CTMH State Stamps

Another one of my favorite finds are the Close to My Heart State Stamps! I've been making cute, simple thank you notes with these great stamps. Love these 4x4 cards because they allow me to use up my scrap paper.

Prima Doll Stamps

WOW!! I can't believe it has been almost a year since I last blogged. Slightly embarrassing!! I'm going to pretend it my last post was yesterday :)

In the past year I have discovered Julie Nutting's Prima Dolls. They are by far my favorite new thing to play with. I love making tags and cards... and I even put together an ornament.

Here are a few creations!

Check out my fabulous Craigslist score! I got one of these paper displays for $20!!! They retail for $250 so I was beyond excited. I have already reorganized my paper stash using my new storage.

Purse Card Kits

I put together my first Make and Take for a retreat I attended earlier this month. 30 kits! The purse is a Circut cut from the Paisley cartridge. I cut the handle off and replaced with ribbon.

Scrap Layering

Another "Supplies on Hand" layout. This one is a spin off of Shimelle's scrap layering technique. I also used my favorite jellyfish stamp to make some patterned paper. And just to mix and match techniques even more, I used up a bunch of untouched letter J's to make a border.The picture itself is blurry, but I just loved the look of the lit up jellyfish and how excited my daughter was.

Supplies on Hand - Alphabets

I am taking May Flaum's new class called Supplies on Hand!I love classes like this because I don't have to spend any money on supplies -- it is all about learning new ways to use up my existing stash. The first day's lesson was all about Alphabets. If you are an Alpha hoarder like me, I highly suggest signing up for this class! I have already learned so many new tricks for what to do with those random X's and K's!

For this layout, I did something pretty simple. I didn't have enough of the same font stickers for the title so I used two different fonts in two shades of pink.

Scrap Storage

Here is a picture of my scrap system. I store each color in a 2.5 Gallon zip-top Hefty bag. Walmart has them for ~$3 for a box of 12. Then I keep the scrap bags in my Thirty-One medium utility tote. They fit perfectly and then I can carry them with me to scrap retreats. Sometimes I will go through the bags and clean out the smaller scraps and organize them by size.

Relaxing Birthday Card

There was something about this pink paper that reminded me of wallpaper. I imagined a giant tub and then I found a cute chandelier sticker in my stash and those clear raindrop bubbles to complete the look.

Table Scraps: Part 2

My refinishing project is complete! The table and chairs were finished a while ago and I am just slacking posting the details. Do you know what was the hardest part? Ok, there were two really hard things. Using the staple gun and trying to make sure the nails did not to go through the chair! Finding a trim that worked by hot gluing it AND one that was wide enough to cover my mistakes and the staples. Maybe that is really four or five things!

I went to Joann's five times before I picked a fabric. I went to Joann's three times and bought trim (that I could not return). One of them unraveled when I cut it. Two of them were too thin. I finally drove 30 minutes away to a discount fabric store and found a trim that would work.

I am so happy with how it turned out and I love the peacock feather fabric. It is a perfect fit for my purple dining room.

Things I learned from the fabric/trim process.
1. Hot glue burns.
2. You don't need as much glue as you think you do.
3. Invest in a really nice staple gun.
4. A black sharpie is a great mistake hider!

Back with more cards!

I am not a fan of months where I don't post anything. It happens though and you can't look back at what could have been, you can only look forward to what will be! I've got lots of cards to share and my next big project is going to be a wedding scrapbook for my cousin (a Christmas gift)! I've already got the supplies, photos and an outline. I am also working on a 2nd birthday party and look forward to sharing some cute stuff from that event!

Here are a few cards from August that never got shared.

A Wedding Card

Summer has been super busy so crafting time is at a minimum. I am currently working on some Camp Scrap assignments and hoping to have at least one posted next week. The most pressing item on my list was a card for an upcoming wedding. I used one of my go to designs and personalized it with the bride's colors. My scanner cut off the bottom, but the cake is centered in the middle of the polka dot paper. The bride is much shorter than the groom, so the cake topper was purposely placed that way! :)

Headed to Camp!

Camp Scrap that is!! This is one of my all time favorite classes by May Flaum. It is 100% fun and I always learn so much from May and all the other campers. This summer there are 4 main technique sessions and you can choose to do all of them or a few of them. Head on over to May's website to learn more. It is not too late to sign up. I hope I will see you there!

Table Scraps: Part 1

I really don't like to see such a large gap between my blog posts, but I kind of have a good reason. I actually made a list of goals I want to accomplish this year and I've been focusing on one of the top ones: refinishing a piece of furniture. Actually 5 pieces!! A whole dining room set. I found this very sad 70's cane back set for dirt cheap. I am kicking myself because I didn't take a true "before" picture of the ugly wood with coffee stains and all.

I got to work on the 4 chairs thinking that it would not be that hard. (Hahahaha) Here are the chairs after I primed them white and started to paint them black. I don't know exactly what kind of wood they are, but they are solid and heavy! I love the square design on the top of the chair and also the clover design on the bottom edges. This is what made me bring this beast home with me.

 2  coats of primer

2 coats of paint

Here is the whole lot of chairs. You can see the wooden table on the back right corner in the garage and the legs are behind the first white chair.

Things I learned during the painting process:
1. Don't paint outside on a windy day. The plastic kept blowing up into my chair legs, along with leaves and bugs.
2. An excessive amount of paint on the brush will cause drip stains that are hard to sand out.
3. Apparently, if you are using black, you should tell the guy at Lowe's so he can color the primer so that you don't have to use multiple coats of paint.

Part 2 will be all about buying fabric and my battle with gimp/trim.

 My little peanut discovered the markers in my scraproom and her favorite thing to do is take the caps on and off. Oh, and draw all over my white Ikea chair!! That is going to be a page in itself. What can you do - the girl got my crafty gene!

She also has this other adorable thing she does. Whenever someone goes into a room and closes the door (usually the bathroom) she gets down on the floor and tries to peek under the door! It is hysterical to watch and so super cute.

Happy 40th Birthday Cards

My favorite set of twins is turning 40 this month! I can't help it with the matching cards. The cards are very similar, but they have their own personalities :)
The mini flowers were one of my Tuesday Morning bargains and I embellished them with stickles.

Five a month... more or less

One of my goals for 2014 was to make sure that I was posting at least 5 projects a month. I felt like that was a reasonable amount without putting too much pressure on myself. Some months have been easier than others. Since tomorrow is National Scrapbooking Day I feel like I should make May a very productive month.

To kick of the month, here is a layout I did comparing my daughter at 6 months vs. 18 months. Both sets of photos were taken on our Florida vacation and they all involve her sleeping! This is the first time I've done a past/present layout. It is awesome to see the differences. The blue star paper is one of my all time favorite pieces of paper. I think it was from DCWV Garden Stack.

What not to buy!

This post is a reminder to myself about the different products that I have collected over the years and haven't used. I've been spending a lot of time organizing and purging my scrap room. It is easy to hoard cute stuff, but at the end of the day if it isn't being used - it needs to go!

Buttons: I've got jars and jars of them, but I never ever use them.  Buttons=dust collectors.

Mini album kits: It pains me that I spent $30-$50 on mini album kits. I have one that hasn't even been touched (purchased 2009). I decided to take the kit apart and use the supplies separately. I DO NOT DO MINI ALBUMS!! There is never enough room for photos. I am a 4x6 girl.

Page kits: Along the same line, I have purchased many page kits because I loved the theme etc., but the truth is, I like to do my own thing and it is harder for me to make stuff within a the limits of a pre-made page kit.

Mists: Luckily I don't have a lot, but the ones I do have are barely used.

Patterned Paper: Must.Stop.Buying. unless it is for a very specific project.

Large stamps: The kind where you have to have a special contraption (still in package) to use them.

Single image punches:  An owl, a rabbit, a snowflake, a circle, a square.... never use. I do use my border punches though.

I am sure this list will continue to be updated. For now, I must remember what not to buy!

Happy Happy Happy Card

Anyone who watches a certain show about a family of country folks and some ducks might recognize this quote. I have a friend who absolutely loves the show DD so this was my attempt at a humorous card.

Bridal Shower Cake

Today is my cousin's bridal shower, but sadly it is too far away for me to attend since I will also be traveling for the wedding. I sent her a towel cake with her choice of towels and a matching card. She is living in Alberta, Canada so the top of the cake has a cut out of the province behind the bride and groom. I tried to match her wedding colors - coral, pink and mint green. This was so much fun to put together. The best part was stumbling across a mint green spatula!

 

Bridal shower card

 

Here is one of the layouts I completed on my scrap weekend. It seems there is a lot of pink and blue in my stash right now and I like that combo for winter scenes.