Working Hard for the $$ (Wait, what money?!)

Grr...just had a whole post typed with pictures and it deleted it! Here we go again!

I did get some stamping done these past few days, sadly no scrapping though. Hopefully this weekend, when Sara comes over to scrap on Sunday. I finished up my cards for the June card swap at the Clifton Meet-Up Group. I used my favorite Technique Tuesday stamp, Boho Buzz, as well as the Stiches. The sentiment is a new one I picked up in NC at Archivers (the most awesome scrapping store ever!). It is the new ClearDesign stamps by Hero Arts.

I also finally made a card for Christine's birthday, which was over a month ago! Eek! I am a bad future sister-in-law! She is very girly so the giftabella with hat is perfect for her! I used some other new stamps here, by KI Memories, the word printed on the blue paper, it says "celebrate".

I also made this bubbly card for my Grandma. It may be a bit of a weird sentiment for Gram, but if you know her you'll understand. Family time gets a bit stressful for everyone, especially gram, and the bubbly helps a lot! (And I'm not talking about anything to do with soap!) I though she'd enjoy this after our NC trip. This stamp set is from My Favorite Things, a great clear stamp company, go check them out!

I also got my bella swap back today, including full cards and ATCs. They are gorgeous, I'll have to take their picture to show, some great talent there!

Back Where I Come From

Well I am finally back home! It took us 13 hours to drive home yesterday, with plenty of traffic from Memorial Day trips. It was fantastic to step into my house again and feel like I was finally home! I think the saying that you don't know what you have until it's taken away from you really applies after this trip! By late last week, I was ready to come home, missing everything from my own bed to my own shower, to my internet connection! Everything looked different when I came home, even my bedroom and my dog(weird, right?!) Sometimes I'll complain that other places in the US are so much nicer than NJ, but really, it will always be home for me and I'll always have a fondness for it in my heart (even though we often get a bad rap!)
Enjoy these pictures from the NC journey, it was overall, a fun trip seeing the little ones and enjoying the pleasant way of life in NC. Hopefully this afternoon I will be back to creating some things, maybe even (dare I say it?) Scrapbooking!

In North Carolina...

Graduation was Friday morning, and boy was it great! The ceremony was short and sweet :)
Whoopi Goldberg was our guest speaker, and she was awesome! I'll post some pictures a bit later. After the graduation ceremony, we traveled to North Carolina to visit family (me, Andy, my Grandma and Grandad). We got stuck in traffic, of course! It put us behind about 2 hours. We didn't get to NC until 1:30 am on Saturday morning, and then had a Communion to attend at 10 am. Wow, were we exhausted yesterday! I brought my laptop with me to keep up to date with the real world, outside of vacation, but of course it doesn't work because it won't let me connect to an internet signal (oh well!) Today we are going to an art show in Raleigh, and then out to a nice restaurant for dinner tonight. The weather is beautiful down here, and I am enjoying the nice relaxing atmopshere of vacation!

I'm a Graduate!

Hi! Last night's convocation ceremony at the college was just beautiful. I can now say that I am a proud graduate of Montclair State! I was able to sit with friends, because we were all lined up by degree, rather than in alphabetical order, so I sat with Katie, and some other girls from classes. I even got to see my first year roommate, Dez. It was funny, everyone kept mistaking me and Katie for each other. They say we look like twins, but we both just don't really see it! Let me know what you think, here is me and Katie waiting for the ceremony to begin.

Next up is the graduation ceremony on Friday at Meadowlands with guest speaker Whoopi Goldberg (how cool is that?!?!)

This morning I went to see my kids Spring Concert at school. They looked so adorable and were happy to see me, screaming my name and yelling for me to look at them on stage. Afterwards I went to Barnes and Noble to browse because I had a gift card, and I came to the realization that Barnes and Noble + Me = Lots of Money Spent! There is just something I love about that store, whether it's education books, magazines or novels, I can spend hours browsing and lots of money spending! I got this neat plan book for next year (Yes, I know its a bit early, but I'm trying to plan ahead and be hopeful!).

When I got home my sweet brother had bought me....shaving cream! The real kind, not gel! I never thought I'd be so excited for shaving cream, but I am, and now I can try the shaving cream technique for real.

Excited for One Tree Hill tonight...here are some more photos from last night:

We did it!! Our fake certificates they gave us, which were really a list of all of those who graduated in our college of education and human services. (Sorry Kate, you got cut off a bit there!)

Today's the BIG Day!

Well, it is officially Tuesday (12:08 actually), so the big day has come, my graduation ceremony. Tonight is the Convocation from the College of Education, the actual whole college ceremony is Friday morning at Meadowlands. Tonight is more personal and smaller, where my name is actually read! Later today I will be going to get a mani/pedi with Katie (fun!)

Earlier tonight, I worked on some swaps that I am behind on, since they are due Friday! I've got to get to the post office today!

Here is a picture of my graduation announcements/party invitations that my Mom and I made together. They are actually postcards with the info on the back, but will be mailed in envelopes. They are stamped with teachabella and colored in with colored pencils and gamsol. I loved this quote stamp, which reads "The best way to predict your future is to create it" I found this stamp at the scrap store Sara and I visited in Milltown, NJ called Scrapper's Cove.

These two cards follow the same colors and sketch, but on the chickie one, the background is made using baby wipes with reinkers and dabbing the paper on the wipes, a neat effect. The Hoppy frog background is made with shaving cream and reinkers. It was funny because I didn't have foam shaving cream, only Andy's gel shaving cream, which sorta worked, but for some reason the colors aren't as vibrant. Andy helped me mix the shaving cream and add the ink, he was bored today and said he wanted to help stamp. Instead, Sara and I sent him to the kitchen to bake a cake (and he actually did!! Good boy! haha).

Hope you had a lovely Mother's Day! Here is a photo of my Mom and her kiddo's, including the doggie (who wasn't very willing to pose so Robby had to pick her 80 pound self up to get in the picture). Take note of our brand spanking new kitchen in the background!! (BTW, the back door still needs to be painted green :)

Surprise!

Hey there! Yesterday was a bittersweet day at school, it was my last day of student teaching! I was sad to be leaving the kids, yet happy to be graduating soon after this long journey! My co-op and the kids through a surprise party for me. I pretended that I didn't know about it, but at this age, the kids are not very slick! They sent me away to bring the computers back to the tech room and do some other things, a few minutes later, one student comes running down the hall, saying "Come quick, we need you back in the room, now!" I went back to the room, where the door was shut and it was dark. I opened the door and all the kids sprang up and yelled "Surprise!" They had decorated my chair with my name and wrote "Queen" on it. It was adorable, and so sweet of the kids! They all pitched in and gave me a huge basket of teaching goodies and neccesities. Plus they made me some gorgeous cards. It was a great farewell! Here are some snap shots of the party we had:

Meanwhile, today I have been running errands and cleaning house...yuck! I finally got to sit down and stamp this afternoon to make some Mother's Day presents. I made these cards and a matching box for my Grandma (2 of each as a set), next I'm on to making some cards. Have a Happy Mother's Day!!

New Swap Cards

Hi! Another Monday bites the dust...we got our counters and sink installed in the kitchen today, and it looks great! No more washing dishes in the bathroom sink anymore (yay!).

I'm feeling down about the job search today....my moods shift from day to day about this. Some days I'll have a good outlook, other days I hear other girls talking at school and feel uneasy about the future. We'll see how it goes...worse case scenario is that I sub next fall (hopefully though I won't have to do that!). We have mock interviews in Seminar this week on Wednesday...we'll see if anything comes around from that.

I thought I'd share some creations, I made these for some swaps I am in. The martini bella is for the Clifton Scrappers Meet-Up card swap. "Time to Party" is Alcohol Inks.

The "Hey Girlfriends" is for the Flourishes Swap that I joined. I love the way the butterfly turned out, its by Technique Tuesday, stamped with White Craft ink and embossed with White EP, then colored with bleach...sooo cooool!

The "Thanks" is for a Paisley Swap I joined. All stamps are Close to my Heart, I was wishing I had the scallop circle punch to do the circles, but I improvised. The pink circle has a paisley background stamped on it in Versamark, although it isn't very noticeable.

Enjoy and have a happy week!

New Creations!

Hi! Wow, been crazy busy lately, but graduation is coming up in under 2 weeks, so things will probably calm down after that. This week is my last week of student teaching, I am sad to leave, yet ready to be on my own and have my own classroom. We'll see how the job search goes in these next few months!

Yesterday, I went to Stamp and Scrap University 13 and 14 (I've missed 3-12, haha), which was awesome! I learned a lot of new techniques, like inking up your own spectrum pad. It is so fun!! I have been making cards with my new custom made spectrum pad today.

Sara and I met a local stamper at the event, Michele, who lives right in Clifton and is a demonstrator as well. She is as crazy as Sara and I about stamping!

Wanted to share some cards I made today with my new custom made spectrum pad from yesterday's event. I made these cards for the teaching staff and my co-op at school as a thank you for all their hard work and help these past few months. I am so excited how cool they look with the spectrum pad! The big thanks uses the technique Starburst Spectrum, and the Happy for you uses Embossing Resist. These cards are 8 1/2" by 5 1/2" ( a full sheet of cardstock folded in half). Enjoy!