Just a minute of my time...

Target Valentine's Day

Recently I've been back to crafting...

just a few things, but its getting me back to my happy place, and I like that!

I love shopping at Target for all the new and different things they have to offer during every season.  Recently they had these chalkboard spice jars that I loved! I didn't know yet what I was going to do with them with their bright spring like colors, but I knew I'd find something.

these are the larger jars, but the lids are the same.

Then I remembered our upcoming Valentine party with girlfriends and grabbed a can of spray paint and my jars and visited my husband at work.  Yes, I could have painted them myself, but I love his attention to detail, and as I figured, they came out perfectly.

After my husband painted the lids a perfect shade of red, I filled the jars with dark chocolate M & M's.  I haven't decided if I will put their initials on them or a Valentine message, but I love them!

I have this thing about mini books

I don't know what it is... it seems whenever I look at a kit and coordinating supplies my thoughts instantly go to creating a mini!

Just the other day I went over Trish's to pick up my kit and walked right past to the board that showed all these adorable cards. I didn't know yet who I was making all the cards for, but I knew I needed that kit!

And so... driving home the thoughts began about a mini, and by the time I got home I was searching through my stash of pictures and coming up with sayings because all that was going through my mind was "let me count the ways" that I love my family...

and even after putting this book together, which I must say is one of my favorites of late....I still had all these supplies from the card kit!

You can see more pictures on the Work in Progress blog, and find the kit here

January Work in Progress Kit

Found some time to play with my kit, and I knew the moment I saw it that it was going to be a mini, just had to figure out what kind of mini.

And then with so many monthly goals, I decided this would be perfect.  But instead of using the full sheets of chipboard that came in the kit, I cut one in half. Then cut all my paper to 4 X 6 which gave me 6 on each sheet, and then added the pocket.

I was so happy with the results and can't wait to spend the year filling it up!

you can find the Work in Progress kit HERE and you can find the other design team creations HERE

December Work in Progress details

Ahh, some time to play...

I had an idea as soon as I looked at the January Work in Progress kit, and with my stash of mini books started to play.

I first painted the chipboard book with red paint, and then sprinkled with glitter, only to find I didn't like the look as much as I thought, so I painted another coat over that and fell in love.

and quotes are always my favorite to put a mini together quickly!

The biggest part of putting a mini book together is coming up with a theme, once I'm there, everything seems to flow easily, most of the time a specific sticker sheet or paper can give you the theme your looking for.

I still have to journal some pages, but the quotes themselves say a lot!

 

Book of lists

Another one of the creative classes at the Bertram was the Book of lists!

Trish taught this class and I just love it and the concept! The book is wrapped in felt and filled with pockets, envelopes, tags and more!

Its just as the name says... a book of lists

But you know how those lists change over time...

Lists like:

tv shows I miss

people you  miss the most

favorite reads

goals for month

people I love

and so much more!

I can't wait to fill this mini throughout the months...

as we come to the final months of 2011, reviewing our  year, goals and achievments, and begin planning for 2012...

 

Gratitude...

I was lucky enough to do several classes while at the Bertram besides for the December daily, one of my favorites is:

The gratitude journal made with Jamie Pate...

from the moment we started, I was inspired. The package alone was gorgeous and the ideas were infinite!

All the details, the butterflies and pockets... oh yes, just perfect!

Every page has a pocket with journaling pages in between

A wonderful place to acknowledge my blessings in this season of gratefulness!

Crop weekend

Counting down to the once a year crop with Work in Progress kits and planning my projects to get the most accomplished in my time away.

In the last few weeks I have pre planned some layouts, took vacation pictures and used divided protectors to plan out which pictures are going into layouts and which pictures are added to protectors, and most recently, I decided to take my year and put it into wallet sized photos, using several pictures to document each month, and put together a year in review album...

I had totally forgotten about this picture taken in early January of a lunch date with my mom and sister at Red Robin... too bad Deb's eyes are closed!

seems like we just got together for lunch, but here I am with my highschool girlfriends in January

I don't think I'll ever forget celebrating Shawn's birthday at Cheesecake factory

and waking the next morning for our flight to Florida and finding this

Just a few of the pictures I plan to reminice about, document and enjoy during my weekend away with friends!

Running, parties and vacations seemed to dominate 2011, as well as milestones like Chelsea turning 21, my mother in law 70, Zach's braces coming off and oh yeah, running my first marathon!

pedicures in Michigan and so much to be thankful for!

Oh what fun

The other day I got the mail and left it on the passengers seat for the entire day while running my errands. When I got home and started sorting through it, I found the Christmas edition of Better Homes and Gardens Scrapbooks Etc and tore through it to find my page!

They emailed me a while back, mailed me a check for $100 and here it is!  I was even more surprised of the two pages!

 

Oh what fun this has been!

Wedding shower

My cousin's wedding shower was this past weekend and we decided to put together a mini album with the help of all the guests.

I picked up some chalk board signs on etsy and we had each guest write some advice or wisdom for them.  I then printed all the pictures and filled a flip photo album that was completed for Stephanie to take home at the end of the party.

Everyone had a blast coming up with their advice.... Here are just a few

my cousin and his adorable wife

my brother in law and sister

this couple was adorable and funny!

my dad's cousin's that we grew up and continue to call Dr. Zhivago

these two who are always adorable

Joel and I

such a fun project and great gift!

Birthday gifts

This year was my nephews 18th birthday and I wanted to do something special with the money I had planned to give him.  After viewing this adorable jar on Laura Vegas's blog I had a plan!

I found the pig (one of his 4H projects) earlier in the year and I picked up the empty jar at Target, my favorite store. And decided the money would do better at decorating the sides than any scrapbook paper I could use to cover it up!

And already I'm thinking of some other upcoming birthdays this will be perfect for!