*One Scrappin' Mama

guest designer for American Crafts

2012-02-02T06:10:00.000-06:00

This was such a fun guest spot for me!

Here are a couple of my projects and I will share some more tomorrow. I received the Amy Tangerine, Daydreams, Chap and Garden Cafe lines to play with.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

More projects using the Baby Girl Collection from Bella Blvd

2012-02-01T09:22:00.003-06:00

Good morning! This week on the Bella blog we are sharing LOTS and LOTS of projects using the brand new Bella Blvd releases from this CHA and today it's time for more of the Baby Girl collection so I thought I'd share a few more projects with you!

First up, a layout with pictures of brand-new Lily. Time sure flies way too quickly.

And a card- the fun thing about this collection is that a lot of the patterns are versatile enough to use for everyday kinds of projects and not just "baby" ones.

I thought these little onesies were so cute that I cut some from the border strip paper to use on this card.

And lastly, a mini album with pics of each month of baby Lily's life so far.

I cut some strips of cardstock 6 inches x 12 inches and scored at every 4 inches, then adhered a few strips together, covered with patterned paper, added some of the new Designer Tapes on the edges and then added the pictures and a few stickers and other embellishments.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

p.s. Here's another fun little thing:

http://americancrafts.typepad.com/studio/2012/02/guest-designer-becky-williams.html

I had the fun opportunity to be on the design team at American Crafts last year and when I got the email from Page a few months back about guest designing OF COURSE I said yes! Check the blog later for a look at my projects and I will post them here as well with lots of detail shots.

some cards using My Little Shoebox

2012-01-29T15:36:00.000-06:00

My assignment for My Little Shoebox this month was to create a bunch of cards using the Destinations collection.

Because of all of the CHA sneaks these haven't made it up on the MLS blog yet but I thought I'd go ahead and share a few with you today. This collection is fun with its bright images and it can be used for themed projects and a wide variety of others as you will see here;

These all use the Destinations collection which is very "themey", but as you can see, I have used them for a variety of cards and only one of which is real "themey".

Do you like My Little Shoebox? I just received two of the brand new collections and just might have a giveaway this coming week if there is some interest. ☺

Have a great weekend and thanks so much for stopping by!

new Jillibean Soup!

2012-01-28T10:23:00.000-06:00

I can't wait to get some of these brand new cute things from Jillibean Soup!

Check out the new corrugated albums and new twine colors (I got some of the gray and light pink to use for my CHA projects and it's so cute!):

Leave a comment on this post on the Jillibean blog for your chance to win:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/corrugated-albums-and-new-bakers-twine-colors.html

more cuteness from Bella Blvd

2012-01-26T12:21:00.001-06:00

I just wanted to share some more cute new embellishments being released by Bella Blvd for this CHA:

Aren't they so cute? You can win some by leaving a comment here:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-crochet-flowers.html

High Five alphabet stickers from Bella Blvd

2012-01-25T10:06:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

It's another fly-by post today since I am off to take Aimee to gymnastics.

Today Bella Blvd is sharing the brand new alphabet stickers: High Five alphas. FIVE because there are five different kinds of alphabet stickers on the sheet.

You can see all of them and have a chance to win some by leaving a comment here:
http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-sophisticates-high-five-alphabet-stickers.html#comments

Here is the layout I created using just about all of the new stickers:

Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Jillibean card share

2012-01-24T06:14:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog today.

Here is a quick card for you using some fun Jillibean Soup. I just love the new releases and you'll get to see more of the great new things soon!

This mixes some Sweet & Sour Soup (gray background) and Hearty Barley Soup ♥

Have a great day!

more Bella cuteness

2012-01-23T08:06:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

I am back from my whirlwind trip to California this weekend and my head is still a bit dizzy from my many flights yesterday so this will be a quick one :)

We had so much fun hanging out and getting reacquainted- you see, I haven't seen some of these girls in 20 years!! It had been way too long but we were able to pick up where we'd left off like no time had passed at all. We are hoping to make it a yearly event now and I can't wait until the next time I get to see everyone.

Here we are at dinner at Scott's Seafood restaurant in Sacramento, CA

We got pedicures earlier in the day and even baby Lily got her toenails painted!! Isn't that so cute?

Anyway, on to the reason for my post- I have some more new Bella to share with you- they've added some new colors to the Sophisticates collection along with lots and lots of new chipboard shapes. You can see bits of it on this layout that I created and see the rest on the Bella blog here:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-sophisticates-sprinkle-lace-new-chipboard-elements.html#comments

Make sure to visit this post and leave a comment for your chance to win some brand new Bella Blvd.

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-sophisticates-sprinkle-lace-new-chipboard-elements.html#comments

Have a great day!

new Designer Tape from Bella Blvd

2012-01-20T11:16:00.000-06:00

I have to admit that when I saw the sneaks for the new washi tape from Bella Blvd I got a little excited.

Ok, a LOT excited and I not-so-secretly wished that there would be some in my product box that for my CHA and catalog work. I got 5 of the new tapes and am so anxious to get the other colors.

Here is the layout that I created using some of the tape and the Spring Flings and Easter Things collection:

Isn't that tape so cute?

Take a look over on the Bella blog for a look at all of the tapes and a beautiful layout that Laura Vegas created using the tapes. You can also leave a comment for a chance to win some of this cute tape:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/fridays-with-me-stephanie.html#comments

We're Expecting collection from Bella Blvd and a peek

2012-01-19T08:14:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

I am so glad that it's Thursday- it means we are SO close to the weekend and this weekend I get to go on a trip to visit with friends I haven't seen for 20 years. What a fun reunion it is going to be!

But, because I am going out of town I am working like a crazy woman to get things done before I leave tomorrow.

For today I have just a peek of one of my projects using the new Bella Blvd "We're Expecting" collection and I will share the full layout soon. You can see more of this collection and have a chance to win some by leaving a comment on today's post on the Bella blog.

And here is the collection:

You can see more here:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-were-expecting.html

Game Day Chili from Jillibean Soup

2012-01-18T07:35:00.000-06:00

I have one more sneak to share with you today: Game Day Chili from Jillibean Soup.

Jill sure knows how to use the kraft paper, that's for sure. I received a set of these papers to play with and they are even cuter in person than online and I will be using them for my girls' soccer and gymnastics pictures!

Make sure to leave a comment for your chance to win some: http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/how-about-some-game-day-chili.html

Brand new Baby Girl collection from Bella Blvd and another new layout from me!

2012-01-18T07:27:00.000-06:00

It seems to be either feast or famine around my blog lately, huh?

This week is definitely feast time!

Today I am sharing with you a cute new baby girl collection:

Here is a page that I created with this collection featuring our cute miss Lily. It was so fun to go back and look at these brand new baby pictures again.

Pretty darn cute, huh?

Leave a comment on this Bella blog post for your chance to win some:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-baby-girl-collection.html#comments

My Little Shoebox Up in the Trees

2012-01-18T07:17:00.000-06:00

Here is another cute collection from MLS- Up in the Trees.

This is just a peek and you can see the entire line on the My Little Shoebox blog:
http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2012/01/2012-winter-reveal-week-up-in-the-trees.html

For your chance to win some leave a comment on the post for this collection:

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2012/01/2012-winter-reveal-week-up-in-the-trees.html

Button Market from Bella Blvd

2012-01-17T08:10:00.000-06:00

Up next in the reveals from Bella Blvd is Button Market!

Here is a page that I created using some of the new buttons and you can see the rest on the Bella blog right now:
http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-button-market-.html#comments

Head on over to the Bella Blvd blog for another look at the cute buttons and a chance to win some for yourself!

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-button-market-.html#comments

and the new Happy Go Lucky from MLS

2012-01-17T05:11:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

Are you ready for more sneaks?

Here is the Happy Go Lucky collection from My Little Shoebox; you can see the full reveal and have a chance to win a collection pack here:

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2012/01/2012-winter-reveal-week-happy-go-lucky.html

Make sure to leave a comment on the MLS blog for your chance to win some of this cute new collection!

and the new Baby Boy collection from Bella Blvd

2012-01-16T07:11:00.000-06:00

I am going to be sharing lots of sneaks over the next couple of weeks and now I have some new things from Bella Blvd!

Here are some of the parts of this collection and you can check the Bella blog for more details and a chance to win a Baby Boy collection pack:

The whole collection at a glance.

A brand new addition to the Bella family: flags!

cute new chipboard

One of my faves- the sticker sheet

Gray chevron. I am so in love.

cute little trucks!

For another look and for a chance to win a collection pack please head on over to the Bella blog and leave a comment on today's post for Baby Boy! There will be move reveals for the next two weeks and lots more chances to win the brand new collections.

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2012/01/sneak-peek-week-baby-boy-collection.html

how about some new My Little Shoebox?

2012-01-16T06:19:00.001-06:00

The first full reveal of one of the new My Little Shoebox collections is up on the MLS blog already and it's cute!

Here are some of my favorite pieces- isn't the color scheme so fresh and cute?

LOVE the gray and aqua combo!!!

cute new stickers! I really like this new style and that blue is one of my faves right now.

new cardstock!

Isn't it adorable? I really like the bright colors and happy designs.

Leave a comment on the MLS blog on this post for your chance to win:

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/2012/01/2012-winter-reveal-week-keepsake.html

a quick Jillibean card share

2012-01-16T06:09:00.000-06:00

It is finally CHA reveal time and I have SO many new projects to share very soon but for now I will share with you a card that I made that's up on the Jillibean Soup blog today:

Isn't that owl so cute?

Stay tuned later for some brand new things that I have to share with you.

Have a great day!

and how about some Coconut Lime Soup?

2012-01-13T06:16:00.000-06:00

This cute collection just went live on the Jillibean Soup blog a few minutes ago so I will share it with you here- it's such a fun one with this fresh color scheme and cute patterns. It's even cuter in person ♥

Cute, huh?

Leave a comment on the Jillibean blog for your chance to win a collection pack:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/did-someone-say-coconut-lime-soup.html

Have a great weekend!

our little rockstar

2012-01-12T07:17:00.000-06:00

My second oldest, Sarah, is quite the zany girl.

She is loud and silly, smart and creative.

She isn't afraid to do her own thing.

Here she is in some pictures taken at a park in the Dallas area when we were visiting there for a weekend with family. She was standing up on a picnic table pretending to be a rockstar. Since then she got a Barbie guitar for Christmas and she REALLY has fun being the center of attention.

I created this page for Jillibean Soup using the Sweet and Sour Soup collection. The numbers paper background is from the kraft Soup Staples. You can see more cute things from the design team on the Jillibean blog: http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com

Have a great day!

a new sneak from Jillibean Soup- and you're gonna love it!

2012-01-11T06:19:00.000-06:00

Yes, things are slow here on the blogfront. I've been busy with kids and busy with projects for the big trade show the end of this month. I've been working like crazy on projects for the Bella Blvd catalog, playing with some of the cute new products that y'all are going to love.

Last week Jillibean Soup showed off the cute new Easter line and today they're sharing my favorite of all of the new Jillibean lines, Neapolitan Bean Bisque. It's such a fun line and such vibrant colors and cute patterns. I am waiting for the day that my box arrives so that I can see it in person and play!

Isn't it so cute? I think so. I love the chevrons and flower print and grid background and the cute hearts and...

Yep, I love it.

If you'd like a chance to win it leave a comment on this post on the Jillibean Soup blog:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2012/01/whats-that-neopolitan-bean-bisque-thats-what-it-is.html#comments

Saturday sketches on Friday

2012-01-06T09:36:00.000-06:00

In order to give Bella Blvd's Stephanie a break today the Saturday Sketch post is up on the Bella blog today so I can share my page a day early!

This is the sketch that I was given to work with; I just rotated it 90 degrees:

And here is my page:

I really like to add these cute stickers to my pages these days!

You can see some of the other designers' work on the Bella Blvd blog:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/

Have a great weekend!

back to the ol' grindstone

2012-01-05T08:55:00.000-06:00

It was nice to have the kids home during their holiday break, fun to have them around, nice to sleep in if I wanted to (though, who am I kidding? I don't get to sleep in), the kids got to play and go to the park and stay up a bit later than they do on school nights.

While that was all the case I think that they were getting a bit antsy toward the end and were more than ready to go back to school yesterday. It's a bit quieter around the house today, there is less fighting (hooray!) and I can finally get to work really cleaning things up and un-decking my halls.

I have been working on lots of projects and wish that I had something brand new to share with you but for now I will just have to wait. CHA is right around the corner and I've been working on some projects and am now anxious to get to see and create with the new products!

For today, though, I'll just share another page I made for my guest spot with Pebbles Inc.

Yes, I have 4 girls and as much as they like to dress up like a princess and play with their dolls they also like to play in the dirt, play soccer and climb trees. These pictures were taken one day at a local park this past fall.

The page is more simple in design than I tend to do but I like how that draws your eyes to the pictures, the most important part of the page anyway.

Have a great day!

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T06:22:00.001-06:00

Welcome to the year 2012!

I can still remember back to when we were saying, "Welcome to the year 2000," the year when everyone was worried about "Y2K" and people were clearing store shelves of food and other supplies.

It looks like we all survived ok. ha ha.

Last year passed with lots of great things in our family, some hard and crazy times and unexpected twists and turns in the road so I am anxious to see what this new year will bring.

Thank you all for your sweet comments and for visiting my little ol' blog now and then.

Today I am up way too early as usual, trying to get some things ready for the new year at church with new classes and teachers and things in the kids' Primary organization. I am the secretary and I've been updating documents and printing and now printing things again.

I am about to head back to bed but thought I'd share a few more Pebbles Inc. projects that I did for my guest stint with them.

First off, this layout of baby Lily. You can't see it very well in the picture but she has a long string of drool from her mouth to the floor. She has been quite a drooler lately; I just knew she was cutting teeth and sure enough, she got her first two teeth at the beginning of last month.

I used the Fresh Goods collection for this one and a mix of alphas from that collection and the new With Love line. I think that I have a thing for banner strips lately because I used them on this page and the page I posted the other day. I didn't realize until after the Pebbles post went up that these two layouts turned out a bit similar in design. It was completely unintentional. It's funny how that happens sometimes.

I used a couple of the little sticky notes on this page and love the layered chipboard flowers. Of course staples have become quite a, um, staple on my pages. Yeah, not funny, I know, but I use them on just about everything I make.

Yes, I am a bit of a twine addict. I just ordered some Valentine's baker's twine and got a great discount on that and some Christmas twine from Pebbles In My Pocket. It should be here on Monday! I love it when manufacturers (like Pebbles, Jillibean Soup) add twine to their collections.

I also created this little mailbox and cards using the With Love collection:

I have one more layout and card to share with you tomorrow.

For now, have a great scrappy day!

favorite layouts of 2011

2011-12-31T06:20:00.000-06:00

Are you ready for 2012?

It's almost here, which is so hard for me to believe.

It seems that 2011 has just FLOWN by, hasn't it?

Anyway, I really enjoy seeing others' blog posts with their favorite layouts of the year and have done one of these posts the past 2 or 3 years so I thought I'd go ahead and do it again after seeing some of the Scrapbook Nook ladies' work.

Some might be faves because of the pictures, some because of the design or the journaling.

There are some pages that I made this year that I really loved but they are out for pub so they are out of the running here. Hopefully next year I can get more organized and submit more!

Here goes, in no particular order: (and, since I couldn't pick ten I chose 11 in honor of 2011)

I hope that 2012 brings you much happiness and many wonderful things!

Pebbles Inc. guest designer

2011-12-30T09:18:00.002-06:00

If I had to choose which collections from the last Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) show were my favorites, one of them would be the Fresh Goods collection from Pebbles Inc.

Because of this, I was so excited to get to guest design for Pebbles this month! I got to use the Fresh Goods line along with the cute new With Love line.

Here is one of the layouts that I created for this assignment and you can see my other projects on the Pebbles blog here: http://pebblesinc.blogspot.com/2011/12/guest-designer-becky-williams-and.html

I combined the two collections for this page and think they work together so well!

Here are some detail shots:

I love to mix fonts and colors of alphas and was even able to sneak in this cute "Love" stamp.

Pebbles Inc. is one of those companies that just keeps getting better and better over the years.

It sure was fun to get to work with these cute products.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today. I'll share some more of these projects with you tomorrow.

Have a great day! I'm off to decorate a gingerbread train with the kids.

p.s. there's a giveaway on the Pebbles blog today, too, so make sure to leave a comment for your chance to win!

http://pebblesinc.blogspot.com/2011/12/guest-designer-becky-williams-and.html

Happy Birthday to Sarah

2011-12-29T03:50:00.001-06:00

In honor of my daughter turning 6 today I thought I'd share six of my favorite Sarah pages from this past year:

She is such a fun, silly girl and such a blessing in our family.

Happy birthday, Sarah!

Our Not-So-Merry Elf is 8 months old today!

2011-12-27T11:07:00.002-06:00

Today is a great day for me to post a new Lily layout!

I created this page for Bella Blvd using this as inspiration:

And here is my layout:

This cute girl wasn't so happy to have her picture taken with her little Santa hat on! I'm glad that I was at least able to get one picture with her smiling before the tears started.

You can see the other Bella designers' takes on this color inspiration on the Bella Blvd blog today

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2011/12/tuesday-inspiration-1.html

This sweet girl is 8 months old today which is just so hard for me to believe.

I hope that you are having a great day!

Merry Christmas to you!

2011-12-24T10:11:00.001-06:00

I know that it's Christmas Eve but since I may not get on here tomorrow I wanted to wish all of you a very merry Christmas to you and your loved ones.

Here is the card that we sent out- of course it had to have some chevron stripes on it this year! My sister-in-law, Ginger, took the picture for us while we were on one of our little weekend getaways with them, the template is from an Etsy store and I put it together and got a great deal on printing them from Snapfish. I think I'll be doing our cards this way from now on.

Guess what?

Santa brought my gift a little bit early...it's SNOWING!

Yes, we were teased a bit by the weatherman saying we might get a bit of snow yesterday and...nothing.

But today it's snowing and it's so beautiful!

I have a brother-in-law in Houston who would rather it be 70 degrees for Christmas but I LOVE to have snow! It always feels more like Christmas to me when there's snow on the ground.

Merry Christmas and may God bless you and your family and friends with joy and peace this holiday season.

it's almost Christmas!

2011-12-22T08:05:00.000-06:00

Can you believe it?

It seems like each year Christmas comes faster and faster and goes by more and more quickly.

My husband likes to tease the girls about waiting a little longer to have our Christmas- opening gifts and all that jazz- just so that it will last a little bit longer. I mean, once you are done, you are done and have to wait a whole other year. They don't tend to like that idea very much, which I am sure is no surprise.

Well, now it's almost here.

How about we celebrate by me sharing a layout that I created for Jillibean Soup with some pictures of my girls from last year. Hopefully it won't take me a full year to scrap the pictures from THIS Christmas but I had fun using this year's Jillibean Soup to scrap this page.

For one of our assignments this month we were supposed to use the 6x6 paper pads (anything except for Christmas Eve Chowder) so I mixed up a little bit of this and that and piled it on a piece of white corrugated paper from Jillibean with a mix of corrugated and cardstock alphas and some Pea Pod Parts and some Soup Labels and other stickers and twine.

silly girls! They sure do keep life interesting and fun.

Have a very Merry Christmas!

some My Little Shoebox

2011-12-20T06:24:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by for Stephanie's blog hop yesterday. I think we can safely say that we gave her a nice surprise on her birthday. She had more surprises waiting at her office that I hope she enjoyed as well. Laura Vegas, our design team leader, did such a great job organizing everything!

I am up to my ears in Christmas prep and lots of scrappy projects (some I will share with you in about a week since it's for a fun guest design spot) so that I can meet my deadlines before Christmas. Right now the companies are in full-speed-ahead mode as they prepare for the coming trade show next month where the new products will be released. I am getting so anxious to see what new things will be coming our way and excited to get to create some things for the show!

I thought I'd just share a quick card today using some cute products from My Little Shoebox:

And, I don't think I've shared this here yet:

Have a wonderful day!

A Birthday Surprise Blog Hop for Bella Blvd's Stephanie Hunt

2011-12-19T05:00:00.007-06:00

Good morning and welcome to the last stop of a very special birthday blog hop for the fabulous Stephanie Hunt, the brains and creative juice behind Bella Blvd.

We thought it would be fun to wish her Happy Birthday in a BIG way by having each of the participating bloggers create a birthday card especially for Stephanie for her special day. There are 26 of us participating in this hop to spread a little bit of birthday cheer and to wish a Happy birthday to you, Stephanie! We hope that it's a great day for you!

If you are following along in this hop you should have started at this morning at the Bella Blvd blog where hopefully Stephanie has found a wonderful surprise waiting for her in the form of this blog hop.

Simply follow the links on each blog in the hop so that you don't miss anything.

AND, since we are doing random giveaways as well you REALLY don't want to miss any of the blogs or the card inspiration found at each stop along the way. I'll tell you more about that in a minute.

If you just happened upon my blog and you haven't seen all of the other cards before mine, please head on over to the Bella blog where all of the fun begins. You should have arrived here at my blog from the blog of Wendy Wagner.

It is such a fun thing for me to be a part of this hop and I am so happy to be a member of the design team at Bella Blvd. Thank you to Stephanie for giving me this opportunity!

Here is the card that I created using one of the most popular Bella papers, this cupcake patterned paper from the Sweet Celebration collection. It was brought back by popular demand because it was so cute!

I just love the bright, cheery colors and patterns of the Bella collections. I'm glad that this cute cupcake paper has made a reappearance! Isn't it so fun?

Now, I mentioned earlier that there will be some giveaways during this hop, right?

Even thought it's Stephanie's birthday, we have some gifts for a few of you lucky readers as well! We know how generous and giving Stephanie is and we know she would never have a fun blog hop without a few giveaways up for grabs, too. We got permission from Robin, who works alongside Stephanie in the office, to pick TEN lucky winners who will each receive a Bella Blvd collection. All you need to do to be entered in the random drawings is to leave Stephanie your birthday wishes in the comment section. You have lots of opportunities to up your chances since you can leave a comment on each blog you visit as you go through the blog hop. There are 26 blogs, plus the Bella Blvd blog, for a total of 27 chances to get your name in the pot. We will randomly choose winners from 10 randomly chosen blogs and announce them on Friday!

What do you think of that?

Pretty cool, huh?

Don't forget to leave a comment here for your chance to win a collection from Bella Blvd and make sure that you leave a way for us to contact you if you're one of the winners. If you'd like to, head on over to Stephanie's blog to leave her some birthday wishes there, too.

We hope that you have enjoyed our little hop today and that you've found all kinds of card inspiration to go and create some of your own cards for someone you love. Thanks so much for stopping by!

Have a wonderful day!

mixing it up again

2011-12-17T04:22:00.002-06:00

Good morning!

I know it's a little early, I am not even sure why my body thinks that 3:30 is an acceptable time for me to wake up but it seems like the last couple of weeks at least it's been that way. I really need to figure out what the deal is. I am usually awake long before baby Lily starts to make a peep.

So, since I'm up and I hadn't yet scheduled a blog post for today here I am.

While I should be addressing Christmas cards so that they can get in the mail before Valentine's Day (that's what happened last year) instead I have been checking friends' blogs, reading this and that other interesting/fun thing but not doing anything particularly productive. I need to get a package ready to send but I haven't done that, either. It's not that I am bah humbug this year but there is definitely something different and I am not so cheery- wanting to get the halls decked as soon as Thanksgiving was over this year like I normally am. I have been a bit too cranky. We still don't have all of our decorations out, there's nothing out on the lawn like we usually have because Matt's been working and recovering and we've been dealing with sick kids and running here and there and everything else. We're just behind this year.

Most of the scrapping that I've done lately has been for an assignment but the other day, at some insane hour of the morning since I was up anyway, I scrapped a page using some new things in my stash- a bit of Crate Paper Peppermint, some October Afternoon Farmhouse, some American Crafts Thickers. It was fun to play a bit and mix things up the way I like to do.

The pictures were taken a few weeks ago when we actually had a little bit of snow- it wasn't much but playing in it after the kids got out of school was a necessity because it's not often that they actually GET to play in snow. Homework waited that day and we got out and played, did snow angels, had a snowball fight- the kids thought it was hilarious to throw the snowballs in a way that I'd get hit right in the face or so it would run down my shirt since my coat wasn't zipped up enough, apparently. It was nice to be playing with them instead of feeling like a drill sergeant trying to get them to do homework or chores or to stop fighting or banging on this or that.

Anyway, here is the page with pictures of Hailey making snow angels and having a wonderful time.

I used some Twinery twine on the flowers (Fiskars punch) and a mix of embellishments from OA, AC and Crate.Funny thing, if you are much into scrapping you totally know what those initials are and we commonly get into our scrappy lingo where other people have no idea what we're talking about! Ever since I saw those cute gray American Crafts alphas I'd been coveting them and finally got some.

Good grief, I get overly chatty at 4 in the morning.

My 4 year old shared a new word with me yesterday- spectabulous.

So, whatever you are doing this weekend, I hope that it is spectabulous!

sharing some more Paper Bakery love

2011-12-16T05:32:00.000-06:00

Good morning once again.

Today I thought I'd share with you some of my other creations made with the Library Book add-on kit from the Paper Bakery this month.

First off, here's a card:

I used a Fiskars punch to make the flowers out of the tissue paper and used my EK Success zigzag border punch to make the chevron stripes. The tag by itself was beautiful but I thought the flowers added just the right touch.

Here's a little close-up shot of the flowers:

I used the tissue paper again to make the ruffle on the top of this layout about our summer trip to Galveston Island in Texas, not too far from where we have family living outside of Houston.

I appreciate so much that you could stop by my blog today.

What are you up to this weekend?

Are you ready for the coming holidays?

It's hard to believe that Christmas is less than two weeks away!

What is your favorite Christmas treat?

I hope that you have a great weekend!

hot off the press!

2011-12-15T14:13:00.003-06:00

Just in case you haven't seen it yet, the brand new Bella Blvd newsletter is up now! Check it out for lots of gorgeous inspiration and even a giveaway.

You can find out more here:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2011/12/decembers-bella-buzz-newsletter-is-here.html

The Paper Bakery!

2011-12-15T07:38:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

How is your week going so far?

Are you ready for the holidays?

It looks like Christmas exploded at our house- there are storage containers all over the downstairs, remnants of treat making in the kitchen, toys all over the living room floor...

We just have to make it through the rest of this week and then the kids will be home for Christmas break, we can relax a bit and hopefully clean things up, too. We've just been running around like crazy and making our rounds to the doctors as well.

This month I had the fun opportunity of guest designing for the Paper Bakery, a fun little kit club that specializes in project kits that are great for altered items and also things like layouts and cards.

Here is the cute kit that I got to work with:

You can get your kit here:

http://sarahspaperbakery-monthlykitclub.blogspot.com/2011/12/december-2011-kits.html

Here is one of the layouts that I created with this kit:

and some close-ups of some details on the page:

These are just hand-cut hearts and I used my EK Success border punch for the chevrons.

cute blue Jillibean Soup alphas

The tissue paper in the kit was so cute! I used one of my Sizzix dies to cut the flower and then bunched up some of the blue trim to make the flower center and a piece of a fabric strip for the tie.

The brown flower came in the kit and the others were cut from the same flower die that I used for the tissue paper flower.

I'll share some more things tomorrow!

Thanks so much, Sarah, for the chance to guest design this month.

I hope that you all have a wonderful day!

Thanks so much for stopping by.

new Jillibean Soup page

2011-12-13T06:31:00.000-06:00

One thing that rings so true at our house is that every one of our children is so different.

Sure, there are similarities but there are also little personality quirks that make each one unique.

My almost-6 year old is quite the silly one, always doing crazy things and coming up with wierd ideas that just make me laugh or drive me crazy.

Here's a page I made about her for Jillibean Soup that's up on their blog today:

You can see more of the Jillibean designers' work and see the new monthly sketch by Julie Bonner here:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/12/layouts-and-a-sketch-contest-on-thursday.html

Have a wonderful day!

a Jillibean Soup sketch contest with PageMaps!

2011-12-12T08:24:00.000-06:00

Good Monday morning to you!

Do you love PageMaps and Jillibean Soup?

PageMaps is hosting a contest where you could win some Jillibean!

All you have to do is create a page based on this sketch:

http://pagemaps.blogspot.com/2011/12/jillibean-soup-sketch-contest.html

Create your page and leave a comment at the PageMaps blog post using the link above by January 1, 2012 (can you believe it?!) and you could win some Christmas Eve Chowder from Jillibean Soup!

a sneak peek

2011-12-08T04:37:00.001-06:00

I have the fun opportunity to do a couple of guest spots this month and thought I'd share a few sneaks of some of the projects I made for one of them:

I'll share more soon!

making Daddy fancy with Bella Blvd

2011-12-07T09:25:00.000-06:00

It's a quick post day!

Here is a page that I created for Bella Blvd:

It's a crazy-busy day!

I'll be back again soon!

some things that we've been up to, Jillibean Soup and Scor Pal **lots of pictures

2011-12-06T04:27:00.002-06:00

Good morning!

Guess what?

We have snow!!

We got a light dusting yesterday and the girls had so much fun playing after school. Since chances to play in the snow are rare in these parts, of course I had to take some pictures, some of which will surely make it onto future scrapbook pages.

Bella and birdie tracks on the patio

Yes, I guess it's time to get the pumpkins off of the porch. They worked well for Fall but now that we have snow...gotta do something with them.

silly Aimee- 4 years old

I don't think they were too excited to pause their fun for a picture.

Hailey- 7 years old. Not too long after this picture Aimee threw a snowball at her face!

She was excited to have her cute green coat back- we thought we'd lost it but after searching at the church, at the girls' gym and all over the house I found it wadded up in a corner on the floor by where the kids hang their coats. She has a thing for green lately and the thought that her coat was gone for good caused quite a disturbance yesterday morning before school.

Sarah- almost 6 years old- trying to catch snowflakes. She was amazed at how different they were as she watched them fall onto her coat. She has Lily's hat on in this picture ☺

We also had a lively snowball fight- those girls of mine were ruthless and had fun pounding their dear old mom with snowballs. It was so much fun!

This last weekend the girls had their Christmas Spectacular at the gym they go to. Each of the kids got to show off what they've been learning so far this year at gymnastics, karate or dance. We spent most of the day there on Saturday but the kids had lots of fun and even got to take pictures with Santa Claus.

Aimee with her teacher on the balance beam. She was so great on Saturday and excitedly hopped from one thing to another doing everything that she was supposed to do.

Hailey on the balance beam with her coach

and with Santa Claus during the award ceremony

Sarah during warm-ups

and on the balance beam. She says that the handstand dismount is "easy".

Yeah, right. Maybe for a five year old.

And Sarah with her coach and Santa

Hailey also got to show off her newly-acquired karate skills that have earned her an orange belt with a white stripe, up from a white belt. She really does enjoy it and one of these days she's going to break out of her shell and surprise her teachers with some aggressiveness. She's just so reserved. Just like her mama.

Here's Hailey with some of the kids in her class. She is to the left with the blue leotard under her karate uniform.

Another thing we've been up to is decking our halls. We pulled everything down out of the attic last week to look for nativities to take for our church Nativity exhibit and yesterday the girls got to decorate their own tree; it's now chock-full of ornaments of the unbreakable variety. They took pride in placing each bulb and I had to laugh as I looked at some of the branches that had half a dozen ornaments. I would guess that my little 4-year-old helper could only reach just so high so many of her ornaments went on the same branches.

(don't you love the forced smiles?)

Baby Lily sat by just watching in amazement; it was so cute! Her first Christmas!

And now for something scrappy:

We at Jillibean Soup had the fun opportunity this last month to do a cross-promotion for Scor-Pal.

Before this I'd never used a scoring board before but really like the plethora of things that you can do with it. I don't think mine will be gathering dust anytime too soon.

Here are some pictures of the "Merry" banner that I created using the Scor-Pal, Jillibean Soup's Christmas Eve Chowder collection, some tulle, twine and corrugated alphas.

I used the Scor-Pal to make the stars and the little accordion flowers:

I cut out the stars using my Cricut (thanks, Ginger) and then scored from the points to the center between points and folded on the scoring lines.

The accordion flowers are pretty basic; I added corrugated flowers and alphas and used some ivory twine that I've had in my stash for quite some time along with some tulle from American Crafts.

It was kind of tricky to photograph the whole thing since it's about 6 feet long but hopefully you get the idea:

We are looking forward to more snow today and the kids don't have to be to school until 10 am so that the roads can thaw out a bit since it's only 13 degrees outside. Yep, there's an inch of snow on the ground and there is a 2-hour delay. You've gotta love snow in Texas!

So, you see, we have been pretty busy. I really do need to be a better blogger, though.

I have some other projects and a couple of fun guest designer things coming up this month that I can't wait to share with you!

Have a wonderful day!

Jillibean Soup and PageMaps

2011-12-03T04:54:00.000-06:00

This month the girls at Jillibean Soup were invited to help with Becky Fleck's PageMaps newsletter.

http://www.pagemaps.com/dec11maps.htm

Here is the layout that I created to go along with the sketch I received:

Have a great day!

My Little Shoebox share

2011-12-01T08:48:00.001-06:00

Good morning!

I'm still feeling a bit under the weather so this will be another quick post today.

It's hard when the mama is not feeling well because things still have to get done and kids have to be taken care of.

Here's a quick share of some My Little Shoebox projects for November using the Enchanted Garden collection:

Thank you so much for stopping by!

Shabby Apple Giveaway winner

2011-11-30T14:05:00.000-06:00

Good afternoon!

I hope that you are all having a nice day.

It appears that our first bug of the season is visiting our house- thankfully it seems that so far it's just me and my husband and I hope that it stays that way! We tend to get some kind of stomach bug or flu around Thanksgiving that wants to stick around through the holidays. This year we are boycotting germs! (well, it's worth a try anyway). I have had a horrible headache and nausea today so all of the scrapping and other things that I needed to do have been put on the back burner for now.

Thanks to all of you who entered the Shabby Apple dress giveaway.

I used random.org to choose a lucky winner from the 28 comments received and the winner is lucky #20, Savannah O'Gwynn! Congratulations to you, Savannah. I will leave a comment on your blog with how you can claim your prize.

Have a great afternoon!

p.s. would you believe that we're going to get snow in west Texas this weekend?

Craziness!!

Shabby Apple Giveaway winner will be announced today.

2011-11-30T07:00:00.002-06:00

Please check back this afternoon to see if you are the lucky winner.

Have a great day!

Shabby Apple dress giveaway and a card

2011-11-29T05:52:00.003-06:00

Today is the last day to enter the drawing!

Please see the link below- you have until tonight to enter and then I will post the winner tomorrow.

http://onescrappinmama.blogspot.com/2011/11/shabby-apple-giveaway-day.html

I also have another card to share with you that I made using a pretty Petaloo flower for our cross-promotion with them this month at Jillibean Soup:

Have a great day!

tis the season

2011-11-28T06:10:00.000-06:00

Now that Thanksgiving has passed all of our attention is focused on Christmas, which I love.

(This is a card that I created for Jillibean Soup for our Petaloo Flowers feature. You can see more of the designer's work with Petaloo on the Jillibean blog today)

It truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

It is a time when we think about others more, think about the birth of Jesus, try to be kinder and find ways to help others in need. It brings out the best in a lot of people.

One thing that we do as a family is choose someone to do "Secret Santa" things for. It's usually someone the kids know from school who could use a little extra cheer, someone who might not have much for Christmas otherwise. We make treats, buy gifts and do fun things for them in the days before Christmas. It's so much fun for the kids (and us!) to drop things off, ring the doorbell and then take off down the street!

What kinds of things do you do to bring Christmas cheer?

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T05:29:00.000-06:00

I want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.

It has been a hard year but a great year for our family and we have what we need and more.

We have a roof over our heads, warm beds to sleep in and food to eat.

We have each other and we have other family and friends who love us.

We have a Father in Heaven who loves us and blesses us each day.

I know that there are many around us and around the world who don't have these basic things. I've seen it for myself and we try each year to help someone else so that we and our kids can be reminded of how blessed we are and how important it is to help and serve other people.

I hope that you have a wonderful Thanksgiving day, for all of my U.S. friends. For the rest of you, have a wonderful day as well and thank you all so much for visiting my blog.

Six Months old already

2011-11-23T14:02:00.000-06:00

It's so hard to believe that our baby Lily is already 6 months old though I can't hardly remember the time before she joined our family. What a sweetheart she is. She loves to stick out her tongue and blow bubbles, put every single thing into her mouth, loves to laugh and smile and "sing" and talk. She's a great eater and loves to be around her big sisters.

Here is a layout that I created for Bella Blvd using a mix of collections along with one of the calendar pages from the Sophisticates collection.

and a few close-ups:

Funny thing is, now that I have this posted I realized that she will be 7 months old in just a few days!

Time sure flies!

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I hope that you have a great Thanksgiving!

2011-11-22T06:30:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

Here is a card that I created for Jillibean Soup using papers from the Homemade 6 Bean Soup and Apple Cheddar Soup collections along with the new corrugated papers.

Thank you so much for stopping by today!

My Little Shoebox Winter Wonderland Blog Hop

2011-11-21T10:00:00.001-06:00

***please scroll down for the Shabby Apple Dress giveaway****

Good morning and welcome to our Winter Wonderland inspirational Card Blog Hop with My Little Shoebox.

Now that the weather is getting a bit chilly and Christmas is just around the corner we thought it would be a great time to share with you the new collection from My Little Shoebox called Winter Wonderland.

You should have arrived here from Norine's blog. If not, please start the hop at Kristine Berc's blog and follow the links through to the end.

There will be two sets of the Winter Wonderland collection chosen randomly from those who comment on one of the participating blogs. The more comments you leave the more chances you have to win! The prize winners will be announced on the My Little Shoebox blog on Tuesday!

For today I have created a set of cards using this new collection along with the cute snowflake stamp from Unity Stamp Co/MLS.

Aren't the cardstock stickers adorable?

Some more cardstock stickers along with some of our cute glitter alphas and new mini alphas.

Card created using the snowflake stamp co-branded with Unity Stamps. I stamped the snowflake in aqua, added some Stickles glitter glue and pearl centers.

I hope that you have enjoyed the card hop so far and that you've been inspired to create some of you own holiday cards this year.

Your next stop is Linda Kretz.

Have a great day and thanks so much for hopping along with us.

Shabby Apple Dress Giveaway day!

2011-11-19T14:37:00.001-06:00

Have you ever heard of Shabby Apple?

It's a vintage-inspired dress boutique for women and girls and I must say that after browsing their collections I wish that I could win this giveaway! Their clothing is stylish and classic and oh-so-cute. I bet you will love it, too! I was contacted by the company asking if I'd be interested in doing a giveaway for one of my readers and of course I said yes and one of YOU will get to be the lucky winner.

I would love to share with you some of the cute things that you can find at their online boutique. First off, here are a few of the girls' dresses:

and some maternity wear:

What cute mama-to-be wouldn't love to wear something like these?

and some of my favorite dresses:

They also sell skirts, accessories, fitness gear, swimwear and home decor, so there is something for just about everyone in their shoppe.

Please "like" Shabby Apple on their Facebook page for news about special promotions and exclusive discounts: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Shabby-Apple/56291792791?ref=ts&sk=info

You can also follow them on Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/shabbyapple1/deck-the-halls/ for lots of great holiday ideas.

They gave me a choice of dresses that I could give away and since this particular one caught my eye right away I will be giving away to one lucky winner, this dress in YOUR size. I will simply choose a random winner, contact that person for your size and contact information and then Shabby Apple will ship the dress directly to our lucky winner. This green "Mariposa Grove" dress is adorned at the neck with beautiful blossoms and would be perfect for your upcoming holiday party, for wearing to a social event or anything that might suit your fancy.

All you have to do to be eligible to win is to tell me about your favorite holiday tradition. You have until Tuesday, November 29 at 12 midnight CST to enter the drawing. I will post the random winner the following day. If you share this with a friend, post it on your blog, Facebook or Twitter, simply leave another comment with the link and I will give you an extra entry in the drawing. If you do not have a blog please leave an email address so that I can contact you. If I do not receive a reply I will choose another winner.

This drawing is open to U.S. residents only, please.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a wonderful day!

Saturday Sketches at Bella Blvd

2011-11-19T07:10:00.001-06:00

For one of my Bella Blvd assignments this month I got to work with this cute sketch:

and here is what I did with that sketch:

I essentially kept to the design of the sketch but instead of using the two larger photos on the right I used four smaller ones. The fun thing about sketches is that you can use them as a starting point and change them up to suit what you have in mind for your page.

And some close-ups:

Rudolph needed a little red sparkle for his nose

Make sure to check out the Bella Blvd blog for more takes on this sketch:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/

and from the Bella Blvd blog- a FREE Thanksgiving printable!

2011-11-18T08:07:00.000-06:00

I think this is SO cute and a great way for you and your loved ones to remember what you are thankful for this holiday season. With Thanksgiving just a week away this is perfect timing:

Stephanie lovingly put together this cute printable booklet and you can find out more on the Bella Blvd blog today:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2011/11/fridays-with-stephanie-free-digital-printables.html

Have a wonderful weekend!

new stamps from Jillibean Soup and a giveaway

2011-11-18T06:08:00.000-06:00

These cute new stamps were just revealed on the Jillibean Soup blog this morning and I think they're adorable!

First, a set to go with the new Hearty Barley Soup collection:

and also a set of sentiments perfect for cardmaking and other projects:

They're so cute, aren't they?

If you'd like to win a set please visit the Jillibean Soup blog and leave a comment on what you're thankful for:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2011/11/free-for-all-friday-and-a-giveaway.html

2011-11-17T07:28:00.013-06:00

Good morning!

Just a really quick share today and then I'm going back to bed.

Lily was so tired last night that she went to bed before 7 but was then wide awake at 3:30 in the morning.

I know that if I don't hurry and get back to bed or I will find one thing after another to keep me up for a while longer and then it will be time for the other kids to get up which will mean no more sleep for the mama.

Here is a page that I created for Jillibean Soup:

We were asked to use the new corrugated sheets on an assignment for this month so I pulled out my Sizzix Big Shot and made some flowers to mix in with these papers from some of the new Jillibean collections. I am starting to get really excited about what might be coming our way with the next CHA release!

Have a wonderful day!

getting ready for the holidays

2011-11-15T07:41:00.000-06:00

It's so hard to believe that this year is almost over, isn't it?

It's the middle of November and before we know it Thanksgiving Day will have come and gone and Christmas will be right around the corner. I have to say that Christmas is my very favorite time of the year. I love the spirit of happiness and goodwill that seems to permeate more than it does any other time during the year. I love to find fun/meaningful gifts for my family and do little acts of service with my family for those who might not otherwise have a very merry Christmas.

I love family traditions and we have many. One of the things we've started doing every year is making gingerbread houses. It's messy but so much fun to to do as a family. Here is a page that I created for ScrapStreet magazine a while back but never shared here on my blog.

What is your favorite thing about the holiday season?

I am going to do some scrapping today!

(one can dream, anyway)

coming soon from My Little Shoebox!

2011-11-14T10:09:00.001-06:00

I just got my design team package with this cute new collection and am anxious to start making some Christmas-y things:

As was mentioned on the MLS blog , we'll soon have a blog hop with some cards to get you into the holiday spirit.

Have a great day!

finally a new page to share

2011-11-10T23:30:00.000-06:00

Can any of you tell me how to get more time out of my day?

I am up late and up early and it still seems that there just isn't enough time to get everything done.

Do you ever feel that way?

This week has been that way every day and there hasn't been much time for scrappy things.

I DO have a page to share with you, finally. It was made just for fun, not for any assignment, which is always fun for me. People ask sometimes, "Well, aren't you always scrapping for you even if it's for an assignment?" I guess what I mean is that I am doing a project where I can dictate what I use instead of having to use a particular company (Jillibean Soup, Bella Blvd or My Little Shoebox, for example) and without any kind of restrictions on what I do (for a sketch requirement, etc.) Sometimes it's fun to scrap even if it's not for an assignment though lately most of my scrapping has been to get an assignment finished. This page was a "for fun" one for me.

I used the beautiful Crate Farmhouse collection for this page:

Oh- guess what?

I got at email from a very cool online retailer about the possibility of doing a giveaway here on my blog in the future. SO, keep your eyes open for that. It's not scrappy-related but SO cool. So cool that I'd like to win it for MYSELF. Just thought I'd let you know.

Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by. I just love to hear what my readers are up to and where they're from, so...what are your plans for this weekend and where do you live? I think it's so cool that the internet can bring a world of people close. I think it's one of the things I love about My Scrapbook Nook. Random thought, I know, but I have made friends from all over the world over there.

Did you know that they have a new Nook blog? You'll have to check it out, too.

http://myscrapbooknookkits.blogspot.com/

Have a wonderful weekend!

quick Jillibean card share

2011-11-07T06:15:00.000-06:00

Good morning!

This year is just flying by, isn't it?

It's hard for me to believe that it's already November.

The weather is finally cooling down, the leaves are starting to change colors and the kids are already talking about what to put on their wish list to Santa, ha ha.

Today I just have a quick card to share with you created using some fun new Jillibean Soup products.

Here I used some Hearty Barley (woodgrain card), Sweet and Sour Soup (hearts) and the new red and dark brown corrugated sheets as well as some of the cute cardstock stickers, a Soup Label and green twine.

Have a great day!

sharing some My Little Shoebox fun

2011-11-06T05:21:00.000-06:00

One of my favorite My Little Shoebox releases from this past CHA was the Playtime collection. Each month for our assignments we create using the collection that we were assigned to use for that particular month and because I won't have the opportunity to use that collection for my assignments I have instead been playing with the cute papers and embellishments when I get some free time to scrap using whatever I want.

I created this layout about my oldest daughter. She's only 7 but she's such a perfectionist and is quite often too hard on herself and gets discouraged. The journaling on this page is to remind her of what a special girl she is- just the way she is right now.

I also used some alpha stickers from October Afternoon, American Crafts and Pink Paislee.

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

the new look and a ?

2011-11-05T07:16:00.002-05:00

I was playing around with the settings on my blog last night after I found that cute blue chevron background and thought I'd try a 3-column setup for a while and have been moving things around.

What do you think?

I kinda like it and LOVE the chevron.

Do any of you know how I can make more of the chevron background show?

I've fiddled around with adjusting the widths and that just makes the gray strip wider.

Any ideas?

Cards that Care Blog Hop

2011-11-04T06:00:00.020-05:00

Good morning and welcome to the "Cards that Care" blog hop!

It's so great to have you along for the hop and I hope that you have seen lots of great ideas so far to get you in the Christmas and holiday card making spirit and to help Vera and Jennifer gather cards for elderly in nursing homes this holiday season.

You should have arrived at my blog from Kathy Martin's blog.

If not, please start the hop at http://lingshappyplace.blogspot.com/2011/10/cards-that-care.html where you can learn more about the card drive and prizes to be won. Make sure to stop at each blog along the way leaving a comment as you go because the more comments you leave the better your chances of winning a great prize! The following companies have generously offered prizes for this hop: Lawn Fawn, Penny Black, Sweet Stamps Shop, Avocado Arts, & I Love It All and many more, You could even win the cute Bella Blvd collection that I used on my card below.

For today I created a card using the cute new Christmas Wishes collection from Bella Blvd:

I just love the bright, fun colors and patterns in this collection- they're so great for even more than just Christmas pages, cards and other projects.

Your next stop in this hop will be: Alice Carman

Remember to leave a comment on each blog as you hop along. You have until till Sunday, 11/6/11 midnight CST to leave a comment for a chance to win one of the great prizes.

Happy hopping!

apple picking in the fall

2011-11-03T06:10:00.000-05:00

Good morning!

I apologize for the slow week on my blog- it's been a busy one and with kids/me not feeling well.

That's real life, I guess. Tis the season for lots of germs to be passed around.

Today I have a Jillibean Soup page to share with pics of Hailey on our apple orchard trip:

It's a mix of Sweet and Sour Soup and Apple Cheddar Soup.

Have a great day!

Happy Halloween

2011-10-31T15:54:00.000-05:00

Happy Halloween to you!

(My Little Shoebox Trick or Treat collection)

Today is one of the days that kids look forward to each year with great anticipation of the large amounts of candy they'll receive and then (for them) hopefully consume.

It's the day that dentists love- simply because all of the ensuing cavities help to pay their bills.

Today, though, one of my girls is sick and she won't be going to the trunk or treat at the church with her sisters. I told her that we could do a Halloween egg hunt, carve her pumpkin (we have been out of town and STILL haven't carved our pumpkins) and just hang out at home. I think she's okay with not going out tonight since she hasn't been feeling well today anyway.

I am busy peeling apples again- we're making apple butter and apple sauce and whatever else we can think of to make with the apples we just got and then are making marinara sauce and salsa with our tomatoes. Bountiful Baskets has been such a fun investment for us!

I was talking to the girls about food storage and why it's important to have some extra food on hand- in case their Daddy loses his job, we don't have any money, there is a food shortage in the stores, a natural disaster, etc. Sarah told me, "You don't have to worry. I have a LOT of money. I have 68 coins."

I am not sure how much those 68 coins amounts to but I'm sure it's not more than a couple of dollars.

She told her little sister, "I promise I have that much. I just counted it last night," to which her 4 year old sister replied, "You're supposed to be sleeping at night, not counting your money."

Silly girls. They make me laugh every single day.

Anyway, I hope that you have a fun and safe Halloween .

I will take some pictures of the girls tonight before they leave for the trunk or treat at the church and we'll take a group pic when everyone is feeling up to it. I think Sarah will be okay to go back to school tomorrow. That fever is all that kept her home today. She's complained of a sore throat and stomachache so we didn't want to take any chances since apparently strep is going around.

Fun times, huh?

Happy Halloween!!!

New Releases from Bella Blvd!

2011-10-28T07:16:00.001-05:00

Good morning and happy Friday to you!

I hope that it's been a good week for you- I am looking forward to the weekend, though, and spending time with family we love and doing some fun things with the kids.

Today I have a couple of new projects to share with you using the BRAND NEW Bella Blvd releases, "Spring Flings and Easter Things" and "Winter Wonder."

There have been a lot of fantastic spring and winter-themed projects on the Bella blog this week but I wanted to show how these papers can also be used for everyday projects, something that I always do. I even used the winter collection for an everyday page, which you'll see here:

I used a picture of Aimee to cover up the snowman on the yellow journal spot and it worked perfectly! See? Don't be scared off by themed collections because there is a bit of something for everyone in this one. I had fun mixing up the different patterns and really like the cute chevrons and little hearts.

I live in west Texas and we don't get a lot of snow so I scrapped these fun pictures of Aimee that I'd been holding onto for a while:

I used one of the stickers to incorporate into the title and simply cut off the last words about snow:

And for my NEXT project I used the "Spring Flings and Easter Things" collection to scrap this cute picture of our baby Lily:

I think the little froggies on the cutout sheet are so cute! I also used the rainbow and bee from the same page to add as embellishments to my page.

I layered the pieces, added some cute twine and foam adhesive to some and Ranger Stickles glitter glue to a few pieces as well.

You can see more projects using these two brand new collections (SHIPPING NOW!) on the Bella Blvd blog http://bellablvd.typepad.com/

Have a great weekend!

Two of A Kind

2011-10-27T08:10:00.001-05:00

Hello!

How are things where you are today?

We are finally getting some much-needed rain and it is SO much colder today. We are supposed to have a high of 44 degrees. Brrrrrr!

I find it interesting how different each of my girls are- alike in some ways but unique in many others.

My Sarah, almost 6 years old, is our silliest one with a very zany personality. She is the one who cracks us up with the off-the-wall things that she does. I think she gets a lot of that from Matt. Here is a page with pictures of the two of them together after a church activity at the park at the beginning of the school year.

I had a lot of fun putting together this page using a mix of the new Jillibean Soup products. I really like the new corrugated alphas and the fun stickers that come with each collection. Here I mixed the Sweet and Sour Soup line with some Hearty Barley and some Apple Cheddar Soup. That cute little cloud punch is from Fiskars, one of the punches I got from our Fiskars cross-promotion. So fun!

The new Soup Labels are one of my favorite additions to the Jillibean lines.

LOVE the cute new twine, too!

The rain continues to fall here and we are so grateful.

I hope that you are enjoying this nice fall day.

Where are you visiting from?

I'd love to hear about what you do this time of year for fun.

Have a wonderful day!

another card today and MLS giveaway winner!

2011-10-25T08:17:00.000-05:00

While I was finishing up some Jillibean Soup assignments I decided to make an extra card to share here today.

I used my Martha Stewart anywhere punch (heart shape) on this which was cute but punching through the two layers killed my punch. So sad. I will have to see if I can fix it today. I also used a cute Fiskars flower punch, one of my current favorites.

For this card I used some Sweet and Sour Soup (my fave!) along with one of the cute new Soup Labels and cardstock stickers. Oh, there's a bit of blue from the Apple Cheddar Soup collection, too, and one of the cute new buttons.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

p.s. the winner of my random My Little Shoebox drawing is lucky comment #26:

Minerva said...

Adorable!

October 21, 2011 1:02 AM

Please send your mailing address info to me at mattandbeckywilliams at yahoo dot com and I will send some goodies to you!

sharing some Jillibean Soup cards

2011-10-24T06:39:00.000-05:00

Good morning to you!

I hope that your weekend was a great one.

We had so much fun celebrating Aimee's birthday with some of her little friends. I'll post some pictures soon.

Today I have a couple of Jillibean Soup cards to share with you:

Both of these cards use the cute Apple Cheddar Soup collection, perfect for scrapping fall pictures and making cards. Aren't those little gnomies cute?

The My Little Shoebox drawing is now closed and I will choose a random winner later today so you can be on the lookout for that if you left a comment on the MLS bloghop post.

Have a good one!

happy birthday to Aimee!

2011-10-20T05:31:00.002-05:00

If you are here for the Unity Stamps/My Little Shoebox bloghop, please scroll down to the next post or click here

Today our little Aimee turns 4 years old.

She's a sweet girl, quite the feisty, spunky one as well.

What a blessing she is in our life.

Here are some of my favorite Aimee pages:

Happy birthday cute girl!

Unity Stamps and My Little Shoebox Hip Hop!

2011-10-19T23:59:00.045-05:00

Good morning and welcome to the Unity and My Little Shoebox Hip Hop blog hop!

Just in case you've stumbled upon my blog and you'd like to participate in the hop, I have listed the hop order below. Of course you would like to do the hop to have a chance at a great prize!

Here is the line-up for today:

Unity Blog - http://theunitystampco.blogspot.com/

Brooke Lien - http://brookelien.blogspot.com/

Beckie Dreyer - http://beckiedreyer.blogspot.com/

Eva Dobilas – http://evafromca.blogspot.com/

Becky Williams - http://onescrappinmama.blogspot.com/ (that's me!)

Jen Erichson – http://shut-up-its-true.blogspot.com/

Erin Yamabe - http://erinyamabe.com/

Karen Maldonado – http://reallifeinpictures.blogspot.com/

Ilene Tell - http://whatabunchofscrap.blogspot.com/

Lisa Henke – http://www.mylittlecreativeescape.blogspot.com/

Keely Yowler - http://www.keelyy.blogspot.com/

Maria Gurnsey – http://scrapsbym.blogspot.com

Kristine Berc - http://stashofprettypaper.blogspot.com/

Robyn Weatherspoon – http://herebygrace.typepad.com/here_by_grace/

Linda Kretz - http://cloud9ideas.blogspot.com/

Wendy Chang– http://www.justwen.blogspot.com/

Mandy Starner - http://www.heyheymandykay.com/

Jolande van Oosterhout- http://www.justjolande.blogspot.com/

Melinda Spinks - http://www.thescrapfarm.blogspot.com/

Jessica Diedrich – http://thewhimsicalbutterfly.blogspot.com/

My Little Shoebox Blog - http://www.mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/

Today I'd like to share with you a project that I created using this set of stamps from Unity:

which can be found here: http://unitystampco.com/product/1127-a-little-trick-or-treat.aspx

This stamp set of course goes perfectly with the Trick or Treat collection from My Little Shoebox.

and a card using that fun journal spot stamp:

Please make sure to check back for part 2 of this hop one week from today when you'll be able to see even more great projects from the Unity and My Little Shoebox teams. Check the Unity blog or MLS for more information and for the hop line-up.

NEXT you will visit Jen Erichson – http://shut-up-its-true.blogspot.com/

For YOUR chance to win the My Little Shoebox prize please leave a comment on the My Little Shoebox blog by midnight on the 23rd. One random winner will be chosen.

AND: for another chance to win leave a comment here on MY blog by October 23rd at midnight telling me what your favorite Halloween treat is and I will choose one random winner to receive a sampling of My Little Shoebox. Thanks so much for stopping by!

hello cows!

2011-10-17T06:20:00.000-05:00

Hello again!

Last spring we had a little get-together at the home of some friends from church who have some cows. At feeding time they let all of the kids go in and help feed the cows and my girls were some of the first to want to go in. I was 7+ months pregnant and had a little bit of difficulty squeezing through the gap in the pokey barbed wire fence with my big ol' belly but someone had to be there with the girls and of course I had to take some pictures! I'd been hoarding these pictures for just the right paper to come along and then I got this Studio Calico paper in the October kit from Midnight Rooster. You can take a peek at the kit by clicking here http://midnightrooster.net/kits/

Aimee and Sarah weren't nervous at all about getting up close and personal with those cows!

Here I just cut out some of the hexagons and popped them up with American Crafts foam adhesive.

I'd cut out some of the cute cows to use on my layout and didn't end up using them so I put them on this little card. I was near the end of my kit so I was using scraps and the extra letters (the I is actually from a "j" and the N is a "z" but it helped me to get more mileage from my alphas).

I hope that you have a great day!

when we were just 5

2011-10-16T06:30:00.025-05:00

Here's another page that I made with the October kit from Midnight Rooster:

This picture was taken just a few weeks before Lily was born. I was big and pregnant and not very comfortable and anxious to meet that sweet little girl. Little did we know that I would end up in the hospital on bedrest for two weeks and that she would come 6 weeks early.

One thing that I like about the Midnight Rooster kits is the mix of embellishments including fabric. For this one I just cut a thin strip, gathered it up with a needle and thread and then glued it down using some Helmar 450 Quick Dry adhesive. That stuff keeps things in place when I really need them to stick. I then used American Crafts foam adhesive on the whole panel to give the page some dimension.

For the title I used a Copic marker on the Studio Calico chipboard alphas, one of the My Mind's Eye brads, a cute pin and white ribbon from the kit gathered and glued down with some more Helmar 450.

Thanks for stopping by today!

just a couple of projects today

2011-10-15T06:30:00.000-05:00

Good morning!

It's Saturday, our last soccer game of the season for our girls and a day to hopefully reclaim our house from the messy state it's in right now. I can dream, can't I?

Here are a couple of projects I have made recently:

These are pictures of Aimee and the county fair from last year. This year we didn't make it to the fair at all, times were just too busy with everything else that we had going on. It's a simple page with some embellishments from Sassafras, Making Memories and American Crafts.

I made this card using the Crate Paper Random collection featured in the September kit from My Scrapbook Nook.

Have a great day!

hello Friday!

2011-10-14T05:42:00.001-05:00

I don't know about you but I am so glad that the weekend is almost here.

It's been quite the exhausting week!

This morning I am going to share with you another page that I created with the October kit from Midnight Rooster. There are so many ways you can use this kit, such a fun mix of patterns that work for any style.

For this layout I used some pictures of my Lily and Sarah. We'd bought this pretty pink dress for Sarah for Easter and I later found the same dress on clearance at Target but in Lily's size. Sarah was beside herself with excitement for the day that they could both wear their little pink dresses. We took some time before church one Sunday to get these pictures.

Everything you see here came from the kit except for the thread and staples. With the kit you get two strips of fabric. I used a piece of one to make the big flower on the page. The white envelope with the stitching and butterfly on it is the envelope that the pins and other little extras came in. I cut it open from the bottom because as soon as I saw the envelope I knew that it would be come part of one of my projects! I added one of the cute pins to the center of the butterfly by simply poking the end of the pin through the little white bag and glueing it down with some Helmar 450 Quick Dry adhesive. I used the same glue for the flower and to glue the trims down.

I really liked the white ribbon in the kit (you also get a ribbon card from My Mind's Eye that has the lace, blue trim and an orange trim) and will have to find some more of that somewhere. The brad in the center of the fabric flower came differently in the package. I liked the look of the big white pearl with the brown fabric so I simply switched them out.

I liked that the Basic Grey paper had lines on it.I used my big 3" scallop circle punch to make my own journaling spot out of that paper.

Well, folks, that's it for today. It's still early and I am going to go back to sleep for a while. Baby Lily is usually up by now but she's still sound asleep so I am going to do the same.

We have a fun weekend ahead of us- perhaps a trip to the pumpkin patch and the girls' last soccer games of the season.

Have a great weekend!

Take a broom ride over the Cuckoo's Nest!

2011-10-13T09:52:00.003-05:00

Hello!

I had the cool opportunity to be the guest designer at Midnight Rooster this month.

Midnight Rooster is a fun kit club where you get a great mix of papers from different manufacturers, coordinating embellishments, handmade notions, fabric, etc. Here is a peek at the beautiful October kit:

My favorite parts of the kit were the cute Studio Calico chipboard alphas, the handmade tags with banners and the little pins. So very cute. You can take a look at the kit, see a full list of contents and and buy one of your own here: http://midnightrooster.net/kits/

I have been able to create 4 pages and 2 cards so far and I'll share one of those layouts with you today.

First off, these are some pictures that I'd been wanting to scrap for a while, pics of when my Sarah cut off her bangs. We were growing them out so they'd blend in with the rest of her hair and she would walk around holding onto her long bangs and say, "I wish I could just cut these off." Well, one morning right before church she did just that. I didn't even notice until we got to church since things are always crazy busy with us getting ready. We found the scissors and the rest of the evidence in the garbage can in my scrap room. Of course. She KNOWS she's not supposed to be in there. We had a lock on the door, too, but she figured out how to open it. We've since changed the lock and only me and my husband have a key to get in.

The yellow background didn't photograph very well but you get the idea! It's cute paper from American crafts. I also used the handmade tags, the cute Cosmo Cricket buttons, some MME brads and Studio Calico alphas. The little blue alphas are Cosmo Cricket ones from my stash and the twine is from my stash as well. I used my Martha Stewart punch for the butterflies. Oh, and before I started I used some Jenni Bowlin paint daubers in pink and ivory and used some Studio Calico white mist.

Aren't her bangs cute now? Not at all, I know. At least it's just hair and it will eventually grow back and look normal. Thankfully she likes to wear headbands which helps to disguise the funky bangs.

Thanks so much for stopping by. Tobi will have a write-up on the Midnight Rooster blog later today and you can check back here for more of my projects as well.

Have a great day!

our family

2011-10-11T05:58:00.000-05:00

Good morning!

I hope that you and your loved ones are well. I have a sick almost-4 year old and my stomach is feeling a bit woozy today. I hope that whatever bug we have doesn't travel through the whole family this time. With little kids there seems to always be something going around.

Here's one more page featuring a mix of Bella Blvd:

When we were in Houston at the end of the summer we were able to take some family pictures thanks to my sister-in-law and even now it is so out of date. Baby Lily has grown so much since then.

I need to get busy on some scrapbooking projects today so that I can have more to share with you here. I will have some My Little Shoebox and Jillibean things to share as soon as those things are up on the company blogs. I got an insane amount of Bella Blvd from the UPS man yesterday so be prepared for lots of that, too!

Have a great day!

some My Little Shoebox shares

2011-10-10T06:39:00.003-05:00

I just realized that I didn't ever shared with you the things that I created for My Little Shoebox from last month! I got to create with the pretty Audrey collection. It's so fun that the papers in this collection are named after Audrey Hepburn movies (Roman Holiday, Funny Face, My Fair Lady, etc.)

The blue background paper reminded me of water and I thought it would go well with these cute pictures of my girls playing in the swimming pool this summer. LOVE those cute little apples!

a card:

and a baby Lily page:

And just in case you missed the sneak peek of the new collection:

You can see more My Little Shoebox cuteness here:

http://mylittleshoebox.typepad.com/my-little-shoebox/

Have a great day!

and another new Bella page

2011-10-09T05:13:00.000-05:00

Good morning!It's another drive-by post day today but I wanted to share another Bella Blvd. layout with you.

I love the scrapbooking industry in that there is something for everyone whether you are drawn to the colorful and graphic designs like I am or if you prefer the vintage/shabby style or anywhere in between. Bella Blvd is one of my faves because of the fun, colorful and easy-to-use patterns and collections that you can mix and match so easily. I am anxious for my design team supplies to get here so that I can start adding in the BRAND new stuff.

This page mixes the Making the Team, Family Dynamix, Lovey Dovey, Hello Beautiful and Christmas Wishes collections. I punched out the circles on that pink paper and then used the reverse of some of the circles here and there on the layout.

I appreciate your stopping by. I think that I just might need to do another giveaway soon. What do you think of that? What would you like for me to give away? Maybe I can put together a little kit. What are your favorite things? Leave me a comment and I will see what I can put together. ☺

Have a wonderful day!

another quick post and Bella Blvd. layout share

2011-10-08T06:12:00.002-05:00

Happy Saturday morning!

We got some rain- it was pouring for a while!

I'm afraid it's too late for the cotton farmers here but very much a welcome blessing.

I have been wondering if they will cancel soccer games because the fields are too muddy.

I guess we'll just wait and see.

For now I'll share with you one of the layouts that I created for the Bella Blvd. design team call and will share the others soon as well. I'm hoping that rainy weather today will allow for some much-needed scrappy time.

These are pictures of Aimee, almost 4, from her sisters' first day of school this year. She wanted SO badly to be able to go to school, too. So much, in fact, that she insisted on wearing her backpack when we took them to school.

I used a mix of Bella Blvd products for this page. I really like their alphas and the fact that they come in so many different sizes and colors. I was running low on the red ones so I improvised. The "b" is actually a Q and the "m" is a W but I think it turned out cute using the alphas that way. The flower punch is from Fiskars and believe it or not, I found it on clearance at Joann's. It was only $5- cheaper than the die-cut I was contemplating and it's so cute! I've used it a ton already. The twine is from the Twinery and the buttons are American Crafts.

She is such a funny girl, such a sweetie. Yes, she has her moments (don't we all?!) but mostly she's just a big sweetheart with an even bigger laugh and personality. She is going to be a force to be reckoned with in this world. I just know it.

I have some other fun things to share in the coming week, a fun little guest designer spot that I got to do for this month.

Have a great weekend!

having fun with Bella Blvd

2011-10-07T10:17:00.000-05:00

Hello again!

It's been fun to get to know the new design team at Bella Blvd through their introductions on the Bella blog. Today is MY turn so I am here to share a page with you!

I was so excited to get that happy email telling me that I'd made the team and I'm thrilled to be able to work with the other talented ladies and with those cute products. I can't wait to get started on my assignments!

This was created using a mix of older Bella Blvd collections. The colors in the Bella collections all work together so well. I REALLY like that grid paper and had to buy a bunch more before our local scrap store closed at the end of last week.

Here are some other Bella Blvd. projects that I've previously shared here:

You can learn more about the rest of the design team members and see some great Bella inspiration here:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I always appreciate your feedback and kind words so much.

A Fall Favorite and Jillibean Soup

2011-10-06T06:30:00.002-05:00

Good morning to you! (or afternoon if it's not morning where you are!)

I wanted to share with you a page that I created for the Jillibean Soup blog for today.

I know that I talked a lot about our recent apple-picking adventure and about all of my apple butter making fun.

I knew that it would be a perfect match for the cute Apple Cheddar Soup collection so I took some step-by-step pictures along the way:

One of my scrappy faves right now is chevron stripes so I gave it a go on this layout and it was so fun and really easy- I almost hated covering them up to put the pictures on. Here's a peek at the journaling card that tucks behind the layout:

It's just the recipe for apple butter and on the other side is a picture of the finished jars like I showed previously here on my blog.

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a great day!

American Crafts love

2011-10-04T06:35:00.001-05:00

Yes, it's always been one of my faves since I started scrapping back in the day. I still have some of the "vintage" papers from way back when. I love the bold colors and patterns and happy designs.

I think you would fall over if you saw the AC stash in my scrap room. Of course LOTS of it was free, thank goodness, because I think it would break the bank to have to BUY all of it. I keep telling my husband that yes, I have lots of stuff but so much of it was free for my being on different design teams and supplies that came back with Scrapbook Trends magazine publications. I hope it eases his mind a bit when he looks around.

For this assignment I was asked to use some of my current favorites from American Crafts.

It turned out to be my last assignment as a member of the AC team and I am so happy for the year I had as a design team member there. I shared a sneak here on my blog before but now I'll share the whole thing.

This is my Aimee in our little pool this summer. I think this was the FIRST one, the one we had before our bassett hound chewed it up. I knew I should have emptied the pool and put it away but didn't and that pool is history. It was only about 2 feet deep but the girls loved getting in and splashing around.

It's a lot of mixing and matching of different collections, some hand-cutting and fun stuff like clouds and butterflies and cute embellishments.

And here is the card that I made for the same assignment:

I ♥ you, American Crafts!!

and some other new things from Bella Blvd

2011-10-03T19:44:00.000-05:00

Here is a peek at the second collection, Spring Flings and Easter Things:

And here are the new stickers that I know I will love so much!

to go with the super-cute Sophisticates collection

make sure to leave a comment on the blog for your chance to win lots of Bella fun.

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/

The first Bella Blvd mid-season release!

2011-10-03T12:12:00.001-05:00

Good afternoon! I've been waiting and waiting for the Bella Blvd post to go up today so that I could share THIS with you! It's the first of two brand-new releases coming to a scrapbook store near you.

Here's a peek and you can see the rest here:

http://bellablvd.typepad.com/bella_blvd/2011/10/bellas-mid-releases-winter-wonder.html

I think it's so cute! Check the blog for your chance to win $100 in Bella goodies including this new collection!

The next collection will be up in a little while and then you'll get a peek at a new addition to the Sophisticates line!

another Jillibean Soup page today

2011-09-29T06:24:00.001-05:00

Good morning!

How about a Jillibean Soup page today?

I am loving their new releases so much this time and think it's the best yet.

Apple Cheddar Soup and Sweet & Sour Soup have been my faves so far but I am sure that when I start using the others more I'll love them just as much.

Here's a page that is up on the Jillibean blog today that mixes up some Apple Cheddar, Sweet & Sour, Watermelon Gazpacho and Homemade 6 Bean Soup:

This is Hailey (7) and Aimee (almost 4). They get along amazingly well and Hailey very often takes on kind of a 'mom' role with her, helping her with different things. I think it's so cute and it makes these pictures all the more sweet to me. I hope they'll always get along so well.

I enjoy layering the different elements- here some circles cut from the Sweet and Sour paper layered on top of corrugated shapes and die-cut flowers.

Have a happy, scrappy day!

a card on Monday for you

2011-09-26T06:50:00.000-05:00

I just wanted to share a card with you quickly this morning before I head up to wake up the girls to get ready for school.

I made this for Jillibean Soup using the cute new Sweet & Sour Soup collection:

You can see more cute cards on the Jillibean Soup blog today:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/

Have a great day!

hello Friday!

2011-09-23T06:47:00.002-05:00

I am so glad that Friday is here!

How about you?

What do you have planned for the weekend?

The girls have soccer games on Saturday morning and then I plan/hope to do a whole lot of nothing!

That sounds so good to me with all of the business and running around lately.

Today I have a new scrapbook page to share created with the lovely September kit from My Scrapbook Nook:

This is about our sweet Lily and her unexpected early arrival. While it was difficult at times we are so grateful for the extra time we've gotten to spend with her.

I really like that black and white chevron striped paper with that cute Crate Paper brad!

Have a nice weekend!

the apple of my eye *Jillibean Soup layout share

2011-09-22T06:44:00.001-05:00

Good morning!

I know that there has been much talk of apples here lately.

I have one last batch of apple butter in the crockpot right now and the house smells yummy.

It's the last of the apples that we picked when we went to the orchard a few weeks ago.

My husband used to talk about apple butter made by his grandma and before recently I didn't get the appeal but now- I am so hooked. It's even taken the place of Nutella lately, and that's a pretty big deal.

I love apples- apple butter, apple pie, apple crisp warm with vanilla ice cream and yummy apple cider on a cool fall day.

You may have heard the saying, "she's the apple of my eye."

While I'm not quite sure how that saying came to be I have a few of those, including this cute little girlie:

This cute little girl is almost 5 months old and I can't hardly believe it!

She is laughing and smiling and "talking" so much, loves her sisters and can't get enough of Mommy and Daddy. She's a great sleeper (she sleeps all night already- yes, I'm spoiled) and loves to play. She things applesauce and pears and peaches and peas and carrots and squash are yummy but don't you dare try to feed her green beans. She makes the funniest face when you try to feed her those and no matter how many spoonsful I give her she just spits it all right back out.

She's such a sweetheart and I completely adore her.

For this page I used the new Apple Cheddar Soup collection from Jillibean Soup. I mixed in some Homemade 6 Bean Soup (the red starry paper border) and even some Dutch Mustard Soup. I threw in some corrugated shapes, to. Did you know that now there are full 12x12 corrugated sheets so that you can cut your own shapes? I can't wait to try out my Sizzix Big Shot on those!

I hope that you have a wonderful day!

You can see more Jillibean Soup cuteness from the design team here:

http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/

a fun little Jillibean Soup project for today

2011-09-20T10:35:00.000-05:00

In case you hadn't heard, I have been up to my elbows in apples lately.

We picked two huge buckets full at a local orchard and then the task went to me to do something with them.

I made two batches of apple butter and a batch of applesauce and boy was it yummy!

All of the time spent peeling teeny, tiny apples that the girls picked was well worth it.

I thought it would be fun to decorate some of the jars and the new Apple Cheddar Soup collection from Jillibean Soup was perfect for this!

Just take a look:

I just love the warm, rich colors of fall- this collection is fun because it also has a pop of blue that I really like.

Today I am working on canning tomatoes.

It's going to be another fun day!

a peek at what's coming

2011-09-19T07:06:00.000-05:00

Good morning and happy Monday to you!

I hope that you had a great weekend.

Here's one of the cards that I created for the American Crafts blog back in July that I haven't shared here yet.

And another that I also made for American Crafts:

And a peek at some things I have coming up this month for Jillibean Soup:

Have a great day!

thankful for rain

2011-09-16T05:35:00.000-05:00

I apologize for not keeping up here the last couple of days- I've been making apple butter and applesauce and going to kids' this and that. Right now, though, I am listening to the RAIN! Yes, you read that right!

We have been in a drought here for SO long but the last few days we have gotten some rain.

We have been praying for rain for a long time- it's been horribly hot here with hardly any rain since last year. Some farmers haven't planted cotton this year because there just isn't enough water. Lakes are drying up and the animals and fish are suffering.

While I listen to water leak in our front window I am still so grateful for rain and that God does hear our prayers.

Woohoo for the new Bella Blvd Design Team!

2011-09-14T09:32:00.000-05:00

Good morning!

I thought I'd share a fun bit of news with y'all today!

Please meet the brand new, first-ever Bella Blvd design team:

Congratulations to the new team and guest designers!

I am so excited to get started.

Here's one of my recent Bella Blvd. creations:

And a few little close-ups:

Have a wonderful day!

September kit from My Scrapbook Nook

2011-09-13T05:45:00.001-05:00

Hi there!

Just a quick post sharing a page that I made using the new September kit from My Scrapbook Nook featuring the gorgeous new Random collection from Crate Paper.

You can order your kit here:

http://myscrapbooknook.org/kit-club/

Pebbles Fresh Goods

2011-09-12T05:39:00.000-05:00

Good morning!

Did you survive the weekend?

I hope that it was a good one for you.

Here is a page that I created using the new "Fresh Goods" line from Pebbles, Inc. It was one of my very favorite releases from this past CHA:

Have a wonderful day!