Creative Scrappers #114

this is my second post today so be sure and scroll down for more projects:
Did this LO for the Creative Scrappers Sketch Challenge. I've been wanting to scrap this picture forever and this sketch was perfect for it. Plus I've been wanting to use that Scenic Route chicken paper as well :)

I stamped the brown cardstock with a background stamp from PTI. The chicken paper was distressed on the edges with the Blending Tool and I used Tattered Angels Mist in Coffee Shop in the middle. This is totally different from my usual style but I wanted to "man it up" a bit.

Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Autumn Leaves

Patterned Paper&Chipboard Letters: Scenic Route

Rub Ons: Autumn leaves and Hambly Studios

Tickets and Journaling Stickers: Jenni Bowlin

Mini Letters: Cosmo Cricket (love!!)

Stamp and Cream Ink: Papertry ink

Brown Ink: Memories

Misting Spray: Tattered Angels

Distress Tool: Ranger

Gafer Tape: 7 Gypsies

Ticket Corner Punch: Stampin Up

Star Border Die Cut: Making Memories

Other: Wood Buttons and Yarn

Goofs

I had to do a layout about my kids crazy faces!! These pics were taken at the McDonalds outside of Disneyland on our trip last month! I took out my camera and they put on a show for me. I do this a lot to keep them entertained when we're sitting down waiting. LOL.

Supplies Used:

PP&Puffy Letters: American Crafts

Cardstock: Hobby Lobby and DCWV

Green Chipboard: DCWV

Journaling Spots: Jillibean Soup

Monster Rub Ons: October Afternoon
Ribbon: Paper Source

Border Punch: Martha Stewart

Scalloped Square Punch: Marvy

Journaling Spots: Jenni Bowlin

I used the "eyes" from the rub-ons to put inside of the "o". The title and the "K&A" were put on green chipboard and then the edges were sanded. Used my good old typewriter for the journaling spots. My husband was noticing some of the typing errors such as the crookedness and a part where I forgot to space, but I told him its OK its part of the handmade look :)

Just a simple card. I wanted to use my new MS butterfly border punch and I'm loving this color combo. I have a ton of this gray ribbon as well...its my fav!

Supplies Used:
CS: Bazzill (gray) & Stampin Up (blue)
PP: Cosmo Cricket (love!)
Ribbon and Thickers: American Crafts
Stamp: Hero Arts
Staples: Ranger
Ink: Papertry Ink
Glitter Pen: Sakura (love this!!!)
Corner Punch: Corner Chomper-We R Memory Keepers
And a quick card I made for my husband on Father's Day!

Its Been a While

I've been slacking here on my little blog. We were in California a few weeks back. Baseball is taking up a lot of time...just plain enjoying our summer. Oh, and I'm taking Karen Russell's online photography class as well. Today it poured while the sun was very strong, I always run out to find a rainbow when that happens and captured this. If it wasn't for the houses, I would have captured the whole thing.

I have a couple of layouts to share. Both of these were done from a recent magazine sketch (I love the sketch so much that I used it for both).

This is Kendall with one of her BFs Kylie...they've been friends since they were 3 when they went to the same pre-school. She had to leave her when she was in the first grade and she's missed her so much. We set up a playdate and got tons of pics! I made a vow to myself to take a lot of pics of my kids friends, something that I don't have from my childhood. Most everything here is Cosmo Cricket(Delovely), except the cloud paper, which is My Little Shoebox.And finally, I got to scrap Aydan's 4th bday party. He turns 5 next month, then starts Kindergarten. He's my baby ("no, I'm a big boy Mommy") and I'm excited but sad to see him grow up so fast.
The paper is Bo Bunny (green). The red paper, number paper, and candle border sticker are Scenic Route, and the elements (balloon, banner, buttons, and tag) are Making Memories. Aydan is crazy about numbers so that paper fits him well! The "4" was cut with my Slice and the scalloped circle is a Technique Tuesday chipboard tile that I spritzed with Glimmer Mist :)
Hopefully everyone enjoyed their 4th...I'm glad to be off tomorrow. Hopefully I can get scrapping!

Happy 40th Birthday Laura Vegas!!!!!!!!

Surprise Laura! Welcome to your 40th b-day party! First of all Happy Birthday Girl :) I hope you like your b-day blog hop. You totally deserve it! Yes, I'm going to get all mushy...just wanted to say how wonderful of a friend you are. I never thought that when I found your blog almost 3 years ago that I would find a wonderful person to call my BFF. Thank you for always being there for me in every way. You always cheer me up and make me laugh when I need it the most. I can't tell you how much that means to me. I wish I could be there to celebrate it with you! I really do.
Funny because even though you are younger than me (lol) I still look up to you for your guidance in life and all the other things we have in common like for instance...hmmm, scrapbooking :) You really are a person who just radiates positive energy , can laugh at herself, and I love being around it.

Girl, have a wonderful day and I'll talk to you soon!!!

Now on to Sara! HERE


(for those who didn't start the blog hop from the beginning you can start HERE)

Making Memories Guest Designer

When Making Memories asked me to be a guest designer for their blog, I just about fell over in my chair. I was more than happy to oblige to say the least, lol. Here's the sneak peek but head over to their fabulous blog HERE for the whole shabang.

And thanks again to Making Memories for this wonderful opportunity. I had a blast :)

Happy Birthday Chrissy

I have to give a Happy Birthday shout-out to my younger sister Chrissy, who's birthday is Thursday. I'm a little behind in sending out my cards so I wanted her to see it.
I had fun making this card...she is a very colorful and fun person so I made this card to reflects her personality. Used some Cosmo Delovely line here for the chipboard flower and patterned paper. The scalloped border was made from the new embossed Bazzill...oh my word, I'm in love with that new line. I got it at Archivers but I saw the 8.5x11 version at Michaels.

Also did a LO of my sister and her two boys, whom she's crazy about. This LO was based on the Creative Scrappers Sketch Number 103. Love their sketches.

I took this picture of my sister and her boys on Mother's Day. The layout didn't really turn out the way I had planned. I changed my mind about the journaling spots but I couldn't take them off. And I'm crazy about yellow lately and I'm lovin the AC yellow thickers :) I used my Slice Basic Elements card here to make the hexagons...such a fun shape. I also just wanted to share a few of my favorite things lately...

My Making Memories Slice Hands Free Magnetic Mat...use this everytime I scrap, seriously.

Anything Cosmo and 6x6 paper pads. I love having the whole line in my hands, especially when I love every single patterned paper in it.

Hobby Lobby card pack. They have white, black, and kraft...and I have all 3, lol. Comes with 50 cards and envelopes for $7 and they go on sale for 40-50% all the time. You can't beat that. Even though I have tons of cardstock, I still got them because they are so convenient and a time saver. The cardstock is pretty good quality as well.

And last, a pic of my pooch Maui, who is 7 months old. This girl's nickname lately has been Mau-Mau. Cute :) Come back tomorrow, I have a nice surprise post.

Supplies:
Happy BDay card:
Card Base: Hobby Lobby
Patterned Paper and Chipboard: Cosmo Cricket
Acrylic Letters: Recollections
Journaling Spot and Edge Distressor: Heidi Swapp
Border Punch: EK Success

Family Layout:
Cardstock, Ribbon, Journaling Pen, and Thickers: American Crafts
Patterned Paper and Border Die Cut: Sassafrass Lass
Clear Stickers: Hambly Studios
Journaling Stickers: October Afternoon
Border Punch: Martha Stewart
Acrylic Butterflies: Making Memories
Tiny Attacher and Staples: Ranger
Pop Dots and Brads

Teacher's Gifts

Teachers are so important in our kids lives. We depend on them everyday to teach our kids right and our kids need people like teachers to look up to. I am actually very sad that my daughter is finishing first grade in a few weeks because we love her teacher so much.

I was searching around for some handmade gift ideas when I came across Jennifer McGuire's Blog and found exactly what I was looking for. You can see the cards in the last picture in this entry here and the product in its entirity on the Hero Arts blog here.

I used some Stampin Up cardstock in Very Vanilla and a Memories inkpad in brown. I first did a test stamp on a piece of computer paper and measured where the sentiment would need to be typed on the page. Using photoshop, I typed the text and moved it in the correct location. I had the grid on for guidance. I did a few test prints and worked it out. The flowers are vanilla HA art flowers so I sprayed them with some Glimmer Mist.

The folder was made using the technique found here. I used some Stampin Up cardstock Chocolate Chip to make the folder. Before I assembled it, I used a HA background stamp and heat embossed it with some Ranger clear embossing powder. I strung it with some ribbon and added a title. I didn't have room for the "s" in notecards and its killing me.

I made 10 notecards and tomorrow I'm heading to Hobby Lobby to get some colored envelopes. I have some white ones but they don't look so great next to the vanilla. Hobby Lobby has a great stock of AC envelopes in different colors.

I'm not sure if I want to add anything else to the front. Would love any input that you might have. Have a great week!

Organizing

Being a mom takes a lot of time, especially when they are small. Both of my kids are almost school aged now and now its time to get my house in order. Seems like my free time is so limited and its hard to fine the time or organize and decorate. My husband and I have done a few things around the house like painting and rearranging furniture to perk things up a bit. Last weekend I kind of went crazy. I took the old TV out of my armoire from the sitting area of my bedroom and utilized the space for my pics and scrap magazines. I don't have before pics but just imagine a huge old TV with a VCR. When the kids were babies, we had a pack-n-play in this part of our room and we could put on a show for them while we showered. We haven't used that TV in years now so I thought I could take advantage of this pretty big space for my precious items.

The bottom shelf hold my scrap mags and books and my Cards and Scrapbook Trends Magazines. I disposed of old mags that were more than a year old, except special issues. I usually read these in bed so I figured that this would be the perfect place for them.

The shelf above holds my empty scrapbooks. I have a lot because I got some good deals on them. lol. In the middle are 2 boxes of loose photos that need to be put away. On the right are my baby photo albums and baby books. I also keep large portraits in the folder.

The top shelf holds my wedding albums and portrait studio pics of the kids on the left side. I also have my dogs ashes up there in that small white box. I need to get a nice urn for her.

Here is a picture of the inside of the box that hold my portraits. I got this 12x12 box from Michaels. I'm also trying to use a black and white theme here so it looks nice and neat.

The right side holds photo boxes. These are all from Michaels and Hobby Lobby. Right now 3 are filled and I have 3 empty ones waiting to be filled. I recently took most of my pictures out my photo albums. I had all different sized ones and styles and it looked really messy and took a lot of space up. All of those pics I took out were taken before kids. My wedding pics and my kids pics are in albums. I've been printing large quantities of digital pics of my kids to make albums for them. Right now I have the first year of Aydan and the first two years of Kendall. Its a work in process.
The pictures in the boxes are not very organized by a timeline. Right now I 'm concentrating on getting them out of the albums to save some space. I figured that I can work on the pictures here and there in front of the TV.

Got a great deal last week. I've been wanting a small desk to put in our livingroom or family room. I was in Target and they had their desks on clearance for $32! This one was normally $129. What a steal! It has a glass top (not my first choice) and the shelf under it pulls out. I don't have a chair yet so I'm using one of our kitchen chairs. I just wanted a place for my laptop and have a pretty piece of furniture. The shelf below has a folder for my bills and I also keep my address book and stamps there as well.

A few months back I purchased this cheese keeper thingy from a resale shop and painted it white. I got some fake pears from HL and it sits in my livingroom.
Hope you enjoyed the mini tour...have a great Mother's Day!!!

30 days of Inspiration Challenge

I was thrilled and honored when my friend Heather, who owns Scrapbook Bakery, asked me to participate in her Inspiration Challenge. Its easy, pick anything that inspires you: a piece of clothing, a picture in a magazine, etc. Anything that gets your creative juices stirring. I loved this Victoria Secret bag because I would never think of using pink and red together with yellow accents. Since Mother's Day is coming soon, I decided to kill two birds with one stone and take care of my Mom's card at the same time. I used some crepe paper tucked behind the front of the card to represent the tissue paper in the bag. So please visit Heather's blog HERE to participate. At the end of the 30 days, all participants who link up their project to her blog will be entered in a drawing for a prize.

Chunkers

Just a quick LO for you. My son Aydan had these huge legs with rolls in them and I've been dying to scrap about them forever! Those chunky legs are just irresistable! Used a ton of October Afternoon paper. Love this stuff! Also used my Studio Essentials Slice card for the photo corners and the tags. TFL! Supplies:
Patterned Paper: Making Memories (circle background) and October Afternoon
Date Stickers: October Afternoon
Die Cut Machine (Slice), Animal Crackers and Studio Essential Slice Cards, Staples, Epoxy Stickers: Making Memories
Ribbon: Bazzill
Rub Ons: Making Memories and 7 Gypsies
Marker and Pop Dots: Stampin Up
Distresser: Heidi Swapp
Flexible Ruler and String

Creative Scrappers Sketch

This layout is for the Creative Scrappers contest celebrating their 2 year birthday! You can see the sketch HERE! I love sketches and I'm finding myself having more fun scrapping if someone else does the hard work for me by making the arrangement for me. LOL!

This layout is about a super small but well known popcorn and candy store in my husband's hometown. Its a really nice old fashion place with cute shops and lots of tradition. The store was built in the alley between two shops. Its probably 6 feet across. Seriously! They have a ton of the old candy that we had as kids...we love visiting there. Almost everything here is AC! I love their stuff because its so bright and colorful and even when you mix the lines it still matches! Used some of the Dear Lizzy stamps as well. Thanks for looking! The supplies are listed at the end of this entry.

And someone got herself a new toy...got the new magnetic mat for the Slice. Such a nice tool. I can plop my Slice down and do other scrapping while its cutting. I use my Slice a lot and thought it was worth it! I also like it because the cuts are straight and you don't have to worry about it moving. Supplies:
Patterned Paper, Blue/Green Cardstock, Vinyl Thickers, Letter Stickers, Journaling Pen, Stickers, Stamps, Ribbon: American Crafts
White Cardstock: Archivers
Ink: Versamark, Staz On
Embossing Powder: Ranger
White Pen: Inkssentials
Punches: Stampin Up and Fiskars
Circle Cutter: Making Memories

creative scrappers celebration

I was so excited when Creative Scrappers asked me and some other scrappers to make a LO based on a sketch. They are celebrating their 2 year anniversary this month and have a ton of events to celebrate. My LO went up today as well as some other awesome pages! Check out the other layouts and the original sketch HERE...and while you're there check out the link to over 100 sketches!

Supplies:
Cardstock: Bazzill, Stampin Up
Patterned Paper: KI Memories, Making Memories
Specialty Paper: KI Memories (sheers)
Chipboard Letters: American Crafts
Badge Brads, Ribbon, Rub-Ons, Slice Die Cut Machine (Just Chillin Card): Making Memories
Gloss Medium: Ranger
Flower Gems: Hero Arts
Other: String and Cork Paper

A Dozen Assorted Odds and Ends

Just a few things going around here now:

1. Just purchased our tickets for our trip to San Diego and Disneyland scheduled for early summer.

2. Hubby and I spent the last 2 days painting our yellow living and dining room a taupe gray with a super dark wall in the back.
3. My Baby Aydan is registered for kindgarten...gasp.

4. Both kids are signed up for baseball.
Above: Kendall in her t-ball outfit last year.

Below: Her practice today for coach pitch...she hit the ball! And yes, still in our winter coats here.

5. DWTS has started, yay! Jeff and Jordan are gone from Amazing Race, boo! And American Idol is pretty bad this year :(
6. I am now a semi-redhead.
Sorry for super close up...had to take a self portrait here and I have a fixed lens. Yikes!

7. Crop Chocolate sent me a kit to make a project for their site. I haven't seen it up yet, but it will probably be there soon. I love their store! Used a ton of Slice cards here too.8. Maui is in her second level puppy course...I don't know who passed her through the first one. lol!
9. I am signed up for Karen Russell's photography audit class that starts in June! I CANNOT wait!

10. My HS classmates on facebook are planning our 25th reunion (do I sound old???)!!

(At my 10th reunion with my classmates, who were also in my church youth group. We spent a lot of time together in HS)

11. Had to take the little guy to the ER a couple of weeks ago. 14 out of 18 kids in his class got the rotovirus at the same time. He couldn't even keep down a sip of water...poor guy :( He is always full of energy so its hard to see him so quiet and somber.12. And last, I saw my very sign of spring this evening in my in-laws backyard. They were these gorgeous little blue wild flowers. So cute. And this pic was taken with my cell phone at dusk so pardon the quality.

Hopefully I'll get some scrapping done tonight or tomorrow...been a crazy week around here!