As a mom of three boys, the only time I seem to have to do the things I love is on the fly. I love card making as well as other paper related crafts and this blog is dedicated to that passion!
Hey everyone! I have been wanting to try my hand at making pinwheels for a while now. I find these little novelties so cheery and youthful! And they are suprisingly easy to make! Below you will find my how to video...hope you like it!
Isn't it funny how sometimes your brain just can't leave a certain wavelength?? You may notice that today's primary color pinwheel card is very similar to the flower card I made a week or so ago. Oh well, if it works, go with it!!
I wanted my second pinwheel card to go in a completely different direction, which I acheived using a different color palet. I really like how this one turned out!
I want to thank all of you for visiting! I want this blog to be successful, and that really depends on all of you. If there's anything you would like to see a video on please let me know and I'll do my best to answer your request! Take care and have a great week!
Hi everyone! I'm so excited to welcome several new members who visited my site from Momo's site, and who have become followers! Welcome Sherrie, Jo Ann, Sandy O, Diane, Susie, Tracey, and Kim!! Thank you so much for joining us ladies! I look forward to checking out all of your blogs soon too!
Next, I must say a very big thank you to Kim at Snippets of Life who has chosen to pass along the Versatile Blogger award to me!! Woooo hoooo!! My very first award!! I couldn't be more excited!!
There are rules after recieving this reward and they are:
Thank the person who sent it to you
Tell Us 7 things about yourself
Send/Reward this to 15 bloggers
So here goes...7 Things about myself:
I love to nap! I take one whenever possible!
I love jewelry and dressing up thanks to my stylish sister-in-law Leslie!
I met my husband when dating his brother (don't worry, it was in high school and VERY innocent).
I absolutely LOVED living in the dorms for 3 years of college! Good times!
I love feeling the wind on my face...it makes me feel like I'm in the presence of God.
I love kisses!
I don't like big crowds...sort of clausterphobic (sp?).
I would like to pass this award on to the following bloggers:
Hi everyone. Sorry I've been silent on here for a few days (literally, I've barely spoken in a few days...it hurts too badly). I came down with a really bad case of strep throat on Sunday. Fevers of 103, swollen glands, chills, sweating, enormous tonsils covered in who knows what, exruciating pain when swallowing or talking, no eating, severe headaches, nausea, body aches...you name it, I've had it!! I went to the immediate care center on Monday and they gave me Amoxicillin. Well, I haven't gotten to feeling any better, so I decided to see my real doctor today and they determined that I have penicillin resistant strep, so now I'm on a Z-pack. Don't you just hate being sick? All I have to say about strep is...insert a picture of me sticking my tongue out making a zerbert sound. Doesn't this stupid sickness know I've got stuff to do? My house is a holy terror, my son missed his book report due date, my husband forgot to ask the baseball coach some very important questions the other night in my absence, dinners have gone by the wayside, and on and on and on. All I have to say is that I had better be feeling better tomorrow because I have a school field trip to chaperone and my son will be devastated if I can't go. I'll probably just have to suck it up and go no matter how I feel.
Despite the earlier comment about my husband, I feel that I must give him a shout out here. He took the day off on Monday to care for the kids and cart them to and from school. He has made sure that they have been fed and that the laundry has been done. He really is the best...even if he can't remember things sometimes!!
I must admit one thing though...all this time on the couch has led me to catch up on my DVR watching which is really nice. However, I really miss my little guys. I'm totally a cuddler and I really don't want to make them sick! My littlest buddy has come up to me several times with his precious little lips pursed for a kiss (he looks like a little piggy when he does this...it's too cute), and it breaks my heart to tell him that mommy can't give him one! He'd better watch out, because when I feel better he's going to get more smooches than he bargained for!
Anyway, enough of my rambling, I WILL be feeling better soon (don't you love the positive attitude, or is that just me telling this strep thing who's boss?) and will have more to share! You may remember my promise of a pinwheel tutorial...we'll it's still in the works. Thanks for being patient!
Also, I wanted to say welcome to our two newest followers, Christine and Magda!! Thanks for joining us ladies!! Hope to hear from you gals in the future!
Hi everyone! Wait until you hear this story! I have a dear cousin, Jeanne, who tried for a very long time to have a baby without success. She could get pregnant, but she just couldn't "keep" the pregnancies for some reason (I don't think the doctors were ever sure why). Fortunately, she and her husband were blessed to find a wonderful woman who agreed to be a surrogate for them. Through this great lady they were able to have their first son, Nicholas. He's now about 2 1/2 and doing great! They decided to try for a second baby with their surrogate, and now have another beautiful son, Johannes who is 4 months old! Here's where the story gets crazy...while the surrogate was pregnant with Johannes, my cousin and her husband decided to have the last of their frozen embryos implanted into Jeanne. They are Catholic and didn't want the embryos destroyed. The thought was that the baby (or babies, I can't remember how many embryos there were) would pass naturally in Jeanne's womb, since that had been the case all of the other times in the past. Well....you guessed it!! This determined little embryo "took" and developed normally! I am so happy that Jeanne has been able to experience the joy of pregnancy for herself! The baby, Benjamin, was born premature (I think at about 32 weeks or so) and has had to have one surgery, but is doing great and working on going home. So these very tired parents now have a 2 1/2 year old, a 4 month old, and a preemie!! I can't even imagine!
So this little cutie I made last night while at Archivers is for them. (I want to mention that I got the idea for this card from a book called, "The best of Card Creations" by Paper Crafts Magazine.) I cut the Elephant from the Zooballoo cart and free-handed the blanket. The sentiment on the inside says, "Welcome Baby!" I really love how this one turned out...I think this little baby elephant is so cute and the colors are so cheerful!
One suggestion for you, if you decide to do a card like this...it is a good idea to reinforce the hole punches prior to putting the embroidery thread through. This allows you to pull a little harder on them to get them just how you want them. Hope you try it!!
Hey everyone! I have to tell you that I had the most fun last night!! My friends Betsy (can you believe you're getting another mention here??), Wendy and Lori let me join them at Archivers last night for a few hours while they scrapbooked and I made a few cards. We laughed, shared stores, and got to be creative all at the same time! I had so much fun and I hope that I get to join them again soon!
So, while I was there last night, I was able to get 4 cards done (well, almost done). One of them was this Easter Chickie card that I am entering into the BBTB2 challenge for this week. The challenge was to use the chick image from the Easter 2010 cart or a chick from another cart you may have. This was quite a challenge for me because I didn't have a chick on any of the 15 or so carts I own! So, last night Betsy was nice enough to let me use her Gypsy (and Betsy, I'm afraid you might be right...I may be becoming a Gypsy girl) and cut the chick from her Create a Critter cart. I think he's so cute!!
Thank you all so much for looking and please don't forget to post your latest projects using the link on my last post! I love seeing what you're all up to!
Hi everyone! I'm trying some thing new tonight. I am tinkering with the idea of starting a weekly challenge on this board...anyone interested? In an effort to research how this would work, I am fiddling with Linky Tools. To that end, I would like to invite you to share your latest projects with me! I always find inspiration in others' work! So please use the link below to post what you've been up to!! I hope it works...fingers crossed!
Hey y'all! Whew, what a day! Work was crazy with report cards going out tomorrow so I'm glad it's over. I have been itching to get in my craft room all day, so here I am!
One thing I have promised myself I would start doing is participating in some card making challenges. One of those challenges is RAQ's challenge on the Cricut cards messageboard. In this challenge you are provided with three card sketches and are challenged to come up with your own version of the sketch. The sketch I chose this week was this one:
Here's my take:
The flourishes on the cake and in the background are from the Storybook cart. The cake itself was made from simple rectangles with two of the corners rounded. I actually made a whole different card with this cake, and really didn't like how it turned out, so...I took it apart and made this one. I think it turned out much better.
Ok, I'm off to bed now, but before I go, I want to thank all of you who regularly visit this site. I am always amazed when I log on and find that people have been visiting! Thank you, thank you, thank you!! I hope to have another video out this week (maybe about making pinwheels) so stay tuned...
Ok, so I've been busy today...I guess I'll have to tend to this crazy mess of a house tomorrow!! It's all give and take!!
Anyway, here's another vintage inspired Easter card. The image was found the same way as in the previous post. The flourish at the bottom of the card was cut from the Storybook cart pg 48.
Hi everyone! I can't believe I actually got a card done in the middle of the day...and on a Monday no less!! I did take a break to play knights and dragons and to have a sword fight or two! So this card truly was on the fly!!
To make this card I Googled "vintage Easter images," found this cute little bunny, printed it out, cropped it, and mounted it on brown cadstock. I then printed the "aster" on some cream cardstock and added the "E" sticker I got at Big Lots today. I then cut out two blue borders from Storybook (pg 45) and added them to the side. It's hard to see, but the bunny rectangle is popped off the card.
I think using free images like this is a great way to add a little vintage to your cards! I'm sure I'll be making more. Stay tuned...
As I mentioned in my last post, my SIL and I went to the Creating Keepsakes convention this weekend, and we purchased the Sure Cuts A Lot software (SCAL). I cannot express how much I adore this product!! While it takes a little research to figure out how to turn a jpg file into an svg file, once you do, the possiblities are endless!!
So, I found this swirly pattern on the internet by googling "swirl images." I was able to convert it to an svg file using Inkscape and then cut it out using my Cricut! Amazing!!!
So, this is my first Easter card of the season. More to come...
What a great weekend!! I got to go to the Creating Keepsakes convention which was in town this weekend. This was my first scrapbooking convention and boy was there a lot to take in!! I got to go with my SIL Mary and we had a ball together! It's so fun to go to something like that with someone who gets as excited as you do over things like texture plates, paper, and embelishments!!
The weather was also absolutely gorgeous here this weekend! I think the temp was over 70 on Saturday. The boys had a ball playing outside and we grilled out both Saturday and Sunday. I'm so looking forward to this kind of weather sticking around for a while!
Needless to say, I feel like spring has arrive and this is what inspired today's card. I used the Give a Hoot cartridge (pg 59) for the flowers and cloud, and the Zooballoo cart (pg 129) for the grass. The texture plates are from Cuttlebug (grass and cloud) and QuicKutz (background). I hope you like it!
Hi everyone!! I am really excited about today's card! It just makes me smile! I made each of the flowers on this card thanks to tutorials I found at the Paper Boutique and Paper Jewels. I highly suggest watching the videos on these sites for some really good instruction.
Even though the sites mentioned have some great videos, I decided to go ahead and make another video for you with some of the tips and tricks I found while making this card. I hope you enjoy!!
So last night I was dragged (drug??) to aerobics by my good friend Betsy (thanks Betsy!!), and I heard the most amazing song while there! The class is a Christian aerobics class and they play all Christian music, and as we were starting to cool down the song "Sheltering Tree" came on. Here is a sampling of the lyrics:
it's been said a friend is like a mighty sheltering tree a place of refuge we can run when trouble comes for you and me someone we can count on through the thick and thin when the storms of life are blowing, there's just nothing like a friend
we all need sheltering trees friends in our lives who'll get down on their knees and lift us up before the king of kings we all need sheltering trees
I was so moved by this song for many reasons! I know that I have had friends like this in my life and I totally want to be this kind of friend for others!! Anyway, when I saw the BBTB2 challenge this week (incorporate a ladybug into your card design), I knew that I wanted to incorporate the lyrics of this song. So...here's my take! I hope you like it!!
Hi everyone!! What a great Saturday! My awesome husband took the boys to the Home Depot for the monthly kids' workshop this morning, and then to his mother's to do some handyman things...so I got to spend about 3 hours in my craft room all by myself!! Wooo hooo! Then this afternoon, by two older boys spent some time with me and the cricut in the craft room and made a couple of things. My oldest, Jake, made two cards for his cousins which turned out sooo cute (complete with kid spelling which I LOVE)!!
Anyway, with all of this time to myself I was able to work on this cute waterfall card. I originally learned this technique watching "Crafting at the Spotted Canary" which airs locally on PBS at 2:00pm on Thursday afternoons. Here's a link to their website - Crafting at the Spotted Canary.
After seeing this technique I just knew I had to try it! So here's my take on it...
As you pull down on the ribbon at the bottom, the layers start to unfold...
In this next picture you can see what it looks like from the side as it unfolds...
Since this technique takes a little bit of explaining, I thought I would make another video! But before you watch, you may be interested to know which cartridges went into making the card in the pictures above:
Cupcake - From My Kitchen pg 61
Stars - Beyond Birthdays pg 91
Streamers - Wild Card pg 37
Balloons - Stretch Your Imagination pg 60
How Old? - Lyrical Letters pg 70
The big brads are from K&Company; the little brad is Recollections; the papers are from K&Company, The Paper Studio, Carolyn Gavin, and some scraps from my stash; and I'm actually not sure who the stamp is by (sorry!!) but it was from a larger stamp that I had cut up.
One of the things I have vowed to do this year is join in on some of the great design challenges hosted by other boards. Since I'm limited on time, I'm trying to figure out a way to combine a few of these challenges into one card. So here goes...
On the RAQ's Challenge found on the Cricut - Cards messageboard, you are asked to create a card using one of three sketches as inspiration. The sketch I found most intriguing was this one:
Having chosen this sketch, I decided to try and incorporate the BBTB2 challenge for the week which involves using a birdhouse in your design. The birdhouse in my design is from the Stretch Your Imagination cartridge.
Next, I wanted to try and incorporate the MadebyMomo's Tuesday challenge which asks us to find something that inspires us and create something based on that. I must say that I am most inspired by paper...the colors, the patterns, and the textures. However, I am not only inspired by visual things, but also smell and sounds...especially music! One song I have always been inspired by is What a Wonderful World sung by Louis Armstrong. I hope that you can see how my card was influenced by this classic!
Here are the carts I used:
From My Kitchen pg61 (top of a cupcake)for the clouds.
Stretch Your Imagination pg63 for the birdhouse.
Plantin Schoolbook pg72 for the circles on the tree.
Wild Card pg38 for the tree trunk.
Wild Card pg47 for the birds.
I handwrote the sentiment and the bracket stickers are from Recollections.
Like many of you, I have tons of scraps left over from previous projects, and they seem to multiply like rabbits!! I keep them in binders, one for plain paper and one for patterned paper. I have a page protector for each color of the rainbow (and beyond) and then stick all of my scraps of the same color in one sleeve. I got this idea from a good friend of mine (thanks Betsy!) and it really works well for me...for now....
Anyway, I'm always looking for ways to use up my scraps, and driving home from picking up one of the boys the other day, I came up with the idea for this card. I went through my green patterned paper sleeve and pulled out several small scraps that coordinated with each other. I then used one of my Fiskars edge/border punches and punched each one. I then staggered them on top of each other and glued them together. I can see this technique working well with lots of different colors as well...come to think of it, I may try that next!!
The flowers on this card are actually colored flowers that I turned over and used the white backside! Who says you need to purchase every color???
The stamp I used is from Making Memories, and after I stamped it on some white cardstock, I simply trimmed around it. I then backed it with the yellow gingham and trimmed that the same way.
If you decide to try this technique leave me a comment and a link to your picture. I'd love to see it!!
Well, I've done it!! I've made my first video tutorial! I have learned a lot during this first attempt, and while this one turned out OK (for a first timer), there are several adjustments I will make for the next one. I will be moving the camera so that it is easier for me to stay in the middle of the frame, and I will also be using a higher quality resolution.
Anyway, on to the card. I saw a an example of this pop-up birthday cake card online here and thought that I would give it a try myself. I'm really excited about how it turned out! All of the measurements and other details are included in the video. I hope you give it a try too!
