Layouts! My Neglected Blog!

Well, I scrapped! Finally! After MONTHS of NOT scrapping! Having a full-time job is a really buzz kill when it comes to my creative time! Oh well! It is what it is, and I'm at least earning money, so that's good. Here are a couple of layouts I created recently.



I absolutely LOVE this layout! I love the photo! I love my girls! ♥ They bring JOY into my life! I love their silliness and zest for life! They are amazing young women, and I'm so lucky to be their mom! So, we love to take silly self-portraits, and this one is a favorite! I used Authentique papers. The flowers were made out of garage sale fabric. I cut them with my Tim Holtz Tattered Florals die (which I LOVE!), and I glimmer misted them. They're pretty fabulous if I must say so myself! Love the way this turned out! I need to scrap more black and white photos!


This is a fun photo of the cousins on my side of the family. I snapped this on Christmas Eve at my parents house. Love these kids! I used wonderful Bo Bunny Blitzen that I won from The Scrap Review. Love the way this turned out too. I cut the shape on my page on my Expression.

I have more layouts to show you, but I might as well create a couple of posts! Who knows when I'll have time to scrap again! As always, thanks for stopping by! ♥

How Do You Like My Moustache?

I created this layout for a last scrapper standing contest, and I did not make it through this round! Oh well, I love this layout, and I really don't care if anyone else does!! :) This is GCD Studios Funhouse that I won off the Moxie Fab World! The collection included a moustache on a stick! Isn't that the coolest thing ever!?! We had fun taking silly photos with it! I cut the background with my Expression. I love that big circle scallop shape!

I hope you had a wonderful 4th of July! We enjoyed the parade and the fireworks very much! I love the way our town celebrates! Thanks for stopping by!

Welcome Home Banner & Clip It Up Posts!!

First off . . . my first Clip It Up post is up on the blog!! There is also a post introducing me! I would love it if you would comment on both posts! I want Renee and the girls to know that I have amazing scrappy friends! I love, love, love my Clip It Up Jumbo! It's totally COOL!

Next, I am missing Emily so much!! I wanted to make her a welcome home banner. What started off as a small banner ended up as a HUGE banner! It took on a life of its own! I love it though, and I hope Emily does too! I can't wait for her to see it!

I hope she likes it!! I hope you have a GREAT weekend! Thanks for stopping by!

Bo Bunny Layouts!

I decided to try out for the Bo Bunny design team, and here are two of the projects that I submitted. The first one uses Jazmyne. The letter stickers that come with this collection are a pinkish / light purple. I wanted them to be a darker color for this layout, so I painted them sage green. I think they turned out awesome, and I love the way they look on this paper! The Jazmyne papers are GORGEOUS! Just enough sparkle! I did some sewing and lots of detail cutting. I featured a self-portrait that I took with the girls on Mother's Day! I love this page!


This layout features Mama-Razzi! I love this paper collection! The layout features a very cool photo of Dave on one of his Harleys. I did a lot of distressing and layering. I also added paint to the edges of the papers. I cut the title on my Cricut. I think the sentiment "The very best photos are never posed" is perfect for this page!

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

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!

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!

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!

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!

Expedition Everest

I got another layout done today! Woohoo! I'm getting so much done for my Disney album, and I have so many more photos to go!! This page features my absolutely positively favorite ride from Disney! It's hard to pick a favorite! I had so many that I LOVED, but I have to say, Expedition Everest was my FAVORITE! I could have gone on it over and over again! Very cool roller coaster! Anyway, I printed the Expedition Everest piece at the bottom on my computer. I just found that on the Internet. I used Basic Grey paper that I've had for a very long time! The journaling star is Jenni Bowlin, and the buttons are Making Memories. I cut the circle and the two other stars in my Cricut Expression. Once again, this is based on a sketch at Scrap-Friendzy. I'm getting a lot done during this Sketch-A-Thon.

I hope you have fun plans for the weekend. I hope to scrap a lot! Thanks for stopping by!

* no cameras!

This is another Disney layout, and it's based on a sketch that is posted at Scrap-Friendzy. I love the silly smile on Dave! He's so funny! These papers are ScrapWorks, and I've had them for a VERY long time. It's nice to use them! I cut the large circle on my Expression, and the little bubble circles using my Coluzzle.

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

Extreme Close-Ups

I love these four photos from our Disney trip! We were waiting in a very long line for Toy Story Midway Mania at Hollywood Studios. In order to amuse ourselves, we all snapped an extreme close-up self-portrait! I think they turned out great, and I love showcasing them on this two-page layout. The papers are all My Mind's Eye. I cut the big brackets on my Expression. I also added Primas and Making Memories glitter brads. This is based on a one-page sketch that is posted at Scrap-Friendzy. I just did a mirror image of the sketch for the facing page.


Here's a better look at page one which features me and Emily.


Here's a closer look at page two which features Jessica and Dave. What fun!


Here's another look at the pages together. I love the way this turned out.

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

Three Disney Layouts!

I discovered a new site called Scrap-Friendzy, and they are having a Super Sketch-A-Thon for January 2010. I did three layouts in the last two days!

I'm determined to get caught up on my Disney layouts! Here are THREE for my Disney album!! Check out the Scrap-Friendzy site! I'm having FUN!!

Happy New Year! Thanks for stopping by!!

Freebie Friday at Paper Popsicles!

It's Freebie Friday at Paper Popsicles! Check out the blog to see what you need to do to get the witch boot shaped card template for FREE! It's so fun and perfect for Halloween!


This is the card that I made with this AWESOME template! Isn't it fun!?!

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

Woofstock

This layout was created based on a sketch challenge over at Paper Popsicles. You can see the sketch on the blog or on the message board. There will be a random draw for a prize for everyone that creates a layout based on this sketch!! I used the September Dogs Gone Wild paper pack from the Paper Popsicles store. The papers are Basic Grey June Bug. I cut the title on my Expression, I added a Tim Holtz word ticket, and I stamped a journaling strip where I wrote "Ultimate Frisbee Catch". Princess did awesome in this event at our local park district during Woofstock! I also added a ton of sewing on my layout! You can click on the layout to see it larger. I love the way this turned out!

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

Being Together

This page is for a challenge at Paper Popsicles. First off, we needed to post a summer photo. I posted this family photo. Once everyone had their photos posted, we got the layout challenge instructions, which were to include the following on our layout of the photo that we posted:

• yellow, blue and brown cardstock
• 3 buttons
• 4 different patterned papers
• journaling
• the word "blast" in the title
• 3 stickers

I struggled the most with using the word "blast"! However, I made it work, and I love the result! This page is made with an August kit from the Paper Popsicles store. I love the Breaking Free My Mind's Eye papers! I cut the title and subtitle on my Cricut Expression. My journaling block was created with Autumn Leaves acrylic stamps. I added silk Primas, buttons, a Tim Holtz ticket, and 7 gypsies stickers. I also did a lot of distressing and used two border punches! This was a fun page to create, and I love it! You can click on it to see it larger!

I hope you're having a GREAT day! As always, thanks for stopping by!

Relax!

It's been a LONG TIME since I've played along over at 52 Sketches . . . 52 Weeks, but I did create a layout for their current sketch!


I used a few pieces from my NEW Studio Calico kit for this layout. The patterned paper is Basic Grey June Bug, the letter stickers are Sassafras, the flowers are Primas, and I sewed on some buttons. I stamped a couple of Autumn Leaves swirl stamps in two corners of the page. The journaling was done on the computer and then cut into strips. I cut the large circle scallop on my Expression.


This is Sketch #31 over at 52 Sketches . . . 52 Weeks. Fun sketch, isn't it?

I hope you're having a great Saturday!! It's so hot and humid here today! I mean REALLY humid . . . yuck! I'll be staying inside in the A/C!! Have a great day! Thanks for stopping by!

Up

I haven't worked this hard on a layout in a LONG time, but it was totally worth it!

The girls and I took grandma, my mother-in-law, to see Disney's Up in 3D while we were in Arizona on vacation. It was such an excellent movie! We laughed and I cried too! Anyway, after the movie, we kept talking about the "cone of shame", and saying "squirrel!" at random times. It was cracking us all up. So, the event was definitely worth scrapbooking! I cut a BUNCH of balloons on my Expression. I tied thread to each and every one of them (Emily and Jessica helped!) I found movie posters online and shrunk them down. I mean, come on, Carl, Russell, and Dug HAVE TO be on the page! I also found Ellie's grape soda bottlecap, and printed that out too. I hand cut the title. I'm just LOVING the way this turned out!! It's such a fun layout! You can click on it to see it larger. And, yes, we all wore red shirts on the same day on purpose!

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

Scrapping Recipe Challenge #48

This is my layout for Scrapping Recipe Challenge #48 at Sketches! {by Tamara}.


The recipe this week was issued by ME, and it consisted of the following:

• red
• round
• ric rac

I used My Mind's Eye paper, My Mind's Eye journaling spots, Love Elsie epoxy stickers, and Making Memories tiny alphas, button, and sentiment ticket. I cut the large round shapes on my Expression. The ric rac is from my stash. This is just a fun page that features a photo that the girls and I emailed to Dave when he was out of town on business! You can click on the photo to see it larger.

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

Scrapping Recipe Challenge #37 & ScrapCity Sketch Fest Layout

This week, I decided to combine my Scrapping Recipe Challenge #37 at Sketches! {by Tamara} with one of the Sketch Fest challenges that are currently taking place at ScrapCity. This sketch is by Julie Bonner from the 52 Sketches site.

The recipe challenge this week was to use the following three items on our cards or layouts:

• flowers
• buttons
• Stickles or glitter

I love all of those required items, so I had a lot of fun using them on my layout! I used My Mind's Eye papers. The die cut heart is also by MME. I created the punched border with my threading water punch. The flower and the button are Making Memories. The photo anchor is a QuicKutz die cut, and I stamped the date on it. The title was created using my Cricut. I used a hole punch to punch all of those green dots, and I applied them one by one to my layout. I love the way it looks, especially on a dotted background paper!! Finally, I added two trios of Stickles dots to my paper strips. I'm very pleased with this layout!! You can click on it for a larger view.

You can still get in on all of the awesome Sketch Fest Challenges at ScrapCity! The Sketch Fest runs through Friday!! I hope you have a great day, and thanks for stopping by!!

ScrapCity Reveals #3 & Happy Birthday MOM!!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOM!! We went to see her yesterday! She is 75 years old! Woohoo!! I hope today is wonderful!

Next, we have so much going on at ScrapCity this month. The Creative Team exchanged kits. We made up two kits, and sent one to another person on the Creative Team. So, we used our own kit, we received a kit, and we received goodies from our February sponsor! This is the amazing kit that I received.


I received my kit from Janice Nielson. I received this kit from Janice on January 17th, I emailed her about how much I LOVED it, and she told me that she was very happy that I really liked it. It was shocking for all of us at ScrapCity when we found out that Janice had passed away on January 21st. We are still so sad and shocked at this huge loss. Our reveals take place on the 5th of the month, and I created my layouts on the 4th, because I had such a hard time using the kit. It made me very sad to use it. I just love the kit, and it warms my heart thinking about Janice picking out something very girly for me to use! She was so excited when I received it! We all still miss Janice very much.


This is the first layout that I created. You can't see it too well, but in the bottom photo, Jessica is standing next to her Junior High School locker! These American Craft papers are so gorgeous, and I love the Thickers! The ribbon is gorgeous too. I love it all, and it was so fun to create this page.


This is the second layout I created, and I used the fantastic Sketch #5 at 52 Sketches! I love the Basic Grey Urban Prairie papers! I cut the huge scallop circle on my Cricut Expression. Once again, love those Thickers!

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