Happiness

I think this is one of my new favorite pages. I know that I scrapped the top picture on a layout earlier today but it was in wallet size...this is the original 4x6 and it just worked for the layout so who cares....I scrapped it twice! LOL!! This sketch is for the weekly challenge over at Sketches In Thyme. I'll tell you what, the last few sketches there have been amazing! And I think the layouts I am creating with their inspiration are equally amazing to me! I'm so happy to have gotten three pages added to the Antigua book today!

The papers are Creative Imaginations Tidepool collection as is the chipboard border. The teal bling is Jolees as are the teal rhinestones scattered throughout. The white puffy accents are the end of what I had left on a sheet and I think they were Recollections. Pearls from my stash but probably by Recollections also. The little white flowers I am going to tell you again.....hit the bridal crafts section of your craft store! This was a bunch of 8 flowers on wire. I snipped the wire off, added a glue dot to the back and stuck them down! The entire bunch of 8 cost me 69 cents!! And you can glimmer mist them to match your project! I LOVE that aisle now!! The seashell embellishments are from K & Co. The large shell in the lower corner had a round gel circle on it that said CLAM BAKE but I popped that off and added pearls in its place! I added more pearls throughout the layout and a pre-made title that I have had for quite some time by Me and My Big Ideas. I couldn't believe how well it matched!!

I am also posting this over at Pages In Time for the pearl challenge. I'm not sure if I have anymore scrapping in me today!! I'm about to watch the season premiere of Hannah Montana with my daughter! LOL!

Timeless Love

This photo is of my mommy taken in September of 1987...thank God for dates printed on the back of older photos!! This is how *I* remember my mom. It was so funny when I was working on this layout. My daughter looked at the photo and thought gramma looked so FUNNY. For as long as my two younger kids can remember, Gramma has had WHITE hair, never wears makeup anymore and always has oxygen tubes around her. I long for these days again....my mom is now struggling with health issues, no longer the independent go-getter she used to be. Its almost like a complete role reversal where I am calling her every day to make sure she's ok, make sure she's eating, make sure she took her medicine. Its sad and it hurts me so much but I am thankful for every day. The running joke in my family is that my mom is part cat....she has been on Heaven's doorstep several times in the last 3 years and has fought back valiantly. This past Christmas was tough for me as she was just diagnosed with oh...I forget the technical name now...but it is lung cancer. The doctors were not optimistic, saying 3-4 months tops with agressive treatment. I cried as I wrapped her gifts thinking it would be the last time I did so. Well she fought back and the tumor, while not GONE, has shrunk tremendously and she feels better today than she has in 5 years! Praise God. Of course it seems like everytime we turn around something else creeps up...we are currently awaiting results from a stomach and thyroid biopsy. But we stay positive and figure that no news is good news at this point!

This layout is based on a sketch at Pages In Time. I used papers by The Girls Paperie and the clocks and die-cut heart journaling spot are from them as well. I mounted one of the clocks on a lacy paper doily and the other two are raised on pop-dots. The large pink roses were white (my new favorite find....go to the bridal aisle in AC Moore. For 69c you can get a bunch of these white paper roses...JUST LIKE PRIMA's. Unless you WANT to spend $4 for the same thing. I compared them side to side in the store and could not see a darn thing that made the Primas worth $4 more with the exception of perhaps the Primas are ACID Free and the bridal ones not...but I will worry about that if and when my pictures seem to be getting eaten by Acid in 20-30 years. ) Anywhoo.... :) the roses were white but I just gave them a quick mist with Black Cherry Glimmer Mist and voila...perfectly matching roses! The itty bitty flowers with metal brad centers are Making Memories that I got on clearance at Michaels for 49c the other day! What a PAIN it was opening all those brads on the back of my page. They are so tiny and SHARP!! The leaves are a free SVG file I cut on my Cricut that I got from My Cricut Scrapbooking. I cut apart some bling (it had other colors that didn't match) that was by Recollections, added a few Martha Stewart butterfly punches and a title with Basic Grey letters and I was done. I stayed up WAY too late working on this layout last night!! Good thing I am off today and could sleep in a bit!

BFF's - Color Room, PIT

This layout uses color pallette #13 at The Color Room. There is a challenge here at Pages In Time. Your project must use a punch and flowers. I used my large circle punch for the two black circles rather than the Cricut (and it sure was a lot easier....I have to start giving my basic shapes punches more love...and of course you can see the flowers!  Oh, and I used a July sketch at PageMaps.

The girly words paper is by TCP Studios that was on clearance at Michaels last week and I got it for 19c!!! Gotta love that! Of course I also bought the black glitterd cardstock at the same time which was $1.99 which is way more than I usually pay for a piece of cardstock!!! The black ribbon says "Good Friends Never Go Out of Style" and it came in a 6 packs of ribbons, along with the hot pink one on this layout, from the $1 spot at Target!!! Gotta love that Dollar Spot! The white puffy swirls are again from Michaels and I have to go back and get more because I just LOVE them...they work for so many different layouts and you get a whole bunch for like $2.50! Silver doilies from Wilton and flowers are Petaloo Dazzlers. Got the white felt letters at Dollar Tree!! Hmmm, had it not been for that over priced glittered cardstock, I could call this a pretty Frugal page. Speaking of the glittered cardstock....not only was it Uber expenisive, but when I started the layout and was looking at the sketch, I confused that piece with the word letters and cut it wrong by about 3 inches. I was so upset because there was no way I could...nor did I want to, crop the photos any smaller. I was about to pitch it and try something else when I decided to tr something. I used a black sharpie around the cut edges of the black glitter paper so you couldn't see the white core and then just butted the two pieces up to each other. The only place the seam is even visible is a 1/2 inch on the left side and honestly, if you didn't know it was there, you would never see it! Quite clever on my part I thought!!  I also tried putting some hot pink Smooch under the white swirls to make them pop but my plan didn't pan out too well!!  Oh well....I tried!

Shabby Chic

One of the challenges at Pages in Time is to create a layout that is "shabby chic". You had to use pink/brown/white and had to include flowers and butterflies. I did all that, and lots more!!! There's so much on this layout that I'm not going to go into listing all the different manufacturers, except to say that all the papers are My Minds Eye So Sophie line. It was a fun layout to make but it took 4 hours!! I'm a fast scrapper too! Just when I thought I was done I'd find something else that looked good on the page!!   I incorporated this page with the ScrapFit Challenge to have 1-3 handmade embellishments.  I made two tags out of old bread ties (the date tag at the bottom right and the title tag at the top left).  I also hand crocheted the white flower at the top left but it was my first try and not that great so its good that I was able to layer stuff on top of it!!  Overall, I am in love with this layout!  Its definately getting a frame and hanging up in our room!

I never did get my nap in so I am going to do just that now!! Susie has a friend sleeping over and I just ordered pizza to I'm going to lay on the couch for a bit! I will be back later!!

Happy 4th of July Weekend!!!!

My long weekend started when I left the office at 5:15pm today!! I don't have to be back at work until TUESDAY! Yippeee!!! While I was physcially at work today (mentally I was already on the beach) I was on the ACOT Message Board and was checking out the July challenges. One of them was to create a Red, White and Blue layout that was NOT a Fourth of July layout. I immediately thought of these photos from 2008 when we went to Historic Smithville to see the Virginia Company K Encampment and Civil War Reenactment. They were PERFECT for the theme! I decided to use the Sketches In Thyme weekly sketch and because of the distressing on the papers, it also qualifies for Denise's challenge over at Pages In Time. Now I KNOW there was one more challenge I was entering this into but for the life of me I can't remember what it is. I know it was to use red, blue and another neutral other than white which is why I went with the Kraft background. So if you know what challenge I am missing, let me know!!  And to top it off, Frosted Designs posted their new challenge today....Red, White, And Blue, Stars and Stripes!  WooHoo!!  Love when I can combine so many challenges!

I used a mix of papers for this one. Most of it is Pink Paislee Starlight and some We R Memory Keepers Old Glory. Letters are Pink Paislee. Tickets are by House of 3. Bling by Jolees. Chipboard stars by Melody Ross sprayed with Moonlight Glimmer Mist.

Unfortunately my plans to scrap all night are fading. I'm tired!! When I got home from work John suggested going to the movies. We had wanted to see Iron Man 2 but waited to long and its not in the theatres here anymore so we saw Grown Ups instead. GREAT movie! Adam Sandler is a comical genius. We LAUGHED, and LAUGHED!! Really a good, funny movie with a great cast!

I am off tomorrow and John is working so you know what that means!! Scrappy day ahead!!

Pink Lady

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

Supply List:

Black Dot Cardstock - Unknown

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

Bling flower centers - Unknown

Distress Stickles - Worn Lipstick

Title Letters - American Crafts Vinyl Thickers
Leaf Punch - Marvy