January Card Day

Let me explain. :) Card day is a day where we card-ers get together and have a ton of fun. Everyone brings a hand made card and enough kits for everyone to make the same card - so everyone leaves with at least one card from every other person in the group. January card day was yesterday - at Stephanie's house and we had a blast. :) We each left with all of these little goodies. . .

Next Card Day is scheduled for February 23rd from 10-2 at Tiffani's house. January was our second get-together - and we are on a good roll of getting organized as far as who wants to participate and contact information and such.

For those of us in the Card Day Group - our February card day themes are Birthday Cards, Easter Cards, and we might have one St. Pattie's Day card because I found an idea that is just too dang cute to pass up. . . so I will do St. Pattie's and the binder. . .

Everyone who comes in February . . . will you please bring a 3-ring binder that has the clear-view outside (the kind you can stick your own cover in) . . . bigger is better. . . we were thinking that a 1 1/2 or 2 inch size would be best. Walmart has them for about $3.00. All you need to bring is the binder - one of our card day projects will be the cover for the binder and some of the inside stuff. . . including a contact list and some pockets for holding our take-home goodies.

Since I have a few local blog readers who aren't savvy on the whole card day thing, this is not an exclusive meeting. . . and anyone who wants more details can contact me and I will give you the scoop. It's a ton of fun, and I can't wait for next month. :)

Get Ready For Some Luv

I had to use up the rest of my red and white paper from Christmas so that I can justify investing in some cute Valentine's Day paper that I have had my eye on. Out with the old scrap . . . in with the new!

These cute papers and stickers by Doodlebug Design worked out just as great for V-day as they did for Christmas. Remember Tiffani's cute tin? I used the scraps from the tin, and added a few glitter stickers and cut out the hugs and kisses on the Cricut. My mind forgets which cartridge I used. . . I would get up and look, but I am *just that lazy* right now. :)

More Valentines coming soon - I got some extra cute paper today. My garage sale supplies sold and got me $20 in credit at IScrap today and I spent exactly $19.98 back on somebody elses' old scrap in exchange. :D Haha. . . It's like an ironic sign from the gods isn't it?

Oh boy! Or Girl!

I am truly addicted to the cute new things from Imaginisce. I find myself buying their coordinating stuff even if I have no current use for it. . . >.< . . .because it is just so damn CUUUTE!!!!

Last week I was inspired by the sudden influx of adorable little roly-poly pregnant mommies that seem to be everywhere around me at work - if they all pop at the same time, we are going to be in BIG TROUBLE. Hehe. . . anyway I thought it would be a good time to be prepared for the arrival of all of the little ones.

Paper and stickers are by Imaginisce. . . and I used some random coordinating ribbon (including that cute blue stuff from my ETM kit. . . *cough *cough . . . because it is sooooo adorable. . . ) and a few flowers here and there. Bring on the babies!!!

Word of the Year

Kim at Express the Moment and my friend blue_doggie at LiveJournal have both been on this kick about choosing a word for the year. For them, the words balance, and adventure respectively - hold special meaning to them in 2009.

I have doing a lot of thought about it - and aside from being a really fun idea I really saw this idea as a challenge. Everybody it seems, has something that they want to try to work on and improve on in the future. For me, I wanted to choose a word that represents something that I have, and something that I desire more of.

It was then, that a word came to me, in the form of music actually. Serenity by Godsmack is one of those rock ballads that has always stuck me with it's beauty. I need Serenity. . .

Inner peace and calm is something that I will strive for in the coming year. It is a goal that I have anyway - to keep a more even temper and not have those "freak out" moments that I feel bad about later. I think that there are a lot of things that contribute to my stress level. . . being a mom and having a full time job and dealing with every day family problems and lots of other challenges bring stress. My goal is to use the means that I have and find new, healthy ways to deal with this stress and achieve a new, more serene outlook on life. I would like to continue to learn and meditate and maybe even get into something fun like yoga. . . I will also continue to do my scrapbooking and paper crafts as a way to de-stress as it has always been a favorite outlet.

So there we have it, word of the year. What a fun idea. :)

I Expressed My Expressions

*crossposted to my LiveJournal

Express the Moment has these really awesome little card kits that you can buy each month. SO WORTH IT! Every month you get this collection of matching. . . STUFF. . . paper and embelishments and ribbons and stickers and and and. . . :) You get the idea. This is an awesome idea for a new scrapper, or an old scrapper like me. Ha. . . the reason why I love it is because I might never choose the things that actually come in the kit. Let me explain that. . . sometimes when I am in the scrapbook store or shopping online, I walk right past something that might be a really cute idea waiting to happen. I have my "blinders" on because maybe I am looking for one thing in particular. With the ETM kit. . . it's kinda like a box of chocolates. (*best Forrest Gump voice here) You never know what you're gonna get!

This month I got this really cute collection of teal and purple goodies and things for making cute Christmas cards. Well honestly, after fifty some odd Christmas cards, I am all Christmassed out. So I made Thank you cards instead because, you know, I do need those for all of the great Christmas gifts we got!

Lemme just add another story here from the archives. When I was in the 10th grade, my Aunt Ginger got married in Atlanta. I was so excited because not only did we get to GO to the wedding, I got to be in her line. I remember all of the wedding primping and fluffing and going to try on the bridesmades' dresses. The dress wasn't that hideous at all. But I remember my mom's reaction well. Her colors are teal and purple??? O.o

Yes, mom really went. . . O.o. . . way back in the 80's.

To this day, my Aunt and I probably still share a love of teal and purple. When I got my ETM Expressions kit I had to have a little *squee moment because of the colors alone. Here's my this month's cards. . . and thanks ETM ladies for the awesome picks!!!

Woot for Day Off!

I worked nights over the weekend. It's not so bad, really. Sunday I got home by 8am and had a nice delicious nap :) Did you ever take a nap and wake up kind of slowly with an idea in your head that you just HAVE to get up and create? Yeah, that happens a lot here. . .

One of my goals for 2009 is to be more ORGANIZED. Not just with my scrap stuff, but with everything. . . clothes, shoes, toys, the whole house is gonna get reorganized this year. But let's start with the simple things shall we? I imagine having a whole basket full of cards that are created and ready to go so that. . . when someone's birthday or occasion pops up, I have cards ready to go and mail in a jiffy! What better occasion to start with than BIRTHDAYS. :}

I feel like I just have to share one of my new favorite brands this year, Imaginisce. I am just loving their patterned paper and cute little matching embelishments, especially the clear stamps. Stamping is another goal for 2009, but that's a whole 'nother story :) Anyway, Imaginisce. Love it! And I didn't use my Stickles on this one although the temptation was great.

I used purple cardstock for the background and words, happy b-day pattererned paper by Imaginisce, The gift is a stamp that I colored with watercolor pencils. The "stamp" was cut using Cricut along with the sentiment. And I used a few Imaginisce chipboard stickers too. They are called "Chip, chip, hooray!" How freaking cute is that. The polka-dot pink stripe is actually the back side of the birthday paper. The paper itself has a lot of cute places that are glittered, but I added some glitter of my own to the gift ribbon, and I used a gliter gel pen to outline the stamp and add some bling to the words.

That's all for now - I have a lot on the menu for today and then I do have to go back to work tomorrow night but soon there will be WEEKEND OFF and lots of fun things to share. :) Say it with me now. . . WOOOOOT!

Well Here I Am!

Well here I am at Blogger. Allow me to say hello and introduce myself. . . my name is Nancy and I have been a huge fan of blogging for about five years. It seems that my medium, LiveJournal, is in danger of going under. People all over LJ land are freaking out because they could lose literally years of archived memories, journaling, photos and etc. I am distressed along with them, but am reaching out to other places to see what I like. I see that a lot of my friends in the scrapping community use Blogspot, and so, I will try it out and see what there is to see! I do like the interface here, it seems pretty friendly and so far I am liking it.

Now then. I need friends. . . haha. . .

I think that I will go ahead and link to some of my stuff on the interwebs. . . I have collected all of my latest projects in the slideshow below and I am super, super, super excited about the year of 2009. I have a ton of big goals and dreams that I would like to accomplish, or at least start working towards. One of those is my own little business of sorts, that has to do with my biggest passion, scrapbooking and making cards.

That is all for my first post here at blogspot. . . but no worries, I will be returning soon with new paper crafts and junk and stuff to share and hopefully some great news about the business too.

Woot!