25 yrs and counting.....

Hello faithful followers!  Today I am going to get a bit personal and share some joyous news with you!  Today, my husband and I celebrate our 25th anniversary! 

First,I want to share with you a layout I did of the 2 of us on our wedding day.  I think I had been scrapping less than 6 months when I did this. You can see I liked using pink right from the get go!  This was a lift of one of Gabi Pollacco's lovely layouts.

Now for the story behind these 2 small bottles of sparkling wine.......

On our wedding night, these 2 bottles of wine were waiting for us in our Honeymoon suite.  We decided right then and there that we would save them, and open them on our 25th Anniversary.  At the time, it seemed like 25 yrs was a lifetime away.  We had no clue how fast time would fly!  We both took our vows very seriously, and divorce was something that we both never considered as an option.  We have stuck together through thick and thin, good times and bad, sickness and in health. We have faced many challenges and we know that if it weren't for the fact that we both have a relationship with God, and that He is apart of our marriage, we would of become a statistic like many others.  

God has blessed us with 2 amazing children, Jerica is almost 22, and Jordan is 19.  Both kids love the Lord and we couldn't be more proud of them.  In 3 months, we will be adding another member to our family as Jerica marries her High School sweetheart, Jaret!  Exciting times to come!

So, tonight..... we will open our 2 bottles of wine[which are probably vinegar by now] and thank God for giving us 25 yrs!

Happy Mother's Day to me!!!

Did all you fabulous mother's out there have a great MD?  I love it when my kids take my suggestions on gifts! [scrappy, of course!]  DD and her Fiancée came home from Wpg for the weekend and brought me home this wonderful Martha Stewart  Punch around the page border punch!  Its called Wild Flowers, and is a deep punch. 

Here is a close up!

I just love the edge this punch set gives!  Can you say, doilies??  oh MY!  Be prepared to see this punch  a lot of my work coming up!!

Gentlemen's Quarterly, SOUS style!

Its reveal day! We got another awesome sketch from Page maps! Surprise surprise!  There is no pink on this layout! I have a hard time doing a masculine layout, and this week I was determined to scrap some photos of my handsome son! These are photos that my sister took of Jordan last summer at his high school graduation. 

I kept very close to the sketch, just flipping it so it worked better with my photos. I did some heavy distressing with my Zutter Distrezz it all - great little machine, and pink too!  The flourish I used is a Prima stud flourish, and I used alcohol ink and blending tool to change it to blue.

Here is what the sketch looks like.

Here is a close up of some of the masking I did with my Tim Holtz mask of clocks and cogs and wheels.  I used a few colors of TH distress inks.  The chipboard butterflies are by Mayaroad and I left them naked with inked edges.  I'm still trying to keep this layout masculine!

The flower embellishment I made consists of the flower, inked and misted ric rac , and some dark brown burlap I found at my local thrift shop. See last photo for a close up on the flower with some more details.

In this photo you can see the distressing and inking I did on the photo, using a sanding block and my handy dandy TH distressing tool, and distress ink in black.  I did some stitching with the sewing machine as well.

This is a close up of the flower I made, using leftover strips of paper that I used on the layout.  It was alot of fun to make, and I plan on doing a tutorial on it in the near future.  I wanted to make a masculine flower, and this was born!

Thanks for checking out my layout, and head on over to SOUS and  see what the rest of the team came up with! Make sure you spread some love!!

WOOT WOOT!!

I just received an email from Practical Scrappers that they have published one of the layouts I had entered in their category little girl projects!  Check it out here!  How exciting!  Thanks Practical Scrappers!

Fab Friday with Stuck on U Sketches

Happy Friday everyone!  The weekend is here! Saturday night my daughter and her Fiancée  will be out for their weekend [Sunday, Monday].  I love spending time with the fam!  My daughter is getting married in August so there is always something to discuss! Head on over to Stuck on U Sketches and check out the other design team members work!

Today I want to share with you this lovely layout I did of my massage therapist daughter, Avery!  Yes, I get my photos any way and any where I can!! lol  This photo is taken by Personal Expressions Photography , a local photographer who does amazing work.  I toned down the brightness of the yellow to go better with my papers.

I used Prima papers from their Fairy Flora line [love it] You can't see it in any of the photos, but on the yellow background paper I used a very fine glitter pen over top of the swirls. Trust me, IRL it looks awesome! The crystal flourish is by Prima as well.

This is the sketch we were given to work with, by Liz Qualman.  Her blog My little Sketch Blook

is really fun, and I did some Designer Guest work for her in 2010.

Here is a close up of the floral corner I made.  The main flower I made using Tim Holtz's Tattered Floral die, white card stock, distress ink, distress stickles and puffy paint.  The tiny bird with the kissing cherubs [look close] is a chippie by Tattered Angels that I bought when I first started scrapping because I loved the colors and shapes but had yet to use any. I had resigned myself that they would never be making it onto any of my layouts.  Glad I could finally use some!

Don't you just love doilies? I find myself using them more and more!  I've been lucky and been able to get them really cheap at my local thrift store.  I got my Pink Paislee artisian elements and Smoock ink out and inked the edges in this nice blue that you can find in small accents through out the layout.

I used the same Smooch ink on the chipboard letters.

Here is another Tatter Angels chippie I got to use from the same collection, only this time its a dragonfly!  I covered it in Rock candy distress stickles.

Ya'll come back now, ya hear?  :)

Its Friday at Stuck on U Sketches

 Welcome back! Todays sketch is by the talented Beggahuna! I've worked with numerous sketches by her in the past and I just love them!  Its going to be really interesting to see how each girl at SOUS interprets the sketch!  For my layout, I used at kit from Scrap that! .called Once Upon a Spring Time.  This kit is truly amazing, featuring Graphic 45 papers with a mix of Basic Grey, and lots of embellies!  Click on the link and check it out for yourselves!

Big Sister

This layout features the newest member of our extended family, Great Niece Lucia Tate, and her big sister, Cassidy! I did not take this photo.

The papers from this kit called for lots of fussy cutting, so I had to indulge myself!  Make sure you have the right kind of scissors, as it makes all the difference!

                                                           Here is the sketch by Beggahuna

                              These pretty roses are by Prima, and I love the glass shards on them.

I just loved the white lace ties that I found at my local thrift store, I think they were the perfect touch for this layout.  If you look closely you can see on the fussy cut flowers that I used Tattered Rose Distress Stickles to give them more dimension.

I did some layering of the fussy cut flowers, and you can see the dimension by the shadows they cast!

I love the fairies in theses papers, and on this one I used some Smooch ink to and some shimmer, though you can't see it in this lighting.  I love her being nestled in with the fussy cut tulips watching over the girls.

For the title, I wanted to emphasize the fact that Cassidy is the big sister, so I took the large chipboard letters I had.  They were in the wrong color, but no problem!  I painted them with a white acrylic craft paint.  When the paint dried,  I put a really thick layer of Rock Candy Distress Crackle Paint.  I helped it dry by using my Ranger heat gun [I am impatient, what can I say?]  So, now that the paint has crackled I took Tattered Rose distress ink and rubbed it into the cracks and Viola!  The cracks pop and the letters look awesome!!!

Another close up of the flowers, and I wanted you to notice on the edges of the pattern paper I used the Smooch ink that came with the kit, and you can see the smattering of pearls I 've place around the layout.

In this photo I wanted to show you how I layered the photos.  I had a 5x7 and a 4x6.   I put pop dots behind the 4x6 and layered it on top of the 5x7.  I sanded the edges of the 5x7 a bit with my sanding block.  Then I matted the photos on to the pattern paper that I had distressed.

Thanks so much for looking at my work, and please leave a comment as I love to hear from all of you!  Remember to check out SOUS and take a look at what the other members of the design team have creative.  I can guarantee you will not be disappointed!!

Blog Candy over at Pages Scrapped!

Scrappy friends, feast your eyes upon all the scrappy goodness before you! Look at all that Dusty Attic laser cuts, and the Tim Holtz goodness!  I suggest getting on over to Pages Scrapped, become a follower and check out what you have to do to win all this Candy!!  I know I sure did!