My Other Crafting Loves

So since I haven't been paper crafting, I will show you what I HAVE been creating lately. As I mentioned earlier, I have been doing LOTS of knitting, sewing, and jewelry making. Here are a few of the things I have made and posted into my Etsy shop.

I think I'm back! :)

Holy smokes? Has it been long enough since my last post? Sorry for the long hiatus. I took a break from the stamping world in order to get my priorities straightened out and with a change of events this past month, I think I may be able to come back. :)

A lot has happened since I posted last. First of all, back in November we bought a house and moved into it a little after Thanksgiving. For Christmas my parents got us a puppy and he is just TOO cute! I have also started an Etsy store and begun adding things to it daily (I'll share more about it later). The last, and maybe biggest thing that has happened is that I just recently lost my teaching job due to budget cuts.

I'll spend this blog post explaining my job loss. First of all, I want everyone to know that I am at peace about it now. It was a very difficult time for me at first. I was feeling a lot of hurt and betrayal but the Lord is good and has really brought comfort into my life. I do not know how I would have gotten through this month without Him and my VERY supportive husband. I am still unsure of quite a few factors that I really don't want to get into but I know that this is going to be for the best and, to be honest, I'm kind of looking forward to the future!

My husband and I have done some budgeting and we have decided that we can easily make it with his two salaries and have no difficulties. I am probably going to take at least a year off from teaching and there are a couple of reasons why. First of all, there are no local job openings because every district is in the same situation that mine is. Second of all, we are in the process of trying to start a family and we are praying that God's timing is right in this. If it is, I am going to be a stay at home mom and I couldn't be more thrilled about that! It was always something that we dreamed about but we were never sure how to go about it with me having a job. Now that I don't have one, we feel like maybe this is in God's plan. Something else I have always wanted to do is homeschooling. I really feel strongly about homeschooling as does my husband, especially since I have a degree in teaching anyway! We are thrilled to be able to raise Godly children and I am so looking forward to having the freedom to teach what I want in my own home!

As of now, we are not planning on moving back to our home state of Iowa but of course that option is never completely thrown out. We are going to put our land and possibly even our house on the market to see if they will sell (since Nick says EVERYTHING is for sale at the right price, haha) but we are not too concerned if they don't sell right away. We aren't too hopeful with the economy as it is, but I guess we never know until we try! Nick is hopeful that if we can sell our house, we may be able to begin building our own home!

Anyway, all that said, I guess not having a job (and currently no children) means that I am going to have a lot more free time. I am already really excited about being able to keep a clean house and organizing the rooms I haven't had time to touch since we moved in. Besides that though, I really look forward to enjoying all things crafty! I have been knitting, making jewelry, and sewing a lot lately and really look forward to jumping back into the paper crafting world!

In other good news, there are currently 20 days of school left and I LITERALLY have 14 1/2 personal days left that I need to use! I was saving them for a possible maternity leave and now that I won't be coming back, I somehow have to figure out a way to use them! Haha! I plan on taking off MOST of them but I really don't feel right using all of them because that would mean I only have 5 1/2 days of school left this year! I couldn't abandon my kiddos like that. However, I am taking at least one day a week off and and will see what else comes up!

Ok, now that I have written a book, I will leave you with a picture! This is a picture of Nick and I with our puppy, Trip! He's obviously a lot bigger now but you get the idea! :) We took this picture in our new home in front of the wood stove in the kitchen. I will give more details on both Trip and the house later! Until then, feel free to check out my other blog at 320 Days of Sunshine!
I will be back soon!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday: Inspirational Dresses

Weird title huh? Well this week's Jacksonbelle challenge is to be inspired by a little girl dress on this fantastic website called Hanna Andersson! I wanted to go with a Christmas theme so I chose this sweet little dress here. For my card I decided to use this sweet Gina K image and pair it with some AMAZING My Mind's Eye paper called "Merry Days of Christmas". I also pulled out some fun Basic Grey ribbon and tied it around the top of the card! The image was colored with my Copic markers and the edges were sponged with some Antique Linen distress ink!

Well, that's it for today's project! Make sure to check out this week's challenge details on the Jacksonbelle blog as well as the other Jacksonbelle girls!

Tobi Crawford ~ Tobi’s Place

Jimmi Mayo ~ Stamping & Shopping

Bethany Paull ~ It’s Not All Black & White

Michelle Philippi ~ Inside My Own Private Idaho

Carly Robertson ~ Paper in Bloom

Shemaine Smith ~ Scraptastic

Lynda Benden: Stamp Act

Jill Dunn: Ink Genious

Heather Lee-Reppen: Ink on my Ear

Lindsey Botkin: Embellished

Trudee Sauer: Follow Your Bliss...

Keri Lee Sereika: Pink Lemonade

Almighty God

Today's post is going to be short and sweet! :) It's getting late, I'm still sick, and I need to start heading for bed! I know you have all been there before. Anyway, I hope you are all enjoying your weekend so far! Nick and I were able to pack and move one load to our new house but I must admit that I was pretty much worthless to him. He did most of the work. I was just there for moral support I guess! Haha!

As for tonight's card, this stamp is the one that Patter Cross designed for Unity Stamp Co. I just love it! I used some Cosmo Cricket "Happy Camper" patterned paper. I embellished the card by sewing along the edges, tying on some ribbon, and adding some pretty pearls! The edges have all been sponged with Tim Holtz Antique Linen distress ink too!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Have a fabulous evening!

I had to share this...

This is my second post today but I just really felt the need to share this amazing video with you tonight. My husband and I are youth pastors so we sometimes get free music video dvds that we are able to share with our youth. Well we received one recently and had not been able to watch it lately due to our busy schedules so Nick decided that with me being sick and stuck on the couch, it would be the perfect opportunity to pop it in and watch. Woah. Who knew a song could impact this sick girl so much! The group is called Mikeschair and the lead singer is definitely not your "average" lead singer! In fact, he actually looks like a normal guy! :) He really knows how to worship his Jesus! Anyway, I hope you enjoy it! Scroll down if you want to see my card!

Silver...er...Blue Bells! :)

Good afternoon! It's a cloudy, dreary day here in Westcliffe which pretty much matches how I am feeling perfectly. I am obviously not recovered from my illness yet, in fact, I'm feeling quite a bit worse. Yesterday was a pretty good day and I woke up feeling much better with the hopes that it was just a short lived virus. Well, I guess I was wrong because I woke up to discover that it was attacking me with full steam ahead! :( Anyway, I took some Advil and seem to be doing a little bit better now. Let's just hope it stays this way!

Ok, so about today's card. Isn't that image just fantastic? I just adore this Gina K set which was designed by Theresa Momber (she's so talented)! I decided to pair it with this fantastic My Mind's Eye paper called "Merry Days of Christmas". It's a fantastic collection of papers and you can find it on the Jacksonbelle Embellishments site! The ribbon I used is from Basic Grey and I adorned the card with some fun pearls too!

Well, I hope you enjoyed today's card! I certainly love how it turned out! Take care and enjoy your Friday!

My Immune System Has Crashed!

Yup, it finally caught up to me. I am officially really sick. I feel like I got hit by a truck. It's no fun! Anyway, I'm laying here trying to entertain myself since I can't sleep so I decided to upload a card! I decided to share this card with you since I am sick and could use some hot tea myself! :) I just LOVE this stamp set from Verve! It is so sweet and elegant! I tried to keep it as simple as possible so that I could keep it two colors and I really like how it turned out! I hope that you are all having a much better Wednesday than me! :) Thanks so much for stopping by and stay healthy!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday: Christmas Wrapping!

Good morning! Phew! This week's Jacksonbelle challenge really got me for some reason! I guess I had an idea in my head and just didn't know how to proceed. Anyway, I am going to try to keep this post fairly short since I am typing it the night before and I need to go to bed. Bear with me! :) This week's challenge was to create some kind of Christmas packaging of sorts whether it be a tag, a bag, a box, etc. I have recently discovered just how amazing my Cricut Expressions is (Did I mention it was a $60 Goodwill Find???) and wanted to try my hand at using the tag creator. What I love about tags is that you can add them to the front of a card, a gift bag, a box, or even just an unwrapped gift! The possibilities are endless! So to create my tag, I took my piece of Real Red card stock cut the big tag. I then layered on a smaller tag that was cut from the Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly paper! The next step was to cut out the word "merry" and attached it to another layer of chocolate card stock. I embellished my tag with some fun ribbon, Prima Flowers, and hardware brads!

Well, that's it for today's project! Make sure to check out this week's challenge details on the Jacksonbelle blog as well as the other Jacksonbelle girls!

Tobi Crawford ~ Tobi’s Place

Jimmi Mayo ~ Stamping & Shopping

Bethany Paull ~ It’s Not All Black & White

Michelle Philippi ~ Inside My Own Private Idaho

Carly Robertson ~ Paper in Bloom

Shemaine Smith ~ Scraptastic

Lynda Benden: Stamp Act

Jill Dunn: Ink Genious

Heather Lee-Reppen: Ink on my Ear

Lindsey Botkin: Embellished

Trudee Sauer: Follow Your Bliss...

Keri Lee Sereika: Pink Lemonade

Your Next Stamp Blog Hop!

Welcome YNS fans! :D Are you ready for another fabulous blog hop? I hope so! This month's Your Next Stamp release is phenomenal! If you haven't arrived here via Lana's blog then you need to go back to the beginning! You can start this fun hop at Karen's blog and trust me, you are not going to want to miss out on ANY of the dt blogs! Want to hear something REALLY cool? Every design team member is giving away two free digital images to a random commenter! PLUS, if you comment on all of the blogs, you will be entered to win one of this month's newly released stamp sets! Fun huh? What have ya got to lose?

So are you ready to see this month's new release? First up, I am going to share the fabulous Christmas digital images that have been released! They are so much fun! My first card uses the new digital image called Decorated Christmas Tree. I love this image so much! It was a blast to color! I colored it with my Copic markers and paired it with some Cosmo Cricket Jolly By Golly paper.
My second card uses the digital images called Christmas Stockings with Merry Christmas! I think these cute stockings are just so fun and whimsical! They went perfect with the Jolly By Golly paper too! They were colored with my Copic markers as well. The sketch is from Totally Scrumptious.

My last project is my absolute favorite! :D The image I used for this project is actually from the set called "New Years Party Fhiona" but I thought she would be perfect as a birthday image too! My niece just had a birthday and so I created this fun little gift bag for her!
Now for the fun part, not only are we giving away digital stamps as well as three stamp sets on our blogs, but Karen also has a fantastic sale going on this week! If you use the code, YNSBH2 you will get 10% off your entire order!

Karen is also looking for names for Fhiona’s best buddy/hubby and if you leave your ideas on Karen's blog, you can be entered to win the entire Wedding Fhiona set!

Ok, now that you are done viewing my blog, hop on over to Maureen's blog to see her FABULOUS projects!

YNS: Happy Holidays!

It's time for another Your Next Stamp challenge! This week not only do we have a fun challenge for you but we are also previewing some brand new digital images! :D The YNS designers have come up with some fantastic Christmas images this month and you are definitely going to want them! As soon as I saw this snowman I fell in love with him and knew he needed to be printed out immediately! I must admit that I have a slight obsession with snowmen! Haha!

For this week's challenge, Simonne has challenged us to create a non-traditional Christmas card which meant we were not allowed to use the usual reds and greens! This new Mind's Eye paper was perfect for the challenge! I pulled my color scheme from it and then used my Copics to color in my snowman. For my layout I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch challenge as well!

So do you want to see what I did this weekend? My husband and I spent as much time together as we could (especially since he had to leave again this week) so we decided to spend our Saturday outside playing in the snow and building a snowman! :D It was so much fun! Here is a picture of our finished product!

Give Thanks

Happy Wednesday! :) Only two more sleeps until my sweet husband is home and I can't wait! Anyway, I made this card a little while back for Gina K's World Card Making Day challenge! I have always been a huge fan of Gina K stamps. In fact, they were my very first non-Stampin' Up! company to try out and I haven't been disappointed yet! For this card I used Theresa Momber's Autumn Beauty set and paired it with some old Stampin' Up! paper and Wal-Mart ribbon! :) For the vanilla strip I decided to stamp some leaves and color them in with my Copics so that I could give the card a little bit more of an autumn feel. I just didn't feel that the patterned paper was doing it. I also felt it was a little too orange! I also colored the sunflower (and yes I know sunflowers are orange) with my Copics as well! The challenge was a color challenge to use orange, green, and brown and that is why I decided to go with an orange sunflower! Haha!

Well, that's it for today's card! Can you believe how much I have been posting lately? My week is finally slowing down and I feel like I can breathe! Hopefully I can continue to consistently post! Oh, and for those of you who are patiently waiting for that blog candy...sorry but you have to keep waiting. I am just not ready to post it yet! :) Ok, well I hope you have a fantastic day! Take care!

Jacksonbelle Tuesday: Easy as 1, 2, 3!

1 stamp, 2 embellishments, and 3 layers that is! :D I must admit that only 3 layers is not easy for me though! It was so hard to not include a 4th! Anyway, this is today's Jacksonbelle card and I think it's pretty cute myself! :) I used my new favorite Stampavie "Mistletoe & Mice" image again as well as some yummy Basic Grey ribbon!


Well, that's it for today's card! Make sure to check out this week's challenge details on the Jacksonbelle blog as well as the other Jacksonbelle girls!

Tobi Crawford ~ Tobi’s Place

Jimmi Mayo ~ Stamping & Shopping

Bethany Paull ~ It’s Not All Black & White

Michelle Philippi ~ Inside My Own Private Idaho

Carly Robertson ~ Paper in Bloom

Shemaine Smith ~ Scraptastic

Lynda Benden: Stamp Act

Jill Dunn: Ink Genious

Heather Lee-Reppen: Ink on my Ear

Lindsey Botkin: Embellished

Trudee Sauer: Follow Your Bliss...

Keri Lee Sereika: Pink Lemonade

Moosing him already...

Lame title huh? Haha! I guess I should probably explain it. My husband left this morning around 4:00 to go on a work trip with his construction crew. Our winter came early here and the guys don't have much work lined up yet. They can't stucco when it is this cold so they have to build homes instead. It could be a long winter, we will see. If we could survive off of Nick's youth pastor income as well as my teaching income alone, we would. However, he only gets paid part time and I am still a fairly new teacher so it just isn't enough. Anyway, they somehow landed a job out in Kansas so they will be out there all week working on that. Boy am I going to miss him!

I love this Riley image from Hanna Stamps! It is Nick's favorite image too (he's obsessed with moose) so I am dedicating it to him today! :D I colored Mr. Riley in with my Copics and pulled the colors from the fantastic Cosmo Cricket line called "Mr. Campy". I cut out the circles with my nestabilities and sponged the edges of all my layers. I added some ribbon and some pearls for a completed look!

Well I sure hope you enjoy your Monday. It's back to school for us and hopefully this week is a normal one. We have had some crazy few past weeks due to H1N1 and the death in our community. I believe I only had 8-9 students all of last week! I can't even begin to tell you how hard it is to teach knowing you will have to do it again the following week! It's the pits! Anyway, we should have the flu out of our system (hopefully) by now!

Thanks again for stopping by! Have a great rest of your morning!

Life

I made this card quite a few weeks ago but I couldn't not post it! :) I love this Papertrey Ink set and it's the first time I have actually had a chance to use it! It's one I picked up at CHA this summer. Isn't it gorgeous? Anyway, I paired it with some Cosmo Cricket paper for an earthy color scheme. I stamped the flower and leaves on card stock and then sponged the edges for a different feel. Overall I really like how this card turned out!

I love this card.

It makes me happy and today I need happy. I won't go into details but let's just say it's been a difficult day. Do you ever feel like things seem to pile up all at once and then all of a sudden you are left with a world in shambles? That's kind of how I'm feeling right now. Thank goodness the Lord knows how to pick me up and dust me off. Who knows where I would be without Him. Anyway, I made this card a couple of weeks ago (it seems like years ago) and I haven't had time to share it with you. Such a tragedy huh? :) I won this fantastic set from Flourishes this summer and FINALLY found the opportunity to use it. I can tell you that it won't be that long before it gets pulled out again. What a fantastic set! Such beautiful images!

So are you wondering where that candy is? Well since my birthday was last Thursday and I promised you candy, I want to let you know that it's a pretty big giveaway, I just need to break out my camera! Haha! Hang in there! Hopefully it will be posted tomorrow afternoon!

Thanks so much for showing up today, especially to those of you who have stuck with me and not given up hope! I have had lots of lost subscribers this week so I really appreciate those of you who have forgiven my absence lately! It means a lot to me!