A Place for Stamps

So as most of you know I have been working really hard in getting my Scrap Space to be more inspiring for me. I took the huge step and started redecorating my Stamp holder!! So to start it off I went to Joanns to pick up supplies. Let me just say really quickly, I will never go back to the Joann's on 54th and Redwood Rd, and I really urge you to not go there either! I was not only treated horribly by one person but by 3!! I will give them the benifit of the doubt, people have bad days and such, but to get treated so horribly by 3 different people in three different sections that's just plain bad customer care. They are just horrible at customer service! I actually only purchased half of what I wanted to because the cashier was so rude to me. I wasn't even being a difficult customer! So I purchased what the lady had rung up and left the rest. **I really should have just left the whole thing but I really had to have the single sheets of paper I had picked out for decorating my Stamp Case. Moving on, I picked out this great pink striped flourish paper to go with this cute green striped green paper. I'm so happy with the way that it turned out!! Ready to see the pics???

This is Before ... ... ...

&& This is After ... ... ...



I had extra paper left over so I decided to change a few more things as well, only because I really love this paper and feel so inspired just looking at it!!! I Love Love Love these papers!!
Before... ... ...

After ... ... ...

How great is that paper right!! =)
Thanks for stopping by! Don't forget, I don't hate comments!
~Virginia E.

Mini Bows

The other day I made some crazy cute matching hair bows. I used some thin loop pale pink ribbon, some thin themed "I Love You" ribbon and some bright pink rhinestones. These are so simple and very cute. If you are interested in buying these the set will be 6$ with shipping and packaging included. If you would rather them be attached to a headband instead of hair clips I can do that! Let me know the colors you are looking for and what theme you are needing! I can make it happen!



Thanks for stopping by!
~Virginia E.

CPS Winner

I am the Winner of the CPS (Card Positioning Systems) 228 Challenge! I can't believe I won and I really have to thank all of the lovely ladies over at CPS Challenge Blog who have such a fabulous Blog and do such amazing work week after week after week! I also really need to say a huge thanks to Tami over at Journey of a Life for being the sponsor for the CPS Challenge and allowing me the opportunity to win her fabulous Amuse Studio Products.

This is the blog posting that won over at the CPS Challenge Blog!


The Challenge I found most inspiring today came from a wonderful sketch over at CPS-Card Sketches. As you know, I will tell you all about the challenge here but please feel free to visit the blog personally!
http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/2011/07/cps-228-part-1.html

This challenge is a sketch so there were no rules listed. (Except obviously, let that sketch inspire you.) Every ones samples on the blog were really inspiring and I just had to take part in this weeks card sketch challenge!
I made a fun spring and summer Birthday card made with lots of greens, blues, white, and yellow! I used the Animal Crackers Stampin Up set from 2010. Its a cute Rabbit with the saying "Ears wishing you a happy day!" For cute! Are you ready to see it?


Thanks for joining me again for this fun post, I will see you all again tomorrow for True Link Tuesday!
~Virginia E.

P.S.
To see all the great stuff that I won check out Tami's blog!
http://journeyoflifetamijo.blogspot.com/2011/07/cps-sponsorship-part-2.html

True Link Tuesday

Today is the new Link Love day! Today I would like to show off one of my favorite challenge blogs. Cute Card Thursday! =) I love the weekly challenges this blog has to offer, always so different and always so creative. So if you ever find yourself stuck on a card and need a boost try a card with a fun challenge found here at Cute Card Thursday! Super fun!

http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/

Inspirati♥n Monday

The Challenge I found most inspiring today came from a wonderful sketch over at CPS-Card Sketches. As you know, I will tell you all about the challenge here but please feel free to visit the blog personally!
http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/2011/07/cps-228-part-1.html

This challenge is a sketch so there were no rules listed. (Except obviously, let that sketch inspire you.) Every ones samples on the blog were really inspiring and I just had to take part in this weeks card sketch challenge!
I made a fun spring and summer Birthday card made with lots of greens, blues, white, and yellow! I used the Animal Crackers Stampin Up set from 2010. Its a cute Rabbit with the saying "Ears wishing you a happy day!" For cute! Are you ready to see it?


Thanks for joining me again for this fun post, I will see you all again tomorrow for True Link Tuesday!
~Virginia E.

A Sad Post

Well do to life happening, people being human, and things being hectic I at this time have to choose to let go of 2 scheduled posts. I am so sad to have to do this but things are so crazy right now that I keep missing posts and that is so not fair to any of you! Let me start with the good news, I have decided to keep up with Manic Challenge Monday but it will be under a different title. Now, simply, it will be called Inspirati♥n Monday. The other one I would like to keep up with is Think Link Thursday, but it will be moving to Tuesday to be sure that I remember it, its title is changing as well to True Link Tuesday(It flows better.)! I am so sorry that everything keeps going weird around the blog but hopefully this will help make things level out and stay consistent. I will be back on other days with all of my random other projects and possible orders. So be sure to keep checking back with me for all of the fun and picture filled posts! =)
Again, I am so sorry for all of this. Today is Monday and I will be posting my newly titled Inspirati♥n Monday post!

Thank you for joining me and sticking by for all of this crazy news.
~Virginia E.

A Thing of Beauty Award

I'm so excited to be able to share this with all of you! I was recently contacted by a Fabulous woman about a small award she'd like to share with me. Kards by Kelly was awarded the "A Thing of Beauty" Award from another wonderful blogger. The best part about this award is that she gets to pass it on to 5 blogs she feels deserves the award as well!
Can you guess who one of the lucky winners was?? That's right ME! Now I get to share 5 facts about myself with all of you and pass on the love to 5 more wonderful blogs!


So for this award I need to share 5 things about me and then pass the award on to 5 more wonderful blogs!

5 things about me.
1.) My Favorite colors are Pink and Lime Green!
2.) I am an animal lover and have 3 wonderful kitties and a gerbil at home with me!
3.) My favorite food is Tacos! YUMMY!
4.) My favorite TV show is The Office!
5.) I love Scooby Doo and have Scooby Doo items all over my Bedroom!

That was five wonderful facts about me. =)
Now to pass on the love to 5 more deserving blogs!

~ Deb X at Ribbon Dreams
http://ribbondreams.blogspot.com/

~Andria A. at MGA Creations
http://mga-creations.blogspot.com/

~ All of the Wonderful Ladies over at Cas-ual Fridays
http://cas-ualfridays.blogspot.com/

~Lori S. at Me and Charlie Talkin'
http://hrhsircharles.blogspot.com/2011/07/iwhba-fun-show.html
(This blog actually doesn't involve crafts but I feel we should all share our passions! Her passion is Horses!)

~Joy at Obsessed with Scrapbooking
http://www.obsessedwithscrapbooking.com/

Thanks again Kellie! I am so grateful for this wonderful award!
~Virginia E.

3x12x12

I am beyond happy that I am getting my Scrapbooking under control again! It has been on the back burner for a while now and it made me so sad that I had done such a thing! I just got so involved with making cards and bows that I forgot why I even started doing all of this.

Today I have 3 new and fun pages to share with all of you. The first is my Daughter Tia's 2nd birthday. I love this layout. Its a 12x12 with 8.5x11 inner layout, double page. Super cute! My girls love playing in their cubes!

Next up is Easter of 2010. This is a redone layout, the previous layout was too hectic that you wouldn't really enjoy the photos and we all know what a tragidy that can be!

The last page I have to show you is a quick small layout of my Son Smokey and Daughter Valentine enjoying a sweet snuggle! I love this picture!

That's all I have to show you today. Thanks for joining me again for another fun post.
~Virginia E.

Manic Challenge Monday #6

Hello again! I hope that your Monday is going great! Today for our Challenge I used two fun challenges.
The first comes from My Craft Spot which is doing a Christmas in July Card Challenge! Fun! Please visit their blog for full details about the challenge.
http://craftspotbykimberly.blogspot.com/2011/07/monday-challenge-17-christmas-in-july.html

The second comes from Cute Card Thursday, they are looking for Circles! Please visit their blog for full details about the challenge.
http://cutecardthursday.blogspot.com/2011/07/challenge-173-going-round-in-circles.html

Both of these blogs inspired me and I just had to do a card using both amazing challenges! Nothing fancy but super cute!


Thanks for joining me again for a fun challenge day! Happy Crafting!
~Virginia E.

Sunny Sunday Photos #4

Happy Sunday everybody! I have some fun pictures to share with you today. I can't believe how well they all turned out. Please keep in mind this is not my natural section of Photography. I usually take photos of trees, flowers, birds, nature in general. Sadly though, I have taken every photo possible of what my neighborhood has to offer. So I am trying out some new types of photos. If you can recall the Chinese Dogs post, this is something like that.

I took a very old Blue Bird made of solid glass outside for a photo shoot. Again in black and white. (I just love how direct the photos are in black and white.) So what do you say? Are you ready to see all the fun? I took a total of 7 photos and these are my top 3!



Thank you all for joining me today for this fun post.
Have a Happy Crafty Day!

Thrifty

Another trip to my favorite 2nd hand thrift shop! A few days ago my Hubby and I went to the DI (Deseret Industries) just to see what might catch our eyes. My Hubby loves going there for his books! What a great bargin, picking up 20$ books for .25-.75 cents! Unfortunately my sweet husband didn't find a book he liked. But I found two great items! One is a brand new never mounted stamp set from Stampin Up called Punches Three. Super Cute! Can't wait to use them!

I also picked up another photo box, this one is a pop up one. It doesn't seem like it would be very sturdy but it really it is! The sides are very thick and durrable! How awesome! To top it all off its GREEN!! Purrfect!

I love taking a trip to the thrift store! Picking up a Stamp Set for 1$ and a storage box for .75 cents! AMAZING!! Find anything amazing in your trip to a thrift shop? Feel free to share what you found that was perfect for you!

Sit & Read Saturday #5

Hello again! Thanks so much for stopping by for another Sit & Read Saturday! This post comes to you again from the 2007 edition of The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker by Simple Scrapbooks. I love this book and can't wait to get my hands on the new edition from my local Library! I am almost finished reading this one so this will be my last post from this book. =( Really though, if you and your space are no longer friends you should pick it up and give your space a great big creative hug! I know I have become BFF's with my space again! =)

The part that I would like to share with you today is from page 144.
The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker
Photo Checklist
Thinking ahead can meant the different between no photos of your everyday life and lots of meaningful ones. Create this photo checklist to serve as a reminder of the fun, inspiring photos you want to take each month -- especially for topics that are easy to overlook (i.e. not associated with major holiday or even.) **Tip. If you're having trouble coming up with your photo checklists for each month, look through photos from years past and pay attention to thoughts like, "Oh I wish I had a picture of ..."

What a great and fun idea! This will probably be a project for me in the near future.

Hard at Play

As you well know I have been whipping my Scrapbooking Corner into shape, reorganizing and finding new and better ways to store all of my wonderful products. In doing so I have noticed that my space really isn't all that inspiring. What I mean by that is there is no real color or fun things that force me to be creative! So I have been working harder and harder to make my space one that inspires me to create the best pages and cards that I can! So far it is working beautifully. I started off with finishing a project I started a while ago but never finished. I decorated the cover to my Alphabet Punches binder and meant to do the side of it but that didn't happen. I'm not really sure why is didn't happen, it just didn't. =( I did however finish it! Even if it did take me about 3 months to do it!

I quickly moved on to a fun project that I could really sink my teeth into! I have a large photo box that I picked up for 2$ at JoAnn's about 2 years ago. I thought that it would be perfect for my photos and really keep them in order. I was wrong. I didn't even think about how I would keep them in order or in groups that were easy to reach for and scrapbook. It turned out to be just a cute box that didn't help at all. I did eventually make dividers for them but they were just an ugly yellow color and didn't have any personality to them, nor did they have labels. I remember thinking to myself, "They don't have to be fancy no one but me is going to see them." Little did I know that I am the most imortant person that needs to be pleased in my area! Well, needless to say I have learned that very important lesson and have since created new and fun tabbed dividers for my photos! They are decorated and have oversized lables on them! Just opening the photo box I get inspired to create! How wonderful is that!


Feeling so excited about my photo dividers I decided to help my poor stickers get organized. They have always been in the bottom drawer of my Pink Tote and much like my pictures they have really never had any organization. I felt that I could either look through all of them to find the perfect one or I just didn't need to use stickers on my layout or card. Bad idea right! Well I have made that big step to keep things as organized as I can get them and this was part of that! =) They aren't decorated, they are actually very plain, but I have a feeling that that will probably change within the near future! =)


The last that I have to show is probably the item I am most excited about! I saw this idea in the 2007 edition "The Organized and Inspired Scrapbooker" book by Simple Scrapbooks. Its a Get Out of Rut Jar!!! Great idea right!!! You write down inspiring ideas and put them in a container and then when you find that you're stuck you can just reach into your Rut Jar and try again! I can't believe that this hasn't always been a part of my Scrapbooking Corner! =)



That's all for now but I still have a lot of fun planned for my Scrap Space so be sure to check back! If you have fun and inspiring things in your area please share a link to them! I also love to see what inspires all of you!

Layouts Galore!

TGIF! I hope that all of you out there have been enjoying a fun filled summer week! I know I have, and what a productive week it has been! =) I have really been letting my Photos stack up on me and I decided to get to work and knock 'em down! I have some amazing layouts to show you!

First up is a Halloween Layout of my Beautiful Fuzzy Son Smokey! He was laying in my lap hugging the Scooby Doo stuffed animal my Hubby had just bought for me. (That's right, I love Scooby Doo! There isn't a better cartoon around! LoL) I chose spotted green, plain bright orange, and vintage butterfly vine patterned paper, with the hint of black for this layout! I got these fun and funky Halloween stickers a year or two ago and completely forgot that I had them; but I have been doing a lot of organization at scrapbooking desk and found a lot of things I for I had! Well, anyway, I pulled these out because they were perfect for this layout! =) Love Love Love the Ribbon!

Next to share I have a single photo layout of my Daughter Valentine hugging her brother's tail as they both snooze on a hot spring day. I used a sparkly purple pastel paper as the base and set a strip of this amazingly pretty floral paper as a runner at the bottom! Crazy cute! Divided it up with a brown and white dotted boarder. Ready to see the fun!

I love this next layout so much! BROTHER! This layout is made up of pictures of my girls showing their purrfect big brother lots of love! I chose Old Olive for the main background and then I took a sheet of 8x8 & 8x10 tempting turquoise for the photos mats. It turned out adorable! I love the embellishments I used as well! (More items I forgot I had! Bought these a while back when the Heartland Paper Company in Taylorsville closed its doors.)



Yea a page for little Tia! =) This page is just for my little brat Tia. Soaking up the summer sun! Green, red, and tan are the colors I chose for this layout and they all went so well together! I made beautiful flower embellishments using my Martha Stewart Poesy Embossing Punch. Super cute! And who doesn't love to see happy buttons on a page! =) Summer Heat is the title and I stamped it with a Alphabet set that I got for Christmas last year. (Yup, another forgotten item. Stashed away for safe keeping and forgotten about. I must admit though, it was quite safe!)

Next up is a fun St. Patrick's Day layout! I titled this page "It's a Spring Thing" and used a double at for the title. To add more color to the page I used my yellow & green Twinklet markers and a plain light green marker to color in the title. =) Looks super cute! I also added flower and shamrock squares at the bottom next to my journaling.

The last that I have to show you is the final Zoo page from our Mother's day trip in 2009. As you can tell I am a huge fan of the page within a page layout. I love 12x12 paper with smaller sections inside of it such as the 8x8 or the 8.5x11, that type of layout inspires me more than anything else! =) Instead of journaling about this trip on this layout I journaled about how the trip reminded me of a very fond memory from when I was growing up. I love you Mom!

Those are all the wonderful layout that I have been making! Thanks again for joining me for another picture filled post!! Have a Happy Crafty Day!

Manic Challenge Monday #5

Today is our Challenge day here at Pawsitively Purrfect Memories! Today I have chosen to do the Monday Challenge happening right now over at My Craft Spot!
Todays Challenge there is called INK IT UP! (Use Ink on your Project) Which is a great challenge. Sadly though today, I haven't felt very inspired and the card I made wasn't so fabulous. Its still a very cute card but not what I wanted it to be.
**Don't you hate when you get stuck in a creative rut! Hopefully tomorrow will be a better and brighter day!!
Well are you ready to see a picture of my card?

I took a plain piece of sky blue card stock and made it into a patterned background by using my favorite birthday stamp set and tempting torquise ink. I also inked the happy birthday sentiment from that same set on white with sky blue ink. Not too shabby. I did what the challenge asked of me. =) I will try again tomorrow. I owe it to myself to do it better! =)

A Tour

Settle in, get comfy, you might also want to grab a snack. This ones going to take some time, but don't worry there are some amazing pictures!

I have been wanting to do this post for so long but I always get discouraged because, unlike most of you out there I do not have a room dedicated to my Scrapbooking and other crafts. I only have about a 5x4' corner of my front room that I use for my scrapbooking. Then a little while ago, I started thinking, not everyone out there has a spare room strictly for their crafts! I am sure that those people would like some inspiration, tips & tricks, and ideas on how to make it work! (Horton knows I did/do!) So I am here to show off all the fun I have going on in my corner. =)

Lets start with something all of you are familiar with. My Stamp Keeper! I got this whole set up for 10$ from my local DI (Deseret Industries) It came with 100 trays but over the past while I have added and removed these trays for what I have needed.

It is now sitting on top of the best thing ever! It is a white entertainment center! It use to be in our bedroom but my husband thought that it would be a great addition to my Scrap space. (I'm sure it was just so he could have his book case back.) So we rearranged our bedroom moving everything from this entertainment center onto our HUGE dresser! I cleaned the entertainment center and moved it into place. It matched my Stamp Keeper perfectly! I'm so excited! I removed two of the adjustable drawers and loaded up the bottom with all of my scrapbook and photo albums. Then I set the pegs and added a shelf. On it sits my binders, 8.5X11 Paper, 12x12 Paper, paper kits, 12x12 cricut cutting mats, and my Scrapbooking Books. On the left side of this stand are 3 rolling shelve/drawers with plastic divider meant for CD and DVD cases! I put a CD case in the back and a decorated one in the front to keep things where I need them! I used the first two drawers for my ribbon stash! Everything is visible and perfect and easily accessible! Love it! The bottom drawer is where I placed my digital photos! My computer has a lot of issues and I can't keep a lot of items on it so I burn everything to disks to make sure that I have it safe and sound!



Now lets move on to my actual desk. I use an older model corner unit desk with attached hutch. Its not the prettiest desk in the world but it works! In the first section of the hutch there are three sections. Two small and one large. In the first small section I have put a shelf (which is adjustable) on the shelf is two small glass jars. Below that is a round flower vase which I use for my button collection! **I just saw these amazing square glass dishes at walmart that I want to get now for this section! I want to add another shelf and get 3 of these jars to put there for my brads, buttons, and gems! It will look great!

In the large section which is in the center of the left side of the hutch I have my only large paper punch, my stampin up color coach, and this amazing pencil display that I use for my glitter glue and scissors!! Terrific!

In the other small section of the left side of the hutch I have placed my extra favorite marker sets on the top shelf! I have two extra opaq stix sets both matallic and solid and an extra twinklet set! Love these markers! On the bottom shelf I have my current used set of opaq stix and used/unused Just Glitter pens in a spinning pen case.

Below the Hutch there is some space, like having another shelf. In this space on the left side is another awesome pencil case that I have used to hold all my great coloring tools!

Next up in the center of my desk. (normally where you would put the monitor for a computer.) I have a large 3 drawer plastic tote and a small white 5 drawer plastic tote. Both filled with lots of goodies!

Now on to the right side of my desk which is exactly like the left side. It has three sections two small and one large. In the first section I have put up an adjustable shelf. On the top shelf I have one of my idea photo albums. On the bottom shelf is where I keep my decorated chip board letters and decorations.

The large section I keep my Photo Box and my small divided case and in the last small section I have my fake flower case. (not my paper ones.)

Now, lastly is the bottom section under the hutch. I have used this space for my index cards and my case for the over sized stamps that I have. Also my straight cutter. =)

I do obviously have room to grow if needed! That is my scrap area and I love it! Thank you all so much for joining me for this fun post! I hope that I have inspired you and your workspace! If you have some fun and amazing ideas for small space organization please leave me a comment and if possible a link to a picture! I would love to see what all of you have come up with!
~Virginia E.