So Excited!

Only 146 days until the CTMH convention in Dallas! Aside from the nerves about being so far away from my family for 6 days, I am beyond thrilled! This is my first time attending and cannot wait to learn new things and meet new friends. I have never been to a big city like Dallas before. I am a one stop light town girl, so what an adventure this will be! It is a good thing I have my upline and good friend Shannon as a travel buddy.

Today the email came through telling us about the album contest. You know me, I can never turn down a challenge! As soon as I read what the theme is, I knew immediately what I was going to do. An event so near and dear to me, something I have wanted to scrap for several years, but have never known where to start. This is the perfect inspiration I needed to get the ball rolling. Suddenly I have a gazillion ideas! Crazy, how something you have struggled with for so long, suddenly makes sense.

Sorry I can't give you any more details until after Convention. Only about 5 months away :). Stay tuned....... LOL!

I'm Back!

Thank you for being patient while I was under the weather. The past few days have been very busy. It's no wonder the upper respiratory crud going around got the best of me. I won't bore you with to many details but here is what we have been up to.

Thursday 2/9... Massage after work, came home a walking zombie, went to bed.
Friday 2/10... Up at 3 am to prepare for the Rock The Block workshop at Scrapbook 101. Arrived back home at 2am.
Saturday 2/10... Up at 7, drove 2 1/2 hours to Cadillac during a snow storm for Ivy's birthday party. Mom had terrible asthma attack, so began the trek back home after just 1 hour and 15 minutes. Spent the evening hanging with the family around the house.
Sunday 2/12... Started sorting tax paperwork at 10am, stopped at 11pm.
Monday 2/13... Filed our taxes and a co-workers, went grocery shopping, spent more precious time with my hubby and kiddos while they kicked my butt playing Life.
Tuesday 2/14... Took a sick day with massive headache, exhaustion, and head congestion. Not the ideal way to spend Valentines day.

Wednesday 2/15.... I'm back!!! Yay! So happy to be feeling better and back to blogging. I truly missed my little posts each day and hope to jump right back in with the daily posts.

Here is the page I did tonight using the latest sketch from My Little Sketchbook for inspiration.

I used papers from the CTMH Footloose paper line. They scream beach and water! With spring around the corner, we are ready for some beach days. I thought they worked well for these adorable pictures of Elli in the bathtub. They will be here visiting in just a couple weeks! Whoop Whoop!

For this fun little Seahorse, I stamped him in Creme Brulee ink then sponged a little Lagoon and New England Ivy on the stamp to get the different colors. Very cool effect!

Uh Oh! Looks like I lost an asterisk somewhere. Murphy the wonder dog lays under my desk when I am working, he's likely wearing it.

One of the things I like most about white core paper is the sanding abilities. I wanted to be sure my little letters stood out, so I sanded a little area for them.

Stamp sets used.....

Chocolate Alphabet Large (E1010) for the "eek" in the title.

A Typeface (A1117) for "the grown ups are at it again". I love this little set for word blocks like on today's page. Draw a little frame around them for a little extra pizazz!

The stamp set that is exclusive to the Footloose WOTG kig (G1036).

I need to add the journaling, but haven't decided on what to say. Maybe tomorrow :).

Thanks for stopping by and being patient during my little blog vacation.

MoJo Monday 227

Here is the card I made for the MoJo Monday sketch this week. I started out simple, then kept adding, and adding, and then added yet some more.....

A ton of texture going on here.
I did a couple techniques shown in past Technique Tuesday posts.
The first being, I cut the "we can't thank you enough" stamp from the February SOTM set to seperate the sentiment from the frame. I then used the frame to stamp the 2 smaller squares of pattern paper.
Once the pattern papers were adhered to the card base, I stamped the stars randomly, running some of them off the edges of the squares.
Next I embossed the entire card front with the Cuttlebug and a SU embossing folder. That's the second technique, remember the strips?
Then added the striped ribbon, sentiment, and lace.
That still wasn't enough for me.....
I hand stitched around 3 sides pulling it all together.

A very vintage feel to this card. Lots of texture and layers, just my style :)

Papers are from the CTMH Stella line and all the stamps from the February Stamp of the month set (Thoughtful Tidings).

Don't forget about the blog candy giveaway this month........

Happy Crafting!

Spring Is in the Air: Project Inspiration Spring/Summer 2012 Idea Book

I just love the new little springs. I can hardly wait for the ones I ordered to get here. There wasn't much time to create something today, so here is a little video for you.

Homemade Embossing Plate

As promised, today is all about making a homemade embossing plate.

As soon as I seen this being done, I had to run out and pick up a deep cut Cricut blade. Thank you to my friend for sharing some perfect weight chipboard with me! Thanks Sue!

First, I designed a file on the Gypsy with hearts from the AP cartridge.

Then cut the design out of chipboard with your Cricut and Trim it down so it fits through your embossing machine. I cut mine 5 x 7.

Next layer the cuttlebug sandwich. (A plate, B plate, chipboard embossing plate, paper your embossing, rubber mat, B plate, and a shim or two for extra firmness) I only showed part of the layer in the picture, but you get the idea.

Here is what you get after running through the little green machine, AKA Threads in the Highland house.

Now isn't that awesome! Think of the possibilities! Before I had the deep cut blade, I made this embossing frame by cutting the image 4 times out of cardstock and layering them together to get the thickness of chipboard.

I used it on this picture from the Five and Feisty layout I showed you in a earlier post. I love how the embossed frame on the picture made the black and white picture look almost like metal. It's hard to see in the picture, but if you look around the picture you can see it.

After all Texture and layer is the name of my game:). Speaking of "game", Emily has her fist Volleyball game tomorrow! Crossing my fingers I can get out of work early, since I went in on my day off today. Here's hoping!

Happy Crafting!

Happy Birthday Card

I needed to make a card for my little niece Ivy to go along with her purse book. I have been seeing a lot of rainbows, hearts and chevron patterns around and was inspired to make this fun card. Stop by tomorrow for Technique Tuesday and I will show you how I made the homemade embossing template. I seem to be into that lately.

I coated the card with shimmer spray, which is why you see the "splotches". The shimmer spray doesn't photograph well or at least I haven't figured out how to do it. This was a pretty simple card to make. I simply embossed the hearts onto white cardstock, sponged ink to get the color, added some shimmer spray, stamped the sentiment and done. Quick and easy!

Perfect card for a perfect princess. Here she is on Christmas. I think she changed her clothes at least 3 times into her various "princess" dresses. The day she was born Emily and I drove through a horrific snow storm to go see her. Now, this year on her birthday there is hardly a dusting of snow on the ground. I can't believe she is 4 already!!!

The "Happy Birthday" sentiment is from the set For Every Occasion. As you can see from the ink, another "well loved" set.

Don't forget about the blog candy this month. Every time you leave a comment on my happy little blog, your name goes into a drawing for $31 in CTMH products of your choice. You can find all the details under the "blog candy" post. My way of saying Thank you for following along with my creative adventures.

A couple of cards for today

Some days are harder to create something than others. Today was one of them days. I just wasn't feeling it. I did manage to do these 2 cards. I can't say that I am thrilled with them, but then again cards are not my strong point.

Card 1........

I used some retired wings paper and the stamp set Trees & Things.

Card 2........

For this one I used some retired Bliss paper and the new Just For You stamp set. I don't think I like the color combination here.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day. By the looks of our house when I got home this evening, I will be spending a good part of it tidying up.

It was so good to chat with Vanessa and the other ladies at the Scrapbook Nook in Ludington today. Which is likely why there was not mojo flowing. I was to busy talking to get into the groove of things! Go figure :)>

Composition book purse

A little twist on the altered composition book.   I simply made a triangle template and used an exacto knife to cut the corners off.   It takes a few cuts on each corner, cutting through a few pages at a time.   The little flap closes with velcro to hold the "purse" shut.   This will be perfect for my niece Ivy who is turning  4 in a few days.

I just know this will need to be explained.

I hope no one thinks this is a little out there to share on the blog, but it's reality and kind of funny ;)

So sometimes when life is crazy busy, the car is where the kids and I have some interesting conversations. Today, Emily and I had to go do a little shopping for the weekend. On our way home, we were talking about Tampons and how to use them. I pulled one out and proceeded to explain. (I will spare you the details).


Then.....

we were chatting about how Zane uses them for deer scent in the woods and Emily is casually twirling it around by the string, it goes flying! We cannot find the darn thing anywhere! I just know someday, someone is going to be in the backseat and find the thing.

Of all things to be lost in my car, an open tampon is not on the top of my list.

Sorry no crafty creations today, but we have food, tampons, and had a good laugh.

It's Blog Candy Time!

Welcome to February! The new Spring / Summer 2012 Close To My Heart idea book is live today! To celebrate the new wonderful products and 31 days of blogging I would like to give someone $31 in new products!

All you have to do is comment on my blog posts. For every comment you leave during the month of February, you will get one entry in my drawing bag. On March 1st, I will draw one lucky winner. The winner will get to pick out $31 in free products from the new book!

On that note, here are some more examples with the February SOTM set. These were copied from the examples in the book, only I switched up the paper to both Pemberley and Florentine just to mix it up a bit. All of the boxes and pieces were cut from the AP cartridge.

Have a happy February!