When in a rut... make more pretty bookmarks...

That's gunna be my new motto. It's been so hard for me to be motivated lately. Actually, I have been crafting, but it's for the upcoming Lawnscaping Blog Hop!!! It's on December 9th and I hope you'll come hop along!

I don't want to leak my idea, but it's a cool one, and very time consuming ;)

Anyway, I have made a few more corner bookmarks and thought I'd share them with you today. For this batch (seems I make them in sets of 4) I used Pink Paisley's Authentique 6x6 pad - I am in love with this patterned paper - and various Lawn Fawn sets (and even a Paper Smooches sentiment on one of them). Here ya go:

For this one, I used the cute piggie from Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Farm set. I really got a kick out of the patterned paper - the 5 Cent on it reminds me of a piggie bank! Bahahaha. The fun sentiment is from Paper Smooches' "Chit Chat" set. Cuteness.

I also really love making these cow bookmarks - with the awesome "you mooove me" sentiment! All of the stamps on this one are from Lawn Fawn's Critters on the Farm set ;)

Last, but not least, THIS ONE IS MY FAVE of this little batch: I just LOVE the layered pinwheel!! With Prima Bling - YUM!

I also wanted to share pics of my already decorated Christmas tree: I really love my Christmas tree & can hardly wait to put it up each year. Each & every ornament means something special to me.

When my dad died (almost 4 yrs ago, this month) and my mom moved back into their house with her boyfriend (my parent had separated 8 or so months before he died) they didn't want to use our family Christmas ornaments. They started fresh. I was grateful to inherit them. When I was a kid, my mom belonged to an ornament club through Disney and we have a ton of Disney ornaments. They mean alot to me, and Disney is significant to Sal & I. He took me on my 1st trip to Disney. Since then, it's just kind of our "thing". We used to go all the time before we had the kids(less, now, buying 5 tickets is much harder than 2), and we even honeymooned there.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of my favorite ornaments with you, because your my friends & all ;).
This is one of the Disney ornaments, I don't know why, but it's one of my faves
This is us as lil (and I mean LIL) 16 & 17 year olds - our 1st Christmas together. That's 1996 peeps:
2002 - my sister in law bought this for us the year we bought/moved into our home:
This one my boss brought us back from Maine one year. I really love it, and this is my 1st Christmas in 11 years that he's not here to celebrate with us and get us wacky gifts - it makes me kind of sad - but happy to remember his awesomeness.
Ha! I love this one too!! My mother-in-law gave it to us a few years ago - it's from my hubby's 1st Christmas. it says 1978 on it an everything. Way old school ;)
And these are my babies' 1st Christmas ornaments. Gets me teary even looking at them. They are growing entirely too fast, and there is no way to stop it!

This one is one my Grandma & Grandpa sent us from NY. It makes me miss them. My grandpa especially, as we lost him December 26th last year :(
THIS is one of my ALL time favorites!!!!! Sal's God mother (who I was VERY close to, and sadly, also passed away last year) gave it to me when I was pregnant with Alivia. She had gotten it from a family member when she was pregnant with her last child - almost 50 years ago. It's a preggers mouse, eating an icecream and standing on a jar of pickles!!! To die for right?!?
This one I made last year. I really love it. I upcycled packaging from a pack of Bo Bunny buttons and a Maya Road Coaster shaped like a house. The stamps are Hampton Arts (I believe) and I used some Martha Stewart Chunky glitter to make a snowglobeish ornament. My kids LOVE it!
Every year, I pick up a new ornament for the kids. This was last year's - a Stitch Elvis - I love it:
And this one, of the Nativity scene - I love this one - HE is the reason for the season :)

So, you get the idea. Obviously, these are not all of them (we'd be here forever peeps) but my all time (so far) favorites. This year, I think I'll have to get a Disney princess ornament, maybe Ariel. Alivia is REALLY into them, and the Little Mermaid is her fave right now! I always date them, so one day, when I pass them to my kids, they'll have good memories. They'll think back on these years, what we were into, places we've been. Things that made others think of us. I think our tree reflects us in a lot of ways. It really makes me happy.

I'll be out of blog world for the next week. I'm actually taking a mini road trip. My in laws moved upstate Florida last month, and we're heading up there. To "country folk" Florida. Never been. I'll be on the lookout for Scrapbook Stores ;). Wish me luck, and I honestly hope you guys all have an amazing Thanksgiving. I really am thankful for your support and friendship. See ya in a week!!

I'm here for you - LF WCMD & YCU Challenges

Hi guys! Hope your week is off to a good start. Halfway to the weekend :) YAY! I’ve been exhausted this week - plain old tired out. I took a mini break from my craftiness to recharge - gotta do that sometimes. I was not feeling totally inspired and basically knew that meant to give it a rest for a quickie. Otherwise I wouldn’t be happy with anything I created. Ever feel like that?

Anyway. I’ve been dying to submit something for Lawn Fawn’s World Cardmaking Day Challenge - to make a card AND SEND IT.

It ends today - so, I’m getting this in right in the nick of time. Also, I’ve really wanted to play along with the Young Crafters Unite #2 Challenge - to create an envelope to go with your card.

I’m entering today’s card into both challenges ;). With out delay, here is my card:

and with it’s envelope:

Lawn Fawn’s challenge wasn’t too awful hard for me. For the most part, I like to make cards & sent them right away. I usually have an idea of whom I’m making it for and sending it to before I even start the card/concept. And I always love (but have never tried) the idea of matching envelopes to the card - so personalized.

I made this card for my mom. Last week, Thursday, she got the not great news that her current Chemotherapy had stopped working. She’d been on it for 8 rounds (basically 7 months) and it was working great, 2 months ago, she had a PET scan that said her tumors (which are in her lungs) had shrunk by 50% and some were even dissolving. They kept her on it for 2 more months until another PET scan, and this one showed that they had grown a bit and now there is also a spot on her Liver and Pancreas. Sheesh.

She knows God’s in charge. He’s leading her somewhere - I know that too - but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that this news is scary to me. We just have to continue to rely on him, not our own understanding. She’ll start a new Chemo tomorrow. I’m going to sneak this card into her purse today at work so when she leaves & finds it, it’ll be a little smile in her day.

On the inside of the card I wrote “Remember that you were given this life because you’re strong enough to live it” - a quote I found online somewhere and wrote it down. I like it. To make the card, I started of with Neenah Kraft paper and stamped the cute clouds from Lawn Fawn’s Partly Cloudy Set (using Papertrey Ink’s white Ink) and when the ink dried used Glossy Accents to randomly glue Papertrey Ink buttons on them. I made rainbow stitched raindrops and added gems & pearls to the end of them. My mom is a seamstress, so the stitching really say “mom” to me ;).

For the envelope, I used the cute closed umbrella - also from Lawn Fawn’s Partly Cloudy set and stamped it in various inks (Jenni Bowlin, Colorbox, and Versafine). I also added the sentiment (to the card & envelope) “I’m here for you” from Lawn Fawn’s On the Mend set.

That’s it. Thanks for having a look. If you can remember, will you please lift my mom, Kathy, up in your prayers? I would really and truly appreciate it. Hope your day is great friends.

Snowy Window Card for the Paper Smooches Spark Inspirational Challenge!

Good morning friends! Hope all is well out here in the blogasphere. I suppose I’m recovering from this cold - slowly but surely. Thank God!

Ok, onto another note. Did you know that Paper Smooches has their very own challenge blog - it’s called Paper Smooches Sparks? Hello! How did I not know about this!! Just found it yesterday! I only have 2 sets of Paper Smooches Stamps so far, but really love them. You all know how much I love Lawn Fawn - and they are of the same high quality - and their images are truly SO original and fun - their fonts are also adorable!!

Ok, I don’t know if it’s tacky adding a project made with no Paper Smooches Stamps, but I was totally inspired by their inspirational photo and wanted to join in on the fun, so I’m giving it a shot! I'm also trying out for their DT call - fingers crossed ;). Here is a look at the inspirational photo:

So cute right?!? With it in mind, I created this:

and here is an inside view:

Here's a standing up view:

and a laying down view...

Cool huh? I really adore how it came out! I was at Michaels this weekend, and found some cute ArtC glitter. I’ve been wanting it for a while - but just couldn’t justify paying $5.99 for it, no matter how cute the little bottles are!! Anywho, Michaels a variety of them on sale - 60% off - I couldn’t help but grab 3 different sets!! Some of the sets come with beads too & they’re all so cool! I thought they’d be perfect for this project.

Onto the card: So to make this, I started by making the glittery window/pocket using clear acrylic “paper” (also found at Michaels) and Martha Stewart’s clear {chunky} glitter & the ArtC glittered hearts. Used my sewing machine to stitch it all together so it’d be nice and sturdy! Then I went to work stamping my Frosty Friends (all Stamps on this card are Lawn Fawn’s Making Frosty Friends and all patterned paper is Crate Paper) and paper pieced them. Next I set them aside and stamped the same images onto what would be my (inside) card base.

Then I stamped a few snowflakes from the set with Versamark Ink and heat embossed them using AC’s Zing in White. Next, I added the paper pieced snowmen to the card base along with their pretty bows (dark pink = The Twinery & light pink = Trendy Twine).

Then I cut a square window into the front of the card base (this was done by trial and error and I now have quite a few little scraps of this paper laying around... why don’t I just use a ruler already?!?). I glued the snowy window to the inside of the card with Glossy Accents and then covered it in Crate Paper. I stamped the sentiment using my (new) fave Jenni Bowlin ink - Robin’s Egg - and used a finger inker to also ink up the edges in the same color. I finished it off with the same twine as the bows attached with Tim Holtz’s Tiny Attacher. I love it. I’m going to make some more window glitter cards tonight if I’m feeling up to it. Maybe Halloween cards this time. OOOHHH the possibilities! Well, that’s all for me today - thanks for peeking!

OH SNAP! - Lawnscaping #18

Hi there. Another Monday to contend with. HMPH. I feel indifferent today. My Grandma went back to NY today - which makes me sad. Also, I've been fighting a cold since Wednesday... and I honestly think it may be winning. Hopefully I get better soon. I was way too sick to be creating ANYTHING last week, which always puts me down in the dumps :(.

Then, on Friday night, it was so weird, I got a HUGE burst of energy. I went through and cleaned out my crafty space - went a little mad actually (cold medication, most likely). Took a bunch of goodies that I've either used once, or never used, or used a tiny bit of and made one huge pile. Sooooo I'll be having a giveaway here on the blog VERY soon in honor of my 50 followers!!! YAY! I really sppreciate you girls!! I love the support and encouragement that you give me. Blogging had been a huge spot of happy in my life. I like getting to know you guys through our creativity. It's nice to have that bond - and I really REALLY appreciate each one of you!!! It will be a whole bunch of goodies! Like I said, most of it is gently (but sparsely) used but... it's still free :D! Look for it by the end of this week hopefully.

Anyway, so, that overhaul got me finally inspired to create - yay! It was a just a little something I made for my Grandma - but a start. She reads a lot, and is heading on a 12 hour train ride home today, so I thought I'd make her a little bookmark to keep her place.
EEk, I almost forgot, I'm entering this into Lawnscapings #18 Challenge

I started off with a scrap piece of clear acrylic - left over from THIS project (which I had to add to/clean up this weekend). The size is 6" by 2 1/2". I rounded the corners with my corner chomper - that baby's made to last, I'll tell you that - and punched the hole for the twine using the Crop-A-Dile. The patterned paper is from an 8X8 pad of October Afternoon's Thrift Shop. I covered the back of the acrylic with a piece cut to size. To glue it down I used Glossy Accents and a scraper (so you wouldn't see glue). Next I decorated the fron using more of the OA paper and the Lawn Fawn Polaroid from Say Cheese. The "Oh Snap" was made using Smitty's ABCs ;). Finished it off with three pretty pieced of bakers twine form The Twinery, pulled through the whole. I likes. Made me finally smile. Rough week, last week. Thanks again - crafty girlys - for being an amazing bright spot in my day - for your love, encouragement, and friendship! I hope you have a wonderful day!!

Wee Memories #57 Challenge - B-Day decorations using Lawn Fawn!

Another post today ;). At work, we’ll be celebrating my boss’ birthday today (his actual b-day is tomorrow)!!! We’re going to be taking him to lunch and giving him his gift. Exciting! So, I wanted to do a quick share of the decorations I made to go on his cupcakes (I made him triple chocolate chip with cream cheese frosting). I love how hey came out. Super simple, but super fun! I'm entering it into Wee Memories Challenge #57:
Their challenge this time around is stamping. So here is my entry:


I started by punching a large scalloped circles out of October Afternoon’s Thrift Shop paper. Then I went to town stamping music notes (a la “Happy Birthday to you”) using Lawn Fawn’s Teeny Tiny Backdrops in Jenni Bowlin’s Cough Syrup (a purty red) onto white cardstock. Next, I punched put 1" circles and used a mini blending tool to ink the edges.

It was my 1st time trying those mini blenders & I really liked them!!! I got that tip from Kathy’s Blog “The Daily Marker”. You use it just like the Ink Blending Tool - just on a smaller scale. It’s cool because I matched the ink from the stamped image and edges of the circles perfectly ;).

Anywho, so then I used more pretty OA paper and I stamped the banner & sentiment using Lawn Fawn’s “Bannerific” and “Sophie’s Sentiments” and glued it all together adding a toothpick between the scallops and circles to stick them into the cupcakes ;).

Eh, just a little something. I had fun doing it too. I always have fun when I’m stamping with my Lawn Fawn Stamps ;). Hope you have an awesome rest of the d

Valentines

Hi there crafty bloggers.

I wanted to share the Valentines I made this year for both of my kiddies’ classes, for my office, and our families. I got the idea from the most recent Scrapbooks Etc. Magazine (pg.47-49, I believe). Here's a looksie:

Such a lovely idea. Plus, the kids get so much candy all the time (Halloween, Christmas stockings, Easter, etc.) that I thought pencils (and, tey're from the dollar store...score!) would be something different!

Aaaaaaand...what’s the first thing I though of when I saw this idea??? Lawn Fawn’s ‘Silly Valentine’ Stamps!!!! OF COURSE! I’m trying to use up my stashes as far as “holiday” papers, no buying any right now (except Basic Grey's Jovial...I NEEEDED that ;), so I used some K&Company valentine paper that I had in my stash. It’s really a CUTE stack of paper (purchased from Michaels, on clearance, after Valentines day last year or the year before). I used the basic (plainer) papers because I didn’t want all the really cute pages (think... cute frogs, lions, & robots with hearts) to interfere with the real stars of this show....which are CLEARLY the Silly Valentine Stamps. I used Copics to color them and stamped in Momento ink. And if you are interested, the background paper is 4" X 3". I then used EK Success Scallop/Circle punches. I love how they came out so!!

I like this idea, super easy to make and very cutsie! Fun for the kids - my son is really loving them. Honestly, I’m happy I got them (56 of them!!!) finished now, instead of waiting until closer to Valentine’s Day and then stressing. Takes all the fun out of it you know?!? I’m all zen or whatever now ;). Well, that’s probably my last share for the this week, so I hope you all have a blessed weekend full of family & crafty goodness!!

What will I be doing this weekend...

...well, besides the Bargain Hunt - which is Saturday from 8am-2pm - I will hopefully be enjoying my newest addition of Lawn Fawn Stamps :D I just scooped up Critters in the Burbs and Jessie's ABCs, and cannot wait to give 'em a go! I've even already added them to my "Lawn Fawn Loveliness" binder :).

Yep, that's right... I'm just making crafty goodness for pure enjoyment. I'll also (hopefully) be creating a few projects for a Design Team I'm trying out for (at my Local Scrapbook Store). We'll see. I've been feeling so overwhelmed with stuff to do/make for the Bargain Hunt that I have felt like my craftiness was more of a "chore" than my favorite past-time. I mean, don't get me wrong, I still had fun making these goodies, and had that joy of seeing the finished product, but the deadline of it was hanging over my head this entire time. I was like a madwoman - making project after project for the past month now. Kind of exhausting, ya know! It really makes me wonder how you gals who do multiple Design Team gigs do it?!?!?!? Hats off to ya!

As a side note, I just want to say that I really appreciate how sweetly (and super quick!!) Lawn Fawn sends out their stamps. Each package coming with a note and a little "thank you" stamp from Kelly Marie. This time I got "Merci" - with a sweet lil heart over the i and everything! I love this. I love buying from companies like this! They really take the time to make you feel connected and appreciated as a customer. I love Lawn Fawn, woot woot!!
Hope you have a great weekend. Say a prayer for me for the Bargain Hunt - trying to raise bunches of cash for the Relay for Life - woo hoo!!

Christmas Ornaments for the Bargain Hunt

Hello there crafty friends. I'm super excited about today's share :D. About a year ago, or so, I started saving these Bo Bunny Button/bling packs: I had seen some neat ways of recycling them online by making cards and such & knew I'd want to give that a try at some point...

I decided to use them to make ornaments to sell at the Bargain Hunt. I used both the dome piece and the piece that interlocks into the dome (to securely keep the buttons inside). I cut both circles out very close, but left a small lip for gluing purposes. Then I took a Maya Road House (chipboard coaster) mini and traced them onto October Afternoon's & Fancy Pants Christmas paper (left over from last year). I traced coordinating paper to cut a circle the size of the domes. Then I stamped & paper pieced away. The owl/snowflake stamps are from Hero Arts and the sentiments are from Lawn Fawn's Cozy Christmas Set. I colored the owls in with copics and popped them up with foamies. I then added Marth Stewart course glitter to the and circle and added Glossy Accent to the edges of the domes and glued that to the stamped papers. Let them dry & had the cutest ornaments ever!!



I covered the backs of the houses with coordinating paper, and then I used the "Merry Christmas" stamp from the Hero Arts Owl set & wrote in 2010. I buy a dated keepsake ornament every year, so I thought that'd be a nice touch.

I just love them, heaps of love!! I also had a neat idea: I'm going to have a mini artificial Christmas tree to display all of the ornaments I've made...smart ;).

Well, that's my share for today. Hope you likes ;). have a great day!

A place to keep my Lawn Fawn stamps cozy ;)

So does anyone else’s stamp collections look like this? Hee hee.

I’ve got all kinds: Tim Holts, Unity, Papertrey Ink, Stampedious, Hero Arts, the list goes on, and on. I really love stamps. Maybe I have a problem. Lately my new favorite stamps are all from Lawn Fawn!! I don’t really remember how I even found Lawn Fawn - online obviously - but I just stumbled on it one day and loved the stamps. What’s NOT to love? Between the beautiful stamps, their awesome Design Team, and Kelly Marie's fabulous video tutorials!! They’ve got everything to make a crafty girl happy.

So anyways, I’ve been TRYING to keep my Lawn Fawn Stamps together in this heap of a mess for a while now. What I did was put two sheets of stamps in each packaging (that the stamps originally come to me in). This worked for a little while, but the packaging started ripping (uh, duh, that’s because they’re only supposed to house ONE sheet, not two). I know. So they were just free floating in my messy drawer for a few weeks now. I do not like that.

I had bookmarked a mini acrylic book used to house stamps that someone made on the Maya Road Blog last year. I though it was too cool! But when I though about making one, I was so overwhelmed because I have so many different brands and types of clear stamps that I though it would just be a crazy/mixed up mess.

Well, this weekend when Alivia laid down for her afternoon nap, and while my sweet son made his own little mini book with his craft supplies, I decided I would be making my Lawn Fawn Stamps a home! I still had a bunch of this Bo Bunny paper (cant remember the line, sorry) so I decided to use my stash on this one. I also used two Clear Snaps tabbed mini books (1 acrylic and 1 chipboard - exactly the same, but I only used the straight edge paged of the chipboard book) that I picked up several years ago and just haven’t used. The cover is acrylic, (I covered the back of it with paper) and then I put the stamps on the tabbed acrylic pages, and a chipboard page in between covered in that beautious paper so that my stamps wouldn’t get stuck and come off. This is a front/back page view. I kept the back super simple. I had this little tin plate from when I subscribed to Crazy Daisy’s Kit Club. It’s just been hanging around my crafty space for a while, and I absolutely love it. It SO inspires me.

Here are the rest of this pics. As you can see, I distressed all of the page edges - because I have a lot of fun doing that - and I also used the sticker element page and letter stickers that came with this line (Bo Bunny) throughout the book. To finish it off, I stamped “Heather’s Happy Place” on the clear tabs and used my Handmade By: Stamp on the back of the book using black StazOn Ink. I also made a cute little pocket for the stamp casing. I have to admit, I was scared to disregard them. What if this great idea doesn’t work out for me? What if my stamps don’t stick? It would be horrible to have all my pretties with no home...just a precaution ;). But I hope it does work. I love it. So fun. A pretty home to do my “Lawn Fawn Loveliness” justice.





The last page is sad because my Heebie Jeebies are all alone :(. but not for long because I just ordered the "Cozy Christmas" stamps...and they're on the way!! Woo Hoo. I'll probably get them today - super excited!! This is the first time I'll be making my own Christmas Cards, and I'm also making some for my Grandma too ;).
So that’s that. Hope you have a great day!!!