Still In Disney!

Hey, a girl can dream, right? I'm actually giggling like a little kid right now!! Its 7:25am on Wednesday morning and I just finished a layout! What's the big deal? Well because and unnamed person (John), does not know how to be quiet in the mornings, I woke up at 5:15am in a foul mood. I am not a morning person to begin with and take away 1 1/2 hours of good sleep time and I'm even more grumpy. After a few choice words I got out of bed and stormed into the kitchen. I did a load of laundry, ran the dishwasher and made coffee. Oh you have no idea how badly I wanted to make TWO cups, rather than a full pot but I made the full pot! Anyway, after all that was done I got on the computer and started reading my emails. I was feeling sorry for myself because I have so many layout ideas in my head and my notebook and I knew tonight I could not scrap as I will be at Crew with Susie until 9ish. So what's a girl to do? Drop everything and go scrap NOW!! Hee Hee!!!! As soon as John left for work, I hightailed it into my scraproom armed with the latest sketch from Creative Scrappers. I still had Disney stuff on my desk from last night so I just grabbed what was at hand and made another Disney layout! That's 3 now!!!! I just may get this trip scrapped after all! Its only been 4 years!!! Papers are Sandylion, EK Success and Creative Imaginations. Felt by Queen & Co. Mickey Sticker by EK Success. Ribbon from my stash.  I cut the wavy border at the bottom using OLD OLD OLD OLD OLD Fiskars Decorative Scissors!  I have not touched these things in YEARS!!  I then had to do it twice to make the red mat underneath it because I didn't realize I was putting black on black!  DOH!  By using the scissors, this qualifies the layout for the Practical Scrappers challenge!  I didn't even do that on purpose....I just couldn't figure out any other way to get teh scalloped edge in a wave pattern to go along with the sketch and I jsut didn't have time to play with the Cricut!!  I may have to dust off some of my other decorative scissors now!

So now I am running late and I have to stop and get bagels for a co-worker's birthday! Hope you get some scrappy time today! Its a great way to start a day if you ask me!!

I'm Going To Disney!

OK not really!  I WISH I was though!  And I was right back there tonight as I was looking through pictures from our 2006 trip.  Even John was enjoying looking at the pictures.  The kids look SOOO young and it was not even a full 4 years ago!  Amazing, actually!  So in my mind I'm in Disney, having the time of my life!  Its my favorite place in the world and John is just not into it at all so my next hope to go is when I have grandchildren....at least that's what he says!!  Hey Wendy, maybe we should plan a trip together!  LOL!!  Me, you, Mickey and scrapping in Disney!  Anywhooo, this layout accomplished several things on my to-do list (which I left at work today so was sorta lost when I sat down to scrap...I NEED my notes!!).   I mentioned that I am taking the Camp Scrap class at Big Picture a few posts ago.  One of the challenges was to use a color you are not comfortable with.  For me, that color is yellow.  I don't know why, but I find myself avoiding it as much as possible in my layouts.  But these pictures demanded yellow!  The photos are of Susie and Matt sitting in the big chairs inside Minnie Mouse's house in Toontown.  You can't see it in this picture but Susie even has a yellow skirt on!!  I used yellow Minnie Mouse print paper and red/white polka dot paper by Sandylion, dot ribbon from $1 spot at Target, the yellow braided flower is a new favorite that I just got in a fun order from Creative Charms, the Mickey and Minnie stickers are by Disney, the title letters are from Michael's and the bubble ones I have no idea!  The layout is based on the sketch over at Sketch Inspirations this week so I got that combined with the Camp Scrap challenge! 

This layout is also from the same 2006 Disney trip.  It is ALSO today's "recipe" from Camp Scrap.  1 piece of cardstock, 2 sheets of patterned paper and embellishments.  And while I am not a huge fan of double layouts, this worked out perfect as it called for 7 landscape 4x6's and it just so happened I had exactly 7 shots of the kids (John's son is also in the picture....we don't see him often so you don't see him appear in too many of my layouts) getting their faces painted at MGM Studios.  Again, Sandylion patterned paper, Disney stickers, the chipboard bookplate is SEI, the Mickey Balloon brads are from The Eyelet Outlet and the the white letters are American Crafts Thickers.  The Mickey Head I cut from the Mickey and Friends Cricut Cartridge.  Took me abuot 20 minutes to do this layout and I got an entire event scrapped!!

That's it for me tonight!  I'm actually thrilled that I got these two done and I didn't even come into my scraproom until 9pm!  Tomorrow is Crew again with Susie so I probably won't be getting anymore scrappy time until Wednesday night and boy do I have a lot of layout ideas and challenges to complete in my notebook!

Guest Designer for Crafty Steals!!

Boy, its been an exciting two weeks for me as far as scrapping goes!  To think that just 6 months ago, I never took photos of my layouts, never shared them online, never entered a challenge or a contest!!

My news today is this.....I will be the Guest Designer for the month of August for Crafty Steals!  If you have not checked them out, you should!!  They are a "deal-a-day" site for scrapbookers, with really great deals!!  You know all those layouts I have been posting lately using the My Minds Eye Just Dreamy2 line?  Yup, got that HUGE pack of paper at a steal from Crafty Steals!  I've also received a great assortment of Jillibean Soup papers and today ordered a steal of Cosmo Cricket!  All the brands you know and love, at a fraction of the retail cost!  I can't wait to see what the steals for August will be and what I get to play with!

I'm hoping to get some scrapping done tonight after work.  Not sure though, as Crew has started and both Susie and Matt are doing it....of course they couldn't be rowing for the same Rowing Club...oh no, that would make Mom's life too easy!  Instead Susie is rowing for Viking Rowing Club in Ventnor, NJ on Mondays and Wednesdays   from 6-8 and Matthew is rowing for Brigantine Rowing Club in Brigantine, NJ on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 6-8.  Its a 20 minute ride to either one so its not close enough to make it worthwhile for me to drop off, come home and go pick back up.  With the price of gas, and besides the fact I'd be home about an hour and have to leave again, you know where I will be 4 nights a week!  I just keep telling myself that I can sleep in 6 years when they are both out of high school!!

Pink Lady

Sometimes I join a site and then forget all about it until I see it posted on someone else's blog! That's exactly how this layout came about. I was checking out my blog friend Denise's blog here and not only realized that she is on the Design Team there (Yay, Denise!!) but she posted the weekly sketch at Pages In Time. I love circles so decided to have a go at the sketch. I had pulled these photos when I pulled the ones I used on the Rock Star layout. Both photos are basically the same theme (funny colored hair from a Libby Lou birthday party) just different ages. She was 7 in these photos and 5 in the others! I figured since I had the photos pulled out, I should use them...plus I really trying hard to keep scrapping some older photos too. I had at least 5 different colored backgrounds for this layout....white, turquoise glitter, kraft, pale yellow and then finally decided on black. Its really quite rare that I use black as a background although I don't know why, because it really made the colors in the papers and flowers pop. I did this layout a few hours ago but have been patiently waiting for the tons of distress Stickles to dry. I couldn't wait any longer so I took the photo while the Stickles is still not fully dry....its dry to the touch but if you press it will ooze!! I have ZERO patience!

Supply List:

Black Dot Cardstock - Unknown

Fancy Pants PPs - About A GirlFlowers - Recollections (pink) and Oriental Trading (turquoise)

Bling flower centers - Unknown

Distress Stickles - Worn Lipstick

Title Letters - American Crafts Vinyl Thickers
Leaf Punch - Marvy

Slide With Me Mom

This morning I decided to just scrap what I wanted. No challenges in mind, no contests, etc. Just chose a picture from the album I had out last night....so glad to be getting some of the older photos scrapped....picked out some papers and off I went. I admit, I did use a PageMaps sketch for inspiration. Its been a long time since I have been to the PageMaps site and I used to use Becky's sketches all the time before I was introduced to the world of blogging and found all the sketch and challenge blogs out there! I love this photo of Susie and even though she just turned 12, she still has that same sweet little voice and I can close my eyes and be right back there hearing her say "Slide with me Mommy!". She loved her Little Tykes slide and everytime she got on it she INSISTED that I slide too. If you have seen Little Tykes stuff, its NOT adaptable to grown ups! LOL! But slide I did!!

Hmm....I didn't intend this as I thought the new challenge started this morning, but it appears that I DO have a challenge to submit for. Practical Scrappers - use flowers! Apparently the new challenge comes out tomorrow!  AND I also didn't do this intentionally, but the Color Challenge over at Frosted Designs is Yellow, Orange, Turquoise and Green.  Check, Check, Check and Check!  (And about 5 other colors but the rules didn't say we could ONLY use those colors!

Supply List: Co'ordinations Vintage Collection cardstock, Fancy Pants About A Girl papers, yellow dot ribbon from the $1 Spot at Target (I know its crooked at the bottom...I fixed it after I took the photo!), flowers are all Recollections $1 packs from Michael's with bling centers by unknown, GROW Bingo Card by Jenni Bowlin, swirl from flowers is a Sizzix diecut, green title letters are Doodlebug, tiny type letters are My Little Shoebox, the butterflies are from a Martha Stewart punch that I got for $4 at Walmart on clearance (WOO HOO!), yellow flower brad is Making Memories and I used an EK Success border punch on the blue polka dot paper.

Unfortunately, I must now go grocery shopping!! So probably not a big scrapping day for me today! There's always tonight though!

6th Grade - Stuck On U Sketches

Well, I THOUGHT I was going to bed soon after my last post until I stopped at the Stuck On U Sketches blog and saw the newest sketch. Its a double page PageMaps sketch but I chose to only do the left side. I found these SEI Silk Road papers when I was searching for the Monkey paper from the last post! Do you think I have TOO much paper? I forget what I have!! I don't think this is TOO old though....maybe 6 month or so. The photo is of my son, Matt. They have school photos taken twice a year (stupid if you ask me!). The Fall are the more formal portraits and in the Spring are these casual shots. What I didn't realize until I turned on my Ott light to photograph the layout, is that the dark colored paper is actually blue and not black, and the print where the photo is matted on has two colors...orange and pink! LOL! I definately did not see blue or pink the entire time I was creating this layout but oh well....I still like it and you really can't tell unless you are in good light. The foil embossed chip accent on the side of the photo is also SEI from the same line. The blackboard is Cosmo Cricket and I added some orange gems to the centers of the flowers. The paper flower is Recollections with a Lily Bee Lovely chipboard flower center and the larger chipboard flower is also Lily Bee with a gem in the center. Beneath the blackboard is a Jillibean Soup journaling sprout. I'm almost out of them and I promised myself no new scrap stuff until August!!  Chipboard letters are Basic Grey and the letter stickers are Recollections. Oh yeah, and the flowers again for Practical Scrappers!  Wonder what next weeks challenge will be?  This is it for today....my eyes are closing whether I want them to or not. I think I completed 5 layouts today....not bad!

No More Monkeys

Before I go on about this layout, I want to remind anyone who reads this to back up their photos on the computer NOW! I had a major scare this afternoon!! I have two USB ports on the side of my laptop. I use them both regularly, especially when I am using my Cricut and SCAL software. I use one for the Cricut, the other to download pics off my camera. Well this morning I plugged my camera into the first slot and nothing happened. I didn't think much of it and moved it to the other port. Later I noticed that part of the USB port had sunken into the computer. No biggie...I will show John when he gets home and he will either fix it or I am down one USB. Late in the afternoon as I was preparing to upload my Rock Star layout I accidentally plugged into the bad USB. My computer made a sizzle sound....NOT A GOOD SOUND...turned off and would not power back on. My heart sank. I've only had this laptop since Christmas and there was no way I was expecting anything to go wrong. I mean I had my old Gateway laptop for 6 years before it died! Anywhooo, I texted John and told him my laptop died. He knew right away he was coming home to a lunatic! When he got home he suggested I use my daughters computer to check Best Buy, HH Gregg and Staples to see what kind of sales they have, knowing that I was NOT going to be able to function without a computer. While I was doing that, he got tweezers, played around with the Port, couldn't get it out and then decided to take the battery out for a while. About 20 minutes later he popped the battery back in and she fired right back up just like nothing had happened! HOLY HAIL that was close!! I immediately grabbed my external hard drive (yes, I have one and there was NO reason for me to not have my files backed up) and did a COMPLETE backup that took over 2 hours! So please....learn from my foolishness....back up your files NOW...or at the very least sometime this weekend! (PS - John covered the broken USB with electrical tape so I can't "accidentally" fry it again!)

Now on to the layout!! Since I was not able to print any photos while my laptop was backing up, I grabbed one of the old photo albums and decided to do a few layouts of older photos. I came across these two pictures of my now 20 year old son, Johnny, jumping and sitting on my bed! The date on the back is July 1991!! I knew immediately what paper to use....the Creative Imaginations Studio Basics 101 Monkey paper....now where is it!??  After about 1/2 hour of sorting, digging and getting aggravated again I found it! I had no plans for this paper when I got it....I just liked the monkeys! While I was looking for that I found an entire package of Basic Grey Lime Rickey that I had never even opened! I used the letters that were in there for the title. The orange chipboard letters are WeRMemory Keepers and the arrow is American Crafts. The flower is Doodlebug with some Fancy Pants Rough & Tough pins and green ric rac. I used the Friday sketch (and the flowers work for the weekly challenge too) at Practical Scrappers and when I was mid-way through it dawned on me that this layout contained all of the colors requird for the weekly challenge at Frosted Design! SCORE!! Thanks for looking and remember...BACK UP NOW, BACK UP OFTEN!  Oh and another PS - everything really is straight on this layout but being nighttime, I had to take the photo with the layout on my desk, me standing on a chair with wheels and balancing one leg on my desk!  Can you see where this could go?  I never learn!  LOL!!  So that's why the picture is a bit crooked!

What a Rock Star! (Sketchy Thursdays)

I have tried at least a dozen times to get a decent photo of this layout and it just will not cooperate! So this is as good as it gets. I may try again when the sun goes down a little bit. The chipboard letters at the bottom that look black are actually a metallic teal color that match the papers perfectly! Not sure I'll be able to get that to photograph properly no matter what I do!

The photos are my daughter when she was just 5 years old. There was a store in the mall called Club Libby Lu and she had been invited to a birthday party there. They dress the girls up in glitzy, glam clothes, do their hair in the "theme" they pick out (things like Rock Star, Princess, Punk Rocker, Glam Girl, etc), put makeup on them and then at the end they all do a little dance! It was really cute. I'm not sure if they are even around anymore. This particular party, Susie chose the Rock Star theme and came home with these crazy turquoise hair pieces in and if you look closely you can see a headset with a microphone (a la Madonna/Britney Spears!) She had silver stars glued onto her face and just looked adorable! She...actually we both...look so young!! 7 years really does a number on a body.

This layout uses the weekly sketch at Sketchy Thursdays. I got to it early this week! Last week I submitted with just 10 minutes to spare! Most of the papers are Lilly Bee with the exception of the star paper at the top and the paper on the turquoise star which are My Minds Eye. The star chipboard is by Melody Ross, the letters are all Colorbok from the $1 spot at Target and the bling I am not sure as it was in my stash without any packaging.

Random Matt 09

I normally don't take classes because I find that I am often dissapointed with the projects. I understand that the classes have to be formatted to be comfortable for beginning scrappers as well as more seasoned scrappers, but I'd just assume teach myself new techniques with the help of YouTube and the enormous amount of video tutorials on various blogs. However, I did sign up for a class at Big Picture Scrapbooking this summer with May Flaum called Camp Scrap. Today was day two of the class and the email handout had a sketch for a two page layout using 5 photos. I was still laying in bed early this AM when I read the email -- gotta love the Blackberry -- and thought it would be a neat thing to take just 5 random shots of my son Matt from last year and put them together on one layout. Now most of these photos will also find their way (some already have) onto individual layouts, but it was fun to just take random photos and use them all together. Its a fairly simple layout without a lot of embellishing (just buttons and a journal spot!) but I really like how it came out! And Day Two of Camp is complete!! :) For this layout I used some older Jillibean Soup papers that I had from the Cold Raspberry line. I also used two different ribbons that were in my stash, Jillibean Soup corrugated letters, Basic Grey chipboard letters and buttons from my stash. I had a hard time getting a photo of both pages without the colors changing on one or the other so I apologize for the difference in the coloring on the two pages. The backgrounds really are exactly the same!

Prep 2010

Ok, I lied! While I did have two layout ideas written out in my scrap notebook, and I DID intend to get them both done tonight, I only finished one! At the last minute my daughter decided that she wants to do Crew this summer and sign ups were TONIGHT! So off we ran to Ventnor to get her signed up. I stopped at Peebles on the way back and lucked into a really great sale....I got a tank top that is work-appropriate for $4 and a really pretty new bathing suit tankini top (I always get tops that will match my black bottoms) for $12. Susie got two pairs of funky shorts and at the register, the cashier scanned an extra 20% off coupon that wasn't really supposed to start until tomorrow. On the way out of the store I got a phone call that I had left my checkbook at the Rowing Club so we had to trek all the way back there. Got home, ate dinner (John made BBQ chicken!!) and then I just didn't feel like doing anything! I was going to call it a night when I decided I just had to see how the idea in my head would translate onto paper for this layout.

The sketch is from Sassy Lil Sketches but this week there was a twist! You had to go to this website, http://www.csnstores.com/ and find something that inspired you, and do your layout around that item. Well I looked at all the wall hangings, some living rooms, even some bathroom themes and decided to try rugs. I darned near squealed with delight when I saw this rug:

I used the rug (in case you wonder, its $39!) as my inspiration for what I think is a NEAT baseball layout! And I am now entered into a drawing to win a $70 gift certificate to CSN Stores which would be neat....they have TONS of stuff!

Having two boys who have played baseball consecutively for the past 15 years, I have no shortage of baseball pictures and am always looking for unique ways to do a layout. When I saw the circles on the sketch then found the baseball rug, the rest just fell into place! I wasn't sure what I had in the way of red or navy patterned papers which I thought would be a problem (our colors are Red, White & Blue) until I started to dig through some kits that had piled up from the various kit clubs I subscribed to last year. I'm pretty sure these papers were from a Memory Works kit probably around this time last year. The papers are all Scenic Route Liberty collection and they worked PERFECT with this layout! And now that I remember that I have them, there is still PLENTY in the kit left over to do 4th of July pictures (from last year AND this coming year!)   I'm off tomorrow and heat is supposed to be killer again, so more scrappy things to come!

Just Us and Susie's 10th Birthday

I haven't been feeling well the past week with some abdominal pains that I can't get an explanation for so today, considering the temperatures are expected to reach or exceed 100 with the heat index, I decided it was a good day to call out sick. It is also the last day of school for my kids so I wanted to be here to take them out to lunch and let them know how very proud of them I am. Both kids were on the Merit Roll all year long! WAY TO GO!! I just picked my daughter and her BFF up from school and as soon as I finish this post we will get my son and get some celebrating in! I see a trip to Dairy Queen in my future!!  Here's to Summer Vacation!

I have two layouts this morning (although I did 4 but two I cannot show yet!) and both of them use papers from my absolute favorite Bella Blvd! These papers are wonderful! You can get several lines and still use them together seamlessly as I did with both of these layouts. This first one is John and I posing next to this enormous tree called a FLAMBOYANT at the resort we stayed at in Antigua. I used all Bella Blvd. papers from the Campin Out' (yellow) and All Inclusive (circle and dotted strip) lines. The title letters are also Bella Blvd. from the All Inclusive line. The 4 small flowers are Prima and the flower brads are Making Memories. Not sure who made the swiss dot card stock as it was a package I bought from a discount site some time ago and was not advertised with a manufacturer. The sketch for this layout is #108 from Creative Scrappers and of course the flowers qualify it for Practical Scrappers this week!

The next layout catches me up with all of Susie's birthdays!!  This was her 10th birthday and she looks like such a baby to me in the photo, even though it was only two years ago!

Because I love all my Bella papers so much, I have found myself saving even the smallest of scraps which I normally don't do.  If its not a good chunk, I usually pitch it.  I'm glad I saved all these scraps now because this layout is made entirely of scraps...I did not cut into a single full sheet of paper!!

I used ALL Bella Blvd. papers again from the following lines:  All Inclusive, Estate Sale, Plastino and Camped Out!  How's that for lines that work perfectly together!  The title is Jillibean Soup (corrugated) and Bella Blvd. (letter stickers).  The Chipboard sayings at the top and the bottom are Bella Blvd. Ciao Chip.  The blue flower is Doodlebug, the green flower is Prima and the brad in the center is Basic Grey.  Leaves I punched from a Marvy leaf punch.  The chipboard tree was Maya Road bare chipboard covered with more Bella papers!  Again, no clue on the swiss dot cardstock!!  Can you tell I've been looking through my piles of stuff!!  I've had that pack of cardstock 3 years and never opened it!  The sketch for this layout is #109 from Creative Scrappers and once again the flowers qualify it for Practical Scrappers this week.

I have two more layouts in my sketch book for today....one from The Pink Elephant and one from Sassy Lil Sketches....so you will hear from me at least once more today, hopefully!!  Stay COOL!!!

Sketchy Thursdays Limbo

I've had these photos printed and on my desk since March. Everytime they reach the top of the pile, I bury them again. I just had no ideas for an original LIMBO page! All the limbo embellishments I've seen had more of a Hawaiian theme and we were in Antigua which is in the Carribbean. I wanted to get the weekly sketch done at Sketchy Thursdays as well and come 8:30 tonight, I still had not moved from the couch. I'm having some health issues at the moment and am in a bit of pain so while I do WANT to scrap, I also don't want to move off the couch. Finally I decided to do something....anything! John had control of the remote and I just could not sit through GRAN TORINO one more time. I can almost recite the entire movie! So to the scraproom I went and this is what I cam up with for a Limbo page. I'm not crazy about the journaling but was too lazy to print it out like I should have. I may redo this page later on but for now, its another page in the vacation album!  I used BoBunny Summer Fun papers, the drink stickers are Jolees, the journaling circle is Heidi Swapp, the arrow is Maya Road sheer that I backed with paper and the title letters are Basic Grey.

Oh, and guess what??? I was voted in as the Guest Design Team Member at Sketchy Thursdays for July!!! I'm real excited about that as I love their sketches and try to play along most weeks!!!

Life Couldn't Get Any Better...

OK, so that's the title of the layout I did tonight after work!  Life is actually pretty crazy right now with too much to do and not enough time to do it!  I haven't had hardly any scrap time but today while I was at work I saw a post by Bella Blvd. for a giveaway they are having.  You have to comment on their blog with the link to a layout or project using Bella Blvd. products.  I love Bella Blvd. so had a few already complete that I linked up but then I decided to do the weekly sketch at Sketch Inspirations so I combined the two and completed this layout, which because of the flowers, also qualifies for the weekly challenge at Practical Scrappers....I love when I get good mileage out of one layout:

All papers and embellishments used are Bella Blvd. with the exception of the glittery Thickers letters.  My layout is based on this Sketch Inspiration sketch:

 

Thanks for looking!!!

I'm A Finalist at Sketchy Thursdays!

I'm so excited!! I submitted the below layout to be chosen as a Guest Design Team Member at Sketchy Thursdays! I just hopped over there and found out that I am in the top 5!!! If you don't mind, please go to Sketchy Thursdays and vote for your favorite - even if its not mine!! And wish me luck!!

Too much to do, no time to do it!

It happened....real life finally caught up with me and an entire three day weekend has passed with this one lonely layout completed, and its far from one of my better pages.  I seriously feel like I just have no more scrapping ideas.  I tried for a few hours on Friday morning and got nowhere except adding partially completed layouts to the pile of "I thought this was a good idea, but clearly NOT".  But I did finish this one.  Based on an upcoming sketch at Let's Scrap.  I'm completely exhausted after all the running around this weekend....I honestly feel like I've been moving non-stop since last Tuesday between baseball games, end of year school activities, Father's Day, etc.  I think I could sleep for a week straight!!!

Manufacturer Challenges

Between yesterday and today I completed two layouts.  The first one is for the Creative Imaginations June Sketch Layout Contest.  I used Creative Imaginations papers from the Christine Adolph Oceana line, felt border by Queen & Co. and felt fishies from Michael's.  Brads and photo turns are from my stash.  The photos are more from our trip to Antigua.  We took a catamaran excursion where John did a lot of snorkeling while I enjoyed the free-flowing Rum punch on the boat!  After snorkeling, we pulled up to a lovely beach where we had a lovely BBQ lunch and a performance by an incredible Limbo Dancer.  It was a GREAT day!

This layout was a tough one for me.  Its the first layout I have done that had a photo of Michael on it since he passed away.  As happy as I am right now....I have a wonderful man in my life now, my kids are terrific, sometimes I think I will never get through the grieving process.  Its been several years already but every once in a while I am dragged right back to that horrible day when I was faced with something that nobody should ever have to do....I had to tell my children that their father was gone.  Michael and I were separated at the time of his death but he was still my best friend.  He had a terrible time with alchoholism and I just couldn't live like that anymore.  I miss him so much. He was a wonderful father and it hurts me so much to see my kids growing up and knowing how much he is missing.  As I put in my journaling, I can only hope that Heaven really is a better place because its really hard to live here without him in our lives.

I did this layout for the My Minds Eye Challenge.  The theme is "Remember" and there is a sketch to follow and the layout must contain 80% MME products.  I used the OOH, LA LA line.  The journaling card is from the So Sophie line but I cut off the trim that did not match!  This layout has a lot of meaning to me. The three butterflies that are flying out of the broken heart symbolize my three kids.  They will always remember their Dad but they are spreading their wings and soaring despite the lousy hand they have been dealt at such a young age.

This was very emotional for me today, especially considering Father's Day is this Sunday.  So I think that I will take a break from scrapping, get some housework done and then pick the kids up from school and do a little shopping!  I am sure I will be back tonight as I HOPE to get some scrappy time later on!

Glitter, Glitter Everywhere!

I started this layout last night but it got late and had to put it aside to finish today after work. As much as I LOVE glitter, I have to admit that with it being the challenge at TWO of the Challenge sites I visit often, I will be GLAD to see the end of the glitter for a little while! This one has it packed on! There is a light aqua border of glitter around the whole layout, the chipboard letters are silver glittered and I got them on the clearance rack at Michaels after Christmas, the felt snowflakes I picked up at the Dollar Store over the winter and while they say they are glittered, they weren't cutting it for me! I had to add glitter SNOW by Magic Scraps to them! The small flowers are glittered and by Petaloo Dazzlers. The large pink flowers that are folded in half are Heidi Swapp and the pearls are from my stash.   Enough glitter? Nope....there's also a Fancy Pants Glitter cut under the title and running onto the photos. The papers are SEI cardstock, Bo Bunny (pink paper) and My Minds Eye (aqua). I have made such a mess making this layout. There is glitter EVERYWHERE, including my eyes! This layout is submitted to the following challenges:

1. Frosted Designs - Use Glitter

2. Practical Scrappers - Use Loose Glitter or Flocking

3. Sketch Inspirations - Sketch
4. The Pink Elephant - Use a black and white photo.

I think I'm done with the glitter for a while. I know its only Tuesday and I could get a few more entries in for the drawings, but let's just say, GLITTER wins!

Favorite Things, Frosted Designs & Practical Scrappers

Over at the These Are A Few Of My Favorite Things blog the challenge is to create a layout of your favorite pair of shoes! This challenge has a total of TWENTY-EIGHT prizes!!! That's crazy but fun!! I've had it on my list to do since I first saw it posted but didn't have a picture or any ideas in mind. Today at work I (once again trying to avoid the ever-growing piles of paper) I came up with a plan, using a sketch #28 by Susan Stringfellow at Sketch Savvy and Doodlebug papers. The flowers are also Doodlebug and two of them are glittered which qualifies this layout for the Frosted Designs and Practical Scrappers weekly challenges. The green loopy border sticker by Doodlebug is also glittered but its hard to tell from the photo. Not sure who makes the ribbon as its been in my stash a while, as have the purple chipboard letters which I know came from Walmart but not sure the brand, and the giant clip is from a warehouse sale at Junkitz about 5 years ago!! I LOVE using up my older stash!! The white cardstock is American Crafts and I distressed it with the Distrezz-It-All. I love these shoes....TODAY! They happen to be my newest shoes, so until the next pair, they are my favorites. Actually, I have to tell you that they were a deliberate purchase. Most of my shoes I didn't set out to buy, but these were different! I get emails from Payless and usually ignore them. This one I happened to look at and these shoes and a cute bag were featured. I instantly loved them and the next morning was at my local Payless, leaving with the bag and shoes!!! I think that will be it for tonight! Its getting late and I still have laundry to finish. Man, I wish I didn't have to work! :) I'd be so happy to have nothing to do all day long but scrap and take care of my family. Alas, work I must and to do that, I must also have clean clothes! Its a vicious cycle!

Sassy Little Sketches & Frosted Designs

I didn't clean up after my last layout ("Already Twelve"...see post below) so after returning home from grocery shopping, watching the end of the Nascar race and getting the lasagna for tonight's dinner prepared and in the oven, I sat back down. While watching the race I was also blog hopping and came across this sketch at Sassy Lil' Sketches:

I had already printed this photo of Susie and our cat, Cloudy as I was going to use this one for the layout I did earlier but changed my mind. I grabbed the photo, looked around at the mess on my desk and thought "I can do something with this". Everything on this layout is leftovers from the earlier layout with the exception of the title letters (you can't tell but they are glitter) which I picked up on Friday at Target on the 99c rack! The only other items I had to dig out were the buttons and the doily. All the papers are scraps from My Minds Eye. I got an assortment pack about a month ago at a great deal from CraftySteals and boy have I gotten a lot of use out of it. The patterns are so nice and work well with so many themes. The butterfly brads as well as the center of the two larger flowers are from CreativeCharms Deal of the Month from May. I have also gotten a ton of layouts out of that assortment pack! The felt butterfly is leftover Heidi Swapp that I coated with crystal glitter (gotta get that glitter in for Frosted Designs. The tiny flower is glitter Petaloo Dazzlers. The doily is by Wilton and the pearls under the flower on the doily that you can barely see in the picture are by Wrights.

Now I really must clean up my desk a little. I'm about tired of pink and greenish-blue!

She can't be TWELVE!!

Exactly twelve years ago today, I delivered the most beautiful, perfect, tiny little angel and made my family complete, giving her two older brothers a baby sister. We finally had our little girl! 6lbs 5oz and 21 inches of pure heaven. The years that have passed since her birth have been filled with love, giggles, kisses and hugs, lots of tears, some heartbreak, definitely some girly attitude and a whole lot of fun. I have cherished every last second of being her mother and while I am sad that my "baby" has turned 12 today....I swear she was taking her first steps last week and sharing a bowl of soup with Daddy just yesterday (oh lordy, here come the tears) I know that I have so much more to look forward to. I may be a little biased but I think my daughter is growing up to be a beautiful person, both on the outside and inside. She has the sweetest little voice and the biggest heart you'll ever find. I love you Susan Elizabeth. Without you, my life would not have been complete.

OK....the details - this layout is for the Sketchy Thursday July GDT. The sketch I worked from is this one:

I used scraps from My Minds Eye and Bo Bunny to create the strips which I distressed with the Distrezz-it-All at 7am this morning!! When I tell you this thing is LOUD....think a chain saw cutting down a tree!! Some of the strips are raised on pop dots, others on a lower foam tape and others flat to the background page. Its hard to see all the dimension in a flat photo. I added lots of pearls which is my daughter's birthstone. I used pearls from ZVA Creations and Best Creations (Walmart's brand). I used some Prima paper flowers and added a rhinestone to the centers, some Petaloo Dazzlers glittered flowers for the Frosted Designs challenge and a few Heidi Swapp felt butterflies. The letters are Basic Grey Lemonade. Thanks for looking and listening to me boo hoo about my baby!!

ScrapFit Mini Work-Out

I woke this morning a little melancholy. My "baby" is twelve today. I know that's not a milestone birthday or anything but for some reason, this one is killing me. I don't know if its because I am missing Michael (for those who don't know, they lost their dad unexpectedly several years ago) and wish that he could be here to see how the kids are growing up into the most amazing young adults, or I'm just in one of those weepy, pity party type moods, but I've been on an emotional roller coaster since Friday morning! So my creative mojo was sorta on hiatus early this morning and I decided instead of tackling a layout....I had started one for John's fish pictures but I ripped it apart when it was almost done because it just wasn't working for me....I made this tag. It's for ScrapFit Mini Workout #2 - Create a tag. I don't really use tags much in my scrapping so I decided to make one to hang on my bulletin board. Its all scraps from a DCWV stack, rick rack from my stash. Buttons are Mickey heads (Disney) because if you know me, you know that I love all things Mickey Mouse!! The brad is a Basic Grey leftover and I simply added my photo and name and the three things in my life I am most proud of....Mom, Sister, Daughter. Stay tuned...because no sooner did I get this tag done did I get my mojo back and did a BEAUTIFUL layout of Susie....Already Twelve!

Layout: "Relaxing"

All papers are LilyBee Design Lovely collection, as are the chipboard flowers. Letter stickers are Basic Grey. The brown ball trim is from my stash and the "Family Times" rub-ons are from a swatch book from Creative Imaginations that I found on the clearance rack at Michaels as well as the glitter frame by Making Memories that I paid .49c for.

Speaking of.....if you have a Michaels local and have not ventured in lately, you should. The have completely redone their paper crafting aisles (for the worse if you ask me) and since they started this about a month ago, there has been a TON of stuff on the clearance ends. I got boxes of Prima flowers for $1.49 and lots of other odds and ends for pennies. I'm not impressed with the re-set though.

Believe it or not, I only managed three challenges out of this layout!

1. Practical Scrappers - Sketch

2. Frosted Designs - Glitter (on the frame)
3. Pink Elephant - Use Black and White photos

Its a simple page, but I like it. I snapped these photos when the kids weren't looking. We were just having a nice day at a local historic colonial village near our home. There are quaint little shops, a lovely lake and wildlife and a yummy bakery! We were bored one day and took a ride (its only 10 minutes from home) and just sat on the benches "people watching" and having a donut from the bakery! It was quality time spent, just the three of us.

And now, I MUST close my eyes. Actually, they aren't giving me an option...they are closing on their own! Sleep tight my blog friends!

Mom's Star

I hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! I haven't had much time in my scraproom, even though I was off work yesterday. My daughter's birthday is tomorrow and I was running all over creation on Friday making sure my baby got the gifts that she asked for! All she really asked for was a digital camera. I got her a small Polaroid Point & Shoot on sale at Target for $50! As a surprise, I bought her a hoodie and 5 t-shirts from Hollister (off the clearance rack of course!) for under $50 so mom was THRILLED! Hollister, for those that don't know, is VERY expensive in my opinion. $25+ for a t-shirt branded with their name all over it! A pair of shorts that wouldn't cover much behind were $29! YIKES! My daughter is only turning 12 yet a lot of her friends have Hollister clothing and I could never justify it. But I wanted her to be surprised so I checked the clearance racks. I was so happy when I got to the store to find out that they were offering an additional 30% off their clearance prices and there was TONS to choose from! One of the t-shirts I got her ended up being a little over $3 yet the tag says $24.50! Now that's what I call a great deal....mom is happy with the price and daughter will be beyond happy with the shirt! We are about to get ready to go out for her birthday dinner to Famous Daves. Yummy BBQ! She is bringing her BFF, Alisa, and I let her open her camera so she can take pictures at her b-day dinner!!

1. Sketch Inspirations - Sketch
2. Pink Elephant - Use a black and white photo
3. Frosted Designs - Use glitter (title)
4. Stuck on You Sketches - Embossing (I embossed the two larger stars)

 5. Scrap Fit - Use a machine - used Cricut and Cuttlebug

Two Awards today!

What fun!!  I received two awards today!!

The first was this one for winning the weekly challenge at the Pink Elephant:

And the second is this one! I made the top 3 at Frosted Designs! How neat to be able to post these on my blog!!

That's all I have for tonight!  I started a layout this afternoon but have a long way to go to finish it.   Matt had a baseball game tonight and it was such a GREAT game against the toughest team in the league.  We were down four runs for the majority of the game!  We have 2 of our better players out with injuries including our best pitcher.  In the 6th inning the coach put Matt in as a pitcher (I HATE when he pitches!).  Well he did FANTASTIC and quickly got our team out of the inning.  We were still down 4 runs going into the 7th and last inning.  The opposing team's coach (who was obnoxious the entire game) was loudly boasting that this game was in their bag and they were going to the playoffs...all they needed was 3 outs.  Even the parents on the other team were nasty.  Saying horrible things to our kids.  In 15 years of kids baseball I've never seen anything like it.  Our kids heard them loud and clear and in response my son was the first batter up and walked.  He then stole second and third.  Next batter walked.  Next two batters had singles, scoring Matt and loading the bases.  Two more batters, two more singles.  Still no outs.  Next batter gets a double, scoring two more and we WON THE GAME!!  Boy you have never seen a team exit a ballfield so fast.  Those mean, nasty parents had nothing but smack to say as the walked past our team.  It was really sad that they took the fun out of the game for their kids but WE ARE GOING TO THE PLAYOFFS!  Take THAT E.H.T. A team!!

Busy day tomorrow....hopefully will get some scrapping in but I have to do some shopping for my baby girl who will turn 12 on Sunday!!  Where did the time go?

I won at Bella Blvd.!!

I'm so excited!!  One of my favorite paper manufacturers these days is Bella Blvd.  Especially the All Inclusive line which I have used on quite a few of my Antigua layouts that are posted here.  I visit their blog every couple of days to see what's new, and for the month of June they are having a lot of giveaways!  Well I WON!  I won a page kit but I'm not sure which one!!  I just emailed them with my info so hopefully I will find out soon.  I don't care WHAT it is....if its Bella I will LOVE it!  There is also a new sketch up on their blog so I think I just may go work on that tonight or tomorrow!!  Yay me!!!

New Sketch At Let's Scrap!

It's Wednesday! That means its time for a new sketch reveal from Cheri over at Let's Scrap.  And make sure you check out the great prize donated by Mark's Finest Paper.   Here is this week's sketch and below is my take on it.

I opted to just do the left side this time.  Check out Let's Scrap to see what the other Design Team ladies did with this one!!  There's lot more going on there too!!  We have the month-long PageMaps sketch challenge with a $20 Gift Card prize to A Cherry On Top.  There is a great challenge from Deb on the Design Team to use torn cardstock on a layout (see a few posts down for my entry - Orange Blossom Sunrise) and Rosalie has a very popular Question of the Week!!  And keep up with us over at Let's Scrap because Friday, there will be a NEW Design Team Challenge, Monday a NEW Question of the Week, and every Wednesday is a new sketch!!  We'd love to have you join us!

Here Fishy, Fishy!

I had this layout mostly finished this afternoon but had to leave for my son's baseball game (we won, 15-0) so I ran out of daylight to take the picture.  The papers are holographic and hard to photograph. I will try again tomorrow and replace the photos if its better.  Update:  I just re-photographed the layout and it looks MUCH better!  This page looks really awesome in real life.  John, who just appeases me by looking at my layouts...never with much to say...actually said "WOW" when he looked at this one.  That speaks VOLUMES to me! These photos are of some of the fish John was snorkeling with on our trip to Antigua. The papers are all by TPC. The blue/green ribbon is also TPC. The title and waves were cut on the Cricut and I added some Glossy Accents to give it a wet feeling. The fishy buttons I found tonight at Walmart when I wasn't even looking for them but they matched so perfectly I had to buy them!! The green ric-rac and blue and green buttons are from my stash.

This layout is based on an upcoming sketch for Let's Scrap but you will have to wait a little while to see the actual sketch! This layout also qualifies for the following challenges:

1. Practical Scrappers - Use eyelets. I used them for the fish "bubbles".

2. ScrapFit - Use a machine. I used the Cricut for the waves and the title letters.

3. Frosted Designs - Use Buttons. I used 4 round buttons and 4 FISHIE buttons.

Here it as as a double.