Where O' Where has she been?

Gosh, where has time gone? I guess I should begin this post my apologizing to all my loyal followers for my long absence.

I am truly sorry for not updating my blog on a regular basis but I got involved with doing some major renovations around my house during the winter months that I expected to be completed much sooner. I encountered several unexpected surprises along the way. Let's just say I have put months and months of sweat equity into my house and still have much more to go :(.......

Thus far, over the last several months I have completed painting a two car garage and workbenches, 2 bedrooms from top to bottom, a hallway, a major gutting of a basement to create a craft room oasis and landscaping to repair the mess left from replacing the sewer line last spring. I think that is all aside from other minor fix-ups.


Since I have so many pictures of before and after to share with you, I will break them into several days of post.

Today, I am so anxious to share the biggest of my projects... The basement!

A little background first.... The basement had been in horrible shape for years. Many years ago it sustained a major flood and from that point on I never bothered to venture down there. It became a storage haven for all castaway items. Clearing it out was a project in itself and torturous! The floor was tiled with old carpet squares that were rotten and moldy. The paneled walls were buckled from water. With the help of a dear friend I gutted the basement and let me tell you, what a mess getting up the old floor!! That alone took days and several trials and errors using various chemicals and methods.

The first pictures you see are the basement prior to any work and they progress from there into what I now am calling my dream room. Believe it or not the room went together pretty cheaply.
I did splurge on two items one being the wall mounted cubbie holder that houses all my flowers and Sticklers. It was purchased at Home Decorator marked down to $75.00. I am so glad I bought it. The quality is amazing! The other purchase I made was the embellishment cabinets (6 drawers) from Ikea. They too are of a super quality and house not only my embellishments but as you can see punches easily without warppage. The center work table I made myself!

I have always drooled over the Bradford one that Pottery Barn carries but priced at $1000.00 was never in my budget. After looking at it for days and doing a little internet searching I came upon this post and decided to make it myself. It is totally true that it can be made for less then n $150.00 . The 4 x 8 sheet cost me $30.58 at Home Depot. I had them cut it to my size and have some left over for a nice shelf. I now have a nice table to work on with plenty of storage underneath. It took me about 4 hours to assemble the cubes and to trim the edging of the melamine sheet with melamine iron-on trim but I absolutely love how it turned out.

So, who wants to come play in my new room? Hopefully, before long I will be cranking out some cards to share.

Thanks for hanging in there during my long absence!

Extremely Quick Thanksgiving Cards

Hello, I'm back with another couple quick cards to share. These are a couple of cards I made last weekend. I haven't made a single card this week. This week has left me totally exhausted. There is a mad rush at work to get construction project completed before the weather changes. I absolutely hate the massive amount of work this time of year. I did not have the energy to retake the pictures so forgive the blurriness. I plan on playing around with this new camera over the weekend and get it right! I am determined to figure it out one way or another.

On the first card the saying is from Kim Hughes, paper from LI and I believe the leaf stencil is from Dreamweavers. I added matching ribbon and a button to accent it. Simple, Clean and Elegant!

The second card was created using all Lasting Impression supplies with the exception of the chipboard saying which was part of a Target dollar bin find.

Enjoy your evening/morning and thanks for stopping by.

Turning 30 Stinks!

Good Evening, Tonight I thought I would share a card I made for someone very talented and dear to me.... We won't mention any names since it would only make me seem much older. It is so hard to believe my baby is 30! Makes you wonder where the years have gone.

For her card I cut out some chipboard numbers I had and covered them with so Lasting Impressions paper. Not having a skunk stamp I used a chipboard one from DCWV "Green Stack". The stamp is from Kim Hughes "What a Hoot" set.

Yes, Kathy 30 stinks but it is only a number!

Thanks for stopping by I hope you like my share.... Enjoy your evening!

MFT World Card Making Day - Challenge

I sure hope you all enjoyed WORLD CARD MAKING DAY! I know I did and I will probably be cleaning up from it for the next week. I only wish I had time to take on more of the super fun challenges over at Splitcoaststampers. I am not sure why, I was determined to take on a real challenge for me. Whenever pink is included in the description it's a challenge for me. It is one of those colors I just can't stand. After deciding on this challenge and having a lack of MFT stamps I downloaded their free digital set that Kim so generously offer for WCMD. The set is called "Think Pink". Having never worked with digital anything before this only added to my anxiety.... LOL This card took me forever! The challenge was to have pink, black white and some BLING.

You can check out all the entries for this challenge HERE

See You Later Alligator

Good evening TGIF! I am so happy the weekend has finally arrived, this week has been awful both weather wise and at work, just awful. The card I am sharing today almost went to my boss today! I came so very close to quitting.

I recently received this template from Lasting Impressions and was surprised to find the perfect stamp in my stash to use with it. I had bought it years ago and finally got to ink it. Stamp is from Just For Fun. All papers are from LI. I distressed the edges and lightly inked them for a more worn effect.

If anyone was interested in buying any brass templetes, now is the perfect time. Lasting Impressions is reducing a large amount of inventory and offering them at 60% off.

Enjoy your evening, thanks for stopping by.

A Not so Spooky Halloween Card

Good Evening! Tonight I thought I would share an adorable batty card I made this weekend. This cute but classic looking Halloween card was super simple to make. The black and white paper from Lasting Impressions is one of my favorite. It adds just the right amount of black and white to give almost any card a sharp, clean look.
The bat template I used is another favorite of mine also from Lasting Impressions (L9619). The saying is a dollar bin find from Joann's. The rest of supplies are all Lasting Impressions.

Sorry for the short post, but I spent all evening picking up limbs and branches left from the last few days of high winds here . Now I am off to nurse my aching back:)

Have a Hallo....ing good evening!

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you like today's share!

She's Back

I am back and have lots to finally share. I have been busy around the house the last couple of months. Since I last posted I decided to have an auction to declutter the garage since it was just to massive to do a simple garage sale. It was lots of fun, we had a wonderful turnout despite the weather looking so iffy. It rained all morning and just before it was to begin thankfully stopped. It turned out to be a beautiful day. Kathy and her DH flew in to see the spectacle so I enjoyed a super good weekend with them. My camera decided to die or I would have pictures to share..... which brings me to the other reason I have not posted in so long. My new camera has too many buttons on it! I have tried and tried to get clear pictures, clicking everything even resorting to reading the manual (who reads them!) and still get blurry pictures. I think I may have a bad cam.....

Today's share is all about my brother.....

My brother got married and asked me to make a card box he had purchased into a 3-D box. This turned out to be a huge challenge, after several burnt fingers his box was made. I really think a blank slate to work with would have been much easier but as you can see I pulled it off. I also made several dessert trays. They look yummy right?

His card rather simple but elegant went together quickly using Cuttlebug folder, scallop circle nestability, and Lasting Impression birds and rub-ons. I cut out and attached wording to acetate before attaching to card front. Glitter was added to wings for a little extra bling. I apologize for scan it was taken with my new camera.

I promise to come back tomorrow to share more. I still have remodeled house pictures to share and my mojo for making cards has returned!

Have a super evening/day. Thanks for stopping in.