some more fun with Basic Grey

The February kit from My Scrapbook Nook is definitely one of my faves from the past year.

Yesterday morning I played for a bit and this is what I made- a layout with pics of Hailey and Sarah from our trip to Dallas last fall- the weekend that we met Marc and Ginger there for the BYU game. We found a beautiful park with lots of lush greenery and took a gazillion pictures (as usual).

This is a simple page, but I like how it lets the pictures shine.

Have a happy Saturday! We have a church activity this morning, a trip to the library, a play date for the girls and a date for the two of us. It's going to be a nice, full day. Not to mention that I need to get the house cleaned up and get things ready for preschool group here on Monday. yikes.

Sharing some more love of Jillibean Soup and some Scrapbook Nook Deals

In case you hadn't noticed I love Jillibean Soup scrapbooking products. The lines are so fun and each collection works really well with the others, hugely increasing the scrapping possibilities.

Since I don't have my March kit from My Scrapbook Nook yet (I can't wait to play with the new Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage!!!) and because I am done at Color Me Daisy (unless I get to be a guest designer for one of Michelle's limited kits- the first one comes out in April) I have had some extra time to do some layouts just for me.

Today I made a page using a mix of lines once again and really liked the outcome, and making all of those little flowers was kinda fun, too, not to mention these cute pics of Sarah I had to work with. This poor girl has had quite a time the last few days with a bad cough/cold and today she was pretty miserable and grumpy (and me by extension), so these pictures are a nice reminder of the Sarah we know and love.

In case anyone wonders, I used a die-cut sheet from the Pink Paislee Cupid collection for the scalloped brown paper on this page and I outlined the title alpha stickers with a brown Sharpie to help the title stand out a little bit better. I apologize for the slight crookedness of the pic in advance. And, is it my screen or does this green look a little funny? Well, you get the idea. I really like the mix of colors on this page, quite representative of Sarah's colorful personality. She was quite a trooper to pose for these pics for me a couple of weeks ago.

Here's a close-up of some of those little flowers- I used my EK Success flower and scalloped circle/circle punches, wrinkled them up, inked the edges, added some faux stitching to some and then added the buttons and some Prima pearls on some of the flowers. 

Isn't she a cutie? I think so. Have a great night!!!

p.s. I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaack!

Leah just let us know about some fabulous deals going on at My Scrapbook Nook right now so I thought I'd fill you in on the details. 

First of all, there are only a few February kits left and those will be given -for free- to those who sign up for a new one-year kit club membership. What a deal!! You can sign up by clicking on this link

http://stores.myscrapbooknook.com/-strse-Kits-cln-Kit-Add-dsh-Ons/Categories.bok

And, when you sign up for a year membership your 13th kit is FREE!!! So, you get two kits for free! 

And, membership to the Nook kit club truly has its privileges. Do you remember how a while back I told you about special deals that will be available only to members of the club? Well, the special deal for March is Pink Paislee's new collection, Queen Bee. Here is what you'll get: 

2 sheets of each patterned paper in the Queen Bee collection

2 sheets of the die-cut paper

1 sheet of punch-outs and the ribbon pleats. 

All for just $9.06, which is 40% off the price of retail. That is SUCH a deal, but is only available for kit club members, so hurry and sign-up to get yours today!! 

http://stores.myscrapbooknook.com/-strse-808/****March-Members-Special-fdsh-PP-fdsh-Queen-Bee/Detail.bok

UPDATE: Wow, those went fast. All of the Pink Paislee Queen Bee kits have sold out. I'll let you know if Pam orders more for the store. 

Fun News: This layout above is right now as I type this the #6 top viewed, top liked layouts and is the #2 spot for most bookmarked layouts on 2 Peas in the last 24 hours. Yay!!!

a peek, a sneak and a layout

I haven't shared any new projects with you the last couple of days...I've been busy trying to finish the laundry, a daunting task that will never be done. Between that and sick kids and other chores and things I haven't gotten to scrap as much as I'd like to.

Today, though I have some things to share.

First of all, yesterday I got some very happy scrappy mail- my prize pack from American Crafts for winning that "I Heart You" challenge a couple of weeks ago. So, here's a pic of that:

It's almost the entire new Botanique collection complete with paper, brads, Flair, Thickers, rub-ons, stickers, journal spots and chipboard. They were so very generous. Thank you, American Crafts!

Next, I have a sneak of a page that I made using the new Cosmo Cricket "Garden Variety" collection. Thanks again, Britt, for sending this to me!!! It was so fun to play with. I'm not showing you the whole page in hopes that I can submit it and have it picked up for a future issue of Scrapbook Trends. Wish me luck!

And, lastly, a page that I created using this month's Studio Calico kit. Aimee was sitting in this vacuum cleaner box the other day as she loves to do lately, only this time she had her fairy wings on and I KNEW I should grab the camera and take some pictures for future scrapping. I am so glad that I did.

Have a wonderful day. I'm going to play some more after doing the dishes and some more laundry. And, with her sisters away I bet Aimee is going to want to play ♥

a peek at the March kit from My Scrapbook Nook

We are waiting (quite impatiently, I might add) for newly released product from this latest CHA so that we can receive our March Nook kits. While we are in limbo, though, I thought I'd share a peek and a list of the kit contents. It sounds like it will be another gorgeous kit. 

March brings a breath of spring with it, in colors of newly sprung crocus and budding leaves!  You will delight in the freshness of Pink Paislee Bayberry Cottage, and whisk away the last of the winter snowflakes! 

Kit Includes:
10 Double Sided Pink Paislee Bayberry Collection
2 Die Cut Sheets From The Bayberry Collection
1 Bayberry Ambrose Cardstock Alpha
1 Bayberry Decorative Tape
1 Pkg. Bayberry Ribbon Pleats
1 Handful of Buttons-Buttons Galore
1 Pkg. JB Pins
1 American Crafts Alpha-Thickers
1 Pkg. Maya Road Sew Cute Mini Chipboard Set

Doesn't it sound lovely? 

Jillibean Soup blog crawl coming up!

Just up on the Jillibean Soup site! 

As you can see, they're teaming up with Bella Blvd. and Nikki Sivils with plans of lots of fun and giveaways for us. I can't wait to hear more about what they have planned. And, just in case you forget, I've added a clickable link on my sidebar there on the right. 

a note to Sherri and SRM

I have "met" some wonderful people through my blog and others around the blogosphere. I've learned lots and have been inspired by so many of you, so thank you. Just to have people visit my blog and to take the time to leave comments about my work and life experiences is such a fun thing for me.

I don't know how to contact Sherri since she doesn't have a blog but I want to thank her today for being one of my biggest supporters here. She comments on just about every post, says kind things at other places around the web (thank you for your sweet words at the Jillibean Soup blog the other day) and seems like such a wonderful person.

So, Sherri, I hope you are having a wonderful day- here is a long-distance cyber hug and another thank you from me.

p.s. check me out on the SRM stickers blog today:
http://srm-stickers.blogspot.com/2010/02/scrapbooking-with-srm-stickers.html

My Scrapbook Nook and Pencil Lines Sketches

This month My Scrapbook Nook is collaborating with Pencil Lines sketches. Isn't that so fun?!

Half of our Nook team was given one sketch to create layouts by and those are up on the Pencil Lines blog TODAY!!! It's so fun to see what everyone else did with the sketch, and now that this is up I can show you the page that I created using the February Nook kit featuring Basic Grey's Origins line.

This is the sketch that my group was given to create with:

And here is my layout based on the sketch:

And some detail shots:

 I loved the journal spots and chipboard in this collection,and the rub-ons as well. 

I added some inking and doodling to the leaves and flowers, sanded the leaves a bit as well, inked the Salutations Thickers by American Crafts and added some Zva Creative pearls. 

I also used my Fiskars border punch and some gorgeous Maya Road chandelier stick pins.

Hailey and I were talking one day and she told me that when she gets married she won't be a silly girl any more, she'll just be a mom. She got this white wedding dress costume for Christmas and had to model it for us right away after opening it. She will surely make a beautiful bride someday. 

You can check out what the other ladies did as well by clicking on this link:

http://www.pencillines.com/2010/02/sketch-175.html

I hope you're having a wonderful day- I'm home with two sick girls with fevers, runny noses and a cough. It never seems to end around here this winter.

SRM Stickers share

I just wanted to take a minute and share a couple of cards I created yesterday using SRM Stickers.

These clear stickers are perfect for both cards and layouts- they are clear with a matte finish and are super sticky and repositionable. It's been so much fun to play with my new goodies!

Here are my cards and you'll see one of my layouts on the SRM blog on Monday.

 For this one I used some Jillibean Soup papers and the Baby Sticker Sentiments.

Basic Grey paper, Prima flower, SRM Sticker Sentiments Thinking of You

This is for the sticker challenge going on right now at Caardvarks. 

Have a wonderful Saturday!!

SRM news

I just wanted to let you know that the SRM store is now live.

You can order any of the sticker sets from the online site:
http://www.shopatron.com/home/index/3258.0.1.1

And, make sure to keep checking back at the blog because our design team ladies have been cooking up some gorgeous cards and other projects.

I'm on the Soup blog today!

Yes, the little house I shared with you yesterday is up on the Jillibean Soup blog today along with one created by another Soup fan. You can see it here:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/02/free-for-all-friday-make-yourself-at-home.html#comments

My father in law is at the hospital right now and is just about ready to go in for surgery to hopefully rid him of prostate cancer. I am hopeful but still a little nervous at the same time and hope that all goes well today.

Please say a little prayer for him...

Here's another Soup project for you, too. I love mixing the different collections and had fun with this page with new pictures I got of Hailey in the last week or so. She's sick today, hopefully the bug will stay with her and not get shared with the rest of the family. She was sad to have to miss school and not get a star punch today but felt better when I told her she could just rest and watch movies all day.

Have wonderful day!

p.s. make sure to check the SRM Stickers blog on Monday for a peek at one of my first SRM design team projects! Here is the link: http://srm-stickers.blogspot.com/

and a little Jillibean house

Just another quick post right now...I fell asleep in my room with Aimee because she wouldn't go to sleep on her own and it was after nine. Now it's 3 and I'm awake...seems to be the story lately. I think she's quite afraid of the dark right now and doesn't like to be alone in her room.

So...quick post!

Here's a little house I made the other day- just a simple paper mache one from Hobby Lobby-covered with a mix of Jillibean Soup papers. I don't do altered items all that often and really need to try to do more. I get stuck in the page and card rut and need to branch out a bit.

So, it's not very fancy but kinda cute, I think. I have another page in the works that I'll share maybe later today.

Oh, if you are the praying kind, could you please remember my father-in-law tomorrow? He has to have surgery in the morning...

Have a great day!

and another Jillibean Soup card and layout

Just a quick post this morning before I head back to bed.

I woke up and was really hungry so I grabbed some cereal and sat down to check email, etc. and thought I'd share a couple more things with you.

First off, have you seen those glow in the dark bracelets- you know, the ones that kids wear for Halloween?

Well, my girls love them, and Aimee likes to have them because she's afraid of the dark even with the hall light on and two nightlights in her room. Anyway, last night while I was at the church for an activity Hailey decided to bite into hers and drank some...and said her mouth hurt. Matt helped her rinse but who knows what that stuff will do to you. Why does everything happen when I'm not at home?

I hope she's okay...

Now for some more fun Jillibean Soup stuff.

Matt's mom gave us some cupcakes a little while back and they had bright pink frosting, and you can bet if anyone was going to make a huge mess it would be Aimee. She had frosting and crumbs everywhere on her hands, face, her belly. It was so cute! Everything here is Jillibean Soup- aren't those corrugated alphas the best? Here I used my Stampin' Up! white craft ink pad and some brown ink on the edges.

And, another card. This is a tri-fold one, and I closed it with some twine but wanted to show you

 how it opens up. Those flowers were cut from one of the pieces of patterned paper and the stamp

 is Jillibean Soup as well. 

This morning we get to go back to the doctor to have Aimee's cast removed- I hope that she can handle the sound of that little saw and hope that her little arm has healed well enough for them to not have to re-cast it. 

Have a great day!

just wanted to share some Jillibean Soup

One of my absolute favorite scrapbooking manufacturers ever is Jillibean Soup. I love the paper designs, use the journal spots all of the time, love the buttons and stamps and all of the new additions to the collections. It is a rare thing to like all of the papers in a manufacturers repertoire but I absolutely adore every single thing from their new releases this CHA and can't wait to get some to play with.

You can imagine my glee when I found out that they were having a design team call. This is a dream for me- I love their products and would love the opportunity to work for them and to HAVE to play with their products. Wow. I don't want to get my hopes up because I know that there will be a lot of competition for those 4 or 5 spots but I couldn't pass up this chance. And, who knows? This might be my turn. I hope so.

So that I could submit some new Jillibean projects I've been playing with their papers and things a lot lately and have some projects to share with you today.

Here is a quick card I created; I mixed a couple of collections here and used some of the Jillibean stamps as well. The butterflies are cut from one of the patterned papers in the Minestrone collection. I LOVE that butterfly paper, as you will see because I use those butterflies a lot.

And, here is a page celebrating when the girls got to meet Silvermist at Disneyland. She is, of course, one of Tinkerbell's friends and Sarah's favorite fairy. Everything here is Soup. The alphas were originally craft but I wanted them to stand out more so I used a Copic marker to color them and added some Stickles glitter glue to the "Silvermist" ones. All of the flowers and butterflies are cut from patterned paper and the journal spots by Jillibean Soup are my favorites and something I use all the time.

I hope that you are having a wonderful day. I'll share more Soup with you tomorrow!

for some more fun news- SRM Stickers

A little while back I was introduced to SRM Stickers through my friend, the talented Jen Pohl, the amazing card maker and scrapper who started the card challenge blog, Caardvarks. I got to know Jen at My Scrapbook Nook while she was on the design team there and while we worked together last term. She's incredible and I jumped at the chance to work with her again when she told us about the design team opportunity at SRM Stickers. 


Now, for the news that some of you have been waiting for, the first-ever design team at SRM. Check out this talented group of ladies- you can click on their names to get a closer look at their work: 


Tania Willis
Tanis Giesbrecht
Carole Kisch
Deana Boston
Jing-Jing Nickel
Gina Hanson
Amy Heller
Tobi Crawford
Becky Williams   (that's ME!)
Raechelle Bellus
Norma Kennedy
Helen Miles
Nina Brackett
Kathy Racoosin
Jen Martakis
Jenyfur Pohl


What a talented team! I am excited to work with Susan (the owner) and these fabulous ladies this year and am excited for the fun things that are to come. So, keep an eye on the SRM blog for lots of fun challenges and inspiration from our team. Congrats, ladies!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope that you all have a wonderful day filled with love and fun and good times with those you care about.

I am right now cutting out little paper hearts to stick all over my husband's truck-

He has to work this weekend, including working almost all day today so the time we get to spend with him will be short but we want to make sure that he feels loved because he is a sweet man who works so hard for us. What a great dad he is and I find myself very lucky to have him as my husband.

What are you doing today to celebrate?

p.s.

Getting email from Kelly Purkey is so fun!!

I'm getting some fun American Crafts treats in the mail soon!

YAY! It's been a good scrappy week.

Now if I could just get the girls to settle down maybe I could do some scrapping.

I don't think they're going to go any time soon...I set up the tent for Hailey and Sarah in their bedroom tonight and things sound pretty wild and crazy up there.

woohoo! American Crafts news

Do you remember that page I created for the American Crafts "I Heart You" challenge?

Well, it WON!!!!

Isn't that so fun?!

my Basic Grey news and a toot!

It is finally up- in fact it's been sitting in my spam box for some reason and I completely missed it until today.

So, here it is, the BG news I was so excited about before.

Simply download this http://199.236.103.132/freedomweb/clientuploads/newsletter/CNL_0210.pdf
and then look at page 2!!!

Isn't that so fun?! It made my day to receive Kelly Goree's email requesting my page for this newsletter.

p.s. I just got a request for one of my layouts to be in the July issue of Scrapbook Trends!

Color Me Daisy Crop

The Color Me Daisy Organize Your Heart Crop is going on right now with lots of fun scrappy challenges.

You can join in the fun here   http://colormedaisy.com/messageboard/viewforum.php?f=54&sid=90aa39948f7b3833fba82d09711c8632

I created this layout using our CMD February kit for one of my challenges.

Have a great day!

what a crazy, busy morning

I woke up and knew that today was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

Maybe I should move to Australia.

Ok, so if you haven't read "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day" you have no idea what I'm talking about. And, today hasn't been ALL that bad.

This morning was kinda crazy...the kids like to torment me in the morning by doing anything BUT eating their breakfast and it drives me nuts. Today was no different.

We had to take Hailey to school and got home to hear a frantic message from Matt and then had to run over to his store to take him something he'd forgotten, then had to take Sarah to preschool group, run some other errands, then go to Hailey's school since I volunteer in her class on Wednesdays, then had to go back to where Sarah goes to preschool group this week for a Valentine's party and then finally home.

I am so tired.

So, it's not that it's been such a horrible day but there were some hectic moments in there and it is just nice to sit down for a few minutes and relax because this afternoon will be busy, too.

At least the ice cream part didn't fall off my ice cream cone and land in Australia. (yep, book reference again)

As for the post from yesterday, no, it doesn't have anything to do with the Basic Grey post from last week. This is something different, something I didn't think I'd get chosen for but something that is going to be so fun for me, something that will give me a chance to work once again with one of the nicest, most talented scrappy girls I know. Yep, I think she just picked me because she likes me not because I am all that talented in what she needs...but I am glad that I was picked anyway and can't wait to start. That will be posted on Monday. From what I have seen so far, there are some very talented ladies on this team, too.

As for the BG news, I am not sure when that will be ready...I'll just have to wait on that one.

Oh, and in case you have a few free minutes over the next few days there is an online crop at Color Me Daisy- just some fun little challenges as a way to say farewell to CMD.

something fun

Yeah, I just got some fun news...

I'll tell ya on Monday :)

I hate to tease but I can't say anything yet but I'm getting really excited.

American Crafts I Heart You!

Each week there is a new challenge posted on the American Crafts blog.

Because I love their products I try to do the challenges when I get a chance and for this week's challenge we simply had to use two products from the "I Heart You" collection. I'd just gotten some of this in the mail not too long ago so I was up for the challenge.

I've had these cute pics of Aimee and they were perfect for this, don't you think?

Materials used:
American Crafts I Heart You- 2 patterned papers (Sweet Pea and Hubby-aren't those names the cutest?!)
American Crafts Thickers (lots of them cuz they're my favorite)
American Crafts journal spot and flowers
Fiskars Apron Lace punch
Red ribbon from my stash

(you can click on the image to make it larger)

I dug into my stash and pulled out some flannel and foam flowers, layered them and topped them with dots from my Thickers package. The journal spot is also American Crafts. 

And a big red bow to finish it off.

I hope that you are staying warm wherever you are- it's freezing cold and snowing a bit here today. If you are cold, at least you have happy thoughts of those you love to help keep you warm. 

Okay, that was cheesy, but oh well. 

Pink Paislee sketch layout

Pink Paislee is doing some great new things with their team/site this year and one of them is a sketch contest.

A new sketch is posted each quarter and the randomly chosen winners get a bunch of new Pink Paislee. Sounds like a good idea to me!!

You can read all of the info here: http://livepink.ning.com/forum/topics/1st-quarter-sketch-contest

Here is the first sketch, created by Valerie Salmon of Got Sketch!

And, here is my layout to go with the sketch:

I used Pink Paislee's "Cupid" collection, some Prima flowers and pearls, my Martha Stewart butterfly punch, my old scalloped-edge scissors, my Fiskars Apron Lace punch, red stickers from October Afternoon and a bunch of American Crafts Thickers.

Sundays are busy days around our house so I will see you again tomorrow!

congrats to the new team at My Scrapbook Nook!

I have been waiting not so patiently to find out who our new My Scrapbook Nook design team members would be and the list is finally up! I want to congratulate everyone who made it to the top 25 and give a big congrats to our new girls as well as those who are returning from last term.


Returning members:
Stacey Michaud  - USA
Camilla Ekman  -Sweden
Susan Lui - Singapore
Lady Grace Belarmino - Philippines
Zarah Peterson  -Sweden
Becky Williams -USA
Leah Killian - USA


And, we welcome these ladies to our team: 
Trish Harwick- USA
Amy Coose - USA
Jenny Svensson- Sweden
Nicole Martel- USA
Celeste Smith-USA
Lori Mancini- Canada
Tanya Tahir- Australia



It is going to be a wonderful term! I am so excited about our new team and for the fun we'll have this next six months. Congratulations to everyone!

a quick card

Just a quick share right now...Matt took Hailey and Sarah with him to help get the church all cleaned up and ready for tomorrow so I have Aimee with me and we want to play!

Here's a quick card I made using Pink Paislee Cupid and some miscellaneous trims.

Have a great Saturday!

sharing some Pink Paislee

The Pink Paislee Cupid collection is one of my favorites- while it's Valentine-themed it is versatile enough to do pages about just about anything.

One day Hailey did this cute pose for me and I knew it would be perfect to go along with this paper. So, with little bits of time spent here and there I was able to put together this layout.

I hope you're having a great day! We've been playing outside and have been enjoying the beautiful weather this afternoon. From the looks of things outside today you'd never know we had snow just a couple of days ago.

simple things really mean a lot

I shared this at My Scrapbook Nook this morning and thought I'd share it here, too.

We sometimes forget about the little things but it's often those that mean the most to us.

So, here's a little story for you:

There are a lot of little lakes here where I live and we often drive by to play at the park or to feed the ducks or just hang out.

This morning after taking my oldest daughter to school by myself ( I am usually carting all 3 kids with me) I stopped at the park- it's a beautiful foggy,misty day and I knew the park would be so pretty in that light.

Anyway, I slowed the car as I drove past the lake and a whole bunch of ducks and geese came waddling over to my car. It was the funniest thing as they sat there waiting for me to give them some food. I just had to laugh as I searched through my bag to see if I had anything I could share. Ducks probably aren't supposed to eat Teddy Graham crackers but it was all I could find, and I left with a smile. What a great start to my day. :)

I have been doing a little bit of scrapbooking the last couple of days so I'll have some things to share with you later as soon as the sun comes out a bit more.

where have I been?

I try to blog every day but this week has been a bit of a rough one since I'm battling a stomach thing that won't go away and I've been a bit mojo-less.

I will try and create something new today to share with you, okay?

Maybe after the preschool group kids are gone and I have a few minutes of quiet while Aimee is sleeping. We'll see...

For exciting news, Leah has just about narrowed down the new design team list at My Scrapbook Nook. With all of the incredible ladies who applied I am anxious to see who she picked. Good luck to our 25 finalists!!

some Color Me Daisy projects

Now that the kit has been officially released I thought I'd share some projects with you.

First of all, here's the kit in all its beauty:

And here are my projects with the kit so far. You can click on the images for a closer look. 

I hope you're all having a great Monday! Thanks again for stopping by to visit me. 

a sad announcement from Color Me Daisy

This was posted on the Color Me Daisy blog last night: 

Color Me Daisy Kit Change Announcement

January 31st, 2010

The title of our kit this month has significant meaning to us. We have loved so much of our “little adventure” we embarked on almost two years ago. Color Me Daisy has been a labor of love, but it has also taken us away from some of the most important parts of our life. We knew this would take our time, but as our sons get older we realize that we are missing more of their lives than we are willing to miss.   

We love what we do and have enjoyed providing our kits each month to our valuable customers. To find some balance we have decided to make some changes to our kit offerings after this February kit. We are still working on the details but we can share the following with you: 

-       We plan to release a limited quantity of kits up to 6 times each year with a single purchase option, as a result we will no longer offer monthly subscriptions.

-       Kits prices are estimated to range from $30-$40, plus shipping.

-       We have plans to offer you more ideas with your kit purchase

-       Our kits will still feature the latest and greatest from the hottest manufacturers with a mix of papers, embellishments, and extras to keep your creativity blooming.

-       To be notified first of our kit offerings please go to our home page and subscribe to our newsletter. We will continue to advertise when we release kits, but newsletter subscribers will be the first to hear of our kit offerings.

Subscriptions will be cancelled after the February kits have been shipped.  Prepaid subscribers will be contacted to make arrangements for refund options.  If you have any questions that we have not addressed here, please contact us at info@colormedaisy.com.

We thank all of our wonderful customers for your patronage, and hope you will continue to choose Color Me Daisy when we launch our new kit format in April.

****I just have to say how sad I will be to see Color Me Daisy go. It's been fun to be a part of the design team there but I completely understand that family comes first and look forward to the limited kits that will be released. Stay tuned today for my projects made from the February CMD kit.