My first welded project!

I finally figured out how to weld on my gypsy. The irony is that I used to work for the American Welding Society...so welding must have fallen off of my vocabulary.  HA!!  Seriously, though, I loved my job there, but I enjoy being a mom and working for my sister. (Wow...that was a tangent I just went on).

Okay, I made this little purse for my niece, Lizzie.  She's 11 years old and let's just say today was a special day for her.  I thought she needed a card.   And I needed an excuse to make one.

The purse is from Forever Young.  It's cut at 4.5".  The bottom layer is Bazzill cardstock which was bought at Big Lots for (READY????) $0.50 for an entire pack!  The top layer is Nana's Kids by DCWV.  The flowers are from Michael's.  I used glitter buttons from American Crafts and stickles on the flowers.

Inside, I added a whisper white square (Stampin Up) to write her a note.  I didn't want to put a sentiment in case she wants to do something decorative with the card.

Fly Away!

Hi everyone!  I am still semi-celebrating Bryan's 6th birthday.  On Friday we will be taking him to a water park here in Miramar, FL.  It's one of his favorite places to go and he's been counting on it for over a month!

My mom had asked me to make her a card for Bryan.  He's really into airplanes these days...and anything that flies...so I decided to use Fly Away by Papertrey Ink as inspired by Christina.  I'm still learning how to color and blend.  I used Stampin Up watercolor paper and my SU markers.  The base is brocade blue by SU and the bakers twine is We R Memory Keepers.  Behind the airplane, I took a cotton ball and created the illusion of clouds with white ink.  I hope it's clear in the photo.  I know Bryan will love this card.

My baby is 6!!!

My precious son, Bryan, turns 6 on July 1st.  My kids usually celebrate their birthdays together because they are two weeks apart...so for 2 weeks they are both the same age.  I know.  I know.  ;)  This year we thought they are getting a little old to do them together.  They have two different themes and we just decided to separate them.  Bryan wanted a Sid the Science Kid party.  I admit that I was not able to find a lot of Sid items, so we had to wing it.  We had three different science experiments that we were able to interact with the kids.  It was awesome and totally Bryan!!!!  I still can't believe he was born at 10 lbs 2 ounces six years ago. Bryan was born the day I turned 37 weeks...so I'm thankful that he came when he did. 40 weeks would have made him 15 lbs!!!

I made him a banner, which I was so impressed with.  I was so excited!!! I used Birthday Bash for the banner.   I set it at 8" which I expected would be the size of the shadow, but it wasn't.  It is the size of the inside. It came out perfect.  The letters were set at 3.5".  It came out so cute!  All of the paper is Stampin Up.  Unfortunately because the paper is from a paper pack, I don't have the colors.  I am so excited about learning this!!!

The bottom layer is Certainly Celery and the Y is marina mist.  That is my new favorite color!!!

This is our little family.  My husband is 6'5" so he had to scrunch down to fit in the picture with the kids.  :)

Thank You

Happy Father's Day everyone.  I admit my father's day was very laid back.  I did nothing.  I did not feel much like celebrating.  This is the first year without my father, who passed away on September 3rd.  I just could not bring myself to celebrate today.  Maybe next year.  We made breakfast in bed for my husband and just spent the day together.

I don't know if you've ever heard of FreeCycle.  It's a yahoo group for people to trade items that would be thrown out.  I have had the opportunity to bless people with things that my family won't use anymore (clothing, decorations, etc.) and have been blessed by people who are giving away great items that I can totally use.  Tonight, a woman was giving away some new Bakugan toys.  I jumped at it because Bryan's birthday is next week.  Unfortunately, someone else had spoken for them.  Well...about an hour later, she emailed me and said, "I decided to save the Bakugans for Bryan since I know you guys are struggling!"  What a nice gesture.  By the time I got to her house, she had found a brand new Hot Wheels set for me as well.  I am so fortunate!  Thank you, Lord, for always taking care of me.

I made her this simple Thank You card using the Elegant Thank You by SU and will mail it to her in the morning.

Goodnight all!

Just a Note

Happy Monday!  First, I'm bummed because our Miami Heat lost the NBA Finals, but the Dallas Mavericks really did deserve it.  Good for them!  Bad for us!

I was crafting last night.  I've been wanting to do a note themed card and it just hit me last night.  This is what I came up with.  I love it!  I used Stampin Up cardstock and the second layer is from the Joanns stacks.  My favorite element is from Stampin Up...library clips. My friend, Norma, sent them to me in a little goodie package.  Now I MUST get some.   Enjoy!

Busy Crafty Day

Wow...three posts in one day is pretty awesome for me!  I'm loading some pictures of two cards that I made today.  One of my FAVORITE blogs is Kerry's Paper Crafts.  Everything she does fascinates me.  Today she posted a picture of a father's day card which is very pretty. I didn't have all of the tools, but I did try to recreate one similar to hers.  I liked it.  She uses baker's twine, which I don't have (but it's enroute) and she has a lot of stamps to choose from. I really like how it turned out.

The second card was inspired by the colors.  I have always wanted to use a hole and it came out pretty well.
My problem is that there was only one sheet of the Marina Mist paper so when I punched it for the first card, it left a hole on a perfectly good piece of paper.  So...I thought about it and decided to go with a hole card.  I love how it turned out. Hope you like!

My craft half-room

I call it a half room because it's only one wall and a tiny wall next to the closet.  There is so much stuff crammed in my space and I really need some suggestions.  Yikes!  I took some pictures because I want some ideas on what to do with the shelves.  I'll comment on each as they are posted.  OOPS!  I just realized I didn't take a picture of my cricut storage.  I'll do that in a sec and include it.  Photos are really bad because they are taken with my camera phone.  My regular camera is at my BFF's house.

My desk has no drawers so I had to improvise.  The rolling cart is great.  Each bin has a different color set.  The bottom section is for paper and they are labeled by manufacturer.  The pink box has sentiment stamps in sets.

This shelf area needs help!  Top shelf has a binder with all of my embossing folders and cuttlebug dies.  The basket has overflow of cards with envelopes in various sizes.  The two boxes have pre-cut scraps.  Also, the top paint gallon has oodles of stickers and Jolee embellishments.
Second shelf has SU stamp sets and magazines and my cuttlebug and behind the cuttlebug are some clear bins with markers and die cuts that I have left over.
The rods are from IDEA.  Each cup has a different type of pencil or maker.  The hanging basket has all of my clear stamps, mostly MPS. The two smaller clear containers on the desktop have more stickers and ribbon cuts.
Oh yeah!  I have a hook behind my computer monitor from where I hang all of my cutting mats and a little clipboard for notes.

This is my IKEA storage unit.  I LOVE THIS!  My husband bought this for me last year as a surprise.

Crafting Center from Michael's.  Great storage.   I keep Robyn's card up there.  I like to show it off!

The right side of my desk has a bin where I keep the cutters and the ATG gun as well as more paper.  The top shelf has two baskets that hold my heat tool, stapler, tape and the second has 50 yard spools of ribbon

My cricut storage made by a friend.  It holds 44 and it's on casters so I can move it around if I need to.
The three tiered basket on top was from Ross.  It has my loose stamps and all of my stickles.

MPS-My Pinkalicious Blog Hop

Hi everyone!
So, My Pink Stamper had a blog hop where everyone was to make a Summer project and use MPS stamps.  I hopped along and was so inspired by everyone.  These are some seriously crafty ladies.

I had to make a card for my Pastor today and Pineapples are very tropical and reminiscent of Summer to most people. To those of us in South Florida...it's an everyday thing.  I used Preserves for a pineapple themed card cut at 4.5". The designer paper and cardstock is Stampin Up.  The ink is Melon Mambo from SU as well.  I used Robyn's Faithful Sayings.  I love this set!  I used Stickles to embellish the card a little bit.  The base is kraft cardstock from JoAnn's.  I hope he likes it!

I'm a cheater!

Okay. So one of the things I've been wanting to do is to try out other products. You should first know that I am not great with change.
So...today I got a package from Papertrey Ink. Paper! So, let's see how I like it. I admit I'm a stampin up girl. Let's see how it goes.  Actually...this is my first time using the mobile posting from blogger.  Not bad.  :)

Made it myself Mondays!

Hi everyone,

One of my favorite blogs is Alex's at You Had Me at Craft.  She came up with a brilliant idea...Made it Myself Mondays!  It's a linking party on projects we've made ourselves!  Yay!

Well, I had one of those inspirational moments.  I have been wanting little curtains for my craft/office space, but had not found material that was inexpensive enough to buy.  So....I went with paper.  I purchased paper with a damask print at Joann's and folded it in half, then cutting it into a triangle.  I repeated the same onto black cardstock and glued them together using my ATG gun to make a banner.  Then, I cut slits into it and threaded a ribbon through it.  Voila!  A ready-made banner curtain thingy.  What do you think?  Some variations could be adding another layer of the flags to make it a little longer...if you prefer something more cafe style. I like the way they turned out.  Good solution!

Oh!  I bid on a Pixie on ebay and won it for $10!!!  New!!!  I cannot wait to get it. I'll definitely be posting something using my new toy very soon!!!

Happy crafting!

Julie is having a great giveaway

Julie left a great comment for me yesterday and so I went to visit her blog.  She has a GREAT giveaway.  She's giving away the Campin Critters Cricut cart.  Go to A Little Bit of Bling to check it out!

Father's Day - Part 2

I was recently surfing and came across this beautiful card.  You can check it out by GIselle Varela at Cross My Heart Papercrafts.  She is amazing.  I didn't get quite as good at it...I want to do some stitching, but I don't have the desk space to put my machine on.  Her template was perfect for father's day.  I didn't have stamp sets that would work, so I created sentiments on my computer that I thought were great.   The paper  is designer paper by Stampin Up, of course.  The base is kraft paper by Reflections.  The ribbon is made with stampin up cardstock as well.   Hope you like it!

I've been redesigned!!!!!

I want to thank Madeline at The Shabby Vanity for doing such an amazing job!  Let me tell you...it was as if she knew what I had envisioned and made it come to life! I really love it. What do you all think?

Well, with this new revamped blog, I have been working on some Father's Day cards and trying to clean up some at home (trust me...I don't want to).  I'll post pictures of my creations this afternoon.  For now...I'm off to napland!  :)  I am going to JoAnn's today.  I'm inspired to make paper curtains for my craft/hubby office area.  The bland windows are getting on my nerves.

My friend, Norma.

Let me tell you about a new friend, Norma.  She's my Stampin Up demonstrator.  She lives in California and is amazing!!!  I met her through the blog world and ordered SU from her once and she's been my demonstrator since.  Just a few days ago, I got a cute little package in the mail with the Summer catalog with a whole lot of goodies!!!  I had to play, of course.  She always encourages me.  I really have grown fond of her.  You can check her blog out at pinkblingcrafter.  You can also check out her blinkie on the right column of my blog.  I cannot tell you how happy I was when I got her bag of goodies.  My goodness!  It was so nice of her!

Anyhow...I sent her a picture of a card I made that I wasn't too happy with because my handwriting (which is normally really nice) came out kind of yuck and I didn't want to post it.  She told me to post it because she loved it. So...here it is.   I used an image that she stamped and sent me in the package, which I colored with colored pencils and blended it with the SU blender pens.  I also added crystal gel to the jar to make it look real.  Because I am crazy about bling, I added stickles to the flowers and to the heart and swirl under "felicidades" which loosely translated means Congratulations in Spanish, but it's also used as a Happy Birthday type of phrase.

The paper is concorde crush cardstock and Norma sent it to me already embossed.  Sorry I don't know the name of the embossing folder.  The base is just plain white Georgia Pacific cardstock from Walmart.  :)

I really hope you like it.  I'm kind of growing fond of it myself.

Father's Day

 Now that the graduation craze is over, it's time to focus on Father's Day!  I made a little card using my Loads of Love stamp set by Stampin Up. The paper is also Stampin Up.  I wanted to keep it simple...or I tend to go over the top.  This is the first time that I stamp on patterned paper.  I think it came out pretty good.  I colored the tires in and the windows to make it look realistic.  The sentiment is from my computer.  I didn't have any Happy Father's Day stamps and the clear stamps that I have would have been hard to get to work well.  I may make a few of these for the many dads in the family.  I wish I could make one for my dad.  It will be my very first father's day without him.  I hope he's up in heaven celebrating with his heavenly Father.  :)