Flags!!

Friday flags!  Haha!  I finished up my flags the other night and I love how they turned out!

Here they are, all tucked in my bowl of confetti.  I think they look so cute here!

 Here's a close up of one of my flags.  I used THIS DIE to cut out the shapes and then put just a bit of adhesive on one end.  I rolled the sticky end around the toothpick and voila, instant flag embellishment!

Finally, here's a little Valentine card I made with one of the flags as an added embellie.  I used some of my new MME paper too :)

I had a fun little box arrive in the mail this week so I'm hoping to play with it this weekend.  What are you up to?  Whatever it is, I hope you have a great time doing it!  See you soon and thank you for coming by today.

Project Life Week #3

Hey there everyone!  I'm back today with week number three of my Project Life.  This week was all about laundry and taking care of the sicky one :)

I like to break up my journaling with the different colors of Sharpies to help show division of the days.  It may not look visually appealing, but it helps me break up the days when I'm writing :)

Quick post today, but I'll be back tomorrow with my finished flags!!  I was able to get them done last night and even made a card with one!  Thanks for stopping by today.  Have a beautiful Thursday :)

WOYWW

What are you working on today?  Head over to JULIA'S BLOG, THE STAMPING GROUND to link up with everyone else and see tons of desks today!

Here's my desk today.

You know those cute little flags you can buy?  I'm making my own.  On Monday I cut out all my banners and counted my toothpicks, while texting with my friend, and now here they've sat, for almost two days!  I think I'll be able to finish them up today though when I get home from work.

This week is flying by already, due to the holiday on Monday.  I hope yours is too :)  Thanks for stopping by today, I'll be back tomorrow with week #3 of Project Life!  Until then, have a great Wednesday!

Using some stash.

Yesterday I had the day off and spent it cleaning and purging my craft room.  Along the way I found a few things I had forgotten I had so I mad a card.

The script paper I picked up at Urban Arts and Crafts years ago, when they were still located down in the river market.  There are a few other things on here I've had for some time, but I LOVE how this card turned out!!

That's it for me today.  I hope you have a wonderful Tuesday :)  Thanks for stopping by today and I'll be back tomorrow with a look at what I'm working on.

Lots of new things!

Good morning to you!  We had an interesting weekend, Abie has been sick with the flu since Thursday :( so there has been a lot of laundry, Lysol and anti-bacterial wiping going on around here.  Her temp was down to 98.6 last night and she's not up yet this morning, so here's to hoping it's still down this morning and stays down ALL DAY today!  I know she's tired of being sequestered to the family room.  Ha!

When Mike would get home, I would run out.  You know we would need something from Walmart and I would just happen to run by the LSS or Michael's too ;)  Here are some of the things I picked up.

 First up is from Michael's.  They were having dollar days, which in some cases means multiple dollars for one item.  I picked up a couple of older MME 6x6 paper pads that were 2 for $8, three lovely new Sharpies for $1 each (I love these for my Project Life) and lastly, some AWESOME little bags!  Check those puppies out.  Now they were a WHOPPING $4.99 for the package, and I debated about coming back with a coupon, but I couldn't wait.

 I picked these up from my LSS.  There are different patterns on each large journaling card.  I'm planning on trimming them down to use on cards and in Project Life.  I should have opened the pack for you, so you could see more...  Sorry about that.

 Now this I actually ordered from Ebay.  Our old babysitter has asked me to make some Rolodex birthday calendars and when I made one for my sister, in the past, I remember thinking how much easier it would have been if I would have had the die.  Guess what, Sizzix doesn't make the die anymore.  Ebay to the rescue!  Found one, and picked it for $14.99 with free shipping!

My DESK (if you scroll down in this post there are some decent shots of it,  promise) has cubbies on each side of it.  I picked up two of these bins to try out to see if they will work for my stuff.  They were $3.97 at Walmart, the cheapest I've found for these type of canvas bins.

Now this beauty took forever to find.  My current craft area is in our unfinished basement and I'll soon be moving upstairs to our current family room, which is actually the bonus room above our garage.  The other day, while searching craft rooms on Pinterest I kept coming across these cool three tiered stands and even found THIS TUTORIAL that I LOVED!  I was all about making it this weekend.  I searched high and low, all over town for cheap cake pans.  They don't exist.  You can buy brand new ones though, with a coupon, for around $21-25, depending on how big you want your stand.  That doesn't include the price of your candlesticks, glue or spray paint (which we already had).  I had even tried Home Goods, thinking they might already had a three tiered tray that I liked, it wouldn't be as much fun as making it, but at least I would have one.  No luck.  Late Saturday afternoon, I was sitting in the living room and I realized Hobby Lobby was the place to go.  I checked out their online ad, wire items were 50% off, good sign, and hopped in the car.  Upon my arrival, I found this beauty, regular price $29.99, on sale for $15!!!  No way I could pass that up!

So now, as you can see, I have quite a bit of organizing to do in my area.  I'm hoping to purge and maybe rework the way I have some things situated.  I'm really planning my new room out.  No new furniture, just the layout and such.

Sorry about the long post today :)  Hope you enjoy your Monday.  Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you back here tomorrow!!

So I didn't completely trash the card.

Remember the card I was working on Wednesday?  I didn't completely trash it, just ripped off four of the strips, trimmed it down and basically started over.  Hahaha!

Here's what I ended up with.

I'm much happier with this card.  The other one, the patterned paper strips didn't go with any of the embellishments I wanted to use, so something had to go.  I love that little cameo, it's got adhesive on the back already so it was super easy to use!

I'm thrilled it's Friday, and a three day weekend for us, well at least the girls in the house.  Unfortunately Mike has to work on Monday.  I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished this weekend, what about you?

I hope you have a great weekend and a beautiful Friday.  Thanks for the visit today and I'll see you soon!!

Project Life Week #2

This whole week has just seemed so weird to me.  Today should be Friday, right?  Yesterday felt like Thursday, but today is Thursday.  I'm so confused :)

I'm sharing week number two of Project Life today.

I did an insert for this week too, not pictured, because I had extra photos from the girls school parties.  I'm finding this year so much easier to deal with than last year because I know what I want out of my album.  It's almost a relief!  I know I'll get behind at some point, but I also know how easy it is to get caught right back up again!

That's it for me today.  Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back tomorrow with a card :)  Have a gorgeous Thursday.  (it is Thursday, right?)

WOYWW

Hello there wonderful Wednesday :)  I'm so happy you're here.  Not only is it the fun day that we get to share what we're working on with all the other crafters around the world over at JULIA'S BLOG, STAMPING GROUND, but if things go as planned, I'll be able to work on those embellishments tonight!!

Until then, here's what's on my desk right now.

I'm working on a square card with some patterned paper strips.  I'm not sure I care for the colors I've chosen though...  We'll see where this ends up, might be the trash.  Ha!

What are you working on right now?  I appreciate your visit today, and your comments :)  I'll be back tomorrow with week number two of Project Life.  Until then, have a fab Wednesday!!

Sparkly heart.

Do you ever have one of those nights that turns out differently than you hoped?  All the way home last night all I could think about was how I was going to work on some fun embellishments I had brewing in my head.  Then Abie informs me that her lizard's heat bulb had burned out.  She looked so worried about Larry, her lizard, that I couldn't wait for Mike to stop on his way home.  I needed some things from the store anyway, so off we went.  We didn't get home until 5:00 and by then it was time to fix dinner.  The point to this story, no fun embellishments were made :(  but Larry is warm and toasty.

Today I'm going to share a fun sparkly heart card that was quick to make.

I had envisioned the hearts with a red glitter, but when I started working on this, I realized I didn't have red, so pink it was!

Tonight is volleyball practice, so no fun embellishments will be made.  They will have to wait until tomorrow, hopefully :)  Have a lovely Tuesday and I'll see you tomorrow.  Thanks for the visit today, I appreciate it!!

Red and white woodgrain.

Good morning!!  Did you have a good weekend?  Ours was super busy, and I'm sad to say I'm already looking forward to next weekend :)  haha! 

Over the Christmas season I saw a whole section of red and white woodgrain paper products at Target and I really wanted to make a card using the products as inspiration.  Well, I just ran out of time.  Luckily, Valentine's Day is just around the corner and uses the same colors!!

I used my Papertrey Ink woodgrain stamp and stamped the background.  I love how it turned out!!  I added some twine, a stamped bingo card and stamped arrow, pointing at the 14 on the card.  A subtle reminder of Valentine's Day :)  Have you seen any fun woodgrain colors?

We have a nice quite week this week, so grateful for that!!  I'll come home from work tonight and stay home.  Yay!  Hope you have a wonderful Monday and I'll be back tomorrow with another card.  Thanks for stopping in today.

Monochromatic white card.

I've seen a lot of cards and layouts lately in monochromatic whites.  I love the look and thought I'd try my hand at one.

I started with an off white, almost creamy, card base and built up from there.  I loved the extra wide, scallop edge, trim I had, but then I drew a blank :)  After flipping through my My Mind's Eye paper pad, I found that cool doily paper that I thought would work well.  Then my issue became the seam.  I resolved that quickly with some scor tape and off white grosgrain ribbon (love that trick!)  To finish this off, I added some Papertrey buttons.  I'm not sure if I'll add a sentiment or just leave this as a pretty notecard.  What do you think?  If I do add a sentiment, should I put it on the inside, or outside?

What's going on with you this weekend?  We're running around tonight getting things ready for tomorrow.  Abie's first volleyball tournament is tomorrow and the MRA ball, for Mike's work is tomorrow night!  Soooo, it's going to be a long, busy, but super fun day and we're all looking forward to it :)  I have several things sketched out that I'm hoping to work on Sunday afternoon.  Let's hope I can get to them!!

Thanks for stopping by today and I'll see you back here soon.  Have a wonderful Friday and a fantastic weekend!

Valentine Mini Cards.

Can you believe it's Thursday?  I'm thrilled, but seriously, this week is flying by.  Abie had a second practice last night, maybe that's why it's going by so fast :)

So I ended up making a couple of Valentine mini cards with my hodge podge of ingriedients on my table yesterday.  I wasn't sure where I was headed but this is where I ended up...

I went with the same color scheme on both cards (love aqua and red together!!)  but did a slight variation on each one.  I thought I might slip these in the girl's bags in the next few weeks :)

Valentine's Day always slips up on me.  I hadn't intended on making Valentine projects yet, but why not?  Have you made anything yet for the day of luuuuuuv?

Have a beautiful Thursday and I'll be back tomorrow with another card.  See you then and thanks for the visit today.

WOYWW

Happy Wednesday!  I'm linking up today with JULIA at THE STAMPING GROUND to share what is on my workdesk.

I'm working on a little of this and that.  A couple of mini cards, maybe?  I'm not exactly sure where this is headed, but I think those are the best projects, don't you?  :)

Hope you have a great Wednesday!!  Thanks for stopping in today.

Project Life, week 1.

Hi there!  I'm back today to share week one of my Project Life for 2013.  I'm using the Cherry Edition this year and I have to say, there is not much variety in the cards.  I don't know, maybe all the kits are like that this year.  That being said, in the Clementine Edition, what I used last year, there was almost TOO much variety.  I'm going to have to play around with it a bit more.  I do love the colors and patterns though, so pretty.  I really admire the people who can do Project Life from their stash, I get confused way to easily and the kit helps me narrow it down and stay focused :)  Then if I want to add some stash to it, I can.

Okay, on to week one.

(sorry about the glare)  The title cards make it super simple to just circle the month and add the dates.  Great for when I'm in a hurry.  I could see adding some washi or a tag to this if I wanted to though.  I printed out my three pics for the week, added my journaling, after looking at my calendar for notes, and I was done!  I even "prepped" the next week.  Filled out my title card and one of my journaling cards.  I find that if I can work ahead like that, it helps a little bit for times when I'm in a hurry.

Now, STEPH and I were emailing the other day about the Canon Selphy photo printer.  We both have it and we both LOVE it!  She was able to help me figure out how to print photos from my phone and so now I'm beyond in love!  Steph is trying to figure out if you can print wirelessly from your computer though.  Anyone know how to do that?  This little printer, I paid $70 for mine, but they have them for $80 on AMAZON.  You'll need more ink and paper, which is another $25-$30.  Can I tell you how awesome it is to just print photos out whenever you want to though?  AND from your own phone???  Ahhh-mazing!

That's about it for me today.  We have volleyball tonight.  The girls are going to hit it hard the next couple of nights, their first tournament is this weekend!!  Have a great Tuesday and I'll see you back here tomorrow.  Thanks for stopping by today :)

Gold thank you cards.

Morning!  What a great weekend we had.  I hope yours was just as wonderful!!  I was able to get some good craft time in yesterday afternoon and it was nice to get some of my space cleaned up and work on some fun things, just because.

Last week I was working on some thank you cards and I told you guys I didn't know what to do with the sentiments.  I figured it out.

I embossed the peacock feather in gold (got this fabulous idea from HERE.  Scroll down to her December 10/11 page and she stamped this stamp and embossed it in gold.  I fell in LOVE with the idea and that's when the idea for this set of cards began to grow).  So I stamped and embossed all the cards and then they sat like that for several days.  I knew I wanted to stamp a large thank you sentiment next to the feather, but I wasn't sure what colors to use.  I finally decided on aqua and lime green.

I like the way they turned out, but I'm a bit unhappy with my ink.  This is Papertrey's old ink and they have since reformulated it.  I don't have any of the new ink.  What inks do you use for your acrylic stamps?

Thanks for stopping by today.  I'll be back tomorrow with week one of my Project Life for 2013.  Have a wonderful Monday!!

The Liebster Award

Good Sunday morning everyone.  I hope you're having a nice weekend.  I'm popping in today to share with you an award I received from Kaeley!!  You should head over to her blog and check out her amazing photos!!

"Liebster" is a German word meaning sweetest, kindest, nicest, dearest, beloved,  lovely, kind, pleasant, valued, cute, endearing, or welcome. The Liebster Award is granted to new,  up and coming bloggers with great potential and fewer  than 200 followers. According to the rules of the Liebster Award, I am to answer 11 questions  posed at the nominating website, choose 11 people to whom I will pass on this honor, and then  make up 11 more questions which the new recipients must then in turn answer. 

11 Questions from My Mind's Lens:
1. If you could meet anyone, current or from the past, who would it be?  My great grandma Becky whom I   was named after.
2. What is your LEAST favorite task around the house?  Cleaning the bathroom.
3. Where is your favorite place that you have visited?  London, England.
4. What do you like to do when you have time to kill?  Drink a cup of coffee and read a book.
5. Spots or stripes?  Spots.
6. What are the top three items on your wish list?  Finish the basement, more time to craft, get through the volleyball season.
7. How many different cities have you lived in?  three
8. What is your favorite beverage? coffee
9. Would you rather visit the ocean or the mountains?  ocean
10. How many blogs do you follow regularly?   No idea :)
11. Are you a morning person or a night owl?  During the week, a morning person.  On the weekend, a night owl.

11 Random Things about me:

1.  I got my first tattoo in September and I now have four.

2.  I am starting week 9 of P90X, thanks to my motivator/husband Mike.

3.  We have named 2013 the "year of the purge" and are cleaning out the entire house, disposing of tons of stuff.

4.  I love to buy phone cases.

5.  If I pull my hair back in the morning I'll get a headache.

6.  I drive 20 minutes to work everyday and use this time to list what I'm grateful for.

7.  I like the drive TO work much better than the drive home :)

8.  My family, including extended, cracks me up.

9.  I love old TV shows and old movies.

10.  I love putting up the Christmas decorations, but can't wait to take them down.

11.  I would like to buy new dishes, but Mike has put me on a "no new dish buying" rule.

11 Questions for the Nominees:

1.  What kind of crafter are you?

2.  Is your hair short or long?

3.  Why did you start your blog?

4.  Would you ever like to be on a design time?

5.  Do you work outside the home?

6.  Do you have any pets?

7.  Would you rather eat at home or eat out?

8.  What's your favorite place to eat out at?

9.  Brown rice or white rice?

10.  Would you rather be cold or hot?

11.  Do you have bright colors painted in your house or light colors?

Now, here's where I change the rules a bit...  You know I love all my blogs!  So, if you're reading this and you have under 200 followers, CONGRATULATIONS  you have been given the Liebster Award!!!!  Let me know if you post the award, I would love to see your answers!!  :)

Have a beautiful Sunday friends.  I'll see you tomorrow!   

           

Project Life Week 52, yes I said 52!

Happy Friday friends!  It's the first Friday of the new year are you excited?  I am because I've made it through my short work week!!

Well, I didn't get my cards finished, but I did decide what I wanted to do with the sentiments, so I'm hoping to get them completed this weekend.  In the meantime, I want to share my last week of Project Life from 2012!!!!

I added some washi tape to the title card up top and I love how that turned out.  Too bad it took me 52 weeks to try that out, huh?  I only had two pictures this week, which kills me because it was Christmas and we were all together with our family, I had my camera and not one picture!  Grr!

Since there were two days left, after week 52, this was how I decided to handle my last page.  I ended up with a photo for each of those days and wrote about what we did on each of those days too.  I did a normal title card, but only put the two dates for those two days and then filled in with decorative 3x4 cards.  In the last 4x6 slot,  I used the "this is not the end" card, because this is not the end.  I have already started on Project Life 2013!!

Do you have plans this weekend?  We don't have anything going on and it's the first weekend in MONTHS!  I am so excited :)  Don't worry, we'll make up for it next weekend.  Haha!  Thank you for coming by today and I'll see you back here on Monday.  Have a beautiful Friday and a wonderful weekend!

Birthday gift card holder.

Hey there!  I made it through yesterday :)  It was so nice to come home and have Mike there.  Having him home and only having three days are making this week bearable.  Ha!

Today I wanted to share a gift card holder I made a few weeks ago for a birthday party Abie went to.

I bought the gift card at Claire's and it came in a little cardboard envelope thingie (technical term).  I took apart said thingie and used it for a pattern to make a much cuter thingie of my own :) 

I have some thank you cards I'm working on, but I'm stumped right now as to what color to do the sentiment in.  If I get those finished tonight, I'll share them tomorrow.  If not, I'll share my last week of Project Life 2012 and how I finished up my album.  My Friday post will be a surprise for all of us!  Haha!

Have a fab Thursday and I'll see you tomorrow.  Thanks for popping in today :)

Project Life Weeks 50 and 51

Well today I go back to work today.  It's been a wonderful break and I've enjoyed every single second at home.  What's nice is that it's already Wednesday, so only three days until the weekend!!  The girls are still home until next Monday, and Mike is off the rest of the week with them, so it's still vacation mode around our house.

I wanted to share my last couple of weeks of Project Life 2012 with you.  I am so happy I did this.  It's been so cool to look back on this year and see what we did each week.  I only took three pictures a week, but I did take notes for just about every day.

I have week 52 finished, just need to take a  photo of it and upload it to the blog so I can share it with you guys.  For Project Life 2013, I haven't bought my album yet, forgot my coupon when I was at Michael's the other day.  Other than that, I'm ready to go!!

Have a great Wednesday :)  I'll be back tomorrow with a gift card holder I made over for a birthday.  See you then, thanks for stopping by today.

2012, my favorite projects, part II.

Happy New Year!  Did you have a good time ringing in the new year or did you about fall asleep, like me?  Haha!

I'm back today with part two of my favorites from last year.  I left off with June so let's start out with the second half of the year.

In July I made this card for Mike and I liked how I spritzed the wood pieces with mist and then sprinkled the card.  I love the look of this, but still don't do it enough (too impatient for drying time, haha!)

In August I made this card for a challenge (and my mom's birthday) and I LOVED everything about it :)

My favorite project for September was the fall banner I made.  It wasn't labor intensive at all, pretty quick and easy, but I just loved the outcome!

In October I bought this super cute stamp at Michael's and had so much fun coloring it with my Bic's and paper piecing (for the first time...) her dress!

For November I picked this birthday card for my Grandma Mary.  I love all the texture on this card!

For December I picked the Christmas tags.  They were simple this year, but still super fun, I think!!

I've never done a post like this, where I look back through my old projects.  It was a lot of fun.  I hope you enjoyed it too.  Thanks for stopping by today, I hope everyone has a fabulous 2013!  I'm excited to see what this year has in store for us :)  See you tomorrow!!