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!

Aunt Tee's Gang of Munchkins

These are my grand-nieces and -nephews. Lily is the oldest, then Bridget, then Michael (those 3 are brother and sisters), then Anastacia (their cousin), then Isaac (brother to Lily, Bridget, and Michael). I only get to see them a few times a year, but I love them all dearly and enjoy spending time with them.

This layout is the third in my series of color spectrum layouts, in which I have used the same set of patterned papers. The first two layouts are out for publication (yah me!) on Scrapbooking.com, and will be published online on July 1. I have placeholders for them here on my blog.

I really enjoy seeing how many ways I can use those sheets of paper. I don't know what made me think of this design, but it just came to me. I think we used to make these woven paper baskets when I was a kid, or maybe my kids did it when they were much younger???

I cut out the photos as silhouette shapes and used foam tape squares to adhere them to the design.

The base and the white woven part are Bazill cardstock, the papers are an assortment that I chose from my stash for their colors, and most of the embellishments are assorted things I had laying around. The blue gems are K & Company, and the rub-on letters are American Crafts Mini-Marks. The large black chipboard letters are from Colorbok - I painted them black with Ceramcoat black acrylic paint by Delta.

Thanks for stopping by!

Grandma's Gaggle

This is my Mom, my son Chris, and just a few of the gaggle of various sorts of ducks and geese that have made themselves my Mom's pets. When my Dad was sick with cancer, my Mom started going down to the pond everyday to feed the ducks and geese - that was her way to get away from the stress of caring for my Dad, if only for a few minutes. My Dad passed away a few months ago, but she still goes to the pond every evening around 5 pm, and her pets scurry over from wherever they are - most of them are usually there waiting for her arrival (or maybe the food's arrival).

I made this layout from my May kit from A Kiss On the Chic. It features October Afternoon papers, Bazzill cardstock, Thickers, Pink Paislee letters, and various other embellishments that came with the kit. The alphabets and the lacing string were the only things I used that were not in the kit.

Here are a few closeups of the details:







Thanks for stopping by!

Wheee! (redux)

Okay, so I just wasn't satisfied with the Wheee! layout the first go around, so I had to go back and fiddle with it a bit and add some things. I thought the big green title in the center of the page, with very little other green, just wasn't balanced. So I added some Heidi Swapp butterfly masks with the same green paint, and went back in with some stickles around the masked images and added some Stickle flourishes. I think it looks better now - still not my favorite, but I think the photo saves it! The photo is priceless!!!

Wheee!!!

I visited my family in Arkansas around Easter. One of my favorite things to do is spend time with my niece and nephews (who are all now adults), so now my Auntiness is directed toward my grand-nieces (11, 7, and 2.5) and -nephews (9, 3, and 6 months). They are all such adorable dolls!

This is Anastacia - she was a preemie, weighing only 1 lb 6 oz when she was born. She is now 2 1/2 years old and runs around like the Tasmanian Devil - wish I had just a fraction of that energy! My parents' house is across the street from the elementary school, so I took Anastacia and one of my grand-nephews, Michael, over to play on the playground after we had our Easter egg hunt. They both LOVED the slides, and I had a grand time shooting as many photos as I could, hoping a few would turn out well. This turned out to be my favorite of Anastacia! You just know she is having the best time ever!

I've had this package of Daisy D's papers for a while now, and thought this was the perfect opportunity to use up some of those bright, funky colors! I used Heidi Swapp alphabet masks and Pebbles Inc. paint for the title. Everything else is miscellaneous embellishments I had in my flower, button, and ribbon jars up on the shelf.

Thanks for stopping by!

Fairytale Princess

I got these fabulous My Mind's Eye papers (the Bella Bella collection) in a kit from A Kiss On the Chic last month, and finally got around to playing with them. Fell in love with the paper with the fairytales and things on it, so cut a piece out and highlighted it with some metallic watercolors I bought about a year ago and never used (now you know why I call myself a procrastinator)!

Found this photo of my daughter Michelle, who will be 24 years old this summer (yikes), and thought it was a perfect match for the papers and the colors. Of course, I have to say here how proud I am of my daughter - she is in medical school, just about to finish her second year. She has always been a hard worker and dedicated to whatever she sets her mind to. She is a wonderful young woman, and I know she will be a fantastic doctor and whatever else she decided to be in life. I knew she was something special even way back then 23 years ago when this photo was taken - she's laying on my waterbed, her favorite place to snooze!

The flowers are Prima, the "fairytale" letters are from DaisyD's, the "princess" letters are Cosmo Cricket rubons, but the papers and all other embellishments are from the kit. There is a link to AKOTC here on my blog under "Other Sites 2 Enjoy".

Here are a couple of closeups of the layout:





Thanks for stopping by to take a look!

Simply Scrapping Blog Candy

Simply Scrapping's blog is offering some awesome blog candy. All you have to do is hop on over to the blog at http://simplyscrapping.blogspot.com/, leave a comment, link the blog to your blog (if you have one), and join the Simply Scrapping community! It's that simple, and doesn't cost you a thing! Judy has put together a fast-growing community of scrappers from all over the world who just want to have some fun, share ideas, and learn more about the craft. So come on over and have some fun, and maybe even win these awesome goodies from Glitz Design, Prima Flowers, Kaiser Gems, Bo Bunny, Pink Paislee, and Bazzill Cardstock!

But hurry, the blog candy ends on May 31st!

My Mom Through My Dad's Camera Lens

Happy National Scrapbooking Day! In an effort to work on not being a procrastinator, I decided to get busy and actually complete an entire layout in honr of the day, so here it is.

This is my Mom, Hazel. My dad took this photo in 1952, shortly before they got married. This is my favorite photo of her - she just looks so confident!

I had the half of the round paper left over from the layout I did of Brandy, so I got the idea to make a fan from it. Then I had these new K&Co Madeline papers and elements, so decided I need to go with a vintage look, and what better to go with a vintage look than a vintage photo? So that's how I came up with the idea. Then I just started arranging stuff around until I decided I liked it.

Everything is from K&Co except for the American Crafts round paper that the fan is made from, the flowers (which are all Prima), the ribbon, the Stickles, and the stamped image on the fan which is from Fancy Pants.







I think I might find a couple of stemmed flowers to put up in that top left corner with the tulle sticking out, but otherwise I am happy with my National Scrapbooking Day project.

Thanks for popping in!

My G(u)ARD(ia)EN Angel

Brandy was my little Pomeranian princess who died last August from just being too old. She was such a sweetie - she fought hard those last few months to stay with us, but the old age and heart problems finally got the best of her. If there was ever a dog who deserved to be in Heaven, it is certainly Brandy.

I took this photo May or June 2008 while we were having some renovations done on the house. Brandy hated all the noise they made, especially the nail guns, so she spent most of her days out back on the deck, lounging on the chaise in the shade. Of course, she waited until I wasn't looking, and everyday would sneak off down the street to inspect the neighbors' yards for invading critters. Brandy was my constant companion and I miss her terribly.

I had some new Crate Papers, and along with some Prima pearls, my Martha Stewart border punch, my set of Paper Shaper retro flower punches, and various flowers, bangles, buttons, and beads put together this layout. I also journaled around the outer edge of the layout with a white Uniball Signo broad pen - the edges of the green background paper were already distressed white, so the journaling blends in somewhat, but in person it is easily readable, but not obtrusive.

This is a closeup that shows the stitching and the little "angel" charm that I got in a kit from Laura over at A Kiss on the Chic - she puts together awesome kits, so you should check her blog out.



The white letters are Thickers, the letters spelling G(u)ARD(ia)EN are from sei, the glittery blue letters are from Making Memories, and the little crown is from Heidi Swapp, which I embellished with Turquoise and Crystal Stickles.

I started this layout yesterday and finished it this morning after I cleaned the downstairs of the house and chaffeured my son to a carwash and ate Burger King, so I am officially declaring this my "National Scrapbooking Day" layout. Maybe I'll be industrious and finish another project today in honor of the event.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek.

Lizzie's Garden

My sister Liz (with the affectionate moniker of "Lizzie Pooh") has a natural green thumb. I was visiting the family at Easter and the yard was in full bloom already, so I had a good time taking lots of pictures for her. My plan was to make a mini-album for her of the photos, but I got so inspired with the "Colors" layout, I kept driving in that direction and came up with a new layout using the same sheets of paper that I cut the strips from for yesterday's design. I used up a few of her prints, so now I'll have to have those reprinted so I can get to that album - I might even use a similar concept for the album design (when I get around to it).

Here are a few closeups of the layout. I used a Martha Stewart punch for the little butterflies. The large white letters are Thickers. The large butterfly was traced on white cardstock and cut out, then journaled on. I have had that variegated ribbon and the little round epoxy letter that I used to spell "Lizzie's" for awhile now, so they are just part of my mystery stash. I wish I had made the "caterpillar" curvy instead of straight. The background dots were made using a Heidi Swapp stamp and some Pebbles Inc. paints.

Thanks for coming over to take a peek! I'm having more visions of color spectrum arrangements, so I'll see where those ideas take me!

Colors of a Mother's Love

I was looking for some new design inspiration, and ran across a layout on Two Peas In a Bucket by HelpMeRonda (see link to her site in my sidebar) titled "Colors" - it just knocked my socks off! I immediately knew I had to scraplift her design, so I did. Mine isn't anywhere near as fabulous as hers, but I hope I did her proud anyway. Since Mother's Day is coming up (heck, isn't every day Mother's Day when you are blessed with kids?), I wanted to do something about my children or about myself as a mom, and since I had this awesome black and white photo of my kids, I knew this was the one. Aldean Tendick, on Simply Scrapping, had a forum post about the meaning of colors, so I used that as inspiration for the color meanings and their relationship to being a mother.

This was great fun to make as well - got to root around in my overflowing paper supply and put together a rainbow of papers to use. Then I just sliced a piece of the edge of each one, arranged them as I wanted, added a few other embellishments and things for variety and interest, and there you have it. I realized as I was laying everything out that I had a bit of a circles theme going, so I just reinforced that a bit throughout. And I had a cool Cosmo Cricket chipboard heart that I painted white and sprinkled with clear glitter - I thought it was the perfect accent to all the color.

Here are a couple of closeups of the top of the layout:

The words on the colors up top are "Love" on the red, "Joy" on the orange, "Happiness" on the yellow, "Growth" on the green, "Faith" on the blue, and "Widsom" on the purple.

Thanks for coming over to take a peek! Now what can you do with a little color?

How I Arrived at the Card Swap

Okay - signed up for a card swap on Simply Scrapping, and needed to get those 10 cards done before the end of April. Mind you, I had a couple of weeks to get them done, but what would my life be without a little procrastination. I am not a card maker by any stretch of the imagination - have only ever made 3 or 4 individual cards EVER - so dug through books and magazines looking for some inspiration.

My friend Janice called me on Saturday to vent about some personal things in her life, and I decided that Janice definitely needed a little card to help lift her spirits. SO, that was my inspiration - I started playing around with a couple of ideas, and came up with this card to send to her.



Then I decided that was a decent start on a design I could use for the card swap, but wanted to use different colors, so hopped on my broom and flew on over to my local scrapbook store, Picture to Page, and found the new Wisteria line from Basic Grey. Picked up some of those yummy papers, along with some fabulous new embossed cardstock and some lavender linen cardstock (and of course some stamps and other goodies), and headed back to the batcave and got to work. This is my design for the card swap:



And a closeup of that embossed cardstock I used - punched out a scalloped square and added some Crystal Stickles to it.



I got all the cards put together (the assembly line technique works really well), got them in envelopes and stamped, and dropped them into the mailbox this morning, so they will be headed to my friend Janice and all my Simply Scrapping swap friends via our friendly neighborhood postal carriers!

Thanks for taking a peek at my weekend's craftiness!

Blog Award

Many thanks to Emily at Through Emily's Eyes for putting me in her Top 10! Emily is such a sweetheart!



Now I need to pass this on, but since I am new to this, I'll have to figure out a) how to pass it on, and b) who to pass it on to.

I am truly honored and humbled though by this award and Emily's generosity!

And I promise to not procrastinate on figuring this out! :)

Why the name?

The Procrastinating Scrapper - why did I choose that name? Well, I'll get to that later - ha! ha! Just kidding. I am a true procrastinator at heart, and in practice (unfortunately). I don't know where that all came from, but it is what it is, so I have decided to own it.

I have boatloads of scrapping supplies that I have accumulated over the past few years. I started scrapping about 5 years ago when I decided to make a little book for my sweetheart for a Christmas gift. Of course, I didn't know anything about it, but took a trip to Michael's, bought a few things, and went to work. My sweetie said that was the best gift he ever received! I do not have any photos of it, but intend to borrow the book back from him soon to take some pics and post them.

Hopefully my skills have improved somewhat since then. I have mostly spent my time making mini-books for family and friends, and did not have the foresight to take pictures of any of them. That's a task I need to get caught up with now that I have this blog and want to be able to share my creations, and hopefully provide some inspiration to others, and get some constructive criticism as well, because I definitely have a lot to learn.

I do have photos of a couple of my mini-books though. I made a gift for my friend for Valentine's Day, and was smart enough to take pictures of it.

The little heart-shaped book also had a box to hold it. These are a just a couple of shots of it - the rest are in my gallery.

I also made a Spring mini-book a few weeks ago, and enjoyed it. I had taken several photos of the spring flowers and wanted to celebrate those photos, and also the birds and flowers that I so much enjoy as Spring sneaks in and the Earth is renewed.

Thanks for looking at my project photos. So what inspires you in life? What makes you want to get into your scrapping supplies and create something?

Latest Project - Book to Hold My Greeting Cards and Letters

Have a stack of cards and letters hanging around in a box or the top drawer of your nightstand (that's where mine have been for the last 5+ years)? I decided to make a "book" to hold all of the special cards and letters given to me for various holidays and events by my most special friend. I had been noodling over this idea for a while now, but was motivated to take the leap by Judy over at Simply Scrapping - she issued a challenge to make a layout or other project using envelopes - ding!ding!ding! - so off I went to take the challenge.

This photo shows the cover of the book (which is about as far as I've gotten at this point) - just wanted to share. Maybe someone can get inspired to make their own, or even better, give me some good ideas to keep me going (you know how us procrastinators are).

I used Prima Artful Cardboard for the base, which I distressed with a craft knife, a brown ink pad, and some Stickles. I then added some small decorative cards that I received in a scrapbook kit recently (A Kiss On the Chic), some Prima flowers and bling, an actual card and envelope from my most special friend, a couple of little Tim Holtz Adage Tickets, rubons from Fancy Pants, the crown from Creative Impressions.

I got the idea for the base from Laura McCullough at A Kiss On the Chic, so thanks Laura!