easy peezy school treats

Happy hump day!

First off I wanna say a big thanks to Amy and Hannie for the wonderful comments you left on my blog yesterday. I feel extremely blessed to have this opportunity to meet people from all over that share the same passion that I have and your care and concern about my family and I touches my heart deeply. Thank you!!!

Anyhow....do you have kids in school and are looking for an easy, cheap and less sugared treats to send to school with them? Well I have an option that might just be the one that will make everybody at school give you a "best mom" award. Including your own child. *wink*



all you need for this project are:

microwavable popcorn packets
scraps of pattern paper (pick spring themed ones)
a stamp (Easter or Spring themed as well)
cardstock
some colored pencil (in case you need to bring in some color to your stamp image)
Decorative edged scissors
scotch tape



All you do is....

1. Stamp image onto cardstock. I picked ones that are spring colors like yellow, light blue and pink. Color in the image if desired.
2. Cut it out and adhere onto another cardstock. In this case, I used white. Trim into 2 inch squares. Trim one edge with a decorative edged scissor.
3. Adhere the stamped block and handwrite (or if you are really pressed with time, type up the sentiment or your child's name onto the white cardstock before cutting them into the squares) your child's name onto the side.
4. Trim pattern papers (scraps are the best for this project) into 1" strips.
5. Wrap the pattern paper strip around the middle of the popcorn packets and adhered with the tape.
6. Tape the stamped image onto the middle of the paper strip.


I love these kinds of projects because (a) they're super easy (b) I add a "tad" of creativity with regular stuff and (c) I used up scraps!

What could be better than that?

and if you are looking for another project to use up your scraps, check out my latest article at the Crazy Daisy blog.

Have a great day and till next time,
Grace

It's about time...

Hi all.

I'm going to take a quick break from all the project showcase in the blog and share something personal.

My husband has been working (pretty much all of his adult life) in the family business. It is a machine shop that his grandfather started in the 1940's. The business has maintained a certain stability up until the housing market crashed about three years ago. Hence, the reason why I have my part time job in retail.

Anyways, we rode out the "nation's financial crisis" all this time, hoping that we will survive the troubles and still come out "alive". But unfortunately it was not the case.

As of tomorrow (March 31st) Tolman machining will be officially closed for business. My husband, his brother and their dad made this decision in February so we've known for a while but I felt like there's no need to talk about it in the blog up until today.

I know that my family and non scrappy friends visit this blog for family updates and I thought that it was necessary to add this so that they can know where we stand.

What now? you ask. Well Mitch and I have some plans. A major one will be to leave California. It's a tough decision for us to make but with our "security blanket (the shop)" gone, there's really nothing here that can help us continue to provide a good life for our family.

So now we are in the process of getting our home ready for sale and looking for careers that both Mitch and I can do when we move. He has plans of going back to school and I (while my heart still wants me to stay home) will probably find a career that will be good for me and the kids. I'm thinking something in education so that I'd be around when the kids are home.

Another reason why I finally decided to talk about the "big elephant in the room" is that if I started to become silent in the blog, you will have some idea on what's pulling me away.

But know this..... I won't stop crafting even through the transitions. I have commitments to make and also this is where I can keep my sanity. Just the other night, I was feeling very overwhelmed with all of the things I needed to do. I listed all my tasks and yet the feeling was still there. So what did I do? I put the pen and paper down and walked towards my scrapbook table and in a couple of hours made a page and a couple of cards. It got me to relax a little and take my mind off of the "stresses of the day". Just one of those things that makes papercrafting even more important in my life.

So that's it. Thanks for letting me share and till next time.

Grace

Merry Christmas

What? a Christmas card in the middle of March? Well I'm a little all over the place right now and this is a perfect example of it.

Merry Christmas card

made this card with the Get Sketchy #31 sketch. Try it out here. It's so fun and I loved seeing the other dt's versions of it. To be honest with you mine is nothing in comparison with theirs but that's just between you and I. *wink*


I finally pulled out a sticker from a Scenic route sticker sheet that I've had since last year.

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to play along with the sketch this week.

Till next time,
Grace

BTW- thanks for all my "new" friends which were brought here by the week long blog hop we did at Get Sketchy. Wasn't it fun? Goodluck to all that figured out the special message. The prizes are awesome!

Sibling Love

Hello and happy Friday. Got lots on my head right now so I'm going straight to the order of business for this post....

Sibling Love

this layout was made with the latest sketch at Pagemaps blog as an inspiration. We were also to add the theme of appreciation with this sketch. I made mine focusing on how thankful I am for the great sibling love that my children have for one another. It's so wonderful to witness their unconditional love for one another. It makes Amanda's presence in the house even more greatly missed by the two little ones.


I put together two lines from Piggy tales for this layout (Georgie Porgie and 5 little ducks) By the way the Georgie Porgie line is their March kit and is available here.


I added some paper thread in neutral color for this page so add some "earthy" tones to it. Just something I'm into right now.

So that's it for now. Look for more a little later.

Till next time,
Grace

Get Sketchy blog hop

***this post will be up till Friday. Scroll down to check newer posts. thanks!***
Hello blog hoppers. thank you for visiting my little ol blog and hope you like what you see.



Here's the sketch for this week......isn't it fun?!


and here's my take on it....

Thanks card

I used circles on the side instead of the triangles. Believe me, I tried to stay within the sketch but I was having a terrible time making it look good.


I used SRM stickers to liven this card up.

The word you get from my blog is------- STICKERS

Ok so here's where you need to go next...
Lenet Mos - http://scraplenet.blogspot.com/

and if you started the hop in my blog.....come back over here.

remember for you to get a prize you must...
go through the blog and pick up the words that will complete a specific sentence. Then....
email Scrap n art the sentence and your name will be entered to win one of the 2 Scrap N Art Subscriptions.

SRM Stickers will draw the name of one comment on their blog for a SRM Prize Pack.

And Get Sketchy will draw the name of 1 participant for a prize pack as well. So make sure you leave a comment there too.

Three ways to win, how cool is that! No go on and hop away!!!

A Crochet retry

Happy Monday!
So I told you in this post that my crocheting adventures has just began......well with a cool headband instruction that I pulled from the internet, I went to Michael's and used my 40% coupon to get me a new yarn and I made a superwide headband.


this was by far so much more fun than my scarf attempt. It was very quick (got done in two days during my tv watching) and I love how the multi colored yarn brought out so much life in this project.


of course there's always room to perfect this. I still have to learn to keep my "gauge" right but I counted this time and learned a few more crochet variations.
Over all I think my interest in crochet is back and it's here to stay.

And before I leave, I wanna share a hhhuuugggeee card (6x12") that I made for a girl at my work that will be expecting a baby soon. We are going to put together a basket for her full of baby items and I'm inserting this card along with everybody's messages.




I used a lot of hodge podge of scraps here. That stamped preggy lady was a leftover from a shower invitation I did a loooonnnnggg time ago.


and a peek of the inside sentiment.

So that's it for now.

Oh, before I go, check out my first blog post at the Clear Scraps blog.

oh, oh, oh and did you notice my new banner? like it? that feet photo is mine. I'm sure if people saw me in my backyard with a tripod directing at my feet they'd think I'm one crazy lady. hehehehehe.

Till next time,
Grace

Thinking of you

Happy Thursday.

I love today because (a) only two more days before I can sleep in. This time change is killing me! (b) no preschool today. They had a field trip and Maddie and I decided to skip it since we've done it before (c) did yoga this morning. Aaahhhh! Lovin the feeling of being stretched all through out. and (d) I get to blog about some schtuff today. Can't get better than that.

Ok so this will be somewhat of a random post. Let's start with this one....

Thinking of You card

got my Piggy tales products a few days back and decided to play with them. I mean, c'mon have you seen the new releases? They're just calling to be created with.
Anyways this quick card was made with the latest CPS sketch in mind. I love the simplicity of the sketch, it helped me bring some focus on the wonderful floral paper in the Goergie Porgie line.


I added a simple sticker sentiment from SRM stickers.

Speaking of SRM stickers, remember tomorrow is the start of the Get Sketchy blog hop where we are showing a new sketch, my card take on the sketch and the sponsor is SRM stickers and Scrap N Art magazine.

Over at Crazy Daisy kit blog I posted my mini for the March kit. Sweet, simple and the mini is to die for! I'm diggin the flocked design on that MME Luscious mini.

Have you checked out the Clear Scraps blog lately? Gosh too many inspirations to mention. I got my projects all done and I'll be sharing them here and in the CS blog soon so watch out for that.

And finally, last Saturday after (I would say years) of not stopping by a thrift store, I finally got the chance to visit my local Goodwill store and look what I scored....

I have big "altering" plans for these babies. Everything ran me less than $10. Don't worry, I'll show the transformations on this blog when I start bringing new life to these items.

So that's it for now. Now go check those links above and Have a great day.

Till next time,
Grace

Enthusiasm

"Nothing great was ever achieved without Enthusiasm"- Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Such a wonderful quote, don't you think? It makes me just jump right into positivity.

I was so inspired with that quote that I used it on an altered item that I made using some of the new Vogue papers from Upsy Daisy.

Enthusiasm Wall Art
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Part of our DT assignment this month was to make something with a handmade flower included. Flower power is definitely a trend in the scrapbooking world today and trying to figure out a new twist on this hot trend didn't come easy to me, but after a couple of days of solely thinking of flowers, I grabbed my 1" circle punch and came up with this....

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it's very easy. If you guys want a tutorial, comment and if there's some interest I'll make one here on my blog. :)

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I love that the scene that I created in the wall art is primarily made out of paper. The grass, flower, stem and butterflies- all made from the Vogue paper line. The quote also came from that line.

The Get Sketchy blog is up to something really fun starting on Friday. Make sure you mark your calendars.


Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

You make me smile

Friday is finally here. Woohoo!!! Plus the sun shining versus wet rain just makes things a ton better, don't you think?

Anyways did you remember my 29 things to do post? Well I'm venturing on getting some finished off. I've decided that I will probably not be able to finish it all (like visiting 3 states, going to sea world or meeting 5 of my scrap idols) but I can do something about those things that I have control on (loose the 10 extra pounds, get a camera lens) so I'm starting with this one....


I borrowed it from the library last week and can you believe that I'm 3/4 into the book. When I was reading the introduction to the book, it got me worried that I won't like it but then as I started reading the first chapter, Jane Austen truly has a hold on my romantic heart because she got me engaged and I haven't stopped reading since then.

What have you read recently that's worth sharing?

and I leave you with another card (since like it's the trend in this blog recently). My first card as a design team member at Get Sketchy is up.

You make me smile

The sponsor was Stamping Boutique and I got to play with a digi stamp. I've never tried this before so I was afraid (to say the least) about this card but I think my first try was not that bad. What do you think?


I used some Scenic Route papers here. It's so cheery, they just make me smile and makes me look forward that spring is just around the corner.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great weekend.

Till next time,
Grace

Finally it's done!!!

Have you ever had the best intentions to make something cute? Something that you thought would "at least" look somewhat like the picture you are copying it from? Something that you would be proud to show off and tell the whole world that you, yes you, the "creative" you, made it!

Well that's what I thought I'd accomplish with my crochet scarf....but sadly after close to three months of laboring on it, it didn't come out as I expected it to be. It's not even EVEN! I've thought of quitting on it many times but I figured I'd started it already might as well finish the "pathetic" scarf that it was becoming.

It might sound harsh but I was really disappointed at myself on it. But don't you crochet ladies worry, my failure had nothing to do with my tool, my yarn or even my pattern. I'm the only one to be blamed. My biggest mistake- not counting! I was too lazy in the beginning and when I thought I can still get away without it, there was no turning back!

So you might be wondering how it turned out...... here's a couple of pics....

I was trying to take a picture of it myself and so that's why it's not the greatest picture, but you can see it.


I finished it last Sunday and for a moment was proud of my accomplishment but then after showing it to dear hubby and he made this comment "well you are the only one that can appreciate it because you made it" my hopes of it being "good enough" went way out the door.

lesson learned- (1) count, count, count; (2) attempt a smaller project from now on; and (3) my adventures with crocheting can be redeemed with a new, smaller project and a newly purchased yarn. *wink*

So to leave you guys on a much better note, here's a spring themed card.

"berry" sweet card


used up scraps here. I love that lime and strawberries paper a lot!


thank you for bearing with my odd post.

Till next time,
Grace

*I just noticed that my watermarks still says 2009. How did I not catch that, it's already March! Yikes!

Crazy Daisy March kit layouts (photo heavy)

Happy Midweek to you guys. Hope your week is cruising well.

So to say that the Crazy Daisy March kit is luscious and wonderful is an understatement so I thought I'd just share with all of you the five layouts that I made with it. I'm sure after you see how I used the wonderful (and newly released products from CHA Winter) included in the main kit, you'd want one too.....

1. Bookworm
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In this layout, I was talking about my son's new found interest in stories on tape. So to emphasize the theme/story of the page, I grabbed one of the chipboard shaped page from the MME minibook and used that as a template to cut out my pattern papers. I adhered the papers over each other as to mimic book pages.
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I also added the part of the Prima rhinestone swirls here, the MME kraft tag and the yellow ribbon. I added a button on the ribbon for interest, having the paper thread go under the ribbon so when I tied the button, it created a cool crease on the ribbon as well.
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2. A dreamer

I love this page because (a) I was able to play with some new actions I got online and dressed up my picture. I love that this new photoshop action made a cool distressed look for my picture and (b) I was able to add a lot of pattern papers into this layout without overwhelming the photo.
Remember, if you are combining lots of pattern papers, make sure you pick designs and elements in there that doesn't distract with each other. Pick at least one dots, one stripe, one floral, one solid, etc. This way you have all the designs represented and yet it's doesn't overwhelm the page. Also make sure you do them in moderation. Size matters.




3. Happy Reunion

The lovely Basic Grey papers in the kit really makes a page pop with color. I emphasized two of them here.

I also added a border and journaling sticker from the Crate paper sheet and cut out a flower from one of the Crate paper pattern papers to add as an embellishment.

Another thing that made this page so fast to make are the transparent word and shamrock embellishment.

4. Lucky Gold

With this page, I wanted the focus to go to my pictures so I chose a more neutral colored patterned paper for background and added a few smaller strips of the other papers as a border in the middle.

I also added the canvas letters here from Little Yellow Bicycle and the calendar embellishment as well.

To highlight the dates, I grabbed two small circle stickers from the Crate Paper sticker sheet, hand cut out the centers and stuck it on the specific dates.

5. San Onofre Beach

Here's my two page spread for this month. I can't say it enough that this kit can give me so much product to make 4 pages PLUS one two page layout. That for me is really awesome.

I used one of the Crate paper stickers for my flower and to cover the lines (for journaling) I added another flower and a button.

There were some pictures that I didn't feel good showing off, but I still wanted them to be included in this page. These are pictures that I only want my family to see, so to overcome my little dilemma, I added a small folded album on the right edge with pattern paper. I cut a piece that's just a bit bigger than my pictures, folded it and tucked the pictures inside.

thank you for looking and to learn more about the March kit or any other kits that Crazy Daisy offers, check them out here.

Oh and I also posted an article at the CD blog today. It's a good one. *wink*

Till next time,
Grace

Piggy tales + Mr. Personality

Happy Sunday.

You're probably getting tired of me announcing some great news around here. LOL. I still can't believe that they all came in one week. I guess it's really true when they've said that "when it rains, it pours".

I'm still in cloud 9 because Piggy Tales have picked me to be part of their Piggy Tales Academy Design team. I'm so honored to be a part of a wonderful and talented bunch. Check out the announcement here.

I was going to hit "publish" on here but then decided to add a page. I mean what's a post without a project, right?!

This is not Piggy Tales but one of my most recent ones.

Mister Personality

Remember this page that I made about Maddie? Well thought I'd even it out and make one of Marcus too.


I played with glimmer mist here. I grabbed some circles and adhered them (with re positionable adhesive) onto the white cardstock, then sprayed the mist. I then took it off and added a smaller circle of pattern papers onto the white circle spots. I also added a button for more layering.


I cut out the titles from Cricut and added a lot of sewing.

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Precious Memories

Don't you think that sketches can be considered as a scrapbook tool? I mean, they are a great springboard for creative projects. They can spark up something that you never really thought about. They make designing pages/project easier but still gives you room to put you own "spin" on it. Once you start working with sketches, it'll be something that you will always grab everytime you create.

Well if you definitely, undeniably agree with me.... then I have a challenge to share with you.....the Upsy Daisy design blog has started a monthly sketch challenge . These sketches are made by one of our own team member (Kim). She does a wonderful job with creating clean sketches that you can start your creativity with.

and lucky me, I get to play and show you an example of what I did with her sketch....

Precious Memories

I used two small pictures instead of one large one. I also expanded some of the elements to fill my 12x12 page.


I used the wonderful Blossom line. Love the sweetness of these papers.


I'm into adding dimensional adhesive to my elements right now to make them look like epoxy items. I did that to the pink tree. Like it?

So that's my take on the sketch. Hope you play along. Here's where you can find all the info about the challenge. Can't wait to see your interpretation on it.

Till next time,
Grace

Life continues to happen

Happy Friday.

Gosh, I've been all over the place this week and I'm soooo glad that weekend is just around the corner. My scrap space is needing some love. *smile*

Life happens card

this card was made for the pagemaps card challenge. I love sketches (we all know that) and I could not pass up the chance to play.


this card is so simple (even for my style) but I loved the Pink Paislee sentiment that I want all the attention on it.
All products used are from Pink Paislee except the rhinestones and pearl.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

a Get Sketchy opportunity

Hi all.
First off, thanks for all the wonderful comments about my great Clear Scraps news. Your wishes touched my heart. From the bottom of my heart, THANK YOU.

But wait.......the great news has just began.....today I'm very happy and honored to have been selected to be a part of the Get Sketchy team.



If you've been a blog reader of mine, you know how much I adore their sketches and when time permits, I always participate in the challenges. Well know I get to do them all and work with some great sponsors. I can't wait to get started and be inspired by all of the artists (design team members and participants).

So for now I'll leave you with a card I made over the weekend based on GS #27 sketch.

A dinner invitation


in the sketch, the middle elements were put in a row, I decided since it's butterflies that I will make them look like their in motion a bit.


used up scraps here. Gotta love being able to rummage through my ever growing scrap bag for goodies to put together.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace