Poor Shane

Shane has been having pain in his lower right abdomen for a few days now. It got so bad today that he had to go to the doctor. And, if you know him, you know that is bad. It didn't hurt that everyone kept telling him that they thought it was his appendix and that if it burst, he could be in serious trouble.
Anyway, the doctor didn't think it was appendicitis because the symptoms I guess weren't really there. Except pain in the right (or wrong) place. But when he pushed on the spot it was in, and Shane yelped, he sent him straight in for a CT scan at Mountain View Hospital.
Thankfully, the CT scan shows that it is not appendicitis and it didn't find any other issues either. But, now what? What is it?
The doc told Shane he will call him by 10:00 am tomorrow morning after he see the full CT report and decide what to do next.
Keep him in your prayers. I hope it isn't anything serious. I don't really know what a CT scan will catch, so I'm not totally relieved yet.

Sometimes he can be sweet.........

So, the other night my hubby just couldn't sleep. I think it was Saturday. Normally he would just give up and watch the boob tube, right? But, on this night, he decided he wanted to make me a bouquet! Seriously? He hardly ever does this kind of stuff, so that is pretty sweet huh? He'd kill me if I told his friends, but I doubt they even know I have a blog lol. So I am telling my friends.

I know it is all wilted, he used weeds for filler, and the flowers have seen better days, but I just thought it was so cute of him. And, he cleaned up the living room and the toilet! OMG. Maybe I should be worried that he is sick?! Naw.......it happens once in a while. I think he does it to keep me around :)

A CAS Baby Card

So, as I mentioned in my earlier post, my brother-in-law and his girlfriend just had a little baby girl this week. I made a cute little flower clip headband and bought a black lace ruffle diaper cover to go with it. But, I needed a card to go along with my gift.
I didn't have much time to make the card because I wanted to send out the gift in today's mail. So, I decided to go with a Clean and Simple style card. And what better place to go for ideas than the Clean and Simple Stamping blog? I used CAS sketch #FTL192 for this card.

Forgive the lighting and color on this. It is a bit yellow. I tried to clean it up a bit, but there is only so much you can do to edit a picture. The yellow bits are really more like a soft ivory. But, you get the idea anyhow.

I used the same ribbon that I made the flower clip with to make the rosette on the card. What d'ya think?

I want that!

Just a random thought today. I found this washer/drier makeover on Pinterest, and ummm.......I want that! Lol. Maybe not that color, but I want to personalize mine up a bit!

I found this one a while ago (also on Pinterest), and was totally in love, but the yellow ones are more like the style I actually have. Still....I sure love polka dots .....and aqua.....and Pinterest. 

To bad there is no way in hell that Shane would go for that. I don't know, maybe. Sometimes it surprises me what he is willing to put up with. Maybe I'll just do it one day and surprise him........tee hee. Probably not a good idea.

Another Pinterest Attempt--Flower Clip

So, I found this tutorial on Pinterest, and I just had to try it. I totally fell in love with it and thought it would be gorgeous in satin ribbon. Turns out, I was right lol.
This is a collage of the pics of my attempt--whatcha think? By the way, this collage is a free template on PicMonkey--I totally love that sight! It is so easy and fun to use. I'm not a paid spokesperson or anything lol. Just a totally happy customer. Did I mention that it is free? Love!

This flower wasn't as easy as I thought the tutorial looked. Maybe that is because I used satin ribbon. Not sure. But the petals kept turning opposite to each other and it was hard to get them situated. But, I have to say, I am in love with the result. I think I'm going to be buying lots of wider ribbon now lol.
I am going to send this to my new niece, Ellisia! She was just born today, and we already love her. Shane hasn't seen his brother in years. Long story, but she looks like a pretty good reason to make some arrangements lol.

Pinterest Inspired Brown Paper Lunch Sack Ruffle Wreath

Ok, so maybe the post title shouldn't say 'inspired'. Maybe it should say downright copied lol. I found a link to this tutorial on Pinterest, and I fell in L.O.V.E.  I have a think for the sort of 'natural' look of kraft colored paper. Couple that with butterflies, and hello! I'm smitten.

Here is a picture of the wreath from the tutorial.

And, here is my version:

Don't you just love it?! I think she made her wreath a lot smaller than mine because she said she used 6-8 paper lunch sacks, and I know I used at least 20 or so. She also said that she used a 2-1/3" scallop circle punch. Mine was 2-3/8", which is very close, but not the same.

I love it. I love the colors and butterflies especially, but it looks a bit small on my door. It took my like 10 hours to make though--literally. So, I don't think I'll be attempting a bigger one anytime soon.

Clean and Simple Card FTL191

I haven't crafted for a couple of weeks, and I really missed it. I feel like I have this constant pull to my craft room. But then half the time I spend in there is just on the computer looking at other people's stuff lol.
So, today I was determined to make SOMETHING. Anything really. But I wasn't up for a full on scrapbook page. So I decided to make a simple card. And what better place to go for simple inspiration than the Clean & Simple blog? I just love their sketches. They are simple, but you can make it whatever you like. It is a perfect jumping off point.
For some reason when I saw this week's FTL191 sketch, my mind immediately went to my long unused Season of Friendship stamp. Maybe it was the tree. I don't know.
And lately, I've really been liking yellow. It's such a sunny and warm color.
So, this is what I came up with. Let me know what you think!

Cardstock: American Crafts for base--not sure on the small flower pieces, they were just old scraps

Patterned Paper: Bo Bunny Flutter Butter Collection--my fave ever BB collection!

Stamps: Stampin UP Season of Friendship, Sentiment is from Stampendous

Ink: Stampin Up Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Summer Sun

Rhinestones: Queen & Company

Circle and Flower Punches: Stampin Up

Pen: Le Pen by Marvy/Uchida

Lacy's Graduation!

So, my youngest sister, Lacy, got her certificate in medical assisting last night! I am so darn proud of her. She has made some hard to reach goals for herself over the past couple of years, and she is doing so awesome at all of them!

Not only has she completed her training for medical assisting, but she has also lost about 100 pounds! She amazes me every day, and I just want her to know how proud our whole family is of her. She knows what is important to her, and she goes after it!

She is also an amazing mother, sister, wife, aunt, cousin, and friend (did I get every relationship she could possibly have? Lol). I am grateful every day that God gave me such an amazing family.

Oh, and her birthday is Monday too! So Happy Early Birthday Sis! I love you! I hope you know what a gift you are to everyone in your life. Your drive and determination blow me away--YOU ROCK!

**Excuse the cruddy photo quality. I used my phone camera and I know it can do better than that. But I don't really know how to change the settings. Hopefully Lacy's in-laws got better pics than I did :(**

Lacy and her Hubby, Dusty

Lacy and her cute family (Hubby--Dusty, and kids--Ryan and Jordyn)

 Lacy with her niece, Becca, who graduated with her in the same field (we are all very proud of Becca as well)

Hello there..........

I just wanted to drop in here and say I'm not dead lol. I know that isn't really funny. But I really have just been so busy with work and the nice weather that I haven't had time to post anything.
We went fishing last weekend with some friends in the gorgeous weather. I should have taken pictures, but I forgot my camera. I also went to a shoebox card party a couple of weeks ago at my cousin's house. So fun! I should post pics of what we did there too. Hmm.......I'm a bad blogger.
Other than that we've just been out enjoying the sunshine, doing some yard work, visiting with our friends next door and such. In other words, I've been lazy ;)
I'll see what I can do about that later this week too lol.
If anyone is still around, and I haven't lost too many of my sparse followers, thanks for looking :) I really will try harder.

Heart Punch Paper Flower Tutorial

We're going to make this flower today!

So, I saw this flower on Pinterest. But, when I clicked on it, it didn't take me to a tutorial. It looked pretty easy though, so I decided to try it out myself. And what do you know, it worked! So I decided to make my own little tutorial.
What You Need:

Heart Punch (I used my Stampin Up one, but I'm pretty sure any heart will work. You just need to adjust the size of your cirlce.
Circle Punch--size depends on size of heart your using. You can just freehand a circle if you don't have a punch. No one will see it once your flower is done. Mine is a 1-3/4" Punch from EK Success.
Cardstock--any old color will do. You won't see it once the 'petals' are glued to it
Double Sided Patterned Paper--Mine is an old Stampin UP series
Glue of some sort--I prefer the Tombow Mono permanent adhesive roller or snail adhesive from Stampin Up
Something to roll the petals with --I used an H size crochet hook because it is small in diameter. You could use any round stick like object.
Pretty Brad for Center of Flower--Mine is a Stampin Up jewel brad

Directions:
Punch 8 hearts from your double sided paper. I think this qty works for all heart punches, but not sure since I've only done this once.

Fold Each Heart in half and 'curl' one side of the heart back with your stick object.

 Ewww........can you tell I've been crafting? My nails are dirty and my cuticles cracked. *Sigh*

Continue to do this to each heart punch. Once they are all done, you can see the flower beginning to take shape by setting them next to each other in 'heart shapes' as seen below.

Punch a circle out of the cardstock piece. Fold the cardstock in half twice creating a center point.

Apply some glue to the first quarter of your cardstock and begin placing the 'petals'. Continue all the way around the circle. You can see I also poked a hole for my brad. You can do this now or later.

Once you are done, push your brad through the hole in the center of your cardstock, and voila--a pretty easy heart paper flower!

More Cards

Oi to the vey! I haven't blogged in two weeks! I have been trying to get some cards done for Mother's Day and birthdays to sell in my friend's salon. So, when I get done with that, the last thing I want to do is blog lol.
I took these up to her salon, and the Mother's Day ones sold all at once to one lady--like 5 minutes after I left--so now I have to do some more. That's good I guess, but I was thinking I might have a little time lol.
But, I do enjoy sharing my creations with people. So I'm glad I took pictures.
I also found a new picture editing sight. Yay! I was so depressed when I found out that Picnik was closing. I felt distraught lol. But then I saw that they recommended PicMonkey, and now I'm doing a happy dance. It is very similar to Picnik and does what I need, so I am thrilled.
I am not ashamed to admit that I case almost everything I do. I don't really come up with layouts easily on my own, but I like to create with paper. So I just copy everyone else's ideas. Sometimes down to the colors and everything. Others I just copy the layout. I just like to make cards. I don't think that is wrong, as long as you give credit where credit is due, right?

I made this card for a wedding my sister went to. I cased this card at SCS. I've been wanting to try that one for awhile. I like the heart punch used as the tuxedo and wedding dress. I thought that was a really cute idea.

 I cased this card from Pinterest, originally it was on SCS.

 Same here, I cased this one from Pinterest, but originally it is from SCS.

 I think I actually did this one on my own. Although, I've seen many like this. So it is just my own interpretation not totally cased from anyone lol.

I fell in love with these cards (it was probably the butterfly) on Pinterest and had to try them.

 This is a card that we made at our Stampin UP club meeting in April.

 This is a card that I cased off of this one that I found on the Clean and Simple

Sketch blog for sketch #FTL183.

 And here is yet another one I cased from SCS. You can see the original card here.

Earring Holder from Pinterest

So a few weeks ago my sister got a cool earring holder off of Etsy or somewhere. But, she wasn't really too happy with it because it was made with a cheaper picture frame than she thought it looked like in the photo on Etsy.
I really loved the idea, and I started to see them all over Pinterest. So, I decided to give it a shot. I went out and bought this old picture frame at a thrift store for $4.

Then I got a fine grit sanding block, some black spray paint, a clear coat spray paint, some screen (to repair screen doors), and some pretty fabric.

I sanded the frame, wiped it down with a dry cloth, spray painted with three coats of gloss black, sprayed it with two coats of the clear coat spray, cut the screen down to a manageable size and stapled into into the inside of the opening on the frame, cut and stapled in the fabric, then cut the excess screen and fabric away. Then I just added a pretty ribbon bow to hang it with, and voila--a pretty cute earring organizer!

I would link you to a tutorial if I had used one, but it looked pretty easy, so I just made it up as I went along. I think it turned out pretty well!

I still have a lot of earrings that can't go on  here because they are hoops or little studs that don't really hang. So I still have a jewelry box, but it isn't near as crowded. And now I can find my earring pairs without making a huge freakin mess every morning.