made with a dollar stamp from a long time ago.

The thank you card was originally for a baby shower I did for a great friend. When I throw showers I make Thank Yous for the person that match the invites I make so she got these that matched her pink and brown invites. I printed the Thank You on the paper before I cut it apart into the right sizes for the cards. A little cheater way of doing things but it is easy and fast.

The color seems really off in these pictures. IRL the pink is very bright and the white is white. So sorry. I guess I should only take pictures in the monring light I suppose.

A layout

2008-07-14T17:11:00.001-07:00

Okay so usually I just share my cards but I love this scrapbook page. Now a few things to remember, I don't have a scanner big enough to scan in my layouts and I don't like to "stitch" them together so I have a board I can hang them on which is why there are those big paper clip things on each side of the layout. In the album those big clips don't exist.

I love this layout. It is still hanging up in my scrap room and I love the little boy in that picture so much! This is a picture from December 2006 so he has grown up a lot since than. I took this close up shot of the journaling, because that is the whole reason to scrapbook in my mind--to save those precious memories! I really think that journaling should tell who what when where and any other important details. I like to think that someone can sit alone with my SBs and not have to have me there to explain all the stories behind the layouts.

This is made with Bazzill cardstock and making memories patterned paper and chipboard

Thanks

2008-07-11T16:03:00.000-07:00

This is a card with I made with a scrap of a paper I love. I thought I had used all this paper for my sister's scrapbook I made a few summers ago but I found this last slice of it. I think it might be Basic Grey paper. I love the colors and I love that this rub on matched it perfectly. The rub on's are from a stack of Joann"s brand rub ons.

Happy Weekend to Everyone!

Another Simple Card

2008-07-08T15:05:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure when I started using White as the base for my cards, but I love it. It seems to plain and sometimes too simple but I always love it in the end!

I did a whole set of these cards with sentiments from a PTI set.

I am pretty sure these were part of the things I made for a craft

show back in Nov of 2007. And I came across the last set I have of this style, so I think I'll be making more in different colors.

Today it is too hot to be out (it was 102 at noon and it is supposed to be up to 110), my kids don't even want to go swimming so we

are all sitting around in our jammies still-me working on the computer and the boys playing wii and some other game they scream a lot at.

Hope you aren't melting in the heat this summer!

(funny side note--I told my youngest that I hope we wouldn melt outside when we went to the pool yesterday and he looked at me very seriously and said "we aren't made of Popsicles." and walked away. It was too funny!)

Girls Camp Booklet

2008-07-07T16:05:00.001-07:00

Well last Thursday I was asked to have my Primary kids put together a small booklet giving the girl encouragement and letting them know of our love for them. So when presented to me they just wanted each kid to draw a picture or write a little note to the girls....well if you know me that wasn't going to work, I can't possibly just staple paper together. So this is what the finished product looks like. I am almost done with all 22 books and the kids had fun drawing and writing their notes to the girls. (a little explanation--yes I am LDS and am currently serving as the Primary President in our ward, primary is for the 3-11 year old children. the girls going to camp are 12-18 and they camp for 4 days with their leaders and other girls from our area).

So each book is a little different since I am using up the supplies I have. The leaders will also each get one, those aren't shown here as they are the ones I am trying to finish up now. Theirs will have a kraft colored base for the cover with patterned paper that is light pink and brown. I don't even know how to start explaining the pattern.

The inside of each book has on the left side a little note from the leaders of the Primary and a matchbook holding a glow in the dark CTR ring (CTR=choose the right). This is a bad picture of the inside of the matchbook but you get the idea.

The right side are the pictures and notes from the primary kids. They are stacked and stapled onto a covered piece of chipboard.

The ribbon runs under the chipboard and letter from the presidency and into the scored middle of the booklet to tie the book closed. I love it and hope the girls will too. These will be given as a "tuck in" gift at night.

Hope everyone had a safe July 4th! We enjoyed a relaxing day at home and fireworks all around us that evening. We were shocked at how many people were shooting off their own fireworks this year!

Flicker

2008-07-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

I saw this on another blog and decided to play the game and make my blog a mosaic by answering these questions.

The Questions:
What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
What is your favorite drink?
Where would you go on your dream vacation?
What is your favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
What is the one word that describes you?
What is your Flickr name?

After you answer questions
Surf over to Flickr and type your answers into the search bar. From the choice of pictures shown only on the front page, click on the one that moves you. Once the page with your picture opens, copy the URL.
Surf over to the Mosaic Maker, set up your mosaic, and paste your URLs. Click Create. Voila! (it is super easy to do)

So I did this and this is my mosaic. It is relaly fun b/c your answers pop up pictures you wouldn't expect like my favorite color....BROWN and it is a picture of all different colors of flowers.

1. Noelani Girls , 2. Greek salad, 3. Senior Homecoming Skit, 4. Flores do cerrado 623, 5. Day 246: Well, I got her number. How do you like them apples?, 6. Manhattan on fire II, 7. Mallorca 2007 -- Waiting for summer to come, 8. A Sweet Bite To Eat.., 9. Thunder Ridge Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 10. Early English, 11. bookshelf, 12. No lensflare

Here are my answers to the questions so you can se what weird images pop up when you search on flicker....
What is your first name? Noelani
What is your favorite food? greek salad
What high school did you attend? woodbridge senior high school
What is your favorite color? brown
Who is your celebrity crush? matt damon
What is your favorite drink? Pepsi
Where would you go on your dream vacation? beach
What is your favorite dessert? chocolate
What do you want to be when you grow up? author
What do you love most in life? chad
What is the one word that describes you? organized
What is your Flickr name? noechad

Pretty fun!! Hope you try it out too and see what you get!!

Joyful

2008-07-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

Last night while I was waiting for Mole to start, I found this paper hidden in my stash of stuff. I remember buying the 6X6 pack it was in but I had no idea where I had stuck it. I was so happy to find it again!

The PP is Autumn Leaves MOD paper that I found on clearance at Target. So I don't know if it still exists out in our SB world. The Border punch is by Martha Stewart. I am really loving my punches lately. Good thing I didn't get rid of them all when I thought I would never use them again b/c I am finding myself buying border punches now! The Joyful Metal plaque is by Making Memories.

Hopefully tonight I'll be able to make some more cards while my kids laugh hysterically at that new "Wipeout" show that I can't stand!!

Happy Monday!

Fun Little Packages

2008-06-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

I needed something to give to my 22 teachers I work with in the Primary at church as a little reminder of how much we appreciate all of them. I saw this idea on another blog and loved it! I thought I was saving it for the beginning of the school year to use for my teacher appreciation committee at the boys' school but I had to use it now too. Luckily those people at church and our school teachers aren't the same people so I can do this twice.

The pink wrappers are individual packs of pirouette cookies. I found a box of them in Sams Club.

The boxes are made from kraft paper and the PP is from a stack I got at Walmart.

Hope you are having a fun summer. We are REALLY hot but enjoying the pool everyday!

A New Punch

2008-06-16T21:10:00.000-07:00

I found the ever so popular "threading water" Fiskars punch at Michael's a couple weeks ago and I love it!! I love it more because I used my coupon on it so that always makes me happy!

Here is the first card I made with the punch and I think there will be a whole set of cards coming with this one. I really like the kraft paper and the patterned paper too!

Happy Monday!!

More Soccer Thank Yous

2008-06-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

Well we had another soccer party today and so I needed more thank yous. Again we did gift cards but I can't give just those so for these two coaches I made each of them a set of cards. They both loved them and I found out that one of the is a scrapper herself so we had a lot to chat about....

Here are the cards. Each coach got a set of 6 (2 of each card). I don't know who made the paper but the flower stamp was Hero Arts and the sentiments are PTI. The pink is SU crayons. There is stickles glitter in the middle of each flower. So I used a little of all those companies I love.

Here is a close up of two of the cards.. I don't know why I don't have a picture of the third one.

IN MY HURRY TO POST LAST NIGHT I FORGOT TO ADD that this card is almost a straight CASE of another person's card. I changed the stamp I used, popped up the image and added stickles but it is almost her's all the way. I am looking for the blog righ tnow so i can give her all the credit so stay tuned for that!

Soccer Thank yous

2008-06-09T21:18:00.000-07:00

Both of my boys had their last soccer games for the season last Saturday so we are having soccer parties this week. We wanted to get the coaches gift cards but I can't give gift cards without "dressing them up" a bit so here is what we did.

My older son had two coaches and three asst. coaches (who were high school players who just came to help out) for the two asst. girl coaches I did this.

They were lunch bags and than I cut them down a little and used my SU punch to make the little handles. Inside are two mini bath and body lotions and a gift card for coldstone. I thought they were pretty cute and so easy to just glue on some patterned paper. Fun a easy. I saw the idea on another blog out in the blog world....so thanks ladies!!

For the other guy asst coach and the two coaches we did big chocolate bars with a card with the gift card attached inside...again so easy and tasty!

Hope you get some great thank you ideas from this!! Happy Monday!!

Birthday Cake

2008-06-06T13:10:00.000-07:00

So my 2nd ds turned 6 yesterday. For the past few weeks he has asked for a "rocket cake that stands up like it is going into space." A standing cake?? I had no idea where to start. So after some brainstorming and a trip to Micheal's to make sure there was nothing that would make a cake stand up I decided that I would try to stack cupcakes on top of each other and try to get them to stand up with chopsticks (all i had at 11 pm Wednesday night). Well all I ended up with was cupcake all over the kitchen counter. Chopsticks won't hold cupcakes up...for future knowledge...so don't try it at home.

So after an hour of trying a midnight trip to Walmart the only thing I could think of was the rocket cutouts I had in my cupboard at home, leftovers from outer space week at preschool.

So here is what we agreed to Thursday morning....so much easier than a standing up rocket cake!!

Six candles on top, with Six rockets for our six year old son!!

Preschool Books

2008-05-31T20:22:00.000-07:00

So this was the last year of preschool in our household. Today was my little one's "graduation" and I was asked to make each child a memento from the year. I choose to make each child a preschool Friends mini book. Originally they were board books found in the dollar spot at target but with a little paper and glue they are now a preschool book.

They were pretty easy to make and with each child having pages it was a breeze to make 6 mini books. I asked each child some questions like "favorite color, snack, song, book, activity at school" and put those all in the book along with their picture. The last two pages are group shots one a very silly crazy shot taken on a field trip. My ds loved his book from the last year of preschool so i figured if they each had something that was their size without too much of the "extra sparkly stuff" (my ds' referring to ribbon, brads you know all those fun embellishments) that would make them all happy.

I also made a tag for each book and attached it to the outside of the baggie. I hope they all love it! All the paper is Making Memories (big lots find again) and the dymo label for the front.

We will miss preschool and all the friends we have made there but he is ready for kindergarten I just don't know if I am!!

So I Forgot to Take the Picture

2008-05-23T17:26:00.000-07:00

This morning we got up late, and rushed around getting ready for awards day at school which means my 2nd grader has to wear his dress uniform (tie, white shirt belt and blue pants) which means I again have to remember to have my dh tie the tie the night before....I know they make zipper ties and clip ons but my son will not wear clip ons and the zipper ones are too small now!!

In all the rushing around I forgot to take some pictures of the last few teacher gifts i had. Basically it was the same as I post yesterday, different look for the notebook and I added a few gift certificates for some summer fun for his teacher.

So sorry~

So I'll share a card from last summer with you instead of the gift...

This is card the opens by pivoting on the brad....if that makes sense. It is NOT a folded card. I was in love with this style last summer and really liked it because it was different. But now I am back to folded cards. It has a funny glare on it in the picture that isn't there IRL. Th flower stamp is a random stamp someone gave me it has no label on it or anything else. But I love the flower just the same. the ink and paper are only orange from SU and the ribbon is American crafts.

Have a great weekend!

End of the Year Teacher Gift

2008-05-22T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well today I sent my son in with his gift for his "specials" teacher since I suspect she won't be there for Awards Day tomorrow. And I have finally gotten smarter and took a picture this morning before I put it in his backpack.

So here it is.....

Our school has "America" in it's title so when I saw these cute stars at Micheal's yesterday I thought they would be great for the front of whatever I did. My son wanted to get her a box of chocolate but I can't just send in chocolate so the back reveals a covered notebook, just like the ones I like at Target but for only $1 at Big Lots!! So I covered the front and back with blue printed paper.

The inside of the notebook is covered in a blue and purple paisley which the pen is wrapped in. All the Paper is Making Memories paper along with the metal plaque.

I am going to do two more of these for the secretary and the classroom aide. Now I just need to figure out what to do for his teacher...so hopefully I'll remember to take a picture of that one and be able to show you tomorrow!!

Amazing...

2008-05-21T20:49:00.000-07:00

Why? Because it has been a week and I am back to blog again. I hope that I can make it a regular thing to post at least once a week over the summer, you know how summer fun can get distracting!

Here is a card I made a few months ago. I love to find ways to use up my scraps of patterned paper and this card layout is one of those cards. I like the colors and the stamp is really nice too.

Friday is my 8 yo's last day of school... I can't believe it!! And next week is the last week of preschool for my 5 yo.....so we will be partying summer up pretty soon!!

p.s. I just realized this card totally matches the 'new look' of my blog....I must really love these colors!!

Blog Neglect

2008-05-14T09:14:00.000-07:00

So I am so guilty of blog neglect this past month! Our lives have been so busy I have no time to craft (gasp) let alone update this little blog of mine. I am hoping that as soon as school ends (6 days to go!!) that I will have more time at home so that will give me more time to craft. I have so many ideas floating in this little head of mine and hope to translate them into new projects, cards, and craft items for my own house.

This past month has brought tons of family to our house, a big luncheon, soccer games and practices (four days at the field a week) two field trips, teacher appreciation week ( that i am the committee head for in our school), jury duty and everything else life throws your way on a daily basis. So both our families (me and dh) came for our oldest son's baptism, I made invites for that and just finished the thank yous for him to write. So I am sharing the thank yous with you today.

They are made with a PTI set, dewdrop inks and that's it! This was my first chance to use this set that has been sitting around and I love it. It is a very simple one layer card, and I love the colors. I think this might be based on another card I have seen online, but I can't find it now. So I am sorry if you had this idea first or if I have cardlifted without knowing where from.

One last thing to share. I discovered bloglines this week, a great site that you can link all your blogs that you read online. So you don't have to check them daily it will tell you which have new posts so you don't have to scroll through every blog you love to find who has updated recently. I am loving this new find!! So if you are like me and love so many different blogs this can help cut down your time finding out who has a new post for the day. It is bloglines.com.

Have a great week and I hope to be back in the next few days!!

Baby shower invite and thank yous

2008-04-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

Well it has been weeks since I have blogged...so sorry.....again. I just need time to STOP so I can do everything that needs to get done. In the frantic pace I have had to keep lately I found some time to make these baby shower invites and thank yous for my Mother In Law. She emailed last week and needed 35 invites for a baby girl shower and when I do the invites for someone I always use the scraps to make thank yous. So here are the cards I made and I hope that my MIL and Bari like them!!

Sorry about my hand in the picture but the card wouldn't lay flat so you could see the whole card so I am holding it shut....there is also a view of the inside of the card too. I had forgotten about this card pattern that I made over a year ago I think and I loved it than. I had made one like this for a fall card swap and I loved the pattern. So when my MIL asked for a card that was folded differently it took me a while to come up with something until I remembered this style. I really like this style and I think it really works well for an invitation!

The patterned paper is making memories and DCWV stack, the brown is cuttlebugged of course, the flower is from a stem of 88 cent flowers from walmart, the ribbon is american crafts and the rhinestone is from the 99 cent section in Micheal's.

Happy Thursday

One Favorite From a Set

2008-04-16T16:07:00.001-07:00

This is a card that is part of a set. but I can't find the rest of the set so for now you get to see this one. I love the patterned paper and the set of stamps that all the sentiments come from (another PTI set). Hopefully I can track down the rest of the set to show you soon. The color is a bit off. It isn't so bright. The blue is more of a baby blue color

We have been super busy around here and I am not having a lot of time to make new cards to share. So I'll be trying to share a few of my favorite cards over the next little while!

One Last Mother's Day Card

2008-04-07T14:39:00.000-07:00

Here is one last Mom's Day card. It was one I made into kits for others to put together. I have had this patterned paper for a long time (it came in a DCWV stack) and didn't know how to use it. Now I am wishing for more of it! I love the simple clean design and I will be making more like this for birthday and everyday cards. The flowers are from a bucket of flowers I found in the wedding section at Michael's.

Hope you had a great weekend!

Finished!

2008-04-05T17:16:00.000-07:00

Well my boys are tired of bagging cards for the troops. I figured I make them they bag them (each card with one envie in one Ziploc), we all work together. Well the first day it was fun, this morning not so fun. We had another 150 to bag from Thursday night's card making group at church. While we were at church I forgot to have the women match the cards to envelopes (we had a lot probably 1000 donated to the cause and they are all different sizes so we needed to find out what fit in what), than I totally forgot to bring Ziplocs so I brought them all home and figured I do it here. (well I figured the boys would do it) I sorted envelopes, one boy bagged and one boy sealed them up.

At church we finished 138 and than I got a few more done here that weren't 100% finished and I have 3 women who took their home to finish, I think they might have about 50 between them all. So we did more than I could have hoped for!!

This card is a variation of one I have shown you before but I love the cranberry and the fancier stamp. It is still easy though and fun!

Happy Saturday!

Mostly Finished

2008-04-03T15:35:00.000-07:00

This is what my family room floor looked like yesterday at this time. I had my two boys helping me bag and sort all the cards I have made so far for our soldiers in Iraq to send home for Mothers Day. The deadline is tomorrow and I have about 66 left to do to meet my self imposed goal of 200.

These are four of the five card styles I made for this project. The last one is the card with the green vine running up the left side with the pink flowers on it.

Tonight I am also having a card party at my church to make hopefully another hundred cards for this too. I made a few card kits so the ladies can just glue stuff together and I am taking other supplies so those feeling crafty will be able to make any other card they want. This is one of the cards I came up with last night.

I know that it isn't the typical mothers day colors but I love chocolate brown and red together! So the sentiment is from SU and the brown paper is cuttlebugged with the textile embossing card. I love that little machine! The sentiment rectangle also has ribbon off the left side but it isn't visible in any of the pictures I took. That same rectangle is also popped off the base of the card. This card looks so much better in real life though....so sorry!

I'll post some more of the cards I came up with tomorrow...I really need to get ready for the card making!!

Busy Busy Busy

2008-03-30T18:43:00.001-07:00

Last week was so busy and I just can't keep up with everything. And since the blog isn't calling out my name all day long, or tugging on my arm it tends to fall to the side. (Those screaming boys and all their energy seem to get most of my attention :)

Here's another winner for mom's day solider cards. (sorry about the smudge..I just have this one right now as I am just starting the rest of them.) This one I have started to mass produce and hope to get a lot done. I think I can cut out flowers while I am at soccer practice this week. I have to have them all done my Friday!! Yikes...April sure did sneak up on me. I will take a picture of all the winning card designs I am using for the soldiers cards when I have a chance and great light in the morning.

This card is made with an SU set from sale-abration. I LOVE this set! I also used stickles to add some glitter to the flower that is popped up for dimension. (I am really into my pop dots lately...I think almost all cards I am making have them!)

Have a great week and I will try to get back here in a few days!

A Favorite

2008-03-21T15:44:00.001-07:00

I love love love this card! I will be making a ton of these for the soldiers for mothers day. The flower is from the same set of stamps the previous post's cards are from. I think the sentiment will be on the inside of the card. I can imagine all kinds of uses for this card. I have a small sentiment PTI set that will work so well on the front of this card. My friends can expect a set of these for gifts as the year moves on.

Happy Easter!! (the bunny visits us tonight so we can hunt tomorrow since we have early church on Sunday!)

One Stamp Two Ways

2008-03-20T20:19:00.000-07:00

Here is a fun stamp I got in a set the other day. I was so happy to find a set of flowers that I like each and every flower in the set, plus it is a clear set so that is even better.

The first card is a bit off in color for some reason (it appears really gray to me) so sorry. The PP behind the image is out of a DCWV stack and has glitter on the white stripes. The Image is popped off the base of the card.

And both of these cards will have a mother's day sentiment on it eventually. I can't find a fancier looking stamp so I am going to order one online to use.

The second card is also has it's image popped off the base of the card, and the white paper has its edges inked in blue.

Hope you enjoy!