Happy Monday

Happy Monday morning all! This morning I woke up to a frigid 30 degrees outside...NOT FUN! Hey, I'm a Florida girl and we don't like anything below 60. I wanted to post pictures of some of what I've been working on the past few days. I needed to find gifts for some of my friends that I work with and found the perfect idea while browsing the blogs & message boards on Friday.....Post-it Note holders. I decided to also make matching notepads for each of them. Here's the final product:

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: K&Co Wild Raspberry

Cardstock: Recollections

Stamps: Hero Arts- Write Your Own and Just a Note

Embellishments: Prima- flowers

Tools: Cricut- Opposites Attract cartridge & Design Studio; Spellbinders- Labels 8; Martha Stewart- 3-in-1 butterfly punch; Fiskars- Scallop Sentiment border punch; EK Success- corner rounder; Ranger- distress ink; stash- grosgrain ribbon & buttons

Misc.- 5x7 acrylic picture frames, foam notepads & standard Post-It Note pads

I had everything I needed on-hand, with the exception of the frames & notepads. In all, it cost me $8 to put these together! I delivered them this morning and the recipients LOVED them :-) I'm off to the Post Office to ship some Christmas kits and my brother's Christmas gift. He lives in Las Vegas and won't be joining us for the holidays this year :-(

Have a great Monday and Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 50th Birthday Dad and the Countdown to Christmas

*my grandfather (left) and my dad (right) walking me down the aisle*

So today is my Dad's 50th birthday! Of course I had to call and hassle him about it first thing this morning :-) We love to play jokes on each other and give each other the craziest cards for holidays & birthdays. I'm still trying to figure out what I'm going to do with his card this year.....any thoughts? It really needs to be special! I have his gag gift already. It involves Senior Bingo at the retirement community close to his home! I can't wait until he opens it. I just have to make sure I've secured my Christmas gift first :-)

So, are you all ready for the holiday? I am! I completed my shopping list weeks ago and last week I picked up all of my gift cards and a few extra gifts for those little (and big) people that I may have forgotten. I always pick up a few body creams and shower gels from Bath & Body Works and a few $5 kids toys just in case I overlooked someone. If I have any leftover I just save them for upcoming kids birthday parties or baby/bridal showers.

I don't have anything crafty to share this morning. I just wanted to post something since it's been so long. I'll be back later today to share what I've been working on along with the list of goodies I'll be including in my Christmas tins this year.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

'To-do' List & Holiday Tags

Hi! It's Tuesday and I'm already looking forward to the weekend. How sad is that? I have a lot to get done this week. These are some of the things on my 'to do' list:

• pickup Christmas gift cards for 6 people
• pickup girls boots from Old Navy (they're on sale this week)
• decide on & make a 'killer' appetizer for the office Christmas party contest on Friday
• finish at least two (out of four) of the Christmas gift albums I'm making for RJ's grandparents....AUGH :-(
• finish my Christmas cards and get them packaged for the post office
• pickup Mr. R's BIG gift.....boys & their toys!
• try to catchup on my 'December Daily' album (why did I start this again?)

Before I pass out from exhaustion I wanted to share some Christmas tags I made over the weekend. I'd never really made tags before but I have some special handmade gifts to pass out this year and the standard store-brought tag just isn't gonna cut it. Here are my first tags:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & Paper Studio
Stamps: Hero Arts- Sparkle Clear: Gift for You, Antique Flower Background and Flourish Background; Recollections- Santa
Embellishments: Making Memories- elastic cord; American Crafts- eyelet
Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 8 & large rectangle; Copic markers; Ranger- distress ink; Versamark; white embossing powder

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & Paper Studio
Stamps: Hero Arts- Sparkle Clear: Gift for You & Dots and Flowers; Recollections- Reindeer
Embellishments: DMC- floss; Making Memories- eyelet
Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 1; Copic markers; Ranger- distress ink; Versamark; white embossing powder

Hopefully, I'll be able to cross some of my crafty 'to do' list off tonight and will have more to share. Thanks for stopping by :-)

Embellish Magazine & 2S4Y Challenges

Hello again! I'm back with my second post of the day. My Gators aren't looking so good right now so I've walked away from the television for the time being :-( I had so much fun with the Embellish Leaves, Acorns & Pine Cone Color Challenge that I decided to make another entry this morning! If you missed my first entry, you can see it here. This time I decided to use Laura's Sketch 40, the current sketch challenge over at 2 Sketches for You. Here are the challenge images:




and here's my card:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & DCWV
Stamps: Hero Arts- A Million Thanks; PTI- In Bloom
Embellishments: Target- ribbon; Making Memories- eyelet; stash- twine

Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 3; Cricut Expression-Doodlecharms & Lyrical Letters; Fiskars- scallop border punch; Cuttlebug- Swiss Dot embossing folder; WRMK- Big Bite

I found the ribbon in my stash and fit the Embellish Magazine challenge perfectly! I picked it up at Target some time last year and had completely forgotten about it. I'm feeling pretty creative tonight so I'll be up working all night on my other projects. Maybe I should start scheduling some posts.......hmm

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Happy Saturday & a Couple of Challenges

Happy Saturday!! I love the weekend because it means more crafting time for me and no work :-) This weekend I'm planning on being especially productive because my little guy is spending the weekend with his Godmother. Gotta love that. Plus it's SEC Championship weekend and I FULLY expect my Gators to put a beatdown on the Crimson Tide. Mister R is watching the game with some of his friends at the local barbershop.....don't ask, just go with it :-) The guys asked that I make them some of my double-baked, shrimp-stuffed potatoes so I'll be running off to the grocery store to pickup my supplies in a few. I'll try to remember to take a pic and post it later.

Before I go, let me share a card I finished this morning. I love participating in the various papercrafting challenges found on the web. I don't always have time to participate every week, but I do keep up with them and try to complete them when I have some free time. Over at the Embellish Magazine blog, they are challenging you to complete a project using a color combo & some seasonal items. To be really efficient and complete as many challenges as possible this weekend, I coupled the Embellish Leaves, Acorns & Pine Cones Color Challenge with the current sketch challenge at the CPS blog. Here are the challenge images:



and here is my card:




I didn't have any stamps that contained all of the seasonal images required for the Embellish Magazine challenge, so I decided to put my Cricut Expression to use! Here are the details:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections & DCWV
Stamps: Hero Arts- A Million Thanks; PTI- Vintage Labels & In Bloom
Embellishments: stash- twine

Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 1; Cricut Expression-Doodlecharms & Lyrical Letters; Cuttlebug- embossing folders; EK Success- corner rounder

I'm working on other projects that I hope to complete today, so I may be back for a second post!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Peace

Happy Hump Day! How's your post-Thanksgiving week going thus far? I've been super busy with work and putting out Christmas decorations. Did you all join in on the Black Friday madness? I did! It's a tradition for me and my family. I usually have my list of must-gets and a map of the stores I want to visit laid out at least a week in advance. Typically I'm back home by 8:00AM or eating breakfast at the local Cracker Barrel. Here's the list of items I scored:

• Three 600-t.c. sheet sets
• 32in LCD HDTV
• 4 Cricut cartridges
• 4 Wii games & 4 accessories
  
• KitchenAid stand mixer
• Pyrex 14pc. bake-n-store set
• 3 pairs of boots

I made it home by 10:30AM after starting my day at 3:00AM. Overall, this year's experience was a good one. All of the shoppers that I encountered were well-behaved and the retailers operated efficiently :-) Our tree is up & decorated. I've wrapped all but 6 gifts and I only have 4 more items to purchase! I should be done with my shopping this weekend.....YEA!!!

Shopping aside, I did manage to get a card completed last night for two challenges, Caardvarks Micro Color Challenge and Mojo Monday Sketch 115:

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections (white, pink & turquoise), Paper Studio (aqua) & My Minds Eye (stripe)

Embellishments: Studio G, Recollections & Hero Arts- stamps; Making Memories- eyelet; Stickles; Copic markers; stash- ribbon

Tools: Nestabilities- diecuts; Crop-a-dile Big Bite

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Christmas Kit Card Samples

So I'm back for my second post of the night to show you four cards that I made in less than 1.5 hours!



With the exception of the card bases, I only used products available in one of my Christmas Kits. I still have over half of the patterned papers leftover and LOADS of embellishments! I will be back later in the week to post the rest of the cards and some packaging accents you can make with the contents of the kit. As an added bonus, I am including an extra $5 worth of products in the first 5 kits that are purchased! You still have time to pickup your kit and get started on your Christmas cards.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Embellish Brads Color Challenge

I couldn't resist playing along with the current challenge at Embellish Magazine. The challenge was to use red, green, yellow & blue and to include brads. Here is the challenge inspiration photo:


Here's my take on the challenge:



I used one of the sketches for Kristina Werner's 'A Year in Cards' class. I'm happy with the final result and it helped me to use up some of those old 3-d stickers I've had since I started papercrafting! I just added rhinestone brads to the presents to complete the color challenge.

Supplies:

Paper: Recollections (green) & Bazzill (white)

Embellishments: Sandylion- stickers; stash- rhinestone brads; Joann's- ribbon

Tools: EK Success- scallop circle punch; Fiskars- gel pen

Thanks for stopping by :-)

My new project......

I was looking at all of my papercrafting supplies and thought "I REALLY should be doing something with all of this stuff!" With the encouragement of a good friend, what I decided to do was put together some Christmas-themed kits. I purchased a few packs of MME Christmas paper and began the process. I also picked up a few of the ever-popular 'Really Useful Boxes', pulled out my stamps & diecut machine and came up with this:

kit contents

close-ups of the contents

The kit contents are:

• 8- 6 x 6 Christmas patterned paper
• 4- 6" scalloped borders (not pictured)
• 6 brads- snowflake, rhinestone & silver round
• 9 flowers– 2 large, 3 medium and 4 small
• 2 clips
• 2 glitter chipboard flourishes
• 2 stamped artisan tags
• 2 velvet diecut ornaments
• 2 acrylic stars
• 10 rhinestones- 6 large clear, 4 small hot pink
• 8 small pearls- 4 ivory, 4 pink7 buttons
• 2 bookmark tags
• 8 artisan diecuts- 4 large, 4 medium
• 11 feet of ribbon & twine
• 4 hand-stamped gift tags
• 6 felt embellishments
• 3 large snowflake diecuts
• 4 small snowflake diecuts
• 1 sheet of hand-stamped sentiments & images
• 6 3-d embellishments- 4 stamped, 2 embossed
• 3.5” x 5” covered notebook
• 1.6 liter Really Useful Box (pink, teal, purple or clear)
• Small plastic embellishment storage container

This kit is complete with items to create Christmas cards, gift tags, gift card holders & scrapbook pages. It is the perfect kit for a beginning paper crafter or for someone who’s been doing it for years. To pickup your kit, visit my Etsy shop here: Christmas Kit

I will be back tomorrow to post pictures of items that I've made with the kit.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Yea me!

It's been a while since I've posted, but I have some great news to share! I submitted a card into the Embellish the Cure Color Challenge with Bling for Embellish Magazine. Well, this morning I learned that my card was chosen as one of the 'What's Hot' top 6! You can checkout the other ladies that made the 'What's Hot' list here: What's Hot-Embellish the Cure Color Challenge. Here are close-ups of my card:





I rarely enter my projects into contests that are judged. Mostly I submit for challenges that have random-draw winners. So this is the 1st time I've placed for a challenge that was actually judged. To celebrate I treated myself to some new goodies from Michael's and plan on spending what's left of my night creating cards for some other challenges that I want to submit for.

Thanks for allowing me to brag on myself a little and sharing in my joy :-)

Catching up (pic heavy)

So I've been up to my usual.......taking care of my 2 men, working hard, keeping up on the sports world and papercrafting. Speaking of sports, I am SO happy that the NFL season has started? Love me some football :-) We usually catch 3-4 home games for the hometown team, but this year we're gonna travel to Atlanta to catch the Falcons vs. Eagles game. That should be interesting.

We've also been doing some traveling at the end of this Summer. Mr. R and I, along with our good friends and business partners, went to Atlanta to celebrate our anniversary. We've been together for 12 years, married 6 and I still love him :-)). Here are some pics from the trip:

**at the Georgia Aquarium**

**at the Botanical Gardens**

**at the Botanical Gardens. Don't they look like triplets, lol**

After that, I went to Vegas with my mom and baby brother to visit my other brother. He moved out there in April and has been asking us to come visit ever since. This was my first trip to Vegas so my expectations were REALLY high. Um, I didn't realize it was so damn hot out there! OMG, I had to go clothes shopping immediately after we got off the plane! I packed some jeans and that was NOT gonna work! I'm used to heat by living in Florida, but er um this was some dry ass desert heat! Here are some pics from that trip:

**at the Eiffel Tower restaurant**

**the Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge over the Colorado River**

**on the observation deck overlooking the Hoover Dam & Colorado River**

I really enjoyed myself, but I couldn't cut loose like I wanted to with my mom there. I plan on going back with some girlfriends. Now that should be fun.

Last week was RJ's 3rd birthday! I can't believe my baby's already 3 :-( For his birthday, he kept telling us he wanted to "ride the train with Mickey Mouse!" So we took him to Disney last Saturday. He had a blast and we enjoyed watching him experience it all. It rained ALL DAY, but we still enjoyed ourselves. Here are some pics from our trip:

**my little man after he got his Mickey hat**

**Mr. R & RJ posing with Pooh & Tigger. That hat is NOT a good look for Mr. R, lol**

**The last pic of the day. My baby was T.I.R.E.D.**

I've also been getting some papercrafting done. I'll post more on that later. Sorry to be MIA for so long, I'll make up for it......what, I will!

WOW, has it really been 45 days? (pic heavy)

I can't believe it's been that long since I posted! I've been up to the usual....working (both jobs), cooking, cleaning, scrapping, cardmaking and watching sports :-) I attended another online crop a few weeks ago over at Two Peas in a Bucket. It was fun and I got A LOT done! Here's what I accomplished during that weekend:

CARDS

products used were: Bazzill cardstock; K&Co Wild Saffron patterned paper; K&Co rubon; Studio G stamp; ribbon from stash

products used were: Bazzill cardstock; K&Co Wild Saffron patterned paper; Hero Arts stamp

products used were: Bazzill cardstock; K&Co Wild Saffron patterned paper & lady bug 3-D sticker; Making Memories metal sentiment; EK Success punches

products used were: Bazzill cardstock; K&Co Hannah patterned paper; Studio G stamp; EK Success & Martha Stewart punches

LAYOUTS

products used were: Bazzill & Paper Studio cardstock; Making Memories 5th Avenue Sophia patterned paper, letter stickers & diecut flowers; American Crafts journaling spot; Martha Stewart & Paper Studio punches; Darice bling ; ribbon from stash

Products used were: cs- Bazzill & Paper Studio cardstock; SEI Oasis patterned paper & fabric brad; Creative Cafe & Prima flowers; American Crafts & Making Memories letter stickers; Bazzill Stitch'z template

products used were: Bazzill & Paper Studio cardstock; Making Memories 5th Avenue Sophia patterned paper, clear shape & journaling spot; Fiskars punches; Darice bling ; Cricut Storybook title; ribbon from stash

products used were: Bazzill & Paper Studio cardstock; Making Memories Chelsea's Place patterned paper, chipboard title sticker, epoxy sticker, clear tag; Making Memories jewel brad; Cricut Storybook diecut flower; Daricebling flower

I also wanted to let those of you who are interested know about a some anniversary blog candy that is being given away at Passion for Crafts. Debbie has put together an AMAZING assortment of products for one LUCKY winner!

I'll be back later to post an update with details of the goings-on in my life for the past 45 days :-)