Did you see?????? :)

Hi everyone!!!!  Today is a great day!  I am still on a high from this!  :D  Couldn't be happier!  

Well I do have a card to share with you today.  It uses the new My Private Happiness collection from The ScrapCake (I was SO happy when I got this in my hands!) and the yet to be released Heartsong 2 from Skipping Stones Design.  Heartsong was so popular they had to add another one.  ;)  It will be available soon!  

Here is my card:

And this was the new sketch at Skipping Stones:

The sketch was created by the fabulous Angi Barrs.  I hope you take the challenge and play along with us!  *You do NOT have to have Skipping Stones Design stamps to play along!*  Play along here. 

And you don't want to miss out on what the rest of the team did with this sketch, check those out here:

* Jennifer Ingle

* JoAnn Valderama

* Kandi Philips

* Karen Baker

* Katie Gehring

* Lindsay Amrhein

* Stephanie Mino

* Wendy Jordan

* Wendy Price

And our guests for the month, along with Angi:

* AJ Otto

* Amy Tsuruta

So, like I said, I hope you play along with us!  :)

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY EVERYONE!!!! 

Have a fantastic day!!!

Love Me Some Large Shapes! :)

Hi everyone!!!  I am hoping things will get back to normal here on the blog, back to the consistent blogging M-F...that's the plan anyways.  I am also getting some good blog candy to giveaway.  ;) 

If you missed my challenge that I posted on my blog, please check it out here.  :)

So I am off the crutches, and stepped down on pain meds.  Things are looking pretty good...a little gimpish, but still good!  :)  Haven't had too much scrap time, but I am really hoping to change that.  

Here's a layout I did using the new PB&J collection from BasicGrey.  I used large diamonds to make my background.  

That huge flower is also from BasicGrey and I love it!  My design elements were all big, but I went smaller with the photos.  

Here are some close up's:

Thanks for stopping by today, and hanging by with me as I posted less!  You all rock.  

Have a wonderful day!!!!

Book Cover Inspiration Challenge #1

Hi everyone!  So, I am thinking of doing another series, and making it more of a challenge for readers to do too!  I often come across book covers that inspire me.  If I post them and challenge you to be inspired by them, would you play along?  Do you do challenges on personal blogs?  Or are there already too many challenges out there?  

Well here's one for you...

I came across this book on the internet and it made me laugh.  I do not own the book.  :)  But I found it very inspiring!  I loved the lines of words next to the tall cat.  I could immediately see stitching as lines, and multiple alphabets for words, as well as one cut out figure from a photo.  So I took the challenge and created this layout:

I actually did this for a post on the Fancy Pants blog.  All the papers and letters are from Fancy Pants.  I used the fun new Be You collection.  

I think the layout turned our very cute and fun!  Just what I was going for.  I cut pieces of paper for the lines but also added the stitching.  I just love this photo of my daughter and it went perfect with the design I was going for.  

Here are some close up's of my layout:

I hope you are feeling inspired and want to play along with me!  

And maybe I'm being a bit optimistic, but I am including one of those fancy link up things at the bottom for participants.  :)  So if you play along, link it up.

AND I will even offer up a prize for one lucky, random, participant in this fun challenge.  One winner will receive the beautiful Life Stories collection from My Mind's Eye.  

We'll see how this goes.  Show me how you are inspired by this book cover!  I so hope you play along, and make sure to link it up!  :)  Oh, and it doesn't have to be a layout!  It can be a card, or project, or anything.  Just have fun with it! 

Hopping with Skipping Stones and Scor-Pal!

Hello, friends! Thanks for stopping by today!  It has been 3 weeks since my surgery!  Things are starting to look better!  Yeah!  I actually made it downstairs yesterday to work on the project I am sharing today.  It was the first time I even tried to do anything creative since the surgery.  I so miss it.  But I am confident that things are going to start to return to normal, and I couldn't be happier about that. :)  I miss you all.

Well today Skipping Stones Design is excited to be releasing another BEAUTIFUL stamp set! It is called Beautiful Botanicals and it is a must have!!!

 And, even better, Skipping Stones has joined up with the fabulous Scor-Pal team for an amazing blog hop! The hop will begin at the Scor-Pal blog and will finish off at the Skipping Stones blog! If you came from Tami's blog you are already on track! If not, you may want to hop on back to Scor-Pal to join in on ALL the fun! Don't forget to leave comments! Skipping Stones Design will be giving away one stamp set to a lucky winner AND Scor-Pal is giving away a Scor-Buddy, so there is lots to win!

 So here is the new sketch for this week at Skipping Stones:

The sketch was created by the fabulous Angi Barrs.  I hope you take the challenge and play along with us!  *You do NOT have to have Skipping Stones Design stamps to play along!*

And here is what I created:

It is actually a thin folder.  I used the Scor-Buddy and scored lines to make the folds.  Really, I just winged the design.  And it's good enough for me.  :)

I have some sheets that go inside.  You can see them now like this:

I could leave them as is, as stationary.  But I either want to hand-write notes from each of us on the cards, or make mini scrapbook pages.  I've already made a couple, and I will let my kids help by making their own too.  :)

Here are the two I created:

The beautiful papers are all from The ScrapCake, from their The Bright Side of Life collection.  Yep, still lovin' that one!  :)

And of course, I used the new Beautiful Botanicals stamp set.

Now it's YOUR turn! Join in the sketch challenge this week by creating a card using the featured sketch and link up to the Skipping Stones site for your chance to win FREE stamps! You don't have to use Skipping Stones Stamps, but we love when you do! Do you have a Scor-Pal or Scor-Buddy? We would love to see you rocking those, too!!! We ask that you don't combine the challenge with more than five total in your post (including SSD) and please link back here! Have fun!


*** Your next stop on the hop is Amy's blog! 

Don't forget to leave comments so you can win the stamp set or Scor-Buddy!  


A HUGE thank you to Scor-Pal for providing Scor-Buddies to the Skipping Stones Design Team! We LOVE THEM!!!! Here is the complete hop order for you, just in case!

• Scor-Pal Blog 
• Lindsay Amrhein 
• Diane Zechman 
• Katie Gehring 
• Gini Cagle 
• Stephanie Mino 
• Karen Baker 
• Anji Barrs 
• Lisa Andrews 
• JoAnn Valderama 
• Katie Tate 
• A.J. Otto 
• Jennifer Ingle 
• Steph Ackerman 
• Wendy Jordan 
• Tami Mayberry 
• Pamela Young 
• Amy Tsuruta 
• Kandi Phillips 
• Virginia Nebel 
• Wendy Price 
• Skipping Stones Design Blog

Oh, and in case you missed it...Skipping Stones is having a FABULOUS contest over on their Facebook page!  We need a fabulous SSD project to use as the Cover Photo and we want it to come from YOU!  Simply upload your photo to the SSD Fan page to enter (make a note on it so we know you are entering) and one winner will get a FREE set of stamps AND be the featured project on our Facebook Cover!

Thanks for stopping by today!  :)

Have a wonderful day!!!

Now head over to Amy's blog.  

Score!

Hi everyone!  Thanks for all the nice comments and emails asking how I have been doing.  I'm doing pretty good.  My CPM machine for my leg is now gone!  I've been actually getting up off the couch!  Mind you...not much, but hey, it's progress!  :)  There is still pain, but my physical therapist says I am doing really good and I actually surprised him by doing something he didn't think I'd be able to doyet, so that's cool!

Well remember back in January when I guessed designed for Skipping Stones Design.  Well I was so happy when I found a message in my inbox telling me they loved my work and wanted to see more of it!  :)  They have asked me to join their team for a bit!  :)  I am excited about this, because it means more cards!  And of course, more stamping, which if you have known me for long at all you know that I love stamping! 

So today I get to share a new card with you that I made using a new stamp set from Skipping Stones Design.  You actually can't buy the stamp set yet, so this is a sneak of what is to come.  ;)   

My card uses the yet to be released, Beautiful Botanicals stamp set from SSD.  The papers are from The ScrapCake.  And then I used my new Scor-Buddy from Scor-Pal to do the bottom part of the card.  I scrored several lines of the bottom of my cardstock before I cut my card so it was still the same size I usually do (5.5 x 4.25).  I also scored a small piece of white cardstock and then tied it in the middle and added it on top of my card, for additional texture and design.  We actually have a hop coming up with Scor-Pal, so stay tuned for that.  :) 

This was the SSD sketch for this week:

The sketch was created by the fabulous Angi Barrs.  I hope you take the challenge and play along with us!  *You do NOT have to have Skipping Stones Design stamps to play along!*  Play along here. 

And you don't want to miss out on what the rest of the team did with this sketch, check those out here:

* Jennifer Ingle
* JoAnn Valderama
* Kandi Philips
* Karen Baker
* Katie Gehring
* Lindsay Amrhein
* Stephanie Mino
* Wendy Jordan
* Wendy Price

And our guests for the month, along with Angi:

* AJ Otto
* Amy Tsuruta

So, like I said, I hope you play along with us!  :)

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY EVERYONE!!!! 
Have a fantastic day!!!

Once Upon A Sketch

Well it's March!  And with the new month comes a new challenge over at Once Upon A Sketch! I do hope you play along with us! :)

The challenge:

Journaling Criteria: The focus of your journaling and the theme of your layout has to be based on YOU and the one thing that you are really good at. Don't be shy! We are all good at something as small or as big as it might be.  It is so easy to name off the things we can't do well or what we want to improve on, but it's nice to recognize that we are good at some things too and it is absolutely ok to acknowledge those things! 

You MUST combine the journaling criteria with this sketch:

My Layout:

Well I choose not to focus on one specific thing I am good at, but to name a few things I like about myself...a few things I think I am good at which make me a good person.  :)

Here's my layout: 

So I did this layout before knee surgery and took the picture then as well.  But didn't catch in time that there was something on the lense.  I tried to edit is as well as I can, but it still looks a bit blurry to me...just in the middle, sorry about that.  The close ups looks a bit better, but there's nothing I can do about this one right now.  Oh well, right. 

Everything comes from Fancy Pants, from their Be You collection.  I love love love this fun collection. 

Here's the close up's:

The prizes:

You won't want to miss the prizes you can win...lots of good stuff!

1. The winner of this challenge, as chosen by the Design Team, will win a spot on our Design Team for the month of April. As well as that, the winner will also receive a nice prize from Berry71Bleu 's etsy shop:

2. One RANDOM lucky person will receive GORGEOUS handmade tag from Berry71Bleu.  Here is an example of the kind of tag you could receive..

3. One RANDOM lucky person will receive 2 paper collections from Feature Art:

See!!! Lots to win! :)

I really hope you play along with us this!!!! You have until March 14th to upload your entry here. Can't wait to see what YOU do! :)

Thanks so much for stopping in today!!!!  Today is Hayden's birthday!  He turns 7!  He's a bit bummed we aren't having a big party right now, but I hope to play some games and just spend some nice time together today.  We will have family over to celebrate this weekend, but can't do too much because I am still laid up on the couch.  I hope to convince him that games with mommy on the couch can be just as fun.  ;)  We did buy Hugo too...so we get to watch that. 

Have a wonderful day!  

Update and a Project

I'll tell you one thing....I am so sick of laying on the couch!  I'm still in a lot of pain, and sleeping a lot.  I am just so ready for this to be over with.  I don't do well with doing nothing. 

Still a lot going on though.  Eryn turned 3!!!  Although sometimes she seems older than she is, so it's kinda hard to believe that she's only 3!  

My sweet Austin has been having trouble at school.  There's a bully situation we are dealing with.  But I am feeling pretty good about the school's efforts to deal with it.  And they are supposed  to be meeting with the parents of this kid today...the whole thing is frustrating and heart-breaking.  I just don't get it, and there seems to be so much of it (bullying) going on these days.  It's sad how many people have stories they can share.   

Not all is bad though....I'm getting lots of good cuddle time from the kids.  I think they are worried about me.  Austin and Eryn especially.  Hayden kind of lives in his own little world. 

I've discovered Viggle and have been accumulating bunches and bunches of points since I don't have much else to do.  I am saving my points and trying to collect enough for a Kindle.  If you haven't heard of Viggle before, you essentially get points for checking into tv programs.  I have the app on my phone and just check in when something new comes on. 

Well I do have a project to share today as well.  It's a canvas that I created to hang on the wall.  I showed the step by step process on the Fancy Pants blog, so check that out here. 

The papers and stickers are all from Fancy Pants, from their Winterland collection.  Here is a close up:

Well thanks for popping in again today!!!!  I'll be back soon!

Have a fantastic (LEAP YEAR) day!!