Boulder Innovations magnet board (Project 69)

While I was at the Scrapbooksteals retreat in Utah, Kristy Lee asked a few of us to decorate a Boulder Innovations magnet board for a future blog post. I was a little nervous about coming up with something creative enough but also so excited to get my hands on one of these magnet boards! I knew almost immediately that I wanted to use Authentiques Gathering line. It's such a beautiful line that I was excited about being able to display it instead of pack it away in an album.

I started by inking the edges of the pieces I planned to use. Then I used spray adhesive to attach the paper to both the base piece and the metal. When I attached the metal sheet to the base I offset it a little to leave more room for my friends title. I used a die cut from the Gathering line on the square magnet that came with the board and also attached a few diction stickers to a magnet sheet I had lying around.

I added two more die cuts on the top left and stitched some matching ribbon to them. I finished up by adding some metal photo corners and my actual photos. I'm so happy with how the magnet board turned out and now it sits in my scrap room where I can see it daily!

Altered makeup case

I've had this old makeup case lying around for years. I knew I could use it for something someday so it's been stashed away in my closet waiting to be turned into something beautiful!

Then a few weeks ago I saw a contest on Two peas in a bucket. It was to create a layout, card, or altered item using Authentique paper. Then I realized my ugly unused makeup case was just screaming to be covered in Authentique paper! So here is my makeup case turned jewelry case!

I absolutely love the blissful line from Authentique! After finishing this case I informed my husband that I now have to redecorate our bedroom in yellow and gray to match. I'm thinking I might even frame some Blissful as art work!

Happy birthday banner (project 67)

Brianna had her 2nd birthday a few weeks ago. We went with a fish theme because she's become a little obsessed with them lately. She wore a fishy dress and I made fish cupcakes. I also used my silhouette to make her a fish birthday banner.

I cut out a rainbow of fish and used brads for their eyes. Brianna absolutely loved it! I love my silhouette for giving me the ability to throw something personalized together so quickly!

43 days

43 days is how long I have to finish the 8x8 books for my mom and mother in law in time to mail them off for Christmas! I'm starting to feel the crunch and hoping if I remind myself how much time I have left, every time I post one of them, It'll get my butt in gear finishing them. So project 65 and 66 are for the grandmas! Here is the original 12x12 that I was working from

and here is the 8x8 version

(Its not actually as dark as it looks but there wasn't a whole lot of sun out when I took the photo!) So two more 8x8 layouts done another 15(?) to go!

My paper crush! (project64)

While I was at the scrapbooksteals retreat in Salt Lake City, Utah I had the pleasure of meeting KC from My Minds Eye. It was such a cool experience for me! My Minds Eye was the first paper I started scrapping with, it quickly became my favorite and still dominates my paper collection. I used the Opal #3 sketch from Scrapbooksteals.com. Here is the sketch provided by the amazing Kristy Lee

And here is my layout

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I used My Minds Eye paper (of course!) from their So Sophie line. I rarely use journaling tags but this one was perfect for what I needed. Now, just for fun here are a few more pictures of me and KC!

A few cards

Here are a few cards I've sent out recently. The first two are for two friends that were having surgery. A group of friends got together and sent them a package of get well cards. Both of mine were inspired by Pinterest cards again. Here is my first inspiration card,

And here is the card I made

Here is the second inspiration card

I made mine a bit more feminine and went with pink

The last card is something I put together for a friend that really deserved a thank you! I hope she knows how much her hard work is appreciated

These are projects 61,62, and 63. Hope everyone has a great Halloween!

Happy Birthday (project 60)

When I got my hands on some of the free bird series from Authentique I was so excited! So many of the papers are so masculine and since my main scrapping subject is my daughter, I have a serious lack of masculine papers. Knowing that my father in laws birthday was coming up I couldn't wait to get started on his birthday card.

I don't usually do square cards but I love the way this one turned out so I might have to try it more often. I used papers from Comfort, Delight, and Warmth, I love how the three themes coordinate so well together. All I had to do was add a Happy Birthday sticker I had laying around and I few embellishments and the card was done! I hope my father in law enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it. 

Falling in love with Authentique

While I was in Salt Lake City a group of friends and I were lucky enough to sneak off for a tour of the Authentique warehouse! We were able to see they're office, workspace and shelves and shelves of beautiful Authentique paper! Meeting Sam, Bret, and Melodee of Authentique was an unbelievable experience. They were so kind and welcoming and really interested in what we had to say. It was amazing to learn that Bret makes and paints all of Authentiques paper displays and that all their paper is printed in the USA. This was my first experience with Authentique and the quality of their paper alone is enough to make me a loyal customer add in meeting the people responsible for it and how truly genuine they are and I think I might just have a new favorite!

Here are a couple pictures from the tour,

                                                            

                                   From left to right, Bret, Venetia, Heather, Me, Melodee and Sam

Now that I'm back from Utah and settled back into my routine I wanted to send Bret, Sam, and Melodee a thank you card to let them know how much I appreciate the time they spent with us. I of course made it with Authentique paper. I used some of their 6x6 Free bird series and a few diction stickers (which I love!)

I hope they enjoy my card and know how thankful I am that they took the time out to meet us. It was an experience I won't soon forget!
 

Christmas cards and Salt Lake City

Last weekend I went to the Scrapbooksteals retreat in Salt Lake City, Utah. It was such an amazing experience! I finally got to meet so many women that I had made friends with in the last year.We had classes taught by Teresa Collins, Dan from Fancy Pants and Melodee from Authentique. Scrapbooksteals really pulled out all the stops! We had amazing swag bags an unbelievable amount of giveaways and a tour of the steals network boutique. Kristy and Lisa of Scrapbooksteals hung out with us the whole time scrapping each night until 2am. It was an experience I won't soon forget and look forward to repeating next year, and every year after that!

I needed to pack as few supplies as possible because I was flying and knew I was gonna need space to bring back my prizes and purchases. So I decided to work on my Christmas cards. I pre-cut all my pieces before I left and spent all day Saturday at the crop stitching Christmas trees.

I know everyone thought I was crazy stitching all those trees but it was easy to work on while I was preoccupied talking to everyone. This is my first time making Christmas cards and since I'm not buying any supplies, my goal was to come up with a card that I could make with what I had left of last years Christmas kit. Here is the end result,

I made 25 of them and since they were mass production I decided to count them as 5 cards equal 1 project. That makes 58 projects total and now my Christmas card just need a family photo inside and they are ready to be sent out! Almost makes me feel like I'm not behind on Christmas projects!
 

My new wall calendar

I have a large space on a wall in my new kitchen that I couldn't decide what to do with. I knew I wanted something I could write notes on or pin stuff to. My fridge has cabinets on either side and since I am a constant list maker I've really been missing that extra space that I used to fill with lists and schedules. I kept going back and forth between wanting to put up small white board tiles or a large white board or small cork boards. I even considered painting a large section of it with chalk board paint. Finally I turned to Pinterest for some ideas and found more than enough inspiration! My favorite was this picture frame, white board, calendar,

I switched mine up a little and here it is!

I needed mine to go long ways across the wall for two reasons, 1) I have a long wall and I wanted to fill it up and 2) I'm short and wouldn't have been able to reach the top frames if it was the other way. I spray painted some frames I had lying around and added my favorite papers in orange, red, and yellow, to match my kitchen decor. Then I used my silhouette to cut out each day of the week in vinyl. I love it so far! I love that I have so much space to write out the days schedule and I love that if I ever decide to change my kitchen decor I can just swap out the paper to match!

Half way there!

It's ATC time again! The crafty group I belong to decided to do another round of ATC's. We had a much larger group that wanted to participate this time, 35 total! It wasn't required to make all 35 but since I'm trying to get to 100 projects I decided I would make them all! The theme was Fall and I went with a fairly simple design since I knew I wanted to do some stitching. Stitching 35 cards adds up to a lot of work but here they are!

I started out by cutting out a stitched leaf pattern on my silhouette. Then I place the pattern over plain white cardstock and used my paper piercer to poke the wholes through on each card. I used three different colors of my tattered angels glimmer mist for the background, Brick, Flower Power, and Peach Delight. I broke them up into a few smaller groups to spray them which is why there is such color variation between the cards. After the mist dried I sprayed them with a coat of Modge Podge clear sealer spray. Then the really time consuming part, the stitching! Here is a closer look at it.

I backed them with plain white cardstock and kraft paper to give them a frame and make them I bit more sturdy. So following the agreement that every 3 ATC's count as 1 project that put me up to 51 projects. Getting me past the half way point just in time for my trip to Salt Lake City over the weekend and a little scrappy spending!

Project 39

Project 39 is a birthday card for one of my scrappy friends. I have met some of the most amazing women because of this hobby and Kristy was probably my first scrappy friend. So of course I had to send her a birthday card! As usual I went to Pinterest for my inspiration. I found this card and knew it was perfect!

And here is my card

I love how this turned out! I used My minds eye, Lime twist, Life of the party, and my silhouette to cut out the sentiment and the presents. I also love the chance to bling out any project with my iRock! I'm sure I will be using this card more often I think is the perfect birthday card. Happy birthday Kristy!

83 days till Christmas

I'm not actually counting down the days to Christmas, what I'm counting is how many days I have to finish the mountain of half done projects on my table! I'm focusing on this number and these projects so that I don't panic about the half done projects that have to be completely done in three and a half weeks for Brianna's birthday! Anyway with 83 days left till Christmas (Less if your counting at least a week early for mailing time) I really need to get a move on the 8x8 scrapbooks for my mom and mother in law. So this is project 37 and 38, two more pages in the Christmas books!

Here is the original double 12x12 that I based the pages on.

For the 8x8 I'm sticking with one page layouts so I cut out the second page with the journaling. I also switched up the photos on the 8x8, just because those three little ones were my favorite and I wanted to make sure they were included. I used my Die cuts with a view Jewel colored cardstock stack for the base and the photo matting. The stickers are from Echo Parks, A walk in the park. I thought the little tree was perfect for the page! The other page is a little different because I was running out of letter stickers in the right colors. They both turned out great and I'm one step closer to finishing one of many Christmas presents that needs to be done soon!

Topaz # 10 (project 36)

Another ten weeks of Mid week mojos has passed. I am finally caught up and have number ten done with plenty of time to spare! Every ten weeks Scrapbooksteals has a big drawing for anyone that has completed all ten sketches in the series. The prize is always amazing and this one is no different! The prize will be 3 template sets from Kiwi lane designs and a combination prize pack of Lime Twist from My minds eye! Needless to say I'm hoping to win.

Here is the sketch for Topaz #10 by Kristy Lee

And here is what I came up with

I used SEI's Girlfriends paper pad and Brianna's 18 month photos. Luckily its almost time to get Brianna's 2 year photos done. I'm almost done scrapping her 18 month ones and they are some of my favorite, largely because of our amazing photographer! I left out journaling on this page because it goes with a series of layouts with her 18 month photos and they all have journaling, I didn't think it was necessary on this one. I love that the colors in the SEI paper picked up the colors in the photos perfectly. I'm so happy with this layout and it's been a few months since I could say that. I was beginning to think I was losing it!

Mid week mojo Topaz #9

Woo all caught up and ready for today's Mojo sketch! Here is last weeks sketch from Kristy Lee of Scrapbooksteals.com

And here is what I came up with

I am so ready for the holidays this year! Since Halloween is coming up I decided to scrap some photos from last Halloween for our family album. I absolutely love these photos from our visit to our hometown pumpkin patch! I used Echo Parks Happy Halloween collection. I also finally got the chance to use my Tim Holtz distress inks for something other than distressing the edges of my paper. My journaling spot started as plain white cardstock but I wanted an aged look. I used Antique Linen for most of it and then blended in some Vintage photo around the edges. I love the way it turned out and I'm looking forward to getting more distress ink to play with when I finish the 100 project challenge. This by the way is project 35!

After I took this photo I realized my layout didn't have a title! I'm not sure how I over looked that small detail but I decided it didn't need one anyway.

Project 34

One more layout and I'm caught up on my Mid week mojo! Project 34 is Topaz #8 from Kristy Lee of Scrapbooksteal.com. Here is the sketch that Kristy provided,

And here is what I came up with

I used Whirly bird by My minds eye. Whirly bird was my very first paper kit that I bought more than a year ago and I still love it just as much today as I did the day I bought it! I've actually used it to scrap a lot of Brianna's professional photos from her first year. The bright colors always match her outfits so nicely. Now on to cleaning my scrap room so I can move on to my next project!

Mid week mojo Topaz #6

Finally getting around to Topaz #6! Life seemed to attack me a few weeks ago and I just couldn't find the time to scrap. I'm still behind but hopefully I can catch up this week. So here is the sketch provided by the amazing Kristy Lee of Scrapbooksteals.com

And this is what I came up with,

For some reason I struggled with this layout. I don't like working with greens and yellows, and since those were the main colors in my pictures it seemed to give me an issue. Luckily I had Bo Bunny's Flower Child, that has a lot of greens and yellows and also some beautiful blues and reds. I haven't decided how I feel about the finished product but I am glad to have these photos scrapped and to move on from project 33 to 34!

Topaz #7 (project 32)

I've gotten a little behind on my Mid week mojo, so over the next week or two they may be a little out of order. Like today when I'm posting Topaz #7 when I have yet to do Topaz #6. Anyway for Topaz #7 from Scrapbooksteals.com they had a guest sketcher, Charissa Miller. Charissa is unbelievably talented and I couldn't wait to try out her sketch! She actually provided two sketches but since I'm behind anyway I only had time for one. This is the sketch I decided to try,

and here is what I came up with,

I've been dying to do a layout about Brianna's obsession with glasses. She loves to wear them and when she was first trying to say glasses it came out sounding more like wackies. The older Brianna gets the clearer her words are getting and I'm missing the way she used to mispronounce things. I'm glad to have this one documented so I can remember it forever.

Hello SONshine (Project 31)

Last week I made a card for a friend who had her second baby boy on Wednesday. Of course I went to the source of all my card inspiration, Pinterest! I found this card on Pinterest about a month ago and love it, I knew I had to try to recreate it! Here is my inspiration card,

I made a few small changes and here is what I came up with,

I wanted a blue sky background and of course had to change the sentiment to fit my needs. I love doing any project that includes hand stitching and I'm pretty happy with how this turned out. I hope my friend enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!

A doggy bag

Saturday we took the long drive down to Furry Friendzy in Dallas, TX. We went to take a look at a few dogs and hopefully find one to adopt. The people at Furry Friendzy are absolutely amazing! They do so much for so many animals. Trevor and I wanted to do something to help. We brought them a lawnmower because we've had an extra one sitting around and I knew they could use one. I also decided to make some homemade dog treats. I make our dogs treats mostly because he has a wheat allergy but also because he loves them! So anyway after baking a few dozen treats I wanted to present them in a pretty package. I searched online for a tutorial on how to make a box or bag big enough to hold them all and finally found this one on youtube. It was exactly what I needed and here is the one I made,

They actually liked the treats so much that they asked me if I would be willing to bake some for their fundraisers. I am so excited to do anything to help such a wonderful rescue so of course I agreed! Also we found the perfect dog to join our family.

I get to go pick her up tomorrow! We haven't decided on a name for sure but we're leaning towards Gemma. I'm sure I will do a layout about her soon!

Project 29, A proper birthday calendar

On yesterdays post I said I have a calendar hanging by my desk to keep track of birthday cards to send out. I may have been embellishing a little. What I actually have is a piece of paper with the months listed on it and birthdays written in underneath each month. I've been thinking I wanted to put something a bit more attractive together. Just something simple, a tag for each month, with a list of birthdays in that month, that I could hang up next to my desk. Lucky for me, yesterday there was a tutorial for almost exactly what I wanted on the American Crafts blog! So I made a few changes and this is what I came up with,

I used My minds eye, Fine and Dandy. I love the bright colors in this line. These tags are exactly what I wanted and now all I have to do is write in the birthdays!

Happy hellos, project 28

I've been trying to improve my card making skills. I really enjoy making them but I could definitely use more practice. So I've been trying to make one a week. I have a calendar by my desk with up coming birthdays and events listed on it and at the beginning of each week I check to see whats coming up and make an appropriate card. This week I looked at my calendar and saw that for once I was all caught up on my cards. On the rare occasion that I'm all caught up I like to make a just because card for a special person in my life that I consider to be like a grandmother to me.

Her name is Gladys, and she used to work with my mom. It was maybe 15 years ago but she has been a close family friend ever since. She has been more of a grandmother to me than my real grandmother, she just has such a big heart! I know she enjoys writing letters so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to keep in touch and share my creations with someone that I feel will really appreciate them. Since I'm still developing card making skills I cardlifted once again from Pinterest. Here is the example card,

and here is what I made,

I'm actually really happy with how it turned out! I used Echo Park's Summer Days for the background and Dots and Strips, Candy Shoppe for the pinwheels. It's safe to say this is my favorite card yet and I'm glad it's going to someone so special!