random saturday drive by...

as i said earlier in the week, i was going to post a few more projects i did with the april zany zinnia porcelain kit. this kit really had some mileage with it. there is plenty of 'stuff' for several layouts and then some.

have a great weekend!

goin' green

i have discovered a new fun blog via one of the visitors to this blog. nathalie drops by every once in a while. and i do the same and visit her blog. she had a great tutorial up the other day, that i wanted to try. she dubbed it " 'Green' Altered Vertical Organizer". She used a priority box, and turned it into a great holder of 'things'. not only do i love 'holders of things', but i love to use what i have. and i have plenty of these boxes hangin' around here.

i won't go into the details of the tutorial. if you are interested go and visit her site. for my version, i used a smaller box. i only painted around the edges where the paper would not cover. i used a digi paper kit from rhonna farrer for the paper. and then of course some thickers from a/c for the letters. it now sits proudly in my daughters room holding her cherished american girl doll catalogs. she loves it.

thanks so much for visiting!

gallery is up...

over at ZanyZinnia...the April gallery is up with the Marrakech kit and Porcelain offerings. Both terrific kits and they are still available. (psss...go get one!)
I had my hand with the Porcelain kit which could lend itself to some wedding layouts or mini album with all it's softness and pinks. Or to even some sweet baby photos. It was a beautiful kit to work with. And the trims Stacy included with these kits were absolutely terrific. The above post is part of the gallery, but I had plenty left over for a few more and will post later.
This gallery was my last over at Zany Zinnia. I am sad to go as Stacy is a wonderful kit club owner and has been a dream to work with. She is so insightful to the needs of her customers and always looking for ways to pop her kits, as well as make them perfectly affordable. Her kits are always fun and go together so well. Thanks, Stacy!!!

hope you have a beautiful spring day!!!

zany zinnia sneaks...

I just saw that Stacy has the Zany Zinnia peaks for May up over at Zany Zinnia. For as popular and adorable as owls are, I have yet to use them in any of my layouts. Ray Of Sunshine kit looks to be very fun, upbeat and whimsical. Great kit for even those fun Easter Day photos.
May Basket is very eye catching. Are those American Craft Thickers in a script font? Looks like. Hmm...very, very tempting.
So what kits are catching your eye right now?

Enjoy your day!

easter sunday...

The weekend has been very busy already. Mostly related to serving at church, and then preparing the house and food for an easter feast in our home.
The children and Paul were suppose to come with me and serve the 1 and 2 year old room at the 7 a.m. service Sunday morning. But when I got home about 9 p.m. on Saturday evening, after helping the three services of that afternoon, and realized the children were still up and not really settled for the night yet, I knew that waking them early enough to dress and eat and be at church by 7a.m. would probably not be a very pretty reality. So…I nixed that and went in myself. They all joined me at the 9 a.m. service. We were in the 1 year old room with 21 of the little tikes…busy, adorable, full of energy. It was already a full day

We did not do the traditional egg hunt this year, but I always have a basket for my guys. This was filled with pocket boxes of candy, and bracelets for the girls, as well as hand-dipped pretzel sticks. Hard to let those go, as I love them so much. The children were pleased and delighted. Makes me happy.
The rest of the afternoon required a small snooze on my part. I love laying down with Analise, my last napper. There is something snuggly and comforting getting quiet with her for a few minutes.

After a little snooze I finished the dipping the strawberries, and some iced cookies. I put the berry trifle together. Paul baked the ham which turned out so very juicy and yummy. Mom brought her famous cheesy scalloped potatoes. Janette made several dishes of green bean casserole. Avery prepared a yummy new dip that we had with a platter of fresh veggies that Betty from across the street prepared. Diane, with her family in tow, brought the ‘fluffy salad’. That is always a big hit with the kids. In all we had about 19 in the house at three different tables.

Spirits were good despite the very wintry scene outside.

playin' with shrinky dinks.

O.K...well, I guess we do not call them 'shrinky dinks' anymore...that's child's play...wrong!!! What fun it was to use this jewelry printables kit from house of three and make these bracelets. They are gifts for my girls this weekend. And I highly recommend them to anybody for anytime.

After figuring out the best way to print on the shrink plastic, it all came together very well. I have a large format Epson, and using the draft setting to print enabled the ink to not go on so heavy, and the colors still popped very well when the plastic shrank down.

I also found that doubling the jump ring between each shrink 'charm' helped them fit around the bracelet better. The gals at ho3 showed buttons in between, I did not have buttons that would have fit like theirs, so I just opted for doubling the jumps. Here is the tutorial.

I also used the shrink plastic that I had on hand, which was transparent. Gave the bracelet a different look, but still great.

Found these cute mini toggle closures at wal-mart. They are perfect size for smaller wrists.

Love how they turned out, and can't wait for my girls to love them too.

Have a fabulous weekend!

Easter thoughts.

You can see me here today.

april 3.

this is a little album that came in a work in progress kit last fall. whenever i would go through my end of the month purge, i would pick it up, look at it and think: "i know i want to do something with this".
well, you know how hard it is to purchase an appropriate gift for a 13 year old? especially a 13 year old boy? well, said 13 y/o is my nephew, and his party is tonight. and so i picked up this little album again, and simply printed some photos from over the past year and put this together for him. it is very, very simple. i left the journal spots open for him to add what he wants. as well as a few pages at the end of the book where he can add whatever he wants.
i like how it turned out. the glitz papers need very little embellishing, which works pretty good for a guy i think. just wanted to share it here. oh...and don't worry, there's cash for him too.

april first.

this hangs on my girls door, to remind us, that even though the snow is blowing outside, we can still attempt spring like thoughts inside. this was made using mostly the work in progress april kit. such a fun kit. so much to do with it. looks like they are still available, so go check them out!

here is a layout i had fun doing with that kit:
this uses a photo clusters template from designer digitals. it was very easy to just pop those photos in there and i was ready to go. i think i got this kit when it was 25 cents...but at full price it's still a sweet little template. i also used it in another layout at wip.

so go check out wip's gallery for this month. lots of great designs and ideas. it's really a treat.

have a wonderful first evening of april!