it's wishlist time.....

Now that CHA is over, it's just a matter of time before all the "good" new stuff hit our lss shelves. So since I'm still salivating and waiting patiently for all these fun items to arrive, here's some of the things that I'm going to "save" my money on.....

Jenni Bowlin Studio





Sassafrass lass


And Fiskars


Oh if only money grows on trees!

Till next time,
Grace

In the middle of it all......

I'm having one of those weeks again where there's too many things to do and too little time. Wanna hear what I have instore?
I have to plan, prep and execute a Primary activity on Saturday
I have sharing time lessons all this month
I entered myself in a scrapbook contest that's due on Friday and I haven't started on it yet. (I might just drop out of it cause I don't have any ounce of inspiration to do it)
I was planning on making a few projects this week that I won't normally have time to do

and to top all this off, I'm a single parent for five days.

Mitch went to a construction show/expo in Vegas for work. They're hoping that this will help the business. We're crossing our fingers here. Anyways since he's there all week long, I had to take a vacation from work and be with my kids all week. I don't mind it at all, I love being home and just being "mommy" again. I love that I don't have to hurry everything, miss out on reading and tucking them to bed and all that stuff but bec. I have all those "other" things mentioned above, I'm feeling a "tad" overwhelmed.

Today is shaping up to be a good day though. I was very happy to see this on the CK site. I think Jaime Ward is so awesome to add the link to where she learned to make the post it note holders. Wow, I'm still in shock why that project has taken up such interest. The tutorial is here incase you wanna check it out.

And I was reading my Ensign magazine (LDS publication) and came upon an article with this quote in there...
"The Saints should always remember that God sees not as man sees; that he does not willingly afflict his children, and that if he requires them to endure present privation and trial, it is that they may escape greater tribulations which would otherwise inevitably overtake them. If He deprives them of any present blessing, it is that he may bestow upon them greater and more glorious ones by-and-by"- Elder George Q. Cannon (1827-1901)

WOW, now that is totally what I needed to read at this time in my life. Yes there are "trials" right now but like my husband says, "we could be in a worst situation". And I know that but sometimes the child in me just likes to complain. Hahahaha.

But joking aside, I was uplifted by it and I will try my hardest to remember this quote during those times when I want to whine and complain.

So that's it for now.

Till next time,
Grace

My CHA experience

It's come and gone and my first time going to the Craft and Hobby Associations big show was a blast!!!
Yup all four hours of it!!! I went on Monday morning. Walked around with Robin. Thanks Robin for letting me tag along with you. I did some make and takes and just cruised around the diff. booths.

But isn't CHA a whole week thing? you ask... Yes but unfortunately with little kids, work and my so called life just couldn't let me enjoy it anymore than that. But I'm not complaining. I got to observe a lot of things and let me tell you.....there are a TON and I mean a TON of cool stuff coming our way. I can't wait till all the new releases hit my local scrapbook stores' shelves.

Here's my recap in pictures....
Here's me proudly showing off my ID. This was actually taken when I got home. I felt I needed something to visually represent where I was so I had my son Marcus take this photo.

So onto the details...
I got there bright and early. Walked around and when I was just about to start making a very cute make and take, the fire alarm of the convention center went off.....I'm not that fazed about this cause we always get it at the mall but apparently there was a small fire so everybody had to be evacuated. And I thought the show was 'inside' the convention??? LOL.

So after that whole thing we were let back in the building and I was able to finish this cute project from Daisy Bucket. I made the pink one. These chipboards are so adorable and can't wait for them to start shipping to the stores. The prices are great too.

And here's some great projects that was on display. Man! there's definitely talented people out there....
Kaiser Craft

EK Success

Martha Stewart

7Gypsies

I just love the whole feel of this booth.

I was very surprised at the "traffic" during that time. I really honestly thought that the center would be packed and I would be walking around continuously bumping into people. I think the economic problems have hit CHA. Just my thought.


And when I thought things couldn't get any better than this...I met up with my good friend Heidi. She's a blast! I loved seeing her make her ways through the booth. She certainly have such a fun spirit. Love ya girl.



So there.... CHA was a lot of fun, met up with new and old friends (all of them fun), got to do some cute projects, took home a LOT of Catalogs (can't wait to see what I can do with them), learned a few things about the industry and definitely wanting to go back there again (if they're in town)

Till next time,
Grace

Together forever card

With another challenge blog and a new embossing template in hand I was inspired to make this card....


I loved the result! I was very surprised at how easy this all came together. As you can see I'm a big fan of die cut machines now and can't see myself not using the cricut expression and my cuttlebug.


added an SEI ribbon to finish off this card.


thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

My Valentine Project for this year......

I was inspired by this challenge and made this for valentine's.......

"heartfull" frame


I made 2" squares of different kinds of hearts. Used pretty much scraps here.




a close up of each block....
word block


painted, glittered and added a rubon


full of flowers


stitched with bling


buttons


transparency plus a heart felt


I stitched a ribbon in the middle.


I added a word "love" outside of the frame. It was cut from cricut. I added it outside cause with the middle ribbon in there, I knew the word wouldn't hold up so I left it outside.


thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

misting away.....

I finally tried a new technique. It's been a long time since I went out of my "box" and tried something new. I've heard about glimmer mists for a while now and have been in awe of all those projects that are made using it but really have never had the interest to try it for myself until now......

This challenge blog got me all intrigued. I love the samples the DT's made and decided I'd jump right in and give it a try.

First, I had to buy the product. (embarrassed red here) I do not have that item in my stash and now after trying out one color, I wanna collect them all. I got mine from this company.

I got the copper one since it looked like it was the most popular one. You know how I've come up with that conclusion? it was the last bottle on the shelf. hahahahahaha!

So I got home and tested it. Word of warning- it's pretty messy. If you spray it on your project, you have to spray a little far from your project so it wont be blotchy. Therefore the mist gets to a lot of things. After that incident, I decided to mist away inside an empty box. This way, the mist/mess is contained in the box.

Ok so onto my project....

Flawless by nature



I used the mist as a mask here. I punched out a few 2" square scraps, laid them onto white cardstock with a grid design in between each one. You can adhere the blocks with repositionable tape but since I didn't have that I just laid them on and it was fine. Then I sprayed away, making sure I was getting enough mist in between the blocks to show that grid design. Then I let it dry overnight.


I also cut out this vine flower design from that wonderful machine I call the Cricut *wink* using the home decor cartridge. I cut it out from a purple cardstock and felt that it needed to have the glimmer mist on it as well so I sprayed some of it on there too. It's a good thing cause it matched the theme better than if it wasn't sprayed with the mist. After it dried, I added some paper flowers from Petaloo.


Made the block title using some fun things cut out from the cricut again (frame block and Nature word)


I'm inlove with these ticket stubs from Creative Cafe. They're so much fun!


So there you have it. My first experience with glimmer mist was great and you can bet that this won't be the last time I try this technique.

Till next time,
Grace

I want these......

I was going through my fave blogs and stopped by the Queen and Company page and found these fun new products that will debut at CHA. I'm so excited, I get to go this year and I'm looking forward to seeing these fun stuff in person. The best part of it all for me is it's totally affordable!!!! Now that's my kinda scrapbook supply.

Queen & Co New Felt Fusion Borders - Retail $1.29
We have created all new 1" wide felt borders sold in 12" strip packages that retail for only $1.29. These great self adhesive embellishments make perfect borders! Or, grab the scissors and start cutting!


Queen & Co Foam Letter Stickers - Retail $2.99


Queen & Co New Bucket Kits
Included in this release are new Queen & Co Bucket kits. Fabulous themed embellishments poured into adorable, reuseable buckets! Grab yourself a Bucket of Baby, Boy, Girl, Summer, Magic, Queen or Love. Buckets are overflowing with fabulous embellishments including, big brads, glitter brads, flocked brads, printed brads, sequin flowers, felt flowers and ribbon buckles! Everything you could ever need to embellish your hand crafted creations!



See some great projects sampling these products here. I'm sooooo excited!!!!

Till next time,
Grace

I'm a challenged kinda girl....

I don't mean in a physical handicapped kinda way! I just LOVE scrapbook challenges! I like that an outside influence can determine the next project that I'd be making. Here's some of the finished layouts that I made for specific challenges. I'm adding a link for each challenge, just in case you are in need of some inspirations, you can join in too! *smile*

Scrap Schemes
I found out about this great blog from Scrapbook.com message board. I love that they give you a non scrapbook item to be inspired from. I used the curtain inspiration for this layout.

Family Movie Night


I was inspired by the elegant feel of the curtain and used the 5th avenue line from Making Memories for this page.


Scenic Route
There monthly challenge for this month was a free for all, meaning you can use whatever lines from that manufacturer you want for your page. I jumped in the game cause I really wanted to use up the great Sonoma line. I love the colors of that line.

Superbowl Sunday


Love that the papers are double sided too. I torn the edges of some of the papers and the pattern from the other side added a great little touch to the torn part.



Journaling:

Sunday plans were that we were to go Dana’s ward for his baby's blessing then off to his house to eat and watch the big game. We did all that except watch the game there. Mitch and I had to bring Maddie home early because she wasn't feeling good. Our poor baby had been running a fever, throwing up and had a bad case of the cold. The other kids wanted to play with their cousins so Grandma and Grandpa took them home later that night.

Here are some pictures of what our "quiet" Sunday night looked like- TV on, a sick baby underneath a thick blanket with a "puke" bowl right close to her, some experimented mixture of snacks, Daddy doing some bill paying and Mommy sneaking in some pictures

SCS Stash challenge.
Every month Kristi of SCS hosts a challenge where the focus is to use products that we already have in our "stash". This months products were:
Stamped Image
rub-ons
transparency (no specific size)
paint
any type of hand punch
1 piece of solid cardstock (use at least 1 12x12 piece)
alphabet stickers
felt or fabricand

I used- felt, alpha stickers, transparency, paint and a hand punch.

The cost of love


I used an alpha sticker as a mask to make my dollar sign.


Journaling:

We didn't do anything to celebrate on Valentine’s Day. Our expedition was having problems and Mitch spent all day fixing it. When he got home he apologized that he didn't have time to buy me flowers. I didn't really expect it; all I wanted him to do was fix my car. :) But then the following day he surprised me with a dozen of roses. What a sweet guy. The funny thing was that he was so proud of himself that he got the flowers for a bargain. Since it's the day after the hearts day, the flowers were half off! You might think he shouldn't have told me that, but I thought that was the best part of it all.

So there you have it..... Have a great weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

PSA

Some public service announcements here.....

Aeropostale is doing something great. Click here for more information. It'll make buying that new pair of jeans that you've been eyeing, worth it.

and I've added some new items in my etsy store. I made some handmade cards and put together some cool sets from it that I'm sure you wouldn't want to pass up on.

Here's some sneek peeks....



More info in the store.

Till next time,
Grace

want some love???

some scrapbook love, that is!!! Well SCS has this great stash of stuff to give out. Follow the rules in their blog post and you might end up with all this yummy products. Ooohhh, I LOVE em all.



Till next time,
Grace