Pay It Forward

Pay It Forward

This has been going on on a few of the daily blogs I read, and I finally was one of the first 3 on my cousin Jessica's blog!

Here's how it works:
1. Be one of the first 3 bloggers to leave a comment on this post and you will win a handmade item from me!
2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on your post about this giveaway.
3. You have 365 days to make/ship your item which can be in any price range. Remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!
4. When you receive your gift, blog about it and share the appropriate link love. Don't forget to post your winners and your handmade gifts when you're done, too.

Can't wait to see who comments!

This is the Unity Inspirational Blog Hop what fun! If you didn't come from http://organisedmess.blogspot.com/, the beginning is here. There are over 200 people involved in the blog hop, so be prepared for the Unity love!

My project is a Birthday card for my Mom whose birthday is today. The March KOTM stamps worked out lovely.

My card uses Provocraft white cardstock, Bazzill brown cardstock, Colorbok DP, Prima's #6, and garage sale find buttons. Stamped in Versamark, colored in with pastels for a take flight look, and Craft Smart Embossing Ink White pad. Border is Fiskars Border punch 'dandy doodles'

An inspiring quote to me is:

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life: That word is love"
-Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC)

Next up head on over to http://www.kimbermcgray.blogspot.com/ and leave her some love!
Thanks for stopping by!

Easter Card

So eventually I finally bit the bullet and put together an Easter card among everything else that went on this week. I really struggled a lot, but finally pushed through and here is the end result.

Supplies Used: Craft Smart White Ink, Versamark Unity Feb KOTM, Colorbok DP, EK Success Corner Photo Holder Trumpet Bell.

I really like the egg, and am satisfied with the results

Blog Hop Tomorrow!

So Saturday is beyond busy for me, but how can I pass up the chance to be apart of a blog hop?

So tomorrow I'll be apart of the Unity World Record Blog Hop! So check back then for something cute.

Another Thank You Set

So I'm still massively struggling with what to make for my card exchange this Thursday, I have plenty of ideas, its just settling down and 'making' them.

Below are some cards that I thought turned out really well. The pics were taken with DH's macbook, and with that in mind the pics turned out really well. I really need to get on either fixing one of the broken cameras or finding another.

The cards were for a friend who just had a baby. Her style is so fresh and so clean, so I tried to keep my cards along with that style.


I love spring colors, and the stamps and paper just scream 'baby' to me.
For being good ol' Photobooth, the pics turned out pretty well. It took some maneuvering of the mac and flipping the photos so I could read the stamps. Love my Unity. The stamps are Unity's "Just My Type" and Feb KOTM. Paper is My Minds Eye, and Basic Gray. Buttons are garage sale buttons, and Flowers are Prima's.

Unusually Optimistic

So I wasn't quite sure where to stick this post, but I've finally decided it belongs here.

Its Wednesday, and I'm happily reflecting on this past weekend and weeks.

Last Saturday was a ball! My cousin Erica and I had a grand craft day! We went to a Scrapbook Garage Sale at the Bountiful and Taylorsville locations of Heartland Paper.

Its an amazing store and we got amazing deals. I'm going to try to be aware of the next time it happens and take some of my own items that are collecting dust so they can find happy homes where they can be used.

We went to a store in Sandy called Heartfelt Creations. My cousin had told me that they had everything and indeed they did. They had a better collection than any other craft store, it was straight up incredible. I even found Spellbinder Nestabilities, but still no Unity in Utah.

After a most excellent time shopping we went back to her house and looked over our spoils.

Her kids were adorable and I had so much fun playing with them, even though afterwards I was beyond tired and they still had oodles of energy. How can little ones so small have soo much energy?

They even got into the crafts and enjoyed coloring in the versamark stamps with chalk. The cricut case rather intrigued them and they wanted to open it and get into it. It reminded me of when I truly loved the Cricut and everytime I plaed with it for the first few months.

I guess I got tired of the novelty that everyone felt about the cricut, and now, days later, I remember when I was up there with them. I still have my many irritations, but its a pretty cool machine nonetheless.

Yesterday Ryan called me at work and said Provo Craft called and I now had a serial code that would work. So I'm excited about that, but I have to be careful about what machine I put the Cricut Design Studio on. Ryan newly acquired a free laptop that just has to be restored to factory settings last week. The timing made me feel like maybe, just maybe all of my stress with ProvoCraft has actually been for my own benefit.

I can't put the Design Studio on the Mac, but if the other laptop is restored then I will have a computer that will be a lot more convenient for both our tiny apartment, craft days and nights I go to, and other such things. I might even stop cringing from having to cut out individual letters individually for sayings as they will be able to be 'welded' together.

So I'm still irritated by the excessive accessories, but I'm going to be much more grateful to the cricut and even ProvoCraft. I'm happily surprised at the easiness of getting a new serial code for my defaulty one.

Still loving my Cuttlebug, and the embossing feature, I still want nesties, but I'm ok with what I have right now, and know its more than ample for the projects I want to do.

So now on my list is fixing the laptop, and then installing the CDS on it and then the sky is the limit.

Also, my KOTM should arrive today! What a fabulous Wednesday it is indeed!

March brings....

This is coming, very very soon and I'm uber excited. Love Unity, they just rock. For further Unity proof of love look at the below projects and notice the birds, 'thanks', flower and mushroom are all Unity stamps. They never cease to amaze me, I just wish there was a store, here in Utah that sold Unity...

I'll keep dreaming.

And in other news Provo Craft has not improved my opinion of them, the CDS still isn't authorized, I may ebay it and buy nesties with the profit.

Valentines

Ryan challenged me to make him a less girly Valentines Day Card, and so I think this card rose to the challenge very well.

I love square cards! They are so elegant and beautiful that putting the card together doesn't take as long. He thought the card was cool, and I think the green hard is my favorite stamp on the card.

Although I used more Rafia than I would have dared use on other cards, I love how big the bow is and have learned that all craft rules, biases and other limitations are meant to be broken.

Supplies: DP Basic Gray, Cuttlebug 'Swirls', Rafia Bow Stamps CDS Heart, Inkadinkado 'funky letters', Fiskars 'Fleur de Lis' border punch

Let it Snow?

The snow outside says its ok to post these cards and if the weather has to be the way it is, I would be ok with it being just around Christmas. I'm so ready for spring, but

Supplies: CDS stamps, cuttlebug ornamental tree, DP My Big Idea 'Fall Stack'

Supplies: CDS Stamps, My Big Idea 'Holiday Stack'

Oh well here's to the snow melting this afternoon and a return to warmer weather!

Life is what it is, and so why not live it in color?

I had to make a project that defined my identity, well I was completely at a lose for words, so I made this little project. Daunting at first but with the help of my friend Kapri who can make boxes in her sleep and is an Origami pro all around it came together rather nicely. Ironically everyone else in my class turned in poems and papers, mine was definitely different from all other projects handed in.

But I guess that was my point, if you read the poem after my explanation it states that I don't want to define myself as that would be a limitation to who I really am. I think I cried before I decided to make a crafty project, cause I don't think its fair to try to define people, we are always changing. I felt like it was a cold dive back into the nightmare of my sophmore and junior year of high school.

Nostalgia is a bitter thing, it has its pro's and cons and can be a good thing, but one can't live the present pining too deeply for the past. It isn't healthy to spend too much time analyzing the past and the things we would change with new found knowledge.

Life is what it is, and so why not live it in color? Dress up an other wise straight forward paper with all of the passion found from all other aspects of life?

I was really happy with this project after I got it back, my stomach did a bit of a toss and turn before I handed it in, but why should I be afraid to show all of my true colors? I don't want to, I want to be exactly who I am, I'm happy being this girl and life has never been better.

Supplies: DCWV Rock Star DP(cover) Embossed with Cuttlebug Folder "You", Ribbon ?? Rub Ons ?? DP inside MY Big Idea 'Fall Stack'

Set 3

A doctored up Happy Birthday Layout I used, but I really like how it came together as a Thank You card.

Supplies: Penny Lane DP, Prima's, Unity Stamps 'Just My Type'

Set 2

Before buttons and embellishments....

After!

Supplies: Penny Lane DP, Prima's set 6, bag of garage sale buttons! Stamps Unity: Just My Type, Feb KOTM

Pict to the ures! Set 1

These are pictures from one of the sets I gave my friend for her Mission. She's awesome so the cards are awesome and her cool personalitly inspired the cards retro fun aspect.

Supplies: Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts

Supplies: Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts

Supplies: Retro grab bag/garage sale find buttons, Stamps: Unity Just My Type and Feb KOTM, stamped in versamark and colored in with pastels.

Supplies: Retro grab bag/garage sale find buttons, Stamps: Unity Just My Type and Feb KOTM, stamped in versamark and colored in with pastels. Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts

Supplies: Retro grab bag/garage sale find buttons, Stamps: Unity Just My Type and Feb KOTM, stamped in versamark and colored in with pastels.Stmped in Distress Ink Black Ash, Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts

That's right I finally caved and bought Prima's! They aren't as big as the Heidi Swapp Flowers but they rock this project just the same.

Supplies: Retro grab bag/garage sale find buttons, stamped in versamark and colored in with pastels.Stamped in Distress Ink Black Ash, Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts, Prima's!

Supplies: Retro grab bag/garage sale find buttons, Stamps: Unity Just My Type and Feb KOTM, stamped in versamark and colored in with pastels.Stmped in Distress Ink Black Ash, Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts, Prima's!

Supplies: Retro grab bag/garage sale find buttons, Stamps: Unity Just My Type and Feb KOTM, stamped in versamark and colored in with pastels.Stmped in Distress Ink Black Ash, Basic Gray DP, Stamp Inkadinkado, Eyelets American Crafts, Prima's

Organized

So it happened today, the half closet is now my craft nook. I tried it out with an awesome folding stool from Ikea, Angie hearts Ikea, and its passed the test.

I grabbed my hot glue gun, added embelishments finished with that and moved on to another task. This is monumental. And I didn't have to clean everything up after, it was already where it needed to be. So happy.

Last night however I was not happy. Ryan surprised me with the Cricut Design Studio because it was on sale at Roberts for like half of normal cost and I was trying to connect it to the PC and it wouldn't connect, and then the serial code I was given had 5 parts and not the 6 required. Mighty fishy, and mighty frustrating. It gets better, since it was after 6 I can't call Provo Craft until Monday morning...

But so happy about the craft nook and a silly computer program can't take away from how organized and awesome things are. Besides in all reality, I'm still skeptical of the cricut, I don't think it adds to the creativity process, but detracts. We'll see if the CDS can change my mind on this topic.

Winners and Aspirations

Winners: Erica and Shanna, Call me to set up a time to go through the items, they are yours as promised.

I'm just itching, this weekend is full of fun oppurtunities! And my fll nerdiness will be unveiled. I'm planning on turning one of our closets as my closet nook. Which means, no more dragging everything out and cleaning it back up, it means a nook and a SPOT for this aspect of my life. Ryan agreed to this project a while ago, but I don't think he knows that I'm doing it this weekend.

I'm thoroughly excited and quite giddy and I figure I can listen to those tedious online lectures while I'm organizing and creating my space.

So I've been thinking of other aspirations, some that seem like they aren't really coming from me, but who or what I've become. The dream has always been to be a Children's lit editor, I mean, thats what I'm in school for right? I've realized a few things about my self, I don't want to be limited to just one oppurtunity, I want to do many things, and some of these things as of late are highly tied to crafting.

I've heard people call Utah the "craft mecca" of the world, but all of the really phenomenal products don't come from utah a lone, and one has a terrible selection at most local salt lake craft stores unless one goes to specialty stores, specializing in only one aspect.

I was talking to a friend the other day and she asked me where I get my supplies and it both alarmed and irritated me that I had to go so many places and order from so many websites. So my proposal, what if there was a place where people could meet to craft, get help and socialize with others, and buy ALL of their supplies in ONE place?

Could use all of the tools for a fee, but not actually have to own it all at their house.

Dare I to dream?

Illnesses put a damper on things...

So I know I promised pictures and they are coming(because Maren ROCKS!), I just didn't expect to get so sick so fast. It was really scary. But other than the being sick part, I had an awesome day of cardmaking at my friends and made some really incredible card fronts.

In the meantime I am on my way to being better and my home is a shambles, but I think that can be forgiven since I was scarily ill. Ryan was pretty scared, my friends that brought me home from crafts were scared and I was blacking out, and thats always pretty scary.

The cell is dead, because somehow the charger was left in my bag of craft stuff, oh well life did exist before cell phones right?

Sometimes I forget just how fragile I am, or just being totally and completely well. My heart goes out to everyone who rarely has a 'well' day in their weeks, let a lone lives.