"Missionary" Gifts

Some dear friends are leaving to serve as "need-greaters" in Dominican Republic and in Thailand.  I wanted to make something special for them to remember where they've been and where they are going.

I found a cute idea on pinterest and figured I could make it small enough to fit in their suitcases.  I also left the glass out of the frame to avoid any breakage in flight.

After searching the Dollar Tree, we found a little picture frame with 4 photo holes.  I searched google for state outlines and country outlines and then shrunk them to fit into the holes.

Both girls have lived in Guatemala, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Georgia.  One of the girls lived in Florida and she is planning to travel to Thailand.  The other girl is traveling to D.R.   

Here's what they ended up looking like:

I used a stick pin and foam to poke holes on the outline onto linen style scrapbook paper.

Then I stitched in pretty colors for the outlines following the holes I punched through previously. (Thankfully my Momma used to be an avid cross-stitcher and has lots of different colored DMC floss to choose from.  Thanks Momma!)

Then you cut out little red hearts from felt and hot glue them onto the places they lived and served.

We also spent some time at Dollar Tree picking out essentials they might need for their trips.  We bought tylenol (off brand), ibuprofen (off brand), cold medicine (day time and night time formula in one), facial cleansing cloths, feminine wipes, wet wipes, alcohol wipes, baking soda & vinegar (to clean the bacteria off the fruit), travel bags (to fill with clothing and vacuum out the air), granola bars, peanut butter crackers, socks (for the friends in D.R.), pony tail holders, sunscreen.  Sissy made them each a card, complete with eyeglasses made out of fake silver wedding rings.

And guess what?  I didn't even take a picture of them going through the box or of the tea party or of them crying over the pictures...I was lame.   They took pictures so I'm hoping they'll email them to me before they leave. 

They really liked everything and thought it was the "kindest thing anyone has ever done for us"...Made me cry.  I'm gonna miss them girls!!!  Thankfully they left their eldest sister at home so we still have someone to come over and dance with us :) 

Enjoy!

Scrappin' Sunday: My First Pigtails!

This is a scrapbook page I did for my daughter's first pigtails.  She was pretty much hairless for what seemed like forever.  So when her hair started growing, I couldn't resist putting in little pigtails. 

Hope you have a great weekend!

Scrappin' Sunday: Happy Friendship Card

This is a fun card to make.  I love eyelets and brads and embellishing with ribbon.  One of my favorite tools to use on cards and scrapbook pages is an acrylic pen.  It's so fun!

Enjoy!

Scrappin' Sunday: Not Just Ordinary Envelopes!

Remember when I told you about the Cash Envelope Budget System?  Recently, another blogger shared her template FREE for everyone to make their own envelopes.  But these aren't just ordinary envelopes, they are so pretty and make me just want to save the cash in them!

I couldn't get the envelope template to download for some reason.  Apparently, Kelleigh was told that yahoo email subscribers were having trouble.  Hopefully they got that fixed and if you want to download the template, you won't have any problems now.

You know how impatient I am by nature, I could not wait for them to fix the problem with my email verification.  So I took a standard envelope apart at the seams.

Then I traced around it onto double-sided pattern scrapbook paper and cut them out with scissors.  Look how pretty they are!

Maybe this will inspire you to save a little money or even to start paying with cold-hard-cash versus whipping out your debit or credit card to pay for things.

Enjoy!

Scrappin' Sunday: Dahlia Fold "Friendship"

This technique is so pretty when using double-sided patterned paper (paper with a design on both sides).  You can read the tutorial to learn how to fold the paper to create the petals.  Believe it or not, but it's pretty easy to do, all you need is a circle punch and a brad to hold the petals in place.   

Enjoy!

Scrappin' Sunday: Baby Shaker Card

I love these cards.  Basically you are creating a raised window by using dimensionals or foam tape and then adhering a picture on top with some little doo-dads inside.  In this card I stamped and cut out a bunch of little onesies and some pearl beads.  I've made one in the past using vanilla flavored coffee grounds inside the window and stamped with "LOVE YOU LATTE".  It smelled wonderful!  I've seen some use small Alphabet and Star-Shaped pasta too.  You can be so creative!

Enjoy!

Scrappin' Sunday: Gift Card "Happy Forever" Card

This is a great card to make when you want to give someone a gift card. It was really easy to make. You can follow the directions in this tutorial.

Remember to leave a comment with a link to your creations.

Enjoy!

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Scrappin' Sunday: Card "Friend to Friend"

I wish this was a better picture, but until I get my camera fixed, iPhone pictures are the best I can do. This card was made from Old Olive, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip and White Cardstock. I used Chocolate Chip ink for the stamp and a white acrylic paint pen for the white dot embellishments. I had some ribbon from a package of bed sheets I bought (yes, I keep all that kind of reusable stuff in a jar) and cut it to fit the front of the card. This card is 4"x4".

I miss stamping and scrapbooking. Maybe one day soon, I'll be able to get back into it. In the meantime, I have a bunch of cards I made and I'll be showing them on Scrappin' Sunday. If you feel inspired to make a card, leave a comment with a link to your blog or website. I'd love to see what you've created.

Enjoy!

Cyber Monday: Vistaprint Sale

New Customer Offer. Get FREE SHIPPING on orders over $25, plus SAVE UP TO 90% Your First Order at Vistaprint.

I rarely have make the time to do any scrapbooking, as much as I love it.
So this offer from Vistaprint for the Photo Calendar is ideal!




Here's another great deal for a photo book. Having small children makes it difficult for me to actually pull out all my scrapbooking supplies to make an album. But this offer from Vistaprint is easy, just point and click...that's about my speed now-a-days!


Sale ends 12/21/09. Hurry now!

Enjoy!

Coupon Organizer

Check this out...it's a scrapbooking embellishment organizer but who's to say you couldn't use this for a coupon organizer? You can order it through the link below from Joann.com...and combine it with this 40% off special button and it's only $3.57!

5''x7'' Expandable Paper Organizer Expandable with 13 sections to organize photos stickers embellishments die cuts and scrap paper. Includes tabs for easy 5'' x 7'' organization and features a carrying handle. Acid free.

Saturday Stamping 5/9

I love to scrapbook and make homemade cards. But lately I have been swamped with being a mother to my children and a wife to my husband. Do you ever feel like you are losing your identity? I talked with a couple of my dearest friends and they too have felt like this. I think we get so used to our lives before children, that when they come along, we have a hard time adjusting to our new lives after children. We almost become different people. We want to be carefree and easy-going like before, but now it's harder to stay that way. You try to carry on a conversation with a friend but you have a 24 lb baby wriggling in your arms, you are thinking to yourself "Does he want to get down?" So you put him down on the floor to play but he cries. You think "I know he doesn't want to eat, he just ate applesauce, cereal, Cheerios and drank 4 oz of milk, maybe he wants to take a nap"...it can go on like this for an hour. All the while, you are still trying to carry on that craved adult conversation with your friend and you're thinking to yourself "What did she just say?" so you nod in agreement, hoping that was enough to let her know you are sort of listening. Not to mention, while the baby is wriggling, your 3 year old has went to the potty and yelling for you to come and help her take care of some business!

Can you tell I have been "trapped" in the house for past 2 weeks??!?!

Sometimes you need to do something for yourself. Some might think this would be a selfish act, but being a mother is a selfless job and something you wanted to do if you got married (that's my opinion, of course, you might differ). As a mother, you need sanity in order to make it through the day. If it takes you locking yourself in the bathroom to read 1/2 a page in your favorite magazine (which I've done). Or leaving your kids with your husband to go to the grocery store just to get out of the house (guilty again). Or taking the kids outside to play to get some energy out so they can take a nice long nap (you might think this is not for mommy, but trust me, when you have those babies sleeping, a wave of relief washes over you and you feel like a new woman that can combat whatever may come your way, whether it be a MAC truck or a flying Cheerio. When those babies wake up, you're a better mommy able to soothe their whiny disposition or wipe that teary eye.) If you don't replenish your goodness to be a mommy, who will? I'll leave that for you to answer.

Now on to my new goal for myself. As I was saying, I used to love to scrapbook and make cards. But lately I haven't found the time to carve out of the day. I was thinking last night that I need to organize pictures so I can start making layout for Hunter's album. Poor baby, he only has 4 pages done and he'll be a year old next month. Haylei's album was kept up to date monthly for the most part. It wasn't until she was about 8 months old that it started to get away from me. So I have decided that I will sit down and try to create 1 layout for Hunter's album each week. Now, mind you, this is a goal. So I will be posting pictures of his album I have already completed. Then when we get my scrapbook stuff moved back in the house from the garage, then I might be able to work on my goal more effectively. I have all the pictures, and no need to try to come up with a layout design...I'll just get those from Splitcoaststampers.Doing a little something for yourself is not selfish in the least, it makes you a better and HAPPY mommy to your babies. I hope this inspires you to do a little something for yourself, whatever it may be.

Enjoy!

Pretty Wedding Invitation

I volunteered myself and with Brenda's help we made these beautiful invitations for a sister in the Hall. I had to keep this one because it's a little crooked and has a greasy finger print on the teal panel. The little reception favors are easy to make too. I got the idea from Brenda. She did some similar for Casie's wedding that were just beautiful. Everyone thought they were store bought. But no, we made them. These here are made with wrapping paper and since the paper is very thin, I devised a way to cut a single sheet of copy paper to fit inside to give the favor more weight so it doesn't get bent up too bad. We are going to be making 200 of these. It's going to be lots of fun and they will be so great at the reception!

PageMaps Challenge

I finally got my pictures uploaded for Becky's challenge. Something I Love...well there are lots of things I love...but I did have some pictures that needed to be put into a layout and of course, it had to include the ones to Helton Creek Falls. If you have never been the these Falls, they are so pretty. My husband used to go there as a kid all the time for vacation. When we got married, we went there for our honeymoon. Funny thing is the locals don't like tourists to find the falls so they take the sign down all the time. We almost didn't find them on our honeymoon, but we did. That was 10 years ago. We've gone back several times and especially so that last 2 years. We took Ladybug when she was 6 months old and then again 18 months old. That visit is documented in the layout here. We'll go again in a few weeks, our anniversary is October 24th. We'll take Moose this time around, he'll be 4 months old by then. The Falls are located near Vogel State Park in North Georgia. There is a book about waterfalls in North Georgia and the Helton Creek Falls are in it. The Falls have changed so much over the years. It used to have 2 waterfalls side by side but evidently there is a tree or something up above in the way so now there is only 1. It's still really pretty and quiet. Here is the information on the sketch: http://www.pagemaps.com/blog.php?do=blog&id=19

The other picture is of Ladybug making snickerdoodles. She is so cute! She loves to help me out in the kitchen and loves to bake. Her lastest question is "I taste?" She wants to taste anything I have in the works. Sometimes I'll let her, like in these pictures. She licked that spoon so much, she actually has spit dribbles on her chin! How can you not love that!?! Here is the recipe for the snickerdoodles:

Snickerdoodles
2-3/4 cup all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) softened butter
1-1/2 cup sugar + 3 Tbsp
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350. Sift flour, soda & salt and set aside. With a hand mixer, beat butter & sugar for 5 minutes (set timer because it feels like a millinium) they will be really light & fluffy. Add eggs one at a time beat well after each. Add flour and beat until smooth.
Mix 3 Tbsp sugar & cinnamon in a small bowl. Roll dough into 1-1/2" balls then rolll in sugar mixture. Place on cookie sheet and flatten with bottom of glass that has a flat bottom. Space evenly apart and bake 12 minutes. Cool on wire rack and ENJOY!