Life Lately

I noticed that I hadn't updated in a while. Here's why. My crafting time has been subsided, sadly to say. Life has quickly become a whirl wind being a full time student, student teacher, girlfriend, daughter and friend. I didn't realized how busy and fast life could really get. Here's why I haven't posted anything in a while or in a good minute (as Chris would say).

Reason #1- Being a supportive girlfriend. Going to hear the DFree band play at gigs in Alabama. They're coming out with a new EP soon, check them out.

Reason #2: Being a full time student who is finally doing her student teaching. Kindergarteners 5 days a week for 8 hours a day = lots of fun but with lots of hard work/planning.

Yes...we planted our own plants. We call them our "plant people." They get haircuts next week! :)

Reason #3: Being a full time friend. Throwing showers & hosting parties for my engaged girls, Casey & Callie. Successful shower number 2 of my hostess career.

As you can see, life's been pretty busy and continues to get busier each day. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever slow down. Even though I know it won't. It just goes by faster and faster as you get older. However, I love this crazy, busy life!

4th of July 2008

Happy 4th of July! I can't believe this was 2 years ago now. It's become somewhat of a family tradition for Mom, Dad & I to go to the Huntsville Stars 4th of July baseball game. This layout was a ton of fun to put together and wound up being my favorite I created that day. I actually got the layout idea online. However, I had to tweek it a little to make it fit my pictures. I used navy cardstock as the background paper. This paper was purchased at the Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Convention in Nashville. I then added the fireworks paper to the top & bottom half of the page. This paper came out of a holiday paper pack purchased at Hobby Lobby. As a border to the pictures I first used star patterned paper out of the same paper pack then solid white cardstock. The stickers are PaperStudio Cardstock 4th of July themed stickers, purchased at Hobby Lobby. To finish the page off I placed the stickers accordingly.

I set up the 2nd page of the layout the same way I did the first page. However, I did some journaling on this page. After I placed the stickers around the page, I cut out a white piece of cardstock just big enough to fit in between the pictures & sticker. :)

Bridal Shower

This was one of the showers that was thrown for our friend, Ashley Cheyne. Casey and I were bridesmaids in her wedding. This shower was thrown by her church and TONS of people came. Ashley received so many wonderful things to fill her new house. This layout was a little challenging for me. Partially due to the fact that I didn't buy paper that stood out from the loud background very well. However, I liked how it all turned out. I bought the pink paisly print background paper at Hobby Lobby, along with the brown/pink polka dot paper and light pink cardstock. I used my layout idea pages from my Creating Keepsakes magazine to figure out the positioning of my pictures. I alternated the border colors of the pictures and used my corner rounder to adorn the edges of the photos & their background. The bridal shower sticker was taken from a sticker pack also purchased at Hobby Lobby. The title was cut out using my Cricut. I cut out the title first using the shadow feature in light pink then again using the regular font feature in light brown. This created a layered look and made the brown lettering stand out better.

Hoedown '07

Every fall, my home church Locust Grove has their annual Hoedown at the Fanning Farm. It's quite an event. Everyone brings a dish to share and there's lots of hot chocolate & hot cider to pass around. They also do hayrides around the farm to enterain all the kiddos!
I had the idea for this layout nearly a year ago. I found the straw background paper on a random trip to Hobby Lobby & bought it hoping I could use it for this layout one day. On that same trip I found the Jolee's Boutique Hayride embellishment stickers but I decided to wait on purchasing them. I'm glad I did because I ended up finding them at half price on Ebay. Creating this page was simple. I cut out a long rectangular strip of orange cardstock, then a smaller green one, and then an even smaller brown one. I layered them and gluded them together. I bordered the pictures with a redish-orange cardstock and glued them in place. I then placed the 3D Jolee's stickers around the page. I used my Cricut to cut out the title. I cut out the title first in brown using the shadow effect. Then cut the title out again in the redish-orange paper in non-shadow font. I then glued them together creating a layered effect for the title.

Crimson Tide Plate

This was another one of my homemade Christmas gifts. The plate I made for my friend Ashley is similar to this plate. I made this for Chris's Mom as her Christmas present. I ordered the decal from Simply Stated Walls. I was able to order the decal in the size, font and color I wanted. Since I ordered the decal in white, I wanted to find a crimson plate to put it on. I searched all over the Huntsville area for a red platter, plate, tray etc...and had NO luck. I ended up ordering the platter from Sur La Table. When I got it in I was very concerned about the size. However, when I etched the decal onto the plate I loved it. I purchased the stand for the plate at Michaels. His Mom is a huge Alabama fan and loved the plate! It's now the centerpiece on the dining room table!

Candles for Christmas

For Christmas this year, I made a lot of my gifts. At a stamp camp in November with my neighbor & friend, Kim Parker I learned a new stamping technique. We created candles using stamps & ink. I was so excited about the new technique I learned that I decided to use some stamps I had to make gifts. Everyone wound up enjoying their gifts.

These 3 candles were created for Chris's sister-in-law. They have the cutest country home and I wanted to create some candles for her that would match her decor. I found the cowboy boot stamp on a Hobby Lobby run and the horse stamp on a run to Micheals. I bought the candles, gold chord, and metal stars at Hobby Lobby, too. I can't give away my stamping technique but I thought these wound up very cute!

This candle I made for my boss at the daycare I worked at this past semester. Her birthday is in December and I wanted to make her a present. I had this snowman stamp and ribbon in my craft station at home. The candle came from Family Dollar. Very Wintery!

I made this candle for my friend, Emily. She is so sweet and crafty herself. I had this stamp and ribbon in my crafting station at home as well. I love this verse in the bible and new that these colors would match her home's decor. She loved her candle. It now sits on her kitchen table for everyone to see!