A little of this and that...

Well, apparently the retail therapy yesterday did good for both me and Mercedes! Last night she amazed me by totally cleaning and organizing her own scrapping desk! It had been completely covered and piled up with stuff at least a foot high! And with absolutely no help or prodding from me she totally cleaned it herself! I was so proud of her! And she was certainly proud of herself!

So here she sits, behind her newly cleaned off desk!

Mercedes is also a very creative person. We are lucky to come by some of our creativity genetically, with some extremely creative mom's, aunts, uncles, grandma's, grandpa's, great grandparents, etc. and of course we also work at it and excerise our creative muscles alot too. I also encourage her to be creative as much as possible, and I firmly believe that the more creativity you use, the more you have. So here are a couple examples of projects she's done lately.

These two pictures she made a couple days ago with some 3d paints that we got at the dollar store and they are so much fun! Definatley two dollars well spent!

This is a Layout that Mercedes made a while ago. She loves dogs so much that she did a layout using pictures of dogs that she found on the internet! lol I think that is just too cute!

I was also quite productive last night. I managed to get a bunch of paper and supplies re-organized, which always feels good. I had bought a bunch of little baskets at the dollar store yesterday so I was having fun filling them up and re-grouping supplies.

At about 10:30 I was starting to get tired, so I thought that maybe I would have a relatively early night and not really work on any cards, but then of course the closer it got to midnight, the more awake I got and the more my creative mojo kicked in, so the idea of going to bed was put off and the card making supplies were pulled out and I starting creating. I don't know why, but for some reason I am most creative after midnight!

I started with a quickie gift tag just cause I wanted to use my new cuttlebug embossing folder that I had bought yesterday, and I already had these hearts cut out, so it literally took about 2 minutes to make this one. Gotta love that!

I'm still loving these folded frame cards, so I made a couple more of these, and for a little something extra I added some distress stickles around the scalloped edge.

This one took a little longer to make, but I'm really happy with how it turned out. I used some purple cardstock, unknown yellow patterned paper, the green patterned paper is from the Basic Grey Wisteria collection, and then just white cardstock. The font is Shelley Allegro for the Sentiment and the image is just a sticker from the dollar store (man, I love that place! lol) and the photo corner is a cuttlebug die cut. The scalloped edge is done with a Fiskar's punch.

After I finished doing a few things for myself it was time to buckle down and get to work. I had made wedding invitations for my girlfriend that is getting married this summer, but she called me earlier this week and asked if I could make her 10 more, so I got started on those last night.

Since I was going to leave them to dry overnight, I decided to take the opportunity to fulfill a photography challenge and try to take some pictures of an inanimate object from a bunch of different angles. I actually think the pictures turned out kinda cool, so I'm glad that I took the time to take them, even though it was almost 5 am! (Needless to say, I'm kinda tired today!)

Anyway this is only the first layer of the invitations, under the vellum is a pic of the couple, then under that is black cardstock with a pocket which contains the RSVP card and envie, and then all the layers are attached with 2 silver eyelets and tied together with a black ribbon at the top. And there are 9 rhinestones that I put on the stamping on the bottom of the vellum. So I still have quite a few steps left before these will be done!

But anyhoo, here's the pics, and I will post a pic when they are all finished.

Retail therapy Rocks!!

Had a fun trip to Lethbridge today with Mercedes and so stay tuned to see what new things I may come up with to use some of my new purchases. We found a new dollar store, so I got some new things there, and there was also a stop at the scrapbook store where of course I found a few treasures, and then last but not least I hit the scrapbook section at Walmart!

So I just finished putting everything away, and I am coming upon my most creative hour, so here's hoping by tomorrow morning I will have many new creations to post! So don't forget to check back often in the next few days to see what I've been up too! :D

It's a miracle....

Not only am I up and at em, functioning and productive, but I am dressed in real clothes, have makeup on and I'm smiling!! It's an early morning miracle!! This is something that definately does not happen very often!! :D So just to mark the occasion I decided I better snap a pic to prove it to my doubters (I know you're out there, and you know who you are! ;))



No big special occasion really, just a fun date day with my daughter Mercedes cause we are going to go into the city and do some shopping and have a visit with one of my bff's.



The first stop will be at the scrapbook store since I need to grab some supplies to make a few more wedding invitations for my other bff since they can't seem to quit adding people to their guest list! lol Then of course no trip to the city is complete with out a stop at Walmart where we have to look for a new backpack for my ever growing princess that is constantly complaining that her current one is too small. I also have to pick up a few other supplies while there. That will be followed by a quick stop at Office Depot to get ink for my printer, and then off to spend some time with my girlfriend when she gets off work. Last, but definately not least we are stopping at a new dollar store to see what kind of treasures we might find. And then depending on the time and our energy level we may even go out to dinner together (also depending on the lightness of my wallet) ;).



It's been quite awhile since Mercedes and I have gone to the city together so it should be fun and this will also qualify as our Friday "date/party" night!



Last night we watched the Olympics for awhile. Throughly enjoyed the women's figure skating and then I stayed up late making cards...



Just some quickie gift tags using the cuttlebug to emboss the background, nestabilities for the scalloped circles and ovals and then some cute stickers I got at the dollar store.

Another fold frame card, this one more suitable for a boy.

Fairly basic lines, but I think classy looking wedding card 6"x6" and I made an envie to match...looks much better irl

Another wedding card simple black, white and silver, with clean lines. Love the classy look of these.

Did a few of these thinking of you cards last night. Once you pick a pattern it's so easy to just make 3 or 4 at the same time just by switching out patterned papers, so these came together really quite quickly, and they are one of my favorite designs for using that I'm thinking of You die cut.

These two are basically the same card I just switched the patterned paper around and then changed out one of the cardstock colors. Quick and easy way to make two different looking cards without having to go to all the trouble of rematching papers.

I love this card for some reason. I think it's just cause it's kind loose and free feeling. The yellow background is a cuttlebug thank you embossing folder and then the addition of the dictionary flower just adds a kinda organic feel to it. Maybe I just like it cause you can never get two that will look exactly alike!!

Good morning...

Well it's not very often that I post in the morning, unless of course I haven't gone to bed yet, but today I was up early because Tuesday is Mercedes choir practice so she has to be at the school by 7:30am and usually I just come back home and go back to bed, but today I decided to just stay up and try to get some stuff done just for kicks! lol

Right now I'm sitting here, watching Les Miserables 10th Anniversary Concert at London's Royal Albert Hall with my stereo just cranked and I'm LOVIN' it! Definately one of my favorite musicals ever!! Of course I'm sure I will cry when the song "Bring Him Home" comes on, since that was sung at my brother's funeral, but it will be a good cry. Yesterday was the 4 month anniversary since he passed away. It's hard to believe it's been that long already, and yet in other ways it seems so much longer. Time can be so weird sometimes.

Otherwise things are going pretty good around here. Every day that goes by Mercedes and I get more and more used to our new family dynamic and our new routines of it just being her and I. We are starting our own schedules and traditions and it's all starting to become "normal". She is crying less and less about wanting things to go back to how they were and she has quit asking me to let her dad come back home. She seems to have accepted that the divorce is happening. And that makes it easier on me.

I must admit I have absolutely no regrets about filing for divorce. I know that this is the right thing to do. I am so much happier and really haven't missed him and am just enjoying moving on with my life. I definately don't miss all the trouble he constantly seemed to find himself in.

Anyhoo, I have been busy making cards and have come up with a couple new styles. The first one is based on a mojo Monday sketch from a couple weeks ago, and then for the next 5 I used a folded frame tutorial that I found on splitcoaststampers.

Mojo Monday sketch http://mojomonday.blogspot.com/2010/02/mojo-monday-126.html

Folded frame tutorial http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/foldedframe/