Everything But The Kitchen Sink Sketch Challenge

Here's my card for this month's Everything But The Kitchen Sink Sketch Challenge:

It's a little more "girly" than I usually make, but it's what I came up with. Not sure if I like it or not? I like it, but I guess it's not one of my favorites. Anyway, have a good night!

Supplies: All patterned paper is from the Earth Love Mini Deck by Cosmo Cricket, the "happy" is some Thickers from American Crafts that I got real cheap at Big Lots (yay!), the "birthday" is from a remarks letter stickers book, I used a tag stamp from a stampology clear stamp set called Journaling Tags that I got on clearance at Target for super cheap (yay again!) and embossed it with clear embossing powder using some versa mark ink. Oh and the string and buttons were just from my stash o' stuff!

What? Four days off?

I have had the past four days off from work and I have kept myself very busy! Here is a little glimpse of what I have accomplished:

1. I made a wreath out of some boas, a grass wreath, a staple gun, and some ribbon.
All I did was staple a boa into place on one end, then wrap it around, making sure that the brown wreath did not show through, then stapled the other end. I used about 5 or 6 boas (I'm not sure exactly because I started this project several weeks ago only to discover that I did not have enough boas to cover the entire wreath, and I don't remember how many I used in that first stage).

Here is the final result! I actually found the idea here on a blog that I follow! I wish I had made the bow bigger at the top and I always can because it's just tied. I love this wreath because it will be so easy to change out the ribbon based on the season/holiday!

2. I cleaned my entire house from top to bottom (well almost). I did do some major cleaning and knocked 1 room off of my "I've got to declutter this place before putting it on the market" list!

3. On Saturday, I had some not so great news with shared with me when I had someone here to look at my heating system because we always have a musty smell when the heat kicks on. That was being caused by two things. One was that the air return duct work under my house had come loose and had a huge gap in it - that problem got fixed (not to mention that it was supposed to have been fixed last year when we had someone else tell us the exact same thing)! The second reason is that we have water standing under our house! Yes, we did just have a TON of rain this past week, but it should not be getting under the house! The builder did put a "trench" around the foundation and that is where all the water stays, but this is probably the source of the musty smell. I have no clue who to call to have this fixed, so any ideas would be appreciated!

4. We went to see the movie, Avatar this weekend! I was NOT looking forward to seeing it at all and only went because I wanted to get out of the house and this was the only movie that my husband wanted to see. Well, I loved it...Go figure!

5. I taught myself to knit! I did a little learning swatch to learn the basics, and now I am in the process of making a very simple scarf - just one color and no pattern, but it's just my first one!

Whew! What a weekend! Back to work tomorrow to work 7 out of the next 10 days!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Challenge

I am pushing the deadline on this one! I just have not been in a very "crafty" mood lately and I had to make myself sit down to participate in this challenge! I love these challenges because they are so different! So here we go...click on the image below for all the other great entries: Can you guess what the challenge was this time:

How about now:

It was to use toothpicks! How creative Kelley! I loved the idea and when I saw it, I got really excited, but I had a hard time coming up with something to do with them! Here's what I came up with for this challenge:

It's very simplistic this time! I look at it at times and I like it, but then other times not so much!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great night! I'm heading to bed as soon as I get my desk halfway cleared off at least!

EBTKS - November Sketch challenge

The girls over at EBTKS added a new challenge - a sketch challenge based off of something in the home. This one is based off of one of the girl's fireplace mantle.
Here's the sketch (and link): And here's my card (with the kitchen sink in the background - ha ha....I just don't have the greatest lighting in my house and the kitchen counter seems to be the best place so far when I need to take pictures on rainy days like today):

The paper that I used was some glitter paper that I had from a 4.5 x 6.5 "Mat Stack."
The "Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!" stamp is from American Crafts' "Thanks" stamp set, stamped with some versa mark ink and then embossed with some silver embossing powder (I can't remember who makes it though). It is stamped on some black card stock and applied with some foam adhesive.

I had so much fun with this challenge that I actually made another card! This one is my favorite of the two (yes, again with the kitchen sink :o) )

This one I made with a stamp set that I just HAD to have! It's called "Coffee Cafe" by TPC Studio. The little stamp on the inside of the card in the circle is stamped in Chestnut Roan by Color Box and the "I like you a latte" (lol - I had to have the set for that one stamp really) is stamped with Versa Mark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder on some brown card stock. The paper is called "simple stripe" by Three Bugs in a Rug from their Simple Pleasures collection. It is a two sided piece and the blue/brown/white patter was the other side of that same piece. Oh and some white thread and foam adhesive!

Could you hold please?

The other night at work I got a phone call from one of our regular customers. You know the type - the ones who are needy and require a 20 minute conversation about absolutely nothing and when you hang up after those 20 minutes, you have only spoken for maybe 3 of those minutes other than the occasional "yes", "uh huh", "I understand", "really?", "whys that?"....

The customer asked me to find out how much a particular medication would cost on their insurance. So I politely ask the customer, "Do you mind holding for a minute so that I can run that through your insurance and get a price for you?"

The response that I got about knocked me on the floor! I can honestly say that it is a first for me in the 10+ years that I have been working in a pharmacy....

"Sure, I'm just sitting here resting on the commode."

I cannot look at this customer in the same way anymore! I'm just thankful that I did not hear any strange noises while I was on the phone!

A 2nd EBTKS Card

So I decided I would make another card using TP for the Everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge. For my first card, the tp was disguised and it could have been pretty much anything. However, for this 2nd card I wanted to make something that you could tell that TP was used (not used TP - that would be gross)!It's pretty simplistic, but I thought it would be a cute card to stick in with my hubby's lunch one night when he leaves for work! I used staples to secure the two "points" and then used glue dots to keep the rest of it attached to the card to get the shape - surprisingly this was a lot harder than it might look!

On another note, here is a better picture of the first card that I made for this challenge! I decided that since it was such a nice day out I would take advantage of it and take a better picture with fantastic natural light!

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Challenge - November '09

Wow! Thank you girls for a TRUE CHALLENGE! I had no idea where to begin with this one. This month the challenge was to use toilet paper! Oh my goodness, I had no idea where to begin! I just went to the bathroom and grabbed a bunch of it and brought it into my office/craft area and started twisting it, crunching it up, trying to use it as a "dabber" for paint to create a background effect....which turned into my crazy card! (click on this logo above to be taken to the page to see other entries)


For my card, I ended up taking the TP and applied it to some kraft colored card stock (a little smaller than the face of my card) using some Platinum colored metallic craft paint I had in my closet. It ended up creating a textured background that, surprisingly, I really like!

So here's my card! It looks a little better in person, but you get the idea! I hate that the greens of the wreath and the "Season's Greetings" sticker don't match (and I may end up switching out sentiments if I can find a good one that matches), but for now it will do!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic rest of the week! I get to work two 12 hour shifts on Wednesday and Thursday - but at least I only have 3 flu shots left to give for the season (unless of course we end up getting the H1N1 vaccine - which I not so secretly hope we DON'T)! I gave 47 flu shots over the course of my 3 day weekend PLUS did all the other normal stuff I have to do at work - it just about did me in!

Supplies: TP :o) , platinum colored metallic craft paint, green felt cut into a circle/wreath shape, red Christmas ribbon from my stash of stuff, the "Season's Greetings" sticker is from the Paper Studio, kraft colored card stock, chocolate brown card stock, the wreath and sentiment are applied using foam dimensional adhesive.

It's Been Awhile

I know, I know.....it has been a few weeks since I have posted anything! I have just been out of my crafting mood and I haven't had much else to talk about.

I am not looking forward to going back to work tomorrow because I know that over the course of the next 3 days I will give the 50 flu shots that we got in yesterday at the pharmacy and I know that I will have at least 50 more people wanting them after the last one is gone. I don't mind giving the shots, but when it also has to be done along with all of the other normal duties, it gets to be very overwhelming! It also becomes an issue when I don't have any one else there with me - like on Saturday afternoon my tech will leave around 3 or 4 and then it will be just me there by myself for the last 2 hours - hopefully everyone else will be consumed with Halloween and trick-or-treating to be worried about coming into Rite Aid to get a flu shot?!

On another note, we did get a new kitten, Gracie! She is not very cooperative with the camera, but this was the best shot I could get for now!

Also, I did make my niece a birthday card for her 2nd birthday:

I can't believe that she is already two! My sister is now swimming in princess/pink stuff. I didn't get any pictures from the party because I was kind of stuck in a corner and I couldn't really get out to take pictures :(

That's it for now - I am going to go put together a stand for our DVDs that just arrived from UPS so maybe I will post pictures of it soon!

The giraffes on this card are from a stamp set that I super cheap at Target on clearance for a whole $2.62! I didn't have any stamps for kids so I thought this one would be a great start! It's called Mindy's zoo by Autumn Leaves - so cute!

Most of the other stuff is from my stash - the chipboard letters are from Hobby Lobby and the buttons are from Basic Grey's OBSCURE buttons.

A Few Random Things

I decided instead of posting lots of different posts, that I would post just once about lots of different stuff at once:

1. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month!

During my time in pharmacy school, I belonged to a pharmaceutical fraternity, Kappa Epsilon, and our national platform is BCAM!

2. I had a small accident yesterday :o( I went to spend a fun-filled day celebrating a friend of mines' birthday party at Rock Island State Park. Several years ago, I had to have surgery on my ankle due to a small birth defect having to do with the way my bones formed in my ankle. Anyway, one of the downsides of the surgery is that I am not very stable on uneven surfaces any longer because I have limited movement in my ankle.

Just after I twisted my ankle on an uneven rock stair, my friend Sam comes around the corner behind me and says, "Brandy, do you think your ankle will be able to handle this with it being so wet?" ---- Funny you should ask since I just twisted my ankle and felt something pop! I went back up to the picnic tables and sat and worked a Sudoku puzzle while the rest of the group went down and did some hiking. As soon as I twisted it, I was in an extreme amount of pain and I immediately felt a "burning" sensation so I knew the swelling was setting in immediately.

Anyway, here is my ankle last night when I got home! It is very sore and I am really not looking forward to going to work Wednesday and Thursday since all I do is stand on my feet for 12 hours a day! Let's pray that another day of rest tomorrow will do it some good and it will be better by then!??! It's not looking good at this moment - I am still in a lot of pain, but can walk on it and move it, so I know it's not broken - just sprained or strained, but it's still not comfortable!

3. We have discovered a fun movie to watch over and over again recently - Fired Up! It's about 2 high school football players who decide to go to cheer camp instead of football camp so that they can chase after girls - It's a pretty funny movie and we have watched it twice already!

4. I am in love with Netflix! Juan and I love to watch movies and what better way to rent movies than to have them sent right to your mailbox? I was sceptical at first, but I love it!

5. There are only 10 months left on my contract at Rite Aid and then we will be moving to PA to be closer to my husband's children. After spending a week up there a few months ago, we realized that we really need to be a part of their lives. I will miss my friends and family here in TN, but I know that those kids need their dad (and their mom) so we are making the move north!

I guess that's it for now.....Have a good rest of the week!

everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge

I had SOOOO much fun making this card for the new "everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge"!!!!! This is a new challenge started by a few friends of mine, so I knew I was going to participate from the moment that I read their news! I was just waiting on the recipient to get her card first before posting it - because I know that she reads my blog and I didn't want to spoil the surprise! Click on the picture below and it will take you to Courtney's blog and the other entries for this challenge:For this month the challenge was to take something from your mail and incorporate it into a card or scrapbook page. Here is some of the mail that I used:

The card I made was for my sister, Carol, who uses coupons like a mad woman and can get stuff for next to nothing most of the time! I had some coupons that I wanted to send her for diapers, but I also had some coupons for other stuff that I knew I would not be using, so I sent those along as well.

The first thing I saw after I read about the challenge on Courtney's blog was a coupon book from Kroger and I immediately thought about a coupon themed card but I wasn't sure how it was going to work out completely.

Then I got the cellophane pocket idea from another one of the challenge creators, Winter. I decided that I would find small images of of some of the products I was sending in coupon form and tuck them into the little pocket. I took those images, glued them to some card stock and cut them out again and stuck them in their cellophane pocket home.

I cut the "exclusive coupons" wording from the front of the Kroger coupon booklet and put it all on top of some striped paper from Cherry Hill's October Afternoon collection. I then found a scrap of blue paper and punched a scalloped border for the edge of the card. This card was really tiny - it was only about 4X3 inches.

It seemed like it was missing something so....The last thing that I did was I stamped a "To you from me" sentiment from American Craft's. I cut that out, punched a hole in it, and tied some ribbon in it and stuck it in the little cellophane pocket as well.

Here is the finished product with the coupons inserted and ready to go!

My sister called me today to let me know that she got the card and that she thought it was really cute! I must admit that it reminded me of doing a project like you would do in elementary school, but I absolutely LOVED it - it was almost therapeutic after a long 12 hour day of work! I sat down JUST to come up with the idea and I ended up staying up until almost 1AM working on the darn thing AND I had to get up for work the next morning (thank goodness the next day was a Saturday and I didn't have to be there until 9 instead of our normal 8)!

Even though it does remind me of something I would have made in elementary school, it is still probably one of my favorite cards that I have made so far! I hated parting with it, but I am glad it brought a smile to someone else's face today!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge #17

I decided I needed some inspiration to come up with a birthday card for a sweet friend of mine. I thought that the colors from Dawn's Raspberry Suite Color Challenge (click on the picture above to go directly to the page that provides links to more wonderful cards) would make a great birthday card - the aqua and red make the colors so bright and "cheery!"

The middle present there and the "Happy Birthday" are applied with dimensional adhesive so they "pop-out" a little from the card. I LOVE the ribbon that I used on this card - lacy and feminine! I am not completely happy with the way that the card turned out, but that might be because it's a little late and I'm tired!

Exciting news in my life right now - I am actually not working like a mad woman this week! Yay! I worked last Sunday unexpectedly because the other pharmacist's dad at my store ended up going to the ER and she wanted to go be with him...but she offered to repay me by working my Sunday for me (this NEVER happens to me)!!!

So I have Sun, Mon, and Tues off this week as well as my normal 3 day weekend of Fri, Sat, and Sun! YAY!

Sunday I am going to spend the day with a very precious family to me who are home from their missionary lives in Honduras for a few months. I'm not sure what Monday and Tuesday have in store for me just yet. Then on Friday I am going to be able to spend some time with 3 other amazing women whom I have known for a very long time - I can't wait! I hope that you all get some kind of exciting and fun news this week as well!

Supplies for this card:
Cardstock: Kraft, aqua, and white colored
Ink: Lipstick Red and Blue Lagoon from Colorbox
Ribbon: Chocolate Brown Lace Ribbon from Jo-Ann's
Stamps: Happy Birthday 01 and Stripped Present from Stampabilities
Punch: A Scalloped edge punch that I found on Clearance at Target for about $3 - not sure of brand or what it's called exactly (I threw the packaging away already)

A Series of Cards

I had SO much fun making these cards! I really wanted to just keep them and hang on to them, but then I figured it would be a wast of money (and time) to just have them sitting them around the house. I decided I would send them to some of my friends instead! I took my inspiration from Kristina Werner. I have been wanting to try this technique out for a while, but just now got around to actually doing it.
I didn't want to waste a lot of paper so I ended up making a few more cards out of the left overs from this first one. *Supplies for the card above: The paper is from Cherry Hill's October Afternoon collection, the dress step is Stampabilities' Wire Dress Form, the "Just for u" is from Stampabilities' sophie caps alphas clear stamps, and the ink was Bright Pink by Stampabilites.

*Supplies for the card above: Paper from Cherry Hill's October Afternoon collection and the flowers with "keep in touch" bellow them are two stamps from the Sentiments collection from American Crafts and I embossed them with clear embossing powder.

*Supplies for the card above: Paper from Cherry Hill's October Afternoon, the "to you from me" stamp is from the sentiments collection from American Crafts stamped in black ink from stampabilities, and some orange ribbon from the Paper Studio.

Ok, so I am off to work a day early because there is always some sort of drama happening in my partner's life! At least I don't have to be there until 12 and I will get off at 6! In the mean time, check out my cousin Lori's blog about a really funny pharmacy story! I can honestly say that I've never had this happen to me before! Enjoy your Sunday!

A Few Pages

Today has been another stay-at-home and craft day! Even though neither of these pages were made today, I still wanted to share something! What I made today I REALLY wanted to share, but I want them to get to where they are going first ---- so be on the look out this weekend for a post!

This first page I am not a huge fan of! I wanted to put in a page about me starting off my career as a pharmacist at Rite Aid and I wanted to incorporate my old name plate (my new one looks almost exactly the same except that it says "Pharmacy Manager/Immunizing Pharmacist" under my name). It is an ok page and I suppose that it serves it's purpose. Supplies for this one pare pretty simple: red and blue card stock, a Rite Aid logo that I printed out on my computer and my old name plate! This second page I am much more fond of! Even though this shows that I am almost 2 years behind on my scrapbook since Lila will be 2 next month! Good grief time flies!!

Supplies for this page include some old yellow letters that I had in my stash from AGES ago, the pink background paper is from The Paper Studio, the butterfly is from The Paper Studio - La Petites 3-D Stickers, and the little round thing under the center picture is a little round "looking glass" that says LOVE from Making Memories.

As you can tell from all the different pages lately, my scrapbook is a mixture of 12x12 pages and 8&1/2 x 11 pages. So far I am enjoying switching it up a bit and I think it adds a litte interest to looking through the book!

Atlanta '07

I have not done anything creative these past 2 days that I have had off, but I still wanted to give you all at least 1 post about something before heading back to work my 3 day weekend. These are some more pages that I made last weekend. They are of a trip that Juan and I made to Atlanta during the first year we were married. We had a great time and we want to go back sometime, but we just have to find the time to go! Anyway, here's the first page:

And the second page:
Supplies:

*Thickers

*Paper from K&Company Wild Saffron collection

*Flower on 2nd page is also from the K&Company Wild Saffron collection

*Buttons are just from my random button collection :)

Crazy Two Weeks

The past two weeks have been INSANE for me! I normally only work 75 hours every pay period (which is two weeks). However, this past pay period, I worked a total of 96 plus hours (AND it was the first of the month and we filled over 900 prescriptions when we had been averaging around 650 to 700 per week so this was a significant jump for our little pharmacy).

I say "plus" because what I will get paid for is 96 even though on Monday (Labor Day and the day I was supposed to get off "early" at 6:00) I had someone pull up at the drive-thru window after I already had the computers shut down and the gates pulled down and I was about to walk out the door (all I had left to do was log off my cash register drawer and literally walk out the door and lock up).

Of course, being the softy that I am, I end up staying because the prescription was for a kid and I was almost certain there was not another pharmacy open in Sparta...and I didn't want to be the mean person to send them to Cookeville to a 24 hour pharmacy (and competitor). I also have high hopes that the parents will remember me staying after on a holiday to fill their son's prescription the next time they need a prescription filled. However, I do not get paid for my time that I spent there filling the kid's prescriptions (or for calling the ER doctor when I realize that what he's written for does not even exist)!

Just my luck! They will remember the nice pharmacist who stayed after her shift had ended right?!?

The last day I was at work was this past Thursday. It is normal for me to get a 3 day weekend every other week because I work a 3 day weekend every other week! However, I have NEVER looked forward to a 3 day weekend like I did this past one!

So on Friday I ran around and paid some bills and did some errands. That night Juan had to work a 12 hour shift himself so after I cooked dinner, kissed him goodbye, and cleaned the kitchen, I got to do whatever I wanted to do and that was spend some time working on my scrapbook (guilt free)! The rest of the weekend has mainly been spent with Juan since we hadn't seem much of each other the past 2 weeks.

I have been trying to get caught up on the past several years that I have neglected! I have tons of pictures in boxes that I have not done anything with! This is a picture of a page that I had done a while ago (not this past Friday). I really like it for some reason. Maybe it's just because of what it's of - our honeymoon and the start of our life together! Who knows!

I was being lazy today and didn't take it out of the page protector (and I wish I had)...oh well!
Supplies:
Paper: Feeling Groovy "No Worries" May Flowers Paper from My Mind's Eye
Tag: From the Happy Trails Tag Pad by K&Company
White Ribbon from Hobby Lobby
I'm really not sure where the sticker came from??


Back to work tomorrow :o(

Our First Home Scrapbook Pages

So I have been REALLY behind on my scrapbook so I have taken a good chunk of the weekend and tried to catch up (but I didn't get very much accomplished because I forgot how long it really takes to do this stuff). These are some of the layouts that I liked the most of the ones that I did. The first one I am not crazy about, but I do like the 2nd page much better! The first page is ok, but my favorite part of it is the little "envelope" that I made to the right of the picture of our house :o) The quality of the pictures is not the greatest because I took them in my office last night kind of late and we don't have the best lighting in here. Oh well! As far as the supplies that I used on these pages, I know that the paper I used is from American Crafts and is from the alaCarte collection that I got a great deal on at Big Lots. The piece of brown paper with the white lines on it from Basic Grey's line, offbeat. The sticker that I used is from The Paper Studio (Family Sayings #2). The bird stamp is called "Textured Bird" from Stampabilities and I did some embossing with it. If you are curious about anything else, just ask!

I am probably going to be pretty quiet this week. I have to work every day between now and next Tuesday, with the exception of this coming Tuesday! It's going to be one LONG week, and I'm not looking forward to it!

More pictures

So I realized that some of you who read my blog don't have Facebook and can't see all the pictures from my trip to PA so I thought I would post some more! Enjoy :)

Luna (my step-daughter) being silly at grandpa's house

Juan with his mom and dad (who are divorced, but still get along and spend lots of time together even though he is remarried and very happy)...kind of strange, but also makes it so much easier on us when we go to visit! We all had dinner together every single night! It was wonderful!

Juan and his son, Donovan

Me with Luna

Juan and I passing time by taking goofy self-portraits!

No longer MIA

I have been silent for a while because I haven't really had anything to post about. I wasn't doing much in the crafting world and all I was doing was just working. We did take a week and go visit family in PA. We had a great time and we are looking forward to moving up there around this time next year. Here is a picture from our trip up there to visit family:

We watched the movie Gran Torino today. I will be honest and say that I didn't really care whether or not we saw it, but it was a GREAT movie! I would really recommend anyone watch it. It dealt a lot with racism, but had a really good ending! I have never seen all the Fast and Furious movies either and recently we have watched all of them except for the Tokyo Drift one, and I am becoming a huge fan of these movies as well. LOL. I never thought I would like cars or racing, but since my husband has an "American Muscle Car" now I have started to get more interested in cars and that sort of stuff. We are standing in front of his car (an '09 Dodge Challenger) here:

I have been working on a scrapbook this weekend and maybe I will post some pictures of it later this week. Some pages are just kind of boring and plain (nothing more than some pictures and stickers), but I have made a few that I really like and I might post some of those soon. I will be working A LOT over the next 2 weeks so it might be a little hard for me to post at all, but I will try not to let so much time go between posts in the future!

Yummy Blackberry Cobbler

Last week I found some blackberries on sale at the store and I bought 2 packs of them with the idea to make a cobbler! One of the many memories I have from my childhood is going out and picking blackberries and then mom would freeze them and make cobblers and all sorts of stuff. I never liked blackberries back then because I couldn't stand for the seeds to get stuck in my teeth, but now I can handle the seeds because I know that the desert is going to be worth it! This was my 1st attempt at blackberry cobbler and I think it turned out really good (so did Juan, it was gone in 2 days thanks to his ginormous portions he had :) ).

Only 23 more days until we leave for a week in PA to visit family! I am really looking forward to seeing Juan's parents and my beautiful step-kids! I am mainly just looking forward to the time away from my job!