Happy New Year!!

I hope that you all have a wonderful 2010! I know 2009 has brought some challenges to so many of us. I seek comfort in his word when I worry about these earthly things. Jeremiah 29:11 always comforts me. If you don't know that verse I encourage you to go look it up. I don't typically do resolutions but I am going to try to implement change this year. I want to get more into God's word and seek his plan for my life! His word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path!

I just completed a couple of pages for a mini crop being held at Life Preservers. I posted a sketch challenge for it.

I would love to see what you can do with this sketch. Here is my sample:

I used the December card kit for the sketch. I plan too make some cards with the sketch too and the kit thanks to suggestions by Rhonda and Jodi on LP. Thanks ladies!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas! We were blessed this year by having a somewhat white Christmas. Although it did not snow today we have snow on the ground from the snow we had a few days ago. A whopper of a snowfall for us too. Very very exciting. To top off this wonderful blizzard we had my postal carrier delivered me a fun box Monday. He delivered the December Life Preservers kits. So here are a couple of pages I completed yesterday using the December Alternate kit and add-on. That Sassafras was stupendous!!


Thank you for looking. The photographs were Emma's third and fourth grade school pictures by LifeTouch.

Great News

I have been walking on air today! I received the most wonderful news today. Von has asked me to step in on the Life Preservers Design Team. I think I have told you all how I felt about these wonderful kits that Von puts out. But the team and message board ladies that she has are a family...my family. I am honored to be asked to work alongside of them. Thank you Von from the bottom of my heart.

From Here 2 Scrapternity

I participated in a online crop on From Here to Scrapternity this past weekend. Yes I should have been making Christmas cards and in fact I did make a few. But I have several more to make.

This page was done for a Sketch Challenge. I used Basic Grey Porcelain collection and my Home Accents Cricut cartridge.
This was for a "countdown" challenge. 5 pictures, 4 patterned papers, 3 embellishments, 2 word title, and 1 creative journaling. The 5th photo, 4th patterned paper, and journaling is behind the Santa Claus envelope which is what I grabbed from Macy's when Emma dropped her letter so Santa. They had those there for the children to write but Emma had already written hers and sealed it. So I took that one for scrappin. :) For the page I used Bazzill, Brenda Walton, Rusty Pickle alphas, and Imaginsce. Here is Emma dropping off said letter.

This challenge was to use the contemporary Christmas colors which just so happen to be my favorite. Red, dark green, cream, and gold. Red Bazzill, Imaginsce, and Thickers. Actually this came from same kit (don't remember which one..sorry) as the previous page.
And this page was for a One Word Challenge. They gave you several words to choose from and you had to journal 20+ words. Not crazy but my handwriting but it is mine ya know?! I used some Bazzill cardstock that I found in the local Michaels and some MME paper that Von at Life Preservers sold a few months back. Also my infamous Thickers. I love me some Thickers.

So there was a Punch challenge too which fit in perfectly for my design for my Christmas cards I had planned to do. This Cosmo Cricket paper Von also sold a few months ago. I love this collection. The punch and stamp is from Stampin Up.

Thanks for looking at my creations! I hope you all are ready to celebrate the birth of our Savior! I can't imagine a greater gift.

My entry for the LPS Blog Card Sketch Contest

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had to work Thanksgiving Day however we celebrated the following day. It was a delicious meal if I say so myself. So now it is finding recipes for leftover turkey. We have done turkey hash. Tomorrow is turkey pot pie. Then I think we will be turkey'd out. I completed all of the November 2 a week challenge with no skips. So the creative juices have been flowing from me recently. Let me show you a touch of what I have done.

First off Life Preservers is doing a card sketch contest for November. Here is my card I just completed for that using the November Card Kit. I am not a big Graphic 45 fan but really loved how this turned out. Took the picture at night so it isn't the greatest.

I did this page using a 52 Sketches 52 Weeks sketch. I just got word that Julie will not being doing this site next year. I have just really gotten into her sight so I am a little bummed.
I made mini albums for the coaches for the Comets cheerleaders. 10 to be exact. The star-shaped album was for the director. I used my Bind It All, 7 Gypsies stickers, Shimmerz mist, Thickers, Sports Mania cricut cartridge, and some Basic Grey.

I utilized the Studio Calico December 2008 kit for this page done for my Willow Traders 2 a week challenge using a sketch provided.
Lastly I joined another kit club. The Making Memories paper did it. I love their paper. This is the December Kit of The Scrapbook Nook. I am not crazy about the bag that the kit came in. It is not reseal-able and falls apart but other than that I am pleased. The message board on there has a wonderful group of ladies and they have some amazing stuff posted that the DT has done with this kit.

As you can see I have been scrapbooking tons of Christmas pictures. Some are from a couple years ago. But it feels good to get these pictures done. Thanks for perusing my creations.

Twelve Fridays Giveaway

Twelve Fridays is doing another weekend getaway in Pigeon Forge, TN. You now have a chance to win an entry to the event. It was great last year. I completed an entire 12 by 12 album. The product they used was amazing. The food was decent. And the ladies were a hoot! I would love to go again. We just have to wait and see. But if you are looking for a fun getaway check it out.

Also I finished the October THAW challenge with NO skips. Yes you heard me right NO skips. I have come to realize should I ever want to put a dent into my photographs I need to do more than one picture one page layouts.

I hosted a challenge on Life Preservers for their crop weekend before last. My challenge was to find someone whose album started with same letter as yours and lift that page. I got to lift 1CC (Chris) and what an honor it was. Go to Life Preservers to see her original page.

This page was done for one of the Willow Traders challenges to use either denim or predominantly blue on your page. I really like how this turned out.
For the Life Preserver crop a sketch was drawn by ScrapSketch's Stephanie Vaughn. Here is my utilization of that Sketch!
And one of the THAW challenges was to take a magazine and "lift" a page out of it. This is the magazine and page that I lifted from with the page I created to follow. A Scrapbook Trends magazine was used and the page is from Maria Burke.

Thanks for looking at some of my creations. This month has really gotten the juices flowing!! Now if I can just keep my head above water to continue with this mojo. LOL

Absenteeism

If I were to be graded on my blogging then I definitely would get the big fat "F". Not only have I not been updating this blog but I have not been reading others much either. Not that I do not wish to but there just does not seem to be enough hours in the day. Not much has changed in my life. Emma is back in school. Summer was fun but brief. I miss my baby girl during the day. Ansel turned 2 last Tuesday. Emma wanted to bake him a cake. Yes you read correctly.... a cake.

It was made with ingredients so that we and/or Ansel could eat it. LOL I passed however. Emma started horseriding lessons Wednesday. Need to get her prepared for when Ruby is broken and trained. That is in the distant future. She learned a lot her very first lesson.

I have been scrapbooking up a storm. I was Guest Design Team for September for Life Preservers for winning a sketch challenge.

Von from Life Preservers is so attentive to our wishes and wants. I begged for the Prima Rebellious line and she happily obliged. It just so happened that my month to be GDT was the month the kit with the Prima came in. I knew it would be perfect for Emma's Palace Idol party. This picture makes it look lopsided but it is not IRL. I used masking with alphas and stickles for part of my title. I thought it was something different.

I just hope I gave this product justice. I love this kit!
Emmas cheerleading organization had a yard sale. Someone was selling this frame but it was white, dusty, and had old silk flowers in the bottom part. So it screamed "Alter me!". And that I did. I used an 8.5 by 11 picture from visit to Strawberry patch and one of the Life Preserver kits for this. And I painted the frame with some acrylic paint. This was one of my submissions for a Design Team call that Von had. I made First Alternate. What a blessing!
This is the page I did using a sketch from PageMaps that Von used for Life Preservers. This is the page that I won GDT for September with. Some of our summer pictures from the lake.

Right now I am participating in a challenge on Willow Traders. Basically it is challenging us to get several pages done a month. I am really enjoying it. This was from week one where we had to use all the letters of the alphabet on a page. It came to me pretty quickly to use the negative part of a page of Sassafras Alphas for my background. I love how this turned out.

I purchased a kit off of ScrapLove quite awhile back from a dear friend. During the Big Scrapper House challenge on Life Preservers I assembled this mini album.
Another submission of mine for the Life Preserver Design Team call. I used a LP kit that had the Scenic Route Garden Grove. I am so bummed that they are closing their doors. They have always been a favorite of mine.
This page below was from the Life Preserver Big Scrapper House challenge. I think it was to use circles but can not exactly recall. I also used the Scenic Route LP kit.
My ATC cards from a swap that was done on Life Preservers. I am not sure if I am 100% sold on ATC's or not.

Thanks for looking at my art and hearing about my life. More to come!!!

The soon to be Irongirl I am so proud of!!!

I just had to share this with my friends. In this video you can see my fellow co-worker, co-scrapper buddy. She is the firefighter and is training for the Ironman!

Happy Belated NSD

I had a wonderful weekend.  Not only was it National Scrapbook Day but I got to spend the weekend with Emma with no obligations for dance, sports, or parties.  On Saturday Emma and I scrapbooked in the morning.  Poor thing has such a short attention span she didn't even finish one page.  I participated in the Life Preservers online crop.  Von is starting a new contest so I did the first challenge and the early bird sketch challenge.  Here are my creations:  

I used Basic Grey Boxer for this page.
This is not my favorite card I have ever done by far.  But I love BAM pop.  I added an October Afternoon rubber embellishment and a Daisy D rub-on.  And some Hambly on there as well.  


As soon as Emma finishes her page I will post it. She was so cute using my Page Maps book for inspiration and my Cricut. I wish she would get as passionate about it as I am. Later on that evening we went to see the new Hannah Montana movie. I have to say it was very cute. I am not a Billy Ray Cyrus fan at all but anything for my child. The child had a great story
line. Miley is so cute and it is amazing to see her bloom as a role model for our young girls.

Then Sunday we went to Seaman's Orchard to pick some strawberries. We have been talking about this for years but never get around to it. We even picked strawberries in the rain. They are so tasty. Some of the best strawberries I have ever tasted. We took some to my mother. She is home sick now so we went to visit her and Ruby. Dad is in Costa Rica. So NOT fair! LOL Anyhow mom is on a vegetarian diet. Her cholesterol has been problematic for the past couple of years. She is really sticking to this diet. The oral medications for cholesterol has such bad side effects we are hoping the diet is effective. I leave you with some pictures from the strawberry patch.





Oh one more thing. I have to tell you how awesome Maggi is. She is holding us accountable on LP to update our blogs. I am attempting a weekly update. You know how that is a challenge for me. Thanks Maggi for the reminder. LOL

Long time no see!

WOW I knew it had been awhile since I posted on my blog but February? Oopsies! I know daily is unrealistic to me but I need to pick one day a week to post. Not much new going on in my life. So I will just share some recent creations.  This first one is a page that I lifted from a magazine.  Sorry I do not recall from whom.  But I did this page at the Scrappers Dream Vacation I went to back in March.  
I also did the following page at the SDV (Scrappers Dream Vacation).  I used my Cricut a lot that weekend.  
Another creation from the weekend from a sketch challenge I provided for me and my 3 friends who went to SDV with me.  This is using a Studio Calico kit.  
And this final page is for the second page I completed for Miss Hippy Chick.  She provides occasional sketches and I design a page based on that sketch.  This is a picture of dd with her new fishing pole at Rodanthe, NC.  And she wanted me to make sure that you knew that aforementioned fishing pole "lights up".  
Last weekend I was at a Life Preservers weekend crop held in Glasgow, KY.  Mindy provided a card sketch challenge.  I made this card for my father who at the time was hospitalized for pneumonia.  Yeah this past month has been CRAZY.  I had a blast in KY but hated being away from my dad when he was sick.  And I don't see myself driving 8.5 hours to go to a crop again.  That was a little much.  The bed and breakfast we had it at was amazing.  The owners are the most amazing couple.  They love the Lord and their labor of love resolves around serving him.  The name of the place was The Narrow Way.  The food was nothing short of amazing.  I thought I was a decent cook until I ate there and I don't even come close. 

I hope to not be such a stranger.  I am thinking every Wednesday will be my blog day.  We will see how that goes.  Thanks for coming by.