Big News!

I found out Wednesday night that I had made my first design team! I have been applying to teams for months now and so I am very excited to be chosen for this one. It is perfect for me because it combines two of my favorite crafts, scrap booking and rubber stamping. It is an online blog called Scrap & Stamp you can click on this link to see the announcement. There were six new members chosen, four of which are international! So I will be designing with an international team that includes: USA, South Africa, Belgium, Italy and Singapore- how cool is that? Did I mention I was excited? Anyway speaking of layouts including both scrapping and stamping my last class at B&B Scrapbooks had a layout with both. It was on Thursday and was my biggest class yet and we had tons of fun. Here is the layout we did and the cards:

This was definitely my favorite class project to date, I love how this Bo Bunny Mama-razzi paper was made for black and white photos. I also must give a shout out to Joan from my class, she had the most amazing vintage photos of her aunt from the 1920's and 1930's and they looked stunning on this layout. I must get a photo and share with you sometime. Anyway, gotta run. We are still trying to finish prepping the house for showings and Gabe just finished his breakfast. :)

Aspen's {Baby}??

So it must be your lucky day, two blog posts today- a first for me for sure. I just finished a funny layout about Aspen that I just couldn't wait to share. She is currently in Creative Living class and got to bring home the legendary "think it over" baby last week! She was really excited about it and overall it went fine but it was amusing to watch her handle a "newborn". The first crying fit from the baby gave Aspen a partial meltdown, but after that she held it together pretty well. A couple oops moments when she forgot to support the head and some neglect during the night (she is a very heavy sleeper) was about the worst of it. The best part of the entire experience is that neither Scott or Aspen are pressuring me to have another baby now, hee hee. The one small taste of what it would be like with two little ones in the house cured them right now. lol.

So in true scrapper form I created this layout based on a challenge over at Candy Shoppe Designs, I recently applied for their design team and wanted to play along in this challenge for the fabulous prize. A kit from Scarlet Lime is up for grabs, super cool stuff- check them out at: http://www.scarletlime.com/
The layout had to include raindrops or teardrops- explains the baby tears right. Anyhow enjoy!

Materials Used: Papers-Daisy D's/Medallion Grape & Sidewalk Chalk; Colorbok/Apricot Lattice; Scenic Route Paper Co./Douglas Cootey,Coral Splash; Crafts Etc!/Orange Friendship; Embellishments: Franks Navette Crystals; Vintage lace; pink ribbon bow; Stampin Up/Eggplant Envy & Blush Blossom Marker

Well hope this post brought a smile to your face, I know it did bring one to mine.

Easter Antics

So I promised some Easter photos, have not had time to put any into layouts...yet. In case your wondering why Aspen is not in them, she spent that weekend with her Dad- so she escaped my camera onslaught. Anyhow we had a great Easter and hope that you all did as well.

Gone Fishin

So I put together another layout for a sketch challenge at Scrap & Stamp. I used the wonderful photos of Gabe's first fishing adventure with his Daddy & PaPa. The challenge included the requirement of using a household item for your layout, so I used an onion bag from the kitchen ;) - its the netting. I really like how it turned out.

Materials Used: Lt. Blue Textured Cardstock; My Minds Eye/Life Stories-Kraft graph pattern & Bohemia/water paper; Bo Bunny/MamaRazzi- cattails & fish; Stampin Up/Fishin stamp set & Bordering Blue ink; Studio Calico/Journal Frame stamp; Maya Road-alpha rub-ons & Silver mist spray

Well gotta run, hope you had a tolerable Monday!

And When You Pray...

So I know I promised Easter photos next, but technically the photos in this layout are from Easter Sunday. I did this layout today for this sketch challenge at My Minds Eye (http://mymindseye.typepad.com/blog/2010/04/challenge-10-dream-big.html) blog and wanted to share it. This was the sketch:

It also had to use a line from a song called: Dream Big by Ryan Shupe & The RubberBand. So I chose the line that begins "And when you pray." Of course I instantly thought of the photos I recently caught of Gabriel's first attempts at praying. So here is my version of the above sketch:

 There it is another first for Gabe, praying. I also sent out a phone video message today of him praying and playing the piano. Quite the combo act he's got. At the moment he and Daddy are playing carnival ride with a plastic toy bin that happens to have wheels. Never a dull moment around here. Happy Friday!

A Favorite Treat

So as all of our family already knows, Gabriel loves Root Beer Floats. I have been wanting to do a layout to share his favorite treat and I finally got around to it. I used my favorite style which is vintage and it turned out great, I have already entered it into a challenge at http://scrapandstampsaturday.blogspot.com and submitted it for possible magazine publication. So we will see how it does. Mostly I just wanted to share the cute photos, in the one of him looking at Scott he seems to be saying "What do you think your doing? I didn't say you could have any of my float". Too funny this little guy. Everyday is an adventure.

I will try and share Easter photos soon, we have some cute ones. Have a great day!

Alice In Wonderland

As you know my daughter Aspen turned 15 in February and we ended up having her party later due to a mother daughter weekend jaunt [so much fun!] Regardless, I don't think it was coincidence that her slumber party fell on the opening day of the new Alice in Wonderland movie. So we all went to see it , in 3D no less. It was lots of fun and so when I saw the new Fairy Tale paper line from Reminisce with Alice I thought of her birthday photos and of a May class project. So I have combined the two and this will be my first May class, not sure on the date yet. I also am linking this post to the fabulous NVS girls at http://nvsgirls.blogspot.com/ who are doing an Alice Collage challenge this month with a prize pack from The Snobby Walrus at http://www.snobbywalrus.com/index.html. I have another Alice sketch ready that is more my artistic style, hopefully I will get to it also. But I thought I may as well enter this one and see what happens. Whatever happens at least I got to share some fab photos of Aspens birthday celebration. Hope you all had a great Monday!

Here is the project photo the class will include a double layout, bookmark and gift card:

Gabriels Imagination Layout

So I am super excited about my latest layout it is pictured here and I believe is my favorite little boy layout to date. First off how can you go wrong with fabulous photos like this of Gabe? I love these photos, he is so full of personality right now, it is literally bursting out of him and I think these photos capture that. I used all Cosmo Cricket papers including chipboard and I love how it turned out. I knew I wanted to create a rocket ship and then I saw their take on a sub and I had to recreate that as well. So the rocket and sub are my own paper pieced creations. These papers are so colorful and playful so I just had fun with it. Scott and Aspen were struggling with the two different background papers so I made the sub green and added blue accents on the rocket side to tie them together a little more.

 I have entered this into three online galleries and have gotten the most positive comments I have ever gotten, so people seem to like it as well. I have entered it into the April Cosmo Cricket Challenge on Scrapbook.com at: http://www.scrapbook.com/forums/showpost.php?post/12550441/ and the Moxie Fab World Project Challenge as well at: http://www.moxiefabworld.com/2010/03/picking-up-pieces-challenge.html  So who knows maybe this is the one that will get published?

Hope you all had a great week, we have been crazy busy here. But all is well. I taught my class yesterday and it was fun and will be preparing for the next one. I will be working on an Alice in Wonderland layout soon of Aspens birthday so I will share it next. Happy Friday!!

Gabe's First Fishing Adventure

So I promised a post with Gabriel's first fishing adventure pictures. Last Friday we went to my parents for dinner and to fish and Scott decided that tonight was the night Gabe was going to fish for the first time. So he loaded up his pole and Gabes little fishing pole and off we went. I'm not sure who was more excited Daddy or Gabe? Regardless, it was certainly a dream come true for Daddy. They were so cute sitting there together on the dock. Gabe is such an outdoors boy anyway, he actually was quite content with his pole sitting in Daddy's lap for at least ten minutes. He even pushed the button on the reel to drop his play hook/fish into the water, he's a natural I think! It was a priceless moment to be sure. It is crazy to think that we may be moving out there to rent from my parents and be able to enjoy moments like that much more often. Anyway here are the pictures:

Spring Greetings!

So it finally, actually feels like Spring here in Ohio- Thank you God. It hit the 80's yesterday, couldn't believe it. It has seemed like a long and dreary winter season. So to celebrate I wanted to share the class kit layout I created for the class I teach at B&B on Thursday. It is titled Friends Forever and also has 3 cards with the project. The owner wanted to promote one of the new Bo Bunny lines and this is the limited edition "Jazmyne". It is really nice and every sheet has glitter, so it really sparkles. The photos are of Aspen and her best friend Darian when they were on their recent youth rally trip to WinterFest in Gatlinburg, Tennessee. They had tons of fun.
The next blog should be soon with photos of Gabe's first fishing adventure! Have a blessed Easter and enjoy your Spring season!