Look what I finally finished...

Yea! I was honestly worried that I wasn't going to get the motivation to finish it, but here it i! I really love how the outside looks!

heart card.

Tonight my friend Kelley came over to use my Big Shot, while hers is coming in the mail. She brought her new Heart Prints stamp set from Paper Trey Ink. So cute. While she was cutting away, I whipped a little card I had already been thinking about.
It's pretty simple, but I love it. I'm so into sewing on my cards these days. The heard it popped up with a dimensional, and it's 4.25 x 4.25.

Stamps: Heart Prints
Ink: Color Box Chalk Lipstick Red, SU Craft White
Accessories: White Embroidery Floss, Dimensionals

my mom's dining room.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Chase and I painted my parent's dining room this weekend. A while back, my sweet friend Emily dropped off a magazine off at my house. Emily I need to give that back by the way! In the magazine I saw a dining room that I knew my mom would love. She just finished her kitchen, and she is working her way around the house.

Unfortunately the paint was by Farrow and Ball. We tried Lowes and Home Depot trying to match the color, but they just could not seem do anything other than grey. We decided to just get it from Farrow and Ball, but go ahead and guess home much a gallon was... $50, no... $75 a gallon, no... $257 for two gallons. Our last resort was Porter, and very patient gentleman finally made it work.

Before:
Primer on, and the ceiling cut in:
Last coat going on.
Let me tell you, my mom is never excited about colors. She always second guesses the color, but she loves this one! It looks amazing, and it really opens up the room!

my favorite cake.

Wow, so not much blogging lately. I had a busy week. Chase had two basketball games, church, and we had friends over on Thursday and Friday night!

So, since I haven't been crafting much this week I thought I'd share the recipe of my favorite chocolate cake. It's so good it makes my mouth water, oh and it's really really easy. Thursday night I made this for the girls that were coming over for book club. We read Pillars of the Earth, and I with I could say that I meant to use my cathedral bundt pan because of that, but I didn't.

1 Chocolate Cake Mix
4 Eggs
1/2 cup oil
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 - 4 serving box of chocolate pudding (you will not actually make pudding just add powder)
1 cup sour cream
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat at 350 degrees
Spray bundt pan with cooking spray
Combine all ingredients excluding chocolate chips
Once you have mixed well, add chocolate chips
Pour into bundt pan and back for 45-50 minutes

december 20 & 21

It feels like I've been posing these pictures forever! I still have two days to finish. It's the never ending album. I'll get it done!

Day 20:

Day 21:


For some reason when I started this album I purchased 1.5" rings, even though Ali Edwards recommended 2" rings. So now I need to go back and get 2" rings. This album is so thick!

taylored expressions cupcake challenge #51

I must be in the mood to do some challenges. This was a layout challenge, and I'm sure every other person has cupcake stamps to use for a cupcake challenge, but surprisingly I don't. I still liked the layout a lot so I decided to give it a try.

Warning: the following card is so far out of my norm that it's shocking. Here goes...Okay, so I have some Copic markers, not very many. But I had enough to color some butterflies, and I realized that I do not have the right ink to stamp with. So everything kind of bleed. Well, I just couldn't stop. I wanted to use them, so I just kept going. After I finished coloring I decided the only way to save this was to go grunge. I decided to pull out my inner Tim Holtz and inked away with his Tea Dye ink. Here's my first step:
Step two, the moment of truth. I decided I needed to layer some images, so I pulled out a stamp I promise my mom bought for my at a garage sale (my mom is very thrifty like that). I'm not even sure I've ever used it.

In the top left corner you can see I messed up stamping, but I figured it's all messed up anyway, right?

Here's the finished product. I realize now that I didn't follow the sketch very well with that green strip. I guess I'll learn my lesson and print off the sketch and take it to my stamping table. I would pull it off, but I use multi mono, and once it's on, it's on.

Stamps: Dreams de Jour, Shoe Collage (it's from Club Scrap who I've never heard of before)
Ink: Black, Tea Dye
Paper: Basic Grey, White Mulberry, More Mustard, Always Artichoke
Accessories: Copic markers twine, gold eyelets

Thanks for stopping by.

kwerner color challenge #38

Wow, I'm on a roll with these challenges. I've got cards sitting around everywhere. I need to find some people to send these too!

Again, I'm pretty much out of my comfort color zone with these. First of all I don't even own a whole pack of ruby red. I did thankfully have a few sheets in an assorted pack. I do actually like the color now that I've used it.

Here are the colors (click on the image to view Kristina's blog and all the other participates):
So here it is... I need a new camera so bad. So, I used a tiny little square punch to cut out these little squares and stitched... let me rephrase... hand stitched them onto my card base. Yes, it took forever, but for some reason I'm in a sewing phase.

For the chipboard (made by chip chatter), I pressed them into my ink pads, then pressed them into my versa mark pad, covered them in clear embossing powder and heat set. I think the shine gives them a nice finished look.

For a simple card this took awhile. Also, you can click on the images to see them larger.


To cover up my stitching inside, I just did some simple scallops. I also used that little extra piece that you get with the Stampin Up Scallop Punch to add a little more interest.
Stamps- None... weird huh?
Paper- Ruby Red, Pumpkin Pie, Pretty in Pink, White
Ink- Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie
Ribbon- Pretty in Pink, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories- Chipboard from Chip Chatter, needle and thread

Thanks for checking it out!

december daily 17, 18 & 19

Wow, I'm getting to close to the end. I've finished day 23, so just two left. Surely I can get that done soon, right? Right?

I actually have a card to show you tonight, but well my camera STINKS. I need to wait for some day light to get a decent picture.

I also had to spend 30 minutes tonight on my little watermark. For some reason I either did not save my new one (I tend to leave Photoshop open for days at a time), or I just can't find where I save it too. It's so easy to make, but I wanted the same font, and well that's what took so long.

Day 17- Honestly this is one of my least favorite. Day 18- And after that bad day of scrapbooking it was followed by two of my favorites. I love how the smaller pages kind of introduce the day.

Day 19: A day with my nephew.

the purge.

Wow that felt good. My friend Kelley inspired me to go through some old patterned paper and get rid of it. I mean let's be honest here, I've had some of this stuff since my SENIOR YEAR of... HIGH SCHOOL. That's bad. I'm pretty sure when you've had a piece of paper for 9 years, you're not going to use it.

So this is all going to someone (probably Kelley's niece who just started scrapbooking)...


Do you have anything you need to purge? I'm off to finish Pillars of the Earth. That book is a beast, but I'm lovin' it (yes in my McDonald's jingle voice).

valentines day card.

Well, this is my first Valentines Day card this year. I actually used the same layout from this card.

My mom is actually taking the pieces of these cards to a class next Tuesday.

The heart felt is from JoAnn's. I used Stazon to stamp a heart on the back and then cut it out!
Stamps: Occasion Collection
Paper: Black, White, Pretty In Pink, Real Red
Ink: Black Stazon, Craft White
Accessories: Ribbon, Red Felt

december daily, day 14, 15, 16

Here are some more December Daily pages...

Day 14: These pictures weren't actually taken on the 14th, but because we really didn't do anything on the 14th, I thought it would be a good place to use these.

Day 15: I used baseball card holders on the next two pages. I love the way they change things up. Plus they are super cheap at Staples.
Day 16:

chalk board.

This summer I decided I wanted a chalk board in our new house. We had some leftover chalk board paint from another project, and I decided I just needed to find a frame that would work.

I headed to Goodwill. I evaluated a whole stack of frames solely on the style of the frame and size. I wish I had a picture of what the frame originally looked like. It was a picture of a deer!

We've had the chalk board up for awhile, but I hadn't found any chalk. Friday at Hobby Lobby I found some chalk and some not so nice erasers. I decided to paint the eraser, and use some pattern pattern on the top. Here's what it looked like:

december daily, day 11, 12, 13

Well, I'm still not completely done with my December Daily album. I only have three pages left, but I just can't get motivated.

Day 11:



Day 12:
Day 13:


Thanks for stopping by.

kwerner color challenge #37

I participated in another color challenge this weekend. Thankfully Kristina was busy this week too, and we got a little more time to work on it. I always hate the first full week back to work after the Holidays. I think my body just doesn't know how to kick it into second gear.

So here are the colors this week. I can honestly say that I would NEVER put these colors together. I generally pick my paper colors like I pick my clothes... two colors and one's usually white or black. I will say I LOVE the finished product.
Click above to view the other cards submitted. There are always a ton of gorgeous cards!

Here it is (sorry again about the pictures, it's gross and rainy here and without the D70 this is the best I'm getting):


I don't sketch my cards. Sometimes I wish my mind worked that way, but I'm visual girl. I just have to get the pieces together and go from there. I will admit that I totally forgot the Chocolate Chip until I finished the card. I had to take of my ribbon and add the little strip under it. I really like the added layer it give it. Thanks for checking in!

Stamps: Like Like You Mean It, Dot from Merry & Bright (it's so sad that I STILL do not have Polka Dot Basic, so I make do).
Ink: Versa Mark, Stazon
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, White, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Prima Flower (I took two layers of the bottom because it was just too big for my card), Embroidery Floss