30 Days of Gratitude: Days 5-10

For the first time, I'm participating in 30 Days of Gratitude.  I even joined a FB group with other listers. While many use mini albums to document, I created a simple insert to my regular PL pages. You can see my prep work in this post. Once the month started, I realized that I did't really want the extra duty of picture taking, so I'm going strictly with journaling. I thought I would share my daily cards and a few extra decorative ones.

Day #5: All about sweater weather. It's still warm here, but slightly cooler.  The mornings are cool enough to actually wear a sweater!

Day #6: I knew I wanted to incorporate some of my closest people as part of the month.  Today I am grateful for J.

Day #7: After thinking about J yesterday, I had to highlight being grateful for my littlest boy. After one miscarriage, we got lucky with this incredibly amazing little boy. Can't wait to see what adventures await us during his second year of life.

Day #8: We make a library trip once a week for lots of great picture books and a few novels for me. Currently ours is 1 mile away, perfect for walking to and from.  And they have a great storytime on Tuesday mornings.  We'll have to scout the library after we move. I'm sure Castro Valley has a great one.

Day #9: The first twin, if only because he pushed his way to the front.

Day #10: I've found a great group of friends through my parent's group, the Mountain View Parents Association. We won't be in MV for much longer, but I'll definitely keep up the friendships I've made. Looking forward to our next event and especially mom's night out next weekend.

October Card Swap

For October's swap, we were to make a tag and an embellishment.  I decided that I just couldn't do two Christmas items, so I made a birthday tag and a Christmas embellishment.

Card #1

I wanted to have a good layered tag with some of that great Moonlight DSP.

• Stamps: Perfect Penants
• Inks: Blackberry Bliss
• Cardstock: Moonlight DSP
• Accessories: Gold Metallic Buttons; Gray Twine; Purple Ribbon (not SU)
• Tools: Scallop Tag Topper Punch

Card #2

This simple star is not really a star at all.  Its five Christmas trees arranged in a star.

• Stamps: 25 Days
• Inks: Cherry Cobbler
• Cardstock: Whisper White; Trim the Tree DSP
• Accessories: Silver Glitter
• Tools: 1 3/8" Circle Punch; Christmas Tree Punch

December Daily Prep (Gift Albums)

I finally decided to do it! I'm going to join the December Daily craze this year.  I pulled out my entire Christmas supply stash (a ridiculous amount) and started sorting through.  Along the way, I realized that I really didn't want to do a mini album.  So I will be adding December Daily into my regular PL spreads.  I'm in the process of laying those out so check back for progress. While sorting, I uncovered two mini scrapbook albums that I forgot I had. Then I had a crazy idea. What if I made December/Christmas memory albums for my mother, grandmother, and MIL?  They would play off of December Daily, but not necessarily be chronological. What a great, if crazy and time consuming, idea! To help with the crazy, each album with use one supply collection. I might add some bling, but I don't want to overwhelm myself with too many supplies to choose from.

I started with my MIL's album. I grabbed the green Stampin' Up 6x6 album I scored on clearance last year. Her album will focus on just Arthur, hence the title. I pulled Fancy Pants' "Oh, Deer" supply collection to use. Right now, each sleeve has a base page and sometimes a border. As I complete the album, I have more paper, stickers, die cuts, and photo frames to use. I also punched out some tree and ornament shapes from the patteren paper stack.

Next up was my mother's album. I pulled the PL 6x8 black leather album to use.  Originally I was going to use this one for my own DD album.  That was before I decided to just add DD Into my big PL scrapbook. Her album uses Echo Park's "Reflections Christmas by Lori Whitlock."  I cut apart some the pattern paper to use as bases for the pockets. I still have some paper and a ton of stickers to use to embellish events. I'll probably also add more journaling spots.

Finally I tackled the 8x8 album for my grandmother. I ended up pulling the "Cozy Christmas" collection from Simple Stories to complete her album. I didn't have enough large sheets of paper, so I added in some solid colors with layered pattern paper to help fill the album.  Her cover page also features a random tree chipboard sticker and sentiment dimensional sticker from MME from my stash.  The supply collection still has a ton of die cuts, chipboard stickers, and cut aparts to use.

I may be a bit overly ambitious, but I think these will make great Christmas presents if I can keep up with them...

For All Things Cards

Two pretty Thanksgiving themed cards for you today.

Card #1

I really wanted a Thanksgiving card, but no turkeys or pumpkins.  The Four Feathers stamp was a great substitute!

• Stamps: Four Feathers; For All Things
• Inks: Chocolate Chip; Baked Brown Sugar; Mossy Meadow; Real Rust (retired -- I don't have Cajun Craze, but this is close enough)
• Cardstock: Kraft; Mossy Meadow; Very Vanilla; Color Me Autumn DSP
• Accessories: Gold Metallic Buttons; Brown Twine (not SU)
• Tools: Feathers Framelits

Card #2

I loved the patterned design of this specific sheet of DSP.  I wanted to play off of it, so I went to Pinterest.  And I found the perfect design concept to modify.

• Stamps: For All Things
• Inks: Mossy Meadow; Summer Starfruit (retired - I don't have Crushed Curry, but this is close)
• Cardstock: Crushed Curry; Very Vanilla; Color Me Autumn DSP
• Accessories: Color Me Autumn Washi Tape
• Tools: Circles Framelits

30 Days of Gratitude: Days 1-5

For the first time, I'm participating in 30 Days of Gratitude.  I even joined a FB group with other listers. While many use mini albums to document, I created a simple insert to my regular PL pages. You can see my prep work in this post. Once the month started, I realized that I did't really want the extra duty of picture taking, so I'm going strictly with journaling. I thought I would share my daily cards and a few extra decorative ones.

Day #1: Today was all about coffee.  Arthur had a rough night and day of not sleeping. Coffee became my best friend. I added some nice navy alphas and cute brown flowers to complete the card.

Day #2: After another rough night, I did not want to cook.  Thankfully we have a great street of restaurants only two blocks away.  The journaling note and flair came from random PL supply stash. I finally found a use for this fork, knife, and spoon flair.

Day #3: Another rough night, but I needed to run a ton of errands with the baby this morning.  Thankfully there's a great local coffee shop near my current house.

Day #4: It was Election Day!  Made me think about all the sacrifices of those who came before (especially people like Alice Paul) who helped make it possible for me to vote today.

Day #5

5 on 5

On the 5th of each month I'll be highlighting five pictures of crafty projects, inspiration pieces, or fun products.  I wanted to add some great pictures and give everyone a bit of insight into my creative process.

1. I have my bases for homemade calendars. Not sure when I'm going to finish these (may be traveling with me to Indiana), but I'm excited to get to them.

2. Over 200 pictures printed for my big Project Life catch up. Determined to get these 5 weeks done before leaving on the 23rd.

3. I've been hoarding these two scrapbook albums for at least a year. I'm thinking of making mini December Daily albums for grandma and MIL. 

4. I couldn't resist these pretty glittered snowflakes at Michael's the other day. I don't need them per say, but I had to have them. They will be making an appearance in my DD album.

5. All these boxes (plus two others on the desk) are hopefully going to be sold at a craft fair on the 15th. I spent a few days going through my big inventory of completed cards and pulled a ton to sell. We'll see how it goes.

Sunday Haul #22

A ton of new acquisitions this past week.  So excited to play with these supplies!

This is October's Take Ten Kit.  Love the fall themed cards and wood veneers. Hoping to use most of these cards for Oct/Nov PL spreads.

Along with this month's Take Ten Kit, I added on the December kit and the additional supplemental December kit. Can't resist Christmas supplies.  The supplies above and below will be making appearances in my December Daily spreads.

Finally I grabbed the Paper Issues swag bag for this month.  I love the variety of embellishments and cute PL cards. Especially loving the leaf wood veneers. Can't wait to work them into our PL spreads.

November 2014 Crafting Goals

A recap of last month’s goals:

• 30 Days of Cards -- Success!  I actually did it.  A bit hectic some weeks, but I made it to the end.
• Prep my December Daily album -- Fail. Never got around to it with all the crazy.  Next month!
• Create card/scrapbooking kits for sale -- Fail. Probably not going to happen before the Nov. 15th craft fair.
• Organize my to sell items for upcoming craft fairs -- Success!  I got all the greeting cards put into plastic sleeves and organized by theme. Ready to go.
• Gather and package Arthur's 1st Birthday Goody bags -- Success! They were adorable.
• Make Arthur's 1st Birthday Thank You Cards -- Success! Finished these before the party!

This month’s goals:

• 30 Days of Pinterest Projects -- I'm going to finally do it.  An entire month of Pinterest projects.  Some might be small (a card or a blog task), while others are more involved (large crafts, cleaning projects).
• 30 Days of Gratitude -- My pages are prepped (check them out here) and I'm ready to do this!
• Finish my Christmas cards -- I have to finish these this month.  We are leaving for Indiana on the 24th and I don't want to haul all my supplies.
• Catch up with PL before leaving for Indiana -- Given
• Create a travel DD kit to work on in Indiana -- I can't take my entire Christmas supply stash, but I want a little something to work on and finish my DD album while there.
• Make calendars to give as gifts -- This was a requested gift.  I made them two years ago, and last year my grandma was upset that she didn't get a new one.  I've got the supplies sitting in a box, just want to get them together before leaving for Indiana.
• Destash before Thanksgiving -- We are moving soon and I want to seriously destash before going back to Indiana.  I'm thinking lots of lovely ladies in my FB groups are going to be receiving some RAKs.  Maybe I'll have a contest here on the blog...