Hello to all. My days have been really busy lately. So sorry for not posting more often. I have my own two little ones to chase, plus I have been teaching all day and these last two weeks I have been teaching paper crafting in our after school program as well. Wears me out, but I have been having fun. I have 20 6th-8th grade students in my class for card making. For this project the students made 10 cards and a matching card box. Here are some samples of their work.

Student #1 Front

 Student #1 Inside

 Student #2 Front

 Student #3 Front

 Student #4 Front

 Student #5 Front

 Student #6 Front

Here is what I need from you. I need you to vote on your favorite card above. Place you votes on the poll in my sidebar. I told the students the winner gets a prize, for entering they all got to be featured on my blog. These are the six that have entered. We practiced using spray ink, distressing the edges with ink, dry embossing, and learning to stamp. This was the first time all the kids had ever used any of the techniques. I think they turned out great! What do you think?

Happy Halloween

I know I have been neglecting my blog lately. These past few months have been filled with two toddlers, and 130 seventh graders, and 2 major evaluations on the new evaluation model for teachers. Basically on this model we are being told reaching a 5 is impossible so to shoot for 3. So you can imagine how hard I have been working. One lesson plan for one day on this model took me two full weeks to complete and was 5 pages long typed not counting all the typing I did creating the supplies for the lesson. So scrapbooking has been low on the totem pole lately.

Over my fall break I went on a much needed vacation and did manage to find the time to make my girls Halloween Costumes. They went as Tinkerbell and Sleeping Beauty. I saw a similar Tinkerbell costume and wand on etsy for $50-$60 dollars and I thought to myself, "I can make that!" So for about $12 each here is what I came up with.

Close to my Heart Convention Sneak Peaks!

Ladies it has just been announced that CTMH will have an exclusive Cricut Cartridge that will have over 700 images and will go with several of our stamp sets! B&T paper (pattern paper) is now cardstock weight as well! You can begin to order this and all the other fabulous new products Aug 1st so start saving now! This catalog will make you want to spend!

Mommy Day Crop!

The other day my great friend and I got together to scrap while our wonderful hubby's kept our kids. It was so great to spend some time talking and relaxing while working on our baby books. I am terribly behind in my two year old's book. I am only up to about 7 months old for her and have not even started my 1 year old's book yet. So I needed this day to get in gear. Here are the pages I completed.

This layout pattern I did on my own. I used CTMH Kraft Cardstock and the circle is from an old CTMH Constant Campaign kit called Felicity. The chipboard letters I bought a few years ago at a scrapbook convention but I do not have the company name. I was just proud I finally used them. The leaf is from the CTMH stamp set Many Thanks. Then I had a journal block that I cut up and sponged ink over each line in CTMH Ink's (Honey, Tulip, Sweet Leaf, Twilight, Chocolate, and Autumn Terracotta). What I LOVE about CTMH paper and inks is that they all match and it makes doing your pages super easy.

 

For this page I used Kraft Cardstock again as my base and B&T (background and texture) paper from Felicity. I lined my photo on Chocolate CTMH cardstock and the letters were done on my Cricut using the Zoobaloo cartridge and done with Colonial White CTMH cardstock and I sponged the edges in chocolate ink. Then I added a pumpkin adhesive felt border I got at a scrapbook convention, some orange buttons I attempted to make look like pumpkins and the Autumn Terracotta leaf is once again from the Many Thanks stamp set. I used the Tiny Typewritter Alphabet stamp from CTMH and chocolate ink for my journaling.

Here are the other two pages I did. This pattern was straight out of our new CTMH How To Book called Magic. If you like making your pages interactive then this book is for you, even if you don't you can make the same layout without the hidden items just like I have done here. It is such a versatile book! 

The stamp images were all from the Beware and Creepy Cobwebs CTMH Stamp Sets I just LOVE these stamps...so cute! I used my Cricut to create my letter's on Autumn Terracotta cardstock and I used the Felicity Paper mixed with Black Cardstock. I LOVE this layout! It sure does help that my hubby takes such great photos and captured this great photo of my little girl on her 1st Halloween.

In this close up you can see I wet embossed my black circle element with white embossing powder. This stamp image is meant for a square corner, but the great thing about clear stamps is you can shape them on the block or see through them enough to line up your stamp and make it fit your shape. The Boo sentiment is also done with white embossing powder. I also dry embossed my black strip with my Sizzix to add some texture to the page.

For the last page and this one I sanded the  Autumn Terracotta cardstock to reveal the white core that all CTMH cardstocks have. I embossing this black strip with my sizzix as well and used my cricut for the letters and the oval shapes. The "So sweet it's scary" sentiment was done using the Hodgepodge Alphabet stamp from CTMH. The bat image is embossed with black glitter embossing powder. Add a few other embellishments and Voila! Making these pages was so much fun remembering how cute she looked as a little pumpkin. It would have made me a little sad to realize how fast she is growing up, but then I remember I still have to scrap my baby girl's book and she wore this outfit too. That is the great thing about having two girls...I get to see the cute outfits again!

It has been way too long!

Hello? Is anyone there? Really? You still read this site? Yes folks...it has indeed been way too long since I have posted any artwork. I have had some time recently to finally be crafty again and will have several new posts of projects I have been working on. This first project was created last month for one of the teachers on my team (I teach middle school) who was retiring. We threw her a party and I was in charge of making the little sign that would be placed with her guest book. 

This is what the guest book  looked like and I tried to keep to the color scheme with the sign.

Here is a close up of the little sign. For this project I used Chocolate cardstock from Close to my Heart and embossed it with my Sizzix then backed it with a Crystal Blue cardstock from CTMH so you could not see my ribbon glued in the back. I used some lace ribbon from the dollar bin at Wal-Mart, and some Prima Flowers. I used Colonial White cardstock then printed in brown ink from my computer the sentiment. If you look really close you can see I scored two lines above and below the sentiment and then used Chocolate Ink from CTMH to distress it. Then I finished it off with a my stickease butterfly from the Miracle Kit that I stuck to a Taffy colored CTMH paper clip. I hope you like it

Just an Update!

I have new artwork to show you as soon as I get my computer back. My brother in law is working on it and I should get it back next weekend. So hang tight and I will have some more to show. I also will be starting my summer next weekend (I teach 7th grade) so I should have more time to keep up with this blog again.

My firstborn is 2!

 My firstborn girl M turned 2 Monday. This was the spread I made for her spring themed party. We had cake and donut holes (bought from publix) Fresh fruit, candy covered marshmellows, and birds nest cookies (made from scratch).

This was one of the crafts I did in preparation for the party. It was my first time making this tissue paper pom pom, and I LOVED how they turned out. I think I may hang these in my scrap space now.

 Here is the full effect.

 The fruit on a stick.

Close up of the birds nest cookies (peanut butter, choc. chips, and chow mein noodles mixed together and shaped like a nest with candy eggs on top.

I saw the inspiration for this here. This blog was great! I wanted to make my own birthday banner like they did, but I ran out of time.

 My 7th grade girls named these marshmallow pops "cloud pops".

These were marshmallow on a stick, dipped in vanilla candy melt, and while wet dipped in sprinkles. Then I placed them in the freezer for a few minutes to harden again and presto, marshmallow pops.

The cake, there is a story with this. I was not overly impressed with out publix cake. I mean, sure it's cute. However, I ordered an 8" round cake covered in fondant with fondant polka dots, pastel colors, and half chocolate half white. I got an 8" round cake covered sloppily in fondant (creases, cracks, etc),  these bright colors, and layered choc, white, choc, white. The taste was not the best either. I think it worked and it was cute, but did not fit my vision and I was upset about the quality of the look. I know it looks pretty good here because I found it's best angle and took the picture. Don't get me wrong I tried to take it as a glass half full kinda gal, but it just still irks me a bit.

 The spread again.

My birthday girl in front and my little one in back.
I would love to hear your comments and critiques. What do you think?

Yes...I am alive.

Sorry everyone, I know I kind of just fell off the face of blogland for a while there. I have begun a new hobby, couponing. It is saving me a ton of money, but it takes a lot of time. With two girls two and under it pretty much has taken all my free time lately. But I am getting a handle on juggling it with everything else now. Just had to convince myself I did not need every deal and that yes, it would go on sale again soon. :) Well, my daughter turns 2 Monday and her party is this next week. I am going to attempt to craft some things for her decorations. If I am able to find the time I will post them here soon.

blog candy

 

Leisa  over at Big Red Scraps is giving away this awesome blog candy! She hosts a searchable blog of CTMH crafts and products.

My newest layout showcasing my favorite feature of my girl

I love how this layout turned out. I got the sketch idea from my scrapbooks etc. magazine. This layout showcases one of my favorite features of my little girl...her eyes. They are my eyes. Some how, even though my husband has dark brown soulful eyes both my girls have my blue eyes. After M had such powerfully blue eyes I thought for sure my second girl E was going to have her Daddy's deep rich brown eyes, but nope. We defied the odds and have two blue eyed girls. Having a husband with brown eyes I did not think it would be likely I would have any blue eyed children, but here they are.  I love that I can see myself in their eyes. So to steal a line from Harry Potter....

 This is a picture of my firstborn girl when she was about 6 months...now she is 22 months...where does the time go? my second one is even older than this now, she will be 8 months! She is a petite little thing though and still in 3-6 months clothes so it makes me feel like she is still a little baby. 

That pink lace you see on this layout started out twice a wide and white with a blue ribbon in it. It was not the look I was going for, so I pulled out the ribbon, cut it in half, and used my spray inks to die it pink and let it sit overnight. Worked like a charm. You can see from the picture I used one of my homemade shimmer mists. I challenge you to look through the supplies you have and don't use. How can you re-purpose those items to make them new again?

Blog Award!

Janice from cricutology  awarded me with this lovely award! Check out her blog !

Thank you so much Janice! You are too sweet!

When you receive this award you are to:

1) thank the person who gave this award to you and link it back to their blog
2) share 8 things about yourself
3) pass this award to 8 other individuals that you have recently discovered
4) leave a comment so that they can pass along the recognition!

Now, 8 things about myself.

1. I am a Christian, wife to my college sweetheart and mother to two beautiful baby girls (age 22 months and 7 months).
2. I teach 7th grade social studies full time.
3. I enjoy sharing my passion for paper crafting with others.
4. I love crafting with my friends, but don't get to do it often enough.
5. I want to start teaching scrapbook classes, have a scrap club that meets regularly, and do and host more crops. Now I just need to find the time to do it.
6. I am a Close to my Heart Independent Consultant.
7. I love to shop for deals on scrapbook supplies online.
8. I am currently obsessed with finding extremely good deals on items to use as storage for my craft room. I am currently looking for 30 slot scrapbook paper racks (recently lost out on a craigslist find for $30 by getting in touch with them a 1/2 day sooner...so sad.) I am also looking for rotating greeting card holders, mainly a small one.
Here are 8 fabulous blogs I have recently discovered in no particular order:

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2011/02/decoupaged-back-splash.html

http://bethybrat-bloomingwhereimplanted.blogspot.com/


http://cupcakescreations.blogspot.com

http://tmasonstudio.blogspot.com/

http://alittlemcd.blogspot.com/

http://www.crapivemade.com/

http://isntthatsweet.blogspot.com/

http://livingorganizedchaos.blogspot.com/

Valentines Tutorial and Cricut Crawl Blog Hop Entry

Are you tired of the cold weather yet? I know I am. I teach and we were on our 15th snow day today.  So I decided to have a Mommy Day today and sent the girls to daycare to play while I got somethings done. The day started off great. I ran to Wal-mart then came home and got to work in my craft room making my girls Valentines Cards. Now my girls are only 21 months and 7 months old so I made the cards myself. Monday at daycare their classrooms are trading valentines and being into crafts I thought, "I can make them!" So after several days of intending to do them, I spent today getting them done. Anyone who knows me, knows I take FOREVER when I do projects. So one thing that excited me today was that I finished them in record time. The designs popped into my head and I went with it instead of second guessing everything and I LOVE how they turned out. Hope you like them.

Today I am going to show you how to make these sucker toppers.

For my older daughter I bought a $1 box of 4 suckers for the kids. Her class has 4 students in it including her so this was a very affordable project. I kept the packaging to keep my suckers in, but I altered the front and sides of the box to make it look nicer and not like a cheap box from the store. I random stamped the CTMH colonial white cardstock with blush and tulip inks and heart stamps. The smaller heart is from Close to my Heart from the Hello There set. The larger one I believe is from a Fancy Pants set. The Love sentiment is from Paper Studio and I did first generation stamping and then shadowed it with a second generation stamping both in tulip ink from CTMH. To do generation stamping is easy, stamping after inking is 1st generation, then stamp a second time without inking and that is 2nd generation, then stamp again without inking is 3rd generation, etc. I also made my own shimmer mist filling a bottle 2/3 full of water, adding reinker to liking, and then a dash of perfect pearls powder and spritzed my random stamping.

 To make the valentines candy toppers I used my Cricut Expression and the Accent Essentials Cartridge to make the hearts and the scalloped circles. The hearts were cut out from CTMH tulip cardstock at 2" and the scalloped circles were cut from a scrap of CTMH colonial white cardstock at 1.5".

 

I used my embossing pen to hand write the words "From: Mayli Milburn" on the back heart and then as seen below poured white embossing powder on them and used my heat gun to set it. I LOVE how this worked.

 

  I also stamped the letters "U R" in versamark ink using my CTMH Alphabet set that came with my Felicity Campaign Set. I did the same embossing technique as seen above to set these letters as well...really easy and very quick. I would stamp and pour embossing powder on each heart then set them all at once with the heat gun. (p.s. like my stamping mess?)

 Here is a shot of my other supplies, you can see I also stamped all my scalloped circles at once for easy assembly. The circles going on the front of the hearts were stamped with the sentiment "so sweet" from the CTMH stamp set Just for Girls. The circle going on the back heart was stamped with the sentiment "Handmade with Love" from the CTMH stamp set Made with Love.

 Here is the finished sucker from the back. I pop dotted the scalloped circles on each heart for dimension.

Now I have a 7 month old girl as well and she is one of 8 in her nursery classroom.  Since the babies don't eat suckers, I just made cards. I had these 4.5" circle cards laying around left over from a previous project. I had made them using my SCAL software and my Cricut machine. I used CTMH chocolate ink to distress the edges, Bazzil Basics Black textured cardstock, and the dot border is from the CTMH stamp set Jingle Borders. Other than that the front was made the same way as the suckers except I pop dotted the heart and the scalloped circles this time.

 Can you read those names? My girl is Emersyn, but this just goes to show you that people are trying to be more unique.

 Close up of the front. I did my daughters first and used a first generation border, but thought it was a bit too strong and took away from the heart.

 So I changed it to second generation stamping for the others.

 Back of the card. Stamps from CTMH sets Made with Love and Angel Policy.

 Inside of the cards were stamped with the Felicity Alphabet stamp again and hand written salutation was done with my embossing pen and black glitter embossing powder.

What did you think? Was it tacky to give myself a shameless plug? I just wanted people to know where to find my other artwork ideas, so hope it was not a bad idea to include that.

Now I am sitting in my very cold living room writing this post. After this amazing day of getting projects done I managed to have enough time to visit an antique store in search of cheap things I could re-purpose. Went to the library, picked up the girls and when we got home....discovered my HEAT WAS OUT AGAIN THIS WEEK!!! Only this time we could not get it going again and heating guy can't be reached for some reason (we have his work and cell #'s). So I am sitting here getting colder and colder and hoping my girls don't get any sicker from this. Little one already has a cold. We may converge into one room tonight with room heater. It is probably 50 something degrees in here right now. Well, at least it was a good day...cause tonight is going to be rough. 

Ok Blogger Girls...I need some help

I am trying to decide between a Cuttlebug and a Sizzix Big Shot.  What are your thoughts? What are the pros and cons of each? How are the prices between the two machines and even the embossing folders? I am looking to mainly emboss with them as I have a Cricut Expression. I don't know much about either one, so any information is helpful. I do more scrapbooking and paper crafting than card making. Thanks for the help!

My Scrap Space Redo

 Recently I gave you a sneak peak at my scrap space and the embarrassing mess I had in this room.  After a few inspiring blog posts about organization I decided to jump in and reorganize my space.   

****Warning...this post is LONG.

These next three pictures are the before shots. Try not to judge.

 I am horrible about getting out several projects at once or getting out multiple supplies and not putting them each away before getting out more. This results in a mess like this.  My table gets so cluttered until I have no room left to scrap.

 

I told you in the last post that my wonderful parents built this shelf for me for Christmas 2009. We saw some similar in a pottery barn catalog and decided Dad could make me one to my size specifications. Even with all this space, I still managed to be unorganized.

 Behind my table area was this card table with my Cricut Expression on it. Since my laundry machines are downstairs, my drying rack was in the way right in front of the table and I was using the top of it to hold my mats, etc. In general I was not putting things in their proper place and this was the result.

_________________________________________________________________________________

AFTER

 

Now in this corner I have my carts of storage (not sure what to do with my decorative suitcases or metal cart yet now that it is clear. Any suggestions?) I also had my husband install two IKEA rods that can be found in the kitchen section for about $1.99 each. How can you beat that? In my old scrap room, before my new baby took it over, I had IKEA metal baskets hanging from these rods with my tools in them. I had these stickers and die cuts hanging in my closet. Now that I don't have a closet I hung them from these rods. 

I have to be able to see my stash and had previously organized them in a binder, but then I never knew what I had. So I grouped them into themes and put all items of the same theme on an "o" ring and clipped it up.  Now when I need something for a page, I unclip the ring and take the whole lot to my table. Open packaging are stored in zip lock bags or the smaller jewelry bags if they would fit. 

 

Here is a close up of my ring of rub-on's. I have them separate because I don't want them to get squished or pressed on. 

 

We rearranged the table and turned it, it really opens up the room now, though you can't tell it here. I now have space for my Cricut table in this corner, the bag and box are just being kept for future trash containers, but will eventually be gone. My Cricut mats are all nicely placed behind the machine. The blue box is of wood letters from my daughter's room, but I have to return them and get different ones and the plastic bag is my current trash bag for my crafts.

 

Here is another angle of this side of the room. You can see I have plenty of natural light. The foam on the wall is not my decorating, I share this space with my husband's studio in the other half of the room. My Hubby's a musician so I have to deal with the foam (sound echo dampeners) taking up my wall space. Hubby also got the best part of the room since he was there first with the nice long wall above where the table would go that could have been used for storage of tools...sigh...maybe one day I will have my own room again. I know he would like his room back too. But two babies back to back will cause the house to be taken over with large toys and two nurserys.

 

VIOLA! My new oragnized shelf. It is not all color coordinated like I would LOVE to have, but it works, and it looks much better with better use of space.

Originally I had my Dad build in this ribbon rod on my shelf, but I decided I preferred to take my ribbons to my table then cut them to fit my project as needed. So I ended up mostly sticking my ribbons in the following storage options.

I placed my loose ribbon in these jars from Michaels, and I LOVE that they are decorative and functional.

 

Then all my ribbon that would not fit on the rod were stuffed into this random canister that had once held chipboard and I had outgrown this storage and had ribbons just sitting near it like you can see if you look closely behind the canister.

 

So instead I took out the ribbon rod and I ended up placing all my ribbons in this basket and it holds them all perfectly and I can easily take the basket to my craft table to match ribbon to my project. I still have my loose ribbon in the jars which you can see in the left side of the photo.

 I have decided to recycle my baby food jars...like I said, I have two small children and no shortage of baby food jars. Someday I hope to make them cute, but I think they work great despite looks. I also use these super cute IKEA jars on the right of the photo.  I they come in sets of 3 and were also really cheap..between $1.99-$5.00 I can't remember now. I store all my small embellishments in them.

 

 In this section, which is now right next to my chair and within arms reach I keep my go to items.  My flowers, buttons, home-made spray inks, reinker, paint, ink pads, and chalks.

 I used to keep my inks just in the cube, but I kept knocking them over, now I can easily pull out the basket and see what I have, yet keep them contained in one place.

 I used to just stack my inks in the cube but this left a lot of unused space in the back section of the space. So now I have them in a narrow basket I was not using at the moment from my IKEA shelf so I can use the space better now.

Now I have this caddy filled with all my Close to my Heart Embellishments sorted by color.

 As you can see I can easily grab the color I need and put them away easily.

 

I placed all my punches in this wire basket to contain them without taking up too much space. Honestly I don't use them often since I have my Cricut.

 Now I store all my cartridges ( I don't have many since I have Sure Cuts A Lot) with their names showing for easy access as well as my acrylic blocks.

Finally I store my Close to my Heart stamps in these two cases, my floss in this plastic storage along with envelopes and canvas I can alter.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my space and hopefully I can inspire someone else to make better use of their room. What do you think? I would love to hear any suggestions of how you store your stash and how I can change mine for the better. Thanks!