Flower card box

Today is my mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!!  We had a lovely brunch to celebrate her special day.  For one of her birthday gifts I bought a box of thank you cards and altered it with flowers, lace and pearls:

 

I made the paper roses from Lily Bee's Lovely line.   I'm totally addicted to making these paper roses.  There are different ways to make them, but I first learned how to make this version when I was blog hopping one day and stumbled upon a great tutorial on Maria's blog:  paper rose tutorial.  I colored the lace with Shimmerz Spritz (Cotton Candy). 

And here's the card I made for my sweet mom (also from Lily Bee papers):

 

That's it for today.  Thanks for stopping by!

Summer is officially here!

Summer is officially here! My girls are out of school and we didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn this morning. Yay!!!

I was feeling very emotional about my youngest daughter graduating from kindergarten last Friday. It made me acutely aware of how quickly time passes, and I've been missing the days when my girls were really little. My 8-year-old daughter is way past the little girl phase and she acts more like a teenager most days (but she's adorable, nonetheless).  Luckily my youngest is still very much a little girl -- she still loves dolls, pink and princess stuff (actually, I don't think she really likes princess stuff anymore, but she says she does just to humor me). She's such a sweetheart . . . when I commented on how my "little girls were growing up," she responded, "Mommy, I'm ONLY 6, not 20!!"  True!  Most importantly, this transition time reminded me of how quickly time passes and how important it is to enjoy each and every day with my family and to be grateful for all the good stuff in life. This is something I'm going to try and be more consciously aware of on a daily basis.

On a scrapbook related note, I realized that I have a quite a few layouts that I haven't yet posted here, so I'll slowly be playing catch-up. Here's a sketch I created for a challenge at the A Million Memories online crop last month:

And here's the layout I made based on my sketch.  I used Cosmo Cricket papers and chipboard:

 

Yes, she's still my little girl (and always will be!)

Have a great week!

Lily Bee Facebook Giveaway

Lily Bee is having a Facebook giveway! Here are the details:

We want to get to 1600 friends who LIKE Lily Bee Design in the next week on our Facebook Page SO here's the incentive for you to invite your friends. We've teamed up with Jill over at A Million Little Things and are giving away a $25.00 gift certificate to her store.

Simply have your friends who LIKE Lily Bee leave us your name over on the Lily Bee's Facebook page and you will automatically be entered to win. The more friends you send over the more chances you have to win.

Good luck to all who enter!

Prima Design Team!!

Somebody pinch me . . . I made the Prima Design Team!!! You all know how much I absolutely LOVE Prima, so I'm super duper excited about this (to put it mildly). I'm honored to be working with some of the most talented scrappers from all over the world.  A huge congrats to the new Prima DT members:

Alyssa McGrew-US

Amanda Muirhead-Canada

Anabelle O’Malley-US

Birgit Koopsen-Netherlands

Candice Reszko-US

Daniela Dobson-US

Jaime Warren-US

Jamie Dougherty-US

Janine Koczwara-Australia

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer-US

Ingvild Bolme-Norway

Karola Witczak-Poland

Liana Suwandi-US

Nic Howard-New Zealand

Stacy Cohen-US (that's me, that's me!!!)

Trina McClune-New Zealand

Sharon Laakkonen-US (Coordinator)

Cari Fennell-US

Iris Babao-Uy-Philippines

You can see the full announcement here:  Prima DT.  I can't wait to get started!  Thank you, Prima!!!!

Blowing Bubbles and Dreyer's Ice Cream

Happy Monday everyone!  Here's a layout I created using more of Lily Bee's "Lovely" papers.  My daughters love to hang out in our backyard and blow bubbles.  There's something so simple yet magical about blowing bubbles, don't you think? 

I cut strips of paper and placed them where I wanted them on the page, then I cut out circles of varying sizes.  I filled the circles with the fun Lily Bee chipboard pieces and topped them with Prima flowers and rhinestones.  I used Shimmerz paint and Spritz to color the Prima flowers.

I saw a fun beading technique on Lollychops' fantastic blog, and I decided to give it a try.   I embroidered around the circle and added seed beads as I stitched.   Lolly did it on fabric and felt, and I figured that it would work just as well on paper.

And one other thing to share today.  This is something that makes me VERY happy.  I have a nightly ritual . . . after we put our girls into bed and I settle down for some "me" time, I have a small bowl of Dreyer's Light ice cream.  As I mentioned a few posts ago, our old fridge/freezer has been on the fritz for a while, so I've had to contend with soft, mushy ice cream every night . . . which is NOT the way I like it.  We finally got a new refrigerator a couple days ago, and the freezer works like a charm!   The first thing I did was go out and stock up on my favorite Dreyer's ice cream flavors.  Here's a little glimpse . . .

Do you think maybe I went a little overboard??   Anyhow, it makes me happy to open the freezer and see all the SOLID -- not mushy -- ice cream in there!  Ahhhhhh . . . the little pleasures in life.

Have a fantastic week!!!

Those Eyes

It's only Friday, but for us the long Memorial Day weekend has already started.  Our local school district decided to close my girls' schools today to save a few bucks.  That's fine with me!  I got to sleep in this morning, and now I get to spend some extra time with my sweet girlies.

Here's a layout I created with the FUN and vibrant "Hello Sunshine" line from Lily Bee:

I added some Shimmerz Spritz to the cardstock and Prima flower.

A lot of people have asked me how I  make the crocheted borders like you see on the layouts in some of my earlier posts.  I'm not the best person to give crocheting lessons because I learned how to crochet years ago,  but I never learned the names of all the different stitches.  Thankfully the VERY crafty and  talented Lolly Chops has come to the rescue with an awesome video tutorial on crocheted borders.  Lolly also has a fantastic blog, so be sure and check it out! 

Have a wonderful long weekend!!

A "Lovely" Day

The first time I saw Lily Bee's new "Lovely" paper collection my heart went pitter pat.  The color combo and the patterns are just gorgeous!   I love every single piece in this line, and they all work so well together.  Here's a layout I made featuring my little princess:

She's getting close to the age when princesses aren't "cool" anymore (I know because my older daughter reached that stage last year), so I wanted to capture the little princess inside of her before it's too late.  Here's a close-up of the journaling:

I hope you have a LOVELY day!

Happy Monday!

Happy Monday!  I hope all you mothers had a nice Mother's Day!  I had a great day myself.  We had a lovely brunch with my mom, stepfather, dad and stepmom (yep, we're all one big happy family!).  And I got lots of wonderful snuggles and kisses and homemade goodies from my darling little girls.  For Mother's Day my hubby wanted to buy me the new camera lens I've had my eye on for a while now, but I wasn't sure if the cost is really justified.  Well, it doesn't matter at this point, because the freezer portion of our old refrigerator is on its last leg, so we have to go buy a new fridge today.  Fun, huh?  Since we have to make this big purchase, I decided to hold off on the lens for the while.  That means that my photos won't look any sharper, but at least I won't have to eat mushy ice cream anymore.  And as a girl who NEEDS her bowl of Dreyer's Grand Light ice cream every single night, mushy ice cream just wasn't workin' for me.  

I have a little share for the day.  I've really been into crocheting on my layouts again lately.  Here's one I made with all Prima goodies:

The wording says:  "My Wish for you is that you have as much joy in your life as you have brought to mine."    Here's a little close-up.  I curled back the paper and stuck some tulle and other netted fabric behind there.  I lined the curled-back paper with lots of Prima flowers:

Thanks so much for stopping by!  Have a great week!

Joyful

My intended little scrapping break hasn't quite started yet. I got an idea for a page last night and I wanted to jump right in and begin working on it.  I'm hoping to finish it up tonight or tomorrow night. Maybe I can start my little scrapping break this weekend.

In any event, here's a layout I created with Prima's April BAP:

The journaling says: When I was a little girl, I was happy and playful just like you.  But somewhere along my path to adulthood, I lost a little part of that fun-loving little girl inside of me.  You have brought out that joyful, playful side of me again.  Thank you for that, my sweet Rebecca.

Now go take that playful little child inside of YOU and have some fun today or tonight!!

Sisters

This is another layout that I made for Scrapbooking m.m. (the March/April issue). I used almost all Prima goodies:

I've been really into crocheting on my pages again lately, and this time I used some pretty teal yarn. I used Shimmerz to create the rainbow of color on the background:

I have a small stash of vintage rhinestones buttons and broaches, and I save them for special pages. I really need to find a good (and cheap!) source for more of these treasures. Here's a close up:

Things are quiet for me right now in terms of my DT and other scrapbooking assignments, so I'm going to do something I haven't done in a very long time . . . I going to take a little break from scrapping for the rest of the week and weekend.  I think it will be just what I need to recharge my creative batteries!

Free Spirit -- Scrapbooking m.m.

Earlier this year I was honored when the editor of Scrapbooking m.m., a beautiful Swedish publication, contacted me and asked me to do a few assignments for the magazine.  Here is one of my layouts that was just published in the March/April 2010 issue.  I created it for an article about symmetry and balance on your scrapbook pages.  I used Webster's Pages papers and a sprinkling of Prima goodies, and I added some crocheting for good measure:

 

I was even more honored when I got my copy of the magazine and saw what good company I was in . . . some of my favorite scrappers were in there too!!  If you can get your hands on a copy of this magazine, you  should definitely take a peek because there's SO much inspiration in this magazine (even if you don't speak Swedish!).

On another note, we're having a fun NSD crop party at A Million Memories this weekend. Even though I just stepped down from the AMM Design Team (last month was my last month), I'm still going to be actively involved with the site. . . 'cause I just love all my peeps over there!!  In fact, I'm hosting a sketch challenge for the crop this weekend. Come join the fun here: AMM NSD crop.

Prima and a gauze technique tutorial

I have another family photo layout to share today.  This one features lots of Prima goodies:

One of my favorite non-scrapbooking products to use on my scrapbook layouts is gauze. You can either use regular gauze or cheesecloth material (I found some cheesecloth-like material at a local specialty fabric/upholstery store).  I used Shimmerz Spritz and gauze to create the ethereal-looking background here:

I put together a little tutorial for the A Million Memories blog a couple months ago.  Here's a recap of the step-by-step:

1. First prepare your background. Start with a piece of heavy cardboard and coat it with gesso:

2. Once the gesso is dry, brush/spray on Shimmerz paints and Spritz:

3. Spray your gauze or mesh with Spritz (I used two different colors here). I like to spray on waxed paper so that I can mop up every last drop of the Spritz:

4. Once the gauze is dry, adhere it to your cardboard with Mod Podge:

And there you go!!

Lily Bee Time!

I recently received a big box of all the new Lily Bee products and WOW . . . everything is just GORGEOUS!!   Here's a layout I made with the new Hello Sunshine line:

I often frame my layouts with patterned paper, and this beautiful Lily Bee paper was perfectly suited for a family photo frame.   I simply cut out the inside piece, machine-stitched around the inside and outside edges, and then I adhered two different types of lace trim to the back of the frame to give it some dimension:

And a close up of the various flowers and glittered leaves:

  I'm lovin' all these Lily Bee goodies!

Prima Masquerade Ball Masks

I was asked to make a couple creative projects for Prima a while back, and here is one of the things I came up with.  I made these Prima-adorned masks:

If I ever get invited to a fancy masquerade ball, I'll be set!

Cosmo Cricket layouts and A Million Memories DT news

Thank you Cosmo Cricket for sponsoring the A Million Memories DT again!   Here are a few of the projects I created:

I cut out a dress form and used it as a mask with Shimmerz Spritz:

Yes, that is my hand in a turkey's butt:  I had to call my mom halfway through the process because at first I couldn't find the bag of turkey parts you're supposed to take out before you bake the turkey.  She told me to try the other end. :)  The turkey turned out great, if I do say so myself!  The paper strips on this page were inspired by Jen Jockisch's style.  And here's a little card:

Thanks, Cosmo Cricket!

Also, A Million Memories is currently having a Design Team call!! You can check out all the details here:  A Million Memories DT call.  

That leads me to my next bit of news . . . this will be my last month on the AMM Design Team.  I've been on the team for a year now, and I've had a blast creating with Michelle's beautiful kits and working alongside some amazingly talented and super sweet ladies.  Thank you SO much for the opportunity, Michelle!  I love AMM and it's become my scrappy home, so I'm still going to be an active member of the boards there.  I can't wait to see who makes the new team!