quick share

Hey everyone!
I’m just here for a few moments before I dash off again. I’m busy getting ready to teach a class tomorrow and finishing up another class project to drop off at Page By Page for another class that’s coming up.
My week has felt extremely unproductive so far, and I really don’t like that. At all! Hopefully after tomorrow I’ll feel a bit better.

I have a couple of cards to share with you that I made a while ago. I had submitted them for a publication call but they weren’t chosen.

Flower made from fabric. Some pearls and a handwritten sentiment on a transparency and cut out.

I actually never submitted this one because I noticed that part of the rub on had come off a little. Too bad, because I really like this card!

Butterfly die cut from denim. A little button and ribbon. Not too much going on.

I just realized all these cards are springy. Sorry about that! Hope you like them anyway!

Talk to you soon.

He {hearts} his books

Good Monday morning to you all. I hope you had a relaxing weekend.

Ours was sort of relaxing if you don’t count teaching a Sunday School class full of about 17 two and three year olds! My husband and I teach together and there just happened to be more kids than usual this time. There were about four kids crying all at once at one point. I had two kids in my lap. One crying and one that wouldn’t let me put her down when a third came up to me saying she had to go potty! Augghhh! Eric and I just kind of looked at each other helplessly and laughed.
We really do love our Sunday School kids. When their little faces light up in a great big grin when they see us. And when they eagerly show us a medal they won. Or when they intently tell us a story about something that happened that week. Or when you see one of them giving another a hug in an attempt to cheer him/her up. They are so cute and sweet and so special and we just pray that we would somehow be able to show them God’s love in the small amount of time we get to interact with them.

I have a scrapbook page to show you today that I was able to get done at the crop on Saturday. It was not a highly productive day for me, but I was glad to get accomplished what I did.

Photo of my Nathaniel the bookworm.
I don’t know who makes the patterned paper I used here. I just pulled a few pieces out of my scrap box for this layout. The tag is making Memories. Pink Paislee letter stickers. Book plates from Stampin’ Up! and some die cuts that I would check out for you, but my stuff is still out in the car and I’m too lazy to go get it and look right at the moment.

My kids have a day off from school today. They’ve been getting on each others nerves (and mine) all morning long. I think it’s time we head out to the library. Maybe that will help everyone’s state of mind. At least they know they have to be quiet there .

I’ll catch up with you later. I hope you all have a fab Monday!

confessions of a late night blogger

Okay, I totally admit I picked that title just because it sounded good. After thinking for a while if I really did have any confessions to make I decided I might.

I ate too many desserts today. So there. I confess! It’s my husband’s fault. He’s the one who brought home my favorite chocolates. Lindor truffles. Yeah baby! I only ate one. But I’m not telling how many other goodies I consumed today. Hey, I needed the energy! I was doing some major cleaning at my house. My living room got the equivalent of a deep cleansing facial.

Another confession. I’m planning to go to a crop tomorrow and I don’t even have one teensy little thing packed yet. But I’m gonna go do that just as soon as I’m done here.

Which brings me to the reason I’m here. I’ll bet you were wondering when I was going to get to that. I have a card to show you. It was selected by Paige to be showcased on the Cards blog today for the newspaper challenge showcase gallery. Go ahead. Head on over there to check out all those pretty cards. I love them all!

The challenge was to use newspaper, old books, or magazines somehow in our card design. I chose to use the page of an old book. I crumpled it, spritzed it with glimmer mist, then punched the leaves out after it was dry. After I attached the leaves to the tree I added some glitter to a few of them for a tiny bit of sparkle.

This card is one of several sympathy cards I will be sending in the next several days. An acquaintance of ours, Diane, just lost her nine month fight with cancer. We used to attend church with her and her husband as well as her siblings and parents. She lived long enough to welcome her first grandchild into the world. A little girl who was named after her. Diane was a beautiful person inside and out. Her faith remained strong till the end and she left a beautiful legacy behind. She will be missed by many. I know Diane is dancing with the angels tonight.

From lighthearted to heavy in such a short time? How did that happen?

I best be getting along to my scrap room and pack up a few things. It wouldn’t be nice to go to a crop and not come back with something to share with you now, would it?

Later peeps!

Makeover Monday- paper transformation

I know it’s not Monday. I know yesterday was the day I was supposed to get this posted. Yesterday was a busy day, and after I finished putting the final touches on this project it was getting too dark to properly photograph it. (Another reason I need to get myself a light tent!) So, here I am. A day late again. Maybe instead of it being “Makeover Monday” it should be “Makeover whatever day of the week it happens to be”! LOL!

Today I want to show you how fun and easy it is to transform an ordinary item into something cute and fabulous with just paper and a few supplies. It’s easy to give new life to cast off items or give a face lift to items that have seen their better days.

Here’s what I started out with. I purchased this little wooden piece at the Goodwill store a few weeks ago with the thought in mind to make it over in some way.

It was the cute little drawers in this thing that got me.

Here is what it looks like after a coat of paint and a few pieces of patterned paper.

My original idea was to take off the little knobs so I could just attach the paper and then glue the knobs back on. I tried to pry them off, but they wouldn’t budge, so it was on to plan B. I ended up cutting X’s in the center of each piece of paper before adhering it down with mod podge. Then after the mod podge dried I cut around the knobs with a craft knife. I didn’t like the way it looked, so I had to finish it off somehow which is how I got the idea to add the little black embossed pieces to cover up the X’s.

Simple, right? Just goes to show that one does not need an lot of supplies to completely give a new look to something. Anything that you can glue paper to is fair game for a makeover.

Now my only problem is deciding where to hang this. Should it go in the office for holding paper clips, rubber bands, stamps and other tiny office supplies?
Or how about the sewing room? You could put thread, extra needles, buttons, and such in those little drawers.
Or in my crafts room for housing small embellishments.
What about the bathroom. I’ll bet it would be the perfect spot for cotton swabs, Q-tips and extra razors.
The entry way? Keys and other small knick-knacks would fit fine.
A child’s room would be a great spot. They could fill the drawers with treasures.

Hmmm….I’ll have to give that some more thought.

So, what do you think? Can you see a makeover somewhere in the future for something in your house? I’d love to hear about it!

new Butterfly Crafts challenge

Good evening, everyone. I meant to post this earlier but ended up taking an afternoon nap with Chloe. We must have both needed it.

This is my first challenge from Butterfly Crafts as a design team member. Here’s the challenge topic:
If you could be any character in any TV show or film, who would you be and why? Would you choose someone who’s character you relate to or someone who is a total opposite to yourself?

This is the page I came up with for this challenge.

I chose Dr. Temperence Brennan (aka Bones) from my favorite TV show. I just love her character. I relate to her in so many ways. I haven’t been able to watch Bones in a while because of the World Series takeover so I’m super excited that it will be back on this Thursday. You know where I’ll be!

I know my journaling is crooked. It’s a bad habit of mine. I’ve written crooked all my life! In school if I was ever asked to write something on the chalkboard my writing always went uphill. If anyone has any ideas on how not to do that (other than drawing a million little journaling lines) let me know.

Be sure to check out the other design team members takes on this challenge here. If you’d like to join in, just make a page with this topic in mind and up load it to the Butterfly Crafts gallery. There’s an awesome prize package up for grabs from Studio Calico! Lookie!

They have a fabulous monthly kit club that I think is wonderful. If I ever sign up for the second monthly kit club it would most likely be Studio Calico. Not only are their kits gorgeous, but they have some of my favorite scrapbookers on their design team.

Well, gotta go. Chloe is begging me to play a game of memory. I’ll catch up with you all soon.

ever grateful

Hi-ya friends.

Autumn is starting to fade here in my corner of the world, but we do have lots of trees that are still dressed in their fall finery. It makes me so happy to spot the bright yellow and orange leaves among all the drab browns and grays as I’m driving along. It’s like the leaves want to put on one good show before they say goodbye for the long winter.

Thanksgiving is coming up in a few weeks. I’ve got a card to share today that would be perfect to send to someone special this Thanksgiving season to let them know how grateful you are to have them in your life.

I simply stamped a few leaves in the corner, stamped, cut and popped one up, and then hand stitched some curved lines with linen thread to mimic the look of wisps of wind.

I made this card for the CARDS blog challenge to use stitching. I was surprised and happy to see that Paige chose to spotlight it this week. See it along with lots of other fabulously stitched cards here on the CARDS blog.

This card is for all of you. Since I can’t send all of you one, just let me say that I am so grateful to all of you who read my ramblings and stop by to leave comments. You all are the best and I am thankful for you!

I’m trying hard to get all my chores done today so I can have a day to myself tomorrow to do a little clothes shopping and maybe hang out at Barnes and Noble for a little bit. I need to make a stop at Home Depot to get supplies for an upcoming class as well. I’m looking forward to having a few hours to myself to do whatever I want to without having to worry about getting home on time for lunch. Or naps. And strapping a kid in a car seat everywhere I go. And being able to listen to the music I want to without anyone asking to put on their favorite kids CD. And being able to think without a tiny voice asking a million questions. And being able to shop without stopping to look at the toys.

I also know that once I’m out for a few hours I’ll be so ready to come home to have little arms wrap around my legs and hear shrieks of “mommy’s home!” and have a tickle fight with all the kids piled on top of me. Life is good.

still kickin’

I’m still here. I’m thinking I should probably just quit apologizing for the times when I don’t get to post as often as I’d like. Sometimes that’s just the way it is.

I wanted to pop in and share a sneak peek of the scrapbook page I made for Butterfly Crafts. I can’t share yet what the page is about because that would be revealing the next challenge, but here’s just a tiny glimpse of it.

I can’t wait to share it with you in it’s entirety because I really like it a lot. It’s a fun challenge, so keep your eyes open for it on the BC blog. It should be up on November 1st.

I’ll be back tomorrow to share a couple of cards I made for a challenge that I missed the deadline on. My head was somewhere in the clouds this week. I wanted to get so many things done and didn’t get any of them accomplished. Please tell me you have weeks like that too!

ta ta for now!

Moxie fab ruffles

Hey everyone! How’s your weekend going? Is it rainy where you are too?

I’m finally enjoying a few moments of solitude which means a little peace and quiet. We invited a few of Isaiah’s friends over for a sleepover last night. Seven boys cooped up inside because of the rain can get really LOUD!!! Today it’s no longer raining, but still too muddy to play outside much, so my husband, Eric, took them all over to the high school next door to shoot a few hoops and toss football. Hopefully they’ll have some of that energy spent before their parents come to pick them up.

Did you see the CARDS blog yesterday? I was so excited that Paige chose my card to showcase as one of the winners of the simple, clean, and collage-y challenge. Check it out! There are so many terrific cards to drool over. What a fun challenge!

Today I have a card to show you for the Moxie Fab Not Your Regular Ruffles challenge.

I was in the mood for some fall creating, so I made my card with some cute pumpkins. My ruffles are made from old dress patterns. The tissue sort of reminds me of corn shocks or something.

supplies: cardstock, pumpkin stamps, ink, gel pen (Stampin’ Up!); border stamp (Martha Stewart); lace (Making Memories); button (American Crafts); hemp twine, old dress pattern

Gotta run. I’m going to try to sneak in a few minutes to create something before all the boys return in their boisterousness.

Have a good one!

cards blog challenge and a winner!

Hi everyone.

I was fully intending on posting earlier in the day, but the day got away from me. We’re having a sleepover for my son, Isaiah, this weekend, so I’m busy cleaning up and getting ready for that. Although I don’t know why I’m bothering to clean at all when there will be seven boys (including my own) here! Crazy, not?

Besides the fact that I was doing housework it seems like Chloe will think of a gazillion things to try to get me to do with her throughout the day. Mommy, can you color with me? Wanna have a tea party, mommy? Can you read me a story? Wanna watch me play in the sandbox? Can we go to the park? Can we go to the library? Wanna put a puzzle together? Wanna play play dough with me? Can we go to (friends) house? Can we bake cookies? Wanna play hide and seek? And on and on and on. I try to accommodate her as much as I can, but if I’d do everything she asks me to I’d never get another blessed thing done!

So today we colored some pictures, had a tea party, played in the sand box, and played hide and seek. Now my little bug is down for a nap and I finally have some time to sit down and post a few cards and announce the winner of the KidKraft giveaway.

First off, the winner of the giveaway is Courtney!!!

Courtney

Oh my boys would flip for the box of paint. What a great thing to have to start off winter. Your scrapbook pages are super adorable and I can’t wait to start doing pink pages!!

Congrats, Courtney! I’m so excited that you won this prize for your sweet little boys!
Courtney is expecting a little girl in a few months, so that’s why she’s looking forward to doing pink pages.
Courtney, you know I’m praying for you through your pregnancy and hope everything goes well.

Now on to the cards. I made these for the current challenge over on the CARDs blog which is to make a card that is simple, colorful, and collage-y.

What a great challenge! I had so much fun making these cards. I think I’ve found a new favorite style! I absolutely loved the process of layering all kinds of colorful elements on a clean background. It made me happy. Must go make more soon!

Gonna go take my sons to pick out a movie for the sleepover this evening. Does anyone have any suggestions for a G or PG rated movie that boys would like?

Gotta run. Have a good one!

berry irresistible

I just love it when God reminds me how great it is to be a mom. I know I shouldn’t need reminders. But, truth be told, some days I do. Things don’t always go as planned. Kids (and moms and dads) get tired and grumpy. Kids don’t always listen and do as they know they should. Sometimes they talk back and rebel. Sometimes I’m too tired from everything I’ve done that day to enjoy this thing called motherhood. It gets tiring to have to repeat the same reprimands and instructions over and over again. There are disappointments and unmet expectations. Sometimes (okay, a lot of times) my own selfishness gets in the way and I’m more focused on my own needs and desires instead of my kids.

But sometimes in the middles of the day, out of nowhere, I get a reminder from God of just how precious my kids are and why I love to be a mom. Those reminders come in all kinds of forms and they are so precious when they come. This week so far they have come in the form of a hand made card from my eight year old son, Isaiah, that had a special message inside telling me thanks for all I do and that he loves me to the moon and back. He got that phrase from me, by the way. Hee!

Another came yesterday after a woman’s meeting at church when Chloe begged to go play on the church playground for a while. It was such a nice day, so we did, even though we were twenty minutes from home and it was already time to head home for lunch. We ran and played and went down the slides together. I probably looked most unladylike to the women who were still leaving from the meeting, but I didn’t care. Hearing my daughter’s squeals of laughter and seeing her beaming face framed by the bright blue autumn sky was more important at the moment than how I appeared to anyone else.

I wonder how many of those reminders I have missed this week? I’m sure there were many that I missed because I was too self absorbed or had a bad attitude. God, thank you for those reminders and help me not to miss them. Have you had any reminders this week? I’d love to hear about them.

Let’s get on to the paper stuff, shall we? I have a super quick layout to share with you this time. Sometimes when I stress over a layout and can’t quite figure out what it needs my best bet is to simplify. When I was making this layout I had that problem. Things just weren’t coming together the way I thought they should until I decided to finish it off in a super simple way. I love the results and I love the simplicity of it.

I started with a thin piece of chipboard instead of card stock for the back ground. I got the pattern by laying a piece of lace card stock over it and spraying the entire thing with glimmer mist. I applied the mist heavier in the middle and lighter at the edges for a gradient look. From there I simply added the photos, a few embellishments, and a rub on title. Easy peasy!

Today is the last day to enter your name in the drawing for the free kids paint set or stamp set from KidKraft. Be sure to leave a comment here for your chance to win. The giveaway ends tonight at midnight (EST).

I’ll be back tomorrow with a card or two to share. Have a great day!