Life is What Life Does

It's ALMOST my Blogoversary...and guess who gets the present????

That would be YOU! It's almost my Blogoversary...two years ago I restarted up my blog. Mainly to share things with family while we were in Hawaii (I can't believe it's been that long since we first moved back there!). And this time around, I have a present FOR YOU! Yep, for you! I have a brand new, in packaging, Home Accents Cricut Cartridge!!!! Here is what it has on it.

 

Seriously, it is one awesome cart! I may end up offering some more things up for those of you who do not have a cricut, but here is one of the presents you all will be getting from me during my Blogoversary!

You are allowed to comment more then once to win, but I ask that you only comment ONCE per day. :)

This will be up for grabs until next Tuesday, September 8th. :)

Good Luck, everyone!!!!

Till next time,

~M

Thought that I would finally share some things I have been working on

Finally, the kids are back in school...and do you know what this means??? I finally have time to scrapbook! Yeeeeeehaw! Maybe, now, I can find that missing  mojo, too, so I can make pages like I use to. ;) Until then, this is what I have to share.

First up is an ornament I created using Vintage Collection and some of the new Jenni Bowlin Embossed Cardstock, too. :) I also use one of the Christmas ornaments from Clear Scraps, as well.  

Here are the directions:

I put the green vintage behind the acrylic and used the new dot embossing folder from QK with it. I used the Lyrical Letters Cricut Cartridge to cut out the argyle that i used with the Jenni Bowlin cardstock, plus, I had to hand stitch, it's like a law with me.

And here is the ornament:

 

And here is a layout I did, using My Little Shoebox, as well as the chocolate box  and the whitewash collection. I am not to terribly happy with this layout, but I had to stop playing with it, for sure, or it was just going to look worse.

   

I made my own buttons with the paper chains stamp set by banana frog.  

 

 

So that's it for right now! Thanks so much for stopping by!

Till next time,

~M

  

Good Grief, a new, and wonderful blog challenge

Hey, all. Long time, no blog, right. ;) Life has been pretty, well, like my blog is titled, basically. Been dealing with a two year old who thinks she is 16, a 6 year old who thinks he is 2, and an 8 year old who has been, for the most part, an angel. We just made it through the halfway mark of Paul's deployment and I am ready for the rest of it to be just done. The boys, thank goodness, start school in a week, and, hopefully, this will mean that the rest of this time will just fly by. Fingers crossed, right???

Ok, now, onto what I really came on for.

 

I was asked, a couple of weeks ago, by my friend Lisa, if I would like to partake in a challenge blog that was unlike any other that I had heard of, up until that point. Basically, it was a blog for those of us who have lost someone very close to us. As most of you know, I lost my mom almost 6 years ago (I can't believe that it's been that long already, it seems like yesterday, most days) from a pulminory embellism two weeks after a routine knee surgery. Anyway, back to the blog challenge. The hostess, Amanda Probst, assembled an amazing array of talent, and I think that this blog will really be helpful, and beneficial to those of us who have lost a loved one. I know that it has helped me, already. You can see the blog here: Good Grief.  Even if you haven't lost a loved one, it's a wonderful blog to check out and see the amazing talent on there, I promise. :)

Here is the layout that I did. I used the new Core'dinations Jenni Bowlin Embossed Cardstock, which I need by the truckloads...as I see that I am totally and amazingly in love with. ;)

   

 

 

I am not a huge Josh Groban fan (just don't know his music that well, that's all, I promise), but whenever I hear this song by him, I think of ma right away. She was always there for me (whether I wanted her to be or not ;) ), and, in the end, it was to raise me up, to have me be my best, and be me. There isn't a day that doesn't go by that I don't miss her, and that I don't think about her. The kids see me, raising my eyes to the ceiling, talking to her, and they say that mommy is talking to nana up in heaven cause we are being bad again (yeah, I do that a lot, too, saying how she is doing this on purpose to make me see how hard it was to raise me and my three younger brothers ;) ).

So, I do hope that you will go over and check out the blog. There are many other wonderful layouts from Jamie Harper,  Jen Waters,  Lisa Swift,  Stacey Kingsman, and Tania Willis. I think that it is beyond wonderful that we finally have a place where it is ok to be mourn, to remember, to showcase, to celebrate our loved ones lives within the scrapbooking community, and beyond. :) 

Till Next Time,

~M  

Holy Crud, peeps, Core'dinations is about to blow your socks off!!!

Seriously, hold on to your computers, make sure you are NOT drooling anywhere near your keyboard (as you will most likely have to buy a new one!!!!), that is your warning. I have some VERY awesome cardstock to show you, and it will blow your mind, I promise! At CHA Summer, last week, Core'dinations  unveiled their three new lines that they are coming out with, and holy crud, are they amazing!!! Seriously, mind blowingly amazing!!!! Here is just a SLIGHT preview of them.

  

Here is the write up that they wrote up about each pack (and, yes, that IS a Jenni Bowlin Impressions pack!!!).

Core’dinations ColorCore Cardstock® unveiled three new assorted packs at the Craft & Hobby Association’s Summer Show in Orlando this past week: Ebony and Ivory™, Sugar and Spice™, and the Jenni Bowlin Core Impressions Collection™.

Each assorted pack differs in style and presentation. For instance, the Ebony and Ivory™ pack combines the Whitewash™ and Black Magic™ Specialty Collections with sunny Core Essentials™ colors while the Sugar and Spice™ pack mixes the Vintage™ and Chocolate Box™ Specialty Collections with rich, autumn-tinged Core Essentials™ colors.

The Jenni Bowlin Core Impressions™ Collection pre-embosses original Jenni Bowlinpatterns onto red, black, and tan Core’dinations ColorCore Cardstock®.

To get your hands on the new packs, visit your local scrapbook store!

So there you go!!! It is seriously amazing!!!! I know I will be running to my LSS to get a TON of these packs!!!!!

Till Next Time,

~M

It's party time with Shimelle!!!

So, you may be wondering what I mean about that...well, I am here to tell you! This weekend, we are partying with Shimelle, showcasing her new class, Stress Free Scrapbooking, which has SOOOOOO many cool things in it, INCLUDING 20 printables which are SOOOOO much fun to work with, I swear to you! And, can I tell you, the one that I got to work with, Indulge, was oh so cute!!! It has cupcakes in it, and, if any of you were at Caitlynn's First Birthday Party, or remember her party theme...you know just how much I ADORE cupcakes! :D So, when Shimelle contacted me last week, and asked me if I would partake in showcasing a print out from her Stress Free Scrapbooking Class, I jumped all over the chance. Now, I am NOT one who usually prints things out on her printer. I do my photos, and my journaling on there but NOTHING else. Not once, not ever. It just was never enticing for me. BUT, I will say this, I WILL be doing this more! Shimelle's very cute, and very very easy printables make me want to do this more, and REALLY help me take the stress out of finding that perfect embellishment. Instead of searching forever (whether in my stash or at the scrapbook store, or, if you are like me and have to drive an hour to get to the nearest store...online shopping), it is right there in front of you, and you are able to print it out, and then, as I did, embellish it however you want to on top of that. The sky is the limit with how much you can do with these awesome printables, I promise. And with the class, you not only get the printable I was able to work with, there are 19 others (20 in total) that you will be able to play with, as well! Seriously, so cool, and so much fun, I do promise!

Ok, so enough of my chatting, here is the layout I did using the Indulge printable.

    

And here are some closeups of the layout:

 

On this next photo, you can see the cupcake that I printed out and used. I printed it out onto the Core'dination's Snowflake cardstock, with my regular printer, not a special printer, at all (actually it's my very CHEAP printer that I bought at good ol' wally world when we first moved to Hawaii and I just needed a printer to get me by, I spent no more then $40 on this printer, I promise!). I also printed out the saying, and the journaling block, too, from the printable. All of this, and MORE comes on this one printable! And, see what you can do with the printable??? You can customize it however you like. With mine, I embossed the cupcake, added a button, put it on a chipboard circle and also added some stickles to it, as well as stitched on it. All of that you can do to ONE little printable. How cool is that!!! You can so make your embellishments truly your own! 

 

Now, here, you see how I used the journaling block (that comes with the printable, and has lines on it if you want it strictly for journaling). I had it run the title right into the quote (that comes on the printable, too), and just distressed the quote a little bit. You know me and my distressing...it looks naked when I don't do it!

 

I did all of that with that one printable, with still plenty to play with that I didn't even use on this layout! Seriously!!! So so so very cool, I am telling you! So, you need to sign up for Stress Free Scrapbooking, and have fun with scrapbooking, again. I swear, you will thank me for it in the end, I promise!!! Oh, and one more thing, Shimelle is having a party ALL weekend long on her blog with free giveaways, challenges, and tons of things to win! You can also see sneak peeks of what the other gals have done, and go to their blogs and see their layouts. There are soooo many gorgeous creations, it makes me want to scrapbook all day and not sleep! So go on over and enjoy the party (i know I will be!)! 

Till Next Time,

~M   

An altered state of mind

I have been in an altering kind of mood lately, don't really know why, but I have. Maybe because I know I don't have to put photos on it, and I haven't really been in the mood to play with photos since Paul has left, so this is the next best thing for me. :) This is one of the last projects I did with my time with My Little Shoebox. I used the My Neighborhood Collection on the clipboard (that I picked up from Michael's, on sale, I believe), and also used some of the awesome Core'dinations Black Magic cardstock, on it, as well. And, of course, used my lovely scallop punch from Stampin Up...that punch gets much love over here, oh yes it does.

   

The letter stickers were from Pink Paislee. :) There is a pocket at the bottom, meant to hand stitch it before I adhered it, but, well, that didn't happen. ;) But there is a pocket there, I promise. :)

I, also, right now, should have been landing in Jacksonville airport, and seeing my best friend, Janelle, but, as there always seems to be a but with me lately, and not the big one that would be pertruding from my back side, I broke one of my molars last night, while at the movies (btw, The Proposal was very good, I would recommend it for sure!), eating popcorn. Oh the joy that has been my life since I have left Hawaii, let me tell you! Believe me, if I would have known just how dramatic my life would have been before I left Hawaii, I would not have left (well, maybe I would have, seeing as I could see into the future, and would have gone to Las Vegas and played the slots, for sure, as well as the tables....). But, well, this is my life, and, thankfully, I can, and WILL be leaving on Wed to see Janelle, as I am in dire need for some girl time. :D But, during the time that I am home, without my kids, in tremendous pain, I thought that I would share the project above, and, hopefully, once my tooth is fixed and I am given wonderful drugs to block out the pain, I will be working again. 

Till then, though, till then...

~M 

Some more new things

Ok, I have a few more things to show you all. All feature Core'dinations...seriously, so IN LOVE with this cardstock. If it were possible to marry it, I would (sorry, Paul ;) ).

Here is a card I made showcasing only Core'dinations.

  

And here is a layout that I did. It's growing on me for sure. Ever since I have been sick, I couldn't seem to get my groove back at all. I think it is finally coming back, but we shall see how the next layout progresses. ;)

 

 

 

 

 

So I had a lot of questions on where I was for the month of June and half of July. Well, the short story was I had pneumonia. It was bad, I was in the hospital for a period of time, and I am still getting over it right now. I never knew just how bad pneumonia was till, well, of course, I had it. It started out as a lingering cough that just overtook my lungs. Between the illness, Paul not being here, and taking care of the kids while sick (though not while I was in the hospital, my family helped out then), took everything out of me. So, that's one reason. The other was my internet. That is a LONG story. Basically took comcast over three weeks to figure out that the problem was REALLY their's (this is after I spent hundreds of dollars trying to figure out whether or  not it was my computer, whether it was my router, etc). So that's the very condensed version of it. I do not want to repeat that month EVER again, thank you very much! The only good thing to come out of all of this was my reassurence of being there for my kiddos. Having that much downtime (though being sick during all of it was not really downtime), gave me a chance to really get to be with my kids. They are doing ok,missing daddy a ton, but knowing that mommy is really there for them.

So that's that. Well, that, and I do have a ton of photos to share, just need to get my photoshop up and working again. I thank you all for your emails, making sure that I was ok, thank you so so so much!

Till next time,

~M

Project of the month for Mark's Paper Company

Yes, all, I know that I haven't been around in FOREVER...and I will type up a huge post for that later on, but right now I want to share with you what I did for Mark's Paper Company Project of the Month. The project itself was VERY easy to do, so I will be sharing with you the step by step directions on how to do it.

Altered Memo Board

I made an altered memo board not using what one would traditionally use for a memo board. Here are the products that I started with.

 

That would be a $5 frame from Walmart as well as push pins that were 88 cents. Very cheap to do, i promise!

First, what I did was sand the frame, as shown in this photo:

 

Next, I painted the frame using a cream colored paint (I personally love the Making Memories paints, and that's what I used here. I needed the thicker paint to go over this frame, so that way it would paint into the grooves easier and I wasn't using five bazillion coats of paint on the frame). I also sanded it down a bit more, to give it a more distressed look.

 

In the next photo, you see what I used for the 'cork' board part. I cut up a piece of thick cardboard from a box I had around the house. Free (if you don't count the fact that I used my box from my new printer that was NOT cheap ;), too!

 

In the next photo, you see how I applied the Geranium Rosebud paper from the new English Garden collection of papers. Since the frame was 10x13, I knew that I would have to use two sheets of paper for this, so make sure you have two sheets of your favorite Mark's Paper Company paper on hand. I tried to use one piece of paper, but the slip of paper I had left was going in the wrong direction and it would drive me batty if I knew that was on there. I need everything to go the right way (yes, i know i am weird).

   

This is what it looks like in the frame. Notice that I still haven't done anything about the seam of paper that was showing (and driving me BATTY). I will get to that later, of course, after I have put it in the frame...lol.

 

I used just plain, ordinary tacks for this project. They cost $.88 at good ol' Wally world. To adhere the papers, etc, onto the tacks, I just used some mini glue dots.

 

So, in this photo you just see one of this things that I used as one of the push pins. I used a piece of the Coredinations White Wash cardstock and a Cuttlebug folder, as well as a Martha Stewart punch, too.

 

See, you can hardly see the tack!

So, in this photo you can see the final photo and then the next one is an up close and personal photo of it as well. I used some cut outs (the big butterfly) from English Garden Collection, as well as some of the fabric buttons, too.

  

{see, you can NOW see how I hid that seam, too!)

 

So, there it is, my project of the month for Mark's Paper Company. I hope that you all have enjoyed it. And, I hope that you can see just how easy, and cheap, this project was to make. :) 

Till next time!

~M 

A day at the park

So, on Monday, the kids and I decided to go to this wonderful park here in my hometown. They had an awesome time, and I was able to get some photos of them (they have all been running away from me, recently, whenever I have the camera around). Here are just a few of the photos I caught from them (please know that I have none of me extras for me photoshop just yet, so these photos aren't exactly done the way I want them to be done, but here they are, either way!).

Brendan, on top of one of the many bridges that the park has:

Alex, giving me his one smile...lol:

And little Miss Caitlynn, coming down the slide, her most favorite thing to do at the park:

And one extra of Caitlynn, in the front yard of our home.

Don't mind her messy face...she refuses to let me wipe her off...and I would rather have the memory then an angry little girl and no photo at all.

It's raining here today, dark and dreary (a perfect day to be scrappin), so no photos today, I am sure, but at least I will have new projects to share with all of you soon!

Till next time,
~M

My project of the day for Banana Frog...with a bit of Core'dinations AND My Little Shoebox thrown in!

So, I had the project of the day over at the Banana Frog Blog, and thought that I would share it here, as well! I used not only  Perfect Paisley Stamp Set BUT I also used some VERY cool Vintage Core'dinations to go with it...and I LOVE how the cardstock, with it's varying different colors, gives the stamps such a COOL depth to it. So so so very fun! AND, you know what I also love??? That the Perfect Paisley worked SOOOO well with the My Little Shoebox Flawless Collection. Seriously, sooooo cool! I wasn't able to bring a TON of my stuff with me for this move, sooooo, I made sure that I at least had all of my design team stuff, and I LOVE that they are able to work so well together! I sure hope that it shows all of you that you can put something like this together too, and it's relatively easy (especially if you have the right tools, unlike moi ;) ). So, don't mind the icky cutting, etc, I was just trying my best with the tools that I packed. :)

 

And, now, I have a welcome sign for my new place. :) It may not be allll outfitted just yet (we are HURTING for furniture) but it will all come together in due time, I am sure. And with this sign, it feels a little bit more at home. :) I do hope that you all like it. And, seriously, if you have the right tools, then this sign would take you no more then an hour to do, tops! I promise. Me, on the other hand, did not, and with the wrong tools, it took me about three hours, so, still, not to bad. ;)

I did want to send out a very Happy Memorial Day, as well. I can't not thank, ENOUGH, all of the soldiers, marines, sailors, air force, and coast guard men and women who go out, everyday, for us. And, I want to send out a SPECIAL thank you to my husband, and his boat, the USS Santa Fe. They JUST left for their 6 month deployment, which is already been VERY hard on them. I don't know what they do, as it is never told to the wives, we don't get anything written up in mags, newspapers, etc, about what their work, and missions, are, but I DO know that what they do is VERY important, and I can't thank Paul, and the rest of the crew of the USS Santa Fe, enough, for their hard work, and true dedication, to our country. Paul, we miss and love you very much...please know that...and also know that we are truly proud of what you do. Please, be safe, and know you, and the whole crew, are in my constant thoughts and prayers. I love you, baby!

Ok, so that was the only other thing I had to say, I promise! Thank you all for listening to my rambling!

Till Next Time,
~M