Notecard Storage

This morning while shopping for supplies for my next home decorating craft project, I stumbled upon this cute little box. It is the perfect size for my 4.25" square notecards. The best part is that the lid is hinged on the back corners so I won't misplace my lid!! After I put all my A Muse square notecards in, I checked to see if the 4-bar ones would fit and they do!! Plus I had a little extra space for my pretty little papers!! I just might even have enough room for a few more notecards! (The price was right with it being on sale for $2.49.)


Update: I forgot to mention where you can find these!! JoAnn Fabrics!

My Poor Floors!

It is officially Spring Cleaning time at our house. I have spent the last two days working on our floors. We mostly have ceramic tiles but the bedrooms all have carpeting. I was so happy to finally finish scrubbing the tile floors yesterday, that I made it a point to show them off to my husband.

Later last night, my husband decided to set the sprinkler system to go off around 3am. Not a big deal. Right? Wrong. We haven't done the backyard spring cleaning yet. We have quite a few dirt patches that are now mud patches.

Normally our dog does very well at staying out of the mud. However, this morning some frolicking squirrels decided to play in the trees in our backyard. Our dog despises squirrels. He is convinced that he can and will catch one.

So while I'm busy in the house getting things going for the day, our dog is constantly going in and out his doggie door. Suddenly I notice there are muddy footprints in the bedroom on the carpet. (Carpet is very good for cleaning the mud off little dog paws.) However this carpet is across the house from the doggie door. There are footprints all the way back to the door. But need I remind you, this is our yard. We haven't done spring cleaning out there. That means that there are chunks of leaves and twigs mixed into this thick, clay-like mud that clings to everything it comes in contact with.

Just outside the doggie door is our dog waiting to come in. He's whining. He knows his paws are caked with this mud because he's having trouble walking. So what's a good dog owner to do?

I closed the door, locked him outside and walked away. Honestly, I did.

While I going to get a towel to clean his feet off, the squirrels come back. Our dog is now running through the mud just in case the squirrels lose their footing in the trees and fall. Plus he has now become deaf and is blatantly ignoring me, so I decide to leave him outside while I make breakfast. Just as I sit down to eat, guess who wants to come in the house???

Yeah right!! He can wait. Uh huh. He whined the entire time I ate.

Once I was done eating, I grabbed the towel to go out and clean his paws. This was no job for a little, old, bath-sized towel. I had two options: chase him with the hose outside or carry him in to the tub. I decided to go for the tub.

The bathroom tub is his second least favorite place to be. (The first is the vet. He stands by the door and cries the whole time. It's really quite embarrassing.) Knowing this, I decide to leave him in the tub by himself while I go to the kitchen. Bet you're thinking that he jumped out of the tub, right? Wrong! He's too short!!! HA!!

So I come back to the tub and sit on the floor. He just stands there looking mad. I encourage him to walk around so the water will loosen the mud. He stands there looking mad. I finally cave in and rub the mud off with my hands. I extract a little more revenge by making him stay in the tub until all the water has drained and I've rinsed most of the mud away. (Guess when I scrubbed the bathroom tub??? Uh yeah, TUESDAY.)

He gives me his best "I'm sorry" face. So I took him out and dried his paws.

After all that I looked down and saw the massive amounts of mud ON ME!!! So it's 9:30am and I've already soiled a set of clothes. (Guess when I did laundry??? Uh yeah, YESTERDAY.)

Days like this really make me wonder why I even bother to clean the house!

Here are a few pictures! (Come on! What kind of scrapbooker would I be if I didn't document this???)

Note the mud sticking up between the toes!!

Checking to see if he can come in!

How can that much mud come off those 4 little paws???

Hopefully your house has stayed clean longer than mine!!

A Little Something Just for Me

Yesterday I took a few minutes to make something that is just for me! At Christmas, I made DH a post-it note holder that he could take to work. Well, I had bought an extra frame to make one for myself but I just couldn't decide on a theme. I finally decided!!

True Friends Make Life Blossom!!

I hope you take a moment today to be thankful for all the true friends you have in your life.

Chewy's Mini Album

The last few days, I've been working on a mini 3x3 matchbook album of my dog. Here are a few photos:Thanks for looking!

Plain and Simple

This week the A Muse Addicts have a challenge to make a card that tells something about you. I made this card using my top two favorite colors - green and pink! I chose to feature Elyse because to me she looks shy, innocent and reserved. That's me! Alright so maybe not the innocent part so much!! ;D But I am definitely quiet and shy! Usually I will open up once I feel accepted and comfortable with a group of people. (Must be all that ridiculing by classmates while growing up!!) I also didn't use any sparkle or bling. I really kept her simple, just like me.

Thanks for checking me out!!

Friends Make Life Blossom

For some unknown reason, I was wide awake at 3am today. So what does one do at 3am? Surf the internet and then make a quick card with my new stamps! Of course!!

I was so happy to see my LSS have the flower girl stamp! It was the last one, I HAD to grab it before Geeta's class!! A Muse and Elzybells Art Stamps don't stay on the shelf very long on any average day at this store but on a day that Geeta is teaching classes, I was lucky there were any stamps when I got there 5 minutes before the class!!


I'm not too sure I care for the sentiment on the pink, it might have been better on white. But the more I look at it, the more I like it the way it is. It's different from my normal style. The creative candy on the sentiment was an afterthought that I think adds just enough extra pow!!

I colored the girl's dress, shoes and bow with my pink Spica pen. She is super sparkly!!

Supplies: All stamp images are by Elzybells and A Muse Art Stamps. Popsicle Pink notecard and creative candy by A Muse as well. Copic Markers, Pink Spica glitter pen, scallop scissors, Offray ribbon.

New Blog Header!!!

Yesterday DH and I played around with making a blog header. (He's the computer savvy person in the house!) I made all the decisions and he did all the work. (hmmm... that sounds like quite a few things that happen in our household...) Anyway, this is what we came up with. I chose one of our pictures from our 2006 vacation to Alaska and the Yukon. This photo is one of the ones I took while hiking in the middle of nowhere which is also known as the Yukon. It was probably one of my favorite vacations just because we were in the middle of nowhere!!

VMAA - The Aftermath

So I figured that with the VMAA challenges last night my room would be a D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!! DH told me to take a before picture. I spent three days cleaning it up (not solid days, just an hour here and there). Here's the before:

Now here's the aftermath:

Not too shabby! It's actually cleaner after the challenges than it is on most days!! I guess I was afraid of losing something that I would need from one card to another! I guess the philosophy of using something and then putting it away right away - works. I guess my Mom was right for all those years! Hmmm.... maybe I should use that kind of thinking with the rest of my house....

VMAA Bonus Challenge

This challenge was to combine all four challenges into one card! It was really hard!!! I'm too exhausted to write anything more about this card.

VMAA Challenge #4

In this challenge, we had to have three of something. I have three ducks even though one is not quite like the others. I couldn't resist flocking one and since I only have brown, orange or white flocking, brown he is!

VMAA Challenge #3

Rhonda's challenge is for us to do a sketch card. I've never done a sketch challenge so this was new for me! I'm not too sure that I have the proportions exactly right but it is the general layout. You can see the sketch on her blog.

The bike stamp was one of my first A Muse stamps. So this is a little sentimental! I love the Road to a Friend sentiment!

VMAA Challenge #2

This is a tough challenge! We have to make an Adult Masculine card. I was feeling fairly well about this one until DH came in and gave it that look. I'm sure you all know that look. He said that bows weren't masculine. I replied with "IT'S A KNOT!!!" Oh well. It was worth a shot.

VMAA Challenge #1

This challenge is to NOT color anything in! Whew! I did it!!! I love the little cow and the play on words with the "Cow's it going?"!

Forever Friends

Today I cleaned my craft room. Whew!! If only the task was as short as that sentence. If you have a craft room, you know what I mean. I decided that it really needed a cleaning and a purging. I just have too much stuff!! Anyways, tonight is the first VMAA! I can't wait! If you don't know what VMAA is, check out the A Muse Addicts website! Basically, there will be 4 challenges over a 2 hour time span, each one lasting 30 minutes. The really cool thing is that as many addicts as that can possibly spare the time to do this will all be stamping at the same time!!!

I decided to do a quick warm-up for tonight. Hey! I have to get in the right mind set! Plus a little practice certainly won't hurt! When trying to think of a card to make I saw that the March homepage subject was 'Forever Friends'. I thought "Hmmm.... I can do this one....". So here's what I came up with.


Thanks for stopping by! Hopefully I'll have more to share later tonight!

Cookin' in Style!

For the last few days, I've been highly motivated to finish some projects that I've had around the house for quite some time. I had wanted the large clothespins just so I could use one to hold my recipe cards while I cook and bake, rather than just having them laying on the counter and spilling most of ingredients on them. I really like how it turned out. It was quick and simple which is a huge perk! Of course I had to stamp a few new recipe cards to go with it!! That recipe card stamp set is one of my favorites and it was only the second set I ever bought! (Can you believe that a SU! demo actually thought of talking me out of buying it!?!? Hmpf... Little did she know! It's my most used set!)
I've had this wooden recipe box sitting in my closet (that would be the closet where projects come to die) for at least a year. It took me a long time to find sunflower paper that would match my kitchen. This afternoon, I finally covered it and just added a little ribbon to finish it off! I'm sure it could have been fancier but I'm just a down-to-earth girl who likes to keep it simple. No more hiding the recipe box in the cupboard!!


Since this box is larger than my old box, I needed new divider tabs. I got lucky that the stamps from the recipe card set fit fairly well with the round tab punch. I used two eyelets to hold them on since I want those tabs to stay put forever.


Hmmm.... looking at the box with all my recipes inside makes me think that I need some more recipes...

I hope you had a great Thursday!!

Happy Day!!

Today I sold a bunch of stamps that I just don't use. While I was boxing them up, I decided that it would be really nice to include a quick little card thanking her and wishing her happiness with the stamps.


Thanks for stopping by! I hope you all had as wonderful a day as I did!! :D

Supplies: All images by A Muse Artstamps, Ribbon from Michael's, Markers by Copic, Creative Memories cutting system, Marvy pink scalloped punch, corner rounder, black ink by Adirondack and VersaFine.

Tag!

Geeta tagged me for this little quiz.

Stamping Style ~ I really like quick, simple and clean.
Inspiration ~ I am the most inspired by all the blogs that I read. There are some majorly talented ladies out there!
Color ~ I love green and most all of the shades of green. I tend to favor earth tones and softer colors if I can't find a way to make it green!
Workspace ~ I have a craft room in our house. It's nothing like the rooms you see on people's blogs. I could only dream of having a room like those! Right now each corner of the room is dedicated to a particular craft or office space. I have a corner for the computer, one for paper crafts, one for sewing and one for filing boring financial stuff.
Perfect Day ~ My perfect day would start off with sleeping in and waking to find my house clean, and all the laundry and dishes are washed. I would only have one craft project to work on rather than the 10 or so that are currently in process. I could just relax and curl up with a blanket and either watch TV or read a book uninterrupted.
First Job ~ Besides babysitting, my first real job was as a dishwasher in a local mom 'n pop restaurant.
Wildest Dream ~ Hmmm... my wildest dream... This is a tough one. I guess it would have to be to have a balance with work and family and still have time to do all the things I love.
Family ~ Right now, it's pretty simple with my husband and our dog.
Beverage ~ I love lemonade! And if you can add either strawberry or raspberry flavor to it, I'm in heaven!
Biggest Challenge ~ My biggest challenge would be to finish the projects that I start. I always get distracted or stumped and then I just move onto something else.

Now to tag others....

Robin
and
Jennifer

Thank Hoo!!

This week's A Muse Addicts challenge was to do doodling or writing on your card. I usually avoid writing my own sentiments just because I never write straight! But I couldn't resist for a challenge!


I love these owls from A Muse. I stamped them in Adirondack Espresso on SU! Very Vanilla cardstock, colored them with my Copic markers and punched them out. I used my Spica clear pen to add a little sparkle! (Geeta did this in one of her A Muse classes and I can't help but copy Geeta!!) I mounted it on a piece of brown cardstock the I punched with my pink Marvy scalloped oval punch. It's pop-dotted on top of the A Muse ribbon.


Supplies ~ Owl Buddies by A Muse Artstamps, Kiwi Tinplate notecard and ribbon also by A Muse Artstamps, Copic markers, clear Spica pen, cardstock by DCWV and SU!, Marvy scalloped punch, Creative Memories cutting system

Quick Candy Dish

I found this little tin in the dollar bin at Michael's a few weeks ago. Originally I was going to use it to store little scraps but once I covered the outside of it, the lid wouldn't fit anymore!! I left it sit on my desk for an entire week before I decided with to do with it and how to finish it. I decided that my craft room really needed a candy dish. I tied the ribbon on one side and put the saying on the other so I could turn it around depending on my mood! I like how it turned out - simple and quick!

A Muse Secret Admirer

Check out the goodies I received yesterday in the mail from my Secret Admirer, JoAnn Fannon! I love it all! Thank you so much for brightening my day!


I love the take out box and how you manged to find one in my favorite color combination, I just don't know! The 3x3 cards are adorable and each one is different!! I can't wait to try the selection of teas and of course eat all those chocolates!!!

I hope everyone has a chance to have a secret admirer as wonderful as mine!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Okay so I'm a day late. Shoot me. (I kid. Please don't shoot me!)


Here's the card and gift I made for my husband. We decided to just do cards since we really don't get into the whole Valentine's Day thing. I knew I had to use the I Love You More Than stamp (from Paper Salon) for this card since I first saw it in the stamp store! My inspiration for the whole card was the ribbon. I matched colors as closely as I could with items I already had. I used my Hearts Trio stamp (from A Muse) on the nugget wrappers. The box to hold all the chocolates I made from directions you can find here. It was so simple to make! I used my chocolate chip background stamp from Deadbeat Designs to create the background on the paper. The You Deserve Some Chocolate stamp is also by Deadbeat Designs.

Thanks for stopping by!!

Little I Love You's

Last night I decorated a simple jewelry box from Michael's. I just added a little ribbon and stamped image. It was super quick. It's just the right size to hold a bunch of 3x3 cards. I routinely like to leave little "I Love You" messages for my husband in his car before he leaves for work in the mornings. It's just a little something to make him smile! Now that I have my box finished I can always have a stash of cards hidden!

I made the 3x3 card this past weekend with a few little images from A Muse and Michael's dollar stamps. Just a little coloring and some punched layers to make a couple quick cards!

Thanks for looking!

Quick Birthday Card

This week's A Muse addicts challenge is to make a birthday card. Just my luck, I finished all of my February birthday cards last weekend. So here's a quick one I made this morning. It's always good to have an emergency birthday card on hand!


I used a Martha Stewart notecard that I had picked up a couple months ago when they were on clearance. I wasn't sure if I'd use them or not but now that I've used a couple, I love them and wish I'd bought more! Oh well, I could always make my own with a scissors. Anyway, back to the card... I stamped the Birds on a Wire (from A Muse) on SU! Very Vanilla, colored the birds with Copic sketch markers except for the orange one whereI used a SU! marker. I used my oval cutting templates from Creative Memories to cut both the birds and the orange layer. I used my Marvy scalloped oval (purple one) with Very Vanilla for the final layer and then pop-dotted the whole thing on top of the ribbon. I love the sentiment just because it is so versatile!


I like the backside of the notecard with the ribbon tied there. I stamped the Happy Birthday from the A Muse Simple Wishes set.

Thanks for looking!

Stamp of the Week Challenge

The A Muse addicts are hosting a Stamp of the Week challenge on their site. I actually had two of the stamps listed for this week. Plus it's a card that I've wanted to make since I got them but I just haven't had a reason, until today! Yay!!

I used my red spica pen to color in Elyse's heart and the guitar. Plus a little on the rock star's shirt collar. I used my black spica pen to draw in the music notes so it looks like he's singing to her!

Supplies: All stamps by A Muse. Adirondack Pitch Black, SU! Handsome Hunter and Real Red inks. Copic Markers. Red and Black Spica pens.

Thanks for stopping by!!

January BRAKs

This is the card I made for all my January BRAKs (birthday random acts of kindness). I hope everyone who received one, enjoyed it. I used a little glitter around the penguin before I placed the creative candy on top.

Supplies: All images are from A Muse as well as the creative candy scalloped square clear sticker. Sakura glaze pen was used on the baby penguin. Inks used were by Adirondack and Versamark.

Now I need to get cracking on all the February ones!!