Snow Love

For this layout, we had to create our own background.  I misted over some snowflakes I punched out of scrap paper.  Then I added some drops of pink and aqua.  This photo is courtesy of my super long arms.  Not only are they good for reaching things off the top shelf at stores but they help me get in the pic with my kiddos.  Now if only I could find coats with long enough sleeves for them...  ;)

 This little tag was perfect for this layout, all it needed was a bit of embellishment on the printed on snowflakes.  So I added a brad, a piece of chipboard and a cute little pearl cabochon.

 I used the Peppermint line from Crate Paper for this. I just adore this line! And, the colors worked so well with this picture!

The craziest thing about this layout?  That picture was taken only two months ago!  Snow, in mid-March in Oregon.  Crazy talk!!!

It's All About the Bling Baby!

This challenge was all about the bling!  It went perfectly with this photo of Aud at the Kid Watch at our gym.  She'd just won Pretty, Pretty Princess when I came to pick her up and I had to snap a pic in all her bejeweled glory!

 It's a little hard to photograph but the cream cardstock I used is actually a metallic and I adhered some clear sequins here and there to add a bit more shine.  This little sticker looked so like a crown that I just had to add it. 

 I also used some super glittery Thickers.  I love the color and the font!  I doodled a bit on the chipboard pieces and the patterned paper with a glitter pen but again, it's super hard to photograph!

 The journaling got split up on two different tags to create a bit of flow from the lower left hand corner to the date tag I die cut at the top right.

Thanks for stopping by!!!

Gorgeous Girl

This Nook challenge required a black and white photo and I knew right away which one I wanted to use.  This is one of my all time favorite photos and I just adore it in black and white!

I went really simple on the embellishments as I wanted the photo to take center stage.  That said, I love these banners and couldn't resist using them!

 The title uses the reverse grid Thickers that came in my Nook kit and some Lily Bee letter stickers from another kit.  The background for the title is cut from another piece of paper.

 Finally, it just needed another pop of yellow so I added it right beside her pretty face.  We may have a problem when she hits dating age!!!

Funny thing about this layout.  I'd originally planned the black frame to just be about a 1/4" wide and have it behind the aqua paper.  After I cut the middle out of the black paper it landed on the aqua and I loved the large frame so much, I kept it!  I even popped it up on foam tape to accentuate it a little more.

I love happy accidents!

To the Rescue!

This is another of my favorites from the Nook crop.  You had to create a layout with a theme of supporting roles.  This layout is about my kids relationship and how they support each other.  The picture is of Audrey coming to Mickey's rescue at his Valentine's program at preschool!

I used the Storyteller line again for this layout.  I punched a bunch of hearts out of paper and popped up the chevron striped ones.  The title letters are from a different Crate line, Peppermint.

 Love this little wood grain arrow sticker!  The wood grain and the cork add a bit of counterbalance to all the pink and red.  Even though the picture takes place around Valentine's Day, Little Man deserves a few masculine touches.  ;)

These little stickers from Crate are some of my favorite embellishments, I used them all over this layout!

I love my kids' relationship and I really, truly hope that they continue to be such good friends and staunch supporters of each other as they grow. 

Giddy-up Card!

This fun card was from a challenge to use the color red.  I used the Sasparilla line from October Afternoon.

I know a little guy who's going to turn five this summer who will just love it!  :)

Our Crafty Garage Sale!

This weekend my mom and I held our second ever Crafters Garage Sale!  Yep, you read that right, a garage sale with just crafting supplies.  That ought to give you a bit of an insight as to why I have as much scrappy stuff as I do.  It was bred into me!  Hee!

Here's some of the paper I sold.  I was going to sell it by the sheet but was a little worried about it getting dog-eared as people looked through it.  So, I bagged them by collection, brand, color or style and sold each bag for $1-$2.   

Here's the quilting section of our sale.  My mom's an avid quilter who is having some breathing issues and may have to give up her hobby.  Right now she's paring down her stash and stripping down her craft room to see if it helps.  Her fabric sold like wildfire as she had it marked for $2 a yard and the packages were buy two get one free!

Here's our stamping section.  About half of the sets along the back are mine the rest of them and the individual ones are Mom's.  She's not quitting stamping but she did do a big purge.  She's trying to keep from having anything in her craft room sitting out on the counters because all it does is attract dust which bugs her.  We didn't sell as many stamps but we did find out that we can donate them to Doernbecher's, so that's where most of the individual stamps will go!  :)

Here's our last big section, the scrapbooking section!  Yeah, this is mostly my stuff.  Hee!  I was really happy with how this went.  Out of all the scrappy stuff, I only had a few embellies/stickers left and all the paper was gone!  My two bigger items, the Stampmaker and the Revolution didn't sell but they were kind of a bigger ticket item, more suited for Craig's List than a garage sale.  :)

Oh, and the paper? All gone!  Yippee!!!

Here's a quick shot of our sale, mostly set up.  The center tables had storage items, Longaberger baskets, miscellaneous crafting items and a few random decor pieces.  Oh, and you can see my lovely mom in the back right corner!  :)

All it all, our sale was a huge success.  We made room in our craft areas, added some cash to our wallets and helped others add to their stashes!

The best part for me? I got to spend lots of time with my mom!

And a Fun Layout Sketch Challenge!

Now this layout, was a sketch challenge and I loved the sketch because it let me find a home for these two pictures that I just adore.  My two little ones, thoroughly enjoying themselves at Mickey's pajama day at preschool.  I love how he finally decided to wear jammies even though he was afraid of being laughed at.  I love how he quickly forgot about that fear with all the fun he was having.  I love his interactions with his friends.  I love his joy in schooling. 

I also love how his little sister wants to be a part of everything he does and how he is so happy to have her there.

This Crate Paper line was just made for these pictures!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Fun Card Sketch Challenge!

This card was a sketch challenge over at the Nook.  I made it for a certain niece of mine who will be graduating soon.  I used an older My Scrapbook Nook kit that featured Crate Paper's Random line. 

Now, I need to make another as we're lucky enough to have two nieces graduating this year!

Dandelion Memories

Here's another Nook layout.  I used their April kit featuring Crate Paper's Storyteller line for this one and I just love how it turned out. 

 This challenge was sort of a color challenge, the colors were paired with pics of hot leading men, so I decided to scrap one of my leading men.  ;) 

 One cool thing about this layout, it was picked for Friday Favorite last Friday!  I was super excited!!!!

 The twine is the new Lil' Twiney from Punky Sprouts and the circle letters are from October Afternoon. 

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

Punky Sprouts and Pink Paislee!!!

Hey guys, it's Erica here with my layout using Punky Sprouts and the awesome Prairie Hill line from Pink Paislee!

I used Spool as the base for my layout, and cut out one of the chevron stripes from Flight Pattern to make a base for my photo. I layered Lil' Blossoms in Parchment and Cork under and over the stripe and then Chipboard Pops all over it. I also punched out a few circles from the Lil' Blossom in Cork to add to the mix. They kind of remind me of how Little Man's Legos end up all over the house. Hee!

 

I also punched out my title from Lil' Petals in Cork and adhered them on another Lil' Blossom in Parchment. I wanted to use one of the cute Shipping Tags for my title but My Little Sunshine didn't quite fit the photo. So, I covered Sunshine with Bitty Blocks and spelled out Builder. Problem solved! :)

 

At the top of my layout I made a little vignette using Lil' Petals in cork, some Flight Pattern that I die cut into a label shape, another Chipboard Pop and some super cute Lil' Twiney!

I love how I was able to combine Punky Sprouts and Prairie Hill to make this fun little layout documenting Little Man's first solo Lego build!


Products Used
Punky Sprouts-
Lil' Parchment Blossom
Lil' Cork Blossom
Lil' Petals Cork
Lil' Petals Canvas
Lil' Twiney
Pink Paislee-
Prairie Hill Flight Pattern
Prairie Hill Spool
Prairie Hill Chipboard Pops
Prairie Hill Bitty Blocks
Prairie Hill Shipping Tags
Other-
LePen in Grey
My Favorite Things Bracket Tab Die
My Favorite Things Tickets Die
Quickutz Typist Dies

Hollywood Diva Card!

This cute little card was for the third challenge over at My Scrapbook Nook.  You had to create a card or layout or other project that had the words Hollywood and Diva on it. 

I'm really happy with how this card turned out and that I got to play with this kit again!  Hee!

In other fun news, I won the crop!!!  I'm crazy excited about it because the grand prize is a three month kit sub and I recently had to cancel my sub and I'm just sooooo grateful I won this prize!

Patches!!!

This layout was for the second challenge over at My Scrapbook Nook.  You needed to create a layout with an envelope on it.  I decided to scrap this photo of the donkey next to the preschool and how the name Mickey and I suggested was chosen!

The envelope contains a list of the other names suggested.  I only have a few on there because I can't find the original list.  I'm going to have to ask one of the teachers if there's another one left over.  :)

I used one of my older My Scrapbook Nook kits on this layout.  I tried to use a different kit with each challenge and wound up using 12 different kits!  Go me!  :D

One Year Later

A year ago Friday, our world stood still.  A year ago Friday, we faced one of the worst trials of our lives.  A year ago Friday, though we didn't yet know it, everything came together for a miracle to occur. 

Here's a layout I made for an online crop I participated in this weekend.  It's actually the first time I've scrapped my feelings about the fear I felt during Mickey's accident.  I'm so glad I was able to do this, it was very therapeutic for me.

 I really liked the paper I used because it's linear feel really echos the sterile/mechanical feel of the hospital.  I kept the whole layout very clean except for the grey background border, I distressed it to echo the feeling that we were unable to keep it all together and things were unraveling at the edges for us.

 These three tags have some hidden journaling.  It's not quite finished but it's getting there and feels good to get my fears down on paper.

 My favorite part is the tone on tone section of the title.  It kind of emphasizes how all these negative feelings were surrounding us at all times, a part of the background of our experience.

I'm sorry I've been a little MIA on my blog lately but the approach of his anniversary has been a bit harder on me than I expected. I knew the day itself would be hard but I didn't realize just how on edge I'd be the month leading up to it. Also, we found out in February that one of the male nurses who was working in the PICU during Mickey's stay was arrested for child pornography.  While we don't think he was alone with Mickey (although he is one of the nurses who took Mickey for his MRI and that just kills me) the fact that that monster was anywhere near my child during his most vulnerable time is distressing beyond words.  I wound up back in therapy for it and thankfully it helped. 

I'm feeling much more at ease now and I'm happy to report there will be a bit more activity on my blog in the weeks to come.  I joined in the crop at My Scrapbook Nook this weekend and was able to finish all 17 challenges!  Yep, 17!  I've got 12 more layouts and four cards to share.  :)

See you soon!