Monday, February 28, 2011

What can I post about at 4 in the morning?

I went to sleep earlier than usual last night because a certain 5 year old wouldn't stay in bed (I let them sleep in my room last night) and a little 3 year old wasn't feeling so good, so now I'm awake. For a few minutes, anyway, and then I'm going back to bed because morning time comes all too quickly lately.

I was trying to think of something that I hadn't shared here yet and thought I'd share something from the Nook. We have some amazing card designers including the fabulous Danni Reid and she has started adding some new card challenges over at the forum at My Scrapbook Nook : http://www.myscrapbooknook.org/forum/viewforum.php?f=19

I created this card for her Random Wednesday challenge to use orange, yellow and pink and at least one button:


I was making some thank you tags for a friend's baby shower and had some extras so I used one on this card along with paper from Sassafras (blue floral), October Afternoon (yellow dot) and trims from Bo Bunny and American Crafts. 

Have a nice Monday!

Friday, February 25, 2011

today is Friday...time for a layout

How was your week?

Are you ready for the weekend?

I am ready to have a day when I don't have to go anywhere and today is the day. We are going to relax, the kids can play or watch a movie and I am going to get some chores done and spend some quality time in my scrap room. I finished up a fun project that will be on the American Crafts blog soon and now I need to get working on some Jillibean stuff for the DT call. Wish me luck!

For now here's another Jillibean Soup page with quotes from Sarah this time. She is a funny girl and really catches me off-guard sometimes with the things she says. I keep track of their little sayings on my calendar so that I don't lose them; these are just a few from Sarah from the last year.







Thanks for stopping by! Make sure and say hi ♥

Hey! I just found out through Scrapbook Nook (thanks, Katarina!) that this page is right now the #1 most liked, #2 most viewed and #2 most bookmarked. SO cool!! Thanks, guys. 

Thursday, February 24, 2011

I ♥ this collection

I hope that you aren't getting tired of Blossom Soup because it's one of my favorites right now.

Here is a quick card that I created using this cute collection.


Those butterflies are my fave...these are a few that I salvaged from the sheet of paper that my 3 year old destroyed. 


Have a wonderful day!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Cadillac Ranch and American Crafts

There has been some discussion over at My Scrapbook Nook lately about using mists and paint.

I used to steer clear away from them until I realized how much fun the are.

This page about the Cadillac Ranch, outside of Amarillo, Texas called for lots and lots of paint and mist.


papers and stickers: American Crafts Abode collection and miscellaneous Thickers  
Jenni Bowlin green and yellow paint daubers
mists by Studio Calico and Maya Road

We decided one week that we just wanted to get out of town for the weekend. We made hotel reservations, packed up the car and left with plans to go to the zoo, to swim at the hotel and just relax and to enjoy our quick getaway. While there we found out about this place- the Cadillac Ranch- where there are a dozen or so cadillacs buried partway into the ground. It has become quite the tourist attraction and people armed with cans of spray paint and cameras are commonly seen. There was a photo shoot going on while we were there. The kids thought it was cool to climb in the cars and see all of the cool colors. 

And, see? The paint totally works here ☺

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Jillibean Dutch Mustard Soup

Good morning!

Did you have the day off yesterday? We did and now it's back to the ol' grindstone.

I really need to get better at blogging lately...sorry. Maybe I'll have to do another giveaway soon to make up for my slacking off in that area but for now...

It's been great to play with some of the new Jillibean releases before they hit the store shelves.

I've shared some things that I made using Spotted Owl Soup, Chilled Strawberry and the oh-so-cute Blossom Soup and today I'll share a layout that I made using Dutch Mustard Soup.

Here are Matt and Aimee in some pictures that I took our local pumpkin patch/corn maze this last fall.




I got to scrap some yesterday so I have some fun new things to share with you this week. 

Have a great day! 

Friday, February 18, 2011

Jillibean Soup Design Team Call

Do you like Jillibean Soup?

Do you LOVE Jillibean Soup?

If so, today is the day you've been waiting for (and that I've been dreading since I have to fight to keep my spot) since the design team call was posted this morning:



Good luck to any of you who try for the team!

Thursday, February 17, 2011

sharing some Blossom Soup love

Good morning!

It has been so warm and sunny here (in the 80's- can you believe it?) that it feels more like May than February. We are in for a scorcher for sure this summer!

I have a sunny Jillibean Soup layout that I've been anxious to share with you and because it's up on the Jillibean blog now I can finally post it here ♥ I'm so glad that I made this page because since its creation my lovely 3 year old cut into my one and only piece of that butterfly paper from this Blossom Soup collection. It was so sad. I hope my new shipment of Soup gets here soon!!!

These are some pictures of Hailey- she's become quite the little hula hooper and it's so cool to watch her when she uses more than one. So, here she is:





 Cute papers, huh? Yep, I ♥ them. The yellow grid paper background is from the Soup Staples collection.

There are more cute layouts from the Jillibean team up on the blog today:
http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/02/layouts-1.html

Have a good one! I go in for my glucose testing this morning; keep your fingers crossed for me. I had gestational diabetes during my second pregnancy and I don't know how good my luck is going to be today.

Monday, February 14, 2011

so "berry" much

I simply couldn't resist making this card when I pulled out the new Chilled Strawberry Soup collection from Jillibean Soup! Those little strawberries are the cutest.

I hope you all have a very happy Valentine's Day and that you get lots of hugs and kisses from the ones you love ♥


See this card and some other lovey-dovey projects on the Jillibean Soup blog today:


First a little detail shot: white paint on the red corrugated letters. I simply cut the strawberry and flower from the patterned paper and added some Stickles glitter glue to the flower center. I wanted to showcase the cute papers in this collection so I included tiny squares of lots of the patterns. The scalloped strips are from the Dutch Mustard Soup collection but I thought they matched nicely with these papers, too. That's one of the great things about Jillibean Soup- you can mix and match so many things!



Happy Valentine's Day!

Sunday, February 13, 2011

it has been too long...

Yes, I know.

Life has gotten in the way of me blogging this week and I hope this next week will be better.

Please bear with me as we deal with a few struggles here and there and as I try to get back on top of things.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day and I will have a card to share with you ♥

I hope that this week will bring some normalcy and that I can get back into my scrap room to create some new things to share with you.

I hope you are having a great weekend!

Monday, February 7, 2011

a Jillibean Soup card

Good Monday morning!

I hope that your week is off to a great start so far.

Today I have just a quick post, a birthday card that I created using the new Spotted Owl Soup from Jillibean Soup. I like that this collection can be used for birthdays but that there are other patterns versatile enough to be used for everyday projects.


and here is a peek of another Jillibean project that will be up on the blog later this month:


just to tease you, of course ♥

Have a great day!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

meet the new design team at My Scrapbook Nook

I know that a lot of ladies have been waiting for quite some time to see this list, myself included.

Here is Leah's note from the message board:

Thank you all so much for trying out! It took me until this morning to get this list finalized- ask anyone who has ever been on a DT here- it has NEVER taken me even close to this long before. I am in awe of you ladies, and wish I could have a 40 person DT! This is, hands down, the very best group of finalists I have ever had the pleasure to interview. Now, why am I writing this? I'm sure you've all scrolled right past me blabbering to see the list, so without further ado: 

Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy Very Happy 

GIVE IT UP FOR THE TEAM! 

Leah Killian-USA-DT Lead
Zarah Peterson-Sweden-DT Assistant
Stacey Michaud-USA
Katarina Damm-Blomberg-Sweden
Becky Williams-USA 
Ingrid Danvers-the Netherlands
Hilde Aaslund-Norway
Carol Monson-USA
Tanya Tahir-Australia
Nadia Cannizzo- Australia
Danni Reid-USA
Jessy Christopher- Malaysia
Anna Sigridur Eyjolfsdottir -Iceland
Lady Grace Belarmino-Phillipines
 

Now For Our Amazingly Talented and Diverse Guest Designers: 

Marie-Ange Lefevre (Marinette)- France
Ann Cicilie Flått-Denmark
Pamella Brown-USA
Carly Robertson-USA
Berdien Weideveld-the Netherlands
Tina McDonald-Canada
Keri Babbitt-USA
Jill Sarginson-Canada
Maria "Mija" Comstad-Sweden
Julianne McKenna-De Lumen -Australia
Lilith Eeckels-Belgium
Sarah Eclavea-USA
 

Thank you everyone, for being a part of the Nook! 



*******************************************************


I am so glad that Leah decided to do monthly guest designers this time around; there really was so much amazing talent among our finalists and it will be nice to get to see more of their work in the coming months. I think that this is the most internationally diverse group we've had- I think we usually have more ladies from the United States on the team and the fact that we have so many other countries represented is a huge tribute to the Nook. It's wonderful to have such a culturally diverse group on the board and I am excited to be a part of it for another term. 


Congratulations to all of the ladies who made the team and to our guest designers. 


It is going to be a great 6 months!

are you looking for some scrapping inspiration today?

My friend, Zarah, at My Scrapbook Nook, has just passed 25,000 posts on the message board. I always knew she was chatty, but that's a lot of chattiness!

She's celebrating today by hosting some challenges over at the Nook and they have a little something to do with these pictures and include some fabulous prizes:



Come on over and check out the details here: 
and look at the 25K challenges for the details. 

Friday, February 4, 2011

coming soon to My Scrapbook Nook

Would you like a sneak peek at some of the new CHA releases that will be in future kits/add-ons at My Scrapbook Nook? This post at the Nook got me all excited for what's to come:












Does it look amazing? I sure think so. 

Are you a member of the Nook kit club yet? 
If not, now is definitely the time to think about joining so that you won't miss out on 
these gorgeous new items and much more. 



Thursday, February 3, 2011

something good from yesterday

Yesterday wasn't my favorite day of the year so far...not by a long shot.

We still don't have running water and the plumber couldn't figure out the source of the frozen pipes.

We do have each other and a good friend brought over dinner and some water last night. The funny thing is, we have lots and lots of food storage and have three big 50-gallon barrels in our garage. Do we have water in them? Of course not. A lot of times we kinda go through the motions of getting the food storage but don't necessarily think we'll ever need to use it. I remember vaguely a conversation that Matt had with someone recently and they were talking about food storage and Matt mentioned that we didn't have a lot of water stored. That might have been a good time to fill up those barrels if only to have enough water to warm up to bathe in and for flushing the toilets. As it was, Matt was running to the closest gas station so that he could go without dealing with the hassle of dumping a gallon of water down the toilet afterwards. We stocked up on paper plates, cups and plastic forks and spoons since we don't have enough water for washing dishes right now.

We take so many things for granted.

We really do.

The garage door, at least, is fixed. I really should have taken a picture of that yesterday.

Oh well.

So, today we'll fill up some buckets with the little bit of snow we have outside and use that to flush toilets.

I was having a rough time yesterday with all that was going on on top of me not feeling well but there were some miracles, some answers to prayer. We carpool with a neighbor who we go to church with and it is our turn to pick up the girls this week. She called in the morning, though, wondering if we'd sent Hailey to school since we had her home a day last week and she said she could pick up her daughter. I ended up asking her if she could pick up the girls, which she was happy to do. At the time of our conversation Matt was working on the garage door, trying to get the bent panel off so that it could be repaired. I didn't know if we'd be able to get our van out of the garage to pick up the girls. Blessing number one.

Later in the afternoon I was making calls to the girls in my Activity Days group (I work with the 8-11 year olds at church and twice a month we have an evening activity- last night we were going to frost heart cookies and leave notes of gratitude on the Bishopric's door. Nicole- don't tell Jeff because we are planning to do this later ♥). Anyway, so I was making calls using my groggy flu voice and one of the moms called me back to see if I was okay. Of course it had been a rough day and I shared some details and she offered to bring some water and drinks over and said she'd bring us dinner later. Blessing number two.

Yesterday I decided to escape the stress and hide away in my scrap room and make a page just for fun and this is what I came up with- a page using a fun little quote from Aimee. It started at least a few months ago when I would tuck her in, tell her goodnight and say " I love you" and she'd say, "I love you, too" and I'd say, "I love you three" and you get the idea and one time I said, "I love you a million zillion billion" and then we'd say "and one more than that' and it kinda stuck. Now it's a nightly thing and I love it and had to scrap it so I wouldn't forget this fun little thing we do.


For this page I used some of the new Sassafras Paper Crush line mixed with some October Afternoon Homemaker line and some other Sass and OA and then embellishments from Sassafras, American Crafts, Jillibean Soup, Maya Road, Crate Paper and October Afternoon. It was such a fun page, and nice to scrap for me instead of for an assignment- I was free to use whatever I wanted and it was so fun. Oh, the cute orange die-cut paper is from KI Memories. I love those papers and just might have to get more.

Here are a few detail shots:






So fun!

Well, cross your fingers or say a little prayer for us today if you think about it. 
We just hope we can figure out how to get our pipes unfrozen in this freezing cold weather. 
And, you can sure bet we'll be filling up those big water barrels soon. 

♥♥♥

p.s if you would like some Valentine's Day card ideas you can check the American Crafts blog today, hint..hint. I just might have something over there today. ☺