Clearing the Clutter Challenge #1

If you remember back to THIS post, I accepted a challenge to make time to craft. Well I followed through! And a friend of mine is doing it with me. We'll be able to keep each other accountable and we'll link up to the other's blog. We'll be posting every other Friday.

Ok, enough lead up. Here's the project that I finished. I started it a couple months ago when I was inspired by THIS post by Creations By Christie. I thought it would be a great idea to keep track of everything and it feeds to my OCD. haha

The front. I used all Tim Holtz products for embellishing. The cover, book strap and o-wire are Zutter. I used Cuttlebug embossing folders and alcohol inks for the tabs.

The back. The only stamp that wasn't Tim Holtz is the script stamp.

I put the logo on each tab divider.

This is how I laid out the pages. I listed all of the current Cricut cartridges. There were some that came out after I printed the pages so I added those in. The ones in pink, and those highlighted pink, are ones I have. There's also 3 pages after this.

I couldn't get the Cuttlebug logo to look right. :(

This is the Sizzix and Tim Holtz embossing folders.

EK Success border punches.

I copied and saved the thumbnails from EK Success's website and pasted them on here. Again, I highlighed the ones I have.


I got all of these from the Ranger website.




This section just has the Changito monkey stamps. Since Carver's theme is monkeys, I have a bunch of these stamps.

The last tab is blank pages. This will have wishlists and additions that come out.

The reason why it took so long was that I did the covers and then punched with my Bind-it-All... except I put the metal spockets too close and it was too thick to fit in the Bind-it-All. And then to top it off, I punched the back cover on the wrong side. haha So I ordered more covers (5 to be exact!) and punched first! OH! I guess I should tell you how big it is. It's 7x5. The covers came at 7.5x5 so I had my husband cut it down with the chopsaw. It worked great! Good to know for future projects. I feel like I'm leaving something out. Feel free to ask questions.

Now, hop on over to Lorie's blog, www.live-love-laugh-create.blogspot.com

Want to join us? Just finish a project that has been sitting on your desk for awhile. Then send us a link in a comment! If there's enough people we'll add a Mr. Linky!!

Baby Showers

Our church hosted a baby shower for two ladies in the church. My MOMS group is in charge of the showers and I volunteered to do the shopping for the group gifts. It was a LOT of fun! One wanted a gift card and the other wanted things off of her registry.

It's a Girl - Beyond Birthdays 4"
Pink & Green Dot paper - Heidi Grace
Pink - Bazzill Chablis


It's a Boy - Beyond Birthdays 4"
Stripe - DCWV The Stack III
Navy - ANW Crestwood Deep Sea

Here's the gift card holder I made. I found the template here.

The inside


Baby - New Arrival 2.5"
Bottle - New Arrival 1.5"
Stripe paper - DCWV The Stack III
Navy - ANW Crestwood Deep Sea

Blog Candy on my other blog

A couple weeks ago, I did a giveaway on my other blog. The winner got 10 handmade cards. Tabitha won and she wanted birthday cards. I did half boy and half girl. So here they are!



Beyond Birthdaays
Happy Birthday - 2"
Stars/Hearts - 1.5"
Pink - Chablis at Michaels (don't remember brand)
Brown - Bazzill Mud Pie
Blue - Blue #2 at JoAnns (don't remember brand)

Happy Birthday Brother!

Last week was my brother's birthday. He's living on Colorado right now and I miss him terribly! This phrase fits Cody perfectly. He creates joy in everyone around him.

Create Joy - Beyond Birthdays - 3"
Black & white paper - Target
Green Gingham - DCVW The Stack III

My Monthly Challenge

I've decided to do a monthly challenge. Linda over at Just a Scrappin' had this great post. She said...

Our calendars are being formed for the new month so right now, get it out and write in at least one hour a week for designated scrapbooking time. Yes you can find it. It is there. Plan for it. Write it in and DO it. SO you have to give up reruns of CSI or Friends....No more wishful thinking....grab that time before it slips away. Make your time work for you. Use those supplies like papers and stickers. Zip out a few pages. Your family really does NOT want to have to dispose of 3 carts full of paper at an estate sale after you are gone....They would much rather look over your finished albums full of treasured memories.

So I'm going to try it. I may need to lose a little sleep to get this accomplished but

• I AM going to start my Christmas cards early
• I AM going to make Halloween cards for Carver to mail to his friends
• I AM going to start scrapbooking again (I haven't even started Carver's birth pictures yet)
• I AM going to finish a bunch of projects that are taking up space on my desk
• I AM going to take pictures of everything for you guys to see! :)

Just as a precaution, you may want to leave comments and encourage me to keep going. Life can sometimes get in the way and I NEED to keep focused. :) Thanks!

Another birthday present

Here's one of the cards and a present that I couldn't show you before. I finally met up with my friend, Mallorie, for dinner to celebrate her birthday.


Create a Critter cartridge
(Hippo 2"; Pond 1.5"; Grass 1.5"; Phrase 1.5"; Paper = all scraps)

Here's the clipboard that I altered as part of her present. I got the clipboard from the Dollar Tree!


(Clipboard - Dollar Tree; Paper - Target dollar section; ribbon - JoAnns; ModPodge; glue dots)

I bought a...

... PINK CRICUT EXPRESSION!!!!! It was on sale at Michael's for $280 (regular price is $400). We were trying to justify putting it on the credit card when we realized that we had a little extra money in Chris's account and we didn't need to buy any groceries so we paid cash for it!!! I'd told myself that I'd wait until October, when the pink Expressions usually come out, and see if it was on sale. It just wasn't that important to get right away. But Chris decided we could swing it. I love my husband!!!!!

I'll try to post later today with a craft or two. It'll depend on if lil monkey decides to take a nap. He didn't take a nap until 430pm yesterday and then it was only for an hour. Good thing my mom was here or I would've gone crazy. haha