Love is in the air...

I made this for the Scrapbook Deals 4U Valentines Day weekend crop:

The challenge is to use a Love Song as the inspiration and title for a layout. The paper is from the new Jocelyn line by SEI and I love these colors together for a Valentine's project! I hand cut the tree, then cut a ton of little hearts and the title from the Simply Sweet cartridge on the Cricut. I can't tell you where I got the heart shaped bling, it's been in my stash for ages! But I can tell you that the large swirly bling is from Prima, and the photo is of Hector and I jacuzzing in Costa Rica a couple years ago...isn't it funny? His face really isn't that big in person, I swear!

So anyway, if you're not doing anything this weekend, you should totally come over to the message board and join in the fun! There are tons of challenges and prizes to be won, and more inspiration that you could possibly need!

See you there!

SD4U February Kit Projects

Basic Grey...you gotta love it! But as much as the papers in this "Origins" kit are beautiful, the embellishments included are a blingy dream! Glittered and blinged rubon flourishes and butterflies, layered & glittered stickers, fuzzy woolies...all SO much fun to play with without a huge mess!

Here's what I've done with this gorgeous kit:

Watch Me Grow: Admittedly, I am paper-folding challenged. I try to make those cute spiral-y flowers that are so popular right now, and end up with something that loosely resembles oatmeal. *sigh* But I see those cute pleated paper strips on layouts everywhere, and I love the texture it adds, so I decided to throw caution to the wind and give it my best shot for this layout! I will admit, though, I did measure and use my ruler and scoring blade, because I'm OCD like that :P And in the end, I'm so glad I did and am pretty dang proud of myself! The little fabric tree here was a freebie I picked up at CHA, but you could easily cut your own with some brown and green paper...there's plenty of it in this fabulous kit!

Ashley: This was such a fun layout to make! Check out my step-by-step in the class/tutorial forum on the SD4U message board to learn how I put it together, and made the hand-cut flower.

Do What You Love: For my Grandmother and I, that's travelling! In the kit, there's this gorgeous butterfly rubon, and I wanted it to really stand out on my page and hang off the title block...so I rubbed it onto a scrap of brown cardstock, trimmed around it, and outlined it with platinum stickles and BOOM! It just flew right off the page. I cut the title block from the Home Decor cartrige for the Cricut.

Kitty Love: Oh, the flowers in this kit are so much fun to play with! On this layout I had a blast adding stickles and buttons and popping them up with foam dots. I cut the swirlies underneath with my Cricut and (again) Home Decor cart.

And Finally, a thank you card. I should send this to Martha for the awesome February kit!

Valentine's Day Crop!

Have you heard?

Scrapbook Deals 4 U will be hosting a super fun online crop over Valentine's Day weekend! There will be several awesome games, challenges, contests, giveaways and prizes!

The Grand Prize?? A design team spot for 3 months! How awesome is THAT?

Martha and her design team are currently working on getting all of the plans in place...more details will be coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled!

Greetings from Clayton!

This one's for the family...

Isn't he just as cute as a bug's ear? Growing and learning everyday, and so much fun to be around. I'm so lucky to get to spend time with him every week...he really is the light of my life! He is obsessed with his cars and trucks, can't be bothered to eat much, and says at least 25 words or so. And check out those two teeth...finally!

xoxo,

Auntie and Clayton :)

SD4U January Kit Projects

If I'm being 100% honest, ME + MASCULINE paper = Total Panic!

I like a lot of it....it's pretty cool for the most part, sure, but give me some to scrap with and I get brain freeze...!! What? No flowers, hearts, cute little owls and NO pink? Oh NO!

So needless to say, when I first opened the Urban Ink kit, I was super intimidated. But after I found a few cute sketches and started cutting it all up, I was amazed how much easier these layouts came together than I expected! The patterns made the paper selections easy, and the colors look so great together, I totally ended up loving this line!


Unique: These photos belong to a friend of mine...they are photos her daughters gave her of themseles as a Christmas gift (what a cool idea!). I borrowed them because I wanted to do a layout that featured girls instead of boys, to show just how versatle this kit can really be. Aren't these awesome photos...grungy and edgy and perfect with this paper and those barbed wire rubons! Thanks Linda (and Kathy)!


100% Boy: I fell in love with the WRMK foil border sticker roll in this kit...totally adorable and easy to apply...not too sticky, but sticky enough! I covered the large chipboard star with some paper from the kit, sanded the edges, and backed it with another pattern...I love how it became a catch-all for embellishments and the epoxy sticker title.

My Handsome Hubby: These are a few of my favorite photos of my hubs. I cut the scalloped border with my apron lace punch (yep! still loving that thing!). "Handsome" is cut from Plantin and "My" & "hubby" are cut from my NEW Don Juan cartridge on my cricut, I just love that font! Instead of covering or painting the chipboard stars on this, I simply sprayed them with gold glimmer mist...fast and easy!


Read to Me: This is based on sketch #105 at Sketch Inspiration...their sketches are awesome and make getting started so much easier! The chipboard stars on this one were painted with a light blue acrylic paint, then inked with a combination of chesnut and charcoal. I love the versatility of chipboard, and how you can get so many different looks depending on the media you use. That's what scrapping is REALLY all about for me...getting messy and having fun!

Thanks for taking a peek, and please don't forget to share what you do with YOUR fabulous January kit over on the SD4U Message board...whichever one you chose! You could even win a prize :)

Calling All Locals

Why not take a break from all the Holiday hustle and bustle and join me for an afternoon of scrappy fun this Saturday, December 19th at The Scrapbook Garden? We'll be making this cute holiday banner for you to display on your mantle or door this holiday season, and for many Christmases to come. This "NOEL" banner features gorgeous products from Basic Grey, Creative Imaginations, Prima and more. As always, there will be music and munchies...and of course, prizes!

This class is filling up fast, so call the Scrapbook Garden today to reserve your spot! See you there!

My December SD4U Kit Projects

This month, I designed with the SD4U "What's Cookin" Kit...and while it's not Christmas-y, it was still such a treat! This kit features two great paper lines: Nook & Pantry from Basic Grey, and Farm Fresh from October Afternoon. Check this baby out:

And while the lines really are geared toward cooking and recipies (which I have zero experience with, seriously...ask my hubby!), I was able to make some really cute stuff that wasn't cooking themed at all!

Mr. Sweet Cheeks: The title says it all, doesn't it? Have you ever seen more pinch-worthy cheeks in your life? Special shout out to my friend Alice for loaning me her new EK punch to make that great big blue scallop...I really gotta get me one of those!




Friends: This one was based on one of Becky Flecks fabulous December Pagemaps sketches. There's that great scallop punch again! The flower cluster on the journaling block was totally fun to put together using all the great embellies included in this kit: Glitter brads, BG layered flower stickers, BG Opal bling, and some yummy white Primas!



My Buddy: This one is based on a skech I found on a new sketch site called Sketch Inspiration. It's a fun little community with lots of scrapping talent and inspiration!



Pure Bliss: A step by step tutorial of this one can be found on the SD4U Message Board if you feel like scrapping! If not, stop by anyway and just say Hello! There's some great Xmas Inspiration being shared over there right now!

Card & Gift Box: I made this great little gift box in about 10 minutes! The box itself is from Creative Imaginations, and it's precut and scored already so all you have to do is tack it together! These would be so cute decorated for Christmas to hand out candy to your friends, wouldn't they?

On a side note, how's that Christmas shopping coming along? I haven't even started yet!