Not sure what to get that special someone??

I love giving gifts....my pocketbook however....doesn't like it quite as much. I struggle to find inexpensive gifts for those friends who I don't necessarily exchange gifts with but I would like to give them a little something to say "Thanks for being a friend". There is a fine line between inexpensive and cheap junk.....

Lucky for me, I love to craft and bake and cook....and these skills can come in handy at Christmas time - not only for me but for my friends! This weekend coming I'm participating in a cookie exchange - I'll be making these lovely yummies. I can't wait to try them.

For my running friends and some others that I will be seeing during the holidays, I decided to make a "spa" like gift. I love sugar and salt scrubs, especially after I've been out for a long run and I found this recipe to make my own - purchased salt and sugar scrubs can be quite expensive but making them homemade is quick, easy and inexpensive! Kosher salt from the bulk store is very cheap to buy....essential oils are a little pricier but if you consider that you only need about 10 drops of oil per batch - the oils will last you several batches of scrub! The little jars came from the bulk store as well - for 99c apiece, you can't go wrong! I'm sure the dollar store has some cute containers as well! So for under $3 per jar, my friends are going to get to pamper themselves this Christmas!

I'd love to hear about some of the gifts that you're making for the friends on your list this year!! Happy Holidays!

Christmas crafts!

Gosh - it's been forever since I've posted....and probably longer than that since I've created.  I just can't seem to find the time.  Lately, I've made myself find the time.  I have so many great ideas saved as favorites on StumbleUpon that I need to get working on something!

My first glance of this craft was on this website.  I loved how the wreath looked with all of the paper roses on it...so beautiful.  I had some old books recycled to me but try as I might, I can't get those darn flowers to look just right.  A while back, I received an email in my inbox from this website that I subscribe to.  The roses on this one are made with felt and though she made hers orange for Halloween, I instantly thought of how nice this would look in red for Christmas.  Off I went to the dollar store in search of felt and to Michael's in search of grape vine wreaths.  Truth be told....I looked at about 5 different stores before I broke down and headed to the craft store to find the wreaths.  All told, this project took me about 4 hours and approximately $12 to make.  Felt from the dollar store for a project like this is no different than felt from a craft store and costs less - about $8.75 total to make all the roses - Michael's had a fantastic deal on their wreaths - only $3.25 and the ribbon that I bought was 70% off plus I had a 25% off your entire order coupon on top!! 

I was so very happy with how this project turned out.  I also made a few cute items with the roses - a headband and some matching barrettes and I've been commissioned by the little girl who was the recipient of the headband to make a few different coloured ones - haha!  I bought 3 of the wreath forms from Michael's so now I'm working on one in white!  I'll post pictures when it's done.  Thanks for visiting!


 

Celebrate!

Another card made to give away to someone at work who is moving on.....seems these days I only make cards when I absolutely have to....not just for fun!  LOL!  I have made one of these centre step cards before....at a card party - but the card was already cut and folded and all the DSP was cut to size for me.  Which - I have to say - makes things far easier for me!  I am a horrible measurer (is that really a word?).  I don't know why - I use the markings on my paper trimmer.....I'm really not sure why half the time nothing comes out the length or width that I think it should!  I joke with my husband that my eyes are lopsided.....and everything I cut or hang on the wall is lopsided too!  Haha!!

If you'd like to make one of these cards yourself, I'm sure you can google the instructions - but why don't I make it a little easier - here are the directions that I used.  Within the comments, there are also measurements that you can use to make an A2 size card - that is the size that fits in a regular sized mailing envelope.

Here's hoping that the beginning of your summer is wonderful!!  Thanks for visiting!

Thankful

We got a new puppy 2 weeks ago today - unfortunately, we had to have our 14 year old terrier mix put down a while back and we were feeling the void.  We have been a 2-dog home for quite a while.  We were lucky to find the cutest little toy fox terrier/shi tzu mix puppy and had to have him!  He's doing well in our house....but it's almost like having a baby again!  I'm often up in the middle of the night to let him out to do his business.  I know it won't be like this forever....he's just little...it will take time.

Unfortunately, having a puppy can be stressful too.  Last weekend, I let him outside and it slipped my mind that he was out there.  When I went out to call him in, I noticed that the side gate had been left open.  I called him and called him and he didn't respond so I went to  my next door neighbour and asked if their daughter could help me.  Without hesitation, they were all out with me searching the cul-de-sac for him....then another set of neighbours from down the street  joined in.  We eventually found him - he had come back in the house at some point.  I think maybe he was hiding under the deck and didn't hear me calling him.  Needless to say, I was relieved and quite thankful for all the help that my neighbours were willing to give...so I brought each family over some homemade peanut butter chocolate chip cookies and this card.  The inspiration came from a page from the June 2010 Scrapbooks Etc magazine (page 62).

Presents!

The weather is finally warming up and I am finally getting out of my winter funk!  I've finally felt like getting back into my craft room and creating - which means I actually have a few things to share over the next few days.  Finally!!  No new scrapbook pages but I have made some cards and this cute gift bag!

I've had my eyes opened to this amazing website called Stumble Upon...if you live under a rock as evidently I do.....this website asks you to indicate your interests and then when you click on "stumble my interests", it does just that....it automatically brings up website after website containing only the things that you are interested in.  If you like the website, you just click "I like it" and it files the site automatically into a favorites file for you.  Amazing!  Obviously, one of my interests is crafting and one of the sites that Stumble Upon brought up for me was Under the Table and Dreaming with the page opened to the most beautiful wreath made out of recycled book pages!  Can you even believe it?  I love it!  I thought I'd start small and made 3 flowers out of scrapbook card stock.  I then traced a chipboard letter onto coordinating card stock, cut it out and glued it to the bag as well.  A few Heidi Swapp plastic leaves and voila! a custom gift bag for the birthday girl!  I plan to make the wreath too...now that I know how easy (but slightly time consuming) the flowers are.  As a side note, Stephanie uses hot glue to adhere her flowers together but I just used Scotch Quick Dry adhesive and it seems to be working just fine.  I will use a glue gun when I make the wreath however.

Enjoy!

Photograph the everyday

I've embarked on a new project this year called Project Life - this is a great idea by Becky Higgins that is right up my alley.  It's going to help me with a few things this year - improving my photography, printing and cataloguing more pictures, taking photos of the every day things that I should be thankful for but sometimes seem "ordinary"...until they are photographed.  Becky always maintains in her blog that you should use Project Life however you like...in whatever way you find most useful and satisfying.  Some people take part in "picture of the day" but I've found that a little overwhelming right now - I mean, with work and kids activities plus trying to stay fit and healthy, get back into reading and keeping my house clean, sometimes the day is over before I remember that I should have taken a photo!  I've decided that I'm going to do a layout a week.....I'm sure that sometimes a week may take up more than one layout but this way seems to work for me right now.  Here are a few photos of what I've included in my album so far....my daughter's skates because sometimes I think she's in them more than she's in shoes....my son's craft desk at home and it's constant state of disaray and creativeness.....a new recipe that I tried this weekend (pico de gallo) including the recipe above it so I'll never forget.  It's so important to me to capture what we are doing at this point in time.....when I think back, I realize how much I've already forgotten!  Thank you Becky......this is going to be a great year! 

If you are interested in ordering a Project Life album and the cost is scaring you a bit, let me tell you from one penny pincher to the next.....this is well worth every penny! 

Valentine's Day is on its way!

Wow - can it really be that it was September 29 the last time I posted? I guess it's not as unrealistic as it sounds - we've been busy in our house! The thing that gets left behind of course is the scrapbooking and card making.....who has the time? I've made a card here and there and have photographed a few of them and will post them soon.

I've decided that this blog is going to move in a new direction - so that I can post more and maybe create more! I am going to start posting neat ideas that I find on the web (sometimes these are courtesy of other great bloggers and I will always give credit where credit is due)....sometimes I'll post cards or scrapbook pages that I've done (when I get that chance).....and I'll be posting too on craft projects that I'm working on including my new project "Project Life" (you can find more about this at www.beckyhiggins.com). I am hoping that Project Life not only encourages me to catalogue more photos, but also to work on my photography skills (my new camera has so many options that I still have no idea about) as well as document "the everyday".

I wanted to show off the cute valentines that I am making for Ethan's class at school - the idea is not original but it's so easy! I took a photo of Ethan with his arm outstretched - added some words in Photoshop (oh yes - I'm learning how to use that great new program too!), had them printed on 4x6 photo paper at my local pharmacy, cut a slit at the top and bottom of his fist and slid in a lollipop....adorable! I'll have him sign his name with a sharpie before they're all assembled and then I'm going to glue them onto a red backing. You can find the original post for this project here.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll be back to check out some more great ideas from this everyday mom!

Contempo-baby

A coworker of mine recently had a precious baby boy and we are going to soon have a shower for her to welcome the new addition to her family. This is the card that I made for everyone in the office to sign.

At first, I was concerned that the rattle would be too small for a 5 1/4 x 5 1/4 inch card but with a few embellishments, turns out it's just right! I used the sweet treat cups from Stampin Up and filled it with seed beads, blue and green safety pins and some blue acrylic soothers that I found in the party aisle at the local dollar store. I didn't want to use traditional baby colours....I find them a little overused and washed out. I decided to go a little more contemporary this time with browns, bright blues and my favorite - a splash of bright green. I hope that she likes it.

Fall is in full swing at our house - the kids' activities are back in session which makes us busy outside of the home every night except Tuesdays and Saturdays. That doesn't leave a lot of down time to scrapbook or card make for me....I'm hoping to fit in a few quiet days to create over the winter with my beautiful photos taken with my new camera!

Thanks for visiting!!

Finally!

I asked for a copy of this photo taken by a friend of her daughter playing in the puddles months ago. I printed it months ago.....I've been working on the layout for the photo...well, for months! Literally! I had a patterned paper full of polka dots that I was going to use for my main background. I worked a million different ways with the paper and could not get it to look good. So I tried a different polka dot paper....still nothing. Then, I thought I'd use a bright pink background paper and incorporate the polka dot paper and flowers into the layout. Yuck. So after months of trying, I put the layout aside - determined to work on it again some day when the feeling struck me.

Well today was the day - using this blog from Ali Edwards as inspiration, I was finally able to come up with a layout that I love! And it's nowhere near what I thought it was going to look like! In my mind, it was going to be polka dotty and flowery and pink......not! I fit the polka dots in more subtly and also the pink.....but no flowers! Instead, this layout called for bling! I am super happy with the outcome.......even though it took months to get here!

Just goes to show - things don't always turn out the way you planned! But they usually end up great anyhow! I hope that you're enjoying what's left of the summer before the kids go back to school. Thanks for visiting!

Costa Rica!

This is not a new layout - we went to Costa Rica three years ago now...but it is one of my favorites...for several reasons. I loved Costa Rica - I love how the photo turned out (I got the idea from a travel magazine - we brought our tripod and took the photo ourselves) and the layout just came together beautifully. It's simple - which I love...I"m not really one of those frilly scrapbookers. I mean, I like bling and I love embellishments but some layouts I see online just go way over the top! Though everyone is entitled to their style and opinion....that's just mine :-)

This layout was done with bazzil cardstock (love it!), some flowers (sorry, I don't recall the make) and the lettering was done by tracing some letters I already had but that didn't match onto chip board, cut them out and then glued and cut out again with designer paper. Then, I put some crystal laquer on the letters - for some pop. The rub on swirls are from Stampin' Up. I love rub ons!!!

I'm struggling right now to complete a layout of a friend's daughter - she is so cute sitting in a puddle in her brown snowsuit with pink and blue polka dots and flowers. I asked her to email me the picture because I thought I could easily come up with a layout in no time....but I was wrong! I don't have any mojo right now....I've started that layout 3 times already! I've just ordered a new book by Becky Fleck that is chock full of layouts. I'm hoping once I get it, this layout will come together in a snap! Hopefully, I can post it soon!

I hope you are enjoying the weather - we were supposed to get rain here today but it's held off so far and was a beautiful day! I hope the rest of the weekend is as nice!

Thanks for stopping by!

It's the most wonderful time.....

Well, parents may not be singing that song but I think the kids are....my kids are anyhow! They don't have many more days until summer vacation! I am actually ahead of the game this year and have already purchased my teacher thank you gifts. Though I am a pretty organized person, this is the one thing I always forget about. Typically, you'll find me shopping for a gift and dropping it off at the school office on the last day! Not this year!

This year, I purchased a BBQ grilling spice set for both kids' teachers....and am also including a jar of my very good friend Rebecca's homemade rhubarb salsa. This is some of the best salsa I've ever tasted and she won't share the recipe.....:-)

I've come up with a cute card to include with the teacher gift as well (holy cow, I am ahead of the game.....). I bought a cute little set from Stampin' Up a little while back with the intention of using it for teacher cards. I heat embossed the apples on the trim of the card. I stamped the "sheet" and cut it out 3 times. I used my cropadile to punch out the holes so it looks like real lined paper. The top sheet is popped up with dimensionals.

It's been a busy few months in our house with little end in sight....but I hope to post a little more often than I have been! I've purchased a new camera (my new baby...lol!) and it takes the best pictures. I will have to take a course to learn how to use the camera to it's capacity but right now I'm having fun playing with it. I hope that once I learn how to take great photos...I'll do more scrapbooking! That's my goal!

Hope your June is going well - happy summer!

Diaper Cake

I finished the diaper cake and I'm really happy with the outcome. I have to say, it cost WAY more than I expected but it's so cute! I bought a bunch of stuff that I really didn't need for the cake that I thought I would so I think there will be some returns - but I hate returning stuff so maybe I'll just give mom-to-be the extras and be done with it.

I read quite a few blogs about how to make these cakes - some people make them by rolling the diapers and using elastics to hold each individual one but I don't really like that look. I did the one I made in what is referred to as "boutique" look. I rented a cake pan from the Bulk Barn and used it as a template. Then, I fanned as many diapers as I could fit into it and positioned them until they looked good. Then, I took a big elastic and put it over the whole lot and then inverted the cake pan onto the cake round that I bought. The second layer was done with a smaller pan and the top layer, I just did by hand to make it small enough - though you could rent a pan that small if you want. I was just too cheap to put a $20 deposit on each pan. LOL! I bought the beautiful wired ribbon at Costco - as I mentioned in my last post. inside each of the rounds of diapers, I rolled up onesies, etc....the biggest layer has a whole sleeper rolled and shoved in the middle. I used baby spoons instead of dowels...though I think I might need one dowel through the whole thing to make it sturdier. The top top is baby sock rose buds....that's what took the longest - with a pair of pink booties on the top. I haven't figured out how to anchor the booties on yet. I'll pull the whole thing together with cellophane and ribbon on Saturday before I leave for the shower. I hope she likes it.

If you are looking for instructions on how to make these cakes - just google "diaper cakes" - there are tonnes of ideas! Hope you liked mine and thanks again for stopping for a visit!

There's Going to be a Wedding!

I think this is officially more posts this year than I did in total last year - it's a record!

This card was a challenge for me - I wanted to include red in the card but didn't want it to look too Valentine's Day....it's for a wedding shower that I'm attending. I originally did the tree trunk in black embossed but thought it looked a little too "Morticia Adams" so I did it again in silver and am now thrilled with the card. I embossed the tree twice - once in black and once in silver. On the black copy, I coloured all the hearts red and then crystal laquered them. Once they dried, I cut them out and either glued or dimensionalled them onto the card for layers. I also added some bling to the tree.....and a little ribbon. The congratulations sentiment was hand cut to match the matting on the main image. The white layer, though you can't see it in the photo is embossed card stock.

I have a baby shower to attend this weekend and will be trying my hand at making a diaper cake...complete with baby sock roses...I'll post photos of the outcome. I'm pretty excited about it - I got a huge roll of fat ribbon (3 colours) at Costco for $4.99 in the clearance bin - I didn't even know Costco had clearance!! This could take my Costco addiction to a whole new level.

Have a great second half to your week - and don't forget to stop by and check out the diaper cake after the weekend!!

Goodbye!

Check out the card I made last night...isn't it the cutest?? LOL! We have a coworker leaving for another role and she is an absolute fiend over shoes...she even goes as far as buying shoes too big and stuffing the toes if she loves them and can't find them in her size! I found the template for the shoe some time back looking for something totally unrelated on the internet. I saved it for "someday" and so glad I did! The card isn't quite finished....can you believe that I don't have a stamp that says "good luck" or "congratulations"? Guess I need to do some shopping!

It's a 5x5 card so that lots of people can sign the inside. Since the card base is glittery chocolate brown bazzil, it makes it a little tough to sign so I'm going to put 4.5x4.5 pink squares inside. Once I have a "congratulations" stamp or I've printed the saying off the computer, I'll be matting it and putting it on the right beside the pink dew drops popped up on dimensionals.

It's starting to look like spring finally....hoping that the bright sun will help get me motivated to do some bright scrapbooking! Thanks for stopping by!

Be yourself

It's been a long time since I've sat down and done a scrapbook page. Seems like all I have time for these days is to throw a few quick cards together and I'm lucky to have time to do that! I've been wanting to use this picture of my daughter for a long time and finally, I took some time tonight to paste everything down onto a page. I'm thrilled with the result. I can't for the life of me remember where I found the sketch for the page....I know that I need a sketch to start with and then can usually come up with a great page on my own after that. I need the initial inspiration. I chose the title "be only yourself" because she is just approaching the teen years and I want her to remember that being yourself is the best person to be! I hope you like it!

Another birthday card - I had to take this one and the one from yesterday's post to work and have my coworkers help me pick which one to use for the upcoming birthday! They are both so cute - very feminine!!

This was another card made with Bazzil Bling card stock - so cute! I blinged up the little pile of packages with some self adhering gems....and when I was thinking about it, I should have crystal lacquered the 2 polka dots that I couldn't adhere gems to. OH well - next time! More ribbon and some Heidi Swap miniature flower gems to finish it off. The pile of gifts is pop dotted onto the card stock as well to give the card some additional dimension.

I need to start finding creative ways to use my stamps for male birthday cards too - these last 2 cards are so pink and cute...but I do work with some men too... and would like to make their cards as well. Guess I'll have to keep surfing blogs!

Well so much for my new year's resolution to post more often - it's been 20 days since my last post! Sheesh! I have, however kept the resolution to craft more often than last year! This past weekend, I had some friends over to scrapbook and make cards - 4 hours just flew by! I made a beautiful cardstock book of sorts from a kit that I got from Bo Bunny - I'll be posting it soon. You'll fall in love with it! I just need to put photos in now.

I've been making a few cards - experimenting with my stamp sets and trying my hand at my own creations rather than lifting from blogs. I spend far too much of my time surfing blogs and not enough time using up my own supplies!

I have lots of birthdays on my calendar in the next couple of months that I need to get cards made for. This one is for a coworker - I made it with some glittery card stock that I had from a card kit I bought and one of my favorite stamp sets from Stampin' Up called The More the Merrier....it's a hostess set and I love it! Some of the cupcakes are cut out and put on with dimensionals, I've glitterized, flocked and crystal laquered those little cakes - I even did a little paper piecing! If you click on the picture, it will enlarge and you can see more of the detail in the card.

I think that my next purchase for my craft room will be that new gadget you can buy to help you tie perfect bows - I can't remember the name of it but I've seen blogs and YouTube videos on how to use it. I believe it's just a piece of cardboard but what headaches it will avoid!

Hope you enjoy the card...check back soon - I have more to share!

Happy Holidays everyone! I hope yours was wonderful - ours was! I took the tree and decorations down today - it was time. We are having a small get together tomorrow evening for New Years. I hope that whatever you are doing, you are with people you love!

I did have a few minutes before the busy Christmas rush to get down into my craft room and make one more card. We bought our god daughter a gift card for Christmas and I saw this great little idea for a gift card holder on Heather Summers' blog (her link is on the right of my page) and I just had to try it. So simple but looks like I spent hours on it! I used my new favorite Christmas stamp set from Stampin' Up - stamped it on the kraft and then again on white. I cut the little white snowman out and popped him up on the card...again, some glitter and flock and some heat embossing on the title and what a great little card!

Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas goodies!

I always try to make something special for my kids to take to their classmates on the last day before the Christmas break. This year, my 12-year-old told me it was no longer cool for her to take things in :-( I'm so glad I still have a first grader who loves to bring treats to his class!

I used the amazing new little treat cups this year for Ethan's cards....I wanted them to be simple because really, what 6-year old cares about the actual card - they just want the treats! I made this like a card front - so they don't open at all. I wanted to use white jelly beans but I couldn't find any but I think the coloured chocolate drops (I was too cheap to buy actual m&m's...lol!) look great. I cut a white strip of card stock and randomly stamped snow flakes on it - then punched the hole for the treat cup. I then adhered it to a blue card front, added a caption - and there you have it! I made 20 of these in about an hour.

I have 3 boxes of treat cups left (since the 7th grader decided she didn't need the cards) and can't wait to decide what to make with them next!

I'm Back!

It' been such a long time since I've made a post. There are so many great new products out - but I've had such little time to craft at all. We purchased a new house this summer and made the big move in the fall. On the bright side, I now have space to spread out - granted, it's still in the laundry room but some day, it's going to be a room of it's own - that's my plan!

I am thrilled with how this little card came out - I actually made a tag first and then thought it would be simple to transform into a card. The stamp set is from Stampin' Up.....so cute! I stamped it on the kraft card stock and then again on white card stock. I then cut 2 of the snowmen out of white and popped them up onto the card base. A little glitter, a little flock on the earmuffs and pompom hat - and voila! A cute card that really looks like it took way more work than it actually did!

Glad to be back.......hope you'll stop by again soon !