Happy New Year!!!

It's a new year, can you believe it?! For me, 2009 was filled with many wonderful memories and some great opportunities too. I am so proud of myself for making it onto my local scrapbook store's Design Team and for opening up my own Etsy shop. I am hoping 2010 will be just as fabulous for me and my family.

Here is a little mini album I put together over the summer, but I thought it was very appropriate to share tonight as I reflect on 2009 and what is most important to me.


Happiness is witnessing a special moment between brothers...

watching my children with my parents and the love they share, being a big sister,

watching my boys bond, play, and share with one another
having a wonderfully supportive and loving family, being good friends with my mother,

spending time with children and having a husband who is a wonderful spouse, friend, and father

Happiness is having two of the sweetest and happiest boys in the world!

I look forward to spending lots of time with my precious family in 2010! I wish you all the best in the New Year too!


Details on the album - Super easy to make! Just use some large Creative Cafe tags or cut some large tag shapes of your own. Use a little patterned paper throughout the album to create a cohesiveness. Keep a simple and consistent layout for each page...one or two pictures and some journaling. Then add a few sticker accents, a ring, and ribbon to tie it all together. I used October Afternoons Cherry Hill word stickers and American Crafts ribbon.

Etsy Inspired Challenge # 68

Did you all have a wonderful Christmas?! Are you relaxing at home today, enjoying watching the kids play with their new toys or just sipping a cup of coffee by the tree? Maybe you got some new crafting goodies and will take some time to create a new project today! :) If so, you want to be sure to check out our featured shop this week for a little inspiration and then enter your project for your chance to win this week's prize...a fabulous stamp set from one of our regular sponsors, Unity Stamp Company!

For this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge our featured shop is Mountain Gypsy Handbags. The owner and creator, Judy, makes stylish and durable camera bags. I would love to get a fabulous camera to put in one of her great bags!

I was inspired by the colors on this bag and the red fabric with white dots going down the center.

I decided to create one last Christmas card using my BoBunny Tis the Season collection.



Thanks for stopping by today! For your chance to win the Everyday Adorable stamp set from Unity Stamp Company, simply follow these simple steps:
1. Visit Mountain Gypsy Handbags and find an item that inspires you
2. Create a project based off of that inspiration
3. Post your project on your blog or online gallery
4. Leave a link to your project on the Etsy Inspired Blog, under the Etsy Inspired Challenge #68 post by Friday at noon PST.

Be sure to visit the rest of the Etsy Inspired team too!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kelly (December Guest Designer)
• Lee
• Shannon
• Tiffany

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Wishing You All a Very Merry Christmas!

Christmas has arrived! We are celebrating with some friends this morning and going to church this evening to sing Christmas carols...fun times! Then we will go open a few gifts with family. Tomorrow will be busy, busy, busy...we will have our own little celebration in the morning and then head down to my husband's parents around lunch time and then come back to celebrate with my family at dinner time. We are so blessed to have our family nearby. I finished the scrapbook for my parents and I can't wait for them to open it...I think they will both be very surprised and will probably shed a few tears.

So, this morning I wanted to take a moment to wish all of you a Merry Christmas! I hope you have a wonderful day filled with family and friends! Thank you for coming to visit my blog throughout the year! I look forward to sharing some exciting news with you all in the New Year! And I have some new ideas for my Etsy Shop too! :)

Here is one last Christmas layout I created for my local scrapbook store:


And another Christmas card too:

Both the layout and card use the BoBunny Tis the Season Collection. I really love this collection... especially the sticker sheet with letters, borders, and tags. For the card I only used stickers from that sheet...so simple and I love how it turned out too!

Okay, I better get a move on...enjoy the holiday!!! I will be back on Saturday for this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge!

Etsy Inspired #67 - Kindly Noted

Hello friends! Have you all had a crazy week like me?! Besides getting ready for Christmas, I have been busy with my Etsy shop (yeah!) and we have had a few rough patches this week as well. But the weekend is here now, next week is Christmas and I am looking forward to spending the day with my boys baking cookies, making our Gingerbread house, and wrapping gifts!

What are your plans this weekend? Perhaps you would like to play in the Etsy Inspired Challenge this week! Our featured Etsy shop, Kindly Noted, is a whimsical shop with adorable prints for your child's room.


Kindly Noted has lots of cute animal prints but I was actually inspired by this SWEET print.


I stayed real clean and simple this week and created a card to welcome a new little baby girl into this world.


Don't you just love that ruffled May Arts ribbon and that Martha Stewart border punch?!

This week, Kindly Noted will be giving away TWO prints of the winner's choice as a prize!

All you have to do to play is go to the Kindly Noted shop and pick anything you'd like to be inspired by. Making your creation and post a link to it on the EtsyInspired blog. Have your link posted by Friday Dec 25th, noon Pacific time to be entered in to win.

This week, we also have a fun sponsor! It's FairyLand Dreams. They have really cute digi stamps and digi papers. They are offering up 3 digi stamps of the winner's choice as another prize! :) Check out their shop, they are currently having a Buy 2, Get 1 free sale.

Take a peek at what the rest of the Design Team has created this week:

• Ashley
• De
• Emily
• Heather
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kelly (December Guest Designer)
• Lee
• Shannon
• Tiffany

Okay, I have lots to do today! I had a great idea to make a scrapbook for my parents for Christmas...what was I thinking?! Still 15 pages left to do! :) I guess I should have started back in September! Have a wonderful weekend all!

Still Looking for a few Christmas Gifts?

Are you looking for a unique gift for a child on your list this year? Interested in sparking their creativity and engaging them in an activity that doesn't include electronics? Then my Card making kits for kids may be just the gift for you! Perfect for children as young as five and a great gift for any teenager too. I have kits that are designed especially for boys as well...my son loves to make cards with me!


Here is what some customers are saying about these kits:

• "I LOVE this little card making kit!! It is very well thought out and put together...Thank you so much for your awesome creativity and making these little "kits" to inspire young crafty artists!!"
  
• "love these kits! wanted to keep them for myself!!! "
• "Very cute! Love the tin and the variety of FUN pieces within! My daughter will love this!"
• "a wonderful kit for my grandson!"

These kits are filled with plenty of crafting goodies to make 10 cards and most children will have extra supplies left over for other art projects or more cards too. Once they have used up all their supplies the tin can be used to keep special cards they receive or can be filled up with new supplies.

For those that live within the United States, I ship these kits Priority mail so if you order in the next few days they are sure to get to you in time for Christmas. Click HERE to go to my Etsy shop and see which kits are left! :)

I will be putting my shop in vacation mode from December 18th through December 31st to focus on my family and enjoy the holiday. I will check my email periodically though, so if you want to contact me about something please feel free to do so.


Here are some links to a few Etsy shops that I purchased Christmas gifts from this year:
sunbasilgarden
3 Dots Jewelry
Ikestaedt
Spa Goddess
Hooks of Hope

Hope you are having a great week!

Thankful for You - Etsy Inspired Challenge #66

Hello my wonderful blogging friends! Have I told you lately how thankful I am for you?! :) I am feeling the Christmas spirit and can't wait for my first grader to be on winter break! Back in November I was feeling really good about having half my Christmas shopping done but now with two weeks left I realize I haven't gotten much more done since then...ACK!

Okay, onto this week's Etsy Inspired Challenge. I am positive you are going to love the featured Etsy shop, Marmar - Mark Poulin Enamel Jewelry. I mean how can you not fall in love with these adorable creatures!



Now, I know Thanksgiving is over but December is still a time to be thankful right?! This cute squirrel inspired me to get out some of my fall themed Reminisce papers and create a thankful for you card as well as a simple place card.















I love being on the Etsy Inspired Design Team but sometimes I wish I could have a chance to win these great prizes our Etsy shops and Sponsors give out! :) This week there will be two winners. One person will win this fabulous Mother Daughter Rabbit necklace set. And another person will win 3 digi's of their choice from our wonderful sponsor this week, The Character Cafe!

So, what are you waiting for?! Head on over to Marmar to find some inspiration and then create a project of your own. Post it on your blog or other online gallery and then link it up to the Etsy Inspired Blog by Friday, December 18th at noon. If you have never played in an Etsy Inspired Challenge before, you can click HERE for extra details.

And be sure to pay a visit to my fabulous Design Team buddies too!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily
• Heather
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kelly (December Guest Designer)
• Lee
• Shannon
• Tiffany

And we have a special guest joining us from the Character Cafe Design Team too...Lola!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Great Christmas gift Giveaway!

I was visiting a few of my favorite Etsy shops today and found out that Hooks of Hope, a shop I featured awhile back on my blog (seen here), is having a great giveaway! Kati is giving away a set of her Peppermint Kiss Handy Hooks mini deluxe collection. Check out how to enter for your chance to win HERE on her blog.

Now, after I featured Hooks of Hope on my blog...I just loved the look of her handy hooks and thought they would make for a great gift for a friend so I purchased the Toasted Marshmallow set. Now, let me tell you these are really nicely made and are very soft. I almost decided to keep them for myself! So be sure to pop on over to the Hooks of Hope blog for your chance to win one of these fabulous sets! :)

Joy to the World - Etsy Inspired Challenge #65

Oh, December...what a wonderful month! Today we are celebrating my sweet baby boy's second birthday! It has gone by fast. And my almost 7 year old is getting ready to lose some teeth. Yikes! What a month this will be! I just love this time of year...lots of get togethers with family and friends, fun family outings, and of course celebrating Christmas!

So, being in the Christmas mood I was totally inspired by these lovely soaps from our featured Etsy shop this week, So Stinking Sweet.

Wouldn't these make a great little Christmas gift or special holiday treat for yourself?!

Here's my card:

I created this card using a few of my favorite crafy things...SU Wild Wasabi cardstock (yes I know it is like two years old...but I just love the color!) May Arts ribbon...I love the white ruffle and that fun chenille center dot fit perfectly in the middle. Papertrey Ink's Signature Christmas stamp...love the sentiments and font of all the stamps in this set! And I just love my Martha Stewart coarse marble glitter...it just adds such a nice sparkle and shimmer, plus a little texture too! Oh, can't forget about the rhinestones...I am a big fan of Kaisercraft.

So, speaking of favorites, I just had to share one more soap from So Stinking Sweet.
I thought this Christmas Cookie soap sounded good enough to eat...or at least tempting enough fror me to want to bake up a fresh batch of cookies!
Now if you play along in the challenge this week you could be lucky enough to win some fabulous soaps from So Stinking Sweet or a great stamp set from our sponsor this week, Unity Stamp Company.

So, what do you need to do for your chance to win?
- Visit So Stinking Sweet's shop and find an item that inspires you
- Use that inspiration to create a project of your own
- Post your project on your blog or other online gallery
- Post a comment on the Etsy Inspired Blog with a link to your project by Friday, December 11th at noon PST.

- Visit the rest of the Design Team to see their creations this week (this is not a requirement for a chance to win but trust me you will not be disappointed...these girls rock!)

• Ashley
• De
• Emily
• Heather
• Jackie
• Joy
• Kelly (December Guest Designer)
• Lee
• Shannon
• Tiffany

Try something new...

you never know how wonderful something may turn out if you never try, right?! :) Well, I had a great time being a guest designer for Limelight Papercrafts during November and I wanted to create at least one more project featuring some of the great products Limelight carries.

So lately I have been really inspired by mixed media projects, especially by Donna Downey and some of the fabulous collages/mixed media art I have seen on Etsy. I just love the texture and dimension these artists create. And I said to myself...I can do that, right? I am a big believer in the importance of believing in yourself and stepping outside your box to give new things a try, so here is my mixed media project...(remember it is a first for me)

I am so happy with how it turned out! First I began by painting a canvas with Wed Wagon Shimmerz, so there is a nice little sparkle to the picture when you see it up close. Then I wanted to give it some texture, so I got out my Unity Distressed Dots background stamp (LOVE this stamp!) and just started stamping all over the canvas while the Shimmerz was still wet. Now, I don't know if it is really a good idea to run your stamps through Shimmerz but Unity stamps are such good quality I figured I would give it a shot and it seems to be okay so far. :)

Then I knew I wanted to use more of my yummy Cosmo Cricket Nutmeg paper but I wasn't sure what design or picture I was going to create. At first my plan was to do a tree but then I remembered a beautiful picture I had seen on Etsy and decided to try something similar. HERE is my inspiration. For my flower, I made my petals much more uniform...it was really easy to take scrap pieces of paper and just punch out half circles. Then I rolled up a woodgrain patterned paper to create my stem and add dimension. And voila! My first mixed media project!


I was thinking about stamping this Unity quote in the bottom right corner but once I finished the flower I was worried that if I didn't stamp it perfectly, the whole thing would be ruined. I'm not sure what I am going to do with this picture yet...maybe save it for my dream craft room? :)

A big thank you to Mandy and the Limelight Team for letting me join them this past month...I had a blast!

What a difference a button makes!

Well, as many of you know...I love buttons! There are so many great styles and colors out there and they always seem to add a nice touch to a card. So, I decided to take my clean and simple card that I shared yesterday and turn it into a fun and fabulous card with some great Papertrey Ink buttons!


And lucky for me, the CARDS blog challenge to use 5 buttons or more has been extended to next Friday, so I was able to enter this card into that challenge!

So, what do you think? Clean and simple or full of buttons...which is your favorite?

Well, it has been a great long weekend. I am not ready to have my first grader start back to school tomorrow. I would love to just have the whole month of December off to spend time with family and enjoy every little bit of the holiday season!

Etsy Inspired Challenge #64

Did you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving? Anyone enjoy those black Friday sales? I have been enjoying the weekend with family and friends who I am all so very thankful for. I always love Saturdays...quality time spent hanging out at home with my boys...it doesn't get much better than that.

Saturdays are also Etsy Inspired days and we have another great shop for you to be inspired by... Barefoot Weaver. I love the beautiful colors in this shop and the great scarves and cuffs.


Here is the gorgeous piece I was inspired by:

Of course I chose a blue and green one, right?! Definitely my colors! :)



Here is the card I created:



This card was super quick and easy to create (5 min.) and I still really like how it turned out. I just took some Basic Grey Eskimo Kisses paper for the background, a strip of ivory paper, punched out the adorable scarf wearing snowman from some MME paper from last Christmas, and then stamped the PTI sentiment. The snowman is popped up on foam dots to give a little dimension to the card.

Okay, now it's your turn!
Go to the Barefoot Weaver shop and pick any item to be inspired by. Make any creation that you'd like and post a link to your creation on the EtsyInspired #64 post on the EtsyInspired blog. Please link your creations by next Friday Dec 4, noon Pacific time to be entered in a random drawing to win. If you upload to SCS or PCP, please use keyword EIC64.

Want to know what you could win? Of course you do! We have a fabulous sponsor this week, 7 Kids College Fund, who is giving one lucky winner a High Hopes stamp and some Green Apple Memory Box Notecards. And Barefoot Weaver is also giving away a beautiful prize...check out the Etsy Inspired blog to see the details and pictures!

And be sure to give my fabulous Design Team buddies a little love too! :)

• Ashley
• De
• Emily
• Heather
• Jackie
• Joy
• Lee
• Shannon
• Shemaine (November Guest Designer)
• Tiffany

Happy Thanksgiving! Plus a Limelight Challenge!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful day planned with family and friends! I love this time of year. It always makes me take extra time to reflect on all the things I am thankful for...and there is so much! Family, friends, good health, reaching goals...the list of course goes on and on!

This month I have been fortunate enough to be a guest designer for Limelight Papercrafts and today it is time for another Limelight sketch and product challenge.

Today's sketch comes from the ever so talented Dawn McVey.

The product focus for this week is patterned paper so I decided to play around a little with my Cosmo Cricket Earth Love paper and this is what I came up with:

I like the dimension the folded patterned paper added to the card and I just love those little birdies! I also added some Kaisercraft Chocolate Pearls...I just love Kaisercraft pearls and rhinestones and Limelight has them for great prices!

Speaking of great prices...Mandy has a Fabulous Thanksgiving weekend sale for you all! Just pop on over to Limelight Papercrafts and fill your cart up with crafting goodies and then enter TURKEY in the promotional code box at checkout to receive 15% off your entire order. Plus every order will receive a surprise goody from Limelight too!

Okay, now for the details on how you can participate in the challenge for your chance to win some gorgeous patterned paper...the 6x6 Basic Grey Wisteria paper pad!

- Create a project based off the sketch with a focus on patterned paper
- Upload to your blog or online gallery (SCS keyword: LLPC035)
- Post a comment with a link to your card on Mandy's blog post by Sunday, November 29th at midnight

Go see what the rest of the team has come up with too!
Limelight Papercrafts Blog ~ Mandy
Altered Ambitions ~ Christi
Caffinated Cropper ~ Amy
dahlhouse designs ~ Lisa
My Little Creative Escape ~ Lisa
RyannMarin Designs ~ Ryann
Taylor~Made by... ~ JenMarie
Dawn McVey

Wishing you a blessed Thanksgiving! And to all of you hitting those Friday deals...have fun! I wish I could go this year but with hubby working it just doesn't seem right to drag my kids out at 5 in the morning to hit the sales! :)

Etsy Inspired Challenge #63

Well, I have been out of mojo this week...I think mainly because I haven't had any 'me' time lately and I just haven't had the energy to create at 9 o'clock at night. However, one of the nice things about being on a Design Team is that it pushes me to find at least a little time each week to be creative.

So this week I was inspired by our sponsor's products...
Torendi has some really unique and fun stamps and embellishments!



I was also inspired by this cute heart magnet from our featured Etsy shop this week, Sleepless Imagination.





For this card I used the Bam Pop Die Cut frame and adorable Hellobot stamp from Torendi.

Check out the Etsy Inspired Blog to see how to play along in the challenge and what fabulous prizes you could win this week!

And be sure to visit the rest of the Design Team too!

• Ashley
• De
• Emily
• Heather
• Jackie
• Joy
• Lee
• Shannon
• Shemaine (November Guest Designer)
• Tiffany

Have a wonderful weekend!

For the one you Love...

I've been searching Etsy for great gift items recently and had the chance today to make a treasury including some of my findings. These would make some special gifts for the one you love. I'm thinking about getting my hubby that engraved guitar pick! Click HERE to see my treasury up close and the links to all these great items.


Hope you're having a wonderful day!