Just saying Hi :)

Hello fellow craftmates :) 

I've been away from the blogosphere  for a few days. Life has been eventful since I've been gone...had a root canal done, adjusting to our new family member Snuffy, and setting up my first online store (thank you Kris for helping me).

So this a short and sweet note to let you know that you can  check out my new adventure by clicking on the Artfire badge in the right hand column. I'm just getting started so I only have a few items in my store. My plan is to add one item a day (hopefully God will agree with it ;) That's all for tonight until we blog again, have a blessed day <3

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Ultimate Year of Happy Mail Swap-Bot Swaps

Good Evening Everyone,

How was your Sunday? For me it was another day in pain. I have to go to the dentist this week, no more putting it off. When the pain starts interfering with my life, time to surrender and face the drill or whatever is the tool of choice to take care of the issue. I'm a big wimp when it comes to this, but time to put my big girl panties on and just do it!!

 1. THE U.Y.H.M. #34 SPARKLES

Tonight I'm posting some pics of the Ultimate Year of Happy Mail  swaps I have mailed out.{If you are one of my partners and reading this, they definitely look better in person than the cell phone pics I took of them.} 

Above are pics of the first one, a Sparkle swap. So I immediately think of fairies when I think sparkly & glittery. The fairy is actually an image I cut out of wallpaper border I purchased at dollar tree. I CB(cuttle bugged) kraft cardstock with the fantasy flower folder, background piece is stamped with the sentiment Happiness Always and I embellished with glitter in some areas. Below is a pic of the inside of the card....

I felt generous and shared quite a few sparkles. Hope my partner likes them :)

2. U.Y.H.M. # 35 PATTERNED PAPER

 For this swap we were required to send at least 5 pieces of patterned paper, sender's choice. I find it very helpful to read my partner's profiles to find out what they like and don't like, so that I can make the swaps as personal as possible. I chose K & Co. cardstock in various sizes. I also included an extra surprise of lime green ribbon for this partner because she said lime green made her feel happy :) The card I made has no adhesive on it. I just simply punched oval holes on the sides and thread coordinating ribbon to close.

3. U.Y.H.M. #36 HOMEMADE SPA RECIPE

This swap was alot of fun to research. For this one we needed to share a Homemade Spa recipe on a decorative card for our partner to use. One of the people I follow on twitter is Crunchybetty, her homemade items are awesome {check her out at http://www.crunchybetty.com}. I came across this recipe of hers and could not resist sending this one. I used the Cricut Lite Cart Splish Splash for the front of the card. I actually layered this card 3 times to strengthen it. The embellishments are glue dotted on, I wanted to keep this one simple. On the reverse side I printed the recipe on graphic scrap paper that featured beach sand. There is nothing more relaxing to me than walking barefoot on the sand. Hope the partner that receives this one likes it :)

Well that's it for tonight my craftmates, until the next entry.

 Pleasant dreams from the Scraptuary.

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Lovin' Swap-Bot

Hello Craftmates, Tonight is going to be short and sweet. I recently signed up on www.swap-bot.com to have fun sending and receiving goodies in the snail mail from all over the world. Boy have I done just that this week (I skip to the mailbox while whisteling a joyful tune now ;)  The pics below will be described by their captions. I 'm in quite a bit of pain at the moment so I need to make this quick, hope you understand.

1. Friendship Book from Japan

Very cute design, front cover is laminated :) thank you Kakinotane

2. Valentine from Vidor, Tx.

Beautiful design on front, love the collage look....

 the inside was even cuter...many hugs to you Marilyn, your card warms my heart :)

She even accented the first letter of my last name on the envie, love it <3

3.The Sweetest Be Mine Valentine

 This valentine is from Jan in Salem, Mo. I love the inspiring words on the bookmark and the heart's body is a stick of Orbit's gum. The sentiment is perfect and reminds me of one of my fav songs "Stuck like Glue" by Sugarland.:) thank you Jan for the sweet valentine.

4. Saving the Best for Last

 This Valentine made me cry because I miss her sooooooo much, my sister in Christ Elaina ;0) (In fact the card is wet from the tears of joy and sadness all mixed up together) Looking forward to sipping this pink-a-choco-licious treat while I concoct a return surprise (no Elaina I'm not tellin'). Thanks for sending me choco-love this Valentine's Day;) Love ya bunches <3

Well my friends, this is the end of this evening's post. Hope you enjoyed my pics of goodies. Give Swap-Bot a try, you never know what you will receive. Pleasant dreams from the Scraptuary :)

My first FB's (Friendship Booklets)

Good evening Everyone,

I am here in my Scraptuary breathing a sigh of relief tonight*whew*. 

I joined a site called Swap-bot a couple of weeks ago. It's a blast to participate in. Basically you swap stuff you already have and are interested in receiving

back by snail-mail. I signed up for 5 different ones right off the bat.

The first was a ribbon swap, teabag and letter swap, a follow my blog swap, newbie FB swap, and spa recipe swap. Before I knew it I had 3 swaps due consecutively, wow have I been busy today!! But Amen I am done, and will be mailing them in the morning. I need to be careful about what pics I post of the swaps because if you are one of my partners, I don't wanna ruin the surprise. I am sooooo excited about the FB swap that it's worth the risk to post these pic's......

This pic is of the front and back covers. I used Kraft CS as the base and overlayed deco paper from DCWV Retro stack. A single brad holds the booklet together.

 Look below to see what the "pages" are made of...

have you figured it out yet?

Shipping tags, you know the one's you can get at office supply stores

 in bundles of 100 ct.

 After researching and googling images of FB's, this is what I came up with.

Time to leave my Scraptuary in peace and turn in for the night :)

Thanks for droppin' in ;) Pleasant dreams everyone :)

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Late Night Crafting

Hello, anybody still awake? I hope everyone is nice and snuggly warm in their beds. When I have an upcoming event it is VERY hard for me to sleep. So I thought I would show you what my crafty fingers have been up to since the midnight hour......

My youngest daughter is in 8th grade and she's at that age where she wants to give out Valentine's to her friends, but just not the store bought kiddie kind. So she and I came up with these inexpensive ideas, and I made them after she went to bed. I used the Cricut Soluions Cart. Indie Art and cut out the guitars, and butterflies and threaded Pixie Sticks thru them. I used DCWV, Heidi Grace, and Bazzill cardstock to cut them out. Added some bling and there you go, 13 yr.old approved Valentine treats.

The guitars were the an image that could go either guy or girl.

The fun thing about the butterflies is when you hold the pixie stix and move it up and down the wings flap :) That was an added bonus discovered by a happy mistake :)

Time for me to catch some ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ's......6hr's until I have to wake up and start all over again. Hope my creations help to inspire you to think outside the box.

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Getting ready for Crafts for a Cause

Hello my fellow Craftmates,

How is everyone today? I am busy, busy, busy preparing for a craftshow I'm doing tomorrow that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. A very dear sister in our church has fought the good fight with the disease all her life and God has helped her through many battles. The most incredible blessing happened several months back when God blessed her and husband with the most precious beautiful little girl.

The craft show on Sunday is helping to benefit the Tower of America's Stair Climb for CFF.  She has a team for the climb and prayerfully from what I sell a portion well help offset the sign up cost.  Below are pics of just a few of the items, I will be posting as I get the projects finished. Please enjoy and let me know whatcha think @>--%----

 

These next pics are of a notecard set that contains 7  lil' blank 3x3 notecards. The box is handmade on the MS scoreboard and is embellished with coordinating papers and details. They are perfect to give a loved on or friend a lil' pick me up for the day :)



Each card is stamped with one simple encouraging word.

Well that's all for now but stayed tuned throughout the day :) As always thanks for droppin' in and sharing a moment of your time with me :)

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Snow Day Craftliciousness

Ok it's official now I have seen everything...we had snow here in San Antonio. The sun has melted it all away by now but it was beautiful. I think it's pretty awesome that we received it today because one of my dear friends is celebrating her birthday today. Imagine receiving the original embellishments of nature from God on your day, He is awesome and so is she.

1. A CRAFTMATE'S CHALLENGE

Today's post begins with  a challenge I received from a fellow craftmate, she wanted me to make an all turquoise valentine. Well I failed, (I'm sorry Kris but I have a very hard time being monochromatic). So the above pic is what I came up with. Wednesday I majorly scored at one of my fav store Big Lots. I found the best paper, a 24 sheet DS pack by g.c.d. named CANNA for $5. The color combos are funky and different and perfect for Kris' challenge. She is into crochet and unique art so it was a given to use sparkly fun fur.

I like to embellish the inside of my creations. It just doesn't feel right to add a personal sentiment on a blank space. Plus it adds that lil' somethin' somethin', you know what I mean.

2. INSPIRATION from DOLLARCRAFT

I was recently advised to join Twitter to get the word out as well as inspiration about my passion for paper and crafting.  What on Earth took me soooooooooo long to do this? It is AWESOME :) These next pics are a nod of thanks to a fellow twitter friend dollarcraft (look her up and follow her). She has awesome ideas using everyday stuff from all of our fav and only true dollar store, Dollar Tree. So during my wednesday shopping trip , I wandered into Dollar Tree and stumbled upon 10" paper lace dollies. My brain thru a breaker with the ideas that started flooding in. So what can you make with a paper dollie, some decorative paper, a stamped sentiment, ribbon, and a brad or two....

this lil' Valentine gift for a good friend. I simply folded the dollie, secured the flaps with doublesided tape in the right places, added the embellishments on the outside (paper from the g.c.d. 24 sheet DS pack Chianti Collection, Big Lots $5) and then....

stuffed the inside with a dark chocolate square and a mini 31/2" x 4" blank notecard (valentine). The great thing about using the dollie for this is it creates two pockets on the inside for the items and serves as the envelope for the whole gift. I will be making several of these for the craftshow I'm participating in Sunday that benefits the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation :)

3. FRIENDSHIP TISSUE FLOWERS

My youngest daughter wanted to make something to pass out to her friends and teachers for Valentine's Day. We came up with tissue flowers with a Hershey's Kiss or Reese's Candy Heart in the center. Below are two pics of what they look like so far. We will be embellishing them a lil' more next week. I think I'll make a couple of dozen or so for the craftshow...

Thanks for droppin' by :) Hope my creations inspire you to get creative this holiday.

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