Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all my friends out there in blogland! Here is a sampling of the Christmas cards I made and sent out this year. I had fun making them all and it was nice to get out my much neglected stamps, dust them off and just play! I forced my self to use some of my retired designer paper by Stampin Up (I have WAY to much of it) and though I like it, it seems like the newer ones are always more appealing lol! I also did not buy any new stamp sets this year, I figured I already own enough and made myself pick and choose from them to create my cards. So proud of myself for using up some stash! I hope everyone is having a wonderful day with family and friends and I want to take this time to send out my Christmas wishes to you, my blogland friends. My wish for you is that you may be filled with joy, touched by His love and believe in the Miracle of the manager! Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday to my baby!

Seems like just yesterday I was singing Christmas carols to him in my hospital room on Christmas Eve! Today my baby turned 14! He is the best Christmas gift I have ever received! Happy birthday son! I am so proud of the wonderful young man he has become. He is thoughtful, caring, kind and considerate of others. He is a talented clarinet player, lover of games and puzzles, tall enough to get things down from high places for his mother so she doesn't have to climb up on a ladder or step stool(which is a big irrational fear of mine) and most all he laughs at my jokes (well most of the time anyway!) It won't be long before he is driving, or so he tells me. He has lofty goals for his life and I am going to be right there beside him helping, watching and guiding him to those goals. And while I am not ready for him to grow up just yet, I am also excited for him and all that the future holds. Can't wait to see where his journey will take him in the next 14 years!

Race to the finish line!

Well, the end of the year is looming and so is the end to this year's 52 week challenges over at Personalscrapper! This is a layout I quickly created tonight for the "Use stamps" challenge. This makes my 27th layout done for the 51 challenges that have been issued so far. As you can see I am lagging behind by almost 1/2 a year lol! But I still have a little over a week left, think I can do 25 more? Now that is what I would call a "pipe dream!" So since my time was limited to around 2 hours tonight to get this done before my Pilates class I decided to use some inspiration from my early Christmas gift to myself- my Scrapbook and Cards Today 2012calendar with sketches by Beck Fleck of Page Maps! This layout is based on a sketch by Becky included in the calendar and is also almost a direct lift of the sample page for this sketch, of course, I have altered it a bit to fit the supplies I had on hand, but it is definitely inspired by this AWESOME calendar! I am so glad I spent the $12 or so to get it, WELL worth it! Becky has the most awesome sketches out there in my opinion! These pictures are some of the less desirable ones from our trip to the Pumpkin Patch this last October. I decided shrinking them down this small lets me use them without the flaws being so noticeable. Papers on this layout are by Bo Bunny, Stickers from Bo Bunny, sticker letters by Basic Grey, cardstock Bazzill....and then stamps are from the set Fantastic Foliage by Stampin Up and here is the neat part, are you wondering how I get the image to look like this? Well, I stamped on the rust cardstock with BLEACH! The image bleaches out the color of the cardstock, it is so cool to see what color it will bleach too as you can never tell til it completely dries! Helpful hint: use the "gel" bleach for best results as liquid bleach is a bit to runny. Also these stamps had almost too "detailed" of an image making them look a bit "blobby", the less detailed the image the easier it will be. However, this is my only leaf stamp set, so I had to use it. If you decide to try stamping with some bleach, please link up your project in the comments section so we can all see your results! This is a fun fun technique and really simple too! Well, off to wrap up some gifts, gotta get going on that front so I won't be up all night Christmas Eve! Look for my holiday card share coming soon, I just mailed my cards yesterday, but hey, they should arrive the day or so before which isn't too bad right?

Sharp Dressed Man!

Who out there does not just LOVE Basic Grey? I know it was one of the first manufacturers I LOVED when I first started scrapping! I have liked almost every line they have come out with. At first I really wasn't sure of this Out of Print line, I liked it but thought it might be a bit "girly" for boy pages...but since I just really liked the colors and prints I went ahead and got some...and boy do I LOVE it! I think it was perfect for this layout! This layout is boyish, yet kind of formal, just the look I wanted for this picture of my son in his concert band outfit before his big performance at Bass Hall this last spring! Isn't he handsome? This layout is a lift from a lift challenge at Personalscrapper of my cyber and IRL friend Kelly, you can see her awesome layout HERE. All papers are by Basic Grey, stickers by Basic Grey, journaling spot by Janna Wilson, letters by Cosmo Cricket and I used the cricut to cut out my giant bracket (note to self: USE CRICUT MORE!) Hope everyone has their shopping done! I hope to finish up my Christmas cards this week and get a few more last minute items (going to order at Amazon as I am THROUGH with shopping at the mall for the rest of the year!) and then if all goes as scheduled have some scrappy time to myself this weekend! Have a nice week everyone!

Fall is almost gone!

It is starting to feel more like winter then fall here! We had a cool front move through this weekend and it sure feels more like Winter now! Trying to stay warm has zapped my mojo somewhat, but am slowly getting back to scrapping now that the house is almost decorated and my charity obligations are almost done for the rest of the year! I was participating in the 52 week challenge over at Personalscrapper but not sure I am doing very well with that, we are currently in week 48 and I have made exactly 30 pages so I am about 18 weeks behind...not sure if I can actually pull off alll 52 challenges are not, but I am still going to try. I am jokingly telling my son I am locking myself in my room on December 30th and coming out on Jan 1st with all the challenges done! lol! I wish I was a fast scrapper like some of my friends, but the truth is, if I complete 3 pages a week that is a good week for me! Even at an all night crop I am lucky to get 4-5 layouts done! So at this rate I will complete the 52 challenges sometime around Valentine's Day! This layout uses the wonderful October kit from Personalscrapper featuring We R Memory Keepers Splendor line (with a few embellies from my stash thrown in.) I love this picture of my brother and nephew taken while walking to the hayrack ride at Vala's Pumpkin Patch in October, my nephew looks like a miniature little man doesn't he? So cute! This layout was inspired by Debbie's transparency challenge for the October LOAD and I also added some chipboard so it will fit the Chipboard challenge for week 37 of the 52 week challenges! The transparency I have had in my stash FOREVER and says "Tall oaks from little acorns grow", I thought it fit this picture perfectly! I haven't used vellum on a page in forever, so I had to dig out my vellum adhesive and then used brads to attach it to my page securely! Papers and stickers are by We R Memory Keepers - Splendor line, chipboard acorns by Basic Grey, chipboard leaves are from Target dollar bin and letters are by Paper Trunk! If you are participating in a 52 week challenge this year make sure and leave us a comment we'd love to see what challenges you have been working on!

Hello my name is Derf!

Well, we had a nice time at Trunk or Treat last night, our church sponsors a trunk or treat each year for the local kids, we went and passed out candy at my parent's trunk this year. My son is now officially to "Old" for Halloween! Bummer huh? So I have no funny pics to post this year of his costume, but luckily I get to scrapbook my nieces and nephews, so I can't wait to get my hands on their pics and scrapbook them! I recently created this layout for one of the Personalscrapper challenges and thought I would share. This is my son last year on Halloween when he went to our Youth Group costume party as DERF the Nerd and actually won one of the prizes for best costume! He did look pretty funny I'll tell you. I won this Jillibean Atomic Soup line as a crop prize from Personalscrapper awhile back and was saving it for a science fair pic, but then I realized it was perfect for this page! So I used it vs actual Halloween themed papers/embellies and I really like the way it turned out! Corrugated alpha by Jillibean Soup and foam letters by American Crafts. We still have this week to work on our Croptoberfest layouts so I am trying to complete at least 5 more challenges to get me to 10, although I think I already completed about 10 layouts total for October, but 5 of them weren't for Croptoberfest challenges. So if your mojo needs a jumpstart please come join us, you have until Sunday to participate and don't have to be a member to do so! I'd love to see you there!

Grow

Another Croptoberfest layout completed today! This one completes the Fall tradition challenge for one of the 31 October challenges as well as week 16 of the 52 week challenges over at Personalscrapper! Every year for about 8 years now we have gone to Vala's Pumpkin Patch each fall, and I was stunned when looking back over last year's photos of how much my son has grown in just one short year! He is now pushing 6 feet! Wow! What a difference a year makes! I thought it was a fun layout to show the comparison next to the Vala's growth chart! Can't wait to see what next year will bring! This layout is based on a sketch by Valerie Salmon for her Got Sketch Express 2 class I just finished up! Valerie's classes are great, if you haven't taken one you should, in fact I think you can still sign up for Got Sketch Express 2 HERE! I will most likely be using the rest of the sketches in week's to come. All papers I used here are from Bella Blvd's One Fall Day line from last year. I loved that line, I think I can eek out another layout or two from the papers I have left, will be sad to see it go, these colors are awesome! Off to get some more scrappy time in before I have to go to bed, this layout I am working on now is just not coming together like I want...ARGHHHHH...hate it when that happens! I may just have to change gears if I can't get the mojo flowing soon and be back later in the week to share!

Croptoberfest fun!

Many of you have heard me talk about all the fun we have with Croptoberfest over at the Personalscrapper boards each October, and this year is no different! I was able to create a challenge for Erica's die cut + 3 pictures challenge a few days ago using none other then my AWESOME October Personalscrapper kit featuring We R Memory Keepers' Autumn Splendor line! It is a great line and I really like the fact that we got one but TWO sheets of die cut paper in this kit! I just love this kit! These pics were taken on our vacation to Nebraska last week and are of my cute little nephew at Vala's Pumpkin patch enjoying one of the climbing areas. He just loves to climb! I am hoping to get some more scrappy time in this weekend and catch up on some of the 52 week challenges (I'm about 20 weeks behind-ughhh) as well as do one or two of the GREAT Croptoberfest challenges that the members are posting! Why don't you come join us? You don't have to be a member to participate and I promise it is LOADS of fun, plus FREE inspiration and LOTS of encouragement, an all around fun place to visit! See you there!

Fall family fun!

We had a great extended weekend this last weekend visiting my brother and his family in Nebraska! We had perfect weather, good fun, good laughs and most of all good company! Just an all around great time! We had a a lot of fun visiting Vala's Pumpkin patch for the 7th straight year in a row! Fun to see it through the eyes of my little nephew, he had a blast, especially on the tractor! We carved pumpkins and I tried my hand at Keno (which is apparently legal here) and sadly I lost all the money I bet :o( We also had a marathon 2 hour gaming session at the Amazing Pizza Machine! We won over 6,000 tickets this year in just 2 hours between the three of us! In years past we have won about that many tickets in 4 years! HA! We should have bought a lottery ticket, we were scoring big wins, just not for real money! Since we are not going to be together for Christmas this year, we decided to go ahead and celebrate while we were together, to enjoy seeing each other open our gifts. Everyone loved their gifts and we enjoyed a delicious corn fed Nebraska ribeye for dinner! YUM! Can't wait to scrap all my pictures, here are just a few of the 270 I took! Guess I better start scrappin' tonight!

Puppy and Sketch love!

So excited to be back to blogging, I have been busy busy behind the scenes creating, working and cleaning and now am ready to get back to weekly blog posts in my newly organized space! Here is the October sketch I created for Personalscrapper as well as my take on the sketch using the September Personalscrapper kit which is PACKED with the newest Jillibean Soup goodness! I love how versatile these papers are and I LOVE LOVE LOVE the colors! This is my littlest nephew with his "fake" dog, he loves to play with it and carry it around with him when he is out front. I think it's because this "fake" dog, doesn't mind being picked up and carried around by an almost 2 year old like the real one does! We are having a Croptoberfest over on the Personalscrapper message board, come join us as we try and create a LAYOUT A DAY in October! I know I plan to go for 31 layouts! Won't you join us? You don't have to be a member to join us their on the boards, hope to see you there real soon!

My new obsession!

I don't know who first mentioned this new obsession of mine, but if I could remember I would most definitely have to thank them (or is it curse them?!!!) I have joined all the pinheads over at Pinterest and I must say it is SUPER fun, inspirational, and can become addicting quickly! If you don't know what I am referring to you can visit my boards HERE but BEWARE you won't be able to stop pinning....I have got so many GREAT ideas from my friends pins (thanks Addie for the scrapping organzination tips) that I am spending this weekend sprucing up and reorganizing my scrap space (and maybe squeezing in a bit of cropping to)! I have also already got so many ideas for Christmas gifts that I might actually be able to finish up my Christmas shopping before Dec 24th this year! Well, gotta go, I'm off to pin a bit more before supper, hope to see you following me at Pinterest soon!

August sketch

Can you believe it is August already? Where did our summer go? My son starts back to half days with band camp this coming week and then one more week of break and then school will start! YIKES! So with the start of a new month is the start of a new sketch challenge by me over at Personalscrapper! Here is this month' sketch, but with a twist...this month's sketch was based on an AWESOME layout by my cyber friend and fellow scrapper Lydia! I just adored her HAND IN HAND THROUGH THE SAND layout so much I just had to make it into a sketch! So glad she graciously agreed to let me do it (thanks Lydia!)

For my layout based on this sketch I used a fun photo taken of my son on the Fourth of July while swimming in my parent's neighborhood pool with his cousins. My niece wanted him to float with her Princess floatie, and as you can see it was a bit small for him! I can't believe he let himself be photographed with it! I used papers by Bo Bunny (blue and yellow- LOVE their basics and dots line!) and Jillibean Soup (stripe) as well as Bella Blvd (pink). The title was created using rub ons (thanks to Jessica for loaning me the pink ones!), I like the way it looks, I haven't used rub ons in years, I think I'm going to start using them again, they really are fun and easy to use. Embellishments are by Little Yellow Bicycle and Jillibean soup. This was another one of those layouts were I combined a bunch of different manufacturers to get the look I was wanting. Hope you enjoy the sketch as much as I did, if you use it please link up your layout in the comments section so we can get a peek! Stay cool everyone!

Mr Sandman

WOW! This summer is flying by! I can't believe the kids will be back to school in less then a month....where did the time go? I am ready for cooler weather, and I am also ready for some FOOTBALL!! But I love the lazy days of summer to, just wish they could be lazy and 80 degrees not 100+! LOL! I have been trying to keep up with our 52 week challenges over at Personalscrapper this summer so I don't end up being terribly far behind by the end of the year...and so I can meet my goal of 100 layouts for 2011. This is week 29 and this week's challenge was brought to us by Kim who gave us the challenge to do a layout with the theme "roughing it, dirty or outdoorsy". Since I don't "rough it" and my son rarely gets dirty (unless its an accident) I had to scrap a pic of my oldest nephew- who LOVES to be dirty. He has an inner radar for a pile of sand, puddle of water or mud puddle! If there is dirty nearby he will find it! This picture is from 2009 when we went to NRH20 and he dove right into the sand after getting out of the pool! I used sketch #229 by Trisha at Sketch Inspiration and the July 2011 Personalscrapper kit featuring Fancy Pants' Beach Bum line, which by the way is AWESOME! I was pleased to use one of my stamps (circle with dots) on this layout, it is an old foam stamp by Lisa Bearnson...and these I must admit are much neglected, so it was nice to use it. I'm off to get back to work on another one of the 52 week challenges (I'm eleven weeks behind YIKES! and trying to play catch up today while I have a bit of time so I can be right on top of week 30's challenge when it is posted tomorrow!) Have a wonderful week friends!

Summer Sketch fun!

I have been enjoying the Summer Camp over at Personalscrapper this summer! The bonus challenge for last week was to create a layout with a song title. I had a hard time at first coming up with a title (well, actually I had several fun titles in mind but no pics to go with! lol!) Then as I was getting ready for bed one night the song "UR my Sunshine" came on a commercial and I immediately thought of this sketch I had made last September for Personalscrapper but NEVER used to make a layout....thus this page was born :o) I am also entering this in Practical Scrappers weekly challenge which is to use woodgrain on your layout. I LOVE the woodgrain look! This layout combines MANY different manufacturers using scraps I had left over from various kits etc. The manufacturers on this page include: Basic Grey (stripe), Fancy Pants (sun body), We R Memory Keepers (sun rays), Cosmo Cricket (background woodgrain), My Mind's Eye (larger dotted strip) and Bella Blvd (smaller dotted strip). A total of SIX manufacturers papers! The bigger letters are from October Afternoon and ae woodgrain as well. Smaller letters are from the Paper Loft and the journaling circle is from Jillibean Soup. This makes a total of NINE manufacturers products on this page! I NEVER mix it up like this, I tend to use all stuff from a line at once, but it was nice that I was able to use up scraps and things fell together so easily. These pictures are from our Washington, DC trip last August and are ones I took while we were waiting for the boat to pick us up from Mount Vernon after we had spent the day there. It was an awesome trip! I hope you can use this sketch, it would work great for your summer pics, if you use it don't forget to link it up in the comments section! Have a great weekend everyone!

Another Scraptivations sketch!

I was honored to provide another sketch for our Scraptivations challenge this week! I am loving the tag trend lately and wanted to include it on one of my sketches. Go check out what the other ladies did using the sketch HERE! For my layout I used pictures of my nephew on his four wheeler he got for his first birthday! This boy is going to be a race car driver when he grows up, he is a natural! Papers are by Echo Park Little boy collection with white foam Thickers for the letters. Embellishments are from K and company (interstate sticker), Echo Park (boys will be boys) and journal spot that I mounted the interstate sticker on is from Jillibean Soup. Hope you will find time to use the sketch, and if you do, don't forget to link it up on the Scraptivations blog so you can be entered into this month's prize drawing for an awesome prize from Punky Sprouts!!

Second one hour challenge!

I'm back with my second one hour challenge, this time using a Page Maps sketch by Becky Fleck (love her sketches!), and this time around I actually didn't cheat at all! Yay me!!! I was able to finish in one hour without any difficulty this time, having the sketch to guide me really helped. I used the new Jillibean Soup line called Watermelon Gazpacho which I received in my June Personalscrapper kit. All supplies are Jillibean Soup except for the big star brad by Queen and company. I picked up a lot of fun embellies from the Queen and Company booth during the Great American Scrapbook Convention in Arlington this year! I love their embellishments, so versatile! This picture you might recognize from our annual Memorial Day trip to NRH2O waterpark...with our first time to take my niece who is 3! We had a great time as usual and really this was my only good picture of the whole day, so had to scrap it right away! Have a happy fourth everyone and take lots of pictures!

One hour challenge!

We are having a summer camp over at Personalscrapper this summer! This was our first week of camp and it is my week to be camp counselor! So being a good camp counselor I had to find way to entertain the campers and what better way then some fun campfire games? Last night we gathered around the campfire and had ourselves a fun one hour layout challenge. You basically get one hour to create a layout...now for me that is a challenge! You can gather your supplies ahead of time, but you must create your layout in the hour time frame. Well, I did it, but it was a tough struggle...and I hate to admit it, but as I was getting this layout ready to photograph, I decided to add a few more things...so I cheated by about 3 minutes...I had forgotten my journaling, which I quickly added and then I also added the cameo and quote up in the top right square..and now I am happy with my layout, so this one is the "almost" an hour layout lol! We are having another one hour challenge around the campfire tonight too...and I promise not to cheat tonight (lol!)! Ok, deets on my layout...all papers by Crate Paper (Potrait line)...embellies a mix of Crate Paper (cameo), KI memories (remember sticker), Queen and company (pearls and rhinestone), Pink Paislee (cork elements) and butterfly is unknown...I got it a long time ago in a kit and don't know who makes it. Letter stickers are from the Echo Park For The Record line. This layout was based on a sketch by Allison Davis from her blog called SKETCH SUPPORT. This picture was taken at the Arlington Great American Scrapbook Convention this June, where I was lucky enough to get to meet two of my online Personalscrapper friends IRL! Both Debbie and Kelly were a lot of fun to shop with and are as sweet as can be in person. I hope to get to crop with one or both of them someday soon! It is so fun to actually get to meet your online friends in the flesh! Ok, I'm off to prepare for tonights one hour challenge..wish me luck and I promise not to cheat this time *wink*!