Adventures in Calendar Making!

Well it's the end of another year and me being the organized person I am started thinking about a new calendar for our kitchen.  In past years, we've just used one of those paper ones you buy at the store that has pictures of the beach or some other scene.  Nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.  A couple of years ago, I saw this picture and KNEW I wanted to make one!

Isn't it soooo cute?  You just write on the glass with a dry erase marker, so smart right?  Well, my crafty neighbor friend Leah came over Wednesday to assist, but it turned out to be more like moral support.  I cut my paper to 10x10.  Leah, who is not only a crafty neighbor friend, is also a teacher which automatically makes her good at math.  A plus in my book.  She figured out just where I needed to place my marks for my lines to make my calendar.  Now mind you, I'm sure there's an easier way to do this, or a calendar you can print out or buy, but I'm cheap thrifty, as Tracy likes to say.  So this was the way I was doing it.  Here was my practice copy...

Boo-ti-ful, right?  Perfectly placed lines, plenty of room.  Just right!  Now I just needed to do the same thing on white cardstock with black lines.  No problem.  Easier said than done.  My first try on the white, I ended up pacing my vertical lines too close together and had to pitch it.  It was getting close to dinner time and I was starting to get a wee bit frustrated.  So I pulled out another sheet and started again, really taking my time.  This one looked GOOD!  I was really impressed with myself.  However, because of the way things lined up, I needed to trim just a bit off the side and the bottom...

Can you see the crookedness?  Behind my stinkin' thumb there?

Bah!  All that work.  I just looked at Leah and and about screamed.  Mike had come home and I needed to fix dinner, so I left the project for the time being.  Fast forward to 8PM.  Leah and I run out to Joann's because their frames are 40% off.  This is what I came home with:

Already made, no line drawing required!  Perfect.  Sometimes you just have to face the fact that you can't craft everything!  :)  I can't wait to get this thing hung up and write all over it, I love it!

Are you all ready to ring in the new year tonight?  We're staying in with the girls, mom and dad will be over along with my crafty neighbor teacher friend Leah and her better half Nick.  Too many crazies out for us old folk.  Haha!  I just love the new year, a way to start over, fresh and clean.  January just sounds clean doesn't it?  I can't wait!  2011 will be the BEST YEAR EVER!!!!  Happy New Year's Eve my friends, be safe wherever you may be and I'll see you next year!

A layout!

Oh my goodness, I'm posting a layout today folks!  No, don't leave, you're in the right place and no, I'm not sick.  I just 1) had the time to make one and 2) took enough pics until I found one that wasn't horrible.  That's been my issue, I don't typically post layouts because I don't really take good pictures of them.  Does that make sense?  I worked on this one a bit yesterday and got to use my new punch from Joann's.  I heart it A LOT!  I thought it was just a border punch, but it's not, it actually punches out the whole piece.  I'm not making any sense today, maybe I need more coffee :-) 

Check out that little rosette, I made that sucker!  I've seen them all over the place (including the trim on yesterdays card) and finally made one.  So stinkin' easy, I couldn't believe it.  I'm going to be making a lot more of these.

Thanks for coming by today!  I hope you have an awesome Thursday friends!

Retirement

So, I've got a few years until I retire, but there's a nice lady I work with who will be retiring next week after many, many years with the State.  I whipped up this card last night for her, which was really not that difficult because I got to use some new shtuff (yes, that's another word here in Beckyville).  I'm not sure of the color scheme, but it seems bright and colorful which is how retirement should be, right?

I just kept layering and layering until it looked good to me.  After I stamped that sentiment, I realized that the yellows are two different colors!  Oops!  I picked up that ribbon at Archiver's last week, it's from American Crafts, don't you love that?  It's tulle with sheer rosettes sewn down the middle of it.  I'm trying to figure out a way I can make it that would be cheaper than buying it.  I'm so dang cheap that way.

We had a great day yesterday, the girls spent some of their Christmas money and we met my mom at Joann's.  I bought a new punch that I'm super excited to try out, I'll post pics once I make something with it.  Are you having a good week, this last week of 2010?  It's a time of reflection for me, thinking of all the things that have happened this past year.  I'm not gearing up for 2011 just yet.  That will happen later in the week :)  Have a great Wednesday and thanks for stopping by little bloggy blog today!

Fabulousity!

Yes, that's a word here in Beckyville, where I live.  Lots of things are fabulous in my book.  Like my new watch and boots Mike got me for Christmas, like getting all my Christmas decorations down yesterday, (minus the one big tree in the living room which will stay up until New Year's Day because I once heard it was bad luck to take it down before, but I may just be making that up) and getting to drink caffeine late in the day because you can stay up late since your on vacation all week!  Oh yeah, an run on sentences.  :-)

After the girls and I got the decorations put away yesterday, we cleaned up the craft area and I got to work on a new card.  My PTI order came in last week and I couldn't wait to use some of those stamps! 

I stamped the dress form and sentiment in CTMH White Daisy ink and the polka dots in PTI's Sweet Blush ink, but the pink ink looks almost as white as the white ink.  Go figure.  Not exactly the look I was going for here, but it will do, it's still fabulous to me!  I'm loving that dress form and the best part was that the form and four sentiments were only $5!!!!!  CHEAP-O-RAMA! 

So Mike walks in from work last night and his phone rings, one of the guys ran out of gas and the nearest gas station to him was 7 miles away.  Mike says he'll bring him some gas 1) so the guy doesn't have to walk 7 miles in freezing temperatures and 2) so they don't have to pay the roadside service an arm and a leg to come out to them, but the guy is in Kansas.  We live right on the border of Missouri and Kansas so it's not too far.  Mike says, you guys want to go, we can eat out?  Heck ya I want to go, I've been bustin' my tail all day taking the decorations down, last thing I want to do is cook.  So we load up, drive to Kansas give the guy some gas, then the truck won't start because  he'd been sitting there with his lights on the whole time and had run the battery down....  Mike didn't have jumper cables with him so he had to call their roadside people to come help, which costs A LOT of money for the company.  :-(  Well, we go to dinner, Jack in the Box.  Have you ever eaten there?  It was our first time.  Not horrible, I must say.  Before we leave, Mike calls to check on the driver and he said the roadside guy still wasn't there so Mike buys the driver dinner and we take it back to him.  By the time we get there, the roadside guy is there and the truck has been jumped.  We then headed on home.  What a night!

Happy Monday!

Good morning friends!  Did you have a good holiday?  We had a great weekend and wonderful Christmas with our family.  I hope you did as well.  I'm home this week with the girls and we have no plans, which is a fabulous feeling.

I made a little trip to Archiver's last Tuesday and picked up this stamp from Unity Stamp Co.  I saw it a few months ago out in blog land somewhere and just fell in love with it.  All the way home, I had an idea of a set of cards I wanted to make using this stamp.  This is what I came up with, so, so, so EASY!

I just love this sentiment.  Today is a good day!  I'm home with my girls, we've got no plans and I got to sleep in!  Woo hoo!  Is it a good day for you?

Thanks for stopping in today, I'll see you tomorrow!

Aaahhh!

Well, we've almost made it my friends.  Here we are, just two short days from the big day.  I'm working a short day today and we're surprising the girls with lunch here.  Abie has been asking to eat here and it's been awhile since we've been, so today is the day.  She wants to go ice skating too, here but we don't think we're ready to do that just yet with Landry.  So maybe we'll just WATCH the ice skaters while we eat lunch!  Ha!  Anyway, it should make for a fun afternoon, and it's a surprise that the girls aren't expecting which makes it even better! 

Well, I don't have a crafty post for you today, I just want to wish you all a happy holiday, wherever you may be and whatever you might be celebrating.  I hope you take the time to enjoy whatever it is you enjoy in your particular space.  I've spent so much time preparing for the next couple of days, I'm hoping to be able to take a few minutes and just enjoy it all.  I hope you can do the same.

I'll be back on Monday with a crafty post for you.  Have fun and be safe!

Tea Towels

Another week flying by here.  I worked late last night, but that means I get to leave early tomorrow!  Woo hoo!  I'm starting my vacation early!  Mike is home with the girls this week, it's been so hard to get up and leave with all of them still sleeping in the house.  He had a work dinner last night so the girls and I had a fun night, trying to figure out how to play Chinese Checkers.  Mostly we just made up the rules.  Good times. 

Last year I taught myself how to embroider.  I only know a couple of stitches, but it works for what I need it for.  This year I made a few towels for gifts and I love how they turned out.

Do you guys know, when you try to reply to someones comment and it says "noreplyblogger" in the address part of the e-mail, does the person still get the e-mail?  Just wondering.  Well, I'm outta here for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Memories...

So awhile back I saw this idea over here and filed it away for future use.  Fast forward to Christmas 2010 and enter gift for Grandma Jean.  I picked up a jar at Hobby Lobby and got to work on decorating it.  Then I had Mike and the girls help me with memories of her.  After printing them out on cardstock, I rolled them up and tied them with ribbon.  The jar was quite a bit bigger than I had intended so I added some shredded bag filler so it didn't look quite so empty.  Believe it or not there are A LOT of slips of paper in there! 

Our week is off to a great start here.  The girls are so excited for Saturday and that makes me excited!  I have a long day today, but then it's smooth sailing the rest of the week!  Thanks for coming by today and I'll see you tomorrow!

This is it!

Are you ready?  This is it friends, we're down to our last few days here.  I can hardly believe how quickly this month has gone by.  We had an extremely successful weekend.  Both the work party and family party were a good time!  In preparation for Saturday's party, I needed to fancy up my soap bottle for the bathroom downstairs.  So I ran down to my craft room and got to work, lickety split!

I make these all the time.  Because they're so cheap and easy.  We all know I like cheap and easy!  I have a little tutorial here on how I made this.  I use the term tutorial very loosely... :-)

Thanks for stopping by today and I wish you all a very productive and crafty Monday!

Lemon Sugar Scrub

Are you as happy as I am that this week is over?  Good grief I'm glad it's Friday!  Tomorrow marks the big office work party, here at our house and Sunday will be another party with some extended family.  Not much time for crafting in there, but I'm hoping to squeeze some in!  Today is the last day of school for the girls and both of their Christmas parties as well.  So, it's quite busy around here!  In preparation for this busy weekend, I needed some teachers gifts and hostess gifts.  What does a girl do in this time of need?  She turns to Google, of course!  I ran across this idea for Lemon Sugar Scrub and thought it was so cool!  The girls and I whipped this up in no time flat, filled the jars and had them slipped into bags all ready to go!

I found those flat wooden spoons in the wood aisle at Joann's.  I really had a plastic scoop in mind but couldn't find what I was looking for.  After I took these pics, I cut out some circle tags on my Cricut and wrote out names on them, then attached them to the yellow ribbon.  I found my 1/2 pint jars at Target, they use to sell them at Walmart, but mine was all out of them.  This project was so easy, you can't even believe it!  This is definitely something I'll do again, or maybe try a different scrub.

Hope you have a great Friday and thanks for stopping in today!

Money Holders

Is holders a word?  I guess it must be because it didn't come up on spell check.  Well, every year we get moolah from the ole grandparents and they provide it us in the cutest little envelope from the bank.  You know the one I'm talking about, right?  It says Seasons Greetings on the front and when you open it up there's an oval cut out so you can see the President's face.  That way you don't have to be rude and pull the cash out and count it in front of said grandparents.  You just look at the President's face and know how much you got.  (Just kidding here, of course...sort of)  Well, my dad is super hard to buy for so when we can't think of a totally awesome gift to buy for him, we give him cash.  Like this year.  But instead of giving it to him in a bank envelope, I decided to craft him one!

How about that?  Pretty cute huh?  Now the dimensions for this were very specific...I laid the money down on the cardstock, carefully slid the piece under my trimmer (leaving enough room for adhesive) and cut.  Then I picked the whole thing up and scored at the bottom and top, rounded the edges and made a belly band.  Ta da a super fly money holder!  Oh, and in case you're wondering, there is no oval on the inside so Dad will have to wait to pull the money out until I leave the room!  Haha!

That's it for today, thanks for stopping by.  I'll see you tomorrow!

Chipboard Letters

So last week I was working on these, if you remember.  I first saw them over here at Diana's blog and just thought they were so pretty.  I picked the letters up at Hobby Lobby for $2.47 apiece, but I know Joann's carries these as well.  Then I painted the edges and covered the fronts and backs with patterned paper.  After that, I just decorated away.

I love the way this project turned out.  Too bad I'm giving it away.  Do you ever feel like that about a project?  You invest so much time into it and love the way it turns out that you just want to keep it?  Or are you so sick of looking at it that you can't wait to get rid of it?  :-) 

Thanks for stopping in today! 

Gift Card Holders

So, I forgot to tell you guys the most important news about my weekend.  It FINALLY snowed here!  Not a lot, but it was snow.  It brought with it the cold though.  Like 2 degrees and -12 wind chill cold.  Yikes!  Our neighbors have the cutest little Schnauzer and this is his first time around the snow, apparently he doesn't like it so much.  Poor baby.  Our dog loves the snow, just not the cold.  He'll go burrow around in the backyard for hours in the stuff.  How do your animals feel about the white stuff?

Over the weekend, during my wrapping frenzy, I need a couple of gift card holders and this is what I came up with.

I cut the cardstock to 4x6 and scored it at 1 1/2 and 4".  Then I rounded the corners, slipped the gift card inside and made a little belly band to wrap around it.  So easy!  These would be great for any occasion.  I should buy EVERYONE gift cards!  Haha!

For another gift, I had two gift cards so I slightly altered my previous invention and THIS is what I came up with.

When you open this one, the gift cards are tucked at the bottom of the card, one on each side.  Does that make sense?  I should have taken a picture, but I was on such a wrapping roll it just wasn't happening Saturday!  For the front of this one, I slapped one of my pre-made gift tags on and called it done!  I can't give you dimensions for this because I just fiddled with it until it worked, but it's loosely based off the other one, but twice the size.  Are you completely confused now, because I am!  :-)

Hope you have a great Tuesday around your parts and thanks for stopping by!  I'm looking forward to creating just for the sake of creating again.  Instead of creating for a gift or a reason.  No pressure that way, makes me much happier!

Countdown to Christmas!

Are you ready?  We're in the home stretch now.  Just twelve days left and I'm happy to say that the only thing I have left to do is embroider one tea towel and wrap the set up!  Yep, all the shopping is done, all the wrapping is done, we are ready to go!  Good thing too, we have a busy week ahead of us.  School programs and parties, work parties, family parties...all this week!  I feel so good about everything we've gotten done that I'm actually looking forward to all the events this week!  Where are you in your holiday agenda?  Are you a list maker and usually done well in advance or are you up all night on Christmas Eve putting the finishing touches on?

I thought I'd post our advent or countdown calendar today.  I made this last year with my Cricut and the Bags, Tags, Boxes and More cartridge.  Before I put the boxes together, I adhered the patterned paper and the numbers.  I keep all the boxes in a container and each day the girls pull one out and get their treat.  This year it's a combo of Squinkies, candy and Silly Bandz.  I stick the boxes to the wall with some HandiTak.

You'll have to excuse box #17.  Last year our very large dog tried to eat it because it smelled somewhat appetizing to him.  I need to re-stick the paper to it!

Is it weird I'm already thinking about Valentine projects? Thanks for stopping by!  See ya tomorrow!

Friday, Friday, Friday!!!

Ooohhh it's Friday and boy do I need it!  I'm so motivated going in to this weekend to check some things off my list.  My post today is a little project I finished up last weekend, for Abie's Christmas party.

These are little 3x5 spiral notebooks I covered with Echo Park paper.  I stamped a snowflake, matted it on cardstock and tied a pencil to the top!

Here's a shot of all the notebooks together.  (do you see the mini Hershey bar in the background from Landry's project?  Ha!)  I slid these puppies into clear plastic party favor bags to hand out to the kids.  Hope they like them!

Thanks for stopping by, have an awesome day!

 

Thinking of You

Well lookie here, Thursday already!  Who else is excited about that?  So Mike gets an e-mail from his boss a couple of days ago that he and the other District Manager can throw a Christmas party, on the company's dime.  Mike takes a vote and the guys want to have food brought in and do this shindig at someones house, as opposed to going out to a restaurant.  Guess whose house?  :-) The only thing I really have to do is have the house clean.  I don't have to cook, just hostess.  It was just a little short notice.  Because of this added party, I'm in overdrive this week, trying to get everything done for next week since I really won't have next weekend to tie up my loose ends like I thought I would.  I'm doing pretty good, I've got two towels left to embroider and just two other projects to finish up.  Then there's the wrapping.  That's the part I'm not so fond of.  I'm going to try and get it done this weekend...ALL OF IT!

On to my craftiness today.  I needed a thinking of you card last week, something quick.  So I flipped through my inspiration pages and this is what I came up with.

I stamped the flowers with a watermark pad and then heat embossed them with clear powder.  Every time I do this I think, "this is so cool, why don't I do this more?" 

Alright, I'm off to check more things off my list for the day!  Thanks for stopping by.  I really appreciate all the comments.  I'm so grateful for each and every one of them, you guys are truly the best!

Stamps:  PTI:  Life, Everyday Button Bits
Ink:  Versamark Watermark 
Paper:  PTI 
Other:  Clear Embossing Powder

WOYWW

Well for as fast as last week went by, this week is going by pretty slow.  But that's a good thing!  I've got my hands in a bunch of projects, how about you?  Right now, numero uno is what I'm posting about today.  Since it's Wednesday, I thought I'd play along again with WOYWW, What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday over here at Julia's blog.  You should go check it out.  I love to see other peoples work spaces, but it's even more fun to see what they're working on! 

This is what has me occupied at the moment...

I snagged this idea from here and am super excited about it!  Hope you have a great Wednesday and thanks for stopping by!

Mmm, chocolate!

Did I get your attention with that?  I needed a quick little party favor for Landry to take for her Christmas party and I made these little mini Hershey's sliders.

There's a bunch of videos out there, here's one.  The video is actually for a full size candy bar, mine are the mini Hershey's that you can buy in an 8 pack for $1 at Walmart.  (I'm cheap, remember)  I cut my paper to 3x3 and I didn't score it, I just wrapped it around the bar and then ran my ATG down one side to hold it together.  I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes and left my ends open.

These came together so fast!  A great little project if you need some quick favors for something, you could easily dress these up with a little tag tied to the ribbon.  I figure the preschoolers will pull that ribbon out so fast to get to the chocolate that all would be lost on a cute tag!  :-)

Hope you have a great Tuesday and thanks for popping in!

Paper:  Echo Park
Other:  Ribbon, Hobby Lobby

Morning all!  Did you have a good weekend?  We were busy around here, heading in for the big push towards the holidays.  I spent a good portion of the day Saturday getting lots of projects done, which makes me feel great!

Today I want to share a little calendar re-do I saw over on Deborah's blog.  I saw this and thought it was just adorable.  I knew I had to try one out and it literally took minutes!  I bought the calendar for a $1 at Joann's and covered it with Basic Grey paper then embellished the front with some flowers and a dog that I snipped out from another sheet of Basic Grey.

Hope you have a great Monday!  It's cold here, still no snow yet but freaking freezing!  Looking at this sunny yellow calendar kinda makes me feel warm!  Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Notebooks

Happy Friday to you all!  Is it just me or did this week fly by?  I started out so good on Monday and was so productive, craft wise that is.  I finished all the leaves on one of my tea towels and was feeling good about the rest of the week.  But then it all went down the toilet.  I'm not even sure where I went wrong!  :-)  Don't get me wrong, I still got a lot done, I've purchased all the supplies I need for craft projects.  Just not as much crafting going on as I had intended.  I did, however, get my Christmas notebooks completed!

I was totally inspired by Michelle Wooderson's post a few days ago, here and decided to make up my own little Christmas notebooks.  I made one for my mom and sister and one for myself.

This last pic was to try and show the detail of that trim.  I don't know if you can tell or not but the little flowers are fuzzy.  It's amazing!  I picked it up at my LSS for $2 a yard and I LOVE IT!!!!

I'm becoming slightly addicted to these little notebooks.  They're quick and easy to make and freaking adorable!  What's not to love?  Hope you have a fabulous Friday and thanks for stopping by!

Stamps:  PTI On Ice and Round and Round
Ink:  Versamagic and PTI Pure Poppy
Paper:  Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather and Hobby Lobby Kraft
Other:  EK Success Border Punch, Decorative Trim, Decorative Brads from Target Dollar Spot, Prima Crocheted flower