My Creative Life

Over Christmas break, I was able to get a bunch of scrapping completed. I really like the pages I completed. The layout above is one of my favorite pics of my sister's fiancee. It uses the Basic Grey Granola line. I really love this line because it goes really well with guy pages and outdoors pages. I also was able to use one of my favorite techniques using the eyelets and twine. It is such a fun, unique look for pages. :)

This was a quick and simple layout based on a sketch from one of my absolute favorite designers, Valerie Salmon. Her sketches are so fun and are easy to follow. I have had this paper for awhile and found it perfect for these pictures...although I only used a small piece of each paper. So I guess I have to use it some more. :)

I actually completed this layout about a month ago but I didn't like it so yesterday I added some ribbon and Making Memories tag rims to liven it up a bit, and now I really like it. :)

I absolutely love this layout for so many reasons. I love the clean look it has with the grid layout. I am excited that I got 11 photos on one 2 page layout! I also love that I was able to use GREEN flowers! How fun is that?

This layout was so fun to complete. The paper is from the Black Orchid line from SEI that I picked up at Michaels a few weeks ago. The colors are so fresh and fun...a beautiful aqua, a bright coral, and a fun lime color paired with shiny black accents. I was also able to use some fun chipboard letters that I glossed up using Making Memories clear gloss paint to match the glossy paper.

This layout is one of my own designs. No sketches what-so-ever for this one. I also was able to use this super cute and super fun paper collection and chipboard accents from Scenic Route as well as a diecut paper from Making Memories. I love this color combination and the bright beautiful pictures. :)

This is another sketch from Got Sketch Express. I am totally loving their sketches. This uses the fun Bazzill Dotted Swiss and some awesome buttons and flowers from American Crafts. I really like how I was able to capture so many memories from this awesome day!

This is the page I created on the day of our great ice storm. I spent much of the day in my scrap room surrounded by beautiful bright colors and fun, summery photos. It was great! This is also a Got Sketch Express layout and I love it because I was able to use this great pink ribbon that I have had for quite awhile. I also got to use my new journaling stamp from Impression Obsession! Gotta love using old and new products on the same layout.

These are some of my favorite pictures of my best friend and I at a local park a few summers ago. (I know I am so behind...) This was another super fun layout to make and it was based on a Becky Higgins sketch. I got to use some fun Arctic Frog paper that I have had forever, more green flowers, and my new puffy letter stickers! It is such a fresh and fun layout and it is one of my absolute favorites!

This was one of my more involved layouts. The picture was actually 2 different photos that I merged together in Adobe Photoshop Elements and then I added a digital mask to make the grungy edges. I also was able to print this 8x12 photo at home on my printer saving myself about 5 dollars! This page is super fun with torn cork paper, glittered My Mind's Eye patterned papers, and fun outdoors rubons. It is a great memory from a fun day spent with my best friend!

So that is my creative life over the past few weeks. I have been working on some fun and summery topics to combat the cold and dreary weather outside. Hope you are all having a great week and talk to you all later!

New Year's Notes

Well the new year has officially come. I celebrated the evening with friends. It started at Cebolla's with Emily and Nate (who just got engaged on Friday, December 26th) for dinner. We had a lot of fun hanging out and talking about all sorts of stuff and just catching up on life. Then we headed to our friend Rachel's house for a New Year's party. When we got there the great debate was over whose Mexican Chicken Dip was best...Ryan's or Amy's....since they both brought the same thing. :) Ryan's was more cheesy, while Amy's was more spicy. So they went around asking everyone to try it and vote. In the end Amy's won by one vote...sorry Ryan! Then they started an all-out game of spoons. I played along as well but as I am not good at this game at all, I was out very quickly. And I am fairly glad because it was pretty violent as games between friends go. But it was fun to watch and just hang out with my friends. Then Joel came and we counted down to the New Year. As we waited, Natalie passed out horns and poppers and Joel, Ryan, and Suzanne had a horn-blowing contest. I am not sure who won because they all ended up laughing too much.
Then 3...2...1....Happy New Year! And we all blew our horns and popped our poppers. Then, since Rachel has digital cable, we rewound and did it all over again. In fact when we were finally done, we rang in the New Year 4 times!!! :) And I got my picture of the year all lit up....on the 4th try. Then the crazy picture taking ensued with lots of fun New Year's photos. Then all at once someone threw their horn and began the great confetti fight. Horns, confetti, poppers, and even a few decks of cards were thrown all over the room and generally left a big mess. Who started this fight, you may ask. Well evidence shows that Rachel herself began it. ;) And that
wraped up our fabulous New Year's bash.

Christmas

Well Christmas has officially come and gone. It was magical and spectacular as usual, filled with lots of family time, laughing and celebrating, great food, and gift-giving. :) Some of the highlights of this year's celebration include:

• church with my family....although it is not my church, it was still wonderous to hear the Christmas story with my family gathered 'round.
• Christmas Eve dinner consisting of Pizza Hut pizza and a delicious salad and the conversations held during dinner.
• Putting together a Harry Potter puzzle with my cousin Tony...I swear it was addicting!
• Coming home to our house all decorated and taking pictures in our Christmas outfits and with 2 rambunctious labs. What an adventure!
• Opening our annual christmas eve presents, pajamas! :) Mine are the best...they say "99% nice, 1% naughty" and they make me smile whenever I see them.
• Popping popcorn and playing Disney Scene It! while sitting in front of a cozy fire in the fireplace.
• Going to sleep knowing that when I wake up it would be Christmas....the feeling of joy and happiness is still with me as I anticipate this day every year.
• Waking up, knowing that it is Christmas and thinking about all the wonderful things that this day holds.
• Spending time with my family as we open presents...I think my favorite moments were when they opened the gifts from me....Dad opening his "Scarecrow" movie that I tracked down online, Mom opening her new mixer and the photo frame I altered for her bedroom, Renee opening her skillet (that she picked out) and not remembering what it was...so cute, and Zach opening his DVD series that I bought him. :)
• Opening my new scrapping toy....my Cricut Expression....which is a huge die-cutting tool for cutting out letters and shapes. Can you believe that was like my entire Christmas?
• Heading to Grandma's to eat a fabulous dinner and play Mexican Train Dominoes all afternoon.
• Going to see Marley and Me in the theaters. It was a fabulous movie, but a real tear-jerker...I cried and came out of the theater all puffy eyed.
• Coming home and scrapping my heart out while playing with my new toy! :)

I will always remember how awesome this day was, in spite of the not-so great things. Like dropping a jar of pickles on my finger...ouch! and being really mad at my camera because it will not work at all! I am going to take it in to our local camera shop this week and see if they can do anything for it. I am so fed up with it not working. It didn't work at all during our family Christmas party on Saturday so I got like 2 pictures, but then it worked fine at our other party on Sunday. Then today it doesn't work at all so I had to borrow my sister's camera....grrrrr. considering my camera is supposed to be top of the line....a digital SLR! Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!! It is just so frustrating. Well anyways, overall it was a great day and I know that even with the craziness, this Christmas was fabulous! :)

What a Day!

Wow, what a day! Today was our annual family Christmas party....5o-something people coming to our house to celebrate the holiday. Well we had a pretty major ice storm on Friday and over 70% of the county was without power, but not us. And the temperatures have been below freezing so it is not melting. And on top of that the winds have picked up. So this morning, we woke up to no power. We called everyone to move the party to my aunt and uncle's house. Then about 10 minutes later the power came back on. So we waited awhile and then called everyone back and put the party back at our house. So everyone came over and we had a great time hanging out and celebrating the holiday with each other. Then as people were starting to leave, the power went out again. So people cleared out prety quickly. We waited to see if it would come back on as quickly as it had last time, but it didn't. So 4 hours later, we packed up to head to my sister's house to spend the night. And as we were pulling out of the driveway, the lights came back on. Go figure! It has been crazy!!! I am just glad that we are in our nice warm nousenow and relaxing with power and heat...because of course it is the coldest day of the year at -2 degrees. So I am signing off and wishing everyone a super, fabulous happy holidays! Until next time....

"Oh, the Weather Outside is Frightful...."

Today I am sitting here at home, nice and cozy in my jammies, surfing the web and looking at the beautiful, if somewhat frightening, scene outside my window. Why may you ask? Well we got hammered with an ice storm last night and so school was cancelled and the trees are coated with ice. I headed outside a while ago to take some pictures of the beautiful scenery and I got a lot of great shots (which I will try to upload and post today sometime), but you could hear the ice crackling every time the wind moved through the branches. I just hope we don't lose our power...many places to the south of us, including my sister, have already lost theirs and if we do that means no scrapping for this girl. And that would totally STINK because all I want to do right now is get downstairs to my scraproom and get working. But that may be a possibility sooner than later because it is starting to freezing rain/sleet again....so lets hope not. So for now, I am signing off so I can go play with my paper and glue and get creating! :) See you all later!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas :)

Well, the season is officially here. Our family is gathered around the Christmas tree putting up ornaments, remembering each ornament and the memories it brings. The little black lab that reminds us of our first christmas with Bailey, the ABC tree I got my first year of teaching, the glass ornaments that Mom got while we were in Frankenmuth, the toolbox that reminds us of our year building the house, and all of mom's classic rocking horses. Records are playing with all our favorite holiday carols and songs and the snow is falling. We are taking a break from the tree so Dad can make his famous Christmas stollen. The house smells delicious with the smell of baking bread and we are all here, safe and sound at home, enjoying just being together and celebrating the holiday with one of our favorite christmas traditions. :)

A Whirlwind of a Month

Wow, this month has been super busy for me! I haven't gotten near as much scrapping in as I wanted to, but I have had fun doing many other things with my friends and family. I did finally get all my layouts from this past month uploaded...yea! Wow, if I hadn't gone to an all day crop a few weeks ago, I wouldn't even have half of these layouts completed... So here are the ones I have done and I hope you enjoy them. :)

I really like how this 4th of July layout came together. I was able to use a ton of pictures and even got to use up some star sequins that I have had forever. I really like the look they give this layout. I also got to play with my Graphically Speaking cartridge from Cricut for the title which is perfect on here.
This is a pretty simple layout. I just have some patterned paper and lots of diecuts on here. I used the Graphically Speaking cartridge for the and sign which makes the title my favorite part of this layout.

This is probably my favorite layout out of this bunch. I love how these pictures turned out and I was able to make a purple page. :) I have all this purple stuff in my scrapbook stash but never seem to have photos to go with it. This layout was perfect for this line by K and Company. I have had it for quite some time and it was great to break it out and have some fun playing with it. I also was able to play with some grungeboard from Tim Holtz. I stumbled across his website a few days prior to this layout and I was amazed by all the creative stuff he has going on. Check him out at www.timholtz.com if you are interested...his videos are the best!

This layout is another one of my favorites from the month. I was able to break out some super-cute baby products from Making Memories and use some of my felt products as well. I even sewed the buttons on...they aren't naked this time Valerie!.... :)

This is a simple layout but I really like how it turned out. The colors and the patterns really bring out the pictures and help me remember this awesome night! :)

This layout was super -fun to make. I used a ton of bling and flowers on it and was able to use some of my Making Memories stash up too. I even tried my hand at doodling and I kinda like the look. I don't think I will be using this technique a lot but it really helped define the elements on this page.

A cute quickie of my cousins. This layout was inspired by a sketch from Valerie Salmon, who is an amazing designer...gotta love her classes! Check her out at www.ValerieSalmon.com.

This is another one of my favorites...more Making Memories products on here (can you tell I love that company?) as well as some grungeboard that I painted with copper-metallic acryllic paint. It is a great photo of my cousins and the paper I chose compliments it beautifully!

This is a layout that was inspired by a class I am taking from my friends Valerie Salmon and Janna Wilson called "Got Sketch Express". If you are looking for design inspiration, look no further than this class. It is amazing! These ladies are uber-talented and show you step-by-step how to create stunning layouts. :)

This is a super simple layout that I created using the new Bazzill Dotted Swiss Cardstock, which is divine and super fun to play with. I have made so many projects out of it and I love all of them.

Well there you have it....my creative life over the past 3 weeks. With a 5 day weekend coming up I am hoping to be super-inspired to create even more. Talk to you all soon!