Just a fun share :)

Hi there! I haven't been crafting too awful much lately, but I wanted to share some felt projects I made and forgot to share ;)

These are so much fun to make and I really love how they came out.

One to live by ;)

Anyway, thanks for peeking. Hope all is well with all of my friends out here in blogland :).

Lawnscaping #45 2nd Entry :)

Hi again! I have a second entry for the Lawnscaping #45 Challenge :).

Since I'm technically "Dusting Off" all my crafty goodies ;).

I've been playing with Amy Tan (American Crafts patterned paper, and several Lawn Fawn Stamp sets - FUN!!

Lawnscaping #45! I'm back!! - and "You Inspire Me"

Hi there!! Wow, I haven't blogged a good 3 months!! I've missed it :) but have been really busy attending to other aspects of my life. I've been reading a lot, just enjoying my family, work... the usual stuff a working mom does. Anyway, of couse, my first blip back on the blogger radar would HAVE to be to join a Lawnscaping (#45) Challenge! This is the perfect challenge for me too, because the these this time is

Dust Em' Off... that's like all of my craft supplies at this point ;).

Oh how I've missed my Lawn Fawn Stamps :). Thanks for stopping by and thanks to you sweet gals who have checked in on me and sent me your sweet thoughts and prayers. I truly appreciate your friendships :). Have a great day - and DON'T FORGET TO VOTE!!!! xoxoxo

SMILE :) - Lawnscaping #37/YCU #11 Challenges - Take 2!!

Hi there! I had so much fun making cards this weekend, I decided to make a card to combine both the
Young Crafters Unite (Many Layers) Challenge & the Lawnscaping #37 (Use Dimension) Challenge :).

Here is a looksie at my card:


I don't usually tend to combine challenges, but I really LOVE both the YCU & Lawnscaping Challenege Blogs & thought this card could work for both ;). As I did with yesterday's card, today I used the SUPER fun Amy Tan/American Crafts 6x6 pad of the Sketchbook Collection (once again - I looooove this collection!!), but on today's card I used Lawn Fawn's Say Cheese & Blissful Botanicals stamp sets.

I love how it came out! Thanks for peeking & I hope you have a great day!!

:) Smile Crocodile!! Lawnscaping Challenge #37

Good morning peeps!

Today I wanted to share the card I made for the Lawnscaping (Dimension) Challenge and without further commentary from me, here ya go:
I really love how it came out - these new Lawn Fawn stamp sets are just utterly adorable!! Here I've used Critters Down Under, Critters in the Forest, & Sunny Skies combined with a 6x6 pad of this Amy Tan/American Crafts "Sketchbook" patterned paper and sticky fabric tabs. I have to say that I really LOOOOVEEE the designs/patterns in this collection!!!! So bright and fun!!

Anyway - thanks for peeking in on my card!! I love that the Lawnscaping Challenge is to use dimension!! Any excuse to pop custie images up using foamies is good enough for me!!

Happy Birthday - YCU Challenge #11 {Layers}

Hi there! I know I’ve been M.I.A from blogging lately. I’ve just been focusing on living life. Things have been busier than ever it seems, and I’ve just been trying to keep up with it all. Plus, right now we have my sister-in-law and niece visiting from NYC - which is keeping us busier than usual ;). I have been creating: cards, and some lovely felt creations too, but I just haven’t been taking the time to share/post them :(.

Today I did wanted to share a card I made for the Young Crafters Unite “Layers” Challenge that’s going on right now :). {In case you can’t tell from the picture, I popped the hot air ballon up using foamies for added dimension} I made this card for one of the teachers at my daughter’s preschool. Her birthday is on Monday :).

Everything on the card - except the cutsie doily (which is from Michaels) came in the Simon Says Stamp June Card kit! I really like their card kits. I don’t usually like buying kits, but this one appealed to me - the Basic Grey patterned papers are so lovely! And the elements are too. I’m loving the colors on this card!

Thanks for peeking in on me :). Hopefully I’ll be back to posting more often soon!

Fun with dies, Lawn Fawn, & patterned paper!!

Hi there! It seems like I’ve been very scarce here on my blog. Just been busy with work, life, and books. I’ve still bee visiting blogs, just not creating and posting as much as I used to. Hopefully I’ll try to balance it all out so I can do everything I love to do. This weekend, I did get very busy making cards!! Woo hoo!! It was so fun and I realized how much I’ve missed getting my hands dirty ;). I recently purchased THIS SUPER CUTE DIE from Lil’ Inker Designs (I picked up the mini version too). I had tons of fun playing with it!! Who does not love bow ties?!? I know I do.

So, this weekend, I went seriously OCD cleaning out my supplies. Donating a TON of patterned paper to my daughter’s preschool. While I was doing that, I found a bunch of good scraps from some baby shower invites that I made for a friend a few months ago (using My Minds Eye patterned paper). I knew they were a must for a few bow tie card sets!! It worked out perfectly and I made 16 cards just using left over scraps, a few sentiments found in various Lawn Fawn stamp sets (OF COURSE, hello!!), some doilys, and that adorable die!!! Here is a look at a few of the cards I made:

Then here are a few more cards I made using Crate Paper’s new “Pretty Party” collection (Oh my, I love this collection!!!):
These projects would be perfect for Lawnscapings “Patterned Paper” challenge going on right now, are you playing along with that one?!? I’m going to send a set to a friend who made a special request for cards a few months ago (right about the time that my mojo skipped town). Anyway, thanks for popping in on me and not forgetting me ;). Hope you have a great day!!!

I'm Guest Designing for Lawnscaping today :):)!!

Hi guys! Thanks for stopping by, I'm so very happy to be creating a special project for the Lawnscaping Challenge Blog today! As you guys know, Lawnscaping is truly near & dear to my heart and has been since it's inception! Anything involving Lawn Fawn - I'm there!!!

This particular challenge is so exciting for me personally, because the theme is Patterned Paper!!!!! Woot-Woot!! I love patterned paper - especially because I love paper piecing in every way. For me it's very therapeutic! All that precise cutting is good for the soul ;). Here is a looksie at my card: Usually, when I make a card using paper piecing, I use patterned paper, but today, I decided to stamp all of my images (all from Lawn Fawn's AMAZING Gnome Sweet Gnome stamp set) onto Copic coloring paper and color - them paper piece them onto my card. I popped up one of the images to emphasise the sentiment:

The few pieces of patterned paper that I did use (for the background/sky & grassy hills) came from Lawn Fawn's 6x6 Bright Side Petite Paper Pad. Here is a look at all the goodies that I used:

The sentiment was the 1st thing I came up with - it inspired the entire card. One of the things I LOVE about Lawn Fawn is their ABC sets. This particular set is "Jessie's ABCs" - a personal fave of mine! I love it that I can use these ABC sets to create any punny sentiment that I like! I do love a good pun!

On the inside I stamped a simple "Hi" ;). Just a fun card for a friend! Thanks for stopping in & a BIG THANKS YOU to all the wonderful gals at Lawnscaping for inviting me to guest DT with them!!

There's GNOME place like home :)

Hi there! Hope all my crafty friends are doin’ good :). I miss you guys! Just been busy with reading, and family life. Good stuff. I did want to pop in & join in with Lawnscaping’s Challenge #33 - Clean & Simple :)

Here is a looksie at my card:
I just love this little gnomie! He’s entirely too cute. I paired him with a sweet little birdy friend for fun! A little closer upper?!? Anywho, thanks for popping in on me! I hope you have a great day!!!

HAPPY BIRDDAY FRIEND!! Lawnscaping #32 Challenge

Hi there!! Hope everyone is doing good! I've been utterly uncrafty recently :(. Sad but true. I've been reading The Fifty Shades of Grey series and it's taken me hostage (HAHA). Its a really good series - a bit (AHEM!) risque, but also a very good story. Anyway, I can't craft and read at the same time, so I've mildly taken a break. I did complete a week of Project Life this weekend, but I'm not ready to share that yet. Today, I wanted to share with you my card for Lawnscaping's "Create a Scene" Challenge

Here I used a combo of Basic Grey's "Lauderdale" 6x6 paper pad and Lawn Fawn Stamps (Gnome Sweet Gnome, Admit One, Critters in the Forest, Partly Cloudy, and Sally's ABCs) to create a fun birthday card :)

"Happy Birdday" (!!!) I love me a good pun :). Anywho - thanks for peeking in on me today! Have a great week!!!

Lawn Fawn's Opperation Write Home *Make em Laugh* Contest!!

Hi there! Oh, how I've missed blogging! First, I was working on cards for the Papercrafts Mag's Christmas issue (*fingers crossed*), then my sister in law & niece came down from NY to visit for 2 weeks, AND I was working tirelessly on my booth for the Relay for Life! WHEW! It's been a very busy few weeks for me!

While we had tons of family fun - I have missed creating cards & my Project Life pages :(. Anyway, today I wanted to join Kelly Marie/Lawn Fawn in the Operation Write Home “Make em Laugh” contest :). I love this contest for SO many reasons, the most being that I have no greater respect than for those brave men and women who serve our country - and their amazing families!!!!! Both my mom and dad were in the Air Force, as were both of my uncles. My grandpa was in the Navy and 4 of my cousins continue to serve in both the Army and Air Force! Much love for our service men and women!

The card that I’m entering into this contest and will be sending to the peeps at Operation Write Home is actually a card that I submitted to the last Papercrafts Mag call. No, it didn’t get picked :( boo, but I think it’s really fun! I saw an image (doodled) on Pinterest and KNEW that I’d HAVE to make it into a card using my beloved Lawn Fawn Stamps!! The telephone from LF's Just My Type set is PERFECT, and I used (my fave alpha set from Lawn Fawn) Sally's ABCs for the sentiment. So, here it is: TeeHeeHee!

Cute huh? I think it’s especially a fun card to send to Operation Write Home. I hope it makes someone’s day! If you haven't already will you consider joining in this contest and making/sending a funny card in for Operation Write Home?!? If you do, I wanna see it, so let me know! That's it for me today. Thanks for peeking in on me - I hope you guys have a fabby Monday friends!

Lawnscaping SPRING Blog Hop!!!!

Hi hoppers!!!! Welcome to the Lawnscaping SPRING Blog Hop!!!!!!! I’m so happy you’ll be hopping with us today :). Sharing our mutual love of Lawn Fawn Stamps is my favorite thing about the Lawnscaping Blog!! They always have the best challenges - and I LOVE seeing what everyone creates!

You should have made it my way from the blog of the most talented Jeanette Marchand. Isn’t her blog background alone absolutely ADORABLE!?!?!?!?!?!

Ok friends, so our theme today is Spring!!! YAY :) The hop will run from today, Friday, April 6th to Sunday, April 8th - which happens to be both my son, Christian’s 7th Birthday and also EASTER!!!! Woo Hoo! Perfect weekend for a Spring themed blog hop dontcha think - say yes ;). So, you’ll have all weekend to hop along and be inspired - there are SO many talented ladies involved in the hop - I just can’t wait to see for myself what everyone’s created!!

Don’t forget: besides buckets full of inspiration, the 2nd best part about a blog hop is the fabulous prizes that the Lawnscaping gals have in store for us!!! We’re talking goodies from Sweet Stamp Shop, and LAWN FAWN themselves!!! You’ll want to comment on everyone’s blogs for the best chance to win. If you get lost along the way, remember, you can always head straight back to the Lawnscaping Blog. They’ve got ya covered.

My project for today is not a card, but a fun classroom snack project that I made for the kiddlets in my daughter, Alivia’s, preschool class. What preschooler DOESN’T like goldfish right?!? These were super fun and pretty easy to make. I just assembly lined ‘em up and finished in no time. Here is somewhat of a little picture tutorial I created so that you could see my process.

{Not Pictured - First, I used my Cuttlebug and a few Spellbinders Dies to cut out a scalloped circle in Easter themed paper - nothing fancy, since you really wouldn't see much of it. I just wanted a pretty pop of color for that scalloped background. Then I cut a white circle using the same process (with Neenah Solar White cardstock). Like I said, I did these assembly line style, so I did all the scallops, all the circles, then moved on to decorating the white circles, before attaching them to the scalloped circles}.

Here's where the fun starts - to decorate them, first and foremost, I stamped the grass from Lawn Fawn's newest set "Gnome Sweet Gnome" as a little hilly/grassy area (using Peeled paint Distress Ink). I lOVE love love how you can bend the grass and shape it however you like - big plus!!

Next I used a finger ink dauber to apply the other Distress Inks (Tumbled Glass for the sky and Shabby Shutters for the grass). Once those were all done, I stamped the ADORABLE bunny from Lawn Fawn's Silly Valentine Stamp Set and colored him in with Copics: Then I got to work on my sentiment "Hoppy Easter" using Lawn Fawn's Sally's ABCs (my favorite ABC set, by the way). This was really the only tedious part, as I wanted the sentiment at a slant - around the circle - so I had to stamp each letter one at a time - which I did assembly line style for convenience: After I attached the circle to the scallop, I flipped them all over and stamped "love, Alivia" on each one using Lawn Fawn's "Sophie's Sentiments" (for the word "love") and "Smitty's ABCs" to spell out my daughter's name: Next, I went onto my eyelet stash and fished out a bunch of different colored green mini eyelets and set them using my Crop-a-dile: And then I had this part (the fun part) of the project completed:

For the triangle baggies, I got those at Michaels in the seasonal section: I only used the bags from the kit (saving the other items it came with for some other use another time). I have to tell you, this was not very cost effective. I bought 2 of them at $2.99 each (and each kit included 8 bags). Last week, I found some on Etsy *here* - much cheaper - 25 bags for $3.95!! Just lookin' out for my peeps :). I actually found out about that shop from Chari. I scooped up a set and also a few of their amazing Washi tapes too - great shop - full of goodies and super quick processing/shipping.

That’s it for me :). I made 17 of these babies in just a few hours: Thanks for hopping my way. You next stop on this hop-a-roo is the wonderful blog of Jenny Stucky, I can not wait to see what she has up her sleeve!!! Don’t forget if you get lost somewhere along the way just head back to Lawnscaping’s Blog and they’ll get you back on track. Have a wonderful day friends, good luck, and have a blessed Easter!!

Project Life - Week 4 (finally)!

Hi there! My Project Life is way lacking. Last weekend, I was so busy cleaning/organizing my house, that I didn't have any time to play. Plus, I'm working on a few Christmas(y) projects for the most recent Papercrafts Magazine call. Christmas - in April HA! I've completed a few projects I'm proud of, I hope to actually get published - a little personal goal for this year.

Anyway, it's Tuesday, Project Life share day. Today, I'm sharing Week 4 with you. I didn't have a lot of pictures for this particular week. Just one of myself - which is SO odd, I can not begin to tell you!!! I never take pictures of myself!! I just happen to one day (I'm trying to be in my kids' memories too). Other than that what I saved from week 4 (Feb 20-26) was mostly my kids' work. Art they'd made and a spelling test of my son's - who turns 7 on Easter!!

Here's a look at the full pages: I used Basic Grey's Hopscotch collection on these pages. This is the 1st page: And the 2nd: I don't even feel bad about not having pictures. Some weeks I have a gracious plenty; I like it that this week I focused on their art. It's a big part of our family. We love being creative together and we all support and encourage one another. I never really had that growing up and I think it's a nice thing to do for your children.

Here are a few closer-uppers ;)





Well, that's all for me today. I hope your day is great - thanks for popping in and checking out my projects!!

bee happy - YCU #8 & SSS Bingo Challenges

Another Monday friends. YAY (enter scarcasum here). My weekend was just too short as always, but, I am thankful for it just the same :).

Today I wanted to share with you a card that I made to enter into the Young Crafters Unite "Sewing/Stitching" Challenge. I've been bummed for a while because my sewing machine (which is literally JUST used on paper) wouldn't thread properly. I was determined to make it cooperate this weekend - and was rewarded by my efforts!

I used Lawn Fawn stamps and their 6x6 Petite Paper Pack to create a quilty card: I started by cutting a bunch of strips of paper and weaving/tacking them down to a card base. Then I ran it through my sewing machine. The images here on the card are from a variety of Lawn Fawn Sets: Say Cheese, Gnome Sweet Gnome, Bon Voyage, and Partly Cloudy. The polaroid is popped up with foamies for a little added dimension, and I finished the card off with some bakers twine (The Twinery), a giant pearly brad (Pink Paisley), and some sparkly gems (Prima). I love - just LOVE - how it came out. Makes me super happy! I love the LF patterned paper. It is so bright and fun!!! Perfect for cards! I'm also entering this card into Simon Says Stamp (who doesn't LOVE Simon Says Stamp? I just placed ANOTHER order with the today!!!) Bingo Challenge because I incorporated brads, twine, & a giant pearly brad. I think it works. This is such a fun one - play along & let me know so I can peek at your project too ;). Anyway, thanks for peeking! Have a great day!!!