Resolutions for 2013, More Project Life!

Well, it's that time of the year again, time to make our New Year's resolutions.  I honestly, CANNOT believe we are sitting here on the eve of next year already.  As I get older, these years go by faster and faster.  I remember when I was little and I used to say "I'm Bored", well that never happens to me now!  I feel like there just aren't enough hours in any day.  So my resolution for this next year is to spend at least an hour each week doing Project Life.
I committed to Project Life last year and did a pretty good job at it, I even took a photo every day (well almost) and I am scrapbooked up until July with a few pages here and there from Aug-Dec.  I feel like every year I do a great job scrapbooking and then summer hits and I fall apart.  This year I have committed to doing Digital Project Life and a photo 365 project with my DSLR.  I really want to get better at photography this year and doing a photo a day on my DSLR instead of on my iPhone, I think will really help me get there.
I did these two pages digitally recently from a trip we took in November to Vegas.  We left Vegas for a 1/2 day and did some horseback riding.  It was a magical time and I really wanted to capture the memories.
Here is the first page.  I actually got this template and instructions from Jessica Sprague for free, here.

 That was so fun and easy to do !  I then used one of the digital project life templates for this page along with a free background from Jessica Sprague that I found on this website with more free project life instructions for Photoshop.

I still have a bunch more photos to put into my album so I'm hoping to do more digitally for 2012 and of course keep up with my New Year's resolution for 2013.
Thanks for stopping by today!

Owl Christmas Card

Hi all!  Today is my post for the Pins to Creation design team.  This year for my Christmas cards I actually ordered them online (gasp!)  I  know, I cannot believe I did not make them myself!  For the last few years I have handmade all my cards (usually around 60) and sent them out.  This year I just could not find the time to do that and decided to make them.  Well I still had a few people I wanted to send out handmade cards to and also to say thank you to some wonderful friends and family for getting me gifts for my birthday (which by the way is today:-)).
I found this awfully cute owl card on pinterest a while ago and since I had all the tools to make it decided to make a few to say Merry Christmas and Thank you!
The card originated from this site, http://stampzone.blogspot.nl.  I could not find the exact link back to the card but her site is loaded with great ideas!  Here is the photo of the card:

Here are my cards:

 I made two just for fun.  I love this little owl, I didn't add arms to the below card and actually wish I would have, oh well, next time!  I also really love the woodgrain embossing folder from Stampin UP!  It comes out so clean when run through my big shot.  The trick is to put a piece of vellum paper in with the other paper and then it won't emboss too much where the paper rips.  Cool trick I learned! I also punched out an ornament instead of a heart.  I am really happy with how they came out.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!  If you get a chance, check out our blog and leave some love;-) http://pinstocreations.blogspot.com

Pins To Creation Christmas Blog Hop

Hi all!  Welcome to the Pins to Creation Christmas Blog Hop!  I hope you have enjoyed the hop so far and are here from Madge's blog over at the Scrappin Lounge. If not and you want to start from the beginning, check out the Pins to Creation blog.  The goal of our design team is to find things we have "pinned" on Pinterest and create them!  This time we are creating items that are Winter, Christmas or Hanukkah related.

I have decided to make a rolled paper Christmas tree like the one I pinned from the DCWV blog.  Here is the photo from DCWV.

 Here is my tree, I decided to frame it.   This tree was so easy to make!  I just started off with some Christmas paper from the DCWV Prints for the Year Ultimate Stack, cut one 8x3, rolled it around a pencil, glued the end and then glued it to the paper.  I then went down 1/2 inch on the next sheet and so on until I was down to a 1/2 inch sheet.  The star I cut from my scrap paper with my star punch and using two starts together I made the big star on top.  I then used an embossing folder to get some brown paper to look like wood, framed it in a frame from the dollar store and voila!  My 6 yr old daughter is in love with it!

Blog Candy time:
Today for the blog hop I am giving away 20, 20.00 vouchers to Firmoo.com.  Firmoo is the worlds most popular online eyeglass store.  The voucher code will save you 20.00 off an order placed at firmoo.com (except for designers glasses).  Many of the glasses are under 20.00 and very stylish in my opinion.  The voucher does not apply to shipping and the code will expire by Dec. 25th so those that win must be able to use it right away.  All you have to do to be eligible to win is to go to the Pins to Creation site and comment below telling me your favorite project so far:-)

Your next stop is Jamie over at the Scrap Queen blog:-).

Pins to Creation Post - Snowman Door

Hi all!  For today's post I decided to go with something totally FUN!  We have been decorating our house slowly but surely the last few days, getting it ready for Christmas.  While I was going through pinterest thinking of what I wanted to do for this post, I saw this and remembered how much I wanted to do it last year.  Unfortunately, we do not have a white fridge, opting to go with stainless steel in our house but we do have WHITE DOOR!  WOOHOO!

Here is the website where I pinned the idea from, http://craftingmytalents.blogspot.com/2010/12/my-snowman-fridge.html, and here is a copy of the photo she had on her blog:-).  isn't it too cute?

Here is my version, my kids are in LOVE with this snowman:-).  It was SO simple to make!  I just used my Creative Memories Circle maker and cut out the eyes at the biggest circle I had.  Then I cut out 9 more little circles, 5 for the mouth and 4 for the buttons (I had some kid help putting those on the door:-)), Then I free hand cut the scarf using some 12x24 Christmas paper I had, I love the candy cane paper that came in the pack.  The nose was cut using a 8 1/2x 11 piece of orange paper from Stampin UP!

 Here's another photo from higher up on my stairs.  

Thanks so much for stopping by!  If you would, please head over to the Pins to Creation blog and check us out.  We are a fun group of girls making projects from pinterest!

Project Life Softball Pages

This morning I was able to get a little scrapbooking done.  We actually didn't have anything going on until the afternoon and the kids were playing so nicely so I thought I'd sneak in a little time in my scrapbooking room.  A few hours later and I had done a bunch of project life pages and then worked on these pages from Ava's softball this summer.  She participated in softball for the first time over the summer and had a blast!

I used the Teresa Collins Sports Edition II stamps for everything but the title on these pages.  I love this stamps for anything sports related.  The colors I used were Stampin UP Marina Mist and Regal Rose, along with some gray for the strip on the page and Stampin UP Whisper White to stamp on.

 Each of these 12x12 pages were next to a Project Life page in my album.  I love how it all coordinates!

Thanks for stopping by today!

DCWV Scrapaholic Challenge for November

Hi all!  It's been so busy these last few weeks.  I have been working a lot at my new job and I also got to take a trip to Vegas with my husband to help him out with his job at a trade show.  It was a lot of fun getting to spend so much time alone with my husband.  We were able to go to dinners by ourself, see some shows, and even went horseback riding!  We did miss the kids terribly and were happy to get home to them.  Then before we left last week for Thanksgiving break to spend with our families in Michigan I made some time to get into my scrapbooking room and create a few layouts.  I had printed out some photos of my son on his first day of school and I really wanted to get those into his album and our family album.  I just recently purchased two new school stacks from DCWV and I was itching to use those!  I took the most recent sketch from DCWV and used it to create my pages.  Here is what I came up with:

I just love the Edumacation stack from DCWV.  I used only that stack to create this page.  

 I also used the Edumacation stack for this page.  I created two pages with the same photos for the two different books.  I just love these pages.   My little boy is getting so big!

 My pages were based on this sketch from the DCWV blog.

I LOVE banners!  Here is the banner that came right out of the stack.  So cute!

 This banner I made on my own from the paper in the stock.  I loved the crayon paper.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Pins to Creation

Hi everyone!! Welcome to our first Pins to Creation blog hop!  Hopefully you have arrived here from Jamie, the Scrap Queen, if not and you want to start at the begining head over to the Pins to Creation blog at http://pinstocreations.blogspot.com.    I am soooo excited to be a part of this team!  I have been addicted to Pinterest for over a year now and only made a handful of items that I've seen on there.  I LOVE Pinterest!  It is so much fun and so fun to look at all the gorgeous photos and craft items I can make.   But there are only so many hours in the day right?  It would be difficult to make everything so we do what we can:-).  I found some time to make something with my kids and I want to share with you some Halloween treats inspired by Pinterest.
I gave my daughter two options for what we could make for Halloween treats.  In true "Ava" fashion she said "..well, let's make these for the girls and these for the boys."  So off I went to the craft store to find some material to make these two items.
The first item I attempted was this cute little pumpkin, looks easy right?  This is what my daughter wanted to make for the girls:-).  http://www.parenting.com/gallery/witchy-ways-96936?pnid=101727

This is my version, not quite the same is it?  I got the tulle from the store, thought ooooh, glitter tulle is so much better.  It didn't quite come out as I imagined it.  oh and I couldn't find orange jelly beans either so I used reese's pieces.

Okay, it's not that bad right?  I added the McDonald's treat as I thought that would be fun for the kids to get.  I made most of these without the kids help as I thought it was a little too hard for a 6 yr old and a 3  yr old.

The second project I chose to do was to make these cute little ghosts out of white fabric with googly eyes. The kids were able to help with these by adhering the eyes. This was inspired by this photo from http://onecharmingparty.com:

The kids were so excited to put googly eyes on the ghosts!  They loved making these and I thought they came out super cute!  I used white fabric and rubber bands to hold them together.  I think napkins would have been much easier:-)!

Thanks so much for stopping by today, you're next stop is Scrappin Madge at the Scrappin Lounge.

Winner of the My Memories Software

Congratulations to Michelle for winning the My Memories Suite Software!  Here is what Michelle had to say about about the software.

Hey Jessica!! Thanks for posting this on FB....I had not seen it before. OMG I so need this! I have a bazillion pictures and not enough time so QUICK is what I need!! Your layouts are so very cute and I love the dimensional look of the photos! The button and leaf look so real! I would love to try MyMemories software! Thanks for the awesome giveaway!!

If you get a chance, visit Michelle over at her blog: http://michelescraftroom.blogspot.com.  She has some very cute stuff on there!  Thanks everyone!!

My Memories Suite Giveaway

Hi all and Happy Halloween!  I cannot believe it is Halloween already.  I truly feel like we just started this year and now here we are almost in November!  Anyway, I wanted to share an adorable layout I created the other day using the My Memories Digital Scrapbooking software.  I am a huge fan of doing scrapbooking digitally and actually forgot how much I enjoy it until I opened up the software the other day to play around.  It is so easy to use and literally after opening it up I finished this layout in less than 30 minutes and it was the first time for me using the software!

Here is a larger photo of the 1st page.  I used a pre-made template for this one, changed the background paper, added a title, and the circle around the "Grateful for You".  I also added shadows behind the photos to make them pop a little more.  The leaves and the photo layout were already there.

This is the second page of the layout.  I did a "mirror" on my other layout and changed the photo boxes so I could fit more photos on the page.  I also removed two of the leaves and added a button to the remaining leaf.  I then added the 3 brads in the corner and shadows again to my photos.

I just love how these came out!  If you would like to find a fun, easy, software to use to start scrapbooking digitally I highly suggest you check out http://www.mymemories.com.  The digital software is so full of digital content like background papers, buttons, brads, shapes, word sayings, etc. etc. The best part is that you do not have to fill up a whole scrapbooking room with this stuff, it's all on your computer!

Lastly, the wonderful folks over at My Memories have given me one copy of the software to give away to my lucky readers!  There are a few ways you can enter to win this AWESOME software!

• Become a follower of My Memories on their facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyMemories/140359372717593, tell them I sent you (Jessica-Creative Stamper) and leave a comment below that you did this (with a way for me to contact you)
• Become a follower on their twitter page, http://twitter.com/#!/mymemoriessuite, and leave another comment below 
• Become a follower on their blog, http://blog.mymemories.com/, and leave another comment below 
• Lastly, become a follower on this blog, and leave a comment below (if you are already a follower, just leave a comment) 

Four chances to win in all!!! I will draw a winner, a week from today, Wednesday, Nov. 7th, please have your entries in by Wednesday morning 8:00am cst.  Good Luck!!

You are going to love this software, here is a link to their page so you can check it out.  http://www.mymemories.com

New Scrapbooking Room

For some time now, my husband and I have been discussing what to do with my son now that he has officially grown out of his crib and into a big bed.  His room was just a little too small to fit a full size bed in and for a while he was sleeping in the bed in the guest room.  Since he was sleeping in one room and his stuff was in another, he was getting a little frustrated.  One night he looked at me and said in the cutest way "me wish my stuff was in this room too" (this is from a 3 yr old).  So I took it upon myself to move everything out of the guest room and transformed it into his "new" room.  While I was doing that I got an idea...How about we move all of my scrapbooking stuff into his old room:-).  Well, my loving husband actually went for it and now I have a full room for all my stuff.  Boy do you not realize how much "stuff" you have until you move!  All of my things took up our loft for a while and of course, after 10 years of scrapbooking I have collected a lot!  I also got a new mac while doing this and while I love, love, love my Mac, it's hard to get used to a new operating system and just an overall "new" way of doing things.  I haven't been posting much as I've been re-doing the rooms (painted my new room and his) and I've been reading up on how to do everything and anything on a new mac.

This was my old space.  It's our loft and I always hated how it looked messy even when it was clean.

This is my 3 year old.  Goofing around while I was painting my room.

I wanted to share something awesome I did in my room.  I first painted my room "Tropicana Cabana" from Benjamin Moore.  It's a tiffany blue that I LOVE!  I then put up some decals that I found at Target from DCWV.  I cannot tell you much I love having my own space and a door to shut everything out!

 These are the decals on the wall, they even came with rhinestones.  Love it!!

 Thanks so much for stopping by today.

CWC Challenge #107, I Feel the Love Project

Today's post is a card I made for the latest I Feel the Love Project over at Madison's blog, Funky Cards. For October, she will be collecting Thanksgiving cards to send to the elderly men and women who reside at the Surrey Place Care Center in Florida.  You can read more about the project and how you can help out by making a card, here.

Here is my card, I used my Imagine and the Enjoy the Seasons cartridge.  This is my go-to cartridge lately.  It has so many great images on it!  I also used The Spring Chic cartridge for the orange chevron paper.  This card was created using the latest Mojo Monday sketch.

Thanks for stopping by today!!  I hope you are able to participate in this challenge this week, you can link up your card here at the Cooking with Cricut blog.

Cooking With Cricut, Challenge #105 Apples or Honey

Hi everyone! I am very excited for this challenge!  I can't wait for you to see what the design team has "cooked" up with their apples and honey over at CWC:-).  For my project today I had a little help from my kids. I knew I wanted to make a sign for them for the first day school back in August and thought they might like to help with that so I picked up this plain wooden board from Hobby Lobby along with some chalkboard paint so that we can use it over and over.  My daughter was all about it!  She loves to paint and loves helping.

Here is the finished product.

I love how it came out.  I added the apple from the Imagine Enjoy the Seasons cartridge.  Apples to me always symbolize school and I thought it would be the perfect addition to this sign.

 Here is my daughter painting the sign.  I love how she sticks her tongue out when she is really concentrating!

 Here is my daughter on the first day of school.  She was so proud of the sign!

 Here is my son.  I was just happy he posed for pictures!

Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to submit your entries for this fun challenge over at Cooking with Cricut.

Cooking with Cricut, I Feel the Love Project

It's time for another I Feel the Love Project with Cooking with Cricut.   For this months challenge, Madison has tasked us with making cards for a wonderful organization called Casa Pacifica.  You can read more about the challenge and the organization at Madison's blog.  We are making cards for all the kids for their annual Halloween party.  The task is to make something fun, but not scary.  Whenever I think of Halloween, I mostly think of crisp, fall days and pumpkins!  Fall is my favorite season, hands down.  Living here in the midwest all my life, it is truly a joy to watch fall come and the beautiful colors all around.

So here is my card for the challenge.  I used the Imagine Enjoy the Seasons cartridge for the leaves and the pumpkin.  The swirl is from a die I have and all the paper is DCWV Halloween and Fall stack.  The Happy Halloween stamp is from Stampin UP, Teeny Tiny Wishes.  I also used this weeks Mojo Monday sketch to create this card.  Madison has a goal of creating 70 cards and she already has a bunch linked on her website.  I made two of these cards to send, hopefully you will join us and send some as well!

Thanks for stopping by and be sure to hop over to the Cooking with Cricut blog to enter in your card.

September Calendar Page

Happy Tuesday!  Here is my Calendar page for September.  I used the Stampin UP set Autumn Splendor for the leaves and acorns.  I used the CTMH typewriter keys alphabet set for the title.  The two background papers are from the DCWV Halloween and Fall stacks and the calendar page is from the Teresa Collins Recollections kit.

Thanks for stopping by!

Pinterest Inspired Blog Hop

Hi everyone and welcome to the Pinterest inspired blog hop!  Are you on pinterest?  It is soooo addicting.  I sometimes have to force myself not to get on it for a few days because once I'm on, I can't get off:-)  Anyway, if you came here from Liz over at Scrapilicious Life, then you are in the right spot!  If you want to start at the beginning, head on over to Ashley's blog at her blog, the blog hop princess. 

My project for today is something that I saw a while ago on a blog then I kept seeing over on Pinterest, it's a crayon wreath.  My pin was originally from here.   Isn't this so cute?

I loved it and knew that I wanted to make it for my daughter's teacher.  This blog hop gave me the perfect opportunity to do it!  Here is my finished project.  

I love this and how it came out, although I know I can do much better:-)  I see a few things that I should have done, the crayons are not all lined up perfectly and the circle in the middle is a little off.  I have to make another one for son's teacher so now I know what to do!  I also might make more accessories to go on it or make the apple bigger.  I'll post photos of my new and improved wreath once I finish it.

Here is how I made it:  Most websites that I found called for using embroidery hoops for the base but I didn't like that idea.  I was just going to cut out my own base out of cardboard but I found this cool circle base at Michael's for 1.99 and decided to use this.  Here is a photo of it with half the crayons on.

As you can see, I hot glued the crayons on.  (Next time I will be sure to line them up better!)

I found this amazingly cute ribbon at Michael's as well to use to hang up the wreath.

I then used my Imagine to print out these images using my Cricut Recess Lite cartridge

Thank you so much for stopping by our hop today. I hope you got lots of inspiration!  

CWC Cartridge Showcase (Teresa Collins Baby Boutique)

Today my cartridge showcase is with one of my all time favorite cartridges, the Teresa Collins Imagine Baby Boutique cartridge.  I absolutely love anthing Teresa Collins and her cartridges are all my favorites!  I love this cartridge because it's so versatile.  You do not need to use it for baby projects, although it would work perfectly on those if you'd like.

My three projects that I made with this cartridge were for my daughter's birthday party back in July. 

For the first project, I decided to make a banner, I love banners and I also love to hang them by our fireplace for my children's special day.  I like for them to have a little something extra around the house to celebrate their birthdays.  For this banner I took the scalloped image from the baby boutique cartridge, printed it out large without the crown(around 4"), then cut out the letters with the Storybook cartridge.  The little crowns were also cut out using Baby Boutique.

 The second project was also made for the party, I made little cupcake toppers with the same scalloped circle and crown as the banner but in a much smaller size.  These were so easy to make!  I just filled the page on my Imagine, print and cut them, then used a glue dot to adhere them toothpicks and stuck them into the cupcakes.  Super easy and so cute to do!  The top one was an image I used from her invites, with a Barbie Image as that was the theme of the party.  

 This is the Barbie Image, the frame around Barbie and the crowns are from Baby Boutique

The third project from the party was these cute little wings with hearts I print and cut from the Baby Boutique cartridge to use for the treat bags.  Again, super easy!  I just print and cut, then stamped Thank you onto them, stapled them to the cute bags and was done.

Here's a photo of Teresa and I from a class I took that she did recently here.  She was so sweet and I was so honored to meet her!  She is just the best.  If you haven't had a chance to check out her products, you definetly should.  Her designs are classic yet very much fit with the current styles. 

Thanks for stopping by today and be sure to stop by CWC to take part in the latest challenges.