My Pink Stamper

Saturday is National Scrapbook Day and I have my house cleaned and all of my chores done so I can scrapbook the day away. Hmmmmmm, ok, maybe part of the day. There are always chores and laundry that need done.

But I'm going to be hanging out in my basement scrapbook room scrapping as much as possible and when I come upstairs I'll be checking in at My Pink Stamper blog. There will be lots of wonderful Cricut goodies that she's giving away. Woot Woot, we all love free stuff. Especially scrapbook stuff! I have both of her stamp sets and they are wonderful. They stamp crisp clean images and I haven't found any stamps like them. The stamps were made to go with the Cricut images and are perfect for cards. I also have her videos and love them. I've learned so much about the cricut by watching her videos.

I'm in the middle of planning a Cricut Swarm crop. Everyone can bring their Cricuts and I'm hoping I have one or two ladies that maybe teaching some Cricut classes. I'll have my Gypsy there so you can try it out if you don't have one already. Leave me a message with your email if your interested in the crop and I'll keep you updated.

A New Look

For some reason I think I need a picture for every post and I haven't downloaded any pics on the computer for a while. I have wonderful pictures from Easter and our newest little great nephew. He's so very sweet and kissable! I've made cards and a few layouts at a crop last saturday, so we'll see if I can get them posted soon.

I've been "spring cleaning" of sorts. My basement storage room has been driving me crazy for quite some time. So I finally took the time and went thru boxes and boxes of Erica and Tyler's toys and keepsake boxes. Who needs every A paper they every received in school??? As I was going thru the boxes I transferred everything from cardboard boxes to rubber maid totes. I actually like going into the storage room now and just looking at all the totes lined up in a nice row. Everything has labels and dates in them so I know right where everything is. Yup, I know. CRAZY! But it's the small crazy things that keeps this girl happy.

When I was done with the storage room I painted my scrapbook room. I've hated the yellow paint as soon as I was done painting it. But I HATE to paint so I left it hoping against all odds that it would grow on me and I would learn to love it. No such hope. Two years later I still hate it. I decided to go black, white and pink in there this time. The two short walls are still white and I painted the two long walls Verbena pink. Some of the furniture is still white and I painted some pieces black. I LOVE it! It's my new happy place. Now if I just had some free time to spend in there scrapbooking.

While I was at it I decided my blog could use a little sprucing up of its own. I tried a few new looks but didn't find any others that I loved. I think this one might be around for a while tho. I just realized It matches my new scrapbook room colors! LOL I'm really into this new color scheme I guess.

I think my next project will be the laundry room. Although I really should get my regular spring cleaning done to the main part of the house. You can hardly see out my windows! Oh, and the garden needs planted and flowers planted, and a yard sale to get ready for. I guess I'm off to the laundry room to see if there is anything in there I can add to the yard sale.

Anniversary Card

I made this anniversary card for Tyler and Emma for their first anniversary. I can't believe it's been a year already. WOW! Time flies.

I found the idea at Craft Junkie Too . We had a gift certificate that needed to go in it so I needed to make it BIG. I took a 12x12 sheet of black paper and folded it in half for the base.


I cut the heart and the letters and number with the Cricut. the heart is made with silver shimmer paper and the 1yr was made with the white glitter paper from Target.
I like to decorate the inside of the card so I printed my sentiments using a Word program on the computer and then I decorated the inside with scrap paper. I like using up those scraps!
The bows were made using leftover ribbon from the pew bows from the wedding. I made my own envelope but forgot to take a picture of it. It had a large scallop at the top to allow the envelope to come just below the bow.

Flowers for the Teachers

A couple of weeks ago I had the privilege of spending the day with Erica at the Marshalltown Christian School were she teaches first & second grades. It was Parent Teacher conferences and a work day for their spring program.

Before I went I wanted to make something special for the teachers. They are a wonderful group of women that mean so much to Erica. I decided it would be nice to have something bright and springy for their desks during conferences. I used the Cricut and the George cartridge using both flowers from that cartridge. With each color I cut them at different sizes and shapes. I curled the edges slightly and glued them together and attached them to a wood skewer and attached a button to the center of each. I filled the vases with spring colored M&M's and tied a ribbon to each vase. It was a fairly quick and easy project.



During conferences I cut titles and images for their spring program using the Cricut. When we were done with the items needed for the program I cut images for their bulletin boards using lots of different cartridges. The one we used the most for images was A Child's Year. I have lots of ideas for Erica's classroom bulletin boards next year.

Last of Kitchen pictures

The wall words are above the pantry door which you see when you come in the back door. I love this verse and it sits the feeling for my whole home as soon as guests walk in the door.


I cut the pantry letters and scrolls out with my Cricut with black vinyl. I really liked the way it turned out.
The iron scroll work hangs above the the island and cupboards. I bought this plate at Hobby Lobby and love it. It sits on the island between the kitchen and dining room.

I love the coffee mugs and iron carrier, it was a gift from the kids at Christmas.
Little did they know it would go perfectly in the new kitchen. I found the curtains when we were first talking about redoing the kitchen. I loved the Waverly print and knew it would add the warm feeling I wanted in the kitchen. We did change out the faucet to match the oil rubbed bronze knobs on the cabinets.
The school cookie jar above the cabinets was my mother inlaws. She always had it filled with cookies when Roger and his brothers and sister came home from school.
I love my new canisters. I ended up buying them from Ebay and they were much much cheaper than JC Pennys. They are the first things I see when I walk into the kitchen from the family room and they make me smile every time. First- because I love the way they look and Second- because I know what a terrific deal I got.

Lambs of the Lord

Here is a lamb I made for Erica's class bulletin board. As a christian school teacher she doesn't have alot of money to spend on class room decorations. For her spring bulletin board I made each of the kids a lamb and she'll put them up with the title "Lambs of the Lord" It's a very inexpensive decoration compared to the prices at the Learning Center.


Thursday and friday I'll be in Marshalltown using my Cricut to make back drop decorations and titles for the Marshalltown Christian school spring program. I get to play with the Cricut all day and it helps the school have inexpensive decorations.

More kitchen photos

The countertops are in and I love them. It gives such a totally different look to the kitchen. I'm still deciding on some finishing touches. Like the canisters. I found these at Target and I like them well enough but:
I LOVE these I found at Pennys Home store. But the price is a bit much. Hmmmmm, maybe a Mothers Day present???

Loving the new frig with ice and water in the door and the new pantry is so wonderful. I don't even mind cooking with my new double oven. I do LOVE the new counter tops. It makes the wood of the cupboards look even better. The kitchen has such a warm feeling to it now.
I'll post pics of the decorating soon. Roger still has to put up the cornice boards on the cupboards and I need to wire the flowers to the greenery. We put up the wall words tonight and it looks great.

Perfectly Ordinary Days

This video is to all Moms. The empty nesters who understand this all to well, the soon to be empty nesters that are just now coming to the realization and the Moms with kids still at home. Treasure the ordinary days!!
(it takes a second to load so please be patient. It's so very worth the wait)

We're almost done

The kitchen remodel has taken on a life of it's own. But we're almost done. You know, those small last details that can get put off until you have the time? Well, those are the ones we're trying to get done. But here are some pics of the kitchen along the way.

We're so thankful Tyler and Emma only live a block and a half from us. They were here every night and a few weekends helping. We couldn't have gotten it all done with out Tyler. This is Roger and Tyler laying the FIRST floor. Yup, the first floor.


Here you can see the floor is very very light and not at all what we thought we were getting. We learned alot of lessons about flooring thru this.


And here are the guys laying the SECOND floor! Yes we took up the first floor and put down a second floor and it looks so much better. I just love the color of the wood on the second floor.

Roger is hooking up the frig we bought in Nov. YEAH!!!! We finally have an ice maker and water in the door. It's the small things that makes a girl happy.


I think my new double oven maybe my favorite new appliance. It's definitely something I've been wanting for a very long time. I really do love it. I use the top oven almost daily.


We decided to replace the cabinet knobs too. The white ones are the old knobs and the oil rubbed bronze knobs are the new ones. They make the cabinets look so much better.


Here we are getting ready for the new counter tops. Our contractor went on a missions trip before they came in so we had to wait for them to be installed. But it was so very worth it.


I have to download the rest of the pictures so I'll post them in the next day or so.

Why we Scrapbook

Reminisce made a video about "Why we scrapbook", my friend Angela Ploegman's kids are featured in the video. You can visit her blog and see all of the wonderful projects she does for Reminisce.