Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year y'all. I can't believe it's 2011 already. Today I wanted to share some money holders I've created. I just discovered the Twinery and it has inspired me to create projects incorporating twine. Although I haven't received my order yet, I did have some twine of my own that I wanted to use on these money holders.

Look out for other project incorporating this wonderful twine!

Gift Card Holders

Christmas Gift Cards..... that's all I had time to get for people this year as I was busy pushing a human baby out of my body...

I thought I would make these cute guys to house the gift cards that I will be giving away this year... Also gave some to my mother who requested a few for her gift cards.

I also was able to use some SEI holiday paper from last year that I love as well as some old Making Memories metal snowflakes... I love these and had a few left over from previous year projects.... what do you think?

New Camera!!!!

I finally broke down and purchased a new digital SLR. It's a Cannon T1i. It's a serious camera, so I'm gonna need to take some lessons to get the full potential of the camera. Anywhooooo, I took my camera to visit my brother, his new house, and baby this past weekend. I have to admit even with the automatic setting, this camera is pretty awesome!!

My Brother and Daughter........

My Brother and Niece.........

All three......

My Mom & Nephew

this is the good stuff in life!

Happy Birthday Cousin!!

Gloria, G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria.....

This is a little birthday gift I gave to my cousin Gloria. It is just a few cards I made packaged in a cellophane bag with a PP topper and a very cool acetate tag on top. Quick, simple, and thoughtful - so proud of myself ! :-)

My Little Entrepeneur

did i spell that right? Anyway.... On Saturday Nicole and I were crafting after a long day of tax prep and she said to me " You know Mom, I want to make some bookmarks and sell them at school. We are having a book fair next week and the kids will need bookmarks for their new books." I thought this was a great idea, so she and I made some of these bookmarks for her to sell. The price, well a very reasonable $.50 each! Look out Donald, here comes the young money maker!!!

What I'm most proud of is the fact that she was creative and business minded with this idea. I know she will do well in life because she has a very keen sense about her - must have gotten from her mom :-)

Baby Album Part II

These are the last 13 pages of the album.... She is a new scrapbooker, so I tried to make this as easy as possible for her to just drop in 4x6 pictures of the baby.

I love how quickly this came together after thinking about the layouts. I really repeated three of the layouts throughout the book - can you tell?

2010 Can you Believe it!!!

Happy New Year to all. I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but December really flew by. However, I did want to show you all my belated Christmas gift.

Isn't it Awesome!!!! It's 24 inches of awesomeness to be exact. I was planning on getting the 27 inch monitor, but I'm glad I went with the 24 inch cause it is huge! I will be using this to post my future bloggings so look forward to many more in the near future.

Have a great week!

U2 Baby!

This past Saturday I went to the U2 Concert at Soldier Field. Even though we had near nose-bleed seats, I had a really good time... the concert was really good (as expected with U2) and it brought me back to the day!! The only big bummer was the $45 parking fee - can you freakin believe that? How the heck can you charge that much for parking for these types of events and then say the city is in financial trouble and taxes have to remain at 10.25%!! but i digress...

Here is a clip from the concert and a couple of pics... I'm working on my U2 inspired card and scrapbook page.

Smart House

Yesterday my company had a Corporate Day at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago where they offered free admission to it's employees and families. It's been several years since I've visited, so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to take Nicole (Jesse was working). The Museum has changed so much and had many cool new exhibits, but the best by far with the "SMART HOUSE" exhibit. This house is a modular, eco-friendly, energy efficient, and overall COOL pad! Most of the furnishings were made from recycled items (chandeliers from car parts, coffee table from club windows, kitchen counter tops from recycled glass composite, etc. )It also had plenty of outdoor space, balconies at each level, rock and rooftop gardens. If you haven't seen this yet, I strongly encourage you to go, you will certainly be inspired to think green in your own home. I got some great ideas for the next house I build :-)

More to come later possibly...

Sneak Peak

I think I mentioned I purchased a new rug a few posts ago, but I may have forgotten to mention :-) our new couches... Here is a sneak peak... you'll have to come on over to check these babies out! I'll just tell you once you sit on them you will NOT want to get up - trust me on this!

New Rug!!!

I love my new rug from Flor. It is very modern, yet it doesn't seem over the top... What do you think?

One sheet Wonder-ful!

Tomorrow is my good friend's 41st Birthday (yeah, that's you Nilda!)...

She's not a big stamper or scrapbooker, but she loves handmade cards. So for her big day, I made her a paper tote filled with cards so she can use them whenever she needs them.

The entire tote was made by using 1 12x12 sheet of heavy pattern paper (cardstock weight). This particular paper was from my My Mind's Eye collection. The tote itself was made using 8 1/2 x 11 and the middle panels and star embellishments were made from the remainder pieces. Both sides of the tote look identical so there really is not a front or a back - it just looks more professional this way.... Well, I hope she enjoys it!

The pattern for this tote is super simple - email or leave me a post if you want me to send to you.

Supplies:
Pattern Cardstock: My Mind's Eye

Ribbon: Stampin' Up

Stamps: Flourishes,Text Background, & Mega Mixed Messages (PTI)

Other: Star Punch

It's Monday...

The start of another week...

My DD made her Holy Communion this weekend and we made these little treat holders to give to the guests... but with all the excitement we forgot to give them out - can you freakin believe this! All that time... Anyway, I thought they deserved a post since we did spend so much time on them.

Here is a simple card that I made based off of a sketch from Nichole Heady (PTI). It came together very quickly which is a plus.

My friend Tiffany also nominated me for the Lemonade Stand award. I am always amazed by her creations and she's a pretty cool chick to hang out with.

Thanks Tiff!

Giving Cash!!

This past weekend I attended a family party for my niece. Instead of buying her a gift, we opted to give her cash... so I created a money-lope for her. This came out pretty cute so I made a few others to use the remaining portion of my patterned paper (loving this technique).

Supplies: CS and Ribbon: PTI, PP: We Are Memory, Stamp and Kiwi Grossgrain Ribbon: Stampin Up!

Check this out!

Debbie is giving this away, so check out her blog!

Wall Art

I finally used my Decor Elements that I purchased a while ago... Actually I have about 3 of them and decided since today was a total rain out... I would stay home, stamp, and put up my Decor Elements.

I have to say this turned out great.. I will now have to put up the others.