Watch this space...

I know I haven't been posting much, and I probably won't be for a bit, but fun things are coming!  My dear Grandpa Tarbet is turning 80 at the end of this month, and we are putting on a great big bash for him.  I'm up to my elbows in centerpieces and guestbook and all sorts of decor and working like crazy, but I won't be able to post it all until after the party!  So check back after the 30th -- I hope you'll dig what I'm coming up with as much as I am!  And just as a little sneak peek, here is the invitation:

I used the digital version of Echo Park's "For the Record" collection to create this, then we had them printed at Costco.  That is a great way to do custom invitations, by the way -- nice big 6" x 7 1/2" cards are only $14.99 for 50, including envelopes!  I create it digitally or traditionally (but just one), then use the blank card  template to upload my own design.  Quick, easy, and very inexpensive for such fancy invitations!

Winner! Plus my new obsession -- Pinterest!

First off, I'm very pleased to announce a winner for last week's "Growing in Unity" party!  Our randomly chosen winner is Carol, who said:

Carol, I'll be emailing you soon with your prize info!

And now, on to my favorite new thing -- Pinterest!

Have you heard of it yet?  Chances are you have, and either you're already an addict (like I am), or you're wondering what it's all about.

If you're like me, you love to cruise around different blogs and online stores and whatnot, gathering inspiration and just enjoying the eye candy.  And you bookmark things you don't want to forget, projects you want to try, etc. -- but then you forget all about those things once they're tucked away in your bookmark folder.

Well, Pinterest is pure awesome for visual people like us. It's like a virtual pin board, so you can keep track of all the awesome things you see online -- crafts, recipes, home decor, books to read, vacations you'd like to take, anything you like. That way you can SEE everything you've bookmarked, instead of just bookmarking it in your browser and then forgetting it.  You can set up categories however you like, so it's always easy to see at a glance whatever you're trying to find.  This is what my own board looks like right this second:

As you can see, I'm just getting started in some categories, and in others I'm already going hog wild. :)

It's also a fun social sharing thing, because you can follow other people whose taste you like, and others can follow you. I have been having so much fun finding new people to follow and getting TONS of inspiration. If you want to check out what I've been pinning, you can take a look here.  Lots of the best bloggers are becoming Pinterest junkies (like Shelley from House of Smiths -- LOVE everything she pins!), and you never know who else you might find that you love.  My sister-in-law's mom, for instance, is one of the most prolific pinners every, and I get a ton of inspiration from her.  Oh, and one nice thing is that you don't have to follow every category a person creates.  I have a friend who is a teacher and pins a lot of classroom ideas -- I don't really need those, so I don't follow that board, but I do love the other stuff she pins.  It's great that it's not an all-or-nothing follower thing.

Let me know if you want an invite and I'll send you one! (I think the invite thing is kind of a gimmick, because I've never heard of anyone NOT getting invited if they click "request an invite," but it does usually take a few days. If someone invites you, I think you can join up immediately.)

So come play with me!  (And the gazillion other people having fun there.)  This isn't any kind of a sponsored post -- I'm just so in love with it that I can't help sharing the fun!

What I've been squeezing in...

Hey, y'all!  I know my posts have been few and far between lately.  I've been working away on some fun projects that are not quite done yet, and mostly I've been trying to get our house organized.

Organization is SO not my strong point.  In fact, it's probably my weakest point.  So I am very proud of what I've accomplished so far and I wanted to show you my food storage closet:

All organized by type of food, and it even has labels.  Labels, people!  I'm so proud of myself.  I wish I had taken a before picture, but just imagine this closet with spaghetti sauce behind the paper towels and so many bags of fishy crackers on the floor that you couldn't even get in.  Oh, and also with flimsy shelves that were so overloaded they were seriously in danger of collapsing at any second.  My awesome hubby came up with these great braces and I'm no longer in fear of my life going in there.  He's actually the one who has inspired me to get to work on the house -- he's already checked off nearly everything on his summer to-do list!

I have also been working on our garage, where I have a terrible habit of opening the door from the mud room and just throwing stuff in.  Somehow it did not magically disappear, but waited patiently, gathering cat hair, until I came to clean it out.  There are labels out there, too.  Go me!  I do feel very accomplished, but man, it's seriously cutting into my craft time!

Now I'm putting all the organization on hold and getting ready for our vacation to California!  Dan's grandpa's 80th b-day, Disneyland, the beach -- it's going to be awesome.  I'll have several great things to show you after we get back!

A little way to help...

We have all been saddened by the horrific scenes in Japan since the earthquake and tsunami and the ongoing problems from them, and I know I have been touched by the many, many ways in which people are reaching out to help.

The amazing Cheri from I am Momma, Hear Me Roar has come up with her own brilliant plan to motivate us all to donate by sharing a really beautiful pattern for a new bag for anyone who makes a humanitarian donation of at least $8.  You can read all the details here. 

I know that there is so little that I can do in the face of so much suffering, but I also truly believe that even my little contribution will alleviate the suffering of at least one person in some way.

"If ye have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have done it unto me."  -- Matthew 25:40 (emphasis added)

If you subscribe via email...

I've just switched my email subscriptions from Feedblitz to Feedburner, which my rockstar blogger brother assures me will make all our lives easier. :)  If you'd like to receive updates when I post through your email, would you please take a moment to sign up (or re-sign up) using the link on the left?  Thanks so much!

Thanks to you...

This is just a quick little post to let you know that I won the t-shirt design contest!  Many thanks to those who took the time to vote -- I really appreciate you!  Here's the design that won (and I was totally glad because this is my fave!):




Can't wait to see this on everyone's t-shirts at the Expo!

Thanks again!

Saying goodbye to scraps...

I have these little drawers that I keep my scraps in, all color-coded and handy.  I love diving into them and finding just the right little bits for a card or layout.  But after my last few crafting forays, I had to admit to myself that the time had come to clean them out, mostly because I literally could not close them anymore.  Well, I still had some room in the purple drawer and the yellow drawer, but blue and green?  Forget it. 

I don't know why it was so hard for me to say goodbye to all those old scraps!  Most of it was paper that is totally outdated, or that I had already made several projects from and I wasn't likely to go back to again.  But going through them was seriously a trip down memory lane, remembering all the fun layouts and mini-albums and cards I'm made over the past few years.  I felt almost disloyal throwing them out!  I have a problem, I know...

So am I alone in this?  Does anyone else out there hang on to scraps of pretty paper because they're emotionally attached to them?  It's okay if you don't, I already know I'm a little weird...

A little help, pretty please?

***If you are here for the ScrapbookPal.com Blog Hop, please scroll down...***

Oh, I'm so excited!  The ScrapbookUSA Expo is coming up in March, and it is a sacred weekend to me.  This time around they had a t-shirt design contest, and TWO of my designs made the finals!  They decided to put it to a vote on Facebook, so I am here shamelessly begging for your help!  If you are on Facebook and you have an extra moment, please become a fan of ScrapbookUSA Expo, then scroll down to their pictures on the left-hand side.  Mine are the first two of the four designs.  Here is what they look like:

And here is number 2:

I actually submitted 6 different designs for the contest (hey, I was on a roll, okay?), and I thought you might like to see the others as well.

If you like any of these, I'm going to be putting them in my Zazzle shop on t-shirts (minus the ScrapbookUSA info, of course).

Once again, thank you SO much for your help!  I can't even tell you how excited I am to have made the finals and possibly get to see my designs on everyone's t-shirts at the expo!  I do most of my graphic design work for clients via email and I don't very often get to see my designs off the computer screen, so this would be super cool! :)  And if you're in the Utah area, you should join us for the Expo!  We have a group that gets together at the Expo all day Friday, and then Saturday we go to Archivers to scrapbook our little hearts out.  It's so much fun, and we're always looking for new friends to join the group!

Hope you're having a wonderful day -- don't forget to check out the Valentine's Blog Hop I posted earlier today!

TIME -- My prayer for 2011

If you've ever sat next to me in class, in a meeting, or most definitely at church, you know I'm a doodler.  Big time.  As in, I can't listen to what a presenter is saying if my hand isn't sketching something out.  I never leave home without my notebook and a mechanical pencil.  Usually it's word art, whatever I'm thinking about or what is going on at the time.  Last Sunday my two little ones stayed home sick from church, which allowed me to -- gasp! -- actually sit and listen and ponder during the service.  I know, who does that?  Not mothers of 2-year-olds.  Anyway, I was thinking about time and how we never know what moment might be our last.  This is what I doodled while I was thinking, and I like it so much I thought I would share this little part of myself with you.  This is how I want to live my life.  Let's all make the most of the time God gives to us!

Have a happy day!

Project Life 2011 -- My Approach

I did it!  I ordered my 2011 Project Life kit by Becky Higgins.  I've heard a lot about it, but I've never taken the plunge because I knew there was no way I could follow through with taking a picture every day for a year.  But after watching the video at the link above, I was really impressed by how flexible the kit is meant to be.  You can do a picture a day, or a few a week, or month, or whatever.  It comes with all sorts of goodies, and it's really beautiful.  And I DO want to document my family's life, and more than just the few layouts I actually get completed each year.  So I am going to do it!  I probably won't get in a picture every day, but I'm going to do as much as I can.  I'll still do regular scrapbook pages, too, and add them into the binder.  I'm going to get it all set up in advance, so it's just ready to go, as Becky suggests in this video.


But my next question was: how do I approach this big project?  How do I make it meaningful?


I've been thinking a lot lately about how I can improve my own relationship with God.  I get so caught up in the day-to-day craziness of life that I let that slide way more than I should.  I want to see the hand of God in my life and feel it in my heart, not just know it in my head.  I've also been thinking about gratitude and how it can shape our whole outlook on life.  Those two ideas have merged to give me a clear focus for my Project Life challenge, and I'm sharing it with you here so that it becomes a real commitment.


I am going to use my Project Life kit record the "tender mercies" that God gives our family this year.  I know there will be lots of little things and maybe some big things, too.  I pray that, as I look for these moments, God will open my eyes to everything He does for me and for my family.  When my family looks through this year's album, I want them to feel God's love for them as much as we feel our love for each other.  What an incredible gift that will be!

I can't wait for my big white box to arrive!

P.S.  Are any of you doing Project Life this year?  Do you have your own strategies for this kind of everyday life scrapbooking?  I would love your input!

A little of this, a little of that...

As you may have noticed, I changed the title of my blog!  It used to be "I Love Pretty Paper," and while that is still most assuredly true, I decided that it just didn't tell the whole story anymore.  I have been discovering and loving a whole lot of other kinds of projects, too, and I'm excited to share all kinds of new things with you.  Also, now I have three kids and a lot more other "stuff" on my plate, my crafting time seems to get smaller and smaller.  I know you all feel the same squeeze that I do, too!  So this new title seemed especially appropriate -- aren't we all trying to just squeeze in as much as we can?

This project highlights things that I really love:  pretty paper (of course!), a fabulous flower accessory, and getting a lot of bang for your buck in the shortest amount of time possible!  This is a gift I made for my sister's birthday.  I LOVE how this card turned out -- it's the perfect design for using up scraps of coordinating papers, and it was so quick to put together.  I designed it on my Cricut Gypsy, and because the pieces are so small, I designed it to cut out enough for four cards.  It took almost no time to put the four cards together, and now I have extras in my stash.  Yay!

I made the lace flower accessory based on the tutorial HERE at Aly&Ash, found via UCreate.  Have you checked out UCreate?  It is a fantastic site for crafters -- she sifts through all the fun projects and tutorials in blogland and shows off the cutest stuff.  Following a blog like this one is a great way to make the most of the time you have!  I added some tulle to the bottom and top layers of my flower, just to boost the glam appeal for my super-fabulous sister.  I added an alligator clip and a pin-back, so that she can wear it any which way. I love it!

I hope you are all having a terrific day, and that you find some time to squeeze in a little creativity yourself!

Changes coming soon!

Hello, readers!  I'm working on some fun changes on my blog, so stay tuned!  I'll soon have a new look and a fun new tutorial to share.  Hope you're having a great day!

Creativity is God's Gift to Us

I recently came across this video, and it really touched me. I do believe that creativity is God's gift to us and that we ALL have the capacity to create, even if our talents don't fall into the realm of what is usually considered creative. For those of us who love to make beautiful things and make other's happy -- I'm talking to you, all my scrapping and card-making friends out there -- it makes me feel even better about using my time and talents this way.

ARGH! My camera is missing!

I'm sure all you scrappers and bloggers alike with commiserate with me when I tell you that MY CAMERA IS MISSING! I haven't seen it since last Sunday, and it's making me cuh-razy. (This is also why I haven't posted any new projects to my blog -- I have no camera for taking pictures!) I especially need to find it because my in-laws are coming for a visit and Eliza's about to turn 6 months old. Oh, the cuteness pending at our house! So if you happen to see a black and silver camera floating around, it might just be mine! :)

Bits and Pieces

I realized I never did show the fun projects I made as Christmas presents. This first one is my favorite -- The quote slips into photo corners, and there's an envelope on the back of the frame with a bunch more quotes so my SIL can change them out from time to time. I love how it turned out! I started with a $1 frame from Michaels, then used Basic Grey paper -- LOVE this Ambrosia line -- Fancy Pants chipboard, and a Making Memories Pin. The butterfly is cut from some of the PP. I designed the quote on my computer.


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My second project was something special for my mom and dad. This is to hang by a pretty tile portrait of my sister Carissa, who passed away last spring. I took an MDF plaque, spray painted the bottom layer with gold, then added crackle finish before applying the cream layer. I love the effect of the gold peeking through the cream. I cut the vinyl with my Cricut and Sure Cuts a Lot.

It's no secret that I love a challenge blog -- it seems like the only time I get projects done is if I have a deadline! And thanks to my new scrappin' friend Brooke Stockman (whose blog is very much worth checking out on its own), I've discovered two new blogs I'll definitely be participating in:

Mojo Monday -- a new card challenge every Monday, with prizes the first Monday of each month

Cinema Saturday Creative Challenge -- weekly challenges using great movies as inspiration. I think this one will really get my creative juices flowing!

Sorry I've been MIA...

... but I have a good excuse! Our little cutie Eliza was born last Wednesday, and she has us all wrapped around her very little finger. If you'd like to see pics, feel free to check out my family blog. I should be able to find some time for crafting again soon (at least I hope so -- I'm already having withdrawals!), so stay tuned!

Well, that was a bust...

I learned an important lesson today -- a beautiful sunny Saturday in July is not a good time to host a boutique, no matter how much publicity you do for it. :( I was so disappointed in the turnout at the boutique today! We had maybe 10 people show up (maybe 15 if you count my nephew and the guys that came with my mom and sisters -- thanks Reubz and Dave!). Since I did over 200 invitations, advertised on KSL and craigslist, and invited almost 100 people via Facebook, plus made huge signs to go all over the neighborhood, it was very disheartening. Mostly I just felt really bad for all the other vendors given up their Saturday for so little result. It was a darn good thing my mom did come -- I think she was the main buyer for just about everyone there!

But, looking on the bright side, it at least motivated me to get my house really clean. Now maybe we can keep it that way until Eliza's born (hmmm, 5 more weeks? Here's hoping!). And I did have fun getting ready for it, with all the fun projects I did. Oh, and my sweet hubby painted my bedroom today (I think he was trying to escape from all the girly-ness in the rest of the house) and it looks so much better! So the day was definitely not a total loss. Thanks for letting me vent!

New Things Coming Soon!

Sorry I've been absent for a few days -- I have been very busy with a SWARM (a Cricut crop) last weekend and getting ready for the big boutique here at my house on Saturday. I made a ton of fun stuff at the SWARM, and as soon as I can get the pictures taken I'll post them! This afternoon, though, I've really got to get going on distributing flyers for the boutique -- don't forget to come if you're in the area! Here's the info (click on the flyer for a larger image):

Great new blog!

You know I love a good sketch, and I am so excited about this new blog: 2 Sketches 4 You. Kazan and Laura are two immensely talented designers, and they're teaming up to release weekly sketches with challenges and prizes. You can bet this will be a frequent stop for me when I'm in need of a little inspiration. Check it out!

Exciting News!

Okay, by now everyone who regularly checks out my blog has probably already heard this, but just in case you missed out...

WE ARE HAVING A GIRL!

I'm just a wee little bit excited, if you call jumping around like a crazy woman and giggling giddily every time I think about it a wee little bit. :) Stay tuned for lots of girly projects to come!

In other news...

Happy National Scrapbook Day! May 3rd is the big day, and I am hoping to get in some fun projects. My friend Robyn is going to host a big celebration over on her blog with challenges and goodies and more of her amazing tutorial videos, so be sure to check that out at The Pink Stamper. That's where I'll be hanging out! My goal for tomorrow (since it always helps to make a goal public) is to get the boys' birthday layouts done. I've had them planned since the end of December but things keep getting in the way. No more!