Making Gifts for Life

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

The New Year ...


As I sit with wine in hand and my crafting supplies around me, I feel content. I have everything I could ever want. (Well okay there is one more thing I really and truly want and that is a house with more land for my dogs, but my dogs know this life and they are happy and so am I.) 

I want 2015 to be a better year. I want to accomplish more, to be a better person, and try new things.
I, no longer want to be a negative Nancy, if you know me then you know that I rarely am, but when I am alone I feel hard to not be. I live almost everyday in constant pain, it's not a good place to find yourself sometimes. I also would like to work out more and continue with it even when it gets really hot outside (which seems to be my down fall) and I would like to become a healthier person and lose some much needed weight.

Now along with all that, I would like to share more pages with you and be more creative, try to step out of the box, out of my own head and really let me creativity take me to wherever it feels I should go. And I would like to take you with me, if you want to go. :p

These are not goals or new year's resolutions, because if I call them that, I will give up tomorrow and that will be that. It's just where I would like to be months from now. And then next year, I will have more things to add to my list of changes I want to make.

What changes do you want to make in the New Year?
Did you make resolutions last year? Did you stick to them for the whole year?

I would like to hear from you all.
Share with me, with us.

Have a wonderful New Years!!!!!
See you in 2015!!!


P.S. I am working on a page right now. :)

Monday, December 22, 2014

Merry Christmas


Merry Christmas
to you and yours.

Hello all. I hope you are enjoying the approaching holiday festivities. 
This time of year can be very stressful, and we tend to get caught up in all the spending.
When it should be about love and family, spending time, with the people we don't get to see all year, or even the ones we do.

To me the holidays are a time to make gifts and enjoy the giving part of the season. I love to make cookies, lasagna, stuffed animals, cards, scrapbook pages, paper bag books or whatever and I love to give those to family and friends. I love to see people enjoying what I make them.

This year I made lasagna for my bosses and the massage therapist I work for, I slaved over the stove all weekend making sauce and putting the pans together. On Tuesday, I got texts from all of them (almost at the same time) stating that they loved it and they were so thankful. That is the kind of stuff that makes me happy. It's not about what I get in return, or even if I get anything at all, because I don't expect things. I love giving gifts, I love giving homemade gifts more then gifts I have to go buy, it's so much more personal.


After the holidays, I hope to have some news things to share with you. 
New techniques and new pages.

Happy Holidays from my family to yours.

Thursday, December 11, 2014

Roo in a TuTu


Roo

Hi all. I know there is a lot of holiday layouts out there and I wanted to mix it up a little bit. My puppy is such a good girl, and on this particular day I had just got back from shopping with a friend, and on the trip I had bought her a tutu. She loves it! Everytime we put it on her, she dances around on her hind legs. It has to be one of the cutest things I have ever seen, In this pic Roo is sitting so politely waiting for her pictures to be taken.

I like this layout but I still think it needs something. I added the dog heart button in the center today and the black/clear flower buttons. But I don't know, I might play with it some more later, I need it off my desk so I can move on, I can always come back to it.

I love the title with the stamping and the chipboard letters. Those letters were brown, I took a sharpie and colored them black before I took them out of the sheet they came on, that saves yours hands from getting marker or paint (if you use paint) all over them.



The hearts were just Studio Calico die cut wood pieces that I colored with a sharpie, as well as the butterflies.



I added a wood die cut bird to the R in Roo's name but I left the piece naked. I like that way it looks there.

I hope you enjoy my layout.

Stop by again soon.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

O' Christmas Tree

O' Christmas Tree
O' Christmas Tree

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is having a wonderful short work week, and enjoying the process of getting ready for the upcoming holiday. What are your traditions? What do you do for Thanksgiving? Do you go to see family, friends or do you entertain at your own home?

We are blessed enough to not have to cook on Thanksgiving! My mother in law does the honor and she is a great cook. We bring dessert or sides, appetizers or rolls, or whatever she wants us to bring but we don't have to cook until Christmas. Phew! 

About the layout, this is one that I did before. I used a different color scheme, but I wanted to try it again with different papers and see what I think. I don't think I went different enough for my liking. I do like it, it just needs pictures I think.

But this one is for sale. So I will not be adding pictures to it. Hopefully it will go to a good home.
Here is the link for the listing: O' Christmas Tree

Thank you for viewing my blog today.
I hope you have a wonderful week and a

Sunday, November 23, 2014

There seems a Magic in the very name of Christmas ~ Charles Dickens



Magic in the very name of Christmas

For once, even though it's been a very busy weekend, with preparation for the upcoming holidays and normal housework, I had the urge to be creative, so I stayed up late Saturday night and cranked out a couple of scrapbook pages.

This one is a design of my own. I love die cut wooden objects and I found these super tiny stars. I used them here to represent the sky but they also sort of remind me of falling snow.

The layout is simple and provides enough space for a big family picture.

I love Christmas time. I love spending time making gifts and the spirit of giving. I do not love how commercialized it has all become, and I know that is the feeling of many. We set a budget this year and we are sticking to it. This is different then the years past.

I hope you all had a wonderful and creative weekend.
Thank you for visiting my blog.

Come again soon.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

All I Want For Christmas Is...


All I Want For Christmas Is...

Okay, I know it may be a tad early to be making Christmas layouts, but let me tell you, if I don't do it when I have time, then I will be behind. And I even listened to Christmas music when I made it, just to put me in the mood.

I used new papers I got from Michaels, while visiting there to get another crafting supply.
I didn't find the other crafting supply, but I did find this cute paper pack.
But in the words of my husband, "do you really need another paper pack, much less another Christmas paper pack?" I do have a billion of them. Sadly, but I love this holiday so much. Not so much the gift giving but the being together and cuddling, the togetherness of family. The food!!! Oh how I love the food.

On this layout, I am not completely convinced that the title strip matches, but I went with it anyway.

I inked all the elements with charcoal ink, before layering them on top of each other.

What do you want for Christmas?
All I want is peace and a loving home for all the misunderstoods of the world.

Thank you for visiting my blog today,
please visit my Sweet Amigurumi blog - having a 20% off sale on all handmade goods.

Much love and peace to your family.



Friday, October 10, 2014

Mayday Underground


Mayday Underground

November 1 &2
10-5pm

I hope you can stop by and take a look at all the awesome stuff they will have.
This is a great venue to get unique, one of a kind gifts for those hard to buy for people. Or to get fun gifts for those special people on your list.
There is a wide range from fun and wacky to elegant and sophisticated.
Make time, even a few minutes, to stop in and take a look. You won't be disappointed.

And tell all your friends!!!

Also at this show I will be running a drawing for a gift certificate, and the more you enter, the more chances you have to win. Only thing you have to do to be able to enter, is show up and buy something from ANY vendors (myself included). The drawing will be done on the last day of the show and you do not have to be present to win, I will mail you the gift certificate, which will be good for one year. 


Tuesday, September 16, 2014

You Are My Favorite


You are my favorite

Of course I say this to all the dogs, and they are, each in their own special way.

This is Gizmo, or rather what he would like to be called Mo-Mo. He doesn't prefer Gizmo, he will come to it, if you won't call him anything else, he will eventually give up and give in. But upon calling him Mo, you will get a response right away.

Gizmo is so very sweet.
One of the best mannered dogs I have ever had. He is a bit of a chewer though but we have seemed to tamed that for the most part.

Gizmo also is particular about what he drinks, don't get me wrong he will drink water but he is not a fan. He would much rather have Kool-aid or Pedialite.

Yes he is strange, they all are. We seem to always get the odd ones. But that is also part of their charm.

Enough about my dogs, I could talk for days. lol

On this layout, I used all papers from a paper pack I picked up at Michaels, made by Crate Paper.
I kind of love these papers! And I kind of love this layout.
Not to mention how it happened to fall together, and I will explain that in a minute.


So this cute picture of Gizmo was sitting on my desk, just waiting for me to scrap. I have a few that are top priority then there is the rest of our pictures that well.... how do I put this, I will get to them when I get to them, if I get to them. 

And I really didn't know if I wanted to scrap this pic. Because for one, my Roo is behind him hiding, and for two, it's not the greatest. The color is a little off and I could go on.

Then I saw these papers, and they kind of matched the picture's tone. And I just had to do it.
I just started layering and inking and more layering and more inking.

All this made me remember a lesson I had learned once at a scrapbook class, that said to never use different pattern papers together, and if you do, make sure to break them up by putting a plain piece of cardstock in between. What? There is one thing I learned about scrapbooking and that is there are NO rules.
Anything goes.


So once I got all the papers layered and inked the way I wanted too, I was looking for embellishments that would compliment my layout, without having to run out to the store or make something. I was in the mood for a instant scrapbook page fix, not a this took me ten hours to make and I am still not thrilled with it. And well, I couldn't find anything....

Amazing... I know.

So I decided to do a couple things.
First was, the paper pack came with some tags/blocks that I liked so I picked one out and cut it out.
The block is that grid looking paper under the picture. It had the two rectangles on it, the striped one and the tan-ish one, I cut those out and inked those too. Just to give them more definition. Then I cut a triangle of orange and inked that.

I was stuck at this point, couldn't find anything to put on the page. Then I accidentally spilled wooden stars on it. I had bought these tiny wooden stars when I was at the store (they were on sale) and I stumbled upon this cute "so sweet" sentiment chippie plus I dug deep into my rub on stash (that I really need to use, they can't last forever) and alakazam, done.



Sunday, September 7, 2014

New Layout - 1st one for 2014

New Layout
1st one for 2014

Ok ok, I hear how bad that sounds. I mean it's the 7th of September and I am just getting my first layout of 2014 out. That's terrible. But I haven't just been doing nothing, I have been creating in another way. I have been making amigurumi. I am lucky to be able to sell them in a store called, With My Two Hands, and I love that. Also I have some up coming shows that I will be in. So that does keep me busy too. 

So here is the new layout:


How could I do my first layout of the year, without it being about my favorite friend Roo? 
Well, I couldn't.
So here she is.
Our photo shoot and we are near the end and she is bored to death.
No more pictures mom please!

Papers: By MME, the Stella Rose Collection.
(As you know I love this manufacturer.)


The buttons are by Spare Parts. The flowers are by Michael's, in the $1 bin. The letters are Heidi Swapp. The sweetheart metal circle is by W R Memories Keepers. And the little wooden heart I colored red is by Studio Calico.

I used a Martha Stweart punch for the yellow strip of paper, and then I inked all the papers with my Cat's Eye Queue brown ink pad. 

Thank you for viewing my blog.
I hope you have a wonderful day.
Football Sunday - Woot!


Saturday, September 6, 2014

Sorry...

Sorry...
It's been so long. I got a new job at the end of November and then was in a car accident. It wasn't a really bad accident, but I am still having issues from it. And with six dogs and two kids, plus house work and working, I haven't had time, nor felt like being creative.

Maybe I am just looking for excuses as to why I have been away so long. I tend to be a procrastinator. :)
Either way, I will have a new layout for you tomorrow.

See you soon!