Inspirati♥n Monday

Hello All! I am here on time to start the fun with a brand new Inspirati♥n Monday! Today I have decided to join the CPS Team for their sketch. All of the Teams Designs were just amazing! I especially love the photo of "The Most Wonderful Time" by Angie Hagist. I love the way that card turned out! Perfect Colors as well! Seeing all these hard works of art I decided to jump in and try it out. Since Thanksgiving is right around the Corner I decided to make a Kindness/Thank You card in the wonderful yellow and brown fall colors.

This was the Sketch over at CPS - Card Sketches
http://cardpositioningsystems.blogspot.com/2011/11/cps-245-part-1.html

This is what I have come up with.

Cute don't you think?
~Virginia E.

Again to the DI

I love going to thrift stores especially our local DI! This time at the DI while wondering around the ??Craft?? section, if you can really call it that. Its really just where I pile up all the binders and sewing patterns and clip boards, but, if you are lucky enough that is usually where you find the Scrapbooking and paper craft items. I hit the JACKPOT this time! Usually when you find things at the DI they have been opened and used and items are missing, this trip I found 5 amazing items that have never been opened! I couldn't believe my eyes! I had to stop myself from jumping for joy, seriously! The first item that I found was a complete set of crush pink chip board letters by Lush! Just under that was a brand new in perfect condition Stampin' Up Rub On set! Then after I had picked that up I saw just the corner of a red label. I moved the binder that was on top of it and got so excited I almost screamed again! I was a Pink Paislee Sweetness Rub On set that had never been opened or messed with and stuck to the back of it was a Basic Grey Wholly Cow! Rub On set that had never been used! Very pleased and excited by my find I decided to leave the isle before I freaked out, at the end of the isle I saw a small letter sticker and decided to investigate. The top package was opened and used but the one under that in perfect condition! Who doesn't love the Memory Makers Creative Letters sticker sets! So many uses! It was like digging for gold, totally worth it!

I love finding great products like these! For all of this I only paid 3.75$!!! It was an amazing find and I can't wait to go back to the DI and see what other treasures I can find under the grime!
~Virginia E.

Christmas Photos

Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to take a wonderful family of 5 out for their Christmas photos. They chose to be outside and they wanted to make sure that there was snow on the ground. So after waiting for a month and a half a full flat of snow came here to Utah and we jumped at the chance to get their Pictures! It was so cold that we were only out there about 20-25 minutes and only got about 8 shots, but apparently that was all we needed! I got a total of 4 shots worth keeping and the Customers seem very happy with what we have come up with. I am going to share with you the top two that I absolutely love!! I can't wait to get them over to the customers and let them pick out the best photo for them and their Christmas Cards! (You will notice the bows on the cute little girls? Seem familiar? Yup, I made those especially for this photo session! Don't they look adorable on those beautiful little girls!)

I absolutely love the little winter pants on the baby! How cute! Everyone was cold but the mood stayed light and that really helped make these photos what they are. The love this family shares is clearly shown here in these photos! A HUGE thanks to this family for letting Pawsitively Purrfect Memories help make their Christmas Shine!
~Virginia E.

Digital Word Art

I have always wanted to make my own digital word art for the holidays. I have seen this Technique used 100s of times and I always think to myself I should make one of my very own. Happy to say that I have finally gotten around to making my very own Thanksgiving Digital Word Art!
I originally opened up a paint document and used the extra large brush tool and drew a pumpkin. (I thought that a Turkey might be a little to hard to draw on the computer.)

Once I was happy with the look of my pumpkin drawing I opened up the Font section and picked a font style and color that I was happy with. I had about 7 words and 3 colors that I planned on repeating to make up this word art. After about an hour of resizing and playing with placement I was happy with the way it looked.

 I then switched it over to the eraser and started erasing the pumpkin out line and the letters that went over. In the end I ended up with this and I can't be more happy to show it off! **I am sure that there is an easier way of doing this but this is how I thought to do it. =)

Is that great or what!!! I am planning on making a few Christmas as well. For Christmas I have chosen to do a Christmas Tree, a Snowman, and an ornament! I can't wait to share all of those with you as well!
~Virginia E.

Peace and Beauty

Hello all! I am so excited about sharing with you my latest bows! Lets talk about the first one that I made, well, its actually a pair of identical bows for a Customer's Photo Session (Which you will see photos from, but that comes later!) For their Photo Session they chose Red as the main color so I came up with matching bows for their two very beautiful little girls. I went with a Clip Back on one and a crochet headband for the other, only because of their ages. I used Red Satain Ribbon for the base and 3rd layer, a fun white poinesetta designed ribbon for a touch of flair in the middle and to top it all of I added a sheer white roset. These hair bows turned out beautifully, they looked even better on the little girls then I could have ever hoped!

 Isn't that just darling!




Next to show off is a fun and funky 4" hair bow with a total of 4 ribbon layers and a silk flower! I got this ribbon as a gift and I couldn't wait to make a bow with it! This is one of my Favorite hair bows ever!

The bottom layer of ribbon is a small sized sheer bright yellow, next is the wide faded multi-color satain ribbon, then a medium multi-colored peace sign ribbon, and to finish off the ribbon a medium deep blue! Then I chose a small pink silk flower to hid in the center of all the comotion with a bright green brad! This bow has so much personality its unbelieveable!

Thanks for stopping by!
~Virginia E.

WoW! Catching up!

OK, so as most of you know I was involved in an Auto Collision about 2 weeks ago, these past two week have been so hard on my husband and I and things have just slipped away from me. I am here to catch you up on the happenings here. I have two missed Inspiration Mondays that I will post in the same post with photos, I have fun new Finds at my DI (Deseret Industries), new Hair Bows, and even a Photo Session! I also have a digital art that I made and what I am planning on making next!

So first up lets talk about those Inspiration Monday posts. Two weeks ago I found that I really liked the challenge of the CPS Sketch and took it for a spin. I used darker colors, or as some would say the more traditional colors. (Brown, Green, Red, Beige)

I love the colors that I chose for the Flower, I feel it really helped the card pop.
Again, this card was made for the CPS Challenge of 11-07-11. I never got it entered but at least I made the card and found that I really like that sketch.

Next is the Inspiration Monday of 11-14-11 for this challenge I chose the Mojo Monday Card Sketch. I really didn't find anything that inspiring so I went with a Sketch to see if I could get my juices flowing. Turns out that a terrible week trumps creativity. So this is what I ended up with from the Card Sketch.

The snowmen are from a set of very out dated Punch outs but I still love them, they are adorable!

That's really all I have to say about these two cards, they are not my best works but they are still nice in their own way and I hope to be back tomorrow in full stride for an all new Inspiration Monday!
Thank you to all of you for being patient with me while I recover and get back on my feet.
~Virginia E.

Bargain Savvy-November

I actually have some amazing Bargains to share with you all today! In the past week I have received 90 4x6 photo prints and 1,000 1" x 2 5/8" labels completely FREE! I also picked up two design scissors and a sandwich bag full of premade Ribbon flowers for only 2$! Are you ready to see what and how I got all this great stuff for so Cheap?

Lets start with the items that actually cost me money. As usual I took a quick trip to my Local DI (Deseret Industries) in search of Scrapbook bargains. They usually don't have the items that I am looking for since its a donation center and not an actual store but sometimes they have amazing items for sale and this was one of those day! I picked up two decorative scissors, one is a mini stamp cut and the other is a small scallop cut. Fun and I didn't have either! These in the stores near me normally cost 1.99-2.99$ a piece! I bought them for .50 cents each and since this is a donation center they do not charge tax, only a flat rate. I also found a regular sized sandwich baggie filled with premade ribbon flowers/roses. It was filled to the top with these ribbon flowers/roses in a wide array of colors. I picked this up for only 1.00$ and got over 100 little ribbon flowers/roses! I don't have a standard cost for these but I'm sure that its a deal! A steal really. So for total I received all of this for 2$ exactly!

I also had a great coupon from Office Depot for 10$ any print and copy center purchase. So I went in to visit a few friends and to place my order for 1,000 black and white labels. I chose the size 1" x 2 5/8" because it is what fits my needs. This size is normally associated with return address labels. *Depending on your location you may have to pay for the labels and they will print on them for you. This coupon is only good for the next few days. I chose black and white because they are only .10 cents a print where as color costs .59 cents for each print. (BIG Difference!)

Now on to how I got 90 4x6 photo prints for free this past week to week and a half. I signed up for a new Walgreens photo account online just because they are doing amazing deals for 4x6 photo prints and since that is what I normally use in my Scrapbooks it seemed like the smart thing to do. I received 3 free coupon codes from Walgreens in my e-mail! The first was a code for 40 FREE 4x6 prints. I ordered online and asked for in store pick up because that is free! My whole order was completely FREE! I didn't pay a cent! A few days later I received a new coupon code for 25 FREE 4x6 prints. Again I opted for in store pick up which made my whole order completely FREE! Then, just a few days later I received another amazing 25 FREE 4x6 prints coupon code!! I ordered online and chose in store pick up and got it all completely FREE!!!! So, that is a grand total of 90 completely free 4x6 photo prints! These are the coupon codes that I used, they might just work for you! *But you can only use them once per account.
DRUGSTORE40 = 40 free prints
FREE4X6 = 25 free prints
FORU25 = 25 free prints

Good Luck in your frugal adventures!
~Virginia E.

Spook-tacular Treats

For Halloween I made some special grab bag style treats for the little crew of special Goblins and Ghouls that I got to hang out with Halloween night. I chose to do a fun Frankenstein, a funky Vampire, and the crazy Mummy! These were so easy and fun to make! I used my faithful Cricut to cut out 4 little bags two in dark green and two in a light tan card stock. Then I drew choppy hair on purple paper for the Frankenstein. A widows brow for the Vampires hair. Then I used the scraps from the light tan paper to create the Mummy's bandages, I used my brown/bronze ink and a sponge to create the dirty aged look of the bandages. I picked out large googly eyes & Matching Ribbon for the little grab bags. For Frankensteins & the Vampires nose I cut a 1" circle and cut it in half and inked it so that it would stand out on the face. For the mouths I just used my favorite pen and just drew them on! See, so so so easy and fun! I love watching the little creatures come to life!

Super cute right!!!! I love them all so much but I think the little Mummy is my Favorite!
Thanks for stopping by and have a great Holiday Season!
~Virginia E.