Happy Monday!

I've been having so much fun playing with the beautiful and adorable Dusty Attic chippy pieces as part of my Guest Designer stint with them this month.  Here's a layout I created using Dusty Attic chipboard mini houses, an ornate frame, and a mini word ("family").

Have I mentioned how much I love these chipboard products?  They are so versatile -- you can paint them, ink them, chalk them, spray them, or just leave them as is!   I painted the ornate frame with Shimmerz paint, and I inked the word "family".  I painted the chipboard houses with acrlyic paint then coated them with Glossy Accents. 

I crocheted around the edge of the paper to give this family page a homespun feel.   I found some great vintage crocheted  doiles at an estate sale recently, and I've been having fun dying them different colors with Shimmerz Spritz and Vibez:

I made a little puffy heart to go over the Dusty Attic chipboard title:

That's it for today, but I still have lots of other layouts to share.  Have a great Monday!!!

Up, Up & Away

I admit it . . . sometimes I plan events and clothing around my scrapbook page ideas. I might get some beautiful new paper and think, "hmmmmmmm, the girls' new dresses would look perfect with those colors," and then I'll have them wear the dresses for an impromptu photo shoot.   That's what happened when I received Prima's fun new travel-themed Road Trip line.  We had scheduled our annual "girls only" vacation (just me, my mom and my girls) to San Francisco a couple weeks after that, and I knew that I'd have an opportunity to take some airplane photos.  Since the colors in this line are green, blue and brown, I "encouraged" my girls to wear matching colors for the plane ride.  Okay, okay, maybe I did more than encourage them.  I think there might have been some gently coercion and bribing involved. :)

 This layout was based on Prima's September Build-a-Page.  Here's a close-up.  See how their shirts and pants match the papers and lace perfectly?  Hehehehehehe.

I'm very honored because this layout was selected as the Featured Project of the day on 2Peas today!!

Thank you, 2Peas!

Grandparents

Happy Monday everyone!  I have a few layouts to share today.  The first two layouts were part of an article entitled the "Lighter Side of Grandparenting" in the September issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine.  I have wonderful parents in my life:   my mom and stepfather and my dad and stepmother.  They are all good friends, and that makes for a nice, big happy family.  I'm very fortunate that they all live close-by and that they are very involved in my girls' lives.   We are very blessed!

My dad is such a fun-loving guy who would do anything  for his grandchildren.  This layout shows pictures of my daughter, Rebecca, painting his fingernails at a "day of beauty" party.  What sport!   A little while after that he let Danielle put eyeshadow and blush on him (I'm saving those priceless pictures for another layout).

Here is my mom giving my girls a little sewing lesson:

Last but not least, this layout was in the "Back to School in Style" feature.  I used a real wooden ruler and a Number 2 pencil on this page:

As seen in the September 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

Have a fantastic week!!

Fixed! {I hope}

If you happened to see my blog post about an hour ago, you know that I was in tears because I had managed to delete ALL my blog settings, including the headers, background, fonts, widgets . . . everything!!!  I've spent a good part of the day dealing with this, and luckily I've gotten the main elements back to the way they were.  It all started a couple days ago when I tried to get help adjusting the margins slightly, but those changes made my blog look wonky, so I tried to go back to the way I had it in the first place.   Then  "POOF" . . . all gone.  I should have left well enough alone, because even though I have the main settings back, my margins are more scrunched now -- worse than the way I had it before.  It's been a very frustrating few hours dealing with this.  Now I need to go eat a cookie and scrap for a while. Scrapping is always my best medicine!!

So that you haven't completely wasted YOUR time coming here today, here's a Lily Bee layout to share. 

To create the background, I did a little masking technique using the Lily Bee chipboard stickers and Shimmerz Vibez. I simply placed the chipboard stickers on a sheet of cardstock (without removing the protective sticker backing), then I sprayed over the chipboard pieces with Shimmerz Red-Y Or Not Vibez. 

After I removed the chipboard stickers, I outlined the shapes with Stickles for a little extra definition.

I colored the lace doily with Blue Jeans Vibez.   And see those little leaves?  I made them out of really cool air dry modeling compound called Delight.  The modeling compound is white, and you can either mix paint in before it dries or paint it afterward.   For these leaves I chose to paint them with Shimmerz paint after they were dry.


Now I'm going to step.away.from.the.computer. Argggggh!!!

Back to School

My girls went back to school a couple days ago.  While it's nice to have more time to get things done during the day, I will miss the lazy days of summer that I spent with my girls.  We had a wonderful time just hanging out and being together.  My favorite part of the summer was our morning routine.  The girls would wake up early and go quietly into our den and watch TV.  I would wake up shortly after them, and when I came into the den they would jump up off the couch and run to me yelling "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!" and then they would give me a BIG 'good morning' hug.   They had a little competition every morning to see who could get to me and hug me first (hehehehe . . . sometimes it's nice to be fought over).   Then we would have a nice leisurely breakfast before venturing out for the day.  It was such a great way to start each day!

Here are a couple pictures from the first day of school:

Now that the girls are back in school, our morning routine is a little different.  We all wake up very early so that we can make it to the school bus stop on time.   One GREAT thing is that my girls are FINALLY in the same school this year.  Last year they were in two different elementary schools, and their often conflicting  schedules made for a very chaotic year.  Now that they are both on the same early start and late pick-up schedule, I have a couple extra hours during in the day.  And on days like today when my husband drives them to the bus stop, I get to stay in my pj's for a while.  Shhhhhhhhhh . . . don't tell anyone, but it's noon and I'm still wearing my pajamas and fuzzy slippers!!  I almost don't know what to do with myself now that I have extra time during the school day!  Luckily my job as an insurance agent affords me the luxury to work from home when I want to.  And the extra hours mean that I'll be able to do some scrapping during the day.    Woo hoo!

Prima Road Trip and a Warehouse Sale

I still have bunch of Prima CHA projects that I haven't posted here yet.  My blogging hasn't quite caught up to all my scrapping over the last couple of months, so I'm trying to play catch up.   Here's a layout I made with Prima's fun new Road Trip line:

And here's a card that I made to look like a little suitcase (I had a lot of fun making this one!!):

The inside:

Do you need to stock up on some Prima goodies?  Prima has a Virtual Warehouse Sale going on right now!  There are 6 different boxes to choose from, and each box is packed with Prima products at wholesale pricing. There's a photo of what's inside of each box so you know what you're getting.  And if you use the promo code POM, you'll get a 6 by 6 paper pad from one of the new releases -- Annalee, Fairy Flora, Jack and Jill, Paisley Road, Road Trip or So Cute.

Dusty Attic Guest Designer

I was so honored to be asked to be a Guest Designer this month for Dusty Attic, an Australian company that makes the most beautiful laser cut embellishments.    I loved the Dusty Attic products the first time I saw them online, and when I got them in my hot little hands last week, I went gaga and couldn't wait to start creating.  Here's my first layout with one of the Dusty Attic dress form shapes (they have a few different styles) and the scalloped border.

The beautiful paper is from Girls' Paperie.

I painted the Dusty Attic dress form with Gold Glimmer Shmmerz Blingz.  I painted the scalloped chipboard border with Under the Sea and Aqua Marine Shimmerz, then I added a little glitter on top. 

 

I seriously LOVE these Dusty Attic products.  To all the US online scrapbook stores:  Would you please get these products in your stores???  Pretty please with sugar on top?  I will definitely need a regular supply of these beautiful embellishments in the future!

I'll be creating and posting more Dusty Attic layouts in the coming weeks.   Other guest designers for July and August include Danielle Flanders, Donna Salazar and Cari Fennell, plus Dusty Attic has a very talented Design Team, so there's lots of eye candy to see in the Dusty Attic gallery.  Thank you, Dusty Attic for having me as your guest this month!

Bowling

I'm trying to make the most of the last days of summer before my girls go back to school.   Today we went bowling.  That might sound boring to some people, but not to us!  We all had a ball (no pun intended!) the last couple of times we went bowling.  Can you believe that my 8-year-old daughter beat me in a game today?!?   And she got two strikes in a row!  Not bad considering she has only bowled twice before.  She was so proud of her double strike, and it made me happy to see her take pride in her accomplishment.  You go girl!  Silly me . . . I didn't take any pictures today (though I do have some unscrapped pictures from the last time we went bowling).

On to scrapbooking . . . Here's a layout that was recently published in Creating Keepsakes. There are lots of Prima goodies on this one. I sprayed the Prima canvas paper with Sea Foam Shimmerz Spritz and I colored the Prima flower with Shimmerz Ruby Spritz.

As seen in the July/August 2010 issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine. Copyright Creative Crafts Group. Posted with prior permission from the publisher. 

Thanks so much for stopping by!