Grow Your Blog Day!

Happy Hopping! Today the AMAZING Vicki at 2 Bags Full is hosting a blog event that includes almost 600 blogs from around the world!  It is a wonderful opportunity to meet new people. :)

I am the happy owner of one of Vicki's Harvest Nests (I waited over a year and was rewarded by it's arrival on my birthday!!!)

I am a crafter of all sorts, but my main focus lately has been my paper crafts.  This fall I went nuts making banners.  Really love sprucing up mantles with happy hanging décor. :)

Creating card sets are another type of addiction for me.  Trying to see how many patterns and embellishments I can fit on a card is like solving a puzzle!

I'm on a self-imposed "use your stash and make 50 projects without buying new stuff" challenge.  I'm also on a "get your Christmas cards made by October" challenge.  I'm doing my best to combine the two.  I'll keep you posted about how well I can stay on either "wagon".  ;)

Recently, I have gotten into making kits.  These started out as mock-ups for the cards I was going to give my students.  Then I thought they would be great for kids to be able to color and assemble.  They have been pretty popular on my Etsy Shoppe and have gotten me thinking about some new ideas for kits. :)

I love a giveaway!  For all of you hoppers & followers, I am offering a box of 10 handmade cards of your choosing.  That means you let me know what you'd like in the mix of cards.  Do you want all birthday, a few birthday and a bunch thank you?  It'll be your call. :)****I forgot to add that I'll draw a name on Feb 16th.  You get an extra day because I'll be travelling on the 15th! Lucky you!


I'm off to take the corgi to water therapy (our ever vigilant fight with doggy Lou Gehrigs) and then I'm sitting with a cuppa to hop, hop, hop!

Stay warm today!!
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EDIT---I just saw a blogland friend's friend (sounds a little Ferris Buellers Day Off there huh) had her blog hacked and is having to start her blog all over from scratch.  I know she isn't on the list, but it would be so sweet if some of you could stop by and share some love Creating with Cindy.   After all, that's what today is about really right?  Sharing the love. 

 

Love to all!

 



A Bouquet in a Blizzard

Happy Snow Day!  Well, it is for me anyway. :)  My town dodged a snowbullet with only about 3 inches of snow.  My school is 30 minutes south, so they called off school late last night.  Still haven't heard from anyone sown there about how much they got, but some towns have 15 inches.  It's light and fluffy, which is great, but it is BITTER COLD.  Wind chills are 20 below.  Frankly, I'll take 20+ inches if it means no sub-zero temps.  Tomorrow will be worse.  7 below as the air temp (I shudder to think what the windchill will be) & I am facing 20-30 minutes of outdoor bus duty.  Y-U-C-K!

With all the cold, it seems like ages ago since we were all complaining about heat and humidity! LOL!  Seems like a good time to share a paper bouquet. :)  This is a simple set that is a more girly take on this book themed set.  I'm counting it as my 4th 50 Projects Challenge.  I think I might add a tally of this personal challenge and my Christmas cards personal challenge (mostly so I can keep track for myself!)

Everything is boxed up and pretty for gifting.  I loaded it into my Etsy Shoppe, but if it doesn't get sold, I know it will get gifted. :) 

The papers are mostly BG with some MB kitchen dots (I think), the card bases are MB, ribbon is BB & Doodlebug, button is MFT, and the luscious sentiment is Avery Elle (my new favorite crush).

I'm going to spend a little more time under the covers, snuggling with my corgi, sipping my coffee, and blog surfing before venturing out (dentist appointment & PO run).  How 'bout you?  Any fun plans?

Super Bowl Fun!

Happy Monday Peeps!  Taking a break from my 50 Projects Challenge, I'm sharing the cards I'm "coaching" at the Ink About It Super Bowl Sunday Craft Event (10-3 so it'll pre-Super Bowl).  There are 4 of us "coaches" all teaching a different project.  Everyone will get to make all the projects & have a "half-time" lunch.

It's always a fun time, although this one will be bittersweet because it'll be the last one. *sniff-sniff*  The owners are retiring in March and the store will be closing.  So if you live in the Westford MA area, make sure to sign-up for this awesome event before it is as gone as chocolate cupcakes in my little hands. *wink*

Reindeer Make 3!

I've managed to get some pictures taken of the next couple projects I've completed in my 50 Projects challenge. Yaaayyyy! :)

These little guys have been waiting to be colored and put on cards for ages.  They were stamped and put into a baggie with all these ingredients ages ago.  Now they finally have a chance to say "hi". :)

Full disclosure:  I was inspired to finish these cards yesterday when I saw the challenge on Festive Friday (I'm so happy to have a chance to play again with their challenges in 2014!).  They are giving inspiration photos this year for each challenge and the first photo was a red barn in the snow.   I remembered that I had these cards, with their country vibe and red/cream colors, begging to be created.  All-in-all, a win-win with four cards made for Christmas 2014 AND I used only good from my stash.  :)

Dashing through the snow with this set to these fun festivities:
Festive Friday- Photo Inspiration---Inspired by the colors & the country feel
Merry Monday- Kraft, Red, Vanilla, Chocolate & ribbon

A First and a Second

Hiya Peeps! This weekend BB was having a sale on Surface tablets.  I've been eyeing one for the last year- my poor old laptop is a very abused 10 year old Dell.  She's been wiped once already and her slowness & hiccups have been making me think she needs to be put out to pasture before something catastrophic happens to all the goods she has on her drives. She this weekend we decided if we got at least 1/2 our chores done we would head to BB and then out to our favorite pizza joint.

So this post is my first foray into blogging with my new toy. :)  I'm wicked excited because my Surface is about 100X's lighter than my Dell and it's small enough that I can even fit it in my purse when we travel!!!

The cards are my second project in my 50 to be completed using only my stash.  These are going to be cards to keep in my drawer at school.Teachers can never have enough thank you cards!  There are so many people that help us get our job of "building people" each day.  Parent Volunteers, fellow teachers, and students themselves can always use a note of thanks, so I try to keep some handy. 

The papers are all goods I had cut up a while back and just never assembled.  The card base is eucalyptus from Memory Box, the felt is from My Favorite Things (not sure the color name), the designer paper is Basic Grey and Amuse, the die is Papertrey Ink, and the sentiment is from my new favorite company Avery Elle (LOVE THEM!).

Yippee! 2/50!  Only 48 to go...

First of 50!

One of the New Year's Resolutions I gave myself was to get 50 projects completed using just my stash.  I'm so pleased to say that I am on my way!

This card used scraps I had sitting in the bin on my table, so your guess is as good as mine on designer. :)  The teacups are one of my favorites and I had stamped out a few of these on some Neena paper ages and ages ago!  When I rummaged through the scraps and found all the juicy oranges and refreshing blues, the teacups called out "color us, color us"!  This is going to be a birthday card for an aunt.  To date I have managed to send all the birthday & anniversary cards on time (or pretty gosh darn close) and there is a big hole in my stash!  My hope is that this 50 projects challenge will help fill the hole before I fall off the mailing cards wagon. :-D

I've gotten a couple more projects completed and photographed to share, but first I'm off to make a cuppa and surf Blogland!  Have a wonderful weekend!

Gingerbread & 50

Here's the "merry" banner with gingerbread for the base.  Working at a public school, gingerbread has become the default theme for December.  We've gotten pretty into gingerbread on my floor, especially in my room!

The massive amounts of gingerbread exposure has trickled into many of the houses of my colleagues.  After seeing the banners I made for Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, one teacher friend asked if I could make a Christmasy gingerbread banner for her mantle at home.

I jumped at the chance to play around with the idea!  I played so much I ended up making something like 4 or 5 of these.  Some got sold, one was a gift, and the rest got loaded into my Etsy Shoppe.

These banner gave me a chance to play with lots of different goodies I have been hoarding for ages.  Ya know, that stuff I "had to have" and then left on the shelf to stare at instead.  It was a joy to see it all come to life by adding personality to each gingerbread person.

Eee, so yummy cute!  Can't wait to get started on some valentine themed banners. 

Gotta stop thinking and start making.  That's the 50 part of this post.  I'm gonna try to see how close I can get to making 50 creations in 50 days.  I've already started, now I just need to get them posted. :)

 

Seaside Stockings

Here's another creation from this past season. :)  I made these stocking tags to thank a fellow Etsian for some goodies she rushed to finish for me.

Grace makes tide clocks, coasters and other lovely seaside goodies!  We wanted to give my DMIL a tide clock for her birthday, and after a HUGE mix up by my local post office (ARRRR, if only this wasn't the norm for my post office!!!!!) everything arrived.

Grace was so wonderful to work with, I wanted to send her a little something.  It also gave me a good excuse to pull out these little stocking dies and other goodies from my stash. :)

These were so much fun to make!!!!  I'm sooooo not a blue person, but playing around with a beachy blue theme was a great change of pace.  Makes me want to add a oceanside themed tree to the forest of Christmas trees we have every year. ;)

Hope you enjoyed these lil' stockings!  Grace did!  She told me they were too pretty to use. Awwww, too sweet!

 

Some Catch Up

Whoa!  Two posts in 2 days!!!  Well, I'm procrastinating on some other jobs right now.  Seemed like a good time to post something I made last month. *wink*  Honestly, extended exposure to those 5,6, & 7 year old's I work with has given me their attention span (yeah sure that's where my distractibility cam from LOL)

 I made a few versions of "merry" banners this past season.  A couple had gingerbread people in place of the flag base.  One of those I sold to a coworker and another was a gift.  One used large mittens as the base and went all the way across The Pond to "Merry Old England".  Merry- get it?  Yup, I've had too much coffee this morning. :)

Most of the papers came from a Kit Club kit I am a part of at Ink About It.  The circles I mounted the lettering on I "made" from my stash.  I couldn't find anything that matched, but wasn't too busy to distract from the letters.  I pulled out a paper that had the right soft background, but it needed some umph.  A few snowflakes stamped in grey & red later...voila!

The paper looks like it came with the kit!  Even better I made room in my stash for new stuff. hee-hee!  The mitten is an Amuse die.  It was looking a little naked and needed some glitter to help it smile.

This banner went to live with our friends Jeff and Erin.  They were part of the 13 Man, Woman, and Child Crew that helped to decorate our house for Christmas this year.  It was funny to see it on their mantle!  I got so used to seeing it like it is in this pic.  They have the prettiest reindeer on their mantle, you'd have thought I knew that when I picked the reindeer paper that is on the banner (I mean OF COURSE I knew that *wink-wink*)

Huh, I finished the post.  Does that mean I have to go do my jobs????

Thanks for stopping by today!  Happy Sunday and stay warm out there!

2013- A Look Back

Hiya Folks!  Wowzers, this past holiday season was BUSY.  Now that things have calmed down I'm taking a look back at my favorite creations.  Join me for a stroll down Memory Lane. :)

 January

February

 March

 April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

I made a bunch of stuff in December, but looks like I never got around to posting any of it.  Oh well, maybe one of these snowy days I go through all the pics and get some of them up here for y'all to see. :)

Hope you had a wonderful 2013 and here's to an amazing 2014!!!

I'm strolling here to share the reflections: