Gift Card holder for Garrett's B-day

This is the gift card holder that I made for Garrett's 5th birthday. I used the Snappy Birthday set from Stampin Up. I got the idea from the Pine is here blog. So cute and super easy to make. It made the gift card not so totally boring! 5 year olds aren't usually all that excited about gift cards - that is why the bag is filled with a gazillion bubbles!!!

Even More Teacher's Gifts - Nugget Tins

This is another great thank you gift for a teacher. The tin contains 12 pieces of Hershey's chocolate nuggets. The colored paper is from SU!

More Teacher's Gifts - Thank you berry much!

This is a "mini" paint can decorated as a thank you to that special teacher in your child's life. I put the tape dispenser in the picture to give you an idea of how big the paint can is. It is filled with new "sweet" mint life savers.

I used the SU! tag punches to create the thank you card and the stamp set is from Paper Trey Ink.

Our Furry Friend

Isn't he cute! Especially when he is outside - not chewing my favorite pair of shoes or eating one of my magazines!!!

Easter Egg Hunt Pictures

Jonathan was thrilled to search for more Candy - boy the dentist is going to love us today!!!

Cody was trying to act like he wasn't having as much fun as everyone else!

Samantha, Natalie, Eric, Kellie & Wyatt also found lots of goodies in the eggs.

Easter Treats

These are the treat bags I made for all the kids! They were filled with candy, erasers and a couple of other special things. Pink for the girls blue for the boys. All supplies/stamps came from Papertrey Ink.

Sweetie's Birthday Treats

Ok, I know, crafts for a dog's birthday party??? Everyone deserves something cute on their special day! I made this bag for Sweetie on her 1st birthday. Just bringing a box of Milk bones just seemed too...ordinary. Jazz it up!

Happy Birthday to me!

39 and holding...how long will that be my motto? Who knows - but it certainly is for today - the day after. I am writing this to send a big thank you out to all of my girls for taking the time out of their busy lives to call or celebrate with me!

Danielle - thanks for including me in the big dog birthday party! LOL the pups had fun, but so did we. I am going to be better about "accessorizing." I promise! Now that you gave me all the cute jewels, how could I not. 21 years together now! Wow that is unbelievable.

Missy - Thanks for coming and sharing with the dog party. I hope Roxie had as much fun as Zeb and Sweetie did. Poor Zeb could barely lift his head up on Sunday he was so beat! I am going to miss you when you head South - but just another reason for a road trip, right?

Miss Anne - you are a lifesaver! Thanks for feeding me, listening to me whine and offering a shoulder to b*tch upon! I know you are family and you now HAVE to put up with me, but I truly appreciate it, especially yesterday : )

Jenn - You called at just the right time! There is always so much chaos in our lives, but we somehow still manage to hold a 27 year old friendship together!!! Thanks for remembering.

Lisa - Gosh, I wish we could spend more time together! I am so glad you called when you did. Really the insanity that was my house yesterday almost pushed me over the edge. I am looking forward to my birthday surprise that should be arriving any day now! You always know just what I need.

A big fat thank you goes out to all of you! Because of all of you, I managed to make it through a pretty crappy birthday "celebration" without having to fix my mascara. I love you all SO much and with the big 4-0 coming next year I am going to have to take matters into my own hands! Men are men and they just can't help themselves, thank god for girlfriends.

Anyone who posts a comment on the blog will get a special treat from me...

New Blog Banner

This is my first real attempt at creating a blog banner. I like how it turned out. I took the photo of our blooming Japanese Maple - I flipped the photo to fit in the banner! The flowers were not as clear as I hoped they would be - but I was the genius who tried to take a picture with gale force winds blowing around me.

Teacher's Gifts!!

Ok - it's the end of the school year and you are desperately trying to figure out something unique to give your child's teacher - well I have the perfect gift idea!! Each set comes with a Pen/pencil holder covered in "school" related paper, 4 pencil "flowers," a post-it note pad and a card - that looks like a mini chalkboard - the message reads "A hundred years from now...it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child." If you would like to order one of these for the end of the year - contact me for details at plpurses@yahoo.com .

Open House Success

Well, Missy's "Vend-O-rama" was a pretty good success. I had several ooher's and aaher's over my stuff - and even had some pretty respectable sales. It got my enthusiasm up and I am ready to make some more things and try for a real craft fair! I will be posting more pictures of things that I have made and hope to get some orders for some custom creations!

New Pictures of Zeb - 5 months old 55 pounds

Martini Card

Don't ya just love this card? For the image, I used "Cosmobella." I colored her with prismacolor pencils. The ribbon I got from the discount bin at Michaels. It is Martha Stewart grosgrain ribbon. The paper is also from Michael's.

Wellies Card - So Preppy!

This card just speaks to me! I LOVE the polka dots and the preppy striped paper. I used the stamp set Green Thumb for this card and after I stamped it I covered the image with Stampin' Up's crystal effects. It really looks like a rubber boot. Fun!

Maculine Birthday Card

Hello Friend Card

Ginger Rodgers Card

Dare to be Fabulous Card

Classy & Fabulous Card

Birdcage Card

Desk Set - Teal and Brown

Desk Set - Pink

Desk Sets - Martini

Alexis' Birthday Goodie Bags

Weekend Fun & more to come!

I had SO much fun this past weekend - getting to hang out with my girls and doing crafts!! What could be better. It was so great that my pal, Lisa was able to make the trip. Turned out to be a really great time. My stamping party turned out to be around $500 so I was able to get ALOT of stuff (in addition to the $$ I spent on my non-hostess order!)

I haven't been crafting too much this week - with a husband with the flu - YUCK - and a long week at work, I have been too tired. I need to get the Valentine's day stuff finished this weekend. I am halfway there. I have to remember to take some pictures tonight to post. The matching desk sets that I have done so far are really cute. (If I do say so myself - barf!)

Hold your breath - the pictures will be here soon.

Crafts, Crafts, Crafts

OMG, I have been so busy making things - My pal Missy is having an open house and is letting me "show" my wares. I have been trying to come up with some REALLY cool stuff. I will try to post pictures over the weekend. I have such a long list of things that I need to get busy on...

-Stampin up! party on the 2nd at 2pm - with most of my gals present!
- Valentine's Day treat bags for the kids. I got the cutest hearts and frogs bags from the Target dollar spot! They will go so well with the v-day Stampin' up! set I got several years ago and use every v-day.
- Alexis' Princess Birthday Party stuff - I really need to plan out the invites and stuff. THIS WEEKEND!!!
- Lisa's daughter, Kayla's birthday craft projects - already have some ideas...need to simmer a little while longer on these.
- Jonathan's birthday-YIKES- it is almost that time again...

Well, as you can see, I have one or two things to keep my busy.

Tim Holtz Inspired Cards

I happened to be home last week with sick kids and the puppy - recovering from surgery for a lost tooth and I tuned into the Carol Duvall Show on HGTV

This show featured Tim Holtz and demonstrated how to use your stamps to make a "watercolor" image. His example was SO beautiful, I had to try it for myself. I used a stamp set that I got from Michaels that is a large butterfly. It was a clear stamp set that was on clearance. I really liked the way it turned out. The card on the left was done in pinks and purples - I used SU! markers for the ink instead of ink pads like Tim used in the episode. The saying stamp is from the retired SU! set - all I have seen. Below are two more cards that I have done using this technique...

















I scanned the images instead of photographing them. Next time I will try photographing them.

Such the slacker

I knew I would be so slack in posting! I have done such great christmas crafts - and no online evidence of anything...I made my husband promise to tell the ladies that he works with that I HAND MADE all of the goodies and gifts that he brought to them. Hopefully they will appreciate it. If not, oh well. I like them and that is all that matters, right??

Entering a little later in the game

My first post, my first blog...you would think that as a librarian living in a web 2.0 world that I would have started blogging long ago! Better late than never. I am not even sure why to start blogging...saving my thoughts, arts & crafts for all of eternity - we have become a rather ego-centric world haven't we!

Some background...I am the mother of two great boys - Cody (10) & Jonathan (6) and the wife to a great guy - Todd. We have the world's meanest cat - Shula and a very cute and very young black lab puppy named Zeb. I will have to post pictures of everyone later. I get paid to work in a government library and I do really like being a librarian. But I LOVE doing crafts - pretty much crafts of any kind - except making jewelry - my mom has the market cornered on that!

I tend to flit back and forth on my focus and have really gotten back into stamping. That is really what led me to start blogging. It is really a place to post pics of all the cute crafts you make that no one but you really ever sees. If there are other crafters out there like me, they make things and then decide that they can't part with it...the intended recipient would never fully appreciate all the time and thought you put into it, LOL.

I will just have to see where this blog leads me. Maybe just a place for me to collect my thoughts, ideas, crafts, stories about my kids and animals that no one really wants to hear out loud!

Anyways, welcome to my blog.