Everyone has a story to tell, here's mine sprinkled with some creative projects along the way.
Thank you for stopping by and I hope you come back again.



Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Keep Calm and Create Frame *Inspired by Stamping April release*

Hi there friends. Today's the last day of the month and we'll end it with a project share, shall we? 

Keep Calm and Create Frame
For this craft project I wanted to play with these fun banner stamps from Inspired by Stamping. This set is part of the April release. You can view more from this month's release here

 I also added some flowers from Inspired by Stamping. Aren't they just so beautiful?

 To make the banner have a whimsical feel, I stamped it with different colored inks.

So there you have it. To learn more about the Inspired by Stamping products, please go here.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, April 29, 2013

Monday Video plus a note on an amazing party coming up

Happy Monday friends. I got a video share for you today. It's a bit different as I'm not showing you 'how to' ideas but rather I'm sharing my latest scrapbook purchases. I figured it's part of the overall "inspiration" that I'm trying to give so I hope that you can get inspired with my latest scrapbook haul. 


Also I'd like to personally invite you to an awesome blog and book party that my dear friend Heidi Sonboul is throwing next week. She has a new book out from Northridge and she's also revamping her blog so it's going to be a week full of fun, inspiration and I'm sure fun giveaways. You might even see a special giveaway in this blog as well *wink*. So make sure you mark the dates and join us in the party!



Speaking of a week full of party....I have tons of shares this week so I'm actually blogging for an entire 5 days. Make sure you check back every day as I have a good balance of family stories and crafty shares all packed in one week of blog posts. :)

Till next time,
Grace

Friday, April 26, 2013

Apps for Memory Preservation

Happy Friday friends. So about a month ago I jumped in and ungraded technologically with an Ipod touch. While I'm still new to all of this technology I have found that there are a few apps (applications) that are helping me in my journey in preserving memories and I thought I'd share them with you today. 

We all have our favorites apps. Some are very important and useful to our everyday and some are fun like games and social apps. Well I discovered a few ones that has been a great tool for my scrapbooking and memory preservation..

Light meter- I found this great one to be very helpful when I'm shooting. I love how it cuts the time of me playing around with my camera settings at a photo session. Even if you are not a photographer, just taking pictures for the family, having this app will allow you to have more time shooting and less time figuring the numbers out. 

Happier- I love this app. I use this one as a mini journal. It allows you to jot down something that you are thankful for on that day. I love how it helps me with my journaling, getting me to jot down some quick bits of memories or things that I'm grateful for and it even saves the day that I wrote my memories down. I'm thinking that this would be great once I'm ready to scrapbook a specific memory or a bunch of memories in one page. 

Two peas in a bucket- I love how this app allows me to get inspiration right at my finger tips. I'm usually browsing the gallery when I'm somewhere far from my computer or if I'm in my scrapbook room and need a quick jolt of inspiration or ideas for my next project. 

55,000 Amazing Quotes- This fulfills my obsession with witty phrases and words. I love quotes. They are the perfect combination of inspiration and knowledge. Somehow, I don't consider myself good at words so I'm always looking at what other's are saying and add it to my projects.

You tube- You might think, well I don't have the time to watch cute kitten videos but wait...did you know that there are great papercrafting tutorials in there too? I've even started doing video tutorials and you can see them all in my Youtube channel here

So there you have it. Even if you don't have an Apple device, I know that some of these apps are also available in Android devices. Do some google search to make sure. 

Now that I've shared my favorites, I want to know what's yours?

Happy Weekend

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

With Sympathy card *Inspired by Stamping April release*

Happy Hump day guys. Today I'm sharing a card that I used an Inspired by Stamping sentiment stamp for my card title. The Big Notes III is one of the sets that are part of the April release. You can see more from the April release here. 

With Sympathy card
I love how this stamp makes finishes off the card with the perfect sentiment. My favorite part is how well the words were put together for a sympathy sentiment. Better than what I could have said. 

You can check this stamp and the other beautiful sets Inspired by Stamping offers here.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, April 22, 2013

GCD Studios PaperCut Magazine Spring 2013

Hi there friends and happy Monday. Today I have a fun share with all of you. As a member of the GCD Studios Design team this year, I was given the opportunity to have a project published in the PaperCut magazine exclusively put together by GCD Studios...


Here's the link where you can see the issue, hot of the press! Check out my project at page 9. I have to say that I was blown away by all of the fantastic projects in this issue and I hope you will too. 

Thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Friday, April 19, 2013

Cool Science Fair

It's family story time. I know that I've slacked on sharing family stories here lately and to our dear family and friends...sorry! Hope this little share will make up for the silence. 

Ok so two Saturdays ago I took the kids to a Science fair in Downtown Colorado at the Colorado College. I saw an ad on the local paper about this a few weeks before then and thought it would be something that my kids would enjoy. My kiddos are at the age now where they need to discover how things work and how Science plays a part in our everyday life. Now for my LDS friends and family, this was the same Saturday of conference and so we  skipped those sessions but I have some good reasons for it...(a) this event was free, (b) this was the only day they were having it and (c) did I mention that this event was free? But don't you worry, we are not going inactive. We made up by watching the sessions that we've missed through the archived links on the LDS website. Thank goodness for technology right?

Anyways so Mitch couldn't come with us cause our refrigerator was getting fixed that day too but I took some photos and the kids told him all about the fun things they learned so he wouldn't miss out. I recently got an Ipod touch and wanted to 'test' the picture capacity of that device so I purposely left my big DSLR home. While just having the Ipod makes for a smaller purse and less tired arm, I still prefer my big hunk of a camera  with it's great quality and lighting. I'm not sure if that's the photographer in me talking but I think these photos are not the 'best quality'. Oh well at least memories were saved!

Picture 1- Marcus pedaled a bike that was connected to a sound system. The guy running the 'booth' said that the power generated from the pedaling is powering all of the electrical outlets in the fair. My poor boy was exhausted after pedaling since he was the only one on the bikes during this time. Picture 2- Maddie got some face painting done. Picture 3- The kids got to test out how electricity is created with simple batteries in this booth. Maddie got to light up this little toy just by pressing her fingers on the ends of it.  Picture 4- Marcus got to put together a Lego pig. He wanted to do some of the "cooler" Lego contraptions but the booth was busy with like-minded kids that getting inline to make this Pig already took 15 minutes so after he built the pig we opted to move on. 

Picture 1- The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo was one of the exhibitors and they brought some animals with them. Marcus was not afraid at touching this snake. Picture 2- Maddie was a little hesitant but eventually touched it as well. Picture 3- Marcus got to touch a porcupine as well. The zoo people told him exactly where to touch the animal (from head to about the neck portion) so it wouldn't make it's spikes go up. Picture 4- There were a lot of balloon exhibits and this one was a simple balloon with a face on it and then rubbed on the body to make it stick and they called it the "balloon buddy". I thought it was a great way of introducing the concept of static to the kiddos. 

They did a lot more stuff. Marcus got to fly a plane in a simulated computer game and Maddie tested her skills at poking a balloon with a skewer without ever letting air out of the balloon. The kids had a blast making their own ice cream with liquid nitrogen, some silly putty with borax and glue and winning little prizes here and there with the other booths. All in all it was a great event and i'm looking forward to next year's fair. Hopefully it will  not be scheduled around conference. Let's cross our fingers. *wink*

Oh and while going around the fair, I noticed a photographer taking pictures. I signed up for the science fair's newsletter and they shared a link to this photographers' images from the fair. Here's the link. You can browse down the images and find some of my kiddos in it. Personally I still don't know if I'm ok with this knowledge that someone else photographed my children without my consent but then again, memories preserved so I guess no harm done. Or is there? 

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Some latest projects

It is a cold day again  in my neck of the woods. How is it that we can never fully get into "Spring" around here? Oh well, I guess more time to stay indoors and craft. Speaking of crafts, I've been busy plugging along with my design team projects and I'm finally able to share some of them. Here's a few that I made recently...

Stop by the Epiphany crafts blog here to see how I made this card using the Square 25 Tool...

And Die-Versions released their uber-cute Country life themed die sets for April and I got to make this layout with the Tractor, Cow and Horse dies. You can see this layout in the Die-Versions blog here. 

I also made this First day of school layout for Die-Versions featuring the 1-9 Express Edge. Love how it created a super easy school themed border for my page. Check out this layout in this blog post at Die-Versions blog. 

So there you have it. I hope that you are having a week full of inspirations and creating, and that you are in a much warmer place that I am. *wink*

Till next time,
Grace

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

From the Heart card *Inspired by Stamping April release*

Hi friends. Today's an extra special post. You see Inspired by Stamping showed off the April release last week and I had so much fun creating with the new sets that I made extra projects. Today I'm sharing one of three extra projects that I made with the April stamp release. 

From the Heart card
In this card, I used the Spring Blossoms set. I tried my hand at the hand coloring and I'm happy with the results. It always amazes me at what I can accomplish when I go out of my comfort zone. Here are a few more close ups...




Again you can check this stamp out and the other beautiful sets available at Inspired by Stamping here. Watch out this month for my other two Inspired by Stamping project share. :)

Thank you for stopping by. 

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, April 15, 2013

New video tutorial...how I add misting to my projects

Hi Friends. Hope you're having a great start to your week. I'm starting this week off with a new video tutorial. I know that some of you have voiced out that you would like me to feature misting in my video tutorials and I'm here to please, so here it is! Hope you like it. 

and here's some pictures of the finished layout...






Remember that you can also subscribe to my YouTube channel to be the informed when I post a new video. Sometimes I get it posted on YouTube before I am able to come here and share it with all of you. 

Thank you for stopping by and I hope you have a great rest of the week. 

Till next time,
Grace



Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Inspired by Stamping April release featuring Washi Tape and Big Notes II Stamp

Hello my crafty friends. Today is the final day of sharing the sneek peeks for the April release at Inspired by Stamping. Here's my card featuring the Washi tape stamp set and the Big Notes II stamp set....





Congratulations card

Washi tape is one of the fun trends going around in the papercrafting world and so you can just image my excitement when Inspired by Stamping decided to come out with their very own stamp version of it. I love all the designs on them. With this stamp set you get over 6 different designs. How cool is that? Check this and other stamps by Inspired by Stamping here


I love how the Big Notes II stamps are the perfect size for card sentiments. Big enough to have a sentiment stand alone but also not too large that you won't have any room to add embellishments in  your card, even if it's only a 4 x 5 1/2" size, like what I used here. 

Please visit these links to find more inspirations for today's blog hop....

Big Notes
Cindy
Deb
Grace-you are already here :)

Big Wishes
Pam

Washi Tape



And the fun doesn't stop there! Here's some info that you might like to know...
Free Shipping will be available on all orders over $35. This will start on the 10th Sunday and be available for only 24 hours. April 10th at 7pm to April 11th at 7pm Brisbane time only. 
All 9 stamp sets will be offered as a bundle for a 10% discount. 
April 10th will be the full release on my blog and all items will be available for purchase at 7pm Brisbane time.

and it's contest time...

April 6th – April 10th we will be giving away a $25 gift card to the IBS  store everyday with Joanna's post.
Winners will be announced daily on a separate page at 10pm the following day.
You must leave a comment on Joanna's blog to be eligible to win on my blog
Only One comment per person
Each winner will be randomly selected.

thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Inspired by Stamping April release featuring Inspirational stamp set

Hi there, here's another share/sneek peek of what you can expect from the April release of Inspired by Stamping. If you like stamp sentiments, then you're going to like this stamp set...




A Friend card
I used the Inspirational stamp set to create my wonderful card sentiment. I love how these stamps says exactly what I wanted on my card more eloquently that I can could ever do. To view this and other stamps from Inspired by Stamping, please click here. 



Here's a link to all the other design team members' shares for today...
Tags

Inspirations



And the fun doesn't stop there! Here's some info that you might like to know...
Free Shipping will be available on all orders over $35. This will start on the 10th Sunday and be available for only 24 hours. April 10th at 7pm to April 11th at 7pm Brisbane time only. 
All 9 stamp sets will be offered as a bundle for a 10% discount. 
April 10th will be the full release on my blog and all items will be available for purchase at 7pm Brisbane time.

and it's contest time...

April 6th – April 10th we will be giving away a $25 gift card to the IBS  store everyday with Joanna's post.
Winners will be announced daily on a separate page at 10pm the following day.
You must leave a comment on Joanna's blog to be eligible to win on my blog
Only One comment per person
Each winner will be randomly selected.

thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace


Saturday, April 6, 2013

Inspired by Stamping April release featuring frame stamp

Hi Friends. If you love stamping as much as I do, then you're in for a treat today as I share my project featuring the Frame stamp from Inspired by Stamping as part of the April stamp releases. 

Here's a look at the Frame stamp set...

Make a Wish card
I love the big statement that this frame stamp gives my sentiment. The frame and sentiment are both from Inspired by Stamping. Check out the store here

I heat embossed my sentiment to add some texture to it and make it stand out against the background. 

Here's some more inspiration from the rest of the design team...
Flowers

 Frame
  • Grace- you are already here :)

 


And the fun doesn't stop there! Here's some info that you might like to know...
Free Shipping will be available on all orders over $35. This will start on the 10th Sunday and be available for only 24 hours. April 10th at 7pm to April 11th at 7pm Brisbane time only. 
All 9 stamp sets will be offered as a bundle for a 10% discount. 
April 10th will be the full release on my blog and all items will be available for purchase at 7pm Brisbane time.

and it's contest time...

April 6th – April 10th we will be giving away a $25 gift card to the IBS  store everyday with Joanna's posts.
Winners will be announced daily on a separate page at 10pm the following day.
You must leave a comment on Joanna's blog to be eligible to win on my blog
Only One comment per person
Each winner will be randomly selected.

thanks for stopping by.

Till next time,
Grace

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Quotes to inspire

Hi friends. It's been a while since I've shared some of my fave quotes so here's a sampling of some of the phrases/words/inspiration that is getting me feel positive today. To see more of the quotes that I have saved, you can check out my words/quotes Pinterest board here. You can also follow me by simply clicking here








Enjoy the rest of the week.

Till next time,
Grace

Monday, April 1, 2013

Sweet{heart} layout plus video tutorial

Happy Monday everyone. Today is a new day and I'm feeling optimistic. Something about a new week and getting a fresh start with things is causing me to smile today. How about you?

So as I promised, here's my latest video tutorial. I decided to share with you a start to finish process on making a layout featuring ways I use punches on my projects.


and here's another look at the finished project...

Sweet {heart}

After I finished the video, I decided to add some accents on the white part of the polaroid frame. It was just looking a little boring so I used the leftover part of the heart border sticker and some washi tape with hearts on it. 

Supplies Used
Cardstock- (white) Walmart; (grey) Bazzill; Vellum, Pattern papers, Stickers and letters- Dear Lizzy, American Crafts; Rhinestones- Kaiser Craft; Thread- Coats and Clark; Sewing machine- Kenmore; Tape- Source Unknown; Border punch- Fiskars; Circle punch- Creative Memories; Corner rounder- EK Success, Creative Memories; Die cut machine- Spellbinder; Die- Scallop circles; Photo corners- Recolllections; Adhesives- Scrapbook adhesive by 3L, Creative Memories



Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a creative week. 

Till next time,
Grace