Looking forward to warmer weather

Hi again!

Are you starting to get a little bit of spring fever? 

I sure am!

Here is a layout I created with pictures from our summer trip to Corpus Christi, TX. 

We had so much fun playing in the sun and on the water. 

There is so much to do there and we had such a great time. 

I used a mix of Studio Calico and Crate Paper products on this one. 

Have a fantastic day!

♥♥

Everybody Needs a Thneed

I consider myself a crafty person.

I love to play with paper and paint, enjoy crocheting and doing other little projects.

I, quite naturally, have tried to pass that on to my girls.

A couple of years ago I taught my two oldest how to crochet, a skill that I learned from my grandma and my mom around their ages. Sarah caught on to it and even learned how to make herself a scarf!

Here is a layout I made documenting her achievement, made with an assortment of product from Crate Paper, Studio Calico, American Crafts and others. I need to do better at keeping track of supplies but since it was just for fun and not an assignment I just grabbed things from here and there that I thought would work.

Have a wonderful weekend!

I am hoping to do some crafting and get some projects ready for the upcoming CHA trade show.

It is so nice to be crafty again ♥

Notes &Things from Crate Paper

I was so excited to get to play with the new Crate Paper Notes & Things collection for an article for The Scrap Review. It is gorgeous and easy to scrap, just like Crate is known for.

Here is a layout that I created. I also made a couple of cards that I will share tomorrow.

I started out by building the page background using a few paper strips on the right and then added my favorite spray mist- Studio Calico Mister Huey in Dewey. I put together the tag accent on the left and added some chipboard frames. The big pink arrow is from one of the journaling cards.

The Notes & Things collection has such a great variety of embellishments, my favorite of which were these layered butterflies. 

What do you think of the collection? 

Isn't it so gorgeous? 

Have a great day!

♥♥

silly kid antics and Queen & Company Designer Tapes

Hi!

I hope you had a good weekend.

Today I have a quick page to share using some of the new-ish Designer Tapes from Queen and Company.

I used a piece of Studio Calico paper as my background and then created some Instagram frames using tapes and some metal dies from Lifestyle Crafts. The hearts and banners are also cut using Queen tapes and the stars are a mix of tape, cork (from Lifestyle Crafts) and some gold glitter cardstock from Core'dinations. The green foam alphas are American Crafts Thickers. The chipboard camera is by Maggie Holmes for Crate Paper and the heart journal spot is an old one from Jenni Bowlin.

I love dipping into my stash!

What have you created with washi tape?

I'd love to see so link me up!

♥♥

to the Moon and Back with Studio Calico

Good morning!

Today I have another quick and easy page to share with you.

It was quick and easy because the die cut "to the moon and back" cut on my Silhouette Cameo takes up the bulk of the space on my page. 

The papers and wood veneer are all from Studio Calico and the little chipboard tabs and squares are from October Afternoon. Spray mists are all by Heidi Swapp.

Using a simple design left the focus on this cute picture of my daughter from a recent trip to Palo Duro Canyon State Park and also made it quick and easy to get some much-needed scrapping time in that day!

♥♥

using Lifestyle Crafts dies as stencils

**For your chance to win a spot in the PageMaps U Card class please leave a comment on this post.**

Hello again!

Today I have a project to share with you that I created for Lifestyle Crafts for this month.

I really like the LC dies for quickly cutting shapes for projects but decided to change things up a bit this month and use them in a different way- as a stencil.

I chose the large butterfly punch since I'd planned to use butterflies on my page. This would further emphasize the theme of the layout. I simply laid the die down on my patterned paper (from We R Memory Keepers) and sprayed over the die with white Mister Huey mist from Studio Calico. I moved the die up the page to continue the effect.

After I finished with the "stenciling" I turned the die over and did kind of a stamping effect using up the spray mist that had accumulated on the back of the metal die. This helped to create a subtle but visually interesting backdrop for the fairy picture of my Aimee. 

Here are a few close-up shots where you can see the misted/stamped background as well as the butterflies I cut out of Lifestyle Crafts adhesive vellum using the same buttefly punch. 

The gold butterflies were cut from Lifestyle Crafts gold Shape N Tape washi paper, as was the word "today." I used the Shape Pocket Scrap "Today" die set for that word and Shape Pocket Scrap Starter Dies set for cutting the patterned paper cards behind the picture. 

The alphabet stickers are some of my favorite Thickers from American Crafts. The cork is also available from Lifestyle Crafts/We R Memory Keepers and cuts so easily in your diecutting machine (Evolution, Big Shot, etc.) 

And here is a look at the finished page:

What do you think of the stencil/stamp work I did using the Lifestyle Crafts metal butterfly die? 

You can shop for these and many other Lifestyle Crafts and We R Memory Keepers products here. Don't forget to use my code SCRAPPIN to save 20% on your purchase every day!

For updates from Lifestyle Crafts/We R Memory Keepers make sure to "like" their facebook page here and here. 

Have a fantastic day!

♥♥

It's Monday again! 

The kids have been out of school for two weeks for their Christmas holiday and during that time off I thought all along that they were supposed to go back to school today. I was wrong. They go back tomorrow. 

Don't get me wrong...I love my girls and love having them at home with me. During the school year things are so busy that we don't get a lot of time to spend together so having them home is so nice. But, I can tell that they are ready to go back. They are grumpy with each other and with me and I think they are craving their routine, whether they realize it or not. 

And so am I. 

So for today we will play and do something fun, they'll head back to gymnastics and dance tonight and tomorrow we will get back to  our regular schedule. 

With CHA trade show work done and a no assignments due this week I had some time to just play with some of the papers in my stash again. I've been going through the Cut & Paste collection from My Mind's Eye this past weekend (thanks to the Scrap Review gig I used to have I received the entire Cut & Paste collection in all four color schemes) and have this and a couple of other layouts to share with you this week. 

Here is little Lily at the park on the day that I taught her about making wishes and blowing off the fluff from dandelions. She was so cute, having so much fun running around the park to find more "wishes." 

These little hearts were originally part of an embellishment but I decided to cut that apart and use the hearts all over the page. The gray twine here is from Doodlebug. All other product besides what I specify to be different is from the My Mind's Eye Cut & Paste collection. 

The yellow alphas are some of my favorite Thickers from American Crafts and the little "xoxo" is from Studio Calico. All tapes and stickers are from My Mind's Eye. 

What are you doing with your Monday? Are your kids back to school already? 

Have a fantastic day!

♥♥

crepe paper backgrounds and a cute little girl

It is interesting to see the personalities of each of my four girls develop and change over the years.

Each one is unique with different quirks, things she enjoys and things that drive her nuts.

Lily is our youngest, two and a half years old now, and she has quite a personality!

She makes me laugh so hard sometimes and makes my hair go gray during others.

Here is a layout I made about a week ago:

I used a Dear Lizzy crepe paper background, 5th and Frolic Project Life cards, Studio Calico wood hearts, Crate Paper butterfly and heart embellishments, American Crafts Thickers and twine from The Twinery. 

I added a few drops of mist to the background. 

Have a great day!

♥♥

quick page today and a happy birthday wish

Are you a quick scrapper or do you agonize over every little detail on your pages?

I try to be quick since I don't have a lot of time to scrap. Most of my work has to be done at night after the kids are asleep so I have to make the best use of my time that I can.

I was able to put together this page pretty quickly. I think it took a total of about 20 minutes from start to finish, which is REALLY fast for me.

What do you do to streamline your creative process?

For this page, I knew the pictures I'd be using and just found some papers that matched well and went to work. I didn't agonize over the placement and just kept the page pretty simple. I pulled some older alphas from my stash (aren't those old woodgrain ones from Cosmo Cricket so fun?) and just glued things down instead of staring at the placement options over and over. I think it turned out pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

papers: Studio Calico

Using premade embellishments helps me to speed things along- things like the washi tape (from My Mind's Eye and American Crafts), big accents (the corrugated butterfly from Jillibean Soup) and a mix of alpha stickers (October Afternoon-red, American Crafts- pink, gray, Cosmo Cricket- woodgrain). The twine is from Pick Your Plum and was one of the greatest scrappy deals I have ever found! The cute journaling spots are from Jillibean Soup. I miss them but am glad that I have quite a stash from being on the team the last couple of years. Thanks, Jill, for being so generous! ♥

And, because today is my Hailey's birthday I will share some layouts featuring her: 

Happy 8th birthday, cute Hailey!

The Fall Core Collection from Lifestyle Crafts

Hi!

I hope that you're all having a great summer.

Right now we're on vacation so this is one of my fun little pre-scheduled posts but I wanted to share with you a project that I made using some of the new Fall Core Collection die cut templates from Lifestyle Crafts.

I created this layout using quite a few of them- the business card holder, nesting clouds and ticket punches (I used one for a journaling spot and used the negative image from a whole strip of tickets as the backdrop for my layered clouds). I really like that along with the new butterfly and ticket punches you also get a single punch in the same size!

Because as I type this the dies haven't yet been released so I will add the product images after I get home from my trip!

(I apologize for the funny color- as I am typing this on the 3rd it is after midnight and I wasn't able to get a very good picture of the layout.)

I used the business card holder to place my hidden journaling and mounted my picture and  Dear Lizzy Neapolitan embellishments right on top of the envelope.

For this I used papers from Echo Park (chevron background), Lily Bee, American Crafts, Studio Calico and embellishments from American Crafts and My Mind's Eye. 

As always, you can find lots of great products at Lifestyle Crafts- and please use my promo code (SCRAPPIN) to get your 25% discount!

and another new layout for you!

Good morning!

It is still hard for me to believe that summer vacation is upon us.

Today is the last day of preschool for my 4-year-old and tomorrow is the last day for my kids in 2nd grade and kindergarten!

Heaven help us!!!

just kidding...sorta.

Summer vacation is fun, we get to do lots of cool things, go on road trips, relax, go swimming, take it easy but all of the family togetherness time can sometimes cause a bit of friction between the girls.

What do you do when the kids have seen a little too much of each other?

What fun things do you plan to do to keep kids busy this summer?

Today I have another page to share with you where I used some of the cute Lifestyle Crafts dies. These pinked circles have quickly become a favorite of mine and because they come in SO many different sizes they will be used over and over on my projects.

I used papers from Lily Bee (orange dot, blue), American Crafts (pink, chevron), Studio Calico (yellow stripe), Crate Paper (doilies background), alphas from American Crafts, mists from Maya Road and Studio Calico and twine from The Twinery.

Oh, and a note about these pictures of my Hailey (7 years old). She is a bit shy, reserved, introverted, whatever you want to call it. She doesn't talk much at school or church but at home she can get a little crazy and let loose once in a while. I thought it was so fun that she wanted to pose for these pictures with her sister's Barbie guitar, even grabbed some funny hats and wigs and things. I laughed so loud when she came up to me in this frazzled blonde wig with my old glasses (with tape in the middle and lenses missing because she used them for Nerd Day) and said to me, "Look mom! I'm Taylor Swift!" She is so silly sometimes. 

These are the pinked circle dies that I used:

http://lifestylecrafts.com/products/core/core-nesting/nesting-pinking-circles.html

and these are the stars:

http://lifestylecrafts.com/products/dies/star-punches.html

Aren't those so fun? 

I love that you get two different sizes of stars and that you can cut so many at a time. It's way quicker than using my little star punch and I get two sizes in just one template.

I know I'll be using them again and again.

Take a look at what is available from Lifestyle Crafts

http://lifestylecrafts.com/

and get a 20% discount by clicking on my Lifestyle Crafts button on the right sidebar.

Have a fantastic day!

what a week! and a new layout

It's just been one of those weeks where there's been SO much to do and I haven't been feeling well and can't seem to shake it off. My scrappy mojo has been a bit lacking and while I WANT to scrap I haven't necessarily been in love with what I've produced.

I did want to share with you page that I created last Friday while scrapping with a friend.

Maybe, since I haven't shared much this week (bad blogger!) I will share two things:

First off is a card that I created using some scraps from a Studio Calico kit insert, some KI Memories tape and some little pieces from the Crate Paper Pretty Party collection.

This layout was created using a mix of Crate Paper papers and stickers, some American Crafts Thickers and Pebbles Inc. embellishments.  

I LOVE those glittery Thickers and hope that they come out with more in that font. 

Hint, HINT American Crafts!! 

I hope y'all are having a good week!

hello cows!

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!

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!

finally something new to share

Hello!

The last few days I've taken a break from design team assignments and created some things just for fun.

Here's a layout I created using a mix of My Mind's Eye, Jillibean Soup, Studio Calico, American Crafts, Pink Paislee and Pebbles. I think it's fun to break out my stash once in a while and create something where I can mix and match whatever I want. It's a bit scrambled but I kinda like it.

This little onesie is something that I found in someone's Etsy shop- I thought it was way too cute to pass up since it says, "Adorable baby" and it was accompanied by a shirt for my husband that says "I make adorable babies." He was a little shy about posing in his shirt but here's little Lily. 

Have a great weekend!

a peek, a sneak and a layout

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

Today, though I have some things to share.

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

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

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

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

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