Happiness is When...

...We are with our Cousins.

Last month we we able to spend time with my sister's family while they were visiting Arizona from North Carolina. They are my kids' only cousins, so we love to get together with them.

While we were altogether we did a fun photo shoot with a photographer, Andrea. She captured this fun photo of the cousins and I knew I wanted to use it on a layout.
I used the Scrapbook Circle September kit for this layout. Product from Crate, Sassafras, Cosmo Cricket and Elle's Studio are on this page.Really loving the doilies paper from Crate. Here I cut out some of the doilies and spread them around the paper.

Hope to have more creative time with this kit soon!

Elle's Studio August Inspiration

All of the new inspiration for August is up at Elle's Studio.

Here's a little peek at a couple of things I have up.The woodgrain tag on this layout is one of Elle's printables. The great thing about this is that you can print it out at any size you want. If you look at the full layout, you will see that I used 2 different sizes of the woodgrain tag. Once you buy the download, you also get to print it as many times as you want. You never run out of tags!

*Out for Publication*

I know I've mentioned these number tags before. They really are worth a second mention. I think I need to buy a few packs of these.

Our Family

I had a little bit of creative time last week and made time to play with the September Scrapbook Circle kit. This could be one of my favorite kits ever! Of course, I love all of the kits, but there is just something about this kit that makes me happy.

I've had a 7 Gypsies painter's tray sitting about for a while just waiting for the right project to come along. Here's a look at what I came up with.The design is pretty simple because I really wanted to keep the focus on the photos. I loved the photos Andrea took of our family last month and I was excited to use them on this project. In addition to the Sept. kit, I also used some of these alphas. Really loving mini alphas right now!Thanks for stopping by and I hope you have a wonderful week.

It's Great to Be 8!

My son got to go to a birthday party yesterday, so I put a quick card together for him to take to the party. I did a fast search through my stash and found this bright and playful paper from Sassafras. It's a bit busy for a layout, but I thought it was perfect for a card.Here's a behind the scenes look at our little photo shoot. We were headed out the door to the party, but I had to take a few quick shots of the card. My son was giving his entertaining approval while I snapped the photos. Funny kid!They must have had fun at the party because when I showed up at 6:00 p.m. (party ending time) they still hadn't done cake or presents. Guess they were too busy eating candy from the pinata.

I love birthday parties and I'm really grateful that my kids have some amazing friends to celebrate with year after year.

Supplies: Paper & Sticker: Sassafras, Alphas: Cosmo Cricket, Number 8: American Crafts

Guest Post and More

Today I'm guest blogging over at the Lil' Luna blog. My friend, Kristyn, runs the site and she is always sharing great crafty ideas. I hope you will stop by and check out my Halloween project. Here's a little look at it...
On another note, I was browsing around blogs today and came across info on e-meals.com. I've been in a cooking (actually a non-cooking!) rut for a while and I'm looking for some new ideas and I'm thinking this site could be a good option. Anyone ever used this site or a similar meal idea site they like?

Welcome Home

We went to a house warming party last night and I made a quick card for our friends just before the party.I just attached the card to a little gift.The paper is all from the upcoming Sept. Scrapbook Circle kit. I'm so excited about this kit! Loving the color combo.

Scrapbook Trends Magazine

Just had to stop in and share that I have two projects in the the September issue of Scrapbook Trends!

The first project is a layout I made about cutting my daughter's bangs. I love the Jenni Bowlin ledge paper - perfect for adding lots of journaling.


The second project is a teacher card.I had made it for my daughter to give to her teacher at the end of last school year, but then the magazine requested it. Maybe we can give it to her current teacher.

Also, in case you are interested, I've added some add-ons (Glimmer Mists and Tiny Alpha Stickers) to the Scrapbook Circle Shop.

Cutting, Washing and Playing...

...those are some of my weekend plans.

I'll be cutting this:
It's 125 pieces of paper that I've copied and laminated. Now I need to cut each of them into strips and organize in baggies. I'm helping out my son's 2nd grade teacher with the project. I'm hoping to get this finished during our family movie night tonight.

I'll be washing piles of laundry.
Last weekend our washing machine started make a VERY loud banging noise and I had a repairman come out on Tuesday. On Wednesday he called and told me that it would be at least $550 to fix the machine. What? So sad. Not worth repairing, so I went and bought a new washing machine. It's being delivered this afternoon.

I'll be playing.

We surprisingly do not have a lot planned this weekend and I plan on enjoying time with my family and hopefully getting some scrapbook time in too.

What are you up to this weekend?

Rockstars

This afternoon an order of Chalkboard Glimmer Mist arrived and I decided to start spraying and experimenting.

This mist sprays a very rich color with an all over glimmer and sparkle. It seemed thicker than the original Glimmer Mist. I decided to play around with some "rockstar" themed pictures I took of my kids and niece last month.It's hard to see in the photos, but the entire layout is sparkling. Anyone know how to show the sparkle in photos?I had fun playing around with some masking for the title. I used a chipboard alpha from American Crafts on the paper, sprayed and then lifted the alpha. I freehand cut the large star and used the Silhouette to cut the smaller stars.

It was fun to experiment and bit and do something totally different.

Have you had a chance to play with the new chalkboard mists?

Mist colors: Strawberry Shortcake, Peacock and Banana Pudding

Fun Finds

Happy Friday to you!

I thought I'd share a few fun things I've come across this week.

First of all, check out this adorable 3" high bird cage. Donna Downey is selling them in her online shop. Not quite sure what I'd do with a couple of these, but I'm sure I could come up with something.

They would make fun party favors, a cool mobile or with a few clustered together, a playful centerpiece.Next are these sets of playing cards from My Mind's Eye's new Alphabet Soup line. There are both boy and girl styles.

These would make great baby shower banners, card fronts and could even be framed as nursery decor.
This next share is a cookbook that was published in 1998, so I'm not sure what took me so long to discover it. It's a Star Wars Cookbook. How fun is this? With recipes for Yoda Soda, Jabba Jiggle and Han-burgers, I think this will be a hit at our house.

It's my son's birthday in a couple of months and I think this could be a perfect gift since loves Star Wars and cooking with me in the kitchen.My last find for today comes from Keep Calm Shop on etsy. She takes a new twist on the "Keep Calm and Carry On" poster and designed some like these:These make me smile. There are several other designs in the shop.

Hope you have a happy weekend!

Happy Wednesday to you!

I've been enjoying a super productive morning planning out the next few Scrapbook Circle kits. I love being surrounded by piles of sample paper, catalogs and order forms!

Yesterday I got to celebrate one of my friends' birthdays. We all met for lunch at Oregano's. It's a local AZ restaurant with fantastic salads and pizza. Here's a look at the card I put together for the celebration.Time to get back to kit planning...

Free Online Class + Notebooks

Have you heard that Elle's Studio is doing a free 3-week journaling class starting TODAY? I can't wait to join in. Just stop by Elle's blog to join in on the class. Scrapbook Circle is one of the journaling class sponsors of this class. You can check out all of the sponsors (and giveaways!) here.

I had a little bit of creative time this weekend. My daughter went to a birthday party this weekend, so we worked on a couple of notebooks to give as part of the gift. Here's a look at what we came up with.I used the Scrapbook Circle July kit and one of the Elle's Studio new number cards on this. (Her friend was turning 11, so we used the "eleven" card.)

On the second journal I used Echo Park's Walk in the Park line. I love their clean designs and bold colors!
Really love their sticker sheet that includes a lot of little banners and alphas in three colors.Here's a look at the inside cover.The back cover.

These books are really fast and fun to make.

Simply Handmade Projects

Hope you are having a great weekend!

Just wanted to stop in today and share that I had two projects in the most recent issue of Simply Handmade.
It is so fun to see my projects in print!

The first project is a travel journal of a trip I took to Spain a couple of years ago. I put the book together before we left and then journaled along the way. It was a nice place to collect all of the tickets and brochures we gathered on our vacation.The second project is one that I made last fall to add to my small Halloween decor collection.Thanks for stopping by!

Scrapbook Circle Kit Gieaways

Just wanted to stop in and let you know about two Scrapbook Circle August kit giveaways that are going on right now.

The first giveaway is on Cathy Zielske's blog. Just leave a comment for a chance to win. (Ends tomorrow.)

Our second giveaway is on one of Scrapbook Circle designers, Audrey Yeager's blog. Just visit her blog to find out how to enter. (Ends August 11.)

Hope you have a great weekend!

Numbers!

I just made a layout using this fun set of numbers:
You'll have to wait a couple of weeks to see the layout, but if you need a set of these numbers for yourself, you can pick them up at Elle's Studio. These are part of Elle's brand new calendar release. I love the variety of styles and card sizes that come in this set!

Journaling on the Edge

Today I thought I would share a couple of layouts using one of my favorite techniques: journaling around the edge.

On this first layout I journaled around my photos to create a bit of a frame. The title is the 3rd edge of the frame.To finish off the frame around my photos, I used my circle punch to create circle for the bottom of the frame.On my second layout, I journaled around the entire page. I think this helps frame the entire page and give it a finished look.This technique a great to use when you just can't seem to find a great place to journal out in the middle of the page.For a few finishing touches of this page, I added a few of the Maya Glitz Glitzers. I love that they have bling sealed right into the sticker!

Hope you enjoyed my journaling around the edge layouts.

Supplies used: (123 layout) Glitz Kismet papers, rub-ons and tiny brown alpha.
(Hannah's Birthday Wishlist layout) Maya Glitz papers, Glitzers and both pink and black tiny alphas.