farewell post for Noel Mignon and a scrappy product sale

Yes, you read that right.

I posted my last layout for Noel Mignon on the blog today.

Noel's kits are stellar and it has been a great team to be a part of.

I have enjoyed my time there but now have to give my attention to family as our international adoption moves forward.

I have cut back a little at a time over the last year or so.

I said goodbye to BasicGrey and to many other opportunities because I need to focus here at home.

I am now leaving Noel Mignon and now only have Fancy Pants left.

It has been hard but as my time has been filled by more family obligations I have found that I don't have as much time to devote to scrapbooking as I did before.

My time and attention and many of our resources are now required more at home as we prepare to travel to South America for the adoption.

I would like to sell some of my scrapbooking supplies to raise money for the adoption.

Would any of you be interested?

I have a huge variety of things that I would like to sell from paper and stamps to stickers and tape and albums.

Some product is current, other items are a few years old but since I have such good taste in scrappy things (ha ha, I am totally kidding but I really do have good taste) all of it is high quality and cute stuff!

Anyway, if you would be interested in purchasing a medium flat rate box for about $50 I would love to pack up a box for you. You can even leave me a comment and tell me what you are looking for and I can get back to you if you leave me contact info. I would like to limit this to U.S. only because of shipping costs. It will cost me about $12 to ship each box and there will be at least $150 of product in the box. There can be a mix of paper and embellishments and stamps, etc.

That would be so helpful for us as we are now looking to adopt a sibling pair (2 girls- we don't have the heart to split them up) and costs are so much higher.

Anyway, here is my last layout for Noel Mignon using this month's kit:

Thanks to all of you for your support over the years. 

It has meant so much. 

I will continue to scrap when I can and share those things here. 

Please let me know if you would be interested in helping us save for the adoption. 

♥♥

just for fun *new layout

Well, we survived our adoption homestudy this past weekend and now there is just a little bit more for us to do before all we can do is wait and wait and wait some more.

With the looming home visit over I took a break from everything yesterday and did some scrapbooking and it was so nice to sit down and play. I haven't had many assignments to do lately since I've paired things down so I just pulled out some things that I wanted to play with and created this:

Created using some Dear Lizzy Polka Dot Party and My Mind's Eye Cut & Paste. I used Heidi Swapp mists and a little glitter star cut file from Studio Calico, a mix of alphas for the 9s- American Crafts and Sassafras- a butterfly left over from the banner I made for Hailey's party, hearts are from MME except for the large one which I cut from a Dear Lizzy Project Life card. The tape is MME as are the epoxy dots. 

For Hailey's 9th birthday she invited a bunch of friends over for an art party. We had canvases and lots of paint, they got to decorate their aprons and we had so much yummy, colorful food. I hanged paper globes from the ceiling in the kitchen and dipped rice krispy treats in colored white chocolate. It was so much fun. This picture is of the girls after the painting was done. They did a fantastic job!

Thanks for stopping by today!

I am going to try and scrap a bit more now...we'll see how it goes.

I have to mail a big packet of paperwork to the adoption agency and that will start the ball rolling so that we can get our referral. That could be anywhere from 6-18 months. It is quite a rollercoaster.

I'll keep you posted!

♥♥

scrapbooking and other news

Long time no see!

This is by far the longest I have ever gone without blogging since I started this little blog.

Life has thrown us a bit of a curve ball and my time has been spent elsewhere.

I miss scrapping whenever I wanted, miss being able to share projects here with you and thank those who have hung in there with me.

Over the past couple of months we have been spending our time and energy on something that is HUGE for our family. You see, we have felt that we are to adopt a little girl from another country and since then we have been trying to gather all of the necessary information, filling out form after form, getting medical clearance, police clearance, have been to the notary countless times, etc. It is a long, drawn-out process and we are at times overwhelmed but are grateful for the opportunity that we have to help one child out of an orphanage and into a home with a family who will love and care for her.

This is big, right? 

I remember my head spinning as we tried to grasp the meaning of it all but we have been truly blessed and so we are going forward knowing that God's plan is bigger than the one we'd originally had for our family. I hope that I can be made equal to the task. Our girls are excited, the few people we've already shared this news with have been excited. And now, as we nervously prepare for our homestudy visit with the social worker this weekend we just pray and cross our fingers and work and wait and hope that all goes well.

So, can you see why I haven't been able to scrap much lately?

I have had close to no time and that makes me sad. I sure do miss it.

We have had to move our oldest out of her bedroom and into my "old" craftroom and it's been quite a job. I still have boxes everywhere in the new craft room. I think it will take a while before that is no longer the case. I've been cleaning and painting and cleaning some more, throwing out trash the kids have been hoarding and scrubbing boogers off the kids' walls- gross, I know, but maybe that helps you to see where I have been spending my time.

The kids have been busy with school, piano, dance, gymnastics and we've been here and out of town and sick and all over the place.

I did get to sit down for a few minutes last week and created a couple of things for Pebbles Inc.

This card was made using the card stack- pre-folded card mats that make cardmaking so quick and easy!

Yes, during the midst of all of this my youngest broke her leg. We had plans for her to start a day a week of preschool and a mom & me gymnastics class but those plans were put on hold while her leg healed. She still walks a little funny but I guess that will take some time to correct itself. 

I used the bright and cheery "From Me To You" collection for this one with some American Crafts Thickers I had in my stash. 

Speaking of my stash: 

As I have moved into a smaller craft room I have realized that I simply have TOO MUCH stuff. I have bought much over the years and have received a lot of product from various design teams that I have been a part of. With less space available I have decided that I will put together some boxes of product that I will sell here to whoever might be interested. I have paper, stamps, alpha stickers and so many embellishments and will sell a box for $50 (including shipping in the U.S.) to help clean up my room and earn money for this adoption. 

If you are interested please send me an email to mattandbeckywilliams at yahoo dot com with your address and a list of preferences for company, type of embellishment, color, etc. and I will do my best to pull some things together. If you love stamps, let me know! I have so many. You will have to send me your Paypal address and I will collect payment that way and ship as soon as payment is received. 

Not only will you help me to clean up my craft room but you will help us to finance this very expensive - but so very worth the money spent- adoption. We thank you and the child we adopt thanks you. 

I will keep you posted here as to how things are going if you are interested in knowing more. 

Have a fantastic day! 

♥♥♥