TGIF...and big plans for the weekend.

So, it's Friday...and we all know how I feel about that!

On the agenda this weekend...my nephew will be staying with me and I've compiled a list of projects he can do for me which will be SO helpful. His help will allow me to spend more time in my studio to finish up those Christmas cards I've been trying to complete all month!

The weather has been beautiful here the past couple of days, so hopefully the windows will be open, chores will get done & crafty goodness will help me rejuvenate for the next work week.

What are your plans this weekend?

How Many Days Until Christmas?

61 days.

That is all...61 days. I'm feeling the crunch already.

In about 40 days I will have company coming and staying until after Christmas. I need to get myself moving if I want to have everything ready by the time she arrives! This past month has be derailed by situations beyond my control, so I do not have all the Christmas cards completed yet...but I am even more thankful than ever that I started so early this year. It will help emensely & my new goal is now to be completely done by Veteran's Day. Totally doable.

The bigger problem is I have yet to start shopping and scarier still, I haven't started on the homemade gifts I have planned. Again, I am thankful to have a plan...I just need the time to execute that plan!

I hope the rest of you are well on your way to a stress free holiday season and no matter what, remember the REASON for the season.

Since I don't have any new creations to post, I'll offer up some old family Christmas photos for Throwback Thursday. Enjoy!

Chelsea, Maya & Olivia

Maya

Olivia

My Mom & I ... 1978

Chelsea & My Dad ... 1993

Amy, Erica, Mom, David, Dad, Matt & Me ... 1981 (I think)

Erica, Mom, David, Matt, Dad, Me & Amy ... Early 80's

Gracellyn ... 2011 admiring her first year of decorating my tree.

Weekend Wrap Up

I had some friends over to craft this weekend. Since there is a lot of talking and I am easily distracted as the host, I try to just work on cards I've already designed & hopefully pre-cut the pieces for. I worked on the hot pink cards I designed last weekend & here's what I finished...this is a total of 14...I have more pieces cut, but ran out of the ribbon I wanted to use, so this is it for now!

Weekend Wrap Up

I was on call for my regular job this weekend, so I really didn't have high expectations for what I wanted to complete. I guess I will say I was pleasantly surprised to be able to get a handful of Christmas cards completed and another handful cut & ready to be assembled. These green, red & white cards were inspired by a design from Vicki Wizniuk's blog...you can see her awesome work here: Wizard's Hangout. I get a lot of inspiration from her designs...they are always clean and eye catching.

For these first two, I tried to keep in mind that I need to mail a lot of cards so I kept these pretty flat. The only thing that adds a little bulk are the rhinestones & the metal looking embellishments. The White Daisy cardstock & sentiment stamp is from CTMH & I used a border punch by Fiskars. The patterned paper & red cardstock is from DCWV. (I WILL use up papers I've purchased long ago...I will!!!) The bling is from want2scrap.com & the metallic bling is from JoAnn's dollar spot, I think. I have 3 each of these cards completed.

These two cards were the same basic design as the first two, but I decided to use a different stamp & add some baker's twine to fill in that white space. The sentiment piece is popped up with a little foam tape, but still not too thick to mail. I don't think I'm a fan of the colored one...but the verdict is still out! I will have 3 each of these cards as well.

This card will be a set of 12 & I have another 12 precut with a different background paper, it's hot pink w/glittered words all over. I will use the same stamp & sentiment on those as well. The finished cards will use a variety of sheer ribbons to embellish the focal point. All the papers except the white cardstock are DCWV. The White Daisy cardstock & stamps are CTMH. I used a mix of glitter & clear detail embossing powder over the trees & sentiment & heat set it for a little more sparkle on this card. It doesn't show up in the picture, but it does look pretty! I need to finish stamping, embossing and assembling all the rest of these cards. That will be a project for next weekend I'm sure!

Well, that's all I was able to get accomplished this weekend. The coming week will be a little busy after work, but hopefully I will be able to accomplish something!

Weekend Wrap Up

I must admit I wasn't terribly productive this weekend. On Saturday there was a lot of tv time on the couch.

On Sunday, I had a meeting for my It Works business, have you tried that's crazy wrap thing? Well, after that was over I went home to make a little name plate for a friend to use on a gift bag. Here it is:

Pretty simple...beautiful name, but I might be a little biased, my youngest niece's name is Gracellyn. 

I did manage to get together my sample of the red, green and blue snowflake card, here it is:

The green on the background paper is glittered...love the sparkle! 

That's all I really have to chat about this morning. Have a great Monday...tootles!

Productive Labor Day Weekend

Now, I will admit, I spent a lot of time just lounging this past weekend...but, I also completed 26 Christmas cards...and I am excited about that!

I completed 8 of these:

Paper: DCWV & CTMH  Sentiment Stamp: CTMH
Twine & Silver Shimmer Trim: CTMH
 

I had cut out the papers for this card a LONG time ago & never completed them, so this was the year! I love a little sparkle on my Christmas cards & I'm really loving twine lately. This is another great card for mailing, not too thick!

I also completed 18 of the blue & white snowflake cards I posted about a week or so ago. I loved the ease of that design so much, I made another set of 18 with a red/cream/kraft color scheme & I have started a third set of 18 with a red/green/blue color scheme. I need to take pictures still of the finished products, so those will come in a later post.

I believe my completed Christmas card total is now at 72! I'm going to keep on going because I really want to sell some this year for some Christmas cash...and because I have a really obscene stash of Christmas swag that NEEDS to be thinned out. I'm loving not feeling the rush of doing them at the last minute and I'm pretty confident I'll be done creating Christmas cards by the end of October. WooHoo!

Throwback Thursday

It's Throwback Thursday...so here's some old family photos I love.

My Mom & I ... one day old!



My younger brother, David



My Dad & baby sister, Chelsea

Me & my older siblings (L to R - Erica, Matt, Amy, Abby)

Christmas in August???

Christmas card creations are in full swing right now in my studio. I really started them a couple of weeks ago, but this past weekend I really started making some progress.

I found this layout on Pinterest and have used it for some other themed cards, but I thought it would be perfect for Christmas cards as well. I went through my extensive stash of Christmas papers (really, it is ridiculous what I've accumulated) and chose some papers with glitter on them. I have selected 3 different paper designs & each one will create 18 cards since I had 3 sheets of each design! By the end of this weekend, I'll have 54 of these cards done! I can not even express to you how excited that makes me!

Here's a look at the first set:

Add caption

I will take some better pics once they are all assembled, but I like to do a sample to make sure I like the finished look before I get to involved. You can't really see it on my sample, but the white cardstock is embossed with snowflakes after stamping the sentiment and the background paper has glittered snowflakes. I have a couple of different ribbons I'll be using on this card.

Super simple, easy to do assembly style, flat enough to mail and I feel like I might actually get all the cards made for the holidays early this year...and have some to sell as well!!!

How early do you start your Christmas cards? How many do you attempt to send out each year?

TGIF!!!

Friday is probably my favorite day of the week. Yes, I still have to go to work, but...the weekend is just around the corner and that usually means plenty of time in my studio if I choose!

On the agenda for this weekend:

#1 - Finish bagging & pricing cards for sale at work. (I keep a box in my office that are for sale & have a couple of regular customers).

#2 - Finish cutting & assembling the 54 Christmas cards I've started cutting pieces for last week...I've been waiting on a punch to arrive before I continue cutting pieces...can't wait to see the finished product! (Most of these will be the cards I send out this year, the others will be for sale).

#3 - Photograph finished cards for blog!

I think that's enough for me to focus on this week. I've really been trying to finish up cards that were started & stalled for one reason or another. I have 2 drawers full of "in progress" stuff. It feels so good every time I complete one of those and get to move on to something else. There are so many new products I'd love to be creating with, but seeing those unfinished projects always makes me feel bad, so it's long overdue for them to get done & get gone! Also, a crafty friend will be joining me on Sunday afternoon...so that will be fun to have some company!

What crafty goodness do you have planned for this weekend? Do you sell your creations? I'm always interested in hearing what y'all are up to, please leave me a comment with your crafty plans! :)

Throwback Thursday - Cards From The Past

I used to have a different blog...but I never kept up with it and so I decided to start fresh with a new blog & new name at the beginning of 2012. Since I have a bunch of older cards that have never made it on this blog, I thought I would start posting some of them so they could be documented. I'll do my best to try and remember what supplies were used...this could be interesting! These cards were made in either 2008 or 2009...some of my earliest card creations that I'm willing to share. LOL :)

I know the patterned paper is from DCWV as well as the card base. The metallic paper on the bow & tag was purchased at WalMart (I so wish they still sold this!) and the stamp is one I picked up in the dollar bin at Michael's. I don't remember what brand the brad or rub on from the gift tag is from. I want to say the Cricut cut is from Celebrations...but don't quote me on that!

This paper was from a stack of birthday themed paper I purchased at Target, not sure of the brand. Again, I think the Cricut cuts are from Celebrations. The card base is DCWV and the buttons and thread were from my stash.

This paper was from the same stack I bought at Target. Card base and cardstock is DCWV & the ribbon was from my stash. The overlay on the tag was from a book of clear transparencies I bough from Paper Wishes, I think.

Card base is DCWV and I'm not sure who the paper is by. The embellishment came on a sheet of other chipboard birthday embellishments I purchased at Michael's or JoAnn's. The ric rac ribbon was from Joann's and the orange ribbon was just in my stash.

This card must have been after 2009...because that sentiment is from Close To My Heart & I didn't start using their products until I started selling them in late 2009. The papers and card base is from DCWV, ric rac from JoAnn's & brads from my stash...maybe SEI? That background paper has some glitter embossed on it...super cute!

Over the Weekend...

I had a great time on Saturday crafting with some friends. Forgot to take pictures as we went, so I'll have to get the pictures done of the finished cards I made and post them a bit later!

Hope you're having a great Monday and for all of you with kiddos that started school today, I hope it was a breezy morning for you!

Laughing Lola Cardmaking Kit

A few weeks ago, I completed the Laughing Lola Cardmaking Kit from Close To My Heart. I love these kits! They come with the card bases & envelopes, paper, embellishments, stamp set & instructions all for the great price of $24.95 plus shipping & tax! What a deal! With this kit, you make 15 cards...5 each of 3 designs. Here's my finished product!

I played around with the papers here. The B&T papers are double sided, so you can simply turn them over for a different look. I also added some shimmer trim to these cards. In this picture you can see each one has a different color of shimmer trim (silver, bronze & black).

On this set, again I played with the choice of background paper. Also, I chose to cut the heart out on my cricut instead of just stamping it on the white cardstock. I also used a background stamp on the white cardstock behind the heart. And I also added shimmer trim to these cards! :)

On these cards, I only reversed the background paper so I would have more variety in my finished product. Everything else was just as the instructions called for!

Studio Makeover Part 2

So, here are some more pics of my studio makeover (sorry about the photo quality, I took all these photos with my phone):

This is the view from my doorway (there are double doors on this room). The table in the foreground is my working table. It is about 6 1/2' x 2'. The tables against the wall are each just around 5' x 2 1/2'. The tables against the wall will be my tool area. I have my Cricut, Cuttlebug and stamp sets set out on these tables. I Have some plastic shelves below each table that can hold my cropper hopper verticle paper holders and then some other random stuff on the shelf above that. I have kept my CTMH cardstock in 2 baskets under the desk for easy access. There are also 2 sets of drawers for these tables. The drawers on the left hold my Cuttlebug folders & dies, Envelopes, Platic bags for my creations, and two drawers at the top that don't have anything in them just yet. The drawers on the right have my Cricut tools, embossing powders/flock/etc., embossing tools (heat gun, tray, etc.), bling & punches.

This picture is from the closet doorway. Since I can't use the window seat as an actual seat, I'm using it for a little book shelf. I have all my Close To My Heart How-To books and a couple of Idea Books sitting there along with some miscellaneous books/binders.

This view is also from the closet side of the room...the back corner looking to the front wall. I have most of my embellishments that are non-CTMH in those 12x12 drawers as well as my glitter, shimmer, specialty type papers. As you can see on my work table, there are drawers on either side of it. The drawers on the right hold tools, adhesive, blocks, adhesive refills, ect... and the bottom drawer hold all my brads (well, most of them anyways LOL). For the drawers on my left, the top drawer holds just misc. stuff like scotch tape, my TV remotes, post it notes, etc. The rest of the drawers on the left are for CTMH embellishments. I have one drawer full of ribbon, shimmer trim, twine & the others have all kinds of other embellishments...and they aren't even full!!! :)

This view is from the window looking towards the closet. I took the closet doors off the day I moved into this home. I knew they would just be in my way & they had to go! I found these zebra print ruffle curtains on Amazon and just thought they would be a perfect touch of fun to the room. I have other zebra accents & my chairs are zebra print too. I've ordered a shorter curtain of the same design for the actual window in my room, it just hasn't arrived yet.

I still need to purchase a 9-drawer tower that matches the drawers on my desk. They will go where the 8 1/2 x 11 drawers are at the end of my tables (by the closet).

In the closet is a lot more paper...mostly themes & holidays. And there are other bins I still need to go through in there. Eventually, I think I'll be installing some shelving in there to make it work better for me, but right now I don't know what that is really, so it can wait.

I also want to install some shelving above my tool tables along the back wall, but haven't decided on those either...so I wait. To fill up that massive wall, I made some fast banners out of cardstock & a touch of zebra print paper. Here are those pictures:

 

A Pinterest Inspired Success!

I find a lot of inspiration from other blogs, Pinterest & Facebook. I always try to make it my own in some way and sometimes they are downright copies. There are so many talented crafters out there! I'm really trying to use up papers and supplies I've already purchased. I have a box full of papers I've already cut into 4 x 5 1/4 just waiting to be used, so this sketch was perfect for that.

This set of cards was inspired by a Pinterest post. Here is my pin:

http://pinterest.com/pin/161074124145966539/

And here are my versions:

This is the group of all the cards I made. All the sentiment stamps are from Papertrey Ink. The butterfly punch is from EK Success. The yellow sheer ribbon is from my stash, pretty sure I purchased it at the Dollar Store and the Baker's Twine is from Close To My Heart. The patterned paper is from my stash & the cardstock if from Close To My Heart.

The sentiments on these two cards were stamped in Grey Wool (CTMH-Retired).

The sentiments on these two cards was stamped in Pansy Purple (CTMH-Retired).

The sentiment & baker's twine on this card are Lagoon (CTMH). Also, I used foam tape under the white cardstock to give this card a little dimension (and it helps with the baker's twine...I don't like lumpy cards!)

I hope you enjoy these cards. A few of them will be donated to Operation Write Home, the others will join my stash. And I'll probably make a few more in the coming days. They were super simple to assemble and you could switch out a variety of sentiments!

I will likely re-use this style for some Winter/Christmas cards using a snowflake punch instead of a butterfly. I have tons of Christmas paper screaming to be used!!!

Craft Room Makeover Part 1

So...I finally decided to bite the bullet and start my craft room makeover. I've had a designated craft space since I was an apartment dweller, but now that I'm in my own home, I wanted to make it feel more "permanent".

I started scrapping/paper crafting about 7 years ago. Of course, my stash of supplies has multiplied in an obscene way in the past 7 years, so my storage solutions have been ever changing.

These first two pictures are from my first apartment, about 2 years into my crafting addiction...I mean hobby. :) I had a corner computer desk I wasn't using for a computer anymore and used a small folding table for additional desktop space (In the 2nd picture, I had moved that small table to the other side of the room). At this point in my crafting career, I'm pretty sure I was just collecting stuff. Not really knowing your crafting style or what you even need...this happens to a lot of new crafters.

Then, when I moved into my 2nd apartment, I had my scrap room in the 2nd bedroom, but after a few months, decided to switch it out with the master bedroom. Here are some pics of that space...I had several arrangements during my time there, and these pics aren't the best (don't know why I took them unless it was to just document the massive mess). But in this pic, I had 2 6' folding tables together in the middle of the room, and most of my stuff was in storage across the back wall or in the closet (not in picture).

This view is from the closet doorway.

This view is from the doorway.

The plus to this room was that it was enough room to scrap with a couple of friends...but I always felt like it was pieced together and not very cute.

Well, when I bought my home in the Spring of 2012, I knew one of the spare bedrooms would be a scrap room and the other would be a guest room/office. The scrap room, which I now refer to as the studio is the bigger of the two, and here's what it looked like empty! There are double doors to this room and a window seat. LOVE the doors, the window seat has been a little frustrating...but we'll get to that later.

I'm going to end this post for now so I can get more pictures together. Stay tuned for part 2 of the makeover! :)

I am WAY behind on my card making goal for this year, but this past weekend I did manage to get into my craft room for some much needed creative time. Here's a picture of a fun Birthday card.

This card was CASE'd from one I found on Pinterest by a fellow consultant Vicki Wizniuk. I added CTMH Silver Shimmer Trim to my version for a little bling (cause I just love the bling!) Everything is CTMH except the sentiment stamp, that is by PTI.

 



 

Just a little distracted...

Things have been a little crazy around here for me & I've been unable to spend any quality time in my craft room. I recently discovered this crazy wrap thing & became an Independent Distributor for It Works! Global. I'm so excited about what their products are already doing for me and it's been fun to share with so many people already!

I still have large card making goals for this year, I just think I need to purposefully schedule "me" time to do it!

I do have pictures!

I don't have time right now to go through details of all these cards, but since I do have the pictures, I wanted to get them posted before I forget...maybe I will remember to come back and add details later on. I am really trying to document everything I make this year, so this will have to do for now!

This "love day" card was created with the Sweetheart paper line (retired) and I used some of the matching stickease, silver shimmer trim and cotton candy pompom ribbon. All supplies are CTMH except the embossing folder, I think that is from SU. How cute is this!?!?!?



This card is a mix up of a few differnt products. I used some of the Sweetheart paper (retired) from CTMH, a scrap of something else I had, some heart stickers from Hobby Lobby & the sentiment and puppy are rubons I bought at Target in the dollar spot a few years ago! The purple cardstock is DCWV. I found the layout with the banners on Pinterest...it's a great card layout to use up some scraps! I'd like to try some other papers with this layout.

For this card, I cut up the patterned paper to separate the hearts & then remount them to create my focal point. You can't really tell in this picture, but there is some purple in a couple of the heart squares, so I used some sheer gift wrap ribbon to give it some interest. It's cute, simple and still flat enough to mail.