Aspen's Sweet Sixteen

So my baby girl is now officially sixteen, can't believe it- the years have flown by. This weekend we threw her a  big Sweet Sixteen party complete with over 60 guests, D.J. (my brother Stace), 3 tier cake, ice sculpture, black lights, several gifts and yes, a car.  Her Dad got her a 2000 Black Honda Prelude, she was so surprised and very excited. Still can't get used to the fact that she will be driving herself around soon. She hopes to take her drivers test this week and get her license. Wow, what a week this has been. Thank goodness we had lots of help with the party preparations and several family and friends that helped us pull it all off. A special thank you to all of them for their efforts. We tried to keep costs down by doing most everything ourselves and Scott's work donated the banquet hall. Anyhow enough with the talk, the pictures say it better:



Aspen and her Dad in her new car.



The cake that Aspen chose, Grandma baked and I decorated.



Aspen with her little brother Billy.



All the kids at the party.



The ice sculpture, by the talented French Chef Marc.



Perhaps the rowdiest kid at the party, Aspen's littlest brother Gabe rolling on the floor.



Make a Wish

  Those are just a few of the highlights, hope to make some great layouts with the photos. Happy Monday!

My First "Scrapbook Challenges" Challenge

So this week please join me over at SCRAPBOOK CHALLENGES for my first challenge with their design team. It is an ABC's of me challenge for the letter "F", so I chose the word "Faith". This means you have to create a layout that features what "Faith" means to you, because these challenges are all about you. Here is my example layout:



Materials Used: Brand New Jillibean Soup/Dutch Mustard papers, pea pod diecuts, cardstock stickers; kraft staple/white pea pod, Corrugated Alphabet/White, Corrugated Shape/Hearts, Alphabean Stickers/Speckled Egg

 Here are some close-ups, I loooove the new Jillibean Corrugated  Shapes, Pea  Pods diecuts and coordinating stickers they make embellishments like this easy:

Speaking of Scrapbook Challenges, while I was at CHA I got to meet two members of that team. I got to meet the owner Pamela Young, in fact she was working in a booth very close to ours with My Little Shoebox. I also got to meet Carmen Cohen-Henriquez she is another design team member there, she was very sweet and I got to catch a photo with her:

I hope you will check out Scrapbook Challenges it is a website full of inspiration with new sketches for anyone to use WEEKLY and a huge archive of sketches! 

We are headed to the rodeo tonight thanks to my brother getting us tickets! Can't wait to see how Gabriel reacts to a real rodeo. Aspen is at the big youth rally in Gatlinburg, Tennessee this weekend- Winterfest 2011. So please pray for her faith to grow and a safe journey! Next week is her 16th Birthday on the 24th, can't believe my baby is turning 16. Wow it happens so fast. Gotta run, we need to be working on her party preparations. Have a great weekend!

More CHA Photos to Share

So I promised more pics from our trip to L.A. for CHA. We had such a good time and I made lots of new friends too. Here are some more of my fav photos:



Palm trees and sunshine, sigh...



Downtown L.A. has really cool lighting at night, this is in an outdoor courtyard area.



Downtown near Staples Center, where the Lakers play.



At dinner at the Yard House with three famous Jillibean Soup Design Team Members:
Summer Fullerton, (me), Kimber McGray and Laura Vegas. We had so much fun, however may have been the loudest restaurant ever, lol. Great food though.

Here is the other side of our very large table at dinner with 3 more design team members:
Jill (Jillibean Owner), Jen Harkin, Aly Dosdall, Alecia (Jillibean Sales) and Laina Lamb.

Now to share more Scrappin Rock Star Photos!


Yep that is the Celine Navarro from France, she is one of my all time fav designers! Her photography always amazes me and her multimedia syle always inspires. She came to the booth to visit and was so nice, in fact she is a big Jillibean Soup fan too!



This is Jing Jing Nickel another designer I was so happy to meet. She has a graphic playful and colorful style that never disappoints. She seemed surprised that I wanted a photo with her :)

Well that's all I have time for now, Gabe needs a bath and a nap! Have a great weekend! 

Heritage Layouts at Scrap and Stamp

Thiis week over at Scrap and Stamp we are highlighting Heritage layouts. To join in the fun all you have to do is create a layout with a heritage photo and a stamp. The winner will receive a prize of several different ribbons.

Here is my layout, it is another Christmas gift that I created especially for my father. This is his senior picture, wasn't he handsome! I added lots of his favorites things to the layout, fishing, hunting, outdoors and his favorite hymn- "How Great Thou Art".

Materials used: Cosmo Cricket/Mr. Campy-Skipping Stones & Nature Walk & Cardstock Sticker/leaves; My Minds Eye/Ooh La La; Jillibean Soup/Alphabeans stickers; Stampin Up/Lovely as a Tree stamp set; Hobby Lobby/Shadowbox Frame & wooden fish decor.

On a Cosmo Cricket side note I was  blessed with the chance to go to CHA last week and I got to meet one of the owners of Cosmo- Julie. She was so sweet and even talked with me for a minute. Then I got to take a tutorial from the very talented Natasja Verbeek on a new product called Glubers- so cool. So of course I invited her to come down to the Jillibean Soup booth to give our make and take a go and she did! So I was able to get this photo with her:

Natasja was so nice and we made sure to load her up with some yummy Jillibean Soup products to use back in Amsterdam! I will share more CHA peeks soon, gotta run for now.

CHA Joy to Share



The booth on the first day, so many fantastic projects by the design team!

  So I said I would be back with fabulous photos from our trip to CHA! We had such an amazing time our Jillibean Soup team is soooo much fun! First off pics of the Jillibean Booth and the fabulous new products:



Here is the scrumptious Chilled Strawberry Soup served up specially for you on Kraft!

  

  

This is my personal fave of the new lines, the darling Dutch Mustard Soup.




The beautiful blooming Blossom Soup is fresh and fun perfect for Spring and Summer!



Last but not least is the celebrations line of Spotted Owl Soup, with the cutest party owls you've ever seen!

Brand New Jillibean Products: 4 Chipboard Alphas (burlap, newsprint, gingham & woodgrain); Bean Blossoms (wrapped twine with button embellies); Kraft File Folders; 6x6 Paper Pads! (for Dutch Mustard, Blossom and Spotted Owl); 12x12 Cardstock Stickers Sheets (for all 4 lines); 12x12 Diecut sheets- Pea Pods (for all 4 lines); Mini Kraft Alpha Stickers (4 colors: black, brown, white or red); Unity Stamps! see below (for all 4 new lines, including fab itty bitty's with a strawberry owl and a bicycle)





Other new products by Jillibean include: 4 New Corrugated Shapes (houses, clouds & trees, hearts & owls, butterflies & banners, frames); 3 New Sugar Picks (butterflies, hearts and flowers);  4 New Sprout packs

Here are some fun pics from the booth:



2 Jillibean Design Team Members: Summer Fullerton & Jen Harkin I got to meet them for the first time on the trip and they are both just as sweet as they look with wonderful sense of humors too!



 

Alecia (Sales & Marketing) and Jill (the big bean) clowning in the aisle.

I didn't find a pic of our design team coordinator- Kimber McGray from the booth so I wanted to share this one. It's one of my favorite pics from the trip Kimber, me and Summer at dinner. These two ladies rock, personally as well as creatively so happy to have them as new friends!



Three scrappin rock stars that visited the booth left to right: Emily Pitts, (me), Nicole Harper & Davinie Fiero


Well that's all I have time for right now, but I will share more L.A. photos and Scrappin Rock Star photos soon!