Totally Random

This is not my usual style... then again, what is style?  I gain inspiration from lots of things, and I try to create all the million different ideas that float through my head.  Sometimes I'm happy with the outcome, other times the finished product doesn't meet my expectations.  Whatever.  My style I guess is just what comes of my attempt to create something I have in mind.  Okay, and if you actually followed that, you get a gold star.
Here it is, finally a masculine card.  I played with Ranger's alcohol inks and grunged up some glossy cardstock, then dry embossed a piece of Basic Grey pp, and inked it up.  The letter stickers are from Heidi Swapp, and the heart and crown are my very favorite new thing: Grungeboard!!  I can't get enough of it.  You can do so much with it, I'm officially hooked.  It's like chipboard, but it's flexible, and won't tear.  Here's a little video explaining what it is, Tim Holtz describes things really well, so I won't attempt to explain it.  I inked up the heart with barn red ink from CTMH, then drew in the lines with a metallic marker.  The crown is inked up with black distress ink, and I colored all over it with my metallic marker.  I also stamped a flourish and added a bit of bling on the right side.  That's it for today, have a good one!

The beginning of another week

Monday.  I always like Monday so we can get back on some kind of schedule here.  The weekends are great, but I'm a person who likes routine.  Now that the birthday fesitivities are done, we can get back into some normalcy.  Well, for now anyway.  We're not celebrating Lucas' birthday with the DH's until April 26, and then it will be a combined birthday celebration for my Dad and my birthdays as well.  Lucas told me this morning that he had 3 birthdays this year.  One at Opa and Oma's house, one at our house, and one at the church.  I think he has had enough cake to last him for awhile now.  ;-)
Here are a couple more cards I made recently.  The first one is using the "So Many Scallops" set from Stampin Up!, and some patterned paper from American Crafts.  The second one I tried a technique I saw from my Stampin Up! demonstrator Jacqui.  First you stamp a background stamp on vellum, emboss it in white, and then paint colors on the back side of it.  I used chalk and blender pen for this so the vellum wrinkled from the moisture.  I don't actually own any markers, so I had to improvise.  Hopefully I'll get my hands on some soon, and then I'll try the technique again.  I really like the effect.  I used the Thinking of You sentiment from the "So Many Sayings" SU! set.  TFL, have a good week!

Birthday Card from Great Opa & Oma

Lucas LOVES opening cards, and when a card came in the mailbox last week from my grandparents, he was very excited to open it.  He opened it on the afternoon of his birthday.  Thanks Great Opa & Oma!

Butterfly Card

Here is the card I created yesterday afternoon while things were nice and quiet around here.  I used plain white cardstock for the base, then matted with black cardstock and pale blush cardstock.  I chose dark pink bazzill cardstock as the top cardstock layer.  The vellum was embossed with my Cuttlebug, and the ribbon was from my stash (not sure who makes it).  The butterfly is from Hero Arts stamps, I stamped her (him?) on black cardstock with Versamark, then heat set with white embossing powder.  I then used my two way glue pen from Stampin Up! and applied glitter to the butterfly and a few centers of the flowers on the vellum.  I then matted the butterfly on a punched piece of pale blush cardstock, and applied it to the card with pop dots.  TFL,  Have a great weekend!  :)

Lucas' Birthday

I can't believe my Lucas is 3 today!  Wow, three years ago today our lives changed immensely when Lucas was born at 8:32 am.  I still remember holding him and saying "I can't believe this is real, my very own baby!"  Now I just can't imagine life without him.  He is the sweetest little guy, a gentle soul, with a whole lot of love.  He's my little buddy.  This morning we had some fun at the church with some of his little friends to celebrate.  It was great, we kept with the whole pirate theme and had a pirate cupcake cake from Safeway.  The cake was supposed to have "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Movie" on it, but I removed the movie figurines and put my own cute pirate figurines on it from the dollar store.  We also handed out little "pirate treasure" favors.  His buddy Joshua even dressed up like a pirate!  Way to go Josh, you looked great!  It was great fun, and I totally recommend having a kids birthday party in a big open space such as a gym where the kids can burn energy.  The kids had a great time running around with the balls and going down the slide.   My boys were very tuckered out by the end of it.  Which led to a beautifully peaceful afternoon in which I could do a little card-making.  ;-)  You can slide your mouse over the following pictures to read the captions.
 

9 months

• Started crawling Sunday, March 30.
  Also pulled himself up on furniture for the first time at Mom & Dad DH's the same day.



• No teeth yet, but I think they are coming soon.  Nathan has been grouchy the last few days, has a fever, and constant runny nose.



• He loves the bath, in fact this morning when Lucas was in the bath he pulled himself up on the side of the tub and tried to get in.



• He loves to crawl all over the house now and babbles up a storm, mostly "Da-da" and "Ma-ma-ma-ma".



• Loves fish crackers, cheerios, and chicken cacciatore from a jar.  Ew.



• Laughs the hardest for his big brother Lucas.

Scrapbook Organization

I've been asked to explain my organization method for scrapbooking supplies.  So I thought I would share how I do things, and what works best for me.  First off, the built in hutch I have works great because of the shelving in it, and drawers.  If you are faced with the challenge of trying to fit all your scrapbook supplies into a closet, or other small area I would suggest putting in some shelves and also one of these rolling storage towers with drawers. 

My built-in scrapbook space is approximately 4 feet wide, the bottom is about 22 inches deep, the top just 12 inches deep.  Beginning on the top shelf, the upper cabinets hold my photo box, CTMH Organizer, Cropper Hopper organizer.  Note: the CTMH organizer is awesome.  It's 19.95 (on page 107 of current catalogue).  It comes empty, you just need to buy empty craft jars (CTMH sells them) and you can fill them with your own embellishments.  That being said, I also love my Cropper Hopper embellishment organizer.  It's very sturdy with separate compartments for embellishements.  The right side of the top shelf holds a couple sketches books, white cardstock and that thing on top of the white cardstock is my battery charger for my camera.  Second shelf is my new toy: Cuttlebug diecut machine, jars of colored buttons, CTMH inkpads, and some of my Stampin Up! stamp sets.  The bottom shelf holds ribbon storage, "Cards" tin (where I keep ready made cards on hand), tin with alphabets in it, foam brushes, pencils, flower jar, cleaners, Deco Scissors, more 8 1/2 x11 Cardstock, books, magazines.

*I do recommend finding bins/baskets/tins etc. that will work in the space you have.  Take measurements, then go shopping and find something that will work.  Too often I've come home with a cute basket only to find it doesn't fit at all in the space I intended it for.

Bottom Cupboards: Top left is kits, pp collections, page protectors, basket full of cards & envelopes, basket full of paint.  Bottom shelf from left to right: 12x12 plastic paper holders - 1 for large scraps, 1 for adhesives and a smaller plastic one for papers specifically for cards.   

Tins, and things to alter, I've been meaning to do these, but haven't got around to it yet!  Tin from IKEA full of larger chipboard, metal embellishments.  Large flower box full of stamps.
Basket full of cards, envelopes and notepaper on hand for gifts and notes.

Basket full of paints

Pretty flower box, full of yummy stamps!! I really suggest this, stamps can accumulate rather quickly (when your husband isn't looking..teehee), and having them all in one big box that you can pull out and dig through makes it so much easier.

Drawers with inks, embossing powders, adhesives, punches and tools that I use frequently.
Cardstock, patterned paper in vertical storage and scrapbook albums.
I highly recommend sorting embellishments by color so when you are working on a page or card you can quickly reach for the color you need.  These little jars are from prima flowers and IKEA.
My ribbon is a bit of a mess right now, I have plastic storage containers from Michael's (with separate compartments), but I am awaiting my new EZ Pull purse, which when full of ribbon looks like this:
These are just some ideas for organizing that work for me in the space that I have.  If you can use some of these ideas, that would be great!  If you have any questions feel free to leave a comment and I will answer you here.