Pinterest Consumer Crafts Back-to-School Craft Challenge

I'm hoping to win a prize in the Consumer Crafts Back-to-School Pinterest Challenge.

I could use your help by you repinning my project with this link. Please, Please, Pretty Please :)

For this challenge I repurposed a cereal box to make the pencil box. I covered the base with White Dot decorative tape from Tapeswell. I used Garden Green cardstock from Stampin' Up! to create the lid. The measuring tape twill ribbon came from my stash. Finally I topped it off the digital apple image that I colored with Copic markers. For the coordinating bag  I used chalk to hand write the sentiment on black cardstock. It will smudge just like a real blackboard. So fun! The image of the teacher and children in the background came from the blog Just Something I Made by Cathe Holden.

I'm also sharing this with Tatertots and Jello, DYSU Challenge Blog, Fussy and Fancy, Frosted Designs, Stamp Man, QKR Stampede, Cas-ual Fridays, A Day For Daisies and Inspire Me Fridays.

7 Things I Love About Our Garage Makeover

These are 7 things I love about our garage makeover.
#1 I love that we painted the garage walls a nice shade of tan. The block wall and floors were painted grey. It's such a nice clean space! No more icky spiderwebs and dead bugs and grime.

#2 I love that we hung cabinets. Everything has a proper home.

# 3 I love that we have a refrigerator in the garage! During the holidays this will be very handy! Chad hooked up the water to the refrigerator. Now when we are all hot and dirty from yard work we won't be dragging dirt inside to get a glass of ice water. YAY!

#4 I love the peg board! The screwdrivers, hammers and tape measures are right by the door.

#5 Chad hooked up a computer and a stereo system. We can enjoy music from his iTunes library while working in the garage. The computer monitor sits on top of the refrigerator, the stereo and speakers on top the cabinets. Easy to control with remotes :) Plus I can surf the web!

#6 The lawn mower and Parker's bike can fit in between the two garage doors. It's so organized we can both park in the garage!
#7 Chad installed a keypad outside the garage. Now when we are outside we can put the code in to open the garage doors without needing the remotes that stay inside our vehicles.

I'm sharing this with Tatertots and Jello.

Backyard Makeover

This picture was actually used in marketing our backyard when the house was for sale.

This view gives a better idea of all the weeds, rocks, as well as some of the holes from the renters dogs. Look at those poor Japanese Maple trees. They were even chewed on. The one on the far left did not make it.

Every part of the deck had been chewed on.

The rails.

The boards.

Even the hand rails.

So we ripped out the deck and had a cement patio poured. If you look closely at the bricks you can see some of the dog hair we had to scrape off after the deck was torn down. Yuck!

I talked Chad into building a fireplace. YAY!

He laid the pavers correctly and poured concrete around them to make it feel like a rug in front of the fireplace.  If you notice the fence was grey, warped, dingy and only fenced half the yard!?!

There is a huge open field behind our house and I hope it stays that way forever!

Here's a picture of the landscaping we've started. It was so great to see one of the Japanese Maple pull through. I intend to fill this bed with more monkey grass. I'd love to find some lemon grass to help ward off pesky mosquitoes.

Stay tuned for pictures of the outdoor bar Chad built :)



Work In Progress

This is one of the pictures used to market the house we recently bought. None of the pictures used on the mls showed the real and very hidden potential. I don't know about you, but this did not say welcome home to me! It's in such a great neighborhood and location. It was a rental for over a year and neglected! I can only imagine how the previous owner felt seeing the condition of the house. We have been working hard making repairs and making it feel like our home!

This is one of the pictures from the home inspection. You can see that the finish was cracked and peeling off which could let water start to rot the wood. We new we had a lot of work to do to fix the house back up, but felt overwhelmed by the 26 page home inspection! The original homeowner attempted to have all the repairs needed completed. However sometimes "professionals" that are hired make repairs end up making things worse than what they were before. And some people should not DIY!!!

 We were shocked to find the columns stained a deep purple mahogany color. Instead of just maintaining the finish, the color was changed! What!?! The pillars no longer matched the front door and clashed with the bricks. This is what made us decided all the repairs that were supposed to be done before closing must stop immediately. We would do it all ourselves, so here's to work in progress...

It took me 3 days to strip, sand and stain the pillars. It was so worth all the work to get them back to the original color! It has been a bit funny to meet our new neighbors, they have thanked us for moving in.

The grass is not perfect yet, but nice to see it growing and green! I'm looking forward to fall so work on that landscaping :)

I thought I'd share our work in progress with Tatertots and Jello, Passionately Artistic and delicateCONSTRUCTION.

Happy 4th of July

Here's a simple yet fun idea to give as a hostess gift for your Fourth of July celebrations.

Start with a mason jar, fill with blue sand, add a candle, then finish off by tying a bell and fabric to jar. Tie another piece of fabric to handles on the gift bag, add a couple of stickers, write Happy 4th and add red glitter. Easy peasy!

I'm sharing this with Passionately Artistic, The Stuff Of Success, delicateCONSTRUCTION, Catch the Bug, 2 Sisters, Hiding In My Craft Room, My Sheri Crafts, Our Creative Corner, and Tatertots & Jello.

Wheatfield Lane

 There are several things that I've missed about our last house. It's only been three months now since the move. And we have done a ton of work to the new house to make it feel like home!!! 

These are just a few of the things I miss the most...

I miss my tile shower!!!
It was the most difficult project! I bought the tile at least a year before convincing Chad to help me rip out the little fiberglass shower stall to tile it. We were on vacation the week of Parker's 4th birthday. I planned the entire week out, what steps we needed to accomplish everyday. Things were going according to plan. We removed the shower stall, made the custom shower pan, and laid the travertine mosaic tile floor and waited two days before we were to start the walls. The pre-mixed grout we were sold did not dry! OMG it did not dry!!! The product we were specifically sold for tiling our bathroom shower did not dry after 2 whole days! A minimum of 24 hours was recommended. We waited 2 whole days! Chas was so angry! I cried because I wanted a tile shower so badly and the project was going down hill fast! We were no longer on schedule. I had to scrap it all out and scrub that new concrete shower pan, hoping that I would not have to break out the shower pan and start all over!!! Chad did not want to even start this project and hated it from the word go! After all the drama it turned out totally fabulous! It was at least foot wider and 18 inches deeper. It was amazing just how much more room we had in that same space. Look at the tile all the way to the ceiling, how perfect the tile was along the wall, how beautifully Chad finished the chair rail next to it!
I miss my tile shower! I can hardly wait to convince him to do it again in our new home :)

Another detail I miss is the picture frame he made around the mirrors. I know Chad will do it again soon, after some of the bigger projects are finished.

I really miss the tile in my last kitchen. I swear I fell in love with the house because of the tile! I just loved the color! Yes brown really is my favorite color. It had the most fabulous shades of brown and terracotta in it! Chad put in the under counter lighting in. I had no idea just how much I would love it until it was done!
For my Mother's Day gift he put under counter lighting in my new kitchen. Love it!!!

I'm lucky Chad is so talented! Doesn't this built in look great!

It was actually a secret door to our attic space! It looked so ridiculous before with a tiny door in the middle of the wall! He built the shelf and put it on a piano hinge with a hidden latch.

I miss everything about our back yard! The fountain was my very first Mother's Day present! Chad did such an incredible jib building it for me! I planted daffodils, red tulips, tiger lilies and variegated monkey grass all around it. The sound of the water was so soothing!

I miss the pergola Chad built and that lush green grass!



The deck really was set up for entertaining with the hot tub, fireplace all the seating and the bar. Chad is really missing his bar! He's missing having a refrigerator outside. I give it 2 months tops before he builds another! Now that it's getting crazy hot outside I'm missing the hot tub! We would cool it down during the summer and treat it like a pool. Great summer tunes like Bob Marley playing, the cool water with the jets,  Parker playing with his pirate ships.



And finally this is what Parker is missing the most. The play fort Chad built for Parker's second birthday.

It was a good neighborhood and a great home. We did so much work there that I guess we needed another project! Ha!  I'm sure these were a few of the reasons it sold within a week! We have so many fond memories from there. It was the home we lived in when Parker was born. He started kindergarten while we lived there.

I look forward to making many more great memories in our new home! I'll post some of our progess soon :)

I'm sharing this with Tatertots and Jello,  Classy Clutter and Passionately Artistic.

Polka Dots

Polka Dots are the theme for this week's challenge at Papercraft Star.

I started my card with kraft cardstock and used a corner rounder on 3 corners. Next I used a scalloped border punch from Stampin' Up! with brown cardstock. The bitty yellow Polka dot paper came from Papertrey Ink. The two shades of pink paper with tiny heart "polka dots" also came from Stampin' Up! I used the fancy label punch from SU! and hand cut the heart. The sheer brown polka dot ribbon came from Close  To My Heart. I used Liquid pearls along the scalloped border. I could not seem to get the right lighting to photograph the heart, but I used Liquid Glass all over it. It has a lovely reflective surface.

I can hardly wait to see what you create with Polka Dots! I am totally confident the other designers will inspire you too! Our sponsor The House Across the Bay has so many fabulous digital images in the shop and each week the winner gets to pick a couple, plus the runner up wins one as well! Come play along in the fun!

Bonjour

The challenge this week at Papercraft Star is to include something French.

I immediately thought of the Eiffel Tower. Some of the other ideas that had come to mind was the classic blue and white toile patterns, lace, fluer de lis, and words like Merci Beaucoup.

I started with kraft cardstock then layered it with black cardstock and White Grunge Squares 139 from our sponsor The House Across The Bay.

 I probably printed this square about six months ago, and until now could not decide how to use it. I also finally inked up the Eiffel Tower, Fluer de Lis and Bonjour stamp. It was probably only 5 years ago I bought them! lol Yep, I'm guilty of hoarding beautiful papers and buying fabulous stamps that go unused for weeks, months or even years at a time. Well this lil' ol' blog o' mine is my Crafters Anonymous. I'm addicted!

 I randomly stamped Bonjour all over the background paper. I used Soft Suede ink to stamp the Fluer De Lis on the strip of kraft cardstock. I used more Soft Suede ink with the script and postmark rubber stamp from MSE! Over that I used black ink to stamp the Eiffel Tower. I used a punch from EK Success to cut out the image, then layered it with black cardstock. I stamped Bonjour on ivory cardstock, used an oval punch from Stampin' Up! and layered it with black cardstock. I used a pair of scissors to lightly distress the edges.

Voila!

I can hardly wait to see what you and the other designers come up with!

I'm sharing my card with The Kraft Outlet. 

Supplies:

Digital image "White Grunge Squares 139" from The House Across The Bay

Bonjour, Fluer De Lis, Eiffel Tower stamps, Oval Punch and Soft Suede Ink from Stampin' Up!

Postmark / Script stamp from MSE!

Fancy Label punch from EK Success

Cheers To You

The challenge this week at Papercraft Star is umbrellas.

It took me a while to figure out what I was going to do. I was originally thinking April Showers. But I don't have a single umbrella stamp. Hmmm what's a girl to do. Then the light bulb came on...a cocktail umbrella!

The fun red polka dot paper, fruit stamps and sentiment are from Stampin' Up! I'm sure all long retired, because I think I've had them for a good 5 or 6 years. Yep, I did it. I finally did it. I cut some of that paper I hoard and finally inked up a stamp I just had to have years ago! YAY! It was a bit over due! Lol

The glass was made from vellum paper that I inked up to have some yellow color. I used some scor-tape to add the salt  glitter to the glass and envelope. I used one of my son's bendy straws and a cocktail umbrella to finish off my fruity drink. Ta da!

So I can hardly wait to see your take on the theme of umbrellas!

 Our sponsor The House Across The Bay has some fabulous digital images like Victorian Women 170 that would be perfect for this week's challenge! You have until 6 am Eastern time on Monday to share your talent and possibly win some digital images from The House Across The Bay!

You Rock

This week at Papercraft Star the theme is Anything Goes!!!

I used several digital images from our sponsor The House Across The Bay to make my card.

Crayola Grunge Nine 024

Grunge Tags 048

Patriot Squares 138

The base of my card is kraft cardstock. I enlarged the blue stripe from Patriot Squares 138. Above that is Leaf Green grosgrain ribbon from Papertrey Ink. I punched a blue star from Crayola Grunge Nine 024 set and layered over a round tag from Grunge Tags 048. I used a label punch on another tag from Grunge Tags 048 and stamped "You Rock!". I'm thinking it was from Stampin' Up! I love the color combination and masculine feel. It's fun mixing up all the digital images to create something unique!

I can hardly wait to see your creations this week, Anything Goes!