Reminisce contest

I've decided to throw my hat in the ring for the Reminisce DT contest. I had so much fun using the Boys Gone Wild line from Reminisce to make a mini book about Brandon and his toddler years. All patterned paper, stickers, and most rub-ons are Reminisce. I used Tie One On ribbon that went quite well with the fun colors and patterns of the paper line and also used some Frances Meyer cardstock. This little book was so much fun to make!

Click on each individual picture to see it larger and in more detail.

Club Scrap Bistro

Another great sponsor of The School of Scrap is Club Scrap. They offer gorgeous monthly kits with beautiul unique papers, matching ribbons, embellishments, and stamps. Here are some of my recent projects using the Bistro kit.

I altered a pair of flip flops to create a mini album of some things we did this past summer. I still had plenty of paper and embellishments left from the kit to create several layouts and cards.

Tie One On

August and September have been extremely busy months . . . Here's a quick look at a few things I've been doing . . .

Tie One On Ribbon Club has continually been a fantastic sponsor for The School of Scrap. Here are a few of the projects I've finished for them.













These last two also feature products from Club Scrap, another amazing sponsor for The School of Scrap. More on those projects in my next post . . .

A Quick Update and Inspiration from a Child

It's been such a long time since I've blogged . . . Summer has just been so busy.

So here's my news: I'm officially on the School of Scrap DT!
I'm so excited to be on the faculty there with such amazingly talented women! I just got a DT package the other day filled with Club Scrap goodness and some other yummy stuff from some more sponsors. I'm going to be a busy girl! In addition to playing with lots of fun product, I also get to teach a class. My assignment for Music class this month is to create a summer LO using a summer song as the title. I hope you'll check it out and play along.

Speaking of packages, I also got another fabulous package from Frances Meyer last week too! This time it was lots of yummy art products and textured cardstock. I am having so much fun playing with all my new goodies and working on plenty of submissions.

I'm not the only one having a good time playing in my studio. My kids were in here last week playing with stickers and J came up with this gem - The Great Crayon War.


He insisted I post it online so I told him I'd put it on my blog. I think it is so cute and creative.That got me thinking about how talented and creative he is. Of course he think's he is not . . . wonder where he got that from? J is such a perfectionist and his own worst critic, just like his mother. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I have to post another of his creations too.


This painting is framed and sitting on an easel in my studio. This is the most amazing painting I have ever seen by J! When he brought it home from school last Spring, I flipped out and was gushing all over it. I told R, the only thing I wanted for Mother's Day this year was to have it framed so I could hang it in my studio. Yes, I know it's my kid's painting and maybe I'm a little biased, but I was so impressed with his creativity. The kid's only 8 years old and I think he did a fantastic job. I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but he did a cool resist technique to give the dragon scales texture. I must use his painting as inspiration.

Stepping down off my soapbox now . . .

Before I go, I do want to say that my dad is recovering quite well from open heart surgery a few weeks ago. I don't think the doctors could have done a better job. And for that I am glad.

I've got a secret!

Shhhh . . . I can't spill the beans just yet, but it's something good! I'm just about bursting at the seams with excitement! I'll fill you in very soon . . .

Club Scrap

Last month I was the Guest Designer over at the School of Scrap and one of their sponsors was Club Scrap. That meant that I got a lot of fun papers to play with! Here are the projects I did with the Club Scrap papers:







And by the way . . . I was asked to be a Guest Designer for July as well at the School of Scrap! This month I'm in the Music classroom. Come check out my assignment! And that means more products to create projects with. . . I'll post them soon.

Week 5 and Tie One On

I can hardly believe Week 5 of the Big Kahuna contest is here and gone. Anyway here is my layout. The challenge was to create a layout with a self-portrait, a note to myself, and sewing.


I also created this layout for my GDT spot at the School of Scrap using the yummy ribbons from the Tie One On Ribbon Club. Here are some cards I created for TOO also.

A day of fun

I'm so glad we live so close to an amusement park. Granted it's not as big as Cedar Point or Six Flags, but it's a decent size and a fun time nonetheless. R took the night before last off so we could use the discount tickets J got at school and go to the local amusement park yesterday. Here are the highlights:

Big Kahuna Week 4

Here's my layout for week 4 of the contest. For this challenge, we were to create a 2 page layout using at least 5 photos, inking, stamping, a hand written/drawn title, staples, tag(s), and include a quote or title drawn from the Creative Scrap Shack’s Clam Chowder. Here's what I came up with.



I'm not crazy about my handwritten title, but I finished it literally in the last few minutes before the deadline. I think I could have done the title a little bit better if I had allowed myself more time, but overall I'm pretty happy with my layout.

YESSSSS!!!!!

I made the Frances Meyer DT!!! I cannot even begin to say how excited I am! I got a peek at the other members submissions and all I can say is that I'm in the company of some amazingly talented women! I am so excited for the upcoming year of working on the FM DT. Soon I'll be getting some packages of product and I just can't wait to start playing! I'm still in disbelief.

Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans . . .

Ok, I've had an insane couple of weeks. All last week I was busy with my Frances Meyer submissions for their DT. I spent almost a week on the altered project alone, I really wanted to make something to wow the judges. I must say I am really happy with the result!
More on this in a later post . . . ;)

Then on Monday I find out my dad had a heart attack. My dad had a heart attack. I've said these words several times this week and they just kind of hang there in the air. They just don't make sense to me. It's all a bit surreal. He's ok, I mean in the sense that he's alive, but it's a heart attack, so it's very, very serious. I drove down with my husband and kids to visit him at the hospital and he seems to be doing well, like himself only really tired. I guess the gravity of the situation really set in when we spoke to the doctor and he recommended open heart surgery. Very scary, but I know it will be ok. It has to be. I won't go into detail here. I don't feel much like talking about it now or writing it all out for the world to see. All I will say now is that I put my trust in the hands of God and those of the surgeons.

And now I am sick. I was fine yesterday until evening and now I am just sick with a miserable cold. I hate being sick. I hope I start feeling better really soon, because I really have a lot of work to do.

To top it all off, today 2yo B swallowed a penny. I wasn't completely sure, I heard him coughing and gagging a bit. I asked him if he put annything in his mouth and he told me he put a coin in his tummy and pointed to another penny on the ground, wet with saliva. I knew "coin in my tummy" probably meant he swallowed it and I figured it would probably be ok and just pass, but I called poison control to be sure. They recommended taking him to the ER to get xrays just to make sure it wasn't lodged somewhere. We were there a miserable 2 hours (miserable because I'm sick and 2 hrs is a long time for a 2yo to behave! under normal circumstances I think I would have been a tad more patient!) Yep, according to the xray, he swallowed a penny! The dr says it's in a good spot that he should pass it in a day or two.


Meanwhile I'm having fun working on my contest LOs for the Big Kahuna contest and my LOs for my guest design gig at the School of Scrap. I will post these when I finish!

Photo of the week

Here it is, one of my favorite photos this week. I was playing a little in macro mode, shooting pics of J, B, and the cat, and I came up with this one of B. I thought it was pretty cute!

Big Kahuna Week 2

Here is my page for Week 2 of the Big Kahuna contest. The challenge was to create a page using ONLY 1 sheet of cardstock, 2 sheets of patterned paper, rub-ons, and ric-rac. It was a tough challenge, but I'm pretty pleased with the result.

Frances Meyer finalist!!!

Recently I applied to be part of the Frances Meyer Design Team. Well, I got an email this week letting me know that I am one of 20 finalists!! I am so excited! They are sending me and the other finalists a package of Frances Meyer products and we are required to make 2 projects. They will then pick 10 of the 20 finalists to be the new Frances Meyer DT! I'm a little nervous because I don't know what they'll be sending me, but I'm just so excited at the same time! What's even better is that someone I know from CSS was also selected as a finalist! That would be so awesome if we both made the team! I'm keeping my fingers crossed for me and for Terrie!

The Big Kahuna Week 1

I entered a fun, 7 week long contest at Creative Scrap Shack called the Big Kahuna. The winner gets an AMAZING prize package! Each week there is a new challenge to complete. Week 1 was use chipboard, buttons, bling, and four photos. Here's my entry for Week 1.

I also sent this page to the Basic Grey website for consideration because I used so much of their paper on it and they posted it in their gallery! Look here.

They just posted the second challenge and it's a tough one!

Photo of the Week

I got a little busy to post last week's POW, so here's that one and this week's POW. This first one, from last week, is of some of my flowers in my gardern using the Macro setting.
I think I'm going to crop it a bit and enter it into Parade Magazine's Celebrate America's Beauty photo contest.

The next one from this past week is of my cutie playing with the hose.

I'm finding that making a conscious effort to take a least a couple pictures a day is rewarding me with some great photos that I would not have had otherwise.

It just keeps getting better . . .

I'm super excited! I was recently asked to be the guest faculty member for The School of Scrap for June! I'm so honored to have been asked. If you enjoy scrapping AT ALL, you HAVE to check out this site! It has such a cool concept, none like I've ever seen before on the internet. The forums are actually fun scrapping classes, for free! There's so much inspiration and information there and all the people there are so friendly and supportive. I have so much fun there!

So I'll be teaching Photo-ology in June along with some Book of Me challenges, and I may even be getting some sponsor products to play with. I do know that I'll be having a great time, so come visit me there!

Junior Scrapper

So J did his very first scrapbook page the other day. I think he did an awesome job! I'm so glad that he's becoming so interested in something I'm so passionate about! I hope he does some more!

Photo of the Week

I recently challenged myself to spend at least 10 minutes a day taking pictures. I think it's a great way to learn more about my camera and generally improve my photography. I'll try to post my favorite picture each week. It was a tough choice between three, but this one is my favorite.


How can you not just fall in love with that face? - even after he did THIS to my scrapbook last week!