Mommiedom

I am so into chalk board now and yes I painted another project using my can of paint. Plus I added in the mod podged chevron background.

I had purchased this chipboard items awhile ago and sort of forgot about them until this week when I thought I could go chalkboard that stuff, so I dug around in my craft closet and found them.

The circle and ring our my project while the crown is my daughters. She blinged it out after it was dry - such a girl sometimes.



So I painted the circle with the chalkboard paint and than I mod podged the chevron paper on to the ring (it is SU's Halloween paper).



When it was all dry, I hot glued on the circle to the ring- it wasn't that easy but I went slowly and it stuck.

So now I have a message board above my desk to write stuff on.

This week's page is one where I decided to cram as many pictures on as I could. This seems to be the new trend of blocking lots of photos and I am way behind getting on that boat. I wanted a page to be a guide to all the things we did when we went to the Old Time County Fair.

I again used all SU products including the MDS. I was inspired by a few pages I saw on Pinterest so I used that to build the page.  I created the title using MDS and printed it up to fit with in the block theme of the page. I than punched a bunch of circles out with the intent to make them balloons but after I stuck them on, I decided I liked them without adding any strings.

This was a fun time with the family0 only one missing was the hubby because he had returned to Texas already. The grandparents loved having all three grandkids running around and Grandpa even sprang for a pony ride for each of them. My kids of course loved it while my niece was a little scared. She preferred the wooden horses they had.

I need a bow tie for my halloween costume or the idea I have in my head for what I want to be. I have been going through my stuff and I found some red fabric_ I needed my bow tie to be red. I pretty much just hand sewed it together. I used the iron lots to press it into place and than stitched it up real quick. I added some elastic for hen it goes around my neck. I promise to show off the finished costume if it works out like I want it to!

In the card challenge mood today.

Over at HSS they had a fun designed and I used all sorts of Halloween stuff to make it. I used the washi tape and dsp from SU. I had these stickers I picked up and thought that Trick or Treat worked well.

This week's colourQ challenge was a unique one. We were tasked with using black, white and one spot color so I choose Cherry Cobbler. I embossed my black piece of cardstock with a notebook plate and went all retro with an original sizzix die I had when I first owned the press die cut machine like before I was married.

http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/570062/mommy-confessions

I love the look of the mason jar and than add some color and make it look vintage is by far an even better look. I have been seeing all over the place how to do them and it is super easy- just takes some drying time and in the Houston humidity a little more time.

My little girl bridged from Daisies to Brownies today. I cannot believe how fast the two years with Daisies went.

I created a fun and simple page using MDS.

I love the sketch from Fab Friday this week.  I used some other paper than SU because the Halloween stuff I have is not purple and I wanted to do a purple Halloween card. Everything is just punched this week and no actually stamping. I might add a sentiment to the bottom but for right now I like it how it is.

Sketch Layout:

I am starting a new feature this week on Friday's with a special Scrapbook page I have created. I am way way behind on scrapbooking and thought that maybe this will inspire me to catch up or at least get a handle on all the photos I do.

This week I am taking inspiration from a digital page I created way back in August for a sketch challenge.  I love that photo of my little girl and when I finally printed them and yes the photos have been sitting here for a few weeks, I thought I want to recreate that page in some way. I used slightly different colors because I had no basic grey in my stash of 12x12 which means I need to purchase some more.

I used all SU products and even used MDS to create the hybrid title that I stuck on the page with my new favorite font Dead Hardy. The page highlights our two day quick trip up to Door County to visit some great friends when we were back in Wisconsin for July. To be honest I hardly took any pictures of our adventure because we were having to much fun just socializing with the friends. Miss O crashed hard the first night and feel asleep in their big chair where Mr. L was still going with our one friend's boys. Those sweet sweet boys who tolerated a pesky three year old.

I started following this blog as well as the Facebook page called Mary Organizes and love her ideas about decluttering which I need to do more of. I am pretty organized and admit to some hot spots of disorganization in my house. Yes I know I am known for being neat, clean and organized so this might come to a shock to some that I do have areas where I hide my clutter.

On the blog there is a 91 day challenge to get your house in order. I am pretty good about it in the first place. The one big thing I need to declutter is the attic which is coming soon. I need my hubby to pull everything out and I need to go through and decide where it needs to go- trash, donate or storage.

We has a family have lots of stuff and it is hard to rid yourself of it often because you spent money, memories or you know once you get rid of it you will need it. I need to be better to use what I have and make do which isn't always something I am good at. I am way better than I was and I know if I go through stuff that I will feel even better.

Mary Organizes had a great blog post this past week about telling your kids to stop cleaning their rooms. She hit the nail on the head for me. I really don't nag the kids about picking things up because they understand if it gets left out, it might not get back to them. Both kids pretty much get up each day and make their beds. I have instilled in them that getting into a made bed will help them to get off to dream land better. I admit those few times I don't make the bed, I struggle with feeling comfortable. I was always that kid who made their bed.

My mom was a clean person and organized on the surface but when you would open things, you would cringe. My grandmother was clean but her clutter was every where. I vividly remember my Grandma picking clutter up, dusting and putting it right back down. So for each generation, it got better. My mom didn't like the clutter out and put it out of sight (she hardly does it now and has learned to live with less).

So for me, I like to have order and it does get out of hand on occasion. Example is the cabinet I am showing. It is my holiday dishes. I haven't used them the last few years because I just didn't want to deal with it and would just shove more in. I loved the child safety locks because that helped keep it contained.

The rest of my cabinets look like this:

I love sketch and inspiration challenges. Today I stumbled upon Stampin Celebration and just loved the idea of it so I decided to create a page using MDS. I really played with layers with this page and really liked how the 1st Day page turned out.

Here you go:http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/564651/mommy-confessions

I have been stalking this on item on Pinterest and so have been wanting to make it for myself. I was going to go buy all the parts and than I stubbed my toe in the garage with a left over piece of wood from the kids play structure and when I picked it up to move it, I realized it was the perfect piece for the project.

So I used:

1- 24 inch 4x4
1- 6x6 beveled plaque (from Hobby Lobby)
1- 4x4 beveled plaque
1-3x3 beveled plaque
1- black hook
1 chalkboard sign

So because I had the large piece, all the other parts cost me about 10 bucks. Each of the wood pieces were about 1/50 a piece and than the chalkboard sign was 5.99 but I had my 40% off coupon and the hook was also on sale for 1.50.

I had my hubby nail the plaques onto the bottom and the top. I than painted it with one coat of paint (I wanted the weathered unfinished look) and than the hubby screwed in the hook for me.

I than had decorated using left over burlap ribbon to make some rosettes. I decided on the chalkboard sign so I could change out the message and the rosettes are hot glued on, so I can just pop them off to change them out.

I love my sign hanger and I could also hang a small wreath from it as well.

Another Halloween card using this week's Unscripted sketch.  I love Halloween and I figure use the sketches, and create my cards to send out. I love making unique cards for everyone so they get a piece of my art.

Here i the sketch for this week.

So this week's Sweet Stop's challenge screamed Halloween for me so I pulled out the Halloween Bingo  set from SU and used the basic pumpkin pie and basic black card stock as well as the current DSP Witches Brew to create a fun card. I think I might be using a version of this for my overall Halloween cards I send out every year.

Here is the sketch layout:

I have been in a funk the last few weeks and unsure what to create. I have been wanting to create but even the inspiration isn't giving that spark I need. I think a lot of it has to do with school starting and a whole new routine because the youngest is now in preschool.

So when I had a moment to take a look at this week's colourQ challenge , I thought wait didn't I just take a photo that would work with these colors! So I dug around and decided to create a digital page using a picture I just took down in Galveston, Texas of the Landry's Pleasure Pier. The sun was setting and all sorts of pinks were in the sky and with the carnival lights shining bright, I just snapped a quick picture.

Here are this week's colors to inspire:

I made this card a few weeks ago and I thought wow this really works for the My Pumpkin's September challenge so here it is.

I created a basic card background using the MDS for the rainbow effect and than I stamped the coordinating colors with the "Thanks' stamp from the Paper Pumpkin kit. As much as I love the little bike, I love the banner stamp as much.

I really like how this card turned out and I plan in using it for one of my swaps at some point because it is simple and dynamic in my book.

Here is my column for the week of 9/9/13:

http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/560396/mommy-confessions

Can you believe it is September already. Doesn't feel like here in Texas where it is still hovering around a 100 degrees.

Here you go:http://leaguecity.macaronikid.com/article/556549/mommy-confessions

This week on the Sweet Stop there is a fun challenge and I decided to use the new Settin Sale set from SU.


This is my creation: