Emily at 13!

Here's a side view of a special project that I just finished.


I made a mini Bind It All album for my daughter Emily. To celebrate her 14th birthday, I decided to make her a book that focused on her first year as a teenager. I used a fantastic American Crafts Teen Collection that I purchased at Scrapbook Steals! I love Scrapbook Steals!! ♥ This book has 41 pages inside! I cut most of the pages with my Cricut Expression. I love the different shapes and sizes! Most of them were cut with the Accent Essential cartridge. I also used Mini Mongrams. I love the way this turned out, and I think Emily loved it too!!


Here's a look at the first page. It's Emily's 13th birthday cake. You can see the cool shapes of the pages! Plus, I love how when you're looking at a smaller page, you can see lots of other pages in the book. I love the colors in this American Crafts Teen Collection.


I put photos only on the front sides of the pages, and I pretty much just put short captions and dates on the backs of the pages. This way, if Emily wants to write something about the photo on the page, she can!


I used lots of flowers, flair pieces, and ribbons in this too. The American Crafts Teen Collection ribbon is so cute too!


Love the flair on this one. It says "rock on", and it's on a page with Emily listening to her iPod. Love the iPod sticker!! In fact, I love the funky harlequin print on this page too.


This is a photo of Emily receiving her first iTunes gift card. The bag was weighed down with rocks from my MIL's Arizona landscaping. Very funny!!


This page had to be special, because it's Emily's favorite photograph from 2009!! Jessica asked me to take a picture of her jumping off the saucer swing. I did, and silly Emily jumped into the photograph! The expression on her face is hilarious! I also love that Princess is standing there no doubt wondering why someone isn't throwing her ball! These girls are the best!!


Here are the girls and I with our ginormous slushies from Speedway! We emailed this photo to Dave. He was out of town, and he is the one that normally take the girls to get slushies. He couldn't believe we would go get slushies without him. It was Jessica's idea! It really was!! ☺

In 2009, Emily got her first pair of glasses. Isn't she cute? I love the smaller pages in the book, because you can see so many of the awesome paper patterns behind it!

Love this photo! Jessica was also in the photo, but I cropped her out and enlarged the photo. I wish you could have seen the look on Jessica's face when I told her that I cropped her out! It wasn't good! She forgave me! I made a copy of the photo before I cropped her out. Just so you know that I'm not that mean!!

Dave and Emily were pointing out that the Diet Cherry 7-Up that they're drinking has "antioxidants"!! Ever since we saw the Alton Brown Welch's commercials were he talks about antioxidants and antioxidant power, we just love saying "antioxidants"!! We're crazy!


This is the last page in the book. It's a photo I took of Emily the night before her birthday! It's her last day as a 13-year-old. On the back cover, I wrote her a personal note!! ♥

So, that's just a glimpse of the pages in this 41-page mini album!! I had so much fun making it, and I think giving Emily a look at a year of her life was a great idea! It can't even begin to let her know everything that she did as a 13-year-old, but it can make her smile and laugh at her first year as a teenager!

I hope you're having a great day. Thanks for stopping by!

Monday Motivation at Scrap-Friendzy!

I created this layout for the challenge that I posted at Scrap-Friendzy! I really wanted to use a cool sketch that was posted on the Imaginisce blog! ♥

For the Motivation Monday, I posted a TRIPLE CHALLENGE! I noticed that when I create a page, I’ve fallen into the habit of using just one paper collection. For example, I might create a page that is almost ALL Cosmo Cricket. I might add some Primas, some Thickers, a few buttons, etc., but basically, I stick with the same manufacturer for the papers that I use. Why not? It’s easy! Everything matches! So, my primary challenge was to mix it up! I created a layout using paper from FIVE different manufacturers!! On my layout, I used K&Company Wild Saffron, Sassafras Lass, My Mind’s Eye, Basic Grey Recess, and The Boyfriend by Cosmo Cricket.

My second challenge was to use this fantastic sketch! Who doesn't love a Julie Bonner sketch!?! My third challenge was to use stitching on the layout. Whether it's machine stitching or hand stitching, I just wanted to use stitching! On my layout, I also added a couple of Primas and some Fancy Pants chipboard. The cork letters that I used for my title are by Creative Imaginations. The journaling sticker is by American Crafts. I thought this was a fun challenge! It was really fun for me to mix paper from different manufacturers!

I hope you had an awesome weekend. We have wet HEAVY snow outside . . . yuck! It's the worst kind to shovel! As always, thanks for stopping by!

Love

I created this page for two challenges. The first is at Scrap-Friendzy, and we were challenged to use brads in a shape. I used 36 of them in a semi-circle. That's A LOT of brads! The second is at Memorable Seasons, and we were challenged to do a layout with a wedding theme, and to use something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. The old is the photo from 1992, the new is a felt flower and button that I just purchased from Archiver's, the borrowed is that this is based on a sketch from PageMaps, and the blue is the patterned paper and the flower. This was fun. This was shortly after Dave and I got engaged, and we went to a wedding, and we got to do an "engaged" pose when we had our picture taken. Notice the hand with the gorgeous engagement ring draped oh so casually on my sweetheart's shoulder!! ♥

I hope you have a great weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Valentine Bookmarks

I made my girls each a Valentine bookmark instead of a card! They both love to read, and I've noticed that they're using scraps of paper to mark their place in their books, so bookmarks were a great idea! I used some paper scraps. I was inspired by the cute American Crafts ribbons that I got at Michael's. I love that the ribbons all had brown in them! I did some stitching on the bookmarks, and I added a Prima, button, and twine. I think these turned out really cute, and the girls loved them!


Here's the backside. Just very plain and simple with a little note from me! I also got them cute keychains with beads and a heart, and on the heart it says, "Live life like it matters!" Words to live by!

Check this out! JenMarie is giving away a NEW {ippity} stamp set! Check out her blog for all of the details! I just placed MY order with JenMarie for a new {ippity} stamp set, and I cannot wait to get it! JenMarie ships VERY quickly, and she's including a sample of My Mind's Eye papers with her orders! She's awesome!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Valentine's Day! ♥

I hope you have a wonderful Valetine's Day today and get to spend time with the people that you LOVE!! ♥

Guest Designer at Scrapbook Steals!!

I am SO EXCITED! Today, I am the guest designer at Scrapbook Steals! I love, love, love Scrapbook Steals! I am a bargain kind of gal, and the bargains at Scrapbook Steals are AMAZING! There is something new every day, and it's always a great deal! So, the amazing Kristy at Scrapbook Steals asked me to be a guest designer for their site and blog! Uhm, yes, please! I was thrilled! I received BOTH Ooh La La collections from My Mind's Eye to work with! Go over to Scrapbook Steals now to snatch up these gorgeous collections!! Here's what I created!


On the first page that I created, I decided to feature an amazing photo of the girls and Princess. I just love this photo! The girls love Princess so very much! I cut the title, heart, and large circle on my Cricut Expression. Isn't the leaf flourish and the ticket totally cool? Then, I created a fun rolled paper flower! I found directions for creating this flower on the Creating Keepsakes blog.


I then created this cute card! The sentiment is from Stampin' Up, and I cut it out with a Nestabilities scallop circle. Aren't these papers gorgeous? I added a Prima, a button, some twine, ric rac, and rhinestones.


Then I worked with the other collection, which I loved just as much!! I used a wonderful photo of my girls on their first day back to school. Aren't they cute? These double-sided papers are just beautiful! I cut my title with my Cricut Expression, and I did some sewing on this layout! The journaling die cut, photo corners, and the ticket are also in the collection as well as the flower centers! Love it!


I also created this card. I love it! I stamped the sentiment, added some sheer ribbon, a Prima, a button, and some twine. I love the way it turned out!

So, what do you think? I had SO MUCH FUN creating with these collections! Beautiful double-sided papers and there is a die cut sheet in each collection! I just love the colors! So, head on over to Scrapbook Steals and check out the amazing deal on these beautiful MME collections! Tell them Carol sent you!! Oh, and if you check out their blog, please leave a comment! Thanks!

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

Scrap-Friendzy Monday Motivation

Jenny at Scrap-Friendzy posted a Monday Motivation with this photo as inspiration!

Here's what I came up with! In the photo, the walls appear to be tan, so that's how I selected my cardstock. I like the dotted accessories, so when I picked out my yellow and white paper, the dots worked for me! I love the red lines, so I put them around my photo, and since I love red, I used that for my title too. I love the white flowers in the photo, so I added just one to the corner of my photo, and I added a yellow and red center too. I wanted to keep the look very clean and simple, so I didn't do any ink distressing, which is something that I always do! Anyway, that's how the photo inspired me! Come on over to Scrap-Friendzy and play along. There's something inspiring posted every day!

I hope you're having a great day. Thanks for stopping by!

Creative Weekend!

I was playing with SBKC this weekend. They had a crop and some challenges posted. I created the above card using a challenge that was originally posted on their blog to create a heat embossed image on a large image cut from patterned paper. I cut the large flower from a Jenni Bowlini patterned paper. I then stamped a Stampin' Up background design on it with Versamark, sprinkled holographic embossing powder, and heat embossed it. I also used the same background stamp on the ledger paper for my card front. I then layered it all together, added sheer ribbon, a silk flower, a Jenni Bowlin chipboard button, and some twine. I love the way this came together!


Another challenge was to use the word "fantastic" in your page title, and put it together in a mixed up font. I think I accomplished that! I used a bunch of various Thickers! These photos are some of the cool things we saw in Downtown Disney! The huge loch ness monster lego creation was actually IN the water! Very cool! The Tinkertoys structure was very cool too! Downtown Disney was a fun place to be!!

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

Scrapping for Fun!

Scrapbook Kit Club is having a fun blog hop and crop. I'm playing along and having some fun!

I created this layout for one of two color challeges on the site. I love the way it turned out. I used some items I've had for a while. I'm really enjoying using my things up! I used: SEI, My Mind's Eye, PTI (thanks Chris!), Prima, Jenni Bowlin, and Making Memories!

I created this layout for a sketch challenge! This features two awesome photos of Emily and Jessica from Downtown Disney. I used October Afternoon, did a lot of sewing, and journaled on the computer.

I hope you're having a great weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Be Yourself

My most wonderful and very talented friend Chris participated in the Scrap and Stamp Blog Hop with an amazing layout that she created based on a sketch. So, I decided to use the sketch too, and I created this layout! The theme is "love". I love my wonderful girls very much, and I love this photo of Jessica and Emily on the last day of school. Do you think they're excited about summer vacation!?! I used a lot of Making Memories Just Chillin'. I love the entire collection! I stamped the title and a couple sentiments on the layout. I think this layout is very fun, and I'm happy with the way it turned out!

I hope you are having a very nice Saturday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend. Thanks for stopping by!

Awesome Kit!

Take a look at this awesome kit that's for sale at Scrap-Friendzy! And this weekend, it's on SALE! Go to the Scrap-Friendzy store and check it out, and you can see TONS of examples using this kit in the gallery!

Layout Mania Continues!

The Sketch-A-Thon at Scrap-Friendzy was so much fun! I am happy to tell you that I did ALL of the sketches (33 of them)!! That's a lot of layouts for one month! I'm proud of my accomplishment! Here's the last of them!


I love this photo of my girls sitting on the cute Winnie the Pooh bench in Downtown Disney. I love the foam Thickers! I wish I had them in every color!


This is us right before we FINALLY got on the Toy Story Midway Mania ride. It was such a long line, but we really wanted to go on it! Anyway, we are so fashionable in the 3-D glasses, don't you agree? I know, I know, you want big yellow 3-D glasses to wear too! This is all Cosmo Cricket Get Happy!


This layout has photos from the Lights, Motors, Action! stunt show at Hollywood Studios. Very cool and action packed!

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

Layout Mania!

I have gotten so many layouts done lately! It's a GREAT feeling to get so much accomplished! All of these layouts are based on sketches that were posted during the Sketch-A-Thon at Scrap-Friendzy.


These are two photos that I took of the girls while we were waiting in line for Toy Story Midway Mania. I just love the barrel of monkeys game, and Jessica's pose as one of those monkeys cracks me up! I used Cosmo Cricket Get Happy, and I cut the title on my Cricut Expression.


This features photos taken at Hollywood Studios. The retro vibe to the entrance gate is totally cool. I just loved the vintage gas pumps into the gates too. I think Dave needs one of these for his garage! I used SEI Be Bop for this layout. It's perfect!


These are photos that I took of the cool buildings at Epcot's World Showcase. They're really amazing! This is My Mind's Eye Tres' Jolie.


I really love this photo of the girls posing by the cool statue. I love all of the Mickeys climbing on the film strip. I added NEW Tim Holtz film strip ribbon. Oh my goodness, I love it, and it's the perfect finishing touch, don't you think? I've really been in a "use what I have" mode lately, and I'm happy to say that the title was done with stickers that I've had for a VERY long time!!

I hope you're having a great day. I have more layouts to show you this week! I'm sure at this point you feel like you came on our Disney trip with us! Thanks for stopping by!

Design Team!

I'm very excited to tell you that I am now on the design team at Scrap-Friendzy! I'm a Design Team Girlfriendz, and I cannot wait to get started! Scrap-Friendzy sure did inspire me during the month of January! I got A LOT of layouts done, and I had fun creating them! If you're looking for a great, friendly place to hang out with lots of inspiration, come over and join the Scrap-Friendzy site!

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