Flashback Friday-More ready to go pages!

Hello! I'm back again sharing more finished pages thanks to my container of ready made pages!  When I first started stamping, I went to a lot of classes and often we made scrapbook pages as well.  I am really bad at using these, mainly because the colors aren't quite what I want or the photos are the wrong direction or size.  However, I am really trying to make myself use them because they make finishing a page SUPER EASY.  That and I'm taking a Kiwi Lane class this weekend to make, you guessed it, ready to go scrapbook pages!  I don't really need the pages, but I'm really intrigued by the Kiwi Lane templates.  We'll see where it goes from here.

I really don't know most of the materials used since they are papers or stamps I personally have in my stash.  

Going through these finished pages has reminded me that I do have a lot of pages for inspiration and I really need to play with some fancy and fun pages from time to time. I just might have to shift from clean and simple every once in a while just to keep things interesting!

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

Flashback Friday-using up my stash

Hello! I haven't done a flashback in a while, even though I'm always trying to use up what I have before buying anything new.  I recently went shopping for supplies and was so proud that I only bought adhesive, cutting blades, and some xyron sticker refills!  Not saying this will happen next time, but it did this time!

My two pages aren't connected; actually they're for two different albums.  The first is for my oldest one's album.  She transferred school last year and we helped her move.  She is doing so well and we are so proud of her!  The background is all one page.  It came blocked off like this and I've had it for quite a while trying to figure out what to do with it...  A little trimming of photos, cutting letters, and punching flowers and that was it!

This page is part of the goal album for DD2.  The page is actually one I made at a class years ago. Long, long ago!  I finally dug the container out that held all of my ready to go pages and decided to use this one.  Since it was finished, I just needed to add the photo and journaling.

I can't remember everything from the second page, but I think the DSP is Lap of Luxury. Most of the supplies are listed in the labels section.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

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

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

ABAC Challenge 26- One Sassy Fairy!

Hello and happy Sunday to you!  I am so glad you are here because I have quite the interesting post today, at least, I hope you find it interesting!

Our current challenge at Anything But A Card Challenges is Fairies or fairy tales.  While I absolutely love this challenge, it was truly a challenge for me.  Now let me clarify that I am not anti-fairy.  I have nothing against the tiny little winged flitters, but my girls never got into the whole fairy themed merchandise and I never bought any fairy images.  I was going online for a digital image, when I stopped by the ABAC site to see the inspiration posted by my incredibly creative teamies.  That is where I found this!  The fairy name generator!!  How fun is this???  So I took a little bunny trail to the website and found my fairy name and background.

My fairy name is

Columbine Cornweb

She creates bounty and harvest. 

She lives in mushroom fields and quiet meadows. 

She can only be seen in the mist of an early morning. 

She wears lilac and purple like columbine flowers and has butterfly wings the colour of yellow corn.

This led me to creating my very own fairy based on the generated information.  The purple was not a problem; I had plenty of that since it's DD #1's favorite color.  I realized I didn't have any columbine images, but I did buy a gorgeous retired SU coneflower and grass stamp recently.  Besides, if I'm truly a fairy that lives among the meadows, wouldn't I love coneflowers just as much?!

I managed to create the background without a glitch when I realized I still needed a fairy... Hmmm... I did have a Sassy Susie stamp that might work.  Yep! She's even sitting in a chair! Hmm...chairs in a meadow? What I needed was a mushroom.  So I punched an oval and rounded the bottom with a circle punch and used the word window punch to make the stem. A little fussy cutting and Sassy Susie, um I mean Columbine was almost ready.  A butterfly punch, vellum, and some elegant eggplant ink created the snazzy wings and now Columbine was ready to perch on her toadstool.  I also found a sentiment from Blooming With Happiness that fit her pesonality.  It wasn't until I posted my picture with the information that I noticed that her wings were supposed to be yellow... Oops! It was a little too late to change them now.  Honestly I'm not completely sold that I would have corn yellow wings anyway.  Growing up on a farm, I am aware that corn is tasty, but it's also very 'hairy' and itchy. I would much rather have lovely eggplant purple wings!

So here is Columbine Coneflowerweb, taking a break from germinating and planting to say 'hello'!  She would love it if you would join us this week with your own fairy or fairy tale creation!  Be sure to check out the fabulous creations shared by the design team as well!

Have a fairy-tastic week and happy crafting!!

Project Recipe: Paper-whisper white, vellum, Ink-wisteria wonder, elegant eggplant, certainly celery, baked brown sugar, blush blossom, basic black, crumb cake, Stamp Set-Sassy Susie, Blooming With Happiness, Inspired by Nature, Accessories-pastels, butterfly punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, large oval punch, word window punch

Anything But a Card Challenge -Things With Wings

It is time for week two of the 'Things With Wings' challenge at Anything But a Card Challenges and that means that it's my turn to share a project!  If you click on the link above, you will go to the post with Mr. Linky (I'm trying to make it super easy for you to join us-wink!wink!), which is week one. I hope you take a minute to check out all of the wonderful inspiration and projects that have already been linked up!  

I had so many different thoughts running through my head for this challenge, and my dear blogging sister, Lisa did nothing to help!!  One of my first ideas was butterflies with a quote for my journal and it also was the first project I tried -yes...I did more than one!  

I have quite a collection of various brands of glitter glues, and a few bottles of liquid pearls.  Unfortunately, the clear and silver are the two glitters that I use most of the time, leaving all of the other colors feeling quite neglected.  I also realized I have never used my yellow pearls...  Well, I made a promise to myself over the holidays that I was going to play, and so I did!  I found my quote first (in a rather large stack of vellum quotes) and wanted to make a pastel background to be slightly visible behind the vellum. I had shaded the right corner to have the illusion of sunlight and it looked great until I put the vellum over it, then it just looked kind of muddled. I thought the yellow pearls would possibly make a nice sun.  I tried a 'dot' approach, my version of pointillism, but it didn't look right.  So I took my blending tool (aka pointer finger) and smeared the dots together, kind of a funky effect!  Then came the two tone ribbon (new SU goodies!!), a ribbon flower with some felt pieces tucked in for leaves and a punched butterfly to ensure that the whole wings thing was covered!  I didn't like the naked edges of the vellum and pulled out the green glitter glue to frame it.  When I was done, I was thinking maybe I should have bypassed the liquid pearls and just used all green, but oh well!  I have to say that the page is growing on me the more I look at it and it was a lot of fun playing with the different materials.

A few days later, and an unfortunate but necessary trip to Wal-Mart, I found myself in the craft aisle.  My youngest DD had Christmas money to spend and wanted some new art supplies and while she debated her options, my eyes landed on a package of Sculpey Oven Bake Clay. Hmmm... I know that many crafty people out in Blogland use this stuff to make all kinds of wonderful things and I did make that promise to play... (can you see this getting me in hot water with DH?)  So into the cart it went and somehow some metallic acrylics ended up in there too... Don't know how that happened!  I would love to say that the clay came out as soon as I got home, but the truth is it sat there all week taunting me.  Which may have been a good thing because in the mean time, I came across a very retired stamp set called Nature's Wonders.  There is this absolutely beautiful dragonfly stamp in this set and suddenly inspiration hit! I was going to stamp my clay!!  Didn't know if this would work; didn't know if it would clog up the stamp; didn't care! Well... I would have cared if it ruined my stamp, but I really wanted to try this!  So I kneaded the clay until it was really soft, then patted it fairly flat (a little less than 1/4") and then gently pressed the stamp onto the clay.  I had to wiggle it a little to get it to release, but I liked the slightly uneven appearance.  Then I trimmed the edges and set it aside to bake.  I tried this with a few different stamps and it was so much fun!  I followed the baking directions on the package and when they cooled, I painted them with the acrylics.  My girls asked if they could paint them and I selfishly said "Nope, not this time." But I did promise to let them make their own, so everyone was happy!

Here is my dragonfly-not sure it's completely done being painted, but I still like it!

and in keeping with the 'wings' theme, an owl...

Both of these are much smaller than they appear in the picture.  The owl is about 1" and the dragonfly is a little larger.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with these yet, but I'm sure that will be fun too!

Have a great week and happy crafting!

Journal Page Recipe:  Cardstock-sahara sand, Stamp Set-Butterfly Prints, Ink-concord crush, Accessories-pastels, basic pearls, very vanilla seam binding, jumbo sticky round, vintage tag and green felt flowers (ret), butterfly punch, green glitter glue, buttercup liquid pearls

Clay Tiles Recipe:  white Sculpey clay, metallic acrylic paints kit, Stamp Sets-Cute By the Inch, Nature's Wonders

Color Me Beautiful Challenge #5 and a Flashback Friday (sort of)

It's Friday again! Funny how they keep coming around isn't it?! Although I have to say that this week's Friday couldn't have come at a better time! It has been one crazy week at work and that usually means very little crafty time for me!  We have been expanding our programs at work until we no longer have any room to grow and were blessed to have a building donated to us for relocation.  Unfortunately, this wonderful gift has been sitting empty for years and needed MAJOR renovation.  Most of this was completed by skilled laborers who donated their time, but now we are at the painting and finishing stage and that means all able bodies get to do some volunteering during their off time.  I painted my NEW classroom yesterday with my wonderfully understanding DH who has been so awesome through all of my stressed out and worn out days!  I am so glad that we are finished with that lovely project!  My next volunteer project will be the playground and landscaping-way more fun!!  But enough of my chatter... On to the Color Me Beautiful challenge!

And what a gorgeous color combination it is!! I really don't know where Carole and AnnMarie come up with these wonderful inspirations, but I want to visit all of the photo locations!!!

Doesn't this make you feel so peaceful?  I can only imagine the incredible scent of lavendar that would come from a field like this and just listen to the wind swishing through the wheat... Ahhhhh......

and here are your colors to play with...

I knew as soon as I put these colors together that my card would have a nature theme.  I hate to admit that I do not have river rock OR sahara sand inks... Must remedy that! That left out a lot of stamps that I considered using and then I remembered my retired butterflies.  I know that many demos sell the stamp sets once they retire, but I have several that I refuse to part with because they are just so versatile and wonderful.  Butterfly Prints is one of these sets. Guess this kind of makes my card a Flashback Friday too!

This card is something of a double CASE. I made a card extremely similar to this here and that card was inspired by my upline Kelly's card.  My photography for this one is horrid! It was pouring down rain and my indoor lighting does nothing to enhance the beauty of the vanilla smooch that is spritzed on the entire card (looks more like blobs, here...) and the river rock layer is stamped with the flowers from another stamp set using versamark. You can barely make them out if you squint, get really close to the screen, and stand on one leg! LOL!

Well, I hope my terribly photographed card has encouraged you to visit Color Me Beautiful and see the better quality photos of the rest of the team! Quite a talented bunch, and I am amazed at the gorgeous creations that get linked up each week!! So if you have some time and want to play, we would love it if you would join in the fun!

Hope you have a fabulous weekend full of lots and lots of crafty time!!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-sahara sand, river rock, wisteria wonder, elegant eggplant, whisper white, Ink-elegant eggplant, wisteria wonder, Versamark, Stamp Sets-Butterfly Prints (ret), Language of Friendship, Accessories-butterfly punch (ret), eyelet border punch (ret), elegant eggplant scallop dots ribbon, Vanilla Shimmer Smooch spritz

Scrapbook Monday- Fun Flowers part 2

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Mine was busy, but spent a lot of quality time with friends and family, so it was pretty enjoyable!

Today's page is the second page I used the fun flowers die to embellish.  Nothing too fancy...

I also used the Boho Blossom and Butterfly punches.  I stamped the background in elegant eggplant using a stamp  from the retired set, Sprinkles.  A little ribbon and some dazzling details and we're done!

Page Recipe: whisper white cardstock, dp from stash, Just Journaling stamp, black stazon & elegant eggplant ink, Fun Flowers die, boho blossoms & butterfly punches, title cut w/ cricut, black scallop dots ribbon, dazzling details

Another CASE!

I had grand plans of spending full days of my spring break crafting the hours away.  But the reality was days full of cleaning out closets, laundry, grocery shopping, gardening, running DD to practice, and hanging out with my girls.  We even had a cookout and campfire one evening!  Not a bad way to spend a week, but it did make it a bit difficult to be completely immersed in creating.  So I did the next best thing.  I looked at other's fantastic creations and made my version.  Super creative...not really.  Relaxing and quick...definitely!

Today's card is a CASE of a card made a long time ago by my upline Kelly.  I loved the overall design of the card and after spending most of the day outside, I thought the butterfly stamp was just calling to be inked up!

A pretty self explanatory card.  Hope you have a wonderful day and a great rest of the week!

Card Recipe: Cardstock-Cheerful Treat DSP, bashful blue, lucky limeade, whisper white, Ink-bashful blue, black Stazon, Stamp Sets- Butterfly Prints, Precious Butterflies (sent) Punches-corner rounder, butterfly punch, scallop trim border punch, Extras-melon mambo scallop dots ribbon

Scrapbook Monday-And now for something completely different...

Hello all! No, this post is not about Spam, dead parrots, or any other Python related material!  But it is completely different from anything I've ever done with scrapbooking before.  I made my own mini flip albums.  These were inspired from Sarah-Jane's creation and also Lucia.  Sarah-Jane had the coolest way to make an album using one 12x12 piece of card stock and Lucia is always making her own journals and notepads.  Our childcare center just had a benefit auction and I made 4 mini albums; one for each season.  I kept these very uncluttered and simple because I had no clue who would receive them and what pictures would be placed in them. 

 It was so fun to make these and really simple! Just score a 12x12 page at the 6" mark, turn 90* and score at 6" again.  Then cut on one of the score lines to the center of the paper.  Fold the other lines and you are done!  I did end up trimming a little extra off of the scored line just so the album would fold and close nicely.  Sarah-Jane has a great tutorial on her site if you need more specifics or pictures.

This is the spring album. Paper and embellishments from my stash...

and the inside... These flaps lift up to reveal 4 other pages.  All of the pages were very similar so I didn't take pics of all of the pages.

This is the summer version.  Paper and title piece are from my stash.  I stamped some butterflies on the cardstock to add a little interest.

On the inside, I stamped and punched out several butterflies to make a simple border.

I will post the fall and winter albums later.  Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and in case I haven't mentioned it in the past hour... I'm on Spring Break next week!!!! (Can you feel my excitement?!)  Happy Monday!!

Album Recipe:  paper and embellishments from stash-unsure of origins!, Butterfly Prints stamp set, butterfly punch, Daffodil Delight ink

Tough Guys...

I actually got a little scrapbooking done today.  My pages tend to be pretty basic and I normally don't post them, but this one just called to be shown off...  The pictures are from Easter this year.  It was very wet and rainy, but the kids wanted to go exploring in the woods.  My nephew didn't have appropriate footwear, so he borrowed Grandma's boots which just happen to match my DD.  They are the best of friends and thought this was so funny!  I am still using up some of my stash that is non SU, so if I can't remember who or what it is, I'm sorry! SU products used were chocolate chip and whisper white card stock, Butterfly Prints stamp set, pretty in pink ink, butterfly and scallop trim border punches and basic pearl jewels.  I used the cricut to cut out the letters.

A Triple Challenge!

I love making cards, but sometimes things get so busy that I don't make the time.  That's why I love challenge blogs (motivates me every time)!  This card was created based on three different challenges.  The first challenge was the color splash challenge from Hand Stamped Sentiments.  The colors were pretty in pink, bashful blue, and certainly celery.  Then I saw the challenge at SUO Challenges requiring the use of butterflies.  I needed to make my niece a birthday card and the two challenges sounded like just the right combo. But how to put it together?  That's where the ladies at Stamping 411 came in!  Here's the 'recipe' for my triple challenge card...

cardstock- certainly celery, pretty in pink, bashful blue, and whisper white

stamps-Butterfly Prints and Just Believe (sentiment) both from IB&C

ink- certainly celery, pretty in pink, bashful blue, and basic gray

extras- butterfly punch, scallop trim border punch, cert. celery grosgrain ribbon, pretty in pink corduroy brad (retired), basic pearls, big shot & backgrounds 1 texturz plates