Friends and Cards

I have had the pleasure of making quite a few good friends through this crafting hobby of mine. Way back in 2008 (I think?) I met these two women on a scrapbooking message board...Beth and Joni. I had the pleasure of meeting Beth and her whole family in 2009 and 2010 when they were in Southern California for spring break. And I almost had the pleasure of meeting Joni, who is a fellow runner, at a half marathon race in Southern California but I was stuck in the bathroom line (nice, huh?!). I met Diane through Beth, and she is quite the amazing paper crafter as well. It's really so much fun meeting these talented and creative women from all over the country!

Beth suggested we start a card making swap/exchange. I'm not sure we have an official name for it yet. But each month, one of us sends the other 3 a kit to make a card. You can send any supplies and the recipients have to use at least 4 things from the kit. This month Beth sent us some fabulous Valentine's Day themed goodies in our card kit. Everything was so great that this card literally took me about 10 minutes to create.

Isn't it all pretty!!! She sent some My Mind's Eye papers, felt hearts, punched heart borders, beautiful pink lace, pearls, and some super fun clay hearts her daughter made!! Aren't the clay hearts so sparkly and pretty?

She also stamped a bunch of sentiments that would work with the theme, I chose this simple Love Ya sentiment.

I can't wait to check out the other girl's blogs to see what they created using the same supplies. I am so thankful for these scrappy online friends! If you want to check out their creations, go to their blogs:

Beth
Joni
Diane

Thanks for stopping by today, friends!

Bunco Girls

Happy Friday!!! Over the new year's weekend, Citrus Tree Studio had a really fun crop. And I actually got some layouts made. One of the challenges was to create a layout using confetti as your inspiration. So I pulled out this great photo of all the girls I play bunco with. We usually have a theme for our bunco nights and this night was white trash. One of the girls had full arm sleeve tattoos (fake, of course) and was wearing a hairnet and smoking a fake cigarette. And many of the girls were on a softball team together called Jugs and Thugs, and they wore their shirts. There were also trucker hats, bump-its, and red solo cups.  SUCH a fun night!!!

I used some Crate Paper paper that I had forgotten about and I created lots of confetti up in the corner with circles, brads, buttons, gems, and stickers.

I also added this small banner and I love these big puffy thickers!

What do you have planned for this weekend? Any confetti fun?? My son's basketball game got cancelled so now we have a wide open Saturday. I hope you all have a fabulous weekend and thanks for stopping by today!

Love Cards

I have some cards to share today. All were made with the Citrus Tree Studio January Kit, which I love. Have I mentioned that yet, ha ha!! The kit came with some fun Technique Tuesday stamps which are perfect for Valentine's Day or pretty much any other occasion.

I cut the flower shape on my Cricut, then crumpled up the paper in my hands. I then straightened out the paper, inked the edges and layered the flowers using 3-D tape.

I love white ink on black cardstock! Here is one of the fun sentiment stamps.

One more card, this one I punched squares with my old school Creative Memories square punch and used my butterfly punch. Pulling out all my punches made me want to run (or more realistically, crutch) to Michael's for a new punch. There are so many new fun border punches!

Some small rolled flowers and another fun sentiment!

And yes, it really is that nice in my backyard right now. The weather here has been amazing. Before my kids went back to school, everyone has been wondering if this was summer break or winter break??? I am still on crutches right now. I'm trying to take things one day at at time and starting to walk on my foot more (in my walking boot). I'm hoping to ditch one crutch permanently...and then 2 permanently. It's not going as quickly as I'd like it to, but again...one day at at time.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Love These Girls

Happy Monday everyone! How was your weekend? Ours was pretty low key, my son had a basketball game, my daughter had a birthday party to attend and we watched a whole bunch of football. Sunday while my daughter was at her party, my husband and I took my son to a sports bar and grill to get dinner and watch the Bronco/Steeler game. The place was packed and SO rowdy!! I couldn't believe how loud it was inside, I guess it's been a while since I've been out. My son was covering his ears the whole time, it was kinda funny. And he learned some new interesting words (even through his covered ears)...which was kinda funny also. Ha ha!

Okay, on to the layout. This is another one I created using the January Citrus Tree Studio kit. Lots of love for this kit!

These photos are from a hot night in Palm Springs two summers ago. We were there to celebrate our friend's 40th birthday. 4 couples smashed into this van, heading out to paint the town. We had such a fun weekend! And when I mean hot, I mean hot. At 10:00 at night it was still 95 degrees out!

I loved the little envelopes that came with this kit, as well as those heart stick pins and the fun doily clear stickers!

And i've been into cutting flags into my patterned paper recently. I think its a fun look and another way to extend my banner/flag obsession.

Valentine colors don't have to be just for Valentine's day photos! The colors of this kit can be used for almost anything. So head over to Citrus Tree Studio and grab a kit for yourself!

Hope you all had a great weekend and Happy Monday! Thanks for stopping by today...

Citrus Tree Studio January Kit

The January kit from Citrus Tree Studio is here!! And it's a beauty! It's called Be Mine, Valentine and it's full of My Mind's Eye papers and tons of fun embellishments. As much as I love the holidays, it was so refreshing to create something non-holiday colors.

Oh reds, pinks, and whites...how I love you! I really loved the colors of this kit. This layout is about 2 good friends of mine that I met when our girls were in kindergarten (Hi Mary and Bess!!!). I was actually inspired by the color of our cocktails, I thought it went so well with the colors in the kit. And I like the black twine in the kit, I decided to just throw it all over the layout!

The banner is cut from patterned paper, I love that so many manufacturers have banners in their lines right now! The kit also includes some fun clear stickers with doilies, flourishes, and rhinestones.

And this kit is packed with goodies. I made 3 layouts and 4 cards and still have stuff left over for more! That's it from me today. Happy Friday and I hope you all had a great week. Thanks for stopping by, today!!

Holiday Card Album

One of my favorite things about the holiday is getting holiday cards in the mail. I love that so many people send out photo cards, I love seeing how everyone's families grow and change!! When I was laid up, on the couch this past December one of my favorite parts of the day was when my husband went to get the mail. He would come back with a stack of cards everyday and give them to me to open. I loved opening each and every one! So when we cleaned up after the holidays, there is NO way I can throw any of those fabulous cards away. I have seen a couple of different versions of Holiday Card Albums on pinterest. So I decided to whip up my own version.

I had some 12x12 sheets of chipboard that I cut down just a little bit bigger than my biggest card. I cut some Pink Paislee paper to the right size and modpodged it (is that even a verb??) to the chipboard pieces. I then just made a super simple title page.

I punched holes in the chipboard. I lined up each holiday card to those holes and punched holes in each card. I searched around for about 30 minutes looking for jump rings and then attached the whole thing together into a book.

I put our family card on the first page because honestly, I always think i'm going to make a layout using our own holiday card...and I never do. Now it's nice and safe in my album.

I love how it's big and the cards all all different shapes and sized and stick out all funny, but are still contained in the book.

I am so happy to have these all in one place!! I know I have a few previous years of cards stashed someplace. I really need to find them and make books for each year. I know they will be fun to take out over the years and look through them. And it was a fairly easy project. The biggest pain was just punching the holes in all the cards. But well worth it.

Hope you're having a great first week of 2012...thanks for stopping by!

2012 Goals

Do you make resolutions at the beginning of the year? I don't make resolutions, but I usually have some goals that I want to accomplish. And this year all my goals revolve around my new ankle. I have many many things that I want to do this year with my fitness and running but I dare not say them outloud. Because I have absolutely no idea how my rehab is going to go. So, with that being said, I do have some sayings and quotes that I want to be reminded of as this year and my rehab progresses.

Over at Citrus Tree Studio, one of our crop challenges this past weekend was to create an artistic trading card (ATC) that has our resolutions or goals incorporated. I ended up making 4 ATC's and stringing them together like a mini banner. I plan on putting this someplace I can see it everyday.

Each ATC has a quote that I want to remember as I journey through 2012, in my quest to be fit and healthy again.

I used some embossed cardstock that I sanded, some Jillibean Soup scraps, Jillibean Soup letters and sprouts, and some random flowers I found in my stash.

I strung them all together with some twine from my stash and added some random buttons!

I love how this turned out!! Just little reminders that I can't do it all in one week or even one month. Slow down and take some time to enjoy the journey. I know I sound so much like the Biggest Loser show right now, ha ha!! Which starts a new season this week and I can't wait. Bob Harper is rad!!

Do you make resolutions? Goals? Do you write them down? I hope your 2012 is off to a great start. My kids go back to school tomorrow and our routine/schedule begins again. I think we are all looking forward to it.

Thanks for stopping by today!