Gift Card Holder

So my stepson turns 12 tomorrow! My hubby and I have been together for 10 years and for most of that time Taylor (stepson) and I haven't had a very good relationship. The Lord has really been working on things and I can honestly say that for the past year things have been amazing! He and I have had some really great heart-to-heart conversations and things are really good now! We (DH and I) don't get along with Taylor's mom and because of that she hasn't let us see Taylor as much as any of us would like! Thank the Lord, Taylor is old enough now that he's asking to come over more so that's SUPER exciting! We're making the 5 hour drive over to see him tomorrow so we can take him out to lunch and give him his present! It makes for a long day when we spend 10 hours in the car but it's the only way we get to see him most of the time so we take what we can get! I still can't believe he's turning 12! I remember when he was in diapers and here he is, one year shy of being a teenager! YIKES! I'm only 28 so it's weird to have a 12 year old son...makes me feel prematurely old! LOL

Anyways, Taylor is beyond spoiled when it comes to birthdays/holidays and even pretty much every other day (LOL) so it's very hard to find him presents he'll like or use that he doesn't already have. The last year or two we've just decided to give him money because what person doesn't like getting money? As my inlaws always say, it's the perfect color and perfect size! LOL So instead of just throwing the gift card inside the birthday card I made a gift card holder for it!

This is one side:



This is the other side:



This is the inside:


Another view of the inside:

What a gorgeous day!

I am in love with the weather today and thanking the good Lord for blessing us with the SUN!! We just got home from a trip to see some animals and an afternoon at the beach! I love the coast!

Well, here are 4 cards I made last night while watching/listening to Twilight (for the millionth and one time)! I CAN'T get enough of that movie and am dying for New Moon to come out. I'm not a big movie theater goer but will probably HAVE to go see that one in theaters! My hubby likes to give me a hard time about loving Twilight so much! When I was reading the books he was just in shock and awe at how much reading I was doing! I love to read books but I usually only read books that I'm doing along with a bible study so it was weird for him to see me nose-deep in these huge books and unable to be pulled away from them! LOL

Anyways, sorry I got sidetracked, here are the cards:

I did the butterfly card for my sister's birthday, the friend card is obviously for a friend, the fishing card is for my Grandpa's 80th birthday (YIKES) and the other card is for my stepdad's birthday!
I hope everyone has a fabulous weekend!!!
GOD BLESS YOU!

ABC's of ME

I've seen this on a few blogs so I thought I'd do one too! :o)


Here's ME:
Age: 28
Bed size: Queen
Chore you hate: Cleaning the toilet...YUCKY!
Dad's Name: Jeff
Essential start your day item: Toothbrush
Favorite actor(s): I'm gonna have to go with John Travolta, Kate Hudson, Drew Barrymore...there's probably more but my brain went blank!
Gold or Silver: silver/white gold...I really, really don't like gold coloring
Height: 5'9"
Instruments you play(ed): I played the clarinet in elementary school and a little bit of piano.
Job title: On-call unit secretary, CTMH consultant and full-time SAHM
Kid(s): son K is 6, daughter T is almost 1 and stepson T is almost 12
Living arrangements: with my hubby and kiddos
Mom's name: Elizabeth
Nicknames: Chris, Babe, Mom, Christini
Overnight hospital stay other than birth: none
Pet peeves: Being able to hear any form of noise when someone is eating and liars!
Quotes you like: My favorite quotes are bible verses!
Rightie or Leftie: Righty
Siblings: I have 3 sisters, 1 brother, 1 step-sister and 1 step-brother
Time you wake up: Most days it's 8:30am but I stay up until 1-2am most nights.
Umbrella: Pishaw, real Oregonians don't use and umbrella! Ok, I use one occasionally! :o)
Vegetable you dislike: Brussel sprouts
Ways you run late: miscalculating the amount of time it takes us all to get ready
X-rays you've had: feet, knee, chest, ultrasounds...think that's it.
Yummy food you make: Apple Crisp, BBQ pulled pork sandwiches, roasts
Zodiac: Aquarius

Long time no scrap! LOL

Pretty much since I've started with Close To My Heart I've been mainly focused on cards or other paper crafts and have neglected my scrapbooking. Last night we rented the movie Taken (good movie) so I decided to scrapbook while we watched the movie. I also rented the movie Faith Like Potatoes (GREAT movie) so in the course of 2 movies I was able to finish 4 pages. I used the Animal Crackers level 1 paper pack which I love. It's so bright and cheery and definitely makes for kid-friendly LO's! So here are lots of pictures of my pages!!

It's 1am...look what I've been up to! LOL

Good evening...or should I say morning since it is after 1am here! Don't worry, I'm up this late most nights anyways! I was checking out some blogs today and ran across this posting on Booth #32 and decided to head over to her Etsy site and pay for the template to make this box. Generally I wouldn't pay for a template but seriously, it was $1 and the money goes to Operation Smile so I actually ordered 2 templates. I also got the template to make this. So cute, right?!

So, tonight I made this box and 4 cards to go in it. I can't give measurments because that would defeat her purpose in having people pay money for the template! :) Sorry! All products are CTMH with exception for the rhinestones, those are from some other company. I'll probably use this for a hostess thank you gift and I have ideas for more! So cute and easy to make and I had fun with it tonight!

Create4Fun blog candy

Check out her blog here.

She's got over 5000 visitors to her blog and offering up these awesome markers:

Nilla is offering stuff too...

Check out Live it-Scrap it! Nilla's blog

On June 1st she'll announce the lucky winner of all this candy:

Ohhhh...a surprise blog candy drawing!

True's Gifts From the Heart is offering up a drawing for a surprise blog candy treat! The drawing will be on May 30th!

And some more! :O)

Check out Paper Crafting in Cocoa for a chance to win some of her candy! The drawing will be on Tuesday, May 26th so hurry over and enter a comment!

Check this stuff out:

More...

Check out Passion For Crafts. Winner will be announced on Sunday, May 24th

She's offering up some yummy candy:

Blog Candy

Check out AuroraDawn

Winner will be announced May 21st after 5pm!!
Here's what you could win:

SCORE! I got 3 cards done last night!

It's been awhile since I've been able to sit and make some cards so I'm super excited that I was able to get 3 done last night! The first card I made is a Father's Day card for my father-in-law:

The second card I made is a Father's Day card for my hubby! I chose the lion because he's the "king of the jungle" and my hubby is head of our household and the wild n' crazy stamp I chose because he's quite frisky! LOL

Last is just a card I made for no certain occasion. I was thinking maybe of giving it to my stepson this weekend! We'll see!

All 3 cards use the It's A Guy Thing paper pack. I used the April stamp of the month set for the 1st card, the It's A Zoo stamp set for card #2 and for card #3 I just cut out the title from a piece of the B&T paper from the paper pack! Oh, and I used liquid glass on card #1.

Check this stuff out...

Drawing for this blog candy give away will be May 26th so check out her blog here become a follower, post a comment and you'll have a chance to win this stuff!

Blog Candy open until 11:59 tonight...

check it out here:
http://shimmerzpaints.blogspot.com/

My first blog award!!!

Yay, my first blog award!!! Thank you so much Jaime for giving me this award, so sweet of you!!!
You guys really should go check out her blog here.


The Lemonade Stand Award.
The rules of this award
*comment on this blog
*cut and paste the award logo and use it on your own blog
*nominate 5 to 10 blogs you feel show great attitude and gratitude
*link to your nominees within your blog post
*comment on their blogs to let them know they received the award
*link back to the person who gave you the award to show your appreciation

And the award goes to...(this was hard to narrow it down)

Dena
Amy
Kristin
Laurel
Lisa
Yvette
Amy S.
Micah

Go check out their blogs...GOOD STUFF!!

Love me some candy....

Here's another link to a chance to win some blog candy!

http://passionforcrafts.blogspot.com/

Found some blog candy...

I've been scoping out blogs of fellow CTMH consultants and ran across some yummy blog candy:

http://want2scrap.blogspot.com/2009/05/blog-candy-alert.html

Congrats Laurel on 100+ blog followers!

Card Box

So I saw on the wonderfully talented Tresa's blog these cool card boxes and God bless her, she even did a tutorial for us to be able to make our own.
Check her blog here:
http://www.fabulouslyartsy.blogspot.com/

I'm having a scrap day on Saturday where anyone can come and hang out for the day and work on projects they've got going on or they can buy kits I'm going to have made up for various projects and they can make them and just hang out and have fun! I made up one of these card boxes to show to the ladies that will be coming on Saturday and this is how it turned out:

Animal Cookies card

Last night my friend Tara hosted a CTMH home gathering for me and I made up this card for the ladies to make using the Animal Cookies paper pack and the It's A Zoo stamp set.

My sweet boy!

Alright, this blog is filling up with my artwork and I thought I should post what my son did! Keegan is always writing us notes and drawing us pictures and I LOVE it! To see the changes in the way he draws is just awesome to me and I love getting a glimpse of what's in his head! He drew this picture for me for Mother's Day! It's the two of us sitting under a tree with hearts around us, clouds, the sun and a rainbow! He was so proud and I got all teary-eyed when I opened it! It just warms my heart and I love him soooooo much! The Lord has truly, truly blessed me!

Birthday cards

Last night my hubby and I sat down to watch a movie (Get Smart) and I just can't sit and watch a movie, I have to be doing something else so I decided to work on some birthday cards that I needed to make for some birthdays that are coming up next week. The first one I did based on another Mojo Monday sketch and I made it for my husband's Grandma, for her birthday! She is the sweetest little lady and is turning 84 this year! The 2nd card is one I made out of my head for my friend Stephanie. She used to be my stepmom but is still a very, very dear friend to me! The 3rd card I made for my stepson who will be turning 12 this month! YIKES! My hubby and I started dating when Taylor was 2 1/2...where does the time go? In some aspects it feels like it's been an eternity but in other aspects it seems like it was just yesterday! Lastly, the 4th card is for my sister, Lottie! It's a pretty simple card but it's cute, cute like Lottie! :)

Shtuff! :)

Alright, so it's the day before Mother's Day and I'm scrambling to finish my cards! Thankfully I was able to send my mom and MIL's cards out on time but the rest of the bunch will get them late! Better late than never, right?! :) This is the first year I've hand-made cards so that's my excuse...it takes me awhile to make each card and finding the time to do them with a busy schedule, 2 kiddos, one of which is a baby and everything else I've got going on...phew, but I love it all! I was inspired by the Mojo Monday Sketch and this card (above) is one I made for my "co-mom". She's my stepson's mom and every year I send her a card. We don't get along a lot of the time but I know the Lord has placed her in my life for a purpose and I 'try' to maintain civility when at all possible! :) The Lord has to help me a lot with that but it's getting better! LOL

I've managed to finish my swaps and get those mailed out ON TIME! HOORAY!!! I made the comp books and pens (see previous post), squash books (no pics) and then these checkbook covers! I've never done a swap before and was so nervous but I think everything turned out cute. I can't wait to see what I get back!!