Scrapping for fun!

 Thursday was a great day for me... I finally had time to do some scrapping that was just for fun! I didn't have any deadlines to meet for design teams so I picked a few challenge blogs and decided to play along!

This first LO is of my sweet little girl 2 years ago at her cheer camp. She was so cute doing her little cheer!

I used the sketch from Sketchabilities #38...

This also works for Scrapfit because they want us to use our scraps! Boy did I use scraps on this one! The papers are from 2 different stacks that I have had for ages!!

And because Frosted Design's challenge this week is to use 3 or more photos, I was able to use this for that challenge too! (It was my week off but I decided to do a LO anyway!!)

This next LO is from the cruise we took last April Greg (my hubby) and Matt (my son) were going through this play fight stage soooo... what else was I to do but to scrap it!!  heehee!

I had a lot of fun distressing, stapling, inking and misting all the pieces on this LO!

This LO was made using the Sketchy Thursdays sketch...

We thought when we moved to Texas we would escape the winter weather... but we were wrong! We got dumped on with snow on Sunday! When we went into church it was doing a sleeting rain thing but when we came out, there was already 2-3 inches of snow on the ground! Here are a few pictures of our day....

 This is our backyard... my poor, poor palm trees!!

 This is Lauren with two of her buddies that live on our street!

I can't wait to scrap this picture of Lauren! She was having so much fun!

Greg and I had to get a picture in the snow!

My son needed to clean his truck off!

These are all the neighborhood ladies that were brave enough to get out and play with the kids!

We had so much fun! Now it can all melt and get up to 60 degrees again!!!

Thanks for stopping by!

Barb  :)

Girls Day Out!

Good morning! I hope your day is off to a great start! I just dropped my daughter off at school and am enjoying a quiet cup of coffee! The days since I have been back from Indiana have been very busy but now that all the Christmas decorations are put away, the house is clean and errands have been completed, I am finally able to sit back, spend the day scrapping and catching up on some blogs! It is going to be a great day!

We have a new sketch challenge going on at Sketches in Thyme. Here is my LO....

I really wish I could have gotten a better photo of this LO... the colors look so much better in person! Oh well... we all have days like that, don't we?!  :) These pictures were taken during our visit to Indiana over the holidays. Prior to moving, my sister and I would take our kids to the local outdoor skating rink for an afternoon of fun. So of course, we had to fit this activity in while we were home! This year, Courtney, my oldest daughter decided to join us!! (It's amazing what your children will do for you when they go 4 months without seeing you!! lol!!)

The sketch this week is a beautiful one by Jana Eubank. I, of course, flipped the sketch to make it work better with my photos. I also left off the oval around the picture... it just wasn't working on my LO! Other than that.... I pretty much stuck to it!  :) 

I loved the way this ribbon border across the bottom of the page turned out. I wanted to pleat the ribbon and decided to use these yummy brads to hold the pleats.... I love the way it made the ribbon fan out at the top! 

I thought the letters needed a little bling so I added a little glue to the top of the letters and then sprinkled with glitter! I also hand stitched across the bottom of the red paper and under each of the mini letters that I used.... I thought it "grounded" those pieces a little more!

Supplies used:
Papers: SEI
Flourish: Prima
Letters: Thickers and Making Memories
Ribbons, brads and tree tag: SEI
Snowflakes: K & Company
Punches: Martha Stewart


This LO is also being entered in the Creative Belli Blog Challenge #108 - Snow!

Thanks for stopping by to visit today! I hope you have a chance to play along with us at Sketches in Thyme. Be sure to stop by and see what the rest of the design team did with this sketch! We also have 2 very talented guest designers you are going to want to meet! Have a great day and hopefully I will get a few projects done today that I will be able to share! There are a few challenges out there I would love to play along with!

Barb  :)

Find Joy!

Happy New's Year everyone! I hope this year is filled with many blessings for all of you! I am wrapping up the holidays here in Indiana and will be back home Sunday. So... next week I plan on catching up on all the posts and blogging I have missed!Thank you to everyone who has stopped by and left some blog love! I always love reading your comments!

We have a new Friday challenge for you at Frosted Designs! This week we would like for you to use a Quote on your card, layout or project! Here is the LO I made for this week's challenge....

My quote is... Find Joy in the Little Things! These are pictures of Lauren running through the sprinklers in our front yard when she was two! The cute little frog digi stamp came from this week's sponsor... Lia Stampz! Lia has the most adorable and unique stamps and were so much fun to play with!

I added stickles over the water in the photo so that it showed up better and continued the spray of water on to the umbrella that Froggy was holding!

I did some paper piecing with this digi and was able to make the umbrella look a little more dimensional. I added Clear Accents to the umbrella to give it a clear shiny look!

Supplies used:

Paper: Imaginisce & Bazzill

Flowers: Misc. from my stash

Gems: iRock tool

Colored Pencils: Prisma

Letters: Thickers and Making Memories

Sketch: Liz Qualman

Digi Stamp: Lia Stampz

Punch: Martha Stewart

Thanks for stopping by today! I hope you get a chance to check out what our design team did for you on the Frosted Designs blog! We have some great ideas!

HAVE A FABULOUS AND CREATIVE NEW YEAR!!

Cherish the Memories!

I don't know about all of you, but I am pretty busy celebrating Christmas with my family. I am glad to be back in Indiana spending time with them! A few weeks ago, I was going through some old photos and found these Christmas pictures of me with my sisters and brother from years ago....

My brother is especially sentimental with me and my older sister (who now lives in Japan) not being so close to home. I decided to frame this for him so he can have it.... I am sure he will treasure it!

This week at Sketches in Thyme, we have an open challenge. That means that you can use any sketch at all! I used the current sketch from Practical Scrappers for this LO...

We would love to have you play along... so be sure to link up your LO at Sketches in Thyme!

I hope you and your families have a blessed Christmas! I am taking a break from visiting blogs this week because I want to spend the time with my family and friends that I only see a few times a year. I promise when I return to Texas I will take some time and get all caught up again!

Barb  :)

Families Are Forever

Good morning everyone! Happy Friday to you! Today, we have a new challenge over at Frosted Designs.... we are challenging you to use the word "Family" on your card, layout or project! Here is my LO...

This is the last time we had my entire family together for a vacation. Since then, we have always had one or two that couldn't come along on the family vacation... boo!

 I love the way the flowers turned out... I used a combination of chipboard accents with some Prima flowers, a few brads and metallic studs with my i-rock tool!! (I love this thing... if you don't have one, you need to add it to your Christmas list!!

I used Frosted Designs current sketch for this LO....

Our very own Diana created this sketch and I love it! Did you know that if you create a layout using this sketch AND using the word family in it, you can enter BOTH of our current challenges?! That means that you have a chance to win TWO prizes!!

Supplies used:

Papers - Lucky Girl Kit

Flowers - Prima

Bling - i-top

Trim - my stash

Letters - Thickers

Punch - Martha Stewart

Thank you for stopping by today! Have a fabulous, creative weekend!

Barb  :)

I made some cards!

For those of you who really know me, you know that I am not much of a card maker. However, I needed a few cards this past week, so I decided to make a few! Yay for me!! Here is what I made....

My husband and I attended a fabulous Christmas party on Saturday night and I wanted to send a thank you to the couple who hosted the party.

Back in Indiana, one of my best friends is having a birthday this week so I made her a card! She isn't really big on frilly and blingy so I kept it pretty simple. I did manage to add a little bling with my i-top on the flowers and for the bird's eye!

 For some reason I prefer to make easel cards... I think it is because they seem like mini scrapbook pages for me!! lol!! Both of these cards were made using the sketch from the Cricut Circle Blog. This is the sketch....

And then, because I was on a roll, and needed one more card, I made this little cutie! The best part about this one is that I made it out of all the scraps I already had out on my desk! Gotta love that!

I used the sketch from Our Creative Corner for this card. The digital stamp and patterned papers are from The Cutting Cafe... our sponsor at Frosted Designs right now!

Thanks for checking out my cards! I really did have fun making them! Have a great week! 

Barb  :)

Oh Christmas Tree & Blog Hop Winner

Happy Friday everyone! I don't know about all of you, but December is just flying by way too quick! I know many of you would like to know who won my prize for the Frosted Designs blog hop.... well, I will tell you just as soon as I share this LO and our new challenge at Frosted Designs!

 This week we would like to see you use ribbon! Easy! You can make a card, layout or project, it just has to have ribbon on it somewhere!

I do have a funny story about this LO.... we have a new sponsor over at Frosted Designs... The Cutting Cafe! I don't know if you have ever worked with their digis, but they are amazing!! You get several digis in a set including patterned papers in some. Well... the one I was working with had the cutest papers included and I got so busy playing with all the great stuff in the set... so busy that when I finished the LO and went back to look at it, I realized that I forgot to add the ribbon!! I am seriously having way too many blonde moments these days! (I am calling them blonde moments because I am still in denial that I am getting old!!) So... after realizing my mistake, I went back and added some ribbon! Here is the LO...

The plain cardstock is paper from my stash and all the patterned papers came from the digi set! Even that cute little Santa owl in the bottom corner is from the same set!! You need to head over to Frosted Designs and see what the design team did with the ribbon challenge, and most of them used the digis from the cutting cafe.... there are some great gift ideas to check out!!

Supplies used:
Pink and Blue cardstock - from my stash
Patterned papers and digi stamps - The Cutting Cafe
Flower - Making Memories
Font - Gypsy Font
Glitter - Stickles in various colors

And now.... what you have all waited so patiently for.... the winner of the blog hop prize!! After going through all the entries (there were 104 qualifying entries) the winner, picked by random, is......

Denise!!

Congrats Denise! Email me (barb.craft@att.net) your address and I will get your prize in the mail!!

Thank you to everyone who was able to participate in our Blog Hop! We had a lot of fun with it and we hope all of you enjoyed it as well! Be sure to check out all the dt blogs that participated in the hop to see if you won. Prize winners will be announced all weekend!

Lauren's Christmas card

This is my second post today... If you would like to see my posts for She's a Sassy Lady and Sketches in Thyme..... click HERE!


I was busy in my office the other day (working on Christmas cards that should have been done weeks ago) when Lauren walked in and decided she wanted to make some cards for her friends too. She got busy right away... cutting, sewing, glueing, writing.... and here is one of the cards she made....

She hand cut all the candy canes from patterned paper and then layered them on the green to create her own background. She made sure she had plenty of glitter because she wanted to post it on my blog so she could enter her card into the Frosted Designs glitter challenge!! How cute is that?! I love that she sewed the ribbon all the way around her card! And I thought her sentiment was very clever! (But I'm a mom... what else am I going to say?! I think she is brilliant!! heehee!!)

So... If you get a chance, please leave her a little blog love! I'm sure a little encouragement from all of you would totally make her day!! Thanks for stopping by!

barb  :)

Christmas Mini Book and Layout!

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Frosted Designs blog hop this past week. You still have until noon today to submit a project for the prize and to get the phrase you collected emailed to Diana! If you want to go to the blog hop post, click HERE!

 Today is my day to share a project over at She's a Sassy Lady blog... Here is what I shared....

With the holidays fast approaching, I wanted to make a quick yet meaningful gift to give my parents when I head home for the holidays. Here is what I came up with.....

I decided to make a mini out of tags! I am going to fill this book with pictures of my parents with all the grandkids during Chrismas the past few years. I know my parents will love it and so will the grandkids... a  gift that will give for years to come!

Now for the details... I started with an empty cereal box.

 I used my Gypsy to design the tags I was going to use. There are many choices out there but I used the Plantin' Schoolbook cartridge and made all the tags 4 in. x 7.5 in. I wanted to keep this as a mini but wanted it big enough to add photos to!

I cut the tags with my deep cut blade set at 6 on max. pressure. I cut them 2 times and they cut perfectly....

After the tags were cut, I changed my blade on my Cricut back to the regular blade and cut out several coordinating papers. I used DCWV Tis the Season stack. I liked that they had fun, non-traditional colors and the papers are thick. 

Once the papers were cut, I brushed some glue onto the tags I had cut and lined up the patterned paper and pressed down. I was careful not to let it wrinkle or get air bubbles... which is pretty easy to do with these thicker papers!

Here is a tag that has been glued together. I covered both sides of the tag. By the time you get both papers glued on, the cardboard becomes pretty sturdy.

I decided the order I wanted the tags to be in...and then I started to decorate! That's always the fun part!

Here is my cover! I used some Martha Stewart border punches on the white background paper that I sprayed with Perfect Pearls (along with the white Prima flowers!) The Merry Christmas title is from Celebrate with Flourish cartridge. I used various ribbons to hold the book together and added a charm just for fun!

Here are a few of the pages... all ready for the photos to be added!

I have kept the inside of the book pretty simple because I want to be able to add the photos and still have some room to journal. My parents have 10 grandkids and I need to have room to add pictures of all of them! I also want to include some of our family traditions!

It is also time for a new sketch challenge at Sketches in Thyme! This week we are using a sketch from our very own Diana!

How great is this?! I decided to do a LO from Christmas last year! I wish I could say that now I am caught up on my Christmas photos but that would not be true at all!!! I do like this photo though... it was the last year my whole family was together in Indiana. (Now 4 of us live in Texas, one in Missouri and one in Indiana) I am getting excited to go back to Indiana over the holidays to see everyone!

This month we are being sponsored by Charlenes Button Box and she was so sweet to send all of us some of her buttons to work with!

I used these darling reindeer buttons and layered them on top of some crocheted flowers that I made! Yep... I am learning how to crochet!! (There is a reason why those flowers are hidden behind the buttons!!) lol!! 

Be sure to stop over at Sketches In Thyme to see what the rest of the Design Team did with this challenge! Have a great weekend! God Bless!

Barb  :)

It's a BLOG HOP!!

I am so excited! Today is the first day of the Frosted Designs blog hop! Yep you heard correctly... we are having a blog hop!! And I am your first stop!

Let's start with this week's challenge at Frosted Designs.... the challenge this week is to use GLITTER! Seriously... this is a challenge I can really get into! Here is the LO I made.....

And I used the current sketch at Frosted Designs that our very own Debbie created!

Isn't it fabulous?!

There are many ways you can win prizes with our blog hop. The first way is to collect a word at each of the design teams blogs. Once you have collected all the words in the correct order, you will have a phrase. Email that phrase to Diana (danica4us@yahoo.com) and you will be entered to win one of the prizes! Here is the word you are looking for on my blog....

How cute is that?! The next way you can win a prize on the Frosted Designs blog is by completing a project that has bling on it and linking it up over at Frosted Designs! Easy Peasy!! 

Here is the order of the blog hop. If you get lost along the way, head back to Frosted Designs, we have everyone listed in order with links to each of the blogs!

Next you are headed to DIANA's blog!!

Barb

Diana

Debbie

Esther

Joni

Angela

Cassie

Fern

Libeeti

Jessica

Lori

Kim

Now, I couldn't participate in a blog hop and not offer a prize of my own! Here is what you can win from me...

You could win the Cricut Designers Calendar cartridge along with paper and embellishments with themes for the entire year!! (Sorry for the glare on that first photo!) Would you like to know what you have to do to win? 

1. Become a follower if you aren't already. Leave me a comment stating that you have done this.
2. Tell me the top gift on YOUR list this year! 
3. Complete a "Glitter" project and submit it at Frosted Designs. Come back here and leave me a comment telling me that you have done this.
4. Share the news that we are having a blog hop on your own blog and then come back here and leave me a comment saying you have done this.
5. The final way to enter is to complete a card or LO using this weeks sketch at Frosted Designs. (The same sketch I used at the beginning of my post) Once you have linked up your project, come back here and tell me that you did! 

So.. you have a total of 5 ways to be entered into the drawing for my prize. You have until noon (central time) on Thursday, Dec. 9th to complete these things. Isn't it great that you can do a bling project using the sketch and it gets you two chances for my drawing not to mention that you will also be entered into the Frosted Designs drawings for those prizes!?! So many ways to win!! You better get hopping along!! Have a great weekend and happy scrapping!!  Your next stop is Diana's blog... you can get there by clicking HERE!