Party!

I am so excited! I finished school a week ago. Tomorrow is graduation ceromony. Saturday is my party!

Here is a pic of the crazy doggie we are watching this year!

I am very excited to be in a class taught by May Flaum for Big Pictures! I won the spot in an awesome giveaway.

 The class is about learning different techniques. The first week was about misting. I have never tried this technique. I have a problem being a perfectionist. I never want to mess up which prevents me from finishing layouts. I have tons of half finished stuff. This is why I love the Project Life movement so much.

 I pulled out an old layout. All that was done was the pics and red stripe were on the page. I didnt know how to finish this one because the background was so busy. I covered the pics and sprayed two colors of Walnut Inks on the left half of the background paper to tone it down. I also sprayed the white flowers with the purple stain to match. Then I embellished it! I still feel like there is more to be done but I got way further with this than any other of my 12x12layouts! Yea! Thanks to the class.

 This week we are learning about distress inks and stamping. I have stamped before but just the basic stamping. I feel like there is so much for me to learn. I actually had to go buy a destress ink because I didnt own any.

I am starting to photograph some of my Project Life pages. I used the Simple Stories collections because I had purchased like 5 of them before I learned about Project Life. I also use the various We R Memory Keepers inserts- which I love. Its hard figure out the best way to photograph. I usually play at night which is not the best to take pics. I will have to take time in the day to take pics.

This weekend is busy. I have to retake my exit exams from school this Wednesday. I am very nervous. Monday I have a presentation about me. Its scary. Even though I try to be an open book, its hard to present me. The kids friend spent the night the past two nights. We actually ordered pizza last night for dinner. Yesterday , they talked me into teaching them how to make pancakes! I even made gluten and dairy free ones for me!

 I ate tons of peanut butter this week. Since I quit soda and candy it has been hard to find snacks!

 Here is Leston playing with our kitties! He is starting a new job tomorrow! Yea!

 My graduation gown and cap arrived in the mail!

 Friday night, the kid and I worked on a few invites for her birthday! We had a blast using the Cricut and our Hello Kitty cartridge.

  I really have not made very many projects this week. I could not sleep for a few nights and have been studying hard for the nurses exam. I did have time to make this simple tiny layout for a small shadow box!

 I won another blog giveaway! This time on PaperCrafts blog! I won a copy of the Stamp It! 3 ways magazine and a stamp set. See My name below!

I am going to have to find a better way to store pics. My computer was running slow so I dumped all of them onto a flash drive. Turns out I had 4 G of pics on here! I will have a nice little labeled row of flash drives hanging on my bulitin board if I dont find a better way to store them.

 We worked on her Valentines Day cards. I got the bright idea to make them with my Cricut and the Hello Kitty cartridge. I didnt realize I should avoid the ones with lots of small pieces since they take FOREVER.Tonight, the kid and I crafted together

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 My daughter also played with my stamps. She loves to try them all. 

It snowed yesterday. I hate snow. I hate cold weather. However, the kids has played outside with the neighbors and had a blast. Sometimes I feel like a bad parent because I dont do cold. Im marrying a Caribbean man and he doesnt do cold. We do hot, warm, cool and semi-cold. But when it approches 50 or below, we are inside and bundled up. My cats love the cold also. This is Olivers first winter. He was not sure what the snow was. He ran and slid, rolled in it and dug!

 Sweet little kitty footprints!

 Mr. Otis likes the snow too! Since he is black, when he comes in from playing in the snow he looks like he has really bad dandruff.

 Last week end, Mom and I went to a scrapbook card class at Archiver's. We made itty bitty v-day cards together! We had fun while Grandma and the kid walked around the mall. I am going to sign up for more classes because I learned several new techniques and about tools Michaels does not carry.

I must have to much free time. Every day I enter those blog giveaways. I am determined to win something! Then, I get a reply that I won! I won a give away on the basic grey blog!

See my name here!

I am so excited! I won 2 digi kits for scrapbooking! I have never tried this but am willing to give it a shot. I also won a magnetic cutting board with a ruler. Very cool!

I have been spending my break from school sleeping and crafting. I read about Becky Higgin's Project Life. I really want to order her stuff but dont want to spend the money. I started using my Simple Stories stuff to quickly scrapbook my New York pics from Labor Day. 

 This format is much quicker for me. I always get caught up in the design element of the pages and never finish them. I also worked on some of the Basic Grey Kits I bought a few months back when they were 40% off at Archivers.I love these kits!

Mom and I are going to a Valentine's Day workshop at Archivers tomorrow! Afterwards, I will hit up the St. Louis Teachers Recycling Center in Chesterfield Mall.I always find need vintage bits of paper to craft with. At only 1$ per pound, its the cheapest shoping of the day! I found some old kid's books at Goodwill the other day. I wanted to use the pages to made paper balls.

I used my Martha Stewart circle cutter to cut 5 inch and 3 inch circles. I scored each 3 times and glued them together. I did use some of my old Vintage Findings paper to add color. The large ball is heavier than expected and when hung, half kept falling off. I ended up stapling it together after re-gluing it several times. Tonight I am excited to get some more pics printed from our trip to work on. Its January 6th and like 60 degrees out. We have the windows open and can hear the kids run by screaming.

Kitty won't sleep on me but next to me in his box!