some Christmas DIY inspirations

You all know how I love Pinterest. Every time I get a chance to get on there I'm pinning like a mad woman! So today I'm sharing some of my favorite holiday "pins". Hopefully this will get you excited about the holiday crafting like I do. :)

Isn't this so clever. A new way to use those holiday socks!

This cute trees are made out of cupcake liners. How clever and inexpensive too!

Ribbon to create a candy ribbon-like ornament. How cute and sweet too. *wink*

I sooooo want me a glass dome!!!

a cute treat container that you can do for popcorn and a red glove. You'll definitely get the "coolest homeroom mom" if you hand this out to your kids classmates this year.

If you want more information (and links) to this project and see the rest of what I'm pinning on Pinterest, make sure you check out my Pinterest badge/link on the right side bar.

Have a great and inspirational day everyone.

Till next time,

Grace

Holiday cards *Paper Bakery kit*

December is just a couple of days away and what better way to welcome the "holiday season" than by sharing some Holiday cards...

this card set was made using the Paper Bakery November Add-on kit. such a fun kit to play with.

to learn more about purchasing the kit or to see the other kits being offered, check the site here. Happy Tuesday everyone.:)

Till next time,
Grace

our fancy dinner experience

The week before Thanksgiving, the kids' school offered a Thanksgiving lunch for the children and their family. It's a special meal during their lunch time where the parents can purchase the meal for them and the kids. We decided that instead of participating in this that we will just go to a restuarant for a "fancy" dinner.

So on a Saturday night we went to a restaurant called Zio's. They serve italian dishes and we've never been here so it was a new experience for all of us. We don't normally eat out at a restaurant because we like fast food (cheap and fast) plus the kids have not really been the most behaved while waiting for their food but I thought they need to experience the "fancy" side of a meal at least once a year so they can be familiar of what is expected of them as far as proper etiquette are concerned.

Here's a few pics of our dinner out...

while waiting for our table to be ready, I took out the camera for some quick shots.

We saw an ad in the paper of a great family deal that Zio's was having. It was about $22 for a big plate of spaghetti and meatballs plus chicken alfredo with unlimited salad/soup and bread. We thought it was reasonable and since we've never been to this restaurant, we were up for trying anything.

Marcus didn't like the restaurant experience at first. He was complaining and wanted pizza instead but after tasting their bread and having some of the spaghetti, this boy was happy!

Maddie surprised me at how much food she ate. She doesn't normally have seconds but with this meal, she was enjoying everything twice!

We were surpised at how much food we got for the price we paid. Definitely a deal! Plus the food was delish. I didn't care much for the marinara sauce but the Alfredo dish was superb. We even had room for dessert which we all shared a plate of bread pudding with caramel sauce. I didn't get a chance to take a photo of the dessert as the kids wolfed it down before I can even blink!

All in all it was a great experience. I love how this is so rare for us that we cherish little moments like these. Sharing a great meal (that I didn't have to slave in the kitchen for), practicing our table manners and having a blast together.

Till next time,
Grace

goodness gracious Grace!

Gosh! Shocked myself today when I peeked into my blog and noticed that I have not posted anything this week! So sorry guys. All the crew (aka family) has been home all week long and that meant lots of family time BUT also no time for anything else. But I love it though. It's not often that I have my hubby and kids all to myself and we have been enjoying catching up on some movies, doing chores together, putting up our Christmas decorations and enjoying a feast on Thanksgiving.

So today I have some overdue sharing (and linking) to do.....
This past week, Glue Arts teamed up with Imaginesce and the designers were able to play with the Happy Harvest collection. Here's a wreath I made using the wonderful fall papers.

I added a tutorial on how I made this wreath in the Glue Arts blog tha can be found here.



Then last Wedneasday (I believe) Glue Arts shared a few more of my Happy Harvest projects.

 To see more of the card set and layout, click on over here.

Did you know that a new sketch started on Monday over at Paper Bakery kit blog? Here's the latest sketch..

 and I used that sketch to alter some paper bags (which is included in the November Add on k it)

to play along with the sketch and to learn more about the November Paper Bakery kit head on over here. BTW, they are having a great Black Friday sale on past kits. Make sure you check that out too.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you are having a great Thanskgiving break. I know I do. *wink*

Till next time,
Grace

For a limited time

Happy Saturday everyone. It's pretty windy today and I dropped my step stool on  my feet! I'm thinking this day is not turning out good.

but wait, I remembered that I had planned on opening my Etsy shop today for a limited time and that instantly put a smile on my face. :)

So I'm inviting you to check it out. It will only be open for two weeks (or until I'm all sold out) and I had put items that I recently made that I'm looking for homes for. I can easily hoard all my projects but I think they will have a better purpose if they're actually used and now is the perfect time to "share" them as they will be the "one of a kind" gifts you can share with your loved ones.

Here's the link again.

Have a great weekend and till next time,
Grace

words to live by

Craziness is starting to creep up around here. The calendar is getting a "bit" full and we haven't even hit the Thanksgiving break!

So what do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Well one of the things I do is to stop/rest and read inspiring quotes. I've even dreamed of having a wall full of these inspiration phrases. So today that I'm feeling a tiny bit swamped, let me share with you a few quotes that gets me pumped up and ready to tackle the long to do list.
*all quotes are in my pinterest board- Words and Quotes. To check my pinterest boards, click on the link at the right side bar of this blog. :)

Till next time,
Grace

An Attitude of Gratitude

Can't believe we are about one week away from Thanksgiving and I've been really inspired by all the "thanksgiving" ideas out there, from the projects to ways of showing gratefulness this month. I just hope that we can continue the "attitude of gratitude" even after the holidays are over.

Today I want to share with you a couple of links....

Speaking of Attitude of gratitude, I made a mini album with that in mind which was posted in the Glue Arts blog recently. Check it out here plus check out the full step by step instructions on how I made the book.

One of my friends posted a fun Gratitude photo scavenger hunt over at her blog and I'm playing along. Check out my first batch of photos in my photo blog here.

Now I have to run.Still got a TON of things in my list to accomplish by the end of the day. Tada!

Till next time,

Grace

Finally Home

I made this layout with the November Add on kit over at the Paper Bakery kit. I love how themed products can inspire us to make non-seasoned pages.

My initial inspiration was the block of houses sticker. They are the perfect "embellishment" to emphasize my gratefulness of finally being home.

To learn more about this layout and the Paper Bakery add on kit. Click here.

Till next time,

Grace

a new addiction

sometimes I think that I've already spend way too much time on the computer and then I discover a new site that's totally addicting. I'm talking about Polyvore. Great site to make your own boards. I especially love the endless collection of clothes that I can put outfits together with. I also have realized that although I love color, I only wear then sparingly, such as the case in this outfit...

I started this outfit off with the cute green top and then I wanted to add some pop of color and ended up choosing maroon since it's a "fall-ish" look.

What do you guys think?

If you're interested to see Polyvore yourself, check it out (click on the link provided above) but let me remind you...it's addicting! You have been warned!

Till next time,

Grace

*sorry for the change of font after the image, somehow google/blogger is acting up with me and I don't know why)

RAK winner + card share

Wow can't believe how unanimous the voting was. So I guess it's official....it's going to be the mustache photo that will grace our Christmas card this year. Thanks for letting me make what seems to be a hard decision, done!

So as promised, the winner of the RAK, according to random.org is #2 which is Tina. Can you email me your snail mail addy at graceelainetolmanatyahoodotcom so I can send you the prize. :)

and because this post is not complete with a project or photo to share, here's some of my recent cards....

Mom, thank you for being you

PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION

Congratulations on a job well done

PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION

Dad you lift me up!

Happy Mother's Day

PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION

I know these cards are a bit out of the season but doesn't the colors just makes you smile? I wanted to have a soft feel for the feminine cards and gave some graphic, modern design for the masculine cards.

Have a great weekend everyone.

till next time,

Grace

I need your vote!

No I'm not running for any office/position, or that something I've made is up for a contest. This is more of a plea to help me narrow down my choice.

You see I have been making my Christmas cards for a few years now. I always add a photo of our family. Nothing fancy which I think speaks volume on what kind of family we are. *wink* And we took this two photos a few weeks ago and I'm not sure which one to use for this year's Holiday cards. I like the "formal" version but I'm also really digging the mustache one cause we've never been this silly infront of the camera and I think it's a refreshing look. What do you think?

and to make your votes worth the time, I'm giving away this little package of "fun scrapbook products" to one commenter.

I'll open the voting up to Friday (Nov. 11th) 9pm Mountain time so you can be eligible for the giveaway.

thank you and have a great day. Looking forward to what you guys think should be in our Christmas card this year.

Till next time,

Grace

some layouts for you today....

First off, thank you to all that stopped by and commented on my Handmade Holiday projects. It was fun to see all the projects in the blog hop. Wasn't it so inspirational?

Anyways today I want to share a few pages....

First Christmas in Colorado

my new sketch for Paper Bakery kit club is up today. You can play along and now you have two weeks to complete your page. How fun is that! Check out all the info here.

It's the little things (digital)

yes sometimes I'm in the mood to make digital layouts. I can't resist all the fun digi kits out there. I got most of the supplies for this layout from Design House Digital. Did you know they just wrapped up a whole week's worth of celebration for National Digital Scrapbook day? Yeah I know, how fun to have a special day for all of the things we hold so dear, like digital scrapbooking. LOL.

Carnival Party

a few weeks ago, I rushed to the local's Archiver's here in the Springs to score some deals on pattern paper. In this page, I used my recent Jillibean Soup papers.

thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,

Grace

Sweets for my Sweet gift bag

And it's Sunday! Hope your day is starting off great.

Today's our last installment of the 3-day tutorial posts.

Sweets for my sweet gift bag

Here's the how to...
1. First you need to figure out the size of the bag you want to make. I had measured mine to be 6" x 4" so I cut my paper into an 8 x 11" piece. Then I scored 1" lenghtwise on both 1" on the middle of the paper horizontally which is about the 4" and 5" mark on your scoring board.

2. Fold on the marks you've just made and snip the sides of the square fold you made in the middle of the paper.

3. Adhere the short ends of the fold to create the bag.

4. Layer some pattern paper and stickers together and then adhere to the center of the bags. I had made two layered pieces for each side of the bag.

5. I then added some papers layered with a sticker and a flower to the front of the bag using some foam adhesive.

6. Then I eyeballed the center of the bag top and then punched two holes.

7. And the last step would be to thread ribbon through the holes and tie a knot inside to secure the ribbons.

Thank you for joining me in this three day Handmade Holiday Project + tutorial posts. Please visit Glue Arts blog for more Holiday inspired projects and have a great day.

till next time,

Grace

Christmas gift altered container

Happy Saturday. Hope you enjoyed participating in the Handmade Holiday Blog hop that started yesterday. If you missed it or don't have a clue what I'm talking about, hop on over to the Glue Arts blog to check out the details.

Today I want to share with you how I altered this cute clear bag...

Christmas Gift Altered Container

this container originally housed some buttons. I love how cute, small and clear it is. I can include some small treats in it, add a gift card or even a beautiful jewelry set. The gift possiblities are endless! So here's how I made this super easy project...

1. I started off with measuring the front and back side of the bag. I had cut out pattern papers to measure abuot 1/4" smaller than my initial measurement. Then I added this paper to another pattern and then trimmed that with scallop edge scissors. I also added some machine stitching to the edges of both paper pieces. Then I added them to the bag using some extreme square adhesives.

2. then I used some letter stickers that came in the Webster's Pages collection kit that I was using for all three containers.

3. I also added some stickers to the back of the bag. I adhered the big butterfly sticker with some foam adhesive to give it more dimension.

4. then I added some flowers on the bag. I used some mini square adhesive to adhere the flowers.

5. After staring at this project for a few minutes, I felt like it needed some bow to it. So I added some red dot ribbon to the front of the bag.

Now it's all complete and ready to be filled with goodies and great Christmas gifts.

Make sure you check out tomorrow's blog post for our final edition our tutorial posts.

Till next time,

Grace