Poo Pony

I'm back with another layout for the Use Your Stash blog. (http://www.useyourstash.blogspot.com/) This layout is for a mini-challenge. The challenge was to make a layout using two photos, the colors blue and green and either flock or glitter....well, I did everything except....I didn't have flock and my glitter colors were so pale in comparison to the colors I wanted to use, so I decided to go with a felt embellishment instead. I hope this still counts. This layout captures one of those everyday moments that would certainly be forgotten if not for this great hobby. The story is a funny one about my husband and a stuffed pony I bought at a garage sale for $2.....long story short, I left it in the back of his car and he forgot about it until one day while driving, he glanced back while changing lanes, and said the pony literally, "Scared the poo outta me!" I laughed a really BIG laugh as soon as I heard him say those words....and I also got to share the funny story with a few friends and family members and laughed again with them. Funny, simple times are my favorite!

Messenger Bag Re-do

We've looked everywhere for a backpack for my oldest daughter, Cayla. She wants a character backpack but we are not having any luck. Yesterday, while shopping, my husband came up with the brilliant idea to buy our own embellishments and make Cayla a "customized" messenger bag. So, off to Michael's they went. What she picked out is really cute, however, I knew that it was too good to be true. This morning, because we are having one of those "lazy" days with no plans, I thought it would be the perfect time to get the iron out and begin the process of putting this messenger bag together. I had the sneaky suspicion that the "Easy Instructions" wouldn't work as well as they said it would. Yeah right, iron for 15 seconds and voila! it's done....nope, not the case. After I ironed and waited the required 3 minutes, only half of the froggy rhinestones stuck to the bag. So, I ironed some more. This time only a few more of those little boogers decided to attach to the bag. Next, I tried the frog and monkey patches....those things NEVER stick the way they are supposed to. Well today, the monkeys decided to stick but the frogs had to be applied using fabric glue. I also, for the love of my daughter, and for the fact that I know she had her heart set on this being her "back to school bag" glued the remaining 50+ rhinestones onto her bag by hand using tweezers and a toothpick to help me out.

Puppy Party Favors

One of the things I've been working on this week has been the party favors for my daughter's Puppy Party. The date is fast approaching, so I have an unwritten schedule of things I want to get done before the big day. When the children arrive we thought it would be fun to have them each wear a "Dog Tag" necklace with their name on it. I searched everywhere for a dog bone die cut but instead decided to use this pattern and my good old fashioned scissors. The ribbon collars have velcro strips for the closures.

An Inside Look

One of the things I love to do is to take an organized space and make it even BETTER by fine-tuning. Yesterday I got in the purging mood and decided to work on my girls' craft cabinet. I'll admit they have a lot of stuff, so much stuff that most of it doesn't get used because I have found that they always go back to their favorites time and time again....colored pencils, markers, crayons and drawing paper. Every once in a while they will pull out the paint or the pom-poms or the rubber stamps, but not very often. And, while I have one daughter who has a terrible time getting rid of anything, I decided to organize, on my own, without asking them their opinions. As I usually do, I put a ton of stuff in a box in the garage and I'll see if they ask questions...if they don't ask questions by a given period (a few weeks or so) I'll put the items on Freecycle or donate it to the school. Anyways, I wanted to show everyone an inside look at their craft cabinet once I got done with it. I try to be very simple with the labelling so that they know what's inside each storage box. I also wanted to move down all of their craft books and flash cards [from a higher shelf] so that they could help themselves to whatever they wanted to do. They know the rule - once you're done with it, put it away. Our craft room has gotten smaller and we need all the space we can get.

Sidewalk "Splash" Fun

Here's a pic of another layout I was able to put together Friday night. I didn't really have an inspirational beginning for this one, just the fact that I was working with one vertical picture and one horizontal picture. This layout was one of those that just "came together" as I played with it....I love it when that happens. The big circle is from a chipboard set by Technique Tuesday that I bought a while back...this was the first time I was able to use it. Yesterday, as I was going back to add a little bit of detail I reached up and grabbed another butterfly from my die cut drawer. This was an extra one that just happened to be hanging around...anyways, I added a rhinestone and placed it on the layout for that little touch of whimsy....I love the way it turned out. (Sorry about the lighting, my craft room gets pretty dark at night....need to improve on that.)

"Christmas in July" Crop

I went with a friend to a crop this past Friday night. It had been a long time since we have been able to find the time to crop together. The theme of the crop was "Christmas in July." We had a good time and both got some really good layouts done (I finished 6 pages in 8 hours) even though the room was f-r-e-e-z-i-n-g the entire time we were there. I can tolerate a cold a/c pretty well, but this was really COLD. It took place at a hotel and we were all wishing we would have brought our bedroom slippers and robes. It would have made the crop nice and cozy. Anyways, I thought I would show you my new Fiskars cropping tote (the one on the left) once I had it filled up with my goodies, plus two of the layouts I finished. I am still putting the "final touches" and journalling on a few of the layouts I worked on...I'll post those later. BTW, this tote is AWESOME!! I purchased it at a scrapbook garage sale for $30 and it retails for $150 - it holds a ton of stuff. Also, I'll be showing you some of our Puppy Party treats in the next few days. One of my priorities this week is to work on Abby's party games and favors. We are all getting excited!

Butterfly Times Two

I put together two cards this morning using my new Cuttlebug die and embossing folders. This is a new set of four embossing folders with a butterfly die that I picked up at Hobby Lobby using a 40% off coupon. I love the results! I did the card two times using two different embossing folders. As I looked at it later on I thought, "Some red stitching in the upper left corner would be really attractive." But, we'll see. I am still using the Valentine's Day rhinestones that I picked up from Michael's for 25 cents each...can't beat that. My favorite is the first one!

Page Challenge

Hey - Well, I'm all about trying new things lately so I've decided to enter one of my pages into a monthly challenge on a great new blog called: http://www.useyourstash.blogspot.com/. These girls have a great idea going....their blog is all about challenges to use what we have BEFORE buying more and more and more. They offer two monthly challenges and give away prizes to the winners!! How awesome is that? One of the challenges for this month is to stamp on a layout. I've had a sheet of Fancy Pants stamps that I bought at a garage sale and I've been dying to use, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity. Actually, I think I work better when given a challenge or a supply prompt because I know sometimes just looking at everything I have can become quite overwhelming. I wasn't quite sure what direction I was headed in with this layout but it came together quite easily. The second challenge of this month from "Use Your Stash" is to use your scraps from the page layout to create a card...so I did that too. I hope you like it! Be sure to check out their blog when you get a free second.

Simple Thank You

A friend of my Mom's was kind enough to pick up a box full of baby food jars for me so I thought I would give her a wrapped candy bar to say, "thanks." BTW, I'm looking for baby food jars for a Xmas craft I have planned for school. I never imagined finding the jars would be so difficult. Apparently, everyone is using plastic these days and the jars are becoming scarce. This was another quickie, but I thought it turned out cute.

Just Moving On

I completed a two-page layout this afternoon. Actually, I've been working on this one for days - 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there....and I just decided to put this one to "rest" today. It didn't turn out exactly like I wanted it to, but I thought it was time to move on to something else. Usually on a layout when I get the page design figured out, my favorite part is adding the small embellishments and/or details. Everyday as I walked in and saw this laying on my desktop I thought, "hmmm...what else can I add?" Sometimes, I think it's better to leave well enough alone and just move on. I think I got the point across with the pictures and journalling and in the end that's all that matters, right? I just read about a challenge today to add a stamped design to a layout so I think I might see what I can come up with.