Oh my goodness - 10 Years ya'all!

Hello hello hello -

We have some BIG things going on with this post! December 2018 marks my TENTH year blogging!!! Whoa...can you believe it?

I can't.

I remember when I started this blog 10 years ago. My stamping friend Patricia told me I should start a blog and I told her nooooo I couldn't do that and she said sure you can it is easy.

The rest is history...I have to say some blogging years I have been a better blogger than others but I really do love it. It sometimes make me a little sad that the blogging world is not the same as it once was with the onset of social media and the loss of the reader programs where you could get your blog fix in one sitting reading, what 200, blogs at once. How I miss that.

I have to share a top 10 list in my 10th year right? Here are 10 of my favorite projects (in no particular order) it was really hard to narrow it down. I must say I am so happy that I have kept this blog because even though I may not have blogged about every project I have ever done I have a huge record of my projects and for the most part if I blogged about them I loved them.

....don't tell anyone but I do have a few doozies out here in blog land that I am not sure why I felt the need to share them but...anyway back to some of my favs.

Summer Sweetness - I have always always loved this stamp set. I just cannot get over how adorable it is and so quick and easy to use. I just used the last of these little seed packet templates but he watermelon one was always my favorite.

Christmas card set - This set just sort of came together with stuff I had forever in my stash and it ended up being one of my favorite Christmas sets I have ever come up with.

That one time my MOM commented on a post - As I was researching this post looking at some of my favorites I saw that somehow someway my mom who doesn't even know a thing about the internet loved and commented on this post. I had totally forgotten this even ever happened. This also does happen to be one of my favorite scrapbook pages still to this day.

A Clear Favorite mini album - I still enjoy flipping through this mini album, it sits on a shelf and I love that it is clear. It is playful, it is fun and it brings back great memories.

Love & Marriage - It only took my daughter 4 years to compete her wedding album I made her but boy was it worth the wait!!!

Fun Flip Card with tons of details - this card is sort of simple but I see it has a lot of cool stuff going on, random stamping, the rock and roll technique, it features the Art Philosophy card and it has some great deminsion. All the workings of a great card. 

Christmas gift - I love the way this simple give turned out. It is really amazing how a little something extra can make some thing simple turn into something amazing!

Bike Trio - I love making 3 x 3 cards they are perfect for gift bags or just to leave out for someone special.

A fish story - my mom wanted me to make an album for her and so I created this one of her and her friends on a fishing adventure. She loved it!!!

Way to go - I don't know what it is about this card but it is one of my favorites and I have used this pattern again and again!!!

Bonus - a post about why I love scrapbooking

A simple list of 10

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes

I have always loved that song and it is so true life is so full of change and once the change is over and everything is settled I often think what took me so long...what was I waiting for?

I don't know if I have any readers left because I know I have been gone forever - FOREVER. I just sort of lost the ability to create. I would do a little here and a little there but most of the time when I sat down it was forced, I really needed a card or a quick gift.  I decided to just let it go and not to force it. Well guess what has happened? I am feeling like creating again. Pages, gifts, cards oh my...in the past month I have been on a real roll. I moved my studio around several times. From an old house to a new one (yes...moved again) from the downstairs to the upstairs but now I feel settled. I also switched desks, I had a new one and I just didn't like it all my stuff was scattered so I brought the old one back and man do I feel right at home. I cannot wait to share with you some of my most current creations.

Since I am no quite ready to do that I thought I would do a clean sweep of my blog and redesign a few things. While I was doing that I came across some really awesome projects so I thought I would give you a top 10 list. I am going to focus on cards today.  In no particular order here are 10 of my favorites.

Summer Sweetness - I have always always loved this stamp set. I just cannot get over how adorable it is and so quick and easy to use. I think I need to play with this set again in the very near future.

Vroom Vroom... - Masculine cards...we all need them yet they are so hard to make. I made this one for my dad's birthday one year. I sort of wish I made a whole set of them. I also love that you can see the inside details as well as the envelope.

Crop Cards - These cards are simply fun and I love love love to use up the rest of some scrapbook paper that I used on cards. I also colored on these cards and this girl right here loves to color!

Artiste - Day 21 - This box set of cards turned out so super cute. I love the texture and the simplicity of them. These cards are perfect for a gift set for a teacher or something.

Quick Graduation Cards - The name says it all...these cards are super quick and oh so cute. I love these because you can incorporate any school color.

Consider it Cased - I want to case my case every time I see this one. I just love the feeling I get when I look at this card. Peaceful and beautiful it just puts a smile on my face.

A little Tulip card - This was just fast and fun and is very fresh. I love making cards with lots of layers and this one reminds me that sometimes less is more.

Lovely Fall - twitterpatted - what was I just saying about cards with lots of layers...yep here is one of them. To make it even better it is an Easel Card...oh I loooooove making these. This paper, the colors, the added extras yep I love everything about this one.

My Cute Little Girl - ah rubber stamps. I never use them anymore. Since I have discovered clear I just have a hard time with them. This little girl was so darn cute I had to have her anyway! More coloring...yep I love this one.

Create - I am sorry for the quality of photos on this one but I just love the message of this card. Create - yep go out there and do that very thing!

So there you have it a few of my favorites over the years. I will be sharing some super cute CURRENT projects very soon.

What is the longest amount of time you have went on a creative hiatus?

Top 10 Tuesday - Today Scrapbooking with a treat

So it is Tuesday and I thought I would do something a little different today and go back to some of my favorite scrapbook projects that I have posted on my blog in no particular order.


Testing her wings - This was a page all about my oldest daughter. I don't normally do pages like this but it was a lot of fun so first manipulate the photo and remove color, then to cut all those tiny flowers, and finally to add all that bling.

Baby Love - These pages are just oh so sweet!!! They feature my little baby girl with her chubby cheekes and her cute little hands and feet. Seriously baby feet are so stinking cute!!! They just grow so fast...

10 things I love about you - Haha...a top 10 page on my top 10 list that is pretty funny if I do say so myself. This is a cute page about the hubster. I like all the buttons and the little extra's on this page. It was fun to make.

Soccer - Oh how my middle daughter loves sports. Her true love is soccer and I love how these pages catch her in action. She just finished up her season with a big win at a tournament. Whoo hooo!!!

T-Ball - She loves soccer and I love me some softball. Now neither of my girls play but I still have high hopes for the little one...even I have to say t-ball as cute as it is can be a little bit painful to watch. LOL It is a good thing they are all so adorable cause those games can go on forever and a day!

Pretty in Pink - Prom....aww time to get all dressed up and have a night out on the town. This was a fun page to do even though her and her date broke up long ago it is fun to see how nice they both looked. I also love all the blooms and I finally had a chance to use that odd ribbon with leaves on it. :)

Hop hop hop...frogs - Yep my middle one is full of adventure. This page features one of my favorite photos ever. It is just so cool as she is looking through the class. Simple fun fast...that is what this page was about.

The closet - yep I have one full of adventure and one full of fashion sense. She is always shifting her clothes around and organizing her things. This was just a fun page of that process.

Just You - Awww... I love this paper on this page. I had this batch of photo''s that I just didn't know what to do with and I had this little bit of paper left that I just couldn't part with and one day the two of them just came together andthe results were...well stunning. It was a perfect match.

Scrap and Spa Shack - These pages are so old and I love to go back and laugh at them because this vacation was anything but relaxing and spa like but it was OH SO MUCH FUN. I have never laughed so hard.

Well I hope you enjoyed some of these pages. There are tons more on here that are worth a look see. Feel free to click on a tag along the side bar. I have been working on some super cute cards that I will be sharing in the very near future. ***Blog Candy Alert*** Tell me what your favorite page was and I will draw names and send you some hand made cards.

Until then...

Pulling a Letterman

I love to make lists even thought I don't always end up using them. I want to do a few list pages for my girls and maybe one about books and movies. Anyway I thought I would do up a little listy listy for all to see. I have been pondering this list for a while now...what kind of list did I want? Did I want to talk about my favorite books? Why I love being a consultant got CTMH? Where I want to go? Where I have been? My favorite _____.

I thought I would go with Why I love Scrapbooking! Now everyone will know why I cannot get enough.

Friends - this is a hobby that gets you instant friends! I cannot even begin to tell you how many ladies I have met that have turned into real lifelong friends because I scrapbook.

Paper - Oh man there is paper for everything. Pretty pretty patterns, pretty pretty colors, pretty pretty  paper! You think you have the perfect color but guess what...you don't! Gotta get more for sure...pretty pretty paper!

Tools - You need the tools to cut the paper or shape the paper. These tools are so awesome! If I were a man I would probably grunt like Tim Taylor when he walks into a sears store. My husband has music equipment in the man cave and tools in the garage and I have a cricut and a big shot and punches....ohh....

A little Bling - Bling - Can a girl ever have to many embelishments? Really? I mean ribbon and shinny stuff and brads oh my...

Memories - this is a huge reason why I scrapbook. I love to record the memories of my loved ones lives! Oh those kids grow up so fast. The books also help when those said kids turn into teenagers! Then you ahve to look at them to remember how cute they once were and know that theyw ill turn back into cute beings on a day, a wee, an hour...you just never know what your going to get from one day to the next when you live with teens.

Some ME time! - Going of of what I was saying up above...I really love my family but sometimes I just want to admire them and not really talk to them. Haha!!

History - I dabble here and there in geneology and wow would I be so thrilled to run across a scrapbook of yesteryear. It is fun to record stories or moments knowing that my grandchild or great grandchild will stumble across the books one day and discover a little bit more about us.

FUN - This hobby is pure fun! Lots of laughing, giggles and snorts goes on at crops.

Creativity! - When I was little I saw these beautiful drawings my mom did and I always used to ask her why she never did drawings any more and she just kind of said she stopped after she had kids cause she got busy and I was horrified! I would tell her she should continue and how could it be when you love to draw how do you just stop. Can you tell I am a drawer too...well used to be! The same thing happened to me. It isn't as easy to find the time or the subject or the idea when you are chasing girls around or taking them here and there and everywhere. Scrapbooking takes care of my creative need!

Cards! - Oohhhh...just like one thing leads to another scrapbooking leads to cardmaking and that is fun stuff! Instant gradification I tell you. Instant! Sometimes a page can take what seems like forever but a card well you can belt that baby out in minutes!

My 10 Studio's

Edited to add my current studio set up: It is a mess but I have a lot of natual sun light and it is my little corner of the world...

So I have been a slacker blogging lately, actually pretty much ever since I moved. It is hard to get moved because you are so busy and then it just ends and you have to put it all away. Add to that the end of the school year, graduations (8th grade and high school), a toddler, a trip to LA...mix a little summer in with a broken camera and wala you have a neglected blog. Sorry guys I will try to be better. I have been visiting my sister blogs and have been inspired what they put up every day. I have also been organizing and going through photos and trying to get caught up. It is working so yeah me! I have managed to scrap 5 pages and make 3 cards and it is only August 5 so whoo hoo...I even developed some photo's so I am on my way and I will be sharing some pages and cards very soon. In the mean time I thought we would talk about space and where we scrapbook or make cards or sew. Where do you do these things? I don't sew but I used to paint. I thought I would take you down a little studio memory lane.


Studio 1 - My first apartment I had not yet discovered scarpbooking and I was doing a lot of painting and drawing. I loved colored pencils and pen and ink. I had a nice desk in a nook in my dining room. I loved this apartment so much. It was eventually turned into a desk against a wall to make room for toys.


Studio 2 - A corner in my living room. I didn't stay here long but the corner was nice as the living room was huge. I am not even sure I unpacked my craft stuff here.


Studio 3 - A corner in my living room and I used it all the time but it was not very cute. It stayed up on my scrapbooking and went to tons of crops.


Studio 4 - A area in the living room behind my couch. I think it was a good size considering how tiny the apartment was I had a desk a book shelf and a couple tables. I got so much scrapbooking done here! I loved this space because it was a part of the living room but you couldn't see the mess. This is the studio where I really started becoming addicted to stamps!


Studio 5 - The first time I had a private studio it was in my bedroom and my room was shaped in an L so I had part of the L as my studio and it was so nice and so pretty and so so so...lonely. I never got anything done unless the girls were up stairs with me watching TV.


Studio 7 - Now I am back in with the family and into a room that is suppose to be a dinning room. This room was nice it had two doors in it so I could close out the mess or the noise if I wanted and I scrapped on a folding table. It had the best lighting and I got a lot done here.


Studio 8 - Back into the bedroom I go but the house is so tiny and my now husband also has a studio in there a music studio. I know how did it all fit with a bed and all.

It was a challenge and then we got a new bedroom set and boom the studio 8 was moving into the living room and my hubby's into the kitchen which ironically was on the same wall about 6 feet away from each other. LOL it was a small house. I actually got so much done at this tiny little desk.


This desk actually was a part of my daughters bedroom set but again it was so tiny in the house and the girls were sharing a room so I took this to give them more room.


I fell in love with it though it was the first time I had ever faced a wall when scrapping. I love the vertical space though and the drawers are so big!


I was happy to move but I was a little sad to have to give her back her desk.




Studio 9 - Again I had a whole room but this time it was fabulous as it was beautiful and big and right in the heart of the home.
It was a sitting room I suppose once upon a time and I got to use these cool hutches my hubby got at work and we bought a new desk too. I kind of miss him working at the furniture store.

He got two of these and they were only $20 each wow what a steal huh...he got them at different times but one was "damaged" missing glass so they were going to toss it. The other was solo and so he asked if he could buy it too and they said sure.

We decided to purchase a table to match and give me a lot of work space so we went on the hunt and finally found a really cool one that was perfect and two toned.

We put it in between the two hutches and it had a lot of room. I even had a little computer area and still plenty of space to scrapbook and stamp.

I loved it because everything was right at my finger tips. I was facing the living room and I had room for company.

I also had a brilliant idea for my embellishments so I bought these shelves and made it look so fabulous and ease to see...you know if you can see it you can use it!

I will give you an up close cause this was my favorite part. Since it was so perdy and all. ;)


Then we moved again...I move a lot.

Bringing me to Studio 10 - Now we are back in a smaller home but it is enough space...almost. the hubster is in his man-cave a.k.a basement and I was at a loss of where to go. I can't be in the bedroom as it doesn't have so much room and my hubby works 3rd shift. I can't be in the living room becauase the baby will tough everything. The dinning room has a great closet and that is what I chose but then I started moving stuff around and now I ended up in a nook in the kitchen and I am back using my daughters desk...now it is all mine though. She wanted to get rid of it. Got rid of the matching dresser and we got her a new one so now it is all mine! Mine mine mine...LOL I love it. It is a little small but it works for now and I have really been using it a lot. Best part is it is at the very back of the house so if I am in the middle of something it is ok. The baby isn't really allowed in the kitchen alone so that takes care of that too. I am still using the closet and plan to put floor to ceiling shelves in there so I can have everything else at my finger tips.

Yep this is working good...well until the kids start moving out ;)