My Crafty Life

I know. I have been such a bad blogger. I finished all of my mother's day cards and mailed them all out (2 days late!). Ha. It was fun, but I doubt I'm ever doing that again. It was hard to complete them all. If you are able to pull that off every year, I bow down to you.



I have been going to IKEA a lot lately because we're turning the toy room into my daughter's bedroom. I found these glass picture frames that were awesome. I also had some Heidi Swapp rub ons that I have been meaning to use for months. I never use rub ons, but these were so cute that I just had to have them. I love that excuse when I'm shopping, "I'm going to need these one day. I don't know what for, but I will use them for something." I have a ton of stuff that I have bought for that specific reason, including the rub ons. I glued ribbon onto the back of the frame, then put the rub ons on the front. Here it is hanging in my cubicle at work:

Here's a close up

Just a side note: I used those white clips because I accidentally threw away the clips that came with the frames. Opps! Also, the picture frames are in a pack of four.

Here's some more Mother's Day cards. Only about 25-30 more to go! :)

ETA: Michelle, for the center of the flower in this last card I stamped it with Brilliance Pearlescent Orchid. Then I embossed it with Kaleidascope embossing powder. I placed a page pebble on top. :)

One of my resolutions for this year was to send a birthday card for everyone's (family, friends) birthday. A couple of weeks ago I decided to add onto that resolution (which is going okay, by the way - although I have had to keep going back to my previously made cards rather than continuously making brand new cards) - I want to send all the mothers in my life a mother's day card. My mom, my gramma, my sister, my aunts, my mother-in-law, my sisters-in-law, friends who are moms. . .the list goes on. I never realized how many moms are in my life. We'll see if I do well on this if I decide to do the same for father's day. :)

I got a head start on the many cards I will need this weekend. This is my favorite one. For Christmas I got this card making kit from an Aunt. It had die cuts of different shapes, cards, and envelopes. It really wasn't my style, not that I didn't appreciate it because she thought about how I like to make cards and that's why the gift, it just wasn't my style. BUT, there was this awesome die cut dress in it. The dress is probably the only thing I liked in the card kit, but after this card I think it's worth it.

My whole family has been sick with the flu. Ugh! We seemed to take turns with it, first my daughter, then my husband, then me. Finally, it seems to have left the house. Now I can get back into the swing of things.

Here's what we did for Valentine's day. I am so excited because my daughter just started preschool and now I get to do all those crafty gifts I've been dreaming about.

As craft happy as I am right now, the one thing that I don’t want to do is overtake the project. I do want my daughter to have a part in it. We had her write her name on all of the princess valentine’s day cards that she picked out. Then she got to pop the popcorn. Daddy made the chocolate, and she helped drizzle the chocolate on the popcorn. Then I put the popcorn in the bags and tied them. My daughter helped to stick the cards on the bags to finish them off. Voila! I think she did wonderful for her first gift craft for the kids at school, and most importantly, I think she had fun. Here’s how they turned out:


Of course, mommy had to have a valentine's day project too. For my coworkers I altered the mailboxes from the dollar spot and made felt fortune cookies to put inside the mailboxes. The felt fortune cookies were surprisingly easy. I made 60 of them in a couple of hours. Inside the fortune cookies I stuck little fun facts about Valentine's Day and love.

I have been wondering how to make my photographs of my cards better (well, better without having to buy one of those lightbox things - because I'd rather spend my money on stamps, of course!). I stumbled upon a discussion of this very subject at SCS. One of the suggestions was to put the card on the stove and use the stovelight above for lighting. I thought, "I have one of those." So I tried it out tonight. I made a card specifically to try it out. I laid a cookie sheet upside down on the stovetop to give me a level area and place white cardstock on the cookie sheet and behind it. Then I turned on the stovelight and I also had the kitchen light on, the dining room light, and the flash on the camera.

Here's my results. I love it! It's way better than my past attempts at good photographs. I adjusted levels in my photo program, but I always do that - so the results really are from just the stovelight!!

I loved this sentiment from TAC as soon as I saw it. I hope to find many ways to use it.

Vacations are so relaxing and so nice when you are on vacation (or at work thinking about vacation), but it always feels so good to be back with your own stuff. You know what I mean? Here's a card I made today. I'm trying to get back into the crafty swing of things.


Stamps are TAC; paper is Chatterbox.

Meanwhile, please have patience while I catch up with all my SCS2 sisters' blogs. It may take me a couple of days.

Do any of you have resolutions for 2008? I have a few. There are a lot of the same - eat healthier - type of resolutions. But I also want to send all of my family and friends handmade (by me) birthday cards. You mean I don’t already do this? haha. No. I have a very long list of family/friends and it always looked too intimidating to conquer, but was always in the back of my mind. Since I don’t buy cards because I make them myself, this is actually a goal that I have been wanting to set for myself since I started seriously crafting about 5 years ago and I’m finally diving in and trying it out. Yesterday I started trying to gather everyone’s birth dates on my calendar so that I can keep track and spend time making a card, made especially for them when their birthday comes around. EEK!! I'm not entirely sure what I'm getting myself into, but I'll see how it works out. All you lovely ladies knows how much love goes into making a card, and that it can take time, which is why I haven't tried to set this goal for myself until now.