There is a new Prompt over at The Creative Type! Using Negative Space. Here was my take:
I created my own orange sparkle letters and made a spider's web out of Stickles with a rhinestone spider. Here's how:

I used Heidi Swapp "Center of Attention" letters in white. Then I dabbed orange acrylic pant on them (apply thickly to create texture).Once that dried, the applied Stickles "Orange Peel".For the Spider web, I used Stickles in "Diamond". It would also looked good using "Frosted Lace". Then I used a large colored rhinestone for the spider!

Thought I'd share on my blog my latest Halloween Decorations. The idea first came about when I found black vintage metal cupcakes holders at a garage sale. It was in the summer, but I figured I would use them for something! I purchased vintage images from Etsy and orange shred and put it all together!

New Prompt is up and running at The Creative Type! Yippee! Love that this makes me get back into being creative with scrapping and pushing myself to try new things!

Prompt #20 is masking so here I used a black pencil and some mismatched old letter stickers. I would suggest when using letter stickers that you "unstick" them a little by pressing the stick side down on your pant leg or a paper towel so it picks up some of the lint and won't be too hard to remove later. I just scribbled all over the title with a black pencil, took off the letter and voila!

http://www.blogger.com/posts.g?blogID=16148830

So happy to wake up today to an email from my friend Suzanne: "Your tennis booties are featured in an Etsy Storque article." Yippee! They are actually booties that I had made for her new little baby Zoe. Now she has famous footwear!

Haven't posted for a while but with it being the summer time seems to fly. I thought I would share some party ideas. This is a momento book I recently made for a couple's baby shower. I have made this before in the past and it seems to be a nice thing to add to any shower. Basically guests can write out advice, a prayer or a welcome and then place the card in the album. The parents get to take whole an album full of well wishes and advice they can read for years to come. The album is from 7 gypsies and the letters I used for "Micah" is from American Crafts. "Blessings for" are also from American Crafts and it is from their Remark rub ons line.

I also picked up a red wire basket for quests to put their cards in at the $1.00 store. I was hoping for a Martha Stewart-esque look with the ribbon and the tag for cards. Simple and sweet!

Here are some pictures from the 4th! We hung out at Matt's cousin's house. The older kids look like Sparkler Ninjas and I love that little Kate wants to get right in with the big kids and play Xbox!

This kid with these kids are at Hume Lake Camp this week. And YES I am being one of those Moms that is missing him and it is too quiet around when normally all I crave is a quiet home with no yelling, whining and arguing. Go figure!

So to send him off, he needed a wallet. I have no idea where his wallet went, so I decided to make him a duct tape wallet. Super easy and fun to make! Instructions can be found here!

I also made this

for my cousin in law's birthday. It is from Sweetwater Scrapping and I just found out they have the cutest blog. Lots of good ideas an eye candy on there! Check it out!

Just sharing some of my Fav layouts, cards and projects!

Here is my take on The Creative Type's new Prompt 18- T-shirt insiration. I saw this Converse T and was instantly inspired!

Come play along! You have until June 28th and there is an AWESOME prize involved from this Beautiful Etsy Store!

Life has been busy with finishing up the school year, Matt transitioning into his new job and well - I guess for me- I am continuing to juggle a whole bunch of stuff.

I was very excited to see my neice Michaela graduate last week from Middle School.

And the following day - I hosted a baby show for my tennis friend Suzanne! She is so cute pregnant! The yucky color of those walls do not do her justice.



For the shower I made paper flower centerpieces. I first saw this idea from my friend Sylvia. It is super easy to create and you can change the color of paper to fit any kind of celebration. I added the butterfly lollipops (I think they are called Twinkle candy). I liked that addtion because they are "boingy" and add some cuteness! I also added the circulare cardboard flowers.

I knitted Baby Zoe her first tennis dress and I realized after I gave it to her that I did not take any pictures of it. But I was proud of it because it was my own design and it had a ruffle at the hem!

But I did take pictures of baby's first tennis shoes! I LOVE how they turned out and I think I will be adding these to my Esty shop. Suzanne shared the pattern with me and it is really easy to knit up. It goes row by row so there is no way to really mess it up!

Here are the layouts for Picture Me Perfect this Month. Got to play with fun product from Jenni Bowlin and Creative Cafe! This is for my neice Hannah that is going to France this summer (which I am freaking out over BTW)!

This one is of Tyler at Easter!

This one is of the boys from one of their theater productions!

EEEEEE! So excited! My blog will be getting a makeover soon! Stay tuned......

Just showing off some knitting/crochet projects I made for my MIL and SIL Mother's Day gifts. Matt's Mom requested a lilace summer scarf. I used cotton lilac yarn that had a thread of siler running through it. I used the Tweed Silk Scarf pattern from 101 Designer One Skein Wonders (but if you use this pattern I could triple the amount of chains you start with- the book has the final measurement at 35" long which is too short in my opinion). I also made my first attempt at using beads with knitting and made this Scallop Edged Beaded Necklace from the same book.

Okay -for those of you that know me - I am so NOT the cook but I have been forced to the last 10 weeks or so due to Matt being away at band camp and famished when he comes home. Can't really ask him what's for dinner like I normally did! So I am slowly getting better at cooking - it it still not my favorite but it kind of clicked for me the other week. I think all the cooking competition shows I had been watching have rubbed off.

So here is a YUMMY recipe for Italian sausage sandwiches. I actually am not a fan of the sausage. Not sure what drew me to this while I was in the meat section at the grocery store but I did and do not regret it. It is even better the next day as leftovers!

1 package of Italian sausages (I think there were 6 in mine)
1 red pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 orange pepper
1 onion
1 can of diced tomatoes
Sprinkle of Oregano
Sprinkle of Basil

1.Brown the sausages in a skillet on all sides. Remove from pan and set aside. (Took me about 15 minutes)
2.Slice up all the peppers and onions into thin slivers and add to same skillet sausage was in (so the vegetables can cook in the grease left over).
3.Saute peppers and onions until soft. (This took me longer than I thought - 20 min).
4.While peppers and onion are sauteing, cut up sausage into about 1 inch sections (the meat will not be cooked through but it will cook the rest of the way later).
5.Add sections of sausage back to pan and continuing cooking.
6. Add can of diced tomatoes.
7.Let mixture simmer for 10 minutes or so until juices get thick.
8.Spoon onto sweet french bread rolls.

YUM!!

Feeling more at Home!

Now that we have been in our place for a couple of months, I am starting to settle in more and enjoying making some decorative additions. This place needs some work but I love the character this old 1930's house has!

I found this CD rack at a garage sale this weekend - couldn't pass up a $5.00 item! I thought at first it would work in our bedroom closet upstairs which needs serious organizing help but then I ended up putting it here in our entry since all our shoes end up downstairs anyway! The orchid is from Matt for Mother's Day and I could not bear putting the vintage framed butterflies for sale in my Etsy store. I love the way the light shines in through the old window!

Another garage sale find are these two shelves which I ended up putting at the base of our curved staircase. I was excited to finally display some of the "N"s I had been collecting. My orginal idea was to make a whole wall full of "N"s but that never happened in our old place so I am glad they have at least made it out in the open! Pictures, by the way, were taken by my talented friend Shannon www.shannonmontez.com.

At the top of the stairs is a bookcase that was left behind by the previous tenants. Here I have my little homage to Winnie the Pooh and some of my favorite pictures. I can't bear to put away this picture of Tyler even though he is 9 now. He was such a smiley baby. He smiled with every inch of his body and it always warms my spirit to look at this photo.

This grouping of photos are all of the men in my life. From left to right, Matt as a little boy, Timmy and Tyler. That was one of my quests was to tget each of the boys on a Pony shot to go with this one of Matt!

Here is what I worked on during National Scrapbook day!

So this is how my sewing project turned out. I took 4 receiving blankets and made 1 baby quilt, 1 burp cloth and two bibs with lots of scraps left over! I was inspired by the this pattern for the quilt and I used this pattern from Marth Stewart for the bibs . I think I will be making more these!

Hoping that I can turn this:

Into something cute!

Here is some scrapping goodness for you!