Loving this month's Counterfeit Kits!

I think I am just worn down from the holidays.  It has been difficult for me to work up any excitement about anything...even in my scrapbooking.

I'm enjoying showing off our kits in a HOP format this year.  You should have come from Susanne's Blog.  If you want to see a complete list of the hop, please go to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge.
We have picked some fun kits PACKED FULL of scrappy goodness for this month!  One thing you will notice is that they are very paper/journaling heavy and not so much on the dementional embellishments.  We will just have to be creative with our layering and foam squares, won't we?

We picked kits from Scrapbook Circle for our inspiration this month.  There are so many great kits that we had to pick two:  You + Me  and  Note to Self. 

I recklessly picked through my sets of paper (I rarely buy single sheets, but prefere kits) and pulled whatever I thought would work.

I LOVE the typewriter paper, but had a horrible time trying to recreate it, so I gave up and picked some paper airplane paper that I already had.  That led me to make some of the papers in my kit more boy friendly.  I think I came up with a nice mix that will work for both of my kid's pages.

Eventually I had to stop making journaling spots.  This kit is FULL of them!  Now there is no exuse for me not to write more this month.

For my second kit, I decided to wing it!  I glanced at the Scrapbook Circle Kit and then got out what I wanted in my kit.  LOL  So no real inspiration there at all except for the theme.

I have some great K & Co. paper from two years ago (maybe?) that I still LOVE!  The Crossword puzzle paper is from Sassafrass Lass and I have been itching to use it .

Yes, you see that correctly.  Look VERY closely and you will notice several little jars of brads and eyelets.  I think it is about time I started using them again.  Do you see the cute owls I added in, too?  My friend Pam made them for me last year, as cupcake toppers.  Of course throwing them out when we were done was out of the question.  LOL  the kids are lucky they got to be on the cupcakes at all!



Now head on over to Meridy's Blog to see what she put together.  I bet she doesn't have owls, though.

It's a party in here!

I love confetti!  It is so fun and festive.  And messy.  And a pain to clean up.  And you always miss some and are finding it weeks later in the strangest places...I hate confetti.

Depsite that.  I decided to give the confetti challenge a go.

I LOVE all of the desingers for Paper Trey Ink and check out their blog regularly.  (If you haven't checked any of them out, you really should...very inspiring!)

I noticed that Heather has a great tuturial for shaker cards on her blog: Pine is Here and decided to make one.  Mine did not come out nearly as cute as hers, but it is not too bad.

Here is her video, but PLEASE head over to her site.  Really.  You will not be sorry.  I LOVE her projects!

And here is my very loose intrepretation.  (Seriously, I feel the need to buy every one of the products in her video...oh, that my budget would let me...)

Have you tried shaker cards lately?  Did you find them hard or easy?

My scrappy friend Queen Pam joined me in the challenge and I LOVE her card!  I never would have thought of this!

Way to Rock the Challenge, Pam!

What a month!

So much to get done!  Where does the time go?  I feel like I am playing hide and seek with my blog.  LOL  At least I am getting all of my posting done on the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog, right?  That counts for something!

I have MADE some time to scrapbook this month.

This is my cat, Bailey (we had to put her down this past summer).  I was not prepared for how much I miss her!  I used my new Jenni Bowlin ribbon punch and made the red/blue embellishments on the side.  I am going to make a banner with it in the near future...so many uses!  I'm glad I got it.

It was great fun to use up some of my scraps.  I did an overhaul (you will hear more about that later) of my scrap paper and have been using it up so much more!  I can't wait to tell you what I did!

I have a head cold, so this page ended up simple, but done.  LOL  I just could not think about it any more, so there you go.

A friend came over this week and we made some Magnet Boards out of baking sheets.  I made this one to match my room.  Collin has requested one for his lego magnets and Isabel has asked for one to put special cards on.  I'm thinking this one needs some butterfly magnets, don't you?

I'm sorry my pictures are so bad.  I just don't have the energy to bother right now, to be honest.

January Kit Reveal Blog Hop!

It is a brand new year for the Counterfeit Kit Challenge Blog!  We have tweeked a few things and are excited to see how our second year grows!  This year we are adding a blog hop to the beginning of the month so you can get some inspiration to put YOUR kits together!

To start at the beginning of the hop, please go HERE.  The order of the hop is there as well in case you get a bit turned around.

We picked Cocoa Daisy's December 2011 Kits to inspire us for this month!

You can check out pictures of the kits HERE or on our blog (I'm not sure how long Cocoa Daisy will keep their pictures up).

I picked one large kit and one small kit to counterfeit for this month.  I have a sneaking suspicion that I will be attempting at least one more kit before January is over.

Here is my take on the AMBER SNOWFLAKE kit:

I was VERY excited with how my ruler paper came out!  I have always wondered what to do with that stamp, but was never inspired before.  I think I will be making this paper over and over again!

The bikes did not come out quite like I had it in my head, but it still works.  I would have love to have added some red to it, but wanted a more neutral paper in my kit.

I especially like the snowflakes I added to my kit.  I cut them out on my Cricut and used some Kraft cardstock. 

My next kit to Counterfeit is AMBER SNOWFLAKES:

I love the yellow/gray/black combo.  I think I may add some pops of red to it, maybe in the title.

Next up on our hop is Meridy!  Go see what beautiful kit she has created!

It is time to ORGANIZE!

You do not have to know me well to know that I am an organizing fanatic.  Yep.  I am one of those freaks individuals who thinks organizing/purging things is FUN!  Are you with me?

I have TWO, yes, TWO day planners plus an online calendar and look forward to filling them in each week.  It is my time to clear my mind and get ready for my week.  Happy Sigh.

My plan for this year is to reorganize and purge EVERYTHING in our house/garage!  It is totally doable with:
1.  The right storage (for us bookcases and clear plastic shoe boxes are working)
2.  Just redoing one thing every few days.  No pressure!

I am going to share some old favorites of mine as well as some new discoveries for the new year!  Have fun sorting through them to see what will work for you!

Favorite Online Calendar:
Cozi

Favorite Paper Calendar:
Mom's Plan It Calendar

Printable Organizing Lists:
Project Girl
My Simpler Life
Organized Home
Mommy Tracked
Simple Organized Living

Online Help:
2 Peas Organizing Thread/Facebook page
Flylady
Sane Spaces
Unclutter

Do you have any great organizing ideas/sites?  I would LOVE to see them!

Christmas Countdown Day 12 - 15!

Is it a good thing that I have been too busy DOING to post?  LOL  So, let's go....

Day 12:  choose a new family ornament

Yeah, that did not work out so well.  We did not find ANYTHING we liked.  Then we had a brilliant idea...we'll do a family "house" collection instead.  Those, however, were hard to find, so we will be going out on Saturday to buy our first little collectable house.  I will add a photo then.  :)

Day 13: Make a nativity and a train

This was fun!  I found two sites with some great demensional printables:
Printable Paper Train
Printable Natvity

Day 14: An early stocking stuffer

I have been done with stockings for a while, but just found two things that will in no way fit (and I forgot I bought last year), so guess what we gave them today?  Collin got a Narnia character and Isabel got a Hello Kitty puzzle.

Day 15: Christmas in Canada

Yep.  Canada.  Now don't get me wrong, I like Canada, but man, their traditions are not that far off from ours.  I did some reasearch and asked a few Canadian friends and came up with a not too scary menu.

Before dinner we pulled some Christmas crackers.  We found them at Target and all loved them!  Collin got a whoopie cushion and a car....Isabel got a mini flashlight and a tape measure....Billy got some mini screwdrivers...and I got...wait for it....nail clippers.  (You may OHHH and AHHHH now.)

I could not find a different enough main course that everyone would eat, so we stuck with chicken pot pie, poutine (fries with mozzerella and beef gravy) and butter tart squares for dessert.  I was the only one who like the poutine...but the butter tart squares.  YUMMY!  I was sad I had to share them.

Christmas Countdown Day 11

Tag for Day 11:  Go See Christmas Lights

But not just ANY Christmas lights...THESE Christmas Lights

Christmas on Greenview Video

We LOVE them...and each year the kids get more and more into it.

I do not have a good enough camera to capture good pictures of fast moving lights, so I snagged some pics. off their website to use in my album.  I got the pictures from here:  Christmas on Greenview Drive Photo Gallery