A few pages to share

Here's a few page layouts that created using a PageMaps pdf from 2010 - these are for my Page's from the Heart Page Map class.  Take a look - I used JilliBean paper with a smidge of WeR - I really like the way these pages came out -

Contact Pages if you'd like to take the class!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Andrea



Too many tidbits about me?

Hello!

I havn't blogged in a while (I kept meaning to, but then I'd have to get my camera, then upload my pictures of projects and, in some instances, take pictures and it just wasn't happening for some reason...) but then I saw this on Trish's blog and thought, "This could be fun..." so here I go.  A lot of randomness

Me and Adam - I was exhausted after this field trip - he was not...

 Food: I love Mexican food, love love love carne asada, pollo asada, tortilla soup, machaca but I also love my Dad's smoked ribs or tri-tip and I LOVE corned beef!  And any kind of chocolate!

Color:  I love pink... I don't really wear that much of it and I seldom get to put it in our house, but I love it... yellow makes me happy, our blue/grey walls make me feel calm, orange makes me pop... I love all colors...  My best friends made fun of me once for wrapping something very "colorfully" - which meant tacky, but now look who deals with color everyday!  Oh, I cannot stand purple!

Animals: We have a ton of fish.  At one point Adam named them Ringo, Paul, Beatles, Echo, Elmo, Mickey, Yumm, and I think (per his Daddy's suggestion) Food.  I don't know which is which, and I bet if we asked Adam today what the fishies names were he'd have a totally different list.  I'm in the process of adopting a desert tortoise... awaiting yard inspection.  Due to allergies, we can't have pets with fur, which is a bummer.

Dessert: As I mentioned before, I LOVE chocolate in any form!  I also love Litehouse Sugar cookies - they're so soft and they always have the best icing:cookie ratio.  Oh, and costco cake!  Yum!  And my grandma's lemon meringue pie - it's amazing and Smore's!

Artists:  I honestly like a wide variety... I like artists from Kanye to Lady Antebellum, Journey (who doesn't?) The Black Eyed Peas, CeeLo - America's Top 40... my nephew asked me why I listen to "his" music... Uhhh, hello?  I'm not that old!

Pair of Shoes:  my new BOB's from sketches - I love them!  They're super comfy and adorable!  Typically I'm a flip flop girl - since it seldom gets super cold here my flip-flops stay out year long!

Outfit:  I like layering... I love dresses, they're just so easy and comfy.  I also wear my gray boyfriend cardi EVERYWHERE!  I should've bought 10 of them because I'm dreading the day it tears...

Skinny Jeans:  Okay, I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I have 1 pair of skinny jeans and 1 pair of jean leggin's - both of which I SWORE I'd never own!  I'm not a tiny girl (far from) and anything with the word "skinny" to describe it isn't something that I'd normally try but I HAD to so I could wear my boots this past winter...

Brand:  Gap, Anthropologie, Banana Republic, Target... Gap fits my body well, Anthro is a dream to have enough $$ to shop there, Banana is for really really really special occasions, Target is a dependable - I know that I can always find something there that'll be cute and not expensive.

Perfume:  I'm allergic, like ubber sensitive, so everything that I wear is sans scent...

Accessory:  my owl earrings or Adam's birthstone necklace that I got from Alan and Adam on my first Christmas as a mommy.  I'm hoping for a Lisa Leonard necklace for Mother's Day...

City:  Redlands, which is about 1 hour from Disneyland, the OC, Big Bear, Palm Springs and about 1.5 hours from Los Angeles - it's perfect to raise a family, small but close to everything big!

Hobbies:  Crafting, sewing, reading, blog hopping and, lately, antique shopping

Beauty Products:  Clinique face soap, make-up and Bumble & Bumble hair products - it's a splurge but soo worth it!

Holiday:  Christmas, then Halloween, then Valentines...

Snack:  lately, yogurt covered raisins, but typically a "trail mix" called Indulgence (real healthy) or cheese-itz or candy/cookies - whatever is least healthy is what I gravitate towards

Movie: Elf, Love Actually, El Mariachi, Motorcycle Diaries, Funny Girl, Sense and Sensability... again, it's a wide range.  I love chick-flicks, but I love certain action movies and Motorcycle Diaries is a feast for your eyes, it's beautiful and you forget that it's in subtitles.

Song:  My Life - The Beatles and John Coltrane's C Minor

Guilty Pleasure:  Watching horrible reality television (Bravo, anyone?) and eating lunch while Adam's napping... I know that I should be working but smut is always calling me!

Seven things you may or may not know about me:

1.  I am still best friends with most of my BFF's from Elementary and Junior High School.

2.  I married my high school sweetheart, just not for 8 years after high school :)

3.  I have a degree in English: Creative Writing, emphasis: Non-fiction.  Yah - it's super useful.

4.  I wanted to go into editing or publishing and spend my whole days reading books.

5.  I used to HATE peanut butter - now I don't know what I was thinking - Reese's PB Cups are probably my 2nd favorite candy - Cadburry Bars are my first.

6.  I cannot stand clowns.  I think they're creepy and don't understand the need for them to exist.

7.  I will never move, I am very close to my family and cannot imagine a life where they were not a daily/weekly part of it - I live within 20 minutes of the most important people in my life (except my sister and Jenny)

8.  I think that I could've been the first female pro baseball player.  My father and pretty much everyone who knows me, disagrees, BUT, I'm convinced.  

9.  My son was the best, most honest miracle that has ever happened in my life.   

10.  I want to someday be like Martha Stewart (only without the jail time) OR Tim Holtz or Heidi Swapp - I would love to turn my passion into a full-fledged business.  People would say "Oh, who's paper is that?"  and someone would respond, "It's Andrea". 

Okay, that's all for me!  If you feel like this was a fun little something, do the same thing on your blog and send me the link - it'd be fun to get to know all the little things that make each other up!  So much more interesting than the normal stats!

Andrea

Cape Tutorial

Last week I promised a tutorial on the Truckman cape that I made for Adam.  Check out this website, which is what I based my cape on!

I started off with 2 different green materials (1 yd each), 100% cotton and VERY inexpensive (I found it at Walmart) because I know that my little man will put his cape through the ringer!  I washed the pieces and then ironed them before I started.  I folded the dark green piece in half, then took a pencil and drew out the cape according to the measurements here.  After cutting it out, I used this as a pattern for the light green piece.

Once you have both pieces, pin them together, right sides together.

Sew around all the edges of the cape EXCEPT for the top of the neck piece.  You'll need this opening to turn the material right-side out.

Once you're done sewing, trim the excess material from the edge, about 1/8-1/4 inch around the seam.  Pinking sears work the best, but you can always use regular scissors and then cut notches in the curved part of your cape so it lays correctly.



Turn your cape right-side out now.  You'll want to poke out all the corners so that it lays and looks correctly.  Now you'll want to sew the top shut.  I like to fold my fabric in, about 1/2 inch and then iron the fold before I sew the edge closed.

Once you're done with the seam, the next step is up to you!  You can either leave it plain or add a Superhero motif!  Truckman wanted every truck he could think of on his cape, so I used my Silhouette and Silhouette's Heat Transfer Material for Adams motif. 

This project was so easy, cheap and it used minimal time - pretty much the perfect project for a harried Mommy of a 3 year old!

See you later!

Truckman's Mommy

Happy Easter!

This is how Easter progresses in our house...  We woke up at 6:15 am and had to immediately see what the EB brought... and we were so excited to find a new baseball helmet, glove and ball! 

So, we immediately wanted to play catch in. the. house.  Momma don't think so.

Off we went to the school down the street.  Momma approves.

Does anyone else think Adam looks like a real bobble head?

Swing follow through - look at that determination!

Yummy.  Cream filled, homemade cupcakes with homemade filling and buttercream icing.

EB cake

Kids waiting for the hunt!

We're not kidding.  We want ALL the green eggs.

Sigh.  Trying to get a group pic... why is it impossible?

Sweet, no-nap Emme.  Even without a nap, she's the cutest!

Oh, no, they're not models... they just look like ones.

Adam and Aidan, playing catch after Easter Dinner

Action shot.  Nice. 

After catch, we played inside, then came home from Bubbles and Papas and I don't think I'll move off the couch, I'll just sleep here!  Who knew that Easter could be as exhausting as Christmas!

I hope that you had an Easter filled with as much yummy, colorful, running, and loving moments as we did!

-A

We've been up to...

a lot this week!  For a week that started off "Hmm, I wonder what we'll do to keep busy?", it turned into a whirlwind of activity!  Take a look!

We decided to have an Easter Egg Hunt Party for Adams friends - it was pretty fun, the kids were great, eggs were found, cookies decorated, foam bunny's painted... a playroom destroyed... success!

{Egg down!  Egg down!}

{I love the way kids run!  Such excitement!}

{The real challenge - getting the kids to look at the same camera at the same time!}

{Chase showing his loot}

{The best part - candy distribution}

I also decided to start (and finish!) a project that Adam's been asking for. 

{Truckman Super Hero Cape}

{A very happy Truckman}

The cape was super easy.  I'll share a tutorial on it next week - it was super easy and I think it took me about 1.5 hours total!  I kinda want one... "Mommy, the real action hero!"

I also went and met with Christina, a Pages Design Team member last night.  We exchanged goodies (she gave me samples, I gave her product - a win win situation).  Here's a look at one thing she gave me:

Today we'll be dying eggs with Cousin Aidan.  I think I might be more excited than Adam, he keeps wanting to use the eggs are trash for his landfill.  If I start smelling rotten eggs at some point, I'll have to look at all the "landfill sites" in our house - like under the recliner, in our closet, under Adam's bed... an Easter egg hunt that never ends!

See you all soon - and I hope you have a blessed Easter!

Andrea

It's been a "taxing" day!

Get it?  Since it's the deadline for taxes?  Can you tell that I used to work at a Tax and Bookkeeping office?  But really, I meant my day as a Mommy has been taxing on me... it's one of those days when hitting your head against the wall for an hour is more appealing than dealing with a tantrum throwing, hitting, no-napping toddler.  Am I the only Mommy out there to ever feel this way?  And as I'm writing this, I can hear ladies all over the world saying "This too shall pass".  I know, I know, but it really doesn't help much in the heat of the moment... err... moments... like 500 moments...

Anyways!

Onto projects!

I've been feeling very Easter-ish lately.  In fact, the afore mentioned toddler asked me if we could have an egg hunt with his friends (every child under 10 that he comes in contact with is his friend, he'll even make up names for them) and I agreed (this was during a sweet time with him)!  I was playing with the latest LifeStyle Crafts release, it's a Graduation/School one, and I loved the paper bag soo... here's what I came up with!

{Chick and Bunny Treat Bags}

Now, I'm not going to lie, the bunny is totally my favorite!  I like the chick, but he kinda looks like a Herman Munster chick to me... my Mom assured me that he's cute, but since she's my Mom, she's a little biased with my work. 

Let me tell you about the bunny!

All the shapes on him are LifeStyle Craft dies!  The ears are nesting ovals, his little mouth piece is a nesting label die, his feet are nesting ovals, the body is the paper bag cookie cutter die... the whiskers are just strips of paper that I tore and the eyes are googly eyes, and a little pink button for his nose. 

And of course...

Every bunny needs a cute little tail!

The chick is all LifeStyle Craft shapes as well!  And this one I was a little more creative with!

Again, the body is the paper bag cookie cutter die.  His beak and his feet are triangles that I cut off the diamond 12' border die.  His head is nesting oval, folded in half.  Again, the eyes are googly eyes from my local craft store!  I debated about giving him little wings, but figured these treat bags are for little people ranging in the age of 3 weeks old (so sweet!) to 4 years old!  I don't think they're caring about anything except what's in the treat bags!

Check out my post on Page's blog to start meeting the new Design Team!

See you all soon!

Andrea

Spring sniffles

have really made my head fuzzy.  I've been fighting a head cold since last week, I kept telling myself that it was just allergies - which could've totally been it since our weather is slightly unpredictable.  We have rain and 40 degree temps and then we jump up to 84 degress the next day.  I'm not really complaining, except that it's really reeking havic on my sinuses.  So, we've been doing our normal day-to-day activities - we've had a few playdates (sorry for spreading my germs, ladies!) and I've been trying to work on samples but my head is just so full of junk that I cannot find the creative spark that I need!  So, again, here's some more cards from scraps!

I actually made this card for a little girls birthday that is coming up in a little over a week!  I LOVED the little girl image from Hometown, it reminded me of Princess Maya who'll be 2!  I made a little pinwheel from a 3 inch square... I like this card but feel that it needs something... maybe just the Happy Birthday sentiment?  I'll figure it out...

{Close-up - paper covered with Glossy Accents}

Here's another card - this is still one of my favorites and it's all done with Jillibean paper.  I think that I've shared it before, but figure, why  not share it again?

Hope your day is filled with creativness - not gross head cold stuff!
Andrea

 

I've been trying for 1 hr and 10 minutes

To get Adam to nap!  What!?  I know, it's been kinda ridiculous.  He's now doing raspberries in bed... so this is going to be quick because I'm afraid that he'll get out of bed in about 2.5 minutes and be super crazy since he didn't nap!

Here's a card that I created while on my little retreat from scraps... does the sketch look familiar?



{Anything Card}

Does this card look like a sewing card from the past perhaps?  I'm telling you, if you're in a time crunch, you a card sketch that you're familar with and that you know you like!  I decided that this card can be for anything, I just loved the Pink Paislee Hometown line!

I'll share the pages that gave me all of these great scraps soon!
Okay, I was right, he's not jumping on his bed, its time to intervene!
Andrea

Exciting News!

Hey, Friends!

Well, I just got back home from Pages From the Heart, where I had a wonderful class full of nice, positive and happy Ladies!  It was so much fun to work on the Springtime Banner, I think that I was just as inspired by their banners as they were with mine!

So, for my exciting news!  I am going to be published!  Yay!  I'm super excited!  You'll see 2 of my cards (one a wood grain and one a transparency themed) in the September 2011 issue of CARDS!  I think I've been floating ever since I read the emails last night!  And isn't it wonderful when it seems like other people are just as excited about it as I am!  What a lucky girl I am with such a great support system!

Here's a little something to leave you off with.  It's a "fancy" album that I created and will teach at Pages on May 1st!  It has 50 journaling pages, 15 pocket pages and 15 double-photo pages!  I think it's such a cool book! 


{Feel'n Fancy Album Cover}




{Feel'n Fancy Journal Page}




{Feel'n Fancy Pocket Page}

Well, sounds like I'm needed back at the construction site - there's a dump truck climbing mountains, which is also my bottom!  I'm taking tomorrow off from blogging, so I'll see everyone Monday!
Andrea

Scrappy Cards

Hello Everyone!

A few weeks ago I was able to get away to work on my "There's No Place Like Home", along with some of my personal pages, and I had a TON of scraps left from these 2 projects!  So, instead of packing up my scraps for the future, I  just went ahead and took a few minutes to throw some cards together for me to use in the future.  On most of the cards, I didn't included a sentiment so that I can use them when I need them - here's a few to take a look at. 

{Blank Card}

{Close-Up}

For this card I used scraps of Pink Paislee's Hometown and Echo Park's For the Record.  I rolled my flower from a punched 2 in. circle, then punched a butterfly and ran it thru my Zyron X, when poured vintage glass glitter on it.  I hand cut a leaf, punched a label, and added these elements to a basic card front.  This will be a great "Thank You" card, or birthday card or possibly a Mother's Day card... and it took me less than 15 minutes!

Here's a boys card that I created using Crate Paper's Toy Box collection.  I LOVE this paper because it's so fun for little and big boys alike!  I also used the chipboard sticker shapes, which make added dimension and layers super fun and easy!

{Boy's Card}

I had left over circles from a page layout that I did, so I decided to use them for the card in place of a border.  I added some bakers twine around the card, which adds a lot for a little!  I then took a BINGO sheet that I had from a previous kit and kit it down so that it would fit inside the chipboard frame.  I just kept layering chipboard pieces and element stickers till I had the card the way I wanted.

I also put Glossy Accents on the "Toy Solider", I just wanted a different finish somewhere on the card.

Just a reminder, I'll be at Pages from the Heart tomorrow for the Spring Time banner and card class.  The cost is $22 and the class starts at 10 am.  If you can't make it to the class but would like a kit, just let me or Kathy know!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
Andrea



Peep's Banner & other Springtime Fun

Is anyone else amazed that Easter is just around the corner?  I wanted to share some past projects that have a Spring-ish feel to get you in the mood!

Last year I made a Peeps Bunting Banner that I saw on Made's Blog, which is a great resource for fun ideas and sewing projects that I dream of having time to make.  But, the Peeps banner was so easy, I couldn't resist!  She even has a PDF that you can download for the Peep banner.  Here's my banner,

{Peep's Bunting Banner}

{Peeps Gift}

 Here's an Easter Page that I created for the QuicKutz Design team 2 years ago!  I used a ton of dies on this one, can you see them all?  And the flowers... coffee filters!

Let's see, there's the QK Nesting Flowers, 2x2 Rabbit, 2x2 Bird, English Rose Font, 2x2 chick, Nesting Ric-rac Circles, I know that the "grass" that the rabbit is jumping over is something, but I cannot remember - it was 2 years ago!

Here's a Spring Card - I was inspired by a card that I saw using patterned paper and stamps in a magazine.  I made the card my own by using my QuicKutz collection and some My Mind's Eye paper. 

{Hello, Spring Hedge Hog Card}

Don't you just love the little hedge hog?!  He's still one of my favorites, and since the forest theme is still pretty strong in the crafting world, you can't go wrong with him!  The tree's are from QK Recycle Kit, Hello is from the Olivia Font, the bird and the hedge hog are both 2x2 dies.

And here's my last Spring inspiration for the day!  It's a fun little table banner that I created last year for Pages From the Heart Die Cut Club- it's using a Cottage Cutz chick and egg die, QuicKutz Blossom Font, circle punches along with fun WeRMemories paper and Martha Stewart Fringe Scissors...

{Peep Table Banner}

{P Chick Close-up}

I hope that you're ready to welcome Spring!  I would love some stability in our weather, last week we had days in the 90's, this week we're putting on sweaters and expecting showers!  It's doing a number on my sinuses, and I keep putting away my sweaters only to get them back out!  Oh well, at least everything out here is green and beautiful, maybe all the rain will help with the fire season later in the year!

See you soon!

Andrea