Enough Already!!

Hello Bloggers,

Wow, the weekend has gone by so fast.  It seems like all I've done over the last few weeks is shovel snow.  This past week has been the worse, something to shovel everyday since Wednesday.  I just finished cleaning up the remnants of ice off our deck and need to go and shovel out our gas tank.  At least Hubby is here to help with that one.  We're forecasted to get another batch of snow later this week...I'm so looking forward to Spring.  I'd thought I'd share a couple of snow pictures from around our house.  I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend and a wonderful week.

View of our front door.  The snow is waist-high here.

Build up of snow and ice over our family room window.

View from the inside of the ice build up.  It's like an "ice awning".

Calendar Mini Page Swap

Hello Bloggers,

I hope you all are enjoying your week so far.  We're half way to the weekend!  Today I'd like to share a project I finished up last night.  I am participating in a calendar mini page swap over on alilscrapofheaven.ning.  There are 6 in a group and each of us is to complete 6 - 4x4 pages, front and back, with a calendar.  My months were November and December.  I had a great time making them and was happy that I was able to use some of the Christmas supplies I got this year, but didn't get a chance to use (ran out of time).

Here are the November pages.  I used the Tim Coffey Fall paper from K&Company, the images are from the Tim Holtz seasonal paper stack along with all the inks that I used for distressing and the tattered florals die used to cut out the burlap flower.  I made the paper flower using the Sizzix 3-D flower die.  Some Prima pearls and twine from my stash finished up these pages. 

Here's December.  I used the Brenda Walton paper pad again from K&Company.  The flowers are from I Am Roses  and Wild Orchid Crafts.  I made the stick pins and used some more Prima pearls.  All of the pages were sprayed with various products from Lindy's Stamp Gang.

My Clip It Up

Hello Bloggers,

Welcome to the weekend!  Today's post comes at the request of one of my followers.  About a year ago, I purchased the Simply Renee Clip it Up to store my acrylic stamps and other small embellishments.  You wouldn't believe how much it holds, well, if you check out the pictures below, you'll get a pretty good idea.  Anyway, I promised I would share my Clip it Up, so here it is.  I got mine from Joanns.com and I have provided links if anyone is interested.  It's currently on sale, so now is a good time to purchase.  I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and are somewhere warm.  It's expected to be only in the teens here in CT, brrrr.  I can't wait for spring!

There's two pieces, the base unit and then a separate upper tier.  Both come with clips, but you can also buy extra if needed.  As mentioned above, it's currently on sale.

Faux Charcoal with Prismacolor

Hello Bloggers,

Hope you all are enjoying your week.  It's almost Friday, yay, and we're in for another snow storm tonight; another 5-10 inches.  I'd like to share a card I made a few days ago.  I saw this wonderful technique in a newsletter I receive each month from The Greeting Farm showing how to use your Prismacolor pencils, kraft cardstock and some orderless mineral spirits to color a stamped image to give a charcoal effect.  I absolutely loved it.  Below is my attempt and you can find the wonderful tutorial at Deconstructing Jen. It only involved 2 colors, white and black.  How easy is that!  I also followed a recipe she had included for the card.  Hope you like it and will give it a try.

Recipe:  kraft cardstock from Papertrey Ink, Prismacolor pencils in white and black, all paper other that the kraft were scraps from my stash, flowers are cherry blossoms from Wild Orchid Crafts and miscellaneous buttons and cording.

More 12 X 12 Layouts

Hello Bloggers,

I hope you all had a nice weekend.  Today, I finished a second set of 12x12 layouts for an album that a group of us are putting together for a co-worker that's expecting her first child.  Seems to be a run on babies lately!  I left the layouts quite simple as the book is going to a non-scrapbooker and I wanted to make it easy to add pics of the baby; just pop them on the photo mats.  These will be going into an album with page protectors, so had to keep the dimensional embellies to a minimum. 

The first layout is the birth announcement.  I used Martha Stewart papers, as well as ribbon and embellies from the same line.

The 2nd layout I was given was:  Home Sweet Home.  I used the same MS paper and made the banner across the page by hand-cutting the stars and applying UTEE.  The metal tag was from my stash. 

The 3rd layout is Sweet Pea.  Both the "Sweet Pea" title and cut-out are from the New Arrival cricut cartridge, which I embellished with some Prima Say it in Crystals.

Nor'easter 2011

Hello Bloggers,

Well, I've just about had it with shoveling for today.  Whew, what a storm.  In total, we got 22" and this is on top of the 10" we got this past Friday.  I can't believe I got the walkway shoveled, it's not wide, but at least you can make it to my door.  Here are some shots of the piles of snow around our house.  I am soo looking forward to spring, but have a few months to go.  Hope you all are having a great week and are keeping warm.

Check out the size of the snow banks in relation to the garage door.

Our mailbox is almost covered, you can however get the door open, though it's completely surrounded by snow.

We always get drifts by the front door.  It took a while to get it cleaned out, but I managed.

Cricut Cartridge Bargins

Hello Bloggers,

Just wanted to share a great deal that I got tonight at Michael's.  As you may already know, Michael's has been clearancing some of their Cricut cartridges and I was lucky tonight to pick up two that I've been wanting for a long time.  The best thing is, they were only $9.99 and better yet, hubby picked up the tab.  What could be better?  If you have a Cricut, you should definitely check it out!  Hope you had a great weekend and are looking forward to a new week.

12 x 12 Layouts

Hello Bloggers,

I hope you all are having a good start to your New Year.  It was tough getting back to work this week, wasn't it?  I'm participating in a 31-day challenge over on YouTube; the challenge is to complete 31 goals, in 31 days and make 31 videos documenting your progress.  This is day 5 and I'm happy to report, that I've so far, kept up with the challenges.  You can check out my progress on YouTube by scrolling down to the bottom of this blog (there's a link to my YouTube vids).  Here's the link to the challenges if you'd like to check it out Marion Smith's 31 Day Challenge.

One of my goals for 2011 was to keep this blog updated a bit more consistently.  My goal is to make at least one post a week, hopefully more, but at least one. 

For this week, I'd like to share some 12x12 layouts that I completed for a co-worker who is expecting her 2nd child in a week or so.  4 other co-workers also contributed to the album, which turned out beautifully.  Please excuse the picture quality, these shots are from a video I took, so they're not the clearest.

I hope you all have a great week and please take a moment to comment and visit my YouTube channel.  Tina

New Years Card

Hello Bloggers,

I'm ashamed to say that I entirely forgot to give my newspaper delivery man his Christmas card this year.  My goal for today, was to create a New Years card to give to him tomorrow when he delivers the Sunday paper.  The image is free clip art that I found on the web that I colored with my copics.  I used my new Nestabilities to cut out the image, a little button with bakers twine in the corner and a little bit of stickles on the hat.  The sentiment is from the Stampin' Up Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set I received for Christmas (thanks Mom!).  I hope everyone had a wonderful start to the New Year.