Great blog find...

I've been burned out lately. Lots of activities and not too much crafty time for myself. I was bumping around the internet a few days ago and came across the coolest craft blog. I just had to share.

Cathe Holden's blog "Just Something I Made" is full of great craft ideas, blog graphics and even recipes!

Here are my top three projects from her blog:


Make your own Poker Chips. These could be used for so many projects...


Divine Twine Holders I want to do this for all my gift ribbons too.


Glitter Labels I'm sucker for Vintage Graphics.

Be sure to stop by her blog. There is something fun for everyone there!

Time for a Contest!

First, a peek at the August kit. Can't wait to show you more--loving the fabric tape in this kit already!! Stay tuned...

Okay--I did a bit of housekeeping this weekend, and I have come to a realization that I have a serious addiction to punches. Now, I'm not even going to kid you--we're talking a major collection here. I started teaching scrapbook classes way back in 2000, and the first class I ever taught was Punch Art. Oh--you know what I'm talking about, don't you? Yep--I've been working on this lovely hobby using punches for ten years now. And this weekend, I made it a point to count them. So I thought it would be fun to do a contest to reveal the number.

Take a guess...How many punches do I own? The person to come closest to guessing without going over will win a free August Main WIP Kit!!

Leave your first name and contact info, along with your guess in the comment section of today's post. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday's blog!!

Good luck!!

Reasons

Over the years since my husband and I've been married (we'll be celebrating our 29th anniversary two weeks from today), I've amassed quite a large pile of snapshots, many of them seemingly unworthy of scrapping. You know the type--not well composed, sometimes even a little out of focus. Little random bits of my life over the decades. They sit in a box, unscrapped.

Every once in a while, I go through those snapshots looking for something to scrap, and I come across a photograph that perfectly captures a little slice of my life. A while back, I started an album called "Reasons," and in that album, I document random little reasons I love my husband so much. It's a perfect opportunity to use those unscrapped, random snapshots.

I love Catslife Press stamps--they have so many cool stamps perfect for scrapbooks--they even take suggestions, and if they like your idea, they'll make it into a stamp. They've taken a couple of my ideas and made them into stamps they sell. One is called Random Memory No. and the other is called Reason No., which I used on my July WIP page He Knows to Stop. There are a couple of different versions of each stamp.

This book is a work in progress--ever evolving--and I imagine when I'm old and gray, and I'll be able to leaf through this album and recall all the sweet little bits of life with my husband, and this will bring a big smile to my wrinkly old face.

This Summer

Completely inspired by the series Stories of Summer over at Ali's blog (specifically Monika Wright's post here and Molly Irwin's post here), I took their printables and merged them with leftovers from the July WIP kit...
I took two acrylic 4x6's to make the front and back cover, and used a bunch of white, blue and green cardstock to add to the mini. Scraps from the kit did the rest...

I love Molly's printable--it encouraged me to journal in a way I don't usually--and I like that!

The pages are simple and there aren't many embellishments. I plan on adding a few here and there, but the photos and words will do most the work. Random favorite photos from this summer, expressing appreciation and gratitude--in a simple mini form...

Enjoy your Friday!

Never Too Early for CHA Sneaks...

It's the most wonderful time of the year...
With the blogs sneaking peaking
And everyone telling you "Just wait till you see..."
It's the most wonderful time of the year
It's the hap-happiest CHA of all
With those must-have-now-papers and to-die-for-embellies
When friends email to scream
It's the hap-happiest CHA of all

Whoomp, dere it is! Hoop La La!!!  Glitz rules!

In the middle of October we'd still play out in the rain

Nothing to lose but Afternoon to gain
Reflecting now on how slow they will arrive
It'll be worth it in the end

Basic, I'm your Grey customer in waiting and I love you. You have made me what I am and I am yours.

I'm coming up so you better get this pink paislee started.

Days go by and still I think of sneaks

Days when I couldn't live my life without them
Days go by and still I think of more
Days when I couldn't live my life without scraps

Baby Shower Fun

I recently helped out with a baby shower for a family member, and I wanted to share a few details. Lord knows, I love a shower!!

Lots of blue and green tissue paper flowers. There was a banner for baby, favors, and tons of gifts...

I did the invitations using the Cricut. I embossed the white of the bib with the Cuttlebug embossing templates and used the mini dots. Took me an evening to make 40, but it went quickly!

Adorable bath bombs were one of the favors, and they were packaged in a pea pod. Too cute!

The expectant mama talking to my mama...

Be sure to check out Jamie Pate's adorable post on her recent baby shower here. Tons of beautiful pictures that are sure to inspire. She too is having a boy!

This post, this post and this post are also filled with eye candy for those of you who are in the planning stages of a baby shower, too.

Enjoy your Wednesday!

Summer Recipe

You may remember this post from last year…

I made this mini to hold my summer recipes, and today I want to share with you what I recently added to it. It’s Jimmy’s Favorite Garlic Bread. This tasty tid-bit is based on a recipe from Guy Fieri. I modified it down as the garlic he originally had going with this garlic bread would have made for way too much for my kiddos. This bread is so yummy with anything you might be grilling.


So here ya go…enjoy!

Jimmy’s Favorite Garlic Bread

GARLIC BUTTER:
1 cup butter, softened
2 T Parmesan cheese
1 t garlic, crushed
1 t Italian seasoning
1 t fresh chopped parsley

TOMATO BASIL SALSA:
¼ C extra-virgin olive oil
1 T minced garlic
2 cups chopped Roma tomatoes
3 T basil, cut into strips
½ t sea salt
½ cracked black pepper

BREAD:
1 sourdough bread loaf cut in half lengthwise
2 T grated Parmesan cheese

1. Prepare Garlic Butter: combine butter, parmesan, garlic, Italian seasoning, parsley.
2. Spread Garlic Butter over bread. Bake at 350 for 20 minutes, until browned.
3. While bread is baking, prepare Basil Salsa: In a medium-size sauté pan over medium heat. combine oil and garlic. Cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and heat through. Stir in basil, salt and pepper and remove heat.
4. After baking bread for 20 minutes, top with tomato salsa, and Parmesan cheese.
5. Slice into pieces and serve.

Happy Independence Day!!

For those of you interested in an awesome article on sparklers and firework photography, checkout Photojojo's Fourth of July Article and the additional one on Firework photog here. Great, easy to understand info for amazing shots!

Last year, we were at the Charleston, SC Harbor watching the most amazing display with our family. This year, we're entertaining all of them at our house (crazy bunch--but fun!). Whatever it is you're doing, I hope you enjoy it with loved ones. Peace!!

More Fun with the July Kit...

And the fun never ends...
Vacation pictures, of course! Had to throw those in for good measure...

Been a while since I did a double-pager. But as soon as I saw the adorable Echo Park tags, I knew how I was going to use them...

I happened to snap this photo of our daugher after her dance class, and it is a new favorite. Had to document my feelings of her growing up before my eyes...

Favorite shots of our nephew at the park recently...

Is the color scheme of this kit over the top or what? Heaven...

This one was a happy accident. I had to cut the word "scrapbooking" out for a project at my daughter's school. The red cardstock was the negative that the Cricut left. So I stuck a bunch of scraps and photos of layouts underneath the cut out letters, and this is what I got...

Final count so far with this month's kit? Eleven. Oh, and a mini book that I'll post soon too...

Enjoy your Friday!!

card lift love

Creating Keepsakes had an article in this month’s edition that lifted layouts and used the inspiration to create a card. Having done that before, it was fun to see the inspiration in July’s magazine, so I did the same with a couple of my layouts using the July kit.



The above card is almost exactly taken from the strips of patterned paper at the bottom of the layout. As a matter of fact, I simply used the leftover strips from making the layout, and used it to make the card. Also, the card was embossed on my Sizzix to follow the texture of the Bazzill swiss cardstock that was used as the background for the layout.

With this next card, it was the element that included the butterfly that mostly found itself again on the card. So maybe the entire layout is not what is found on the card, but an idea, a color, an embellishment. We don’t always have to re-create the wheel when we are making cards or altered items. Repeating elements we see in layouts can go a long way to make for a fresh creation. As well as something to share with a friend.

So now, it's your turn!