Coffee Mug Fun!

Happy Wednesday!

 

OK!  I'm getting there - slowly but surely!  I'm chipping away at things on my to-do list ... and I actually HAVE a to-do list that I made with my Paper Pumpkin kit from a few months back.  I'll share that with you tomorrow(ish) *lol*

 

The week has been flying by!   Monday Alicia's bed arrived - Oh.  Em.  Gee !!!  That bed is a TANK!  I didn't realize how BIG it was!!  It's a "full" which I GUESS is almost as big as a queen!  Problem is Alicia's room isn't that big ... so it was VERY crowded until we moved things around a bit.  Craig had the day off ... good thing - there is no WAY I couldn't have unpacked ANY of the bed - it weighed a TONNE!  Even Craig struggled with it.  Yes, a few bad words were heard by my delicate little ears!  Nevertheless he got it done ... and then I spent the rest of the day putting the bedding on and making it look pretty.  Alicia didn't know it was coming so when she got home I told her there was a surprise for her in her bedroom she FLEW up the stairs ... and the squealing began.  It was hilarious!  Here is a picture of her walls before we painted - yes, I had hand-painted the squares when we first moved in ... and she was only 6 months old :(

 

Here is a pic of the finished product:

Quite the change!!  Freakin' LOVE it!!!  I just HAVE to make a card using these colors!!  Next up is Rebecca's room!

Right - enough rambling about decorating or I'll never make it to the school to help out with the field trip!  I DID want to share a little fun I had a few weeks ago with coffee mugs.  I CASEd this idea from a project I found on Pinterest.  NOT being a perky morning person and HATING noise before my coffee I just HAD to make some for myself!  Check it out!

LMAO - LOVE them!!!  I simply picked up some mugs from Superstore (for $1.00!), grabbed my beloved Sharpies and wrote what I needed to write.  No - I didn't seal the Sharpie ... and I didn't bake them in the oven to permanently set the marker ... and yes, after 2 washes the ink started to come off ... but that was ok!  A funny thing happened the third day I was using my new fabulous mug.  I was on the couch first thing in the morning, laptoping away when Rebecca came down.  She was buzzing around, flitting from one side of me to the other and generally annoying my grumpy-morning-self.  I looked up at her and asked "What are you DOING??!!" - she said "Trying to see how much coffee is left in your cup so I know if I can talk to you yet".  HAAAAAAAAAAAA!  THAT made me laugh out loud - NOT and easy thing for me to do pre-breakfast!!!  SO!  With that in mind, and realizing that the children did in fact "listen" to the mug (but they don't listen to ME!) I figured I needed to write something new on the now-clean-cup ... so then next morning THIS is what the read:

*lol*  Again, I had to laugh when for two days they didn't talk to me if I was holding the mug!!!  I think I need to bake THAT saying on!

That's it for today - I have lots of yummy projects to share ... but I REALLY need to finish prepping for this week end's festivities before I do that - however, when I have 19 things to do I seem to get 18 of them done ... and I'm really good at procrastinating so pop back again soon - you never know, I might just blog first, prep second *lol*.   Until then, drink some coffee and have a stampy day!


Tam

Seven Day Forecast - Canada Style!

I just had to share this for all my other-than-Canadian followers.  Yes, Friends ... this is how we make it through the 6 months of winter in the Great White North *lol*



Have a great night!





Tam

Mini Memories Simply Created Album Kit by Stampin' Up!

Happy Tuesday!

No time to ramble today!  Hair appointment to get to!

Today's video hi-lights this AWESOME little Album kit!!  How great would THIS be for a sweet little memory book or gift for Mother's Day???  there are SO many fun little embellishments that come with it.  I'm not sure WHAT I'm going to put in mine yet but I can't wait to "play"!

I'm off!  Until next time … have a stampy day!


Tam

Burlap and Blooms Simply Created Wreath Kit by Stampin' Up!

Happy Monday!

Today isn't my "usual" Monday… but it still needs to be uber productive!  This is the day I REALLY need to nail down my projects for my weekend classes … but it's also the day Craig is home (he couldn't take his usual Friday off so he took today instead) … and Alicia's bed is being delivered "some time" today.  My workout, dog walking and showering will take me at least until 10:30 so I better crack on!

Today's video hi-lights the Burlap and Blooms Wreath Kit.  It took me a while to buy this kit … Craig and I don't have the "country" decor going on and I really didn't know what to do with it … but, in true Tamara form, I bought it anyway "lol".  I DO have a plan.  The plan is to put it together using velcro rather than glue dots to attach the flowers … then each season I can switch the pieces out accordingly … leaves in the fall, snowflakes in the winter, hearts in February, Shamrocks in March, Eggs at Easter. I'm not convinced I like the flat wreath form … so my plan for that is to either buy one from "that store" or get a pool noodle from the dollar store, make it into a circle and use THAT for the form (I always have the best plans, don't I?  We'll see if it ever actually happens!)

I have heard from a few people that the printed instructions for assembling the large flowers in this kit are brutal and make no sense at all … yay for videos!  The video above shows you how to make the flowers, so pay attention!  I know I'll be watching this again before I assemble mine!

Right - I'm off to get this day started.  Pop back soon!  Until then - have a stampy day!


Tam

Magnet Dry Erase Board Upcycle

Happy Sunday, again!!!!

Believe it or not I actually have a PROJECT to share with you!!  I know, CRAZY, right??  I had so much fun putting this together!  It was on my "want-to-do-" list for quite some time and 2 weekends ago I actually got around to doing it!

Last month when Craig and I went to Ikea I bought a magnetic board and magnets.  My plan was to cover it with some of my retired Stampin' Up! fabric and hang it above my computer for all those little posse scraps of paper and post-it notes I have lying around a d/or stuck everywhere.  I was sad when I discovered the fabric wasn't wide enough to cover my board.  :(  Now what?  Well … I decided I'd buy some pretty fabric to cover it and then hang it in Rebecca's room so I could put up different inspirational messages on it for her.  That's fine, but I really wanted to work on this project NOW (without having to run to the fabric store!)  Have no fear!  I luckily am a mini-hoarder and just HAPPENED to have something else that would work.  A few years ago I bought a dry erase / magnet / cork board thingy at Walmart.  It didn't really serve my purposes at the time so after about 6 months I took it down.  I dug it out and yep - it would work.  Here it is pre-upcycled:

… and here is the completed project:

Love it!!!

I started by putting our super strong sticky strip in the corners and some dollar store double sided sticky tape all around the rest of the erase board (our sticky strip is AWESOME but it's expensive!!!  i just wanted to make sure the corners held tight and hope the dollar store stuff holds the rest week enough!):

I then simply positioned the fabric along the top and firmly pressed it down:

Once I had worked my way around the entire board I needed to cut the excess off.  I didn't want to do this BEFORE I attached the fabric as I just KNEW I'd get it wrong and it would look terrible … so I did it this way.  I attached the 3 sides and before I removed the backing of the tape on the bottom I grabbed my super sharp exact knife Dad bought me a few years ago (from Lee Valley tools) and carefully sliced the fabric the exact size it needed to be.  It worked a treat!!  Fit perfectly!

Ta Da!

… now … to get it hung!

Pop in again …  have more to share!  U tip then, have a stampy day!


Tam

SAB - Heartfelt

Happy Sunday!  Wait, WHAAAAT??? (as my kids would say!)

How can it be that I haven't posted in over a week???  I seriously have 4 posts started … just not completed!  Where did the week GO???  I DO remember our evening were pretty full.  For our Mommy/daughter time this week Alicia and I went shopping for new bedding for her new room (it's looking AWESOME and the colours make me want to run to my craft room to make a card with them!!  I'll post pictures next week once it's all done … well … I PLAN to post pictures once it's all done!)… Rebecca and I did the same for OUR time together - although we didn't find anything for her room yet.

I remember spending a LOT of time posting things for sale on Facebook and Kijiji … I guess that's why I haven't posted here … it's SO time consuming!  Taking the pictures, researching what things cost new, posting pictures, writing descriptions/dimensions/captions …  We got a call Friday that Alicia's new bed is being delivered Monday … EEK!  I haven't sold her OLD bed yet … I think next week is going to be a bit of a gong show!!  I have furniture and bags of clothing/toys/donations EVERYWHERE … I have 3 steaming gigs next weekend that I haven't started to prep for yet … I have a hair appointment …I'm volunteering at the school Wednesday … add to that the normal laundry, lunches, homework, "special time", workouts, dog walking and paperwork and yep … gong show *lol*

Oh well .. better busy than bored, right?  Right!

So!  Let's beta few posts out of the way, shall we?  OK.  I'm going to finish off these videos I have in the queue so at least THAT will be done!  Today's is hi-lighting the free Sale-a-brations Heartfelt Banner Kit.  Even if you don't have much use for a banner this kit has a LOT of great pieces in for cards and/or scrap pages.  Remember those little gift bags I made for the teachers last month?  The pompoms that I cut in half and glued onto the bags are from this kit.  It's worth $24.95 … but free with a $60 order.  Free.  My favourite price *lol*

Pop in again soon.  My mission is to get caught up on these posts!!  Until then, have a stampy Sunday!

Tam

Celebrations Entertaining Kits by Stampin' Up!

Happy Saturday!!

Too.  Tired.  To.  Type.

Here's … a …. video …

Fun … kit …

Buy … one … or two :)

Must sleep now.

Have a stampy night … zzzzzzzzzzzz


Tam

Paw Print Birthday

Happy Thursday!

Not too much to report this week … just keepin' on keeping' on … this whole healthy lifestyle gig is very time consuming!  Between the exercise (and mandatory shower afterwards), walking the dog and buying and prepping healthy snacks takes me to 11:00 am every day.  The purging and organizing continues as we are now into redecorating both girls' rooms.  This weekend we sand Alicia's walls and prep them for painting … a lovely TEAL!  Eek!  So just quickly, as the girls are having their bedtime snack … I thought I'd share two cards Rebecca and I made on the weekend.

Rebecca was going to a birthday party at the Humane Society.  I thought one of my paw-print cards I had cased from Mary Fish a while ago.  My original was earth tones,newsprint DSP and black … not colourful enough for Rebecca so she altered hers.  Here it is:

Great job, yes?!  She used my designer paper stack .. what's it call, Fresh Prints?  Can't remember and I'm too lazy to go get my catty … so let's go with that, shall we?  It's in the 2014 Occasions Catalogue - $8.50 … I think :) The mat and paw print is from the Coastal Cabana card stock.  The paw is made from the large heart punch and the small oval punch.  Rebecca used the sentiment from … umm … dunno … some stamp set she found on my desk … Perfect Punches?  Sure.  Let's go with that :)  She used some retired 5/8" grosgrain Real Red ribbon to finish it off - great job!

Next up is my version:

i used the same DSP but I used Soft Suede card stock and the sentiment for mine is from Sassy Salutations.  The ribbon is the taffeta Soft Suede …

Thee cards are REALLY quick and easy to make up - we did ours in about 10 minutes.  Good thing - we only had 11 minutes before we had to leave for the party!

That's it for now … I have a couple other posts in "draft" mode …  I hope to get to those soon … until then - have a stampy evening!


Tam

Retro Fresh Treats

Happy Monday!

I've said it before, I'll say it again … I.  LOVE.  MONDAYS.!!!!  Today was an AWESOME day!  I had NOTHING on the calendar which meant the day was my oyster :)  I took the kids to school (who got up on the right side of the bed - woo hoo!), picked up a few groceries and then nailed my workout. I was a little worried it wouldn't go very well as I really tweaked my back Friday but … I was careful and nailed it!  I.  Felt.  So.  Good!!!  I'm so much stronger in just 2 weeks of doing the videos.  Did I post my profess here?  No, I don't think I did.  I've only lost about 1-2 pounds, but I've lost INCHES!  1.1" off each thigh, almost half an inch off my waist and over 3/4 of an inch off my butt.  Woo Hoo!
Aside from the exercising the Weight Watchers is also going amazingly well.  I have a new mentality.  I'm not just eating and counting points, I'm eating to FUEL my body!  I'm eating so ridiculously healthy I don't even recognize myself!  Oh sure, I'm still having the odd cookie here and there but it's mainly yoghurt, berries, chia seeds, quinoa, edamame, fish, chicken and lots of fruit, veg and water.  Seriously.  I feel amazing!

Wow!  Sorry about that!  Spontaneous trumpet blowing there … and totally non-crafting related!  (You're surprised?  Is this your first time visiting my blog??!!)

SO!  How about we get to one of my many projects?? These are the little treats I popped in my orders this month.  They are little envelopes with a package of hot chocolate inside:

I made a variety of different envelopes but all were made using one pack of the new Retro Fresh DSP from the Occasions Mini ($13.50):

I made 24 treats.  Each sheet of DSP make 2 envelopes - there are 12 sheets of DSP per pack

These were SO quick and easy to make it was ridiculous!  I got the inspiration from Melissa Davies, fellow demonstrator.  Melissa does some great work and posts projects every day.  Check her out at rubberFUNatics.blogspot.com

The envelope is simply made using our Envelope Liner Framelits.  Start with a 10" x 10" piece of DSP:

Fold it in half and place the largest framelit on your paper:

*** Notice that the fold line is JUST ABOVE the bottom of the framelit!  You need to make sure the fold isn't any lower or the framelit will CUT the DSP along the fold … you don't want that - you want the envelope to be one piece.  Here it is cut (with fold in tact) and unfolded:

When I made my first envelope I a) used some of the free Sweet Sorbet SAB DSP and b) folded down the top flap.  To do that I simply scored just below the flap and folded it down:

I also STAPLED the envelope together on my first try.  I was gong for quick and easy and figured staples were the way to go.  Ya no.  I didn't like them.  What I DID like, though, was using coloured staples!  How did I get them colored?  My beloved Sharpie :)  Yes, I LOVE Sharpies and here is just one more reason why.  You can colour staples with them.  Love it!

OK - back to our project.

I used snail to tape the envelope together but then I stapled a strip of Coastal Cabana on the sides just to make sure it stayed closed.  I used my 2 1/2" circle to punch out some Tangerine Tango and So Saffron circles, I stamped the "Thank You" in Soft Suede and then I added two small 1/2" circles (attached with glue dots) to hide the staples on the left.  (The So Saffron circle hides the staple on the right).  The sentiment is from the Simply Celebrate set in the mini.  I think I cracked off all 24 in just over an hour. Perfect!

So that's it for today … think I'll go sort that last box of Barbie "stuff" in Rebecca's room.  Pop in again soon to see some of the other things I have been working on.  Until then …have a stampy night!


Tam

SAB - Party, Party, Party! Bundle

Happy Sunday!

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a few days.  Maybe today.  I DO have 3 projects to share … just haven't done the pictures, editing or posting (it's time consuming ya know!)  I actually haven't been working on cards lately - I've been working on some other crafty projects and continuing to purge/organize the house.  The girls decided to go back to separate rooms last week so that started a whole new process of organizing, shifting and purging … not to mention furniture shopping, redecorating and painting!!!  It's been fun, but exhausting!  Friday night my friend Holly came over and we crafted together - it was great to just kick back and "do".  I put together 3 of my Paper Pumpkin kits in no time.  3 down, 5 to go *lol*.  Yesterday I carried on crafting - I took a sharpie to some coffee cups for a little fun, and decorated a magnet board for my office area.  Until I get my butt in gear and post those projects I thought I'd share another video.  I'm not normally a "banner-kind-of-girl" but I just might be getting this banner kit.  Craig turns 50 in a few months (yikes!!), his Dad turns 80 (yikes again!) and Rebecca turns 11 (OMG I can't wrap my head around THAT one!!) …so there are plenty of opportunities to get my money's worth out of THIS item!

Pop in again soon to see those projects I mentioned above.  In the meantime, stay warm and have a stampy Sunday!


Tam