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.

Magnet Board

I have had this magnet board for a long time. A while back I stamped it with blue flowers, but didn't let the craft ink dry properly, and there were a lot of places where it smudged. But I used it anyway. Well, the other day I decided to redo the magnet board. Now that I've got my Rose Red ink, I thought it would be pretty to use the rose red along with some blue ink. I wanted to emboss the flowers also. I had a frame that I embossed a few flowers on the other day for my daughter, but the frame was totally flat without any edges. It was easier to do, because I could slide the embossing powder right off of the frame. That didn't work very well on this magnet board, so I decided to just stamp it and leave it alone.

Always Believe

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had a terrific day with family. I can't believe that now is time to really get ready for Christmas, though! I was feeling very festive this morning and wanted to get all of our Christmas decorations up, but unfortunately I couldn't find most of them. So I decided to distract myself and do some stamping. I love this Santa stamp from Rubber Stampede. I couldn't wait to make a Christmas card with it. I used some shiny silver cardstock (which really looks white in the picture), and love the way that it looks! I want to make quite a few of these cards. I love the magic of the holidays, and the joy in giving gifts, and I love that to my children it's still such a magical time.

Thankful for Teachers

I feel so very lucky. Each year of school, my son has had an amazing teacher! He loves school, and I know that his wonderful teachers have been a huge part of him enjoying school so much. This is the treat we made for him to give his teacher and bus driver today. I found this cool tutorial by Julie Case. I loved the idea, and it was simple, which I wanted. The main thing that I changed was the width of paper. On her tutorial she cuts the paper 3 inches wide and uses snack-size M&M bags. Well, I didn't have snack-size M&M bags, so I was planning on using some of my treat bags from Wal-mart filled with chocolate instead. And those are exactly 3 inches wide, and I didn't want to see any plastic hanging out the side. So I cut mine a little wider. I love the saying from this Stampin' Up set: happy Thanksgiving, happy fall, happy blessings, to one and all. I think it's the perfect saying to sum up how I was feeling as I was making this for his teacher. I am blessed in so many ways, and I have so much to be thankful for.

Thankful for Friends

This is a super fun card that my friend sent to me. Back before she got a cricut for her birthday, I had lent mine to her for a few days so she could get some projects done. This was the thank you card she made. I absolutely loved it! I love pink, and the punch that makes things look like they came from a notebook. It's such a sweet card, and it really made me feel special. I hope everyone is looking forward to having a wonderful Thanksgiving week!

Mojo Saturday?

Well, it's been a busy week again this week. I didn't get around to any sketches yet, so today I finally made some time to use the Mojo Monday sketch. The snowman stamp is from a cute little set I found at Wal-mart, and the sentiment is Studio G. I don't have a cool scallop punch, so I just used my old, OLD decorative scissors to add an edge. Now I'm off to enjoy the rest of Rivalry Weekend and college football for the rest of the day!

Steelers Are Victorious Versus Bengals

Oh, how it pains me! I have a brother loves the Steelers, and I love the Bengals. They played last night, and things didn't turn out in my favor. I can't stand losing to him!!! But I had to make him a victory card. Last year I made him a card as soon as the Steelers lost in the playoffs, so I figured I'd be a little nicer this year. I realize the picture is really crooked, but the card's not; just blame it on my photography skills!

Embossing Resist

I've read about a technique called "embossing resist" and decided to give it a try today. I had been eager to try it, but a key element is versamark, which I didn't have yet. I was going to try this while my mom was here, and then we ran out of time. So basically, the technique is that you use versamark rather than colored ink on a stamp. Top the versamark with clear embossing powder. Emboss as usual, and then sponge ink over the paper. The places where you embossed "resist" the ink. I think it's a neat look. And perfect to try out with my Snowflakes Roller. So I washed out a used frosting container, and measured the paper to fit. Then I did the embossing resist technique, and glued the paper on tight. I added some ribbon at the top. My mom has a really cool ribbon shredder, similar to one pictured here, but I don't have one. I wanted the ribbon smaller, so I tried to do it by hand, and my ribbon looks pretty funny! To finish the project off, I stamped a cute little tag from a set I found at Wal-Mart, and I have a little container to give away once I fill it with holiday candy! If you've never tried this technique and are interested, there is a more thorough tutorial here.

Easy Christmas Card

I found this beautiful card at SplitCoast, and knew I would have to case it. I loved it! This snowflake roller from Stampin' Up is a dream come true! I love how it looks, and because it's a roller, you can make a card in no time at all. The thing that took me the longest on this entire card was to distress the paper! No, it was drying the ink that I added to the snowflake brads. I had these plain white snowflake brads that I wanted to use, but the white just needed a lift. So I covered them with my craft ink, and then dried them with my embossing heat gun. It's such a useful tool. I think that I'll be making a bundle of these to have on hand for the upcoming season!

Sympathy Card

I spent most of the day yesterday helping with a funeral dinner at church. At the end of the day I felt exhausted physically and emotionally. I always come home from a funeral and hug my kids extra tight and let my husband know I don't want to live one day without him! This was the card I made for some members of the family. I hope the pink isn't too bright. While I know funerals can be such solemn occasions, I don't want to make a card that leaves someone feeling dreary either.

1st Christmas card ever

Over at Susan's blog she has blog candy to celebrate 3500 hits! She's asking about Christmas cards and whether you make them or buy them. Go check out her blog....she has some beautiful cards and craft projects to look at. So I was thinking about Christmas cards after reading her blog. I wanted to find my card from last year. Not only was last year the first year I ever made cards, it was also the first year I ever sent Christmas cards. That's right. I'd never sent Christmas cards, not even from the dollar store. I know some people will be shocked to hear that, but it's the truth. Once I started stamping, I decided that sending Christmas cards maybe wasn't a waste of time (yes, cards used to seem like a waste of time to me)! Thanks for looking at one of my very first creations.

Wise Snowmen

My parents were here visiting for my daughter's birthday, and so my mom and I spent some time working on her Christmas cards for this year. I would cut and emboss, and she would cut and color; it was a lot of fun! She has this cute set of snowmen from The Angel Company. In the set are the wisemen, the shepherds, "Mary, Joseph, and The Baby," an angel, a star, and a few scripture stamps. This is one of the cards she will be sending this year.

Cuttlebug Challenge #7

I made this card for the challenge this week at The Cuttlebug Spot. The challenge was to cut something out, and then emboss the cut out shape. Well, this one was another challenging card for me to make. I thought and thought about it all week. Finally today I had settled on cutting out a sun shape and basically adding it to a card of flowers. Then I remembered this fun card my friend had made. I decided to do something similar, but with cut out tree shapes, instead of stamped ones. I cut out the crown shape from my Alphalicious Cricut cartridge, and then cut the crowns into the tree shapes. I embossed with my D'vine Swirls Embossing folder. After adding a little sentiment to the bottom as well as some ornaments and glitter, I am calling it complete!

Butterflies and Happiness

I saw this retired hostess set the other day on a blog, and thought that the butterfly image was beautiful! So I made my way over to Ebay, and was lucky enough to find it. So this was my "birthing day" present to myself. I tease my husband that on the kids' birthdays, I always should get presents, too! So I bought this set, and finally got real rose red paper and ink! I have a rose red marker, but I wanted the craft ink pad, and finally decided to get it! Now I'm off to work on Christmas cards with my mom.

Hostess Thank You

I had a light bulb moment this morning. Provo Craft has little eyelet packets that I love to buy. The packet has a lighter version of a color and a darker version. I love to use my crop-a-dile and I always think eyelets are a fun addition to have on hand. I have sometimes included these eyelets for the hostess of a swap that I'm in. The one problem, though, is that the eyelets come in this funny dome-shaped packaging that makes them hard to mail with my swaps. So this morning I had my moment! A-ha!!! Take the eyelets out of the packaging, put in a little bag, and stamp something on top! So this is what I came up with. A much more mail-friendly package.

Side Dish Recipe Swap

This is one of my final recipe swaps before Christmas. I have so much fun making these recipe cards. But the best part is all of the wonderful recipe cards I've received. There are so many talented people that participate. I always love a day when I get my swaps in the mail. For this card I used this cheery paper from doodlebug designs. The cardstock is Bazzill. I printed the recipe on vellum, and attached that with eyelets. Stamping was optional, and I decided to stamp a few flowers on the vellum. I used a flower from Stampin' Up Big Pieces as well as Little Flowers. Then in the center of the flowers I added a little pink sparkle. Now, I'm off to let my daughter do all the stamping today, since for her birthday she said she wants to "stamp all day long and be in charge." Great 5-year old wishes!

Soldier Bookmark

My son loves the Stampin' Up set "The Free and the Brave." So I am always looking for projects to make for him that he will like, using that stamp set. Lately he's been bringing books home from his teacher's classroom, in addition to his library books, and reading them on the bus. So I decided to make him some bookmarks. The tutorial I originally found was here. I let my son pick out the paper and ink color. I punched out some small stars, and he decided he wanted 3 white ones and 3 yellow ones. My son is very into "soldier" and "army" things right now. And while I think he's the cutest little soldier, I realize there are many real soldiers out there, working day and night. Doing whatever is asked of them to help keep our country, and other countries safe. I hope that everyone will take a moment to thank a veteran or current service-person they know, and let them know how very much we appreciate sacrifices that they make in our behalf.

Heard it from a friend, who heard it from a friend

That is basically how I found this fun blog: Clearly Delightful. I'd been on someone's blog, and their link led me to a link, that led me to another, and finally to Clearly Delightful! Where I found her cool sketch. I needed a birthday card for a party my daughter's going to today, and thought this sketch would be fun to do for a little boy card. Then I was putting everything away, and I found some pretty patterned paper I've had for a while. And I wanted to use it for this sketch. So I made a second card. I love how many people out there share their talent, and list sketches, and give crafters like me an idea of something to try!

The Cuttlebug Spot Challenge #6

Typically, I like to do the challenge over at the cuttlebug spot on Mondays. This week I wasn't able to get to it until today. The challenge was to use a Christmas embossing folder, and a border. Part of the reason I waited on the challenge, was because I don't have a border punch. And I knew on Wednesday I had to go to town, and I was thinking I might get a border punch. But, unfortunately, our scrapbook store is pretty limited with their selection. I didn't see any good punches, so instead I got this new embossing folder, and decided to make my own border with one of my cuttlebug dies. I like this embossing folder, and I plan on using it a lot for Christmas, and other wintertime events!

Another Sketch Card

I can't believe it's already Thursday! This week is flying by. On Thursday, Tamara always posts a card sketch, so I looked at her blog to see what the sketch was. I liked it a lot, and had visions of embossed snowflakes all over my card. Well, after a billion revisions, I'm still not sure what I was trying to do. And this card is not what I thought I was going for. But I had fun, and I've got a Christmas card to add to my stash. And in real life, the colors look good together (the side piece is not that red, it looks good with the snowflakes). I'm hoping to try another card later using the same sketch, because I just like it a lot. So, as my daughter would say, "Someday!"
EDIT: Okay, I went back and looked at the sketch again, and added a ribbon on the side. I do like it better now. I know sketches are to help us get creative, and following them exactly isn't what's required, but the card with the ribbon looks better to me!

Goody Bags

I love the Hero Arts Thanksgiving set I got a while back. It has some pretty leaves, a swirly leaf, a turkey, a pumpkin, and some fun sayings it it. So today I decided to get some goody bags made for Thanksgiving. And what fun would it be to make goody bags if I didn't get to emboss something!?! I like making little candy bags to give to friends and neighbors just to let them know we're thinking about them!

Bookmark

I love Fall! But when Fall gives way to Winter, and it's so chilly, and the wind blows, I just want to curl up on the couch, read a good book, and drink hot chocolate and eat Snickers. That is how today was. But I didn't have any hot chocolate or Snickers, so I had to be content with what I could do. And that was to try and stamp something cheery. I found this awesome tutorial for making bookmarks, and decided to give it a whirl. One thing I like better about "traditional" rectangular bookmarks, is that they seem easier to design and to add an image to. But I love how these seem like they'll stay on the pages of the book a little better. A lot of times my kids love to help me by getting my book for me if I'm already curled up on the couch, and more often than not the pages open and the bookmark seems to fall right out. So I'm going to play around and make some more of these, and see what else I can come up with.

Celebrate!

My baby girl is turning 5 next week! I just can't believe it. In so many ways it doesn't seem like enough time has passed that she could possibly be turning five. So I wanted to get her card ready this week, since I'm sure this week will fly as fast as all of the others have. I used Julee's Mojo Monday sketch for the card. I love this sweet little girl from Paper Pretties. Whenever I see her, I feel happy. And I hope my daughter has a wonderful, happy birthday!