New Years Resolutions and my Favs from 2010....

Well hi! Did everyone have a great couple months?!! :P

Things have been up and down over here. The holidays were chaotic, and when I say holidays I mean all the way back to November. That month held quite a few important events, and 2 colds that knocked us all out. There are three birthdays in my family in that month, and there is also Thanksgiving, so there ended up being lots of visiting going on! :D Aside from the horrible colds we got, it was a very lovely November. But busy, as the month flew by and I hardly noticed! LOL!

Then came December, and I had really hoped a lot more things would have happened in December than they actually did. I had hoped that Jed would have a job by that month, so that a normal Christmas could happen. With him being out of work, it put a huge damper on my Christmas spirit. It is a little difficult hanging a wreath and decorating a tree and wrapping presents if you are unsure as to what the next month holds for you financially. But I really tried to keep my spirits up! :D I baked with my Aunt and Creedence, and enjoyed yummy Christmas bread for days afterward!

Spent a couple quiet nights-even though we traveled to family-with my family and Jed's family, and my Dad came to visit. Towards the end of the month, I began to see that certain things were not needed at all to make my Christmas a wonderful one. I am blessed that I was able to spend the Holiday with my family, for they are my entire world! I realized that I have some of the most wonderful friends online that I could ever ask for, an invaluable gift that I cherish dearly. And I am one month closer to the birth of this dear little one, that is getting bigger by the second! At 37 weeks, I am really quite ready to see her!

That's right! It is a girl! I totally forgot that I hadn't revealed that yet on my blog. :P I have begun hanging all the clothes and organizing all the little stacks and piles of things in their baskets. It is so convenient that we are having another girl, so I didn't actually need to buy anything for the baby as I already had it all! :D And it has been really nice to go back through these little things, remembering the first time Creedence wore them. Good memories.

I should have updated this blog a really long time ago, but motivation has just been hard to find these last few months. And I don't just mean with blogging, no it has been a struggle with almost everything!! LOL! But the end is in sight, and my energy and body will return to normal. :D

Signed onto the message boards today and got a shock that holy cow it is the 31st of December and people are doing their New Year's resolutions and stuff!! Is it pathetic that I only just remembered New Year's Resolutions happen right now? Seeing people talk about it made me go OMGOSH I totally forgot those existed. LOL! I do have some resolutions though! There are lots of things I want to do differently this next year.

1. Simplify all things in my life. Mainly the stuff in my home. I want to downsize all of everything we own! But also I want to simplify a lot of my processes here at home. Like when laundry comes out of the dryer-fold it right then and put it away. It is done in 5 minutes and won't come back to torment me later! Those types of things make my life soooo much simpler! But those acts can't be done without my next resolution...

2. Have more Self-Discipline! I need to stop being lazy, and just do what needs to be done without complaining or procrastinating. Seems like such an easy thing to say, but it has been very hard to implement into my life! But I need this very much right now in order to stay on top of things and not get overwhelmed. I try to just keep looking at the positive that will come of it!

3. I need to blog more. MUCH more. LOL! I am a slacker blogger, and that just won't cut it anymore. So I will be setting a schedule for myself, and will be using my second resolution to help stay on top of it!

4. Make 2 quilts. I have been meaning to do this for a long time but am so scared. I just need to take the plunge and make my daughters' quilts, or else I know they will never get done. I really want to do this, and I am going to try doing them without stressing too badly.

5. I also want to knit more. I start projects and then don't finish them. They just sorta get set aside until I think of something I want to use that yarn for and so I rip that project apart to start a new one. No more of this either. I will knit more, and I will finish my projects.

6. This last resolution is something that has long been needed. Jed and I have had 4 'dates' since our daughter Creedence was born 3 years ago. Every other moment spent together, we have been with Creedence too. I want to make a habit of 'date nights' for Jed and I. We need this for our relationship, and I think when the new baby comes, it will be even more important.

There are a few scrappy resolutions I have as well:

1. I want to stay more on top of my commitments. This is very important.

2. I want to keep a log of all my finished projects, along with their supply lists so that they will be easier to blog and share. :D

3. I HAVE to put all my LOs away in albums. If this means that the only scrapbooking allowance I get for the whole year goes toward albums to make sure that I actually have albums to put my LOs away, then so be it.

4. Use my stash, sell my stash or just give it away. LOTS of my stash. It is just waaaay too big for one little scrapper to need. This one will be a benefit to both you AND me! :D

What are your resolutions for the year? One other thing I want to do for the year of 2011 is OLW. I have been thinking about this for a little bit and am really excited to start. I will talk more about it soon. :D

So to keep the tradition, I have here my Favs from 2010! LOs I mean. :D I still had an impossible time narrowing it down to 10, so I gave up and did what I did last year and just picked my favs. Last time I had 21. LOL! This year I have 25. I know, not much progress huh?!! But I just couldn't help it! There are a few in the bunch that have never been shown on my blog, partially because I just hadn't put them up yet and also because they were secret until recently. Since the secret ones have recently been published, and the book has already made it through it's first publication, I think it is alright for me to share them here. :D Here we go!

One of my last LOs for Prima. I really loved making this LO. The color combo is so different, but I had a blast! It is layers and layers of textures and papers and flowers. And even though it has flowers on it, I still think it came out pretty good for a masculine LO. :D

This Artist Printer's Tray was a labor of love. Each one of these ATCs was a joy to make, and I hope to repeat this project again real soon! I have a few ideas that I will share when I get it started!

These next three LOs were made for the Prima Idea book that came out this year. I put so much heart into these, and I am very happy to be able to share them on my blog now. :D

This LO is sized 8x8 and is probably one of my favs that I have ever made of that size. It was just a hap-hazard throw it together kind of LO, but I had a blast doing it! And those pictures of Creedence just crack me up, because those kinds of images are 90% of the shots that I get from her! She is a crazy thing when you pull the camera out.

This LO was a struggle. Not to make, but to get back into my hands. I almost lost it, but fought hard to get it back here with me again. And I am so glad that I did, because this LO means more to me than almost any other LO I have ever made.

We have now left the realm of Prima, and have moved into Crate Paper! :D This little LO below (I really hope I can share!) I made for this last CHA, and am actually still waiting for it to debut on the blog, but I think it has been long enough that it is ok for me to show. :D I love this simple little LO.

The next Crate Paper LO I have here to show is this one. I love the colors. And I know my mom would have too. I miss her terrible, and that is why I made this LO.

And these next three little frames I made just recently. They are the only holiday decor that made it up this year, but they brought so much happiness, that I still have them hanging in my room! :D

Even though I wasn't actually with Polka Dot Whimsy kit club for very long, there are several LOs I made for them that I really adore. :D They are all sized 8x8 or something similar.

And here we move onto all my Cosmo Cricket LOs! This first one is one of my absolute favs from this year! Love that Material Girl line!

I love the picture on this next LO. And all the layers and paint on this LO were just a lot of fun to do. It just works. :D This next LO was a lot of fun too! The process of layering everything was very therapeutic! :D I love LOs like that.

This little LO is simple and clean. And documents a new beginning for my little one.

This LO was bought by Cosmo Cricket because they liked it so much, yet I kind of regret letting them do so because I really like it too!! I am going to try and recreate it soon, because I really miss it! :P

This is another little one, and it was a blast because I went overload on my punches! LOL! Certainly one of my favs from this year. :D

I was surprised at how well this LO turned out coming from the Joyride collection, which I didn't think would be a very easy collection for me to work with. But it is one of my all time favs. Love the colors in this collection!

This is a LO I made fairly recently, and have it on display in my home cause it just makes me so happy! :D

And this last LO for Cosmo Cricket just makes me feel at peace. Even though the subject of the LO is not peaceful at all! LOL! The colors are just serene and lovely. And those are some of my fav pictures of Creedence ever. :D
Last but not least, the first LO I did about our soon-to-be-here bitty one, made with Noel Mignon's Dear Diary kit. I poured my heart out on this LO because I needed to verbalize a lot of the fears and stresses that I had been feeling, in order to realize that this baby is such a blessing and that no matter what it brings will be wonderful. I think the biggest thing it will bring to each of us in the family is growth.

So there you have it!! My Fav LOs from 2010! And an update on what is happening over here. I plan to stick with my resolutions, so you'll be hearing from me again very soon! Have a wonderful Happy New Year everyone!!!! And be safe too!

Take care!

~Amy

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! Sorry I have been gone so long, but after the holiday I will come back with an update and shares! :D Take care!

P.S. Aren't the birds on that little card just adorable?!

Finished!

I think I have finished my blog! :D I did the header last night (took me til 1:30 am!), and I really like how it turned out! :D The picture of me in the header was actually taken by Creedence from her carseat in the backseat of the truck! She loves to take pictures sooo much! :P

Anyway, let me know what you think! I will get all the credits up for the digi kits I used tomorrow. Thanks so much for being patient while I got it all together!

~Amy

Shades of the Same

Hi Everyone!! So did you all have fun doing the blog hop?! It was pretty awesome huh? I had a blast just going around looking at all the amazing tags my fellow designers made! They blow me away! It truly is a talented and diverse team-and I am so lucky to be working with them! Great group of gals. :D

Well today I am going to share with you an ATC project I did a little bit ago for a challenge over at Noel Mignon. The challenge was to use as many shades as you wanted of one color, but only ONE color!! (I assumed that the picture elements you chose could be whatever colors, so that is what I went with) The color I chose (and this may be cheating :P) was a creamy white. :D So everything on here is from a stark white to a dirty kind of malty cream color. Absolutely had a blast doing this!


I used these gorgeous (free!) images, found at this blog, for the little pops of color on the ATCs. Everything else was from my stash or things around the house that were the color I needed. :D You are probably wondering why there are three empty spaces in my Printer's Tray, and that would be because I ran out of time. :P But I fully intend on finishing the last three. As the other 9 were a ton of fun to do! :D

Here are close ups of all the ATCs I made. I will list all the products used after each one.

Supplies: Paper-Basic Grey Nook and Pantry "Cornbread", Cosmo Cricket Coredinations cardstock (punched leaf), vintage book paper and glassine envelope, organic paper from my stash; Embellishments-Making Memories Vintage Findings Large Baby kit (safety pin), Making Memories Vintage Findings Velvet Flowers, tulle from Michaels, Autumn Leaves button; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch

Supplies: Paper-Crate Paper Pink Plum "Very Berry", Basic Grey Nook and Pantry "Waffles", Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage book paper; Embellishments-Elle's Studio Journaling Tag (punched leaf), Hambly Stitches rubon in Cream, Prima La Fleur Boheme flower (little cream flower taken off of larger flower), Prima Velvet Rose Leaf in white, crepe paper and twine from my vintage stash; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch

Supplies: Paper-October Afternoon Night Light "Katie", organic paper from stash; Embellishments-Ivory Jute twine from Studio Calico, Making Memories Vintage Findings Mini Nature kit, Hambly Doilies rub in Cream

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Honey Pie; Embellishments-Elle's Studio Journaling tag (punched with startburst), Tulle/Fabric/Lace all from my vintage stash, Prima Felt Stem in Cream, Button from Beverly's Crafts, Basic Grey Manilla Micro Monograms stickers; Tools-Martha Stewart starburst punch

Supplies: Paper-Bazzill Swiss Dot white cardstock, vintage book paper, organic paper from stash; Embellishements-Making Memories Vintage Findings Large Baby kit, Making Memories Vintage Findings Silver buttons, Girl's Paperie Sticker Market (wish sticker), Hambly Birdcage overlay in Cream, K and Co Handmade vintage frame sticker, Bird bead from Beverly Crafts; Tools-Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Earth Love 6x6 mini deck, Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage book paper and glassine envelope; Embellishments-Hambly Birdcage Overlay in Cream, Prima Calcutta leaf in Oatmeal, Prima La Fleur Boheme Flower (little cream flower taken off of larger flower), K and Co Handmade Frame sticker, Maya Road Calendar rub in white, string from sweater extra; Tools-Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

Supplies: Paper-Bazzill Cardstock, Basic Grey Nook and Pantry "Cornbread", Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage book paper; Embellishments-Sassafras Lass deer sticker backing, Pink Paislee Velvet ruffled trim, Studio Calico Ivory Jute twine, Making Memories Vintage Findings Word strip (dream), Autumn Leaves button, Hambly Doily rubon in Cream, Snow glitter from Michael's; Tools-Martha Stewart Star Confetti punch, Martha Stewart Starburst punch

Supplies: Paper-October Afternoon Cherry Hill "Tea Towel", Basic Grey Nook and Pantry Doily in Yellow/Cream, vintage book paper; Embellishments-Webster's Pages lace, Making Memories Vintage Findings Mini Girl kit; Tools-Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch

Supplies: Paper-Basic Grey Basics White "Census", Basic Grey Indian Summer Brown Doily (backside of it), vintage paper from stash; Embellishments-Hambly Doily rubon in Cream, Hambly Lace Overlay in cream, Making Memories Vintage Findings Word strip (love), Making Memories I Do brad, Prima Velvet Rose Leaf in white, Prima Flower Centers in white, Prima Donna Downey Canvas (backside of it), Prima Trellis Rose in White, Basic Grey Basics White sticker trim, Elle's Studio journaling tag (punched with Rose leaf); Tools-Martha Stewart Rose Leaf punch, Martha Stewart Starburst punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in Scallop circle punch

Ok wow. Could that have been any longer?! LOL! I had no idea it would take such a long post to get all that typed up :P One thing I wanted to share with you about this project (and of my previous ATC project), is that none of the ATCs are fixed into the Printer's Tray. I use that sticky tack whatever stuff you can get from the Office Supply store to keep them in, but are super easy to remove when you want to change out the display. :D That way I don't have to keep buying more trays! But what I am planning on doing with the ATCs when they come out-as I don't want to just put them in a box or something never to be seen again-instead I am going to make banners out of them and string them up! :D At least I think this will work. :P I haven't tried it yet, but I think it should be pretty easy. I will just adhere the string to the back of the ATC (near the top) and that should be good. Have any of you ever tried this? If so any good pointers would be MUCH appreciated! :D

Well that is all I have for right now. Stay tuned real soon for more scrappy stuff and a baby bump update! :D

Take care everyone!

~Amy

Crate Paper Blog Hop!

Good Morning!! Well another post did not make it up this weekend before today, but that is ok because I just about finished redoing my blog instead! :D I just want to redo the header, and then it should be done. Soo happy for that! (Although I am not sure how easy the header will be :P) Anyway, fun stuff for you today!! Crate Paper is having a blog hop! Woohoo! Rules are pretty simple-just grab the letter you see to your left at the top of my sidebar, as you need this letter to be able to spell out the phrase for the blog hop! After you get my letter, mosey on back to the Crate Paper blog to find out who's blog you go see next! :D Good Luck!! (And if you want to see what I created for the blog hop-then just keep scrollin down. :D)

All of us over at Crate Paper created a tag about what we are thankful for in our lives. I am most thankful for my family. I can not imagine a single moment without them, and am so blessed to be able to have them in my life! :D Here is my tag:


I decided to use a Melissa Frances scallop tag as the base. I did lots (and LOTS) of layering on the outside of the tag. I used a mix of School Spirit and Restoration papers, along with embellishments from Restoration, and two older lines: Mia and Lemon Grass. The first thing I did was make the 'cover' for the tag sleeve. I did this by simply wrapping my paper around the back of the sleeve. (I don't do cards or tags very often so I really didn't think this one through too much when it came to the back of the project :P) Next time I will be planning thing differently so that it is a bit cleaner on the back. :D Laugh.
Anyway, I used School Spirit "Homeroom" as the main paper for the sleeve cover. I used a little sliver of Restoration "Doilies" on both the top and bottom, and then finally the Restoration Border Stickers brown scallop below the "Doilies" paper-just barely sticking out. The actual tag itself was really easy-I just cut the Restoration "Lace" paper to the tag size, cut out a grade card from the School Spirit "Grade Card" paper, and lined along the card the selvage trim edges of paper from School Spirit "Ruler", School Spirit "Study Hall", Restoration "Slipcover" and Restoration "Flea Market". Then I punched out some butterflies from the Restoration "Doilies" paper, and placed them on both the tag sleeve and the tag insert.

The truly more detailed layering that I did are the two main elements on the tag sleeve. The chipboard element (pictured below) was made with the green doily chipboard piece from the Restoration 12x12 accents sheet. On top of that I used a punch from vintage paper,
which was covered with the charcoal grey doily rub from the Restoration rubons sheet. Even further on top of that I used a punch from the Restoration "Heirloom" paper, then I layered some ivory jute (tried to make it look like a decent bow but I'll be honest-it kind of failed! LOL! Oh well. What are you gonna do ya know?) and a heart punched out of the Restoration "Lace" paper. I accented the heart punch with part of a rub from the Restoration rubons sheet. This turned out a lot more subtle than I thought it would, but I like that a little better.

The other element is almost as many steps as the first one, but somehow seems a lot easier to tell! :D The main thing I used for this element were the Restoration Phrase stickers. I first took the 'Sweet Little Thing' sticker and covered the middle with postmarked rub from the Restoration rubons sheet. I knew this would just barely show up on both the top and bottom of the element, but I was only wanting a little bit of an accent on it. Next sticker to go on was the 'mind your Ps and Qs' sticker. After that I took the 'much thanks' sticker (the sentiment for the front of my tag sleeve) and stuck it to a sheet of vintage paper. I then used my 'Postal' decorative scissors and trimmed around the edges of the sticker. And finally, it made it's way home by being stuck to the front of the sticker stack I had just made. Really pretty easy. :D

Oh and just in case you were wonderin-the little epoxy circles on the tag sleeve are from the Mia and Lemon Grass epoxy sticker sheets. :D Love those little things! The colors worked perfect-which I thought was pretty awesome! Makes me really want to dig through all my older stuff and find what it will fit with of my new stuff. Great way to use up your stash!

Well that is all I have for you today-I'll be back soon with more scrappy stuff to share! Take care!

~Amy

.....

And just like that...*Poof!* She is gone again! :P I've got mad blog-neglect skills.

Totally was not my intention, but it happened. I still haven't finished redoing my blog either. I began working on it. Switched it to just a 2 column, but now that I am looking at again (weeks later) I am really not liking that. So I think switching back to 3 columns is a must. Which means I have to get back into the HTML, which I hate! LOL! Who else here can't stand that stuff?! It's total non-sense jibberish! Anyway-I am still working on the blog header too. Picked up this digi kit from Kitschy Digitals, and am having a blast working with it! I had been waiting for that kit to come out for a while, so I am stoked that I can finally use it for my blog banner. :D That will hopefully be up next week.

Got some scrappy stuff to share with you today. :D I was hoping to get all my Halloween stuff done before Halloween, but I only have parts of several projects done. LOL! I guess those will all just have to go up for us to enjoy in November! :D I will share all of those when I am done, but until then I have a few Cosmo shares.

Post went up last Saturday over at Cosmo Cricket-it was Wendy Sue's turn to do the DT challenge, and she chose a gorgeous page from a Pottery Barn catalog. Love it! So here is what I did for the challenge:

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Haunted papers 'Macabre' 'Never More' 'Gothic' 'Journaling Cards', Cosmo Cricket Matilda 6x6 paper pack, Cosmo Cricket Coredinations Cardstock Neutral collection Whitewash Woodgrain; Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Boyfriend Chipboard, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type Black, Maya Road Leaves Singleton Stamp, K and Company Handmade lace frames, Prima felt branch, Making Memories Vintage Findings Copper Buttons, Making Memories Vintage Findings Plastic Flowers, Making Memories Medium kit Bienvenue, Martha Stewart Gerbera Daisy stickers in Gold/Peach, 7 Gypsies 97% Complete Flashcard Words ; Tools-Martha Stewart Autumn Branch punch, Marvy scallop punch, Color Box Chalk Cat's Eye Ink

Next up is a new LO I finished using the Mitten Weather line. I really do like this line a lot, but I for some reason just have a hard time scrapping winter/Christmas themed projects, and have them turn out looking decent. :P I don't know what it is, but they just never turn out the way I wanted. This LO turned out super plain jane to me. :P But the pics of Cree make me smile so I am still somewhat happy with it. :D I decided to tone-down that background paper by giving it a white-wash with watered down gesso. Everything else I just cut into squares, and some of them I punched the middle out with one of my fav winter punches from Martha Stewart, then backed those pieces with a different patterned paper. Once everything was all lined up, then I ran it through my sewing machine. Some of the pieces turned out a little wonky cause they weren't so securely fastened, but it is pretty subtle. Anyway, here it is. :D

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather collection (all papers, including journaling cards and borders); Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Mitten Weather 12x12 Ready Set Chip, Cosmo Cricket Ready Set Chip Glittered Sweet Sparkle chipboard alpha, American Crafts Lullaby Thickers in Charcoal, Kaisercraft Pearls, Ivory Jute twine from Studio Calico; Tools-Martha Stewart Alpine snowflake punch, Martha Stewart Arctic snowflake punch, Martha Stewart Star Confetti punch, Claudine Hellmuth Gesso

This last one I will share is actually pretty old! :P it went up on the Cosmo blog month's ago, but never made it to my own blog! LOL! But it is one of my all time favs. I really like how this one turned out! I don't usually do circles on my blog (I am not sure why, they just don't come to mind when designing), but they really made this LO I think. Lots of distressing and inking, and some machine and hand sewing. And I love that pic of Cree so this LO just makes me happy. :D

Here are some close ups of the hidden journaling tag behind the picture. I still have to put the journaling on there. :P Details, details.

Supplies: Paper-Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride collection (pretty much every paper in the pack is on this LO somewhere), Cosmo Cricket Early Bird 'Ribbon Sandwich', vintage book paper; Embellishments-Cosmo Cricket Joy Rid cardstock stickers, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Type black stickers, Cosmo Cricket Joy Ride 12x12 Ready Set Chip shapes, tulle from Michael's Crafts, Ivory Jute twine from Studio Calico, vintage lace; Tools-Martha Stewart 3-in-1 Butterfly punch, Martha Stewart scalloped 1 in circle punch, Marvy 1 1/2 in scallop circle punch, Martha Stewart Chrysanthemum punch, Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink

Ok so I have a lot of catching up to do still!! LOL! I am going to be finalizing my blog this weekend, as there is something really fun happening on Monday that you all will be able to be a part of! :D Check back on Monday for the details on that. I am going to try and get one more post in before the end of the weekend, but we will see, as it is a busy weekend for me! Lots of scrapping to be done!

Hope everyone is well! Take care!

~Amy