How lucky am I?!! I just received two new awards this week!! I am soooo excited that these wonderful, talented women thought of me!! So... the first award (Beautiful Blog Award) was from Kim. Her blog is called Memories in Thyme and if you have not seen it yet, you seriously need to check it out!! This girl has got some serious talent!! She is on the Frosted Designs team with me, but is also a designer for about 32 other teams!!!! (That might be a slight exaggeration, but I really don't know how she keeps up on all this and teaches too!! Wow!!) Kim... thank you so much for thinking of me... coming from you, this award really means a lot!!

Ok, so the rules for this award are:

1) Add a link and note of thanks to the person giving the award

2) Pass the award on to 15 bloggers whose blogs you have recently discovered that you love

3) Share 7 things about yourself

So... I would love to pass this award on to...
Michelle - Crafty Michelle
Monique - Take Time To Enjoy the Simple Things In Life
Lameka - PGM Designs
Cassie - Casba Creations
Emily - Scrappin Butterfly
Sharon - Simply Sweet by Sharon
Sharon - Cards N Greetings
Amanda - Amanda's Crafts and More
Jennifer - Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
Gloria - CrafterGM
Hannah - Hannah's Room
Jane - Scossie Jane
Alissa - Craftalicious Caper
Sherri - Love, Laughter, and Creations
Victoria - Blue Jelly Stampin
Now... 7 things about me...Quoted directly from my seven year old daughter!! How perfect is that... 7 things... she's 7... heehee!!
1. I love to scrapbook
2. I'm really nice
3. I am good at spoiling her
4. I make a great playmate
5. I can tell a great story
6. I make delicious lemon bars
7. I like to shop for clothes and shoes!
How funny is that list?! Kim... thanks again for this beautiful award... your awesome!!

And... I said I received a second award!! This award is the Sunshine Award!How great is that?!! This one is from Monique! She has just started her blog but she has soooooo much talent! I am already getting some pretty amazing ideas from her... please stop by and check it out... she would love to have you all as a follower!! Her blog is called Take Time to Enjoy the Simple Things in Life! Lovin' that name!!!
This time... I am going to pass this award on to all my followers because each and every one of them bring me so much sunshine!! I love hearing from all of you!! I would also like to give a shout out to my daughter's new blog...Kids Give Back! I know it is listed under me... but this blog is all about a club her and her cousin Brayden started when they were six years old. We just got the blog up and running and will be spending the next few weeks going back and archiving all the wonderful events they have planned and participated in!! We have an amazing group of kids in this club and they have brought sunshine to many, many people over the last 18 months!! We are so proud of them!! They certainly deserve a Sunshine Award!! You can find their blog, Kids Give Back by clicking HERE!!

Snow Silly

Happy Friday everyone!! We had another fun challenge at Frosted Designs this week which was.... use your own handwriting in a card/layout/project. The design team came up with some amazing things again this week. Make sure you stop over and see what all they have created! You can get there by clicking HERE!

So... I was going through some old pictures the other day and ran across this picture of my daughter about 3 years ago. It was January and we had some snow in the yard. Some of it had started to melt off so we were left with patches of grass poking through patches of snow. Lauren insisted that we were going to go out in the snow and build a snowman. Well, our snowman ended up being about 1 ft. tall!! And then Lauren insisited on getting the sled out! I have the cutest pictures of her dragging the sled over grass with patches of snow in the background!! How funny is that?!! I am going to have to turn this LO into a two pager one of these days so that I can add in the other photos... they are so funny!

So... on to the details of the LO! I loved the way Lauren was framing her face with her hands so I knew I wanted to "frame" that.... I picked an oversize white frame and smoothered it with Martha Stewart glitter. (You know how I am with my bling!) While that dried, I started layering several different papers that I distressed, chalked, and embossed. The snowflakes around the frame are some that I picked up on sale a while back and love!! I added in the cutest little mittens from Everyday Paper Dolls, but I cut them down a bit... they were just too chubby for me! I added some details with my Martha Stewart glitter marker and then topped with Glossy Accents!!! I love the way they turned out! So much so I did the same thing with the little bird!!

On the letters I added some little snowball dots with my snow writer...cute, huh?!

And of course... I had to show off my handwriting! (not!) The original plan was to tuck a tag with journaling next to the main picture, but when I added the smaller picture in the corner, that just didn't look right. And then I remembered visiting Joni's blog the other day and she had journaled all the way around the page... so ... I totally stole her idea and used it myself!!! Thanks Joni!! But I really loved the way it turned out and I was able to tell the story about the day! And if you look really close at the journaling pictures (but not so close you that you see that my handwriting isn't that great...) you can kind of see the glitter snowflakes that I stamped on the solid blue background paper... it adds some nice bling in person but just doesn't show up well in the photos!

Well, I think that about covers it! Supplies used:
Cricut: Ashlyn's Alphabet, Accent Essentials, Wild Card, Everyday Paper Dolls, Happily Ever After
Cuttlebug: Snowflake and Swiss Dots
Paper: Imagine That, SEI, and DCWV
Snowflakes: K & Company
Pens: Martha Stewart Glitter Pen, White Souffle Pen
Glossy Accents
Glitter: Martha Stewart Snow Pack

The Hunt is On!

Well... I barely got this done on time, but I did get a LO done for this weeks Stuck On U Sketches!! Whew... nothing like waiting until the last minute!

So, over at Stuck On You Sketches, Liz Qualman designed a sketch specifically for this weeks challenge! How fun!! I decided to do a LO from last Easter of my youngest daughter doing the Easter egg hunt! I know... she looks so sweet and innocent... but believe me, you do not want to get between her and a new found Easter egg!! She WILL win!!

I know, I know... this page looks like it was attacked by Stickles... and it was!! LOL!! I decided I wasn't going to chalk or ink any of the edges so I had to use something else!! Actually this is so Lauren... the more sparkles the better!! The Easter eggs were made with printed paper that I embossed with my cuttlebug and then outlined the designs with stickles.... I love the way they turned out!! I just wish the colors showed up better in the photos... they are so much more vibrant in person!

I also did something fun with the title... I used Glossy Accents to cover the letters that I had detailed with a Souffle pen!! Aren't they so cool?!! This is my new favorite product to play with... you will also see it on my Frosted Designs LO that will be posted in the morning!!


Products used:
Paper: My Mind's Eye - Magnolia Stack
Cricut: Storybook, Easter, All Mixed Up, Happily Ever After
Stickles: Lime Green, Star Dust, Cotton Candy, Waterfall, Yellow, Orange Peel
Glossy Accents: Ranger
Misc. gems, flowers, button, and ribbon
Martha Stewart border punch



Thanks for taking the time to look at my LO... and thank you for all the kind words of encouragement all of you leave for me! Barb :)

Sunshine Award

Wow... I am so excited to receive this beautiful award from Nadya!! It brought a big ray of sunshine to my not so fun day!!! (I have been busy painting a couple of rooms in our house to get it ready to sell before the big move... I hate painting!!) But back to how flattered I am to receive this gorgeous cheery award!! Now, the rules of the award are:

*Put the logo on your blog or within your post.

*Pass the award onto 6 bloggers who are followers of your blog.

*Link the nominees within your post.

*Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.

*Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this award.

I wanted to pass this on to someone I have never passed an award to before and to someone who had not already received it in the past few days....I mean after all, isn't it meant to share the love with everyone!?!! I think I am going to easily be able to pass this award on to six ladies who can always find a kind word to share about my LOs... they deserve it!!

Leah
Joni
Pat
Debbie
Sharon
Nanne

Thank you again to Nadya... it was so very thoughtful of you!!

Barb

I Have a New Blog Look!

Hey everyone! I was playing around with my blog layout this weekend and came across the cutest FREE blog backgrounds and decided my blog needed a new look!!! I found the background at LeeLou Blogs! Isn't it just too cute?! Aren't you just lovin' the little pink buttons?!!And after finding out that I am completely incompetent when it comes to loading my own backgrounds... Heather at LeeLou Blogs went above and beyond the call of duty to help me get mine loaded!! THANKS HEATHER!! So... If you want a new look, head on over to her blog!!

Family

Well... it's Friday and there is a new challenge over at Frosted Designs. The challenge this week is to use plaid and polka dots in a card/layout/project. And I have to admit... this was a challenge for me! I couldn't seem to get the combination of papers that I was going for, so I ended up altering my yellow polka dot paper. It had big white dots on it and they just weren't working... so I inked them all pink! Much better!! (At least I think so!! heehee!)
The picture is of my family last Easter. And yes... I do realize this is not the best picture of all of us... after all, my son looks like he desperately needs new jeans!! But... it is a picture of ALL of us... not an easy task when you have one living on her own, one away at college and another who thinks his social life is all that matters!!! Yikes! But enough about the fam....

Stop over at Frosted Designs and see what my talented design sisters have created!

Supplies used:
Papers - DCWV Sorbet stack
DCWV Nana's Kid Stack
Prima Flowers
Marha Stewart Glitter
Cuttlebug
Recollections Pearls
Cricut Cartridges: Easter and Home Accents

Thank you so much for stopping by to take a closer look! I would love to hear any comments you have! Barb :)

Our Heaven on Earth

My husband and I were lucky enough to get to go to Maui for our Honeymoon and we instantly fell in love! It is truly the most beautiful place on Earth and we can't get enough of it... I guess that is why we have been there so many times! (There are perks to a husband who travels all the time... those frequent flyer miles really add up!!) We love to stay in Ka'anapali because we have the beautiful island of Lanai in front of us, and the West Maui Mountains behind us! And talk about rainbows... can we say spectacular?!! Anyway, enough of my vacation travels...
The LO started by using the sketch from Stuck On U Sketches. They have another amazing sketch...this week it is from Liz Qualman. And their challenge was not only to use the sketch, but you had to use pink or red... I think I have the pink thing covered!! LOL!! I have had these papers from SEI lying around forever... there were just too pretty to cut! But I finally talked myself into it because they were perfect for my Maui pictures! I love how the background page fades from light to dark... it reminds me of the beautiful sunsets there! This picture was taken on one of our day trips to Hana. If you ever get there, you need to do this!! You will see the most amazing views and the waterfalls are outstanding!!
Once you have been to the Hawaiian Islands, you get to experience the amazing flowers that you will see no where else. And these are no ordinary flowers, they are so extraordinary... which is why I had to make my flowers unique! I love how fun these turned out...like none I have ever made before! :)
And did you check out this butterfly?! I am totally lovin' this! I am sure I will be making many more of these in the future! They were cut from vellum (I seem to be on that kick lately!) and then inked and then I added Stickles. And right before my eyes, the wings started to curl up on their own!! How cool it that?! I couldn't have shaped these any better if I would have tried!! I added a few rhinestones and I was done!! I love how soft and delicate they are... they add to the page without being the focus of it... I love that!! (I am sure I will be going back and adding a few of these to my daughters' baby pages... they just look like they belong there!!) I also did something crazy with this LO... I tried stitching for the first time! And I love it! It's just a little detail but I love the way it adds to the page!! (I didn't however like how long it took to do!! LOL!!)

And the best part is... I can use this LO for all of these challenges:
Stuck On U Sketches - sketch
Cuttlebug Challenge Blogspot - stitching (A first for me by the way!)
Practical Scrappers - flowers
Creative Belli Blog - butterflies
Pile It On - butterflies

Supplies Used:
Papers - SEI Mimosa
Cuttlebug
Cricut - Jasmine, Lyrical Letters, and Sentimentals
Various inks, rhinestones and a flower punch

Lil Miss Hollywood

This week at Frosted Designs, our challenge is to create a LO/project/card using a star... easy enough right?! I thought so...so all of you need to head on over to Frosted Designs to see what the design team came up with and then show up some of your own projects!

My LO is of my beautiful daughter who wanted to be a Movie Star for Halloween! She did have these big, white sunglasses but I didn't get a good picture of her in them! It really completed the look and totally cracked me up! The only down fall to this costume is that everyone kept asking her if she was a princess!! Clearly she was not! Can't people tell the difference between a Movie Star and a Princess?!!! Oh Well!! I had a lot of fun putting this one together. I started with a sketch I whipped out in another meeting and couldn't wait to get home to get started on it!! (I think we clearly need a few less meetings!!)

I used design studio to make the giant star in the background with white glitter paper (It doesn't show up so well in the picture!) I cut out several smaller stars in several colors and then used Stickles to make them sparkly!! (Can never have too much bling on a girly page!) I added a ton of rhinestones for just a little more bling and added a few brads in the border.

Supplies used on this LO:
DCWV Paper - Sorbet Stack
DCWV Paper - Pocket Full of Posie Stack
DCWV Paper - Glitter Stack
Misc. paper from my scrap box!
Stickles - White Lace and Cotton Candy
Carts. used: Hannah Montanta and Jasmine
Flower Punch Border - Martha Stewart
Versa Magic Chalk Ink - Aegean Blue
Rhinestones - Heidi Snapp
Pop dots for the Hollywood title

Thanks for stopping by and visiting my blog! Please leave a comment so I know you were here! Barb

Sweet 16

I wanted to join in on the fun over at Stuck on U Sketches again this week... but time seemed to be working against me! (I am trying to paint rooms, clean closets and all the other things you do before you sell your house!) Anyway... I did a get a LO done, and after a few revisions, I have one I can post... but I know I will still make changes to it. After adding some Stickles and some hand stitching using Souffle pens, I like it a little better... Oh well, here it is!
The sketch is from Pagemaps and is by Becky Fleck. If you get a chance, be sure to stop over at Stuck On U Sketches and see what the design team did!! Can we say amazing?!!

Supplies used:
DCWV Sorbet Pack
Cricut: Simply Sweet, All Mixed Up, Hannah Montana, Sentimentals
The ribbon, brads, flowers are all misc. from my stash
The stamp is from Autumn Leaves - Stampology (Girl Talk)
Souflle Pens
Stickles - Cotton Candy
Border Punch - Martha Stewart

Find your Wings

After playing on the web one day, I ran across this sketch at Sketchy Thursdays. Right away I knew the LO that I wanted to do with it. My oldest daughter recently graduated from beauty school.I used some pictures of Courntey with a few of her friends (notice the bright colored hair... I guess you can't get through beauty school without doing some fun, crazy things with your hair!) that graduated with her. I picked some paper that is soooo Courtney... pink and brown, roughed it up a bit, sprayed some coffee Glimmer Mist on it and threw in a few embellishments that remind me of her! I was so excited when I found the scissors on the Sentimentals cart... perfect for this LO!! The title "Find Your Wings" came from one of her favorite songs. I thought it was approriate since she is beginning the next stage of her life... now all she needs is to find a job!!The supplies used:
SEI Papers - Chocolat
DCWV Papers - Neutral Pack
DCWV Papers - Glitter Pack
Autumn Leaves Stamps - Talking in circles (girls)
Flourish Stamps - Sorry it was from my stash and no longer has a name on it!
Cricut Cartridges - Sentimentals, Stone Script, Plantin School book and Pagoda for the flowers (cut at 3 different sizes, inked, stickled and fastened with a brad)
Prima flowers
Heidi Snapp gems
Colorbox Fluid Chalk - Chestnut Roan and Dark Brown
Glimmer Mist - Coffee
Vellum for the wings of the butterfly

Thanks for taking the time to look at my LO!! As always, I love to hear all of your comments! Barb

My Little Beach Babe LO is a winner over at Dies Cuts R Us!

Yeah for me! I just checked in on Die Cuts R Us and found out that my LO (My Little Beach Babe) won the Die Cuts R Us Sugar Rush Challenge! I am so excited... my first award!! THANK YOU to the wonderful ladies over there for picking my LO and also for all the kind comments they left about my LO!!

Yes!...to a lifetime together!

My daughter walked into my office today and asked, "Mom, cute LO but why does it say yes?!" Well, the answer is simple. This picture was taken the night my husband proposed to me. We were so much younger then! (Notice the face with no wrinkles!!) LOL! But it was also one of the best nights of my life! He is my best friend and is so very good to me! He spoils me like crazy and I am so blessed to have him as my husband! The perfect picture/memory for a Valentine's LO....

The challenge at Frosted Designs this week was to make a Valentine's LO without using any red or pink. So, I chose to use blues and browns! I also tried some new techniques! If you haven't already, head on over to Frosted Designs to see all the amazing ideas the design team has come up with! And then try some of your own and be sure to share them with us! I love checking out all the creativity and inspiration from the projects submitted each week!

Like I said, I tried a new technique. I recently purchased a set of Glimmer Screens (Garden Lattice) from Tattered Angels and couldn't wait to give it a try! I used a blue sheet of cardstock from the DCWV Christmas Stack. I laid the screen on the bottom left corner and sprayed the paper with Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist. I pretty much covered the entire screen. I gave it a few minutes to dry (it's amazing how quickly it dries!) and then I moved the screen just slightly. (I wanted the print to be a little messy!) Next I sprayed on Sapphire Glimmer Mist, this time leaving it mostly in the bottom left corner. Finally I gave it a coat of Marshmallow Glimmer Mist concentrating mostly on the upper right side of the paper. The pictures don't really show it but it really has a beautiful shimmer to it! I removed the screen and let everything dry. After everything dried, I took my black Souffle pen and started outline the shapes from the stencil. The cool part was the way the pen changed from black to a brown that blended right in! I used an exacto knife to cut along the top of the heart so that I could put the corner of my picture behind it. The picture is layered on top of an old page from a book and some Basic Grey Periphery paper. The dark blue layer was embossed with my cuttlebug and then I sanded it to let the white core show through.

I used the end of my scissors to dig at the center of the heart until I got the paper to tear so that I could insert the heart charm (Making Memories). The rest of the embellishments were some I had around in my stash. The chipboard letters are from colorbok. The flourish at the top of the page is from the Mother's Day Cartridge. I used some Cats Eye chalks in various shades of brown to distress some of the papers.

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my LO! If you have time, I would love to hear any comments you have! Barb

My Little Beach Babe

When I saw the sketch over at Stuck on U Sketches, I knew I had the perfect photos to use. These pictures are of my daughter playing on the beach in Maui. We went for a walk one afternoon and the sun was just right and she was so playful... I couldn't help but take a few pictures! And being the ham that she is, she gladly played along! LOL!! I would really like to just freeze her at this age... is that possible?! (Maybe that is because my oldest daughter is turning 20 today!! I am soooo old!) Anyway... on to the LO!

I used DCWV paper (Fun in the Sun Summer Pack) and DCWV (Christmas Cardstock Stack)
Cricut Cartidges used: Easter (The doily type circle), Opposites Attract, Life's A Beach
Stickles: Cotton Candy, Stardust, Spiced Marmalade Distress
Thickers chip board stickers that I painted
Ribbons, brads, and vellum were all things I had in my stash!

I used vellum on the seashells and pop dotted them to give them the dimension I wanted. I added a little Stickles and I was good to go!

Challenges for this LO:
Stuck on U Sketches (sketch)
Practical Scrappers (use die cuts)
Die Cuts R Us (color - Sugar Rush)
Creative Belli Blog (ribbon)
Pile It On (Non winter colors)
Happy Scraps (Girly stash)

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!