Gift Card Holders

I spent last weekend making 17 gift card holders - I used every single one of them! That's a lot of gift cards ... and holders! I had a great time making these though, and they are extremely easy to make. I followed a tutorial by Diane Davies that she posted on Simply Scrapping Crafts, and then I dragged out my loads of Christmas papers and embellishments and tried to be creative without over-complicating things. The following photos are a few of what I made!







Thanks for stopping by to take a peek, and I hope that everyone has a glorious Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New Year!

Top 10 on Two Peas in a Bucket!!!

Okay, I've reached scrapping nirvana - my project with the Christmas advent calendars has made the Two Peas Top 10 for views and votes!!! Now I have to think of something new to aspire to for my craftiness. This was the photo I used as the "cover".

I also recently made some Thanksgiving cards for the same set of little ones - I think maybe they look better in person than in these photos (I am photo challenged sometimes), but I figure a group of little kids will just think they're cute and won't care how scrap-worthy they are.



And I made a cute little Christmas card with a new stamp I recently got.



Okay, I think I'm caught up on my blog postings for now. Thanks for stopping by to look.

The Season is Coming!!!

Spent the weekend making five (yes, 5) advent countdown calendars using the Melissa Frances 3D calendar boxes. I made four of them for my young nieces and nephews, and one for myself. It was a lot of fun planning out what papers to use for each one - I actually cut enough squares to make 3 or 4 more of them, but kept editing the papers and placements until I got it just like I wanted it. Thankfully I borrowed a square punch from Tanya, who owns my LSS, to punch out the squares, then used a circle punch to cut out the half circles. I bought a bunch of candies and small toys to fill the boxes with, and they are not boxed up and ready for shipping to my sister in Arkansas, who will give them to the kids on Thanksgiving, so that they'll have them for December 1st.

These first two shots are "group" shots where you can see several of the calendars at the same time. I used several different paper lines and a load of various embellishments.





This "pink" one is for Anastacia, my little grand niece who recently turned 3. These papers are primarily Basic Grey's Eskimo Kisses line and some My Mind's Eye papers.



This one is for Bridget, who will be 8 years old next month. These papers are all from K & Company Brenda Walton's Christmas line.



This one is for Lily, who will be 13 in February. Since she is the oldest, I made her's a bit more sophisticated. These papers are all from Webster's Pages.



This one, which is "blue" themed, is for Michael, who will be four in December. These papers are all Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses and My Mind's Eye.



And this one is for me. I used Webster's Pages papers and embellishments, along with a few odds and ends. I did not put on the numbers, because I wanted to keep the soft color pallet, and I didn't want the numbers to interfere with the writing on the paper or what I added with my own journaling. I like this more "artsy" look, which I think is sophisticated.



Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Finding Time for a Challenge

Simply Scrapping started a new sketch challenge format, so I decided to try my hand at the card challenge this week. I like making cards, but I question my abilities when comparing my work to the likes of Lesley, Clare, or some of the other Simply Scrapping members. However, I consulted with my trusty (and sometimes annoying) assistant, Ace (who you can see in the background "assisting" with my photography, and we rooted around in our stash to come up with this design.



The patterned papers are from Making Memories Mistletoe collection, the rubons are from Cosmo Cricket, I used a few dots of Stickles on the tree for ornaments, and the other stuff (jewels, rickrack trim, fabric) are from my stash. In fact, that fabric is at least 20 years old!!!

This card is for the October Challenge #1, so if anyone is interested in participating, just hope on over to Simply Scrapping, join up, and have some fun with us.

On the procrastination front, I have been working diligently (or not) to get my scraproom/office in order. It looked like a bomb went off in there since about May, and I just could not get myself motivated to get things organized. I did purchase a couple of wall shelves at Ikea in July, but purchased the wrong size brackets. Since Ikea is a 2 1/2 hour drive from me up near DC, I had to find the time/opportunity to get up there to purchase the correct brackets, which I did a couple of weeks ago. Now I am getting back on track and should have everything completed (except painting the room) soon. As far as painting, I decided that I would figure out where I want all the shelves and things that have to be attached to walls to go first, so that if I do any damage to the walls making extra holes, I can patch all that up before I paint. (Yes, I know it just sounds like another excuse to procrastinate, but just go with it for now.) I will post some photos of the space when I get done in a couple of weeks. For now, at least I can get into the room, and can even do some work in there without getting buried in a pile of scrapping paraphenalia.

Where did the time go? (Part Deux)

Wow - almost October already, and my crafty/scrappy efforts have been nil for the last few months. Lots of exciting goings on in my life though - new kitty Ace, business growing by leaps and bounds, daughter started her 3rd year of medical school, son a high school sophomore and playing varsity football.

I did finally make some time for Halloween cards for my little grand-nieces and -nephews though, so here are a couple of shots of those cards. I saw a display at my LSS with Queen & Company supplies, and derived these cards from one of those designs. They were fun to make, and my new asssistant Ace was busily trying to "help". I will probably be finding embellishments under furniture and rugs for the next couple of months!





Ace was a barn cat that would not let anyone pet her. When my son saw her, he knew she was the one he wanted, so he spent over an hour luring her to him. Once we got her home, it was as if she had been born here. She has made herself quite at home.

Here is another picture of her greeting her new "neighbor" the squirrel. I have a pecan tree in my backyard, and this squirrel spends all day, every day, carrying pecans across the deck to his secret stash. Ace just happened to be at the window looking out as he crossed the deck one time, and I just happened to have my camera handy.



Here's another one of the little princess!

Where did the time go???

Okay, it's already July 2nd, and where did June go??? I have been busy the last couple of months with other things, including reorganizing my scraproom, so I have not done any actual scrapping. Plan to get back to it this month.

I also wanted to provide an update that two of my layouts were published in the latest version of Scrapbooking.com online magazine. I am excited and honored!

Scrapbooking.com Magazine

This link takes you to a page where you can sign up for their newsletter. Just click on "Table of Contents" in the left column, and scroll down until you see the article titled "A Rainbow of Ideas".

The article is about these two layouts, "Colors of a Mother's Love" and "Lizzie's Garden". Both of these layouts were previously published here on my blog, but I had to "send them out for publication", so they were taken down for a while.





Thanks for stopping by!

I Got Published on Scrapstreet.com Magazine

Hey everybody! No, I have not been procrastinating, even though I have been absent for awhile. I had to study for an extremely difficult certification exam, so had my nose in the books for the last couple of weeks. Thankfully, the exam is over and passed, so woo hoo! and a pat on the back to myself!

I did want to say that my "Grandma's Gaggle" layout got published on the new issue of Scrapstreet.com Magazine at http://www.scrapstreet.com/mag2009/2009june/fixtures/pet.htm . Of course, my mom (who happens to be "Grandma" in the layout with my son) does not have a computer or internet access, so I asked my niece, who lives near her, to show her the page on the internet. I think she'll get a kick out of that!

No new scrapping projects, although I intend to get busy this week and make something. I am in the process of reorganizing my office/scraproom - if you saw it, you would know why!!! Most people would shriek and run away. I am sorely tempted to, but will get it rearranged and cleaned up and organized, and hopefully that will last at least for a few months! If messiness is a sign of creativity, then I must be really high on the scale - hee hee!

Thanks for stopping by to visit! Y'all come back now!