Take a broom ride over the Cuckoo's Nest!

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!

sharing some cards today

Today is  my last post on the blog for A Walk Down Memory Lane. It was fun to be a guest designer there this month. Their store has lots of the newest scrappy supplies and the ladies there are so nice!

For my post today I share how you can adapt layout sketches to use for cardmaking.

Becky Fleck kindly allowed me to use some of her sketches for this project and it was a lot of fun!

Here's one of the cards and you'll be able to see the other on the blog as well as the sketches I pulled ideas from.

and a detail shot: 

For these cards I used the 6x6 pad from the My Mind's Eye Lime Twist Life of the Party collection, SRM Stickers, EK Success flower punch, Queen & Co. bling (thanks, Ginger- I made this card while at her house in Houston), American Crafts kraft cardstock and foam adhesive. 

You can see my blog post here: 

http://www.awdml.com/index.php?main_page=wordpress&p=3379

and here is one more project that I did for them that I haven't shared here yet:

This mixes some Cosmo Cricket, Pink Paislee Hometown Summer, My Mind's Eye Lime Twist, Basic Grey, My Little Yellow Bicycle and alphas from American Crafts and October Afternoon. 

Have a great day!

happy Sunday

Are Sundays a day of rest at your house?

Perhaps it's just like any other day, a day off from work, a day to relax.

Sundays are a mix of the above at our house. With 4 kids 6 and under there is not much time for resting, though. We go to church so we have a nice breakfast in the morning, give the kids baths and try to spend some quiet time reading and spending time together before we head off to our meetings.

Sundays are a refresher for me, a time to go to church and be reminded of what is really important, a time to get rejuvenated for the coming week.

I hope you are having a nice Sunday.

I have a page to share with you quickly today- a mix of American Crafts Campy Trails and Cosmo Cricket Togetherness.

Have a great day!

how about another layout from the Nook kit?

Happy Friday, everyone!

Just a quick post today to share a layout I made using the November kit from My Scrapbook Nook.

I love the Circa 1934 collection from Cosmo Cricket but has having a hard time finding pictures that would do it justice because of the color scheme. The great thing about this collection is that there are some neutral grid pages like this one and I decided to just do it up and not worry too much about making everything match perfectly. I wanted to use this picture from the balloon fiesta that we went to in Albuquerque last month so I went with it ☺ I misted the background, cut out some 6's from one of the papers, used the little banner chipboard and there ya go:

Yes, in case you didn't know before, I am pregnant- about 12 weeks along now and I have been so, SO, so sick this time around. Perhaps it's a boy, perhaps it's twins, perhaps it's another girl ☺This little kiddo was a surprise for sure since we'd been trying for a year with no success and then I found out kind of as an after-thought because I went to the doctor for something else and they ran all kinds of labs and the doctor caught me as I was leaving to tell me that basically, "by the way, you're also pregnant." You should have seen the look of shock on his face. I don't know if maybe he thought this would be bad news for us? I had to reassure him that it was welcome news. Each pregnancy is different and this one has me so tired, so sick. And, it's the reason I had to cut back on my scrapbooking that I love so much. I haven't been able to do hardly anything the last month except for the bare minimum for the Nook, American Crafts and Jillibean Soup. I had to let go of everything else, which was sad and hard but the best thing for right now. One of these days I'll be ready to jump right back in! 

So there ya go...I hope you have a fantastic weekend. 

hey Janelle and another Nook layout with Circa 1934

I just wanted to make sure that Janelle knew she was the winner of the giveaway.

congrats, Janelle! I know you'll do amazing things with what I send- hopefully you can use it all or you can just pass it on to the kids or another scrappy friend.

I was happy to see Janelle win because you see, she was my scrappy friend here until she moved away. She has an amazing family and we just love them. They are amazing parents with the cutest kids and she's a great scrapper, too. Congrats again, Janelle!!

Thank you to all of you for taking the time to stop by my blog and leave comments. I just love reading every single one of them and wish that I could send something to each of you.

I wanted to share another Nook layout that I created with our November kit featuring Circa 1934 from Cosmo Cricket. Here is Aimee standing by the carousel at the local county fair this fall. We'd gone to the fair with Sarah's preschool class to go to the petting zoo with them and decided to stick around and see what else was going on. We had funnel cake and Church on the Rock corndogs and fresh lemonade. We were, however, there too early to go on any of the rides. I know how much Aimee loves the carousel and it was hard for her to not be able to go for a ride.

and a couple of detail shots:

Have a wonderful Monday!

I'm off to take some pictures of a Jillibean Soup project I've been working on. Oh, that reminds me- Jill is doing 10 days of stamp giveaways so make sure and check the blog every day for your chance to win:

http://www.jillibeansoup.typepad.com/

and I will have a tutorial for my Christmas mini up on the Jillibean blog tomorrow.

Everyday Girl from SRM Stickers

It's been a blast to be on the team at SRM Stickers and this last CHA release had some of the best stickers yet.

Today we are showing off the new "Everyday Girl" stickers which were, of course, perfect for me with my three girls. Here's a Hailey layout that I made using those stickers.

I walked into the kitchen one day and Hailey was creating a dress for her Barbie- she is so great at designing, whether it be in her drawings, her dress-up clothes ensembles or organizing the girls' activities. I thought this was such a clever thing for her to do! I used the Cosmo Cricket Material Girl line for this page along with a mix of American Crafts Thickers.

Here are some detail shots so you can get a better look at the stickers and journaling:

You can get some SRM Stickers here: 

http://www.shopatron.com/home/index/3258

You can see the work of the other SRM designers here on this blog post:

http://srm-stickers.blogspot.com/2010/09/everyday-girl.html

Have a wonderful day!!!

sharing a Cosmo Cricket layout

I teased you a while back about a page I created with Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety (thanks to Britt who brought me some from the previous CHA show) and that layout got picked up for the August issue of Scrapbook Trends.

Well, since it's September now I can share that page with you:

I had just the paper so I did what I love to do- I cut out the strawberries and little tags to use as embellishments on my page. I also curled up the edges of the paper on the bottom right. 

Alphas from American Crafts (black Delight Thickers) and Cosmo Cricket (blue line chipboard stickers).

Hailey and Sarah- definitely two peas in a pod. 

Thanks for stopping by today!

more fun with Sassafras

Good morning!

Have you been playing along with us at My Scrapbook Nook?

We have over 100 ladies signed up for our Back to Scrappin' at the Nook University and I've seen some great projects turned in so far. Head on over today for some great classes and amazing work from our design team and community members.

Today it's MY turn to teach and my class can be found here:
http://www.myscrapbooknook.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=31599&highlight=

My challenge focuses on using alpha stickers to make your title/journaling pop. Here's the layout that I created for the challenge; alphas are from Cosmo Cricket and American Crafts. Other materials from the August Nook kit.

I hope that you're having a great day!

more fun with Cosmo Cricket Togetherness

One of the best parts about being on the team at SRM Stickers (besides getting all of those fun stickers!) is being able to work with fun, FREE product from some of SRM's friends like Cosmo Cricket.

I was so excited to find out that we were going to receive some of Cosmo Cricket's new CHA release and was even more anxious as I found out that we'd get two collections. WE all received the Togetherness collection, one of my favorites from this CHA release, and Pixielicious as well.

Thank you SRM and Cosmo Cricket!

Today we are all featuring the Togetherness collection so make sure and check things out on the SRM blog to see everyone's work and then check the individual blogs for more detailed pictures. You will find the links for these on the right side of my blog. On Friday we'll be showing off what we did with the other collection we received.

First off, here's the layout I created using the Togetherness Papercrafting Kit.

I used SRM Stickers from the new Everyday Girl collection- so fun!

One of my favorite techniques in scrapbooking is hand cutting elements from patterned paper to use as embellishments. I made everything you see on this page from the Togetherness Papercrafting kit though you might wonder if I had more than that. With a little bit of time and some careful cutting you can have some great embellishments to enhance your page even if you didn't buy any of the other embellishments from the collection. You can see a few examples of this in the following photos.

I added some dimension to the red polka dot bird with some foam adhesive.

I cut out and added some doodling around the edges of the clouds and then popped one up with foam adhesive again. For the butterflies I simply put adhesive right in the center so that I could bend up the wings a bit and give a sense of motion. It also adds more dimension to the page than if I'd just glued it down flat.

Aren't those little pinwheels cute? I cut them from one of the journaling cards and added a brad to the center.

If you take a look at the sentiment that runs across the group of pictures you will see that all of the wording is in black. Originally one of the "watch me" parts was in green, but in order to make it stand out more over the top of my picture I simply cut the same phrase from another sticker sheet and layered it on top and voila!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Check back tomorrow for more with Cosmo Cricket and a great new card sketch from Jen. 

p.s. Make sure to stop by the SRM blog for a chance to win some Cosmo and SRM Stickers!

good morning Cosmo Cricket

Hello and happy Monday, right?

Monday came far too early here this morning since our little puppy, Bella, was howling at a quarter to four this morning which woke up my 4 year old, too. I took her outside (the dog, not the kid) to do her duty and fed her a bit and then put her back in her crate where she sleeps but it took her so long to settle down. By the time she did and I got Sarah and myself back to sleep I heard my 2 year old crying for me. She was up on the stairs looking for me. Poor girl...so I took her back to bed and laid in her room for a bit and then Bella started in again...it was almost 6 and I'd hardly gotten back to sleep. So...I took her outside again to eat and do her duty and to play a little and then put her in her crate and waited for her to settle down and now my almost-6 year old is up. 

It's going to be a fun day around here!!!

Anyway, I have had some fun at least. Thanks to those kind people at Cosmo Cricket who just love SRM Stickers and have a great working relationship with Susan (owner of SRM) each DT member received a couple of the new CHA releases from Cosmo Cricket. I got the Togetherness and Pixie-licious lines and just really, really like them. Togetherness was one of my faves from this CHA so I was ecstatic, of course, and as Susan said, it is "so me." So me, in fact, that I sat down on Friday night and started working on a layout. 

Here is my silly Sarah in her goggles at swim lessons last month. She is an original, no one in the world is quite like her- she marches to the beat of her own drum, and she's the tiny, spunky leader in the front of the line. We sure love that silly girl. She literally climbs the walls at home- I'll have to post a picture of her doing that-and though she is little she sure packs a punch!

and some detail shots:

All of the paper elements came from the papercrafting kit (I'll have to get my hands on the chipboard once it's up for sale!)- I just cut out the little birdies and flowers and tags and clouds- and the buttons and stickers are from Cosmo Cricket as well. Thanks again, Susan and Cosmo Cricket!

quick page today

We are back from our quick trip to Amarillo- we left on Friday and stayed the night at a hotel, went swimming and played and relaxed and then went to the zoo and Cadillac Ranch today before heading back home. The girls enjoyed the zoo but it was a bit hot and humid there, thankfully the zoo wasn't that large. By the end Aimee was definitely ready to go. We stopped at Braum's for lunch and then drove over to the Cadillac Ranch, snapped a few pics and were on our way.

I have made a few quick layouts recently and I am amazed at how much more I can get done if I keep things more simple. I always like to see others do simple pages but I like to do a lot of hand cutting, inking and doodling and that stuff just takes time. Here's a Hailey page I made the other day:

This is my Hailey at swim lessons last week. I used Cosmo Cricket core'dinations cardstock for the background, some Bella Blvd patterned paper, Cosmo and American Crafts alphas, Webster's Pages trim, an SRM Sticker "little miss sunshine", a Jillibean Soup journaling sprout and a Sassafras flower to top it off. 

Cosmo Cricket DeLovely & SRM Stickers blog hop!

Hello and welcome to the SRM Stickers DeLovely Blog Hop! 

  ♥LOVES♥  

When I heard that we were going to have this blog hop today I thought that there was no better way to celebrate than to share my birthday with Cosmo Cricket ♥ Wouldn't you agree? Cosmo Cricket has been so very good to us at SRM Stickers- I hope that you enjoy this little tribute to them today. 


To start this hop, please visit the SRM blog for a full list of our design team member blogs. The hop continues all weekend long with a chance to win a fabulous SRM Stickers prize package. You should have started with the incredibly amazing Jenyfur Pohl before coming to visit here. If not, hop on over there and follow the links on our blogs to complete the hop!

I have to say that I was VERY excited to see the new Cosmo Cricket DeLovely collection when it was first introduced on their blog and I couldn't wait to get my hands on some. I checked the Cosmo Cricket online store over and over and over only to find that the product wasn't yet available. You can imagine my excitement and absolute glee when I found out that the design team at SRM would receive the WHOLE collection to play with. I love the bright, cheery colors and got to work right away. I especially liked the way the bright colors POP against the black background of my page.


Here's a layout that I created using DeLovely and SRM Stickers: 

And some detail shots: 

SRM Stickers: 

Monthly Memories #40098 May

Express Yourself #42021 Birthday, 42019 Graduation

Your next stop will be to visit the amazing Jen Martakis. Don’t forget to return to SRM to leave a comment for your chance to win some fabulous stickers. Random winners will be chosen and posted at the SRM blog on Tuesday!

just saying hi today

We're going on a little trip and I have a few blog posts scheduled for your viewing pleasure, the upcoming SRM/Cosmo Cricket DeLovely blog hop as well as some other things, I will also try to blog from time to time on my trip if I get a chance. I hope you'll all still love me when I come back if things get a little quiet around here.

Thank you all for being so kind in your comments, for checking in and saying hi and for helping me feel loved. I really do enjoy your comments and read every single one. Have a wonderful day.

I guess I'll share some oldies but goodies today:

Jillibean Soup (Old World Cabbage Stew)

Jillibean Soup mix

Basic Grey Origins (Feb Nook kit)

mix of Jenni Bowlin, October Afternoon, American Crafts, Pink Paislee, My Little Shoebox

Cosmo Cricket Early Bird

Cosmo Cricket Girl Friday, Lil Man

Have a wonderful day!

another little Cosmo card and a new Jillibean blinkie contest

taking care of sick kids stinks.

period.

It has worn me out so much over the last few weeks but it looks like there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

For some exciting news- I got my June kit from My Scrapbook Nook yesterday so I'll soon be able to share some fun new things with you. For now here's a card that I created using the ever-so-adorable Early Bird line from Cosmo Cricket.


***Sorry, I had to remove this because it will be in the November issue of Cards Magazine! Yay!!!

I just love that little birdie and thought the strip would make a cute card. 

Have a happy day!

p.s this was just added to the Jillibean Soup blog. Laina created a new blinkie for us and Jill is going to do some spotting this weekend and there will be some giveaways! Nothing better than free scrappy stuff, I say!

Check it out here: http://jillibeansoup.typepad.com/my_weblog/2010/06/free-for-all-fridaya-new-blinkie-and-a-giveaway.html

fun new Cosmo Cricket card

Sometimes when I'm in a slump or just want a change from page scrapping I'll do some cards.

On the night last week when I pulled out my Cosmo Cricket to make the layout I shared yesterday I also made this card. While I love the new, brightly colored DeLovely collection I also like the subdued colors in the Earth Love line.

Any Twilight fans out there? I took the girls to the library yesterday afternoon and after we picked out some books for them I finally gave in and picked up a copy of Twilight. I thought that maybe I'd stay up late reading but instead went to bed at the same time the girls did to help settle them during the storm last night and fell asleep. So, I haven't even read the first page! Looks like I have some reading to do today. 

Also, we bought some more plants for our garden yesterday- tomatoes and zucchini, peas, cucumber, watermelon, spaghetti squash, etc. Along with my reading today I also have some planting to do.

Have a wonderful scrappy day!

p.s. thank you to all who come to visit my blog! I've had over 25,000 visitors- maybe I'll have to do another giveaway soon ♥

p.s.s. I have a new love that I can't wait to scrap with- Sassafras just revealed their new line, Indie Girl and I am in love. 

  

 

Isn't it so pretty? The color combo is just beautiful! You can bet you'll see this on a future page of mine.