HIMCR Freestyle

Well, I have now served on the HIMCR design team for 1 year.  This commitment has gotten me through some hard times the last year.  Laurie has been a fantastic "boss" and I cannot thank her enough for giving me the opportunity to participate with her.

When this posts, I will be in Montana.  Yep.  I'm trading our 60 an 70 degree weather for 30 degrees and snow.  Tony's brother Matt is getting married and soon I will have a new sister-in-law!



This week's sponsor is Paper Temptress.  She is giving a fantastic prize!  This beautiful pink paper is from paper temptress.  I love it!

Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room and enter for this great prize.  And make sure to keep checking back to see new things that I am doing!

HIMCR #140--Super Scraps Saturday

Yay for Scraps!  Seriously, I love using scraps.  But can I be honest?  I went back in my archives for this one.  I read a post on scrapbook.com and it talked about all of the stuff we put on our pages and how different everyone is.  Well, I didn't used to put tons of stuff on my pages.  But I have gone that way and sometimes I miss the simple way.  So, I went and found this gem from a few years ago.



Here is proof that you don't have to use anything but paper to create a great layout.  If I was doing this page now, it would have buttons and washi tape and and and and.  Seriously.  It would be so much.

Make your way to Hiding In My Craft Room and enter to win a $25.00 gift certificate from ScrapbookPal.com!

HIMCR #139--Spring Colors

Last week we had a taste of spring in our corner of the world.  We worked outside all weekend and got tons of work done.  This weekend, we look to get 2 inches of sleet and 4 to 5 inches of snow.  Ugh.  So, instead of thinking spring outside, let's just use spring colors in our creations this week!

This was almost 2 years ago.  I can't even believe it!  She will be 2 on Sunday.  She covered her eyes and when she uncovered them, she was surprised to see Julie standing over her taking her picture.  This set of 2 are some of my favorites that Julie ever took of Anna.

This week's prize is 3 digital images of your choice from Sweet N Sassy Stamps.  They provided me with the 3 adorable bugs that you see standing out on the page.  Now, head over to Hiding In My Craft Room and enter for your chance to win!

HIMCR #138--What's Buggin' Ya?

Can you believe our next challenge will be in March?!  This week, let's prepare for Spring and use a bug.  Any bug.  This weeks stamps is Alota Rubber Stamps.  They provided this adorable bee image for me to use!

They have provided a great prize!  Make sure to link up for a chance to win!

HIMCR #137--Patterned Paper x3

Am I the only one that doesn't use more than 2 patterned papers in a layout?  This week was a challenge!  Your challenge is the same as mine.  Use three, that's right!, three patterned papers in a card or layout.  We have a fantastic sponsor this week.  DCWV has provided 3 different prizes totaling $100.00!  That's right!  You have 3 chances to win this week.  

This is from the school pack.  Isn't it adorable!  Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room and enter for your chance to win!

HIMCR #136--Super Scraps Saturday

Dig out your scraps!  It's super scraps Saturday!  This week's sponsor is 2 Cute Ink.  The prize is two digital images of your choice.  

Isn't our little penguin cute?!  He's on 2 other blogs.  Check out the design team blogs to find him.  Head on over to Hiding In My Craft Room and enter your scraps creation!

HIMCR #135--Blue Without You

 It's color challenge week!  This week is blues.  We don't care what blue.  We are calling it "blue without you."

You all know that when it's color challenge week, I use as much of that a color as I can for the week.  However this week is different.  So sit back and get ready for story time.

Have you ever joined a "pray for _____" Facebook page because a friend recommends it?  I normally don't do that, but I got an invite to join one from a good friend.  I joined it for some reason.  This baby's name was Hadley Mae.  She had many problems starting before she was born.  The family was aware that there was a chance they would never hold her alive.  Hadley was horn and not only did they get to hold her, but they continued to hold her in their arms for 172 days.  She was even able to go home to be with her brothers and sisters for many of those days.  I have followed her journey from the beginning and her whole family is an inspiration.  Her short life ended this week and even though I do not personally know her family, my heart hurts for them.  So, I made this card to send to them.  

The little butterfly is an image from www.adayfordaisies.com.  When I picked this image I had no idea what I would be using it for.  I have another post coming this week using this adorable little butterfly.  Www.adayfordaisies.com has provided the prize for this week's winner so head over to hidinginmycraftroom.com and enter your "blue without you" project!

HIMCR #134--For a loved one

Challenge 134.  It's a good time to make something for a loved one.  Valentines day, birthday, have a great day...Just pick an occasion and craft for it!

This week our challenge sponsor is Template Dreams.  They have provided a great prize of $5.00 which would get you so much in their store.  Seriously.  It would be at least 2 complete sets.  It's quite the deal!

I'm not sure who this card is going to be for.  There are tons of guys in our family that will be having birthdays soon.  This would be a perfect guy card.  The inside will say "Have a 'ring-a-ding-ding' birthday!" because you know, the fox says "ring-a-ding-ding" among many other things!  The banner and green and brown piece are from the "what does a fox say kit."

Now, head over to Hiding in My Craft Room and enter!

Dinosaur

My youngest nephew turned 5 last week.  I have 3 small nieces in Wisconsin and Ohio, but my last nephew turned 5.  It's hard to believe it!  He's in to ninja turtles and Spider-Man.  Since I don't draw and I don't have a cricut cartridge that will to ninja turtles or action heroes, he got a dinosaur card!

At 5 years old, he was less than impressed.  Lol!  I love this corrugated paper from paper temptress!  

More Paper Temptress

It's time for another Paper Temptress card!  Since I promised you the azalea metallic, we'll do that one today.

All of the paper is from Paper Temptress. I used a white flower and gun metal Maya Mist.  Now, scroll down and find Saturday's post for links to Hiding in My Craft Room and Paper Temptress since the blogger app doesn't let me post links!

HIMCR 133--Clean and Simple

Yay!  It's my specialty.  I hate my creations to be cluttered.  I play around with that style every once in awhile, as you can look back in my posts and see.  However, my favorites are the ones where one thing takes center stage.

This week, our sponsor is Paper Temptress.  She has provided a 25.00 gift card for one lucky winner.  Oh my goodness.  They have beautiful paper!  Our wonderful design team was given paper and we got to choose our own.  When I got them in the mail, my instant favorites were the Azalea Metallic (you'll see this later in the week!), Graphite Must Touch (to die for! I'll be ordering reams of this!), and Grey Crepe (again...reams of this!).

I used the Grey Crepe, Graphite Touch, and Pearl Glimmer.  I used the Graphite for the love tag and sanded it down.  LOVE IT!  I also used my embossing folders for the background and love tag.  

Now, head on over to Hiding in My Craft Room and enter a clean and simple creation!

HIMCR #132--Super Scraps Saturday

Time to dig out your scraps!  It's the second Saturday of January and it's time to use them up.  This week's sponsor is Little Miss Muffet Stamps.  They have provided a prize of a $6.00 gift certificate for a lucky winner!  They also provided the HIMCR design team with images to use for our challenge.

Isn't this adorable!  See the little girl holding the "love" valentine?  That's an image that was provided by Little Miss Muffet Stamps.  I had these little cards left from a piece of Echo Park paper from awhile back.  I took an extra card, used a knife to cut out the middle, and pasted my little girl behind it.  Didn't it turn out adorable?!  These photos are all from Anna's first year package by Julie, from New Edge Studio.  She does such a fantastic job!

Now, head over to them main blog and add your scrappy creation for a chance to win!

HIMCR #131--A Color Challenge

It's a color challenge week at HIMCR!  This week, the colors are Crushed Curry, Bermuda Bay, and Basic Grey.  We are calling it Crushed Grey Bay.  Now, those are Stampin' Up colors.  If you don't have them, feel free to look them up on Stampin' Up and pick what you have that's close to it.

This week, the Scrapbook Stamp Society provided the DT with images for our project.  Aren't these two adorable?!

The Scrapbook Stamp Society  has generously provided a prize of 3 digital images for our contest this week.  Head over to Hiding In My Craft Room and enter your Crushed Grey Bay creation for a chance to win!

Challenge 130--Anything but Holiday

Christmas is over!  2014 is almost here.  Can you even believe it.  Since we are all ready to move on, how about we tackle something that doesn't have anything to do with the holidays.  

                              

                       

I am in the process of redoing my PEO chapter's scrapbook.  It was put together with elmer's glue and scotch tape, which we all know is a terrible idea.  I am doing it in a style that anyone can do at any time because someday it may not be me doing the scrapbook.  My goal is to mount everything and keep the bird and flower theme through the pages.  The stamps have been ordered just for the book and will go with the scrap kit I have put together.  Anyone can mount things, label things, and do a simple stamped background.  I also have pocket pages.  It has been my first time with pocket pages and I really like being able to put multiple photos on one page without using a huge 12x12 area for them.  

Now, head on over to Hiding in My Craft Room and give us anything but holiday for the chance to win a great prize!

Challenge 129--case yourself!

Hello fellow crafty bloggers!  This week's challenge is case yourself.  That means go back in your collection and find something that can be tweaked, completely overhauled, or redone.  

I needed a few quick tags for teacher gifts.  I based these tags off the cards I did back in July for Christmas in July!  

Aren't they adorable?!  Head over to hidinginmycraftroom.com and enter your creation!

Challenge 128--Super Scraps Saturday

Yay Super Scraps Saturday!  Dig out those scraps and get busy this weekend.  We all have them.  Why not use them?

This week's prize sponsor is Sweet N Sassy Stamps.  They will be giving out a great prize to the winner on the mail blog this week.  The little bird in on this card is one of their images.  It is adorable!

Now, head on over to Hiding in My Craft Room and enter your scrappy creation!

Challenge 127--Christmas colors

Woohoo!  I finally feel ok putting all of my Christmas decor out.  I just cannot bring myself to get it all out before thanksgiving.  Since we are only 18 says from Christmas, Laurie decided to have Christmas colors week at HIMCR!  I have a tutorial for this week.  We made button Christmas tree ornaments at my aunts' house on thanksgiving.  This was Caleb's.  

Didn't he do a great job?  It was a hard fight though.  The floss kept fraying and breaking and since there is no structure with floss, it was hard for them to get it all done.  Most instructions for this project call for needles.  No way.  So this week, i spent some time coming up with a "child under 8" friendly way to do this.  

First you will need to gather your supplies.  

Use a nylon thread or floss.  I live the sew easy line.  Whatever you use, make sure the ends will melt when exposed to hear.  

I also used 3 colors of buttons, but feel free to use whatever or how many you want.  

Next, cut your thread.  For this ornament, I cut between 18 and 20 inches.  Now, melt the ends of your floss to seal them.  Note:  please don't let your children do this part.  

Next, pick out a large button.  You want this to be the largest button in your tree.  Thread it through the bottom.  

Tie a single time.  This helps keep your bottoms from stacking on each other and gives the tree more volume.  

Now, stack and tie!  You can make it as big as you want.  I tend to organize mine in size order, but as you could see on Caleb's, he did them out of order and it is still adorable!  

Double knot at the top to assure that it stays together.  

Now, take out some of those buttons that you don't use often.  You know, the ones with the backs that stick up?  They don't work well on my pages, so I don't use them much and tend to have a lot of them laying around.  

Thread it on.  I used yellow to represent a star, but I have 3 made using a red button and that works too!  

Tie a knot to keep it on.  

Finished!  Now you are ready to hang it.  I tie another knot near the top of the thread to create a way to hang it, but you can do it however is best for you.  

Now, head over to hidinginmycraftroom.com and enter your Christmas color creation.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Challenge 126--freestyle!

I love months with 5 Saturdays!  That means it's a freestyle week.  And this week I have an adorable mini album to share.  I bought this little envelope album at a scrap weekend 3 years ago.  I haven't used it because I wasn't sure what to do with it.  These photos were taken by my friend Angela about 5 years ago.  There are about 50 photos and there is no way I could actually scrap all 50, so this made it easy to pick the 5 best, then put the rest in the envelope pockets so they are all together.  I have tied it all together with a ribbon that is glued to the back.  

Front cover without the tie.  I love wood buttons!

My nephew was only 3 weeks old.  He used to be so quiet!  Lol!

It's such a simple way to keep an event with many photos together!  Head on over to hidinginmycraftroom.com and enter your creation for a chance to win a great prize!!

Challenge 125--thanksgiving

Can you believe that we are only 5 days from thanksgiving?  Today I bought milk that expires on December 8.  Wow.  This week we are celebrating the holiday with thanks themed projects.  My project is admittedly short on fall colors, but my family has a lot to be thankful for this week.  We have all been really sick thus past week and many people have helped with meals, shuttling children, and child care.   This meant it is time to make thank you cards!  

I love using this style of flower.  It adds a lot to any layout or card.  Stay tuned this week for a thanksgiving layout.  Hopefully it will be finished tonight.  

Now head over to the main blog and enter your creation for a chance at a great prize!

Challenge 114--due cuts!

This week the HIMCR dr is all about die cuts.  I have a cricut and had big plans to use it this week.  Then I remembered all of the die cut pages I have.  I buy them because they are adorable, but then I never use them because I might want them for another project someday.  Well, I decided that someday might as well start now.  

Sorry about the poor photo quality this week.  Caleb has been sick so it's a get what you get week!  Head on over to hidinginmycraftroom.com and enter your die cut creation for a chance to win one if two cricut cartridges Laurie is giving away!