My Favorites of 2009

I've seen this going around on a couple of blogs and it's spreading quickly! I thought I would join in on the fun and reflect on some of my favorite projects from 2009! Some ladies have done it by month and I've seen others just pick one favorite but I'd like to do my a little differently. I am choosing my 3 favorite cards, and my 5 favorite LO's and my favorite project from 2009. None of these are in particular order.

Here are my Favorite Cards!

Here are my favorite LO's!

Here is my favorite project!

Now to recap my 2009 year! The year started off with deployment #2 during the first week of January (tomorrow starts deployment #3) and just a few days later Thomas celebrated his 2nd birthday! I turned 24 just a couple months ago and my hubby Tom turned 24 in spring (not to long until he's 25!). At the end of summer I took on position as head organizer of my playgroup, which has been a fun and challenging adventure. Thomas has grown so much, he talks better than he did just months ago and he's started potty training! The thing I'm looking forward to most this year is being done with deployments! This will hopefully be the last deployment my hubby will ever have to be on and I can't be any happier for it! Being a Navy family can be rewarding but it can also be very difficult and in the past 3 years we've been riding it's roller coaster. I'm looking forward to a shore duty in 2011 and shortly after moving on from this chapter and starting a new one! I hope you all had a good 2009 and that you have an even better 2010! Happy New Year everyone!

"A" is for Angel

What a great start to the new year that is just around the corner! It's only days after Christmas and I've already got one Christmas gift made for next year! That is because of this great new blog ABC Christmas Challenge! Some of you may already know of it's sister blog ABC Challenge but the idea is that every two weeks there is a new challenge and each week is a different letter of the alphabet. We are starting off with A and this two weeks challenge is Angels. I didn't want to do a card because I've got a ton of cards left over from this year. (My mailing list is fairly small, and I had plenty of Christmas card challenges throughout the year.) So I decided to make an ornament. I found this pretty angel image on the Internet and also found a great bible verse to go with the angel theme. We had to incorporate beads or charms in our project as well. I just happened to have some red beads in my stash! Here is my finished product. Thanks for looking ladies!

OH MY GOODNESS! Candy overload!

There is a great opportunity this week at A Thousand Sheets of Paper! Amy is doing a week full of giveaways! She is focusing on the new releases of The Greeting Farm. Anya is getting some new friends in the new year and they are super cute! I have yet to own any of them but I drool over them constantly! I'm hoping that my luck is with me this week and that I'll be able to win one of these great giveaways this week, keeping my fingers crossed!!! So do take a minute to run over there and get in on the action! Have a great week ladies!

WOYWDW!

It is Wednesday again already! Where has time gone. This week my desk is much more crowded than last. But it's not completely untidy, it's definitely an organized mess.

You can see on the very bottom of my pile is my Fire Station LO that I had been working on and finished a few days ago. It's still waiting to be put away in the scrapbook album. I've got to get that organized before I can put it in there. On top of that I've got some scraps sorted into color groups waiting to be put away. I've decided that I need another paper sorter for my tiny scraps, I've decided to get a coupon organizer to use for that I just have yet been able to go pick one up. I'm hoping to get one in the next few days so I can get my scraps re-organized so that all those tiny scraps will be easier to find and use up instead of just creating more by using the bigger scraps. On top of that is a card in the cream envelope waiting to be put away in my card keeper. I've been working on clearing and putting away my "overflow" space on the couch and it just gets transferred to the work desk, at least the couch is clean right?! All the way on the far end is my son's birthday invitations waiting to be stamped and sent off in the mail with some images and stickers on top needed to be stashed away. I also have some Christmas ribbons and tags that I plan on using on LO's and some cut outs that I got off of Christmas cards, tags and boxes to use as well. My Dad would be so proud of me for using real "scraps" on my pages, he always asks why I buy things to scrapbook with when your supposed to use actual scraps from real life. He remembers his grandmother scrapping with household scraps and he's very much old school. So I use that as inspiration to find uses for as many scraps as possible and during the holidays it is just SOOOO easy! Now some really fun stuff and some blah stuff on my desk this week, a gift card to Red Lobster : ) and my rent bill : ( . Thanks for stopping by and taking a look ladies! I hope you come by during the rest of the week as well to see what else I have going on.

Some finished projects and a bit about Christmas

Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas. I know my family had a pretty good one. I got a bunch of good scrapbooking stuff which was really great! Most of it was the everyday things like glue runners (which I'm always running out of) and glue dots but the coolest thing I got was a Scorepal! I've been wanting one of those for quite a while now and had mentioned it to my MIL not expecting her to get it because they can be a bit pricey and was completely shocked when I opened it! Technically it was my birthday gift but it came with all the Christmas gifts so she only had to send one package. But I absolutely love it!


Well on to my projects. Last Wednesday you got a peek at a couple of my projects and I've finished them! I thought I would share the finished products with you all. First we have my son's birthday party invitations! I got them all put together with the colored matting, now all I have to do is get the envelopes and send them out. I'm really happy with the finished product and can't wait to send them out to all his friends.



The second project is my double LO of our Fire Station tour. I finished it off using a red ribbon along the top and water droplets at one end to portray a fire hose and then of course adding in the journaling on the bottom of the second page. I'm really happy with the way it turned out!

Great Candy at Pink Gem Designs!

Janet over at Pink Gem Designs is giving away a great loot! You will get the chance to choose 6 stamps from her stock for free! All you have to do is go over to her blog and leave a comment, post a photo and details on your blog and provide others with a link. Isn't that easy! So go over and take a look and don't miss out on a great opportunity! The winner will be drawn on January 18Th!

My workspace this wednesday

What's on my Work Desk Wednesday?

Well, sorry to disappoint once again but this is all my work desk has on it at the moment. I started working on this yesterday afternoon and am waiting to finish up the details. I was out scrapping at my friends house last night which always cleans my space up here at home. However, I did start a project that is in the wings waiting to be finished.

My son's birthday is only a few weeks away (Jan. 9th) and so the Christmas prep had to take a back seat for a while so I could get started on his party. He will be three in the new year and I'm going to give him a WOW! WOW! Wubbzy! birthday party. Thomas and all his friends absolutely adore Wubbzy and I had seen some pictures of a Wubbzy birthday cake somewhere on the web and just had to do it! I've got some stuff in the mail on it's way for his party and these are the makings of his invitations. I just have to go out and get some more card stock to finish them up. I'm really excited about his party!

On another note, although my "scrapping" area is not such a mess my dinning room table is!! Today is my baking day for Christmas. Usually I spread it all through the week but this holiday season my plate has been a little more full than normal. I've been running a play group for the last few months and that has taken a lot of my time. So today will be a marathon of baking, laundry, and packing before heading to my in-laws tomorrow. I'm hoping I can get it all done, it's just going to be a very long and tiring day. I'm hoping that I might be able to get my hubby and son to go out for a bit so that I can really concentrate on what I need to do. Well, I think I've taken a long enough break and should get back to work. Thanks for stopping by ladies and I hope you all have a great Holiday and a safe New Year!

Candy alert!!!

You might remember me mention candy that was being given away for the launch of Sussie & Vikki's Christmas Club Blog. Well the deal is getting even SWEETER! They have put up a great giveaway on the new blog. As you can see from the picture below it includes images, rhinestones, chipboard books, stickers and more! The only thing you have to do to enter is become a follower of the new blog, post up a picture with a link on your blog and then put it into their Mr. Linky! How simple is that! The candy will be drawn January 15th and announced on the 16th along with the first challenge of the year!

New Challenge Blog Opening Candy!

Susie from Sassie Designs by Sussie and her friend Vikki from Vikki's Creations are going to start a new challenge blog in January. It is called Christmas Club Blog and they will be putting up weekly challenges related to Christmas to help us all throughout the year get those cards and projects done on time! That way hopefully we won't have to scramble to make those cards and gifts and be able to enjoy more time with our families doing fun holiday things. So to celebrate both Sussie and Vikki are giving out blog candy on their personal blogs. Be sure to stop by both their blogs to enter and over to the Christmas Club Blog to become a follower and look for the upcoming challenge on January 16th! Both these candies will be chosen on January 5th.

Coloring Challenge

This weeks challenge over at If The Shoe Fits...Scrap It! is called Color Your World. They challenged us to use our favorite methods of coloring on our project. This is what I ended up with.

I found this cute little rocket in my stash of images that I received from swaps and friends (so I don't know it's name or who makes it). I colored him using colored pencils and blending with Gamsol. I love the soft effect that the Gamsol gives you. TO make the colors stand out even more I went over the lines with a Bic Marker to make the black outline darker. I added my own flames to give it a little more pizazz. I also used some Pearlescent Chalks from Pebbles Inc. to give him a little shine and those rosy cheeks! I stamped the letters in Close To My Hearts Goldrush ink using their Precious Alphabet stamp set. All the papers are also from Close to my heart out of the Animal Crackers collection. I really like the way this turned out and I think I'll be using this rocket again in the future!

What's on my desk Wednesday!

Welcome to my desk on this chilly Wednesday morning! I'm sad to report that it is not much more of a mess than it was last week! Sorry ladies...Let's take a look at what I've got! Well I've got this really great stamp that I found at Michael's on sale for $4 and some change as well as it's stamped image waiting to be colored and then used on a birthday card...need to get working on that one right away! Then in the bottom corner I've got a stack of these adorable little moose stamps. He's lounging in a big comfy chair with his coffee and a cupcake! I'm going to use these to make small little Christmas gifts for my playgroup friends. I better get those done soon as well! I'm way behind on my projects...the rest of the stuff is mostly tools; my trimmer, TTT, a centering ruler, glue dot runner and my scissors. I do have a "Family" plaque waiting to be altered (it was going to be a gift but I found something better so it's no hurry). NOW, although my DESK isn't that I do have a mess that needs to be cleaned, it just doesn't fit on my desk.

This is mo the couch next to me or as you can see my crop bag is acting as another tiny desk! I've got the mess it just usually doesn't all fit on my desk! Hope you ladies have a great Wednesday and thanks for stopping by!y extended mess from my desk. My "desk" is no larger than 21 inches by 17 inches so the majority of my mess gets cast off the couch or as you can see my crop bag is acting as it's own little tiny desk. So even though my desk isn't messy I've got plenty of mess! Thanks for looking ladies and I hope you have a great Wednesday!

If you would like to join in on Wednesday's fun head over the Stamping Ground and share your desk with us!

The fastest and greatest Christmas gift I've made!!

First bare with me as I tell you about my latest project. I am still pretty new to blogging and I'm trying to find my vibe. I'd like to get into more detail as far as the products I use like many of the other bloggers out there but am not 100% there yet. Thanks for your patience!

I realized this morning after finishing up the year in review photo books for my parents and grandparents that I had left out my Father in law and his wife. (Whom we don't have the greatest relationship with) So I decided that I needed to make them a last minute photo book before I mailed all the gifts out tomorrow. My other books held 20 photos so to make this much easier and cheaper I decided to only choose 1 photo per month. I dragged my hubby away from his computer to help me with this one and I have to say if he wasn't helping me out it would have turned out completely different!

I started by printing out our 12 photo choices on the 4x6 photo paper you get at the Dollar Tree (it works really well, just as good as Walgreens and much cheaper). I wanted to keep them in the true 4x6 size so I planned to place them on 4.25x6.25 pages. (I always use and extra .25 inch whenever I am matting something. It keeps all my matting nice and even through projects) So planning on having my pages in that size I decided to make my front and back cover 4.5x6.5 to overlap the pages just a bit. Below are some pictures of the front cover, inside pages and the back cover.

I used a piece of left over thick cardboard (from what I can't remember) to cut the base of the covers. I covered the outside of the cover with Natural Wood Grain from DCWV. I added a 2 inch strip of the worded patterned paper to both covers as well (I do not remember who makes it, I bought it quite a while ago). I also used that patterned paper to cover the inside of the covers. I used a "Boys will be Boys" sticker from Me & My Big Ideas for the title. I used little gear Thickers: Subway Accents to add a little something extra so it wouldn't seem so empty. Next I added on the tie to each cover (I used some black ribbon I had in my snippets jar) using TTT to adhere it. I had to use 6 different pieces of card stock to make my 12 pages in the book. I cut out a 6.25x8.5 piece from each card stock and scored it at 4.25 inches. To adhere all the pages together I used TTT and my glue dot runner (to spare my TTT or it would all be gone by the end of this one project). Once all the pages were together and attached to the covers I just added my photos and printed out the 12 months from my computer using the font MICHAEL.

I am so pleased with the way it came out that I am not wanting to give it up! I think next year I will have to do these for my parents and grandparents as well! Of course I might do more than the 12, just because it's so hard to choose only one photo! Thanks for looking!

The Music Within Your Soul!

This week at The Saturday Spotlight Challenge we were challenged to create a project showing what type of music moves your soul! This one took a little thought on my part because I have a very large range of music that I like to listen to. For many people the music we listen to depends on our mood that day. However, I always love any music with a soft Melody and something just pure and sweet as compared to heavy instrumentation. This is what I came up with!

Here is what I used:

• I started with a simple A2 card and covered it with a PP from a K& Company Mat Pad (Brenda Walton: Madeline)


• With the scraps that overlapped the card base I tore both edges and used it as a border at the bottom of the card


• I printed off a Precious Moments image that I had stored on my computer along with the sentiment "Sing a Sweet Song!"


• I colored in the image using EK Success Pastel Pencils in Aqua Green, Buttercup, and Carnation as well as Crayola Colored Pencils in light brown, tan and gray (shirt, shoes and shading around image)


• I blended out the colors using my Gamsol and inked the edges with Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen


• I matted my sentiment on a dark green CS from my stash and used pop dots to give it some dimension


• To give the background a little more spice I made the dots stand out by applying a dot of Glossy Accents to each dot and finished it off with three light green rhinestone from Studio 18.

Personalized Candy at Magnolia Down Under

Kellie has a great opportunity for everyone over at her blog Magnolia Down Under! She is giving the chance to win a personalized stamp!!! That's right finally have that stamp you've been wanting to use on all your projects so everyone knows that you made it by hand. I've been wanting one of these for a long time so I am keeping my fingers crossed!

The winner will be able to choose one of the above designs and choose how they would like it to be personalized. Please pass on this great opportunity to your friends and be sure to go and get your name in the draw! Good luck everyone!

Christmas Project

This year I am trying to make more handmade presents. This is one of my projects. I had seen this cute little "Family" decoration at the Dollar Tree and thought it would be so easy to alter it. It was a plan wood without a finish. I had recently received a family themed swap in the mail and it just clicked! So i used the "family" paper in the kit to cover the F, m and l and used a coordinating card stock to cover the a, i and y. The ribbon on the base was part of the kit as well as the red ribbon tied around the a and y. I added some miniature clothes pins to the back of each letter so that you can clip photo's up as a cute alternative to frames. The finishing touch were dew drops from The Robin's Nest that I found at my local scrapbook store. I adhered them using Glossy Accents from Inkssentials. I am going to be returning to the Dollar Tree this afternoon to look for more alterable items!

Epic Giveaway at Die Cuts R Us!

The great ladies over at Die Cuts R Us are giving us a great oppurtunity! A giveawy of an Epic Six!! Not that that is great enough but they are also giving away a grab bag of dies to help start the winner out! The only catch is that they need to reach 500 followers by New Years Day! So head over there become a follower, post a comment on their post and spread the word!! Post it up on your blog, on your facebook and tell all your scrapping gal pals! Don't let an oppurtunity like this get away from you!

What's on my Desk Wednesday!

So I've seen a couple of bloggers doing this fun little activity on Wednesday and I thought I would try it out! My work space is a little bare today because I was scrapping at a friends house last night so most of my projects are still in my tote waiting to come out again. As you might notice on my table I've got my Christmas tags up on the left corner waiting to be put on packages. I was really happy with the way they turned out, I'll have a post up with more detail about them once they made it to the presents. Then I've got my phone and my accounting booklet. This is my playgroup stuff and it's a nice representation of how ingrained it is in my life! I was doing some dues and things like that yesterday and then answering texts about our play date this morning. Now for the other half of my work space! As you might be able to see on the computer screen I've got the Stamping Ground blog up with their WOMDW post waiting for me to upload my own. then there is the constant mess of papers and such that I never have a place to put. In the middle is a "family" kit I received from a swap not to long ago that I've been using for a Christmas project for my MIL. Once it's finished it should make it up on the blog as well. Hope you all enjoyed my desk today! I'll try to make this a weekly thing!

Great Deal going on at Close To My Heart

This month there is a great deal going on at Close to My Heart. Right now all their clearance items are selling for 50%-80% off! My wish list of items (just because I haven't actually put in my order yet) off this sale would normally come out to $104 plus shipping but during this great sale event I will only pay $34!!!! They have this great paper pack that is normally $43 for only $10! Stamp sets that go for around $22 are on sale for $7. If you love a great deal and you love Close to My Heart products this is a great time to get these items. If you don't yet have a consultant that you purchase through here is a great consultant!

Great Blog Candy!

There are some great blog candies out right now! Some of them end tonight so hurry to get your chance at winning! Here they are!

Christmas Candy at PinkLilacs

Ends November 29th

Candy from Paper Art From Studio 313

Ends November 28th

Mini Blog Candy at Stamping & Sharing

Ends November 30th

Christmas Blog Yummies at Three Clovers Designs

Ends November 30th

A little taste of Sweet Tilda Candy at Sussie's Sassy Designs

Ends November 29th

Fashionista Friday #9 from the Shoe

This is my project for the Fashionista Friday #9 over at the Shoe. It was Halloween themed which was really fun! I decided to make a fry box to hold some candy in. ON the front I used my Frosted Lace Stickles to create a web design and then sprayed my Pearl Glimmer Mist on the inside to give it a sheen. I cut out a yellow moon and distressed it with some Distressing inks. I twisted some old scraps to make tree branches and attached them inside. I added a few other little elements and it was done! I think it's cute I might have been able to do something better but I'm happy with it.

Freedom ATC Challenge

Kristy, one of the Design Team members at the shoe has a great challenge going on right now. She's challenge us to create an ATC of freedom and what it means to us. Of course there have been patriotic entries to her challenge and a great ATC about the freedom of, or lack of, circus animals. So mine goes more along the lines of patriotism. I used a great image I found of sailors waving to family upon their return home. When I think of freedom I think of all the sacrifices our military has to give up. My husband is in the Navy and sacrifices his time with me and his son to support the war in Iraq. We are only free because we have men and women and their families who sacrifice some of the simplest things in life to fight for it. So here it is.