2012, my favorite projects, part I.

Can you believe it's the last day of 2012?  This year absolutely flew by, and what a great year it was too :)  Each year gets better than the last, but before we get to 2013 I thought I would share with you top 12 projects from 2012.  Today I'm going to share my favorite projects from January through June last year.

This card from January 26, 2012.  I love the felt and Kraft!!

This baby shower card from February.  I love the colors and vintage trim, and the doily and stick pin.  Well, just about everything!!

For March I loved the St. Patrick's Day shirts I made for the girls.  I had never used iron on transfers before and they were so crazy easy!  I loved how these turned out!

In April I was finally able to find some washi tape (thank you Target) and I love how quick and easy this card was to make.  I use this tape on tons of cards and tags now!

May was a toughie, I had several cards and tags I really liked, but this one is so different from my usual style.  I love this Stampin' Up! set, Baroque Motifs : )

For June I picked Landry's birthday invitations.  I love how they look like sparklers :) 

I hope you all have a save New Year's Eve tonight.  We'll be staying in tonight with movies and instead of our usual snacks this year, we'll be feasting on a crab boil.  Yum!!  I'll be back tomorrow with part two of my favorites from 2013.  See you then and thanks for stopping by :)

Last minute hostess gifts.

Hello everyone and happy Christmas Eve!!!  Are you traveling today or spending the day/evening at your house?  We're having family over tonight so the girls and I will be busy today cooking the ham and potatoes and few quick appetizers.  My mom and sister will be bringing some more food to finish out the meal :)  I think of the whole holiday, Christmas Eve has always been my favorite.  There's always so much excitement and wonder and the kids have so much fun. 

Last night we were over at my cousins and I took her a bottle of wine for a hostess gift.  To dress it up a bit, I made a hang tag for it.

Her tree and decorations are all in these bright colors so I made the hanging tag to match.

Tomorrow we'll be over at my mom and dad's and this is her hanging tag :)  (if you're reading this mom, please act surprised when you see it, thanks)

I think Papertrey Ink makes a die specifically for this, but A) I didn't have it, and B) it was just as easy to trim one out myself.  For no more often than I make something like this, I really can't justify the cost.  I can't believe I just said that!  Hahahaha!

I want to wish you all the happiest of Christmases.  I hope you enjoy your holiday with family and friends and that Santa brings you all you asked for :)  I'm so grateful for each and every one of you.  I'll be back in a couple of days :)

Christmas gift card holders.

The individual days have flown by this week, so why is it just  now Thursday?  Don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled it's Thursday, but it should have been Thursday like two days ago ;)

Today I have the gift card/money holders I made this year.  I saw something similar on Pinterest, personally the ones on Pinterest were WAY cuter, but I'm good with  mine too :)

These were super quick and easy to make with my Stampin' Up! Top Note Die.

It took me a second while I was laying them out to make sure I didn't get the reds and greens mixed up.  My eyes were starting to cross.  Haha!  I used Tombow Mono adhesive for these.  I've always had really good luck with that holding and since I just needed a small bead of glue, I figured that was my best bet.

Have you made any gift card holders this year?  Do you have a favorite pattern you use?  I would LOVE for you to share :)

Thanks for stopping by today.  Today is the girls last day of school and their parties, but the weather is not looking the greatest and I'm wondering if school will get cancelled...  We'll see.  I hope you're warm and safe wherever you are and I'll see you back here tomorrow.

WOYWW

I'm so happy it's Wednesday.  Yesterday was one heck of a day, at work anyway :)  Remember I said this would be a doozy of a week?  Well, I'm hoping that yesterday was the peak and the rest of the week is downhill from here.  Haha!

Today I'm linking up with JULIA to share what I'm working on.

For once it's not a Christmas project!! This table was previously occupied with all of my wrapping stuff and that's all moved now.  I'm working on a birthday gift card holder :)

Here's to a fantastic Wednesday for all of us!  Thanks for stopping by and I'll see you tomorrow!!

Teacher gifts.

I needed a quick and easy gift this year for the girls teachers.  Things have been hectic around here and I still wanted to make something for them I just knew I would have a lot of time :)  Enter this project from MARY PAT.  I knew it would be the perfect gift for both teachers!

I bought a couple of frames and then picked out paper that made me think of each teacher.  I think this one is my favorite :)

Before I wrapped them up, I wrote to do lists on them and holiday wishes for both teachers.  Then I included a dry erase marker in each bag.  Thanks for the awesome idea Mary Pat!!

What are your great ideas for teacher gifts?

I'm working late tonight, it will ensure I get all my work done so I can take a nice holiday break with my girlies!!  I'm really looking forward to that.  I hope you have a fantastic Tuesday and I'll see you all here tomorrow with a peek at what I'm working on.  I finally got my craft desk back now that the wrapping paper is put away.  Haha!  Thanks for stopping in today.

A no picture post...

Sorry for the no picture post today.  I keep all my pics on the laptop and Mike and Abie were using it last night to take a refereeing test for volleyball.  So, I didn't get a chance up get my pics uploaded.

The girls and I made sugar cookies on Saturday.  They LOVED it.  I was glad when it was finished.  Haha!  On Sunday we took them to see Wreck it Ralph.  We would have rather have seen Rise of the Guardians, but the early shows are $5 and it conflicted with volleyball practice.  After lunch, I was able to get the rest of my Christmas wrapping finished!!  Yay!!  Whoopie!!!  I can't tell you how happy I am that this is finished :)

I also made some fun gift card and money holders that I'm going to post this week along with the teacher gifts for this year.

This is my last week of work, and it's going to be a doozy.  I'm going to push on through though and hope I can squeeze in some crafting time at night, you know, to relieve the stress of the work place.  Ha!  Thanks for stopping in and reading my no picture post.  I'll be back tomorrow, with photos!!  Have a great Monday!

Finished Snowman Soup!

Can you believe it's Thursday?  I finished up the snowman soup last night...

Here's a picture of the whole bag.  It contains a package of hot chocolate, a small baggie of marshmallows, three chocolate kisses and a mini candy cane.  I topped the bag with the Stampin' Up! Top Note Die and added a fun snowman :)

Here's a close up of the snowman.  I found him in the $1 aisle, that's not a dollar anymore, at Michael's.  Stamped him in blue and added an orange glitter nose and blue glitter accents with my Martha Stewart glue pen. 

Quick post today.  Things are crazy busy at work, Abie and Landry are both in the fifth grade play tonight, I'm trying to find the time to hit the grocery store and I'm loving the hustle and bustle of the holidays right now :)  How about you?

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll try and pop in tomorrow to share the teacher gifts I made.  Have a GREAT Thursday and I'll see you soon!!

WOYWW

Hello Wednesday, how in the world did you get here so fast?  It's already time for another WOYWW.  I'm linking up over at JULIA'S BLOG today to share a peek at what I'm working on...

Landry and I are working on this for her class party next week.  Any guesses?  It's a classic...  Snowman Soup :)  She is having so much fun stuffing all the bags.  Honestly, she's been a great help too!  I'm hoping to finish these up tonight and post a picture tomorrow of the finished product.

What's on your workdesk today?  Any crafting going on?  Tonight we'll be home so hopefully I can get some things accomplished.  Thanks for popping in today and I'll see you soon!!  Have a beautiful Wednesday!

Project Life for 2013

Morning and happy Tuesday everyone!!  I want to share with you today the Project Life Core Kit I picked out for 2013.

I picked the Cherry Edition.  The first thing about this years kit, the box was changed...  I think you can buy a tray sort of like what they use to come in, but I still have mine, so I figured I would just store this new kit in the old tray :)  See, saving money!

What's different about the kit was there were no blank grid cards.  I didn't use a ton of the grid cards this last year, so I'm cool with that.  I actually love these grid cards!!  Just a little room for journaling and some added color.

Here's a sampling of some of the cards in the kit.  I love the colors.  I figure I can add smaller tags or pieces of paper on top of these to journal on if I need to.

Between the new kit, my new calendar AND my new photo printer, I'm so excited about Project Life 2013!!!  Are you going to scrap Project Life in 2013?  If so, which kit did you get?

Thanks for stopping in today :)  Have a great Tuesday and I'll see you tomorrow!!  I have a fun little project I'm working on for Landry's school party that I'm going to share.

Finished Christmas tags.

Good Monday morning everyone.  I hope you had a great weekend.  Things were busy around here :)  The house got cleaned Saturday along with laundry catch up, then we did some shopping after Mike got home from a work thing.  On Sunday we had lunch out and then the girls and I ran to Claire's, they're favorite store, to hunt down some Christmas earrings.  When we got home, Landry and I started a project, more to come this week, and Mike to Abie to practice.  I had every intention of getting the presents wrapped and it just-didn't-happen. 

What I did do was get part of my craft area cleaned up and ready for wrapping so if I catch a few minutes this week, I can run down and wrap a few gifts at a time.  My tags are finished and ready to go, which was the time consuming part :)

I used small manilla tags from Michael's and a couple of Inkadinkadoo stamp sets I picked up a Michael's in October.  Depending on what paper I use and who the gift is for, will dictate which tag gets used.  I love how these turned out!!  So fun!!  They took hardly any effort, just the drying time of the stickles.

Hope you have a wonderful Monday!  We're home tonight, so I'm hoping to get some wrapping or crafting done!!  A rare on a weeknight these days :)  Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you tomorrow.

Paper bag album

Yay for Thursday!!  This week hasn't gone by as fast as last week for me, but it's still gone by pretty quick.

Today I want to share with you my semi finished paper bag album that was totally inspired by KATIE!!

Here's a picture of the album all put together, but before I had any of the papers put on.  It was so easy to assemble this thing following KATIE'S DIRECTIONS.

I used MME's Christmas paper, a little washi and a stamp for the front cover.

For the inside pages, I strategically placed my cuts so the decorations on the patterned paper would be the star of the page.

I haven't added any pictures yet, because I'm not quite sure what I'm going to use this little mini for.

I think after I get the pictures in the book, I'll add a few more embellishments though :)

Here's the back cover.  Don't you just love that paper??  I want to add something to the back too.

This little album was SO fun to make.  I've always loved making paper bag minis, thanks for reminding me about them Katie!!

Abie has a choir performance tonight so we'll be enjoying that.  I hope you have a beautiful Thursday.  Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you soon! 

WOYWW

Well, I'm making it in to post today!  I wanted to share what I'm working on and link up with Julia over at THE STAMPING GROUND

Christmas tags!!!  The stickles are drying right now, and I then I need to assemble some of them.  Do you make your Christmas tags?  What's funny is I make Christmas tags for my packages, but I don't make my Christmas cards.  Ha!

Head over to Julia's and check out the fab workspaces and thanks for checking out mine!!  I'll see you tomorrow friends.  Have a great Wednesday.

New toy!!

Quick Tuesday post today.  I want to share a picture of my new toy.  An early Christmas present :)

A photo printer!!  Woo hoo!!!  I'm hoping this will make my Project Life even easier than it has been, this last year :)  I got this a couple of weeks ago and I've had a chance to play with it a few times and I love it!  It was so easy to set up and get started.  Once I got over being intimidated, I was printing pictures in no time!  What had me sold was the fact that you can print photos directly from your phone!!  Only problem, the Android app won't be out for another couple of weeks, but I'll let you know how that works out once I get it going.  I'm thrilled with the quality of prints though, they look great in my album!!

That's it for me today.  We will be gone again tonight, so not sure if I'll make it by tomorrow, but I'm hoping to get my paper bag album posted on Thursday.  Have a great Tuesday and I'll see you soon.  Thanks for stopping by :)

This year's Advent Calendar.

Good morning.  Can you believe it's December???  This year has flown by so fast.  As if the next few weeks won't go by fast enough, we're going to count them down even faster with our new Advent Calendar.  The last several years we used THIS ONE that I had made.  After a few years though, the boxes got kind of rough looking so we made a new one!

I saw a similar idea to this in Country Living magazine and it got my wheels turning.  Their bags were cloth drawstring bags, but whatever :)  I picked up red and green gift bags at Michael's along with the washi tape and black numbers.  Landry and I decorated the bags right up and they were ready to fill!  I find the filling part the hard part, what about you?  This year I went with fruit roll ups, granola bars, earrings, notebooks, markers and pearler beads.  That was the nice thing about the bags, since they were a little bigger I could fit a bit more in them.  The girls LOVE to countdown the days and it's so much fun to watch them open the bags each day and figure out how many days are left.

How's your Christmas shopping going?  We still have a few things left to pick up, but the bulk is done.  What I'm dreading is the wrapping, ugh!  :)  We have a busy week this week, something going on every night, that time of year, but it makes the nights we aren't busy that much better!  Thank you for stopping by today and I'll see you, hopefully tomorrow!