Scrap Along with Tracy

2012-02-15T17:36:00.005-06:00

Hello everyone. (Waving hi!!) I am on lunch at work and now would be the perfect time to update my blog with photos. So as I stated here is a photo of the kitchen.....

and here is another view.
It is really coming along. And honestly I can't wait to get the few other things that I want done to it done. Like the multi colored glass backsplash, the new granite counter tops, the undermounted sink, the black faucets and of course more blings and some really nice curtains. Not to mention I will need to paint it some color that I still haven't decided on just yet. But it is starting to really not look like a builder grade room. And there are no plans for stainless steel, I got that question is an email. I know a lot people love it, but honestly I really don't. I love black applicances. But there was a time that I loved the idea of stainless steel, that time has since long passed.

I do also plan on getting a larger frigerator. Our family really does need a bigger one. We also need a deep freezer too. I can't see how I am supposed to be able to feed the crew without being able to stock up and freeze some of the great deals so I am surely going to be picking up one in the next couple of months. I am thinking that I will get the freezer before I get the frig because my frig works great (after all it was brand new).

And here is a picture of the lighting that I plan on putting above the kitchen table in the next couple of weeks too...

I will be posting some projects that I plan on working on in the next couple of days or so. Until then...smiles, Tracy

kitchen changes

2012-02-14T20:48:00.004-06:00

I am super excited because my kitchen is starting to get closer to where I want it to end up. I have been talking about getting a new table forever. And honestly I thought it would be a few more months away from now before I would get one. Mostly because it was so hard to find the type of table that I could see buying new only to change it to fit the theme of my room. That was the hardest idea for me to get over. But I couldn’t take another moment sitting at the old conference table for dinner ever night. And so I headed back to the Potato Barn and bought a beautiful table that was unfinished on the top and the bottom was painted black. But the legs of the table are what made me fall in love with it. I really do love them.So here is a photo of the table I completely forgot to get a photo of it before I started staining it but this is what it looked like when I stated the staining process.

It still isn’t done but because it was our anniversary weekend and we had plans that I just had to have us do, I only got the first 2 levels of work done to it. I am not sure how distressed I want to go with it but I know that I plan on having the black stain show through a lot. I don’t want the chipp-y paint look though so it will most likely be a smooth finish. But one of the best things about this is that now my entire family can sit at the table together. And no one will touch one another and no one can complain about not having enough space to eat when serving platters are on the table. It is the perfect table for our family.

And on to some other things that I have changed in our newly built home…this is the light hanging above my kitchen island now.

As I look at the photo a see a price tag for $99 I wish I would have gotten this for that price. LOL I wonder what that tag was for?? But what I have learned about saying you are going to replace lighting fixers is that you will learn really quickly from a huge fixer if your kitchen island is center or not. LOL. But I am going to be uploading pics of the room again (a full view) so that I can show it to you almost done.

2012-02-07T01:18:00.003-06:00

I think I 've found my master bed. I love this bed and can't believe that I haven't found it before. I am still going to be looking at beds this week but I love love love this one. The bed is at Ashley Furniture which means this week I will have to check it out and see the quality of it when I am off. But here it is...I like both below and have to make a decision. Which one would you like?
I love the above bed the most but when I invision my master bedroom suite and the theme of a tropical retreat it's honestly perfect expect it doesn't have posts that I hang shear curtains from...

And so the bed below is very close to what I like but there is one big problem...the posts are way too thin looking.

But I won't know for sure what one I will like better until later this week when I get the chance to get to Ashley but I am also going to head to the Potato Barn too. I can't wait to make a decision. But either way it goes we will have a new bed.

Its about time!!!

2012-02-04T19:21:00.009-06:00

Seriously, the blog has been too low on my list of things to do and it is so sad. I haven't been on here in months and I miss being in touch with family and friends and of course my followers. Well that is if I still have followers since there is nothing to follow. So I was thinking with all the technology that I have it is sad that I haven't updated anything on here. I mean really nothing at all...

So I am going to do a few things differently going ahead. I am really going to do better at posting photos of something that I have done creatively or something that I am decorating.

I have only done a few things that are craft related since working, 1 was Christmas cards, #2 was a new book so that I could store my home decorating and shopping finds. I love using the book and have really been able to stay on top of a lot of things because I have the book. For instance I keep a list of home inventory items in the book. And so when there is a sale I check that list and decide if there is a need to get the items or not. And despite my honest attempts to continue to coupon I haven't been doing that nearly as much as I had when I was home.

And honestly I still use coupons and shop sales and competitors match everything. But I don't purchase newspapers as much because I was starting to notice the same things in them and despite that fact that I love deals and I am mostly not brand loyal, I also like having things that I will use and want. And I never really purchased things that I knew I wouldn't like, but since trying so many different things I realized that there were alot of things that my family didn't love and I'm not forcing myself to eat Bar S items when I'd prefer deli ham.

So that leads me to my latest shopping trips...Pros Ranch (aka Rancho market) had papertowels on sale for 39 cents. So because I was at work and that store isn't really on my way to the house I decided to match prices at Walmart. That was the best deal ever! I mean really, I got 6rolls of papertowels for $2.57 (tax included) vs waiting for a coupon or sale. And I stocked up. I travel almost an hour to get home from work so I stopped at 3 Walmarts each night and each morning of the sale. And once I had my laundry room filled I filled the cabinet above the masterbedroom toilet. And I didn't go overboard at all, I have enough papertowels to last us half way through the next 4 months. Or so I hope. Especially since the hubby is home with the kids and it seems we are using way more than we were using while I was home. It's weird cause he even stated the other night how the bills seem to be much higher since I am not at home. I didn't say a word. But I now know that when or if the roles are reversed ever again, I know he will then respect all the efforts that I put into budgeting.

Speaking of reversed roles...he is rocking at being home with the kids. I am 100% surprised at how well his at it. I am very proud of him as a Dad and a hubby. I really am! I mean the house is clean enough for me to be ok most days. I still do much work at home but he is amazing at making it a lot easier for me. He mentioned that he was impressed that I was still able to get laundry done and so much more before I needed to be at work.

I have also realized that I don't want to be a typical working Mom either so I have went many nights with only sleeping for a few hours here and there to make sure that I completed something I told the kids that I would do. I want to keep my word. I sit at a cubical all day listenng (not by choice) to other coworkers talk to their spouses and children and I thank God that he gave me the job but I will never treat my family the way that they do. I have heard woman cuss out their kids for calling. I mean really you are working 12-15 hrs and your kids call cause they want to talk to you and you cuss them out. Sad. Really sad. Well I don't cuss #1 but if I did I wouldn't cuss at my kids. Why do so many people think thats ok? But I don't want to sound like I am judging cause I'm not but I know how it feels to be cussed out by a parent...and I promised myself I would never do it to my kids. So far so good.

But enough talking about nothing...here is a photo of my house decorating log/ideas. I wish I had taken a photo of it before my littlest decided that she wanted to pull off the thickers lol.

And here is a photo of the new inspiration room for my teenagers bedroom.

I really don' t like the style but thats because I don't like IKEA furniture. But he likes the bed and the dresser thingie in the photo. So I am going to be picking those up in a few weeks when I get paid. And yes even with one income I am still able to get things here and there for the house. I have to really plan but honestly its not any different from when Vele was working...ok maybe a little, he made more money!

Oh I just have to show the photos of some of the papertowels too...no fun talking about them if you can't see some of them right? Having a stash of household items really helped this fall when Vele decided to become self employeed after being laid off! It lasted up until a few weeks ago when I needed to start working on getting things replenised. It would have been a lot harder living on our savings if we couldn't buy pullups, papertowels or wash clothes. But I am really thankful that I did work hard at having a home supply.

2011-11-29T16:04:00.002-06:00

Hello everyone...just wanted to update and let you all know that I am not here as much because I just started a new job. And so far so good...well kinda. LOL. But I am hoping to have the chance to upload some photos sometime soon of cards that I have been working on. I am not sure what I will be able to upload, but I wanted to make sure that I let you all know that I am ok and still here.

Until next time!!

Office/Scrap space update

2011-10-20T15:41:00.004-05:00

Well I just had to stop in and update the photos of my space while I had a chance to. I have a really busy week and it is Thursday. So far this week, I have been on a couple of job interviews and met with a potential client to make cards for her shop. I am so excited because this is exactly what I need to be doing right now. Trying to establish myself here is different from Minnesota but that is because there I knew so many of the store owners from actually being a customer but here I have none of those connections. But that is ok, it just means that I have to work a little harder.

Well here are the photos of my space, well not right now cause it is a mess...I am cleaning it up but I was crafting a few samples for the shop so I pulled out a little of everything. This is the space behind my chair. By the way, I got the chair from Goodwill for $6.00. It is the exact same color as the wall paint for the room and I have no plans of painting this room so this worked perfectly. And that frame leaning against my cabinet is actually my wall calendar that I am working on for the kitchen. I didn't go with that patterned paper on the top but this is where I am at with this project so far, the frame is painted and distressed, I took a piece of a ruler (that was used in the inside of my cabinet drawers to divide them for my dies) to screw in hooks so that I can hang the calendar part below the scrapbook page. As you can see the frame is a shade off from the cabinet, and that is what I meant when I said my house is a several shades of teal. But not several shades in one room, each room has a shade of it except for the kids rooms. They all got to pick their room colors and they didn't have to match the main room colors/shades. I still have to paint that crate that is on the floor. I am thinking black.

And of course the little one just had to get in the shot so you all could see that she could fit right in her little space. I plan on painting their chairs so that they match the room although they aren't the same chairs. I love the way that these little metal school desks are perfectly distressed to match the space. That was a happy accident. I originally was spraying they black but the Rustoleum paint wasn't working right. It looked like dust and I actually rubbed a lot of it off, so I went back with a wet clothe and it rubbed all off. I don't know why it did that. I shook the paint can, and followed the spray painting directions but the paint didn't work. And at that point I was way too hot (which might have been the issue with the paint) to go to the store and get a different brand so I just wiped off all that I could, sanded it and then painted over the tops with the same paint from the cabinets...and I loved it. It almost looks like chalk paint. I then sanded it some more and wiped them down once again and placed them right where they are now.But other than those things, everything else is just the same as it was in previous photos. I still have several projects that I have planned but those will be getting done little by little.

2011-10-15T18:05:00.006-05:00

This week I've been really productive in getting cards done. I really like that I can now craft while cooking, teaching the girl to write her letters and pretty much any other time that I can get a few minutes in my space. I also really like that I have been cleaning up the space now in 15 mins or less. Mostly because I don't pull out lots of things, but also because things are so easy to put back. I really like that...But here are ome photos of the completed cards. I really needed some sympathy cards so thatis what I have been making. It is a hard card to make mostly because it is for a time that is not a celebration for most so I pulled out product that I had that I didn't like that much if at all. So sorry Chatterbox I loved most of your lines but this one wasn't my style or even anything that I liked at all. But they made some really cute cards. I tried not to use too much black but there really wasn't any way around it.

Here is a list of the products that I used. I don't know what company made the stamp though.

Papers-chatterbox

Cardstock- Bazzill/ AC

Dies-Cricut (gypsy), Spellbinders circle die, Fiskars border punch, sizzix branch die

Seam binding-unknown (sprayed with TH distress ink black soot and perfect pearls)

Twine- Walmart

White embosing powder

Well have a great weekend. I am so far. I have been crafting for a few hours today and plan on crafting some more this evening.

Home Sweet Home

2011-10-11T14:43:00.006-05:00

Well since my space is set-up and I have been in there; it is now starting to really feel like our home so I felt like I should maybe let everyone else know the address. LOL. Really I sometimes forget that not all my family checks out this site or even has a facebook account. And so sometimes they are the last to get basic information from me which is so sad cause it used to be so opposite of that.

I used to mail cards and photos all the time and keep everyone in the loop about everything and so I pulled out some more supplies to make cards to send to family. Here are two of the cards that I made, and of course I am going to be making a few more to add to my stash mostly because there are 4 newly built homes on my block and I think it's only nice to give each of them a welcome to the neighborhood once they have moved in.

I really like the corrugated looking card the most. Mostly because I finally got to use my crimper on a card design. I have had that tool in my stash forever and I love using it to make banners and stuff for the kids but I never seemed to figure out how to get the design on a card. But it works well for this card because it feels like a cardboard box. Plus I really like the hand stitching more on this card too.

I just can't get a great photo of the cards no matter what. I have gotta figure out what to do to get photos to look good in here. Especially since my room has really only one source of light (which is a large source) but I need to take the photo without the flash. For some reason the flash is really too bright now. Something tells me something is off in my settings or maybe I have dropped my purse one to many times and bumped my camera.

Well I am going to be checking in a little later this week and finally sharing more photos of my space too. I have to say it isn't 100% what I thought I wanted but until I can spend money on it, this space is really nice. And I don't feel embarrassed now to have someone come over cause there isn't a box in sight! And it only took me 4 months to completely unpack every one of them.

2011-10-04T01:54:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone. I am so excited to be able to share the start of a layout that I am working on. For the last couple of days I have been working in my space and really getting an idea of the feel of it. And since doing so, I have switched two things around. My stamp tower no longer is sitting directly on the floor but instead I have it sitting on a crate on the floor behind my desk. I changed that because it allows me to actually see my stamps and it also means that I am not bending over to see the stamps. That was a much needed change. And whenever I change the coffee table looking thing out and get some other type of storage, I will make sure that the stamps can still work in that same spot. And the other change is that I got rid of the 3 drawer plastic organizer from under my desk. I don't miss it at all. I think that was one of the things that bothered me the most about my space for now. None of the the storage solutions (well except the cabinets) are my permanent solutions right now. I am using what I have until I can find the perfect solution for my needs.

But here is a photo of my space now. Oh, I do have a new little section for the girls to have their own little student style desks along the wall. And they love them. And of course every time I have been in the room, they have been in there too. But I knew that would happen. But I actually like having them in there with me and seeing the baby (who is 2yrs old) happy that she has her own crayons, and scrapbooking stuff that she doesn't have to share with her sister is just so cute. I am just wondering how I can make sure to hide my nail files because she keeps chewing one them. And I just know that they must be toxic but she keeps getting into them and everything else she can reach.

But I just realized that I completely forgot to take a photo of the space and share it. But I plan on doing that soon. Well back to said layout...

I know its not even close to being done, and nothing is glued down. And besides that the photos aren't printed. Well they were and that is when I found out that there was no printer ink. My son#1 didn't bother to let me know he had been printing tons of stuff and now I can't print pictures. LOL isn't that the way things go sometimes. When you are ready to do something, it just doesn't really work out. But I have a busy week and since my hubby is out of town most of the week there won't be any runs to get printer ink until the weekend. I have to remember to get ink for the Epson printer too. I realized from this print mishap that I really do love my Epson printer printing my pictures instead.

2011-09-21T15:50:00.002-05:00

Well I was laying on my bed this morning surfin the web after the boys were off to school. And usually I would be up and moving or doing something but the house is clean, the laundry is done, breakfast doesn't need to be made yet cause the girls are still sleeping. So I took just a moment to look at some scrapbooking blogs. And began to doze off, and just then I dreamed about the perfect use for the desk that I have in the garage. Yeap sometimes I dream about scrapbooking/decorating ideas lol.

But let me be honest about this desk, I don't like it at all for myself (which is why it's still in the garage) its actually perfect for the youngest boys room, and so I was eventually going to get around to painting it and putting it in there...and I say eventually cause it wasn't something that I looked forward to doing at all. See this is the same desk that I painted just a year ago to put into our very very small bedroom in the apartment until we moved into the house. I hated it almost instantly because it was in our room and I knew that I would never be able to craft in there. The lighting was bad, it was away from the kids, it was really cramped and the drawers weren't big enough to hold anything at all.

So I never worked on/at the desk, but instead used it as a self to store some of my supplies. And that's all that I used it for. And since I am being honest I really didn't want to repaint it cause I just didn't want it in the house for some reason. But the boy needs a desk, but at the same time who said he needs that one. So as I was dozing off I was thinking of the drawer handles which are black, and the drawers are a very light baby blue (that surely wasn't the color that I thought it would be at the time I chose it). And I just had painted our old tv stand to go in the room as a temporary/maybe permanent piece in the room. It's current purpose is to hold the stuff that I have been stating that I have no place to put, but even then I had no way to store it. So the drawers...(sorry it took so long, lol) the drawers are perfect. They can come out of the desk and fit right under the self on the tv stand. And I already have both items. I haven't painted them yet or even checked to make sure that they can fit, but I am off to do that right now. I'll be back. And really I can get a before picture of desk so you can see what I am talking about...

Well after taking care of the girls and cooking breakfast and putting up the girl's laundry (which I was waitig to do when they woke up) I finally got to take a photo.

This is the desk (while looking at it again, I think what is wrong with me, it's a perfectly great desk for a kid, but I really don't want it in his room?) and the color isn't so bad, but I would have to paint it either way it goes so why not use it for what I want to instead.

And this is a photo of the drawers sitting on the actual tv stand shelf. It is so small but it is perfect for now. I just have to wait to get better furniture. But now you can see that there is other items that weren't pictured before. That black cd tower thing is used to store my cd cases full of acrylic stamps. Which are still in their boxes and I am really hoping once this part of the room is done that I can pull them out and get them up away. But ontop of the tower is an old cassette tape holder that holds my Colorbox chalk inks. I am thinking that I should hot glue together since both turn and it will be perfect to make sure that they stay put. But I also think that I should spray paint the cd tower an amber color. But I haven't found that color in a spray paint at all. And especially not a spray paint for plastic.

Getting closer to the finish line...or so I hope

2011-09-14T13:02:00.010-05:00

Hello bloggers. I am so excited to say that I have completed a huge task. It actually wasn't a huge task but it really did feel like one.

This is what my ribbon looked like on Monday and some of Tuesday..

and this is what my ribbon looks like this morning...

Isn't it just the most beautiful thing!OK maybe its not but I am so excited because there was ribbon all over the great room for a day and a half. And the girls were playing for the last two days with empty spools. But it feels so good to have that mess up and the organized ribbon stash really moves me.

I am so mad at myself for not doing that with all my ribbons before. I got rid of about 150 rolls of American Crafts ribbons before my move last year because I couldn't bring them with me. Sad, if they were only rolled onto the cards like all the rest of my ribbon, I would have had them in my box. And they would be here right now getting put away.

So the lesson in all of this is I can never replace all those AC ribbons so I need to get over it and also not matter the brand, unwrap and add them to my stash. Forget the packaging and labels...they take up too much space.

Well the room isn't done, not even close but here are some pictures of what it actually looks like right now. It isn't perfect (or clean) but it is getting closer to the finish line. And all the stuff on my "table" is what I need storage for. Along with a few more boxes of books that I haven't even made it into the house yet.

I also found some cute little nightstands this weekend which were for the kids rooms.

Here is the boy#2's nightstand...I would do a full view of his room but there are pictures of family and friends in there so I will not do that. I did paint it black. And now he needs a small desk and bookshelf... And I got his table for $3.75.

And here is the girls' nightstand it is so perfect for their room. And of course there is much more that I need to do in their room like paint the walls, a color that we all can live with. LOL and a nice dresser with 8 drawers instead of the chest of drawers that they have. And a nice little bench that they can sit on under their window. But doesn't that lamp shade just scream at you for some kind of flowers and ribbon decorations...it did to me too that will be next. I got their table for $3.oo.

Sorry about the blurred pictures but I took them on my phone, and I don't have a clue how to make phone pics look better. Maybe I will take a better picture of everything once their rooms are done too? I hope to remember that...

Making prgress...

2011-09-07T16:00:00.001-05:00

Well it was a long weekend and I had the most relaxing time. I was honestly so excited about doing my scrapbooking space, but after thinking about it, I used that time to enjoy my families company because there was a lot of thinking that I really needed to do before I started unpacking more stuff. There are several issues that I am trying to figure out but there doesn't seem to be anything that I love 100%. So instead of running around to garage sales trying to find anything that I could use, or checking thrift stores for sales, I kinda just want to think it through a little more.

Honestly the more that I think about it, it's clear that there is going to be some plastic in the room, but how much is my concern. I didn't want tons of it but really there is no way that there isn't going to be a lot considering I have a lot of stuff to store and right now my budget doesn't include purchasing new storage containers especially when I am still decorating a whole house.

But I have organized one cabinet. I can't really show a picture of it cause it is just too messy around the cabinet to have on record lol...The cabinet has a ledge/desk folding down compartment which is a perfect place to put my diecutting machines. And because of the size, whenever I get a gift of the new silhoutte or craft robo (these are just wishes lol), I will still have enough room in there to store and use them and that made the cabinet a perfect place to be my diecutting storage too, the drawers are full of dies (none of my wafer thin dies are in there)and here is a photo of one of the drawers...

And here is the other cabinet so far too, it is almost full and I still have 3 boxes to unpack (not including my 2 mini boxes of cd cases filled with stamps). The great part about my previous systems for organizing is that I honestly love them and it was easy to stay organized. I am thinking maybe just maybe I should buy some material and put it over the fronts of the cabinets but now as I type it out it seems like a bad idea. LOL

So there are tons of things on my to-be-done list;

-organize my ribbon (just making all ribbon fit into the system that I like, no more spools of ribbon, or ribbon cards for each individual collection/company, all are getting unwrapped and put onto my 6x12 cards sorted by color)

-re-label all plastic containers (using my computer instead of my label maker)

-find (build/paint) a shelf to go between the cabinets to hold my cd tower, ink pads, tools, all 8.5x11 & 12x12 cardstock that is still sitting in boxes.

-hang license plates of the places that we have lived/traveled to (which I still haven't unpacked/found??)

-create 9x9 layouts of those states to hang on the wall underneath each license plate (using IKEA wire and double hook method)

-touch up wall in areas that have scuffs and marks on it

-create family wall calendar

-purchase a bookshelf/expedite to be shared with the kids books, family games and some scrapbook stuff (mostly scrapbooking decorations that I have made).

-find a way to store other ink pads because my current system is too small

Well that is enough for now. I will try to make sure that I update as I go along, and take photos...smiles, Tracy

Two posts in one week...

2011-09-01T08:30:00.007-05:00

Well as any of you have come to know that if I start working on something, I have gotta get it finished. Well I have finished the bookshelves and the desk and table have been painted and I can honestly say that I have no plans on painting anything else just yet. I mean really it has been really hot here I think all the days the last week have been 100 or more. I also know that I can't paint anymore in the garage without some type of fan. Although the door was open, it was sooooo hot in there. But I stuck it out and got it done.

Now I want to share of photo of the work so far, but I don't want anyone judging my messy space lol. I mean really I am still unpacking all my craft stuff and trying to figure out exactly how to merge there spaces into one. What I think is going to happen is that I am no longer going to have the kids bookshelves in the office. I mean they have 5 boxes of books but now that I have typed that, that won't work. I am thinking that we are going to have to have some type of bookshelves in the office and something for each child's room. So that is something that I will have to look for this week. There is no rush to get it but it would be nice to get it soon.

I have a couple of things that I need now in order to organize my space in the office, like more vertical paper storage. I am thinking that I should get a few usps boxes and decorate them. I really like that idea although I love the plastic cropper hopper ones, but these would let me bring more color into my space, but I did recently see where someone cut patterned paper to cover the fronts of their CP paper holders. I am planning to do that first and see if I like it and then I could easily coordinate my papers to match the room and then still use a couple of usps boxes.

So here is my work in progress....

Yes it is a mess but it is just the beginning. I am still painting things, looking through boxes trying to find my license plates that I have from other states that we have lived in and visited together. The theme of the office/scrapbook space is Explore/Travel. And I have a bunch of stuff still in boxes, in my XXXL navigator and rolling totes, which you can't see cause I have most of that tucked under the table, outta site. LOL The chair is actually from my oldest's room desk, we still need several chairs for this space (which I plan to paint 2 the color of the bookshelf and 2 some other color that isn't black)

I want to create a sign with a quote but I have not done vinyl in my cutter before and since I refuse to buy anything new for that machine (because I really want one that will let me use MCC without issues) I am holding out. I am also going to try to find another way to get what I want done without me spending money on those items for the sign.

For the record this is what I have spent so far on the room...

Paint $25 Lowes

Bookshelves $10 (for both)

Table $14
Desk-Free

I also have to find my frame stash. I have no idea what box they are in and I don't seem to remember what box I packed them in either. I should take a pic of the mess on the other side of the computer desk area but I would feel too embarrassed by that so never mind. But I am glad to show what I have done so far, I still got a ways to do but it is really starting to feel like it could be an amazing place for all of us to us together. Well until next time...Smiles, Tracy

2011-08-30T00:37:00.004-05:00

I wonder all the time how I plan on doing several of the things that I have on my list daily that I just have to get done. I also wonder why does my list seem to grow instead of getting smaller? Well this weekend seemed hotter than ever but really it wasn't and of course painting furniture in a garage in 110 degree weather isn't a good idea no matter who you are. But of course that didn't stop me for doing just that.

I had picked up these to bookshelves from a garage sale last weekend and I had really regretted getting them until I bought paint on Friday. I mean they only cost $10 for both of them, which was an amazing deal since I needed something to hold my scrapbooking supplies and start to work on getting the office set up. And when I pulled up to this garage sale I looked at them but immediately knew that I didn't like or want them. But the lady having the sale really needed to get rid of her stuff because she wasn't able to load them in her moving truck. And of course like so many families here she was moving to the midwest. But I said no, although she really was making the deal sweet because I was getting a lamp, a picture with a bamboo looking frame (which is why I was looking at the frame because it matches the tropical retreat theme of our bedroom), a lamp and these two bookshelves. I kept saying no I don't want or need them, but when she said $10 for both of them, I had to get them. And I even paid the full price she stated for the other things because you can't beat $10 for 2 bookshelves even if I planned to use them in the garage.

But then I was looking in my hallway and decided that I couldn't take it any more, my scrapbooking stuff needed to get out of the entrance hallway. I hate that all my craft stuff was in the office in the sun so I moved it to the hall. And that was supposed to be until the curtains/blinds got put up. Well that was done three weeks ago and nothing had changed because I really had no furniture to use to put stuff in.

So here are the shelves/cabinets now...I hate that once again I didn't get a before photo of them. I love them! I mean really love them! I almost love them enough to put them in our family/great room but I think that I would have to convince the hubby of that.

I still have much more to do to get them where I feel like that are amazing. And also while out garage sale-ing, I got a table (which I am going to use as my desk) and a L shaped desk. Well the L shaped desk is now going to stay in the garage so that I can use if for my own garage sales an painting projects. But my plans are to paint the table this week too. Well the 2 tables/desk I got for $32 which is a lot to be honest but I got a couple of other things too that I can use in the office.

And then I got a call from someone who I had contacted from craigslist for a desk and she said that they had also moved and that I could go to their house and pick up the desk that I was going to get this weekend for free! That was such a blessing. I mean I could have paid the $20 for the desk but getting it free was really nice. I think that sometimes when you are nice and do things for others you get blessing for no reason. I am not saying that God provides you with material things for going good works but it's nice when people are nice for no reason.

I wish that I could share in great detail what I am talking about but I often think that it if you share some things that God tell you to do to bless others it might seem like you are bragging. And so I don't want to do that at all.

But on another note, my oldest has decided to run for student council. I am wondering if he will have too much on his plate this year. I mean it is his first year of highschool and all his classes are AP classes and he wants to do basketball, student council and football. Not to mention several other things that he has going on. I don't want him to be a slacker or anything, but I hate that his school only allows for 1 elective. And that to me makes no sense whatsoever. Kids need more things that are fun in school but I guess.

I have plans on getting more painting done (cabinets, table and desk) and get the painting on the wall of the office so that I can take a photo of the area. Well I am off to bed... Goodnight and have I hope you all have a great night/day! Smiles, Tracy

2011-08-19T12:07:00.001-05:00

I am so excited to share on my blog this week, I have so much that I want to share and I have decided that I "need" to post more often because otherwise my post seem to get really long. Well I still haven't really scrapbooked but I have painted some wall paintings for my kids bathroom and I am also working on a frame for our wall calendar. I know I know. The other one that I had was not that old at all and that is ok, especially since the frame was purchased at a thrift store and I can recover it at any time to use it for another project but I will get photos of the one that I got from a garage sale for 68cents.

And here is a photo of the family(great) room and the kitchen now. I am only showing them again because I wanted to show that I picked up 3 very large Copenhagen wall paintings from a garage sale that I stumbled across. I could barely get them in the van cause I had just left Lowes and had 4 blinds in the car for the rooms.

My mom asked me what the green thing for. I have to say its my "buffet" (an old dresser) and it isn't green at all. I don't know if it is the lighting or something but it is a very dark teal. And it is use for extra storage. When we moved in I realized just how small the island was in the room and decided that sitting at it really wouldn't work for our family but putting the "buffet" right next to it would work great for additional storage. Right now I have tools, birthday/party celebration/wrapping paper, newspapers (for paint projects), silverware, and place settings in there. It is perfect. I just hate that the real island isn't the same height and width because it would cover the back (which isn't painted). But I am looking for a solution to that issue and if there isn't one then I will most likely move it to the main hallway and get another something that will be the right width and height so that it looks as though they go together. And of course I will paint it the same color, or will I?

Well there is much more to be done in the rooms. Like removing the old love seat, and selling it this week at our first garage sale,hanging the curtains for the patio door and the wood blinds for the back window today or tomorrow. I want to paint this weekend also but I don't think that I like the paint now that I already bought. So I am still debating on that. I haven't even tested the color because I am sure that it isn't the color that I want. Plus I might wait until we have the leather sectional delivered and the built in wall unit done before I paint. I am going to rethink the paint, I think that I was just so sick of neutral colors that I picked a color that I really didn't love. So I am thinking maybe terracotta color would work better than a bloody red color.

Well I plan on posting more photos of my progress next week. I just have tons of stuff that I am working on since the kids are now in school and the unpacking is almost done, now its time to really get it together. Especially cause my hubby has been going nuts, he wants people to come over to see the house all the time and I have been hoping to have some time to really get things together before that all starts.

But I have a question for you all, can you tell me if you think that contemporary and traditional can be combined to look well together? I am just wondering because I have so many things that are traditional like the wall unit, a sofa table (not pictured its in the office right now) and the wall hangings are all modern/contemporary to me. They aren't my style at all but when I saw them they were perfect, for my spaces. They allow Vele's style and my style to merge. I am just wondering what it will all look like once its put together?

2011-07-14T21:06:00.006-05:00

Stopping in really quickly today to post a picture of my "stash/stockpile" of cleaning/personal items. Mostly because I have been couponing for a while and I don't think that I am anywhere close to an extreme couponer but our little stash is so perfect for our big little family of six. Our stockpile has been chipped away at a lot the last couple of weeks because we have been cleaning two places basically. And of course that means that my stash of 16packs of papertowels are now 9 (not including the 3 open packs- 1 in the kitchen,1 in the master bathroom, and 1 for the other two baths).

Well here it is...

This storage is in our very small laundry room. I am not at all complaining but just letting you know that our laundry room is small. Especially compared to the one that we had in MN. But honestly that is just what I need. Smaller space= less room to have dirty laundry collect=laundry being done daily. And with 6 people you basically have to do a couple of loads a day or you will get buried in laundry and be washing all day one day a week. And I prefer a couple of loads a day cause there is very little chance that something stains. Plus I got these two shelves for $20 off Craigslist and they are from IKEA and cost $50 each. I knew that I needed 2 shelves but that they couldn't really take of too much square footage cause I was only working with 48 inches from the washing machine and dryer to the wall.

I wanted this table/kitchen island

but it wouldn't fit and allow me to have storage for my stockpile. So I sort clean clothes and fold on the dryer.

Also this photo doesn't show my massive stockpile of washing powder, stain remover, personal items, deodorant for Vele and I. Those things are really hard to get a good photo of but there is a lot of it. LOL We have over 21 bottles of liquid washing detergent and 4 boxes of powder.

I know I know all this talk about stockpiles such a different topic but its something that I was asked to share from a thread that I read each and everyday on a couponing site. I don't have nearly the amount of some people's stashes but I am just so happy to not have to purchase toilet paper, papertowels or even washing powder. I haven't purchased any since the Staples $3 coupon which was around the second week of June. To me that's an accomplishment cause I usually have to purchase papertowels, toilet paper, and hand soap every week. Which gives me more $$ to spend on groceries! Which is always a plus when you have four kiddos to feed.

So speaking of feeding those little ones I got a recipe from another couponing site that I altered it a little to include pepperoni. And I have made it a couple of times and the family loves it. So here is a photo, sorry I don't have a recipe for it but you could check it out on krazycouponlady.com and get the one that she offers, I just added a couple of other items in mine. YUMMY!

2011-07-11T21:15:00.004-05:00

Hello everybody, I just wanted to get on here while I had a moment to update my blog. I am so glad that I can get on the internet. Yesterday I spent four hours working on my internet connection after we got our new services installed. I just don't know if the new service is something that I will love but maybe I can grow to love it. We ended up running to Walmart to pick up a new wireless router and setting that up and getting it all set up with our three family computers. And just as soon as I was so happy about completing that, our wireless printer wouldn't connect to the computer for anything so I had to uninstall and re-install it and then go from there. And honestly that wouldn't have been a bad thing if I had actually been able to locate the printer disc but I didn't. But all is well and its all completed.

I really don't have anything to share just yet, well other than we are doing whatever we can to get the house organized and everyone settled into their own spaces. It truly does feel amazing cause the kids all have their own spaces and it seems as though having their own space has made them a little closer. I love it cause the last couple of days the boys have volunteered to read to the girls at night. I love it cause it gives me a chance to get all the things that I need to get done at night and also a little time to talk to my hubby before he goes to sleep. I just realized that school is coming really soon and that I have to get the kids registered and that is my next set of things to get done. I am considering letting our 4 yr old head off to head start so that I can have some one on one time with the little one. She would love to be able to go to school and since she is learning her letters and writing her name it would be nice to have her in a school environment. But I also think that I want to homeschool her too but I just don't know yet.

But on another note our front yard is finished. I love how it looks but I can't wait to get our backyard started/finished...But here is a photo of the front yard....

Well I called to get the kids enrolled into school and that will be a challenge again. Since DS#1 is heading into his Freshman year of highschool, we just realized that we will most likely have to work to get him into 11th grade math (I am not sure what that is here--pre-cal, maybe) because of the way that schools are set up here.

In MN when you go to an accredited school/public school, you don't have to prove that you are able to handle the work if you have a transcript that reflects that you took the previous class and passed. I mean really an A+ in Geometry on a transcript means that you have to test him to see if you can allow him to have the next level. Oh well, whatever, we will make sure that he gets the testing done. The sad part is that we did the same exact thing last year, but because he is now entering highschool they won't it done again. Never mind is state testing shows he is above the 99%, nope. We still have to prove it. So we will and I won't fuss to much about it and it will all work out or at least that is what I believe.

DS#2 is entering 4th grade and although I am fine with him going to public school I keep missing homeschooling him. It wasn't easy with two other little ones at home, but we loved the one on one and he was able to keep moving on books and all that. Now although he is in the 4th grade, we had testing done for him last year and he was able to have several 4th grade classes so this year he will be in the 4th grade doing 5th grade stuff. I just am going to make sure that he is learning something and being challenged cause for several assignments last yr I felt like really this is 4th grade work, we could so do more than that. I in fact, made he do several other things for a report that the teacher told he had only to write one sheet on. Really one sheet.

But I hope that everyone is

2011-07-07T18:36:00.006-05:00

Hello blogger friends, how are all of you doing out there in blogland? Well I am doing ok although I am sitting here debating if I am about to head to the ER cause my finger is cut really bad. But I am ok I guess cause if I weren't then I would have left by now or would I? But I am hoping that it will stop bleeding and then it should be ok.

We are all moved in and for the last couple of days I have been cleaning our old rental. It was really hard work too. But I really think that it just seemed so hard because I was there cleaning without any central air. I had called and had it transfered and never thought about what I would need when it came to cleaning.

I love the summer but it can get really hot here, in fact it was 110 on the day we moved, 112 the day I decided to clean the rental and today it is 100. But I am nice and cool. I have been slowly but consistantly unpacking boxes. I am glad to finally be able to see each room coming to a point where I can say I like how it looks. I just don't know why but clutter, lots of boxes really make me feel as though we are messy so I had to get that started cause it was driving me nuts. There are alot of things that I have written down that I want to do and a lot of window shopping online to see what there is out there to get. But I am not going to put us into debt trying to get them all right away. I am going to take my time and get things slowly.

But here is a photo of the kitchen as it right now. My disclaimer...I have only lived in our new house for a week and I am unpacking and organizing 6 people. LOL. So its not even close to being done or decorated but its coming along.

Our new kitchen table should be delivered tomorrow. Well we hope because if it isn't we will have to wait until next Wednesday. It seats 10 without a leaf ( cause it is a pretty big table) and there isn't a way to add a leaf either. Which I love. I have a few more things to spray paint (mostly frames) to add to the walls and a huge metal sign that sames home cooking.

Here is a picture from a few days ago of our front yard being installed. It is all done now and it is beautiful. I just haven't found my camera cord just yet so I can add the photo yet. But it will be coming shortly.

So in my window shopping I came across an amazing bed that seems to be almost what I want for our master suite retreat. I like it but the posts are alot smaller than I wanted them to be so I have that one bookmarked and I am still searching for the perfect one. Hopefully I can find it.

I hope that everyone stays safe and have an awesome evening! I am so glad that it's almost Friday!!

2011-07-04T02:07:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone, I am so glad that I have internet access again! It has been really hard being off the computer for the last two weeks while moving and all that. We have moved! I am so excited to share that news, well actually we aren't really completely done with moving but we plan to be this week since this is the last few days of our lease.

But our new house is amazing! We love love love everything about it. The kids are busy giving more suggestions of what they want their rooms decorated like. But I haven't even thought of starting any of that just yet. But I don't have any decent photos of the inside of the house just yet because we have been so busy shopping for blinds and ceiling fans (which are needed 100% now that we have had well over 100 for the temp that last week), but here is a photo of the view from the hallway (kids' bedrooms hallway) and you can actually see the buffet/dresser that I recently refinished so that it can go in the kitchen underneath the island. I haven't done any real decorating yet but had been putting together the ideas and notes for a while.

This is the before and after (well not a full view but you can see it)...

I love because it actually extends our kitchen island and its not allowing our space to walk around the island to be cut off at all or interfere with any of the entrances. Well hopefully between the packing and setting up the new crafting space/office I will have my chance to get some crafting done, but if not....until next time.

Quick update

2011-06-16T21:43:00.003-05:00

How many posts have I started and not finished this last month...lets just say its at least 10. I think that I am going to go through my posts and delete those but every time I start reading them I think that they are perfect for record keeping. So they still are sitting in my post box and not published.

On to other topics...today marks the beginning of the 7 day count down to the day that we actually close on the house. And I am so excited. And I bet you all think that I am packed and ready to move...and you'd be absolutely wrong. LOL. I haven't packed really anything up. Honestly besides my mini stockpile of items that I have gotten for our family since April, I haven't packed too much of anything. Well in my defense I have packed all the extra glass dishes today.

I also spray painted some lamps that I plan on using in our bedroom. I love the paint color that I got although I think that it was too expensive.

But I am sitting here thinking how do you pack 20 packs of papertowels. I know that you will all be like why does she have 20 packs of papertowels...well if you don't know we have 4 children (5 all together) that live with us and they use a ton of papertowels. And since I got a bunch of them from Staples for 1.99 how could I not stock up on them? I mean I only got 20 for the price that I would have gotten 1 pack from Sam's Club. And honestly it is awesome to have something that we use so often for so little.

But I promised myself that I wouldn't start talking about stockpiles and couponing that much on my blog but honestly how could I not when there are so many awesome deals out there. I don't plan on stockpiling tons of things but when you can get All for 1.99 a bottle after coupons why wouldn't I got 10 bottles. And there are other things that we have gotten for cheap or free that we need but I am hoping to master the skill of getting cheap/free pull ups next.

So because I can't just type on this post without adding a photo here is what I got for free last week from Staples using their $3 coupon deal. We actually got much more than what I have pictured but those items were for the kids own personal stashes of school supplies and arts and crafts items.

A few decorating ideas...and an update

2011-06-02T07:00:00.002-05:00

Hello everybody. I have been meaning to get on here and post something to the blog but just haven't had any idea what to share. So I decided because my previous post was kinda gloomy that I should at least post that I am feeling much better. I am hoping that this issue can get resolved but honestly I am not the person responsible for "fixing" this issue.

But I decided enough was enough, I need to pick myself up and dust myself off and do whatever I can to move forward. And that is where I have been for the last few weeks or so. Do what I can to move forward.

So what to share well in crafty news for me, I have made some birthday cards for LaTrele and a couple of his classmates. I made Nya's 2nd birthday banner and I also made my very own coupon binder. It is kinda similar to the binding that I used for my Christmas journal but not really. I love my new little coupon binder because it works better than the one that I purchased from the Dollar Tree. That poor thing honestly didn't even last for a month before it started falling apart.

But here is the binder that I made and am using. It is so perfect because it's smaller than 8.5x11 which seems so easier to carry for me. I knew immediately that if I was going to create a binder it couldn't be a regular 3ring binder because I would not want to carry it around. So 8.5x9 is perfect for me.

I plan on adding photos later.

Also I have been working on pages for the kids. It isn't something that has been a priority because I have been debating on actually starting to pack up my supplies. It is hard for me to even really think about it but I do know that I will have to start getting it done now. We are finalizing our loan this month (they have to re verify everything) since the house is done! That's right! Its all done! Every bit of it...We have been there almost every weekend since the beginning of this month except for a week ago because it was LaTrele's birthday party. And honestly I have measured the windows (for window treatments), planned the purchase of some ceiling fans. We are debating on getting maybe one or two because we know that it will cut our cooling costs but each section of the house and 2 or the 3 bedrooms have their own heating/cooling thermostat. I gotta make sure that the big kid doesn't have that bill running all day long.

But I plan to add a video to my FB page. I just haven't edited it yet. But its coming family if you are all wanting to see it. But we almost walked away from our house and went with another deal for one reason only. A water park is available to members at another HOA community and we almost wanted to change our minds. Well that was before we actually saw the home. It was so tiny. Don't get me wrong 2400 square feet is small too compared to some homes here. But this one just seemed much smaller and then we looked over our specs and walked through our house again and it was obvious that we needed to stick with what we have and find a water park option for us somewhere after we move. Plus I have been using an electric cook top for the last year and I am so ready to have my gas range/stove. There were some awesome things that the other house offered too like a walk in pantry. Which would allow me to have an amazing stockpile. Actually all the bedrooms (which there was 5) had amazing walk in closets too but there was a huge lack of actual room space. For instance our bedroom suite is 21.5 x 18.5 (without the bathroom measurements included) but the new house the master bedroom was 14.? x 11.4. And honestly the size didn't bother me as much as having carpet in the "eat-in" part of the kitchen and also in the formal dinning room. And I know that lots of people can do that but I have 4 children and 3 of them are under 10 so it just would not work for us. And then the new house was $9000 more but didn't come with a washer/dryer either! That was nuts. Those things were all included in our current home so we decided that the water park just wasn't enough. And to stick with the beautiful home that we have all watched hatch into an amazing new home. I really am so excited about meeting neighbors, going for walks and all those awesome things. I really am excited!

But here is a photo of the dresser (that I plan to strip, stain/refinish) and use as a buffet in our new kitchen....I love the legs on this one. And I got it for a steal at my local new Goodwill. It was only $17 I was planning on getting it ready in the next couple of weeks but today we got the call that we are closing and signing on the 23rd of this month so it might have to move "As is" and then I will work on it at the house. I also love the arched edges (which you can't see but the top has the same rounded/scalloped design coming out a few inches). I don't like old furniture that much but this piece was perfect because it reminds me of our archway from the kitchen to the great room.

I wanted to show a picture of what I'm talking about but for some reason I can't find one photo of the house completed. So here is one I took while it was being worked on

I also got two wing backed chairs that I am going to try my very very very best to myself. I am a little intimidated by them for some reason but Vele kept reminding me that I have done this sort of thing before with a bench and so on and so on. But it still seems like I would mess them up if I do it myself. But I am going to give them a try and since I got them for $7 each I won't be out much if I do mess them up. I just gotta really decide if I want to use then in the kitchen as our "head" chairs or in our bedroom as seating in the space by the tv/reading space? I am still debating on that one. But I love them to because the legs had a match feeling to our arch way in our bedroom/kitchen too. Plus I am loving the idea of using furniture that can be updated especially if it is a great piece.

I just really can't wait until we close on the house! Also the map painting on the buffet is for the office. I am going to "frame" it to make it nicer.

2011-05-06T04:51:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone. How are you all doing out there in blog land? I hope that you are fine and that you are enjoying the wonderful weather where you are. Well there has been alot of things going on here and I wish that I could say that I have been super busy crafting away the hours but that simply isn't the case.

I don't think that my inspiration is gone but instead I think that because I am dealing with some seriously negative things right now it is so hard to focus on some of the better or happier things like scrapbooking. And of course since I have mentioned it I should let the cat out of the bag but really I just can't right now.

But I can say that I am now really dealing with the lose of my Dad. Its sad because it has been 2 yrs since he passed away but now that these recent events have happened I can truly say that it is making me deal with it.

Yesterday was my mom's birthday and although I called her and spoke with her, I really had a hard time being normal. There is seriously a white elephant in the room and nobody is dealing with it and honestly I don't know how I could at this point in my life. This should have been resolved way before I was born or at least a little after that. I swear...but I have to talk about something else so that is why tonight I am going to be crafting. I don't even know what I am going to scrapbook yet but I am going to get to work on my girl's albums. Plus I really need to complete my other projects and get them turned in.

Oh I can say that I have been couponing a lot more this last couple of weeks. I can't say that I am doing anything like they do on Extreme couponing but I have gotten some amazing deals. It is really nice to hear my hubby say that I am really saving a lot of money on the everyday things and food. So just to let you know in the last three weeks I have gotten 6 free deodorants, almost free pull ups and some free food items. I am not a master at all just yet but I am learning from them and trying to do better. Well I hope to be back to posting within the next few days or so. And hopefully I can find my "normal" again.

ooops...just didn't post this

2011-04-10T07:54:00.008-05:00

I just realized that I had not actually published any of the posts that I had drafted the last couple of weeks. Mostly because I was hoping to add photos and all that. But I am glad that I did journal the things that I have been doing and what my plans are for these next few weeks.

I have decided that I am going to document the house and all things house related that I am interested in. I went to both the Potato Barn and the Crowded House. I had been to the Potato Barn several times and I loved their tables but most of the ones that I wanted that could seat 10 were extremely long and even more heavy. But I loved several of them...but then I went to their sister store and took along the family. There was one table that just had caught my eye immediately but I had to walk the whole store to make sure that it was the one that I wanted for sure. And sure enough I am going to be having that beautiful table delivered to our new home. And since they have no way to store it for us until then I special ordered one and it should be in a month which would line up to when we are thinking that the house will be finished.

So here is a photo of the table that I have on order, and I love the color! I like the matching buffet but I am not going to get that because I really don't like the matchy matchy look. I am looking for something that is the color of the stain on top of the table. And I can't believe that the table is so heavy. We will be getting it delivered. I just don't know if it will be to our current rental or to the house.

And I have been checking out glass tiles for the back splash. I love several that I have seen and they have to be special ordered and won't be back in time for them to be installed by the builder but I am somewhat glad about that because we can save by doing them ourselves or even hiring someone to do them. My back splash is multi-colored small square glass tiles. Also the pillows on the chairs on top of the table are going to look great in the family room...just in a bigger size.

Well my shopping for the house is limited to the kitchen really right now because we are saving to get the other things that we want after we move in. Which is the best thing to do unless I find a sell that is just a deal that I can't pass up. I love the legs on that table!

And now for updated photos of the house. We have walls...or at least the beginnings of them. We were told once these were up and painted that things would move along much more faster because My sister came to visit and was here for a whole week. I really wish that she would have brought my nephew but she didn't. He will be coming to stay with us for the summer. I really think that he will love being here and since my sister is considering moving here it will be really nice.

Well onto scrappy news, I actually don't have much to share in that area. I have completed or almost completed 4 pages. I have to finish the journaling and get some great photos since it is now bright enough for photos. It rained yesterday and it was cooler than normal. For the first time since being here I saw snow onto of Superstition Mountains. And it was beautiful, and although I say it was cooler than normal it was still warm enough to go outside with a long sleeved shirt and jeans. I know that this isn't the normal for most people here but we are still loving the fact that it isn't that cold to us. I think it was like 40-50 degrees which is a lot different from the day before when it was 80 and today it is already in the 70s and it is almost 8am. It just reminds me that shortly it is will be really hot in just a few weeks.

Dust it off challenge for March

2011-03-23T13:03:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to stop in and post my layout that I did for my design team project for scrap our stash. All the details can be found here http://scrapourstash.blogspot.com/2011/03/march-dust-it-off-challenge-by-tracy.html

This one was a happy layout for me because it captured us all together and it brought back funny memories. For instance this was first time that we had been to the park after the birth of our last child and I had just gotten out if the hospital the week before. And like a nut I had decided that I would go down the slide with my daughter, not even thinking about how sore I would be because of the c-section that I had. Well its funny now but it sure wasn't at the time. And even though the photo of my hubby looks like he's mad, the sun was in his eyes and I still love the photo. Well I am off to go and enjoy the sun today. I have to take the girls to the playground and maybe I can get some brainstorming done for next months design team challenge. Or at least that is what I am hoping. Smiles, Tracy

2011-03-21T12:17:00.004-05:00

Good morning everyone. I wish that I could say that it looks like a beautiful one but is is all gloomy looking outside right now. It is 76 however and it is supposed to rain. Which is ok since it has been in the 80s since the middle of February.

I am so excited because I have tons of things to share. Well the first is that I completed some pages two weekends ago and I submitted 2 to a challenge so I can't show those but here is the one that I completed for Nya's 5th month.

I used all my stash for this layout. The title was cut using my old reliable Big Shot. I used Cuttlebug alphabets and this one was inspired about using something old that I haven't used in a while...that would be those MM tags. I have a ton of them, and MM epoxy bubbles too. I want to use those on a couple of projects soon I just don't know what yet. I also pulled out my Quickutz photo corner tab die. I had that forever and I never use it although originally I thought that I would love to use it. But I do love how this page turned out. And of course I did journaling about her 4-5th month on page two of this layout. I just can't share that one cause it has a lot of personal information.

And my second bit of news...we are finally moving forward in getting the house built. We originally had another builder, who pulled out on the project because there were issues with zoning and all that craziness. I don't know all the details but it was a mess. So we went to a different builder and signed on the dotted line. We are getting a house that is the perfect size for our family nothing huge, nothing too fancy other than it is going to new. Mostly because we are getting an affordable upgraded house. I love that. The house only has the framing done so far, the tiles are sitting on the roof and are scheduled to be put in soon. This week they are supposed to be doing the whole outside of the house and starting to get the walls up in the inside...I can't wait.

But here is a photo of our little house. It is 4 bedrooms and 3 full baths. A total of 2800 square feet. And a covered back porch with ceiling fan and misters. We went with misters because really unless you are cold blooded you can sit outside in AZ in the summer without misters...cause you would pass out! LOL

But this is it for right now. I don't know when exactly I will get to making pages because I am so excited about decorating and picking colors of stuff that I am going to be super busy with the house for a little while. I made a little well kinda little decorations and new house book log. I have plans to take photos of it and share. Until then stay warm and for those in warmer climates stay cool...I sure am trying to.

Sneak Peak...

2011-03-09T18:25:00.004-06:00

Well I just wanted to come and say that I have been busy with layouts for dd#2's scrapbook and I truly do plan on working on these things more the next couple of weeks. But I am so excited because I am also working on the other kiddos scrapbooks too.

But so far so good. I have gotten 3layouts done. 2-two page layouts and 1-one page layout. I can't share everything but I do plan on sharing a couple of them in the next couple of days. But here is also a sneak peak of my design team layout that will be posting on scrapourstash.blogspot.com later this month...

Tomorrow is a really exciting day for me. I am heading off to school tomorrow to find out about a class that I want to take. I am excited because I can't wait to find out the information about the class.

2011-03-08T22:00:00.005-06:00

Hi all...I am super busy trying to get a few things finished up around here for some design team submissions and also some of things that I need to check off my stash challenge to-do list. I am so glad that I shared my plans on my blog because I have gotten a couple of emails about the paint sample cards/chips...I have been thinking about it too. It wasn't something that I really thought out before I listed it on my challenge to use this month, but it was surely something that I had in my stash that has been sitting for awhile...so here is one way that I have used them since putting them on my list.... It was fun using my old Quickutz dies and cutting the letters, numbers and the rainbow dies. As you know from previously talking about this wall calendar (you can read the first post here were I turned a thrift store frame into a wall calendar http://scrapalongwithtracy.blogspot.com/2011/01/2011-framed-calendar.html ) All the letters and numbers were cut from paint sample chips/cards and they looked like letter stickers once they were cut out. I am not worried about acid-free because it is a wall hanging. I still have a couple other ways that I plan on using them.

I was also emailed and asked if I preferred cards or scrapbooking and I'd have to say that I love doing both. I like that I can sit down and make a couple of cards and put them in my stash and have one or two to send out too all in about 45minutes. But scrapbooking for me takes a little longer because I can have a layout all complete and then I think that it's missing something or needs something else. The only scrapbooking that I don't seem to redo once it's done is mini albums.

I was also asked what is my favorite mini album that I completed? And my favorite one would be my trip to AZ. It was so much fun but a close second would be one that I made for ebay and then the one that I designed to teach at my local scrapbooking store...

Here they are all listed below
1

I have done a lot of mini albums and some of them have never been posted on my blog, but these were my favorite because I was able to do whatever I wanted. Which allowed me to do the things that I like to do...which would be stamping, diecutting and a lot of journaling. And even pulling out paints and getting messy.

I was asked a couple more questions and what I have decided after emailing the posters, is that I will add these answers in the next couple of weeks because it requires me to do some digging and pull out some of my old scrapbooks. Well I am off to get the kids in the bed. Good night bloggers.

2011-03-03T09:58:00.007-06:00

Hello everyone. I am stopping in to update you all with my to-do list for scrap our stash. This month the challenge was to dust off something that you haven't used or done and use it. Well for me there isn't many supplies that I haven't used from my stash because I have been crafting a lot more. But there is something that has surely been neglected from my to be done list...Nya's baby book. I don't know why I haven't completed it. It's not like it is a huge task because #1 I have all the photos printed and put into sheet protectors in her album (most of them already printed into the layout format that I plan to use no editing needed), #2 I have all the journaling that I want to include on each layout on post it notes and in a small notebook, #3 I have sketches also in the sheet protectors that I plan on using for each 2 pg spread...but for some reason the book isn't done. And so that is my challenge...to work on her album and get current or at least past her birth page.

And so I can't work on one child's album without thinking about the other ones' albums needing to be updated past 2008. So I plan on working on those as well the good part is that most of the photos have been printed too but they aren't all sorted into sheet protectors with the dates but I do have those in my small notebook too. Honestly these projects alone are truly enough to last the next couple of months but I plan on working on them as I go. I am no longer going to keep adding more photos and pages are getting done. And although I feel behind, I truly am current in the other kids books for the most part. I mean 2008 isn't that far back right lol lol!

Also for this months challenge there are tons of things that I have on my to do list that I want to try out. Last month it was making my own wobble thingies. And it was so fun! I didn't make a project with them, but instead made a bunch for the girls to use and play with and they honestly loved them. I got the idea from a youtube video and I have said before that I am all for not spending scrapbooking dollars on something that I can make or do myself. Oh here is that video if you are interested in checking it out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2iJRgcEeKI

But corrugated alphas and accents have been on my to do list forever and I plan on making some of these this month. I have had my crimper in my stash for well over a year or two and I haven't made one crimped item with them at all.

And paint card chips have been in my stash for a while too. I collected them years ago when there was all these cards and layouts using them on pages but honestly never really wanted to use them for that exactly. I honestly like the bold colors and how bright they are without the shimmer or glitter on them so I planned on using them as tabs on pages. Which would be awesome or to make little word stickers with. Because they have writing on them, I am kinda limited to size that I can make something out of them with but I plan on doing something with them.

So for a recap this month I plan on

#1 Getting Nya's album current (at least to Christmas 2010)

#2 Getting the kids albums worked on too

#3 Making crimped accents/embellishments/alphas

#4 Using paint color chips/examples to create embellishments/accents....

Sounds like a busy month and it's only the 3rd lol!

2011-02-28T07:00:00.008-06:00

Just wanted to stop in and share one of my design team submissions for this months challenge on scrapourstash.com. I forgot to upload this one also so I wanted to quickly come and show you all what I made for my Grandma Jessie.

Most people who have been followers know that my Grandma raised me and she often is the only Grandparent that my kiddos have contact with consistently. She calls them, sings to them on the phone, reads/tells stories to them both fairy tales and bible stories. She is often on the phone with them for hours at a time and since we moved to AZ which on the other side of the world from her (which she reminds me often) we try to send her special surprises.

So this Valentines day instead of a card and some candy, we all decided to write her a letter, and for those who couldn't write letters, we recorded what they had to say on cassette tape. The girls loved just being able to talk into the machine and hearing their voices. I decided to do a cassette tape because Grandma doesn't have a DVD player that plays recorded DVDs but I knew that she has a cassette recorder because she listens to sermons from church when she is unable to attend.

So here is just some of the care package that we made. The mini album has a coin envelope that I cut with my cricut using MTC in the size that is a little larger than a normal coin envelope but it fits perfectly into the book which fits inside of the mailbox.Each envelope has a photo of the kids and on the back, their current favorites. Grandma often asks me about what they like right now so that she can grab them stickers or talk to them about it so this was nice to include so that she could have a permanent place for that information.

So here is the actual gift

I had other photos but just realized that I don't have any way to upload them because they are on our old computer. We just got a new computer and put the other old one in storage with everything else that we recently packed for our move.

Family update...Nya is out of the hospital and back home. She is doing somewhat better, she still isn't eating but at least she able to drink and keep something down. Please call if you have any questions but I think Vele put this on facebook yesterday. I am not 100% sure cause I am now starting to have symptoms too.

2011-02-23T07:00:00.001-06:00

Good morning all,

I am sitting here thinking about all the things that I just want to happen today and thought that I should show you the design team project that I completed for this month on http://www.scrapourstash.blogspot.com/. The theme this month was love and so that is why I came up with this card for my hubby.

This the card that I gave him in his gift bag that I made using my cricut and MTC. I am not going to rave about that program again but I wanted to say that the bag is was so cute. Love the scalloped bag handle.

insert photos here of card and bag

I have another project that I completed for Valentines' day also that I believe may be used for this month's challenge. Hopefully I will know soon and I can share it with you all. Smiles, Tracy

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T10:11:00.004-06:00

Hello everyone and happy Valentine's day. Today I have only a few things to share, mostly because I have bitten off much more than I can chew but darn it I am going to try! LaTrele and I finished is Valentine's cards this past weekend. He loved how they turned out. Here is a little peek of those...

I so wanted to do much more like make a little card, but we have never been in a class of 27 students and so this is something that I had to think about when deciding to do his cards this year.

The girls and I are going to be making heart shaped sugar cookies that we are going to decorate with white buttercream icing and red and pink sprinkles. LeiLani has been talking about all during bedtime stories. I couldn't believe how much she had planned out for us...lol lol 4yr olds are really cute when they are excited! I am only sharing that photo today because I have gotta make 3 gift bags and 4 Valentines day cards for the kids from me. Hubby is going to be getting the kids cards too, we usually do these cards seperately because we both like to tell them why we love them. I hope everyone has a love filled Valentines day...I sure plan to!

2011-02-10T11:20:00.006-06:00

It is a very bright and shinny morning this am. I am so excited to share some fun things that I have been working on. Nothing really important just fun stuff. Well these are the cards that I made this last past weekend while making a draft Valentines treat bag topper for my son. I just have one child this year that is planning on taking Valentine's day treats and cards to school. I guess that should have been expected since my son is in the 8th grade and all.

Since I am really typing this just minutes before I have to head out to get the girls to doctors appointments I don't have the supply list information...but most of it is stuff that I used on the cards are scraps except for the ribbons which the first card is MM and the second one is from Cosmo cricket.

I have actually created 4 cards to send to family and one really cute mailbox/card/treat for my Grandma and I can't wait for it to be posted on scrapourstash's blog so that I can share it on here.

Also I couldn't sleep (yet another night of sinus pressure) so I got on the computer (and off of the internet) and played around in MTC. I can't believe how easy it was to do a print and cut from a clipart/graphic that I purchased from lettering delights. I haven't used them on a project yet, but I plan on doing something with them as soon as I can (maybe this weekend...oh never mind it's our anniversary this weekend). But here are the print and cuts on my notes sheet that I made with details about what I did, mostly so that I can recreate it again when I find out things that I might want to print and cut. Some notes have been deleted because I was noting just some details about the program and images and my steps. But I challenge anyone who has a machine that can print and to print and cut something. Especially if you have never tried it before...which is exactly why I did it.

2011-02-05T06:11:00.003-06:00

What an awesome day yesterday was...I just realized that I have been up all night lol. I just wanted to stop in really quick and some cards that I made using my cricut expression and MTC.

I originally started creating this card to make for hubby for Valentines' day but then I thought it was too cute and it would be perfect to send to a female in the family instead. Plus I always try to use his favorite colors when making his cards cause then he really likes them more.

I have made his card, but I can't share that one yet but it should be posting on the scrapourstash.com blog sometime this month.

Well here is the card that I created...

Supplies

Papers- K& Co-Terri Conrad paper pad

Green cardstock-misc from stash

Pink-Bazzill

Digital Diecuts-Lettering delights

Grass, frame-Cricut with the gypsy

Google eyes- Dollar Tree

Ribbon- Target hot spot

I also wanted to add that I printed the greeting from PSE from the PDF of the image's SVG file. This is was another way to get graphics from the same image folder without going through a ton of new things to learn how to do it through MTC. I am going to be working on leaning that asap. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day. Smiles, Tracy

OH MY GOODNESS!!!

2011-02-03T22:45:00.003-06:00

I just had to post again today! I can't believe sometimes how things work out! I recently contacted a company that I love working with (although our relationship is new). There were no issues on their part, just plain old everyday issues with me and understanding some things with the product that they offered. And honestly my expectation was whatever happens I still want to use and have this company's product. Because #1 the product is amazing and #2 there are so many awesome scrapbookers on their site that I just love the fact that they share so much. And so when the company's owner responded and helped me with the product, it made me so thankful and impressed. There are people who do things because they are awesome people! And that is what I encountered today! So you want to know the company right...well if you have MTC then you do. I am talking about Andy and Ann, I am not sure which one responded to my email? But I am so very thankful that he/she did. Good customer service and helpful people are truly the only things that I look for in any company and I have found them both (not to mention an awesome product). So I want to offically say that if you have an electronic cutter and you want more from it...MTC is the only way to go! And I am not paid to say that at all.

So now that I got some new information to work with, I can do so much more than just use cricut carts...oh I am so excited! I now have way too many ideas running through my head and not enough time to do them all, but I plan on working on some cards and something special for scrapourstash.com this week. So stay tuned... and once again Andy and Ann you rock! And thanks so much!

2011-02-03T05:27:00.008-06:00

Good early morning blog readers...it is really early here. I just had to get some things done this morning on the blog that I have been wanting to share these last few days.

First up, I made some cards. Not many but I made a car using a Papertreyink.com stamp that I have. I know that I have made cards with this one before but I wanted to make this one for the baby version of that card. I made it both in girl (only made one) and boy versions (made 2).

I like the boy version better, mostly because the patterned paper makes the cards theme of exploration or a journey into parenthood work much better.

So here is the card

Supplies

Paper

K&Co-Sweet Nector paper pad

Coordinations-cardstock

Embellishments

American Crafts- ribbon

Heidi Swap-photo corners

Studio 18-Rhinestones

Ink & stamps

Colorbox Chalk ink-blackbird, wild honey
Copic Markers-YR04, BG34, YG13

Fiskars-New arrival stamp

Paper Trey ink-enjoy the ride

The sketch that I used for the card was from a stamptv.com sketch#10 (I believe) but I didn't post it for the challenge. My only intention was to make some cards with the sketch that I could use for family and friends. But I am thinking that maybe in the future I will enter the challenge.

Did you notice that I mentioned a paper pad for my supplies?? it is the first that I have purchased in years. I haven't bought a paper pad from any chain or lss for at least 5yrs, I usually purchase paper by the sheet (getting only the ones that I absolutely have to have) but I went into M's to grab another set of mats because I had a member reward of $5 off my next purchase, and so I headed there to get my mats. I walked right by the paper section there and headed towards the mats, but on the way back I took a wrong turn while looking at some stamps on the end cap and bam! there was this paper pad. I have no idea if it's new or old, but it is so my style...bright but not kiddie and it works so good with so many card ideas that I am planning. I haven't found sheet in it that I wouldn't use either the front or the back of the sheet. And that is why I grabbed it. I also grabbed a valentines pad too that was awesome but now I wish I would have gotten the mat stack for this paper pad. There are actually two Sweet Nectar sets but one of them had some papers in it that I didn't like at all but the map paper made me jump all over this set! And I honestly don't regret getting a paper pad! I don't know if I will be getting more but to not have gotten one in so long it was so worth getting this one.

Also I am not going to say that someone should do this but I was looking high and low for the actual die that I have of this stamp, and couldn't find it at all. And I am still not sure where it is, but I needed to cut out the car image, and I didn't feel like hand cutting them so I stamped the image and created a template on my expression. I am in no way saying that you should do this, or steal images, but because I have the actual die (which I do have on an invoice) I figured it would be ok. And honestly I love that it worked out but it took a little time to do, and I hope that I find my die, cause I really wanted to cut some of those cars in felt...and I haven't even thought of trying that out on my expression. I only mentioned it all because #1 it was an accomplishment for me because I did it on my machine and #2 it was a great idea if you are in a bind and you need something that you own but can't find it anywhere!

I am going to be making more cards the next couple of days and I hope to get them done before we start Valentine's day projects here this weekend. Especially because I have made it my goal (because I obviously don't have enough to do) to send all the woman in my family Valentines cards along with some little gift and a card or two from the kids. And so I started the search for digital images that I could purchase and cut...well the search kind of fell into my lap. I was checking out my lettering delights newsletter and saw some of the cutest my fun and lovable designs...and of course since they cost way less than a cricut cart, I surely got them. And since it was from my birthday money it felt good to spend it on something fun. I didn't get nearly what I wanted (I put those on my wishlist) because someone on MTC's site said something about dollar days on letter delights site coming soon...and I don't know when soon is but you better believe I am going to be there so fast to get more images.

So here is the image I got cut all out and added to the bottom of our family calendar. I redid the calendar this month. Mostly because I wanted the writing to be flexible but not the dates and what I learned from last month is that since I have a ton of those calendar grids, I should probably put the dates on the calendar behind the glass because it all got accidentally wiped off last month.

Isn't the little froggie sitting on the mushroom the cutest ever! Love it! I wanna first say, I am not paid by lettering delights but I wanted to share this site because it could be a great alternative to your cart issue if you have SCAL or MTC. You can check it their site out here

http://www.letteringdelights.com/searchprod.php?showingonly=SVGs-4-18

I like carts from my cricut but honestly I haven't seen an image that was cute but nice enough to be used on an adult project that I didn't have to edit to make it not look so diecut-ish...ya know! LOL but I am now going to be searching the internet to find more digital images and more everything else that I can...so if you have some suggestions please share them. I could surely use a fellow crafters resource information...

2011-01-26T07:26:00.006-06:00

Good morning everyone. I am sitting here trying to get this post done before our day really starts up here because I won't be able to get anything done then. Well today LeiLani turns 4 yrs old and I am so excited for my little one. She has been talking about her birthday since mine lol and can't wait to actually celebrate it...we have plans on throwing her a very very small party at home.

But I wanted to get on here and show off my latest cards that I have made. There are several family and friends that are having babies and I have decided that this would the perfect time to get cards made since I sold off my entire stock of them before leaving MN.

The first batch of cards will be baby boy and I originally had planned on just stamping images and going with that but then I thought this would be a great time to start using the cricut for cards. I have always loved making cards and using diecuts so why should I start using only stamps since it means that I actually have to test out a bunch of things to get the machine to do what I want. I will admit that I don't love all the cricut images but there are a lot of them that I can make work once you remove some of the tick/cut lines that they put on them for you to follow as details. I don't know why but I consider myself a plain diecut kinda girl although my diecuts don't look plain to me once they are finished. But I love this finished card. I made one to send and one to keep for myself.

What do you think for my first cricut expression card...of course, I still found a way to use my old Big Shot on the card too...lol can't just put it into early retirement...after all its been my loyal tool for over 5yrs now. Also the mouth on the turtle was Ani's idea totally, its from the center of the border that I created. There was all these little curved pieces and she picked them up and said, Mom can you glue the mouth of the turtle on for me...and voila I have a mouth for the turtle! I know that there is a little crafter in the making for sure now! LOL...

Diecuts

Cricut carts Paisley (turtle), Stand and Salute (border), Lacy labels (label)
Spellbinders-circle nesting dies

Embellishments
Joann Fabric- heart felt trim ribbon (iron on kind, just glued down with glue dots)
Walmart-buttons, white twine

Dollar Tree- google eyes
Target-twill ribbon (was on a set of kitchen towels)

Cardstock

American Crafts and Bazzill

Patterned papers

My Minds Eye-Abbey and So Sophie

Ink

Colorbox chalk ink-blackbird, olive pastel, lime pastel, sour apple, robin's egg

Stamp

Fiskars baby set (cut greeting apart to use it without the image)

And since today is Ani's actual birthday here is a photo of her owl that she helped make to go on a letter that we have to get in the mail this morning for Great Grandma Jessie. She has been learning to write her letters (actually just her name and then we will work on the rest of the letters in alphabetical order) and the inside of the letter just has Ls on it. We haven't done anything else for the whole week but learn to write capital L and spot itin books and listen for things that have the L sound. She has been loving it!!

2011-01-22T08:15:00.005-06:00

Hi everyone. Just wanted to stop in and update my blog with a little of what's been going on. Let's see...I have been playing with my Cricut Gypsy and trying to learn so much about it. And I have started to work on a list of a bunch of things that I want to learn. My hubby got my Gypsy for my birthday and when he brought it home it was already open and it didn't have any instructions in it. And at first that kinda freaked me out but after checking the Cricut.com site and also youtube I realized that this is the way that they come from Michaels.

So that means that there are no instructions on it in there and you basically have to do the research to know what you can and can't do. And since I have only had it since the week of my birthday (which was on the 9th) I haven't learned all there is to know but I am learning a lot.

I have to say that there are a lot of videos on youtube if you are wanting information on this machine or even your cricut. I have watched tons of videos and although I know that I am not an expert at all I feel comfortable enough to use it with my expression everything I have done a project so far.

I have also found some amazing videos on youtube that have helped me and I wanted to share a few of those on here in case someone is really new (like myself) and is looking for specific information on what they can and can't do. I haven't found all the videos that there are and I haven't watched all of them but the ones that I have watched have truly been inspiring.

For welding and creating your own frames just using shapes and fonts this video was awesome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAXdgn2pig&feature=BF&list=QL&index=6 this one is really all about frames but you can really get a lot of different ideas once you see this. She didn't go through each individual frame but she explained a lot of the details that you will be able to use if you a little about your gypsy.

And then there was another one that talked about punches...love these ideas!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaAXdgn2pig&feature=BF&list=QL&index=6
I can't wait to do my Valentines day cards...I am planning on doing hearts across the bottom of a card, maybe combining the welding technique from the first video to create a nice heart border on a card.

There are a lot of videos other there and there are some that aren't free either and although as a previous small business owner I try to support other businesses I have to say that times are calling for me to be a little frugal. I mean I am trying to purchase a relocate to another home that we are building so I can't even think of purchasing a lot of the things that I want to. My wishlist has grown really long since getting this machine for Christmas and I am not complaining at all.

But one of the things that I said that I wouldn't spend money on is instructions, at least not as long as I can take the time and do the research and watch videos that are free. So if you are putting your self on a budget or are saving or whatever the reason may be, you can always check out youtube and search the web.

We (my oldest son and myself) used the cricut this past week to finish his science fair display board. It was sooooo much easier than pulling out the Big Shot (sorry hun, I still love you!)
I was able to put each title on one sheet of 12x12 cardstock and print to my hearts desire. And because it was his project I had him create and cut several of the titles himself too.

Oh while typing this up...I remembered another video that was awesome too...this one she created a background with several border shapes from a cart and then welded them. This is also the video that taught me how and where the rotate button was on the gypsy...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CWo4VBJzoe4&feature=autoplay&list=QL&index=9&playnext=2 this one is really easy to follow. I didn't have the cart that she used but instead I used my stand and salute cart that I got and did the exact same thing...and when it cut I had an entire 12x12 sheet of cut out negative space stars! I love it!!! (no more diecut paper lace pages to buy, I can create them myself in any color cardstock or patterned paper!)

I am hoping to add helpful tips like this on my blog because I believe that it is just what someone else might need to know. And if you need to get a video that you can purchase and watch you can get one from aboverubbiesstudio.com. From what I have read and have heard from the experts (and peas who I consider experts) is that there are some really great tutorials on offered there.

I haven't been doing a lot of crafty things this week except purchasing carts, watching videos, and using my machines to help my son with his school work. I am almost done with my inspiration binder. I am creating a new one because the one that I had in MN is gone.

Well I am off to try to get some alone time this am with hubby. I think that he should be coming home soon...I hate that he works on Saturdays. But it is usually only for a couple of hours in the early early am...so I am going to make him some breakfast (and everyone else) and hopefully he will be coming in when it is done!

New 2011 Framed Calendar

2011-01-11T01:38:00.005-06:00

The project is done! And I am finally able to edit and upload the photos this morning (early morning lol). I had completed the actual project on my birthday but having fun with the family all day and never got around to getting on the computer.

But this is the original frame. It's 16inches wide by 14 inches tall.

I switched it to a horizontal view and then everything began to fall in place. I ended up priming it over and then starting from scratch. I painted it black first and then once that coat was dry I put red paint over it (which I mixed black into it) and then rubbed some of the paint off with a damp cloth. And repeated that step two more times, letting it dry a little more before I wiped off the red. And after that I hung it and dated it and got it all ready for our family info center in our kitchen. I think that project turned out a lot better than I expected. But I am a little disappointed in my dry erase markers. I am thinking that I am going to have to most likely find those ones that write looking like chalk colors because these lighter colors don't show up at all on the glass. So if you find a really nice frame and just love the way that it looks...consider making it another color and use it for something you really can use.

Dies used are MFT snowflake metal dies and Cricut Cherry Limeade font, Lovely floral bracket. The patterned papers are Basic Grey (the stripe), Bo Bunny, Fancy Pants and MME (all solid colored cardstock from the backs of several patterned papers). Calendar grid is one from an old Target 12x12 scrapbook calendar in their hotspot section.

2011-01-07T11:49:00.005-06:00

Just stopping in really quick to update on whats going on. I am in the middle of a project (the framed wall calendar), the only thing is that I can get the frame to look how I want to exactly. It the same as before with the Christmas wall hanging, and I should have know to lightly sand the frame and then prime it, but I just wanted to get it started asap. And now I am going backwards a little. The calendar is pretty much done, I am still editing the photos that I am adding down the side of the border but it is coming together....and since I can't have blog post without a photo of something...here are my girls painting tinkerbell boards. I swear I love the $ store for things like this for them because I can get so many different little girlie things that they would like for a little money.

I also wanted to share that I got an early birthday present last night from hubby. He drove over an hour after working 18hrs to get my Gypsy. I didn't expect to get one but I was telling him about what it does and the other night when I started planning out and cutting my current project he asked me why do you keep switching out those things (the keypads and carts) and I explained to him, and he went on to tell me how that didn't make sense or save time. I thought and that is exactly why I wanted a silhoutte but I told him that I liked the machine and I am starting to like it much more now that I got the Gypsy. And I think that I will like it even when I get MTC. But this is perfect until then.

A new year means lots of New projects

2011-01-03T07:25:00.004-06:00

The theme for scrap our stash this month is new and I am so excited because I have a lot of new projects that I can't wait to do. I have been trying to make a list of the projects that I want to complete around the house for the kids and also for my space and it is so nice to have them written down and even some details about them noted.

One of the projects that I have been wanting to get done for my oldest son was a bulletin board for his room. He has been wanting one but every time we try to find one he never likes it. I told him that we could get one and change it ourselves and he still didn't like the ones that we found. And so I decided that I would make a sketch for him and if he liked the sketch then we could find a board that would work with it. And so I drew it up colored it with coloring pencils and let him see it...he liked it! He asked that I changed a few things (I am a scrapbooker so I added embellishments) and so after removing a few embellishments (it was too young looking for him) he liked it even more. And so I was off to find a board that I could embellish the way that I had showed him. My first thought was to head to Staples or Target and then I thought the thrift store. I usually go there for things to redo because they usually are nice enough to be redone without me feeling guilty about "damaging" something new. I ended up getting a ton of books instead of board and then I headed over to Target. They had some in their office supply spot but not anything that I could paint the frame green. And so as I was heading out I went to look in the hot spot area...and there it was. The perfect dry erase board. It was perfect for him. I grabbed it and a couple of green storage bins, magazine holders and some other items. And came home to show him some of the things to help him organize his bedroom more. He liked them all.

I think went to work on the board. I pulled out patterned papers that were mutli-colored and let him choose which one he liked for the main color and then I used patterned that were on the other side or whatever I could find that coordinated with the main patterned paper.

I used my cricut to cut the triangles (in thick chipboard as well)and then his name in black felt. I sanded that edges of the frame and added black stazon ink and then glued the papers to the chipboard and then hot glued them to the frame. And his dry erase board was complete. And finally I put a magnet on the back of the eraser and then decorated the circle magnets with paper and added an American crafts foam asterisks to them. And he loves it.

2nd post of the day (yeah me!)

2010-12-29T06:19:00.007-06:00

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!!!

2010-12-28T22:18:00.003-06:00

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

2010-12-27T01:25:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-12-16T05:42:00.006-06:00

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

2010-12-13T14:24:00.008-06:00

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.

2010-12-07T03:43:00.003-06:00

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.

2010-12-07T03:07:00.005-06:00

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

2010-12-01T03:18:00.003-06:00

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...

2010-11-29T08:14:00.002-06:00

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!

2010-11-18T10:34:00.006-06:00

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

2010-11-10T17:32:00.007-06:00

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.

2010-11-08T18:44:00.003-06:00

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.

2010-11-05T21:06:00.004-05:00

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.

2010-10-26T09:32:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-10-19T11:44:00.009-05:00

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

2010-10-11T19:40:00.006-05:00

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!

2010-10-10T12:20:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-09-21T15:29:00.003-05:00

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.....

2010-08-30T16:15:00.002-05:00

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.

2010-08-10T17:49:00.003-05:00

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.

2010-08-04T10:59:00.004-05:00

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

2010-07-21T01:43:00.002-05:00

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

2010-07-20T00:18:00.002-05:00

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

2010-07-13T09:48:00.002-05:00

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...

2010-07-08T17:29:00.006-05:00

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.

2010-06-29T13:31:00.004-05:00

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

2010-06-23T06:37:00.008-05:00

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!!

2010-06-20T21:27:00.004-05:00

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.

2010-06-19T01:27:00.004-05:00

Well if you have been wondering about me, I have been really busy. I am so excited about my new position and have so many ideas of what I want to share. I just haven't edited the pictures and uploaded them. So as soon as I get a chance I will be doing that. And hopefully it will be this weekend or maybe early next week.

Today was such an amazing day. The weather was nice and so we packed a nice dinner and headed to this water park that Vele wanted us to go to for awhile. And it was so nice! I didn't pull out the camera once so I didn't get one picture of the day (I am sure that there will be many more to come since the kids love this park!!)

But I hope that everyone has an amazing weekend and even better Father's day! We have so great plans for Vele this Sunday, but I can't share them here because it actually does read my blog (on his blackberry) every once and awhile and I can't risk spoiling the surprise.

Oh I had to add that DD#1 and I made some really cute girlie jewelry for her. It wasn't Making Memories vintage or anything but it was really cute. So my latest decision is to pick up beads and necklaces from the thrift store and discount stores that we can get really cheap and take them apart and make the new ones. Of course hers will be something that a three year old loves and mine will be something that I can actually wear outside our house lol.

2010-06-12T23:29:00.003-05:00

I have a lot of things that I want to share but I am typing with one hand and holding the littlest one so I will have to be brief. But one of the things that I gotta share is that I am going to be teaching again. Well more regularly at Anchor Paper in St.Paul. I truly love the store and have a bunch of things that I want to do there and hopefully I will be able to do them.

I was walking around all week with this card that I completed using color inspiration#3 and I never got around to entering it into the challenge. But the sketch was from http://2sketches4you.blogspot.com/ and I am no too late to submit it there so I will be doing that tonight.

2010-06-07T15:28:00.005-05:00

One more layout to share with you all before I head out today. I completed this one last night and although I thought that it was done once I completed the journaling. I decided that I am going to replace the journal strip (on the right side of the layout, the dotted/dashed lines) and put that same paper back on there and then print the journaling on vellum. I usually don't do computer journaling but this time I think that it will look better. This paper is so hard to work with because it is supposed to be a unisex line but it seems to be more boy to me.

All the patterened papers are American Crafts baby line.

So here is the layout that I completed. No supply list today cause I gotta get go pick up ds#1 from school...

Fourth of July

2010-06-06T11:44:00.003-05:00

Well 4th of July 2009 that is! I completed the layout below this morning. I was going to scrapbook today but decided that I will take a break and make a really nice breakfast this morning. And so I did that and because it has stopped raining, I know that I won't be crafting today because I want to do something fun outside.

After editing the pictures I decided that there are a couple of things that I am going to change about the layout. First I am most likely going to put a ric rac but triangle behind each banner letter. And I am going to stamp the firecracker on white cardstock and color it in so that it can really be seen better. And I am considering adding another stamped image next to that. One that says land of the free, home of the brave. The ribbon that I used was from creative cafe and it's just a plain white ribbon that I colored blue by running it through my ink pad. I do this often so that the ribbon matches perfectly with the layout. And after doing it I thought darn this would have been the perfect time to use some of that ribbon you bought that matched the layout perfectly! Oops!!

Supplies (for the most part I didn't write these down)

Dies-

Triangle- Fiskars punch

Stars-Spellbinders (cut in white felt from the $Tree)

Embellishments-

Buttons-Autumn Leaves

Twine/String-Walmart

Ribbon-Creative Cafe

Chipboard (very thin)- craft supply

Ink-

Lipstick red, Ocean- Colorbok Chalk inks

Moonstruck- CTMH

Paper/Cardstock

All patterned papers- Scenic Route

White cardstock-American Crafts

Light Blue cardstock- Bazzill

Stamps

Firecracker, celebrate freedom- Studio G $1 stamps

Stickers

Letter stickers- Basic Grey

2010-06-05T17:01:00.004-05:00

Hi everyone. I am stopping by just for a little bit today before I head back into the basement to do some more pages. I figured since it is raining so bad outside and my hubby has taken the kids somewhere?? I should come upstairs and have a mini break. I have been in the basement for some time today only because the weather is so bad and everybody is gone. But also because the kids and I were looking through our scrapbooks again and everybody wanted to look through the newest album (2007-2009). And there pretty much was nothing in the album from the end of 2008 til 2009. I mean I had done some pages but I forgot that I had been on bedrest at that time and wasn't even able to get to scrapbook all those pictures that I had taken. So today seemed like the best day to get it done or at least started. I am missing about 5 major events and 2 holidays. So I will be working hard to get those pages done.

I used We Are memory keepers papers on the layout (2pgs). I love this paper and I used it on an album that I sold on ebay, and even on a couple different cards that I posted earlier on my blog but I only used it once in my own album. So I just had to use it for this layout because it works so well with the photos. Plus it just reminds me of summer. Which I needed to be reminded of since it looks so bad outside right now!

And the photo arrangement was created in adobe (in about 5 minutes) because I needed to scrapbook so many things that happened. There will be a couple of events from the summer that I scrapbook separately like Vele's birthday, and the 4th of July but this layout is it for last summer. I am thinking that I might add white # rub ons to the photos and journal each event that way (by number) so that I can get all the dates added to the page.

Summer 2009 layout supplies

Papers-

All papers (except the green dot at the bottom of the page) are WRMK whiteout collection.

Green dot paper- Fancy Pants Summer line (from CHA 2010 winter release)

Cardstock- Coordination’s- Lemonade (perfect for this layout!), American Crafts- white

Stickers-

AC fabric thickers in white that I colored with my ink pads and mist to make them fit the colors that I needed.

Dies/ Diecuts/ Punches-

CB- circles, and ribbon label dies, as well as swiss dots embossing folder.

EK success- circle punch Size? (Littlest one)

Bosskut-watermelon

Quickutz-ice cream cone, GB embossing folder

Fiskars-bracket border punch

Ribbon-

American Crafts

Blue felt hearts- unknown brand from Joann Fabrics

Stamps-

Studio G beach and summer BBQ

Copics/Ink Pads

I used them to color the beach theme label

R37, E33, Y17, BG10, YR04, Y38, YG13

TH distress inks broken china, and tumbled glass

Colorbok chalk inks- lipstick red, yellow citrus

Happily Every After #2

2010-05-31T00:02:00.004-05:00

This is the second card that I made today using Kristina W's color inspiration#2 colors. This one came together really easily once I decided I wasn't going to use a lot of products and to only emboss the actual diecut and nothing else. And here is the swatch of the colors that we were supposed to use to make a card for this challenge

So here is the finished card

　Diecuts/Tools
Creative Memories- square punch (smaller square from the 2 square punch), Spellbinders-Large scalloped rectangles, Ek Success-flower punch, Quickutz- cake and Diamond and Dots embossing folder, Coluzzle-oval cutter. Bazzill notch tool.

Stamp
Papertrey Ink

Cardstock/Patterned papers
Making Memories- Fresh Anthology Sydney papers (6x6 pad), Bazzill and American Crafts cardstock

Inks/ Stamp pads/ Embellishments
Colorbox Chalk-Ocean & Wisteria, Bling- Target $ Section, Ribbon (repurposed) from towel set from Target (kitchen wash towels Fall 2009)　

Wedding Card-Color Inspiration #2

2010-05-30T12:10:00.005-05:00

I just had to come and post the color inspiration inspired card to my blog today because I would surely get too busy this morning/afternoon and forget to do it again. My color inspiration came from Kristina Werner's blog. You can check it out here http://www.kwernerdesign.com/blog/?p=3353 I used all the colors but for some reason they really didn't pick up on the picture.

But I plan on making another card too...gotta get another graduation card done. And a couple of baby cards done. But here is my card...it is a wedding congrats card.

Supplies used:
Diecuts

Wedding cake-Quickutz (KS-0950), Diamond and Dots embossing folder (on the cake), Flowers (on the cake)-EK success punch, scalloped circle-Spellbinders, Circle-Fiskars shape cutter, Birds and swirls embossed background- Cuttlebug embossing folder, and loopy board- Martha Stewart border punch.

Papers/Cardstock

Floral- Basic Grey Kioshi-Fuji, Celery green cardstock (Sprout) & Purple cardstock (Flirty)- Bazzill, White cardstock- American Crafts

Stamp

Papertrey ink

Embellishments

Bling/Jewels- Bazzill

Ribbon- Unknown from my scrap supply

Other

Mini glue dots, 3M foam tape, Wisteria ink- Colorbok chalk ink

It has been a busy last few weeks!

2010-05-26T10:56:00.007-05:00

Well first off...I now have copic markers! I know that there are a lot of other things that I could be sharing with you all (like why I haven't posted in over 10 days, my kids birthdays and photos of us celebrating) but I wanted to share this story first. I now own about 75 or so copic markers and it's all because of one awesome customer! She rocks! I have been making cards for several years for this customer to send to her Grandchildren and other members of her family. I would make two or so extra cards that I really like and give them to her. At one point I sat down and made some cards for your grand-daughters welcoming and she loved making the cards but never wanted to make anymore lol.

So to my surprise after completing my last order for her which was a birthday mini album, and her supply of yearly cards, she handed me an envelope. At first I didn't want to except it because she had already paid for her items but she insisted. And kinda lectured me about not allowing people to be blessed because I wouldn't except a blessing...she reminds me of my Grandma and I understood exactly what she was saying. So I took the envelope and she didn't want me to open it then, so I didn't. But I had to rush and get the kid from campus and get some groceries and so I stuck it down into my purse and headed to run errands.

So after doing most of errands I decided to open the envelope. And there was 4 gift cards and note. The note was so touching and I cried, I really did! And to sum it up she stated that she appreciated me being able to do her special cards and that they really brought so much joy to her and her family and friends. She also went on to say how she knew about our current financial situation and was sure that there wasn't any extra money for spending on my craft/hobby/work and so she got me a little gift card to use at Archiver's, and Blick and then also a card for gas and just a little something for groceries. I was shocked when I saw the 4 cards, but I also was shocked that she went to all these places to get these cards and also that she would spend her money on getting them. I called her to thank her again and started crying.

I had the cards for five days (well the gas card I used the first day! And the grocery card I used some but not all) but I was so shocked because I just assumed because there was nothing telling me what was on the cards that there was maybe $5 or $10 on each card and that would have been an amazing gift but there was a lot more than that on each card. I am still in shock about how much.

I decided that I couldn't call her again (although I really still want to!) and say thank you but instead do something super special for her...and so....darn I can't share that yet (to be continued).

Ok so I go to Archiver's and try to get some of the new things that I might want, but there wasn't anything that I really wanted. And so as I was heading out the door to go home, I glanced over at the register and saw the copic markers. And so I got a bunch of those. And then since Blick is next door to Archiver's I got a some from there also. I really am thankful. I really am!

We haven't applied for assistance of any kind at this point and I am thankful for this help and also that same week my hubby got called in for an interview. And although it's not in AZ (which we are still looking weekly for openings and applying) he was offered a job. He was gone for 4 days to orientation/training in Chicago. This was another reason why I wasn't able to post. I really had no time alone or away from the kidos. And the little time I use in the morning to post...was taken with doing the extra things that I needed to get done because I was a solo parent for those days.

But I did get some things done that I had planned for family and friends. I made a graduation card for my nephew David. I haven't sent it because I wanted to include a gift but that won't be available until Friday. So here is the card that I am planning on sending him.

I used my new copic markers, sorry I didn't record the colors. And then I used that Papertrey ink car stamp and die that I got on the day it was released (April 15th). I also used my CB star embossing folder (stars), Spellbinders scalloped circle, and Fiskars shape cutter circle. Oh I also used a very old Sizzix die original the mini tag and cut it out of QK metal backed adhesive. I didn't remove the adhesive and added the white rub ons (Doodlebug mini alphas) and used a stylus to give it the the feeling of stamped metal. I did all of that to tie it to the front of the card so that it would look like the tassle for a graduation hat. That's what I wanted to mimic. I used several bling jewels for the lights and stamped "you did it" with barn door and fired brick mixed. This card's colors match 100% although they didn't photograph that way. I even ran the red copic over the Creative Cafe ribbon to make it match even more. These colors were the closest I could get to maroon and gold. And they look really close! And the inside black strip of pp is only glued at the top and bottom so we can slide a gift card or some cash in there! Truly the only gift that you can give a graduate if you ask me!

Today is a beautiful day...

2010-05-14T09:44:00.005-05:00

Finally after several days of rain. The sun is shinning! I am so excited to share some amazing news! First I will start by saying that a negative person attempted to destroy my joy yesterday so today I just have to take a moment to brag about my son.

Yesterday we had to take him to the campus to get his placement testing done, this is something that needs to be done every year that he attends this online school because they need to see where he is and what he has learned. Well we sent him to this school because he wasn't able to have several 8th grade classes in the 7th grade at other public schools and he was testing way higher than IB classes for middle school. So the only choice was to pull him from public schools all together and homeschool him. But then the MPS Home schooling program sent papers about this new online schooling option allowing middle school students to take the grade level of work that they test at verses what grade they are currently in. So we ended up at the online school.

He loves it. And it has been challenging but one thing this did was get us (his parents) even more involved in his education. And so what we did is start to look into more information about stress and testing and ways to help our child not be so stressed when it came to taking tests. Well we noticed immediately that the methods that we selected worked very well for him. And we kept working with him so that he could learn those methods (that fit him) so that he wouldn't be so nervous or stressed. All this information was found on the internet and through self help books that I read with him during the school year!

We have seen 110% increase in his testing since then. Last year we knew that he should have tested much higher than 8th grade levels but at the same time we didn't judge or belittle that accomplishment. We just wanted to make sure that we found something for him to handle the anxiety he feels when he takes tests. And of course without medication, but just a way for him to calm himself.

Ok I'm getting to the details I promise... yesterday after testing almost for 3 hrs (with some breaks in between) we received the scores. But what was so amazing was that he came out of the testing extremely happy (without the scores) and that is an immediate change that we noticed before too. He wasn't worried about what scores he got, or how he might have gotten questions 1 or 15 wrong or anything. He was happy. He said he did his best job and that he was glad that we had found a way to make taking tests easier. We told him that we were proud of him no matter what test scores that he got.

So the scores...my 7th grade son tested at a 10th grade reading level and an 11.9th grade math level! Let's just say we were amazed! Completely amazing! So now the issue is what grade will he actual be in next year? He had a goal, he wanted to graduate highschool at 15. I didn't discourage his plans at all, but now I see that this might actually be something that he does.

So today there will be some conference calls and some planning being done per the school with us. I mean what can they do? He tests extremely high on the state tests, he gets extremely good grades, and now he is testing well beyond the grade level that he is in.

So I had to take a moment to share that little bit of good news because I rarely brag or talk about my kids' educations and where they are at with anyone. Just because honestly to me grades don't really mean as much as them doing their best! And feeling good about what they did!

A mini update....Family related

2010-05-12T17:37:00.003-05:00

My baby is walking! Completely on her own. Slow but steady. I have ready to get her on camera for the last week but no matter when I am ready, she doesn't walk for me to get it on film. lol lol. But I am going to get that picture one way or another. And it doesn't help that every time I pull out the camera LeiLani comes and gets right in front of it.

I don't have any photos to share...oh wait...maybe one on cookies. I have a batch of these cooking right now.

My card for the SFYTT challege

2010-05-09T19:30:00.006-05:00

This is the card that I made using the sketch from iheart2stamp, here is the link in case you want to try it out http://iheart2stamp.com/2010/05/08/sketch-for-you-to-try-38/

But the card is for LaTrele's 8th Birthday. I can't wait to give it to him. All the papers are part of my kit that I am selling on etsy. I love using this kit because it can be used for so many different things. But back to the card, the image is stamped with Memento Tuxedo black ink and then colored in with coloring pencils. I then inked the white cardstock with barn door distress ink and yellow chalk ink. I stamped the image, and then traced around it with a smoke colored marker and then cut it out. I then cut it and the robot out and then put both of them on foam pop dots.

I also added bling to the robot. The circles were cut with the old Fiskars cutting template, and also the Spellbinders label eight. I roughed up all the edges with the TH distress tool. And both the black and orange cs is embossed with CB embossing folders. The # 8 is an American Crafts fabric white thicker that I colored with the barn door distress ink. And the ribbons are Creative Cafe.

So here is the card...

Happy Mother's Day!!

2010-05-09T18:31:00.003-05:00

I just wanted to stop in and say Happy Mother's Day to all my mom readers! I am having a great day so far! It is somewhat sunny (compared to the snow from overnight which has melted away!...yes I said snow!) I also wanted to share the cards that my kids made for me. I'm a simple kinda mom, a card, a hug, some chocolate...my day is all wonderful! LOL! I tell them all the time to make something for me instead of buying something, one because it causes them to be creative.

So here are the cards that they made...LaVele's card is one the best that he's made for me so far. Maybe it's because he's a teen and has learned some of his Dad's skills (the sweet talk it takes to get on my good side) lol lol but what he wrote made me cry. His poem included thanks for pushing him, and telling him that he does a great job, and he even thanked God for letting no other person be his mom but me...it really was awesome!

And he also helped his little sister make a card too! She of course is a little crafter and added more glitter and markers...just like mom would! Just so awesome! And LaTrele's card is just as special too! And all the kids signed each other's cards (something that I like too!)....

Also before I go, I wanted to share that I will be uploading another photo of a card that I made using the remaining papers/embellishments from the kit. It is really cute! And I used a sketch from 1heart2stamp.com. I have never submitted a card to a challenge, I might use the sketch to make cards, but never put them into the competition but I decided that I will do it this time. Mostly because I was at my local scrapbooking/paper store and the sales clerk said that I should have been submitting to magazines and all that. Well my biggest fear is rejection. So I decided not to worry about rejection, just enter a challenge and that's it. So I did...and I will share the card I made later today (maybe)??

Some quick updates and information

2010-05-07T11:32:00.008-05:00

I just wanted to stop in really quick and answer a couple questions that I have gotten from two separate sites and also from emails.

The first question was if the family memories kit has some directions.

The answer is yes, I have typed up some basic instructions, a supply list, and also included colored print outs of the actual pages that I have created. Along with colored prints of the cards that I made using the kit remains. The information is very basic but it gives you a general idea of how the kit pages are put together. I do give directions on creating the tire tracks.

The second question was about the link to my etsy store. I have now gotten that corrected. My store is located at www.etsy.com/shop/tracyross98 I am planning to add the permanent link to my store to my blog as soon as possible, but because I want to change a few things around it might take me a little while to get it all complete.

I also have put my Mothers are the stitches...card on my etsy shop as well. And if there are any questions please feel free to email me at tracyross98@yahoo.com or leave a comment and I will respond here. Tracy

Just a few cards made with the mini album kit remains. lol

2010-05-04T09:27:00.006-05:00

I have been busy working on making cards for this month. May is my busiest month for making cards for my family and friends. Well besides November and December. lol But May is super busy at our house mostly because my Mom’s birthday, Mother’s Day, LaTrele and then LaNya’s birthdays are all in this month. And if my Dad was still living we would be celebrating his birthday before LaTrele. And then there are also graduation cards for family members that are going to graduate. And this year that would be my nephew David. So this month is jammed packed with events that need a greeting card to go along with a nice little gift. And that means that this month will be the one that you see a lot of cards from me (well I hope).

So last night I decided that the card that I wanted to make for my mom should use the fox stamp from Imaginisce that I have been hoarding forever. And no matter what I tried to change the greeting to it just seemed to come back to what I thought my mom would like more than anything else. So this is what it ended up being…

I just hope that she likes it because it was kinda weird to call my mom a foxy moma but hey I figured that is what she would like more than a foxy lady? All the papers are from the mini album kit that I am selling at my etsy shop and these are what were left over after making the mini album. I am challenging myself to use only what I have left over from that kit so that I can show just how much extra is in the kit once you have created the mini album. I don’t have copic markers and so I used the supplies that I had to color the fox. I used both coloring pencils and markers to color him. And as I have stated before, I know nothing really about shading so I did what I thought would look right. I might not win an award for coloring but my mom will like it. Ok and since I touched the topic of not having copic markers I might as well say that I don’t think that I will not get some one day, but I just can’t justify spending money on them because I have so many other coloring tools that I don’t use. And once I have used them…then maybe one day I can get some copic markers?

And then I decided to make one for my cousin whose birthday is the first week of June. Might as well get that one done. She is my favorite cousin & best friend and so I really felt like the foxy lady fit her!

So after making the fox cards I thought I should get started on mother’s day cards. I usually make different cards for each person in my family but this year I think I will make them look the same but have different greetings (maybe). My Mom and Grandma’s cards are always the first to be made and so these are the cards that I made for them.

I finally used my QK die that I just had to get at a lss garage sale almost a year ago. It is so funny because I worked at the garage sale (somewhat) and I stalked that die and couldn't’t wait to get it but once I got it home I realized that I might have to wait a whole year to use it. I then sprayed it with perfect pearls perfect bronze mist and black soot reinker. I love how that turned out and then I wrapped knitting thread around it to make it feel more real! The greeting is handwritten. I saw it on a website and thought I can’t buy any stamps until I use the ones that I have! So I then added it to my wish list. I also used other things that I have had in my stash and never used before. The CB paisley embossing folder and the leaf pin have been in my stash for well over a year but I kept trying to add them to the “right” card…this one was it! The buttons are random ones from my stash.

Now I only have 6 more cards to make using the same design, scraps from the kit and other stamps or dies that fit Mother’s day themes…And just a day to get them done and in the mail. Well we will see what happens. Lol lol…

Mini album kit

2010-05-02T16:43:00.008-05:00

Just as I promised...the mini album kit is all put together and listed on my etsy shop at http//www.etsy.com/listing/46047917/family-memories-mini-album-kit

I am so excited to be making kits again and plan on getting more examples of what I made with the kit on my blog. Here is the mini album that I made using the kit and I have a bunch of product left. I am planning on making Mother's Day cards and a couple of kid's birthday cards as well. I didn't even use half of the embellishments in the kit as well because I wanted to make the album not so bulky. I bound mine with the bind-it-all but your chipboard album is completely raw and has no holes at all so that you can have a choice of whatever binding you want.

There are no stamps or letter stickers included in the set but you get tons of paper so that you can diecut letters and use the supplies that you have already. The mini album I did is just an example.

Some of the papers used are WRMK- 72& Sunny Dots & Rainbow, Kaiser Craft- What a hoot, October Afternoon- Gazebo, Basic Grey- Urban Prairie Hayloft, Kioshi- Ran & Water Lily, Bo Bunny-Gypsy Henna, Kitchen Spice Sesame, 7 Gypsies- Terrassa, Fancy Pants- Sweet Spring Anni & Selby, On A Whimsy catch a wave, Cosmo Cricket- Early Bird Brunch, MME- Be loved hearts. There is actually a total of 32 patterned papers (2 of each design). That is shown below along with the embellishments from the kit which include 6 feet of paper tape (2 of three designs).

Airplane embellishments are now available.

2010-04-29T23:41:00.002-05:00

I had several emails (or peamails on twopeasinabucket) about my airplane felt embellishments and if had any plans on selling them. Well now they are available at my etsy shop. Check it out here http://www.etsy.com/listing/45882227/felt-handmade-airplane-embellishments

And if you want to see them used here is the original post....http://http://scrapalongwithtracy.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-had-to-check-in-to-show-my-work-so.html

They will be slightly different because I am using the supplies that I have on hand so if you are interested please email me or leave a comment or convo me on my etsy shop. Thanks Tracy

My mind is on Arizona

2010-04-25T00:10:00.004-05:00

I am not playing at all. My heart and mind are in Arizona most days. I am thinking about the house we are moving into. If the inspector will find anything wrong. Will our house sell here? Will there be employment for us there?

I want to complete all my finished projects and things that are going on here so that we can relocate there without any issues. I want the chance to really move and enjoy the process as well as be stressed by it. I just need this all to come together. I just don't know how it will right now but I am praying and believing in a miracle.

Well I have to share the photos of the card that I recently made...this one was for my Aunt Betty.

2010-04-22T19:43:00.002-05:00

The offer for the Tim Holtz inks/re-inkers are all done for this round of customers who got their order in before Wednesday, April 21st. I just wanted to let you all know that I am hoping that the stamps/re-inkers will be shipped out to me the early part of next week and I will my very best to get your orders out within 24 hours. Unfortunetly if you live outside of the US then I won't be able to provide any shipping information (other than a customs #) and for those who are US customers I will be providing a confirmation/tracking #.

Well today I got some amazing stamps in the mail and I looovvveee them. And they are going to be the first thing I grab this week/weekend to make a card for my nephew who is graduating from highschool. I am so excited about making him a card since his colors are maroon and gold. I am still trying to find the right color of maroon but hopefully I'll be able to find it once I get the mini albums done and in the mail.

I do have to say that I wanted to share a card that I made for my Aunt Betty but I just realized that I haven't mailed it yet and she actually reads my blog. So I don't have anything to share today but I have plans of sharing some cards when I make them this weekend.

Tim Holz distress inks

2010-04-19T07:10:00.006-05:00

I just got an email stating that I can get a set of 12 Tim Holtz ink pads for $42 and the reinkers for $36. The 12 ink pads would be all the new colors that were released at CHA winter2010. Here is a link to the actual colors. http://www.timholtz.com/ink.htm

The colors in the sets are
- barn door
- bundled sage
- chipped sapphire
- crushed olive
- forest moss
- pumice stone
- rusty hinge
- spun sugar
- stormy sky
- tumbled glass
- victorian velvet
- wild honey

I will be charging actual shipping for these and this offer is limited to 10 sets of the reinkers but there is no limit on the # of ink pads that I can purchase.

This deal is amazing and I have sold these 2 other times on twopeasinabucket.com on their for sale board. You can check her for the feedback http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2973336#26929506

or you can check this thread as well http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=display&thread_id=2972524#26923809

I take paypal payment only and I want to have the order placed on Wednesday April 10,2010. You will be paying actual shipping for these ink pads/re-inkers and I am will to offer a discount on shipping if you are getting both sets.

It takes 5 business days to get the shipment returned to me once it is paid for so I am hoping to have it by the following Wednesday and mailed out to everyone within 2 business days. I don't have the actual cost for shipping so you will have to contact me with your zipcode so that I can check usps and get that information for you. This is for brand new items that you are pre-paying for. Thanks Tracy

Images edited to remove photos.

2010-04-18T20:27:00.008-05:00

Hello everyone. I just had to come and post the pages of Daniel's album that I have competed today...making a total of 12 pages for his mom's album. I love these pages and had to share them.

Page one...Celebrate Daniel's coming home.

I was hoping to make several other pages for this mini album using the remaining pictures. I was hoping to add a page of photos of the Dad with his son, a page with the older cousin and Daniel and even a page using the mother's favorite picture of Daniel. But we will see what happens.

I am gonna go and relax with the family since we didn't get out today. Goodnight everyone (smile), Tracy

(all photos have been removed for customer)

2010-04-17T10:19:00.006-05:00

I am back to post the pictures of baby Daniel's album just as promised. I am hoping to get some pages done today also. I am just working out the details because I have to decide what to include in the album at this point so that I am right at the page limit requested.

This one is for his mom's album. These are his little prints.

This one is of his first visitors at the hospital. This is a one-page layout but it has an album insert. This insert is from an album that I already had, but the other type (single photo sleeves) are something that I actually went and bought just for this project.

And his first bath at birth photo.

2010-04-16T15:04:00.012-05:00

I am so excited because I have found a solution to my storage and new product process that frees up more time for me to get some crafting done. I only craft for 15-20 mins every few days or so. And if I really want to accomplish something I usually pack up a little tote and bring it upstairs and work on it while the kids are watching tv.

But on to my point, I was spending an hour or more each time I went into my space to update my die/stamp/ink log. And although I love having it because it prevents over spending; I need to spend more time crafting and less money buying. So I decided no more removing all new items from their packaging and storing them as soon as I get them...no! I am now going to only store my stamps in cd cases when I have actually opened the pack to use on a card! That's my goal. Plus am I am out of cd cases and want to convert to the Stampin' Up dvd cases...and there won't be any shopping right now.

Yesterday I actually had more time to make cards ...one for the real estate agent, one for my sister and surely one for my Grandma. I am so excited because I used several new stamps, papers and products and it was so nice to use what I have instead of storing it and then looking for it in the piles of new items. And new doesn't mean just purchased but its I had purchased and not stored yet.

Here are a couple of the cards that I made and the list of supplies.

For a real estate agent in Arizona I made this card.

Supplies:

Cs/PP: Tan cs-Bazzill basics, Bloom & Grow pp-MME, green pp-MME, Kitchen spice nutmeg- Bo bunny, Urban Prairie Blue bird-Basic Grey

Dies/Tools : Sizzix branch w/leaves, Spellbinders Scalloped ovals, TH distress tool (edge distressing)

inks/pens: Distress inks (added water to a spritzer with perfect pearls to create a mist)-spiced marmalade, wild honey, fired brick (used on the leaves)

ribbon: I believe that this was from AMM it is very old and it has been in my stash forever...I hated using the very last pieces so I only stapled it on the card (TH attacher) instead of tying it.

A jumbo thank you for my sister:

Supplies:

Most of the papers/cs are listed above.

Buttons: from stash (various companies), twine-Walmart

Lettering: rubons-MM, and thanks-AC, letter stickers- Provo Crafts girls are weird letters

Dies/Tools: Nesting label- QK, TH distress tool

Stamps: Elephant- Studio G

inks/stamp pads: TH distress inks- fired brick, Stamping Essential markers, colors pencils, gamsol.

Also I worked on little Daniel's album and it is almost done! I am so excited about it because I am hoping that it will be able to be sent out so that the customer's sister can get it on mother's day.

I plan on sharing those pages later today or tomorrow.

Arizona was so beautiful!

2010-04-12T23:07:00.009-05:00

Well everyone if you have been wondering where oh where is Tracy...I have been in Arizona for the last two weeks. We had so much fun, we are planning to relocate sometime within this year (hopefully by August). We had no plans on going right now but my husband lost his job which should have made us save more but it was the perfect time to go and look for employment and also housing.

We truly had an amazing time. I had never seen a mountain, a palm tree or even orange trees in real life and oh my...they were all beautiful. And although we needed to save (to relocate and also to get some repairs done on our house so we can sell it) we even headed over to the Grand Canyon as well.

2010-03-25T01:50:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone. I have some pictures that I can share of my current projects with you all. I have been working on the little boy memory album today. But first I have to share that I made my own photo sleeves simular to the CTMH flip flaps that I had been wanting to order.

Well actually I had plans on ordering them and then that changed because I couldn't get in touch with my CTMH rep. And so I came home and sat down and tried to figure something out. And the results were awesome! I like these better than the flip flaps because they can stay flat on the page and not move. Although the picture ...darn it something happened to the photos (I deleted them in error...oops!)

Well here are some pictures of the kids instead...lol lol I don't have any other pictures to share. I can't believe that I deleted them after emailing them to the customer! And they are deleted from my memory card also.

Oh I had to add if you are in MN and you are planning to head to Crafts Direct, you have got to pick up some of those Darico (might not be the name?) adhesive that they have for .98! I grabbed a couple because I needed something that wasn't too expensive (I do have the ATG and it isn't expensive, I just needed something a little more cheaper!) to use on albums that I am making plus I wanted it to be photo safe and strong. Well that stuff works awesomely. I couldn't even get it off the page with an adhesive eraser (seriously I ripped the paper). So I ended up only getting 6 but now I am thinking that I might have to plan another trip out there to get more will they are marked down so low.

2010-03-08T03:49:00.004-06:00

I had to check-in to show my work so far on the mini albums that I am working on. I really didn't realize until tonight how long it takes to upload a pic to yahoo and email it. It has never taken that long before to upload anything but hopefully it won't take that long in the future.

I have paint everywhere. It is on my chair (at my desk), on my hands, under my nails...seriously it is everywhere. I am so glad that I make sure to work in my apron and house clothes so that I don't mess up some really nice clothes.

Well here is what the cover looks like with the photo in it. And the second pic is the cover page. And I actually used the felt airplane that I made on the page....

Also there have been many people asking about the TH distress ink pad sets. I am considering purchasing some the following week after this class is done, and I have sent out other orders but that won' t be until next week sometime. And I will post on 2 peas and here when I am going to get the sets. Leave a comment if you are interested in being contacted when I order sets or you can peamail me.

2010-03-03T09:43:00.006-06:00

My organization is always changing, especially since I continue to get more stuff! I had been using things that I had around the house, or things that I could purchase for really cheap to organize because they could work and plus it meant that I didn't have to spend too much money, well that can't really work for my space anymore. I had too many little Target dollar spot things and sI want to eliminate some of the bulk in my storage (not my products! lol).

There isn't much about my space that is "wrong" for me but there are some problem areas!
So here is my current storage for buttons pic one is the front side of the cropper hopper embellishment storage container. And picture two is the back of the container, it has a little pocket like section on the back.

I originally got this storage container to store my ever growing American crafts ribbons. This idea was great when my ribbon supply was less than 100 rolls lol but now that I have well over that (remember I have been scrapbooking since 1996) I decided to use this for something else. Buttons seemed to be a great idea until I was asked to use buttons to make cards, and show ways to use buttons on pages and was given tons of buttons to do this with. And so now I have a button collection. And since I am working with a corner in my basement family room, I need to try to make it work better for me. So this is the new container I am going to try. I recently moved my flowers to this system and love it, so now I am going to do the same for my buttons.

And I did this for my brads/eyelets and grommets just a few weeks ago...here are pics of them. Eventually I am hoping to eliminate having 3 drawer plastic containers. Or at least that is what I am hoping. But I love that these are all now together in one space (well 4 containers) and now no more digging through a drawer looking for the right tic tac container! No brads opened at the bottom of that drawer either. Yeah!

2010-03-02T12:35:00.006-06:00

I really wanted to have a chance to blog today and show pics of several things that I have going on but I have been on the computer already way too long today. I have been creating math drill sheets, spelling sheets, and printing off projects for us (really LaTrele) to do. Plus I have to find the time to relax my hair, wash some clothes, prepare burger patties (because I will be at my son's history day program for hours) for Vele to grill after work, and comb LeiLani's hair! And all this needs to be done before 2:45pm when the history day program starts. I am hoping that my poor camera batteries will have charged by then because my car battery charger isn't working at all! But anyways here is some of the things that I have been working on.

Airplane embellishments for the mini albums, these are hand cut and stitched. They took me about 2hrs to make a few different ones. I don't know if I love them, but they are really cute!

And this is the canvas pocket that I made from a piece of canvas that I have been holding onto for something special forever. My thought was since the album needed a pocket for the cards, that I needed it to be durable and sturdy. And since there aren't any sheet protectors this worked out great. Well I gotta get to work! Have a great day everyone!

2010-02-27T15:05:00.006-06:00

I just realized that I never finished the post that I saved to my blog last week. I have been posting on my blog and saving them until I had photos to add to the post. I guess I could have posted without the pictures but that just seems so weird to be posting about something that I have made or done and not to include any pictures of anything that I have done. Maybe next time I will post and then just add pictures later.

Well I have been busy organizing my space the last couple of weeks only to make a complete mess in there for the current project that I am working on. But now my stickers are organized and all together in one spot. Hopefully this will make using them easier. I noticed that I have tons of letter/word stickers. Especially 7 Gypsies ones and that I have only used a few on the revolving ATC's that I worked. I am so excited to be able to have them out and so now when I reach for a sticker folder it has all family, school, baby, holiday, birthdays/celebrations, calendar/documentation themed stickers in one place along with all my letter stickers sorted by color. I used the cropper hopper sticker folders to sort them, which isn't a lot different from the other filing system that I had (PSB and desktop file folder) but now because of the open storage bin thingie all of those folders are in one place. I love it because now instead of reaching for that huge and heavvvyyy PSB/Cropper Hopper 3 ring binder, now I pull out one folder. And then put it right back. I love it!

But like I said, my space is a complete mess because I am working on a memory album for a returning customer. It is such a compliment to be asked to do a memory album for a loved one that has passed away. And so I have been working hard gathering supplies and pulling out some of the best things that I hadn't used because I was waiting on the perfect reason to use it. And now I have one...I don't plan on showing all the pages of the album because it is something that is special and should be cherished by the family (but I will show bits and pieces here and there of pages without the photos. So here is the cover that I have started. I think that I am going to add something else to it, I am not sure what but then I am going to be moving on to the pages. I have some really great sketches that I haven't tried and so I can wait to use those either.

I have tried to take 2 different pics of the album cover but no matter what I am not getting the best results with picture taking today.

Well I am off to run some erronds with includes returning kiwi acrylic paint back to Walmart for the 4th time...I think this color is bad across the board. I will have to get a substitute because I need that kiwi color green for this mini album. Also the ribbon holder ring is really red. It just wouldn't photo great at all and the letter stickers used match the border and the ribbon ring 100% but it just doesn't look that way in the photo.

2010-02-16T18:46:00.006-06:00

I am sitting down to take a mini break just to tell you all about my day. It has been a really busy one, well that isn't anything unusual. But I am just tired because Nya had been tossing and crying out all night last night. Which I knew would happen because she has a little tip of her tooth showing! Yes we are now teething, well she is and I am sleeping less. She has been a lot better than all the other kids (so far with teething) but she is mellow baby, she doesn't really cry even when her big sister takes something from her (which by the way has started to happen).

So enough about that...I called my Grandma today. Today was her first day home after being in the hospital for a week. And I am so ready to move to be with her, but she is so against it. I understand why but at the same time I know that she would love for us to be with her.

Let's see what else can I share...I really don't have anything except that I have been running all over the place taking care of business and also getting school planning done for LaTrele. He is going to write a book report and make a presentation of his topic. He selected monkeys/gorillas as his mammal to work on. It was so nice to see him in the library actually looking up his own books and using the web/search and catalog to find them. I am so glad that I showed him how to do it...so now I can find books for everyone else and work on family learning. I had fun teaching LeiLani how to use a mouse today. She has used the computer tons but never really got the clicking down so it was nice to see her using it. She was so excited about that.

Oh and since I haven't shared what's for dinner in a while, I took photos of what I am working on right now...Beef and Veggie Teriyaki. I had the meat marinating since lunch. But the noodles came into plan when I decided to stop by Aldi and grab a bag of carrots and maybe some other veggie to put in it...and that is when I found a whole selection of Asia specialities. So now we are having noodles and baby corn too!

Even Angels...

2010-02-04T18:37:00.003-06:00

Wow I was on youtube looking for the daily scrapbooking uploads and I have to say that I was a little distracted by the fact that I had wanted to watch Oprah yesterday and I wasn't able to (had to pick up my son) but then I said why don't I see if they have it on there. The show was Oprah interviewing Fantasia. Now I have never been into American Idol, well I never voted or watched the show consistently. But I did watch reruns of it when I had nothing else to watch. And occasionally I would watch the try-outs...oh those were so funny! But I remember seeing her (Fantasia) cry/win and I was happy for her. Especially considering her background. And I don't usually follow celebs or famous people so I had no idea that there was anything going on negative about her and if I had the money to spend I had plans to go to my first Broadway show to see her perform my favorite movie, The Color Purple. But it wasn't something that I could do.

But I watched the whole show (all the pieces that I could find) and was amazed to hear her story. It was a little weird because we had a somewhat similar story, I mean I didn't get pregnant as a teen but I understand what she means about taking care of her siblings. And although you love them and would do anything for them, sometimes you just gotta let them take care of themselves. But that's another story, the point I'm making is that I'm surely going to get her latest single...Even Angels. I was moved to tears. Honestly. I have heard some of her other songs and thought they were ok (my best friend used to love listening to her), but this song is amazing! You go Fantasia! So because I live under a rock lol lol I have to figure out when the song is going to be out or if it is already and get it. I haven't bought a cd in years, usually I buy music on the internet, but I am so going to actually buy the cd.

I just had to come share that. Oh also I have a Dr's appt tomorrow and I am really worried! I haven't had any health issues (well since being pregnant) but I am really concerned about some tests that were done. And so I am hoping all will be ok, and if you are a praying person please pray for my strength both physically and mentally. Good evening you all!

My blog has been neglected too long!

2010-02-02T10:33:00.009-06:00

I just don't know what to say about my blog neglect? I have been busy but I think I haven't posted mostly because of the pain of typing. Although my finger is healed?? It still hurts even now that the splint/cast thing is off. But I am going to try to make myself type so that I can get over the pain.

There has been so much going on and there are so many things that I want to share. And since I haven't chatted in a while there is just too much to share but I will try to get most of it down.

We are learning sign language as a family so that we can talk to my step MIL. I can't wait until she can communicate with the kids and hubby and myself in person instead of by text message and also the fact that we took the time to learn to speak to her in her language makes me excited too. We still haven't told her that we are learning it...but we found some awesome resources at the public library. One of the things I found was Signing Time videos. And let me tell you, we have completely eliminated kid regular cartoons because the kids love watching these videos. I have had to recheck out several so that they can continue to practice but it still lots of fun. Even my 3yr old is signing and singing the songs also. It's just a fun way to teach them something.

Well my daughter turned 3 this last week and we celebrated her birthday with her. It was so nice to do something simple at home together. Mostly because it was cold and also because things are going to be a little tight these next couple of months. Plus she was just so happy to get her present. I also realized that we have gotta branch out and get involved in more play groups instead of the 2 neighbors that we play with every once and a while. Because we don't have any kids her age in the family that live close to us...and until we move to AZ we won't have any girls around us besides the play group/neighbors. So we are going to branch out. But here's a pic of her on her special day.

I haven't edited/fixed any of the photos I'm uploading today. Mostly because I have so many things that I want to share.

Also we have been having tons of fun homeschooling this last month. The one thing that is hard about homeschooling is motivating a child to do something. And we don't believe in rewards for doing something that you are supposed to do but how can you not make learning fun and rewarding for a little one? I mean sitting in front of books all day and reading or doing math does get boring after a while. So we (hubby and I ) have been trying to find more creative things for our 2nd grader. And Vele thought of the Science Museum. And lets just say that was an amazing idea. We had never been to just the regular science museum (just the Children's Museum) but we had tons of fun with the kids. We practiced signing the names of dinosaurs and did several experiments there too. And for those that don't know you can get a discounted rate at the science museum if you are on WIC, or several other things. We qualified for a discount because of Vele's job, but there are lots of discounts available so there isn't really any reason you can't go. We ended up paying something like $48 for a year membership. And the membership can be used at all Science Museums...so of course that includes Arizona's. But that is all that I will share for today. I am planning on posting to my blog later this week as well.

2010-01-11T19:51:00.004-06:00

Hi everyone. I am so exhausted and hungry. I do have dinner prepared but we are waiting for my hubby to get home to eat together tonight. And that isn't usually a hard thing to do but in the winter the drive that usually takes 15mins is a lot longer. Especially during rush hour.

I have some really great news. We once again have 2 vehicles. My hubby came home with a van KIA Sedona to be exact and it was so nice and shiny and all mine! And he will be driving the old van. So I have been really excited about having a van again. And being able to go when I need to and run the kids all over the place and back again.

Also I got to scrapbook on Dec. 30th and did several pages for Nya's album. I had no plans of working on anything else but her book because there was no way that I was going to start 2010 without having at least her title page and birth pages done...but I actually got her first month done as well. I can't show all the pgs because they include a baby in her birthday suit but here is one. And unfortunately the sun set (at 4:30pm) and so I wasn't able to get a great indoor picture no matter what I tried to do. But here is the photo. And have a great day.