NYC: The Album

Me: Hi. My name is Sam. It has been 14 days since my last post and I am ashamed. 

BB (Bad Bloggers): Hi, Sam. It's okay. We are here for you.

I'm gonna admit it. I just haven't been in the blogging kinda mood lately. The other reason is that I just got a new iPad and haven't really had to get on the laptop for anything. Apparently, the app for Blogger is only for the iPhone or iPod Touch. I'm gonna tell you right now that I am not blogging from my phone. That is just way too tedious. Someone needs to get on the ball so I can have that app for my iPad.

Nate and I recently took a short vacation to New York City. This was my first time to The Big Apple and it was awesome. I loved it. There's not really a whole lot of hustle and bustle where I'm from. So, it was good to be a part of that for a few days. Trust me, it's only good for a few days. I don't know how people deal with that 24/7, 365. It's crazy! People are everywhere!

I collected a whole bunch of stuff to do a mini album with. I saved everything! See?

I started my project last week and I try to work on it every night. Right now, I'm just trying to put all of my pictures in order. There's quite a few. 

I did work on the cover a little. I took some chipboard and cut it down to the size of the photo inserts, covered it with a map of NYC and added some chipboard letters. This cover is not done, by any means. I still have to drill the holes for the rings and do something with the letters. 

Dividers are useful for other things besides organizing office papers. Who knew they could divide up your vacation by the day in a mini album? These are not going to stay white. These are going to have stuff stuck on them. I just don't know what yet. 

I will have more pictures up as more progress is being made. I would appreciate any ideas ya'll have for my book!

I hope everyone has a great Friday and a great weekend. 

...until next time...

-Sam 

Simple is Beautiful

I need to tell myself this all the time. I've come to the point where I realize that my cards or Smash* journals will never be extremely embellished or look like they just popped out of an edition of the latest papercrafting magazine. 

I'm okay with that.

We are all individuals and we are not meant to be the same. We have been told this from the get-go. 

Sometimes, simple is better. 

This is just something I thought I would share with you today.

...until next time...

-Sam

Instagram Wednesday: New York

Nate and I in front of the Flatiron Building in NYC! 

In other news, I have a ton of goodies picked up from our vacation to put in a mini book. I'm pretty excited about starting that and I will post my progress once I get going! I'm in the process of editing photos right now. There's a lot!

A Very Small Pizza

Happy Labor Day everyone!

It's so nice not to have to rush around this morning to get ready to go to work. There's definite beauty in that. There's also definite beauty in me only having to work 3 days this week. Nate and I are going to New York this weekend for vacation and I'm so excited. It's going to be my first time ever in the Big Apple!

Everyone knows that pizza is synonymous with New York and Chicago. I think these 2 cities have been fighting it out for decades.

Personally, I couldn't tell you. I've only ever been to the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago and they definitely don't have pizza vendors in the terminal. Although, that would be a very good idea. You wouldn't have to eat the crappy airline food that now comes with needles. Am I right? Yes.

Why am I talking about pizza? Well, because of this tutorial that I found on Pinterest on how to make a very small pizza box out of cardstock. The tutorial is courtesy of Split Coast Stampers and it is soooo easy.

Clicky here for your amazingly easy pizza box tutorial.

This is my version of the pizza box. Of course, mine isn't as detailed and as pretty as the one on the tutorial but it's fun. This was the first time I had ever used this stamp and it broke. Those acrylic stamps are really hard to get off of that plastic sheeting.

These boxes would be great for jewelry or candy. They would also make great wedding favor boxes! I do not recommend these for pizza. The cheese would slide everywhere and the grease would just ruin your box.

You can also make 2 boxes out of one 12"x12" cardstock sheet! You really don't have any scraps to throw away which is nice and they are pretty cost effective!

Stay dry on this Labor Day. It's going to be another muggy and wet day here in Winchester, VA.

...until next time...

-Sam

AND THE WINNER IS...

ADAM!

Congratulations, Adam! You are now the owner of some of my handmade coasters! I hope you enjoy them!

Even though only 3 people entered the drawing each action that was completed counted as an entry. There were 4 entries to each comment and the number that was picked was 12!

Thank you to those of you that entered. I really do appreciate the support. 

I hope everyone has a safe and happy Labor Day Weekend. Hopefully, it will be a dry one for those of you that are having cookouts. It looks like it's going to be a rainy one here in the Shenandoah Valley. 

...until next time...

-Sam