Thanks for the Memories

Time flies when you're having fun and this year raced by! I'm so thankful for this hobby of ours, documenting life, because it zooms by so quickly!

Two of our nieces were here last night looking at some of our scrapbooks from 20 years ago when we took them to Disney Land and the S.F. Zoo. It was fun reminiscing over those trips and what each of us remembered.

Speaking of scrapbooks...this recently made page features one of my favorite photos of our big boy Latte.

He's so sweet! So fluffy! And has the most beautiful green eyes! I adore this cat!

I used an old Bella Blvd. collection called Spring Flings and Easter Things.

For the sake of time flying by at the speed of light and wanting to preserve life's little ordinary and wonderful moments, I've finally decided to do a Project Life album this year. I hope I'll be able to keep up and look forward to sharing our pages with you.

Happy New Year!

Die Cut Embossing

I'm back after a lovely and restful weekend spent with the hubs. Christopher was at mini camp over the past few days so Dan and I had time to dine, wine, visit the history museum and catch a movie.

I also got to spent a little time in the craft room playing with a new set of Top Dog Dies called Leafy Flourishes.

I thought it would be fun to make a faux dry embossed background with this set.

It's super easy! Just create a few cuts...

...glue them to the same color card stock...

...and use a white ink pad to wipe across the design. Looks neat, huh?

Then I added my 'embossed' design to some lovely Pebbles patterned paper from the Front Porch collection.

(Buy Now - $2.99)

To finished the card I added patterned paper hearts and a sentiment card along with a mini clothespin and a jute bow. I love all the texture, how about you?

Well, I've got some more crafty ideas I want to work on so I'm going to play some more! ;)

Hello 2014

2014 is on it's way and to help my hubs keep track of the new year, I made this CD case desk calendar.

I had this CD case left over from another project and the small calendar pages are from Papertrey Ink.

I couldn't think of a better paper collection to use for a calender than Doodlebug's Day to Day line?

Day to Day includes so many different icons from typewriters and eye glasses to neck ties and coffee!

I opted for mustaches and arrows...the arrows being a great symbol for time marching on! What do you think? It was pretty quick and easy too! You gotta like that!

Happy New Year!

Pin-spired Cards

How was your Christmas? Did you get any crafty supplies from Santa? Maybe you will have a little extra time between now and New Year's Eve to spend some playing in your craft room? 

Over at Bella Blvd. we were given the following Pinterest photo to inspire our next assignment.

(source)

Isn't this image gorgeous? It's fun to replace letters in a word with a object or symbol...there's always a lot of room for creativity in doing so.

I was reminded of this Bella Blvd. phrase card that uses a peace symbol for the 'o' in joy.

With the many circles in the card I went with a circular theme using buttons and this background die cut.

What I love most about this card is the color combination! These are some seriously cheerful colors!

For my next card I decided to use the word noel from the photo and replace the 'o' with an ornament and snowflake combination.

Both cards were created with Bella Blvd's Christmas Countdown collection and have a completely different look and feel to them. I like that kind of versatility in a line!

The ornament and doily die cuts are from Top Dog Dies. They too are versatile...I've used them for so many projects this season.

To see the what my teammates created with this Pinterest photo, head over to Bella Blvd. to have a look.

Happy craftin'!

Merry Christmas!

I'm dropping in for a couple minutes to wish you a very merry Christmas! Wherever you are I hope you are enjoying the day and those you love.

This morning in the bustle and flurry of opening gifts and snapping photos I'm reminded just how challenging it is to get a decent picture on Christmas morning! Couple that with the fact that my son has a phobia of having his pic taken, I don't get very many good shots.

I keep taking them anyway. Most don't ever see a scrapbook, but they're saved for memory's sake.

Last week I created this scrapbook page with a couple pictures from last year. Since the photos aren't very good, I often make them black and white and print them smaller.

Here's my boy...hiding behind his new Cars game! ;)

These pretty papers are from Bella Blvd's Christmas Countdown collection and the holiday word dies are from Papertrey Ink.

Simple, clean with so-so photos...works for me!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

I've been spending a lot of time on Pinterest lately! Those of you who follow my boards have probably seen my oodles of daily pins! Now that the presents are wrapped, the cookies are baked and the cards have been sent, I'm enjoying some down time which includes pinning!

This morning I saw this pin and it inspired me to run up to my craft room and create this snowy card for you.

I love to emboss Kraft paper and then swipe a white ink pad across the design to make it pop.

I also love burlap and rusty jingle bells!

The patterned papers I created the die cut snowflakes from is from Pebbles' Front Porch collection which happens to be 30% off at Scrapbook.com.

Ooh la la...texture and tones from nature with a pop of red! Right up my crafty alley!

So the pin that inspired this card lead me to an absolutely fabulous blog called Place of my Taste. Go check it out...you will be so glad you did!

Have a lovely Christmas Eve!

Paper Chains

Here we are just a couple days away from Christmas which means the kiddos are out of school and it's a great time to make something crafty with them. How about a good old fashioned paper chain? Remember those? I thought it would be fun to create one using Top Dog Dies' Wesley Boarder Die.

What do you think? This die makes a beautiful paper chain, doesn't it?

I love all the detailing!

Here's a picture of it on our little tinsel tree. 

There's so many ways to deck the halls with paper chains...draped along a buffet table or mirror. I thought several of these hung vertically on a door would be pretty. How would you decorate with paper chains? Ohhh...what about weaving some lights through one?

Well, I've got a few presents to wrap! And cookies to devour! Last Friday's baking went smoothly. I only ruined one batch of cookies and made the biggest mess! At the end of the day I don't think there was a single surface in our kitchen that wasn't sticky! But we got it all cleaned up in time for company on Saturday and there were lots of  happy, cookie eating folks at our place!

Baking Time!

Guess what I'm going to be doing much of the day? Baking! Baking! Baking! First, I'm going to run to the store and clean them out of sugar, chocolate and pecans...then the baking will commence!

These are the goody boxes I made last year...

...snow balls, fudge, peanut brittle and pecan thumbprints, oh my! My neighbors love me! ;)

To preserve these sweet memories I put together this scrapbook page with Doodlebug's Home for the Holidays collection along with a handful of snowflake die cuts.

This year I plan on making the pecan (snow) balls again, sugar cookies and something new, lace cookies, a recipe I discovered on Pinterest.

Tomorrow we have family visiting so I'll be baking for them too.

Ahhhh....it's the most wonderful sugar-filled time of year! 

Home Sweet Home

There's no place like home for the holidays!  

Recently I created this scrapbook page of our home and family with Bella Blvd.'s Snapshots collection. 

These adorable sketched houses make the perfect background paper for the theme...

...as well as this Paper Pieces die cut pennant and sticker tag.

Our home is my favorite place to be!

It's where my two favorite guys live and our kitty cats roam. :)

I'll be home for Christmas! There's no place I'd rather be!

How about you? Where will you be this Christmas?