Mojo Monday

This is my card I made using the Mojo Monday sketch for this week. To see all of the other cards people made for week 71, click the link here. I love using these sketches and look forward to them each Monday. I thought that this week I would actually pull out my Verve stamps and use them for this week's sketch, but then I went in a totally different direction. I decided to do a Valentine's Day card, and so I used one of my favorite stamps from the Time Well Spent set by Stampin' Up.

Scraps, and a brand new card!

I was cleaning off my desk this morning to get started on homework. That meant putting away all of the scraps (finally) from Monday's card. Well, I started looking at the scraps and wanted to make one more card. I looked at the sketch on Split Coast Stampers, and I just couldn't think of what I would do with it. So I looked at the Sketches! {by tamara} blog and found this fun layout. It seemed great for using a lot of little scraps. Now I am waiting for Sale-A-Bration so that I can order some more cardstock. I am down to just a few scraps of Rose Red and one full sheet of Regal Rose. Have a great Wednesday everyone!!!

Being a Responsible Adult

Many years ago, I was going to college and didn't really know what I wanted to study or major in. So I was just taking classes along the way. A few years into this process I got married, and a few years into that I was pregnant with our son. Well, that ended up being my last semester of college. Until last year, when I decided it's about time to finish what I started back in 1995!!! Crazy, huh. So I have finished a few more classes. Last semester I took off for various reasons and this semester I am back to school, again! But today, all I wanted to do was play. Sit at my scrapbook desk, and make cards with my little girl, and play. But I was a responsible student and did ALL of my homework before I started on this sketch. This is for today's sketch challenge at Split Coast Stampers. I am wishing I'd done some different things with the background paper, but I got to play a little, and that's what I needed today!

Sketch Challenge 210

This card is made for today's sketch challenge on Split Coast Stampers. I was peeking quickly at the gallery this morning before starting the dishwasher, and saw such pretty cards with the sketch, that I had to participate. I think it's a really fun sketch. I used my Artfully Asian set, which is one of my favorites and combined that with some of my favorite colors, too.

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!

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!

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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

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.