Cricut sale!

Hi there! I'm having a Cricut cartridge sale in my Etsy shop. Five cute cartridges for sale for dirt cheap~ Four are lightly used but never linked to a Gypsy & have all original contents & packaging. You can see them all by clicking here.

What's the reason for this mass sale you may wonder? Well, this summer I upgraded from my Cricut Expression to a Silhouette Cameo. I've had it for almost 2 months & I love it! I decided to keep my Cricut (just in case!) but I'm letting go of my not so used cartridges.

Another upgrade made to my empire (aka craft room), I got a TV! It helps keep me entertained while I cut out & package banners & I don't know what I ever did without it.

Have a great day & don't forget to check out the big sale! :)

wedding gift- scrapbook

Hi there! Last weekend was the big day, my sister in law got married :) We gave them their wedding gift at the shower, but I didn't want to show up empty handed so I made a scrapbook of the shower. I'm NOT a scrapbooker! Paper crafter, card maker, yes, scrapbooking, not so much! So I kept it simple. I bought an album that contained 12x12 page protectors & then bought a pack of 4x6 vertical & horizontal photo holders (I waited until all of this was 50% off at Hobby Lobby). I narrowed down the 300+ photos I took to my favorite 100 & printed them out when prints were on sale at Walgreens for $.10 (100 was the min. order). So this also turned out budget friendly too! 

The hardest part about this book was the organization of it. I ended up dividing the book into 3 sections: games, gifts, & guests. I used my Cricut to cut the titles & my paper trimmer to cut 4x6 pink fillers for pages that didn't have enough pictures. On the back of the cover sheet (that says tea party) I put all the tidbits from the shower- the invite, food labels, a balloon, & other bits of decor.

Overall it took about 3 hours & cost less than $40 :) 

Me & the bride                       Me & the husband 

 A few Instagram pics from the wedding. (@parkersprints if you wanna connect!) 

Happy Friday!

♥

my Etsy buys

Hi there! How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good- a lot of laziness (which is fine with me!) I wanted to share my most recent Etsy purchase, pink striped paper straws from a super cute shop, Hey YoYo. I bought these for the shower. I waited til the last minute to buy these, & Amanda, the owner, was super helpful in getting these to me on time! Every time I sent her a message she would reply within minutes, I was so impressed!

The straws arrived & were packaged so cutely! They were wrapped inside the gingham tissue paper. I love the stickers on the packaging, makes me want to order some for my shop :)

 And look how cute their business cards are! The front...

...and back :)

Overview:

Shop: Hey YoYo

Price: $4.80 for 30 straws

Shipping: very quick!

My 2 cents: I highly recommend this shop if you're looking for cute party supplies (cupcake liners, straws, bags, etc..). Their customer service can't be beat!

Happy Monday, have a great week!

♥

P.S. I did a little remodeling in my Etsy shop this weekend.. Like the new look? ;)

advice for the bride book

 Hi again! Today is the final installment of the bridal shower photos. Instead of making a guest book, I decided to do an advice book.

 The cover says: love notes for the bride to be

 The binding rings are tied with random pink ribbon & tulle scraps.

 Cover page reads: words of wisdom compiled for bride to be Bridget Johnson April 29, 2012.

 The next 20 card stock pages read: my silly advice: & my sweet advice:

I punched the pink hearts from pink card stock & adhered them with glue dots.

The best part was this needed very little wrapping, just a small paper sack & the ribbons acted as tissue on their own ;)

The book was a big hit at the shower & I loved it too! Definitely my favorite creation of the year so far.

My next task: creating a scrapbook of the entire shower. I'd like to give it to the bride at the wedding (we gave her our wedding gift at the shower) which is exactly a month from today... how will I dwindle down the 324 pictures into a scrapbook by then? We'll see!

Happy Wednesday!

♥

Tea party bridal shower

Hi there! Today I have pictures from the shower! I edited these using a new site PicMonkey so sad Picnik is gone :( but PicMonkey looks promising. Brace yourself for an overload of pictures!

The theme for the shower was "afternoon tea with the bride to be." I was originally going to match her wedding colors- baby pink & black, but then shifted more towards pink only.

Balloons inspired by Emily Edwards (click to see her party!)

I rented "the President's room" at work for the shower. I decided to keep the tables in this arrangement & it worked out nicely.

 Before.

The shower was 2-4:00pm. We arrived around 11:30 to start setting up. The husband, his sister (& shower co-host) & I literally worked up until the second guests started to arrive! When we arrived I had no idea where to start & I just kind of started to do a little of everything without finishing anything. Needless to say I had a small meltdown.. one around 12:30 another around 1:00. Panic set in but it all worked out!

The room has a TV. I brought Bride Wars & 27 Dresses to watch. We had a lot of technical difficulties until the last 30 minutes of the shower.. go figure! Luckily the games were more than enough entertainment. The tea was set up on the small table in the corner. It wasn't too glitzy- the one area I wish I would have planned better for.

Food & gift corner.

Food included: Italian Wedding Soup (made by my mother in law), heart shaped pimento cheese sandwiches, mini cheese balls & crackers, & cupcakes (special ordered by Christina). We also had 3 varieties of hot tea, coffee, & iced water.

The husband makes the most amazing pimento cheese. I had him make a large batch & we cut hearts out of sandwiches & layered them on the stand. I used small picture frames that I already had to create labels.

 I came up with the idea to make mini cheese balls that the guests could take to the table instead of having to stand at the table & eat from a large one or try to cut a portion. I thought they turned out so cute! (the husband made these too!)

Small shots of the decor. I made the "tea time" banner & the other banners were from the dollar store (literally $1 each!). The lanterns were from Hobby Lobby. I wish I would have gotten a few tissue poms to go with them, but oh well! 

The tea cups were a very lucky find. I found a place that rents tea cups (pretty ones!) but after delivery fees & tax it was just more than I wanted to spend for a 1 time rental. I kept that place in mind as a last resort & the husband & I decided to see what we could find on our own. We shopped some thrift stores only to find coffee cups. We decided to try Burlington Coat Factory because it was next door to a thrift shop we visited & low & behold they had sets of 12 cups & saucers for $9.99. We got 2 sets by the time of the shower. At first I thought they were so ugly & plain, but after adding a doily & butterfly, they were perfect. 

 The bride's place setting. 

I cut butterflies with my Cricut & sat one on each cup.

Butterfly inspiration: Etsy

 The bride's chair. She was the only one with an assigned seat.

 Speaking of, my sister in law, the bride to be, Bridget. I think she had a good time :)

My co-host Christina (my other sister in law), Bridget (dressed silly from a game), & me.

Coming up tomorrow a closer look at this little cutie, my better than a guest book :)

Happy Tuesday!

♥

Bridal shower card + other decor

Hi there! Yesterday was the big day- my first time hosting a bridal shower! I'm going to break the pictures down into a few posts- today is the card I made along with a few other things.

The card was inspired by a card I saw in Paper Crafts Magazine around the holidays. I believe it had an ornament made of embellishments on the front, but I can't find the source :( 

To create the heart, I just used a larger Quickutz heart die as my outline/template & filled it in with pearls.

 Studio G stamp & ink; old Dear Lizzy Enchanted paper for the envelope.

I do believe this is my first monochromatic card- I like it!

I made this sign on a whim for the shower. The 12x12 paper is Echo Park & I used my Cricut to cut out the words. I adhered them with 3D foam (that was a task!) & punched two holes with eyelets with my Crop-a-Dile to hang the ribbon from.

A sign for the back of the bride's chair; later hung with ribbons.

I found this pin/badge at a dollar store & added a few rhinestones & stickers for Bridget to wear.

Well, more pictures to come later in the week- I took over 300! Going through them is almost like watching a movie of the shower at times, lol. Don't worry- I won't be sharing that many on the blog!

Happy Monday!

♥

The birthday card that never was

 Hi there! Long time no post! Today I actually have a card to share :) I made this for my father in law's b-day in March. The sad thing is, it never made it to him! :( We went Lake Charles for our annual casino trip (his fav. way to celebrate his b-day!). As we were entering the casino/hotel, I saw the card/present together. We got on the elevator & as we were waiting to check in, I looked in the bag & the card was gone! I was so upset. The husband went back to the elevator & parking garage to look for it, but it was already swiped. I guess someone thought it would have money/gift card inside & took it. Luckily it was just the card, not the gift & I took pictures!

 This card was definitely inspired by Maile Belles!

 And a little bit of Nicole Heady too!

My first ever pop-up card, also inspired by Maile.

I've missed blogging & blog reading too! I try to catch up here & there with the reading part, but figured I should catch up a little on blogging too. Next week I should have a plethora of pictures to share- I'm hosting a bridal shower for my sister in law on Sunday, a tea party! I think it's going to be epic, as long as I'm able to make my visions come to life!

Be back soon!

Happy Friday!

♥

guest post...

Hi there! Today I'm excited to say I'm a guest over at Making Memories blog! See the rest of this card & how I made it over there :)

Happy Friday!

♥

Belated Valentine's

Hi there! Today I'm sharing the Valentine card I made the husband this year :) Inspired by this card & this layout I wanted to make a pennant style banner card too & this is what I came up with.Sometimes when making cards for the husband, I try to make them more masculine, but for this card I thought, what the heck, it's Valentine's Day, the girliest holiday of the year. So I went all out with pink & frills.
close up. Twine from The Twinery & papers from my scrap pile. All ribbon used is a cross between Michael's & Hobby Lobby.
inside.
As for Valentine's Day itself, it fell on Tuesday which equals a workday. I got a pedicure on my lunch break (my gift) & came home to cupcakes from my fav place along with chocolate covered strawberries (another fav) and dark chocolate (my new love). We ate at the same gumbo restaurant that we went to last year & it was as good as ever :)

In other happenings, last weekend we ventured over west to San Antonio for a one night stay (yay President's Day, no work).

Top row: pics of the hotel outside & in.

Middle row: wildlife tour we did. A drive thru style safari thing where you feed animals from the car. I love, love, love animals. But I must admit this scared me a little- I kept having flashes of youtube videos where the animals stick there head in the car & bite people lol. None of that happened thankfully. I also made a little goat friend at the petting zoo.

Last row: our hotel was next to the Alamo so of course we toured that. All ten orders that accumulated over the weekend on their way to the post office.

Happy Wednesday!

♥

I'm back!

Hi there! I'm back to my blog after a month long hiatus! More on that in a minute... first up I have a card to share- the only one I've had a chance to make all year ;)

My co-worker/friend celebrated her 31st birthday on 1/22 & this is the card/gift bag I made her. The blocking on the card was inspired by my friend/former teammate Emily's card. The embellishments are from Michaels ($1 for the whole pack) & I added some stone twine & pearls to enhance them a bit.

supplies: Recollections (solid paper, embellishments); Canvas Corp (polka dot paper); The Twinery (stone twine); LSS (pink ribbon); Studio G (stamp/ink); Hobby Lobby (tissue paper, clothespin, tag); Etsy (glassine bag)

As for me & my blogging absence, I've been a busy bee & simply haven't had the time to create any new cards besides the one I shared today :/ I want focus my posts more on quality & worry less about quantity, so we'll see how that goes.

2012 has been a busy year for me already & we're only 33 days in! When I came back to work after Christmas break, I found out I won our first ever "outstanding employee of the trimester" title (I work as an admin at a college & our year is divided into trimesters). A little embarassing, but I'm proud none the less :) I get a reserved parking spot (picture 1), a plaque displayed in our building, an article in our newsletter, & a monetary award, not too shabby! Oh & the best part, I get to leave 1 hour early (paid) every Friday this trimester.

Also in January, my Etsy shop was super crazy busy! In 31 days I had 71 banner orders! Which led to a lot of production time & too many post office trips to count! (pictures 2-4).

In my personal time, the husband finally decided he was ready to hit the gym so we've been working out every Monday, Wednesday, & Friday for the past few weeks. It was really hard to get started, I threw a pretty big fit on our first day, but now it's something I enjoy again.

This year I'm really trying to better manage my time & take time to really enjoy life. I stopped taking custom orders for my Etsy shop back in November. It was a tough decision, but it needed to happen. Custom orders take at least an hour more than normal banners & to be honest they are stressful. I've finally created a good balance: time to work out, time for my family/friends (weekends & weeknights), & time for my shop (before work). I'm also trying to loosen my wallet a little & splurge on myself every now & then. Right now life is good. I am so blessed.

I'll be back with more posts as I create new cards... Valentine's Day is right around the corner & it's my favorite card making occassion so I'm sure I'll be making one or two of those soon :)

Happy Thursday!

♥