Jumping in for a Quick Hi

Hey, so I know I have not been around much. I am trying to organize my scraproom so that I can post a few pictures to the facebook group I joined. People are showing off their rooms and I have to tell you it sure inspires you to tidy up your own. But in saying that there is only so much cleaning one can do in their day before they need to craft a little to balance their lives too. So I am in a scrapbook groove, and have made almost two - two page layouts in the last 12 hours. I am taking a break right now for two reasons, we have been invited to a friends house for dinner to help celebrate a birthday, but also I made this really cute journaling sort of tag that I just had to show off. Lately in my scrapbooking I am all about the bling, which works out well cause my youngest daughter and latest inspiration is all about the bling too! So I hope you enjoy seeing this. When I took the picture it was still a little wet so hoping by the time we get home tonight and the girls to bed it will be dry and I can write the detail of the pictures on it and mount it on my page. Hope you enjoy and are having a scrapy day! Thanks for looking and checking in on me.

P.S. The flower pattern is from a Martha Stewart punch, the glitter is
stickles, the brad is one from my stash not sure the company and the paper is Michaels Recollections. THX

Thanks So Much

Well I am disappointed about the way the weekend went. I was suppose to go to an all day crop and potluck but ended up having to stay home cause we had issues with our car and with the storm we had the day before wasn't sure the roads were something I wanted to tackle. I do hope to be make it to one in the future, as I am trying to catch up on my scrapbooks. I have now organized my scrapbooks on the bookshelf with homemade tags and the date of the pictures inside. Looks really good and I am pleased to be getting somewhat organized. After that was done and because I was unable to make it to the Walmart to pick up my photos so ended up remaking my thank you cards. So here it is used with Recollections paper and a Stampin Up stamp and the Art Philosophy cartridge from Close to my Heart. I do like the roses and am glad that most of these cards don't have to go in the mail.
Thanks as always for looking and hope that you will check back in soon.

New Year New Habits

Well I don't know about anyone else but each year I say I would like to be better organized this year! Now I do have to say with each year I am getting better at it and in some parts it does stick and has become a "good habit". Mind you it does get easier as the kids get older cause they can take over some of those parts, like helping with the laundry has kept us better organized when it gets done and put away. And I have a folder now that I put the school notices, art work, etc in so that they don't get lost and can easily be found when someone asks, usually Rosie, when certain events are coming up. One of the areas I don't have any control or organized in is my craft room. Now in my defense I do share with my girls, and I am not always in there. Plus it does get neglected a lot due to out of sight out of mind and unfortunately life does get in the way of crafting too. So not to say it is a resolution but more of a life style change that is due I would like to try to keep it a little more in order. I won't say that I want to have it completely organized cause it will never happen like that at first. So maybe if I start off small now that it will soon be kept more organized. Plus as the girls get older it will be easier too. So now that I have rambled on what I wanted to do was repost a blog entry that I found on this blog, www.kreationsbykris.blogspot.com. Kris posted about an article in Scrapbook etc on staying organized. And really after reading it, really it could be used in any room in your house. Hope you enjoy and I am hoping to get some time in my craftroom today so I can get some more thank you cards made. Thanks for looking and hope that everyone is having a great start to their 2012.

How to stay organized...article from Scrapbook Etc.

1. Clean up your space between layouts.

2. Invest in a labeler or create labels using return address labels. Use the labels to identify where your supplies belong.

3. For digital elements, create a filing system on your computer. Tag the different files you download so you can easily search for whatever element you need for a page.

4. Keep your oft-used items close at hand-either in boxes on your work surface-or nearby in a drawer or closet.

5. Purge on a regular basis. It might be hard to let go of some of those old supplies, but you can donate them to day cares, preschools, classrooms, or service

organization where they will be used and appreciated.

6. Commit to an organization system for three months. The only way to learn what works is to experiment. If you commit for a short period of time, you give yourself

mental permission to like or dislike the system without regret.

7. Determine your top three go-to items and store them together so you won't have to dig through your stash.

8. Dedicate a chunk of time to implement the system for ALL your supplies. If you only organize 10% of your supplies, you won't reap the rewards.

Happy New Year

Well it has been a while. But as I am sure you have seen on many other blogs, it is hard to keep up with posts during the holiday season. In saying that I do hope everyone had a lovely holiday with their family and friends. Also hope that the begining of everyone's new year  has been good. Now I have to tell you I have been waiting for confirmation from my parents that they have received my Christmas card before I posted it but unfortunately it has yet to arrive so I am going to post a picture of it now.

Now lastly I have been on to my next project which is thank you cards for my friends and family. For the last couple of years I have been trying to get them out. Sometimes I get them out and other times I haven't. But since I am trying to stay away from the kitchen after dinner working on losing weight with weight watchers again this gave me a great excuse to not only have me time in my craft room but also to stop the after dinner snacking. So here are some very clean and simple thank you cards that I worked on last night. I hope you enjoy these cards. And Mum sorry yours never arrived. Take care and thanks for looking.

Tasking Tuseday

 Not sure if that is a real word but it is a day of tasks here. I am in the crunch time now to finish a few of the Christmas cards that I need to get out. The problem I have is that once I hold a workshop for others to make their cards I find it hard to make some for myself. Probably cause I have been working on them for so long. My other issue is that people that come to my workshop are also people that are on my list for Christmas cards. I don't like sending them a homemade card that they have seen or just finished making the week before.  So I have been slaving away the last couple of days trying to come up with some ideas. Searching magazines and blogs and youtube. Well last night I found this magazine that gave me the pictures for this first card. So it is several layers that you put on top of each other. Came out very pretty if I do say so myself and I even added a little glitter to his hat which the picture doesn't do justice too. I do apologize that this is not the best angle shows a few of the misalignment but not to bad for my first try. Have to say I really like the way my mothers card went too but since she does stalk my blog daily I will wait till after the holidays or once I get confirmation that she has received it to show it here. The last one is for my sister. I had to choose this shaker card because when I was once way back when a Stampin Up demonstrator I did a class for her and we tried to do some shaker cards that was a big disaster, so it is kind of a joke now. So since she did attend my workshop I have been trying to figure out what to make hers and I do know that last year she liked the penguin so much that I had to combine the shaker card with the penguin. I hope you have enjoyed my post, and will hopefully check back here again.
Thanks,

Well what a busy weekend. Everyone is well again so we had volleyball and dance and Christmas shopping that needed to be done. And then on top of that we realized that Katie's boots needed to be exchanged cause the bottoms fell off. Rosie's were so ripped in the front that her socks were getting wet and so we needed to get her some new ones too. Mind you if the weather keeps working in my favour there won't be a need to worry about them staying dry cause we won't have snow to make them wet! Just a quick post cause I am behind on my Christmas cards and really need to get the last couple done so they make it before Christmas. This is a little craft that the boys did last week. It was just three different sizes of foam circles with some smaller foam circles for eyes and a foam triangle for a nose. And the buttons were of course in my stash and the same with the ribbon. I think the kids enjoyed. Too nice of a day today to keep them inside so they will probably play in the backyard instead of crafting today but tomorrow is suppose to rain so hope to have a post tomorrow with some more kids crafts. Maybe even post one or two of my cards if I can get some done. Thanks for looking and I appreciate you checking in.

TGIT

I know it doesn't make much sense, it normally is TGIF but this week is one of my short weeks where I don't have any kids on the Friday so today is technically my Friday. Now I know I have not checked in since last week and so I need to do some updating. So grab a cup of coffee or tea and settle in this could be a long post.
The Christmas card workshop went really well, had 10 ladies show up. In addition to them making the cards I also sold some of the cards I had made and decided not to use. Then my sister the night before thought if I had made some Christmas tags that they would probably sell since she knew she would want some, lol. So since my little buddy cricut wasn't tired I had him shoot off a few and guess what they did sell, not only cause my supportive wonderful youngers sister bought them, but two of the ladies actually ordered about 10 more. I am almost done them and can give them out by the end of the week. I'll post a picture of those once they are done.
Well weighed in at Weight Watchers and did my first meeting in a long time. And not sure who out there is suffering with their weight too but you will understand when I say it was 45 mins in tears cause it was like watching myself up there speaking about how I felt about loosing weight and the struggle of it. But it has really motivated me to stay on track and believe that I have lost another 2 lbs so far and I don't even weight in till Sunday. So just gotta stay motivated and on track during the weekend and I will be fine.
Alright now for some more crafting news. I do run a daycare and so whenever a holiday is up on us it is always fun to keep the kids busy with crafts. The ages of my kids are 3 and 4 years of age with a 2 year old thrown in for good measures. So it can be challenging to find a craft that everyone is able to do.  Think I haven't done too badly so far. We have done a few foam crafts from Michaels, and some colouring too, plus a few that I have found in a magazine. Below are the ones we have done and I will include the supplies we used beside the picture. I hope you have enjoyed this little catch up and I do hope to be able to post the crafts that the kids will do this month. Sorry for the long post and hope everyone is doing well. I appreciate you all for checking in and will catch you back here soon.

 These are the tags I made for the Christmas card workshop to sell. They are just made with Recollections paper, some stickles, diamond dust, my xyron adhesive, some Michaels no name brand twine and the Very Merry Tags cricut cartridge.

 Here we have a foam oranment from a Michaels foam kit that they sell. It came in package with a few different shapes. So the kids can just use the foam stickers to stick to the image and my oldest daughter helped with the glitter glue. Can't risk 3 year olds running around with glitter. That would be a disaster just waiting to happen, lol. Now do have to say this one was made by the 2 year old with a 10 years old assistance.

 Can't catch me I am the gingerbread man!! This is one of the other foam shapes that came in the same kit as the foam tree. Again made by the 2 year old with 10 year olds assistance.

 An interesting craft to do with the kids. Not my idea but printed off the holly berries and leaves from my computer from the crayola website. So the kids can colour the leaves and berries while you have your coffee in the morning and then give them a paint brush and some white pva glue and let them go to town painting the glue to a foam circle. My two three year olds loved it. Didn't matter they were painting with paint they liked the idea that they were painting. Were pleased with the having to colour part but the painting and getting sticky made up for it.

Have to say not another one of my ideas but instead got out of a magazine but will make sure to keep it in my Christmas craft files. So this was made with one paper towel roll. Fold and smooth out then cut them into 3/4 inch widths till you have 10 of them. Then with your hold punch, punch a hold on each end of the paper towel roll pieces. Now the fun part the kids can then tread the pipe cleaner, not sure if that is what they are called now? And once they get them all done on one of the holes then tie two more pipe cleaners together and let them do the next set of holes. You may need to trim the pipe cleaners as I found the inside circle ended up being pretty small and then the outside ones will be long too with the length of two. Whatever bits you have left over can be used as the hanger. Hope you have enjoyed and will try to post a few more soon!