bringing the mojo back

I'm going to be pretty candid here.

Packing up my life, leaving the house and a job I loved, and leaving my immediate family wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be.

{shock, right?}

The avenue that released the most stress pre-move was right here in craft land. The Lair was my 'home away from home' (even though it was in my basement), my little escape from the world. Oddly enough, through this transition, creating is the one thing that hasn't come back to me as easily.
At all.
Monthly projects due turned into mandatory assignments {gasp!! homework!!}, and what used to be done in pleasure is now done as work.

I think my body realized that I needed a bit of an escape for a few weeks more than mind did, but I'm glad I took it. That's why teachers get Summer breaks...why lifeguards get rest periods...why Sunday School teachers get Monday through Saturday: refuel, recharge, and go back at it with a renewed passion.

This week's challenge

So I'm back at it! I found a great little challenge blog called The Play Date Cafe. It's fun. They give you a color scheme, you make the project! Guidelines without strict parameters = LOVE! I'm tipping my toes back into the rivers of crafting, and it feels ggggggood.

This card expresses exactly what I've been feeling in the last few months. Sometimes it's too much to ask of someone to go above and beyond.
Sometimes you have to just be.

And that's ok.




Materials used in this post:
Hollo's Cardstock
Sweet Baby Pickles - Soft Blue 12x12
Wright's Seam Binding
Hambly Screen Prints
Basic Grey - Green at hear- micro mono stickers
Basic Grey - Wisteria - alphabet stickers
Tim Holtz Tissue Tape - symphony
Ribbon - Target
Floss
Glue Dots - ultra thin and mini

A CAS for Friendship's Garden from an upside-down house!

 While things are starting to wind down in recovery from the holidays in households across the world, things at my house are just starting to get crazy.

You see, in just three short weeks, we're moving!!

We'll be traveling 250 miles and 4.5 hours to a new job (for me -- hubby will still be a Stay-At-Home Super Man!) and temporary housing. The temporary arrangements will be nice, but as for the crafting space...that will be an issue! I'll be getting creative on crafting time, location, and hopefully not be using the same piece of paper for every project!!
If my projects come together as smoothly for my upcoming work as well as today's card did, I'll be good to go!!
Today's project for Friendship's Garden was to create a CAS (clean and simple) card using a sentiment. While my son was playing with his lego monster trucks at the kitchen counter, I ran downstairs, picked up materials for my card:

Using the monster trucks as inspiration (ha!), I picked one sheet of the 8x8 stack, sentiment sticker from MME, flower and ribbon. I folded the paper hotdog style (that's how my 3rd grade art teacher described it...), added my sticker, and finished it off with my ribbon and flower adhered with micro Glue Dots.

Love that flower! Prima Flowers (found at Hobby Lobby)

Total time for the card (including fixing El Toro Loco's body after crashes with Grave Digger) was less than 5 minutes!

And just to sneak one last picture in, here's a picture of my {almost} two year old daughter playing with her balloon just after nap time today :)

Get your CAS cards linked up to the Friendship's Garden blog! I can't wait to see which monster truck inspires you!!!

A Christmas Card for Friendship's Garden

So I know I've been in a bit of a posting lull...with the Christmas season upon us, time is in fast forward!! I do have a few AWESOME projects up my sleeve, but they're either projects I've made as Christmas presents (and since a lot of my friends read my blog, posting them would spoil their Christmas surprise!!) or they're super fun products I can't share about yet!!
SO! You just be ready...rest up now, while you have the time, because pretty soon I'm going to be going Blogger CRAZY!!! :D


This week at Friendship's Garden we made a free for all card, just incorporate a Winter, Christmas or New Year's theme!! I chose Christmas, and tried to go for a bit of the traditional color palate, but with a twist. I used patterned papers from Stampin' Up!, cut out petal shapes and stitched around the edges with my sewing machine for a bit of texture. I clustered those in the corner and added the Noel bling from Me and My Big Ideas. The background paper is from 7 Gypsies.
All of my elements were adhered with Glue Dots (of course!)

Get your Christmas, New Year or Winter themed cards (without stamping!) posted up to Friendship's Garden, and rest up...MUCH more to come in the weeks to come!!

Another Quick Christmas Card!

I love Christmas cards. I really do!! While store bought cards are nice and thoughtful, a hand made Christmas card brings a smile to my face. It amazes me that someone went through the time and effort - for me!!

I threw this together last night for a coworker's care package going overseas. I love using pre-designed paper for a cute background! The cardinal and holly paper is DCWV, accompanied by some SU! striped paper and rub-on. I added some Twinery twine for a splash of detail!

So remember, in your holiday preparations this year, a hand made card warms the heart like none other :)