Altered Altoid Tin & Mini Album

This was for a swap. We were partnered up and the theme was coffee or tea. We had to pick one based on our partners preference. My partner and I both chose tea :) As soon as she told me that she preferred tea, and her favorite colors; I new that I had the PERFECT paper line to use! I had been hoarding the Graphic 45 Botanical Tea collection!!! (And still am because honestly it didn't take much of the paper to create this project lol!) So the goal was to alter and Altoid tin and create a little mini album to put inside. I started by painting the tin with acrylic paint. I used Mod Podge to glue down the papers and just use a hot glue gun for the embellishments. The flowers are from Wild Orchid Crafts, the doily is one I got in a RAK from a friend, and the tea pot charm is from Hobby Lobby.

For the album, I attached two tiny butterflies punched out from a Studio G punch. I also used my Wink of Stella glitter pen. I wish I had remembered to take pictures of the inside of the album! :-/

Noah's Arc Banner and Cupcake pics

I recently made a Noah's arc themed banner and cupcake picks for a friends baby shower! I used the Create A Critter cartridge with my Cricut Explore to create the images. I decided that since Noah took a male and female of each animal, that I needed a male and female duo for the picks, so I added a flower to make distinguish the females. :) The pattern paper on the banner is from Hobby Lobby: The Paper Studio - Petit Bebe. I used a few different distress inks for the edges; Broken China, Cracked Pistachio, and Tea Dye. I wanted all of the different animals to be part of the banner, but didn't want to make it extra long and didn't want to make two banners. Then I had the idea of attaching them to the bottom of the letters! I was so happy with how it turned out!

For the picks - I "flattened" them to print as one single image and cut them out. I then cut out the shadow image in tan cardstock. I ran the animals through my large Xyron sticker maker and stuck them down to the shadow with a toothpick in the center.

Crochet Pigs

Back in June I discovered a YouTube channel called HappyBerry Crochet. She has a fantastic tutorial on how to make this cute little pig! I am obsessed with pigs, if you can't tell. My favorite breed is the Duroc so I made a brown one. I posted this pic on my facebook and a friend asked for one in purple. So I finally got around to making it this past week! I have a lot of friends with kids in FFA as well as my son who use to show pigs, so I think I will be making quite a few of these!

Long time, no POST!!

It honestly doesn't seem like it's been that long since I posted anything on this blog! But apparently it has been almost a year! My plan for the next few hours is to post several projects that I have worked on for the last few months. I think it will be easier to connect to pinterest form my blog than a photo.... but we will see. The main reason that I have neglected my blog is just laziness! I have to email myself pictures from my phone, open my email on the laptop and download the pictures, then link them to the blog post. I wish I could do it all on one device.... I'm sure there are solutions out there, I just don't have the know how lol. It's been a busy year. My uncle passed away very unexpectedly on new years eve. Prompting our first official "family vacation" so that we could attend the funeral. I've gotten VERY behind on my scrapbooking. With the trip to Louisiana, then helping at other stores, prepping for inventory at my own store, and helping more stores....I've been a bit stressed. Then this past week my son got {{{{{{BIG GULP}}}}}} his driving permit!!!!! He is 16 but didn't get to take driving school until about a month ago and we want him to drive with a permit before getting his license. When I was a kid, you were able to get your license 30 days after getting your permit. Now they have to wait 6 months!! WOW! I think I like it! lol Anyway, today is the last day of vacation and my only alone day so I'm working on this! :) Just for fun, I'm adding a pic of my son in his proud moment! I just wish I had a picture to share with you of my face while letting him drive on the highway! :-/

Project Life weeks 34-37

Whew! I am soooo behind on posting this!! I did these layouts two weeks ago! :-/ I decided to keep the embellishments to a minimum. I have found that I get so wrapped up in trying to coordinate the embellishments that it takes me forever to do the layout. The whole reason I started Project Life was for the quickness and ease and I've lost sight of that. Week 34 is on the back side of an A design layout, using cards from my August Studio Calico kit.

Week 35 is the front side of a design G layout using a mix of cards from August and Septembers SC kits. This was the week that I cooked THREE MEALS IN A ROW! (a record lol)And at the end of the week, I started vacation and dropped the car off for repairs from the wreck back in March.

Week 36 is the back side of that same design G. I used the back of one of the cards from week 35 with an embellishment from the September kit. These are some of the projects that I made while on vacation.

For week 37 I used a design J, front and back. This is the tail end of my vacation and the week that I went back to work (yuck). The cards again, were a mix of August and September kits. At this point, I was totally caught up... but now I'm two weeks behind again lol! I'm hoping to get caught up again tomorrow! :)

Bedtime Prayers - MP challenge 52

Hello everyone! I was sitting in my craft room yesterday pondering what to make. I've REALLY had an itch for coloring the last few weeks. So I started going through my stamps and came across this La-La stamp, "Bedtime Luka". I though to myself, "that would make a cute little wall hanging". Then my next dilemma, what colors am I going to use? I tend to use the same colors over and over so I stared at them trying to decide. I want to use colors that I'm not so comfortable with. I won't get better if I don't practice, right? So I narrowed it down to red, green, or yellow. I couldn't make up my mind so I thought I would see what the markerpop bi-weekly challenge was...GREENS! That sealed it for me! I will be entering this wall hanging in the challenge over at markerpop.com I stamped my image on Express it cardstock in Memento, Tuxedo Black ink. I colored him with my copics as follows- Hat and Onesie Cuffs/Collar: YG0000, YG41, YG45. For the poufy ball: W00, W1, W3, W5. Onsie Sleeper: G000, G05, G09, G07 and G29 on the zipper. Skin: E0000, E000, E02. Hair: E27, E47, E29, E49. I took a 6x6 piece of chipboard. I glued down a piece of twine at the top us use as a hanger. Then found this piece of scrap cardstock for the background. I got it in a RAK so I can't tell you who makes it. I took my Ranger Emboss it marker in clear and wrote the words "Now I lay me down to sleep" and used copper embossing powder on it, then adhered it to the chipboard. I inked around my image in Tim Holtz Distress ink in Peeled Paint and backed it with some craft cardstock. I went around the boarders with lace that I had in my stash and finished it off with some green flat back pearl trim. I think I'm going to send this to my brother-in-law and his wife. They are expecting their second child! Can't wait to see what they think of it!

If you cannot follow the link to the challenge, you can go to markerpop.com and select the "blog" tab. Once on the blog, look to the right and you will see a list of awesomeness. The Bi-weekly challenges will be listed there. http://blog.markerpop.com/2014/09/15/markerpop-challenge-52/

Project Life weeks 31-33

Alright! I got a few layouts done! I'm still three weeks behind though. I was on vacation this past week and spent the whole week in my craft room. I'm trying to stock up on handmade crafts so I can open my own little shop. I'm going to start a page on facebook to sell my crafts. Actually, I've already created it, just haven't released it publicly yet. Enough about that, you're hear to see my progress with Project Life :) Like the last couple of posts, I've kept it very simple (helps when I'm behind to not focus on embellishments) I used my Studio Calico August kit, Sandlot, for these layouts. Week 31 shows a big celebration! I got a check in the mail from my auto insurance. Reimbursement for my deductible for the repairs needed on my car! I messed up when creating my title card and labeled it as week 30. I had already created the next layout so I put a "ne" inside the 0 to create "one". Week 32 shows the cutest little post-it note holder that I have ever seen! It looks like a pallet of huggies diapers. I have discovered "Birthday Cake M & M's!!! OMG THEY ARE SOOOOO AWESOME!!! Not so awesome was my vet bill lol. I had to take one of the cats and one of the dogs back to the vet. They actually didn't charge me for the cat, he was just a re-check. But Rambo cost me about $275. Week 33 I got to enjoy a quiet morning with my coffee before church and make a duck tape wallet for my niece. I also received an awesome surprise at work. An invoice clerk at another store sent me a candy gram to say thank you for all the help that I have given her. That week she had called me quite a bit and was so grateful for my help that she wanted to send me a gift. I have to say that I got it just at the right moment! I was really feeling overwhelmed and underappreciated. That delivery made up for all of the stress and aggravation I had that week! Finally Aaron and I finished off the week with root beer floats, mmmmmm :)