Moxie Fab Challenge

When I saw Cath's challenge up on the Moxie Fab blog I thought it would be great motivation to get started on my Christmas cards! Here's what I came up with:I'm pretty much in love with this color scheme. Also the Let it Snow tag. is hanging so that's why it is crocked.

Supplies:

Stamps: Merry and Bright (PTI)
Cardstock: White (PTI)
Ink: Ruby Red, Tempting Turquoise (Stampin' Up!), Ripe Avocado (PTI)
Ribbon: White Organza (Stampin Up)

scrapbooking page.

Wow what a weekend (and we are only half way through)! This morning we finished up the Beth Moore simulcast at church and let me tell you it was AMAZING. She is such a gifted teacher! I will say I'm pretty worn out now, but I wouldn't let myself take a nap after I got back today. I was able to make a scrapbook page.

I started off with a 12x12 sheet of cardboard. I added some paint. Painted some old paper letters to match. Hid my journaling in a little sleeve. And here's the end result:

The faux stitching took the longest, but I'm glad I did it. Also, I just love my few copics I have. Do you see the thread in the yellow button? Well it's a light white color and I just colored it with the yellow copic! Works like a charm. I'm off to dinner. Are you all crafting this weekend? I am so behind on visiting my favorite blogs! I promise I'll catch up soon.

So exciting...

I was excited to see my closet makeover featured on Just a Girl today. Chris has an amazing decorating/do it yourself blog and I'm a big fan. Check it out!

Tonight I'll be at the Beth Moore simulcast at my church... so I won't have a card today, but I have a fun scrapbook page in the works for tomorrow!

for you... yea you.

Have I told you how much a I enjoy you, my blog friends? Well I do! I have so much fun reading all of your inspiration and hopefully I give you some as well.

As a thank you I thought I'd make something for one of you!And here is a look inside:
And guess what I made it out of... an old check box. I just painted it white and went to town. I did make a little divider inside as well. It's basically just some chipboard and some ribbon spools inside, but who knows what else might go in the package!

So, I'd love to send it you, just leave a comment that's it!

I've also had some sweet friends give me a blog awards lately! Thanks you Kelley and Winter. I enjoy both of your blogs so much, not to mention your friendship! If you haven't checked out their blogs they are fantastic.

Here are a few other blog friends that are just fantastic:

Lynnette- Netter's Notables

Amy- Tsurta Designs

Kelly Marie- Lawn Fawn Cards
Christina - Happy Stamping
Dana - Paper Daydream
Jane - Plain Jane
Randee - Randee's Rendezvous
Brit - Art is my Sunshine
Tina - Traveling Mama (I think I may want to be her... seriously)
Ann - Creative Antics

I feel like I could go on and on. Maybe I will on my next post! There are just so many extremely talented bloggers out there! Go check them out!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #15

I finally had a chance to play along with Dawn's challenge. I just love her challenges, especially since Kristina Warner hasn't had one in awhile. Dawn always does such a great job.

Here's the colors:I didn't have any melon so I had to do the best with what I had. Here's my card.If you happened to watch my latest video, you'll notice my new May Arts ribbon. I'm still so in love with it. I really think I need it in other colors! I also used my oldest embossing powder. I still remember when I first learned about embossing and got this glitter powder with my gun!

Stamps: Sentiments (American Crafts)
Paper: Vintage Cream, Bitty Boxes Moss, Berry Sorbet (PTI)
Button: White and Cream (PTI)
Ribbon: May Arts

Thanks for coming by! I think I'll have a little giveaway tomorrow, so stop back by!

CK Nashville

Yesterday I finally signed up for CK Nashville! I'll be there on Saturday. If you are planning on going I'd love to hear what you signed up for! Here's what I'm taking:

Everyday Life (based on Ali Edwards Style)
Latest and Greatest with Basic Grey

And of course there is shopping!

Have a great Tuesday.

I'm back...

Wow, sorry I meant to leave a message letting everyone know I would be gone for a couple of days. Hopefully you saw my twitter messages to the right and saw that I was in Atlanta! Chase and I really took a spur of the moment trip!
I did make a quick video about some of the stuff I got on the trip:



Or you can watch it here.

I also whipped up a quick card for my brother-in-law. He's coming tomorrow to fix my car! THANKS CORY! Stamps: Thanks American Crafts
Button: PTI
Paper: Not Quite Navy, Ripe Avocado
Ticket: Jenni Bowlin

Also, I have a couple of updates on the closet. I got my little jewelry shelf together. The little hanger came from IKEA for $2.50. I did have to spray paint it. The little basket is going to be for Chase's watches etc.

We also got coat hangers! IKEA by far had the best price. Don't they look nice?

You and Me

Tonight I was planning on to make a card, but I ended up with a scrapbook page. I love when that happens. I was completely inspired by Ali Edwards Technique Tuesday guest Shimelle Laine. I actually liked her post so much that I'm thinking about taking her latest online class. I've never done an online class, but I think it would be fun. Let me know if your interested in joining me.

So I used several techniques on this. First off I painted my sheet and then used a circle stamp to press into the wet paint. It is super hard to see in the photo, but it does give it a nice texture. I then stamped Damask Designs in black Stazon, and then brushed on some cream. Lastly I added my little collage. Just some random paper, chipboard, American Craft Flair (thanks Ann) and prima flower. I also did some messy stitching on it to add another dimension. And since my hubby was wearing bright pink I was able to add in a little fun pink in the collage as well.
I've got to finish up my book club book for this month. What is really sad is that I'm half way through, carry the book everywhere, and I could not tell you the name of it for the life me. Obviously I love it.

The Finished Closet!

I have to say I'm in love with our closet. And before I go much further I have to say a HUGE thank you for my sweet husband and father for making this happen. It's so nice to have a husband that can take one of my ideas and make it reality. So unfortunatly I didn't take a before picture (what was wrong with me - I think excitement), but just take this empty room and add one row of wire shelving:
The picture below are pre-organizing. I promise it normally looks better! I was just so excited to throw everything in there!

And now (it was so hard to take this pictures without a wide angle lens):

We made everything thing out of MDF (except the the crown molding).

Are you ready for the total cost? $300. Way more cost efficent then some of the other options I looked at!

Now I'm on the look out for wood hangers. I found some great ones at IKEA, but Atlanta is the closest one. Or I can fork over the extra $30 for shipping, but there is no way I can do that. I also need to get baskets that fit our new shelves. Lastly I have plans for a full length mirror and a shelf for my jewelry!

Brayden's Birtday Card

We had my sweet nephew Brayden's birthday party yesterday. So through the project madness that's going in our house right now I was able to make a quick card. I usually hate me quick cards, but although this is a simple one I really like it.
I also realized that I have ZERO kiddish stamps. I really need to invest in some. Any ideas?

The paper is from an old SU pack Summer Picnic.

And here is the most recent picture of Brayden. He's really starting to look like a little boy now. He also had that moment where he realized his mom and I have the same name. One day at lunch he pointed to me and said, "You're Courtney Baker" then pointed to his mom and said "And she's Courtney Baker." He said this all with the biggest -I'm so proud of myself - grin. Super cute.
I'll leave you with another picture of our project. And just so you know, we are building a closet system. It is going to be a million times better than what we had before!

a big project.

This is probably the biggest project Chase and I have taken on in awhile...

Any guesses? Also, did you make a purchase from PTI? What did you get?

inspired card.

After seeing the new stamp set Nicole previewed today for Paper Trey Ink. I decided to break out an old Stampin' Up set that has a similar feel. To be honest this isn't really my style (the image), but I do love to color. I wish there were more color friendly stamps that feel into my kind of stamps (whatever those are, right?). I was able to pair the image with some Cosmo Cricket Ever After Elements to give it a nice feel. What do you think?
Stamps: Inkadinkado Brenda Walton, A Flower for All Season (SU)
Paper: Kraft (SU)
Marker: Sage Shadow and Copics
Ticket: Jennie Bowlin
Button: PTI White and Cream

Around my image I wanted to do an aged look. I used vintage cream first and then aged photo from ranger. I think it gave a nice look.

Also, for any of you that made your own photo tent that I posted about earlier (see here). I purchased two utility lights at a yard sale and finally got new bulbs. Let me tell you it made a huge difference. Please refer to yesterday's post and compare to the pictures above. You'll get the idea.

Lastly, make sure you check back this weekend. Chase and I have a big - BIG project in the making. I'll be posting pretty frequently!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #14

oday Chase spent the day working at LifeWay on a curriculum project, so I got to ride to and from work with him. It was pretty fun just to ride and talk. On the way back today, I saw the prettiest rainbow! I've always thought rainbows were beautiful but today it really took my breath away. It was a huge full rainbow and so, so bright. In that moment I was impressed with God's gift to us. How smart was He when He gave us such an incredible, unexpected, wonder of nature.

I did have a chance to participate in Dawn's color challenge! Here are the terrific colors she picked:

Here's my card (please excuse the background my flash is doing some weird things:
Stamps: Polka Dot Basic
Paper: Vintage Cream, Elegant Eggplant
Ribbon: Martha Stewart
American Crafts Flair
Ink: Versamark and Clear Embossing Powder

We dropped off my sister at college this Sunday. My Dad, Mom and I were all sujavascript:void(0)per emotional to leave her! It's just so hard to believe she is starting college! Since Alison is eight years younger than me, my mom has always called me her "other" mother! I can't imagine how mom's feel when they send there kids off to college - such a tear jerker!


We are so proud of you Ali! We know you are going to do amazing things!

***Photo removed... although I thought it was cute my little sister vetoed it.***

sewing, a card, and an update.

I have a feeling this is going to be a long post, so there's the warning.

First I wanted to share one of the reasons my week was so crazy. Wednesday we had our big kick off at church for the new school year. Every age group had an activity - kids had blow up games, high school students had a beach party, adults had a comedian. Any guesses on what the middle schoolers did? We had mud games! Here are a few pictures:The students being sprayed off by the fire department.The students had a blast, but after all of the mud there was a ton of clean up. I'm so thankful for Ashley and Rhonda who helped me scrub all the bathrooms where the students changed! I was so tired after that.

Onto sewing! I had so much fun yesterday with my sewing class. Sarah, our teacher, did such a great job! Check out my bag I made!
One last thing, I made a card for my dad for his birthday:
Pattern paper: Basic Grey June Bug, Scrabble Letters, SU Designer Paper
Felt Thickers


Also, I'm so impressed with these girls that sew on their cards. It's so much harder than it looks.
I'm off to help my sister move to college. It's so crazy she's leaving! It really makes me feel old.

card positioning sketch

Wow, sorry for the lack of posts lately. It's been a crazy week (more on that tomorrow). I'm actually about to head out to my first sewing class, but before I do, I wanted to share this.

Here is the CPS sketch-
And here is what I came up with-
The colors were actually inspired by my outfit yesterday (navy pants and a mustard shirt). Here's what I used:

Paper: Navy, Mustard, Cream
Stamps: In Bloom
Ribbon: Ripe Avocado
Ink: Ripe Avocado, Vintage Cream

There's No One Like You

Do you every have pieces of cards that you don't end up using? From time to time I do, and I usually use those pieces as a challenge to myself to use. Originally I had colored the hearts below to make this card. Obviously that turned out different than I expected. So tonight I came up with this:
I originally had straight lines and non script text, but I wanted to make it a little messy so I just started doodling over it. I kind of like the effect.

Stamps: Go Green (My Cute Stamps), Polka Dot Basics (PTI)
Paper: Real Red, White, Not Quite Navy Designer Paper
Ink: White, black stazon
Extras: Gold Stickles, Copic Markers, White Remarks Sticker
Hope you all are having a great night!

AHHHHH!

So yesterday, I took my wedding ring over to our local jewelry store to have it cleaned and checked out. They guy was super nice, and since the jewelry store Chase original bought it from has now gone out of business, I was looking for a "regular" place to go. They manager checked it out and said "everything looks good, but that is not to say one of your really small stones won't fall out tomorrow." Have you guessed what happened today? Yep, one of my small stones fell out. I mean this is a tiny diamond they are all over my ring, but it still stinks. I mean sersiouly what are the chances?

I did finish the back of my scrapbook page I showed yesterday. I basically went with Lime Ricky papers from Basic Grey. Also, sometimes, I like to use the pattern paper to make an element. Usually it's just cutting part of the pattern out. I did this on all three of the pattern sheets.
Also, for this page, I wrote directly on the page protector with a sharpie. I think it gives it a pretty cool look.
I also updated my flowers around the house. I love when I find the manager special flowers at Kroger! I bought a ton today for about $7. Here are just a few: