December Daily

I've commited to doing the December Daily album this year. I made all the pages and then, ugh, I started having lots of contractions - whenever I'm on my feet for more than 30 min. Unfortunately, my scrap area is counders. :( So, I want to keep track of what we've done so I can go back later and add my pictures, etc. I need to go back and look through some of my pictures to figure out what we've done!

November 28th - put up Christmas tree
November 29th - wrapped gifts and put them under the tree
November 30th -
December 1st - Lost tooth
December 2nd - Day at the hospital
December 3rd -
December 4th -
December 5th -
December 6th - Christmas wreaths
December 7th -
December 8th -
December 9th - snow day!
December 10th - Christmas concert
December 11th -
December 12th -
December 13th - made Chex mix & peppermint bark
December 14th - visit to Santa Claus

UPDATED - January: I didn't do a very good job with the December daily. Due to some pregnancy complications I wasn't feeling very spirited. I think I may just do a "Snapshots of the Season" page where I put all of the pictures on a 2 pg. spread. And since my album is done - I'll just peel the "8" off and replace it with a "9" and consider myself ready for next year. ;)

Dusting this thing off...

It's been awhile since I've done any type of crafting at all. Sad. Of course, it hasn't stopped me from BUYING stuff, just making it. I *think* I'm finally getting some energy back, so I'm going to devote at least a few hours every weekend to creating. Today is chilly and drizzley outside so what better thing to do! I've already been out to pick up sticks and spray painted them silver for one of today's projects, and this morning while lying in bed, I had another brainstorm for a project. :)

Stay tuned.

Bug Boy Etsy album

Bug Boy

I love SEI papers and tend to hoard them a bit. I thought these papers would make a fun spring album for pictures of a little boy. I was right. ;)

Click on the title to go to the Etsy Page

Bug Boy

Etsy Beach Album

Last week it was warm, sunny and 80. HERE in MICHIGAN in April. Unreal. Of course, today it's semi-sunny and a cold 45 degrees. Yeah, that's more what I'm use to. ;)

I cannot wait for summer when I can devote more time to my new Etsy store. :) I've decided not to teach summer school this year because of some burn out issues I'm having. Instead, I'm going to scrapbook for a living this summer. Don't worry, I still get paid by the school for the summer so I'm not a starving artist. :)

To kick off that sentiment: Summer, I have a cute album I just put on Etsy today!

CLICK the title to be taken to the Etsy store:

BEACH

Combo of the moment - blue, green and orange

Here's my tribute to green, blue and orange I guess.

My son's 5th birthday card - Cricut Celebrations cart, cuttlebug, Sassafrass Lass, Basic Gray papers, dew drops



CPS Sketch #59- Cuttlebug stars, KI letters, AC Thickers, Sassafrass Lass and Bazzill, dew drops

Speaking of oldies

I wasn't going to do last week's CPS sketch. But today I was working on a mini album (coming soon ;) ) and was inspired to make a card based on the sketch. So here's my take on CPS sketch #58



I have a sentimentality toward that SEI paper. I'm using it grudgingly because I still love it so much I want to hoard it. My first ever published layout used that SEI paper. It was a 4 generations layout. :) Good times. Maybe someday I'll get the nerve to start submitting again, or maybe even make a scrapbook page again.

New Goodies

*sigh* I ordered new goodies over a week ago from two different places - www.scrappindeals.com (whom I knew I'd have to wait for since they don't keep everything in stock) and www.cherishedscrapsandcards.com . That was my big order which said it would ship in 2-3 days but it's been 6 days and it still hasn't shipped. :( Big, BIG bummer since that was what I was hoping to play with over my spring break, which is now almost over. I guess I'll stick with the places I usually shop at from now on since I always get that stuff within 4 or 5 days shipped.

Guess I'll have to content myself with some oldies but goodies for now.

Cards

Just a few more cards I worked on last week. I can't believe I'm over 1/2 way done with Spring Break and haven't created a thing. Well, I made my 5 year old a birthday card, but that's it. Maybe later today.

Inspired by CPS sketch #56 & BBTB Contest - Cricut (Zoobaloo, AE, & Alphalicious), Basic Grey and KI Memories PP, and May Arts Ribbon



Inspired by CPS sketch #53 - Cricut (Walk in my Garden, MM), Cuttlebug embossing folder, MM PP, stickles



Inspired by CPS #52 and BBTB Contest - Cricut (Alphalicious & Zooballoo), KI & BG PP



Inspired by CPS sketch #56 and BBTB Contest - Cricut (Stretch your Imagination, Opposites Attract, AE, and MM), MM PP, stickles, buttons



Inspired by CPS sketch #56 and BBTB contest - Cricut (Zooballoo, AE, and MM), MM PP, vellum, Cuttlebug, stickles

Shopping . . . again.

Seems I've been a bit spendy on scrappy stuff lately!

- In December it was the Cricut Expression (and several cartridges)
- In January I was fairly well behaved ;)
- Then came the new Cuttlebug embossing folders and a few more Cricut cartridges
- And now I have several shopping carts filled up all over the web!

On my wishlist:
- New Prima Essentials 4
- Robin's Egg Dew Droplets
- Basic Grey Archaic and Cupcake
- DCWV glitter stacks, Blossoms and Butterflies, and Nana's Nursery
- K&Co Rough and Tumble and Berry Sweet
- Cosmo Cricket Cogsmo
- Basic Grey stamps (dinosaurs and swirls)
- More cardstock 'cause I'm running low so I joined Simply Cardstock
- Cricut Design Studio
- MME Just Dreamy
- Ribbon, running low again.

Doesn't seem like a ton does it? Yeah, I wish total wise it didn't EQUAL so much $$$! I did break down and order a few sets of the Dew Droplets and some May Arts ribbon from here this morning. They have free shipping for any order over $10!

I need to get listing on ebay! I think I've decided, reluctantly, to start submitting again. I'm going to start with cards. I adore the cards magazine but am too cheap to buy it (I just flip through it in stores *blush*). I made 4 baby cards last night - all scraps but I think they're really cute. :) I'll post those later. They were inspired by this week's CPS sketch #56 and are also for the BBTB contest, not that I need a ribbon bag, but I just want to stretch myself into entering things again. Alright, off to play Wii and dye eggs! Lovin' my laid back weekend!

So Spring begins in 5 hours . . .

do you suppose Northern Michigan got that memo? I'm going to go with n.o.p.e. Although I would not be heart broken to wake up tomorrow and find all the snow gone. Not even a smidgeon. ;) I hear that just maybe lower Michigan is going to get 4-6 inches Friday. Hmmm...tee-hee. We were in Grand Rapids this weekend to visit the ILs and see the circus and they had NO snow at all. People were out raking their lawns and my mother in law's tulips were coming up! Then we drove back, two hours north to see about 18" in our lawn still. So it makes me slightly giddy that they'll get a bit of their snow back while we're expecting none. If the whole state can't have spring, then no one can. ;)

And speaking of spring. . . only four more school days until Spring Break. YAY! We're not going anywhere, but in grand style I made a gargantuan do-do list that I'll never finish. You know, I like to set myself up for failure. ;p but I also hope to get some scrapping done.

Snow Mini Album

Listing Soon on Etsy (Check back)

Easter Card Set

A set of 4 A2 size cards: Click here to go to Etsy>>>>>>> Easter Cards

Lucky St. Patty's Day Mini Album

Lucky: Click here to go to this item on Etsy>>>>>> LUCKY

Baby Album

New Esty Posting for tonight: Click here to go to Etsy >>>>>Baby Album

Creativity and the blogging habit

I'm trying to get back into the blogging habit. I think it's working. ;) And I'm trying to get back into doing creative things each and every day. Unfortunately, I teach English, and while I usually enjoy it, grading it is not so fun. We're at the end of the trimester and I'm playing catch up grading 90 reading portfolios, survival stories, essay bits and pieces and then my social studies tests too. My goal is to finish tonight so I can be as creative as I want this weekend. It's probably going to mean an all-nighter though. Haven't done that in a long time.

Sweets for my Sweet and other projects

I'm a bit behind on the project share thing. It's nice to say that I have actually DONE projects within the last month. For awhile, not so much. Since I'm behind . . .

Xander's Valentine gift bags for preschool. Bags were from the Target dollar spot and I cut the hearts with my Cricut (Doodlecharms cart) and the dinosaurs are from the Paper Dolls cart.



Quick birthday card made with scraps from the mini albums below



Some cards based on CPS sketches that I'm now blanking out on.







Cards using my Cricut, new Scor-Pal and new Cuttlebug embossing folders