Catching up on December...

and boy how the time flew! Working, baking (or at least trying), swapping, buying, wrapping, decorating (not too much) and gift making - and not necessarily in that order. Was so I tired by the time the New Year rang in!

The holidays seemed to go so fast! I guess I wanted to accomplish too much, but didn't have the time. It was more of a laid back year with the boys too. Markie worked alot, and me and my extra job, time was not on my side. This year the "men" were responsible for putting up the decorations - I know, YIKES!!! (but there was a reason for my madness!) Let me highlight for you....

My husband drug the reindeer out from the attic and put them in the yard and they sat there for about a week before I mentioned it would be nice to plug them in BEFORE Christmas! Then, one night I pulled into the driveway after work, I chuckled. I admired the reindeer that were standing in my front yard, all lit up, except one deer had no butt, and the other had no ear. (are you getting the picture here??)

The Christmas decorations were also hauled out of the attic and sat in boxes in my living room for over a week. Then the tree went up. It had no decorations on it until a week before Christmas. My husband brought home an ornament someone made him from work....this was the only ornament on the tree - a big silver ball with "Mark" written on it! (are you still chuckling, or am I feeling some pity coming my way?)

Beautiful or what?? This was not a typical year for decorating by no means. I guess I won't procrastinate next year and will start putting up the decorations the day after Thanksgiving!!

Now, let's see where I left off....hmmmm, oh ya, I neglected to post the wonderful swaps I received from the swaps I participated in during the holidays.

Here is the package I received from Donna at Under the Raven's Moon. We were partnered in the Snowflakes & Sparkles Christmas Swap hosted by Holly. Donna was definitely a great partner! The wonderful packaging...

A beautiful angel that I hung in my living room doorway, a number of cool handmade items and my favorite - a basket of chocolate!

This was the only postal tragedy...

Thanks Donna!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I also participated in the Very Vintage Christmas Swap hosted by Holly's mom, Heidi at Foxgloves, Fabric and Folly. I was partnered with Kris at At Home at Lake Mac. What a wonderful partner! Here is the cool box of stuff she sent

I love the ornaments she made - they were way cool! I love the vintage apron - it actually fit around my big butt!! I wore it one day I was baking before work - LOVE IT!! Chocolate - always a goodie! And the tea - I love it- sooo yummy! I'm hooked! And she sent me a cool vintage Christmas book with ideas on a little bit of everything. I love the vintage ribbon and ornaments! The postal tragedy...one bulb didn't make the trip...

Thanks Kris!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I am also in another swap - Winter Whimsy Mitten Swap over at A Swap for All Seasons. This is such a cool bunch of participants! This swap is all about mittens.(no duh!) So the host decided to have anyone interested to sign up to make a mitten ornament. How cool - and yep, I signed up! She picked partners, and Chris was mine! Sweet!! She's over at Red Lead PaperWorks. I was so surprised when my package arrived. How cool is this?

I didn't want to open it. She used a vintage envelope and added her own special touch. At first I was like "did she try to mail it in this?" then I came back to the land of the living and was like "duh -idiot!!" I am so learning....

Here is another view...

Here is what was wrapped so tight inside... Then I realized I could open it....(another duh moment!) Whalla...she used a match box and did a shadow box like display inside...WAY COOL!!

You are probably falling asleep by now....so I will continue this post tomorrow...don't go away, I have some cool things to show!

Until tomorrow friends!

Sneek Peek and So far behind....

Oh My! I don't know where all the time has gone....it's Friday tomorrow and I'm not ready! For what....My scrapbooking weekend without MEN!!! I don't have anything packed and UGH!!! Just UGH!!!

Well, I wanted to give y'all a sneek peek at what I created for my Artsy Autumn Swap partner. Needless to say, there WILL be lots more in the box - no more peekies! The Halloween Hanging was something new for me and I hope my partner likes it. I used some of the things I won from Gypsy Rose Paperie here. From GRP, I used the black furry material swatch with my Quickutz die to creat the large bat. I used the vintage ribbon, vintage sheet music, and the glitter. I also used a letter tile, fiber, small hanger, glittered a swirl die cut from American Crafts, vintage image, and a bingo number. Here is a sample of a set of tags I made for my partner....I used a large die to cut the tag from Bazzil cardstock, wide vintage velvet ribbon, buttons, fibers, and a vintage image I found on the internet. Simple.

Well, it's getting late and I was supposed to get SOMETHING done tonight....Like pack up my Swap box and get my Blog Candy out to Angela AND pack for my weekend.

Thanks for visiting! Until tomorrow friends....

I'm a "Floozie"!

....A Button Floozie that is! (now get your head out of the gutter!LOL!) I had been stalking this site for a while - just checking everyone out, their creations, and the pics they post to Flickr of their stashes and projects.

I have LOADS of buttons, just started using some for my projects, so I thought I'd ask to be a part of the group. I have a whole lot of buttons that were my Grandmothers, and I just remembered that several years ago, I was given a whole big box of buttons on cards that an ex-girlfriend of mine came into from a friend of hers. Also, this summer I have been hunting at my northern antique shops and picked up several bags of buttons...some of them for a $1!

Here is a picture of some "HONKING" buttons on the left(I don't know why I just started using this word lately - weird!)- check out how big they are compared to a quarter!! I think they are Bakelite and they are a little "crazed". They have to be from the 60's or 70's and I would picture them on some lady's spring coat. What do you think?

Here is a close-up picture of a button flower I made for a card I put together recently. I used a large green felt flower from Stampin' UP! as the base, 2 regular buttons with a fabric button for the middle. These were held together with large glue dots.

While checking out all the people in the group and their comments, one thing that still puzzles me..... If you find a button (not on a card 'cause that would be a helpful giveaway) how do you know if it's "vintage"??? Dumb question, maybe, but I'd really like someone to explain it to me!

I am watching the Steeler Game while typing this blog - you know it's taking me forever to finish this! I really have to trek to the basement to work on something...I've really got to work on my Autumn Swap stuff.

Until tomorrow friends.....

Vintage projects

WOW!!! 4 days of postings...what's happening???? Am I lonely? De-stressing?

Anyway, I'm glad your here! Now I have to show you some projects I finished while I was on vacation using my vintage stuff. It was soo hard to use this stuff cause I really didn't want to "use" it. It felt like when you just started to scrapbook and you had to cut that first picture....it gets easier as time goes by. Right??

I had bought some cream tags with me and wanted to CASE (somewhat) of what Kris Hurst Cumming posted on her blog Blissfull Elements . It's the 3rd picture down. I just thought that would be soo cool making a bookmark with some vintage items. Here is my finished product... I used vintage sheet music, punched flowers and "fern" leaves from Martha Stuart crepe paper, buttons, ribbon, words cut from a vintage school book, and distressed them. I should have used a smaller tag, but these worked out OK.

Here is project #2...

I brought some plain small notebooks with me to cover. Here is my very first one... I used patterned paper to cover the notebook. I cut a piece from some vintage sheet music and used some tiles from my Anagram game. There is a piece of twill ribbon to use as a book mark. I added Prima flowers, a brad, two small American Crafts die cuts sandwiching the ribbon and distressed it all.

You know I love your comments, so don't forget to leave me some.

Until tomorrow friends....

Classes

As I promised, here are the two classes I took at our local stamp store, Stamp Fanci.

The first was soooo fun! Boy do I have more ideas for this one! WACKY WOMAN is what the class is called. You use shrinky dink paper you can now put through a copier, ink jet printer, or stamp on. We were supplied the materials and the template for the woman. We even baked her in class! If you haven't worked with shrinky dink stuff before, it is soo cool how it shrinks up in the oven. We used wire, beads and used a pin back. It was so much fun curling her hair! What a fun class - here is what she looks like...

Here is the second class - Vintage Men Cards. We used Crafty Secrets Fellas Clear Stamp set and My Minds Eye paper. We cut ties using the stamps and patterned paper - too cool. I even got to do some sponge antiquing. I never did this before - you always learn something new - right? I never do men cards, so this was an opportunity to make my dad a card for Fathers's Day tomorrow. Here they are...

To all the DADS - Have a Great Day!!

Thanks for visiting.....come back again soon.

(I'm starting to get back in the groove - more to come!!)

Finally, some projects....

Well, today it's very quiet...no projects to get done ASAP...just time to catch up - on my posts that is! Boy have I been slacking!!! I need to post pics to my Picasa, and here....so here are some of the things I've been working on.

Here is a pick of the round tins I made for my "peeps" for St. Patrick's Day. I purchased the tins at Target on clearance (ya) $13 for 30!! They are like $25 regular. So I punched some shamrock shapes from green patterned paper, Bazzill paper, etc. using my new Quickutz die. I included a fancy clip, some brads, and a green felt flower. I tied ribbon around it. I stamped the top with a Studio G St. Patrick's Day stamp with Papertrey's Palette ink.

Next, here is one of the Make & Takes I prepared for the all day crop last weekend. It's a Pop-Up card. I used pink, white and black Bazzill cardstock. I punched two flowers of different colors for contrast and punched 2 "shadow" butterflies. The "Friends" is from Papertrey Ink Spiral Bouquet set. The sentiment inside is printed from the computer. I used MayArts black polkadot ribbon and a button.

The remaining card kits are for sale at YMP.

Next is a Pinwheel Card that was also a Make & Take. I used My Minds Eye Confetti Sunny Days paper for the pinwheel, a large brad, a 3 1/2" wooden craft stick, embroidery thread, a round chipboard piece covered with remaining paper, sanded and inked with chalk ink, and the sentiment was from Studio G and the "wind" was from my winter stamp set from The Cat's Pajamas Poochie Xmas.

I got the ideas for both the Make & Take cards from the Splitcoast Stampers web site and altered them.

I hope you liked my cards. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a wonderfull Easter Day...Spring is just around the corner!

Strawberries already?

This project was sooo easy and cool to create! I got the link from Splitcoast Stampers from their weekly inkling newsletter. I just love them!! If you want the pattern, here it is. It prints on an 8 1/2 x 11 paper which I believe when cut only fits a Hershey kiss - only one! One?? I chose to enlarge this pattern to 150% cut and made them to hold 5 valentine hearts from Nestles Crunch or Dove Chocolate - yumm!

I was looking for a basket to put them in but mine were too big and found one that was too small. I was at the dollar store and came across this plastic planter - the colors were perfect. To make the strawberries, I cut the patterns with green/red cardstock (Joann's cardstock weight - Bazzill weight would be too heavy). I punched holes for the cord with my Crop-a-dile. I stamped both the leaves and strawberry body with my dot stamp from my SU Polka Dots & Paisley set.

After filling them all and tieing all the cords into a bow, I was ready to fill my planter. I stuffed some tissue paper at the bottom to give height and piled them in. I just love this - it came out soo great and took like about 3 hrs (mostly cutting the pattern and stamping). A great quickie hostess gift for our Valentine Swap party.

I made a tag to go with it...I used my new Papertrey Ink Puny Valentine stamp set and the Thanks came from my Fiskars Thank you stamp set. I used my Marvey Scalloped oval punch for the red then used my smaller punch for the white and trimmed. (Actually I goofed so I had to make both sides the same.) It went perfect with the package and used red fibers to attach it with Saran Wrap so the strawberries wouldn't fall out.

I hope you like it. I had such fun doing it and it was EASY!!! I like easy and DIFFERENT!!! I love doing altered projects - this may be my niche?? Please leave me a comment if you likey....

Blog candy is on it's way soon! Thanks for visiting....

My Valentine

Ok, here it is....ya, I know it's a little late, but better late than never - right?? Here is the cover. I painted the box white and tried to distress it a little. I used Daisy D paper, pink ribbon, pink & white lace, a paper doily heart under the vintage image. I decopauged the paper and hot glued the lace. The ribbon is tied through the box bottom/top. Here is the top level of my box. I had such a hard time fitting stuff inside the tiny little candy papers, I had to think outside the box (LOL!!). So I added two levels - like how some of the candy you buy! I have some foam letters, ink, bling, wooden harts, shell hearts, and what else - CHOCOLATE!!!Here is the inside divider. I used some scrap cardboard, decopauged Daisy D paper along with my vintage image and inked around the edges and Stickled the angel wings. To add a little extra touch, I added a "pull" with ribbon. The heart was tight in the box, so the "pull" came in handy. (I thought it was neat myself!!)Here is what was on the bottom level. Some rub-ons, ribbon, stamps, images, Sizzix die cut, and more embelishments. I used the ribbons as my height for the top level and it was just right.

It was a little bit of a pain when Joyce had to remove the top layer to get to the bottom, but too bad! LOL!! I just hope she liked all the little goodies - I'm sure she has some of these things already, but hoped she didn't have the die I got for her. I got it when I was on my trip to Erie and I picked it up at AC Moore. I haven't seen it here, so I'm crossing my fingers.

I had a lot of fun at our little swap with the girls. I got to see Chele - I haven't seen her in a while. I think I'm kinda the odd ball out - they all make a lot of neat vintage looking things and have great ideas and projects. This was my first attempt at the vintage thing and decopauging - could you tell??? We all wound up making a little favor for everyone for the table - mine was lame....Oh well....

I will post more pics of the wonderful boxes everyone made and the hostess favor I made. I also have my "Tag-your it" tags and cards finished...just took pics of them tonight so I will also post them soon...maybe some blog candy too!!

It's getting late, so I will try to post more tomorrow. Thanks for the visitin' !

Craft Show - Note Pads

I think this is my last post today....I feel like the ENERGIZER FROG(hehehe)....between swaps, craft show projects, house, taxing kids, and work, there isn't enough hours in a day!! (even if I read most blogs now at work *wink*)I have labeled myself a spontaneous project maker..if I had to think about it like I used to in the beginning, I'd never get anything done!!

Anyway.... Here is a note pad I finished last night before bed. I used Heidi Grace paper with Prima Flowers, grosgrain ribbon, and brads. I used SU's "Happy" stamp and a misc "day" stamp in my stash. I punched and drew around the scalloped oval I punched from my Marvy punch (do you think I like this punch or what???) LOL!! I love the sunflower paper!

Here is another note pad I made the other day...with the back side of the same paper from Heidi Grace...I had a tag from my stash I stamped. (I don't have the name on the top of my head - sorry).

My first box class is tomorrow...luckily I have some seasoned papercrafters so it won't be as stressful as I anticipated...unless they laugh at me during the whole class!! Ha Ha!! There still is room on Saturday if you want to come out.

Thanks again for looking!!

Craft Show - Note Card Box w/Cards

Here is another Note Card box with matching cards for the next craft show. I used white cardstock for the box, Paper Reflections paper I picked up at Target, brads, fibers, and matching ribbons. I used my Marvy punches & clear flowers.

Gift Card Totes

Another busy week...finally ME time...

I wanted to share this cool gift idea with all who look here. It's called a Gift Card Tote. You know me...always trying new things....sooo, I found this by doing my daily blog jumping...(the only thing I need to do is get my work lists the same as my home list, then I won't miss anyone).

OK, back to the task at hand....I found this lovely project that Joanne B posted on her blog. I knew I could make these for my craft shows coming up (her's are nicer though)...easy, matching, and a great little gift (although the hardest part I have is the pricing $10/$15 what do you think??)

Here is the one I started at lunch on Thursday, and finished when I came home. It really didn't take very long. The stamps I used on the cards were mostly Studio G, the paper I got from Target on sale for $2.50 a pack, Joann's cardstock and blank black card pack, Fun Fur yarn, Prima flowers, Marvy and Creative Memories punches, brads and ribbon. The cards are blank inside, but do have a block of matching color in order to write something 'cause it's hard to write on black unless you have a white pen!

This is a closeup of one of the cards - I think the best of the pack.

I like this box because it stands on it's own even with 5 cards in it.

Here is the tutorial I found on Leslie Miller's blog "Running with Scissors" Click here (Sorry, I have to figure out how not to list the whole address in my blog - I'm working on it!)

I started another one last night at my LSS after I finialized my box class and finished my samples and misc items. I will post that one when I'm done.

My box class is in the works...I will announce it for anyone living in Pittsburgh and want to come and have a great laugh (at my newbie teaching expense!!)LOL

I had a Venti Latte yesterday from Starbucks before I went to the LSS and needless to say I was up till like 2 a.m.! I think I'm still runnin on all that CAFFEEEEENEE!!!

Maybe I'll work on the other box now. Have a great day tomorrow and thanks for looking! GO STEELERS!!

Congrats crafter!

Back to CRAFTS....

I am glad to hear Charmaine (Oodabug Alley) was chosen to be on the Design Team for Paper Pretties - she is so talented. I am so jealous. She couldn't be more deserving. She has helped me on several occasions starting my blog stuff. Paper Pretties is also a cool site. I will be adding it to my links!

Here are a few more samples of my work from the craft show that I will be posting on my SCS gallery...don't forget to look for more!!

(Just a note....most of these were made in a WEEK!! I get bored easily so I found some unusual projects to do except just cards) Hope you enjoy!

Halloween Bag

Post It Note Cover

Little Bag Tags with blank card inside

Oragami box with Thank you tag.

New Ideas

While browsing from blog to blog, looking at others' favorites, I wound up at the SCS tutorials. There are sooo many ideas on what you can do with paper...yikes!!! I know now that I have a paper fetish (I think!?) I work in an office and love office supplies - this is probably why I love scrapping and card making.

This is one of the tutorials I found to be EASY!!!! A Post-it Note pad holder. What a great gift for any occasion. I even thought about getting rid of the bow and putting magnets on the back so you can hang on the frig. Well, my first attempt took longer than normal until I got thru the instructions. Last night I made two in a half hour!

I started with the "Just for you" stamp - not my favorite for this. So I tried to think if I had anything with "note" on it (had to be appropriate) Yep - I found it....it was one I bought at JoAnns for $1!! I got to try out my new Giga/Mega scalloped punches too! Boy, I think I'm on a roll. I just had to go to YMP and pick up some new card stock for these projects.

I even found a project today for a business card holder. I made two tonight - again until I got thru the instructions - creating is a WIZ!!

Well, it's getting late so maybe I'll post the business card holders tomorrow once I put embellishments on them.

Thanks for still looking....

Remember - Release your stress...do papercrafts!!! LOL ;)

Halloween

Here is a sample of a few Halloween Treat Bags I have been working on. I love Halloween and just couldn't resist getting the Cuttle Bug die. The dies are soo small I didn't know how they would work on things - it didn't take me long to figure it out.

I had some chipboard circles and thought I'd cover them with card stock I had found - Wausau textured paper from Pat Catan's - the dies fit just right. I also picked up the "Trick or Treat" stamp for $1 at PC too. I got the bags cheap at WalMart ($1.88/5). I got colored tissue paper and ran it thru my strip shredder to fill the bags.

This was a fun, easy, and CHEAP project. ENJOY!