Pssssst.....

I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, but....okay, I can't take it anymore....TOOT TOOT TOOOOOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!!!!  Please clicky on over to the ScrapFIT challenge blog today to see my feature.  It was such an honor to have my Ms. Money Bags layout picked as a fav over there, and it was even more awesome when they told me I'd get to have a whole feature posted over there.  I did THE most embarrassing whoohoo-dance, in the middle of my car dealer's service department no less.  Hee hee.  So please click over and take a look:

ScrapFIT

Thanks for visiting!

♥

Mom-Mobile

Boy, I never thought I'd see the day that I was excited to trade in my vroom vroom car for a minivan, but after baby #3 (yeah she's 2 now...I should probably stop calling her 'the baby' huh?) it was undeniable that my sedan wasn't gonna cut it!  Sure there were technically enough seatbelts for all 5 of us, but that didn't mean we were almost fitting.  And frankly, if I had to listen to one more brawl break out over someone 'looking at' someone too long, I was going to lose it.  Finally after a few months of shopping we found the minivan that would work perfect for us, with all the right bells and whistles.  The kids call it my 'mom-mobile'.

The layout follows sketch #13 posted over at My Scrap & More .  I really love the big circle element!! I rotated the sketch a tiny bit to an angle though!  I'm kinda thinking about switching the teal letters to white.  I didn't want them to stand out more than the black ones so I thought that would work, but the more I look at them, the more they blend too much. The other challenge that inspired this layout was Lasting Memories #124 - Borderline.  The paper set I used came with a sheet of die cut borders that I layered a few just below my photo.

Thanks for visiting!

♥

Gratitude Journals!!

Time for another installment of Anything But a Card challenges!!  This week we are working with the theme of 'TIE IT UP'.  Twine, ribbon, jute, fibers...etc.  For my project, I used twine in several places including to tie a fun charm on the binding!

I'm not sure if I had a chance to 'WHOO HOO!!!' all over my blog that I won one of the big prize packs over at Frosted Designs 12 days of Christmas challenge.  I was so excited when the first of the awesome sponsored prizes showed up at my door!  It was this AMAZING paper set complete with kick-booty Thickers by Amy Tangerine.

The colors are just so bright and fun and as soon as I unwrapped them, I just knew they would be perfect for a layout featuring my middle kiddo.  She is a bright, funky, quirky, fun, ball of sunshine for sure!  Then when one of my dear friends challenged her FB friends to try a gratitude journal together, I had an 'A-HA!' moment!  I thought, what better project for these papers than to sit down WITH my daughter and create gratitude journals together that we can fill out throughout the year.

I've been trying so hard to share with my kiddos a revelation I had this time last year.  We have several people in our lives that just always seem to be unhappy.  I know we all have hardships that seem insurmountable sometimes, but there has to be something to the fact that sometimes people who have it all still manage to be walking around in a daze of sorrow and others have lost everything but still manage to find something to smile about.  I think it all comes down to prospective and focus.  You can choose to dwell on the bad and let it overshadow the silver lining, or you can choose revel in the sunshine peeking through the dark clouds.  You can't control what happens in life sometimes, but you can ALWAYS control how you let it affect you.  Such an important lesson to teach them even at a young age, because it will likely shape the way the have relationships for the rest of their lives! 

Here is are 2 pics of my busy little scrappin' bee hard at work on her journal:

And the finished product.  My book is on the left and hers is on the right.  She's almost as sleepy as she is proud I think...we were hard at work for about 4 hours!  These bad boys are filled with over 50 pieces of fun patterned papers that we can journal on, adhere pics or momentos, etc.  Like our own funky smash books but with a focus on finding the beauty and happiness in every day. 

I'm also sharing this project with AllSorts 'Flower Power' challenge

Thanks for visiting!

♥