Embellish & 2S4Y

Hello again! How are you? It's cold and wet here in North Florida, so it's been a lazy day for us. I was able to attend a crop at an LSS that I recently discovered. It was only for a few hours, but I got a lot done. One of the things I finished last night was a card for 2 challenges, Laura's sketch 44 at 2S4Y and the Embellish Ribbon Color Challenge. Here's the Embellish Magazine challenge image:

I love the colors from this challenge and I enjoy anything that requires adding a little ribbon. Here's my card:




Supplies:
Cardstock: DCWV
Embellishments: Recollections- pearl; The Greeting Farm- stamp (Charlotte); PTI- stamps (Guidelines II & Mega Mixed Messages); Stickles; Ribbon from stash
Tools: Cricut- Accent Essentials cartridge; Copic markers

Let me just say that I LOVE this Charlotte stamp! You will be seeing LOTS of her ;-) She's sassy & stylish.......gotta love it! I won her for participating in The Greeting Farm's CHA Relay contest. Sadly, the contest ended prematurely due to technical issues, but I did receive 4 free digi stamps for participating!

OK, that's it for tonight. I have a 3 year-old pulling on my arm. WHY he's still awake, I have no idea....

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Busy, Busy Bee!

Hello again! How have you been? I've been VERY busy with work and with crafting. I took my first sewing class a couple Saturday's ago and I've participated in several papercrafting challenges and my first swap :-) I figured joining a swap would help get my scrappin' mojo flowing, so I joined a wonderful group over on Two Peas. The swap is for a 'Book of Me'. I hardly ever scrap about myself so this was PERFECT. The topics I chose were 'My Favorite Recipes' and 'My Favorite Song'. They are not due until March 1st, but I've already completed my recipe pages last week and I'm working on my song pages this week. Here are the recipe pages:

**each folder holds 2 recipe cards**

I had to create 6 identical pages. At first I was a little overwhelmed, but they came together rather easily after I finalized the layout.


Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill & DCWV
Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny Kitchen Spice
Embellishments: Recollections- jewels; Paper Studio- flower clip; Prima & Bazzill- flowers; Ribbon from stash
Tools: EK Success- curved edge punch; Quickutz- dots embossing folder; Cricut- From My Kitchen cartridge


I will be back tomorrow with what I've done this week.


Thanks for stopping by :-)

My goals for 2010

Hello there! How's your week going? Mine has been moving along pretty quickly. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. On one hand, the weekend is fast-approaching. On the other hand, I haven't had much 'me' time. Generally, Tuesday's are my days just for me. That didn't happen yesterday, but I did get to enjoy a nice dinner with my two guys and some good friends. Anyhoo, on to the reason for my post today.....my goals for 2010.

I didn't want to make resolutions because they are so easily dismissed or broken. So I decided to make goals! Just the word 'goals' makes me feel better about the whole process, LOL! This all started while I was reading a post on Ali Edwards' blog. Each year she chooses a word that she feels will make an impact on her life. This year I decided to join in. The word I chose was: CONSISTENCY.

I chose this word for a number of reasons, but the two most important are:

1. I have developed this problem of not following thru with projects (crafty and otherwise)---> I don't like this AT ALL
2. I believe that if I am consistent with my actions, my words and my thoughts it will restore some of the order that has been lacking in my life for the past year or so

To go along with my 'word of the year', I set goals for myself. Both personal and professional. Here are my list of goals for 2010 along with a little background information:

• Travel more with my family- we actually started doing more of this towards the end of 2009 and will continue thru 2010
• Have more 'date' nights with my husband- with help from my recent order from Boutique Patrice, we'll be working on that this weekend!
• Take my son to the beach- I live too close (like 30 minutes away) to the ocean to not have taken him to the beach once in his 3 years on this Earth.....I know, I know :-(
• Increase my performance evaluation from a 'Highly Achieves' to an 'Exceeds'- this one will be difficult with budget cuts looming
• Find a more efficient way to complete all of my job duties- I get my job done, but some days I barely have enough time to eat lunch (today was a good example of that)!
• Learn how to sew- I blame Adrienne for this one, she makes the cutest things and she's FUN-TY ;-) (I have paid for and will be attending my first class at Joann's on Saturday morning!)
• Create a card or layout at least once a week- I'll be playing along with several year long challenges to help out with this one
• Use up my stash- 'nuff said......
• Finish RJ's 1st year album and at least start his 2nd year album- I have all of the supplies, but NOT.ONE.PAGE.DONE.YET!!!

I realize that by posting this list here it will act as source of accountability. I've put it out there. So either I'll be CONSISTENT with what I've said I want to do or I won't......POINT.BLANK.PERIOD.

Thanks for stopping by and letting me ramble :-)

Friendship Card Set

Hi there! So, we're well within the 2nd week of 2010 and usually about this time everyone begins losing steam towards keeping their New Years resolutions/goals. I must say I'm doing pretty good right now (knock on wood). As I'm typing this, I realize I didn't post my goals for 2010. I'll try to get back later today to do that :-) It has been REALLY cold here in North Florida (9 consecutive days of below freezing weather)! That may seem warm for this time of year to some of you, but it has really gotten old with this Florida girl, LOL! I'm ready to put on my flip flops and bermuda shorts. My family actually received some light flurries in Central Florida this weekend. I'm trying to get them to send me photos.

Because of the cold weather I've been held-up inside with my two guys this weekend. Which means I had time to get some scrappin' and cardmaking done....WOOHOO!! During my daily blog surfing this week I came across Dawn McVey's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #21. She always puts together amazing color combos, but I never get a chance to play (read: I'm always too intimidated to play along). Have you seen the submissions to her color challenges? They're ALWAYS amazing! With this color challenge she posted a video to encourage everyone to play along, so I did! To help me along I used the current Mojo Monday #120 sketch challenge. Here are the challenge images:






I needed a set of cards for a contest I hosted at work and this is what I came up with (click images for closer view):

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper Studio & Recollections
Stamps: Hero Arts- Friendship Messages (sentiments); Recollections (bear image)
Embellishments: Martha Stewart- coarse glitter; Ribbon from stash
Tools: Paper Studio- scalloped circle punch; EK Success- scalloped square punch; Martha Stewart- lace heart edger punch; Cuttlebug- Swiss Dots embossing folder; Copic Markers- E37, E29, RV11 & BG13

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper Studio & Recollections
Stamps: Hero Arts- Friendship Messages (sentiments); Recollections (bear image)
Embellishments: Martha Stewart- coarse glitter; Ribbon from stash
Tools: Paper Studio- scalloped circle punch; EK Success- scalloped square punch; Martha Stewart- lace heart edger punch; Cuttlebug- D'vine Swirls embossing folder; Copic Markers- E37, E29, RV11 & E00



Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper Studio & Recollections
Stamps: Hero Arts- Friendship Messages (sentiments); Recollections (bear image)
Embellishments: Martha Stewart- coarse glitter; Ribbon from stash
Tools: Paper Studio- scalloped circle punch; EK Success- diamond lace edge punch and scalloped square punch; Cuttlebug- D'vine Swirls embossing folder; Copic Markers- E37, E29, RV11 & BG13

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Paper Studio & Recollections
Stamps: Hero Arts- Friendship Messages (sentiments); Recollections (bear image)
Embellishments: Martha Stewart- coarse glitter; Ribbon from stash
Tools: Paper Studio- scalloped circle punch; EK Success- embossed curve edge punch and scalloped square punch; Cuttlebug- Swiss Dots embossing folder; Copic Markers- E37, E29, RV11 & Y11

I will be pairing this card set with some goodies from Bath & Body Works and $30 in gift cards. Now I'm off to enjoy some white chili and watch a little football!

Thanks for stopping by :-)

First card of 2010

In between the organization overhaul going on in our house right now I managed to complete my first card of 2010. I created this card for two current challenges, Embellish Magazine Color Challenge with Hearts and Caardvarks. Here are the challenge images:



Here is my card:

I took these shots with my new camera. They're not the best you'll see, but they work for me :-) I have decided to start embellishing the inside of my cards. They tend to be neglected, so for 2010 I'm gonna show 'em some love.

Supplies:

Patterned Paper: Making Memories Love Notes

Cardstock: Recollections & DCWV

Stamps: Hero Arts- Clear Design February

Embellishments: Recollections- black rhinestones

Tools: Spellbinders- Labels 1; Martha Stewart- Lace Heart edger & Scalloped Heart punches

While going through boxes, I found some items that I had completely forgotten about. Now I have all these ideas for Valentine's Day gifts bouncing around. I hope to be back soon with a post to show you what I've done.

Thanks for stopping by :-)

Life Gets in the Way....

Hello again! How was your Christmas and New Year's celebrations? Mine were crazy, busy, exciting and worry-some (is that a word?). First, let me apologize for not updating my blog for so long. I had so many cards and other projects to share, but that went by the way-side after the morning of the 23rd. I received a TEXT (yes, please remember that part) from my youngest brother at 5:00 in the morning that my mom had been hospitalized on the MORNING OF THE 22ND. He said that she "wasn't doing too well" and that I needed to get there. Now I had a *few* reactions to this:

#1- OMG, please let her be OK and let me get there now
#2- Wait, did he say *reading text back s.l.o.w.l.y.* "she's been in there since yesterday morning..."???
#3- Why am I receiving a TEXT instead of a phone call
#4- Why didn't my step-dad call me?

So after I got over my initial what.the.hell calm reaction I notified my boss of what was going on, called RJ's daycare, packed our bags and loaded my truck with everyone's Christmas gifts. Long story short, my mom has recovered and is back to her usual self. Which includes riding her Harley and her Suzuki sportbike.....yea, she's more adventurous than I am! She did have to spend Christmas day in the hospital (which she was NOT happy about), but was released the next day. As for my brother and my step-dad, they are still on my 'list'!

Now, Christmas day was CA-RA-ZEE!! RJ was SO excited for Santa to come. I don't think he fell asleep until 12:00AM. My Dad Santa made sure to bring him the "big, big truck" that he kept asking for. Along with another gazillion gifts. Grandparents don't listen when you tell them not to over-do it....gotta love em. Santa also brought me what I really wanted and was *sure* I would not get:

My hubby got me a Nikon D3000!! I've wanted a dslr camera for a while now, but couldn't justify the cost. Especially since I'm just a crafty mom who wants to take better pictures of my family and my creations. I didn't even take it out of the box until 2 days ago! I snapped a few 'test' shots and I LOVE this camera :-) Of course, I'm using it in 'auto' mode but it is still amazing! Kinda makes me wonder why I didn't take the plunge sooner...

We are in the middle of de-cluttering and re-organizing our home and we started in the garage. I have snapped some 'before' pics and will share them at a later time with the 'after' pics. I also *stole* an hour from the project yesterday to work on a Valentine's Day card idea that's been bouncing around in my head. I'll share it once I'm done.....whenever that happens. For now, it's back to packing away Christmas decorations and clearing out the garage.

Thanks for stopping by :-)