Scary? Or Too Cute to Spook?

I scrapbooked yesterday!  Woohooo!!!  And I loved every single second of it.  Hours and hours of fun.  What do I have to show for my time in my room?  Two very simple 12x12 layouts.  LOL! Yep, it took me forever to do these pages.  I tried a whole bunch of things that I didn't end up using but like I've said before...it's the process that is fun and therapeutic for me...not the result.

My daughter took these photos of David with her iPhone.  She had ordered his Halloween costume for him and it had arrived so she tried it on him to see how it fit.  He did not like it and was just plain crabby about the whole thing.  I just LOVE the expression on his face.  He's just so totally annoyed that she made him put the costume on AND then made him stand still to snap his pictures.  It reminds me of the scene from one of my FAVORITE Christmas movies, A Christmas Story where Ralphie is made to wear the ridiculous pink bunny costume! 
Anyway here is the first page of the 2 page layout:

I just love his face! :)

But then...some magic happened!  David saw himself in the mirror and decided he looked pretty cool afterall! 

Love it!

I used Fancy Pants papers, some basic ribbon and cardstock I had around. The bat was cut from the Simply Charmed Simply Charmed and the SCARY title from Happy Happy Hauntings Cricut Cartridges.  I put a couple of little wiggly eyes on the bat.

I often use larger prints on my scrapbook pages like on these pages where I used 8x10 photos....I just like bold looking photos and I think sometimes 4x6 photos can get lost on a page.  And Costco has such good prices on enlargements...

HAHA! When I look back at these layouts I think WHAT ON EARTH TOOK HOURS TO DO HERE???  HAHA....well, you don't see all the mistakes and things I tried that I didn't love (like punched edges, different ribbons, etc.) in my trash can! 

Well, I was hoping my use of Simply Charmed would count on my personal Cricut Challenge to use all my cartridges but DANG...I've already used it! :)

Happy Crafting!!!

Expression Through Fiber

I am a craftaholic.  I've done it all...needlepoint, embroidery, cross stitch, sewing, paper crafts of all kind, painting, stained glass etc. etc. etc.  I've dabbled in knitting and also enjoy crocheting. 

I basically like my hands to be busy...it's hard for me to sit and watch tv and not be doing something else!

So, I've been using up some yarn scraps I have...I've made a ton of scarves as you know and just have had the greatest time.  I decided to make a few baby hats with some leftover yarn.  I can't wait for my little baby granddaughter to come back into town from her Thanksgiving trip to try them out on her cute little head. 

The first one is basically double crochets around although I added a little bit of a decorative edging and found this flower on Pinterest (that's my "Crochet" board on Pinterest...if you are not on Pinterest you really need to check it out...all kinds of things make, recipes, home ideas, decorating ideas, funny things, etc.!)  to add to my little cap.  I may add a big button to the center of the flower...not too sure about that since little Baby Girl is starting to put everything in her mouth! 

So easy, so fast...and so trendy and cute!

The second one is a little butterfly cap I made with the same pink yarn from the flower above.  It was also ridiculously easy if you know how to crochet double, slip stitch and single stitches.  I did learn how to make a Magic Circle for this one where you don't have a "hole" in the center of the beginning ring.  You crocheters will know what I'm talking about.  You can learn how to make a Magic Circle HERE.  And here is the pattern for this little cap HERE.

And here is my version:

So hurry home Baby Girl so we can dress you up!

Happy Crafting!

I Refuse to Give UP!

Since I returned from my trip to Scotland and Ireland in the middle of October I have been seriously behind on my crafting...especially card making and scrapbooking!  I have pictures to scrap, paper to be used, embellishments to adhere and so on but they don't seem to be making their way to finished products!  I have been working on some little gifties for a group of girls.  We all have a love a paper and scrapbooking and we call ourselves the Sharecroppers.  Now, we have nothing to do with farming or harvesting crops...many of us probably can't even grow silk flowers (me!) but we call ourselves that because we are the greatest at sharing.  We crop together....someone will say "Does anyone have a fill in the blank and a half dozen hands might shoot up!  We love to share so someone coined the term Sharecroppers for us.  Anyway, there will be 18 of us gathering this year at a friend's house for food, drink, games and SHARING! :)
But I can't show my gifties as some of those ladies read my blog and I don't want to ruin the surprise.  It's simple but useable and I'm hoping they'll like it.

I did go to the tag class at Archiver's a week ago with 2 of my Sharecropping friends, Cyndi and Christine.  It was a lot of fun and we had fun stamping, embossing, painting and doing all kinds of techniques.  Some of the tags were so cute...

Like this one...made with a wooden cut out, painted and some bling adhered to it and backed it with some pretty two sided paper.

 This one was a tree pattern embossed on a piece of green Core'dinations cardstock, sanded, inked, and Stickles "adorned".  It was then adhered to a piece of burlap.  Too cute.

This cute little gingerbread man was cut out with die and then adhered to a canvas tag that we stamped the tiny snowflakes on.  Cute and easy!

This one took a little more time because we colored the car with pencils and did blending with Gamsol (odorless mineral spirits) and then cut it out.  I could have done a better job stamping the sentiment but oh well...

The next two were just die cuts but sure make cute tags with little extra bling or any additional embelishments:

This last one I would do differently if I ever did it again...It is a Sizzix die and embossing bundle that creates this great tree.  We then inked it to bring out the embossing and used Stickles to highlight the word "Hope".
We added some Stickles on the holly leaves and then a little bling for the berries.

I do love that gingham ribbon!

Anyway, I REFUSE TO GIVE UP and hope to be back with some fabulous crafting, card making and scrapbooking ideas soon!  But first there is a dog to bathe, a floor to vacuum, a turkey to roast, a pie to make, etc!


Hope you all have a wonderful crafting day and a fabulous Thanksgiving surrounded by family, friends, and good food!

Time is Just FLYING By!

It's been a week since I posted...where has the time gone?  And what do I have to show for it!  Not much exect for a clean closet!  Yep, this was the week of the GREAT PURGE....I have a relatively large closet.  What does that mean?  Simply that you can stash more and more stuff in it.  It got to the point that I was stepping over stuff to get to what I needed.  I'm not a hoarder but sometimes I do keep things for the "well, I might need it again" reason.  But I do love to purge, too...and I had a great time going through stuff.  I'm one of those people that needs a good kick in the rear at times to get going but once I do I'm good to go!  I basically took everything out of my closet and started all over again!  It took a long time (like 5 hours, I'm embarrassed to say) but it's done...and it's pristeen...and it looks great.  And no you are not going to see it.  HAHA!

But I will show you a scrapbooking mess.

Yes, I've admitted before I'm a paper addict.  This is the area I keep those great paper stacks in that I just have to have!  And my system just isn't working any longer.

OK, that brings up a whole 'nother point.  We scrapbookers and paper crafters LOVE to organize.  What is it?  We organize and are happy with our systems but then we go buy new stuff and have to REORGANIZE to make room for the new things.  It's a never ending process, isn't it?  You know exactly what I mean!  I had the BEST system for organizing my Cricut cartridges, books and overlays.  I bought little boxes at Target and made files...everything was so nicely organized and I could locate my cartridges and books in a jiff! That was great when I had only about 45 cartridges.  100 plus cartridges and 12 boxes later...well, it was taking over my room...so I had to come up with another system!  HAHA...

Anyway, back to my paper.  What I decided to do was to get a large box (thank you, Michael's, for a 50% off coupon) and store my stacks in that.  I wrote the names of the stack on the binding (and some look terrible because it is quite difficult to write on some of those bindings!) and it may look messy to you but it is legible for me so I can easily find what I'm looking for (and yes, I recognize "easily" as a relative term!).  I have my cardstock stacks at the back...and my prints at the front.  The one on the side is one I'm using right now for a project so I just slid it in the side so that's it's handy.

Here's a photo of what it looks like now:

Not pretty and warm and cozy but certainly functional!

Now I need to decide what to do with all the 8x8 and 6x6 stacks!  Hmmmmmmm....Maybe Michael's has a matching box but a tad smaller.  Now where did I put that 50% off coupone???!!!

Happy Crafting!!!

Birthday Card

Here's another clean and simple birthday card I made and gave to my friend, Christine, who celebrated her birthday on Friday.  It uses 2 of the Tim Holtz rosettes (made from the dies with Close to My Heart papers), Aqua Mist paper from Paper Trey Ink.  I also used the Mega Stacks 3 stamp set from Paper Trey Ink as well as the coordinating die to cut out the tag.  I added a little Aqua Mist ribbon and that was it!  Oh...and I used the new dye ink from PTI, as well...love those little pads!  I think some new colors will be released on Tuesday!

I added a little dyed button which matched the paper and tied a little perle cotton through it.  I love teensy bows. 
The card was pretty thick due to the stacked rosette but I have some great clear envelopes that take the bulk and are perfect for showing off your artwork!

I had a great time at Archiver's yesterday...some of the tags we made were just so darned cute.  I'll be putting some of those up later!

Happy Crafting! For me it will be Happy Cleaning of the Craft Room Day!

Gift Box

I'm off to Archiver's today for a Christmas tag class.  I love those little tag classes...you make a bunch and I generally have one of those "AH HA...I never would have thought of THAT!" moments.  Generally more than one!  It's always fun and interesting and the classes are well organized and today I'm meeting up with 2 good friends...one who had a birthday yesteday. 

I made this little gift card box for her with the Close to my Heart Art Philosophy Cricut Cartridge.  I cut the box out at 8 inches.  It has circular flaps so you can fold them in and don't have to use any other closure thingie (you know what I mean...you put one flap down, the next one on top of that, the third one on top of that and then the last one you tuck under the first one).  Anyway, I used a teeny bit of a hook and loop closure.  The tag on top was cut at 2 inches and adhered to a chipboard shape and stamped with another CTMH stamp which goes with the cartridge.  Love that!

I also cut a flower out...I made several...I think this one was cut at about 3 inches.  I do have some trouble getting those secured and getting the petals to flare out but maybe my paper was a bit too stiff.  but I still love the way it looked.  I put a little bling on both the tag and inside the flower.

Added a little ribbon and that was it. 

I know she'll like it!

Happy Crafting!

A Quick Post of New Toys and Things!

I'm off this morning...first match of yet another tennis season...but wanted to post some photos of my latest toys and things from Paper Trey Ink (love their cardstock!!!)!
So here we go:
I bought Spring Moss cardstock, ribbon and the brand new cute as can be ink pad. I love the new ink...the ink pad sits up high...it fits in my teensy tiny hand really well and the color is perfect!

I also bought Aqua Mist ribbon, ink and paper:

I also bought Pure Poppy ink and ribbon (already had paper):

A container of wonderful container of Holiday Mix Vintage Buttons:

The Tiny Tags Stamp Set and corresponding Die which had been out of stock the last time I ordered (and I think they are coming out with a new stamp set today that will go with this die).  I love this stamp set because I LOVE small sentiments.  I just love the teensy sentiments that just "whisper" the greeting on a card. ;)

And lastly I ordered the  die: (I had the XL one...needed the small one, too!)

It's windy and colder here today...hoping for a little warming sunshine!

Happy Crafting!

Trip to Archiver's

I love that we have a great scrapbooking store relatively close to me.  I do like shopping and ordering online, of course, but sometimes you just need that touchy feely experience.  Joann's, Michael's and Hobby Lobby are great, but it's also great going to a store that is totally dedicated to preserving memories and papercrafting.  And I do my best to keep them in business!

We used to have many independent scrapbook stores in metro Atlanta.  I even worked at one.  But now there are very few.  I guess it's just way too hard to turn a profit in this industry with a storefront. 

So, I'm hoping Archiver's will remain in business for a very long time.

I went on Saturday to do the make and takes they were featuring...two simple cards.
Here they are:

I especially love the little square card.  And how simple this was...one of those "reverse" type stamps, Zing silver embossing powder, a red Copic marker and some Glossy Accents on the cardinal.  So simple and fast but really cute.

And I'm up to my ears searching the internet for more crocheted goodies to make! HAHA!!! 

Happy Crafting!

Itsy Bitsy Teensy Weensie Flowers

Dimensional flowers have been the rage in scrapbooking and paper crafting for quite a while.  It's one trend that I hope stays with us for a while longer!  I love, love, love dimensional flowers.

I have been on quite the crocheting frenzy lately and have enjoyed making some new things with yarn.  I was thinking how I'd like to incorporate some fiber type flowers so I got to looking for patterns for small flowers crocheted with cotton threads.  You can buy them at the craft stores but they can be quite expensive...even though they are a little bit labor intensive it would be something I could do while watching tv.  I found several wonderful patterns with a Google search as well as on everyone's new favorite place for ideas...Pinterest.  I bought some embroidery and crochet thread and got out my trusty ol' crochet hooks and got to town.  I've made a few with white...need to try to dye them with Glimmer Mists or distress inks, I think...ooohlala....
Here they are with  a nickle next to them so you can get an idea on size.

Aren't they cute?

I used a raspberry embroidery floss to make a double flower and made a simple card with it.  I just think it's so darned cute!

Besides the DMC cotton floss I used Raspberry Fizz cardstock and satin ribbon from Paper Trey Ink.  The stem which was stamped in CTMH White Daisy Pigment Ink is from The Stampendous April Showers Flowers kit.  The itsy bitsy teensy weensie sentiments is from Mega Messages by PTI.
The pearl is from Teresa Collins and was stuck down with a little Glossy Accents.
I also used a border stamp from Paper Studio (Hobby Lobby's brand).  I also had some Kraft cardstock from Joann's as well as a little scrap of Co'ordinations cardstock that I used for the leaves.

And that's it...
Back to crocheting...

Happy Crafting!

PopTarts, Fruit Roll Ups, Lucky Charms and More!

I haven't been paper crafting the last few days but I have been busy!  My little hands and my little crochet hooks have not been idle at all! 
See?

In addition to make about a zillion scarves or PopTarts (story below) I have also been working on little teensy crocheted flowers to use on my layouts and cards.  Ohhhlala...so cute!

OK...why do I call these scarves PopTarts?  Well, I was a full time working mom when my kids were younger, right?  And I wasn't always the most nutritionally conscious mom back then...both of my kids loved salads so we had salad a lot and I always was happy about that and thought I did my part getting green (read: nutrition)  into them! :)  But I did let them choose stuff they liked, too...like Lucky Charms, Fruit Roll Ups, Cheetos, DingDongs and Frosted Strawberry PopTarts, for example.  And whenever I went to the store and things were on sale...I'd stock up.  I never much looked to see what we had in the pantry...so sometimes things would stock pile.  It wouldn't occur to me that they had OD'ed on the particular food so I just kept buying until one of them would tell me they didn't like  fill in the blank any longer.  So, we might end up with half a dozen boxes of PopTarts!  LOL!  Probably still have them in my pantry 10 years later!  (Just joking!)

I started making these scarves and my daughter and I decided they will be like the PopTarts...she liked the one I made for her so I thought I'd make a half dozen more for her...LOL!  Like she needs a half dozen ruffled scarves!  So now...when she asks me what I'm doing...I just say "I'm making another PopTart"...and we both laugh and know exactly what's going on!

Happy Crafting...anyone up for a PopTart?

Grr....ick....ugh....but cute scarf!

OK, my husband is gone...no one here to take a photo of with the new scarf I made last night so I set up my tripod and took this picture.  I don't know about you but most of the people I know hate photos of themselves.  Why is that?  I certainly think I look different in the mirror than when I see a photograph of myself.  LOL!  and most of the time I look at a photo of myself and think...hmmmm....who IS THAT OLD WOMAN?!

But I did set up my tripod as I said and snapped this outside this morning.  Atlanta is beautiful this time of year.  The leaves are changing and we all have kinds of brilliant colors with our foliage.  That is one of the things that appealed to me about moving to Atlanta many years ago...we do have changes of seasons...but the winters are usually fairly moderate.  I just can't do cold.  My blood is just too darned thin and I'm miserable when I'm cold.  it does get cold here but doesn't last too long and our spring is beautiful here.  Of course, we do have heat and humidity but I love the heat! Of course, I love the air conditioning we have, too!

Without further ado...here is the photo but please don't look to closely at the face...look instead at the cute little ruffled scarf I made last night.

I love these things!  I made one for my daughter and she loved it...I hope to make a few more and stocked up on some yarn yesterday at Michael's.  Their own brand Loops and Threads is on sale right now.  This is a very simple pattern...just double crochets for the most part but it sure is cute how it ruffles up! 

So guess what you all are getting for Christmas???!! :)

Happy Crafting!

Halloween Photography Tips

Halloween Photography Tips:
I only have one...don't expect great shots of your two year old subject unless perhaps he's asleep and then you can do a photomerge of an awake face with the sleeping closed eyed face! HAHA! 

Seriously...I had read all these blogs and photography sites on how to get perfect shots.  Like take them during the day in natural light. 
Good idea...
Here's one in natural light:

Oh...and that one was SOTC which if you know ANYTHING about photography means STRAIGHT OUTTA THE CAMERA...untouched, unedited. 
Cute hand, huh?  We were just practicing but AG decided to play the part of a star being hounded by paparazzi.... hmmmm....

And here are a few IJCBSO shots...which if you know AG means, "I JUST CAN'T BE STILL, OMIE!" shots.

And another....  "Yes, Omie...I am a dragon...see my wings and tail?"

And yet another...again...demonstrating the difficult task of getting a good shot of a busy little 2 year old dragon...

One more...just for good measure...

So there you have it....but you know, you get what you get...and I do know how adorable he looked!
Then we went outside...."David, look at Omie...she wants to take a picture of you!".  (not gonna happen just yet!).  But here you get a glimpse of little Taylor in her cow costume (more of her later...she's the easy one!)

Let's try again...look at me, David.
Ok, Omie...just once...

 .0382 seconds later....
But, Omie...I just have to see that airplane!

Finally...a family shot...maybe I can work with this one a bit...

Lovely with my car in the background!
Oh well....what can you do?  HAHA...David did have a great time trick or treating.  He loved that whole candy thing as you would expect.  I bet he wants to go trick or treating today again! 
OK..we did get a few shots of Taylor in her little cow costume.

Check out the cute little tail:

And here's Taylor with her good looking daddy...

She will be 5 months tomorrow, by the way... 
After the trick or treating what do most children do?
Why spread their loot out on the floor to look it over....

And then they eat some...while they eye what they can eat next...

All in all it was a very wonderful Halloween and despite not getting any really great pictures...don't worry...I'll scrap what I have and even though David will not remember this day in a few years...we will have photos to show him and tell him stories about his first trick or treating adventure!

One last shot of Taylor taken earlier in the day in a "I Love My Mummy" tshirt.  Look at those beautiful eyes...

 Wanna see another one?

Can't believe she'll be 5 months tomorrow! Time truly flies!!!


Hope your Halloween was fun and magical and just a little spooky! :)