Tags in process...

Well, my shopping may be done but you remember how I told you I was dreading the wrapping?  I love a beautifully wrapped package but I always seem to lose something in the execution.  This year I'm challenging myself to really TRY and make an effort at those pretty packages.

The first step at getting started on the wrapping is the tags.  I always have a similar process with projects like this, sort of assembly line like. 

My first step was to cut out all my pieces.  I had some help with this ;)

While Abie was running the Cuttlebug, I sprinkled my CORRUGATED SHAPES with Mr. Huey's Calico White.  This was totally TAMMY'S idea!  :)  Thanks Tammy!

Here are the piles of die cuts all cut out.  I played around with them at this point and realized that the bottom pieces were in need of a little something...

Enter the next step, stamping.  Abie stamped the wheat color (far die cuts) and I stamped the brown.  I also used my Cricut to cut out the white tags and stamped the to: and from: on those.
Next step, assembly!  Stay tuned for :)

I made THESE TAGS in 2009 and I made THESE TAGS in 2010 if you want to check them out.  I'm noticing a Kraft trend with my tags.  Hmmm :)

I was able to get my Christmas cards addressed last night so my goal today is to find goodies to fill up the girls advent calendar with.  Have a wonderful day and thank you for popping in.  I'll see you tomorrow!

Some new decorations!

Happy Monday!  Did you all have a good Thanksgiving?  I can't believe how fast these four days always go by.  My sister and I were sitting around on Thursday and decided it would be a good idea to go shopping at midnight on Friday.  We had a great time together, and actually knocked out a good portion of our lists, but I'm not sure I'll EVER do that again!  We stood in line for three hours at Khol's just to check out!  It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. 

On Saturday, Mike and I went out to dinner for our anniversary and Mom and Dad kept the girls overnight so we were able to get the rest of our Christmas shopping done!!!!  With the exception of just one gift we need to order online, EVERYTHING IS DONE!  Woo hoo!!!!

We were able to get all the Christmas decorations up between Thursday night and Friday during the day.  I thought I would share a couple of pictures of some new things we have this year. 

This pine cone my sister made for me.  Isn't she talented?  I just love it!  I have it hanging on one of the doors of our china cabinet.

This pink Mercury Glass vase isn't really a Christmas decoration, and I'm pretty sure it will be out year round :) but I just bought it a week ago and I love how festive it looks next to my Believe book.

This bird is another non-Chirstmas item, but again, it's so festive sitting nestled in among the garland.  I love how glittery it is.  Makes me want to glitter up my Tim Holtz bird die!

Every year, the day after Christmas, Mom, Jennie and I head down to Hall's to get Christmas ornaments and this was part of last years haul.

I bought two of these candles that clip on the branches.  I had the most difficult time getting them to stand up straight!

And finally, I picked up three of these butterflies that clip on.  They are about 6" wide!  I love how big they are!

Check out THIS POST from last year to see all of our Christmas decorations.

Did you get your tree up yet or do you wait until closer to Christmas?  What's the status on your shopping?  You know what I'm dreading now?  The wrapping!  I've been working on the tags, little by little, more on that tomorrow! 

Thanks for coming by today!  Have a GREAT Monday and I'll see you tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Good morning friends!  Happy Thanksgiving to all of you celebrating today. 

I thought I'd share a few things that I'm thankful for today...

1)  Mike
2)  Abie and Landry
3)  My parents
4)  My sister and brother in law and nephews
5)  Having a roof over our head, food to eat and clothes to wear
6)  My job
7)  Mike's job
8)  My blog and blog friends

What are you thankful for today?  I hope you enjoy your day today.  I'm waiting on the glitter to dry on a project I'm working.  Hoping to get it posted tomorrow.  If not, I'll be back on Monday :)  Thanks for stopping by today friends!

Hostess gift.

Good morning all!  Today is my last day of work for the week!!!  Woo hoo!  I'm excited for Thanksgiving break because Mike took Friday off this year so it's an extra long weekend for all four of us.

So tomorrow I'm taking a little gift to my sister to thank her for having all of us over to her house.  I saw this idea in the last issue of Papercrafts Magazine.  I made these many years ago and had completely forgotten about them.  I liked the magazines fresh taken on them though.  I think the one on the cover used red hots in the jar.  They mentioned using coffee beans though and I LOVED that idea!  ;)

These candle holders are so simple to make.  Fill your jar up with beans, candy or coffee then place your flower pot holder in the top.  Decorate as you please!  I chose to wrap mine with some twine and added a  couple of distressed leaves, a button and some ribbon :)

What are your Thanksgiving plans?  Are you traveling or staying close to home?  Whatever you go, whatever you do, or if you aren't in the US and don't celebrate Thanksgiving...have a wonderful day tomorrow!  Thanks for coming by today and I'll see you soon!  

Hostess gift bag tag.

Say that three times real fast!  So on Thursday, Thanksgiving, we're heading over to my sister and brother in laws house for lunch.  I have a little gifty I've made for her, to say thank you, which I'll be posting tomorrow :)  In the meantime, I want to share with you the tag I made for the gift bag which I'll be placing the gift in! 

I just love to make tags like this!  The leaves are from my Stretch Your Imagination Cricut cart.  I layered them on top of a few Papertrey Ink dies.  I stamped Jennie's name with my new letter stamps I picked up at Michael's (40% off, thank you very much!)

That's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you back here tomorrow!  Have a GREAT Tuesday!!!

Happy Anniversary!

Thirteen years ago, today, Mike and I were married.  It's hard to believe it's been thirteen years already because it really just seems like it was yesterday and we've been on fast forward.  Here we are now with a nine year old and a four year old, how did that happen?

Here's the card I made for him.  It makes me smile :)

I found the image of the little girl in an old children's book.  I know I don't have blond hair, but I was going more for the feeling :)  He still makes me feel like a little girl sometimes.  I still get excited when he comes home from work.  I would rather be with him than anyone else :)

I picked out several sentiments that I liked and stamped them on the yellow checked OA paper with Versamark ink.  Then heat embossed with Zing embossing powder.  Love that! 

Did you have a good weekend?  We had family dinner night at the school on Friday combined with poetry night.  Abie's poem was really good, made us proud :)  Saturday we cleaned the house in preparation for all the Christmas decorations this week.  We went ahead and put up the girls trees, talk about excitement!  Then on Sunday we headed to brunch for my Grandma's birthday. 

This week is a short week, school is only two days and Mike and I are only working three days this week!!!!  Wonder if I'll get any crafting in while I'm off...

Have a beautiful day my friends :)  I'll see you tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by today!

Paint organization.

Thursday, YES!  Weekend eve baby!  So happy!!!!  This has really been quite the week and I'm thrilled that we're on the downhill slide. 

Last weekend I was able to get a bit of reorganizing done down in the basement and I wanted to share with you my new paint storage.

Before I use to store my paint like this:

Now I've bought a few more bottles since then and my Making Memories paint (which some had dried up and I had to throw away) was stored in my caddy on my desk.  So this shelf was getting a little crowded and I was having to pick up the paints to see the colors every time, which annoyed me.

This was my solution (which I saw in a magazine!)

I punched white circles out of cardstock and adhered them to the tops of the paint lids.  Then I dabbed a bit of paint on each piece of cardstock so I'll be able to tell what color is in each bottle just by looking at the top of the box.

So much better for me!  I put my glitter in here too, but I'm wondering if I should have put my mists in instead?

The only thing that bothers me is that the shoebox doesn't sit flush with the shelf.  Can't have everything, can we now?  Ha!

How do you store your paint?

Thanks for all your well wishes for Abie yesterday :)  She woke up and was 100% again!  I'm going to try and get to the grocery store tonight.  Hope you have a fantastic day.  Thanks for popping in today!  Chat with you soon!

Paper bag packaging.

I'm having one of those sluggish weeks and I can't believe it's only Wednesday!  I feel like it should be Friday, don't you :) 

So the card I posted yesterday had a few bits that hung over the edges and I was trying to decide how I was going to deliver this to Grandma.  I remembered Michelle Wooderson using these brown paper sacks for just such a thing.  Then I remembered that I bought some of these sacks from her ETSY SHOP months and months ago :)  Silly me!  I bought them and then hadn't used them because I was afraid I would run out and then what would I do?  (duh, order more Becky!  They were like $3, seriously)

I tried to coordinate the outside of the bag with the card, but my reds are off and by the looks of the photo so are my greens :)  BUT in real life the greens are okay.

The post card came from some really cool specialty paper I bought at Urban Arts and Crafts here in KC years and years ago.  They use to be located in the River Market but they aren't there anymore, they moved to Briarcliff which I don't think is nearly as cool :)  Ha! 

I picked Abie up early from school yesterday, the nurse called and said she wasn't running a fever but wasn't feeling well either.  There's a stomach bug running around.  She took it easy all night and we'll see how she is when she gets up this morning, we're going to let her sleep in a bit :)  I hope you have a wonderful Wednesday.  Thanks for stopping in to see me today.  Talk to you soon!

Grandma's Birthday

Good morning :)  Tomorrow is my Grandma's birthday.  Well, one of my Grandmas.  I'm lucky enough to still have both of mine.  We're getting together this weekend to celebrate and I made this card to take for her.

I started this card out with that little Melissa Frances cardstock sticker.  I picked up a whole sheet of those Friday at my LSS.  Aren't they pretty?  Anyway, as usual, I picked out my focal point and worked my way backwards.

The whole center piece is popped up with foam tape to give some added dimension.

The little Prima flowers I spritzed with my new Studio Calico Calico Shine spray.  Picked that up at my LSS on Friday too.  I couldn't believe that had it!!!!  I got the last one too!

Quick post for me today.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have a beautiful day :)  See you tomorrow!

Disclaimer

Good Monday morning everyone!  I have to give you a bit of a disclaimer about today's card.  I made this card for my cousin Jessica who was diagnosed with breast cancer back in June.  She finished her last chemotherapy treatment about two weeks ago.  She had a rough go of it, after trying out two different chemo's, one which she had an allergic reaction to and the other which she a horrible physical reaction to and was only able to be on the treatment for five minutes, she was finally given the chemo treatment nicknamed "red devil".  Yuck.  Here's my disclaimer, MY CARD HAS  DIRTY WORD ON IT.  But, after enduring the "red devil", I figure Jessica needed a card like this!  Plus, it's a pretty card, and all glittery!

 Here's a sneak, in case you're offended, but still want an idea of what the card looks like.

Now, if you're bothered by foul language STOP READING.










 Here's the card in all it's glory :)

This card was pretty simple to make, it did take a bit of time to cover all the tiny letters in glitter. I'm just so proud of my cousin and how far she's come.  She still has more surgery to go through and injections of another drug every three weeks for the next year, but this is  one hurdle that's over.

I hope you had a great weekend.  Ours just went by way too fast.  I had so many things I wanted to get done and felt like none of them were accomplished.  Hope you were more productive than I was!  Thanks for coming by today and I'll see you tomorrow!  Have a wonderful day :)

Veteran's Day and Felt Flower Hair Clips

First off I want to say Happy Veteran's Day to my Dad and all the other Veteran's out there.  Thank you for your service and the sacrifices you have made for us.  We will never know what you have seen or what you may be living with day to day, all the while we are able to carry on with our lives because of this.  For that I thank you, more than you will know.

On Wednesday MARY PAT posted THIS CARD with some felt flowers she made.  Well it inspired me to make some felt flowers of my own!  Mary Pat used Papertrey Ink felt, I don't have any of that :(  I told her I've been debating for months whether or  not I should buy it or not.  I just used what I had on hand, regular old $.20 felt from Michael's.  I used my Sizzix Tim Holtz Bigz die and my Cuttlebug and it worked great!

I hot glued all the layers together and added a sparkly rhinestone to the middle.

Abie picked the colors :)

I used the same process for the clips that I did HERE and then simply hot glued the whole felt piece to the clip.  I think I'm going to make another one over the weekend and see about turning it into a pin.  We'll see how that goes!

What's up for your weekend?  Abie is having a friend spend the night tonight then we're taking the girls out to dinner on Saturday.  I'm hoping to get some crafting in, as usual :)  Anyone start their Christmas shopping yet?  Anyone done?  Enjoy your Friday and your weekend.  Thanks for coming by today.  See you soon!

Getting a wee bit of a head start...

On my Christmas tags.  (I know Tracy, it's before December, and I'm sorry about that.  Ha!) 

I've been wanting to make some faux corrugated Kraft embellishments for awhile now.  Several months ago Dawn McVey did THIS POST and I thought, "ooohhh, love!  I'm so going to do that!"  I even wrote it down on my to do list.  But weeks passed and I never got to it.  Fast forward to October and THIS POST over at Just Jingle and I fell in love AGAIN!  I suddenly remembered my little Kraft embellishments I wanted to make!  Jingle even inspired Mary Pat with THIS CARD SET.  So much inspiration going on, I don't know what to do with myself!

When I first thought about working on these I was going to make simple shapes like butterflies, clouds, swirls, etc.  But since I'm a procrastinator and it's now MONTHS later and we're quickly approaching Christmas, I thought I would get a jump start on my Christmas tags.

Here's my weapon :)

I used my Doodlecharms and Christmas Cheer cartridge with my Cricut and cut out multiple Christmasy shapes at 2".  I used the SHADOW and BLACKOUT features.  Look at those reindeer.  Now you tell me, isn't the corrugated one MUCH cuter?  I LOVE him!!!  :)

And how about these cuties?  Too much.  I can't wait to make some fun tags to put these on.

And a few more for good measure.

Have a wonderful Thursday and I'll see you tomorrow!  Thanks for popping by today!

Thanksgiving Place Cards

Yea Wednesday!  I'm super happy with how fast this week is going by.  Last night I started organizing/rearranging some things in my craft room.  I have a long way to go and am not even sure what I want the end result to be, but I started :)

Do you remember a few weeks ago when I POSTED THESE?  I had an epiphany the other day and knew exactly what I wanted to do to finish up these Thanksgiving place cards.

Here's the group of all of them together (please excuse the green paint on my stool)

I hand wrote the names in brown and hot glued a sprig of gold glittery goodness from Michael's on the left.  They were $1.29 and 50% off last week!!!  The females got green buttons with twine tied in bows.

While the males got green buttons with twine tied in knots :)  Love the way these turned out!

After two rainy, rainy days here we are expecting sun and a high of 51!  Wahoo!!!  Looking forward to that sunshine :)  I hope you have a magnificent Wednesday.  I want to let all of you know how grateful I am that you visit my little blog, you really keep me going!  Sort of like my cheerleaders.  Thank you friends :)  I'll see you tomorrow!

Party Buckets!

I want to talk to you about some super fun party buckets I made to hold gift cards.  These were for birthday parties but they would be great for the upcoming holidays! This post is a wee bit picture heavy, so stick with me!

Here's the top of the first bucket.  I used my Nestabilites to cut out the circle and scalloped circle then layered on some scrap bits and pieces.  The P is from my Lawn Fawn Quinn's Alphabet set (love).  I stamped it with white ink and then traced the P with a glue pen and added some tinsel glitter.

As for the outside of the bucket, I kept it simple and added paper and lime green ribbon that I stuck on with Scor Tape.

As for my second bucket, I used a 6x6 Basic Grey pad and had a few issues with seams.  To cover the three seams up I added embellishments over each of them.  The above embellie is covering up the seam on the Kraft paper :)

The problem with added those embellishments was that then the rest of the paint can looked plain, so that's where the tulle came in.

I'm a bit worried that the tulle was too much, but I think it worked...okay :)

I do LOVE the way the top came out on this one!  How about my lovely new cloud punch as a base for those bits and pieces?  And that aqua embossed G?  Oooohhh, loving that!  Definitely going to emboss those letters again!

The hardest part about these buckets was having paper long enough to cover the whole thing.  I needed 13" and as you know paper is 12" so any way you cut it, you're going to have a seam.  I don't like seams.  I want one seamless piece.  I did my best to deal with it :)  Next time I'll definitely NOT use a 6x6 paper pad!  Ha!

Happy Tuesday!  Thanks for stopping in today and I'll chat with you tomorrow :)

Freshly Made Sketches #9

Did you remember to set your clocks back yesterday?  One thing I enjoy about Daylights Savings in the fall is how productive I am on this one Sunday a year.  I head into the week feeling refreshed and ready to take everything on!

Today I'm playing along with FRESHLY MADE SKETCHES.  I decided to turn the sketch.  After I did that I realized I needed to move the sentiment too.

This is a Veteran's Day card for my Dad.  Veteran's Day is this Friday, you still have time to make your cards and get them out!!  I used Papertrey Ink's EST 1776 stamp set with the exception for that big star.  That came from my Stampin' Up! Independence Day set.  I hand cut all the shapes and popped them up on pop dots for some dimension :)

Have a beautiful Monday my friends.  Thank you so, so very much for coming by today and I'll be back tomorrow to see you!

Jefferson City

Yea Friday!  I'm so excited it's the weekend!  Yesterday really threw me off with the field trip.  KATIE wished me a happy weekend eve and I told her I had completely forgotten it was Thursday!  I've been all thrown off this week for some reason.  One thing I do know, today is Friday! 

The kids had a great time yesterday and so did Mike and I.  We were able to follow the buses down in our own vehicle, so it was almost like a mini date!  Two and half hours alone in the car with NO KIDS!  I don't have anything crafty to share today, just a few pics from the field trip.  So if you are a history buff, stick around.  BUT, there is a funny pic at the end...

Here's a picture of the kids, listening intently, to the tour guide.  This room had a mural that was painted my Thomas Hart Benton, a famous Missourian and painter.  The mural was a social history of Missouri and it is way cool.  You could spend hours in that room looking at it.  This mural was one of the things I remembered from my trip to Jeff City when I was in school.

Here's a closer picture of the mural.  Benton has a very distinctive painting style, as you can see :)  The tour guide said he painted this with egg paints.  So he mixed his paints with egg yolks, in the summer, in Missouri.  She said it got up to 110 degrees that summer, can you imagine the smell?

Over one of the doors Benton painted the goings on in St. Louis and Kansas City at that time (1937).  This is the picture of St. Louis.

And this is Kansas City.  I really like this one, but that's because this is where we live :)

Here is the House of Representatives.  I guess this is where the magic happens. 

I was more impressed with the stained glass windows and artwork :)  Check that puppy out!!!!  Massive!

Okay, now for the funny picture.  Have you guys heard of the show Truck Stop Missouri?  (Please don't judge Missourians on this show :) haha)  It's a reality TV show about Midway Truck Stop, which is located halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis on I-70.  Well we had never heard of it before, until the show came out this summer.  So on our way back today, we stopped and they had these cardboard cutouts of the owner and the assistant manager.  Abie and I got our picture taken with them.  Look how tall she is, 9 years old!  Oh, and I'll tell you this, if you're ever in Missouri, don't waste your time going to Midway :)  Haha!

If you're still with me, thanks for checking out my pictures.  Mike won tickets to the Comets game tonight, so the four of us will be enjoying a FREE indoor soccer game!  Woot woot!!  Tomorrow Abie has her two birthday parties and I think we're going to do something special with Landry.  Sunday, well, football and crafting :)

What's on your weekend agenda?  Lots of crafting I hope!  Thanks for stopping in today.  Have a wonderful Friday and an even better weekend!  I'll see you soon!!