Couldn't help Myself...

I came home from work today and there it was. Sitting on my doorstep was a plain brown shipping box that could only mean one thing - My online order of craft supplies had arrived! It's been a while since I've actually made any significant scrappy purchase so I was super excited to tear into that box. When I did it was pure joy - (YES - paper and stickers make me happy) Among my order were 2 Simple Stories collections - Fall and Christmas. I bought the fall themed pack not only because I love all things related to this time of year but because I thought I would get a lot of use out of the patterned paper. I also ordered the Christmas pack (it's never too early) because my little man will be here just around the Holiday Season and I can't wait to start scrapbooking our new family!

I decided to dive right in and made these two tags. Quick and Simple - but I had to make something...RIGHT?!?!?!?

It's been a while...

Wow! It's been a while since I have posted on my blog! The last few months have been kind of a whirl-wind for me and my husband! WE found out in April that we are expecting! This December we will welcome our first child (a boy) into the world!  We are absolutely thrilled!  SO I thought I would share a project that I made for our little man's nursery. I used my Cricut to die cut the letters and stars and simply glued them to framed poster board. I saw a similar wall hanging on a visit to the Paper Source this summer.  The theme of the room is airplanes and the colors will be navy, light blue, grey and splashed of red.  Thanks for stopping by!

Pitstop Snapshot

You know when you start a layout and the creative juices are flowing? You're on a roll and it feels like nothing can get in your way? Well this was one of those layouts. The patterns and colors came together nicely. I found a bunch of embellishment from different collections that all gelled with the layout. I was able to use brads (which I haven't used on many recent layouts), stick pins, stickers, chipboard, twine, and some hand cut images. I love when Everything comes together so easily!

I really haven't been scrapping layouts lately. I've been creating more cards and crafts, so when I came across this pic in an old stash I knew I had to scrap it! The pic is from a trip I took with my husband, brother, his girl friend, and our parents. We DROVE to Disney world in a mini-van. We saw billboards for South of the Border for hundreds of miles. I definitely didn't want to stop but I was out voted!

Cupcake Toppers

I don't know what it is about the springtime but it seems that all of my friends and family members celebrate their birthdays during the months of March, April and May. (This includes my own birthday in May!) My brother has asked me to make a slew of cupcakes for a party he's planning for his girlfriend next week. I thought it would be cute to make some toppers to jazz them up a little bit!

Take a look at these adorable cupcake toppers! They were so simple to make. I just printed out the "Happy Birthday" sentiment and attached it to a trimmed flag cut from card stock!

I also tried my hand at the pinwheels. These are super simple and so cute!

Burlap Love

I'm so excited that I finally have some time to myself! After a long week I can sit down with a glass of wine and get crafty. I'm so looking forward to completing some projects tonight. But before I started crafting I wanted to share a pic of a wreath I made.

As you may know Pinterest is my newest obsession. I've seen a bunch of different wreath tutorials so I decided to try one. With Spring around the corner I thought I'd make a cute little wreath to spruce up the entry.

I used a 12" straw wreath as the base. I bought this type instead of the styrofoam because it was $2 less but after working with all that straw I will definitely be splurging the extra 2 bucks next time! :P I hot glued one end of a burlap ribbon to the wreath and just wrapped it around. I hot glued the other end of the burlap to the backside of the wreath. Then I just cut and glued these cute flowers and added the leaves........and voila!

I love how it turned out. It's so springy and simple. I may add a tag or some ribbon just to embellish it slightly. I can't wait to make another one!

Lucky in Love Banner

What a beautiful Sunday! Today my husband and I spent the day with his family celebrating his Grandfather's 92nd birthday! It was a gorgeous day spent with family who we don't get to see very often. The weather is amazing and thanks to daylight savings we score an extra hour of sunlight! I don't know what it is but the extra light gives me just that bit of energy I need to close out my day.

Thought I'd take advantage of this energy and post a pic of a banner I made for a friend who is getting married on St. Patrick's Day. They're going with the whole green theme so I thought this was a cute little decoration to add to her day.

Mini Chalk boards

If you follow my posts you know by now that I have an addiction to Pinterest! I can spend hours browsing through the yummy pics for inspiration and ideas. In my pinning I have seen different craft ideas for using chalk-board paint. About a month ago I picked up a pint of the chalkboard paint while stopping my a local hardware store. It's been sitting on the floor of my craft room in the plastic bag I carried it out of the store in! I wasn't quite sure what I was going to use it for but I knew I had to try it!

On a recent trip to Michael's Craft store I spotted these 8x10 tin-like plaques with graffiti type printing on them for $2. I picked up a couple and brought them home- wheels spinning!

I went ahead and painted them using the chalk-board paint. The paint was easy to apply and covered extremely well. I then used some patterned papers, ribbon, and other embellishments to make a little pocket to hold memos and papers. I attached a ribbon on top to act as a hanger. These are two I have already made. A couple more are in the works for Mother's Day gifts!

A couple cards...

I've been working like crazy this week to put together some paper crafts for a showcase I'm attending tomorrow! It's been hectic but I love crafting! Here's a couple cards I just finished! I used a recent Finally Friday video over at Two Peas for inspiration! Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday's Trend - Flowers

SO here in NYC it's winter recess(although the weather makes it feel like Spring recess) which means I've been off all week! I've been spending a lot of time scrapbooking and crafting. When I'm not crafting I spend my time browsing Pinterest and ETSY looking for ideas and inspiration for my home, wardrobe, and crafts. One trend I've been noticing on Pin boards is the floral trend. I find myself drawn to cute summer dresses in feminine floral prints, adorable headbands made with fabric flowers, and jewelry that includes layers, especially with flowers.

I absolutely LOVE this bold floral pillow fabric! The geometric flowers and swirls make the the perfect pillow set for spring. Check out Decorate23's ETSY creations!

I also adore this fabulous statement piece with the flowers - so feminine. It's so unique! I may have to pick this up as for my mom as Mother's Day is just around the corner. I found it on True Rebel Clothing's ETSY site.

And finally - I love this floral bouquet. It reminds me of the romantic bridal bouquet I had for my wedding in 2008.

I wanted to incorporate florals into my paper crafts so I decided to scour the web for instructional videos for making paper flowers. I've combined a couple videos from YouTube and here's what I came up with:

I used my Accent Essentials Cricut Cart and cut various sized flowers form white card stock. Then I sprayed them using Tattered Angels Glimmer Mists and heat embossed them. Then I took the smaller floor and snipped a petal off. Folded the flower and fastened it together with a glue dot. I did this for the 2 smaller flowers. Then I curled the edges of the larger flowers and layered them together. I added a rhinestone gem in the middle for a little pop!

Thanks for stopping by! I would love it if you shared your ideas for using Floral inspiration in your crafts below!

DIY - scrapbooking organization

Lately I've been working on quite a few projects at once, which has left me feeling quite overwhelmed. So I decided to spend sometime this weekend cleaning and organizing my scrap space. (I will post pics of the entire space once it's done!)

My ribbon stash has been driving me CRAZY! Two years I unraveled all my ribbon and rolled them onto clothespins which looked adorable and worked for a while. But I never kept up with it and the mountain of ribbon scraps has taken over!

I got my latest issue of Scrapbooks ETC. where I saw an idea to use a pant's hanger to organize ribbon spools. I decided to adapt this idea and used my existing IKEA pole system and a wooden dowel to create a ribbon organization system. I love the way it turned out (not to mention I only had to pay 79 cents for the dowel). In doing so I also realized my unconscious desire to purchase PINK ribbon! LOL. I plan on expanding the system as needed.

I also came up with a system for organizing my scraps. I find that if they're not well organized I will NEVER use them! I saw this idea somewhere but can't remember where! :( I bought the Cropper Hopper Vertical Pack and labeled each individual divider (it comes with 12) by color.

Thanks for stopping by. Please leave a comment and share any other organizing ideas you have found useful in your own space!

Thursday's Trend- Minty Color!

This week I was inspired by the fashions of the recent NYC Fashion Week. I absolutely love checking out the newest fashions trends. One color trend I noticed was the use of a minty green hue. I absolutely love the subtle tone.

Check out nikiinbrazil for great style tips and more minty hues. I fell in love with this gorgeous bag!

I cannot wait to get this cute color on my nails this spring! Essie's Mint Candy Apple

Soooo... is it possible to be IN LOVE with a kitchen? (because I think I am- sorry hun)

Southern Living featured a kitchen to die for!

and really.....who could pass up these treats? Traditional french macaroons.




SO here's my take on this week's thursday Trend - Minty color!
I never realized how many minty colored papers and supplies I had all along! Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're inspired- I know I am!

Color Challenge- Spring is in the Air

I absolutely fell in love with this color inspiration! All the bight colors remind me of spring which is right around the corner (fingers crossed). We've had a mild winter here in NYC so I'm itching to break out the flip flops!

How Yummy are those pom pom fibers?

Here's my take on the challenge over at Jay Gee's Nook...

Thursday's Trend

Introducing a new Thursday addition to my blog. I've made a personal commitment to put more time into crafting and blogging this year! In an effort to motivate and inspire myself (and other's of course) I will be posting a Thursday's Trendblog post. Here'I'll be posting anything that seems to be trending in the world of craft, design, fashion etc... I will also share my interpretation of the TREND in my own works! Sort of like my own personal challenge! Hopefully you will enjoy the posts and find them as inspirational as I do! So let' s dive right in!

Lately I'm noticing a Chevron pattern trend in just about everything. Photo's from CHA blogs, items from ETSY shops and TONS of pics on Pinterest boa

rds (which is btw my new obsession!) Take a look at some Chevron trends below:

Look at this YUMMY Chevron patterned cake over on the Cake Blog Does anyone have a fork??

Check out these super mod curtain panels at Pamela Hastings Interiors.

Found this adorable set of notecards over on InvitaPaperStudio at ETSY. Love the color combo!

SO here's what I was inspired to create:

I used three - 1/2 in strips of diagonal pattern paper in coordinating colors and adhered them in alternating stripes to create a chevron pattern. I stamped a Thanks sentiment (loving this $1 stamp right now!) and punched mini hearts from the same paper. finished it off with a punched butterfly and some rhinestone gems!

Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to answer the poll below and vote for your favorite trends! <3

New Cards

Just sharing a couple of cards I recently made. I'm participating in a local showcase at the end of the month so I've started preparing some items to display! Let me know what you think!

Lazy Saturday!

Hi all! SO excited that I have no plans today! DH is heading out with the guys to watch the Football game which means I can craft away ALL DAY! I spent some time last night clearing up my scrap space ( I need a clean workstation to get me going!) and just made a cup of tea! SO off to work I go! ....I'll post some of my creations throughout the day! :)

Cute Lil Mini cards

I was in the mood to craft today but didn't have much time so I whipped up these quick mini cards for Valentine's. Just punched out hearts in coordinating paper and used pop dots to give it dimension. Stamped a sentiment and voila!

Play Date Cafe Color Challenge

One of my 2012 commitments (I'm not a fan of 'resolutions') is to spend more time scrapbooking and crafting! When I saw the color combo for PDCC113 I knew I had to get to work! I absolutely love the inspiration clip that was posted - (especially the chic bed). I mad a simple card using the color combo (vanilla, mint, and juniper!) thanks for stopping by :)