The Great Scrapbook Escapade continued......

Hello all, I thought I would share some more pictures from the scrapbooking project I have been working on. So far I have two more layouts and I am finished with my brother's pictures, one more layout for my sister, a couple of my childhood pictures, and a number of layouts left to finish up my family's vacation pictures, extended family pictures, church family pictures and a few left of Christmas pictures. Below are a number of the Christmas layouts I finished up.

Graduations Galore

So, May has been a busy month of Mother's Day, birthdays, anniversaries and graduations. Today I wanted to share with you a couple of graduation cards, one for a young lady in our church and the other for my cousin.

For the first card, I used a couple of Amy Tangerine papers, Dear Lizzy black thickers, some Colorbok glittery pink chipboard letters and a paper doily.

On the second card, I used three papers from the Bo Bunny Blast Off paper pad, some Darice wash tape and a icling stamp that I stamped in Memento London Fog ink. I cut the shapes out with my circle and scallop Spellbinders dies.

I don't know about all of you, but I can't wait for the weekend! Hope all of your week's are passing faster than mine is! :)

Crafting on a Budget

I don't know about you, but I like to try to get the most for my dollar. Whether it be groceries, clothing, craft supplies, etc. I really try to get as much as I can for sale or from discount stores. I thought I would share some of the places that I find discounted craft supplies. Like most discount stores, the stock varies by store and by week, but I still find decent scrap supplies at the following stores on a regular basis.

TJMaxx/Marshalls (Sometimes even HomeGoods)
-- These stores are great for Thickers and Paper punches. I find all kinds of different Thicker packs for only 1.49 (they are 4.99 at all of the main craft chain stores) and also EKSuccess and Martha Stewart  paper punches. I have even happened upon some 6x6 paper pads, but this has only happened once.

Big Lots
I just actually ran in to a new(ish) Big Lots right next door to the Walmart that I grocery shop at earlier this week. In addition to finding some needed makeup and face cleanser wipes for a really great price, I also found some great deals on various paper craft supplies (I seriously almost squealed when I turned the corner and found the entire row of awesomely priced supplies). They had a ton of Making Memories, Pebbles and American Craft stickers and Alphas. The only thing is that the supplies are not the latest, they are usually overstock or older supplies that didn't sell elsewhere - though the supplies are still good quality. This really isn't important to me though as I don't have to keep my supplies completely current because of design team requirements, so this is a store I plan on returning to!

Tuesday Mornings
(I am not sure how large this chain is - I have only seen them in the VA area where I live) Like Big Lots, not the newest supplies, but if this isn't totally necessary for you, definitely a store to check out.

The Big Chain Stores (Michaels/ACMoore/Walmart)
You can also check out Michaels periodically - usually more so during the week - They put a lot of random supplies on clearance, but they don't advertise this so you really have to check the stores on a regular basis. I have been able to add to my stock of Memento Dew Drop ink pads and just today was able to score a pack of We R Memory Keepers photo dividers for only 2.79 on clearance.

ACMoore also has had some really great sales over the last few months. I have been able to slowly build my supply of Spectrum Noir alcohol markers during a number of weeks that they were on sale from 14.99 to 7.88 for a pack of 6 markers (considering a single Copic alcohol marker can cost almost that much, this is a GREAT deal) They have also had their Darice products, such as their embossing folders and decorative (wash) tapes on sale for 2.00 and .99 respectively.

I typically use the 40%/50% coupons for Michaels and ACMoore to buy the adhesive for my ATG gun. With the coupon, I just can't find a better price anywhere for my adhesives.

Walmart mainly has some nice 1.00 options from Studio G as well as ColorBok paper pads for 3.00 - 5.00 dollars. This is the place that I buy my white card stock (100 sheets for 5.95 for good quality) as well as my envelopes. The prices for the envelopes just can't be beat. It is also the cheapest place I have found so far to buy acryllic paints.

Dollar Tree
Dollar Tree is pretty much the only place I go to buy the base products for a lot of the non-card paper products I create including mini notebooks, mini notepad packs, clip boards, small plastic photo frames.

Do you have any favorite spots to pick up craft supplies?

The Last Mother's Day Card, for real this time....

Okay, so the card in my last post was not the last Mother's Day card. :) For this card,  I used papers from some papers recently given to me by my cousin (I have the name at home, so I will have to update later :) ). I also used a digi image that I have had for a few years and embossed some plain white card stock with a Cuttlebug Rosette embossing folder. 

In other news in life, we have a very busy weekend ahead of us. We have some dear friends who will be in town to minister in our Bible Institute and Sunday service, as well as a birthday party for our pastor's son and a graduation on Sunday after church! I am also plugging away at getting the scrapbooks done for my mom. I purchased some divided photo holders from We R Memorykeepers and man, they have been a huge help in getting a large number of photos scrapped in a single front and back sheet...highly recommend them!

Also, it is 70 degrees and Sunny with a high of 82 today. Finally, the nice weather is here!

Last of the Mother's Day Cards

Good evening Ladies, I just thought I'd post the last of the mother's day cards I made (actually, I take that back, I think I have one more to post.... now I have to go back and check my previous posts to see... lol)... Anyhow, on Saturday evening I realized that I hadn't made our pastor's wife a mother's day card, so I whipped one up. I already had the image colored from about a month ago when I was practicing with my spectrum noir alcohol markers so it came together fairly quickly. The paper pad I used was a 6x6 that was a few years old, passed on to me by my very lovely cousin Christy. :) I die cut the image with my circle Spellbinders die and layered with another circle cut out with my circle Spellbinders die, as well as a scalloped circle Spellbinders die. I finished off by running a piece of pink patterned paper through my Cuttlebug machine with a rosette patterned embossing folder and popped on a few white pearls to finish the card off.

The Great Scrapbooking Escapade of 2013

As some of you know, I recently took on a project to scrapbook every picture my mother has printed out, to include large formal pictures and any other photos that were on the wall and in old albums, photo boxes, etc.... I've finished probably 150 layouts since mid-February and still have probably about 75 layouts to go, but I thought that I would share some photos of the layouts that I have already completed.  Below are some of the layouts  from photos of my brother and sister. Since my mom has much less space to keep things than she used to, I am trying to keep the layouts as flat as possible so that I can fit as many layouts as possible in each album.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Hello All, I just thought I would pop in and share a few of the many cards I have been whipping up in preparation for the multitude of birthdays, Mother's Day, graduations, anniversaries that take place in the month of May!!! The two cards I am sharing tonight are for my father-in-law and my brother. My father-in-law's birthday is May 8 and my brother's birthday is May 11. Also next week are my husband and close friend's birthday on May 7! I used Echo Park's For the Record 2 12x12 collection pack to make both of these cards. I have never bought a collection pack before, but while I was in New York a few weeks ago, hubby took me to a Hobby Lobby close by and they were having a great sale, so I scored the collection pack for 5.99, which made me very happy! The collection pack came with 12 12x12 double-sided papers, a 12x12 sheet of stickers and a 12x12 sheet of sticker alphabets. I really love this collection - the colors and designs are totally me! One of the things I really like about this pack is that with the double-sided papers, you have enough options to pull together masculine and feminine cards/scrapbook layouts, which makes the collection more versatile. I also added a few brads, white tags and a couple of Martha Stewart printable labels to the cards to finish them up.

I also have some pictures to share of the great scrapbooking project of 2013 that I have been working on for my mom for the past several months, but am not quite finished editing them yet....more on that project to come!