Monday Bag

I FINALLY got this bag made. It was fighting me the whole way. This is another Sew Liberated pattern so it was easy to follow and put together. I guess the problems I had were from trying to sew late at night when I was totally exhausted. Tired Crafter + Sewing = PROBLEMS! ha!

I used up that Amy Butler fabric and still have some left. Maybe another apron is in order. I used some corduroy as well as some of those leftover sheets for the lining. This is a large bag and I actually cut about 2 inches off the bottom and it’s still large. I’m not very tall nor do I consider myself short (denial I know), but this bag just looks huge on me. I’m calling this my Monday Bag. Mondays are busy crazy days at my house. It’s when I have to take all 3 kids to practice at some point during the day and try and get some errands done too. So I needed a bag that could carry a snack, water bottle and something to keep me busy while I wait. This is the bag. It has two good size pockets in the front

and a large pocket in the back for a magazine.

The inside also has a zippered pocket and huge amounts of space!!!Now all I need is a little craft kit to throw in there and take with me and tackle all these Christmas gifts! Tomorrow is Halloween YAY!! Have a great night and thanks for stopping by!

A Thankful Month

Why is it that when I am at my busiest I always come up with other crafty must-dos to add to my ever growing list? Well that seems to be the case again with a project I have decided to do for the whole month of November.

I am going to create a very simple gratitude album. The idea is that everyday for the whole month I will take a photo of one thing I am thankful for. Maybe it’s something serious or something silly. Just something that pertains to that particular day. With all the negative things floating around in the news and on TV I thought this would be a great project to do and especially timely given the season (which I still can’t wrap my head around!). My thought is that with all the focus being on thinking of the things I am thankful for will help cancel out some of that negativity that may enter my life.

THE PLAN is to take a photo each day and print it here at home. Just a basic 4x6 photo which I will place in these protectors. I will make a simple little cover and back with some chipboard and keep it all together with some binder clips. Each day may or may not need some journaling and I plan to do that on the backside of the photo. I will also add a date to each photo in Photoshop. The goal is to keep this very simple and with the main focus being the photo and the journaling.

So who wants to join me on this thankful adventure?? Maybe you can not do a whole month maybe a whole week or even just a day recording the things in your life you are thankful for right now. Or maybe take a subject and create a page or whole album about it. The possibilities are endless. I will share some of my photos weekly for you to see. If you would like to join me please let me know. I would love to see what you create.

Have you seen Ali Edwards 2008 Christmas album yet? Check it out here. Depending on how this gratitude project goes I may give that one a try this year as well. I loved her album last year. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you will join me on my adventure next month! I will leave you today with a little peek of a project I have to share with you tomorrow.

Have a great day!

Cookie Memories

When I was a kid I loved those frosted circus cookies. You know the pink and white ones with the sprinkles? They were “occasional” cookies. They were one of the most expensive cookies and we were only allow to get them every once in a while. I can still vividly remember the aisle and the tippy top shelf where they used to be. It was always hard to stop eating them. There never were a lot in the box in my opinion. And honestly I could finish the whole thing myself LOL. So where am I going with all this? I found a recipe for Circus Cookies on Vanilla Joy. Now I didn’t have any mini animal cutters, but I did have some fall ones.

You can find the recipe here. It has a lot of buttah! I made mine with the reduced butter and sugar suggestions that you can also find with the recipe. The kids had so much fun with these. The sugar cookie itself is really good and I have some big plans for that coming up in December so keep an eye out for that one. So if you’re in need of a good sugar cookie or you love circus cookies too you might want to check it out!

Coming up tomorrow I am going to share with you a fun project I have planned for the whole month of November make sure you stop by to check it out! Have a wonderful day!

Birthday Wishes

Has is really been since last Thursday since I posted that recipe? It seems that my life is flying by. I have spent the last few days purging closets and drawers and even my craft desk. I always get the itch to purge this time of year. The thought of birthday and Christmas gifts flooding my home with no place to go always makes me cringe. I am also feeling the pressure to get my handmade gifts done anyone else? Christmas is a little over 8 weeks away and I already feel behind! Since I have been cleaning up and clearing out I have not had much time to create. I did however whip up a little birthday package for my sister that I can share.

This I kept simple and flat. The bag has nothing that can be bent so it can easily be stored and reused again and again. I used up some left over pattern paper and a bit of that Ocean Tides from my bird card below. The sentiment is from some much neglected American Crafts rubons. I also used the cute cupcake punch from Martha and some more paper scraps to adorn the ribbon ends.

Such a cute little punch and no cupcake in my house would be complete without some edible glitter or sprinkles. In this case it would be Crystal Stickles. A fun and cute little ensemble.

Thanks for stopping by today. Make sure you stop back tomorrow for another delicious treat!

Pumpkin Cookies

I am so enjoying the fall weather. The days have been so sunny and the air nice and crisp. I have been baking up a storm lately and thought I would share a little recipe with you.

These are Pumpkin Cookies that my Grandma used to make. I’m certain that the recipe she gave me is missing something. A little secret ingredient that she didn’t include perhaps, but they are still yummy.

Pumpkin Cookies
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
½ cup softened butter
1 ½ cup sugar
1 cup pumpkin
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the first six ingredients and set aside. In another bowl cream the butter and sugar together. Then add the pumpkin, eggs and vanilla until light and fluffy. Slowly add the dry ingredients until all combined together. Bake at 350 for 15-20 minutes or until brown.

***At this point after they are cooled my Grandma would add a basic powdered sugar glaze, but I usually like a cream cheese frosting. The one in the photo above actually have a different frosting since I was out of cream cheese. I just took some store bought vanilla frosting and added some cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and a few splashes of orange extract. They are equally good without a frosting too. I also added ½ cup chopped pecans to the recipe. And occasionally I add more cinnamon and/or pumpkin pie spice.

If you give them a try let me know what you think! Have a great day!

Joy & Wonder

Well I don’t have any pictures of my little bird friend from yesterday, but how about a bird card?

This uses a new color from Papertrey called Ocean Tides. It is a very pretty color. I love it with Plum Pudding.

Thanks for looking today.

.

Supplies
Cardstock: Plum Pudding, Ocean Tides, White-Papertrey
Stamps: Holiday Wishes-Papertrey, Bird-Martha Stewart
Ink: Ocean Tides
Ribbon: Lavender Moon-Papertrey
Buttons: Autumn Leaves
Other: Crystal Stickles-Ranger, Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Square Nestabilities-Spellbinders

Today is the Day!

Have you signed up for Jessica Sprague’s Stories in Hand yet? Today registration began for this FREE class. You can check out the details HERE. Remember you don’t have to be a scrapbooker to join the class. I Hope you will join me!!!

Here is a spread to share with you about my daughter and her utter hate of the gate we had to put up.

{{Ok I have given up on trying to get my pictures to pop out and make bigger. Anyone know how to make them do that?? All was well until I converted to a 3 column template}} My daughter absolutely hated when we put this gate up. It did not matter if she wanted in the other room or not. Even if no one was in the other room she would just flip if this thing went up. She likes to go and do as she pleases and having that gate up just cramped her style. She is 3 now and STILL is like that to some degree about things. She doest like to be told she can’t do something or is too little. She thinks she is like 10 and is capable of doing anything LOL! Boy we have a long way to go with her!

A funny thing happened when I was taking the photos of this page I was near our back door and this little bird was flipping out. I tried to get a picture of him, but he was too fast and so tiny. He was black and white and I don’t know if he saw my page and thought it was other birds or what. He would peck on the window and fly away. Then he would come back and make a ton of noise and peck on the window again. He kept doing this over and over. It was the funniest thing. I left the page over there and I’m hoping he will come back and I can take a picture. Hmm maybe it was a female bird thinking it was baby birds??

Hope you enjoyed my little page even though you can’t see it up close! Darn thing! Make sure you check out that free class and I hope to see you join me for the fun! Thanks for stopping by!

Signs of Fall

Pumpkin Praline Muffins. Mmmmmm! In October and November I go on a pumpkin binge. Pumpkin pancakes, waffles, muffins, breads and cookies, even dinner with pumpkin. Ahh the flavors of the season. In other news have you seen this…

I plan on registering how about you? You can check out all the details here. And one little no-stamp card to share.

Very nontraditional colors and I used up some old rubons and stickers. Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend!

Supplies
Cardstock: White, Spring Moss, Berry Sorbet-Papertrey, Pink-Bazzil Bling
Stickers: Tree-Paper Bliss, Sentiment-Making Memories
Rubons: Making Memories
Other: Cuttlebug Embossing Folder

Season’s Greetings

This was an easy 10 minute card. I used another sketch created by Kimberly over on the Papertrey Forum.

And here is my take on it.

I love this sketch. I used some leftover snowflake stickers from last year. The silver snowflake needed some red Stickles to work with my color scheme. I’m wishing now I had scored the Aqua Mist paper. Maybe next time.
I also made some quick little note cards.

These are little note cards for the kids lunch boxes. I must be on a kick with the lunch boxes this week. I write them little reminders and I love you’s all the time on post it notes. I thought this would dress it up a bit. That is all I have today because it has been another busy day. Thanks for stopping by to look!

Supplies
Cardstock: White, Aqua Mist-Papertrey Red-Bazzil
Stamps: Faux Ribbon, Snowflake Serenade-Papertrey
Ink: Versamark, L’amour Red-Palette
Ribbon: Offray
Snowflake Stickers-Target
Other: Swiss Dot Cuttlebug Embossing Folder, Christmas Red, Turquoise Stickles-Ranger

Back to Normal?

It has been so long since I did any creating. Honestly I think this is the longest stretch I have ever gone in quite a while. Life has just been so busy, but if I don’t get some sort of craft time in I’m grumpy. Anyone else like that? It’s just something I have to do on a regular basis and if not things are just not right. There is no balance. So last night while I was suppose to be folding laundry I just could not take it anymore and went to make a quick project. Laundry can wait right?! In fifteen minutes I was able to create this.

Little monogrammed napkins for the kids lunch boxes. I found some flour sack towels in a clearance bin for $1 back in the summer. There were 4 - 24x36” towels in the pack and I purchased two packs. Man Oh Man am I kicking myself now for only buying two packs. When I see stuff like that and I don’t have an immediate plan I always try to not over buy, but it never fails that I come up with an idea and wished I had purchased more! This was such a quick project that I was able to make some more this morning before I had to put the kids on the school bus.

With one 24x36” towel I was able to make all those double layer napkins. They are the perfect size for a lunch box and cute to boot! I’m thinking that some special holiday and birthday ones may be in order as well. Now I will be on the hunt for more cloths!

My wheels are turning and I have a few projects that I just must start! So today some chores will have to wait while I get my creative fix and get back to normal! So put your to-do list on hold for a little while today and enjoy some creative time. You will be glad you did! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Supplies
Fabric: Flour Sack Towels
Thread: Coats & Clark
Stamps: Borders & Corners Heart, Floral Frenzy, Honey Bees, Butterfly Kisses, Trajan Monogram- Papertrey Ink
Ink: L’amour Red, Iris, Reflection Blue, Paris Lights, Noir, Summer Sunrise, Landscape, Berry Sorbet- Palette

More Paint Play

I had one busy weekend and a very busy Monday! I have had no creative play time since last week and I’m having withdrawals. Hopefully things will get back on track this week. I do have another painting to share with you from my last painting experiment. I used up some of the paints I had left on my palette from the rainbow painting below. This time instead of stripes of color I just made random organic shapes and cut them apart.

You can see in the last row that I tilted one of the squares for a little fun. I really love this painting experiment and hope you give it a try too. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a very creative day!!

Painting from Catalogs

I love catalogs for inspiration on color and design. All the Christmas catalogs are starting to arrive at my door offering lots of opportunities to be inspired. One of the things I have been trying to do is improve my painting skills. I’m not a painter, but I love to play with paint. I find it very relaxing and try to do some each month as a way to unwind and recharge my creative mojo. Recently I was inspired by the holiday catalog from The Art Institute of Chicago. I love looking through this gift catalog and have received and purchased several gifts. It is always full of some amazing things. A painting by Ellsworth Kelly caught my eye and you can check it out here. The idea of just a few brush strokes across the page, cut all up and randomly put back together sounded too easy. Reminded me of the paintings I tried before here and here. I gave this technique a try copying his but using chocolate brown paint instead of black.

Wow actually looks like I know how to paint lol! This was so much fun and literally took minutes to achieve. I decided to keep with that type of theme and change up my colors and shapes. I took inspiration from the catalog again from a resin bracelet that you can see here. I loved all the color in this piece and just went to town making loads of colored stripes. This time I cut the pieces into long rectangles in keeping with the style of the bracelet.

How fun is that??? I am thrilled how these turned out and how so easy and fast it was. Ideas are percolating on using this technique in a card or scrapbook page. Now my paintings will never end up in the Museum of Modern Art, but hey I can still have fun pretending I am a painter. If you are like me and love the idea of being able to paint I highly recommend giving this a try. Change up the colors, the brush shapes, the shapes you cut the pieces into. It is a lot of fun to see what you get when you put all the pieces back together. If you give it a try leave me a link I would love to see what you come up with! Have a creative day!

Wild Weekend

My kids love animals. We watch Animal Planet, they read a lot of books and we make many visits to the zoo. They each have a favorite animal that they know all about. My oldest daughter loves animal so much that ever since I can remember she has talked about wanting to working with animals when she grows up. Her big dream was to see this in person

and see it run. Last summer we were able to see the cheetahs at our zoo. They made a new enclosure where they can run, but on the day we went it was way too hot for them to run. This was a huge disappointment for us, but we were able to visit with the trainers and still see the cheetahs. Since it was such a hot day the zoo was pretty empty. We were there for the longest time just hanging out with the cheetahs with only a fence in between us. We chatted away with the trainers and had a blast. My daughter was thrilled. I made a little page about that day here.

When my daughter saw this page for the first time she told me that that little paw prints stamp I used was incorrect. I used a stamp with some Versamark just as a little accent and apparently cheetahs do not have retractable claws so the stamp is inaccurate! HA! I told ya they know all about animals. I was then instructed to add claws which I have yet to do. Eventually I want to make a little mini book with all the photos we took that day. I will have to remember to add claws! (for some reason you cannot click on my page to make it bigger. I will try and fix that.)

So fast forward to this past weekend. Thanks to some friends we were invited to a private picnic hosted by the zoo at a local farm. They had all sorts of food, games and animals there. The big attraction was the cheetahs. In all we saw 10 of them. From little 3 month old cubs to 5 female yearlings and their mommies

and two cheetah stars Bravo & Sahara. This is Sahara.

Bravo is the one you see in the top photos from last summer. Apparently he is in love with Sahara and did not want to run this day or come out of his crate. Sahara on the other hand could care less about him and ran twice for us.

It was amazing to see and my girls were lovin’ it. So that was what I got to do on World Card Making Day instead of making cards! Oh one more picture

This zebra just cracks me up! Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed the photos!

Supplies
Cardstock-Bazzil
Transparency- Hambly
Stamps: Faux Ribbon, Simple Alphabet-Papertrey, Paw Prints- Unknown
Ink: White-Hampton Art, Palette Noir, Versamark
Stickers: Making Memories Noteworthy Collection

SEW CUTE!

Well this Saturday was World Card Making day and I did not get to participate! *enter sad face here* I was busy having a “wild” weekend (more on that tomorrow!). I hope everyone else got a chance to create the day away. Friday night I did get to finish up an apron I have been working on. You know how I love to use up my old product and paper scraps; well I’m on a mission to use up my fabric stash as well. Check it out…

Front

Back

Cute huh? This is the Emmeline pattern from Sew Liberated. It’s a really adorable double sided apron. I have already road tested it on dinner and these delish cookies.

Do you know what that tan fabric is? It is actually a sheet! I purchased some top sheets a few years ago for $2.00 a piece. Great deal huh? I did have a project planned for them, but then changed my mind. It is really nice quality fabric and for $2 bucks it’s a winner in my book. I have used two others for a quilt that I am in the process of making. I’m stretching those sheets as far as I can! I had to really get creative with that turquoise fabric scrap to have enough to make the bias strips and the bodice strips. I was worried I wasn’t going to have enough, but just made it! I even had a few little scraps to add to the pocket.

This is my practice “scrap” apron. I have some really cute Amy Butler fabric I want to make an apron from and decided to give the pattern a try first before I cut into that beautiful fabric. The problem now is that I want to make a bunch of these. I’m thinking I need a craft apron too with more pockets. What do you think?

Thanks for stopping by today! I will be back tomorrow with some highlights of my wild weekend!

***Funny Note*** I had my 9 year old take these photos of me. I told her I wanted shots of my apron for the blog. I didn’t think to tell her that I wanted my head included in the photo. LOL! ***

Seasons Greetings

Well I have not made any cards in the last couple days. I have been trying to finish all those half done sewing projects I have. Hopefully next week I will have some of that to share. In the mean time here is a card I made a while ago using some of that old product I have.

And not a stamp in sight! Actually the only thing on this card that is “new” is the Lavender Moon cardstock and the card base. Everything else is old stuff I’ve had sitting around for a while. I colored the vellum stickers a little with a Copic marker. Originally they had a light blue so I changed it up to go with my color scheme.

That’s all for now the sewing machine is calling my name. I hope you have a great weekend and thanks for stopping by!

Supplies
Cardstock: White, Lavender Moon-Papertrey, Gray-Bazzil
Stickers: Stickopotamus, EK Success
Ribbon: Lavender Moon-Papertrey
Marker: Copic Sketch V04
Other: Gems, Paper Clip-unknown

Shimmery Snowman

When I first saw the Made of Snow set by Papertrey I just fell in love. I just {heart} snowmen. I also fell in love with the Night Sky shimmer cardstock. Wish I had this last year for my Christmas cards! I used another challenge from the Forum and paired these two new goodies with some very old product to make my card. Here is the sketch

This one made me work! I messed with this sketch for two days before finally settling on this card.

I don’t know if I’m totally in love with it, but I know I love the shimmer paper and that snowman! That printed vellum s so old I don’t know who makes it. I don’t think the snowflakes are as old, but I have had them for a while. I am working hard at using up that old stash of mine. Embarrassingly there is sill no end in sight! Hope you enjoyed the card. Have a great day!

Supplies
Cardstock: Night Sky-Papertrey, all other paper/vellum-unknown scraps
Stamps: Made of Snow, Faux Ribbon-Papertrey
Ink: Reflection Blue, Noir, Burnt Umber, Berry Sorbet, Charcoal-Palette
Snowflake Stickers: Provo Craft
Stickles: Crystal, Waterfall-Ranger