Never knew love

Here is the second card from my burst of creative craziness the last few days.

Card Recipe:

Paper: Stampin' Up

Die Cuts: Sizzix

Punches: Stampin' Up (scallop), EK Success ( lg. corner rounder)

Font: Georgia

Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)

Other: Ric-rac trim, bling

In other news, Hayley has caught a cold from this crazy weather. Warm. Cold. Freezing. back to warm again. Grr...wish it would make up it's mind, but I'll be happy to see the return of 70 this week!

Will made it safely to OK last night. Then today they had an ice storm. SO thankful for the small blessing that the storm hit today instead of yesterday.

After a few days off...

I had a creative explosion today! My husband left (again) for a training in Oklahoma. 7 more weeks on my own. I took a few days off to spend extra time with him before he had to leave because we will be apart so much this year that it seems such a waste to spend the days we have together doing anything other than just enjoying time with one another.


Anyway, now that I'm back in the creative mindset, I was able to really churn out some cards. I am starting to experiment with my style a little bit because I'm forcing myself to create with only my scrap paper--because I have a HUGE tub of it. I'm still using whatever embellishments I want, but I'm using die cuts as much as possible because that still uses up some of the smaller scraps!


I have a post ready for every day this week--gasp! I know...I never have that many in a week, so be prepared ;-).


Most of the cards I'm going to be working on are to stock up for when my hubby deploys in August. I'm going to try to send him 1 a day for the 4 months he's gone. I wanted to do it last year and I wasn't very prepared or organized. This time I'm doing the work well ahead of time!


Here is card #1...

Card Recipe

Patterned paper & Cardstock: Stampin Up

Flower: Making Memories

Brad: Making Memories

Tag: Sizzix

Chipboard: Target $ spot

Stamps: Papertrey Ink

Other: Ric-rac trim & bling

I LOVE my new sewing machine!!

Ok, so these projects are far from professional, but they are the first "real" things I have done with my sewing machine...and I didn't even have patterns!!

I made this camera strap cover for my camera--

(The fabric is Amy Butler)

And this crayon holder for my purse or diaper bag for when we have to go out and the girls get restless. They love to color and this is sooo much cuter than my usual ziploc baggy of crayons! I used Amy Butler fabrics for this too and then it has a velcro closure. Like I said it's a little "wonky" but at least I can use it for it's intended purpose. Not too bad for a first try at it! (in my opinion anyway)

Here it is all rolled up.
Not too shabby, right? :-)

Hooray for having a full on craft day today!!

Stationary Set

I saw something similar to this online and thought I could come up with a way to make this box on my own. It took me lots of trial and error as this is the first box I've made without instructions, but I figured it out and got it to look the way I wanted it! Then of course I just HAD to make some cards to match! :-)
I received the American Crafts paper for Christmas from my Mom. I just love the contrast of the bold colors against the white paper. I'm happy with how these turned out.

My other big surprise for Christmas was that Will got me a sewing machine! I've been talking about it for months that I wanted to take lessons and learn to sew. Well he got me a machine that came with a DVD showing how to use it. I haven't used the DVD and I still managed to make some little purses for the girls. I was so excited! So I'll have some sewing stuff hopefully to share soon too once I get the hang of it.

Project 365

Happy New Year everyone! It's such an exciting time. To me, the coming of the new year means that we all have a clean slate and a fresh start. I love that. I am slowly recovering from the madness that was our holiday season and finally digging out from the mountain of housework that I had waiting for me after the craziness was over. It's coming along. School starts back tomorrow & Caitlynn could not be more excited...I'm waiting for the day when she starts whining that she's not ready to go back yet--I know it's coming.

Anyway, last year I participated in the 30 layouts in 30 days challenge and that was fun, but exhausting...so this year I wanted to do something like that but on a much simpler scale. SO, I decided to participate in the Project 365. You can read more about it on Becky Higgins blog or in the January issue of CK. I'm not using their kit, though, because frankly we just don't have the room in our budget right now to do that. Instead, I am creating my own digital version. Here is the first page...I started my 365 on Jan. 1.

I basically started with a blank 12x12 canvas in photoshop elements and created a template so that I can just sort of drag my photos to it. I'm still learning with photoshop and this project is great practice for figuring out how to do different things to make it look like I want it to. I'm thinking that at the end of the year I'll have this printed in one of the shutterfly books. I'm really excited!! The pages will all be formatted this way, but I will be flip flopping the elements around a bit so the larger spaces house the journaling and some smaller photos, etc. I'm trying really hard to just let it stay simple like this...I have a really big urge to embellish more. We'll see what happens ;-)

So much more than my Grandpa

I will not be posting much over the next week or so. My grandfather passed away yesterday morning and my daughters and I will be flying to Chicago for the funeral.

Losing my grandpa, or "Pa" as we called him, is a devastating blow. We lived with my grandparents for several years when I was little after my parents divorced. My grandpa became like my dad. He's been sick for several years, but he just kept hanging on. So as the years went on, we just thought he'd keep going and going. Thankfully, I was able to see him over Thanksgiving and he was in good spirits, joking and laughing and telling stories. I'm so glad that I will have those final memories of him, that he was able to finally meet Hayley and see Will and I together. And the last thing that I said to him was that I loved him, and that brings me more peace than I can say. He passed away in his sleep, which was how he wanted to go and I know that he is in a place where he can sing again, where he can walk and run and do all the things he loved.

I have been creating though and will have more to share when we get back. Take care everyone!

Some mojo

I have been in a craft funk lately. No real motivation to go back to my studio and create. Well, in an attempt to get out of it, I decided to participate in the KWERNERDESIGN.COM color inspiration challenge for this week. Her blog is one I check all the time, but this is the first time I've actually made a card for the challenge :-). It's laziness because her challenges are always awesome color combos!

This weeks challenge was:

And a not so great picture of my submission because I'm rushing...

I am in a hurry with this stuff today because I have to clean my studio and finish organizing Cait's room to start making room for the new stuff coming. Christmas is creeping up quickly!! Have a great day everyone. Hopefully my mojo is officially jumpstarted so I can have more craftiness to share later!! :-)