Labor Day Weekend

I didn't think I would ever look at Labor Day Weekend from a Student's persepctive again!

When I decided to leave my full time career in order to go back to school, I made a conscious decision to do it back in May in order for me to have a true summer break before I dove into being a full time student on top of being a mom and working part time (and when I mean part time, I'm talking about 25-30 hours, which is still a good chunk of work each week).

Now here I am at Great Wolf Lodge with my family feeling like an elementary school kid enjoying my last bits of summer. Isn't it crazy where you end up in life some times? It's definitely unexpected,  but very much appreciated!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cake Quilling

Creativity comes in many forms, and one of my favorite artists is pastry chef, Carla of Honey Crumb Cake Studio. For my son's 1st birthday I was out on a hunt for someone to create the perfect cake. The 1st birthday is such a big deal and I wanted it to be exactly what we had in mind. I got a number through Google and spoke to the loveliest woman! From then on, Carla has been my go to person for big cakes and treats! She has done cupcakes for my Mom's 50th and will definitely be doing my husband's 30th next year! Carla also makes the YUMMIEST french macarons!! YUM YUM YUM!

This project was a gift I sent to Carla. Her work is beautiful and she is such a thoughtful person, I wanted to just thank her! This was inspired by cakes. She has a knack of creating classic, elegant pieces as well as fun ones!! So please make sure you stop by her site and check out her beautiful creations!

Diaper Baby Shower Cards Tutorial

I am going to apologize ahead of time for the picture quality of the tutorial. I don't know where my camera went, (I bet my two year old got a hold of it) so I took these with my phone. Unfortunately, it is natural light, the quality isn't amazing.

This is a fun tutorial on Baby Shower cards! I know so many people who are ready to give birth in a month or so, so it was definitely time to make the cards!

Supplies:

12 x 12 pattern paper

Cardstock

pattern cardstock

Martha Stewart Scoring board

2.5" Circle Punch

Adhesives

Embellishments

Ribbon

I began with trimming my pattern paper to 10" x 10". Pattern paper will work best because of all the folds we will need to do. Using the Martha Stewart Scoring Board and the Envelope tool, we will create a score at 5 and 1/4". Fold the paper

Turn your paper bigger fold down, score at 4". Line the other side with 12" and score at 8".

Rotate your paper 90 degrees and score it at 3.5"

I am honestly pretty terrible at describing certain things. The best way I can explain the next step is to take your circle punch so your scores are approximately where it shows on my picture. Make sure you don't punch out a full circle.

Once you have punched both sides, this is what your paper should look like.

Fold the bottom end up, making the edges line up, then repeat with each side.

***After playing with this idea over and over again, i found that it was easier for you to fold your paper first follow the creases, then punching the corners. Of course, I like to make it complicated for myself! 

Glue down the sides, but make sure you leave the bottom piece without adhesive, so you can place your card inside! Trim any extra pieces of  paper sticking out, then Embellish as you please!

***I was just playing around with this idea, but if anyone has suggestions on how to make it easier, feel free to leave at the comments below!

Supplies:

Boy Card: 

My Minds Eye Paper

Making Memories Cardstock

K and Co Embellishments

Girl Card:

DCWV Paper and Cardstock

Soft Spoken Embellishments

Back to School!

While back to school is in session for a lot of you, our schools here in the PNW don't start for quite a bit. Everyone is still enjoying the bits of summer we have left. Now our days are starting of cooler and winding down cooler. For all the fall fans out there, it just means cozy sweaters and Pumpkin Spice Latte's at Starbucks! Me? It means colds and congestion! So I spend my days resting and trying to keep up with a hyped up two year old, I'm catching up on past projects I have yet to share!

This first card was created with DCWV's Grade School Stack  and a this fun Antique Ruler Ribbon by Creative Impressions. 

To create the chalkboard look, I trimmed one of the cardstocks from this stack. (The flowers and cute lil owl are part of the design) I trimmed woodgrain patterned cardstock and used it as a border around my chalkboard. for the bottom border, I adhered it with foam squares to create dimension. I rolled up a small piece of paper and created my "chalk". My sentiment was written by actual chalk! :)

I created this fun card wanting to do something fun with school supplies! As you can see, my flower is made with paper clips and a simple button! I bent the paper clips slightly to create dimension. 

I used SEI cardstock and Studio 112 Embellishments.

Thank you for stopping in today and hope you all are enjoying your time once the kiddos are back in  school!

Nautical Anchor

I have been feeling a bit under the weather the last few days so the crafting has been at a minimum. At least this gives me the opportunity to post up a few of my past projects. I have been on a crafting spree and cranking out projects quicker than I can create posts! Here is one of my recent faves!

After learning Quilling, it has become one of my favorite crafts. It's probably the only craft I can work around my rambunctious two year old. Plus one of my favorite thing about is, it's less expensive! I just use all my scraps I've been hoarding! 

I created this project for our yearly fair. Every year I go, I see all the craft projects entered into exhibits and I keep thinking, I should do that next year! Years later, I finally did it! I wanted something to be current to trends, so I did a cute Nautical theme! Crossing my fingers, I hope I get an award for this bad boy!

Thanks for stopping by! Hope you all enjoy what's left of this great summer and keep away from the bug that's rubbing around!!

Follow Your Dreams

I'm taking a break from my usual craft post and bringing my followers a little inside scoop on my life.

I am a mom, a wife, a daughter, and a sister. Until recently, I worked full time being. I did a few college courses right out of high school, but didn't really find that it was for me. Don't get me wrong, I always dreamt of graduating college. I wanted to be a pastry chef and open my own bakery. Well, sometimes things don't always go as planned. 

When you're young, sometimes you just make some crazy decisions. Not necessarily because you're reckless, but sometimes because you just don't know any better. I pretty much got wrapped up in work, and now here I am, married, 27 years old, with a 2 year old trying to go back to school. 

It is a huge adjustment financially going from two full time incomes to one full time, one barely part time. Although we had to make a budget cut (my crafting hobby was on the top of the list), it was well worth the time I get to spend with my husband and son. The sacrifice will also pay off for us once I finish school.

So for all of you those out there who feel like there's something far from your grasp, just remember the first thing you need to do in order for your dreams to come true is to WAKE UP!

New 10 Minute Craft Dash!

Everyone knows I have been obsessed with the 10 Minute Craft Dash at Pretty Pink Posh! I just had to join in with the next challenge! It is a color challenge using Rose, Light Orange, and Cornflower.

As always, you can prep your supplies ahead of time. 

I used Paper, Cardstock, Punch, May Arts Ribbon, Fiskars Stamps, Studio G Ink, Acrylic Block, and a gift card so I can get the right size my gift card holder.

Using my scor board and my gift card, I scored my cardstock to create my holder's base. I trimmed off the excess paper and adhered it all together. (Just think of it like making a mini envelope) I initially wanted to make a rosette in front of the gift card holder, but the holder itself took me longer than I had expected, so I decided to go simpler. I used ribbon and washi tape to have embellish. I stamped a sentiment onto a piece of paper and cut it like a little banner, then topped it off with some pearls.

I barely made it within the time! Who would've thought that my smallest project would be the most nerve wracking! Maybe for the next challenge, I will stick to a standard card! :)

Thanks for stopping by!

All My Life

A lot of my crafts are usually either inspired by the products I would like to use, or in the case of scrapbook layouts, the photos I want to display. This project was no different. In 2008, my Parents celebrated their 25th Anniversary. They met and got married in the Philippines and had a small wedding. For their 25th, they decided to celebrate with a vow renewal and a big reception! This photo was taken of my Dad singing to my Mom.

I absolutely love this photograph! It says it all! It's the type of love and dedication everyone inspires to have!

For this layout, I used my DCWV Delightful Stack. I used a journaling card from the stack and wrote the lyrics of the song on it. I added my large title using Basic Grey Alphas and my little title using American Crafts Rub on Alphas. Of course I couldn't make a layout without my go to embellishment, May Arts Ribbon. I also created my mini rosettes using for my  DCWV stack and added some pearls. A small hint I added was the hand stitched detailing!

Thank you for stopping by!

Crafting with Paint Chips

Paint chip crafts have been such a trend on Pinterest! I've been wanting to try but haven't had a chance to go to the hardware store. Well when the time came where we had to change our door knobs for toddler proofing reasons, it was the perfect opportunity to check out the paint department and grab some of these guys!

They had paint chips with one color, and fun ones like these! This is definitely an easy way to create an ombre effect with any craft project. I simply trimmed the sides to remove the writing on it.

I glued the paint chip onto my card base and added a strip of DCWV's Cork Stack for some contrast. I then punched some flowers from my leftover paint chip pieces using a punch from Daiso. (If you aren't familiar with Daiso or you don't have one near you, it is a Japanese based store where most of their products are $1.50. It is a great place to find craft products. You just have to check frequently since their stock changes often!)

I stamped a butterfly and thinking of you sentiment on my card. I then added my punched flowers to the card, and there we go!

Thanks for stopping by!

Double Rainbow

I have been terrible with these posts! I set them up and schedule them to be posted a certain day, but instead of hitting PUBLISH, I hit save so they stay as drafts.

A few months ago, I was randomly chosen to win a prize pack from my favorite paper company DCWV. In my prize pack came the 6x6 Fiber Stack. I love the texture of the papers in this stack and have been waiting for inspiration to create with it. 

One day, while sorting through my paper stash, I noticed how beautiful the rainbow colors were in this stack and just wanted to create something simple! I a half in strip of each color, then cut those stripes in half. I ended up with 3 inch long strips of each color. I arranged the strips on my card, creating one vertical and one horizontal card.

I stamped some images using Fiskar's Cupcakes and More stamps and Studio G ink. I love the final products I came up with me! These are great celebration and birthday cards!!

A New Craft Obsession

I have seen so many craft projects that I want to try. Quilling is one that really intrigued me. The designs and the intricate details are absolutely gorgeous!

Just like any craft project I am inspired by, I watch tons and tons of YouTube videos until I get the idea of how to do it and off I go! I also found this blog via Pinterest that show the basic quilling shapes!

The hot air balloon is my second ever quilling project. I just created standard shapes and slowly built my hot air balloon shape. The one thing I like about quilling is the freedom to be creative! Just like most crafts, you're limited only by your imaginaion!

Quilling is a great project for paper hoarders like me who never wants to get rid of a single strand of paper. Asides from my base, all papers used were scraps from other projects.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Time to Scrapbook!!

I have been behind my scrapbook pages mainly because I have been behind printing my photos! When  Shutterfly ran their free 101 photos this weekend, I had to jump on the opportunity! They are my favorite company to do my prints through. I placed the order on Sunday and received my photos today (Wednesday)

As most people know, my main scrapbook subject is my little one! I have been dying to make a page for him using DCWV's Kidlet Stack! I dug this gorgeous stack out of my mounds of DCWV Stacks and got to work on August's Stack-a-holic Challenge!

Here is my take on this month's sketch:

The sketch called for two photos, but I just couldn't choose just two! My son was in a smiling, photographic mood so I took advantage of this opportunity!

I embellished my page with Washi Tape, May Arts Twill Striped Ribbon, Thickers, and several cutouts of these little cute creatures!

I love the stack so much, I also created these fun Onesie Baby Cards!

These cards are embellished with May Arts' Twill Ribbon, American Crafts Ribbon, DCWV Sentiments, K & Co Stickers, Kaisercraft flowers, and buttons from my stash!

Thanks for stopping by.