Frame It Up!

Do you ever get some great stamps and think "these images are too cute to not frame"! I've been finding more then great stamp storage at my sales here lately! I have gotten some great frames! So now that I sort of told you without telling you what my projects were, let me show you! Here are my latest projects that I finished up this week;

With all the time girls can spend in a bathroom getting "ready" I thought I should put up something that would help remind Breanna where "beauty" really comes from! I used an old SU stamp set that I embossed in silver on the mat, added blue flowers to match the background paper (which is also the bathroom wall color) and printed her picture off in black and white! The words were printed off from my computer, not a stamp!



This is for friend who's having her first baby - I guess you can tell it's a boy! LOL! She knows I stamp and "stuff" so I thought I'd make her something to go with the real gift! I used my Cuttlebug, Nestabilities and also colored it with my colored pencils but no gamsol this time! I learned how to use a blender pencil at my local stamp store! Lorinda, the owner of "The Color Wheel" in Beavercreek, is a sweetheart to give me her time to show me a few tricks! You know I soaked them up like a sponge! LOL!



In case you're wondering about the image, I'm not sure where it came from! I got some stamped images from my friend and it was perfect for this gift! The letter "a" is from SU though and I simply covered it with glue stick and paper! Easy peasy!



I hope you like it and I hope my friend likes it too!

Until next time....

My Grafico Challenge #9

Yoooo hoooo anyone seen my "mojo"......aaaah there it is! In the corner, hiding under that pile of DP scraps! Awe poor thing is trembling with fear I'd never find it and use it again! Well, I put that fear to rest tonight! LOL! I was blog surfing, something I haven't had time to do lately with work and training and doing races, blah, blah, blah the list goes on! So, I stumble across "Martha's Blog" and she is on the "My Grafico" Design Team. My mojo is now happy mojo as I decided to partake in their challenge #9! We had to do something "fruitty"! LOL! Anyway, we were to use fruit in our design so I chose to use an old set from SU for this one! I made a note pad instead of a card or layout though since Breanna needed a thank you gift for her coach who is taking them to cheer camp next week (God Bless her!!) so I thought...hhmmmm YES! I'll do that for her notebook! So here's my creation;



I'm rather pleased with my final creation and can't wait to give it to her coach! I'm sure she'll love it too! Breanna already does so, even if I don't win the challenge I won a bigger deal - my daughter's appreciation! Now that makes it all worthwhile! LOL!


Until next time....

Miss Me?!!

I've been getting these interesting emails, and today a text asking "when are you updating your blog"! LOL! It's nice to know you guys care and that I was missed! So.... where was I?! I started my new job last week and boy did I hit the ground running! Trying to figure things out, get to know people, I also have been given the job of editing all documents prior to submitting them to the 4 Star <-- now that makes me nervous! I also had 2 runs on Wednesday and the second one was in the rain. Guess what my reward was for that one?! I got a nice, nasty chest cold that just sucked the life out of me! I know, pretty picture right?! I had pneumonia really bad once so chest colds make me nervous!I went to work and did nothing else! LOL! I'm all better now though and here I am!
Our Father's Day celebration today was rather low key as we all took naps, together, like little monkeys in the bed! It was probably a rather hilarious site if you had been that fly on the wall too! I won the award for sleeping the longest....yeah me! So when we got up, I made dinner and boy was it good tonight! Mmmm! We had roast chicken & red bell pepper sauce over wheat noodles, a green salad and some Ghiradelli brownies! I don't understand the hype over these brownies though, they're not all that good - ugh! I prefer Betty Crocker ones with chocolate frosting if I have to eat some! LOL! Then again, I'm not a chocolate eater!
Okay so the best part of Father's day here?! We gave Brian a card/album we made using some of the BoBunny products we picked up at our LSS! Have you seen the album's made where each page is a letter?! I think at Marko's you can get them with the individual letters to spell out anything! Ooooh the possibilities there! This one came as a kit and turned out SO frigging cute! Here's some pictures!

Outside/closed


First 2 inner pages


Close up of the squirrel...yeah...long story but he liked it!


Next couple of pages...


The back...


The "giver" & her Daddy!


This book should have only taken me a couple of hours but it took me days! I could only do a little bit at a time for the obvious reasons! LOL! Brian really liked the final product too so, in the end, that's all the really mattered!

Until next time....

I hope you like it!

Coffee Anyone?!!

Anytime is a good time for coffee! Yep, that would be me "coffee junky"! One of my kids once told me "I love the smell of coffee, I smell coffee and I think of you Mom"! Don't kids say the sweetest things sometimes?! LOL! Santa, the Easter Bunny, Mother's Day always brings me a beloved and coveted Starbucks card too! Love my coffee, just in case you didn't get the picture here...! LOL! I not only LOVE to drink it but I love to give coffee and gift cards as gifts! Now the crafter in me won't allow for a gift to be given in just any old envelope either but, the busy girl in me doesn't allow much time for fancy wrapping! So when I was sucked into the $1 vortex at Target I saw something I knew would be a perfect gift wrapper one day! They were selling flower seeds in these neat little burlap bags! Well, buy one and put it to the side for future use! YEAH, good idea! So when the "Queen Kat Design Team" was challenged to make a card using stitches I thought "hhmm coffee...stitches...GOT IT"! I grabbed my favorite Queen Kat Designs stamps, coffee stain stamp and my Give Me Coffee stamps and made this little swing note card to attach to that cute little burlap bag! Here's pictures of what I came up with;

Swing card closed


Swing card open


So can you see how I made this swing card?! Just simply make 2 circles, one larger then the other (I used my Nesties), punch a hole with your hole punch in both of them where you want your "hinge" to be and put your brad in there! I chose to use a button to go along with my stitches theme, which you can see on the purple part! Now how's that for a fast card to decorate an already cute bag?! You could make a few and stock up on them for Christmas tags or birthday party tags! So fast and so fun! I hope you're up for more fun with the Queen Kat Design Team keeping you "in stitches"! Check out Beverly's Blog to see her great projects! She has a great idea to share too!

Until next time....

Who's Bag Is It?!

In the military when you're getting ready to catch a military flight you do what they call a "bag drag". You're carrying everything to the pallets to get loaded on the aircraft. At Breanna's school she has to put her cheer bag in a pile with other girls things and Logan, well he just needs one of everything his Bella makes right?! Well you have to identify your bag as your own right?! So how about a personalized bag tag then?! Last year when we first got here Brian, yes, my own sweet handsome love/husband, made his own bag tag for his computer bag! I know, grab your tissue it almost made me cry too! I saw what he used and thought "OMG! I so have to have some of those!" Until recently, when another DT member made her own I had forgotten about them. Well flash forward to this past weekend and a stop at my grocery store I find exactly what Brian used to make his tag! Yes, my grocery store had these! LOL!



Sure, I could have just shoved a piece of paper with the information in there and called it good but, what kind of crafter would I be then?! A pathetic one if you ask me! Okay, so you didn't but here's what I did with 3 of them!



Close ups;

Breanna's for her cheer bag


Logan "had to have" one of course;)


If Logan has one then his buddy Garrett has to have one too - right?!


The cheer turtle is actually a "Bella" stamp, mine possessively but from the company "Bella Stamps"! I love her Bella's and, well, all of her stamps! Logan's turtle is from one of my $1 stamp sets and the dog stamp is part of a set that I picked up at Michael's I think! I colored the turtles with my Copic Markers! I think my practice is paying off a little more each time! Still nowhere near some of the other talented ladies out there but...give me time! LOL!

The grocery store where I got these in Ohio is called "Meijers" and it was in the office supply area! I wish I would have gotten more but, I'm sure I'll be back at the grocery store sooner then I want to be! UGH!

Well, until next time....

It's All About Logan .....

First time Bella + 1st visit with new baby + camera = LOTS of pictures...KWIM?! LOL! So what's a girl to do when she has so many pictures (last count was close to 300,anyone want to see the sneeze yet?! LOL!)?!!
I think I have Loganitis BAD! LOL! Well, here's a picture of what a girl should do;



On one of my many "red tag hunting expeditions" at Target I lucked across this photo album for less than $2 (I know, crazy right?!!). This was a good year plus ago and, at the time, I had no clue what I was going to do with it! In it's original life it was a plain Kraft color with black dots. I used SU cardstock, JoAnn designer paper pack later, SU "All in the Family" baby (stamped using my thingamajig) and colored with Copics. Have you caved to the Copics fever yet?! I went so far as buying them but am still sort of intimidated with them so have only done small projects! Soon though I will get my Copics class and I can't wait! Anyway, back to the book, I'll be leaving this one at work as I have another to put in my tote bag that I bring just about everywhere. I'll post that picture another day! In the meantime, let me ask Logan what he thinks of his new photo album.......Logan?
.
.
.
.
.


I'm thinking he likes it too! LOL!

Thanks for pacifying me AGAIN!!

Until next time....

Just An Idea!

I'm tired today! Well I guess I should be since I stayed up until almost midnight last night and here I sit 0600 about to get ready for another day! I made a really cool discovery yesterday though! Easter is Sunday and what is Easter without deviled eggs?! So I bought a small pack of pickles, individual serving size, so I can cut them up to put in my egg mixture. Looking the packaging over (future craft potential here?!) and I saw this "Calories - 0"! YEAH! Now that's what I'm talking about! Zero calories! YESSSSS! Sooo what kept me up until midnight was making my meatless meal for tonight, making muffins to take in to my co-workers (they love the Fiber 1 muffins I make - you totally have to try them!) hanging curtains, cleaning etc.. all in preparation for my Dad coming to visit! YEAH!! I'm so excited! Anyway I had to finish up a gift I was making my boss.

Can you believe this is a drink carrier?!!



I had gone to lunch with some other girls a few weeks ago and they had a drink carrier and, gasp..., were going to throw it out! Can you believe that?! I mean how often do you get these with NO advertising?! Rarely right?! I knew I could do something with it! I got two plastic cups from Target with bright colors and used that as my color inspiration! I can't remember the origin of the DP but the cardstock is, well, you know...SU! Not too shabby for having started it at 1100 last night and finished before midnight! Had I started earlier I would have embellished it more! That's okay thought as I'm sure he'll give the "Michelle you shouldn't have" look anyway! He's a lot like me and is careful about what he eats so I filled it with mostly stuff I know he likes and, for his wife, I added chocolate! I have treats for his dogs too but they don't fit in the basket! Over all I spent less then $8 on this! Not bad since my other option was boring flowers that were $9! LOL! Yeah....patting myself on the back for this one...! LOL!

So, if you're wondering.....the drink container came from Bob Evans!

I hope you like it!

Until next time....

Is It As Hard For You...

Is it as hard for you as it is for me to come up with handcrafted items that a man would like and, perhaps, actually use?! That was my frame (he he he - no pun intended!) of thought when I made this item! I wanted to do something altered and when I recently saw these giant clothespins at a get together I thought "hey......potential"! Well this is what I came up with!



Here's what I used to create this manly gift - a giant clothespin, Basic Grey Marrakech paper pad, Making Memories dots (another sale bin rescue BTW!), 2 brass brads, random ribbon that coordinated, and a great stamp from The Rubber Cafe! The square is actually a coaster that I recovered using more of the Basic Grey paper and my glue stick to adhere it. I used my recently deceased Cuttlebug (I'm still in mourning!) on this to cut out the stamped image. I took a small scrap of the DP I used to redo the heart in the stamped image and just glue it on top of the other one! Could you tell?!
Well, did I get the "manly" part good enough? Now, the toss up - give it to my Dad...give it to my DH or....turn it in to Melissa as a sample....he he he I'm turning it like a good girl but I sure am tempted to keep it! LOL!

Well...

Until next time....

Bragging......

Okay we all have something we like to brag about whether it's the ability to always find the best deals on the sales rack (gosh I wish that was me!)or, most importantly, the people we love! I can't tell you how many times I get asked if I have pictures of my kids! Well, not in my purse but every where else! So when I saw these little photo albums at the Target $1 spot (vortex to me - sucks me right in every time!) I knew exactly what I could do with them!

Here's what I'm talking about;

Before (this was actually the before of another book I did - I made quite a few of these!)


After


The process is easy actually. Simply remove the cardboard that comes in the front and back (save for another project or to use as insulation in your closet like I do!) and basically create a card front. One thing to remember is you'll see the back of the front and the front of the back (KWIM?) so use double sided paper or cardstock to keep it nice. For this particular book I found the cutest stickers on one of my Target "red sticker" hunting expeditions so, using my letters from PaperTrey Ink (which are clear), I was able to position the letters of the little boys name to look like the monkeys were holding them! The leaves are from the same sticker pack but the grass is actually a stamp from "The Rubber Cafe" - such a versatile stamp by the way! So, just decorate and fill with your pictures! At about $1 for each book and using your scraps, it's the cheapest, yet best, gift ever! I made one for my Dad even of our last marathon/5K walk event we did! He loved it! This particular one is for my daughter's friend who threw her baby shower recently, a thank you of sorts. I know I can hear my daughter, Jessica, now saying "Mom, where's Logan's"?! Ha ha ha the fun of telling her to wait....ha ha ha!

For the curious - my oldest daughter, Jessica, is due to have a baby boy any day now. He's going to be named Logan Greggory. Once he's born I'll need more of these as I'm sure I'll be getting lots and lots of pictures - right Jessica?!! LOL!

Keep Your Place.....

Are you as bad as me with your books when it comes to remembering where you stopped last?! I fall asleep or I close the book and think "oh I can remember where I stopped no problem"! HAH! Yeah right....5 minutes later I am still looking for familiar words to remind me where I left off! Well, what if you had one of these pretty bookmarks to put in there?!






I used two stamps from The Rubber Cafe that I received in my Design Team package this month! I LOVE these stamps! The butterfly is called Small Paisley Butterfly and is one of 6 different butterflies available there! The dragonfly is called Small Paisley Dragonfly and is available in 2 sizes! I love these stamps, wait I said that already! There is just so much that you can do with them! Seriously! Yesterday I posted a card with the dragonfly where I did colored ink and this bookmark is using the "emboss resist" technique where you emboss them, rub ink over the whole project but then rub the ink off of the embossed areas and it really "pops" out with the color! I used all SU ink for these, the colored flowers are "Prima's" with a tiny brad from "Making Memories" and, the white ones are from a pail of wedding confetti from Michael's. The leaves are from scrap paper and I punched them out using my Martha Stewart leaf punch!
They sort of make you want to go read a book just to use them don't they?! I just got done with the series "Twilight"! Yeah, I know, behind the curve but that's okay! I still enjoyed the book reading all 4 in less then 3 weeks! He he he! I never have to wonder where my kids get their love of reading from! LOL!

I hope you like them!

Until next time....

Valentine's Day Treat

I'm the type of person who likes to give everyone a "little something" for the different holidays. Valentine's day is no exception either! Luckily for me The Rubber Cafe" design team was sent some great stamps, accessories and, (OMG) the most amazing paper from Cosmo Cricket's line "Chemistry". I love this paper. Well, I wanted to create something different to give out this time. After Christmas and giving out so many gifts I knew I had to stay in a budget this holiday. So one day for lunch I chose to have a bowl of soup and, of course, the bowl was steaming hot! They don't make cuffs for soup bowls like they do coffee cups so I used a smaller bowl under it. When I was sitting there I started to look at that bowl and I heard it say, I swear it talked to me... "I can be a great treat bowl...just recover me..."! LOL! I did hear that I swear I did..! LOL! Anyway, I listened, a miracle in itself at times and created this;



I'm tickled over how cute it turned out! I got lucky and found out that Valentine's day Reese's Cups are the perfect color to match my "Forget Me Not" Cosmo Cricket Paper too! My DH tried hard to "chocolate-nap" some of the chocolate but he was unsucessful! LOL! FYI Hershey released a statement saying they don't buy their peanut butter from the company with the salmonella issues! Good thing as this is my families favorite candy! LOL!

Well I hope I inspired you!

Until next time....!

Easy Peasy Photo Album

Okay, when I said that title to myself it sounded good! Now I'm thinking "does that conjure up a picture of mushy peas?"! LOL! Anyway, I thought I'd share a few of the fast gift ideas I have in case you could use them too! These are also inexpensive since I usually am either adding them to another pile of gifts or need about a 100 to gift out for friends! So, this year for my Dad I got him a couple of shirts - boring right?! Well I try to add a little fun something in there for him and I found a neat little light up magnifier for one box but needed something for the other one. This past September when he came up to walk the 5K with my daughter and I, and then be at the finish line when we all finished, we took a ton of pictures! I thought to myself "what a great gift opportunity! I took one of those little photo albums that are plastic with a cheesy cardboard insert in the front of something goofy and turned it into an album so he can always look back and remember the fun of the weekend of the marathon! My cost?! $3 is pretty much all I spent for this gift. The album itself was $2 and the Air Force paper was a $1, the sticker quotes, brads, and all the paper are scraps from other projects! How can you beat that?! I did use a Kodak machine to print my pictures. I chose the 2"x3" option that makes 4 per normal size print. It's a great option when you need to put a lot of pictures in one spot!. My cost for these photo albums was probably around $1.50 but check your store in case $$ is different!

Before and a still before but not quite as before as before....make sense?! LOL! Aaahh my world...it's a happy place! LOL! Anyway...


The final cover


A couple of the inner pages using a variety of scraps I had, literally, lying around! Don't forget, if you really want to, click on the pictures to enlarge them!





Photo album - $3
Photo printing - $1.50
Weekend of fun and memories - priceless!

Now, to make one for my brother too!

Until next time....

Pig in a Can - Again?!

I'm tickled pink! Pink as that pig in a can that is! LOL! Anyway I told Mandy from "Limelight Papercrafts" about my ornament holder idea and guess what?!! She loved it! I'm thrilled that she said that! Well when she asked if I could take better pictures for her I, of course, said "yes"! So, in case you wanted to see better pictures too....here's a couple more! I'll also include a little bit of directions how I did it too!







To get my ornament to stand up in the pail I simply had my husband put a hole in the lid large enough for me to get the string through. I then taped it down and went on decorating it! I used my Coluzzle and my scallop Nestabilities to make the circles and my newest SU punch for the scalloped border. The "bling" is from Michael's dollar area and Target's Dollar Vortex! I buy the rhinestone body tattoos they have there as I get more rhinestones that way and I've never had a problem with them falling off! If I think it's going to be possible I do use some Crystal Effects to hold them on! You can see I attached them to the plastic and then around the edge. I tied on a variety of ribbons to make it a little fancier too! Just think of all the possibilities!!

I hope you like the better pictures!

Until next time....

Never Enough Notebooks!

Have you ever gone somewhere and had that need for a piece of paper to write on?! I can't tell you how many times I've thought exactly that! Wouldn't it be fun to pull out one of these notebooks?! I made these for the 4 women, yes 4 women (then he comes home to 2 more....poor baby! LOL!)that work with my DH, as a "thank you" of sorts for everything they do for him! I got a pack of mini notebooks from Wal-Mart or CVS - can't remember where but I knew I could put them to good use! Well, actually that would explain a lot of stuff on the floor, in boxes and on shelves in my craft room! LOL! Anyway, I used a mixture of SU products, scraps and random stamps that I had in my stash to create these. He mentioned they might not like "frou-frou" so I made them with no bling and no ribbon! I guess he knows them better then me! I had perfect matching ribbon for them too - darn! Anyway, I hope you like them!










This one was actually for a friend of mine! See! Frou-frou! I guess that makes 5 notebooks though huh?! LOL!



Until next time......