PageMaps & ACOT Team Up!

Now through May 15, you can create a layout based on the PageMaps sketch below for a chance to win a gift certificate to my scrappy home base, A Cherry On Top. 

 I think the sketch is one of Becky's best yet, with so many possibilities. I actually started it with a completely different theme and look but ended up liking this better!

I used all papers and bellies by October Afternoon from the Cherry Hill line. I used my sewing machine like crazy on this one too! I am starting to get the hang of it more and like the look of the stitching.

So why not give it a try yourself?? And while you are at it, check out ACOT! We are a fun and friendly group, and the store is TOP NOTCH!!

I have also posted this at Frosted Designs for the Friday challenge this week, which is to use Stripes and/or Polka Dots.

PS - I know my photo stinks but I was running out of daylight as usual!!  I won't be able to get a new photo until Sunday but as soon as I can, I will replace it with a clearer photo.

Doughboy Bunny Nose

On Saturday, right before Easter, my daughter and I ran into the grocery store on a search for white chocolate bunnies. My son does not like regular chocolate and "the Easter Bunny" waited just a little too long to get his white bunny! They were sold out everywhere by Saturday! Needless to say, there were no chocolate bunnies in the baskets this year but that's actually ok. Neither one of the kids really LIKE them anyway....its like Peeps, its the "law" that they are in there. Anyway, at the front of the store they have a dairy case where you can grab eggs, milk, butter....without having to go ALL the way to the back of the store to the dairy department. They also had packages of Pillsbury Refrigerated Cookies. As both Susie and I were looking up at the boxes, we both started hysterically laughing at the same time. The Doughboy had a bunny nose. I know, you are probably thinking its not funny but it really was! I know the people around us weren't amused! But we didn't care....we thought it was hysterical! They were on sale 2/$3 and ONE lonely package had a coupon for $1/2 so I grabbed that one and another, making them $1 a package! I normally won't buy these kind of cookies because of the price for what you get but this time I just could not leave them there! And of course, Susie had to pose with the packaging!!

I used the April Sketch challenge at Challenge Masters. I used several different manufacturers for this in conjunction with a challenge at The Scrap Room to "mix lines".  The base paper is Iron Orchid Designs from the Beloved Collection; the pink and the bottom strip beneath the pleated trim are from Christine Adolf for Creative Imaginations from the Mon Ami line, and the blue flowery paper is a VERY old scrap of DCWV Pocket Full of Posies paper. I don't even think they make it anymore! I added some pleated trim on top of a K&Co Flora and Fauna border that I cut in half lengthwise. Added some bling and some bling butterflies for the Frosted Designs Butterfly challenge, Thickers and Glitz mini letters for the title and a Prima flower and a Recollections flower. I paperpieced the bunny nose to replicate what we found so darned funny!!!

Butterfly Kisses

I love it when I sit down to scrap, head to my blog to see if there are any new challenges posted on the blogs that I follow and find an awesome sketch just posted! That's what happened with this one. I wasted about an hour searching for a photo that has been on my desk for a month while I searched for the other photo to go with it. Well yesterday I found the missing photo so I grabbed it, the papers that I bought specifically for that layout and now the picture I've HAD is missing! UGH! SO I still can't do that layout and I SOOO want to do it....if it comes out how I have it in my head, its going to be adorable!!

Anyway, since I couldn't do that, I started looking at papers. I don't usually scrap that way....I almost always have the photos first and them look for papers to match. But I found these papers from Basic Grey Ambrosia line and thought it would be a good time to use them being the challenge at Frosted Design this week is butterflies. Plus I just think this paper line is SOOOO pretty! I'm not always a fan of Basic Grey....usually only pick 2-3 sheets from a collection. As a matter of fact, the three patterns here are all that I bought from this line too!

I used the new sketch #117 just posted by Liz at the Scrappiest! I really love her sketches and look forward to the new posts! They are always versatile although I followed this one pretty much spot on except where it showed two smaller photos I used one 4x6 that I snagged from my daughters Facebook page!! Love that! Oh, an I used an OLD tool! My paper crimper! I don't think I have used it in 6 or 7 years! Seriously! It was one of the first tools I bought when I started scrapping in 1998 and I had to dig through a couple storage bins before I found it. And then once I used it I wondered why I STOPPED using it! I think the texture is great and you don't have to deal with a machine and embossing folders, etc. to get some texture.

That's it for me today! Off to watch some hockey!!

Love Those Eyes!

Holy moly did this layout come together quick. I was sitting here on my laptop wanting to scrap but having no direction or inspiration. Then Trisha over at Sketch Inspirations posted this week's sketch and off I went. I started out a little different...was being creative in my photo editing and tinted the black and white picture pink but it just didn't go. :( I'll use the print on a different layout eventually I am sure!

I used Theresa Collins Posh papers, Prima flowers and pink ice heart charm, Thickers and Glitz letters, Recollections Dew Drops. Ribbon, butterfly and buttons from my stash. The butterfly (ther are fluterbies on the pape too but I covered them with flowers and the pictures so I added a black on at the bottom of the right side picture) qualify this over at Frosted Designs.

And another long weekend comes to a close.....its been a long one for me....and not in a good way! I'm actually looking forward to work tomorrow. Of course that will change 10 minutes after I ge there!

Lily Bee Challenge: Grid Layouts

Lily Bee is having a challenge to create a project using a "grid" pattern.  You have to use at least one Lily Bee product  Everything on this is Lily Bee with the exception of the flowers which are Prima and the cardstock which is Bazzil.  The prize is all the papers and rubons from the Three Little Bird Collection!  How sweet is that!!!!  I LOVE Lily Bee stuff!!

Not So Egg-citing Anymore!

Happy Easter everyone!! Hope your day is full of family and friends and that you have some wonderful memories when the day is done!

This layout was created with the newest sketch at Creative Scrappers. I had a tough time with the sketch until I decided to use the patterned paper. And THEN I wished that I had cut it so the stripes were horizontal but it was too late when I made that decision!! The title says it all....my kids were less than thrilled that I had them home on a Saturday night so that we could color Easter Eggs! LOL! Too bad! Its a tradition that my mom LOVED and passed on to me and I will do it forever in her memory. I miss you mommy.

Patterned paper by Best Creations, eggs I cut out myself, Thickers, Recollections and Glitz letter stickers, miscellaneous ribbons from my stash and a little ink around the edges and this layout was complete.  With the Easter theme, it qualifies for Challenge #34 - Easter Theme at Lasting Memories Layout Challenges.

No big family gathering here. Just me and the kids and John. He left to go fishing (we are experiencing a pretty good rough spot in our relationship which has me down) and the ham is in the oven. Looking forward to just relaxing today. Hope you all have a great day!

"... I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die." John 11:25-26

Baby Girl - YSS Sketch

I woke up before the sun this morning and spent some time playing on my iPad, going through Flipboard to cruise my favorite blogs.  I came across the new sketch challenge at Your Scrapbook Stash and decided to give it a go!  This is SO not how this layout started.  It began with a photo I took of my daughter about a week ago but it just wasn't working so I looked around and posted on my bulletin board was this picture of her as a baby that I have attempted to scrap several times but never could make it work.  I FINALLY did it!  Not only that, I FINALLY used my Graphic 45 Once Upon A Springtime papers.  I spent almost 4 hours on this layout which is very unlike me.  I get bored and restless working on a layout more than an hour.  You can see the sketch I started with HERE.  Because I went with the baby picture instead of the pre-teen picture, I am entering this at the Sweet Peach Crop Shop challenge to scrap a baby picture and use handwritten journaling.  I really didn't want to journal a lot on the page but I did hand write "Susie at 3 mos".  I know its not a lot, but its there.  :(

Here are some closeups.  I think you can click the image to see it bigger:

 
 

I am entering this at Frosted Designs for the Friday Challenge to use Birds or Butterflies on your layout.  I have both...there are butterflies on the tag above!   As you can see in the below shot, my sewing machine was not cooperating with me this morning.  The missed stitches do sort of go along with the shabby chic look I was going for.  I distressed the edges of everything!!!  I am posting this at Challenge Masters for the Shabby challenge which was to distress edges!  I used a TON of Glossy Accents on this layout.  The cage and bird got a coat, there is some under the glass marbles to adhere the flower circles, the title scrabble tiles got a coat....LOVE that stuff!

The pink gemstones under the Fairy "stamps" are actually brads.  I think I got them last year at the CKC Convention.  I can't wait for this years...I need to restock my bling!  The scrabble tiles for the title I made myself a few months back using Lisa's tutorial at What a Beautiful Mess.  She has the most wonderful tutorials on her blog!  If you like the shabby look, definitely check out her blog!

I am hitting the shower!!  Have lots of errands to run  today!!

I {Heart} You

I just love this picture of my daughter when she was little. She was just about to doze off and I can see the sleepiness in her eyes!!

I knew I wanted to scrap it and use the BoBunny Crazy love papers and embellishments that my Secret Sister over at ACOT sent me in February. When I sat down at my desk and looked at my blog I saw that Lets Capture Our Memories had just posted a new sketch and I think it was perfect for this picture! I cut the bird out from a Sizzix dies that had a branch and flowers but I chopped the flowers off and gave him legs instead! Adding the bird qualifies this for the Friday Challenge at Frosted Designs to use a bird or butterfly on your project. The only thing I'm not crazy for are the title letters....they came with the BoBunny sticker sheet and they just aren't my style I guess.

One day last week at ACOT someone posted a video that Heidi Swapp did saying that "bows are the new flowers" and she gave two quick tutorials on how to make them. I've been thinking about these bows since then and decided to give it a whirl. Talk about EASY PEASY and the dimension looks great. Of course, it looks rather flat on a straight on photo so I tried to take a close up which wasn't so great either as the sun was setting and it was getting to dark. But hopefully you get the idea.

If you would like to see the video yourself click HERE.  That will take you to Northridge Publishing where the original video is posted.

BoBunny Layout Challenge

I did this layout for the Friday Challenge at the BoBunny Blog. This week's challenge is to stitch and stamp on your layout. I stitched the tan layer to the page and was planning to do more but my sewing machine was not cooperating and I gave up! But I do like the stitching that I got on there. The stamping is minimal ... the "remember this" circle on the bottom right which is a 7 Gypsies stamp. I'm not good at stamping so I tend to shy away from it more often than not. All the papers are BoBunny Timeless. I was holding on to this waiting for a good OLD photo to crop up but honestly, I don't think you have to use an old photo anymore to use this line!! The only things I added that are not BoBunny are the buttons. feathers and raffia from my stash and the satin burnt edge flower which is by K&Co but coordinated great with this line!

I used Anniversary Sketch #2 at Sweet Peach Crop Shop (I flipped it and moved things around a bit though) and I am also entering this at Challenge Masters for the "Shabby" challenge which was to create a layout with distressing on the edges. I distressed the tan layer before I sewed the piece down.

I {heart} Glimmer Mist & My Printer!

As I was working on this page I realized just how much I depend on Glimmer Mist and my printer. I have had these papers pulled from my stash for about two weeks and this morning decided THIS is what I would work with today. So I printed out two pictures of Matt blowing out the candles and cutting his birthday cake for his 14th birthday last month. As I was moving things around on the layout something just wasn't working. The problem was with the photo of him cutting the cake. What you can no longer see, thanks to my wonderful printer at my fingertips and the ability to change the photos to black and white, is that my daughter was standing behind him wearing a bright red sweatshirt. There was no way to crop her out of it and the red just pulled your eye directly to it. And it cerainly clashed with the colors in the layout. Of course, being stubborn it took me 1/2 hour of moving things around, adjusting layers, etc. before I finally conceded and reprinted the photos. I LOVE my printer. Its always there for me and I am not restricted by the photos I have preprinted. I don't print ALL of my photos on my printer, but I do use it quite a bit. 

Now for my love of Glimmer Mist. I have a healthy collection of mist colors thanks to one-deal-a-day sites around the internet and my yearly trek to a CKC convention. For the longest time the only use I had for the mists was to spray some on a white piece of cardstock for a background accent. Not anymore! I've evolved in my mist uses and have watched some colors go way down in the bottle after having sat almost full for a couple years! See that month tag? Its by Elle Studios and it WAS cream and black. It just didn't look right on my bright green and turquoise layout. A little spritz of Green Meadown Glimmer Mist fixed that right up. A quick shot with the heat gun and it was stuck on the layout!! I use mists to color handmade flowers and leaves, alter white foam Thickers letters to match what I need, and yes, still on background papers! I don't know that I will ever NOT use mists now!

And finally, on to the layout! I used the 1st Anniversary Sketch at the Sweet Peach Crop Shop for this layout. I used the Hoopla collection by Glitz for the papers and embellishments, except for the tag which is from Elle Studios as I mentioned above, the ribbons and a little bit of bling from my stash. Everything else is Glitz. I used a black thin point Sharpie and went around most of the edges of the embellies, photos and papers to make them pop and I really like the effect.  I am entering it over at the Glitz Blog for their Get Your Glitz On Challenge #1.  I have loved working with this line and its definitely one of my favorites by Glitz so far...well except the new ones I didn't get yet!!!

I am also entering this in the Challenge Masters calendar challenge to scrap an event that happened in March 2011. As I mentioned, this was my son's 14th birthday which was March 8, 2011 so it was easy to complete that challenge!

OK, I'm off to hopefully get one more page in before I have to leave for an appointment and then to pick up my daughter's friend for a sleepover. We will be coloring Easter Eggs tonight! Hope you all have a blessed Good Friday!

SOoo NOT a Doodler!!

When I saw the challenge at Sweet Peach Crop Shop to doodle on your layout I wanted to give it a try. I like it when I see it on other people's layouts. Clearly, I am not good at it and probably took away more than added to this layout! Oh well....I give myself credit for trying something new.

I also did this for the Challenge Masters challenge to use products from Sassafrass Lass, Cosmo Cricket (the patterned papers), American Crafts (the buttons) and Making Memories (the tiny letters) on one layout. I used sketch 116 by the Scrappiest

I'm fairly certain you will see this photo scrapped again as I'm really not LOVING this layout at all. And this concludes my scrapping for tonight. As much as I had PLANNED to stay up realllllllll late and scrap, my body has decided otherwise. I can barely keep my eyes open! See you all tomorrow!!!

Long Weekend Ahead!

I've been counting the hours till today at 4pm!! The start of a nice, long weekend. I wish I could say that I will be scrapping non-stop all weekend, however tomorrow I have a doctors appointment and have the finish up some Easter shopping, and then of course Easter is on Sunday which means I will be spending a good amount of time in the kitchen, and enjoying the company of John and the kids. Now that they are older, the excitement of Easter morning isn't there but I still make them baskets and everyone looks forward to a yummy Spiral Sliced Ham with all the trimmings.

After getting dinner done and the kitchen cleaned up I was able to get a little scrapping in. I used the Tuesday sketch at Frosted Designs for this layout featuring a photo of my now 14 year old when he was much younger! I looked at the picture and the title of the page is what popped into my head. I wish they would stay young forever. And it just so happened that the new "Word" at Bird Is The Word is FOREVER. I used Crate Paper Brook papers and chipboard elements, as well as letters from October Afternoon and American Crafts Remarks.

Childs Play At its Best

This layout started off great and ended up just so so. I loved the basic design but when it came to embellishing I really hit a wall. I probably should have made a moustache but I have several more photos like this, with a felt nose, buck teeth and even a unibrow that I want to do a more whimsical layout with. As I've said before...its done and its in the book! 

I used the newest sketch at Sketch Inspirations. I am also entering this at The Studio Challenges where the challenge is to focus on PLAY. I actually used the word in my title. 

I just crack up everytime I see these pictures. Clearly I was too busy scrapping on Saturday and not paying enough attention to my daughter when she asked me where my felt was.m The result was what you see here! Gotta love that kid! I used all Crate Paper restoration papers and embellishments with a couple little items from the Portrait collection.

Just a little "man love"!

I snagged this photo off my son's Facebook page! If you have kids, Facebook is a great source of photos that you would have otherwise never seen!! This photo was taken at one of the school dances and is my son and his friend sharing a "man hug". The two of them are very much goofballs!! 

This page was done using the sketch released today at Creative Scrappers. I have to say that I look forward to Sunday mornings and their new sketch. The past few weeks it's been the first sketch that I work on for the week and I am always pleased with the resulting layout. 

I incorporated the Color Challenge that was just posted today along with all the other Week Three challenges at Ch{all}enge Masters. The challenge is to use a Kraft background (and I was horrified to realize that this is my LAST piece of Kraft...guess I have to make an order this week...oh darn!) and the color inspiration was a sheet of My Minds Eye Stella & Rose "Hattie" paper. It just so happened that I had ONE piece of this left in my ever-growing stash of MME papers and I combined that with the back side of a piece of "Gertie" paper. I still had some embellishments from that line too so was able to pull this layout together rather easily. 

I made matching journaling strips out of scraps of the papers and mounted them on thick chipboard to give them dimension. I made the twisted flower out of a piece of muslin fabric that I sprayed with Wheat Beer Glimmer Mist which is the PERFECT color for this line of papers. I added a couple feathers and a button to it to finish it off.   Who says you can't use flowers on a boy page!!  I am entering this at The Paper Variety where this week's challenge is to add a flower or a bunch of flowers!  That's an EASY challenge for me since I love flowers so much!! I used a button in the center of the flower for the Show Us Your Stuff challenge.

The handmade embellishments mean I can submit this one too at Frosted Designs for their Friday Challenge this week and for ScrapFit's challenge to use a handmade flower. 

Wow, this week a lot of the challenge blogs worked well to get several done in just one layout!!  AND I did a layout of my son, which are few and far between now that he's a teen and not wanting mom's camera in his face all the time!

Always Together

Have you ever started a layout with a beautiful vision in mind and have it come out nothing like you saw it? That's this one. Its ok. But in my head it just looked a lot better! I think it may be the muted Cosmo Cricket papers I chose to work with. In fact, I was working on this last night and decided not to glue anything down until I walked away (slept!!) and came back. And sure enough. this morning I changed the background from an ivory to a peach to match both her shirt and the peach in the papers and I'm a little more happy with it. I had a hard time finding title lettering that looked good....everything "soft" looked too washed out on the papers and I didn't want it to be too bold, which I think it actually is but its done!

I made the flowers...the two roses are layered using cream cardstock and parts of the Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die and I painted them with three different colors of Glimmer Mist. They have a beautiful sheen to them too...almost like they are made of satin. I AM happy with them! LOL! And I made the brad using my i-top tool and the accordian flower...well no need to explain that! I will post this at Frosted Designs for their Friday Challenge to use homemade embellishments and at The Paper Variety where the challenge is to use flowers. I used sketch 114 at The Scrappiest and will enter over there for a chance to win a yummy scrapbook kit from Artful Delight and I used buttons (both a paper covered one and a regular one as a flower center) for the Show Us Your Stuff challenge.

Easter Basket Law

Peeps....we all know what they are! But do you LIKE them? Personally, I do like them but not at Easter time. Oh no, MY Peeps must be left out to get stale for at least a month before I eat them! Nothing better than a perfectly stale Peep! My kids on the other hand HATE Peeps. All Peeps...chicks, bunnies, pink, yellow or blue, Easter, Halloween or any other variation of them!! So now that they are older and realizing that I KNOW that they don't like them, yet every year they appear in their Easter Baskets, they asked me WHY! Why would I put something in their baskets that I clearly know they do not like! Well....because its the LAW! All Easter Baskets must contain at least one package of Peeps and one Cadbury Creme Egg (which they also do not like but fortunately MOM does!) Do you see a pattern here? There really is a law, its not just because MOM likes them! Anyway. that's always my answer....its the Law. They shake their heads and move on!! The photos show just how they feel about their yearly gift of Peeps! 

I used paper by Best Creations...a pretty gliterry paper with bunnies on it, and chipboard Peeps stickers from Creative Imaginations. Aren't they fun!! Letters by Crate Paper and Thickers. I also used the sketch at Sketch Inspirations as a starting point. Challenge 41 at Papercraft Star was to use this color pallett on your project. 

At Paper Issues they want to see your "grass"! As they say: "We want to see what you are making for Easter or to celebrate Spring.Cards, Layouts, Altered Items...Anything!". So I am submitting this there too! I even really have GRASS on my layout!! LOL!   I used a couple small flowers which means I can enter it at The Paper Variety where the challenge is to add flowers.   I had fun working on this one. Now its off to the grocery store.

Like Butterflies, Girls Need No Excuse

The last layout I posted featured my daughter as a little girl. While I do still sometimes think of her as a little girl, sometimes I am smacked into reality that she is really beginning to become a beautiful young woman. She's only 12 (for another 2 months!) so when I snuck upstairs with my camera in hand to get some shots of my daughter and her friend getting "ready" for the Spring dance, I was sort of taken back when I saw her. She's not a big fan of eye makeup but this night she did her makeup and O-M-G she looked sooooo old to me! I smiled but a part of me was dying inside. I love how the girls were doing each other's hair. I thought the mirror shot was pretty clever of me as well!!

I used a sketch from one of my new favorite sketch challenge blogs, Once Upon A Sketch. There is always a journaling requirement to go along with the sketch and this one was to journal about why you took the photos. (PS - if you go to their blog you will see that I made the top 5 last week!  Too cool!!)  Anyway, I journaled about what I said above, that I was in awe of how pretty the girls were and had to take their pictures. I used Kaiser Craft Bubblegum Hills paper. I fussy cut the butterflies and inked them to give them more dimension and each one is popped up on foam dots.  In my opinion, that makes for a handmade embellishment so I will also post this at Frosted Designs for the Fabulous Friday Challenge to use a handmade embellishment on your project.  The letters are by Glitz amnd Thickers, as usual! I also added bling "trails" behind the butterflies with Creative Charms gems.

Daughters Are Mother's Treasures

What a weekend....and its only Saturday afternoon. I swear if this weather doesn't turn around soon I'm going to start growing mold! I was productive last night and got two layouts done which I will post here and in another post, but today...NOT a good day! If it COULD go wrong, it HAS gone wrong! So enough babbling....on to the layout: I did this for the Color Challenge at ACOT - Purple (obviously). I used a sketch that had just been posted from Sketchabilities. Perfect timing! The photos are my daughter when she was so little. Oh how I miss those days and everything that came along with them. I used Kaisercraft papers as well as the big pretty butterfly. Creative Charms gems, flowers from K&CO, Prima Lace Bling and Thickers and Cosmo Cricket letters. Stay tuned for two more posts with two more layouts.

Purr-fect Together!

Prepare yourself for lots of scrappiness from me in the days/weeks to come!  I have had sort of a windfall of goodies coming my way in the last two weeks!!!  Lots of new goodies to play with!!

This layout features one of my favorite photos of my daughter and our cat, Cloudy.  Cloudy is older than Susie by about 3 years.  From the time she was born the two of them have been joined at the hip.  Even now, when Susie goes to bed, Cloudy is right on her heels, ready to settle down for the night!

I used Imaginisce papers from the Enchanted line.  I used a paper doily by WRMK behind the circle.  I made a rosette using my Tim Holtz Sizzix die to mimic the flowers on the papers, adding a couple fun feathers behind it.  The letters are Thickers and Cosmo Cricket.   The "Piece It Together" challenge over at the Imaginisce blog this month is to create a paper piecing for your project.  There was a time when I didn't do a page WITHOUT a paper piecing.  In fact, I used to make them and sell them on Ebay!!  That's when I was a SAHM and had more time.  Now I just don't have much time to spend on this.  This little kitty is fairly simple though and I was definitely out of practice adding the highlights with chalks.  In fact, I had to wipe the dust off my chalks, its been so long since I used them!  And by handmaking these embellishments, it qualifies for the Fabulous Friday Challenge at Frosted Designs.

I also used the newest sketch at Twisted Sketches.

Bubbles For Autism!

"Thousands are expected to join with southern New Jersey's FACES Autism Support Network on Friday in the organization's annual Blow Bubbles 4 Autism event to increase awareness about autism and promote hope for families of those who have the disorder." 

I am proud to say that I participated as did my kids!  I work at Stockton College where Robert Ross undertook the organizing of getting staff, students and faculty to join the cause!  And at my kids school, at the same time I was blowing bubbles 2 towns away, they were blowing bubbles too!!  Autism has not affected me personally but I have watched in heartbreak as a friend struggles daily with her daughter.  We have distant friends who are touched with it.  And there are far too many that we don't know at all suffering with this awful disorder.  If I can help in any way, albeit small, I will!  Here's a couple pictures of the event!

Awesome Haul at Marshalls!! And a Layout!

This layout was made for the Theme Challenge at ACOT using the new sketch (#115) released today at The Scrappiest. I used an American Crafts page kit that I got for a S-T-E-A-L. See the story below!   Everything was from the kit except for the yo-yo flower which I made and the yellow twisted fabric flower, and the popsicle enameled stickers which were leftovers from another layout!  Oh, and the mini October Afternoon letters.  The theme of the challenge was to use the word Refresh to inspire you. These pictures of the kids when they were soooooo little enjoying ice cream and sprinkles were perfect! The photo isn't the best because its sooo cloudy here AND my battery died in my big Canon so I had to use the little one!

 And now for my deal of the month! Over the weekend I had to go to Marshalls to get my son some new tee shirts. While I was there I wandered to the back of the store where I almost always find something scrappy related. The past 6 months or so there has been an assortment of Martha Stewart punches for $2.99-$7.99 and I had already purchased the ones I was interested in. As I got towards the aisle I noticed that it looked different. And it was! There were no MS craft items at all...instead there were tons of American Crafts scrapbooking kits. And what a DEAL they were! For $4.99 for the American Crafts kits (there are two at the top of the picture and one I already used on the layout I posted above) you get 2 sheets of cardstock, 8 patterened papers, 3 different ribbons, a package of flair stickers (buttons), a package of stickers, cardstock to mat your photos in 6 different colors and the best part.....a whole package of Thickers! I don't know about you but I love me some Thickers and for $4.99 for all of this, its a deal for sure since Thickers are $4.99 by themselves! The collections I got were Letterbox, Blue Skies and not pictured is Heat Wave. I took only one of each....leaving some for the next person but BOY did I want to grab them all! There was a lady in the aisle staring at me and huffing and puffing because I was taking all the good stuff!  As soon as I moved away, she grabbed a bunch too...and I am sure she took more than me.  Ugh.  

In addition to the American Crafts page kits I found a package of 60 sheets of American Crafts Travel themed pattern paper. The price you ask? $2.99! Can you believe that....$2.99 for 60 sheets of paper and only a few of them smack of travel....the others could be used for any theme in colors of black, red, bright green, baby blue and white. 

Oh but I'm not done yet! I got two packages of American Crafts Remarks Journaling Stickers--each pack has 8 pages of stickers in them. The are black and white and I always like to have neutral journaling spots on hand. Those were $1.69 each. And last but not least were two page kits by Pebbles. These kits were $2.99 and contain 2 sheets each of 3 different pattern papers, 1 yard of matching ribbon, 1 Sticker Sheet, 1 Sampler Sheet (die cuts), 1 sheet of Words stickers and 1 sheet of page element stickers (tabs, photo turns, etc). I got the "Theodore" kit which is a paisley/stripe set in greens, blues and browns. And "Party Time Boy" which is fun bright blue, orange and greens!! There were a couple other styles that I just didn't care for so I left them!  Miss Crabby Pants waiting in the aisle can have them!I also picked up a fat pack of bright scalloped tissue paper to make some fun flowers with!! All that and I spent under $30!!!!! 

A Glimpse Of My Dad

Before I get into the details here, I want to direct your attention to the lovely wallpaper in the photo! Is it not a DEAD RINGER for the Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 papers I used! Hahahah!! I didn't notice until I had the layout done but I laughed out loud when I realized it!

This layout was another session of therapy under my belt. Who needs to pay a shrink!! Scrapping is way better therapy! This layout is of my Dad. He's been gone 6 years in March. We had a tough relationship all my life and I used this layout to do some "hidden" journaling and really spilled my heart out. I thought it would be important to pass on my feelings to future generations who may wonder why there are very few pictures of my dad in my scrapbooks. I kept most of the journaling hidden as it gets into how I felt...not nearly as important as my sister and brother, how I felt about his midlife crisis that all but destroyed our family...sigh...and how much I loved him. I cried, I wiped my tears, had a long conversation with him (thankfully I was home alone while working on this layout!) and in the end I really like how the page came out. I bought this paper collection specially with photos of my dad in mind. I really don't have many photos but this one has been bouncing around my desk for a while now. Also notice the CORD on the telephone! How funny is that! Boy how times change!

I used the sketch at Once Upon A Sketch challenge blog. The rules are that you must journal at least 25 words in your own handwriting. Because I used some pretty personal journaling I really didn't want it out there for the world to read so I made my journaling mostly hidden. If you pull the tab that says 'READ' you can get the whole story...I journaled front and back and way surpassed the 25 words. I also used a couple brads (the red corduroy Bazzil brad and the small heart brad) which makes it qualify for the Frosted Designs Friday Challenge to use brads. Most of the embellishments are Cosmo Cricket Circa 1934 with a few doo dads from the Crate Paper Portrait sticker sheet thrown in. They really worked well together! I cut some of the design elements from the paper, inked them and popped some up on pop dots. I added some black bling from Recollections and black dew drops to accent some of the design elements. The letters are from Crate Paper Portrait and Jillibean Soup. I LOVE those corrugated letters! In fact, I just restocked my supply!! I inked the outside edges of the page and called it done/therapy session over!

Ahhh...Scrappy Time!

So I was able to get some scrappy time in and got to work on the new sketch at Creative Scrappers! I just ordered a TON of pictures from Shutterfly of the kids when they were little. The quality of the images isn't the best because honestly, my photography skills back in the day were less than stellar AND I was using my first digital camera which I think was 4MP! LOL! I love this photo nonetheless! Both of my boys have had the same interests, even though there are 6 years between them! Its sooo funny! This is Matt very seriously checking out one of his Pokemon cards! He was lucky in that when he got interested in Pokemon cards, his brother was done with it and he inherited TONS of Johnny's cards!! And do you know that even now when I do a "deep" cleaning of the kids rooms I still find a Pokemon or Yu Gi Oh card around and Matt is 14 and Johnny is 21 years old!!! Its like the beads from those 1000000000000 bead sets my daughter had when she was little! They don't use these things for YEARS yet bits and pieces are still floating around! Anyway, as I said I used the new sketch up today from Creative Scrappers. I used Crate Paper's Toybox line for the papers and most of the embellishments! I LOVE their new releases! They are soooooo versatile.  I also used the theme of this layout for the April "Scrap the Boys" challenge at Challenge Masters. 

I used lots of "gadgets" for this layout too. I'm definitely a gadget gal. The problem is, once the newness wears off I seem to not use them. At the Kraft Journal there is a Spring Cleaning challenge. So since I was already using Kraft as my background I figured I'd go for it and use some of those gadgets I just had to have. First up is the i-Top tool. I used that to make the large brad at the top left of the photo. I like that gadget well enough, I just never remember about it! And using that brad (and the three small orange ones on the title) qualifies this layout for the Frosted Designs Friday challenge to use brads. I then dusted off an old Sizzix die and cut the stars out of chipboard and matching paper and layered them together. I raised the smaller star up on a pop dot. The last gadget I used was the epoxy shape maker from Epiphany Crafts. I didn't take any closeups of this layout so you could see them better but there are two epoxy shapes that perfectly match....one with a helicopter on it which I placed off the tag that says "That A Boy" and the other is to the right of the "Son" tag on the title block. I also dusted off some very old Thickers chipboard letters for the title. I was surprised I had any vowels left as I've had these letters forever! They are an odd shade of green so not many layouts can use them!! But they matched this one perfect! 

Of course, digging all this stuff out has left a major mess (on top of the mess that was already there!) on my desk. My "to be sorted through and put away later" bin is getting quite full!

8 Days In A Week Please!!

That's what I need! At LEAST one more day in a week! (Preferably an extra Saturday!). I love Spring and all that goes along with it, but it wipes me out!! More things to do and it seems like less time to do it all in!! I only managed ONE page in the last 8 days and its not even a great page! Its cute, but its school portraits and you know how that goes. They aren't the best photos anyway!! I did this for a challenge over at Challenge Masters to use Spring in your title. Now, for some scrappy news! I have two announcements to make...I think I already told you about one but honestly, I'm too lazy to check my back posts. Anyway, announcement number one is I have been named a Diva at Challenge Masters. I will be hosting the "A Day In The Life" challenge for the next 6 months.

I just posted April's challenge this morning....  

April Fools' Day is celebrated all around the world on the April 1 of every year. Sometimes referred to as All Fools' Day, April 1 is not a legal holiday, but is widely recognized and celebrated as a day that tolerates practical jokes and general foolishness. The day is marked by the commission of good humored or funny jokes, hoaxes, and other practical jokes of varying sophistication on friends, family members, teachers, neighbors, work associates, etc.Your challenge this month is to create a layout of someone acting "foolish"....funny faces, pranksters, dressing up silly, etc. If you don't have any pictures like that, how about telling a story through your journaling of a funny joke your child told you or something that left you feeling like a fool or silly!

So why not head over to Challenge Masters and join! Its a fun site, with tons of great challenges every month and you couldn't ask for a nicer group of scrappers!!! 

And now for my second announcement! Last week I was asked to join the team at Sketches2Scrapbook to design some layouts for their Scrapbook Sketch App for you iPod, iPad, iPhone, etc. I will be designing for the new release! I LOVE these apps and have used many of the sketches from prior releases! There are two versions: a FREE Lite Version with 12 sketches in it for everyone to demo the app, and a FULL version with another 104 sketches for the low price of $4.99 (US Dollars) - the FULL version also gets you the sketches from the free version (so a total of 116 sketches). I'm so excited to be working with them and hope that if you have an iPad or and iPod Touch, you will check out the Apps! So that's all for now! I have about 2 hours before its off to the baseball fields for the rest of the day! Maybe I can get some scrapping in!

Bikini Babe

I LOVE this page! I only wish you could see it in person! I started with an 11" square of thin acrylic that I have had in my stash for at least 5 years. No clue where or why I got it!! I decided to build the layout on the acrylic. I was going to leave it as is and then decided to mount it on white cardstock so it would be 12x12. I liked how that looked but it was missing something so I grabbe a sheet of black cardstock and the result came out great I think!  The whole page has such great dimension and texture to it. The yellow and green are GLITTER papers and the black and white polka dots is Jillibean Soup White Bean. I used silk flowers from Michaels and some small yellow prima roses. I used the last of the bling that I got at CKC last July. I guess THIS July I'm going to have to stock up better! I THOUGHT I had enough to last me TWO years! The letters are Jillibean Soup and Echo Park. Sketch by Beggahuna. I created this layout for the Chopped Challenge at Challenge Masters where we had to use one element from each of the last three weeks challenges. I used ALL of them, with the exception of two....stitching and scallops. And now that its done, I think I should have scalloped the yellow edge but oh well! The photos are of my niece and her daughter! They live in Florida and we live in New Jersey so I have never met Brielle and my poor sister, her grandma, has only been able to visit her once. I'm going to frame this and give it to my sister as a Mother's Day gift as I know she misses her girls something awful. I am entering this in Frosted Designs Friday bling challenge as well! That sure was an easy challenge for me! I love BLING!