This is my first card in a couple of months…

I have a girlfriend from work that is getting married soon and so I made this card for our whole company to sign and give with her gift card. I decided that I was tired of always having to cram everyone’s impersonal signatures onto one card. Is it just me, or is it super annoying when cards come with tons of images that you end up having to write over just to fit the whole group on one card!? So I slipped a second card base in the center of the first base and adhered the backsides to one another — creating a three flap card. On the inside I decided to do a some light stamping with baby pink ink just to tie it all together…

Stamps used are Papertrey Ink and the card base is 8 x 4.” Hope you like it! Challenges Used:

• A Spoonful of Sugar: Best Wishes (and Good Luck)
• Bee Crafty: Pink n Girly
• The Secret Crafter: Wedding/Anniversary

So here are a few snapshots of my month along with some projects/moments/recipes/happy times. Enjoy.

Do you ever wish that you could have less stuff, less to do and more time to enjoy life? Well, I do and I recently realized something…. in order to be content you need to live simply. God has blessed us with so many things in our lives and if you think about each thing that blesses you immensely every time it is a part of your life, it is most likely something very simple.

• Family
• Love
• Creation
• Romance
• Sunshine
• Photos
• Laughter
• Friends
• Spending time with God
• Doing things that you enjoy
• Yummy food

There are so many things that could be on that list… but most of those things are free and quite easily obtained. So that is where my focus has been. My prayer is that I would spend more time with God in His Word and in prayer, spend more time with my family, friends and those in need, keep my activities simple instead of trying to over do things, and get outside!

So in a nutshell the month of May was filled with LOTS of new recipes: Ginger Steak Salad (A+++), Lemon Sugar Cookies (A+) using my new Message in a Cookie cutters from William Sonoma!, No Yeast Pizza Crust (A), Thai Chicken Coconut Soup (A+++) — and that is just 1/4 of the new recipes that I tried out (should be posting some more soon). OH, OH! And I also am happy to announce my brand new baby!!!! My KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer — get ready for some more recipes from scratch, my friends!

May was NOT filled with very much scrapbooking… I have been trying to get things done in our Wedding Book at Tiny Prints| My Canvas so that we can have it printed up by our 4 year anniversary coming up in August. However, I do plan on working on a few Card Sets to get up in my Etsy Shop soon! We shared some special times with our mamas for Mother’s day… Santa Barbara was a beautiful time and I look forward to many visits this summer! Also, our favorite show, LOST, concluded with a lovely series finale — hence the photo above of our “Dharma” soda pops and fruit salad in a pineapple bowl during the show. Let me tell you, it was a beautiful finale… I cried, laughed, screamed (no joke!) and even Garrett admits that he shed a tear! The Thai Chicken Coconut Soup was our dinner during LOST and it was absolutely amazing! Both Gare and I love Thai and this  recipe is definitely going into the recipe box for the future (though that may be awhile considering that the sun decided to come out today and probably wont be leaving any time soon :)

Oh and we cant forget my precious nephew, Levi, who is now 4 months old! I had a chance to have him over for about an hour and just spend some quality time with the cutie until he was worn out and passed out in my arms (yes, I was in heaven…). And that is the sweet image I will leave you all with today… come back soon!

The Embellish color challenge this week is so perfect for Springy or Easter cards! These colors totally make me think of Mother’s because they are such bright, loving people in our lives — so I couldnt resist using it for my Mother in Laws birthday card! Along with the challenge, you also had to use a border or borders on your project. I simply used my new scalloped edge border punch at the bottom of the card and added a green strip of cardstock on the inside of the card so that it would add to the border. I also included the challenge from Cute Card Tuesday – Ribbon-Tastic. I’m sure you can guess what that means! I simply crossed two ribbons at the same length in an X and adhered to the card. Easy peasy!

First and foremost, my precious new nephew was born yesterday afternoon– Levi Jett Plaster. He is SO adorable! That makes four handsome nephews for Garrett and I, and we love them dearly. Not to mention the fact that they are great birth control for the time being :) After watching our 2 year old nephew for the last two days (while mom had the baby), we both are very grateful for our free time!

And next, I made the If The Shoe Fits… Scrap It! Design Team! I really applied for this position on a whim because I had just finished my time with Pile It On. I had very few expectations on this one but I am so stoked to have made the team! Looking forward to sharing all of my creations with you all! This week’s challenge was to use the following ad as inspiration in some way. I bet you would have never guessed where my imagination went after first reviewing the ad! I knew exactly what I wanted to go for — Fashion! I have also been wanting to play with hearts lately, so I figured this was my chance (See other challenges used below)! Check out the results!

Other challenges used:

• Papertake Weekly: Pink
• Belli Challenge: Hearts
• Your Next Stamp: Anything that Sparkles
• Crazy 4 Challenges: Pretty in Pink

Today, I got to watch my little nephew, Seth. I had about two hours with him and decided to bake some sugar cookies with him. He absolutely loves cookies (not to mention frosting and sprinkles!), so it was the perfect activity. I couldn’t resist snapping some photos of our little surprise for mom and dad so naturally I needed to share them here too. Enjoy the slideshow! (And check back soon to see them scrapped!)

This week, Die Cuts R Us and Tuesday Taggers challenged us to use our Christmas Leftovers to create. So here are my little Thank you cards that I got from the few small scraps that I had leftover this year! Super simple and fun. I pulled out my border punches and my scalloped circle punch to get the most out of my scraps. The Belli Challenge was to use Rhinstones — and how can you not when you are playing with snowflakes :)

Today we are patiently waiting for my sister in law to have her precious little baby! She was due last Thursday, so as you can imagine, she is getting a little anxious :) Praying for a smooth delivery and healthy mom and baby in the end! There are A LOT of babies coming in to this world this year, not sure I can keep up with them all, but I am surely enjoying all the crafty things I get to do for them!

Have a Happy Monday!

This is a quick simple solution of mine for a Moving Announcement. Inspired by the heavy packing boxes, I used Kraft cardstock and then the acrylic stamp set from Close To My Heart called Neighborhood (C1384). I hopped onto Photoshop and created the postcard, stamped the fence image in Bamboo ink (CTMH) and popped up the black house image using foam squares. I think it turned out pretty cute.

{Apologies for the bad photo, taken in the evening!}

This is simple to do- just click on the link at the end of the post on each blog to move to the next one! Here we go!

This was a quickie but a cutie! I love SO much of the new product in the Idea Book that it was tough to pick out which papers to use on this card, but the Veranda paper pack  is just so lovely and soft, I could not resist. The stamp set used is also a must have for any stamper! Great for added detail and background fun!

Papers: CTMH Veranda Paper Pack

Stamps: D1410 One of a Kind

This was your last stop on the Blog Hop but be sure to visit all the Consultants at their Blogs to get some great crafting ideas and see the great new Paper Packs, My Acrylix Stamp Sets, and amazing new embellishments! If you did not start from the very beginning of the hope, go here to Erin’s Blog.

You can purchase any of these items by contacting me directly, or from my CTMH website!

**Link not working? Missed a Blog? Here is a list of all the participants in the New Product Blog Hop!

Erin Herring www.tazzygirl2000.blogspot.com
Lisa Stenz http://www.lisascreativecorner.blogspot.com
Brae Montogmery http://thebrae-er.blogspot.com
Carla Ironside http://carlacreates.blogspot.com
Helen Onulak www.hookedonstamping.com
Adeline Brill http://adeline-brill.blogspot.com
Jody Gustafson www.cre8nmemories.blogspot.com
Haley Dyer www.inkyscrapper.blogspot.com
Antoinette Herrin www.godblessyourART.blogspot.com
Sherrie Thornton http://impressionableart.blogspot.com
Jessica Moore http://jessicaspaperpetals.blogspot.com
Wendy Kessler www.myscrapbookingblog.com
Dawn Ross http://iamahappystamper.blogspot.com
Dawn Heuft www.stamptildawn.blogspot.com
Kimberly Smith http://verykimberry.blogspot.com
Amy Edwards www.paisleysplayhouse.blogspot.com
Amy Schultz http://amylizschultz.com

Through college I worked as a Preschool TA and Camp Counselor, so I was constantly active — super great for my physique and health, but as soon as I got married it all went downhill from there. I started a birth control that threw my entire body into a haze! I had extreme heat flashes, the bottoms of my feet were rock hard and I put on a whopping 30 lbs in a matter of 4 months. Now that is just not normal. I went to the Doctor and had that changed… from that moment on I felt back to normal. But that didn’t mean that I went and magically lost the 30 lbs that the previous birth control had graced me with (note the sarcasm here); the Doctor specifically noted that this would not reverse any of the effects, simply stop them. Wow, what horrible news. Ever since then I have tried and tried again to eat better, workout on a consistent basis and I still have never really been able to attack it.

After I got off of birth control for good, I started going to Weight Watchers with my parents and we all had great results. After the first 3 months, I had lost 18 lbs! I was SO happy and felt SO amazingly good. I maintained that weight loss for a good 9 months (yay for me!) but in the mean time, I had acquired a shoulder injury and it was not so easy to keep up with my regular cardio workouts (walking was even tough somedays). That is when it went downhill (again). Four months later, I had gained back about 4 lbs. Two months after that it was about 15 lbs (scary fast, huh?!). And just 1 month after that I was back at my old starting weight. Devastating to say the least. So here I am, just wondering how I can get back on track — but not wanting to do the whole, lose weight, gain weight thing again, and I found this book!

It is called Master Your Metabolism by Jillian Michaels (of The Biggest Loser). I didn’t want one of her workout books because I know she is beyond crazy! I grabbed this one because it holds every tid bit that she has learned over her years of research and weight loss. Did you know that she was not always perfect? It is true. She struggled with her weight her whole life (just like me!) and that is what intrigued me. I guess, I just want to know that I am not alone here. I have only read the Introduction and Chapters 1-2 but I am already extremely motivated, freaked out and just completely amazed with the knowledge I have acquired.

I would have never guessed that my stressful mindset and lifestyle could make me gain weight — or lack of sleep/relaxation, processed foods, pollution, toxins in the air……. yes, the list goes on. All of these things are in every one of our lives. If you want to be literally ’scared’ into living healthy, get this book — NOW! This isn’t just for those who want to lose weight (though that is a huge portion of the book) but its for those who want to live healthy lifestyles, running away from the crazy toxins that were placed into our lives only within the last 30 years or so. Intrigued yet? I hope so. Let me know what you think of this book if you do end up reading it; would love the input!

Thanks for letting me share my story and bearing with me. It feels good to get it all out — now to bed to start anew!

{P.S. No, I have not turned Vegetarian or Organic over night — I have much too little self control for that– I am simply excited!}

And of course, how fitting it was that Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #21 was to use Soft Yellow, Light Aqua, Chocolate and Cream. It was the perfect combo to go with the adorable yellow stuffed giraffe that I got the precious babe. I threw in the Kraft cardstock because I can’t seem to resist it these days. Come back next month to see what the cute little blessing looks like! I am sure to have plenty of projects to make for him or her once they are born.

P.S. My sister-in-law is due this week!!!! Praying that the baby won’t wait too long and the delivery goes perfectly…

The lovely Mommy-to-be herself…

Other Challenges Completed:

• ABC Challenge – Layering
• Belli Challenge — Glitter or Rhinestones