Fish Stories

Well, I can tell you right from the start Jeff and I are NOT fishermen and we never have been.  So...the boys were only got to fish when my dear Uncle Bud would offer to take them.  He is such a nice uncle.  Anyway, this is one of those times and I can't believe I actually got some pictures from the event.  Lucky, huh?  Especially now that Moxxie has this great fishing/camping line.  You can't help but love it and the two pictures that I had worked really well.  I am very pleased.

What do you think?

I hope you enjoy your scrappy day!

Until next time,
Michelle

Another Fun Moxxie Layout!

I just love this Midway Madness line.  I posted earlier a birthday card and fun little gift package made with this line.  You can see that post here.  This time I found some pictures of Brian (my youngest) when he was little and we visited Camp Snoopy in the Mall of America.  I remember he had such a fun time on the rides.  We were there with my Cousin and his kids from California and it was a blast. 

Here is the second page of the layout.

And, here they are together.

 Aren't the embellishment fun?  These are some of the stickers and die cuts from the line.  The papers I used are:

Carousel
Which Way
Carnival
Clownin' Around (reverse side)
Ticket to Ride (reverse side)
Black Cardstock

Embellishments are
Midway Madness Cardstock Sticker MM-2227, MM-2228
Midway Madness Die Cut Sheet
Red and yellow ribbon

I inked the edges in black, added some stitching with my sewing machine and tied some ribbons to the border stickers before adhering them to the page.

Not only did I have a great time making the pages, I loved looking at the old photos of Brian.  He was such a cutie.  So sad...now he is a teenager!  Not such a cute attitude anymore.  LOL!

See you next time,
Michelle

Gotta Have Faith, Faith, Faith!

One of my friend's grand daughter had her First Communion and she let me use her awesome pictures.  I, of course chose the Faith line from Moxxie.   This line is soooo pretty and easy to work with.  The colors and designs are beautiful.  You really have to hand it to the Moxxie designers.  They do an awesome job on all of their products.  Anyway,  I wanted to make a sort of "brag" book for grandma to show off to her friends.

I got the book at Dollar General for $1 I think.  It may have been $1.50.  At any rate it was still a great deal.  I was surprised at how many pages it had.  I only had about 19 pictures so I decided to put a decorated page with a picture on the right side and left room for journaling on the left.   I wanted the pages to be simple but pretty and I think I achieved this look.  Below are pictures of the book, the front cover and a some of the pages.  Tell me what you think!

The pictures ended up being the main focus of the project and Grandma and Grand daughter LOVED it.  I was thrilled.  I gave them some white linen card stock pieces cut to fit and inked on the edges so they could write their story and add the journalling.  They were going to work on it together.  I am just hoping I get to see it!

I hope you liked it too!

Until next time,
Michelle

Moxxie Midway Madness!

Wow!  I am loving this line of paper.  There are so many choices of fun to play with.  I wanted to create a birthday card and a small gift you could give to a co-worker, a teacher, or, geez...even your mom!  LOL!  I think my mom would love it. 

Here is the card.  All of the products are from the Moxxie Midway Madness line except the ribbon, the folded piece of white cardstock and the black accent cardstock.

Papers:  Funburst, Which Way, Ticket to Ride
Die Cut Shapes:  Round popcorn bucket
Stickers:  Swirl, "A Grand Affair"

Here is the gift!  Are you ready?  

 

Cute, right? 

Papers:  Funburst (reverse side), Which Way
Die Cuts:  Popcorn, border
Sticker:  Snacks

I wrapped the microwave popcorn package with the paper and cut the edge with the scallop blade on my trimmer.  The M&M's are in a little plastic container.  I have had this for a long time so I am not sure where I got it.  A tic-tac container would probably work though.   I tied the M&M's on with a ribbon but I still needed to use a glue dot to keep it from sliding when it is picked up. 

Just a short, little, fun post.  I hope you enjoyed it!

Until next time,
Michelle

A Lot of Work...A Little Fun!

The Work
I have been working like a crazy person around my house organizing bathrooms, the dining room, the cupboards, and my craft room.  It will probably always be a work in progress but it is progressing along nicely.  Here is the latest room I have been working on.

This is my downstairs laundry/half bath.  It was a junk-filled mess with lots of cleaning products and other things that were really old and totally not used by us.  See how awful  This is a before picture of my cupboard above the sink.

Here is the after!

First I scoured the house for containers  I can't believe I had these just sitting around.  Whatever.  Anyway.  I sorted, tossed, and then tossed some more.  I also got out the label maker because some of the containers I found were not see through.  I even have one container that is empty.  I call that "room for growth".  LOL! 

On the bottom shelf I have my hair dryer and next to it in the square container are all of my hair products and my curling iron, which, yes I do use from time to time.  In the shallow purple container is my make up bag, and the brush set.  I love this because I can pull out the entire container...make myself "beautiful" I use that term loosely, then put it all back into the purple thingy and shove it right back in its place.  Love, love, love.  Anyway, next to the make up are two smaller containers for lotion, chapstick, nail polish, perfume and whatever.  Above that I have labeled containers for cotton balls, dental floss, combs, and some medications.  Then on the top in the blue and white container and kitty things that don't get used very often and the taller bottles such as nail polish remover, baby oil and alcohol.

OMG what an improvement this has made in my mornings.  So easy peasy!  This bathroom does not have a shower but I got in the habit of using it to put on my make up a bunch of years ago when the heat upstairs in the summer was so unbearable that my makeup was sweating off my face as fast as I could put it on.  Downstairs was much cooler and I have been using it ever since.  It probably sounds weird but it works for me.

Then I tackled the cupboard above the washer and dryer.  I have to admit I forgot to take a before picture so this shows the process in the middle.  But as you can see there are still a lot of weird cleaning supplies that I had not used for years and were really old.  The cupboard now is still the cleaning supplies but only the ones I currently use.  I don't have a picture of  inside the cupboard.  It is still not pretty.  Just the cleaning supplies.  No fancy containers because I like to be able to just pull out what I need.

The white container on the right side of the shelf houses my iron that I use all of the time, so I wanted it to be accessible.  In with the iron is my Febreze and the cleaning brush for my Norwex Dry Mop.  The middle basket holds hand towels and the basket on the left holds rags for cleaning, etc.  The basket on the far left is a small laundry basket holds dirty laundry like dishtowels that used to get thrown onto the floor until they got washed.  Gross..I know.

That was the work part...but balancing work with fun makes a great life, right?  So....

The Fun
My craft room has been undergoing a huge revamp as well but I really needed a day of crafting.  So, Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, I packed my bag and went to my friend Kathy's for some crafty business.  I working with the "Hole in One" line from Moxxie.  This line is wonderful.  I love green and brown so it worked perfect for me.  It is really hard to see but my favorite paper is called "Tee Off" with the guy swinging the golf club.  It is a classic golf shot from a time long ago.

I wanted to make a desk display with photo frames and this is what I came up with. I used clear plastic frames from the dollar store and a recycled photo paper box for the base.  Then I got to use all of the fun stickers and die cuts to embellish. 

The picture at the bottom is a close up before the photos were added.  This was a really hard project to photograph because of the clear plastic frames (reflections) and the different heights of the frames.  I thought it turned out fun.

You can find a complete tutorial of the project on my guest post on the Moxxie Blog!  I hope you will visit.

Happy Crafting,
Michelle

Moxxie Muses

I am really excited about being chosen for the Moxxie Design Team.  I have been on design teams for digital scrapbooking but this is my first for traditional scrapbooking.  We will be known as the Moxxie Muses. I just love it.  There are 10 of us and you can find the rest of the team here.  I am looking forward to challenging myself each month for a new idea or a great technique and learning from all of the other designers.  From what I can see they are a talented bunch.

Please visit our blogs and follow us on Pinterest and Facebook.  And, if you haven't already, pop over to the Moxxie blog and follow along as well. 

I am posting one of my favorite layouts using the St. Patrick's Day line.  St. Pat's is a week long celebration in Emmetsburg, IA complete with a parade.  If you live here you probably need this paper.  That is my youngest son Brian playing the sax! 

I am very proud to have made the design team and cannot wait to get started with all of the new lines in the coming year.  Congratulations to everyone!  I am looking forward to working with all of you.

Michelle

And Sew On.... And Sew On

Occasionally I have been known to do a little sewing. Mostly, I hem my pants that are 100% of the time too long and I sometimes sew on my cards or scrapbook pages. I have even made curtains and I made my purse organizer. Anyway, my sewing stuff has been thrown into different containers or bags and placed in many different places in the craft room. I did have it at my store when it was open so, some of it was still in a box in the garage. Every time I wanted to hem a pair of pants I had to search for the correct color of thread and it became a chore that I put off until I couldn't stand it any longer. See, here is proof.

So, I looked around to see what containers I could find. I am trying really hard to organize my house, but not to spend tons of money on containers, baskets and other things. If I look around the house long enough I find all sorts of things lying around. It is amazing. Anyway, I found these.

 

So, with a little help from Chloe Marie I started sorting them.  I wanted the thread to be right where I could get to if quickly and I wanted it sorted by color.  So, I did that first.  Then, I found all sorts of safety pins I didn't know I had and I got all of the straight pins, needles, bobbins and different attachments for the machine into different little containers.  Then I organized them into the top.  Underneath are the things I don't use very often such as embroidery floss and weird little fasteners.  I am sure that as time goes by I will find more sewing supplies.  They will probably go in the bottom part as well.  

                                            So pretty, right?

Anyway, then I stacked the fabric into the yellow container.  It was perfect.  I was so pleased with the results and I am confident that I will be able to find what I need quickly from now on.  

Here are some of the sewing projects I have done in the past.  So fun!

                                          Purse Organizer

                Dance Recital page with the new Moxxie Dance Line.

See the stitching down the strips of cute dance paper?  It really adds to the page.

           Kite card set using the new Child's Play line from Moxxie.

These cards have stitching down the middle of the kite and it keeps going to form the "tail".

Here is a closer view of the kite.

There you have it.  Now you have seen my sewing space and some of the things I have sewn.  SEW exciting right?   

Have you guys been motivated to get organized? Or have you always been organized?  I would love to see your pics.  Leave a comment and a link so I can see your organized spaces.

Until next time,
Michelle