Scrapping Recipe Challenge #17

Our Scrapping Recipe Challenge #17 at Sketches! {by Tamara} was to use these three items in a layout or a card:

• Something clear
• Ribbon
• Something to give an element dimension

Be sure to check out all of the cards and layouts created for this recipe!

I also used a PageMaps sketch for this layout! I used Cosmo Cricket papers. The transparency is My Mind's Eye, and I put it over my journaling. The small round tag mounted over the transparency is popped up with foam dots. Just a simple layout, but I love the way it turned out!

I hope you have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by!

BBTB - Dreams Come True - Dress Challenge

This week's challenge over at Bitten By The Bug was to use the Belle's dress from the Dreams Come True cartridge. Thanks again to DeeDee for sending me the cut. Be sure to check out the amazing ways that all of the designers used the dress! You will be amazed at all of the creations!


I asked DeeDee to send me the dress in red, because it is my favorite color! I added red Stickles to the top layers of the dress. I added stardust pen to the edges of the black shadow. The card front is Cuttlebug embossed. The Bill Blass quote, "When in doubt wear red." was printed on my computer. I added a heart rhinestone and red sheer ribbon to finish the card off. You can click on the card to see it larger.

I took an unscheduled blogging break, and it was great NOT blogging for a while! However, I missed you all, and I hope to catch up with all of you soon. I hope you had a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday . . .

I'm sorry to say that I don't have anything creative to show you today, but I will give you an update on my QVC viewing / purchasing. Are you ready? I didn't buy anything! I was tempted by a couple of items, but in the end, I purchased nothing! I was proud of myself for realizing that I didn't need anything!

However, the day wasn't "purchase free". I did pick up two of the Becky Higgins School Expansion kits off of Lisa Bearnson's site. They are now 30% off! The shipping is so high from Utah to Illinois, so it was nice to get the 30% off! I originally wanted to puchase these kits when they were the Kit Of The Month on Lisa's site, but I refrained. Yeah for me for waiting and getting a discount!

Tim Holtz was on QVC yesterday for the first time ever, and he was just fantastic! I wish he would have had more products. I love to watch him create. A lot of his stuff is way too "chunky" for my personal tastes, but his creation process is fun to watch!

So, that's it from me for today. I hope to having something fun to show you tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapping Recipe Challenge #16

I just love these recipe challenges! This week at Sketches! {by Tamara} our scrapping recipe challenge was to include these three items:

• sewing/stitching (real or faux)
• ribbon
• paper tearing

Be sure to check out the cards and layouts that were created using this scrapping recipe challenge #16!

Here is my page for this scrapping recipe challenge. I actually used my sewing machine! I sewed along the edge of the Love, Elsie patterned paper on both the top and the bottom. I triple-matted the cute photo of my girls with their cousin. The bottom mat layer has a threading water punched border. I threaded Love, Elsie ribbon through one of the punched holes, and I tied the ribbon around the right edge of the photo. I journaled on the computer, and then tore the journaling and inked the edges. A cluster of Love, Elsie stickers is next to the journaling. The title is foam Thickers that I distressed on the edges with chalk ink. The last detail is a stack of Prima flowers with a glitter Making Memories brad center. You can click on the layout to see it larger. I love this page!

I hope you have a great day! I'm going to be watching QVC paper crafting. I must not spend, I must not spend, I must not spend! Well, I must not spend too much! Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

BBTB - Christmas Cheer - House Challenge

Over at Bitten By The Bug, we were challenged to use the house cut on the Christmas Cheer cartridge. It seems to be a gingerbread house, but I designed it as a haunted house instead! Be sure to see what the other designers created! You will be amazed at how creative everyone was using this cut!


I cut the house using some fantastic Rusty Pickle patterned paper. I Cuttlebug embossed the roof and added some black Stickles. The spider web in the corner is a Making Memories foam stamp that I stamped in white paint. The spider is also a MM foam stamp that I detail cut. The "Happy Haunting!" stamp is from a Stampin' Up set. I distressed the edges of all the cardstock, and I used chalk ink on it.

I hope you had a great weekend. Happy Monday! Thanks for stopping by!

Jack-O-Lantern Flowerpots

My blogging friend Chris had some lack-o-lantern flowerpots on her blog. The idea came from a Lowe's magazine. I got the same magazine, loved the project, and then I promptly forgot about it until I saw Chris's flowerpots! So, the girls and I created our own this weekend, and we LOVE them!


Here they are sitting on our landscaping wall in front of our house. Aren't they ADORABLE? From left to right, they were created by Emily, myself, and Jessica. I love that they're all different! We had so much fun! I love the purple mums too. I wanted to get three different colors of mums, but WalMart only had the purple left. So, that's our fun project! What do you think?

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday. Thanks for stopping by!

Angler's Club Field Trip

The girls belong to the Anger's Club in school, and today was a field trip. This first photo is my favorite photo from the trip.

Unfortunately, the girls didn't catch anything! The area was really flooded from all of the rain we had about a week ago, so they weren't even able to cast into the lake. The shore was far from where we were. In the last photo of Jessica, the bush area in front of her is actually the shore for the lake. So all of that water in front of her is flood water. Anyway, better luck next time, right?

I hope you're having a great day! Enjoy your weekend, and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Birthday

I made this card for my girlfriend's birthday, and since she's received it, I can now post it.


The card front is from a journaling notebook that I bought on clearance at Target. The journaling papers are from Colorbok, and I just love them. What a fantastic card front! I love the color scheme, the white graphics, and the butterflies! I just added a gorgeous Prima, and a stamped image from a Stampin' Up set. I cut the image using my Nestabilities. I added two glitter Making Memories brads, and all of the cardstock is chalk ink distressed.

I hope you all have a wonderful day, and thanks for stopping by!

Love Is All Around - 2S4U - Kazan's Sketch 9

I love the sketches and the talented ladies that hang out over at the 2 Sketches 4 You site! Another great sketch this week. Here is my card for Kazan's Sketch 9.


The card base is DCWV, and the patterned papers are vibrant Kimberly Hodges papers from K&Company. My entire card was inspired by the gorgeous ribbon that I received as a RAK from Sue at the Paper Crafts blog. I love the five buttons that I sewed on. I added chalk ink distressing too. I'm so pleased with this card! I'm going to give it to my mom the next time that I see her! She'll love it!

I hope you have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Scrapping Recipe Challenge #15

The recipe of items to use on a project this week at Sketches! {by Tamara} are:

• scalloped edges
• brads
• monochromatic colors

I love this recipe, even though I struggled with the monochromatic colors at first. However, once I put my layout together, I was just thrilled with the result. Be sure to check out the awesome cards and layouts that were created using this Scrapping Recipe #15!


I used DCWV papers. The layout base is from an Old World Stack, and the threading water punched scalloped edge border on the left side of the page is from Pocket Full of Posies. The journaling piece is from a notebook of Colorbok papers that I just got on clearance at Target. The chipboard piece that I used for my flower center is also Colorbok. I stamped on the white flower with an Autumn Leaves acrylic swirl stamp. The tag is Basic Grey, and that also has an Autumn Leaves stamp on it. I love those circular sentiments. The glitter brads are by Making Memories. I used chalk ink to distress the edges of the border, the journaling piece, and the tag. You can click on the layout to see it larger. I really love the way this layout turned out!

I hope you have a great day. Thanks for stopping by!

BBTB - Flower Frame Challenge

This week at Bitten By The Bug, we were challenged to use the flower frame on the Pooh & Friends cartridge. Once again I don't have this cartridge, and once again DeeDee came to my rescue and sent me the cut. Thanks DeeDee! Be sure to check out all of the FANTASTIC creations by the other BBTB designers. I say this every week, but they are all AMAZING!


I used the cut to frame a Stampin' Up image from a set called Pocket Fun. I think this is such a cute image! I used colored pencils and gamsol to color in the stamped image. After I framed it with the flower frame, I added rhinestones to all of the flower centers. The "you make me happy!" sentiment is also a Stampin' Up stamp. The card front is DCWV, I wrapped sheer white ribbon around the card front, and then I added a trio of Making Memories flower brads over the ribbon. You can click on the card to see it larger. I think this turned out really cute!

Well, we had TONS of rain over the weekend. We had 8"-10". Just crazy! Luckily, we didn't have any problems with electricity, so the sump pump kept on working all weekend long. Tons of flooding in the Chicagoland area.

I just also have to mention Carlos Zambrano. He pitched a no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs, and it's the first no-hitter for the Cubs in 36 years! WOW! He's just amazing! Way to go!

I hope you all have a fantastic day, and thanks for stopping by!

Movie Review

It's a rainy, rainy weekend, so yesterday I rented some movies for our Friday night. I particularly liked this movie, so I thought I would recommend it in case you haven't seen it.

Penelope is a movie produced by Reese Witherspoon, and she also has a small role in the movie. Christina Ricci is wonderful as the lead character, and James McAvoy is fantastic!! Peter Dinklage also has a great role. I love movies that are all about a girl/woman discovering herself and feeling good about herself, and this one tells a great story. I highly recommend it, especially if you have daughters! We all liked it . . . even my husband enjoyed it! Great family movie!

I wanted to add that Misty Lynn is giving away Blog Booty! Go check it out! Great goodies Misty!

I hope you all have a great weekend, and thanks for stopping by!!

Hi

My blogging friends, Kristy and Jules, both work at a local scrapbooking store in Australia, and I just joined that store's message board. So, I've been checking in at the Scrapsidaisy message board, and I discovered that they also have card challenges at a site called CopyCatCards. The first challenge I did was to make an orange, black, and white card. Though they didn't say that it couldn't be a Halloween card, I challenged myself NOT to make it a Halloween card, and this is what I came up with.


I used gorgeous Heidi Swapp black and white patterned paper. The ink distressed chipboard flower is by Chip Chatter, and I added a Making Memories brad for the flower center. I used vinyl thickers for the sentiment, and I stamped an Autumn Leaves swirl stamp next to it. I then attached some Maya Road sheer ribbon with a trio of rhinestone brads. To finish it up, I added white sheer ribbon.

It's raining, and it's going to rain all weekend. Looks like I need to plan some indoor fun! Have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Remember

I just wanted to take today to remember September 11, 2001.

I will be watching the coverage at Ground Zero in New York. I just cannot believe that this happened seven years ago. I hope that all of the families that were directly affected by this terrorist act have been able to find some sort of peace. Always remember.

SPOOKY - 2S4U - Laura's Sketch 8

Two posts in one day? I just can't help myself! Be sure to check out my layout that I posted below! I have been wanting to do a sketch at 2 Sketches 4 You for so long now. I don't know what took me so long to get one done! I love the sketches that Laura and Kazan put up on their site! Here is my card for the Laura's wonderful Sketch 8. I love it!


It's been cool the last couple of days, so I'm in the mood for Halloween! Halloween just makes me HAPPY! I used my two new Halloween stamps that I got from Hobby Lobby (thank you Liz!). The "SPOOKY" at the bottom is a fantastic Cosmo Cricket cardstock sticker. I stamped two Making Memories foam stamps (the bat and "eek!") with black paint. The photograph doesn't show it too well, but the bat looks like it's about to fly off the card! The ribbon is inked Twistel. I added a strip of black rhinestones at the bottom, and a trio of copper brads at the top. The brad trio is sitting on a score line that I inked. You can click on the card to see it larger. I really love the way this card turned out! What fun!

Thanks for stopping by!

Love My Girls!

At 4 Scrappy Sisters, one of the August challenges was to scraplift a page. We were told whose gallery to check out, and we were supposed to scraplift one of her pages. A while back, Karen posted a layout just like this one, and since I just purchased the same papers (thanks to Liz and the Hobby Lobby gift card that she sent to me!), I was able to completely scraplift her page!


I just LOVE this Creative Imaginations paper and large brackets! The die cut edge on this paper is just fantastic! I added some Prima Sprites and buttons. I stamped two Autumn Leaves acrylic stamps and cut them with my Coluzzle. That was it. Easy as can be. You can click on the page to see it larger. I usually don't like "scraplifting", but this time? I love it!

I hope you all have a fantastic Wednesday. Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapping Recipe Challenge #14

It's Recipe Challenge Day at Sketches! {by Tamara}, and I really loved the challenge this week. We needed to use the following three items on our project:

• lace
• buttons
• flowers

I love the three ingredients, so I was thrilled to create this layout using these items! So, here is my layout for Scrapping Recipe Challenge #14.


I used GORGEOUS Basic Grey Cupcake papers. I used my threading water punch on the blue patterned piece. I purchased the lace at a garage sale, the glitter chipboard label holder is by Scrapworks, the glitter brads are by Making Memories, the flowers are Primas, and the buttons are from my stash. I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but the lace and the blue paper really compliment each other. It's almost like the lace design is identical to the design in the paper. You can click on the layout to see it larger. I LOVE the way this layout turned out!

Tamara is having a layout design team call. If you're interested, be sure to check it out on the Sketches! site! I hope you have a GREAT day, and as always, thanks for stopping by!!

BBTB - Doodlecharms - Basket Challenge

This week at Bitten By The Bug, we were challenged to use the basket cut on the Doodlecharms cartridge. Here is my card for this challenge. Be sure to stop by the site to see all of the wonderful basket creations that the designers made. They're amazing!!


I cut the basket as well as a bunch of leaves using the Doodlecharms cartridge. I chalked the basket and the leaves, added brads to the basket, and then simply mounted everything on my card front. My leaves are defying gravity a little bit! I really love all of the fall color on this card! I couldn't resist photographing this card in my backyard with some real leaves!

I hope you had a great weekend. Have a great Monday, and thanks for stopping by!

Check out this blog candy!

My blogging friend Jen at Scrappin' In My Spare Time is giving away this FANTASTIC blog candy! Check it out! Link back to her site to get a chance to win too! That We R Memory Keepers kit she's giving away is amazing! I made some cards using just a small part of this very same kit, and I can tell you that I love the papers! They're all double-sided and just gorgeous! She'll be selling a Crate Paper kit soon! Cool!!

My EVERYTHING

I recently created a page inspired by one of the wonderful sketches at PageMaps. This is one of the August sketches.



This is my interpretation of the sketch. Instead of using three photos, I wanted to showcase just one, and I used a tag and other elements in place of the additional photos. You can click on the photo to see the journaling. I used My Mind's Eye papers, tags, and words ("special" and "unique"). The gorgeous butterfly transparency is also by My Mind's Eye. The chipboard heart is by Scrapworks. The little tag by the chipboard heart and the gorgeous brad in the large tag are both by Making Memories. Under the photo, I stamped an Autumn Leaves swirl stamp. At the top of the page, I added some awesome Maya Road sheer ribbon. This stuff is so cool!! I really LOVE the way this page turned out!

It's really cooled down around here. Crazy, but I like it! It's going to be 70 today, and we got 2.5" of rain yesterday. We really needed it. The lawn was very thirsty! I hope you all have a great Friday and a fantastic weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

So Sweet

I forgot to post the girls' marching photos. They marched in a parade on Monday. It was so HOT! The first photo is Jessica, and the second photo is Emily.



Aren't they wonderful? I just love my girls! Now, I'll show you a page I finished a couple of days ago. I'm working on an 8x8 album for myself, and this is the 2nd page that I created for it! The first one was the "Sleeping Beauty" page that I created with Jessica asleep in her chair. This photo was taken in 1999, and I'm sure you'll agree that my girls are SO SWEET!


The frame that the photo is sitting on came from a Princess page kit that I received as blog candy from the wonderful Dawn! Isn't that frame fantastic? I added a couple of rhinestones to the frame. The title was cut with my QuicKutz. The flowers were created with a Stampin' Up punch that I have. It cuts three flowers at a time. I hardly ever use this punch, and I decided it was time to dust it off and use it! I love the simplicity of the page.

It's a rainy day today. I'm off to get a much-needed haircut today. I'm looking quite scruffy! I also just need to do some stuff around the house and figure out what we're having for dinner tonight. Have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

Graduation Card

We went to my nephew's graduation party on Sunday, and this is the card that I made for him.


His high school's colors are red and yellow. I used my new Stampin' Up All About U stamp set. The sticker was from my stash. I tried to keep it simple and masculine. I like the double ribbon treatment around the card front.

The girls have an early dismissal day today. Normally teachers decide to load them down with homework on these short days. Hopefully that doesn't happen today, and we can hang out a little when they get home. I hope you have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!

BBTB - Clown Challenge & Sketches! Recipe Challenge

I have two design team projects to show you today! First off, at Bitten By The Bug, we were challenged to use the clown on the Paper Dolls cartridge. I don't have that cartridge, so thank you AGAIN to the wonderful DeeDee for sending me the cut so that I could participate. Be sure to check out what the other BBTB designers created for this Paper Dolls clown challenge! They amaze me every single week!


This is my card. DeeDee cut his outfit on the cutest double-sided papers. I chalked some edges, pieced him together, added some personality to the face with chalk and googly eyes, and I finally added some orange Stickles. The "celebrate!" is a Stampin' Up stamp, and I mounted it on pop dots so that it looks like the clown is holding the sign. I added some ribbon, a trio of brads, and some doodling around the green card front. I'm not really into clowns, but I have to admit that this turned out pretty cute!

Next, this is my first week as a part of Tamara's Recipe Challenge Design Team at Sketches! {by Tamara}. We were challenged to use 3+ patterned papers, chipboard, and circles. I love it, and this is the page that I came up with!


I used some Karen Foster dog papers, plus a Basic grey patterned paper. I even stamped on yet another patterned paper. I used my Coluzzle to cut the circles on my page, and the "DOG" letters are Chip Chatter chipboard. I did some detail cutting for some accents and added lots of chalk ink distressing. I love the way this page turned out! Be sure to check out the cards AND layouts that were created for the scrapping Recipe Challenge 13! Awesome work!

Well, we survived the parade yesterday, and it was so HOT! I'll post a couple of photos tomorrow. It's going to be another hot and humid day today, so it's a good day for me to stay in and clean the house! I have lots to do plus plenty of laundry to take care of! I hope you all had a wonderful long weekend, and thanks for stopping by!