Long Winter

Hello Ladies,

I know I have been MIA for the last year and I apologize for that, there has been many many changes in my life and that has unfortunately put crafting on the back burner. One big change is that I have stopped my home daycare and started working at Sally Beauty Supply store. Anyways the real reason I have posted today is to show off my newest little project. My mother has been here the last few months to help with my new little niece and nephew and she mentioned about my quilling supplies, so I have pulled them out and gotten a few books from the library to reacquaint myself with this craft. So this weekend here in Ottawa was too cold to get outdoors so I looked through the book Quilled Flowers by Alli Bartkowski, and this is a quilled Iris on a trellis. Now I have not done exactly like the book suggested but I think it came out pretty darn well.

January What?

     It has been a crazy month. I have had this post on my to do list for a few weeks now, but it has been so busy around here. So many changes going on that it keeps getting moved to the bottom of my list. To start out my job has changed and I have been offered full time not the part time I was working. This has come sooner than I ever expected so it has been a balancing act trying to fit things in. As many of you know that means crafting gets moved to the bottom of the list. Today is the first day I have really been able to sit down in my craft room undisturbed to have a look at what needs to be done. Unfortunately my youngest daughter has been keeping my crafting room company while I have been away. Which as you may expect means there is tons of organizing and tidying up to be done. Plus there is all the Christmas card stuff that needs to be put away from the rush of the season. One of my projects that is going to be an ASAP project is going to be a card organizer. My Aunt needed mine more than I did so I am in the process of making a new one. So once it is completed I will show you the results. What I do have to show you is these lovely roses I was able to make using a new cartridge I purchased on one of my days off last week. I have been eyeing the big flower cricut cartridge for awhile and finally thought I had been good with my purchasing and it was on sale. I have to say there is a learning curve with these flowers. And depending on your preference there are many ways to put them together. I did use white fast drying glue which helps, but it is all in how you play with the paper too. Breaking the fibers seems to make a difference in how easy it is to shape them. Hope you enjoy, and hope to see you back here soon.

P.S. The paper was all Recollections.

Happy New Year

     Happy New Year and all the best for 2013!  As like most people I don't like making resolutions cause it is really hard to keep to them. So this year I am trying to make personal goals instead. So one of my personal goals is to get back into my blogging. So many things have been going on around here in the last 6 to 9 months that I have fallen behind on my crafting and blogging that I want to get back into it for 2013. Not only was it great for me to see what everyone was up too but it is a great way for me to keep both my crafting friends and family updated on what is going on with us in these busy times. Of course I have those other personal goals like most people that I would like to get those last 10 lbs off and hit the gym more but those will come and fall into place with all the other goals.
     So since I am still sitting down to my first cup of coffee this morning and have not been able to get into my craft room to create something for you this morning I do have a Christmas card that I am especially proud of that I want to showcase for you. The card stock is Michaels recollections, the shaped mats are spellbinders. The stamp is from Stampin Up not sure what set though. I did embossing it after stamping it in versamark. Of course the sparkly lines were drawn using stickles. Now the super cool part to this card is that the silver mat is actually foil paper glued to a piece of cardstock. The foil is the kind that ladies usually have their hair lightened with. It is super durable and gives a great shine once it is embossed with the cuttlebug folders. I hope you enjoy it and can appreciate the shine of it from the picture as much as I did and still do.

    
      On a side note as an update on me, I have closed my home based daycare back in July and found myself a part time job working in a beauty supply store. Even though it is not a full time job and the adjustment has been tough on the family I am finding it very satisfying to be out of the house and talking to the public again. It really has made me appreciate the time at home with my family and given me back some of that confidence I had misplaced from being at home for so long. As an bonus though I have found that there are many crafty things you can pick up at the beauty supply store as well as the hardware store that crafters are always commenting on. I apologize for taking so long to getting back to you all and wish everyone the best in the New Year and all your personal goals. Catch you next week if not sooner.

Busy, busy, busy!

Sorry I have not posted in a little while it has been busy around here. I have gotten a cleaning bug and have cleaned out a closet or two plus the kids toys box has gotten a little cleaning too. Then thrown in there I have been thinking since the daycare is going to be closing at the end of the summer that maybe it would be a good idea to look into some career choices. So my first one was to look into the travel agency business since I did do that before the kids came. And not sure how many of you have started any crafts for Easter but that is another thing that is keeping me busy. Lots of paper flying around this house. Then to top it off our car is in desperate need to be traded so we can have a little bit of a more reliable car. Just seems that my idea of what we need and would be comfortable in is a little different from what my husband and our bank accounts feel we can afford and enjoy. (LOL) This past weekend we did go and have a look at a few different models. The girls had a field day getting in and out of a few of them. Here is Rosie pretending to drive in a Kia Rondo, which may I add is my choice. Chris' choice is the Hyundai Elantra Touring. But I have talked him into next weekend test driving the Rondo. Should be fun we will leave the girls with my mother in law and bring my father in law with us for his opinion.

 
Now that I have rambled on about non crafty stuff. I want to show off the wreath I made for my sister. I believe she is going to hang it on her front door for Easter or Springtime. I have really been enjoying making these. Using my cricut and the art philosophy cartridge from Close To My Heart has made it a breeze. I can be rolling the flowers up as the next page of them is cutting. It doesn't take much time to roll the flowers but the glueing takes a little more time. She wanted different shades of blue. I had a hard time finding ones that matched up the way I had it visioned but I think that this one turned out pretty darn good in the end. I have listened to a friend and purchased some krylon sealer for them since they will be outdoors. First time I have used it so hopefully I have gotten it all over the wreath and it will be protected. I do have a few friends that are requesting ones in certain colours, and I even have a facebook friend saying I could sell online. Not sure I am confident enough to do that but nice that someone thinks so. Thanks for checking in on me and hope to see you back here real soon with another crafty project.
Thanks.

Easter Crafts

So, there was a video on youtube that I watched that was demonstrating the rolled flowers you can make from the Art Philosophy cartridge that Close to My Heart sells. And she showed a lovely wreath she made using these rolled flowers. Well you know me I figured how hard could that be. So last weekend I went and picked up some of the empty wreaths and some pastel paper 12x12 paper. Then started to cut out the flowers on my cricut. I think the longest part of the process, which this youtuber didn't mention was the inking of the flowers and waiting for the glue to dry. Now of course I could have used hot glue to make the flowers but didn't think they needed to be that secure. Rosie was looking for stuff to do and always likes to help me when I am up to my elbows in a  large crafting project, so I let her ink the edges of the flowers. Then as she was done them I  rolled and glued them. We both ended up with coloured fingers, lol. Once they were dry I was able to hot glue them to the wreath ring. Now I am not very good at doing the random placement of things, so I did find this a little out of my comfort zone cause it did worry me to make sure I didn't have too many clumps of the same flower touching. But as you can see below I didn't do too badly of a job to keep them spread out. I hope you enjoyed your weekend and I really appreciate you stopping by and checking in on me. Presently I am making a wreath for my sister and will post how that one turns out tooo.
Thanks,
Amy

Crafty Night

Well it is great when the crafty mood takes you over and you just have to rush into your craftroom and create something wonderful. I have not been inspired to make any Easter cards yet, but was searching online for some and came across a really nice St Patty's Day card. I knew I had the stamp set from CTMH, but didn't have the embossing folder they used. It inspired so much that Monday evening I ran, not walked to my craft room and made my own version of it.  Funny cause I knew if my husband posted them on the next morning that they would reach the recipients in time for St Patty's Day on Saturday. I hope you enjoy and thanks for looking.

P.S. I apologize for the bad lighting, I was using my cell phone camera and was in our family room!

Looky what I did this weekend!

I know the weekend is not over yet, but I just didn't want to wait to show off these few cards I had made. Plus I have not posted for awhile do to a cold that I have been fighting. Really do think that getting into my crafting room has helped a little with this cold with the exception that I did get on a roll and went to bed later than I should have. So each of these cards I was using my copics for the coloring, the paper is a combination of Michaels Recollections and Stampin Up. I did use some of my spellbinders to cut the shapes as well as the sixxiz dies I had. Two of the cards have a technique called recessed images that I learned how to do on the Stamp Tv youtube site. The other card is just a typical image cut with an oval die and a scalloped die to mat. The little girl in purple I have also blinged up with some liquid pearls around the scallop and the two little friends in the flowers I did also bling up with my stickles for the center of the flowers in case you can't tell from the picture. I hope you enjoy looking as much as I enjoyed creating. Guess my next project will have to be for Easter. Have a good rest of the weekend and thanks for checking in on me.