I have been in the house too long- 2 posts in 1 day!

Yes, I have been home for 5 days in a row! I should have gone to work today, but my son had a fever last night and this morning so I stayed home with him. He is a tough kid, so he is fine now and I will be back to work tomorrow. But 5 days off! Yikes!!!!!!

My neice Shelby will be turning 16 on February 28th. Her dad-my brother is having a Sweet 16 BBQ at his house for her. She is a sweet girl and I really want to help make this party memorable for her. I have promised her a Sweet 16 banner and a Sundae bar. I also promised party favors. So now I am stumped on what I can make that isn't too difficult, because I don't know how many guest she will be having. The crafting twin Judy, sent me the link for this cute gable box. It was very easy to make. Actually, any box pattern that requires scoring is now easy for me with the Martha Stewart score tool. I posted about it last week. If you love crafting and haven't bought one yet, get your Michael's 40 or 50% coupons and get one! It truly is great!

Anyone out there have any ideas for Sweet 16 party favors???

The little things in life

I had become so overwhelmed with all the "things" I needed to get done at home that I didn't know where to begin. I think the funky weather wasn't helping either.
Luckily we have had several days of sunshine here in Lodi CA!
As I finally got to my yard work, I found a few of these perfect gardenias in my front yard! I had to cut a couple of them. Something so small yet so beautiful.
I am thankful for the sunshine and for the beautiful flowers that it brings.
I was also able to get to the other chores that were burdening my mind. My garage looks lovely!
I am so thankful for the days of sunshine we have had. My weekend was not all work though, John and I went out to dinner on Valentines day. That was wonderful too! So I can say I had a productive and fun weekend.
I am home again today because my son is sick. So I will stay in to keep an eye on him. Hope work isn't too horrible when I go back tomorrow! :(

Did you get a chance to get out and absorb some Vitamin K this weekend? I sure hope you did!

Another little box!

Well now that I have my handy little Martha Stewart scoring tool, I have been experimenting with box patterns. This particular box pattern and flower idea came from Kay over at Creations on Paper.
I photographed the box next to my wallet so you can gauge the actual size. The box is small and is designed to hold 3 Ghirardelli chocolates. The only thing I did differently for the pattern was change the 3 11/16" to 4" on the pattern. The box was very easy to construct as well as the flower. For this flower I used regular scrapbooking paper rather than tissue paper. You have to go over and visit Kay to see her version of the flower made out of tissue paper! It is beautiful!
The belly band is just a strip of paper with the flower hot glued on. So simple, yet so sweet! I must admit, that I should not be playing around with crafts right now, as my house is a mess as well as my garage and yard. I guess there is so much to do I became overwhelmed. I am hoping for some energy to get to the chores tomorrow!!!! I am going to put away all evidence of crafts and hope for the best!

A luncheon and a product review

My sweeties mom is having a Valentines day themed luncheon tomorrow. She purchased these trays at IKEA for the luncheon. She wanted to dress them up a bit, so we added some heart shaped doilies and a few hearts. Cute, but not too much.
She is having 8 guests and was going to go to See's candy for some treats. I couldn't let her do that! I made these little boxes and filled them with Hershey nuggets.

Much cuter than See's ;) and a little less expensive. Now for my bargain buy/product review of the month!!! The crafty twins Judy and Julia clued me into this one. This is the Martha Stewart scoring tool. It fits a 12 X 12 sheet of paper and the measurements are clearly marked. There is a place to store the tool. The best part of this is that with a 50% off coupon at Michael's, this little prize cost me a total of $10.89.

And it works great!!! Perfect for all those boxes I love to make!!!

If you have ever looked into a scoring tool, you probably saw the Scor-Pal. That item cost about $40.00. I just didn't want to spend the money on it! So I am very happy with the Martha Stewart version!

Wedding Bells will be ringing-so make favors

Where to start, where to start today??? The fact that I am becoming a Stampin' Up addict! Or the stress over coming up with a wedding favor sample for a friend of a friend who is getting married.
Well, let's first start with my addiction! Like being addicted to sugar wasn't bad enough!!! Now I keep finding more and more things I just must add to my crafting collection!!! However, as Julia can confirm, I keep a wish list and get a bit at a time. And I get my moneys worth of each item I buy. You all know about my Top Note die cut mania! I share it every Holiday!!! :) I must apologize for the photo, too dark without flash, too light with flash! So here we have a crappy photo! What's a girl to do?
These are the 2 samples I was messing around with for the wedding. The wedding colors are black and pink. The darker pink box standing up is made with the Matchbox die cut from Stampin' up. The die cuts and scores, so this one is really easy to put together. It would be filled with 4 Hershey nuggets. All pieces except ribbon and tiny tags are from 1 die cut. Then I tied with pink ribbon, embellished with a little bling and the tiny tags. I just received the tiny tag punch and stamps this weekend! Yes, a Stampin' Up purchase. But don't worry, I will use these like crazy! Don't know if you can see it or not, but Mr and Mrs is stamped on the middle tag. The tiny stamp is included with a set of stamps specifically designed to fit the tiny tag! The box on the bottom, is cut and scored by hand using a pattern or template. Much more difficult. I am torn because these are more difficult, but the Hershey nuggets just seem to look better in single file. Can that be considered OCD for wanting to line the nuggets in a straight line? Addictions, OCD! Geez, I am a mess! :)
Oh, I am getting off track here. The box and cover are black paper, then a pale pink piece scalloped with a stamp that reads "A Day to Remeber, A Lifetime to Love" Perfect for a wedding! Then a ribbon with 3 tiny tags, one reading Mr. and Mrs.

Again, I apologize for the bad photo, but what do you think? Would you use these at your wedding? Any additional ideas?? Help! Coming up with an idea for the perfect wedding favor is stressing me out! :)

Making some Valentines samples

Trying a few more crafts to add to the list of things to make for Valentines day.
This is a cute little box! I saw one with a link to the tutorial over at Julia's.
It was pretty easy. I like this because the box is bigger than the ones I have previously made, and I don't have to cut the die cut down. I use the full cut.
The directions show dividers for 4 spaces in the box. I only divided into 2 for my sample.
Here we have a couple of ideas with Ghirardelli squares (the small ones). I made 3 X 3 cards, decorated with scrapbook paper and punched a small hole for a ribbon tie. The ribbon tie holds the chocolate in pretty well, I didn't use adhesive for the chocolate on this one. I used 1 top note die cut folded in half, and I did use 2 sided tape to hold the chocolate in that one. And I tied a ribbon around it. It needs some embellishing, but remember these were only test runs tonight.

These things can only get better!

A lovely afternoon of crafting with some lovely ladies

Yesterday afternoon I had some of my favorite crafters and bloggers over for some Valentines crafting. My friend and craft mentor Julia (that I mention frequently in my blog) is the lovely lady on the right. Julia got me started with card making many years ago and is truly my craft mentor! The lovely lady sitting down is my longtime friend Laura. I am hoping to craft again with Laura. I want her to get the craft bug like the rest of us!

Julia had posted these cute mailboxes and some other very crafty Valentines day crafts at her blog. Julia and her twin sister Judy, pre-cut all our supplies and had everything ready to go for our Valentines mailboxes. They showed us how to put the mailboxes together and helped us make 3X3 Valentines Day cards. These 2 ladies love love love paper crafts and love to share! They rock!

Then we have the lovely Jenny and Emilie, my crafty friends and bloggers. These two ladies host Moments (Moms Off the Clock) events at their home. Used to be monthly, but with busy lives and a new baby for Emilie we haven't been able to get together like we used to. Jenny has a blog called Lipstick and Laundry and you will find many great posts at her blog. Jenny is very creative and great writer! Emilie has a blog as well titled Bunch of Scrap .

Emilie is also very creative and a great writer!!! These 2 ladies got me back into the craftbug and inspired me to start a blog! Thanks Ladies!!!

Then we have the lovely Dawn. We work at the same company and are members of an employee non profit group. I found out Dawn was a fan of Stampin' Up and was also looking forward to crafting. She is my newest crafty friend!

Here we have the lovely Sheri giving you a nice view of our little mailboxes. Sheri is a member of Moments as well. Sheri loves crafting and has a blog too!!! Hers is titled Daughter of an Artist. Again, another great writer who shares her passion for her family and friends, baking, crafts and so much more. Sheri is so sweet she already blogged about our fun craft day! So if you want to see more hop on over to Sheri's blog.
We had fun! It was so relaxing to sit at the table and chat and create.

When we were done making our mailboxes and cards we had Kahlua Bundt Cake.

I was going to try the Blueberry Sour Cream cake, but decided to go with a cake that I had made before and knew for sure was dee-lish. But come to find out Jenny tried the recipe from

Lick the Bowl Good and says it is very good! Like a blueberry donut! So I do need to try this recipe someday!