iScrap Challenge #12

I'm seriously behind on the year in review iScrap challenges I decided to do this year. What's a girl to do? It's been a hectic month, and it's going to be a hectic next month too. Maybe the summer will be better. Until then I'll just have to do what I can. Here's Challenge #12:


It's from a trip up to Napa Valley for a surprise party. We opted to make a weekend out of it and had a great time. The colors in the scan are a bit off, but it's close. I used a transparency overlay on the right side and a Me and My Big Ideas - Kay Flower on the top (these seem to go with everything lately) 3 different pattern papers and a card stock base. Overall I'm reasonably happy with the end result. The focus of the layout was supposed to be a random picture and I choose one of my favorite pictures from the weekend.

Addicted

For a while when I was younger I was into trading cards. There was something soothing about sorting, collecting and acquiring a complete set. For the last year or so these $1 Studio G stamp sets have been showing up in stores. Now unfortunately they have different sets for different stores, some sets go to Michael's, some to Joan's and others to JC Moore. You see the dilemma? Only Michael's are nearby our house and only one tends to have decent stock of the $1 stamps. Every few months a new series, this is series 11. And it was my lucky night because they had all 16 in the set. My other sets are missing one or two here or there since I just didn't get there fast enough. I love them. And even if I didn't love each and every one I'd have to have them all, because I'm addicted.

1st Acrylic Album

I decided to try out an Acrylic album. My parents are getting a new puppy and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to give it a whirl. I had a blast. I'd also just gotten my first kit from Create My Keepsakes featuring Pink Paislee. I couldn't have been more excited to dig in!! I also used some of the KI Memories Lace cardstock I've been saving for the right opportunity.

Front of Album

First pictures of Bessie.

Bessie starting to grow

Mom Kaylee and Bessie loving her tummy rubbed.

Chewing everything in sight.

The back of the album. A picture of all three sister. Too cute!!

Birthday Bowling

When Kyle and I started dating again, nearly 5 years ago, we talked about going bowling. We've been meaning to go, and wanting to go and the closest we came was wii bowling (fun but not exactly the same). So when our friend had her birthday party this year at a bowling alley we were totally excited. Finally we got our chance and hang out with friends all at the same time. We had a great time and hopefully it won't be another 5 years before going back to the bowling alley.

I used a tiny bit of pink paislee (the frame) and some papers from a monthly kit from coordinates collections and thickers for the letters..

Happy Birthday Scott!!

Today is Scott's Birthday. We met almost 14 yrs ago as we embarked on college and the road to adulthood. I'm not sure either of us realized the journey ahead, but I'm forever grateful for the friend I found during those summer days of college orientation. I realized a while ago I didn't have any scrapbook pages with one of my best friends, so when I came across this picture on his flickr site I decided it was the perfect opportunity. Here's a layout:


Making use of some Daisy D's paper. Simple and sweet, but remains one of my favorite layouts.

Here's the card (I made) and we gave him earlier this week. Still loving the Hey There Cupcake Stamp Set, and my gigga punch.



Happy Birthday!! Hope it's a good one.

Birthday Boys

Today is both my Dad's and Rich's birthdays. Birthday season is cranking up.



Here's the card I gave my dad over the weekend when we saw him. I waver between loving it and seeing the little technical problems. I do like the way the blue detail on the bottom (puffy paint) looks like frosting.... I don't like that it's not very even and was a pain to work with. I do like the cupcake and the sparkles, but wasn't quite sure about the colors. One minute love... the next I question. But I'm allowed to be indecisive right? We sent Rich one of the cupcake cards (an orange base) from an earlier post.

Happy Birthday!!!!

Vacation Album Complete

I finally finished an album for my husband an I. Despite the fact our honeymoon album lay nearly done and others by their very nature are "in progress" I can finally say I've finished a project for us. Here the slide show for the album.

Birthday Card for A

So it was our good friend Alison's birthday the beginning of last week, and I had procrastinated on a card (I really have a few great excuses, neighbors house flooded into ours, knock down migraine etc.. ya ya ) So I finally had some time before her party Saturday and pulled this one together. I like the way it turned out, BUT unfortately the "frosting" didn't quite dry completely before we put it in the envelope *sigh*. So it didn't quite look as nice coming out of the envelope as it did coming in *blush* so sorry about that.

Supplies:
Marvy Giga Punch Scalloped Circle
Hey There Cupcake Stamp Set
Papertrey ink - Borders & Corners {Circle}
Brads
Fontwerks Paper - Swish Too Too
Tuxedo Assorted Paper Frills (Doodlebug)

Spring in Bloom

iScrap Challenge #11 to scrap signs of spring. Living in CA, spring is definately here. Tulips and the first wave of spring flowers are starting to bloom. I used some Basic Grey paper and rub ons, along with Martha Stewart glitter rubbons (the only Martha scrapbooking products I've made the plunge on so far), flower eyelets, paper ribbon and a chipboard arrow and a few other miscellaneous items.

Special Delivery --> ME

hehe... it is all about me! My mom gave me copies of the birth announcements this weekend that she had sent out when I was born. I also had a pile of old pictures on my table that I've been meaning to get to and one of the pictures in there was one of me just after I was born with my dad so a layout was born. This morning I started out working on some cards and seemed to have lost my craft mojo but I think I got it back!! I love the way it came together. I wanted all of the birth announcement to be accessible so I went with an "interactive" layout putting the original announcement in a protective sleeve. I'm really happy with the results. It's been a while since I've done a 12x12 layout since I've been enjoying 8x8 and even playing with 8.5x11 this year but this one felt perfect.

Card For Mommy To Be

My sister-in-law is expecting her first "critter" and we couldn't be more excited. Her baby shower is this weekend and unfortunately we aren't able to drive up there for the Sunday afternoon event :( We've already sent the gifts but here is the card I created to let her know we are thinking about her and wish we could be there. I used one of the $1 stamp sets from Michaels for the center image. I used chalks to color it in. The other stamped images are from Papertrey Ink in conjunction with my marvy giga scalloped punch (love it!). Embellishment flowers and pebble brads are from Making Memories. I also used my current favorite ribbon. It came in a monthly kit and I wish I had a whole roll.

Have your cake and eat it too

I finally got my Hey There Cupcake stamp set. I'll admit I have a few more stamp sets than I actually have ever used. These I were determined to give a try. They were just too adorable not to. Here are the first cards I came up with. I do love this stamp set.

iScrap Challenge #8

I've been hiting the iScrap challenges hard this week. This is the 3rd one I finished up. The challenge was to scrap 5 things you are loving this month. Complete description here. This was one of those challenges I was a little unsure of when I read it, but turned out to be a lot of fun. The things I'm loving right now:

1. Illuminations vanilla poundcake candles!! They smell so great burning. The scent is a bit strong when you smell the "raw" candle but I love the way it scents the room.
   
2. Margaritaville! It's 5 o'clock somewhere, need I say more?
   
3. While we were on vacation my mom just couldn't help herself and spruced up our patio and planted some new flowers. It was really sweet and I love the hint of spring.
   
4. Brand new Payless Shoes I'm in love with. They are American Eagle Flutter Mary Jane Skimmers.
   
5. Asian pearl drinks.... yummy!!
   
   

iScrap Challenge #6

This challenge was to scrap what Valentine's Day means to you. The challenge description is here. The journaling reads:

"The years I was single after college were rough. I had an especially hard time from Thanksgiving through New Years. This was the time of year for couples. The last holiday hurdle of the year was Valentine's Day. Now that Kyle and I have reconnected I value our time together and love him so completely. He is my Valentine."


Our first Valentine's Day he bought me a ceramic cat. It's become tradition that each year we've been together on Valentine's day he picks out another whimsy ceramic cat for my growing collection.

Paper Heaven

Since I'm still off this week on vacation!! I headed off today to do some shopping at Santana Row, one of my favorite spots to wander when I have free time (which is far too infrequent). I started off by picking up a sweetened hot jasmine green tea with milk (no pearls today). And headed off to my first stop Anthropology. I absolutely love this store. I love the all of the colors and the patterns and the housewares and just the way the store feels. I love all the clothes on the hanger and despite the fact that every time I've tried anything on it's looked awful on me I still must do at least one lap around the store when I'm in the area. Then I headed to Paper Source.

Some very good friends gave me a gift card for the holidays and I haven't had a chance to start spending it yet. Today was my first chance. I was so excited. This is another one of my favorite stores at Santana Row. They have AMAZING wrapping papers that are like works of art that I admire. They also have some scrapbooking supplies, envelopes galore and all sorts of other fun miscellaneous fun paper related items. This trip I picked up this amazing pick polka dot paper ( It feels amazing, is that a weird thing to say about paper?), a couple of beautiful sheets of cherry blossom vellum, heavy envelopes, crystal lines, a couple small inks, an envelope templates that I have been lusting for since I first saw them. Now they are mine!!!! ;) It's good day!!!

Normally next up would have been the Container Store. However, today there was nothing that I really "needed" and I had a long list of errands I still needed to get to. So I took a quick spin through tried and true Ann Taylor Loft, love this store (at least for work / dressy casual clothing). It was at this point I concluded the colors for spring are green, yellow and blue..... not sure how I'm feeling about this.

Now I just need to find time to dig into my new goodies!!

iScrap Challenge #7

I'm back from vacation and before I dive into our vacation photos (which right now feel a little overwhelming!!! It was quite a vacation!!) I'm back diving into the iScrap challenges. This challenge was to scrap something you (your child or pet) can't live without that isn't human. The only thing I could really think of was tivo, and I wasn't feelin' it so then I thought of Pixels current must have.... CAT GRASS. So here's another one dedicated to the bestest kitty in the world.

Happy Birthday for my Brother

Here's the birthday card I sent my brother. I missed being able to wish him an actual Birthday since we were away on vacation on a cruise ship and our cell service was pretty hit or miss. I'll save the vacation for another blog posting. This card was one of those cards that took forever to come together. I loved elements of it and I love the end result, but the patterns on the balloons gave me nothing but trouble.

Happy Birthday Jen!!

It's was my friend Jen's Birthday last week. She's headed off to Legoland to celebrate. She's such a kid at heart I love it!! Here's the card I sent her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!!!!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

First Valentine's Day card as husband and wife. Also the card that launched my card making obsession. I'd already caught the scrapbooking bug, but it finally dawned on me that paper crafting could be "more". Cards, tags, gift bags etc. are a totally fun way to use supplies. I am obsessed.

Valentine's day for my sweetie this year. It's funny that I see them side by side to see the similarities. It reminds me of the time I bought my dad the same birthday card 2 years in a row.

I ADORE this card

I had every intention of making cards to put on my etsy site, but well I made a card for my sweetie (to be posted later), then I made this one that absolutely adore and pretty much lost steam after that. I've been admiring my own work (how egotistical is that!) for like the last month, but still couldn't get motivated to make anything else for the day of love. Generally speaking the last project I've finished is my favorite.... BUT I think this is one of my favorite cards ever.