Two class parties and a stressful week later.... Teacher Gifts

I'm definitely not off to a good start when it comes to resolutions...lol  I shouldn't be laughing but if I don't laugh I might cry and at this point it's the lesser of two evils right???

What a week... but it's Thursday and it's almost over!!! It was so nice last year with both boys in the same grade level of 1/2 this year with one in 1/2 and another in 3/4 means two class parties. Fortunately I have a very loving and supportive husband, who has a flexible enough job to help out whenever. Thank You Joe!!! I LOVE YOU!!! Without you I wouldn't have survived the week. The parties are over and now its time to finish up the teacher gifts. For that, I did do some crafting though and some baking of sorts. I'll post the pictures of the crafts first. We made these for Joey and Ethan's teachers. They'll be getting these and a giftcard.

We got the clear glass ornaments and painted them with alcohol ink. Then we took vinyl and decorated them with a monogram, #1 Teacher, Nowak Family est. 2011 and I heart chocolate and coffee. The last one coming from Ethan himself because he says his teacher loves chocolate and coffee.

Hope everyone is all set for Christmas... Which is more than what I can say for myself, but I am ahead of schedule when compared to years past :)

Season's Greetings!
Suzelle

I'm Back... Early Start to my 2012 New Years Resolution

Wow has it really been since July that I've posted????? So sorry to get started and then fall off the face of the earth..lol Being head team mom for Football and involved in the PTA are the main reasons I haven't been around.


I did just return from Disney World with my family, it was my first trip as well as my boys. We had a fantastic time. The smiles on their faces were worth it. I will definitely share some pictures soon. We also spent a day at SeaWorld, doing the VIP tour, which I would highly recommend.


I have so much to share and catch up on, eventhough football kept me busy, I have done a lot of crafting here and there. I have done several birthday banners, a boatload of tumblers, for football teams, cheerleaders, and just random ones to use around the house, or for birthday gifts to present giftcards in.


First though I want to share my New Year's Resolutions for 2012:


# 1, To commit atleast 3hrs a day to crafting and working on samples for my ETSY store, Stylish Party Supplies. Part of that will be sharing what I'm working on, on my blog.


# 2 Spend more one on one time with each of my boys, including my wonderful husband.


# 3 Lose 50lbs and no I am not exagerating..although I wish I was...LOL


# 4 Read at least one book a month.


# 5 Watch less TV, I've realized how I don't really need to watch TV, so that should help with resolution #1. It's such a time waster.


Well time to go clean out and organize the craft space so I can start working on resolution #1 and be ready to work on some projects coming my way  tomorrow and next week.


Happy Crafting!

My Very First Blog Hop: It's a Wrap

Welcome to the It’s a Wrap Blog Hop hosted by CoolBeans By L.B. Do you like to receive gifts? How about give them? Well this hop is all about the outside…the wrapping; Gift bags, boxes, baskets and more. There are 22 wonderful stops on this hop and we hope you will take some time to stop in and see everything we have created for you.

You should have arrived here from, Scrapalette. If you are just finding our hop in the middle you can go to the beginning at Cool Beans By L.B.

The project I did for this Hop, is a Giftcard Holder Card. This the season for baseball/softball coaches and this particular card is perfect for any coach (the picture below is of the front of it). To begin I used the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More cartridge to cut out the little box that would be the base of the card. I cut the top at 3.82" and the bottom at 3.71". I assembled it and then added the baseball to the front of it using the pop dots to give it a little dimension.

I used my E2 to cut the baseball shadow at 4.06" from the Sports Mania cartridge. I then used  my Gypsy  to add the THANK YOU spelled out using the font from the Cindy Loo Cartridge to add it to the center of the Baseball. I ran the shadow through the Xyron, then added the baseball with the wording to the top of it. To add a little something extra  I covered the whole baseball with Martha Stewart glitter. I shook off the extra and below is the result.

I used my Imagine to print out the #1 Coach using Plantin School Book. I then scored it every 2.25" inches and folded it accordian style to fit inside the top and bottom pieces of the box( I added a little red card stock at the front and back of the white to make a pocket for the giftcard.

If you have any questions about details, please feel free to email me.

Thanks for stopping by on this fun hop. Your next stop is Confessions of a Scrapaholic

If you get lost here is the whole list for this hop!

IT’s A WRAP BLOG HOP LINE UP

Cool Beans By L.B.  http://coolbeansbylb.blogspot.com/ (HOST)

Debbie from Deb’s Eclectic Thoughts http://www.debseclecticthoughts.blogspot.com/

Cindy from In Love With Paper http://www.inlovewithpaper.blogspot.com/

Amy from Amy’s Digi-Scraps http://scrap-pix.blogspot.com/

Cindy from Scrap Obsessed http://www.scrap-obsessed.blogspot.com/

TX Scrapper Mom http://www.txscrappermom.blogspot.com/

Scrapalette http://scrapalette.blogspot.com/

Suzelle from www.craftsandmorebysuzelle.blogspot.com

Confessions of a Scrapoholic http://scrapaholicjen.blogspot.com/

Stephanie from onceuponapaper  http://onceuponapaper.blogspot.com/

Brenda from Random Thoughts of a Scrapbooker  http://happyscrapper64.blogspot.com/

Marie from Stamp Cut Create http://stampcutcreate.blogspot.com/

Terri  from http://scrappinwiththebug.blogspot.com/

Lori Apgar from http://www.scrappinmystressaway.blogspot.com/

I Came, I saw, I Created   http://icameisawicreated.blogspot.com/

Anabel aka cricutaddicted from  http://scrappingformorefun.blogspot.com/

Michele from Green Girl Scraps www.michelegreen.com

Alicat from http://scrappingwithalicat.blogspot.com/

Everything Digital Scrapbooking http://digipage-blog.everything-digital-scrapbooking.com/

Robin, The Scrappin' Delta Diva http://scrappindeltadiva.blogspot.com/

Gamma's Creative Corner  http://gammascreativecorner.blogspot.com/

Paper Crafting Chic:  http://www.papercraftingchic.com/

Happy Saturday stay cool on this HOT Summer Day!!!

Suzelle

Ethan's End of Season Baseball Party

This week I was busy getting everything ready for Ethan's End of Season Baseball Party which was on Wednesday. I did the coaches gifts, dad assistant gifts, and favors for the players. First for the favors, I ordered tumblers from www.discountmugs.com, I also ordered Oracle 651 vinyl from www.cutterpros.com to use with the cricut. I used the Gypsy to set it all up, using the Sports Mania Cartridge to cut the "Play Ball" phrase and inside the baseball between play and ball I customized it using the Roly Feature on Plantin School Book to put each players number. Each cup was filled with some silver metalic "grass", fullsize hershey candy bar, some dubble bubble gum, and finally some starbust. Here's the end result:

For the coaches and the dad helpers (and we had 5 of them, 7 if you counted the two coaches) we wanted to stay within the $10/per family donation. I had the basic cardstock on hand, just picked up the baseball paper at Hobby Lobby. I used my gypsy and shapes, rectangle and 45 degree turned square, on the Plantin School Book Cartridge , to create a home plate out of white cardstock. Then cut out matte for pictures out of black and red cardstock (after all those are the colors of Arkansas University Razorbacks). I took the 7 home plates to the last 3 games of the season, and had all the boys sign each one of them. Then using my Xyron, I adhered the white home plate to the baseball paper cut at 1/2" smaller than the standard 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper. I then coordinated with the picture matte and matted the baseball paper again on either red or black cardstock. Each one was framed using the certificate frames from Wal-Mart. With the remainder balance we collected, we got the Head Coach and Assistant Coach, each a gift card to Sports Authority. I hate just giving a gift card in a card so using the Tags, Bags, Boxes and More Cartridge, I cut two of the matchbox two cuts, one was a 1/4" smaller than the other, and instead of making it slide in and out I made a top and bottom. I did this out of black cardstock from Hobby Lobby (I love that place I always get nice clean cuts from their cardstock). I used glue dots to attach sheer ribbon to the lid of the box only. Then I used scraps of baseball papers to make the rosette. The center of the rosette, the baseball were extras leftover from the cupcake picks I made(unfortunately due to the rush, I forgot to take pictures of them). The rosette when completed was attached to the lid using hot glue. I used a sharpie marker to write thanks in the center of the baseball. Here are the final products:

So between that, and Joey my oldest running a fever on and off since yesterday, I've had my hands full. I hope to be back in the groove going forward.

Thanks for stopping by!

Suzelle





The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award

I would like to say THANK YOU to Stephanie at PaperANDi for the  'The Irresistibly Sweet Blog Award"

To accept this award, I have to list 7 random things and pass this award on to 8 people..

7 Random Facts (this is going to be tough):
1. I LOVE Sports... Especially watching my boys play and excel.
2. My biggest weakness... Coconut Cream Pie Shake from Sonic
3. My favorite TV Show: NCIS, NCIS:LA and Rules of Engagement
4. Crafting has become my new found hobby.
5. I was born in South Africa and raised until 13 and have been in the Chicago Metro area for the past 18 years.
6. I have been married 9yrs next month.
7. I'm loving blogging, now if only I could work on time management to allow more of it :)

The 8 People I would like to pass this award on to are:

1. Nadia over at With Glittering Eyes
2. L.B over at Cool Beans by LB
3. Rexann over at I Be Circled
4. Cindy over at Scrap Obsessed
5. Rechelle over at The Football Mom
6. Mary over at Mary's Crafting Spot
7.Cathy over at Koala T Creations
8. Katie over at Oh Scrap's Scrappy Stuff

These ladies have great blogs with awesome projects that they've shared with us. Feel free to hop on over and check them out. Don't forget to leave them some blog love as well :)

Thanks Again Stephanie for this award... Sorry it took so long to accept it.

Happy Craftin'
Suzelle

Welcome and BIG THANK YOU!!

I wanted to welcome all my new followers, I went from 2 to 9 in a matter of 36hrs I think. I couldn't be more thrilled and excited. Thank you Thank you Thank You!!!! Also thanks for all the "blog love" that too is greatly appreciated :)

So...I don't have any projects today, I was too busy reading the cricut circle blog, the cricut message boards, and all the blogs I started checking out of everyone who either became followers, or commented on my posts... But oh who am I kidding I probably should've been cleaning and putting the mountain of laundry away instead..lol Tomorrow no computer until laundry is put away, house is tidied and at least 1 project  is DONE!

Hope everyone had a great day!!

Thanks,
Suzelle

Monster Bouquet

So Ethan and Joey's friend had a birthday party today. I'd been asking his mom what he wanted for his birthday and this particular she said his response was "a new family". Boys will be boys, but none the less that wasn't something I could help with, as most of us know I'm sure we've all heard some variation of it. Second on the list was a MoshiMonster membership. I had no idea what it was, but a light bulb went off. Just last week I ordered my Cricut Mini Monster cartridge. I didn't want to just give a card and put it in an envelope with the gift cards. I thought of making a candy bouquet. This was super easy. I used my gypsy, Expression 2: Anniversary Edition, and ofcourse my Xyron and glue strips were my adhesives. In the rush though I forgot to take pictures, so some of these might be blurry as I was taking them enroute to the party on my phone.

There were a total of 6 gift cards included. 2 on each pick back to back and then one on either side of the base. I also made a matching card but that was already in the enveloped sealed.

Hope everyone had a wonderful day!

Happy Crafting!

Suzelle