February kit for Scrapbook Circle is up!

And HOLY COW--it's awesome! Here are a few sneaks:

To view the whole kit go HERE. I promise you won't be disappointed!

giveaway time!

Okay, it's Saturday and as promise I have a blog giveaway today! It will run for a week, here are the rules:

1. You need to become a follower that will earn you a ticket in the drawing.

2. Leave me a comment and tell me what is your favorite peak from CHA.

3. Tell your friends! Every time you refer a friend and they say they were referred to by you. Your name goes in the hat again!

The lucky winners will win some wonderful bling frosting and a roller stamp from Glitz!

So you have until next Saturday to be entered. Good luck!

(this is only for the girls in the continental US--sorry)

Card based on sketch...

Okay, two posts in one day! I just finished up this card and wanted to share:

Yep, I used some yummy October Afternoon scraps! FUN! I'm off to prod children to clean their rooms....someones has to do it, sometimes I wish it wasn't me...

HI! 2 layouts, and couple of "friends"

How are ya? I wanted to share 2 layouts using the same sketch. I think I've explained before that if I have a picture of my kids together I do a page for each of them. A lot of times they are similar in style but not in color. Especially in this case as I was using up scraps from off my desk. I played yesterday and finished up the other this morning. I used another fantastic sketch from Sketchy Thursdays.

I used my expression to cut the circles and letters on one of the layouts.

As you probably have noticed I'm not normally a white space single photo kind of girl, I like lots of pictures and to fill up the page. This white space stuff has made me stretch a little and it's fun!

supplies used:

pattern paper: Basic Grey

cricut: Accent Essentials, simply Sweet

punch: fiskars

letter stickers: pink paislee

I realized, yesterday after seeing it on Rhonna Farrer's blog that I forgot to post that I met her too (she is SO cute and stylish!)! I also met Janet Hopkins (2 of the house of 3), and Stacy Julian. How cool is that?!

I also met Christine from Scrap Time, she has a blog, and a podcast which demonstrates techniques and product. If you have an ipod I highly recommend you subscribe... I was glad to see her a second time. Initially I saw her right when the door opened and had to run another direction, but I did say hi to her. Luckily she took a picture with her camera (much nicer than the one I brought--this is from her flickr account) the second time I saw her in the American Crafts booth--yes, we really liked this booth! they had GREAT chocolate. (a little "secret" that no one tells you is that the majority of the booths has candy out--you know it's exhausting walking around looking at stuff. Anyway, they have candy in little dishes just set out so that you can grab and go)

Okay, for my giveaway...you'll have to wait until tomorrow for the details. I can tell you that it will run for a week and the giveaway involves Glitz! Thanks for stopping by!

played with my big blue bug=b3

Oh, how I love you B3-you have changed how I feel about die cutting...I had the baby bug before but THIS is FANTASTIC, it cuts down to 1/4"-that's where the borders came from...I cut several others at 2", they weren't long enough so I glued them together to look like one. Also, I wanted to do a fun scrunchy border so I made a big long one of the same thing--I was just playing....it sure is fun to get a little artistic without feeling confined. (oh! I forgot to mention that the super long border was sprayed with two different kinds of glimmer mist--it was originally Kraft colored.) I don't know if you can tell but my butterflies were stamped with distress ink, then I sprayed them with a mixture of perfect pearls and water. They are pretty! This layout came to me last night as I was laying in bed, I was glad I could remember the sketch! I hope to do a card also...

Yesterday I didn't get to craft at all but I did do a MAJOR purge and boy did it feel good! If you haven't done it, you should. I have no idea why I have kept some of that paper for so long--5 years? That being said this layout was made from scraps that were on my desk and in the mess I cleaned up and just couldn't throw away. Basic Grey--just can't be thrown away! :) The rubons came in the mail, I bought some fun Valentine's things from Peachy Cheap, they are going to be put to good use here in the next few days!

I best run for now, the first of many soccer practices starts tonight. I wished it would've kept on raining today! :) Thanks for stopping by today!

Chocolate Chip pancake day..and CHA!

(Today is Tuesday at my house that means chocolate chip pancake day....)

Two of my helpers...like their hats? at CHA you could wear them for a chance to win the new Cake Expression..the chef has on her pink apron--another thing if you wore it you would win something....

I'm back! (from CHA!) This was SO MUCH fun! I met SO many people, I met a TON of my cyber heroes which was incredible. I kept calling them my friends--at one point the girls I was with

asked me if they were really my friends or was it all in my head....Maybe it was for the most part, but everyone was so nice.

The first day we were trying to make it to the back corner for a booth that I don't remember now. As we were walking up we see the American Crafts booth--there is Elizabeth Kartchner alone. I said, "come on girls!" And practically ran over there. She is just as beautiful in person as in pictures and just SO nice!

Her line is FANTASTIC and a lot of her product will be included in one of the upcoming kits at Scrapbook Circle--stay tuned for that! What was fun is later on in the day we walked up again to look at her paper (for matching purposes) and she remembered us!

This is Jill she is the owner of Jillibean soup, she is so fun! They have some fun stuff coming out, a few of which will be in some upcoming kits at Scrapbook Circle....

I was pretty excited to meet Laura Vegas. She is on the Ck dream team, and designs for Jillibean soup, and Making Memories, she also had a few items in the My little shoebox booth. I was SO excited to meet her in person, she is really nice! Thanks Laura for taking a pic with me! :)

This is Natasja Verbeek, she designs for Cosmo Cricket. She's pretty amazing....remember the flowers tutorials?--she inspired them. Her background is that at one time she was a florist. Go take a look at her blog, she has more and tutorials. This was her first time to the United States. She's so cute!

I was pretty excited and on the lookout for my designer friend Tanisha Long--she happens to design for My Little Shoebox, Purple Cows inc., and Creative Imaginations.

She's WAY talented, I first saw her demonstrating on Shimmerz and fell in love with her stuff! When she saw me she gave me a hug (see she IS my friend!) (Okay the white thing on my shoulder is a shirt...I wore it like a cape...if you wore it you had a chance of winning something...I didn't...) Hi, Tanisha!

In fact, I just found the Calendar Girls blog, (they demo how to use your cricut, cartridges, gypsy--it's VERY informative and they share ideas and how to make them--VERY fun!) right before I left and actually got to meet them too--they said

I was their friend too, so it wasn't in my head! hello--Joy, Melanie & Tammy!

Lastly, (for this post anyway-thanks for hanging in there with me!)

Yesterday we went and placed an order with Margie Romney-Aslett she's so funny! Her new line is FANTASTIC--we wanted pretty much of everything too! So stay tuned for that in upcoming kits at Scrapbook Circle.

Lisa, Jennie and I all agreed that this CHA was much better than last year. We didn't seem to be as tired, there seemed to be less people but more vendors.

With that being said, stay tuned here for some GIVEAWAYS. I have some fun things that I got and want to share with you! Thanks for stopping by and reading this MEGA long post! I'm off to make bread, do laundry and possibly something crafty! :)

Randomness.....

**I am TIRED, like bone tired...like the kind of tired where you sort of loose the ability to speak the English language....could it have anything to do with the rain? It's been raining all day...right now it looks like someone is spraying my window with a hose.....I like the rain, it's refreshing...there was a tornado watch...CRAZY-I live in the desert!

**Maybe I'm tired because I've been up since like 5am (not my choice! DH got a business call, my body wakes right up and won't go back to sleep...sort of annoying...) it's almost 9pm.

**My blue buddy still isn't here, it was supposed to be here today but it got rescheduled

**Do you have a secret candy stash? you know the one that you don't share with anyone but yourself? I do! I learned it from my mom, AND through research I've discovered other women do to! Must be a woman thing....I asked this because as I cleaned my desk I found some candy....I like chewy candy, it was that Christmas tree brach's candy....Peppermint all the way!--I LOVE anything with mint.

**I also LOVE lemonade, I had some fresh last night and today. My friend let us come over and pick lemons from her tree, THANK YOU Jennie!

**I am working on a project, it's actually finishing up the journaling in my December daily....I only have 7 days left then I can start on another project--which also happens to be sitting on my desk.

**I made my CHA list yesterday and added a few things, I'm probably going to check it a few times...ya I'm just that way.

**I'm reading the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn still...I'm almost done...I hope I'm done before the Hunger Games gets here at the library.

**DH totally ROCKS! I was cleaning off my desk, he was cleaning the kitchen up for me!

**I hope to have something to show tomorrow...I know my blue buddy won't be delivered until 4:00pm--that's when the UPS man usually hits my neighborhood.--so I'll have to keep busy so I won't be staring out the window waiting for him to come!

If you've read this far, thank you--and good night!

seriously--I'm EXCITED...

You must wonder about me....umm...I'm still sort of REALLING, one of my layouts has been chosen from the Creating Keepsakes gallery to be possibly published in the August/September issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine! Mine along with four others are voted on by the viewers of the gallery and the winner is chosen from the votes! I found about this at about 6:30am I couldn't really scream so I ran back and forth pumping my arms silently.

If you would like to vote, click on the HERE. Mine is Ella by Albeca

One more TOTALLY AWESOME thing?! Mine was featured on their BLOG!

Thanks for letting me share! And yes, DH understands this one! :)

I am so excited!!

Yeah you know the song! I was dancing all around making a some sort of excited noise (I know TMI) so much so the dogs were staring at me like, she has lost it! Two things:

1. I'm upgrading to this baby (an early birthday present):

2. I WON the 30 minute challenge at American Crafts. I still am sort of dazed....

This all happened within a 5 minute period of time, I couldn't tell my DH he was on the phone and well, I LOVE him but he just doesn't get as excited about these sorts of things! (yes, and I know that you probably have one in your house that doesn't either....)

Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my EXCITING news! :)

A layout one sketch

I found another great sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays:

This layout came together quickly mostly because this stuff was laying out around, or on my table! First off the spots I won from a blog a while back and felt the urge to use it. it's name is polkadot basics II and comes with 6 different styles of dots.

I used the November kit from Scrapbook Circle. **LOVE this kit!** So I had some postcards from this adventure and wanted to add them but not all of them at the same time so I made a pocket. I did this by cutting the sticker package down to size and sewing it to the page. For the title I used one of the tickets that admitted us.

I sure had a lot of fun! Thanks for stopping by and visiting today!

The card class tomorrow....

I wanted to share with you the simple cards I came up with for the class tomorrow:

My family was a GREAT help in assembling the 25 card sets (meaning 25 cards per card). My DD told me I was VERY particular, yep! I am!

I sure had fun using my new Martha Stewart butterfly punch, my old-new luxe stamps (hearts), and my mommy's embossing folder.

I still don't think of myself as a card maker BUT you can evolve and one can reinvent yourself everyday! This is a drive by post as I did my have to's (cleaning the kitchen) instead of the want to's (looking at and posting to blogs). So I gotta run for now! Thanks for visiting me today!

Sketchy Thursday Second chance challenge

So here is my take on Heidi's sketch over at Sketchy Thursdays:

I switched the card, sewed around the edges. Sorry this is a quick post I've been busy today and wanted to get this in before the deadline!

supply list:

pattern paper: Dream Street, paper studio

cardstock: bazzill

jewels: offray, the beadery

die cuts: cricut--doodlecharms, stretch your imagination

Thanks for stopping by!

So I thought I shared this already....

These pictures crack me up! This kid is intense and I'm so glad that I captured a little of his personality on film. I designed this from my own sketch:

I used the November kit from Scrapbook Circle. The paper, stickers, & rubons are crate paper, the letters are Jillibean soup. The clouds are up on pop dots. Just love the affect of journaling differently....

I stayed up WAY to late for this early bird, last night. I have no idea why part of the time I was SO tired I was staring at the wall. DH came downstairs to take some tums and he asked me what I was doing. I said, staring at the wall.... The reason why? I was asked to teach a card class at church for the Young Women, and my mind just flew with ideas.

Anyway, I have two of the cards completed and all bagged--thanks to DD. And I have two others cut but the example is not made yet. I was hoping to do that tonight but my late night is starting to catch up to me. Thanks for stopping by!

11--Sketchy Thursdays--American Crafts

I just finished this layout thanks to this sketch by Diana over at Sketchy Thursdays. My challenge was to finish this layout in 30 minutes--which I did between picking up kiddos at the bus stop, and questions about snacks, movies, and videos games....That was the challenge over at American Crafts.

I also had to use at least two items from American Crafts. I did! I only own one kind of glimmer mist, so I painted on my glitter glue---sure gives it a pretty glittery look.

supply list:

pattern paper: American Crafts

letter stickers: American Crafts

rubons: American Crafts

flair button: American Crafts

jewel: offray

cardstock: Bazzill

punch: fiskars

glitter glue: ranger

butterfly punch: close to my heart (thanks mommy!)

distressing ink: ranger

journal block: Elle's studio

mini staple: Tim Holtz

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Ella--sketchy thursdays

How are you today? I finished two more pages yesterday! You have to understand that within a couple of weeks my stress level will be up with running kiddos to practice so catching up now makes me feel good. Does that make sense? probably not! But I'm having fun! I used this sketch from Sketchy Thursdays from 12/17/2009:

This is my take:

These pictures crack me up! My puppy is not this little anymore, she can only stick her nose through the pool fence and it's only been a few months!

I used the November kit from Scrapbook Circle. This is one of my FAVORITES, and she still has some left! If you would like one just click on the link....

oh, the splatter marks from the misting was an accident, but I like it. It sort of pooled there I blew on it and it spread, I thought it looked pretty cool.

Anyway, I gotta go get myself ready to go to the gym. I'm going to a new class, I can hardly walk from Wednesday, or when I do I look like an old lady--it's pretty sad...I figure take ibuprofen work out the lactic acid and I'll be fine....

Hope you make this Friday a GREAT productive one! Thank you for stopping by for a visit!

last of the 4--Buddies

This has got to be my FAVORITE of the four layouts I did that day even though all the pictures came from the same day....

The mist, the pictures and the paper. SO fun! Thanks again Sassafras! I'm in a rush to get another layout done today before the kids get home from school. Thanks for stopping by today!

Wanna win a FREE January kit from Scrapbook Circle?!

Here are the details from the Scrapbook Circle blog:

We are kicking off the new year with TWO January kit giveaways!
We are so thankful for all of the wonderful people in the scrapbooking community and we are happy to share our kits with you.

Just visit our one of our new design team members, Aymee Gandy's blog for your chance to win one of our January kits.

Then visit Lisa's blog for your second chance to win a free January kit.

If you don't happen to be one of the lucky winners, we still have a great deal for you >>> This month only (while kits last) you can purchase a single January kit (no subscription) at the 6-month price!

If you have been thinking about trying us out, this is the perfect time to get the best possible price on a packed with without any commitment to more kits.

Just check out on the January kit page and select the 6-month sub button. Enter CELERATE2010 in the comments and you will just get the one January kit without signing up for a subscription. If you forget to enter the code, just email us and we will put you down for only receiving the January kit.

collage page

The kiddos are back to school, it sure is quiet, just me and the girls--doggies. Anyway, I'm playing catch up with my layouts and wanted to share this one that was inspired by Laura Vegas, she is FANTASTIC, and SO nice. She now is a contributor to Creating Keepsakes as one of the dream team....

This is the 3rd of 4 layouts I did on New Year's day.

the stars on the bottom are from Fancy pants, the ones in the top corner are actually Jenni Bowlin and started out black, I just put some stickles on them. the other stickers were outlined in black, I trimmed them to make them look more uniform. This layout after trimming and arranging the pictures came together quickly. I was proud of myself for using things from my stash! These are pictures from the back to school splash bash they had at our school. It was HOT even at 6pm, the kids had a blast though.

Best jet, doing laundry! Thanks for stopping by today!

End of the break...

well, this is officially the last day of my kiddos break from school....back to the grindstone. It's been fun, and we have ALL enjoyed not having a real schedule. I want to share a quick page with you before we are off to the library and a bike ride. This is another of the four I created on the 1st, just been so busy playing I really haven't had time to stop.

This is also from the lovely kit I won back in November from Sassafrass Lass. This was just so fun! Everything came together quickly! Thanks so much for stopping by today! Hope that it's a wonderful one for ya!

On New Years day!

I made 4 layouts! yep, I can't believe it either, everyone was just playing and having fun. Here is one of them based on a Sketchy Thursdays Sketch from 12/19

This paper is from what I won from Sassafrass, it was so fun to work with. In fact 3 of the 4 layouts I used different paper from the package they sent me. The little square brad was from the unknown stash I had and forgot I had it. Another thing I did was to cut the sticker, it did say one, two, three, four....

I still haven't decided my scrappy goals but I'm sure that I'll come up with something clever! Hope your Sunday is a GREAT one! Thanks for stopping by!

Love Notes

I have to preface this, this idea is not new BUT my 7 year old wanted something at home that we could share some notes to each other during the month of February. I bought this mail box (it's sort of like chipboard covered in white)--And I can't remember who the manufacturer is!--at my local scrapbook store on the clearance table. Anyway, this came together quick and easy, under and hour.

I just measured the width which happened to be 6", wrapped my paper around measured then cut it. For the front I just laid it face down and traced, the same with the flag. The edge I measured with my ruler and wrapped it measured and cut. I distressed the edges. The letters I sanded and distressed and topped with stickles.

I was in Target and FINALLY got my hands on some of those $1 mini mailboxes--per my DS request--we are going to be covering these for the teachers and doing little Valentine tags. Should be fun, and I want to involve the kids more with that so we will most likely be using the cricut to cut. They pick the shapes and love to push the buttons.

Thanks for stopping by! Have a GREAT Saturday!!

Chicken Ranglin'--Happy New Year!

Happy New year! Did you have fun last night? We took it easy, DH and I went to Walmart and bought a bunch of finger munchies. The boys played video games while DD and I watched Watcher in the Woods, and Ladyhawk, two great classics. Did you know that Watcher in the Woods had alternate endings? We watched them and decided that they chose wisely not to use them!

Okay I know I probably spelled ranglin wrong but I ran out of "w" in my little brads! And hey, it's my layout anyway... I found them in my clear out the other day and decided to use them on my page:

I also hand stitched on this layout, I haven't done that in a LONG time, it sure was fun! The January kit was perfect from Scrapbook Circle had the perfect colors. For my letters on this one I sanded them then inked them with distress ink, then I painted them with crackle paint. What's neat about this technique is that the color will bleed through and give it a vintage look. The pictures for this one are of my daughter and her attempt to wrangle a chicken, sure was funny to watch!

I used this sketch from the Scrappiest for this one:

Thanks for stopping by today! We have a beautiful day here and I hope to be able to head out for a bicycle ride later on.