In June 2010, I launched my “30 Before Thirty” list of 30 realistic things I wanted to do, that just required a little motivation. (inspired by Making It Lovely’s 30 Before Thirty list)  While I didn’t accomplish all 30 items, I am happy with the progress I made and the things I was able to achieve during this time.

First, let me share the ones I did:

1. Make a painting for my house. – DONE “create” painting for craft room, pollock style for bathroom

2. Throw an awesome party. – DONE. I know this my personal opinion but I enjoyed throwing our housewarming bbq last August so I consider this accomplished.

5. Become my own last name pet peeve. (explanation: my boyfriend’s last name is a first name, which used to be my pet peeve) AS DONE AS I CAN GET! We’re Engaged and have a September 2012 wedding planned, exactly 7 months after my 30th birthday! I’m completely happy with this one being partially done an on its way!

6. Take a multi state road trip. DONE road tripping from NJ to VA to visit Miss A

7. Cook a delicious dinner from scratch. DONE In fact I think I’ve been working to add a few new recipes into the mix for the future! One example: Caramel Apple Pork Chops

8. Design 7 more successfully selling items for my cafepress site. DONE and then some! (1 Here for the cupcakes, 2 Anti Clown, 3 Holiday Snail Mail,4 T-Shirt Time,5 couponaholic,6 Penn State,7 I love u in braille 8 Typography Nerd, 9 It’s a Boy)

9. Go on a sightseeing, non strictly beach vacation with D. DONE California Jan 2011

11. Run another official race. DONE Art of Running June 2011

12. Go to a wine tasting at a winery. DONE L’s Bridal Shower shower Oct 2010

13. Make cupcakes from scratch. DONE!  Favorites Party

15. Increase my average daily water consumption. DONE! Double Insolation cup purchased and used!

16. Do the “one picture a day for one month” challenge. -DONE. December 2010. Inspired by Ali Edwards, I highly recommending everyone try this at least for one month of their life. It helps to capture all the little details of life you don’t notice but are fun to document.

17. Buy something cool at an antique store. DONE! Does a Thrift store count? found something cool (that I can’t blog about yet as it will give away the surprise) but in the future I’ll be able to reference this post and update when that project goes live

18. Find a new yummy drink. DONE Peach Sangria. Ingredients: 1 bottle Riesling, 1/2 cup peach schnapps,2 shots triple sec, 1/2 liter ginger ale, 1/4 cup or less of sugar, 2 peaches cut up, strawberries. Directions: mix all these ingredients the night before serving.

19. Visit a zoo or amusement park which I have never visited before. DONE!  October 2011. Philadelphia Zoo

21. Fill in the journaling on all my outstanding unfinished scrapbook pages. DONE!

22. Learn about my money investments (401K).  DONE. Just signed up for the 401k at my new company and therefore had to review my past investments and choose new ones!

23. Find a new vegetable I like. DONE! I’ve learned to tolerate brocoli.

24. Have a spa day with a friend. DONE! Miss Allie came up for a crafting weekend in February that started with nice massages at the local salon! 02.10.12

25. Host a crafting day/party. DONE Girls crafting party in VA. November 2010

26. Create an adult’s guest room (not a blow up mattress and misc furniture pieces like I have now). DONE!

27. Make one of those fun coordinated dessert tables for a party. DONE!  Favorites party

28. Go on a romantic date which requires me wearing a dress. DONE! 2.18.12 we just went the other night!

29. DIY a piece of furniture for the house.  - DONE! Folding chairs DIY

30. Find a favorite lip gloss. DONE! #30 Find a Favorite Lip Gloss

And now, the not so successful items and my poor excuses:

3. Officially stop biting my nails/cuticles. I have been doing this for YEARS and cannot seem to get out of this habit. I’ve done the gloves, the non nail biting polishes, vinegar etc. I think I need to moisturize them more so they are soft and not so cracked to bite!

4. Design/Alter a piece of clothing and wear it. This one is pretty pathetic, especially since I do this for work!

10. Be a consistent size 4. I am not marking this as done because I’m consistently in between a 4 and 6. BUT I am happy about my weight/size/frame so I have no regrets on not hitting this.

14. Completely decorate one room in the house. While I have made a lot of progress on many rooms in the home, I don’t feel like any one is completely decorated. I’d rather that they change as we grow in this house so again I’m ok with not marking this one done.  

20. Go on a multi mile hike. I just lost sight on the weather. Once the winter season hit, I didn’t think about being outside much.

And as a 30th birthday present to myself, I bought my domain name! If you haven’t noticed, you are now reading my blog via Spotofteadesigns.com!

When I started this blog, I knew it wasn’t going to be a personal blog with personal photos of me or my friends/family. While I do mention them occassionally, or they guest posts for me, I try my best to make the focus about the creative things we make and do!

So it feels weird to me to not really share one of the biggest crafting hobbies I have: scrapbooking! Sure, you see lots of my cards on this blog, but I also spend time in my craft room scrapping away to document all the photos I take all year. I’m working to put together a future post of scrapbook pages that I can share, but in the meantime I have a challenge for you!

If you spend the time to scrapbook a beautiful page, why not use the scraps, no matter how small they are, to create a beautiful matching card?

Exihibit A:

This is a scrapbook layout I made talking about the night we got engaged. It doesn’t have a photo of our faces (as I was in PJS, hair in a bun and my glasses on!), but it still documents the memorable occassion.

Exhibit B:

This is the Valentine’s Day card I made for D using scraps from this layout! I used even the tiniest pieces of the paper borders in a stacked fashion to create a simple card.

TIPS:

I do not like to use whole sheets of my pretty patterned papers to make handmade cards. I always use scraps!

Here’s a great tip to get decent sized scraps for cards: If you have a really cute patterned paper that you like, and you know you’re going to cover a large chunk of it for your layout, cut out a hole behind where you know your photos and journaling will cover. I did this on the above layout in order to get that large scrap to use for the card. It’s a cheap way to still obtain a piece of that pretty pattern and allow you to use it on something else, like a card!

(supplies: Stickers- Jolee’s Boutique, Punches – Martha Stewart Crafts, Letter Stickers – EK Success, Patterned Paper – Peebles)

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When I worked with Martha Stewart Crafts products at my last job, I was sometimes a bit skeptical about certain items they’d bring to market. Baker’s twine was one of those items. Didn’t fibers come and go in the 90s? And then ribbons were all the rage and they calmed down? Why was baker’s twine any different? Because Martha made it?

Maybe. I had obtained a few rolls of the twine accent and it has sat in my craft drawer for a while. Suddenly I’ve been inspired, even buying a roll to use for some wedding crafting!

This Valentine’s Day I made two cards using baker’s twine for my little nephew, Blake, and younger cousin, Liam. I was inspired by the XOXO concept of hugs and kisses with the twine separating out the childhood game of tic tac toe.

I know neither of them are old enough to even know that game, nor care that I handmade them a card, but I hope they start to like getting things in the mail, as that is something I personally love!

Happy Valentine’s Day all!

(supplies: Punches: Martha Stewart Crafts, Stamps: Hero Arts and Inkadinkado, Baker’s Twine: Martha Stewart Crafts, Card Base: Martha Stewart Crafts)

Linking With:

Creating Really Awesome Free Things,The Southern Institute,

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Seahorse Love

Ya know, the title sounds weird and yeah, the design is pretty weird too! I had made this seahorse outline for a college assignment my junior year. In playing with the shapes on day I came up with this look and decided to turn it into a greeting card for my Cafepress site which I called Seahorse Love.

Thought it was a fitting post this Valentine’s Day! Send some love someone’s way today!

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I Heart Mail

Readers, you may remember that I’m working to check off all aspects of my 30 Before Thirty list. In just two weeks, I will be out of time! This winter, I focused on crossing some items off the list which led me on a quest for my #30 “Find a favorite lip gloss” task.

My wishlist:

• Something (lip gloss, lipstick. lip stain – who knew there were so many categories?) to add a bit of color and make my lip not as washed out.
• Not too glossy.
• Not too smelly.
• Somewhat longer wear.
• Natural color options.

Seems easy right? Over $30 later, I finally have discovered one I’m willing to put on my list as I’ve actually worn it and liked the experience!

Tested:  CoverGirl Wetslicks

Honestly, I can’t even explain why I chose this one when I was at the store. I thought I might need a little more gloss than I ended up really needing so I went with one I had a coupon for. I bought #340 Patently Pink. It has that lip gloss smell when you wear it which was a complete turn off from the go. I haven’t really tried it again since, but I guess it could be a back up if I ever wanted a little more gloss.

Tested: Ulta Brilliant Color

I needed new eye shadow and foundation and while I was at Ulta, I saw this great deal to get a bunch of items free when you bought X amount of items. I’m game! I tried out their Brilliant Color lip gloss, this time in a darker, more purple toned color: Sugar Plum. I don’t mind this one for the lip gloss angle I just still wasn’t 100% pleased. It lead me to believe: maybe it wasn’t a gloss I was looking for?

Tested: Clinique Long Last Glosswear with SPF

When we went to Macy’s to start our registry, inside the welcome bag was a coupon for a free Clinique Long Last Glosswear (glosswear, isn’t that a new coined term?). There was only one color to pass out for this freebie (Air Kiss – not the one shown) and it wasn’t really my style. Too glossy and an unnatural pink! But I accepted the freebie (my mom has trained me to love freebies!). I do enjoy the SPF angle so maybe when I’m not so washed out in winter, this will be a good backup in the summer season!

Runner Up Fav: Cover Girl Outlast Lipstain

This was the first I heard of a lipstain and the concept of ”staining your lips” sounded about right so I gave it a try. This would actually be my runner up choice. It gave the color I wanted and with the “stain” concept, it wasn’t too glossy. It definately lasts the longest of any I tried. HOWEVER, I don’t think I picked the right color for my face. I bought 420 Sassy Mauve (am I a sassy girl?) which I think might be a little too pink for my face. I would recommend trying, especially if you’re good at picking out colors!

Winner: Clinique Chubby Stick

And finally here’s the winner that I’m noting as my #30 for my 30 before thirty pick! While at the Macy’s counter getting my freebie, I asked the woman for another recommendation. She showed me these chubby sticks which perked my curiosity. I ran out of time to review so I said I’d come back. Later that week, while randomly scrolling through blogs, I read someone’s review on these same chubby sticks. I wish I wrote the link down as I usually like to give credit for recommendations, but unfortunately I don’t have it.

These chubby sticks roll on smooth and don’t have that sticky lip gloss feel. The woman recommended the “Whole Lotta Honey” shade, a more brown/natural color than what I had tried. I figured, so far I wasn’t good at color choices so I went with her recommendation. It’s been my go to lip color of choice and one which I recommend to you!

Whew. That review post wasn’t that bad right?

Disclaimer: I have not been paid for the review of the products shown above. The opinions are all my own!

Yep, it’s Superbowl Sunday, the only day where everyone doesn’t fast forward through the commercials!  We’re headed to my soon to be brother and sister-in-laws to watch the big game and focus on the new commercials. We were told to bring beer, but I also saw these adorable football inspired chocolate covered strawberries on Pinterest and decided to give them a try.

Of course, they look like I made them and didn’t buy them professionally, but I’m ok with that.

I used the same tip for melting chocolate what we used when making the Chocolate Covered Pretzels and put the white chocolate in a Ziploc with the end snipped in order to pour out the design. I’m sure I’ll be made fun of when I bring them over tonight, but they’ll still eat them and like it!

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Christmas Chocolate Covered Strawberries

If you remember, Allie loves owls! I had this adorable owl couple stamp from Hero Arts, I knew I had to use it for a thank you card set for her using a heat emboss technique.

I stamped the images with silver Pigment ink, sprinkled in clear embossing powder and heat set it.

Here’s a close up on the heat embossing in action (only the top right side is set while the other part is not yet set. see the glistening goodness?)

You may remember from my first Handmade with Love series where Holly made a fun embossed effect around the outside of her card. I loved that and have kept in the back of my mind to try out. Well here I am adding the embossing effect on these cards using my Martha Stewart Scoring Board.

Here is the finished result. Simple, yet what a Thank You card should be!

(Supplies: patterned paper – K&Company, Punches & Tools - EK Success & Martha Stewart Crafts, Stamp – Hero Arts)

Linking Up With:

TaterTots and Jello

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Thank Yous

Favorites Party Part II – The Details

We found our house in the month of November and purchased it by February. Needless to say, we didn’t know what spring would bring us as far as the landscaped flowers and trees that were bare in the winter. Weren’t we pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful Japanese Maple, Day Lillies, and Hydrangea plants come spring?! I’ve seen those before and they seemed pretty easy to maintain. But then there was the tree in our front yard, one we come to find is a Weeping Cherry Tree.

In spring, this bare bones tree starting to bloom these pink blossoms! Slowly they turned into small green leaves.

These small green leaves grew larger and more full. The branches got longer to reveal a very full tree!

What we didn’t realize was at a certain point, you need to trim this sucker or else he gets all overgrown. Exhibit A in late summer:

We gave our Weeping Cherry a much needed haircut and by spring, those green leaves were turning into a beautiful yellow. Eventually by early winter, the leaves disappeared to reveal the same bare bones tree we met in February (only I can tell the trunk itself is getting taller each year!)

Can’t wait to see those pink blossoms this spring!

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Back in November I mentioned on this post that after 9 years of dating, D and I got engaged! Our wedding is planned for September and, as I had also warned, so will begin some of the wedding crafting related posts! First up: The bridal party invites!

Of course this is only pertaining to my bridesmaids, as what guy wants to get a card from another dude (well maybe they would if they saw these interactive ones!) Simply pull to reveal the message:

I made three of these fun cards based on this waterfall design from the very talented Becky C!

I was anxious to see whether they would read the pull part and do the action but I’m happy to report all three did (and they all said yes after reading it!).

Make one for someone you know who will love the interactive part!

Linking Up With:

Tatertots and Jello, Somewhat Simple, Southern Lovely, One Artsy Mama, The Southern Institute

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Mini Envelopes on Cards

Pinwheels go round and round

Nowadays, gift cards are just a part of the cycle of go-to presents people give. While they aren’t my favorite to give, sometimes they work for a certain person or couple. Instead of just giving a gift card with the standard folded corporate designed card it comes in, I usually try to wrap it in a unique way.

On a calm December night, I pulled out these supplies, a mixture of kraft, red and gold holiday and non holiday materials:

One episode of Hart of Dixie later, I came downstairs to put these bad boys under the tree:

I used two kraft colored pillow boxes and created simple wraps using die cuts, punches and patterned paper.

For Christmas at D’s uncle’s this year, we decided to do a grab bag with each person arriving with a $25 gift. We went for alcohol with a coordinating gift card or lotto tickets to make up the difference. (the wine and gift card shown here are just stand ins). I created a holder that hung from the bottle neck with the additional gift inside the front pocket.

(supplies: patterned paper – K&Company, punch – Martha Stewart Crafts, die cuts – K&Company, Adhesive borders – Susan Winget of K&Company)

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