The Creative Stamper Spot

Project Life

2012-02-18T13:23:00.001-06:00

In December I heard about Project Life for the first time. Since Scrapbooking is something I LOVE I'm surprised that was the first time I heard about it as it's not a new concept. I have been looking for a new way to scrapbook as I typically feel overwhelmed by the amount of photos I have and the scrapbooking that I need to catch up on! I did a great job keeping up last year on my albums (3 of them in all) but I knew I could do better and possibly make it more fun, enter Project Life. My initial goal was to just scrapbook one page layouts and then fit the rest of the photos into slots. I did not want to do a photo every day as that seemed like to much to keep up with up. Then I read an article in Scrapbooks, etc about Project Life and how taking a photo a day gets you more of the everyday photos, photos you typically wouldn't take and I was sold. I started this month and this is how my book looks from last week, since the project life pages have been sold out for a while I just used some I got at Hobby Lobby to fit into my book. I'm not using the project life kit as I have tons of my own supplies and paper.

There is a photo of my daughter coloring, our Valentine Decorations, her treat we made, my kids doing a craft with Daddy, etc. I LOVE this page. These are things I normally wouldn't take photos of and document. I am SO EXCITED to keep this going for the rest of the year.

Here's a layout I did for Valentine's Day that is the next page on my book. I love that I didn't have to try to fit a million photos into it and I could just play with these two.

I love this waffle paper from Stampin UP! All the other paper is Stampin UP! as well.

I embossed the punched out hearts with my Swiss Dots Cuttlebug folder and cut out the Valentine's Day with my Cricut Imagine using Plantin Schoolbook and Lyrical letters.

Thanks for stopping by!

More Disney Autograph Books

2012-02-16T09:14:00.000-06:00

Well it's been 5 days since we've been back from Disney and I think I've finally recovered! Ha, ha! Before we left for Disney I actually had someone request me to make autograph books for her kids after seeing my post on the books I made for my nieces, click here to check it out. I was so excited to have a paying order for something I made! I wanted to make sure everything was perfect so she and I emailed back and forth on what she wanted and here is what we came up with.

This one was for her son. I cut out the goofy image from the Cricut Mickey and Friends, using my Imagine to print out the colors, and the frame I think is from Mickey and Friends as well. The words Easton are from the Cricut Mickey Font cartridge. All the background papers are from my stash. The book was bound using my Cinch.

Here is the inside. I put 40 pages in there to be sure they had enough room for autographs and photos:)

This was for her little girl. All paper was printed using my Imagine and the Cricut Imagine Teresa Collins Baby Boutique Cartridge. Princess Aurora was cut from the Disney Princess Happily Ever After cartridge and the colors were printed using my Imagine. Here daughters name was cut using Mickey and Friends again.

Crown paper from the Cricut Imagine Teresa Collins Baby Boutique Cartridge.

This inside pattern is also from Cricut Imagine Teresa Collins Baby Boutique Cartridge.

Thanks for stopping by! I had so much fun making these books and I hope the kids have a blast using them at Disney.

Happy Valentine's Day

2012-02-14T13:55:00.000-06:00

Ever since I saw someone selling a cute lollipop holder die cut I knew that I could make one of those with my Cricut. I thought Valentine's Day would be the perfect time to try it out. Ava (my Kindergartner) and I discussed what we should make and she agreed this would be a good one for her to give to her classmates. I did two designs and this is what she decided on. Her one real request was that she really wanted a purplish-pinkish heart in the middle, so we made sure to do that.

I made this solely with my Cricut Imagine using Cricut Craft Room Basics and the Hopscotch Imagine cartridge for the pattern and pink color.

I took two hearts and welded them together with a rectangle in the middle. I filled them in with a pattern from Hopscotch and cut and printed them with my Imagine. I then cut out two more hearts for the center from the Craft Room Basics as well. Here are how my hearts looked welded with the rectangle.

Here's how the lollipop fits inside

The back signed by Ava

All ready to go in their bag!

Here are some more Valentine's themed projects I have made over the years.

A wood sign I re-purposed, http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/2011/02/feel-love-blog-hop.html

Heart decorations made with my Cricut

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you have a wonderful Valentines and feel the love and blessings around you!

Clean and Simple Challenge Guest Designer

2012-02-12T01:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Sunday all and welcome to my guest designer post for Ashley's blog over at the Glamorous Side of Scrapping. Ashley runs a Clean and Simple Sunday challenge over at her blog and this weeks challenge is embossing. I needed a card for my good friend who has just let us know they are expecting their 3rd child this summer! We are so excited for them!! They have two gorgeous girls and we can't wait to meet this latest addition to their family.
I made this card with my Imagine. I wanted to use the cloud paper on the Best Friends cartridge for a while along with these cute balloons. I thought it would be a fun congratulations card!

Supplies Used:

Die Cuts: Cricut Imagine Best Friends cartridge for the balloons and the cloud paper image. Enjoy the Seasons cartridge for the banner. The banner is stamped with a Taylored Expressions stamp from the Pennant Parade set.

The white cut is a pre-set image on the Imagine and it's embossed with the Cuttlebug Swiss dots folder using my Sizzix Big Shot

The craft background paper is from Stampin UP!

Black, White, and A Splash of Color Blog Hop

2012-02-04T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the Black, White, and a Splash of Color Blog Hop! Ashley has graciously allowed me to be a part of her very fun birthday hop! If you have arrived here from Teresa's blog at Scrappin Ts Place then you are in the right spot! If not and you want to start from the beginning, head on back to Ashley's blog at The Glamorous Side of Scrappin.
So, I lately I have been a little Teresa Collins obsessed! She has such beautiful designs and I love how she incorporates a lot of black and white and then fuses in color. This layout was inspired by her designs. It's a photo of my daughter in dance last year. The patterned paper was printed from Imagine using the Black and White cartridge. The "Precious" sign is from the Teresa Collins Baby Boutique Cartridge printed on my Imagine. The crown is a stamp from Stampin UP's Artistic Etchings set and the flower is Sizzix die with the center being from the Flower Shoppe cartridge. The white border is a punch from Stampin UP as well.

Don't forget to follow and comment on all the blogs in this hop to be eligible for the prizes. Thanks for stopping by today! Your next stop is Jearise at Lorby's World.

Here's a list of all the blogs along the way.

Ashley - http://theglamoroussideofscrapping.blogspot.com

Misty - http://mbtreasurista.blogspot.com

Leslie - http://ScrapOfArtDesigns.blogspot.com

Nicolette- http://beyondscrapin.blogspot.com

Lynne - http://slasewcraftiness.blogspot.com/

Zenita - http://scrappinwithz.blogspot.com

Kari - http://purplefuntastickcreations.blogspot.com/

Liz- http://decadeofscrap.blogspot.com/

Carla -  http://racincrafts.blogspot.com/

Robin - http://scrapnchat.blogspot.com/

Lisa - http://craftylam.blogspot.com/

Susan: http://susanascorner.blogspot.com/

Liz - http://tryin2craft.blogspot.com/

Jamie - http://myamusinglife.blogspot.com

Teresa - http://scrappintplace.blogspot.com

Jessica - http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/

Jearise - http://lorbysworld.blogspot.com

Simple Sunday Card

2012-02-02T14:37:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! Well it's Thursday here and my kids are bouncing off the walls as they are soooo excited for our upcoming trip to Disney! Not to mention this weather has been so weird in Chicagoland. Luckily, I've had some time to craft and update my the look of my blog! I absolutely LOVE how it came out thanks to my good friend, Nancy who is a talented crafter and computer programmer, not to mention a great friend!
Today, I am posting a quick card I made yesterday. Ashley, over at The Glamorous Side of Scrapping has a weekly challenge called the Clean & Simple Sunday challenge. This weeks challenge was to make a Valentine themed project and the prize is a new Smash book! I have been hearing a lot about Smash books over the past year and I would love to try one out for myself so I thought I'd enter! It's been so long since I've made a card so I'd thought try one out.

This was made with Stampin UP! Read Red paper for the base of the card. The black patterned paper is from an Imagine cartridge called Audrey, the little crown is from the Imagine Teresa Collins Baby Boutique cartridge and the LOVE stamp is from B is for Boy. The white paper is Whisper White and the ribbon is an old pack of ribbon I had from Heidi Grace.

I also used a sketch from Mojo Monday to make this card, sketch 226. Thanks for stopping by!

Simple, Quick Scrapbook Page

2012-01-26T14:07:00.001-06:00

This past weekend I went to a Scrapbook retreat with my good friend Nancy. If you have ever been to a retreat you know that most people are trying fervently to get caught up on their scrapbooks while having a good time chatting with friends. This one was no exception! We had a blast and enjoyed a very nice winter weekend cozy inside the hotel scrapbooking away.
While I am at these retreats I do try to get stuff done quickly but I also want to have fun playing with all my tools! I had lots of chances to use my Imagine, my stamps, and most of all my paper! Here is a quick layout that was more than likely Pinterest inspired. I thought it came out cute and was a perfect example of something I would normally put together at a retreat like this.
For this layout I used Stampin UP! Riding Hood Red for the background color, Crumb Cake (craft) for the large accents and for the circle I also used Stampin UP paper in Pink Pirouette, Wild Wasabi, and Very Vanilla. For the title I used Very Vanilla and So Saffron. The title was cut using the Cricut Lite Carousel Cartridge on my Imagine.

Thanks for stopping by!

Princess Jewelry with Epiphany Crafts

2012-01-25T15:11:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! Today my daughter and I hit the local Hobby Lobby to get some paper to make some necklaces for my nieces for our upcoming trip to Disney World. I was hoping to make matching crown necklaces for the girls to open when we arrived at Disney. I have had the Epiphany craft Round 14 Shape Studio since I got it at the Scrapbook Expo last summer along with the Charm Settings for the circle and thought this would be the perfect tool to make the necklaces! We found an adorable Disney paper pack for 19.99, luckily I had my 40% off coupon so we got it for a little less:-).

Here is what I came up with, so easy and fast to make! I just added a little silver connector to it and put it on a ball chain. Now I need to make a few more:-)

Here is my daughter wearing hers, she LOVES it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Winter and Snow Blog Hop

2012-01-14T09:00:00.000-06:00

Happy Saturday everyone and welcome to the Winter and Snow Blog Hop!

Hopefully you have just arrived here from Erica at Erica's Craft Room. She is the first stop on this amazing hop so if you haven't gone to her blog yet, you'll want to check out the awesome project she made!
Our theme for this hop was, Winter and Snow! Well we are in the thick of winter here (finally) in Illinois as we just about 6 inches of snow the other day after coming off 50 degree temps earlier in the week. My kids were soooo excited and they are super excited to go make a snowman with Daddy today! Anyway the project I am using is a page I made about my son going in the snow last year. He was just under 2 in these pics. As soon as he got outside last year he just had to taste all that fun white stuff! I couldn't resist snapping some pics.

I wanted to make this layout super simple so that I could really highlight these cute pics of him eating the snow. I used the Cricut cartridge Joy of the Seasons for the snowflakes (large ones were cut at 2" and smaller ones were cut at 1") which is always my go to cart for snowflakes and I'm pretty sure that is Lyrical Letters for the title. I inked around the edges of the larger snowflakes with Stampin UP Bashful Blue to give them some dimension and added some buttons. On the little ones I added a drop of Viva Pearl to the center. The paper is Stampin UP! Not Quite Navy and Whisper White.

Here is the full layout:

Thanks so much for stopping by today! We have some AWESOME blog candy on this hop! Be sure to leave a comment on all the blogs for more chances to win.

Your next stop is Teresa at the Scrappin Ts Place

Here is a list of the full lineup in case you get lost along the way.

Start- http://mycricutcraftroom.blogspot.com/

Jessica - http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/ --> You are here

Teresa - http://scrappintplace.blogspot.com/ ---> Next stop

Carla - http://racincrafts.blogspot.com/

Indira - http://craftyhomemade.blogspot.com/

Erica- http://ericasprojects.blogspot.com/

Cori- http://createdbycori.blogspot.com/

Doris - http://mybugandmecreate.blogspot.com/

Cindy - http://toolsofacropingqueen.blogspot.com/

Laurie - http://mincedpaper.blogspot.com/

Lisa - http://handmadewithlove-lisa.blogspot.com/

Blog Candy- http://ericasblogcandy.blogspot.com/

Superman Door Hanger

2012-01-12T15:51:00.001-06:00

Hi all! This is just a quick post on a really simple project I did for my son's door. I designed this last night using Cricut Craft Room and cut it with my Imagine today Every since I got this cartridge I have been wanting to make this door hanger as I thought my son would love it! He is so into his superhero characters already (he's 2 1/2)! He loves to dress up as Spiderman or Superman and would wear the costumes every day if he could. I know he is going to love it when he wakes up from his nap shortly. My first design had the "Heroes Only" logo on it but I thought it was a little plain and he can't read anyway:-). I thought he would like it much better with the Superman logo and his name.

After gluing it all together I laminated it to try to make it last longer. There's a slight glare on the photo from the plastic, sorry about that!

I am also entering this into the Scrappy Moms Terrific Tuesday challenge this week. Thanks for looking!

Love Bugs Banners for Kids Blog Hop

2012-01-07T05:00:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone and Happy Saturday! It's an exciting day around my house as it's my daughter's 1/2 birthday! LOL, okay she is 5 1/2 and boy is she excited, you'd think it was her real birthday! Anyway, thank you so much for visiting my blog today, hopefully you have come here from Tammy at Tambo's Creations, if not and you want to start at the beginning of this awesome hop, please head on over to Ellen at The Cardmonkey's Paper Jungle.

I am so honored to once again be participating in this wonderful cause for the children at the Pediatric Specialty Care. This time we have almost forty very talented crafters who have come together for a two day hop to showcase handmade banners that will be donated. The banners bring smiles to the faces of all the children that are cared for at this facility and I am so happy that I could do that as well!

We have some awesome sponsors for the hop as well, you will be entered to win as long as you leave a comment, the more blogs you visit the more chances you have to win!

Jellypark Digital Stamps will award 2 free digi-images to one winner.

K Andrews Designs has donated a stamp set to one winner.

Robyn's Fetish will donate FIVE digital images of the winner's choice as a prize!

Okay, onto my banner. I used my new Cricut Imagine (love it) to create this banner. The cartridges I used were Yummy for the banner and patterns, Imagine More for the butterflies, and Storybook for the letters. I used a Tim Holtz die for the Rosettes with Stampin UP Chocolate Chip paper. I also used pink twine from the Twinery to tie it all together. The theme of this hop was "love bugs", I thought it would be fun to use butterflies as my "bugs" on the banner:-)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Your next stop is Robin over at Scrap and Chat.

Here is a list of all the participants in case you get lost along the way:

Ellen ♥ CardMonkey – http://cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com
Tami - http://tamboscreations.blogspot.com/
Jessica- http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/
Robin – http://scrapandchat.blogspot.com/
Theresa Neubaum - http://scrappyartcrafters.blogspot.com/
Nicolette - http://beyondscrapin.blogspot.com/
Vicki - http://scrapbookingcreationsbyvicki.blogspot.com/
Lisa T.- http://bitbythecricutbug.blogspot.com/
Jessica ~ http://chick-n-scrap.blogspot.com/
Jessica ~ http://jessicascraftshaque.blogspot.com/
Jennifer ~ http://craftycardgallery.blogspot.com/
Nancie ~ http://alittlepieceofmebynancie.blogspot.com/
Tonya Wilson - http://creativeaddictiontopaper.blogspot.com/
Monica - http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/
Rachelle- http://creationsbyrachelle.blogspot.com
Beckie - http://justbecreativecrazy.blogspot.com
Alina - http://neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com

January 2012 (what?) Calendar Page

2012-01-02T09:32:00.002-06:00

Hi all, Is it seriously January 2012? I CANNOT believe it! We had a great Christmas holiday with friends and family, now it's time for me to start living my New Years Resolutions! Craft more, eat less, and enjoy the time with family! Okay now onto that first resolution of crafting more. I think I have become Teresa Collins obsessed! Ever since I got her Baby Boutique cartridge for my Imagine I cannot stop playing with it. I just love her style, especially the black and white together with pops of color thrown in.

Here is my Calendar Page for January. I used the Baby Boutique calendar printout for the base, then I printed a whole sheet of the background paper from a pattern on the cartridge. I printed out the header from Baby Boutique as well (removing the blessings title) and then used the Designer's Calendar cartridge for the word January which I printed in black. I then punched out some snowflakes strung it with some silver string and added some silver dots with my pearl pen.

Thanks for stopping by today!!

Disney Autograph Books

2011-12-23T16:04:00.000-06:00

Hi all! I have been busy up in my craft room making gifts for all my family members for Christmas. I tried to make as many gifts this year as I could instead of buying gifts. I really love getting homemade gifts from the heart and I hope my family members too:-).

Here is an example of something I made using my new Cricut Imagine. I am seriously in love with this machine. I just love the possibilities with it and I love using Cricut Craft room (an online design tool). I also just loaded the Imagine app onto my gypsy for designing when I'm away from my craft room. It's just so much fun! I have also been buying up carts like crazy on ebay for around 10.00 a piece. One I just received was Baby Boutique. At first I glanced right over this one thinking I wouldn't need to do any baby pages since my babies are a little older now but once I saw it was Teresa Collins and I saw all the awesome papers I was sold! I used this one primarily for these books:

The frames and paper were cut using the Imagine Baby Boutique cartridge, along with the crowns. I used Mickey Font for the words along with the Mickey Mouse ears (filling in the colors from the Baby Boutique patterns). Sleeping Beauty was cut using the Disney Happily Ever After cartridge, I also filled in her colors on my Imagine based on the Disney "official" RGB codes. How cool is that? I used my cinch to bind them.

Here is how it looked when I pulled the mat out of the Imagine I just stuck in a white piece of paper and all the colors were done for me:)

Modge Podge is my friend when I make these books, don't want the paper to come off for anything and they need to be able to withstand a lot of hand holding by little ones. Notice my other two autograph books in the background? I was getting the photos around from our last trip to put in those for my son and daughter. :-)

Here is the front of my nieces book, she is only 2 so I chose a Mickey head for her.

This is the back, I just love this paper from the Baby Boutique cartridge and the modge podge made it look even pinker!

Here is the front of my niece Alyssa's. Her favorite princess is Sleeping Beauty.

Here's the back, I added the gray strip and the I like the look.

Thanks for stopping by today! I am so happy to be done making all my Christmas gifts! Can't wait to start some scrapbooking with my Imagine...

My Christmas Card

2011-12-13T12:34:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! Well I promised a post today on my Christmas card that I sent out this year so here it is:-). I used the banner photo I showed yesterday of my family and kind of centered the design around the photo using mostly black, white, and silver. Here is what I came up with.

Here is the first version. I used an embossing folder from Crafts Too for the ornaments on the white cardstock. The gray is embossed with the swiss dots cuttlebug folder. The ornament is punched out with a Stampin UP punch on Stampin UP silver slitter paper. I used my Cricut Imagine to cut out the scalloped square using my Storybook Cartridge. Lastly, the pearls were put on using my Silver Pearl Pen.

This is a second version. I just stamped the back of the gray using a Stampin UP Baroque stamp.

Here is the inside with the photo of my family and the Merry Christmas banner.

I sent out 60 of these so far and need to make about 30 more! I guess I need to get busy! Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Christmas Banner

2011-12-12T08:08:00.000-06:00

Hi all! I wanted to post a project I actually made almost 2 months ago. We were having family photos done at the end of October and I wanted something special for our Christmas photo. I really wanted a banner that we could hold in the picture that said "Merry Christmas". Well, as the week before our photos went on I still hadn't gotten the banner done. I hemed and hawed over making this banner Friday night and then into Saturday morning (our pictures were Saturday afternoon). After finally deciding that I NEEDED this banner (LOL) I made it in literally 30 min. I put it all together on my gypsy and cut it out. I made it very simple so that it wasn't too distracting from our photos. After we were done with our photos I decided that I would keep it and hang it up for Christmas:-) Here it is.

I think it looks great hanging by the fireplace! I still can't believe it only took me 30 minutes to cut out!

After we got the photos back I was sooo happy I took the time to cut it out. Here is our photo that went into our Christmas card:

Thanks so much for stopping by today, tomorrow I'll post pics of my Christmas card

My New Cricut Imagine

2011-12-04T14:27:00.001-06:00

Hi all! It's a cold, dreary day here in Illinois so I took some much needed down time to play with a new toy I got last week during the Black Friday sale, my Cricut Imagine. I have been wanting one of these since the day they came out! I was so intrigued by the fact that you could print out a pattern onto your cut and just use a white sheet of paper every time! You can also use your old cartridges with the machine and fill in those cuts with color. Oh the possibilities!! Anyway after I got my machine set up, (so easy) I decided to play. The imagine is loaded with a few items you can cut so I found a Christmas tree and filled it with a pattern from the Elise cartridge that I got with my imagine at Walmart. The cut came out so clean! I added some pearls with my pearl pen and I had a tree!

(All the images were taken on my ipad using instagram)

So after all that fun I decided to make a background for my tree. I again used one of the images loaded and filled it with a pattern from Elise. I added some ink around the edges to give it some dimension.

I love this. It's going on our "weekly schedule" board for some decoration for the month.

Here is how my mat looked after I was done, you can see how clean the cuts are. I flipped the mat around to do the second cut and got it to fit perfectly on the paper. I couldn't figure out how to move the image on the screen, if anyone knows how to do this, let me know:-)

Thanks so much for stopping by, now I need to get to work on my Christmas cards!

Calendar Blog Hop

2011-11-26T09:29:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. My Thanksgivings are usually spent in Michigan hanging with my husbands family and of course, eating way too much! I am so thankful for many things this year and am really thankful for all my crafty friends that I have made through the years.
Anyway, onto my post for today, hopefully you have arrived here from Elsa at Cricut Lvr, if not and you want to start at the beginning, please go back to Zeni at Scrappy Zeni. Once I heard about this hop I knew I wanted to be a part of it! I love making calendar pages for my scrapbook pages and thought this would be a great way to get my December one done early:-). Here is my page for December.

I used the cricut cartridge Designer Calendar to cut the calendar grid and the December. All the paper is Stampin UP!. The presents and the snow globe are cut from the Christmas Cheer cartridge. I stamped on the snow and the snowflakes from an old snowflake stamp set I have from Stampin UP!.

Love this cute little snow globe!

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget to comment to enter in for your chance to win the adorable stamp set from Emma over at My Creative Time!

Your next stop is Sandra at 365 days of Cricut.

Here is the lineup in case you get lost along the way:

Zeni - http://www.scrappyzeni.com/

Pam - http://lovebugcreations3.blogspot.com/

Gloria - http://www.omascrafts.blogspot.com

Amanda- http://amandascraftsandmore.blogspot.com/

Roberta - http://www.txscrappermom.blogspot.com

Christy - http://www.90days2agodchick.blogspot.com

Monica - http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/

Liz - http://www.mywhichcraft.blogspot.com

Elsa-http://cricutlvr.blogspot.com

Jessica - http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/---- You are here

Sandra- http://365daysofcricut.blogspot.com/ ---Go here next

Kacee - http://youhadmeatscrap.blogspot.com/

Erika - http://www.craftysprouts.com/

Disney Blog Hop, Day 2

2011-11-20T05:00:00.000-06:00

Hi Everyone and welcome to the Disney Blog Hop! I am so excited to be a part of this hop again! I love Disney and since we just got back from a trip to Disney in August I figure it's about time I started to scrapbook some of these 300 photos I took! I hope you have arrived here today from Jenny at Jenny's Place, if not and you want to start at the beginning, please go back to Shawn at Crafty Chics.
Okay, onto my project. This is a scrapbook page I made of our first photo with Mickey at Disneyland in California. If you have never been to Disneyland and only been to Disneyworld I HIGHLY recommend going and checking it out! It is smaller than Disneyworld and much easier to get around. We spent 2 days at Disney and 2 days at California Adventure and we pretty much saw it all. It was so fun and my 5 and 2 year old had a BLAST! We are going to Disneyworld in a few months and they are so excited! It was a nice warm up for them to go here first.

For my page I used my Mickey font and Disney Mickey and Friends Cricut cartridges for Mickey, the word Disney and the 2011. The paper is all Stampin UP! and the banner stamps and my journaling box are all from Taylored Expressions.

Here's a close up of my Mickey:-)

Don't forget we have a GRAND PRIZEfor this Blog Hop donated by ContainYa Crafts! You can have YOUR CHOICEof a Scrap'n Tote or a Scrap'n Easel! Each blog in this two day hop has aspecial letter, and when all of the letters are put together they spell out asecret phrase.

My letter is . . . .l

Once you have stopped ateach blog in the hop and collected all of the letters, simply email the phrasethey create to bloghopcontests at gmail dot com. All entries must be inby Midnight on Monday, November 21st. The winner will be announced onTuesday, November 22nd at http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/

Thanks so much for stopping by, your next stop is Jenny over at Crazy about Cricut!

Here is the lineup in case you get lost along the way.

Shawn http://craftychicsblog.blogspot.com/

Melissa http://www.disneydreamerdesigns.blogspot.com/

Megan http://www.aboverubiesstudio.com/

Kim http://uscrap2.blogspot.com/

Bobbi Jo http://sweetsassydiva-gspot.blogspot.com/

Jenny http://jennyplace26.blogspot.com/

Jessica http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/

Jenny http://www.crazyaboutcricut.blogspot.com/

Susan http://www.cricutforbeginners.com/

Tami http://www.scrappinrabbitdesigns.blogspot.com/

Kathy http://kathyand3kids.blogspot.com/

Twilight Calendar Page

2011-11-19T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone! Like I said yesterday I was so excited for the new movie, Breaking Dawn Part 1 to come out! Now that I have seen the movie, I can't wait to see it again:-)! Yes, I am twihard. I love the saga! Hopefully you have arrived here form Carla over at Racin Crafts, she is the first stop on our awesome hop!

My second Twilight project is in honor of the new movie coming out. Each month I make a calendar page for that month and for this month I thought about doing a Thanksgiving theme like I normally do but then a light bulb went off, how about a Twilight themed page! I bought these two adorable images from Karber digital. I colored them in with my copics and based my page around them. Aren't they so adorable? You can find them here. I again used my Immortal Love stack from DCWV and cut out the Twilight word using Make the Cut and a twilight font I found. The calendar grid and the title for November were cut out using the Designer's Calendar Cricut Cartridge.

Close up of my Edward and Bella:-)

Thank you again for visiting and don't forget about our grand prize from Karber. To be eligible to win you must comment on everyone's blog for both days of the hop.

Your next stop is Berenice over at Karber Sweet Escape.

Twilight Blog Hop, Day 1

2011-11-18T00:00:00.000-06:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the Twilight Blog Hop! Hopefully you have arrived here from Carla at Racin Crafts. I am so excited for this hop and also for the movie! I am going out tonight to see it so shhhh! don't tell me anything about it! Of course I have read the books (3 times) and I know what happens but I want to be a little surprised tonight:-).
My first project for the hop is in honor of last years movie actually, Eclipse. I had a great time going to the midnight showing with my sister, my cousin, and a few friends. It was so fun knowing that we were one of the first people to get to see the show. Staying up to see a movie past midnight was a little tiring but a blast!

This scrapbook page is my sister, cousin, and I before we left for the movie. I used the DCWV Immortal Love pack for the paper. Eclipse was cut out using Make the Cut on my cricut and a Twilight font I found online. The tickets and the popcorn were cut out using the Cricut Carousel cartridge.

A close up of my popcorn and tickets:-)

Here is the second page in the layout. I usually do this when I do a two page layout. I make one page the focal point and put a lot of photos on the second page without much embellishing so that I can get them all on there. I used the immortal stack again for this page

Thank you all so much for stopping by! Your next stop is Berenice at Karber Sweet Escape! Be sure to leave a comment below so you can be entered to win the adorable digital images from Karber!
Here is the lineup for today:
Carla~ http://racincrafts.blogspot.com/

Jessica - http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/ ---> You are here

Berenice - http://karbersweetescape.blogspot.com/ ----> Go here next
Amy - http://www.lovetocrop.com/
Nancy - http://blog.fancywithnancy.com/
Kristen-http://huneebcreations.blogspot.com/
Theresa -http://thescrapbookingqueen/-princesspenelope.blogspot.com/
Jessica - http://scrappyluvs.blogspot.com/
Jamie- http://myamusinglife.blogspot.com/
Dena - http://missdjones.blogspot.com/
Joy - http://justjoycrafts.blogspot.com/
Tanya - http://little-scrapper.blogspot.com/

Christmas is For Kids Banner Hop

2011-11-05T05:00:00.000-05:00

If you are looking for the Hello Kitty Blog Hop, please click here.

Welcome everyone! Thank you so much for stopping by my blog today! If you came here from Charity at Scrapfaire then you are in the right spot, if not and you want to start at the beginning, please visit the sweet Ellen at Cardmonkey.

We are here today on this blog hop because we have all made holiday banners for special needs children, ages newborn to 21, who reside at Pediatric Specialty Care (www.pediatricspecialty.com), a group home for medically-fragile, technologically-dependent children in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. I am so honored to be a part of this hop and to hopefully touch some of these children and their families with my banner.

This banner was cut using a few different Cricut cartridges. I cut the santa and the rudolph from the Doodlecharms cartridge. The letters are from Plantin Schoolbook along with the squares. The scalloped squares are from the Mini Monograms.

I embossed all the backgrounds and the white paper is also embossed some with stripes and some with dots.

This one was embossed with a Stampin UP! snowflake Big Shot folder.

This is also the snowflake folder.

This one was embossed with an ornament folder from Crafts Too.

Thanks so much for visiting today. Please make sure to stop by all the blogs to have more chances to win the prizes from our wonderful sponsors!

Your next stop is Denise at Vintage Heartfelt Designs.

Hello Kitty Blog Hop

2011-11-05T00:00:00.000-05:00

Hello everyone and welcome to the Hello Kitty Blog Hop! I hope everyone is as excited for this weekend as I am! We don't have much planned and I LOVE weekends like that. I am especially looking forward to looking through all the stops on this hop. I love Hello Kitty and that's why I really wanted to take part in this. Anyway, I hope you have arrived here from Lisa's blog at Handmade with Love, isn't her project great? If not and you want to start at the beginning you can go back to Emily's blog at Create Serendipity. You're going to want to check out all the blogs as we have some fun prizes along the way and if you comment on all the blogs you will be entered for a chance to win the grand prize!
Onto my project. I have been really in the Christmas mood lately. I don't know what happened, Halloween came and went then I was onto Christmas (just no snow yet, please). I have been putting together ideas for my family's Christmas card and while doing that I thought of this one for the blog hop today. Maybe it will get you in the mood if you aren't already (like me).

I used the latest Mojo Monday sketch for my card layout. The patterned paper is all retired Christmas DSP from Stampin UP! The green is Stampin UP! Old Olive. Both of the glittered papers are Stampin UP! as well. The ornament was done with the Stampin UP! ornament punch. All the silver pearls were made with a pearl pen that I love! The be merry stamp is an old retired Stampin UP! stamp as well.

Okay, so this is where I put my cute little Hello Kitty cut from the Cricut Hello Kitty Greetings cartridge. She is hiding inside the card. I cut two slits in the top to made her a little pop up for when the card opens. (Here's a quick instruction on how to do it: http://www.origami-resource-center.com/pop-up-card.html)

Thank you so much for stopping by and be sure to stop by all the blogs to get your chance to win:-). Your next stop is http://thepurplemuse.blogspot.com/

30 Days of Handmade Gift Giving Blog Hop ~ Day 2

2011-11-02T05:00:00.000-05:00

HI everyone and welcome to the 2nd day of the 30 Days of Handmade Gift Giving Blog Hop! If you came here from Jill's blog over at the Scrapoholic then you are in the right place! I am so thrilled to have been asked to be a part of this hop. I am actually thinking of having a "handmade" Christmas this year and making all my gifts (except the ones to my kids). We'll see if I can do it:-) I think I can!
My first project for today is something so simple and fun to do! I just recently got into making wreaths and my friend Nancy and I are going to make a bunch of ribbon wreaths for gifts this year. I am excited to get started.

I only have this one photo of the wreath so I'll just walk you through how I did it below.

I started out with some foam tubing that I bought from Home Depot. I wrapped it in a circle then secured it with lots of duct tape. (I wouldn't actually suggest using the tubing for all your wreaths as it made the wreath a little flimsy but in a pinch it's good to use and a little bit more inexpensive than the foam tubing from the craft stores.)
From there I went to the craft store and picked out some yarn I thought looked good together. For this particular wreath I wanted fall colors as I gave it to my sister in-law for her birthday last week.
I then wrapped the yarn around the wreath, I found it best to hold the wreath in my knees and just wrap. I did this while watching my favorite tv show so it was kind of fun to do. When I was done with each color I just tied a knot on the end and then started with the next.
After getting all the yarn on I tied the ribbon to the top for hanging.
I then started looking at putting some embellishments on it. I knew I wanted to do a couple of felt flowers and I cut those out with my big shot using some dies I had and added some buttons from my stash. I also added some felt leaves cut with my big shot. I thought about adding some more but I just decided to leave it alone and not go overboard:-).

My next project is to learn how to make flowers on my own out of felt, I need to watch some tutorials on how to do that, let me know if you know of any.

I hope you enjoyed my wreath today. Be sure to check back tomorrow on Jill's blog to see who the next blogger is with another fun project.

The Great Pumpkin Hop, Day 2

2011-10-30T00:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to day 2 of the Great Pumpkin Hop! If you arrived here from Theresa, aka The Scrapbooking Queen, you are in the right place! If you want to start at the beginning to see all the fabulous creations, you can start at Amy's blog, Love to Crop.
For my project for today's post I decided to make another banner. This was actually my first banner that I intended to make the other day but the way I did it, I was able to get two banners cut out. Let me show you how.
Lately when I make a banner I make two parts to the actual banner, one for a background and then another sheet on top of that one. The background is essentially the "shadow". I have then been welding the letters into the front part of the banner. The causes the background to become the paper for the letters. You can see it here on my gypsy.

The letters are placed right in the banner piece and then I select weld to weld them together so they print out cleanly. Once you have them printed out you also still have the letter piece which is what I used to create the banner yesterday. I love doing it this way!

Here is the finished banner. I also strung this one together using mandarin twine from the Twinery.

Like my little pumpkin rosettes? I used my Tim Holtz rosette die to cut them out and then cut out little faces with my Pumpkin carvings cartridge. For the stems I used the top part of a leaf die I had.

Thanks so much for visiting again today! Your next stop is Brenda at http://createbyburffrau.blogspot.com/

The Great Pumpkin Hop Day 1

2011-10-29T00:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone and welcome to the Great Pumpkin Hop! I am so excited to be a part of this hop and can't wait to see all the fun creations everyone comes up with! If you arrived here from Theresa, aka The Scrapbooking Queen, you are in the right place! If you want to start at the beginning to see all the fabulous creations, you can start at Amy's blog, Love to Crop.
For my project, I decided to make another fun Halloween banner for one of my best friends who is coming here to visit this weekend. She has two little girls and I know they will love a cute little banner to hang at their house for Halloween.

The banner was cut using the Cricut Birthday Bash cartridge and I used mandarin twine from the Twinery to string it together. The letters are from the Cricut Carousel cartridge.

I embossed the folders, this one with a spider web:-)

My little pumpkin was cut with a Quickkutz die and embossed with a dot embossing plate

This is an argyle type embossing plate

I cut out a pumpkin face from the Cricut Pumpkin Carvings cartridge along with some faces for my little pumpkin rosettes to decorate this bag to go along with the gift.

Thank you so much for visiting today! Be sure to check back tomorrow for more some more fun!

Your next stop is Christina at http://cema1cema.blogspot.com.

Vinyl for my Ipad Cover:-)

2011-10-11T16:24:00.002-05:00

Okay, so ever since I got my new iPad cover I have been itching to do something with it to jazz it up a bit. I have a few rolls of vinyl so I decided to get them out and see what I could come up with:-).

Front

Back Cover

I thought it came out really cute! I used my cricut for most of it, Create a Critter for the owl, Summer in Paris for the Eiffel Tower, the J I'm not sure of but it was one of my fonts, maybe Storybook? The banner is actually a die I have from Taylored Expressions.
Let me know what you think:-)

Winner of the Peachy Keen Stamps

2011-10-08T06:54:00.002-05:00

Happy Saturday everyone! I am here to announce the winner of the awesome PK-690 Make a Monster Face Assortment set! I used random.org to pick my winner out of all of the comments and the lucky winner was Cari, here is what she had to say:

Super fun and adorable!
Carri~abusybee
www.doubleclickconnections.blogspot.com

Cari, I will be contacting you soon. Thank you to everyone sooo much for visiting me this and to Peachy Keen Stamps for letting me hijack their blog:-). It's been such a blast!!

Peachy Keen Guest Designer Day 5

2011-10-07T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Welcome to Day 5 of my posts as guest designer. I am so sad that my week is over already! It's been so fun and even though I am sad to leave I am excited to see what our next guest designer has coming. All week I have been wanting to do a scrapbook page using some photos I took last year of my family and I apple picking. I had a great photo of my son in the orchard and I couldn't wait to use it:-). He is about a year and a half here and he loved getting the apples and eating them. It was so darn cute!

For these cute little apple faces from the Create a Critter cartridge I used the Boy Mates faces.

I based my page on the latest sketch challenge from DCWV. I love using sketches for my inspiration and this one worked perfect for my page!

Thanks again for visiting me this week! Please leave a comment on this post and the post the PKS blog, to enter to win the stamps Peachy Keen Stamps has generously donated this week, the Make a Monster face Assortment stamps. I will be announcing the winner Saturday morning so be sure to get your comments in today!

Peachy Keen Guest Designer Day 4

2011-10-06T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! It's good to be back again for day 4 of my week as a guest designer at Peachy Keen Stamps. I can't believe the week is almost over:-(. I have LOVED reading everyone's sweet comments about my projects and have been having a blast making them and using my Peachy Keen Stamps!
Alright, so onto my project for today. I decided to post my card for the latest Let's Face It Friday challenge over at Peachy Keen Stamps and I also used a sketch from the latest Mojo Monday challenge. The challenge from PKS is to use leaves on your project and to of course, use your face stamps!

For this card I used the adorable set, Vivienne and Friends for the little girl and the wagon, along with the everyday faces for the leaves.

The card is based on this sketch from Mojo Monday:

Supplies Used:

Stamps: PKS Vivienne and Friends and Everyday Face Assortment

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black Ink, Copics to color in the girl and wagon

Paper: Stampin UP and DCWV

Pennant Die from Taylored Expressions

Thanks so much for stopping by! Don't forget to leave a comment on this post and the post on the Peachy Keen Blog, to enter to win the Make a Monster face Assortment set.

Peachy Keen Guest Designer Post, Day 3

2011-10-05T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to day 3 of my guest designer posts. I am so happy to be here:-) I've decided to let go of the Christmas projects and show you a Fall project I made. If you follow my blog then you will know that I like to make calendar pages to put in my Scrapbooks. It helps me to look back on them while I am scrapbooking to remember what we did that month and I love to hang them on the fridge!

Here is the page I made for this month. I used the Mini Monsters and the Designers Calendar Cricut Cartridge for this page.

This one-eyed face is from the Monster Mash Face

This little froggy face is from the Make a Monster Face

These two adorable candy faces are from the Everyday Character Face Assortment set

Thanks so much for visiting me today! I'll be back tomorrow:-) Don't forget to visit the Peachy Keen blog today, http://peachykeenstamps.blogspot.com/, and leave a comment here and on the Peachy Keen blog for a chance to win the Make a Monster Face Set!

Peachy Keen Guest Designer Day 2

2011-10-04T10:00:00.000-05:00

HI Everyone! Thanks again for stopping by yesterday and visiting me here and also at the Peachy Keen Stamps Blog. I just loved reading all the comments about my little Elves and also how some of you agreed it's too early for Christmas:-). Anyway, I just HAD to make another project with these cute little elves (Lauri loves Skip faceless Elves). I promise tomorrow we will get back to fall projects. :-)
Today's post is my card for the latest challenge over at Peachy Keen Stamps, the Tuesday Sketch Challenge.

THE CHALLENGE

Create a card with the sketch provided. Peachy Keen Stamps are not required to participate, but we always love to see what you create with them if you have them already!

Guidelines:

Design must be new

Link up by 10/17 - 11:59 pm CDT

Here is my card:

Supplies Used:

Stamps: PKS Lauri loves Skip faceless Elves, Unity Banner Stamps

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black Ink, Stampin UP! Real Red, Old Olive,

Copics to color in my elves

Paper: Stampin UP Whisper White, Real Red, Old Olive, and Crumb Cake, retired Christmas DSP

Stampin UP! Old Olive Brads

Crafts Too Embossing Folder and red Martha Stewart Twine, Alphabet sticker letters

Please visit the challenge blog, http://www.peachykeenstampschallenge.blogspot.com/ to link up your card and to view the sketch along with the design team's other projects.

Don't forget that I am giving away the Make a Monster Face Assortment stamp set this week. Just leave a comment here and over the Peachy Keen Stamps Blog, every day this week for more chances to win this adorable set!

Peachy Keen Guest Designer, Day 1

2011-10-03T05:00:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Today is my first day as Guest Designer for Peachy Keen Stamps and I am SO EXCITED! I am so honored to be chosen as one of the guest designers for the year. I absolutely LOVE Peachy Keen Stamps as I am sure that most of you do too! I also love the fact that they are made right here in the midwest not too far from where I am outside of Chicago. It's always good to support product that is made in the USA!

Anyway, let's get on with my first project. So last week I was out with a friend at a local mall and I literally gasped (!) when I saw the Christmas decorations and Christmas trees in the windows of Macy's. Didn't we just end summer? Is it technically even Fall yet? I couldn't believe what I was seeing! So as I started thinking of what I wanted to make for this week I thought all I would make would be Fall themed project to keep with the season BUT I just got the CUTEST little elves stamps (Lauri and Skip) from Peachy Keen Stamps and thought I HAD to use them in a project! I hope all of you aren't too shocked to see a few Christmas projects from me this week as I was to see the Christmas trees at Macy's. I just couldn't resist doing something with these! The photo is one of my adorable children from a few years ago. I love how this scrapbook page came out:-)

Supplies Used:

Paper: All the paper used is Stampin UP!, Old Olive, Real Red, and a retired Christmas DSP

Ink: Stampin UP! Real Red for shading around the ornaments

Cricut Lyrical Letters for the wording

I colored the cute little Elves with my Copics

In honor of my week at Peachy Keen Stamps, PKS has generously donated the Make a Monster Face Assortment set as a giveaway.

All you have to do to be entered to win this set is to comment on this post and also pop on over to to the PKS blog, http://peachykeenstamps.blogspot.com/, and make a comment as well. I will be posting every day this week and the more you comment, the more chances you have to enter! This set is perfect for all those fun Halloween projects. I just might have a project coming up using this very set soon:-) Take care and thanks soooo much for visiting me!

Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop

2011-10-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

Good Morning Everyone! Welcome to the Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop. If you came here from Julie over at Cricut Chick, then you are in the right place. If you just happened upon my blog today and want to start at the beginning, please go back to Andrea at Andrea's Coffee Time.
I signed up for this blog hop as a chance to again step out of my box and hopefully make some cards for women who are going through a tough time. I plan to take the cards I make from this hop and mail them off to someone who is collecting cards for women with breast cancer. This disease affects so many and has affected women in my family in the past. I am hoping that maybe this card will bring some joy to a women who really needs it.
This card was made with a new beautiful stamp set from Monica over at Stampin Daisies called Hope. Monica just released a bunch of new sets so if you get a chance, take a peak on over there and check them out. There are some really cute ones! The address is http://stampindaisies.com/. I also used a Market Street stamp for the "Believe" sentiment on the bottom.

Thank you all so much for visiting today! This is the last stop on the hop:-). I hope you enjoyed it and have a great day!!

Winner and NEW Stamp Release!

2011-09-29T16:59:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! I have been CRAZY busy this week! Between school activities and getting ready for my Guest Designer Posts over at Peachy Keen Stamps I have been swamped! I can't wait for you all to see what I come up with using my ever so cute Peachy Keen Stamps next week:-) I have been having so much fun getting ready and I am really excited!
Anyway, on to the good stuff. I am here to announce the winner of the Disney/Pixar Blog Hop from last weekend. I used random.org to pick the winner and it was #20, Peggy! Peggy, I sure hope you see this post as I don't see your email listed on the comment. If you could please email me ASAP with your address I will send out your adorable stamps from Stampin Daisies!
Speaking of Stampin Daisies, Monica, the owner just came out with some ADORABLE new stamps! I will be posting a card this Saturday using some of these stamps for a Breast Cancer Awareness Blog Hop I am in but if you want to check out the stamps for yourself, go to http://stampindaisies.com/category/new.htm. They are just so cute and I am over the moon about them!
That's it for now, be sure to check back Saturday for my blog hop card and then Monday for my first post as the Peachy Keen Guest Designer! Woo Hoo!!

Disney/Pixar Blog Hop Day 2

2011-09-25T05:00:00.003-05:00

Hi all and welcome to the 2nd day of the Disney/Pixar Blog Hop if you just came here from Jenny's blog over Jenny's Scrapbooking Haven then you are in the right place, if not and you would like to start at the beginning, head on over to Shawn's blog at Crafty Chics.
I love this hop! It's definetly one of my favorite hops to be in and to look through as I love Disney! We just got back from a trip to Disneyland (AWESOME) last month and I have over 350 photos from it, this is AFTER I went through them all and got rid of the ones I didn't want! I have a lot of scrapbooking to do! Anyway for my project today I am going to show you the two autograph books I made for my kids to take to Disney.
Here is my Daughter's book. Belle is one of her favorite princesses so I thought I would put her on the cover.
I kept the design super simple and she absolutely loved it! I plan to add the photo into the books once I get them printed:-).

Here is a close up of Belle. It's so hard to get these princesses all put together sometimes. I added some ink around the outside of her hair for dimension and some chalking on her cheeks. The font is from the Mickey Font cartridge. I modge podged the cover, back cover, and inside cover to make sure everything stayed put.

This is my son's book. He absolutely loves Cars so I put Lightning McQueen on the front for him from the Cars Cartridge. I added the little road from some paper I had and used the Mickey Font again for the Autograph book title. He loved his book too!

We had a blast in Disneyland and hopefully for the next hop (hint, hint:-)) I will get some photos of some scrapbook pages I made from it:-)

I do have a little giveaway for you today. I am giving away a set of stamps from Stampin Daisies called Ocean Buddies. I love these stamps, click here to see some projects I made with them. Monica (the owner) is coming out with a whole new release soon. You can check out her current line of stamps here. In order to win these stamps you must leave a comment on this post telling me your favorite thing about Disney:-). I will draw a winner Wednesday morning, Sept 28th so you have until Tuesday evening to comment. Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Your next stop is Cathy over at Creative Cutter.

Scrapbook Challenges sketch 264

2011-09-21T15:39:00.001-05:00

Hi all! Well, I was feeling in the mood to scrapbook last night so I found a few photos and went to it. I decided to use the sketch from Scrapbook Challenges for this layout, sketch 264. I really liked it and the examples from the design team. They do such a great job!
Anyway, I love these two photos of my friend Nancy and I. We have a lot of things in common, including our love of paper, scrapbooking, stamping, and so on but we also have a great time going out and doing stuff like we did this summer with our husbands to the DMB concert. I wanted to showcase these two different events in this page and highlight our friendship. I just love how it came out!

I used my Tim Holtz mini rosette die for my rosettes and I am in love! It cut them out so perfectly and it was a cinch to put them together! I also used my pennant punch from Stampin UP and sewed twine in it from the Twinery to hang my banner. I used some border punches for the scallops and my top note die from Stampin UP for the sides of the photo and embossed those with an Stampin UP embossing plate. The buttons on the rosettes are also from Stampin UP. I added the ticket from the concert as a momento:-).

It is based on this sketch:

International Talk Like a Pirate Day Blog Hop

2011-09-19T00:00:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Welcome mateys to the International Talk Like a Pirate Day Blog Hop! If you came here from Jenn over at Cardstock and Coffee, you are in the right place! If you just happened upon my post today and want to start at the beginning, see Gill's blog over at Creations by Gill.
Okay so I joined this blog hop thinking it would be fun to try something out of my comfort zone. I don't really know how to talk like a pirate except to say "aarrhh". Luckily, my daughter was invited to a pirate themed birthday party next weekend and I needed a card. I decided to get this adorable digi Buccaneer Marci stamp from Lala Land crafts and go from there. I think it came out super cute! I am really getting into digital stamping and coloring with my copics. They are just so much FUN!

I also used my chalks to shade a little on the gray areas where I didn't have a darker gray to shade in and to color up her cheeks a little bit. I used my DCWV green stack for the patterned paper, the rest is Stampin UP. Twine is Lemondrop from the Twinery:-).

Your next stop is Linda over at Fruit of My Hands.

Stampin Daisies Challenge #3

2011-09-16T07:00:00.000-05:00

Good Morning Everyone! I am so excited for another Stampin Daisies Challenge! I hope everyone had fun with our last one. The designers and I had so much fun looking at all the entries. They all were stunning and that was a really hard sketch to follow.
Here is my card for this weeks challenge, we all used the Birthday Bash set for our cards this week.

The card is based on this sketch from our design team member, Linda. I of course, flipped it around:-).

We all used this stamp set from the Stampin Daisies line. It is so versatile, I just love it for all those birthday cards I need to send.

If you want to participate in this challenge and have a shot at winning this adorable stamp set. Link up your card to the Stampin Daisies blog by midnight September 29th. It's so easy! http://stampindaisies.blogspot.com/

Don't forget to check out the other design team members to see what they created using this stamp set.

Monica http://stampindaisies.blogspot.com/
Jenny http://www.papercutcreations.blogspot.com/
Jessica http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/
Linda http://www.fancyframework.com/
Nadia http://nadiasbeautifulmess.blogspot.com/
Sherry http://patternsbysher.blogspot

LaLa Land Princess Marci Stamp

2011-09-05T09:45:00.001-05:00

After going to the Scrapbook Expo and coloring this adorable Princess Marci stamp from LaLa Land stamps I knew I had to get it so I could make some adorable princess birthday cards! Here is one I made for my niece Shelby. She loved it!

I love this little girl, she is so cute!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Lala Land Princess Marci, Martha Stewart Birthday wishes stamps

Twine from Martha Stewart

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black, Stampin UP Pacific Point

Copics to color

Paper: Stampin UP Real Red, Whisper White and DCWV Celebrations stack

I also added some rhinestones for her earrings:-)

September "Back to School" Calendar page

2011-09-04T09:00:00.001-05:00

Hi all!

If you are looking for the Labor of Love blog hop, click here.

If you are looking for the Stampin Daisies Challenge post, click here.

Today I want to show my Calendar page I made for the month of September. If you have been following my blog then you know that I post one of these each month on our fridge and use it in my scrapbook to keep track of everything that happened. I really love how this one came out! When visiting CHA I stopped at the Taylored Expressions booth and bought some stamps, okay I bought a lot of stamps but who's counting? I got this adorable school set from them and couldn't wait to create my September "back to school" Calendar page (not to mention the cards and scrapbook pages I can create later)! Here is what I came up with:

I used my Copics to color in all the stamps, who knew coloring could be so much fun!

Love this owl!

Supplies Used:

Paper: DCWV Celebrations Paper stack, Stampin UP! Real Red, So Saffron and Whisper White (to stamp the images) Blue Reflections paper and the apple paper is OLD, I got it from archivers years ago:-)

Stamps: Taylored Expressions Make the Grade

Ink: Momento Tuxedo Black

Punches: Stampin UP Perfect Pennant

Various Copic markers to color

Green alphabet stickers for my "SCHOOL" title.

Cricut Designer Calendar cartridge for my calendar grid and September title

Labor of Love Blog Hop

2011-09-02T05:00:00.004-05:00

Good Morning all! If you are looking for the Stampin Daisies Challenge Post, click here.
I am soooo excited for this blog hop. I just love all things fall and especially Halloween. I'm not really into the dressing up or the candy but I love the community of it all. I love seeing the neighbors out with their kids each year and kind of having one last hurrah before the snow and cold force us all to go inside. This blog hop is such an amazing hop. What Ellen and Madison are doing for these kids is amazing! I am so happy to participate. If you came here from Bobbie Jo over at Sweet Sassy Diva then you are in the right place. If you want to start from the beginning, check out Ellen's blog over at Card Monkey.
Okay, onto my banner. There are a lot of photos :-) This banner is very similar to one I made last year that I loved so I thought why not make another and just change it up a bit?

I used my Cricut Mini Monsters Cartridge to cut out all my Monsters:)

The font is from my Plantin Schoolbook Cartridge

The little face on my spider is from the Peachy Keen Everyday Face Collection

This face is from the Peachy Keen Pumpkin Face Parts

This little guy is from Karber, it's a digital stamp that was given to us for this hop. I got try out my new Copics for it and digital stamping! So fun!

I used various embossing folders on all the squares to add some dimension to my banner. I hope you like it!

Don't forget about all the wonderful giveaways we have for this hop from these sponsors:

CardMonkey (http://www.cardmonkey-business.blogspot.com)

KinderStampO (http://www.kinderstampo.com/)

My Pink Stamper (http://www.mypinkstamper.com/)

Pink Cricut http://www.pinkcricut.com

My Creative time (http://www.creativetimeforme.com/)

Karber Design (http://karbers.blogspot.com/2011/07/karber-designers.html)

Scrappy Moms Stamps (http://scrappymoms-stamps.blogspot.com/)

To be eligible for a prize:

**Leave a comment on Day 1 or Day 2. (Fri./Sat.)

**Leave a comment on Day 3 or Day 4. (Sun./Mon.)

**Thank a sponsor/s for sponsoring our hop by clicking on the icons listed above and leaving a message on our sponsor/s blog saying "What a good GHOUL you are for sponsoring the Labor of Love Halloween Hop, happening today."

**Link a Halloween card to Funky Cards at the link provided at the end of the hop and donate it to the children at Pediatric Specialty Care. (http://funkycards.blogspot.com/2011/09/i-feel-love-septmeber.html)

We will be using Random Organizer to match our prizes to our winners. You can enter all of the categories 1-4 and be eligible to win every prize:) There may be more than one winner in some categories and the more comments you leave the better your chances!

You next stop is Shawnee over at www.quiverofangels.blogspot.com

Stampin Daisies Sketch Challenge #2

2011-09-02T04:30:00.007-05:00

Good Morning! It's time for another challenge over at Stampin Daisies! We were so excited for all of you that came out to participate in the first challenge and can't wait to see what everyone had in store for this one! This time we are using the Ocean Buddies stamp set and this is also the set we will be giving away at the end of the challenge. If you haven't had a chance to check out these fun stamps you are missing out! They are so cute and fun to work with. Anyway, here is my card for the sketch challenge. I layered the stars to create dimension and colored them in with my Copics.

This card is based on this sketch from Pagemaps, I just flipped it.

Think you are up for the challenge? If so, link your card back to the Stampin Daisies blog, http://stampindaisies.blogspot.com/. You will then have a chance to win this adorable stamps set:

Good luck!

Don't forget to check out the other designers blogs:

Got Copics?

2011-08-23T20:35:00.000-05:00

Okay, so I have been eyeing Copic markers for a while now. Over a year at least. I just kept thinking, how great can they be really? I even tried some out at CHA summer 2010 and still wasn't into them but then came CHA 2011. I just kept seeing all the beautiful projects with them and broke down and bought some last week. Saturday we went to the Scrapbook Expo and took a little mini class on Copics. I am so over the moon about them now and soooo happy I bought them! I did a little experimenting with the set I bought last night on a digi stamp and it was so fun! I had never tried digi stamps before so this was my first time. After figuring out how to resize the stamp, I printed it out 4 times and went to coloring. This is what I came up with.

He's a little hard to see on this photo but I will be showing more of this adorable Karber image during the Labor of Love Halloween Blog Hop Sept 1st and 2nd. This hop is hosted by the sweet Ellen over at Card Monkey. Everyone is making a Halloween Banner, mailing them to her and she will be displaying them at the Pediatric Specialty Care in PA for children that are being card for there. Please stop by and visit these ladies during this hop as a lot of care was put into making these banners for these children.

DCWV Sketch Challenge

2011-08-20T07:04:00.000-05:00

Good Morning everyone! Today is an exciting day for me as I am heading to the scrapbook expo! I am pretty lucky as it's right in the next town over so I don't have travel too far to get there:-).In honor of that I decided to do some scrapbooking this past week. I have these beautiful sunflowers in my yard that grew to be HUGE so I decided to take some pictures with my daughter standing by them. I also bought a new sunflower die for my Sizzix and had recently also gotten the new Sunflower background stamp from Stampin UP! I was so excited to use both! My favorite paper is DCWV and I subscribe to their blog. Recently Erin from DCWV started putting a sketch challenge out there and I knew this was my month to finally participate!

For my project I stamped out the Sunflower title with my new Stampin Daisies Zebra Alphabet. I love how versatile this set is! For the paper I used the DCWV paper packs of LInen Closet and the Green Stack. I also used some Stampin UP paper, Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie, So Saffron, and Crumb Cake

Here's a close up of my cute little daisies

Thanks for stopping by, don't forget about the Stampin Daisies Challenge going on right now over at the blog!

Stampin Daisies Sketch Challenge #1

2011-08-19T08:00:00.000-05:00

Good Morning everyone! TGIF! We are so excited here at our house. We leave next Thursday for CA and Disneyland. My daughter Ava wakes up every day asking how many more days? I am so excited for her and for my son too! Actually, I'm excited for all of us and honestly am having a hard time thinking of much else. All these thoughts keep running through my head, what to bring on the plane, what to pack, what princesses will we see:-). It's making it hard for me to craft with all these thoughts running through my head! Somehow I was able to focus a little bit yesterday and make this sweet card for the new Stampin Daisies Sketch Challenge. I just LOVE the new Smiling Daisies stamp set and I couldn't wait to play with it for a card!

Here's my card. I embossed the card with silver embossing powder for all my daisies. They came out so pretty! I just love the color combo of red and turquoise so I decided to try it out for this card.

This card is based on this sketch:

If you'd like to play along, visit the Stampin Daisies blog and link your project. You could be the lucky winner of this set for yourself!

The Scrapbook Expo is in town so I'll be going there tomorrow. I'll have a new scrapbook page to show you all tomorrow in honor of it:-)

Stampin Daisies Release Party!!

2011-08-12T08:33:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first Stampin Daisies Release Party. Hopefully you have just joined me from Jenny's blog, if not and you want to start from the beginning you can go to Monica's blog. Monica is giving away two stamps sets to one lucky winner so you want to make sure you start at the beginning to have more chances to win!

Here are my two projects for today:

I kept the same sketch for both to make it a little easier on myself:)

For my projects I used the adorable new Ocean Buddies stamps set.

My five year old loves this set too! She likes to create her own "scrapbook" pages with it:-)

I also created this adorable calendar page using the same set:

I hope you enjoyed all the projects today. Your next stop is Linda over at Fancy Framework. Don't forget to leave a comment here and at all the other blogs for your chance to win!

My first attempt at Jewelry Making

2011-08-09T14:06:00.001-05:00

So I have been mod podging A LOT lately. I have been making an art journal and mod podging everything I put into it. I never knew there were so many different kinds of mod podge! I went to the store and picked up some modge podge dimensional magic as I have had these two jewelry pendants for over a year and I knew this would be the perfect time to make something out of them!

This first one is a photo of my kids that I wanted to put in here. It came out just okay as I probably should have waited for it to dry more. The colors ran a little but it's really hard to see on it, it just gives the photo a nice pink tinge:-)

Here is the second one, I love it. I just took a simple piece of paper, cut where this flower was on the paper to make it fit the frame, glued it down with modge podge, stamped a J for my name, and added little rhinestone. On both of these I just added the dimensional mod podge on top to give it that clear dimensional look over it.

Both of these were super easy to make! Now I am looking into getting more pendants and crystals so I can make some for gifts:-)

August Calendar Page

2011-08-06T19:47:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! Well, as most of you know if you have been following my blog, I design for the Stampin Daisies Design Team. I just got these adorable stamps from Monica and knew I had to play with them right away! I was a little slow making my August Calendar page for my fridge as we were on vacation the last week in July so I thought this would be the perfect project to use my awesome new stamps!

This set is called Ocean Buddies and it's perfect for beach layouts! I had a few little mermaids and shells left over from my daughter's invitations and thought one would be cute here, fitting with the theme perfectly!

There are some really cute sentiments on this one, I thought this was perfect for my calendar! Aren't the little faces on these stars so sweet?

Love those cute little octopus and the little bubbles stamp was perfect for making bubbles in the "water".

This little fish is so adorable!

I had so much fun playing with my new stamps, I hope you'll take a peak over at the Stampin Daisies site and check out what else she has to offer. The stamps are all available for pre-order now!

CHA

2011-08-04T15:21:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone! I want to do a quick post on all the fun things I did at CHA this year and to show you all what I got while I was there:-).
This year the consumer part of CHA was done a bit differently. It was actually combined with the Fashion and Jewelry show which made it so confusing for us crafters to figure out if there actually was a show. My friend Nancy and I had so much fun last year and this year we were back and forth on if we were even going to go this year. At the last minute we did decide to go on Friday and of course we were glad we did in the end but were disappointed in the lack of vendors. However, that did not stop me from getting a huge haul of craft goodies! I am going to show them all to you here:-).

Thursday of the show I went to meet up with some other crafters, including Jess from Kinderstampo and Sarah from Pink Cricut. Here is a photo of everyone. It was fun to meet all of them. (I am the one holding my son)

Here I am with Tim Holtz, oh and my son Carter again. I ended up going into the other part of CHA that day with Carter and just carrying him around as I oohed and aahed at all the booths. My favorite was DCWV and there upside down Christmas tree with paper ornaments!

The next day Nancy and I went on our own (sans Kids). Here are some of the Cuttlebug folders I got.

Some bling! oh and a make and take we made.

Love how the little crystals fit the nestabilities perfect!

Couple more embossing folders..

Some glue (love this stuff) and a few other dies

This is were I spend all my money!! Love these cute little stamps!

They even have dies to coordinate with the stamps, so cute!

I just had to get this for the sayings, I love them!

A couple of Unity stamps.

Another make n take. Love these flowers!

Here is a book I "won" from Kinderstampo. Jess and Sarah did a drawing for all the girls that came out to see them and I won this beautiful book! She also gave everyone a cute Halloween tag.

She is so talented!

Inside, all the little tabs come out

Finally, Here is a very quick card I made with my new stamps. This was for a boy's graduation and I wanted to make it more masculine. I haven't had much time to play with them yet... Need to get in my craft room soon!

Cocktails & Dreams Blog hop

2011-08-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Hi all! Welcome to the Cocktails & Dreams blog hop! I hope everyone is having a great summer! I spent the last week at my Mom's lake house in northwest Indiana. It was sooooo nice! My 3 nieces and two kids spent practically all of their days in the water. It was hard to get them out! I love all the great memories they are making at the lake...
Anyway, today we head back home to enjoy the last few weeks of our summer vacation. If you are hopping along with us then you just came from the very talented Lisa at Lisa Garrow, if not, and you want to start at the beginning, go ahead back to Gill's blog over at Creations by Gill M.
Once I heard Gill was hosting this hop I knew I wanted to take part in it. What a fun title, huh? It conjured up images of the movie Cocktail, which then led me to thinking about beaches, which then led me to thinking of Jimmy Buffet. Funny how that works, huh? Anyway, my project is of a scrapbook page I did last year when my husband and I went with some friends to the Jimmy Buffet concert. This was only my second Jimmy Buffet concert and it was a blast!

I stamped the title and used the retired Stampin UP! Tropical Party for the green palm like leaves, the flowers, the drink, and the little tree. The patterned paper is also a retired set from Stampin UP! The background paper is Stampin UP! Tempting Turquoise along with the ribbon.

Here are the two pages together.

Thanks so much for visiting today! Your next stop is the very crafty Jenn over at Cardstock and Coffee.

Scrapbook Challenges sketch 259

2011-07-20T15:56:00.000-05:00

Hi everyone! It's sooo hot here in Chicagoland. Lately, all I can do is stay inside and enjoy some air conditioning! Today I took my son to the mall to play which is normally something I do in the winter, oh well he enjoyed it and loved riding on the choo choo train! I did get a little time to scrapbook today and here is what I came up with.

This is a double page layout based on the current sketch over at Scrapbook Challenges.

Based on this sketch...

I stamped out my title, I love doing this!

Love this saying from the Stampin UP! Flight of the Butterfly stamp set.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Stampin UP! Flight of the Butterfly, Schoolbook Serif, Dots background stamp

Ink: Stampin UP! Elegant Eggplant, Glorious Green, and Basic Gray

Paper: Stampin UP! So Saffron, Elegant Eggplant, Whisper White, and DCWV Blossoms and Butterflys

2011 July Calendar Page

2011-07-12T19:38:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone!! I know I haven't shared in a while but summer has just really gotten the best of me lately! I have been having so much fun with the kids and just kind of taking a break from everything. Anyway, I wanted to show off this cool calendar page I made for July. If you have been following my blog then you know that I keep one of these on the fridge each month and decorate it according to whatever is going on. I really love red, white, and blue and this stamp set from Stampin UP! I got last year called July Fourth. It is perfect for all my fourth of July layouts! I even made my own firecracker out of ribbon. I love how it came out!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Stampin UP! July Fourth

Paper: Stampin UP! Real Red, Not quite Navy, Whisper White, and Crumb Cake

Ink: Stampin UP! Real Red, Not Quite Navy and Versamark

Ribbon is just ribbon I had in my bins, along with a button I got from Joann

Cricut Cartridge Designer Calendar and the Star Punches from Stampin UP!

I've decided to enter this into the linking party over at You Had me At Craft:-)

My Craft Channel

2011-07-12T07:41:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Want to win an expression? Check out the new My Craft Channel website! They are giving one away every day for 20 days. Check it out:-) I am really excited about this new programming coming up in the fall!

Taken from their blog:

What is "My Craft Channel"?

My Craft Channel is the first of it’s kind online TV Craft Network. It goes beyond the simple web “how-to” home video and delivers broadcast quality programming. With over 20 different new shows there is something for everyone. Top experts, bloggers and craft celebrities in various niches from sewing, painting, scrapbooking, DIY projects, photography, mixed media and more have joined together to bring entertaining education to the web with TV formatted shows. Not only do the shows provide amazing inspiration, each day there is an opportunity for the “daily deal”, which gives our viewers an opportunity to try out fresh new craft items at discounted prices. Our goal is to be fun, educational, entertaining, and interactive with our viewers.

Fairy Day Blog Hop

2011-06-25T00:00:00.003-05:00

Good day everyone and welcome to the Fairy Day Blog Hop!! Today is Day 2 of the hop and if you came here from Jalisa at Patches of Pink then you are in the right place. If you just happened on my blog today and would like to hop along with us and want to start at the beginning, go to Gill's Blog over at Creations by Gill.
The theme of this hop is Fairies as June 24th was National Fairy Day! I have never really been into Fairies but having a 4 year old girl who likes them got me interested. When Gill said she was hosting a Fairy Day hop I thought it would be so fun and maybe get me out of my box a little. I was amazed at all the stuff on the internet as I did "research" for my project. My daughter, Ava, last year loved this set of fairy wings that I got her and she insisted on wearing them for our family photos in October. I have this gorgeous photo of her and thought this would be a good time to showcase my little fairy:-).

The colors are very similar to a layout I did before as they will be next to each other in the album..

I added some sparkle to the title from a retired Stampin UP! set called A little Bit of Magic. The title was cut using a font on my computer and Make the Cut.

My fairy was also cut using Make the Cut, I found her free to download here.

I added some Stampin! UP Rhinestones to the stars to give them more sparkle

This saying is also from the Stampin UP! retired set A Little Bit of Magic

I hope you enjoyed my layout. It was fun to make. I would love if you left me a comment and became a follower if you aren't already.

Okay everyone, if you have been hopping these last two days then you are aware of the hidden letters along the way on the hop. My hidden letter is F. Remember to collect all the letters from the hop (they will appear over the 2 days) and assemble to form a fairy related word. Return to Gil's blog at the end of day 2 (today) and enter the Mr. Linky (not revealing the word) for your chance to win some blog candy. Gil will contact someone at random who will then email her back with the word.

Thanks so much for stopping by today!

Your next stop on the hop is my very good friend Nancy over at Fancy with Nancy.

Mermaid invite

2011-06-24T20:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday everyone!! This is a quick post to show the invite I did for my daughter's birthday. She is turning 5 soon and each year we agonize (or she does) about what the theme will be of the party. This year she decided she wanted the theme to be squinkies. What are squinkies you ask? Well they are all the rage among the little girls. Little plastic characters. To see a photo, click here. Since not too many adults know what they are and since we are having our big blow up pool and slide out for the party I thought I would make a "water" themed invite using the little mermaid from Life's a Beach. I fell in love with this little mermaid when I made my 4 little mermaids layout and my daughter was happy to let me go with that for the invites (whew!).

The You're Invited is from the Stampin Daisies line of stamps called Just the Basics. Did you know she is now taking pre-orders for some very cute new stamps coming out??? Check it out here at http://www.stampindaisies.com/2011/06/pre-order-your-stamps-today.html

I stamped the faces with the Peach Keen Princess Faces which I love! I then colored in her lips red and chalked her cheeks pink to give her a little color.

The card flips open to reveal the information on the party inside.

I hope you liked my card! Don't forget to check out Stampin Daisies new line of stamps. They are just adorable!

Father's Day Card

2011-06-23T15:24:00.002-05:00

Hi all! I wanted to show everyone the card I did for my husband for Father's Day. I love that we have a whole day that we can dedicate to Dad's! It's so funny though, because I asked my husband what he wanted to do and he didn't really have anything special, just to hang out with us. On Mother's Day we are all expected to go to a brunch or so it seems. I asked my husband if he wanted to do that and he kind of looked at me weird. Why don't we have Father's Day brunches I ask? Anyway, I think my husband is the best Dad! He plays with the kids and they just love him so much. He is always being silly with them or cuddling with them so I made him a card to show how much we love him. We also made him this fun scrapbook page if you want to check it out, here.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Stampin UP! Pennant Parade and Fabulous Phrases, Inkadinkado Artstamp Large Alphabet, Market Street Stamps Hearts a Plenty Background Stamp
Ink: Stampin UP! Chocolate Chip and Marina Mist
Paper: Stampin UP! Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Very Vanilla, and Crumb Cake
Twine from the Twinery

Mermaid Layout

2011-06-15T15:35:00.001-05:00

Hi all!! It's been rainy and dreary here so I was able to get a few crafting things done today. I finished the other part of my mermaid layout. I just love these photos and I didn't think much needed to be done with the layout so I kept it simple.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Stampin UP! Punched Posies (retired hostess), Stampin UP! Fine Flourish, Market Street Stamps Simple Joys

Paper: Stampin UP! Poppy Parade, So Saffron, Very Vanilla, and Pumpkin Pie

Ink: Stampin UP! Pumpkin Pie

Punches: Stampin UP! 5 Petal Flower and Boho Blossoms

Be sure to check out my other blog for a fun Father's Day gift idea!

http://idratherbestampin.blogspot.com/2011/06/dads-day-layout.html

Sentiment Challenge

2011-06-14T20:08:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone, it's me again! Okay, I have a very fun challenge for you! As some of you know, I am on the Stampin Daisies design team. We are hosting a challenge and the winner gets to choose one of the new stamp sets she has coming out soon!

All you need to do is...

-Comment below sharing some of your favorite sentiments! Easy right? For instance, my favorite sentiment that I like to use on cards with owls is Whoooooo loves you? I just think it's so super cute!

-Send your friends on over to comment as well!

When we hit 100 sentiments (comments), we'll announce a winner (using random.org) at Stampin Daisies!

Don't forget, the winner receives an upcoming stamp set!!!

We have a Winner!

2011-06-14T19:56:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone! This is just a quick post to announce the winner of the School's Out for Summer Blog hop. I had so much fun with this hop and I loved reading everyone's comments about my sweet mermaid. I used random.org to pick the winner and the winner was #36, Anne. Here is what Anne had to say.

Very cute layout, Jessica! I love the mermaid and the photo of the girls is adorable. I'm already following. Thanks for the chance to win your blog candy. Funny, you and I use the same signoff (aliong with about a million others probably!) LOL

Congrats Anne! I'll be emailing you soon to get your address to send your new i-rock.

School's Out for Summer Blog Hop

2011-06-10T08:00:00.007-05:00

Good day everyone and welcome to another blog hop sponsored by Nancy (Fancy with Nancy) and me!! We are so excited for this one as it's highlighting a fun time of the year, SUMMER!! The thing I look forward to most in the summer changes as each year comes. This year I was looking forward to NO SCHEDULE! My daughter is starting kindergarten next year and we will be busy every day so I love that right now, we have nothing to do each day but play in the sun:-). My project is a scrapbook page I put together with some photos that I have been itching to scrapbook since I took them last year. I just love the bright colors of the photos and the immense amount of fun the girls had on this day. We have one of those huge blow up slides with a pool in it and one HOT sunny Sunday we blew it up and the neighbor girls came over to play. They had so much fun and I caught this cute photo of them all together.

I just love this little mermaid from the Life's a Beach Cricut Cartridge, I added some bling to her flower using my i-rock. Her face was stamped using the Peachy Keen Stamps Princess faces set, I used my chalk to color in her cheeks.

I cut out the title from Life's a Beach, added the "s" by welding with my gypsy and a 4. I used the Stampin UP! Fine Flourish stamp on the yellow to add some dimenstion and inked the edges.

I stamped some flowers with versamark to the background paper using an old hostess stamp set from Stampin UP! called Punched Posies. The larger flowers were stamped with the same set and punched out using the 5 Petal Flower punch from Stampin UP! The little flowers were stamped with the Stampin UP! Fine Flourish stamp and cut out using the Stampin UP! Boho Blossoms Punch.

I added some orange buttons to the flowers to give them a little dimension

I hope you liked my "summer" project. Now, what would a blog hop be without some Blog Candy??:-) Today I am giving away an i-rock

All you have to do is to enter to win is leave a comment on this post and I would love if you became a follower if you aren't already:-). I will be picking a winner Tuesday morning.. Thanks so much for stopping by!!

You're next stop is Nancy over at Fancy with Nancy

Here is a list of all the blogs in the hop in case you need it:

Jessica- http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/ ---You are here
Nancy-http://blog.fancywithnancy.com/ ---Next stop
Wendy- http://wleitel.blogspot.com/
Anita-http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Nadia http://www.nadiasbeautifulmess.blogspot.com/
Jenny http://www.papercutcreations.blogspot.com/
Sarah http://www.simplyshaddock.blogspot.com/
DoBea http://www.dobeaalberts.blogspot.com/
Kristin http://scrappingmamahen.blogspot.com/
Jen R http://www.memorieswithjen.blogspot.com/
Julie Ranae http://juliesopenwindow.blogspot.com/
Brynn- http://www.flairandfrillscreativity.blogspot.com/
Jess- http://scrappyjess.blogspot.com/
Linn - http://linnsscrapshack.blogspot.com/

Rainforest Cafe layout

2011-06-07T20:57:00.000-05:00

Hi all! What a hot, hot day we had here in IL. These past few days have been hot and I can't believe that I have actually had the energy to scrap after a long day outside with the kiddos! Everything is blooming, the animals are all out, it's such a fun time of the year. I actually saw this hopping around my yard today!

It's literally as big as my hand and we had another one right behind it. The kids thought it was hilarious! We live near a wooded area and we here these frogs all night long out here.
Anyway, onto my project, last night I was able to work on some photos from my son's last birthday. We had a big party for him a few weeks after his birthday but the actual day of his birthday we decided to take the kids over to the Rainforest Cafe as a special treat for lunch. They loved it! My daugther is constantly asking us to go back! Anyway, here are the pages I did for the big day. I followed the 2 page sketch layout over at Scrapbook Challenges to complete this.

For more info, see my new Stampin UP! blog I started a few days ago:-) I will be posting my exclusive Stampin UP! projects there. http://idratherbestampin.blogspot.com/

Happy Birthday to Me Blog Hop

2011-06-04T00:00:00.004-05:00

Hello everyone!! First off I wanted to say a very big Happy Birthday to Dee! I have learned from being in this blog hop that Dee is a very sweet, easy going person. If you ever want to do a blog hop, do it with Dee as she is sooo easy to work with:-)
Anyway onto the hop, if you arrived here from Linda at the Fruit of my Hands, then you are in the right spot. If you just happened upon my blog today and want to check out some cool projects, you can start at Dee's blog, Designs From My Heart.
Here is my project for the hop. Dee told up we could make anything we wanted so since I am a little behind in my scrapbooking I decided to finish up a birthday page I had been working on digitally. I used this weeks sketch from Scrapbook Challenges to do it. I think it came out pretty cute. I did the page in Stampin UP!s My Digital Studio using the new Celebrations pack. I think, at the time, that these photos were taken with my phone so they are not the best photos. I just wanted to document this day as it was a fun one! I was soooo pregnant with my son at the time and this is just a few days before I had him!

Based on this sketch:

(I tweaked it a little on the photos as I only had 3:-))

Thanks so much for stopping by! Your next stop is Gill over at Creations by Gill M.

I am Published and a Cream of the Crop winner

2011-05-31T15:52:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Did ya notice I have a knew blinkie on my blog?:-) I am so excited to have won the Cream of the Crop contest over at Market Street Stamps! I just love their stamps, they are so cute and versatile. The new sayings set they came out with is one of my favorites so far, it's called Simple Joys. I used it on my travel album, posted it to their wall and actually won for the month of May!! I am so excited, woohoo!

Also, I don't ever think I mentioned this before but I submitted one of my pages to the "Bug" Magazine and they published it in their latest issue. So exciting! If you want to see the page, click here. They have sketches in their magazine and you know I love sketches so I used one and they picked it to go in their little magazine. If you haven't had a chance to subscribe you should. It's a fun little magazine with lots of tips and tricks for die cutting.

Vacation Blog Hop

2011-05-20T08:00:00.002-05:00

Good Morning Everyone!! TGIF! I hope you are hopping right along with us and came from Nancy's blog, isn't her travel wall so AWESOME! I was lucky enough to see it in person and it's so much better than the photos! She did a great job with it and her family will have so much fun planning their next trip(s) together.

Here is my super fun project. A while ago I was making a gift for Nancy for her birthday, she was soon going on a trip and I wanted to make her a travel journal to take along with her so that she could write everything down. If you want to see it, click here. The whole time I was making it I was thinking that I would love to have one for myself and that "someday" I would make one. This blog hop was my perfect excuse! My husband and I are always talking about where we want to go next, what activities we want to do over the summer, etc. He is always saying, "let's write that down" and of course we never do. Well I have made this cute little book so that we can. From now on when ever we say that, we can just jot it down in the book and use the book to plan out our vacations or activities. I am just in love with this little book and can't wait to start using it! I am dividing up the book into two sections, vacations and activities. This way we can keep everything straight. Here are a few photos.

I used the Stampin UP! Flower Folds Die with my Sizzix Big Shot to make the flowers and the scalloped square. If you would like to see a video tutorial on the flower, I made one here. I sewed the square onto the fabric along with the ribbon. I then glued the fabric onto chipboard for the front and the back of the book. I took another piece of cardboard and covered up the inside of the front and back cover so you wouldn't see the fabric edges.

I am in love with this stamp set from Market Street Stamps.

This is the back. I just stuck a flower on with this eyelet to hook my ribbon to.

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Market Street Stamps Simple Joys, Stampin UP! Four Frames (Sneak peak set from the new catalog out in July)

Ink: Stampin UP! Rose Red and Chocolate Chip

Paper: Stampin UP! Crumb Cake
Accessories, All fabric is Stampin UP! along with the ribbon, Jumbo eyelets, buttons, and the Stampin UP! Flower Folds die to cut out the flowers.

Your next stop is Jen over at Memories with Jen!

Don't forget about our sponsor, Simply Betty Stamps and make sure to leave a comment on each blog for a chance to win one of these adorable stamps!:-)

Here is a list of the blogs in the hop in case you get lost along the ways:

Nancy - http://blog.fancywithnancy.com/

Jessica- http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/

Jen R. http://memorieswithjen.blogspot.com/

Gill - http://scrappincreationsbygillm.blogspot.com/
Lisa - http://lisagarrow.blogspot.com/
Monica - http://scraps2treasure.blogspot.com/
Jill - http://Thescrapoholic.blogspot.com/
Jackie - http://jackiesscrappinpad.blogspot.com/
Nadia - www.nadiasbeautifulmess.blogspot.com
Shannon - www.purplelionpaper.com/blog
Jenn P - http://jennscrap2.blogspot.com/
Betty - http://simplybettystamps.blogspot.com/

Mojo Monday Challenge 191

2011-05-18T08:00:00.001-05:00

Good Morning Everyone! I am (finally) feeling so much better and was able to spend a few hours in my craft room last night. I got this stamp set from Market Street Stamps a few weeks ago and I have been dying to use it! I just love how perfect it is for a little boy. The little rocket is so cute and I love the sentiments and stars that go along with it. I decided to try it out on a card and use the latest Mojo Monday sketch for inspiration.

Supplies:

Stamps: Market Street Stamps Blast Off

Ink: Stampin UP! Bashful Blue (for the background paper), Pacific Point, and Black Staz On (for the rocket)

Papers: Stampin UP! Pacific Point, Real Red, Whisper White, and Bashful Blue

Ribbon: Stampin UP! Whisper White

Buttons are from a misc pack I got at Joanns

Stampin UP! Watercolor Pencils were used to color in the rocket along with my blender pen

I have decided to enter this into the Made it Myself Mondays over at Alex's blog. I just love her new idea and linking party, check it out if you get a chance:-)

Winner and a Video!

2011-05-04T07:40:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Sorry I am a day late in getting this post out. My husband decided to whisk me off to the city last night to celebrate our 8th anniversary. It was a big surprise to me and we had a blast! Anyway, as promised here is the video on how to make the flower folds brooch.

Now onto the winner of those adorable stamps from Emma, at My Creative Time. I used random.org to pick the winner and the lucky gal is...The Purple Crafter! Here is what she had to say:

I love your scrapbook layout. You did a great job on it and the banner. Your birthday boy must feel so special.

Thank you to everyone who stopped by this weekend! I had such a fun time with both these hops.

Disney/Pixar Blog Hop

2011-05-01T05:00:00.001-05:00

Hi Everyone and welcome to another FUN blog hop. Hopefully you are here from Kristal at Getting Cricky, if not and you want to start at the beginning, head on over to Shawn at the Crafty Chics Blog. This blog hop is just so exciting as I LOVE all things Disney. Mickey Mouse was my favorite growing up and I even handed down a few stuffed Mickey's to my kids to play with.
If you have been following my blog, you will know that my son turned 2 on April 17th. If you want to check out the cute invite I made for him using the stair step fold design and the Toy Story Alien, click here.
This weekend we are throwing a party for him with some family and friends. His absolute favorite is Toy Story and I knew I wanted to make something Toy Story themed for him. For both my kids birthdays I make them a special layout to hang up on the wall in celebration of their birthday. I have a really nice area set up in our kitchen/family room to display scrapbook pages. Here is the layout I made for him:

I still have to find photos of the birthday boy to put on it:-)

Putting together Woody and Buzz was like putting together puzzle pieces but I was soo happy I did it in the end!

I also made this cute banner to hang on our fireplace:

I just love how both these came out! I used the Cricut Toy Story cartridge to cut out the images and Make the Cut to cut out all the letters along with the larger banner pieces. I used my Pink Persimmon Large Banner stamps for the banner on the layout and Stampin UP! Schoolbook Serif Alphabet for the letters on the banner.

Have you heard? The grand prize for this hop is a Gypsy so make sure to start at the beginning to get all the "rules" on how you can win that:-).
I also have some exciting blog candy to give away this weekend. This is a stamp set from Emma over at My Creative Time. Emma makes the cutest projects on her blogs and she just happens to be one of the sweetest people as well. She sells stamps on her blog that are just so cute! This one is called So Grateful For You.

I am offering up two chances to win this. First leave a comment below with a way for me to get a hold of you and if you want a second chance to win, stop by my blog post from yesterday for the Mom's Day hop and leave another comment. I would also love it if you became a follower:-). I will choose a winner Tuesday morning.

You next stop is Kaye at Yesterdays Tomorrow.

Mom's Day Blog Hop

2011-04-30T02:00:00.007-05:00

Hi everyone! Hopefully you are here from Sigrid from Love, Scrap, Reflect, if not and you just happened upon my blog today and want to start at the beginning of this wonderful hop, you can go back to Nicolette's blog at Beyond Scrapin'. I am so excited for this weekend. I have a lot going on, LOL! This weekend at our house we are having family and friends over to celebrate my sons 2nd birthday. He is such a big boy now and I can't believe he is 2! I also am in 2 blog hops, woo hoo! This one for today is a Mom's Day hop. It's funny, before I became a Mom myself I never really appreciated this day. I just thought it was a day to give my Mom a present. Now as a Mom, I love to be pampered, loved, and appreciated on this day;-). I am lucky enough get to see my Mom, Grandma, and Mother in-law this weekend at the party so I thought I would make them all something a little special to celebrate their day!
These cards are based on the current sketch over at Mojo Monday. I used all Stampin UP product for these. The flowers are created from the Stampin UP! Flower Folds die in my Sizzix Big Shot. The fabric is all Stampin UP! and the flowers can be removed to wear as pins. I will be posting a video on Tuesday when I announce the winners of the blog candy on how to make these flowers. Too much going on right now with the party to edit it but it will be done soon!

I have some exciting blog candy to give away this weekend. This is a stamp set from Emma over at My Creative Time. Emma makes the cutest projects on her blogs and she just happens to be one of the sweetest people as well. She sells stamps on her blog that are just so cute! This one is perfect for this hop, It's called So Grateful For You.

I am offering up two chances to win this. First leave a comment below with a way for me to get a hold of you and if you want a second chance to win, stop by my blog tomorrow for a Disney/Pixar hop and leave another comment. I would also love it if you became a follower:-). I will pick a winner Tuesday morning using random.org.

Your next stop is Jamie at Glitter Stamps and Paper oh my!

Home Decor Blog Hop

2011-04-22T02:00:00.003-05:00

Hi everyone! Are you ready for another blog hop? I sure am and I am really excited about this hop! Making Home Decor items is a secret passion of mine. One that I have not fully looked into yet:-). I have made a few things for our home but not nearly as many as I would like! I am excited to go through the blogs on this hop and see what the very talented ladies have in store for us! If you have arrived here from Nicolette at Beyond Scrapin, then you are in the right place. If not and you would like to start at the beginning, please start with Faith over at FaithfuleCreations .
Okay, onto my project. For a while I have been envisioning some wood letters on the wall of my craft room. My husband keeps saying I need to put some up there since both my son and my daughter have the first letter of their name above their room. I decided to put the word "CREATE" above the window. I love making these letters as I get to choose one of my favorite things, paper, to put on them. I love picking out the paper to put on them and then finding paper that matches. Here is my project:

I had to keep the letters on the floor to take a photo of them. This is the front view

Another view

The first three letters

The last three letters

This project was so easy to make! I bought the letters at Hobby Lobby, painted them all white (2 coats on the back and then one on the front and sides). Then I traced out the paper for each letter. Attached the paper to the wood using mod podge. Once that dried, I sanded off the edges of the letters for a smooth finish and then inked Stampin UP! Soft Suede around the edges. I added a few died flowers, then glued the letters together using wood glue. I still need to get the hooks on the back to hang it up (I think I will leave that to my husband to take care of this weekend.) Once it's hung up, I will do another photo. :-)
Here's a quick video I did to explain the project:

Thanks so much for stopping by today!!

Your next stop is Bonnie at A Scrap Above.

Peachy Keen Stamps Sketch Challenge #50

2011-04-19T15:28:00.000-05:00

Today I thought I would try to get some Easter cards done, since I had already done the Mojo Monday challenge for this week I thought I would check out the latest Peachy Keen Challenge. I love this sketch and the "twist" this time is to use metallic accents. Here is my take on the card:

Based on this sketch:

I used the Cricut Easter 2010 cartridge for the grass and the egg. This is one of my favorites and I am hoping to cut out some more images from it tonight. I also used the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set from Stampin UP! along with the Well Scripted set for the Happy Easter and my i-rock to put the pink faux brads. Lastly I used twine from the Twinery in Lemondrop, (of course!).

Two Challenges in One!

2011-04-18T23:12:00.000-05:00

Hi all! Well today I hopped on over to the Market Street Stamps challenge blog to find out when their current challenge ends and found out it ends today! So I hurried up to my craft room to start making something for it. Then I realized this is going to be a HUGE challenge! This challenge calls for the use of certain colors, colors that I have never put together before. Anyway as I thought of what to make for it I thought I would head on over to the Mojo Monday blog to see if I could get inspiration off their latest sketch. That helped tremendously and this is what I came up with.

I used my Twine again from the Twinery in Caribbean and my Market Street Stamps Simply Stitched for the "handmade" tag, along with Stampin Daisies for the "Smile" stamp.

Based on this Mojo Monday sketch...

and this color challenge!...

I just want to say I had a lot of fun with this stepping out of my color box:-)

Winner and a Few Scrapbook Pages!

2011-04-18T15:00:00.000-05:00

Hi Everyone! I had so much fun at the "Think Spring" Blog that Nancy and I decided to host another hop next month and then maybe even another one in June! We were just amazed at all the talent out there and can't wait to see more! Anyway, onto the winner of the Market Street Stamps. We had over 700 comments throughout the different blogs and the winner actually came from Angelica's blog, Handmade by Angelica. She is the creator of the Market Street Stamps and actually donated this set so I was happy to see that random.org picked the winner from her blog:-)! The winner is Stephanie K. Here is what Stephanie had to say about Angelica's awesome tags:

What adorable tags! I just the bird and bird nest! The twine was a perfect touch! Thanks for sharing!

I will be contacting Stephanie shortly to get the stamps out to her:-).

Now onto a few projects. This past weekend I went away to go scrapbooking in Lake Geneva, IL. I love to do this as it's so nice to break away for a day and get some scrapbooking done. The bonus is that I get to do it a beautiful city like Lake Geneva at a wonderful resort and I get to have some girl time! This time I decided to work on digital pages. It seems like every time I go scrapbooking I bring along soooo much stuff and then I get there and wish I would have brought something I hadn't. So this time I thought I would just bring my laptop and express myself creatively through software! I used the Creative Memories Storybook program for these pages and I loved how they came out. I also have the Stampin UP! program called My Digital Studio which I absolutely love and Photoshop, but I haven't gotten into digital scrapbooking with that (yet). I decided to just stick with one program this time and by the end I was really getting into it. Creative Memories has these awesome packs you buy to add onto your software called Click and Fill. It is basically pre-made layouts and you just choose your embellishments and paper. How nice is that?!

Thanks for stopping by:-)

Mojo Monday Challenge 186

2011-04-17T07:00:00.008-05:00

If you are looking for the Think Spring Blog Hop, click HERE.

Today I wanted to do a quick post on a card I created based on the latest Mojo Monday. Today is my son's 2nd birthday and even though this card isn't for him. I thought it would be nice to honor him with a post and showcase a birthday card! I wanted to create a birthday card using my small banner stamps from Pink Persimmon. I pulled up this sketch on Thursday night and just knew I had to create something based on it! I just love it. It has so much dimension to it and it called for my favorite thing, twine! Here is the card I created:

Based on this sketch:

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Stampin UP! Teeny Tiny Wishes and Valentine Defined, Pink Persimmon Banner (Small), Market Street Stamps Simply Stitched Borders

Paper: Stampin UP Real Red, Whisper White, Pacific Point and Bashful Blue, Stampin UP Celebrations DSP

Ink: Stampin UP Real Red, Pacific Point, Pear Pizzazz, and Bashful Blue

Ribbon: Stampin UP! White Grosgrain and the Twinery Maraschino

Happy Birthday Carter!!

Think Spring Blog Hop

2011-04-15T08:00:00.007-05:00

Good Morning and welcome to the Think Spring Blog Hop! I am so excited to be hosting my first hop, along with my friend Nancy over at Fancy with Nancy. I cannot wait to see all the projects everyone has come up with!
Spring is such an exciting time of the year. I think my favorite thing that I look forward to in the spring is just watching the earth come "alive". I love to see the grass go from brown to bright green, the leaves come on the trees, and the flowers peak their way out of the ground. Every year it seems like our winters are so loooong here in Chicagoland that spring is such a welcome sign! Everyone just seems to be a little nicer. I also love the fact that I get to see my neighbors again! We are all stuck inside the house all winter, it's nice to get out and enjoy each other's company again.
Okay, onto my project. I really wanted to make something that just embodied my thoughts on spring. When I was little I used to draw pictures and they would undoubtedly be of the grass, a few flowers, a house, the sun, and maybe a few other additions. I had that in my mind when I did this page with my little flower, grass, and leaves on this page. I used my Pink Persimmon Banner stamps again, I just love these and of course some twine from the Twinery! I hope you enjoy this project and all the other projects to come, we have some VERY talented ladies on this hop.

If you click on this photo you can see the layout much better.

I just love these banner stamps!

Supplies Used:

Stamps: Stampin UP! Flight of the Butterfly, Jumble Alphabet, Build a Blossom (leaves), and Pink Persimmon Banner (Large)

Ink: Stampin UP! Marina Mist, Old Olive, Pink Pirouette, and Soft Suede

Paper: Stampin UP! Whisper White, Marina Mist, Old Olive, and Pretty in Pink

The fabric is from the Stampin UP Occasions mini and the ribbon is Stampin UP retired, The Twine is from the Twinery in Honeydew
Die: Sizzix Stampin UP! Flower Folds

So what's a blog hop without some blog candy?? I am giving away this oh so sweet stamp set generously donated by another hopper, Angelica from Market Street Stamps called So Happy. I just love this stamp set, it completely screams spring to me:-)

In order to win this set you must leave a comment underneath this post, if you would like to have more chances to win this set, leave a comment at everyone's blog on the hop. I will be picking a winner from all the comments so the more blogs you visit, the better your chances! I would love it also if you became a follower. I will pick a winner Monday morning so I will give everyone until Sunday night, the 17th to go through the hop.

Your next stop on the hop is my good friend Nancy over at Fancy with Nancy. She is so creative, so hurry on over and she what she has for you today!

Here is a list of all the participants in case you get lost along the way:

Jessica- http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/ --> You are here
Nancy-http://blog.fancywithnancy.com/
Erika- http://www.cricutlove1.blogspot.com/
Monica- http://www.stampindaisies.com/
Tanya- http://www.ScrappyScavenger.blogspot.com/
Martha ~ http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/
Linda-http://www.fancyframework.com/
Jenny-http://www.papercutcreations.blogspot.com/
Amanda - http://www.scrapanddash.com/
DoBea-http://www.dobeaalberts.blogspot.com/
jennifer - www.craftycardgallery.blogspot.com
Nadia - www.nadiasbeautifulmess.blogspot.com
Jessica - www.denimglittercreations.com
Angelica - www.handmadebyangelica.com
Jessica Baker http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/
Anita - http://www.anitaandbugs.blogspot.com/
Laura - http://www.makinprettythings.com/

Winner of the Pink Persimmon Banner Stamps

2011-04-12T13:45:00.000-05:00

Thanks so much to everyone for stopping by this past weekend for the blog hop! I loved reading everyone's comments, it's just so much fun! Anyway, onto the winner of the super cute banner stamps from Pink Persimmon! Here's another look at them:

The winner is Liz, #9 as determined by random.org, Here is what Liz had to say:

I love seeing layouts, it gives me ideas, yours is great I will definately go check out the sketch site!

Thanks so much Liz, I'll be emailing you shortly on the details for your stamps!

My Heart Belongs to Daddy Blog Hop

2011-04-09T11:00:00.003-05:00

Welcome to the My Heart Belongs to Daddy Blog Hop! Hope everyone is having a great weekend so far! We are looking forward to some warmer weather here in Chicago mixed with a little rain but I don't think anyone cares about the rain as long as it's WARM! Anyway, onto the hop. Hopefully you came here from Pam's blog over at Scrapbook Flair. If not and you want to start at the beginning, stop at Jen's blog, Creative Army Wife. For this hop we were tasked with creating something "manly", LOL! At first I thought I would do a card but I had a really cute photo from my husband's birthday last weekend that I wanted to scrap so I choose to do a layout instead. Sometimes we get scared doing manly or boyish layouts as we aren't sure what colors to use but I find it best to use primary colors are they are so bright and really work well with either gender.
If you have been reading my blog for a while then you know I LOVE to use sketches with my layouts and cards and I chose to use the sketch from this weeks Scrapbook Challenges, sketch 248. Here is what I came up with.

I absolutely LOVE how this one came out. I used only my stamps on this one, no cricut at all! The letters were cut out after I stamped them with my Stampin UP! set, Schoolbook Serif Alphabet. The cupcakes are from a retired Stampin UP! set called Big Bold Birthday, along with the "make a wish" saying, and the oh so cute Banner Stamps are from Pink Persimmon, a stamp company I just happened to find last weekend while I was searching online for some banner stamps. The background paper is Stampin UP! Sahara Sand, the other solid colors are also Stampin UP!, Pear Pizzazz, Pacific Point, Real Red, Bashful Blue and Whisper White, the patterned paper is from the DCWV Celebrations stack. I thought it looked very manly:-). Of course, I also added twine from the Twinery in Honeydew. All the ink colors are also Stampin UP! in the same colors as the paper.

Here is the sketch that the layout is based on:

If you are a scrapper, I recommend checking out their weekly sketch challenges.

Now onto some blog candy, Pink Persimmon has graciously donated these oh so cute banner stamps for my giveaway today!

I just love these stamps and banners are all the rage now in scrapbooking. Just leave me a comment below and I would love if you became a follower if you aren't already. I will accept entries until Monday night and draw a winner Tuesday morning.

Onto your next stop, Jill over at the Scrapoholic. I can't wait to see what she has made for the hop!

Here's a list of the participants in case you get lost along the way.

Jen ~ http://creativearmywife.blogspot.com/

Paula ~ http://www.owlbescrappin.com/

Haidee ~ http://created2bunique.blogspot.com/

Tanya ~ www.ScrappyScavenger.blogspot.com

Erin ~ http://www.spantastikreations.blogspot.com/

Pam ~ http://pammejo-scrapbookflair.blogspot.com/

Jessica ~ http://thecreativestamperspot.blogspot.com/---You are here:-)

Karel ~ http://www.kareljcreations.com/

Liz ~ www.tryin2craft.blogspot.com

Shannon ~ www.purplellionpaper.com/blog

Leslie ~ http://leslierahye.blogspot.com/

alina ~ http://neverstopscrapping.blogspot.com/

faith ~ http://faithfulecreations.wordpress.com/

jessica ~ http://thatzuneek.blogspot.com/

jill ~ http://thescrapoholic.blogspot.com/

martha ~ http://pattisscrapingtime.blogspot.com/

debbie ~ http://scrapbydebbie.blogspot.com/

becky ~ https://beckscricards.blogspot.com/

Quick Birthday Card

2011-04-01T16:10:00.000-05:00

Happy Friday everyone! Well tomorrow is my husbands birthday so I decided to make a quick card for him this afternoon. I find guys cards so challenging and I wanted to make this simple and not girly at all. I hope I achieved that! Since I do well with sketches, I decided to take a look at this weeks sketch over at Peachy Keen Stamps. The sketch worked perfectly for what I needed.
Here is my card:

I used a retired Stampin UP! set for this image called Big Bold Birthday and the dots are from the Stampin Daisies set, Just the Basics. The paper is also Stampin UP! Marina Mist, Whisper White, and the DSP Celebrations. The ink is Stampin UP! Marina Mist, Chocolate Chip, and Cherry Cobbler.

I used my twine again from the Twinery called Honeydew.

Based off this sketch:

American Girl Scrapbook Layout

2011-03-30T18:26:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone! Here is a quick post on a layout I put together yesterday. I used my cricut and Make the Cut for this one. I just love Make the Cut, I actually found all these shapes in the Make the Cut gallery and the flourish is a free SVG from my friend Nancy over at Fancy with Nancy. This was such a fun day with friends and I wanted to make sure I had a special layout to celebrate it!

The background is actually a purple page on white but it didn't come out well in the photos. I tried to incorporate the colors that I saw on the background of the boxes in the photo.

The cool thing about the font for the American Girl title is that I just did a google search on American Girl font and found out the font is Times New Roman, I then used that font in Make the Cut. I LOVE that!! I then added two little stars on top of the "i's" and it came out just like the way it looks on the boxes at American Girl.

Here is the other page, the colors look different but they are the same. The pictures were taken at two separate times.

Of course I had to use some purple twine on my journaling boxes!