Daily Tidbits Journal

Honestly, I cannot remember where I saw this idea, but I loved it when I saw it.  It is one of those things that I wish I had started when my children were first born, but that's ok.  My new motto for this year is that a year from now, I will have wished I started something today.  So, I start what I can, and just do it!

This is not just an ordinary box.  Inside are 183 note cards.  On each card, front and back, is a month and day.  No year. 

Then, throughout the year, I will use the cards to write down something that happens that day, no matter how big or small.  I will note the year along with the tidbit.  The cards are used from year to year.  So as the years go by, for example on 3/23, we have a record of things that happened on that day.  I would love to journal more, but I don't always make it everyday.  Then, I feel like I have to write alot.  With the cards, I am just going to write a little, and as I come upon something to include. 

Here's how I decided to keep our cards.  I had an extra plastic index card container that I got at Wal-Mart a while back for $1-$2.  Here are the supplies I used.

Supplies:
1 - plastic container
183 note cards
2 - 5 1/8" x 3 1/16" DSP (used SU!)
Corner punch
1/2" circle punch
Vinyl (used 3 colors)
Adhesive
1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon (Chocolate Chip - SU!)

I decided to just keep it simple, and only use the vinyl dots, DSP, and ribbon.  Can't wait to start writing down some tidbits and reviewing them years from now.

That's all for this project.  Now, let me share another project from today that I am quite proud of --- organizing the medicine cabinet! 

Here's the before picture:

And now here's after:



Cleaned out alot!!  Now, we can finally see what we have.  More projects like this are on the way! Happy New Year!

Rag Wreath

After more than a year, I have finally completed my first rag wreath!  I still may add an "A", but haven't decided on that yet.  I just needed to get this displayed as we took down the Christmas decor.  

These are time consuming --- but not THAT much!  I was about 3/4 of the way finished and then ran out of houndstooth material.  I sort of put it on the back burner as I started and finished other projects.  Then, when I was ready to go back to the wreath, it was hard to find the material in stock at my local Hobby Lobby.  In the Heart of Dixie, houndstooth is quite popular, to say the least!  But, I finally got the material, and in preparation for the January 9th National Championship game, I finished my wreath!  I wish the best for my Crimson Tide and hope for a great win and our 14th National Championship!

I also wanted to share the gift card holders I made for Christmas gifts.  I got the design from www.mychicnscratch.com.  The green one is exactly like her design, using SU! dsp.  For the red (cherry cobbler), by request from Cooper, I used a Santa.  He really liked it.  I used velcro to keep them closed.  I really like this design and plan to use again for gift cards.

I'm still finishing up my Christmas scrapbook, and I got a Cinch for Christmas that I can't wait to try out!  I have another New Year project that I hope to finish tomorrow and share, and I just saw on Pinterest a cute way to keep your Christmas cards for each year.  We were so bad... we didn't send out cards this year!  We'll (I'll) do better next year!

More Elf "Artwork"

Well the elves have been at it again!  This morning when the kids went looking for the elves, they found them on the table with a note.

When they looked in the mirror, they were expecting the elves to have written on the mirror. They were surprised when they saw their reflection and the elves had given them red noses! Cooper had already tried to wipe his off before I could get a picture!

They have liked this so much, that still several hours later, they still have the red noses!

Sorry I have not posted my projects as I had mentioned in the last post.  I had a stomach bug last week, and didn't feel like doing much.  Then, we've been catching up and getting ready for Christmas.  May be able to post a few things later.  If not, we'll be looking towards to New Year!

Busy Christmas Time

Note to self: for next Christmas, plan to do most of the crafts ahead of time!  As always, I have gotten so behind in my crafting.  I have good intentions, but can't find the time to get all the fun projects finished. 

A few days after the 1st, I came upon the cute idea of making a gum Advent calendar.  I made these for my kids' teachers, and even though we got them to them after the 1st, I think they still enjoyed.



Two packs of Eclipse gum will give you 24 pieces for days 1-24.  I just made a little pocket with the paper and placed the gum in the pockets.

We did have SU! club last weekend, and the weekend before that, we had a special SU! session where we worked on a scrapbook.  I'll take pics and post soon (hopefully).  I have also been working on lipstick purses for my daughter's friends.  They have been fun!  I will get those posted as well. 

But in the meantime, here's what the elves did last night.

They colored with a red dry erase marker on the kids' pictures!  They made beards, hats, and all sorts of drawings on them.  They are funny!

Christmas will be here soon, and it's a Crimson colored Christmas for me!!!

Christmas Elves - Day 2 (2011)

Well the elves sure were naughty last night.  This morning, we found all three sitting in Cooper's firetruck.  They looked so innocent!

But then, we happened to look at the stockings, and they had hung underwear from the stockings!  I'm sure they thought they were so funny!!

What trouble these three elves can get into!!

The Elves Have Arrived!

I have been so behind in posting projects lately!  We have been busy with Thanksgiving and now, getting ready for Christmas.  I will do better as I have several projects in work now! 

First though, let me share this morning's arrival of our 3 new elves, Timmy, Susie (spelling may change...I don't have the official spelling yet), and Bob!

We were all so surprised!  They were in a Santa box right by the front door.  One was holding a note.  The note seems to indicate that one or more may not be on the nice list yet, so we have some work to do!

Everyone is so excited and ready to see what fun the elves will have with us this Christmas season!  Stay tuned!

Team Cups

I have shown some vinyl work that I have done on acrylic cups before, but I tried some on plastic cups today.  I had an ulterior motive because I have been wanting to make a really neat project with my houndstooth vinyl.  I saw a similar project on Pinterest, so it was time to try.

I used the Plantin cartridge.  The best part is that I got the cups at the Dollar Tree at 3 for $1!  That makes up for the little more expensive than I'd like houndstooth vinyl.  I love the BAMA, but you can do for your own team or whatever things you love.

Halloween Treats for School Part 2

Well, they made it home with just a few extra treats to show off.  Unfortunately, this isn't the nice picture I had planned, and it's even short one bag because SOMEONE opened a bag as soon as we got home!  I will have to make sure I do better on my pictures AHEAD of time next time.

Each classmate got a tall skinny bag with a Pixie stick and pencil inside and a treat bag with a Scooby Doo Fruit-by-the Foot, box of stickers, and a Bath and Body Works Antibacterial Gel for Halloween (great deal that I told you about on a previous post!).

I plan to make a few Halloween treats for nephews, then it's on to Christmas projects!

Halloween Treats for School Part 1

I have been busy this week getting all the Halloween treats for school ready.  For every holiday, I alwasy have good intentions of planning and starting early, but it is always busy that last week before treats are to go out!  Here are a few pictures of the treats we prepared for everyone.

Cooper has 2 sets of classmates at his preschool, so we decided to make 2 separate bags for his treats.  He has food allergies, so I always include things in his bag that he can have.  His bags contained Smarties, Skittles, A Scooby Doo Fruit-by-the-Foot, and Halloween stickers.  I used my Build-A-Bear dies and Big Shot for the paper sack, along with the Bingo Bits stamp set for the  "CANDY" stamp -- all from SU!  The paper topper is from a set I picked up in the $1 section at Target. I used the Top Note die on the toppers of the cello bags and the same Target paper.  The pumpkin stamps are from Bingo Bits as well.

These are the treats we made for the teachers.  We covered Hershey nuggets (YUM!) in 1"x 3" Halloween paper (SU!).  The toppers were made using my Big Shot and the Top Note die.  The two ribbon colors are Lucky Limeade and Basic Black -- both SU!  I cut the spider from my Doodlecharms cartridge and the pumpkin from Pumpkin Carvings.

We were in such a hurry this morning, that I forgot to take pics of the older two kids' treats!!  I always send more, so I hope they make it home with them so I can make pics and post them as well.  I had a lovely display already set for one of the treats, and I am so disappointed I forgot to photograph.  I'll have to make up for that at Christmas!

I did get the most important picture this morning though, my babies.  Emilee is Beth Chapman, Dog the Bounty Hunter's wife, and Brody is Big Al, Alabama's mascot.  Cooper is just himself this morning, until (see below)...

Here is one more photo from the fun activities at school this morning.  I think Cooper, who was "taking off from school today", had as much fun as the grade-school children!  He loves this picture because he is allergic to milk, and I don't let him get near the real stuff.

Have a nice Halloween!

Halloween Anti-Bacterial Treats

I have started following a great blog at http://pinkbuckaroodesigns.blogspot.com/.  Wednesday, she posted a cute project using Bath and Body Works' anti-bacterial hand gels.  I thought they were so cute, and when I made an unexpected trip to the mall on Wednesday afternoon, I had to run in and pick up a few for the kids' teachers.  I was so excited to find all their Halloween items 75% off!  The saleslady gave me a great idea of getting the regular shape Halloween anti-bacterial gels for classmates (only $.37 each!).  Of course that's what I did and you'll see those in an upcoming project. 

But, I wanted to get something a little different for the teachers, so I chose the round bottles, which you can find the tutorial for the container I used at the Pink Buckaroo site I gave above.  As with most projects, you can use someone's idea as inspiration, and then make it your own with your embellishments.  Here's how mine turned out.

Here's a few "behind the scenes" shots of making this project.  For the tags, I only have one size tag punch, but I like the layered look.  So, I used the square punch to make a piece that fits nicely within the tag. 

Also, I wanted to stamp "To" and "From", but I don't have a good Halloween tag stamp.  So, I found a Christmas one that would fit on my tag, used my SU! black marker, and only colored in what I wanted to show up on the tag.  Custom made!  I thought I would share this because I have a friend that is just beginning stamping, and she asked a question about how to get different colors on stamps.  As it turned out in that example, it was with markers.  When you are use to doing something, you sometime think everyone just knows how to do it too!

 Pop dots are used on the front embellishment along with googly eyes on the stamped images.

The round gels fit so nicely in the circle.  In the tutorial, you will see that the 1 3/4" circle punch is used.





These were fun to make, and really don't take that long.  I have a few more to make using the "regular" shape bottles, so we'll tackle that this weekend!

Bama Wreath

I want to share a ribbon wreath that I made.  It's for my favorite team -- the Alabama Crimson Tide! 

I have been working on a fabric rag wreath, but after recently picking it back up to work on, I have run out of fabric!  So, I decided to try the ribbon wreath.  I took a 12" foam wreath and tied the ribbon all around the wreath.  Houndstooth ribbon is mixed in with the crimson and white.  I added 3 polka dotted white wood balls and a "BAMA" sign in the middle.  Hope this brings them luck this week as we take on the Tennessee Vols and continue on our quest for another National Championship!  Yes, crafters can be sports fans too!  Try one out with your favorite team's colors, and I will also be making these for the different holidays as well.

Halloween Treat Box

Here is my Halloween Treat Box that I made as part of My Pink Stamper's Pinkalicious Blog Hop. 

My usual go-to cartridge for 3-D boxes is "Tags, Bags, Boxes & More" and that's what I went with for this challenge.  I decided to make the popcorn box and add Halloween decorations.  My paper is from Stampin Up!.  Using my Gypsy, I cut the popcorn box at 6.1".  That makes the actual box about 4" tall.  From "Gypsy Wanderings", I cut out the cute pumpkin at 2.5".  Out of black cardstock, I cut the regular pumpkin from this cartridge, but it had slits cut from it.  I used the Gypsy to remove the slits to just make a solid pumpkin that would match up with the one that had a face.

You may not can tell from the picture, but I gave the box a little texture using the polka dot texture plate and my Big Shot.  The stamp set, "Spooky Bingo Bits", is from SU!.

I love doing my crafts, but another love of mine is couponing.  I get to share with you a great deal of mine this week with this craft -- the candy!  Publix's 1cent Mystery Item this week was their Publix brand candy.  I got the last bag of mixed hard candy.  I've needed a container for this all week, and my Halloween popcorn box works great!  Thanks  for looking! 

New Shelf with BOO!

Well, we are still in the process of working on a project that we had hoped to be completed with this summer...my daughter's bedroom.  We still have more to go, but we did get her TV set up with cable today, so that was a major milestone in her book! ;-) Having a more permanent room arrangement per the cable wires has allowed us to start the next phase: wall decor.  Like many young girls, she has MANY necklaces.  She has needed a place to hang them all.  I picked up a shelf at Hobby Lobby recently, and we painted it pink with a few sprinkles of glitter. 

We hung this today, and it coincided with her finishing a Halloween project that she received in the mail today from her Creative Girls craft club.  I think she did an excellent job on the "BOO"!   She has another craft that she will be working on this weekend, so hopefully we can post pictures of that soon.

Next step is vinyl on the walls.  Right now, we're thinking her name on one wall, and polka dots or something on another.  We'll start that tomorrow!

October Stamp Club Projects

The monthly stamp club I am in met last weekend, and I am just now getting a chance to post pictures of the three cards we made.  We made a Thanksgiving card using a sweet treat cup.  It was so easy, and really looks like a turkey!

For the next card, we did a little embossing on the background piece, then added a few butterflies, bling, and scalloped ribbon for a nice "hello" card.

Our last card is for Christmas, and I love Christmas projects!  This card itself was very simple, with one small stamp piece.  But, we added a magnetic bookmark over the card for an extra surprise for the recipient.  I have the tag die we used to make the bookmark, and I can see using this for some cute gifts for my children's classmates!  They all love to read, and now that they are in chapter books, they need something to mark their place!!

I always look forward to my stamp club once a month!  Good company and great crafting!