the angry (bird) pumpkin and then some…

We have a theme this year obviously… Angry Birds! Like the messy kitchen? keepin’ it real, yo.

Ideas and Inspiration

As a card maker, I’m always looking for new things to try when it comes to creating. This exciting new card-making book, 31 Thank You Cards, from Ella Publishing is packed with useful card-making tips and tutorials, plus beautiful thank-you cards that will fill your heart with gratitude. Right now you can get if for only $6.49 through November 7 (after that the price changes to $7.99). Check it out and be inspired!

Randomness

Tomorrow, the November The Stamps of Life Release... I’ll have a new project and video tutorial up at CreateScrapbooks.com. Thursday, I’m posting my project for the Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop. The man goes out of town tomorrow for the rest of the week (gulp!). Watched Bridesmaids last night, loved it (the man did not). I am going to keep chanting “no sweets, no sweets, no sweets…” in hopes it will keep me out of the Halloween candy bowl. The dog is currently begging for a bite of my apple and… that’s what’s up!

Happy Halloween!

so, I made a Green Angry Bird…

When my youngest told me he wanted to be an Angry Bird for Halloween, my first thought was, “Awesome! I’ll gladly spend $40 so I don’t have to make it.” They sell red and black birds. Not green ones. What did he want to be? A Green Angry Bird. You know what that means? It means a trip to JoAnn’s, lots of felt, and me pulling out the ol’ Elna sewing machine I got for my 14th birthday. (yes, that says 14… it was a while ago obviously.)

I got to work.

I taped two very large pieces of paper together and drew out a pattern using images I printed out as a visual... I was basically winging it! Daisy helped.

I drew the face as detailed as I could and then cut the pieces out to use as a pattern. I used some No Sew glue to keep everything in place.

Since I like to make things difficult I hand stich all the pieces onto the front. Talk about a mind numbing task! It was worth it though. I sewed the tail and head feathers together, stuffed them to capacity, sewed all the edges up leaving the appropriate openings and wa-la!

Go me! I made the Green Angry Bird! No idea what level it’s on but apparently it exists.

What’s it look like on? You’ll have to wait and see. :-)

wordless Wednesday: hi!

weekend recap (and then some!)

Saturday

On Saturday Karen and I headed to that crazy Swedish utopia that is Ikea so she could order some new cabinets for her home office.

(she’s got two highly amusing blog entries on how we got to this point – Flat Earth Confession and Curvature of the Earth. And just so you know, she took a little creative license with that whole tiger comment. ha.)

Ikea messed something up on part of her order and getting it changed cost us half our life… but I got some delicious Cinnamon Buns out of it and that totally made up for it.

Sunday

On Sunday Karen and I went to a crop for the Fiskateers…aptly titled called United States of Fiskateers Crop for Texas. If you’ve never heard of the Fiskateers, it’s a a supportive community with a message board and gallery where people and encourage one another and share there love of Fiskars. There are challenges, online crops, and a plethora of goodness so it’s something I encourage you to check out.

I had such a good time at the crop! Making new friends, seeing everyone's projects, and hanging out with people that really get it. It was a fantastic day! And thanks to our hostess with the mostess Lizzie, for putting on such an awesome spread!

What did I get done at the crop? Drum roll please… this one card! And before you say, “she only got one card done in 6 hours?” I have to tell you, I got one card done! woo! I was actually surprised… crops for me are a social-get-out-of-the-house-and-chat-with-awesome-people thing. It’s not a time for me to be productive so that fact that I actually completed a project is pretty darn impressive.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Other: stamps (penguins4Christmas, The Stamps of Life), Square Flip-it (Stephanie Barnard, Sizzix).

Monday

Yesterday I got my project for the Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop done. Look for that on November 3rd. It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. I’m using some cool papers from Grant Studios which is an Australian company. The hop continues (every Tuesday and Thursday) so you can check it out today too.

Tuesday

Today it’s The Stamps of Life Day (at least for me!). I’ll be working on projects and a new video. I really enjoy making the videos, I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to the whole talking to yourself thing though. At least the kids are back in school and I get no extra commentary after I mess up. ;-)

Wednesday

Tomorrow – heading to Karen’s! (thank goodness she only lives 10 minutes from me – if that!). Ikea is coming to put her cabinets in today and since I’m absolutely obsessed with organizing (love, love, love it!) I begged to help. I think I said something like, “don’t you dare put anything away without me.” It’s probably wrong I’m so excited and it’s not even my office but as my teenage daughter would say, whatever!

And now it’s time to start my day… kids out the door, walk the dog, workout, get cleaned up, and get `er done!

Happy Tuesday friends!

Lawnscaping Challenge #20 | bon voyage

It’s been a while since I participated in a Lawnscaping challenge and I’ve really missed it. I’ve got a few unopened Lawn Fawn stamp sets that are still in the package (gasp!) and they were calling me so I decided to break one open and take part of the current challenge.

I used a the Sizzix Scallop Oval Framelit to create the card base. After I folded the paper over, I made sure there was a bit of the Scallop Framelit hanging off the edge of the crease so that portion of the paper would not get cut, creating the connected portion of the card. I like the effect with the scallop. :-)

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Other: patterned paper (from my scrap drawer), yellow cardstock.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

on my desk

On my desk today: pretty papers from Grant Studios (a company from Australia) and one very cool die by Eileen Hull (Petal Power). I’m working on my project for the Sizzix Fresh Vintage Blog Hop. The hop has been going on since September 27th featuring a ton of awesome designers and amazing projects.

Want to play catch up the projects, check the following links…

• Album
• Fringed Flower
• Butterfly
• Flower, Layers #9
• Vase
• Bird

more to come…

• Leaves
  Thursday, October 20
• ScoreBoard Suitcase
  Tuesday,October 25
• Flower, 3D #2
  Thursday October 27
• ScoreBoard Caddy
  Tuesday, November 1
• Flower, Petal Power
  Thursday, November 3

I highly recommend you check it out, there are some very cool project to see. :-)

Look for my project on November 3rd!

holiday gift idea: a Mixbook

Last year for Christmas, we made photo books for our family as gifts. They were a HUGE hit! Besides everyone thinking I was a genius and that I put a lot of work into them (which I didn’t, they were super easy to make!), they were truly touched to get something so heartfelt and personalized. This year we’re going to make them again and since the holidays are right around the corner – you know how they sneak up on us – I’m going to go ahead and get started. I got this buy one get one free coupon from Mixbook and wanted to share it because it’s to good of a deal not to.

Until October 23rd, 2011, Mixbook is having a Get Your Free Photo Book deal! When you buy one photo book, you get one photo book for free. With this great offer, think of all the great memories you can share in two great photo books, for the price of one (and all the family members you can cover if you’re using them as gifts!). Visit Mixbook and start creating your photo books now, as this deal will disappear sooner than you know. Use coupon code: BK4FREE.

It’s never to early for holiday ideas!

Create Scrapbooks: The Stamps of Life October 2011 Special Release Sets

Hi all! I’m blogging at Create Scrapbooks today bringing you the October special releases from The Stamps of Life.There are four awesome new sets: wreath4me, Christmas4Him, fancy4labels, and search4words.

Here’s a quick video showing you the new sets:

Head on over to Create Scrapbooks and check it out!

See you there!

wordless Wednesday: weekend project

getting ready for Christmas

(Why yes, I did say Christmas!)

I can’t believe I’ve already purchased something for Christmas! I’m not sure if I should classify that as ahead of the game or just plain crazy! I’m going with ahead of the game since I’ll need it for December 1st… and I currently don’t feel like admitting I’m crazy! ha!

I ordered a Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar. I figured my 9 year old son would really get a kick out of it. I was surprised when my 16 year old son was really excited about it too. He was really pushing for the Star Wars one. I was debating between Lego City 7553 and Lego City 2824 but hey! I’m all for holding on to my kids being little as long as possible so I figured going for the Star Wars one would be the smart choice. My 17 year old daughter did not care at all… that doesn’t surprise me in the least considering she’s not really a Star Wars or Lego’s fan. I need to figure out something fun to do for her this year since I’ve got the boys covered. The Advent Calendar will be a new tradition for us. I’m excited about it.

I know December is a while away but I’ve already got Christmas on the brain. I’ve purchased the papers I’m going to use for the December Daily album this year. I went with the Season’s Greetings collection by Echo Park.

What do you think? Perfect right? I’m glad I went with the pack because it’s got extra element stickers and journaling spots. It should make assembly easy-peasy. I’m really excited about this years December Daily.

What did I do last year for December Daily? Check it out HERE on my blog or HERE in my Flickr album.

Anyone else out there ahead of the game and prepping for Christmas?

Create Scrapbooks: Tutorial with The Stamps of Life October 2011 Release - penguins4Christmas

Hi everyone! I’m blogging at Create Scrapbooks today sharing the October club release from The Stamps of Life with a cute set called penguins4Christmas! I’ve got a video tutorial too making this cute card… stay tuned to the end because there’s a bonus project.

Have a great weekend!

wordless Wednesday: a good morning

this one’s for my man…

Because he’s a great husband and Dad, because he’s the most hard working man I’ve ever known, because his dedication knows no bounds, because he’s cute, because he has fantastic legs, because he makes me stuff with all his DIY knowledge, because all these years later he still puts up with all I can dish out - all that plus a million other reasons and a million more we haven’t even experienced together yet - that’s why I love him.

Supplies:

InLinkz.com

Stamps: happy2becircles (The Stamps of Life). Other: ribbon.

Happy Anniversary to my man!

photo recap | September 2011

Funny thing, time. I remember it being January and in the blink of an eye it’s already October. I actually asked my husband about Christmas yesterday! This year is going way to fast.

September was a pretty good month. Our weather cooled slightly, which means it was about 5 degrees less but just as humid. Small fry had some kite flying fun (it’s not easy finding a kite in September by the way). My big kids went to Homecoming. I still can’t believe I have a Junior and Senior. Maybe that’s why I have such an issue with time flying by… the faster it goes the sooner I know there will be graduation, college, and another Senior. I am so not ready. At least I’ll have my youngest at home for a long time to come still. :-)

Here’s to having time stand still!