November Upsy Daisy share

Did you know that the Upsy Daisy blog is hoppin' with great projects? Well if you haven't visited the Daisy Diaries blog in a while, check them out here.

Here's a couple of projects that I made for Upsy Daisy this month....

Thank you card

although most people are still just now thinking about Christmas greeting cards, I'm already starting on my Thank you cards for the season. You never know when you'll need that extra special thank you card to show your appreciation for a holiday gift.


I used the Hot Chocolate line here. I love the whimsy feel of the pinks, greens and brown. I'm also inlove with butterfly right now and I added that together with a rubon sentiment.

Hark frame

The Spirit line had this pattern paper that had an angel with trumpet design on it and that's what jump started this idea.


to learn more about this project and how to make it, check this post that I made for the daisy diaries blog.

Thank you for looking and till next time,
Grace

Crazy Daisy November Add on kit

I was very fortunate to receive two fun kits from Crazy Daisy kit this month. If you haven't seen what I did with the main kit, check it over here. Kim and Jen also sent me the add on kit. It was definitely a fun kit. Lots of earth tone colored items and it jump started my creativity pretty quickly. Here's what I came up with....

Park day fun

This page was inspired by all the earth tones on the paper and embellishment plus the jillibean soup paper with fun trees on it.

I added ribbons and date ticket here too. I cut out the trees and used them as embellishments on the page.

I cut out strips from the JBS notepads and handwrote my journaling.

Best Dad in the world

I loved all the papers in the kit that I decided to show them off here. I picked two that I cut out in pieces and then punched out circles for the rest and created the design on the left with them.
I also punched out more notepads into circles and then handwrote my journaling.

To make my green title stand out from a bold designed paper, I painted brown on the paper and then adhered my title.

I connected the blocks of paper with the circles with a strip of ric rac ribbon and added flowers and two owls.

Card set
the add on kit had tons of items on it that I was able to make three more cards with it.


happy birthday card

I used a lot of the embellishments here and created a visual triangle with the yellow stars.

Mom

I used a journaling sticker as an element to lead the eye to the card title. I also added flowers for the feminine touch.

Thank U

I adhered a big journaling sticker onto cardstock, trimmed it and cut in into two pieces. Making the edges point to the butterfly.

If you want more info about the add on kit or any other kits that Crazy Daisy offers, check them out here.

Thank you for looking and till next time,
Grace

Artsy Urban projects...

Last month GCD Studios released a great collection called "Artsy Urban" designed by Melody Ross. As part of the GCD design team, I was very lucky to have received the whole line and here's the first two projects that I made with it.

For you gift tin and bracelet set

I love all the butterflies from this paper collection that I decided to make them the focal point of my projects. So I created this tin can container with a fabric bracelet with a butterfly accent on it.


For the tin can, I spray painted an empty altoid can. After it dried, I covered it up with some papers from the collection. I chose to use the 8x8 paper pad for this project. I feel that because the item that I'm altering is small, that smaller designs/prints would work best so I opted for the smaller version of the patterns.
I edged all the papers before adhering them to create a distress look.


After that, I worked on the cover of the tin can. I layered lots of fun embellishments from the collection like the journaling block, crochet flower, button, epoxy sticker, clear butterfly sticker (adhered first onto white cardstock then cut out) and jewel brad.
Then I handwrote a short sentiment.

For the butterfly bracelet...

I first created my fabric base. I measured my wrist all the way around, cut out a fabric with that measurement plus 1/2" seam allowance on the sides. I also added the silk ribbon to two ends of the fabric before stitching it all the way around (wrong side together) and then turning it right side out, hand stitching it to close. Then I ironed it to make it flat.
Then I grabbed the blue pattern paper from the 12x12 pad, cut it into a circle and crumpled and distressed the edge.
Next I layered two butterfly accents. I connected them all together (butterflies and paper) with a jewel brad and added an epoxy sticker for an extra layer of texture.

Butterfly headband.
-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-

Continuing with the wearable art...I grabbed one of the felt strips from the paper collection and placed a strip of pattern paper underneath it before hot gluing it onto a thin headband I had lying around my dresser.
-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-

For the flower embellishment, I cut out a strip of paper from the 12x12 pack and rolled it around to create a flower. I also distressed the edge of it.
-PULLED OUT FOR PUBLICATION-

Next I layered it with an acetate accent, crochet flower and a butterfly brad.
I adhered the flower accent with glue gun on the side of the headband.

Liked what you saw? GCD Studios posted another project of mine in the blog today. It has a Thanksgiving theme with it. Check it out here.

Thank you for looking.

Till next time,
Grace

a C-R-A-Z-Y week revisited

I'm posting this because...a. I wanna laugh out the tiredness that I feel; b. when I thought last week was crazy, this week's activities makes this long list of things that I did small in comparison and c. because I have tons of pictures I wanna share....

Sunday
Church in the morning. It was Ward Conference so it was a bit crazy.
Had the missionaries over and served them an early dinner.
Mitch and I met with the Bishop and he gave me a new calling.
Went to our nephew's baptism.

Monday
this day is almost always devoted to cleaning and laundry. I'm always welcomed by this sight....

and turn it into organized piles like this...

I also worked tonight.

Tuesday
Maddie and I were at the preschool just for a little time before heading out to the Court house to witness this....

My brother George decided to marry his girlfriend of four years (more or less) at a very small and short ceremony at the Norwalk Country recorder's office. My parents were still in Virginia visiting my sister and her family and everybody else were working so I was the representative for the whole clan. Mitch was there too, by the way.

Wednesday
Devoted all morning to this....

dived into my November crazy daisy kits and worked on some scrapbook projects.

In the afternoon I had a little emotional breakdown. Who knew that 1st grade could be so hard! I choose not to go into details on this.

Thursday
Took Ms. Tinkerbell aka Maddie to preschool for their Halloween party. She enjoyed all the crafts and games oh and of course all the treats!


Right after school, we drove to here to pick up my parents who flew back from Virginia.


Tonight I attended a church meeting. Broke down again but this time it was good cause I was confiding to a friend. Gotta love great friends.

Friday
Continued on with my scrapbook projects.
Went to the grocery store and Walmart.
Bought and wrap a present. We were invited to a birthday party Saturday.
Worked tonight

Saturday
Took in a morning shift at work. I need the hours. *wink*
Went to the birthday party
Made this when the family got home....


and then took the kids around the neighborhood to get their candy fill.....


Was your week crazier than that?!

Till next time,
Grace

November Crazy Daisy layouts *photo heavy*

I truly feel blessed to be receiving the Crazy Daisy kits every month. There kits don't disappoint. There's TONS of products in there and I love that I'm always inspired to try new things with this kit. Here's my November projects....

Calendar Helper

In this layout I wanted to use those fun JBS notepads as part of my design so I punched out 1 1/2" circles from the papers, cut them in half and made them as scallops on top and bottom of my picture strip.


I added a fun cluster of embellishments on the top. I love transferring rubons onto cardstock, cutting them out and then adhering them to my page.


I created a visual triangle between the orange letters from the title, orange brad on the cluster of embellishments and orange star by the journaling block. I also used the Crate Paper border and journaling stickers here.

Girlfriends

I love the floral design from one of the Pattern papers and used that as embellishments. The size of the flowers created for a more dramatic look. I added the Pink Paislee brads on it for more texture and dimension.




I also added a rubon onto my main photo for added interest.

Papa's birthday

This double page spread was made quick with all the fun stuff in the November kit. I used some papers, the grungeboard, letter stickers and embellishments.


I love the owl ribbon and it reminded me of my "old" man! Kidding aside, I thought it would be a cute addition to my dad's birthday layout. The ribbon was a little bit too short for my 12x12 page so I added a journaling rubon, transfered first onto cardstock then cut it half.


I created a visual triangle between the two sets of grungeboard and letter stickers.
The grungeboards were painted first then sanded down to show off the circles on the board.

You are....

I love the patterns from the papers in the kit. They provided me with lots of variety. These earth toned papers worked perfectly for these pictures of my son with the tree behind him.


I angled the brown paper for some interest. I cut out the word "adore" from the bingo card and added that to my layout together with some border stickers,ribbons and lots of embellishments.


Because the ribbon was thick, I added pop up dots to my photos so the ribbon won't create a bulk underneath it.

Beautiful Graduate

I chose to make this page cause the subtle colors from the background pattern paper had the same kinda blue that my step daughter's graduation gown has.


I used the transparency word as part of my title. I also used the page block in the kit as a mat for my main photo. I added journaling on the extra space around the picture.


Three punched out butterflies was added for visual triangle. I also added two photo corner stickers to show the location of my daughter during their line up before the ceremony.

Grab a kit NOW and be inspired!

Stay tune, I had a pleasure of working with the add on kit as well and I'll be posting those project soon.

Till next time,
Grace

are you up for some Artsy Urban???

Check out the GCD Studios blog today. Be inspired by the beautiful layouts the DT made with the collection. Also if you leave a comment you might with this great prize.....


Don't delay, visit now.

Till next time,
Grace

Hello November.....

****I typed this up on Sunday but was interrupted with other stuff before I was able to post it so pretend it's Sunday when your read it ok. :) *********************************

Gosh can you believe we only have two more months before another year is over! Time flies so quickly.

So today was a great day. Not only did I get to have an extra hour of sleep but more importantly because I can finally sink in into my new calling at church. I'm a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. (don't know if you knew that or not) Anyways, at our church, everybody volunteers for the job, nobody gets paid. Leaders are inspired by the Lord to call specific people for specific jobs. Whether it be in leadership roles or to be a teacher or to plan social activities, each one is given a "calling" and they are to do their best and have faith in the Lord to "magnify" or perform these jobs.

Well for the past four and a half years, I've been serving in the Primary organization of our ward (congregation). My job was to be a counselor/helper for our Primary president. We oversee the children's program (sunday school, scouts, activities and anything related to the children). Anyways, today they changed my role. They called me to be the Primary president and the congregation "sustained" (approved) it. As anybody called to a higher position, there's some anxiety connected to the new role and I felt that and maybe more but as I was sustained and set apart (blessed) by my priesthood leaders, I felt calm and ready to move forward.

In my patriarchal blessing, I was told that I would be teaching children. I love children and am very grateful to be a part of their first years of learning the gospel. I don't know yet how I will do half the things I am now responsible for but I do have the faith that it will all go through as the Lord has planned it.

What's for sure is that I'm definitely going to be bringing my love for papercrafts to this new calling. Whether it be having the kids make little scrapbooks (that would be totally fun), making thank you cards to our many wonderful teachers or making fun visuals for the kids to learn better. Fun paper will definitely be put in the mix!

Speaking of papers, I got some projects soon to be posted. Here's some sneek peeks...


Tomorrow I'm posting my first blog post for Upsy Daisy. Here's a little peek at the project I made. Be sure to stop by there to see more pics and I even added a little "how to".


I just emailed this project to GCD Studios and it's something that I will be revealing soon here in the blog. But for now let me share an itty bitty look at it.

more to come.

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 5 (card)

Only one more day before Halloween. It seems like there some people that are trying to celebrate early, I was driving around town this morning and saw this one driver all suited up to be that scary guy in "I know what you did last summer" movie. Remember that scary mask? Yes that person even had the mask on. Now I wonder if the mask hinders him/her from seeing clearly on the road? LOL.

Anyways, I'm here on my last day of Halloween Posts. I have to say this is one of themed posts that I enjoyed a lot and hope you did too. Just sad that I didn't get any comments/feedback from all the other posts.

Anyhow, today I'm leaving you with a card that I made for the holiday....

Happy Halloween card

What I love about this card is that the papers that I used were from a different themed pack. I used some patterns from a school themed paper pack. I was inspired to use it cause the colors were very close to the Halloween theme, especially the glittered black paper. Don't you think so?


the tree stamp was purchased at the dollar bin at Joanns. Don't you just love those dollar stamps? I'm so addicted to them. Anyways, I stamped it with this orange glittery ink pad and I didn't let it dry very well before touching it so I accidentally smeared the ink all around. Before I got upset at myself, I realized that the smearing actually created the "spooky" feel to the stamped image so I kept it as is. Isn't it great to see your mistakes become new techniques?!


I finished it off with a stamped sentiment and an orange ribbon.

Before I go, I just want to share a picture of my family on Saturday night before we left the house for our Ward's (church) Halloween party......


recognize the guy in the middle?

He was named as "my cousin from Arkansas" but really he's just Mitch being hilariously funny!

Happy Halloween guys and stay safe!

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 4 (cookie recipe)

As if candies are not enough sugar for your kids, I'm here to share with you a great tasting cookie recipe that will be both enjoyed by you and your kids. *smile*

I got this recipe about two years ago from a Relief Society meeting (my church's women's group). It's a very old recipe that one of the sisters have been using ever since her kids were little. She now has over 10 grandkids!

Anyways I loved it when we made it during our women's activity that I decided to set up a cookie decoration activity for my kids and some of their friends. Here's some pics of that fun day!


Circa 2007
Can you tell that the kids favorite part of the activity is decorating? Marcus would sneek in some tasting of the candy decorations while we weren't looking. He has the mustache to prove it. LOL


Circa 2007.
I have to warn you that these cookies are really good and really big! They're supposed to be huge so if you don't want to have all that sugar in your home and system, cut the recipe in half.


Circa 2007.
We used cream cheese frosting. I thought it went really well with the pumpkin taste of the cookie.


Circa 2007
And if the cookies weren't enough, we made some caramel apples too. Yummy!

Pumpkin Cookie
from "Libby's canned pumkin" company

Ingredients:
4 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
2 cups quick or old fashioned oats, uncooked
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
1 cups granulated sugar
1 egg
1 teaspon vanilla extract
1 can (16 oz.) Libby's solid pack pumpkin
1 cup real semi-sweet chocolate morsels
assorted icings or peanut butter
assorted candies, raisins or nuts

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350.
Combine flour, oats, soda, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
Cream butter; gradually add sugars, beating until light and fluffy. Add egg and vanilla; mix well. Alternate additions of dry ingredients and pumpkin, mixing well after each additions.
Stir in morsel.
For each cookie, drop 1/4 cup dough onto lightly greased cookie sheet; spread into pumpkin shape using a thin metal spatula. Add a bit more dough to form stem.
Bake at 350 , 20-25 min. , until cookies are firm and lightly browned. Remove from cookie sheet; cool on racks.
Decorate using icing or peanut butter to affix assorted candies, raisins or nuts.
Yields about 32 large cookies.
Variation: Substitute 1 cup raising for morsels.

and of course, I can't have the activity pass without scrapbooking it. Here's how I documented the event...
The makings of a Sweet Tradition

Circa 2007.

Till next time,
Grace

Halloween day 3 (treat bags)

I don't know about you but I get to stretch my creativity when holidays like Halloween comes around. In my daughter's preschool class, they like to give treats during a special holiday and Halloween is always the first one. I'm always thinking of a better and cuter way to pack up the little treats and this year I went to my scrap stash.



I wanna show you how to "dress" up those fun treat bags without having to go to your local scrapbook/ craft store to buy new supplies.




to make these fun treat bag toppers you'll need:
-small ziploc bags (I used the ones that they have in the jewelry section of my craft store)
-scrap pattern papers (pick ones that are in the holidays' color scheme. I used black, green, orange and brown)
-ribbon (I used grossgrain and some satin too.)
-halloween stamp
-stapler
-scotch tape
-black pen
-candies or small toys/treats

others (but necessary)
-border punch


first- gather your supplies


Second- trim pattern papers to fit your ziploc bag. Just measure the top and then double the number so the paper can overlap on both front and bag side of the bag. Mine measured 3" wide and 4 1/2" long. Add a decorative border on one side with your punch if desired.


third- fold in half.


fourth- wrap some ribbon around one side of the fold.


fifth- stamp sentiment onto cardstock. I cut my cardstock into 1 1/2" circles before stamping my sentiment.


sixth- fill up the bags with treats. I personally think that one candy plus one toy is good enough for little preschoolers but you can fill it up to how much you want it.


seventh- place the folded paper over the top of the ziploc bag and then staple.


eight- handwrite your child's name.


ninth- adhere your stamped cardstock. I used scoth tape so it'll be sturdy and I also made sure I placed the circle over the staple for a cleaner look.

That's it! Easy Peazy! If you're doing it for your older kids' class or group, you can even get your older kids to help you. I got my six year old to fill up the bags with the treats while I made the toppers.

Seriously how easy and fun is this?!

Thank you for stopping by and see you tomorrow.

Till next time,
Grace