Patterns & Pearls

I was excited from the moment I received the November kit from Tidbitz in Time. I cannot begin to tell you how much I love this kit. It was love from the moment I ripped it out of the box. Its filled with so much vintage yumminess!!  Here it is.... Patterns & Pearls

To begin its filled with October Afternoon (which is one of my all time favorites) The sought after Thrift Shop line (papers, stickers, journal blocks) is paired with the coolest new Jenni Bowlin buttons & pretty chipboard butterflies. It also boasts a Donna Salazar calender page, a tube of Ranger liquid pearls (like stickles only pearly), grungeboard  and some lovely ZVA Creative embellishments. There are 2 alphabets and 4 trims!

I created 8 projects this month. I couldnt help myself. I finished my 4 but just kept going back in for more.Here's what I came up with:

 

Run.... dont walk to get this kit!!

and if you love Tidbitz in Time..... make sure you check out Scrap that Baby on Monday!! A little bird told me something about an october kit up for grabs

Circle Banner tutorial

Another Monday means another fabulous reveal at Cookin Up Creations! This week I was assigned another layout using the fabulously versatile  Whisker Graphics Divine Twine. I decided to use the twine to make a super simple banner on this layout featuring my baby sister Jessica and her son AJ

Wanna make a circle banner?? It was so so easy.

You need:
* some fabulous Divine twine from Whisker graphics
* scraps of patterned paper
* a 1" circle punch (i used a  fiskars squeeze punch)
*  Ink
* glue dots or zots

1. Using your circle punch ... punch out as many circles as you need. I used 5 because my layout is 8.5x11.
2. Ink your circles
3. Fold circles in half. Crease them well
4. Place folded circle over twine and secure with a glue dot. Continue adding circles until your banner is finished.
5. Add banner to layout
6.Tie 2 small bows using the divine twine. Add bows to ends of your banner.

Easy peasy lemon squeazy! :)

Aubrey's bedroom banner

This is a little banner I made for my sweet baby girl. I used it both for her birthday party and as a decoration for her bedroom.

It is made out of recycled bar coasters, doilies, patterned paper scraps and bits of embellishments. I couldnt get a decent picture outside without it being tied up and its too dark in her bedroom to try. Here is hoping you can get the idea of how cool it is.....

A few close ups

 

The papers are the glittery BELLA line from Best Creation Inc. There are also bits of hambly transparency and a few crocheted flowers thrown in. Its my very first attempt at a banner and im very happy with it. :) It looks great in Aubrey's nursery!

The BIG A

Aubrey's birthday party was Sunday. It was a great time. We decided to go with a circus theme instead of Alice in Wonderland due to time constraints (will do Alice next year I think) I do not have any pictures of the decorations yet. I was way to busy to even think of getting my camera out so I am relying on my mom and my photograph wiz brother for pictures. Fingers crossed they took pictures of things other than Aubrey.

Since I dont have pictures of the party yet Im going to share a few of the little home decor items I made for her party. This one it isnt really circus themed but I figured it could be used for her room after the party. Here is what my neice's refer to as the BIG A. 

 Its just a simple paper mache letter that I painted "diva pink" then used Mod Podge to cover it with paper.   Papers are the new Best Creation BELLA line. They are so girly and sparkly.. I kept it pretty simple to showcase the A.

here are a few close up pictures

It was a girly circus we used hot pink, lime green and orange for our color scheme instead of the traditional red, blue and yellow. These papers were perfect.

Stop back tomorrow for the banner I made out of bar coaster using the same papers

Cookin up cards

Happy Monday! This week was my week for cards at Cookin Up Creations. I made 2 cards using the products in my design team kit. The adorable Margarita Moments stamps from Unity Stamp Company are absolutely PERFECT for making cards for your girlfriends! I paired them with the Whiskers Graphics Divine Twine in bright happy colors.

Card 1:

I colored the stamps with BIC Mark it markers. I just tied the twine in a bow and added it to the card

 Card 2:

I colored the margarita glasses half full to look like we'd already been drinkin. I wrapped the divine twine around a strand of felt rick rack. Trim looks crooked in the photo. It isn't.

 Hope you have a fabulous Monday!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Aubrey's 1st birthday! I seriously cannot believe my baby girl is ONE already.  It makes me both extremely happy and a little sad. She is growing up so fast. My tiny little snuggly girl is now a running, talking toddler. She is her own little person with her own little personality traits and funny quirks. I just love her to pieces.

Her party is this Sunday, but I couldnt resist giving her a teeny birthday celebration anyways. We`had a big special breakfast.We dressed her up in a pretty dress and went outside to play. Then my mom stopped over with a big balloon (that she played with for the rest of the night).

After dinner we decided to give her a cupcake. She will still have her smash cake on Sunday. We dont give her sweets often so I figured it wouldnt hurt to let her have sugar twice this week. We lit the candle and I held the cupcake in front of her and we sang. When we blew the candle out and exclaimed "YAY" (she loves saying yay) and she bust out crying. A major freak out. I had to take her out of her high chair and calm her down before she could eat her cake. I dont know if she was upset we blew the candle out or if something scared her, but she was a hot mess.

5 minutes later she was all over that cupcake

 

She ate almost the entire cupcake! Of course she had to have a shower immediately afterwards. I cant wait til her party.

Speaking of her party I still I have lots to do! I have to get the cupcake picks and the water bottle labels finished tonight. Ive finished a wall banner, a small banner for her high chair, a 12" altered A for the gift table, 20 party poppers full of candy for kid favors and have the signs 1/2 finished. Fingers crossed I can get everything done by friday night. Saturday is cooking and decorating day. Thanksfully my 4 teenage nieces are coming to help with all that.

that Twine is DIVINE

Its MONDAY! That means its time for my weekly project for the Cookin Up Creations design team. This week its all about the layouts! I used the DIVINE Twine from Whisker Graphics that was in my packet. I'm seriously LOVING this divine twine. It's so easy to use and adds such a pop to my pages. I find myself wanting EVERY color! Who knew a little thing like bakers twine could add so much to a page

On this layout I used the divine twine to make butterfly trails

I used the Best Creation BELLA line that I was lucky enough to WIN on their blog contest a few weeks ago. They were so generous and sent me 2 of each paper!! Im using it to create things for Aubrey's birthday party next week because the colors are perfect! I have an banner, an altered alpha and 2 layouts finished with this awesome line. Its so sparkly!

and speaking of the lovely BELLA.... here is another layout. Its perfect for lil girlies!

Petite Pinwheel tutorial

Pinwheels have been all the rage in scrapbooking this year. They add a nice whimsical touch to any layout or card. Most bigger pinwheels involve brads so they can spin but I like to make teeny tiny pinwheels to use as embellishments. Instead of brads, I use glue dots or zots to make them super easy.

I used the October kit from Tidbitz in Time for this project

 You need:
*Square pieces of double sided patterned paper. I used a 2"x2"
*Scissors
*Buttons
*Glue dots or Zots

1. Fold your square of paper in 1/2 diagonally. Then fold it again

2. Unfold paper. Cut along the fold lines about 3/4 of the way in

3. Place a glue dot in the middle

4 Fold every other corner in towards the center and stick into the glue dot

5. Place another glue dot on the back of a button and stick button onto center of pinwheel

And there you have it... and easy peasy pinwheel

Now use it on your latest creation

Margarita Moments

A month or so ago I was asked to guest design for a really cool community called Cookin Up Creations. Its a fun message board with daily challenges and lots of inspiration. Its not a store.... just a group of women who love to scrapbook chatting and playing. I was set to guest design in December, but due to really generous sponsors I will be designing October, November and December. Cool deal!

My first design team kit contained an adorable set of stamps called "Margarita Moments" from Unity Stamp Company. I had never tried Unity stamps and now I need more. They are made from high quality red rubber and they come ready to stick to your acrylic block. The images are crisp and clean. Im in love.

I also received  Divine Twine from Whisker Graphics. I was a bakers twine virgin. I knew it was big and trendy at the moment but had never tried it. I NEED more! Like yesterday! I only used a teeny bit on this project but you will be seeing me use more and more of it. I think I added a little to all 5 of my assigned projects.

My first assignment was an altered item. Since the stamps I received were drink related I decided to alter a 6x6 American Crafts album to hold my drinky drink recipes.

 Stay tuned next Monday when I post more of my creations from these 2 fabulous sponsors! Also stop by Cooking Up Creations forum and check out the daily blue plate special! :)

Moons & Monsters

Have you seen the spooktacular October kit from Tidbitz in Time? Its full of the delicious new Little Yellow Bicycle Booville papers, a frightening haunted house mini album and the love of my life... HAMBLY. Its the perfect halloween treat for you! No tricks

Here are 3 of the projects I created....

I cant wait til I have halloween pictures of Aubrey from this year because Im sooooo all over that fabulously funky mini album! Check out the design team gallery to see the rockin job guest designer Suzanna did with the mini

The walk!

Sunday was the Cleveland Walk for Autism Speaks. Aubrey and I went to walk in honor of my sweet as punch nephew Wyatt who was diagnosed 6 months ago (around his 2nd birthday)

Our little team of 10 (including babies) managed to raise $3000 for the cause and had a blast walking around downtown Cleveland pushing strollers. It was a chilly, gray Ohio fall morning.....only 55 degrees (it was almost 90 the day before) The wind coming off lake Erie made it even chillier. We bundled up the kiddos so they were nice and toasty and off we went. 

We has 2 members in the over $1000 group so we got to go in the special Grand club tent and ate delicious breakfast burritos and smoothies. Plus they took our team picture! I'll post it when I get a copy :)

Once again I was a little lazy with the camera because my mom had her SLR out snapping away and I knew Id be able to get pictures to scrap from her. I did snap a couple with my iphone

 

My handsome nephew Wyatt

Sleepy Aubrey hugging George

mmmmm Cookies!! (yes i ate 2 but burned them off walking)

Thank goodness for my hideous old school Crocs! I was very worried about the walk because Im pretty sure I broke my pinky toe on Saturday afternoon. Its still completely purple and swollen. The Crocs are the only shoes (other than flip flips) that fit on my foot without immense PAIN! I couldnt have made it through without them. I knew there was a reason to keep them after I quit bartending!

Fun at the park

This past weekend was so nice we decided it would be fun to take Aubrey to the park. Originally we were going just to walk around and enjoy the weather, but when we got there the BIG new jungle gym was deserted. We then decided to let Aubrey have her way with it. She was so cute exploring the tunnels and playing peek a boo with mommy around the bars. Daddy even let her go down the slide!

Here are a few of the over 100 pics I took! They arent perfect pics because I took them with my iphone but they are scrappable! yay!

Isnt she just the sweetest! She had a fabulous time running and climbing all over the place. It just thrills me to watch her walk around and figure things out. She is SO smart.

I wish I could take her all the time. It makes me sad that the weather is getting colder and there are only a few more days like this left in the year. Im going to try to take her tomorrow afternoon since it will be 80 degrees.

I also got some scrapping done this weekend. The park tired her out and she took an extra long nap in my scraproom. Check out this layout of Aubrey with my younger brother Ede I created with Cosmo Cricket Garden Variety papers. Ive been itching to use them since I found the stack of them at (the NEW) Hobby Lobby

I just noticed I forgot to date it before I scanned it. Oh well. hehe!

Treasured part 1

This month I was asked to guest design over at Treasured Scrapbooking.  Its a very cool scrapbook store with a message board full of fun and inspiration.

September is a little different at Treasured. Its kit REWIND month. Since she has a fairly new design team she decided to send everyone a past kit and have them rework it. Then she put ALL of the past kits on sale with a hefty discount! (you really should check out the deals!!)

I was sent the February 2010 card kit "Cupids Arrow"  to rework into layouts. Its full of webster's pages, pink paislee and prima. Its so feminine and pretty. Perfect for ladylike layouts of my favorite girls. Here are a few of the projects I created for treasured....

 

I have a few more tricks up my sleeve as well.... but I have to wait til my 2nd reveal in a few days to post them (along with my original 8.5x11 sketch)  In the meantime go try to snatch up the kit before its gone (did i mention its under $10??)

Yay my prize is here!!

Remember this layout? See that little band across the bottom of it??

I cant believe I forgot to share this!! I WON the stamping challenge on the American Crafts blog a few months ago. Well my prize finally arrived and they sent me.....

15 of their brand NEW pigment ink pads!!

Holy Cow I am in heaven! The colors are so bright and beautiful! I seriously cannot wait to bust them open and ink up every stamp in my possession (okay so that would take days, but you get the drift, right?) A big thanks to American Crafts so being SO generous. Totally made my day. If it is nice an sunny tomorrow I will take a pretty picture of my haul :) (after I get all inky)

C-c-c-cold

Fall is officially here. It seems all the sudden our 90 degree days became 70 degree days. Its time to pack away the swimsuits and drag out the long sleeves.... Labor day weekend was a busy one. We had a 1st birthday party for Matt's cousin's son, a cookout, a bonfire and a football game. Somewhere in the fun we got exposed to the evil cold bug. Aubrey had never been sick and was a major fuss bucket both tuesday and wednesday. Of course there is no rest when you are the mommy. I was up all night with her both nights. Then it hit me HARD on thursday.... ugh!!

Aubrey is feeling much better but has a serious drippy nose. Im feeling a little better thanks to my troop of 4 teenage nieces babysitters that came to play with Aubs last night. I got to hide in my nice finished basement to scrap and nap for 2 hours last night. I REALLY needed it. I never get to be alone. It was nice.

I have decided on a halloween costume for Aubs... Wouldnt she make the perfect Pebbles??

and her cousin Wyatt could be BAM BAM! I will have to get working on her costume soon!

Tell me it wouldnt be perfect?