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paper goodies and family life

Have you seen this?

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SWOON!  Simple Stories is amazing, and their new summer line is darn cute!!!  Check it out here.
I will be stalking my favorite online retailers until I get my hands on this collection!!!

I have loads of projets to tackle soon, I still need at least 3 more layouts to meet my monthly goal for Gossamer Blue--who has some FUN kits for May, check'em out when they go on sale tomorrow!

A Discovery

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I was surfing the interwebs late into the night and stumbled on the Avery Elle website.  I have purchased several Avery Elle stamps from Simon Says Stamp and LOVE THEM, but never realized you could download cuts for your Silhouette that match the adorable stamps perfectly!  There is nothing more annoying to me than fussy cutting your stamped images, so who's got a big grin and a whole slew of new cut files?  THIS GIRL!  Another bonus?  Simon Says Stamp has this stamp set on sale half price today only!!!

I went ahead and purchased several stamp sets, downloaded the pdf cuts and found the pdf's for the sets I already own.  I can't wait until I have a few hours to spend in my craft room to get busy cutting and stamping.

Go check out Avery Elle and get yourself some awesome stamps and cuts, you'll be so thrilled with all the time you save yourself from fussy cutting!!!

25

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I was perusing (great word, no?) this blog and thought Why Don't I Do a 25 List?  I am not nearly as cool/creative/awesome as Elise, but surely I've got 25 things to share....right?  Here goes...

I love using ellipses......

If you read this blog, that was an obvious one.

It's a rare day that I don't eat chocolate.

And then wonder why my jeans are tight.

I was so excited for Miss Q to switch from formula to milk, and had convinced myself we would also be off the bottle at the time of that switch.  Yeah, not so much.

She's my ONLY, why not let her stay a baby for a while longer?

I fancied myself someone who would love to cook and garden and all the homemaker stuff once I quit work and stayed home full-time.  Maybe someday.

I never want to have a 9-5 job again.  Ever.

Most jobs aren't 9-5, they are 8-5.  9-5 has a better ring to it.

I'm still hanging on to the dream that my dear friends, the ones I've never lost contact with for even a minute, will all move to my town and be my neighbors.

Yes, I do see the dust covering everything in my house.

I do not like going to the dentist.  My issue with that has no basis, I just don't want to do it.  I'm already dreading it and I don't go until June.

My family is large, there are so many of us, it's confusing to explain and quite frankly I don't think I will anymore.

I'm watching the news and I'm tired of hearing about childhood obesity.  Parents, it's called PLAY.  Running around being noisy and loud and jumping on the bed is NORMAL.  Sitting on the couch all day is not.  Check yourself.

Do Dad's sometimes just not get it?  Let's discuss.

If given a day to do anything I wanted, I would definitely have at least 1 very long phone conversation, take a nap, scrapbook/create and read my fav blogs.

If given two days I would get a massage and a mani/pedi, too.

Is it weird that my days are basically spent by myself?  I think not.

I'm having a mini-break trip with my BFF Winif to visit my BFF Angie.  Counting the days and dreading the days until the trip, simultaneously.  I've never left my Q overnight, and my heart is already sad thinking of it.  But my head is so psyched that I can barely stand myself.

At this point, if given a choice to go somewhere with my darling hubby or my girlfriends, I would choose my girlfriends.  Most days my hubby is the only adult I converse with.  Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

I love college basketball.  I can count on 1 hand how many times I've ever even made a basket, so yes, this is a strange development in my life.

Tomorrow is cut and color day.  I {heart} this day.

I need new running shoes (for stroller-walking) and am starting to think what I want doesn't exist.  Does that ever happen to you?  The need for new shoes has nothing to do with my sweaty feet.

I love reading blogs, and sometimes think I really could be friends with some of the amazing women out there in blogland.  You guys rock.

Regardless of what I said above, my hubby is the greatest man alive.



I {heart} this card kit.

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I created this card from my first Simon Says Stamp card kit.  I saw a preview of the card kit on the amaZing Nichol Magouirk's blog, and knew I had been missing out!  So I decided to sign up for the monthly kit and for only $19.95 a month you get way more than your money's worth.  The stamp sets alone typically go for $14.99!  So I made this card for my dear friend Angie.

I loved the quote on one of the sheets of paper, and knew it was perfect for this card.  Check out the May Card Kit--I think you'll see how great the kit will be for Mother's Day, Spring birthdays, sympathy cards, and a ton of other projects!

Gossamer Blue April Kit

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To say that I LOVE the April kits would be a complete understatement.  I adore the Dear Lizzy Lucky Charm stuff, and the Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper makes my heart go pitter-pat.  Here's a page I made with the April kit:




I misted the background with Mister Huey's, then used a sheet of wallet photo's as my picture.  I typically have some trouble using photo frames, even tho I really like them, but think I found a good solution to my troubles by framing out the top 2 photos on the sheet + some of the Dear Lizzy paper I used in my layering.  The stripe paper is the back side of the heart paper.  There's also some washi paper from Maggie Holmes.  The triangles I used as arrows are from Studio Calico, along with the die cut flowers.  The "sweetness" sticker is Amy Tangerine, the flower clip is Maggie Holmes and the word die cuts are Dear Lizzy.  I think that covers it!  Whew!  All items are from Gossamer Blue April kits, except Mister's Huey's.

GB Pinterest Challenge

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I am an avid follower of Just Em and love that she is on the design team for Gossamer Blue.  I really liked her Pinterest inspired challenge this month and decided to play along with a layout of my gorgeous niece's first Prom.



The challenge stated you could use gold glitter or a combo of the colors Just Em found as inspiration on Pinterest.  I decided to go with the gold glitter from the Color Kit Add-on.  I cut the AC glitter paper into tiny confetti-ish strips, stamped gold ink with Studio Calico cloud stamps, used gold thickers and also a piece of the gold glitter cardstock to back the bottom pic.  Throw in some banners and a bow, a doily and Maggie Holmes mini clothes pin + Stickles, and you've got the All About Gold layout :)  My niece Shelby's prom dress had a gold glitter bust, she wore a gold glitter headband and flower in her hair, plus some pretty awesome gold glitter heels.  I took the pics of her getting hair and make up done, but family members took the other pictures.  Shelby text me the other photos and I printed on my AWESOME Canon Selphy printer.  I absolutely LOVE that printer.  Best. Investment. Ever.

March Project 12

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I had the majority of the March P12 completed before the end of the month, but needed to get at least 1 picture from Easter at my in-laws to finish it up.  Here it is!
The upper left box is my daughter's 1st birthday party invite, which sadly didn't happen because we had a freak winter storm.  I included a photo of Miss Q as she woke up on her birthday, a little info from her 1 yr check up, eating cupcakes, baby class, making some crafty changes (Hello, Silhouette!!!) and WSU t-shirt from grandpa Don-Don.  And that is March Project 12 all wrapped up!