Chocolate, anyone?

MemoryWorks released the "teaser" photo for the February Express kit (click on MW Express in the side bar) last week..."Cherry Chocolate" - YUM! I've gotten away from scrapbooking regularly lately, so I'm excited to get to work on this one...totally wishing it actually came with a box of chocolates, though...you know, for inspiration:)

Monday Madness: Costume edition

I get my inspiration from lots of places and I want to give those people credit!

Apparently the desire to create runs in my genes...the first person I want to highlight is my MOM!

She is an amazing seamstress - she has made many wedding dresses (my own included), costumes (including outfitting several full-cast musicals), home decor items, etc. I know how to sew, but I just don't have the patience or skills to turn out the kinds of projects she does.

One of my daughters turned 5 this weekend, and for her present, Mom made her this gorgeous "real" Cinderella dress - hoop skirt and all!

(PICTURE TEMPORARILY REMOVED)

The way to any little girl's heart is with a princess dress!!

And.......without further ado.......I put strips of paper with all the names of everyone who left a comment over the weekend in a cute Valentine's bucket my daughter decorated at Girl Scouts, had her pull a name out of it.....and the winner is ASHLI! All that blog linking must have paid off - have fun with the album! I'll get it mailed off to you this week (sick kids allowing).

Freebie Friday!

I have to put a little disclaimer here...not EVERY Friday will be "Freebie Friday"...but I'll try to regularly post SOMETHING free (giveaway from me, an idea for making something for free, or a link to something free) on as many Fridays as I can. Make sure you check back often to see what's going on!

On to today's freebie:

You can benefit from my clutter! I found a box the other day containing a large number of "I wonder what ever happened to that..." items. One of them was a brand new, unopened-in-the-package Chatterbox mini-album kit. These are a lot of fun -the kit has everything you need to make a cute little accordion album including the album, paper, stickers, die-cuts and some adhesive gems. You just need some glue, photos and a journaling pen! I made several of these for Christmas a few years back and had a blast making them. You can make it as fancy or simple as you want - and probably put the whole thing together in less than an hour!

This particular kit is my FAVORITE of the Chatterbox mini-albums...its from the Gazebo line - reds, blues, olive green, paisley and polka dots - so cute!

To enter the drawing for this album:

*Post a comment in this thread

*If you link this giveaway in a post on your blog, you get 3 extra entries in the drawing (please post a comment with a link to your blog so I know how many entries to give you!)

Comments must be posted between now and midnight MST Saturday January 24th (that's tomorrow!). I'll randomly choose someone (names in a hat?) and post the winner on Monday, barring any weird unforseen circumstanes. I will only mail the prize within the UNITED STATES, so sorry - if you don't live in the states, you're not eligible to enter - but you can still feel free to leave a comment!

Good luck!!

Super easy thank-you card

I just had a baby, so of course I had a bajillion thank-you cards to write! I made these en masse, assembly-line style with a couple clear acrylic stamps and some leftover scrapbook supplies:
When I do a lot of stamping, I tend to go too fast and end up with weird extra marks everywhere (I'm totally Stamp Challenged and I freely admit it!!), so basically I placed the flowers to cover wherever the stray ink went!

Instructions:

*Fold 8.5"x5.5" piece of cardstock (I used Prism) in half to form a card

*Stamp circle in bottom right corner of card front. I used a Heidi Swapp acrylic journaling stamp.

*Place flower (I used some leftover Prima flowers) somewhere on the circle, covering any stray ink.

*Set an eyelet, brad or button through the center of the flower.

*Stamp "Thanks a Lot" stamp (mine was a Michael's dollar stamp) on opposite side of circle.

All done! You could dress it up by adding patterned paper to the front of the card before stamping it, or adding several small flowers instead of one big one, or even putting the stamp/flower embellishment on its own matted piece of cardstock and putting it over some coordinating paper.

Welcome to Creating In Real Life!

Those who know me know that I am always up to something crafty...scrapbooking, sewing, home decorating - you name it, I've probably tried it (with varying degrees of success!). My home is filled with craft projects, homemade items and storebought things that I've added personal touches to. Some of these projects have turned out really well...others...not so much! I also have stacks of partially finished projects, boxes of unused random supplies and enough ideas to fill a book. Sound familiar?!

As a busy Mom of four children under the age of 7, I am often asked, "how do you have the time (or money) to do that?" Well, here's my secret - I'm a master of making things look harder than they really are and I'm totally cheap! And I've learned to not be too hard on myself when I've made something - a project doesn't have to come out perfect to be cute or appreciated.

So, this blog is dedicated to all those other women out there who think they can't...who think they don't have the time...or think they aren't creative enough... I'll share my projects with you (even the ugly ones!), you can share your ideas with me - and between all of us, we can work together to create beautiful homes and captured memories for our families to treasure for years to come!