September Acres

K & Co. Smash Book LM got a Smash Book and some accessories for Christmas.  I got hers at Micheals - the Micheals that is now closed.  Can you believe that?  In this itty bitty town where there's not much in the way of shopping, one of the only 'fun' places to shop closed its doors at the end of January. Something about rent being raised when the new owners of the mall (I use the word 'mall' very loosely) took over.  Thankfully, we still have a Hobby Lobby.  And they also carry Smash Books.  You can also get them at Amazon and straight from K&Co. They're every where these days. The idea behind them is having a fun 'girly' place to store all of your keepsakes.  Things like concert tickets, notes, letters, pictures, magazine clippings, etc.  It's kind of like a scrapbook but more random.  You don't spend hours doing one page (in theory)- you just place your keepsakes on the page, add a little note, some stickers, tape - whateve...

Valentine's Day is less than a week away so we are heading into the official 'last minute' phase.  It's high time to get any cards you need to mail to the post office.  Everyone loves a homemade card, right? If you've thought of making them but then realized that you're running out of time, this is the project for you. These are 'semi-homemade' valentines.  I picked up this set of chevron note cards at the Target $ spot (for $1, natch).  I thought they would make the perfect cards for valentines but they just needed a little something. I got out some ribbon, paper and stickers and went to work, creating four unique but similar cards to send to friends and family.  I made my cards fairly simple but the sky's the limit here.  It's the perfect way to use up extra paper and ribbon as well as leftover stickers. Happy creating! Linking up to Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia.

Over the weekend I worked on my version of the 'XO' letters I saw at Tatortots and Jello .  I fell in love with the vintage looking Valentine paper at Hobby Lobby and knew that's what I would use for these letters - even though it was nothing like what I had in my head.  I painted the sides with red craft paint (Tuscan red, that is) instead of using a different paper as I originally had planned.  I mod podged the paper after painting the sides and added some ribbon & a glitter mini-clothespin (which I got at our now closed Michaels). This is a super easy project and one that the kids can be involved in as well.  It took me about 30 minutes to complete plus drying time (which wasn't more than another 20-30 minutes here in dry Arizona).  And the possibilities for colors, letters and accessories are endless.  It goes way beyond Valentine's Day. Initials for new babies or birthdays. 'Hop' or 'Egg' for Easter. 'Love' for a weddi...

If you're anything like me you are always looking for ways to add seasonal touches to your home without spending much (or any) money.   Like many of you, I have oodles of scrapbook paper.  To be honest it's probably more than I could ever use.  So when I wanted to add a little more fall to the house without a trip to the store I headed straight to the scrapbook paper. I started with three little pumpkins I cut with my Cricut, a piece of 12 X 12 scrapbook paper and a frame I had (part of my 90% off haul from Michaels a few weeks ago). If you have a Cricut, the 'Stretch your Imagination' cartridge is fantastic for seasonal die cuts - it's filled with really cute images for every holiday and season. I glued the three little pumpkins to the scrapbook paper (cut to 5X7) and put it in the frame (which ended up costing me 69 cents!)  I love the way it turned out and am deciding where to put it - it will possibly go on the mantel  or in the kitchen...

As summer vacation winds down here (only 2 weeks left until school starts!) and vacation budgets have been spent, I am always looking for some fun, frugal ideas to keep Little Miss busy and entertained. After racking my brain (well, it wasn't that bad) I have come up with some ideas to keep the peace for the next 2 weeks. I have printed out a few of our summer pictures, brought out the colored paper (scraps) and will help LM work on her very own Summer of 2009 scrapbook. Most of us have tons of construction paper, scrapbook paper scraps, markers, stickers, crayons, etc that are just dying to be used so this is the perfect way to 'use what you have' while keeping your kids busy as well as doing something productive. Even the littlest of kids can get in on this one with help from mom or an older sibling. Another 'crafty' idea is to take your summer magazines and let the kids tear them up & make a collage about their summer vacation. Take pictures of them with the...

I was wearing my new Donny Osmond t-shirt yesterday when I went to pick my daughter up from Daisy Scouts. It is black w/ a silhouette of Donny. One of the little girls in the troop said "I love your shirt. Is that the singer Elvis Purse-ly?" Too cute! I worked on the invitations for my husband's 40th birthday party yesterday while at my Tuesday scrapbooking day. I just have to fill in the details and make a nice note on the bottom that it is adults only. :) We have done the kids before and it's just too crazy. My daughter doesn't get to bed anywhere near on time and it's just chaos. I think the parents end up having a better time too. We'll see how it works. So far I haven't had anyone balk about it. I started a 3 day detox today. It is a plan I got from Body & Soul magazine a year or so ago. I try to do it every 3 or 4 months. It is long overdue right now. I feel horrible - guess that's what all that candy corn does to you. It basic...

These are the cards I made on Tuesday. I like the crab one for Christmas. I like to use non-traditional colors sometimes and thought this looked cute. This card I made for my daughter's friend who is having her birthday party next weekend. I thought the colors looked really girly. Of course, Little Miss likes the crab card better so I will do one next week for a birthday using the same colors, switching out the Santa hat for a birthday hat. I'll save the pink one for another time. So, I think I am off to a good start for the Christmas cards and gifts. I won't make all my Christmas cards as I bought some last year at 75% off so I want to use those. I will make the extras though. I have to work on my Christmas list and figure out what needs to be made- probably not a whole lot so it should be pretty easy going. I have to got through my 'gift box' too to see what is in there. I am always surprised to find more than I thought I had. :)

There IS a difference between Cheetos and Cheezits. Thank you Laurie & The Rockin' Wife for pointing this out. The pictures on the previous post were from the internet. The acutal food I served is to the left. My husband would rather starve to death than eat baked Cheetos. I am not eager to start blogging about politics however, I am looking forward to watching Sarah Palin this evening at the convention. I am still a little in shock about McCain selecting her but I am getting used to the idea. I think I hadn't really been paying a ton of attention to the election and it just took me by surprise. I have heard many people say good things about her and I have to trust John McCain's judgment (he is our senator here in AZ). So we'll see what happens tonight. Our scrapbook store closed in Jan so I have been getting supplies on line, from Stampin' Up or when we go out of town. We have a stamping store in town and I finally went there today before I went to...

This will likely be short as I have to pick up my daughter. But I thought a break was in order so here I am. Still tons to do today but it will be there tomorrow too, right? I had my stamp club today. We meet once a month and do scrapbook pages and then shop (Stampin' up). It has been fun - I can slowly add to my scrapbook needs and I have learned some fun techniques. This is the page we did today. I thought it was so cute. And I love the colors. The small saying says 'you make my life a beautiful thing' . The marble-y technique was done on cardstock using shaving cream and stamp pad re-fill ink. It turned out great and was fun. I thought it would be fun for kids to do with whipped cream and food coloring. Not for a scrapbook page but for a fun little craft project. If anything made it into their mouthes it would be okay. Speaking of fun craft projects, I am making a list of things to do this summer with my daughter while she is out of school. She is very social a...