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 :)

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 :)

Just Call Me Mom

Hello everyone!! How was your weekend?! Mine was busy and I am soooo glad it is over!! Lauren made it to all of her lessons, the garage sale was a success, the golf team lunch was a hit, my date with my husband was wonderful, the park got cleaned up and I survived our open house!! Whew... what a weekend!! But with a new week comes a new challenge at Practical Scrappers!! And this one is super easy because we all use it.... are you ready for it?!! This week we are challenging you to use patterned paper in your card/layout/ project!! Seriously, could there be an easier theme?!! We have some of our design team examples up today, and will show you new ones each day this week... so stop over today, and tomorrow, and the next day, and.... you get the idea!! There are some very creative projects over there so you will want to be sure to check them out!!

This is me with 3 of my babies on Mother's Day this year!! Aren't they just so sweet?! My layout was completed using the papers from the Paper Poppy Kit Co. May kit. I LOVE this kit!! The papers and embellies are so fun and easy to use!! You can pick up a kit of your own by clicking here!! The sketch I used is also from Paper Poppy! I used 6 different patterned papers on this LO. The butterflies are chipboard that I glued patterned paper to, sanded the edges, and then inked. I added a few rhinestones and the anteanna are made from twine. The papers at the top of the LO are actually the packaging from some Prima flowers I had used on another LO! See... I can recycle!!

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous week!!
Barb :)

Butterfly Farm

Before I share my newest LO with you, I just want to tell everyone how lucky I am to have the amazing blog friends that I have!! Everyone is so nice to me.... and this week, two of them sent me gifts!!! I love gettting this kind of mail!!  LOL!! Over at the Paper Poppy Kit Co. Alphra had some fun contests during National Scrapbook Day and I won one!! She sent me these lovely buttons!! Thank you Alphra!! I can't wait to use them!!

And then.... my friend Judy was demonstrating the new gel pens with the cricut!! If any of you know Judy, you know how incredibly generous she is!! Well, she picked me from the comments that were left to receive these 2 brand new gel pen sets!! I love the cool things she was able to do with these pens and I can not wait to get some time to try them out myself!! Please stop by Judy's blog (Judy's Cardmaking and Papercrafts)and show her some love!! She is one of the nicest, kindest people you will meet!!

Now... on to my layout!! Stuck On U Sketches has another amazing sketch for you this week!! The sketch is from the very talented Liz Qualman and was so fun to work with! If you haven't had a chance yet, stop over at the Stuck On U Sketches blog and see what the design team did with this sketch!! AMAZING!!

These pictures are from a butterfly farm in St. Thomas. We visited it after a day at the beach... that explains the bathing suit and wet hair!! Lauren was very clever with her tricks to get a butterfly to stay on her hand... but it seemed to work!! She loved posing with the butterfly!!

The papers are all from my May kit from the Paper Poppy Kit Co.  Alphra did an amazing job of putting this kit together!! She added in some super fun embellies too!!

The butterfly is 2 chipboard butterflies that I covered with patterned paper an then inked the edges with blue ink. The top layer is the Prima butterfly stamp that came with the kit. I have to be honest... I love the stamp as long as I don't look at it too close!! The middle of the butterfly is a lady and it kind of freaks me out!! So... I covered the freaky lady up with pearls!! LOL!!! The mat behind Lauren's photo is actually the packaging that the chipboard butterflies came in. I added in some Prima flowers, random ribbon and black flourishes from my own stash. Everything else is in the kit!! If you want a kit of your own, you can find it HERE!!

And finally I want to thank Jenny over at Wee Memories!! Her challenge this week is to sew on your LO!! Me sew?!! Seriously?!! My dear mother gave me a sewing machine for Christmas.... one with just the basics, nothing fancy!! But that sewing machine has sat in it's box in the closet until today!! I finally got it out!! Of course my thread colors are limited since I am not a person who normally sews.... so I was stuck with an off white thread color. I started by stitching around the large piece of patterned paper. I know it doesn't show up in the photo but I really did it!! I even switched stitches in random places to add the little zig zag stitch!!! I am sooooo proud of myself!! I am such a big girl now!! But since that stitching did not show up well, I decided to be super brave and sew around the blue paper at the bottom of the layout!! I actually think it turned out pretty well for my first time!! Sometimes I just surprise myself!! LOL!!

Thanks for stopping by today! Have a great week and I will be back Friday with a new Frosted Designs layout.... the challenge next week is really fun so be sure to stop by Friday to find out more about it!!

Barb :)

How Wonderful Life Is

I am so blessed in so many ways... but most importantly is my amazing husband!! He works so hard for our family and is so supportive of everything I do. Most of you know that he has pretty much been living in Dallas since last fall and commuting home every weekend to be with the family. He has an amazing amout of pressure in his new job (what new job doesn't?!!) and yet he is constantly asking me how I am doing... making sure I am not overwhelmed and that things at home are going okay while he is away. He is doing the countdown with me on how many more days of work I actually have and has told me that I never have to work again if that is what I choose!! How sweet is that?!! I am looking forward to taking some time to settle the family and get caught up on a lot of my scrapbooking. IF I get bored (that is a big IF!) I might consider working again... we will just have to see how that plays out!! But ... the reason I am going on and on about my man is because I did the LO of him!! There is a new blog called Scrap It With a Song! It has the lyrics of a song that you are to use in a project somehow/somewhere.... I personally think it is going to be great fun!! As soon as I saw/heard the lyrics for this weeks song, I immediately thought of a picture of my husband I had taken with my cell phone when we were at an event in Chicago one weekend. I combined that with the sketch over at Stuck On U Sketches....and .... the creative juices started flowing. This is what I came up with.....

Funny story... I finished this last night and when I got home from work today, it was gone!! My MIL came over to visit my husband and he gave it to her!!

The papers and embellishments all came from this fabby mega kit I ordered from Paper Poppy Kit Company. (The only thing I added was white cardstock and black ribbon) Alphra puts together the most amazing kits with embellishments and I have really had a lot of fun with them the last 2 months. Go check them out and order a May kit... I am sure it will be just as amazing!!! The challenge over there right now is a recipe challenge: Use black and white, a music symbol, and song lyrics in the title. So... I will be submitting this for that challenge as well as:

Scrap It With a Song: Elton John Song

Practical Scrappers: Ribbon/Floss/Thread

Stuck On U Sketches: Sketch

Creative Belli Blog: Die Cuts

Thanks for looking at my LO... and for taking the time to leave those super sweet comments that just make my day!! Enjoy the rest of your week!!

Barb :)