Weekend Visit

Hope you all had a great weekend, we did! My sister Gina and my niece Alexa paid us a visit this weekend. We had a great time hanging out at home and we also went out to Incredible Pizza so Alexa could have a little extra fun. My sis has a new Itouch and so we spent some time setting it up and drooling over it! On Sunday my DH made us hamburgers and as always they were yummy! Then we girls headed out to Michael's to get 3 Cricut cartridges as they were on sale for more than half off! How could I not get several, right? Over the course of the weekend my sis and niece played in my studio. On Saturday Alexa and Gina both worked on a couple of projects, Alexa did the butterfly artwork like mine. And Gina made something for her BF Monica and then on Sunday we had to use one of my new cartridges to make cute "All about me" signs for she and Monica both. I had such a great time having them over and especially having someone to play in my studio with me. Well, hope your Monday starts your week out well and I'll be back soon. Ciao!

Latest Work

This evening I worked on two signs that are going to be gifts to two ladies who have their own salons. My friend asked if I would make them each a sign that read "Gift Certificates Available". So here is one of them as they are both pretty much alike although I did hand stamp the background so they are not identical. I used a Martha Stewart Shadow Box, a stamp from Autumn leaves Swirls V.2 by Rhonna Farrer, Glitter from Doodle bug and my cricut to cut out the shaped ivory card. I used a font from Word to print out the words, my cuttlebug to cut and emboss the butterfly and voila, here is what I ended up with. *The lighting in my studio is not so great so the ivory background and card look mauve here but they are not and it is are 8.5 x 11 in size.

Goodnight or Happy Friday whichever it might be.

Lots to go over!

First and foremost you MUST go check out Mary Kay's blog, she has incredible taste and has even been featured on HGTV's Rate My Space! I learned about her through my friend Jeanette of course!

OK, so now I will move on to what I did this evening, as if you care, lol. I worked on some additional cards for the two sets of assorted cards. And then I made the birthday cards for the two bday girls who are getting the card sets as gifts. I used some bold colors with my favorite swirl stamp. And I wanted them to have some bling so had to add the rhinestones and glitter. I think they turned out too cute.

And when I was done with that I made a quick art'ish wall hanging for a co-worker who loves butterflies. I used some scrap I had in my basket of scraps and they quickly took flight.

Well, this is it for now, tomorrow night is a couples dinner with friends and so I am so ready for Italian food and lots of wine! Hope you have a great Wednesday and I will check in on Thursday. Ciao!

Why Not?

This one will make my good friend Christina G laugh and you too! So, a couple of years ago I bought some damask packing tape. I hadn't used it since it came home with me from the Nutcracker Market! Well, this weekend while shopping at my local Krogers I picked up a new container of baby wipes. Baby Wipes you ask? I know, I know, I don't have kids but I do have stamps! I have made baby wipes my stamp cleaner of choice. Well, since I ran out of my SU stamp cleaner and I have been too lazy to order more. Anyway, so since I am such a DIVA, lol I decided to pull off the baby wipes label and dress up the container with my packing tape and some extra paper scraps. So, here it is my baby wipes dispenser! It will be easy to refill and so I will only have to decorate this container. You know you LOVE IT! Admit it! LOL

Well, off to bed I go, have a great Monday. Ciao for now.

What we missed out on at CHA!

Thanks to the Bella Papier blog I found "Craft Critique", they have done a great job of showing lots of great items they came across at the CHA convention. Again, how I wish I worked in the scrapbooking bizness! This convention must have been an absolute blast and had I been there my head would have been spinning with all the great new stuff! When you get a chance check out their site, I linked their site down on my blog list or you can click on their name above to get to them too. Hope you have a great Sunday! And wouldn't this sizzix die cutter look adorable in my pinkalicious studio? he he. And I know my friend Christina would love this one too, she is a super huge fan of Hello Kitty!

Birthday Cards

Well, as I mentioned in last night's posting I am working on two sets of cards to be given as gifts. Each set contains 6 cards but I'm wondering if I should make two more for each set? The reason that I am questioning this is that I made two of each of the following for each set: Thank You, Happy Birthday and Happy Belated Birthday. I'm wondering now if I should also make two Congrats cards?

I am also quickly finding out that when I am making cards that I in turn will be given money for it seems that it puts a lot of pressure on me. I am the type of person that will stare at a card which I have made for too long and pick out things I don't like about it. That is a BAD trait!! Bad Nancy! Also, I need to figure out if I am bending any rules as far as using certain stamps. I certainly don't want to sell something that I shouldn't. Well, I ended up changing some of the designs and so here they are, as you can see I have copied some so that I wasn't in my studio all weekend long. Sometimes I just can't get my game on and so that is when doing the same design over is easiest. Well, hope you are having a great weekend! As always if you click on the pic you will see it in a larger size and feel free to leave any comments. Ciao!

You MUST check out this blog!

One talented woman! Check out the cupcakes and the other incredible things she has made! Boy, my cards are looking so basic now, lol. http://lindaalbrecht.typepad.com/simple_things/

Friday Night Play Time

Just wanted to share with you what I worked on tonight. My project is to make an assortment of cards to be given as a gift. I think I like them, do you? If you get a chance leave me a comment with your thoughts.

Free Font Friday

I was just checking out one of my favorite blogs, Jessica Sprague and she has a great list of free fonts to download from various sites. If you see a font you like just click on the little icon on the upper left hand corner of the font sample box and it will take you to the site to download the font. Also, she has a tutorial in case you don't know how to install them into the proper folder on your computer. I snagged a few myself, I like to use them when doing digital scrap booking and also when typing up my journals as I'm not a big fan of my handwriting. Happy Friday!

http://spraguelab.squarespace.com/blog/2008/7/18/photoshop-friday-font-o-licious-24-free-fonts.html

Just a hello

Hello friends, I often wonder if folks stop in and read my blog? Hmmm....so I added the counter and so it does appear that some do drop by :) I am trying to learn new ways to engage my readers and so I will be adding new items to my blog more often. I so love meeting other bloggers that share my interests! Some of my friends think I'm such a geek for doing this but I do love it! I am also asked how I find others that are like me and I tell them it's is so very easy! I haven't tried any type of search engine, I simply go to the blogs I like and have come across by accident then I check out who they like to visit. And from there I meet many new friends, of course they often don't know I'm there but I do try and leave comments as I know I love receiving comments on my blog.

So, one of my new friends has asked me to make some birthday gifts for her to give a couple of friends. I will be working in my Pinkalicious Studio all weekend! Yeah!! I have been given the task of making a birthday card for two bday girls. Then I will make each of them an assortment of cards ie. birthday, thank you's and congrats or something like that. I am looking forward to it and so I will be sure to share what I make with you. I plan on borrowing some ideas from other blogger friends and also will do my best to come up with my own designs as I do love to come up with my own creations! I really want to get published and so that means I need to really try hard to come up with some cute unique cards. I have seen some incredible detailed cards out there and I do love them! However, I know that many of us have busy schedules and so I want to come up with cards that are good looking yet easy to make!

One last note, I made it on Jeanette's blog again, yeah!! She makes me feel like a star, hehe. Be sure to click on her name to check out her awesome style and ideas and she also has links to other great bloggers!

Quickie

Made the congrats card last night for a quick congrats to a friend on a new job. I think it turned out pretty cute! I used Bazzill card stock, cuttlebug swiss dot embossing folder, cricut to cut the letters and had some brown ribbon. The other card is one I made basically the same way without the ribbon and the cricut though. Hope your hump day is going well!

Sunday's Project

Well, I finally tried out my new Zutter Binder and boy is it cool! It took a little trial and error, unfortunately I used a new Teresa Collins Bracket Binder to try it out and I goofed. I didn't want the covers to go to waste so I cut them down and made a small "Me" book. The shape looked like an N to me and so that is how I came up with my theme. I am most proud that I finished the book in a total of 3hrs at most. I actually cut out the cover and inside pages yesterday. I needed some time to get inspired and so tonight I took on the challenge and go it all done. I don't usually like to use my hand writing but I did this time and so there are a few goofs but it is all part of creating I say. Well, hope you had a great weekend and that your week is a great one! Ciao for now.

A New Look

Here is a before and after shot of the bookcase area, it took a few times to re-arrange items on the shelves and I'm still not sure if this is the final setup? I was going to put more of my toys on the new bookcase but decided that it would just be the cricut for now. Hope your weekend is going well!

Almost Ready

Well, the pinkalicious studio is almost ready to be re-loaded with all of my supplies and toys! Here is a photo of a before and almost finished shots. If you look closely you will notice that we now have crown moulding and we replaced the old style baseboards with a taller classier style. And the bookcase has been rebuilt from the ground up, goodbye student desk! Last night I did the touch up painting of the Cafe pink and another coat of Swan Wing on the trim and bookcase. I am so excited at how great the room looks, it really does make a difference with all the great crown moulding! And my DH Andy did an incredible job installing it all! Tonight I will start loading the room with all my stuff, I will most likely wait another few days for the bookcase to cure properly so that my things don't stick to it, lol. Hope you are having a great Thursday!! *Click on photo to see it larger.

Happy Birthday Spellbinders!

OK ladies, you need to go to the Spellbinders site and on it you will see links for each day till the 13th, if you haven't gone there already then you will see that we missed some days to enter to win dies! Each day they will reveal a new die and so the blogger who is introducing it will show you how they used it and then you will see a link to enter to win it. You MUST enter the name of the die in the subject line and you can only enter once a day. Had I known about this from the beginning then I would have been eligible for the Grand Prize but oh well, better late than never! So click on the word Spellbinders in my posting to get to the site with the daily links and good luck! Oh, and you must use the same email address each day when entering. Ciao!

Who really relaxes on a three day holiday?

Hello there! Hope you had a great 4th of July weekend! Ours was fun and super busy! We spent the evening of the 4th with Roy and Christina at the Sam Houston Race Park and it was a good time. We were dreading the parking lot after the event and although it was a mess we were parked near the exit so we didn't sit there as long as many others did. The fireworks were really neat, I'm not a huge fireworks fan but it was neat. On Saturday we headed up to Home Depot and bought all the lumber needed for our weekend project. I had been wanting to get Andy a nail gun for sometime and so he gladly accepted! We got a Porter Cable nail gun that hooks up to the air compressor and man did it save us some time!! We unloaded the hobby room contents into the guestroom and did the initial painting of the trim on Saturday. Sunday morning we got up bright and early and started the demo of the existing student desk and bookcase and removed all the base trim and door trim. We worked non-stop all day, a 14hr work day for us and we still have more to do. There are two last pieces of trim to be installed and I am in the middle of painting the bookcase with primer and also have gotten most of the nail holes caulked. Will go home today after work and continue the priming and then hopefully start painting the trim with the final coat of paint either today or tomorrow. Here are some pictures of the room so far.

Totally in love with Cricut and Cuttlebug!

OK, I am in serious love with my new Cricut and Cuttlebug! Last night I made a card for a friend and I used Bazzill cardstock, Stampin' Up stamps, Cricut, Cuttlebug embossing folders and some bling. The card I made my friend Laura turned out so adorable, so much that I almost kept it for myself, lol. I took tons of pics of it and will re-create it this weekend for my stash. I used the Cricut to cut the white shaped card as well as the green frame. And I also used the Cricut to cut out an envelope and applied that to the back of the birthday card and put in a small card so that my writing wouldn't be out on the front. The embossing was done with the Cuttlebug, used a birthday embossing folder and the Swiss Dot folder.

I then made her some cards to give out as birthday cards and thank you notes. For those I used some cards that I had on hand from Target, found them on clearance and knew they would come in handy one day. I used the Cricut to cut out the white card and stamped it with my Stampin' Up stamps and on the birthday cards I also stamped a sentiment on the inside. For the Thank You cards I used some paper stock to cut out squares with the cricut and then stamped on them using another Stampin Up stamp. They turned out so cute!

Well, I hope you guys had a great week and that you have some fun plans for the 4th of July weekend! We will be going to the Sam Houston Race Track to see the horses race and fireworks with our friends The Graffs! Then we will be working in my studio, my DH is re-building the built in bookcase so that there is more storage space for me and we may also install the crown moulding and baseboards, we'll see. Will update the blog over the weekend if I get a chance, ciao for now! One last thing, as always you can click on the pics and they will pull up in a larger size.