Hello!

Good morning, everyone! Sorry it has been so long!! I haven't had my computer since it broke down (it is really old), but the Mr. is off on a field trip today, so I have his! :) Anywho, I apologize for the delay and wanted to follow up since I know I said I would tell you more about our new camera. Here it is!!

We picked up the Canon PowerShot ELPH 110HS. It is awesome for point and shoot! It is a 16 megapixel camera and is most independent, setting the features and everything so the focus and lighting are all done for you. You can take pictures with manual settings as well, which we are still learning. The manual is fantastic for this! And, if you buy it from Costco you get the data card as well...a great deal! If you have time to check it out today it is still on sale! Otherwise, I did see that it is a great deal at Walmart, as well. :)

Here are some photos I have taken with the new camera of some craft projects most recently:

This first one is a birthday card for my mother in law. Her birthday is today. I hope she loves it! It was fun to make...I used a new stamp by Penny Black that I picked up at Paper Pals (just couldn't resist it), heat embossed it, and water colored with distress inks. It was fun to make. :)

This one is an easter card for my parents. The background is distress ink, which I sponge on, then flicked water on. I dried it, stamped the image (Hero Arts, I believe), then added the eggs. They are just the letter "o" stamped onto shimmery vellum, then decorated with permanent marker doodles and cut out.

This final card is an easter card for my niece and sister. I made it more 3d and textured since I know that will be more fun for my niece. This one was easy, but fun to make. The basket is made of two pieces of ribbon which are sewn together by hand. The eggs are vellum, just like above, and the basket handle is braided ribbon. The grass is the fun part, as I can imagine my niece will think as well! :)

Here is a close up of the texture of the card. Isn't that an awesome picture? It was all automatic with our awesome new camera! (Not only can you see the textures, you can also see the glue I managed to get all over! Ha!) :)

Hope your Saturday is a great one and that you enjoyed seeing the new pictures. If you have any questions about the camera, let me know! Thanks for stopping by! :)

Happy Friday! And a Question For You...

Good morning! Just wanted to write and say Happy Friday! I love Fridays! They mean freedom and craft time! :)

{Thought this was a great Friday (and every day sentiment)...found it on the Two Peas In A Bucket Blog...Paige found it on a pinterest page. You can find the link to the Two Peas Blog on the right side of my blog on my blog list for more info! :) }

Anywho...I am also writing to get your input. I love to post pictures of the projects I make, but especially during the winter, have a hard time finding good light, so the colors in my pictures are always "off" or the details unclear. So, my question to you: Do you have an OTTLITE? What do you think of it? Does it help you take better pictures when you use it as a backlight? What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them! :)

Thanks in advance for any input you may have. It is much appreciated! :)

An Update...

Hello! Sorry about the long delay in my posting. It has been busy here and there have been many things to ponder. I have been busy making cards again, and completed my first scrapbook layout, complete with pictures! :) I have also been working on a quilt for my beautiful Niece, who will be turning 1 in June. I am almost finished, so will have to post it to share soon. :) Here are a few of the cards I have made in the past month for birthdays and just because I was thinking of two women who I hold near and dear to my heart:

This first card was for one of my Father's birthdays. I had a blast using brown paint and the green mesh from an avocado bag on this one. I also did a little bit of doodling. It is more free hand than I usually do, and was, excuse the pun, quite freeing indeed. The balloons and hat are all paper pieced.

This card is for one of my Moms. She loves purple. I love working with purple, so this was fun, too. I have been exploring different card styles lately, really just creating what comes to mind. And, I have been really loving the simplicity and sophistication of tags. Thus, this card was created. Love the corrugated paper, too! The tool that does this is one of my personal favorites!!

It is called a paper crimper. Very cheap to buy, yet lends a lot of texture to pages, cards, and other layouts. Fun stuff!

This third one is a card for my Mom. Her favorite colors are cobalt blue and yellow, so I thought I would play with the colors and have a little bit of fun. It turned out to be quite the adventure. I was inspired to make the heart from a heart shaped puzzle I saw. I like the look the torn paper gave and spread some paint around with my paint brush on this one, too. I love the look of the paint, but am struggling with the amount of warp-age I get on my card stock. Any ideas? I saw someone who was dry ironing their card stock, then placing it onto a base for a scrapbook page. Maybe I will have to try that, but with the card base to hold it flat....let me know if you think of anything! :)

These last two cards are for my Sister and a dear friend. I was inspired by Martina McBride's song "She's a Butterfly" and wanted to send some love and inspiration their way. I really like how they both turned out. There are two layers of patterned paper, plus a distress white sheet, then a butterfly diecut, handwritten lyrics, and some raffia. I just love them!

Sure hope you enjoyed these! I know I loved making them!! Let me know what you think and what your favorite style is right now. I would love to hear from you. :) Thanks for stopping by!

Oh, and since I am doing an update, I thought I should let you know that due to a recent chain of family events, I will not be selling cards. I decided that I would rather put all of that love and energy into telling the people in my life that I care about how much I love them. Life is short and I will take any opportunity I get to tell those I hold near and dear to my heart how important they are to me. :)

Organization....

So, I must confess: I did something decidedly brave (foolish?) last night...I re-organized my craft bins. Not, however, in a way one might think of as organized! I separated out three bins which previously contained: 1)stickers, 2)embellishments, and 3)chipboard/vellum/etc. I decided, per the inspiration I gained from Shimelle Laine, to re-organize in a way that makes sense for my crafting process, so that I will get more out of my supplies. Here is what I came up with: 1)sticker/vellum bin, 2)journaling card/die cuts bin-note, there are some stickers here, as they fit into the journaling/labeling category,as well as homemade 2D embellishments which can be used as journaling/die cut pieces, and 3)3D embellishments, such as gems, mini clothespins, unique brads and charms, etc. I must say that it took a certain element of bravery to put together the journaling card/die cut bin. It meant taking all of the little die cuts out of the packages from which they came-the same packages which were hindering my use of them-however, once I poured the first one out and felt the liberation, I was on a roll. It feels so good to be able to sift through them, to see and touch each one. And, it sure feels like I have a lot more than I could have conceived of when they were all packaged up. I even pulled each tag from the journaling tag booklet I had. It is fantastic! I am excited to get back into the creation station and play after work!

Have a great Thursday! Thanks so much for stopping by! :)

A STEAL! PaperPals Facelift Sale! Check it out!! :)

So...I headed out to my local scrapbook store and guess what I found? MEGASALE! Karen over at PaperPals has some exciting new changes coming up if you haven't heard already. The result? Great deals for you and me!! Here is some of what I picked up:

This first picture is an overview of my wonderful finds! There is so much fun stuff in here!! Papers from Graphic 45, EK Sucess, Basic Grey, 7 Gypsies, sEI, Luxe, and many others. (I like to buy 2 sheets each of most papers I love so that I can use them for cards and scrap layouts...that way I can see more of them...so there is more paper here than it looks like, since most are doubled up.)

This second picture shows the adorable MME stamps that I picked up and a few other embellishments and papers...Soooo glad it is a 3 day weekend! :)

This one is a close up of the papers and tags...

This last one is a close up of all of the tags I picked up...70% off! Plus, other fun stuff I picked up....Hero Arts stamps, Kaiser Craft rub-ons, other embellishments, etc. I am so excited to start making stuff with these!

My entire purchase was quite a steal, with a savings of $44.07. The price I paid for all of these lovely supplies? $29.19 plus tax! I am so happy!

Head on over to PaperPals today and see what you can find. And, check out their blog, here, to see all of the new and exciting products, classes, and upcoming expansion going on: http://scrapatpaperpals.blogspot.com/ They have a super design team, too! While you are there, click the link and check it out!!

You can also visit their facebook page, here: https://www.facebook.com/PaperPals?ref=ts&fref=ts

You can also sign up for their newsletter, here: http://ymlp.com/zVXVvc

Tell Karen I sent you! :)

Scrapbuck.com order update! :)

So, as you know, I have anxiously been awaiting my second package from scrapbuck.com. And...drumroll, please, here it is!!

I must say that I was just as impressed with this shipment as the last! It was packed well and on time, just like the previous. And, well, it was free shipping (again) for any order over $20. I LOVE it! I am so excited to get working on some layouts to share with you now! :) Hope your weekend is going well and that you are finding some great deals, too. Where do you like to shop? Please do share!! :)

Happy Halloween!

Hello! Happy Halloween! I hope you are all having a great day and that the festivities have put a smile on your face. I know they have put one on mine! Here is a picture of the card I made for my sister with the Martha Stewart spider web punch that I promised you last week:

And here is a close up. It was not at all what I had in mind, but I did include the spider web punch...with rainbow stripes. I know she will love that part. :)

These last ones are of the costume I made:

It was much cuter when I first put it on, however, the $3 Walmart t-shirt was unable to hold up to the safety pins, so here it is slouching and with holes in my shirt! Still turned out cute, though. I made the costume from a table cloth and black t-shirt. It cost a total of $3 plus tax at the Goodwill. I am definitely proud of it! :)

And here is that smile I told you about!

(Oh! And of course I had to do my nails lady bug style, too!!)

Hope your day was a wonderfully festive one! Thank you for visiting! Crystal

Happy Sunday...Scrapbuck.com Haul!

So, as I mentioned earlier in the week, I have been so excited to get my package from Scrapbuck.com! I waited not very patiently all week, and it arrived on Friday, just as they said it would. The package was very nicely organized and the two customer service inquiries/interactions I had were both friendly and professional (as I cancelled my first order to add to it...) :) I was so impressed! I will definitely shop there again, and, well, already sent in a second order last night. :D Can't wait to get the package.... Anywho, here are the items I received. I apologize that they are not all close ups, but that would mean a lot of pictures. Just to give you an idea of the value, I received 57 items and only paid $74. Shipping was free and there were no taxes. Given that the items are all top of the line companies and the price I would have normally paid, this was a steal!! And, now I will be able to do a ton of scrapbooking titles and card greeting using all the letter stickers I got. I am sooooo excited! Enough of my rambling, however, as I know the suspense is building...

(It does not look like there are 57 items, but I ordered two each of all the letter stickers to ensure I would not run out of necessary letters in the middle of a project...) And now you know why I am so excited and had such a hard time being patient! :) I would highly recommend this company for all of your scrapbooking needs. There are a ton of products available, including other basic items, such as brads, albums, scissors, tools, and adhesives, too! Hope your weekend was a great one! I'll be visiting again with you soon to show you some of the projects I am working on! Happy Crafting, Crystal