Practical Scrappers Border Punch/Decorative Scissors

As many of you know I am currently doing an album for my friend. The challenges over at Practical Scrappers is coming in sooooooo handy in helping me get it done. I just take that weeks theme/sketch or whatever the challenge is and it gets my Mojo going. This week the challenge was to use decorative scissors or border punches. So I took some pictures of my friend and a Hibachi restraunt and made a page. SHe had a bunch of pictures so I had to keep it simple. I also had to leave her room for journaling so this is what I came up with. I used my Peachy Keen Stamps, Martha Stewart border punch and my Create a Critter Cricut cartridge.

Movie or Book Inspired project over at the Sisterhood!

Happy Wednesday everyone! This week over at The Sisterhood of Crafters we have a fun challenge for you all. We had to make a project based around your favorite book or movie. At first I was a bit stumped because I knew what I wanted to do but I wasn't sure how I would do it. I was gonna cheat and just make something easy but I stuck to my guns and tried to pull something out of my crafty hat. I am not one for going to the movies, the last one I saw was CARS with my son years ago. I love to watch them on TV when I am able and these days I don't get much time to watch the tube.

Growing up me and my sisters loved loved loved the movie GOONIES. I just recently bought it on DVD for my sister for Christmas. It was just our thing. We even made a map and went on our own treasure hunt. This movie has so many fond memories that I just had to do it besides that was the first one that popped into my head. Once I started on this project I almost aborted it and started another one because I was like OOHHH I could do that...or that. This is a challenge that you can honestly have weekly because there are so many possibilities.

So I searched thru my stash and tried to come up with a scene with my favorite part. When they went down those cave slides into the water and found One Eyed Willie's ship..OMG I wanted to find a cave so bad after that!!!! And when he turned the ships helm and all heck broke loose well that is why I had to include the helm on my card ( I guess that is what the steering wheel :) of the ship is called!). I made it into an easel card to fit the challenge over at
TotallyPaperCrafts and I followed the sketch from Friday Sketchers.

It's a big card!! I used lots of dimensional dots to give it some ..well Dimension!

Somewhere over the rainbow.....

I decided to take a break from doing my friends album and to scrapbook a LO of my own children. I printed out over 2,000 photos...every picture I had of them so I have plenty to pick from.

First sorry that the pictures stink but I took them inside my craft room since it was raining outside. Plus I already put on my comfy PJ's at 6:00pm and didn't think the neighbors would appreciate that one!

I designed this LO around several challenges. These are pictures of my two angels Mikey and Annie playing in the sprinkler. It is hard to make out but they are trying to drink the water as it is shooting out of the volcano. My daughter was a very tiny girl and the bathing suit she was wearing was either 18 months or 24 months (and she was 3yrs old) and as you can see it kept drooping off of her. But you dare not tell her she was small because she would yell "I am not SMALL....I am a BIG girl!!!" What sweet memories......... I left several areas blank so I can journal about the day. This one will be framed and hung in my office because it makes me smile and think of them.

Here are the challenges I based them off of:

Frosted Designs - Color combo...I had so much fun playing with the colors they picked I had to do another one! And the funny thing is some of those colors are not my cup of tea and I normally wouldn't use them...boy how things have changed!!

My Creative Time "Throwback Thursday" challenge. Emma picked the cartridge Doodlecharms..I had so much fun I had to do another one. For this one I used the sun.

Stuck On U Sketch

Delightful Sketches Summer theme

Bitten By the Bug 2 the challenge was to use the Rainbow from the Once Upon a Princess cartridge. I used my PK-641 Princess Faces stamp set that I just got from Peachy Keen Stamps.

This is one of the first blogs that got me going on this LO because of the rainbow theme. My daughter used to sing all of the time "Somewhere over the Rainbow". She didn't know all of the words but the way she sang it at only 3 years old was just to cute. That's why I had to put little girlie goo faces in the clouds. And now I say that she is somewhere over the rainbow... :(
On my twins birthday a quick rainstorm came thru and there was a double rainbow over my house which of course I got pictures of. A couple of days before I was having a rough day missing my kids and the same thing happened...a double rainbow. I like to think of that as their way of telling me that they are okay and they are with me.

2 More Layouts for my Friends album

I think my friend's album is now two albums!!! I have been doing all these different sketch challenges that I didn't realize how many I completed..which is exciting because sometimes it takes me days to complete just one sketch.

I am sure you all have it but I have a huge pile of paper that is ugly or just not something I would turn to everyday. I also have paper packs that I have purchased and never used yet or I just don't bother with it for some reason. Well for these two sketches I pulled out one of my oldest paper packs and challenged myself to use whatever paper was in there. I gotta say, I kinda like how they came out. Sure I had better paper to go with the layouts but that would defeat the purpose. And I can't justify buying anymore paper (sigh..sad day) paper until I get rid of some. Plus I was impressed that I used something I normally wouldn't...guess that is what challenges are all about.

Two of my wonderful DT members have their own blogs and some great challenges going on this week. I think very highly of both of them and try to make sure I take part in their challenges as much as possible.

For this first LO I used the sketch from my fellow DT member Kim and her blog Sketches in Thyme. My other DT member Emma was having a fun challenge for her "Throwback Thursday" challenge on her blog ~ My Creative Time. Throwback Thursdays is when she picks an older Cricut Cartridge and sets the theme around that. I love this because I tend to forget some of my cartridges and I don't realize how many awesome cuts there are on there. This week she choose DoodleCharms. So I picked out some pictures of my friends kids playing in the snow so I could use the adorable Snowman cut. For the Snowman's face I used my PK-495 Everyday Character faces stamp set. I set the color theme to go with the challenge over at The Playdate Cafe.




I have also challenge myself to complete all of the (or as many of them) sketch challenges over at The Scrappiest. I was going to do a train theme but after assembling it I kinda liked it nice and simple like I had it so I just left it. I think this is the last LO that will complete my friends albums. She hasn't seen any of the LO's so I am excited and nervous at the same time sending it to her. My fellow DT member Kim is also running the challenge over at Frosted Designsthis week. She picked a fun color challenge so I picked the colors for this layout around them. I am also done with another LO using the same fun colors which I will post later today or tomorrow.

Well I am off to wash the dog...he smells like Fritos..YUCK!

Practical Scrappers - Sketch Time

Happy Friday Everyone!! Today I have two projects for you.



First we have this weeks normally scheduled challenge over at Practical Scrappers and it was to use flowers on your project. I got this adorable new stamp PK-277 Vivienne and Friends from Peachy Keen Stamps. This stamp is just to cute so I couldn't help myself. I have several cards started playing with different set ups with this set....LOVE IT LOVE IT!! I added some of my Prima flowers to the ribbon, We R Memory Keepers paper and my Prismacolor pencils. I just had to give Viv and her dolly matching outfits!

For the next project..... it is Sketch Friday over at Practical Scrappers. Here is the sketch we had to use for the challenge along with my interpretation of it.

"Imagine" that!!

Okay so I know things have neen crazy but commmmeeee on! I did this sketch a couple of weeks ago for the sketch challenge over at the
Imaginisce blog. I just so happen to be browsing around their blog today and decided to see if anyone else entered the challenge. Well to my surprise I didn't see my LO listed. My first thought was that they deleted it for some reason but when I went to my blog I didn't see it either. I have no idea what happened to it!!!!! I could of sworn I listed it, especially because it was also for my DT position over at
The Sisterhood of Crafters! Boy oh boy am I getting airheaded!!! Guess that's what happens after only sleeping 3-4 hours a night for several weeks in a row!!!!!

The Scrappiest Sketches!!!

Here are two more layouts that I did for my friends albums. I used several sketches from The Scrappiest blog. She has some wonderful sketches and I am going to try to get all the ones for June done. So far I have two of them done. I used Sketch #68 and
Sketch #69. I submitted the one of my friends husband with his newborn daughter to the "DAD" challenge over at
A Crafty Little Place. I am currently working on Sketch #70!! Boy my friends album is going to be done in no time with all of these great sketches!!! I made a huge bandaid on the OUCH one and left it blank so she could do some journaling in it. I have been trying to leave blank spots on all of the pages for her so she could journal.

Peachy Keen Sketch Challenge

OMG! When I got the newest stamps in from Peachy Keen I didn't know which way to turn first!! I actually was using the package they came in to help me keep from hyper ventalating in the driveway I was so excited..LOL!
Her new monster faces are flippin' adorable!! I honestly wanted to use them all.

The challenge this week Peachy Keen Stamps was a sketch challenge. When I first saw the sketch I was thinking underwater, submarine or some type of window thinga-ma-jig. But everything changed when I got my package of goodies in the mail!!

Here is the sketch for Challenge #31 this week and my take on the sketch. I replaced the circles with Monsters but all of the elements are there. I did another layout for my friends album. I made this a two page layout but didn't include the other side since it didn't go with the challenge. I thought I was using repositionable glue for the letters. I was playing around with the placement but had to walk away to tend to my girlie goo's. Well when I came back I found out the hard way that I wasn't using repositionable glue!!! Sigh...I tried to peel them off but those suckers were glued on with what felt like crazy glue so I had to leave them.








Supplies used:
Cricut Paperdoll, Storybook & Everyday paperdoll cartridges
PK-101 Medium Polka Dot Print I stamped this on the orange card stock to give it a little pattern
PK-690 Make A Monster Face Assortment for Frankenstein
PK-691 Make a Monster Face for the Ghost. The face I used is also available in PK-690 but I needed a bigger size.
PK-692 Monster Mash Face Assortment for my Alien/monster and for the Scarecrow. Just realized that my poor Scarecrow lost most of his hair so I gotta go in and give him a hair transplant.
Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch
Martha Stewart Iron Gate punch
White Gelly Roll Pen - I highly recommend getting one of these or two atleast on your next order. I can't live without mine. I use it for the eyes on my face stamps, to accent items and for my dashes. It really comes in handy and they are only $1.69.
PK-615 Halloween Candlestick Delight - which is sadly discontinued...this is really a great set!!!
The prize this week is a set of the new Monster faces so you defintely want to participate if you can.

And for some exciting news!!!!! There is a huge sale going on starting tonight over at PKS online store.

WACKY WEDNESDAY IS June 23rd!
Sale will begin 8pm on Tuesday night 6-22-10 and go through MIDNIGHT on Wednesday 6-23-10 (Thursday morning)

Customers receive an additional 5% off of your entire order in addition to the global discounts already in place!

THREE RANDOM WINNERS WILL receive a full REFUND (from Wednesday sales only)
REFUNDED ORDER NUMBER ONE will be drawn from the $100.00 and over category,
REFUNDED ORDER NUMBER TWO will be drawn from the $75.00 and over category,
REFUNDED ORDER NUMBER THREE will be drawn from the $40.00 and over category!

ALSO, THREE RANDOM GIFT CERTIFICATES of $50.00, $25.00 and $15.00 to three other buyers drawn from the entire month of June (not just from Wednesday)!

I am back in the saddle...I hope that is!

I think I can finally start coming up for air. Things have been crazy for the past couple of weeks and that would be an understatement!! I have been going non-stop for weeks with very little sleep. Three days in a row I had 3-4 hours of sleep and was sick on top of it. Today is the first time I can actually start to breathe again. I was so busy with the party for the girls, then Gianna had a horrible ear infection, then I got sick, then my friend came to stay for a couple of days to have our own little scrap get a way and now my hubby was sick. And quite frankly he is the worst of the bunch. Right now everyone is sleeping so I have a chance to finally post something.

I have a couple of projects that I completed while my friend was here. We scrapped non-stop and I already miss her! It was a blast though because we gave each other our own challenges. One challenge was we each picked a stamp set for the other to use and had to create a stamp with it, the next was using a certain folder of scraps, then we had to pick a draw of die cuts and make a card with something out of it...and so on and so on. I had printed out a bunch of sketches and themes for challenges and based my projects around them. Since my time is limited I tried to kill two birds with one stone.


My fellow "Sistah" Kim has a wonderful challenge going on this week over at her blog
Sketches in Thyme. I used her sketch and my friends Tinkerbell cartridge that I don't own to complete this sketch for the album I am doing for my friend Christine. I used my CTMH Playful Flourishes stamp set to randomly stamp on plain card stock different colored flourishes. There is another matching side to this LO but you can't see that until a little later on..(it's for an upcoming sketch challenge that has not been released yet for another blog).

I completed another page for my friend Christine's album using my yummy yummy goodies that I received in the mail the other day. I won a fabulous wheel PK Glitter Glitz. The set I won was the Spring I set which contained these colors:
SPRING I - Honey, Burgundy, Gilded Fern, Merlot, Aquamarine, Gilded Ivory

These pictures were taken the day she gave birth to her daughter. She was waiting to go to the hospital to have her so I thought I would do a baby "bump" page. I cut out the word BUMP on my Cricut and sprayed it with Craft Bond and covered it in the MERLOT. I also followed the sketch on the PK Glitz blog. I left a couple of areas blank for her to journal on.


For one of the challenges she gave me she picked out my PK-244 Bee Happy stamp set. I had to make a card using this stamp set and only scraps. I found this little strip of DP that I cut off the paper where it attaches to the pad. I couldn't believe I actually saved a piece this small but then I started laughing because I actually used it!! See now I know why I save these things!!

This card fits the challenges over at The Cuttlebug Spot and Stamptacular Sunday Challenge. The challenge over at The Cuttlebug Spot was to use embossing which I did on the yellow card stock with one of my Cuttlebug folders. The challenge over at Stamptacular Sunday was a CUTE AS A BUG theme.

Sorry for the long post but I guess I am killing three birds with one stone..LOL! Since it is almost lunch time I better go and get out of my PJ's!!

Practical Scrappers - Loose Glitter or Flocking

The challenge this week over at Practical Scrappers is to use loose glitter or flocking. When I got this adorable stamp from Squigglefly for some reason I automatically thought to use glitter on his spots. I cut out the digi after I printed it and added some Martha Stewart Brownstone glitter to the giraffe's spots, horns, mane and feet. I then decided to tuck him neatly into a little gift tag (which unfortunately hid most of the glitter) and attaching that to the front of the card. The tag and oval sentiment can be pulled off and put on a scrapbook page if the receiver likes when they are done with it. It was a quick card to use up my scraps...Gotta love it!

I hope you stop on by and share your glitter or flocking projects with us over at
Practical Scrappers. I love to see what everyone comes up with!

WOW! I am really dropping the ball

Today is my girlie goo's actual birthday. I can't believe they are a year old already. Time has just flown by so fast. I have a bunch of photos to post but that will have to come later because I am just trying to catch up.

And speaking of time...I am really dropping the ball this week and feel just awful about it. Today was my day to host the challenge over at The Sisterhood of Crafters. Since the theme was Around the World I choose Japan for the challenge. I had everything picked out and knew exactly what I was going to do. But you know what I completely let time slip away from me and with planning for the girls birthday and then my one daughter having a nasty, nasty ear infection I completely let it slip my mind. I don't even have a card ready let alone have the post done. But thanks to my wonderful, generous, and caring Sistah's they pulled it off for me. You need to stop by and see their wonderful Japan inspired creations. They all left me speechless and then I thought it was better that I didn't post mine because it wouldn't of held a candle to any of them!!!!!!! I would love for all of you to partake in this weeks Japan challenge....maybe it will make me feel better that I am such a slacker...LOL!

Also this week over at Practial Scrappers there was a wonderful sketch challenge posted on June 11th. Atleast I had my project done but I forgot to post it. I tried for the first time the scheduling of the post thing but I apparently do not know how to do it correctly..UGGH!

Here is the sketch:



Here is my take on it:



Now that it is almost noon I guess I better get out of my pajamas. I am still shaking my head, not believing how badly I dropped the ball this week. I apologize to everyone!! Now I am off to deal with two sick birthday girls!!!

New Peachy Keen Release!!!

Okay as you all know I have been a fan of Peachy Keen Stamps for years and now I am honored to be on the Design Team. Well today she has released a very special stamp set in honor of one of our WONDERFUL, LOVING DT members Vivienne. This stamp set has to be the cutest darn thing I have ever saw!!!

So to kick off the celebration this week we are having a blog hop!!! Sadly I didn't get a card done in time due to my twins 1st birthday party. But I can not WAIT to get this little darling inked up!


Hop on over to Angelica's blog next to see her wonderful example of Viv & Friends. Many of my DT members are giving away some great prizes along the way on this blog hop so to start at the beginning go
to Peachy Keen's website and have fun hopping!

Peachy Keen Challenge #30

This week has totally gotten away from me!! I have been so busy planning my girls first birthday party this weekend I haven't even realized what date it was!!!! I have been busy cooking for about 70-80 people and getting everything in order. For the challenge this week at Peachy Keen Stamps we had to make a shadowbox layout with a summer theme. I started this one awhile ago and it was completely different. Then of course me not realizing the time I had to go a different route.

The pictures are not the greatest but in person it is pretty neat. It has 3 different levels so things are at different dimensions. The frame is one of those free floating frames. I had cut out and stamped all of these images to put around it but I kept on going back to those adorable starfish stamps. I used PK-951 Animal Sea Creature stamp pack. I just can't get enough of these starfish....I just wanna squeeze them!

My project is simple but you know what I like it like that. Sometimes I have a habit of overdoing things.

So why don't you stop on by the PKS blog and play along with us this week. There are two great prizes to be won so have some fun with this one...I know I did!

Practical Scrappers - Eyelets

There is a really great challenge (and a easy one!!) over at Practical Scrappers this week. It's easy because most scrappers have Eyelets in there stash, if they use them on the other hand that's another story. Honestly I bought them all in every color but I very rarely used them. My first eyelets setter was just that little stick that you hammer down and I really didn't like it nor did I use it very well. Then I got the one by Provo Craft which I did like because I could use it anywhere on the page and it worked really well.

BUT then I was in Walmart one day and saw the Big Bite by We R Memory Keepers on clearance for $10!! I am such a sucker for clearance/sale items of course I picked one up, took it home and hung it on my cork board. It was forgotten about for awhile and quick frankly I didn't know why I bought it. When this challenge came about I sat there and tried to figure out how to use this thing and since I don't read directions it took me a few minutes. My first try was ahhh not impressed...user error probably. But now I can't get enough of it. This is soooo handy and truly very easy to use. It works really well and gosh I just adore it now. Using it on this layout with all of those eyelets was such a blessing and made the eyelet setting go so quick.

I did another LO for my friends album for this challenge. This was the very first one that I did probably because Fall is my favorite time of the year.

Hope you like it!

I am on a roll!!

Guess it has been the horrible storming weather or maybe something is just clicking in my Mojo area! I completed 4 layouts in two days. That is amazing for me to do!! I am almost done with the album that I am making for my friend which is what these layouts are for.

This first one I completed for the sketch challenge over at my fellow Sistah Kim's blog Sketches in Thyme. She has started up her own challenge blog so stop on by and be part of her very first challenge! It's a great sketch so have fun with it!! I know I did! I cut out the Shamrock on my Cricut Paperdoll cartridge (fit to page). The only bummer about this whole thing was the papers I matted the pictures with were so beautiful but you barely get to see them!

.

The second one I am posting about today I designed around the sketch challenge over at A Crafty Little Place. I had so much fun with this one!! I used purely scraps with the exception of the base cardstock that I had to use for my page. I just took whatever scraps I could find and made something out of it. All the paper I left as is and just glued to make some sort of pattern...I barely had to trim anything. I even found a strip of brown paper that I had sewn on at one point and decided to add that with a button I found with the string already attached. Then to satisfy the die-cut challenge over at
The Corrosive Challenge I dug into my diecut drawer and found some apples and some baskets!! I was so excited to find those since I thought they were perfect for the page. I just used whatever apples I could find in whatever size they were. I also came across a little "button" that I stamped about 1-2 years ago that says "You are an original" and decided to add that to the basket for fun. Maybe I went overboard once again with my scraps but I had so much fun I couldn't stop!!!

Happy Father's day To my grease monkey

My husband is a true blue grease monkey. He rebuilds anything he can get his hands on. So for the twins first Father's Day card to their Daddy I made him a manly simple card that I hope he would like. I tried to make it look covered in oil and dirt like he is most of the time when in the garage..LOL!

The best thing about this card is I made it out of scraps...my favorite thing to do!! I used the Diamond plate embossing folder on my Cuttlebug for the matting and used my new CTMH Large Chocolate Alphabet stamps for the "DAD" sentiment. I added some racing ribbon across the card for just a little touch. I cut out a wrench off of my Indie cartridge on my Cricut and Wallah...I was done!

I entered this card into the following challenges:

Simon Says Father's Day
Priscilla Styles Sketch
The Cuttlebug Spot Dad's & Grads
CricutCardz Dads
Crafty Creation Color theme
The Creative Cottage Father's Day
Crafty Catz Color theme
One Stop make your own DP

More Summer fun Scrap style!

One of my fellow DT members Emma over at Peachy Keen Stamps has started a challenge on her blog Creative Time for Me. I just love what she is doing. She is "revisiting" old Cricut Cartridges and showcasing them on Throwback Thursdays! How fun is that!!! I don't know about you all but I get new things and something forget about the old things. Her challenge this week was to use the ANIMAL KINGDOM cartridge from Provo Craft. I haven't used this cartridge is ions and I was excited to see what I could pick out. I recently got the
PK-751 Animal Faces Peachy Keen Stamp set and couldn't wait to use it. This stamp set is amazing...it comes with a set of 50 stamps and totally changes the look of the images you can cut out on the Cricut. I personally don't care for the faces on the cut outs and use a PKS face whenever possible. Why not?? They are just to darn cute!

I am a big lover of using my scraps so when I saw the challenge over at The Townscrapper I was all over it. I still had the scraps on my craft table from the project I just completed (imagine that!) so I decided to use them. I picked out the fish from the Animal Kingdom cartridge and picked a fun summery theme. Maybe I took the using your scrap thing to far...LOL! I used some shell buttons that I had to cut the backs off of to put on top of the seaweed for the challenge over at Frosted Designs. For the theme of the card I used the challenges over at
Papertake Weekly, Canadian Nickel Scrap'n, and Stampin for the Weekend. I used my Cuttlebug to cut out the tags and to emboss the background paper. I did the old fashion embossing to give my little fishie some scales. I was just playing around with the tags and writing on them to see how they would look. But when I tried to take the tags off it started to rip the background paper. My handwritting is terrible but it was either leave it as is or start all over and I wasn't going to do that!!

I followed the sketch over at ABC Design Blog.

Practical Scrappers - Transparency & Sketch challenge

My friends daughter Hannah is 12 years old and already an amazing photographer! She took these pics of my Mia (on left) and Gianna (on right) on her Iphone and edited them in Photoshop. I told her that I was going to hire her for their first birthday party which is coming already next week after I saw these photos!! Especially because she was just playing around.

The challenge this week over at Practical Scrappers is to use Transparencies, Vellum, or Acrylic Accents. This is a perfect example of why I love Practical Scrappers. I have had this Transparency pack from Colorbok FOREVER! At least a couple of years. So when this challenge came up I found a beautiful saying on one of the transparencies and simply rounded the photos and put them on top of the DP. To me the photos were everything so I wanted to keep the photos as the main focus and have them stand out.

Also this week at Practical Scrappers there is a wonderful sketch challenge designed by our very own Sasya. I just loved this sketch and knew I had to give it a try. This is another page I did for my friends scrapbook album that I am making her. I left some blank space for her to journal in when she receives the album.

So stop on by and try your hand at this great sketch. I would love to see your take on it!!

Summer Fun!

When I saw the challenge over at Cuttlebug Challenges I knew exactly what paper I wanted to use. I just got some new CTMH Best Friends Forever paper pack and these had PERFECT colors to use! I did this LO for my friends album. I grabbed a bunch of summer pictures from the stack she sent me to set the theme for the challenge over at Papertake Weekly and used the sketch over at The Scrappiest. This is such a great blog filled with such inspiration!! I just love it because it gets my jump started on my LO. I can stare at pictures forever not knowing what I will do with them. But once I saw this sketch, BOOM I was rocking and rolling. I actually cranked this bad boy out while the girls were napping. Probably the fastest LO I ever did all thanks to the sketch, the theme and the colors all picked out for me ahead of time!

THANK YOU!!!!

I also used my Cuttlebug and Nestibilies to cut out the tags.

Celebrating the Month of June Sistah' Style

Hello Everyone!

Today over at The Sisterhood of Crafters we are celebrating the month of June in our newest challenge. The challenge is to make a brithday card using light blue, white, cream and include pearls on it. After stamping mine I realized that I didn't use a Happy Birthday stamp so I added a saying inside. OOPPPSS!

Supplies:

Various scraps
CTMH Treasures Stamp Set
Stampin up ink
CTMH adhesive pearls

I hope you come and celebrate June with us over at the Sisterhood!!!!