The Greate Create!

It really is great to be creating! I get all in a funk if I go a few days without getting my fingers singed by a glue gun or having paint stuck under my nails so I have to tell you how excited I am about The Greate Create. The "gist" of it is a monthly craft round robin swap set up and it's created to get YOU creating more. It's a great motivation for me thus far and I am just excited to see what these crafty ladies are making each month. Come create with us if you need to get your mojo back!




Here is the info provided by our fearless leader, Melissa, at My House is Vanilla. This gal is a great supporter of 2 Katie Designs and just a cool chick, I wanna ring her like a sponge so I can have a drop of her creativity.

What is The Great Create?


Basically, just a small group of crafty girls who have committed themselves to crafting each month with the purpose of marking things off their "to-do" list and, at the same time, swapping items with each other.

Can I participate?


Fo shizzle. Email (myhouseisvanilla@yahoo.com) and you're in.
What are the guidelines?


Pretty simple. Choose 12 items that you want to create this year. Each month, you'll mark one of your items off the list by making TWO of whatever it is (two bags, two stuffed cats, two balloon paintings... um, whatever). You'll keep one - and the other will be shipped off to your monthly swap partner.




Who's my swap partner?


Each month, you'll get a new partner - the goal is for everyone to receive something from each person participating! I'll send out an email each month with the name of your partners... which won't be a secret because, well, that's just too many emails for me to commit myself to sending. I'm lazy.


JANUARY GREATE CREATE RECAP


So for the first month I had my BFF to give my creations too...spoiled her a bit with a Frame, a Super Glitter Cup and a glittery XO for her Valentine mantle motif. I recieved from Jessisa at Our House on the Hill an awesome Valentine garland which made a great addition to my own mantle when I added my personal photo booth pics. Sa-weet! Also she can SEW and I am SO jelous!

Did a mention children are involved here? They can join too! Great huh? We have a JV sqaud and I'm not sure if it was coordinated or not but it worked that Kaia had to send her Greate Create project to Kensey (Jessica's daughter) which was neat. Kaia was thrilled to see a pic of Kensey wearing her creation and thought it was cool that Kensey's daddy is in the military too. Kiddy connection.

Kaia made a headband (after spending an hour shopping for a fabric she liked, we ended up with 5 super cute Amy Butler patterns BTW) which she is seriously better than me at doing. Guess she doesn't over think it. She made a necklace as well from a rock she had been tumbling...and tumbling...and tumbling. Literally since Christmas I have had a low hummmmm huuuummmm happening in my garage waiting for these polished gems to emerge! They finally did and she fitted it into a necklace shown below on Kensey!

Kaia also received her crafty item for the month which was this one of a kind clipboard. The perfect motivation for homework in my eyes - anything to get this kid excited about writing or reading! yippee from both Kaia and mama.

Thx - Crafty Katie : )

The Great Create

So if you're crafty and ya know it...but perhaps you supress that awesome part of yourself - STOP! Hit the link and join us for this year long journey of craft project swapping. So fun. : )


my house is vanilla: The Great Create: "What is The Great Create? Basically, just a small group of crafty girls who have committed themselves to crafting each month with the purp..."

Sharing the LOVE

Just thought I would share a bit of the LOVE fest that is going on at my house right now...Valentine's decor has gone up and it's always a bit different from the year before. I have decided to focus seasonally on the mantel and entrayway table area to transform them with each holiday or season. So next up is Valentine's day!

The pics aren't the best because they are with the iphone and I'm too busy/lazy/whatever to actually upload from the "real" camera today so this will suffice...

although I will have to get the real camera pics because my husband ROCKED it, making me this 18" tall X and O to go on the mantle so it's already changed a little. I even glitter-fied them so they are over the top sparkle fab. So wait to see that soon!...sorry : (

Some of the details on the pics;
...Kaia my ever so helpful kiddo staple together doilies to make the heart banners in a jiffy!
...all the Zebra is crepe birthday streamers which make my heart so happy. Kaia also added various hearts to a few of those to hang the jumbo entry hearts.
...I have 5 pink feather boas laying around the house in various places to use for this...which was a bit disturbing. They are stuffed in the hurricanes on the mantle along with pink Christmas bulbs as well as the garland on the tree of love.

I love transforming the house from season to season, for me it's part of making each holiday special for my family. Hope this goes a little way in letting them know how much I love 'em! XOXOXO

ADDED - 1/14/11 Here is the XO I promised to add!

Good Riddance 2010

I don't believe in dwelling on the negative but 2010 was one of the most personally difficult years of my life. I really struggled at times to find the balance and joy among the busy-ness and chaos of life. I am grateful  and thankful for the blessing the year held but overall I am glad the year is behind us and I am ready for a FRESH start in 2011. So I say Good Riddance to you 2010 and...

here are some of my REsolutions for 2011...
I will
REcreate
REimagine
REinvent
REclaim
REnew
REstore
REenergize
REach
REad
REaffirm
RElax & REjoice.

These are the things I hope to REmember and keep in the forfront for 2011 and I hope to share with many of you as we start the new year.

Happy New Year! - Katie

How is it October in my Sweet Life?

My mind is realing at the fact that is October 17th…apply all the cliche’s here about how quickly time goes by! Time really does fly.
In some ways that is frustrating when I have so many things to get done in the day. I want to clone myself and send each of me to take on different aspects of my life just so I can keep up & do all things well. Working, Creating, Wife, Mom, Friend, Auntie, Sister…finding the balance. The sweet spot where everything just jives is a hard persuit.
In some ways it’s exciting that time is going by so quickly. It means we are getting closer to the holidays (my favorite time of year) and also closer to vacation which is 33 days away! We have planned for a year for this family vacation. It is a treat we are so excited to give my parents & siblings – perhaps once in a lifetime trip although I hope it spurs a tradition! I am so looking forward to boarding the big cruise ship and checking out of life for a solid week. Just pure relaxation and family time. It’s so needed right now. I live a sweet life and I don’t spend enough time savoring that so I hope time sloooowss down for our vacation so we have loonnng days to enjoy.
I did take some time this week to do some creating which re-juvenates me so much. Here is a layout about one of the sweetest parts of my life, my amazing husband. It’s hard to remember my life before him, we met & started dating when I was 17 years old – just babies! Now he turns 30 this week which is just crazy in my mind…again time flies. I wish him a very happy 30th and look forward to making more sweet memories in years and years to come. XOXO

Me with my basket of sweetness & the Pink Paislee owner Rebecca




Back to my layout, which I couldn’t share without talking about the awesome product. 99% of the goodness I used for this page is Pink Pailee’s Sweetness line. It is a non-traditional mix of colors in a line about love & valentine’s day. There are amazing rub ons, papers, & stickers to coordinate. And guess what??? I WON ALL THE PRODUCT! I was the very lucky recipient of a HUGE Pink Paislee prize basket at fun scrappin’ event. Our LSS, Signed, Sealed & Delivered brought in Rebecca Cross who is the founder & owner of Pink Paislee to teach for a day. We all got tons of product for the great classes she taught and then to win was just the icing on the cake. Stick a fork in me I am done! She’s amazing… the entire day was amazing and getting to create with heaps of free scrappin’ product is amazing. Another sweet spot in my life this week

Echo Park Paper

I think I have mentioned on the blog previous how blown away by Echo Park Paper's entry into the scrapbooking world. Now I wanted to share that you can get them for 20% off MSRP from 2Katie Designs. Please visit our blog at www.2katiedesigns.com/blog for details.

I am working on designing a mini album kit with their Summertime line that is full of pinwheels and bright colors which provide plenty of inspiration for summer fun photos calling to be scrapbooked. Anyway, busy busy bee here so I am off and running but wanted to share of few pics of our summer which is gardening, grilling and SMORES!

Graduation Album

So I have the best 5 year old neice the world can offer. She is a living, breathing, walking, TALKING - miracle and I love her to peices. The little diva  graduated from her pre-K program a couple weeks back and as a gift I decided to create an album of some of my favorite photos of her along with quotes. I think it turned out pretty cute. I used a lot of sparkly paper with flowers and girlie stuff because that's what a princess would want!

For Blaklie's miracle story you can view the link below too. HAVE tissues handy!

Blaklie's Miracle on Video