TGIF!!

I feel like lately, I have been so busy I have barely had time to breathe! Not that I'm complaining.. because I am so happy with how life has been going :) It's the start of the weekend and things couldn't be better - I *love* Friday!

I have *lots* of things to share today.. starting with a little project.






I found an embroidery hoop at the flea market for $0.50 - I have had it hanging around for a while and I have wanted to make one of these fabric hoops for ages! I bought this fun fabric on etsy and stretched it in the hoop and then glued it down in the back with a hot glue gun. I also glued (not shown) some pretty aqua ribbon around the hoop itself. This was such a FUN and easy project! You could get a bunch of differently sized hoops and make some cool wall decor. I'm hoping to eventually start selling these, once I find some more hoops (I'm too cheap to pay full price!) and fabric.



I made this scrapbook LO last night using a photo from Jude's first Birthday party. I am sooo rusty - I haven't scrapped since October, and I only spent 20 minutes on this. This was scraplifted from the cover of the most recent Creating Keepsakes. Hopefully I can get a few more LO's in this weekend! :)



Jude and I took a trip to Value Village this morning, and we ended up finding some good loot. I got two pieces of fun vintage fabric, an embroidery hoop, dwell magazine, a kodak book on colors in photography, and of course Jude got a Car. That boy and cars! He found it on the shelf when I was looking in the other direction and refused to put it down.. so he has added another car to his collection. It has a little spinning ball on the top - which is a big deal to Jude as he loves all things round and spinny! hehe



Speaking of the little man.. here's a shot of him in the tub yesterday. He was telling me something, I think. He's quite the little chatterbox.



This was my outfit today.. took this photo to prove that I own some clothing that is not pink OR blue, hee! The necklace was one of the ones given to me after my husband's grandmother passed away in March and this is the first time I have worn it.





A couple of shots from my studio taken this week. I'm finally getting to the point where I can consider it "mostly clean" and am not embarassed to take photos. The desk is my etsy desk - I do all of my packing/shipping there and store most of my materials like envelopes and tissue.





And finally, some new items in the shop! My hand stamped scrolls are now available in pink. There are also some new paper packs available, and I'm hoping to get more up this weekend! Hope everyone has a lovely Saturday tomorrow!! xo

Busy busy!!

I've been busy stocking the shop... here are some of the newest goodies that can be found there!








I've been cleaning my studio, and found lots of paper products to de-stash! These are just some of the new items.. so make sure to check the shop. I also took a few pictures of my "etsy desk" - check them out on flickr if you want to see my little shipping area.

Do you ever..

Have so many things you are excited to share, that you just don't know which to choose? That happens to me a lot, especially when I have been busy. I feel like the last month or so has just flown by! Here's a little peek into what I've been doing:



Slowly cleaning and organizing my studio, and finding things to De-Stash. I have such a hard time deciding to part with supplies - there is so much potential in everything. If only I had unlimited time and space! These two Love, Elsie mini albums have made their way into the shop.



Making things just for the sake of making something beautiful. Now that I put together and packaged all of these papers.. I want to keep them. Yes, I am silly! I hope to make a few more of these soon - any color suggestions? I am stuck stuck stuck on pink and aqua.



Spring Cleaning - still! Yes, this has been a pro-longed effort! I keep making lots of progress, though :) Yesterday I attempted to clear out the cupboard under my bathroom sink and found a lot of beauty products to give away. I have so much perfume and lotion and things that I won't be able to use up - someone else needs to help!



Slowly Making Jewelery. These first two sets of ear studs on tags are available now in the shop.

I'm feeling a bit sick today... so that's all for now folks! xoxo

Sunny Sunday..

Argh, I am so tired! I only slept 3 hours last night... I think I am dreaming this..








We took Jude and the Wagon down to the waterfront yesterday. We even went and explored a pond :) He took me on a little walk down the path.. but was unsure about crawling around on the leafy ground alone. I am so excited to scrappbook these pictures - there are many more on my computer. I missed national scrapbooking day yesterday, so maybe I'll find some time today if I am lucky! Cross your fingers for me.





I'm giving away one of my Recycled Paper Posy magnets - all you have to do is comment! I made a bunch of these and I want to share them! Open until the end of tonight - winner to be posted Monday morning! xo and good luck. Paper Posy magnets are also available now in my etsy shop and make a great gift.

How To: Make a Posy Magnet from recycled paper

Here's a little craft for a rainy Friday. I made this magnet this morning out of 100% recycled materials. I cut up three different cards, some sticker packaging, and letters from a magazine. The posy is one of the ones I sell in my shop - they are made from recycled paper and scraps!

Step One: I cut out a 5x2.5" square from some repurposed sticker packaging. I chose a thicker type of paper to give the magnet some weight. This is going to be your base.

Step Two: Use a glue runner to trace around the edges of the back of your square. Mount your square on another piece of paper, in a coordinating shade. You can see from the photos that I glued my white piece to an aqua piece, and then a pink piece of paper.

Step Three: Cut your stem. The stem pictured was cut free-hand from an old thank you card. I colored it a little bit with water color pencil crayons.

Step Four: Attach your posy. They have a brad in the middle and can be attached that way, but I chose to mount mine with 3-d foam adhesive squares for a little bit more pop. These posies are made with layers of circular paper, they are simple and easy and you can use any paper scraps you have around.

Step Five: Cut out a saying. My saying was taken from a magazine page and adhered with a glue runner.

Step Six: Add embellishments if you desire. I chose to use glitter glue and run it all along the edges of the white square.

Step Seven: Cut a piece or a few strips of adhesive backed magnet sheeting, and adhere to the back of your square. Voila!



This craft would be a great one to do with the kids, and would make a great gift for mom. (Mother's day is may 10th remember!). In total, using a pre-made posy this took me less than 10 minutes to put together and cost me almost nothing! Have fun crafting.

Just a quick post today...

to share a link! I wrote a tutorial for a new blog called My DIY Wedding Day, owned by The Knot. Please check out the link, and learn how to make these Save The Dates that I designed especially for the blog! It's a little folder with a magnet inside... super cute!

news news news!

Ok, this is going to be a photo-heavy post! How can a girl have so much news from only two days?? Yesterday our power was out for almost the entire day (yes, that sucked!) so I missed out on a days worth of sharing. I wanted to start with this amazingly cute dress that I found at the flea market on Sunday.






Now, this dress was a VERY happy find. I loved the pink polka dot fabric and picked it up without even looking at it. I often cut up old clothing for the fabric. Anyways, got it home and thought... hmm this might fit me - and it did! I am not a small girl and cute vintage stuff never fits me, so this was a big score! and it was only $2! I also found a few pretty brooches:





Yesterday when the power was out I made a few things:







The first picture is a little collage made on recycled cardboard. I covered it in patterned paper, affixed the pink lace around the bottom, freehand cut the birdie out and attached with pop dots. Then I added some pearls and flowers :) just a little something to pass the time. The second two photos are of some pretty little ear studs - paper*cakes will soon start offering accessories! These are the first of the lot.. and you better bet I am keeping quite a few for myself!

This arrived in the mail for me yesterday:





From the ever lovely Elizabeth of Creative Breathing. Now I have one more craft to add to me E pile! hehe.. not that they are in a pile. Previously, Elizabeth sent me a very special embroidered heart, and a dutch girl pegdoll (because I am dutch!). She sent another pincushion to Chelsea Ann too. Please go read Elizabeth's blog - she posts great stories! And finally... a photo of a couple of notebooks that I recently picked up.





I'm SUCH a sucker for all things paper, especially notebooks! I love to make lists.. I just love writing on the unspoiled paper - lol :) The pink notebook is to make a little art journal about myself and my likes right now.. some self exploration. I don't know if can see the writing on the cover, but it reads "today I had a conversation with my true self. She asked me why I had abandoned her, why I had ignored all her constant advice. And then she reminded me of all the things I had forgotten. And never once did she say "I told you so".

That's all for now! xoxo

My DIY Wedding on a Budget!

I got married in September of 2008, and in order to save money we (me, my mil, my mom, and her friend) made most of the decor elements of the wedding ourselves. This was really challenging as I got married in Alberta and was living in PEI at the time. It was a great idea to DIY because we saved so much money on wedding insidentals and were able to put that towards the travel expenses. I hope these pictures can provide you with some sort of imspiration :)






I wanted to talk first about the wedding invites, since these were the most labour intensive of all of the DIY projects we made for the wedding. My mom worked in the multi-media wing of the local college so she was lucky enough to know a graphic designer. He designed the image, and we based the invite around it. I designed and printed all of the cards, and designed the pocket fold set-up. Every invitation was printed at home and cut out on my paper trimmer! We used http://weddingannouncer.com to set up an online RSVP service which was awesome!

We got married in the atrium of a museum, and they did not allow any decor on the walls or hanging from the ceiling, so our decor options were limited. We decided to make the tables the focus. We rented two lanterns and two park benches, our only decor other than what was on the tables.


My grandfather and a little baldie Jude, sitting on the bench, in front of the lantern.



My mom sewed all of the table cloths - I found pink/gold satin fabric on sale so it was really economical - it worked out to about $8/ cloth. My mom's best friend made our centrepieces - white vases found at walmart with faux cherry blossoms. To make the centrepiece, she filled the vases with rocks, tucked in some branches (she spray painted these dark brown), and added flowers. The blossoms themselves were found at michaels. Then she tied a light pink ribbon around the vase. Cost was about $10/centrepiece.



This is a shot of the head table, decorated with more of the bolts of fabric we purchased ourselves. Wedding rental places offered table cloths to rent, but it was far cheaper to buy the fabric. I still have the pink fabric and use it as a table cloth for craft shows :)



Here is a better shot of the centrpieces, and the card box that I painted. I found it at michaels and used one of their coupons with it. I painted the outside white, the inside pink, and freehanded cherry blossoms on the outside.



We did a small candy buffet instead of favors. We purchased jars, and decorated them with ribbons/bows. I found heart shaped candy scoops at michaels. Guests were given little boxes to put candy inside. We saved a lot of time and money doing favors this way because only those interested helped themselves, and we could purchase candy at costco. This was a huge hit and was gone way before we even expected thanks to all of the children in attendance! (by the time this photo was taken, a lot of the good stuff was already gone lol)



I saved a lot by doing my own makeup, and the makeup of my bridal party. I am a makeup artist so this was not stressful for me :) My cousin is a hairstylist, and she did the hair for the bridesmaids. Ok, that's all for crafty photos... now onto some "just for fun" sharing!



I ended up wearing these silver flip flops instead of the shoes I bought for the wedding... much more comfy!



Here we are cutting the cake! I got a yummy coconut cake with buttercream icing, and then chocolate cupcakes and white coconut cupcakes. Yum! Too bad the only bite I got was right after cutting.. would have loved to eat more cupcakes.



This picture was taken at the Nikka Yuko Japanese gardens, in Lethbridge AB. We got our photos taken there and they have this giant gong.. makes for a pretty shot :)



This is pretty silly... but it shows the background of the japanese gardens.




Two photos taken during the ceremony. We chose this museum location because it overlooks a river bottom. In southern alberta there are "coulees" which were formed many years ago by glaciers scraping out channels in the land.. anyways, it makes for a nice view! My bridal party wore gold dresses that had brown bows, and matching bow necklaces.


This shot was taken before the reception, during cocktail hour. I love that it shows the windows in the museum :)



The cake, pro-spoiling! I requested buttercream icing and NOT fondant because fondant is not overly delicious!

She's HERE!

My kitty from Lori Marie arrived a few days ago! I am a bit late sharing pics since my internet in the studio was down.. which means I had no photo uploading capabilities!



Please visit Lori's Shop and get your own! She still has a pink kitty left.

The last few days have been busy busy, as usual. When is it not busy here? The weather today for Earth Day is kinda crummy - rain, wind, and grey skies. What is it like where you are today? Take a picture and upload it here to share it with everyone in honor of Earth Day!

Just wanted to share a quick recipe - I've been trying to make easy, healthy(ish) breakfasts that I can make ahead and cook quickly when needed.

Spinach and Sausage Breakfast Bagel

- 1 egg
- 1 bagel
- 3 large spinach leaves
- 2 pieces of bacon, 1 piece of ham, or 1 sausage
- a few pieces of cheese

Microwave egg in small bowl for 45 seconds - it comes out round. Toast bagel, and cook your meat. Place Egg on bagel, top with spinach and then add your meat while hot. Place cheese on top! Voila. This takes about 15 minutes to make in the morning or do what I do and make a bunch up ahead, freeze or refridgerate them, and microwave just before eating.

I'm off to do laundry! xoxo