My favorite time of the day

two posts in one day. who knew I have two things to talk about today?!

Anyways this layout was made using the latest Pagemaps blog sketch.

My favorite time of D day

I love how clean looking the sketch is. I did however flipped the sketch and used the mirrored image of it on my layout.


I took a journaling block that had times on it and placed how I spend all the hours on an average day, emphasizing my favorite time which is of course scrapbooking time.


I used the color red to act as my visual triangle element in this page.

thank you for looking.

till next time,
Grace

Chicken Wire frame

As I mentioned in a past blog post, last week I was feeling very crafty. I think it has something to do with the recent unpacking I did. Uncovering supplies/items that I've totally forgotten I had brought me this sense of urgency to make something out of them.

One of the things I didn't realize I had a stash of was thick grosgrain ribbons that is meant for making hair bows. There was a store in California that I frequented before that was a ribbon mecca. I've made Maddie bows before but I felt like the technique that I was using needed to be updated so I went to google (my online bestfriend) and searched for hair bow making tutorials. As you might have imagined, there were tons and after spending a few hours brushing up on my hair bow making skills, I went to work.

After making the bows, next in the agenda was figuring out a good way of storing said bows. I thought about a wall system where I can clip and hang them. After another search on google, I came up with making a chicken wire frame.

I had a picture frame that sadly the glass broke during the move. I didn't want to get a new mirror put on it because I thought it was too expensive for the frame that it was so I opted to use this open frame as my base for my chicken wire project. The finished projects that I saw online had more ornate frames, and maybe I'll do that down the road but for right now, the plain frame worked for me.


The frame was initially black. I painted it pink for my daughter's room.


Now I'm not a very handy girl so I am grateful that my husband helped me with this project. He stapled the chicken wire behind the frame and he also helped me put it up on the wall. Don't you just love husbands that not only support our crafting obsession but also lends their "handy" hands when we need it? *wink*


It was the perfect organizational solution for Maddie's bows. The frame can hold any size and type of bow plus her headbands.

So that's it for today.

Till next time,
Grace

A sewing project.....camera strap

hello, hello.

So last week, I was feeling very crafty. I wanted to make all sorts of projects that hopefully I can take photos of and share here soon. It's funny how when Winter hits, I get into this hibernation mode and all I want to do is go through my craft stuff. Not my scrapbook stuff, but my other craft supplies.

I'm not sure if it's a sign that I need to take a break from paper or maybe I'm just needing some kind of other inspiration to get my creative juices flowing. Whatever it was, it was definitely happening last week.

Anyways, so as I was saying, one of the things that I wanted to do (for the longest time) was to make my own camera strap. I've seen cute ones before and have even contemplated in purchasing one at etsy. But then, I thought to myself, I have a sewing machine and some fabric in my stash, why don't I make my own and save a few bucks?

So off I went online and googled tutorials for making your own camera strap. The internet has come along way in the last 10 years and I knew that there is a tutorial that's bound to have been posted somewhere in the web, and sure enough there was. I found this one which I thought was pretty good.

On Friday night, while tending to sick kids, I washed my untouched fabrics, ironed them and picked two coordinating prints that I wanted to use and here's the result...


My fabrics was from my stash of quarter cuts so it wasn't long enough. I had to add a piece of solid fabric on the end which I used to add a cute "homemade" embellishment.




In the tutorial, she said to use one solid and one printed fabric, but I decided to use two printed fabrics so I can make the strap interchangeable.


I love my strap. The only thing I'll do next time is that I'll make it longer. Because this is my first attempt in making such a project, I followed the tutorial to the T so I won't make a mistake but I like my strap longer so I'd have to make my own measurements next time.

So that's it for me today. I hope you can dive into those untouched craft supplies and make something fun today.

till next time,
Grace

She Makes Me Happy *Clear Scraps*

happy Wednesday!

Today I want to share a layout that I made with some Clear Scraps acrylic pieces.

She Makes Me Happy

I love these photos of Maddie. She looks like such a grown child. I based the color scheme of the layout to match her outfit in the photos.


I used two acrylic ATC size pieces on this layout. I painted the back side with light blue paint and added a rubon design on the front side. I love how the acrylic piece gave the rubons instant dimension and even with the paint on the back side, you can still see some of the wonderful clear aspect of the acrylic.


I used some chipboard pieces from Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket here. I sprayed the circle and the flower with glimmer mist from Tattered Angels.


To make a visual triangle in the page, I added a lavender ribbon to the flower layers, plus a lavender brad and the lavender chipboard border.

So that's it. Make sure you check out all the other products that Clear Scraps has to offer and visit the blog for more inspirations.

Till next time,
Grace

Valentine's Day recap

Hope you guys had a great Valentine's day and your day was filled with flowers, chocolates, gifts and most of all love.

Well mine looked a bit like this...

Started off my day with a visit to the dentist and had a tooth extracted. Yup! no fun but after getting these.....

and the Vicodin kicked in, I was a happy camper.

Mitch was so nice that he drove me to and from my dental appointment, took me to Walmart to get my meds and treated me and Maddie for lunch at a soup and salad buffet restaurant.

Then we went home, Mitch went to work and soon after that Maddie and I attended Marcus class' Valentine's party.

I'm so grateful that this school is open to me bringing Maddie along. It's the only way that I can participate in class activities and I'm happy to have been there for the party.


The kids got a ton of Valentine cards and candies from their friends. They also played some games and had a parfait for a treat.

For dinner, we had a chicken casserole, green salad and I made my own homemade rolls to go with it.
I got the recipe here and I made half of the dough into a loaf and the rest for rolls. I was so thrilled to have finally made bread. I've attempted before but for some reason none of them worked until today.


Here's what I got from my family for Valentine's day...



Of course with my tooth extracted, I couldn't really enjoy the chocolates so I had my family take the first taste but I did tell them to save certain ones for me, like that one and only white chocolate cluster in the box.


Mitch said that he this year's bouquet to be different than the past years so he chose a mixture of all sorts of flowers. I didn't mind the change, I actually adore the orange rose. I think it's very beautiful.

So that's it. I've been running on Vicodin for the past two days and I'm happy as can be. Let's see when I've run out of that!

Till next time,
Grace

What I love....post 7

I can't believe this week is over and we are at our last day of my week long scattered posts of what I love. Something that I thought would be a good way to welcome one of my favorite holidays- Valentine's Day.

For my last post, I wanna share what I love the most in this whole wide world....

MY FAMILY!

They are my rock, my support system, my cheering squad, my worst enemies, my best friends, my teachers, my students and the people that I live for.

A few weeks ago, we got the opportunity (of a lifetime) to be photographed by a professional photographer. If you've followed my blog for a while, you would know how I've longed for this moment. Having a pro photographer shoot us has just seemed to be too expensive for us to try but when we got our home here, we got a complimentary free session plus a free 8x10 photo from our Realtor. It was definitely a nice gift and we took it without hesitation.

When I called the photographer, we had decided to do an outdoor photo shoot and I made mention about how I wanted to incorporate the wonderful landscape we have in our area in our photos. Teresa Lee didn't hesitate and brought us to Ute Valley Park which has some gorgeous views of the mountain range especially the most famous Pike's Peak.

Here are some of my favorites from the shoot.....


When I posted these photos at Facebook, some friends and family made me laugh when they commented if this was our property? Again, this is part of the park and NOT our home but I would love to think that since this is just a skip and a jump away from our home that we can call this part of our backyard. LOL.






Of course we wanted to coordinate with the clothes but not look to matchy match, so I got the color scheme from Marcus' sweater. I love the Navy blue and Gray color scheme plus I added denim to the mix. Luckily each member of the family had most, if not all of it, already in our closets.


When I send some proofs to family members to help us pick out our faves from the shoot, this photo was NOT anybody's favorite but let me tell you....this is my most FAVORITE of all. I love how we are all smiling and our hands/shoulders/bodies connected to one another show our bond with each other. Love it!


The shoot was taken place at 4pm and it was a bit chilly. Hence the reason why Maddie's hands are tugging in her sweater and she had a fake smile.


Mitch is not much for shoots like these ones but I love it. It shows the relationship between our family members and I'm glad he went along with it, even if he was feeling very awkward about it.




So that's some of what I love. What about you? Please do share too. I want to greet you guys an advance Happy Valentine's day and I hope we all get something sweet and/or lovely tomorrow.

Till next time,
Grace

What I love....post 6

Wow I can't believe we are nearly done with this week long "love fest".

Today I wanna share my love for BAKING.

I can still consider myself as a beginner in the art of baking but I am enjoying it immensely. Especially nowadays when I have more time to devote in the kitchen than in recent years.

Remember this cake from this post?


Last Thursday, we had the missionaries over for dinner and I made a Pineapple layer cake for dessert. I got the recipe in the book from this post.


It tasted great and the whipped cream with pineapple frosting was very delish!


We had Chili for dinner and I made some cornbread muffins.


I found this recipe from a Costco Cookbook. I love this recipe a lot because the cornbread is sweet bec. of the honey but maintains the cornbread taste to it because of adding whole corn in it. Yummy!


So that's it for today. See you guys again tomorrow.

Till next time,
Grace

What I love....post 5

My Friday is proving to be one of my favorite days this week. Not only is this the start of the weekend, but the snow is gone from the roads, I went shopping this morning (scored an American Crafts D-ring album for $10 @ Hobby Lobby) and we are going to eat out tonight. What could be better than that?!

Anyways here's my share for today.....I LOVE FLOWERS!!!


I especially taking photos of them and of course my favorite of all is...

Paper flowers....

here's a door hanger that I made using some beautiful flowers cut from the "Home Sweet Home" line of Upsy Daisy Designs.


I added some UDD brad pearls on the bigger flowers and adhered them with pop up dots for dimension.


and then I added a quote that fit perfectly in the middle of all these paper flowers.

So that's my share today. I hope you guys are off to a great weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

What I love....post 4

We are on day 4 of my "love" post marathon. I have to tell you all, that doing this kind of post everyday makes me more and more excited about Valentines day.

So today I wanna share my love for CHOCOLATES!!!

I know right?, who doesn't love chocolates?!

And what better way to share chocolates than to make fun valentine hearts to go with them...

We had a snow day this week (again!) and I used that time to help Marcus put together his Valentines for his friends at school. Here he is personalizing each heart.


He was a bit sick this week with the cold so you might have noticed the "Rudolph-red" nose he was sporting.


I used my Cricut machine to cut 3 1/2" hearts from scrap paper, matted it with Kraft cardstock and trimmed the edges with a scallop scissor to give it that dainty look. I then stamped a "to" and "from" on the back where he wrote each classmates name and his name as well.


After he wrote the names, we hot glued the candy bars on the pattern paper side.


the bag of candy that we got happened to have been divided into red and blue wrappers. I used that to divide the candies, blues for the boys and reds for the girls.


Here's what it looks in the front.


and here's the view of the back.

As you can see, making Valentine treats is not hard at all and you are sure to get back some beautiful smiles, even kisses (if they're your family member *wink*) in return.

Have a great day and I'll see you here again tomorrow.

Till next time,
Grace

What I love....post 3

Hello! Hello! Welcome to the third of seven days of me sharing something I love. I wanted to have a fun countdown to Valentines day and posting everyday about something I love was just the perfect way. Make sure you check out what I posted on day 1 and 2.

So today my love share is something pretty "obvious". You all know how much I love papercrafting and one of my favorite things to do is to make cards. Here are two cards that I made with the upcoming holiday in mind....

They are both titled "It's a love thing". I guess I am digging that title right now. :)


Lately I feel the need to go through every container I have in my craft room. The layered transparency, embossed circle and heart all came from a container that I put odds and ends that I wanted to keep for that "special" project. I'm so glad that I finally found a use for them.





this next card was made with a new technique I came up with using Clear Scraps acrylic tags. I was trying to heat emboss on the acrylic but didn't turn out good but had an aha moment when I placed the acrylic on top of my stamp.


I used the stamp image as a template to trace my flower image using some Viva Decor's liquid pearl pen. If you are going to do this technique, make sure you let the piece dry at least 24 hours to make sure you don't ruin your beautiful 3D image.

So that's it. Thanks for stopping by and make sure you come back tomorrow for some more love share.

Till next time,
Grace