Goodbye 2009....Hello 2010

Its New Year's Day, and I get to reflect on the year past and look forward to the year coming.

Lets start with moving forward. As most people do, I have some resolutions I intend to keep this year. I may even blog about them on here. One thing I have already accomplished and its only the first day is, being published again!
Check me out in Scrapstreet Magazine again! Here is the link to my layout. Check out my Tutorials section on how to make the flowers featured.

Now a look back at 2009. My list of Top 9 of 2009 (in no particular order)
1. Bought my first house
2. Adopted our puppy Sookie
3. Celebrated 3 years with David
4. Was published in Scrapstreet Magazine (this was the first time!)
5. Got into cake decorating! Check out my other blog: Fairytale Frosting
6. Family vacation in Disney World for Christmas
7. Hosting my first Thanksgiving dinner (even if the turkey didn't quite turn out!)
8. Lots of fun nights seeing Hairball play (my favorite 80's cover band!)
9. Weekend at Feetie Cove with David

I hope everyone was as blessed in 2009 as I was! Here's to 2010 being even better! Happy New Year!

Typealyzer

*Gasp!* Another post?! I know, two days in a row is quite amazing on my part. I had to share what I just discovered! I was scrolling through blogs...while I'm supposed to be working (sshhh don't tell!) and I came across a blogger who used this Typealyzer website. You enter your blog address and it analyzes your personality type. I'm trying this out on both of my blogs.
This one was pretty close to accurate:

ESFP - The Performers

The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.

The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

According to Meyer's Briggs my real personality is an ENFP, so pretty darn close!
Try it out on your blog and see how it turns out. Maybe as a blogger you're someone completely different!

Its A Very Merry Christmas!

The holiday season is upon us! Since I haven't posted in some time, you know I've been busy! This time of year is hard to squeeze in scrappin, but I thought I'd share some of my Christmas crafts!

See that wreath on the tree? I used my star shaped cake pan, set an empty cool whip container in the center. Scattered fresh cranberries in the pan and filled with water. I froze it and then hung outside with ribbon. An inexpensive holiday touch to our otherwise bare backyard.

This is my homemade holiday kissing ball. I chose to forgo the traditional mistletoe for this beauty. Shopping sales at Michael's allowed me to buy several pearl picks for about 17 cents a piece. A little glue and styrofoam ball, and viola! Pucker up baby!

My end table was little a little bare, so I took some holiday theme paper and cut into varying size circles. I took wooden spools and painted them red and green. Fitted with a 3/4 inch dowel, I stacked it all together with a little hot glue and now we have a table top tree! All for about $5 in materials.

These were just some extra ornaments hung with thread in front of my window. Clever hey?

What can I say, I'm addicted to Michaels. When I saw these glittery poinsettias I had to make a wreath for our door!

Here is our cozy dining room. I scored some holiday wall decals at Border's on sale. Paired with extra ornaments and a poinsettia and our boring dining area was transformed into a warm holiday dinner setting!

All is merry and bright in our living room! Notice the "wreaths" on the window...those are decorative ceiling mounts! I picked them up for $5-$7 a piece at Menards. A little craft paint and some ribbon, and we have some unique wreaths!

As you can see I've been a busy little elf!

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful holiday season!

Merry Christmas! See you next year!

Blossoms

This is another layout I created during my scrapbooking weekend. I had the brown floral paper but was having a tough time deciding what to do with it. Its hard to tell from the photo, but its quite glittery. I decided to "wing it" and hand cut the paper into a frame. I used a razor blade and freely cut it into a frame.
You can also faintly see on the pink cardstock I did some masking. I used my Cricut and Storybook cartridge to cut a circular design that was similar to cherry blossoms. I used that cut image as a mask.
The white and pink frame around the photo is actually the backside of the chocolate/frame paper. Those adorable branches and blossoms are dimensional stickers from Jolee's.
It was fun to make! I was nervous about it. This is a photo I really love of David and I. I wanted the layout to be just perfect. I've procrastinated doing for some time now. I'm glad I waited, I love the way it turned out!

Brand New House

It has been a couple of months since I have had time to do any scrappin, and let me tell you, I've missed it! I have missed out on it for good reason though....I bought my first house! David and I moved in on August 20th. We have been crazy busy painting, decorating, and general house stuff. This weekend I was able to do some scrapbooking, when a few girlfriends came to visit for just that purpose. Below is a layout I did about our new home. We took that photo on closing day, as proud new home owners! The original owners left us several house keys, so I thought it would be fun to use one of them on my page.
The paper is from My Little Shoebox, and that awesome die cut is from one of my favorite websites to shop, Scrapyourtrip.com
Over the next few days I'll post more of my scrap weekend accomplishments. Hopefully now I'll find more time to get back to my hobbies!

Sunflower Tutorial

As promised, here is a simple tutorial for making an awesome paper sunflower. You can vary the size, but I find that if you get much smaller than this it becomes hard to fold.

To get started you will need paper cut into 2 inch thick strips. Four of them should be 4.5 inches tall, and four should be 5.5 inches tall.

You will need double sided tape (or glue dots work well too) and ink. Its also helpful to have a bone folder or a scoring tool.

Step One:

Cut your paper into 2 inch thick strips. Four of them 4.5 inches tall, four of them 5.5 inches tall.

Step Two:

Score, or fold each strip down the middle.

Step Three:

Using the middle fold as a guide, fold the corners in to the center.

Step Four:

Fold the side edges into the center, again using the middle fold as a guide.

Your folds should look like this:

Complete these steps with each strip:

Step Five: Take out your double sided tape and tape the folds down in the middle.

Step Six: Ink the edges of each strip.

Step Seven:

Separate the 4.5 inch strips and the 5.5 inch strips. Taking the 5.5 inch strips and using your double sided tape, create an X.

Step 8:

Take one of the remaining strips and tape down across your X shape.

Step Nine:

Repeat, but this time across your shape.

Step Ten:

Repeat with the 4 smaller strips.

Step Eleven:

Place a piece of double sided tape in center of larger flower. Lay smaller flower on top of it, slightly staggered.

Step Twelve:

Cup the flower in your hand. Press into the center with your thumb to create dimension.

Step Thirteen:

Cut a circle to put in the center.

Cut a 5.5 inch tall strip of green paper and complete the folds like the "petals".
Step Fourteen:

Again using the double sided tape, angle the green strip on bottom of flower to create leaves.

Viola! You have a beautiful paper sunflower! I put names on the center circle and used mine as place settings. It also makes a beautiful addition to your scrapbook pages or cards. Try it! You'll love it!

Big Things Happening...

Its been awhile since I've posted. Life has been crazy! I am full of exciting news today!
I bought a house!! I closed on August 20th, and since then have been in a whirlwind of chaos. There has been no time for scrappin these days!
David and I are very excited to be our new place. It is our first house. I wonder how I ever had all this stuff in a one bedroom apartment!
Here we are on Closing Day. Proud new homeowners!

Next big news....I got published!!! A few of my layouts were featured in the online publication Scrapstreet Magazine! You can check me out in the Discovery Drive section. This online magazine is full of great ideas! Each month they feature a new scrapper, and this month its ME! WOO HOO!
With news like this, I hope you'll forgive me for not posting in awhile!
Stay tuned, coming soon is a tutorial on paper sunflowers....you don't want to miss it!