About Me

My photo
Carlisle, Pennsylvania
I am a stay at home mom..now that is! February 19th, 2007 I was involved in a car accident while on vacation in Florida. I awoke in ICU to find out that my only two children Annemarie age 3 and Michael age 5 did not make it. Scrapbooking became such a big part of my life. It helped fill a void that I desperately needed to fill. Our therapist suggested that I take up scrapbooking as a way to memorialize my children, little did she know! So I took that and ran with it.I became obsessed with scrapping and took over the second largest room in my house. Because of my injuries I couldn't go out and get a job, I just scrapped!I printed out 2,000 photos and my journey began. I have made albums for family members and layouts to decorate my craft room. We thought we were done having kids but who expected this tragedy??? I just gave birth in June 2009 to two beautiful baby girls Mia Anne and Gianna Marie named after their brother and sister.I swore that I would keep up with their albums so I won't become overwhelmed so we will see how that works out! My profile picture is the last family picture that was taken of all of us.

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Recipe gift box

I was so happy when I got my Cameo that I could finally do a Recipe box from SVG ATTIC's Kiss the Cook set.  I did one before but it was smaller.  It is super easy to assemble and what is even better I completed the look with the RECIPE CARD stamp set from Shabby Chic Stamps.  This makes a great gift for someone you know who likes to bake or is getting married.  You can fill it with some of your favorite recipes.  The papers I used are from Basic Grey.




Thursday, April 26, 2012

2 Posts in one!

Even though I live in the country (well sort of) I do not have a farm/country decor in my house.  Actually I don't have any decor in my house.  But when I saw the new release from Jessica over at SVG Attic I just knew I had to have it.  I fell in love with that darn pig and cow..Love at first sight!!  They are just to darn cute.  My first idea was to take the pig and make a piggy bank out of an old jar.  Then I was going to make a bank for me to put spare change in and use that money for my craft supplies.  I found these fabulous jars that I must of bought at Walmart awhile ago in my stash.  They are very large cracker jars with a flat front so I thought they would work perfect for me.  I only found one at first so I started on my piggy.  He was just to cute he needed a friend so I went back into my hoarding room I mean my craft closed and realized I had another jar.  The papers I used are from October Afternoon's Farm Fresh collection.  These were going to be for my girls since my one daughter Mia goes crazy over animals.  She literally sleeps with a bucket of them every night.  But I just love them to bits that I can't bare to part with them yet.  So I have them on my craft desk and every time I look at them they just make me smile.  It was really hard to get a good picture of them for some reason.  They really are super cute in person.

 Meet Betsy and Wilbur!




Today is also my day to share with you some of my projects I made with my newly released stamps from Shabby Chic Stamps.  This week all of the stamps are 50% off  but they are going fast.  Get them while you can.
I made this one with the Father's Day set.  I added a die cut that I had in my stash from K& Co.  I also trimmed around the edges with my Sakura Gel pen.



I made this card with the Build a Bouquet set as well as the Greetings set.



Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Shake Shake Shake, Shake your bootie!

Sorry that I totally dropped the ball on this one.  I thought that this post was up and going.  Our new challenge at the Sisterhood of Crafters is to make a Shaker card.  I honestly thought I was going to skip this one since I never made a shaker card.  But then I thought Hey it's called a challenge right?? SO I tried it and you know what????? I'm addicted!!! They are so fun!!!  I was working on a third one but I wasn't crazy how it turned out  plus I ran out of time.  Have no fear Shakers are near...in the near future that is.  I had to much fun with them.  I will say if it is your first time be careful of the frame that you use.  My first one (Mother's Day) the Nestie I used  produced a really thin frame and it was super hard to get the foam tape underneath.  I followed the tutorial that I found on Splitcoast stampers and you can find that by clicking HERE.

This was my very first try at making a shaker card.  For the acetate/window part I used one of the many sticker/embellishment backs that I have saved over the years.  The stamps are from Shabby Chic Stamps whom by the way is having all of her stamps 50% off this week.  I used the sentiment from the Mother's Day set and the flower from the Build a Bouquet set.


Next I did a Tri-Fold card but changed the Nesties I used to make the frame to a rectangle shape and used a birthday theme.  The stamps are from Shabby Chic's Build a Cake set and their Greetings set.


I hope you challenge yourself and play along.  They are really a lot of fun to make and easier than you think. We have a wonderful sponsor for this challenge so stop on by and check it out.

Monday, April 23, 2012

A Shabbetastic sale!

I wanted to pop in here and let you know that Shabby Chic Stamps is having a huge sale today.  Everything is 50% off (except the favor boxes).  First time they had a sale this large so you may want to stop on in and stock up.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

For my Hero, MY MOMMY






My Mom recently just purchased a home by me to be by us.  It is not a full time home yet but will be soon.  One day when I was over her house she gave me this tea and I just fell in love with it.  Of course now that I love it, it is very hard to find.  Not many people by us carry it.  Whenever we are together we have a nice hot cup of tea and spend some time together.  Usually playing our games together or talking.  We have a store by us called BB's which is an Amish "bent and dent" store.  OMG I love, love, love this store.  It is filled with bargains.  You do have to watch because things are close to be expiring or are expired but not everything.  Well much to my complete shock they had a box of our tea for $1!!! I was thrilled.  The box was a bit beat up but I didn't care since the bags inside are individually wrapped. If you are wondering, the tea is VANILLA CARAMEL by Bigelow.  

I treated myself to Peachy Keen's stamp of the month kits and I gotta tell you YOU NEED THIS SET! The one I used was the April 2012 set.  There is soooo many things you can do with this set.  I just adore it to bits.  I was going for a "grown up" look for my mom since I knew that is what she would want. Anyways my mom's birthday is coming up so I came up with this cute this gift for her all for under $2!   I fell in love with the new background stamp from PKS called WHAT TIME IS IT?? so decided to use that instead of paper.  After cutting out all of the layers for the box I stamped them with that background stamp and inked them up with Tim Holtz's Vintage Photo and Frayed Burlap ink. The flower is from SVG ATTIC's newly released 3D Flower set. I cut out the tea cup from SVG ATTIC's MAD TEA PARTY kit.  Isn't that cup the cutest little thing?  I put one of the tea bags in it and cut a matching piece of paper to cover the original tea tag. 


Now the card.  When I was making this my head was just about to explode so I couldn't concentrate. Which is one of the reasons this post will probably make no sense at all. The card is from the Silhouette store as well.  It has a hidden surprise on the inside..pop up tea cups!!  I figured it would be cute to pair up with this.  Only problem is I was so busy decorating the front I forgot to add what I wanted to on the inside.  I could no longer decorate the tea cups like I wanted since they would no longer be on a flat surface.   I made so many  mistakes and added glue where I shouldn't but at this point I had used my good paper and had to much time invested in it so it is what it is right?? LOL I stamped an image directly onto the paper for another idea I was gonna do and totally screwed it up so I took the TEA TIME image I cut out which was originally gonna be the top to the tea holder and had to use it to cover up my mistake.  I just decided to leave it as it was.  My momma will still love the fact that I made it and hopefully won't notice.

PKS has an "Anything Goes" challenge going on right now so I decided to enter this into it.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

My Shabby Apron card

Hello Ladies and Gents.  I want to share with you a card that I made using my Cameo for the very first time.  OMG I loved my SD but this...WOW I am blown away.  I am in total and complete love.  Everyone is always asking for my recipes and I am constantly sending homemade goodies around the neighborhood.  With that in mind I designed this card to either include a recipe with it or to attach to some scrumptious yum yums from my kitchen.  I am currently working on a whole recipe box that I will be sharing with you shortly.  I purchased the RECIPE CARD stamp set from Shabby Chic Stamps to complete it.  I thought it would make a gorgeous gift if I made the recipe card filled with some of my favorite and/or most requested recipes and pass it on as a gift.  There is just something about a homemade gift that warms the soul and heart.


Check out all the possibilities that you can make with this set.
It would also make a great gift for Mother's Day or to anyone you know who loves to bake.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Shabby Chic Thursdays!

Good afternoon everybody!  I have to keep this brief due to some severe shoulder pain but hopefully that will be better real soon.  Today is my day to share with you some projects I made using my stamps from Shabby Chic Stamps Company.

I love to cook and I am always in my kitchen.  People are constantly asking me for recipes so I came up with this to send it to them in a pretty card.  They can even keep it in there so they know where it came from.  All I did was take an A2 (4 1/4 x 5 1/2) card and cut it in half on the front flap in a diagonal.  This made it into a criss cross card without wasting any paper. After I put the paper on the card I thought the blue paper needed a bit more of a pop so I took several of the word stamps from the RECIPE CARD collection and stamped it in different ways all over the paper.  The of course I used the main big stamp to make up the recipe card.  This is such a lovely way to pass down a recipe and I am sure whoever you give it to will be thrilled.


Next I used the BUILD A BABY set and the SWEET PEA set to make the main image on this card. My cousins wife is expecting a baby girl soon and so I made this with her in mind.  I of course had to give her little earrings.  I paper pieced her onesis as well as her hair.


Enabler ALERT!! LOL Here are some new stamps released from Shabby Chic Stamp Company that will be shipping mid April.
FATHER'S DAY SET










Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Easter Cookies

Before I share my project with you I wanted to tell you a funny story about it.  I started out making rice krispie treats in the shape of carrots and covered them in orange and green chocolate then put them on a stick.  My original idea was to use that for the Peachy Keen Treat holder challenge.  I came home and asked my hubby where the carrots where and he said "OOHHH you wanted those??" I was about to flip out but decided to go to Plan B.  I didn't have anything left over to make another batch so I made brownies and used a whole body of a bunny and cut them out so they would look like a chocolate bunny.  Again I was going to put them on a stick but they were so moist it wasn't gonna work so well.  So I put three aside and fed the rest to the wolves that were staring me down for some. LOL!  The next day my Mom was watching the girls so I could go to a doctors appointment.  I came home and she says to me..."Your brownies were really good."  I said "What brownies (since they were all gone)?"  Then it hit me, I yelled out please dont' tell me that you ate the ones in the foil hidden all the way in the back on the counter!!!!! arrgghhh She said well I just ate an ear and Mia ate a head.!! I wanted to scream yet again.  So came up with Plan C but I was so distressed I ate Plan C.  So Plan D was store bought cookies with the bunny already in the cookie!! I gave up after that fiasco.

Now onto my project!! :)  After having to change my idea a gazillion and one times I came up with this cookie holder.  The cookie holder is from SVG ATTIC's Cookies for Santa collection.  It is actually a very nice size and would hold a bunch.  I was going to cut out the inserts to it and put several different kinds of candy but they were to big for my mat. The grass border I sized down from the Easter Elements collection to fit the width of the box.

In my opinion this bunny has to be one of the cutest bunnies ever so I had to cut her out.  Originally I left the middle open so you could see the cookies but I wanted to use this bunny. I colored her with my PrismaColor pencils. I found this piece of paper from another project already stamped with Market Street Stamps Sweet Lace background stamp.  It fit the opening perfectly so I added it.  The bunny is from PKS PK-286 Easter Patch, the sentiment from PK-278 Easter Basket Paint Fight  and the carrots are from the BUNNIES die. Coloring this bunny made me realize how much I miss my PKS family.

Sorry about the bad pic of the inside.  I didn't realize until now that I forgot to take a pic of the inside. So I hurried up and took one with my Iphone. I would of had to go past my girls room to get my camera and they would of seen me preventing me from finishing this post!