What to do with those Christmas cards you love!

Each year I struggle with what to do with all those Christmas cards we receive. I have an especially difficult time throwing out the photocards. I love photocards! So I collected my favorites from this year and made this mini album!

The back cover is an old printed transparency that I have been hoarding for a couple of years. I finally used it. Trying to go through my stash and actually use stuff that I have. I don't care that its not the latest and greatest products! It's fun and solves a problem! So there!

Scrap-N-Crap Gift Basket

Last night was our work Christmas party. It was very nice! The food was good. The awards were good! The raffle was good. The crowd was very overwhelming. I don't like crowds.


My favorite part of the evening were the gift baskets. I love gift baskets!  The picture above is the basket I put together. Filled with all kinds of scrappy goodness! The best part of the basket was the Cutter Bee scissors! The most amazing scissors in the world.  You can find out about my experience with the scissors at the Statue of Liberty here .  I am glad that the basket went to a good home!

Fun with Felt!

I had such a wonderful afternoon! So relaxing and productive.Couldn't wait to share what I have been working on!

 

Giving these little felt ornaments to the wonderful ladies that I work with! Oh I can't wait to hand them out! :D

Have a great evening!!

Thanksgiving and Christmas Decorations

 

Veggie Lasagna

Michael and I spent the day vegging out! It was fabulous! We continued our tradition of having lasagna for Thanksgiving. Instead of making the whole turkey deal for just the two of us, lasagna became the tasty alternative. Plus, at that time it was one of the only meals I knew how to make. Ha! Ha! Ha! Look at all that cheesy goodness! 

 They just opened up a new grocery store near my house.  It is huge! It is beautiful! Can you find anything there? No! I looked everywhere for the Ricotta cheese. I asked at the service desk. I called the store. I asked at the cheese bar, but nobody knew. I ended up going to the old grocery store to find it. Sometimes big and new is not always the best!

 

This year I have been noticing how popular felt is. I never knew how easy it is to make things out of! I found the circle garland in Family Circle Magazine. You can see it here!

To make the dove, I just Googled "dove template."  Traced the template onto some freezer paper. I ironed the freezer paper onto the felt and then cut out two doves and attached them together with fabric glue! Simple! Simple! Simple! The twine is Martha Stewart bakers twine, which I am in love with!

At Michael's the other night,I bought one of these clear plastic ornaments.I love them! So many options. Here is my first one! I put in rolls up pieces of scrapbooking paper. The outside has felt letters. Of course I added a little gem sticker!

Goodnight everyone! Hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving!

 

Breakfast Trifle and Women's Ministry Brunch

On Saturday my church had their annual Women's Ministry Holiday Brunch. I brought this amazingly simple breakfast Trifle. I layered yogurt, raspberries, and granola in a trifle dish. A beautiful dish can make even simple foods look fancy! 

 

 Of course I made a tag to tie around the dish!

Two lovely ladies from my small group!

 

 Another wonderful lady from my small group. She just recently became a Grandma! She doesn't look a day over 35 to me!

Our church is very big on Small Groups! While I have only been part of the group for about five weeks, everyone has been very welcoming! I love how open and honest everyone has been!

Have a good night!

Leaf Banner

 Last week in Storytime, I had the children decorate construction paper leaves with pieces of scrapbooking paper! I was was really inspired to create my own project using the same template that I used for the children's project.

 

Yup, those are cereal boxes! I traced my leaf template onto cereal boxes. I used generic cereal boxes.  They are slightly thinner than name brand cereal boxes, thus being easier to cut more intricate details out of. 

 I cut up about five pieces of scrapbooking paper into squares, triangles, and rectangles. 

 Covered the leaves with the paper. No real rhyme or reason to it.

The squares and letters were cut out on my Cricut!

To bind it all together I started out by punching holes and attaching eyelets . I strung brown ribbon through the holes and tied it all together.

Hopefully Michael will hang it up above the kitchen cabinets tomorrow!

Etching Glasss: FAIL

Lately, I have been seeing tons of adorable etched glass items.  Lelan over at

Hello, Good Gravy made some really beautiful pencil jars as a back to school teacher gift! Lovely aren't they?!

Project by Hello, Good Gravy!

Thought I would give it a try myself. So I gathered up my supplies

 Paint Brush, Punch, Glass, Etching Cream, Scissors, and Contact paper

Put my stencil on and added the cream

The first polka dot came out beautifully! But the rest didn't 

  What did I do wrong? Maybe I didn't leave the stencils on long enough. Maybe I left them on too long. Maybe you are not meant to go through the washing off process more than once. Maybe I didn't put on enough cream. Maybe I should  use a foam brush next time.

The vase was only $1.00, so I don't feel so bad messing up on it. I'm looking forward to trying again!

Family Fun Does it Again!!

 

 This bright and cheerful magazine was in my mailbox today! Yay!

I've read Family Fun since 2003! I was first introduced to it by a co-worker who always had the cutest ideas. She let me in on her "secret weapon." I have binders full of articles and projects to try! Even though I don't have children, it still has come in handy planning activities for school and church! This magazine has saved the day and my sanity more than once!

 

The past year the magazine has really been incredible!

 

 Back in March, I was looking for a special treat to share with one of my classrooms! The fruit rainbow was a huge hit! Just last week a student asked when I was going to make the rainbow again!

The kids in Scrapbooking club loved making these lollipop flower for the spring showcase! A number of parents even made one!!!  Thinking of changing the pattern a little bit to make poinsettias for Christmas!

 

 This game was inspired by an advertisement featured in Family Fun!

 I wasn't surprised to find such a simple and brilliant idea in the September issue. I can be described as somewhat flighty. I pack nice lunches for myself, but they always seem to be left at home in the fridge. When I saw this cute reminder clip, I knew it was exactly what I needed to jog my memory on the way out the door.  With my trusty glue gun ,I attached a pack of Post-It notes to a laundry clip! Easy peesey!  When I'm done with it I can just take the top note off!! Brilliant!! I can't wait to use it tomorrow!

Thanks Family Fun!

PS: They have a GREAT website! Top notch

www.familyfun.com 

Bake Sale Fun!!

The summer camp kids at work are having a bake sale this week to earn money towards painting their buses. I volunteered to make a little something!I found a cute idea on the Celebrate CREATIVITY in all its forms blog. She used trains for her cookies.I thought school buses would work because of what the kids are earning money for!

Hope everyone had a great 4th of the July!

How-to Video: Homemade Granola!

I made some fabulous granola this evening! It really came out great!I put together a little how-to video just for you!! Enjoy!

Grandpa

I am really happy how this layout came out. I wanted to display bits and pieces of my Grandfather's house. I took a lot of photos while I was there. My mother and Aunts are slowly going through the house and I wanted to capture the little things before the house is sold. 

 

 While at my Grandparent's house Michael was looking through a very old family album. He came across a photograph of someone who is the spitting image of me. There was no name on that back to identify the people in the photo. Growing up I never felt like I looked like my family. It was always assumed that I must look like someone from my father's biological family. It was so neat to see that I bear an uncanny resemblance to someone on my mother's side! 

More Layouts!

Happy Sunday!!!

Have not been up to much this weekend! Actually yesterday I didn't go out of the house all day. I didn't use my voice until 10:30pm. Ha! I did get a lot of scrapbooking done though!

Michael seems to be enjoying his trip to Minnesota! He is really enjoying seeing his cousins! Plus he is eating lots of cookie bars! That is sooo Minnesota.I miss him so much!

(He even posted a cellphone picture of the bars)

 Today I was all ready to go church and then I couldn't find my keys anywhere. So...I didn't make it to church. I found my keys in the pile of STUFF that I was donating to Goodwill. Ha! So I guess it was meant to be to bring that stuff out to Goodwill. I dropped some books off at the Library and then got some food at the grocery! Nothing too exciting!

I still have one more day to relax and chill! Yahoo!!!

Love a Long Weekend!

Michael has gone to Minnesota for a few days to see family! Guess what I'm dong? Scrapbooking! Yahoo! Here are a few layouts that I just made!

I am a Project 365 Dropout!

I was one of the crazy people desperate to buy the Project 365 on January 1st, 2009

I clicked and clicked and clicked and finally got the kit into my shopping cart. I was on the band wagon until the middle of July. The summer was extremely busy and I just stopped creating stuff. 

Extreme guilt followed. I had spent $40 on the kit and I hadn't followed through on yet another thing. 

So until two weeks ago all the unused supplies sat hidden in my craft room. Sat down and looked through the part of the album that I did finish. I loved it. It was so much fun to see what happened a year ago and the stories that I had forgotten. 

So out goes the guilt. Scrapbooking is a hobby. It's suppose to be fun. It's not suppose to be about guilt. Its about documenting the stories of life. 

Last week I broke out my kit again. Took a picture a day and used the journaling cards. It felt nice and comfortable to do that process again. No pressure just fun in documenting life.I am planning to pick up and document August through December of 2010. Thats the plan at least. If it doesn't work out again, I will not feel guilty!

Here is my 2010 album. It's a 12 x 12 American Crafts album. I love the size. I love the color. The real color is an olive green. 

Have a lovely Friday everyone!