About Me

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Carlisle, Pennsylvania
I am a stay at home mom..now that is! February 19th, 2007 I was involved in a car accident while on vacation in Florida. I awoke in ICU to find out that my only two children Annemarie age 3 and Michael age 5 did not make it. Scrapbooking became such a big part of my life. It helped fill a void that I desperately needed to fill. Our therapist suggested that I take up scrapbooking as a way to memorialize my children, little did she know! So I took that and ran with it.I became obsessed with scrapping and took over the second largest room in my house. Because of my injuries I couldn't go out and get a job, I just scrapped!I printed out 2,000 photos and my journey began. I have made albums for family members and layouts to decorate my craft room. We thought we were done having kids but who expected this tragedy??? I just gave birth in June 2009 to two beautiful baby girls Mia Anne and Gianna Marie named after their brother and sister.I swore that I would keep up with their albums so I won't become overwhelmed so we will see how that works out! My profile picture is the last family picture that was taken of all of us.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

OOHH I can't take it anymore!! Here's some more Grid

Okay I am so bad. The joke in the family is me at Christmas time. I can't wait to exchange gifts and I am usually trying to talk people into opening their gifts early. My husband and I barely ever make it to Christmas for the gift exchange. I just can't contain the excitement.

I was planning on releasing a couple more each day of projects that I made using my
Perfectly Pretty Grid. Well I have no will power so I am gonna post all the projects that are done today!! I am so bad!! But it was so much fun trying to see what I came up with. Besides on Friday Market Street Stamps is set to release a whole bunch of new stamps!!!! Yipee I have my eye on a couple already that I simply must obtain! Check out the vintage wallpaper background stamp...tell me that stamp does not have endless possibilities!!!

Okay now remember my challenge to myself was to use only Market Street Stamps and scraps. I can't tell you how fun this was. I had to literally force myself to stop because I have 2 other background stamps that I purchased that I want to showcase. Not to mention Friday's release!



On this card there is no Dp used. I used the Perfectly Pretty Grid and distressed the corners. I wanted some sort of decoration in the corners and that was a tough one because I have a few Market Street Stamps but none that would fit the bill. And since my challenge to myself was to only use Market Street Stamps I had to get creative. I took what was meant to be the water shooting up from the whales spout out of the Ocean Fun Stamp set and stamped it in the corners. I had a whole bunch of K&Company die cuts so I decided to use those on this card. Then I added some mounting dots for dimension and lace trim.

Next we have a super fun and easy card that I just love. The pictures really do not show it justice! I took some Hawaiian Shores cardstock from PaperTrey Ink and stamped the Perfectly Grid stamp in white over it and distressed the corners. I had some leftover mats on my desk that I had cut out with some PTI dies as well as some hearts that were extra from a Valentine's project I was doing. It looked nice bright and sunny so I grabbed my Ain't no Sunshine set from Market Street stamps. I stamped it in different colors and popped it up on mounting dots for dimension. This was super easy and alot of fun to make. That's how you know you have a good stamp..when they do all the work and make things look good for you!!




Next I had a leftover bus from an altered composition book that I did. I wanted to make a "Great job" card for a school age child. I put the flower on the card to see what it would look like and walked away. In that time it became permanent and I wanted to scream!!! I tried to take it off but it ruined the cardstock. I wasn't going to even show the card because I didn't like how it looked but I said the heck with it. There are no mistakes when something is handmade right??? HAHA I wish!
The focus was the bus anyway and that came out super cute. I used CTMH Liquid Glass for the windows to give it that glassy look.




Next week I will be showcasing some more of my fabulous Market Street Stamps. I just can't stop....... I challenge you all to see what you can do with one stamp and your scraps..really it's fun you should try it!

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Using Market Street Stamps at the Sisterhood


I don't know about any of you but I constantly make up challenges for myself while crafting. For some reason I get a kick out of it and it forces me to see what I can do.
Well the other day I received my order of Market Street Stamps that I placed. I was blown out of the water first by how quickly it got to me but then I opened the package and simply fell in love. I ordered three of their background stamps and could NOT believe how fabulous they were. They were HUGE!!!!! One of the bad things for me using background stamps is matching up the design if I need to do a large area. Well with the stamps from Market Street Stamps I don't have to worry about that. The background stamp coveres an A2 (4 1/4 x 5 1/2) sized card perfectly with room to spare!! I couldn't wait to start playing with them but then I realized that I didn't have a block big enough to fit the stamp. BUT NO FEAR HERE!! On Market Street Stamps blog there is a tutorial how to use the stamps without blocks. You can click HERE to see that tutorial. I used my Scor-Mat and it worked PERFECTLY!!

In today's world we are all so quick to complain when something is wrong or to our disliking. Very few people actually will call a company or a store manager when they are delighted with the product or service. So I decided I am going to do just that. This is where challenging myself comes in. I wanted to share how awesome these stamps are with everybody. I challenged myself to only use Market Street Stamps and scraps...nothing new..

There is a great challenge this week over at The Sisterhood of Crafters. This is a great way to use up some of your stash. The challenge is to use Ribbon & Brads on your project. Starting with this challenge I decided to do a little "Shout out" about Market Street Stamps and on how happy I am with their stamps. Also to show how one stamp can be so versatile and used for sooooo many projects/ideas. I just saw their sneak peak of a new release called "Vintage Wallpaper" so I know I will have to add that one to my cart...SHHHHH!

Ok so on to my challenge to myself & The Sisterhood of Crafters. The first stamp I decided to showcase this week was Perfectly Pretty Grid background stamp. This card was a simple card that I came up with using what I could reach on my desk. I used my favorite cardstock from PaperTrey Ink in Dark Chocolate. Next I stamped the Grid with Versamarker ink and Ultra thick embossing powder. Found some scrap pieces of paper also within my reach (sigh..I am not a neat crafter) and some rub-ons. I also had a container of flowers I was gonna use on another project but never did. They were kinda bland so I stamped the flower in red with the Grid background stamp to jazz it up a bit. Added the brad and ribbon for the challenge over at the Sisterhood and I was done. Easy Peasy! I love stamps that do that!!





I am did another project using scrap paper within my reach. I stamped the grid onto some yucky DP that I had on my desk and punched it out with my scallop punch to make a beautiful flower! I didn't like the paper before but now I just lllooovvveee it!
Plus I used up more of my scraps!! YIPPEE!!

Tune in tomorrow to see some more fun projects I used with my Perfectly Pretty Grid stamp. After that I have 2 more background stamps to showcase...Is it wrong to be having so much fun??????

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Sketch time at Peachy Keen Stamps!!



I get inspired daily by things around me, especially my girls clothing. My daughter has these adorable pajamas that I just love the color combination of. Every time I see her wearing it I just fall in love with the colors and say to myself "I need to do something with those colors" but I never have. These are colors I normally wouldn't do. I had enough of the procrastination so I just did it. There is alot of dimension to this card which you can not really see unfortunately but I am hoping that you get the idea.

The challenge at Peachy Keen Stamps was to follow a sketch. I wanted to challenge myself not to use any designer papers and to use only scraps. So for the background I used several different sizes of circle stamps from the PK-276 Flower Center set. I stamped it in Versamarker ink then white embossing powder. All of my mats were cut out using my Cricut. For the center images I used one of my favorite sets PK-08 Hot Cocoa. To make the designs on the mugs I used the "XO" symbol from PK-277 Vivienne and Friends, and the heart as well as the adorable face is from
PK-280 Valentine Sweets. I used my Prismacolored pencils and my Copics to color them in. I added some CTMH Liquid Glass to the inside of the cups and the outside of two of them. I made this card to go with a little packet of loose tea that my friend loves as a thank you. I wanted to have the tea wrapped up to show you but I ran out of time.

I hope that you come on down and play with us in this challenge. I can't wait to see your take on the sketch!

Saturday, February 12, 2011

Quickest card ever!



Okay I literally did this card in about 20 minutes if that. I used all scraps. I made this card for the PapterTrey Ink anniversary "Mega" challenge.


I only had a few minutes which I thought I was just gonna have a game plan on what I was gonna do. I shocked myself when I actually completed the card. I know it isn't anything fancy but in person it is so much cuter. One of my favorite things about PaperTrey Ink is the matching dies to their stamp sets. They are defintely a must! It takes no planning if you have it all. Simply just roll, stamp and glue..WALLAAA a card!


The stamps, dies and card stock are from PaperTrey Ink. The DP is from October Afternoon.


Friday, February 11, 2011

Just For You Tag - PaperTrey Ink


Here is a quick tag that I made up to tie to some goodies, add to a card or to a bottle of wine. You can even add this to a card front. This tag is very versatile for any occassion. The buttons are from PaperTrey Ink as well as the stamp set. For the tag, I used the 2008 Holiday Tags Collection. I also added a bunch of pop dots for dimension.

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

I'm Late, I'm Late....

Oh my craziness!! Sorry that this is getting posted now but we were having issues yesterday with the server so I was waiting to release my post. Today I had to run around crazy on errands and the post that I thought was done wasn't even written!!! YIKES! So today you will get two posts in one.

First this week over at Peachy Keen Stamps Challenge blog there is a great sketch. I was so excited when I saw this sketch because it fit perfect for an idea that I have been wanting to do. My original theme was going to be a "rainbow" theme for the pictures I have of the double rainbows that seem to appear on my angels in heavens birthdays. But once I started doing the sketch I (totally have attention disorder) I completely changed the whole thing and came up with this. I used PKS-450 Wide-Eyed Kids Face Assortment in the largest size that comes on the set. For the crawling babies I used the New Arrival cartridge and Plantin Schoolbook for the font. Papers are October Afternoon. As many of you know I am in LLLLLLLLLLOOOVVEE with buttons. So much that I hate to actually use them because I don't want to part with them. But since this layout is for my little miracles I splurged. When my friend saw the layout her first words out of her mouth were "WOW Lisa, you splurged...you actually used your buttons!" All of my buttons are from PaperTrey Ink.



Next over at The Sisterhood of Crafters we would love to see your Valentine's Day creations. The shame with this picture is that you can't see the dimension of all the layers on this card. I made this with scraps that I had on my table but you know what, I kinda like the way it came out. Simple but cute!



You have two weeks to play along with each challenge so I hope you come and play along with us and share in the fun!!