SSD 133

Hey there...just a quick pop in to share with you what I did for the newest sketch over at Skipping Stones Design.

I used the gorgeous Victorian Summer stamp set, as well as a bit of a sneak of a new one for the background...more on that one soon.

This is the sketch this week:

You can play along here.  And I do hope you play along.  You do not need to have Skipping Stones Design stamps to play along...but you can win some by doing so!  :)

Thanks for stopping in!
Have a wonderful day!!!  It's my son's birthday today and it is all about him!  :)  (He's 9!)

I {Heart} Paper!

So not long ago I saw this fabulous birdcage in the Silhouette store.  You can see the whole thing on this blog here.  She has a few different styles.  I loved them and couldn't wait to try it out!  I used my Cameo to cut out all the parts.

I must admit, I got a little frustrated with my Cameo though, as I was having a hard time cutting it all out, it wouldn't fully cut.  I am hoping I just need a new blade.

But anyways...so I cut the birdcage parts out of cardstock, and assembled them as best I could.  I think it looks great, although I am not completely sure I followed the instructions (I just kinda winged it!).

And I added a bunch of glitter to my birdcage.  Ok...so really I just added a bunch of glitter all over my workspace.  :)  Gotta love the stuff.

And then I made some of my own flowers, by cutting flowers and then curling over the pedals, layering them, and adding a bunch of glitter in the middle.  I used the One Moment in Time collection from The ScrapCake for these.

So...here's how it turned out:

See how much detail is in that birdcage...I love it!

The hope and love die cuts are also from The ScrapCake.  And here are close up's of my flowers:

The back is pretty much identical, except I used the word "Love" instead of "Hope":

What do you think?  I made this project for Flower Power Week over on The ScrapCake's blog (it was last week on the blog).  You should check it out, there are several more handmade flowers and gorgeous creations.

Isn't it amazing what you can create with paper!

I {heart} paper.  :)

Thanks for stopping in today!
Have a FANTASTIC day!

Photo Banners and Pictures

I often feel like I'm pretty much caught up with my photos and scrapbooking, but occassionally I will find a folder of pictures that I totally forgot about that.  That was the case with these pictures on my layout today.  Last year for Austin's birthday, we went miniature golfing.  I took a bunch of pictures, and even though none of them really turned out super, I wanted to use a bunch of them.  So the layout I am sharing today has 9 photos on it.  :)

I did it for the Chevron challenge on the BasicGrey blog.  I simply created my own chevron design with paper and stiching, but I also used a cool chevron border sticker from BG.

All the papers and embellishments are from the What's Up? collection from Basic Grey.

Here's my layout:

I did something different, and when I printed my photos, I just cut them in strips and cut a banner edge on one side.

I still really LOVE this collection...it is just so FUN!  :)

Here are some close up's:

Well we just got back from a trip to meet my new niece! She is beautiful. I thought I'd share some photos from our trip too. :) 

We stopped at a few fun sites along the way and really made it a road trip.  

At Golden Spike:

At Shoshone Falls:

At Malad Gorge:

And then meeting their new cousin:

It was a pretty good trip!

Thanks for stopping in today!!! I so appreciate you...YOU make me feel like I am not talking to myself. :) 

Have a wonderful day!

SSD Release

So Skipping Stones Design has a beautiful new stamp set called Breathtaking Butterflies.  And today we are hopping and sharing cards with the new set and sketch 132.

Here's my card:

It also uses the One Moment in Time collection from The ScrapCake.

Here is what sketch 132 looks like:

I hope you play along with the sketch here (you do NOT have to use SSD stamps).

Now it's time to hop on to Cyndi to see what she did with the beautiful new stamp set and sketch 132.  :)

Have a FANTASTIC day!

Field Day Fun

First off, thank you to everyone for the comments and the personal emails.  It has meant a lot.  :)  I don't want to skip over that.  Thank you!

Well, the end of the school year always marks Field Day for the boys.  This year was slightly different because they each had their Field Day on different days, in the past it has been on the same day.

The boys couldn't be more different.

Austin is competitive.  He wants to win.  And he wants others to follow the rules.
Hayden is a complete goofball.  He just wants to have fun.  I swear, he was falling on purpose at times just to get a laugh!

And of course, they each wanted their own layout done, with nothing about the other one on it.

Is this just a boy thing?  Sometimes I think they can't stand each other.

Anyways...here's Austin's Field Day layout:

I just love that top picture, where Austin is mid-air in front of everyone else in the potato sack race.  :)

I used the very cool Wave Searcher collection from Fancy Pants.

Here are the close up's:

I love those tiki dudes...not that they have anything to do with Field Day, but they are something DIFFERENT than the usual stuff I add to my pages.  

Those lines and swirl are a transparency from the line that I used behind my photos.  I thought it worked well like that.  

And then here is Hayden's layout:

This layout uses the fun Summer Soul collection from Fancy Pants.   Those white pieces are actually cut from this chipboard sheet:

I had two of these sheets of chipboard.  I thought about making a design using the surf boards, but I had already used some of them, so I didn't have as many as I wanted.  So instead, I took my scissors and cut around the empty spots and just used the outline.

Here are some close up's of my layout:

And speaking of Fancy Pants...did you see the sneaks of their newest releases:

I've already created some with these. I will share soon.  :)

Well thanks so much for stopping by the blog today!!!

I hope you have a fantastic day!

Being Real (and a bit transparent)

Wow...I disappeared on you all, huh.
Sorry about that.

The Excuses
Well first off...my kids got out of school.  And I love that.  We've been busy, it's just how summer goes.  But it does make it tougher to find time for all the other stuff I want to do.
And then I had a sick little one too, and then (of course) I got sick myself.  I am starting to feel better, but I still don't feel back to normal.

The Truth
While those are absolutely true, I also realize that there is a bigger reason for why I haven't been posting on the blog or doing projects.  And I am just going to be open about it.  So for the past year, well...a little longer than a year...our family has been dealing with something really tough.  And while I am not going to go into details about that, I will say that it has it's effects.  I have been struggling with the big D word...sometimes it feels a bit more controlled and sometimes I just really feel depressed and like I can't climb out of this pit.  During those times especially, I don't get much scrapbooking done...I just never FEEL like doing anything.  The funny thing is--when I HAVE to get something done and force myself to sit and work...I enjoy it!  I'm always glad I did it.  But if you have ever struggled with depression at all, then you probably know how short lived that enjoyment is.  Anyways...I am not trying to be a downer.  I figured I could put it out there and you would know...and perhaps somebody else will read my words and feel better about being "real" themselves.  We do this thing in life where we all pretend we have the perfect lives and are totally happy, but I have learned that in most cases--that's not real.


But I do have several projects to share with you.  I will spread them out over the next few posts.  First up--my projects for The ScrapCake.

Last month we had Women's Week on the TSC blog...we did projects honoring a woman in our lives, and we were supposed to make it really feminine.  Here's the layout I did:

I used a combination of papers from both the My Private Happiness and the One Moment in Time collections.  

My grandma is in kind of a sad place in her life too.  My grandpa passed away several years ago, and she just lives alone.  She doesn't leave the house much at all, and her laughter (which used to be abundant) has been replaced with complaints.  But I want to make sure that I don't remember her this way.  I want to remember her as the goofball she has been most my life.  She's funny, she loves to laugh, and sometimes she just does/says the silliest things.   I miss her smiles and her laughs.  

Here are some close up's of the layout:

The chipboard "remember" comes from Imaginarium Designs, the flowers from Prima, and the beautiful cameo embellishment and the lace from Webster's Pages.  

What do you think--does it look feminine?  

And then here are two cards I made using the My Private Happiness collection:

Ok...well I will be back soon!

I hope you have a FANTASTIC day!!!