So first up I'll show y'all what I've been up to with all of this Stampin' Up stuff.  Like I said, I worked a lot on getting things ready for a craft show that I never made it to.  Guess that puts me ahead of the game for next year! hee hee!  Since this post is so graphic heavy, I'll save my favorite cards for the next post.  Hope y'all enjoy!

LED Candles that have been rubber stamped (and my latest addiction!)

Paper Cone Wreaths - as you can tell the red, green and white one was my first one since it's not as round as the others.

Decorated Pillow Boxes that I will add candy to.

Mini Coffee Cups - I made special holders for these that had room for gift cars.  The mini coffee cups were filled with hershey kisses :)

My first attempt at stamping on a round candle - there is definitely a learning curve!

Another round candle - I made coordinating gift boxes for the round candles. 

It's hard to see but behind the paper latte is a Candle that is shaped the same as the cutout.  They smell soooo good! 

And I couldn't forget our furry friends! These are a couple of the cat treats I made but I also made some for doggies too.

This is my favorite candle so far - it has a scene that goes all the way around it.

3x3 Note Cards

Post it Note Holders with pens - great for teachers.

And last but not least are kitchen magnet sets for the holidays with matching containers.

WOW - Have I been Gone Or What?!

WARNING - This might be a long post to catch up!

A friend reminded me tonight (HI KATIE!) that she had seen my scrapbook room on my blog! I have been so busy since my last post that I haven't had time for my blog but I plan to change that right now!! I am going to dedicate one day a week to keeping this updated!!! PROMISE!!

SO what have I been doing that I couldn't update this thing? Well, for one thing the cancer has kept me down a lot this year.  And the other thing I've been up to is Rubber Stamping! Lots of it!  I signed up as a Stampin' Up Demonstrator and kind of been in a whole with all of that.  BUT  I seriously need to devote time to my scrapbooking, my scrapbooking room and my life outside of SU.  If you're interested in my Stampin' Up Facebook Page you can find it here:  www.facebook.com/stampingwithscrapthis

I'm not going to make this blog a Stampin' Up Blog because I enjoy so many other crafting things.  Plus that's what my Facebook page is for.  If you do check out my page, please be sure to like it to stay updated tho.

I have also been working some more on my scrapbook and I'll be adding more pictures of that in another post.  I'll also add some pictures of some of the fun things I made for a craft show that I wasn't able to attend, due to coming down with an acute viral infection that has last two weeks and that I'm just getting over! This is some serious crud! It started with a sore throat and I was pretty sure I was going to die before it was all over with! No kidding!

One other thing that I've been up to was another trip to Iowa to the Oncologist at the beginning of November.  It was only a three day trip this time with only bloodwork and talking to my oncologist but it didn't turn out the way I had hoped.  I'll post more about that in another post also.

I cannot believe that Thanksgiving is only one week away! Mike and I will be spending it here at home together.  We could go his family's big dinner at the VFW but I'm greedy and like to have a WHOLE turkey for just us!!! I LOVE turkey!! Then that Saturday I have a friend coming over from Northville to scrapbook with me.  She used to live here and we are besties even thru the distance!  Then that following Monday Mike and I are driving over to Marshall for their annual Christmas Parade.  We wanted to go last year but the weather was horrible so we're hoping it's not a repeat this year.

Oh I remember - one other thing - Mike and I also opened up a vintage booth at a local antique market here in South Haven.  If you're in town, check out Booth #48 at Eagle Street Market Antiques! We opened up mid-August and it's been fun so far! Here's the latest picture they sent to us of our booth.

More Cards From the Monthly Card Cafe

As I've mentioned before, I attend a card cafe at my friend's house each month.  This month we made my favorite cards so far - Easter and Birthday! The Easter cards are so adorable and so fun I just have to share them with you! And I love the birthday cards too - I mean, you can never have too many of those one hand, right?  So without further ado, here they are.  

I hope you enjoy these cards as much as I did making them! I apologize for this being such a short update but it's 2:44am here.

Happy Stamping everyone!
Joyce

Where I've Been For the Last Week

I'd like to apologize for being MIA the past week. One of our kitties, Busha, got really sick and had to be rushed to the Emergency Vet one week ago Friday night.  Since then, she had visited the vet 4 times and had to be put on Prednisone, a Diuretic and finally an appetite stimulant.  We thought we were over the hump because Wednesday she was like her old self.  She sat in her tent next to my husband in the living room and talked up a storm to him.  She was eating for the first time since her first vet visit, (we gave her Tuna to bribe her), she drank a ton of water and she even got up on the extra bed with her "sister" Hazel and they cuddled like they used to. Fast forward to the next day: she was lethargic, flopping around like a fish out of water, wouldn't even come near food or water and was hiding under the bed again and crying/moaning.  We called the vet and he got us in immediately.  Originally he thought she had water around her heart and lungs but she had lost so much of that along with more weight that he was able to finally find out what was wrong with her. She had a large mass on her liver and declining extremely rapidly. So we made the decision to have her put to sleep as it was so visible how much pain she was in. She was 13 years old, which I guess made her an old cat. Mike and I have cried almost every day until today when we finally got around to doing some much needed things like grocery shopping etc.  Our other kitty, Hazel, is so lost without her sissy. I ended up working on my scrapbook room some more today to get my mind off from missing Busha but it will take quite some time to get over this sudden change.  As a tribute to Busha I made some photos with an app I downloaded to my phone. She is now over the Rainbow Bridge and no longer in pain and is looking down on us as our angel.

As I mentioned above, today I spent most of the day doing more organizing in my scrapbook room.  I was able to get the rest of my clear stamps and embossing folders into clear envelopes and I also got all of my dies onto magnetic pieces and put into clear envelopes also. My room has also had some furniture moved around, which I like much better. I was also able to finally find the 3 missing tins I needed for my Quickutz Mag Pie holder, which has been discontinued for quite a few years. Persistence paid off by checking eBay constantly for the missing tins. I was also able to get all of my extra albums off the top of my IKEA TV unit and they are all now behind closed doors! YAY!!  I'm attaching pictures of what was done this weekend also for you.  Most of my organizing inspiration has come from Jennifer McGuire's blog.  She is my organizing hero!

The TV unit minus all the albums across he top.  We also added doors to all of the cubbies and moved the pull out cubes to the Kallax unit.  As you can see I still need to get one more door.

And here is where all of the albums from the top went - they are now located on the right hand side of the TV unit behind doors.  A much better look!

This is the 4 drawer cube in the TV unit.  It is now home to all of my clear stamps.  I've put each stamp in an Avery Elle clear envelope according to size.  I still need to sort them by theme and then label them in the top left corner with my P-touch. 

I've done the same thing with my embossing folders as I did with my clear stamps. They are now located in the 2 drawer cube on the left side of the TV unit.  As with the stamps, they still need to be sorted by theme and then labeled.

We totally changed the area to the left of the door when you walk into my room. And I still need to get one more pull out box for the bottom right corner. I had Mike take out the huge paper rack and instead now the Kallax unit is in it's place, along with ongoing albums and at the end is a unit for friends to use to scrap at if they come over.  It also has storage inside where I have all of my coloring books and other items.

My Stampin' Up stamps and tiny clear stamps are located in the cupboard to the left when you first come into my room. 

This is my Alex Drawers that I got in Bolingbrook IL.  I'm finally starting to put things away in it.  The top drawer is all the items I used to keep in my tool tote bag that I took to crops. But because I can no longer attend crops due to the cancer, I wanted those items at my fingertips, which they will be when the Alex Drawers are made into my work desk.

This is the 3rd drawer down - it'll contain all of my cutters.  I'm sill not sure how I've accumulated so many. Probably because I wasn't organized and had to buy a new one when I couldn't find one. No more of that!

Right now the next drawer down is holding items I'm not quite sure where I want them to go but I want them protected so they don't get lost or broken.

And finally my Project Life cart (a Raskog IKEA cart that we painted pink).  I thought I had all of my Project Life items organized and then I found the brown bag with pink polka dots full of more Project Life cards! So I'll be doing some more sorting soon.

So that pretty much sums up our live for the last week. Not a great one but I didn't want anyone to think I had given up on my blog like I did before.  

I hope everyone gets some scrapping or stamping done this week.

Joyce

Back from the Oncologist in IA and a side trip to IKEA!

Sorry to have been gone for so long (a week exactly).  We left last Wednesday morning bright and early for my appointment with my oncologist in Iowa. Since we made such good time on the road, we decided to stop at Antique Archaeology in LeClaire, IA.  This is the store that is owned by Mike Wolfe, from the American Pickers TV show - WOW! Lots of cool things to see and of course I took lots of pictures to scrap too! Here are just a few.

The "original" Antique Archaeology Store in LeClaire IA

This picture was upstairs by Mike's Office 

So many cool items in the "garage" - my favorite was a Coke sign in the back from Eastern NC

The salesgirl that day and her cousin - both grew up in LeClaire, IA. They were really nice and fun to talk to.

My husband outside of the "new" Antique Archaeology Store, just across from the old sore

The new store had all kinds of things you could buy with Mike's store logo on them, plus lots of cool antiques too 

The end of the check out area - I loved the barber shop neon sign!

Looking from the back of the store towards the front.  This place is packed with anything and everything. If you ever get a chance to stop in, DO IT! You won't be disappointed!

The rest of the week was spent having tests and bloodwork done but my oncologist was quite happy with my results, except for my thyroid, which is very low so he has started me on medication for that and FINALLY started me on Octreotide for my Carcinoid symptoms. I even had the techs doing my scans take some pictures of me on the scan table to scrap - I've decided since I have to make at least a yearly trip to IA to the oncologist and because this cancer is not going away, I may as well scrapbook this part of my life. 

Getting wrapped up and tucked in by my X-Ray tech so I can't move during the scan

By the time the scan started I was already fast asleep (and snoring! LOL!) 

The Mummy Lives! I had to be like this twice since this was a 2 day scan - thank goodness I can fall asleep the minute I lay down.

On the way home we left super early Saturday because I was going to IKEA one way or another in Bolingbrook, IL.  It was our first time at that IKEA but certainly not our last!! Much easier to get to than the Canton, MI IKEA we usually go too. I had my list of items to get for my scrapbook room and ended up getting one that wasn't on  the list since it was in the clearance room.Now alI I need is one more Alex Drawer and some elves to help me finish organizing my space and I'll be done! I'll be getting the 2nd Alex Drawer when we go to the Mega Meet in May. 

I just can't help myself - I get all giddy with excitement whenever I see one of these buildings!

As you can see, it was a beautiful day to do some scrapbook room shopping!

Waiting for Mike to get the truck - all of my purchases! One large set of Alex Drawers, a bag full of other items for my scrapbook room and a net to put up over my windoweless window seat in the Hello Kitty Lounge part of my room

My unplanned for purchase that set me over my spending limit but I couldn't pass it up for the price.  It was in the clearance room, marked waaaayyy down and the only thing wrong with it was that it was a store display! The plus besides those things - it was already assembled, which Mike really liked! This is going to replace one of the HUGE paper racks in my room.

Since getting my TV stand, doors, drawers and containers to fit in the cubbies from IKEA a couple of years ago,  I've come to realize I prefer the doors so I got 2 more of those for the Kallax unit.  Unfortunately they don't make them in pink anymore :(

This is actually a plastic bag storage container when it's assembled. But in the scrapbooking world everyone is using them for storing their vinyl.  I only got one since I have'n't done any vinyl yet but have a feeling I'll be getting a few more in the very near future.

These are spice container organizers for your drawers.  They also make great Washi Tape and Ribbon organizers.  I'm going to be using these two in my new Alex drawers and will pick up a few more in May when we go to the Canton store after he Mega Meet

Since I've been home I've been doing nothing but sleeping to catch up on all of the non-stop going I did for the last two weeks.  I'm attaching pictures of the items I got at IKEA plus some Hello Kitty Iris storage boxes I found on eBay that came while we were gone.  I hope everyone has been busy scrapping, card making or organizing! I did manage to finish getting all of my embossing folders into the clear envelops from Avery Elle and most of my clear stamps - unfortunately I ran out of envelopes again.  I've also ordered 4x6 and 5x7 magnetic pieces to put in envelopes with my dies.  Those should be here tomorrow so I'll be starting on that project as soon as they arrive.  I've decided to order double the amount of envelopes I think I'll need since I've already run out of them twice.  I'll try to get a photo of them all organized for the next entry.

Oh, I almost forgot the one item that came in the mail while we were gone! Hello Kitty Iris storage containers!

I found these great Hello Kitty Iris storage containers on eBay just before we left for IA and ordered them.  There are 6 of them - not sure what I will put in them yet but I like that they keep with the theme of my scrapbook room. 

Happy Scrappy and enjoy the rest of your week!

Joyce

I Finally Did It!!

After having my Silhouette Cameo for almost 2 years now, and being petrified of that silly little machine, last night I bit the bullet!  I pulled up a YouTube video on how to use it, watched that whole thing and then proceeded to make A2 File Folders that I plan to  store my embossing folders in.  I managed to get 12 done for the large folders and now have to emboss them so I know which embossing folder is on the inside. At first I thought I was in trouble because I had bought 8.5x11 paper at Michael's in shades of Pink and it didn't look like the file was going to fit the paper.  But after turning the file around (I was so proud of myself after figuring that out!) I was able to get one file folder out of one piece of cardstock. Whew!!!

After that I felt pretty confident, and since I have downloaded a ton of Silhouette files, I decided to make a quick card.  I was impressed with the intricate cuts the Cameo made and so was my husband.  I have a feeling when I get back from IA Sunday, I'll be giving this machine a good workout to make up for all of the time it sat there intimidating me! LOL! I'm working on 3 wedding albums so I'll be cutting out lots of wedding item files ahead of time and then adding them to the albums as I go along.  

I am so glad I finally tackled this obstacle - and am really embarrassed to have been afraid to use it! I do have 2 Cricut machines after all and it turned out to not be much different from those. And of course the YouTube video helped a lot also :)

Also, just and FYI - I won't be posting again until Sunday, March 5.  I have an appointment with my oncologist in Iowa and won't be up to playing or posting.  So until Sunday, I hope everyone has a Scrappy Happy Week! 

Joyce

File Folders for my Embossing folders in various shades of Pink

My very first card made with my Silhouette Cameo.  It's no glued down very well bu I was impressed with the cuts it made!

More Organizing Done!

I was able to get some more organizing done over the weekend.  I even managed to get 1/3 of my counter cleaned off!! Now I finally have room for my Zutter Cutter. One of the things you don't see that I also organized what a ton a photos!  My order from Avery Elle also came Friday so I can now start organizing my dies, clear stamps and embossing folders. I've decided to do mine the way Jennifer McGuire does hers. I really like that you can see what is in the clear envelopes plus it takes up so much less space than the way I was originally planning on using. If you'd like to see her organization tips here is a link to her blog:  www.jennifermcguireink.com/  and also a link to a tour of her scrapbook room that tells how she stores and organizes everything:  www.jennifermcguireink.com/2008/11/my-scraproom-part-1.html   You'll be converted in no time! I know I was!

 This the die cutting area at the end of the counter that runs the length of the room. Mike put the Recollections shelf from Michael's up today - it used to be where the 3rd set of shelves now reside. I have all my Cricut Cartridges, Sizzix dies and Accu-Cut dies stored in the wire shelves. In the Shelf above are ribbons, embellishments from Queen & Company, Glitter, Stamp Re-Inkers and other various items for making cards with. The blue items in the black racks to the side on the counter are also Sizzix dies.

The last set of shelves are FINALLY organized! And next to these shelves is one of the 2 small cubes Mike put up for me today. Top row has my Quick Kutz Die Cut Maker along with a couple of other LARGE scrapbooking tools. The two bags on the opposite end of the top shelf hold other cutting things, plus my Crop-a-dile and a Stapler. The Hello Kitty holder in the middle was actually a Nail Polish Display holder that I plan to use for something - just have to figure out what! LOL! The 2nd shelf has all 3 sizes of my Xyrons, my small Sizzix embossing and cutting machine, my Sizzix Sidekick, the Zutter binding machine and my Gypsy for my Cricut machine. The bottom shelf has my large Cricut machine that cuts 12x12 paper, my original Cricut machine that uses 8 1/2 x 11 sized paper and my Cricut Jukebox and tool kit. Below the shelves, next to the blue dies is my Zutter Cutter that will cut paper without having to measure it - just put the paper in and roll it out cut!

Wide angle view of the middle and last set of shelves with the 2 small cubes mounted on the wall in between hem. On the last set of shelves, on the middle shelf he first pink basket holds all of my Hello Kitty Smash Book and scrapbooking items, all except the Hello Kitty scrapbooking paper.

This is 1 of the 2 slanted half cubes we got for 70% off each at Michael's. I wasn't sure what to store in them when I got them, but I'm finding them handy for extra blades, decorative paperclips, idea cards, rub on letters and other small misc items.

This is the 2nd of he slanted cubes and right now I have Staz-On Ink Pads in the first row and he 2nd and 3rd rows are my Tim Holtz Ranger Distress Ink Pads. I'm not sure if his will be their finally home or not. I still need to put a dot with the ink color on the outside of each ink pad along with it's name.

That's pretty much it for today.  I have a huge list of things I'm hoping to accomplish so I need to get down to the scrapbook room. Hopefully I will get all of my inks labeled and more stamps and dies put away.

Have a scrappy day!
Joyce