Winter Coffee Gift Card

When Heart 2 Heart ( http://heart2heartchallenges.blogspot.com/) posted their challenge this week to create something that embodied the word "cold," I couldn't help but use CTMH "Magnifique" papers and "Timber" stamp sent to create a fun gift card card. My card is not an original, but was "lifted" from a fun card I made at Creative University (See the post below). What can warm a heart more during these dull, cold months of January and February than a coffee gift card from a friend.

~Amy

Creative University Projects

I spent that past weekend at Creative University, an awesome creative retreat, hosted by my CTMH consultant Tresa Black. I enjoyed meeting other scrappers and learning from the excellent "professors," Tresa had lined up to teach classes. Here are the projects I created at CU.

Beautiful "family" layout taught by Nona Davenport.
Flowers made with CTMH pleated ribbon.

Scrapping with fabric layout taught by Christina Dunham. Love the "yo-yo" cherries. Just need to add three vertical 4x6 pictures to the right hand page.

Altered clipboard taught by Denise Anderson Turley.

Love those glittery paper roses!

Corner bookmark card taught by Jenn Royal.

That stamp set and paper pack are so cute!

Cards from the card boutique provided by Shelia Bennett and Donna Smith. Mine cards aren't exactly like theirs, as I was pressed for time and just took the materials, stamped the images and tried to recreate on my own.

More awesome gift card holders by Shelia and Donna.

So simple, yet so special.

Oops, I guess the "it's your Birthday" part of the card was suppose to go in one of the "hip hip hooray slots, now I have room for two gift cards.

This was one of my favorite cards. Simple and very pretty.

The awesome cluster charm necklace, taught by Erin Grotegut. Sorry for the poor picture, my camera was having a hard time focusing on all those shiny charms.

~Amy

Ready or Not!

Here I Come!!!!

I have been wanting to attend Creative University for several years now and finally have the chance to get away for a fun filled craft weekend. I have been busy getting ready for this weekend. Here are a few things I have prepared.

Each year there is a charm swap. This year's themes were "Under the Sea" and "Vintage." Being that I have never made a charm before now, I chose just one swap. Can you guess the theme? The starfish is no bigger than a quarter, that I hand crafted with aqua and purple polymer clay. The filler charm is just a combination of fun beads I found at Michael's. Not too bad for my first attempt.
Tresa Black, the Close to My Heart Consultant I use (check out her blog http://www.fabulouslyartsy.com/), organized this entire weekend for 50+ crafters from all around the country. I was lucky to grab a spot...the event sold out in several days. She asked that each attendee make a "twinchie" (a 2x2 small piece of artwork) for her to keep as a momento. She wants to display them all toghether as one big piece of artwork. The theme for this project, as well the the entire weekend is "let your creativity take flight." We were to use the colors black, gray and anything in the red spectrum. My "twinchie" is pretty simple, but I really like it.

There is also a card swap. I was going to make 2 sets of 10 cards, but only got around to completing 10 cards. I was happy to be able to try out my new cricut cartridge "What a Hoot".

Lastly, here are my completed roommate gifts I talked about in an earlier post. I found these perfect picture holders at Michael's a few weeks ago and thought they would be perfect to hold a few special treats for my roommates.

I am excited for a fun weekend! I will share more about this great weekend when I get home.

More Heart 2 Heart Challenges for February

I am in the midst of getting ready for "Creative University," a fun crafting weekend getaway, and have been so thankful for the great ideas from Heart 2 Heart to help inspire my roomate gifts.

The first from Feb. 1 was was inspired by this sketch.

It is a 3x3 card to be attatched to each gift. Stay tuned for all my preparations for CU.

The card is made of CTMH cardstock Ocean, Watermelon, White and Black. I was pleasantly surprised with how well the zebra print turned out. I simple drew a zebra pattern on a 2x3 piece of black cardstock then cut it out and glued it on to a white 2x3 piece of card stock.

Each of my roommates will recieve a small pack of this card. I used the technique of stamp "kissing" to get the designs in each of the shapes.

I wasn't as pleased with how these turned out, but I think they are okay.

~Amy

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thought today of all days would be a good day to share some of my scrapping on the Close to My Heart challenge page Heart 2 Heart. This weeks challenge was to include a card, layout or anything this week featuring a heart.

First, just to wet your whistles for hearts, here are some yummy cookies the kids and I decorated today to give to our special Valentine's. We placed them in small bags and taped them shut with a sticker. Tip of the Day- Before placing your cookies in a decorative bag, freeze them first for at least an hour. This will make the frosting hard and ensure that it does not stick or make a mess in the see through bags.

Here is the layout I decided to post. It is one I had partially finished for several years now and just never completed, but thankfully today's challenge motivated me to get it done. It feels good to finally see these cute pictures of my daughter's first Valentine's day on a layout.

It is a very simple layout using a mono-chromatic color palete. I used colonial white, holly hock and blush and a very old CTMH wooden stamp set.

Although, I love all the new papers and new patterns it is feels good to use some of my old paper to create a page that is clean, crisp and simple.

I look forward to participating in more challenges throughout the year and plan to add some creations for the 1st and 2nd weeks of February once I get around to making what I have in mind.

Any suggestions for getting a better picture would be much appreciated. I tried to take the picture near a window to use natural light, but unfortunately it was a little overcast today.

~Amy

Construction Party

We had a great construction birthday party this weekend for my son. I was really happy with how everything turned out. We decorated with red, orange and yellow streamers as well as lots of "caution" tape around the house. Played lots of construction themed games (construction dig in bin of beans for prizes, build and destroy-blocks with wrecking ball, dump truck candy pick-up, and red light green light truck races) and just had fun.

My favorite part of the party was the cake table. It looked so awesome and was really easy to do. First I took a black table cloth and added yellow duct tape to make stripes down the center of the table so it looked like a road. It was such a simple and easy touch that made the table look special. Additionally I made a "dirt" dump truck cake. With chocolate cake chunks, layered with chocolate mousse and chocolate cookie crumbs in the back of a dump truck, it was the perfect addition to the party.

I wish I could say that I thought of this idea myself, but like most of my ideas, I copy and embellish to make them mine. I found this idea on the Family Fun website. They have lots of great ideas for children's birthday parties, crafts and more. 


~Amy

The Maid Is In!

Some days you just feel like your purpose in life is to constantly clean, do laundry and nothing else. Mondays are those kind of days for me. Luckily my little ones keep things interesting and keep me laughing.

My daughter and I just returned from a fun "girls weekend" to attend my sister-in-law's baby shower. It was a great weekend being together with the girls. We enjoyed a fun stay at a hotel and of course this morning, my daughter decided she wanted to play "hotel" with her brother. Both would take turns going back and forth between rooms knocking on the doors and pretending. Being Monday, the beds were stripped and I was busy sorting and washing dirty laundry. When the kids beds were ready to be made, I found myself right in the middle of their play. With arms full or warm bed sheets I tapped on the door and hollered "Room service! I need to make the beds!" My daughter giggled with delight and gladly let me in. That was just the start. All morning she asked to do things to make her stay at the hotel nice and took joy in ordering me around. What was really fun though is that she didn't want to call me Mommy, so decided since I was working for "the hotel" she would just call me "Room Service." Once while I passed her while heading back to the bed room to fold clothes, she matter of factly said "Hi, Room Service," For some reason this just made me chuckle. What a little knuckle head!

~Amy

Great Idea for Morning Play Date

Just had a great morning get-together with a few other MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers) Moms'. My parents gave me this awesome waffle maker for Christmas 2009, yes it has been over a year ago, and I have had yet to use it.

It just seemed too messy and too much work to try to figure out. Have you ever not done something just because it seemed too difficult? It turns out it was really easy to use and super easy to clean up.

Thanks to some good advice from my sister-in-law, Dawn, I was was able to change one of the recipes from the instruction book, and made some very delicious buttermilk waffles. Too bad I didn't take any pictures of the actual waffles. Both Moms and the children ate them before I even thought about it.

It was a fun gathering with everyone bringing their favorite waffle topping. We had an abundance of strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. YUM!!!!!

Buttermilk Waffle Recipe (I actually tripled this and it made about 10 full belgium waffles.)

2 cups Flour

2 T. Sugar

1 T. Baking Soda

1/2 t. Salt

12/3 cup Buttermilk

1/3 cup Melter Butter or Margarine

2 Eggs

*Mix dry ingredients and then add liquid while stirring. It is okay if the batter is a little lumpy. Bake in Waffle Baker for approximately 3 minutes 45 seconds.

**Adapted from the Kichen Aid Proline Waffle Baker Instructions Book, Chocolate Chip Waffle Recipe (Just add 1cup of chocolate chips, change buttermilk to regular milk and add 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon if you want chocolate chip waffles. )

~Amy