Enjoying Everyday

February Photo Challenges

2012-02-01T21:15:00.000-08:00

This month I thought it would be fun to play along with a couple of photo challenges. It's a short month, so maybe I'll be able to keep up!

The first challenge is a daily photo from Fat Mum Slim's blog.

My view today:

I spent several hours working in my scrapbook room today. Lot's of Scrapbook Circle work going on. Processing incoming orders, placing orders and customer service. It was a good day. I also finished up my Project Life pages from last week, so I'll be sharing that soon. Yes, I need to clean up my desk.

The second photo challenge I decided to join in is 29 Things I Love in February on Allison Waken's blog. Allison and I met at Creative Estates last year and she is a talent scrapbook and photographer her in AZ. I'm excited to play along with her challenge.

All you have to do for this challenge is snap a picture of something you love each day.

Today I loved having Hannah read her bedtime story to me. So sweet.

It's hard to make it through the Love You Forever book without tearing up, so it was good that Hannah was reading instead of me. She was so cute. Everytime it came to the "Love you forever, Like you for Always" part she would set the book down and say the lines while pretending to rock a baby.

I'll be posting all of my photos on Instagram.

Did you know that even if you don't have an Instagram account, you can see the photos here? As long as the user's account is public, you can look up friends and see their photos.

Are you playing along with any photo challenges this month?

Playing with Pink

2012-02-01T06:12:00.000-08:00

Pink isn't usually one of the first colors that catch my attention when I'm creating, but this month the pinks in the Glitz Beautiful Dreamer line seemed irresistible.

This month the Glitz blog challenge is to use this color palette on a layout.

The pinks in the challenge plus the topic of a baby girl baby shower had me using as much pink as I could fit on this page.

This page started out as a regular 12 x 12 page, but it just wasn't feeling right. I decided to do something that I haven't done in years: make a 2 page 8.5 X 11 layout. This size was just right for fitting my pictures and leaving space to tell the story.

This page was so much fun to create. I layered long banner strips with tulle and then the photo. I sewed it altogether with hot pink thread. The little flags added a playful touch to the page and were a perfect spot to place the title. I wrapped the flags around pearl topped stick pins to add another bit of a feminine touch.

Another thing I haven't done in a very long time is type out my journaling. My handwriting just wasn't working on the page, so I trimmed down one of the Glitz papers, fed it through the printer and then cut the journaling into strips.

The inspiration for my second layout was the sweet "You are My Sunshine" card in the Glitz Whatnots. I love that song and wanted to use it one a page. The grid design with photos of my three kids plus the song card came to mind mind and I went with it.

For the title on this page, I cut this paper layer apart and pieced it back together to spell "I Love You."

Now that I have my sewing machine set up and running, I'm finding it hard not to add a touch of sewing to each of my pages and this one was no exception. I hand tore the hearts and then sewed them right onto the page.

Thanks for stopping by! I hope you enjoyed my PINK layouts today.

Lisa

Nancy's Baby Shower Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Patterned Paper: Damask, Floral, Polka, Houndstooth, Stripe
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Trims
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs Teeny Alpha White Type
Other: Date Stamp, Distress Ink, Mini Staples, Stick Pins

I Love You Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Patterned Paper: Damask, Floral, Polka, Houndstooth, Stripe, Toile
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Paper Layers
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Giant Rhinestone
Other: Date Stamp, Distress Ink

CHA Trip Recap: Part 2

2012-01-31T16:35:00.000-08:00

CHA is a bi-annual trade show for all types of crafting products. When I go, I only focus on the scrapbooking products. This year I was lucky to have three of the Scrapbook Circle design team ladies with me. Diana, Heather and Jennie were all so helpful and it was really fun to spend time with them.

We only had 1.5 days at the show, so we were focused and scouted out all of our favorite things for the next few Scrapbook Circle Kit.

On the first day of the show, we were there for the full trade show hours from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. We spent the day visiting all of the scrapbook related booths, collecting samples and taking notes. We met up for dinner and then went back to the hotel room to plan kits. We worked on kits until we couldn't keep our eyes open any longer and then finished up kit planning in the morning. We filled out order forms and turned in most of them before we had to leave.

I worked more today finishing up order forms. Now we just have to wait for the product to start arriving.

To do a proper CHA photo recap, I really need another day at the show so that I could focus on photos rather than kit ordering. But, I will share the photos that I managed to take.

The Heidi Swapp booth was full of Heidi's fun and creative style. We loved many of the embellishments here. Some of our favorites were Poloroid photo frames and the color magic products.

The GCD Studios booth had several new lines with some nice pieces. No product photos, but we did get a photo in their photobooth.

The Jillibean Soup booth was full of traditional Jillibean style. We loved the new soup label stickers and the alphas.

We really liked the new Jenni Bowlin Studios stickers. The honeycomb date stickers were a favorite. She also had some wonderful new perforated paper that you will be seeing in an upcoming kit.

The Lily Bee Design booth was full of product from four new lines. We loved them all and placed a pretty large order here. The index cards and paper were our favorites at this booth.

The new Bella Blvd lines were very themed (Baby & Pregnancy) so we didn't order the paper, but we did love all of the embellishments. Alphas, button, tapes and little flags. We loved all of the little bits and pieces!

Of course we pretty much loved everything at the October Afternoon booth. They always have great designs.

The new Sketchbook line by Amy Tangerine for American Crafts looked like it might be a little too bright from the previews I'd seen before CHA, but in person it was perfectly vibrant and beautiful. This was one of my favorite lines of the show. I should have more than one photo of this section of the booth, but I don't. Guess I was too excited looking at product to take many photos.

The Dear Lizzy Neapolatian line was a nice surprise at the show. In the previews it looked very similar to other Dear Lizzy lines, but there were pieces of this line that were *must haves* items.

The Glitz Designs booth was probably the prettiest at the show. The sewn banners over the booth looked fantastic. I really liked their new travel line plus the burlap items in the French Kiss line.

We visited many other booths and loved so many things. It was a fantastic show and we were happy to be there looking and buying for Scrapbook Circles kit. Can't wait to start sharing some of the things we've ordered.

CHA Trip Recap: Part 1

2012-01-31T15:30:00.000-08:00

Last night I returned from a three day trip to California where there was lot of fun, work and patterned paper. I flew over to CA with Diana and Jennie and we met up with Heather once we were there.

We started out at the Prima Marketing Headquarters for a class with Donna Downey. Loved the project in the class. We started with a 6" X 18" canvas and used many layers of product to create a lovely finished piece.

While at Prima, we added flowers to these big, floppy hats and posed for a photo. Prima wanted us to wear these hats around the CHA show, but they were way too big to wear any longer than the photo.

We spent that night at Disneyland along with many, many other people. It was so crowded. Note to self: Don't go to Disneyland on a Saturday.

Despite the crowds, we still went on several rides and had a great time. (How could we not have a good time, we were at Disneyland!) We stopped for dinner at Orleans Cafe to share a Monte Cristo Sandwich for dinner. This is a ham and cheese sandwich that is battered and fried, sprinkled with powdered sugar and served with a berry sauce. One sandwich is enough to feed 4 people! So decadent and delicious.

While I was away, I missed the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby. Max came in 3rd out of 20 boys, so I think it was successful!

Watch for a full CHA show recap coming soon!

Happy 40th Birthday Card

2012-01-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

Last night I went to surprise birthday party for a friend who is turning 40. Seems strange, but 40 isn't sounding quite as old as it used to!

All day I'd planned on putting a birthday card together, but there wasn't a free moment until 5 minutes before I had to leave. I pulled out the Be Amazing Kit and quickly put this card together. I love the small designs on the 6 x 6 paper pad.

With the help of some of the Scrapbook Circle Team, we packed up all of the Remember This kits today. Now I'm off to help with an art class in my daughter's 6th grade class. Tonight we're having this Crock Pot Chicken Parm recipe. I'm excited to try something new!

Enjoy today!

Remember This

2012-01-25T17:06:00.000-08:00

The February Scrapbook Circle kit, Remember This, just went live on the site. I'm so excited about this kit. It has brand new My Mind's Eye plus other favorites.

I've loving the yellow and aqua color combo in this kit plus the touches of chevron print make me happy.

There is a coordinating add-on this month too that is filled with more Mind's Eye goodies.

I'm hoping to get some time in the next couple of days to do some creating this this kit!

Hello, Tuesday

2012-01-24T16:33:00.000-08:00

Today I got to open a delivery full of scrapbooking goodness from My Mind's Eye. I think that is one of the best parts about running Scrapbook Circle.

*LOVE* the new My Mind's Eye Follow Your Heart line. It's going to be in the February Scrapbook Circle Kit. Full kit reveal coming tomorrow!

Used a few last pieces of the Be Mine kit to put together a birthday card for my daughter to give to her friend.

I used the envelope as part of the design, so she doesn't even need to open the envelope. The birthday message is written on the back.

Tonight I'm trying out a new (to me) White Chicken Chili recipe from Pioneer Woman. It's simmering on the stove right now. I really love recipes with beans, so I'm sure I'll enjoy it! My husband and son don't really think soup is a true dinner, so hopefully they won't go hungry tonight. :)

Happy Tuesday to you!

Project Life 2012: Week Three

2012-01-22T22:01:00.000-08:00

It's still early in the year, but I am really enjoying this year long project. I now have a place to save pieces of our family's family life like noodle boxes that would normally just end up in the trash. Totally loving this approach to memory keeping.

There were a bunch of photos that I wanted to include this week, so I used a page protector with more slots for photos. I'm planning on mixing in a bunch of different styles of page protectors in this project because I like the mixed look of different photo slots.

There isn't any patterned paper on the pages this week. Three of the slots include fabric scraps from a sewing project this week and the rest is photos and bits of other random things like receipts, a note from my daughter and a noodle wrapper.

We had a full and busy week at out house. Just how we like it!

Here are the highlights from our week:

*Spent MLK Day at the Zoo with the Dibbles. Kids wanted to go home and play video games, but we *tortured* the kids by keeping them outside in the beautiful weather while playing with their friends and eating fresh kettle corn.
*Sewing projects for me. Getting a gift ready for Nancy's (sister in law) baby shower.
*Baby shower prep: shopping, cleaning, cooking, decorating, etc.
*Dad, Max, Gramps and Uncle Dan went shooting in the desert during the baby shower.
* Dad and Max went to a US v. Venezula soccer match.
* I went to a new monthly Pinterest group started by my friend Hillary.

So far this year, I've been able to print out the photos on Saturday afternoon for that week and let them dry overnight. I clean out my purse and set out any receipts of other things I've collected during the week. On Sunday afternoon, I put it altogether in the album.

Next weekend I will be at CHA in Anaheim, so I'm hoping to be able to work a little more on this during the week. I really don't want to get behind because then it won't be very fun to play catch up. I like putting this together while everything is still fresh in my mind from the week.

Week 3 Project Life Supplies: Design A & F Page Protectors, Fabric purchased at Hobby Lobby, Banner and Enjoy Tag from Scrapbook Circle Printables, Journaling Card from the Project Life Clementine Core Ki, Brown Precision Pen and Slick Writer from American Crafts. Photos printed with a Canon iP6700d on Canon Pro Plantinum Photo Paper.

Wondering about Project Life? You can read more here.

Baby Shower Brunch

2012-01-21T21:04:00.000-08:00

Today we got to celebrate the upcoming birth of my niece at a baby shower. My sister-in-law, Nancy, is really such a radiant pregnant mom. Just look at her.

The baby's name is going to be Rose, so of course, she needed a name tag too.

We hosted the shower at my house with the help of my mother-in-law and two of Nancy's friends. For the decorations, I hung some Martha Stewart pom poms in the kitchen. They are a nice way to add a festive touch without going overboard.

I also filled a glass vase with branches painted white and glittered. I then clipped baby and childhood pictures of the parents of the baby to the branches. This was a pretty big element and I like that it filled a lot of space.

Since this was a brunch, we served both breakfast items and dessert. Who does't want dessert with their breakfast?

Here's a look at what was on the menu.

Quiche Lorraine and Florentine. These were purchased at Costco and we heated them in the oven right before the shower.

Strawberries and Angel Food Cake Skewers. We offered chocolate glaze and whipped cream as optional toppings.

(Notice the roses on the tablecloth? I was very happy that my mom had this pink + white table cloth plus roses on it. Perfect for baby Rose!)

Sausage. We used the precooked sausage and just heated right before the shower.

Carrot Cake Mini Cupcakes. I made these earlier in the week and froze them. About an hour before the shower, I pulled them out and frosted them with cream cheese frosting I made the night before. Since these were mini cupcakes, they thawed out really quickly.

Bacon Wrapped Potatoes. I think this was my favorite item on the menu. I used fingerling potatoes and wrapped 1/2 a piece of bacon around each potato. These baked in a 400 degree oven for around 50 minutes until the potatoes were soft and the bacon was crispy. Once they were finished, I popped a toothpick in each potato so they were easy to serve and eat. A nice savory item to contrast the sweets.

Vanilla Yogurt with Berries and Granola. I have had these cute little trifle dishes that I picked up at a great sale a few years ago, but I've never used them. Today they were perfect for the yogurt.

Eclairs. Chocolate, cream and pastry. Yes, please! I bought these at Fresh & Easy and they were really delicious. I'm sure these will be on the menu for a future party.

It was a wonderful party spent with family and friends!

Pinterest Group: Love Photo Cubes

2012-01-21T06:17:00.000-08:00

I mentioned early this week that one of my friends started a Pinterest group and this week was our first project. Not only was it nice to get together with friends, but it was great to leave with a finished Valentine decoration.

This was a simple and fun project that we based on this tutorial that was discovered through Pinterest.

Project Supplies
4 Square Wood Blocks cut to 3.5 inches
13 Black and White Photos
Patterned Paper
LOVE letters (I cut mine from Silhouette black fuzzy vinyl)
Embellishments
Mod Podge
Distress Ink
Sandpaper
(All paper and embellishments came from the Be Mine Kit.)

1. Cut paper and photos to 3.5 inches.
2. Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to block and attach paper/photos.
3. Sand the edges of the photos if you want a distressed look.
4. Use distress ink along the edges.
5. After the glue and ink have dried, apply a thin layer of Mod Podge over the photos and paper to seal them.
6. Add desired embellishments.

The black and white photos with the colored paper and embellishments creates a nice contrast.

I'm happy with how this turned out. Looking forward to next month's Pinterest group!

Be Mine, Valentine

2012-01-20T13:43:00.000-08:00

This past week I spent a little time making Valentines.

I only used the Scrapbook Circle Be Mine Kit for these Valentines. No other supplies were needed.

The kit comes with eight glassine envelopes and I wanted to make good use of those. For the first two Valentines, I made cards that could slip in and out of the envelopes. The back of the card is plain white so that there is space for a message to be written. I put embellishments on both the card and the front of the envelope.

The rest of the Valentines include candy. The red/pink/white twine was perfect for tying the envelopes shut so that the candy wouldn't fall out. Plus it adds a pretty touch to the cards.

I slipped a piece of colored paper into the envelopes to give it some stability and add to the color of the project.

I loved using the Crate Paper Heart border stickers on these Valentines. They were a quick way to add embellishment with nice results.

Will you be making Valentines this year?

Busy, Crafting Week

2012-01-19T19:10:00.000-08:00

This week has been filled with lots of craft projects.

This Saturday is a baby shower for my sister in law at my house so I have been busy cleaning and doing some decorating. I'm not doing a lot of decorating, but here's a look at what I've done so far.

I attempted my first sewing project this week and thanks to this tutorial, it turned out really well. Here's a look at the fabrics I used. I'll have to post the finished product after the shower. I never knew choosing fabrics could be as fun as choosing paper!

With the scraps of fabric, I decided to embellish some onesies. I used the my Silhouette to cut out the shapes. Love that it cuts fabric. Tonight I'm going to hand stitch around the fabric elements to make sure they are secure.

My friend Hillary started a Pinterest group and today was our first meeting. The plan for the group is to meet once a month and make a craft that we've found on Pinterest. Today our project was based on this tutorial. Hopefully I will share the finished project tomorrow.

We met around lunchtime and can brought food to share that we made with recipes found on Pinterest. I made this Pesto Cream Cheese Bake.

Hope your week is going well!

Project Life: Week Two

2012-01-16T19:47:00.000-08:00

Two weeks into the the Project Life album and I'm excited to share my pages today.

I've decided to use the upper left pocket of the album each week to mark the date for the week. This will allow some continuity each week without using matching or coordinating products throughout the album.

I've been mostly focusing on the filling my pages with photos and adding little bits of journaling. This week I'm letting the photos tell the stories. In some future weeks, I may want to focus more on journaling.

In addition to photos, I also included the cover of a take out menu plus some photo booth photos mounted to a card about birthday parties at Smeeks. I didn't want to include the birthday party info, but I did like the title and the little elf guy, so I let that peek out from under the photos.

A few Elle's Studio tags and Scrapbook Circle printables were prefect for sticking to photos and doing bits of journaling. I like having small tags that I can quickly grab and fit on the photos.

I also used an American Crafts Slick Writer to journal directly onto a couple of the photos. This works great on photos with some white space.

Both this week and last week I used one of the smaller journaling cards to list out a few highlights from the week. These things don't necessarily have a photo, but they are a few fun facts about the week.

I'm determined to keep this project simple without many embellishments so that I can stay motivated and excited about the project.

Week 2 Project Life Supplies: Patterned paper from variety of Scrapbook Circle Kits, Design A Page Protectors, Journaling Tag and Arrow Stickers from Clementine Core Kit, January and Circle Tag from Elle's Studio, Journalng Pen and Slick Writer from American Crafts.

Giant Ginger Cookies

2012-01-15T21:12:00.000-08:00

I really like cookies. Tonight my sister and I we discussing that cookies really could be the perfect dessert.

Here are a few reasons cookie could be considered the best dessert:

* They are more dense than cake and you can really sink your teeth into them.
* Perfect combination of sugar and butter.
* They usually involve chocolate. (At least the cookies I make usually involve chocolate.)
* You eat them with your hands.
* They come in many varieties.

Today I tried out a new recipe for Giant Ginger Cookies and they were really delicious.The recipe came from my friend Desiree and I pretty much followed her recipe except I swapped the shortening for butter.

The recipe didn't call for dipping them in chocolate, but as you can see from the above list, my cookies usually need to include chocolate.

These were large, thick and perfectly soft.

Want to make these? Here's the recipe:

Ingredients
4 1/2 cup flour
4 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 butter, softened
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
sugar for rolling dough balls

Directions:
1. Stir together flour, ginger, soda, cloves and salt and set aside.

2. Using a mixer, beat butter until softened and then gradually add 2 cups of sugar and beat until fluffy. Add eggs and molasses and mix until combined.

3. Add 1/2 of the flour mixture and mix until combined. Stir in remaining flour with a wooden spoon.

4. Use a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop to shape 2" dough balls. Roll in sugar and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Allow space between cookies because these will grow quite a bit while baking. Press flat with your hand or a cup.

5. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 - 14 minutes or until cookies are light brown and puffed. Let stand for 2 minutes on cookie sheet after removing them from the oven and then place on a wire rack to cool.

If you want to dip in chocolate, allow cookies to cool completely. (I cooled the cookies in the fridge because I was short on time.)

Melt 1 cup of chocolate chips in a bowl in the microwave for one minute intervals until melted. Dip cookies in chocolate and use a spoon to help spread the chocolate.

Place dipped cookies on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and allow chocolate to cool. You can place them in the fridge to help the chocolate firm up more quickly.

Let me know if you give these a try. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did.

New Year Weekend + Valentine Kit

2012-01-13T15:57:00.000-08:00

Happy Friday to you. This week just flew by. My to do list is still pretty long, but I'm happy with the progress made each day.

This week I did finish up one layout. Not too much creating this week since I was working on finishing up the accounting books and figuring out 1099's for my husband's business. Hopefully more creative time will be found next week!

Layout supplies: You + Me Kit, Making Memories Sky Paint

I used a mix of Instagram photos plus other photos cropped into squares.

When all of the paper and photos were attached to the page, the layout still didn't feel finished. So I decided to paint a few circles on the page with some paint and an Ikea kid's cup. The circles added a fun touch. I probably would have added more, but since all of my photos were already attached to the page I didn't want to risk covering them in paint.

Today we just added a Be Mine Valentine mini kit to the Scrapbook Circle shop.

It's a fun mix of 6 x 6 inch paper, embellishments and white glassine bags. I'm thinking up some fun valentines to create with this kit!

Tonight we're trying this recipe I found on Pinterest. The roast I found at Sam's Club was 9 pounds (huge!) so I invited two families over tonight to help us eat it. Hope it's good. We're also hoping to fire up our hardly used fire pit tonight for some s'mores. We like to make s'mores with PB Cups instead of plain chocolate. Should be a fun night.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Take Twelve: January 2012

2012-01-12T22:19:00.000-08:00

Ella Publishing issued a challenge to take 12 photos on the 12th of each month this year and I thought it would be fun to join in.

My photos today were very random, but it gives a little peek into some of what I was up to today.

Without this challenge I doubt that any of these photos would be taken, so I'm grateful for the challenge!

I'm thinking next month I might try to take one photo every hour of the day for 12 hours. Are you joining in on the challenge?

Birthday Celebration

2012-01-11T16:26:00.000-08:00

Today I've been celebrating my sister's birthday with her. We've visited a few favorite places around town.

Smeeks, Frances and Pizzaria Bianco. Last tonight we are going to Joe's Farm Grill.

Smeeks has a photo booth and my mom, sister and I decided to give it a try. This was the first time my mom's been in a photo booth. Fun!

I love celebrating birthdays!

New Glitz Goodness!

2012-01-10T21:32:00.000-08:00

Have you seen the new lines Glitz Designs is releasing at CHA in a couple of weeks?

I especially love the teal/kraft/red combo in the Happy Travels line. The burlap textures in Fresh Kiss look fantastic and the epoxy word stickers in the Pretty in Pink line look so fun!

Can't wait to create with all of these lines.

If you aren't following the Glitz Designs on Facebook, you may want to start following them because they are going to be doing lots of giveaways leading up to CHA. Who doesn't love a good giveaway?

Musical Instrument Museum

2012-01-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

As soon as I saw this chevron patterned template, I knew it needed to be added to my collection of creative tools. I love that it creates a chevron pattern, but could also be used as arrows.

This is a plastic template from Crafter's Workshop that can be used with paint or mist to create patterns on projects.

My first project with this template involved making a painted background on a layout.

I just used painter's tape to block off the part of the template that I didn't want to use. I blotted paint onto the paper with a foam paintbrush.

This layout is about a day spent with friends at a new Musical Instrument Museum in Scottsdale, AZ. This was one of the coolest museums I've ever visited. Each guest wears headphones that automatically play music connected to each display when you stand in front of it.

The display rooms were divided by continent and then had diplays of instruments from almost every conurty in that continent. We spent three hours and could have easily spent more time.

I highly recommend a visit to this museum if you are ever visiting Phoenix.

Layout supplies: Note to Self Kit, Making Memories Paint, Crafter's Workshop Template

Project Life: Week One

2012-01-09T06:23:00.000-08:00

The first week of my Project Life album is now complete. I loved the process of collecting pieces of our week and putting them together in this album. My goal remains to keep it simple so that I have the time and energy to keep up with this throughout the year.

One night we went out to Oregano's (one of our favorite restaurants) but I forgot to take pictures. Later I realized that I could use a piece of the takeout bag to help document our dinner. Hopefully through out the year I will develop of habit of looking for more non photo ways to document our family life.

During the week, I slipped things into the album that I wanted to save. I finished up the week on Sunday afternoon.

Each little section was it's own little creation. I added tags or journaling to most of the photos to highlight why that photo was used this week.

This week was pretty quiet since the kids were home from school and we didn't really go anywhere. It was really nice to have a lot of quiet and non-busy time this week.

Supplies: Scrapbook Circle Note to Self Kit, PL Clementine Core Kit, Scrapbook Circle Printables

Scrapbook Circle Card Challenge

2012-01-07T15:43:00.000-08:00

This week on the Scrapbook Circle blog Tessa posted a great card sketch and challenge. I decided to play along with the challenge.

One of the things I love about this sketch is that it has a simple design with some great layering. My card came together quickly since I pretty much just stuck to the sketch design.

All of the card supplies came from the Scrapbook Circle You + Me kit.

Want to play along with this challenge? All of the details are here. If you play along you have a chance to win a $15 Scrapbook Circle credit.

On another note, if you read my post yesterday, you know that the tooth fairy has been slacking on the job at our house. I'm happy to report that she remembered to show up last night.

I'm heading out on for a date night with my husband tonight. We're going to get some dinner and maybe go to a movie. Looking forward to it! Hope your weekend is going well.

Tooth Fairy FAIL

2012-01-06T15:42:00.000-08:00

This morning Hannah came and crawled into bed with me. She said that she had been up for a while. I asked her what she'd been doing and she said that she had been laying in her bed wondering why to Tooth Fairy hadn't come to pick up her tooth for the past TWO nights. Major fail for the Tooth Fairy! We need to send an email to the Tooth Fairy and ask her to get her act together.

Since I had her cute toothless smile on my mind today, I decided to put a page together showing off her missing teeth.

Used a couple of Instagram shots on this page. I actually cheated a little bit. I only posted one photo to Instagram, but wanted a similar look to both photos. So I uploaded the second photo to Instagram and then deleted it. The Instagram photo still saved to my general phone photos and I was able to print it.

Are you on Instagram yet? If you have an iPhone I recommend it as my most favorite app. I love it because it's a fun social way to share photos and interact with friends. My username is lisaandrewsaz, so if you are on Instagram, stop by and say hi.

Hopefully the Tooth Fairy doesn't fail for a third time tonight!

All layout supplies are from the Scrapbook Circle You + Me Kit.

Food Love and Snow

2012-01-04T06:00:00.000-08:00

This month on the Glitz blog the design team was asked to create a layout based on inspiration from this photo that was found on Pinterest.

I decided to draw a quick sketch based on this photo as a starting point for my layout.

Not only did I generally follow the sketch, but I was also inspired by the light colors in the photo and focused on using cream and yellow on my page.

This was a fun challenge and it encouraged me to take a fresh look at my work and try something different.

For my second layout today, I'd like to share a page about a snow trip our family took over New Years weekend last year.

I used my Silhouette to cut out the snowflakes and the word snow. I've been using my Silhouette more lately and it's really a great tool.

I mixed the blues from the Beautiful Dreamer and Vintage Blue lines with some cream and pink and I think this is a great combination for playful winter pages.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Love Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Paper: Polka, Motif, Floral, Rose
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Paper Layers
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Cardstock Title Stickers
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs "Dance in the Sunshine" Epoxy Words
Other: Date Stamp, Ink, Journaling Pen

Snow Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs " Beautiful Dreamer" Paper: Toile, Stripe, Houndstooth, Polka
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Paper: Floral, Stripe
Glitz Designs " Beautiful Dreamer" Paper Layers
Glitz Designs " Beautiful Dreamer" Trims
Glitz Designs " Beautiful Dreamer" Epoxy Words
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Epoxy Words
Glitz Designs " Beautiful Dreamer" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs Baby Pink Block Alpha
Other: Date Stamp, Ink, Journaling Pen

Getting Going with Project Life

2012-01-03T16:47:00.000-08:00

The cover page for my Project Life album is now complete. For some reason this took me four different sittings to finish it up. Lots of interruptions, but that's how it goes around here. We are espeically busy since our kids don't go back to school until next week.

The process for this was interesting since it isn't a traditional scrapbook layout. It was fun to build out each little piece of the page. Each section of the page was it's own little scrapbook creation.

For this page I mixed up products from the Project Life core kit plus a mix of other products that I had out on my scrapbook desk. I'm thinking this will be my general process throughout the year. No rules for what needs to be used in the album >>> just grab what feels right and use it.

I've started collecting some things this week to include in the album. My favorite thing so far about this album is that I have a place to save and share little bits of our family life like notes from the kids and receipts. Before this projects, these things may have ended up in the trash because they didn't have a place to go. Now they have a home!

Supplies
Scrapbook Circle Note to Self Kit
Project Life Clementine Core Kit
Project Life Photo Pocket Page A
Scrapbook Circle You + Me Kit
Cosmo Cricket Tiny Numbers
Elle's Studio Inspiring Pennant Tiny Tag

Fav 11 Layouts in 2011

2012-01-01T20:44:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I hope that you had a happy and safe time ringing in the new year.

Our family and another family spent a couple of days this weekend in Flagstaff which is a couple hours north of Phoenix. We got in some playtime in the snow. Plus we played a lot of games (Ticket to Ride, Scrabble Slam, Word on the Street and Five Kings) and enjoyed time relaxing, reading and eating. Perfect way to start off the new year!

I've seen a few posts where people shared their favorite 11 photos from 2011 and I thought it would be fun to look back through my layouts and share my favorites here.

So in no particular order, here's a look some of my layouts from 2011.

Wishing you and your family a happy and blessed 2012!

Daddy Daughter Dance

2011-12-31T09:40:00.000-08:00

My kids' school does a Daddy/Daughter and Mother/Son dance for the 5th and 6th grade students around Valentine's Day. I think it's such a fun idea! Plus I'm much more comfortable with my daughter going to a dance with her dad rather than with a date as it will be in just a few years.

Thankfully I snapped a photo before they left for the dance. This photo was taken almost a year ago and Audrey is already looking more grown up.

Hope you are enjoying your last day of 2011 and that you do something fun to bring in the new year. Happy New Year to you!

All layout supplies are from the Scrapbook Circle You + Me kit.

December Daily: Finished?

2011-12-29T21:32:00.000-08:00

My December Daily album is now caught up to the 25th. Now I have to decide if it's finished or if I want to go another week and finish out the month.

The focus of the album has mostly been Christmas and the many things we do leading up to the holiday, so now that it's over I'm losing a bit of my steam with documenting something everyday.

So for now, here are the possible last three pages of my album.

Maybe I'll get excited about it next week, but for now I'm somewhat satisfied that it is finished. This has been such a great project and I look forward to doing it again next year.

If you did a December Daily, did you end with the 25th or do you plan on finishing out the month?

Project Life: I'm In

2011-12-29T12:04:00.000-08:00

A few years ago I decided to give Becky Higgins' Project 365 a try where I attempted to take a photo a day for the entire year. I was doing pretty well until July of that year when my computer died and I lost 2 months of photos that hadn't been backup up or printed. That was the end of my project that year.

In 2012, I've decided to join in with Becky Higgins' Project Life. My plan is to keep things very simple so that it will continue to be something that I enjoy doing throughout the entire year. This is going to be a place where I record that daily happenings of our family life. It may not be too interesting or exciting most days, but I think it will be a treasure to look back on this album as time goes on.

I also plan on continuing to create scrapbook layouts highlight special stories and moments that I don't want to forget. Project Life will be something extra that I plan to add into the way our memories are preserved.

My supplies have arrived and are ready to go.

Project Life Clementine Core Kit
Project Life Clementine Patterned Paper
Photo Pocket Pages Design A
Photo Pocket Pages - Big Variety Pack 1
6 X 12 Page Protectors

I'm going to use an American Crafts 3-ring album that I already have on hand.

I don't plan on only using the Clementine items, but I wanted to keep it simple and this kit will help me do that. The cards are already cut to fit right into the page protectors. As the year progresses, I'm sure my plan will evolve. But one part of the plan will hopefully stay the same: Keep it Simple.

I'm excited to get started on this project. Only 4 days until the 1st!

Also, this year I have loved using some of the digital elements that Ali Edwards has created and has available on Designer Digitals. All of the Christmas products are 30% until January 1st at 6:00 a.m. I just bought a couple of sets. They may be used when I finish up my December Daily for this year. If not this year, then they will be ready for next year!

Ali has a cool tutorial on her blog showing how to trace the images so that they can be cut out by a Silhouette machine. Definitely want to try this.

Photo Frame Gifts

2011-12-28T12:20:00.000-08:00

This month I created a few altered frames for Christmas and baby gifts and now that they are delivered, I can share them with you.

All of the frames came from Hobby Lobby. I like getting frames there because they have a great selection and they are always 50% off.

On the first frame I used the Baby Mine collection from Fancy Pants Designs. Even though I don't have a baby in the house, I find myself using this line a lot with making baby cards and gifts. It's a perfect line to have on hand!

The glass wouldn't pop out of this frame, so I put the paper and chipboard under the glass and then used E6000 glue to attach the little Tim Holtz clip. The clip makes it easy to change out the photo often.

The Baby Mine sticker made a great gift tag by sticking it to patterned paper and then I trimmed around the sticker and wrote a little note on the back.

On this next frame, I pulled the glass out and just altered the background with the Fancy Pants Summer's End line. I really love the colors in this line and think they work well year round.

For my last frame I used the Scrapbook Circle Note to Self kit for the alterations. I love all of the type on the background page. Once again, I glued a clip to the paper so that photos and be easily attached and changed out.

Hope you are enjoying a little relaxation time with your family this week. I've loved having our kids home. Today has been a Lego building and doll playing day. Love it!

You are My Favorite

2011-12-26T10:20:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a wonderful Christmas weekend celebrating with family.

Last week my husband and I celebrated out 15th anniversary! One of our anniversary traditions is to visit a little row of shops in Phoenix where we pick up Christmas t-shirts and stocking stuffers. Plus we like to use the photo booth at Smeeks for some anniversary photos.

I shared the photo booth photos on Intsagram and decided to print out the Instagram photo and use it on a layout. So yes, it's a photo of photos. Are you on Instagram?

Every piece of this layout came from the upcoming January Scrapbook Circle Kit: You + Me. The kit went live on the Scrapbook Circle site today, so be sure to stop by and check it out.

This page was so fun to create. One of my favorite things in the kit is a collection of borders and banners from My Mind's Eye. Love using those.

Can't wait to share more creations from this kit!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T03:21:00.000-08:00

From our family to yours...we wish you a Merry Christmas.

Happy Christmas Eve!

2011-12-24T14:48:00.000-08:00

Our December continues to be busy and filled with time with friends and family.

Our wedding anniversary was on the 21st and we did a little shopping at some of our favorite shops while on our anniversary date. One of my favorite finds was this Christmas paper tape at Frances Vintage. If you are ever in Phoenix looking for a boutique where you may be tempted to buy the entire store, this is a place you won't want to miss.

My December Daily album continues to grow. I'm really enjoying the process of taking more photos and recording little details about our lives that probably wouldn't make it onto a regular scrapbook page.

Happy Christmas Eve to you! I wish you and your family a holiday filled with happy memories.

December Daily 15 -1 9

2011-12-20T10:54:00.000-08:00

The Christmas celebrations have been in full effect the past few days. We've had two choir concerts, a family party and our elf has remembered to move around our house every night.

Here's a look at my December Daily pages celebrating the past few days.

I hope you and your family are enjoying this holiday season!

This afternoon it's time to start wrapping presents. My kids want to see gifts under the tree!

Christmas Preparations Continue

2011-12-19T16:16:00.000-08:00

For the past couple of weeks I've been slowly checking things off of my Christmas to-do list. With only 5 days before Christmas, I hope everything gets finished!

Today I made a few tags to attach to gifts to friends in my neighborhood. They were pretty simple, but it felt good to squeeze in a little creative time.

The tag supplies are from the Scrapbook Circle Jingle All the Way Kit.

Tonight we are going to our annual Tarwater Family Christmas party. I live near many cousins, aunts and uncles, but we don't see each other very often. Tonight we will all get together for dinner, singing Christmas songs and a visit from Santa. Here's a picture of me at the annual family party in 1980 on Santa's lap.

This afternoon Max said, "It's disappointing that the Santa at the family party can't try to look more real. I mean really, garbage bags taped around his shoes for boots? You've got to be kidding me."

Haha! We'll have to hope Santa gets a shoe upgrade for this year's party.

Thanks to Pinterest, I'm taking these Santa Hat Brownies to the party.

I have several other holiday treat pinned and hope for make a few others sometime soon. Do you love Pinterest as much as I do? I'm always happy when I actually make something that inspired me from that site.

Hope you holiday preparations are going well!

Joy & Jakey

2011-12-19T09:04:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago some friends and I had a craft morning where we altered paper mache letters for a Christmas project.

It was quick and simple and I like that a new Christmas decoration was created while having fun with friends. The supplies are all from my Christmas stash from the past couple of years.

I also just wanted to share a card I made for Max to take to his friend's birthday party.

I used the Note to Self December Scrapbook Circle kit for all of the card supplies. The colors in this kit are perfect for so many different event and they worked nicely for this card.

Hope you have a happy Monday!

Christmas is Coming!

2011-12-18T08:49:00.000-08:00

I've seen a bunch of tutorials on Pinterest about how to capture great Christmas tree light photos. I played around with it a bit, but I wasn't happy with the photos. So I turned my camera to auto and asked my kids to stand in front of the tree.

The photo certainly isn't professional, but I still love it. A peaceful moment with my kids at Christmas time.

I used the Scrapbook Circle Jingle All the Way kit for all of the page supplies. Most of that kit has been used in my December Daily, but I still have enough left to make a couple of layouts.

I hope to spend a little more time with my camera figuring out how to get great twinkling lights captured, but for now, I'm happy with the photo I did get.

Lights, Singing and Memories

2011-12-17T23:48:00.000-08:00

Wow, this past week has flown by. Each day I'm checking things off of my Christmas to-do list. Only a week to go! I've tried to squeeze in a bit of creative time since the quiet time is just what I need to keep balance in my life.

I have a few December Daily pages to share today.

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to a Messiah sing-a-long at church. There is an orchestra with soloists. The program is only an hour, so it's a perfect length for our entire family to be able to enjoy a quality night of music.

This past week has been full of reading for my kids. They have to earn AR points at school each quarter my reading books and taking quizzes on the books. The points were all due this week, so they were busy reading to make sure they would reach their goals. I'm happy to say all three of them meet their goals!

This spread includes that Christmas card that our family sent out to friends. It has a die cut envelope and then the black and white photo slides inside.

I played around with my camera and the Christmas tree lights and caught a picture of my kids in front of the tree. I like the big photo on the page and think more big photos are needed in my book.

It's been a full and busy weekend so far. A highlight was watching our girls in the Chandler Children's Choir Holiday program.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Fancy Pants Chalkboard Stickers

2011-12-14T08:33:00.000-08:00

Today I'm featuring the Fancy Pants St. Nick stickers over on the Fancy Pants blog.

These stickers are really cool because all of the black surfaces are little chalkboards. You can write on them with chalk and wipe off. I've also written on them with a white sharpie so the writting would be permenent for a scrapbook page.

Hope you'll stop by and check out the chalkboard sticker ideas!

Frosting and Fun

2011-12-10T16:40:00.000-08:00

Today was the first Saturday in months that we weren't running out the door early to get to a soccer game or some other commitment. It was so nice to sleep in a bit and get a few things done around the house.

Tonight we have a Christmas party at church. For the past two years, I was the head of the party committee, so this year it's nice to not have to worry about all of the details of the night. I do get to play the piano while the kids sing a few Christmas song, so that will be fun.

For the party tonight, we were asked to bring a dessert. I just whipped up some Ghiradelli brownies and topped them with some peppermint frosting. I make this frosting every year at Christmas time. If you like candy canes, you should give it a try.

Peppermint Frosting

3 cups powdered sugar
4 ounces cream cheese
1 - 2 Tablespoons of milk
12 candy canes, smashed into tiny pieces
Red Food Coloring

Beat the powdered sugar, cream cheese and milk until desired consistency. You can add more milk if needed. Mix in the red food coloring and candy canes.

Perfect for frosting brownies, sugar cookies or chocolate cake.

I have the past three days of my December Daily album to share.

Our Christmas elf left us a painting of a Christmas tree on day 7 and I thought it would be fun to write a bit about our elf.

On day 8 we had an end of the season soccer party at Peter Piper Pizza. The kids all had a great time. I used to really dislike going there because it was stressful keeping track of my kids every second. Now that they are a little older, it's not too bad going there.

Last night we had a family night out which involve a little choir concert, dinner at Cafe Rio and shopping at Target.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

Gingerbread Houses + Dinner

2011-12-07T16:48:00.000-08:00

I'm really enjoying the process of my December Daily album. The project encourages me to pull my camera out and document some of the everyday things that sometimes go unmentioned.

For day 5 of the album, it was all about decorating gingerbread houses with my parents. The kids really look forward to doing this every year.

It was fun watching each of the kids decoarte with their own style. Max "went to town" (as he said) and threw frosting in the house so that it would look like a blizzard had hit and the people in the house were all snowed in. The girls were much more neat and careful with their designs. I think they all turned out great! Now we get to enjoy them in our kitchen for the rest of the month.

I took a bunch of photos during the gingerbread house decorating, but didn't fit them all in the album. Here's a look at a few of my other favorite photos.

My story for yesterday was about eating dinner together as a family. We have been pretty busy lately and it's been hard to have everyone home for dinner at the same time. Last night we ate together and I took pictures to celebrate the moment. If it wan't for this album, these pictures wouldn't have been taken.

It's nice to have a little extra motivation to pull out the camera.

I'm slowing checking off my lists this week. Most of the kids' gifts were ordered online this morning. Got to love online shopping! Just need to pick up a few other things and all of my gift shopping will be complete. Making a little progress everyday.

Celebrating New Year's Eve + Card Ideas

2011-12-07T06:05:00.000-08:00

With 2011 coming to a close, I thought it was time that I use my New Years Eve photos from the beginning of this year.

With the cool blue color in the Glitz Designs Beautiful Dreamer line, I thought it would be perfect for this wintertime/New Years layout.

The colors on this line seem so crisp and cool.

Today I'd also like to share two cards that I made using the Glitz Designs Dance in Sunshine line. I'm thinking these would be great New Year messages to share with friends.

On the first card I used one of the Glitz Designs Peek a Boo frames. The frame was a bit too tall for my card, so I cut the frame where I knew it would be hidden by embellishments and then shrunk the frame down by overlapping the cut edges. Now the frame fits perfectly!

On the second card, the focus is the quote from the Glitz Designs Whatnots. I really like that so many of the Glitz product have easy to use quotes.

Thanks for the visit today!

Hello 2011 Supplies
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Patterned Paper: Polka, Stripe, Houndstooth, Toile
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Title Stickers
Glitz Designs "Beautiful Dreamer" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs Teeny White Type Alpha

Live the Life Card Supplies
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Polka, Raindrops
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Trim
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Glitzers

You are Just Right Card Supplies
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Raindrops, Polka
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Journaling Sticker
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Trim
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Whatnots

Surprise Photos

2011-12-05T13:53:00.000-08:00

Don't you love it when you upload photos to your computer and find fun shots that were taken by someone else? Today I loaded up photos and found these cute ones of my eleven year old.

She was playing with my phone before we left for the city lights parade on Saturday while she was talking to me in my scrapbook room. She must have snapped these fun photos.

Her fun head wrap is from Chinatown in NYC. We only bought two when we were there last year and now I'm wishing that we had more. Maybe I will have to hunt down some others on Etsy. Have you seen any cute one out there?

I've also finished up my December Daily page from yesterday. We had a relaxing morning, afternoon church and then friends came over for dinner. Perfect day for recharging and getting set for a new week.

My parents have invited us over tonight to decorate gingerbread houses. Looking forward to that fun holiday tradition!

Soccer, Parade and Parties

2011-12-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

We've been busy enjoying time together this weekend and celebrating December.

Friday night my husband and I hosted a Christmas party for some of the people who do work for his company. It was a great evening with lots of talking and good food. I didn't do very well getting photos taken today, but I has a few from my phone that could at least be used on this page.

Yesterday was a full day fun. We started off in the morning with the last soccer games for our two kids who are playing soccer. Both games were so exciting and close. Max's team won (he soccer two goals!) and Hannah's team tied. I love cheering on my kids at their sporting events.

We also went to the Chandler Light Parade where our girls were singing on the Chandler Children's Choir float. The float looked fantastic and they sounded great. It was so cold (at least it 45 degrees seems cold to us) and started to rain at the end of the parade, but it was fun to bundle up and drink hot chocolate to stay warm.

I've finished up all of the base pages of my December album and thought I'd share the last of them with you.

Hope you are enjoying your weekend!

December Daily 2011: Day 1

2011-12-02T16:13:00.000-08:00

One day is complete on my December Daily album.

Yesterday I chose to focus on the fun my kids had after school with their friends. It was a half day (which is rare for us) and they took full advantage of the beautiful weather by playing outside for hours.

The favorite book among my daughter and her 6th grade friends right now is the Hunger Games. They got all of the younger kids involved in a Hunger Games adventure. They had a great fun building forts and chasing each other up and down the street.

This is certainly not a Christmas event, but I want to focus on sharing all sorts of things that we are doing this month, not just focus on Christmas celebrations.

December Daily 2011: The Beginning

2011-12-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

This year I've decided in the December Daily album concept that Ali Edwards started a few years ago.

Although this is such a busy time of year and it would be easy to not do a daily album in December, these are a few of the reasons I'm doing it:

1. Encourages me to get the camera out and use it
2. Helps me notice more little moments and record them
3. Get to play with fun Christmas products
4. Love looking back on the project when it is finished
5. Encourages us to get out and participate in fun activities

I have the base of the first 14 days of pages finished. My goal is to keep it the design simple and focus on the words & stories.

I'll pulled my camera out today when it probably would have sat on the counter, so the project is starting off well. I'm excited to fill up these pages with our December stories.

Are you doing a December Daily album?

Album Supplies
Scrapbook Circle Jingle All the Way Kit
Elle's Studio 'Tis the Season Kit
Maya Road Kraft Envelopes
Jillibean Soup File Folders
Scrapbook Circle Free Giving is Good Printable

Time is Flying

2011-11-30T11:02:00.000-08:00

Tonight I'm going to a surprise baby shower for a friend who is having her third boy. I love the idea of having the shower be a surprise! Hopefully she hasn't figured out that she is having a party thrown for her tonight.

Here's a look at the card that I put together for her.

I know about 6 people who are pregnant right now. Wow. Something must be in the water!

A couple of days ago I was sorting through photos and saw a photo that is one of my favorites of my three kids standing in the doorway ready to go out on trick or treating.

One of my favorite things about this photo is seeing how much younger my kids are since this was taken five years ago. I think in would be so fun to go back in time for a day and enjoy snuggling these younger versions of my ever growing kids. My little baby in that photo is now in first grade. Time is such an interesting thing. I'm always excited for time to pass so we can attend our next exciting event, but when I stop and pause, I see how quickly time is moving along.

Can you believe that it's going to be December tomorrow? Wow, now time is really flying!

Cards supplies are from the Fancy Pants Designs Baby Mine collection and the Trick or Treat Layout supplies are from the Fancy Pants Designs Oct. 31st line.

Living the Life

2011-11-28T14:44:00.000-08:00

Hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend! I enjoyed a lot of time with family eating, hiking, going to movies and relaxing.

Today I want to share a layout with one of my favorite photos from our cruise earlier this month.

The great thing about a cruise is that you are busy all of the time with different activities. One of my favorite activities was "being busy" reading on the quiet deck of the adult only pool in the plush lounge chairs.

Last night Jennie posted a great blog post about one of the dinners on our cruise. If you have a minute, you can read it here. She did such a great job capturing how amazing this vacation was.

It was like a dream living the life of luxury. Too bad it only lasted one week!

All layout supplies are from the Scrapbook Circle December Note to Self Kit.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T09:03:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving to all of my friends in the USA! Hope you have plans to share the days with friends or family.

One of my favorite craft deal sites, Pick Your Plum, has a cute "I am Grateful for..." printable available for free today. Why not stop by and get one? It's free!

Enjoy the food and time with those you love today!

Free Holiday Printable

2011-11-23T19:58:00.000-08:00

Scrapbook Circle has a free printable up to add a little holiday cheer to your life. You can download it here.

I'm thinking this will be perfect for gift tags and I'm thinking about framing the subway art to add to our Christmas decor.

Hope you have a happy Thanksgiving tomorrow!

You are Special to Me Card

2011-11-18T13:33:00.000-08:00

Yesterday my son brought home a letter from the principal saying that his teaching is resigning for personal reasons and that her last day of school is today. Wow, that was a shock. My son was SO sad. I've never seen him so upset. We talked through things and he seemed to be happier this morning. I'm anxious to hear about how his school day went today.

We decided that he should write his teacher a thank you card. Not only did we think it would be nice for Max to write a note to his teacher, I thought it might help bring a little closure to the situation.

So this morning before school, I quickly put a card together for Max's teacher.

The teacher change may work out being for the best, but sometimes change isn't very fun.

P.S. The card is a peek at the Scrapbook Circle December kit!

Dark Brown and Light Brown

2011-11-17T21:47:00.000-08:00

Just a few minutes ago, I looked at my dessert board on Pinterest and noticed a trend in the things I'm pinning...

The desserts are all a mix of light brown and dark brown. Guess I favor a certain kind of dessert!

I haven't baked any treats for a while and I think it's about time. Where should I begin?

These White Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies are at the top of the list.

If you want these too, but don't want to bake, Paradise Bakery has a really delicious Molasses cookie right now that is seasonal. It's seriously so good.

This Martha Stewart Crisp Coconut and Chocolate Pie only has four ingredients: butter, coconut, whipping cream and chocolate. How could you go wrong with those ingredients?

These S'more Cookie Bars look much better that S'mores made over a campfire because of the cookie topping.

Okay, I should go to bed now so that I don't stay up late making and eating one of these treats. Hopefully I'll have time to try one of these recipes out this weekend!

Playing with the Fancy Pants St. Nick Line

2011-11-16T10:14:00.000-08:00

Today I get to share an idea on the Fancy Pants blog using the St. Nick line cards paper on the Fancy Pants blog.

Hope you will stop by and check it out!

Welcome Baby + Funny Gift

2011-11-14T21:29:00.000-08:00

Over the weekend our family attended a baby shower. The shower was a backyard BBQ with a live band, face painting and yard games. It was a fun way to celebrate the upcoming birth of our friends' first baby.

When I was shopping for a baby gift a came across a onesie that I couldn't resist...

I wasn't sure the onesie would be part of the gift, but then I saw that the mom had added it to her gift registry and that sealed the deal.

Of course, the gift wouldn't be complete without a card.

Card supplies are from the Fancy Pants Baby Mine line.

The baby shower was a lovely way to spend an afternoon outside in our (finally) fantastic weather.

On another note, look who lost her 3rd tooth tonight.

The tooth's been hanging by a thread for days, but it just wouldn't come out. Tonight during dinner, I noticed a big open space in Hannah's mouth and asked where her tooth was. She must have swallowed it because it was nowhere to be found. Hopefully the Tooth Fairy will stop by tonight anyway!

Happy Halloween (A Bit Late)

2011-11-11T10:12:00.000-08:00

Last week my family and another family had an amazing opportunity to go on a cruise to Mexico. My friend, Jennie, found an awesome "kids said free deal" and Jennie and I decided that we couldn't pass it up.

I didn't mention that I was going because it just seems strange to me to announce that I'll be out of town for a week and my house will be empty. Anyone else feel this way?

But now that we're back and slowly getting back into the swing of things, I thought I'd share a few highlights from our vacation starting with Halloween.

Our first full day on the boat was Halloween. We were at sea and everyone had a fun time participating in regular daytime cruise stuff like eating ice cream, going to a drawing class, checking out the kids' centers and relaxing.

The cruise did have trick or treating! We were giving a list of places to visit on the ship where we would find candy. The kids didn't get loads on candy, but I thought that was just fine. Who needs a lot of candy when you have unlimited ice cream plus desserts at every meal?!? We still have most of the candy bag sitting around our house.

Photo collage supplies: Ali Edwards' December Daily Template, Elle's Studio Digital Paper, Dennis Graphic Design Paper Etsy Shop

It's a little late, but I hope you had a happy Halloween!

Winner!

2011-11-09T20:12:00.000-08:00

I have to admit that I totally forgot to pick a winner for the 500th post giveaway. I'm so sorry!

Better late than never...

Thanks to Random.org, the winner of the Scrapbook Circle Harvest Festival Kit is Amy Coose. Congrats, Amy!

Email me at lisa@scrapbookcircle.com with your address and we'll get your kit out to you.

Thanks for all of your kind comments !

A Favorite Snack: Chips and Salsa

2011-11-04T08:07:00.000-07:00

Chips and salsa are one of my favorite snack. Especially homemade salsa. I made one of my favorite salsa recipes a couple of weeks ago to have with these Taco Cupcakes for dinner. I've been making variations of this recipe since a friend is high school introduced me to making salsa.

Even though the recipe uses canned tomatoes, it still tastes very fresh. I promise.

Salsa Recipe

2 Cans Stewed Tomatoes (Mexican Seasoned or Plain)
1 Bunch of Green Onions Diced
1/2 Bunch of Cilantro Chopped
1 tsp. Crushed Red Peppers (more or less to taste)
1 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. Salt
1 tsp. oregano

Pour one can of tomatoes into a blends add all other ingredients and then the 2nd can of tomatoes. Blend for 2 -3 seconds. (Don't do it longer, or it will not taste right.)

Let me know if you give this a try! Hope you enjoy it.

A Day at the Zoo

2011-11-03T18:58:00.000-07:00

In October we had a 2.5 week fall break. It was great being able to sleep in, not have to worry about homework and have playtime with friends. I will admit that by the end of the break, it was nice to get back on a schedule!

One of our fall break activities was a trip to the Phoenix Zoo with friends. We spent several hours there and still didn't get to everything. It really is a great zoo with many exhibits.

When I uploaded the photos to the computer I realized that somehow Max and his friend weren't in any of the pictures. Strange. Just let it be noted that they were there!

Everything came from the Scrapbook Circle Harvest Festival Kit. We tried something different with this month's kit and did a two-page printable with one of the pages being an alphabet. It is a little more work to cut out the letters, but the great thing is that you can keep printing pages if you run out of letters.

You can also change the size of the printable and I did a blog post about the yesterday on the Scrapbook Circle blog.

Thanks for stopping by!

Outdoor Adventures

2011-11-02T06:00:00.000-07:00

At first glance, you may not think that the Glitz Design Vintage Blue collection would work very well for outdoor adventure type layouts, but I thought that it worked perfectly for two layouts I created recently.

We were able to spend quite a bit of time outdoors in September, so I have a lot of photos of our family and friends enjoying the outdoors.

My first layout is about a visit to Walnut Canyon which is near Flagstaff, AZ. It's one of our favorite places to visit whenever we are in the area. It's a nice little hike where you get to explore Native American Ruins. The kids also love talking about what people who lived there might have done in each area of the site.

I did add in a bit of the Dance in Sunshine line because I loved how the purple and teal look with the Vintage Blue line. It's fantastic how well these line compliment each other.

My next layout is about a hiking trip my husband and I took with friends to Havasupai in the Grand Canyon. This was an amazing trip and it was a challenge to narrow down just a few photos for one page.

The stickers in the Vintage Blue line were just right for this layout. Love that the sayings can work for many different events.

Thanks for letting me share a couple of my recent outdoor adventures with you today!

Lisa

Walnut Canyon Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Paper: Toile, Floral, Stripe
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Paper: Raindrops
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Glitzers
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Epoxy Word Stickers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Paper Layers
Glitz Designs Teeny White Stickers

Havasupai Layout Supplies
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Paper: Stripe, Motif, Polka, Rose
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue": Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs "Vintage Blue" Trim
Glitz Designs Teeny Woodgrain Alpha
Other: Staples

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hope you are looking forward to a Happy Halloween today! Do you have any fun plans? Are you dressing up? I haven't really dressed up for years, but this year I bought a gypsy costume and I'm excited to wear it. May kids are really excited that I have a costume!

I've been collecting a bunch of fun Halloween ideas on Pinterest and thought that I'd share a few of my favorites with you today.

Frankenstein Rice Krispie Treats from CraftGossip.com

I like that these treats are on sticks and displayed in a tin full of candy corn.

Printable Treat Toppers from Wants and Wishes Etsy Shop

The orange cheese balls are a fun Halloween colored treat.

Veggie Skeleton from Feeding Frenzy

There is a chance kids would eat a few veggies on Halloween with this cute guy at the table.

Mummy Juice Boxes from Parents.com

All you need is white electrical tape and googly eyes. This would be a fun surprise in your kid's lunch box.

Chocolate Spider Web Cake in a Jar from I am Baker

The webs don't look too hard although they would take some patience.

Halloween Mason Jars from Every Creative Endevor

These look easy and would it be cool to line the driveway with these on Halloween.

Mummy Pretzels from Bright Ideas

This looks like a fun food craft that the kids could make with me.

I didn't get to make fun Halloween food this year, but now I'm set with a bunch of fun ideas form next year.

Hope you enjoy the day and have a few pieces of your favorite candy!

Fancy Pants + Tombow Blog Hop

2011-10-28T09:15:00.000-07:00

Fancy Pants Designs and Tombow have teamed up this week for a full week of blog hopping. Tombow was generous to send me a bunch of there products to try out and use on my projects. Today, I get to share two projects with you on the Fancy Pants Design blog.

Both of my projects share ideas on making your Halloween treats just a bit more fancy.

Hope you'll stop by the blogs and enjoy the blog hop!

Fancy Pants Designs Blog
Tombow Blog

Birthday Gift in a Snow Globe

2011-10-27T05:42:00.000-07:00

Last month I spotted this Gift Card Snow Globe idea from the Creative Mama on Pinterest and knew that I wanted to make something similar.

Last weekend my daughter was invited to a birthday party, so it was the perfect time to try out the snow globe idea.

I stopped by the dollar store hoping that they would have some candles that I could use and luckily they had candles with numbers 1, 2 and 3. Perfect since the birthday boy was turning 12. The candle packs also came with smaller star candles.

For the assembly, I hot glued the candles and gift card to the lid and let it dry. I then added some glitter and water to the jar and screwed on the lid.

To add a little personalization the jar, I cut "Happy Birthday Ryan!" from red vinyl and stuck it onto the jar. Quick and fun gift wrapping!

We did finish off the jar with ribbon around the base of the jar with a little gift tag attached, but I forgot to snap a photo before we ran out the door to the party.

500th Blog Post >>> Let's Celebrate!

2011-10-25T22:41:00.000-07:00

Wow, this is my 500th blog post. I love sharing my thoughts and creations with you and I'm thankful for you! Thought it would be fun to celebrate with a giveaway. What do you think?

I will randomly select one winner to receive the upcoming Scrapbook Circle Harvest Festival Kit from the comments on this post.

Just leave a comment letting me know what you love most about autumn.

***Comments will close Monday, October 31st. Winner will be announced later that week!***

Thanks for your support!

Harvest Festival is Here

2011-10-25T07:03:00.000-07:00

The Scrapbook Circle November Kit, Harvest Festival, is now live on the site.

The cozy fall colors mixed with the great patterns make me excited to create.

I'm still have plans for several more projects, but here's a look at my first layout share with the kit. This page is the first of a few about my kids' combined birthday party.

Enjoy your day!

Embellished Treat Holders

2011-10-24T14:30:00.000-07:00

With Halloween almost here, I guess I have candy on the brain. There are a bunch of scrapbook clam shell packaging things here at my house and I thought they'd be perfect to hold a few bits of candy.

I pulled out all of my Fancy Pants Oct. 31st goodies and quickly put together several treat holders. With rub-ons on the front and paper on the inside, there really were fast projects.

It was fun adding bits of ribbon or buttons to finish off the design.

Since the paper is all double sided, that meant that the back of the project was already decorated too. I just added a few stickers and design embellishments to finish it off.

We gave these out along with some baked treats when we BOOed a couple of neighbors. We love the tradition of getting BOOed and BOOing our neighbors at Halloween time. If you want to start up this tradition in your neighborhood, the TomKat Studio has a fun free printable that you can use with instruction on how it works.

Hope you are having fun getting ready for Halloween!

Boo Banner @ Glitter Academy

2011-10-23T22:19:00.000-07:00

Friday night I went to a Glitter Academy crafting night. There were several crafts available for purchase, but with of the stuff I already have at my house, I decided to come up with my own craft. My friends Aimee and Jennie came and we had a great time together.

I'd brought a bunch of Halloween stuff to use to make banners for Aimee and I. When we met up with Jennie, I asked what she was going to work on and she said she'd just brought Halloween stuff to make a banner. How funny! Great minds must think alike!

The banners took over three hours to make, but there may have been more talking and eating than crafting going on.

The main treat at the event was ice cream from SubZero. It was pretty cool set up. You get to choose your dairy liquid base (custard, yogurt) and then your flavor (chocolate, pumpkin, strawberry) and then they pour it into a bowl and freeze it up into ice cream in about 10 seconds. Pretty fun! Plus there was a candy bar that was perfect for topping the ice cream after it was frozen.

We each embellished our banners differently and I didn't get any close up photos of their banners (camera phone + low light = blurry photos) but I did take a few of my banner today.

I think my favorite part of the banner may be the little bat hanging from the O because it's glow in the dark. I'd picked up a pack of glow in the dark bats last Halloween, but this is the first bat to make it's way out of the package. Maybe more will get to come out next year.

Hope you are looking forward to a great week!

Candy Thief

2011-10-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

While going through older Halloween photos, I came across one that has always been a favorite and decided it was time to use it on a layout.

Here we have one-year-old Hannah stealing a sucker from three-year-old Max. Look at his face. Makes me laugh every time I see this!

Layout Supplies: Fancy Pants Oct. 31st line: Paper, Chipboard Banners, Buttons, Design Embellishments, Glitter Cuts and black alpha; Glitz Designs Teeny White Type Alpha, Cosmo Cricket Tiny Numbers.

Although another Halloween is almost here, fall weather has yet to arrive at my house, so I thought that I would bring a bit of fall indoors. Here's a look at some of my fall/Halloween decorations.

The great thing about most of this decor is that it can stay up for October and then November with a few minor changes. I'm lucky to get decorations set up, so I like to leave them up for a while. What about you? Do you like decorating for fall?

Tonight I'm heading out to the Glitter Academy Girls Night Out where my friends and I will be doing some crafting. They had projects available for purchase, but with so much craft stuff already in my house, I decided to come up with my own craft. I'm going to be putting together a Halloween banner tonight! Should be fun.

Hope you have a fantastic Friday!

Cabin, Tires and Halloween

2011-10-18T09:15:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went up to a cabin with a friend and our kids for some relaxing and playtime. I brought my scrapbook stuff with me and got to work on a few layouts. It was great to have so much creative time!

We did have one crazy adventure on a narrow back mountain road with a steep cliff off to one side where we got a flat tire. Lucky some really nice people stopped to help us and all was good.

I worked on another Halloween page while up at the cabin. This one uses photos of each of my kids from Halloween last year.

I used the Scrapbook Circle Hallow's Eve Kit for this page.

Oh, and I have a little peek of the upcoming November Scrapbook Circle Kit for you...

Can't wait to share more!

Dressing Up for Halloween

2011-10-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

Only two more weeks until Halloween! My kids are very excited and they have been finalize their costume over the past couple of weeks.

I came across a couple of Halloween photos from a few year ago of my youngest and her friend. Here's a layout of the same girls from last month. It's so fun to look at older photos and see how they've grown.

Everything came from the Scrapbook Circle Hallow's Eve Kit. I'm excited to use a few other older Halloween photos on pages. I think I'm a bit behind on documenting Halloween!

9 Years Old + Quick Party Favors

2011-10-12T23:39:00.000-07:00

Today, my Max turned 9 years old. He's such a funny, clever and determined kid.

I made the traditional birthday breakfast with candles this morning to start the day off right. He choose Oatmeal Waffles topped with strawberry freezer jam and sausage for our menu this morning.

Yesterday, we celebrated Max and Hannah's birthdays with a party with their friends at Amazing Jake's. Amazing Jake's is an indoor amusement park with laser tag, mini golf, go carts, rock climbing, video games and carnival rides plus a dinner and dessert buffet. All of the party kids seemed to have a great time and I was happy to safely return all of the kids to the parents at the end of the night.

Since I knew most of the kids would be getting a bunch of prizes from the ticket redemption from arcade games, I didn't feel like we needed to give out a big goodie bag.

But I wanted each of the party guests to go home with something personalized from us, so I put together giant candy bars covered with patterned paper wrappers.

Some of my favorite things about this project:

* All of the supplies were in our house (except for the candy bars)
* It was a great way to use up lots of paper scraps
* Simple project that my 3 kids were able to work on with me
* Personalized name tags
* Who doesn't love a giant candy bar?

We had seven girls and seven boys at the party, so the styles reflect some more girly styles (flowers, butterflies, pink) and some my boy styles (starts, numbers and blue.)

I used this Scrapbook Circle printable for the two different labels on the candy bars. I love that I can select just one element on the page and them print a bunch of them in Photoshop.

If you want your own copy of this page, you can download it HERE and print and use as many times as you would like. Hope you enjoy it!

Party Time!

2011-10-09T23:19:00.000-07:00

It's birthday season at our house. Two of my sisters had birthday already this month plus my youngest celebrated her birthday last Wednesday. Then it's Max's birthday this coming Wednesday.

Just to make the celebrating even more fun, my kids just finished their first week of a 2.5 week fall break.

We celebrated Hannah's birthday by starting off her day with Oatmeal Waffles and candles.

After breakfast, I surprised her with one of her presents >>> earrings! She has been wanting to get her ears pierced and she was so excited about her present.

We also saw Dolphin Tale which was a great family movie. During the week the kids also went swimming and we went to a Diamondback game. It's been great to have a lot of relaxed family time together.

Tonight we had the grandparents and aunts and uncles over to celebrate the kids' birthdays. We grilled sliders and made Pioneer Woman Mac & Cheese. For dessert, Max wanted creme puffs and Hannah wanted a Chocolate Fudge Cake. My dad also made homemade vanilla ice cream. It was quite a party!

Looking forward to another fun week with our kids and I'm hoping to sneak in some crafting time too!

Cousins and Game Night

2011-10-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

The new Glitz lines make me happy and excited to create! This month I choose to create two layouts with the Dance in Sunshine line. I'm really loving the yellow/aqua/purple color combo in this line.

My first layout has a collection of photos my kids and their cousins playing together this summer. We live on opposite sides of the United States from each other, so we don't get to see each other very often. But when we are together, I love watching the cousins play.

When I saw the big circle patterned die cuts in the Glitz Whatnot pack, I knew I wanted to use them on this page. I just cut them in half and used them behind the photos.

My next layout has a collection of photos from a family Guesstures game. Some of the photos captured some pretty funny expressions.

I love all of little bits and pieces from the Dance in the Sunshine line. The Glitzers, stamps, epoxy stickers and trims make it easy to embellish a page.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Playtime with Cousins
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Raindrops, Stripe, Polka
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Whatnots
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Glitzers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs White Type Teeny Alpha

Sunday Night Games
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Patterned Paper: Polka, Stripe, Damask, Raindrops, Birds
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Stamps
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Trims
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Glitzers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Epoxy Stickers
Glitz Designs "Dance in Sunshine" Giant Rhinestones
Glitz Designs White Type Teeny Alpha
Other: Scrapbook Circle Printable, Ink

Birthday Card and a Video

2011-10-04T05:21:00.000-07:00

Happy birthday to my awesome sister, Melanie!

Card supplies: Scrapbook Circle Fresh Picked Kit, Glitz Designs Teeny White Alpha

With the new month, comes a new Scrapbook Circle Video showing what is coming in the October Kit. I'm really not one to enjoy being in front of the camera, but it is fun sharing the kits. We just do one take of the video and roll with it. I'm thinking it's best to keep it casual and unscripted. What do you think?

30 Things We Love About You Album

2011-10-03T10:52:00.000-07:00

When I turned 30 a few years ago, my siblings started a tradition of creating an album for the birthday person filled with photos and things they love about them for a gift. Pretty cool, right? We've continuted the tradition as my sisters Michelle and Melanie turned 30. (I wasn't blogging when Michelle turned 30, so no photos of her album.

This weekend our youngest sister turned 30 and it was her turn for a birthday album. I started the process about a month ago by emailing my brother and sisters and asked them to email me their favorite memories about Kristen. They also sent some of their favorite photos.

For the album, I cut 16 chipboard pieces for the pages of the album. I kept the design pretty similar for each page so that it would be faster to put together.

Once the pages were finished, I punched two holes in the top of each page and tied it together with twine. Originally I thought I'd bind it with large circle binding clips, but the album ended up being over 2 inches think and twine was a better option.

My brother and one of my sisters live nearby, so they came and wrote their memories in the book. I liked having everyone write memories in their own handwriting to add more of a personal touch.

Kristen said that she laughed and cried while looking at her album, so I think it was a success!

Album supplies: Precocious Paper Embellishment, Scrapbook Circle The Good Life Kit, Scrapbook Circle Anniversary Kit, an assortment of tags from Scrapbook Circle Printables, Amy Tangerine Bits.

Fancy Pants Card Challenge

2011-10-01T22:37:00.000-07:00

Hope you are having a relaxing weekend and enjoying World Card Making Day. Fancy Pants has a card challenge starting today. Simply create a greeting card with any theme that you'd like—make sure to use at least some Fancy Pants products—and post it to the Fancy Pants Facebook Wall between now and Oct. 8, 2011.

The rest of the challenge details are on the Fancy Pants Blog.

Here's a look at a few of the cards I've created with Fancy Pants products. Love the variety of colors and themes offered by FP.

Happy card making to you!

Busy, Busy!

2011-09-30T13:56:00.000-07:00

Things have been extra busy around here this week, so I haven't been the best blogger.

What been going on around here?

Making a secret project for my sister for her birthday. This was a several day project and I'm really excited about the finished project. I can show full pictures tomorrow after my sister has opened the present.

Reading through so many amazing applications for the Scrapbook Circle Design Team. The last day for submissions is today, so I'm sure I have more to catch up on this weekend. It's going to be a very tough decision.

Making Buckeyes. Love the recipes from this cookbook. It's not a big sugar bomb like other similar recipes. I like them so much I had two for breakfast today!

Creating scrapbook pages with the new Glitz Dance in Sunshine line. I'll share those pages next week.

Using my sewing machine for the first time EVER. I'm really excited about this. It took me about 20 minutes to figure out how to thread it, but now it's good to go.

Putting together another page with the Scrapbook Circle October Fresh Picked Kit. Yes, this is the first layout where I've ever sewed on the paper. That's been on my list of things to do for a long time and I'm pretty sure many more pages will have sewing in my future.

That sums up a bit of what is going on! Hope you have a wonderful weekend.

The Good Life Kit Winner!

2011-09-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

Thanks for everyone who played along with The Good Life Kit giveaway last week.

The winner is...

Congrats, Kelly!

Email me (lisa@scrapbookcircle.com) your address and I'll get the kit right out to you!

Scrapbook Circle's October Kit

2011-09-26T06:02:00.000-07:00

The months truly are flying by. It seems like we debut a new Scrapbook Circle kit and then moments later, it's time for the next kit. That's fine with me though because that means a steady stream of scrapbook supplies are always flowing across my desk.

I'm excited to introduce our October Kit, Fresh Picked, to you today! Filled with Lily Bee, Create Paper, Pebbles, Pink Paislee, Elle's Studio and more.

The wood Pink Paislee alphas and the Studio Calico Scrap Pad were two of my favorite new items at CHA and I'm excited to have them together in this kit along with some of my favorite new paper picks.

I've had time to put one layout together with the kit. The photo was taken while we were out of town over Labor Day weekend. One of my kids was taking pictures and took a picture of me. When I uploaded the photos to the computer, I decided that the photo should go on a page since my pages rarely have pictures of me since I'm usually the one behind the camera.

Hope you have a great Monday!

Hello, Baby

2011-09-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Today I get to celebrate the upcoming arrival of a friend's baby boy at her baby shower. It's her first baby and I'm very happy for her.

Here's a look at the card I put together for her.

The supplies are all from the Fancy Pants Off to School line. The colors in the line work so well for so many different topics - even baby cards!

Hope you are have a wonderful Saturday!

The ABC's of Me

2011-09-23T12:46:00.000-07:00

Earlier this week I saw this ABC list on Nicole's blog and thought it would be fun to do here.

A. Age: 36 and 3 days
B. Bed size: King

C. Chore that you hate: Laundry. It's just that it never ends.

D. Dogs: Nope
E. Essential start to your day: Prayer
F. Favorite color: Teal
G. Gold or Silver: Silver, but more interested in gold lately
H. Height: 5'6"
I. Instruments you play: Piano
J. Job title: Scrapbook Circle Owner & Mom
K. Kids: 3
L. Live: Chandler, AZ
M. Mother’s name: Karen
N. Nicknames: not really
O. Overnight hospital stays: All three kids' delivery
P. Pet peeves: Kids' dropping stuff (clothes, backpacks, socks, shoes) where ever they are taken off
Q. Quote from a movie: "There's no place like home." - Wizard of Oz
R. Right or left handed: Left
S. Siblings: One brother, three sisters

T. Time you wake up: Weekdays : 7:15, Saturday: 7:00 am, Sunday: 9:00 am (love to sleep in!)
U. Underwear: Yes
V. Vegetable you hate: I really like vegetables. Lima beans aren't a favorite.
W. What makes you run late: Getting "one last thing" done: unload dishwasher, start a load of laundry, checking email
X. X-Rays you’ve had: None
Y. Yummy food that you make: Chocolate Chip Cookies and Chicken Parmesan
Z. Zoo animal: Love the monkeys

Now it's your turn!

Hope you have a great weekend. Tonight we are heading to the Diamondbacks game where my girls (and 1000 of other choir people from around AZ) will be signing the National Anthem. Tomorrow we have 2 soccer games, 1 volleyball game and a baby shower to attend. Should be a fun and busy weekend - just the way I like it!

Celebrating My Birthday: Giveaway!

2011-09-21T13:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I had a fantastic day celebrating my 36th birthday. Spent the day helping in my daughter's first grade class, went to Zumba at the gym, lunch with friends & some family at Essence Bakery and dinner with family at Joe's Farm Grill.

One of my most crafty friends wrapped my gift with a brown paper bag that she had cut into strips. Isn't it so cute and clever? Plus I love the rolled paper candles on the card. Thought you'd enjoy seeing her creative wrapping!

My super talented baking sister, Michelle, created my requested cookie tower in lieu of cake.

The chocolate chip cookies were some of the very best that I've ever had. The recipe came from this Baked cookbook. The cookie stand was found a few years ago at Melrose Vintage in Phoenix. (Love that place!)

Okay, enough about me! Let's do a giveaway. The Scrapbook Circle The Good Life Kit was so fun to work with, I want to share one with one of you. Here's a look at what I've create with the kit so far:

Want to win this kit?

Just leave a comment here letting me know one of your favorite places to travel and I will choose a winner from the comments.

Comments close Sunday, September 25th @ midnight PST.

(Please be sure to leave an email in your comment or have your blogger profile linked up so I can contact you if you win.)

Hiking to Havasupai

2011-09-19T15:13:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a lot of time to create things this past week because of a fantastic trip to Havasupai in the Grand Canyon.

My husband and I went with three other couples for a two night stay in the Grand Canyon. We hiked in eleven miles last Thursday and then hiked out on Saturday.

We camped right by the water at the Havasupai campsite. Although I did wake up a lot in the night, it was still so relaxing to hear the water running next to us all night. The campsite was so beautiful. The cool stream was pretty perfect for a long foot soak after we first arrived at camp.

We spent the day on Friday exploring the waterfalls. We swam and relaxed. It really did feel like paradise there. I hope to go back again someday!

The only questionable part of the day was when we went to Mooney Falls and discovered that the only route for getting there involved climbing down a steep face of a wet cliff while holding onto chains. Glad I didn't know about that or I may not have been able to sleep at all the night before!

I only used my phone for pictures on this trip because we were packing in all of our food, tent, clothes, etc. and there just wasn't room in the pack for a camera too. Lucky a couple others in our group were staying at a lodge a couple miles from the campsite and they had space for a "real" camera and they took lots of photos.

Once I have the photos, I'm thinking this trip needs a mini book put together which will mainly focus on the photos.

I'm so thankful for all of our friends and family who helped with our kids while we were away. It's a bit stressful being completely out of touch with our kids, but I knew they were in good hands.

Everyday Inspiration @ Fancy Pants Designs

2011-09-16T06:30:00.000-07:00

Fancy Pants Designs has a new monthly feature on their blog titled "Everyday Inspiration" and today I am sharing a layout inspired by a page from Real Simple Magazine.

Here's a peek at my layout.

Hope you'll stop by and check out the post if you have a chance!

Wolf Badge and Havasupai

2011-09-14T19:47:00.000-07:00

Last month Max received his Wolf Badge at his scout pack meeting. He was so excited about it! I forgot to bring my camera and only took one on my phone, so that is what I used on this page. I've got to be better at bringing camera along to events.

All of the layout supplies are from the Fancy Pants Off to School line. Loving using this line for so much more that school pages.

I'm heading out early tomorrow morning (early as in 2:00 a.m.) to drive to the Grand Canyon to hike down to Havasupai. I'm a little nervous for the 11 mile hike each way since I haven't done any hiking to train and get ready, but I'm sure it will be fun!

My bag is packed and now I should go and get some sleep!

The Arch + DT Call

2011-09-12T22:26:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been busy using lots of our summer vacation photos on layouts. We took hundreds of photos this summer, so I'm slowly working my way through my favorites. Today I'd like to share a page about our visit to the St. Louis Arch.

I will admit that I was a little nervous about going to the top of the arch. The ride to the top is inside a little round pod with 5 seats in a semi-circle. The ride to the top was 4 minutes and it went by pretty quickly and it was a really smooth ride. Nothing to worry about!

At the top of the arch, there are little viewing window on both sides. The view from the top were worth it. This was a great activity in St. Louis and I recommend it to anyone visiting the city!

On another note, Scrapbook Circle has a design team call running right now. All of the details can be found here. We're excited to add more to our team!

Hello, Friend

2011-09-09T16:29:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we escaped the heat of Phoenix for a few days and drove north to the cooler pines of Flagstaff. (It was still around 90 degrees, but that was much cooler than the 115 degrees at home.) We met up with friends and enjoyed a lot of relaxing, reading, eating and time together.

One of my daughter's best friends was up there and they had a fantastic time playing together all weekend. I did a terrible job taking pictures, but I did get a couple of the girls together.

Don't the girls look so happy? Got to love that!

Hope you are looking forward to the weekend! Tomorrow we have 2 soccer games and 1 volleyball game - the first games of the season! It's very busy around her right now with all three kids in a sport, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

Happy Friday to you!

(All of the layout supplies are from The Good Life Scrapbook Circle Kit.)

Where is a Pencil?

2011-09-07T00:08:00.000-07:00

Now that school has been in session for over a month, my kids have somehow misplaced many of the new pencils we bought for them to use while doing homework. Pencils are kind of like socks around here. They like to disappear.

When I found out about the Fancy Pants Challenge this month to create something school themed, I knew that I wanted to create something that will hopefully help us will the missing pencil problem.

I altered a metal can with a bunch of Fancy Pants Off to School goods and created (what I hope) will be a happy place for many pencils for months to come.

There is still time to enter the Fancy Pants School Challenge and you can find all of the info here.
If you want to see other school themed project ideas, you can check out this post.

Now if I could just come up with a solution for keeping track of matching pairs of socks...

A Video! The Scrapbook Circle September Kit

2011-09-06T15:05:00.000-07:00

I've been planning on doing short videos showcasing the Scrapbook Circle Kits each month, but things were busy and it didn't happen.

Today was the day for the first Scrapbook Circle video! I share what comes in The Good Life September Kit. It's pretty simple and I have plans for jazzing things up in the future, but here's a look at this month's video:

Untitled from Scrapbook Circle on Vimeo.

Hope you enjoy the video!

Glitz It Up: Party Theme!

2011-09-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

This month Glitz Designs is hosting a Party Theme challenge over on their blog.

You can see all of the details here.

Hope you are enjoying your 3-day weekend!

Passport Photos

2011-09-02T13:09:00.000-07:00

In a couple of months we are going to Mexico and so we needed to get passports for our kids. I took them to Costco for the passport photos and we received 2 of each photo. When I turned in the passport application, they only needed one photo. So what should I do with the extra passport photos? Make a layout, of course!

Everything on the page came from the Scrapbook Circle The Good Life Kit plus I used some of these Amy Tangerine Bits.

Hope you have a fantastic weekend!

Hair Feathers

2011-09-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

Are hair feathers the new exciting thing to add to your hair where you live? "Everyone" in my daughter's 6th grade class is getting hair feathers and I think they look pretty fun.

Last week I took Audrey and two of her friends to have feathers put in their hair. The longest part of the process was choosing which feather to use. The feathers just get clamped into the hair. Supposedly the feathers will stay up to 6 months and you can wash, curl, flat iron the feathers just like regular hair.

Almost everything for this page came from the Scrapbook Circle The Good Life kit that is available starting today.

The only non-kit item is the cardboard/fabric embellishment from Precocious Paper. You can use code LABBHFREE for free shipping from Precocious Paper through September 5!

Hope you have a fantastic day!

Organizing & San Francisco

2011-08-31T06:02:00.000-07:00

If you are here for the Precocious Paper Birthday Blog Hop, please go here.
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I'm happy to be sharing a couple of layout creations on the Glitz Designs blog today!

First up is a page about reorganizing my scrapbook room. A couple of weeks ago I shared on my blog about the process of getting organized and this layout features the results.

I'm loving the bright blue walls and empty space. Perfect for getting the creative juices flowing. This layout features pieces from three different Glitz Designs lines. I think they all work together pretty well!

Next up is a layout featuring one of my favorite photos I took on a recent trip to San Francisco taken while we were riding on a trolley.

When I pulled out the Glitz Love Games stamps to use on this page I wondered to myself why I hadn't used this fun "Hello Badge" stamp yet. I'm thinking there will be a lot of future uses for this stamp.

Enjoy your day!

Reorganizing
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Patterned Paper: Damask, Scorecard
Glitz Designs "Afternoon Muse" Patterned Paper: Banner, Floral, Dots, Carte Postal
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Paper Layers
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs "Laced with Grace" Whatnot
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Whatnot
Glitz Designs Teeny Round Brown Alpha

Hello San Francisco
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Patterned Paper: Scorecard, Poppies, Stripe, Dots
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Peek a Boo Transparency
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Clear Stamps
Glitz Designs "Love Games" Journaling Stickers
Glitz Designs Teeny Round Black Alpha
Other: Mist, Ink and Number Stickers

Precocious Paper Blog Hop

2011-08-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hello! Happy Monda to you! Today I'm excited to be participating today in my friend Tessa's blog hop celebrating her 30^th birthday. The blog hop is sponsored by her Etsy shop, Precocious Paper. Happy Birthday, Tessa!

Tessa is offering FREE SHIPPING on any US order and a $5 minimum international order. Just use code LABBHFREE at checkout here. The code is valid through September 5th.

Tessa is giving away over $100.00 in product and has 20 designers are sharing projects in honor of the birthday. You don’t want to miss this! You can join us by starting at Tessa’s blog.

If you’ve been hopping along and just came from Windy Robinson's blog, you are in the right place.

Tessa was generous and sent me a few of the products she offers in her shop. First, I used one of the Butterfly Doilies on this card. I love that she has done all of the layer and cutting for me!

On this layout I used one of Tessa's flowers. I love that it's layers of felt and fabric that are sew together and have a simple pearl in the center.

Tessa is giving away a bunch of Precocious Paper giveaways! If you complete the entire hop by leaving a comment on every designer’s post, you will be entered to win the grand prize – the September, October, November and December Samplers! That’s a $54.00! Plus she has other great prizes on her blog!

There are a bunch of new things to her shop as part of the celebration, so be sure to stop by and take a peek. Remember to used this discount code LABBHFREE at checkout so you will receive free shipping and a free thank you gift.

Next stop on the hop is Anna White-Sharman.

Thank you for stopping by and happy hopping!

Fancy Friday Challenge: School Projects

2011-08-26T10:50:00.000-07:00

Fancy Pants is starting up a new monthly blog challenge and this month the theme is "Back to School."

You can find all of the details on the Fancy Pants Blog today.

I decided to play along with the challenge and create some little notes that can be put into my kids' lunch boxes.

This was a perfect project for using up some scraps from the Off to School line.

Hopefully my kids will enjoy discovering a little note from me hidden in their lunch boxes!

Playing with Fancy Pants Banners

2011-08-24T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today on the Fancy Pants blog a few of us are sharing ways to use the Off to School Chipboard Banner Stickers.

If you have a minute, I hope you have time to stop by and see what everyone has created. Here's a little peek at my page:

Since it's been a month since my last couple of Fancy Pants blog projects were shown on their blog, I can share them with you now here.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Banana Bread and Birthday Cards

2011-08-23T15:16:00.000-07:00

Hello! Hope you are having a great day.

I'm enjoying bookmarking and trying out recipes that I discover through Pintrest. Last week I made this Marbled Chocolate Banana Bread and almost everyone in the family gave it two thumbs up. (Max won't eat anything with bananas, so he wasn't excited about the bread.) That just meant more for the rest of us.

The chocolate was perfectly soft and added a delicious touch to the moist banana bread. There are now a few more bananas turning brown on my counter so that I can make this again.

This recipe is my usual go-to banana bread recipe, but now I've added another favorite to the mix.

Also wanted to share a couple of cards that I made over the weekend. I used my Silhouette to cut the scalloped flower on the first card and then used the negative space for the second card.

The colors on this American Crafts paper are so festive and perfect for birthday cards!

Getting Ready for the Weekend

2011-08-19T10:16:00.000-07:00

When the Summer's End collection from Fancy Pants arrived, I instantly thought I these photos I took of my daughter last fall while we were in Boston. The trees in October were gorgeous, vibrant colors of red, yellow and orange. Since we don't get to experience changing leaves here in Phoenix, it was a pretty exciting thing to see the bold colors.

One of my favorite Fancy Pants products are the paper filter embellishments. They are similar to tissue paper and come cut in circles with fun edging with prints on them. On this layout a couple of the are layered together and cut in half so they could be used above and below the photos.

On another note, for a while I was posting Friday Finds every week to share cool things I found around the web and help me keep track of things. But now I'm using Pintrest to organize all of these ideas. Are you on Pintrest? Leave your username in the comments so I can follow you!

Thanks to a find on Pintrest, I'm making this Grilled Chicken Bruschetta tonight. I'm excited to give a new recipe a try.

Thanks for the feedback on the vintage coffee table post. I'm going out on a hunt for one next week so that I can finish up our bedroom makeover. Thought I would share a look at our new headboard and pillows.

The headboard is made from printed burlap attached to the wall and then framed. We kept the white bedspread we already had, but jazzed it up with a bunch of new pillows. I'll share more photos once we're finished with the room.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Together

2011-08-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

If you've been reading my blog over the past month, you know that our family had a reunion in Illinois this summer. We traveled from both the east and west sides of the country to get together.

When I pulled out my September Scrapbook Circle Kit, I immediately knew that this U.S. map page was something that I wanted to use with one of our reunion photos.

When the kit was put together, this paper was selected mainly because of the cool orange wavy pattern on the back. But for today, it was the map side that was used.

I used the little word stickers from the kit to show the general path that we traveled to all come together.

Can't wait to share the full kit reveal, but here's a peek for you.

On the Hunt: Vintage Door Coffee Table

2011-08-17T19:23:00.000-07:00

This summer my husband and I decided that it was time to redecorate our bedroom. We've been married almost 15 years and our bedroom had just been pieced together with IKEA furnature and hand me downs. It's been fine, but it was time to add a little more style to our room. We even hired an interior designer for help.

One of the last pieces we need to figure out for our bedroom in a coffee table for a little sitting area.

Our talented designer suggested something like this for the coffee table:

It's fine and would go well in the room, but I'm wanting something a little more unique.

I'm thinking about something like one of these:

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So what do you think? Traditional table or vintage door coffee table?

Now I just need to find a vintage door that I can turn into a table!

Unbroken

2011-08-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

I just finished reading Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand and I'm highly recommending this book to everyone.

This is a biography of Louis Zamperini who had a wild childhood, competed in the Berlin Olympics where he met Hitler, fought in the Pacific in WWII and endured unimaginable suffering at a POW in Japan.

The beginning of the book was a little to slow and detailed for me, but once I got into it, I didn't want to put the book down.

This was very inspiring story about a hero who showed true determination and resilience.

July Scrapbok Trends Pubs

2011-08-14T17:35:00.000-07:00

It's always fun to see my layouts in print and this month I had two layouts in the July Scrapbook Trends magazine.

My kids were especially excited to see this page since they are all featured on the page. My daughter had a friend over when the magazine arrived and her friend couldn't believe they were in a magazine. So cute!

Thanks for stopping by today!