I won, I won, I won!

A couple of weeks ago I won a giveaway over at Mary Pat's blog.  I was so excited because I NEVER win anything! When my package came in the mail, it had my prize and a super sweet card.  Mary Pat is a super awesome scrapbooker and she also makes great cards.  If you've never been over to her blog, go check it out :)

I won these awesome Imaginisce Snag Ems stamps.  Three dinosaurs and a ticket.  I knew exactly what I wanted to make with these.  I told you guys last week about the birthday party coming up for my two nephews and my oldest daughter and I thought I would make some thank you cards for the boys.  I used the dinosaur stamps to make Reid's thank yous and I LOVE them!!!!

I bought the little cards, with matching envies at Michaels then stamped the dinos on circles and ovals I cut out with my Cricut.  After I colored them in, I added a googly eye and finished it off with a sentiment from Unity Stamp Co.

I just have to say thanks to Mary Pat for a great giveaway, you've inspired me to do one of my own (later this week).  I hope you all have a great Monday.  I'm sure looking forward to March and some spring weather!  Thanks for stopping in today!

Quickie Birthday Treats

Morning friends!  Thank you so much for Abie's birthday wishes yesterday.  She is so funny, she wanted to cook dinner for us last night.  She's been talking about it for weeks.  We're going to take her out this weekend since she cooked last night, plus we had nasty icky weather and once we got home we were NOT getting back out! 

I sent treats to school with her yesterday.  Every year I've done something homemade.  Our school is not one of  those that has the no homemade rule.  At least not yet :)  But this year I just couldn't do it, not enough time.  So here's what we came up with...

I bought the little buckets at Dollar tree, three in a package for $1.  Then I bought fruit snacks at Target and took them out of their original packaging and dumped them into pretty cellophane bags, tied up with twine.  I finished each bucket off with a bamboo stick topped with a lime green birthday hat which I ran through the Cuttlebug and glued a puffy ball on top.  Abie was a huge help with this project, we had quite the assembly line going :)

That's it for me today.  Hope you have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend.  Thanks so much for stopping by!!!!

Happy Birthday Abie!

Nine years ago today I became a mom.  I was 25 and had no idea what I was getting into.  I remember when Mike and I got home from the hospital, I was sitting on the couch and Abie was in the bouncy seat on the floor.  I just looked at her and thought, "what the hell am I supposed to do now?"  Somehow we figured it all out, you just know and surprisingly, babies and kids are pretty reisilient.  I mean you can hardly even see that bump on her head anymore!  (just kidding) 

Abie is smart, funny, a friend to everyone, crafty and beautiful inside and out.  I love this girl of mine and am so lucky to have her, for as long as I can.

You might know by now that Abie LOVES green and aqua, but I'm a bit tired of that color combo.  So for her gift I used the green but I added a bit of hot pink to it.  The ink is PTI's Raspberry Fizz but the felt is from Joann's.

I hope Abie can forgive the pink :) 

We're expecting a bit of icky weather today.  Some sort of winter mix.  Whatever, it's spring in my head so I'm just going to ignore it.  Haha!  I hope it's spring in your head too!  Thanks for coming by today!

Yo!

Last week I posted about my new yo yo maker here.  Well, I'm happy to report that Monday night I was able to sit down and whip out a few yo yos! 

It took me a minute with the first one to figure out the instructions.  I must tell you though, I am HORRIBLE with directions.  My brain is just not wired to accept them.  I want to do things my way and I'm way to impatient to read anything.  So when it comes to something like this, I have a very difficult time sitting and reading what I'm supposed to do.  Plus it used really big words like "superimposed".  Haha!  After I figured it out with the first yo yo (which was the orange one) I couldn't stop making them!  They only took minutes and the worst part was lining  up the plates correctly and tying the knot in my thread!  The other concern I had was after I took the fabric off the plate, you have to pull the threads to gather your yo yo up.  My fabric started to get all wonky, but you just have to play with it a little bit and it turns out perfect!  Also, be very careful, if you get overzealous, like me, your thread might break.  :) If you're interested in making yo yos for your layouts or cards, I would suggested getting this tool!  They sell it in different sizes and even different shapes too!

Now, hopefully, my next yo yo post will be a project with these puppies!  I'm so excited with how they turned out and can't wait to make something with them.

Are you having a good Wednesday so far?  I can't believe we're halfway through the week already!  Have an awesome day and I'll chat with you later!  Thanks for popping in today :)

Yes...another party

My sister's oldest, Abie and my sister's youngest all have birthdays within two weeks of each other.  To make it easy on us, and the rest of the family, we combine their birthday parties every year.  I'm usually in charge of the invitations, which can sometimes be a bit of a challenge as her to kids are boys.  I've done a pretty good job at keeping the invites non gender specific, at least up until this point.  This year I had A LOT of lime green and aqua paper left over, from all of the slumber party stuff I made, so I went with that.

I used my Birthday Bash cartridge (again) and cut out the card base, which is a 5" circle.  The I popped up those presents.  How cute are they?  I feel like maybe they need something else, but I'm going to just let them be.

Someone the other day was talking about showing the insides of our cards.  I can't remember who it was though.  I feel like I'm showing you my underwear though when I show you the inside of the card.  I feel so exposed!  :)

The party isn't for a couple of weeks.  I have intentions of making a very simple Happy Birthday banner, but I'm not sure if I'll get to that or not.  Abie's birthday is Thursday and I have treats to make for her to take to school and a some other things to get to so we'll see.

I hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday!  Thanks for stopping by!!

Slumber Party Recap

Well, we're alive.  The girls were all so good and I think they even had a good time too!  Upon arrival, I rolled out a large sheet of paper and let them go to town with markers and colored pencils and had bowls of cheese balls, Doritos and veggies for them to snack on.  Here's the finished piece...

After they finished this it was time for dinner.  We had mini pizza crusts and and all the toppings for the girls.  After dinner, they worked on decorating their wooden picture frames, which Abie had already painted their favorite colors.  We had pipe cleaners, puffy balls, googley eyes, glitter glue and other stuff for them to play around with.  This is what the kitchen table looked like after the third grade girl craft hurricane blew threw...

 

We also had foam door hangers for them to decorate, you can see those in the picture too.  They played the Wii and painted nails, normal slumber party stuff.  I think they fell asleep around 12:30.  Not too bad.  I think they were up around 7:30 AM though...yucky.  We did omelets in a bag for breakfast.  Mike found the recipe and it was so fun!  Pick up time was 10 AM and we spent the rest of the recovering! 

I hope you all had a great weekend.  I'll be back tomorrow with a crafty project for you!  Thanks for stopping by!!!

It's a major award!

Name that movie!  Haha!  Tracy over at Tracy's Treasures gifted me this fabulous award the other day!  She is a super cool blogger, really funny, nice, makes amazing mini books and is just...GREAT!  Go check her out if you get a chance.

Now with this award, I have to let you know eight things about myself.  So here they are...

1.  Spring is my most favorite of all the seasons.
2.  I put my husband before my children.
3.  I love rap music.
4.  I learned to drive on a stick.
5.  I love sushi.
6.  When I start reading a book, I usually finish it within a day or two, neglecting EVERYTHING until said        book is finished.
7.  I don't like change.
8.  I LOVE my Keurig machine and couldn't get through a day without it.

Now I'm supposed to pass this award on to eight blogs.  The problem is, a lot of the blogs I want to pass it on to have already gotten it so I don't quite have eight.  I'll do my best.

Mary

Leslie

Michele

Yo Yos

Morning all.  I have a quick post today, and it's sort of incomplete as well.  Have you seen all the yo yos out there?  I first came across them about a nine months ago, even though they've been around for years.  But the blog I saw them on had confusing directions.  I don't do well with directions in the first place so I gave up on the yo yos.

About a month ago Michelle Wooderson posted a bunch of yo yos on her blog that her mom was making and mentioned that she was using a YO YO MAKER!!!!!  When I read this, I knew it was the tool for me.  I ran right out to Joann's and bought one.  This is the one I bought.

Here's the front of the yo yo maker with the fabric in it, ready to go.  I just cut my fabric in a square and sandwiched it into the maker.

This is the back of the maker (which shows the front of the fabric, weird I know).

I'm sorry to say, that's as far as I got.  I have every intention of getting some yo yos made this weekend but we have the big slumber party this weekend so we'll see how much crafting time I get in! 

I hope you all have a great weekend!  Thanks for popping in today!!

Birthday Thank Yous

I know the party isn't until Saturday, but I'm the kind of person who likes to be prepared.  So, I already made the thank you cards for Abie to send out to her friends for coming to the party.  These came together super fast for a couple of reasons.  I already had the bases stamped from a failed project back in December.  Then I had the flower embellishments left over from the banner project that I posted yesterday.  All I had to do was stamp the sentiment and I adhere everything down and I was done!  You have to love it when a project comes together like that!

All of these slumber party ideas came together pretty easily because of the color scheme, which Abie picked out.  Sometimes picking the colors is the hardest part for me.  Thanks Abie!!

We have sure had some nice weather here.  Almost all of the snow is gone now.  There are strips and piles here and there but that's about it.  It's supposed to be 70 degrees today!!!!  I can hardly believe it (and can't wait)  I'm enjoying every minute of it and sure hope it's a sign of an early spring :)

I hope you have a beautiful day wherever you may be and thank you for stopping in to see me.  I appreciate it and all of your kind comments.  You guys are the best.

Birthday Banner

Good day ladies (and any gents that may be reading)!  Can you believe it's already Wednesday?  I feel like 2011 is flying by, we're halfway through February!  My mom always said the older you get the fast time goes and she was right. 

Today I have the banner I made for Abie's birthday party.  I'll probably put it up and leave it up until her birthday, which is on the 24th, and then let her keep it in her room. 

I made this with the Birthday Bash cartridge and Core'dinations paper.  I worked on it the same was I did my Valentine banner, I pulled out everything in my stash that was lime green and aqua and just went to town.  I hung it up with lime green tulle (which I love)!

All right, that's it for me today!  Have an awesome Wednesday and I'll see ya later!!!  Thanks for coming by today :)

Smash Book Insides

I'm not sure if it's the fact that the sun is staying up until almost 6pm or if the temperature has been over freezing for the last week, but everyone seems to be in a great mood around these parts.  I know spring is coming and I can't wait! 
Last week I posted about the Smash Book that is coming out this spring and how impatient I am and decided to make my own.  I'm going to use my faux Smash Book for all my ideas and here are a few inside pages...

 I just glued down the magazine picture and then wrote underneath what it was I wanted to remember about it.  So many times I'll cut an item out of a magazine and then forget what it was I liked about it.

 On this one, I just put adhesive on the top part of the top picture so I could still see all of the picture underneath it.

 This particular page shows a card that came with a template.  I housed the template in that mini envelope and adhered the envelope to the page too.  (don't ask about the masking tape...)

Here I have directions written out for a mini album and a sketch to go along with it.

This is a work in progress :)  I still have a ton of pictures that are just inspiration to me and I'm trying to figure out how to best incorporate them into the book.  Some of them are pretty big, not sure what to do there....  Any ideas?

Well, that's about it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by!!!  I'll see you tomorrow!

Happy Heart Day!

Good morning friends.  I have a lot to share today, so I'm going to get right to it!  First off, I have the girls Valentine gifts...

This one is Abie's and I love the pale aqua with the red!  Fantabulous!

This one is Landry's and I'm loving the vintage trim at the top of the package and the sugary looking sequin thingies on the tag!  They look good enough to eat!

Now for Mike, we never exchange Valentines.  We go to the store, pick out a card for each other, read it and put it back.  We don't go out to dinner, we always have a special candlelit meal at home, even before we had kids.  What's weird about this is that our first date was on Valentines Day.  I guess we've just always been of the opinion that we should show each other how much we love and care about one another every day, not JUST on V-day :)  However, that being said, this year is the 15 year anniversary of our first date and I thought I would do a very small something for Mike.

The box just has some candy in it, nothing too big so he won't feel guilty when he doesn't get me anything :) and the vintage Valentine says "I'm glad Valentines Day comes but once a year"  The little boys expression cracked me up and kind of reminded me of Mike.  Haha! 

Okay, next up I have pictures to share from meeting Billy the Exterminator yesterday.  The line was crazy.  We waited for 3 hours and 45 minutes!  But Abie was thrilled so it was worth it.

Here's Abie and Billy...

And here's Billy signing Abie's hat.  I asked her what he said to her and she said, "I can't remember it all happened so fast!" 

Last up today I have a blog award I received from Scrappnbee last week!!!!!  She is one of the funniest bloggers out there.  She is currently in the process of reorganizing her scraproom and each week takes you on a journey, along with her multiple personalities, about her trials and tribulations.  Go check her out, if you haven't yet!

With this award, you're supposed to share it with 3-5 other blogs that have under 100 followers.  So here are mine...

My first is Create Share Inspire.  She has the most beautiful cards and this is where I learned you can PAINT on doilies!!!!  Awesome!

My next one is  Schell.  She has adorable cards and great videos!  In fact, I have a card up later this week that was inspired by one of her videos.

My third pick is Sharla.  She has great layouts, is funny and she can rock a home crafty project like no ones  business!  There are several projects on my to do list thanks to her!

If you get a chance, go check these ladies out!!! 

All right, I'm out of here for today.  Hope you have a great Valentines Day and I'll see you all tomorrow!  Thanks for stopping by!

Gearing Up!

FRI-DAY!!  Woo hoo!!!!!  I'm gearing up for Abie's big slumber party NEXT weekend.  Trying to have all the details finished ahead of time so I can relax and enjoy the party that night.  I finished up the goodie bags this week with these little flashlights...

I cut the heart shaped tag out with my Cricut and added a little rub on and some rhinestones.  I tied the whole thing on to the flashlight and LUV how cute it turned out!

To the outside of the goodie baskets, I made a tag for each one, carrying on the lime green and aqua theme, which has each girls initial on it...

I have one more Slumber Party project to share with you on Monday before the big day arrives!  I'm hoping to take pictures of some of the activities we have planned that night to share with you too.  I know most of these ideas, you could just switch the colors and stamps or rub ons and use them for a boy sleepover too!

Do you have big plans this weekend?  Today is a holiday for me (thank you Lincoln for having a birthday).  I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do today, which for me is the best kind of day.  On Sunday, we're taking the girls to World of Wheels so Abie can meet Billy from Billy the Exterminator.  It's her favorite show and she is soooooo excited! 

I hope you have a fantastic Friday and a wonderful weekend!  Thanks for swinging through today!

Birthday Card

Good morning!  I have another card for you today, of the birthday variety this time.  This one was made for my neighbor :)

 Oh boy, it took me a minute to get that bow presentable :)  I love the way this card turned out!

I'm so happy it's Thursday today.  I have gotten a lot accomplished this week and am so happy about that.  Love weeks like that!  I hope you have a great day today and thanks for stopping by!

Engagement Card

A cold hello to ya!  It's bitter here today, but we're being promised a warm up for this weekend my friends!  I'm hoping a significant amount of this white stuff will melt away.  I'm thrilled that it's already Wednesday and I'm looking forward to the end of the week.

About a week ago, my boss got engaged.  He's a really good guy and I couldn't be happier for him.  Just when he finally forgot about finding someone, that's when it happened for him!  I made this card over the weekend for him and Laurie and gave it to him yesterday.

I stamped polka dots on the background in PTI's Spring Rain and then cut out a Stampin' Up! Top Note in light blue felt from Joann's.  I couldn't believe how close the two colors were.  I piled on a couple of more layers and added those felt birds (which came from the dollar bins at Michael's).

I hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday.  I really appreciate you stopping by each day and those that leave comments, you bring a smile to my face!  It's so nice to share my creations with others who enjoy it as much as I do.

Heart Box Mini

Happy Tuesday friends :)  Today I have a fun little project that came to me in the middle of the night.  I often find myself thinking of craft ideas as I'm trying to go to sleep, which just keeps me awake!

Awhile back I did this post about Abie's Valentines for her class.  I had some of the boxes left over and I knew I could come up with a good use for them.

 Here's the outside of the box

 And the first page with a little pull tab to get it out of the box with.

 Here's a side view with all the layers!  It's like a leaning tower of lumpy hearty goodness!

 I pulled out all of my little pink embellishments ...

And went to town!

I used Valentine stamps,

 Lace and pearls,

 Punches and buttons,

 Anything that said Valentine to me!

 I mixed all different colors of pinks and reds, just whatever struck me at the moment.

To hold all the pages together, I made little tabs and wrapped them around each heart, adhering them as I went.  This is a side view of the "binding". 

This was just a fun little project, I didn't make it for anyone in particular.  That made it that much more fun! 

I hope you have a great Tuesday!  Thanks for stopping by today :)