PageMaps scrapbook layout

Alright, here is my final project for the year! I am not loving the end result; I always see things that I would change after it's too late, and the parts I'd move are stuck. I see where I would shift the pictures to the right and up, but it is what it is. It makes me feel better thinking that some of you all have a page or two in your scrapbook that you might change something on (at least that's what I tell myself!). But, it is another page done (and an entry in the contest). My New Year's scrapbooking goal is to get one scrapbook layout done for every 5 cards I do! I find myself working on cards more, because they go together faster for me.
Well, that's all for this year! Happy New Year everyone!!!

Hero Arts card sketch contest

There is something great about New Year's Eve. Staying home in pajamas all day, reading a billion blog posts, and entering last minute contests. This is my card for the Hero Arts card sketch contest over at the Page Maps blog. The contest ends at midnight tonight, so put your party plans on hold, and enter with me!!! There is also a scrapbook layout contest at Page Maps, I'm going to see if I can get that done, too. So, if this was a usual day I'd post this card tomorrow, since I already posted today, but I have to join in the contest fun!

Boy Birthday

I went to the Sketches! {by tamara} page to look at some previous card sketches from the year. I really liked card sketch #61 which is shown above. I thought that it would be fun to use on a birthday card for a boy. I used my Loads of Love set, which is one of my all-time favorite stamp sets. I love how versatile it is. I've changed the truck to pink or purple for girls, but when I need a boy card, I always know I can use the truck!

Mojo Monday #67

I have a few thank you cards I wanted to get started on. I saw the Mojo Monday sketch today, and started planning in my head. And it seemed like everything just fell into place! Sometimes I have a plan in my head, and nothing works out like I want it to. Luckily, today that was not the case! I love to use lots of pink in my cards, and while I still used rose red on this one, I am trying to branch out and add in additional colors that I might not typically use. This is definitely one of those cards! I hope everyone's having a great Monday!

Just Because

It's already the last Monday of the year! Can you believe it? Well, last night I had a lot of fun making this. The last time that my parents were here to visit, my dad told me to find something fun to order for my mom. So I did! And I made her this little nugget box, to put a note inside telling her what her fun things are. I found the nugget box templates on Split Coast before Christmas, and I've been scoring and gluing for fun the last few days. I know I could have just made her a regular card telling her what it is, but I figured that this would be funner....I could use more of MY new stamps since the nugget box is bigger! And then she could use the nugget box for a little chocolate gift-giving if she wants.

So Happy For....

my niece! She gave us exciting news yesterday that she's pregnant! She made a cute card for her parents, grandparents, and in-laws. I just have to share, I thought it was so cute. It said, "Gas to drive to Wal-mart $10.00. Supplies to make this card $15.00." And then on the inside it said, "Seeing your face when you find out I'm pregnant, priceless!" It was so perfect. Anyway, that was reason enough for me to get out the stamping supplies, clean off my desk from the post-Christmas disaster, and make her a card. I used my new stamps from Verve stamps. And I have to say a little something about this company. I have been eyeing some of their products, and have only heard good reviews about both their products and customer service. I definitely wanted to order some things, but had been waiting. Well, they were having a good sale (and it runs through the end of December). So the week before Christmas I ordered some things. They shipped out that day!!! THAT DAY!!! I really was impressed. I know companies are probably so swamped, but I was very excited to get my things, and definitely will order from them again. ( I know they're not shipping again until January 2, but they are fast!)

Supplies:
Stampin' Up Regal Rose Cardstock
Stampin' Up Always Artichoke Cardstock
Stampin' Up Taken with Teal Cardstock
Stampin' Up Rose Red ink
Verve Stamps: Fluttering By
Verve Stamps: So Happy
Colorbox Old Rose ink

Mini Pizza Boxes for Christmas Treats

It is finally here: the week of Christmas. After staying up way too late, I think that we are finished with all of the neighbors' and friends' treats, and after a mad dash of cleaning today, I'll be ready to sit down and enjoy Christmas break with my family!!! I made these mini pizza boxes to put caramels and peppermint brownies in for friends and neighbors. These are so easy to make, although when making in "bulk" quantities with a time constraint, it does get kind of tedious. I know there are several tutorials out there, but this is the link to the cute pizza box I saw that actually made me want to try making these (instead of just thinking: those are cool, but I'm not making any). Well, I probably won't be posting anything else for several days. I do have some scrapbook layouts I want to try and get done over the break, but more than anything I'm excited to just relax with my family. So I may post, I may not. I hope that everyone out there has a wonderful Christmas!

Coaster Calendar #2

I have to start by saying that this looks so much better than in the picture. Everything looks crooked in the picture. And I distressed the edges, but that only shows on a few of the sides, and so it kind of looks like I just don't know how to trim my paper properly. Okay, now that I got that out of the way.
This is my second "coaster" calendar. I didn't have any coasters, so I used a 6x6 chipboard page. At first I was really wishing that I had some coasters, but I like that this size is just enough bigger to add something else on the page. So this is what I made for my son's teacher. I love this quote, and love to use it. And I always think it's fun to use for teachers, since they are helping our kids to reach their dreams! For the background I used some rose red designer paper that I absolutely love. I used the Upsy Daisy set, and of course embossed the flowers. The quote is from a Heidi Grace set that I have. We also gave her some peppermint brownies and lotion, wrapped in a little tin. I really hope she enjoys it, because she's a great teacher!

Hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate!

I want to stop everything, ignore the blizzard outside, and watch the Polar Express. But, instead I get to go to my son's gingerbread party at school. So at least it's something fun!!! So after this post, I'm going out to scrape inches of snow off of my car and hope to make it out of my driveway. The challenge at Split Coast today is a "last minute challenge." Something quick and easy. So I made a quick pocket to put a hot chocolate packet in. It ended up being so quick, I made another treat box like I'd made here. I ordered a ribbon shredder to make my ribbon look better, and it's supposed to be here tomorrow...we'll see if the UPS man dares brave my driveway!!! Both of these simple little projects were done in a matter of minutes. It would have been a minute less, but the first time I made the cocoa packet I smudged all of the rose red ink everywhere. To see the gallery of last minute ideas on Split Coast, click here.

Cookie Dough Truffles

Over at Laurie's blog, she posted the most delicious recipe for cookie dough truffles. You can find her post here. She titled her post: "Do you snitch cookie dough?" It totally caught my eye, and that day it even got me giggling. Raw eggs freak me out, and so I don't let anyone at my house snitch raw cookie dough. Well, she has the perfect solution. This delicious recipe. It is heavenly! I had a cookie exchange to go to last week, and these were the cookies I took. I think my husband thought I was crazy to share all these good cookies with other people. If he'd have had his way I would have left these home and taken some oreos to exchange! So thank you Laurie for sharing your wonderful tasty treat with us! She has pictures of the finished product, too, which really make me hungry. These are the cards I made to accompany my cookies at the exchange. The blues really look better all together in real life. Something about fuzzy cameras or crazy computer screens!

Reindeer Food

I saw people on Split Coast making reindeer food, and I told my kids about it. They loved the idea! I had planned on mixing the oats and sugars all together and placing them in a small treat bag. Today when I went to get the treat bags out and get started, I couldn't find them anywhere! So I used the containers that the colored sugar came in. I've found a lot of poems, both on Split Coast, and using google, but I decided to come up with my own that I thought my kids would like. For the finishing touch, I stamped my Rubber Stampede Santa in rose red ink, embossed, and punched him out using my 1.5 inch punch. I am really happy with how these turned out! To see the gallery of reindeer food projects on Split Coast, click here.

Christmas Frame

Next week is Christmas! WOW! I cannot believe it. I have had my eye on this super cute frame at Split Coast for a while now. But I didn't have the perfect snowman for it. Then last week, while I was shopping and running errands with my mom, I finally had a chance to go to Archiver's. I've heard great things about that store, and now I know why! It was awesome. I could have spent the entire day there I think. But I had lots of errands to run, and so I kept my time short, and just found the snowman I really needed.

Lotion

I don't know if anyone else is feeling that crazy Christmas rush like I am. The time is flying by, and it feels like everyday I have 50 things that need to get done, and about 10 that actually get done. Here is another one of my gift projects. I got a lotion "recipe" off of Split Coast, and just had to give it a try. Here is the original post if you're interested. The lotion was really simple to prepare. After I mixed it all up, then I put it in these little canning jars. I made up a little poem, printed it off, punched it out, and I've got a few simple gifts done!
{The poem says massage in some of this stuff, not his stuff, the "t" just got caught off with the curly ribbon}

Christmas Tin

Back when it was sunny and warm, I made this tin for my mom on Mother's Day. When my mom went to visit my niece and nephew, they loved her little card tin. Especially my niece; she liked to carry it around. So I decided to make them their own! This is the tin for my niece. The paper is from daisy bucket designs. I used rose red ink on the chipboard, and then clear embossing powder. I hope she will like it!

Treat Boxes

I am really excited about today's project. My mom and I are going to a cookie swap on Saturday, and she had purchased some cool Martha Stewart cookies boxes. Which of course made me start looking for templates for cookie boxes online. I got a little sidetracked, and found this neat template. Here is the original blog post that it was on. I started making these, and then one thing led to another, and I added eyelets at the top so that I could secure the little treat boxes closed. In the middle I added some peppermint and spearmint candies, but I love that you could add just about any little treat to the middle of these! (In case you're wondering, I used rose red craft ink, because I was planning on adding some touches of rose color with the eyelets, and maybe the curling ribbon. But then I really liked the monochromatic look, so didn't add any rose anywhere else.)

Coaster Calendar

After seeing Laurie's cute coaster calender, I really wanted to make one. I did CD case calendars last year, and had a blast making them for everyone that I did. But I got started a lot earlier last year, and I knew that this year I couldn't do a page for every month. So this is a close substitute. Well, maybe not close, but it's what I came up with. The chipboard I got is actually 6x6 size, so it's bigger than classic coasters, but it was really cheap at the scrapbook store the other day! The outside edges I inked with Rose Red and then mod podged to give it some shine, since I was embossing the flowers. All-in-all, I am pretty happy with how it turned out!

Shepherd's Pie Recipe

This is for another recipe swap I'm in. It's a "winter-themed" swap. I was all ready to do a blue and white snowflake layout, and I had some great paper ready to go. Then I came across this paper I had in my stash. Now, I am not a snow lover, but when I saw this paper I thought of my husband. When he was in high school, he'd go skiing every chance he could get. To a lot of people, nothing says winter like time in the snow. So I abandoned my other layout, and went with this one! This is my aunt's yummy recipe. She does add chopped up red bell peppers, but I never have those, and they never make it on my grocery list. But it is delicious with the peppers added. So, by all means, if you like red bell peppers, add some to the mix!

PageMaps Thankful Contest

This is what I've been working on the past few days! I finally finished late last night, but waited until this morning to try to get a decent picture when the sun was up. I love using PageMaps sketches. If you like to scrapbook, they have some awesome sketches. A few days ago, I wanted to find a new sketch so I went to their website. Then I found the PageMaps Blog!!! The challenge posted was to incorporate the above sketch and use it to show something that you are thankful for. I've been wanting to use this picture with my grandmother for a long time. But sometimes I find I'm reluctant to do one-page layouts. I like how two-pagers create a continuity throughout my scrapbook. The two-pagers always take me a lot longer, though. So sometimes my scrapbook doesn't get a lot of new additions. So, my new decision is to do one-page layouts as well as two-page layouts, and make sure I'm actually adding to my scrapbooks!

Christmas Journal

Chris' blog talked about doing a journal of your family's 25 days of Christmas! I thought it was an awesome idea! I didn't know what size to do, and finally settled on 6x6. I've made little albums in that size for my kids, and they seem to love them. So that's what I went with. You really have to visit Chris' blog. She gives all the details of where she found details on doing a project like this! I loved reading about it all. The idea is to have the basic journal ready to go before December 1st, so that all you have to do is add pictures. Well, I didn't get that done, but I loved the idea, so I'm trying to keep up with it anyway. Christmas is such a magical time, and I think to have a day-by-day journal of a whole month will be really fun!

Basketball Coach

This card uses today's sketch challenge at Split Coast Stampers. I needed to make a quick card for my son's basketball coach since tonight is their last game. I thought this sketch would be perfect because I knew I had this fun basketball paper from a previous project. The coach is a lady, and I was going to add ribbon, but I couldn't figure out where to put it, so I left it off.

Upsy Daisy Candle

I love experimenting with new ways to use my stamps. I know this technique has been around for a long time, but I've never been daring enough to try it. You know, I wouldn't want to ruin a candle purchased from the dollar store if something goes wrong!!! Now that it's December, and the peak of gift-giving season, I decided it was time to try this technique. So I got my dollar store candle, tissue paper, wax paper, and one of my favorite Stampin' Up stamps: Upsy Daisy. Since this was my first attempt, I don't feel too bad that I didn't hold the wax paper as tight as I should have, and didn't melt the wax paper enough in some places. I am happy with how things went for a first attempt. I'm going to try again, and have on my oven mitt, I think. Things get pretty hot when the embossing gun is in full swing. Also, I'm not really crazy about the ribbon at the bottom, but when I took it off and went to take another picture, my batteries went dead on the camera. So I'm leaving it alone. I'm definitely going to be experimenting more with stamping on candles in the future. There is a great step-by-step tutorial on Split Coast Stampers if you are interested in trying this out yourself.