A Big Hello!

Hi Crafty Friends!

Where do I begin to explain my long hiatus? I have definitely crafted, but the nature of my craftiness has expanded from paper projects to DIY home projects (stay tuned for posts documenting everything) because Kyle and I bought our very first house in February, and in a nutshell, our new home has been all consuming in a very good way.

TO get right to the point, now that my craft room (YAY for a craft room! picture below) is in good working order, I am trying to replenish my greeting card stash before the school year starts again because I always like to have a stockpile that I can just pull from when occasions arise. Here is a birthday card that I am submitting to the Peachy Keen Stamp Challenge 13-31 Anything Goes!

Materials:

• Cricut Once Upon a Princess
• Peachy Keen Princess Faces 1 1/8
• Peachy Keen Cherub Assortment 1"
• Red stickles on the crown on the card
• my MAC blush for their cheeks 
• jelly roll pen for the faux stitching
• some little bling jewels for her necklace 

I like to mass produce cards as much as possible because I know how time consuming each card is, and to make several of the same card saves me time down the road, so the picture below shows the other little divas that will  be placed on similar birthday cards. The two little girls on the ends have the Cherub Assortment faces on them.

One of the things I really like about having a blog is the journaling of some memories that accompanies the photos, and so for my own benefit, I am going to fill in more gaps of what else Kyle and I have been doing since our last post.

• January: escrow papers and packing
• February: moving, re-carpeting the upstairs, and floor to ceiling paint throughout the whole house
• March: started on the craft room
• April: co-producing our high school's Faculty Follies Production
• May: counting down for summer, garage sailing, craigslist searching (some GREAT finds that I will share later)
• June: Kyle graduated from his MBA program
• July: Fallen Leaf Lake and My First Cheer Camp as Cheer Advisor! 
• August: No Cheer! Pinterest and Paper Projects Galore / Lots of Reading - finished The Power of Habit, And the Mountains Echoed, and I'm in the middle of Weird Sisters and The Golem and the Jinni. The only one I wouldn't recommend is And the Mountains Echoed. 

The preliminary pictures of my craft room will be uploaded later this afternoon. I just downloaded googleplus, which links my iphone pictures directly to my blog, so I can upload anything from my iphone super quickly! Right now, all 400 plus pictures are being backed up, so it will take some time, and I have to run some errands.

Thanks for reading. It feels good to be back! :)

Best, Katie A.

Merry Christmas!

 Hi Everyone,

WOW! I can't believe a month has gone by since my last post. School has taken all of my time up by storm, and though I've crafted a tiny bit here and there, I haven't had the time to post about it.

Today, I'm sharing little elf place holders / gift bag embellishments with you. I'm recycling these little guys so that they can be enjoyed multiple times. Today I used them to embellish these little cute M&M gift bags, and between now and Friday, I'm going to personalize them for my husband's side of the family for our Christmas celebration with them. I'm submitting this project to:
Peachy Keen Stamps "Anything Goes" Challenge

Here they are! Enjoy!

Recipe:
I found this little elf doll in the Silhouette store, and I fell in love. Because they were SO labor intensive to assemble, and I was making 12 of them, I forfeited all inking and any other embellishment than my cute Peachy faces, blush, and little freckles with my gelly roll pens. I used the Happy Lashes set from Peachy Keen for their little faces.

I attached the little elves to the little candy packs that I made. I LOVE the finished product!

Hope you all have a very blessed Christmas with your loved ones!

Love, Katie A.

"Glitz & Girly" Christmas Wreath

Hi Everyone,

You know that TV show on TLC, "My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding?" Well, I feel like this wreath embodies the glitz and glamour of that show. LOL. I will be submitting this project to Peachy Keen Challenge #43 "Anything Goes," Crafty Catz #158 "Anything Goes," and Paper Crafting Journey "Anything Goes."

Directions on how to assemble wreath by steps:
1. buy basic supplies:

• any type of wreath (a woven sticks wreath from Dollar Tree)
• lots of tulle (I had some left over from these tutus I had made last year)
• feathers (these were leftovers also)
• clothespins (mini and large size)

2. cut tulle into strips (approximately 9" long by 2" wide) I didn't measure, I just eye-balled, but after I made it, I looked at some instructions myself, and that's what many of them said. 

3. Using the loop and pull method, tie the tulle strip by strip onto the wreath until you get each section to look full. (This takes awhile!) I would say approximately 2 hours for the 12 inch wreath.

4. Hot glue feathers and add left over tulle to some pretty ribbon to tie a giant ribbon

The embellishment directions are down below if you care to read more!

Here I have a close-up of one of the added embellishments made with My Creative Time's Scalloped and Stitched circle dies and All Around Everything Stamp Set, and her Rolled Flower Die. The entire scallop, circle, and flower piece is actually attached via Velcro, so I can take it off and replace with anything I'd like. I love the versatility that the clothespin allows also: right now, it is holding a tag with a heat embossed sentiment from Peachy Keen.

This little cutie, is also made with Peachy Keen stamps. The ribbon scarf is ribbon made from "Little Scrap Pieces." The tag was made from Tim Holtz Big Tags die, and I heat embossed the big trees as a background. (I bought that tree stamp from Paper Source). I stickled her hat, gloves, and shoes to stick with my pink theme.

 I modpodged all of the clothespins with this leopard paper to provide a nice contrast with the pink.

I had A LOT of fun creating, fine tuning, enhancing, and perfecting this wreath!

Hope you have a wonderful Veteran's Day weekend. I thank God for all of the troops who are willing to risk their lives in service to our country!

<3, Katie A.

Simple Happy Birthday!

Hi Everyone!

Happy Friday! Hope you are all doing well. Tonight I went to a little birthday celebration for a very dear friend, and so I made her a card using Peachy Keen - Challenge #14 Color Challenge inspiration.

Materials Used for My A2 Birthday Card:

• paper piecing of the pendant banner
• Recollections Paper
• Foundations Paper
• Peachy Keen face
• Winter Frolic - little girl
• Wrap It Up - balloons
• Scrappy Moms Sentiments

I hope you guys have a wonderful weekend!

<3, Katie A.

Double Entry Challenge

Hi Everyone! Thanks for visiting! This week I plan to submit this fun bug DPS to the Peachy Keen Pinterest Photo Inspiration Challenge AND Emma's My Creative Time BUG challenge! I don't have a title on it yet because I haven't quite decided what I want to name it...

These challenges are something TOTALLY new to me, and I find them very MOTIVATING to craft. All those crafters out there are so talented...you guys are amazing!

Just ordered Emma's little scallop die cut, which pair perfectly with Peachy Keen stamps, and I'm IN LOVE! I copied one of her cute Valentine's Day ideas with lollipops and will post soon!

Anyway, enjoy!

xo,

Katie

Peachy Keen Pinterest Stamps Challenge

So, I have been using Peachy Keen for about 6 months now...I discovered their AWESOME stamps over the summer. I'm obsessed with them because their stamps fit and coordinate with many of the cricut cartridges!

This double page spread (created on my gypsy, which I'm still getting the hang of using) is my entry for my very first challenge that I'm participating in with Peachy Keen; I think the winner gets some free stamps, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed! :)