Flowering Jasmine Tea

Posted on | December 5, 2010 | 1 Comment

Guess what we all did yesterday? NOTHING! Hubby and M made our $9.95/mo Netflix subscription totally worth it yesterday I think. Since hubby woke up, him and M have been watching TV. M loved it (even though all they watched were documentaries and Dirty Jobs) because it’s not something I let her do. Also, she doesn’t see her daddy much because of his work schedule so she was soaking it all in. I got a nap in and Jovie… well, it was another busy day for her as usual: She made a lot of mess and I picked up here and there {::SMILES}.

Today I have a little candle project. This was my place settings at Thanksgiving. I know, not Thanksgiving colors but hey, after all the earth tones a dab of color was refreshing. This project was pretty simple. I cut a 12×12 paper to size the height I wanted and used a border punch to beautify it. The seam binding and twine + button finished this up. The candle was a Yankee Candle, the small jar, and I thought it was perfect for a little giftie.

Oh, see the bit of painting on the background there? M did that. I love her art work! The base had a 50% off sale some months ago and we got some real artist canvas and acrylic paint. M felt so grown up using them {::SMILES}.

Last but not least, I want to show you this tea I drank when I went to London to meet up with our friend at the dim sum restaurant. It was a flowering Jasmine tea and I wasn’t quite ready for the tea I ordered. Have you had one before? The taste was great as long as you don’t sip the last few sips an hour later unless you love strong bitter tea.

Materials:

Pattern paper: SEI
Accessories: Martha Stewart border punch and seam binding, jute twine from Etsy, and button from stash
Tools: Sizzix and tag die-cut

123 Go!

Posted on | November 11, 2010 | 2 Comments

Who would have thought I’d be with a military guy. That occupation was just not on my future husband check list. Back then the idea of being with somebody who moves you around while he’s gone every so often didn’t sound so appealing. But, life is funny that way and so here I am. To the guy who made me toss my check list while still making me laugh each and every day, happy Veteran’s day!

Today I have a little page to share, it’s M teaching Jovie how to walk — no matter where we’re at. The above photo was taken at a pub. The kit is from Scarlet Lime, November’s kit, and just like the SL Frugal Fab this one is BUUUTIFUL! If you haven’t checked out the SL gallery you should. It’s FULL of gorgeous samples by the other DTs!! Oh, I used a sketch from Pencil Lines for this page. The sketch is by Sasha Farina and she’s one of my favorite scrapbooker. Her pages are not super complicated but she sure has colors down! Her pages ALWAYS pops out at ya.

Below are some detailed pictures of a few different parts of the page. I LOVE these Jenni B’s butterflies. Speaking of, I was browsing through my pages and there’s a butterfly in every other page. I think they make pages happy!!

I love the little pink embellishment. They’re flat on the bottom so very easy to adhere.

Have a great one all. I have a few projects to finish for tomorrow. I’ve been getting work stuff put together and also trying to figure out my craft room re-org. ‘Til next time!!

The Bad Blogger

Posted on | June 25, 2010 | 6 Comments

I’ve been a bad… actually terrible blogger lately. The last few months crafting and blogging (mostly the blog visiting, commenting and replying to comments/emails) has been one of my many “was gonna” items. Clouds mentioned in her comment that it all comes down to priorities. True! But I think on my part it also comes down to motivation.

It’s kind of surprising. I really did think that staying at home will give me tons of time to be on the computer, to do what a wonderful blogger would do, but no. Jovie is always wanting attention (and I love giving her all that she needs) and when she naps I have a house full of chores that I need to do. I got to do my end of the deal around the house, right? By the time night time comes around, Jovie’s finally sleeps at 10-ish (even if we get to the crib at 8:30/9p), I’m just pooped. I do want to craft and share my work the next day but that’s about it. My poor Google Reader is always maxed out and when I do get to commenting it’ll be a handful of people at the most each day.

Due to my lack of blog hopping and commenting I want to especially thank those who are still stopping by to comment and to those who are still subscribed to my blog. I just checked my Feedburner and I was, still am, surprised that I have subscribers. You all must still not have anything much to do than to read my posts, ha! Speaking of, I’ve gotten emails on how to subscribe to my blog. I guess it’s not obvious. The easiest way is to click on the elephant’s butt that’s on the top right of my blog. It’s above the search text box. The direct link is here. I’ll put it in my imma gonna do list of things to update on this blog of mine.

Also, last night took a bit of time to browse my blog and I found that while I see a lot of improvements in my scrapbooking my card making has kind of gone down hill. Granted the last few months I’ve been on limited supplies and I’ve just recently have access to all my craft goodness I feel like I’m not improving in the card making department – just been kind of static. I think I still make decent ones but nothing out of ordinary where in the past I sometimes surprise myself. Maybe this is due to my lack of blog hopping?

Anyhow, the above is my attempt to do better at my card making abilities. A little bit of stamping, a little bit of pattern paper and a little bit of tools. If you’re curious about the stripe ribbon I used fabric glue (FabriTac is my favorite, lots at WalMart or any craft store — the best and I’ve tried a few) to adhere each pleated parts and to adhere the ribbon onto the paper. To strengthen the hold I used a stapler. There are two staples under the brown twill ribbon. You’ve probably noticed that I use a lot of pattern paper for my solid stamps. This is because I can’t color that well and this method guarantees good results for me.

Have a great one!!

Materials:

Cardstock: Stampin’ Up!
Ribbon: SEI stripes and Martha Stewart twill
Pattern paper: My Little Shoebox and Crate paper
Stamps: Practicing Creativity
Tools: Scor-It, Martha Stewart border punch, FabricTac glue, dimensionals, ATG, and Tonic guillotine trimmer

To My Favorite Guy

Posted on | May 24, 2010 | 19 Comments

Happy birthday!!! So very glad that you were born many years ago! So very glad too that I met you 8-yrs ago, drunk and all, at a club. If we met in an online dating site we would most likely never have gotten together. The system would never in a million years match us up (if it did, it would be because of the plus/minus 3% margin of error… or a computer glitch), HA!! You have to admit though, I am a lot more charming in person than in photos or online (he’s thinkin’: Yeah, right, only if no word comes out of your mouth). As odd as it may seems we’re still happily together and I have to say, we’ve made some pretty cute mini us along the way {::SMILES}. Love*** you tons!!

To all of you reading out there… life is so much nicer when you’re with somebody who loves you as much as you love them. Even though you’re with somebody you’re free to be yourself and become whatever it is that you desire. It really is worth it, even if you have to make many sacrifices, adjustments, and changes because in the long run you’ll gain back everything that you’ve lost and achieve many more. It’s rewarding to be with somebody whom you can learn from and after the few years together he still gives me the butterflies + warm and fuzzies.

The above card I made for the hubby. I used WPlus9′s stamps: Woodgrain Silhouette and Addition (my FAVORITE sets!!) and a 2Sketches4You sketch by Kazan. This week Wplus9 is the sponsor and there’s an AWESOME prize for this week’s winner. Also, this is 2S4Y’s 2nd anniversary and there are MORE prizes to giveaway!! Go check 2Sketches4You out and also see what the other DTs has to offer.

The card’s fairly simple, I used the twine that I purchased from Etsy: Annie42 (yards of twine from this store for a great price!!!), Martha Stewart twill ribbons that I found on base for $2.50/spool (YEEESH!!!!! The one I have is a 7-yrds spool), staples, PTI button and kraft cardstock, and SU cardstock + ink. I think despite the flowers the card is pretty manly.

Well, I was suppose to go on base but Jovie just woke up from an extra long nap. I need to pick up M soon so we might just wait til we get M to get some groceries. We buy fresh produce from the store in town but there are a lot of things that we still pick up from the base once a month too like American cereal, Oreos (cheaper) and my ramen noodles. I still love ramen noodles, Shin Ramens to be more exact. That’s my craft secret. When I eat ramens before I craft I am more creative. Oh, and after wine too. More later!!

Tut: Spiral Paper Flower

Posted on | January 1, 2010 | 13 Comments

Jovie’s laying on my lap sleeping and here’s me bloggin’. I can use a nap but I think I’m ok. I did get a card put together and I even did something extra… followed a tutorial on how to make this pretty paper flower (very fun blog! You should give it a few minutes of your time!!). It took a bit to get it right but once I got the hang of it it’s easy.

If you want to try this flower out, follow the instructions and once you get to the end, let go of the flower and let it expand naturally. If you use a nice heavy cardstock the flower will keep its form. I did though super glued the last two petals together and before the flower was glued on to the card I did push the center of the flower in so that it adhered to the super glue on the last petal. It just holds the shape better for card purposes.

For this card I used Caardvark’s sketch, PTI stamps and paper, Martha Stewart butterfly punch, Fiskar border punch, SU cardstock and ink, and you can see it because I didn’t take a side photo but the flower was created on pattern paper… more Dani Mogstad digital paper from Sweet Shoppe. The part you see is the white part.

I’ll be making cornbread this evening. My first time. Wish me luck!!