YUMMMM-OOOOO!!!!
(to quote Rachel Ray!)


I LOVE dark chocolate, so imagine my happiness at finding these wonderful little Cadbury Royal Dark Chocolate Mini Eggs! They are so very delicious and I have been rationing this little bag for over a week now! Just a few at a time, a few times a day! Now you know my favorite Easter candy let me a comment to tell me what yours is! My DH is a huge fan of the Marshmallow Peep. Check out the peeps website it is really cute, with trivia, recipes and craft ideas! Travis likes sour candy, so his basket gets filled with that kind of stuff.



It is so hard to believe that Easter is just around the corner, a week from Sunday! Since we turned the clocks to Spring forward time has just been flying, this lovely weather the past few days has been awesome as well! We have started the spring yard work and are beginning to sort out the crap to get rid of for spring clean up days. We are planning a huge garden this year as well, so that is also in the planning stages. Our garden wasn't so successful last year, mostly due to lack of weeding and no fence to keep the critters out. How about you? Tell me what you have been up to!

Here are a few pictures of the Accordion book that we made at the Camp Harmony crop this past Saturday. The letters on the front spell out SPRING! The pattern paper is Creative Memories from last year's Memoranza. I just love the pinks, blues and browns from this collection. It was a blast picking out the ribbons to coordinate with it. I got almost all of them in the $1 bin at Michaels, except for a few of the thinner ones that came from Wal-mart. I think about 15 of the gals at the crop participated in this class. Thanks Ladies! You were great and it was so much fun to share this project with you! Especially Del who was a real trooper! She came to crop on Saturday after having surgery to repair her broken arm just the day before! That is one dedicated scrapbooker!
The front cover above and the back side below.

Crop Report!


We had a pretty great day, if I do say so myself!! I am absolutely exhausted but wanted to post briefly about it... I will post some pics of the make and takes later this week. If anyone who reads my blog took pictures I would love to see them, I was so busy I didn't take a single one. We had 35 croppers when it was all said and done. We are almost to the point that we are outgrowing the room. Thankfully we are able to use the lobby area as well if we need it. The new tables were so nice and very easy to move around! Most of all it was so wonderful to see all my scrapbook buddies and visit a little bit and catch up with them! We don't see each other often enough! My scrapbook stuff is in a pile in the kitchen and I have to haul it to the scraproom before I head to bed so hubby doesn't trip all over it when he comes home in the morning... And I think I have some instructions in my brain that I have to print out on my internal printer... LOL!!!

Here is a sneak peek at the ribbons I am using for our make and take for the camp crop on Saturday! Thirty four croppers!!! YEAHHHH!!!!

A Sweet Journal...

I saw the idea for this journal in a Paper Crafts magaizne a while back and thought.... Wow, what a neat idea! Do I know anyone who is expecting? Nope, no one right now, file that idea away for later... Soooo as soon as I found out my dear friend Dee's daughter was expecting I got to work on this really cute pregnancy journal. It has nine tabs for each month, to journal your thoughts, expectations, plans, and all that exciting stuff that goes through your head when you are patiently awaiting the arrival of a new addition.

Products are from my stash and I couldn't tell you where they came from.

Two side notes... we have 34 registered for the Camp Harmony crop on Saturday!!! YEAHHHH!!! I am soooo happy!

Kim B. your stamps have been riding around in my car for a week now... I hope to get to a post office very soon! Thanks for being patient!

As promised... This is the nightlight that I made for Jody's scraproom. I used the same paper and stickers for it as I did on the altered clock. The glass jar came from Pat Catan's I believe. My husband drilled the hole in it, a tedious job and rather nerve wracking since it is glass and it could break. The lights are a small strand (20) of rice lights (teeny tiny Christmas lights) and they were from Pat Catan's, purchased before Christmas. You can use standard mini lights, you just need to drill a larger hole to fit them in. I used the Cheetah to adhere the paper wrap to the jar and the Crop-a-dile to punch the holes and set the eyelets all the way up the front where the ribbon laces it all together.

Ok, some bugs to work out. When I go back to post what I have saved it posts it to the day that I originally started it, not the day that I actually completed the post. Nothing is ever easy... so there are some new posts, just scroll down a bit... check the altered clock and the crop-a-dile post. I will try to remember to post to the top until I get all of the back dated posts out of the file. Thanks again for stopping by to check things out! We are busy getting things together for the camp crop!

Studio G!

Thanks Barb! I was waiting to post about these Studio G stamps from Michael's! I picked up a few sets earlier this week and went back again Thursday to get a couple more! What a bargain! I just love the clear stamps for so many of the obvious reasons! They are easier to store since they are less bulky. Way easier to position since you can see straight through them and when they are this inexpensive how can you go wrong!

The ones in the picture here are going postal this weekend to my friend Kim who left me a comment last week. Get yourself to Michaels and get some, too! Look in the bargain bins at the front of the store, they were going FAST! (Do you think I could get a commission from Michaels and Joann's?)

Altered Clock

I have been so excited about a few things that I have made recently, but couldn't post about them since I had not given them to their recipients yet. Not anymore!!! This is an altered clock that I made for my friend Jody. Her Scraproom is purple and butterflied!

The clocks are available at Wal-mart in the furniture/domestics area for the bargain price of $3.76. You can get them in black, navy blue, burgundy or white. I dry-brushed the frame of this one with pale pink paint. The clock is all plastic and just snaps apart easily with a butterknife to pry it gently. After that, sky's the limit on how you want to alter it for yourself! My butterfly stickers came from the Dollar Tree and they are sparkly! I even put them on the hands of the clock so they "fly" around as time passes. The stripe background paper is from Paper Adventures, Paper Heart line, and is called Dazzle Purple-Pink Stripe and also has some sparkle stripes through it.

Next post will be the jar nightlight!

Crop-a-diles and Cheetahs!
It's a jungle in here!


These were a Christmas gift from my chicksa Jody! I just love them both! I didn't want to post about them until after I gave her Christmas gifts to her, which I did last evening.
March is the appropriate time of year for Chicksa Christmas celebrations at the Olive Garden in Greensburg!


The Cheetah is a Xyron adhesive dispenser that gives a two inch wide run of permanent adhesive. Great for covering those large areas quickly!


My Crop-a-dile is absolutely the best hole punch and snap/eyelet setting tool ever! It has been around for a little while now and is made by We R Memory Keepers. Mine is the pink one, but it is also available in LIME green now! It absolutely silent, punches through chipboard like it was tissue paper and set all kinds of snaps and eyelets. I like that there are no "extra" parts to keep track of and the other feature that I like is that the it punches two sizes of holes and there is a depth gauge so if you are punching a bunch of holes in a row you just set it and punch away!


When Jody gave me my gifts before regular Christmas we were enjoying a soup/salad/breadsticks lunch at the Olive Garden. Our waiter was quite adorable and when we were leaving he told me to enjoy my can opener (aka the crop-a-dile!) He is studying to be a surgeon, hopefully he has a better eye for surgical implements!


Check back this week, I used my toys to make Jody's gifts and I will be posting them here!

Luck of the Irish!

This is another page that we made at my CMC's crop on Friday. We were having a green St. Patrick's Day theme for the night so I designed and taught this page in honor of that!


All of the green papers are CM, the die cut scroll corners are another Cuttlebug die. The stamp saying is an Irish Blessing and is from Eureka Stamps. It is my favorite blessing and I have it framed and hanging as you go out my front door. The four leaf clover stamp is from the $1 bargain bin at Michael's. I used it to randomly stamp and gold heat emboss the serendipity squares.


Serendipity squares are really nice page accents if you do not have a particular theme for your page. Some times what you are scrapping doesn't fit into those little categories of things that scrapbook companies like to make embellishments. With serendipity squares you just pull colors out of your photos. The hands on experience of tearing and pasting, stamping and embossing, and cutting and matting is so much fun. It kind of takes you back to elementary school art class! I love it!


The blessing goes like this...

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back,
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
And the rains fall soft upon your fields,
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Are you ready for spring?

I know I am! I have started some spring scrapbook and craft projects as well as my step daughter, Melanie's school days scrapbook. It is so hard to believe that she is going to be a high school senior this fall. I am trying to work on the album a little at a time so that I am not rushing to finish it at the last minute. (Just let me have that little delusion, I am pretty sure it won't happen like that but I want to hold the dream for a little bit!)

Melanie was nine years old when I met her Dad. How time flies! Some things about her have not changed one bit, like her headstrong will and her determination. She sure has matured though. It has been a joy and privelege to be a part of her life! Those milestone birthdays came so quickly. She will turn 18 this year. This picture is from a few years ago. She now wears her hair with bangs and she likes to try different colors. Her braces are gone and in their place is a beautiful straight smile. She is studying cosmetology in school.

The page was also one that I made as a sample for my CMC's last crop on Friday evening. The background cardstock and the paper matting the photo are both from The Slab. The letter stickers are Creative Memories. Both of the papers matting the letters are CM. I accented the edges of all the mats with green ink from Close to My Heart. The larger matting on the letters was cut with a Cuttlebug die.

Sorry I haven't been posting frequently. I like to include a photo with my post and I could only do that from my Mom's computer, but I have figured out how to store some pics and start some topics that I can continue from home, so you should hear from me more often! We are up to 28 for the camp crop, if you haven't registered yet don't wait too long!

On a yummy note I made Oatmeal Scotchies tonight! Delicious!