Super Simple, Yet Thoughtful Gift Ideas....

Hello everybody, Happy New Years Eve!!!! Can you believe that this is the last day of 2013?!?!?!?! Honestly, I will not be sad to leave this year behind. While I have learned and accomplished quite a bit this year, this has been a year of hard trials, both for myself and ones very dear to me. But anyhow, to a brighter topic, today I thought that I would share a gift set that I made for one of my three new sister-in-laws for Christmas. She is an English teacher and her favorite color is blue, so I thought that I would whip her up a nice, coordinating desk set.

For the Post-It note holder, I simply used a clear, acrylic frame from Dollar Tree and decorated it with a 6x6 paper pad from My Mind's Eye, some small white Basic Grey letter stickers, a blue Prima flower and a Post-It note stack.

 

 For the magnetic notepad, I took some basic tan cardstock and layered some patterned papers to add some interest behind the blue paper pad, which I picked up from Dollar Tree as well. (Side note: Dollar Tree is a great resources for picking up base materials for projects, like mini notebooks, notepads, photo frames, etc.) I used some letter stickers I got in the dollar aisle at Target and some gold pearls from Q&Co. The pen is a gel pen from a Fiskars jumbo pack. 

To attach the pen, I took a 1/16 whole punch and punches a little hole in the top left corner of the cardstock and then looped some twine through the hole and then hooked the pen cap through the twine. I used a hard core magnetic strip that I cut off from a large roll I picked up at Ace Hardware a couple of years ago. I do usually have to put some hot glue behind the magnet to get it to stick permanently to the back of the cardstock, but once the hot glue hardens, it does not come off.

 

I also whipped up a mini notebook with patterned papers from the same My Mind's Eye 6x6 paper pad, used some small white glitter Thickers from American Crafts and some ribbon from my stash (I believe the ribbon was originally wrapped around a pack of washcloths I picked up at TJMaxx a couple of years ago. The scalloped circle was punched out with a Fiskars punch.

While I did make this as a gift set for a Christmas gift, it could easily be replicated for a gift for just about any occasion.

I hope that you all have a wonderful New Years!! See you in 2014! ;)

Having fun with Dear Lizzy's Lucky Charm Collection.....

Hello friends, just thought I'd pop in and share a couple more layouts I created over the last several months, using the Dear Lizzy's Lucky Charm collection that I scored for a great deal at craftydeals.com. I have never bought an entire collection before, but for 22 dollars (including shipping... I had a 10% off coupon for first time order), I just couldn't resist. I have been eying this collection for a looooong time, but just could never justify to myself spending all of the money, but at such a great deal, I finally gave in and got it :) The only thing not from the Dear Lizzy collection are the Enamel Dots, those are from one of My Mind's Eye Cute & Paste collections.

There are just some pictures of hubby and I from the last few years.

A Winter Graduation

Recently (as in… this last weekend…), my sister-in-law graduated with her teaching degree. We are so proud of her and, even though I couldn't be there to congratulate her in person, I wanted to send her a card. I also had a birthday card and a few other things to whip up, so last night I plopped at my desk and got the cards done and some gifts wrapped for Christmas.

For the card, I used a Maggie Holmes collection from Crate Paper, and some pink and purple pearls from Q&Co. I used Basic Grey letter stickers and glittery and hot pink thickers from American Crafts for the sentiment and line all of the papers in with a lilac marker to give the layers a little depth. This card came together quite quickly and I hope that she likes it!

A Prayer for Peace and Comfort

As this year comes to a close, there are many that are suffering loss. It has been a difficult year and it seems that as this year comes to a close there will be many dear to me who are hurting, some who will never be able to say hello to little ones never born, some saying hard goodbyes to wives, friends, uncles, brothers, fathers, mothers and my prayer for each one is that the Lord our Comforter and our Father will be with them. Father God, please bring comfort to your children, please bring your peace to their hearts.

Some More Lawn Fawn….

Okay, so I am loving playing with my new Lawn Fawn goodies and I couldn't resist playing with creating some gift tags. I am also loving the Darice glitter paper that I picked up several weeks ago.

For the Lawn Fawn stamp, I used my Spectrum Noir markers in the colors:

I used BG 2, 4, and 6, and IG 2 and 4 for the body of the owl and

DR 1, 2 and 3 for the owl's scarf.

Once again, I used last year's Lawn Fawn Christmas papers and the sticker sheet and Darice glitter paper.

For the yarn and ribbon, I actually used what was tied around my goodies in the packaging.

I finished off the tags with this year's Christmas sequin pack.

The tags were the medium and large sized white tags from Hobby Lobby.

Enjoy!

It's a Lawn Fawn kind of Christmas

Hello All, I was just looking at the last time I posted on this here poor neglected blog and realized it has been a month since I last posted, poor, poor blog.  Anyhow, last week on Black Friday I took advantage of some items on clearance and free shipping with no minimum purchase at lawnfawn.com. I have a few of their stamps and I love them, but I do not like to fussy cut around small little images, so I picked up a couple of their newer additions to their shop, dies to go along with their images. I just got the package tonight and couldn't wait to play with the goodies.  

I used last years Lawn Fawn patterned papers from their Christmas collection, 

some green alphabet stickers from Basic Grey, 

some Darice glitter paper 

and some sequins from Lawn Fawn's new Christmas collection. 

For the Lawn Fawn stamp, I used my Spectrum Noir markers in the colors:

I used BG 2, 4, and 6, and IG 2 and 4 for the body of the owl and

DR 1, 2 and 3 for the owl's scarf.

Enjoy and Happy Friday!!!!

College Graduation Layouts

Okay, so I'm not sure if I mentioned this here, or on Facebook, but a couple of months ago I ordered about 150 pictures from Shutterfly and have been catching up on the last 5 years worth of layouts (I am a creature of habit, about every 5 years the amount of ephemera gets to a point where my OCD refuses to ignore any longer and I get in a scrapping storm, which leads to another 5 year break in scrapbooking, lol). I have shared some layouts from my wedding showers and today i thought I would share some layouts I did from my college graduation (which took place 6 days before my wedding actually. :) )

For these layouts I used two different Echo Park collections, one by Lori Whitlock and the other by Allison Kreft (I love pretty much anything either of these ladies create), as well as some papers from a K&Company Amy Butler paper pad and Hobby Lobby's paper line, the Paper Studio. I also used some Colorbok die cuts and thickets from a few different lines. I also used some letter stickers from basic grey, a polaroid overlay from heidi swapp and some adhesive backed blue lace from the Recollections brand. All other embellishments were stickers from the Echo Park collections. I have really been enjoying going back and re-visiting these very huge events in my life and all of the memories from these events. It's been fun.

Sorry for the glare on some of these pictures. I forgot to photograph the layouts before I put them in to the paper protectors.

More 8 1/2 x 11 Layouts

Continuing on with my wedding shower pictures, below are several layouts that I did from the Wedding Shower that the church my husband is from threw for us. It was a little intimidating for me at first, because I am not a natural "people" person and the idea of being there with so many people I didn't know at all was a little overwhelming, but the ladies were so friendly and sweet and hubby came with me, so we had a great time!  These layouts were done with products from the Dear Lizzy's Lucky Charm Collection. This first layout is my absolute favorite picture of all the Shower pics that I've scrapped! Overall, I've really loved working with this collection and am really happy with how these layouts have turned out. I didn't plan on using the divided photo protectors, but I had them laying around from how I used to store my acrylic stamps before I changed my storage system and thought I'd step out of my comfort zone a bit and try to work with them. In the second layout, I actually cut up the invitation and glued the details down on to a 4x6 card.

I am trying to get better about adding journaling to my layouts. I don't naturally like to right down the inner workings of me, but I've been making more of an effort to capture the memories so I have them for years to come.

Hah, I am finally getting my wedding shower pictures scrapped!

Okay, so I scrapbook in spurts. About every 5 years, the amount of memorabilia I save started driving me absolutely buggy, so I have this obsessive drive to get all of it scrapped and I scrap until I have it all down... and by that time I am waaaaaay over scrapping and another few years pass, lol.

Well, this year I worked on my mom's pictures and decided to get moving on my own as well. I signed up for Shutterfly and as a new user, I got my first 50 photos for free and then 19 cents a photo afterward, so I printed up 150 pictures and got busy! Which brings me to my title, I have finally completed all of my wedding shower layouts from the photos that I got printed, yay, and thought I would share those with you. I used the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm collection for them. I recently found the entire collection, including thickers, chipboard pieces, stickers, sticker banners, 12x12 paper pad, medium sized patterned paper tags, and die cuts! it was $20.99 with a flat rate shipping, but being a first time user I got 10% off my purchase, so in the end I got the entire collection that would be like 60 dollars in the store, I got for a total of like $22.50(ish). I was so pumped because I have LOVED this collection since it first came out, but refused to pay full price for the products and had renewed inspiration. I have totally loved playing with this collection. :)

Anyhoo, on to the pictures. Today I am sharing the photos from the shower that my best friends threw for me. I pretty much used the Lucky Charm collection, basic 81/2 x 11 card stock I had in my stash, some rhinestones from Studio G and some My Mind's Eye, Cut & Paste enamel dots. Hope that you enjoy! I did something a little different with this set of pictures. I had some photo protectors, so I used some of those for a number of the pictures and picked a few of my absolute favorites to do a complete layout.

What I have Been Doing.....

-- If you entered my giveaway, check the previous post to see if you won! One of the winners has contacted me so far, and the other winner has until Friday or I will be drawing another name! --

Well, today I used my lunch to edit a whole bunch of pictures of scrapbook pages I have been working on for the past month or so and will be sharing them with you all over the next week or so. Most of these are going to be 81/2 x 11 pages, since that is what I scrap in for my own albums. Today, however, I am going to share a few 12x12 pages that I put together to add to my mom's albums for Christmas. She doesn't know about them, so I am posting only here, not on Facebook. These are pictures of a cruise to Canada that I went on with her and a few older women from our church fellowship. For these pictures I used one of every single sheet from a paper pack that my dear friend Anita sent me last month! I love the colors in these papers, and am planning a home decor canvas with several papers that are left in the pad. It is going to require a huge mess being made though so I haven't really had the time to devote to it lately.

Anyhoo, on to the pictures!!! I had the name of the paper company in my head, but it is now escaping me, so I will try to remember to update this post later when  I have it in front of me! I used products from multiple different lines, including Studio G stamps and rhinestones, American Crafts thickers, Darice washi tape, Jillibean Soup banners, Heidi Swapp rub-ons, Echo Park stickers, Colorbok ephemera and a leeetle bit of Crate Paper patterned paper from "The Pier" collection.

Winners Announced!

Winner #1, Lindsay (PA Country Crafts), is the winner of the Christmas Tag kit.

Winner #2, Sydney Neal, is the winner of the card making kit.

Congratulations Ladies! Please email me your address at agohl85 @ gmail dot com and I will get your prize out in the mail to you! If no one contacts me by Friday, I will re-draw for a winner!

Caring Hearts Card Drive

Click here to get the details for my Giveaway that ends Friday, October 25th!

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Happy Thursday All! Every year I try to participate in a card drive that a few different kind hearted card makers host each year. It's called the Caring Hearts Card Drive and you can find details at Ling's Design Studio. It's a great cause, sending holiday cheer to the elderly in nursing homes.

This Post Needed a Title.... and a Giveaway!

*** I forgot to add a title to this post, sorry if anyone had any trouble linking to this post!

Hello All, can you believe it's Thursday already??? (For that matter, can you believe its almost the middle of October?!?!?!!?!) Where does the time go?!? I just thought I would pop in and share a project that I whipped up a few weeks ago for my new sister-in-law (my brother's wife). She is in the midst of student teaching, so I thought that she might enjoy some office cute office supplies to stay organized. She really loves canning, so I thought I would use a Dear Lizzy paper from a 6x6 pad I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I also used some old Amy Tangerine papers  from a 6x6 pad a dear friend sent me a year or so ago and Dear Lizzy Fifth and Frolic paper pad, as well as some labels from Heidi Swapp and some October Afternoon Butterfly and small doily stickers. I finished off the projects with some white Basic Grey mini alphas, Q&Co rhinestones and pearls and My Mind's Eye Cut and Paste enamel dots. I used some small flowers that my cousin sent me to finish off the clothespin magnets I made. So that the paper would not peel off the magnets, I used some Modge Podge Acrylic spray to finish them off.

(If you stick with the pics to the bottom, I'm sharing a small giveaway!)

I also wanted to do a small giveaway. I put together a small kit for making Christmas tags and a small card making kit. For a chance to win, become a follower and let me know in the comments and for a second chance blog about the giveaway and put a comment with a link to the post. The giveaway will be open until October 25th and I will post a winner on the following Monday, October 28! I will be picking two winners, one for the Christmas tag set and one for the card kit!

Clothespin Magnets

Happy Monday All. Hope everyone is having a great start to the week. It is rather chilly and dreary here, but its actually a nice break from the heat wave we had for the last few weeks.

Today, I thought I'd share a quick project that I whipped up several weeks ago. I intended to put them up in my etsy shop, but I just haven't had the chance to do it yet. A few months ago, I picked up some really cheap embellishments on clearance at Michaels. Since I had a bunch of the same or very similar little fabric brads, I thought I would whip up a couple sets of clothespin magnets. 

For this project, I just used some clothespins from a 100 pack that I got at Walmart, some embellies from Michaels, a hot glue gun, some homemade modge podge, patterned paper, and a heavy duty magnet roll that I got a couple years ago at Ace Hardware (These rolls have lasted me quite a while. I'm  still on my first roll I think.).

Since I will be putting these up in my shop, I wanted to create a cute chipboard shape to package them with, so I ran a very thin sheet of chipboard through my Cuttlebug machine with a Spellbinders die and then cut it in half with my paper trimmer.

Photoless Scrapbooking

Today I thought I would share some layouts I made using only memorabilia I saved from different events. While I love scrapbooking pictures, sometimes I don't always remember to take pictures, and sometimes I like to let the memorabilia be the focus of a layout.  The layouts I am sharing today were created using Allison Kreft's "Everyday Eclectic" collection from Echo Park and Crate Paper's "The Pier" collection. I also used Thickers, letter stickers from the dollar aisle at Target, enamel dots from My Mind's Eye "Cute & Paste" collection, rhinestones from Hobby Lobby, Jillibean ephemera and Studio Calico camera wood venires. Enjoy! 

Bad, Bad Blogger....

I have just been the worst blogger ever this summer!  But, fear not, I shall be sharing some pictures today of some scrapping I've been working on for my own albums. I am a little weird in my scrapping routine. Every 4 years or so, I get the bug and then scrap through ever piece of memorabilia I'd saved in that 4 year period of time. Well, this year I think it was working on my mom's enormous scrapping effort that had me kicked in to scrapping mode for so many months that I just couldn't kick out of it, so I started delving in to my own photos and memorabilia.

Unlike my mother's albums, which I did in 12 x 12, I did these in 8 1/2 x 11. It's just easier for me to store, and it is so much cheaper than the 12x12s. I simply get fashion binders from places like walmart and a 50 pack of page protectors. I actually get quite a bit of life out of my papers this way as well, since I end up with such large scraps that I can often get multiple layouts out of a couple of 12x12 pieces of patterned paper.

Anyhoo, I have been sharing these pictures on Facebook and I've had some interest in seeing the pictures on the blog, so I thought I would start sharing. I will only be sharing my own photos though, not those of my friends and their kiddos as I don't have their permission to share those with the whole world. :)

I will not post ALL of them today, but for the next couple of weeks I will try to share my very favorites. While some of my pictures are scrapped with all papers and embellies from a single line, most of them are a combination of all kinds of supplies, both old and new. I don't really store anything by collection, just simply go through my supplies and pull out what coordinates. I have been really using my stash up this year. I had 270 12x12 layouts from my mom's albums and I have filled up 2 entire 1 1/2 inch binders full of 8 1/2 x 11 layouts of my own!

This first picture is one of my sister and I, using recollections card stock, echo park 3x4 journaling card, thickets, letter stickers from the dollar aisle, and papers from a 2012 Echo Park collection by Allison Kreft called "Everyday Eclectic." I absolutely love this line and may have to pick up another collection pack the next time I go out of town to a place that has a Hobby Lobby!

The rest of the layouts are from Hubby and my honeymoon 5 years ago! These layouts use a combination of collections and embellishments. I really love trying to coordinate as much as I can between different lines and designers.

Hope that you are all staying cool in this crazy heat wave!

Coloring with Alcohol Ink Markers

Hello friends. This has been a year that has been completely unplanned in every way. While did not have a job until this summer, somehow the year still filled with craziness, some wonderful times of fellowship with friends and some sad and trying times as well.... That isn't what this post is about, but I thought I'd share why I've been a little more quiet on the blog front this year. What times I have taken to craft, I've tried to just focus on the crafting and the art of it all rather than worry about having blog posts to share. I have shared some photos on Facebook and eventually I'll get through all of my pictures and post some favorites of what I've been working on.

Tonight, I thought I would share a birthday card that I made for my mother-in-law. My dear cousin, Christy (from Christy Gets Crafty blog) has passed on many beautiful stamps over the years, and lately, as I have been slowly building up my supply of Spectrum Noir alcohol ink markers, I've tried to make more of an effort to practice coloring. Alcohol inks are great for getting detailed, more professional looking images colored. Unlike a lot of other types of ink markers its hard to get fine details, like shading to come through, but with alcohol inks, you can blend varying levels of color with one another to really enhance the details of the image.

On this card, I used shades of Golden Brown, Gray Blue, Turquoise Blue, and the Three lightest flesh tones. I'm still learning how to find the right angles to shade images, but I was quite happy with how this card turned out. I kept it pretty simple with other embellishments on the card, choosing to let the image shine. 

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday weekend. Hubby and I will be getting away for a couple days for some rest and I will not be taking my laptop with me. We are going to take some time to re-charge as we head in to a busy fall and winter season!