More Recents...

Just wanted to share some recent stuff I've done. I will start with my new favorite layout of all time. ( You know how every new layout seems to become your new favorite....until your next layout.) But I really like this one and how it turned out. I double-dipped with this one making it fit Sketch #3 over on 52 Sketches and the newest Scrap Whisper's Challenge: "Use a Song Title".Let me just say that I *Heart* these Little Yellow Bicycle "Love Letters" papers! I just can't say it enough!

I'm still doing pretty good at making birthday cards. This one was for a friend:I also did a quick alter of this little notebook as a small gift for her:And these are the layouts and cards I made using Jamie Scraps January Kit. I love the color combinations in this kit. It was very fun to work with!

Blogger Awards and some Layouts

What a week! I've been blogging for over two years now and have never received a "blog award". And then all of a sudden, in less than one week's time, I have received 3 blog awards! So, Thank You to those people out there that actually come over here to read and see my scrappy stuff from time to time. Y'all are awesome!

Both Chelsey and Marie tagged me with this "Fab" award. Thanks Chelsey and Marie!!
I'm suppose to name 5 Addictions:

1. Mountain Dew (Chelsey, I see you are like me). I'm trying to give it up...or at least cut back!
2. Scrapbooking....I just have to do it. It's my passion, my obsession and my way to unwind after a tiring day!
3. My Family.....love 'em all!
4. New stuff.....seeing all the sneak peeks from CHA is killing me! I want it all!
5. Shopping...I love to buy stuff: scrap, clothes, house stuff, office supplies! It's so much fun!

And now to tag 5 more people, but I've not been a very good blog reader lately! So, instead, the next 5 comments I receive can consider themselves tagged!! I know I'm cheating, but please, give me a break! ;)

Lydia tagged me with this Funky Award. Thanks Lydia!!Same story....if you comment, you are now the proud winner of this same Funky Award!!!!!

Now on to some layouts.

I got to come up with Challenge #13 going on now over on Scrap Whispers. Since the 23rd is National Handwriting Day, my challenge is to journal on your layout with your own handwriting. Here is my example:I wrote to Annessa and Amelia about the special bond between sisters. Head on over to SW to do this challenge. Bittersweet is the prize for one lucky winner!!

I have some happy news to share! WiseScrappers, my local scrapbook store has asked me to be on their design team! Woo Hoo! I'm really excited about working together with Brenda and Sheryl. AND....Leah! She was asked to join them too. The above layout for SW was using products from their store. We are in the process of putting together some kits with our layouts as examples. I did this other layout on Saturday using the Basic Grey Periphery Line.
I used the scraps I had left over to make this card. Simple.

A Few More Things....

I feel like I always have so much I need to update on. I guess if I blogged a little more often, I wouldn't feel this way. ;) But anyhow, here goes.

First of all, here is another layout I did using the Sketch #2 on 52 Sketches. I used the red, blue and cream colors to fit the Color Combo January Challenge on ScrapCity. I also used papers from the December Jamie Scraps Kit. Don'tcha just love it when you can do a layout to incorporate so much goodness!!
I also wanted to share a few other projects I did last week. Most all of these were for ScrapCity challenges. This is an altered bin to hold the cards I make.I'm trying to be good about making cards this year. I created this little mini-book to hold all the important birthdates in. I used the Stampin Up calendar stamp and made a page for each month. Then I just added in all the birthdates.

Here are some of the cards I've made so far. Remember, I am just now getting started with the card-making. These are so plain. There are so many better card-makers out there that I hope to learn some tips from.

If you know me, you know how much I'm hooked on monthly kits. December was a bad month for me....I ordered I don't know how many kits. I am still working on using them up before I order more. BUT....I couldn't help myself when I saw this kit on Paper Popsicles. It looked like so much fun! I am so glad that I did order it. Here are a few layouts I did using it so far.

I used a scraplift challenge over on ScrapCity to complete this layout. The funny thing is, that it was a scraplift of one of my own layouts! That was fun though! This is also for a challenge going on at Paper Popsicles that has to do with a First. This was Amelia's first Biter Biscuit. And speaking of Paper Popsicles, they are having a fantastic give-away right now. You can check out more about it on their blog.

Sketch #2

I'm loving Julie's sketches over on 52 Sketches...52 Weeks! Check out Sketch #2:
Here's my take:
I picked up the Basic Grey Bittersweet collection over the weekend. I couldn't wait to use it. I'm happy how this turned out. I enjoyed the sketch and it is so neat to see the different takes on it in the gallery. I did another layout with it tonight too. My camera batteries are dead so I'll have to wait to get a picture of it.

Challenges Rock!!

If you know me, you know that I love to use challenges and sketches to get me going! There are SO many awesome challenge/sketch sites out there. Just use them and you will be hooked....just like me! Here are a few layouts I did this week using either a sketch or a challenge.

Scrap Whispers offers a new challenge each week. This week's challenge is none other than one of the most famous TV shows, The Brady Bunch. You have got to go and check out the DT's work. There were so many great interpretations. I used the 9 square grid like you see during the open credits. I also went to Dafont.com to download the "Brady Bunch" font. I love how this helped put so many photos on one layout!The papers I used here are Chatterbox and so are the embellishments. I printed the words on Bazzill and then cut them out. I outlined the letters with the white Uniball pen.

Julie Bonner has been doing the 52 Sketches site for a while, but she did a total make-over and has drawn many newcomers to her site, including me! Last week, she posted Sketch #1. Yesterday she posted the Second Sketch...be sure to go check it out. I loved the way this layout turned out for me. I was struggling with it but it just came together and has quickly climbed its way up to the top of my favorites list. The papers are Dream Street and came out of the Dixie Pieces April 2008 kit.

Update Part Two

Here are a few more things I did during the month of December that I didn't fit into the last post. First of all, I forgot one of the layouts I did using the Cosmo Cricket for ScrapCity. I love this one. I also used Sketch #121 from Scrapbook Challenges to create this layout.Scrap Whispers has started back up with Round 5. You can read here if you do not remember what this site is all about. While we are waiting on the layout to make it's way around the team, we do weekly challenges. Last Sunday was Challenge #10: To use the game Scrabble as your inspiration. Here is my layout I did for this challenge:Challenge #11 went up today. The challenge was to tell about your New Year's Resolutions. I did a layout about being silly. I want to spend more time with my kids having fun throughout this year. This is one of my goals for the new year.Georgina is doing a fantastic job with this website. We welcome you to join us on the challenges. You may just win a prize if you do!

The Creative Team over on ScrapCity made cards for the month of January. Making cards is one of my downfalls. I do not do it nearly enough. This is another goal of mine: to do more cards this year. Here are four cards that I made using a kit sent out to us by the owner, Wendy.We also have 11 different challenges for the month of January. You can do layouts for these challenges to get you name in the hat for a prize drawing at the end of the month. I did the sketch challenge and the quote/saying challenge. For the sketch challenge, I used Sketch #005 from Scrapbooks Etc. Here is the sketch:And here is my layout for this sketch:
For the quote/saying challenge, I want you to choose a saying or a quote that has the word happiness in it. Here is the quote I chose for my layout:
"Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude." -Denis Waitley
And here is my layout:
Kids Can Scrap is now in it's 4th Challenge! It is going so well over there. I love that we have so many kids participating. December was our greatest month with over 40 entries! If you've not been over there lately, go check out the galleries set up on the right side bar for the past challenges. For January, Annessa and I came up with the challenge of a teamwork layout. The mom or adult helper will begin the layout. They will stop at a point and take a picture of it. Then the child gets to finish it up however they choose. And then after another picture of the final product, you can send them to Kids Can Scrap. Check out what Annessa and I did for this challenge. Here is the layout after I finished:And here is the final layout after Annessa finished:
I think she did a fabulous job with it!

Last but certainly not least, one of my LSS, WiseScrappers, is holding a Layout Contest. I spent nearly an hour in there the other day picking out paper to use for my layout and talking with one of the owners, Brenda. They are looking to try some new things for the new year and I enjoyed chatting about some exciting things with her. They have a new website and a blog. Today I found out that my layout for the contest is up on both their website and blog! How cool is that?! Thanks Ladies....you guys are awesome. I look forward to seeing you lots more in the future! BTW, they were also one of the gracious prize sponsors for our grand opening over on Kids Can Scrap in November! Here's the layout I did for the contest:
Incidentally, this was my first layout of 2009! Hopefully there will a lot more to come!

Where Oh Where Did December Go?

It certainly flew by for me! I stayed pretty busy getting things ready for Christmas. I made several gifts this year. I'm kicking myself for not getting pictures of everything I made, but here are a few to share with you.

The first two pictures are of a clipboard/calendar I made for Andrew's Kindergarten teacher using Cosmo Cricket's Jack's World. This was our sponsor for the month of December over at ScrapCity.
This second clipboard was made for Annessa's Third Grade Teacher. I used some Chatterbox paper to cover it. Love those colors together!

For the last several years, my two sister-in-laws and I have been exchanging homemade gifts for each other at Christmas. This year I made them family trees. I loved how they turned out and plan to make one for myself soon!

I also made my nieces and nephews gifts, but that is what I do not have a picture for. I made the girls memo/message boards out of pizza sheets. I covered them in paper, punched holes around the edges for lots of ribbon and made magnets to match. For the nephew and my boys, I made them dart boards using foam darts with magnets on the ends.

I was able to scrap some this month with my friend Jamie using her December's Jamie Scraps Kit. I loved everything in it especially those felt snowflakes. Here are the layouts I did and some cards I made too:
As I mentioned earlier, Cosmo Cricket was our December Sponsor over at ScrapCity. They sent us an awesome pack of supplies. Here is what I created with them:I have several more things to share but it's getting late. I'll update more soon!