BEEN THERE, DONE THAT, HAVE THE LAYOUT!

Blogger...FAIL!

2012-01-09T14:16:00.000-06:00

After THREE WEEKS of back and forth, I'm back!!!! I received a notice that my account was locked because of suspected spamming and the email they have on file for me is an outdated one so there's been a lot of hoop jumping going on behind the scenes here. I was able to check my blog since it's public and never saw anything off so I'm assuming whoever hacked my account was posting spammy comments to others. If that happened, I am terribly sorry. I guess I should feel lucky they didn't delete my blog altogether.

I'm going to begin the process of catching up on the blogs I love (I couldn't even log in to access my favs I follow) and also figuring out where I left off with my give-a-way. I have a package of handmade flowers all ready for a new home still!! :) Once I kick this nasty bronchitis I'm going to try to get crafty...stay tuned!

Day 9: Lace Flowers

2011-12-13T22:22:00.004-06:00

Holy blurry video Batman! My camera really struggled with finding the spot to focus on with the white on white. I promise to work on getting better at this whole video thing. :)

This flower can actual be made with most any kind of fun trim, try out your fav! And don't forget to keep checking back because on Day 12 there will be a giveaway of all of these fun flowers!!

Eighth Day of Flowers

2011-12-12T17:24:00.000-06:00

This is such a fun flower. It can be made in so many designs if you buy white liners and dye/mist them or buy any of the variety of patterns/colors available in the baking section of most stores. In fact I JUST found some awesome red and green foil liners that I am totally going to try this with next!

Elf-capades part 2

2011-12-12T10:00:00.000-06:00

...the adventure continues...

If you missed the first post about Buddy, check it out HERE, and then head back here to see what Buddy has been up to since we last left off.

Day 6: Mountain climbing on the advent calendar.

Day 7: Reading the Rainbow Fish.

Day 8: Taking the Barbie-mobile out for a cruise...let's hope she's insured.

Day 9: Norad?? Just how did Buddy get the wifi password?!?!

Day 10: Checking to make sure the kid's stockings have plenty of room for coal.

Day 11: Helping out Mom by doing a few dishes.

Day 12: Having a sip of tea in Katie's 'kitchen'.

Day 13: Buddy's gonna wind up on the naughty list if he doesn't

steer clear of mama's Stickles and chipboard stash!!!!!

Flower #7

2011-12-11T23:16:00.000-06:00

We can now return to our regularly scheduled crafting!!! :) Thank you to everyone who saw my post on FB and sent their best wishes. We had a terrible week and unfortunately it prevented me from even checking in online, much less uploading my tutorials I worked so hard on. Monday the baby kept getting sicker and sicker and by that evening was at the ER with dehydration and a kidney infection, which isn't all that common in little ones, but something we've dealt with her and her sister so we were prepared. She also got a secondary stomach flu which wasn't related, but only making the dehydration worse. Wednesday hubby had to go in for a routine surgery and after a weekend of recouping is doing 100% better. Wish I could have said the same for the rest of us. 1yr olds are notorious for not wanting to share their toys, but their gastrointestinal flu?? SUPER GENEROUS!!! My 7yr old came home early from school Thursday after getting sick in class, I followed, and my 11yr soon after. All 4 people over the age of diapers in the house laid out and a 1yr old ruling the roost made for an interesting week/weekend. So thank you all for the well wishes and the understanding. I'm still going to be posting the remaining flowers because I am still so excited about them!! :) :)

Today we are going to be making one of my new favorites. You can totally change the look depending on the fabric/colors you use. Any synthetic fiber like tulle, satin, organza, etc work. Here is the one I made:

Day 6 - Fan Fold Flower

2011-12-06T15:45:00.000-06:00

This idea is not new. I see these EVERYWHERE!!!! Not just being used as flowers, but on a bigger scale too. They are super easy and so fun. Make sure you email or comment with any questions and keep commenting and checking back because there will be a chance at the end to win all 12 days of flowers!!!

Day 5 - Ribbon flower

2011-12-05T08:00:00.001-06:00

This is one of the most simple flowers and I could easily knock out 1 every 3mins or so. They can have such a different look depending on the ribbon you choose to use!! Please email or comment with any questions and don't forget to keep commenting and letting me know what you think of each tutorial, because there will be a chance at the end of the 12 days for you to win all of these flowers!!

Also, after shooting several video's I realized my camera batteries were dying so the picture of the finished product is a little blurry, but it's super duper cute so that's okay!

Day 4 - Easy Peasy Carnation

2011-12-04T12:49:00.000-06:00

I'm sure this could easily pass for several other flowers, but I used it as a carnation, so we'll call it that. I will say I used scalloped circles that were 2" in diameter because it gave me the flower size I wanted, but you can easily make it bigger if you'd like!!!

Email or comment with any questions and don't forget to check back each day for a new tutorial and a chance to win all 12 flowers I created making the vids!!! If you felt froggy, please share it with your friends. Post it on FB, twitter, add a short sentence/link to a blog post. Anyway you can help get the word of the 12 flowers of Christmas out and I'd be so super grateful. :)

Day 3... MIGHT be my favorite

2011-12-03T13:43:00.000-06:00

I made this flower a few weeks ago for a ballerina themed princessy project and fell in love with it because the tulle gives it such a tutu look. So this is being called the Tutu Flower. Now don't forget if you have any questions, just shoot me an email or comment and I will get back to you. And if you want a chance to win each and every flower we make during the 12 days of flowers, make sure you keep checking back!!

*several spots I got pretty chatty and you made need to pause to read all the text*

On the 2nd day of Christmas....

2011-12-02T08:44:00.000-06:00

Oh yes, it's another flower tutorial!! This one was a little more trial and error, and then one little tidbit stirred an entire 'Aha moment'!!! When you are snipping along each circle following along with the video, make sure you cut an even number of slits. It will make the finished product look nicer and make the making easier. You will figure out just why when you get to the spreading the very last 'fringe' and think, "well ooops...is this supposed to go up or down" LOL.

This flower was inspired by a LaLaLoopsy card I created for my daughter. They are little rag doll inspired baby dolls that she absolutely is gaga over.

You can comment or email me with any questions you may have after watching the video and I will answer back here (or respond via email when possible). Also, don't forget that at the end of this celebration there will be a giveaway of all the flowers you see in each tutorial!!! :) Stay tuned tomorrow for a flower fit for a princess!! :)

On the 1st Day of Christmas....

2011-12-01T02:19:00.000-06:00

♪♫ how does that song go again??? I'm sure it given enough brain power and eggnog, I could belt out every verse, but since we are about the business of scrappin' here (and I've been requested more than once by my children to never sing...never), I've decided to replace the lords a'leaping with lots o' flowers!!! And we aren't going to wait until Christmas to kick start the fun!!!

Starting today, through the 12th, I am going to do a flower tutorial every single day. Not all of the ideas are uniquely my own. Some are flowers I've found on layouts that I just had to figure out how to recreate, some are tutorials that have been floating around blogdom. Either way, if you check back here daily....or better yet click that little follow button to the right....you will find a fun new flower you can make to pretty up your paper crafting. As a special thank you for being a faithful follower, I am going to hold a special giveaway on the 12th where you could win each and every flower I created in the next almost 2 weeks of tutorials.

If you have any questions on this tutorial or any future ones I post, please ask me a question in the comments and I will come back and add the answer. Or you can email me (see the 'about me' page above) and I'll respond directly. Up first is a fantastic flower if you are looking for something with lots of dimension yet very little added height. PERFECT for scrapbook pages. The video shares lots of detail, but I will tell you this will work with ANY 5-6 petal flower that you can get 3 various sizes of blooms cut. Diecuts, punches, machine cut, etc. I chose to use the flower on the George and Basic shapes Cricut cart, because it's a resource available to lots of my readers. You will need 2 of each size (3 sizes means six blooms total), but all of that is detailed after just hit the play button below:

Elf-capades

2011-11-30T15:11:00.000-06:00

Buddy, our elf on the shelf returned to the Skinner casa the night after Thanksgiving and also picked up where he left off with his mischief making!!! For those of you that haven't heard about this fun family tradition: Santa sends an elf down from the north pole to watch the kiddos in the house and report back to him each night. He sits on a shelf and watches the good, the bad, and the ugly and then after the last kiddo falls asleep he travels back to the north pole to tell Santa. When he gets back, he usually gets bored and finds something fun to do around the house. When the first kid wakes up, his Christmas magic stops and he freezes doing whatever he was doing. We hunt him down each morning with lots of laughs and return him to his shelf. It serves two purposes: 1-It helps kids keep their behavior in check because they know that Santa will find out and 2-It brings a little of the magic of Christmas Eve to the entire month of December. He flies home with Santa on Christmas Eve and next year returns after you put your tree up! For those of you that haven't been give their own elf from Santa, he also left some at Target! ;)

I plan on taking pictures of what we find Buddy up to each morning and making a scrapbook of his adventures for the kids to treasure in the future and thought that any of you looking for ideas for your own elf might enjoy them too. So here are days 1-5. I'll update with more pics when I can.

Day 1: Buddy climbed into Allie's MegaBlocks and started an elf sized tower.

Day 2: Totally busted in Mama's spot watching Nick Jr!

Day 3: Snowboarding with the Playstation.

Day 4: Playing peek-a-boo with the Christmas ornaments.

Day 5: Even elves like to color!!!

Winner Winner!!

2011-11-28T22:12:00.000-06:00

I wanted to stop in and announce a winner for the birthday blog hop giveaway. Remember this fun mini?

Well random.org has found a new home for it's sister. That's right, I made two! One for the birthday girl and a duplicate for one lucky commenter. And that lucky person is:

Jill Angel said...

What a gorgeous mini album. Absolutely incredible!
Jill
http://craftwithanangel.blogspot.com/

Please contact me at chuckandchristina(at)yahoo(dot)com with your mailing addy and I would love to drop this in the mail to you!!!

Happy Birthday Hop!!!

2011-11-24T23:00:00.002-06:00

**GIVEAWAY CLOSED**

Today kicks off the super fun birthday blog hop in honor of my friend Tanya. She is such an awesome friend in fact, that we decided to get together and throw a par-tay in her honor. If you just happened upon this post then head back to the starting line at Scrappy Zeni's blog. If you came from Cindi's blog then you are in the right place!! There will be fun, prizes and inspiration along the way so please hop along for the ride!! There will not only be an amazing Cricut imagine cart at one of the stops, but the grand prize (sponsored by Your Memories Here) is this fabulous Christmas goodie package:

I created this fun little birthday mini album for her. All of the photo mats are designed to hold 2.5x3.5 standard wallet photos (these can be printed at almost all 1hr photo stops) with a little edge to provide a nice mat. All the paper is DCWV. Each page has a spot for a photo of your favorite birthday memories and the back page has a spot for journaling. It might even be fun to put pics from a birthday party in it and have your guests sign a spot on the journaling spot on the back!

It's on it's way to Ms. Tanya now and I really hope she loves it! I really hope all of you love it too, so much so that I made a duplicate to give away to one lucky reader!!! Just comment on this post by Sunday night (Nov 27th) at 11:59pm (eastern time) and your name will go into the hat. I will announce a winner early next week so be sure to check back. The winner will have 1 week to contact me. :) Now that we're all done here make sure you head on over Liz at WhichCraft to keep the party train rollin'!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2011-11-24T00:27:00.000-06:00

I hope all of my friends in blogdom are having an absolutely fantastic day surrounded by family and lots of yummy food. Don't forget to check back tomorrow for a fun surprise!!

A very special project

2011-11-11T00:48:00.004-06:00

A year and a half ago, when I was oh so very pregnant, I got a whim to create a mini album from a pile of pictures I had of my Grandparents when they were first married and all the special days of their 50+ years together. My grandparents not only helped raise me when I was very small and my father was navigating the trials of being a single dad, but they were also the single most defining presence in how I hoped my life would turn out. They had decades of love and commitment under their belt, 6 fantastic children with 6 equally as fantastic son/daughter-laws, 9 grandchildren, a few bonus grandchildren as some of us married and 3 beautiful great-grandchildren. We were spread from one end of the country to the other, but when Grandma called and said there would be a party (there was always a reason for a party with Grandma!) we all knew better than to not be there.

The day after I printed these photos and less than a month from the day I was due to give birth, my grandmother unexpectedly passed away. It is the single most devastating loss I've experienced in my 32 years. Every time I tried to pull out the pictures since, I've been overwhelmed with the loss all over again as I try to wrap my head around the fact that my youngest, Allie, will never have the bond with my grandmother that my other two babies can always cherish. Then a few days ago I received a very special package in the mail. I'd won a give-a-way sponsored by OohLaLa Vintage Treasures and when I opened the HUGE package of goodies, out spilled a beautiful little pin that reminded me of a piece of jewelry that my grandmother passed down to me. I just KNEW that this was the push I needed to pull out these pictures again and start work on this very special-to-me mini album! A few of the pieces are also from an embellishment explosion of a package from my friend Tanya just sent me! :)

I'd like to share 3 pages so far that I've completed. The cover was inspired by the DT project at Paper Hoarders. It is to scrap something you are thankful for. Thankful doesn't begin to cover how I feel towards my grandparents for showing me just how good life can be if you stay committed to nourishing family bonds. This is a new look for me, I've never worked with vintage/shabby chic scrappy supplies and still not entirely sure I'm pulling it off LMBO!

The next page was inspired by sketch #180 at Creative Scrappers. I really ran with the sketch so hopefully it's close enough to still count. I was working with 6x6 size instead of 12x12 so I had to trade the big circle elements with smaller embellishment clusters and I didn't have room for a title at all. Plus I gave glimmer mist a big ole' workout on this one!!!

The third page (there are more to come in the next few days) was inspired by sketch #58 at Sketchabilities. I tried to add a few more of the fun details I see in the vintagey layouts online, but not sure I've got the knack of it quite yet. I'm getting there though!!! :) I'm also sharing this one with the StuckOnUSketches diecut challenge of the week: Leaves! The leaf tucked into the cluster is cut out of green mulberry paper from my Cindy Loo cricut cart.

Have a spooky birthday!

2011-10-28T02:22:00.000-05:00

My hubby has the fun of having a birthday smack dab on Halloween. It takes some real juggling on mommy's part to make sure his special day is celebrated to the fullest and to make sure the kids get a normal Halloween fun time experience too. Needless to say Nov 1st comes with a much needed scheduled nap each year!! LOL. Here is a layout I just finished for this week's Paper Hoarders DT project (include a Halloween shape) of my hubby celebrating his birthday with the fam and the kids enjoying getting to wear their costumes to dinner.

It's another 8 1/2 x 11 and involved a whole lotta improvising on the embellies. I dug deep for some of the pieces and have decided I am definitely running low on Halloween goodies. I made the pumpkin out of oval punches after giving up on finding one on my Cricut carts, only to find one...oh, about 2 seconds after I'd glued it down. DOH!

I ♥ Him

2011-10-13T23:59:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Bet you'd thought I fell off the planet!! Things have been mucho busy at the Skinner casa lately. The baby (well we technically can't call her a toddler I suppose since she refuses to toddle!!!) still isn't walking at nearly 21 months and the doctors have started running us ragged in the search of why and a fix. They still think it's likely a case of WON'T and not CAN'T, but I decided it was time to be a little more proactive now. If it's stubborness then physical therapy won't get in the way of her doing it when she's ready and if it's a developmental delay, then it can only help. I'm still crafting at least once a week, but just haven't been online enough to catch up on blogging. Now that we have gotten into the swing of the changes to our schedule, things are calming down. :) :)

I won't leave you without SOMETHING crafty to show, so here is the latest project for my DT post at Paper Hoarders. The challenge is to create something for Sweetest Day. Team 1 (cards, altered projects, etc) had their go with the challenge last week and Team 2 (LOs) show their stuff this week. If you'd like details or to see the rest of the projects just click on over to our fearless leader, Tanya's blog (the post should be live sometime Friday). I used the Echo Park-Life is Good line :) :)

Fall Beauty

2011-09-23T08:16:00.001-05:00

It's challenge numero dos over at Paper Hoarders and our challenge this week was to create a fall inspired layout with a fall color palette. I found these pics of my daughter taken in October of 2006...I can't believe she was only 2 years old. She is still my blonde-haired, blue-eyed sweetheart (she lucked out and inherited recessive genes from both of her grandmas because neither Chuck or I have either trait LOL!!) even if she's growing into a 7 year old sized attitude. LOL.

Teamwork!!

2011-09-19T23:42:00.011-05:00

Don't you just love it when things that you love individually come together to team up for something that totally rocks?? Well three of my favorite blogs out there have put together one kick booty challenge. ScrapFIT has set the theme 'Friends' and Sketchy Thursdays provided the sketch. Then my new fav addiction, Paper Issues supplied the prize from their shop! Below you'll find my take on the challenge. We have inking, flocking, glitter, stitching, and much more crammed into this little layout of my daughter and my best friend's son. They only get to see each other once a year or so because we are 1500 miles away but they always seem to pick up right where they left off...best buds! Thanks for stopping by!

Rock Star

2011-09-15T20:29:00.000-05:00

The theme right now at Fantabulous Cricut is musical cricut cuts. Having recently scored the Hannah Montana cart on clearance at Hobby Lobby for $9, I knew I wanted to play along. You can make any paper craft, but I decided to go with a layout at my sons request. He inherited my musical inclination and plays several instruments pretty darn well for an 11yr old. He's learning guitar and also plays the sax. So when he saw this grungy paper by Paper Pizazz and DCWV he claimed them for a layout of him. The title is pieced together from several cuts off the same cart. I snipped off parts that weren't needed and layered them. I am getting pretty good at stretching my cricut cuts. I followed the sketch posted today at Stuck?! and for the two semi-circular elements went with dry embossed textures instead of more patterned paper. I tried to tie in more of the glitter paper from the work 'rock' by fringing it all up and running it along the bottom of the paper strip. I like how that turned out! I'm still struggling with the concept of masking, but keep giving it the good ol' college try. You can spot some in the top right and just right of the guitar.

Paper Issues! ..and a request

2011-09-14T19:01:00.002-05:00

So I happened upon THE most fantabulous blog ever the other day. The blog title is absolutely hilarious and definitely drew me in to checking out what it was all about. It's called "We have issues...PAPER ISSUES!" HAHAHAHA. How great is that?!?! Not to mention, frighteningly accurate LOL! Their featured theme right now is 'learning curve' and they want you to share all of your school related projects. The thing I totally loved most is that they leave it open to you sharing anything with them that involves paper. It could be altered items, layouts, cards, gifts, if you used paper on it...it counts! Click the blinkie to pop over and see all the AMAZING creations that have been featured so far after you check out my fun piece.

I had been asked (more like hounded) since the day school started to make something for my kiddos to put their box tops for education in. They've been going into the junk drawer and then when the teacher set a date for the month they could bring them in, they dug through that drawar making all kinds of messes to find every last one. Enter Super Scrappy Mom to the rescue (I really should wear a cape with all the miracles they expect me to preform HA!). This started out as a box of taco shells...add a little scrappy yummies from my stash and voila! We have a box to stash away all of our box tops until it's time to take them to school.

The typeset paper is The Paper Studio. The green paper is Creative Imaginations (I really didn't crop that well...it has words all about school and the ONE I centered on is vacation?!?!). The apple is a cardstock sticker from Reminisce and the swirl is cut from the Sizzix-Flourish die. The ribbon is from Hobby Lobby. The word 'box' is The Paper Studio chipboard letters and the word 'tops' is by Recollections.

Also, while I have everyone's attention.... My friend Tanya is collecting cards for her little friend Aidan. He is four years old and battling Leukemia. Getting mail just brightens his day (isn't that just like a 4 yr old??) so she's having a card drive!! If you make a card for him and get it to her by the end of this month, your name will be put into a drawing for a goodie. Though, when you click over and see his sweet little face, you won't need any extra motivation to make a boy-rific card for him!! For details click HERE and below is my card (all the cuts are Create-a-Critter).

Family

2011-09-13T09:36:00.000-05:00

I now think I've completed every challenges for the Paper Variety's blogoversary blowout except day 1. I just have such a time with stamping. I'm miserable at it..not for lack of trying!! Day 2 however, I've got no prob. Why did it come so easy for me you ask? Because the challenge of the day was to create a layout that is at least 70% product of your favorite manufacturer. If there was any doubt that Tim Holtz is my most favoritest of favorite product pushers out there, just visit my Tim Holtz drawer...yes he has his own drawer!!! I think just about everything on this layout came from my Tim Holtz drawer. The patterned paper (including the pieces that the diecuts and pleated paper strips are cut from) are the Vintage Shabby Paper Stack. The ticket and the grungeboard pieces are also Tim Holtz. I even used Tim Holtz distress ink!!! So other than the dies used to cut the shapes out...all, you guessed it...TIM HOLTZ!

The sketch that inspired this return to 12x12 layouts is #251 by Pencil Lines. The DT amazes me each post over there with how very different from each other, yet so very obviously linked to the sketch they each are!! I also am sharing this with the challenge of the week at Allsorts Challenge Blog which was swirls and flowers. The swirls are cut from the Cindy Loo cricut cart and the flower is a McGill punch. Lastly the challenge over at Shopping Our Stash is PERFECT for a Tim Holtz-a-palooza layout! It's Vintage/Distressed/Shabby. Plus every single thing on this layout is from my stash...yay!

Stretching the Sketch with PageMaps

2011-09-12T23:43:00.000-05:00

I think just maybe I've mentioned what a sketch-a-holic I am....just maybe (HA!). I have a ton of challenge sites I frequent to get new, fabulous sketches to try (look in my sidebar ------> and scroll down a bit for a list of some of my favs). If I really love a sketch I'll print it out and use it several more times. To keep my layouts from looking like a carbon copy of the first, I've learned to stretch the sketch by changing up certain elements. I try to keep things in the same place as in the sketch, but where one place might call for 2 photos, I'll do a photo and a journal box. Or instead of using 2 squares of patterned paper, I'll do one plus stitching for the other square. Lots of great ways to stretch your sketch if you just keep the shapes in the same spot and let yourself get creative as to what can fill that shape!!

For the PageMaps sketch below I did change up quite a bit, but hopefully the original sketch is still pretty obviously my inspiration. Instead of a large vertical photo, I added an additional patterned paper. I switched the title and the date spots and used a sun as the circle the title sits on. Instead of having a strip of 3 photos, I used one square photo and repeated the block with 2 additional tree elements. I used a flower cluster and a flamingo (this pic was taken during our Orlando vacation a few years ago, so I wanted to sneak in a touch of Florida somewhere) in place of the circle cluster and cupcake. Everyone I talk to that is not a fan of sketches, has the same complaint...."it's just too confining!" Hopefully this fuels your creative jet just enough to try a sketch if you've been iffy about them in the past. :)

I also have to ooooze love about this new paper stack. Michaels has them all on sale for $9.99 this week, and even though my Joanns sells the DCWV for that price nearly weekly, I thought I'd pop in to see if they have any variety I can't find elsewhere. Enter DCWV-The Playtime stack. You HAVE to go looking for this stack...it is the most amazing find I've come across in a looong time! And since it was such worthy paper, I decided to use up my best flowers on the layout. These colors I am running dangerously low on and had been hording them for the right project. I so love my Prima flowers!!! In fact they are probably my favorite thing EVER to add to a project. So this project is particularly fitting for The Paper Variety's blogoversary celebration...day 5!

Yellow-splosion

2011-09-10T16:50:00.001-05:00

As I mentioned a few posts ago, they are having a birthday scrapapalooza over at The Paper Variety that I've been having a blast playing along with. If you are just hearing about this first here, where HAVE you been LOL?!?! Day 1 kicked off with a kick-booty blog hop and a challenge to incorporate stamps (digi or ink) into your project. Day 2 asked us to create a layout with our favorite manufacturer. I haven't done that one yet, but it's next on my to-do list. Day 3 was to scrap your fav photos (if I'm not mistaken it's the post JUST below this one), and now we are at Day 4. Pick your favorite color and create a layout that is monochromatic (meaning only using shades of that color). Though they did add that we can use neutrals which was a big 'whew!' because I'd just been itching to use this Authentique paper and yellow is my absolute favorite color...ever. Has been as long as I can remember. I was once told that I picked it when I was in Kindergarten because I felt sorry for it, because no one else ever picked it! LOL. So I included grey/black/white accents to top off the YELLOW-SPLOSION going on here. I've got a few shades in the flower cluster, but most of it is sunshiney yellow...my fav :)

The sketch I followed (yes, there is always a sketch I follow...I'm addicted LOL) is by Sassy Lil' Sketches. Click on over and give it a go if you get a chance. I love that it challenged me to get my flower clusters I love so much out of the corner and move it to the bottom edge. I decided not to do a huge banner because it's not really a celebration theme, but still tucked a handmade banner into the flower cluster and I love it :)

Beautiful

2011-09-09T19:01:00.001-05:00

A lot of people wonder how I can possible cram 3, 4, sometimes even 5+ challenges into one layout. I never actually understood why some challenge blogs frown upon it to be honest. In my opinion while one challenge may bring a viewer to my blog, they are going to see the link to you as soon as they arrive! Cross promotion at it's easiest. I'm sure it'd be different if I just did a massive list at the end of my post of all the links, but I take the time to explain the challenge and how I incorporated it into my creation. Scouring for several different types of challenges is something that has helped me give so much more depth to my layouts than I'd ever thought to see before. I can find a color challenge to help me pull all of my papers together, then a sketch challenge to help me figure out how to place them, then sometimes I'll see a theme challenge that will lead me right to the perfect photos and if I'm lucky I'll even find a misc challenge that gives me the nerve to add extra layers of embellies I'd never thought to take the time to incorporate. Of course, I refuse to sacrifice my vision, so if I get to working and find that a certain challenge isn't fitting right with where the rest have taken me...it gets the boot!

With this layout of my daughter a few weeks before she started preK, I was able to stop at 4 different challenges along the path to completed. I started off at The Paper Variety. They are celebrating their blogoversary (seriously pop over and jump aboard the train to fun-land this weekend!!). That was what inspired me to go digging for this picture of my daughter. The challenge was to scrap your favorite photo and while I won't play favorites between my kiddos...this one's strength is definitely in her photogenic smile!

I then searched around for just the perfect sketch to go with the papers I found that matched her little outfit so well. The line is Basic Grey-Bittersweet. Enter Stuck On U Sketches!! I'm a sketch-a-holic and they've got some of the most beautiful ones around!

I knew I wanted to play along with this week's Frosted Designs challenge the second I saw it. It is to use a stamp (the postage kind), an envelope and a ticket in one layout. I immediately went to my Tim Holtz drawer (yes he has his own drawer at my house...wonder if I can convince to come for a stay LOL) and nabbed these fabulous tickets he sells and picked the one that says 'ADORE'. The envelope can be found at the top of the photo matte...it's vellum. For the stamp, I spent a while stuck. Staring at my huge collection (read: hoard) of scrappy stuff and wondering how there isn't one stamp shaped embellie to be found. Then my husband piped up (he's a pretty useful fella sometimes!) didn't that green bug thing come with something like that. BRILLIANT!!! When you buy your Cuttlebug (or at least back when I did) it came with a postage stamp die and a set of 4 stamp image embossing folders. You'll find the one I picked nestled just on top of the envie.

My last stop on the challenge blog express was to Scrapbookers Anonymous. They posted a chipboard challenge this month and so I went digging back into my Tim Holtz drawer and found this adorable key and keyhole set. I painted them pink and glittered them up (like there was any doubt we'd be glittering?!?!) and added them to the layout. Along with glimmer misted chipboard letters to spell 'beautiful'.

Part 2 of the challenge over at Scrapbookers Anonymous is to create a card from your scraps. I created this from the basic grey papers I had leftover, but I won't mention any names for who it's for because I know she pops in my blog from time to time. I'd been wanting to make her a card to say thanks for being awesome and these papers scream A-W-E-S-O-M-E to me! :) The birdie is from Create-a-Critter as is the Hello Cloud. I cut it out and then used the reverse image (the part that's leftover after you take the part you usually want) and stuck it down then inked over it. Once removed it was supposed to come off more as a thought bubble than a cloud...so there ya go :)

Exciting news!!

2011-09-09T00:00:00.004-05:00

I am so excited to finally get to share my first project created for the brand new design team I am a member of. Paper Hoarders! So fun and there are lots of fun challenges and it's open to scrappers, cardmakers, and people who alter anything that can't run away!! The first challenge running right now is Back to School project with a ruler included. Here is my layout! I just LOOOVE how it turned out!

I had a hard time finding letters that worked (and that I had the right letters for) so I used chipboard and painted it and distressed it, and I think they turned out fantastic. The tree is from Cindy Loo cricut cart, the border punch is the Fiskars Notebook punch and the frame a leather frame that I thought went well with the distressy look of the paper :)

Spotlight Sunday Sept 4th 2011

2011-09-04T10:24:00.000-05:00

Guess what time it is?!?!?! Time for another...

Favorite Layout

The circles, fan fold flowers, great candid shots, journaling on the round...there's just so much to LOOVE about this layout. I noted lots of different elements that I'll just HAVE to try to incorporate into a future project. Pamela certainly crammed an overload of awesomeness into this layout.

Favorite Card

Rae is one of the best card makers I've ever seen. Her style varies so much from design to design, but it's always something that is stunning beyond all reason. This card below she just posted is no different. But after you pop over make sure you follow and click back through her archives because you will find any mojo you may have lost for sure!!

Favorite Project

Shaker boxes used to be all the rage and I haven't made one in ages, but seeing Patti bring hers to life on a beautiful set of cards inspired me to give it a go again. Hop on over to see her UBER adorable ideas!!

Favorite Product

Maybe I'm partial to the line because my darling 18m old daughter has decided she's going to be early for something for once....and unfortunately it's her entrance into the terrible twos. Almost all of the pics I get of her lately she's grouching at someone. So I've taken to affectionately calling her 'My Little Monster'. If you have a 'little monster' in your life.... this Nikki Sivils line is a MUST! Check out her blog's sidebar for a listing of stores online that carry her lines and click the pic to see a closeup of the papers!

Favorite Idea

I just LOVE the title work on this layout by Cheryl. The mixed fonts are all tied together by color and so they totally 'go' together but add an extra layer of interest! What a fantastic idea!!! Don't know if they came like that in a set or she pieced them together from multiple red sets, but it's a great idea to try!

Favorite Challenge

Not only does Once Upon a Sketch have fantastic sketches with clever journaling prompts to follow, but their design team is THE best around. If you want to have a one stop place to knock yourself over with gorgeousness....click over to their blog and hit follow. Twice a month you will be blown away!

Happy Girl

2011-09-03T10:15:00.009-05:00

A few Easter's ago, my parents took my oldest with them to South Florida so my (then) youngest got left behind. Mommy's fault...she was still too little for momma to let go away for a week. She was definitely bummed, so we decided to surprise her with a trip to Chuck-E-Cheese. When we walked in we made sure to steer clear of the games and stuff so she wasn't really sure where we were and was wholly unimpressed. Then we covered her eyes and led her to the games and she lit up like a firework! It was a great day.

I incorporated the following challenges into this layout. My Time to Craft's current challenge is 'In Full Bloom' so I fussy cut a bunch of flowers from coordinating patterned papers and littered the page with them. The current challenge at Papercraft Star is to use something metal in your project so I dug through my stash of charms and found just the right one to hang from my ribbon :) ...Thanks for looking.

Spotlight Sunday - August 28th

2011-08-28T10:19:00.019-05:00

Welcome to another fabulous edition of spotlight Sunday! We'll take a look back at a few favorites I spied this week and hope you fund some inspiration with their projects and maybe some new favorites to follow.

Favorite Layout

I love love love this layout. Way to embrace the white space Tina. It's hard to use this idea and not have a layout left feeling 'empty' but this is whitespace done right! I love the flower embellies she made too. Check it out close up by clicking the pic to head over to her post.

Favorite Card

I just love the soft, beautiful colors and the little staples are a perfect embellishment to compliment the distressed look. Pop on over to Fleur's blog to see even more fantastic creations.

Favorite Project

My oldest started middle school Tuesday. Technically he was at the school last year, but it wasn't until 6th grade that they start switching classes and using lockers between. Man do I feel old!! He just asked for a locker mirror (evidently ALL the kids but him have one) and I found this super-de-duper tutorial by Khristen for altering your own to fit your kiddos personal style.

Favorite Product

The second I saw this line I started stalking my LSS and online go to stores for it! It's the Geek is Chic collection by Imaginisce. Diecuts, papers, stickers, and more. As the mama to at least one kiddo who embraces his inner smarty pants, this is a must have purchase.

Favorite Idea

Get ready to have your card making world turned upside down! Are you ready? REALLY ready??? Brace yourselves....I WANNA BUILD A MEMORY....bam, In all seriousness, I never would have thought of doing this, but the idea is just brilliant. Most of our friends and family members are not fellow scrappers. They enjoy getting our handmade cards because it shows them that we cared enough to spend a little of our precious scrappy time on their special day, and if they really know us well, they'll know what a big deal that is! LOL. Often they are left wondering just what to do with the card. Well this card is a two-fer bonus card and has a mini album inside. Brilliant right?!?!?!

Favorite Challenge

Calling all card makers. Ever struggle with putting patterns and colors together when you AREN'T starting with coordinating papers purchased together? Well do I have the challenge blog for YOU! The Color Throwdown shows off a new color palette each week and it's fun digging through my scraps baggies to find patterns and colors that I never thought to put together. Click on over to check out the current challenge.

Must Visit Link

I know I've shared this link before, but I use it virtually everytime I sit to scrap on at least one layout. There are lots of page title ideas categorized by theme alphabetically, but also album and layout ideas as well as quotes, poems, songs, etc to fit just about every theme you can imagine. You can either search the site or select the subject index to see the alphabetical theme list. Pop on over to DennyDavis.net and bookmark it today, you won't be sorry!

As a reminder: #1...I always link directly to your photo so that if you feel the need to pull your project it pulls it from here automatically. #2...I will always link back to your site. #3...I will do my best to notify individuals via comment if I share them as a fav. #4...If you ever decide you'd rather I NOT post your project/link, just shoot me an email (found in the top link 'about me'.

Boo

2011-08-23T00:30:00.000-05:00

I got all the paper in a kit from a kit company that has since closed it's doors. I was putting off using it knowing I wouldn't get any more :( ...but I decided it was time to bust it out because of the fun clock it had and that is just the theme at Frosted Designs this week! I also followed sketch 170 at Creative Scrappers.

Spotlight Sunday

2011-08-21T09:00:00.002-05:00

I used to do a spotlight post every week and after I had the baby I fell off on my blogging. I'd jump on anytime I created something to share, but wasn't great about keeping up with everything. I really enjoy sharing with all of you the great things I spy throughout the week, so we are starting this back up! As a reminder: #1...I always link directly to your photo so that if you feel the need to pull your project it pulls it from here automatically. #2...I will always link back to your site. #3...I will do my best to notify individuals via comment if I share them as a fav. #4...If you ever decide you'd rather I NOT post your project/link, just shoot me an email (found in the top link 'about me'. Now let's get down to the nitty gritty!!

Favorite Layout:
I absolutely ADORED this layout. It just oozes gorgeous all over my computer screen. What set it apart from the other layouts I've seen was the masking technique Gerry utilized. I've been working on learning it myself lately...(with little success, anyone have any tips to share?). Click on over for a full sized view and follow her while you're there because everything she creates is stunning.

Favorite Card:
I just love everything Joanne creates, but this Halloween themed card had me rolling on the floor laughing and in awe all at the same time. The paper she picked is awesome and the image is sassy, and we ALL know I'm a sucker for puns!

Favorite Project:
It may seem a little early to be thinking of Halloween projects, but with most of our kids either already being back in school or starting within the next week, Halloween is our next big event. Barb over at BugBites posted these adorable Halloween treat boxes created with her cricut and I knew I had to share!

Favorite Product:
I love digi images! Maybe it's because I'm a terrible stamper. Create with TLC has fantastic images that always seem to be what is totally 'in' right now. She also has TONS of freebies and adorable sentiments. If you are a sucker for puns like I am, she's the artist for you! Follow her blog today and don't miss out on all her freebies and new additions to the store. Just make sure you are nice and leave a comment if you snag a freebie.

Favorite Idea:
This idea I'm about to share rocked my week! I'm sure there is going to be at least one reader who says, "uh who DIDN'T already know about this?!?!", but if I illuminate just one fellow scrapper...job done! I've been eyeballing a craft sander for weeks and hadn't pulled the proverbial trigger yet because I was weighing the cost vs the difficulty of raiding my hubby's tool box for his dwindling collection of sandpaper. Then Larelyn over at Fantabulous Cricut posted the Quick Tip Tuesday and the solution was right there in black and white. EMERY BOARD!!! I have 10+ of these puppies sitting around never used and if you ever run low, they sell multipacks for a buck everywhere! Plus the nicer kind are still cheaper than the sanding tools and have 4 different grit sections. Click the blinkie below to see more bits of scrappy brilliance you have just sitting around your house!

Favorite challenge:
I've said it before, I'll say it again; I LOVE sketches! One of my very favorite artists is Liz Chidester at The Scrappiest. She posts sketches weekly and you have until the end of the month to link up your take on each sketch. She has done some of her best work this month in the sketchy department and her design team has knocked it out of the park! Visit the link above to be directed to her blog to find all of this month's sketches to play along or the blinkie below to find the current week's post.

Must Visit Link:
When my very favorite online scrappy store decided to close it's cyber-doors I was so sad. Then I realized that meant I could keep getting some amazing product with the lightning shipping speed , but at deep discounts! She's going to be slashing prices until everything is gone. Right now it's all 25% off with the discount code posted on the front page. So don't miss out...visit Scrap Attack Scrapbooking today and visit back often.

I LOVE Thread!

2011-08-18T14:34:00.002-05:00

Whether it's ribbon, embroidery floss, twine, bakers twine, lace, any kind of trim is my favorite thing to add to any layout. It can add texture like nothing else! So this week's challenge at The Paper Variety really got me in the mood to sit down and scrap! I used ribbon for a border and twine tied through the buttons to finish those off. The layout is of my dad teaching my daughter to 'clink' bottles. Her with root beer of course! :)

Just The Way You Are

2011-08-16T23:45:00.007-05:00

My goodness did I struggle with the sketch just posted at Once Upon a Sketch. I sat down with big ideas and putting them together just were a big ol' FAIL. I ended up moving a few things around and added the bracket where to cover some glue mistakes and now I'm thrilled with it. The extra challenge to go with the sketch is always a journaling prompt and with this one we had to include 2+ lines from our favorite lyrics. I have LOTS of favorite songs, but my favorite right now is 'Just the Way You Are' by Bruno Mars which is very fitting since this is a picture of my 2 older babies :)

Baby Julian... just froggy

2011-08-12T12:16:00.001-05:00

A few days ago I shared a layout from my best friends baby shower. Now I'm to the page about sweet baby Julian who was the product of that belly bump!! The theme at Frosted Designs this week was 'animals' so I used this adorable froggy paper line. I love the layout so much, almost as much as his sweet little face!!

Journal Jar!!

2011-08-10T23:24:00.002-05:00

I originally made this as a gift, but I have fallen so in love with it, that I'm not sure I can give it up. I should have known better than to use my favorite My Mind's Eye line on the project!!!! I altered a clear jar and filled with 52 strips of journaling prompts. I altered a dollar store hard covered, spiral journal to match. I tried to think of questions I wish I could ask my grandparents about their life, memories that I don't want to forget, things I'd like my family to know someday. This was the most fun I've had making a project and I can only imagine it'll be even MORE fun filling out the journal. The theme at Papercraft Star is 'books' so the journal is my entry there. :)

Belly Laughs

2011-08-07T12:05:00.003-05:00

This month's GDT sketch at Sketchy Thursday's is one of my favorite. I just love the circle elements. It has an additional requirement of having a book/reading theme. Since it was my best friend's baby shower, I looked no further than my very favorite pregnancy book. It's an awesome read by Jenny McCarthy even if you don't find yourself currently knocked up. HA! I actually had thought about using it as a title for several of my preggo layouts, but I just never had any pics where I looked anything but miserable LOL! This fun shot of her and her hubby with their matching bellies (he had a balloon under his shirt) was PERFECT!!

Disney Layouts

2011-08-05T11:02:00.002-05:00

All of the paper I used is misc brands from my local scrappy store. They have a Disney section and I just bought all the primary colored Disney sheets I could find. The sketch I used for the first layout is by StuckOnUSketches. I'm also sharing this with the open challenge welcoming back Raise the Bar!!

The second layout followed the Sketchabilities sketch posted on the 30th of July. This one was hard to incorporate into an 8.5x11 layout but that is what I am working on at the moment so I squished it in. Love the end result!!

Blogoversary winner!

2011-08-04T10:31:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone for their 'happy blogoversary' wishes. It's nice to know I'm not here talking to myself HAHAHAHA! Now for the winner of the Prima assortment. If you could please email me at chuckandchristina(at)yahoo(dot)com with your mailing address, I'll get these postal asap.

SHER

I looove the card and the fun ideas you shared when making it!!! CONGRATS :)

Merry Christmas .... in JULY!

2011-07-29T21:41:00.000-05:00

I've managed to get 3 whole Christmas layouts done today. Nothing like a high of 105° to make you long for December HA! The first one is of Christmas morning and I followed the Sketchy Thursdays sketch. I decided rather than scrapping a pic of them opening every single present, I'd pick a few favorite photos and then journal all about their favorite gifts of the year!

The second layout is made from the scraps of the BoBunny kit that I used for the first. The sketch I followed was the Sassy Lil' Sketches sketch posted on the 7th. I also played along with the tic-tac-toe board posted at The Paper Variety. My three in a row are vertically along the last column. I used buttons, journaling strips and focused on one photo. I tried something new with this one. I kinda dipped a toe into the masking craze. I didn't have the guts to go for the whole background, but I used the negative space from a ring cut out and misted over it leaving the circle element for the sketch without having something that is so contrasting as another pattern. I love it! :) I kind of appears to be a crooked photo of this layout but it's actually that it was a sheet of purple pp turned at an angle and mounted on a solid white 8.5x11...which kind blends into the white board I use as a backdrop :(

The third Christmas goodie I created is of my kiddos trip to see Santa at the mall that year. I followed the sketch posted at Creative Scrappers. The circle element did NOT work like I wanted and I tried and failed at several ideas before just trying to make the best from the mess I created. I still may cut a ring element from a coordinating pp and mount it over top of the ink work :).

THE BIG DAY!!!!!

2011-07-22T11:28:00.003-05:00

***CONTEST CLOSED***

see winner here

Happy blogoversary to me!!!! I can't believe that 3 years ago today, I started this blog as a place to document all my layouts I created to be able to share with family and friends near and far. Since then, I have built a community of friends around me who all inspire each other and push us to our creative best!! It has been a fantastic few years and I can't wait to celebrate many many more!

As a thank you to everyone who has stuck by me in this journey and for those who jump aboard for the next year, I am offering up a goodie to one lucky reader. There are several ways to enter. You will get one entry for sharing this on your own blog, one entry for completing the challenge detailed below. Please comment below leaving the link that you posted the giveaway. Also comment leaving the link to your take on the challenge (these can be the same post on your blog and also they can be left in the same comment). I will enter your name once for each task you complete. This giveaway is only open to followers of my blog (current or new).

The challenge should you choose to accept it, is to create a project with a celebration theme. It can be a card, layout, altered project...just make sure it has a celebration theme to it! Think birthday, wedding, showers, anniversary, anything you can imagine would be cause for a big party! It also needs to be a new project, no backlinking prior to July 22nd. The prize to go to one lucky participant will be a collection of 50 Prima flowers. A huge assortment of styles and colors to help you finish off many projects in the future!!! As an added bonus, I will be picking favorites as they are posted and featuring them here on the blog with a link back to the creator to show off your hard work!!

If you have any questions, please feel free to email me by clicking the 'about me' page at the top. The deadline to enter is July 31st.

My favorite color combo!!

2011-07-17T15:46:00.012-05:00

The color challenge this week at Just Us Girls is one of my very favorite color combos. Pinks and grey. I also left a little green in there since there is a touch in the inspiration photo posted. :) The paper is all Basic Grey - Olivia line and the letters 'I AM' are Basic Grey chipboard as well.

Perfect Day

2011-07-16T15:45:00.000-05:00

I just loved scrapbooking the pictures of my cousin's wedding. I used All My Minds Eye- "Lime Twist" paper to create the page. The sketch I followed for this is by Sketchabilities.

Daytona Beach.....at the pool

2011-07-15T11:12:00.026-05:00

This layout is rather plain because of the big open blue space, but I kind of like it that way so I decided to not over embellish. Anyone have any tips for 'gussying up' areas like that without adding any extra embellishments ... please share. I followed the Stuck?!July 1st sketch.

The Cardstock is Coordinations. The patterned paper is from the 'Hit the Beach' collection by Flair Designs (I think that's the brand). I cut the waves from a sheet of patterned paper called 'Ride the Waves' by Around the Block. I popped up the layer of waves just below the photo and I love the little extra that adds. The cloud, coral and starfish are cut from my Create-a-Critter Cricut cart. The AWESOME sun is actually an embellished diecut I got from my friend Cathie. She has an Etsy store where she has THE most amazing, detailed and quality diecuts. This sun is flocked in the center and the rays are glittered. The title is from a sheet of Karen Foster stickers called 'Beach Phrases'. The fish is a leftover little guy from a sheet of Sticko Vellum stickers.

Flower Child

2011-07-13T02:31:00.001-05:00

I cannot even believe I am still awake scrapbooking at this hour. I had no idea what time is was until I heard my husbands alarm go off. Granted he wakes up in the middle of the night, but still....YIKES! I was in the zone, but I better get this posted and crash before my kiddos wake up!!

One of the good things about scrapping in the middle of the night is that I catch all the challenges early as they tend to post at midnight on their scheduled day. This layout was created for the latest Color Throwdown color palette. They were inspired by a particular paper line that I happen to own so I thought I'd sit down and knock it out before I turned in. Then I stumbled across these leftover patterned papers from an Easter layout I did a while back. They fit even more perfect than the ones I'd planned to use.

That paper is all by JilliBean Soup. The title was created from two different sets of white glitter Thickers that were Glimmer Misted with Starfish and Turquoise. Some of the flowers are Prima and some Recollections. The glittery butterfly is a button from my stash....I have quite the button stash!! The polka dotted flower at the bottom was made from a piece of satin ribbon. It's so ridiculously simple that even *I* was able to not screw it up LOL! I'll have to share the instructions if I remember, but I found them online lots of places.

Digging deep in my stash

2011-07-12T11:17:00.002-05:00

The challenge over at Shopping Our Stash, if I choose to accept it (of course I did!!!) is to dig deep into our hoards of stash and pull out something that's been needing to find a home on a scrappy project. Well I decided to look no farther than my ziploc of scrap patterned papers that I had stashed away never to see the light of day again. My scraps of cardstock always find love with my cricut when I'm cutting out pieces, but the patterned paper just keeps growing out of control. So, I pulled this out and found some leftover stickers in my pile that I was going to get rid of because I'd already used off it what I'd intended to and created this entire layout from just scraps!!! Go me!

Happy Chef!

2011-07-11T23:23:00.022-05:00

I won't lie. As soon as I saw this Echo Park 'Life is Good' line I fell in love and bought the whole thing. I liked some of the patterned papers more than others, but there wasn't a single item that I can't imagine using. The little houses are so fun and I thought they went perfectly for my daughter playing 'house' and making me a delicious plastic cheeseburger! The only thing not Echo Park that I used for this layout is the adhesive (including the pop dots I used to pop up the house and double pop up the heart) and the gemstones that came in a $1 package at Joanns.

I followed the sketch posted at Pencillines with a little stretching. Instead of the banner I used a scalloped cardstock sticker and gemstones to add some interest at the top and instead of the fence I used layered cardstock stickers. I did draw inspiration from the fence. It led me to the 'playing house' photo!! I also had to alter it to fit the 8½x11 that I am trying to work on at the moment so I could only get one landscape 4x6 photo instead of 3 square photos. I promise that I looked at that sketch the whole time LOL!!!

Sketchy Thursdays ...on a Sunday?

2011-07-10T19:19:00.002-05:00

Boy oh boy am I a sucker for sketches. I don't always end up a carbon copy of the template, but they help keep me on track!! The August GDT sketch at Sketchy Thursdays was posted and it inspired me to pull out a layout I'd been avoiding. I bought some Dora supplies at Michael's a few months ago because I thought they'd work well with a photo of my daughter riding her new Dora bike. Only problem...they are all bright colors and busy prints and that is NOT something I usually feel comfortable with. Not to mention struggling to fit all of that into an 8½x11 layout because that happened to be the size I was working on for this album. This was more than a stretch from my comfort zone...I jumped right out of it and took off running the other way!

I had to stretch the sketch slightly because I am using a smaller page size than intended. So I used a single photo and used the other photo spots for embellishment elements. I also had to move my title to the top because it wasn't fitting anywhere else. The circle is slightly higher too because I was trying to give the look of the sun in the scene (with ribbon rays).

Beyond following a sketch the other requirements were that you needed to use a summer theme; Riding a bike is very summery right? Incorporate the colors red, orange or yellow; I used all three. Lastly you needed to include a journaling spot; I used journaling strips to document who gave her the bike and just how much she loved it!

Just Kate

2011-07-09T23:00:00.001-05:00

Why is it that when I start off following a sketch it always seems to take me forever to finish and be happy with a layout? Maybe because it points out all the places an element is missing so I have to find just the right 'something' to go in each spot. I always do end up liking the finished product 1000times better, so there is definitely something to it LOL! Today's layout was inpired by the Stuck On U Sketch for this week. I saw it and immediately knew I would be using it...probably many times. It incorporated all of my very favorite elements. I love using large circle elements, I love love love swirlies and a layout is never complete in my eyes without a littering of flowers (much to my son's dismay).

The solid cardstock is my very last piece of this gorgeous jewel tone red by Recollections. I'm definitely going to have to make a trip to Michael's soon!! The circle is cut from Sandylion-Poinsettia Swirl Foil, and the dotted paper is The Paper Comany-Deco White w/ gold dots. The gold swirls are cut from the Sizzix die-Flourish out of metallic open stock 8x8 paper found at Joanns. The flowers are all Prima. The gems and pearls are all from the $1 section at Joanns. The photo corners are by ScrapbookAdhesives and come in white...nothing a little Glimmer Mist in Starfish can't fix!! Of course you need to let them TOTALLY dry before removing them from the backing or they shred into oblivion. No need for all of us to learn that the hard way...hee hee. The title is a mix of scraps. The 'ME' is an epoxy sticker from a Mother's Day sheet by EK Success that I had leftover. The 'Just' is cut from the Create-a-Critter cartridge on my cricut. The sentiment actually says 'Just Chilllin' and goes with the penguin, but a little magic from my trust old scissors fixed it just perfect!

Sketchabilities #50

2011-07-02T18:16:00.000-05:00

I have been going back through my original albums that I created when I was still favoring 8½x11 and finishing up layouts that had to be completely redone. I really hate doing it, because even though it's not near my style anymore (we're talking grab a piece of cardstock, slap down over cropped photos using deco edge scissors and then litter the page with stickers) it's still part of the evolution to how I create today. Unfortunately, no one impressed the importance of ACID-FREE to me early on and the original cardstock I was using was just cheap-o stuff from office supply chains and *gasp* ELMERS GLUE STICKS!!! So of course at the very least all the pictures are becoming un-stuck, and many are fading in splotches to the point that holes are eating through the paper. If that's been happening after just 10-12 years...I can only imagine what my grandchildren will find when they someday are born to inherit my albums.

Here is a layout I did of my step-mom and my son. I followed Sketchabilities sketch #50!! I had to adapt it from a 12x12 to an 8½x11 so I went with one long photo rather than three square ones. I also ended up having to move the title to the top because there was just not enough room under without covering up my favorite element of the sketch. I LOOOVED the border shape they used so I copied it exactly in my sketch.

The background paper is craft and all of the patterned paper is cut from a single sheet of Simple Stories double sided paper. I believe it was called 'Life Documented'. It had lots of different patterns on it so I was able to get tons of individual patterned strips from it! The flowers are prima and the centers are self stick pearls by K&Company. The letters are Tim Holtz Grungeboard (not sure I've ever loved a product more than this one!!!) and sprayed with Glimmer Mist in Starfish.

Once Upon A (Birthday) Sketch

2011-07-01T18:03:00.001-05:00

I absolutely adore the sketches posted over at Once Upon a Sketch. They always inspire me to sit and create at in my scrappy space!! The current sketch is no exception. There is one small catch (isn't there always LOL) you have a journaling prompt to follow in addition to the sketch. I included 2 (or more) sentences detailing something about the birthday girl that I was scrapping.

The striped patterned paper is DCWV pink stripe. The dotted and the floral paper is a double sided sheet by Bo Bunny called Crazy Love Fudge & Flowers. The 3D FABULOUS cupcake embellie is by The Paper Studio brand La Petites, Valentines Day Cupcakes. Flowers are all prima. The title is cut from the Hannah Montana cart. That is THE best cart I've purchased. There are only a few Hannah designs. Most are cool girly cuts and several awesome fonts. The buttons are just from my stash.

More baby Allie layouts!

2011-05-24T22:41:00.001-05:00

...aaaaaand the final two layouts I've completed since Friday. I really wish I could remember what brand the paper line. I NEED to get better about that! It's all from the same line. The base paper, the 2 paper blocks and even the trees and dragon fly are cut out of a sparkly piece of cardstock that came from the same line. The letters are Thickers. I also stitched a pattern with brown embroidery floss to help anchor the trees to some sort of 'ground'. It's my very favorite picture of my little Allie-Gator on her first birthday. I loved it so much, I made it a layout all it's own rather than adding it to the 1st birthday layouts. I am adding this to the challenge this week at These are a Few of My Favorite things blog, because it is most definitely my favorite picture of her sweet little happy face!

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The other challenges I worked on were Just Us Girls color challenge to use rainbow colors and the Scrap that Baby! prompt of 'Baby's Day Out'. These were pictures were taken during our trip to Washington DC over Spring Break. We rolled Allie in her stroller onto the metro subway and she was super excited. UNTIL it took of down the track and she realized she was most certainly NOT strapped securely into her car seat and she grabbed a hold in panic! HAHA! All of the paper and embellies (even the buttons!) are Joy Ride by Cosmo Cricket. There was actually enough of this kit to make all 6 layouts about our trip with plenty to spare. YAY!

A few layouts before we lose power....

2011-05-24T22:29:00.001-05:00

We are getting severe thunderstorms tonight and the power is flickering on and off, so hopefully it doesn't kick off. I don't do well with severe weather...especially when I have no meteorologist on TV to tell me exactly what's happening. So before it clunks out on me, I want to share a few more layouts from my weekend/today.

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These photos on the first layout just absolutely crack me up. My almost toddler tried to take her Grandpa out with a plastic fork and then when he got stern with her, she acted like she was an innocent victim. Only to get THE most mischievous grin when he turned his back. Little stinker!!! The patterned paper is 'Who Me?' by Creative Imaginations. I created a ribbon tab photo matte on the photo I wanted to draw attention to. Hope it makes it stand out. This layout follows Crafty Creations Challenge #119. To use a flower, patterned paper and ribbon!

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The challenge at My Time to Craft this week is use a diecut on your project. I cut this heart from a Sizzix die. I'm not sure of the brand of the paper because I had already removed any trace of a barcode or name, but it's all the same line and the chipboard letters are from a Hobby Lobby brand set that I purchased for super cheap. It came with a sheet of letters in just about every color imaginable all in one set!

Scrappy Retreat!

2011-05-23T16:40:00.001-05:00

I was starting to think I had lost my scrappy mojo for good. Having the baby learn so many new things each day makes for some awesome photo opps of cours, but it also means less time to document it all! Gone are the days of her quietly snoozing in her swing next to my scrappy space. It's been replaced by a toddler crawling around the house at lightning speed leaving a path of destruction in her wake! HA!

This past weekend some of my scrappy friends and I got together for a weekend at the lake to do nothing but scrap in our PJs for four days straight. It was such a blast!!!! With the exception of the last 24 hours of the trip. We were just east of Joplin, MO so the storm that passed over leaving a path of destruction in it's wake passed over us about an hour later. Thank goodness there were no touchdowns AT the lake, but it did knock out cell service which scared our families back home quite a bit. The next morning on my drive home I drove through a terrible rain/hail storm and watched a tornado drop less than 100 feet out of my passenger window and take out several structures throwing debri into the roadway. I'm not entirely sure which was scarier, the tornado itself or driving down the highway at 115mph dodging debri. Certainly NOT the highlight of my trip!!!!!

Now that I'm home and safe and sound with my hubby and babies (although more severe storms are forcasted for tonight...I really am regretting our move to tornado alley about now!), I am looking over my layouts looking for a few of my favorites to share. I'll also share a few more shortly that are challenge layouts :) Thanks for looking!

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Ms. Allie finally learned to pull herself up to standing (she only waited until she was 14 months old!!!!) and then promptly started screaming bloody murder when she realized she didn't know how to get down. LOL. It took her another month to attempt it a second time!

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This is one of my very favorite photos. It's so hard to get my bigger two kiddos to sit still long enough to take a picture, much less acting like they like each other! The patterned papers are all Kelly Panacci. This set is so awesome because there are just so many coordinating papers...brown, pink and blue. The strip of pink paper was run through my Fiskars crimper that is one of my very favorite tools. The flowers are prima and the chipboard, buttons and misc embellies are all from my stash.

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Here is the baby with my mother-in-law so I wanted to go with a REALLY girly layout. The patterned paper is My Mind's Eye-Penny Lane. The flowers are all prima. The gems are by Recollections. The title is from a Paper Studio sticker sheet called 'Grandma'.

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Not sure about the patterned papers. I got them in a Halloween page kit from the now out of business Paper Poppy Kit Co, but can't remember the paper brand. The butterfly is cut from the Hannah Montana cricut cartridge and the journaling is from my new favorite tool...my embossing label maker!!!

K & Company Cards

2011-04-18T12:29:00.000-05:00

My step mommy dearest asked for me to make her an assortment of cards to give away throughout the year. She wanted simple notecards, birthday cards, just because cards, etc. So I found a K & Company pad called 'Roam' and some beachy embellies that coordinated because that is very much her style. I wanted to share 2 of my favorite with you now that she's seen them.

The paper for both is all from the stack. I used a Tim Holtz distress ink on absolutely every edge. I used a few odds and ends from my stash (pearls, buttons, green floss, and twine) as well as some cream grossgrain ribbon from Joann's. On the second card the tag actually hangs from the button so there is some dimension and movement. :) Thanks for looking.

She's ALIVE!!!!!

2011-01-31T23:16:00.000-06:00

I bet you all were starting to wonder. Well at least those of you who come by often enough to know I haven't posted in months. Things went downhill and fast around here and I became very overwhelmed. My son caught mono which in and of itself isn't terribly dangerous. One of the less common complications involve swelling of the spleen and his nearly ruptured which meant nearly a month of home schooling and doctor's until he was able to get back to 'light duty'. Then it seemed Christmas was barraling in on me and within a month my son turning 11 and the baby turning 1 (which will happen in just an hour at the stroke of midnight!!!!!). I spent so much time focusing on getting my son well and also keeping him from falling behind at school that my house fell into absolute disarray. So that has taken priority at the moment and cut into not only my crafting time, but time playing online beyond what I can do from my cell.

I am challenging myself to start somewhere and that's going to be with scrapbooking. I have missed it terribly. So I am going to try to commit to completing 2-3 layouts a month for now until things calm down and I can refocus on that 'me' time. My most amazing friend, Faye has taken over running Scrap It With a Song and has made some fabulous changes and it's well on it's way to being gloriously inspiring. I can't wait until I am back able to play along with the fun she's cooking up over there!

I have nothing crafty to share with you today, but I hope that my update sees all of you well and happy!

Under the Open Sky.....oh my

2010-11-29T15:00:00.000-06:00

This week's song at Scrap It With a Song is Lucky by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat. Such a fun song. Remember you can take the song as a whole to let it inspire you or use a portion of the lyrics to inspire the title or journaling. I used the lyrics, "under the open sky" to title a page about my kids flying a kite with my father. As you'll notice this layout is missing one key element....PHOTOGRAPHS!!! We had a tape mishap during the building of this layout that ruined the photos and with taking off this weekend for a road trip, I didn't get a chance to have a new set printed. I have gone 10 years without having to reprint photos because I screwed them up and in the past month this is the FOURTH TIME....and I did the exact same thing each time! Lesson learned?? I hope! LOL.

I used this sketch from our current DT member Liz as inspiration. I replaced the third photo with extra jounaling, but otherwise it's pretty much an exact take on it. I LOVE the banners, but have used them on so many layouts lately I tried to think of something else swoopy I could stick there and decided to stitch the tail of a kite. LOVE IT!

Our sponsor this week is our very own DT alumni, Angela! Come along and play.......

Love Story mini album

2010-11-21T22:08:00.001-06:00

I have been married to the most amazing man in the world for 12 years now. I was still a teenager when we met and didn't know the first thing about life much less what I wanted out of it, but boy did I get lucky because he is nothing short of amazing. Three kids and countless memories later we are still very much in loooovvvee! :) :) :)

I found my very first scrapbook I made 12 years ago while we were dating that I've been wanting to redo. My intention was to do a scrapbook of our meeting, dating, getting married and starting out. It was the 'old way' of scrapping and the photos were waaay over cropped and glue-stick-stuck (**SHUDDER**) down on solid cardstock and then litering the page with stickers. I absolutely hated looking at it. That and the glue was no longer sticking and the cheap-o cardstock was fading in splotches. I've refrained from redoing my son's early pages because I know it's good to document your creative growth, but considering we only have ONE photo of us together prior to getting married I really want it to be something I can cherish.

Here is the cover of our album. It has each of our Kindergarten photos. No, we didn't know each other way back then, but they were on the front page of the original album so it had to be incorporated into the new book. I also opted for a 6x6 mini because I just never ended up with enough memorabilia to make an huge album. Though I did keep every ticket stub from our weekly movies.

The letters 'L-O-V-E' are chipboard alphas sprayed with Glimmer Mist in starfish. The papers are all from the DCWV rustic stack. Even the diecuts are cut from it. I'm not sure the maker of the ticket because it came in a kit I received and didn't have the maker on it. The letter's 'it's a....story' are brown cardstock stickers by The Paper Studio. The button is just from my stash. I used the Cuttlekids flower set to cut out the leaves and the flower is a punch is by McGill. I used the 'frayed burlap' Tim Holtz distress ink on absolutely every edge. Stay tuned and this week I'll try to finish up the rest of the album to share.

I'm sharing this with the distressing challenge at Frosted Designs. I used the distress ink on all of the edging to give it the aged, distressed look.

A caardvark card to share

2010-11-07T16:44:00.000-06:00

I actually got a layout AND a card this weekend. Look at me being all productive ;) LOL! The layout will come later, but first up I want to share with you a vintage card I just finished. Not sure how well I did at following the technique, but I do like the end result. I have challenged myself this month to try things that I normally find very scary. I scraplifted the layout of the card as well as most of the color scheme (though I went with a totally different theme and embellie choice) from Kelly as part of this week's Caardvarks scraplift challenge.

My PSA of the day :)

2010-11-04T23:08:00.000-05:00

Most people know that we are 'falling back' this weekend in much of the US and saying goodbye to Daylight Savings Time. Because you should change the batteries to your smoke alarm twice a year at a minimum, this is a perfect time to remember to do that. They recommend you check the alarm is sounding monthly, but the batteries should be tossed after 6 months just to be safe.

Did you know that smoke alarms expire? They are only designed to last 7-10 years. While you have the smoke alarm down, also check the date. When you press the button and it sounds the alarm that only indicates it's getting power not that the sensor is functioning properly. If there is a date printed on the back that is the MADE ON date...replace if it was 10 or more years ago. If there is only a printed serial number and no date, it is pre-1999 and needs replaced.

We replaced ours this morning. Here in the US, basic units at Home Depot run less than $10. We went with a carbon monoxide sensor/smoke detector alarm combo and those started at $30. It's important that you have at least one on each level of your home and if you have a spread out floor plan on the level where your bedrooms are, it is a good idea to have one outside of each section that has a bedroom.
Stay Safe :)

7 days of 365 cards!!

2010-10-24T21:24:00.000-05:00

One of my favorite card challenge blogs is 365cards. Every day Sun-Sat a new challenge is posted and you have until Sunday night to share. I absolutely LOVED every challenge posted this week so I wanted to try to knock them all out. Here is what I came up with:

Sunday is sketch day at 365 cards. I also used the inspiration over at Stampin Royalty and used some fun ribbon, trim and a bow. I also followed the color challenge at Crafty Catz, black white and one other color...which was PINK, of course.

Monday's challenge was BUTTONS. I printed out a digi image of a gumball machine and then included 15 gumball buttons on my card. I also followed the sketch at Cute Card Thursday.

Tuesday's challenge is a white space challenge, which I interpreted as a solid space challenge.

Wednesday focused on one of my favorite images ever...PALM TREES!

Thursday challenges you to pick three. Three patterns, three colors and three embellies. My three patterns are the striped paper, flower paper and dotted ribbon. The three colors are black, grey and white. The three embellies are ribbon tab, ribbon tab and flower. The sketch is from Papertake Weekly.

Friday was a similar challenge....pick five. Any five items and put them on your card. My five items are striped cardstock, printed cardstock, image, sentiment and ribbon.

Last, but not least is Saturday. The challenge was to stamp an envelope to coordinate with a card. I chose a birthday card to play along with this week's Party Time Tuesday challenge and the sketch is by Lord Have Mercy! It's hard to see at the angle I photographed it at (i was trying to get all of it in one shot), but I colored the word happy and the polka dots to match the image on the card.

I MUST SHARE!!!!!

2010-10-18T21:22:00.000-05:00

Prepare to have your mind blown with awesomeness!!!! I have won two contests with Creative Scrappers over the past few months and now that I've got it all finalized and on it's way I just HAVE to share. I am so stinkin' excited I just woke up my poor hubby with my 'WAHOO!'ing. First up I got this AH-MAZING kit from Paper Poppy Kits (seriously her kits are the most wonderul pieces of greatness put together...check it out!!!):

The second bit of fabulousity I was blessed with was a gift certificate to Scrap Attack Scrapbooking. They seriously have everything you'd need and tons of stuff you won't know you need till you see it, and I bet you leave with it anyway ;) LOL! I picked up these fabulous lines:

Crate Paper - Cottage Collection

Echo Park - Life is Good

Dream Street Papers - Art Nouveau

Adornit - Vintage Groove

Holy cuteness right?!?!?!?!?! I am so excited I just can't wait to get to sit down and play. You all need to seriously skidattle right on over to Creative Scrappers and play along. They have AWESOME sketches each week and it's always tons of fun to be had. :) :) :)

Born to be WILD!

2010-10-18T02:17:00.001-05:00

If any of my babies are 'born to be wild' it's my middle child. She is a handful sometimes, but such a sweet beauty many times too. She definitely would have been more aptly named 'Karma'. LOL. This is a photo of her and my father at a the St. Louis City Museum. She convinced this poor man to trudge through multiple stories of tunnels overlooking the city's skyline....and he hung on like a champ! This title work came from this week's challenge at Scrap It With a Song. The song this week is 'Born to Be Wild' by Steppenwolf. Such a fun song...click on over to play along.

This layout also fits the following challenges:

The Pink Elephant - childhood

Christmas treat set...

2010-10-16T23:50:00.020-05:00

The challenge over at Design Dollies is to create a themed set. I got this cute little stamp that has a snowman and the sentiment says, 'hope your holiday is filled with warmth'. I thought it would be perfect for sending hot cocoa treats. So I made this card following the sketch at Stamp, Scrap & Doodle. The stamped image is hanging as a tag on the card. The matching treat bag is following the tutorial over at Project Tuesday. I cut a window in it with a Cuttlebug die of a little house and when you open it up (behind the layer of patterned paper) there is a package of hot cocoa mix and a small candy cane. I am sharing this with the YUMMY themed challenge over at Fab 'n' Funky Challenges too. What's yummier than a treat bag filled with cocoa!!

All American Girl

2010-10-14T02:07:00.011-05:00

I absolutely ADORE the sketch at Creative Scrappers this week. You really should go over and play along because it's their 125th sketch!!! The stars in the sketch inspired me to go with an Americana theme which happens to be the color inspiration over at My Time to Craft. The pic is of my daughter when my parents took the oldest two kiddos to NYC. She was standing waaaaay too close to the edge in this mommy's opinion, but really how often do people get to look over all of New York City from that high up in person??? :) This is for her memory album of the trip.

Layout catchup...

2010-10-13T00:01:00.001-05:00

I am trying to get caught up on a few layouts that have been sitting here. I wasn't happy with the way they turned out so they were sitting while I 'thought about it'. I finally am redoing some of them. So far I feel MUCH better about them :)

First up is the layout of my daughter's school Halloween party. I followed the sketch at Sketches In Thyme and the photo inspiration at Papercraft Star... and it fits the challenge at Stamp, Scrap & Doodle too.

Second up is the layout of my daughter's sixth birthday. I so love her sweet face and how excited she was at every moment of her big day so I wanted to document her smile everytime someone would sing to her or tell her 'happy birthday' or give her a package. The sketch is from Creative Genealogy.

The last layout is of baby Allie. I do love the first layout I came up with but needed a second one for another album and decided to make a brand new one. The sketch is from Stuck Sketches. The colors were inspired by the Design Dollies challenge this week and it's also fitting for the Scrap that Baby! challenge: baby parts.

TriShutter card

2010-10-12T17:09:00.000-05:00

Hi all. I just finished my first tri-shutter card. It went decidedly MUCH smoother than my swing card. I followed this tutorial I found on youtube and was able to follow along with the scoring, cutting and folding in seconds. Then all you have to do is decorate it as you'd like. It was so super de duper easy!!! And because of my pissin' and moanin' about the swing card, you can trust me to tell you the truth if it wasn't as easy as they make it look. LOL!

The sketch for the front of the card is from Our Creative Corner. I saw it and thought it'd fit perfectly for a tri-shutter card that I'd been dying to try out. The theme at Party Time Tuesdays this week is fall birthday card. Which is perfect for my aunt who's birthday falls right around Thanksgiving every year. The color scheme started from Off the Wall Craftiness. I had to use a different color for the card base because I didn't want it blending in with any of the patterned papers I chose, but when you see that it accounts for only 1/8th of an inch of trim around the edges, hopefully it still counts. Here is the photo inspiration:

So without further chattiness on my part...here is my tri-shutter card!

Scrapping Artwork

2010-10-10T23:35:00.003-05:00

My son is the resident artist of the house. He loves playing music, drawing, writing. If it's creative, he can be found doing it. Because it's something he loves so much, I thought it was important to document it in the family scrapbook. Who knows if he'll outgrow this passion, and I don't want to forget how happy it made him. So I gave him 2 4x6 pieces of white cardstock and told him he could draw whatever he wanted. He found my DCWV Nana's Kids stack and found me a few patterned papers he liked. The journaling in the upper left corner is lyrics from the song, 'Vogue' by Madonna. Which is your challenge this week over at Scrap It With a Song. We'd love to have you so click on over and play.

I have the silliest kids....EVER!

2010-10-10T19:25:00.000-05:00

One day while visiting their grandparents, we decided we needed to investigate the quiet. The assumption (and usually correct assumption at that!) was that quiet means up to no good. What were they doing? Meditating....LOL! Katie informed me that we were disrupting her 'yogurt' which I was guessing was 4 year old speak for yoga. LOL! I used sketch 124 at Creative Scrappers and also followed the challenge posted at The Pink Elephant's scrapbooking challenge to use aqua, patterned paper and an embellie of our choice.

My second layout is of my daughter, Chef Katie, who was showing off the fancy chef-gear she got for her birthday. I used Liz Qualman's sketch posted on the 3rd. LOVED the sketch so I printed it out to use again soon! My horrendous handwriting is on display on the left corner for all to see which takes care of the challenge at Frosted Designs...HAHAHA. I really hate doing it, but it's important to do every once in a while...so I oblige. :) Lastly, the challenge at All Sorts Challenge blog was to incorporate a song title. Which I do ALL the time, so this was a breeze. I used the song by Hank Williams....clicky below if you wanna have a listen to the fun song yourself! :)

Yes, a cereal box...REALLY!

2010-10-10T18:52:00.001-05:00

The challenge this week over at One Stop Craft Challenge is to alter something. Never one to let good junk go to waste if I can help it, I saved 2 Honey Combs cereal boxes from certain death in the trash can and covered them, blinged them, glued them, cut them...you name it, I did it. I just bought my new 2011 calendar last night and found it such a pain to try to go through the old calendar searching for dates like birthdays and such that had to be transferred over while weeding through the countless don't forget notes calendars fill up with when you have three kids. So my 'dates to remember' calendar was born. I decorated each page for the month and included a generic calendar that I can jot down dates on without it being a Mon, Tues, etc organized type. For the front page I printed the words 'Dates to Remember' out on vellum and layered it over 1" squares I cut from each of the calendar pages. Thanks for looking....

(click each pic to see a close up)

It's time to THINK PINK!

2010-10-09T17:28:00.000-05:00

Hey all, I'm taking a break here and there to share with you what's going on today at my scrappy table. I made this pink card in honor of breast cancer awareness month. I'm actually making several for a fundraiser craft fair. This isn't even almost all I have to share with you...so stay tuned...YAY for being productive.

I used several challenge to inspire this card coming to be. I started with the sketch at Unscripted Sketches. Day 218 of 365 Cards was to use 3 papers from the same line with no plain solids. These papers are all from the Tim Holtz idea-ology Vintage Shabby paper stack. The challenge at Raise the Bar is to create a pink card with a cancer awareness or female image. Secret Crafter's Saturday Challenge is distressing. This paper line just screams distress me. So I knew it'd be perfect. The edges are all distressed and inked with distressing ink as well.

Whoo hoo for Strawberry Shortcake

2010-10-08T23:00:00.035-05:00

This is my first attempt at a swing card. All of the tutorials I found for this idea spouted about it's super-de-duper easiness. Dirty rotten fibbers! LOL. 3 and a half hours and 4 tries later....done! Pfft! So enjoy my first and last attempt at these little buggers. I do so love this digi image though. I needed a little girls congrats card for my daughter. Since our favorite thing to read together are her Strawberry Shortcake books...I thought it was PERFECT!

Inspired by the following challenges:

The Play Date Cafe - melon, green white

The Pink Elephant - childhood

Favorite Things - fav fictional character

365 Cards - day 222 fun folds

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - digi images

A sweetcard for a sweetheart

2010-10-06T23:50:00.023-05:00

Here is a fun little card I just finished. I followed the sketch (and extra requirements) at Crafty Creations. The inside has a stamped image of a tiny hot fudge sundae. It was one of the small dollar rubber stamps at Michaels recently. The image on front is from Create With TLC. You HAVE to check it out...THE best sentiments ever...and some super cute images too. I like the simplicity of this card with solid pieces (in shades of ice cream...hee hee) that are just embossed to add a little oomph. :)

I ♥ Frank!

2010-10-05T23:38:00.000-05:00

Now before my hubby (who's name is Chuck) gets his knickers in a knot....I'll let you in on a secret. This is Frank (as in Frankenstein). He's a digi image you can buy from Bugaboo Stamps. I love him and now I may need the entire Halloween line!!! Check him out! :) The patterned paper is from Michael's. The top sheet is orange glitter paper that's embossed with the Divine Swirls Cuttlebug folder. The inside says 'I love Halloween' with a spooky font rub on. I used the Card Patterns: Sketch 84. I also am linking this up with day 219 at 365 cards. Use candy corn as your inspiration!! The colors in the patterned paper and that I used on the image are from the color challenge posted on day 220 of 365 cards :)

It's beginning to feel like FALL!

2010-10-05T00:01:00.004-05:00

I love the LOOK of fall. Even though outside it's entirely too cold for my liking. I woke up today and it was 32 degrees!!! :( I know I live in the midwest now and should be used to it, but it doesn't help that many of my friends back home can still sit on the beach today and I'm scraping frost off my windshield! Complaining out of the way, I love the way fall looks......from my front window! ;o)

When I saw the color challenge over at Color Throwdown the berry, olive and pumpkin colors screamed autumn to me!!! How very awesome that Our Creative Corner had basically the same color palette! How thoughtful of them to coordinate so well LOL! So I grabbed a sketch that would work for my papers over at Sketch Saturday and got started. The sentiment was found at DennyDavis (my goto place for layout titles and card sentiments!) and I printed it up from my own word processing program.

Home Beach Home

2010-10-04T13:03:00.006-05:00

This week at Scrap It With a Song we are scrapping along to the song 'Feels Like Home' by Chantal Kreviazuk. Absolutely GORGEOUS song. I hope you will come play along and try your hand at winning a lovely set of 8x8 digi papers from Toucan scraps. Remember you don't HAVE to use the lyrics as a whole in your project. You can use a word in your title, the over all theme, journal the lyrics, or even just let the embellies or photos display the song lyrics you choose.

On my project I chose not to use the exact lyrics from the song. I let the title inspire me to think of what feels like home to me. Without a second of further thought I am already at the beach in my mind. So here is what I created for this challenge:

The papers are both pre printed with these designs. They were scraps so I can't tell you the brand, but I assure you they were both bought recently at Joanns. The sand paper was torn at a curve to give the illusion of the waves from the underlayer of ocean paper lapping up on the shore. The palm tree and beach chair are diecuts that I received from my friend Cathie. Check out her Etsy Shop. She seriously has THE cutest embellished die cuts .... EVER! As a matter of fact, the sun came from her too with the flocked center and glittered rays. I put my sentiment on a tiny circle to be in the center of the sun. Since that is the brightest layer to the card, I thought it stood out more. :) The sun is seriously the nicest made embellie with so much detail and texture and is still for sale here.

BLOG CANDY!!!

2010-10-03T12:57:00.002-05:00

One of our previous winners at Scrap It With a Song has posted an amazing blog candy giveaway. Not only did her talent blow me away (I did run straight over and become a follower afterall!!!) but she's super sweet too! She's made some awesome projects and even very cool tutorial! So why don't you head on over and sign up to be in the running to win this yummiest of yummy prize packs and then stick around a while and look over her blog. A.W.E.S.O.M.E. :) :) :)

Pretty Little Paper Love

World Card Making Day...take 2

2010-10-02T18:42:00.004-05:00

Well you can tell the sun is setting around here because the natural light I'm using looks fine in person, but in the photo this bad boy is casting some loooong shadows. I don't want to hold off on sharing until tomorrow.....so cruddy pictures are what you get I guess. Darn my impatience! :)

This card was inspired by four challenges. The challenge at 365 Cards on Friday was the 3 'P's. Polka dots...check! Paper piecing...check (around the sentiment)! Pop dots...check (the sentiment is popped up)! The challenge at Cute Card Thursday was to use clocks or a theme of time. I printed out a digi image of a clock onto grey cardstock and voila! I used the sketch over at Unscripted Sketches as well! It's hard to tell in the pics but the ribbon is running the whole width of the card and matching ribbon is used to put little tabs off the sentiment too. :)

Happy World Card Making Day!!!

2010-10-02T16:25:00.004-05:00

I have been knee deep in layouts the past few weeks, but I couldn't miss the opportunity to sit and whip up a few cards today. After all ... it IS World Cardmaking Day! Yes there is such a thing and today is the day! :) I decided to push myself to try a few card challenges. Normally I can combine 2-3 challenges per card. I find a sketch challenge, a color challenge and then some kind of elements or theme challenge. Well this week I managed to roll SIX whopping challenges into one. WOOT! Go me! I double checked the rules and only one blog said it limited your combos to 6 total challenges....so I'm skating in just by the skin of my hide. Here is my birthday easel card along with the lists of challenges I used as inspiration. Please click around to each of them and give it a try. These are some of my fav card challenges....E.V.E.R! Most of this card (beside the ribbon, white cardstock and bling) are DCWV Sweet line.

Cupcake Craft Challenge - pink & brown

Friday Sketchers - sketch #122

Secret Crafter Saturday Challenge - easel card

The Creative Cottage - bling it on

Crafty Catz Weekly - sparkly birthday card for a kiddo

Stamp, Scrap & Doodle - open challenge

Reading rocks....

2010-09-30T21:27:00.005-05:00

I'll start by saying I love paper piecing. That said...it is NOT the technique to incorporate into a project you are mass producing! I freehanded this little guitar based on our guitar hero guitar. It's the only frame of reference I had LOL. I did simplify it greatly because #1 I was mass producing it and #2 I was cutting it relatively small. These little guitars are only 1.5 inches wide.

I started with the challenge at Fab n Funky Challenges. Using black and white and just one other color. My other color is red. The background sheet music paper was a digi image I printed out on white cardstock then matted with black cardstock to give it some weight. These are bookmarks for kids afterall! The sentiment is also computer printed from my word processing program. The ribbon is regular red grosgrain ribbon tied through a 3/16th eyelet.

A fairy special wish...

2010-09-29T19:01:00.002-05:00

Here is a card I just finished. I have come to the conclusion that I give up on stamping! No matter how many times I try....I fail!!! I however have found the PERFECT compromise.....digi stamps. I may not be able to ink evenly to save my life, but I can hit print on my computer like a pro! LOL. This is a freebee that was posted not long ago at Meljens Designs blog.

The challenge at Crafty Catz weekly is stitching and I faux stitched my butt off so works for me...hahahahaha. The Creative Cottage Challenge this week is BLING IT ON. The detail shot shows that I used Stickles to bling up the wings of the fairy, the swirlies coming off the fairy and the entire sentiment. I love the effect even if it's still not dry 2 hours later. I followed the sketch at Papertake Weekly and the color challenge posted at Off The Wall Craftiness. Here is the inspiration photo posted there:

A big ole THANK YOU!!!!

2010-09-27T21:29:00.004-05:00

The past few weeks must have been blog hop season here in scrappy blog land. Not only did my challenge blog, Scrap It With a Song have it's first ever hop, but it seems some of my very favorite challenges have been announcing them one right after the other. I actually won a few goodies that are beyond amazing, and wanted to not only share but give a big ole THANK YOU to the lovely crafters who gave us all a chance to play.

One of the fabulous DT members over at Sketchabilities, Shawn offered up this awesome prize in addition to the main blog hop prize and she picked me to receive the yummies!!! I won't lie....I saw the prize and had such goodie envy! I have never used Thickers and can't wait to try them!!!

One of my new favorite challenges is Scrap that Baby!!! Their recent blog hop was a blast. One of the DT members was offering up some fabby Maya Road goodies and I won!!! I have already used a few of these on my recent mini.

While I'm in full on WHOO HOO mode, I also have to share that I was chosen as the August winner over at Mission to Create. I entered both of their challenges that month and they picked me to receive the most SCRUMPTIOUS kit from Paper Poppy Kit Co. Check it out and drool!

Grandparent's Day

2010-09-25T02:25:00.002-05:00

Here is a set of layouts I just finished to showcase all of my favorite pictures of my kiddos with my parents. It's true that there is no love quite like a grandma and grandpa's love. I can't wait until I have grandbabies to dote over. Well, no...scratch that...I can certainly wait considering my oldest is only TEN! LOL. I followed the two page sketch over at Sketchy Thursday's this week. :)

The boy's school pic....scrapped!

2010-09-21T23:03:00.004-05:00

I am so bad about remembering to scrap portraits we have taken. So I decided to sit and scrap my son's 5th grade school pic before it lost in the shuffle. I just picked up all of these papers from Michaels last week and I loved that they were a little grungier and more grown up looking since this is his first year in middle school.

This kid came home with his pics and with a totally bummed look said, "You are sooo going to think these are the stupidest pictures. If you want me to take them back I can, I don't even know WHAT was up with my smile." I pulled them out expecting him to have boogers hanging out or food in his teeth or SOMETHING with that set up. What was he thinking??? These have got to the best school pictures he's ever taken....EVER! Maybe he just wanted reassurance, so that's what he got because he seems totally happy with them after I told him that :)

I am sharing this with Scrap That Poetry that has a school themed poem up this week. The Pink Elephant also had a Back to School theme running. Then we have Practical Scrappers that is asking for school related project inspiration this month. How kind of them to get together and coordinate their themes. LOL!!!!!

She's FOUR

2010-09-20T23:39:00.001-05:00

I have been working on my older daughter's individual album this week. Here is the two page spread for the year she was four. Nearly every bit of these are made with We R Memory Keepers White Out Collection - Promenade. The flowers, dies, papers, #4, etc are cut from the paper. So sorry for the crummy photography. I've learned the trick is to take the pic outside in natural light, and I'm still laid up with a horrible sinus infection that's morphed into an ear infection and going outside would mean getting out of my fuzzy flannel PJs that have become my best friends! LOL. When Katie turned four she was all about her Grandparents. That was when she finally forged the indepence to want to go and stay with them for longer than a few hours at a time. So I tried to focus on pics of her with each set :)

For this first layout I followed Creative Scrappers Sketch #120. I was a little nervous when I saw the sketch, because it didn't scream girly and those are the kinds of projects I'm working on....but I think I made it my own. :)

This second layout is being linked up to Scrap That Baby's prompt, Grandparents Day!

My Little Wonders

2010-09-20T00:01:00.003-05:00

This week at Scrap It With a song we are continuing with our children's movie theme songs month. We are scrappin' along with Meet The Robinson's for this song. The song is 'Little Wonders' by Rob Thomas. It is an awesome song and a very awesome movie that I highly recommend. For this week I chose to make a mini album. I thought the song fit so wonderfully for a mini I'd been thinkin' up to share my favorite pics of my kiddos. I have those pics all selected, but not printed yet...so just imagine their smiley faces in each spot LOL. I displayed a lyric line from the chorus on each page in order with the cover showing my favorite line.

I still have lots of work left to do to it to be happy. Well, maybe not LOTS, but photos would help. LOL. I also need to figure out what I am going to put along the rings. In my last mini I created I used a ton of fiber and ribbon and it was easy to find because the paper had so many colors to choose from. This album was basically all pink, blue and greyish brown. All of the embellishments were made from this Tim Holtz Vintage Shabby paper stack. In fact the only thing I used that's not is the pink velvety ribbon on two pages and the rhinestones. Even the flowers were made from the patterned paper! Oh, and the photo mats are all solid cardstock because I couldn't bare to use this awesome paper for something that was going to be covered up. LOL

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Our lives are made ----- in these small hours

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These little wonders ----- These twists and turns of fate

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Time falls away ----- but these small hours

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still remain.

If you'd like to give this week's song a go you can let it inspire you to create whatever floats your crafty boat. Cards, layouts, minis, altered items, the skies the limit. Head on over to Scrap It With a Song to give it a try.

Scrap It With a Song reminder

2010-09-18T23:45:00.004-05:00

Hey everyone. Just a reminder that you still have 5+ hours to enter the Scrap It With a Song challenge. Normally the challenge closes at noon, but since we got a late start last Monday you have until Midnight (EST). If you look at the challenge page it shows a countdown for you on the link app. The winner from this week will receive a yummy assortment of primas!! You are free to create a layout, card, or anything else your crafty self is inspired to make.

Upside Down Challenge

I actually ended up making two projects. I almost always scrap each even twice. Once for my digi album and once for my paper/scissors album. First is the layout listed under the DT examples, my digi layout showcasing all of my fav photos. In the paper layout I had to make (2) 2pagers to fit them all, so I'm only showing the one that I incorporated the challenge on.

A little birdie told me....

2010-09-18T21:20:00.006-05:00

That is the sentiment on the inside of this card. If only I'd had the forthought to actually photograph THAT?!?!?! LOL. I didn't have a stamp so I printed it on my computer and matted it in green and placed it in the middle of the inside. The outside features almost all different brands of supplies. The birdie is cut from a piece of Sassafrass patterned paper, the clouds' brand escapes me. I could tell you exactly which aisle in BFE Kansas' Michael's you can find it if that helps LMBO! The yellow sparkly paper is Core Couture. The ribbon is from Target's dollar spot. I handstitched the border on the sun, which was a big ole pain in the butt. I broke two needles and may have lost a pint of blood. No one can say that cardstock isn't sturdy!!! HAHA!

I followed the sketch posted at over at Lord Have Mercy! I flipped it 90° and chose a cut out embellie over the square shaped image element, but I hope it's obvious I followed the sketch. I promise I started with it. LOL. The challenge at Cute Card Thursday is tweet&flutter. I went with the tweet end and used a birdie. I'm also posting this over at The Secret Crafter since it's my favorite card I've made this week. :) The stitching qualifies it for the challenge at Stampin' Royalty. Thanks for looking....

Two new LOs

2010-09-18T20:19:00.006-05:00

I have been working on my middle daughter's individual album. I'm creating one for each of my three kiddos that include a 2page layout for each year of heir life. Here is what I just finished. It uses all paper from my new very favorite paper stack. Tim Holtz idea-ology Vintage Shabby. I even distressed the edges of the papers that layered which is sooooo not something I've ever been comfortable doing. But figured #1 the paper says vintage so I should at least try and #2 I have a whole stack if I screw up LMBO.

First up is a two pager I made for when she was two. I love that she was such a smiley baby girl. We totally skipped right over the terrible twos. Of course, we are smack dab into the smart@$$ sixes!! LMBO The second page of the layout follows the Practical Scrappers sketch posted this week and the Off The Wall Craftiness Color Challenge. I only am entering the second page, because on the first page I incorporated a bit of blue. We were to use this photo for inspiration:

YUMMY!

2010-09-15T16:03:00.001-05:00

I knew there was a reason she was my favorite cousin-in-law! Megan never ceases to crack me up with her musings. A few days ago she posted this OH SO YUMMY bloggity bling and shared it with me. First you have to tell your readers ten things you really REALLY like and then share it with 10 of your favorite bloggin' peeps.

10 things I looooove:

Twix PB - Considering I don't much care for actual peanut butter, it's a little odd that I could eat my weight in Twix PB and Reese's!
My kiddos - Not only do I love them because they are my kiddos, they are hands down the coolest people I know and I love filling my days with time spent with them. They never cease to entertain.
Scrapbooking - Clearly we aren't here to discuss knitting....this is a scrappy blog after all! LOL
Facebookin' - I should be ashamed by how much time I, a grown woman, spend on FB and FB mobile. Even worse, I can almost always be found spying on my farm making sure all my livestock and crops are behaving. :)
Shopping - It can be the mall, online, Target or an outlet. I don't even need to buy a lot....I just love walking the aisles and checking out all the new stuff around. This excitement is greatly increased when we are talking about a scrappy store.
My family - I have the best family. We laugh, we have a great time and most importantly...we are there for each other. They rock.
The beach - Just blend me something that requires an umbrella in the glass and I could lounge on the beach all day, every day. Not the easiest of tasks when I live in Kansas, but being a Florida girl for so many years, I am always itching to make our vacation a sandy one.
My cell phone - After I had Allie, my sweet sweet hubby bought me the new HTC Touch Pro2. To say this little 'thanks for giving birth to my 10lb baby present' made my day is an understatement. I never have this thing more than a arms reach away because it's my lifeline to those I love.
My friends - I have some of the most awesome friends ever.....EVER!
Organizing - More than the position of BEING organized, I absolutely am in my happiest place when I'm actively organizing something. On a regular basis I rearrange all my furniture or the kitchen cabinets. Mostly because my husband has kindly requested I stop rearranging his socks/underwear/PJs drawers LOL!

Now on to the tough part. Picking 10 of you lovely bloggers to share this blingy bit of awesome. I always try to pick a new list of 10, so this time I'll tag the last 10 blogs I visited:

Megan (obviously, since she's the girly I got this from LOL)
Holley - Holley's Blog
Beatriz - Amazing Grace
Tina - Bits and Scraps of My Life
Kristie - Kreated by Kristie
Denise - Lala's World
Laurel - Laurel's Crafty Retreat
Julie - life with the Tucker and Wolek clan
Ana - My Scrapbook Addiction
Liz - The Scrappiest

If you've been tagged and would like to share in a post or your sidebar, just right click and save to your heart's content. :)

Thanks for hoppin' with me!!!

2010-09-13T13:42:00.002-05:00

I had so much fun with last week's blog hop! I hope you ladies got to enjoy it too! Did anyone have a chance to see the awards show we were celebrating?!?!?! I missed it, but luckily MTV will play it 25 more time before Christmas, so lots of chances to catch up! LOL. I had a wonderful vacation (albeit too short IMO) followed by a HORRENDOUS commute home, but I'm here and that's what counts right??

On my stop on your scrappy train you were promised a collection of Primas and that's just what you're getting. Well one lucky winner will, that is! That lady who will be swimming in flowery yumminess is:

KELLY MASSMAN!!!

Please email me at chuckandchristina(at)yahoo(dot)com and I will get your goodies all together for you. Congrats!!!

Scrap It With a Song BLOG HOP!!!!!

2010-09-08T09:00:00.004-05:00

**THIS CONTEST IS CLOSED**

see the winner here

This weekend MTV will be throwing their annual bash to honor the greatest and latest musicians to rock our airwaves and to celebrate that we are having our first ever Scrap It With a Song BLOG HOP!!! Stick with us as we pop in and out of each DTs blog and see what karaoke hour has to offer in their corner of blogdom. We'll be rocking out to some of our favorite musicians of all time. Some of us are even offering goodies to our fabulous readers in addition to the prize available on the main blog. If you found me first, then you need to go to Scrap It With a Song to get started.

First off I want to share my project for this week's challenge. The song is "You'll Be In My Heart" by Phil Collins. You'll need to create a new project (it can be a card, layout or altered project) following the lyric challenge posted HERE to be in the running for the main prize of the bloghop. Here is my layout:

Now onto the bloghop fun!! I have several artists in my list of favorites of all time. The list is almost embarrasing in it's randomness, but that's ME! My top 5 artists/groups are Linkin Park, Paramore, Journey, Michael Jackson, New Kids on the Block (yes...I went there HAHAHAHA) and because I can't stop at 5...The Rolling Stones. I chose Journey for this special project because they are a group I grew up listening to. I have so many great memories tied to their music so letting them inspire a project was easy. Before you check out the project why don't you click play and sing along with me.

In addition to the adorable mini album kit the main blog is giving away, I have a special prize in store for you too! A fun collection of primas. To win these, all you have to do is comment on this post and tell me YOUR favorite artist of all time. The winner will be chosen at random Sunday night.

Your next stop on the blog hop is Liz so click along to her blog and see what musician inspires her!

My Wish For Allie

2010-09-08T02:49:00.003-05:00

I absolutely adore the new challenge I found called Scrap That Baby. What a fun concept and perfect considering I just had a baby! The prompt this week is to create a top 10 list. I made a list of 10 wishes for Allie. I followed an AWESOME sketch from Liz Qualman that you just HAVE to check out. I am trying to learn to do the flourish/flower look and this sketch pushed me to try it....and I ended up with my favorite layout I've made in a LOOOOONNNGG time! Her sketch calls for 3 long photos, but I used one tall in it's place....hope that doesn't ruin the look, 'cause I like it! ;)

So while this layout ended up in my top 5 favs of all time, it was also almost the death of me!!! LMBO! I have come to the conclusion that I hate handwritten journaling. I normally print it on the computer, but have been trying to handwrite the more personal journaling for memory creating purposes. I hate my handwriting and after writing that long list out, and rewriting it multiple times when I screwed up, I have a very sore wrist still hours later.

Add to that the fact that I spent almost an HOUR freehanding that stinkin' butterfly! That's why I ended up with only one when I'd planned to do a small and a big. I have a butterfly die but it's the Cuttlebug 2step butterfly and it's just a little too bubbly looking for the type I was going for. I wanted a more realistic look.....of course I cut it out of pink glitter paper so I shot that all to heck! LOL...Maybe I should say I wanted a realistic SHAPED butterfly. I wanted one that ended up about 1.5 inches. Anyone have any ideas on who makes a die similar to the one I freehanded???

Well, without further ado.....here is my wish for Allie in a layout:

In a card making state of mind

2010-09-07T17:02:00.003-05:00

I am still in full on crafty mode. I've gotten 25 layouts and 10 cards done since Friday night! WOOT....GO ME! :) Here are two cards I just finished for a few challenges.

First up is the challenge at Raise the Bar. I had to use my blog colors in a project. I used pink, teal, black and white. The pink photographed way darker than it is, but it's pink. :) I followed this sketch at Practical Scrappers. It's also all blinged out for the jewel challenge at My Time to Craft.

The second card follows sketch #71 at Unscripted Sketches. I also used the colors in the photo inspiration posted at Off The Wall Craftiness.

Alright my crafty peeps...I'm off to create some more. I think I'm gravitating towards a layout state of mind as we speak! :) Stay tuned later....I may have some more to share, and tomorrow I will DEFINITELY have an awesome post to share!!! :)

a bookmark and a layout

2010-09-06T22:54:00.004-05:00

After a looooooong holiday weekend I am feeling the joy of back to school all over again. Okay, so they were only home for 3 days, but the older two are bickering like crazy. Tonight I ended up locking myself in my scrappy room for an hour eating a yummy cherry chip cake (well a piece of it anyway) and then decided to make work on a few back to school projects to envision the light at the end of the Labor Day tunnel. LOL.

First up is a layout I made from the photo of my older two the morning of the first day of school. Allsorts challenge this week is 'new beginnings' and I thought starting a new school year was definitely a beginning! :) I also used the Stuck sketch posted on the 1st. I used a piece of my daughters actual lined handwriting paper for the top part of the title and the long strip. The 'ABC' strip is twill that's printed on...how cool is that?? :) The photo actually opens up like a little book to show pics of them individually. The embellies of the left are actually 3D little pieces. The notebook even has a real itty bitty spiral ....CUTE!!!!

Next up is a back to school Goodie I just made for my son. Yes, they've been in almost a month, but he didn't notice that I just made it, so it's all groovy. It fits three different challenges. Cupcake Craft Challenges: Books and Stories and Crazy 4 Challenges: Book related. The ABCs on it also work for the Our Creative Corner Challenge this week.

After finishing the second project, I decided to unlock the door and try to make sure my hubby wasn't sitting eating his piece of cake while the kids were duct taped to the wall. He had them all bathed, snuggled up and ready for bed. GO HUBBY! :)

It's all about the shoes...

2010-09-05T20:42:00.004-05:00

I have been busy scrapping away the day and totally blanked on announcing the winner of week 20 at Scrap It With a Song. I'll get that up tonight after the kiddies go to bed. Make sure you stay tuned to Wednesday when we have a very special post planned.

In the meantime....here is a little bit of scrappy fun to eyeball while you wait. My take on Creative Scrappers: Sketch 119. The title says, 'It's all about the SHOES" and the journaling says, "Noni bought me my 1st pair of Converse, and in PINK! Now to get Pappy (I screwed up the journaling I just noticed and need to fix that!!! LOL) to buy the matching pink socks." Then under the pic of Allie talking to her Grandpa it says, "Pappy Puh-leeze!"

It also totally fits the challenge at The Pink Elephant this week. To scrap with your favorite color and embellishment. Well pink and yellow are my favorite colors, but as much as I love yellow I almost never use it beyond coloring in my daughter's coloring book LOL. So this layout is all pink. My fav embellishment these days is ribbon. I don't often get the opportunity to use ribbon in a layout....so YAY :)

Happy Birthday.......card :)

2010-09-05T11:30:00.006-05:00

A friend of mine is running this fantastic challenge blog called Party Time Tuesdays. Each week there is a new challenge, but the catch is it has to be a birthday card! How fun, right?? I am slipping in for their last challenge before break...they are taking the rest of September off. This week's challenge was to use brads. You are also supposed to include some sort of sentiment that makes it obvious that it's a birthday card. I think we've all learned the lesson that I am a rotten stamper, so I used birthday paper that says, "Happy Birthday" all over it. Hope that counts.

The paper is all scraps from my stash as are the brads. The yummy cuppy-cake was freehanded. I just cut out a.......hmm maybe I should have been paying attention to geometry in HS and not the boys ;)......shape?? and ran it through my Fiskars crimper. Then I freehanded a muffin top shape and inked the edges to make it look toasty and added it to the top. It's all popped up with dimmentionals. I cut a little cherry out of red sugardust paper and the stem is a piece of green wire taped on the back. I actually made three of these. One for a swap and two to keep should I need a birthday card :) The sketch I followed is this week's OCC Sketch :)

Scrappin' my life away

2010-09-04T17:51:00.002-05:00

I have been scrapping with very little breaks (mostly only to pee and I did pass out snuggled up to the baby for about 5 hours) since yesterday evening and I am getting sooo much accomplished. Yay for holiday weekends. Here are two layouts I just finished.

The first is following a PageMaps sketch.

The second is a layout of my daughter making brownies 99% by herself for the first time.

It's a mini!!!

2010-09-02T20:08:00.003-05:00

Hi my crafty peeps! I just finished a mini album that I wanted to share with you all. All the details are in the video. It's my first ever scrappy video so bare with me. I WILL get the hang of it LOL. On the bright side since I talk way too fast all the time, the video goes relatively quickly! On another side note, I didn't think it would be obvious that I was sucking on a cough drop, but once I listened to the video...I was dropping those 's' pretty hard. LOL I tried to detail as much as I could about the supplies I used. I know when I am reading about finished projects I hate seeing something amazing I want to try and have no clue where to start to find the right goodies. :)

I took into consideration the following challenges when I created my mini album cover:

Cute Card Thursday - Material Girl
(used lace and velvet)

Fab 'n' Funky Challenges - Material World
(again, the lace and velvet)

The Creative Cottage - Celebrations
(celebrating a new baby)

I ♥ K&Company

2010-08-31T17:17:00.002-05:00

The challenge over at These Are a Few of My Favorite Things this week is to focus on our favorite manufacturer. After getting the word from Ms. Julie herself, I went with creating a layout using patterned paper all from my favorite line at the moment. Now, I am a rather fickle person when it comes to styles. Right now I seem to be gravitating towards themeless patterned papers and LOTS of them. One thing I love about this brand is that you can usually pick up 3-6 papers that all coordinate perfectly together to layer in a single project. My favorite papers of theirs are the distressed looking prints. This line is called 'Addison'.

My title is a quote I found that reminds me so much of my son. "Each time we face our fear, we gain strength, courage and confidence in the doing." He is afraid of everything including his own shadow. I try to nudge him into trying new things, but usually he just feels more comfortable sticking with the things that are tried and true. The words 'strength', 'courage', and 'confidence' are cut from a Sizzix die and I found that they blended too much so I used a ivory gel pen to add some faux stitching. It doesn't show well in the photo, but in person it pops them very well.

The ribbon is pleated and tucked behind a pocket I received in a swap so I don't really have any details on that. It is popped up with dimentionals so that a bit of hidden journaling could be tucked away. Inside reads, "You always had a fear of getting hurt. You often let it stop you from exploring new things. When you climbed this rock because everyone else was, you fell and scraped up your knee pretty badly. More important than anything else, you learned that the pain went away much faster than the memory of the climb! -June 2010-