Thank You Jannie!!!

Guess what I just got in the mail!!! A package from my friend, fellow TCS designer from the Netherlands, JANNIE of http://knutselfrutselen.blogspot.com!!! Check out her blog, this lady has some mad paper crafting skills! 

Jannie, you have no idea how happy you made this girl today! I love getting stuff in the mail especially the ones I am not expecting. And this one is totally unexpected and a great surprise. You totally made my day. The card is gorgeous and this little notebook is darling!!! It was my pleasure working with you awesome crafters at TCS. I learned so much from all of you.

Thanks again Jannie!

Whitney [and Sara, too]

This girl is my friend Sara's daughter, Whitney. :) Just like me and her Mom, she loves to craft and bake. She is forever in search of something to make or bake. Yesterday, her Mom and I hung out at their house pretty much all day making cookies to take to a swim party we organized for our church kids and their friends. When she got home from doing some summer work at the library, I showed her my junque journal and told her what I was going to do with it... Before I knew it, we were looking through Sara's and her stash for paper to put in her book. 

That's her and her junque journal in the photo. She made it her own... She is everything that the cover of her junque journal says. She is her own person, she is very brave, and honest. She is a fast learner and is always eager to learn new things. Her excitability [if that is even a word] is very contagious... And I believe that's why I love her. She is like her Mom in that way... That's why we are such great friends. 

I never thought I would find such people in this world, especially when I moved here but I have and I feel soooo blessed to have found them. : )

Have a great rest of the week friends!

July 4th

Hey friends, I hope everybody's having a nice 4th of July! :) Here on my end, we are not only celebrating Independence Day we are also celebrating my Mom-In-Law's birthday. Her actual birthday is tomorrow, but she has always celebrated it on the 4th. I made her the card [above] with a Hero Arts stamp, Adirondack Embossing powders, and Distress Inks and my handmade polymer resin flowers.

We didn't have the usual barbecue but we had fried chicken and a spread of great stuff. Like I do every year, I made a birthday cake for her. With the help of my Nestabilities dies, American Crafts Thickers, Copic Markers and my butterfly stamp from Inkadinkado, this cake was another hit. My MIL loves white cake, and yellow buttercream. She is pretty easy to please! 

    [click on photos to enlarge]

It has been a fun day so far... The whole family is here and having a great time. Hope all of you have a happy holiday!!!

Birthday Card

If there was anything that my Husband couldn't live without is his coffee and his music. The man eats and drinks music and coffee all day long. That's why I always say, if there is anything we splurge on in our house, it is coffee because John drinks 4-5 cups a day and when you have a husband who has become a coffee snob because of the Keurig, you gotta be willing to spend the money to keep ordering the good coffee. But I don't really mind, because I love good coffee and pretty much all the K-cup brands we buy have not disappointed us one bit. 

So for his birthday, I made him this card. : ) The coffee cup is a stamp from Hero Arts called cup of coffee. And I used a Cuttlebug folder to dry emboss the kraft cardstock for the background. I used the Versa Marker for shading. I am no good at the shading yet, and I don't think I will be ever good at it. lol

He was pretty excited when he saw it... It had the two things he couldn't live without. And he did have a really happy birthday!

My Junque Journal

After years of thinking about it, I finally started a junque journal... and I made it myself! I got lucky and got the Cinch Bindery Tool really cheap. And by cheap I mean, 70% off what they are going for on the market now. I believe We R Memory Keepers just launched the Cinch 2 and that's why the regular Cinch went down in price ridiculously in some stores online. 

What inspired me to start a junque journal is the K&Company SMASH BOOK! I have watched the Smash video over and over it is not even funny. The Smash book actually reminds me of something I used to do in high school only I let other people write or share their art in it. I went through a ton of composition notebooks! My friends and I had a great time passing it around leaving messages to each other on there, we put post cards, receipts, book pages, book marks we have totally re-purposed and altered. The Smash Book is so similar to that except with cooler, heavier weight paper in it. : ) I have purchased the little bits and things that go with it, but haven't bought the book itself because I intend to stick to my crafty DIY skills and use the enormous amount of scrapbook paper I have acquired in who knows how long. It makes my husband happy when he sees me cutting through those things and making stuff out of them.

This book cost me close to nothing to make. The only purchase I made was the o-wires, which cost $2.50 at Archivers, everything else I already had in my stash. The covers are recycled. They came from the chipboard backing of paper stacks. I have a ton of them and I keep them all to make into templates when I make cakes, but this time I cut them to make into my book covers. I put envelopes in them, made pockets, and cut cardstock and paper in 8.5" in x 5.5".

I haven't done much or gone crazy or anything to it. But will put a post on here when I do. : )

Have a great weekend everyone!

I have linked this post up in Cheryl's I'm Lovin' It Fridays Post!