Paper Daisy Dreams

Yippeee!! Another one!

2011-10-18T14:16:00.000-04:00

I'm so happy! This one came together rather easily! Maybe the mojo is making a small comeback. I used the inspiration word TOGETHER at Bird Is The Word and combined it with the challenge at ACOT to use leaves on your page. I used a black prima leaf under the flowers. The page was hard to photograph due to the soft greens and washed out effect coupled with the black and the bright sunlight! I took at least a dozen photos and this was the best of the group.

Trying to get the mojo back!

2011-10-18T12:49:00.000-04:00

Its been so long since I have posted or scrapped that I forgot the password for my blog. I don't know what is going on with me but I just can't seem to do much scrapping anymore! I took off Monday and today to scrap and play in the October ACOT crop. The crop came and went over the weekend and I never even looked at the computer. Yesterday instead of scrapping I cleaned all day! Today I decided it was do or die. And I did!! I actually scrapped a page! I used the sketch at Frosted Designs as inspiration and Crop Challenge 4 at ACOT to scrap about something you are thankful for. For me its my three kids. I can't imagine my life without them!

Off to see if I can find some more inspiration!

Halloween Parade 2002

2011-08-13T21:00:00.000-04:00

Three days, three layouts! Its not what I'm used to but it sure beats 0/80 days!! I'm slowly learning to like spending time in my scraproom again. I haven't participated in any of the blogs that I follow in forever!!! I liked the sketch at Once Upon A Sketch but really wanted to scrap this cute Halloween photo that I kept seeing at the top of one of my photo boxes. So while I don't have any expectations of winning because the sketch has resulted in sooooo many beautiful, soft and feminine layouts.....I went with my Halloween theme anyway! The way I look at it is that this is the photo that inspired me...so this is the photo I scrapped!

I used papers by Dream Street Papers, LLC and embellishments from Dream Street and My Minds Eye. The big pumpkin came from Michaels last year. If you press it, it lights up. I'm fairly certain I got it for pennies on clearance! Letters are by Reminisce from the Graduation line. I bought them to do my oldest's high school graduation photos. He is now entering his senior year of college and I still haven't scrapped his high school graduation!! Yikes! LOL!

Lifted Spirits! -- Another long post!

2011-08-12T12:22:00.002-04:00

This layout will always, for the rest of my life, have special meaning to me. Not that any photo of my mom and I is not special, but something happened while I was working on this layout. As some of you know, I lost my Mom on October 13, 2010. Since that time I've struggled with life without her. I talk to inadament objects constantly asking her to tell me she's ok, that she's happy, that she's 'with' me. It never "works" and I go on with the day with an ache in my heart like you could not believe. Losing my mom has been the hardest thing to cope with. She was my best friend. My confidant. My shoulder to cry on and the first person I turned to with news, good or bad. I miss all of those things but most of all I miss her voice. I miss talking to her. Shortly after she passed away my oldest son sent me a link to a YouTube video of Iz Kamakawiwo'ole singing his version of "Over The Rainbow". (You can click the link to see the video if you want.) From that day forward I've held that song close to my heart. Its not a song you will hear played on the radio very often, if at all. When I have needed to hear it I have always gone to that YouTube video.

I moved in July to this house where I have my own scraproom. After weeks of sorting everything out I have finally started scrapping a little bit. I did a layout yesterday using WRMK Fiesta papers.

Its cute I guess. It can't help but be cute with the photos of the kids when they were so little! But that was it...once it was done, I left my scraproom feeling uninspired, like I can't do it anymore. Last night I cruised around eBay to get an idea of how much I could sell EVERYTHING for. I have a LOT of stuff. I was ready to give up. I just haven't felt anything inspiring for some time. I've PUSHED myself to scrap but my passion and joy for this hobby are soooo diminished from what I used to feel. I breathed scrapbooking. It was a HUGE part of my life and I would steal every moment I could to play with paper and photos and ohh the embellishments. When I wasn't scrapping I was hanging out on ACOT's message board forging friendships with other scrappers or shopping online for MORE stuff. I have stopped that too. I poke into ACOT here and there but all of a sudden felt like I didn't belong anymore. Like everyone moved on without me. Its silly...I know that in my head. Of course everyone has moved on....but being without me has been MY choice, not theirs. I ignored my blog and then was disappointed when I logged on last month to show off my new scraproom only to find out that 21 people who used to follow my blog had stopped following me. Big deal, right? I don't even know who it is that left! I just know how many followers I had and how many I have now. Still...not a big deal in the grand scheme of things. But I took it to heart...even though again, it was ME who ignored my blog in the first place!

Since i got my iPad in November, I've used Flipboard to view the blogs I follow. In the last 3 months I have not touched it. Today I was up before the sun and reached for my iPad. I played a few games, checked out the local newspaper and put it aside. About an hour later I reached for it again I touched the Flipboard icon. I cruised through a few blogs and came to the new sketch from Sketchy Thursdays. It was not the first sketch I had seen this morning but it was the first one that immediately got ideas running through my head. I even knew the picture/paper I was going to use. (That part was sort of easy as while I was sorting and putting things away after moving here I had matched up an OLD piece of Frances Meyer paper from 2000 to a 42 year old photo of my mom and me. The blue just reminded me of the dress I was wearing. Anyway, the paper and photo have been sitting on my desk for a while now so that part of it was a no-brainer.) I don't know why I got inspired by the sketch....it shows using 3 photos and I only had one. And I would not have used a circle feeling with that photo if left to my druthers. But inspire me it did and I grabbed my coffee and iPad and headed into my scraproom.

The layout came together rather easily although it was a couple hours to get it all glued down. Maybe I need to stop rushing myself to "produce" a ton of layouts. I usually don't spend more than 45 minutes on a layout and that's with starting blank....picking photos, papers, etc. That part was already done!

While I was scrapping I had Pandora open on my iPad, set to my Jack Johnson station. I happily sang along to Jack, U2, John Mayer and similar artists. I finished the layout, took it outside to try to get a decent photo which I didn't...its too bright outside and too dark inside! As I sat at my desk looking at the finished layout and thinking about my mom a new song started....I sat back and took a deep breath. I have listened to this station on Pandora for almost 2 years now and have NEVER heard this song come up in the rotation but here it was....Over the Rainbow by Iz Kamakawiwo'ole. Tears flowed freely and I talked to my layout, telling my mom how much I loved her and missed her. I started to clean up my desk. I was once again uninspired and ready to leave my scraproom. I did a few things in the kitchen, went out and got the mail. I had ordered new checks and they arrived so I walked into my scraproom which doubles as my office to put them away. I was not paying much attention to the music still coming from my iPad until I heard that familiar sound again. No way.....could it be? 7 songs after it played it for the first time it was on again but this time in a version combined with "What A Wonderful Life". The tears flowed again but suddenly it hit me. This is what I was asking for all along. It was my mom telling me that she IS ok. That she IS happy and pain free. That SHE IS WITH ME. I shared what had just happened with my daughter and had goosebumps all over my body while I was telling her. As I was telling her this a new song started....a song from the 60's! Sugar Sugar by the Archies!! THERE IS NO WAY this song belongs on a Jack Johnson station on Pandora! But as I sang along I was smiling....the music my mom loved was from the 60's and "Sugar Sugar" was no exception. My spirits are soooo lifted right now. I just had to share my story AND my layout!! I'm heading out to the pool with my daughter now though to make more memories that she can hold onto after I am gone, just as I have an entire heart full of memories with my own mom, even though she's not physically with me anymore. What a way to start the weekend! (BTW - since I started writing this post Pandora has not thrown anymore songs that don't fit into the rotation...so I KNOW that was my mom!)

Well Hello There!! WARNING - Long post with pictures!

2011-07-15T16:20:00.000-04:00

So I'm going to stroke my little ego and think that some of you may have missed me, wondered what happened, or both! I know that some of you know where I have been but for those who don't, in as short a version as I can muster, this is where I have been since I last posted on May 27. Be warned that there are a lot of pictures in this post! Anyway, in my last post I told you that we got the house we were hoping to rent for the next year until we are in a better position to buy. Fast forward to July 1...we moved in! But life was full of twists and turns and unexpected things between Memorial Day Weekend and moving day! Here is a picture of my OLD scraproom all packed up:

It took 42 boxes to pack all my crap up!!! And some bins and my three rolling totes were packed to the gills as well! Fortunately my scraproom was one of the first things to get packed up. I say fortunately because about a week before I started packing I woke with a terrible achy pain in my neck. I assumed that I had slept funny and went to work. Over the course of the next week, the pain increased and my neck was tilted almost to my shoulder which was the only way I could hold it without excruciating pain. I called a chiropractor and began getting treatment. He took xrays and told me that I had "some issues" but he could "fix" me. Over the course of the next 9 days I made 13 visits to said chiropractor (with a $15 copay each time). Towards the end I began to ask him if I should consult my regular doctor and perhaps get some pain killer as the ice and heating pad he had "prescribed" was just not cutting it! His answer each time was that he "could not recommend that". Now I KNOW that most chiropractors believe they can make adjustments without the need for drugs. I do NOT think that all chiropractors are bad....but I DO think the one I chose was in it more for the money than anything else. He HAD to realize that I was in much worse shape than he could "fix". At any rate, one day at work I was walking down steps and suddenly the pain was shooting down my arms and my fingers were tingling. I got SCARED! I KNEW then that this was more than some bones out of adjustment! I called my regular doctor who had me come in the next day. He felt around my neck, listened to my story and told me to cease seeing the chiropractor and sent me for an MRI immediately. I left his office with several much needed prescriptions in hand, headed to the MRI place and had the MRI done. That was on Friday. All during this time I have been packing AND painting in the new house, despite the pain. You know how it is....if Mom doesn't do it, it doesn't get done! Add in there that my daughter turned 13 on June 13th and in our family 13 is a milestone birthday. I was miserable and useless but did not let my daughter down....we had a great dinner at Osaka - a Japanese Hibachi restaurant, and she was very happy with her own Canon Powershot Camera and a new fancy lamp for her new bedroom!

On Monday morning I got a call from my doctor asking me to come in as soon as I could. I left work and headed there (his office is just across the street from where I work). I was taken right in and he showed me the report. I had spinal stenosis and collapsed disc at c5/c6 and again at c6/c7. Top it off with the fact that my spinal chord had broken through the opening and was now exposed in two different places. I guess my face didn't show enough concern so my doctor (I LOVE this man...he's a WONDERFUL MD) took my hands and calmly said to me....I don't think you understand what I am telling you. If you SNEEZE the wrong way you could end up paralyzed. PARALYZED. OK, that got my attention. From the exam room he picked up the phone and called a nuerologist he was friendly with. I was given an appointment for the next day...Tuesday. Now keep in mind this is ALSO the day that my middle son graduated 8th grade with a full graduation ceremony. My appt. was at 2pm. Graduation started at 5:45. At 4:30 I walked up to the desk and explained that I had been waiting for 2.5 hours at that point and was going to have to leave to go to my son's graduation. They were great and told me to sit 5 more minutes and they would get me in and out quickly. I was obviously in pain and very crooked which ticked me off even more that I sat in the waiting room that long. Anyway....I get called back and the Physician Assistant pulls up on a computer my MRI and shows me the problem. She tells me that my ONLY option is surgery. I explain that I am moving on July 1 (its now June 14). She says to see what the doctor says. He enters the room, has me walk around the room, looks at the MRI on the computer and tells me that I need surgery IMMEDIATELY....that my spinal chord is compromised and I could be paralyzed at any moment and there would be nothing he could do. Keep in mind its Tuesday about 5:00pm. I am scheduled for surgery on Thursday at 9:00am. They wrapped things up and off I went to Matt's graduation....with the pain and now FEAR!

Mission accomplished!! High School here he comes! That evening we went out to dinner to the local "pub", joining all of Matt's friends and their parents! It was a WONDERFUL night and I am so proud of my boy. He is nothing short of spectacular in my eyes!

I spent the better part of the next day at work (I would be out till 8/1) for an hour or two tying up any loose ends I could, then the hospital for pre-admission testing, then to my MD for medical clearance...ekg, etc. No food after midnight...no problem...I've had no appetite anyway! Up bright and early and to the hospital by 7am. Right on schedule I say goodbye to John and am wheeled into the Operating Room. Next thing I remember is sitting up in my bed and the nurses freaking out because I wasn't supposed to be awake for another hour! Oh well...surprise! Here I am! Surgery was a success and I felt like a million bucks for the next two days! I got home on Friday morning and by that time the anesthesia was fully out of my body. The million Bucks I felt like is GONE. The pain was awful but it was a different pain than I had been having. Over the next week it gets gradually better and I see the surgeon 1-week post op. My biggest complaint is not being able to sleep and my toes in my right foot keep going numb whenever they feel like it. Not easy to walk that way! He says I am doing well, removes the bandages and off I went with a script for a sleep aid.

That brings us to July 1. Moving day! It went rather smoothly thanks to the help of my oldest son, John, my brother, and several strong male friends of ours! At the end of the day I was hurting pretty good so took my painkillers and headed to bed. The next two weeks brings us to today. I am 99% unpacked....the house is starting to feel like home. The kids are registered for their new schools (mostly...Matt still has to meet with a guidance counselor in 2 weeks). They are enjoying having a pool in the backyard and enjoying their summer even though they miss their friends!

And here we are today! I am sooooo happy to report that I am feeling better..still not 100% but better every day. And better yet....after a full week in this room purging, sorting, etc. I have my scraproom in order (more or less!). There are still the rolling totes and a few smaller containers and odds and ends to be sorted through and put in their new homes. But for the most part, I can SCRAP this weekend!! Here's a bunch of pix of my new room! I changed from the "Cricut Green" that once adorned my scraproom to pink and black with a Damask/Chandelier theme thanks to the curtains, vinyl wall art and lamp I got from Target!

This area is my die cutting center. The black shelf was our old microwave cart that we no longer needed so I claimed it!! It holds my Expression, all my dies and cartridges. The cardboard boxes underneath I still need to sort through! To the right are 6 Jetmax cubes that I saved from the 12 I had in my old room. You will notice that the bins are still green but I got some plastic spray paint and will be painting the handles soon!! Most of them are still empty.

This shows the cubes, my sewing machine, Vagabond die cutter and some plastic drawers. The door is pretty close to the right edge....its not a huge room like I had but I actually like it smaller! There;s my new lamp too! I love it!

John hung ledge shelves for me...what a royal pain they are! This one holds all my Glimmer Mists. Do you think I have a problem? LOL! And above that is my chandelier wall art! Love that too!

Two more ledge shelves hold my favorite photos of my family. You can see my chandelier curtains too! The pink sheers will be changed out....they are more of a rose color rather than the hot pink I wanted. That's the bad part of ordering online. Oh well...they were cheap! Both panels for $6! This view is from the right corner of the room, standing in the closet!

I have a shoe organizer on the back of the door holding punches, tools, etc. I love that I have a DOOR that I can close!

This view is standing in the doorway looking at the opposite wall from the first pix. Its my Ikea Expedit shelving unit redone with pink and black bins and baskets. Look closely...my desk has not been this clean in YEARS!! The big bins under my desk house all my patterned paper. Well not ALL of it. But this is where I sort my pp by Manufacturer in alpha order. It seems to work best for me. I do have a few that break that rule....like holidays, Seasons, travel, Disney, etc. which have their own categories. My printer is plugged in but the wireless connection isn't working so we still have to get that sorted out.

Above the printer is my new Embellishment Center! I got it at Michaels and its not the Making Memories brand but was a LOT cheaper.....I'm thinking $25 after coupon. I LOVE it. It holds my stickles, assorted paints, some flowers in pretty tins and bottles, dew drops, Glossy Accents, etc.

And finally....here is where MOST of stuff is....a big closet with a preinstalled closet organizer in it! Still needs to be fine tuned, but the base is there!

So THAT'S what I have been up to. I hope to be scrapping again and blog hopping soon!!

Teresa Collins Versatility!

2011-05-22T12:58:00.002-04:00

I seem to be on a Teresa Collins Designs kick today, but alas, I've used up the last of what I had! I really loved her sports and girly lines this year and hope she continues with more great papers! This first layout is using a sketch from Lets Capture Those Sketches. The color scheme/patterns are themed after my daughter's bedroom which is hot pink and Zebra striped. I added some acetate shapes by Making Memories that I have had for a very long time...but not nearly as long as the "girl" clothing tag. I've had that floating in my pink bin for years and its finally found a home on a layout! I snagged the photo from my daughter's facebook! Love that!

This layout is using Theresa Collins All Star line. I didn't have much left (except of ONE paper that I somehow accidentally ordered 12 of so have LOTS of that one left!). I again raided my OLD OLD OLD stash and finally used the Jolees Yankees stickers and the laser cut baseball border I've had for YEARS! I'm really glad to be using up some old stash. This page was a scraplift of Christy's page below for her May Scrapping the Boys Challenge at Challenge Masters.

Laugh

2011-05-21T00:05:00.002-04:00

Well thought I was done for the night but as I was blog hopping, I saw that Liz Chidester posted a new sketch for the Sweet Peach Crop Shop. I love Liz's sketches and enjoy participating in her challenges and those at sites she designs for. Sweet Peach Crop Shop is a monthly kit club and I think that once some of my current subscriptions are up, I may give them a try. I have 3-4 that I like and will have to narrow that down to two as I can't afford everything that I want!

I am posting this at the Paper Variety as well, where the challenge is to use Stars on your layout. And finally. Challenge #17 at Punky Scraps is to use the word Laugh or Laughter on your layout. As soon as I saw the challenge I knew the photo I wanted to use! My poor son is being tickled by his sister and cousin!

All papers are Moxxie "Chillin Out". I cut the stars from the back side of one of the papers, made the flower rosettes from my Tim Holtz die.

Whoo Wants Cake

2011-05-20T18:31:00.001-04:00

I bet you most of you who visit my blog often think I have just two kids!! I've actually got three! My oldest son, John, lives about an hour and a half away with his dad. It was closer to where he was originally attending college. Of course, he made some poor choices and left a 4-year college in favor of a Community College but I'm mom (AND I work at a 4 year State college) so what do I know! Add in the girlfriend who lives up there and it led to a more permanent arrangement than I would like. My firstborn will be 21 in just 2 1/2 months. I cannot believe it. I can close my eyes and be right back to the minute he was born. I'm very proud of him (even with the dumb decisions) as he has grown into quite a nice young man. He's a towering 6'2" tall and 200lbs which amazes me as neither his father or I are very blessed in the stature department!

This layout features a photo of my oldest (actually all three are in the photo) on his 19th birthday. He wanted a Strawberry Cake with Strawberry Icing so that's what I made. Yuck! He was the only one who enjoyed his birthday cake that year! LOL!

I used the sketch #82 at Lets Capture These Sketches and Jillibean Soup Owl Soup papers. I did fussy cutting to get the owls where I wanted them and a ton of pop dots. You can't really tell from the photo but the area with the photo on it is completely rasied up, as are a couple of the owls! I added a Tim Holtz rosette and a banner cut with a Cheery Lynn Designs die. I combined this with the Trend Watch Challege at Challenge Masters which was to use corrugated alphas. I LOVE Jillibean Corrugated alphas and have several packs in every color. My favorite are the white, as you can ink or mist them to match whatever you are working on, as I did here.

Well, I have to run now....have to ge the kids to their school dance and finish up some laundry. Its just started to rain here so that means no light to photograph any more layouts tonight! I do have one that I didn't post yet that I may blog later, but if not, have a great night and talk to you all tomorrow, my friends!

Happy Go Lucky!

2011-05-20T10:49:00.002-04:00

It's been a little while since I used a sketch from Creative Scrappers as inspiration. And in fact, I was going to skip this one because it was very similar to one I had done earlier this month using Lily Bee papers. But then it just sort of fell into place! I was browsing the May challenges over at Challenge Masters and saw that the Stash Challenge is to use at least 4 different patterned papers. I can't believe that I used EIGHT! This photo of Matt has been sitting on my desk for weeks just waiting to be scrapped. I was originally going to do a layout about his obsession with video games, but as I was cleaning up some papers on my floor, I found this Best Creations page kit that I won which was filled with green papers. Most were in small pieces as it was a pre-cut page kit. so that's how I decided to go with this sketch! I'm not one to use a page kit "as is" so this was perfect! Lots of little bits of paper! I matted everything on black cardstock. Let me tell you, this is one heavy layout! So many layers! I added a Horseshoe and a gold coin with a shamrock on it as "lucky" embellishments. The title fits my son to a tee. Nothing bugs this kid....he's truly Happy Go Lucky! I just hope he stays that way!!

Sei Bella

2011-05-15T10:27:00.000-04:00

I did this layout a couple nights ago but forgot to blog it! I was trying to participate in the Virtual Crop at MyScrapbook Nook but after days of trying to register without success, then finally getting registered and starting on the challenges, for whatever reason none of my posts would show up in the forums. So while there were really a lot of fun and interesting challenges there, I gave up. It was stressing me out!! But I got a couple layouts done anyway...so all was not lost. The challenge for this one was to use 10 or more pieces of chipboard on one layout which must be your own design...no sketches allowed! Yikes....I LOVE my sketches! The chipboard was easy once I decided to use the K&Co flowers and butterflies! I used Lily Bee Stationery papers, a Colorbok glitter chipboard journal spot, SCWV glitter chipboard letters, October Afternoon mini letters and my Martha Stewart Garden Gate border punch. The rest of the embellishments are K&Co.

I Love These Kids

2011-05-13T23:36:00.003-04:00

NOTE: I will replace the photo tomorrow in the daylight. The flash left a funky look!!

After two days of trying to register at My Scrapbook Nook, I am finally set and able to play along with their Virtual Crop that started yesterday and runs through the weekend. The first challenge I decided to play with was Challenge #10 - Go Wild With White Space. I coupled this with the Countdown Challenge at A Cherry On Top:

5 - Flowers; 4 - Blue Things (can be paper, elements, anything you like); 3 - Papers; 2 - Pictures; 1 - Frame

I used papers from Lily Bee, Pink Paislee and Fancy Pants. The chipboard foil rimmed letters are by Cloud 9 and the mini letters are October Afternoon. Flowers are Prima and Recollections. Wood Veneer heart bu Studio Calico (inked it to match) and all the buttons from my stash. I inked with blue then blended with white ink around the edges of the page and finished it off with red stitching. This was a fun layout....I don't usually leave so much white space.

Relax in Old San Juan

2011-05-13T19:35:00.002-04:00

What a great day today was. The weather was perfect, it was my first Friday off (I have off Fridays from now until September) and I decided to pick the kids up early from school (just an hour) JUST BECAUSE! Way to rack up "Mom Points". My daughter has a friend sleeping over and they just left for a walk to Dairy Queen, we had a yummy Tostado dinner and the evening is still young which means I can keep scrapping! I've already done three layouts today and have already finished the laundry for the weekend, cleaned up the house last night and this morning and have very little to do the rest of the weekend except relax (and hopefully find a rental home to move to!)

This layout is John hanging out in the harbor in Old San Juan, Puerto Rico while we were on our family cruise back in 09. Seems like just yesterday! I used Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage papers for this page. Who would have thought they could work for this theme but the colors are so soothing. The letters for the title are also Pink Paislee. On the tag they are My Minds Eye and Glitz. The flowers I got in a baggie at Joanns and the muslin yo yo flower I just whipped up for this layout. As usual, I was trying to get more than one challenge in one a layout! This one is for the Supply List Challenge at A Cherry On Top - Sewing (faux or real), Fabric and Shipping Tag. I used the new sketch at Stuck On You Sketches. I really like this sketch and will probably use it again for a different theme!

12th Birthday Dinner

2011-05-13T13:10:00.000-04:00

I could not get a straight photo of this to save my life. I promise, IRL it is STRAIGHT!

This layout is my daughter and one of her BFF's at Famous Dave's for my daughter's 12th birthday dinner. I used papers from the DCWV Stack Mango Frost. Letters are Jillibean Soup and the flowers are Prima. Rick rack from my stash. I used a sketch by Susan Stringfellow.

Mothers Day Blooms

2011-05-13T12:57:00.001-04:00

I am going to attempt this post and hope that Blogger has their issues resolved! I am going through Blog Withdrawl!

This layout was done for the Mfr. Challenge at A Cherry On Top which is Martha Stewart Crafts. The photos are my Mother's Day flowers from 2010 and 2011. Every year John gets me these HUGE hanging baskets and they flower straight through till October! I usually throw them away about the time I start to put Halloween decorations up!

I used a sketch by Susan Stringfellow and only one lonely piece of patterned paper which is OLD I tell ya! Its from Prima's Stone Rose collection which has to be 6 years old already! The rest is just plain old cardstock which was strange for me but I couldn't match the colors up without having patterns that didn't fit the theme of the page! I used Martha Stewart Garden Gate border punch at the bottom. I LOVE this punch! Its so elegant to me! Letters are Making Memories and Pink Paislee foam letters that I colored to match the pink, orange and purples in the flowers. Flowers are Petaloo leftover from this month's Swirlydoos kit. A purple ribbon and bow from my stash and a journaling spot from American Crafts and it's complete!

You Color My World

2011-05-10T16:08:00.000-04:00

National Scrapbooking Day/Weekend is winding down! How do I know? Well. This layout only qualifies for TWO challenges and one of them is not even related to NSD! LOL! I think I record was 6 during the heat of the weekend!!

Challenge #19 at A Cherry On Top is to scrap a page using one of your favorite paper brands. I love me some Lily Bee! They aren't my FAVORITE....that honor lies firmly with My Minds Eye....but I do love their colorful and happy prints!

And in conjunction with this, at Lets Capture Our Memories there is a sketch challenge to create a layout based on the sketch using only Lily Bee papers. Easy peasy!!

I used papers from the Hello Sunshine, Happily Lost, Domestic Bliss and French Couture collections on this page! I also used my new die from Cherry Lynn Designs for the banner! LOVE IT!!

Oh The Places We Would Go!

2011-05-10T10:33:00.001-04:00

Did you ever wake up from a sound sleep with an idea for a layout in your head? That's what happened to me this morning. As I drifted off to sleep last night I was looking at the Studio Calico blog for some more challenges I could work on today. I found this sketch and bookmarked it for further perusal today.

I've had Challenge #1 at A Cherry On Top on my mind since the crop started on Friday. We were to scrap a page about what we would do if we hit "The Big One" lottery! I actually wasn't going to do this one because frankly I have too many pictures to scrap about something that has very little chance of happening. Then I thought well.....it is a dream of mine....in fact, seeing Venice and Tuscany are number one on my "bucket list". So why not include this in my scrapbooks. Maybe someday I will actually get there and be able to look at this page and say I've done it!

Anywho, as I walked out of the bathroom this morning I saw this lottery ticket sitting on John's end table. It was a loser of course but *light-bulb moment* I can put it on my layout for Challenge #1. As I was still wiping the sleep from my eyes I opened my laptop, Googled a few pictures, called up the sketch, went immediately to my Basic Grey folder and found that the papers in the Curio line were just what I had in mind! And the layout was born! Just as quick as that!

It didn't go together as quickly but that is only because I fussy cut the flowers, and then fussy cut some more for just the insides and popped them up on foam dots. You really can't see it but the dimension is nice in real life. Then it was just a matter of lettering. I've had two different types of letters already on here for the "Oh, the places we would go" phrase and I still am not happy with it. I may take that off and just add some more flowers there.

The letters I used for "Italy" and the metal butterfly are from Recollections (Michaels) and the small letters are Basic Grey Life of th Party. Everything else on this page is Basic Grey Curio.

I have about 2 hours left in my NSD LONG weekend. I have an appointment to have my hair colored (I'm thinking of doing something funky too!) at 1pm then Matt has a game at 7 so that's it for me! Its back to work tomorrow and the start of Summer hours which means LONG days however, in return for those long days I will have off every Friday from now until September! I love that part of it but 10 hour days Monday-Thursday kick my butt for the first couple weeks!

Rock Stars!

2011-05-09T23:23:00.003-04:00

Last one for me today! I can hardly believe I am saying this, but I actually think I am all scrapped out! I may get one or two more done tomorrow morning but to be honest, if I don't I am ok with that! What started out as a lousy day, has been quite productive scrappy wise.

This layout is once again for several challenges!

1. I used the new sketch at The Scrappiest! I was checking there periodically today as Liz usually posts new sketches on Mondays but with all the events of the weekend I wasn't sure if there would be one this week! Much to my happiness she posted it and it was an absolute perfect fit for what I was hoping to work on next! So much so its an almost exact replica of the sketch!

2. Frosted Designs challenge to use three basic shapes - I used a circle, rectangle and star.

3. Challenge #17 at A Cherry On Top - "Scrap anything about a musical show. You could scrap a concert, a piano recital, marching band practice, a talent show, or even someone playing Rock Band or Guitar Hero!" As you can see, I chose the latter...my son's playing RockBand 2! I know there was another challenge I had in mind with this one but it escapes me at the moment!

4. The final challenge for this page is the Color Inspiration challenge at Studio Calico. Its not SPOT on but definitely in the right zone!! The kraft threw me a little but its there in the guitars and the ticket is a light kraft color.

I used My Minds Eye Good Day Sunshine for the majority of this layout except the Gold rectangle on the left is Stella Rose and the lime green circle is Echo Park A Walk In The Park. I added a journaling tag from October Afternoon, a "Party Like A Rock Star" sticker from Bella Blvd., a guitar from Jolees leftover from my Bon Jovi layout from this weekend, letters by Scrapworks, numbers by Recollections and the star was a Sizzix diecut and believe it or not, I broke the stinking die when cutting it out! Ticked me off! I know it was one that I got on clearance at AC Moore last year and probably only paid $3-$4 for it but STILL....I bet I've only made 5-6 cuts with it and the darned thing cracked in half!

That's it folks....I'm going to sign off the laptop, bring the iPad to bed and do a little blog surfing to see what you have all been up to this NSD weekend/week!! :)

Beautiful In Any Color

2011-05-09T19:20:00.005-04:00

I seem to be on a yellow kick!! Between challenge requirements and some recent photos of Susie wearing different shades of yellow I am pretty much fresh out of everything yellow!! Its not one of my favorite colors to work with so I probably didn't have as much as I do in say, pinks!!

Once again, this layout fulfills several challenges:

1. Not an NSD challenge this time, but for the May Color Challenge at A Cherry On Top your layout must be 50 percent yellow.
2. Studio Calico - Use wood/wood veneer on your layout. I used the Studio Calico hearts.

3. Frosted Designs NSD Challenge from Debbie to use flowers on your layout;

4. Challenge Masters NSD "Sundae Challenge". We selected ingredients for a sundae in advance of the crop. My recipe was to use Sewing, Glitter, Ribbon and Flowers. I was going to machine stitch but my needle came unthreaded, I couldn't find the needle threader and I am blind as a bat and my kids are out!! It stinks getting old!
5. Studio Calico - Stitch on your layout.

Oh, I actually have six challenges for this one! I used the weekly Sketch #19 at Sketch Inspirations!!

Now about the page itself....papers are October Afternoon Thrift Shop. I used a Fancy Pants floral glitter cut as well. The yellow metal flowers are Sassafrass Lass, the glitter flower is Petaloo Dazzlers and the braided cord flower is Creative Charms. I used 3 wood veneer hearts from Studio Calico, ribbon from Target, letters from Crate Paper Portrait and Jillibean Soup. The butterfly is a Martha Stewart punch. The buttons are from my stash!

Antigua Zip Lining

2011-05-09T14:15:00.003-04:00

This page didn't turn out exactly how I was hoping! The banner just didn't do what I was wanting it too but I was being lazy and had my hot glue gun in front of me so there was no taking it off once I realized I didn't like the placement!

I did this layout for several challenges....I am on a roll:

Punky Scraps Challenge 15 is to use these 5 techniques on your page:

NO Cardstock - my page feels flimsy without it as the background paper is very thin!!

Twine - I used it to string my banner.

Stitching - I did a zig zag in the lower left corner and a straight stitch across one of the strips at the top.

Stamping - I stamped the turquoise dots under the right photo with bubble wrap.

Paint - I used turquoise paint on the bubble wrap to use as a stamp.

The second is Challenge 18 at A Cherry On Top - Use something from each letter in the word ROCK:

R - Red floss tied around the "Z"

O - Orange Banner

C - Chipboard Letters

K - KRAZY people! But if that won't work I also used a K&Co Sticker that says Journey.

The third is a challenge at Frosted Designs to sew on your layout. Again, I did a zig zag in the lower left corner and a straight stitch across one of the strips at the top.

Finally at Scrap Whispers, challenge #6 was to use "leftovers". Everything I used is from different lines, just bits and pieces from each!!

The background paper is by MAMBI and I used all sorts of scraps and doo dads from Echo Park, Crate Paper, Bella Blvd. The chipboard letters are Pink Paislee and the small letters are Bella Blvd.

Time for lunch! I'm famished!

Life Doesn't Get Sweeter

2011-05-09T11:16:00.002-04:00

OK, another cup of coffee in me and I feel a little better. I decided to just say the heck with it and will do what I can, if it inspires me. Stressing over scrapping challenges does NOT make for a happy scrapper or good pages!

This layout came together quick once I saw Challenge #14 at Scrap Whispers to scrap CHOCOLATE! I had to dig pretty deep but I finally found this photo of the kids posing with a Giant Hershey bar at Hershey park way back 10 years ago!! I combined this with Challenge #6 Sketch at A Cherry On Top , the challenge at Frosted Designs to use a Border Punch on your layout and finally the Buttons and Bows challenge at the Kraft Journal.

Papers are all My Minds Eye. Letters are Bella Blvd. and Glitz. Rosette made with my Tim Holtz die. Bakers Twine, a button, two brads and an EK Success scallop punch and this one's in the books!! I think I will hit the shower now!!

Such A Goof!

2011-05-09T09:29:00.002-04:00

I woke up this morning, knowing I had the day off to work on challenges from NSD, with this feeling of being disappointed. And I kinda am. I had planned out this weekend for months....arranged to have Monday and Tuesday off, registered for 2 online crops with plans to participate in lots of blog activities as well. For the entire weekend....spanning from 4pm on Friday when I got home from work, till now I completed THREE layouts. I can do that in an evening. Why THIS weekend? I realize I had a lot of other things going on that came up AFTER I had made my grand plans, but THREE layouts? My scrap space is a complete disaster...so much so to the point that I don't even know where to start or even if I want to! I am moving in 2 months, may as well leave the mess and deal with it when I am packing! I don't know...I am just so disappointed. MY big weekend was nothing but a big BUST! Sorry for whining....I think I just need some more coffee! LOL!

I tried to finish this page last night but it just refused to come together for me. So I went to bed and this morning, finished it in 15 minutes. All I had done was the basic layout which is using one of Debbie's sketches for the Tuesday Sketch Challenge at Frosted Designs. The rest came together rather fast this morning which is what I am used to! I did this layou for the 10-10-10 Challenge in the BPS Crop. You had to have 10 words, 10 products and 10 techniques on one page. The words and products were no problem, but 10 techniques got tricky on this page. Some pages I use WAY more than 10 but this was a cleaner page. My techniques were: Sanding (the letters in GOOF), distressing, inking (edges), stapling (yep, she said that's a technique!), die cutting (circle), punching (strip on right), clustering, layering and misting (butterfly) and adding dimension with pop dots (google eyes). The words and products you can clearly see.

At Frosted Designs, Debbie has a challenge to use Butterflies. I added a big Kaisercraft butterfly with a little mist on it to add a bit of whimsy to this layout.

And for the final challenge out of this layout, at A Cherry On Top Challenge #5 is to have your title in ALL CAPS.

You Are My Sunshine

2011-05-08T19:26:00.002-04:00

Boy I'm sure a slow scrapper this weekend! I rarely spend more than an hour on a page from start to finish, including finding papers, photos and embellishments. I've only completed three layouts all weekend long and each one took hours to complete! This one should not have taken so long until I realized that I just don't have a lot of yellow in my stash!!!

This page is again for several NSD Challenges:

1. Frosted Designs - Use circles on your layout.

2. Challenge #14 at ACOT - Monochromatic layout.

3. Big Picture Classes - Use wood on your layout (the fence and the star are wood)

4. Sketch and "Sunshine" for the May 8 challenge at Bird is The Word.

Sorry to have made this short and sweet but my family has cooked dinner and its ready!! BBQ ribs, corn on the cob and fries and I didn't have to do a thing!

What Does YOUR Desk Look like?

2011-05-08T15:52:00.000-04:00

I admit that I did not try to clean up before NSD events started, but what was the point! Well....one of the NSD challenges at Challenge Masters is to post a picture of what your desk looks like right now. Here's mine.....its a DISASTER! And I'm just a bit embarrassed but what the heck!!! In the next couple months I am moving and will have a brand new space to decorate, organize and make pretty again. Until then....this is it!!!

Dream Come True

2011-05-08T15:38:00.001-04:00

See that ticket stub there on my layout? That's MINE! There were others....199 others to be exact! Yep, this particular Bon Jovi concert was no arena show. It was an intimate "private" concert for the taping of a Bon Jovi HBO special and on the weekend of my 37th birthday John, who I had only been dating just over a month, managed to get tickets to the concert through a friend of his who worked at the Borgato Hotel and Casino, where the concert was held. It was AWESOME, INCREDIBLE and something I will never ever forget. Jon and Richie both touched my hands while they sang...I was 5 feet from them for 2 glorious hours! Of course, cameras were not allowed so I couldn't take any photos, but I have my ticket stub!!! Its been hanging on my bulletin board for almost 7 years now! I was finally inspired to scrap it thanks to the events of this years NSD!

This layout is for FOUR NSD challenges at various sites I am playing with:

1. The ACOT Rock Around The Clock Crop Challenge #3 was to use one of the Crop Hostess's avatars as inspiration. One of them was Bon Jovi and since they are one of my favorite bands, I knew I wanted to do a layout about it. Then it dawned on me that I had this ticket stub! I was off and running!

2. I am participating in the NSD Crop at Big Picture Classes this year. Challenge #7 issued by Suzy Plantamura is to add a banner to your page. I LOVE Banners and it just so happens that I got this fantastic banner die from Cheery Lynn Designs last week!! I love how it just adds a little extra oomph to the layout!

2. Frosted Designs also had a crop this weekend and Lori posted a challenge to use Hidden Journaling on your layout. I was glad to see this because my "story" about the concert, how we came about getting tickets, and the fact that I had just started to date John and it was my 37th birthday weekend were just too long to get on the layout so hiding it was PERFECT!

4. Last but CERTAINLY not least is the NSD Crop at Challenge Masters! This was Sally's sketch challenge with a twist. The twist was to keep it clean and simple....I'm not sure what everyone defines that as but for me, THIS is clean. ONE flower? And speaking of the flower...the other twist was to use a handmade embellishment. I made the flower using white crepe paper circles that I inked and then sprayed with Faded Denim Glimmer Mist and then crumpled the layers and built them up on a blue pearl brad.

I used papers from Teresa Collins On The Edge collection, letters by Recollections, flower by me, guitars by Jolees and ribbon from my stash.

Repurposing!!

2011-05-08T00:06:00.001-04:00

I sure didn't have any time to scrap today but fortunately Matt's game went quickly and I got home around 10:30pm. I was going to call it a night and started browsing blogs and then checked in on the challenges I had not seen yet at the Big Picture Classes NSD Crop. One of the challenges is to organize something in your scraproom. I decided to use this altered drink holder from a NSD class at the ACOT online crop and make a holder for the tools that I use most often! Its small enough to be on my desk, closer than my other tool carousel. I will use this to hold my most often used tools. I think it came out cute, don't you?

More than Words

2011-05-07T10:55:00.002-04:00

K...going to be quick and to the point with posts today! I have a few things to do and all I want to do is scrap! This layout is for two challenges:

1. Sketch by Lets Capture These Sketches
2. Challenge 2 at the A Cherry On Top Crop - use a song title and a line from the lyrics on your page.
3. Sweet Peach Crop Shop - Use a song title for your page.

Used Prima Madeline, K&Co and Echo Park for the brown background, Petaloo and Recollections flowers, Glitz and Recollections letters

Happy NSD!!

2011-05-06T17:12:00.000-04:00

And we're off!! Its National Scrapbooking Weekend! YIPPPEEEE! I look forward to this weekend every year for the BIG Crop at ACOT and all the other sites and blogs I visit all year long. Unfortunately, this year it also falls on the same weekend that I have to work (just a few hours on Saturday morning) AND Mother's Day AND a baseball game for my son AND a birthday party my daughter has been invited to! ACK!! So I have to make the most of my time if I want to get all this done!! I did take off Monday and Tuesday to finish up some challenges for the ACOT crop as I do with every crop. Loking forward to a nice 4 day weekend (less the few hours I have to work graduation on Saturday). I work at a college and commencement is tomorrow. As much as I don't want to work, we get to know a lot of the students very well and its bittersweet to say goodbye and send them off into the big, scary real world, degree in hand!

Anyway, the crop at ACOT is well underway but on between some games I stopped over at Your Scrapbook Stash to see the happenings over there. This layout is based on the Sketch Friday sketch. Its my daughter 7 years ago doing the hula at her "luau" birthday party! She was too cute!! I used KI Memories papers, Tim Holtz On the Edge Die, a wooden palm tree from Michaels, Glitz and Thickers letters.

Dream As If You Will Live Forever

2011-05-04T23:21:00.002-04:00

I'm pretty sure I am going to regret this layout in the morning! I should have been asleep 2 hours ago! I didn't intend to do another layout tonight but as I sat here looking at some stuff and thinking about what I would scrap tomorrow, it just sorta happened!

I received my very first monthly kit from Swirlydoos and as you can see, its GORGEOUS! Its chock full of beautiful papers by Glitz from the Laced with Grace collection with some lovely K&Co papers mixed in. There is sooooo much in this kit that I will have MANY pretty layouts from it, this just being the first! The flowers are all from the kit and are a mix of Prima and the green ones came in a big bunch but not sure the brand. The only things that were NOT in the Swirlydoos kit was the bling flourishes, the foam glitter Thickers which I inked with Tea Dye Distress Ink and the velvet scallop trim atop the photos. Isn't it a lucious kit just based on this one layout? It even came with a whole package of Hambly stamps and while I am not a stamper, in fact, it terrifies me, I used the vintage book stamp TWICE on this page!! It really looks like it belongs there doesn't it? Don't tell me if it looks awful!!! I also used a Tim Holtz large flourish mask wth Burnt Red and Harvest Orange Glimmer Mist on the left side but once the page started to take on a life of its own, it sorta got covered up!

Hopefully the misting, inking and stamping is present enough to qualify this layout over at The Paper Variety where the challenge is "inking, painting, or misting". I also used a quote for my title that sums up exactly what I wish for my daughter! "Dream As If You Will Live Forever, Live Like You Will Die Tomorrow" which means I can enter this page at Bird Is The Word for the FOREVER challenge.

I used a sketch by another one of my new favorite sketch sites, Let's Capture These Sketches. I distressed the tan K&Co paper for the May Technique Challenge at A Cherry On Top.

Its been a while since I did a frilly, flowery page and I missed it! Now I must drag my butt to bed!

Cool Under Pressure

2011-05-04T20:25:00.001-04:00

What a lousy day its been here in South Jersey. As I was headed to work I saw the skies blackening and by the time I got there the skies had opened up and it was POURING. It rained for the majority of the day and all I wanted to do was go home!! I really wanted to come home and clean up my scraproom and get a jump on some neglected housework in anticipation of a very scrappy weekend being National Scrapbooking Weekend and all, however I had no "oomph" when I got home so pulled out my scrappy to-do list and decided to work on a layout instead!

This layout is my son Matt from last night's baseball game. I used the newest sketch at Once Upon A Sketch. Nadia - the site owner - is a terrific lady and a fantastic scrapper who many of you probably know from the several design teams she's on! She started this site and I've been there since the beginning and I have to say I look forward to each new challenge. There is always some criteria for journalling which I like because I tend to NOT journal lately and that was not my intention when I started scrapping many years ago. I wanted to tell our stories. Somewhere along the line, the "artsy" part took over and if I couldn't find a way to get the "story" on the page, I was happy to allow the page to speak for itself. I do still do that, but I also think that some stories still need to be told. The criteria this week was to use her sketch and journal on a "journalling spot". My journaling is about how I feel when Matthew is pitching. Its not his strong point and he's only put in when absolutely needed, but I am STRESSED OUT the whole time! Yet he does fine and sometimes does very well at pitching and really enjoys it. So while the layout is photos of him, its really about MY feelings. The sponsor this week is one of the few sites that I buy my scrappy supplies from too! There are only three that I frequent and Your Scrapbook Stash is one of them! The store owner, Erica, is super friendly and the service there is top notch!! On my last order, several items were out of stock due to circumstances beyond her control. As each item arrived, Erica sent them out to me separately which she didn't have to do! I felt bad as I was getting the packages because I know that her profits were low due to the postage in sending my order in multiple shipments. Its customer service like that which will always keep me coming back! Thanks Erica and the staff of Your Scrapbook Stash!!

I also was able to incorporate the "One Little Word" challenge over at Challenge Masters for this layout. The word this month is COOL.
I love when challenges combine even when you aren't really trying to do that!!

I used a background paper and embellishments (both chipboard and cardstock) by Theresa Collins from her Sports Edition II line. The strips of blue and red are leftovers from Scenic Route. I accented them with a white Signo pen. The bingo card is from Jenni Bowlin and the letters are Bella Blvd. and October Afternoon Mini Market. The felt baseballs I got at Michael's in the general crafts section. Some blue ink along the edges of the page and the first baseball layout from the 2011 season is in the books!!

I hope you will all take a minute to visit Once Upon A Sketch, Your Scrapbook Stash and Challenge Masters! They are all REALLY great scrappy sites!

Let The Summer Begin (2010)

2011-05-02T21:36:00.003-04:00

I really need to get to bed but I REALLY wanted to finish this layout too!! Guess what won! I am so disappointed that I had the day off from work today and only got two layouts (plus one other I can't show yet) complete. But on the other hand, I'm about $300 poorer and the kids are now set with Summer clothes and shoes. We went to Marshalls and got a couple good deals on clothing there and I found a bunch more scrapbooking kits and MAMBI and DCWV stacks. I picked up a few things but not too much. I tend to stay away from the big stacks of paper that all coordinate because I get bored with the same colors/looks. I like to mix it up in my scrapping! Then we headed to Rue 21 (the new favorite store of the teens in this area....and the clothes are CHEAP!!) and finished up at Target for some basics like socks, gym shorts, etc.

As soon as we got home and finished dinner, I was starting to check out the blogs I follow. The second one I stopped at was Liz at The Scrappiest who had posted a new sketch today. I truly enjoy creating layouts with her sketches and I knew right away the photo I would use, but had no clue as to papers. So I just pulled a couple of envelopes and came across the polka dot paper (which means I can enter the Frosted Designs challenge again!) and the blue background by Kaisercraft Seaside Collection. I paired that up with the back side of some Bo Bunny Paradise and I was on my way to a layout! The silhouette palm trees have been in my stash forever and I thought they looked really striking against the yellow! Another item that has been in my stash for at least 4 years that I got at my LSS that closed 2 years ago were these wooden circles that are "burned" with beachy words. I inked some white glitter Thickers to match the blue background, finished off the title with Glitz Parchment mini letters and some "Dymo label gun look" stickers in a Summer theme that I've also had forever! There's a good mix of old and new on this page!!

I was definitely having a hard time coming up with a title for the page. My initial thoughts went to the sunglasses but nothing really sounded right. Then I remembered that there is a Bird Is The Word challenge to use BEGIN. Well, since this picture was taken on the first trip to the beach last year, I went with that! LET THE SUMMER BEGIN! I'm chanting that now even though its only May 2!

I will probably not be back until Wednesday as Matt has a game tomorrow. Unless, of course, I can squeeze some scrapping in before gametime!!

Mini-Golfer

2011-05-02T14:21:00.001-04:00

Did you miss me this weekend? I know I missed my scraproom!! I was away for the weekend in Richmond, Virginia for the Nascar Race. We try to go to at least one race a year and its usually our "local" track which is Dover, Delaware. This year John decided we should venture further south and we went to Richmond. We had fantastic seats although being afraid of heights was not helpful to me!! But once my heart stopped pounding and I could catch my breath, the views were wonderful! We had a fantastic time, stayed in a beautiful hotel (Wyndham) which I only wish we had some more time at, and saw a great race, even if the end was less than we hoped for. We are NOT Kyle Busch fans!! LOL!

I took today off....not by choice. They are pouring new sidewalks in front of where I live and I overslept and was unable to get my car out of my driveway! Thanks to a neighbor, my car is now safely parked elsewhere but I decided to stay home anyway and get some stuff done that I was unable to do over the weekend. Laundry, scrapping, dishes, scrapping, summer clothes shopping with the kids, scrapping, etc. And of course, some scrapping!! As usual, the day has gone quickly and I only have one layout to show. I did work on another but its for a Design Team project and I am unable to show it at the moment!

This layout is based on a sketch at Sketch Inspirations. Its a two-page sketch however I really do not like two-page layouts anymore. Once upon a time it was all I did! I used to be anal about my layouts flowing in my albums. Now I don't care about that at all! Its the memory and the individual page that matters to me.....not the flow from one to another! I pulled out some older Fancy Pants papers from the About A Girl line for this page. My stash is getting so out of control I have promised myself that while I realize I will still buy new, I must also start using some old!! And its not even THAT old!

See that nifty banner I made? Its from a die that I received in the mail while I was away for the weekend from Cheery Lynn Designs. I LOVE it and can't wait to shop for some more dies. I can see getting a ton of use from this die and they have some amazing doily dies I can't wait to try out!!!

I am submitting this to Frosted Designs this week for the "Polka Dots and Stripes" Friday Challenge. I used BOTH! Love their Friday challenges....they are easy to complete and lots of fun!!

PageMaps & ACOT Team Up!

2011-04-29T20:24:00.004-04:00

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

2011-04-27T18:34:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-25T19:51:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-04-24T20:30:00.001-04:00

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

2011-04-24T16:21:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-04-24T12:55:00.003-04:00

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

2011-04-23T10:49:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-22T20:29:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-22T14:57:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-04-22T10:24:00.002-04:00

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!!

2011-04-21T23:53:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-04-21T21:31:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-18T17:08:00.001-04:00

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"!

2011-04-17T13:24:00.004-04:00

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

2011-04-17T10:48:00.003-04:00

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

2011-04-16T16:25:00.002-04:00

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

2011-04-16T16:07:00.003-04:00

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

2011-04-16T16:00:00.000-04:00

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!

2011-04-15T10:59:00.002-04:00

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!

2011-04-15T10:45:00.000-04:00

"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!

2011-04-11T19:46:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-10T19:31:00.001-04:00

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!

2011-04-10T13:55:00.001-04:00

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!!

2011-04-10T11:19:00.000-04:00

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

2011-04-06T19:54:00.000-04:00

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!

Love Your Silly Smiles

2011-04-03T12:25:00.002-04:00

Wow, where did this weekend go! This will probably be the only scrapping I get done today because its Matt's first game (which started 10 minutes ago!) and I need to get myself showered and over there!! I LOVE kids baseball!!! This page was done using today's sketch 150 at Creative Scrappers. I will also be linking it over at Frosted Designs for the Fab Friday challenge to use bling! There sure is a lot on here! I used papers from Best Creations, DVWV and Scrapworks and even broke out my I-top tool for the "braddies" and my I-Rock tool for all the bling at the bottom. To all of you "fussy cutters" out there....God Bless You! I thought it would be neat to fussy cut all the swirls at the bottom. And while I love how it looks....good grief was that a pain in the tookus! You won't be seeing lots of that out of me!! It took me longer to cut than to put the whole stinkin' layout together! Letters are Thickers and Echo Park. Not sure who made the cupcake sticker that I popped up onto a scallop circle with some fun wire I curled around a pencil and a stick pin stuck in!

Magic

2011-04-02T19:34:00.000-04:00

Its been a while since I scrapped a Disney page (and even longer since I've been to my Happy Place!) but the second I saw the sketch and challenge at Bird Is The Word -- use the word MAGIC in your title, I knew I had to dig out some Disney pictures! I didn't use "typical" papers on this one....all the papers are from Basic Grey Lime Rickey. I'm finally nearing the end of that pack of papers! I cut the stars out on my new Tim Holtz Vagabond machine! Can I tell you I LOVE that thing! I got it when he was demonstrating it on HSN while I was home sick! LOL!! Hey, its 5 easy payments and it fit right on my cubby and nobody even realizes its new! Phew!! I am also submitting this to Frosted Designs as I have a little bling on a few of the stars and the letters are a yummy glittery gel type letter!

Tickled Pink

2011-04-02T12:55:00.000-04:00

This is one of my absolute favorite pictures of Susie and Daddy. They were both so sleepy and barely had their eyes open when I took the picture. I used all My Minds Eye Lost and Found for this one, adding some flowers, pearls and butterflies. I think its so sweet. The title is for the Music Challenge at A Cherry On Top - a song with a color in the title. The sketch is by Beggahuna and its the weekly challenge sketch at Stuck On You Sketches. I am also entering it at Frosted Designs for the bling,

Lily Bee Sketch Challenge

2011-04-01T22:45:00.001-04:00

I saw the sketch challenge over on the Lily Bee blog this morning while I was supposed to be working, and all day long I had ideas swirling in my head! I LOVE Lily Bee and was lucky enough to get in on their "grab box" right before Christmas so I had a lot to choose from! I ended up using a piece from the Audrey line for the background and for the accent piece at the top and photo corners, a piece from Catching Fall. The bracket journaling spot is from Vintage Poppy. The rub on sentiment is also Lily Bee from the Lovely collection! I used items from four different lines and they all went together great!! I'm also submitting this for the Frosted Designs Fabulous Friday challenge to use bling (I used orange pearls in the flowers and orange rhinestones as accents around the page) and the April Supply List challenge at A Cherry On Top which is to use pop dots (on the tag), a stick pin and a die cut paper (journal spot).

The photos are my daughter when she was small sharing Daddy's soup. Daddy always at Progresso soup and to this day if we are having soup and sandwiches for dinner and you ask my daughter what kind of soup she wants, the answer is still "Daddy Soup".

Fall Fun Day

2011-04-01T19:52:00.000-04:00

I tried to beat the sunset to get this layout photographed but as you can see the flash hit the photos. I will replace it tomorrow when the sun is up. This layout is a little on the sad side for me. Just looking at the pictures I can see the sadness on Matt's face, even though he was trying to have fun. The journaling reads: "After Daddy died I tried to keep things as normal as possible. We did lots of school sponsored activities. In November we spent the afternoon at the Marsh school participating in Fall Fun Day. There were several statesion set up with various crafts to do. You both liked the Home Depot" station - Matt made a football plaque and Susie a note holder. It was a sad time for us but we were adjusting." It still breaks my heart to know how much hurt and loss these two amazing kids have seen and felt in their young lives. But they have adjusted..we all have! And they are turning into phenomenal young adults! Daddy would be very proud!

I used Echo Park Walk in the Park papers, Jillibean Soup and October Afternoon letters, Ameican Crafts and Reminisce brads, Kraft paper. Sketvch #113 by The Scrappiest!

A Little News!!

2011-04-01T09:20:00.000-04:00

So you've all seen my posts about the awesome CHOPPED! Ch{all}enge Masters contest I've been playing in, right! Well now it's gone a step further and Terri, the awesome owner of Ch{all}enge Masters has asked me to join her team of "Divas" for the "A Day In The Life" monthly challenge. I hope to be an inspiration to all who participate and will do my best to come up with some great challenges to get those everyday moments captured in your scrapbooks. I will be doing this challenge for the next 6 months and would love for you to come join in the fun! There are TONS of challenges here every single month....if you aren't a member already, why not join us now! We can always use more challenges every month, right? :)

Imagine

2011-03-30T19:19:00.001-04:00

Gotta make this quick as the natives are getting restless and demanding food! I went back to work today but couldn't wait to get home and scrap. I think I may have left my mojo at work though because I went through several different variations and themes with this sketch before I finally decided with this one. I like how colorful it is and I love these pictures of Susie...I guess its jus not as good in my opinion as some of the layouts I did last week....however I also spent many hours on each of them and this one was under an hour from start to finish, including all the variations! I used the March skech at The Scraproom and combined it with the Imagine Challenge at Bird Is The Word. Now there's another challenge I saw this morning to use GLITTER, but at the moment I can't put my finger on it! I will edit this post when I figure it out! I used a glitter title and glitter borders. I used Echo Park "A Walk In The Park" papers for this. Yep, I still have some of that line left!!!

We Are Family

2011-03-29T16:14:00.002-04:00

I don't have a traditional family. I have three children--a son who will be 21 from my first marriage; and from my second marriage I have a son, 14 and a daughter, 12. As some of you know, my second husband passed away a few years ago and I am now in a relationship with my boyfriend, John. He also has a son but he lives pretty far away and we don't see him often and I have no photos of him. That makes us a multiple blended family! But a family we are! I swear I spent more time photographing this layout than I did actually creating it!! I am submitting this to the following challenges:

1. Color Challenge at Challenge Masters - Dark Blue, Tan and Cream; .
2. Make It Monday Challenge at The Kraft Journal - Use Flowers (and Kraft paper!)

After I had it all done and had already uploaded it to the Gallery there and two other online galleries I post my work, I remembered about the March challenge at Kraft It Up which is to incorporate the phrase "There is no greater GIFT than today." I realized that the phrase fit perfectly on my layout and I had used Kraft paper!!!!! So back to the drawing board I went, trying a few different ways of adding the phrase, and finally deciding on my own handwriting and one word in mini letter stickers. And as my luck has it, AS I WAS writing the word "day" I realized that it was supposed to say GIFT. Oh well, I was not about to ruin the whole layout and the idea is still there. Its an Aussie challenge blog so I wasn't in the running for a prize anyway! I love the layout and the phrase fit it so wonderfully!

I used a sketch by Beggahuna. Its almost impossible to not love your layouts using her sketches! Used strips of MME Stella & Rose. The swirly things are K&Co and were originally silver but I misted them with Denim Glimmer Mist and I love the way they came out mottled looking. Lace, flowers and pearls from my stash. Letters are Thickers and October Afternoon.

I Caught A Wish

2011-03-29T11:36:00.000-04:00

I am so bummed out that my days of endless scrapping are almost over that I wasted hours this morning poking around at different Challenge sites trying to decide what to work on today. I finally decided to jump in on some other challenges at Challenge Masters. I'm currently doing their "Chopped" challenge (like the TV food show) and thought I'd do the March Sketch challenge. I was happy to see that the sketch this month was done by my friend, Cheri, who owns Let's Scrap. I am a previous DT member there and haven't done much with her sketches in a while so it was like coming home! I also paired this with Color Combo #51 at The Color Room---another challenge site I haven't been to in quite a while!

I love these photos of my daughter. She was almost 4 years old in these pictures. On a trip to the dollar store she picked out a Bug Catcher set which included a net and a box to save your bugs. It was a beautiful day, I can remember it like it was yesterday, and all the kids were outside playing so I sat on the porch with my camera. All of a sudden Susie is charging towards me full speed ahead with something in her hand! I was snapping pictures while at the same time terrified of what it was she had to show me! I do NOT like bugs...no bugs...not even the cute little Ladybugs. Eeew!! As she got to me she squealed with such delight: "Mommy, I caught a wish!". I was so relieved and so excited with her. It was sooo cute!

Papers by BoBunny and Scenic Route. I made the paperpieced Sun probably 10 years ago when I used to sell PP's on Ebay! I finally used the i-Top tool to make the orange brad. I love that thing but just wish the darn braddies weren't so expensive. Thickers, My Little Shoebox and Echo Park letters, Tim Holz tag, butterfly brad by Creative Charms, journaling spot by Doodlebug and ribbon from stash

Daydream Believer

2011-03-29T08:35:00.000-04:00

I really like the new BoBunny Gabrielle line. The colors in it are so soft! I did this layout using a sketch (that Trisha made inspired by one of my older layouts! Yes, I've actually scrapped a few pages without a sketch!) at Sketch Inspirations.

So today is my "time's up" day. I've been home with Shingles since 3/21. I go back to work tomorrow. While I won't EVER miss Shingles, I will miss my long days and nights scrapping to my heart's content! As they say, all good things must come to an end and on the good side....is just a month or so away from our Summer hours which means Friday's off! So its not ALL bad!

Chopped! Week #3

2011-03-28T13:58:00.002-04:00

I am involved in the Chopped! Challenge over at Challenge Masters. I survived Weeks 1 and 2 and the "recipe" for Week 3 was posted this morning. "Use White, Cardboard and Stitching". The first two I was ok with but the stitching had me terrified. You should have seen me sweating while I was sewing those strips! My sewing machine doesn't usually cooperate so I don't usually bother. I thought about using the Sew Easy tool but I have to get in the shower and then go get the kids from school and I really just wanted to get this finished! Add to that the fact that the needle was not threaded and I couldn't see the eye of the needle to save my life! Took me 15 minutes just to get it threaded! Its not the best stitching....a little crooked....but its there! Chipboard butterflies and BLISS wordart by K&Co as are the shells, the "moments" sticker and the brown loopy border. The strip at the bottom that looks like sand is actually the packaging from the K&Co border I used!! Yay for re-purposing! That qualifies it for the Fabulous Friday challenge at Frosted Designs - use something laying around the house! The "beach" sign is October Afternoon. Bling by Recollections and KaiserCraft. I used a dry brush to wipe white paint across the cardboard and then swiped a Tea Dye distress pad across the white paint to sort of mimic the dune fence in the photo. Flowers from my stash. My new FAVORITE layout!

What am I going to do after Wednesday? I go back to work and am soooo going to miss scrapping all day!! Alas, something has to pay the bills from all the supplies I want!!

Daddy's Boy

2011-03-28T10:57:00.000-04:00

I don't quite know what's going on with me. I keep going to older photos of my mom and my husband (both of whom have passed away) for the last few layouts. I haven't scrapped a single photo of Michael with the kids since he passed away several years ago until last week when I did one of my daughter and daddy. Today its my son (now 14 years old) and daddy. And I didn't even cry. Maybe its therapy and I just don't know it! Anyway, sketch by Lets Capture These Sketches. I am also entering it into the challenge to use 7 or more flowers at Scrapbookers Anonymous. I hope that its ok to enter more than once...I read the rules over and over and didn't see a restriction! If you are from SA, let me know if I should remove the duplicates and I will!! I don't want to break any rules!

Papers are all My Minds Eye Lost & Found. Letters are Jillibean Soup and Echo Park. Brads are MME and Creative Imaginations. Flowers are from either AC Moore or Michaels (paper roses and porcelain flowers) as are the round ball things! Not sure where the phrase stickers came from as they were the last two left on the backer sheet! And who says you can't use flowers on a boy layout!

Missing My Mom Today!!

2011-03-27T19:18:00.002-04:00

This is one of the photos of my mom that I mentioned in my earlier post about wanting to scrap today. There are actually two...this one and one of her leaning in and smelling the roses but I really liked this sketch at The Paper Trail Makers Challenge Blog and couldn't work both photos in it so I will do a separate but sort of matching layout of that one. I am also entering another one into the 7 Flowers Challenge At Scrapbookers Anonymous and finally for Challenge 95 - a layout about a woman in your life - at Scrap Whispers. I plan to put this in a shadowbox frame and hang both layouts (when I get the other one done) in my bedroom....or perhaps I will give one to my sister. I used My Minds Eye Stella & Rose papers, K&Co and Mambi embellishments. Flowers by Recollections, Michael's and AngelicaFransen Etsy Shop. Wood fence from Joanns that I painted white and lightly swiped pink ink across. Doily by Wilton.

It's been a rough day. I want to scrap more but I think I need to move away from photos of my mom for a while. Its been so bad that I have to tell you my adventure! I had to go run some errands today and I was on my way home and was in lala land, tears streaming down my face. I just kept thinking about my mom and how much I missed her. I had started this layout before I left so I was anxious to get home and finish it and was sort of daydreaming about it as I was driving. I was on this road that's very straight and easy to speed on (I honestly don't know the speed limit but if I had to guess I'd say 50mph) and apparently I was doing 72mph and when the cop passed me I never even hit the brakes! Of course he pulled me over and by the time he got to my window my tears were quite obvious. Now I know the oldest trick in the book is to cry, but my tears were real. I was so deep into my thoughts of my mom that I didn't realize how fast I was going. I admitted that I was speeding and that my mind was somewhere else. He saw my tears and asked if I was ok. I said yes, that I was just really missing my mom. He told me that I was the second person today with that problem! Anoter lady was missing her dad. He musta felt bad cuz he came back and said since I had no points on my license, he didn't want to make my day any worse! Phew! Its funny now, but I was so upset!!! Its been MANY years since I've been pulled over by a cop!!

Mystical Memories

2011-03-26T10:38:00.001-04:00

Ahhhh....its Saturday and for the first time in well over two weeks, I FEEL GOOD!! If you follow my blog regularly you know that two weeks ago I was complaining of a mysterious back and abdominal pain. Well, I now know the reason for it. Last Thursday I awoke with the first of many sores and rashes on my back and belly. I waited it out the weekend and on Monday I saw my doctor who diagnosed me with Shingles! All I can say is that I would not wish this on my worst enemy. Its been a long, painful process but I'm so happy to say that I feel good today. The pain is minimal, the rashes are healing and I am actually looking forward to returning to work on Wednesday. The doctor has me home throug the 29th due to the fact that I work in a very public place - a college - and I need to be extra sure there is nobody there that will be affected - even though theoretically someone would have to TOUCH me to get it, and trust me...even John can't touch me!!

I have some errands to run today after I take Matt to baseball practice so I scrapped this morning. I completed yet another challenge at A Cherry On Top, this time the March Sketch Challenge. I think this makes 10 or 11 challenges for the month of March! Definately a record for me! I did turn the sketch on its side! The photo was from my honeymoon with Michael. We spent a weekend before a cruise in New Orleans and went to this Farmer's Market where they sold all sorts of different Mardi Gras masks. The photo was taken in 1996! I was so stinking skinny!

I used Lily Bee papers, Thickers, feathers and gold buttons, a Hambly transparency corner and I have NO idea who makes the "playing card" but it says "Life is a Daring Adventure". I also used some VERY old Prima rub-ons for the word "memories" under the title and also the small crest thing I added to the playing card.

Relax and Renew

2011-03-25T17:21:00.000-04:00

I know I have scrapped this photo before but that was for our Antigua vacation album. There are not many photos of John and I together so I wanted to scrap it again for my everyday album. I used Color Combo #1 for the Monthly Contest at A Cherry On Top.

I also used sketch #111 from March 14m by Liz Chidester at The Scrappiest.

I used a mixture of October Afternoon Seaside and Fancy Pants Rusted Sun papers, embellishments by K & Co. and October Afternoon, lettering by Forever In Time (which btw are hands down the worst letter stickers I have ever used. No wonder they are almost given away!) and October Afternoon.

Crate Paper Sketch Challenge

2011-03-25T10:39:00.001-04:00

Today is the last day to enter the March Sketch Challenge at Crate Paper. I recently got a couple of their new lines so thought I'd give it a go. I've been sitting here working on this layout since 7am....almost 4 hours. It's not that its very detailed or labor intensive, it's the pictures. And the memories. My husband, Michael, passed away unexpectedly from a stroke just a few short years after these photos were taken. Wednesday was his birthday and he's been on my mind constantly. It's very hard being both a mom and a dad to my kids. I have a great man in my life now but he's not DADDY. I miss Michael so much. I haven't scrapped but a single photo with him in it since he died. I just couldn't do it. I can look at the photos and smile and remember, but to put them onto a layout was just more than I could bear and I didn't want to upset my kids, as they always want to see my newest layouts. When I saw the sketch, and decided to go with the Emma's shop line, I knew I had the perfect photos. I edited the photos to be black and white with the exception of my daughter, simply because there were way to many colors going on between Daddy and Susie's "baby soups" as she used to say. Now that its done, and I've shed my tears, I am happy with it. As I said, I used Emmas Shop papers, stickers and border stickers. I added lettering by Thickers and Echo Park, some pink ric rac and two flowers by Recollections.

Here is the original sketch I worked from:

Natural Beauty

2011-03-24T18:32:00.005-04:00

This is now my new favorite page! I seem to be doing that a lot lately! I used a lot of "stuff" on this one but all of the papers are by My Minds Eye and once again, I used three different lines and they all coordinated beautifully! I used Lost & Found, So Sophie and Stella Rose on this one. Again, I love how most of their lines will flow seamlessly with several of their other lines! I feel like I get more mileage out of my papers that way!! I definitely don't get rid of MME scraps!

I used metal accents from Making Memories, crochet doily and some of the flowers are Prima, the rest are Recollections. Flower brad in center of largest flower is MME Lost & Found. Bird and Butterfly are Recollections. "Beauty" quote is a sticker from DCWV. Bling by Jolees, dewdrops and glitter tape at the bottom by Recollections. Glitter Chipboard letters by Recollections. Calendar tag is Maya Road. Adore ticket is Tim Holtz. Paper doily under circle photo is Wilton sprayed with Patina Glimmer Mist. Under that is a Fancy Pants glitter cut transparency but after I finished embellishing you can hardly see it! ITs there though...right under where the bird is you can see a little bit of a blue flourish which is what I was going for...although I was hoping it would show more. Metal frame is Making Memories. Onion grass from Michael's. Sketch by Beggahuna. I THINK that's everything!

I am submitting this to the monthly challenge at Scrapbookers Anonymous - use 7 storebought flowers...I think I covered that! Also to the Tic Tac Toe Challenge at The Paper Variety - Make a layout, use a bird and use scallops (on the doily). I actually had Tic Tac Toe twice as one option was Use Spring colors, scallops and 2+ flowers. And finally to Scrap Whispers Challenge 93 - use only head shots. The funny thing is I used the transparency that you can barely see for a challenge as well but I didn't write it down and now I forget who is doing that challenge this week! ACK!

Big Brothers Give Big Gifts

2011-03-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

I am not what you would call a "Holiday Scrapper". Any holiday...not just Christmas. In fact, even being a scrapper, there are a couple of years that I don't even have pictures of the holiday events! Some I lost in a hard drive crash but there are at least 2 years that I didn't even take a picture. Mostly when the kids were much smaller. There was so much going on....his one needed help with this and that one couldn't open that....and then of course Christmas Breakfast has to be made. Well who do you think DOES all that? Yep, me....and between all of that I am supposed to be the photographer as well? So there are not a lot of Christmas pictures in my scrapbooks and I am ok with that because the time spent with my family was much more important and the memories are still there!

Having said that, there ARE years that I do have photos. And even THOSE years aren't well represented in my scrapbooks because quite frankly, Christmas layouts intimidate me. There is SO MUCH stuff you can buy and I just get overwhelmed, I buy a whole bunch of stuff and never use it. These photos are from two Christmas' ago and I am just now getting them scrapped! I LOVE these photos. I have three kids from two marriages. My oldest son Johnny will be 21 in August (and I will be 29!) and the two "kids" as they are referred to are 14 and 12. Being older, the "kids" make out at Christmas because Johnny always buys them big gifts! This was from 2009 and he bought Matt a RockBand game system and Susie got her first pair of Uggs (because I am a mean mommy and refused to spend $100 on shoes when her feet are still growing!). After they opened their gifts from Johnny, they both gave him big hugs! I love my kids and I love that even though Johnny is 6 and 7 years older respectively, they are VERY close.

All paper and most embellies are Echo Park - Merry Christmas. Title letters are Jillbean Soup and the little letters are Echo Park - Playgrond and Crate Paper - Portrait for the date at the bottom. Sketch by Diana for Frosted Designs and I am entering it in their Sketch Along Tuesdays sketch #11 contest.

Now that its done, I really am very happy with this Christmas page! But I don't think I want to do another one today. Even though it does feel about as cold as it does on Christmas morning and the calendar says its Spring. Yeah right!

Asleep in 30 Seconds!

2011-03-24T08:27:00.001-04:00

Another day, more crappy weather....and its COLD! A week ago it hit 80 and today with the wind chill it feels like 20! This weather is nuts! Anyway, again it makes for a lousy day to photograph layouts.

The pictures depict a common site in our house. John, asleep on the couch...usually snoring! Now it matters not what time of day it is. If he lays down on the couch, it almost always means "Lights Out" for him!

I used three different My Minds Eye lines on this page. Its one of the things that makes them one of my favorite scrappy companies. Most of their lines still work well with their other lines. I used Life Stories for the background (I used a Tim Holtz mask and Harvest Orange glimmer mist to tie in the orange from his shirt), Quite Contrary is the argyle print and the brown/white polka dot print, and So Sophie is the graph paper on the right. I added a K&Co orange triangle border strip and some buttons and pleated twill trim. The two "dream" elements are by Tim Holtz and Brenda Walton. The sheer journaling spot is Maya Road. For the title I made some more of the faux scrabble tiles I told you about earlier this week and added mini letters by Crate Paper and a bingo chip 30 by Maya Road.

I used a sketch from March 4th from Your Scrapbook Stash and will enter it in their Sketch Challenge issued March 16. If you have never been to YSS, stop by and check them out! I have placed two rather large orders with them since December and both have been chock full of awesomeness and the personal attention to questions or concerns is outstanding! They are definately a go-to scrappy supply site!!

My Angel

2011-03-23T14:59:00.002-04:00

Another lousy picture but its just been a lousy, sunless day here! This one was done using the Twisted Sketches #93 sketch with the twist of a "swirl" of some kind. My swirl is the chipboard piece at the bottom that I inked with Cats Eye ink and then sprayed with Bubble Gum and Pearl Glimmer Mist. You can't see it in the photo but it shimmers really nice! The pink doily I cut with a new Nestabilities die I just got in the mail today! I used Dear Lizzy fabric paper and a piece of a Crate Paper banner to qualify it for the ACOT Guest GCT Challenge and the Frosted Designs Friday Challenge to use a banner. I'm REALLY not a fan of banners. I know they are the "in" thing but I just am not crazy about how they look on my pages. I added some rose trim and bling to the chipboard, banner and doily. Letters are from my stash--not quite as thick as Thickers, but not flat either and I'm not sure where or when I got them! The are a shimmery pink glitter gelly letter. The heart and journal tag are by Prima.

Man vs. Food - Boardwalk Style

2011-03-23T10:06:00.002-04:00

First, I apologize for the dark picture. Its as grey as can be outside and this was the best picture I could get. I will replace it once the sun shines again here in New Jersey!

This layout was done using Sketch #148 at Creative Scrappers. The photos are a series I took on ONE day at the Wildwood Boardwalk and there's a couple more that I didn't put on the page! The journaling reads: "John starred in his own version of Man vs. Food, eating his way down the Boardwalk in Wildwood. Cheese fries, funnel cake, ice cream and two macaroons!"

I used Kraft background that I lightly misted with Patina Glimmer Mist, the circle is a piece of Little Yellow Bicycle paper and the coral scallops are by K&Co. The title letters are Prima, ticket is by My Minds Eye, "Boardwalk" sticker is by Jolee's and I added the word "style" using Crate Paper mini letters from the Portrait Collection.

"Hive Creative Challenge" - Spring!

2011-03-22T13:45:00.006-04:00

I have always found this odd, but our school district takes two sets of pictures every year. One in September and the other in the Spring which are much more informal. This layout features last year's Spring portrait of my daughter. I discovered when starting this layout that I don't have many papers in the yellow family. I like yellow well enough, but I guess I'm not drawn to it when picking out scrapbook papers! I thought that was rather odd too! Guess I'm finding lots of things odd today! :)

I remedied my lack of yellow papers by using a lot of Glimmer Mist! the very bottom layer is white cardstock that I sprayed along the edges with Lemon Grass Glimmer Mist. The second layer is a sheet of Bazzill yellow cardstock that I sprayed with water and them crumpled up in a tight ball. Being impatient I then ironed it so that the paper would dry and I could move on. I'm not a fan of taking forever on one layout and this one....FIVE HOURS! Once dry, I ran the cardstock through my Distrezz It All to soften the edges. The next layer is a piece of yellow paper from an older Basic Grey line - Lime Rickey. It has some orange-y tones to it so I fixed that by misting it with Meadow Green and Wheat Beer Glimmer Mist and wiping it off really quick so it only tinted the paper. I edged that paper with a scallop lace Martha Stewart punch and sort of distressed it . The next layer is a sheet of green paper out of the same Lime Rickey line. Didn't do a thing to this one and as it turns out, after I finished adding all my embellishments, you really don't even notice the paper! I topped that with a white paper doily and finally the 5x7 photo. I added leftover pieces of a scalloped border by K&Co and put green dew drops on top of each scallop.

The big yellow flowers are from a Prima Calypso tin that I got for a steal on clearance at Michael's the other day! I layered and twisted two sizes to make the flowers resemble a daffodil. I put a yellow rhinestone in the center of each. The small yellow roses I got at YourScrapbookStash.com but not sure who makes them. The little yellow flowers are from a "Got Prima" bottle named March Daffodil. I put yellow bling and/or pearls in the centers. The leaves and stems I cut by hand. The crochet butterflies are from Creative Charms and the ribbon from my stash. Now on to the title!

These look like wooden scrabble tiles, right? Nope! They are cardstock and chipboard and I made them myself--which is part of the reason this layout took 5 hours! A couple weeks ago I stumbled upon a blog called "What a Beautiful Mess". LISA NAZARIO-GREGORY is the owner of the blog and she has some of the most awesome tutorials I have seen! These "faux scrabble tiles" are just one of MANY! She shares some beautiful layouts and beautiful stories of her life. She is currently mourning the loss of her sweet mother-in-law and I am sure she would welcome any prayers for her family. Be sure to check out her blog HERE!

This layout was done with several challenges in mind!
At Creating The Hive, the challenge is to "create anything that inspires you from the season".

For the Chopped Challenge at Challenge Masters...yay, we all survived round one and here is the recipe for round two:

Yellow;
Dimensional Flowers;
Scallops

I am loving this challenge and the creations everyone is coming up with using the same recipe! If you haven't checked out Challege Masters you should! There's so much to join in with there!

I am also entering into the monthly challenge at http://scrapbookers-anonymous.blogspot.com/ which is to use at least 7 store bought flowers. I used way more than that!!

There is a Spring Fling challenge over at http://scrapbookchallenges.ning.com/ which is to create a layout that makes you think about Spring. The colors, the daffodils I made, the trees in the background of the photo and the fact that I know the portrait was taken in Spring all make me feel "springy" about this layout!

And finally, since I never met a sketch challenge I didn't want to do....I used the March Sketch for for challenge ASC6 at Artful Delight as my inspiration! It happens to be designed by my scrapping idol, and friend, Debbie Burns! If you want to see some AMAZING art-full layouts, stop by Debbie's blog at Love Life's Little Pleasures. You will NOT be dissapointed in what you find there!

Just Be You

2011-03-20T22:46:00.001-04:00

I really needed to do this layout tonight. The lighting wasn't great so I will replace the photo tomorrow when there is daylight. My daughter who is 12 is having some problems with her "friends" of late. When she broke her leg in mid-February all of her friends just dropped her. If she couldn't run around or walk to McDonalds or the park, they wanted nothing to do with her. She counted down the days until the cast came off, looking forward to hanging out with her friends again. This weekend she spent the night at another friend's house in another town and when I picked her up today she was upset. I thought maybe something happened at Emily's so I asked her about it. She didn't want to come home. :( She didn't want to get back to her normal life at home because all of her friends have turned on her. She's been so depressed lately and has been such a trooper dealing with her broken leg and my heart breaks for her. She's a sweet girl and has always gone along with whatever her friends want. Its never HER way. So to have them ALL turn on her has been a real eye opener for her. She's hurt, she's lonely and I'm sad for her. I had a long talk with her today and told her to just be herself (hence, the title of the page). If these girls don't like her for who she is, then they are not true friends. She listened to everything I told her and then at the end smiled and said "it's ok, mommy we are moving at the end of the school year anyway and I will make new friends". Its true, we are moving....but I wasn't expecting that out of her! She's very good at seeing the big picture...and that big picture for her is a new start, in a new school. So when I finished this layout and showed her she smiled! I snagged the photo off her Facebook page and she had edited it in Picknic and put the caption: "Live the Life you Love; Love the Life you Live". I told her that she needed to remember those words and she smiled and said "I know mom". How did I get such a grounded, good girl? Hopefully this will all blow over...which is what I told her...but even if it doesn't I think she's going to be just fine. (However, you can be sure I will be watching her Facebook page and watching for signs of anything else in her life. I'm NOT going to let my daughter be a statistic. I will ALWAYS be there for her and am so thankful that she feels comfortable talking to me.

I used a sketch from Page Maps for this layout. There is a contest for layouts using this sketch with a sweet prize from Webster's Pages. I used papers from Melissa Frances and October Afternoon, letters by Recollections and Thickers, tickets by Maya Road, "Girl" tag by Junkitz (wow is THAT old!), rose trim...not sure by who as I have several different brands, silver bling border is Recollections and blue bling is by Jolees.

Leaving on a Jet Plane

2011-03-20T17:47:00.001-04:00

I've been trying to be with my family today watching TV and not doing much of anything but this pain in my back (which has now progressed to a large rash and a few bigger sores on my back and across to my stomach.....calling the doctor in the morning) that I have been fighting for a week today just won't let me sit on the couch! I'm ok sitting in my desk chair at work or my scrapping chair (which is an old kitchen chair that I repurposed) but the minute I sit on the cushy couch or forget my bed....OUCH! So after a couple hours of trying to grin and bear it I retreated back to scrapping! Poor me! :)

This layout came about as part of the Scraplift the GCT challenge at ACOT. The page I scraplifted can be seen here. I used the travel theme mostly as my inspiration as well as the colors and the die cut paper. The funny thing about this piece of BoBunny die cut paper is that it was in two pieces when I started this layout! Apparently at some point in time I only wanted to use half of it then must have changed my mind on it all together. I did a good job lining it up but you could still see that it was cut. My solution was to cut a strip of airplane paper by Best Creations and put that over where the cut was.

I used a mish-mash of stuff on this layout! The airplane and camera stickers I have had FOREVER and are by Sandylion. The Palm Tree and the word "Fun" are chipboard stickers from a package of K& Co stickers, the "Adventure", "Journey" and the two circles at the top were out of a box of Chip accents from the Sea Glass collection by K&Co. Wow, I seem to be using a lot of K&Co stuff today. I didn't even realize I has so much of it! The ticket under the title is a Tim Holtz ticket and I used green October Afternoon mini letters and black Thickers for the title. The journaling tag is from Elle Studios and I layered that on top of a leftover piece of the border strip I used on the layout I made earlier today. I backed the entire layout on a sheet of Bazill Swiss Dot cardstock. I need to get more of that stuff!! I'm almost out!

Truth Is....

2011-03-20T12:46:00.002-04:00

I don't know how many of you have kids with Facebook, but around here ALL the kids have one. Fortunately I am friends with all my kids on Facebook (well...not really fortunately because if they didn't have me as a friend they would not be allowed to have one!) as well as most of their friends! Its a good way to not only see what your kids are up to but its a REALLY good way to snag some photos of your kids that you would otherwise not have! Like photos they take on their phones at school, at the park etc. Many of the kids use a website called Picnic to do special effects to their photos before they post them. The photo in this layout was edited in Picnic to add the streaks through the photo and the title border which says "Susie & Caitlin...best friends at heart...sisters at soul" . I snagged it off my daughter's Facebook and was surprised to see that while 4x6 is as big as you can print it without losing a lot of quality, I was able to use it! SCORE!! I see an endless amount of photos in my future!!

I made this page using a sketch at Let's Capture These Sketches Number 73. I have been returning to that sketch over and over again trying to think of something to use for it. Finally this morning I woke up and my first thought was COFFEE...second thought was this layout! It came easily once I paired it with the GCT Challenge #3 at A Cherry On Top which is to use 1 picture and 7 items in a cluster. I used flowers by Recollections and not sure where the little white ones are from but I got them at Your Scrapbook Stash, a metal key by K&Co., "Always" tag by K&Co., metal butterfly by Recollections (can I tell you these things are a STEAL!! For 99c at Michael's you get FOUR butterflies...I thought it was only two until I opened the package! Going to have to get more of them!), a button, a word strip by K&Co that says "Just be Yourself" and a couple of those flat backed clear marbles things that are supposed to go in the bottom of a vase. Not sure what they are really called but I like them here and there on layouts! I used a border strip by K&C, the backgrond paper is Best Creations. I distressed the edges with my Distrezz It All. Been a while since I pulled that nifty little machine out! The title letters are by K&CO and look like metal but are actually thin paper and they don't stick well so I had to add adhesive to each letter. That's ANNOYING! :) Here is a close up of the cluster.

I did straighten that "S" after I took the picture!! I also used bling by Recollections and another Butterfly on the left side. And what's the BEST part of this page you ask? Ok, so you didn't ask but I'm gonna tell you. See that copper colored paper I used under the photo? Well I have had that piece of paper for...drumroll.........12 years! YEP! It was sent to me many years ago by a lady I used to do custom paper piecing for and I just never found a way to use it. Its by Paper Adventures and is called Al Fresco. It sort of feels like wallpaper and had swirls in it that you really can't see in the photo. I was soooo impressed with myself!! THIS is what happens when you spend from 2am - 11am yesterday sorting and organizing paper!! I have it in two other colors so now I'm on a mission to use THEM!

The title of this page came from the picture. I don't know if this happens all over Facebook, but my daughter and her friends will randomly post on their friends wall with the status of "Truth Is" and then all of their friends will respond to that post with random nice facts about each other. Like Truth Is...you have beautiful eyes. Or Truth Is....you are really funny. Its actually kind of cute and although its not self-explanatory I think it was a perfect title for this layout which features a photo of my daughter and her friend Caitlin that one of them edited in PICNIK to put the words on it. I snagged and it and think it was perfect for this layout.

I have an hour before I have to go out...wonder if I can get another layout done! There's another sketch at Let's Capture These Sketches that has caught my eye!!

Apple of My Eye

2011-03-19T11:53:00.001-04:00

Happy Saturday, peeps!! You will have to excuse me if I seem a little rambunctious today. It's due to lack of sleep and wayyyy too much caffeine. I think I've mentioned that I did a number on my back LAST Sunday. Well the worst part of the day for my back is laying down to go to sleep. If I am sitting upright in a chair I'm ok. The couch or my bed...not so good. I took a Percocet last night hoping to sleep a solid 7 hours. I haven't had a run more than 3 hours since Sunday. Well it didn't work. I slept for about 3 1/2 hours and woke up at 2:30am. I was too tired to sit down and try to scrap so I did something that has needed to be done for a LONG time! I reorganized all of my patterned paper. I had a retarded system before where I kept Mfr. lines together but then sometimes I kept like colors together. Well NOW I have everything sorted by Mfr. If I have 6 different lines by that mfr., they are all in the same holder. Even though I have enough patterned paper to wallpaper the walls, floors and ceilings twice over, I sorta know what I have and usually do pick my papers by mfr. So I think this system will work a little better for me. There are a few exceptions to my new "rule". Holiday papers are sorted together, regardless of who makes them. I have a holder for Christmas, Halloween and All Other Holidays (I don't stockpile a lot of Easter, St. Pats, etc. papers so they are combined. ) I also have a separate holder for Vacations and for Beach. I live at the beach so I do a ton of beach layouts every year and I often mix and match mfrs.

I had a few things I purged and if I get the energy I may do a blog candy although its mostly older stuff that nobody would probably want anyway! Now I know I said I know what I have. The exception to that is the above layout! I had NO CLUE I even had this cute apple paper by Best Creations! And it didn't have a partner so it didn't really have a place to go being a single sheet of themed paper. So I left it out floating on the living room floor until I was all done with the sorting. Then it moved to my desk, still not knowing what I was going to do with it. Then for a brief moment it went into the purge pile!

Once I was done sorting the paper I grabbed a pack of pictures that was laying on my desk and decided that I was going to scrap from there rather than printing off new pictures. I grabbed these two pictures of Matt and headed back into my scrap room on a search for papers with red in them to match his shirt. I started out with papers from the Basic Grey Cupcake line and then it hit me! The apple paper was perfect!! I wanted to get my layout done for the weekly Sketch Inspiration sketch which has to be posted by tonight but I just wasn't sure I could make it work with these photos and only one patterned paper but it did! And as of right now, its my new favorite layout!

The specs are as follows:

Patterned paper by Best Creations, letters are Cloud 9 and Echo Park, Doily by Wilton, bling by Glitz, Buttons and rick rack from stash, journaling square is MAMBI. Used this weeks sketch at Sketch Inspirations.

Now I think I will try to lay down. Matt is at baseball practice, Susie is being picked up to sleep over a friends house at 1:00pm and John is working overtime again so its going to be pretty quiet here today! I do have some shopping errands to run but I can do that tonight!

Hope you all have a wonderful Saturday! I may or may not be back with more to share!

In Search of Me Gold

2011-03-18T22:41:00.002-04:00

I'm fighting to keep my eyes open right now thanks to painkillers for a back issue I've been fighting all week. But I just about panicked when I remembered that the "Chopped" Challenge at Cha{all}enge Masters had to be done by tomorrow. Since I *think* tomorrow is going to be a busy day I didn't want to leave it for the last minute. The "recipe" for this round was pretty simple:

Circles
Lime Green
Paint

My circles are the doilies; I used every shade of green imaginable I think and the paint is the Gold paint I used on the pot of Gold and also brushed a little on each of the shamrocks.

I wasn't sure what I was going to work on for this challenge and I was still a little bummed that my kids refused to either wear green yesterday or pose for me in the cute wiggly leprechaun hat headband I bought. HMMF!! I love St. Patrick's Day...its such a fun and happy and stress free "holiday" and being mostly Irish, I am proud of my heritage. Clearly my kids disagree! Oh well, at least dinner was delicious last night! I made THE BEST Corned Beef and Cabbage I have ever made and I make it at least twice a year. I used the Crock Pot this time and boy did it make a difference. It took 9 hours, but it was YUMMY and there was not a bit of leftovers!

Anyway, I remembered that I had these pictures of the Leprechaun show at Busch Gardens from our trip last year. So I quick printed them up and I used Sketch #146 from Creative Scrappers as inspiration.

I hand cut the pot out of black glitter paper and accented the top with Metallic Gold Folk Art paint. The polka dot paper is from a few years ago by Reminisce. The shamrocks and gold coins I got at Michaels, the gold letters are Anna Griffin, the bronze letters and green dew drops are Recollections, flowers are Prima, doilies are Little Yellow Bicycle, and the journal square is My Minds Eye So Sophie!

Now that its done...I'm off to dreamland!

Here's hoping I am "lucky" enough to not get CHOPPED in Round One!!

Winter Fishing

2011-03-18T17:24:00.001-04:00

The journaling reads" It doesn’t matter what the calendar says or what the thermometer says.

John will go fishing any time he can! Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall. As long as there’s fish to catch, he’ll be out there." And that's te truth! I don't think I can recall him fishing in the snow, but it doesn't matter how darned cold it is...if he hears that the fish are biting, he's out there giving it his best!! This layout is based on a PageMaps sketch for the March 18th Challenge at Stuck On You Sketches. I used an older piece of Glitz paper for the background. The reverse side has bright pretty colors but this side was perfect with the blue whitewashed look. I also used the last leftover piece of TPC Mediterranean Summer I think its called. For the first time in probably 6 years, I also used Vellum although in the photo you can't notice it much. I tore a piece of clear and a piece of light blue vellum to mimic waves and inked the edges. I then went over the edges with white Puffy Paint. I also used the Puffy Paint to draw the waves. I added two different types of snowflakes (white irridescent and silver glitter) both by Recollections, a "Passion" tag by Maya Road, White Sprinkles Thickers, blue/white bakers twine and some seashells and sanddollars that I popped off a leftover Jolee's sticker.

I hesitated to do this page because for the first time in what feels like FOREVER, it hit almost 80 degrees here. I long for the warmer weather, especially since we opted to move in June and pay off some bills rather than go on vacation this year. WHAT were we thinking!

Run, Don't Walk....

2011-03-18T14:27:00.002-04:00

to your nearest Michael's Arts & Crafts store. I just happened in there because I had an hour or so to kill before picking up the kids. Of course I had my weekly coupons with me because you just "never know". Well.....I was shocked!! I was JUST in there last week and it was the same old stuff. NOT anymore! The are completely revamping the scrapping area again and have added some really great stuff....tons of new bling, letters, flowers, etc! But better than that was what I found OUTSIDE the store in the clearance bins. If you look at the top of the picture you will see 4 tins of Prima flowers that were regularly $8.99 marked down to $3.99, 4 jars of Recollections flowers in glass jars with wood lids reguarly $7.99 marked to $3.99 and 4 tubes of small Prima flowers regularly $6.99 marked down to $2.99. What you can't see if that underneath the pile is a Basic Grey Cupcake paper stack that was marked down to $2.99! Just that alone which is only a small portion of the picture, would have cost appx. $80 regular price. I got a bunch of stuff off the clearance racks....journaling spots, tiny alphabet letters, dew drops...and then they were having terrific sales! All K&Co is 40% off so I picked up a bunch of stuff from them, I got some of the new Recollections bling swirls as I am very close to running out of all the bling I got last summer at CKC and no way I will make it till July and CKC 2011!! All Flowers and Metal Embellishments were also 40% off so I got a bunch of thta stuff too from Making Memories, Recollections, Prima, etc. The only things I paid full price for were the glue dots and ballpoint glue pen that I NEEDED, trimmer replacement blades which I also desperately needed and this pack of glitter letters that are brand new to the store.

There were a bunch of different styles but I really liked the glitter color on these and they were $4.99...the most expensive item I bought! Not pictured is a few St. Patty's decorations that I also got for 70% off. I'm 90% Irish so some of the things (Blessing Plaque, Good Luck Slate Plaque) will be left out all year long and the rest will be put away for next March 17th! All total, for all the items in the picture above I spent .....DRUMROLL......$101.89! Now I did have the coupon this week that I printed off the internet for $25 off $125 (or $5 off $50, etc.) but even still....I have a HUGE haul here and paid just a little more than the flowers would have cost me at regular price...and I've paid regular price for them MANY times!! I was so excited, I decided not to bother going to AC Moore. I kinda, sorta just spent my monthly budget!! Oops!!

First Haircut

2011-03-17T17:34:00.001-04:00

I'm so happy I don't scrap chronologically! If I did, I would not have gone back almost 20 years to the day that my oldest got his first haircut! Sure made me smile....boy how time flies! That little boy is now a 21 year old man!! I used LYB Twig papers that just matched perfectly, MME Lush flocked chipboard letters, Crate Paper mini letters, Recollections dew drops and ribbon from my stash. Sketch by Liz Chidester http://thescrappiest.blogspot.com/. Check out The Scrappiest this month for a chance to win some awesome doily dies!

The Right One!

2011-03-16T17:59:00.001-04:00

One of the March challenges at A Cherry On Top is do to a layout with a commercial jingle in the title. I was at a loss as to what to do for this one so I googled "commercial jingles" to see if anything caught my attention. One of the first ones I found was for Diet Pepsi. "The Right One". PERFECT! I have had this picture of John sitting on the shelf of my desk for at least two years now. It was taken when we were in Disney for my 40th birthday 4 years ago so its probably been there that long. There's a matching one of me but I'll use that one another time. Since it didn't smack of Disney I thought it would be a good time to get it scrapped. You will notice the Mickey Mouse paper clip at the top left....I had to bring Disney into the layout somehow! I used the sketch #147 by Amarylis Doria for Creative Scrappers. I used a lot of odds and ends on this one....the papers are all Stella Rose by My Minds Eye; Jenni Bowlin bingo card, Jillibean Soup sprout, Jolees parcel owl bird and leaves, a stick pin, May Arts leaf ribbon, EK Success edge punch, Cats Eye ink, Maya Road kraft ticket, Mickey head clip by Capture the Magic, and lettering by Crate Paper and Thickers.

It felt good to scrap today. I did something to my back on Sunday night and its been painful to sit (or lay down for that matter) for any length of time so all week long I just look in here longingly as I pass by. Today I got a nice big order from YourScrapbookStash so of course I had to play with some of my new goodies!!

You're My Lucky Charm

2011-03-12T11:57:00.004-05:00

I love St. Patrick's Day and am very proud of my Irish heritage but we really don't do anything to "celebrate" the day now that the kids are older. When they were younger I'd buy them shamrock socks, those silly wiggly headband things, leave a bag of gold chocolate coins, etc. and would have some good photo ops to scrap! Now that they are teens, all of the above is OUT! I don't even hang shamrocks up in the house anymore! Naturally a lot of challenges this month centered around Luck and Green in the spirit of St. Patty's Day. I wasn't sure what I could pull off to work that into a layout until I found this sheet of informal school portraits from a few years ago. I used the weekly Sketch Inspirations sketch #210 as inspiration and followed the Countdown Challenge at ACOT and the layout came together rather quickly! I used a piece of Fancy Pants "About A Girl" paper (its all pretty and pink on the other side!) and inked it up with some brown ink to tone down the green a little. The shamrock paper has been in my stash forever and I use bits and pieces of it! I still have a little left for next year! The Luck stickers on the tag and the flower cluster on the right are leftovers from several years ago from the Reminisce Lucky line. Good thing I'm a hoarder! I picked up the little gold coins and glitter shamrocks at Michaels the other day "just in case" and I think they add the perfect touch! The flowers are all Primas except the two lighter roses which I got in the wedding supply section of AC Moore. Gold and white buttons from my stash. I'm running low on gold buttons!!! For the Countdown Challenge I had to use AT LEAST the following:

5 - Flowers

4 - Word Title

3 - Green Elements

2 - Papers

1 - Tag

Theme: Luck

I am also linking this to Scrap Whispers for Challenge 93 - Use only portrait photos and for the March challenge at Scrap It Forward which is to use green as your main color and have the word LUCKY in your title.

Thanks for looking!! That's probably it from me today! We have a busy day today!!

Scraplift Challenge

2011-03-11T22:34:00.002-05:00

The other day I was blog hopping and came upon The XOXO Challenge Blog. Every month their talented design team puts up layouts and the challenge is to scraplift one---or all---of them! The sponsor for this month is Candy Shoppe Designs. I have never participated before but when I saw the first inspiration layout by Lipstick Chick Emma Fronda I knew right away that I wanted to play!! I loved the bright colors of Emma's layout but I went a different direction and scrapped the photos (BAD AS THEY ARE) I took of Matt on his 14th Birthday this past Tuesday. He thought he was being funny by not smiling but I didn't care...NOBODY and NOTHING is stopping me from taking the annual birthday pictures! And yes, they will be scrapbooked!! I used papers and elements from an older Fancy Pants line "Like Father, Like Son". I wet the blue strip, crinkled it up and distressed and inked it a little bit then dried it with my heat gun, layered on a few more paper strips and stickers, embellished with Stickles, LilyBee rubons, screw and swirl brads, a flash card from Elle Studios, some ric rac, a K&Co journaling square and puffy letters from Recollections. I misted the background paper with a blue and a green (I put them away already so don't have the exact colors) Glimmer Mist before I began layering the page together. I like it!

Layout: Wanted

2011-03-11T18:05:00.003-05:00

The ONE good thing about having a child with a broken leg is that I am leaving work early each day to pick her up. We live in a small town and there is no bus service and we live about a mile and a half from the school. That's a long walk on crutches. Unfortunately, most of the week I get her home and run out and get some errands done but today I got home and immediately got to work on the newest sketch at Stuck On U Sketches. I saw the sketch earlier this week when I was cruising some blogs late at night and originally planned to do something frilly and soft and romantic - much like the sketch itself. Instead, I combined the sketch with a challenge at ACOT to use Cosmo Cricket papers. This is the WANTED line and I think it works perfect with my photo of the kids and their cousins at the shooting gallery! I am also entering this in the Punky Scraps challenge to use 3 out of the following 5 techniques:

ditressing - Check

misting - Check (I misted the doily)
black & white photo (Check - well I used Sepia)
flowers
sparkles (not limited to bling....anything that is sparkly counts!)Gold key and buttons. They are much shinier in real life so I hope it counts if the Sepia doesn't!

On another note, I want to extend my prayers and thoughts to all of those affected by the earthquakes and tsunami's that took place today. One of my closest friends is Japanese and her family is still there. I spent the morning glued to my tv, texting my friend trying to reassure her that everyone would be ok. By mid-afternoon I received word that she had indeed made contact with her family and all were well, although shaken up. Her family is mostly in Tokyo but she has a good friend in Sentai where the quake hit the hardest. Please keep them in your prayers along with all of the other victims of this awful natural disaster.

Christmas 2010

2011-03-05T11:13:00.001-05:00

I think that I must be the only person who does not like to scrap Christmas events! I don't know what it is, whether its the fact that Christmas is such a major holiday, or I have SO many photos of the day that it overwhelms me, but I have NEVER liked scrapping Christmas. To be honest, I don't like scrapping HOLIDAYS! Give me an everyday layout, or a beach or vacation theme and I'm good to go! This year I was determined to be different. I signed on to do a December Daily album. I got photos of day 1 and day 2 and a cover made....that's it. I bought a Bo Bunny Edgy Album and the Christmas papers to go with it to make a mini album. I got the pages assembled and then had nothing really to embellish it with so I tossed it in the box of half-started projects. I realized that I didn't have too many embellishments for the season so I went nuts on ACOT and bought tons of random Christmas stuff. Problem is, nothing really matches. Some companies use bright red and green, others more burdandy and hunter, some backed with white, others with tan. UGH! So anyway when I saw the March Ad Inspiration Challenge at ACOT I immediately saw Christmas. What a great way to get the whole day captured onto ONE layout. I have already done a layout or two from this Christmas and this would be enough to finish the holiday and I won't have to stress over Christmas pictures for another 9 months! I've been sort of "planning" this layout in my head for days. I printed the photos out last night and this morning I got my cup of java and sat down to create my masterpiece. Yeah right! As usual the grandious visions I have in my head don't translate onto the page. If this isn't the most blah Christmas page you've ever seen, well you need to up your standards. Now I know its not THAT bad, and I'm not looking for anyone to say how great it is just the way it is, its just that I had such a better image of the finished product in my head. Does that make any sense? Part of the problem is that I have been drooling over some amazing layouts by "professional" scrappers....you know the kind.....each layout is layered with awesomeness that probably costs upwards of $15 per page (WAY out of MY budget) and techniques that I only wish I could do or have the time for. I'm a fairly quick scrapper....I would go nuts agonizing over one layout for days. And I suppose therein lies the reason that this page just doesn't have the punch I was expecting. But alas, Christmas 2010 is in the books. Here is the ad that I took my inspiration from! Oh, and thanks for letting me vent! LOL!

Monochromatic Challenge

2011-03-03T20:42:00.001-05:00

I shed a few tears working on this page. My mom has been gone since October and it feels like years. Its been a slow process but its getting easier to see a photo of her and actually create a layout with it. The last couple I have done I have included journaling about how much I miss her. I hope that in time I can start sharing her stories, rather than just how much I miss her or how sad I am.

This page was done with the ACOT Crop Monochromatic Challenge in mind. I LOVE those big teal flowers and it was the last two that I have and I have NO idea who made them. They came in a set with different shades of teal and one white with teal "scribbles' on them. I must have tossed the packaging when I first opened them over a year ago and now I have no idea who made them. I searched the entire Prima catalog hoping to find the same flowers and get them in an assortment of colors. If anyone knows the manufacturer and "model" of them please let me know!!

Sketchy Thursdays & ACOT Color Challenge

2011-03-03T20:34:00.001-05:00

The one good thing that has come from Susie's broken leg is that I am forced to leave work at 2:15pm every day in order to pick her up from school. I live in a small town and we have no bus service so my kids have always walked home. I drop them off in the morning before I go to work. But I can't expect her to walk a little over a mile hobbling on crutches! Anyway, being home by 2:30ish has been nice! I've been going right into my scraproom after I get home and getting straight to work on a challenge or sketch layout. I'm not pumping out the layouts like I did last weekend and the beginning of this week when I didn't have work, but 1 layout a day is really nice! This layout is based on the sketch at Sketchy Thursdays and the greens are in answer to the March Color Challenge at ACOT. We needed to use at least three shades of green on one layout. I normally despise green and was actually going to skip over this challenge this month, but then Matt walked into my scraproom the other day mixing green crystal sprinkles into a bowl of vanilla yogurt. Top that off with the fact that his shirt was green and I had the perfect pictures for the challenge!

I crack myself up!!

2011-03-02T17:49:00.000-05:00

This layout evolved like you would NOT believe. I came home from work knowing that I wanted to scrap this photo of me from last summer taken by my loving family just moments after falling over backwards on my chair! I was using the newest sketch at Sketch Inspirations. I started with some lovely floral papers and flowers and it just wasn't working. Seriously, FLOWERS and this picture don't go together! Out of nowhere the title popped into my head and I went back to the paper stash and made a new selection. This is what I ended up with and it makes me laugh just looking at it! I showed it to my kids and boyfriend and they laughed too...however, they were laughing at the picture!!!

I have a bunch more that I scrapped over the weekend that I haven't posted yet. Might try to do that later. But for now, a chicken caesar salad is calling my name!!

Sometimes its just BLAH!

2011-02-28T15:56:00.001-05:00

I have three more challenges (well 2 after this one) to do and they are the three that I liked the least for the crop! I was originally excited about this one because I knew I had these photos of the ocean we took last year when Hurricane Earl was passing through, but once I started working on it, it just wasn't going anywhere. The problem came in with the restraints that I had for this challenge. We were to use the below advertisement as inspiration and had to maintain the four small pictures down the side, one large photo and a lot of journaling. It didn't leave me much creativity once I accomplished all the "requirements". But---its another layout done and a memory captured and I suppose at the end of the day, that's all that's really important anyway.

Scraplift Challenge

2011-02-28T13:14:00.001-05:00

Still plugging along at the challenges! Three done so far and its only 1pm. I have to pick the kids up at 2:30 and I'm pretty sure that my momentum will screech to a grinding halt at that point so I'm very glad I've gotten this much done already this morning. I think I only have 3 or 4 more to go to achieve my goal of completing EVERY challenge! AND I think I will complete the Scavenger Hunt. The only one that's got my a little weary is the double page layout. I used to do nothing but double pagers but the last couple years I've sort of shyed away from them. We'll see...

Anyway, this layout was done for Challenge #....I don't remember! But its a scraplift challenge. Since the original page that I lifted is not mine I am not comfortable posting it here but if you would like to see it, please check it out HERE in the ACOT gallery.

I LOVE MONDAYS!

2011-02-28T09:54:00.001-05:00

Ok, I really don't love Mondays but I *DO* love this Monday! I took today and tomorrow off from work with no plans to do anything but scrapbook! I do have to run to the doctor to drop off a form but other than that, its ME time! I'm working on the rest of the challenges that I haven't finished from the weekend crop at ACOT. The above layout is for a challenge to create a layout based on the below image.

I pulled the grid-style and the pastel colors. The photos are just a couple random snapshots of my mom and they warm my heart. I'm missing her very much today. I also got another item checked off the Scavenger Hunt - use a handmade embellishment. I made the little fan in the bottom left square by pleating a paper doily and adding a pearl brad.

Let's Try This Again!

2011-02-27T15:10:00.001-05:00

As I was getting ready to upload my page to ACOT I had to check to see what Challenge number this page was for. And its a good thing I did because I clearly did not follow instructions on the first try! The challenge is as follows:

1. Use White Background

2. Use Black/Grey

3. Use one other color.

4. Stitch or doodle around your photo.

5. Use a quote.

As you can see from the first try in the post below, I chose to ignore the last two requirements!! Once I noticed this I revamped the layout a little. I actually like this version better as I wasn't crazy about the titling on the first one! And the other good thing is while I was digging through bins for the Love Quote booklet I KNEW I had, I found a gift card to ACOT worth $5 that I have NO IDEA how old it is! I hope it didn't expire!

You Color My World

2011-02-27T14:31:00.001-05:00

This is a fairly simple layout but I like it! The challenge was to use a white background, black or grey and ONE other accent color. The photo was taken last year when we were in Antigua. The picture is black and white except for the bright pink flowers. That's what I took my inspiration from. I also checked off another Scavenger Hunt item...to use something by BoBunny. The pink strip to the right of the black pp is BoBunny as is the chipboard flower at the edge of the ric rack and the chipboard tag at the bottom is also BoBunny but I covered it with a pink flower to match the others.

Heritage Challenge

2011-02-27T13:04:00.001-05:00

One of the challenges for the ACOT crop is to use a photo at least 10 years old to create a "heritage" layout. The layout must also have metal (I used metal buttons and tiny metal flowers) and lace. Not long after my mom passed away my Uncle Tom posted this picture on Facebook. Its my sister, mom. dad and I at my Aunt Patty & Uncle Tom's wedding in 1984. How about that 80's hair!!! (I am the one in the middle). I also checked off a few more Scavenger Hunt items with this one....3 different colored flowers and 4 buttons.