Whooooo Loves Adornit?

I do. I do. Today's my last day as Guest Blogger at Adornit. I thought I'd share my Pink Hoot mini album that was up on the blog Wednesday.

As you may know, I am a momma scrapping two boys. You might think I wouldn't be excited to receive a collection that features so many girly colors, but I was. You see, I have a couple of theories about using pink to scrap pictures of my boys. First, if the picture is a close up with lots of skin tone, well I can use pink because it complements their peachy skin nicely. Second, if I am in the photo, then I can use pink. In fact, if ANY girls are in the photo, I can use pink. Ok, I know it's not perfect logic, but it allows me to use a lot of great products. Like Pink Hoot.

As you can see, my album is pretty simple. The Pink Hoot papers and stickers are so cute that you don't need to add much. All I added from my stash was a few buttons and some pop dots. Gotta love that!

Hope you'll go check out my other projects at the Adornit blog. You'll LOVE all their papers.

And be sure to come back tomorrow for a super fun Imaginisce blog hop challenge. WITH prizes! Woo hooo!!!

Ready for the New Year

The Christmas tree decorations are packed away and stored in the attic. The black-eyed peas and pork chops are ready to be cooked. The party hats and noise makers have been bought. And the first page of my 2011 calendar has been scrapped. Yep, this year I plan to create my own calendar from scrapping supplies. Here's the January page.

Each month I am going to embellish one of KI Memories Sew Cute calendar pages and then actually use it to keep track of my family's day-to-day activities (sports practice, appointments, days off, holidays, etc.). In order to be functional, I decided to keep it pretty simple, so I just numbered the days, embellished the front, and created a pre-made layout on the back for my favorite photo of the month. And, of course, those embellishments included some Really Reasonable Ribbon.

For the front, I used lots of Cherry Baker's Twine. There's a three inch strip to connect the mittens. And then each of the red buttons is finished with a little bit. Since discovering the Baker's Twine Assortment in the store, I just can't leave a button untied. It is the perfect finish to any button.

After the month's end, I plan to choose one or two pictures to add to the brown mat. More importantly, I plan to journal about the importance of the photo. Then, I'm going to place each page in an album. Won't it be fun to go back and see just exactly where the time went?

Um, how cute is that snowman with his Red Rik Rak scarf? LOVE that! I also added some Red Circus Dots Grosgrain on top of all my paper strips using Scor-Tape adhesive. Definitely my favorite adhesive for adding ribbon strips to a layout.

All of the paper and embellishments are from Echo Park's Wintertime collection. I love the red, turquoise, and brown. Such a perfect color combination for January. Oh, and look, another button with Baker's Twine. Big surprise there, hun? Ha!

Thanks for stopping by today and Happy New Year!

Guest Blogging at Adornit

I am thrilled to be Adornit's guest blogger this week. I LOVE all their fun papers and was excited to get the chance to design with five of them. First up, Fern. Oh my stars, those owls are just too cute!

Happy Kid

Dream Card

Thanks for stopping by today. And if you have a chance, please pop over to Adornit and check out my Pink Hoot mini album. I'd love to hear from ya!

Krafty Announcement

I am so excited to be joining the Kraft Outlet as a member of its very first design team.

The Kraft Outlet is a leading online vendor for Brown Kraft Labels, Kraft Paper and Cardstock. Whether you are needing to make business cards, hang tags, bag toppers, product or address and shipping labels, their specialty papers and labels will help you achieve that old time worn look.

The design team will be posting challenges and projects at the Kraft Outlet blog, The Kraft Journal, starting January 10th. You can see more information about the new team and our upcoming challenges HERE.

Merry Christmas

and Happy New Year!

Pardon the Interruption

Sorry to post twice in one day, but I just had to mention THIS!

I am just thrilled and excited and honored and flattered to be asked back for another term for such an amazing company. And I'm just as excited to be working with the fabulously talented team that Imaginisce has put together. You can see the full announcement HERE.

Ok, thanks for letting me share. You can scroll down to see my regularly scheduled post.

One Down. Two to Go.

I thought now that I have finished crafting my Christmas cards, I could get a head start on my Valentine's cards. Ok, well maybe I didn't actually craft all my cards, but I did create them at Winkflash. And send them out. Yesterday. So, yes, I really do need to start making Valentine's cards now. All three that I plan to make. Here's the first one.

Love You Card

The patterned papers, die cut, cardstock sticker, and alpha stickers are all from My Little Shoebox's Harmony collection. Big news! I stamped!!! Shocker, I know. But, I did. I used one of the Harmony stamps to create the orange and white background paper. Orange Staz On ink is so bright and bold and went perfectly with the cute little geisha girl.

The bow is made from 1/2" Pink Wrinkled Ribbon and Cotton Candy Baker's Twine from Really Reasonable Ribbon. And if these two ribbons don't work for you, be sure to check out the 218 different pink ribbons in the store HERE.

One down. Two to go. I might just finish in time. LOL! Have a great day!

Harmony Projects

Wanna take a little break from Christmas and check out my My Little Shoebox Harmony design team projects? Thanks. I hoped you would.

Silly Girls

I just love this photo of Frances and me hamming it up in the photo booth at a crop we went to back in October. This is only one of about ten photos. Behind the surf boards, on the surf boards, in the grass skirts, doing the hula dance. Hee hee! It was too fun.

Those geisha girl stickers might have just been my favorite embellishment in this whole collection. Aren't they sweet? And just perfect for representing my bestie and me. The black shiny alphas are actually some mismatched chipboard My Little Shoebox alphas that I painted black with my Elmer's paint pen and then finished off with some Crystal Accents. Easy peasy!

Lucky Me

Every summer my family takes a vacation to the beach, and I feel so blessed to get to hang with them for a week and enjoy the sun and sand and surf. We take plenty of photos while we're there, and I scrap them all year long to relive the experience. This is one of me and the boys right before headed out to the beach on the first day.

I hand cut and pieced that big pink layered flower. I was going for a Lotus flower of sorts. Ya know, to fit the theme of the paper. Not sure how Lotus looking it is, but I do think it has a tropical feel to it. Anyhoo, I have a tutorial coming up soon at the My Little Shoebox blog. Stay tuned.

Budding Friendships

I love this photo of my friend Frances's four kiddos and my two kiddos on a weekend getaway this past summer. When the six of them get together, they are a mess, I tell ya! Almost as much fun as me and Frances. Ha ha!

Those lanterns. Eeek! LOVE them. I hung these from the cherry blossom branch with a little brown embroidery floss. Too fun, hun? (We're going to pretend like that stray piece of floss isn't there because I really don't want to have to retie that itty bitty bow and reshoot this photo.)

Gosh, I just LOVE this line. Such bright colors and fun embellishments. And as you can see from these three layouts, pretty versatile! I'll be back tomorrow with a Harmony card using some Really Reasonable Ribbon. Have a great day!

Snowflake Frenzy

It seems that lately I am dying to layer some snowflakes on my layout. Um, every layout that might relate to Christmas or cold weather. Can't get enough of 'em. And my layout for today's Creative Scrappers Sketch #137 is no exception.

Joy of Christmas

The sketch called for a large circle in the background, but I decided to do something a little different. So, I used my Cricut Accent Essentials cartridge to cut out an 8" snowflake. An 8" snowflake wasn't quite enough for me, so I added two Girls' Paperie Tinsel Snowflakes, two Maya Road chipboard snowflakes covered with silver ink, and three Martha Stewart large punched snowflakes.

I finished off each snowflake with a button and some cherry baker's twine from Really Reasonable Ribbon. And how about those Maya Road green vintage stick pins? Aren't they lovely? Aren't they just the prettiest green? Yeah, I love 'em and I might just get addicted to them next. *smile*

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope you are having a great day. See you soon!

It's Holly Jolly Time!

Good morning friends. Taking a quick break from shopping, wrapping, baking, decking, caroling, enjoying . . . . to post a couple of fun projects using My Little Shoebox's Holly Jolly collection and Becky Fleck's Card Maps and Page Maps.

Season's Greeting Card

Snow Fun

Quick story about the layout -- my youngest came to say hi (steal some M&Ms) while I was scrapping. As he snuck his hand into the candy jar, he knocked over my drink. The entire right side of the page was covered in Diet Coke. After some quick dabbing and drying, the photos and paper were spared, but the white cardstock background had to be replaced. My replacement piece didn't exactly match. Grrr . . . Oh well, you can't tell as much in real life as you can in the photo.

See ya tomorrow for Creative Scrappers Sketch #137 reveal!

Checking My List

With only 9 days left until Christmas, I am checking my list and checking it twice to be sure that I've finished all those small, last-minute gifts for some special people in our lives. Like our pastor, our neighbors, and the kids' teachers.

Hot Chocolate Treat Box

I created this little hot chocolate treat box for my pastor. He loves hot chocolate, so I put together a little treat basket with a couple of nice mugs, some marshmallows, candy canes, and hot chocolate packets for him and his wife. The box template comes from The Cutting Cafe, who sponsored the December 15th Challenge at Really Reasonable Ribbon. You can find more details about the challenge and the cafe HERE.

I'd also like to share a couple of altered notebooks that I made for my sons' teachers. I thought they might like a cute little notebook for jotting down their last minute to do's. (Everyone has last minute things to do, right? Right.) I bought some little 4" by 4" notebooks from the dollar section at Michael's. Then, I just decorated each one with some patterned paper, cardstock stickers, and ribbon, of course.

The Pink and Red Big Random Dots Grosgrain from Really Reasonable Ribbon was the perfect accent for the My Little Shoebox Holly Jolly papers and embellishments. I just tied a piece around a couple of the notebooks rings and then triangle cut the ends. I also really liked the Aqua Baker's Twine added to the front for a little texture.

On this second notebook, I used Lime Green Stripe Grosgrain on the front instead of the Baker's Twine. You can also see from the second photo how I added it to the spine in between the wider red and pink grosgrain. I love how these little notebooks turned out, and the ribbon definitely bumps up the cute factor.

Ok, well, back to all my last minute shopping, wrapping, and crafting. Have a great day!

Imaginisce's Garden Party

Today kicks off the first day of Imaginisce's Garden Party release party. And you know what that means, right? A fabulous new collection. Inspiration, tips, and tutorials from our amazing design team. And super generous prizes from Imaginisce. Woo hoo! Now that's a party!

Here's the newly released line, Garden Party. It is Springtime in a package. Soft colors. Beautiful florals.

For my first project, I created a Welcome Spring Shadowbox. This 9" x 9" shadowbox comes from Ikea. I removed the glass and decorated the wooden insert in back.

I used 2" x 2" squares of each of the patterned papers in the collection to create a grid on the background piece. To give even more dimension, I used foam dots to pop up the squares.

I used the Blossom Tag Die Cuts, curled strips of Darling Dahlias paper, my Cricut Expression and Plantin SchoolBook cartridge, a piece of a Johnny Jump Up sticker stacker, and lots of yellow Hot Rocks to create this cluster in the bottom corner.

And what Spring Shadow Box would be complete without a sweet butterfly banner? Not mine, that's for sure. LOL! I used my Cricut Expression and Birthday Bash cartridge to cut the banner pieces. I created the pointed circles and butterflies with my Martha Stewart punches. Then I attached a large Hot Rock Crystal to the center of each butterfly. Finally, I strung it together with some DMC black embroidery floss.

So, how do you like this new collection? Pretty, I know. Well, you definitely want to take yourself a little stroll over to the Imaginisce blog over the next few days to see what the rest of the designers have created and to try to win yourself some Garden Party.

Have a great day!