Throwback Thursday-Birthday Time!

Welcome to another Throwback Thursday where my older stash turns into completed pages!  Today, I have three birthday themed pages to share with you.  Lots of older goodies getting some love on these pages!

The first page uses a paper pack I've had for a very long time and the alpha stickers are even older than the paper!  I even pulled out my butterfly punches and pearls to dress this page up a little/

Pages 2 &3 go together.  While the Disney paper isn't quite as old as some of my other paper pads, I've still had it a while and the flower & leaves have been in a box forever!

Today is the last official student day of school and after all the loose ends are tied up, I will be enjoying a couple of duty free months!  Well, there is that graduation get together, and prepping for two kids heading to college in the fall, but I will definitely have more free time on my hands!

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!  Don't forget to dig in your crafting stash and make something wonderful!

Page #1 Recipe: Paper-Prima 'Breathe' collection, whisper white, Accessories-bitty butterfly and elegant butterfly punches, pearls, old alpha stickers from stash

Page #2&3 Recipe: Paper-EK Success 'Disney Mickey', whisper white, Accessories-1" & 3/4" circle punches (flower center), silk flower & leaves from stash

No, really... I was cleaning...

Hello! I am so glad you stopped by because I need to share a true story with someone who will understand, and possibly believe my story.  Because my family doesn't...

**Warning: Extremely Lengthy and Possibly Boring Story**

It all started as I was cleaning the kitchen earlier this week.  I did a major purge of my cabinets and pantry resulting in a lot of things ending up in a donation box or the trash.  I did not, however, throw away several different sized empty coffee containers.  They were moved to my craft area under the eye rolls of my family members.  I told them that if I couldn't come up with a use for them by the end of the month, I would get rid of them (the containers, not my family-although I was quite tempted...).

After the kitchen was cleaned, I realized I needed a better system for keeping our daily medicines organized.  Since we no longer have any littles, I don't worry about keeping things up high and out of sight.  So our vitamins, advil, and prescriptions are sitting on the counter, which is great until one of them gets knocked onto the floor and rolls under something or gets pushed to the back of the counter where it hides behind the whole wheat flour container (found some of my allergy meds there during the clean).  As I was pondering where I could find something that would look nice sitting on the counter, my eyes spied the stack of coffee containers. Hmmm...

The next morning instead of cleaning up my crafting space like I had planned, I got busy transforming the coffee canister into a lovely medicine bowl.  This would have been perfectly acceptable except that I shared my cleaning plans with DH so I would stay accountable.  His smug grin said it all.  Nothing wiped it off his face either-not my insisting that it was divine intervention that called me to use one of the containers, not the reassurance that this was actually finishing the kitchen clean up, not even the reminder that "Hey! I told you I'd find a use for those containers you rolled your eyes at yesterday!".

So now I have a perfectly lovely container that keeps our medicines and vitamins neat and tidy, and a super messy work space.  But like my fellow procrastinator Annie always says "Tomorrow... Tomorrow... I'll clean ya, tomorrow!  You're always a day away..." or something like that...  I'm pretty sure the mess isn't going anywhere and since we are scheduled for wind and rain tomorrow, it will be a perfect day for tidying up the ol' crafting space!

If you've made it this far, you will be glad to know that I do actually have a few pictures of the medicine container that is causing my family to doubt my ability to get the house organized.

I placed the plastic lid on the bottom since the edge of the canister was metal

and I didn't want to risk the can rusting. The crochet ribbon is hiding it from view.

The butterflies are covered in dazzling details but it was hard

to get a good shot of all of the glittery goodness.

Now you have heard my tale, sad but true, about a royal family who doubts their queen's ability to stop crafting long enough to keep the castle in proper order.  But I know that you saw the deeper meaning of this story.  The queen just saved one of the coffee containers from imminent doom, and I'll let you in on a little secret...she has plans for the other ones too!  Don't you just love a happy ending?

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a marvelous weekend!!

Project Recipe: Precious Butterflies and Inspired by Nature stamp sets, garden green & not quite navy ink, rose red & not quite navy cardstock, bitty butterfly punch, butterfly punch (ret), First Edition DSP, dazzling details, crochet ribbon

Mission Impossible

Hello! I am so thrilled that you are here!  We are half way through the week and I am ready for the weekend!!  My mom pulled a muscle in her back a few weeks ago and I've been doing double duty between my house and theirs. The recent colder temperatures  and the early arrival of lambs has made things a little stressful and I'm looking forward to a break!  Add to that all of the yucky snow and sleet that we received yesterday and I am ready for a new start! Is it Friday yet? But I digress...

Have you ever been struck by the fact that you're fighting a losing battle?  Like getting all of the laundry washed, dried, folded, and put away and then you turn around and BOOM! A clothes bomb has exploded in your laundry room?  Or that moment when you let the dishwater out of the sink because you KNOW you checked the entire house for stray cups and all of the dishes are clean, only to have one of the kids bring you a cereal bowl from under their bed (not that they are allowed to eat cereal in bed!)?  Yeah, me too!

I would love to say that I scrapbooked all of my photos (I wish!), but actually I just realized that while I have completed a lot of scrapbook pages, there are still a LOT of photos left and that doesn't include the ones that are still on my memory cards waiting to be printed, or the ones on the computer waiting to be dropped on a digital page.  I have decided that I'm like an agent on Mission Impossible.  My mission if I choose to accept it, is to get as many photos onto some sort of page and document the story as accurately as my mind will allow.  I will probably never achieve the status of Mission Completed, but at some point I have got to start making some sort of progress!  One goal that I think I might actually achieve is to use up all of the older 12x12 cardstock papers.  I am at the point where there are mostly oranges and yellows left on the pile and I'm thinking they may become some sort of card boxes at some point.  My ribbon and embellishments are a totally different story, but one mission at a time!

Today's page used the last of my older pink stash.  I also snuck a few vellum letter stickers on there. Those babies are OLD!

I had a hard time selecting a layout for this page.  I wanted all five photos on one page and was trying to figure out how to make it work.  I remembered that a long time ago, I had made a quilt-like page that had lots of pictures and thought that might work.  The hardest part was balancing the embellishments.  I have such a hard time with 'white' space.  But when I was finished, I managed to have all five photos and even a tiny shot of my in-law's Lab.  Shadow loves her and he couldn't bear for me to throw her in the trash bin!

Well, I better slip on my black sunglasses and get back to being an agent.  I just have to decide whether my mission will involve dishes, laundry, or pictures...  Wish me luck!

Page Recipe: Paper-pink base from stash, strawberry slush, pistachio pudding, Stamp Set-Just Journaling, Ink-crumb cake, pistachio pudding, black journaling marker, Accessories-paper daisies, Boho blossom punch, bitty butterfly punch, 1 3/4" and 1 3/8" circle punches, Martha Stewart leaf punch, dazzling details, green vellum stickers from stash.

Flashback Friday-On a Roll

Hello! I am so glad you stopped by today!  I have really been trying to get some scrapbook pages completed lately and am happy to say I have two more to share with you today!  If you read the post title, you will know that this uses my retired and older stash of supplies, hence the flashback...

The pictures are a bit of a flashback too.  These were from several years ago and it amazes me how much the girls have changed!  Now neither one of them ride the kiddy rides and would rather spend most of their visits at the water park instead of visiting Santa!

I used some older Page Maps sketches for my two page layout.  I 'm trying to use a lot more of my older DSP since I have so much, and I dug out the retired brights DSP pack for these pages.  There's still a lot left, but it's a little less than before :)

I hope you are inspired to take a look at your older neglected supplies (and photos), pull them out, and use them!  Have a wonderful weekend and may all your days be crafty!

Page Recipe: Paper-daffodil delight, real red, whisper white, Brights DSP (ret), Gingham Garden DSP, Stamp-Just Journaling, Ink-crumb cake, basic black, Punches-full heart, butterfly, scallop border, bitty butterfly, spiral border, Accessories-circle framelits, candy dots, paper piercing kit, real red stitched grosgrain ribbon