Favorites from 2011

Where did 2011 go? I know I say that every year, but I can't help it. This year I have enjoyed my scrapbooking home, Birds of a Feather and the friends I have made there. I haven't scrapped as much as I have wanted to, but I think that will be the case from here on out! haha! I have, however, made a few projects that I have liked and thought I would do a recap post and share some of my favorite layouts, cards and projects.

This layout took a LONG time and was a lot more work than I anticipated, but I LOVE it! Lots and lots of stitching. I also used some of my satin flowers that I started making this year.

Next up is a layout I created using Cosmo Cricket. Love that company! I had fun with the banner and the grid style design.
I lifted a layout by a fellow BOAF friend, Linda, and came up with this layout. I have recently fallen in LOVE with Jillibean Soup. I love how easy their papers are to use and all the stickers and die cuts that make embellishing super easy. I just love Maddy's curls in these pictures.
The Ranch. I made this for me and LOVE it. The pictures are of my Grandpa's homestead that has been in the family for over 140 years. Inside is a lot of the history of the homestead, which I grew up calling 'the ranch'. My mom fell in love with it so I gave it to her on the agreement it would come back to me one day.
I made this layout for my Dad. My Grandpa passed away a little before Christmas last year. I knew this layout would mean a lot to my dad. I used a sketch by Jill Sarginson, that she created off of one of my layouts.
I had a lot of fun with the Cosmo Cricket DeLovely line. Such bright, cheery and fun colors!

I love this color combo. I love how the papers went so well with Maddy's outfit.
I started Project 12 in January. I have enjoyed it SO much and plan on continuing it next year. These are two of my favorite layouts from my album so far.
I think its the colors in this one that I love and the embossed envelope.
I made a few cards but still feel that I struggle. Once I find a good design I tend to use and reuse and reuse and abuse and reuse.... ;-)
I made a few minis. This one was for the Creative Cuts & More blog hop. I had a blast with it. I used mostly Echo Park papers and embellies for it. Fun, fun, fun. If you want to see the inside, go here.
I made this one for the Christmas Bazaar I participated in. I took one of the kid sold board books and cut it apart. It was hard to sell. I just love this Kaiser Kraft line. The colors are so pretty!

I made one of these for my mom and one for my mother in law. I got the idea somewhere in blog land.

This is one of my all time favorite things I have made. I found this piece at a thrift store. It was light wood color and had a mirror. I painted it and added doodied it up. It was SO much fun!

I made a few of these 'catch alls'. Or at least that is what I call them. My mom uses hers to keep a few pencils and notepads by her telephone.

Do you have favorite projects/creations from 2011? I'd love it if you linked me up so I could check them out!

Thank you for stopping by! I wish you all a very Happy New Year!

What.....I've scrapped?????

Are you shocked? I certainly am! I found myself in a state where I didn't want to do what I had on my to do list. It wasn't anything that absolutely HAD to be done, so I sat down and started my November Project 12 layout.
I took Karen's lead on swapping the November and December sketches.

The left side....
The right side....
And a close up....

I haven't been a huge Basic Grey fan (*gasp* I know...I know....). But I fell in love with this Out of Print line. This was a fun layout. I was able to use up a bunch of random embellishments, stickers and papers I had one hand.

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you all have a Merry Christmas!

Christmas Craft and Pictures

This is not my idea, I found it on Pinterest. I learned maybe I should read the instructions before creating. :-l The instructions said to drill holes, I used eye screws. Holes would have been a lot easier. I like the one I pinned better than my creations. But what can I say....

This was my first one. They are a bit over an inch square wood blocks painted black. I was able to find smaller eye hooks, which I think look better. I also got the idea tonight to add a little bell to the bottom. These are really too heavy for the tree, but would be cute on a door or drawer knob.

I have been MIA for a while. I'm sorry. Life is crazy busy these days.

We picked out our Christmas tree last weekend.
It was DANG COLD the day we went out to look for trees. Peyton was on a mission to get the 'BIGGEST TREE EVER'. Luckily he is very happy with this one. :-) It is definitely not as big as we could have gotten, but it is a pretty tree.
Next came the decorating.
YAY!
Are you done putting up lights yet so I can hang ornaments?

And so it began....
It took Maddy quite a bit of effort at first, but she figured it out quick and jumped right in!We also worked on making our own Christmas ornaments to all the grandparents. Every year I try to make an ornament with Peyton for each of his Grandparents. So Linda if you see this, act surprised when Peyton gives you your ornament! Haha! This year I learned not to use Elmers glue. It didn't work worth a darn. I ended up re-gluing everything with a tacky glue. :-l
I wanted to make something for each of Chris's employees. Thanks to my mom, I came up with this idea. I went to the dollar tree and found candlesticks and star dishes and glued them together. I then made my toffee chex mix and filled each one. A fun but super simple gift.
Ya like this picture? Yeah, me either. :-( My camera sucks. Out of 20 pictures, this was the best one. Peyton had a Christmas program this week. It was very cute and all of the grandparents were able to come and enjoy it with us. Friday was his Christmas party in his classroom. My grandparents in-law (who I am VERY grateful for) were willing and able to drive over and watch Maddy so I could participate in the class party! It was a lot of fun!
Here is our tree. The kids decorated and arranged the presents. I figure this is how the tree will look the next couple of years. They had a blast decorating and putting the presents under the tree.
Today, Chris and I took the kids to our local museum. My parents mentioned that they had a special Christmas presentation. The kids really enjoyed it and I enjoyed seeing some of the regular museum exhibits. I saw a picture of my Grandpa's aunt in there which was fun! :-)

Thank you for stopping by! I hope you are all on the ball unlike me and have everything ready to go for Christmas. Is anyone making anything fun as a gift? I'd love to see or hear about it!

Flowers and Feathers

Wow...where has December gone? We don't even have two full weeks left before Christmas! I guess I better get on my last couple of gifts I had hoped to make.

I've been hooked on my satin flowers and feathers lately! I think they are such a pretty combo. The night before my Christmas Bazaar I decided that they would be fun to add to my candle stick creations.

I love how it turned out! Just wish I had gotten a better picture of it!

I'm really hooked on the gluing of candlesticks to bowls, vases and frames! I think it is so much fun! I am still searching for the perfect glue, but learned if you glue two of the same products together (i.e. glass on glass or wood on wood) the glues do a TON better!

Hopefully one of these days I will be able to scrap again! I need to get my Project 12 layout done.

Thanks for stopping by!

Photo Catch UpWe

I went to download all my photos from November to figure out which ones I wanted to use for my Project 12 layout. I realized I hadn't shared ANY of them! :-0 So here we go....

Chris took off for elk camp the first of the month. We thought he was going to be gone 12 days. So I pulled Peyton out of school one day and we headed to my parents for a night. We were able to get all of the cousins together for a lot of play time.

This little guy is my nephew! Is if a busy body and definitely keeps us all on our toes!

We got an early snow! The kids were super excited and couldn't wait to get out into it. Me on the other hand, not so much. I have decided to finally fork over the bucks and get some nice snow boots as my feet froze in the little time we spent outside.

This was another reason I wasn't so excited about the snow. It just so happened the day before we were to head over the mountain to a OSU football game where I was going to meet up with my friend Chelle for the first time! I was a basket case before going and even thought about canceling. But am so glad I didn't! It was so much fun to meet up with Chelle, who as you can tell, was cheering on the opposing team!

Yes, it was quite cold. I had to put on my insulated overalls!

I spent every moment I could crafting for my bazaar. The house often looked like this:

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. It was such a nice day spent with family!

This is my sister in law Adina, painting Miss Maddy's nails. Maddy LOVES to get her nails painted!
She also LOVES to paint other peoples nails. Grandma some how ended up being the one getting her nails painted by Maddy!
Cribbage is a popular game in our family. Quite a few matches were played.
The kids had a blast playing games and games and more games!

Now that my bazaar is over its on to making my Christmas gifts! So stay tuned, as I plan on sharing most of them as I make them!

Thanks for stopping by!

Don't do it justice...

This past weekend was the bazaar I have been working so hard on. My photography does not do it justice, but the gal who sets it up does such a fantastic job. Here are a few photos.
She has so much neat furniture to set up to display items on.

So much eye candy.Yep. My pictures don't do it justice, but it was such a neat setting. I am happy to say that I hit my goal! :-) It was such a fun experience!

I have a handful of projects left to do for Christmas presents. After that, I may just get time to scrapbook again. ;-)

I am still playing catch up at home. I am so far behind in many areas that it stresses me out to think about it. Any one else feel that way?

Thanks for stopping by!

October Project 12

It is a lot later than I had hoped to complete it, but it is now done! Here is my October Project 12 layout using Jillibean Soup (LOVE this line):

I really liked the sketch. Most of my pictures were horizontal, so I switched the right page to have a 3x3 grid with square photos.
Yep, I did a major blooper in my journaling. I wrote Chris went elk hunting when I was the one to go hunting! :-0 Its all right though, I will come back and figure out how to fix it later.
I added some stitching between the photos and zig zags where the different patterned papers met.
One of my favorite things about Jillibean soup is all their die-cuts. They make embellishing easy!


Thank you for stopping by!