Happy Summer!

I hope you are all enjoying the summer. I certainly am! I love the lazy days of summer when the kids are out of school and we get to sleep in every morning. Although sleeping in at our house means waking up at 7:00 or 7:30am instead of 6:00 or 6:30am.

I have a couple shares for the day. First, here's a layout I made with Anna Griffin papers. Thanks Michelle at A Million Memories for sending me these lovely papers to play with! This wonderful photo of my girls was taken by Melissa Walker-Scott.



I played along with the monthly challenge on The Next Step challenge blog. The challenge this month was "Making Your Mark on Patterned Paper." Since I'm a blingy, pearl-loving kind of girl, I decided to make my mark on the Anna Griffin background paper by adding rhinestones and liquid pearls to the pattern. I also cut out the flowers from the paper and added lots of shimmery Shimmerz paint (I used Choc-o-lot, Key Lime, Fire Engine Red) and Blingz (Under the Sea).



Second, I just wanted to share some fun news. One of my layouts is in the July issue of Scrapbooks, Etc. I used products from A Million Memories kit from last year.



This layout is very different from my normal style, but sometimes it's fun to go "clean and simple." Thanks for letting me share!!

Cosmo Cricket

A huge thank you to Cosmo Cricket for sponsoring the A Million Memories design team this month!! I got to play with papers from the new Early Bird collection. These colors and patterns are so much fun! Here are the layouts I created:









On another note, Craft Critique just posted a review of Shimmerz products. The review will be up today, tomorrow and Thursday. Head on over there and see what they have to say about Shimmerz. But wait . . . there's more . . . there's a Shimmerz giveaway going on over there too! To be entered to win just go to Craft Critique and tell them how you add sparkle and shine to your projects.

"Anything but the kitchen sink" challenge at A Million Memories.

If you're looking for the Shimmerz blog hop post, just scroll down to the post below! Thanks for stopping by!!

I'm hosting the current Design Team challenge over at A Million Memories. It's called "Anything but the kitchen sink," and the challenge is to create a layout using at least one non-scrapbooking item found in a kitchen. Here's my page:


Here's what I used:

*COFFEE FILTERS -- I cut and punched flowers from coffee filters. I sprayed and painted them with Shimmerz paint and Spritz, then I layered the flowers on top of each other.
*CHEESECLOTH -- I cut out flower shapes and added them to my coffee filter flowers *PLASTIC COFFEE CAN LID -- I punched flowers and cut out leaves from the plastic lids, then I colored the plastic with alcohol ink and Staz-On ink.
*INSTANT COFFEE -- I mixed a little instant coffee with gesso and painted around the edges of the photos. The plain white gesso was a little too stark for my Photoshopped photos so the added coffee grounds helped tone down the color a bit.
*TWINE FROM THE KITCHEN JUNK DRAWER -- I hand-stitched the twine around the border of the layout, then I painted it with Shimmerz for a little sparkle.
*CARDBOARD COFFEE CUP JACKET/INSULATOR -- I punched a couple little butterflies out of the cardboard, then I added some Stickles and pearls. Thanks Michelle at AMM for letting me play with these great My Little Yellow Bicycle papers!!

This challenge runs through June 27th and everyone is welcome to join in! I'm giving away a beautiful assortment of lace -- over 20 yards! -- to the lucky winner of this challenge (the winner will be chosen randomly from all the participants). Come play!!

Also, A Million Memories has a sale going on right now. Just enter the code 2121 at checkout and receive 20% off your order (kit subscriptions not included).

Shimmerz Blog Hop

Happy Birthday Shimmerz!!! If you've arrived here from Michelle Lanning's blog, then you are on your way. If you haven't, then you will want to go back and start at the Shimmerz blog so that you can find out all of the details of this fun blog hop and go in the correct order.

Here is a little birthday card I made in honor of the celebration:


I made this card using Graphic 45 papers, and of course I used Shimmerz paints and Spritz on the flowers and the lace.

So I guess you want to know what the next blog hop word is, right? Okay, your word from me is: SHIMMERZ. Now head on over to Tanisha Long's blog to get your next word. Remember . . . to be eligible for the grand prize you need to leave a comment at every blog on the hop. Once you have all the words, email the completed phrase to shimmerzpaints@live.com. We hope you are enjoying the Shimmerz birthday celebration!!!

Graphic 45 and a teeny tiny toot

And now for a happier post . . . I just wanted to share a few Graphic 45 layouts I created in the last month:




I'm having so much fun working with these beautiful papers! By the way, Graphic 45 has a new and improved blog!! Come check it out: Graphic 45 blog.

And the teeny, tiny toot: Creating Keepsakes chose a layout of mine as one of the 10 runner ups in its "Amazing Pages Call." The layout will be featured in a special online extension of the magazine with a reference to it in the October issue of Creating Keepsakes.

Enjoy your week!!

Thank you

Thank you so much for all the supportive comments and emails. I really appreciate it! The funeral was held yesterday and there were close to 300 people in attendance. My friend's life and death touched so many people.

I just received a very poignant and pertinent email from my friend Debora who lives in another state. Since I hadn't yet told her about the recent events, her email was somewhat of a coincidence (though she's a very intuitive person, so it was probably more than mere happenstance). There were some beautiful pictures signifying life, death, remembrance, loyalty and friendship. At the bottom of the email was the following quote:

"Life is not about waiting for the storms to pass...it's about learning how to dance in the rain."

So true.

I will get back to posting happier things very soon. I have some new layouts and some happy news to share, so I'll be posting again in a day or two.

Enjoy your weekend, and THANK YOU again!!!

Cherish every moment

Cherish every moment of life. Hug your kids, hug your spouse, hug your family members, hug your friends . . . and love the bloomin' heck out of them.

I lost one of my very best friends last night. She was only 41 years old. She and I had been friends for more than half our lives. I already miss her terribly.

On Friday she started feeling like something was terribly wrong -- she thought she was having a stroke. They called 911, and while in the ambulance en route to the hospital, she suffered a seizure. That was followed by more seizures. Soon after arriving at the hospital she went into cardiac arrest (twice). Although they were able to revive her each time, her other organs failed. All this happened quickly and I arrived at the hospital to find my dear friend on life support and in a coma. I spent most of the weekend at the hospital standing vigil with the rest of her family and friends. It was horrible and tragic and devastating and, and, and . . . you can imagine.

Sadly, modern medicine couldn't fix what was broken. But at least she passed away quietly and peacefully and didn't seem to be in any pain. I'm so sad that I didn't get to say goodbye to her while she was conscious, but I'm very grateful that I got to be there with her during her last hours on earth.

And I am BEYOND grateful that I had her in my life for 22 years. She was a true gift. But right now my heart is a little broken.

Her husband, parents, sister and other relatives are obviously beyond devastated. Nobody saw this coming.

The cause of what happened is still unknown, though hopefully the autopsy will provide some answers. One thing I don't need an autopsy to tell me is that she had a heart of gold. I've known that for a long time.

The MOST TRAGIC thing of all this is that she left behind three little boys (ages 7, 4 and 18 months). My heart breaks for those poor little children. Please keep them in your prayers and thoughts.

Now go hug your kids and tell them you love them. Go call that friend with whom you've been trying to make plans but haven't done so because you've both been too busy to set a date. Make plans now. Go tell your family and friends how much they mean to you. Cherish all the little moments in life.