Blog Candy Alert!

Debbie, From Love Life's Little Pleasures is having a blog giveaway with Basic Grey's *Green at Heart*.  I heart Basic Grey!!!  Check it out!

March Sketch Challenge at MCS

My Creative Scrapbook has been one of my favorite places for inspiration and amazing talent to learn from.  For this sketch I used my Feb. LE kit, and Liz Qualman is the sketch artist. I printed the photo in sepia on Picnic.com and then added back some color to my top and the red strip on my hubbies shirt.

This kit had loads of beautiful papers and embellishments and flowers in it.  I chose to use the Vintage Valentine collection by Fancy Pants. They are georgeous! I used *Will You?* as my main pp background, and used my Gypsy/Cricut to cut out the stamp shape, and shadowed it with cardstock called Pomegranate.  The cartridge I used was Gypsy Wanderings.  I used my Home Decor cartridge to make the flourish designs as well.
I just loved the chipboard bracket frames I bought at LIITD, and made by Riff Raff Designs.  I used *Letters of Love* to cover the frame, then inked the edges and used my Smooch Spritz in Vanilla to give it a bit of sparkle.  It was the first time I had used that particular Smooch *color* and I really liked the sparkle it gave.  I also used it on the Prima flowers.

The heart is by Riff Raff as well, and I inked it with my Distress Ink in Aged Mahogany and then used Rock Candy Distress Stickles on it.  I used Liquid Pears to make the pink dots in between the little hearts on the strip of paper on top of the red ribbon.

These envelopes came with the kit, so I used one and stamped various stamps on it with my distress inks.  I inked the edges, and then inked the title with Stazon ink in Black


Thanks for taking a peek, I hope you enjoyed it!  Please feel free to leave a comment!  I always love to hear from you!

Blog Award!

Imagine my surprise upon receiving a comment on my blog telling me that I was being given a Blog Award!  My very first!  How can I not be absolutely thrilled???

Thank you Darien ! Please check out her blog!  She has AMAZING talent, and I know I will be learning some things from her!

There are some things I need to do as I accept this blog award from her.

1. Give a list of ten things that make you happy.
2. A trivia of five things about me.
3. Share the award with only 5 people and ask them to do the same.
4. Link the blogs you choose and the blog of the person who gave to you.

Ten things that make me happy

1. my faith in God

2. my supportive husband

3. my amazing kids

4. good friends, both scrappy and non-scrappy

5. my Dad

6. scrapbooking

7. learning new things

8. scrapbooking goodies/gadgets

9. slurpee's

10. see the sunshine

5 Things about me:

1. I consider everyday a Slurpee Day

2.The death of my mom is what inspired me to start scrapbooking

3. I've been scrapping since Sept/08

4. I hope to be published one day

5.  I love reading/viewing tutorials  and making my own embellishments

I will pass this award on to Liz, Tina Marie, Gabi, Denise, and Lisa

Scrapbooking Supplies R Us Give Away!!

Who doesn't love a good give away?  Who doesn't love receiving free goodies?  If this interests you, and I don't see how it could not, check out the link I've posted and you could be the lucky winner of some awesome Jenni Bowlin goodies!

http://www.scrapbookingsuppliesrus.com/blog/article/view/?article_id=10197 

Swirlydoo does it for me!

I just recently got my first Swirlydoo kit, and did my first sketch challenge!  Take a look at the kit I got!

Sweet Girl- March Butterfly Whispers Sketch Challenge

The designer of the sketch we had to follow is Beggahuna, She is one talented lady! Krissy, the founder of Swirlydoo's sure knows how to put together an awesome kit!  We got a brown velvet paper and a burgandy one too.  I  used the brown to frame out the bracket diecut I made on my Cricut.  With my Gypsy, I could actually combine 2 different bracket frames  weld them together and cut it out.

I had purchased the Martha Stewart Loopy punch set a while ago, and could finally use it. I took the scraps the punch made and glued them in a line along the long side of the green floral strip of paper.

I used my Tim Holtz Idea-ology Flourish mask, and used my Vintage Photo Distress Ink and a small foam brush to apply the ink in a circular motion to get a softer look. I used Aged Mahogany Distress Ink to *highlight* the one edge of the white chipboard letters that also came with the kit.

The cute Prima blooms came from my stash of scrappy goodies, and added some Rock Candy Distress Stickles to the 2 inner layers. The leaves I cut out with my Gypsy/Cricut, then inked and used Peeled Paint Distress Stickles. I punhed out the small butterflies with my MS punch and then used Crystal Stickles and little pearls for the body.

On the large chipboard flourish, I used Ranger Distress Embossing Powder in walnut stain.

Here, I took some of the white fiber ribbon and inked it with Aged Mahogany, and used the same ink of the chipboard flower.  Using some of the same paper I used on the bracket frame, I punched out a circle and put it behind the flower and edged the paper with Frosted Lace Stickles.

I really like the way my first layout turned out..... can't wait to see what I can do with the rest!

I forgot to mention the real star of this layout.  The Sweet Girl is my Grand-Niece Madden, at the age of 2... I think!!  She is a real sweetheart!  Thanks for looking!

Cherish- Card Challenge for My Creative Scrapbook

I am not a card maker. So, this card will not be anything fancy or inspiring!  I just thought I'd give it a go and used up some of my scraps I had left over from my BUG layout.  I had an extra flower that I had made so I thought what the heck!  Here it is!

 

Bug- March diecut do challenge at PIT

I've had this title roaming around my head for a little while now, and was waiting for the right picture and opportunity to use it.  It has a special meaning and message behind it. BUG stand for Beautiful Unique Girl, and is a ministry for young girls. Read this bit I got off of their website.

Here's the scoop! At Beautiful Unique Girl, we want to see people embrace life fully! That’s hard to do when we get stuck in hurt, pain, confusion, hopelessness and lies we believe about ourselves. As a group made up of young women, we know what it's like to go through pressures, tough experiences and negative messages as a teenager. Some of us had people speak truth into our lives when we were teens; some of us didn’t. But one thing we’ve all learned is that understanding how special we are to God, how lovingly He created us, and how He wants us to live close to Him has made all the difference in our lives. Whether you're enjoying your teen years or finding them a challenge, join us for the journey in discovering your true self, the God who made you, and how important you are in the world around you.

We call ourselves Beautiful Unique Girl because beauty is something we’re born with, not something we have to go out looking for. As you discover God's truth about you and embrace His Word, your true beauty will shine through every situation and circumstance.

I would encourage those of you who have young girls to check out the whole website!

In this photo,is my daughter Jerica, and the girl she was mentoring while she was running for *Miss Winkler* pageant.  The girls in this pageant had to spend a certain amount of time with young girl and be their mentor.  Jerica and Brenna hit it off right away.   They did all kinds of cool things, and one of them was to do facials!  Brenna's Mom took this photo.  I think it is adorable and very fitting for this title I had foating around in my head!

 I did this for a challenge at Pages in Time .    We needed to use a certain amount of embellishments  made with our die cutting machines.  Plus, there was the *Big Spring Time Twist* which was we were to cut out our title and alter it using our imagination!

I got out my Basic Grey papers, and used the Lemonade collection.  I knew I had to use one of my new cartridges with my cricut, and that was Home Decor. Love it, love it, LOVE IT!!

 

 I used this cartridge to cut the flowers, the butterfly, branch and the bird!  This is what it looked like when I had it all laid out on my Cricut mat before I cut it all out with my Gypsy/Cricut!

Looks confusing, doesn't it?  Once you know what you are doing, it is such a time saver to know exactly where to place your paper and to know how big to make it! Here is a pic of the butterfly and the bird.

On the butterfly I coated it with Ranger Crackle Paint in Rock Candy, and when it was dry added to the layout with pop dots.  The pink scroll is from NiclinDesigns1225.  I just ordered some more of her amazing scrolls and they should be coming any day!

The cute little bird that I love, and Jerica hates, [she has this thing about birds] was inked in a raspberry ink, and I used Smooch Ink in Kiwi and Ocean Soul.  I love the finish this ink gives!  I used a pink pearl for the birds eye.

I did some doodling around the border on the journaling card and the bracket diecut paper.

Now, here on the title, and the *twist*.  I cut out the first letter of each word out of chipboard on my Cricut[first time cutting chipboard on it and it worked great!]  I used my Storybook cartridge.  I then used a Versmark embossing ink and loaded each letter with that, and then sprinkled on a generous  portion of Rangers Distress Embossing Powder in Walnut stain.  I then took my MS heat gun and heated up the powder till it melted.  I then added a second coat just to make sure I had good coverage.  The trick with this product is to first shake the bottle up so it is well mixed and when it is done and cooled off, you are to take your finger and rub it across the embossed letters to remove the distressed partials. Check out this demo to find out the details.


I then typed up the rest of  each word on the computer and printed it off.  I cut them out and inked the edges, bent up the strips a bit and then with a glue dot, adhered the words to each capital letter.
I but 3 white pearls on  each capital letter.


Thanks for visiting and taking a look! If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you, hopefully with the answer!


Blessings!

Guest Designer!

I am SO excited to find out that I will be a Guest Designer at My Little Sketch Book!
This is something totally new for me! Liz makes some awesome sketches, and I have used numerous in the past. There will be a total of 3 times that I will be making a layout based on one of her sketches. I will be making my Debut in June sometime. I will keep you updated when the time draws nearer! I hope I will be able to sleep tonight!

What a good day...and it was a Monday too!

I don't know about you, but I normally don't like Mondays. Getting into the grove of a new week can often be difficult. Today was the exception! First, I found out that my layout "Sisters" won a "Shabby Chic" Challenge I had entered it in at Pages In Time! That was an exciting moment for me! I love it when I can win some scrappy goodness!

For my second piece of good news was the fact that the Limited Edition Kit I had ordered from My Creative Scrapbook, decided to make its appearance today after gallivanting over the country side for almost 2 wks! My good friend Heidi will be bringing it too me when she comes for her haircut on Saturday! I am so excited to actually see and be able to touch it! Pam always puts together an awesome kit!

From This Day Forward

I am excited to share with you today a little "experiment" I tried. I had seen this technique on line somewhere,but I don't remember. I thought it was a really sweet idea so I tried it! I printed a photo of myself on our wedding day onto a 11'x8.5' piece of a subtle pattern paper by Fancypants. I had made the photo to print in sepia tones so the whole picture is subtle. I was quite happy with the result!
I had seen on Tina Rutledge's blog That she had scrunched up the paper she had matted her photo on, and really liked that idea. I didn't know exactly how she did it, so I used my imagination and took out my spray bottle and spritzed around the edges of the photo to moisten them andmake them pliable. This worked pretty good, but I still want to find out from Tina if this is how she did it!




Once I got the paper where I wanted it I just let it dry overnight. The next day I inked the edges with Ranger Distress ink in Vintage Photo, and the ridges with Aged Mahogany , Vintage Photo and a very soft pink. I printed the title on my printer with the same paper as the photo and cut around it, inked the edges and put pop dots on it to give dimension. I used some Prima bling from my stash as well.

All my blooms are from Prima and I just love them! I took a burgandy ink I had and ran it gently over the tops and tips of the blooms to give them a bit more depth. I made the flourish with my Gypsy/Cricut and my newest cartridge called Home Decor. I used brown cardstock and cream cardstock for the "shadow". I then added a thick layer of Ranger Distress Ink, in Clear Rock Candy, and when that was dry i inked the edges in Aged Mahogany. Since the edges where all curled up I had to bend the flourish back into the shape it was supposed to be, which makes it look even more crackled. If you look closely, you will be able to see some music I stamped on with the Vintage Photo. I aslo did some subtle masking with the cut out of my flourish.



I have some sweet journaling cards from Webster's Pages, with a different print on each side. They are from their" Hello! Beautiful" collection. My journaling says "On this day I gave you my love, my heart, and everything that makes me who I am. I love you still, and always will!"I used one chipboard flower from Basic Grey's Bittersweet collection and inked it so it blended in better. I got some rub on flowers and the butterfly from my friend Lori who owns LIITD. She is such a generous person and love being able to scrap with the girls there!

Thank you for looking and I hope you enjoyed this layout!