Making Memories and CHA

Making Memories is doing huge giveaways this week on their blog for CHA with all their new releases. If you love the Slice you are in luck, lots of new releases, plus a bonus upgrade to your machine when you use any of these awesome newly released cards! Check them out http://www.makingmemories.typepad.com/ . Grand prize giveaway on Thursday also! Have fun and good luck!

Random

Alright, so , we have had an influx of afternoon thunderstorms here. The other evening Little Mister J, who is obsessed with policemen, firefighters and their automobiles, came into our bedroom( past his bedtime mind you) and told me "I am the Police and here to save you if you get struck by lighting, because that is what polices do." Awww, how sweet. He freaks me out sometimes because he will come running around the corner to me yelling "The polices are here!" and I think "oh my GOD!" Then he will tell me "I am the polices." Whew... not that the "polices have any reason to be a my house, but you never know.

On to other topics, I will be delivering at least 11 cans of food to our food bank this week after I do our weekly shopping. I will probably round it up to an even 20 though. I will also be mailing out the Card for Heros cards I made last month( I know, finally, huh?). I have been branching out creatively wise. I have been doing watercolors and beading along with scrapping and card making. I don't know why but my head is almost bursting with ideas! I wish I had more time to let it all out, but I work with what I have.

Hope you have an awesome day, I know I will.

Mimic

Good morning! So, the latest with Little Miss L, besides her being cranky alllllll the time lately is that she is turning into a mimic. She was at my mom's the yesterday and got on the phone and said 'hey' I totally thought that I was talking to Little Mister J because that is what he says to me on the phone as a greeting. Needless to say I start asking my 18 month old daughter if she has been going to the potty good all day and sharing with your sister nice. It was only when I heard 'ahbahchamacaeeeeeeee' that I realized who I was talking to. Then yesterday afternoon when hubby came home she came tearing around the corner saying 'hey' to him too. So, so funny! I mean she sounds EXACTLY like her brother, seriously!

In crafty news, I have been looking all over for Tattered Angels Glimmer Mist or Maya Road Maya Mist and can not find them anywhere locally. I would have to order online and they are like 6 or 7 dollars per bottle. That really adds up when you figure all colors there are of this totally cool stuff. So, I googled how to make Glimmer Mist and lo and behold I found a website (sorry, can't remember whose) that had a formula using either food coloring, alcohol ink, or Tim Holtz Distress Re-inkers plus rubbing alcohol, water and shimmer pearls. They turned out WAY better that I could have hoped for. I made purple and light blue last night and I LOVE it! Now, to just get more empty bottles and more shimmer pearls! If you want to know how to make your own leave a comment or just google 'How To Make Glimmer Mist'

Have an awesome day!

I Heart Hero Arts

Reminder, be sure to check our the Hero Arts Website and Blog this week. Great giveaways and a new look!http://www.heroarts.com/ , http://www.heroarts.com/blogs/club . You can also click on the Hero Arts link at the bottom Right side of this blog. Have fun and good luck!

Me likey...and am Peary Thankful

Looks like I finally won something http://www.sassafras.typepad.com/. Thank you Sassafras :) I am crazy excited to get this and play. Now I just need to figure out how to get them my info so they can mail it out. Hmmm...maybe checking my email would help:)

Repurposing

I discovered a new way to make my crafting money stretch. You know the hard plastic wrapping that almost every single thing you buy comes in? Well, I learned that by cutting it into flat sheets ,whatever size you can manage from the particular package you have, you can then run those sheets through your Sizzix or Cricut machine and make your own acetate embellishments (think Heidi Swapp Ghost Hearts, Flowers, etc.). You may need to run the plastic through the Sizzix a couple of times to get it to cut all the way thru. Also, on the Cricut you may need the Deep Cut Blade. All of this is contingent on how thick the plastic is you are working with. You could also use the plastic that they make little "windows" in packaging with for a transparancy look. I have tried this out and my little acetate embellies are just the coolest, they turned out better than I thought when I first thought to try this. So, not only am I saving money by making my own embellishments, I am also doing a little something for the environment.

Have a good one! Leave comments if you have tried this out and let me know how it works for you.

Weekend

Hello, happy Monday! This weekend Hubby and Little Mister J went out of town so it was just me and sweet Little Miss L all weekend. We had a real good time together we played lots and had a lot of quiet one on one moments that it hard to have when big brother is around making all sorts of noise. It was amazing how quiet the house was and how clean it stayed with the boys gone! See, I am not a bad housekeeper, they are just slobs (said with love:) ) ! Anyway, I was lucky enough on Saturday to get my MIL to come watch Little Miss L so I could go to a crop I had been planning to go to, for like, a month. I came up with a new way to do crops. Instead of bringing every single scrapbook related item I own, I make a list of photos I want to scrapbook and what kinds of papers I want to use and I start to pack from there. I pack the embellishments that will coordinate with the papers, I pack my scissors, craft, knife, rub-on applicator, glues, mat, paper cutter and I set. So easy! I end up being a lot less stressed out, and I am more productive. I got nine very good pages done in six hours! I need to get my Internet hooked up so I can scan these in to share. Sunday I was at Big Lots and they had tons of American Crafts Thickers for only two dollars! Vinyl, chipboard, felt, foam, fabric. Not the latest releases but still a good deal and colors that I can always use. Black, brown, pink, fuchsia, red, yellow, green. I was totally stoked!

That is all for now, have a great day. Feel free to comment!

Photo Epiphany

Good morning, Good day, Good afternoon, Good evening and Good night. This should be a quick one today. So, I took a ton of pictures of the kiddos this weekend. Seems I got more of little miss L than mister J though. After taking some pictures of the kids together in their mismatched clothes (their clothes matched just not one kid to other make sense?). Anyway...I had a total photo epiphany, and I know that I and everyone else who takes photos has heard this before but...I changed them to black and white and Holy Amazingness (not a word, I know), They looked FAB! It just finally clicked. I do not need to do any cropping, retouching or erase all the toys and clutter, just put it in black white and all is beautiful and soothing. I might even start to wear just black and white all the time it looked so good. Ha ha. Crazy humor. This was so easy and the results were perfect to me they ended up looking like portraits. Zoomed in their faces, blurry background. Awww, I get the warm fuzzies just thinking about it :) .

Have a most awesome day. It will be a hot one here so I will be busy making sure my face does not melt off.

Laughing

So, this week has been filled laughter. Of course, I am only laughing to keep from crying. Nothing major bad has happened I am just feeling extra stress from everywhere. Had a rough few days with the kiddos and their tantrums and craziness. Work I do not even want to talk about. Let's just say I have had my work cut out for me. I am just thankful to have a decent job, I need to put it in perspective, a lot of people do not. It is weeks like these that I wish I had never gone back to work full-time. I think if I was home during the day the kids would not act out for attention as much in the afternoons, I would not be so tired and short fused with them, my eye would stop twitching.

Anyway enough grumbling, all is good because today is Friday and I have the next two days off. I need to get ready for scrapbooking next weekend and start putting together the stuff I want to work on. I finished the cutest heart shaped mini with pictures of just Hubby and I. I made it out of Martha Stewart wedding coasters (yes, the kind you put cups on) that are brown and pink hearts. I just glued two back to back added some pink, red and brown embellishments and rub-ons and wallet sized prints of our photo's. Easy-peasy.

Have a great weekend :). Leave me a comment if you would like and thanks for visiting!