Beginnings...

I was sitting in a meeting the other day... having a super hard time focusing on the topic on hand... and I started doodling! Before I knew it, I had sketched out my next scrapbook LO! Who knew I could sketch?! Heehee!! Anyway... once I had this in my head, I could not wait to actually make the LO! My busy life was not cooperating with me this week so I finally had a chance last night to work on it. I think I finished somewhere around 2 this morning!! Good thing it is Saturday!

This picture is one of the few I have of my parents when they were dating and I absolutely love it! Aren't they cute?! :) I titled it Beginnings because it was the beginning of their new love/life together! They have been married 48 years! WOW! I guess I better start planning that 50th party soon!!

Supplies used:
Paper: K & Company (Marcella) and DCWV (Neutral Stack)
Cricut: Ashlyn's Alphabet for the flourishes
Jasmine for the title (I cut the title 4 times on cardstock and glued together and then cut it out with a patterned piece to glue on top of that! It kind of gave it the 3-D look of cardstock and I liked the way it made it pop from the page.
Flowers: Prima from several packs... all mixed together!
Martha Stewart punches (2 different kinds)
Misc.: Brads, fiber, and pearls
Tattered Angels glitter mist: Coffee shop on the flowers
Color Box Chalks in various colors of brown
Cuttlebug: photo mat
Lots of pop dots under the flowers and flourshes to give it some dimension!
And I even managed to still use stickles on just a few of the flowers!

After I finished I realized this would be perfect for the Practical Scrappers challenge this week which is patterned paper... I used 7 patterns!!

Thanks for taking the time to look at my LO... I would love to hear your comments!
Barb

Circus

Wow! There is nothing like going to the circus to bring the kid out in you! My daughter even talked me into riding a camel with her after she finished riding an elephant! We visited with clowns, did some face painting and ate a ton of junk food! Perfect day... right?! LOL!!
This weeks challenge at Frosted Designs is to use embossing. Not a problem for me! I love to emboss... as you can tell by my LO! :) The circles that run all the way across the page were cut using Simply Sweet. I then ran them through my Cuttlebug using various embossing folders so each one is a little different!
I followed that with some sanding and then I added some stickles! WOW! How fun is that?! I layered some of them (and chalked the edges) and pop dotted others to give it a dimensional look. Still not done... I added some flourishes from Ashlyn's Alphabet! Whew! Finally I added the letters that were cut using Cuttin Up, stickled them and then added some texture with my Snow Writer. Finally, that part of the page was done!

I also embossed the journaling tag using dry powder.

I used a lot of products on this one!

Cricut:
Dog - Everyday Paper Dolls
Clown Accessories - Paper Doll Dress Up
Letters - Cuttin' Up
Circles - Simply Sweet
Frame - Lyrical Letters
Paper: DCWV Christmas Stack, DCWV Nana's Kid Stack, and DCWV Glitter Stack
Heidi Snapp Gems
Stampology Stamp - Girl's Talk
Dew Drop Chalk Ink - Aegean Blue
Stickles in various colors, Cuttlebug using various folders, Purple Dry Embossing Powder from my stash, and misc. ribbons, brads, pom pom, and google eyes!
I think that about does it! Thank you for taking the time to look at my LO! I had a lot of fun with this one! So bright isn't it?!! LOL!!

I would love to hear any comments you have! And we would love for you to join us in the Frosted Design challenges! Stop by and check out all the beautiful work by the very talented design team!

Friendship Award

Wow... I am so totally flattered! Leah... thank you so much for this Friendship Blog Award! I have enjoyed getting to know you through our blogs and think you are an amazing person! You are always so cheerful and funny! Your brighten my day more than you know!

As I have mentioned to you before, this blog has been such a great retreat for me and a place for me to regain my sanity these past few months!! :) My husband is gone all week (working in Texas) and only home on the weekends (in Indiana). We are getting the house ready to sell/move and I am managing the kids and house without him most of the time on top of working full time. When the kids go to bed, I stay in my office for hours playing with my scrapbooking. But the best part comes when I get to share it with everyone and hear all the kind, encouraging words in return! I have to give a shout out to the ladies at Stuck On U Sketches. I was visiting your site one day when I saw all the amazing LOs you were doing and all the wonderful things you were saying to each other! It made me want to jump right in and have fun too... So I did! That is when I started my blog! Thank you for letting me in... and being so kind! No matter what the LO looks like, all of you always find something positive to say about it! Now that is a good friend!! LOL!!

Now for the 10 things that knock my socks off:
1. God - He has been so faithful and good to us this year!
2. My amazing husband... he treats me like a princess and constantly lets me know how loved I am!
3. My beautiful, healthy children! (Who I like most days! Remember - 3 of them are teenagers!)
4. My parents...amazing giving people with hearts of gold! (Who currently are in New Orleans building homes for Habitat for Humanity!)
5. My Little Sis! She is my best friend and I am sooooo lucky to have her in my life!
6. My girlfriends! Always keeping me laughing and sane!
7. Chocolate! Really?! Is there a better reward you can give yourself!?!
8. Diet Pepsi! I can not survive without the stuff! Caffeine is my friend!!!!!
9. Maui.... really wish I was there right now... watching the whales jumping... walking on the beach... snorkling by Black Rock.... do I need to say more?!!
10. Scrapbooking!

Now... on to three others.... I would like to award this friendship award to...

1. Kaye - You were the first one to join my blog... thank you for that!
2. Sheila - I know you received it from Sandy... but I want you to know that i really appreciate all of your kind words and the amazing blog candy you give away!
3. ScrappinLil - I know you don't really know me, but I am glad we have started to follow each other's blogs... I look forward to getting to know you better.

Now... all of you ladies need to list the 10 things that knock your socks off and pass this award on to three more people!

Journey

This is a LO I did to play along over at Practical Scrappers. This is for the sketch LO. The pictures is dear to me because it is of me and husband at Pompy Creek. This is the creek where his mother and her sisters grew up. They grew up in a very small, poor home in the mountains of Kentucky. They literally walked several miles to and from school everyday and had only a very narrow dirt road that went back to the house for most of their childhood. We were in Kentucky this summer for a wedding and decided to go visit the homestead. There is now a paved road that goes back to the land, but the house is no longer there. My husband's aunt went with us and told us all the stories about them growing up on the land. They didn't have many possessions and toys, but they did have a lot of love and a ton of fun! It was a great experience and I am so glad I had the opportunity to hear more of my husband's history. This is my favorite picture we took that day....

I wanted to keep the LO simple so I did not over do it with embellishments. I didn't like the look of the plain cardstock so I took my sander to it and distressed it! Much better! When I stamped on the flourishes(with brown ink), I didn't think they were showing up the way I liked so I decided to stamp over them with embossing powder and I loved the way it turned out! I inked up the ribbon because it was too bright for my taste. I added some Prima flowers and a few brads and I was done!


Supplies used:
Paper: My Minds Eye (Magnolia Stack) and DCWV (Neutral Stack)
Cricut: Sweethearts, Jasmine
Random: Brads, lace
Stamps: Cloud 9 Designs (Simple Thoughts - Travel)and Inkadinkado (Sketchy Flourishes)

Thanks for taking the time to stop by my blog and check out my work. I would love to hear your comments!
Barb

What Little Boys Are Made Of

This LO came to be after playing on the internet on a Friday night and finding some challenges I just couldn't help joining in on!

The picture is one of my favorites on my son when he was itty bitty! (Now he is 17, driving, dating and full of attitude!) I love looking at this photo and remembering how sweet he used to be! (But I have to confess... he is not all attitude, he can still be pretty sweet at times!)

The first challenge, which is not surprise I'm sure, is the Stuck On U Sketches challenge! (Which I have to give a shout out to the design team... every week you guys amaze me with your LOs! They are so fabulous!) Anyway, each week I think I will be too busy to get a LO done, but I just can't stay away... this one is the quickest one I have ever done for their challenge, but I think it still turned out cute! And Leah - thank you for the idea of writing the words around the circle... even though your handwriting is much better than mine, I gave it a try! It says "Snips & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails...That is what boys are made of!"

The other challenge came from participating in the Practical Scrappers Blog Hop. If you haven't checked it out yet... you need to hop on over there and play along! One of the stops had their own challenge. This was at Heidi's. Her blog is called CropStar and this is the challenge she issued:
From a Bingo board, you had to choose one thing in each column and use it in a LO. The elements I picked were:
L = Black and white photo
O = Use a Sketch (Stuck On U Sketches)
V = I used ink and I used 2 or more ribbons
E = Use 10 buttons
Have to be honest... the "use 10 buttons" part was the hardest for me because I just couldn't figure out to get 10 to look good. I either wanted to use a few more, or a few less, but I finally worked them in.

I used Plantin Schoolbook for the circle and the letters. The paper is from gcd studios (whoop de loo) and DCWV (Neutrals Stack). The picture doesn't show it well, but the "Little Boys" part of the title is pop dotted.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my LO! I would love to hear your comments!

BFF 4EVER (mini album)

Well, this is officially my first project as part of the design team for Frosted Designs and I had so much fun! The challenge this week is using chipboard in your card, layout or project. It totally motivated me to try something I had never done... make my own chipboard album! (I have made them using kits before... but never where I actually cut the chipboard myself!) Have to tell you... I am so glad I did! I got out the deep cut blades for my Expression for the first time! And you know what?! They are so cool! It cut right through that cardstock and before I knew it... I had my very first album! Yippee for trying new things!

Now on to the album... I used Cricut Design Studio to lay the project out (even learned a few new features on that I hadn't used before!) I used Lyrical Letters (Flag-s/loop dee loo feature) to create the rounded rectangles that would be my pages. I then used Lyrical Letters for the BFF 4EVER letters and welded them together. I cut them out on my expression, hole punched them and I was ready to begin decorating.

I covered all the chipboard with the pretty papers, sanded the edges and then chalked the edges to help it all blend in together. I used these papers:
We R Memory Keepers (Tiffany's)
DCWV (Sorbet Stack)
DCVW (Pastels Stack)


And then the fun began! I started embellishing! This book is for my daughter who loves everything sparkly and shiny (I don't know where she gets that!) and I wanted the book to reflect that. On the cover, I cut out leaves from Walk in My Garden using the blackout feature. I sanded the edges, crumpled and sanded some more. I glued the leaves together in the shape of a flower and added some pink gemstones (The Paper Studio) to the center. The Flourishes were cut using Ashlyn's Alphabet and I added some Stickles (aqua) dots to them. The butterfly was cut using Hannah Montana. I used Stickles (Icicle) to cover the top layer of wings and added some more pink gemstones. Happy with the amount of bling.. I moved on to the next page!

The rest of the pages were made the same way. I used a lot of supplies on this project:


Cricut Cartridges:
Hannah Montana
Walk in My Garden
Storybook
Lyrical Letters
Graphically Speaking
Ashlyn's Alphabet

I used my Cuttlebug to dry emboss some of the photo mats.

Stickles: Icicle, Star Dust, Cotton Candy, Aqua, Distress- Spiced Marmalade

Gems: Heidi Snapp, The Paper Studio

Flowers: Flora Doodles

Marvy Circle Punch, Misc. ribbon, and a charm I have no idea where it came from.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my album. I would really love to hear any comments you may have about it!

Lauren

Not even going to lie... I have some serious bling on this project! I had a total blast with this LO!! When I saw the sketch over at Stuck On U Sketches, I knew instantly which picture I was going to use. It is a picture of my youngest daughter when she was about 3 years old and is my favorite! Seriously, How precious is she?! (I know... I sound so much like a mother!) I used so many supplies on this one, I really should have written down as I went... but that probably would have impeded my creativity and we can't have that now can we?!! (Trust me, once it gets going, you don't want to stop it! It may be a while before it comes around again!)


But before I get that list going... thank you to Sandy for your amazing creativity! You are so amazing and talented... and for that, I stole one of your ideas! I love the way you use the pages out of books as embellishments on your LOs... so I did the same! I used it on my butterflies and I totally love the way they turned out! If you have not checked out Sandy's work, hop on over to Details by Sandy and check it out!


Alright...now we will see what kind of memory I have....
I started with papers from SEI (Keepsakes), We R Memorie Keepers (Tiffany's), DCWV (Metallic Stack), and DCWV (Neutral Cardstock Stack)

Cricut Cartridges used were: Stone Script, Storybook, Hannah Montana, Plantin Schoolbook, Walk in My Garden


For the title, I cut out Lauren using Stone Script and covered it with German Glass Glitter (silver)... Love this stuff... it adds serious BLING to a project! And we all know how I like bling!


The Flowers were cut using the blackout feature for one of the leaves. I then emobssed the white and dark pink ones with my Cuttlebug, wrinkled them all up, stretched them back out and chalked them with Cat's Eye fluid chalk in charcoal and a random pink one that I no longer have a label on! (Sorry about that!) The light pink flowers were sanded around the edges, wrinkled up, stretched back out and sanded some more. I liked the way the white core of the cardstock was showing so I did not chalk these. I thought they needed a little bling so I did a quick shot of Opalescent Spray Glitter (Flora Craft)on them. I finished them off with some small pearls from Recollections. I tucked some ribbon (random stuff in my stash) behind some of them then I pop dotted a few of them and layered others.


The butterflies were cut using the Hannah Montana cartridge then I Stickled them with black diamond. After that dried, I decided it didn't have enough bling for me yet, so I added some Star Dust Stickles to the base of the body! (Much better!) The bottom layer of the butterflies are pages from a random book that I will never read! (Which is a good thing since it has some missing pages now!!) I put some pearl strands behind to make them look like they are flying. (A little symbolism for my sweet baby girl... )

Other random supplies used included: Pink gemstones (The Paper Studio), Embossing Tinsel (Ranger) which I know is kind of hard to see on the layout... it is stamped on (with stamps that no longer have a label either!) in the upper and lower corners on the left side of the page.

Challenges this Layout is being used for:
Stuck on U Sketches: Sketch design
Practical Scrappers: Embossing (Powder embossing and Cuttlebug embossing)

I really think that covers it... Thank you so much for taking the time to look at my layouts... I sincerely love to hear your comments...

My First Design Team!

I am so excited! It has been a week of firsts for me... my first blog award... and now my first design team! How exciting is that?!! I have joined the design team for Frosted Designs. We have design challenges each week that are going to be SO MUCH FUN! They have added some serious talent (and for some reason, me too!) to their design team and I am really excited to see all the fun, creative, inspiring things that everyone creates. There are so many unique styles in this group... you are sure to get some new ideas and inspirtation! Head on over to Frosted Designs and check out the new group of gals.... And check out the challenges each week. There are some really great ones coming up soon... and I don't know about you, but I seem to accomplish more of my scrapbooking when I am playing along in a challenge. I have my project completed for this Friday so be sure to check it out! Totally excited about it!

Surf's Up

I was on Practical Scrappers site when I saw a sketch challenge that I couldn't help but play along with! I decided to do something I don't do often enough... scrap a page of my son doing something! (Boy pages are just so much harder for me!) So, I picked some photos of him when he took his first surf lesson last year on Spring Break in Maui. He found a local instructor that he thought was the Bomb! This guy (in my son's opinion) was the greatest thing ever... if fact he would like to have his life... surfing all day long with a little place of his own on the beach.... can't say that is sounding too bad!! :)

So, I grabbed some papers from DCWV - Fun in the Sun Summer Pack and Cardstock Pack. I used Life's A Beach, Lyrical Letters, and Storybook along with my Cricut and Design Studio. The green was a little too bright for me so I chalked it with ColorBox (Creamy Brown). I also used fluid chalk (Chestnut Roan and Blue Iris) around the larger background pages. The paint around the picture mats and surfboard is Delta Acrylic Paint (Pumpkin). The eyelets were some I had laying around and I tied some twine to connect the photos together. The brown leather frame is from Memory Makers.

Would love to hear any comments you have! Barb

Thanks Sandy

I am so excited! Sandy gave me my very first blog award! I am so inspired by her creativity and am truly flattered that she thought of me when giving this award. Her layouts are beyond sensational and if you have not seen them yet, you need to stop by her blog Details By Sandy and check them out. She also has some great tutorials...especially the ones that show how to make those unbelievable flowers she is always putting in her layouts. And Sandy... I personally want to thank you for all of your kind words. I love reading your comments! I am so thankful that I have had a chance to get to become friends with you through our blogs.

So here is what I need to do upon receiving this award:

I am to list 10 things that knock my socks off and pass this to 3 blogs that do the same....I am going to pass it on to three ladies that have been so kind and faithful to my blog that is still pretty new. These women are constantly leaving me kind words and encouragement for the work that I post. I get really excited each time I receive a new comment because they make me feel like what I do is really that amazing! And for that... I am forever thankful. Thank you to these great ladies for their friendship...

Beatriz
Judy

Brenda

As for my list of 10 things... I can't live without and are so very thankful...

1. God, first and foremost... this past year has been a year of ups and downs and a lot of unknowns... but God has been so very faithful... He has blessed my husband with an unbelievable job during a time of economic chaos... He is moving us to not only a warm climate, but a place I am truly excited to live...Dallas. God's blessing have been many this year and I am so thankful!

#2 is definitely my husband. He is an amazing man who constantly gives of himself to our family and our church. He has been an outstanding role model for our four children and treats me like a princess!

3 would have to be my four wonderful (most of the time) children! Courtney, Kristin, Matt and Lauren are the pride and joy of my life... I am so proud of the people they are becoming and look forward to what they will do in the future...

#4 is my weekend shopping trips with my mom and sisters! The memories and laughter... SO much fun!

5 is scrapbooking! I love, love, love scrapbooking! It is the creative outlet I need when those 4 wonderful children of mine are driving me crazy!!

6 is my Cricut... my scrapbooking life is forever changed!

#7... Nicholas Sparks... love getting lost in his novels...

8 would be Maui! That place ROCKS! There is not a prettier place on earth.... the perfect spot to lay in the hot sun and get lost in a Nicholas Sparks book! (if you ever get there... grab some BBQ, head up to Kapalua and watch a sunset while the whales jump in the water! You will never forget it!)

9 is warm summer days/nights... I love spending the afternoon by the pool, cooking out with friends... and then in the evening... starting a fire in the fire pit and sitting under the stars...

And finally... #10... The COLTS! Just found out I will be heading to the championship game next weekend! Yeah for me! I will be cheering them all the way to the Super Bowl!!

Thanks to She's A Sassy Lady!

I have to give a shout out to Sheila over at She's A Sassy Lady! Recently she gave away blog candy and I was the lucky winner! Yeah for me because the package came today! Sheila totally rocks! There were so many goodies in there I didn't even know where to begin!



Here is a view of the overall package.



And then there were all these great stamps, pens, and borders!



There were also Spellbinder templates, diecuts and did I mention the stamps?

I am so excited.... I can not wait to get started with all of my new "toys'!!! If you haven't had a chance yet, check out Sheila's blog... she has some serious talent and many great ideas! Thanks again Sheila!

Barb

Cancun

My husband and I were seriously suffering from the winter blues of Indiana last February... so we left for the blue waters of Cancun. This layout was so much fun to do because I totally love the large picture... the one of the lounge chairs under the umbrella! This was our favorite spot to soak up the sun... it was right next to the pool and over looked the incredibly blue waters of Cancun. We would sit and read and just hang out all day long! If you look closely, you can see my husband enjoying the view!

Thank you to the ladies at Stuck on you Sketches for the sketch that was used for this layout! I love the sketches that are chosen each week!

So, on to the details...
Papers are from DCWV - Fun In the Sun
I heat embossed the flourishes on the green background paper (some of the stamps were from Inkadinkado - the other ones I have had forever and don't remember the brand), pop dotted the leaves to give them a little dimension, and layered everything else! I used Cat Eye chalk (Blue Iris) and the flower shaped eyelet is from Making Memories. The other brads and eyelets are misc. ones that were sitting around my office! I also added a bit of twine and sanded the edges of the photos to "roughin" them up a bit.

Cartridges used: Lyrical Letters and Life's a Beach
Cuttlebug was used on the light blue mat behind the photo (which was also sanded).
And of course... I used Cricut Design Studio because I can't use my Expression with out it!

Thanks for looking... would love to hear any comments that you have.

Classroom Calendar

I created this calendar for my classroom. (Really it is just a small office - I only work with small groups!) I liked that it was compact and easy to change. I have very few bullentin boards in my small office so I didn't want to take up space on them with a calendar... this was a great alternative for me. I picked up the magnetic board at Meijers back in the fall. I made the calendar lines by cutting black vinyl into strips and using those strips for the grid. (This was before I received the calendar cartridge - a Chrismas gift from my mom - Thanks Mom!) I have made a few sets of numbers to use so that I can change them with the color theme each month (and this too is so much easier with the calendar cartridge!) I will try to add pictures each month as I change the calendar.