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!