FL Vacation

We were thrilled to get to go back home to Florida for 12 days for summer vacation this year! We had 2 whole weeks of breeze, palm trees, manatee's, beaches, drinks, good food, friends, laughter, fresh air, Espree deKor (Chris & Peter), and some rain. It was probably to be DH's final trip before deployment, and I wanted to keep as stress-free & relaxing as possible! Let's just say "we" kept it stress-free, even though others sometimes made that very difficult! We went to Seaworld and spent the entire day there. It was great visiting my lovable Manatee's again! We also stayed in St. Pete for 4 days, were beach bums (even in the rain) most of the time, and basically drove around the city looking at homes and areas. We also got to go to the St. Pete Pier, and ate dinner at Cha-Cha Coconuts. We always have a great time in St. Petersburg, which is where we will call home when we get to go home! We visited friends in Punta Gorda, got to go to our old Church one Sunday, saw the Tampa Bay Rays game & after the game was over Pat Benetar played a free concert, drove the islands of Treasure Island, Indian Rocks Beach, Madeira Beach, Bellair Beach, St. Pete Beach, downtown St. Pete, Anna Maria Island, & much more while we were there. All in all it was a relaxing trip I did not want to come back to NC. It is much more humid and hotter in NC than it is in FL. I have a couple more years and then I will be living my vacation, and back home to FL where I belong!

Altered 3 x 5 Notebook ~ Hooah style!

Ok, so I'm finding out that I am starting to get addicted to finding anything to alter! And I just love these cute little Soldier/Military rubber stamps I found online here at The Greeting Farm. I realize they are not "serious" stamps, but sometimes I like the fun ones more :) So, while I was on post the other day I got this idea.....why not alter some notebooks and give them out to the Soldier's in my DH's unit? Some are "girly" for the Female Soldiers, and others are more masculine for the guys. Here's the first one I made for a Female Soldier. Let me know what you think :)

Supplies Used: 3 x 5 spiral notebook from dollar store, vellum, "Hero" Stamps, cardstock paper, ribbon, score tape, watercolor pencils, blender pen, brads.

*Note- The Soldier Stamp was embossed.

Mother's Day Projects

Happy Mother's Day!! I had to come up with an idea for a Mother's Day gift, and when I saw a version of this Flower Pot on SCS, I knew I had to make it. I chose to add a lot more to mine, but I wanted it to have that filled in look and not be so bare. This was my first attempt, and I must admit that it took me a while to complete and tweak it, but I am happy with the way it turned out, and it was super fun to make :)

Supplies Used: Clay pot, acrylic paints, mod podge, ribbon, embellishments, card stock, scallop punch, cricut, wooden skewers, score tape, stamps, cricut, paper pups cartridge, ink, decorative tan mossy grass, and styrofoam to hold flowers inside pot.

I first painted my clay pot with an aqua acrylic paint on top, and sage green paint on bottom. After 2 coats and drying time, I added mod podge over the entire pot. I then added ribbon & embellishments around to the top. The ribbon was attached with score tape & mod podge. For the flowers, I cut some out with my cricut expressions, and the rest were punched using a non SU! scallop punch. Once punched, I went every 2 scallops and cut to the center. I then folded the 2 in half, doing this for every 2 scallops cut. I used 2-3 scallops for each flower to give it stability, depending on your card stock. Brads were attached on inside of flower, score tape was used to adhere the flowers to the wooden skewers. I then finished off the flowers with ribbon tied to the skewers, and added a cute wooden frog I picked up at wally world in the clearance section for 25 cents :) I also used my cricut to add "Miss You" from the Paper Pups Cart and mod podged it onto the frog, then tied a bow on the frog's head.

Flower Pot Cards

Here's my take on the Flower Pot (with pull-out) card. I got the technique from the SCS website, but cannot remember where! Sorry :/ This was simple and I think is a very cute and versitile card for any occasion :)

Note: I did add flower seeds inside of a jewelry zip lock baggie, along with 1/2 of a top note cut with my cricut, and a stamp from SU! You Are My Sunshine.

Happy 13th Birthday Gabby!

Time goes by so fast. It seems as if the years are going by quicker every day. Our youngest Daughter turned 13 on the 27th! We very bravely had 12 'teenagers' all in one house for the day to celebrate Gabby's Birthday! It was supposed to be outside, but the weather did not cooperate. It ended up going really well though, even though we couldn't have our bon-fire, roast weenies, and make smore's :( We improvised and ended up doing chocolate dipped strawberries instead :) Yummmmeee! Then the kids played Rockband most of the time, until us "grown-ups" crashed their jam session and rocked the house down! LOL! Some friends of ours had come over to hang out with us while the kids took over the house. It was a lot of fun, and even though Gabby made me PROMISE I would not dance in front of her friends...those of you who know me know that I did! And her friends actually told me I danced really good, played the rockband guitar awesome, and told Gabby they wished their parents would be like that! So ha ha Gabby...now ya know that like you kids, us parents will never do what we are told and end up doing just the opposite! hehe! It was a lot of fun and we all had a great time. Here are some photo's...the first one is of the card I made Gabby! Of course I have to add that on here..duh! Then the rest are just a few pics capturing the moments =)

Thank You Leslie! You rock =)

Santa came early this year!!....A good friend of mine came by today and unloaded her SUV and said "Merry early Christmas Sherri"! She knew I did scrapbooking, and was just starting out, and wanted to get rid of the rest of her things since she no longer has the time to do it. OMG, I am in heaven! I was so surprised, and thankful for her kindness! (Serioulsy, it has nothing to do with the fact that her Son and Gabby are sort of "crushing" on eachother, I swear =) What a nice surprise and was I so thrilled!

Thank you Leslie, you really and truly ROCK!! (*Note~everything in the photo's are what she brought me, minus the Cricut Expression machine that I just got last month thanks to eBay!!)

Catching up soon!

Hi Everyone!
I know it's been a while since I posted anything new, however I have been very busy painting the house, finally! I'm so excited about how it's turning out so far...I have 2 rooms left to paint, and then I will post pictures =) I finally got some relief with the back pain long enough to start this long awaited painting project I've wanted to do for 4 months now!

On a different note, a good friend of mine came by the other day and brought me LOTS of scrapbooking goodies that she no longer wanted!! I was so thrilled and appreciative, since I am just starting out and a lot of what she gave me are things that I wanted =) I am going to take a picture of it all and post it this week. What a God-send she was and is, and I'm so thankful that our Daughter is "dating" (ha ha) her Son..LOL!

I will post later in the week once I am finished with the painting and have more time!
Have a great week everyone ;)

Surprise!!

Valentine's Day Gifts
These are a a few things I made for Matt's Parents for the Valentine's goodie box we sent to them. The first is recipe holder that I made with Heidi Grace papers, brad's, embellishments, ribbon, and a few other non-SU! products. I bound it with my Zutter BIA. I like how it turned out, and his Mom loved it. I also made a mini album with chipboard, Heidi Grace CS, brads, embellishments, and the BIA.

On another note, I have to say how much I love my Husband! He surprised me with a new toy for my scrapbooking addiction this past week. He bought me a Cricut Expressions =) How cool is that? I LOVE it! It even came with two cartridges, Plantin Schoolbook & Accent Essentials. I have been having so much fun with it, and even he and Gabby have joined in on the cutting and creating with me, and helped to make some really cool things! I had to go buy a spatula after trying to peel off the papers a couple of times and 'tearing' them, LOL, but other than that I am good to get scrappin!! I can't wait to make more fun projects with it for Easter. It is truly a scrapper's dream tool and I now see what all of the craze was about =)

I will post some finished projects very soon!!
Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day projects

I cannot believe it's February already. Last year this time, I was in Florida relaxing by the pool! Not this year, as the NC temps have been oddly colder than normal :( I will survive, as long as I have my projects that keep me inside where it's warm :)
Gabby and I made some Valentine treat bags for some family & friends this year. Nothing fancy, just a little treat that we put together using small zip-lock bags, card stock, ribbon, and Valentine's foam sticky hearts.

This is a cute little diaper fold pouch that I saw on a SCS tutorial page and had to make it! It was surprisingly very easy, quick, and is great for sticking little treats in, coupons, photo's, small gifts, or about anything you want. I made it for my MIL and put some coupons in it. This was made using my fav, Heidi Grace DSP, chip board embellishments, brads, a heart shaped paper clip, paper scorer, and 2 magnets. I added the magnets to the back so she could hang this on her fridge :) I'm happy how this turned out, and will definately be making these often as gifts for the army wives in DH's company!





This is the clip board calendar I made for Matt's Grandmother using Heidi Grace DSP, (I LOVE Heidi Grace!!) chipboard, Heidi Grace embellishments, ribbon, & brads, medium metal clip, & Always Artichoke Stampin' Up! ribbon. I printed the calendar from the Red Castle website. I've been having a lot of fun using my Zutter Bind It All. So far, I have made 2 memory books, a birthday reminder/card organizer book, & a recipe book. It's sort of a trial and error for me, but I think I am finally getting the hang of it. I hope the people I made them for like them :)




I made this greeting card organizer for Matt's Grandma. Sorry about the picture quality, this was taken with my cell phone camera :) I used Heidi Grace DSP, card stock, embellishments, ribbon, BIA, and printed the calendars from the Red Castle website.


























This is the medium memory book I made. This was the first project I attempted with my BIA, so yes, it's got some imperfections :) I used the Heidi Grace DSP, black ribbon, Live-Love-Laugh stamp from Stampibilities (I think), my Zutter bind it all with 3/4" wire, and various embellishments to decorate the inside. This was a 8 x 6 memory book.

1st Pics

I had to post a picture of our lovely snow we got yesterday here in NC. It's a very rare event here, like maybe 2 inches every 5-6 years if you're lucky, and we got 4 in one day! I don't care for the wintery mix, but it is pretty to look at so I thought I would share it =)

I finally have had the time to do some cards! I also got to use my new Zutter bind-it-all and I absolutely love it :) I have made 1 medium photo album/scrapbook, and 2 mini-books. Here are just a few of the cards I have made so far. I have to leave out the V-day cards until the holiday is over so that you don't see it too early :) I used both SU as well as other products.

This is just a little card that I made for the facility where I get my infusions every month.











A simple but cute Thank You card made with my favorite "latte" elements :)













Made with Stampin' Up! Simply Sent kit.

















A variation of the Stampin' Up! Simply Sent kit, except I used a cute little flip flop clear stamp instead of the a SU stamp. (I'm addicted to Flip-Flops so I had to do it!)

New Hobbies, Mo money!

Happy New Year to you all! Well, the holidays are all over and the new year has begun. Matt is starting his college class this week, and I had planned on staying in "my room" to finish up a few gift projects I had been working on. However, plans changed. My MS relapsed a little over a week ago, therefore I have not had the time to really do any scrapbooking at all, which makes me sad. I think I am getting better finally, so hopefully this week will bring me some opportunities to do some card making! I just got the new Zutter bind-it-all (V2.0 in pink of course), so I am really anxious about putting that to use asap! My next purchase will be the Cricut Expressions, although I need to sell a lot more on eBay before that one is purchased :) I just wish JoAnn's and the rest of the super duper stores would allow you to use those 40% off coupons on the cricut's! ugh!