faux cross stitch cards

I was totally inspired by Savannah O'Gwynn at the Virtual Smooches blog for this technique.Let me tell you it is totally addicting and so much fun to do. I tried a few times and somehow was having issues lining up the X's to create a chevron strip. So I divided up the cardstock using my ruler and a pencil which helped keep my lines and X's straight.

Here is the stripes without the pencil lines. Still a bit wavy but better than they were (trust me).

Here is what I did once I finished.

I then tried it with only two colors of stripes. 

Then I tried it with green and red for the holiday season. Lots of bling on this one!!

These were more simple stripes.

And then a cute rainbow thank you card.

Let me tell you Savannah does a great job of describing how to do this and makes it look very simple (which it kinda is) Check it out!!

christmas paper ornaments

Yup it has been forever since I have been here. Crazy busy life and then it got to be so long that I was almost wondering if I should continue this blog at all. I decided to give it another try and see what happens. I have been doing some creating here and there when the spirit moves me.

I shall start with these cute Christmas ornaments that I created. There was a challenge in a group I am in to create a paper ornament. My sweet daughter Kira picked out the papers that I used so these are for her Christmas tree.

The papers she picked all came from my scrap stash which is also a great thing to use scraps.I embossed some of those circles which was really cute. I also used some Heidi Swapp color shine on them which for some reason didn't show up in the picture.

Hoping to continue posting. Crossing fingers.

i am alive!

Yup it has been forever since I have managed to get to my blog and try to catch up with things. After the Disney trip it was a very quick paced end of the school year crunch time. Last minute field trips and parties and just plain fun enjoying the spring sun (in between all the rain clouds). The end of school was bittersweet for Alex as he was totally smitten with Mrs. Butler this year. But he is very excited to be entering second grade!! We are hoping that seventh grade is much better than sixth grade for Kira. We have started prepping already and have all our supplies and managed to pick up some new clothes as well for her.

Summer vacation is slipping by so quickly. The first three weeks were nice for the kids as they got to spend their time hanging with my parents. Always a great time for them. And for hubby and me. We ate out A LOT! Went shopping at IKEA, slept in and totally enjoyed ourselves. Then the work began. You know you have to put that furniture together from IKEA??! It was lots of fun and I am very pleased with how the playroom now looks with the furniture we picked up last year. I need to snap some pictures and share. We also picked up a new desk for Alex as his was becoming the catch all of his room as well as it was a tad too tiny for him. He loves his new desk. Happy mommy.

I also spent time cleaning my office. Oh man the amount of papers that were in here that did not need to be here and other miscellaneous items. Glad they are gone. I also moved my printer/ scanner so that perhaps I can do a better job with the scanning of school work this year. I was so proud of myself for being all caught up a couple years back. Well, not so much anymore. It is a huge pile which I did manage to organize by year and child. I need a few alone minutes to start the scanning/ sorting/ tossing process. It will happen as I really want that file case off of my floor. I have run into it with my little piggie a few too many times already. :(

Now I am trying to go through all my pictures to figure out what I need to print for my Project Life album. I am ashamed to admit I have not had one single picture printed for 2013! I have taken a ton of pictures, just nothing printed. I haven't even set up the album! Hoping to correct that this week. Cross your fingers!!

Off to work on dinner for the family. They somehow always need to be fed. Not sure what is up with that.

oh my!! Yes I have returned from vacation and hit the ground running. I can't believe how much time has passed since we returned. I am so sorry to have kept you all waiting for so long. oh the shame.

I need to get back into my office and create. Hoping that time comes soon. Until then, I am going to post a couple of pictures here and some more on my Family site.

On our day of arrival we headed to EPCOT after checking in at the resort. We were ready and raring to go. We went and saw Mickey, Pluto and Minnie and then stumbled onto Duffy (Disney's cruise mascot) Good start to the vacation.

vacation

Yup we are finally heading out to enjoy some much needed family time. I will be back at the beginning of May. Until then, blog surf without me. But don't forget me... I will return!! 

happy birthday to me!

Usually I am not in for the whole celebrating of my birthday. It is just a number (one which I frequently forget) and I really hate to be the center of attention.

This year it is not so bad. Especially when even Google has wished me a happy birthday!! I mean seriously how cute is this?? 

Yes I use Google Chrome and am a registered user so that is how they got my birth date. Am I freaked out that Google has this information- nope. I think it is adorable and gave me a smile. And couldn't we all use more smiles in our days?

etsy custom order- peacock theme

Well hello there! Very long time, no see from me!! Oh the shame. I would love to say it was because I have been crafting and creating but nope, just being plain ole lazy and not blogging. Hanging my head.

I have created two custom card drawer boxes for an Etsy customer. She loved the first one so much she ordered a second one. Love when that happens. She wanted a peacock colored box in which to store cards and letters etc so with that in mind I knew I would need some good weight cardstock as well as reinforcing the box itself with chipboard. I also learned that if you add chipboard to the box, you will need to shrink the drawer down just a smidge or it won't slide in and out so nice. Good thing I always buy an extra sheet or cardstock to cover myself!! :)

I was over the moon when I got to Michaels and discovered this amazing peacock paper! Seriously, how could I not use it? It was a great weight and worked up so nicely. Plus it had all the colors my customer and I had discussed and it was blingy!! oh yeah. Here is the card drawer box opened.

Here is the box closed. I love the teals and purples of that paper!! So dreamy to work with.

 And here is a shot of the top of the box. oh yes I went there with the extra bling! I used my Sizzix dies to cut the hearts and used a small punch for the smallest hearts. I used rhinestones that I glued by hand because I totally didn't trust the ones with adhesive on them to stick to the textured paper. I pop dotted a few of the hearts to give it some dimension.

Then came the hard part, trusting the postal service with my creation! I was so afraid it would be smashed in transit but it was not (whew) and the customer LOVED it!! Which made me a very happy lady. She loved it so much she ordered another one for her daughter for her wedding. I will post that one tomorrow. Promise.