Snips and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails

The old adage "Better late than never" definitely applies to my scrapbook intentions.  Here's a page I did of my first-born son who is going to be 17 years old this year. In the pictures below he has the collection of the vintage-style Pooh and Friends plush toys. I tried to make my baby kiss the animals for the pic. But just like a boy he thought throwing his plush toys across the room, pulling them apart, and chewing on them was much more fun. Thus...snips and snails...came to mind when I scrapped the pics.

I love Winnie the Pooh! While growing up we lived very frugally so I never actually owned a stuffed Pooh Bear. He seemed elusive to me as if he were a toy only for people who had money because it was only my wealthier friends who owned Pooh. I remember even back in the 70s an average-sized Pooh cost about $12 which was very costly. There was also an enormous Pooh bear on display at Sears.  If I recall correctly he must have been 6-ft tall in the sitting position. Every time we went shopping I would throw myself on him. Kids were always climbing poor ole Pooh.  I was very sad when they took the display down.

Although we didn't have many toys, we did have books thanks to my mom's connection at Treasury Drug where she was a cashier.  The magazine/book man gave her and the other employees books after he ripped the covers off.  My mom informed me that the publishers only required the covers to return and the book man was going to throw the books away. So every once in a while my mom would come home with a box of assorted books in all genres including children's books, romance, non-fiction, fiction, and dramatic books like "Mommy Dearest".  In the mountain of books we received there was one precious Winnie the Pooh book.  It was that book in which I fell in love with Pooh and Piglet. I wanted to live in the magical 100-Acre Wood with them. I often stared at the illustrations trying to will myself into the book.  So when I was pregnant I was excited to buy everything that had Pooh Bear on it.  My mom and sisters even threw a Pooh Bear baby shower for me. I wanted to bring the 100-Acre Wood into my home where my baby and I could go on fun adventures together just like Pooh and Piglet.  

The word "snips" is for a small eel.

Alice in Wonderland Teacup Card

It's December and every weekend in my calendar has already been filled with plans. After being sick for a month I've just started feeling slightly "normal" again. Unfortunately, now that I feel better I have become aware of the state of my house and closet which made me feel bad all over again. You know when you're sick you really don't care about the state of the house. So when you feel better you're like "Ugh! My blinders are gone!!" It's Christmas time and it's a season of having fun so I decided to ignore the dust and make my sister a birthday card instead. 

Since I couldn't find any teacups in my Cricut cartridges I googled "teacup templates" and found many images.  After going through several sites I found this pretty teacup template through a blog hop.  The creator is Melisa Waldorf. I am always so grateful when people share their cool stuff for free.

 I printed this out and enlarged it on my printer to 180%. 

 I traced the template onto a pretty piece of paper and cut it out using both scissors and an exacto knife.

 Shade the edges.

 My first screw up is choosing thin paper instead of cardstock.  I had to add another layer of paper inside so the paper would not curl. 

I also used Stickles Platinum on the edges.

 I used foam dots so Alice would be more prominent.

Alice is from Disney Classics Cricut cartridge.  The flowers are buttons I got on sale at Aaron Bros.

My sister is 46 years old but people always tell her that she looks like she's in her late 20s or early 30s so I decided to make her youth be the subject of the card.  I used regular glue for the vellum on the bottle which I found out was a big mistake. There's a special vellum glue I'm supposed to use.  Oh, the trials and errors of scrapbooking.  I covered my mistake with glitter which turned out better.

inside

backside

outside

This card was shared at:

Happy Hour Projects

A Nest for All Seasons

20th Wedding Anniversary

After spending hours and hours on Pinterest I finally got off my bum and did one of the ideas that I pinned.  

Hubby and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. I feel very blessed that our marriage has lasted so long. I give Jesus all the credit that we are still a happy couple. I can't take any credit whatsoever. I know this to be truth because the first 10 years of marriage was under my own efforts and I screwed it up.

I'm usually really good at gift giving. But I was having a huge mental block for an anniversary gift. I don't have a large budget and the few items that I did order for my husband is on backorder until October 24. So that really threw a wrench in my original idea. I also have a problem buying gifts for my husband with his hard-earned money. I know it is really OUR money but I still have a mental block on the subject. I gave a lot of thought about what gift to buy hubby but nothing ever seemed right or it was too expensive. I kept warning my husband, "You know I don't have anything to give you." He said he didn't care about gifts and said it's not like he doesn't know that I don't have a job. I know he means it, but I wanted to do something...it is after all our 20 anniversary. Late Monday night as I was falling asleep still trying to figure out what to do I remembered an idea that I saw on Pinterest and inspiration finally hit me. I'm really surprised that I was able to complete this at all. I like a lot of planning because I am a slow crafter. On Tuesday I took my son to the doctor and spent 3 hours running around town trying to pick up supplies and started printing pictures. I had to stop working on it as soon as hubby got home so he wouldn't get suspicious. On Wednesday I jumped out of bed at 5:30am to start decorating.  Much to my chagrin hanging the photos is not as easy as it looks. It took me several tries getting the shape of the zero to work. In addition, I baked the ultimate vanilla cupcakes (which I will blog about), took my other son to the eye doctor which took 3 1/2 hours of my time, and made the number 20 button craft for the frame. I did it all by myself w/o any assistance from anyone. Eat your heart Martha Stewart (who has over 250 crafters and assistants who do most of the work for her).  

The traditional gift for 20th anniversary is china. The modern gift of a 20th anniversary is platinum and the gemstone is emerald.  So the color scheme I chose was silver and green. 

Hubby was really surprised when he got home. He loved it!

The silver circle is a table cloth.  I picked up 8x10 photo paper and the balloons from the dollar store. I love the dollar store! It sure is a money saver. I used Powerpoint for printing the pictures.

It takes at least 40 sheets of photo paper for this project. You need to give yourself extra sheets in case the ink runs out. I printed out 3 bad pictures before I noticed I needed to change a cartridge. 

Make sure you have extra ink too. 

I also printed out verses of the Kenny Roger's song

 "Through The Years" and posted them around the pics.

For the hanging circles I used a circle cutter and placed ribbon

 in between the circles before I glued them together.

The paper lanterns are $1 each at Michaels.

Make sure you don't apply too much glue. 

See the big circle on top. It's bending from the weight of the glue.

Ultimate vanilla cupcakes and the button craft project.

We brought the frame with us to Piranha's.

On the Beach Roll and our drinks: Raspberry Bonzai and Cowboytini.

This is my dish Chicken & Shrimp Pad Thai. I had already eaten some of it before 

I remembered to take pictures.

The inspiration came from Martha Stewart 50th anniversary party ideas.  

This anniversary idea was shared at:

I

http://www.happyhourprojects.com/

http://rocaandcompany.blogspot.com/
Frugalicious Me
http://www.frugaliciousme.com/2011/10/haute-stuff-thursday.html
Confessions of a Stay At Home Mommy