just wanted to share some news!

I've been a fan of My Little Shoebox for a while, even tried for their team a couple of years ago but didn't make it. I like the cutesy, cheery patterns that work so well for my girls.

Today they are announcing the new design team and you can see it all here:
http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2011/03/announcing-our-2011-design-team.html

Congratulations to everyone who made the team!

how about some Jillibean fun?

I am always saying how much fun it is to combine the different Jillibean Soup collections and for one of my layouts this month I REALLY mixed things up in a fun layout that's up on the Jillibean blog today:

and here are some close-ups:

Jillibean Soup has come up with some really fun things over the years, haven't they?!

I am excited that my local store is FINALLY going to carry Jillibean. 

Have a nice day ☺

p.s. the Jillibean design team announcement is tomorrow!!

waiting and waiting

In this life we sure do a lot of waiting.

Waiting for the traffic light to change, waiting for bedtime to come to put the crazies down for the night (and I know that's not just at MY house, right?), waiting for food to be ready, waiting for a baby to come, waiting for everyone in the family to be ready so that we can leave to go somewhere, waiting in this line and that, waiting and waiting and more and more waiting.

And, you are probably waiting and wondering when I'll post something new here, huh?

I've done some scrapping lately but since it was for assignments I have to wait to share.

How about a peek at a project I did for American Crafts for April? I had to do a two-pager, something I VERY rarely do.

I hope you are having a nice day. 

Thanks, as always, for stopping by to say hi.

happy birthday to my sweet husband

Today my husband turns the big 3-6. He told me a little while back that he really wasn't excited about this birthday because it means he is only 4 years away from being 40. It's hard to believe we're both that close. When we were younger, of course, 40 seemed SO old. Now we're almost there.

Crazy.

I hope he has a good day, though. He is such a hard worker, a great husband and father and willing to do anything for anyone in need. He really is one of the "good ones" and I am so blessed to have him in my life.

He has stuck it out through almost 10 years of marriage, almost 4 kids (just had an ultrasound yesterday and all is well except that the baby is breech) and many ups and downs and been through some difficult things with an amazing attitude. He really is the rock in our family.

In Forks, Washington last summer. 

Christmas morning right before opening presents.

At the local corn maze/pumpkin patch.

With the tutus I made the girls last summer. 

Happy birthday to you!

p.s. In case you didn't see it on the Jillibean blog- Jill will make the announcement for the new team next Friday, so she'll be contacting new design team members during the next week. I have my fingers crossed and wish good luck to the rest of you who applied as well.
http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/03/free-for-all-friday.html

another page for fun

I did a few extra projects for Jillibean Soup so that I'd have some new things for the design team call and yesterday I finished this page thinking I'd turn it in for one of my April Jillibean assignments only I ended up using something else so I thought I'd share this with you today.

It's just a fun page with a mix of collections and some cute pictures of Sarah being Sarah- our quirky, loud, silly 5 year old:

and a couple of close-ups:

You know I love Jillibean Soup and I really like the new products that Jill added to the line-up with this CHA release. The new stickers and Pea Pod Parts are so much fun! 

American Crafts blog hop giveaway winner!

I used good ol' random.org to choose a winner and that was lucky #14!

 Wendy Hammer said...

Totally in love with that camera! Really sweet page.

Smiles,
Wendy
shonsmo@yahoo.com

March 17, 2011 11:04 AM

So, Wendy, send your address info to mattandbeckywilliams at yahoo dot com and I will send out your prize!

Thanks again to everyone who stopped by. 

AC blog hop giveaway is now closed

Thank you to everyone who visited my blog during the American Crafts blog hop.

I am now closing the giveaway and will let you know tomorrow who the winner is for that cute stamp set.

Have a great night!

and another page using Emma's Shoppe (March Nook kit)

How is your day so far?

Did you catch a glimpse of the moon last night?

It was stormy here so I missed it, but heard that it was large and beautiful.  I hope you took pics!

For today I have another Crate Paper layout to share with you:

I guess you can say that I went a bit crazy with the little label stickers on this one. I also used lots of the little accent cuts including the Mad Lib-type one for my journaling. Too fun! 

I hope you are having a great day so far. 

I am going to go lay down...I didn't sleep hardly at all last night and am feeling it now.

I need to crash so that I can go to church later and be functional.

Right now I'm not feeling so good.

new layout using Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe

**If you are looking for the American Crafts blog hop, please check down below.

This March kit from My Scrapbook Nook is one that I was looking forward to as soon as I found out that we'd be getting the new Emma's Shoppe from Crate Paper. It was my favorite release from this CHA besides those from the teams I work on (love my Jillibean and American Crafts!) and I couldn't wait to have it in my hands.

Here is a layout that I created for a class at the Nook using some pictures of Aimee when she was a baby.

I started out by misting the woodgrain background with Studio Calico Mister Huey in white. 

I went a little crazy with the chipboard here but love the look of the frame around that picture of my baby girl. The alpha/label stickers that come with this collection are just way too fun. The pearl brads are from the My Mind's Eye Stella & Rose collection and the twine is from the Twinery.

Here's one more detail shot showing some of the journaling stickers and a MME pink flower brad included in the kit. You also get rosette trim from Webster's Pages and ribbon from American Crafts, a couple transparency frames and other things I am forgetting.

Have a great day. I'll have this class up at My Scrapbook Nook as soon as 

the forum  is back up and running.

American Crafts Blog Hop *giveaway now CLOSED

Welcome to the American Crafts blog hop!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

We as a design team are so excited to share some projects with you today using our favorite brand new products from this past CHA. Be prepared to have your socks knocked off by these talented ladies.

Just in case you have stumbled upon my blog and would like to do the entire hop (for a greater chance of winning some very cool prizes!) please start at the American Crafts blog where the fabulous Alisha Gordon will start things off. 

The project that I am going to share with you today features the gorgeous Peachy Keen collection. I love it for its florals and stripes, beautiful color scheme and the fact that it is so very versatile.  The colors in the papers were, amazingly enough, just perfect for these pictures of my oldest daughter from a recent trip to the Fort Worth stockyards.

Supplies: Heavens to Betsy paper (35387), Cool Cat paper (35389), You're a Peach paper (35381), Sweet on You paper (35374), No Sweat paper (35378), Easy Peasy paper (35382)- Peachy Keen. Peachy Keen tags (85543)- Bits, Corduroy Brads (85538)- Elements, Golly Gee Phrase and Journaling Stickers (42192)- Remarks, Charming Stickers (78046)- Details, Twist pinwheel flowers(72008)- Delights, Charming Chap layered embellishments (78046)- Details, Mulberry Doll fabric chipboard letter stickers (53170)- Thickers, Honey Fellow Printed chipboard letter stickers (53175)- Thickers. 

For this blog hop we were supposed to share our favorite part of the new CHA releases and while I love all of the new products (who can blame me, right?) there is something that you might not have noticed that I really like. The papers are double-sided and now have a cute printed tear strip at the bottom. Yes, that's what I really like-while it's such a simple thing I really do love it and I was able to use a few of them on this layout.

Here are a few detail shots so that you can take a closer look:

Here I used my Fiskars scallop-edge punch on the tear strips to add a little punch to the top corner.

The stickers and other embellishments that come with this collection (corduroy brads, flair, stickers, pinwheel flowers, etc.) are gorgeous- wouldn't you agree? 

This picture shows off a couple of the new styles of Thickers that coordinate with the Peachy Keen collection. I used the Mulberry Doll and Honey Fellow Thickers. I thought that the little arrows from the Fellow set accented the title quite nicely. By the way, I used a bit of Glossy Accents on the fabric Thickers. 

Now here's something fun for you!

Would you like to win something brand new from the Peachy Keen collection? 

How about these cute stamps? 

All you have to do to win is leave a comment here on my blog  by Monday March 21st and I will choose a random winner who will receive this stamp set and maybe a few extra things just for fun!

Your next stop is the blog of the oh-so-fabulous Caroline Ikeji. 

Have fun hopping and Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Top o' the morning to ya.

I hope you have a fun day and that you are wearing green.

If you are around my kids and aren't wearing green today you are sure to be pinched.

They want green pancakes for breakfast and we'll see what else...we don't have much planned since the last few days have been so low-key for us without our car :(

Please check back a bit later for some scrappy fun. It will start at the American Crafts blog a bit later today ♥

March kit from My Scrapbook Nook- Crate Paper Emma's Shoppe

This paper collection was one that I liked most from this past CHA, one that I just knew I HAD to have.

If you are a scrapper you understand what I mean.

There are lots of great collections that are released every 6 months and this is one that I knew I had to have every piece of. Another was the Blossom Soup collection from Jillibean Soup.

Is that silly?

It probably is.

Regardless I was very excited to find out that Leah was going to try and get Emma's Shoppe for us for the March kit at My Scrapbook Nook. I warned my husband ahead of time that I would probably be spending too much money on add-ons to get the bits of the collection that weren't included in the kit ♥

I was feeling a bit under the weather yesterday but wanted to scrap anyway, wanted to start playing with this new collection and this is what I came up with:

(oh, I have to warn you that my Photoshop program is freaking out for some reason this morning. The sharpen tool wasn't working at all so I used one of the Pioneer Woman sharpening actions that I have and sometimes it worked and other times not. I think this computer must need a vacation so please forgive the awful quality of my pics today. Hopefully after restarting the computer I can get it to work better. Closing and restarting PSE didn't make a difference. Have any of you ever seen Photoshop wig out?)

Well, it looks like my computer is wigging out- may need to run a virus scan. At least I got this post together though it took longer than it should and the computer kept doing crazy things. I thought it was just my PSE but maybe not. 

something springy to brighten your day- March sketch from My Little Shoebox

I think we need as much sunshine in our lives right now as we can get.

Wouldn't you agree?

Yesterday a new sketch challenge was posted on the My Little Shoebox blog:

I decided to give it a try only I flipped the sketch to the left 90 degrees so that I could use my vertical picture. I also added a couple of extra pictures since I don't very often do pages with just one picture. 

Here is my take:

Sorry for the funky-ish pic.I need to get one that's a bit clearer and not so crooked.

and some detail shots:

the journaling; Sarah has always been our little flower girl gathering pretty flowers wherever she finds them. -Aurora, Colorado 2010

Isn't that little butterfly so cute? If you know my scrapping very well you know that I really like to cut things out of patterned paper to use for embellishments

These are some pictures that I took while we were in Aurora, Colorado last summer visiting my sister and her family. Sarah finds flowers wherever she goes and she had fun with these ones we found at the park.

The papers are, of course, My Little Shoebox as are the little black alpha stickers. The other alphas and the little dots on the flowers are from American Crafts. The glitter foam ones are some of my faves. ♥

You can try out the sketch, too, for a chance at a MLS prize pack. 

Details are here:

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2011/03/march-sketch-.html

In other news, I am going to play with my March kit from My Scrapbook Nook today!

how about some Peachy Keen?

The news has been so sad lately and while the events happening in Japan and in other parts around the world are still in the forefront of my mind I want to share something happy with you now.

How does that sound?

I have been playing with some of the new collections from American Crafts, most recently the Peachy Keen collection. It is so beautiful and worked just perfectly for some pictures I took at the stockyards in Fort Worth last month. Here's a picture I snapped of Hailey and Sarah walking down the main street.

I really enjoy the opportunity to play with my mists and paints and since I had the perfect colors to go with these papers I decided to go for it. Pink and ivory paint daubers from Jenni Bowlin, blue mist is from Maya Road and the white is from Studio Calico. Fun stuff!!

Everything here is from the Peachy Keen collection except for the little polka dot hearts and brown flowers

and the "bliss" chipboard. Those are from the Dear Lizzy Spring collection, another one of my faves.

These new embellishments are so cute and fun. The ribbon I gathered with thread and then attached with staples under the chipboard strip on which I used some foam adhesive.I sanded the little "bliss" piece. 

I hope that you are having a nice day. It's sunny here, it's Spring Break for the kids and since we have our van in the shop it's been a nice, quiet morning here at home. Well, not so quiet since the kids are here, but laid-back at least. I reorganized some things in the craft room and the kids have been doing some creating of their own. They say they want to be designers and work for a scrapbook company when they grow up. At least they have some good goals, right?

Happy Pi(e) day

We need something happy today, don't we?

Well, it's March the 14th, 3.14, otherwise known as Pi(e) Day and we plan to celebrate!

I will have a layout to share with you later, just need to upload and edit the pics.

The American Crafts design team has something fun for you later in the week as well.

For now, this breaks my heart: (from yahoo news)

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Huge-Japan-quake-causes-tsunami-fires-landslide/ss/events/wl/031111japanquake;_ylt=Aggibjj2B9MpyV8aY177CDVv24cA;_ylu=X3oDMTEwaXZncXV1BHBvcwMyOARzZWMDeW5fZmVhdHVyZWQEc2xrA2ltYWdl#photoViewer=/110314/481/urn_publicid_ap_org_e7d36855e47e48f68fe71c7f9ba52818

Can you imagine being a mom in the midst of this horrible tragedy? 

They must be so strong...I would hope that I could offer some comfort to my

children in light of all of the horrible things going on there.  

These pictures just overwhelm me emotionally. 

It is so hard to fight back the tears as I think of these poor people in Japan and all that they are going through right now. Most of us can't even imagine or grasp the devastation they must feel.

We are praying for the people of Japan- won't you please join us in praying for them? 

I will have something happier later today. 

good Saturday morning to you

It has been quite a week, once again, and I haven't blogged nearly as much as I would like. I have been busy creating though I can't share most of those things with you quite yet. I turned in a couple of design team submissions this week and am crossing my fingers and even biting my nails a bit as I wait to see if anything comes of it. If only the rest of this month would just speed up!

If you wanted to try for the Jillibean Soup team you still have a few days!

I am also waiting for my kit from My Scrapbook Nook to arrive...once that does you probably won't see me for a while because I'll be busy creating with Emma's Shoppe and playing with the other add-ons I bought this month. I am doing a layout class with this kit so I'll let you know when that's up- hopefully the forum will be up and running by then. It has taken much longer than any of us anticipated but it will be so nice to have the new site. Darn hackers. If they'd stayed away we wouldn't have had to go through this.

The team at American Crafts has something in store for you in the coming week and I've been working on something for that, playing with the new Peachy Keen collection. I made an extra layout with those papers and embellishments that I'll be able to share with you as soon as I take some pictures!

My thoughts the last couple of days, though, have been with the people of  Japan. The pictures of the devastation are just horrific. Having an earthquake of that magnitude is terrible enough, and then to add a tsunami on top of that is just unimaginable. Heaven help those poor people.

These are some images from yahoo.com.

My heart is sad because of what has happened there and hope that you and your loved ones are safe.

♥♥♥