Belated birthday card

Good afternoon!  I wanted to share this quick birthday card I made for a friend who's birthday was this past Monday.  We've had a crazy hectic week, and have been running around so much, that I haven't gotten her card to her.  My desk is a MESS, but I think that it worked to my advantage in this instance.  Using whatever materials I could grab that were sitting around me, I managed to make this card in seriously less than 10 mins.  And I am completely in LOVE with this color scheme.  Elegant, classy, and perfect for the dreary winter week we've been having.

Supplies: Paper from Echo Park, My Mind's Eye and Avery Elle.  Stamps by Lawn Fawn.  Washi by My Mind's Eye.  Random embellishments from a Studio Calico kit.

Have a fantastic weekend!

Pinspired Challenges #1: Let's kick this off!

Good morning!  Today is our first challenge over at Pinspired Challenges, and boy am I excited!  We have an awesome year lined up with FABULOUS sponsors, and WONDERFUL inspiration photos.  Let's get to it, shall we?

 My mission was to create a project based off of the above picture, and here's what I came up with:

It's a cupcake box I cut out using my Silhouette Cameo, and I filled it with a baby legging "cupcake" to give as a baby shower gift. I was totally inspired by the vivid colors in the inspiration cake, and I knew right away that I wanted to use this paper from Echo Park's Little Girl collection.  Perfect!

Inside the box, I rolled up a pair of baby leggings and tied them with a bow, to make a little leggings "cupcake" and then printed and colored a free digi stamp from The Alley Way Stamps.

And, voila!  A cute, handmade baby shower gift!

Now, grab your paper, scissors, and glue, and show me what you can make based on this inspiration photo!  The amazing folks at The Alley Way Stamps are our lovely sponsors for this challenge, and they are offering our Pin Perfect winner a free stamp set of their choice.  How awesome is that?!  Here's a refresher on our challenge details...I can't wait to see what you create!



Supplies used:  Echo Park Paper, The Alley Way Stamps, Copic Markers, Stickles, Zip Dry Adhesive, Hobby Lobby Ribbon, Silhouette Cut file by Samantha Walker

One Little Word

(Image via Liyin the Designer-in-pajamas)

Good afternoon!  I've been enjoying the past couple of weeks off, for sure.  Today is the hubs' first day back to work, and my first day back to watching another toddler, but at least the kids don't go back to school just yet.  I've been giving a lot of thought to my "resolutions" for the New Year.  Since I turned 30 a couple of months ago, I've been thinking more about how to get this body of mine to last as long as I can, and my love affair with processed sugar and carbs isn't doing me any favors, that's for sure.  I want to feel better--healthier, more mentally clear, more energy and less badonkadonk when I run.  But, I also want to work on improving my patience, my temper, my role as a wife and mommy.....and so my One Little Word for 2013 is PURE.  The first word that came to me was "clean", but since I meant it more as an adjective rather than a verb, I was afraid that making it my word for the year would be a constant source of disappointment--I didn't want to have to feel like I was always "clean-ing"....more like I wanted to be clean.  So, my word is pure.  Pure in what I put in my body and pure in what I say or do.  I like the One Little Word concept, because it's a New Year's resolution that I can't fail at---as long as I'm working on incorporating new ways to be, think, and eat pure, I'll consider it a success.

More Gossamer Blue December kit

I finished up this layout tonight...more fun with Gossamer Blue's December kit.  I'll be sad when this one is gone, but I'm SO GLAD I didn't hoard it, and it's been put to good use.  These are some of my favorite layouts I've done in a while.  (to be fair, they are the only layouts I've done in a while, but I digress...)

I've been having so much fun with these great pics the hubby took of the boys--next on my agenda is to create some layouts with Fiona as the star!

Announcement: I'm a Pin Head! (This is a good thing!)

There’s a new challenge site coming in 2013! If you love getting crafty with amazing inspiration and a chance to win awesome prizes then THIS is the challenge site for you!

Pinspired Challenges: Turning Pins Into Projects

Sweet Georgia Brown, I have been about to burst with this news, so here goes:  I am so very pleased to announce that I am on the design team for an AMAZING new challenge blog: Pinspired Challenges, which makes me a Pin Head.  :) We all love Pinterest, and this new challenge will give us paper-crafters a chance to merge our love of paper and ink with our love of Pinterest! Here are the deets.  And, there are some SERIOUSLY AWESOME PRIZES from some amazing sponsors up for grabs with every. single. challenge.  I cannot even tell you how honored and seriously giddy I am to be working with the amazingly talented designers on this team, and we have some pretty awesome stuff in the works for the coming year.  

Follow Pinspired Challenges on our BLOG, FACEBOOK, FLICKR,TWITTER and PINTEREST.

And mark your calendars for January 8th for our very first challenge. Our challenges will be held on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of every month.  I can't wait to see your Pinspiration!

Gossamer Blue LOVE.

Good morning!  Phew, this holiday season has been BUSY.  I didn't think that with one kid in Kindergarten and one in Pre K, it would be this nuts, but it seems like there is SO MUCH to remember this time of year, between Pajama day, spirit day, special snack days, gift exchanges--and all of that on top of making sure everyone has food and clean underwear (and an extra toddler twice a week), and MOPS craft planning, and on and on and on......Anyway, all this to say that my crafting time has been a bit lacking lately, BUT--when I got my very first Gossamer Blue kit in the mail last week, I had to stop everything and create with it.  It is really that awesome.  I had previously been a part of another sub club, but wasn't inspired by their kit contents anymore.  My friend Heather told me about Gossamer Blue, and after peeking around their past kits, I couldn't wait to sign up!  I am totally in love.  Here are a couple of layouts I whipped up super quickly.  No time for a sketch, I just had vague ideas in my head about what I wanted to do, and just got down to it!  (My favorite way to create!)

I love to scrap every day stories about our life and the ornery things my kids do.  This layout tells the story of my two year old throwing my engagement ring down a heating vent in the house.  Little stinker. :)

This layout documents all the fun little "Evanisms" my 4 year old says.  I never want to forget them!

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a very special announcement--I am bursting with excitement and can't wait to let the cat out of the bag!!

Edited:  12/21/12:  I've just received word that one of these layouts has been picked for publication, so I'm pulling them from my blog for the time being.  WAHOO!  Don't worry, you'll be seeing it again, just in a different format. ;)

Paper Smooches SPARKS

Good evening!  It's been super busy around here lately, as I've been preparing for a big craft show this weekend.  A friend and I will have a huge booth, and of course, it's coming down to the wire!  AHH!!  I took a break this afternoon to play around with this Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge, which is all about typography.  I'm no graphic designer, but I sure do enjoy a classy typeface.

Here's my entry:

I just love that iron...Have a fabulous Friday!