Stephanie Howell

Martha Stewart Valentines

February 5, 2013

This post is brought to you by Martha Stewart Crafts. The home of fun and easy craft project ideas to keep you inspired and full of creativity.Click here for more details.

Hey y’all, happy Tuesday! Today I wanted to share some cute and simple valentines that Martha Stewart Crafts sent us.

There is a simple reason that I say yes when the folks at EK Success/Martha Stewart Crafts ask if then can send me crafts.

They are always cute and they are always easy. No fuss, no stress, no crazy cleanup, no 29834023840 hours of planning to do something with my girls.

These valentines were no exception. How adorable are they?

Sadie and I worked on these for our “special time” yesterday.

Yes, she is wearing a leotard. That’s how we roll around here. 🙂

And Sadie’s review? Two thumbs up. She had a BALL.

Each valentine is a cute/miniature/vintagey Bingo card. The wood stamps and sticker sheets fit the boxes perfectly.

Oh my heart…she wanted to make the first one for her daddy. 🙂

We were also sent a couple of sheets of darling cupcake and Valentine’s themed stickers…just right for securing the envelopes closed.

But the absolute best part was seeing the look on her face when she gave the card to daddy.

She was SO proud that she did it all by herself.

So overall-

The pros about the Wood Stamp Set…perfect for little hands. Crisp images and the sentiments and images are just precious.Great storage too..

cons-i wish they would have come with mini ink pads (in valentine’s colors) for little hands to match the size of the stamps.

The pros about the Valentine’s Day Card and Envelope Set– sweet and vintage vibed graphics, cute size and color. easy for little ones

cons-No cons for this one.

And one more thing- there’s a fun VDay contest going on right now!

Whatever you craft for Valentine’s Day, be sure to enter it in the Martha Stewart Crafts “Craft Your Heart Out” Sweepstakes for your chance to WIN a DIAMOND HEART NECKLACE! Visit HERE for more details and to enter.

Have a great day, sweet friends!

xoxo

She She and Cake

January 31, 2013

I have a layout to share today and a a story to go along with it!

First…I did this layout for the MME blog, it’s a lift of Tamara Tripodi’s awesome page you can see here.

Thanks so much for inspiring me, Tamara!

Here’s the layout:

Some details:

The supplies:

Supplies:My Mind’s Eye My Girl: Flutterby patterned paper,Fancy Free patterned paper,Genuine patterned paper,Playful patterned paper,washi tape,felt stickers, layered stickers,enamel dots,decorative buttons,chipboard accents;My Mind’s Eye Collectable-Unforgettable:’You Are’ tiny word stickers,’First’ decorative stickers;Collectable-Memorable:enamel dots;Collectable-Notable:’Love This’ tiny word stickers;Misc:doilies,Simple Stories letter stickers,Dear Lizzy Thickers,American Crafts precision pen,adhesives

The story:

For the story on the design elements, etc…you can see the details on the MME blog.

I wanted to tell the story behind the page. Cate and Lucy are SO funny right now.

They laugh at each other, hug and kiss each other, and beat the you know what out of each other. I wish I was kidding on that last one, but I’m not. I’m talking “2 stooges” here. Face slapping, hair pulling, eye poking. Good times.

Moving on.

They call each other “She She”- Lucy and “Cake”-Cate. And I love it SO MUCH I can hardly stand it.

I don’t ever want to forget it.

Funny story. Jimmy told me that the other night they were both in their high chairs (quite some distance apart) and Cate started biting her hand…

Sidenote: They are in that “I am two” phase where if you tell them “No” they get so frustrated that they are beside themselves and don’t know what to do. They get so frenzied that sometimes they go “ARRRRR” and bite their own hands. HAHAHAH!

I know how that feels…don’t you? I might try it, hehehe.

Back to the story.

So “Cake” starts biting her own hand and “She She” starts screaming “Cake NO, no bite!” “OUCH!” and holding her own hand and crying. Bahahaha. Twin empathy?

They are nuts, y’all. NUTS.

Okay, that’s it for today. Hope you enjoyed the long rambly story and the layout. 🙂

xoxo

Cocoa Daisy Projects

January 28, 2013

I was so excited when Emily asked me to guest design for Cocoa Daisy this month.

I got the main and the Now Showing add-on and I had so much fun that I decided to do a mini when I was done with my layouts.

And I haven’t done a mini in forever. I have to say that I want to do more now…i had a BALL!

Thanks for this honor and opportunity, Cocoa Daisy!

Winter CHA layout

I love the star background stamp that comes in the main kit. I used it on a layout for my BPC class too.

A little white embossing powder really makes it pop!

Simply Wonderful layout

A pretty simple layout but it makes me very happy. I need about 1928301280128 of these “choose happy” badges.

It’s kind of my mantra. 🙂

This is a little mini album listing all of the things I love about Newport.

I made it by cutting up some of the Echo Park Photo Freedom patterned papers.

I hole punched each journaling card and bound them with jump rings.

The perfect little Instagram album. I printed each Insta at 2.5×2.5.

Super simple and super HAPPY. Oh- I added doilies from my own stash but everything else is from the kits. 🙂

Thanks so much for stopping by tonight!

Don’t forget to enter the washi giveaway!

wordless(ish??) wednesday

January 23, 2013

and this is what happens when big sisters leave out their dress up makeup.

did it taste delicious cate? you look pretty proud of yourself.

xoxo

truth.

January 22, 2013

Last week when I was traveling home from CHA I had a four hour layover in Chicago.

I found this on a mirror in the ladies room and I had to snap a photo.

Who knew an airport bathroom could be so deep?

Isn’t that the truth?

You know what’s funny? I am so hard on myself. Why do I allow myself to speak to me that way?

I wouldn’t take it from friends. Jimmy would never speak to me that way.

So why is it okay for me to tear myself down? To have unrealistic expectations for myself?

It’s not okay. And something I’ve struggled with my entire life. I used to have the worst self-confidence ever. And it’s gotten SO much better over the years.

But it’s always a work in progress. Being kind to myself. Being gentle. Encouraging myself. Not expecting myself to be perfect.

Seeing the real me in the mirror. The one who is perfectly imperfect just the way she is.

Learning to laugh at myself and not take myself so seriously.

Remembering that I only get to do this once and I want to do it right.

That’s my lifelong challenge.

I constantly strive to teach my daughters to love and accept themselves. And I’m teaching myself at the same time.

Sometimes it just takes a bathroom mirror to give me that gentle reminder. 🙂

Who would have thunk it?

xoxo

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