Starting to feel the panic...

Ben is supposed to be home in 6 weeks and within 2 weeks of him getting home, we are supposed to have packers here to move us to Illinois. I have SO MUCH that I need to get done and can see that I am quickly going to run out of time (that seems to be an ongoing theme on this blog, doesn't it?!?! LOL!)

Oh, and I have I mentioned lately that he has lost 25 lbs. since he left??!!?! *ack* I had such good plans of being a size 6...okay, well maybe an 8 or 10 when he got home, but instead all I have done is sample every single method of pizza that's available (Jacob and I are HUGE fans of pizza...Ben not so much so we have tried to take advantage of our food freedom,) but you know what... Eating pizza almost every day is not very conducive to getting in shape?!?! I know, I was totally shocked too.

So not only do I have to totally re-vamp my eating habits, but I have got to seriously get this house re-organized too so that we can move. Yesterday, I started with my scrap area (which before Kat was born, was known as our dining room...i.e. the other half of our living room.) Here are a few after shots and I know that it doesn't look like much, but when I started (oh, and for the last 2 months) you couldn't see a single area of table surface clean or any of the floor around my chair.

I store all my cardstock in these plastic trays. This would not be a good long-term solution because in the afternoon, I have sun coming in this window, but it will work for a couple of months until we get our new house where I will once again have a dedicated stamp room (finally! This last year has been rough!) On the table there is my stamp storage of the stamps that I am using right now. Oh, yeah, those are just the ones that I may use over the next couple of weeks. My stamp collection is MANY times larger than that (it's a sickness, but one I really enjoy!) The wood mounted ones go in the wire rack, my Banana Frog stamps in the basket on the left and a few other unmounteds and wood mounted ones in the storage on the right.

Sitting at my feet, is all my paper (and a little cutie if she's awake...although I don't get to sit over there much when she is up for that very reason.) Like my stamps, this is just the stuff that I plan to use in the near future. Nowhere near all of my stash. *eek*, I really shouldn't admit that should I?

Just another shot of little Miss Kat because she is such a cutie. She has 3 teeth, waving now, and starting to stand without support.

These are the shelves that I added to the room yesterday. Before that all this stuff was at my feet and all over the table. Now you see why I had to reorganize. It was a serious mess. There are embellishments here, my Unity stamps, PaperTrey stamps, Rubber Romance stamps and Inque Boutique stamps as well as all my lace trims. In the lap tray on the buffet, you can see all of my punches and then in that blue thingie that you can just see the edge of, I have stored all my small paper pads (5x7, 6x6, and 8x8.)

The best storage method I have found for my Unity stamps has been these small $1 baskets from Target. They are really very small, but each one will hold about 4 kits. Eventually I plan on buying some shoe racks to hold them and I need to label the handles with what kits are in each of them.

A couple of better close-up shots. They are really handy because I can just pull the basket off my shelf that has the stamp kit that I want to use in it and it's all contained in a small footprint to set on my work table.

I hope that you had fun viewing my crafty space, such that it is. I will be back tomorrow with more projects to share.

smiles,

Christi

Sketchy Saturday...

Well, once again I find myself at after 6:00 pm, but I am only at 11:00 am as far as my daily to-do list. I guess that I should just give up and accept the fact that I have an {almost} one year old who rules my time throughout the day and from now on, I will only be productive from 6-10 pm. Okay, no I can't accept that....I have too much to do. It will be better once we move because we will be able to set up the house to be childproofed. As it is right now, I have to keep a really close eye on her so that she doesn't kill herself in the midst of all our stuff that should never be around a baby, but there is no place else to put it. I'm rambling...sorry!

On task now...sketch, that is one thing that I have learned how to do this week. I figured out how to create a sketch on my computer and here is a sketch that I have to share with you today.

I created a couple of projects using this sketch as the main guideline. This first one is an altered box. This box originally came from Starbucks and was full of Christmas coffee. It is larger than it looks in the photos...approx. 8x10 and 3" deep.

I played a bit with hybrid on this one. All the papers are Prima digital papers, IOD-Rue kit...they are having a really fun crop this weekend over on their hybrid site if you want to play with a bit of hybrid and be inspired.

The flowers are Prima also. Then I just a couple of word stamps that I have for the left corner detail. I think that I will roll my ribbon and keep it in here.

This is a card that tries to follow the sketch. I was having issues getting it/my muse to cooperate.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Little Labels 2

*Making Memories 5th Avenue paper

*Jenni Bowlin paper

*Bazzill

*flat-backed gems
*Making Memories little alpha stickers.

Don't forget my 500th post contest going on...you could use this sketch for your project too if you felt inspired. I hope to use the sketch again, myself, for a layout... So maybe I will have something more to share with you tomorrow.

smiles,

Christi

Hi, there!

Did you remember Shake Friday? Today, for us, it was just a quick trip to Burger King for their yummy chocolate shakes. BK is so close to my house that I can go down there, drive thru, and be back home with shakes in hand in less than 10 minutes total time...do you know how dangerous that is? LOL! I try not to do that too often, but sometimes it's necessary esp. when we have to get our Friday shake fix in a hurry. Jacob was leaving for Scout camp for the weekend early this afternoon so we didn't have much time. Luckily, BK also serves real food (if you can call it that *eek*) so dinner came from there too.

It's been a crazy day here today. I have a million and a half things that I am trying to get done and I am feeling a bit ADD about it all. I keep getting distracted by other little things that need to get done and NOTHING is getting done! But just now I sat down and made a schedule for the rest of the night that I am determined to follow...first is blogging!

I have been doing a bit of scrapbooking yesterday and today. Both of these layouts were done based on Janelle's sketches that she made for the WIP blog. I always plan on doing Janelle's sketches...I always print them out, but it seems to be a rare thing when I actually get to them so I am very proud of the fact that I managed to get them both done. :o)

This first layout I have hanging in our living room (which is why it has a hanger at the top of it.) My mom is coming here next weekend to help us celebrate Kat's first birthday and I wanted a visual for Kat so that maybe she would warm up to mom quicker.

I have mentioned to you all before how terrified she is of strangers....this is a way to help alleviate that, although I am not too sure how effective it will be. Just this week I couldn't get her out of bed because I had a towel on my hair...she wouldn't come to me while I looked different. *sigh* The bad thing is...I seriously need a new hairstyle, but I don't dare with Kat. I had my hair in a ponytail this week which she watched me do and she still wasn't sure it was me...you would think that she would know her own mother.

I am not super-thrilled with this layout. I glued the title on really late one night this week and I think that I should have waited til the next morning because it's seriously NOT spaced right, but I can't do anything about it now.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Miss Dotty Alphabet

*Unity Stamp Company Circle of Thanks kit

*Heidi Swapp papers

*K&Co. paper (the pink)

*misc. ribbon/trim

*misc. buttons

*K&Company brads

*Prima flower

*MM flower

This second layout is a really fun one, I think. I let Jacob pick out the embellishments that went on it (although I missed the skateboard--he noticed that it was missing right away! LOL!)

supplies used:

*Crate Paper Static Collection

*Unity Stamp Company Beautiful Life kit (I used a marker to just stamp the Life part of the Beautiful Life stamp)

*Unity Stamp Company Tea Time Pattern Background stamp

*MME Journaling card

BTW, tomorrow is National Scrapbook Day. Unity Stamp Company will be doing giveaways and games from 9:00 to 4:00 PST over on Splitcoast Stampers so come join in the fun. I will also be back here with some sketch fun!

Don't forget to play in my 500th Post Contest!! You only have until May 14th...

smiles,

Christi

Happy May-Day...

Happy May Day to you!!!!





Have you ever left a MayDay basket on your neighbors porch? When we lived in Montana when I was about 8-9 years old, we used to do this. It was so much fun! Does anyone do it anymore?



Well, since I am not near you all to leave you a MayDay basket of flowers on your porch, I will give you a few of my favorite flower photos that I have taken this Spring...





I have been working on magazine assignments which means that I have been a bit absent from here. I apologize for that and I so wish that I could show you what I have been working on....I just love my latest projects and it is so hard sometimes to keep quiet about them, esp. when I am used to sharing everything that I create!

So instead I will show you a card that I created while I was in Texas (yes, I do tend to carry a few supplies with me everywhere I go or else I start having withdrawals! :P ) This is a Stampington-Sandra Everston stamp that I managed to get while I was in Texas for 1/2 price. It has always been my favorite stamp of hers and I was super-excited to get it for such a bargain. Unfortunately, I just used it on the latest article that I have been working on and had to send it to the magazine for the photography part of the article, so I will have to do without it for 6-8 weeks. :(



Supplies used:
*Stampington Sandra Everston birdcage Couture stamp
*Making Memories papers and word stamps
*Hero Arts bling
*Zig writer



And finally, if you haven't seen enough photos yet, I wanted to share some photos of the kids that I took this last weekend...






Today is also the official release day for Unity Stamp Company!!! Yay!!! You can now order their products from the company website.

Oh Wow!!! Look at what just showed up on the kit section of the Unity website! This is the new kit of the month kit! I LOVE IT!!!!

Don't forget to come play with my 500th post contest!!!
smiles,
Christi

Getting Dotty...

I have been playing with the Miss Dotty Alphabet kit from Unity Stamp Company. This is such a fun set and the absolute perfect size for scrapbooking. It is also REALLY easy to cut out which I love!



This layout was done with some photos that I took while Kara was doing her photo shoot with Kat.


Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Company Miss Dotty Alphabet kit
*K&Company Amy Butler papers
*Scenic Route paper (grid)
*Making Memories epoxy embellishments
*Prima flowers
*Martha Stewart Border punch (don't you just love that punch!!!)
*buttons



This is a card that I created using the same stamp kit. The little cake comes from the Little Labels 2 kit.
Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Company Miss Dotty Alphabet kit
*Unity Stamp Company Little Labels 2 kit
*Pink Paislee papers and die cut
*Marth Stewart Zigzag border punch
*CTMH Cocoa inkpad
*ribbon


Junior is home...under house arrest, but home. He and Kat both seem to be doing fine...although I am being very careful to keep them separate. :)


And don't forget...Please come play with my 500th post contest!!!
smiles,
Christi

Post #500!!!!!!!!!!

When I started this blog, it was actually not an intentional thing. I went to comment on someone else’s blog and ended up with one of my very own. I quickly came to love it, but for purely selfish reasons…it gave me incentive to stay creative. You all know…I LOVE TO CREATE! But even as much as I love it, it can become really easy NOT to do it. This blog became my incentive to stay creative on a regular basis.

A HUGE thing that happened along the way is that I met all of you who then became my wonderful friends and support. The blogging community is a wonderful little world and I cannot thank you enough for adding me into your blogging routine. So as a very small thank you and to celebrate my 500th post as well as my daughter, Kat’s, first birthday, we are going to have a creative contest. (You knew that you were going to have to do a bit of creating here too didn’t you?)

There are three challenges to the contest (one main challenge and two challenges within a challenge):

Challenge 1.....
This is pretty basic…CREATE… using a Creative Prompt. The creative prompt can be from my CP blog, an old post on here, or even a CP that you find on your own. I just want you to create using something else as inspiration. What to create? That is ENTIRELY up to you! Use your imagination, but create something…it can be a gorgeous meal, a beautiful flower arrangement for your spouse, a photo of your kids, or something like the stuff that I create everyday. It simply must be inspired by something else. Try to stretch yourself.

Challenge 2.....
A.) You all know that I like to create (have I said that enough yet? LOL!) But there are times when I want to create something out of the norm for me and a lot of the time, that involves fictional writing. I find that by doing something totally different with the creative side of my brain, it really frees my creative process up when I am feeling a bit blocked creatively.

Recently I started a story and then abandoned it for another storyline, but I think that there is still a good story here. My challenge to you is to finish what I have started here. It can be as long or as short as you want…just play with some creative writing.

She rolled over and felt the tickle of sunlight roll over her eyelashes as it peeked through her polka dot organza curtains. With a groan, Cassie opened one eyelid hoping that it was just a cruel trick, but no, the sun was creeping up over the horizon. The day was going to happen whether she was ready for it or not. Her eyes fell on the black dress that she and her mother had set out the night before and a wave of panic spread through her. How had she gotten here?
It had actually begun on a day that had started a lot like this one just two years before….

or...
B.) A part of this is the fact that Kat is turning one year old on May 15th. Your challenge here is to do something creative with the number one…what to create? Again that is entirely up to how you feel inspired to create.

The details:
I need proof of your entry. You can either send that proof to my email at snowchris_01@yahoo.com or you can post it on your blog and link us up here. I think that photos will work for most instances except for the writing and then I need you to email me what you have written (or post it to your blog.)
Entries are due by midnight Wednesday, May 14th.
Winners will be announced on my blog on Thursday, May 15th.
You can enter as many times as you want to create something. For each entry, you will earn another tag with your name on it in the random drawing.
There will be four winning categories:
A.) random winner from challenge 1…Unity Stamp kit of your choice
B.) random winner from challenge 2…PageMaps book.
C.) my favorite entry… Unity stamp kit of your choice and some other prizes yet to be determined.
D.) family winner…I know that I have lots of family members that lurk around here and I want you all to play too. So I have a special category for you. Just complete one or more of the challenges, and you will be entered in the family random drawing for a $25 gift card to Texas Roadhouse. This means all you guys too…dad included!

smiles,

Christi

Stress begets MORE stress...

You all know the situation with Junior, the cat. He's not doing well. In fact, he may be dying so I am doing everything in my power to keep him happy. One of the things that makes him happy is to sleep with Kat. He doesn't actually sleep with her, he sleeps on the changing table at the end of her bed. There she messes with him, which normally he loves. You all have seen the pictures. He sits there and purrs up until the point where she hurts him and then he will usually give her a warning scratch which is usually the end of it (and let me just state here, that he VERY RARELY actually scratches or hurts her... I would say it's definitely been less than 10 times in the last 11 months of her life.)

Yesterday morning, I had put her in bed. He was asleep on the changing table. She was pretty much asleep when I put her in there so I figured that she would just roll over and go back to sleep. The next thing I knew, she was screaming. He had gotten her...at the time, I didn't know if it was a bite or scratch and quite honestly she was much less dramatic about it then normal so I cleaned it up and didn't worry too much about it.

Fast forward to yesterday afternoon, Junior got up from his nap and seemed to be having difficulty breathing so we rushed him into the Vet where he was hospitalized. His respitory infection still is present and giving him issues.

I showed the Vet Kat's hand and she said that it was definitely a bite and that I needed to get her into the emergency room because it was definitely going to get infected (it sounds like most cat bites do.) So we left there in the late afternoon, made a quick swing home to get bottles and pj's on and headed towards the emergency room with Kat.

By the time we got to see a doctor, Kat's hand was looking pretty vicious so the Vet was absolutely correct. So now Kat is on antibiotics. Her hand is looking better today and quite honestly has NEVER seemed to bother her...she is using it just as much as ever.

Now the newest stress is that while there last night, I had to fill out a form that said I had 24 hours to surrender Junior to the base vet for a 10-day quarantine. Do the words "over my dead body" mean anything? He is completely up on his shots, having his own medical issues, and is entirely an indoor cat and I wrote on the form that it would not be happening. So we will see what happens. Unfortunately, I live on a military base and when you live in the military you don't have rights like the rest of the world. I may have a serious battle on my hands over this one, but we will just have to wait and see if they pursue it. I am thinking that it may be a good idea to leave Junior in the hospital over the weekend just as a precaution... can we say STRESS!

Now onto something more pleasant...want to see another buggy card?

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Buzzin Around kit

*Making Memories papers (available at Target)

*American Crafts ribbon

*buttons

*colored pencils

*K&Company glitter

Oooops, I almost forgot to tell you guys about this week's Unity Stamp Company gift of the week. Go comment on the blog before Tuesday to be eligible for this week's drawing. Everything goes live next week...it's all very exciting!!! Oh, and go take a look at some fun samples using this set on Laura's and Jimmi's blogs (they should be up by the end of the day.)

This is post #499! #500 should be tomorrow...

smiles,

Christi

It's getting buggy around here...

Welcome to post #498...don't forget to be on the lookout for post #500...

I have just a quick card to share with you today. Like yesterday's project, this one features those cute little bugs from Unity Stamp Company's Buzzin Around kit.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Buzzin Around kit

*Collage Press papers

*Doodlebug alpha stickers

*ribbon

*Prima flowers

*colored pencils

*K&Company glitter

*silver brads

*Ranger Archival black inkpad

I appreciate all the good thoughts that you have been sending Junior. Unfortunately, things don't look very good after the ultrasound. He could have an infection (which is unlikely since he just came off antibiotics...unless it is a really bad infection) or he could be in heart or kidney failure. They have a cardiologist looking at the tests now to see what he thinks. Then we will test his kidneys next week....

I love what Shimelle is planning here...

smiles,

Christi

Thoughts from Wednesday...

I am so excited. I have been creating my ATC's (altered trading cards) for Amy's ATC swap. I love the design of them, but can't share that with you yet, so I will just give you a glimpse of some of the elements. They were inspired by Creative Prompt #45.

And now a layout to share...

I used the Unity Stamp Company Buzzin Around kit for this project. I was trying to make the cards with the bugs look like little flashcards, but I don't think that I was too successful. ...maybe if I had added letters in the corners...

This is another one of those gorgeous photos that my Sister in Law, Kara, took when we were home.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Buzzin Around kit

*Autumn Leaves paper (floral)

*Collage Press paper (pink polka)

*Scenic Route paper (graph

*Prima flowers

*American Crafts ribbon

*K-Ology alpha stickers

*Heidi Swapp bling
*Fiskars Threading water border punch

Junior is at the Vet's right now getting his ultrasound done so cross your fingers...

This is post #497...don't forget, I will have a contest/celebration announcement on post #500.

smiles,

christi

Housekeeping...

This is post #496 for this blog...that means that I am VERY quickly coming up on post #500. We are also less than a month away from Kat's first birthday...SO that means that we are going to be having a celebration/contest on here. I will announce all the details on my 500th post (I promise you that it will be this week) and then all the winners (yes, I said that in the plural) will be announced on Kat's birthday, May 15th. It's going to be worth your while to play along so keep an eye out here. Oh, and I know that I have lots of family members who lurk on here...I am going to have a special category for you all! :o)

And now a bit of art to share with you. These are some more Unity Stamp Company projects. These use that same Circle of Thanks kit that I used on the layout that I posted yesterday.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Circle of Thanks kit

*K& Company paper

*Prima flowers

*American Crafts ribbon

*Marvy Uchida Scallop Punch (the pink one)

*StazOn Timber Brown inkpad

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Circle of Thanks kit

*Bazzill cardstock

*Making Memories journaling paper

*Prima Flowers

*brads

*StazOn Timber Brown inkpad

In other news, Kat has started dancing...no walking yet, but if she hears any music on tv, she is definitely shaking that groove thing...it's so darn cute!!!

Junior seems to be feeling a bit better this morning. I actually got him to purring and I couldn't get him to do that at all last night. I am still crossing all my fingers and toes there. Either something is seriously wrong with him or he is a bit mental and for those of you with cats, you know that it could easily go either way. :)

Don't forget...be sure that you are around for post #500!!

smiles,

Christi

Giving Thanks....

I just have a quick layout to share with you this evening. This is a layout that I created using Unity Stamp Company's Circle of Thanks kit. The photos were done by my Sister in Law, Kara. When we were home, she took the kids out several times and took photos of them. My order from those wonderful photo shoots came in Saturday and I have been hedging over which one's to scrapbook first. Since I needed to do a layout with these stamps, this just seemed like a natural fit.

Supplies used:

*Unity Stamp Company Circle of Thanks kit

*Bazzill

*Prima flowers

*Making Memories button brads and metal embellishment

*Marvy Uchida Scalloped Circle punch (the pink one)

*Rhonna Farrer shaped paper

The main background paper on this has been created using the stamps and the tip of my Burt's Bee's Lip Balm. :o)

Junior, the cat, came home today. I was feeling rather positive with all of his reports from the hospital, but I am feeling much less so now that he is home. He has some more tests scheduled for Thursday so hopefully those will tell us something.

Don't forget to go over to the Unity Stamp Company blog to register for this week's free stamp kit drawing!!!!

smiles,

christi

Halloween in April?

What? Don't you create your Halloween crafts this time of the year? :) I know, I know...Halloween is definitely not something that most of you are working on right now (unless you happen to be in the magazine business), but this set from Unity Stamp Company, Oh Spooky Day, was another of the stamp kits that I have gotten to play with this last week.


Supplies Used:
*Unity Stamp Company Oh Spooky Day
*Scenic Route Salem
*Bazzill
*Black StazOn inkpad
*Making Memories flowers
*Fiskars Threading Water Border punch



Supplies Used:
*Unity Stamp Company Oh Spooky Day
*Scenic Route Salem
*Black StazOn inkpad
*buttons
*Marvy Uchida Scalop punch


Supplies used:
*Unity Stamp Company Oh Spooky Day
*Bazzill
*May Arts ribbon
*Queen & Co. flowers/brads
*Sharpie white poster pen
*Black StazOn
*Zig Writers

smiles,
Christi