Accent Pieces and LOTW!

Here are a few accent pieces I did for a swap I'm doing on SCS. Okay, my three favorite things, Bellas, Stickles, Copics!!!! I need to start breaking away from the Bellas a little bit!

And here are my beauties! I love how these turned out. This is my "P" for the month April....I papered pieced the boots to go with the letter.

Blogger 3 Group #3 Challenge

Here is my card for the challenge in our SCS blogger group! I'm not very impressed with it but I guess it's okay. We had to use two different patterned paper on each side, ribbon down the middle and then a stamped image. Of course...we got bellas!!!

Happy Holidays

It's been a while and honestly, I have no new crafting pictures to show because I have not been at my table in over a week. I keep looking over at it thinking....today....today! So hopefully....today....I will be able to get some things done!

But here are a few pre-christmas pictures to share with you. I would say Christmas pictures but they are still on the camera. I'm behind in everything right now. Except schoolwork! That is a good thing! I had a week break last week so I was able to still do some work and get ahead! Yay for me!!!

Enjoy the pictures!

And please be aware, I am the worst picture taker ever! The pictures of our tree look horrible! I think I need to leave the picture taking up to my husband from now on!

This is 4 strings of German lights! They do not glow as bright as American lights do!

My dear husband working on our wreaths that go on the windows. He does such a great job!

In the kitchen. I totally lit up the shelf!!!

Diaper Cake

Last week I went to a baby shower and I decided to try a diaper cake. It was really really easy to put together and didn't take as long as I thought it would rolling all those diapers! I think it turned out okay. I will do some things differently next time but it's not too shabby! She is doing a jungle theme and I thought that Giraffee on the top was cute. It's basically an "essentials" cake with little things that we know we need, i.e.; baby oil, tylenol, desitin, along with some caps, onsies, socks and whatever else I missed! Next time I will be sure to get the diapers without a pattern on them. I think it will look a bit better!

Twisted Valentines Card Swap

So the idea for this swap that I am in, is to create a Valentines Day card that is not pink and red, or at least can not be the main colors of the card. I thought this would be fun and challenging! So here is my card!

This was the first time I have used my Loads of Love set. I always have this great idea in my head and then when I try to put it onto the paper..it just doesn't turn out the way I had imagined it would. But I think the card still came out okay! And I only used a bit of red and pink! The hardest part was cutting out the hearts and the truck. I'm not good at cutting things out. Too tedious for me!

We got all our Christmas decorations and tree up yesterday. The downstairs looks really pretty with all the lights! I will post some pictures as soon as I get some free time to upload them. I also had a few functions this weekend and pictures from that also!

The voting has begun

I hope this link works. I wanted to place the voting thing on my page for others that wanted to vote. Let's see if it works.
Blogger Challenge Voting

Blogger group #3 First Challenge Card

Here is my first card for our blogger group challenge. We were suppose to use orange and yellow as our main colors. I don't use much orange or yellow so this was a challenge for me. I think it came out okay though. I can't wait for the next challenge!

I love the saying on this card, it is a stamp from American Art Stamp. The angel stamp is also from them. I LOVE angels and when I found these stamps I was so excited.

I colored with my copics, another love, and of course the wings are done in.........STICKLES. I am really trying to NOT use stickles in everything I do but I just can't help it. I'm addicted to stickles.

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. My husband made us a wonderful dinner. We are getting tons of snow here in Germany. I think we have gotten more snow in the month of Novemeber then we got all season last year. I think we are going to have a rough winter ahead of us.

More letters...I'm on a LOTW kick!

I'm almost done with the swap I'm in with the LOTW's. This is the "E" in leaves and the "A" in Fall. I think the letter in Fall could have been a bit bigger and I'm having issues with finding a good way to get my baubles to stick. I don't have anything small enough in the way of adhesive so I used super glue...Not a good choice! It changes the color of the bauble (it is green) and it leaves a wet looking spot around the bauble. But I did see on Bella's blog today that she found these adhesive sheets that I think I'm going to order the next time I put in a bella order. But anyway, I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

I actually have been busy.......

Stamping that is! My friend Melanie has gotten me hooked on doing swaps on SCS so now I'm doing like 9 at a time. For me.....that's a lot. I'm working on letters for an LOTW swap she is hosting. So here is my letter "L" for Halloween!

I will have my first blogger #3 group challenge card to put up next week. I can't wait! I hope everyone has a good weekend. Today I am headed to the holiday Bazaar on base, they host it every year and it is full of German vendors! I'm hoping to get some Christmas gifts!

Too many bellas...not enough time!

Finally, I got some time today to do some stamping. Okay, so I only got two cards done but hey...it's something. These are for my secret sisters on SCS. I actually used stamped images that were sent to me. Boy, what a time saver. I didn't have to dig mine out and stamp and clean and whatever.

Can I just say that the camera never does your images justice! It misses all the sparkly bling! Speaking of sparkly bling....I was looking at another blog last night and I saw that my favorite stickles are now in distressed colors. That's right. I went right to ebay and bought all 12! Not a single project of mine goes without stickles......I just love them! I also just recently bought some more bellas since she was offering free shipping...can't pass that up and I just put in my first order with papertrey. I had never even heard of them until my lil' sis (secret sister) told me about them....man SCS is bad for me!!!!!

Okay, on with the cards..................................................................................

My life wouldn't be complete without these three elements.....bellas, stickles, and copics!!!

No pictures today

That's right. I have nothing to show today! I feel like I do however need to keep in touch here especially since I am part of this new blogger group on SCS. I promise to have something to show, and maybe even brag about (if it comes out okay!!!) soon! I am taking my finals this week for my two classes and to be honest, I just want them to be over! It's stressing me out and my one release would be stamping but...don't have time for that. I feel horribly guilty if I am doing anything other than studying because I feel like if I have time to do something else I could be using that time to study. So I take my last test tomorrow and then I am done with classes until next week when the new term starts. So HOPEFULLY.....this weekend I will be able to get to that table! Plus, I need to put my November secret sister stuff together. So I'm off for more studying.......see you all around the blogs!

It's been so long........

Well, the past month has been very hectic. My husband came home from deployment, both of my childrens had birthdays, I am taking two classes this semester, and we are trying to readjust to having our whole family back together again. Wow! My husband went back to work this past week so we are starting to get back into our old routine. FINALLLY! I hadn't been doing much stamping either. But I have a swap that is due by the 1st of Nov. so I needed to get that finished. It was a great swap on SCS. It is called "where are you from". I am doing each of the catagories. Product, postcards and handmade cards. I thought it was going to be easy for me. It wasn't. It took me forever to find the product I wanted to send, I ended up putting 3 little things together, then the postcards, that wasn't so hard but then came the handmade cards. I went to my craft store on base (who normally has a ton of Germany stuff) and they were totally out of EVERYTHING Germany. WHAT? So they said they were getting a shipment in this week so I waited. They didn't get any Germany stuff in yet. So I decided I would just do the best I could with what I have......so here is the final product!

What I ended up doing was taking a picture I had recently taken in Trier and printed them out to use as the main piece. I then used my wonderful Cricut for the letters and lastly put at the bottom a description of the picture. I hope this is okay for everyone that was involved in the swap. I just didn't know what else to do!

Here is a picture of Jodus for his 4th birthday and Leila for her 1st birthday. I can't believe it. Where has a year gone!? Yes, Jodus had a sponge bob cake. I don't like sponge bob but he loves him! And Rodney picked out Leilas cake...whinney the pooh.

What a day!

Okay, I'm a bit frustrated right now. I have been messing around with this forever and I can't figure out how to put my flippin SU! catalog picture on my page and have it so if you click on it, it will take you to the SU! page. FRUSTRATING!!!! So here it is! If you would like to look at this catalog, click on the link, if you would like to own a catalog of your own or would like to purchase something from this catalog please just let me know! I would be more then happy to help you!

Today was a LONG day. I was running all over base and trying to prepare for my husbands homecoming next week! Yay! This time next week, I will surely not be blogging....my hubby will be home!

I did make a card yesterday for one of my SS on SCS and I really liked how it turned out so I will post it. It's a free standing pop up card and I got the tutorial off of SCS. I am doing both the DSS and the DDSS this round and can I just say.....I'm confused! I am trying really hard to get it all straight. I hope I don't post my thank you's in the wrong place! Man I hate pictures of cards. They just never do them justice! You can't even tell I have stickles on them. And that's my favorite part. I can't live without stickles now that I started to use them. I'm like obsessed!! YIKES!

Oh, and I just HAVE to share this with you all too! I ran out of my SU! envelopes and I had these extra envelopes sitting around. So.....I used them. They have Hallmark impressed on them so I got to use my lovely clear stamp from a stamp set my BFF sent me! Don't you just love it!!!! I thought it was kind of cute.....very fitting! Thanks so much for the stamp set Kelly. See, I'm using them!!!!

Monday

Well, as of today I have exactly 2 1/2 weeks until my husband comes home! I am starting to get excited about it. I have been trying not to think too much about it because then the days seem to go by so much slower but it's getting close enough now to start getting excited! Of course I had to do the usual "girly" things and get myself plus the kids "homecoming outfits" and then of course......the "bedroom outfits" and we are making daddy a banner to hang on the front door and I of course will need to do some cleaning and preparing!
In case you haven't noticed, I don't do much personal blogging on here because I normally do that on my myspace. So if you ever want to know more about "me" you can always look there. I think I have the link on the left hand side of my blog.
No pictures today. I haven't been very crafty lately but.....I did make a huge investment just last week and can't WAIT for it to come.....I broke down (after convincing my husband why I NEEDED to have them) and bought the copics. Yes, I bought them! I got sets A B and D. I skipped set C because it had a lot of black and grey in it and I don't think I will need that and if I do I can always order them later. I bought them from this site Manga University It is a drawing school that has a school store you can buy from. It was the best prices I could find.
So I hope you all are having a great start to your weeks. Enjoying the extra day off (if your lucky enough to get it). Hopefully I will have more to write later. I am sure I will be writing once I get my SU! kit in! I can't wait to get started with it and see my new stamps! Yippee!

I think I'm getting the hang of it!

So over the past few days I have gotten my pictures back out and started to do some scrapbooking. I try to do it when the kids are preoccupied or sleeping since we know how hard it can be with little hands in everything!

I think I'm getting back into the groove of it now. Scrapbooking is really quite different then card making. Would you agree? I never noticed it before but I think it is. I feel like to do a page I have to pull all my stuff out because I just don't know what I might want to use. I don't really have to do that for a card. I let the pictures show my what should be on the page. Then I change things and add things and take things away. Card making is much more simple for me.

The pages I have been working on are from 3 years ago. It was what I had started before we moved here so I figured I should finish them. Then I will TRY to get on track with Jodus and Leila. We will see. I do scrapbooking more for the joy of it then for the finished books. I think that's why I don't like premade layouts. I would rather the pages be done by me then by someone else.

So here are my pages from the past few days.

Saying goodbye to Cody on our last day with him at his basic training graduation.

Our trip to the Alamo which was okay! Rodney enjoyed it!

Spending some time at the pool and hot tub after the long days of Texas heat and Cody's graudation schedule

And since we couldn't go anywhere his last day we decided to stay on base and do some bowling!

I have to say I felt pretty bad for Cody having to be in his Blues the entire weekend. And to think my mom wanted to go to an amusement park! He would have died!

Frustrated

I have not done a single scrapbook page in almost 2 years. Yes, that's right.....2 years. Once I packed up all my things for our move to Germany, I unpacked them, set everything up and didn't do much of anything for a while. Moving here was a HUGE culture shock and getting used to things here took me a while. To top it all off, Rodney and I decided we were ready to have another baby....what were we thinking......so my pregnancy was HORRIBLE! I was sooooooooo sick the entire time so once again, my stuff just sat there being unloved! Well, Rodney left for Iraq 3 1/2 months ago and I finally decided I needed to get my things out and start using them more....kind to keep me busy. My BFF told me to join the DSS on Splitcoast and I did. It turned out great for me. It got me back into crafting again and I had a wonderful big and little sister. So I started to get really involved with SCS and am doing some swaps. I am all caught up so I figured, I really need to get back into scrapbooking.
OMG.......let's just say I feel it takes a different part of the brain to do scrapbooking verses, card making/crafting. My page turned out like crap! And it takes some concentration too and, well, when you have a 3 1/2 year old wanting to have his little nose in every single thing you are doing you tend to lose your concentration a bit. Plus I share my craft room with Jodus and Leila, it is there play room too so to get things out I had to "try" to step over mounds of toys. GRRRRRR! Let's just say from now on I am going to be scrapbooking after bedtime! I was so distracted and irritated that I just couldn't get it together. Plus I think you just need to be in the flow to scrapbook, or to craft or to stamp cards and seeing how I hadn't made a page in 2 years I totally was not in the flow!
Well, I just thought I would share my afternoon of fun times with you! Or....not so fun times!

Stamped Candles

Finally finished my candles for a swap I'm in. I think they came out pretty good. They were certainly a labor of love! Lot's of stamping, coloring, trimming tissue paper (not so easy), and melting....plus trying not to burn my fingers in the process!
I used Stamping Bella huggybella and saying "It's a friendship thing". The flowers are from an SU! set called Delight in Life. I colored them with SU! markers and then at the end....nothing is finished without a little bling...sparkle....or glitz....and my favorite to use is........STICKLES. So in a few spots I added some stickles. I hope the people that get these in the swap like them. I worked hard on them!

Here are a few pictures of the babies! Jodus having fun on his favorite ride at the park. Okay, I enjoy it too.......it's fun!!! It's fun to be a kid sometimes!!!!

And here is my precious baby girl! She fell asleep on the couch today while I was cleaning out the pantry. She has learned how to get up on the couch but hasn't figured out how to get back down. Poor baby!

The past few days..........

Well, I have been working on a few things. I just finished up my purse gift card holders for a swap on SCS. Now I have to do stamped candles. I'm not sure what I am going to do with the candles yet but I bought a few extras to try a few things first....practice candles!

I had not been feeling well the past few weeks and had been going through a few things but I'm thinking I'm doing better. But whenever I feel better I then start to wonder.....what's next.

I have also finally after 7 years given in and am going to be signing up to sell SU! I'm really excited about this. I don't know why I didn't do it years ago. I love SU!'s products and for the most part my stock of stamping and scrapping stuff is 90% SU! stuff. My husband on the other hand isn't quite as "excited" about me signing up......crafting just isn't his thing. I send him pictures of what I'm working on anyway....he tries to be supportive but I can see through it!!!

Speaking of my husband, we are at the one month mark! FINALLY! He does have a date but as with every deployment he has ever been on that date changes about a million times! I am just happy that the time is nearing! It will be good to have him home and have our family back together again!

So, a few pictures........

Of course now that I am finished with all six of them there are a few things I would have done differently! But this was my first time trying these with this pattern. I can live with it!

Me and the babies playing around in the backyard. Enjoying a nice German day. They are far and few in between so we try to take advantage of them when we can!

Card Swap

I just finished up a swap I was working on and I was pretty proud of the turnout of the cards so I thought I would share! Can you tell my love....okay.....obsession with Bellas? I just wish I was more creative with my coloring. I always thought I was a good colorer (bad English I know) but that is with crayons, I use markers mostly and I just don't do as well. And forget about pastels....I SUCK at using them! Maybe I will try colored pencils....that might work too! Anyway......

I did loveybella and a Stamping Bella saying "I just love you". I have been using that saying alot just in general so I thought I would use it for the card too! Nothing really special going on, just the Bella, my favorite stickles which you can never see with the damn camera a background stamp and some embellishements. I used, baubles (from Stamping Bella), brads, and eyelets. Just changed the positions of the images on the cards. I used the old "New In Colors" from SU!

My altered lunchbox!

I had recently done my very first altered anything and I loved it so much I wanted to do another one for myself. I have been storing my made cards in a zip lock baggie like I have been doing for the past 7 years now! So I thought it was time to make a nice box deserving of them for storage!!!!

Here is the top of my tin. I have the hardest time getting the paper on the top the right way due to the handles so I have decided to just paint the tops of my tins an I really like the look. So this is painted in a pink then I used one of my new favorite SU! stamp sets and stamped in brown on the top, added a stamped saying from my Bellas and of course had to use some stickles! And the ribbon, lots of browns, pinks and cream colors. Most of the ribbon I had just gotten in from a swap I had joined......that swap was worth joining!!!!

The front of my tin. Well, the paper is from one of my paper stacks. I love the wonderful colors (brown and pink are my "in" colors right now) and it had a little touch of glitter and some fairies on the paper.....perfect for me! I got to use my new cricut for the letters and the little flower looking shapes behind the letters. Of course some more stickles, a letter A for April of course and two pretty little prima flowers.

A close up view of the saying on the top. I just love Bellas!!!!!

And the dividers. I used one of my tag stamps from SU!, used a cream colored paper and of course used one of the stamps from my new favorite set, some stickles and used the saying again.

So anyway, I thought I would share this with you all because......I am very happy with the way it turned out. It's not perfect but it's handmade.....is it suppose to be????!!!!!

Best Friends........

There are so many things I would like to say about my best friend. But where would I begin.....we have a long 7 year or so history. Not all of it good but I think that is what makes a best friend an a friendship stronger. Having the rough times and getting through them and still being able to be friends. I can not even say how happy I am that she finally decided to get back in touch with me through myspace and from there it has been getting better and better.
So anyway, I got this package from her the other day. I loved everything soooooo much. All of my favorite things. I didn't post the cards but both Kelly and her daughters made me the cutest cards ever. I think I need to make a display area for all my favorite cards!!!!!
I took a few pictures of her great creations.......she has so little self-confidence when it comes to her ablities but I love these little handmade things she sent. By the way........I'm not opening the worms up!!!!! I love it just as it is.




Stickles.....I'm in love with them, use them on 90% of my projects. Bellas......I know I don't need to say how much I love bellas. A set of clear stamps...........too cute. A thing of brads..........I love embellishments. And some of the daubles from Bella!!!!! Can't wait to use them.

Thank you Kelly for you wonderful package, I loved everything more then you know. And the past few days havent' been so great so it was a great pick me up!!!!

I love you and I really hope we won't have to stay seperated!!!!! I'm lonely here in Germany all by myself! Nobody to stamp with, nobody to talk to daily, nobody to hang out with, nobody to play games with.....the list goes on.

I may have a project to show you all in a few days that I have been working on! Yay!