The Paper Doll

Finally Getting Around to It!

2012-03-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

This has been a weird week! Up until today, I just haven't really felt like doing anything...including working on any of my layouts (I know...horror, right??!!)!! I think sometimes, that I just let myself get too overwhelmed with things and then I just STOP! Apparently this has been one of those times. But today, I had my Thursday morning Bible Study with other SAHM moms and some of the other Ladies in our church, who don't work. When we came home, we had lunch, then I got the kids down for their naps (my favorite part of the day)...and then I started cleaning!! I got the kitchen mopped...which is a rare event around here. It's really one of those things that I think, "what's the point", because in 5 minutes, somebody's gonna spill juice on it, drop food all over it, or who knows what else. But needless to say, it is at least clean for the moment! :) I also got several baskets of laundry folded, cleaned the bathroom (another area I usually try to avoid) and vacuumed! And then...supper started!! WHEW! It makes me all tired again, just thinking about it! :)

With all of that said, I am finally getting around to posting my layout for Card Sketch #17 at Sketch Support!! True, I could have had it ready to post this morning by setting up my Auto-Post, but that was just another one of those things I wasn't motivated to do!! :) But I really enjoyed using this sketch, because I think it's fun to take the Card Sketches and turn them into layouts. Here's what I did:

I played with some of the yummy Simple Stories papers on this one and kept my embellies pretty simple. I added some buttons, brads, and a few stamped images. We love to visit New Orleans and even with all of the delicious restaurants located there, I always love stopping at Bubba Gumps. We went over the weekend before Valentine's Day and I ordered their Barbecue Shrimp and it was so, so delicious! Of course, I had to snap a pic of my plate before I dug in!!

I hope you will stop by Sketch Support and check out what the Team has been doing this week! There are some amazing cards and today's post features all layouts, based on the Card Sketch. And I am happy to say that after feeling like most of my week has been wasted this week, I feel very accomplished after my busy day today. And I get to go to our monthly Craft Night tomorrow night, so I can get caught up on all of those pages, I was too lazy to create this week!! :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper & Stickers: Simple Stories
Buttons: Basic Grey
Brads: The Paper Studio
Ink: Stampin' Up
Acrylic Stamp: Close to My Heart
Paper Crimper: Fiskars

Back in the Day

2012-03-06T07:43:00.000-08:00

It's not very often, that I do a page that isn't related to my children. But for the March/April Issue Challenge #1 at Club CK, I decided to use some photos of me and my sister from back in the 80's. The challenge, was to create a layout highlighting a special friendship. My sister and I are 4 years apart in age, and we definitely had our share of fun, but we also had some major fights too. But that's what sisters are for, right? Now that we are adults, we enjoy a great friendship...and don't have to worry about the fights anymore!! :)

I used Crate Paper's Restoration collection on this page. It worked really well with the older photos and I wanted to create a girly feel, since the page was about sisters. I fussy cut all of the flowers and added some pop dots under a few, to give it more dimension. The photos were polaroids and I just scanned them and turned them black and white. I finished the page off, by adding a stitched border around the edge. I always like the little bit of texture that stitching adds to a layout!!

Products Used:

Patterned Paper & Stickers: Crate Paper
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers & Pom Pom Trim: October Afternoon
Font: Hypewriter
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Brads: The Paper Studio
Other: Buttons

Lemonade Mouth

2012-03-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

I have been playing along with the challenges at CSI, since their second case file was posted and I have to say that the color scheme for Case File #8 has been my MOST favorite yet!! The minute I saw it, I knew what photos I wanted to use, what the theme of my page would be, and what papers I would use! It all came together in my head...it's just taken me this long to actually have time to sit down and do it!! :)

I took these photos at lunch, because we have never been able to get our son to drink from a straw, even though his is 2 1/2!! He is a sippy cup kid all the way. Well, we decided to try it with the Lemonade and see how things went. To our surprise he picked it up right away and loved drinking from the straw! Unfortunately for me and hubby, we had to take turns holding the cup, because he didn't want to stop drinking from it!! :)

For the evidence portion of my page, I used stars and transparent embellishments. I had some of the transparent buttons, that I added as accents to the hexagon pattern. I journaled from the "Star of the Show" perspective since this page was about my son and the first time he used a straw. We were all very entertained by this...especially Nana and Big Daddy (grandparents), who think everything that the kids do, is amazingly wonderful!! :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye
Ink: Close to My Heart
Buttons: Michael's
Thickers: American Crafts
Tiny Type Numbers: Cosmo Cricket
Font: Arial Black
Pen/Marker: Sharpie & Cricut Colors
Other: Bubble Wrap & Buttons

What's Your Number?

2012-03-01T22:01:00.001-08:00

Do you ever think about incorporating numbers into your layouts or projects? I'm sure most of us do, by adding the date to our pages, but what about making them a more prominent part of your project? If you want to be challenged to use Numbers, then come join us for Fabulous Friday this week at Frosted Designs!! Our DT has some amazing inspiration to share with you this week and we also have introductions for the new Team Members, who will be joining us for this term. You will definitely want to come check it out.

I had the "Project" assignment for this week's challenge...which basically means creating something other than a layout. Now, I usually don't branch out much from my layouts...that is where most of my energy is focused, but I used this challenge to create an Altered Journal for the Thanks Living challenge that I am participating in at Club CK. This is just one of the regular Composition books that you can get in the school supplies section at most stores. I used Pink Paislee's Daily Junque collection to alter my notebook. I applied Mod Podge to the cover of the notebook and layered over it with my paper. I used my craft knife to go around the edge of the notebook and cut off the excess paper. I continued layering my paper and embellies with my Mod Podge, until I reached my desired look. The numbers I used, were just fussy cut from one of the Pink Paislee papers.

Here are a few other fun suggestions for using numbers on your layouts or projects:

1. Die cut or hand cut a large number to represent the age of a child on your layout.

2. Create a lace background (or you could purchase pre-cut lace paper), by using a computer program and welding your numbers together and cutting it out with your die cut machine.

3. Create a list for your journaling and add large numbers to count off each of your sentences.

We have a great sponsor this week, Graphic 45. Don't miss your chance to play along and win an incredible prize or be featured as one of our Top 3!!

Products Used:

Patterned Paper & Stickers: Pink Paislee
Mini Market Stickers & Sprinklers: October Afternoon
Font: CK Lala
Pearls: Recollections
Flower: Prima
Button: Michael's
Other: Lace Trim & Mod Podge

Sketch It Out

2012-03-01T12:19:00.000-08:00

Welcome to March everyone! I know we always say this about every month, but how unbelievable is it that we've already reached the 3rd month of 2012??!! I have had time to join in a few new challenges lately hosted by fellow Scrapbookers and this week, the idea popped in my head..."why not host my own challenge?". Club CK has been such a fun place to hang out over the past couple of years. There is tons of inspiration, great friends, and a lot of fun challenges hosted by CK and by the members of the board (aka Peeps). There is an array of challenges hosted by Peeps on the Creative Challenges board, and while we've had Sketch challenges here and there, we've never actually had a set challenge. Since I have started designing some sketches recently, I thought it would be fun to host a monthly Sketch Challenge at the Club and offer a small RAK at the end of the month to a random winner, from the participants in the challenge. The challenge is called Sketch It Out!

Well, today kicked off our first challenge and I have a sketch posted, as well as a little twist that you can incorporate into your page. Here is the sketch I chose for the month of March and my sample layout (which I posted earlier for one of the challenges during the Bella Blvd. week of challenges):

I actually did the layout first and then created the sketch from my page...that is why the two resemble one another so much!! :)

Along with the sketch, I am also adding a little twist to the challenge. Here is our TWIST for this month: Use hexagon(s), chevron, or wood grain on your layout. The easiest way to do this is with patterned paper. If you don't have any patterned paper with any of those patterns you could create your own hexagons or chevron with your Die Cutting machine or by hand cutting. A fun idea I found a while back for wood grain, is to take one of the soft baby brushes and add some paint to the bristles. Then drag it lightly across your paper. It creates a really cool wihte-washed look. If you feel you don't have any of these things in your stash and just can't get anything created, don't miss out on the challenge...you can still play along no matter what!!

I hope you will take time to come play along...the challenge will be open starting today until March 31! To be eligible to have your name in the random drawing, you must post a photo of your layout in the Creative Challenges Forum at Club CK. You can find the thread HERE. If you haven't had an opportunity to check out Club CK, then head over there ASAP! You can set up a FREE membership and get involved in a ton of all kinds of scrapbooking fun!!

A Great Giveaway

2012-02-29T07:45:00.000-08:00

My friend Tina is having an amazing giveaway on her Blog!! She has cleaned out her scrap room and let me just tell you, it is a haul of awesome goodies!! If you would like to be entered for the chance to win, head over and check out her post HERE. Now I will have to say, if one of you win, I expect some share the love with all of those goodies, since I sent you over!! HA! :) JK! Good luck everyone...but I am crossing my fingers that she picks my name for this one!! :)

Mmmmmm....MME!

2012-02-25T11:37:00.001-08:00

Has there ever been one of THOSE lines that come out, that you just have to have, like yesterday? Well, for me the new MME lines that came out at Winter CHA were a MUST-HAVE! I have been drooling over them for months now! So, when they finally came in at my LSS...well, let's just say I was about to burst with excitement! Now on to the damage...I purchased $70 worth of the new lines!! YIKES! I know that sounds bad, but I do get a 20% discount for being on the DT, which brought it down to $55. Then I fortunately had $25 in store credit for some items I had sold in consignment, so luckily, I made it out with only paying $30 out of pocket for a bag full of amazing goodies!

So far, I have created two pages with these lovely products. The first, I can't show until later in March, because it is one of my DT pages for Sketch Support. But I can share the one I created yesterday for Case File #7 at CSI. It's a mix of On the Bright Side and some of the Mrs. Caroline.

I kept looking at this color scheme all week, thinking how in the world am I going to use this? But once I decided to use the red as the dominant color, everything else feel into place. I incorporated smaller amounts of the pink and purple, by using purple baker's twine and pink in the honeycomb shapes and for the butterfly. The evidence and testimony worked perfectly with the theme of my photo and layout. I chose distressing, wood or woodgrain, and stripes for my evidence and for the testimony, I used the inspiration word "root" for my journaling.

So now that I have solved Case File #7, I am REALLY looking forward to "cracking" Case File #8, which was posted last night! It has an AWESOME color scheme and I must say that I am happily delighted...because there is no Purple in this week's color scheme!! :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper, Brads, Journal Card, Wood Die-Cut: My Mind's Eye
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Ink: Memento
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Thickers: American Crafts
Pen: Zig Memory System

I Did It!

2012-02-24T12:58:00.001-08:00

I set out this week, to complete all of the daily challenges going on at Bella Blvd. And now I am happy to say I accomplished my goal. Although, today started out a little bit "iffy", because we were up with our youngest last night until around 3:30AM. Seems to be that he contracted a tummy virus from someone at church yesterday...those are the times that I can say, it's definitely not okay to share!! :) He is still not feeling great today...cranky, tired, doesn't want to eat, and still running a little fever, but hopefully it is only a 24 hour virus.

Now, back to my layout!! Today's challenge, was to use punched circles. I love using my circle punches on my layouts, and I actually used it on my layout for yesterday's challenge, before I even knew what today's was!! :) So for this page, I used my 1 inch punch to create the chevron, scalloped border across my page and for the large flower. I punched a total of thirteen, 1 inch circles and layered them around the base of a 2 inch circle. Then I used my 1/4 inch punch for the smaller circles in the center of the flower.

I always think it's fun when you can take a paper line and use it out of context, which is what I did for this layout. I used Bella's Spring Flings and Easter Things, which obviously from the name, you can gather that the line focuses on Spring and Easter. But I thought the papers coordinated well with these funny photos of our daughters trying on all of the Mardi Gras hats in Party City, so I decided to pair the line with these photos. Mardi Gras colors are Green, Yellow, and Purple and each of these colors are represented on the page, but it doesn't come off as a "Mardi Gras" layout, which is what I was going for on this one.

Well, wish me luck! For those who completed all 5 challenges for the week, their name will be entered in the drawing to win $100 in Bella Blvd. goodies. I am hoping my 10 chances give me a good shot at winning!! :) I definitely need some more Bella stuff, after depleting my stash this week for all of the challenges! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper & Stickers: Bella Blvd.
Thickers: American Crafts
Tag: EK Success
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Brads: The Paper Studio & Chloe's Closet
Buttons: Michael's
Punches: Marvy, EK Success, & Martha Stewart
Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel
Acrylic Stamp: Close to My Heart
Pen: Zig Memory System

Fall Back

2012-02-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

Well yesterday, I shared a Christmas and Easter layout, so why not Fall today??!! This is my fourth layout this week for the Challenges at Bella Blvd. Today's challenge, was to use the border strip papers from the Bella collections. I love the fun border papers included with each line of the Bella collections and use them a lot on my pages. Since I did a Fall layout today, my choice of papers came from the Finally Fall line (which is one of my FAVORITE lines of all time so far!!). I cut some of the border strips and used them for the long banner on the left-hand side of my page and I cut three others to frame in at the top and bottom of my page.

Since my page was about our favorite activity, the Hay Ride, at our church's annual Fall Festival, I decided to use some twine I have had forever and make my own hay bale embellies for the page. I just cut out two varying size circles and used my glue gun to spin the twine around the circle. I thought about using my Glubers, but since the twine is so coarse, I thought hot glue would probably be my best course of action. I've loved using my white Gelly Roll Sakura pen lately and I used it to add in some of the letters in my title and, for my journaling, and to add a little faux stitching to the punched circles.

I have to say I am a BIG fan of having coordinated collections to get a page done quickly. This page is as "extravagant" as most of my other layouts, but it took about half of the time, since I already had everything put together in the Finally Fall line. I didn't have to spend half of my time searching for coordinating papers and embellies. But it can also be fun doing that search through all of your stash trying to find just the right papers to put together...just not when I'm in a hurry! :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper, Cute Cuts, Chipboard Alphas: Bella Blvd.
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Brads: The Paper Studio
Buttons: Michael's
Pen: Sakura
Font: CK Journaling
Ink: Memento
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Embossing: Sizzix & The Paper Studio
Edgers: Provo Craft
Punch: Marvy
Other: Twine

Taking on the Challenge!

2012-02-22T14:15:00.000-08:00

I have two layouts to share in today's post and don't think I have holiday schizophrenia, because I have a Christmas layout and an Easter layout!! :) I am still participating in the Challenge Week at Bella Blvd. The first layout is for Monday's challenge and the second is for today's challenge. I actually finished the one posted yesterday on that actual day and you can see it here.

Okay, so here goes. The Challenge on Monday, was to use Bella's Cute Cuts on your layouts. Each Bella Blvd. line has a 12x12 sheet that has cut outs that coordinate with that specific line. These are fun to cut and add some embellies to, to make them your own. I have the Christmas Wishes line and since I still have Christmas photos to scrap, I broke out my collection.

I cut the Christmas tree and presents from the Cute Cuts page and I added some baker's twine to each of the gifts. I stitched some garland on the Christmas tree with embroidery floss and punched out 3 circles from one of the border strip pages. I added a pop dot under each one and used my Sakura pen to draw the little star decoration on each one. I also added a dotted outline to the chipboard letters in the word Christmas with the white Sakura pen.

Products Used:

Patterned Paper, Stickers, Cute Cuts, Chipboard Alpahs: Bella Blvd.
Brads: The Paper Studio
Buttons: Michael's
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Pen: Sakura
Edgers: Provo Craft
Punch: Marvy

This second layout is for today's challenge, which is using patterned paper as an embellishment. This is a GREAT way to stretch your scrapbooking budget!! All scrappers have paper, and there are tons of great patterns out there that you can fussy cut or make flowers, banners, stars...whatever!! The possibilities are endless. I used the Spring Flings and Easter Things for this page and there are SO MANY cute ways to make embellies out of these papers!! There were already some adorable Easter Eggs on the Cute Cuts page, so I used two of those. I traced the bigger egg onto the pink and white chevron paper and then layered a couple of other patterns to "decorate" my egg. Finally, I used a small flower punch and added a brad to the center and placed it on the Easter Egg. I also free-handed a couple of clouds (I have an addiction to clouds) and then cut the sun with SCAL.

Products Used:

Cardstock: The Paper Studio
Patterned Paper, Cute Cuts, Stickers: Bella Blvd.
Brads: The Paper Studio
Punch: Marvy
Rick Rack: The Paper Studio
Pen: Zig Memory System

So now, I am actually up to date for the challenges this week!! These have been a lot of fun and who doesn't love using Bella Blvd goodies on their layouts??!! I am looking forward to the next two days and the challenges that Shannon will be posting!

Playing with Paper

2012-02-21T17:53:00.001-08:00

Bella Blvd is having a fun, challenge filled week! Today's challenge was to use patterned papers from 4 or more collections on your project. For my page, I used papers from Finally Fall, Christmas Wishes, Family Dynamix, and Spring Flings and Easter Things. This was such a fun challenge and I love companies who create collections where you can mix and match the papers and embellies. It makes your supplies go so much further.

I also combined this challenge with one of the newer challenges at Club CK, that was started by Erika H. at the beginning of this year. The challenge is called Thanks Living and we are encouraged to keep a daily journal with statements of things we are thankful for. I actually just got started with my journal this week. Things have been a little crazy over the past two months, but I've kind of had a break in the clouds and the opportunity to get started with this challenge.

Here is the story of why I created this page, based on one of the statements in my Thanks Living journal: This page is about Ewok, who has been in the family before DH and I even got married. My sister in law actually ended up bringing him home with her as a puppy, because the original owner took him and left him on the side of the road. He went to live at DH's grandmother's house because she needed a watch dog and had a huge yard for him to play in. He was always such a sweet dog and loved attention and having the kids play with him. He ended up passing away last week on Valentine's Day, because he had been diagnosed with cancer last year. I was so thankful that we got to snap some pictures of him on Thanksgiving Day and we were able to print them out yesterday and take them to Tyler's grandmother to help console her, because she has really been missing him since last week.

Now, I am usually the type of person who tries to stay detached from pets, because I know how difficult it can be to lose one. I've seen my grandparents go through 3 dachshunds in my lifetime and it was always so sad when each one passed away. But I will have to admit that I had a soft spot for "Wok", which is what we called him most of the time, and I shed a few tears last Tuesday when they had to put him to sleep.

I wanted to get this page completed pretty quickly today, so instead of spending so much time on the design of my page, I decided to use a sketch by Diana Fisher that she created for the Imaginisce Blog.

Products Used:

Cardstock: Die Cuts with a View
Patterned Paper, Stickers, & Chipboard Alphas: Bella Blvd.
Pen: Sakura
Pearls: Recollections
Buttons: Michael's
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Teeny Alphas: Glitz Design

I Love Your Silly Face

2012-02-20T21:59:00.003-08:00

We had a great One Page sketch to work with this week for Sketch Support! Allison added a large heart shape to the background of the sketch, behind the photo area. Instead of going with a solid-shaped heart, I chose to cut a heart outline on my Expression and then fill in the inside with varying sized circles.

I changed the photo area on this sketch to two photos, instead of three. The pics weren't the greatest because I took them on my phone, while we were in the car, but I changed them over to Sepia and I think that made a big difference. I used the MME paper pack "Love Nest" on this layout. There are some great glittered and textured papers in this pack. I also added a little extra texture to my page by cutting some smaller hearts, embossing them with a wood-grain pattern, and popping them up with pop dots.

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: My Mind's Eye
Thickers: American Crafts
Corrugated Alpha: Jillibean Soup
Punches: Marvy & Anna Griffin
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Embossing: Sizzix & The Paper Studio

Sweet On You

2012-02-19T06:31:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Valentine's was just this past Tuesday and I've already finished three layouts from our Homeschoolers Valentine's Day party! But before I get too excited, I have to remember those photos I still have un-scrapped from Easter 2011!! :) I worked on this layout for two challenges: 1. Workout #62-XOXO at ScrapFIT and, 2. the Friday Sketch Challenge at Bo Bunny. I have had some of the Bo Bunny Valentine's papers in my stash forever and then I received a few more papers and some embellies from my LSS for my DT assignment. Well they went along perfectly for this challenge! And the challenge at ScrapFIT was to add some "X's" and "O's" to your layout.

The sketch for the Bo Bunny challenge was created by Allison Davis of Sketch Support, who just so happened to select little ole me as one of her DT members this year!! :) I kept the basic design from Allison's sketch, but I moved the title into the journaling area. I stuck with the two 3.5x5 photos, but skewed them a little, instead of having them straight side by side. I did A LOT of fussy cutting from the Bo Bunny papers. The scroll work, bird cages, birds, larger hearts, and smaller hearts that spell the word love, were all cut from the papers. I cut the "X" "O" border using SCAL and welded each letter together. Then I used a Prima acrylic stamp and some white acrylic paint to stamp a small text across the black cardstock. I finished it off, by stitching some pink embroidery floss through the "X's".

The funny thing about both of these photos, is that my daughter had a mouth full of candy in each one!! They wanted to open and eat everything that they received from their friends as it was given to them. Needless to say, they were high on sugar most of the day!! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bo Bunny & Bazzill
Patterned Paper, Brads, Stickers, Ribbon & Pearls (Gabrielle Wrap): Bo Bunny
Thickers: American Crafts
Teeny Alphas: Glitz Design
Fonts: Arial Black & Scrap Baby
Acrylic Stamp: Prima
Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Summer Shower

2012-02-16T22:01:00.000-08:00

TGIF!! Hopefully everyone has had a great week, but if not, hey the weekend is almost here so get ready for a little R & R! And if things are going really good for you this weekend, maybe you'll even get a little time to sit down and work on some layouts or projects!! If you do, come stop by Frosted Designs today and check out our Fabulous Friday challenge to use Brads and/or Eyelets on your layout or project. I love using Brads on my layouts, so this was a fun challenge to work with.

I used several of the small Bazzill brads to create the look of raindrops falling from the cloud embellishments. And I also used some of the copper-toned brads from The Paper Studio in the centers of the circles that I fussy cut from some Jillibean Soup papers. I really had a lot of fun designing this page and actually submitted it to one of the Scrapbook Trends calls, but never got a response...but oh well, I still ended up with a fabulous page that I absolutely love!! :)

To create the umbrella for this page, I used my Expression to cut an SVG file and then traced it on a piece of white paper. Then I drew off the umbrella sections, cut each one and then re-traced it onto the Jillibean patterned paper. I cut out each of the sections and then matched them in place on my SVG cut piece. I added the dark brown stitching to give each of the sections a little more definition and then dressed it up with the pom pom trim, baker's twine, and button at the top.

For the word "Summer" in my title, I also cut the word on my Expression. Then I placed the negative of the word on my background paper and used orange acrylic paint on bubble wrap to stamp in the word. Then I went back and outlined each letter with the marker side of my brown Zig pen.

So don't miss out on this fun challenge!! You can win an awesome prize from our Sponsor this week!! And be on the lookout at the beginning of March as we start welcoming the newest Team members to Frosted Designs. We have a lot of very talented women on this Team and I am very honored to work with each one of them!!

Products Used:

Patterend Paper: Jillibean Soup & Bella Blvd.

Pom Pom Trim: October Afternoon

Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Brads: Bazzill & The Paper Studio

Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel

Thickers: American Crafts

Baker's Twine: The Twinery

Buttons: Michael's

Tools: WRMK, Provo Craft, Sizzix

Pen: Zig Memory System

Font: Coaster

Adhesives: 3L Scrapbook Adhesives, Recollections, Zig Memory System

You Have My Heart

2012-02-15T13:33:00.000-08:00

I actually got to sit down today and work on a page...and actually get it finished all in the same day! I incorporated 3 challenges into this layout (which I haven't done in a while). I used the sketch for the My Mind's Eye Blog Challenge 32 and also Case File #6, at CSI. The last challenge I used for this one, is the Jan./Feb. Issue Challenge #8 at Club CK, which was actually posted today. The challenge was to use one of the techniques from the 25 Ways to Use Stickers on Your Layouts article. I chose technique #3, which was to ink the edges of your sticker and create a dome effect using dimensional glaze. I used diamond glaze over the MME banner/date stickers.

For the Evidence portion of the CSI challenge, I chose to use 2 patterns with the same color and wood accents. My journaling was written from the aspect of the inspiration word, "comfort". For the MME sketch, I rotated it to fit the portrait aspect of my photos.

I hope you find a little bit of inspiration from my page or maybe from one or more of the challenges mentioned here. Make sure you stop back by on Friday to see my layout for the upcoming Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs.

Products Used:

Cardstock: The Paper Studio
Patterned Paper, Brads, Stickers, Pom Pom Trim: My Mind's Eye
Ink: Memento
Embossing: Sizzix & The Paper Studio
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Font: Hypewriter
Dimensional Glaze: Diamond Glaze
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Two "Love"ly Layouts

2012-02-14T05:30:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentines Day, everyone!! I hope you get to enjoy a day with your sweetie or maybe indulge in some yummy chocolates! Today, I am spending my day celebrating Valentines with our church's Homeschool group. Last year, we decided to get together and let the kids exchange Valentine's and planned to do it again this year. Hubby and I don't really ever have any special plans for Valentine's Day, because we feel like we celebrate Valentine's together all year long. :) I know, mushy right??!!

Okay, now on to the layouts. I thought since today is all about LOVE, I would share two layouts that follow along that theme. The first is one I created as one of my DT assignments for my local Scrapbook store, Scraphappy Pensacola. I got some of the BoBunny goodies, from their Gift of Love collection and used them today with some of the photos that I took of my oldest daughter getting her Valentine's ready for the party. I loved the big shaped heart and sometimes those kinds of shapes can be overwhelming, but I think it worked great layering all of my other page elements over the heart.

Products Used:

Patterned Paper, Stickers, Brads: BoBunny
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Faux Pearls: Recollections
Punch: Marvy

The second layout, is for the weekly issue challenge at Club CK. Our challenge this week, was to use a calendar on our layouts. I've had these cute little calendar sheets from Jenni Bowlin forever and I knew that it would work perfectly for this challenge. I also scraplifted this page, from the front cover of the CK March/April 2012 issue. I loved Maggie Holmes "Sweet Baby" layout as soon as I saw it and her design was a great way to get my page done quickly.

My sister in law gave this stuffed puppy to our son 2 years ago for Christmas and ever since then, it usually goes everywhere with him and is always with him at nap time and bed time. I love that he has a "friend", because neither of the girls ever had that one toy that they were attached to as toddlers, so I think it's sweet to see my little boy have a special stuffed animal.

That's all I have for now, but I hope you enjoy your Valentine's and that you have a "love"ly day!! :)

Products Used:

Patterned Paper: Echo Park & October Afternoon
Puffies: KI Memories
Calendar: Jenni Bowlin
Buttons: Blumenthal Lansing
Brads: Bazzill & The Paper Studio
Punch: Marvy
Thickers: American Crafts
Clear Tiny Type: Cosmo Cricket
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Pen: Sharpie

Cutting It Close!!!

2012-02-12T14:02:00.000-08:00

Normally, I don't like waiting til the last minute to get a layout done, but this is the first chance I've had to squeeze in my page for CSI's Case File #5. The challenge closes later tonight and I've actually had this page planned since the Case was posted, but I could never find the time to sit down and do it. But I managed to have a little extra time today and fortunately had some coordinating products for this one and I ended up getting it done pretty quickly.

This month started a new selection of inspiration photos and I really liked the color scheme for this week's challenge. From the evidence category, I chose to use leaves, corners, and creating a border out of small elements (the small rub-ons from October Afternoon). I journaled from a back story perspective, for the Testimony portion of the challenge. These photos offered a perfect opportunity to tell about my son's picky eating habits. He was so difficult to feed as a baby. Sometimes he would only drink an ounce or two from his bottle, but if you tried giving it to him a few minutes later he would throw a fit. We usually ended up having to make a whole new bottle and then he would drink the whole thing!! When we moved into the baby food stage, he refused to eat it at all. He didn't even like the fruits!!! Even now, he won't eat things he doesn't recognize and he WON'T let you feed him at all...IE, putting something on his fork and trying to put it in his mouth...nope, doesn't go for that. I'm sure this is all just a stage he is going through and in the near future, he will probably be eating us out of house and home!!

Products Used:

Patterned Paper: Glitz Design & October Afternoon
Stickers & Rub Ons: October Afternoon
Acrylic Stamps: Close to My Heart
Thickers: American Crafts
Font: CK Jolly Elf
Ink: Tim Holtz
Pen: Sharpie & Zig
Edgers: Provo Craft

Throwing in a Double Pager!!

2012-02-07T08:47:00.000-08:00

I used to feel like I needed to do a double page layout for everything. When I first started Scrapbooking, I had these rules that somehow got in my head that I thought I needed to follow. Double page layouts for everything and I also liked to mirror my pages and carry over any element or color that was on one side to the other!! :) Well, one day I had an epiphany and realized, hey there are no rules in Scrapbooking! So, I actually did a 180 and started creating almost all single page layouts. I find that they are so much easier to design and I feel more comfortable with a single page, instead of spreading out my design across two pages. But with that said, there are just some events that require a double page layout. And who better to go to for some amazing double pagers than Sketch Support??!! When Allison sent us the sketches to work with for February I knew that I definitely wanted to use the Two Page Sketch #25 for the photos from one of my daughter's Girl Scout activities.

This sketch was pretty perfect for the photos I wanted to use, so I didn't really change up very much on this one. Here are some of the variations from the sketch:

Variation #1 - I made most of my changes to the sketch, in the sizes of the photos that I used. Instead of the two 2x2 and one 4x4 on the left page, I used a 6x4. I also changed the 3 photos on the far right hand side from two 3x3 and one 3x2, to two 2.75x2 and one 2.75x4.

Variation #2 - I added border strips above and below the photo grid.

Variation #3 - I stitched along the perimeter of the page.

Variation #4 - I added a frame (mat) behind the title and the pinwheels (which I added in place of the flowers on the sketch).

Variation #5 - Because of the size of my title, I moved the journaling strips down a little further on the page.

I hope you will head over and check out what my fellow DT members, Noey and Michele did with the sketch! There is some great inspiration so far this week!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Die Cuts with a View

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon, Crate Paper and Anna Griffin

Adhesive Chipboard: Cosmo Cricket

Brads: Bazzill

Thickers: American Crafts

Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon

Stickers: October Afternoon

Font: CK Handprint

Edgers: Provo Craft

Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Pen: Zig Memory System

Adhesives: 3L Mounting Squares, Zig Memory System and Recollections

In Scrapbooking, Holidays Last All Year Round!!

2012-02-04T13:32:00.000-08:00

If you've been Scrapbooking for a while, then I think you would tend to agree with me, when I say the holidays never end!! You may be scrapping Christmas in July, Easter in October, and Halloween in January...like I did for this layout! :) I do actually like to scrapbook some of the holidays at the time they are going on, because it puts you in the mood to get those pages done. But it is usually always impossible for me to get them all finished up in that time frame. I don't stress about it too much, but I do try to set a goal of having each holiday finished up before it takes place the next year.

I have had a lot of fun so far, getting our Halloween photos onto layouts. We talked the kids (miraculously) into theme costumes this year, so they kind of all matched...two pirates and a mermaid. We decided to dress them up a few days before Halloween and do a little photo shoot, to get some good photos of them in their costumes. I thought they would probably be way to hyper to actually pose for photos on Halloween night. :) These are some that I got of our little boy...quickly I might add, because he doesn't like to sit still for photos! So these ended up just being the kind, take as many as you can and hope for some good ones!! And I really LOVE the way they turned out, because out of about 25 of him, these 3 were the best. I did this page for one of the fun challenges that takes place at Club CK, called Chinese Whispers. We are put into groups and our host chooses a sketch, that is sent to the first person in the group. She does her layout based on the sketch and then sends her layout onto the next person in the group, but that person doesn't see the original sketch. This continues throughout the group, until we get to the last person and then we have a reveal, showing how the layouts changed from person to person and from the original sketch. It is a really fun challenge and I love participating in it each round.

Products Used:

Patterned Paper: Echo Park & My Mind's Eye
Thickers: American Crafts
Chipboard Alphas: Making Memories
Font: CK Fraternity
Ribbon: Pink Paislee
Stitching: Singer
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Edgers: Provo Craft
Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel
Mini Round Gems: Recollections
Other: Chipboard Frames, Zipper, Clip, Staples

All Tied Up!!

2012-02-02T22:01:00.000-08:00

If you've been waiting for the new Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs, then today is the day!! Our challenge this week is for you to use Ribbon/Twine on your layouts or projects!! There are so many fun options for this challenge! Now I have to admit, that I don't use a lot of ribbon on my pages (very rarely). I find it to be a little bulky sometimes, but on the other hand, I am a baker's twine fanatic!! :) I love to use twine and you can usually find it on about 90% of my layouts. Here is what I created for this week's challenge:

I really had a lot of fun creating this page! I started out with a $1 kit from Cosmo Cricket's Togetherness line, that I picked up at my LSS. These papers were perfect for an outdoors-y layout. I used my Expression to cut a large butterfly from the bottom right corner of my page and I covered the positive image of the butterfly with strips that I cut a scallop border on, using some paper Edgers. I thought it would be fun to tie the yellow twine across the page and meet it in the center of the bottom butterfly. I also used a little more twine for the center of the second butterfly. My Singer hand-held sewer has been on semi-good behavior lately, so I used it to sew a little border around the scalloped frame on my page and then I finished it off by adding some specks of brown acrylic paint.

I hope you will plan on coming over and playing along with us this week for the chance to win a great prize from our sponsor this week, Memorable Seasons!!

Products Used:

Kraft Paper: The Paper Studio
Patterned Paper: Cosmo Cricket, October Afternoon, Bella Blvd.
Adhesive Chipboard: Cosmo Cricket
Thickers: American Crafts
Font: Rustler & Hypewriter
Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel
Edgers: Provo Craft
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Buttons: Michael's
Brads: The Paper Studio & Bazzill
Punch: Marvy

I Love This Hobby!!

2012-02-02T07:36:00.000-08:00

When I have a photo like this one, it just reminds me so much why I LOVE Scrapbooking. It's not a photo from a big event or any special occasion, just one of my son in his car seat with a huge smile on his face and his bright, blue eyes sparkling!! But I am so glad I have this photo, because that moment, with that exact smile, at that exact age is something that will never be repeated again. How amazing to have the photo and be able to document it and have the memory preserved!!

I also had the chance to incorporate two challenges into this layout. The first challenge is the Jan./Feb. Issue Challenge #6, which is posted each week at Club CK by my friend Erika. Our challenge was to create a hybrid layout. This was a great challenge and almost everyone of my layouts usually incorporates my computer in some way. I had the Little Boy collection from Echo Park, so I used it for the traditional aspect on my layout. I also have a ton of digi files and several of them are from Echo Park too. So I printed some of the digi elements from the Sidewalks collection-clouds, flowers, and tags (which I added the words to)-printed them out and added them to the page.

The second challenge is Workout #61 at ScrapFIT, to use a blank canvas...basically starting with a white background. I hardly ever used white backgrounds in the past for the base of my layouts, but I've found recently that I really like it. It just makes the patterned paper colors pop and everything looks so crisp and clean!

Thanks for visiting today and I hope you will have time to check out these fun challenges this week or maybe find some different ones to participate in and get your creative juices flowing!! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: Die Cuts with a View
Patterned Paper & Stickers: Echo Park
Digi Elements: Echo Park
Fonts: Scrapbaby & Brady Bunch
Brads: The Paper Studio
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Imagination: Endless Possibilities

2012-02-01T08:19:00.000-08:00

There is just something about watching little boys play!! They are always curious and looking for fun (or sometimes, just trouble). A couple of weeks ago, I just followed my son around the backyard of a friend's house, while my daughter was at Girl Scouts. He had so much fun running around the yard and playing on their fort. When I saw the color scheme for the new Case File #4 at CSI, I thought they would be a perfect pairing with these photos. I mixed a lot of different papers together for this one, but sometimes it's fun digging through your stash to find coordinating papers instead of using a pre-made kit.

I think the color schemes from the Alice in Wonderland inspiration photos this month, have been fabulous and I am looking forward to what's ahead for February! I worked in all 5 colors and also added in a little touch of red. The paper inside my frame is from Close to My Heart and they are so cute. There are several different scenes and these are just so fun for little boy layouts! I used my colored pencils, to go in and add a little color to some parts of the images.

From the evidence, I chose to use a frame, stripes, and a wet medium. I used Diamond Glaze over the black frame to give it more of an epoxy look. I journaled from the "Get Curious" perspective suggested in the Testimony. Journaling reads:

"I am always curious to know what goes on in that cute little head of yours! You are always happy and finding fun little boy adventures to get into! Never lose your imagination!"

That's all I have for today, but be sure to stop by on Friday!! I have a cute, cute layout to share for our upcoming challenge at Frosted Designs! You will definitely want to play along!

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Crate Paper, Close to My Heart, Authentique, & Glitz Desings
Brads: The Paper Studio
Colored Pencils: RoseArt
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Stickers & Cardstock Embellies: Crate Paper
Punch: EK Success
Edgers: Provo Craft
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Diamond Glaze: Judi Kins
Pen: Sharpie & Sakura
Stitching: Singer
Other: Staples

150 Followers Winner!

2012-01-30T11:44:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who commented and became new Followers for my 150 Giveaway! I not only reached 150, but exceeded it to 157!!! :) I finally had a chance to draw the winner today (it has been busy and crazy!!) and the giveaway goes to:

CSEWY (Carolyn)!!

But don't worry, if you didn't win this time! There are always more milestones to reach and future giveaways!! :) Maybe I can have another giveaway for the 175 mark!! :)

A Few Little Things to Note!

2012-01-29T07:00:00.000-08:00

**If you are looking for the 150 Followers giveaway, please click HERE.**

I am a little late on sharing this news...but better late than never, right??!! :) My layout "Tutu Much Fun" was chosen at ScrapFIT last week as the Weekend Warm Up #23 Winner! That means I am featured on the ScrapFIT Blog this week in their FITGirl Spotlight!! You can check it out HERE and read a little bit about me and see some of my favorite layouts I chose to share.

Also, my friend Laurie awarded me with the Liebster Blog Award. Liebster is German for "dearest", "beloved" or "favorite". It is meant to give blogger's with less than 200 followers a chance to get more traffic to their blogs, to share the love and creativity that is out there. Go check out Laurie's Blog, A Page In Time and become a follower! You will definitely be inspired by her amazing layouts. She has such creative talent with misting and bright colors!

And since Laurie was generous enough to pass this on to me, I would also like to share the Liebster Award with a few more of my talented, scrappy friends. Head over and check these Ladies out...you definitely won't be disappointed:

Laura: Happiness = Creation (Laura is a whiz with double-page layouts!!)
Andrea: Precious Memories (Andrea has fun page designs and does an awesome job mixing patterns!!)
Steffanie: Life of a Brown Eyed Girl (Steffanie is one of the newest Team members at Scrapfit and she does a really awesome job with clean lines!)

The last thing I have to share with you today, is a layout that I did for one of my favorite challenges. It is for the Jan./Feb. Issue Challenge #5 at Club CK (hosted by my most-awesome friend, Erika). Our challenge this week, was to use the color scheme from the front of the Creating Keepsakes magazine.

I really struggled with this layout and it didn't have anything to do with the color scheme. I could not figure out how to embellish this one!! Nothing at all came to mind!! So, I just ended up with the little folded flowers, some buttons, and some mini round gems. I was really happy with the color scheme, even though we had to use Purple and it is my least favorite of all of the colors. Fortunately my daughter's dress already had the teal, and purple and I added in a touch of the green to go along with her dress also. I used my hand-held Singer Sewer to stitch around the perimeter of the page. I have a love/hate relationship with my Singer...well, it's actually more of a hate/hate relationship!! :) Sewing is definitely not one of my mad skills and I can never keep the line straight and somehow my thread managed to break halfway up the right side of the page and everything went all wonky. But I persevered and managed to get it stitched around the whole page. Maybe one day will make nice and be friends!! :)

That's all I have for today and I hope you got to enjoy a little scrappy time for yourself this weekend! If not, set a little time aside for yourself this week...believe me, the world won't explode if that pile of laundry doesn't get folded right away!! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: BoBunny & Bazzill
Patterned Paper: BoBunny, Bella Blvd., Cosmo Cricket, & Glitz Design
Mini Round Gems: Recollections
Buttons: Michael's
Edgers: Provo Craft
Punches: EK Success & Marvy
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Pen: Sakura
Stitching: Singer
Font: Abadi MT Condensed Extra Bold

Almost there...150 Followers!

2012-01-27T08:45:00.000-08:00

**Check out a fun Halloween layout I did for Case File #3 this week at CSI, HERE!**

I can't believe I've already made it up to almost 150 followers in such a short time!! I am only 6 away!! :) I decided it would be fun to do a little giveaway this weekend, if I reach 150 by Sunday, January 29. New followers and current followers have two chances to be entered in the drawing. New followers, let me know you are now following and leave a comment letting me know what new goodies you are looking forward to getting that are being released at CHA-W. Current followers, you can share a link to this post on your FB or Blog and let me know that you did and also leave the same comment...what goodies you would like to have that are being shown at CHA-W. I will draw a winner from all of the entries (closing entries at 8PM CST) and announce a winner on Monday morning!!

Halloween Tricksters

2012-01-26T15:13:00.000-08:00

Well, it's almost February and I am working on a Halloween layout...go figure!! But I've really been itching to get started on Case File #3 at CSI this week!! When you see my layout compared to the inspiration photo, you'll probably ask yourself, "what was she thinking??"!! For some reason, when I saw the color scheme, I just kept thinking I wanted to do something for Halloween with this challenge...so I did!! :) Here is my layout and then I'll do a little explaning:

See what I mean??!! But honestly, once it was all finished, I think it really worked. I cut out a circle pattern lace cardstock on my Cricut and put it over the two tags at the top. I also pleated half of the wide, pink ribbon that goes across my page. Since I was going for non-traditional Halloween anyway, I added a few layered, hand-made flowers and some small butterflies. If you are wondering where in the world the Orange came from, the CSI rules say that you can add in one accent color as long as it is only 10% on your page. I thought it would help pop out the Orange's in my photos and add that little element of a "real" Halloween page.

The elements I used for this weeks challenge are the tags, sheer ribbon, and doily-cut embellies from my Cricut. For the journaling part of the challenge, I journaled on a tag.

If you haven't stopped by CSI, I encourage you to drop by and check out their challenges! A new challenge is posted each Friday night and on Tuesday's they choose 5 layouts that are "Under Surveillance" and several more that are on the "Watch List". My layout "Chilly Willy" was actually chosen last week for the "Watch List" and it was my first time to play along. It was a happy surprise to see it there!! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Brads: The Paper Studio
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Punch: Martha Stewart
Edgers: Provo Craft
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Round Gems: Recollections
Font: CK Fraternity
Other: Ribbon

Star-Studded!

2012-01-25T07:37:00.000-08:00

This week, we are seeing stars at Sketch Support!! Allison provided us with the cutest One-Page Sketch (#17). I thought the design of this sketch, would be perfect for a silly photo I had of my son, wearing Mr. Potato Head glasses while I was getting him ready for bed! The sketch was originally designed for a landscape photo, but my photo was portrait, so I rotated the sketch.

Instead of keeping the star in the center completely solid, I cut an outline and then added a smaller, solid star to the center. I have been stitching a lot on my pages lately, so I added a fun stitched border around the edge of the page and used baker's twine to stitch around the star. Of course, I ran out of the color I was using before I finished, but was able to find another color that was pretty similar to finish it off!! :) To add a little more texture to my page, I embossed the small stars and the cloud behind my title. I also added some messy paint splatters...well, because boys are messy and I thought it would be a fun touch to a little boy page!!

You can head over to Sketch Support and check out the other variations I made to the sketch and also see what the very talented Penny and Carolyn did with the One-Page Sketch.

Products Used:

Cardstock: Tim Holtz
Paper & Stickers: Echo Park
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Corrugated Alphas: Jillibean Soup
Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel
Embossing: Sizzix & Provo Craft
Brads: The Paper Studio
Edgers: Provo Craft
Thickers: American Crafts
Pen: Zig Memory System
Punch: EK Success
Font: Tempus Sans ITC

Get Well Soon!

2012-01-24T08:06:00.000-08:00

Back in September, my little boy smacked his head on the base of our brick fireplace and busted his head open near his brow-line (mommy did not handle this so well!!). We took him to the ER and he ended up getting 6 internal stitches and 7 external stitches (fortunately, I had regained composure once we made it to the hospital!!). Definitely not a fun experience for a 2 year old little boy. These pictures are from the next day and you can imagine how difficult it is to get a rambunctious little boy to sit down and rest. But I definitely tried my best!! :) I had cartoons on for him and was busy doing a little house work. After a while, I noticed he was awfully still and quiet...very out of the usual for him. I peeked around the corner and found him fast asleep in the recliner...with his Crocs on, no less! :) I was so happy to see him resting...and still...because he was making me a nervous wreck still running around after being stitched back up.

And even more to the story...this happened on a Wednesday morning and we were supposed to have the stitches removed the next Tuesday. Somehow, he managed to pick out 2 of the 7 stitches within that time frame. Well, we went and had the remainder of the stitches removed that Tuesday morning and much to our disbelief, we were back at the ER that night having 12 more put in!! Apparently, when we put him in bed that night, the cut opened back up, because it had not healed completely!!! By that time, I was threatening to make him wear a football helmet from here on out!! But he is all healed and much better now. I really wanted to get these pictures scrapped, but wasn't sure what route to take with them. One of the challenges hosted by my friend Erika at Club CK, was to use a card as inspiration for your layout or project. I decided to open up my trusty Pinterest account and see what I could find. I typed in Get Well Card and the perfect little ole' card popped up. Here is the page I created from the inspiration:

And here is the cute little card that I used as my inspiration piece:

Thanks for stopping by today and I hope you have a great-injury free-week!! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill

Patterned Paper: October Afternoon & Simple Stories

Stickers, Letter Stickers, Buttons, & Rubber Charms: October Afternoon

Pen: Sharpie

Brads: The Paper Studio

Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

FD Winter Blog Hop WINNER!!

2012-01-23T07:39:00.000-08:00

I thought it would be fun to start off a Monday morning with some good news for one lucky WINNER!! Thanks to everyone who participated in the Frosted Designs Winter Blog Hop this past weekend. I hope you enjoyed seeing all of the projects and got inspired along the way!! Be on the lookout for the Frosted Designs Love Is In the Air Blog Hop coming up on February 10!! You won't want to miss it!

Now for the Winner....I used Random.Org and number 26 came up and that means our winner is

SANDEE!!!

Sandee, please contact me at ashleyhorton010675@gmail.com, with your mailing info and I will get your prize out to you ASAP!!

Frosted Designs Winter Blog Hop!!

2012-01-19T21:59:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the Frosted Designs Winter Blog Hop!! You should have arrived here from My Little Scrap Corner, the Blog of the very talented, Jenny Evans. If you did not, please go back to Frosted Designs and start at the beginning. There are two ways to win prizes (which I will mention a little later), so you will definitely want to visit all of the Blogs along the way!!

I know some of us have experienced a mild Winter so far this year, and some of our Northern friends have been in a Winter wonderland with all of the falling snow!! But we can still all enjoy this time of year, whether we are experiencing below zero temperatures or whether we are in the 70's, by creating some Winter themed layouts or projects! Because my family lives so far South, snow is a rarity around here. Sometimes our temperatures drop down into the teens at night and we have daytime lows in the 30's...but this is also rare. With all of that said, I had to get a little creative in creating a layout that centered around the theme of our Blog Hop, which is Winter. Fortunately, our Bass Pro Shop sets up Santa's Winter Wonderland every year and I got some cute pictures of my son checking out the place!!

Not only is this layout for the Winter Blog Hop, it is also for our 1.20.12 Fabulous Friday challenge, which is to use Vellum/Transparency. I had a Fancy Pants Designs 12x12 transparency in my stash, that has been there forever. I thought it went along great with the Echo Park Times & Seasons collection, so I fussy cut some of the flourishes and added them to my page. The Fabulous Friday challenge will continue on it's normal schedule. You will have until Noon on Thursday, January 26, to upload your project or layout.

Now onto the Prize giveaways!!

The Hop will take place from today, January 20 through Sunday, January 22, at midnight. You have two chances to win the Grand Prize from Frosted Designs:

1. There will be a word/words at each Blog, that you will put together, and at the end of the last Blog, you need to email the whole phrase to danica4us@yahoo.com by midnight Sunday. (Subject Line should say "Blog Hop")

The word from my Blog is MAKES.

2. Link your LO to the Frosted Design Blog by Midnight Sunday

You also have the chance to win a little prize package from my Blog also. If you are already a Follower, leave me a comment telling me your favorite thing about Winter. If you are not a Follower, start following my Blog and leave me a comment letting me know. I will randomly select a winner and post it on Monday morning, so make sure to check back and see if you are the lucky one!! (I will mail prizes to US residents only).

I hope you have enjoyed my layout today and that you have been inspired by the Ladies you have already visited!! Now, it's off to your next stop Sunnys Basteloase, to see what the talented Marina has in store for you!!

To You, With Love

2012-01-19T06:00:00.000-08:00

Valentine's Day is already drawing near, and love is in the air!! It's time for pink hearts, flowers, and Valentine's cards. Whether you like to exchange cute, little hand-made Valentine cards with your friends or if your children exchange Valentine's with friends at school, you have to have something special to keep them in, right? Today, I have an adorable altered mailbox to share with you that is just right for storing your Valentine keepsakes. Christy, from ScrapHappy Pensacola, sent me a package of goodies from the store that included some GORGEOUS Valentine papers from Teresa Collins' Posh collection. At first I thought about using them to make actual Valentine's cards, but then I thought "hmmmm, I will need something to keep the cards in". If you have been to Walmart or Target, then you know they have the kiddie themed mailboxes in the store, that come with pre-made Valentine cards. I decided, wouldn't it be more fun to alter the mailbox, than to make the cards...so that's what I did.

Here is the original mailbox that I started out with:

I started out by tracing the backside of the mailbox onto the paper and then cutting it out and re-tracing it, to have two of those shapes for the front and back. I used Mod Podge to cover the mailbox and adhere those two pieces.

The height of the mailbox was a little over 7 inches, so I knew my 12x12 paper wouldn't fully cover the sides, so I cut two, 2.5x7 inch strips and lined them up with the bottom of the mailbox. Then I cut the 12x12 down to 7x12. I covered the mailbox with Mod Podge and added the second piece of paper over the top of the mailbox. Then I used one of the black patterns to cover the seam, by cutting a 1x7 inch piece.

Next, came the fun part...DECORATING!! I continued using these fabulous papers, because there are some great patterns for fussy cutting. I used one of the papers that had some beautiful roses and another that had a cameo pattern. This mailbox did not come with a flag and what mailbox is complete without a flag??!! So I decided I would make my own!! I just free-handed a flag onto some cardboard (I save the filler cardboard sheets that come in my Page Protectors-they are great for cutting out your own shapes and then covering with Patterned Paper to create dimensional elements on your pages or projects) and cut it out. I used the Mod Podge over the top of it and glued it to one of the Patterned Papers, let it dry, and cut it out once again. To attach it to the mailbox, I punched a hole with my WRMK brad setter and used a brad that had long enough prongs to go through the cardboard and the mailbox.

Once the flag was attached, I began layering the fussy cut images from my papers. I also had a few very pretty brads and several little rosettes in my package, so I incorporated those into the clustering. I added the word "Love" in big white letters at the bottom of the mailbox and finished it off by adding a little ribbon and some baker's twine to the pull tab on the front.

Voila!! Now you have a beautiful keepsake to store all of those sweet, Valentine's! You could also use this as the "wrapping" for a gift that you are giving to that sweet someone, or maybe even use it later on for a jewelry box.

You still have a little over 3 weeks to get a jump on all of your Valentine crafts this year, so stop by the store and see what supplies you need to make this February 14th a very special day!!

A Sad Goodbye!!

2012-01-18T13:12:00.000-08:00

**Scroll down for an Announcement from earlier today.**

UGH!! I cannot believe that this layout is for the final sketch challenge at Sketchy Thursdays!! They were definitely one of those challenge Blogs, that I thought would be around for years to come! But I definitely understand how busy Diana, Heidi, and Julie are these days. I see that they are busy little bees all over the place!! :) I have so much enjoyed playing along with the challenges every week and have probably been participating for a year or more. It was so fun checking each Thursday morning to see the new sketch and find out if any of my friends had made the faves list...or maybe even me!! :)

It has taken me a while to get to this one this week, but I definitely didn't plan to miss out on the very last challenge. And I am very happy with the way my page turned out. I used some of the last bits and pieces of my Emma's Shoppe collection from Crate Paper on this one. I added a little distressing with a text stamp from Prima and then I just used my ink pad to make some messy marks around the edge of the page.

I would like to thank the Ladies at Sketchy Thursdays for their dedication over the past years and wish them well on all of their upcoming ventures!! I know I will see their work in many other places!!

Products Used:

Paper, Stickers, Cardstock Embellishments: Crate Paper
Ink: Memento
Stamp: Prima
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Pen: Zig
Brads: Bazzill
Tiny Type: Cosmo Cricket
Other: Buttons

Two ANNOUNCEMENTS Today!!

2012-01-18T06:59:00.000-08:00

First off, I would like to share with you, that my layout "Leaf Wars" is one of three up for vote for Little Yellow Bicycle's Fall/Winter Sketch Challenge. I would really love it, if you could take just a couple of seconds to vote for my layout. You can vote one of two ways:

1. If you have Facebook, you can click HERE and just "Like" my page...it's that easy!!

2. If you are not a Facebook-er, you can go to the LYB Blog and just leave a comment under the post, saying you would like to vote for my layout.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!! :)

In other news...Have you always wanted to be a part of an amazing Design Team??!! Then look no further!! Frosted Designs has a call up today for new Team Members!! You will definitely want to check this out. I have been on Frosted Designs for my first six moth term and these Ladies are so amazing!! Please don't sell yourself short, if you think you shouldn't try out...DON'T do that!! Send in your application and who knows...you could be joining the Team for the next term!! To find out all you need to know to apply, head HERE and check out the Design Team application info and requirements.

Let It Snow...Man!

2012-01-17T07:22:00.000-08:00

Being so far South, snow is definitely a rare occasion. But I was so excited to see that our Add-On sketch at Sketch Support this month from Allison, was the cutest little Snow Man!! Even though we don't have snow (or much cold weather for that matter), we still have Santa's Wonderland at The Bass Pro Shop. When we took the kids to have their pictures made with Santa, Frosty was waiting to greet us while we waited in line. My daughter decided she needed to have her picture made with him, before going to see Santa!! I loved that her outfit matched Frosty's and I added a vintage filter to the photo. Here is a look at what I did with the Add-On Sketch #13:

I used my Big Shot to add some embossing to my Snow Man to add a little texture and sprayed it with some Shimmer Glitz, to give it the sparkly look of snow. My background paper for this one is a light blue & white polka dot from Jillibean Soup and I mixed in some scraps from the 25 Days of Christmas line from Simple Stories. I really wanted to create a Winter feel on this page for Frosty!! :) I added some white trim from The Paper Studio and some pom pom trim for a snowy ground. I also cut some snowflakes on the Expression and added some Shimmer Glitz to make them sparkle. Don't forget to head over to Sketch Support and check out what Michelle did with the Add-On and check back the rest of this week for a lot more inspiration from the Ladies.

Products Used:

Patterned Paper: Jillibean Soup and Simple Stories

Shimmer Spritz: Tsukineko

Font: Frosty and Impact Label

Punch: Marvy

Ribbon: The Paper Studio

Pom Pom Trim: Wright's

Baker's Twine: The Twinery

Pearls: Kaiser Craft

Tag: EK Success

Mini Round Gems: Recollections

Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Embossing: Sizzix Big Shot and Provo Craft

Brads: The Paper Studio

Stickers: Simple Stories

Thickers: American Crafts

On the Case!!

2012-01-16T18:19:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I discovered a new challenge Blog and I am SO GLAD I did!! Let me just say, FUN, FUN, FUN!! Want to know what it is??!! CSI...Color, Stories, Inspiration! A new "Case File" is posted each Friday evening and it gives you the opportunity to work "The Scene", "The Scheme", "Evidence", and "Testimony" into your pages. Basically, the scene is an inspiration image, you have 5 colors you must use, you have to use 2 or more from the evidence, and the testimony involves your journaling! I really had a lot of fun on this page and went a little out of my normal design, but it's what I envisioned for these cute photos of my middle daughter all bundled up for our trip to one of their nature classes.

When I started this page, I realized that I probably haven't used circular photos in the last 5 years!! :) But I thought they were perfect for this page. I chose flourishes, flowers, and a sheer element from the inspiration photo. For my journaling, I journaled from the adventure aspect. I thought the color scheme provided a perfect wintry backdrop for my photos. All of the flowers are handmade and layered with brads for the centers. The blue flourishes were fussy cut from a piece of Fancy Pants paper and I added a little inking on this one with some Tim Holtz distress ink. I also added a little bit of adhesive around the edge of the purple circle and sprinkled it with some Star Dust Glitter from Fancy Pants.

I hope you enjoyed stopping by to look at my page and I hope you will take a minute to check out the challenges at CSI!

Products Used:

Cardstock: BoBunny
Patterned Paper: BoBunny & Fancy Pants
Glitter: Fancy Pants
Brads: The Paper Studio
Sparkles: Close to My Heart
Tiny Type: Cosmo Cricket
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Thickers: American Crafts
Ink: Tim Holtz (Ranger)
Rosette Trim: Tim Holtz
Baker's Twine: Baker's Twine
Embossing: Sizzix & Provo Craft
Edgers: Provo Craft
Punches: Marvy
Pen: Zig

Change is Good!

2012-01-16T07:00:00.000-08:00

Well, we are starting the 3rd week of the New Year and I hope things have been great for you so far in 2012! I decided today, that the time had come to make some changes to my Blog in honor of the new year! Wood grain has become one of my favorite patterns in the past few months...and who knew that Blogger was on trend with just the perfect background for me. I also used a digital kit from Cosmo Cricket to design my new page header. Let me know what you think about the new design and if everything is presented in an informative manner. I always enjoy your feedback! My hubby suggested I go to Google for some help, because I wanted to create the tabs at the top of my page, but I wasn't exactly sure how to do that. Of course, there was a video tutorial (I think YouTube has one for just about everything now) and it was pretty darn simple. I have several new tabs, where you can read about me, check out my Scrapbook resume, look at some of my work, and you can also check out and use some of the sketches I've designed. So take a few minutes to look around, I hope you like what you see!!!

And a quick Hey, Look Forward to This note: This Friday, January 20, Frosted Designs will be hosting a Winter Blog Hop. Come join us for lots of inspiration, fun, and some giveaways. There will be a main giveaway through Frosted Designs, and I am sure some of the DT members will do giveaways on their individual Blogs...I know I will have one here!! So check back Friday for the fun and you could be one of the lucky winners!!

Exciting News at Scrapbook News and Review!!

2012-01-14T13:05:00.000-08:00

It's a New Year and with that comes changes! Scrapbook News and Review, an online magazine to fit all of your Scrapbook and crafting needs, is in the process of re-working the look of our site and each monthly issue. You will find inspiration through Scrapbook layouts, mixed media, tutorials, product reviews, videos and more. If you are already a subscriber, get ready for a fun new look and if you have not been over to check out SNR, come stop by and look through the forum and become a magazine subscriber. You won't be disappointed in what SNR has to offer!! Here is a little sneak peek of what is in the works for the new look:

And don't forget to check out the Submission calls and send in your work! You could be published in the next issue!!

Sketch Support - My First Reveal!!

2012-01-12T23:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that today is my first reveal for being on the 2012 DT for Sketch Support! It's hard to believe this is my first one to share, because I've actually already completed 4 layouts from Allison's amazing sketches. Working so far ahead gives my poor little brain a work out! :) I'm sure that most of you have been over to the Blog to check out the Two Page Sketch #24. My fellow DT members have come up with some amazing takes on this versatile sketch. If you haven't been over yet this week, take a minute to pop over to the Blog and check it out. Also, make sure you find us on Facebook and "like" the Sketch Support page. You can keep up with the amazing layouts the Ladies are posting and get a heads up on some of the great giveaways that take place throughout the year.

So without further ado, here is my take on the Two Page sketch:

I decided to have a little bit of grungy/inky fun with this one!! I inked around the edges of my page and added ink to some bubble wrap and stamped it on my background paper.

To see the variations I made from the sketch, head over to the Sketch Support Blog and check out today's post!!

Supplies - Cardstock: Bazzill; Patterned Paper & Stickers: Echo Park; Alphabets: American Crafts, Cosmo Cricket; Brads: Bazzill; Ink: Memento; Baker's Twine: The Twinery; Punches: Anna Griffin, Martha Stewart; Embroidery Floss: Janlynn; Other: Notebook Paper, Bubble Wrap

PUBLISHED!! CK Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season

2012-01-12T06:00:00.000-08:00

I have some great news to share today! The new Special Issue of Creating Keepsakes Scrapbooking Ideas for Every Season has been released...and I have a layout in this issue!!

I couldn't believe it when I was contacted in May of 2011 and asked if I would like to accept an assignment for this issue!! After I got up from the floor, I responded with a definite YES!! :) It has been so difficult keeping it under wraps for that long, too. But time flies, and I hope you will pick up this issue and check out some of the amazing work by some very talented Scrapbookers!

My layout is included in the Spring section of the magazine. I really wanted the focus of this layout to be on the pictures, so I decided to keep the photos fairly large and keep my embellishments to a minimum. But I think they still complement the page and I really love the cute, Country Drive papers from Echo Park alongside the colors in my photos. So here is a look at my page...and I must say that I am completely honored to be included in a magazine with these Ladies, who I consider to be giants in the Scrapbooking industry and they are the ones I look to for inspiration.

Thanks for stopping by and keep an eye out this Summer, because I have two Reader's Pick Poll layouts that will be appearing in Creating Keepsakes...and maybe another surprise here or there!! ;)

TuTu Much Fun!!

2012-01-10T15:13:00.000-08:00

I am so glad I got to take a little time today and work on the 1.5 sketch challenge for Sketchy Thursdays...and I've really needed some scrap therapy today! It's been one of those days!! This was a fun page to put together, because I finally broke out the awesome Christmas Wishes collection from Bella Blvd., that I ordered from Two Peas last month. So this is my inaugural layout using this fun collection. How can you make a bad page using such cute papers and embellies??!! It actually took me a while to get this page finished, because I thought it would be fun to make my own lace cardstock with my Expression. I just used my Sure Cuts A Lot program to add varying circles together and then welded and cut. And another great thing about the Christmas Wishes line is that it really complimented the colors in my photo! I always like to pull colors from my photos to use to choose my papers for a page. This photo is from Christmas Eve. My cousin made the girls these adorable matching tutu's and of course I had to make them pose for a picture!

I added the cute little outlined stars with the button centers for the Weekend Warm Up #22 challenge at ScrapFIT, which is using Stars on your layout or project.

Products Used:

Paper, Stickers, & Chipboard: Bella Blvd.
Brads: The Paper Studio
Pearls: Kasier Craft
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Buttons: Michael's
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Thickers: American Crafts
Tiny Type: Cosmo Cricket

Somethin' Fishy's Goin' On!

2012-01-07T09:50:00.000-08:00

So yesterday was my birthday and I decided to work on a layout just for fun...no DT projects or challenges. I must admit it took me a while, because I had to stop and start about 20 times, but it finally got finished before I went to bed last night. I've gotten in the very bad habit lately of working on current photos and leaving older ones without pages...like back to April of 2011. So I am going to try and start making myself get some of those older photos scrapped.

These pictures are from September, when the kids went to a nature class at our local Nature Resource center. The instructors took the kids out and caught tons of minnows in nets and then dumped them on the pier for the kids to see. Mine, of course loved picking them up, and throwing them back in the water. I didn't get great pictures, because for some reason I only had my phone with me that day. My favorite photo is the one with all of the kids' heads over the bucket. They we so interested in what those fish were doing in that bucket. I used a mix of Echo Park papers on this page, from the Sweet Summertime, Splash, and A Walk in the Park collections.

And just a fun sidenote: That journaling tag is from a t-shirt that I got for my birthday! You can find scrappy supplies everywhere if you look hard enough!! :)

Products Used:

Paper: The Paper Studio, Echo Park, & BoBunny
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Font: CK Jolly Elf
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Stickers: Echo Park
Buttons: Michael's
Embossing: Sizzix Big Shot & Provo Craft
Brad: Bazzill
Edgers: Provo Craft

Holy Challenge Batman!!!

2012-01-05T22:01:00.000-08:00

Wanna find a way to really challenge this girl? Take away her patterned paper!!! :) It is well known, that I have a slight obsession with patterned paper, so when I saw that the challenge for this week at Frosted Designs was Cardstock Only, I thought "how am I gonna pull this one off??!!" And I will admit it took me a while to get headed in a direction I liked with this page. Even the title took me forever to come up with!! I couldn't get the song, "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy" by Kenny Chesney out of my head, every time I saw the tractor in these pictures. But I didn't think that was all too appropriate for my 5 year old!! :)

One of my favorite papers from Bazzill, is there Swiss Dots cardstock, so I used this pretty deep watermelon color for my background. My LSS also got in some of the Kraft-Core and Core'dinations papers by Tim Holtz and these are amazing for embossing and distressing. So I used a couple of different embossing folders on the Tim Holtz papers and then used one of the large emery boards to bring the color out and create my own pattern and texture on the paper.

I think this is a great Challenge to kick us off for the New Year and help get us out of our comfort zone! I hope you will come play along with us this week for the chance to win an awesome prize from our sponsor, Nikki Sivils!! :)

Products Used:

Cardstock: Bazzill & Tim Holts
Brads: Bazzill
Flower Sack, Metal Pin, Stickers, Mini Market Stickers, Chipboard: October Afternoon
Alpha Stickers: Jillibean Soup
Emobssing: Sizzix Big Shot & Provo Craft
Acrylic Paint: Apple Barrel
Baker's Twine: October Afternoon
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Punch: EK Success

The Birthday Girl!

2012-01-02T20:32:00.000-08:00

Our middle daughter had the unfortunate luck of being born the day after Christmas, so we try to do something on the actual day to make it a little special for her. She was almost a Christmas day baby...contractions started after Christmas lunch, but we didn't head for the hospital until the next morning at 5:30AM!! :) Since she has reached the big "4", we let her decide what she wanted to do this year and so we all headed out to see the new Alvin & the Chipmunks movie, "Chip Wrecked". I also gave her several restaurant choices, one of them being Cracker Barrel since she loves it so much, and I hoped that wouldn't be her choice, but of course it was!! :) We finished up the night with some frozen yogurt at Moo Che Che and her Nana & Big Daddy brought her a brand new (toy) Horse and she was ecstatic!! So, all in all, I think she had a great birthday and she even gave me some big smiles for some birthday pics, which I used to create this layout based on the 12.29 sketch at Sketchy Thursdays.

Products Used:

Paper: Simple Stories
Stickers: Simple Stories
Pom Pom Trim: Wrights
Thickers: American Crafts
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Buttons: Michael's
Edgers: Provo Craft
Pen: Zig

Looking Back @ 2011!

2011-12-30T13:22:00.000-08:00

WOW! It's hard to believe that 2011 is coming to a close!! So much has happened this past year. I've been inspired by so many of you and because of that I think I have grown tremendously in this crazy, fun hobby of mine! I achieved several scrappy goals this year - keeping up frequently with my Blog being one of them. I also had some publication news in 2011, when my layout "The Sky's the Limit" won the Reader's Pick Poll at Creating Keepsakes. It will be appearing in the May/June 2012 issue of the magazine. This was also the year for Design Team fun! I am currently serving on DT's for Frosted Designs and ScrapHappy Pensacola (my LSS) and I will begin a year team with Sketch Support starting in January. I am also one of the newest staff members at Scrapbook News and Review magazine and I'm looking forward to the upcoming online publications!

With all of the "Top" 2011 lists, I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite layouts from this past year. It is really hard to choose, because I think all of our layouts are special in their own way and if it's not the design we love, then maybe the photos or the story behind it. So without further ado, here are some of my pics from this past year:

I thought it would also be fun to share with you some of my favorite lines/collections from this past year...most of which you will see on some of the above layouts! :)

Not in any particular order:

1. For the Record by Echo Park
2. Sidewalks by October Afternoon
3. Finally Fall by Bella Blvd.
4. Lost & Found II by My Mind's Eye
5. 100 Days of Summer by Simple Stories
6. Crate Paper (in general-anything they put out is FABULOUS!!)

Thanks for reflecting back with me on this year! I hope you will take a little time and think back on your favorites from this year! I would love to see your choices!

A Second Dose of Christmas!

2011-12-28T14:30:00.000-08:00

Well, Christmas is over and I am looking forward to the New Year, but with all of the tons of photos I took during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, it looks like I'll still be re-living it for a while! :) I gave up scrapping in order a while back, because I felt like it limited my creativity. I still add my layouts to my album chronologically, but I usually work within a 6 month time frame - right now I think it's more like 8 months. One day I might do an Easter layout, the next day one for the 4th of July and today I am posting one from Christmas Day.

I actually did this one for the December Pinterest Challenge at Club CK this week. You get to choose from 5 photos and use one of them as inspiration for your layout or project. It's a pretty fun challenge and I always try to play along every month. I have to admit though, that this layout was not cooperating with me when I was working on it last night. I just felt like I couldn't make it do what I wanted, but I think it ultimately turned out to be a pretty cute page.

I chose this photo as my inspiration because I really loved the crocheted look around the jars and I have some great trim by The Paper Studio that resembles that look. I also loved the cream and white mixed together, with the pops of red.

Products Used:

Paper: Jillibean Soup, My MInd's Eye, & DCWV
Pom Pom Trim: Wright's
Trim: The Paper Studio
Font: CK Brittany B
Pearls: Kaiser Craft
Thickers: American Crafts
Teeny Alpahs: Glitz Design
Word Stickers: Cosmo Cricket
Buttons: Michael's
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Punch: Marvy
Tools: MS Scoreboard

A Very Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T21:26:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite things about Christmas, is taking time to stop during all of the busyness and craziness and remember the true reason I celebrate this day...the birth of my Savior! Now that is truly a reason to celebrate and I look forward to reading The Christmas Story around the tree with my family in the morning before all of the other Christmas festivities take place. I hope that all of you have a wonderful Christmas and that you are looking forward to a Happy New Year!! God has blessed me with an amazing family and wonderful friends...near and far...and for that I am thankful!!

"For to us a Child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government will be on His shoulders. And He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over His kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." - Isaiah 9:6-7

Oh Happy -Play- Day

2011-12-22T22:00:00.000-08:00

WOW!! I can't believe that it will be Christmas Eve tomorrow!! I hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and that you are looking forward to a Happy New Year!! Now I'm sure that most scrapbookers out there are going to be getting some awesome scrappy goodies under the tree this year, so why not put them to good use this week and play along with our Fabulous Friday Challenge this week at Frosted Designs!! This week's challenge is to use Cloth/Fabric on your layout or project.

I have seen the adorable flowers created with old t-shirts and haven't had a chance to try it yet, but I thought it would be perfect for this challenge. I just took one of the girl's and one of my old t-shirts and cut them about a half inch wide and at least 12 inches or longer, depending on how big you want your flower to be. Then grab both ends and twist the fabric. Once it is twisted, bring the two ends together and let the material "roll up" on itself. Take the two ends and place it as the center of your flower, either on a Gluber, or a punched circle out of paper and use hot glue and start rolling your flower. Once it is rolled and secured, you can add a button or brad, or whatever you like for the center.

You have until Noon on Thursday, December 29, to play along with us for the chance to win an awesome prize from our Sponsor!!

Products Used:

Paper & Stickers: Crate Paper
Trim: The Paper Studio
Buttons: MME
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Brads: The Paper Studio
Other: T-Shirts & Staples
Adhesive: Glubers

The Blah-humbugs!

2011-12-21T07:33:00.000-08:00

Do you ever feel that way at Christmas? I definitely do! I think it's the pressure that I feel of the obligations to do this and that, attend Christmas parties, get the perfect present for everyone and have it wrapped so it looks like it's from a department store, get all of the must-have Christmas photos, send out hand-made cards to family and friends...well, you get the idea. The only cure I have found for the Blah-humbugs is doing something just for me...and since I LOVE Scrapbooking, that is my go to fix! Because of the busy-ness of the last several days, I had not had time to sit down and work on a page, so Monday afternoon I made it a priority!! If you are like me, I am way behind on scrapping my photos, but I do have fun working on photos during the current time of the season...i.e., scrapping some Christmas photos at Christmas time!! :) I decided I wanted to do a page with some of the pictures from our recent visit to Santa. I used some of the adorable Christmas Eve Chowder papers from Jillibean Soup on this page and added a fun, stitched Chevron pattern by alternating colors of embroidery floss.

Products Used:

Paper: Jillibean Soup & DCWV
Letter Stickers: Jillibean Soup, My Little Shoebox, & October Afternoon
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Brads: The Paper Studio & Bazzill
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Pen: Zig
Font: CK Going Places
Punches: Marvy & Martha Stewart
Pearls: Kaiser Craft
Stick Pins: Little Yellow Bicycle
Edgers: Provo Craft
Other: Wire

I have one other quick layout to share, that I did over a week ago for one of the Issue Challenges at Club CK. The challenge for the week, was to scrap our favorite treat. Now I don't know if you've ever had Oreo Truffles, but if you have or ever do, I think you will agree that they are A-MAZ-ING!! Who knew that chopped Oreos mixed with cream cheese, rolled into balls, and covered in white chocolate could be so stinkin' good??!! I had a lot of fun with this page, especially the little border across the page with the Jillibean Soup corrugated alpas negative. I saw this idea on one of Kim Watson' layouts and added it to my scrappy board on Pinterest for future use. I loved the idea of using a simple color scheme on this page...white background with 5 colors - green, brown, black, red, and yellow. I think it added a fun graphic feel to this page.

Products Used:

Paper: October Afternoon & DCWV
Corrugated Alphas: Jillibean Soup
Thickers: American Crafts
Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Font: Scrapbaby
Edgers: Provo Craft
Stickers: October Afternoon
Metal Tag: EK Success
Button: MME
MIni Round Gems: Recollections
Photo: Bakerella.com

Inking, Misting, & Painting...Oh My!!

2011-12-12T10:03:00.000-08:00

If you've seen a lot of my pages, you know they are usually fairly "clean", and by clean I mean I don't really use a lot of mixed media. I think the reason for that is because I like to layout out everything on my pages and then stick it down. Once it's down there, I really just don't feel like moving it to mist or splatter paint. But I spent the day Saturday at my LSS, working on some of the Tim Holtz tags...well, my version of the tags anyway!! :) So yesterday when I decided to sit down and do the 12.8 Sketchy Thursdays sketch, I was still in messy mode and did a triple threat of ink (the circles on the page), spray mist (some Sprinklers from October Afternoon), and a little splatter paint (acrylic paint from the Craft Store). I also added a lot of outlining to this page, which is one of my favorite techniques!

Products Used:

Paper, Sprinklers, Stickers, Chipboard: October Afternoon

Trim: The Paper Studio

Punches: Marvy & Martha Stewart

Pen: Zig

Embroidery Floss: Janlynn

Brad: The Paper Studio

Paint: Folk Art

Ink: Memento

All That Glitters...

2011-12-08T22:01:00.000-08:00

You guessed it!! The Fabulous Friday Challenge this week at Frosted Designs is GLITTER! Kind of perfect timing for the Christmas Season, since everything is sparkly and glittery anyway! I did something a little different this week, since it was my turn to do the Project (instead of a layout) for this challenge. I was already in the Christmas spirit, so I decided this would be the perfect opportunity to work on a new ornament for my tree and here's what I came up with:

This is a fairly simple project to do and it would be so easy to make a set for your tree (or a gift for family members or friends), by setting up an assembly line. I cut 2 strips of paper 2 by 12 and then scored them all the way down on my cutting board. After scoring, just accordian fold your strips. Start one strip folding down and the other strip folding up, so you can connect the two together once you are done. Once the folding is done, take a Crop-A-Dile or hole puncher and punch a small hole near the bottom edge of the strip. Then you can run a piece of floss or twine through the hole and bring your accordian flower together and secure the end to create your circle. For the snowflake, I just used my Expression and cut one of the snowflake fonts on my computer. You could also use a punch, if you have a large one. Spray your snowflake with spray adhesive, or you can add a light coat of glue by brushing it on your snowflake. I sprinkled mine with Fairy Dust Glitter from Fancy Pants. Once it is dry, attach it to your accordian flower and then finish off the center with an embellishment, button, etc. Complete your ornament by adding a ribbon and then hanging it on your tree!

Come play along with us this week and let's see your Glittery creations! You will have the chance to win a fabulous prize from our sponsor, Buttons Galore!!

Lucky #15

2011-12-05T11:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who took part in visiting all of us this weekend for the Handmade Holiday Blog Hop!! I hope you enjoyed the inspiration from all of our CK Ladies!

I used Random.org to choose a winner for the materials to make the "Joy" boxes and that lucky winner is:

ANDREA!!

Congrats Andrea!! Get me your mailing info and I'll send out your prize ASAP!

Start Spreading the News!!

2011-12-02T07:54:00.000-08:00

Scrapbook News and Review that is!! I received an email later last week from the Executive Editor, Dan Koch, inviting me to join them as a new Staffer. This is basically their DT and I will be creating layouts for the different calls for their online magazine and participating here and there in other areas! If you're interested in finding out more about SNR, check out the site HERE and look around the Forum and check out the page calls for January 2012!!

ALSO in other BIG NEWS...I found out this morning that I have a layout up for vote for the new Reader's Pick Poll at Creating Keepsakes that will be for the July/August 2012 issue! You can vote once a day and voting will remain open until December 9! Please take a minute each day to hop over and vote for my layout Slip, Sliding Away!! You can vote HERE!

Handmade Holiday Blog Hop!!

2011-12-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

It's December and I hope you are starting to feel the Christmas spirit!! One thing I love about this time of year is the hand-made and home-made feel of Christmas. Everyone seems to enjoy making ornaments or decorations for their home, baking, and just decorating for the holidays, in general. Some of the Ladies at Club CK decided to share our Handmade Holiday with you and I hope you will enjoy hopping along with us for a ton of neat ideas. You should have arrived here from Cassie's BLOG. If you didn't, go back to Amanda's BLOG, Love.Joy.Paper and start out from the beginning of the Hop.

I decided to create a cute little project that I saw on Pinterest...and yes, I do actually make some of the ideas that I pin on my boards!! :)

These are the cute little kraft boxes that you can buy in Hobby Lobby or other local crafts stores. The great thing about these boxes, is that it offers a blank canvas for creating. I used them to spell out the word "JOY" and added it to the decor on my fireplace mantle. The first thing I did was ink a little around the edges of the top of the box. Then measure your boxes and cut a piece of paper to fit. I used Mod Podge to adhere my paper to the boxes. Next you can cut out the letters to spell out the word you would like to use or if you don't have a die cut machine, letter stickers would work great also. Adhere your letters to the paper and then ink around the edges. Go over once again with a second layer of Mod Podge to seal everything. I added a button to the center of my "O" and tied two of the boxes with ribbon, for a little extra flair!! :)

Now, for the fun part!! I will be giving away the materials to make the word "JOY", as pictured above, to one lucky winner! If you are new to my Blog become a follower and let me know, by commenting below. I would also love to hear from all of you and find out your favorite Christmas movie or TV show. Comments will remain open until 12PM (CDT) Sunday, December 4.

Next, you will continue on to Laura's BLOG for more great Christmas inspiration!

Products Used:

Boxes: Hobby Lobby
Paper: Jillibean Soup
Button: Michael's
Ink: Memento
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Other: Mod Podge & Ribbon

It's So Hard to Keep a Secret!!

2011-11-30T08:33:00.000-08:00

But I am SO HAPPY that I can share my BIG Secret with you...I will be joining the Sketch Support 2012 Creative Team, along with 19 other very talented Ladies!! It's actually been a secret since I applied, because I didn't tell anyone or share the layouts anywhere that I submitted. I figured my chances of making the Team were low, with so many creative Ladies trying for the Team. But to my surprise, I received an email from Allison Davis this past Saturday inviting me to be a part of the 2012 Team! After I did a little happy dance, I sent back a quick response of YES!! I can't wait to kick-off the new year working with Allison's amazing sketches and the returning DT members and the new additions to the DT!

Here are the returning members:

Carolyn Wolff
Christine Chain
Christy Arthur
Janette Kincaid
Jennifer Larson
Jill Sarginson
Katrina Hunt
Lynette Jacobs
Megan Bickers
Melissa Bell
Noey Hunt
Shari Thurman
Suzanna Lee

And the new additions:

Andrea Friebus
Cherie Nymeyer
Michele Edwards
Penny Grimsley
Sue Althouse
Virginia Nebel

I hope you will check out the amazing work by everyone coming in 2012!

I would also like to share the three layouts I sent in with my application:

Add-On Sketch #9:

Card Sketch #11:

Two-Page Sketch #21:

Ready for Some Heavy Metal??

2011-11-24T22:01:00.000-08:00

The days of adding just paper and stickers to our scrapbook pages are a thing of the past! These days, there are so many fun products and great ideas that can help add texture to our pages. Have you ever thought about adding Metal to your pages?? If so, or if it's a new idea you want to try, then come join us this week at Frosted Designs for our Fabulous Friday challenge...using Metal on your layout or project. There's a variety of ideas for using metal from metal tags, flowers, metal letters, wire, pins...just be creative and have fun.

Our family went to the Blue Angels Air Show a couple of weeks ago and I got a great pic of my hubby and son looking at one of the planes. I thought this would be a perfect challenge to use on this page. I have some of the EK Success tags (one of my favorite products) and I just popped out the center piece of paper, to leave just the metal ring and added them as an embellie to my page. I also had some cool nail-head brads from Recollections that were a perfect compliment to theme of my page.

So come join along in the fun this week and you could have the chance to win an amazing prize from our Sponsor, One Stop Card Crafts.

Products Used:

Paper: October Afternoon & Bazzill
Tags (Metal Rings): EK Success
Brads: Recollections
Letter/Journaling Stickers & Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Pen: Sharipe

HAPPY TURKEY DAY!

2011-11-24T07:18:00.000-08:00

I hope that everyone enjoys a great Thanksgiving today! We will be spending time with family and stuffing our faces!! We can be thankful everyday, but it is nice to have one special day set aside each year to stop and reflect on all of the things we are really thankful for. From our family to yours, have a blessed day everyone!!

My Little Ballerina

2011-11-21T08:52:00.000-08:00

My 5 year old started taking Ballet for the first time this year, back in August. During the month of November, the parents are invited to come into the classes for observation. I got to go into her class and snap some pictures last Monday. I was amazed to see how much she has learned in a few short months...especially since she hasn't taken dance before. She is definitely still a 5 year old little girl and still working on her coordination...but there were definitely moments when she was very graceful in her movements. It was hard to get great pics in the studio, with the artificial lighting and all of the movement. But I think these were some of the best and really showed those moments of what she has learned.

I decided to take on the Weekend Warm Up #18 challenge at ScrapFit and use stamping on my layout. I have a ton of stamps and ink, but don't use them as much as I should. The black flourishes are stamped with the Black ink pad from Stampin' Up and I wound some baker's twine around the swirls for a little more texture. I also used the Stampin' Up Vanilla ink pad with some bubble wrap to create a little more depth on my background paper. This was one of my first times to use a lighter ink on a darker colored paper and I really like the way it turned out. I used the 11.17 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays on this one, too.

Products Used:

Paper: Echo Park, Ho3, Bazzill
Stickers: Echo Park
Ink: Stampin' Up
Mini Round Gems: Recollections
Pen: Sharpie
Paper Crimper: Fiskars
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Punch: Marvy
Buttons: Michael's
Font: CK Believe

A BIG Surprise!

2011-11-18T08:37:00.000-08:00

Earlier this week, I was contacted by my friend and fellow Club CK Peep, Erika Hayes. She has been hosting a Weekly Challenge at Club CK for over a year now, known as the Issue Challenge. The concept of the challenge, is taking inspiration from each month's magazine and challenging the players to use that inspiration in their project or layout. I have been playing along since the first challenge and haven't missed a week yet! These are great ways to get out of your comfort zone and find a jumping off point in your creativity.

Anywho, Erika asked if she could use one of the sketches I've been working on as this week's inspiration for the challenge! She wants to start incorporating a Player's Challenge too each month and I am so honored to be the first one to kick that off! And if all of that isn't enough, she contacted me again yesterday afternoon and said that she had been asked to be the Contributing Writer for today's Creating Keepsakes Blog post, featuring the Issue Challenge for this week, which just happens to be my Sketch! WOW! I am still super-excited and excited for Erika for being today's writer!!

Here is the Sketch for the challenge and the layout I did based on it:

Products Used:

Paper: Crate Paper
Stickers & Embellishments: Crate Paper
Ink: Memento
Thickers: American Crafts
Teeny Alphas: Glitz Design
Embroidery Floss: Janlynn
Pen: Zig
Brads: The Paper Studio
Baker's Twine: The Twinery

I would also like to share the sample layout that Erika created from the sketch, to post along with the challenge:

She did such a great job and I love how she added another photo and the fun way she did her title! That corrugated heart is too, too cute!!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!

2011-11-17T22:00:00.000-08:00

Can you believe that Christmas is a little over a month away?? Are you ready?? If you're like me, probably not!! :) I always have grand dreams of all of the crafty goodness I am going to get done during the Christmas season and usually if I make it through my Christmas cards, I am happy. Well, this year I decided to get a head start on Christmas and get my December Daily album ready for all of the great pictures I'm planning to take! What's a December Daily you ask? Basically, it's a pre-made album for each day in December (mine only goes up to December 25, but you can do the whole month if you want to) and you can take a photo or photos each day and add them to your album. It's a really fun idea that was originally started by Ali Edwards and once you are done, you have a great little mini to document all of the fun Christmas festivities!

I was able to create this album with 99% of supplies from my LSS, ScrapHappy. I decided to go a little different route with this one and mix papers from the Simple Stories 25 Days of Christmas line and Jillibean Soup's Christmas Eve Chowder line. I thought it would be fun to mix in a little bit of the traditional Christmas look, with a little of the more contemporary and I love the way it turned out! For the front and back covers of my album, I got some of the 8x6 acrylic sheets from the store. These are great to decorate, and help protect the pages in your album. The binder rings are also available in the store and I just used my Crop-a-Dile to punch through the acrylic and add the rings. To create the base for my pages, I took some old cardstock and cut it to 8x6 pages and then cut and added my patterned paper to the front and back. Once I had the bases, I added the numbers for each day and then started decorating. Here is my finished product:

I hope you enjoyed seeing how I made my December Daily and that you will take time to do one too this year! There is no formula or directions, just have fun and start creating!!

Products Used:

Papers: Simple Stories, Jillibean Soup, Tim Holtz, Teresa Collins
Clips: Basic Grey
Stick Pins: Little Yellow Bicycle
Buttons: My Mind's Eye
Chipboard Buttons: Jenni Bowlin
Pearl Accents: KaiserCraft
Letter Stickers: My Little Shoebox & Doodlebug Design Inc.
Other: Ribbon & Poinsettia Flowers

Little Yellow Bicycle Cycling Team Project

2011-11-16T22:00:00.000-08:00

WOW! How excited am I today??!! I get to share the two layouts I created for Little Yellow Bicycle using their Hello Fall collection. First off, let me say how honored I am and how completely blown away I was when I was chosen as one of the designers for Little Yellow Bicycle's Cycling Team. I was chosen along with four other talented scrapbookers to use the Hello Fall collection to create projects or layouts using these fun products. Here is a little bit about each of the layouts I created:

"A Harvest of Fun"

One of the great things about working with coordinating products, is how quick and easy your pages can be. You don't have to sit for hours trying to pick out the products you want to use and lose time working on your pages!! That's what I loved about this fun page, using the Hello Fall line from Little Yellow Bicycle! It took less than an hour to get my page completed. I started by cutting a scalloped frame in the Burnt Orange Knit paper and attaching it to my background Autumn Tree paper. I then cut 5 inch squares from Golden Flourish, Harvest Rings, Green Splendor, and Walnut Knit. Then I inked the edges of each of the papers to add a little more definition. I created a grid with the 5 inch squares and then placed my photos in the center of the layout. There were a few scraps of paper after cutting, and I used those to create a few border strips under my photos. There are some adorable alphas included in the Family Tree kit I received, and they were perfect for using in my title. I adhered each letter to a scrap piece of the Walnut Knit paper to make them stand out a little more against my background paper. Finally, I started adding some of the adorable embellishments in the Hello Fall line. The Chipboard Shapes worked great on the right hand side of my page, and I decided to add a little bling to my border strips with the Jewel Stickers. I finished my title off with the word "Fun", which was included in the Chipboard Sticker Words package. There are so many fun banners and penants also included in this line, and I decided to balance out the left side of my page by adding several of the pennants. For a little fun touch, I added one of the Clear Cuts Shapes to the center of the yellow pennant and attached it with a brad. For my journaling strips, I just used a Desktop Publishing program to type up my journaling and printed it out on a scrap piece of the Autumn Tree paper.

Products Used:

HF-101 Autumn Tree
HF-106 Golden Flourish
Harvest Rings
HF-103 Green Splendor
HF-105 Burnt Orange Knit
HF-104 Walnut Knit
HF-279 Chipboard Shapes
HF-310 Family Tree Kit (Letters)
HF-135 Cardstock Favorite Pieces
HF-308 10 Things Pocket (Pennants)
HF-165 Chipboard Sticker Words
HF-197 Jewel Stickers
HF-230 Clear Cut Shapes

Other:

Font: Plantagenet Cherokee
Brads: The Paper Studio
Pen: Zig
Ink: Memento

"Little Pumpkin Picker"

Since I had so many fun products to work with from Hello Fall, I decided to do a double page layout for my second project. I began this page by getting my papers cut and layered. For the background paper, I chose Delicious Autumn Text and then used Burnt Orange Knit, Golden Flourish, Harvest Rings, and Walnut Knit for layering. Then I placed my photos and added the title and journaling area. There are some great shapes and embellies in the Clear Cut Shapes package and I used two of the orange flourishes near my title and journaling block. Since the flourish on the right hand side was over the Orange Knit paper, I decided to add the Golden Flourish paper behind it, to help it stand out. I used some of the cute little leaves from the Cardstock Favorite Pieces package to scatter across the two pages and I outlined thiem with a brown Zig pen for more definition. I decided to add a little bit of Baker's Twine, in matching colors, to give another fun element across the layout. There are some adorable banners in the Mini Banner package and I LOVE the little owls that are included here and there in this line. This banner was the only one I had and it was only 12 inches, so I decided to use part of it under the photos on the left side of my page and then used the remainder, for a little emphasis, under the landscape photo on the right side of my page. I finished off the layout by adding the cute little acorn and tree from the Chipboard Shapes package.

Products Used:

HF-107 Delicious Autumn Text
HF-105 Burnt Orange Knit
HF-106 Golden Flourishes
Harvest Rings
HF-104 Walnut Knit
HF-161 Crepe Paper Lace Stickers
HF-279 Chipboard Shapes
HF-134 Journaling Cards
HF-309 5 Things Envelope
HF-310 Family Tree Kit
HF-230 Clear Cuts Shapes
HF-135 Cardstock Favorite Pieces
HF-307 Mini Banners

Other:

Pen: Zig
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Thickers: American Crafts

No Challenge...No Problem!

2011-11-15T15:09:00.000-08:00

A lot of times I get caught up in all of the great challenges that are out there and once my layout for that particular challenge is done, I think "well, what am I gonna do now?". How about doing a layout (or two) just for fun...just because you want to...no strings attached...no requirements...no prizes awarded! And that's just what I did with this layout!

I think the Farmhouse collection from Crate Paper is probably one of my #1 top favorites out there right now. The colors are Autumn colors, which is my most favorite color scheme and the patterns are awesome, but subtle. I think I need a whole "crate" worth of these!! For this layout, I worked with one of the sketches that I created (specifically for this page) and finally got to use it today.

I changed up the sketch a little bit, by moving my title down and adding a little bit of journaling at the top of the page. The flowers are just fussy cut from one of the papers and I cut the letters for the word "UP" on my Expression using the Arial Black font. I used some baker's twine to add the little stitched "x's" for some texture on the page and finished it off with one of the wild cards from October Afternoon.

Products Used:

Paper: Crate Paper
Wild Card: October Afternoon
Thickers: American Crafts
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Pen: Zig
Font: Arial Black

So Transparent!

2011-11-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

Do you ever use transparencies on your layouts? They are a fun and easy way to add a new element to your pages. You can layer them over patterned paper or plain paper for different effects and over white space in your photos. One of the challenges this week at Club CK, was to use transparencies on a layout. I have some great transparencies in the goodies I received from Little Yellow Bicycle for my Cycling Team project (which will be on the LYB Blog, this Thursday, November 17!!!). Even though the transparencies are from the Hello Fall line, they blended in perfectly with the bright, fun October Afternoon Sidewalks papers that I chose for this layout. If you've never used transparencies and are wondering how to attach them, here are several ways: 1. Staple; 2. Use Brads; 3. Clear Adhesive; 4. or just use a regular adhesive and then add an embellie or something else over the adhesive to hide it.

I used the 11.10 sketch from Sketchy Thursdays for this page. I moved the title under my photos and the journaling area to the side of my photos. I had to do a couple of repairs on this page! I added the cloud, because my pen slipped when I was outlining the paper strips, but I think it was a perfect addition. My second fix happened at the bottom under my title. When I stamped my flourishes, apparently some ink got on my hand and I didn't know it!! So, next thing I know, I had a print of part of my hand on the page! The "E" in Babe and the butterfly brad worked to cover it up nicely though!! :) Sometimes mistakes help bring out a little more creativity!!

Products Used:

Paper: October Afternoon
Transparencies: Little Yellow Bicycle
Brads: Bazzill
Ink: Memento
Trim: The Paper Studio
Thickers: American Crafts
Pen: Zig
Other: Acrylic Stamps

Butterflies and the Beach!

2011-11-10T22:01:00.000-08:00

Welcome to Fabulous Friday everyone!! Frosted Designs has a great challenge this week! Join us this week in adding Embossing (Dry or Heat) to you layouts or projects!! Our family went to the beach to spend the day with some of our other family members who were visiting from out of town. The funny thing is, that my husband's cousin and his wife (who are close to our age) have 3 children that are all within months of our 3 children...they have 3 girls, and we have 2 girls and a boy. When I snapped this photo of our middle daughter along with her "Cousin Counterpart", I knew it would be a beautiful photo for a page and adding the black and white filter made me love it even more!! I got to use some of the gorgeous Farmhouse papers from Crate Paper on this layout. I had so much fun with this challenge and knew immediately that I wanted to use my Swiss Dot embossing folder to make some beautiful butterflies for my page. I cut the butterflies on my Expression and then cut the smaller shape of the butterfly and adhered the two together, before running them through my Big Shot. I used some bubble wrap and Tattered Angels spray mist to create the background on my white paper. Once the spray mist dried, I started building my page by adding the 5x7 photo and lining up the butterflies and then adding my title and journaling. I saved the centers from the orange, outline butterflies and used those to scatter across my page.

Whether you are new to Embossing or have it mastered, I hope you will come play along with us this week. You will have to chance to win an awesome prize from our sponsor, MoldMuse!!

Products Used:

Paper: Crate Paper & Bazzill
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Spray Mist: Tattered Angels
Thickers: American Crafts
Tiny Type: Cosmo Cricket
Pen: Zig
Brad: The Paper Studio

Some BIG EXCITING News!

2011-11-10T12:47:00.000-08:00

Today I received an email from the online Magazine Scrapbook News and Review telling me that 8 of my layouts have been chosen for publication in their November 16 Vol. #4 Issue #11/12. I am so excited to be a part of their Publication. If you are a subscriber to the magazine be on the lookout for my upcoming layouts!

Feature on You!

2011-11-09T07:19:00.000-08:00

Finally I am getting around to posting some of the amazing layouts I've spotted using a few of my sketches! I am still so honored to know that so many of you like my sketches and are using them for your pages. Hopefully, at the first of the year, I will be able to post a Sketch Challenge and offer up a little scrappy prize to a random winner. So be on the lookout for that!

The first layout is from Regina Castillo:

How cute is Regina's page??!! I love how she used the banner up top and added the word "Ride" to her penants. Her misting is beautiful and I love the use of the gears to go along with the bicycle theme. You can stop by and check out Regina's Blog, HERE.

Up next is a layout from the very talented Mia Castrillo:

Mia did an excellent job switching up the photo placement to add room for the adorable photo strips of her little one learning to roll over! I love that she kept the large circle element behind her photos! You can visit Mia's Blog HERE!

One of my fellow Club CK Peeps decided to try her hand at one of my sketches!! Here is what Robyn did:

Robyn rotated the photos to fit her landscape photos and extended the single page sketch into a double page layout. I love the wintry feel she created on her layout by using the white and blue color scheme and the fun title she came up with for her page.

And the final layout comes from Missy Whidden:

This is Missy's second time using one of my sketches and she does not disappoint! I love that she decided to use the less than perfect photos from her daughter's Easter photo shoot and the film strip look was perfect for the theme of her page! Missy always does an excellent job using bright colors and this layout is no exception! Stop by and check out Missy's amazing work HERE.

I hope you have enjoyed seeing the work from these talented Ladies and I hope you are inspired by what they did! Since I haven't posted any new sketches lately, I will share one with you today. Feel free to use it for your pages, but just mention my name as the Sketch Designer and add a link for my Blog. Let me know if you use it (or any of the other sketches) and I would love to Feature You on my Blog!

Chinese Whispers Reveal

2011-11-08T18:28:00.000-08:00

There is a fun challenge hosted by Adele, one of the CK Peeps at Club Ck, once a month called Chinese Whispers. You may be wondering what in the world Chinese Whispers may be?? Well, did you every play the Telephone game in school, where the teacher told the first student a short sentence and they passed it on to the next person and so on until it had passed through each student. The fun part was hearing what the end result was once it when around the room, compared to the original sentence presented by the teacher! Chinese Whispers follows along those same lines and starts out with the Group Leader choosing a sketch. There are usually 5 or so ladies in each group and the first person in the group receives the sketch. Once she finishes her layout, she emails her layout (not the sketch) to the next person on the list. So the object of the challenge is for each person to do a layout sent from the previous person and then see how much it changes from the original sketch. Sounds fun, huh! I have been playing along for a while now and I love seeing the reveal at the end of each round! If you'd like to play along sometime, just head over to Club CK and keep an eye out for the Chinese Whispers sign up in the Forums section of the Club. Here is my layout from this round and the original sketch from the challenge. I was last in our group, this go around! :)

Products Used:

Paper: Bella Blvd

Stickers: Crate Paper

Thickers: American Crafts

Font: Arial Black

Brads: The Paper Studio

Pen: Sharpie

Workin' On My Off Week!

2011-11-03T22:01:00.000-07:00

Because of the amount of talented designers we have at Frosted Designs, Barb and Debbie have the Fabulous Friday Team split into two groups. But they encourage us to join in on our "off week" if we want to. This is my first time to join along with Team 1 in their reveal. Things were crazy for a while, but have kind of slowed down so I found time to work on this week's challenge, which is Family. Being mom and the scrapbooker in the family, you don't find me in as many photos as the kiddos and daddy, but I am glad that I have these two photos with just the 4 of them. It reminds me that even through all of the hectic days, tantrums, disobedience, bills, fights, etc., that they are what matter the most in my life.

I also did this layout for the November challenge at Love Joy Paper, which is to create a layout with the theme of "thankful". I think this layout more than covers thankful!! :)

Come play along with us this week at Frosted Designs for the chance to win a great prize from our sponsor, Pizzazz Aplenty!

Products Used:

Paper & Stickers: Echo Park
Brad: The Paper Studio
Distress Ink: Tim Holtz

I Have Been Waiting for This!

2011-11-03T12:07:00.000-07:00

I was sad to see the month of October come to an end, because it also ended my GDT spot at Sketchy Thursdays! But I am also glad to be back and playing along with the weekly challenges, starting today! It was a weird feeling doing the layouts way ahead of time and then when Thursdays got here, not playing a long in the challenge. So when I saw today's sketch, I decided to jump right on it! I LOVE these pics of my son!! Already at the age of 2 1/2 he is a HANDFUL...mischevious and all over the place, but those dimples usually end up getting him out of a lot of trouble! :) The Toy Box collection from Crate paper is perfect for these fun little boy layouts and I had lots of little bits and pieces of it from my friend Amanda Johnson. I have got to get my hands on some more of the papers though, because my LSS only had about three different patterns in last time I checked! EEEKKKK!

Products Used:

Paper: Crate Paper & The Paper Studio
Brads: The Paper Studio
Stickers: Crate Paper
Pen: Zig
Baker's Twine: The Twinery

I also had one other quick layout I wanted to share. Believe it or not, this one is just a layout for layouts sake...no challenges whatsoever on this one. I enjoyed using the October Afternoon Sidewalks collection for this page. It's almost as if they were made perfectly for my photos!! :)

Products Used:

Paper: October Afternoon

Ink: Close to My Heart

Mini Market Stickers: October Afternoon

Thickers: American Crafts

Font: Hypewriter

Pen: Zig

Other: Bubble Wrap

Fair Food!

2011-10-28T13:43:00.000-07:00

Looking for a fun challenge this weekend?? Then head over to Frosted Designs and check out the 10/28/11 Fabulous Friday challenge!! The challenge this week, is to make a card, layout or project where food or candy are the focus! Fun and easy!! When I saw this challenge, I knew that I wanted to do a layout about one of our favorite things during this time of the year...Fair Food! You can't beat it!! It's messy, greasy, and really bad for you...but it tastes soooo good and I look forward to going every year just for the chicken on a stick, pizza, corn dogs, funnel cakes, fried oreos...if you can think of it, they've probably got it! :)

Go check out the amazing project from my fellow DT members for a little inspiration and then play along with us this week for the chance to win a great prize from Designs by Diana. Diana Fisher is offering a $10 gift certificate to her Etsy Shop!! You have until Noon on Thursdays, November 3 to link up your project.

Products Used:

Paper: Recollections & Glitz Designs
Button Blossoms: Sassafras
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Thickers: American Crafts
Font: CarnivalMF
Tickets: Tim Holtz
Pom Pom Trim: Wrights
Brads: Bazzill
Decorative Scissors: Provo Craft

My Last One!!

2011-10-27T05:00:00.000-07:00

Today, I have my last layout to share as the GDT at Sketchy Thursdays for the month of October. I have had so much fun revealing each week with the talented designers!! Even though I am a little sad that this is my last GDT layout, I am still looking forward to playing along with the fun sketch challenges each week!

The funny thing about this layout is that it was my last one for the month, but it was the first one that I decided what to do with once I got the 4 sketches from Diana!! I knew the exact papers, embellies, and photos I wanted to use on it. But instead of getting ahead of myself, I actually ended up doing all of them in order. I have been holding onto this Out of Print paper from BG, because for some crazy reason I only bought 3 or 4 sheets at my LSS!!! But I decided this cute page was worth using it!! :)

I had a lot of fun playing with texture on this layout....tearing, plush brads, textured paper from The Paper Studio, metal tag, baker's twine, raised flowers, chipboard letter...etc! And I was really happy with the mixed up alphas in the title on this one!

I hope you've enjoyed seeing all of my layouts at Sketchy Thursdays this month and that you'll continue to play along in the challenge each week. Hopefully, I might even have the chance to be up for GDT sometime again in the coming months!! :)

Products Used:

Papers: Basic Grey, Sassafras, The Paper Studio, Close to My Heart
Tag: EK Success
Baker's Twine: The Twinery
Font: Impact Label
Thickers: American Crafts
Teeny Alphas: Glitz Designs
Brads: The Paper Studio & Bazzill
Chipboard Letter: The Paper Studio
Pen: Sharpie & Sakura
Other: Ribbon