This Ain't No Love Song - Trace Adkins

Here's a bit of musical entertainment for you today. This song kinda reflects my mood today. he he. 

Enjoy. 

Invites: Your Ticket to Paradise. Finally complete.

Hi all, 

It's summer and I've been super busy. School officially ends for me next week and by then I can finallly apply for my standard teaching certificate. Yay. Right now I'm teaching on a probationary certificate while I finish up all the requirements for standard certification. After I complete these 2 courses next week I will be done. 

In the meantime my co worker Ilene is getting married to Anthony and she enlisted me to make her wedding invites. She really did all the grunt work coming up with all the wording and placement but I think they came out fantastically. It took all of 3 days of camping out at Ilene's house, hanging out with the kiddos, shopping, and drama. Nothing like a good time right??? Lol. I had a blast and now, here's the fruit of our labor. 

What do you think??

 

 The Inside: Pg. 1 The Invitation & Reception info

Pg. 2 - The Cruise Info, Seating info, etc. 

Pg. 3 - Cruise details, and FYI

The happy couple and my good friends, Ilene and Anthony. 

 

Thank you for the 3 day long crafting session, the great parties, and my very first vacation (& my first cruise). It's all love and I can't wait. 

That's all for now. Hugs, 

Angee  

 

What I'm reading: Little House Books by Laura Ingalls Wilder

Ever since I can remember I've been a lover of books. All kinds of books. Books on love, life, and the pursuit of happiness are some of my favorites. My favorite collection of books happen to be The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I fell in love with these books many many years ago. As a child I wanted to move from the big city of Houston, TX to the "Big Wood" of Wisconsin that Laura so vividly described. I wanted to have those same experiences and feel that unfettered curiosity that she describes in her books. 

A few weeks ago I was reminded of these books while I was searching for something on ebay. Happenstance nudged me just see how much a boxed set would cost. Much to my surprise they were pretty inexpensive, so off I went and ordered them. I knew that I had to have them and once again be transported to that place where life is much simpler and less complicated than that one I currently live. 

They arrived today, well used and worn, but the words are in perfect condition. And I can't wait to start the Journey with Ma, Pa, Laura, Mary, and many more.

For more resources on the LIttle House Books: 

Visit the Little House Books Website. 

Amazon has the complete 9 book set for $24.00 here. 

I will probably be purchasing the complete set of Harry Potter books next. I read them this year as a challenge to my students and I loved the books. (I love the movies too.)

What are you reading this summer?

Hugs, 

Angee

My Favorite Flowers

I am in a pretty colorful mood today. I'm finding all types of inspirations via the internet. Yesterday was all about shopping and midcentury modern furniture. Today is all about flowers. I've never really been a garden girl (oh, 2peas GG i wish) but never really a dirt, and sun type of girl until recently when my mom and I purchased our home did I really understand the calming, rewarding, and theraputic nature of gardening. 

So in honor of all that here are a few of my favorite flowers. 

First in line is my all time favorite. RANUNCULUS. Oh my I will have to find a way to grow these in my garden as I love them so much. The color variation is awesome. Click here for great tips to grow Ranunculus.  

Check out these gorgeous bouquets. Oh My Word. 

Ranunculus

Chrysanthemum

It is the national flower of Japan and don't your just love the tight pompons, and the beautiful range of colors. 

The Calla Lilly

I first fell in love with this flower at my good friend, Alaric's funeral. This flower is just so serene to me. It has a calming effect on me with it's simple design and soft coloring. God is awesome and this flower reminds me of that every time I see it. 

The Canna

It's the quintessential tropical flower. Don't you just love the yellow background with the orange specks. It makes me happy just looking at it. Here are a few more of my favs for your enjoyment. 

Gardenia

Hyacinth

Iris

Orchid

Peony

Stephanotis

So my favorite flower story. A good friend of mine decided to take me out right before Valentine's Day last year. I'd just gotten out of a very serious relationship and we were both working on the actual V-day so we went out the weekend before. He showed up to my door with a bouquet of white lilies.

About 1/2 of the flowers had already bloomed while the other half were just bulbs. I put the flowers in my bed room on the night stand and left them there all week. About 1/2 way through the week most of the flowers had already died. I snipped those away and left the bulbs in tact. Well to my surprise when I got home from work on Valentine's day the bulbs had bloomed. It was the best surprise in the world. I don't even think I told my friend this story. It really changed my perspective about the breakup and helped me truly move past that relationship. I don't know if he knew those bulbs would bloom within a week or not but I can't even tell you how much I loved seeing those flowers after a long day at work. So Julian if you read this thank you so much. You have no idea how much those flowers mean(t) to me. :-D I'm still down for sushi anytime. lol.

Hugs. 

Angee

Mid-Century Modern Furniture

OMG I love love mid-century modern furniture. The simple lines, clean design, and the easy access. By easy access I mean craigslist.org. lol. 

I was searching around craigslist today (for what I totally can't remember at the moment) but I came across some great vintage finds. 

 How awesome is this. I just love the legs on this furniture ($250 for all) and how it's not flush with the floor. I have an aversion to furniture resting on the floor. Weird I know.

 And then you have this awesome cabinet ($650). I can imagine this in my dining room or even my scraproom. Man-O-Man the possibilities.

Lastly is the dining set. This just reminds me of great dinners with family. 

I had a great time searching craigslist.org today. Did I purchase anything? Nope. If only I hand an extra $2K to spend and the space to put all this, I'd definitely say, "Just throw it in the bag." ala Fabolous. lol. 
 

Project Unveiled: CommemorativeWeddingGift using invites

Hi all, 

A few weeks ago I posted here about a project I was working on. My dear co-worker had a former student who was getting married and she had the super awesome idea of using this wedding invitation and save the date card as a commemorative gift. She gave me both the invite and save the date (I so was going o abbreviate the save the date but when I saw it came out to STD I decided against. lol.) And pretty much left it up to me. So off I went. 

I did have a bit of direction because the back of the save the date card was in a kind of scrap-booking format with a cute digital layout style. So I used this as a jumping off point and went from there incorporating the colors used, and a little bit of the layout as inspiration. 

Here is the layout right before it was finished. I added a few more touches to it later. 

Here it is all finished and framed. I can't believe how great the frame looks. It's sort of cream colored and distressed. The purple mat looks like velvet and then it has a small green mat beneath it. My iPhone pics does not do it justice. Linnell brought it to my classroom to let me see and I so wanted it back it was so beautiful. I wish I could say this was my idea to do this but it was all Linnell. All the papers are from a Walmart brand scrapbooking paper pack from Best Occasions punch out paper pack. The hearts were punched with the Stampin' Up! Heart Trio punch, and miscellaneous pearls and ribbon from my stash. 

 

  

Any other ideas for crafty wedding gifts?? Please leave me a comment below. Thanks.

Hugs, 

Angee

Digital Card Making

Hi all.

It's been a long time since I've last blogged, I know and I do apologize. Bad blogger, bad blogger. Today was my very last day of "official" work at school so now I will have more time for blogging & crafting for the next 3 months minus a few days for the cruise. :-D

In honor of the last day of work here is a quick little video highlighting my next endeavor...Digital cardmaking. Kristina Werner (my favorite cardmaker) did a great tutorial for 2peas on this subject. I tried to follow along and create the same card however I could not quite get it to work for me. The commands and dialog boxes were not the same when I opened my version of photoshop (I'm in CS3) and for the life of me I could not get my rounded corner rectangle tool to draw the shapes in the desired color. I guess I need lots more practice. 

Enjoy the video and I will be back very soon with more cards. 

A Layout and another update.

Hi all. 

I'm trying to redesign my blog again and it's not going so well. I was using a custom theme builder theme and just changed it to a stock theme from typepad and my blog is not updating. Ugh. On top of that I designed a simple blog header in photoshop and tried to upload it to the blog and it's not working. I also tried the CSS option found here and it didn't work either. 

Needless to say I've put that off until another day when I don't have a million and one things going on. 

I'm working on a wedding layout for a dear friend. One of her former students is getting married and she wanted a commemorative layout made up using their wedding invitation and save-the-date card. What a great idea right??? Here's a little sneak peek. I don't want to post it just yet incase the bride or groom happens by my blog. 

 

(Please excuse the photo quality. I took this photo with my iPhone.....)

I've never really been much of a traditional scrapbooker. Being a single girl I always thought it weird to have an entire scrapbook filled with layouts all about me. But this was so much fun that I might just have to get over my reservations and just do it. Maybe scrapbook for other people? I wonder if people even do that. If you do let me know. 

In addition to all that I'm currently frequenting this particular website for reasons I can't reveal just yet. Lets just say I really love Michael Jackson and will be paying tribute to him through dance. So much fun though. You will see what happens with this soon. 

I did help a friend out with her moving garage sale over the weekend and oh my goodness it was so much fun. You can't beat great friends, helping hands, and weird garage sale junkies. Hilarious. Plus I scored a few goodies from my friend Jess. 

I got a desk chair, a Dell LCD monitor, a Canon EOS RebelG 35 mm camera, 2 XL barstools (not shown), a couple a REAL SIMPLE magazines (that I absolutely love), and loads of books, all for only $60 bucks. I offered more but she turned me down. I just love that Jess.  

Sweet hugs, 

Angee

Wedding Invites, Summer Plans, & Dove Evolution Vid

Hello All, 

 

I know I've been away all week. I'm working on wedding invites for a dear friend of mine, another is moving this week, I reconnected with another, and neglected another, so I'm going to be pretty busy with all that for the next 3 weeks. Did I mention it's the end of the school year time and I have to get my classroom packed up??? Um yes, I'm super busy right now. 

Coming up: 

May 20 - Drake Concert

May 30 - Couples Shower for Ilene

June 4th - Last Day of School

June 6th - Copic Certification Class ....Yippee. 

June 1-July 1 - Summer School (taking 2 classes)

July 9th-12th - Wedding Cruise (my very first cruise ever)

I'm also looking into taking a few online photography classes and adobe illustrator classes from JessicaSprague.com. I just picked up a Canon EOS Rebel G 35 MM camera at a garage sale for $25 so I'm looking forward to seeing how the cruise pics come out. 

Next on my wishlist is:

Canon 50D (A girl can hope can't she....?)

I'm going to try to make the most of my summer this year and take a little time to relax, and craft. Thank goodness I have a place to post all this in hopes of not forgetting to show up somewhere. I've done it before.

I know you've probably seen this video a million times but something about it makes me feel the real beauty within me. 

Sweet Hugs!! Hope you all have a great week. 

Angee

A Mother's Love

Happy Mother's Day

A mother's love is unconditional, more than you can ever want or need, always present, and never wavering. I learn that everyday as I interact with my students and become a loving mother to them. Most of them don't want it but need it, or don't need it but want it. I'm just glad that I'm blessed to have a wonderful mother and that I'm able to demonstrate the love she's given me over the last 27 years to 180 students this year. It's truly been life changing for me. 

In honor of all the great Mother's out there, either by choice, profession, or ministry I say kudos for all you do, and the lengths to which you do it everyday, each year.

Here are just a few more cards that I've made of the last few days. I've been giving them away to my students to take home to mom. It's a joy to see kids this age (12-16) actually care enough to ask me to make their mother's cards for Mother's Day.

 

{Supplies}

Patterned Paper: SEI - Bridgeport Collection

Stampin' Up: Classic ink in Taken with Teal, Basic Black

Sentiment: PTI - Signature Greetings

Punches: WRMK Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest Border Punch

Misc: Stampendous Silver Detail embossing powder

 

 I've had the most wonderful women in my life. Whether I was born to them, adopted by them, or mentored by them they have truly kept me in line in times when I wanted to stray, and I know that I am so much better for it. I love you ladies dearly. 

My Grandmother - Georgia Lee Holmes

My Mother - Linda D. Butler

My God-Mother - Margaret Walker

My Cousin - Linda Jones

My Cousin - Chantell Davis

My Cousin - Kimmie Holmes

My Friend - Milicent Lewis Lenton

My Former Boss - Yvette Mitchell

There are so many other ladies I can name here. I am truly blessed. 

Sweet Hugs, 

Ange

Mother's Day Cards: I Love you so much

Hi All, 

It's been a terribly long week and I'm so glad it's the weekend. I've been making oodles of Mother's Day cards for students this week so I've been in a crafting and teaching marathon. So much fun and so exhausting as well. 

I have another card for you today. 

{Supplies}

Patterned Paper: SEI - Bridgeport Collection

Stampin' Up: Classic ink in Taken with Teal

Sentiment: PTI - Signature Greetings

Punches: WRMK Corner Chomper, Stampin' Up! Scallop Border Punch 

    This card was for one of my students. He actually wanted three cards from me for this holiday, one for mom, grandmom, and his aunt. How sweet is that??

Here's a little music for you. Love these two. Lisa Lavie & David Sides

Sweet hugs, 

Angeee

Mother's Day Cards: Mom's the best

Hi All, 

Thank goodness TAKS testing is over. It was a terribly long week last week. I even had training all day on saturday, so I've been and still am pretty exhausted. However, I have had time to craft this week and I've been doing lots of it. I have oodles of orders for Mother's Day Cards and I've been busy busy busy since monday cranking them out and boy has it been fun. Please give me some feedback. 

Also I'm donating lots of scrap paper to a few of my favorite crafters in the next few day. If you know of any charities/organizations that I can donate to please leave me a comment or send me an email at angeebutler {at} me {dot} com. 

The first card I'm posting this week is for one of my students. He is so kind, and thoughtful. He asked me for 3 cards for his mother, his grandmother, and his aunt. I sure hope they like them. 

 

{Supplies}

Patterned Paper: SEI - Bridgeport Collection

Stampin' Up: Classic ink in Taken with Teal

Sentiment: PTI - Signature Greetings

Punches: WRMK Corner Chomper

Tool Spotlight: Craftwell eCraft

Hi all.     

    I'm so glad that it's National Scrapbooking Month. What an exciting time in the creative world of papercrafts, alterable, digital crafting, and so much more. I've been crafting up a storm and having so much fun. Seems that I can't craft when I'm stressed so since my kids have been TAKS testing here in TX for the last week haven't scrapped in 7 days. It's about time to dive into some patterned paper and adhesive. It's the small things that make me happy. he he.

    Today I'm spotlighting a great machine that was suggested to me via Rhonda Daniels. I'd mentioned that I was looking into purchasing the Silhouette SD, and she sent me an link to a great Youtube video showcasing the Craftwell eCraft Electronic Cutting System. (craftwellusa.com)

 

The first video is by Noel Hyman of Paperclipping.com from CHA 2010. She gives some great introductory information regarding creating your own images, selling your custom images online, and much more.

 

The next video is a demonstration using the purple version of the machine and gives a great tutorial on how to use the machine.

 

The last video is showcasing the the software that is used with the Craftwell eCraft.

The next video is showcasing the iPhone app that works with the eCraft machine.

Pros:

• Beautiful colors


• No cutting mats needed


• Create and cut your own images


• The ability to cut banners from rolls of paper


• Sell your images through Craftwell eCraft Central


• Can be used to cut edible shapes


• Computer not required, but awesome software available


• Draws and Cuts at the same time without changing tools


• The cutting tray where you can cut multiple images without having to reload individual sheets of paper.


• Professional model which can be used as a commercial production machine

Cons: 

• You paper must be less than 1 mm thick paper


• Has not been released just yet. (I'm sure there is going to be a line to get one of these) Projected release Spring 2010


• Not MAC compatible just yet. 


• Only the professional version of the machine will alow you to use SVG images to cut. 

Differences between the Models: 

The basic unit has a B&W display and will come with one SD Fun Card. The deluxe unit has a color screen and will be bundled with two SD Fun cards. We are planning a unit designed for heavier use that is ideal for craft stores, clubs and power users, It will be equipped with a heavy duty motor drive and other industrial features. All units will have the same cutting capabilities.

Price: MSRP 

Basic Model: ~$259

Professional Model: ~ $399

Basic Software: ~ $69.99

Pro Software: ~ $159.99

SD Cards: ~$39

     Seems to me this machine can do everything that the Silhouette & Cricut machines can do. But will it create enough of a buzz to compete with such well respected companies?? I'd be really interested in testing this machine out to see if it lives up to all that I think it can do.

Tell me what you think? Would you like one??

    In addition to all that I'm also highligting a video posted by Jennifer McGuire (one of my favorite crafty ladies) that she posted on her youtube account last week.. In this vid she shows us her favorite crafting tools. 

Some of my favs are the We Are Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, my ATG guns (yes I have both sizes), and dimensional adhesive. 

 What are your favorite craft tools?

Sweet Hugs, 

Angee

Stampin' Up! 2010 Summer Mini

Hi All, 

Here's a quick video showing some of the newest products from the Stampin' Up! 2010 Summer Mini. I've my eye on quite a few things. What's on your wish list??

Click Here to visit my website to order. I'm ordering more (for me....he he) in about 2 weeks. 

Here is the new Summer Mini Catalog.

Summer Mini US Final Small

 Click the photo to download the PDF version. 

Supply List

 

Ta Ta for now. 

Angee

Happy NSD (National Scrapbook Day) everyone. I had to work this morning so I'm celebrating by blog hopping today. I'm sure we all are. Let mw know what I should look at today. Also the new Stampin Up! Summer Mini just came out. What do you have your eye on?

ScrapSugar: Mobile Blog

Hey everyone.

    I'm still TAKS testing at work today so I don't have a new card for you today, but I do have a cool little something to share with you. Hopefully this is working now. 

    As I was internet surfing last night I came across Widgetbox. Cool little site whereby you can create widgets for all types of things. One of the things that I found was a way to create a mobile site. 

    A mobile site is just a website that is designed to be more readable via a mobile device, i.e., cell phone (my prefered is an iPhone). And just my luck Widgetbox has a widget just for creating a mobile website. The best part about the Widgetbox mobile site is that I can link my Blog, Facebook Page, Twitter, Youtube accounts all on this one mobile webpage. 

So you can click the Mobile Blog link from your mobile phone to be redirected right to my mobile site. How cool is that??

Let me know what you think and if you decided to create your own mobile site leave me a comment with the link. 

Sweet Hugs, 

Angee

Challenges, Mini Albums, & more.

Hey everyone, 

It's panning out to be a very long week for me. My students are TAKS testing again this week and that means restless children who are stressed about testing. 

Today I have a card that qualifies for 2 sketches, CPS 164  and 2Sketches4U. Love that. 

 

CPS 164 Sketch

 

2Sketches4U #54 

I haven't done much crafting this week so I'm spotlighting a good crafty friend of mine, Kathryn Krieger from the ScrapBeach. I met Kathryn when I was designing mini albums with a kit club hosted by Marion Smith. I had the best time participating in that kit club and met some great girls. 

Here is part one of a great mini album Kathryn is working on. I love watching these videos because she offers some great crafting tips and products. Enjoy. 

Sweet Hugs, 

Angee

Distress Ink Foam Storage Idea

Are you a grungy girl? Do you love Tim Holtz distress Inks? Have all those foam applicators stored in little baggies? Want a great storage solution? If you answered yes to any/all of those questions then take a quick look at this video by Patti Behan

Is that the cutest idea? And guess what? Stampin' Up! has a matchbox die (114890) so you can make the boxes out of your favorite patterned paper. I would also cut some acetate to put inside the box so that the box won't soak up the left over ink and get mushy inside. 

I thought this was a great idea.

Sweet hugs, 

Angee

Where to find Scrap Sugar online? Video

I've seen these vids quite often on youtube and oh how cute they are.....Sooooo I decided to make one of my own. 

Hope you like. 

Sweet Hugs, 

Angee

Blog Gazing: Scrap Room Pt. 2

One of my all time favorite things to do is watch videos of scrap rooms. And I can't believe I forgot to add this tour to my previous post. 

This is my all time favorite scrapper, Kristina Werner. She is the reason I am a crafter today so here is her scraproom tour. 

Love the height of her work surfaces. I've been having the hardest time finding a desk chair for my craft table because it actually a counter height dining table that I found at big lots for $40. :-D

 Here is a messy pic of my work space. 

As you can see it's pretty messy right now as I've been crafting all weekend as usual. 

Ta ta for now. 

Angee