Graduation Announcements

Back in October I did a senior shoot for Austin. His mom had asked me if I could also make his announcements and party invites. Well of course I can.....so past few weeks I have been busy busy with making 60 Graduation Announcements and Party Invites for a friend. I finally finished them tonight and I can't wait to give them to her. I think they turned out cute and I hope she likes them. :) On top of making all that I had 170 party pictures to edit for a party I did back on March 9th (I know almost a month, Eeeek!) but those are all done as well and ready to send to people. All my projects for people are at end for now and I start focusing on some things I would like to make for our house.

This is the front of the Announcements

 This is the inside of them.

This is the 3rd year in a row I have been busy with graduation stuff but this time it isn't for my family. :) I'm glad I can help others out to make their day special! 

Congratulation Austin! Good luck to everything your future holds!! 

Congrats To The New Sailor Nick!!

In January my sister's boyfriend went off to join the Navy. Shane and I were very proud of him for joining! I'm sure something like that is scary to do with leaving for so long not seeing your family, friends, girlfriend of whoever. I would be freaked out for sure! But Nick had the courage to take the step and join and for that we couldn't be more happy for him! We do miss him!! 

Last weekend he graduated from boot camp!! Shane and I wished we could have gone down to Chicago to watch him graduate but it just didn't work out for us. My sister did go down with Nick's dad so she got to see him after 3 month, so was so happy and couldn't wait! 

For his graduation gift I decided to make him a Navy frame. 

Congrats to the new Sailor Nick!! We are so proud of you and can't wait to see you when you get home!! 

Live, Laugh, Love Frame

On Friday Feb 21st was a co-worker of mines last day. She was with our company for 15 years! I have worked with her for many years now and she has been wonderful. I became close with her and she was always there for me on my days and I needed someone to vent to. I will really miss working with her but wish her the best of luck in the future! 

Another co-worker of mine came up to me a couple days before her last day and I asked if I would make her a frame that said "Live Laugh Love" as a goodbye gift. So of course I wasn't going to say no. I got a frame and sit down one night and made a cute little frame for her. I was so pleased how this frame came out that I wanted to keep to for myself, but I didn't! LOL. I didn't decide that I want to make some for our house to put in the hallway with all the pictures I want to hang in there. I can't wait! 

The girl we gave this too really liked it! I'm sure it's going to look great in her house! 

Kids Name Frame

I was trying to come up with a cute idea for Christmas for my mom. I found this cute name frame on Pinterest and I thought this would be cute to make for my mom with all her kids name in it. 

All you need is a frame and some letter tiles. I got my tiles on amazon for like $6.00.  

 Arrange the names how you think looks the best and glue them down. I added some flowers in the frame b/c I thought it looked boring with just the names. ;)

I thought it turned out super cute and my mom seems to really like it. They only thing that turned out bad was my brothers name isn't that straight ,but oh well it's still cute! 

Christmas Wine Bottles

I know I know it's kinda early to be thinking about Christmas....but, not for me! I'm so excited for Christmas this year it's insane. I can't wait to decorate our home for the first time!!! 

This idea again came from my favorite site of all times....Pinterest!! This was another idea that was a MUST do for Christmas time. I had to shop around some to find the prefect decorations to put in these bottles before I made them. Once I found them it was time to get to work! Saturday afternoon while Shane was working I headed outside to start this little wine bottle project. They were very easy to do and didn't take much time at all. 

Items Needed:

3 wine bottles

Spray White Premier

Spray Adhesive

Epsom Salt

Christmas Decorations

Step 1

Spray the bottles with the white premier and let dry completely.

Step 2:

Spray bottles with adhesive and roll in Epsom salt. Let dry.

Here is what they look like when finished

Step 3:

Add the decorations and display for everyone too see!

I'm so happy with how these turned out. I just love them!!

Wine Bottles w/ Christmas Lights

As I have mentioned before...I LOVE Pinterest. There are so many fun ideas for the Holiday and just daily around the house projects to do. I have done a few baking things off there and they were really yummy. 

A couple weeks ago I decided to make these wine bottles with Christmas lights in them. My cousin actually found this idea and sent it to me! I fell in love with the idea and had to do it! We have a ton of wine bottles we have collected so this project was pretty cheap to put together. 

Items Needed:

- 3 wine bottles

- Clear Christmas lights (I got mine at hobby lobby for $1.99 each and they run on batteries

I took the back label off and left the front on. 

 Sorry this pictures is a little blurry but you get the idea. I'm going to try and dress them up for Thanksgiving and of course Christmas time! I will prolly buy just little things you can hang around the neck of the bottle.

Final Graduation Invite....

I have been busy lately with making lots of graduation invites and announcements. It's crazy that there are so many people I know graduating this year. I have enjoyed helping everyone out with invites and making them. 

The last invite that I did was for a good friend that is graduating college on May 12th. I whipped these babies out in just a few days. Well they were pretty easy to do and she only need 20 of them so it really wasn't that hard. ;) 

Here is the invites that I made for her graduation dinner party....

Now that I'm done working on all the invites/announcements now I get to attend all the parties and celebrate this wonderful time with all my friends and family!! I can't wait. I look forward to sharing the pictures with everyone! 

More Graduation Announcements/Invites....

My little sister will graduating high school on May 20th. I still can't believe this! I can't believe she is all grown up and ready to get in the real world. LOL

I had told her that I would make her announcements and invites for her. So I have been working hard on getting them done so we can send them out the beginning of May. I just finished them last week and they turned out super cute!

Announcement outside and Grad Party Invite

Inside of the announcement



I have one graduation invite to finish this week and all graduation stuff will be made and done!

Graduation Invites

For the last week I have been working graduation invites for Shane's sister. She is graduating from college on May 5th. She had asked me to do these and I was very happy to help her out with planning her party. So I got busy because I wanted to have these done before out vacation this week, I needed to make 60 of these bad boys. I worked on them every night and finally finished them up Wednesday night. 

I think they turned out really cute!

I can't believe she is already graduating from college I feel like she just finished high school. Oh how the time  flies! I'm very proud of her and can't wait to celebrate this special day with her! 

Craft Organization

I continue on my organization of our house. Last week I started working on my craft stuff to make things easier to find and see in the cabinet. I found some really cool things at Hobby Lobby to better organize my stuff. I got a few items on sale and I was super excited about this. I love sales and getting stuff cheaper than normal. :) I don't have an actual craft room right now I just have stuff in our dining room and bedroom. I use the dining table that is in there to work on projects. We don't ever eat in the dining room for many reason, we don't have chairs for our table and we like to watch TV why we eat. LOL But once we get a house I want a nice dining room table and to have my own craft room so it's not just out for everyone to see. HAHA. I used to have a craft room in our basement when we moved in the townhouse but after Kira decided to get through the door and mess my room up I decided it wasn't worth it to have it down there. I put a lot of money into building my collection and I don't want the dog to mess it up and I have to throw stuff away. I could prolly get away with moving it back down there b/c we now keep her in a kennel, but it just seems so far to walk down there to work on stuff. Sometimes I hate that our washer and dryer are down there. I know silly but I'm sure many of you know the feeling of up and down the stair to do laundry. But most definitely when we start shopping for a house we will make sure to have a nice place for me for my crafts and my photography. I can't wait! I hate just have stuff everywhere and not all together and looking nice. It drives me nutty!

Before...I liked the little divders but they didn't hold a lot so I would have to buy many of them.

After....This wasn't the original organizer I bought for card stock. The first one I got I just loved and was super excited for it but once I got it together it didn't go together right and the shelves didn't fit. I was very disappointed about this. So Shane and I took it back while we were out last weekend and I was looking for something else but didn't see anything, so I asked him he is seen anything that would work and he found this bad boy! I do like this organizer and I can buy more and they will stack together.

Before...This was all my brads and stuff.

After...I got this at hobby lobby and it would great so I can see everything I have now!

Before

 After now I have a little caddy I can just pull out and sit on the table when needed.

Before....I had all my stickers just in a shoe box and it was so messing to go through every time I need to see if I had a certain one or not.

After....I found this bad boy at Hobby Lobby for 50% off and I was so excited about it. I couldn't pass it up it was prefect for all my stickers I have.  So much easier to loo through now. Doesn't it look so nice now?!?



I still have some stuff I want to organize for my crafts but not sure I can do much more till we move and I have my own room with a desk! I can't wait! :) 

Courtney's Cards & More....

Hello all! I mentioned in my last post about opening my own website for all my craft stuff that I like to make. I wanted to Share this website with everyone.
My website has all kinds of fun stuff on it. Birthday Cards, Wedding invites, Birthday invites, Name Frames, Collage Frames and much much more.
I got into this hobby a few years back my cousin actually introduced me to Stampin' up and I just enjoyed making all the cute stuff. I have been adding to my collection ever since and let me tell you it has gotten pretty big. My craft area is currently in our dining area. When we get a house I will have my own room for my crafts. I can't wait for this! I'm currently finishing up 200 wedding invites for a girl I went to school with.
This hobby does take a lot of time ex-specially working a full time job. But I do enjoy it and I love seeing people's reactions when I bring them there project they wanted made. It makes me feel good to see how much they like it.
Check out my website at Courtney's Cards & More.... and let me know if there is anything I can make up for you.
I think I will take a short break from making stuff maybe about a month. The 200 invites I'm finishing up have wore me down so I think a little break will be just what I need.

That's all for now....