a C-R-A-Z-Y week revisited

I'm posting this because...a. I wanna laugh out the tiredness that I feel; b. when I thought last week was crazy, this week's activities makes this long list of things that I did small in comparison and c. because I have tons of pictures I wanna share....

Sunday
Church in the morning. It was Ward Conference so it was a bit crazy.
Had the missionaries over and served them an early dinner.
Mitch and I met with the Bishop and he gave me a new calling.
Went to our nephew's baptism.

Monday
this day is almost always devoted to cleaning and laundry. I'm always welcomed by this sight....

and turn it into organized piles like this...

I also worked tonight.

Tuesday
Maddie and I were at the preschool just for a little time before heading out to the Court house to witness this....

My brother George decided to marry his girlfriend of four years (more or less) at a very small and short ceremony at the Norwalk Country recorder's office. My parents were still in Virginia visiting my sister and her family and everybody else were working so I was the representative for the whole clan. Mitch was there too, by the way.

Wednesday
Devoted all morning to this....

dived into my November crazy daisy kits and worked on some scrapbook projects.

In the afternoon I had a little emotional breakdown. Who knew that 1st grade could be so hard! I choose not to go into details on this.

Thursday
Took Ms. Tinkerbell aka Maddie to preschool for their Halloween party. She enjoyed all the crafts and games oh and of course all the treats!


Right after school, we drove to here to pick up my parents who flew back from Virginia.


Tonight I attended a church meeting. Broke down again but this time it was good cause I was confiding to a friend. Gotta love great friends.

Friday
Continued on with my scrapbook projects.
Went to the grocery store and Walmart.
Bought and wrap a present. We were invited to a birthday party Saturday.
Worked tonight

Saturday
Took in a morning shift at work. I need the hours. *wink*
Went to the birthday party
Made this when the family got home....


and then took the kids around the neighborhood to get their candy fill.....


Was your week crazier than that?!

Till next time,
Grace

November Crazy Daisy layouts *photo heavy*

I truly feel blessed to be receiving the Crazy Daisy kits every month. There kits don't disappoint. There's TONS of products in there and I love that I'm always inspired to try new things with this kit. Here's my November projects....

Calendar Helper

In this layout I wanted to use those fun JBS notepads as part of my design so I punched out 1 1/2" circles from the papers, cut them in half and made them as scallops on top and bottom of my picture strip.


I added a fun cluster of embellishments on the top. I love transferring rubons onto cardstock, cutting them out and then adhering them to my page.


I created a visual triangle between the orange letters from the title, orange brad on the cluster of embellishments and orange star by the journaling block. I also used the Crate Paper border and journaling stickers here.

Girlfriends

I love the floral design from one of the Pattern papers and used that as embellishments. The size of the flowers created for a more dramatic look. I added the Pink Paislee brads on it for more texture and dimension.




I also added a rubon onto my main photo for added interest.

Papa's birthday

This double page spread was made quick with all the fun stuff in the November kit. I used some papers, the grungeboard, letter stickers and embellishments.


I love the owl ribbon and it reminded me of my "old" man! Kidding aside, I thought it would be a cute addition to my dad's birthday layout. The ribbon was a little bit too short for my 12x12 page so I added a journaling rubon, transfered first onto cardstock then cut it half.


I created a visual triangle between the two sets of grungeboard and letter stickers.
The grungeboards were painted first then sanded down to show off the circles on the board.

You are....

I love the patterns from the papers in the kit. They provided me with lots of variety. These earth toned papers worked perfectly for these pictures of my son with the tree behind him.


I angled the brown paper for some interest. I cut out the word "adore" from the bingo card and added that to my layout together with some border stickers,ribbons and lots of embellishments.


Because the ribbon was thick, I added pop up dots to my photos so the ribbon won't create a bulk underneath it.

Beautiful Graduate

I chose to make this page cause the subtle colors from the background pattern paper had the same kinda blue that my step daughter's graduation gown has.


I used the transparency word as part of my title. I also used the page block in the kit as a mat for my main photo. I added journaling on the extra space around the picture.


Three punched out butterflies was added for visual triangle. I also added two photo corner stickers to show the location of my daughter during their line up before the ceremony.

Grab a kit NOW and be inspired!

Stay tune, I had a pleasure of working with the add on kit as well and I'll be posting those project soon.

Till next time,
Grace

are you up for some Artsy Urban???

Check out the GCD Studios blog today. Be inspired by the beautiful layouts the DT made with the collection. Also if you leave a comment you might with this great prize.....


Don't delay, visit now.

Till next time,
Grace

Hello November.....

****I typed this up on Sunday but was interrupted with other stuff before I was able to post it so pretend it's Sunday when your read it ok. :) *********************************

Gosh can you believe we only have two more months before another year is over! Time flies so quickly.

So today was a great day. Not only did I get to have an extra hour of sleep but more importantly because I can finally sink in into my new calling at church. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. (don't know if you knew that or not) Anyways, at our church, everybody volunteers for the job, nobody gets paid. Leaders are inspired by the Lord to call specific people for specific jobs. Whether it be in leadership roles or to be a teacher or to plan social activities, each one is given a "calling" and they are to do their best and have faith in the Lord to "magnify" or perform these jobs.

Well for the past four and a half years, I've been serving in the Primary organization of our ward (congregation). My job was to be a counselor/helper for our Primary president. We oversee the children's program (sunday school, scouts, activities and anything related to the children). Anyways, today they changed my role. They called me to be the Primary president and the congregation "sustained" (approved) it. As anybody called to a higher position, there's some anxiety connected to the new role and I felt that and maybe more but as I was sustained and set apart (blessed) by my priesthood leaders, I felt calm and ready to move forward.

In my patriarchal blessing, I was told that I would be teaching children. I love children and am very grateful to be a part of their first years of learning the gospel. I don't know yet how I will do half the things I am now responsible for but I do have the faith that it will all go through as the Lord has planned it.

What's for sure is that I'm definitely going to be bringing my love for papercrafts to this new calling. Whether it be having the kids make little scrapbooks (that would be totally fun), making thank you cards to our many wonderful teachers or making fun visuals for the kids to learn better. Fun paper will definitely be put in the mix!

Speaking of papers, I got some projects soon to be posted. Here's some sneek peeks...


Tomorrow I'm posting my first blog post for Upsy Daisy. Here's a little peek at the project I made. Be sure to stop by there to see more pics and I even added a little "how to".


I just emailed this project to GCD Studios and it's something that I will be revealing soon here in the blog. But for now let me share an itty bitty look at it.

more to come.

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 5 (card)

Only one more day before Halloween. It seems like there some people that are trying to celebrate early, I was driving around town this morning and saw this one driver all suited up to be that scary guy in "I know what you did last summer" movie. Remember that scary mask? Yes that person even had the mask on. Now I wonder if the mask hinders him/her from seeing clearly on the road? LOL.

Anyways, I'm here on my last day of Halloween Posts. I have to say this is one of themed posts that I enjoyed a lot and hope you did too. Just sad that I didn't get any comments/feedback from all the other posts.

Anyhow, today I'm leaving you with a card that I made for the holiday....

Happy Halloween card

What I love about this card is that the papers that I used were from a different themed pack. I used some patterns from a school themed paper pack. I was inspired to use it cause the colors were very close to the Halloween theme, especially the glittered black paper. Don't you think so?


the tree stamp was purchased at the dollar bin at Joanns. Don't you just love those dollar stamps? I'm so addicted to them. Anyways, I stamped it with this orange glittery ink pad and I didn't let it dry very well before touching it so I accidentally smeared the ink all around. Before I got upset at myself, I realized that the smearing actually created the "spooky" feel to the stamped image so I kept it as is. Isn't it great to see your mistakes become new techniques?!


I finished it off with a stamped sentiment and an orange ribbon.

Before I go, I just want to share a picture of my family on Saturday night before we left the house for our Ward's (church) Halloween party......


recognize the guy in the middle?

He was named as "my cousin from Arkansas" but really he's just Mitch being hilariously funny!

Happy Halloween guys and stay safe!

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 4 (cookie recipe)

As if candies are not enough sugar for your kids, I'm here to share with you a great tasting cookie recipe that will be both enjoyed by you and your kids. *smile*

I got this recipe about two years ago from a Relief Society meeting (my church's women's group). It's a very old recipe that one of the sisters have been using ever since her kids were little. She now has over 10 grandkids!

Anyways I loved it when we made it during our women's activity that I decided to set up a cookie decoration activity for my kids and some of their friends. Here's some pics of that fun day!


Circa 2007
Can you tell that the kids favorite part of the activity is decorating? Marcus would sneek in some tasting of the candy decorations while we weren't looking. He has the mustache to prove it. LOL


Circa 2007.
I have to warn you that these cookies are really good and really big! They're supposed to be huge so if you don't want to have all that sugar in your home and system, cut the recipe in half.


Circa 2007.
We used cream cheese frosting. I thought it went really well with the pumpkin taste of the cookie.


Circa 2007
And if the cookies weren't enough, we made some caramel apples too. Yummy!

Pumpkin Cookie
from "Libby's canned pumkin" company

Ingredients:
4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
2 cups quick or old fashioned oats, uncooked
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspon vanilla extract
1 can (16 oz.) Libby's solid pack pumpkin
1 cup real semi-sweet chocolate morsels
assorted icings or peanut butter
assorted candies, raisins or nuts

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine flour, oats, soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
Cream butter; gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each additions.
Stir in morsel.
For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto lightly greased cookie sheet; spread into pumpkin shape using a thin metal spatula. Add a bit more dough to form stem.
Bake at 350 , 20-25 min. , until cookies are firm and lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet; cool on racks.
Decorate using icing or peanut butter to affix assorted candies, raisins or nuts.
Yields about 32 large cookies.
Variation: Substitute 1 cup raising for morsels.

and of course, I can't have the activity pass without scrapbooking it. Here's how I documented the event...
The makings of a Sweet Tradition

Circa 2007.

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 3 (treat bags)

I don't know about you but I get to stretch my creativity when holidays like Halloween comes around. In my daughter's preschool class, they like to give treats during a special holiday and Halloween is always the first one. I'm always thinking of a better and cuter way to pack up the little treats and this year I went to my scrap stash.



I wanna show you how to "dress" up those fun treat bags without having to go to your local scrapbook/ craft store to buy new supplies.




to make these fun treat bag toppers you'll need:
-small ziploc bags (I used the ones that they have in the jewelry section of my craft store)
-scrap pattern papers (pick ones that are in the holidays' color scheme. I used black, green, orange and brown)
-ribbon (I used grossgrain and some satin too.)
-halloween stamp
-stapler
-scotch tape
-black pen
-candies or small toys/treats

others (but necessary)
-border punch


first- gather your supplies


Second- trim pattern papers to fit your ziploc bag. Just measure the top and then double the number so the paper can overlap on both front and bag side of the bag. Mine measured 3" wide and 4 1/2" long. Add a decorative border on one side with your punch if desired.


third- fold in half.


fourth- wrap some ribbon around one side of the fold.


fifth- stamp sentiment onto cardstock. I cut my cardstock into 1 1/2" circles before stamping my sentiment.


sixth- fill up the bags with treats. I personally think that one candy plus one toy is good enough for little preschoolers but you can fill it up to how much you want it.


seventh- place the folded paper over the top of the ziploc bag and then staple.


eight- handwrite your child's name.


ninth- adhere your stamped cardstock. I used scoth tape so it'll be sturdy and I also made sure I placed the circle over the staple for a cleaner look.

That's it! Easy Peazy! If you're doing it for your older kids' class or group, you can even get your older kids to help you. I got my six year old to fill up the bags with the treats while I made the toppers.

Seriously how easy and fun is this?!

Thank you for stopping by and see you tomorrow.

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 2

Is there anything that I'm NOT doing this week?! I'm having one of those crazy weeks with so many things to do and attend to. I got a wedding to attend, halloween parties to participate in, picking up my parents from LAX, november kit to dive into and a spiritual change being unveiled to me. Seriously, is there anything that I'm NOT doing this week?! hehehehehehehe.

Anyways here I am with another Halloween post. Today is a project based post.....

I've made these layouts a while back but since they've never been posted and they fit the theme, I figure now is the time to share.....

Every little thing they do is magic

here's a page of the kids last year with their costumes. I wanted the feel of Halloween all over this page so I sprayed glimmer mist on the orange cardstock for some shine and covered the two photo corners and chipboard letters with more glitter.


Remember that if you're putting glitter on any items, you need to tap the excess off and let it dry for 24 hours before handling it. Believe me you don't want to clean up that kind of mess! *wink*

Creating Mr. Jack

Here's a two page spread I made about our family home evening activity to create our Jack-o-lanterns. Eventhough I don't have that much pictures for this event, I still decided to make it a two page spread versus a single one so it won't look too cluttered and I can leave some white space in the layout.


the leaf vines were cut from a pattern paper. I love to dive into pattern paper for embellishments. They're cheaper than the premade ones and they're easily adaptable to any theme.

Catch you guys later.

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween week......

Hi all. Happy Monday. It's finally feeling like fall around here. This morning when I took Marcus to school, I felt the cold chill in the air. Both Maddie and I had to run back to the car cause brisk walking was making us shiver. Finally, we can bust out the jackets!

Anyways, I've been thinking a lot about Halloween. Not only because it's a week away but also because that specific holiday brings so much "fun" spirit in the air.

That's why I've decided to focus my posts entirely on that theme. Everyday, I'll post something related to the event. It will be a combination of projects and pictures and even maybe a fun recipe.

So let's start, shall we....

Today I'm sharing pictures. We went to a pumpkin patch on Saturday afternoon and we had fun.

One thing I really wanted from this activity is for the kids' to focus on the "picking the perfect pumpkin" rather than worrying about all the carnival rides. That's why I searched for a pumpkin patch that would not have all the distracting and expensive (I might add) rides and attractions. Luckily I found out that the CalState Pomona campus has a farm with a lot brimming with pumpkins. It was a ways away compared to the Pa's Pumpkin patch in Long Beach and the pumpkins are more expensive than if you would have purchased it in the store BUT the experience of it all outweighs the negative things.

Here's some pics of our fun activity....

I got really excited when we turned the curb and saw the lot on the corner brimming with all the orange pumpkins. This is just a side of the lot, can you believe that!?


When I went to their site, they advised us to bring our wagons cause the pumpkins will be heavy to carry from the farm to the parking lot. We followed their advise and we're glad we did!


There were so many good pumpkins, it was hard to pick the "perfect" one.


Maddie settled in with a small one. I guess she liked the one that is just her size.


Marcus had a hard time picking. There were too many choices to pick from.


After a while of roaming around, we finally settled in for two big ones and Maddie's small sized pumpkin.


and here's me with the kids.


Now all we need to do is make time to turn these pumpkins into Jack-o-lanterns.

Have a great day and hope to see you back here tomorrow.

Till next time,
Grace

linkity links.....

Happy Saturday everyone. Just popping in here really quick to share with you two worthy links you might wanna check out this weekend....

GCD studios is having a sketch contest this weekend. Make something with this sketch made by one of our fab dt members....



there's some rules to follow but I'm sure you guys don't mind that. There's a really cool prize in store for anybody that participates. Hurry, this contest will close soon!

Are you a big fan of blinkies? Well Upsy Daisy just released some cool blinkies up for grabs on the blog. Here's my fave featuring the Chocolate line. How fun is this?!



Check the blog for all the other options. Oh and you'll have to scroll down a little to see all the blinkies.

Ok so I'm off. Got a lot of things to do today but all fun. We're planning on getting pumpkins today from a real pumpkin farm (that should be fun) and then we have a Halloween party at church tonight.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Till next time,
Grace