so I woke up to this

Yup April 24th and there is snow...everywhere! I got sunburnt on Thursday and now a snowfall on Friday/Saturday. Only in Alberta. Being that it was a good day to stay inside I was only too happy to finish up my organizational project. I had most of everything put away last night but I had to wait for the paint to dry on my new desk.

The best part is that all of the new furniture and storage supplies was all repurposed from other areas of our house/garage. Gotta love a fresh coat of paint to renew something old!

I'm feeling very creative all of a sudden :)

I made sure to leave some empty spaces and not to pack things in too tight so that I have room to grow incase I get more supplies (wink, wink, hint hint!)

I think that I might be picking up a curtain rod and some cute curtains to cover the closet. I ended up taking off the closet doors because I never closed them and they took up too much room. I'm thinking a fun black and white print would be nice.

Looking forward to getting the finishing touches put on, like the curtains and the new clip it up ribbon organizer that I have coming in the mail. Love a clean room! Now about the rest of the house...

Knee deep in organization

Can't you tell why? My free time lately has been occupied with cleaning this disaster zone and trying to make it a better, more efficent space.

So far all the garbage and junk boxes has been taken out.

I've put all the stuff back its spaces and am brainstorming ideas to make my space an easier place to create. Which means maximizing my workspace.

Notice how cluttered and the lack of space to spread out is hindered by all the stuff I need to work? My new plan is a repurposed table from our storage space and a 4 tiered bookshelf (also repurposed) Pictures will follow as I get closer to completion.

Playing with my friends

So a couple of weeks ago I hit upon a sale for cricut cartridges, buy 1 get one free. And anyone who knows me, knows I love a great sale! So I bought the Give a hoot cartridge and the Sesame Street Friends cartridge. I'm planning a little something with the Sesame Street guys for Owen's upcoming birthday. How cute are these guys?? I cut them all out with scraps and layered them up. After I glued them I modgepodged them for a bit more durablity. Owen loves them!

Elmo has taken a bit of a beating cause Owen likes to make him dance and sing the Elmo's World song. La la la, la la la...Elmo's world!

And for Cookie Monster he keeps going "cookie!" "um num num na"

Ernie is his personal favorite. He was actually mine too when I was little. How cool is that? Ernie was the first Street character's name that Owen learned to say.

This little cutie is Abby Caddabby. So cute cause one of my dayhome boys asked me where Ethan was! He figures where there's and Abby there should be an Ethan too.

And finally Bert and Big Bird, course Owen always says "quack quack" for Big Bird. Too funny! There are still a bunch of characters that I haven't done yet but these are the ones that I tried first. I'm planning on some big ones for Owen's birthday. Should be fun!

stocking up on cards

It never fails. I have an important event like an anniversary or birthday and I'm scrambling at the last minute to make a card. Then a couple of months ago I saw that my friend Anna had a fabulous idea and created a card organizer for her completed cards. So I happily ordered myself a 3rd photo organizer and I'm using it to organize and hold all my finished cards! So I've been busily making more to stock up. This card was made using a 6x6 basic grey paper pad, I added an acrylic stamp from Autumn Leaves and the sentiment is an Ali Edwards stamp from Technique Tuesday. This stamp has been used a ton in my scrapbooking so I figured to pull it out for my cardmaking.
I can't remember where I got this stamped butterfly image, must have been an image swap I was in. I paired it with my SU! embossing folder and watercolor pencils & blender pen. The sentiment is also an Ali Edward's stamp.
This pattern paper is from SU! and is so beautiful. I added a birthday stamp and kept it pretty simple. I used some Bazzill bling for the background.
This whole card was made with Stampin' Up! products and punches with the exception of the Bazzill bling and the "be you" stamp (Ali Edwards Tech. Tues.)
I had gotten these cute little die cut cards free last year from SU! and I'm finally using them. I think that I'm going to make a whole set of these to give away.
Notice the paper again? Love the color combo and the designs!
I've had this "grow" canvas tag in my stash and I've been struggling to find a good use for it. Well it worked for this card. The canvas tag is from Prima. This stamp was a hostess gift from a SU! book party that I hosted. I used watercolor pencils and a blender pen. I also dug through my stamps and found this piece of Heidi Swapp invisibles that I had inked with ranger colorwash (cranberry)

Finding some time to be creative

Just playing around with some simple paper and stamps is like fresh rain for this tired mom :) A quick little post while dh barbeques some kabobs and we get ready to eat. So loving this new tree stamp set from Stampin' Up! its by far one of my favorite!

I was thrilled to get part 1 of my Stampin' Up! order, with some new pretty paper to play with straight from the clearance section, I fell in love with the grey, white, green and baja breeze color combo! So happy they are bringing baja breeze back!!

I used the new sizzix embosslitz butterfly die (it embosses and cuts all in one step!) So worth the money cause it has so many sizes of butterflies.

Just using up some scraps. Totally need some new sentiment stamps :)

Digging around in my scrap box I came across this paper. I remember using it for a special layout about me and my kids. How could I not use it again?

Just freshening things up a bit

After the weather this past weekend I felt the need to freshen up the ol' blog. Hoping to get some time to play with some paper and stamps this weekend :)

So I dusted off the ol' stamps...

and a made a few cards! It felt so good to just play! This card was made with Stampin' Up! inks, butterfly stamp, cardstock and their scalloped punch, the pattern paper is October Afternoon. I'm a sucker for red & pink combos!

I got to play with my new sizzlets embossing/die cut butterfly from Stampin' Up! its so cute!! I used Bella Blvd. pattern paper, Jillibean Soup ribbon, SU! stamp, Prima pearls and my cuttlebug embossing folder.

This was a fun card to do, got to play with some coloring and my blender pen. I used SU! cardstock and stamps, Basic Grey pattern paper and ribbon from my mom's stash :) I wonder if my dh knows I hardly ever use the sewing machine that he got for me on fabric?

This was just a cute, simple card using SU! sweet pea felt flowers. The white scallop circle was made with my spellbinders and the cardstock and stamps are SU!

I got to play with some of the new style of SU! stamps, the acrylics (the monkey) and they are so great! I love that I can place them way better than my old wood mounted stamps. Inside this card is a birthday sentiment.

This card was made with a Unity stamp, my favorite I think. I also used SU! new salebration border punch. Very cute!

One of my few non-Stampin' Up! stamps (I have a personal connection with my rep, she's my sister in law) I think this stamp is from Stampendous, but I used a cuttlebug embossing folder and prima pearls.

I had to have this beautiful paper from My Mind's Eye but I thought if I used it in a scrapbook you wouldn't get the full yumminess of the flock. You can't see the sentiment well but it says happiness always.

This was another fun card to do. I made a mistake with the butterfly and colored it a really wonky color that could have potentially wrecked the card but I quickly did another one and put a pop dot underneath and volia! mistake no longer :)

I was inspired to use up some scraps that I had kicking around. The embossed swirls were done on a glossy sheet with some ranger alcohol inks, I trimmed it up and colorblocked the patters. I stamped the cherry blossoms with a stamp from Inkadinkado (I think).

This was also another quick card (my favorite kind!) I used some scraps from the Basic Grey Archaic line, the SU! punch and one of my favorite new tree stamps.