2nd post of the day (yeah me!)

This is my second post of the day and it's only 5:19am here. But I just had to stop in and say I got my new Expression up and running! And now I can't wait to get started on pages. I can't really cut anything just yet because I promised Vele that I would wait until my birthday before I got the program just in case he wanted to get it for me. I am so glad that I have been keeping him in the loop about the machine because he told me yesterday that he was planning on getting me cartridges for my birthday. And of course I told him that he could, but what I would really want is some alone time with him and the MTC program. But my birthday is just 2 short weeks away (Jan 9th).

But I also wanted to come and show the page that I completed for LeiLani's birthday. I have been back and forth on this layout because I didn't like the photos (they turned out bad) but I really wanted her birthday photos not to be scrapbooked because they weren't perfect. So I did the layout anyway! I am really hoping to get all the kids 2010 birthday pages done and in both the family album and each one of their albums. So that is 6 layouts to complete in 2 days...I think I can get it done if I don't sleep at all! But seriously I am going to try to get some of the pages done. I can't have birthday pages from 2010 not finished when 2011 birthdays come around and LeiLani's birthday is also in January so here is her page...

Supplies

American Crafts- rub-on words and letter stickers

MME-plaid, star embossed, and dot embossed patterned papers (from the Costco pack from years ago),green dot

Fancy Pants- pink pp

Creative Cafe- pink lined paper

Maya Road-felt cupcake

MM-ruler paper, paperclip

Misc-Brads, bakers twine

Quickutz-label die, star embossing folder, name plate

Cuttlebug-embossing folders swiss dots, 3/4 in stars,1 1/4 in circle

Spellbinders-pinking circle

Tim Holtz distress inks-Spun Sugar

Thanks Z!!!

I was so super duper excited (and yes I occasionally say super duper, usually not in public lol) when I logged on today and say that there was a message on MTC forum thread I had saying that I was looking for a digital label cutting file.

This label has been on my mind forever and it is the only reason that I have purchased some of the October Afternoon label stickers that I did. The only thing is I didn't have digital cutter until now and I had planned on ordering the spellbinders labels 14 and was excited about it. But then after getting the Cricut for Christmas, I thought wow it would be awesome to have the file to cut from on the Expression then I could resize and use it over and over again and do tons of things with it.

Well last night I just asked if anyone knew if there was a file that looked like that out there...and one super duper awesome scrapbooker made me one. I think that was the coolest thing ever! I mean wow. Now I am new to electronic cutting and I still haven't figured out how to make my Cricut roll over and speak just yet, but I think it would take alot of work to make a digital file.
And even if it didn't, it was the nicest thing. It brightened my day because yesterday I had to return the Cricket 3xs and hopefully this one will work just fine once I figure out what I need to do next. But I just had to come on here and rave about the scrapbooker that is truly awesome because it just doesn't seem right not to! I mean she did after all make an awesome cutting label and then so that everyone could use it....here is the link http://scrappinwithz.blogspot.com/2010/12/label-for-you.html

if you want to download it and if you visit my blog and leave her a message cause it would just be nice to have a bunch of scrapbookers telling her that she is awesome! Thanks Z!!! Smiles

Hello everyone! I know that I didn't post my usual posts this last week but that mostly was because I was sick. I don't know why but we all got really sick these couple of days and have been battling sore throats and coughs. But being sick didn't stop us from having a truly amazing holiday. Everyone has been so happy playing with their new toys. And honestly I am proud of us because we didn't break the bank to get everyone what they wanted. And this year I was surprised with an amazing gift....I am now the owner of a Cricut Expression.

I had no idea that he was going to get one for me and even though at first I only wanted a QK/Life Crafter Silhoutte, I am now glad to have the Expression. I have been up for hours on the computer (on and off cause I still have to take care of the little ones) getting free fonts to add to the many that I already have, looking at other programs to add to the expression. I want more than ever to have it connected to a nice new computer (hint hint Vele, my birthday is in a few weeks...lol) but I am not a cartridges kinda girl.

I need to be able to do much more than what's in a little box and I can't even imagine the cost of each diecut set, most of those are more than QK fonts that I have purchased in the past. But anyways I had been reading about Make the cut and Sure Cuts A lot programs for awhile and since I am now an owner of the expression I thought I better download a free trial and test it out. And first off can I say I was going to download the free trials of both programs and then test each out. But I am not now. I have the program that I am going to get in a little bit. Make the cut is amazing. It is so easy to use! And I have been doing all kinds of things all day on and off welding words, making journaling boxes and not to mention the tons of you tube videos about the expression and MTC.

So before I go on and on about that I just want to say I am very impressed with the Cricut machine and now I can see now why there is such a huge loyal following of Cricuts. I just am really glad to be one of the few that has been won over! So hopefully sooner than latter I will get a chance to sit down and really work on some pages and cards. I can't wait to share those!

I just wanted to check in and share a page that I created for the scrap your stash blog. The challenge is to make a birthday creation and that was perfect for me to get some of the pages that I need to get done for the kids. So here is the completed page.

I used a ton of items from my stash. I haven't diecut a title in awhile and it was nice to do that. And even just a touch of stamping. Really only the date is stamped but it still was nice to pull out the supplies. I did do a lot of inking (as always) around most of the edges.

Here is the list of supplies that I used
dies/punches

Fiskars-triangle punch, decorative edge scissors

EK success-border punch

Cuttlebug-harmony letters

Quickutz-Chocolate unicase alphabet

Sizzix-doodlebug block letters

Spellbinders-star

Embellishments
Unknown-letter stickers

Maya Road-felt cupcake

Little yellow bicycle-journaling tag

Heidi Swap-fat cat pink letters

Making Memories/Joanns essentials-mini brads

Paper/cardstock

Echo Park-stripe-Life is good

MME-Bloom and Grow eye candy, Tres Jolie Bonjour, Abbey Road Lucky me sisters rings, Kaleidoscape baby girl light pink,

Elsie-Jack and Abby cupcakes

Ink/Markers

CTMH-ocean marker and ink pad

TH distress ink-shabby shutters, spun sugar

Zig-Chocolate marker

Stamps
Office supply date stamp

So absolutely excited!! I have some really great news...I made it! I applied for a design team spot on http://www.scrapourstash.blogspot.com/ and I made it! I am so excited to be part of a design team and it is the first that I have ever applied for. So I am patiently (not really ) awaiting my email to tell me where and what's next and I can't wait to get started (February 2011).

I also have a project to share that I completed that I have been waiting to get done for a little while. I love the 7gyspies printer tray displays but I haven't purchased one. But while garage sale shopping this past summer I came across a printer tray look alike. It actually was one of those very old wooden wall displays for knick knacks and such. I could tell it was handmade, because one side of it was made with a yard stick. So I got it. I originally was going to use it in the girls' room to make a mini open doll house kinda thing. And since it was only 10 cents I figured I could find something else to use it for if I didn't use it for the girls. But after spray painting it, red and then white, I realized that I wanted to use it for a mini wall display for our Christmas photos.

And here is the end result!

I love it!! It is so cute hanging on the wall. And the Christmas ball thing I picked up to originally go over the door to our apartment, but I decided to hang it above the shocking instead and then that's when I realized that above the balls was the perfect place for the tray. I purchased the ball thingie at a garage sale also! I got it and a mini snowman, a mini wirer Christmas tree with bells and something else? I forgot for $5. I still have to spray paint the mini wire tree a pewter color (to match my room decor) and then I will take a photo of that too. The plan was to have it on the table all Christmas season but that isn't the case. I can't find the right pewter spray paint yet.

Another quick post...I completely forgot to upload a photo of these cards that I made a long while ago. Actually this is one of the cards that I was going to make with my class in August before we moved.
The buttons came from the 1.99 section at Archiver's. I loved having that section to go through every few months or so cause you could really get some awesome stuff there. I think the company was Buttons Galore? The jute is May Arts as well as the ribbon. And I used the notebook border punch and a Sizzix mini tag that I had from a loonnnggg time ago as well. I love pulling things out of my stash to use for projects. I especially love rediscovering things that I couldn't live without and then somehow they get lost in the stash never to be used until that perfect time. And that is what happened with those Fiskars stamps. I had them and I just had to get them...they sat and sat and sat...and then finally I was able to create a really cute card. Love it when that happens.

I love this patterned paper! I also love this little tea cup.

I am excited to share photos of my now 14yr old son! I can't believe that he is actually 14 now. I really do love that he is getting older and somewhat more independent. His birthday was last week and I thought about uploading the photos all weekend but never really had the time to do it. But here is one of my favorites of him. I hate that is seems kinda blurry but it is an amazing photo of him still...

I swear that he is getting more and more handsome by the day. And yes if you can make it out...he has a mustache! Scary! At 13!!!! I joke that he will have a beard before high school. He thinks that would be awesome but I so hope not!

But besides that I have also completed my journal pages photos for several pages and I took photos of those also this last week. I am actually completely caught up on photos, it's just having the time to add them to the pages. Between the journaling and everyday life I need to add a few more hours to the clock so that I can get some other things done.

These are the few pages that I actually photographed to add to the blog before I forgot to get them done.

This first page is for November 26th. This was another day of Christmas shopping and also I created our labels for our presents. I have done this for years, but I journaled a little about how the labels have changed over the years and how now I have two little ones to keep my company while making them this year. And here is a close up of the label example that I made for the page accent. I kept these pages simple but added alot of my own handwritting.

This is November 27th's page.

The actual page is a transparency that was sold as a set on QVC yearrrsss ago! I mean a really long long time ago. I have all of them actually still and decided that I might as well get them out and use the if I could throughout this book.

A couple days later than planned

Is exactly the way things goes sometimes. I had planned to upload pictures of my completed pages for Thanksgiving and I had so many other photos that I wanted to share as well but what I learned is that Tracy without a broken foot can do so much more in a days time than Tracy with one. And so that means some things that I had planned on doing get pushed forward to the next day's to-do list. I was thinking today that this is just the wrong time of the year to have a broken anything. I mean I have my son's birthday, then the holidays and then my birthday the first part of January and then Ani's birthday shortly after that. This is just the wrong time, but sometimes you just have to do what you can when you can.

But I can say that although I still haven't printed the photos for the album that I have edited most of the ones that I want to use. And that I have really gotta keep my camera battery charged. That sometimes is the hardest thing to remember to do. Because unlike my old Sony cybershot (DSC??) this cybershot (DSC-H55) it doesn't take good pictures when the battery is low. And so I am seeing a lot of blurry looking pictures for Thanksgiving and our shopping adventure that Vele and I went on.

I am excited to share the Thanksgiving page which the journaling and the what you are thankful cards are completed. I think I will be taking photos of everyone solo again so that I can get some great photos.

so here is the layout....

and here is page one closer. I really can say that the flowers were not my original idea but I can't find my pumpkin Quickutz die. I love that die and have no idea where it is, I plan on unpacking my XXXL navigator bag, but I can't do that just yet since I need some more storage options for the stuff in there and it is possible that it is in there. And so that is why there are flowers there instead of a pumpkin. Page two is actually a 8.5x11inch baseball card sleeve sheet protector that I cut the first row of sleeves off so that it could fit into my book. On my previous posts you can see that there are a couple of these sheets throughout the book. I and I plan to use this one to put the 2.3x3inch photos of the family in there to match the card on the backside that tells what they stated that they were thankful for on Thanksgiving day.

Today was a really cold day and it was a perfect day to actually hand out cupcakes to the neighbors. So the girls and I made cupcakes (I made them, and they ate the M&Ms that were on top) and when both boys got home we knocked on several neighbors doors to hand out cupcakes. They were all surprised and there weren't many that we actually got to give out but the kids are happy cause that meant that they had extras. They want to do the same thing again but with my sugar cookies or chocolate chip cookies. I think that I can try to make some in a couple of weeks or so and do that again with them.

We got to meet a couple of the neighbors that we seem to always not see. But that was much fun and it surely will be the topic of my journal page for December 30th. Well I think I better head off to bed because it is like 2:30am here...

Well I will be posting a photo of my Thanksgiving journal page later today. It is not completed (the photos aren't printed yet) but the journaling is done and the cards that the family wrote on stating what they are thankful are done.

I haven't posted in the last week because I have been resting...I broke my foot, the right one to be exact. And 3 toes. It has really been difficult not be able to really get around like I would like to and of course the kids have been loving that mom isn't really able to get around and check on things like chores and if rooms are clean as they should be.

I told my husband that the next person that asked me how I broke it or what happened I was going to tell them that I was training for a marathon or mountain climbing...but I really broke it by getting out of bed. Seriously. I didn't stub it on anything but instead I slipped and my right foot's toes just bent back under my feet and that's how you end up with a fractured bone in your foot and 3 broken toes (one was dislocated at first and once they "put" it back it was shown to be broken as well).

So tomorrow I hoping to get some pictures of the pages that I have done so far in my holiday journal only Thanksgiving isn't completed, and then I will upload them here. Have a great day...and don't break anything!

Well let's see what to tell, what to tell? I have just about finished all the frames for the girl's room. They have 6 frames in all, and 4 of them are up with photos including the canvas. I have one more canvas to finish and then it goes up. But I have no idea what to do with the last frame? It's bigger and I am thinking of swapping out the family picture frame and putting a mini scrapbook page in that frame using the family picture from this year.

The boys' room isn't so easy. I have been searching for the "right" type of maps. And I think what I might have to do is take photos of maps that I like and take them somewhere and blow them up. And then I have to start working on their framed photos. I also decided that instead of a bulletin board on each side of the room that I will create my own version of curtain wirer so that they can hang things that they like. I picked up some floral wire and I am looking for a bunch of binder clips in different colors (well until they really decide on a color) so that I can put the binder clip's arms through the wire and hang them on the wire so that they can clip on whatever they want. I figured that might look better than a bulletin board too.

I still want an ikea expedite for the dinning area. I want to store our scrapbooks there, right now they are still sitting in a box (the very last box to unpack) and I have a bunch of them also on a small self that the printer is sitting on. Let's just say that the self isn't going to make it for long...lol lol those books are taking over! So this weekend Vele wants to hit garage sells to see if we can "find" one being sold that way. I guess I am not too concerned about if we find one or not because there is always IKEA.

But onto scrappy matters. My holiday journal is coming along really nicely. I have been working on it on and off since my last post. I don't plan on labeling my pages with dates ahead of time, because I know that there are already some pages that I am going to want to maybe switch around. But I thought about some dates that I wanted to make special pages for so I have labeled those. For instance the 1st,3rd,9th,16th of December are family members' birthdays so we have those days themed for that in a sense. But I made sure to really make the 3rd be special since that is my son's birthday. He will be 14yrs old. I am so excited because he is getting older but at the same time I see everyday that he is becoming a young man everyday...maybe it's the mustache he has over his top lip or the fact that he is standing over me by at least 4 inches now...but this is all signs that he is growing up...sigh!

Ok the book, sorry I completely got off topic. Here is the cover as it is now. I am thinking of adding a reindeer on top of the label as if he is peeking from behind it. I am also thinking of doing the same thing with a little turkey die too. Since this is for Thanksgiving to Christmas. My pictures aren't the best. I took these this morning in between lunch and storytime.

On December 3rd I used transparency and so I embossed three different star stamps that I had. I then painted around the boarder with red and metal/silver paint mixed. The end result is really nice. I really do like it. The hole re-enforcements were plain with and then I stamped them with red mini stars. I am going to do that for several of the pages. I have pulled out mini mistletoe, tree, and snowflake stamps to use.

And then here is the envelope that I am going to use for journaling about him getting older. And also another page for Dec 3 for any additional pictures. I like that I went with stars instead of a cake or something because if I decide to make this one page for Dec 3, I can just move this page to another day.And here is a glimpse of some of the other pages that I have made so far. Dec4 is a 2 pocket album page from an old photo album that I took apart to do another project and I had several others left over. The long piece (holiday fun) is another envelope. I had stitched the cream papers (which are the back of a memo type pad I got for 49cents from lss garage sale).

This project is turning out to be fun. I mean really scrapbooking without any reason behind it other than to just have fun hasn't been done by me for awhile. And I am glad that I decided to go ahead and do this project although I thought it would be too much work. It is just so fun to play again. I have tons of stuff out everywhere and since I really don't have storage that isn't such a great thing but I am having fun right! LOL...until we chat again. May you have a blessed day, evening, night or morning!

Holiday journal

I woke up today determined to get things done around here. And so that is what I have been doing. The girls room has move artwork on it. And the boys bullentin board is decorated and hung. I can't wait until my oldest gets home so that he can see it. But I also got to thinking about this holiday journal/scrapbook. I don't want to call it a daily because it isn't that at all but more about our new holiday season here in AZ.

I am planning on getting information on some places here so that we can get alot done while the kids are on Christmas break. It seems so weird and exciting to be thinking about Christmas and not have to think about snow. But then I also am feeling a little sad that we won't have a first snow...but what can I say. I am a midwest born and raised girl...eventually not having snow would have gotten to me. Right? But I know that it will pass once I start seeing snow photos and layouts of past family outtings.

Well I just wanted to show in pictures some of the progress that I have made so far on the Holiday journal. I think I might start mine from Thanksgiving break forward. It seems that it would fit my family and style better if I did especially since we usually put our tree up after dinner on Thanksgiving day.

First I started with a ceral box as a template of the size that I wanted the album to be. I know that I could have just added up the pieces and did the math...but this is the way I went. I just cut off the one side panel. And there was the beginning of the mini album!

Then I layed out my canvas that I had laying around and cut it about 2 inches around the entire cereal box. I then marked were the spine will be and traced around that. Then I measured 1 inch in on the front and back panels and drew lines were I wanted to add the stitching. I decided half way through the project that I wanted to add x's in the corners of the panels and so I did that also. I will most likely go back and add them so that they are larger.

And here is the finished stitched cover. I love it. I haven't decided if I will just cover the cereal box or use a heavier chipboard base. But if I go with the cereal box it will most likely be flexible enough for me to have some kind of elastic closure. And I haven't glued it down either because I am going to embellish the cover and that will mostly likely be with hand stitching and diecuts and paint also. I am super excited though.

Well I had this wonderful post all typed up and ready to edit...but then my littlest came along and deleted it while I was making lunch...and away it went!

But I do have some truly awesome news...I found our Christmas ornaments and stockings. They were hidden away. So I am glad that those aren't gone. And I keep telling myself not to keep mentioning all the things that are missing and the boxes that went to charity by accident, but it's hard not to now because I have unpacked all the boxes and now know what is missing.

I also have been thinking about doing an album for the month of December.
I think that I really want to do it mostly because I will be able to make some of the handmade journaling blocks and images that I have been wanting to for a long time. I just don't really know how I truly could fit that one thing into my daily life especially around the holiday. But it's becoming something that I would like to try just because I have wanted to do a daily photo for a month for over 10yrs after seeing one of my neighbors photo albums. He wasn't a scrapbooker he just woke up once while in college and decided that he wanted to take a photo of himself everyday. And he actually had the biggest photo albums that I have ever seen (and I am a scrapbooker lol) and he had been doing it for years. Taking a photo with someone, something or whatever he was doing at that time every single day of his life. I looked at it his album once and was truly impressed with the idea. And I thought that I would love to do that one day. So maybe next month I will do just that? I just don't know what I will do or if it is the fact that I haven't really gotten to craft like I did in our old house and that is starting to make me want to do something to get back into the groove...but we will see.

A quick update. I know I am off by a couple of days with my blogging schedule. But I have good reason. I have been a painting sista! But to be honest I am not even close to being done either. But I wanted to stop in and show off some of the projects because there is just so many things to share.

Ok, I have said it a bunch of times that this place is only temporary but I couldn't live here for a few months or so without having something that made it feel a little like home for us. And since I can't paint the walls or even buy all the furniture for the house that we are going to be living in until we get into it...I am going to make it a comfy as I can with what I can get for cheap.

So here is what the girls' room looks like was you are entering...

I got those curtains at Savers for $3.99 a panel. And I bought two other ones because when we move I want these to come with us. I am hoping that their room won't have more than 2 windows or I will be in some serious trouble lol. You can also see the dresser from the side. It has a ton of items that I got while hitting garage sells this last couple of weeks.

And here are the girls playing on their bed.

We actually have two beds but only put up one because we haven't purchased the mattress for the other one because I want then both to have springs instead of a box spring. Plus they sleep in the same bed together right now and I am ok with that.

The little table will be replaced with a nice night stand or side table that has a drawer that hopefully I will paint to make the dresser. And I have been looking all over the place for material that is really nice to match the colors of their room. The little baby bed thingie next to the bed was purchased at a garage sale as well for $3 and the head and foot boards were purchased at Savers for $10. I got the mattress new. And the wall art was created by the girls and me. It was fun. They wanted to put their hands in paint all day after that was done but it turned out great...here is a close up.

There are buttons, my own home made mists, acrylic paint, ribbons and stitching...all on one painting. But there are going to be other frames added and 2 8x10 canvases of the girls and some other photos. I just haven't gotten around to all that just yet. I have all the materials, just not all the time to get them done just yet.

I also got my desk painted and it is sitting in the corner of my bedroom. I swore I'd never scrapbook in our bedroom again but hey I am glad to get that space cause I have been wanting to do more and not having a "space" was driving me nuts!!! Big time. I will most likely still scrapbook at the dinning room table but only while Vele is trying to get some sleep and I am working on something that I just gotta get done.

I don't know why but I keep forgetting the before and after photos but hey it all turned out nice in the end. But of course I still have a huge to do list for their room as well as the boys and also every other room in this place as well. I can't wait to move into the house so that we can put colors on the walls. I hate white walls! I really do. But if I can I will fill these rooms with so much color that I won't notice that the walls are white. LOL!

I gotta go the girls are screaming (this is how they play) and it is starting to get to me so I know that it has to be bothering someone else.

I have been thinking for awhile that I want to do several things with the girls' room but I couldn't narrow down the ton of things that were in my mind. So I have been collecting a list of things for I am going to think about more.

But I know that I am going to make them some canvas wall hanging or frames. This is something that I have planned for a while but never could find the time to do it. But it has be done because we have moved and they don't have anything for their walls. So I am going to do some creating and see what I can come up with.

Plus I have been looking around for old dressers and night stand/small side table. I need something old (and wood) that I can strip and paint the colors that works with their material.

So this last weekend I found a nice old dresser at a garage sale. They were asking $10 but we got it for $5. It has some really weird looking bar pull thing but I have sanded it, removed the bar pull, primed and painted it. I am just now trying to make the final decision on what I am going to do to it at this point. LeiLani wants butterflies and a flowers for her room. So I am thinking of painting on the front of it. But I am not sure what exactly yet.

My first thought was flowers just the buds (no stems), maybe daisies and the centers could be the new knobs that I paint white but I don't know. But I just don't know. I am thinking of sitting and doodling and seeing where that goes. Well I did it backwards when it comes to decorating this time. I didn't have a clue what colors I was going to use but I knew that they were going to be colorful. And so I don't have anything but one piece of material which I plan on getting a whole lot of different ones because I want to add them to the wall canvas, name frames (frames with material block backgrounds with each letter of their name in a solid color), and their lamp shade. So I need lots of different ones plus some for the quilt that I am going to start making next month at a local scrapbooking store.

But back to the dresser for a second. I painted it light pink (on the outside) and the drawers are a nice yellow. Both colors look great together. And since I am going to be drawing on something I bought turquoise, teal, lime &leaf green, 2yellows, 2 pinks, 2 purples, white, black and brown acrylic paints. I hated getting them because I had a huge selection in MN and that was also in that box that was accidently given away to charity. But I need them for this project. And the many others that I have got to get started. Which includes changing the birdhouses that I had for her too. I love redecorating. I am not planning on doing temporary decorating in the kids rooms but instead getting all the stuff that they will need or have in their rooms in the house.

And since I can't post anymore without a picture...here is one of us at the fair two weekends ago. I forgot to get a photo of the dresser so that I could do a before and after but oh well I will remember that for my desk when I start working on that.

I just had to come and upload some photos from my littlest one 1st birthday. I just realized (while editing the photos to print to make her scrapbook pages) that I never edited the photos and I also never shared them online.

Her birthday week was super busy for us all because Vele was off at training for the week before and was scheduled to come back home the day before my youngest son's birthday which was 3 days before the baby. And then add the fact that I still had to prepare for his birthday and I didn't want to make "big" day for him but it turned out that way anyway. We all headed off to Como Zoo and park and sent the entire day there! It was awesome. It was peaceful for me because we decided to make it a family day and we got to stay as long as we could and just enjoy the day.

But back to Nya, it is our family tradition to actually make the 1st cake and decorate it and have it so that the little one can make a mess. Well since we had a cake still from LaTrele's party we decided to do a small cake and cupcakes and we picked it up from Sams. I hadn't bought a store bought cake in years but it was so cute that I had to get it...but here are some photos from her day.

Well I guess blogger is preparing for a maintenance update and for some reason I am not able to upload some of the photos. So I am going to just upload this one until I can get the page done and the rest will be on there.

Also we went to the fair this last weekend. It was nothing like MN's state fair. It was actually a little more expensive and Vele was so disappointed because he wasn't able to get his bucket of cookies. But I plan on making chocolate chip cookies today so that he can get over that craving because he keeps hinting that he wants some but I just haven't gotten around to making them. Plus we just finally finished off the chocolate chip brownies a couple of days ago. And they were so good. How come no one told me it was so easy to make brownies from scratch. I will never buy another box brownie mix again. Sorry Betty Crocker!

But I wanted to share a recipe that I just got a few months ago. And it is awesome! It's called chicken waldorf salad. It is soooo good. We had ours with fried fish instead of the chips. I have been trying to come up with a collection of salads since it's always so warm all year round. But here is a photo of the salad (if it uploads?)

And the recipe
ingredients (I double to make enough for my family but the recipe if for 4 people)
2 cups of cubed deli rotisserie chicken (I just use chicken breast that I saute)
2 medium unpeeled apples cubed
2 stalks of celery sliced thinly
1 cup red seedless grapes cut in half (I use black and cut at an angle)
1 tablespoon thinly sliced chives
1/3 cup almonds (since we have an tree nut allergy, I use sunflower seeds)
1/4 cup refrigerated coleslaw dressing (I use Litehouse)
4 leaves of lettuce

directions
In a large bowl mix all ingredients except lettuce and chives.
On each of 4 serving plates, place 1 lettuce leaf and spoon salad onto the lettuce, sprinkle with chives.

The kidos love it! And always ask for seconds. But also while I am able to get some of the other photos uploaded that I wanted...I will show some of the recent decorations that I had bought for the apartment. It feels so weird saying apartment, but I am looking for pieces that I might want to bring to the house and so I haven't rushed out and bought anything new. But I have been a thrifty shopper...oh I did splurge and spent a whole $10 on this rooster to add to my collection since my collection no longer exists lol. He is so purrrty!

Another page to share

After completing the two page layout this weekend, I decided that I needed to get caught up on my scrapbooks. Not that I am really worried about getting caught up but I just really wanted to get the kids' birthdays and Christmas pages done. Although I had all the details of most of the picture written down, I just really wanted to get the pages done.

So I began working on birthday pages. So here is the first of several that I want to get done this week.

Supply list (as I can remember)

Cosmo Cricket & Little Yellow Bicycle papers

American Crafts & Doodle Bug- stickers and rub-ons

Spellbinder- pinking circle and star

Quickutz- label, balloon, #8, embossing stars folder

Fiskars- border & triangle punch

Pinking scissors

Misc-Happy Birthday rub-on greeting

So I am really hoping to be able to get more pages done. The only problem is that everytime the family needs the table to eat, I have to load up everything and put it away. That truly is a reason that I had my own space in MN. But this is a temporary location so I gotta try to deal with it. It is so hard, because I have been to a couple of local scrapbooking stores and thought I really gotta make some items and bring them in to show. Maybe then I could teach some classes here, but I also found another store (just driving around) that I am totally in love with.

In MN we had several Archivers stores and then a few local stores that sold items. I never really had a hard time getting items but none of the places that I could go had fabrics that I just loved. Well this store has tons of fabrics! I mean tons and they are absolutely amazing. The store is so my style too. I was in there and just stood there looking at all the bright and cheery colors.

If you don't know from most of my work, I am a bright colors kinda girl. I love them. And so I use them alot of my pages and cards. And not so much for classes that I teach but I do use them.

But onto another topic. I while at the local thrift store I found some items that seem like they would be awesome to use to hold my stamp pads. It spins too which is also amazing. I just have to figure out how to alter it so that it fits my needs better. And I also noticed while looking through my stash, I gave up and tossed some of the best items in my stash. I don't know how but somehow during the moving process I left all my chipboard behind, and also all my coordinations whitewash cardstock and all my white chipboard.

I think that somehow during the move one of the boxes that I was loading with the family to take to Savers someone grabbed one of the boxes of the items that I wanted to take along. And I knew that my favorite cutting mat was gone but now I am working with my Fiskars one and since my WRMK one has gouges I don't have a cutting mat. And that is truly another thing that slow down my crafting. Cause I use a paper trimmer but nothing does the job like the good old craft knife and a cutting mat.

But I am still able to craft and get pages done so I gotta just find the time to get to work.

It was a Christmas kinda night!

Well that is what it felt like looking at our Christmas photos from 2009. I was sitting on the couch last night and just out of no where I had to scrapbook those photos. I was planning on putting one of them in the wall frame that I picked up from Ross but I couldn't decide which one was the best one so all of them needed to be used. And then I decided that I would rather just keep them together on the printed pages and use them on a layout. Which was the original plan.

So of course since I don't have a space (won't have one for a few more months-until our house is ready) I had to open some boxes that are sitting in my closet and try to use whatever I could instead of searching through boxes all night.

And this is the end result. It isn't exactly what I had in mind but it surely will make it's way into the family Christmas album.

Most of the patterned papers came in a pack of papers from Tuesday Morning. I have never used this much patterned paper on a layout but I really am ok with it. I used the word patterned paper as the title. Dies used are QK chocolate chip and a label die. I used pre-made diecuts (the tree at the top of the first page)and the joy label. Both of these also were in a pack of items from Tuesday Morning. Those are made by Making Memories. I wanted to stamp the 2009 but I can't find any of my wood mounted letter stamps.

But after I completed the page I realized that I wanted to make a Christmas page for the wall calendar using several Christmas photos over the years and the theme of the page would be no more Christmases in MN. So now I have to find the box with our memory cards/CDs so that I can start that page.

Hello everyone! I have tons of stuff to share but not enough time today to upload photos or edit them. I am hoping that once our desk is assembled and our computer is sitting on it, I will be able to get photos that I have taken this last two months on here and also maybe even get some scrapbooking done. I can't believe that I haven't done anything scrappy...well that if you don't count the picture that I printed and hung in the kids bathroom and the bathroom stool for the girls' bathroom. But then again that was a little more on the crafty side than on the scrapbooking side.

But since we are online again (that was really hard!!) I can now get back to work (maybe) and get crafting again. I'll be back in a few.....

Wow! It's been awhile! My poor blog has been neglected because I haven't been able to get on the internet at all. Well for those of you who are wondering, the family has relocated to the Sun City. And we are settling into our new townhouse. And I am sure just as soon as we get settled into it we will be relocating again to our new home.

Arizona is so beautiful! I love everything about it and that includes the heat too! I am so excited because we have been blessed this whole time with relocating and the house in MN and being able to do so many more things than we had planned for. And there have been bumps in the process but things are getting so much better.

I don't have any complaints but I do have some advice for those traveling through the Rocky Mountains...Drive in 3rd gear and make sure you have new brakes put on you car. OMG! I was so terrified who knew that a 7degree incline could be so scary to drive. But it doesn't help that the incline is also around curves and blind turns. It was scarrrryyyy!

But that's all the advice and such that I have to share. I am at a public library right now and since we can't get our DSL services here through Netzero, I am not sure which internet provider we will get but I do hope that it will be soon.

Hi everyone! I am stopping in really quickly (a mini break from packing) to say hi! I am so excited! We had a yard sale last weekend and sold lots of stuff. I was amazing just how well we did and really wanted to kick myself for not having a sale before. But now I am trying to get all the final details worked out because we are hitting the road tomorrow. Well in the am and I still haven't completed my packing. I have been going through things and getting everything together for family and friends. I even gave away a bunch of scrapbooking goodies.

Well I gotta go. I plan on taking photos on the road and hopefully uploading them as soon as I can get to the laptop or computer. It might be a little while since both my hubby and I are driving.

I've been super busy packing! And I am so glad to be able to move forward on this now. I have lots of ideas for our new house (both the rental and the house we are buying) and I can't wait to leave. I just have to give you all a little update. Our house is sold and we are moving. Those two things are happening no questions asked. And so I will not be updating as often as I should for the next month because I am packing, moving and getting settled.

On Sunday we had a yard sale and it was amazing really amazing! I couldn't believe that we made as much as we did when only put the signs up the night before and then set up the next morning. But we are going to have another sale this coming week (starting tommorrow) and run through Sunday.

I am selling everything. Whatever we can fit into our second van is what is going with us. And that's it. It's so weird because whenever we have moved in the past, I held onto everything. And now not keeping most of the items and selling everything seems so different to me.

But enough about that, I have some crafty stuff to share...I had been wanting to paint my ATG forever and never had the time to do it because I knew that I wanted to make it a little more detailed other than just spray painting it. But what I realized is that if I didn't just do something that it would be forever before I did anything. So I bought some spray paint and did what I could to make it look more like what I wanted. I never showed the finished ATG so I am going to show it today. I have no idea what design I was going for but I really like it. I didn't put the top coat (clear matte finish) over the bling because I had heard that it causes the jewels to yellow or something, and I did put the jewels on with glossy accents because I want to change them to another color whenever I can find them. But here is my ATG...she is so prr-uuu-ty

Wow I am posting two days in a row! Yippee! I still haven't gotten any photos to share of projects that I am working on mostly because I haven't taken the time to get the photos done and edited and also because I have been busy organizing and packing.

I had stated on twopeas that I had no plans in the near future to minimize/reorganize my space. And honestly I didn't want to. I love my stuff and I love my space, but I will love my space more if it is in a bright and sunny loft. Or so I think. So I am cleaning my space, and going through my stash and weeding out things that I might not want to carry all the way across the country just to toss them when I get settled into my new space.

I will state again that I have no idea still when we are moving but I do know that we are going to be moving within the next year or so. It really would be a nice (and a miracle) to have our house sell within the next month and a new house bought all before school started in AZ so that we could be there for the new school year.

But besides packing, and sorting, I have been catching up on updating my die/stamp log. That thing is still up-to-date for the most part, but I had come up with the idea a couple of months ago not to put images in the log until I had actually used them. Well that made for a lot of stamps and dies that I needed to put in that binder. And that is what I have been working on for the last day or so. I wish that I had asked my hubby to bring home more cd cases because now that he no longer works there I need tons of cases and I don't want to spend the money on any more. I can't believe that I have over 125 cd cases and I still need more...maybe its time to convert some of the stamps to the larger dvd cases that Stampin Up sells? I just have go to find a cheaper way to get some to see if they will really work for me or not.

Well I don't have any photos and so I am going to close this post for today. Smiles, Tracy

Last night/this morning while packing up some of the stuff in my space, I found a mini album that I forgot that I had. It was so nice to look through it and see photos of my old kindred creations friends. I can't believe that it has been over two years since I have posted on that site and then I headed over there to get back into chit chatting with the ladies, but I wasn't able to access my account there.

I am going to have to contact the administer there and get things moving again. I really loved the pages that I got from the ladies in my group, of the things that make them happy and some of the pages in the mini are so timeless.

I often wonder if my online "friends" are out there and where they are. And because I was so involved at one point on KC I really got to "know" a few people there. And loved them! I miss them also...it's sad that it took a mini album to remind me of that. It's also weird that I can miss someone that I don't even really know...Well I know Janet (hi Janet if you read this!!!!) I met her a few times IRL...smiles, Tracy

Just a quick post until I get some projects done. I am working on my cards for the card class that I will be teaching at Anchor Paper Express in St.Paul, MN. I am planning on the first or second Tuesday of the month, just in case anyone is looking to sign up for a fun card making class (or in case any of my old card making friends want to know where I am at). The class will be 2 hours long because that gives you enough time to learn several of the techniques that I will be doing (including making your own crinkled ribbon). So be prepared to have fun and make a mess all at the same time. LOL

But I will be uploading pictures of the cards later this week. Well after I get my display done. Oh one of the cards is actually a birthday pocket that holds candy and you can add a gift card. I made these years ago and thought since library pockets are popping up again that I could make some of the pockets that I made then, just better! So for now no pictures but stay tuned... smiles, Tracy

Ain't no sunshine...

I have had the most fun making some cards last night. I have been wanting to get the perfect quote for a card that I have had in my mind for weeks. But none of the saying that I could find seemed to fit the card that I wanted to make. And it just came to me as I began to make the card. It was an old song that I remember hearing growing up....ain't no sunshine....since you've been gonna way. I honestly have no idea who sings it, but I plan on googling it and purchasing it to play while I make the kits that I am planning on making.

The papers on the card are all Webster's pages and MME/Fancy pants. The greeting was created on the computer and then cut using my spellbinders die. The clouds are from a Hero Arts set and the umbrella/parasol was cut using my Big shot and the QK parasol die. The seam binding type ribbon is from my local scrapbook store and I hand dyed it using Crushed olive and perfect pearls. And then I burned the ends using my heat gun. The button is from my stash and the twine is from Martha Stewart.

I don't do vintage but feel that this is my attempt to use a vintage color palette but in a fresh way.

Each kit will have (3)6x6 Webster's pages pp, (1) 6x6 Fancy Pants/MME pp, (2) 6x6 white cardstocks, (1) A2 peach-ish colored card base, (2) greeting printed on the same peach-ish colored cardstock and 1yard of hand dyed seam binding, plus 2 buttons and some twine. I am thinking that these kits would be about $7.00 plus 2.00 shipping and handling.

So the cost would be under $10 and you'd have enough supplies to make this card twice. If you are interested in the kit please leave a comment or peamail on twopeasinabucket.com.

Hi everyone! I haven't been on the internet the last five days because our modem died. I really am trying to wait patiently to receive the new one in the mail but it is hard not to be on the internet when you have several other things going on that require you to be on the computer. So I am not going to be on the computer for too long because dial up keeps the phone busy.

But I wanted to share the store display that I made for Anchor paper. I love how it turned out and I hope that some of the employees make some summer cards or layouts as well to add to the display. But here is what the display is starting with....

The large/small firecrackers are made using a tissue and papertowel roll (the chipboard piece after the roll has been used).

And here is a close up of the card from the display as well.

Catching up on some photo uploads

I wanted to share these items with you all for the last couple of days but just never got around to resizing and uploading until this morning. But first I have to say this. I don't like this Japanese art paper. It is nothing wrong with it other than it so isn't my taste but I was asked to make a display and so that is what I did. And honestly I like how it turned out although I was really worried about the end result. I am a simple scrapbooker (most of the time...lol) but I used tons of products all from the same line and a lot of the embellishments from that line as well. Which seemed too much while I was creating it but in the end seemed to balance it out. It doesn't make sense I know but it did somehow work.

So here is the wall display, I did change one thing after this picture instead of the ribbon used to hang the chipboard display, I changed it out for some 16 gauge wire. Which looked much better and then I tied the burgundy/red toole around the top left corner of the wire.

Oh the flower actually has the organza sack material that the ribbon came in behind it. It was the best way for me to really make the product work and a think a creative way to use the sack although I didn't have to. But it was truly the only embellishment that really matched the papers. The lettering is American Crafts thickers, the gold mesh is Magic Mesh and I used my Big Shot to cut the swirls and the nesting label Quickutz dies and the ruffle along the bottom of the frame is actually 3 of the bag tops cut off. And the frame itself is actually a Teresa Collins chipboard album cover and I used my Bigbite to cut the holes for the wire.

Now onto some family pictures...I love these pictures that I recently took of the girls playing together in the front yard.

Well this is the one that I am going to share and the others I plan on scrapbooking. I have learnt that since I have been truly blogging more that I tend to think that I have scrapbooked pages of events sometimes when I use certain pictures on my blog so the ones that I want to scrapbook you will see those when I actually upload the pictures of the pages. I used to have a better system of writing things down on lists, but that changed with bedrest last year. Somehow I lost the previous list and now I don't want to make a new one because that would mean that I need to do some serious looking through albums and pics from last year and that whole process takes a long time. Time that I could be using scrapbooking. Well I had two other photos to add but for some reason blogger won't let me upload those two?

This morning it is raining which is ok because it is supposed to rain and then pass on. I think that is what I heard on the news last night? But that matters because I have gotta spray paint my ATG. In case you don't know what that it is; it's an Adhesive Transfer Gun. Or that is what they called it when I bought it. It's not a hot glue gun (for the family that doesn't scrapbook) it is a glue tape gun that is used in picture framing mostly but it is an awesome product for scrapbookers because it is affordable and it works so great. I loved my Kokuyo products and mentioned them all the time but now that I can't get anything wholesale anymore, I had to go with something that was affordable, and also something that I could easily get online or IRL. And Anchor Paper Express sells the refills for it for like $2.76. It is great to be able to pick up what I need (acid free and regular) when I need some right away. But the dispenser is a really ugly red color. And so I want it to be purple. I know it seems like something silly, but when you use glue for every project it's nice to have what you want. And I want a purple dispenser. And since it is refillable I will have it forever (or until they discontinue the product!!!)

I will stop for now because my post is really long. And although I have a page to share, I will just add it to the flickr photo stream and my two peas gallery. So check those out if you wanna see my picnic for 6 layout. Have an awesome day!

Happy Father's Day!!

We are still celebrating it right now but I wanted to stop in really quick while we are waiting for our dessert to cool down. Here is the card that I made for Vele...he loved it. It actually was a diecut envelope die that I cut from chipboard and used as a card by cutting off the remaining flaps. And than I put his ticket/gift certificate for free golf lessons in there. He was so excited to get them.

And here is the cards that I made recently for the store.

The USA card letters was cut from my Quickutz diesel grand letters. I put magic mesh on the top of white cardstock and then cut the letters out. It looks so cute!

Also used magic mesh for this card too. The store owner asked me to use magic mesh in the several ways so that she could have something to show the customers that it was used on. She loved the examples.