A Beary Fun Trip!

When I saw this bear holding a camera in Busch Gardens, I had to make John pose in front of it! And of course, he then made me do it! I love the pictures but was really at a loss at how to work the bear element into it! So I just chose to keep it simple and use a play on words for the title. I used the new sketch just posted from Creative Scrappers and also made a ric rac circle for the Frosted Designs challenge. The papers are by Pink Paislee and Cosmo Cricket. Letters and saying stickers are Bella Blvd. Quite a simple layout for me!!

Katie - Creative Scrappers 112

I've been noticing a trend lately with sketches. Lots of strips of paper which makes it soooo easy to put together a layout using just scraps! This layout is of my niece Katie and is based on Creative Scrappers Sketch 112. Don't ask me what the face is for but considering it was a hot, summer day and she had a broken ankle, she was probably complaining about something, and rightfully so. I'm not sure of the date on this which I will eventually add to the circle at the bottom once I send it to her on Facebook and ask her when she broke her ankle! She ought to love this! LOL!  This is the sketch it's based on:

The paper strips were actually "ribbons" printed onto paper that I found in a really old kit that I bought at a scrapbooking convention from Leaving Prints which is no longer even in business. Am I the only one who goes to expos and conventions and spends all kinds of money on stuff I didn't even really like just because it was cheap? I have a stack of these kits and honestly, the paper is low quality and I don't even like most of it. I pulled out about 6 of them that I know I will never use and think I will give them to my friend who is just starting out scrapping and has very little in the way of patterened paper. I cut the "ribbons" into strips and glued them down.  I crinkled and distressed the edges of the blue paper. I have apparently run out of ALL SIZES of chipboard circles so I just punched a bunch of orange circles out of a leftover piece of BoBunny paper....the only quality paper on this layout...and glued them together to give them dimension. The bracket was plain chipboard that I also covered with the BoBunny. While I was searching through drawers looking for chipboard circles, I came across a sheet of chipboard pieces by Little Yellow Bicycle Zach's Life. That line is CLEARLY a boy line but the colors worked for this layout so I used them! Even the printed words on the circles at the top fit...it says "It Takes Courage To Grow Up And Become Who You Really Are" on one and the others say "Wherever You Go, Go With All Your Heart" and "Laugh". I was so excited that these obviously intended for boy pages embellishments worked on this teenage girl's layout! The green glitter letters you have seen on at least 3 other layouts this weekend! I have a habit of using whats in front of me and these have been sitting on my desk since Friday! I just put them away though...to force myself to be more creative! I will laugh if I do use them again this weekend because they REALLY work! I inked the edges in orange to tie the layout together and added some muslin and jute knots and this puppy is done!

Dinner is ready....John is cutting the ribs as I type this and I just took the cornbread out of the oven!! Be back later!!!

Still In Disney!

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

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

Just Us and Susie's 10th Birthday

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

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

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

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

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

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

Creative Scrappers, Scrap It With A Song, The Color Room, Frosted Designs & Alphabet Challenge

As I said in my previous post, I did some blog hopping this afternoon and after my first two stops, I knew exactly what I was going to do so rather than wait, I came back to the scraproom and created this layout! This is one of my favorite photos as it contains two of my very best friends (one is hiding in the back as usual) and two other coworker friends. My friends HATE having their picture taken and when I try, the end result it usually a turned head, something held in front of their faces, etc. This photo was taken at an Atlantic City Surf baseball game on July 3, 2008. The highlight of the night was the 7th Inning Stretch Entertainment.....it was William Hung of American Idol "fame" and he did his infamous rendition of "She Bang". It was hysterical!!

All papers are My Minds Eye Just Dreamy 2 line The blue-ish flower was cut from the papers and curled, the pink is Prima and the brad in the center is Basic Grey Porcelain line. Letter stickers are Recollections and Mrs. Grossmans. Pink Velvet scallop ribbon is Creative Cafe. Bling is ZVA Creations. White pen is Uniball Signo, black stitching with Zig pen, and white rub-ons are DCWV. Doily underneath flower is by Wilton.  Buttons and floss from my stash. This layout qualifies for the following challenges:

1. Frosted Designs - Use Buttons

2. Alphabet Challenge Blog - F is for Flowers

3. The Color Room - Palette #9 (Her Room)

4. Creative Scrappers - Sketch

5. Scrap It With a Song - Title (Girls Just Want To Have Fun)