Hubby's B-day!!

I'm kind of excited!! I finally had a chance to make a LO that was not for a design team project!! Yipee!! So.... I love the sketches over at Sassy Lil Sketches and couldn't wait to try this one out!! These are the pictures of my husband last week on his birthday!! He had his sister in town which doesn't happen very often so I included the pictures with Greg and his sister and Greg with his parents!! Teresa (his sister) brought this very delicious birthday cake all the way from Pittsburgh!! It was amazing!! The colors are not showing up really well but they fit the challenge at Frosted Designs which is asking you to use yellow, orange, turquiose, & lime green! The background paper is yellow and the design paper has the other colors (and red too!!) You still have a few more days to get entered to win the June prize package.... click HERE to check it out!!! I am also entering this in the challenge at A Crafty Little Place.... the challenge is all about dads! And since my hubby is a dad.... and there is a picture of him with his dad.... I think it works!!

Would you like to hear the story behind the wonderful papers on this LO?!! I was sooooo excited. The Imaginisce blog was doing a blog hop with Core'dinations and my name was drawn as a winner!! I couldn't believe all of the amazing goodies that showed up at my door!!! Both companies sent me a ton of stuff!! Check it out!!

Here are the goodies I used for this LO:

This is the B-Day Bash line and I love that I can do a male LO with it!! Normally birthday papers are so girly looking!! I loved the colors on this one!! The background piece is the most amazing piece of cardstock from the Gemstones pack of Core'dinations pack!! It has a beautiful pearl shine to it!! I have to confess that I normally use cheap cardstock because I didn't think it really mattered much on the LO as long as I had the right color, but I am a changed girl!! This cardstock is the best to use!!! I will certainly be buying more of this!!!

Here are close ups of each line in the prize package.....

Thank you to both Imaginisce and Core'dinations!!! I will definitely be using all of this up!! Have a great Tuesday and thank you for stopping by to visit!!!

Border Punch Challenge

Happy Monday Morning!!! Are you ready for a new challenge?! This week at Practical Scrappers, the challenge is to use decorative scissors and/or border punches!! We all have them laying around... so dust them off and put them to use!! We would love to see what you can do with them!!

These are some more pictures from me and Lauren's little get away last week!! Along with the zoo enterance, you get admission into the butterfly exhibit and botanical gardens next to the zoo. Lauren LOVES to walk around the gardens... in fact I almost couldn't get her to leave!! It truly is a beautiful place and we had fun taking some silly pictures!! On the top one she thought she would pose like the frog!! she is sooo silly!! Both border pumches were from Martha Stewart. The flowers were from Practical Scrappers June sponsor Squigglefly. Now you know I am VERY new to digis but I kind of had fun playing with these!! I got out my watercolor pencils and colored them in! But don't look too closely or you might just see where I got out of the lines!!  LOL!! I thought that they were a little plain on their own so I added a Prima paper flower to the centers along with a gemstone. And of course I had to bling them up with some Stickles!! The papers are from My Mind's Eye!!

And check it out!! I actually made a card!!! Me!! A card!! Who knew?!! I have decided that I am going to try to do a little more of this with scraps that are left over from LOs!! Now... that's my goal, we'll see how it works!! I did not add a sentiment to my card because I really do want to work on getting a stash of cards going. Once I have a little variety, I will start making some specific cards!!

Thanks for stopping by to visit!! As always, I love your comments!! Be sure to check out what the other Practical Scrappers Design Team girls created this week!!

Up Close & Personal

Hello everyone!! My daughter and I are back from our fun little get away!! We spent Monday at the Children's Museum in Indianapolis where they have a fabulous Barbie fashion display (which was perfect for Lauren since she does want to be a designer some day!!) and they also had a Rock N' Roll Guitars and Cars display!! Soooo much fun!! And then Tuesday we headed to the Indianapolis Zoo!! It was another great day where Lauren was able to be a Junior Dolphin Trainer and we got to see some of the animals very up close!!! Which is where I got the pictures for this weeks challenge at Sketches In Thyme!!! Our sketch this week is from Scrapiopath and allows for up to 5 photos! I love being able to use multiple photos on a LO!!

These are pictures I took of Lauren feeding the giraffes at the zoo!! They ate that sweet potato out of her hands so quickly I barely got the picture!!! They were so cute though and Lauren had a blast!

I have to be honest and say... this is not my favorite LO I have ever done. I think the patterned paper is so busy and the pictures are busy and combine that with the ribbon leaves circle and it might just be too much!! I love the sketch and I think I am going to try it again with some other photos!!  Thanks for taking the time to stop by and visit!! Be sure to check out the Sketches in Thyme blog... the other designers did a fabulous job with this sketch!! Become a follower and play along!! You could win a prize!!

Papers: DCWV Animal Crackers stack

Cricut: Ashlyn's Alphabet for the circle

Letters: KI Memories

My Girls

I have decided to do one of my "road trips" with Lauren!! We will be gone a couple of days, but I wanted to leave you with two new layouts before I left town.....

It is a new week and that means a new challenge at Practical Scrappers!! This week we are challenging you to use flowers on your card/layout/project!! Seriously... this one could not be any easier... especially this time of year!!!

A few weeks ago my niece got married in a beautiful park and we took advantage of having everyone dressed up to take some of our family pictures!! This is me with my 3 girls!! The picture was taken with my cell phone so the color is not that great... but I have plenty of color around it!! (Some of my other family members took this picture on their cameras so maybe one day I can get a better copy and replace this one!!!)

 Most of the flowers are Prima, but I did make the big orange one thanks to my friend Kim (Memories in Thyme) who posted a tutorial on her new challenge blog - Sketches in Thyme!! Once I saw the video, I wanted to give it a try and loved it!! You can find it by clicking HERE!! I chalked the petals and then sprayed them with some glimmer mist I made myself!!

The rest of the supplies are:
Papers - DCWV Mariposa Stack
Martha Stewart Border Punch
Title - EK Success stickers
Stamps - Kelly Panacci

Now be sure to check out the Practical Scrappers blog daily for new design team inspiration and link up your own project!!

This second LO was inspired by the sketch this week over at Sketches in Thyme. (The same one I mentioned above with the flower tutorial!)  If you have not seen this new challenge blog, please stop over and check it out!! Better yet, become a follower and play along!! Here is the sketch for this week....

This is my week off from the Sketches in Thyme design team, but I still couldn't help playing along!! These are pictures of Lauren at the zoo 2 summers ago!! They had this area where the kids could splash in the water and climb on the giant frogs! Lauren loved doing this everytime we went!! (sorry for the bad picture... the lighting is bad and I was out of time to get it done before my road trip!!) The words aren't showing up too well but it says... too cute for words!!

Supplies used on this LO:
Paper - We R Memory Keepers (Madame Royale)
Flowers - Prima and Recollections
Velvet Brads - Making Memories
Journal Tag - K & Company

Thank you for stopping by!! I will be sure to catch up with all the fun blog postings when I return!! Have a fabulous week and thank your for always leaving such kind comments!!
Barb  :)

You & Me

Good morning everyone!! I hope you are having a fantastic weekend!! I have a LO for you based on the Practical Scrappers sketch this week!! The sketch is from Ann Katrin and was wonderful to work with!! As most of you can tell by my LOs, me and my youngest daughter are pretty good buddies!! Her older siblings are all busy with their teenage lives and my husband travels a lot!! That means that Lauren and I have all kinds of time to hang out together!! For this LO I picked some random pictures of us together - cruise, dance recital, and a trip to Tennessee!! I used my yummy Paper Poppy Kit Co. June Kit for this LO! Aren't the papers and embellishments great?!! I love the rub ons that came with this kit... and I still have plenty more to use!! We would love to see you play along with this sketch.... hop on over to Practical Scrappers for some design team inspiration!! There is a great prize up for grabs!! Thanks for stopping by!!

Barb :)

I am SOOOO excited to be a Guest Designer at SOUS!!

Fridays usually make me happy... but today I am really happy!!! I have two challenges  I am going to share with you!! First....I am a Guest Designer at Stuck on U Sketches!! This is one of my all time favorite challenge blogs and I was so honored when they picked me to be a guest designer.... but then I was a little freaked out... have you seen what those 4 amazing ladies do every week?!!!  How in the world was I going to keep up with that?!!!!!! Well... I did the best I could... I hope you like my LO!! (Click on the photo for a better view!!!)

The challenge this week is this sketch from Pagemaps.... The pictures are from our Cruise where one of our stops was San Juan. I loved the arcitecture and wanted my LO to reflect that. I had so much fun cutting, layering, distressing and creating on this one!!

I love Tim Holtz and all of his fabulous metal embellishments and I love the grungy kind of look I can achieve by using his products!! The Lock is from his line and so is the compass mask. The masking in the upper left corner was done by laying the mask down and spraying the paper with Glimmer Mist. Then I lifted the mask while it was still wet and flipped it over and laid it on the bottom right corner of the LO to get the other compass!! I love to use this technique!!

After the Glimmer Mist dried, I stamped a travel quote on top. The quote says... The Earth belongs to anyone who stops for a moment, gazes, and goes on his way.  I started out by stamping it with a brown ink but it was not showing up as well as I would have liked so I went over it by hand with a black gel pen! Most of the other metal embellishments are from Spare Parts, K & Company and 7 Gypsies. The stamp is from Cloud 9!

My daughter thought I was crazy when I started glueing on the rocks that are under her playset outside!! I loved the natural look it gave it and then I mixed in a few brads to get the metal tied in!!

This is a close up of one of the sides where I layered patterned paper, then layered more patterned paper, distressed some satin ribbon (It was just looking too shiny and perfect for the LO!!) I inked a few edges, added some brads and fiber and that was it!! The paper used on the LO is from Me & My Big Ideas!! The letters are from Thickers and Cosmo Cricket!!

Now you need to head over to SOUS to check out what the other ladies did with this sketch... you will really be glad you did!!!

Now.... On to my FROSTED DESIGNS CHALLENGE!! This week the challenge is so much fun everyone is going to want to play along!! We are challenging you to find things around your house that you would not normally use on a layout, card or altered project!!! How fun is this?!! At first I was kind of stumped, but once the wheels started turning.... Look Out!!!! LOL!!

Most of the embellishments on this page are things I normally would have thrown away!! This has me looking at my trash in a whole new way!! Heehee!!! The large cardboard circles are actually the tops of the ribbon spools. Once the spool was empty, I tore off the top and the bottom and then save the middle circular part. I painted the spool circles in different colors that coordinated with my layout. When they were dry I ran them through my Cuttlebug with some of the folders I already had... and I treated myself to some of the new Tim Holtz embossing folders!! They are just way tooo cool to pass up!! Then I inked them up and on a few of them, I wrapped some old jewelry wire I had laying around!

The circle the big M is on is a plastic circle that was in some type of packaging that I had saved a really long time ago!! At the time I thought it could make a great embellishment at some point.... guess I was right!! On this circle I painted the back with white paint and inked the edges and added a rub on M!! It was looking too neat and tidy so I decided to scratch off some of the white paint!! So much better... don't you think?!! LOL!!!

This was the hardest part of the LO!! I took the wire from an old notebook and made Matt's name. This wire was sooooo think and really hard to bend!! I know the name is not perfect, but I kind of like the way it turned out!! In the corner of this picture you can also see the gray duct tape that I ran through the Cuttlebug to get the stars embossed and then inked it up so the stars would show up better!! I also used a black twisty tie in the bottom right corner with the orange brads!! So..... how is that for recycling?!! I was so excited when I realized how many products I could use that I normally would have thrown away!! Now.... get over to Frosted Designs... I was blown away by the Design Teams projects this week!! You can also get to know our designer Joni a little better since this is her challenge she is presenting!! Thanks Joni for all the hard work you put into this one!! And while I am giving shout outs... I have to share a new blog friend with you... her name is Susan and I actually stole this LO idea from her!! It really is a challenge over at Sassy Lil Sketches but the LO Susan did caught my eye and made me want to play along!! You can find her LO by clicking HERE!!!  This LO also qualifies for the embossing challenge at The Cuttlebug Spot!!

And finally, don't forget... every time you link up a project at Frosted Designs this week, you have your name in a drawing for the June Prize Package which include the new Freshly Picked Cricut cartridge... you can't win if you don't play!!!   Sorry for my super long post today, but both projects were so much fun I really wanted to share the details with all of you!! And thank you for all the kind comments all of you leave me... I love hearing what you think about my layouts!!! Have a great weekend!!!

Barb :)

Kristin

Happy Wednesday!! I have been such the busy scrapbooker lately.... unfortunately I can't show you most of my stuff until later this week!! But I did manage to get a LO done just  for fun!! And I am entering it into a challenge I have never tried before!!

This LO is for the Design Dollies Sketch challenge!! I had to challenge myself with all the white space...something I have a hard time leaving alone!! Kind of funny since there is no "white" on this background!! I have never used a single page of black for a background but I really like this one!! I did add a few white flourish rub ons!! Most of the supplies used on this kit are from the Paper Poppy Kit Co. June Kit!! This baby has so many fun things in it and the bright colors just cheer me right up everytime I see them!!

Thanks for stopping by today and leaving such nice comments!! Be sure to stop back on Friday for 2 new challenges!!!

Barb :)

Ice Skating!

It's a new week and that means there is a new challenge at Practical Scrappers!! This one is easy peasy.... are you ready for it?!! The challenge this week is to use loose glitter or flocking!! Now... I have to be honest... the glitter part was easy, but the flocking is something I have in my supplies but have NEVER used!! So... I am always up for a new challenge and this is what I did!!!

Yes... I do realize that it is summer and no one really wants to think about snow and ice skating.... but I HAD to use these pictures for this challenge!! Where I live we do not have very many exciting things, but ONE cool thing that we do have is a park with a pavillion that they turn into an ice rink each winter. So, on a day off from school, my sister and I took our kids ice skating and had so much fun!!

For the loose glitter AND the loose flocking, I used some double sided Martha Stewart snowflake stickers. At first I found them hard to work with and I didn't like that when I followed the directions on how I am supposed to use them that I ended up with random glitter all over my LO!! But... after a bit I figured out my own system and the process became easier!! I use clear, pink and blue glitter for some snow flakes and blue flocking for other snowflakes. I use them more as a subtle background sparkle and layered dimensional snowflakes I had in my stash on top!! I added a few Prima crystal flourishes and some silver ribbon from my stash. I chose not to put a title on this one.. I liked it just like it was and to put "ice skating" on the LO seemed insulting to those looking at it since that is clearly what we are doing!!  LOL!!

The sketch is from Stuck On U Sketches from a few weeks ago... I didn't have time to play with the layout that week but it worked perfectly for this challenge!! And since their challenge this week is embossing, I can submit it now!!  (If you look at the border of the pink paper it is embossed with little snowflakes!!) Paper used is from DCWV Holiday Collection and Old World Stack. I also used the Storybook cartridge. 

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.... be sure to create something sparkly and glittery and you can actually link your project up to 2 challenges.... Frosted Designs and Practical Scrappers!! Both design teams have some amazing examples to share with you so be sure to check them out!!! Have a fabulous week and happy scrapping!!!

Rock Star!!

Happy Friday everyone!! I am so excited because we have another new challenge at Frosted Designs!! And this one might just be a little easier than the last one (if that is even possible!!)  LOL!! The challenge this week is to use GLITTER!! Any kind of glitter will do!! We all have it, and we all love to use it!! Get it out and show us what you can do!! Be sure to link up your project for a chance to earn our June Prize Package!! (You can check out the details in my side bar!!!)

The pictures are from Lauren's eigth birthday party and the theme was "Party Like A Rock Star"!! We had soooooo many girls spend the night but it was so much fun!! The papers are from Paper Studio's Peace, Love, Happiness stack. I used the Hannah Montana cartridge. Since the theme is glitter.... I went over the top with it!! I used as much Stickles as I thought the paper could hold. Added some glitter ribbon that Lauren picked out and insisted I add (personally I'm not sure I am a big fan of it but she likes it!!) and then of course I have some glitter paper on there!! Whew... that is a lot of glitter!!!! This one isn't a masterpiece... in fact I whipped it out while I was watching TV with my husband... but it is fun and Lauren likes it!! I used the sketch from Practical Scrappers. You can also win prizes by doing your own layout using the sketch!! Be sure to post your creations at Practical Scrappers!

Canvas Room Decoration

I am soooo excited to be making my big debut at She's a Sassy Lady!! I have learned so many things from all of the other Sassy designers... I just hope I can inspire someone too!! Normally I am a LO kind of girl!! I love my photos and I love to scrap them. However, I am going to do something completely different today!! I made a canvas wall hanging for my daughters room and I really like the way it turned out... so I thought I would share it with you!! It has become a fun project in our house and we are making them like crazy!!

I started out with a plain white canvas that I picked up at Big Lots for $3!! Gotta love that price!! The canvas I used was a 9 x 12 but they have other sizes. I covered the canvas with a layer of pink acrylic paint. I wasn't real careful with my painting and I shaded in a little white paint too.

While the paint was drying, I cut out several of my daughters favorite fashion words (after all, she IS going to be a fashion designer some day!!) using the Forever Young Cartridge. I used Mod Podge to secure them to the canvas. I applied the words to the outer edges of the canvas because I wanted to keep the middle part open for the monogram letter I would be adding later!

The background for the monogram was cut out using the emblem button on page 71 of the Forever Young cartridge. I added some Glimmer Mist to the black piece of cardstock to give it a little sparkle! After adding the large L and some gems and stickles to the green cardstock it was ready to be assembled. I pop dotted each layer to give it some dimension. (There are pop dots under the green layer and the black layer. The L was glued directly on to the black cardstock.) I then started to lay out some of the shadows that I had cut to see how I wanted to arrange them. I wanted to cover parts of the words but not so much that you couldn't tell what the word said.  

One by one I started to layer all the pieces together. My daughter is all about bling and sparkles so I added as much as I could!! The top of the lipstick is covered with pink Stickles and I added Stickles and a gem stone to the flower accent.

Because my daughter really is into fashion, I tried to make the dress as realistic as I could. I added some silver trim to the bottom of the skirt and added more Stickles and gems.

I would love to say that I planned for the purse to have the pattern perfectly centered on it but I have to be honest... I was just plain lucky on that one!! I thought it looked great the way it was, I only added a single flower to it!!

Here is the nail polish bottle. I added stickles first to give it some bling, then I covered the stickles with Clear Accents to give it the look of a nail polish bottle.

And finally.... you have the final product!!

Here is a canvas that we finished last night as an end of the year gift for Lauren's teacher.Lauren is going to give it to her at the pool party today!  If you look closely, you can even see that I let Lauren glue the letters together all by herself!! LOL!! But even though the glue shows a bit, I figured the teacher would treasure it knowing that Lauren really did make it for her... not just another project from her mom!!

I hope you enjoyed the project and maybe even learned a thing or two!! Thanks for stopping by!!


Barb  :)

Friends

Hello everyone!! I survived the end of the school year and my neices wedding and I actually had time to do a LO that was just for fun!! I love having my summers off!!

This LO is of Lauren with her friends at her Valentine's Party this year at school. They made the most lovely tissue paper flowers that all the girls insisted on wearing in their hair!! I used the sketch from Stuck On U Sketches this week... and I have to say that I totally loved it!! It was so easy to play with... I will probably have to use this one again!!

And because I was feeling really crazy... I decided to participate in a site I have never played along with before... Scrap Our Stash! Their challenge this month is stitching!! So... I actually got out the sewing machine (now I have used it 2 whole times!! I am on a roll!! LOL!!) I did a little zigzag action up the side and across the top! I really do like the way it looks... not sure why I don't do it more often!!

I hope you are all having a fabulous week!! Thanks for stopping by!!!

Barb :)

Splash

Happy Monday everyone!! Sorry I am late getting this posted... blogger was not being nice last night or this morning!! But, it looks like everything is up and running fine now!! We have a new challenge for you over at Practical Scrappers!!! The challenge this week is to use eyelets!! I don't know about you, but it has been a while since I have used eyelets so I thought this was fun!! Be sure to check out what the design team did and then create something yourself!! We would love to have you link it up at Practical Scrappers!!

I used large blue eyelets and some small blue eyelet buttons to add a little design by the circles. I also used 2 large yellow eyelets to hold the title banner (which for some reason did not show up very well in the photo... but it looks much better IRL!!)

The papers are from Me & My Big Ideas. Thank you for stopping by to take a peek!! And while you are checking out blogs, be sure to head over to Frosted Designs to see the yummy June Prize Pack that is up for grabs!! It includes the brand new Cricut Cartridge FRESHLY PICKED!!!! You won't want to miss your chance to play along!!